As the sun was laid to rest by the Princess of the day, the young unicorn made good on his promise to return and continue his tale for Princess Luna. He stood, shuffling his hooves, as he awaited the beginning of the Night Court.
He ended up waiting a long time, as there was a line of petitioners waiting to see the Night Princess this evening. He watched, enraptured, as she raised the moon with an elegance he wished he could emulate even the tiniest sliver of. Standing at the rear of the throne room and audience chamber, he had, on several occasions, to stifle his giggles at the lunar goddess' acerbic wit and caustic sense of humor as she dealt justice with a far more firm hoof than her sister. Eventually, though, the Court cleared out, all the petitioners gone for the evening...save one. Night Song stepped forward, clearing his throat and gazing up at the lunar Princess with a light smile on his face.
"Good evening, Princess," he said, bowing low. "I've come to tell you more of my story and my reasons for wanting to join your Lunar Guard, as promised." At her nod of approval, he smiled, nodding, and began his tale anew.
"As I said last night, my family tried many things to get me to move past my fear of the dark. The first was a blindfold that they put on me for a full week. As the black fabric closed around my eyes, and the world went dark around me, I felt my heart rate increase as fear washed over me like a wave. A wave that just kept coming back, it seemed. I spent the next several days stumbling around the house, tripping over tables, knocking things off of shelves, and just generally being a menace to the delicate decorations my mother prized so dearly.
On the first day, I could barely leave my bed. My knees had been rendered weak, and my legs felt as though they were made of water. I simply could not support my own weight. By mid-morning, I was famished, but still too afraid to leave my bed. So, I did what any foal would do: I called for my mother, wailing through the darkness. Fortunately for me, she came immediately, fearing I had hurt myself, fallen down or something of the sort. When she learned I was simply hungry, and too afraid to leave my bed, however, all her maternal concern left her. It was...distressing, to say the least.
'What a weak, worthless foal I had!' she said, practically spitting the words at me. 'Anypony who lives among us must not fear the night! The night is what gives us our home, our light, and our lives. And you spurn that gift with your fear. You're an embarrassment to us all.' So saying, I heard her turn and trot from my room, slamming the door behind her with enough force to shake the walls of our home. I fell back onto the bed, crying like a foal, and eventually, I cried myself to sleep. It was only when I woke up that I realized that, of all the ponies in my home, my mother was the only one who really had any sympathy for me and my fears. I woke to a plate of food sitting beside me on the bed, and, after devouring it hungrily, I decided to try my hoof at moving now. I kept my eyes closed beneath the blindfold, reasoning that it was the sensation of blindness that was scaring me so badly.
I was right in my guess, too. I managed to walk myself to the bathroom, take care of things there after a bit of fumbling, and then make my way downstairs and into the spacious kitchen my mother had gotten my father to build for her. Wandering in, I called out to my mother again, asking if she was in the room. When I heard her voice from upstairs, I shook my head, meandering toward where I imagined the refrigerator was, and after crashing into the island in the middle of the kitchen, I found the fridge, opened it, and fumbled around inside for the water we kept cold within.
I eventually found something that felt right in my hooves, and wrapped my telekinesis around it, lifting the jug to my lips and sniffing cautiously. Taking a swig, I was relieved to find I'd guessed right, and, after slaking my thirst, I replaced the jug. Turning around, I decided that stumbling about in the darkness of my blindfolded state wasn't really going to do much but get me hurt, so I set about trying to make a mental map of the house. It seemed to have worked, at least in part, as I got to the sofa without too many mishaps. For the sake of brevity, though, Princess, I feel I'd best skip over the next few days. Suffice to say, they were spent in a daze of both fear at my unnatural blindness, and pain, from the spills and bumps I took, navigating the house.
Some days later, though in my blinded state I couldn't exactly consult a clock to know how many hours passed in between each time I slept, I woke to find my sight restored. Apparently, my parents had decided that enough was enough. Orienting myself a bit, I slowly clip-clopped down the stairs, peeking into the living room of our house almost fearfully.
