Chapter 7: Father Son Bonding
Midnight Star’s eyes fluttered open, only to be greeted with darkness. He looked around for any sign of anything, confused as to how he got to where he is. “HELLO!” He called out but no answer. He looked down at his hooves and noticed he was standing in a white circle of light. “What the hay, what’s going on here, where am I?” He tried to move, but his hooves remained firmly planted where they were. “Come on, move.” He struggled but couldn’t get anywhere. “HELLO! IS ANYPONY OUT THERE?” He called again, his voice echoed in the dark void.
This time, he was answered with a wicked laugh. “HE HE HE HE.”
Midnight became a bit more frightened at this. “HELLO! WHO’S OUT THERE, SHOW YOURSELF!”
A dark figure soon emerged before him. “Hello my son, it’s good to see you again.”
Midnight recoiled in fear, desperate to try and run, but his hooves were stuck where they were. “No, it can’t be, your dead, you’re not real, you can’t be real, GET AWAY FROM ME!”
“I’m hurt, is that anyway to speak to your father?” Sombra spoke with a bit of sarcasm.
“My father died ages ago, I don’t know who you are!” Midnight said felling a little bold.
“Your father’s body was destroyed, but as you can see, his spirit still lives.”
“How is this even possible, what are you?”
“It seems I need to explain myself in order to make you believe that I am real.” Sombra spoke with a low tone. “You see, when I saw those wretched……ponies, with that accursed crystal heart, I could see my demise coming. So before they could make use of that accursed relic’s power to destroy me, I cast a spell that would allow my soul to enter another vessel upon my body’s destruction. I chose you, who better to help me survive than my own son?”
“NO, this can’t be real, it just can’t be, your lying!” Midnight couldn’t believe what he was hearing.”
“What more proof do you need other than the fact that I am right in front of your eyes?”
“It’s true,….you are real.” Midnight finally accepted what Sombra was telling him. “But then….where are we, what is this place?” He asked as he looked around more at the dark void.
“I thought you would be smarter than this, this is your mind, or rather, our mind now. You see, even though we now share the same body, you are still the dominant mind…..for most of the time, we are only now able to speak like this because I have been gathering strength. The spell left me unable to do anything while in your body for a long while until I finally had the strength to do something.”
Midnight’s eyes soon widened in realization. “It was you, you’re the one who’s been taking control of my body whenever I have those blackouts, you’ve been tormenting my friends!”
Sombra Smiled wickedly at his son. “That’s right, I’ve merely been flexing my magic muscles. And also getting back at those wretched ponies for what they did to me.” Sombra then frowned. “If I had more time to cast the spell I did that put me in your body, I would have complete control over it, however, since I had to rush, I am only able to take control for short amounts of time. I need your help my son, if you ever want me out of your body, you will have to do as I say.”
“Why should I help you, I can just tell the princesses about you and how you’re inside my body, I’m sure they can come up with a spell to get you out of me.”
Sombra grew his smile again. “I would advise against it, while I am only able to take control of your body for brief moments in time, I will use that time to destroy one of your precious friends. In short, if you say one word about my existence until I see fit, I will destroy them.”
Midnight lowered his head in defeat. “no, you can’t.” He said quietly.
“I can and I will, unless you do as I say, you must convince those ponies that you are not their friend and leave this town. I have a way to get my body back, when my body was destroyed, only my horn survived the explosion, I can sense it. Even though it is far away and faint, I can still sense it. With that, I can use a spell to rebuild my body and get it back. My horn rests just on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire.”
“You…..want me to turn on my friends, I….I can’t, you can’t make me!”
“Have you forgotten, if you don’t do as I say, I will use the little time I have with control of your body and destroy them, you know I can son.”
Tears started to form in his eyes. “I…..I……..*sigh* all right, I’ll……I’ll do what you say.”
“There’s a good boy, now if I’m not mistaken, I believe you have some ex-friends to drive away.”
Midnight looked sadly up at his father. “Yes father.” The dark void disappeared and Midnight soon found himself lying on the floor of his bathroom. He got up as he shook his head. “Wh-what happened, was it all a dream?” He asked hopefully. He rose and looked in the mirror. To his disappointment, he saw his father smiling wickedly at him.
“No son, it was not a dream, remember, not a word about me or I will kill those ponies.”
Midnight said nothing, he just made his way downstairs and began packing, for a long trip with a heavy heart and tears starting to form. Soon, he heard a knocking at the door. He got his packed saddle bags with all his important belongings and art supplies and went over to the door. He opened it to reveal all of his friends and the lunar princess at his door. He was afraid of this.
Twilight was the first to speak. “Midnight, are you all right, why did you run out like that?” She asked with worry.
Rainbow was next. “Yeah, you saw how we had your back didn’t you? You didn’t have to let those others chase you out like that.”
Midnight took on a stern look as he looked over them. “You know what, forget it, it doesn’t matter, no matter what, I will always be seen for who my father was and not for who I am, I’ll never be anything more that the son of Sombra!”
Rarity came in next. “Darling, you know that’s not true.”
Applejack was next. “Come on now sugar cube, it’s like we’ve been tellin ya, it’ll just take time fer them ta come around.”
Pinkie then chimed in. “Don’t let those meanies get to you Midnight, you’ll always have us.”
Midnight was so touched on the inside by their words, but he couldn’t stay, he had to leave, for their sake. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter, because I’m leaving, I’ll never have a home, you ponies are all alike, I’m done with all of you.” He then just pushed past them and began his trek out of town.
