Darkness vs. The Moon
Everyone always says so many things about fate. Whether they are nice or mean depends on what they feel fate has gifted them or taken away from them. However there is one thing that everyone agrees on when they think of fate whether it is a conscience decisions or not. Fate has a sense of humor, although whether it’s an incredibly sadistic sense of humor or not is arguable. That’s the only way to explain how things ended up this way. Two sets of siblings from two entirely different families. Four beings whose lives are so similar that it’s eerie yet are so different that they could never even imagine the other’s point of view. A set of brothers, still bereaved over the tragedy that had just taken away a third of their family stand opposite a pair of sisters, angered over the loss of their only mother. Even the way that these two pairs ended up facing off shows that fate must have been laughing her pretty little head off.
Through a set of obscure circumstances that are as inexplicable now as they were back then, both pairs of siblings had been split up and were each heading for their counterpart. In a grassy and open clearing, two figures found themselves standing across from each other. They both watched who they knew would be their future opponent, searching for weaknesses, tells of an attack, and potential advantages with surgical clarity and focus. One was the future princess of a land not quite yet founded but well on its way, and the other was the second youngest prince in what was now a family of four. One was the mistress of the darkened heavens and the other the master of the shadowed earth. One was the ferrymare to the land of dreams and the other was the undertaker to restful slumber. Both were seen as the darker aspect of their other halves. Both of them were unappreciated but always working for other’s good. Both of them were ever loyal to their family and siblings. Both of them knew that only one of them would be leaving this clearing.
On the opposite front of the young alicorn princess stood her opponent, and a very curious opponent he appeared to be. She had been expecting a gigantic mammoth of a beast covered in thick armored scales and equipped with flesh rending claws and throat gouging fangs. What stood opposite of her didn’t seem to have any of those features. Yes he had all of the classic makings of a reptile and the intelligent glint in those eyes seemed to simply scream of mischief, but compared to what she had been expecting to face the opponent in front of her was … underwhelming. Instead of towering above the trees around them, the dragon in front of her probably topped out at maybe in inch or two above her own. To make it worse, the dragon was bipedal and standing strait on two legs. If she reared herself up on her haunches, she knew that she could easily overtake his height by more than a fair margin. The only thing that kept her from thinking that she could simply overpower the dragon through sheer difference of size was the long sinuous tail that waved in the wind behind him. It was long enough that it probably doubled his body length from head to tail and she was willing to bet was more than enough to make up for his seemingly lesser mass.
She continued sizing up her soon-to-be opponent from head to toe in order to gather any information that may prove useful in the upcoming battle. From the top of his head, down the entirety of his spine, and continuing to the tip of his tail sat a row of spines that seemed to have stolen their color from the deepest of oceans and brightest of sapphires. The tip of his tail was, oddly enough, adorned in the shape of a spade; she had been expecting something more sinister like a serrated spike. The shape of his head, also interestingly enough, was shaped in a very similar way to that of her own equine race, with the only major difference being the lack of any visible ears. His neck flowed into his body which merged with his tail both seamlessly and sinuously, giving him a serpentine air and grace. His arms and legs seemed perfectly placed and proportioned to switch from bipedal to quadrupedal movement as effortlessly as possible, and at the end of those arms and legs were pairs of clawed hands and feet that looked sharp but not deadly. The entirety of his body, from head to claws to tail, was covered in tiny, nearly imperceptible, overlapping scales that were a blue so deep that they appeared black when in anything less than direct light. The only exception to this covering was the underbelly region and the underside of his tail, for these places were equally covered in scales that held a more silvery, cobalt-blue pigmentation.
In front of a pair of slit, cat-like pupils set in brilliant sapphire eyes sat an ordinary pair of thin, black, half-framed glasses. On both of his wrists rested a single sapphire gem that was set in a simple band of onyx. Finally, she could see a trio of bands adorning the end of his tail that were bronze, silver, and gold from largest to smallest. These details caused a bit of confusion to the alicorn princess-to-be for a few reasons. One, she hadn’t thought that a race as seemingly savage as dragons would have the capability to create glasses, much less fine jewelry. Had he perhaps stolen it from some poor pony denizen? That would explain how he had come across them. The second reason for her confusion was actually the reasoning of this juvenile, as a dragon this small could only be just that, for taking such things and adorning itself. Perhaps dragons were simply attracted to shiny objects like common crows and ravens. Yes, everything was starting to make sense now. This wasn’t come epic opponent or massive beast for her to overcome in her quest. This was just a young juvenile that had somehow managed to get its claws on some shiny baubles and decided to decorate itself.
Happy with her reasoning and confident in her logic, she set forth on a simple plan of action. She would simply knock the young dragon unconscious and continue on her way. She would even let the young thing keep its little baubles just to make sure it didn’t have a reason to chase after her and cause her future annoyance. Her horn began glowing with her magic as she charged up a quick stunning spell and quickly fired off a bolt of blue energy at the dragon. What happened next was one of the absolute last things that she expected to happen. For the dragon to get hit by the bolt and be quickly incapacitated had been the plan. For the dragon to somehow dodge her spell wouldn’t have been too out of the ordinary or surprising for her. For the dragon to raise his claw and simply smack her spell out of the air like a common horsefly, however, was extremely surprising for the young future princess.
