//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Nights-shade and the Exam 
// Story: Lost Magic And Betrayal 
// by Politicalunrest2400 
//------------------------------//

	Nights-shade stood at the entrance, waiting in line to enter the building that acted as Luna’s army’s armory. Nights-shade knew what was in there, he had made most of it himself at the forges working extra hours in daylight when the rest of Luna’s children slept, their nocturnal nature getting the best of them. Nights-shade was not one of Luna’s children though, sure he was allowed to live in the caves, and sure he loved the night just as much as they did, but he was a simple earth pony no bat-pony, or night-pegasus or whatever it was they called themselves.
No one in Equestria had known of their existence until Luna rebelled against her sister nearly a thousand years ago. Then they had descended like clouds of ash upon the rest of the land. After Luna’s imprisonment they were only seen occasionally; with Luna’s return some years ago and the dispelling of nightmare moon, they had returned in small numbers to trade, and to see to the protection and needs of their princess.
Now however, most ponies ran from what was now known as old Equestria to the caves under the mountains, that some had playfully deemed the ‘new lunar republic’. Luna herself was said to openly chastise any who said such as foolish, punishing them with extra work that day.
Nights-shade never really liked the name anyway, so he never got in trouble. But some of his friends like Day-strider and Hails-wind who were pegausi had a hard time not using it and were constantly being forced to work day-shift with him.
Nights-shade worked night shift right alongside everyone else, but he was one of the few ponies in the caverns who could stay awake and alert during the day. So he constantly volunteered to work in the morning, it was usually the only time he got to see his friends serving out their punishment. He slept in the afternoon for a few hours until the sun set, and then returned to the forges, producing weapons, armor, and any of the other new technological marvels that had been discovered by any of the many research teams under the careful guide of Celestia.
Nights-shade was growing board with working at the forges. He had grown stronger than he had ever been, which was saying something for an earth pony of his size. Oh, he was grateful for Luna’s protection, the food she offered and he was more than willing to work. But deep down? Nights-shade wanted to fight!
He had seen the other earth pony’s in the new armor, taller stronger and faster than any earth pony before them, and wanted to join their ranks. That’s why he was here today, the ‘knights’ as they were officially named were recruiting out of the armory, and Nights-shade had every intention of joining.
“Step forward young colt. What is your name?...” Nights-shade heard the mare, wearing a long white trench coat marking her as the medical doctor who screened out the unhealthy before the Knights would see them.
“Far too young, only 12 years old? Why young fellow you barely have your cutie mark!” she said dismissively to a massive earth pony almost twice Nights-shade’s size, pointing away from the line. “I don’t care how strong, or tall you are young colt, you will not be joining one of the Knightly orders today! Now, you can either get out of line willingly and try again in a few years, or I can have you removed.” Her eyes were steal, scrutinizing the young colts every movement. “Good choice.” She said as the colt moved to the side, head down and obviously somewhat depressed. “Next!” the mare screeched at the top of her lungs.
The process of screening was intensive, and only one pony made it through before Nights-shade was at the front of the line; and that pony had bolted out of the cave that made up the armory building a few minutes after saying something about needles.
“Next!” the mare screamed again, and suddenly it was his turn. Nights-shade walked up to the table and put down his request form wordlessly. “Well then, aren't we a strapping young colt, black coat and deep purple mane... mmmm” the mare said, voice playfully seductive. 
Nights-shade fought back the urge to grimace. Others had always told him he was handsome, but he never really believed it until about half way through his agricultural degree when he realized some pony had started a ‘nights-shade’ fan club, with the motto ‘tall, dark and shady’. 
The older mare chuckled at his obvious discomfort saying “don’t flatter yourself mister, I already have a husband waiting for me.” Her sly smile turned solemn with memory “he died saving me and the kids when the southern diamond dog clans attacked. Bought us enough time to escape into the mountains where Luna and her bat-pony’s found us. He fought off seven of them on his own, and I am sure there were more coming when we left. This was before the Betrayer enslaved them of course.” She shook her head, dispelling the memories.
“That doesn't matter now, does it? Right, you are here for an evaluation. Well, I don’t see any physical damage or scars. Have you had any surgeries? Any medication or magical medical treatments within the last six months?” he shook his head, and she harrumphed continuing her questions. “Have you been exposed to any magical weapons or other battle field conditions without protective equipment or spells?” again he shook his head, and again she harrumphed at him looking even more squarely into his eyes for any sign of deceit.
“Ok then…” she said, breaking the thick silence, her words as sharp as a knife. “Step behind the curtain to finish the examination.” Nights-shade blinked. No other pony had been asked to do that, but then again no other pony had gotten this far and awnered the questions as he had. Obeying he stepped behind the curtain.
