My Mind, Present Time
Hearing the girls giggle about my earliest memories kinda set me on the edge, when they laughed at me when they saw me when I was nothing for than a few weeks old I was fine with it since I will soon see what they looked like when they were a foal. But when they laughed at me when they saw me having a crush on a mare that was older than me by and was Trixie...well it was way to much for me to handle at the time and I just snapped.
And by snapped I mean I went from normal tone sounding voice into my dark blessing voice.
During the time these mares were laughing at me I simply stood up from my spot on the carriage and cleared my throat as loud as I could and spoken as dark as I could, "You know what girls...let me show you something, I want you six to see what happened ten years ago, I want you all to see what made me into who I am today and don't even think of trying to talk me out of it cause it won't work, no matter how much you plea." I scoffed at them, because of them I was never able to reveal to Nightmare Moon what I truly felt, but I know she would just smack me upside the head or just teleport me ontop of the poison joke flower patch for my outburst...yea I can see her doing that to me.
"Lets take a look at the day of my exile hmm? Lets see how well you handle what I had to go through at the tender age of 7, and only three weeks away from my birthday...the nerve of Ponyville doing that to me."
The sphere shrunk to a small point of brilliant light before turning back to its rainbow hued shape, the images now shows a crowd of ponies near the border of Ponyville with a lone black colt with a small saddlebag crying by himself as he nears the edge of the Everfree Forest. From the crowd the words of hate and malice can be heard, hate and anger can be seen from their faces, all of them glaring and sneering at the lone colt, all over a misunderstanding and an accident.
"Nightshade Umbraspark, by the power invested in me, You are hereby exiled into the Everfree Forest until the end of time...do you have any last words?" The mayor, Ivory Scroll said from in front of the crowd while others were still yelling at him for murder. The six mares with me all saw this and not only felt sad for me but also pity, but there was no pity for me when I was being kicked out of my own home. As they watched my slow march towards the tree line they all saw at that small point of time my eyes flicker, and with that small flicker they all saw something familiar while to me was nothing more of the trick of the light.
During that entire reliving of the memory my body was shaking like a leaf in a storm, barely holding onto the branch of sanity for dear life and the thought of letting go would be met with dire consequences from not only a tyrant but also from others that are their friends and family. What my body was going through was like a scale, on one side was my emotions currently eating me out for showing that to them and on the other side my memories telling me to show them everything so they can better understand my problem, the middle was just my sub-conscious being an asshole and laughing at me.
While my body was fighting itself the girls were all looking at me with tears on their faces and their eyes bloodshot, even Rainbow Dash was fighting hard to keep the waterworks from breaking down her outer-shells barrier. Without me even knowing Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie moved over to me slowly and gave me what I thought was the warmest, softest, and in my current position, cutest hug ever, in all honesty I thought the cuteness was to much since Fluttershy is overly shy and had finally came out of her shell to hug somepony, and Pinkie Pie...well the fact that she somehow appeared right next to me when I was a statue only proves that she must be a mage of some sort but without the horn...or a magical wand.
After coming back to my senses the memory was near the end and was at the point of where Nightmare Moon was hugging me in a warm embrace as a ghost during the winter in the Everfree Forest while I was slowly freezing to death, looking at the girls only solidified my point, they all were clueless to my problems that I suffered from. A broken mind, torn from my family, torn from my community, hated by said community and finally can never have a normal life again, that was all they got from that single memory, and they all were torn to see that the town acted like that to a colt that was still too young to be out on his own.
"Yes girls...this is all true, the day before you is the day of my exile. That day that will forever scar me, I was only seven years old when I got exiled and yet they did not care at the time...doesn't make any sense but to them they did not care at the time...*sniffle* I lost everything because of that accident...but from it gained...only a temporary family to fill the void of the one lost, a new home to replace the old warm wooden home that I can never go back to, and only a few faces to swap out for the ones I knew for six years...I lost it all...but at least I gained something at the end of that memory." I was starting to choke on my words as I recalled that past memory, something I rather not do when in the presence of others.
