CHAPTER ONE
White Night was a rather solitary creature, he rarely did anything with anypony else because of fear of ridicule. When he did interact with other ponies he never enjoyed it, but he was forced to do so because he was training to be what most thestrals dream of becoming: a night guard.
“At least I only have to deal with other ponies at night during training” Night thought to himself. However the thought did little to comfort him as night was fast approaching and the time to don his armor drew near. Night did not hate his job, no, he had always dreamed of being accepted into the night guard protecting Luna the “mother” of the thestral race. Unfortunately White needed to work much harder to even get accepted into the academy because of his size, he was born a bit smaller and sleeker than other thestrals. Not to mention he faced constant ridicule for his albinism. Non-thestral ponies tended to shy away from thestrals almost all together, thestrals however took pride in this & it gave them a sense of superiority toward the other pony races. White Night constantly drew unwanted attention to himself just by existing, ponies didn’t think he was intimidating at all, he had even once been called adorable! This angered the other recruits greatly as they thought he was purposely ruining the traditional thestral image leading to threats and yet more teasing during drills.
What really got to him was the slurs they threw his way insinuating that he was a colt-cuddler, he in all honesty was one but he wouldn’t admit it out-loud. This above all else made him ashamed of himself, in olden times he would have been culled at birth or left in the wilderness alone for being small, discolored, or killed later for colt-cuddling. He shuddered at the thought but felt relief that the laws from the time of the nightmare were abolished upon the banishment.
“Rrrrriiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnng” reapeted his alarm several times, he soon found himself going through the autonomous motions of donning his armor that he looked ridiculous in thanks to his coloration. Before he fastened on the last piece of his armor he looked at his cutie mark and sighed. His cutie mark had appeared unnaturally late in life only months before when he was accepted into the academy. A dark bat adorned his flank signifying that despite his bright appearance he was a true creature of the night. He knew it, but he often needed a reminder that he was just as good as everypony else. He quickly finished adjusting his armor and rushed to the training grounds.
After 6 hours of drills and various exercises White was quite tired but more-so mentally than physically, he had endured a particularly harsh taunting tonight but was trying to let it slide from his consciousness like water off his membranous wings. He tried focusing on the somewhat eerie but somehow comforting architecture of the night guard’s training area as he slowly trotted off to the showers.
Before he could get to the showers he had to pass by the head officer in charge of training’s office. He stopped when he heard what sounded like his name coming from Officer Black Wing’s office. White knew that spying was unbecoming of a cadet but the door war slightly ajar & he couldn’t seem to stop himself, leaning in he eyed the scene with great interest there stood Black Wing behind his desk talking to his second in command, a burly thestral named Night Road. White knew him well Night Road seemed to be wherever White was anytime he made even the smallest slip-up.
“Officer Black Wing Sir! I regret to inform you that I have yet to find any evidence of White Night doing anything worthy of being expelled from the academy.”
White couldn’t, or didn’t want to believe his ears. Had even the stallion he had always worked so hard to gain the approval of been against him this whole time? In his mind he held onto a sliver of hope that the scene before him was just a fabrication of his tired mind but then…
“That’s not good enough! You need to make him slip up or start a fight with you or another cadet so we can get that filthy colt-cuddling pretty-colt faggot out of here! He’s ruining our reputation and making us look like a bunch of fruits!” Shouted Black Wing at Night Road.
At this point the stress of the day, or more likely of his entire life simply vanished. Where it had been all that could be found was untamed rage toward the stallion he had always looked up to as a symbol of what he wanted to be. White Quickly turned on his shoed forewhooves and bucked the door straight into Night Road who didn’t even have time to react or even turn to see the source of the noise coming from the door to his right. He was flung against the wall when the door struck him rendering him unconscious. White was already advancing upon the bewildered Officer behind the desk who was to surprised to effectively guard himself as White Night launched himself over the desk wings flared in anger. White grabbed the offender to his dream by the neck of his uniform as he had already shed his armor after guiding the cadets through their nightly exercises. White proceeded to throw him against the wall of his own office and stand over him. He began beating Black Wing senseless.
White continually screamed “HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET BEAT BY A FAGGOT?” & “WHO’S THE WEAK ONE NOW?”
As he continued cadets drew nearer and nearer, he could hear them coming to stop him and he didn’t care. All he cared about was the “therapy” he was engaged in, torrents of tears born from every negative emotion that could be identified flowed down his bleach-white coat beneath his usually pink now–red eyes. The guards grabbing him off the at this point beaten half-dead Officer Black Wing was the last thing he remembered before someone knocked him out to stop him from thrashing about.
When White awoke he was chained to a ludicrously heavy weight that must have been enchanted to not budge. He managed to stand on his shaky hooves with some difficulty, as he did so he noticed that he had been stripped of his armor and his wings had been bound at the base by an interlocking set of cuffs designed specifically for making thestrals and pegasi unable to flap and make things generally uncomfortable. White attempted to take in his surroundings but it was much too bright for a thestral to see clearly with their super sensitive night-vision eyes. Things were not helped by the fact that his albinism made him even more susceptible to the light of the sun. These facts meant he was essentially blind but he could feel hard and smooth polished stone beneath his hooves and could feel wind blowing above him mocking his momentary flightlessness. It was definitely daytime he could feel his sensitive skin burn as time passed.
