The next day found everyone who had been at Discord’s and Screwball’s release back in Midnight’s yard, all sans the princesses, who would be coming by later due to royal duties and had sent a letter telling them not to wait, about half the guard, who’d hear the results later as Midnight wanted to start getting them back on normal rotation, and the changelings. Honey wanted both her people and Squeaks someplace relatively safe in case Discord and Screwball decided to put up a fight. Shoal was resting in the trees beside the cliff behind the house. Midnight, Discord, and Screwball sat in the center of the gathering, the two chaos creatures waiting just like everyone else for the kirin’s final judgment.
“Right,” Midnight said, going over her notes one last time when she saw everyone that needed to and could be there was. “Let’s get this over with. When it came to Generosity, you both failed horribly. When it came to Honesty, you actually told the truth but were still nasty about the whole thing and did try to lie. So, pass and fail. Kindness… you pass. I don’t know how, but reminiscing about your past made you actually okay to be around.” She looked up at Discord, eyes narrowing. “By the way, I’m gonna circle back to that, so keep it in mind. Loyalty, I give it both a pass and fail as well. We finished the course but you just had to be what we call a sore winner. When it came to Laughter, you pass. Maybe that’s not surprising to some but the fact that you made others laugh while not hurting anyone surprises me. When it came to Magic, that’s another pass and fail. You did everything you were supposed to but the whole Steel Spark family tree thing was uncalled for and was not in the spirit of friendship.”
She looked back up at Discord and Screwball, then surprised everyone when she threw the clipboard away. “My final verdict? It doesn’t matter what we do because it won’t fix the real issue. Both you AND Celestia won’t let the past go and are determined to make it everyone else’s problem.” Discord’s eyebrows went up in surprise but she pressed on. “That dig at Twilight’s ancestry was what made me realize it. You’re so angry at being rejected by all your friends when you went tyrant and then found out your actions caused the death of the kirins that you can’t accept that we’re not as bitter and resentful as you are, so you do everything you can to try and split us apart. Celestia’s barely any better, thinking she can recreate how things were and feels our bonds are so fragile that revealing what happened will turn me against my friends. Luna, who spent a thousand years on the moon, understands the world moves on better than you two and, frankly, it’s pathetic.”
Stunned silence hung over the yard.
“Daaaaaamn!” Rainbow loudly whispered.
“We’re the pathetic ones!?” Screwball yelled, “Oh yeah, it’s real pathetic of us to live our lives how we see fit, not confined to how you ponies want us to be!”
“Screwball, shut up,” Discord said evenly, still staring down at Midnight.
“You want to know what’s pathetic? You ponies living such boring lives, blindly following rule after rule that someone else made up!” She got down into Midnight’s face. “Ponies that let your kind die, by the way! What makes you think they won’t do it again!? Because you’re friends!? Really helped last time!”
A lion paw clamped itself onto Screwball’s head and pulled her back. “I said to shut up.” Discord said dangerously, then turned back to Midnight, pushing the chaos pony away in the air. He stepped forward to tower over the kirin and the earth shook as Shoal got up on her hind legs to tower over them all in response. Midnight just stared up at him, her face not one of anger or fear, but of plain disappointment, and that was somehow worse to everyone watching, including Discord. “You have no idea what it was like, living under the Platinums, having everyone turn on you when the point was to make Equestria a better place to live and, yes, take my own freedom,” he said. While he looked angry his voice was just as calm as Midnight’s face and that, too, made everyone around nervous. “You don’t know what it’s like to be stuck in stone for one and a half millennia, knowing that one of your closet friends was killed because some idiot lost his marbles at the idea that one of my kind could be born again, only to discover that not only does he have living descendents after all these years but that the one being who is still around who’d been there was teaching them as if it wasn’t a problem at all. I’ll admit that I did some selfish things but with how screwed up this world is why give a damn?”
“Because it’s not as screwed up as you like to think it is,” Midnight countered, her eyes briefly flicking over to Sapphire and Squeaks, “and there’s always a reason to give a damn, even when you don’t think there is. I may not have gone through all you have, but I’ve had my share of low points to know that to be true.” The draconequus and the kirin stared each other down. “When the princesses get here, I will talk with them and the bearers to decide if we let you stay free or not.” Midnight finally said.
Discord snorted and the anger on his face dissolved into once of acceptance. “Not that it seems to matter anymore but there’s one more thing that I know Celestia didn’t tell you about your aunt and the other kirins.”
Midnight raised an eyebrow. “You certain about that?”
“If she had then that would have been the first place we went after you all freed me,” he told her. “I’m quite sure Celestia would have used Storm Vine’s grave as a way to guilt me into cooperating.”
