Chapter 5: Investigation Time
Midnight was looking at the face of his father in the mirror. “No, It can’t be………dad?” This sudden realization caused him to back up in surprise and trip over his own back hooves, he fell to the hard floor and bumped his head. “OW!” He curled up as he grabbed his head in his front hooves and clenched his eyes and teeth in pain. After a moment, he got back up and looked in the mirror and saw……..himself. The image of his father was now gone, all he saw was himself as he kept one of his forelegs on his head with one eye clenched shut. “But, I saw him, I know I saw my dad. Am I going crazy?” He cautiously raised his other hoof and slowly moved it to the mirror, just as it was inches away from the mirror, he retracted it a bit, then continued to move it forward until it made contact.
He unclenched his eye to look with both eyes. “Nothing, it’s just me, but why did I see my father in there? Am I really going mad?” Midnight was growing more and more worried. “Maybe Twilight can help, whatever is going on can’t be some simple medical problem.” Then he heard a knocking at the door. “Who could that be?” Midnight made his way down the stairs to the door. He opened it to be greeted by Rarity.
“Hello Midnight, I hope you haven’t forgotten about my offer to make you a fabulous suit for your date with Luna?”
“My date with Luna, with what just happened, I completely forgo, should I still go through with it? Maybe my mind is just playing tricks on me from the stress of everypony judging me for my father.” “Right, sorry Rarity, something happened that made me nearly forget, let’s head over to your place now.” Midnight responded with a smile.
“Are you all right, you seem a little distracted?” Rarity asked with concern.
Midnight continued with a smile. “I’m fine Rarity, there’s nothing to concern yourself with.”
Rarity smiled back. “Well, all right then, I just need to get your measurments and I’ll have a suit ready for you before your date tomorrow.” Rarity then led Midnight over to her boutique.
“I probably should still see somepony about these blackouts I’ve been having. I just hope it doesn’t happen during my date with Luna. Sweet Celestia, I still can’t believe I have a date with Princess Luna.” “Do you really think she likes you, what do you think Celestia will say if she finds out you, the son of the dreaded Sombra, is dating her younger sister? For all you know this could just be a way for them to keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t do anything against their subjects.” “WHO ARE YOU!” He screamed inside his head,…….no answer. He just shook his head to try and clear his mind as he walked in to Rarity’s shop.
Rarity led him up the stairs of her shop to her work room. “All right dear, just stand still so I can get your measurments.” Rarity had Midnight standing in the middle of the room. She levitated some measuring tape, a note pad, and a quill in front of her. Midnight did as he was told and stood percectly still as she took measurements and wrote them down. “There we go, that didn’t take long now did it. I’ll have your suit ready by tomorrow at about 10:00.”
“Thank you Rarity, I really appreciate it. I’ll see you tomorrow then, there’s something I need to do now.” Midnight waved goodbye to Rarity as she returned the same. He headed out of the boutique and headed for Twilight’s library, he decided that whatever was going on with him really will be difficult for modern medicine, he was hoping Twilight might have an answer in one of her books about what he was experiencing. Right after he got out the door, he was hit with another dizzying spell. “No not again, please!” His eyes closed for a moment, then reopened, but were unchanged. “What, that’s weird, what was I-“ Then he remembered. “Oh right, I need to get to work on that painting I want to present to Luna.” Midnight headed for his house and went inside.
Meanwhile, at the library, Princess Luna had summoned two of the royal unicorn guards of the town to investigate the incident that occurred earlier. Luna addressed them. “Are you sure there is nothing else you can find?”
One of the guards spoke. “Sorry your majesty, but all we can find are trace amounts of dark magic, whoever did this is good at keeping themselves concealed.”
“I see, well thank you for your assistance anyway.”
The guards bowed. “Thank you your majesty.”
It was then that Applejack burst through the door. “TWILIGHT, LUNA, I NEED YER HELP!” She cried out with definite worry in her voice.
Twilight responded to her. “Applejack, what is it, what’s wrong?”
“It’s ma orchard, almost half the trees are dead, our crops are ruined, please tell me you can fix this princess!”
