> Arrival at Dusk
>  by Vohira
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Arrival 1: A curious case of reincarnation...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a warm, cloudless summer day in Canterlot. Ponies of all tribes and wealth milled about on its cobbled streets creating a buzzing cacophony of noises that only a bustling city could create. Elegant carriages pulled by well groomed stallions mixed on the streets with simple wagons filled to the brim with boxes and barrels of valuables pulled by simple, gruff workers. 

On occasion a large shadow would pass over the city as an airship sailed to Canterlot Sky Harbor. 

One of the passing air ships was followed by a partly dreamy, partly curious eyes of a young colt. Said colt was looking at the ship taking in every detail… The monstrously large, long balloon filled with hot air and covered in a net of thick, strong ropes that held the ship’s hull. The ship’s body that by all means should fall and turn into a pile of splinters and steel was painted light blue with darker accents and gold details. The name HMS Dawn was proudly displayed on the ship’s visible side. But what truly intrigued the colt were the Mana Engines, glowing with brilliant, blue light that propelled the ship. 

He read about them in the public library out of curiosity. They were a relatively new discovery and-

“Midnight Blackmane!” His teacher’s musical voice reached him and he quickly focused on the unicorn mare that stood before the blackboard with her disapproving glare focused on him. “Being top of the class in mathematics, doesn't mean you can not pay attention!” 

“Sorry, Ms. Note.” Midnight apologized silently before with a bored sigh he rested his head in his left front hoof and slumped against in his school desk. His teacher looked at him for a moment longer before returning to lecturing about simple fractions.

“I hate Tuesdays…” Well maybe hate was a bit too strong of a word, he mused, but spending half a day in classes that he could ace with his eyes closed was not something he liked. It was just wasting time… He knew… He remembered mathematical problems that he suspected were far above Ms. Note’s skills.  

“Ugh… Whoever said they missed their school days must have been crazy…” Not that Midnight Blackmane was going to complain out loud. Being given a second chance in a land that was so different yet familiar and sometimes frighteningly similar to his own was something he was not going to moan about. 

So what if his appearance in Equestria was far from perfect and his current situation was less than ideal… He could deal with that and maybe for once not fail to fulfill his dreams.





It was a hot summer afternoon as a young man walking down the road - towards his workplace - was beginning to consider if maybe he should have just used public transportation instead of walking across the whole city. Sure it was his idea of getting some form of a work out as opposed to just sitting the whole day before his computer, but three hours in the sun was beginning to get to him.

“It’s a good thing I’m almost there.” Truth be told, the prospect of spending the whole night at work was not an encouragement to get there quicker. Not that a night shift bothered him, on the contrary, he quite enjoyed them… but dealing with rich, arrogant guests of the hotel he was working in was a grueling and ungrateful task sometimes.

That train of thoughts stopped as an uplifting orchestral music began playing in his headphones. 

So engrossed was he in his own little world of music and thoughts, that he didn’t had a chance to react as a speeding car turned from the main road - from behind a transporter parked right on the corner - into the street he was crossing. And in the sudden contest of two and a half thousand pounds versus one hundred sixty pounds, winner could be only one...  





“What happened… did I pass out from the heat?” That was his first thought when his senses began returning to him. Three things however, quickly made him thrash the theory of just passing out. Firstly, he ached all over in that particular way as if he returned from an intense gym session which wouldn’t be the case if he simply fell to the ground. Secondly, even sore and wishing right now for a painkiller a sense of wrongness began to set in, but he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly it was. And thirdly… when he opened his eyes he saw an impossible view. 

In the light of the setting sun, lying on his side he saw a grand castle perched on a mountain side. The shape, the colors... they were unmistakable. Canterlot. He saw that particular castle more than a few times... but not like this.

“It’s impossible... “ He whispered as his mind went blank, trying and failing to comprehend what he was seeing. Something else dawned on him as he gazed at the impossibility in the distance. Much, much closer he also saw something that made his heart race.

Slowly, heavily he moved his arm. Tiny pinpricks of pain began to spread across his limb, a clear sign that he hadn't moved in quite a while. What entered his vision made him stop. It was a hoof... 

“I’m dreaming. I’m probably in a hospital and I’m just dreaming…” Even when saying that out loud, he manouvered his… hoof... to touch what had bothered him in his field of view. Hard hoof meet tender nose far earlier than it should have. 

He sneezed as an intense smell of earth and grass registered, it almost made him dizzy.

“Ok then, either this is one hell of a dream… or something…” A nervous sort of energy began to fill him making him restless. Finally deciding to stop gawking at a hoof…well, his hoof? He shook his head trying to focus but felt something strange on his head, however he could guess what that was or rather what those were.

“For a dream this is getting really distracting…” His body was beginning to bombard him with new sensations as if everything began clicking into place, one by one… Or maybe he was just beginning to take notice of new parts of himself? 

Deciding to do something before he went totally crazy, drowned in the new sensations, he began a short inspection of himself.

First thing he noticed was that he had a fully white coat with a black tail so he made a safe guess that his mane was also black. With a small pout that surprised even him, the white colt noted his blank flank.    

“Eh, figures. Can’t think of what to do in life, so the dream HAD to reflect that…”

Next thing he saw were his manly bits making him relieved for some reason, even if they changed accordingly.

Using his hooves he got a feel for his muzzle and there he discovered something that made him stop again. He had a horn…

“A unicorn…” The white colt could practically feel his eyes widening. For the longest of times he fantasized about magic and what he would do if he had access to it. But what made this so special was that he felt something… spark, when he touched this horn. No dream he ever had made him feel anything similar… and then it finally clicked. 

“If this Equestria IS a dream, it makes this MY world…” He concentrated willing something to happen, the first thing that came to his mind was casting an awe inspiring spell of mass destruction… maybe a poor choice but he didn't care right now.   

Something began to build inside of him and soon he knew what it was. Excitement. The reason for that was simple, nothing happened. No scorched land as far as the eye could see, not a single blade of grass singed, not even a single spark from his horn. Oh, he felt a peculiar tingling in his horn all right, but that was it.

“This is crazy…” The white colt said aloud finally trying to sit up while a grin started growing on his muzzle. “But then what happened…” And as quickly as it came the growing excitement vanished along with the brilliant smile, replaced with worry and rapidly growing uncertainty.

His negative feelings were somewhat lessened by the feeling of satisfaction. He managed to sit up on his first try… and then decided to focus on trying to move around. For now he didn't want to think what happened that placed him here, on this grassy hill in Equestria. 

“Two years of horse riding lessons are about to become significantly useful… Maybe not in the way they were intended but still...” True, his last lesson took place more than a few years ago but it was like riding a bike, it never fades out of memory.

As it turned out sitting up and standing up were two different things, with his centre of mass shifted. After less than ten minutes the unicorn colt managed to stand without much difficulty.

Concentrating on his coordination was proving to be a great distraction from his more existential thoughts and questions for now so he continued, deciding to try to trot towards Canterlot at a reasonable pace. 

For him maybe minutes passed but he was concentrating so hard on not falling muzzle first into the ground that it took him a while to notice, that the last rays of the sun were replaced by the moon's silver glow quite some time ago. 

Only then did it dawn on him that in his confusion, excitement and later single mindedness he forgot about a few quite important things.

“I have nothing on me. No… bits, no food… no home... “ The last thought was actually rather depressing and more than a bit frightening. “And apparently I ended up in a body of a young colt. That is not a good mix...” 

Under the delicate, cold light of the moon he finally began to see just how precarious his situation was, now that he began accepting that this was not just another dream but very possibly a permanent change. 

Nonetheless even if his good mood was ruined the young unicorn decided to trot forward, towards the city lights he could see sprawled on a mountain side. 

During this long walk he became so used to the silence of the night, disturbed only by the sound of grass being moved by the weak wind, that what happened when the moon was close to its peak made him jump and fall muzzle first into the ground with a shrill scream that he would forever deny escaped his mouth. 

“Hello there little colt.” That silent greeting, spoken by someone from behind him with hints of amusement, made him groan into the ground before he decided to get up. 

“That was not funny! You could... have…” After getting up, the white colt turned rather quickly on the spot almost overbalancing and falling again but he somehow managed to stay standing with a hoof pointing at the gray coated Royal Guard that silently hovered in the air, his wings beating the air almost lazily. 

He stood there with his hoof extended making a good impression of a fish, with his mouth hanging open and eyes wide. Seeing pegasi in golden armor in a show and looking at a live one were two different things.

“Oh but it was and still is.” The Royal Guard’s smile widened for a moment, before his expression turned serious. “However I wonder, what does a colt your age do on the plains at this hour. Alone?” 

As the pegasus talked, he landed in front of the white colt. 

“Uhh… Now that I see an adult pony…” Just by the fact that the Night Guard was almost more than twice his size he finally could tell that he was pretty young in this body. Maybe six or seven? That was a significant change from his previous twenty five years old self.

“You know I was told not to talk with strangers…” If the Royal Guard decided to introduce himself by pranking him, he could decide to be difficult and showed that by sitting down petulantly with his forelegs crossed, glaring at the other pony.

“My, my… You really think this will work on me?” The silent staring match that followed, with dark blue eyes focused on dark green eyes, lasted longer than the Night Guard expected. “Persistent young colt…” He sighed.

“Alright, you win.” The Royal Guard said blinking and sitting down on the grass. “My name is Silent Flight. There you go, now I’m not a stranger, right? So what’s your name?”

The white colt just gave him a look, that clearly conveyed his disbelief. However thoughts raced a mile a minute in his head. “Damn I have to came up with a name for myself.” 

“Right... So you took that lesson about strangers to heart, however I’m a Royal Guard and you can trust me.” Silent chuckled in partial amusement and then got serious once more. “Now I really need to know what are you doing here all alone.” That much was true. While he was circling above the plains he saw no other ponies in any reasonable distance from the white colt.

The white colt sagged visibly unfolding his forelegs and looking at the ground. Somehow he thought that saying what he was about to say would make it definite. 

“I’m… Midnight Blackmane. And I’m alone because well… I’m alone.” A partial truth, but Midnight decided to omit the fact that he just recently, spontaneously appeared on the field in a new body.

The sudden movement and then the feeling of being embraced by a strong foreleg and hugged managed to shock Midnight out of his negative thoughts. The warm of another's body was comforting and as if it was a kind of signal, a long yawn escaped him and drowsiness began setting in.

“Then I will take you to the city, to a place where you will be well taken care of.”

Midnight couldn’t react in his sluggish state as he felt himself being lifted by Silent Flight’s hooves and before he knew it they were flying, him being carried by the Royal Guard.

Silent Flight now and then looked at the white colt he held in his hooves, watching him struggle against his tiredness only to finally fall asleep. The pegasus let out a sigh. Orphans were rare in Equestria but not so rare as to not build orphanages… At least the Canterlot City one was rumored to be one of the best. With destination in mind, Silent flew towards the mountain. 

In the meantime Midnight Blackmane dreamed. 

At the beginning he was just flying, soaring under the clouds with his arms held along his body. Warm wind tugged at his medium length dark brown hairs and he was quite happy to be wearing his glasses that shielded his eyes from the winds. The only true discomfort was the unrelenting sun.

Land passed beneath him. Cities, roads, forests, rivers… everything went by too quickly to make out any details. It was pure bliss.

Then out of nowhere, a car falling from the sky crashed into him. In pain and fright he began to fall towards the unforgiving ground…

Only to wake up with a short scream, his dream addled mind and fear induced adrenaline making him thrash around. Midnight’s confusion and fear rose as he felt something wrapping around him before he tumbled over the edge of a bed and met the wooden floor beneath muzzle first.

That served as the shock that finally woke him up fully. With a groan he reached his hand to massage his abused nose… only to feel a hoof doing the massaging. It all came back to him in that instant and that made him groan one more time.

“So definitely not a dream.” 

A silent snicker finally managed to reach him. Still lying awkwardly with his chest pressed into the floor and his rear leaning against the bed, he looked around with his eyes.

Midnight was in a room that was large enough to fit in four moderately sized beds, that he was quite certain even a grown up pony could sleep in comfortably. His was in the right far corner, just next to a large window through which sunlight poured into the room . By each bead stood a night stand with what a small lamp on it. Two large dressers stood against the longer walls, between a pair of beds that also stood along the walls. It was a tight fit for all of the furniture but it left the middle of the room relatively open. A nice carpet in random, pastel splotches of colours laid there. 

And there was the other colt still snickering at him, sitting on his bed on the right side of the doors.

“That's not funny!” Midnight grumbled trying to stand up. His efforts led to him falling on his side with a silent ‘thump’, before he managed to stand up and glare at the young earth pony that by the looks of it was maybe two or three years older than him.

“Sorry, but it was.” He had light brown coat, pale yellow mane and brown eyes that sparkled with amusement. The colt jumped down from his bed and approached the now standing and glaring white unicorn. With a bright smile he extended his hoof. “I’m Dandelion, your new roommate.”

For a brief moment they both stood just looking at each other, before Midnight smiled weakly and bumped hoofs with the other colt. 

“I’m Midnight Blackmane. What do you mean by roommate, where am I exactly?” His voice got quieter as he spoke.

“Nice to meet you and you’re in Canterlot Orphanage.” Dandelion said the second part with noticeably less enthusiasm.

“That’s... actually quite surprising.” The white unicorn for a moment didn’t know what to say. On one hand… hoof it was fortunate for him, as he didn’t have anything. On the other hoof it didn’t uplift his mood that much. Sometimes in his wild imaginings, when he landed in Equestria in his thought up pony body he started in a much more favorable situation…

His thoughts must have showed on his young muzzle as Dandelion hoof bumped him in the shoulder, almost knocking him over.

“Being here is no reason to make sad faces, Mid. Mrs Tender Rose is a really nice matron and Mr Stew cooks the best soups I’ve eaten.” While he spoke Dandelion walked to his new roommate to be side by side with him and had thrown his left foreleg around the smaller unicorns shoulders. “Come on, I’ll show you around. I have to take you to Mrs. Rose anyway as the older one in the room knowing you didn't have a talk with her.” 

Listening with only partial interest to Dandelion's little speech, Midnight was engrossed in his thoughts which mostly included recalling everything he knew about Equestria from the shows. Between the time when he somehow woke up here yesterday and his last viewing of the show, a few months have gone by. Those few months were filled with mind numbing job and lots of studying...

Then something clicked.

“What did you call me?” The young, white colt asked while being essentially dragged around by the earth pony. He could feel his eye twitch in annoyance.

“Well I could call you Whity? Midnight Blackmane is toooo long...” Dandelion’s voice have taken on a bit filli-ish tone which somehow managed to further annoy Midnight.

“Ugh… Fine. Whatever, Dandy.” Now that his attention was again fully focused on the world around him, Midnight looked around the corridor they were walking in. With a short glance behind them, he spotted doors to their room - last on the left. Beside theirs there were a total of seven other doors. On a pair of the doors at the opposite end of the corridor and closest to the stairs down he could make out plaques with word “Bathroom” engraved into them as they passed them.

“I know, right?” Dandelion answered back with a smile at the weak try of making fun of his own name. “Mrs. Rose’s office is at the ground floor as is the dining room, nurse’s room and day room.” 

Soon enough both of them stood before the doors to Mrs Rose’s office which happened to be directly across from the entrance double doors in a rather large lobby style room. Midnight could see an open archway leading to the dining room and another set of double doors that probably led to the day room. In a corner a single door with a red cross marked the nurse’s office. Colorful carpets, notice boards that hung on the walls filled with colorful paintings and announcements written in large, colorful letters, potted plants and even a fish tank combined with the warm summer air and sunlight coming in through a pair of windows beside the entrance doors made the atmosphere rather cosy.

It strongly reminded him of his 1st grade class… An uncontrolled small smile showed on his muzzle. “Ah, good times... good, simple times…”

Midnight was torn from his nostalgia by the sound of knocking.

“You go in, I’m going outside on the playground. Come join us when she let’s you out.” With that Dandelion almost run towards the dayroom and went inside.

With nothing else to do the young colt pressed the doors with his right hoof open and entered the office.  
> Arrival 2: Meetings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The office of Mrs. Tender Rose was on the smaller side. That was Midnight’s first thought, however he was unsure if it was due to it being small or due to the ponies inside taking up a lot of its space.

Especially one pony made him freeze on the spot and his eyes to go wide, while the doors were closed behind him by a golden magical aura.

“P-p-princess Celestia!” Midnight finally managed to stutter out. He was equally shocked and awed. “The shows didn't do her any justice…”

The white alicorn’s coat was groomed to a silky shine and softness, her sunrise horizon like mane flowed gently in a nonexistent wind. Even her royal accessories were polished to the highest degree. And then there was her presence… it was a warmth, that reminded him of the times he snuggled under a blanket in an autumn or winter evenings after a day of hard work. The black maned colt could feel some of his worries being pushed to the back of his mind by this comforting feeling. 

Now a bit less on the edge he took a quick look at the other occupants of the room. Behind a simple desk sat an earth pony mare with vivid red coat and a dark green, wavy mane that she wore tied into a loose braid.

To her left sat Silent Flight - or Midnight supposed so - with a small, encouraging smile on his muzzle. He looked just like any other Royal Guard with his golden armor, white coat and mane hidden beneath his helmet.

“Hello Midnight Blackmane.” Celestia’s soft voice was the most pleasant sound the young unicorn heard in a long while. “Don't be too shy. Come, sit with us.” The white alicorn smiled.

Midnight took a deep breath and walked towards a small, colorful chair that stood before the desk. While he clumsily hopped onto it he could feel three pairs of eyes following his moves, so when he finally sat down his right ear twitched, showing his nervousness. “That is going to take some time to get used to…”

“You are probably curious why we are all here?” Celestia’s voice ended the silence.

“Uh, yes?” The white coated colt answered while his ears unconsciously flattened against his head. 

“When Silent Flight came to his commanding officer with a report about an orphan colt that he found in the plains, they began searching for information about you. Imagine their surprise when they found nothing in the cities and villages in any reasonable distance from Canterlot.” Here Celestia paused. “Or the further ones too, so far.”

Mrs. Tender Rose’s muzzle showed her surprise upon hearing the news.

He could somewhat understand the earth pony’s surprise. Here he was, a young colt without a cutie mark, found in the middle of nowhere and now all was pointing to the fact that no one knew about him.

“So... ummm, am I in trouble?” Midnight squeaked out weakly, while his mind worked in overdrive. “How much do I tell them? What DO I tell them? … Wait, when in the show’s timeline did I land anyway?! Crap… how do I answer any of the questions not knowing that?! Deep breaths, think, think, think... Stall! That’s it I need more time to figure this out...“

“And not that I want to be rude… Or that I don’t appreciate it, or that I didn't want to meet you - it was kind of my dream to meet you both - but what are you doing here Princess?” Midnight rambled with a bit of nervousness in his voice. Midnight’s gaze wandered automatically to look at Celestia and he inwardly winced when he saw a look of utter surprise on her muzzle.

“Rose, Silent please leave us for a minute.” Despite her gentle tone, Celestia didn't move an inch or turned her gaze away from the unicorn colt. 

Even more surprised now, however agreeing nonetheless the other two adult ponies stood up and began moving out of the room. When Silent Flight closed the doors behind them the room was filled with an awkward silence.

“Midnight, what did you mean by ‘meet you both’?” The white alicorn asked while she moved from sitting beside the desk to sitting in front of it, which made it necessary for Midnight to look up a bit to gaze into her magenta eyes.

Despite her still gentle tone, Midnight got the impression that lying would be a very bad idea. So with a sigh and with his shoulders sagging a bit he answered.

“I meant you and your sister, Princess Lu-” The white colt never managed to finish his sentence.

“NO!” The forceful shout, made the young unicorn reel back, with wide eyes and ears flattened against his skull in clear indication of fear. “No... “ This time Celestia said it with such timidness and her muzzle reflected such shame that Midnight had trouble believing in her earlier outburst. 

“P-princess?” His voice quivered with uncertainty, then he silently neighed with surprise as a golden aura levitated him over to the white alicorn. Midnight was stunned when he found himself being hugged by the Princess, as she nuzzled his smaller head.

“I’m so sorry my little pony, but names do have power in this world and true names of beings such as me and my sister especially so. Do not use her true name lightly, one can't be sure when she’s listening.” With a sigh Celestia tried to explain herself almost whispering, once more with her motherly voice. “Now however I find myself curious. How do you know of her?” It was such a simple, question with so many complications attached to it.

“I would rather not say Princess.” Still a bit shocked Midnight now had his proof. Somehow he not only landed in Equestria, but he did it before Luna’s return... that was going to give him a headache, he just knew it. “Now the million dollar question is, how many days, weeks, months or maybe whole years before the events of the show begin to happen? And what’s up with that ‘names have power’ thing?”

For what felt like eternity to the human turned pony they both just sat there, embraced in silence after his answer. 

Celestia’s horn glowed a soft gold again, his eyes going wide in panic as Midnight felt the white alicorn’s magic engulf him again. However as fast as it manifested, the aura disappeared.

“Shhh, it’s nothing to worry about my little pony.” The white alicorn said with a soft, calming voice backing off slightly, letting him out of her hug. “You can keep your secrets if you want to, everypony has the right to it. But I still needed to be certain you’re not a danger to ponies around you.” 

“Then what was that for?!” After forcefully calming himself Midnight asked with a clear accusation in his voice.

“As I said, I needed to see if you’re a danger. It was an Aura Reading spell.” Celestia began speaking her voice going from that of caring mother to a teacher’s one. “When in doubt, it can allow the caster to see another's magical aura. Despite the emotional storm in you that your magic reflects quite clearly, I saw no stain of true evil.” 

As if a switch has been turned the rest of his fear had been turned into curiosity, as it was a piece of practical magic he saw. It must have shown in his eyes as a small, knowing smile crept onto Celestia’s muzzle.

“So… Will I be able to do that?” Midnight’s curiosity won in the end, as he stood up and almost bounced on his hooves. “And what did you mean by saying that names have power?” 

“In time, yes you will be able to that and more.” A quirk of Celestia’s lips showed her amusement before returning to her ‘lecturing mode’. “Simply put, Midnight Blackmane, names are tied to our magic. If an alicorn - like myself - concentrated hard enough, with practice and under the right circumstances I would be able to… hear, for the lack of a better word, when my name is said. But with how often ponies and creatures alike around the world use my name it would be an indistinguishable cacophony of noises. However, my sister’s true name have been forgotten. If you spoke her name it would be like a candle light in total darkness, impossible to miss.” Celestia’s voice was heavy with sadness.

“And that would be a bad thing why?” He wanted to know, that was such an intriguing thought. Was Celestia afraid that if he spoke Luna’s name three times before a mirror she would come and haunt him or something like that?

