//------------------------------// // 4. A Dazzling Conflict! - Part 1 // Story: BPT: A Midnight Stroll through Time // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// Midnight furrowed, grunting with effort as he channeled his mana into the Time Stone and dividing his attention to around him. The bubble containing him showed the outside except he was drifting about as though this really were a bubble. Aimlessly, without direction, and he watched as day and night slipped by like a bad comedic effect, the countryside around him mostly stayed the same aside some fast-moving animals, birds and the changing of seasons which came slower, like a parade, but as it went on, things got faster and the moment Midnight felt a searing pain, at the base of his horn and in the pit of his stomach, he broke the connection and felt his ears pop as he landed in a slump on a patch of grass. The position of the sun indicated it late-morning and he panted as though he’d just taken a brisk gallop from Sweet Apple Acres all the way to Sugarcube Corner. His heart flittered a little from the ordeal and he gathered himself, Where am I now? Huh, or perhaps I should say when. That was the question indeed. How many years had Midnight just skipped, and how many more would he have to use the Time Stone before he was back where he belonged? His train of thought was interrupted by the loudest grumble he’d ever heard his stomach make and it dawned on him just how hungry he was! Rubbing his stomach, and groaning from the pangs it painfully badgered him with, he sat down and concentrated on his bags, “I wonder what Star Swirl gave me to munch on…?” Since Star Swirl had added extra-dimensional space to the bags, he explained to Midnight if he wanted something from his bags he should will it to come out. Out popped a wrapped loaf of bread and Midnight poked around more with his will-power, drawing out a jar of strawberry preserves, a wedge of cheese, and a canteen of water. “This’ll do for now.” After eating about half of the loaf, the preserves made it much more enjoyable, a few bites of the cheese, and washing it down with the water, the canteen charmed to keep it ice-cold and fresh, Midnight put them away and decided to get his bearings. “Maybe this time I can find an inn and barter a room for the night and recover my strength.” Midnight could easily feel it, his magic was quite low, with the most he could do was his telekinesis and drawing out his possessions. Sighing, Midnight felt a little down. Sure it was only the first step so far in his journey through time to get home, but there was still the danger he would change history somehow and maybe even negatively affect the future, the present he was torn away from, and how much magic would he have to feed to this darned stone before it dropped him back in the Ponyville he called his home? How would you handle this predicament, Twily…? he wondered and couldn’t help chuckling a bit. Twilight would have spazzed out from meeting Star Swirl the Bearded and she might have even impressed him with her polymath of knowledge while she would've hung on his every word about magic. Buck, she might have even figured out a more direct route home instead of this hop, skip, and jumping I’m saddled with! Sighing, Midnight wished there was a way to connect to his time a little quicker, any way at all! Then a wild idea crossed his mind. He willed it out of his saddlebag and the two-way journal his master, Prince Sombra levitated in front of him, along with a quill and inkwell. The journal looked like a spellbook, an emblem of his master’s cutie-mark glorifying the center. A cluster of red crystal with three points, surrounded by three jewels in a triangle formation, a sapphire above, a topaz at the lower left, a ruby laced with emerald at the lower right. Midnight knew the jewels represented himself, Thunderlane, and Big Macintosh, because they worked together to stop Sombra in his corrupted-driven madness, and Sombra held the Guardians of Harmony in high-esteem for that. When he’d received this journal, Sombra had told him: ‘Whenever you write in this journal, you are speaking to me, and no matter how lost you may feel or from wherever you write to me, I will answer you with the best guidance I can offer.’ From wherever I write to you, huh… Midnight kind of doubted that included from over a thousand years in the past. But he’d already broken out the quill and inkwell, so he indulged the crazy theory. ‘Dear Prince Sombra, I’m not quite sure how to explain this or if my absence has been noticed yet. However, what I am writing is the honest-to-Applejack truth. I have somehow been flung through time to over a thousand years into the past. I have met Star Swirl the Bearded before he sought out a ruler to unite the three tribes of earth pony, pegasi, and unicorns, and I believe I may very well have witnessed the Birth of Harmony! Star Swirl sorta reminds me of Twilight, from before she came to Ponyville and learned the value and wonder that is Friendship. He was kind enough to house me for a short while and has helped me find a solution to return to the present. It won’t be easy, for I will be literally leap-frogging through the history of Equestria to return to my friends and family. Somehow, the journal you gave me was sent back with me, which is why I am entertaining the unlikely idea that my writing to you from the past will appear to you in the present, that you may reply and offer me guidance. I’ve just taken my first step on my journey home but it promises to be a long one. I have my fears and reservations about traveling through Equestrian history, but I know I have to try. If by some miracle you do get this message, my master, don’t tell my friends. I’d rather they think I were simply missing instead of lost and journeying through time. I hope with all my heart this message gets to you, my master, and I must have faith, if not in this meesage then in this vow – I will return to the present, however long it takes me, and when I do… I will ask Twilight to marry me! Ever your loyal apprentice, Midnight Blaze’ Midnight read the entry/message three times over and saw nothing he wanted to change, remove, or add. Maybe he was fooling himself that somehow this message would appear in his master’s journal, maybe not. But right now, Midnight had to find a place to sleep for the night. He certainly had camping equipment but he only wanted to sleep under the stars if he had to. The day was still young (so to speak) and perhaps during the interim between now and the moment he left Star Swirl, villages had been built. A rumble from his stomach caught his attention and he lifted his tail to fart out some of the tension he'd been building up. He put the journal away and levitated out his pegasus goggles. In a flash of light accompanied by the crack of lightning, he was a pegasus and took flight, ready to face whatever this time would have in store for him. Little did he know, it wasn’t going to be pretty, as an enchanting voice drifted with the breeze.