"I just wanted...*sniffle* to live like the rest of everypony...*cough* but nopony gave me a chance to explain myself...*sniffle sniffle*...but nopony listened to my reasonings...so that is why...why I joined Nightmare Moon...because she listened to me...*sniffle* because she was the one that saved me...you may call her evil...a tyrant...a monster...but what else can we be...if the world can only see us as monsters...." I was a complete wreck, having to watch the most painful of memories again was bad enough but watching it again while having six ponies that consider me nothing more than a threat or worse, it was just to much for me to handle.
After a while I finally come back to my senses and calm down, still sobbing to myself and eventually getting a warm hug from Pinkie Pie, I slowly start to stop sobbing and grew a spine and put it where it belongs, than finally getting the nerve I quickly pulled out another memory from the vault and swap out the sad one for the new one that I retrieved. The pinpoint of lights swirl around before coming back as a large sphere of rainbow hues before the memory changed into an old memory.
The memory has a small time and date on it, I press my hoof against it as a magic seal on it fades away and the pinpoint of lights that was the seal fade into a rainbow hue of colors covering up the previous memory that was about to play. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy sit next to each other as Pinkie pulls out a tub of popcorn out of no where, Applejack and Rainbow Dash look around the sphere and notice the time and date and mouth out the words, Applejack is surprised to see that it was the day before the Summer Sun Celebration while Rainbow Dash glares at me thinking that I was planning something extremely evil that night, Rarity is looking at the back of my head thoughtfully, wondering why I was up that late into the night when I was supposed to be resting for the celebration, Twilight isn't paying much attention just watching the screen.
31st Spring's Apex,12 P.M. ,999 A.N.M. (After Nightmare Moon's Defeat by Princess Celestia)
The sphere dulls down to a dark room in the Everfree Castle marked with a cresent moon and stars pictures plastered all over the walls, a full moon shaped bed in the back of the room, a portrait of Nightmare Moon herself hanging over the small fireplace that entails the left side of the room. A vanity mirror and drawers cover half the lower walls of the room, hanging on the walls are pictures or portraits depicting the night sky or herself in some pose, the best of the pictures was a portrait of herself without her battle armor being worn or a crown upon her brow, instead it was herself in a pose lying down on a large neon blue cushion wearing a sky blue scarf with reading glasses on her cute muzzle while her horn is glowing lifting up a mug filled with hot chocolate and a small black book. As the view of the room changes it fades back to my point of view from my eyes, they all see that I was staring at Nightmare Moon from behind as she was facing the fireplace while reading the very same small black book that she was reading in the portrait. As I look her over from behind she notices my presence and lets out what to me at the time was a sad sigh but in actuality it was a happy one, for whatever reasons at the time I did not know until it was time for her to go back to the moon.
"Nightshade Umbraspark do you know what tomorrow is?" I nod yes and said it was the Summer Sun Celebration that everypony celebrates as the longest day of the year and enjoys the sun in all of its false glory. "Precisely my little pony precisely, that is also the day that I shall return to this world back in my true form, no longer a phantom shall I be upon this world, no instead I shall be back as flesh and blood! And nopony will stop me not even my sister Celestia...she said she has kept me close to her heart this entire time and I too when I battle her shall I keep her close to my heart." said my mistress before gently padding a place where her heart was before turning to look at me with those beautiful teal eyes of hers. "Nightshade, there is a few reasons to why I called you here tonight, one of them was a mission for you, the second was to ask you something of importance, the other reasons will depend on how you answer me." I asked what my mission was, hopefully it was important since it was the day that she returned. "Your mission my little stallion, is to go to Ponyville where this years celebration will be taking place, I want you to follow whoever is incharge of it, keep them under your watchful eye, keep tabs on them and above all else do not get caught." I nodded in approval and asked what was the second thing she wanted to ask me.
