//------------------------------// // Chapter 9, Starlit Sorrows // Story: We Rule the Night // by Solar Flare //------------------------------// Chapter 9: Starlit Sorrows Rainbow Dash had been silently following Solar Flare on his route through the night sky for almost half an hour. Finally, he found a likely looking cloud and landed on it. “What was that all about?” Rainbow asked, landing next to him. “Forget it.” “I don’t want to. You’re my friend, you can tell me.” Solar Flare flicked a lock of his red and blue mane from his eyes. “It’s just what Twilight said about the princess. About how she was like her mom.” “Yeah?” Solar Flare winced before continuing. “I know what it’s like to lose a mom, okay? And Twilight acted like I had no idea, and it ticked me off is all.” Rainbow scratched behind her ear with her hoof. She was not at all good with situations like this. Solar Flare huffed. “Forget I said anything.” Rainbow put her foreleg around Solar, more of a friendly expression than anything, but he shuddered a bit nonetheless. “I havn’t seen my parents in a long time either. They didn’t, you know, like die or anything, but they live in Cloudesdale and I only get to see them once in a while.” Solar Flare drew a long breath and let it out slowly. “I think this whole situation has just got everyone too up in arms. I’m gonna go talk to Hood. Don’t follow me, okay?” Rainbow nodded and Solar Flare flew away, quickly fading from view in the moonlight. - Hood continued to ignore the gnawing in his belly for as long as he could, but it eventually got the better of him. He gnawed on some stale bread, watching one of his glass orbs without paying it any attention. His mind was anywhere and everywhere else at that moment, the swirling torrent of thoughts making him blind to anything outside his own head. He found himself wondering what his friends were doing, regardless of how he currently felt about them. Most of all, he wondered how Twilight was faring. Somepony knocked on his door for the hundredth time, but he ignored it again, until he heard the voice calling to him. “Hood? You in there?” It was Solar Flare. Hood pulled the door open with magic, and Solar Flare stepped in slowly, looking about in the dark. A candle sparked to life magically, providing enough light for the Pegasus to see by. “I thought I’d come see how you were doing.” Solar Flare said slowly, as if he was afraid of saying the wrong thing. “I’m fine.” “Has anypony come to visit you?” “Ponies have been knocking on my door all day, er, all night.” “Funny.” “What do you want?” “Look, about what happened earlier-“ Solar Flare began nervously, pausing for a moment before continuing. “Well, I wanted to know what you thought about that.” Hood furrowed his brow behind his glasses. “What I thought about it? Are you serious?” “Well, yeah. Rainbow Dash thought-“ “Oh, here we go again. Is she all you think about? Is she so important that you would just turn on me at her call?” Hood half-shouted, his anger beginning to mount. He was usually quite calm, but the situation, coupled with Solar Flare’s last words had pushed him over an edge. “What was I supposed to do?! You have to admit, she was making sense, if it weren’t for you-“ An intense light flowed from Hood’s horn, his eyes glowing a bright white. In his life he had never been this angry. “So what do you think, hmm? You think I did this on purpose? You think I wanted Nightmare Moon back?” “No!” Solar Flare shouted desperately, hiding his face from the powerful energy illuminating from the unicorn. “But Rainbow thinks-“ “I don’t care what Rainbow thinks!” Hood shouted, tendrils of energy waving rapidly around his head. He could feel the magic that Luna had given him swirling in his horn, and he liked it. He liked the power he felt. “HOOD! STOP!” A voice shouted from the doorway. The light from Hood’s horn vanished in an instant, his eyes returning to their normal purple. He looked at Solar Flare, who looked back with an expression of both fear and admiration. Then Hood looked at the door. Twilight was standing there, watching the scene unfold. Hood opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “Just, just get out of here.” He whispered. Solar Flare obliged, flying out the door as fast as his wings would carry him. Hood collapsed back on his haunches, looking at his front hooves. Twilight approached cautiously. “What was that?” “I don’t know.” Hood said, not looking at her. He bit his lip and covered his eyes with his hooves. “Oh man. What did I do…?” “It’s okay…” Twilight said, patting his shoulder. “No it’s not! Solar Flare will probably never speak to me again!” Hood cried out with a mix of rage and anguish. He glanced out the door, where ponies were watching in stunned silence. “And just what the buck are you looking at!?” He screamed at them, causing them to scatter. “Calm down.” Twilight said, pressing her hoof firmly to his shoulder. “Don’t tell me to calm down! Stop telling me to be calm!” Hood cried out, his eyes beginning to overflow. “There is nothing to be calm about! Nightmare Moon is back, my friends hate