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// Chapter 2: The Knight 
// Story: Mist of Memory 
// by Rusty20 
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On a dark and stormy night a family of ponies are walking down an overgrown path in a dark forest, The father Dusk Knight is trying to make sure they don't lose the path in the darkness. While the mother Nightshine makes sure her daughters Midnight and Rose stay close. Young Midnight and Rose are huddled together while staying close to their parents.

Midnight was really scared, So she looked around worried. "Daddy when are we going to get there?" she asked. Dusk Knight looked back at his daughter and smiled, "Soon Midnight soon, Only another hour at the most." She looked back up at him, "Okay daddy I'll try to be brave until then."

As they walked on Midnight and Rose thought they saw weird shapes in the forest and the trees seemed scarier, They huddled closer to each other while trying to get closer to their mother. "I'm scared Midnight," whimpered Rose. "Don't worry daddy will protect us," replied Midnight.

All the sudden there was a loud burst of thunder then with loud crash a lightning bolt hit a nearby tree and it fell across the path. A terrified Rose then trotted up and hugged her mom hard while shaking like a leaf, "Mommy protect me from the storm!"

Nightshine hugged her back smiling warmly, "Of course I'll protect you my little flower. I'd never let anyone hurt you."
Rose looks up at her mother not letting go, "You promise?" she said looking up at her mom with scared and hopeful eyes. Nightshine smiles at her still hugging her, "Of course. I love you more then anything in the world after all."

Then they all slowly make their way around the fallen tree though the darkness careful not to lose the path. All the while unaware of the eyes just ahead near the path watching them. When they finally made it around and back on to the path three ponies in black cloaks with a red inner lining jumped out and stabbed Nightshine viciously multiple times leaving her on the ground bleeding. "Mommy!" screamed Midnight and Rose as they trotted over and hugged there dying mother.

"No!" screamed Dusk Night, as he jumped forward and stabbed one of the three though the heart instantly killing him. Then he ran at the other one knocking his sword away and cutting off his head with a swipe of his sword. The third one then drew his weapon. "You've beaten my lackeys now you have to deal with the best," Crimson Death leader of the Crimson Death's!" He says as he jumps at Dusk Night and they start exchanging blows Crimson Death parring Dusk Night's every attack easily.

They fight back and forth for awhile Dusk Knight not getting in any hits and Crimson Death not even trying, "Yawn, Are you even trying?" says Crimson Death. Dusk Knight continues to attack getting in no hits and getting angry and a bit sloppy.

Dusk Knight then slashes at Crimson Death's legs accidentally leaving himself opened, And then Crimson Death hits his legs with the flat of his sword extremely hard shattering the bones in them. "You're so pathetic you're not even worth killing."

Dusk Night screams in horrible pain as he falls to the ground, Then quickly tries to crawl towards his wife and Rose. "Must protect family, Must protect family, Must protect family," he repeats as he crawls towards them.

Then Crimson Death goes over and grabs a screaming and kicking Rose, "I think I'll take this one as my prize, You'll never be worth my time. But maybe your other daughter will someday, I'll come back to test her someday.""No!" screamed Dusk Night as his wife lay dying on the ground with his daughter Midnight crying over her. Crimson Death walks off with Rose. "Daddy help me!" Screams Rose. Crimson Death Just walked on laughing while Dusk Knight and Midnight cried.

Then time started to fast forward, After they got home Dusk Knight locked them away from everything and everyone and trained Midnight every waking minute. He never showed her love anymore and rarely spoke to her if he did it was just what she should do next in training. Then a few years later he decided he had taught Midnight everything he could, So he gave her a book on his order of knights, A protective amulet, His sword, and shield and he died to be with his wife Nightshine. Then Midnight Jumps up in her bed sweating.

"The dream of that night ten years ago again no matter how many times I have that dream I never get used to it, But I've always wondered who that other filly was? I never remember seeing her before that," she says as she scratches her head and starts to get up. "Well seeing as it happened when I was so young I may have blacked out her memory, But it is a dream after all so I'll probably never know, I better get on with my day can't stay in bed all day after all."

