Chapter 4: Party Lights
For the rest of the day, Midnight and his friends put off any conversation about the event at town square; the day carried out as usual. Noon dragged Midnight to a rodeo held by the farmer ponies outside town where they were joined by Takeoff and Stir Fry. Although it took him some softening up to do, he delighted in watching the roughneck earth ponies wrangling cattle and running obstacle courses. The four friends then spent the night partying at the local pub over ciders, until Midnight left a half hour before the moon peaked to take care of his old friend, the clock. The next day was not as eventful as the last, since he stayed home in preparation for Cassiopeia’s birthday party that night. He was searching relentlessly through his collection of books, when Noon interrupted him.
“Hey bro, your little marefriend’s party is in a few hours.”
“Oh would you stop?” hissed Midnight. “I’m trying to find a new spell I could use to impress Cassiopeia.”
“Ooh, while you’re there, you should spend some time with Andromeda. Huh? Maybe you could try to express your feelings, you know?” Noon then distorted his voice to mock his brother. “Oh Andromeda my muse, my heart burns for your everlasting beauty!” he then imitated a female voice and even pranced a bit. “Oh Midnight, you darling stallion, take me in your strong hooves and whisk me away to the stars!”
Midnight nearly gagged and turned to him. “Look Noon, I appreciate you trying to get involved with my social life,” he said hiding sarcasm. “But I still prefer Andromeda and me still being just friends.”
“Fine, you’re the smart one. Oh by the way, I’m going back to Canterlot to see Star Swirl the Bearded.”
“Again? What does he want this time?”
“He just wants me to help move around books; he’s got like a hundred thousand of them so I won’t be home tonight.”
“Well in case you will be, don’t eat a whole pie this time.”
“I can feel the brotherly love; see you tomorrow, Nightshift, have fun at your party!”
Noon left the house without another word and Midnight went back to his studies. He picked up a dark red tome with a gold fire symbol on the cover. Upon opening to the first page, he read the title: Fire Spells: Pyrotechnic Magic. Taking interest, Midnight skimmed through the pages looking at sketches and diagrams of unicorns conjuring flames with the magic of their horns. He stopped at one that was titled Firework Finale which caught his attention.
“Hmm, let’s see. ‘If you want to dazzle your friends, then this magnificent pyrotechnic lightshow is the spell for you. To make this spell work though, you must gather all thoughts about bright lights and picture…”
...
Midnight rang the doorbell of Andromeda’s house; as he expected, Cassiopeia answered.
“Midnight, you made it!” she exclaimed with a single jump.
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything, Cassie. Oh and happy birthday.” He extended his hoof holding a gift wrapped box.
She shrieked with joy and hugged him. Midnight entered the house where about a dozen rambunctious fillies were playing wildly in the living room with their parents close by. The walls were lined with birthday décor and there was a table with various sugary snacks and drinks. Cassiopeia put his present by the rest in a large stack.
“I can’t wait to see that awesome spell of yours;” she said to him. “I told all my friends you were coming.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll do the spell later; first, I want to pay your sister a visit.”
“She’s in the backyard setting up the piñata. You promise you’ll do the spell later?”
“I never break a promise, especially with my favorite filly.”
“Thanks, Midnight!”
He watched her skip off to play with her friends and then walked to the kitchen being greeted by the parents. He opened the backdoor in the kitchen to the small deck in the yard, and there she was. Andromeda stood on the deck, with her wings folded, after just finishing hanging up a piñata by rope. Midnight melted seeing her under starlight. Her coat was light lavender and her medium sized pink mane was brushed down over both sides of her head with a couple bent strands hanging over her silver eyes. Her cutie mark, which was the constellation that shared her name, symbolized her love for astronomy. Often at night, Andromeda would busy herself studying the stars through her telescope, sometimes recording their ever shifting positions at the Canterlot observatory. This usually broke the ice with her and Midnight pairing it with his fascination with the moon. As he closed the door behind him, Andromeda looked at him.
“Hi Midnight, I’m glad you could make it.”
“Your sister’s hard to let down.” Midnight responded. “How’s it going?”
“Pretty good; that piñata was a pain to make.”
He looked up at the papier-mâché dragon. “I sure hope candy comes out of that.”
Andromeda chuckled. “So, uh, did you see that strange machine at town square today?”
“Yeah, it seemed like everypony was there to see it. It was crazy.”
“I’ll say. If you ask me, I think that Mr. Mechanic is trying to replace hard-working ponies with those robots.”
“I don’t think it’ll catch on; those things won’t be around for long.”
“I hope you’re right. Hey, can you help me with the cake, as if Cassie needs more sugar?”
“Sure, as long as I get a slice.”
They both walked into the kitchen where a large red velvet cake was waiting to be frosted. Midnight coated it with vanilla frosting while Andromeda drew her sister’s head in icing. After lighting the candles, they brought the cake out, singing the pony birthday song, and Cassiopeia blew out the candles with delight. After enjoying the cake, Midnight and Andromeda watched her open her many presents (Midnight’s being a pogo stick). Then, the two retired to the backyard after the breaking of the piñata, where they laid on the grass gazing at the cluster of stars through Andromeda’s telescope.
“What’s that one?” he asked her.
“That’s Clear Sky, the grounded. He flew up to the sky after finally gaining his wings.”
“And what about that one?”