Despite herself Midnight’s ears perked up. “And just where is this grave you claim exists?”
“Right smack in the middle of the old castle you and your guards are currently using as a base. How overgrown it is I have no idea, but it’s there. With all Celestia apparently left behind, I know she didn’t have time to relocate over thirty graves. Go and check if you don’t believe me; you can ask her when she gets here what stupid reason she had for not telling you sooner.”
“I could just wait until she gets here and then we could all go together,” Midnight pointed out.
“After what you just said about the two of us, do you really trust her to just take you there as soon as you ask or will she just waffle again, promising to take you later when she’s ready?” the draconequus asked.
Midnight snorted but silently agreed. It would be faster to check for herself now than wait for Celestia and Luna to arrive and then push through the alabaster alicorn’s hemming and hawing until she agreed. If what he said was true, then what she said of traps scattered through the old castle might have been a cover as well.
“What’s the point of telling her this now?” Shoal rumbled form above.
Discord grinned up at her. “Like Midnight said, I’m a bitter old draconequus and I want to throw something in Celestia’s face. I’ll even sweeten the pot; if the graves aren’t where I said they were, then just turn us back into stone, no discussion needed.”
“WHAT!?” Screwball shrieked.
“Deal,” Midnight said, then turned to the bearers. “Either of them puts a body part out of line while I’m gone, stone them anyway.”
“You really trustin’ him?” AJ asked, eyeing the chaos creatures as they began to argue.
Midnight shrugged. “Not much I can actually do if they try to escape and enough guards are here that you should get the Elements going in time if he tries to attack. More than that,” she looked back at the two, “I think he is telling the truth, both about the graves and his wager.”
“Well, if you’re sure, then be careful, darling,” Rarity said. “Those old ruins may or may not have traps, but they’re still falling apart in places.”
“She’s right,” Sapphire said, coming up to them, “please be careful.” Arina, who was on Sapphire’s back, chirped worriedly.
Midnight nuzzled her and patted Arina with a wing. “A few loose bricks don’t worry me. Besides, I won’t spend too long looking if they’re where he says they are. I’ll be back before you know it.” She took off, gaining altitude so she could be level with Shoal before heading towards the castle. “They try anything, squish’m,” she told the dragon. Shoal nodded with a smile and the kirin took off over the forest.
-----------------------------
“It should just be down this way,” Midnight said as she and Private Primrose moved through the halls of the old castle. The kirin had landed in the courtyard and grabbed the first guard she’d come across to join her in looking for the graves. While she was sure she could handle anything they came across, an extra pair of eyes and someone she could send for help wouldn’t be a bad idea. Even Arina wouldn’t be able to help if Midnight herself was knocked out.
While the castle halls could branch off in many directions and she hadn’t seen anything from above, the halls were straight enough that Midnight was sure they were closing in on the center. In fact, she felt this hallway was curving around it and they just needed to find another hall to their right to get there. They hadn’t run into anything like traps yet, just a few scurrying mice or rats and more cobwebs than Midnight cared for. There had been a few noises from deeper in the old castle that neither pony nor kirin liked. Just because they hadn’t run into any traps didn’t mean there weren’t real dangers.
As they moved Midnight used her fire to light the torches still hanging from the walls and after lighting yet another one, she noticed something about the wall opposite it. The brick all looked the same but a line of stone broke up the pattern. Following it, she found that the stone line looked like the start of a new side hallway leading to the center of the castle. Whoever had bricked the entrance up had done a good job of disguising it if one didn’t notice the entranceway frame. “I think we’ve found it,” Midnight told Primrose, “just stand back a ways.”
When Primrose was clear, she gave the wall a firm buck. There was the tiniest give in the brick and the wall felt less solid than it looked. “That’s promising,” Midnight grunted and bucked again, the wall beginning to bulge inwards noticeably where her hooves hit. She bucked again after checking to see how the wall was moving and then a fourth and fifth time. On the sixth buck her back legs went through and she scrambled forward in case the entire wall came down. It didn’t and the old mortar seemed to hold the rest of what she hadn’t bucked away in place. With the frame still intact, none of the brick in the rest of the hall seemed to have been affected, either.
Now, with more confidence she wasn’t about to drop a ton of bricks onto their heads, Midnight motioned for Primrose to help her move more of the wall out of the way, in some cases they were actually able to pull back the wall as if the mortar was made of some kind of putty. Once enough of it had been cleared away, Midnight could see light and green at the end of the new hall they’d just opened up and her pulse began to quicken. “Careful, private,” Midnight said, though it seemed like she was saying it more to herself than the pegasus, “we don’t know the hall’s condition or why it was bricked up. Let’s stay of the tips of our hooves.” Primrose nodded and they began moving down the new hall.