Behind the curtain was a small patient table like the kind he saw at the doctor’s office that one time he had to have an ingrown hoof removed, a trey with very large looking needles, and a crystal that hummed slightly glowing a slight red color which cast the room in a light reddish tinge.
“Where do you want me doc?” Nights-shade asked as another mare, this one much younger entered the room, pushing past him and into the make shift doctor’s office. She picked up the smallest of the needles and motioned for him to lay on the table while saying “my name is Nurse Joy, and I will be collecting the samples.” Samples? He thought, no one said anything about samples. 
Complying with her unspoken order, he laid on the table, belly down and legs under his chest as if he were about to sleep. “Legs out please, lay completely flat I need samples from you when your circulation is not restricted.” He did as she ordered him to again, but he felt odd laying with his legs spread out.
“This will only sting for a second” she said as she stabbed him with the shortest of the needles deep into the muscle tissue. Nights-shade hated needles, moreover he hated when people lied to him; when someone combined those two things like now, it took everything in him not to trample her into dust. Grimacing he tried to relax, allowing her to wiggle the needle deeper into his musculature.
“There we go, it will take just another second cutie” winking at him, she started to pull the end of the needle, taking a blood sample. “See?” she said as if nothing was wrong “that wasn't so bad was it?” Nights-shade almost screamed at her, but remained silent preferring to scowl instead.
“Now, I need a bone marrow sample” she said, as she grabbed the largest of the three needles. “This one, will hurt” her face was all sympathy “A lot actually.” Nights-shade considered bolting from the room, but before he could take any action she had bent one of his front knees and jabbed the needle deep into the joint, striking bone.
Nights-shade did scream this time, but he was thankful that it was only a little before he closed his mouth with a snarl. He couldn't control it, but to his shame tears rolled down from his eyes freely, he tried to wipe them away but the motion only caused even more pain. 
“There, there hot stuff, the hard part is done. It might take you a few minutes but you will recover.” Her voice was singsong, as if she had expected his reaction to be much worse. “It would have been even worse had I done the large one first so don’t get any ideas about complaining.” He snapped at her, jaws straining to bite, but she was on the other side of the make shift room now and safely outside his reach. 
Taking a deep breath, Nights-shade allowed his anger to subside. I did ask for this after all he thought to himself. It’s not her fault that this is what the process is like. 
“Calm yet?” she asked. “I have one more sample to get. This one is a bit more fun for you I would think.” She winked at him again and he started to blush. “I need a semin sample big guy.” He gulped visibly.
“Now, there are three ways we can do this. Either you can do it yourself…” she picked up a small cup, and placed it on the table in front of him. “Or you can have me do it with this…” she picked up the remaining needle for him to see, then put it back. His eyes went wide, and had he not been unable to run he knew he would have. “Or, you can have me do it the old fashioned way. We are not supposed to, but I think for you I can make an exception…” her smile was more inviting then Nights-shade had seen from any mare before. 
Nights-shade shook his head and said cheeks growing an even brighter shade of red and voice shaking slightly “I think I will just do it myself thank you very much ma’am.”
She harrumphed irritated at his lack of interest. She picked up the red crystal from the tray as it glowed slightly and leaving the cup on the tray just out of his reach she left the room allowing the curtain flap to billow behind her.


About half an hour later, when he could walk again, Nights-shade stood outside of the small makeshift room, obviously limping and exhausted; both from being stabbed, and... other... activity's that the exam required. He saw that nurse Joy was no where in sight, to his relief, and left the cup now covered with a lid... and full... on the small table he found that was marked 'Nights-shade samples' that contained the other two containers that had been extracted from him.
He walked out to where the original nurse had conducted the verbal examination. She was sitting at the table, the line was gone, and nurse Joy and about five other nurses sat together listening to the nurse who had conducted the verbal examination. A few other colts, and one mare, mulled about outside of exam rooms similar to his.
"Nights-shade, we had not expected to see thou here." Startled Nights-shade turned around, and fell to the ground having put to much weight on his injured leg. The crash could have easily been heard by all of those near by, but no one reacted. Nights-shade opened his eyes to see who had caused his fall, and who he could unleash his anger on. A deep blue coated mare, star sparkled hair billowing behind her loomed over him, eyes wide with concern. "Art thou injured my good colt?"
Shaking his head, Nights-shade struggled to his feet, and bowed slightly. "My Princess Luna, It is an honor to see you again." righting himself he asked "But what are you doing here? have you come to speak with one of the nurses?" Nights-shade purposefully moved so that the contents that he had just placed on the table were not visible to the princess of the night. 