"There is something that I must confess Nightshade...and I am not entirelly sure on how to put this without sounding...different. *sigh* Nightshade, ever since we became together, in mind and also physically when you finished the ritual, I was never really appreciative of how you had to sacrafice so much just for me to even be able to breath again on his mundane plane but...what I am trying to say is that..." before she finished her sentence and hearing her words laced with strained courage I took the initiative and trotted over to her spot on the bed and layed down in front of her, looked directly into her eyes which to any other pony would have freaked out and ran at the first chance but after living with her for equally ten years I have grown used to the semi-icy stare she gives to me, eventually learned to love it. Sitting next to her for a few minutes looking into each others eyes, waiting for one of us to back down until finally I slightly lowered my head in false defeat and brought it back up like lightning, and without hesitation I kissed her on the lips, no not the quick peck on the lips but I meant full on lip action, and I held that kiss for two minutes before pulling back and looking away shamefully, thinking and fearing that what I just did was wrong and that I will be punished severe consequences. Waiting to receive the pain for my mistake of kissing her never came, instead I looked over to see her still staring at me, not with the look of malice and anger that she has mostly shown me when I made a mistake but instead it was a stare that was longing for something, longing for somepony to accept her...to be with her. Before I have a chance to make a move or even breath I was suddenly caught in a Nightmare Moon's magical embrace that pulled be right to her face, both of us mere inches apart, neither of us willing to blink away until finally we both kissed each other in a blissful manner, ignoring everything around us until finally we both fall of the bed, Nightmare Moon landing ontop of me as if I was a cushion, a moonstone armored clad cushion. We kept kissing each other for minutes on end until we had to stop for air and we just stared at each others eyes, the longing for one another could have been seen in the deep pools of our eyes.
"Nightshade...I guess that was my answer to the question I was about to ask wasn't it? Not even knowing what the question was you answered it the way I was hoping you would...now we are together...my loyal guardian and fiancé." she said with a giggle before the image was cut off with a wave of my hoof, the scene before us was what was going to be a night that I would never forget, the night me and Nightmare Moon became a couple, a couple that would only last one day before being taken away from me by force.
Swapping memories with haste was required before a certain purple unicorn asked me a question about my magical training by the Mare in the Moon, and Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash wanted to know what was going on between me and Nightmare Moon, which went ignored.
The image now replaced by a lone standing nocturnal guard standing at attention near the border of the Everfree Forest, waiting and watching for movement of anypony that would wander the dangerous forest carelessly and guide them back to safety, the serene silence was broken when the sounds of three fillies screaming out of fear rang out in the deepest part of the forest that began the border of my Queen's kingdom. The sounds of my metal-lodged hooves hitting the compact dirt floor was later overcome by the sounds of my rough voice yelling at the fillies to go home then screaming a challenge at the alpha manticore and engaging it in combat. The images of myself being used as both bait and a distraction was enough to allow the three familiar fillies to make a run for it and allowing me to lead the manticore into a trap by leading it into a maze of tall oak tree's, later bringing them down upon its head with as much brute force as possible to end the fight without anypony getting hurt. It later came out of the pile of now dead and destroyed tree's with un-heeded rage as it charged at me and I at it, the battle was bloody at best as both of us matched blow for blow, eventually ending with myself being chewed out roughly by the manticore, tearing deep into my armor leaving deep gashes, and as it slowly lifted my head into its gaping maw to be finished off I casted an over-charged bolt of lightning into its head, blowing it out and killing it instantly, being covered in gore and blood from it and myself I looked at the three fillies and guided them back home, leaving them at their respectable homes, Sweetie Belle at the Boutique, Apple Bloom at Sweet Apple Acres, then finally taking Scootaloo to my home I forced my brother to never tell a soul as to while I was home, wearing strange armor and covered in death, only leaving a note behind for my parents to read.
I zoomed in on the note so everypony can read it, but as I zoomed in I saw that the mares were all staring at me with both the look of pure shock that I killed a manticore in cold blood and did it with magic powerful enough to possibly match the royal princesses. Fluttershy's face was green and was hiding behind Applejack who was busy trying to calm her down while Rainbow Dash was slowly backing away from me since she just saw me single-hoofedily take down something more than twice my size by myself. Rarity didn't look me in the eye at this point and Twilight was trying to not look at me or at the image of a dead manticore, Pinkie Pie was staring blankly with her mane all straight until I zoomed onto the note.
