//------------------------------// // 10. The Children of the Night - Part 3 // Story: BPT: A Midnight Stroll through Time // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// All through the night did the Princess lead the colts n’ fillies (and, unknown to her, a blue unicorn-turned-pegasus) `cross Equestria. In no time at all, they reached the coast and even then they carried on. Where is this girl leading us…? Midnight wondered, and hoped the destination Luna had in mind was on dry land. He was somewhat familiar with here and there in the land of Equestria, but he had no idea what lands lay beyond the edges of the map Twilight gave him. According to what he knew, they were flying across the eastern sea but he didn’t know of any landmasses off its coast. His inward querying was soon answered when his pegasus eyes spotted something not too far ahead. As they got closer, Midnight saw Luna was leading them to a small archipelago. He counted seven or eight isles clustered close enough together, and Luna began to descend towards the main isle, the foals in tow. Midnight descended as well but kept his distance, and finally sighed in relief as his hooves touched solid ground and he peered through a wall of brush. He took in a large clearing of silvery green grass, the area at least as big as the town square back in Ponyville. Edging it were a few buildings, he saw a watermill, a wooden lookout tower with a stone foundation, a few cottages, and greeting Luna and the foals were more foals, as well as some teenaged colts and fillies. There has to be almost fifty foals, here, including the ones Luna just brought! He listened as the foals all crowded Luna, laughing, smiling, saying things like welcome back, what’d ya bring me, basically the sort of questions sons and daughters would ask returning parents. “Be still, my darlings,” Luna smiled as she hugged as many colts and fillies as she could wrap her wings around, and more hugged her from behind or the side, and when they dispersed, Luna declared, “The time has come, my little ponies! Tonight, with the moon shining in the full of its glory, I shall make you all truly my children, in bond as well as spirit.” What does that means? Midnight wondered, but then he recalled the conversation with Celestia again, that Luna gad made the foals she had taken into the first lunar ponies! Midnight wasn’t sure if he’d ever met a lunar pony. He had met one of the nightshift Royal Guards that night when he, Pinkie, and Spike helped Twilight sneak into the Wing of Star Swirl the Bearded to look for a spell. That guard had been quite friendly, gladly opening the door for them, but thinking back Midnight wasn’t sure if that guard had been a lunar pony just because of his uniform and shift. Come to think of it, Midnight knew next to nothing about lunar ponies, but now he was about to witness their very beginning! Deciding he needed to know more, he cast a spell. Like New Moon’s glow, unseen at night, Conceal me from unwanted sight! For a brief moment Midnight was enveloped in a silvery glow that quickly dulled, taking him with it as his spell made him invisible. The cloak helped in reinforcing the spell by making it breakable only by Midnight and muffling his hoofsteps as he slowly crept up to the teenaged colts and fillies, who numbered six, two colts, the rest fillies. They were engrossed in conversation. “Finally! Our new mother is gonna make us her children for real!” swooned a unicorn filly. “We’re so blessed… Princess Luna is everything I wanted in a mother. She saved me from my uncle!” said an earth pony colt. “Was he really that bad?” asked a pegasus filly. “He was horrible… He beat me whenever I didn’t finish my chores fast enough or if I made even the smallest mistake.” The earth pony colt sulked. “Princess Luna was really kind to me! I used to be a thief on the streets because I had no other way to survive,” spoke up the other colt, a unicorn. “I got caught and sent to the local jail, I prayed to the princesses to help me, and Luna answered my prayers!” “She’s so wonderful,” sniffled an earth filly as she gazed upon all the foals younger than them, “and she’s brought us so many little brothers and sisters!” “Did you have a little brother or sister?” asked another pegasus filly, the sixth of the bunch. “I did, a sweet little sister…” the earth filly sniffled harder. “But she died… she got sick and…” The more he listened, the more it became clear to him as Midnight realized, These are all foals who’d had it rough! Orphans, street-urchins, abused, even thieves! Luna had taken them all and spirited them off to these out-of-the-way isles to give them a home, and chosen to be the mother they all deserved! And she’d done it secretly, without Celestia’s knowledge, going against her sister’s wishes, as a matter of fact! Midnight could understand wanting to help these down-on-their-luck foals but there had to be more to it than that – She was even calling herself their new mother! Maybe she didn’t wanna have kids the ol’ fashioned way. Then he noticed Luna was up to something. She was walking around the clearing, gently telling the foals to get in the center, and all the while her horn flared as a glowing line appeared in her wake, and soon she had formed a giant circle of light in the grass. Now what’s she doing? Midnight carefully snuck up for a closer look as Luna settled herself within all her foals, and gently hummed a lullaby. The colts and fillies all yawned as sleep finally began to settle