//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: A Daily Routine // Story: Broken Legacy // by PonyStories2077 //------------------------------// ~30 Years Later~ A sixteen year-old unicorn colt named Midnight Shade grumbled irritably to himself, as he walked silently down the busy streets of an old-time town named Golden Heights. The town got its name after the large gold mine in the hilltop slope northwest of the town. Midnight’s coat is a deep blue with a spiky two-toned reddish brown mane, and a short wavy tail; his eyes are a dark blue violet. His cutie mark is a single action revolver overlapping a small slingshot, reflecting his natural talent of having exceptional aim for shooting targets with small weapons. With the town’s current population of just under four thousand, Golden Heights is a large town in the present-day Equestria. Aside from some minor disrepair and fading paint, the town’s buildings are all still in good condition. The gold mine is still in use, but not on a large scale as it was in the old times. Compared to the rest of Equestria, the town is still a safe place to live in. Thanks to its stable source of food from its farms, the twelve-foot tall wall surrounding its borders, and the guards. Unfortunately, the ponies who live in town are not all friendly, most have nasty attitudes, and fights are common. “I hate being forced to go to school. I learn stuff I care nothing about, and the ponies there are just plain plotholes.” Midnight muttered while glaring down a passing mare, who returned his glare just as hatefully. Because Midnight is the only known unicorn in Golden Heights, he retrieves a large amount of unwanted attention from others. An example would be fillies and colts giving him dirty glares constantly. Some even harassed him whenever they could, or just simply avoided him altogether. Even older ponies never liked his presence (especially the town’s guards), but most tried to keep it to themselves if he was nearby. However, what truly set Midnight apart was the unusual gem like growth in his chest. (But more on that later.) “Hey you HALT!” called a voice behind him, snapping the colt out of his trance. Sighing, Midnight turned towards an earth pony guard dressed in faded gold royal armor, trotting toward him. “What?” he asked venomously. The guard named Shield Charge scowled down at the colt, and cleared his throat. “Midnight Shade, I’m going to have to ask you to come with me to your school for truancy,” he asked in a firm voice. Midnight sat down on his hunches and spoke in a mocking tone, “Oh I’m so sorry sir, I think you might have the wrong unicorn. No, I’m not Midnight Shade; I don’t have any reason to be him. And I certainly don’t have anything to do with him not being here.” Shield narrowed his eyes, then took a step forward and spoke with a growl, “Just cut the crap Midnight. I really don’t want to be dragging you back to school in hoofcuffs, again. Mrs. Inkwell told me to bring you back peacefully.” Midnight scoffed and rolled his eyes, “Really? If this is your definition of peacefully, then I don’t think I want to know what you think hostility means.” Shield’s eye twitched slightly, and he took a deep breath while gritting his teeth, “You’d better be glade that Inkwells’ part of Golden Heights’s council or I’d be bringing you back in hoofcuffs along with some broken bones.” Midnight scoffed, then placed a hoof on his chin and glanced off behind Shield as if in deep thought. “Hmmm, alright, let us think about my choices here for just one second. You want me; to choose between willingly allowing you to drag me back to that Tartarus you call a school, or to run away to certain freedom and never speak of this conversation again?” He let out a short chuckle, “Those are some real tough choices dude.” Shield sighed, then grabbed his hoofcuffs and quickly slapped it onto Midnight’s forehoof. “Hey!” Midnight yelled out and tried to remove Shield’s cuffs. “Just come on Midnight.” Shield said, placing his free hoof on his face as he dragged a protesting Midnight with him. ~~~~~ The two ponies traveled through town square in silence, until they reached a large aged schoolhouse near the wall. “You know, you could just let me go and I won’t tell anypony.” Midnight offered as they walked up to the door. “Sorry, no can do.” Shield replied as he knocked on the door. Mrs. Inkwell, a middle-aged orange earth pony mare with a quill and inkwell cutie mark answered the door. Her face lit up when she saw Shield standing with Midnight at her doorstep. “Ah! You found him! Thank you kindly Mr. Charge for your assistance.” She said cheerfully and gave Shield a subtle nod. Shield grunted and took the hoofcuffs off Midnight, who snorted angrily as he rubbed his freed hoof. “I’m always happy to help, Mrs. Inkwell. Give me a shout if he gets loose again.” Shield said with a laugh as he trotted off, leaving Midnight with Inkwell. Inkwell waved goodbye then turned to Midnight, who was glaring at her and her smile faded, “Why do you always insist on skipping school Midnight?” Midnight shrugged, “Well isn’t it obvious? I hate it here; it would be so great if I could avoid school altogether.” He glared at her in the eyes and frowned, “But that will never happen since you keep sending the damn guards after me every time!” He