'Mom? D-dad?' I called, looking around curiously. There didn't seem to be anypony home but me. Unusual, but not necessarily inexplicable. Shrugging to myself, I trotted into the kitchen and commenced making myself something to eat. As I was washing my plate, I heard the front door open, and I listened carefully to see who it was. The sound of hooves on the tile in the entry confirmed that only one pony had come home, so I figured it was probably my sister.
'Night! Where are you, squirt?' Yep, definitely her. My sister, a pegasus like our mother, was -or rather, is- a couple of years older than I am, a filly named Star Sprinkle. She was always the more...dominant of the two of us, leading all our games and choosing which movies we watched, things like that.
'In the kitchen, Sis!' I called back to her, rolling my eyes. She came into the kitchen as I finished drying the plate and putting it away, snickering as I almost fell off of my step-stool as I was wiping my hooves clean of soapy water. 'Geez, add insult to injury, why don't you?' I asked her irritably, shaking my head slowly.
'Aw, you know you love it when I give you a little of that tough love!' she said, nudging me with her hoof lightly. We shared a light laugh, and she left the kitchen with me at her heels. I grinned at her, flopping onto the sofa and groaning. She settled beside me, and clicked the television on. A music video came up, probably something from her last binge on heavy metal. Some band named Dethklop, I don't really know what they were about.
'What's on your mind, Nighty?' she asked, leaning against me lightly. I groaned, letting my head fall backward onto the arm of the sofa with my eyes closed.
'Nothing important, Star. Just something that's bothering me about Mom and Dad's little blindfold idea,' I said. At her questioning look, I sighed and sat more upright. 'It didn't work. I'm still afraid of the dark, Star. What will they do next? I was locked into that thing for...what, a week?' I asked.
'Give or take a day, yeah. But hey,' she said, leaning over to nuzzle against my cheek affectionately, 'it's for your own good, you know that, right? They don't want to be causing you pain, or fear, but it's not right that a pony in our community, over any other, is afraid of the dark, afraid of the night,' she said. And I believed her, because I'd been told my entire life that this was so. And that, I believe, concludes this evening's section of my story, Princess."
So saying, Night bowed low to the Princess of the Moon, and backed away slowly for a few paces. The lunar diarch's voice halted his retreat, however.
"Hold, good Night Song. Thy tale strikes a chord within our breast. Wilt thou return on the morrow, to relate more of thy story?" Luna asked him, tilting her head quizzically and smiling encouragement to the young stallion. She shuffled her hooves on the throne platform, clearly enthralled by his tale. Though, upon reflection, Night reckoned it might be more that she was interested in hearing of his hometown and her adopted Children, rather than his own personal tale. Nonetheless, he bowed.
"As my Princess wishes," he said, his voice taking on a smooth, almost melodious tone. Turning, he bowed to the approaching Princess of the Sun, smiling up at her with far less fear than the day before, and trotted from the room. A slim, purple unicorn in the hallway caught his eye, and he gave her a sunny grin that seemed to light up his face. "Good morning! I'd bet that you're Twilight Sparkle, am I right?" he asked.
"Why...yes, yes I am," she responded, blushing a bit. "Have you come to talk to Princess Celestia for the Day Court?" she asked, leaning toward him and smiling brightly, her face alive with curiosity.
"Nah, I came to speak to Princess Luna. It's been a long night, too," he said, waving a hoof and yawning. "But, I'd actually be interested to know if the famous student of Princess Celestia would mind having breakfast with me before she begins her day?" he asked, blushing lightly and scuffing a forehoof against the floor, eyes anywhere but on her face.
"Oh! W-well, that's nice of you to offer, but I already ate breakfast with the Princess," she said, her tone a mixture of apology and relief. The grey coated unicorn before her smiled wryly and shrugged, turning towards to exit door.
"Just my luck," he said, shaking his head and chuckling lightly. "Perhaps tomorrow?" he asked, looking back over his shoulder at her hopefully. At her nod, he grinned wide and nodded once, firmly. "All right! Tomorrow, I'll see you then!" he said, trotting out the door with a wave of his hoof.