Applejack asked feeling very distraught.
“Fear not dear Applejack, I will be able to do so. Please lead the way, guards, I will require your assistance again.”
The guards responded in unison. “Yes your majesty.” Applejack led Luna, Twilight, Spike, and the guards to her home and out to the orchard where the dead trees were.
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this, how could this have happened?” Twilight asked as she stared in horror of the many dead apple trees.
Luna turned to the guards. “Gurads, begin scanning for anything that might lead to the cause of this.”
The guards responded in unison again. “Yes your majesty.” They then proceeded to scan the area with their magic to find something. After a while, they finished and one of them presented their findings. “Your majesty, I’m afraid it’s the same result as what we found at Rarity’s place and the library, all we could find were trace amounts of dark magic at work.”
“I see, thank you for your assistance again.”
Twilight then approached Luna. “Princess, what’s going on, who is doing all this?”
Luna wore a worried expression as she looked to Twilight and answered. “I don’t know Twilight, but whoever it is, will pay for their crimes.”
Applejack then approached Luna. “Beggin yer pardon yer majesty, I don’t mean ta sound rude, but, did you say ya’ll could fix this mess?”
Luna smiled at Applejack. “Of course Applejack, I will restore your trees.” Luna then closed her eyes and her horn lit up. A dark blue dome spread out throught the affected area, bringing the trees back to life.
Applejack was stunned by the display. “Well I’ll be, thank ya very much princess, I really appreciate this.”
“You’re welcome dear Applejack, anything for a friend. Now about what happened, did you see anything suspicious before this happened?”
Applejack thought for a minute. “No, nothin out of the ordinary.”
“Are you sure, no visitors or anything?”
“Well, Midnight came by to drop off the paintin I asked him ta make earlier today, but that’s all.”
Luna then thought for a minute. “Perhaps we should pay Midnight a little visit.”
Twilight then got worried. “Princess, please tell me you don’t think Midnight could have done this, there’s no way he would!”
Applejack agreed. “Yeah, he is our friend after all, he would never do somethin like this, how could he?”
Luna raised a hoof to silence them. “Calm down my friends, I merely believe that he may have seen something that can help us discover what happened here.”
Twilight and Applejack let out a relieved sigh. Spike then decided to speak up. “Well then what are we waiting for, let’s go.” The group then headed out to Midnight’s.
Midnight had just finished recreating his very first painting he made of the night sky. It was a beautiful scene, the moon hung in the sky looking full with stars scattered around the night sky as clouds lazily hung in the sky lit up by the moons glow. A small town rested below the scene as some of the windows were lit up by candle light with a few hills in the background. “Perfect, I just know Luna is going to love it.” Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. “I wonder who that could be?” Midnight then made his way to the door to answer. “Oh, hello Luna, Applejack, Twilight, Spike, what brings you by here?”
Luna began. “Greetings Midnight, it is a pleasure to see you again.” Luna greeted with a smile. “I wish this was a casual visit, however there have been some incidents that have occurred today.” Luna informed Midnight of what happened at the library and at Sweet Apple Acres.
“Oh no, is there anything I can do to help you Applejack?” Midnight asked with worry.
Applejack smiled. “It’s all right sugar cube, the princess here already fixed the damage with her magic.”
Midnight gave a relieved sigh. “That’s good to hear, and the same with the library I take it?” Luna nodded. “That’s good, so what brings you bye?”
Luna began again. “I was wondering if you have seen anything suspicious while you were at Sweet Apple Acres. Maybe you saw some suspicious pony sneaking around or something.”
Midnight looked down and to the side with a hoof to his chin as he thought hard. “Hmmm, no sorry, I didn’t see anything, I wish I could be more help though.”
“It’s all right Midnight, I figured it was a long shot, what with the apple orchard being so big. The culprit could have entered the orchard from anywhere.”
“Well, I hope whoever did this is found soon. By the way, we’re still on for our date tomorrow night despite these incidences right?”
“DATE!?” Twilight, Applejack, and Spike exclaimed all at once in surprise. Even the guards were surprised by this as they seemed to wear shocked expressions.
