//------------------------------//
// Prolog: The kind-of-secret race 
// Story: Night Glimmer or: How you become Nightmare Moon 
// by Dream Quill 
//------------------------------//


Night Glimmer

or

How you become Nightmare Moon


Prolog: The kind-of-secret Race

You all probably saw them. Some of you maybe even thought about them as being normal Ponies with a kind of illusion spell on them.
Ha. Some of you may even think, that they are a hybridation of Ponies and Dragons.
What all of you maybe know by now is, that I’m talking about the so known Nightguards. The dragon-eyed and -winged Ponies that serve under Princess Luna.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then just think of a really handsome hunk of a stallion with a darkgrey coat and commonly with a black mane, dressed in a set of well forged dark violet Armor, with bat, or dragon, like wings and dragon like eyes. That would be the picture of a Nightguard you may be used to.
I tell you one thing.

You are all wrong.

Under the terrible, and by most Ponies long forgotten, reign of Discord, which we all know was torturous for all races of Ponies, it happened one night that his “majesty” became bored, because his subjects slept through the nights. He, in his function as a God, has had no urge to sleep and thus he created a new, nocturnal race of Ponies, just so he can enjoy their misery all day and night long.
As you all can imagine that was the beginning of the, nowadays, so called Nightguards.
Now you may ask why there are only Nightguard-Pegasi.
Well...
I would like to say, that Discord just created nocturnal Ponies of one race, but that would be lying.

In fact, you all know at least one Nightguard-Unicorn.
But I’m foreshadowing.

This story is not one of harmony, friendship or such things. It’s a story of racism, hatred, fear and most importantly the story of a little Unicorn with one special talent you all may recognize.
Her talent was the magic itself.
Some of you might think, that I’m referring to Twilight Sparkle, but this story takes place in a time long before even the great-great parents of Twilight were born.
To be precise, it takes place just a few years after Discord has been defeated by two well known Alicorns.
A time of joy, a time where all races were free once again, where all of Discord's Chaos disappeared from the now peaceful land of Equestria.
Well, almost all of it.
Just as every other race of Ponies, the nocturnal ones cheered and were tempting to enjoy their new gained freedom, but being confronted with something they never experienced before had some consequences.
They weren’t used to the social standards of the three races and did not know how to fit in. None of them had to deal with “normal” Ponies before and they were not exactly dealt with kindness nor respect from the “normal” ones.
Due to their major appearance and the fact, that Discord created them, the other races feared them, resulting in open aggression, exclusion from “normal” Pony villages and the building of hatred, named racism.
Struggling with the mess Discord left behind neither of the two Alicorn sisters could have put an end to this. It was that they did not even know about it and nopony felt the urge to change this circumstance.
Lokal authorities took the law in their hooves and the following decades the “Nightguards” or, as they were called back then, the Shadows were locked up in small, guarded, fenced areas. Nowadays you would call it a high security prison.
They had to live in unponyly conditions, under the constant watch of their “Safekeepers” and under some ridiculous laws.
One of this laws said, that “Shadows” weren’t allowed to use magic, as it was the high art of the Unicorns and the Shadows weren’t worth possessing the ability to use it as well. In some places this law even extended in cutting off every Shadow-Unicorn’s Horn when they were born.
However not a single one of the Shadows even thought about putting together a rebellion or even stand up against their Safekeepers.
Actually they were pretty confident in being with their own kind and not having to deal with this frightening and unkown thing called freedom.
They were born, live and work in their village. None of them was allowed to leave the fenced area and they never tried to. The Safekeepers made sure that the Shadows did not get any chances to communicate with the world beyond the fence. Cause of the laws, that were put upon them, there were very few jobs, that a Shadow can take. Most of them contained hard hoof-work, work which the noble unicorns think to be unworthy for even speaking about them.
Most of the Shadows became blacksmiths, farmers or miners. While the big and mascular shadow-stallions could not work in mines, due to their narrow passages, this was an mares-only work.
It happened that the Shadows were all very charming. As muscular and manly the stallions were, as dainty and downright sinfull attracting were the mares.
It happened ever so often, that a mare disappeared from the mineside just to reappear some days, or weeks, later, not willing to talk about what had happened. Sure enaugh, everypony knew what occured, but none complained.

That was until a very special Shadow-Unicorn was born.
Her coat was a unnaturally dark blue, so she was even darker as the night itself, her mane was exactly the color of the night sky during full moon. And her eyes, despite the normally yellow eyes of her race, were a pearly turquoise.
But what was really special about this particular foal was that it was born with a Cutie Mark.
And it was one, which caused her parents to hide her away from the watchful eyes of their Safekeepers, pretending it a stillbirth.
A Cutie Mark which stands unmistakably for the one thing Shadows were forbidden to use by death penalty.

Magic.