“That’s Town Crier, the loudmouth. He was put into the sky so nopony could hear him.”
Midnight laughed a bit; he admired her for recognizing all the pony constellations.
“So, Cassie tells me you’re going to perform a spell for her tonight.”
“Yup, she convinced me to do it;” he answered. “And of course I couldn’t say no.”
“It’s funny how she admires you. Sometimes she asks me to take her to see you when you’re at the clock.”
“That wouldn’t be much to see, waiting an hour or so measuring the moon’s position until it gets high enough for me to do a five second spell. To be honest, it’s not much of a job.”
She turned to look at him. “What do you mean? I think it’s fascinating what you do. I haven’t met a unicorn in Canterlot who can change time like you do.”
“All it is, really, is just moving it by one minute. It seems wasteful using all that magic just for one tick of a clock hand.”
“Sometimes it’s what we do that makes us who we are. And what you do is unique.”
Midnight smiled at Andromeda and she smiled back. She touched his shoulder as they continued to marvel at the night sky, that is, until Cassiopeia and her friends came bursting outside.
“Midnight, it’s time for the spell!” she announced as the other young ponies ran out into the yard cheering.
He got up along with Andromeda as they circled him and chanted his name.
“Midnight Hour! Midnight Hour! Midnight Hour!”
“Alright, alright,” he said to them. “You guys want to see some magic?”
The foals cheered more and more as he continued.
“And I don’t mean any ordinary magic; I’m talking about some super duper awesome unicorn fi-ya magic!”
They whinnied even louder when he mentioned the word fire.
“Then let’s get started! Stand back now.” He faced away from his audience and toward the horizon. “Ugh, how does it go again? Think! Think! Think!” he whispered to himself.
He strained to remember the firework spell, while trying not to get distracted by the distant rustling bushes beyond the backyard fence. Then, as the foals now chanted the word spell, Midnight recalled the magic words for conjuring the lightshow; he recited them for everypony to hear.
“When the sun goes down and is out of sight, and everypony’s eyes are filled with fright, as the sky is darkened and void of light, let fire soar and glow in the night!”
Before closing his eyes, he spotted something rushing out of the once rustling bushes. Then he concentrated the magic in his horn, gritting his teeth and tensing the muscles in his face. When it seemed as though he was having trouble, Midnight shot off a barrage of colorful light from his horn which flew into the sky and exploded with a titanic bang. More and more of these explosions ignited at random spreading different colors through the air. The foals, especially Cassiopeia, ooed and awed at the blazing pyrotechnics. Midnight peered up to take pride in what he had created; but then something caught his eye. One of the explosions burst low near the ground outside the fence, and something had caught fire. The mysterious object seemed to wiggle and fidget as it was encased in flames before finally collapsing to the ground with the flames slowly fading. Midnight turned his attention back to the fireworks which had grown in brightness and quantity. For one more minute, the fireworks gave off their last big bursts before disappearing altogether. Midnight relaxed and panted, as the foals cheered and whinnied behind him. He turned around to see them and noticed that even the grownups, including Andromeda, were stomping their hooves for him. Feeling like a true showpony, he bowed and waved to his adoring fans who chanted his name again. Among them, Cassiopeia rushed up and hugged him.
“That was amazing, Midnight! You’re the best unicorn ever!”
Midnight hugged her back and even blushed at her comment. Then as she and the others retreated back into the house, he saw Andromeda walk up to him.
“Midnight, that was beautiful! I didn’t know you could do a spell like that.”
“What can I say? I guess I’m a fast learner.”
She hugged him. “See? What you do makes you who you are. And what you did there was outstanding.”
He smiled warmly at her, but then his mind drifted back to the odd sighting on the other side of the fence.
“Wait, did you see something while I was doing the spell?”
“What do you mean? I couldn’t see anything else than the fireworks.”
“There was something outside the fence; it caught fire from the spell and I don’t know what it was.”
She looked curiously at the fence. “We should go check it out.”
The two of them urgently hopped the fence where, several feet away, they saw a black smoldering pile in the grass. As they approached the pile of ash, with small whips of smoke rising from it, Midnight noticed an intact object buried in the pile. Cautiously, he reached in and pulled out what appeared to be a rigid metal part. It was curved and the edges were slightly melted from the fire. Then, he saw Andromeda dig another part out from the ashes; to both their shock, it was recognizable. The object she held was the head of a metal unicorn that contained no mouth and a lifeless black visor below the horn. Andromeda looked at Midnight with disbelief.
“Midnight, this is Workhorse!” she exclaimed while keeping her voice in control.
“It must have gotten in the way of my spell, and I destroyed it!” he replied.
“Oh no, if Mr. Mechanic finds out about this, he’ll be furious.”
“Well, he said he has more in stock, right? Maybe he won’t even notice.”
“I hope you’re right. But right now we should probably get rid of this mess.”
Without raising any suspicion from the rest of the party, Midnight and Andromeda disposed of the smoldering remains of Workhorse by sweeping them up, sneaking them around outside the house and dumping them into the garbage can. The two agreed to keep quiet about the incident and rejoined the party for the rest of the night. After everypony had left, Midnight hugged Andromeda and Cassiopeia goodbye and hurried to his post by the clock just minutes before the moon centered itself in the sky. Without failure, he restarted the clock one more time and went home to doze off. This time, he checked inside Noon’s bedroom expecting to see him sleeping, just in case; he was not there, however.