There wasn’t much different about this hall than the other ones, made of the same bricks and with old torches hanging from the walls but there was a scent of fresh air and living plant life that wasn’t present in most other parts Midnight had been in. She couldn’t make much out of the space beyond the end of the hall as there was what looked like vines covering most of the end of it but she could just make out what looked like a sunny, overgrown lawn just beyond. If that was true, then there had to be some kind of illusion spell over the top of the castle to stop anyone from coming in from above.
She was just wondering why the princesses would want to hide the graves of the kirins when something felt off about her next step, like she’d just stepped on something that wasn’t like the rest of the floor though it all looked the same. “Back!” Midnight yelled, beating her wings backwards instinctually, Primrose doing the same.
Primrose, who had been behind her, got clear.
Midnight did not.
She slammed against a wall that hadn’t been there before as the floor under her began to glow in a circle that she was now trapped in. The wall she’d slammed into was invisible but when she placed a hoof against it the spot shown with the same glow. “Damn it,” she growled, then turned to the worried Primrose. “Go back the way we came, exactly, and get the word out that I set off a trap in here,” she ordered calmly. “Have a message sent to the princesses the second someone is able to. Twilight might know how to disarm it but then again she might not.” From the looks of it, she’d set off a similar trap to the one that Twilight had back in the Crystal Empire. That hadn’t dispelled until Sombra had been defeated, so it was a coin toss if Twilight could do this one herself. If this was anything on the level like the lock Celestia had used for the Elements, she didn’t fancy the unicorn’s chances.
“Yes, ma’am!” Primrose said with a salute before flying back down the hall the way they’d come. Midnight wasn’t too worried about her predicament; this look like it was just designed to hold her and with someone knowing what was going on she wouldn’t be there that long. Just in case, she closed her eyes and focused on contacting Arina to get the message out sooner.
That was when she began to itch all over.
-----------------------------
“The princesses are coming!” Shoal, who had stayed standing ever since Midnight left, announced. Everyone looked in the direction of Canterlot and saw two chariots approaching, one gold and one dark blue with pegasi escorts.
“I don’t like this,” Sapphire said to Windrunner, “she should have been back by now.”
“It takes time to look for something no-one else has apparently found,” Windrunner told her, “and she’s nowhere as fast as Dash or myself. She’s still within an acceptable time to be gone.”
“I still don’t like it,” the blue pegasus told her, “call it a hunch.”
“I see you’re not stone again,” Celestia said as her chariot landed, “that’s good to see.”
Discord smirked. “Well, when Midnight gets back we’ll see how long that lasts. At least I’ll get a laugh before I go.” He shot a look at a fuming but silent Screwball.
“Where is your parole officer?” Luna asked as she stepped off her own chariot and nodded at the assembled creatures, “she should be here to let us know what thine fate is.”
His smirk grew into a grin. “Back at your old castle, making up her mind. I can’t wait to see your faces when she asks you why you haven’t told her how Storm Vine’s grave has been under her nose this whole time.” There was silence as the two alicorns stared at Discord, shock and horror growing on their faces. “That’s the look!” Discord said and started laughing.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done!?” Celestia yelled.
“Gotten one last petty lick in before I’m turned back to stone!” he guffawed.
“You just sent Midnight into a trap meant for thee, moron!” Luna yelled.
That got him to stop laughing. “What trap?”
“We weren’t sure how long you’d stay in stone,” Celestia said through gritted teeth, “so we set up several traps around their grove and sealed it off soon after everyone left! We thought it would be the first place you’d go after you got free!” She and Luna were already taking wing.
Sapphire was about to hop into the air as well when Arina started chirping wildly. Turning her head, she saw the spider’s eyes glowing and she was waving her front legs to get their attention. “It’s Midnight!” Sapphire called out, “she’s contacting Arina!” Everyone turned to look at the spider but before she could communicate anything she suddenly jerked like she’d been hit and nearly fell off Sapphire’s back. Windrunner caught her and the spider let out one more long, weak chirp, like she’d just run herself ragged. Sapphire felt a hole in her stomach.
“She has activated the trap!” Luna said, distressed. “It’s already draining her magic!”
“So? It’s not like she has much magic to begin with,” Discord said with a dismissive wave of his lion paw. “It’s not like it’s gonna take much.”
“That trap was designed for you!” Celestia snapped. “It won’t just stop when it drains her magic, it’ll start draining her life! That trap could kill Starswirl! You have such vast reserves we had to make it that powerful!”