me, and somehow everypony has it in their heads that it’s all my fault! Me! What the buck have I ever done?! To anypony!?” Twilight took a step backward, a concerned look on her face. “Hood, I’m your friend. Rarity is your friend…” Hood tried to say something else, but instead could only let out a strangled sob. He thrashed angrily, trying to force his emotions down. He realized that he probably looked like a spoiled foal pitching a fit but he didn’t care. He had spent almost his entire life alone, and as soon as he thought he had made real friends everything starts to crumble around him. His horn lit up once more without his consent. A stream of blue energy erupted from it, causing Twilight to scream and run from the house. The energy tore a hole in the roof as it left his body in an endless, horrible river. He could feel his magic reserves depleting as the spell continued to cast itself. He panicked and thrashed, the chaotic power that had grown out of control burning right through anything it touched. And as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. He forced himself to open his eyes to look at the damage. Most of the roof of his little house had been incinerated. He looked at the wall across from him, where the pictures of his parents hung above his fireplace. Right across the row of photographs, the spell had left a hole, completely removing the wall and disintegrating the pictures along with them. “No, no, NO!” Hood shouted at the sky. “Why me!? Why is this happening to me!? What did I do!?” He screamed and screamed, his ranting shifting from pained cries to incoherent blathering. He screamed until his voice cracked and he could no longer make his voice work for him. When he finally stopped his throat was dry, the fur on his face sticky with dried tears, and his mane horribly tangled from all the shaking he had done. He collapsed, just wishing he could die. He would never know how long he lied there among the ruined husk of his house, but it felt like days. Weeks even. He felt somepony touch his shoulder. He turned to see, of all ponies, Applejack. She said nothing, her face stern yet sorrowful. Hood sniffed, working what tiny bit of magic he had left in him. Applejack stepped away and Hood vanished in a flash of light. Twilight sighed sadly from behind Applejack, but was otherwise silent. A small, scorched piece of paper drifted down from the ruined roof, landing face down in front of Twilight. Without thinking about it, she lifted the paper up with her magic, turning it around so she could see. It was a photograph. A little unicorn colt was laying down in front of a Hearth’s Warming Eve tree, holding up a brand new black cape. On a couch behind him, two unicorns watched him with happy looks on their faces. - Solar Flare had been circling above Hood’s house, watching as the magical surge tore the building apart. A deep regret had settled over his heart and refused to budge, something he was not used to. He could see through a hole in the roof as Hood teleported away to Celestia-knows-where. The Pegasus flipped over and flew away in no particular direction. - Moonlight held up the cape he had just received for Hearth’s Warming Eve as his father snapped the photo with magic. The flash left spots in the colt’s eyes, causing him to rub them. Moonlight wrapped his new cape around himself as his father levitated a few things into their carriage. There was snow on the ground up to his knees, so he climbed in the carriage beside his mother quickly, shivering from the cold. Once his father was done, his parents focused their magic, telekinetically pulling the cart along the snowy ground, cheerfully talking about the future visit to Moonlight’s grandmother’s house. Once they had travelled a few miles from their house, they heard a roar from the edge of the trees. Moonlight was scared, but his mother reassured him while his father looked around outside the carriage, his horn glowing brightly. He disappeared around the edge of the cart. A cry was heard from where he had gone and Moonlight’s mother leaped from the carriage to help. Moonlight heard her scream as well. The last thing he remembered before a powerful surge of magic enveloped him was looking face to face with a hideous, lion-like creature with a scorpion tail pushing its way into the cart toward him. After that Hearth’s Warming Eve, Moonlight was sent to Canterlot to live with somepony he didn’t know. After a couple years he was sent to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. His foster parents took to affectionately calling him Hood, because of the black cape and hood he always wore. - “Just what in the hay was that?” Applejack asked, nudging some charred wood around the floor of the wrecked house. Twilight put on her lecture face. “Hood’s deep emotional state pushed him into a magical storm. It was something like what happened when I was about to fail my school entry exam and then heard Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom. The princess stopped me from doing too much damage, but there was nopony there to help Hood.” Applejack took