//------------------------------//
// Out of Town 
// Story: The Story of Midnight Stargazer 
// by MidnightStargazer 
//------------------------------//


Out of Town


Midnight was trotting down on the alleyway, in which their house was located, the street was filled with trash, the ground was not from a solid material, much like out of something like dirt, but it was all rocky and there were a lot of smaller holes scattered all over the road.

As he was passing by the local stores, he took a last sight at all the buildings, and then passed along them.He saw a lot of familiar faces while he moved along the street, for some of them, he yelled a simple „Hello” or „Good morning!” , but only a few actually heard, or wanted to hear it, and reply to it.

Altho, he did not gave it too much attention, this happened many times in the past.
As he approached the road which lead out of town, he had to go through the market district.

The market was usually very loud in the morning, most ponies had a tendency to get up early and head straight to the market to buy food and what they needed.Well, mostly elder ponies had this habbit, and most of the citiczens in town were in fact old.It was always loud in that area, shouts and argues were heard randomly from all over the place.

When Midnight reached the end of the Market, he then came to hear a loud noise behind him.
A stallion was shouting at another stallion, they were talking something about stealing or things like that, he did not hear it clearly enough to understand.
He did not care nonetheless, he made his way to the town gates.

This particular town was surrounded by walls, made out of thick and strong wood.The walls were as high as a house, and Guards always patrolled up and down, especially at night.

Tracto was mainly a trading city, so protection was nessecarry and a main priority, in order for traders to be able to come here, and keep themselves and their goods safe.

Sadly, the walls got old in time, and there were also a lot less guards patrolling the streets.Either there weren’t enough fresh recruits, or the officals in charge, didn’t care much for the well being of the city anymore.
As Midnight approached the City entrance, a familiar face greeted him.

It was Tenebrous Shield.He was a town guard, but he was in service long before Midnight was born, but through their shop in the city, he met with Shield when he was just a young colt.

Midnight and his father sometimes had to greet a few of the traders who carried more valuable goods than others, mainly because they signed a contract early on so we had to be at their side, just in case if some street thieves started to make sudden ideas.

When Midnight proceeded to walk through the gates, he nodded to the few guards standing by the walls, and he stepped closer to Shield.
He had short dark hair, and a little beard to go with it, and he was a pegasus.His guard uniform was similar to the ones they use in the capital city.He personally took great care of his armour, it was part of his philosophy of guards as he told him sometimes.

„Well, if it isn’t my boy, Midnight, what a pleasent suprise.Planning on going out for a while aren’t we?”-he said in a friendly voice, of course, this was all natural.

From all the ponies the town housed, Midnight saw Shield mostly as an idol, a pony who he can look up to.Despite he was much older then Midnight,  they shared a lot of time together.He sometimes shown Midnight some of the training he got when he entered the Guardsponies.Midnight never was an agressive type, he always preferred to be a rather calm, and open minded personality, but this did not stop him from learinin a few defensive moves, in case of emergency.

„Yeah, I am going to visit some of the neighbouring towns a little.”

„And when are you going to be back?I would have something to show you, I think you would like it a lot.”-said Shield while he looked at Midnight

„Umm, I don’t know, it won’t be much long...why? What is it? Another one of your old relics from the griffin kingdom or what?...hehe „-he said laughing quietly at his own sentence.

„Well, not exactelly, but something you would actually appriciate...”-he sighted

“Okay okay, once I am back, you can show it to me.”

With that, he rushed out of the town.

Shield wanted to talk a bit more, but as he saw his young friend trotting out, he didn’t bother to stop him.

*Ah, these young ones are so fast these days.”

With that, he got back to his guard post.

When Midnight got out of the city, he stopped for a second, looked back if Shield was watching him or not, then he started to follow the road which he did not know where will it lead him.