A Rise from Darkness

by Phantomslayer230

Chapter 1: From the beginning

Screams. Pain filled, agonizing, bone chilling screams. Screams were all that filled the corridors of the Manehatten City Hospital's Mareturnity ward. In one of the delivery rooms, doctors and nurses worked at a frantic pace to deliver a child and put a stop to the screaming mothers pain. The mother's name was Moonlight Breeze. She was a fairly young bat-pony mare with a deep violate coat and a sleek silver mane and tail. Her cutie mark portrayed a bright blue eight-point star with a white crescent moon in the center. Moonlight continued to scream as the procedure went on. No pony by her side to hold her hoof, to tell her she would be alright, to share this wonderful moment of her life. She was alone save for the doctors, but that would change in a matter of moments.

After twenty minutes of labor, the pain finally subsided. Moonlight was exhausted. she was covered in sweat and she was still in a bit of pain. But not as much as before, just a lingering sting. As the mare rested, another sound filled the room. A sound that was far from the doctors moving about and the medical equipment beeping. She heard crying. The most beautiful, innocent crying that ever met her ears. After a few minuets a nurse came to her bedside with her newborn child wrapped in a small white blanket.

"Congratulations Ms. Breeze, It's a boy. A healthy baby boy." The nurse said she laid the foal down with his mother.

The child had a dark red coat and black mane with a single silver streak. His black bat-like wings were tucked against his side. He had ceased his crying and was looking up at his mother. His deep red eyes that were unnatural among normal ponies, though quite normal for a bat-pony. His retinas were large and his pupils were long horizontal slits. Moonlight nuzzled her child lovingly, as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

"Welcome to the world, Shadow Wing." Moonlight whispered to her son as another nurse walked by.

"Sorry to disturb you ma'am, but I was wondering if I could get the name of the father?" Moonlight didn't have a chance to respond before a deep voice call from the doorway.

"I'm the father." A large pegasus stallion with a vibrant yellow coat and a jet black mane said as he walked in. "Name's Lightning Chaser." He seemed slightly off balance as he walked.

The nurse wrote down the name and trotted off down the hall. Moonlight looked up to her husband. She could tell he was drunk. He was always drunk, at least a little bit. At least tonight he had the decency to not show up totally wasted. Or even show up at all for that matter. Lightning walked up to Moonlight's bed.

"How you holding up?" He asked. His voice sounding as though he really didn't care. His eyes were locked on the blanket in Moonlights arms.

"I'm fine. We're fine." Moonlight said looking down at Shadow.

"Can I see him?" Moonlight nodded and handed Shadow to his father.

Lighting sat on the floor and held his son. Only Shadow's face was visible out of the blanket. The foal had snuggled as far into the warm cloth as he could. Lightning smiled a little as he looked over his son. Gently, Lighting pulled up some of the blanket to get a better look at Shadow. Lighting saw the bat wings, and his smile instantly faded.

"What's his name?" Lighting asked Moonlight.

"Shadow Wing. Is that a problem?"

"Nope. That's not the problem at all." Without another word, Lightning gave Shadow back to Moonlight and walked out of the room. At least this time, Moonlight wasn't totally alone.

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"My father wasn't the best stallion in the world. Not by a long shot. When I was young I didn't understand why I could never seem to please him. No matter what I did or how hard I tried, he didn't care. Not once in my life did he ever say he loved me, or he was proud of me. Mom told me one day that dad was a very particular stallion, and that only really liked certain things. Wasn't till later I found out what she meant by that.

"Apparently I wasn't the son my dad wanted. Apparently one day he got the idea that when he had a kid, it was going to be pegasus colt. So I fulfilled one part of his expectations. But it was the other part that really mattered. To him I wasn't a child worth "wasting" his time on. I barely saw him. Mom said he just had to work a lot. Which wasn't a total lie. He did work a lot. But he started working more after I was born not because we needed the money. He worked more so he wouldn't have to see me as much.

"But that's not the worst of it. Things only went downhill from there."