off her hat and sighed, worry lines gracing the undersides of her green eyes. “I’m goin’ home. Drop by if’n y’all need somethin’.” “Okay. And if you see Rainbow Dash, tell her I want to speak with her asap.” Applejack nodded trotted off slowly. Twilight turned her attention back to the shambles of Hood’s home. Crystal balls were shattered everywhere, scorched and still-burning bits of paper floated in midair, and the couch had been ripped in two and tossed to either side of the living room. She left the living room and moved toward the back of the house. She searched for some light source with her magic, but could find nothing. Not even an unlit candle. Instead, she used a simple light spell to illuminate her way, ignoring the feeling in her gut telling her not to intrude in her friend’s home. The rest of the house was far less damaged, but the smell of ash and the unmistakable tingling of powerful magic was everywhere. Twilight stalked down a hallway, which ended in two doors. She opened one with her magic to find a bathroom. She slammed the door shut awkwardly and turned to the other. Twilight used her telekinesis to grip the doorknob and turn. A painful jolt of electricity coursed through her body, causing her to shout and dispel the light from her horn, blanketing her once more in darkness. Relighting her horn, Twilight put on a determined face and tried once more. Again, the electricity shocked her, causing more frustration than pain. She carefully inspected the door. There was nothing remarkable about it at first glance, but upon closer inspection, one could feel a thin layer of protective magic coating it. The grains of the door swirled strangely, so the unicorn checked them next. The wood of the door was morphed into letters. Twilight had to look very closely, but she could just barely make out tiny writing, spelling out an incantation. Moon and starlight, dusky gloom, You seek to look inside this room. Sun and daylight, warm and bright, You cannot see through will or might. Intruders are not welcome here, But to this door, magic is dear. Speak the name of magic great, But only during hours late. Twilight scratched her head. Of all her studies of magic, she had seen spells written in this manner by only one society. She only knew of one creature that knew more about it than her. Zecora, her zebra friend. Twilight glanced around for a clock, but could find none. She had seen one in Hood’s living room, but it had been melted and was no use. She sighed and hoped for the best. She placed the tip of her horn on the door carefully, but fed no magic. “The elements of harmony.” Nothing happened. Twilight scrunched her face, thinking of another powerful source of magic. “Princess Celestia. Princess Luna.” Again, nothing happened. With a bead of doubt, she tried two more names. “Nightmare Moon, Discord.” Nothing. Despite her mounting frustration, she felt slightly relieved that the answer to Hood’s riddle was neither of the hated villains from her past. “Can I get a hint?” She pleaded to no one in particular. A strange feeling touched her horn. A sort of emotion that seemed to be coming from the spell on the door. It took her a moment to realize what it was. Amusement. The door was laughing at her. She opened to her to say something, but the grains of the door were moving. She watched with a fixed fascination as they rearranged themselves into another poem. Simple, yes. Simple, no. Time can pass both fast and slow. Both the future and the past, They come, they go, they never last. One thing is the same throughout, Day and night, storm or drought. The spell he weaved was to be broke, About by whom, to us he spoke. You know the magic that we seek, Felt by those both strong and weak. “Some hint…” Twilight muttered. She rested her horn on the door again, focusing on what the door could be talking about. What did the strong and weak feel in a storm or a drought? “Fear?” The door did not respond. Twilight groaned. The grains of the door began moving again, resembling sand sliding over itself. The words again changed. Riddles three you now had read, Riddles three have now been said. Only three we are allowed, Our caster’s voice was clear and loud. The word you know, yet do not guess, But you must to pass this test. A gnawing ache or burning fire, We know that you are not a liar. You do not know, but he once did, Before he ran away and hid. From this place, he now has gone, Our secrets yours once you are done. Speak the name of magic pure, And you will know all ailments’ cure. Moon and starlight, dusk and gloom, His thoughts for you unlock this room. Twilight heaved a heavy sigh. A tear trickled down her cheek as she whispered the only guess she had left for the door’s password. “Love?” The barrier around the door dissipated in an instant and the sound of a deadlock shifting out of place could be heard. The door opened slowly of its own accord. A silver light with no discernable source permeated every corner of the room beyond. Twilight took a nervous step inside, then two, then three. Once she was inside, the door slammed close on its own.