'Dear Mother, Father, and Brother.
'I leave in your care a little orange pegasus filly named Scootaloo into your capable hooves, she was an orphan and was in the Everfree Forest with two of her friends trying to earn their cutie marks, I rescued her from an alpha male manticore and defeated it by myself, so to not incite my wrath you will take her in as if she was one of own and you will teach her how to fly and how to be a proper mare. If you do not than be prepared to feel my anger, I am only doing this because she reminds me of myself and I do not want a little filly like her to be walking down the wrong path, a path that I have chosen and was guided down by the ponies of Ponyville and by my love. You will take care of her, teach her to fly, and make sure she receives a good education.'
'With my blessings, Nightshade Umbraspark, Guardian of the Mare in the Moon'
Not even bothering to look back at them I began the last memory sequence.
The screen fades to an orange/pink pre-dawn sky as I was looking up at it, wincing a bit by the bright sunlight and scothing at it, loathing the brightness of it until my eyes laid upon the sight of my destination, Ponyville, heading to town wearing nothing more than a tattered dusty and slightly bloodied cloak, keeping my eyes on a pair of royal guard pegasi pulling being a carriage with two occupants in it, Twilight Sparkle and Spike the Dragon, I followed them the entire time, talking to Pinkie Pie about the party while avoiding the part of my name, watching them talk to the entire Apple Family, only talking a little bit to Big Mac before he was called up, myself fading from view as I casted a chameleon spell upon myself, waiting for the pair to keep going on their trip, observing Rainbow Dash expertly crashing into Twilight and messing up her mane with a cyclone of a clean up, only I was able to laugh without getting a glare from the prismatic mare, next stop was Rarity's boutique, a place that I clearly did not want to revisit since I stole a roll of black fabric, but after leaving I go to where the party was going be held, a large tree that was also serving as a library and home, a perfect place for me in the future. After waiting two hours the guest of honors have finally arrived and the party was on with a crazy pinky bouncing mare leading it, and watching her eat a hot sauce-covered cupcake was enough for me to drop my ungodly tasty blueberry muffin onto the floor, only glancing down at it fast enough to levitate it back to my mouth before a grey ambered eyed pegasus mare came over, appearently with some sort of muffin-based radar she asked if a muffin was dropped by anypony, my response was no and that there was a bowl filled with muffins on the table, she bought it and ran off to table in search of the delicious goodies. After the party I was outside putting on my nocturnal armor, piece by piece I was chanting out my montra that I created for this occasion.
The black coated unicorn that filled the screen lowered his head and touched a hoof to his chest as he said, "Let me be merely a vessel for your will and strength until the deed is done". "Let me bear your mane", I spoke as I drew the cloak over my back, "both powerful and beautiful, a depiction of the endless sky. Let me stand in uniform", I continued as the armor began to secure itself to my body, "in the armor that pays tribute to your image and greatness. Let me be your agent this night, for it is you I serve above all others". "May your power be with me, for, tonight, you shall breathe and taste the cool night air for yourself", I spoke as I rose to my hooves. "You shall look upon the world with eyes of your own, and no longer be forced to be chained in banishment to your moon. Tonight, you shall be free from the moon and lead Equestria into an eternal night!"
The final images that show was nothing more than what happened at the Summer Sun Celebration, Nightmare Moon returning from her banishmen, my immediate rush to her side and joining her in public sight, my heated words being screeched out at the innocent, my anger lashing out at the three guards foolish enough to attack than finally our retreat back to the Everfree Castle, than a quick fast foward in the memory, earning a few complaints which went ignored, until finally it came back to me finally chasing down the six mares, trying to capture them and when it failed to eliminate them, failing to do so at the cliff, missing with the exploding crossbolt that hit the manticore, talking to Steven Magnet and his new moustache, crossing the poorly built bridge, than finally getting my flank handed to me by nothing more than a sneak attack and a brutal body slam into a stone wall by nothing more than a lasso. The image than shows myself passed out next to a weakened Princess Luna, only to wake up in a cage agreeing to a deal with the sun tyrant, leaving me behind to fate.
