//------------------------------// // Midnight's Past // Story: Secrets // by Robobrony //------------------------------// Chapter 6: Midnight’s Past Rainbow Dash hovered above the town, frantically searching for any sign of Midnight Star. “Come on, where are you?” She asked silently to herself. Then, off in the distance on the outskirts of Ponyville, she saw a pony figure walking away. “THERE HE IS!” She called down to the others. She flew back down and headed in the direction of the pony so the others could follow. They galloped as fast as they could to catch up to Midnight. Midnight continued to trudge along away from Ponyville. “Midnight, wait, please don’t go!” Midnight stopped where he was when he heard a voice call to him with worry. He recognized it as the unicorn who gave him those art books, Twilight was her name he remembered. He looked back and saw six ponies running up to him with fearful worry on their muzzles. Midnight turned completely around to talk with them with a scowl on his face. “What do you want, I’m leaving Ponyville like you wanted, what more do you want to do to me to make me suffer?” Rarity was the first to speak up. “Midnight, dear, we didn’t come to make you suffer more.” Applejack came in next. “We came here to apologize.” Midnight Star felt a little spark of hope ignite within him, but decided this may very well be a trick and killed it. “Yeah right, just leave me alone already, you made it clear that you don’t want anything to do with me so just let me leave in peace.” He turned back around to leave. Rainbow quickly landed in front of him to keep him from leaving. “No really, we feel real bad for accusing you and jumping to the conclusion we did.” Fluttershy then spoke up. “Please Midnight, don’t go.” Pinkie then jumped up in front of the goup. “We’re super-duper sorry for how we acted.” Finally, Twilight chimed in. “Midnight, we’re willing to hear what you have to say if you still want to tell us about what happened to your father. Please Midnight, it was wrong of us to think you were bad just because of what your father did. I swear we will listen to you and believe you if you still want to talk.” That small spark of hope came back a little brighter than before, he turned to face the others with a solemn expression. “You really are sorry, and are willing to listen to me?” They all nodded in unison with a sad smile on their faces. Midnight even saw Rainbow nod yes out of the corner of his eye. Midnight did his best to try and keep that spark of hope within him in check, but this was the first time any pony said that they were willing to listen to him and hear his side of the story about what happened with his father. “And you promise to believe me?” They all nodded again. He tried to fight it, but a small smile appeared on his face. He turned to face them completely. He gave a deep sigh and sat on his haunches. “*SIGH* All right then, you have no idea how much this means to me.” Rainbow then came around from behind him and joined the others so she could hear his tale. *Flash Back* As you all know, my father is the one you all call King Sombra. The thing is……he wasn’t always evil like how you all saw him, he used to be a regular unicorn living a peaceful life. It all started about a thousand years ago. My father and I lived a happy life with my mother and his wife. Her name was Heart String, she was a beautiful unicorn mare with a pale pink coat and a white mane and tail with beautiful pink eyes. Her cutie mark, ironically enough, was a heart with strings attached to it. Her special talent was bringing smiles to others when they were down. She knew how to read others and figure out the best way to make them smile again. Heart String and Sombra, yes his name was indeed Sombra, were very much in love, and loved me too. We lived happy peaceful lives. But one day, tragedy struck our family. My mother became deathly ill, at the time, medicine was so underdeveloped, none of the doctors then could figure out what was wrong with her, thus they couldn’t treat her. Eventually, she passed away after a month of getting sick. My dad and I were very devastated, but I think my dad took it harder than I did. A month after she died, dad started to lock himself in his room, only coming out once in a while to eat. I tried to talk with him and ask him what he was doing. All he said to me was, “Don’t worry son, soon we’ll be a family again.” I didn’t understand what he meant by that. Three months went by with no change, one day when he was out of the room, I snuck in to see what he was doing. I couldn’t believe what I found out. He had books strewn about on a desk with dark spells in them, necromancy, soul summoning, raising the dead, all spell books that had to do with dealing with the dead. My father was dealing with black magic. “What are you doing in here son?” I heard my father’s voice and turned to face him. It wasn’t until this moment when I got a good look at him. He looked different than what he did before. Hid eyes had a tinge of green when they should have been brown, and the irises looked a little more narrow. “Dad, what is all this, don’t tell me you’re going to try and bring mom back from the dead?” I asked him. He just looked at me and responded. “Why would I want to bring back that weakling, I have bigger plans now.” I couldn’t believe what I heard. “Dad, what are you talking about?” He walked over to the desk as I stepped aside. “I only crave one thing now, power. I’ve been studying more than just these simple spells, I’ve been looking at all kinds of dark magic to increase my potential.” As he spoke, I could swear I saw his form change a little, his cutie mark which was of stars for his talent of mapping and observing the stars, was gone. “But why, what’s happening to you dad?” I asked with fear. He turned to me and he had changed even more, his horn had now become curved and turned a dark shade of red, his black mane and tail started to move on their own, as if they were being blown about. “I just had a desire to get more than what we have, soon my son, we will rule all of Equestria, and then the world. But first, we will conquer the Crystal Empire, it’s magic will be most useful in bending the other ponies to our will.” “NO, dad you can’t mean that, why are you doing this?!” I couldn’t believe this, my father had gone insane, the only reason I could think of as to why this was happening, was because the dark magic he was studying was warping his mind and body. “Soon son, we will be the masters of this world. Me as the king, and you as the prince, we will rule this world as father and son. HA HA HA HA HA! OH IT WILL BE GLORIOUS!” He cackled like a mad