“That is a story for another time. Now, promise me Midnight that you will not say her true name nor mention her to anypony.” The last part Princess Celestia said with a tone that allowed no argument.

“I… I promise Princess.” It was his turn to sigh and pout. “I still wonder, what is she afraid of?” 

“Well then, I think we’ve made the other anxious enough. There's still paperwork to be done to make you a Ward of the Crown.” 

Midnight blinked once, twice... 

“Wait, what? Ward of the Crown?” He was really beginning to get tired of how many times in the last twenty four hours he was thrown for a loop. Celestia chuckled briefly seeing his reaction.

“That’s right Midnight. The few orphans that turn up every year across my Kingdom and don’t have some kind of relatives to take them in, are made Wards of the Crown until they’re sixteen.” Celestia explained standing up and moving to her place beside the desk. “I think it's time to let Silent Flight and Mrs. Rose back inside, they’re probably worried by now.”

Midnight just nodded, while the white alicorn opened the doors with her golden magic. It was hard to hold in laughter, when the young unicorn saw how Silent Flight had to save himself from falling muzzle first onto the floor with a few flaps of his wings. Apparently somepony was trying to eavesdrop... 

Red faced, the pegasus guard cleared his throat as he entered the room trying and failing to look professional.

“Forgive me for that my Princess.”

“It’s nothing. You clearly care for the young colt.” Celestia answered with amusement dancing in her eyes. Then she turned to look at Mrs. Rose. “I think it’s time to get the paperwork done, so that our newest ward can have the rest of the day to get to know the city and other colts and fillies. So that tomorrow he can begin attending classes.” She spoke while the red coated earth pony just nodded her head and began searching for the mentioned documents in her desk drawers.

Midnight sat watching the older ponies with a bit of amusement, until…

“Wait, classes? As in going to school?” His forest green eyes widened in disbelief. 

That got a few chuckles out of the three adult ponies. 





“I still can't believe I have to go to school! Tomorrow!” He knew he was whining and that he was getting a few amused glances from the ponies they walked by as he did so, but still… “Seriously! I did it once… I’m too old for that kind of nonsense.” He pouted.

“Cheer up Midnight, it’s not as bad as you make it out to be. It’ll be fun.” Silent Flight, his acting tour guide around Canterlot, said from his right side. 

Both of them were currently walking down one of the main roads of the city on which the Orphanage was located. It also so happened that it was the road that lead directly to the Palace gates.

One thing Midnight had noticed immediately after stepping outside of the Orphanage was the loud crowd of ponies milling about on the sidewalk and multitude of carriages and wagons of all shapes and sizes on the cobbled street.

When he asked Silent Flight - who chose to show him around the city - about the crowd he told him that Mondays and Fridays were market days, when ponies from around the city came in to sell their wares and when the larger shops had their shipments delivered. 

Today was Monday apparently.

“It’s two days of a headache for the Royal Guard. Bustling crowds, shouting merchants, arguing ponies and sometimes lawbreaking. But it’s the price for having five days a week of relative peace and quiet.” Silent flight had then summed up his thoughts about this mess.

After that Silent Flight began talking about the shops they were passing by and Midnight began his whining.

After passing almost a dozen shops, cafes and restaurants it happened.

A large shadow rolled over them and when Midnight looked up his jaw dropped as he just stood, rooted in place.

It was his first look at one of the Sky Fleet ships, and to a former human so used to sleek metal airplanes, the look of a literal ship suspended in air via hot air balloon or whatever it was filled with was as awe inspiring as it was shocking. “That’s… That’s something new.”

“Come on now, it’s nothing that special. HMS Morning Star had seen better days.” Silent Flight nudged the colt with a hoof, sniggering quietly.

“But… a warship?” Midnight really hadn't planned on speaking that thought aloud, as he spotted gun ports on the ship's blue painted hull.

“It’s a sad necessity Midnight. Few of those are left, but even the Princess will not have them all decommissioned. Leaving us defenseless would just invite trouble.” Silent Flight said with a bit of something in his voice, some emotion that the once human had trouble deciphering.

“You know what, I got a bit hungry. Come on, I know about a new place that just opened and it’s quite good from what I’ve heard.” With his left wing the pegasus nudged Midnight to get him moving. 

After a quarter of an hour and going into a bit less crowded part of the city, further from the main road both of them reached their destination.

“Oh you've got to be kidding me… That’s... that’s so awesome!” Midnight had to fight back to hold in a most unbecoming squeal of delight. Finally it was something he knew and truly recognized.

As they opened the door a bell chimed and a rough voice called out.

“Welcome to Donut Joe’s! Take a sit I’ll be right back.” The light amber coated unicorn stallion that run the place said as he disappeared at the back.

Silent Flight and Midnight just looked for a brief moment at each other before the older pony shrugged and lead the way to one of the comfy looking circular sofas with a table in the middle. They were not the only customers but other than them, only a couple of other ponies sat by the bar.

Midnight was getting comfortable when Donut Joe came over to them in his cooking vest and with a confident smile on his muzzle. With his light yellow magic he put short menus before them.

“Do you need a moment to pick something?” 

“Well I’ve heard you make good chocolate milkshakes, and quite nice vanilla donuts. So we will have two sets of those.” Silent Flight said looking questioningly at his younger charge.

“It’s fine with me.”

“Give me a few minutes then.” Donut Joe said writing their order down on a small notepad with a pencil, both held in his magic before he left them alone once again.

“So I have to say, you’re acting quite mature for your age Midnight.” Silent Flight said with a clear approval and a bit of curiosity in his voice.

“Well, thanks I guess.” The black maned colt said while he was trying not to enter panic mode. “What now, he’s on to me or is he genuine? Can this day be a bit less crazy?!”

“At least thanks to that I didn't have to stop whatever scheme you could of thought up to get a cutie mark. Makes my job easier.” Silent Flight said with a wide, if a bit cheeky smile.

“Really…” Midnight drawled out, considerably calmer. 

“Also about that, what do you actually dream of doing?” Silent Flight was expecting something along the lines of joining the guard, being a captain on one of the airships or being a firefighter or an adventurer.

“Well… It would be nice to study magic in depth. Be the best mage there is.” Of course even as he said that, Midnight knew that somewhere along the line no matter how hard he tried, one pony would best him. 

For a moment the white pegasus just looked at him in thought.

“That’s a lofty goal Midnight. And something I wasn't expecting from a young colt.” As an answer to that Silent just got  shrug form the colt seated opposite to him.

By that time their order had arrived.

“That will be six bits.” Donut Joe said looking at Silent Flight and holding the silver platter on which he brought their order before him. The pegasus dutifully rummaged around a small saddle bag that was nestled between his wings, withdrawing the golden coins that landed with clatter on the platter. “Thanks, enjoy and come back.” And with a smile he was gone once again.

The milkshakes and donuts were devoured faster than the two of the would like. They were as good as Silent Flight’s friends made them out to be. After they ate, the city tour was resumed.

It was well past three in the afternoon when they returned to the orphanage.

“Well, it was nice.” Midnight said awkwardly, standing at the steps that lead to the main doors.

“Yeah, well… If you want we can have a repeat. Maybe I’ll even show you the Sky Harbor one day.” Silent said with a small smile. “It’s a shame I can't just adopt him. Being a guard sometimes sucks.”

“Really? That would be great!”

“So, see you later, then!” Silent lifted his right hoof and ruffled Midnight’s black mane, giving him a noogie. The older stallion laughed as the smaller colt squirmed away from his hoof.

“Hey! No fair!” Midnight shouted indignantly, before he massaged his head with his own smaller hoof out of the larger pony’s reach. However he smiled in the end. “See you later Silent.”

With their goodbyes said Midnight walked into the orphanage building, wanting to rest a bit… only to be tackled by a light brown and yellow blur. 

“Oh come on!” Midnight all but screamed in disbelief and indignation… again. The two colts came to a stop after a few rolls, which surprisingly ended with Midnight holding Dandelion in a headlock. “I didn't train Judo for three years for nothing, but it’s so weird with hooves and four legs. It’s actually surprising I pulled this off…”

“How did… it was so cool!” Dandelion shouted in excitement, before he freed himself without any problems. His earth pony strength coming to his aid. “Can we do that again? Can you maybe teach me?” 

Midnight watched with mortified expression at suddenly hyper Dandelion, that was doing his best to invade his personal space.

“Wait till the others see this! Come on!”

While the white unicorn colt was being almost dragged to the back yard only one thought raced through his mind. “I’m doomed…”           
> Arrival 3: Impressions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Being dragged into the orphanage's backyard was not exactly a pleasant experience for Midnight. In his excited rush Dandelion didn't really pay any mind to many small chairs or thrown all over the day room toys and books. One time he almost slipped on a piece of paper.

It was surprising how those innocent items turned into dangerous traps in a situation like that.

“Wait, hold up Dandel-argh!” As it turned out pony’s fetlocks could serve the same role as human’s shins, finding obstructive pieces of furniture. In this case it was a small, wooden chest full of wooden building blocks. Midnight’s accidental kick send the content all over the floor.

Before Midnight had the chance to even say something more, he and Dandelion burst outside into the backyard. The doors that the young earth pony pushed open, smacked against the brick wall.

“Hey all! Look who's finally here, this is Midnight Blackmane.” As the light brown coated colt called out he pulled his white companion with him to the grassy back yard, down two steps from a small porch. 

And just like that the human turned pony found himself staring at five other colts and two fillies, if he was not mistaken. He shuffled awkwardly from hoof to hoof as the other young ponies stared back and a look to his left made him sigh internally. There, on Dandelion’s muzzle was a large, satisfied grin. “Well then, here we go…”

“Hi, I’m Midnight.” This was going to either go very well or terribly wrong. However he hoped for the former as even his - now former - human family sometimes told him how childish he could be. “Well as the saying goes, men never grow up. Only their toys become pricier.”

Finally after what to Midnight felt like eternity an older unicorn filly with sandy colored coat, wavy, powder blue, long mane with some darker highlights in it walked towards him and extended her hoof. Two others came along with her. 

“I’m Summer Dew and those two are Silvertongue and Cherry Blossom. We’re the oldest here with me being fourteen. Silver here is my age, and Cherry is a year younger.” As the older filly talked with somewhat bossy tone, Midnight glanced over at her friends.

Silvertongue was a colt and also a unicorn. His coat was an off white color with his mane being dark blond, what was a bit surprising was that it was fairly long and tied with a black ribbon into a low ponytail that hung at his right side. He stood almost painfully straight with somewhat cold muzzle expression, trying to look like a noble and in Midnight’s opinion almost succeeding. 

Cherry Blossom on the other hoof was an earth pony filly, with a light red coat and delicate pink mane that was cut short, with a few longer strands left at her fringe. She also looked quite annoyed and amused at the same time, but surprisingly not at him but at her friends.

“Also because we are the oldest, we kind of feel responsible for you. So what I say goes and as long as there will be no problems with that we’re good. Ok, Midnight?” Summer Dew’s tone and look that she gave him, that he saw a few times in his previous school life, really left little to his imagination or choice for that matter.

Trying to fake a pleasant and attentive expression he bumped hoofs with her. “Great… So I just have to tolerate her for two more years. Just great…” 

“Sure.” Was all that Midnight said, as he was quite certain that if he said anything more it would come out too forced to not be noticed.

As awkward as this first exchange was it was like a signal and soon enough after a few more hoof bumps the white unicorn colt was trying to remember another four names, while he sat under one of the few trees that were growing in the backyard.

His eyes followed the earth pony twins, Rumble and Bumble playing tag with Dandelion, who was only a year younger than them. Both colts’ coats were slate gray while their manes were cream colored. The only distinguishing feature they had was that Rumble’s eyes were an unnerving steel blue, while Bumble had pale green eyes.

The three of them run past a table with benches on which sat another two older earth pony colts. Both were leaning over books and notebooks writing in them from time to time. They were both twelve, and had some test tomorrow at school for which they were revising under Celestia’s afternoon sun.

The one with deep blue coat and pearl colored, wild mane was called Orion. Across from him sat Brass Bit, who had a dark brown coat and a brass colored mane. Two things he learned from them was that firstly, they were both twelve and secondly, they were apparently top of their class. They even told him that if he had any difficulties he could come and ask them for help with homework. “As if that will ever happen…” 

Overall meeting the rest of the orphanage’s wards was a short and lively affair, so much so that he didn’t even pay too much attention to their cutie marks. Well, now that he watched Dandelion and his two other friends running everywhere it was clear that the younger trio were all blank flanks.

When he once more focused on Brass Bit, he saw that a stack of golden bits was his cutie mark. He couldn't see Orion’s but he was quite sure that it was astronomy themed.

The eldest trio was nowhere to be seen as they went inside the building almost immediately after welcoming him.

Midnight’s musings were interrupted when a silent cry of pain and then a stream of apologies reached him from under another tree he could see to his left, closer to the overgrown by plants wall that surrounded the backyard.

What he saw made him narrow his eyes in thought. Rumble or Bumble, from that far away it was impossible to tell, had run into another young pony. A pony that had not come to say “Hi” to him. 

Intrigued he waited until the now moody trio got closer to him, apparently that little accident was enough to get them to stop playing tag. He observed how Dandelion smacked the guilty looking twin upside the head and whispered something to him.

“Hey, Dandelion who is it over there?” Midnight asked when the trio moved close enough to hear him without having to shout.

“That’s our little Loonymoon.” Rumble said with a silly smile, which earned him a glare from his brother and another smack from Dandelion.

“Loonymoon?” The white unicorn colt asked while looking in the direction of the other tree.

“That’s not her name, it’s Lulamoon.” Dandelion said and as he said that, something stirred in Midnight’s memory. “Although she’s quiet, a loner and I’ve seen her cry a few times so that’s not healthy… I think.”

“Just say that’s she’s a bit crazy. She talks about herself in a funny way.” Rumble said with an expression and tone as if he delivered the ultimate argument to back up his statement. Then he made a tough looking pose while his lips trembled and he sniffled, probably trying to imitate crying. “Trixie doesn't want your help. She is a strong filly!”

It took all of Midnight’s self control not to gasp and show his shock, when Rumble spoke with high pitched voice. Then another thought came. “Something is really wrong here…” 

“So how old is she anyway?” Midnight asked trying to not let his strained emotions be heard in his voice.

“Close to six, she has her birthday in two months. It was November, right?” Bumble asked, speaking slowly with a thoughtful expression.

“Yeah, so if you have birthday earlier you’re older. Are you Midnight?” Dandelion butted in.

“4th January, if you have to know.” It was an unnerving blessing, as Midnight called it in his mind, that the calendar of Equestria so closely mirrored Earth’s one so far. When few hours ago he sat in Mrs. Rose’s office and needed to tell them his birthday date he just prayed for the date to have some meaning here. He almost fainted with relief when Mrs. Rose just nodded and filled the proper space on the document after he said it.

“Cool. Say…  Would you want to play hide and seek with us?” It was Dandelion again, but both brothers perked up hearing that question. 

“Nah, I’ll pass. I’m tired after that trip around the city.”

“Next time then.” Dandelion said and the trio of earth ponies left in the direction of Orion and Brass Bit.

Meanwhile Midnight sat there under the shade of a tree for a few more minutes deep in thoughts, before he stood up and slowly began walking towards the lonely filly.

“Hello. I’m Midnight Blackmane.” The once human said as he sat down a hoof length from the somber looking blue filly. One gaze was enough of a confirmation for him, the colors matched. Here on his left, laid young Trixie Lulamoon. She was a bit skinnier than him and he was of average build for his current body’s age.

Midnight kind of hoped for a quick answer, but the silence began stretching. However it was not an awkward silence, it just was. In his former life he was more introvert than anything, so he had no problems with this silent company, that Trixie was turning out to be.

She laid there, staring at the leaves moving gently on the wind. He caught her looking at him and then she would quickly avert her gaze. It turned into a bit of a game until she frowned and began staring at him and he just stared back.

She blinked first.

“Heh, you lost.” Midnight said blinking rapidly to get rid of the stinging in his eyes.

“Hmph, Trixie will just have to win next time.” She said with a cute pout and returned to gazing at the leaves. 

Having nothing better to do the white unicorn colt shrugged and laid back against the tree trunk, gazing into the sky.

“You’re the new colt, right?” After another few minutes of silence, Trixie’s silent voice reached his ears.

“Yup.” It was tempting to just say more, ask more… “But that would probably be a mistake.”

The following silence was interrupted by a ringing of a bell and a shout. 

“Dinner.” 

Midnight rolled to his right and saw Mrs. Rose with a small bell by her hooves standing at the porch. He stood up rather lazily and began walking toward the orphanage. It was kind of surprising to find Trixie walking by his side, but he smiled nonetheless.

The dinner turned out to be nothing special, a simple tomato soup with carrots and corn but it was well spiced. However learning to use his hooves to hold things on the fly was anything but simple in Midnight’s opinion. The hardest part was accepting that it was at all possible.

Luckily the dining room had more than enough tables for him to share his only with Trixi, who just raised one eyebrow at his first few unsuccessful attempts. After that it was easier and easier until by the end of meal it was mostly natural. 

When he was finished, Midnight hopped down from the chair and was almost immediately intercepted by the younger trio of earth ponies.

“So, you’re going to play with us now?”

Midnight sighed at Rumble’s question, before he snorted with amusement.

“Ok, why not.” He was feeling full of energy again anyway. The unicorn colt made to follow the other three, when he stopped after two steps tuning his head around to look at Trixie. “You want to join?”

“Trixie will play.” The blue unicorn filly finally said as a small smile crept onto her muzzle.

When the duo caught up to the other three earth ponies in the backyard, they formed a loose circle to discuss the rules of their hide and seek game. 

Midnight frowned slightly when he saw Rumble making funny faces behind Trixie’s back. What was a bit more puzzling to him, was that even Dandelion looked a bit unsure about addition of the filly to their play group. “She had to say ‘no’ to them more than a few times for them to act this way…”

When it came to choosing who will seek first Midnight volunteered and no pony was protesting. So when he turned around to face a tree, closed his eyes and began counting backwards from ten all he heard was sound of hooves as his new found friends scrambled in search of their hiding spots.  

It was a beginning of a game that lasted until the sun began to set and by that time, Midnight become acquainted with almost every nook and cranny of the orphanage. Even Trixie was smiling by the time Mrs. Rose told them to get back inside. 

As the five of them walked upstairs to their rooms with high spirits, Midnight couldn’t help but roll his eyes at Rumble who took it upon himself to imitate how the blue filly walked. Head held high and a haughty expression on her muzzle, tempered with a wide smile. 

It turned out it was surprisingly tricky to find Trixie every... single... time. One time Midnight just surrendered and sat down with a pout under the starting tree. In the end he figured her out, but it was not really that much of a help. She moved, unlike the rest of them. Midnight just didn’t feel confident enough to try and be sneaky, while the three other colts tried to make it sound as if she was cheating the few times they had trouble finding her. 

In the end however all five of them had a good time and all were smiling.

When Midnight and Dandelion finally got to their room the first thing the once human noticed were the saddlebags and a small pile of books that laid on his bed. When he jumped onto the bed he found a small note on top of the pile. 


Those are yours now, treat them well. 


I’ll check on you at 7:00 in the morning. 


School starts at 8:00.


Another small wonder Midnight was grateful for was that Equestria used a language known to him. Midnight was curious enough, that he started to page through the books he received. 

“Really Mid? You’re going to be a bookworm like Orion and Brass Bit?” The light brown earth pony asked from his bed.

“Well, I’m a few weeks behind. I’ll see what I can read up.” The white unicorn colt said as he got comfortable on his bed, not even looking away from the book in his hooves. To be honest he was just curious what he could learn from the books about this world, that the show didn’t show.

Within the next few hours, before Mrs. Rose came knocking and telling them to go wash their teeth and go to sleep, Midnight managed to browse through half of his new books which turned out to be a tad bit disappointing. They were all just basic course books, no grand mysteries or world changing information could be found.

So at around nine in the evening, with a last glance through the window at the moon bearing a familiar dark mark on its surface, Midnight fell asleep. 





The next morning was a bit hectic as everypony packed their saddlebags, ate a light breakfast of oats with raisins and then rushed back upstairs to brush their teeth. Only then would Mrs. Rose allow them to get going. They went out as a group since they were all signed up in the same school, just down the road.

Canterlot Elementary No. 2, turned out to be a modestly sized, two story building with two wings, made out of white bricks and marble with a red roof. Well trimmed hedges separated the school grounds from the rest of the city. In the center of the small courtyard between the two wings an aged, massive oak that rivaled the buildings in high was growing, providing shadow for the majority of the paved courtyard. And the place was already filled with fillies and colts of different ages.

“Now then, Midnight. You’re going with Trixie as you have been signed up for the same class as her.” Summer Dew said before going towards the left wing, with other older ponies of their group.

“Come on, Midnight. Mrs. Clear Note doesn't like when we’re late.” Trixie said with a bit of a bossy tone as she trotted past Dandelion and the twins towards the right wing.

“See ya later.” The trio said before getting out of earshot.

Midnight trotted behind Trixie, through the main doors and up the staircase, then they went right and ended up entering classroom one or so the plaque on the doors said.

The classroom was spacious, with five two seat desk arranged in a semicircle before a teacher's desk and a blackboard. As in the orphanage the walls were mostly dominated by boards with colorful hoof made posters, drawings and some other lecturing aids. The back wall was dominated by cabinets and bookshelves.

Trixie lead him to a desk that was nearest to the window and saying silent ‘Hello’ to the three other fillies they passed, that were already seated and had their books pulled out. 

The two of them just finished pulling out their own books after when the rest of the class filled in followed by a cream coated unicorn mare with mint colored curly mane. Her cutie mark were two musical notes.

“Good morning class.” Her voice was soft and clear and Midnight wondered why she choose to become a teacher instead of a singer.

“Good morning Ms. Note.” A chorus of young voices answered. 

What followed was a normal roll call. With the small exception that some of the other fillies and colts were looking at him curiously or just simply staring.

“Midnight Blackmane?” At hearing his name he almost jumped, before raising his hoof.

“Here.”

“Well class, Midnight Blackmane will be your newest classmate. Give him a warm welcome at the recess, but for now I want to check your homework.” With that said the teacher began moving along the desks and grading homework, before beginning a lesson that promised to bore Midnight out of his mind. 

At the end of the school day Ms. Note asked him to stay behind.

“As a unicorn I have to ask you, did Mrs. Rose told you about the magical exams at the end of each semester? I gave the explanation to my class at the beginning of the school year, but do you know about them?” Ms. Note asked as she sat behind her desk looking at him intently. 

“No, Ms. Note.” Midnight shook his head and Ms. Note sighed.