Once again, there was silence.
“Oh,” was all he could say, realization sinking in.
Shoal took off without a word, her wings creating a wind storm as she took off. Sapphire and Windrunner were in the air next, followed by every other flier present. Those stuck on the ground began running down the path.
“Let us pray thine need to be vindictive has not resulted in another kirin’s death!” Luna snarled as she and Celestia took off for the castle.
Discord stood there for another second, things he hadn’t felt for a long time rising back to the surface. Feelings he’d long suppressed and turned into others. “I… I didn’t…” he said weakly, then grabbed a silently snickering Screwball and shot off after them. They’d run into Private Primrose and other guards on the way, coming to confirm what the three immortals feared.
-----------------------------
Midnight couldn’t think straight for very long now nor keep track of how long she’d been in the trap. At first she’d simply felt more and more tired, like something was sapping away her energy. She hadn’t been able to keep in contact with Arina for very long, just enough to let the spider know she needed help before the connection was abruptly severed. Soon after the pain had started to build and she found herself weirdly being both tired and in pain at the same time. It was like she wanted to just lay down and close her eyes but was also being hit with hammers all over her body which was keeping her awake but making her even more tired, keeping things going in an ever worsening loop. Whatever the trap was doing to her, it wasn’t going to end well.
‘Hurry up, Primrose! I really don’t want another hospital visit!’
The pain increased again and she heard herself gasp, then heard several other gasps and cries of alarm.
‘Oh thank the makers!’
“Midnight! Midnight, can you hear me!?” she heard Luna shout.
She forced an eye open and fought the tiredness and the pain to keep it open. There was Celestia and Luna, looking at her from the other side of the trap’s barrier. She could see that Sapphire, Windrunner, and a whole bunch of others were with them, mostly her guards but she could see a few of the bearers in the crowd as well. Almost out of sight she could just make out Discord’s mismatched head coming into view. Had he known about the trap or was this as much a surprise to him? All she cared about right then was getting free.
“I… would like… to come out… now…” she gasped, every word a strain.
“We’re working on it,” Celestia assured her, both her and Luna’s horns glowing brightly as they worked on the millennia-old spell. “Just hang on a little longer!”
“How much longer does she have!?” Sapphire asked, lifting a hoof as if to reach for the kirin.
“Do not touch it!” Luna snapped, “if you do it will drain you as well!” Several of those who had gathered close pulled back at that. “The spell is old and complicated. Twill take time to unravel it enough to pull her out.”
“What about unicorn magic?” Twilight asked, “can we help?”
“Unicorn magic will just be absorbed as well!” Celestia said, a drop of sweat beading down her face.
“What if we batter her out of there?” Someone suggested. “We should be able to push her out of it with a log!”
“If it was that easy she could just walk out of it!” Someone else retorted.
“It won’t let her out; you’d just be making things worse!” said yet another voice.
As Discord watched from his place at the back of the crowd, his eyes looked past what was going on to the green curtain of vines and the open space beyond. Storm Vine was there, her grave anyway. He hadn’t seen her since he and Screwball had first been hit by the Elements and he’d never seen her grave, though Celestia had told him about it.
Midnight had been right. He hated to admit it, but she was; he was nothing more than a pathetic, angry, vindictive fool. At the time he’d thought he’d be making Equestria a better place to live for everyone if they would just listen and he’d even had a brief moment of “I told you so” when Celestia told him what had happened barely a month after his imprisonment. It had swiftly turned to guilt, which he redirected into anger because how was it his fault that Steel Spark was just as much a raging speciesist as his beloved queen? When he and Screwball had gotten free, he’d gone right to trying to punish Equestria for what it had done to him and his old friends. He hadn’t even tried to see Storm Vine’s grave then; he just cared about getting what he considered justice. Justice that had ended in nothing but pain for everyone the first time he tried. Now, because he just had to have one more jab, because he wanted to be justified for how things had turned out, Storm Vine’s grandniece, right in front of her grave for makers’ sake, might… might…
The shouting nearest the trap was getting louder, then he heard Screwball yell “What are you-!?”, then there was pushing and more shouting and then his lion paw had been jammed through the wall of the trap and was reaching for one of Midnight’s hooves.
“Discord!” Celestia yelled, “what are you-!?”
“Keep working on it!” he groaned as he pushed further into the trap. Already he could feel his magic being drained but he ignored it. “Give me your hoof!” he shouted at the kirin, “or your wing, tail, anything!”
Midnight had closed her eye but now opened it again, locking her blue draconic one with his red and yellow.