What happened after only added to her surprise. “Well, that was most certainly rude. Just up and attacking without so much as a how do you do,” the ‘savage’ dragon spoke in a tone that betrayed mild annoyance. Luna was entirely too surprised to respond. “What, cat got your tongue?” he asked with a definite spark of amusement invading his tones.
“You can talk?” she spoke quietly as if asking herself instead of the dragon speaking in front of her.
The dragon arched an eyebrow as the question reached his ears. He quickly resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he responded, “Yes, I can talk,” he said slowly as if speaking to a particularly dimwitted hatchling.
The alicorn felt her hackles rise at the disrespectful tone that no one dared use to her face back home, but quickly found her center and calmed herself. After all, she had just made one of the first encounters in pony history with an intelligent, talking dragon. The potential for advantage or harm from the meeting was a completely unknown variable so this situation demanded a level head and a calm mind. “Sorry about that,” she spoke with the political politeness of a born politician, “My name is Luna; may I ask your name?”
The dragon in front of her seemed pleased at the change of tone and topic and happily obliged her question, “They call me Midnight,” he answered her question succinctly but pleasantly.
Luna nodded her response and filed away his name in her mind. Now that the pleasantries and introductions were over, she could start asking the more important questions. “Can all dragons speak like we are right now?”
That question caused Midnight to arch his brow yet again as he idly wondered whether or not he should be offended for his species at that question but he quickly threw that thought away as he deemed it unimportant. “Sorry, I would love to answer all of your questions but I have to begin my mission now,” the dragon said as he moved himself to the very center of the clearing they were in.
Luna was caught slightly flathoofed by the sudden refusal and change of topic but quickly regained her composure, “Mission? What mission do you have?” she asked as much out of her own curiosity as her own need to make sure it didn’t interfere with her future goals.
“Sorry again but I can’t tell you that either. Telling you about the mission is against my mission. Simple as that,” Midnight responded to her inquiry as he stood stock still in the center of the clearing except for the tail behind him that seemed to continuously sway back and forth behind him in a never-ending motion.
This time it was Luna who was raising her eyebrow at the curious nature of the mission that the young dragon had apparently initiated. It looked to her like it involved nothing more than simply standing in the middle of a clearing. Maybe he was waiting for someone to come or for something to happen. Whatever it was, it didn’t involve her, and if he could no longer answer her question than it was best that she went on her way. She walked past the dragon to exit the clearing and continue on her original path while throwing a polite farewell behind her as she exited the clearing.
She traveled through some brush for a small while before ending up in another clearing, only to find the exact same dragon that she has met before standing in the exact same position as before. A look of confusion washed over her face for a moment before she promptly turned back around and reentered the brush to continue her journey. When she exited the brush this time she found herself, yet again in the exact same clearing and staring at the exact same dragon who had still not moved from his position. Just to be absolutely sure, she once more traveled back through the brush and came back out at the same position yet again.
She walked away from the brush and further into the clearing. This happening once could have been a fluke. Twice could have been an unlikely coincidence. But three times was enough for there to be a pattern. She quickly walked to a different side of the clearing and tried to exit that way only to receive similar results. She repeated this twice more from different locations and quickly came to the conclusion that the entire clearing was trapped this way.
She looked upwards and a small smirk found its way across her face. They may have booby-trapped the clearing around her, but above her was nothing but clear skies, and she had the luxury of wings and flight. She quickly launched herself from the ground and flapped her wing to escape the confines of gravity. As she flew for the canopy of the clearing she was flying strait up and seeing nothing but blue sky and the occasional oddly shaped cloud. The next moment she was seeing nothing but green grass and the occasional oddly shaped rock. She immediately tried to correct her flight path but the combination of momentum and her unusual position impeded her efforts, and she made a rather uncomfortable collision with the ground.
Now Midnight had not been completely idle despite his lack of movement. He had been watching the princess as she continued her attempts to escape from the clearing. The first time that she attempted to exit the clearing he had been inwardly amused by the expression of confusion on her face upon meeting him again. Her continued efforts to escape the clearing had only brought him more amusement as she methodically tested the clearing and how she could escape it. It was when he saw her give something of a smirk and start flying for the ceiling of the clearing that he knew that something humorous was going to occur and he had been right. The sight of her flying quickly only to find her flight path literally flipped on its axis and then crashing rather humorously as a result had him fighting to restrain his laughter.
Unfortunately, it seemed that he hadn’t restrained his laughter well enough as the sound of his muted chuckles drew the pony’s attention and wrath in his direction. “What are you laughing at?” she nearly yelled as she quickly righted herself and cleaned her fur and mane of stray blades of grass.
The dragon quickly gathered control over his laughter and answered in a voice strained by the effort of containing his amusement, “Sorry. It’s just that you should have seen the look on your face.” After he had said what he wanted he quickly lost all control over his laughter and dissolved into fits of chuckles. Luna gave the dragon the fiercest glare that she could muster, which was pretty fierce when you factor in the fact that she could make her eyes glow, as his laughter eventually calmed down enough for him to speak coherently .