“Mrs. Rose has a big heart but sometimes she is a bit absentminded.” It was said with a fond exasperation. “Those exams allow the Local Arcane Department to measure your magical growth, you will have to take them until you’re sixteen. Also keep in mind that later on some mages from the Magic Guild, the Royal Guard or other important institutes choose to sit on those exams, searching for apprentices.” Ms. Note paused as she searched through one of her drawers and levitated towards him a slip of paper with his timetable. “Notice that every other week on Sunday there is special classes for unicorns focused on magic only. Do you have any questions about those exams or those extra classes?”

Midnight stood there digesting the information given to him, looking at his timetable. Finally he folded it and stuffed it into his saddlebags.

“Not really, no. Thank you Ms. Note.”

“Alright then, off you go Midnight you have a lot of homework to do.” Ms. Note said with a smile.

“Goodbye.” The white unicorn left the classroom, speeding up as he surprisingly saw Trixie waiting for him at the staircase.

“And so one life ends, another begins…” Midnight couldn't help but smile at that thought, as both young unicorns went outside to join their friends and return to the orphanage.
> Arrival 4: This magical world...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The week leading up to Midnight’s first magic lesson was enlightening in many ways for the ex-human.

For instance the unicorn colt learned, that Silvertongue was a part time actor in Canterlot Theater. Midnight learned that when the older colt returned to the orphanage on a Tuesday evening with a small smile and levitated out of his saddlebags tickets for everypony to a spectacle he was going to play in.

That also helped Midnight understand the older colt’s cutie mark a little better, a cavalier hat with a quill in place of the standard feather.

It turned out that this sort of thing was normal as Mrs. Tender Rose encouraged everypony to go, to show their support for Silvertongue. So on Wednesday evening they all went to watch quite the nice spectacle about a young prince that inherited the throne while unprepared for such a task. It was a tale of a young king trying to prove his worth, but making the wrong decisions in his haste to do so. Midnight was a bit surprised that a play written by a pony could have a less than happy ending, with the young king exiled to a desert island.

But all in all it was a well spent evening and he learned that while Silvertongue was quite the actor and could passionately talk about anything to do with theater, he was a bit snobbish and aloof any other time. 

In that week Midnight also finally got the courage to ask Summer Dew about her cutie mark, which lead to a very interesting conversation.

On a rainy Thursday afternoon, just after dinner, Midnight approached Summer Dew that sat alone at one of the small tables in the day room, reading a book with some arcane symbols on its cover.

“Um, Summer I have a question?” Midnight asked as he sat opposite to the older filly. With a sigh she lowered her book held in a light blue magical aura before looking at him directly. 

“Yes Midnight?” While her tone was slightly annoyed she didn't show any other signs of being truly bothered by his presence. Besides, everypony was in a bit of a sour mood after being totally drenched by the cool rain in their way back from school.

“Why your cutie mark is a prism?” And that what it was, a silvery triangle with a rainbow colored line running through it at an angle. After hearing his question she perked up visibly.

“Well I’m surprised you know what it is at all.” Summer Dew said looking at him with a mixture of surprise and amusement. “Somepony is reading way ahead of his school work.”

“I’m just curious.” Midnight mumbled out defensively, while he would never admit it outwardly it was beginning to bother him that after only a week he was beginning to be seen as an egghead and called as such behind his back by some of his new classmates. “That’s not exactly my fault that I had years of education already… And I have no desire to dumb down my school work for appearances sake.”

“Allright, alright don’t get so mopey about it. It’s a good thing.” Summer said trying to sound apologetic. “Anyway, my cutie mark is a prism because I’m really good with illusions especially the kind that manipulates the light around me.” 

“And how does that work exactly?” The white unicorn colt asked with a thoughtful frown. To his immense irritation the school librarian said ‘No’ every time he asked about books related to magical theory saying that he didn’t have an approval from their magic’s instructor.

“The theory would go totally over your head squirt. Let’s just say that there is a big difference between making somepony see something where there is nothing and just altering what a pony can already see. Like this...” With a flash of light blue magic, that made Midnight blink and rub his eyes to stop seeing white spots, Summer Dew enveloped herself in one of her favorite spells.

“Oi! What’s with the light show?!” Brass Bit’s annoyed call sounded from behind Midnight.

When Midnight could finally see properly what he saw made his jaw drop. Where the sand coated filly was earlier, now he could see only a disturbance in the air in a rough outline of a pony. Somehow her spell made her almost invisible.

“Cool, huh?” Summer’s disembodied voice said.

“Show off!” Came Cherry’s amused shout from the other side of the room, along with a perfectly aimed pillow that hit the see-through older filly in the head with a soft ‘omph’ and it was all it took to disrupted the spell. 

“It was cool. But you can’t move too much when you’re like that, right?” Midnight voiced his thoughts in an excited voice as he watched how the spell almost literally flowed off Summer.

“You catch on quickly.” The older unicorn filly said, again surprised. ”Yeah, it’s something I’m working on but it’s hard, that’s why I would like to not be disturbed again.” After that Summer once more levitated the book she had been reading before Midnight interrupted her, returning to reading it while frowning in deep concentration.

However what truly and pleasantly surprised Midnight during that week was the company of Trixie. For the most part it was a silent company, but a company nonetheless. It was at times mind-boggling for the human turned pony, how this silent filly would grow up into the mare he knew from the shows. There were glimpses of her future self, mostly in class when called to the front by Mrs. Note but that was it.      

There was only one, significant downside to having Trixie walking around with him during school and after... 

And right now on an especially nice September Friday, while their group was walking back to the orphanage from school on the sidewalk packed with ponies, Midnight could feel his right eye twitch violently.

He saw Dandelion, Rumble and Bumble making - as he dubbed them - “kissy faces” in the corner of his vision and he stubbornly refused to acknowledge them by looking at the trio directly. Trixi just... strutted on his right side with chin held high also ignoring the three earth ponies.

It was when the orphanage building came into view that Rumble decided to add sound effects to their mocking, and that got a reaction out of Midnight.

“Gah! Would you stop that already, it's annoying! And we’re not kissing!” The white unicorn colt spun on his hooves to jab the closest of the trio with his hoof and shouted making his voice sound a bit shrill. 

When Midnight saw everypony in their vicinity had stopped when he started shouting and all ponies present were looking at him with some measure of amusement, he felt a blush starting to bloom on his cheeks.

The situation was not helped by the twin’s snickering or Dandelion’s muzzle splitting grin.

“I… You... “ The black maned colt’s ears folded back. “Did I just got played by three kids?!” 

With an indignant huff Midnight turned around and started walking, trying to look composed and uncaring. However it was all ruined by the still present blush.

“I will get you for this…” Midnight mumbled loudly enough to be heard by the trio while not looking at them. A quick glance to his right showed him that Trixie also wasn't unaffected, she too was blushing. “You could have helped me there…” He almost whispered trying to not be overheard by the three earth ponies that were still snickering.

“Trixie didn't want to be more embarrassed than she is right now!” The blue coated fillie’s whisper was somewhat forceful as she shot him an annoyed look.

“What? It wasn’t exactly my fault.” After hearing Midnight’s retort, she just graced him with an irritated exhale and quickened her walk. 

It was only a matter of minutes before their group made it back to orphanage, from there the rest of the day followed a familiar by now routine. Eat dinner, do homework, read something extra or just laze around until night came.

When Midnight went to bed that night he was almost too excited with the prospect of the upcoming magic lesson to fall asleep. He stared at the moon through the window for almost an hour, thinking about the past week before sleep took him.       





Midnight was at once excited and nervous. He ate his breakfast of toasts with jam and drank his glass of milk faster than normal. While he sat at the table, across from Trixie, his right hind leg tapped the chair rapidly.

When both waited for the older unicorn orphans to join them on their walk to their extra lesson, the once human paced around the entrance hall, a habit of his when nervous. Being on the move helped him with calming himself.

“It’s going to be alright. I can do it…” Occasionally he would mumble such self assurances.

And it was beginning to get on the blue coated filly's nerves, if her growing scowl was anything to go by.

“You will be fine, squirt.” Summer Dew’s voice was an unexpected disturbance for Midnight and it made him jump up in fright. The older unicorn filly snorted with amusement. “Ok, we’re leaving.” She said when Silvertongue joined them a moment later. 

Saturday morning’s turned out to be rather peaceful at half past eight. On their way to the school they passed only the post ponies and a few guards. The short trip was spent mostly in silence, only disturbed by the sound of hooves hitting the pavement.  

On place they went directly to the back of the school where the hoofball pitch was. As it turned out they were the last ones that got there. 

The two things that Midnight noticed right away was the number of other colts and fillies. If he had to guess, there were probably more than fifty of them all in all ages.

“Everypony! We’re all a bit early I see, so let’s not waste time by standing around. Find your year group and we will begin!” A strong voice shouted and drew Midnight’s attention. In the middle of the pitch a group of ten unicorns stood, what made them stand out were their white or gray robes.

“Come on.” Trixie said almost dragging him towards the youngest group. From her voice he knew she was eager to learn whatever they taught here. When they joined the other six year olds, Midnight counted only eight of them in total. They had just enough time to say ‘Hi’ before their teacher showed up.

“Good to see you again, fillies and colts. We will start where we left of, trying to access your Mana Pool. I hope that you remember the gist of what we talked about on our first lesson, if not just ask. Remember, it’s not embarrassing to ask even a silly question when it comes to magic.” Their teacher turned out to be the pony that shouted at the beginning. His blue eyes focused quickly on Midnight. “Ah, a new student! Let me introduce myself then. I’m Magister Heartfire and you are?”

Midnight just stared at the unicorn stallion with a dull orange coat, that had an eyesore of a mane. In the young unicorn’s opinion a mix of neon orange and bright red, with bright yellow highlights was almost painful to look at. However with the spiked and unruly manecut, it made it look almost like fire so it was somehow justified… What was interesting, was that this pony wore a gray cloak with red trims. It was open and formfitting on the front but it reached almost to the ground at the back, hiding his hind legs and tail. He also wore a matching red vest under it.  

“Midnight Blackmane, sir.”

“Nice too meet you. It’s your first magic lesson?”

“Yes.”

“Well then, wait a few minutes. I will check on your classmates and then we can talk about some very basic things you will need to know.” And so, Midnight sat down on the grass with a small sigh and watched as Heartfire approached everypony, talking quietly with them for a bit and moving on.

He watched as they closed their eyes and concentrated on… something. Sometimes a few weak sparks of magic flying of their horn were the results. Some just fidgeted on the spot after a few minutes, before calming down once more. 

After less than half an hour the adult unicorn took him a bit to the side and both sat down.

“There's no need to be nervous Midnight.” Heartfire said with a gentle tone, seeing his pupil’s tense body posture.

“But what, if I don’t do anything? I mean, magic…” Words failed Midnight. He really couldn't convey his worries without outing himself as a human turned pony and he wanted to avoid that. He didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to himself.

“Yes, magic. It’s a wonderful thing that too many of us take for granted.” Heartfire said with a bit of melancholy in his voice, before he smiled. “But don’t worry, I will make a proper unicorn out of you if you allow me and above all else... if you just believe in yourself.” The older stallion poked his chest gently with his hoof.

“Uh, ok.” Midnight really didn't know what to say at this point, he was somewhat moved by the older stallions words. “So I just have to believe in myself? I can almost imagine him saying something like: Do or do not, there is no trying…”

“Right let’s start with some very basic theory. Three terms you have to remember after today. Source or Core as some call it and Mana Pool. The Source is the origin of your magic, it will grow with you, it can be trained like a muscle and like a muscle it can be damaged. That is why I will ask you not to train by yourself for now, have some older unicorn to assist you and help you if you overexert yourself.” The brightly colored stallion’s voice took on a serious tone. Midnight just nodded in confirmation. “Mana Pool on the other hand is the… volume of magic you can hold at any time. It is also from where the magical energy is taken to cast spells most of the time. The Mana Pool can also grow like the Source if you train enough but curiously it is also tied to an extent with a unicorn’s physical condition... so don't skip Physical Education. Do you have any questions so far?”

“No, I understand it. So the third thing?”

“The third thing you need to know after today is the concept of an Aura.” Suddenly Heartfire’s body was covered with a red haze, generating a burst of hot air. As quickly as it started it disappeared. “That was me flaring my Aura. Can you guess what that all was about?”

Midnight frowned in thought. Princess Celestia also talked about Auras a week ago…

“That was your… magic?” The unicorn colt said uncertainly.

“Very good. An Aura is the… active representation of one's Mana Pool. All magical beings generate an Aura mostly specific to them. It can tell you a lot about what kind of magic a being possesses, how powerful it is and if you’re experienced or it’s your talent it can also tell you some things about the being itself. So what do you think you can tell me about my magic after that little demonstration?” Heartfire looked down at his newest student encouragingly. 

Midnight frowned in thought…

“So… the hot air. You... like fire magic?” Keeping in thought his teacher's appearance Midnight was quite certain his guess was correct.

“Good again, fire related magic is my specialty.” The older unicorn smiled brilliantly. “Any questions now?” 

“One actually.” Seeing that encouraging look again, Midnight began to talk. “You said we all have an Aura, but you had to flare yours so I could feel it. But I’ve met Princess Celestia and I think I felt her Aura… just like that. What’s the difference sir?”

“That’s a big question for a young colt like you.” Heartfire smiled pleasantly surprised. ”The difference is simple. One of Princess Celestia’s older titles is Avatar of the Sun. It’s almost literal Midnight. You felt her Aura because she is impossibly powerful... so powerful in fact that she has to restrain her power and even then a lot of it is leaking out. Had she not restrained herself, you wouldn't be able to feel her Aura no matter what you tried. Her Mana Pool is so vast that our mortal magical senses wouldn't be able to comprehend it.” Here Heartfire paused and chuckled ominously. “However at that point it wouldn't matter. If for whatever reason Princess Celestia was to loosen her hold on her power, ponykind would have to find a new capital…”

Midnight gulped nervously, that were interesting news to say the least. He took a breath.

“Well, sir... is there more theory for today?”

“Not really, no. Remind me at the end of the day to sign your library permission. For now let's get to the practical part, your first step into the wider magical world.” The orange coated unicorn grinned. “Your first task is getting in touch with your magic. For that I would ask you to close your eyes, sit still and try to search for a feeling that you think best suits you, it can be anything really. An emotion or a physical sensation. You will know when you find it, when you will feel it spreading across your body but mostly towards your horn.”

“Nothing else for today?” Midnight asked, finding a comfortable sitting position.

“If you manage that, I will see your horn glowing with your magic and will come back to you with the next exercise. And I don’t mean a few sparks escaping, but a solid glow. Don't worry if you don’t get it right on this first lesson or even the second one.” And with those words Heartfire stood up and walked towards the other fillies and colts under his care.

Midnight took a deep breath and let it out as he closed his eyes. “So basically I have to meditate on what feels right to me… I can see how that can be difficult for a young child…”

Luckily he was no child, at least not mentally. Breathing in through the nose, breathing out through the mouth… keeping up a steady rhythm. That was what his world began to shrink to.

Then he tried to think, to feel basic things like happiness, content, pride, anger… and so forth. When nothing of that sort managed to produce an effect he moved to the more tangible feelings. 

Warmth was the first, it wasn't difficult with the late autumn sun warming his back. 

The weak wind caressing his muzzle brought inspiration to try and feel everything connected to air. That didn't work either.

Then an idea struck.

To be honest he never liked summer and what it brought… so that’s why he tried imagining himself during winter. With the crisp, cold air. With the falling snow caressing his face in it’s own stinging way. He imagined himself during his one time trip to the mountains of his country in December.

That’s when something cool, cold even began to slowly spread through him, starting right above his heart.

Midnight frowned, it was so slow. As if something was missing… He was on the right track though, so held to the feeling of coldness and searched further.

He didn’t know how long it took, but he stumbled upon a feeling that quickened the flow of magic.

He really didn’t like flying, or swimming for that matter. The feeling of solid earth beneath his feet was what he was most comfortable with. It was stable, solid… unyielding and slow to change. It pulled everything to it and held it.

It was curious for Midnight that it was that… heaviness that allowed the final push. He could feel an itch and a slight pressure in an appendage he didn’t truly know he had. He risked a peek and opened his eyes to look at his horn as best as he could.

Two things startled him. One, his horn was glowing with a bright blue glow mixed with wisps of black. The second thing was Heartfire staring at him thoughtfully, with the rest of his age group behind his back… also starring.

Then his stomach growled and he realised how thirsty he was.

“Uh, so… I made it?” Midnight looked around, only now noticing that they were the last ones left on the pitch.

“Yes you did.” Heartfire said with a serious tone looking at him with a blatantly calculating look, then he clapped his hoofs. “But that’s enough for today, you spent well over six hours meditating. Our lesson officially ended and hour ago.”

Midnight eyes widened. “Six hours? No wonder my legs feel so heavy…” He just prayed that he wouldn’t get a cramp as he slowly stood up and swayed a bit. Almost instantly a blue coated body supported him from his left.

“Thanks, Trixi.”

“You will have to say Trixi how you did it!”

“Can that wait until after dinner?” Midnight asked with a sheepish smile.

“An excellent idea! Now then, off you all go. We will see each other in two weeks. And remember, if you want to practice find an older unicorn to look after you. Oh, and here’s your library permission Midnight. Goodbye.” A slip of paper shrouded in red haze of magic landed in front of the young unicorn before Heartifier bowed slightly, sent a last glance towards Midnight and began walking away. The rest of their group followed his lead and began walking towards their homes.

“So where’s the rest of our group?” Midnight didn’t feel the need to specify which group he had in mind, as the two of them began the slow trek to the orphanage after Trixi stored the new permission slip in her saddlebags as he hadn't taken his. 

“They left an hour ago. Didn’t want to stay, they were quite certain that with how stubbornly you sat there you would do it.” 

When they reached the street Midnight was walking on his own.

“Thank you for staying Trixi.” The white unicorn colt glanced to his left.

“Hmm… Trixi hopes for some help with her magic.” She glanced at him with a small smile.

“Sure, sure… Just after dinner.” His stomach growling forced an amused snort out of the blue filly.

When they finally returned to the orphanage, Midnight instantly stormed the dining room where he ate two full servings... Which later lead to him lying in a overate daze in his bed, and an irritated filly smacking his library permission onto his nose… with her hoof. Which left him with a stuffed to the brim stomach and a sore nose. 

Dandelion at least was having fun watching his misery, the withering glare he sent his roommate only managed to amuse the earth pony further.

But in the end it was a price Midnight was paying without protest, after all he now had the comfort of the cold, heavy feeling he now recognized as his magic.
> Arrival 5: Moving forward
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a clear, if a bit cool early October morning a week after Midnight’s first magic lesson. It was also a day after a particular note addressed to the white coated colt made it’s way to the orphanage. 

Said unicorn colt raced downstairs after he woke up and took care of his private needs on that special Saturday morning. As he entered the dining room for a quick and early breakfast Midnight almost ran into Mr. Soup carrying a jug of milk.

“Sorry!” 

“Eh, nothing happened Midnight, but be a bit more careful in the future. What’s the rush anyway? It’s early even for you.” Surprisingly enough, when he met the orphanage’s cook for the first time, it turned out that he was a unicorn. Mr. Fresh Soup was a middle aged, corpulent unicorn with an olive green coat and smartly stylized, short mane that was dark gray, almost black in color.

What was probably more surprising was that apparently his family was famous for their cooking skills for some time now and he was splitting his time between managing their family run restaurant and cooking for the orphanage.

All things considered, he was a caring stallion that loved good food.

“A friend is coming soon to take me for another tour of the city.” Midnight said while taking a ladle of cereals filling with it one of the prepared bowls. It was kind of amazing how on weekends their breakfasts looked like the kind of spreads prepared in good hotels. Well, there wasn't really that much to choose from but the gesture was appreciated by everypony.  

When Midnight sat down at one of the closest tables, a jug of milk held in a pale green aura hovered over to him to pour some of the milk into his bowl.

“There you go, lukewarm milk for your cereals just as you like it. Have fun then, there’s sure a lot to be seen in Canterlot.” Mr. Soup said returning to arranging the breakfast spread to his liking. 

“Isn’t that the truth…” While he had spent in the city almost a full month now, Midnight still hadn’t seen even the half of it. In his memories of of the show it mostly focused on the castle with only occasional glances of the city. 

And if today went as the note from Silent Flight said it would, he would get a glance at it from the plains again, now with a more calm mind and more time to appreciate it. 

Just as he finished - or more like inhaled -  his quick breakfast and downed a glass of orange juice, he heard somepony coming into the orphanage. With a loud scratching of wood against wood Midnight leapt of the chair and trotted towards the hall… where he stopped dead in his tracks.

By the entrance doors stood a pegasus with pale blue coat that gradually darkened at the tips of his wings. His brown mane was cut short in a clearly military style and from where he stood he could see the pegasus’s cutie mark. Two white wings folded around a sword.

By his manecut, his cutie mark and by the very small chance of a random pegasus showing up at the exact time Silent Flight was to show up, the once human came up with only one conclusion. 

“Uh, Silent Flight?”

“Surprised? You didn't really think that only white or off white ponies got into Royal Guard, did you?” Silent asked with a small, knowing and teasing smile. “I’m off duty right now, so I left my enchanted armor at the garrison. Ready to go out?”

That question took Midnight’s mind of the questions he wanted to ask and he nodded his head.

“I’m ready. What are we going to see this time?” Midnight asked as he moved forward to walk beside the adult pegasus as they both left the interior of the orphanage and walked out into late autumn sun.

Some leaves were being tossed around on the mostly empty streets by the weak, cold wind that was a sure sign of approaching winter. The pegasi could control the clouds, rain and snowfalls however they wanted, but the cycle of seasons was a mechanism far beyond their control… At least that was what Ms. Note said to them when she lectured their class on the Magic of the Three Tribes.

“I managed to talk to a few friends of mine, so we will start with something that should be really interesting… Sky Harbor.” The dramatic pause made the white colt look at Silent Flight with intrigue and then his eyes got wide with wonder.

“That’s so cool!” And Midnight wasn’t ashamed to admitting later that he did jump up a little in his excitement.

“Though so.” Silent Flight said smiling as they slowly trotted up the main road. “So Midnight, I heard that you did really well at your first magic lesson.”

Midnight looked up again.

“How do you know about that?” There was no accusation in his voice only curiosity.

“I have my ways.” The older pegasus answered cryptically, receiving an annoyed huff in response. In Silent Flight’s opinion there was no reason to burden the young colt with knowledge that he was one of the gossip topics of the past week among some unicorns in the guard. He didn’t know who started those rumors, but he would gladly punch the one that did. “Did you try to practice on your own?” 

