A Midnight Star

by Tirey

Outcast

Midnight is often looked upon in a strange manner. Some look upon him with amazement, others fear. There is nopony quite like Midnight. His coat a deep black, so black you could get lost staring into it. His mane a stark contrast of pure white. Ponies are only afraid of him till they meet him. He is a kind hearted stallion who often goes out of his way to help others. One of the things he values most is loyalty. He would never break a promise or forget a friend in time of need. However, just like the contrast of his mane to his coat, his bright eyes hide a dark secret.

Locked away deep within Midnight is a darkness, darker than anything anypony could ever have imagined. Midnight spent a great portion of his early youth locking away this darkness, this evil with in. Now in his late twenties, the stallion has nearly forgotten about the darkness inside. His subconscious mind always keeping it in check, something that used to require conscious effort. You see, Midnight had a troubled foalhood. It was tough being the only Unicorn in a family of Pegasi, even worse being the only unicorn in his small town. His hometown, Stableside, was built by Earth Ponies. These Earth Ponies were the majority of the population. Eighty-five percent were Earth Ponies, the other fifteen percent Pegasi. It took five generations for the Earth Ponies to live in peace with the Pegasi, but they always despised Unicorns. This is not speaking for the race as a whole, just this small group. Midnight quickly learned that he was not welcome in this town. The Earth Ponies of this small isolated town - more of a village - had strange beliefs about Unicorns. They believed the whole race to be evil and that their magic would bring about a demonic end the Earth Pony race. This belief was at one time commonly held by Earth Ponies, that was until Princess Celestia and Princess Luna brought an end to the fighting between the Unicorns and Earth Ponies. They learned to trust Princess Celestia, and she showed them that magic could be used for good and that if they tried, they could live together in peace, even in harmony.

This town however was built and run by the small number of Earth Ponies that refused to accept friendship with the Unicorns. Because of their hate they chose for the longest time, to not join the ever growing nation of Equestria. Though as time passed, this group had no choice but to join, as they needed the nation's protection from the Griffin Empire. Stableside is on the outskirts of Equestria, as far from the capital city of Canterlot as possible. Midnight’s parents, unlike the other ponies, did not hate him, as he was their only child. He was their pride and joy, and they loved him. However he often met the brunt of his father's anger. This anger was brought on by stress, as he was looked down upon by other members of the town for having a Unicorn foal living in his home. School brought little relief from the stress of home life, as he was always made fun of and bullied by his fellow foals. Even the teachers didn’t like him. One quit just so she would not have to teach a Unicorn.

Being the only Unicorn in his town, a town so far from the magic enlightened Canterlot, a town that hated magic, meant he had very little knowledge of how to use his abilities. Unicorns, at their youngest age, have rather uncontrollable bursts of magic. Think of it as a magic temper tantrum. Once, at the age of about one, he managed to turn half of his mother's garden in to Cacti, nearly turning his mother into a Cactus herself. His father was not pleased, his mother almost died laughing. Another time he nearly burnt down the house when a burst of magic left his horn. He later would learn, that this was the “Candle Light” spell.

The few times he had managed to leave the town, he would “borrow” tomes from more civilized libraries. He would learn and practice spells out in the forest where he could do no harm, and where he would be left alone. He learned the levitation spell quickly, he found it was far easier to eat, drink, and write using magic, than his hooves and mouth. The Earth Pony schools did not like this and he was forbidden to use magic while at school. Fast forward a few years and Midnight had learned to control his magic, that is, until he became angry. Now about the age of twelve, Midnight discovered that he had quite the temper and that it was hard for him to control his anger. One day at school, a rather rude Earth Pony by the name of Desert Sun, tripped over Midnight’s saddle bag on his way out of the classroom. The others laughed at Desert’s misfortune, causing his pride to become far more wounded than his physical self. Desert, a jock-type pony, tackled Midnight and began to hit him with his hooves, while calling out every insult he could think of. Midnight could’ve handled this, until Desert made the mistake of referencing Midnight’s mother.

Midnight growled as loud as possible, and, with his knowledge of levitation spells, managed to push the larger pony off of him. He stood on all fours, the anger visible in his very breath. He took a step towards the slightly stunned Earth Pony, and hit him as hard as possible in the face. Desert however, had not learned his lesson and proceeded to make even more derogatory references to Midnight’s beloved mother. At this Midnight could take no more. His eyes lit up a bright white, as if stars themselves. With a flash of light that blinded everypony in the room, Midnight sent the dust colored pony flying through a wall into the next classroom. Not yet satisfied, he let out a growl that shook everypony to their core. With the power of his horn, he cast a spell he didn’t even know existed. All the light in the room vanished, as if sucked into his horn. The only light came from the tip of the enraged Unicorns horn, and his blindingly white eyes. He proceeded to yell as loud as he could, “You’ve crossed a line that shan't ever be crossed again, Desert.” Now addressing the room, “You all look at me with hate, when all I ever wanted was to be your friend.” His tone darkened, sounded almost demonic in nature. “But you laugh at us, you insult us! Well no longer. Be this the last time you ever challenge us!” And with that a bright flash of light exploded out of his horn. When the light returned to the room, everypony was cowering in fear, their blood nearly frozen in their veins. Passed out next to his desk laid Midnight, with a bloodied nose from his encounter with Desert. Desert however fared far worse. He was barely alive, nearly every bone in his body broken from crashing through a wall into another classroom.

