Chapter 2: Acceptance or Rejection
Celestia and Luna had a meeting with the mayor to set up a town meeting in front of town hall. The place was all decorated with streamers and balloons all over the place. A stage was all set up in front of town hall for the princesses to address all the ponies present. Twilight, Spike and her friends were all on the side of the stage with Midnight Star as support. Celestia and Luna stood before the crowed, Celestia began her speech.
“My little ponies, it is wonderful to see you all here today, the reason I have called this meeting is to introduce you all to a new pony in town. I realize that me doing such is rather unusual, but this ponies background is rather unusual as well. For you see, he is the son of a terrible villain that we all know, but this pony is not like that villain. In fact, he is one of the nicest ponies I have ever met. His father was King Sombra.” Celestia paused a moment to let that information sink in.
The ponies all began to whisper and mutter amongst themselves.
Celestia continued. “I’ve had a chance to speak with this pony face to face and I can say with absolute certainty that Midnight Star is no threat. I would like all of you to help me welcome him here.” Celestia and Luna then stepped away from the pedestal so Midnight could take the stand. The crowed was hesitant to stomp their hooves in applause.
Midnight himself was hesitant to get on stage. Pinkie put her hoof on his shoulder, causing him to look at her. She gave him a comforting smile to encourage him. He smiled back, he looked forward and walked up on stage, as he came forward, he saw Luna giving him an encouraging smile as well. With that, the last bit of fear he had of the princesses had disappeared.
Midnight got in front of the podium and began to speak. “Um, thank you your majesties, and thank you all my fellow Ponyvillians, I really appreciate such a warm welcome to this wonderful town.” He paused a moment, as he did, he heard a few silent comments made by some of the ponies in the crowd.
“Is he really the son of Sombra?”
“What is the son of Sombra doing here?”
“He really has the princesses fooled.”
“This will only end badly, I can’t believe Celestia and Luna are letting this guy stay here.”
“What are we going to do? He’s sure to cause trouble as soon as the princesses turn their backs on him.”
He continued on, feeling very nervous now. “*AHEM* um, anyway, I promise to not be any trouble here, I will do my best to be an outstanding citizen of this great town.” More comments were heard.
“Is he serious?”
“He has to be lying.”
“Why don’t the princesses just throw him in a dungeon or something.”
At this point, Midnight was sweating now. “Even with the princesses support, they still see you as the son of Sombra, they’re already judging you for what your father did. Face it, you just don’t belong here, or anywhere. You’ll never have real friends.” Midnight had no idea where that thought came from, but it just made him even more scared. “Um,…..I…uh……I…..thank you very much!” He then just ran off the stage past his seven friends and galloped home. The girls,Spike, Celestia, and Luna, all got worried about this.
Celestia bid the audience a farewell and followed her student and friends as they all rushed after Midnight. They got to his house just as he rushed in and slammed the door. Twilight was the first to come up to the door. She opened it and walked in with the others behind her to see Midnight curled up on his couch. “Midnight, are you all right, what happened back there?”
Midnight looked up to see his seven friends and the Princesses in his house looking at him with worry. “Who am I kidding? I’ll never be accepted, all they ever see when they look at me are all the terrible things my father did.”
Rarity tried to comfort him. “Don’t be silly dear, of course you’ll be accepted, it will just take time.”
“Didn’t you hear them out there, what they said about me while I was on the stage? Face it, I just don’t belong anywhere.”
Spike then tried to say something. “Don’t be ridiculous, they just need to spend time with you to get to know you, let them see the real you and they’ll forget all about your evil father.”
“SPIKE!” Twilight Scolded. “Don’t you remember, his father wasn’t always evil.”
“Oops, sorry Midnight, what I meant was, they’re sure to forget about what he did when he was evil and just accept you for you.”
“It’s all your fault, and you ponies that my father is gone in the first place, why am I even putting up with you?” Another strange thought came across his mind. He shook his head to get those thoughts out. He knew that they did what they thought was right to protect the crystal empire. “It’s fine, thank you for trying to cheer me up, but I think I just need some time alone for now.”
The girls felt bad for Midnight, but there wasn’t really much they could do for him. They all just left his house then and let him be. Celestia then addressed the girls. “I’m afraid I must be going now, I wish you all the best of luck in helping Midnight fit in.”
Luna then had a thought. “Sister, would it be all right if I stayed in Ponyville for a while to help Midnight Star, I really think it would help him to have some pony around who knows what he’s going through. I can still raise and lower the moon from here.”
Celestia smiled at Luna. “I suppose, things are usually pretty quiet around the castle, as far as I know, we don’t have a very busy schedule this week, so I see no harm in it, you may stay here for a while to help Midnight.”
“Thank you Celly.” Luna was pleased that Celestia would let her stay.
“Princess, Luna is more than welcome to stay with me in the library, I have an extra room she can use.” Twilight offered.
Celestia gave a warm smile to her student. “Thank you Twilight, I really appreciate that.”
Luna gave a warm smile as well. “Yes, thank you for your hospitality, we are most grateful for it.”
Twilight gave a bow. “It is my pleasure your majesties.” Spike also bowed, followed by the others.