Midnight sensed the trap in that question.

“Well I talked Summer Dew into helping me a bit. She’s an older unicorn.” Then he frowned, firstly it was no small feat to talk the older filly into helping him. Secondly... “But it turned out harder than during the lesson. It’s hard concentrating on my magic when there's a bunch of other, loud ponies doing stuff close around you. And Summer Dew was stubbornly not letting me close my eyes and focus only on my magic. She threw pillows at me when I did that...” Midnight wrinkled his nose in displeasure. “Not too gently at that.”

Silent Flight listened with interest and smirked a bit at the last sentence.

“She would make a good drill instructor then.”

“Don’t go giving her ideas…” Midnight shuddered a bit. He had a foggy idea about life in the military but in his past life his boss was a retired colonel, so he had heard enough of his stories to forever discourage him from joining the military.

As they both talked Silent lead them through the city that was slowly beginning to stir. At some point they turned right from the main road, toward the mountain side. The road - still as wide as the main one - gradually became more inclined as they climbed up the mountain's slope until it weaved in a serpentine. 

Their trek took them all in all about half an hour.

Midnight looked to his left to see the city sprawled beneath him, when he looked up he could see over the highest spikes of Canterlot Castle. Good thing he was not afraid of highs… 

“Well, here we are. The main gate of Sky Harbor, just stick close to me and don't wander.” Silent said with a serious voice. 

“I’ll try…” Midnight said not even looking at the older pegasus, as he was busy staring at the massive gate in the mountain’s wall. It was wide enough that three carts could go through it side by side or so he guessed and it was at least twice as tall. And the gatehouse was just massive. It was at least five stories tall and at least as wide, with even higher towers at its sides. Right above the gate the roof of the gatehouse was flat and he could see three massive ballistas poking out from behind the battlement... and they were loaded with pitch black arrows. “It’s huge!” 

It was surprising - or not - that it blended in so well with the mountain that he didn’t notice it from the city level.  

“Well it’s a whole separate garrison, most of it is carved inside the mountain though. Come on.” Silent nudged the young unicorn with his wing.

Midnight finally came out of his daze and moved. At the base of the gatehouse they were meet with four Royal Guards keeping watch.

“Halt! Identify yourself and state your business.” The one on the left asked harshly, somehow managing to keep his expression blank.

“Sergeant Silent Flight and his charge, Midnight Blackmane here to see Engineer Arcane Bolt.” When Silent was done speaking one the Royal Guards moved inside the building through a door Midnight just noticed to his right.

After a few minutes of silence and standing still, the Royal Guard returned.

“All is in order, sir.” As one the guards saluted Silent and stepped aside to let them pass. 

“Have a nice tour kid.” One of them added in with a small, but sincere smile as they entered.

The main tunnel had many smaller offshoots and when they got in a lot deeper the tunnel expanded into a giant, circular area with many balconies and terraces. Two other main tunnels went out of it to his left and right. 

Midnight could see rail tracks for small carts and platforms, cranes, stacks of supply boxes and barrels. Stacks of wood, metal and other raw materials that was used to build a ship hull.

Also what was worth mentioning was the noise. In the closed space of that massive circular cavern the noise was almost deafening. Clopping of hundreds of hooves on stone, hammers hitting wood, stone and metal. Sawing of wood. Yelling of work ponies that moved around... It was overwhelming, making his chest vibrate as if he stood near a high powered speaker.

His ears laid themselves flat against his head only slightly dampening the sound.

“Silent Flight!” Somepony yelled and waved to them from one of the terraces one floor above them. It was quite amazing how his voice carried over the present noise, but the pale violet glow on his forehead could be an explanation.

Silent once more had to nudge the unicorn colt to get him moving towards the nearest staircase. After climbing up one flight of stairs, they were greeted more warmly although just as loudly by a beige colored unicorn stallion with light brown, trimmed mane. He was wearing what to Midnight looked like and officer’s uniform with unfamiliar markings and to his surprise, rectangular wire glasses.

“It’s good to see you, Silent! And you must be Midnight, right?! Let’s go to my office, at least it’s shielded against all of this noise!”

After a few minute walk around the cavern and then entering a balcony stretching along a wall of the left tunnel they entered a modestly sized office. But Midnight was not really paying attention to where they were going.

Upon entering into the tunnel, it’s opposite wall opened up into open space that was separated into open ended docks with the blue sky in the background. Rows of stone columns divided the space. Five air ships of moderate size were being serviced. Another nine docks stood empty and in one a truly impressive and unique, if an almost gaudy ship was tended to. 

Then they entered the office, that was separated from the docks by a floor-to-ceiling window. When Arcane Bolt closed the glass doors all outside noise quieted down to an easily ignored hum.

“Well that’s better.” Arcane smiled and firmly shook hooves with Silent. “And you must be Midnight, right? I’m Lieutenant Arcane Bolt, chief engineer of the west wing.”

“Nice to meet you, sir.” Midnight said before looking around. Cabinets, racks and pinboards with schematics dominated the office creating a feeling of organized chaos. The desk was a nightmare though... rolled up plans upon books, upon unrolled plans and so on created a small mountain that probably was holding itself together only by some magical trickery.

“You came in at a busy time sadly, so I can’t give you the grand tour you probably imagined but we can chat and catch up a bit Silent. Coffee?” 

“Could have told me Arcane, I don't want to intrude.” Silent said with a bit of a sigh. “Yes please. You have anything for Midnight?”

“Um… Let's see… And you’re not intruding.” Arcane dived behind his desk and started to dig around. “We just have a bit of a standoff with the crew of HMS Judgment. And I Have coffee, more coffee and oh… what’s that doing here, bleh… Oh! Orange juice!” While he talked, several mugs in different states of uncleanness sailed over the desk to a small sink that was in the corner.

Midnight looked at Silent Flight with a flat and decidedly unamused expression.

The older pegasus just smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

“You're sure about that, we can come later for a longer visit.” Both Silent and Midnight watched as Arcane set up a kettle that he dug out from somewhere over a ruby red, circular pad after filling it with water. At the same time he poured some orange juice into a glass and levitated it over to Midnight.

“It’s fine, trust me… I’m an engineer!” The older unicorn puffed up in pride and snickered quietly.

Midnight groaned and began to massage his temple with a hoof… while Silent Flight blinked owlishly at his old friend’s exclamation.

“Anyway, I got you an entry into one of the ships that’s currently grounded due to repurposing works.” Arcane said while they waited for the water to boil. 

At hearing that Midnight perked up and graciously accepted the glass of juice that was floating before him and took a sip. 

Just as the water began to boil Arcane levitated it of the pad and poured boiling water into two waiting mugs. The strong smell of coffee hit Midnight’s nostrils and he cringed, he was not a fan of it.

“HMS North Star will be rented to a civilian company as a cruise ship.” The older unicorn took a careful sip of his drink before continuing. “That reminds me, I don’t really feel like using those so here you go Silent.” An envelope was levitated from one of the drawers towards the pegasus.

Silent took the envelope in his hooves and breathed in sharply. Carefully, with the help of his wings he opened the envelope and took out two slips of colorful paper.

“I can’t take those Arcane! It’s too much.”

Curious about the reaction the once human set down his glass of juice on the floor near the desk and approached the older pegasus.                                                          
“Yes you can. They will just waste otherwise.” Arcane said with a small smile.

“What are those?” Midnight asked after getting a better look at what Silent was holding, but as he could not see the front of whatever those two slips were and the logo on the envelope told him nothing, he was left with the need to ask.

“Two tickets for the maiden cruise of HMS North Star around Saddle Arabia.” The pegasus guard said silently still in a state of mild shock.

Now Midnight was beginning to feel torn between being happy for Silent and feeling jealous.

“Thank you Arcane.” Finally, Silent said after putting the tickets into the envelope and storing that in his small saddlebag that hung hidden under his left wing.

After that, the two older stallions engaged into idle chatter about their past few months. Midnight was left to his own devices for the moment, so he just wandered around the office looking at the plans and books that laid around.

Twenty minutes later the trio left the office, returning to the halls of the harbor and its deafening noise.

Midnight was once again excited and he decide to ask some questions. Well, one question in particular he wanted answered.

“Mr. Arcane, how come that large white-gold ship has no balloon?” The young unicorn had to almost shout, even if he was walking side by side with Arcane Bolt.

“Ah, that’s HMS Judgment. It has no balloon because it need’s none. You see it’s unique design and the sheer amount of enchantments allows it to literally sail in the sky. You see the four main masts? And the extendable “fins” on the sides? All of the sails have gold and even True Silver threads stitched into them, forming magical circles. It’s one great magical conduit and so expensive that just maintaining it consumes a third of our budget.” The older unicorn voice turned fully professional and a spark of pride could be seen in his eyes. “This ship has been serving in the fleet since the Second Griffon War now, more than two hundred years. Crewed only by unicorns serving in Princess Celestia’s Personal Magical Division it has never lost a battle it took part of! It’s ours, that is unicorns, greatest pride here in Canterlot!” During his small tirade Arcane Bolt puffed up and Silent Flight just rolled his eyes.

Midnight just listened with rapt attention, impressed and a bit surprised at the pride and conviction in the older unicorns voice.

“But because of that it’s also a pain in the flank to deal with… The crew of the ship is feeling so self-important and whatnot, that if you so much as sneeze in the direction of their ship they go into almost fanatical frenzy.” Now it was Arcane Bolt’s turn to roll his eyes.

What followed after that talk was a short walk towards one of docks, where HMS North Star was being repurposed. The tour of the ship, although short was quite enjoyable and informative to the young unicorn. After about an hour of walking around the mostly deconstructed ship their tour ended.

When the trio said their goodbyes, Midnight followed Silent Flight out of the Sky Harbor into late morning sun. The wind picked up in strength, making their way down towards the city a bit less pleasant than their trek up.

“So where now?” Midnight asked as the duo returned to the citi’s main street.

“I was thinking about grabbing a take out basket from one of the restaurants and heading down to the plains. It’s still nice enough for a short picnic.”

“I would like that.” The white coated colt answered with a small smile.





Canterlot was large, sprawled on the side of the mountain with the castle nestled above the city, which on itself was positioned on the mountain side on many terraces and ledges obviously extended with magic or outright build from cut stone. To be honest when Midnight tried to compare it to what he knew, he thought it looked like a more spread out, less fortified and much more colorful version of Minas Tirith from his beloved movies. 

The view and that thought made him think about the last three weeks of his life. 

A glance to his side revealed snoozing Silent Flight, whose presence started growing on him. Closing his eyes and concentrating for a bit allowed him to feel the comforting coolness of his magic.

“Is it strange that I don’t really miss my old life?” Opening his eyes Midnight looked at Canterlot. “This is now my home…” 

Somehow that thought just now was beginning to truly settle in, but he just smiled contently.
> Arrival 6: Six Laws of Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The week following Midnight’s trip to the Sky Harbor was mostly dull in comparison. The classes were as easy as ever, although the ex-human could almost swear that Mrs. Note observed him closer than it was strictly necessary on a few occasions… but that could have been his imagination. 

One thing that his prior education allowed him for was having a lot of free time, that he finally decided to use for reading magic oriented books from the library. Midnight’s second magic class was coming up fast and he wanted to catch up on anything that he thought was important… that pretty much meant everything so he had a hard time deciding.

The fact that the librarian got annoyed at him for long wandering and staring at the book covers and titles was an insignificant thing in his opinion… 

The side effect of his sudden deeper interest in magic was that he spent that week mostly in his room, laying on the bed and reading whatever grabbed his fancy from the four thin books he grabbed about basic magical theory.

That of course lead to Dandelion being annoyed with him and Trixi pestering him more about magic. Midnight remembered that he kind of promised her help with connecting to her magic, so on Thursday he landed in her room, that she had just for herself.

It was pretty much an exact copy of his and Dandelion’s room, but the most significant difference was a framed picture on one of the nightstands. It was apparent that it was a picture of Trixi with her parents. But for him the most attention catching things were the few spots on the picture and the frame looked charred. 

“Midnight…” Trixi said from his left sounding annoyed. 

“Sorry, I just couldn't help but look at the picture.”

The blue coated filly looked uncertain for a moment, unconsciously biting her lower lip. 

“You’re, all right?” Midnight asked looking at the blue filly. 

“Trixi will be fine. Let’s get started, tell Trixi what you did that got you your magic...” Her tone might have been normal, but her posture indicated her sadness.

“I’m not really sure what to tell you, but ok.” 

What followed was two hours of awkward almost-lesson that could have gone better. In the end Trixi was frustrated as was Midnight but at least he tried not to show it. The blue filly made little progress when the matron called and end to their impromptu lesson, when she came to usher them to beds.   

When the Friday morning came, Midnight noticed that Trixi was trying to avoid him and had a bit reddened and puffy eyes. Surprisingly, that bothered him more than he cared to admit… 





Sunday breakfast was a subdued affair due to the heavy clouds hanging in the sky. Luckily the rain didn’t start until the unicorn’s from the orphanage were a few steps away from school.

In the main hall they were welcomed with the sight of Magister Heartfire. 

“Welcome, welcome. Due to the awful weather we will have class inside today. First class in classroom one and so on.”

With the directions given, they went into their indicated classrooms. Midnight glanced to his right and saw Trixi still avoiding his gaze. “Lesson for the next time, don't ask about the picture…” 

When they reached their classroom and got comfortable on the pillows arranged in a circle in the middle of it, they had to wait for almost quarter of an hour before the last of their year’s unicorn arrived and behind him Magister Heartfire.

“Good morning class. Today you will still be trying to get in contact with your magic, at least most of you.” On his last words he sent a brilliant smile in Midnight’s direction. “Midnight, you will have to wait a bit.” 

The white coated colt just nodded, expecting something like that. As on his first lesson he had to wait for the next half an hour before his teacher moved towards him. In his mind he repeated the questions he wanted to ask, that he came up with during the last week. 

“Well Midnight now that rest of your classmates are occupied, when can move on towards more interesting things. But first show me your magic.” The orange coated stallion said as he sat in front of the white coated colt.

Midnight took in a breath and closed his eyes. Faster than on his first time he located the comforting coldness and reached for it. When he opened his eyes his horn was covered with a bright blue aura mixed with black.

“Very good, now let it go and let’s shape it to be something useful.” Heartfire said standing up and going to the teacher's desk where his saddlebag laid. After a short while he returned with a pamphlet levitated in his red magical aura. “Now this here, will help me teach you how to cast your first spell.”

Eagerly Midnight took the pamphlet into his hooves and spread it before him, his questions forgotten for now. He leaned forward and started to read not even waiting for Heartfire to say anything.

“A Light Spell?” Midnight asked looking up after his brief read and saw the adult unicorn’s amused look, he blushed slightly.

“It’s one of the simpler ones that requires no advanced knowledge or attunement.” 

“Attunement?” The ex-human asked instantly.

“Most of the advanced spells fall into some element Midnight. Like fire, water, ice and so on. Some elements are rather bizarre or hard to understand like wood. What matters is that Light Spell is classified as what we call Mystical Magic, which is just manipulating pure magical energy. For us some elements are easier to manipulate or even instinctual depending on your special talent. Mine for example as you guessed on our last lesson is fire or at least it’s fire related.” Heartfire spoke steadily looking at the white colt. “On that note the feel of your magic can give you clues as to what element will be easiest for you to use.”

Midnight sat there thinking about what he heard. “So ice or earth magic right?”

“Now then, if you read the pamphlet and not just skipped it to the fancy pictures…” The older unicorn grinned. “As it said the pamphlet, the simplest method to perform this spell is understanding what it is that you want your magic to do. Some spells like this one can be cast in multiple ways, you just have to pick your own. I for example always think about how a fire lights it’s surroundings.”

A thoughtful frown made its way to Midnight’s muzzle, he couldn’t really believe it was that easy. For a moment he was stuck in uncertainty, until he decided to just have a go at it. First on his mind was just imagining a lightbulb, but he decided to consider Heartfire’s previous words about different elements. If he was going to do it, he might as well experiment a bit.

He closed his eyes again and pulled.

“You might want to tone it down Midnight…” The older unicorns voice reached him as did the grumblings of the rest of his class.

Curious, Midnight opened his eyes and saw that the whole classroom was flooded with a cold blue light that surprisingly was strong enough to force the orange coated adult unicorn to look away.

With a blink the light was gone.

“Uhm… what just happened?” Midnight tried to process what was going on… beside the fact that he cast his first spell.

“I must say I’m surprised. That was way beyond my expectations.” Heartfire said with a deep, thoughtful frown on his muzzle. “What did you think about when you cast the spell?”

“Well, I thought about what you said about the elements and the feel of one's magic. So I focused on how the light reflected on freshly fallen snow… I mean it sometimes is so bright that it can be blinding so…” Midnight stopped talking when he once more saw the calculating look in his teacher's eyes and a sly smirk on his lips.

“Impressive Midnight. But it means you will have to work on something else if you keep casting this spell that way. Cast it again but use less magic, try imagining less light reflecting from the snow like on a cloudy day.”

And so it went for the next hour, with Midnight regulating the flow of his magic and discovering how much of it was just the right amount. Then it was time to try and focus it into  a more tight beam and not just allowing the spell to light up everything around him.

“That’s enough of that for now Midnight.” Heartfire said from the other side of the room, where he was observing another of Midnight’s classmates produce a deep green glow around her horn. He handed the other filly the same pamphlet and moved towards him again. “We still have more than a few hours of time, so why don’t you take an hour of break? Or are you tired and need more time?”

Midnight thought about that closing his eyes and trying to gauge how he felt… how his magic felt. Cold and heavy, it felt the same as at the beginning. He frowned. “I don’t really feel any different, maybe a bit exhausted mentally but nothing more…”

“An hour should be fine Mr. Heartfire.”

“Well then off you go.”

And with that Midnight stood up and left, glancing behind him to see what was Trixi up to. Few sparks were dancing around her horn but nothing more, he turned around and went not noticing the glares that rest of his class sent his way.      

With the next hour free Midnight decided to head towards library having nothing more interesting to do. It was a good thing that it was always open on Sundays when the magic classes took place. 

For the next hour it was only him and the librarian, with Midnight browsing through the few magazines written with younger ponies in mind, including their bimonthly school paper. If he was to be honest with himself the first time he truly took notice of the dates... it was here. Somehow for the first three weeks he was too busy taking in everything around him, to pay extra attention to something that in the beginning he thought of as rather important. Everypony around him thinking that he knew the date and thus not talking to him about it also factored into that. 

Still, when he first took one of the newest magazines into his hooves and saw the date he was stumped. Printed in bold numbers 982 made his head ache. After some quick math he moaned pitifully then and there drawing a few concerned looks.

However after accepting where he landed, stretching that acceptance to when he landed in Equestria wasn’t that difficult.

When Midnight’s one hour break was over he jumped off the chair at one of the tables in the library, put down the magazine he was mindlessly browsing on its shelf and headed back to the classroom.

He was somewhat surprised when he noticed one other filly managing a weak, yellow glow around her horn. Heartfire spotted him and walked towards him after giving some advice to the filly.

“Well then Midnight, after some thought I’ve decided to give you a test.” When he heard those words Midnight almost had a panic attack with his eyes widening. “Don’t worry it’s not the kind of test you’re thinking about.”

A sigh escaped the white colt and he smiled sheepishly.

“So what kind of a test is it then?” The ex-human asked with curiosity obvious in his voice.

“Rather simple really, just channel your magic into your horn and then touch this.” With his hooves Heartfire laid a and almost see-through, crystal marble before him. It was highly polished, with light dancing in its centre as it reflected in it.

“Ok.” With that and a bit disappointed look Midnight did what the older unicorn asked. When his horn made contact with the marble, he felt cold spreading through him begging at his horn. He jerked back when he felt a pulling sensation and fatigue joined the cold. A gasp escaped him as he felt as if he run a few lapses around the school at full gallop. “What… was... that?!”

Midnight looked at the marble in equal awe in distaste. It was now deep blue with motes of light blue swirling inside it alongside spots of utter blackness that swallowed the light blue motes like miniature black holes. The constant motion inside the marble was almost hypnotizing.

“That Midnight is what’s called a Mana Crystal and one that’s meant to be used by adult, advanced mages.” Heartifie levitated the marble with his magic and studied it closely. “Quite useful as a one time, backup source of energy and in this case as a testing device to measure your magical potential. The fact that you filled it to the brim, even if you exhausted yourself… now that’s something.”

Midnight went over what Heartfire said before he frowned.

“Sir, you said yourself that we shouldn’t overexert our magic. Wasn’t this kind of dangerous for me?” A bit of accusation seeped into Midnight’s voice. 

“After your display with the Light Spell, I was mostly certain that you would manage this without any major issues.” Heartfire said still staring at the marble and frowning. “It’s quite heavier… But never mind that, back to our lesson. Seeing as you’re low on magic and I planned on teaching you today only the Light Spell, well…. it's theory time. Do you have any question before I start the lecture?”

Midnight, now at least breathing normally, sat a bit straighter.

“Well I stumbled upon something called the Rules of Magic. And I was wondering about them, as they're very generic sometimes.” Midnight said tapping his right hoof on his chin in a thinking pose.

“Ah very good. I was going to cover them anyway today.” The fire mage sat down, but not before looking around the class gauging the progress of rest of the class. “There are Six Rules of Magic, they are old laws written down just after the Reign of Discord by the Princess and the unicorn archmages of old.”

Midnight got himself comfortable feeling that a longer talk was coming.

“The first one: kill not with magic. I think it’s rather obvious. The second rule: disturb not, that which shouldn’t be disturbed. This one mostly is supposed to stop anypony from meddling with time or things such as the dead. Things that should NOT be disturbed.” Heartfire’s voice took on a decidedly darker tone. “Through history unicorn mages tried to study both of those things and while some of their works were harmless, even revolutionary and closely monitored by the Princess, majority of those tries ended very unpleasantly.” 

The orange coated unicorn took a breath, cleared his throat and continued after making sure he didn't scare his young student.

“The third rule: seek not Divinity through magic. Again, a few very unpleasant breaches of the law happened through history. The most recent was Silverhorn the Greedy a few centuries back. After his failed attempt Baltimare had to be rebuild from scratch.”

Midnight sat there and listened with wide eyes. “Is he trying to scare me? If I was a true six year old I would have nightmares after this I'm sure… Maybe he’s not that good of a teacher after all.“

“Anyway, the fourth rule: create not, that which shouldn't exist. At it’s heart the rule mainly applies to Chaos Magic it’s a… weird branch of magic to say it lightly and highly dangerous. The fifth rule: influence not others with thy magic. I think that this one is quite clear. That leaves us with the sixth rule: fear not but, use not the Dark Arts.” Heartfire paused after that looking for words as he looked down at the white coated unicorn colt.