“I didn’t know it was here!” he continued. “This was never what I wanted! None of it was!”
“Get out of there, you idiot!” Screwball yelled, grabbing his wings and trying to pull him back. “You seriously want to die for her!? She hates you!”
“I won’t die,” he grunted, “I can come back; she can’t!”
“Yeah, but I-!” Screwball stopped as her hooves passed through his wings. Her whole body had become translucent and was slowly fading as the chaotic magic that came from Discord which had created her was absorbed by the trap. “Oh, you all can suck donkey ba…” Her voice faded away as she did.
“Don’t weep for her too much,” Discord said as he got another inch closer to Midnight, “she was just a manifestation of…” He grunted, now in pain. The trap was working faster than he thought it would and he was now in up to his shoulder. “She fed off my anger. She would have been gone either way if I accepted what you were trying to do! Midnight, meeting in the middle would be a lot of help!”
The blue eye stayed locked on his for another second, looked down at the paw, then looked back up at him. Their gaze held, then her hoof began to slide over to him. They were an inch away from each other, half an inch, a quarter… one last hard push by both and Discord’s paw firmly grabbed Midnight’s hoof. Half his chest and his dragon leg were now in the trap as he began twisting to pull the kirin out. He was sweating hard with the strain of pulling Midnight out while fighting to hold on to his magic reserves. Celestia and Luna were right about how powerful this trap was. He’d have to ask them later why they didn’t try this on him all those years ago.
“Almost… there…” he told the kirin. His paw and her hoof were near the trap’s edge now. He could feel the resistance of the trap wall but already had a plan ready to go. Once he’d pulled her close enough, he extended his still free eagle claw and the tips of the talons began to glow. “If I ever do one thing right, it’s going to be… THIS!” He brought the claw down on the outside of the trap wall. When it connected, it blew the side wide open for a second and Discord used that moment to fling Midnight clear of the trap and into waiting hooves. The momentum, however, pushed him fully into the trap and it closed around him. “Yeah, this is gonna suck,” he grunted. At the same time, though, he smiled as he saw practically everyone outside the trap converge on the kirin, all sorts of emotions on their faces.
“Discord… you…?” Celestia said as she continued working on the trap.
“Just… keep working on it… Tia…” he said, grimacing at the pain and exhaustion. “I used… a lot of magic and… and I have a lot of… making up to do…”
-----------------------------
Midnight woke up sometime later, mercifully in her own bed and not in a hospital. She felt like a towel that had been wrung out far too much and was sore and tired. Even though she’d just woken up her body was already begging to go back to sleep. She wanted to fight through the tiredness to get up and show everyone she was alright but something warm and furry at her side stopped her. Looking down she saw Squeaks curled up and sleeping at her side.
No, she wouldn’t get up. It was a sudden epiphany to her that getting up to show she was alright would have the opposite effect because she wasn’t alright. That trap had done a number on her, whatever it did, and doing anything besides fully recovering was just going to make the ones she loved worry all the more. They didn’t deserve that but she felt they did need to know she was getting better. She was just about to lean over and wake Squeaks up so she could let someone know when the door softly clicked and swung open. Sapphire was bringing in a glass of juice when she saw the kirin was awake. She quickly put the glass down on the night stand and examined Midnight.
“Are you alright?” she whispered, gently stroking her marefriend’s face with a wing. The soft feathers felt like a balm to Midnight.
“Tired,” the kirin admitted, “and more wrung out than I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I just wanted to let you know I was up, even if I want to go right back to sleep. How long…?”
“Three days,” Sapphire told her, “which is about how long the princesses said you’d be out for, given your healing ability. They said that once you woke up and could eat you should start to recover faster but they think it’ll take at least two weeks for you to fully recover.”
Midnight nodded. “What about Discord?”
Sapphire bit her lip. “Drained, just like you. The princesses managed to finally undo the spell before it could do anything permanent to him but he’s apparently knocked out just like you. I can’t believe he actually did that, risking his own life to get you out of there.”
“I can’t believe it only took a week and a few harsh words to get through to him,” Midnight said, laying her head back down on her pillow. “Then again, I thought I felt something change in him the day we saw Fluttershy. How’s Screwball taking it? She seemed pretty pissed last time I saw her.”
Sapphire flinched. “When Discord rescued you, she just… disappeared. Apparently her existence was tied to Discord’s magic and his feelings of anger. Between rescuing you and the trap, he just couldn’t maintain her anymore.”
Midnight blinked at her owlishly. “I’d say that chaos creatures are weird but… chaos.”
Sapphire nodded. “If you think you can stay up, I’ll get you something small to eat.”