“How do I get out of here?” the rather incensed alicorn demanded of the still smiling dragon. It had become pretty obvious that there was no normal way out of this clearing and she wasn’t willing to risk the effects of what this clearing might do to her teleportation.
“I’m so sorry but telling you that would be against my mission,” came the semi-casual and completely unapologetic response.
“Against your mission?” she asked quietly to herself. It only took a mere second for a look of comprehension to fly across her face; that look was quickly replaced by anger. It was so obvious. “Telling me how to escape this place wouldn’t be against your mission unless your mission was to keep me here,” she exclaimed angrily as she quickly advanced on the dragon in the center of the clearing. She closed the gap between them until they were face to face and proceeded to stare him down with potently glowing eyes. “Who are you working for and why don’t they want me to reach my sister?” she asked in a voice that was low but steeled and deadly.
The dragon remained completely unperturbed by her change in demeanor and answered in the same semi-professional tone, “Sorry but telling you that would be…” he never got to finish his predictable statement as the blue alicorn apparently lost the last of her patience and knocked him backwards with her foreleg so that he was facing the sky.
Said sky was rapidly overshadowed by the figure of the alicorn princess-to-be as she stood over the now prostrate dragon and continued to glare a fair amount of malice at him. “You are going to tell me how to get out of this clearing and get back to my sister,” her low voice carried effortlessly across the minuscule distance and her steeled tone seemed to have become even more dangerous.
The dragon below her, as equally unperturbed and relaxed as ever despite the rather unfavorable circumstance of his current position, answered in the same semi-official manner as before, “Sorry but telling…” he managed to say even less than last time as he was again interrupted by the princess slamming her foreleg several inches into the soft dirt right beside his head.
“Listen, I don’t know who you are working for and I frankly don’t really care, but if you say that line one more time I won’t be held responsible for my actions,” she responded calmly but it was obvious that she was quickly losing her temper, “I don’t want to harm a child dragon, but if you don’t tell me what I want to know I will have no choice but to knock you unconscious and take the information I want from your head magically.”
That statement had managed to finally get a reaction out of the dragon other than that infuriating calm although the reaction wasn’t one that she expected. Instead of any hint of fear or nervousness or maybe even rejection of the existence of magic, she received a raised brow, a smirk, and a simple statement. “I’m not a child you know. I am a fully mature, adult dragon,” he spoke with the same calm that he had this entire conversation.
Luna was taken slightly aback for a second by the unrelated response. She then decided that the dragon below her was nothing more than an impudent foal. After all, all juveniles would swear up and down that they are not children and are in fact adults. She guessed that such a fact would hold true for dragons as well apparently. Finally tired of dealing with him, her horn began glowing with the power of a strong stunning spell. She wanted to knock him out long enough to make sure she could get the information she needed and anything else that might prove useful in the future, and there would be no chance to dodge from this close distance.
The overpowered stunning spell fired off with a bright flash that forced Luna to close her eyes for a second. She opened them as soon as she could and expected to see the unconscious form of the dragon beneath her but found nothing but unmarked grass. She looked up and searched for the figure of the dragon that she planned to knock unconscious and found him leisurely leaning against a tree near the edge of the clearing. Wait, leisurely wasn’t the right word for this dragon. Not anymore. Something about him had changed, and she could sense it.
The way that he was reclining, not leisurely but regally, belied his change of posture and aura. She didn’t know enough about draconic anatomy to be able to read his body language but got the feeling that despite the relaxed stance he was currently in, he was ready to act and react in less than an instant. She was suddenly reminded of why she had regarded him as a future opponent and not as a foal dragon when she first entered this clearing. Her expectation and assumption about what a full groan dragon would look like had caused her to disregard him as a threat and his silly and nonsensical behavior had only reinforced that decision until she had forgotten all of the battle plans that she has formulated. The dragon that stood before her was most definitely not a child. This was a fully capable warrior who was confident in his skills.
The next line from the draconic warrior in front of her only confirmed her thoughts, “You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you?” the dragon spoke conversationally, but now his aura, his body, and his eyes held a gem-like hardness to them.
A small smirk wormed its way onto Luna’s face as she faced the dragon named Midnight. It was quite an ominous name for a warrior now that she thought about it. She steadied herself in preparation for the battle to come and decided that some light banter would go a long way to making this a more enjoyable experience. “You know…for a second there. Yeah, I kind of did.”
Midnight raised himself up from his resting position with a grace that he hadn’t exhibited before now. He knew that the next statement would set the tone for the rest of this battle so he had to choose his words carefully or this could get further out of hand than he really wished. He flashed a fully fanged facsimile of a smile as he responded, “Silly rabbit.”
O0o.o0O
So what do you guys and gals think? Do you like it? I tried to nail the character of a younger Luna by making her a bit more reckless and impatient but still keeping her basic personality intact. What do you think of Midnight, I bet you don’t see too many stories with a dragon OC now do you? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing this. Also if you have any questions, they will likely be answered in future post. Also as a bonus, can anyone guess the movie reference at the end?