stallion. I was too afraid to do anything, but despite his madness, he still cared for me. I didn’t know what to do, I was too afraid to try and stop him, I hoped that if I did stay with him, I could find a way to convince him to give this up. So I just stayed by his side as he committed terrible acts. If I tried to stand in his way, I was afraid that he wouldn’t hesitate to do something terrible to me. Eventually, he managed to take over the Crystal Empire and enslaved the poor crystal ponies there. I wished there was something I could do to help them, but there was nothing I could do. I decided that enough was enough, I was going to try and talk to him one last time to try and get through to him. I had my journal with me at the time which I used to keep track of my father’s actions, hoping that I could use it as some way to find a way to change him back. I went up to the balcony of the castle where dad was overlooking the empire. He must have sensed me approach as he began to speak. “Isn’t it glorious son, with this, we are one step closer to reaching our goals. Soon, the world will be ours.” I walked up to him. “NO DAD, this is your dream, look at what you’ve done, what do you think mom would say if she saw you like this, what you’ve done, what you’ve become!” He turned and glared at me. “YOUR MOTHER IS GONE, SHE WAS A WEAKLING, AND IF YOU DON’T WANT TO STAND BY MY SIDE, THEN YOU ARE JUST A WORTHLESS WEAKLING YOURSELF!” Tears started to form in my eyes. “What’s happened to you dad, this isn’t you, you’re not like this, please stop this now before it’s too late!” “If you can’t see the beauty in this, then you are not my son, leave my sight before I destroy you!” He said so cruelly. It was at that moment that I knew my father was gone. I then remembered hearing about the elements of harmony, how they were used to seal Discord away in stone. I figured that maybe the princesses could use them to banish the darkness that took over my father’s heart. I was about to turn and leave, when suddenly, the princesses appeared in front of the balcony, hovering before us. My father turned to face them just in time to see them cast a powerful spell that turned him to shadow. Unfortunately, because of my proximity, I was caught in the spell as well, it didn’t turn me to shadow, but I was cast away with my father and sealed away for a thousand years. When the seal finally broke, and we were set free, I still remembered all that happened. I ran away as fast as I could to try and get to the princesses in hopes I could convince them to use the elements of harmony on my father and turn him back to normal. Unfortunately though, I wasn’t fast enough. On my way to the palace, I was about halfway to the castle when I heard a huge explosion. I looked in the direction of the Crystal Empire and there was a massive explosion of colors coming from it. I panicked, I feared the worst and headed back there. By the time I got there, everything was peaceful, the crystal ponies were happy, and there was a new prince and princess in charge there. I managed to find out what happened from the crystal ponies there. Apparently, the new prince and princess, with the help of six other ponies and a baby dragon, managed to find the crystal heart and used its power to defeat Sombra, he was shattered to pieces and destroyed. My father was gone, I had no family left. I didn’t have time to grieve for him though, as the crystal ponies soon recognized me and chased me away, when I tried to tell them my side of the story, they didn’t want to hear it, so I had to leave. So, ever since then, I’ve wandered from town to town to try and find a new life for myself, but eventually, some pony manages to find out who my father was and I end up having to leave and find a new place. I never did find out who those six ponies and that little dragon was, but I don’t care, I just wish I could have known about them showing up so I could’ve at least tried and convince them to let me try and get the princesses to use the elements of harmony. *End Flashback.* “Finally, I came here, and you all know the rest.” Midnight finished his story with a few tears falling from his cheeks as he remembered the tragedy he had been through. The girls all were crying as well, guilt filling them up as they were the ones who helped prince Shinning Armor and princess Cadence find the crystal heart and defeated Sombra. Twilight was the first to speak up. “Oh Midnight, were so sorry about your father, we had no idea. Can you ever forgive us?” Midnight looked up at the girls. “You have nothing to apologize for, you already did for when you found me and said how sorry you were for assuming I was bad.” Rarity came forward then. “No dear, you see, well……we are the six ponies who are responsible for what happened to your father, it’s our fault he’s gone.” Midnight couldn’t believe what he just heard. “You, you’re the ponies who……I……I don’t.” He couldn’t speak, he was just feeling too sad and surprised by this news. “No, it’s…..it’s ok. I can understand why you did what you did. You were just trying to do the right thing, there was no way you could have known what I just told you, I……..I…forgive you.” He said with a sad frown. The girls all ran over to him and embraced him in a group hug. They just had to do something to comfort him. Fluttershy then spoke up. “Oh Midnight, we are so so sorry about what happened.” Pinkie then chimed in. “Yeah, first we accuse you of being a meanie, then we find out we’re responsible for you not having a father, can you ever forgive us?” Applejack then came in. “Please don’t go sugar cube, we promise not ta tell anyone about who your father is.” Rainbow then came in. “Yeah, if any pony does find out, we’ll defend you. You just gotta stay and let us make it up to you somehow for what we did.” Midnight couldn’t believe this, these ponies truly did care about him. That small spark of hope that was in his heart was now a raging inferno. He could finally have a home here, and real friends. The girls finally broke the group hug and saw Midnight Star had a huge smile on his face with tears in his eyes. “You…..really want me to stay?” They all nodded in unison with sad smiles and a few tears still in their eyes. Twilight stepped forward and spoke. “Midnight, we are very sorry for everything we put you through, please stay here in Ponyville and make it your home, we all want to be your friend.” “Thank you, you have no idea how much this all means to me. I will then, I will make Ponyville my home, thank you so much everyone.” Midnight felt so light at that moment, he could take off like a bird. He could finally have a new home and real friends. THE END!?