Midnight then gets up and goes to her mom and dad's grave, "Well guys I had that dream again and I miss you both. Mom it has been ten years and I'm sorry I was too young to save you, And dad I'm sorry I couldn't save mom and thank you for staying around to train me after mom's death even though you were miserable all that time. And thank you both of you for the time you did give me." She cleans the grave and puts some flowers in front of it.

She then goes and feeds her goat Nanny who she milks while feeding, During which Nanny burps in her face, "Eww Nanny what type of weeds have you been eating!" says a slightly nauseated Midnight. She then feeds her pet wolf Moon also giving her a bit of Nanny's milk.

She then thinks back about how she had got them Nanny was a mountain goat she had caught young and tamed, But Moon was a different story. After a particularly disastrous training session that had broken a few of her bones Midnight was dragging herself home and she found an abandoned wolf cub, She brought the wolf cub home with her and named her Moon raising her on Nanny the goats milk.

After which she brings in and puts Nanny's milk in the icebox, Then she makes a breakfast of oats and goat milk for herself and sits down to eat. After eating she goes into her house's library and curls up in a comfy chair reading one of her favorite adventure novels for a few hours.

The story was of a reluctant hero who had to save the world, She loved the insight into the hero as he wondered, "Why me," and why he was doing this, The reason she liked it she guessed was because the hero kinda reminded her of herself being forced into something he hadn't asked for. She had to become a knight to keep her father Dusk Knight order of knight from dying out. Not that she really disliked being a Knight she just wishes that she would have had a choice in the matter.

Afterwards she goes to the small orchard a few miles away from her house that was long ago planted by her grandfather and brings Moon with her. Midnight goes through the orchard picking fresh fruit and eats one apple while collecting the rest of the fresh fruit for later.

She then goes to a nearby patch of safe -to-eat mushrooms and picked some of the better ones putting them in another bag she had brought. "Well that takes care of what to have for dinner fried mushroom and green bell pepper should make a pretty good supper," She mumbled to herself.

Moon then goes and visits with the local wolf pack and runs with them a bit. After awhile she come back to Midnight really dirty, "Moon what have you been doing? You're a mess." Complains Midnight, Then they head home together.

After which she starts cleaning her house, Washing counters, Sweeping/mopping floors, Organizing the library, Arranging the equipment in the training area, And washing dishes. She then gives Moon a bath, With she doesn't actually appreciate and she struggles a bit. "Moon be good!" scolds Midnight. After which Moon puts up with it even though she's still not happy about it.

Then she goes into her training room and picks up her sword she does a few complicated moves including a triple-slash with a downward-slash finish and a power-stab with a quick pull out and slashes on a magical training-dummy which quickly repairs itself when she's done training on it. After with she does a a few hundred push-up, pull-ups, and then ends with a dead-lifting session of lifting four hundred pounds three times.

Midnight then goes behind her house and takes a bath in the cold river behind her house to wash off the sweat, She washes her mane and tail and scrubs her body with goat soap she made herself, After bathing she goes and waters her garden while pulling weeds and harvesting a few crops.

Then she takes them to the river and washes them. She then takes them into her house and puts them on her counter and chops them up, After that she take some bread out of the icebox and chops it up to make herself a sandwich. Then she sits down for a nice lunch at the table her grandfather made.

After eating she takes a walk in the woods because she enjoys the wildlife, She bird watches and feeds them some bread crumbs, She also feeds the squirrels some nuts she got from the trees behind her house. After walking for a while she gets a bit bored.

She then decides to challenge that grumpy old bear, So she makes her way to his cave and upon going in finds him awake. As Midnight looks at him she was once again amazed such a giant old bear lived in these woods, She then nods at him and he rushes at her slamming her into the cave wall.

Midnight jumps back up then slams the bear with her shield and whacks him hard with the flat of her sword. With of course just makes him mad the bear the growls and slams her into the ground with his massive paw. In reaction she slams her shield into his stomach knocking him off balance, With he reacts to by biting her hard in the front leg. Midnight jumps up and puts her sword to his neck and then stops sheathing her sword, The bear turning around and goes back into a corner of the cave. "Until next time you old grump!" she says before leaving with obvious pain in her voice.

Midnight falls against a tree in pain, "Darn it I think he broke a few of my ribs and one of my legs," she says in pain. She then slides down to the ground and starts crawling towards home, The pain continues to increase and once she gets to the path the pain becomes too much and she blacks out.