Eventually he heard a door open and shut and the soft sound of somepony walking on carpeting followed be metal clacking advancing on him. He tried to stretch his wings and flee but was met with hard resistance and has going nowhere. The clacking noise stopped a few feet from him and suddenly he felt himself free of all restraints and unceremoniously lifted into the air under a foreign but somehow comforting power. He was placed upon what he assumed to be very plush carpet, and soon he heard the soft pomf of somepony walking on carpet toward him.
“Why is there such comfortable carpeting in a cell? I must be in a cell I was caught nearly killing my superior, a soldier!” White thought to himself while panicking.
“My vision is still very blurry, I cant see anything except… blue?”
“Who are you, where am I?” He shouted.
A calm cool feminine voice spoke up, “You White Night are within our chambers, a guest room to be specific. We did not want our bedroom going into disarray were you to become violent.”
“Why are thou unaware of your surroundings? I more than any am aware of the sensitivity of a thestral’s eyes to the sun, but you should have recovered momentarily, Yes? What ails thee?”
White feeling momentarily calmed by not being in jail but still rightly confused stated, “As you can see I’m an albino the sun is harmful to my eyes and skin double what it would be to a normal thestral”
As he began speaking his vision slowly returned to it’s average strength, what he saw however was enough to leave him in a terrified state of awe. Before him stood Princess Luna ruler of the night, the goddess of the moon. Normally this would be intimidating to anypony, however thestrals gave allegiance solely to her as their race shunned the day. This is because thousands of years ago the thestral race lived in equestrian before unicorns, pegasi, or earth ponies. But when the other tribes migrated here they thought the thestrals were just as much monsters as the windigoes and tried to wipe them out the thestrals were fewer in number compared to the now united tribes and fled to the mountains to save themselves. Centuries later ponies discovered them & the tribes were once more prepared to war with them but the thestrals had grown strong and thrived in the mountains. The battle would have been devastating to both cultures but one pony stepped forward, a pony like the thestrals had never seen before. She silenced the ponies with a word and brought forth the moon, the thing thestrals worshiped above all else. For saving their race the thestrals all swore oaths to her and called her the mother of the night, the living moon. White was dumbstruck because this immortal his race held so dear was likely very, very angry at him.
“Ah it seems your sight has seen fit to return to you, now you may see me for your judgment.” She said calmly.
White at this point decided it was probably a bad idea to pass out, unfortunately his body didn’t agree.
When he awoke he saw himself still surrounded by beautiful dark blue furniture, plush carpet, and many wondrous items he could only imagine the various uses of. He then saw the princess on an almost-to-small bed reading a rather large book most likely older than his grandparents. She took notice of him and placed a bookmark in the ancient tome & placed it to the side. She then walked over to him slowly, he proceeded to sweat bullets as she drew nearer.
“Are we that intimidating White Night?” She asked with a mischievous smile.
“Ye… No your majesty!” He said trying to catch himself.
“As much fun it is to tease my subjects there is still a matter at hoof. You assaulted a superior and a fellow cadet in cold blood, do you care to explain yourself?” she asked taking on a serious tone.
…
White Night stood there before the figure his race most revered and realized he couldn’t tell her the truth or he might get sent to the moon for being such a disappointment to his people (and a criminal).
“I have nothing to say your majesty, I for personal reasons I… decline the offer to explain myself.”
This obviously got the Princess’ attention as she looked at him with a raised brow.
“Very well but whenever an internal dispute happens within our night guard it is our duty to get to the bottom of it by whatever means we deem necessary.”
“Wha- ”
White was cut off as luna had touched her horn above his eyes, he felt himself slip away slowly as Luna read through him. The princess of the night felt and experienced everything White had ever been through essentially becoming him for an instant, she knew everything he knew and felt everything he felt. Luna broke away from him when it became too much to bear, she in her long life had seen many things but had never felt the hardship someone else went through to that extent. She had used too much magic after not having had to use such a spell in over a thousand years, a minor but serious miscalculation for something so invasive. While she herself had run through White’s entire life herself, she had accidently just made him live his entire painful life over again in less than a minute.
Once she regained her composure she looked at White, he was an absolute mess. He was sobbing uncontrollably apologizing for everything he had ever done or that he thought was his fault. She had effectively broken this stallion who, in her opinion had merely had a mental break and took it out on the offender. Something Luna herself had done once before, and she had been forgiven for her offense.
“I promise you White Night I will see to it that the offender never serves again & that you will be healed to the best of my power.” As she said this she picked up the now quiet thestral and placed him upon her back and carried him to the medical wing of the castle as swiftly as it was safe to carry him.