looked away and sighed, “I still wonder why we even have guards.” Inkwell sighed and placed a hoof to her forehead “Well Midnight, let’s think about that. Without the guards, our town would be a constant battleground just like the rest of Equestria. It is thanks to the princesses giving Golden Heights a portion of Royal Guard to protect us before the fall. They’re the reason why Golden Heights is one of the few places left in Equestria that’s still safe.” Midnight rolled his eyes and pushed past Inkwell, “Oh please, don’t lecture me about two stuck-up princesses who died decades ago alright? It doesn’t help me at all.” Inkwell sadly watched Midnight trot over to his seat and sighed as she closed the door, then made her way to the chalkboard at the front of the classroom. “Alright class, now that Midnight has joined us. We can begin today’s lesson.” she announced and turned to write on the chalkboard. “Yuppie...” Midnight muttered as he rested his head on his hoof. A red pegasus filly sitting nearby shot him a glare, Midnight just shrugged at her. “Alright class, today we’re going to be reading a few chapters out of your textbooks.” Inkwell grabbed a large Equestrian history textbook out of her desk and opened it to the correct page, “Please turn to chapter sixteen and read through to chapter eighteen. We’ll be going over what you’ve read once everypony’s done.” ”Hey teach, shouldn’t we be worried about learning how to fight instead of learning boring crap about a dead country?” A brown pegasus colt with a dark blue mane and tail, and a chopping downwards fire ax cutie mark, asked her sarcastically. “Hey! Equestria is not dead!” piped up a blue earth pony filly. “Sure seems like it is.” Midnight mumbled to himself as the colt and filly glared at each other and Inkwell replied to the earlier question. “Knowledge about the past can help you prepare for the future, and maybe at some point, it could help you avoid making the same mistakes the ponies before you made. And please don’t swear in class Ebony.” She finished with a stern glare. Midnight watched the other students flip through their textbooks and he let out a yawn. He could care less about Inkwell’s lesson, since he has already read about the topic multiple times. He closed his book quietly, then laid his head on his forelegs and quickly fell asleep. ~~~~~ Midnight was getting to a good part in his dream when the old school bell rang, jolting him awake from his nap. The other students all got up and grabbed their saddlebags then headed toward the door before Inkwell raised a hoof. “Remember class! We have a test next Monday on the subjects we reviewed, study hard! Have a nice weekend children!” She said cheerfully, and then motioned the students to leave with her hoof. “Another test? Great, that sounds like fun…” he shook his head, “Well I guess I could try skipping class again, maybe I could hide on the roof this time.” Midnight muttered to himself as he got up from his seat, and walked to the door. “Midnight, can I please talk to you for a second?” Mrs. Inkwell asked without looking up from her paperwork. Midnight stopped walking, and faced her; she looked up at him with a hint of concern on her face. “Listen, I know that you don’t enjoy being around the other fillies and colts. However, you really need to stop skipping class and talking back to ponies older than you, some of us are actually trying to help you. Believe it or not, I know what it feels like to not be accepted by others, just because they didn’t like me when I was a filly.” She explained. Midnight’s eyes narrowed and he took a threating step, “Oh yeah? Well then, you’re not doing a very good job now are ya? And how are you supposed to know how I feel?” He took another step, “How do you know what it feels like to be deemed a freak, just because everypony thinks your kind did something awful decades ago? How it feels to be the only unicorn around? How do you know how I feel, that around any corner, somepony could just take me off the streets and kill me because of what I am? And nopony would ever care!” Standing up and pointing at his gem, he snarled, “Or because of this thing? I’ll bet you’ve never felt any of those feeling have you?” Inkwell stared back at him grimly, and then let out a tired sigh. “I don’t know what that feels like Midnight, but what I’ve been saying is true, I have been treated poorly for being different. I know what it feels like to be left out. And maybe you’re right; there probably are ponies out there who are like that. But most of the ponies here in Golden Heights are not like those ponies. Sure, they may be grumpy, but they are not killers. Perhaps you should just try to give them a chance.” She turned away and got back to her work, as Midnight thought over her words. “Yeah, Chances are all I can count on these days.” Midnight muttered before walking off without saying another word. ~~~~~ After exiting the school, Midnight began to walk down the empty street ahead of him before turning deeper into town. Looking up at the clear blue sky, he began to walk his usual route around town. Trying his best to avoid bringing too much attention to himself as he walked, but he quickly grew painfully aware of the hateful glares. He sat down and attempted to move his mane up with his hoof to hide his horn, but failed