“This one is rather odd I have to say. However I do understand it’s purpose even if most just ignore the first part of it nowadays. It’s possible that one’s special talent can be related to Dark Magic… because why not? A great many things influence our special talents so it’s possible, although very rare I suppose as I have not heard about such case in the last sixty years. So the rule itself is just to remind us to be open minded in those rare cases.”

The adult unicorn remained silent for the next few minutes giving his younger charge time to digest the information.

“The Sixth Law didn't really live up to it’s expectations now did it... “ For some reason Midnight’s thoughts drifted towards certain imprisoned Princess when Heartfire started explaining the last law, or maybe it was just the tone of disapproval of his teacher when he talked about it.

After that followed a more boring lecture about different basic elements and a short introduction to magical formulas. It turned out that Midnight was now faced with learning more than a hundred new signs that were the basis of Equestrian Runes used in writing down the spells. He almost wished that he was anything other than unicorn at that moment… he hated learning something by heart especially in such a dull, unimaginative manner.

“It’s just a matter of repetition and experience Midnight. Be aware that there are more than a thousand known runes devised by unicorn mages and who knows how many were lost or just forgotten.” At hearing Heartfire saying that Midnight groaned, but dutifully returned to reading the book he was given by the orange coated unicorn.

“No pain no gain, huh?” Midnight snorted when that thought came up.

And so went the last hours of the class, with his nose buried in a book about basic runes as Heartfire made him promise to memorize the first twenty signs for their next lesson.





When the group returned from school and after eating dinner, Midnight dragged himself to his room. Dandelion was of course waiting for him.

“Hey Mid! Just so you know, Trixi’s birthday is in two weeks.” Dandelion’s voice and announcement made the white coated colt blink.

“Huh?” A second or two later it clicked. “No way! So soon?”

“Soon... It’s maybe a bit too much to call it that, but yeah.” The earth pony colt send an amused look towards his roommate.

“Wait, in two weeks? Isn’t Nightmare Night also in two weeks?” 

“Yup.” Dandelion nodded. “Have you thought about your disguise yet?”

“Not really… I’m not sure how I can even make or get one.” Midnight said as he settled his saddlebags near the nightstand and jumped onto his bed.

“Well, Mrs. Rose can put you something together as long as it’s nothing complicated. Or you can buy one for those weekly pocket money you gathered. I spend my on sweets so I will probably just ask Mrs. Rose. That reminds me...” The earth pony colt said and dived into his nightstand drawer, getting out a lollipop that immediately landed in his mouth. 

Midnight forced himself not to facehoof.

“Whatever, I’ll just read some more.” With that Midnight took out and opened the book about runes… that was promptly closed by a light brown hoof. “Hey!” Not to mention that he was also dragged out of their room by said light brown hoof.

“Oh come on! It’s been days since we all played hide and seek.” Dandelion said as he dragged his friend toward the twins' room.

Sensing that resistance was futile the ex-human just sighed in defeat.

“Alright, alright…”

What followed was a relaxing afternoon filled with games, that even Trixi, Brass Bit and Orion were dragged into.





The large, white pony glanced once more over the night cityscape of Canterlot from her balcony. The moon was raised a few hours ago and now she had nothing else to do but ponder about her past and future. 

Without a thought she enveloped a small marble in her golden magic and brought it before her. She was quite surprised when it was brought before her during the Day Court. Luckily no nobles were there when one of her Magisters brought it.

She frowned when she looked at it with the night sky as the background, so similar, so cold… and so unnaturally heavy, now that the magic inside it has awakened.  

“Names do have power after all…” She whispered in thought. 

The golden magic crushed the marble to a fine dust that glittered like stars as it fell. Celestia turned around and headed towards her ornate desk. She had letters to write and plans to adjust.      
> Arrival 7: Nightmare Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Midnight laid on his bed and gazed at the clear night sky over Canterlot, with the full moon high on its path through the star filled sky. He really didn't need to look at his earth pony roommate to know he was sleeping, Dandelion’s quiet snores told the ex-human that much. 

He had a nightmare that woke him up so late, the one with him flying and getting hit by a car out of nowhere… again. Thought he supposed that the stress of the past two weeks got the better of him and that’s why that particular nightmare has returned.

“Maybe I’m not so totally over with what has happened to me after all…” A quiet sigh escaped him. It was a quirk of his or maybe it was just the way with things that the bad experiences left a larger mark in memory than the positive…

Dandelion turning to his other side brought him out if his musings as the bed squeaked under the weight of the young pony.

With a long sight and a last look at the full moon imprinted with the face of Nightmare Moon, Midnight decided to try and fall asleep and just hope for the best. It was Nightmare Night after all tomorrow… 





That year’s Nightmare Night was kind of special as the celebration happened during Sunday. Luckily the Canterlot weather team worked overtime to be certain the the sky would be clear that evening, as the week before it was rather dreary. Late autumn was slowly giving way to winter with chilly winds coming from north. 

When Midnight came down for late breakfast, he was still half asleep. Without much thought he reached for his magic as he approached the breakfast spread, grabbed the glass pitcher of milk and tried to pour himself some of it into a bowl… key word being tried. When it slipped from his magical grip it shattered loudly on the floor spilling the milk, the sound making him jump with his heart suddenly racing.

With wide eyes and now fully awake Midnight looked around spotting Mr. Soup and Mrs. Tender Rose running in looking for the source of the sound.

“Uh… Sorry?” Midnight said looking at his hooves in embarrassment. He heard Mr. Soup’s quiet sigh and looked up to see him going to the kitchen. The orphanage matron on the other hoof…

“Come here Midnight.” The red coated mare made a calling gesture with her hoof. Not seeing much of a choice the unicorn colt moved towards her and stopped just before her.
When Midnight looked up he saw a fond but nonetheless slightly disappointed look on her muzzle. “I believe Magister Heartfire’s note said something about using Levitation Spell when you just learned it yesterday?”

A blush made his way onto Midnight’s cheeks.

“Not to use it on heavy things…” It was a disappointment when after learning the spell yesterday he was made aware that for now he was good enough with it to lift a small pouch with few pebbles in it, or that he could handle only two things at once... and that was with immense concentration. 

But the embarrassing thing in his thoughts was the note had had to give Mrs. Rose. As it said that he could now use his magic to lift very light things and that she should pay extra attention on him not to go beyond his limit… As the outcome of such an attempt was now made clear.

It really vexed him that with above average Mana Pool he couldn’t do much more. “It’s a matter of experience and exercise…” Were the words of Magister Heartfire. If he could without further embarrassing himself, he would have grumbled about that aspect of magic out loud. 

In the meantime of his musings, Mr. Soup came back with a new full pitcher of milk, a brush, a scoop and some towels. Seeing the adult unicorn handle those thing with ease made him grumble and pout unconsciously.

“You will get there in a few years.” Mrs. Rose sighed with some amusement in her voice, stroking hers charge mane in a soothing way. “Now go help Mr. Soup with cleaning and get some breakfast. You have an important evening before you.”

“Yes, Mrs. Rose.” Midnight sighed and dodged her second attempt at petting him and went to help the resident chef. He was given the task of mopping the spilled milk with the towels. Wanting to spare himself more embarrassment or disappointments he decided on using just his hooves. 

The floor was cleaned in a matter of minutes after which Midnight sat at a table near the window with a bowl of cereals before him.

“Alright, take two…” He whispered to himself frowning a bit in concentration. Taking care to think about what he wanted to achieve by imagining powering the three runes that made up Levitation Spell he pulled on his magic. It was an interesting concept, runes. They guided the intent of the caster until he could do the spell without them, at least the less complicated spells. What was truly intriguing for Midnight however was that majority of spells could be written in runes using several different combinations, as runes encompassed only basic concepts and the mage could decide that one combination worked for him better than another…    

The spoon that he all but glared at was surrounded by a bright blue and black aura and slowly lifted into the air. Slowly it moved over the bowl, dipped into it and lifted again as it began moving towards him.

By the time Midnight finished his breakfast moving the spoon required a fraction of his earlier concentration… still, it was not as instinctual as older unicorns around him made it look.

It did not escape his notice that while he trained the usage of Levitation Spell in handling a spoon, Trixie joined him at the table and sent him light, jealous glares from time to time. She finally managed to connect with her magic - as did most of the rest of his Magic class. 

Looking at the blue coated filly made him somewhat nervous… and it all came down to the birthday present he bought for her as a part of set Dandelion came up with. It laid beneath his bed along with his Nightmare Night costume. 

“So you’re ready for the evening Trixie?” After a moment of silence he remembered something else that bothered him. “You do have a costume, right?”

“Hmph, Trixie doesn't need a costume. Trixie will go as Trixie.” Her answer came after she swallowed her bite of daffodil sandwich with nose held high… that were two things that the ex-human found hard to adjust, eating flowers and the occasional arrogance of Trixie.  

On a side note, he had tasted flowers once or twice and while the taste was surprisingly agreeable with his new taste buds, the thought just weirded him out a bit too much.

“But isn't the whole fun in putting on the costumes?”

“Trixie doesn't need to pretend to be somepony else to look great.” She said after taking another bite from her sandwich, the ex-human felt a small, sad smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Oftentimes he wondered if his presence will change things, but it was looking like it won't… at least for now.

“Well, I’m going to do some reading and the I’ll try to get Summer Dew or Silvertongue to look over my magic exercises. You want to join?” To be honest Midnight didn’t have any other ideas on how to spend the rest of the day until evening.

“Ok.” That’s all she said between the bites of her second sandwich.

So with plans made the white coated unicorn colt went upstairs to dig through the few books he had borrowed from the library. When he finally decided one titled ‘Creating your first spell’ by Quick Quill that was first in a series of three, Trixie came in after a single knock with a book held in her mouth. She jumped onto his bed, laid down and began to read her own book on basic magical theory that he had read and found enjoyable.

Luckily Dandelion was not in the room. After second time he had spent making fun of their little reading sessions and woke up the next day with a lot of toothpaste in his mane and on his pillow he gave up. Of course now he just had a tendency to hide their books from time to time.

About two hours later Midnight and Trixie all but cornered a disgruntled Silvertongue and… asked him to oversee their magic exercises. It was surprisingly easy to get him to agree when a smiling Trixie mentioned his weird hobby of sticking close to, gazing at and being all polite to Summer Dew when he thought no one else was nearby.

Midnight almost snorted in amusement there and then when the older unicorn colt tried to make frantic yet subtle shushing gestures, which earned the trio a few questioning gazes from the other ponies in the day room which included Summer. 

After that followed almost two hours of Trixie reaching for her magic time after time, to get herself familiar with the feeling. At the same time Midnight was building a tower out of wooden blocks using only Levitation Spell and trying to manage two or three blocks at a time… More often than not he had to drop the third block almost right away, but sometimes he managed to lift it up slightly.

“You’re trying too hard Midnight, you’re thinking too much.” Silvertongue said as they decided to end their little lesson.

Soon after there was an early dinner after which Mrs. Rose came in and informed them that those under age of twelve will form one group for the night and older ones another, with the younger ones going with her.

“And also, happy sixth birthday Trixie!” The red coated mare almost shouted with a large smile as Mr. Soup came in with a massive cake on a trolley. It was blue with silver swirls and stars decorating it. 

Everypony in the room joined in and Midnight could see some embarrassment show itself on Trixie’s face alongside with a shy smile.

“Thank you…” As quiet as it was said by the filly, all heard it.

“All right! Presents!” Dandelion shouted jumping up and rushing upstairs. “Come on Mid!”

Not having a choice Midnight also had to rush upstairs. When they both were going down, they run past Rumble and Bumble also going to their room.

In the day room the older fillies and colts looked somewhat embarrassed as apparently they didn’t have presents for Trixie, exception being Cherry Blossom that gave to the blue filly what appeared to be pink diary locked with a small padlock.

“Well, happy birthday Trixie!” Dandelion said with a large smile as he gave her a small package wrapped in brown paper. The filly didn’t waste any time and tore it open to reveal a filly sized, blue, magician cape dotted with gold and silver stars. “Do you like it?”

“It’s very nice! Thank you!” She said putting it on and somewhat awkwardly hugging the earth pony colt.

“And that’s from me Trixie, happy birthday!” Midnight said with a smile as he levitated a similar package to Dandelions towards Trixie, when the blue filly looked at him. As she opened it a matching blue, pointy hat was revealed.
          
When she put it on, Trixie rushed Midnight and hugged him without the earlier awkwardness and then took a step back.

“What do you think? Doesn’t Trixie look great in it?” She paraded in her new costume before everypony who smiled or even chuckled in the case of the adults. 

“That really fits you Trixie.” Mrs. Rose said with fondness in her voice.

“You look like a true, great magician.” Midnight said on an impulse.

“Oh! Like… Great and Powerful Trixie!” The blue filly said trying to do a striking pose.

Everypony chuckled warmly at that… except for Midnight who just smiled.

After that came the time to enjoy the cake that surprisingly or maybe not, tasted of blueberries. Trixie pranced around in her new cape and hat making everypony smile, they even had a couple of games of hide-and-seek that involved everypony in the orphanage.

When the sun began to set Mrs. Rose gave the word to go get dressed in their costumes.

It was quite the interesting crowd that gathered not a half-hour later in the orphanages lobby.

The older fillies and colts decided to dress up thematically with what Midnight could guess were Equestrian variants of Robin Hood characters. It was kind of interesting to see Silvertongue as their version of Robin and Summer as Maid Marian.

Rumble and Bumble dressed up as clowns... 

Dandelion was a bit of a surprise as he dressed like a medieval bard, or something close to it.

Midnight dressed as a royal guard found it all really surprising. One, they were lucky that through Silvertongue they could get some old, theater-class costumes from the spectacles that were long taken out of the repertoire for almost symbolic ten bits… And secondly, even if they didn't have Silvertongue a lot of the dressmaker's made costumes for a decent price. 

Well, their weekly allowance of ten bits wasn’t really much but they did manage to get that cape and hat for Trixie for less than he thought it would cost… Living in Canterlot had its upsides. 

Mrs. Rose decided to go dressed as a Timber Wolf.

“All right then, I want you all back before nine. There is school tomorrow and I know you will probably party a bit more after you return.” She said looking at the older group as they murmured in discontent. “Now let’s go.”

They all left with the older group immediately going in a different direction, which earned a sigh and a small smile from Mrs. Rose.

When they went out a lot of other disguised fillies and colts were already wandering around with their parents. Sound of merry chatter, knocking and the ever present rhyme of “Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!” was heard. Soon enough they began knocking on the doors and reciting the rhyme hoping to get some free candy.

Trixie walked closely to Midnight and Dandelion, with the biggest smile both colts have ever seen on her muzzle.

They talked to other fillies and colts, which more often than not ended with sitting down and trading candies. 

All in all Midnight and the other were having fun, until that is Mrs. Rose told them it was time to go back.

When they all returned Mrs. Rose retreated to her office to rest a bit, leaving her charges alone in the day room discussing their time.

“Hey I know! Let’s play truth or dare!” Cherry Blossom said with raised hoof and a grin. All of them agreed and sat down in a circle. “So let’s begin with Summer. Truth or dare?”

“What? Why me?” Summer Dew glared at Cherry but ended up rolling her eyes and huffing in annoyance. “Fine, truth.”

And so it went until was Midnight’s turn, who chose truth.

“Do you like Trixie?” Unfortunately It was also Dandelions turn to ask question... 

“Uh…. yeah, we are friends after all.” Midnight answered, sweating a bit from all the attention focused on him. Then turned to Brass Bit. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare.” Brass said, being the first to pick this one.

“Smash an egg on your forehead.” Midnight said with a large grin, while Brass blinked, snorted and went to the kitchen. A muffled smacking sound was heard and the dark brown coated earth pony colt returned with some yolk running down his muzzle.

When it was the second time for Midnight to pick, he chose dare not wanting to get embarrassed too much by Dandelion.

“All right. Go to the bathroom and while it’s dark say Nightmare Moon’s name to the mirror three times.” Dandelion said in what he probably thought was a spooky voice, but just made him sound ridiculous. 

Midnight blinked, that was a bit different, but he shrugged and stood up.

“Sure.”

While he went upstairs to the bathroom the ex-human contemplated the strange dare. He knew about some of the more silly stories about Nightmare Night and Nightmare Moon herself, including that one about saying her name three times before a mirror and haunting you. Now that he thought about it, even Celestia said something similar but in regards to her True Name. 

Even if he now lived in a world filled with magic, this kind of thing still struck him as a bit odd.

When he finally stood before the mirror in the bathroom with the only light coming from the hallway, he studied his reflection for a bit before coming to a decision. What was the worst that could happen?

“Luna, Luna, Luna.” Despite everything it came out as a whisper.

Midnight waited for a minute… two, and nothing happened. He chuckled.

“See, silly old story.” He whispered to himself and turned around wondering why Celestia was so afraid back then when they met and he almost said Luna’s name. He left the bathroom not looking back.

His reflection grinned, showing of fangs and cold, calculating, draconic, teal eyes gazed at his back.

“Well, well… isn't that interesting.” A mare's voice whispered, before the reflection disappeared.

On the staircase going down, Midnight shuddered as goosebumps spread on his back. When he entered the day room again the game has moved on.

“You have taken ages up there…” Dandelion commented with a grin. “Were you afraid?”

“No I wasn’t.” 

The game continued on for two more rounds, before Mrs. Rose ushered them all to beds. 

That night, Midnight’s dreams were filled with trudging through weathered mountain tops and valleys shrouded in blizzards, over which he could barely hear a mare’s voice calling him.





During that night Princess Celestia watched over Canterlot from her balcony, smiling despite herself as she saw her little ponies enjoying the night. 

She was stirred from her musings by knocking. Turning around she entered her office and sat behind her ornate desk.

“Come in.” 

The gray coated pony that walked in was dressed in a black suit, wore rectangular glasses and his platinum blond mane showed signs graying. The wrinkles under his eyes also were telling when it came to his age.

“Ah, Dean Platinum Star I’m glad you answered so quickly.” 

The older unicorn bowed and smiled.

“My Princess, how could I not? That you mentioned something that would interest me greatly in your letter notwithstanding.” Platinum said sitting in one of the two plush chairs standing before the desk.

“Ever the charmer I see. But let’s get to the point, the finer details can be discussed in the future. What would you say, if I told you I have found you a potential apprentice? One that could benefit from your… interest in a rare field of study?” Celestia said leaning back slightly, observing the older unicorn. 

“Truly now? How… interesting.” The greying unicorn’s eyes twinkled with interest... and something darker.          
               

     
> Arrival 8: Of things to come
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Midnight trudged through deep snow, against a blizzard that pelted him with thick snowflakes. The cold wind that whipped his black mane around made his eyes water making his journey even harder than it already was. Black, heavy clouds covered the sky allowing only an occasional glimpse of the full moon. Only the cold, blue light of his spell allowed him any kind of vision.

He wasn’t sure how long he walked among the snow, wind and mountain peaks that surrounded him on all sides. The highest of the peaks sometimes showed itself before him where his path lead, when the winds settled and snow parted for a few heart beats... then the cold fury of nature returned as if a howl of a great beast that just had to take a deep breath.

He wasn’t sure what awaited him on the highest peak, but he knew in his heart it was important. He could hear a faint whisper over the wind that gave him strength and direction...

“Midnight Blackmane... Do not stop, do not give up. Whatever may be in your way… come find me.” It was a mare’s voice, faint and yet compelling.

It all felt kind of strange really...

As he slowly moved closer to the highest peak time lost any meaning. The wind, the cold, the darkness, the voice… and him, it was all that remained and mattered. In the distance, he could faintly hear other voices, screaming, desperate… filled with all kinds of emotions but he had to ignore them if he was to reach his destination.

He could not allow himself to be distracted.

When his, white coated hoof reached over the last, rocky ledge Midnight found himself on a plateau where the snow drifted lazily and he could hear only his racing heartbeat and labored breathing.

The eye of the icy storm.

And there in silence and darkness a pony shaped, living shadow waited for him.

“I’ve come… Who are you? Why have you called me?” Midnight asked still a bit out of breath.

As he finished his question, a shadow rose from the ground taking a pony shape that was taller than him. The shadow stretched one of its forelegs in an inviting gesture and delicately beckoned for him to move closer.

Midnight raised his left forward leg in an exhausted manner, determined to reach out to the shadow living shadow with teal colored eyes when his world suddenly erupted with noise and light...





This particular Saturday morning, three weeks after his first Nightmare Night started off with a rude wake-up call for the ex-human... courtesy of Dandelion.

His first reaction was to turn around and hit whatever woke him up with his… hoof. There was an audible exhale and a slight moan as somepony landed on the floor.

The white colt blinked trying to clear his bleary eyes only to see Dandelion massaging his left side.

“Huh… Whaaaat?” Midnight asked while trying to suppress a yawn.    

“That was mean.” The light brown earth pony colt said with a pout, that in a blink turned into a brilliant smile. “But it was worth it… Come on! It’s snowing!”

Still not fully comprehending what was happening Midnight was dragged out of his comfy, warm bed downstairs and out to the backyard, where he was meet with a snowball to his muzzle.

“Ups! Sorry Midnight!” One of the twins called from behind a hastily built snow fort.

To say the least, that did wake up Midnight fully… “Cold, cold, cold... “. He shook his head to get rid of the lingering snow. If looks could kill, he was certain that Dandelion would have been dead twice over.

“Dandelion... “ Midnight started in what he hoped was an intimidating voice, but he was interrupted by a snowball hitting him again. He could just feel his left ear starting to twitch…

“I needed an ally Mid! Rumble and Bumble…” Now it was Dandelions turn to be interrupted by a snowball to his muzzle. “Are annoyingly good.”

“That’s it? Really?” Midnight took a step towards his roommate and the other colt made a step back.

“Let’s just focus on the twins and… Incoming!” Dandelion ducked, saving himself.

“Get back here so I can have my revenge!” Midnight demanded, starting to run after the wide-eyed Dandelion that broke into a gallop in the meantime scooping up into his magical grasp a snowball worth amounts of snow… At least he could do that much.

All the time snow slowly fell from the cloud covered, early morning sky.

Almost an hour later the four colts all sat near the lit fireplace in the day room, three of them shaking a bit and all of them dripping water as the snow melted off their coats.

“I should ground you all for not wearing anything warm… All we need is you catching a cold.” Mrs. Rose said as she walked in with four towels and with Mr. Soup at her tail levitating a tray of four mugs with something steaming in them.

The orphanage matron began to forcefully dry Bumble, eliciting a few grunts of annoyance from the earth pony colt. After less than a minute, Bumble was dry with his coat and mane puffed up a bit. Dandelion and Rumble snickered a bit seeing the other twin’s state but soon joined him in looking a bit ridiculous.