“I think I can do that much,” Midnight agreed.
“And then straight back to bed!” the pegasus told her with a determined eye.
“As long as it’s not for the rest of my life, I’ll stay in this bed as long as you want me to,” Midnight assured her then frowned when she saw Sapphire get a funny look on her face. “What’s wrong?”
“You should stay in that bed recovering for as long as possible… but when you can, I’d like you to see Shoal. She’s been hovering around the house ever since we brought you back here and asking us every time we go outside how you’re doing,” the pegasus explained.
“She’s been weird ever since we let Discord out,” Midnight mused, “but I’ll talk to her. Ask the princesses if sunning myself will help my recovery; I might be able to do both at the same time.”
Sapphire nodded and got her some buttered bread which she quickly wolfed down then went back to sleep. She woke up on and off for the next couple of days, only eating and drinking when she woke up with a bit of conversation when she stayed up longer to break the monotony. Once she was able to stay up for more than an hour, she convinced Sapphire to let her lay out in the sun. The heat of the summer sun felt good and while she nodded at Shoal, who was hovering near the cliff behind the house, she barely stayed awake long enough to get properly situated before passing out. It wasn’t until she woke up several hours later as the sun was beginning to set that she finally talked with the dragon.
“So, what’s been going on for the past week and a half?” Midnight asked.
Once again the dragon looked embarrassed. “After what’s happened, I don’t think you’d appreciate me asking you to wait, would you?”
“Is it something that would really, truly shake me to the core?” Midnight asked with a grin.
“It… just might,” Shoal confessed. “But since you’re still recovering now might not be the best time.”
She’d meant it as sort of a joke, figuring that Spike, Spine, and her to some extent had just set off some kind of motherly instinct in the dragon. The look on Shoal’s face told her it was a bit more serious than that. “Well… unless you’re about to tell me you know where my dad is, I don’t see how it could affect me much.”
Shoal looked unsure and didn’t say anything for a few minutes, then took a steadying breath. “It’s about why I know your father and grandfather,” she said. “I… met your grandfather Firestorm about a century after his clan left Equestria. I never subscribed to the whole thing about how dragons are supposed to be fierce and independent while wyverns are supposed to be weak and have to rely on their families to get by. I was quite a mommy’s girl when I was still young; I always like the idea of having a close family like wyverns did. I was big even back then, so when I met him, I found him out in the open and alone, so you can guess how nervous he must have been.” She chuckled at something only she could see. “But he got over that nervousness soon enough, as well as a few other things. By this time I was following the clan around, from a distance so as not to antagonize them but close enough to not lose them.”
“So, did you end up babysitting my dad after he was born then? I’m surprised my grandmother would allow a dragon to babysit her son, even if you were on good terms with the clan.”
There was a twinkle in Shoal’s eye. “The clan never knew I was there, I don’t think. If they did they never saw me as a threat as I always kept my distance. Your grandfather came by to see me as often as he could. Then, one day, he arrived to find that I’d built a nest with a single egg in it.”
Midnight blinked and her eyes started getting wide. “Wait…”
“I can’t tell you how entertaining it was to see him freak out when he saw it. I felt sorry for him when he agonized over how to tell the clan and I suggested he wait until the egg hatched first before telling them. It was a good thing, too, because when the egg finally hatched out came a perfect little wyvern with blue horns and a blue belly. About the only thing he got from me was his size because according to Firestorm, Little Windy was big for a hatchling.” She snorted in amusement, “Windstorm was big for a wyvern his whole life. When I finally stopped following the clan he was a good head and neck taller than any other wyvern in the clan with larger wings to boot.”
“Wait, you and Firestorm… but Firestorm is my… and Windstorm is… but you and Firestorm…” She knew exactly what Shoal was telling her but it was like her mind refused to let the dots connect. “But I look like a kirin born from a wyvern. If you’re… if my dad is half dragon, then shouldn’t I…?”
Shoal shrugged. “For some reason your father’s wyvern genes were always more dominant; again, except for the size. Apparently that stayed true when he and your mother made you.” She looked down at Midnight with concern. “You’re not… angry, are you? I didn’t want to say anything at first because I wasn’t one hundred percent sure but since I am now, I couldn’t help but get protective over my granddaughter.”
Ganddaughter. Holy sweet makers.
“I’m not mad, just…” Midnight rubbed the side of her head, “wow, this is… this is a lot to take in. I never knew mom’s parents either. Suddenly I get how Squeaks was feeling when she first met mom.”