"We... I, have come to inspect the new batch of applicants to the Knight program." she slowly walked past him, smiling slyly as she saw the contents on the table. "I trust the experience was... not entirely traumatic?" Nights-shade blushed furiously, inclining his head in anther slight bow in an attempt to hide his mortification. "We... I" she grimaced to her self as she caught her speech falling back to the old way from a thousand years ago. "I" she said deliberately "did not expect that you would leave your forges and join such a worthy cause as this. Not that you are not brave or strong, but i did not believe you had the warrior spirit necessary." Her voice was sincere and not unkind.
Nights-shade stood tall, all embarrassment gone. "I have always wanted to protect those around me, but i never felt skilled enough to do so princess." he cast his eyes low "i always thought that my skills as a smith, or as a farmer would be far more useful to you. But when the Knight program was introduced last year I started to think that i might be able to do more..." He shook his head dispelling the feeling of doubt that he felt welling up inside. "I know i can do more princess, if only i am given the chance."
Luna, princess of the night smiled genuinely this time. "You are truly a great steed, both for the sacrifices you have made here in these caverns and for the sacrifices you are willing, even now after working so hard, to make to protect others. If you are compatible with the technology i assure you good Nights-shade, you will become a knight." Bowing to him slightly, she walked over to the nurses table. The under nurses such as nurse Joy, scattered one to each of those who were milling about outside their exam rooms.
For a moment pure panic nearly griped him as nurse Joy started his way. But after seeing him she rolled her eyes and whispered lightly into the ear of another of the nurses, who smiled at him. Obviously having switched candidates, the new nurse a white, maybe slightly purple, earth pony filly with a cutie mark of a flower on a background with a red cross indicating that her special talent was in healing, started his way.
When she got closer the new mare asked "hello, how are you feeling after all of that?" she smiled at him not unkindly. 
"Fine" Nights-shade said eyes drooping slightly. "Just tired ma'am". he shook his head slightly trying to clear away the tired feeling, but all he succeeded in doing was making himself dizzy.
"That's normal i suppose. My name is nurse Rosy Hope, you can call me Hope if you like." she walked passed him and to the table, where she took out a red gem exactly like the one that nurse Joy had taken when he had left him alone; she started to wave the gem over the samples and the glowing increased. "Do you know what these are Mr. Nights-shade?" he shook his head no. "We get them from the Crystal Empire and Princess Cadence. She has teams of scientists up there working hard on things like this. Do you know what it does?" again he shook his head no, getting slightly irritated. Nurse Hope nodded "not many pony's do, so i guess that's OK. What this does is it separates your magic from the rest of the sample so that we can examine your DNA without any interference."
Nights-shade gave her a questioning look before asking "But i am an earth pony, we don't have any real magic like the unicorns or pegusi do." She smiled at him again, no doubt at his ignorance. The thought irritated Nights-shade but he let it go.
"No?" nurse Hope said "How do you think you and us other Earth pony's grow so big and strong? or how about your unnatural ability to grow plants? Or how about your natural resistance to negative magical energy's such as Lord Tirek's?" she asked. Her eyes went wide as she realized what she had done, them bowed her head, putting a hoof over it in the sign of contrition. It was something that only a few pony's did at first during the time of the Betrayal. It was a sign that supposedly warded off evil, but as things got worse it eventually became more and more common. Now days it was almost  reflex to do it when someone spoke one of the Chaos Lords names out loud for fear they would hear it. 
As she righted her self again, Nights-shade couldn't help but feel another pang of annoyance at the silly superstition of some pony's. But then he nodded his understanding of what she had been saying. In the early days of Lord Tirek's attack on Equestria, before the Betrayal, he had been unable to use his magic siphoning ability's on earth pony's because of some natural resistance that they had. It wasn't until much later that he was powerful enough to overcome that resistance.
She smiled at him looking somewhat embarrassed by her behavior before she started to use the crystal again. "Anyway..." she said "What i was trying to get at is we wont know if you are compatible unless we can get your magic out of the way. Then we can know for sure. These crystals..." she moved the red rock from the first sample of his blood, apparently fully drained of his magic, to the bone marrow sample. "wow... you have a lot of magic in those bones of yours. What have you been eating for breakfast, unicorn horn?" she asked playfully teasing.
He smiled at her and shook his head "No ma'am, just the oatmeal grog that we all eat." He was very grateful that she was not hitting on him, he was so uncomfortable in those situations and found it a turn off when mares were to forward.
"Well, this might take a minute. So tell me where are you from? before all of" she motioned to the cave by moving her gaze all around "this mess?"