The magical screen slowly turning red before cracking like glass, the sounds of hissing and bubbling melting glass until it reached the apex of my emotional rage bursting everywhere sending everypony that was in the carriage off of their respectable cushions and onto the floor roughly. The first ones to get up was Applejack and Rainbow Dash who now are in a defensive stance expecting me to be ready to attack them but instead they just see me staring blankly right through them as if my eyes were hollow and lifeless. After a minute of waiting for me to make a move both of them backed off from their aggressive stance and slowly approached me, both gazing at my face and seeing how lifeless it was at the moment and watching my shallow breathing going into automated motion eventually snapping out of my cold daze by the rough slap to the face by Rainbow Dash who was lightly bucked by Applejack for the insult of being ignored by their persistant questioning.
"Are ya alright sugarcube? Ya have been in a daze for a good while now and you haven' moved a muscle since you...since ya showed us the truth...we just....we are sorry..." said Applejack with a real smile on her face, a smile of understanding and accepting...a pony that accepts me for who I am...thats a first.
"Lets just...leave my memories and leave me be...just get out of my head for now...when I am better lets all meet up at Twilight's...talk more about me...whatever you wanted to know...I will answer...if I want to." I said grinning while still wiping some tears away from re-watching all the painful memories I forced them all to see.
Ponyville Hospital, An Hour Later
All of them agreed to it and before they knew what was happening they all woke, completely not sure how long they were in my mind but looking at a nearby clock they all saw that only an hour passed outside of my mind while almost a week has passed within my head, my guess was that watching memories happen does not equal to the same time outside of my head.
As the girls began to leave Rarity stayed behind saying something about wanting to take my cloak with her to repair it but I knew their was another motive to this and I wanted to find out what before it would come back to bite me in the flank...hopefully no the same spot that was chewed out by the alpha male.
"Nightshade darling...I wanted to say...well thank you for showing us what you went through and I just wanted to be the first pony to apologize to you. Sorry for your loss...and sorry for you being exiled without any proper proof."
"Tis alright Lady Rarity...what happened has happened...I just wish it didn't happen but life still moves on...*sigh* I miss her already but I know no matter how much I pray or wish upon a star I know my love will never come back...I just wish it didin't come to this. But thank you for your apology and your concern. I just wish I wasn't a slave/ bodyguard for you mares...but given my choices this was for the best...maybe even start over and get a new life...maybe find somepony that I won't lose to fate...eh..never know...but I gotta check up on Scootaloo soon...want to make sure she is getting a good feeling with my old family..."
Rarity only nodded as she left with my cloak, leaving behind only her perfume oder which smelt of jasmine and mint leaves, the perfect oder to me...a smell that reminds me of Nightmare Moon...so many memories...so little time.
"Sun Tyrant Celestia....why must you hate me so much to ruin everything for me?" I said to the ceiling, hoping for an answer, and I got one.
'Because their is something about you that makes me feel uneasy and worried for my little ponies. And I am not a tyrant, I do not rule with ruthless order but instead I rule with.'
'Even when I am bed-ridden I can still hear her voice...Gods must really hate me.
'No you are just really unlucky, but do not fail me Nightshade.'
'Bite me tyrant...you took away my marefriend and you can take that to some vault and lock it away...just leave me alone and stop spying...I want to be alone...maybe forever cause of you.'
'Fine than, good day Nightshade Umbraspark, do not disappoint my sister or I will banish you.'
'OH fuck off already! I just want to angerly stab something now cause of you, leave me be so I can mediate in peace! That is all I ask!'
Only silence was my answer.
'FINALLY!'
'Is she gone?'
'Oh God Damn it!'
'Nothing in my head is sacred anymore...damn you Twilight Sparkle and any other pony that can read minds...'
'Damn you all....so sleepy...so very....' *snore*