While for Midnight it was not a big deal… he had to wonder, why the cold didn't bother him so much as his friends? He would have to ask Magister Heartfire. Almost without thinking he took a sip from the mug that entered his line of sight.

His tongue registered two things, one it was hot, two it tasted like chocolate. He stuck his tongue out and tried blowing on it to cool it to the amusement of everypony in the room. Luckily all other occupants were spared being glared to death as Midnight was rather busy with trying to cool his poor tongue.

A few minutes and a throughout toweling later, Midnight was slowly seeping his hot chocolate still contemplating the morning and drawing his own conclusions. “It must be the nature of my magic. It feels cold or rather… colder somehow? But it’s a good thing that the cold doesn't bother me… Now how to convince Mrs. Rose of that…”

“You know, you should have helped me with Rumble and Bumble not throw snow at me… I thought we were friends?” Dandelion said with a pout.

“Oh just let it go…” Midnight mumbled startled out of his musings and almost dropping the now half empty mug that he held up with his magic, which made the white colt frown.

It took him three weeks to get to this point with his magic and he still could slip up when startled. The fact that he had been learning magic for more or less month and a half to get this far brought with it the realization why not that many unicorns decided to delve into magic beyond what their cutie mark encompassed. It was just basic levitation for crying out loud! And he was not even close to mastering it… Granted, by looking at his age group and comments that Heartfire sometimes let slip he was advancing quite faster than an average young unicorn... but still…

“You're doing it again Midnight.” This time, it was Rumble - seated on his left - that disrupted his thoughts by lightly bumping his shoulder with his hoof.

“Doing what?” The ex-human asked with a small frown.

“Sitting and staring at nothing.” Bumble leaned out from behind his brother to send the most serious look a young colt could achieve. “Don’t go Trixie on us...”

“That was kind of mean Bumble…” Midnight muttered with a huff. He took one last, longer gulp of the now lukewarm chocolate and put down the mug. “I’m going to Mrs. Rose.”

“Hey, hey it kind of slipped out I’m sorry,” Bumble said with his ears laid against his head.

“Not about that Bumble but apology accepted anyway. See ya.”

With a quick tug of his magic the towel that he was wrapped in fell off and he moved out of the day room, across the hall and stopped before the door to the matron's office. Taking a breath, he knocked.

“Come in.” Almost instantly came the muffled response.

So Midnight grabbed the knob with his magic and entered. The office looked the same as it has the first time he came around, minus the Princess and Silent Flight obviously.

“Midnight? Something happened?” Mrs. Rose started with a worried voice.

“No, Mrs. Rose I just wanted to ask something.” Midnight said stopping before the desk on which laid a moderately sized stack of papers that the matron was probably filling out. Seeing her nod he continued. “Can I go out today to the market? I’ve read on a pamphlet that today’s going to be special ‘Arcane Day’ or something.” His voice filled with excitement as he spoke.

The red-coated earth pony mare frowned.

“If you find somepony older to accompany you.” She saw the look her young charge gave her and she wanted to shake her head, then she looked at the stack of paperwork she resigned herself to fill out today. It was Saturday... “Well alright, just get your scarf at least.”

“Well, Mrs. Rose the cold doesn't really bother me that much...” Then it was Midnight’s turn to look at the matron who just raised one eyebrow in a questioning manner. “I’ll go get the scarf.”

As he closed the door to Mrs. Rose’s office behind him Midnight though he heard a small giggle.

After rushing upstairs to get his scarf that Mrs. Rose bought him some time ago and then running down, the ex-human had to wait a few more minutes. When he heard the doors to the office open and saw the adult mare come out he was almost bouncing in place.

“All right Midnight I’ll just ask others if they want to come, do you have everything?”

Midnight stopped and thought about that question… and his eyes widened. Once again he rushed upstairs, picked up his school saddlebags and stuffed his coin purse inside. It had all his meager savings inside and he intended to spend them today.

Twenty minutes later, Mrs. Rose, Midnight and Summer Dew were trotting through Canterlot streets that were covered with freshly fallen snow. While the sky still had the occasional cloud drifting in it, it was no longer snowing and the sunlight was making the snow blindingly white at times.

Midnight couldn’t help himself but smile as he saw other colts and fillies playing around in the snow, with older ponies standing to the sides looking over their kids and chatting amongst themselves.

The few restaurants and cafes they passed by were stuffed to the brim.

The occasional Royal Guard would pass by and greet them as he patrolled the streets.

All in all, Midnight loved every second of it, especially as he thought that at one point he saw a large, blindingly white figure flying high above the Castle lazily circling the mountain top.

Soon enough the three of them reached the market and what was a cozy snow-covered town, turned into a crowded square with colorful stalls and tents. Not surprisingly, the majority of ponies present were unicorns and a lot of them wore clothes similar to Magister’s Heartfire.

“Well then. Summer you can walk around on your own. If we miss each other as we leave just be back in the orphanage before sunset.” After a quick ‘Yes Mrs. Rose’ Summer left them and disappeared into the crowd.

“Now, is there anything special you want to see Midnight?”

“Well… I thought about looking for some interesting books, but there's just so much here…” It was either that he was just short and everything looked bigger, or this really was a large square with dozens of stalls and tents. And not everything sold here was magical, he could smell hot chocolate and an apple pie somewhere from his right.

“Let’s just see what the ponies are offering then.” Mrs. Rose said with a smile and slowly began to lead him from one trader to the other.

For Midnight the following hour or so of wandering around the market square was as exciting as it was tiring. In his past life, his lack of love towards shopping was well known to his family and the few friends he had. But this… this was something of a unique experience.

The majority of the stall owners were the average, easily forgotten sellers… as were their wares.

However one caught Midnight’s interest and he just had to get a look, even if Mrs. Rose protested somewhat.

“You’re a bit young to shop here kid, but at least you’re not alone. Good day, mam.” The unicorn owner of the stall greeted the duo.

Midnight just frowned a bit as he had to rear on his hind legs and lean on the table to see everything that the unique looking unicorn had to sell. Because really, what do you call an elderly unicorn with a stubble, long ash colored mane, a deep red almost black coat that was dressed in a black robe adorned around his neck with what looked like a griffin feathers? And his stall looked rather rickety with no tent behind him to suggest he had more things to sell and with no pony even looking at what he was offering.

“Good day Mr.?”

“Ah… I’m Bright Blaze, retired battle mage of the Royal Guard.” The mage unicorn bowed slightly. “I see you have an inquisitive colt on your hooves…”

As the adults talked… and wasn't that an annoying thought in itself, Midnight almost devoured with his gaze the contents of the table. Like with other stalls before some books were present, but the titles were… a bit different.

“How much for that one?” Midnight asked pointing at a book titled Most Common Battle Modifications of the Levitation Spell. Drawing the adult’s gazes to him.

“Ten years too early for you colt, that much.” Bright Blaze said with a thoughtful frown. ”I know that young colts always go for the flashy and dangerous things but I can't sell it to you with a clear conscience. Sorry kid.”

Midnight pouted… he was twenty-five damn it! At least he was in his old life.

Almost immediately something else on the table caught his gaze. It was a simple pendant made out of a six-sided, diamond cut, black crystal held in a simple silver frame. Two black pieces of some kind of cloth were also tied to it.

He frowned… There! As he gazed into it, he saw a smidgen of a dark blue… something moving in it.





He was not aware that as he gazed into the crystal the retired battle mage looked at him with a thoughtful look.

“Say, colt. Do you like it?”

Midnight was so engrossed in trying to spot the streaks of dark blue inside the crystal that he tuned out the rest of the world and almost jumped when he was addressed.

“Uh… yeah?” The ex-human groaned. “I mean yes, does it do anything special?”

“Not that I know of. Just plain black crystal... There’s a funny story of how I got it actually.” The stallion looked at Mrs. Rose looking for permission and she nodded, curious herself. “When I was stationed in the North-Western Gryphon Colony as part of a security detail for one of our ambassadors years ago, I won it in an intense poker match. The poor gryphon lost everything that night so he bet this pendant that he swore was in his family for three generations. Which they pillaged from a pony noble during the third Gryphon War some two hundred years ago. So I took it upon myself to win it no matter what. And I won, that gryphon's face was priceless. He had a straight flush… but I had a royal flush! The chances! Never happened to me again, though… And now I’m the one to sell almost everything I have.” He ended with a somber tone.

“That’s not really funny, you know that?” Midnight commented with Mrs. Rose just saying ‘Indeed’ not looking the happiest.

“Come now Midnight, let's look at other stalls.” She said gently nudging her young charge with her hoof.

“How much for it?” Midnight said stopping Mrs. Rose in place and making Blaze’s eye go wide.

“You really want to buy it?” The stallion's voice dropped almost to a whisper.

“Yes. Although I only have forty bits…” Midnight looked to the side a little embarrassed.

“Deal. Take it kid.” The suddenness of the answer almost made Midnight back out of the purchase, but he just wrote it off as a desperation of a poor pony.

So coins changed hooves and Midnight became the owner of the pendant. He even got a silver chain for free to it. He decided to hide the pendant now hanging from his neck under his midnight blue scarf for now.

Mrs. Rose was not the happiest about their encounter with the retired battle mage, but it was nothing two cups of hot chocolate couldn’t fix. As much as Midnight claimed that cold didn’t bother him now, it seemed it just bothered him less than other ponies. And after almost two hours on the market, a mug of hot chocolate was the best thing ever to happen to him in his opinion.

Unseen by them, soon after the duo left the stall behind them other ponies began to come to the old battle mage to browse his wares…





“It’s pretty,” Trixie commented during Monday breakfast before they all had to leave for school.

“I know.” Midnight answered with a wide grin making the blue coated filly roll her eyes and return to eating her tomato sandwich. When he woke up, he battled with himself on whether to wear or not to wear his recently purchased pendant. In the end, he decided to wear it.

It was fascinating for him. His first potentially magical artifact! And despite what the old unicorn said as he was selling it, Midnight could feel something in the crystal…

He thought about it during their walk to the school, and he thought about it for the better part of the morning classes. Until he once again managed to earn Mrs. Note’s ire, it was not fun solving the next five grammar exercises on the board before the silently laughing class even if they were incredibly simple for him.

At the end of the day, the unicorns of their class were held up by Mrs. Note.

“I hope all of you remember that in the next month you will have to take the magical exams. They will be held on the last day of the semester so you will be excused from normal classes on that day. Now have a good day everypony and remember to do your homework.”

On their way out the group of colts and fillies gossiped about the upcoming exams. Even Midnight joined in, but as they left the school building the white colt got a bit of a surprise.

“Hey, Midnight!” Silent Flight stood outside the gate on the street.

“Silent!” Midnight made two quick steps before he remembered that he was not exactly alone. He turned his head. “Come on Trixie, time for you to meet somepony.”

Trixie apparently didn't know what to say so she just nodded and both of them quickly approached the older pegasus.

“Well Midnight, is that your special somepony? You grow up so fast.” Silent said with a wide grin causing both young ponies to blush. That earned him headbutt from Midnight and a kick in his foreleg shin from Trixie. Nothing serious for the Royal Guard but still… “Ow… you are so worth of each other. Ow! Stop it midgets!”

Adult ponies in the vicinity turned to look at the laughing pegasus making a scene and just shook their heads.

“Enough, enough… I get it. I came with news Midnight.” Silent managed to say when he finally was in control of his breathing.

“You’re in surprisingly good humor.” Midnight pointed out with a grin and then almost face hoofed. “Trixie this is Silent Flight. Silent Flight, Trixie.” He said pointing his hoof at the mentioned pony.

“Nice to meet you.” The older pegasus said finally looking closely at the filly. Or at least what was visible of the filly under the cap and a hat. He got only an annoyed huff in response. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something Midnight. Want to go to Donut Joe’s for that?”

When Donut Joe was mentioned both Midnight’s and Trixie’s ears perked up.

“If you take Trixie there, she may forgive you for what you said!”

Silent Flight blinked at that and was opening his mouth to say something…

“Fine, let’s go.” When Midnight stopped him with a look and a small, awkward smile. “We will have to stop by the orphanage and inform Mrs. Rose, though.”

“Sure kids.”

And so after a trek through the city with a short stop in the orphanage the trio found themselves in Donut Joe’s place, each with double chocolate donuts before them.

“Midnight, you remember that I’ve got those tickets for that cruise to Saddle Arabia?”

After a while of digging through his memory, the white coated colt nodded.

“I managed to secure myself vacations for that time. And as I don’t have a special somepony to share the cruise with and I would rather rest from my friends in the Guard I thought of you. Want to go on an adventure?” The pegasus ended slightly leaning over the table with a grin and almost sparkling eyes.

Midnight just gaped at the older pegasus, the one that found him on the plains and brought him to Canterlot. This, though… was a bit much.

“Wha- What? I mean, yes!” The ex-human finally stammered, excitement clear on his muzzle. “When?”

Meanwhile, Trixie sat on Midnight’s right with a pout. Silent saw that, but the unicorn colt was a bit too preoccupied with his thoughts to notice.

“You could maybe come too, you know. I would have to ask. If you’re good friends with Midnight that is.”

Hearing that the mentioned colt looked to his right with a silent “Oh…”

“Trixie would like that, if it would be not too much trouble.” The blue filly said shyly.

That tone made Midnight blink a few times. She still could surprise him it seemed.

“It’s settled then. I’ll contact you both when I get more information. Now let’s finish here.” Silent said before biting into his donut.

For Midnight while the donut was delicious he couldn't quite enjoy its taste to the fullest for some reason…

That night when Midnight was about to go to sleep, he put the pendant on his nightstand looking at it in the silver moonlight. He frowned when he noticed that the deep blue streaks moving about in the crystal became more apparent… or were they always there and he just didn’t notice them?

With a yawn, he flopped onto his pillow. “It would probably be a good idea to show this to Heartfire. Maybe he knows something about it as it does seem to be magical… But that can wait.”

That was his last thought before he fell asleep.
> Arrival 9: Knowledge
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Midnight fidgeted nervously as he sat alone with Magister Heartfire in the now empty classroom. The adult unicorn’s intense gaze was what made him nervous. It was unlike anything he experienced earlier from the older unicorn.

The cause of all this floated in the air between the two held by Midnight’s magic, it was the dark crystal pendant Midnight bought a week earlier.

“And you are saying, that you wore it for a week and nothing strange happened around you or to you?”

“Yes,” Midnight said while furiously trying to think what could have caused his teacher to behave like that… He blinked as a ridiculous thought crossed his mind. “Sir, is the pendant cursed or something?”

“In a way,” the orange maned unicorn said with a sigh. “I think it’s best we visit somepony more knowledgeable in this matter. Right now.”

As he said that Heartfire turned toward the blackboard, closed his eyes and ignited his horn. He outstretched his right front hoof and an arc of red energy connected his horn and hoof just as he began to spin it in a small circle. With each turn sparks would began to form a larger circle before him and with each turn there were more and more of them. By the fourth turn a solid circle of sparks formed before the casting unicorn, suddenly the inside of the circle was no longer empty.

A set of grand, golden double doors intricately decorated with circular and triangular patterns could be seen… and in the center a large sun was sculpted. They were set in a corridor with white marble walls and only a shade darker floors. Inlays of golden vines and swirls were present on almost every part of the walls.

“Let’s go Midnight,” Heartfire said as he stepped through the portal.

“Wa… what? How? What?” Midnight was dumbfounded and his jaw almost hit the floor. Almost mechanically he stepped through, with the portal closing behind him with a silent whoosh and a spray of magical embers.

“An advanced and far more subtle form of teleportation, better suited for taking somepony alongside.” 

Just as Midnight was about to ask a question the doors began to open without a sound and he felt a hot, almost scorching wind brushing his entire body. They both stepped through the golden doors into a large circular room.

A row of high, slim columns formed an inner circle where a dozen pony figures clad in white, hooded robes trimmed with gold sat on a slightly raised, round platforms. From the ground Midnight couldn’t see the pattern but he clearly saw a plethora of burning, red lines connecting those platforms and filling the space within. What he could see were the six, giant arcane circles floating vertically in the air each a different colour and design, too complicated for him to even comprehend… beside the sense of overwhelming power that filled the cathedral sized chamber.

The air was so heavy with magic that it exerted a physical pressure on him, making his eyes go wide and his knees wobble a bit. 

In in the centre of it all floated Princess Celestia, her mane creating a flowing, burning halo around her head, the colours of her mane were far more vibrant than normally. Her wings were outstretched and unmoving but her hooves moved slowly, precisely in a pattern known only to her. It was a mesmerizing dance, as when she moved the arcane circles moved with her. And all the while she had her eyes closed.

“I sense something that I haven’t sensed in a long time…” the alabaster alicorn said as she opened her magenta eyes and brought her front hooves together with a silent clap, causing all arcane circles to collapse with a whooshing sound and a final gust of warm air. Celestia floated down to the floor and bowed slightly. “That will be all for today my friends.”

As she said that some of the cloaked ponies groaned with exhaustion as they began to move.

“Any time... Princess…” said one of the ponies as she pulled the hood down to reveal a graying, exhausted unicorn mare that looked as if she had run a marathon.

Midnight watched as the twelve white clad ponies moved to nearest columns, some in pairs or larger groups. Small snacks and what looked like water bottles were passed around, greedily snatched up from the saddlebags resting against the columns, that Midnight only now noticed and after a few awkward minutes Heartfire and Midnight were alone with the Princess of the Sun.

All the while the ex-human couldn’t help but stare at the Princess with amazement clear on his muzzle.

“As you can see Princess I’ve stumbled upon something very interesting. I thought it important enough to take care of it immediately,” the older unicorn said with a slight bow.

“Indeed,” Princess Celestia said observing the young unicorn carefully, she sighed after a few seconds. “Very well, I’ll take care of this. You are dismissed Magister.”

Heartfire blinked at the dismissal but bowed once again and turned to leave, but not before patting reassuringly his young charge on the shoulder. Midnight watched with a bit of trepidation as he was once more left alone with the Princess. As he looked back and up again at the white alicorn he saw her look at him with disappointment. He nervously shifted his weight around turning his gaze away from Celestia.

“I should not be as surprised, that you attracted my sister's attention,” finally Celestia broke the silence that in this enormous hall was far more oppressive. “After all you are an intriguing colt.”

As she was talking Celestia began to move slowly, gesturing with her wing for him to follow. 

“Did anything unexpected or strange happened to you while you were wearing the Key?” 

The question made Midnight stumble a bit as they passed the ring of columns.

“No… and a Key? This is a Key?” 

The ex-human asked noticing they were nearing an alcove, one of many that he now spied out of the corner if his eyes. It had a low, glass coffee table directly beneath a ceiling high window - he guessed it was at least three floors high - and a few red, large pillows to sit on. There was a silver serving tray with a matching, steaming kettle and two porcelain cups. 

“A key to what?” Midnight asked as they both sat on the pillows. At least Midnight sat, while Celestia laid down comfortably with her forelegs tucked close to her and her hind legs splayed to the side.

“Knowledge,” she said cryptically with a shadow of an emotion Midnight couldn’t quite place. She ignited her horn. “Tea?” 

“Uh, yes please,” so far this conversation was turning out far more strange than the first one they had in the white unicorn colt’s opinion. “Princess? What kind of knowledge?”

“On a day similar to this more than a thousand years ago, my sister and I reached an epiphany. On that day we decided to write down our own findings, our own spells and theories… our life stories,” Celestia was looking into the depth of her tea cup with utmost concentration, and without looking up she passed the other full cup to Midnight. “However we knew that somethings should not be shared freely with everypony. So we created routes that could not be found, locks that could not be picked, scripts that could not be read… without a Key of Knowledge.”

Celestia looked up after a small sip. All the while Midnight listened with a bated breath.

“Mages of that time knew of our plan, as we asked them to lend us their family grimoires, the greatest treasures of unicorn families. They complied with great zeal and called my growing library the Cradle of Fire, an appropriate name if I say so,” Celestia took another sip and hummed, as the liquid soothed her. “In my long life I have gifted many of my friends with the keys, ponies that valued honesty, hard work, optimism… common decency. I favored the… let’s call it hooves on approach. It was easy for me.”

Here she topped for a bit and sighed sadly.

“However my sister… was not me. She had her struggles even then. Suffice to say she did not trust easily and did not let ponies close enough to truly judge them. The few she truly called friends were few and far between,” Midnight clearly saw, that as Celestia spoke longer a more and more hurt, sad expression was blooming on her muzzle.

“She was always more gifted with the more abstract magicks, and so she infused her Keys with slivers of her essence making them sentient. There are only three of her Keys in existence that I know of. Through the ages they were named by the few that the Keys found their way to as the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. Which of the three you now possess I can not tell,” Celestia ended her speech as she closed her eyes. “But I do know that the Keys have different personalities, and someday... it will test and judge you. If it finds you unworthy, it will move on.” 

“This is amazing and a bit scary,” Midnight said, his now lukewarm tea forgotten just hanging in his magical grasp. 

“As it should. My sister’s library, the Reliquary of Stars, holds many dark secrets so she made sure no unworthy creature made its way there,” Celestia said pouring herself another cup of warm tea.

“Wait a moment…” something occurred to Midnight. “How come the battlemage who sold me this Key knew nothing?”

“Oh? You didn’t tell me how you got it, do tell.” 

After a short story from Midnight, Celestia was frowning and she just commented it with a short, “I will look into it.”                   

“I’m sorry my little pony for having to tell you all of this, but it is for the best,” Celestia said standing up and stretching her wings. “I know that you will be able to handle the situation young Midnight.”

It was the ex-human’s time to frown, it did not fit. For all intents and purposes he was a six year old colt… as he thought about it he came to a sudden realization. During the whole time he had been in this place, Celestia had not treated him like a colt. His eyes widened, did she knew?

The white alicorn saw his the sudden shift in the young colt’s behavior. “Is something wrong Midnight?”

“It’s just, it’s a lot to take in… and I’m just a colt! ” Midnight stated, trying to get an answer to the mind boggling question. “Does she know?!” 

And he saw it. The small knowing smile, the glint in her eye.

“Yes you are…” She said taking a step out of the alcove. “Now come along young one I don’t want to keep you here longer than it is strictly necessary. Mrs. Rose will be worried as it is.”

Following the white alicorn Midnight still mulled over all the revelation this day brought. Now he also wanted one more answer.

“How did you know about me?” 

As he looked up he saw Celestia smile.

“Magic,” he groaned at the non answer, she chuckled. “Remember that our magic grows with us so while majority of your magic feels ‘right’, some parts are matured already. You are quite unique that way, as it means that part of your magic will mature once more with your body. You have a lot of potential Midnight.”

