The following morning arrived and Night Light was up early, before dawn. Like it is every other morning, he headed to the bathroom and after taking care of business, he stood in front of the mirror and looked at his reflection. At first he began to question whether he should file for divorce as he remembered all the happy memories he and his wife had had. He remembered their wedding, the birth of their children and the moments of intimacy from long ago. After that though, he remembered the things from more recent times, her volatile temper, her firing energy at him, her trysts with the princesses and most of all, her incestuous acts with Twilight. He said to himself, "I have to do this. She said that she wanted a divorce but if I file first, I might be at an advantage."
After a moment of self-reflection, he headed downstairs to find Shining Armor and Flurry Heart waiting in the dining room, hoping for a bite to eat. Before Shining could even say anything, Night Light said, "Son, you know I can't cook to save my soul. It will be either we go out to eat or we have cereal."
Shining replied, "Well if it were just us, I'd say cereal would be fine but I don't want Flurry having such a small meal. I'm thinking we should go out."
Night Light agreed, "Sounds good, let's get going."
The three headed out the door and while Flurry was hungry and was anticipating her meal, Night Light was focused on one thing, filing for divorce before his wife could.
After eating a rather hearty breakfast the three headed to the courthouse. As they headed in Night Light had a nervous look on his face realizing that this would be the day that he began the process of dismantling a marriage that he once thought would last for life.
He was unsure as to where he would head to do this so he went to the county clerk's office. The mare at the front asked, "Hello sir, how may I help you?"
Night Light replied, "Well I would like to file for divorce. Who would I talk to about doing that?"
The clerk headed back and grabbed the proper paperwork. She replied, "Here is everything you need to fill out and a list of everything you will need to do this and once you complete this and acquire the proper documents, take it to the clerk of Canterlot Civil Court."
Shining nodded and as they headed out he was shocked that there was not a ton of paperwork that had to be filled out and was pleasantly surprised by the fact that he would only need his birth certificate, their marriage license and another form of identification, such as a driver's license.
Once they got into the car and headed back to the house, Shining could see a smile on his father's face. He asked, "Dad, what's up with the smile?"
He replied, "There isn't a whole lot I have to fill out to get this completed. As long as your mother has not headed to the house and grabbed the marriage license, everything should be just fine."
When they got home the very first place Night Light headed was the basement, where all the family's legal documents were stored. When he opened the safe he began to go through the documents and quickly found his birth certificate but there was one thing he could not find, the marriage license. He screamed, "Where is it? Where the hay is it?"
Shining and Flurry quickly headed downstairs to see what his yelling was about. When they got downstairs Shining discovered his father tearing through all the documents in the safe yelling, "Where is it? Where is it?"
Shining tried to calm his father down but it did not do much good until the yelling caused Flurry to cry. Night Light calmed down and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make Flurry cry. I'm just upset that I can't find the marriage license."
Shining asked, "You don't think mom already came and got it do you?"
Night Light replied, "I doubt it. Given that she simply ran off with the princesses her mind was likely elsewhere." He looked over to his right and saw another safe, one he did not even know was there. When he saw it he gasped, "Wait a minute, what is this? Does your mother have her own safe?"
Shining replied, "It looks that way but I'm not sure how we're going to get in it."
At first Night Light was unsure but then it hit him, he could listen for the lock to click as he was trying to get in. He bent down, put his ear up to the safe and began to listen for the clicking. Each time he heard it click, he would move on to the next. When he heard the third click, he was able to open the safe. He said, "Alright, let's hope it is in here."
As he began to go through the documents in there it would not take him long to find what he was looking for, their marriage license. Right along with it he found partially filled out divorce papers. He saw this and laughed, "Ha! Leave it to her to only partially fill out the paperwork and not bother filling it out."
Shining asked, "What do you mean 'only partially fill out paperwork?'"
Night Light replied, "Well she had begun to fill out divorce papers who knows how long ago and she never completed them so she just stuck them in this safe." He began to laugh, "She's probably too busy bucking Celestia and Luna to even remember they were in here."
Shining nervously laughed, "Yeah probably."
After grabbing the marriage license he locked his wife's safe and headed upstairs to fill out the proper paperwork. As he sat down to do it, there wasn't a whole lot to it, just the normal things regarding name, address and such and such. Eventually though he got to the part that really mattered, why he was seeking it.
He said, "Hmmm....why am I seeking a divorce." He began tapping on the paper until he wrote, "Infidelity, simply growing apart, abuse and irreconcilable differences."
Shining gasped, "Abuse? When did she abuse you?"
Night Light replied, "This was last year before a buckball game we had against Appaloosa. She got mad at me and struck me with energy simply because I wasn't in the mood if you know what I mean."
Shining was in a state of shock. Never once did he think that his mother would do something like that. He asked, "Seriously? She struck you with energy just because of that?"
Night light replied, "Yes, she did." He looked back down at the remaining paperwork and continued, "Alright, back to getting this taken care of."
After another thirty minutes he completed filling out the paperwork and said, "Well son, shall we? I want to get these turned in before the end of the day."
Shining replied, "Yeah, I think we should." His face turned to one of frustration as he continued, "I wish I could get out of my marriage without any serious repercussions."
Night Light commented, "Yeah, if you divorced Cadence you'd lose your royal status." He then got a smirk on his face and continued, "Actually, I'm thinking there may be a way for you to split with Cadence and still hold on to your royal status."
Shining asked, "How is that?"
Night Light replied, "Well we can talk about that later. For now though, I want to go get this paperwork turned in so I can end this nightmare."
After grabbing all the necessary documents, Night Light, Shining Armor and Flurry headed back to the courthouse where they immediately proceeded to the clerk's office. When they headed in Night Light was unsure as to where the office of the civil court's clerk was. Eventually he decided to ask somepony. He headed back to the county clerk and asked, "Hi, I'm wondering where the office for the clerk of civil court is?"
The clerk replied, "It is on the fourth floor. When you get to the top of the stairs, make a left and his office will be at the very end of the hall."
Night Light said, "Thanks."
The three headed to the stairwell and headed up. Once they got to the fourth floor it did not take them long to find the clerk's office. When he got there he was greeted warmly by the clerk, "Hello sir, how may I help you today?"
Night Light replied, "I got the proper documents from downstairs, I am filing for divorce."
He handed him the paperwork and the clerk began to look through it. He asked, "Do you have the marriage license, your birth certificate and another form of identification?"
Night Light pulled out his driver's license and handed it along with the other documents needed so that copies of them could be made. Night Light waited in anticipation while the clerk made the copies and would be happy when he returned. The clerk continued, "Alright, the request for the divorce has been filed and we have copies of everything we need."
Night Light replied, "That's good. I'm just looking forward to getting this over with."
The clerk asked, "Sir, I have a question. With you and your wife going to be separating, where does she live right now? Does she still live with you or does she live elsewhere?"
Night Light replied, "Well she has moved to the palace. She is close with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna." He paused for a minute and continued, "Why do you ask?"
The clerk replied, "We just need to know where to serve her with this summons."
Night Light asked, "So when will she be served these summons?"
The clerk replied, "It should be within two to three days since we have to present this to a judge and get the official legal papers printed up."
Night Light asked, "Assuming she answers the summons, when will I know?"
The clerk replied, "It would likely be the following day. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Night Light said, "Nope, that is it. You have a good day."
As he, his son and grand-filly headed for the exit, Night Light couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. He realized that soon this would all be over and he can move on. Then another thing crossed his mind, he knew that he had better get a good lawyer to help him get the assets he wants as he knew that Velvet would have the princesses there arguing on her behalf.