in, all of them coming together, snuggling up with each other, with their new brothers and sisters, surrounding their new mother as her hum harmonized their hearts, setting them at ease, gently sending them adrift into their dreams. Midnight felt it too but his cloak’s wards made it so he didn’t fall asleep. But still, he felt the gentle love Luna had in her heart for all these foals who’d had it hard, that she’d decided to be responsible for them, to love them, and even though he was a trespasser, he felt a little bit like that included him, even though Luna didn’t know he was there. Then Luna’s horn flared again, and magic sigils wrote themselves shining along the circle that surrounded them and in the back of his mind, Midnight realized, This is a magic circle! Magic circles were an art in magic where the mage marked an area with a circle, all the space within and everything within the circle to be influenced by the magic the mage cast. It was time-consuming practice and detail-oriented. Midnight recalled a few times where Twilight had made him try to make some magic circles himself. He’d barely managed to do it but he still got it, enabling him to create a marked area to teleport an order of books Twilight was expecting straight into the library. They could also be used for protective magic, enchantment, the possibilities were virtually endless! But what was Luna doing with this magic circle surrounding these foals? His answer soon became clear as the circle shined a gentle radiance and midnight sensed it! The circle was absorbing energy from the light of the moon, just like he could! As the circle soaked in the moonlight, a gentle pulse of light enclosed inwards towards the center, as though Luna were drawing the energy towards herself, but as she was surrounded by all these colts and fillies, the energy through them first, settling into them while the remainder of the energies came to Luna. Midnight gasped as he felt the moonlight energy inside, and he suddenly remembered, he too was inside the circle! Standing just inside, next to the border of the circle to be exact. …But for some reason, the thought of getting out of the circle never crossed his mind. He stood there, transfixed in the moment, as a high clouded his mind, his eyes watching but his consciousness not entirely acknowledging the changes coming over the foals! Their coats darkened a little, the tips of their ears became tufted, the feathers of the pegasus foals fell away, revealing their wings had changed into the wings of bats, the unicorn foals’ tails lengthening, not in hair but the tails themselves, making them look leonine! The hooves of all the foals seemed to taper somewhat into points, and dewclaws poked out of their fetlocks, as did tiny little fangs poke out from their lips. These alterations helped to clear Midnight’s head a little, as he realized he was witnessing the birth of the lunar ponies! These foals Luna had spirited away to be her children were destined to grow up into a new kind of pony altogether! They were earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn, but they belonged to the night itself! Their very beings had been changed fundamentally, in body, in spirit! Shaking the euphoria away, Midnight stumbled a bit, feeling dizzy, as he snuck away and found a thick bush to hide in. As the knowledge of all he’d seen raced through his mind, Midnight came to a question he whispered to nopony in [articular, “What do I do…?” He sat there, thinking, shifting between pros and cons, whether he had any right at all to interfere in any way, or if he should do something, because Luna had just changed these foals and there was no telling if it was for the better or worse. Then another thought crossed his mind as he realized, “The magic got me too!” He’d stood in the circle, he’d felt the magic touch him, but had he changed as well? He looked at his hooves and saw no dewclaws and his tail hadn’t lengthened, and he certainly hadn’t grown fangs. Sighing in relief, he wondered, f only I could ask somepony else- He facehooved in realization and took out the two-way journal and began to write. ‘Dear Prince Sombra, I have just witnessed, what I believe, is the origin of the lunar ponies. I arrived ten years after the sisters defeated Discord and found the village of Everfree, which stood before the Castle of the Two Sisters. There I learned foals had been going missing, and upon investigation I saw the culprit to be Luna! I followed her and the foals she took in secret, following them to a small archipelago of seven or eight isles, and as I spied on them I learned these foals she’d been taking were orphans, homeless, or abused, and watched as she transformed them! And I think I might have been affected too, even if I don’t show any signs. I have hidden myself and now face a dilemma – Master, I know you told me I mustn’t interfere with history, but somewhere in my heart I cannot help but feel I must do something. Luna’s intentions might good but she has changed the very natures of all these foals! So, I ask you, what should I heed – My heart or my head? Your loyal apprentice, Midnight Blaze’ Deciding to sleep on it, or just hope Sombra would answer back, Midnight pulled out a blanket and pillow from his saddlebags and set up a distractor spell on the bushes he was in. As the spell’s caster, he was unaffected, but it guaranteed the foals would not stumble upon him in the morning. Yawning, he settled down and let himself be carried away into serene slumber.