to cover it up completely and sighed sadly to himself. “Heh, all I need now is a storm cloud over my head and I’d be all set.” He muttered, chuckling slightly to his light-hearted joke. “Hey cone head!” somepony shouted towards him. “Wow, as if right on cue.” Midnight reluctantly turned around to see three older colts. One was a chunky red pegasus, with an orange mane, and a wooden spear for a cutie mark. Another was a short green earth pony, with a blue mane, and a blacksmith anvil as a cutie mark. The leader just so happened to be Ebony. All three of them were walking towards the unicorn with smug grins. "Oh, hey feather lips, good to see ya! I see that you brought the overgrown foal and blubber plot with you. What can I do for you pricks?” Midnight sarcastically addressed each of them with his crude nicknames. Ebony’s grin widened and he scoffed, “Oh nothing, we just wanted to congratulate you on being the most hated pony in town…” “And for you being the last of your kind!” piped up the other pegasus named Javelin. Ebony turned and glared at him for interrupting, while Midnight just smirked in amusement. Lifting his hoof, Ebony gestured to the other two ponies. “Anyway, Javelin, Rivet, and I have taken it upon ourselves to give you a friendly beating for your achievement and your new title!” Ebony’s grin turned cruel, “If you ask me, a unicorn like you should feel honored.” He spat out the word ‘unicorn’ as if it had a bad taste. “Aww, really? You guys would do so much for little old me? How very kind of you! It’s just too bad I’m going to have to reject your offer though.” Midnight sarcastically replied, sitting down and placing a hoof on his chest in a mocking manner. “Oh, well that’s a shame. But too bad for you, you’re not going to be getting away from us that easily!” Ebony took a step back as Javelin and Rivet both charged at Midnight, who let out a yelp and leaped to his side. They flew past him and smashed into each other, knocking them senseless. Thinking quickly, he regrettably remembered that he had left his slingshot at home. While he did own a gun, ponies his age were not allowed to carry firearms within city limits. The council wrote that rule to prevent ponies from being hurt or killed by stray gunfire during fights like this one. Midnight looked around for anything he could use as a makeshift weapon, and saw nothing but dirt. “Ohhhhh, Shit.” he cursed under his breath as he realized that he will have to fight two larger ponies, bare hoofed. Knowing that he would be unable to fight off too older ponies unarmed, he decided to flee deeper into town to buy himself more time. “Are you two done jollying around?” Ebony sharply asked his friends while they tried to get their bearings, and they just groaned at him. He face hooved, then pointed toward Midnight just as he turned down an alley between two buildings, “After him you idiots!” Hearing Javelin and Rivet in hot pursuit and quickly gaining ground, Midnight looked at the alley ahead and saw some empty apple cider barrels stacked on top of one another by the backdoor of a bar. He kicked one of them over as he galloped past, causing some of the barrels to tumble down and block Rivet’s path. The earth pony stopped himself just before he ran into them, only to have Javelin’s heavy feathered form slam into his backside. Causing them to tumble into a heap of hoofs and feathers, and the rest of the barrels toppled on top of them. “Heh, mindless wannabes.” Midnight snickered as he watched them try to get back up. Rivet was pinned under a dazed Javelin before Midnight turned and galloped to the other end of the alley. Upon exiting the alley into town square, he curved right and galloped down the street. Only to catch a glimpse of Ebony’s brown coat just before the pegasus body slammed him, pinning him to the ground. “Gotcha!” Ebony chucked evilly. Ebony pushed Midnight over and sat on his chest. He started to punch the unicorn in the face, while assaulting him with cruel unicorn-related comments. “You know, Golden Heights would be so much better if we didn’t have an animal like you around to take away everything we care about!” Ebony spat in disgust, then leaned in close to Midnight’s face and tapped his gem, “Just like what your kind did to the rest us thirty years ago.” Midnight grabbed a large hoof-full of dirt and threw it into Ebony’s eyes, who recoiled back in pain and brought his hoofs to his face with a yelp. He kicked Ebony in the chest and pushed the blinded pegasus off himself. Snarling, Midnight shoved Ebony down onto his back, and then jumped onto his wings. Causing a pained cry from the pegasus, then he started to beat on Ebony’s forelegs and face. “You think that just because of what I am, gives you the right to harass me every day of my life?!” Midnight screamed as he attacked Ebony, who held up his forelegs to protect himself. “Making me feel even worse about myself thanks to stupid unicorn rumors?! My race had nothing to do with that night! You hear me?! NOTHING!!!” Midnight would have continued to wail on Ebony, but he had his attack cut short by a nearby guard. Who saw the fight and pulled him off a badly beaten pegasus. “Ugh…” Midnight grunted and stared at the blood on his hooves, Javelin and Rivet showed up with a high-ranking pegasus guard named Armored