Celestia then felt that now was the time to leave. “Take care my friends, I will see you all again soon. Good luck to you Luna, I know with your help, Midnight will be able to fit in in no time.” With that, Celestia lit up her horn and disappeared in a flash.
“Well, welcome to Ponyville, Luna!” Pinkie cheered.
“Thank you Pinkie Pie.” Luna said to Pinkie.
“So what are we gonna do tomorrow ta try and help Midnight get ta know every pony so they won’t be afraid of him?” Applejack asked.
Luna had a thought. “If it’s all right with you all, I would like to just take him on a tour of the town tomorrow so we can just talk, maybe a good chat with me will help some. It might also help for some of the towns ponies to see him with me.”
Rarity agreed with that. “That sounds like a marvelous idea, I do wish you the best of luck with that.”
“Come on Luna, let’s get you settled in then.” Twilight said to Luna.
“Lead the way miss Sparkle.” Luna said jokingly which elicited a laugh from the others.
The others then went their separate ways, still feeling sad for Midnight Star. Twilight led Luna to her house and let her in. “Here we are Luna, home sweet home.” Twilight walked in, followed by Spike, then Luna.
An hour after the girls left Midnight alone, he decided he should go ahead and use the bits they gave him to stock up on art supplies so he could get started on a painting or two for his friends. He gathered his saddlebags and headed out for the market.
By the time Midnight Star returned home, it was now late in the afternoon. The sun had set and the moon was starting to rise. Midnight stopped a moment to watch the moon rise into the sky and the stars appear. “I always did enjoy watching the stars, I can still remember the nights my dad and I would stay up late just to watch the moon rise and gaze at the stars when I was little.” He remembered fondly as a sad smile crept across his face. “I miss my father, the way he was before he changed.” He said quietly to himself. He then just continued on inside his house.
Midnight unpacked the supplies he bought and set up a blank canvas to work on tomorrow. Just as he was about to head up stairs, he was suddenly hit with a dizzy spell, he just seemed to suddenly lose the ability to stand straight, his vision started getting blurry. “What the hay, what…..what’s…going………..on.” He then blacked out.
Morning came and Midnight found himself in his bed. He awoke slowly as his eyes blinked open. He sat up and looked around his room. “What, what happened last night, I don’t remember coming to bed.” It was then that he heard a very loud, shrill scream. “THAT SOUNDED LIKE RARITY!” He was fully awake now, he jumped out of bed, raced down the stairs and out the door to Rarity’s.
He burst through the door and called out to her. “Rarity, are you all right, where are you?!”
“I’m upstairs in my work room!” She called, sounding a bit panicked.
Midnight ran upstairs to her and found her in her work room. “Rarity, what’s wrong, are you all right? I heard you scream form my room!” He looked around the room and saw a mess, all her fabrics had been ripped to shreds, the remains of some dresses hung loosely on some ponyquins.
“My work room, it’s completely destroyed!” She cried. She was right, even a desk was smashed, as well as many pencils broken and scattered across the floor, the curtains of her windows were ripped down, and a few sketches she had were torn up beyond recognition. “Who could have done such a thing?!”
Midnight decided to offer his help. “Oh rarity, I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do to help, maybe I can help you clean up?”
Rarity looked to Midnight, she was absolutely distraught. “All my hard work is ruined, what ever will I do?” She then did something that surprised Midnight, she embraced him in a hug and started to cry over his shoulder.
Midnight was surprised by this, he wasn’t sure what to do, so he did the only thing he thought was the appropriate thing. He just hugged her back, started stroking her back up and down, and spoke. “It’s ok Rarity, you can always fix everything back up, remake your designs and things. The important thing here is that you’re not hurt. I promise I’ll help you fix all this.”
Rarity pulled back to look Midnight in the eyes, she was still teary eyed, but she put on a sad smile. “Oh, thank you midnight, you’re very kind to offer.”
“Hey, what are friends for? Now come on, I’ll help you get the worst of this cleaned up.” Between the two of them, they managed to clean up the room in a matter of two hours, the place was now spotless, but now, Rarity would have to buy new supplies to replace what was destroyed.
Rarity then turned her attention to Midnight Star. “Thank you again for helping me clean up the mess Midnight, I really appreciate it. I simply must do something to repay your kindness.”
“You don’t have to repay me Rarity, I’m just happy to help, but do you know how this could have happened?”
Rarity then frowned. “I don’t know, I know I locked up my place last night, some pony must have broken in and did all this, but why?”
“I don’t know, but we definitely need to report this to the guards of this town. Come on, I’ll go with you.”
Rarity then remembered what Luna had said yesterday, about how she wanted to just talk with him some today. “Actually dear, I think I’ll be all right on my own now, but thank you again for all your help, I really appreciate it.”
“All right then, I guess I’ll just head home and get to work on a painting for one of the others. Take care Rarity.” Midnight then waved a hoof good bye and left.
“Who could have broken into Rarity’s place, and why would they make such a mess, it doesn’t make any sense.” “Who cares, it’s not your problem, it’s hers, let her deal with it and stop worrying about it. You only wasted your time helping her clean up.” There was another strange thought, why was he having these thoughts against his friends popping up all of a sudden. He just shook his head and walked in to his house to prepare for the day, unknowing of his date with the night princess was approaching.