“You were quite a shock yourself when we met at the dragon migration,” Shoal said and things began to click for Midnight. Shoal’s sudden interest in her when she told her she was from the Storm Clan, that motherly smile she’d given her when they’d finished talking for the first time, her wanting to join the Bearer Guard for seemingly no reason. It all suddenly made sense.
“So, now that that’s out of the bag, what do we do now?” Midnight asked.
“I’d still like to be part of the Bearer Guard, even if I haven’t been as much of a help as I’d hoped I’d be,” Shoal said, rubbing the back of her head.
Getting knocked out by crystals, not being around when Trixie took over the town… yeah, Shoal hadn’t exactly given the best impression the first few times they could have used her help. Then again, Midnight had lost to both the hydra and Chrysalis while she was a wyvern and no-one gave her a hard time about it. “It’ll happen,” Midnight assured her.
Shoal smiled and leaned over, nuzzling Midnight with the bottom of her jaw. It was surprisingly gentle for such a large creature and Midnight leaned into it, growl-purring. To her surprise Shoal made a growl-purr of her own, vibrating the kirin’s whole body.
“I should head back inside,” Midnight said with a yawn, “Sapphire will worry if I don’t go in soon.” Shoal nodded with a smile. As she reached the door, Midnight turned back to the dragon, who cocked her head questioningly. “Um, by the way, should I start calling you grandmother now, or grandma, or…?”
Shoal chuckled. “I don’t mind if you keep using my name, especially as Captain of the Guard, but it would make me happy if I was called “grandma” every once in a while.”
Midnight smiled. “Then good night, grandma. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Shoal smiled back. “Good night, Little Midnight. Sleep well.”
-----------------------------
The four of them stood in the Kirin’s Grove, the first real visitors the place had in probably over a millennia, other than whoever had come and cleaned up the place recently. The vines over the entrance were gone, the grass was cut, weeds pulled, and trees trimmed. At a glance one would think they were up in one of Canterlot Castle’s gardens. Midnight and Discord still looked a bit haggard but they were both staying awake for the most part for the past few days so it was agreed they were recovered enough to visit. It helped that the princesses were there for support if they needed it.
“So, this is my great aunt Storm Vine,” Midnight said, looking up at the statue in front of her. The graves were arranged in a “U” shape, with Storm Vine’s grave sat at the top of the half circle part. She agreed with the others that it was a very life-like statue, almost as if what had happened to Discord had happened to her and the rest of the kirins as well. If only that had really been the case. She also had to agree that she really did look a lot like Storm Vine; paint the statue blue and black and you’d probably confuse it for a statue of Midnight except for the tail blade.
“Whoever did this work did one heck of a job,” Discord said, looking around at them all. “Put some paint on them and it would look like they’re just frozen in time.”
“That’s part of the reason we sealed it up,” Celestia told them, “it hurt too much to look at them. I caught myself almost patting a cheek, telling them to stop playing around.” A tear trailed down her muzzle. “Even after all this time…”
“That was when we set up the trap,” Luna said, “we feared thee would someday break out and thought thou would come here first.”
“Any reason you didn’t use it on me the first time?” Discord asked. “Seems like it would have been a lot less trouble to cast instead of hunting down the Elements.”
“For one thing, the area has to be prepared, which you would have never fallen for,” Celestia explained. “For a second, we only figured out how to power up the spell as much as we did about a hundred years after you were imprisoned and had to come back and reapply it.” She turned to Midnight and bowed her head. “We have already discussed it and have decided to push up how important it is to clear the castle of all traps and information left behind. While no other traps of that strength are here, there are still plenty more and none of us wish to put your guard in any more danger than it needs to be.”
“I appreciate that,” Midnight said with a nod.
“There will be architects and masons as well, to shore the castle up into a proper, safe fortress,” Luna added.
“I know the rest of the guard will appreciate that, too,” Midnight agreed.
There was a soft *tink* sound and the three looked back at Vine’s statue to see Discord up close to it, his eagle claw holding something. “She kept it,” he said softly as they came over to see what he was doing. In his claw was a kirin-shaped pendent with a gem that looked to be many different colors set in the center. “After everything, she kept it.”
“What is it?” Midnight asked.
“A present I gave to Vine right before I had my… episode,” Discord told her. “I expected her to throw it away. Even I didn’t know what it could do, so it wasn’t like she had a reason to hold on to it for something.”
“She did express a desire to be rid of it at first,” Luna told them, “but then decided to hold on to it on case thine senses were found. After we imprisoned thee, she was kept too busy to the end to decide what to do with it.”
“I think it became a symbol of hope for her, so we put it here with her,” Celestia explained. “It’s good to see it has survived the long years as well.”