He didn't quite get the true meaning of her words but was kind of proud of himself anyway after those words. Even so…

“And that’s a good thing, right?” He asked with a smile of his own.

“Hmmm… Perhaps, my little pony.” Celestia ruffled his black mane with her right wing, with a small smile on her lips still present.

With an indignant huff Midnight made a step to the side as he felt yet another pony messing up his mane. Maybe it was not the best well groomed mane but still… As a reward for his efforts in dodging, he got a chuckle out of the Princess.

Soon enough the large double doors to the chamber closed behind them and the two ponies found themselves back in the corridor. 

Midnight spotted Heartfire sitting under one of the many windows lining one side of the corridor, reading a book.  

“Magister, we’re finished. Would you be kind enough to escort young Midnight back to the orphanage?” Celestia asked before she looked down on the unicorn colt. “Until we meet again Midnight, let the sun guide you.”

With wide eyes Midnight watched as the white alicorn bent down and laid a delicate, motherly kiss close to his horn. He felt a spark of something passing between them, making him almost jump, but instantly it enveloped him in a warm feeling… before seemingly fading away. 

She smiled - and Midnight was almost certain it was a strange mix of kindness and mischievousness - and without another word Celestia passed the two unicorns, leaving both of them to gape at her until she disappeared behind the nearest corner.

“Uh, what just happened?” Midnight looked at his teacher and gulped when he saw a fiery glint in his eye and a wide smirk.

“What just happend was you earning extra lessons,” the orange coated unicorn said as he began to open up a portal. “And extra homework.”

“But… why?” Midnight would forever deny that he sounded kind of whiny at that moment.

“Because our Princess saw something in you worthy of her blessing, and we’re going to find out what.” With that both of them stepped through the portal, returning to Midnight’s school.

That day Magister Heartfire and Mrs. Rose had a long chat that ended with Midnight signed up for magic lessons on every weekend as a trial, both adults came to an agreement that if the matron saw him struggling she had a right to withdraw him. 

When the night has fallen and he was lying in his bed Midnight, using hooves, played with the dark crystal that the Princess told him was in truth a key… 

“I will not fail…” Midnight whispered before he put it into his nightstand drawer and falling to sle





News traveled fast as it turned out. By monday morning everypony in the orphanage knew about his extra lessons. Partly due to the fact that yesterday was the first one and him leaving the orphanage for almost the whole day raised questions.

However he was surprised to find that of all the ponies, it was Trixie that reacted the most. Meaning she didn’t sit with him during breakfast as was usual, or talked to him much… well talked even less than usual. 

During morning classes he had a thought of what was this about. So during a recess he approached the blue coated filly.

“Trixie you know I will try to help you with your magic, right?”

“Yes, Trixie knows. And are you helping?” She asked with a scoff. 

That made Midnight look at his hooves and smile awkwardly. Lately he wasn’t really helping her as much as he could… He sighed and looked at her.

“I’m sorry. Today after school?”

“Deal,” she smiled a bit, in turn making him smile. 





As it turned out it wasn’t a one time thing, Midnight trying to be a better friend for Trixie  offered his help almost every day. With the upcoming semester's end and their magical exams, his extra magical lessons and his own studies his afternoons and evening became rather busy. 

More often than not he had to say ‘no’ to Dandelion and the twins invites to play. By the time the magical exams were upon them he didn't even notice that the twins stopped asking him to join them…

Currently he was pacing in the orphanage entry hall, as he waited with all the other unicorn fillies and colts for Mrs. Rose.

“Alright then fillies and colts, I have all the important documents checked. Let’s go,” when he heard the matron speak he almost run of towards Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, as it was there that their exams would be taking place. 

It was a long trek through snow covered streets of Canterlot. Celestia’s school was located closer to the royal gardens, on the other side of the city. 

When they all arrived before the magnificent building, they were welcomed to the sight of dozens of other fillies and colts moving around. Some playing in the snow, some with noses buried in books and some just chatting with their friends.

Inside was something that Midnight could only describe as organized chaos. Ponies moving to and fro, talking, yelling. For half an hour they had to stand in queue to the reception set up for today. Midnight was close enough to hear what Mrs. Rose talked about with the unicorn receptionist.

“This year your group takes their exams in the Clover’s Auditorium.”

For a while that meant nothing for Midnight, but when he looked at the two older unicorns in their group as they paled, especially Summer Dew.

“What’s Clover’s Auditorium?” Midnight asked Silvertongue.

“That’s one of the two main auditoriums, it’s well… large. And every exam held there always gathers the most attention. If you want to get into apprenticeship there's no better place for it in Canterlot,” Silvertongue explained calmly before he began to whisper what Midnight thought were words of encouragement to Summer.           

Now that got Midnight a bit more stressed.

In his effort to not think about the upcoming exam while they walked towards the auditorium, he looked around, focusing on the many pinboards, maps, cabinets with prizes and exhibits. Too quickly in his opinion their group of four was sitting on floor like many others, waiting for their turn. It was kind of nostalgic for Midnight… how many hours had he spent in his old life waiting for an exam, sitting just like now and counting for the best? A fair few.

He had to zone out because the call “Midnight Blackmane,” came startlingly quickly.

As he entered he finally could see what made Summer Dew nervous. The auditorium could probably comfortably fit a hundred ponies, right now Midnight saw more than twenty sitting as guests. Among them he immediately spotted Princess Celestia, with her escort of four pegasus guards in golden armor.

Taking a deep breath he moved to the centre, and stopped facing a long desk behind which five unicorn sat, the audience behind his back for now he tried to forget.

“Good morning.” Midnight manage to say rather calmly. 

“Hello young Midnight, this is your first exam of this kind, right?” The unicorn seated in the centre asked. He was evidently an older one, with grey hair visible in his brown mane, and his beard.

“Yes, sir.” 

“Each one of us will ask you first a question and then ask you to perform a spell that you may or may not know. If you do not know an answer or the spell please tell us, there are no consequences to not knowing something on this exam. Now then let’s begin. Pearl, dear why don't you start?” The unicorn said in the end looking the mare sitting at the far left.

“Very well. Midnight, can you tell me what a magical core is?” The mare's voice had that teacher quality to it. And while Midnight answered as fully as he could he could see the approval in her eyes.

The theoretical part was easier than he expected, the only time he stumbled was when the apparent leader of the examiners, the older unicorn in the middle, asked him what the five rune spell he wrote on the black board was meant to do. He didn’t know two out of the three runes so he had to do a bit of guess work.

The worst thing for him personally was, that the examiners didn’t give him any grade or score when he answered, only wrote something down on the papers they had before them on the desk.

Finally it was Mrs. Pearl’s turn again.

“Now then, why don’t you cast a Light Spell?” When he heard that, Midnight almost smirked. 

With the long practiced image of light reflecting off of freshly fallen snow, enhanced with a quick imagining of the rune that meant ‘light’ his horn blazed to life and bathed the auditorium in an intense white-bluish light, strong and sudden enough that he heard somepony from the audience yelp.

“I think that’s enough Midnight, thank you.” As suddenly as it appeared, the light died off. Midnight opened his eyes and had to blink a few times and adjust to the lack of light. It was a neat spell, but as strong as he could make it even he couldn’t stand it with eyes open.
“Something to work on in the future, it’s kind of silly that I have to close my eyes too…”

“That was quite the spell. Well then why don't you show me how many of these marbles can you make move around you?” It was the next unicorn, one that Midnight still hasn't learnt the name of. 

The ex-human looked at the offered - levitated to him - pouch with glass marbles. Just lifting up and moving them in an organized fashion, were two different things. He decided to play it safe and picked up with his magic two marbles and focused on making them move around him in circles. It was always tricky moving something that was out of his field of vision, he learned that rather quickly on his magical lessons. After being certain that he had the feel of the “orbit” he decided to add a third marble and add some speed to them. On a fourth pass, something clinked behind him and on of the marbles was shot of to his left side.

“That’s enough. Well done,” Midnight smiled hearing those words from the older unicorn that had a small smile of his own.

“My turn then. Midnight, can you manifest your aura, perhaps?” The head examiner asked with curiosity evident in his voice.

“Um... I’m afraid I can’t sir,” the young unicorn answered with a small scowl.

“That’s all right. Maybe I was hoping for a bit too much, next then,” what the old unicorn said made Midnight look at him questioningly, but all he got in return was a small nod and a smile. 

“If you would follow me, we have a set of weights over there. Lift as many as you can with your magic, all methods are allowed.” The fourth examiner said as he stood up and walked up to a set up of stone weights.  

Now that was something Midnight could do. Magister Heartfire gave him exercises like that regularly. He looked at the weights. There were six of them starting with a cube, its edges roughly a hoof long. The second had edges twice long, the third twice as long again and so on. The last one was monster compared to his body, with a thirty six hoof long edge… He really didn't want to think about how much it weighed.

He took a deep breath. He had a method to move them… maybe even the fifth one if he gave his all. But there was one more practical test so he couldn't just exhaust himself to that extent. He reached for his magic, searching mostly for that heavy feeling part of it. It still eluded him what it was exactly. 

As Magister Heartfire said, most of the time there are multiple ways to cast almost every spell. Midnight cast his modified levitation spell. First two stone cubes lifted up immediately, soon the third followed. Calming himself, and taking a deep breath he willed his magic to extend to the fourth cube. Once more he cast the spell that mixed in with standard levitation the intent and runes that reduced the block's weight. 

It was convenient that he always liked physic, really. Imagining the forces that granted the cube it’s weight was simple for him. The fourth cube lifted up slowly, and Midnight almost groaned out loud. It weighed more than the previous ones combined! Kind of expected but he didn’t think it would be so demanding on his magic. He could literally feel his mana pool draining away.

He dropped the stones cubes with a loud thud quickly after the fourth one lifted up. He looked to his left at the examiner and almost laughed out loud. The poor unicorn looked rather pale.

“That, that will be all. Very well done.” 

Midnight returned to his spot before the examiners and for the first time he could hear silent murmur of conversations behind his back. He had really almost forgotten about them… 

“To end this exam, cast one spell of your choice.” The last examiner, also a mare, said.

That got him stumped. What could he cast? He didn't really know any spells beyond the basic Light and Levitation ones. Heartfire promised to teach him some spells later on but now he had non. So that left improvisation. Maybe... a combination of the two of some sort?

He glanced at pouch with marbles. That could work… if he kept them in his field of vision…

Midnight sat down and stretched out his right front leg, pointing at the pouch with marbles. His horn blazed with magic and the nine marbles from the pouch flew to hover over his outstretched hoof. With brow furrowed he made them spin in tight circles, and while he cast the Light spell he held to the intent of magnifying the light reflected of the marbles. Slowly what was a small vortex of glass marbles, turned into moving lights.

“Interesting… That’s enough. Thank you Midnight.” 

With a sigh Midnight allowed the marbles to dim and fall to the floor. That was more taxing than he expected.

“So… what grade did I get?” He couldn’t help himself, he had to ask.

“It’s not really a grade Midnight, but where you stand compared to other young unicorns,” the lead examiner began to explain. “But just how exactly you compare to other young unicorns well… you will have to wait until all have taken the exam and a list is composed. A letter will be sent to you with your score, or if you don’t want to wait I think in two days lists will be hang out in this school. That’s all, thank you Midnight Blackmane.”

Midnight nodded and turned to leave, he quickened his pace when he saw almost everypony in the audience looking at him with ill concealed curiosity. To be honest, a quick nap was kind of tempting... 

An hour later, he was nudged awake by still beaming Trixie when the Silvertongue turned up after his exam finished. The four of them and Mrs. Rose returned to the orphanage, where it turned out Mr. Soup prepared them a magnificent dinner, with cake as a desert. 

All the while the four talked about their exams, however when Midnight talked he missed the bewildered looks of Summer and Silvertongue as he was too busy looking in amusement at Trixie’s pouts and dreamy expressions when she listened to the three of them talk...
> Arrival 10: Let the games begin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Watch it kid!” A disgruntled worker earth pony yelled, as the stack of small boxes he was carrying over from his cart into a store on his back almost toppled over as he managed to dodge a white-black-blue streak.

“Woah! Sorry!” Midnight gasped as he almost slipped on the iced pavement of Canterlot main street. In the next instant he had to dodge left to avoid a pair of extravagantly dressed unicorns. “Excuse me! Coming through!”, and then he turned to the right to avoid running into another pony enjoying the crisp, winter morning.

“Well I say!” The white coated pony with immaculate mustaches and a monocle said. “Colts these days…”

“Midnight, wait!” If he was not mistaken, it was Summer who shouted but he was too excited about what he would learn today. Because it was the day. The day when the magical exam results would be hanged out in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. He probably could have waited for the letter, that will probably arrive in only a couple of days… but he couldn’t.

For the past four days he was - at least so said Dandelion -  the bane of the orphanage, unable to sit still or think about anything else other than the results. “I may have blown this out of proportion by a little bit…”, that thought made a small blush appear on his cheeks as he ran through Canterlot.

Luckily for him he managed to convince Summer Dew during breakfast to get out together to see the scores. With there being two of them, Mrs. Rose was easier to convince to let him out, in fact it was easier now than it was when he first arrived.

When Midnight saw the magnificent building of the school with it’s towers and colorful roofs, he grinned. So close… and then he was yanked back by his navy blue scarf.

“Gah!” It was not the most pleasant way to stop, doubly so as he fell into a roll and ended head diving into a pile of snow. When he emerged it was to seeing Summer, breathing deeply, giving him an extremely annoyed look. He chuckled awkwardly trying to not look her in the eyes.

“Midnight… If you run away one more time, I’m going to make you lick a pole and leave you there, with your tongue stuck,” the older filly almost growled, her breath coming out foggy from the cold making her look more intimidating.

He had to give her points for creativity, damn Rumble for tricking his brother into doing just that a few days ago in front of everypony… It’s funny until it’s not you. So the ex-human gulped and vigorously nodded in agreement.

After that the duo, at a much more sedated pace, walked up to the main entrance to the school. Inside as it turned out a lot of young unicorns was milling about. The entrance hall was filled with the noise of excited conversations and an occasional, shouted boast. With the majority of them grouped by a display case, on the right wall.

“The results are probably there, come on then,” Summer said as she started to head towards the dense crowd with Midnight following. As they got closer Midnight almost had a heart attack. At the front of the crowd stood a young stallion with white fur and a short, blue mane and by his side stood a pink pony with a tri colored mane with both wings and a horn.

“No way…” he whispered with a mixture of awe and disbelief.

“Look at that, you made it to the top again Cadence,” Shining Armor’s voice was filled with humor as he looked between the now visible list and Cadence. He got a weak slap in the shoulder for his attempt at humor.

“That got old years ago Shining,” she smirked. “But you always were the second best in everything, humor included…”

The young mares around them giggled as the future Captain pouted.

“Hey, you're alright Midnight?” Summer dew asked as she poked the ex-human in the shoulder, making him shake his head and close his mouth that was slightly open for the shock.

“Yeah, yes,” tearing his gaze away from Shining Armor and Cadence he made the last few steps towards the display case and finally looked at the list. And indeed, Mi Amore Cadenza was listed with number one as Shining Armor was listed with number two. He almost choked seeing another familiar name by the number three, Sunset Shimmer.

When he looked closer by the names was also their age. With a quick glance to the side, and back to the list he managed to form a more solid image of the time he was in. “So they are both sixteen… Meaning this was their last exam. And Sunset is only eleven.”

“Impossible…” Summer’s statement drew his attention from his thoughts. She was now staring at him.

“What?”

Instead of answering him she grabbed his head, directed to him in a specific direction and then pointed with her hoof at a place on the list or more specifically his name. How did he miss that? His name was written on the list by the number four.

“What? I mean… what?” he really couldn't comprehend this. Magister Hearthfire often enough, after the talk with Princess Celestia, said that he got potential but this was a bit much. It being shown on paper made it far more real and mind blowing, when one saw that he was also the youngest on the list.

He was suddenly aware, how much quieter it became around him. He was noticed.

Midnight gulped and looked around. What he saw matched what he was expecting from the sudden silence, everypony was looking at him.

“Who's the squirt?”

“What is he doing here?”

Whispers started to spread.

“All right all ready, you’re making the colt nervous,” Cadence raised voice put a stop on the whispered conversations. “If you’re looking for the younger years scores they’re further down the corridor,” she said with a kind smile.

Midnight rubbed his left foreleg with his other and smiled a bit embarrassed.

“Well… actually I’m Midnight Blackmane,” he said hesitatingly indicating the list with his smaller hoof.

Everypony’s eyes - beside Summer’s Dew - widened at hearing that.

“Well, well… congratulations then,” Shining Armor said as he made a few steps towards the younger unicorn. “I’m Shining Armor, resident second best unicorn,” the teenage unicorn said as he extended his right hoof.

“Uh, nice to meet you,” Midnight said trying to sound as normal as possible given the circumstances, he extend his smaller hoof for a bump.

“And this is my fillyfriend, Mi Amore Cadenza,” the older colt said with a proud smile after the hoof bump. He grunted in pain as said future princess hit him on the shoulder.

“I told you not to call me that, it makes me feel like I’m in trouble,” her smile as she said that was almost contagious. “Just call me Cadence, Midnight. I can call you that?”

“All right and that’s ok,” the ex-human was at a loss for words. What do you say to those two? He had kind of forgotten that he had a high chance of meeting them. “Sooo… that’s your last exam, right?”

Midnight cringed, so many potential question and he asked the most stupid one. Well it wasn't as if he could ask them personal questions… that wouldn't end well he presumed.

“That’s right,” Cadence answered. “After this year, if you keep up you will become the second best young unicorn in Canterlot, exciting isn't it?”

“And a bit terrifying…”

“Don’t worry too much, you still have a lot of years ahead of you before the exams truly mean something. For you they just show you have a lot of potential,” Cadence said as she lightly tousled his black mane.

“Hey, no fair!” Midnight jumped back from the hoof. What was it with ponies and them ruining his mane… more than it already was.

“We should go Cady, you promised,” Shining said as he moved to the pink alicorn’s side. “It was nice getting to know you.”

“All right, all right can’t keep your parent’s waiting,” she turned and waved to the gathered crowd.”Bye.”

It was as if a signal was given, gathered ponies began to walk away talking quietly about something. However the glances they gave Midnight allowed the young unicorn to guess what or rather who was the subject of their talks.

“I think it’s time we go back,” Summer said leaning down before she gave him a gentle nudge.

With a nod Midnight agreed and both started to move towards the exit. The mood during the walk back to orphanage was subdued. Midnight had a lot on his mind and didn’t feel like rushing back or speaking.

First and foremost, how did he managed to score so high. What he did during the exam, was it really that extraordinary? Did he really have that much potential? The more he thought about it, the more he realized he didn’t find this situation comfortable. He always wanted, dreamed about having a significant enough life to leave a mark in the world. Now that it looked like he would get what he always wanted… he began having doubts. ”Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it, eh?”, he sighed at that though that rolled through his mind with a savage bite.

He was a quiet, sometimes even passive pearson and Midnight was well aware of that. A good listener and observer. Maybe that was what bothered him? Because he knew that his high score would thrust him into a spotlight that he was just becoming truly aware of?

Almost on autopilot, he followed Summer that was watching him with a mild concern.

When they returned, he went straight to his room and flopped ungracefully onto his bed. Anypony who asked him on his way up to the room how his exam went, was discouraged from further talk by an annoyed grunt.

Midnight stared at the ceiling that could use a paint job.

”Ugh, what the hell?! I scored high so what? I need to relax… and just be myself, right?”

“Right,” he silently gave himself an answer. Negative thinking never took him far, even if it was so easy to fall into it… especially because of that.

With a deep breath he jumped out of the bed he spent in the last half an hour and headed downstairs looking for Dandelion and the twins. He needed to stop thinking about the exam for a bit and those three always were an excellent distraction.


  


Midnight managed to avoid all questions about the exam for the whole day and majority of the next. Hearts Warming eve was closing in fast, so everypony pitched in to decorate the orphanage. On that note, Silver Tongue managed to get them tickets for the reenactment of the event in his theater.

However all the decorating meant that everypony was resting in the dayroom, by the fireplace on that Sunday evening.

“So Mid, how did you do on the magical exam? Tell us something, it couldn’t be that bad!” Dandelion said with a cup of hot cocoa held in his hooves, as he sat to the left of the young unicorn colt.

“Yes, this one is also interested”, Trixie managed to somehow mask the annoyance she felt as she joined the impromptu inquisition.

“For Celestia’s sake tell them already Midnight or I will”, Summer Dew all but shouted from the corner she occupied with the older orphans. That also got the attention of everypony in the room focused on him.

“Fine…” the ex-human sighed and braced himself. “I ranked fourth in general, first in our age group”, that last piece of info he got from the letter delivered yesterday. Mrs. Rose was kind enough not to open it before she gave it to him, so that was also news for her.

“That’s incredible Midnight! I think we need to celebrate somehow, maybe extra cake or two on the Eve”, the matrons reaction was ecstatic as she approached and hugged him, talking.

“Nice…” The twins said in unison before patting him not too gently on his shoulders. Midnight didn’t even see them approach.

Everypony congratulated him, all but one. Trixie had an unreadable expression on her muzzle. When the congratulations ended he could finally focus on her. In the past months he managed to learn one thing, that face of hers didn’t bode well.

“Don't be jealous Trix”, it would seem not only he noticed as Dandelion said throwing his foreleg around her shoulders in a loose hug. All he got for his trouble was a glare and an annoyed huff as the blue coated filly escaped Dandelion’s hug. Everypony watched her go out of the room and heard her going upstairs.

“I think… I should talk with her?” Midnight was moving before anypony else said anything.

On his way upstairs Midnight tried to think of ways to solving this newest problem. The only thing he was certain as he got closer to the filli’s room was the he had no idea what to do. Her doors were locked, so he moved to knock but not before he heard something that sounded suspiciously like a sob. He stilled.

Breath in, breath out. His hoof lowered and he silently moved away from the doors.

As he went by his and Dandelion’s room he picked up his scarf and put it on. He needed to clear his head. By the time got downstairs, the mood in the room improved although it was not as joyful as it was before.

As he all but sneaked out into the snow covered garden, Mrs. Rose caught sight of him and send him a warning look.

“I need a minute,” he mouthed silently and the adult earth pony sighed and noded.

The crisp, night air filled his lungs and the sound of snow crunching beneath his hooves filled his ear as he went to sit by a tree. The moonlight made everything glow in almost surreal way. Canterlot became silent as night fell, especially during winter. It was easy to believe that he was alone in the world. Well… not exactly alone.

Midnight’s gaze moved to the marred face of the moon. Memories of his latest talk with Celestia surfaced.