The Unicorn awoke a few hours later to a blinding headache. He could tell from the smells and the quiet that he was in his room, in his parents house near the lake. He stood and quickly fell to the cold floor. He rose again, this time slower. He could feel how weak he was, and it felt very strange. He couldn’t remember anything of the day before, just that he had gotten very angry at a sand colored pony. He carefully made his way to the other side of his dark room and used a candle lighting spell to bring some light to it. It took more effort than normal to cast. As soon as light struck his retinas, the pain in his head got worse. He quickly extinguished the offending light. He had felt like this only a few time throughout his foalhood. Every time after a magical outburst, he would get a splitting headache. At this realization he quickly did his best to remember everything that happened, but it was to no avail, and only made his head hurt more. He decided to lay down a bit longer.

About an hour had passed and Midnight’s terrible headache was fading to tolerable levels. He recast the candle light spell, but it still required far more effort than it should. This only made the young Unicorn more confused. As he began to head towards his door, something about his reflection in a nearby mirror caught his eye. It was his mane. Splotches of red stained his normally pure white hair. As he looked closer, his heart skipped a beat. It was dried blood in his hair! His breath became more labored as he tried to figure out how it had gotten there. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, a stare that would make even Fluttershy proud. For some reason he could not look away. Suddenly, he felt something, something change. It felt as if he was no longer looking at himself, but a pony nearly identical to him. He could not look away. The other colt’s eyes changed from Midnight’s bright cyan to a burning red. Malice was spread across his face, and Midnight felt as if he was looking the very essence of evil in the eye. The reflection of the not-pony lunged at him, as if to escape the confines of the mirror. Midnight jumped and landed on his back. As he rose, he cautiously looked into the mirror, only to find the pony it reflected to be just as normal as ever, aside from the blood in his mane.

The now scared colt made his way down stairs and into the living room, of his parents house. He was met with a stare of pure anger from his father, and one equal in fear from his mother. His father, in the sternest of tones ever produced from a ponies throat, proceeded in telling the young Unicorn of his actions from the day before. Before his father could finish, Midnight knew what had happened. It all came back to him. He watched the memories as if they were a movie and he couldn’t believe what he saw. The pony in his memory was just as evil as the one that just tried to escape his mirror. In fact, he’d reckon it was the same pony! Midnight broke down in tears, and no longer possessing the will to stand, he fell to the floor. His father’s anger was replaced with concern for his son, and his mother was already at his side. As she stroked his mane with a damp cloth, removing the blood stains from his beautiful mane, he began to calm.

He stood and faced his father and mother. His father motioned to a chair and said “sit.” He did. His father and mother reached out a hoof and Midnight placed his in theirs.

“H-Honey, your father told you what happened, and you know it to be true. However...we have some more b-bad news.” His mother could speak no more, too busy choking back tears.

His father took over. “The mayor of the town was brought into this.” Midnight feared his father next few words. “Mayor Sun, finds your actions to be unacceptable. Your attack on his son can not be forgiven. First thing tomorrow, you are to leave this town and not return!”

Midnight could not believe what his ears were telling him. I’m banished, no, this isn’t happening. Where will I go, what will I do, how, how will I survive? Midnight’s mother rose and embraced her son in a tight hug, but it did no good to calm his nerves.

“I-I’m sorry, I tried my best to make him let you stay, but he’d hear no reason” said his father.

“We can’t go with you honey, I’m sorry” said his mother.

“But... Why?!? WHY! Why is this happening to me? Why can’t you come with me?” Midnight screamed, his voice shaking with fear and anger.

“Your mother can’t make the trip. She and, frankly I, are just too old to try and start over somewhere new!” stated his father. “Here.”

His father sat a small wooden chest down in front of Midnight. Midnight undid the clasp with his magic and lifted the lid. It was a good portion of his parents life savings.

“I-I can’t.”

“You have to” his father said. “That’s five-thousand bits, over half of our savings. You’ll need it.” Midnight’s brain began to shut down.

“Get some rest son, I’ll be here for you in the morning” said his mother, she touched her forehoof to her son’s chest “and I’ll always be in your heart.”

Midnight looked into his mother’s comforting purple eyes. She was always a beautiful pony. He Lavender eyes a match to her Lavender mane. You could always pick her out of a crowd as the pony with an all white coat and wings, but a full Lavender mane and tail. She kissed him on the tip of his horn, and again on his forehead. With this, this knowledge that it was the last time he’d see his mother for a long time, probably for ever, his mind shut down, and he passed out in his mother’s arms.

Several hours later Midnight found himself being gently woken by the sun’s warm rays. His room was the first to be hit by sunlight and he always woke before almost anypony else because of it. He lay in his warm bed, happy and content. Then, then the memories from last night hit him like a wave. His good mood and happy thoughts we washed away by a torrent of fear and tears. He rose, hoping for it all to be a dream. When he arrived in his kitchen, he knew for a fact that this was no dream. His mother had his saddle bag packed with food and money, and a few pictures of family, as well as a map of Equestria.

His father walked up to him. “I’m sorry son, but it has to be this way. In the long run, you’ll be happier.” He lifted his son’s chin with his forehoof, and looked deep into his eyes, “You are strong, the strongest pony I’ve ever seen. You will survive. You will thrive!”

His mother took her turn to speak. “We love you, we will always love you and we will always be with you.”

She kissed him and his father opened the front door. Midnight levitated his saddle bags onto his back, hugged his mother and proceeded to walk to the door. He hugged his father, stepped outside, and looked back. His mother and father were standing in the doorway. She blew him a final kiss, and he galloped off in tears. He galloped as quickly as possible out of town, long before anypony else was awake. He stood on a hill overlooking the only place he ever really knew, and he could see his parents house. He could see that they were still standing in that doorway, now both crying. The sun crested the hill behind him. His parents looked up to watch the sunrise. What they saw was the silhouette of their beloved son staring back at them. Midnight took one last long look, turned, and galloped off into the sunrise. It was the last time he would ever see his mother, or father, again.