Fluttershy tried her turn as well. “But Midnight,….you can’t mean that, surely you’re just upset over what happened at the party. Why don’t you just take a minute to calm down.”
Midnight glared at her on the outside, even though it was killing him on the inside. “NO, I will not calm down, I’ve had enough of this, just leave me alone!” Fluttershy recoiled at Midnight’s shout. Midnight continued to storm along.
Now Luna took a turn as she called out to him. “Midnight wait, please don’t go, surely we can talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
Luna then flew off and landed in front of him to block his path. She eyed him carefully.
He looked at the princess he had fallen for, this was going to be worse than becoming manticore fodder. “Luna, get out of the way.”
“Not until you tell us what is wrong, clearly there is something else bothering you, please tell us what it is so we can help.” The girls and Spike had all gathered behind him now.
He looked back at them and then back at Luna. “There’s nothing you can do to help, get out of my way now and let me go.”
Twilight tried again. “Midnight, please just talk to us, we’re your friends, let us help.” She was practically begging Midnight to talk. The desperation was evident in all their eyes.
Midnight had such a hurt expression pop up on his face that the others saw, but he quickly put back on his stern and angry visage. “THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO HELP, DON’T YOU GET IT! Just leave me alone and forget about me! please. I don’t want to hurt you.” He said the last bit under his breath with his eyes closed. Tears were starting to form in his eyes.
Luna tried again. “Midnight, please, you and I are going through similar things in our lives, why can’t you tell us what’s wrong.”
Midnight couldn’t hold back the tears anymore, his eyes were watery as he looked up at Luna with a frown,
trying to maintain his stern look but doing a poor job at this. Luna saw the hurt in his eyes. He clenched his eyes shut. “I JUST CAN’T!” He then ran past Luna as fast as his legs could carry him and headed off, leaving his friends behind.
They all watched in sadness as their friend fled the town in such pain. They just couldn’t understand what would be bothering him so much that he couldn’t talk to them about it. Twilight approached Luna. “Princess,…..what’s wrong, why wouldn’t he speak to us?”
Rainbow Dash was next. “We can’t just let him run off, we gotta go after him and try to get him to talk.”
Luna looked to the girls as she spoke. “I agree my friends, when I looked into his eyes…..I…I could almost sense……..something, something inside him.”
The girls grew curious about this. Spike was the first to ask. “What do you mean something, what did you sense?”
“I…I don’t know how to explain it, or even if I can, but there may be more to this than we think, we must follow him and see if we can unravel this mystery, but first, I think it prudent to inform Celestia of this turn of events. I would like to accompany you all with this, but I fear my sister will need me back at the castle soon. It may be pointless, but I would like to ask her about this. Twilight, I ask that you and your friends go and pack quickly for a journey ahead. We shall all meet back at the library.”
Without hesitation, the girls all agreed and left for their homes to pack. Twilight took Luna back to the Library and wrote a letter to Celestia.
My dear sister, something has occurred here in Ponyville, as you are aware, there have been some strange and dark things going on here. However, that is not why I am writing to you. Something has happened with Midnight Star and has unexpectedly decided to leave Ponyville. Something has him hurting greatly, I don’t know what it is, but when I looked into his eyes, I sensed something inside him, something dark, I don’t know how to explain it. My heart is telling me to do all I can to help him, which is why I am asking you to let me accompany the girls in finding him and bringing him back home. If you do not agree with this, I will understand and come back to the castle. But I am asking with all of my being to let me go and try to help Midnight Star in any way I can.
Your sister, Luna.
Midnight Star had slowed down his pace after getting a good distance away from Ponyville. His tears had let up some but were still coming out in drips as he walked along with his head low. He looked at his shadow on the side and saw his father’s eyes looking at him. “Do not fret son, as long as you cooperate you and I can still rule over all the world, I know what you have been through over the past five years. I was with you the whole time. I am still your father and I do still care about you, you are my flesh and blood after all.”
Midnight Star looked away from his father’s eyes and faced forward. “If you cared about me, you wouldn’t be doing this to me, why did you have to turn to dark magic dad? You should have known that there was nothing you could have done to save mom. Where’s the father I loved and cared for me, where’s the father mom fell in love with and had me with her?”
Sombra narrowed his eyes from Midnight’s shadow. “THAT FATHER WAS WEAK, HE COULDN’T STOP DEATH OR REVERSE IT! I am strong, I will not be seen as weak again!”
When Sombra said this, Midnight seemed to get a thought, he turned his eyes to meet his father’s again. “Wait, weak, stop death? That’s what this whole thing was about wasn’t it? Before you turned to dark magic, you blamed yourself for mom’s death didn’t you? You tried to find a way to bring her back and the dark magic corrupted you. All because you blamed yourself didn’t you?”
“ENOUGH, I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER WORD ABOUT THIS! That father was weak and helpless, I am strong and powerful, I desire only one thing, to rule all! Not one more word about it, do I make myself clear!”
Midnight faced forward again. “Yes father, I understand.” “There must still be some good in him, I just have to believe and find some way to bring him back, I lost him twice already, I won’t lose him again, I just have to find some way to bring out his good side, or at least find some way to get the elements of harmony to be used on him so they can banish the darkness and bring back my real father.” Midnight was hoping he could find some way to bring back his father from the darkness that had enveloped him. For now, all he could do was continue on to the Crystal Empire and do as his father told him.