Discord gave Midnight a sideways glance. “It’s not exactly my place, but it would be nice to see it on a kirin again, especially one that is related to Storm Vine.”
Midnight looked up at him, as did the two alicorns. Then the sisters looked back at the pendent, then to Midnight, then back to the pendent again. “It would be nice…” Celestia said slowly.
“May thy be once again reminded that she is not Storm Vine?” Luna said with exasperation. “Next suggestion will be to dye herself green!”
“If I agree to wear it,” Midnight interrupted, “will you stop comparing us? If she was here I’d bet she’d be just as annoyed by it.”
Discord and Celestia looked away with fake coughs. “I can agree to that,” he finally said.
“I can as well,” Celestia agreed.
Luna rolled her eyes but charged up her horn and gently, carefully, undid the clasp behind the statue’s neck and levitated it over to the living kirin. Midnight move her mane to expose her neck and Luna wrapped the necklace around it, redoing the clasp so that it stayed put once she released it from her magic.
Midnight looked down and examined it. She was never that big on jewelry, preferring to eat it or simply not deal with it. This, however, felt right. “You know, if we ever find the Storm Clan, I think grandpa will be happy to see me with this.”
“We can dye you green, too, and give him a heart attack,” Discord suggested.
Midnight flambéed his tail but it was a smaller fire than she would have used before.
-----------------------------
Marina watched as the female owl harpy absently bit a chunk off her peppermint stick. Snow had been in a mood for more than a week and they'd all noticed. They’d arrived almost two weeks ago and had spent the first couple of nights just exploring it. They were barely used to the small houses made on the northern side of the Great Swamp; sky scrapers covered in lights were a marvel to them. Once they started looking they found out quickly that if you weren’t a pegasus, unicorn, or earth pony you stood out like a sore talon. Even if Midnight Storm looked generally like a pony, there were several things about her that would stand out, even here and they’d found nothing that came close to looking like her. There weren’t even any ponies with black fur; at best a few had dark grey coats.
“I’m sure we’ll find her,” Marina tried to assured Snow, guessing at what was bothering the owl harpy. “It’s just a really big place to look.”
“Yeah,” the owl harpy muttered as she finished chewing. It was known that some creatures took requests and orders from the wyverns as almost sacred and could be fanatical in carrying them out, even if it was something as simple as delivering a message. She couldn't imagine Snow as one of those, not after the way she'd acted on the flight south, but perhaps feeling that she was so close to her objective but no longer making progress was finally getting to her.
Snow huffed, put the remainder of the candy in her pouch and took off, Marina following close behind. They were checking the shadier parts of the city tonight, both figuratively and literally, including some of the docks. If Midnight had become a fisherpony and was working one of the boats, that would make it harder to spot her than it already seemed to be.
“I’m surprised that there’s only the three kinds of ponies around here,” Marina said as they flew, trying to engage Snow in small talk to try and get her mind off of what was bothering her.
“Patriarch Firestorm said that very few others stayed behind. They probably all have left by now or have died out,” Snow told her.
They flew on for several more hours, looping back around several times to see if they saw anything new from a different angle or if their quarry had come out of a building. Ponies were steadily leaving the streets so it would be easier to spot her if she came out after everyone else went to bed.
Just as they were looping back around again, they saw Shade and Orestes flying towards them. “Hey! What’s up?” Marina asked as they got close.
“We found something!” Shade said and they all descended to a nearby roof. Upon landing, Shade motioned to the male owl harpy and he put down a large piece of paper with writing and black and white pictures on it.
“This was left blowing about in a park,” Orestes explained.
“Orestes, we can’t read that,” Marina reminded him.
“True, but this is easy to understand.” He turned the paper over and pointed to one of the pictures with a talon. In it was a crowd of ponies in a line all dressed in the same outfit. Well, most of them were ponies; three were thestrals and one looked like a griffon, but the one to the side…
Snow’s light purple eyes went wide and she fished out the picture she’d been given. Holding it up to the picture on the paper, she got even more excited. “That’s her! That’s Midnight!”
“Okay, great, but where is she? Like Marina said we can’t read whatever they’re saying about it,” Shade pointed out.
“I’ve been studying a few maps that are at that place with the tracks those loud machines roll on,” Orestes said, “and I recognize a few of the words, particularly these two,” he pointed to “Canterlot” and “Ponyville”. “According to the maps, they’re both due west of the city.”
“Good job, Orestes!” Marina said.
“Hate to admit it, but she’s right,” Shade said. Marina smacked him with a wing.
“Alright then,” Snow said, her mood visibly improving, “let’s head west.”