Fortress. “He started it officer!” Javelin cried out while pointing a hoof at Midnight. Ebony weakly rolled over onto his side, then coughed up some blood onto the ground. He had bruises and cuts all over his face and forelegs as he held a hoof to his bleeding nose, and was developing two black eyes. Midnight had a bloody nose with some bruises on his cheeks and muzzle. “I did not blubber plot! And you know it!” Midnight shouted at Javelin as he broke out of the guard’s grip, and tried to lunge at the fat pegasus. Javelin flared his wings in surprise. Armored lunged forward and tackled Midnight, before he could attack Javelin. “That is enough! There will be no more fighting here today, do you understand!?” Armored shouted at Midnight and he shoved the unicorn’s face into the dirt. Midnight glared up at Javelin with a hatful snarl, then saw the small crowd of ponies that had stopped to watch the fight. They were muttering things amongst themselves, things like ‘Monster’ or ‘Dangerous’ and he closed in eyes in rage. “Fine,” Midnight growled through clenched teeth, and Armored let him up but still held a hoof on his shoulder. Armored turned to the first guard, “Take the pegasus to the hospital then go make the report to the council, I’ll escort the unicorn to his house.” “I know my way home, I don’t need your help.” Midnight spat as he pushed Armored’s hoof away. Armored grabbed Midnight’s shoulder again and shook his head firmly. Midnight scowled at him, then let out a defeated sigh. ~~~~~ Midnight raised his hoof, wiped some blood away from his muzzle as he limped home with Armored following closely. Midnight glared back at Armored and saw the guard scowling at him, he was probably thinking about the problems that Midnight makes by just existing. Snorting, he turned away and looked out toward the valley that the town overlooks. “Man, it would just be so nice to be out there.” He muttered to himself. He glanced up and watched the sun draw closer to the horizon; he started to think up of some sort of excuse to explain the guard and being home late to his parents. However, they were not very forgiving in such matters anyway. Despite his efforts, he was unable think of anything other than his hatred of pegasi, namely Ebony. ~~~~~ They arrived at his house ten minutes later just as the sun fell behind the trees. His house had light brown timber-framed walls, with a thatched roof and a smaller second floor stacked upon the first. The other houses and buildings in the town all had similar designs, but had variation in wall color. Midnight motioned off Armored, who was more than happy to leave and walked up to the front door. He licked his hoof and tried his best to clean himself up, and patched up his mane. Then he took a deep breath, and opened the door. He walked in to see that his parents were already sitting at the dining room table, eating dinner with a few lit candles lighting up the house. He stood at the door for a few minutes, before uneasily clearing his throat, making his mother’s ears twitch slightly. “How was school?” Midnight’s mother, a light green earth pony mare with a red and blue mane and cooking pot cutie mark, solemnly asked without looking up from her food. “Ehhh….it was alright I guess,” Midnight responded while scratching behind his head, and then a sly grin grew on his face, “Oh wait a minute… I forgot to mention. I got into a fight after class.” Midnight finished smugly. His mother turned her head toward him and narrowed her eyes with a scowl, “Where you hurt?” “Not too bad, just a bloody nose and a few bruises.” he replied before snickering lightly, “Although I can’t say the same thing for the other guy-” He stopped talking when he noticed that his mother had turned away from him, signaling that she wasn’t listening to him anymore. His father, a yellow pegasus stallion with a dark purple mane that had blue highlights, and several bits for a cutie mark, just simply grunted into a ‘The Golden News of Equestria’ newspaper he was reading. Other than his father taking a large swig of his saddle arabian brand vodka and his mother glaring irritably at her husband, neither said another word to Midnight. While he was glad that they didn’t yell at him, it still hurt to be ignored. Sighing quietly, Midnight turned away from the table and made his way up the stairs to his bedroom. The only place where he could finally have some peace and not having to worry about others glaring at him. He let out a tired sigh as his hooves clopped against the hardwood floor of the hallway. He past his parent’s room and the bathroom then pushed open his own door. Midnight’s bedroom wasn’t decorated too much, since he did not own many possessions. It had pale yellow walls, a wooden floor, and a white ceiling. A switch that was connected to a useless magic lamp in the ceiling, sat in the wall next to the door. A bed sat in the right corner on the far wall, a large body mirror in a corner by his door, and a medium sized chest with a few things he did personally own stored in it under his window on the left wall. A small nightstand with a candle, and a wind up alarm clock resting on it, stood next to his bed. A large bookshelf with some books from the old times sat in the far left corner by the window. He also had a small walk-in closet between his bed and door, which