Midnight looked to them and asked. “You didn’t tell them yet did you Luna, I guess I can understand with everything that has been going on. I suppose that means our date will be cancelled then?” He asked, hoping he was wrong.
Luna smiled as she answered. “No Midnight, our date is still on.”
Midnight smiled big at this news. Twilight then intervened. “Excuse me princess, but did we hear right, that you and Midnight are going on a date?!”
Luna smiled at Twilight as she answered. “Why yes, that was what I was about to tell you before we were interrupted by the books flying around. While we had our little chat earlier today Midnight ended up asking me out.”
“Well shoot, congratulations you two, I just know you two will make a great couple.” Applejack complimented.
Spike just opened his mouth and stuck a claw in to illustrate his disgust. The two guards just kept their straight faces.
Luna responded to Applejack’s compliment. “Thank you Applejack, I am looking forward to it. Twilight, once we get back to the library, we should send a letter to my sister informing her of what has been happening here in Ponyville.”
“Of course Luna.” Twilight responded.
“I will see you tomorrow night Midnight Star, take care of yourself.”
Midnight smiled at his friends. “you two Luna, see you girls later.” Midnight waved a hoof at them as they left. Once they were gone he went back into his house and got ready to hit the sack, with everything that has happened, he felt pretty tired, it was getting late now after all. “At least I was able to recreate my first painting. I know princess Luna will love it.” He took one last glace at it before heading upstairs. He crawled into bed and laid his head down to sleep.
Midnight’s sleep was not a pleasant one, he had a horrible nightmare. He found himself in Ponyville, but it was in ruins, the buildings were falling apart or on fire, some of the ponies were in chains as they trudged along unhappily. “What, what’s going on here, what happened to Ponyville?” Midnight tried to talk to one of the ponies he saw in chains, but they didn’t respond to him. “Hey, Hello, can you hear me?” No response. He raced through the town, scanning the devastation. “What happened here? What’s going on?” He soon found himself at the center of town where he was greeted by a horrible sight. There were hanging cages in the center of town with pony figures in them, not one of them were moving. He moved closer and could soon make out their features, there was six in all.
“No, it can’t be, GIRLS, HEY GIRLS, COME ON ANSWER ME!” He tried desperately to call out to them. They were covered in scratches with bloody wounds. He saw that Twilight’s horn was broken off, as was Rarity’s. One of Rainbow Dash’s wings had been ripped off, leaving her to bleed to death as blood seeped out of where her left wing used to be, Fluttershy had both wings ripped out and was crying in pain. Pinkie’s mane and tail were completely straight as she looked out of her cage with lifeless eyes, no emotion at all present on her face. Applejack was no better, she had a huge gash across where her cutie mark was in addition to the scrapes and other gashes on her and the others bodies.
Twilight struggled to look in Midnight’s direction. When her eyes met his, she spoke. “Midnight, why did you do this, I thought we were friends.”
“WHAT, NO, I didn’t do this, I don’t know what you’re talking about! What happened to you all?” Midnight was practically on the verge of tears as he looked at his friends in such a horrible state. Suddenly, an evil laugh caught his attention. He looked behind him and saw……himself. “No, NO, THIS CAN’T BE REAL, YOU ARE NOT REAL!” His other self than changed into another form. “I………It can’t be, it just can’t be. YOU’RE DEAD!” His father just cackled maniacally at Midnight’s words.
“JOIN ME MY SON!” His father then turned into a dark mist and lunged for Midnight, feeling utter terror, he ran as fast as he could. The town of Ponyville soon disappeared around him as he ran from the dark mist. “JOIN ME MY SON!” His father reapeated.
“NO, I WILL NOT BE LIKE YOU!” He called back. The dark mist drew closer and closer, it was just inches away, just before it over took him, Midnight woke up in his bed with a start. “NOOOOO!” Midnight panted heavily as he sat up in his bed. “A dream, it was just a dream, or more like a nightmare. What is happening to me? What does this mean?” Midnight just lay in his bed unable to get back to sleep, he didn’t really need to anyway, it was almost morning. “What am I going to do?”