"Me? well..." he had to think. it had been so long sense he had thought of home. "I originally lived in the desert where the buffalo use to roam." his voice grew somewhat somber "before the Betrayer had them all enslaved or killed." he shook his head remembering some of the friends he had had as a young colt. "My father taught me how to blacksmith and farm. I was always better at the smithing then the farming, but i liked farming so much more. Anyway, one day the diamond dogs attacked our little village and we had to flee up into the hills. Luckily for us a few loyalist royal guards found us and chased off the diamond dogs. A few of the Stallion's like my father had stayed behind and fought to buy us some time. From what i heard after the guards returned from the town there were no survivors on either side. that's one reason i am here you know? i have a little sister and my mother still, and they both work here in the kitchens cooking and cleaning but i want for them to be able to live under Celestia's sun again one day, safe." 
The red crystal was glowing absurdly bright now and she moved it over the third sample. Nights-shade blushed slightly, and Hope simply smiled at his embarrassment. "Don't worry, i wont make fun of you. Though I cant say anything about the others." she said motioning toward the small congregation of other nurses who were already done with the other samples and were checking their patients out on a roll call sheet on the desk. The crystal cracked in her hand and she cursed, this time it was her turn to blush though it only lasted a second, to short for Nights-shade to truly enjoy.
"I will be right back, stay here." she through the broken crystal into a basket that contained a small pile of them. As she was walking over to the table of nurses he heard her say "That was a brand new one... how in Celestia's sun did that happen?" When she arrived at the table, she spoke to the head nurse. After a few seconds of speaking in whispered tones, the head nurse leaned over nurse Hope's shoulder and looked straight at him, eyes burning in anger as if he had broken the crystal on purpose, before returning to the younger mare. 
After a few more seconds of conversation the head nurse reached into a small bag marked with a cross, and retrieved a new, much larger crystal. She handed it to Hope who then promptly trotted back to him and the sample table looking as if she had been severely chastised.
"Are you OK?" Nights-shade asked concerned. She turned to him, as she put the new crystal over the third sample and smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes and said "I'm fine, I just needed a new one. Must have forgotten that i had used it on a few pony's before you." Nights-shade furrowed his brow having caught the obvious lie.
"I was the first person you all asked back into the exam rooms today that stayed, so I know that's not true. Whats wrong nurse Hope?" his voice was serious but not overly severe.
Hope grimaced before saying "I must have used the crystals wrong. Normally a crystal that size could be used a few times before breaking, and we normally try not to break them as they can be put to good use elsewhere." For a brief moment Nights-shade's imagination went wild, as he thought of all of the things that those crystals could be used for once filled with magical energy. Shaking himself slightly, Nights-shade said "and it broke when you used it on my sample... which means that either i have so much magic that it could fill that crystal by its self, or that you some how broke it. Good job" he teased, jabbing her lightly in the shoulder.
Hope smiled slightly, and returned to her work with the crystal. "Don't worry about me, i will be just fine. How about you? are you fit to go home on your own after all of this?" He put his injured hoof down on the ground and attempted to stand up as tall as he could just to show her how well he was coming along. Instead he winced as sharp pain spread from his knee out. "Well i will see about having some-pony walk you home then, just to insure you get there safely and don't die by falling down one of these cliffs." she pointed toward the massive internal cavern that housed every pony under Luna's protection. The cavern was a hollowed out mountain that had been dug by the bat pony's a long time ago. All along the walls where pathways that led from one cave to another; the caves honeycombed the walls of the hollow mountain. The caves were hoof built and acted as buildings and homes for every pony, and most were quite comfortable.
"Just, please not nurse Joy? That mare has something loose up here" Nights-shade emphasized his words by pointing to his head, or he tried to. half way through the motion the pain returned in his knee and he winced. Hope struggled to suppress a laugh, which ended up sounding like a snort. Her cheeks blushed light red and it was his turn to laugh.
She scowled in mock indignation "Its not very polite to laugh at a mare you know. Didn't your mother teach you any manners you over stuffed buffoon?" her voice was filled with sarcasm and false arrogance. She smiled as he wiped tears of laughter away from his eyes and into his black coat.
"Besides, i wouldn't worry about all of that. I am your nurse now, if you are willing to wait a few more minutes for me to finish with this..." she said raising the crystal slightly as it continued draining his magic from his... last sample. Nights-shade nodded, and she motioned for him to go sit down with the others who were finished being examined and who were waiting for their escorts home.
"Thank you by the way" he said as he started to limp toward the seats. she gave him a questioning look and he said "You know, for taking over from Joy... that mare is nuts!" laughing they broke off the conversation as he walked away, and she concentrated on her work.