his parents used as extra storage. A single lit candle hung from his wall to the upper left of the door, lighting up the room at night. Midnight (though he never admitted it to others), loved to read books about the past and to learn of the world and how it was before he was born. He had a small collection of “barrowed” history books about the old times, when there were more unicorns and of course, Magic. Shaking his head, he closed his door then sat down in front of his mirror to examine his nose and bruises. After wiping the dried blood away from his nose and checking his leg, he then turned his attention to the gemstone in his chest. The gem in Midnight’s chest is a little larger than his hoof, has eight sides like an octagon, and is dark green like an emerald. It also glows faintly, a glow that flickered in unison with his heartbeat. The stone has been in his chest for as long as he could remember. He recalled the day when his parents told him that the doctors never removed it when he was a foal, because they said that the gem had taken over the job of keeping his heart pumping. Since the stone lies right in the center of his chest. Midnight’s heart and sternum fused into it at birth, deforming them. His heart is missing the sinoatrial node and the gem is somehow generating an electrical current to make his heart beat, thus removing the gem will cause his heart to stop instantly. Because of that, the doctors had no choice but to leave it there. “Heh, Thanks to this damned stone. I’m just a freak of nature, not only a unicorn, just a simple freak of nature.” He thought aloud as he poked at the stone. Snorting, Midnight reared up on his forelegs and bucked the door of his closet, putting a hole into the wood, “Why did I have to be born into this Celestia forsaken world?!” he shouted in fury. Midnight stood there in the middle of his room shaking, blinking tears from his eyes. He craned his neck and watched as his gem’s glow flicker quicker and he felt his heart beating harder. He hissed in disgust and forced himself to look away, shaking his head. “Oie, Midnight! Stop making that awful racket!” Midnight’s father shouted from downstairs. “Sorry dad!” Midnight called out before growling. Midnight stood up and trotted over to his bedroom window, keeping it closed to keep the cold air out and he looked up at the now star filled night sky. Watching Princess Luna’s moon slowly rise over the horizon, he glanced down at the chest sitting at his hooves. He shrugged, then opened it and glanced at the contents. A baseball, a large slingshot he used to shoot empty soda cans, several steel ball ammunition for the slingshot, a deck of cards, and an eight shot pony-styled revolver (it had a large ring on the right side of its handle, and a large lever as its trigger) with extra bullets. He pulled out the revolver, and gave its chamber a spin. He absent-mindedly watched it come to a rest, as his mind wandered back to what Ebony had said during their fight. “Just like what your kind did to us thirty years ago.” His face contorted with disgust as he recalled the stories. Stories of ponies blaming the unicorns for the disappearance of the world’s magic. How they ran unicorns out of the surviving cities, how ponies killed unicorns for trade and slavery, some even treated them as criminals. Even in Golden Heights, many ponies had similar opinions about unicorns as Ebony did, but rarely took it out on Midnight thanks to the guards. Aside from the fight with Ebony, the most abuse Midnight got around town was dirty glares and rude comments. While if he were outside the town, he would be easy prey to slavers, raiders, or sick ponies who kill for sport. Even Midnight’s parents got harassed from the townsfolk, which resulted in his father to take on drinking and his mother to become uncaring to Midnight and abusive towards her husband. “I’d do anything to leave this town, anywhere is better than here.” He thought glumly. Midnight trotted over to his nightstand and placed his weapon down on it, then trotted over to his mirror and overlooked himself again. “Well this stupid thing is part of me and I’m still alive, so I guess it’s not too important to others to kill me over.” He thought as he poked at the gem. He glanced at his gun, “But at least I’m prepared for when it does happen.” While Midnight has never actually had to use his gun against anypony before, other than waving it around a few times to scare off some would-be attackers. He still learned how to fire it properly by practicing shots with a makeshift target in his backyard, which is how he earned his cutie mark. Midnight gave himself a satisfied nod, turned and picked up a candle douter and extinguished the candle by his door, then trotted next to his bed. He didn’t bother to say goodnight, since he knew that he wouldn’t get an answer anyway. He tiredly crawled into bed and glanced out his window. The moon now sat in the upper half of the window, with the unlit town below. “All because of one night, the whole world has been knocked off its hooves and into complete chaos.” He thought as he let out a yawn, “Heh, whoever caused this… Darkest Night must have bucked up really bad to make this big of a mess.” He looked at the moon one last time, then turned back to blow out his candle and drifted off to sleep.