“I wonder...” his whisper became a fleeting, frozen mist. “I’m not the best friend material always struggling to make that connection, at the best of times I’m just awkward, indecisive,” a snort escaped him. “We’re not so different in the end, aren't we?”

Silence answered him.

After that evening the following day was rather awkward for everypony as Midnight and Trixie tried to stay out of each other's way. Maybe it was cowardly, but he was afraid of making the situation worse...


  


The day of Hearth's Warming Eve came and had everypony in the orphanage excited. Even the blue coated filly returned more or less to her normal mood. Midnight smiled shyly when Trixie joined them at the breakfast as she sat down next to him and in her sleepy state mumbled something that sounded like ‘congratulations’ and ‘I want more lessons’.

They all sat at one table as he learned was custom in the orphanage for the occasion. Mr. Soup outdone himself with at least seven different salads and other light snacks. Everypony - even Midnight, although more cautiously - wanted to try the white roses salad, something extremely fancy as far as he knew. While Midnight suspected he will never be a fan of flowers in his food, he was more than ready to make an exception after a tasting.

After morning of culinary discoveries Mrs. Rose gathered them for their outing to see the Heart’s Warming play. It ended up being relatively short, and mostly how he remembered it from the time he watched it in the show. The only difference being the professional pony actors and set.

When the play ended, they all went on a small walk around winter Canterlot, before heading back to the orphanage. During the walk Midnight stuck close to Trixie and it so happened that they were at the back of their group. He took a deep breath, earlier he came to the conclusion it was time to man up… so to speak.

“Trixie, were you… are you jealous?” he saw her almost tripping on her own hooves in surprise. After a minute of silence he began to wonder if it was such a good idea after all.

“Trixie… I don’t know,” her answer was almost drowned out by the noises of the city. She stomped with her hoof in frustration. “They told me I was going to be great, the best… not average, weak! Before, just before...” As soon as it came, the anger vanished and was replaced by a truly miserable, wide eyed look.

“Just before what?” Midnight couldn’t stop himself even if he wanted too.

“Nothing,” and just like that she quickened her pace.

That made him pause for a heartbeat, it was unexpected. She ran, it couldn’t be anything else. Apparently he stumbled upon something truly important and upsetting for the filly. Walking slowly he realized it wasn't the first time. His eyes widened when he made the connection to the slightly charred picture in her room, ”Her parents?”

“Omph.. Watch it kid!” only when an adult pony walked into him did he realize, that he stopped walking. “Hey, you’re ok? You don't look too good.”

“Uh, I’m fine. Sorry,” he had to quickly trot to get back to his group.

Try as he might he was unable to enjoy the rest of the day. Sure, he played games with the twins and Dandelion, discussed simple magic theory with Summer and Silver. But his heart was not in it. Whenever he could he would sneak glances at Trixie, with the hours passing her mood once more returned to normal, although she did try to avoid being pulled into the games. It would seem her prefered method of dealing with whatever bothered her was reading a book, being left alone and stuffing herself with chocolate cake. At some point Midnight kind of wondered how she managed to eat so much of the cake, that could be the definition of chocolate overdose.

Later in the evening Mrs. Rose called them all to gather by the tree, they all decorated.

All of them appeared by the tree almost instantly, it was time to unwrap their presents. Midnight was suddenly nervous, he was crap at picking presents and with what little savings he had, the choice was rather narrow. He went with books. They were a safe bet most of the time. Daring Do’s books for Dandelion and the twins. Books about starting your own business for Orion and Brass Bit as he heard them talk about it often enough. He even found a booklet on practical jokes for Cherry Blossom, he was kind of sure he was making a mistake with that one but, oh well… For his fellow unicorns, newest editions of books on basic magical theory. From the foreword he had read, it should be an interesting read even for Summer Dew and Silvertongue, definitely for Trixie.

He did kind of forgot about Mrs. Rose, when he realized he would need one more present he ran out of bits.

But Mrs. Rose end up receiving a couple of presents, thankfully. And the group hug she received was the most important one for her, if the look in her eyes and the wide smile was any indicator.

When it was his turn, he received… books. Eight books on magic, one on equestrian sky ship fleet - that one had Silent Flight written all over it - and one empty journal, secured with a small lock.

“And there's still one more,” Mrs. Rose’s comment caught him by surprise.

While holding it in his magic he studied the simple, white wrapping and dark red ribbon. Without much hesitation he tore it open. Inside, now in his magical grip, was a dark red book without title. Only with a strange marking imprinted in black.





He quickly paged through it but the pages were blank. He blinked in confusion. A note feel out that he quickly snatched up, laying the book down in favor of reading the note.


The brightest light casts the darkest shadow. When you master the knowledge in it, seek me out.

C.


“What’s that Mid?” Dandelion’s voice made the young unicorn jump and the earth pony snorted.

“I… don't know to be honest,” Midnight picked the book up once more and opened it on the first page, with his roommate now looking over his shoulder. Surprisingly there was something written there.


It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.


“Because that’s not creepy at all…” Dandelion said in a hushed voice.

“It looks like a riddle to me,” Midnight said, brows furrowed in thought. Something was naging him at the far reaches of his thoughts as he read the short poem.

“Come on, leave it for now. Let’s have some cake before Trixie eats it all,” the light brown coated colt forcefully closed the book and dragged Midnight to the closes table.

The party lasted for a few more hours before Mrs. Rose announced bedtime.

Midnight had to make two trips up and down to gather his new books and put them on the shelf above his bed. All but one.

For more than an hour before he finally fell asleep Midnight stared at the book and note trying to decipher their mystery.


  


In the Canterlot castle Celestia opened her eyes as she felt the wards she cast recently activate and brake. The cold of the night didn't bother her as she stood on her private balcony.

She raised her gaze towards the moon. With a small, smug smile tugging at her lips she uttered four words.

“Let the games begin.”

If her sister thought only she could meddle with fate, she would find herself mistaken.
> The Mark 1: Dear Diary...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Entry 1, last day of 982 YC (Year of Celestia)

Here goes, I’m going to try writing in this diary. It’s been a bit more than 3 months since I found myself in Canterlot Orphanage. The awe factor is still somewhat high, I think it took me the better part of the first month to get used to everything to the point that I could walk without consciously having to stop myself from twisting my neck as I took everything in. Especially when one considers how many interesting things happened in that first month. I’m still impressed with myself, that I managed to NOT walk into a wall, a post or anypony for that matter during that time. But monotony and normality (well Equestrian kind of it anyway) are setting in, largely due to school… urgh. I think I’ll end here, we’re going out to watch the fireworks. Midnight, out.





#2, 4th January 983

Got my birthday cake! Chocolate on a crunchy bottom, I think I ate too much…  





#3, 5th

It’s Monday and the first day of school after the break, but I'm staying in the orphanage. Got a bit sick after yesterday. It’s worth noting thought, that apparently equestrian ponies really can vomit and it's not pretty. Note to self, eating more than half of a cake is not a good idea, also a reminder for later: kill Dandelion. Why or how did he manage to goad me into it I still can't quite grasp. Well alright, I do see him shoving - not eating, shoving - food into himself everyday so I thought I can eat that puny half of cake, but no… must be an earth pony thing. 





 #4, 25th January 983

Been some time now since I wrote in this thing. Admittedly nothing really exciting happened during that time. Well maybe there was one thing, Silent Flight dropped by and took Trixie and me on an outing. It’s still the middle of winter so we just went to a couple of stores and a bakery…

Might as well write it down, I think Trixie is either crushing on me or is becoming jealous or something. She can become awkward in my company at the strangest of times. Time to investigate!





#5, 1st February

Finally! Hearthfire taught me a basic heating spell and then we began working on a cooling one. Funny thing, for me cooling is waaay more efficient - not stronger, just more cost effective - than warming something up. Hearthfire quickly caught onto that and promised to borrow me a book on basic ice magic. However something is still missing I can feel it but explaining that to the magister is a struggle, good thing he understands that. Magic is at its roots a highly personal, private experience… he told me that enough times.





#6 2nd February

I’ve managed to subtly prod Trixie about her behavior during one of our own magic lessons, at least I think I was subtle. I’ve got the standard “Trixie has no idea what you’re talking about.”, that’s promising… 





It was Sunday afternoon, a month after his last magic lesson with magister Hearthfire and a few days more than that from his last diary entry, as Midnight held the quill above his journal in his blue-black aura. The ink already managed to drip down making two small splotchy marks on the blank page. After the few initial entries he put in it, it was getting easier to express himself on paper. It was also surprisingly… refreshing. But how does one write down what had happened lately?

“Right then, let's just start with ‘Dear Diary my life turned on its head…’”, he muttered writing it down.





The lesson started normally, Hearthfire would quiz him on a few runes old and newly learned. Then they would exercise his magic using telekinesis, the newly added cooling and heating spells. After that thought…

“Midnight I’ve had some discussion with other magisters and masters in the guild about what we discussed. The incomplete feeling of your magic?”

This managed to pull him out of his reading, the introductory chapter in the ice magic book looked too interesting to resist diving right into it.

“It is rather bothering…”, the young unicorn answered as he closed the borrowed book.

“You have discovered and I’ve confirmed that you’re attuned to the ice element. However I’ve been made to rethink it by my peers,” Hearthfire started to walk back and forth inside their assigned classroom while Midnight just frowned, deep in thought after hearing that.

“How come? I mean it’s obvious to me, my magic feels cold. The one spell with affinity for cold I can do, I do with almost no mana wasted…”, the ex-human jerked back when the older unicorn twirled and jabbed his hoof at him.

“That right there! Cold, not ice!”

“Uhm… you lost me magister?”, right now Midnight missed hands, because he would gladly scratch his head in confusion.

“Lets try something then,” Hearthfire sat down. “Close your eyes and imagine the coldest place or thing you can and let your magic flow just as you would do it for the spells you know.”

Midnight did so with a small sigh and muttered ‘whatever’. His curiosity was piqued but his official lesson could be used for something better than, what he was suspecting was simple meditation. He had to imagine the coldest place or thing he could? He could do that and more, a small smirk formed on his muzzle. With an image firmly in mind, he pulled from his mana pool.

Instantly he could feel his teachers magic flare as he was forced to warm himself as the air in the classroom began to cool.

“Good, what we’re going to do is try forcing your full aura to manifest. The risk should be minimal and I’ll contain any wild discharges,” saying this Hearthfire was so sure of himself only because he had five of his friends from the guild concealed and waiting behind the doors. This was a reckless move, but as his old teacher said ‘Sometimes you just need a push…’

“Now, just like when you were trying to reach your magic for the first time search for the… missing part, concentrate on melding the two together and do not think about anything else. When you achieve this, imagine yourself diving into your mana pool.”

Midnight heard him, but his brows twitched in concern. In almost every beginner book he read the author said not to do what his teacher wanted him to do. From what he gathered if he did this, he would burn the majority of his mana in an instant and if not stopped run the risk of borderline exhaustion.

“Leap of faith, huh?”, Midnight muttered before taking a deep breath.

It took him almost no time to recall the nameless heavines. The harder part was superimposing that feeling on the image and feeling of coldness. His science oriented human mind unintentionally came up with a very specific image. Something clicked inside him and as if a signal was given he plunged into his above average - for a now 7 year old - mana pool.

In that moment a lot of things happened simultaneously.

Ponies shouted, the air was filled with the sound of breaking glass, tearing wood and collapsing walls. Midnight opened his eyes, that for everypony else looked like pools of dark blue light. The young unicorn felt himself float, suspended in the collapsing building by his own magic. His eyes crossed to look up, seeing the moderately sized black orb of… nothinges. Frozen debris orbited him, before being swallowed by the blackness as the orb was slowly growing.

A hexagonal wall of mixed colours suddenly sprang around him and the collapsing building.

A puls of warm energy passed his body accompanied by the sound of a chime almost too silent to be heard among the roar of magic around him.

In a blink of golden light a shining figure appeared before him, her aura smothering his in a blink of an eye. Celestia has arrived and broke his hold on the energy.

The black orb detonated in a final act of defiance and self defence flattening, cratering the area inside the barrier.

His magic no longer supporting him, Midnight began to fall. He didn't even mind, at this point he felt like sleeping for the next whole week was a great idea, he fell bonelessly not having the energy to move at all.

Golden energy surrounded him, catching him.

Before he passed out, the last thing he saw was Celestia's rage filled eyes and a snarl on her lips.

“You foals! How could you even...” the rest of the earth shaking rant went unheard by Midnight as he finally gave up on staying awake.





When he woke up, just before he opened his eyes his nostrils flared as his nose was assaulted with the stench of disinfectant. The ex-human groaned and opened his eyes.

Turning slightly his head he quickly confirmed his suspicion he was in a hospital room. Painted in warm colours, with a comfy bed and stocked with stuffed toys and books but it was a hospital nonetheless.

“Great…”, Midnight muttered trying to recall how he ended up here. Oh, yeah… he did what he dubbed the ‘mana dive’. “Minimal risk my ass…”

Whatever he wanted to say, he had to stop as the doors opened. A pony doctor stepped in followed closely by Celestia. The former all profesional, the later with a strained smile. Both stopped when they saw him watching them.

“Oh, you’re awake! That’s good, that’s very good!” The doctor levitated a small flipchart and began scribbling something in it quickly even as he moved closer.

“Hello Midnight. I must say I’m deeply sorry for what mage Hearthfire did,” Celestia moved to sit by Midnight’s bedside as the doctor began to prod him with dark green magic. Midnight had to fight himself not to squirm, whatever the doctor was doing was slightly ticklish. “He won’t be teaching you any longer.”

“What? Why?”, Midnight blinked as he processed what has escaped his mouth. “Ok, I can see why. But what about my magic lessons?”

“You will be switching schools, to my School for Gifted Unicorns,” the Princess said and her smile turned more genuine when she saw the starstruck young orphan.

“But, but... isn't that like super expensive and you need to pass the entrance exams?”, it was Canterlot’s worst kept secret just how high the tuition fee was in Celestia’s school. To attend there you had to be both rich and talented. The other worst kept secret was how it was like that because of unicorn nobles. When he heard that Midnight wondered how much real power Celestia had as the Princess. He got dragged out of his impromptu musings by said alicorn’s sigh.

“True, but it was taken care of don’t worry about it.”

“Allright, everything seems to be quickly returning to normal. However I would recommend keeping our young patient in the hospital to the end of the week. I’ll be in my office Princess, if you feel the need to discuss anything,” with a small bow the doctor swiftly left the room.

For a moment the two occupants of the room were silent.

“Midnight,” Celestia called gently seeing his attention wandering. “There are also a few other things we need to discuss.”

That got his attention quickly, he just nodded.

“After what happened it was decided that you will be moving out of the orphanage,” his jaw dropped and he was opening his mouth to speak. “Silent Flight will be adopting you.”

“Wait, what?!”, Midnight jumped up, throwing off the thin blanket to stand on his bed. He was shocked speechless, he felt his jaw move but no sound came.

“He asked for this personally and I granted him the right for a prolonged leave, at least until you two settle in. Silent will be here today afternoon to talk with you about it in detail.”

His back legs gave out and he plopped down still not being able to process what was said, he felt a suspicious moisture in his eyes. Quickly the young unicorn wiped his eyes with his fetlocks.

“Something got into my eye…”, he muttered causing the white alicorn to giggle quietly.

“Stallions… There is still one more very important thing to discuss though,” Celestia’s voice turned serious again and was that a hint of worry? “Look at your flank Midnight.”

His eyes widened, she couldn’t mean?! The ex-human looked down on himself. She did!





“Buck yes!”, he couldn't contain his excitement as he jumped on the bed.

“Language!”, Celestia’s sharp admonishment made him sit down with ears folded.

“Sorry,” when he sat down it struck him just exactly what caused his cutie mark to appear. He gulped as the excitement was disappearing just as fast as it appeared. “So… I'm good at destroying things?”, he asked in a half joking matter.

“That’s not quite it I believe, although I would have preferred that you found your special talent in a less spectacular way.”

Midnight didn’t believe it quite either. The shape of his mark was telling when he thought about what his unrestrained magic did.

“But with what I saw, I will be honest. This is quite the dangerous mark,” Celestia’s serious tone and hard gaze immediately stopped any words of protest. Then she closed her eyes with another deep sigh. Gracefully she stepped onto the bed, sat down and hugged the young unicorn to her right side with her majestic wing. “This is why a lot of things are being arranged Midnight.”

He was silent for now, basking in the comforting warmth that was Celestia and trying to sort and process what was said. “And just as I was getting comfortable in my routine, this happens…”

“We, that is Silent Flight and I still have a few thing to go over regarding you. Mostly due to the fact that as of four days ago your magical surge has become the best gossip material in Canterlot,” the white alicorn stroked his mane calmingly. “A lot of ponies will be truly interested in you now.”

“That doesn't sound encouraging, you know,” Midnight answered with a weak smile as he looked up.

“You will manage, I have faith in you,” Celestia said as she began to get up, once on the floor she turned towards him and leaned forward to lay a motherly kiss on his forehead. “The Sun will guide you Midnight, but I think I saw other ponies wanting to see you. Until we meet again.”

Two thing struck Midnight during that moment, one was the warmth spreading through him again as Celestia give her strange blessing. Second was the certainty her voice held when she said they would meet again. Still, by far it was the first feeling that jump started his memory and lead to some wild speculations.

“Is this some kind of tracking spell?”, he blurted the first thing that popped into his mind.

Celestia froze mid step, with eyes slightly widened and… was that a delicate blush? It was as if he was looking at a kid with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar. The white alicorn coughed silently and cleared her throat before she turned once more to face him.

“It is a one time monitoring spell. It activates when a vast amount of magic is being channeled. It is commonly used by unicorn parents on infants as they can experience quite volatile accidental magic, if they are powerful enough. Mine is a bit different and more complex as it also establishes a teleport anchor, but basically does the same.”

Honestly Midnight didn't know what to think. It was strangely touching that she would care so much, but it also irked something in him about personal space. Seeing Celestia was waiting for his reaction… he shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s alright I think. I mean, it means you care,” he smiled although his tone was more thoughtful than cheerful, but it was enough for the Princess.

“That I do,” with that and a smile she finally left the room.

The doors didn’t even have time to close before they were thrown open by an excited trio of young colts. Dandelion and the twin Rumble and Bumble skidded to a halt and bowed before him, repeatedly.

“Our hero!”, they all said loudly. “We have the next two weeks free!”

“Until the school repairs the damaged wing!”, his roommate said as he finally sat down.

“Would ya three finall ‘top thah,” said the next pony in, Cherry Blossom. She held a few balloon strings in her mouth and she move to tie them down to his bed.

It stirred something warm in him seeing everypony from the orphanage coming in. Then he remembered Celestia’s words, he would be leaving them soon. By the happy-sad look on Mrs. Rose’s muzzle, she also knew. He decided there and then not to broach the subject, if it was not brought up by somepony else.

What surprised him was the blue colored missile that launched at him and proceeded to try and hug the living daylights out of him.

“Trixie… air!”, he managed to gasp out to the amusement of everypony present.

When he looked at her after she abruptly released him, she sported the brightest blush he had ever seen on a pony.

“Trixie… I’m glad you're ok,” she said quietly.

“Aww they're so cute!”, only after Cherry’s squeal did the both of them realize that everypony was silently watching them, so they did the only logical thing… jumped apart as if burned. Which made every filly and one mare giggle - besides Trixie who just scowled - and colts to roll their eyes or in the case of Dandelion make gagging noises.

What their little jump also made possible, was for everypony to see his new cutie mark.

“You got a cutie mark!”, Trixie was closest and on the bed, so it was her that first spotted it. Her exclamation made everypony move closer with curiosity.

“Nice, but what does it mean?”, Rumble asked before anypony else as he too jumped on the bed. His question was echoed by a Dandelion.

“It’s kind of hard to explain…” Midnight started as he thought about it, as in really thought about it for the first time. He was not given enough time though, as a hard punch to his shoulder almost toppled him.

“Whatever! It’s still wicked you got one!” Dandelion was jumping excitedly now on the hospital bed. “You do know what that means, right? Cute-ceañera!”

That instantly changed the topic of their talk to the upcoming party. In the time they planned the party, nopony commented on how close Trixie and Midnight sat, with their shoulders almost touching.

Later that day Silent Flight came as Celestia said he would.

Midnight was reading the book on ice magic that was given to him by Hearthfire. He now knew that ice magic was not exactly his type of magic, but it was something to kill the time with. A soft knock, before the doors opened pulled him out of that lecture.

“Hi, Midnight. How are you feeling?”, the pale blue pegasus asked as he walked in and closed the doors behind him, before sitting just by the bed.

“Right now, bored mostly,” Midnight answered while looking up from the book. He wasn't supposed to be using magic right now so he laid stretched on the bed with his head propped on his forelegs, with the book leaning on the pillow.

“I remember that part of being in hospital quite well, landed in it with sprained wings a few times,” the adult stallion took in a deep breath. “So, Princess Celestia talked to you about everything going on?”

“Yeah,” the young colt said as he sat up. “But why? Why now?”

“I found you on the plains, I feel responsible. You’ve grown on me,” Silent massaged his temple with a wing tip and closed his eyes briefly. “However… my family is a bit fixated on Guard duty. For generations we served the Princess and Equestria. My father is a senior officer, you know? I’m still in my early service years and I’ve been pushed through a lot of additional training for future officers, rotated through a few garrisons. Those are less than ideal circumstances to think about family of any sort. But, with Celestia’s personally getting involved nopony can say no to this,” he finished with a wide smile.

“So… what now?”, the ex-human asked. He could kind of see Silent’s point of view, but that still left the matter of what was going to happen moving forward.

“Well, to be honest I’m probably not the best father material, so let’s settle on a big brother?” the pegasus asked with a brilliant smile, Midnight didn't know ponies could smile that wide. “Sure, you will have to deal with my family, but I would like to think I’m well worth it!”, the guard pony finished puffing up his chest.

“Don't flatter yourself, you’re not that special,” Midnight answered with a deadpan stare, but the wide smile kind of give everything away.

“So cold... “, the deflated pegasus answered dejectedly. Seconds later he was brimming with pride and happiness. “Anyway I’ll get everything arranged in my house, so in a few days it’ll all be ready. I got an extended leave so we can settle in. Meaning we have a few months of relative peace ahead of us. Sounds good?”

“Yeah, that’s sound really good,” and it did. Midnight was forward to this newest change in his life.

After that the two of them talked mostly about less important things, with Silent butting in here and there a piece of information on his family and Midnight’s new cutie mark being briefly discussed.

When the sun was setting, Midnight found himself oddly exhausted after that day. Unable to concentrate on his reading he put away the book on ice magic and decided to turn in early.