BPT: A Midnight Stroll through Time

by Wolven5


41. Hardheaded - Part 2

As the sun began to set, Midnight lied in a comfortable shade on a lush patch of grass next to the oasis. Before him was the two-way journal connecting him to his master. He hadn’t looked at it for practically a year, hadn’t spoken to Prince Sombra for so long.

Had his master worried about him? How long had he been gone in the present? There was so much he didn’t know and still plenty far to go before he made it back to his own time. Sighing, he took his quill and inkwell and wrote.

’Hello Prince Sombra. I’m not sure how long it’s been since last you heard from me. I recently spent around a year in fishing village on the eastern Equestrian coast, for personal reasons I’m not quite comfortable disclosing right now. I have found myself among a nomadic tribe of minotaurs who are trying to avenge their fallen upon a gorgon, and I’ve offered to help one of them.

If you’ve any information on gorgons, I would appreciate it.

Your loyal apprentice,
Midnight Blaze’

*BUZZ, BUZZ*

“Huh…?” Midnight felt groggy as his eyes opened and he found himself by the oasis. He’d fallen asleep wrapped up in his cloak, using his saddlebags for a pillow. He felt something shake beside him and jolted to see he’d gotten a reply from his master.

He opened the journal and read.

‘My loyal apprentice, Midnight.

I’ll start off by saying, whenever you write to me and I write back, not but a few seconds pass before I receive your next correspondence. That is to say, I’ve been spending quite a while in my personal chambers reading and replying all your journal entries ever since you were whisked away into the past. Every time I reply to you, almost immediately after, I receive your next entry.

Do you see what I’m saying?

You say you’ve spent a year in a fishing village (for reasons I actually have some knowledge of, but I won’t pry) when just minutes ago, I received your confirmation Autumn Wheat was saved and how you learned she had been pregnant with my child. I took a few moments to consider the things you said to me and was about to answer back when you sent me your query on gorgons in your bid to help these minotaurs.

Do not overthink this, Midnight. These journals connect us through time and space, and I’m just glad it was with you when you were taken into the past. In addition I apologize for not being entirely honest with you as to why I needed you to rescue Autumn Wheat. Yes, she was pregnant with my daughter, but I promise you they and their descendants had their own roles to play in Equestrian history, and one of those roles will be made clear to you one day. But I promise you, my son, I will never lie to you again but there might be some questions you ask I will not be ready to answer. All I ask is you trust me as I trust you.

Now, your situation.

You say this tribe is bound by their honor to avenge their fallen upon this gorgon – Well, that won’t be easy.

As you know, Gorgons have the ability to turn any unfortunate soul that gazes upon their face into stone. What you probably don’t know is, a Gorgon can control this deadly power.

Gorgons appear half pony and half serpent, and they a retractable hood much like a cobra. When they extend their hood, they reveal a nightmarish pattern that curses anyone that looks at it to be turned to stone. The effects are almost instantaneous.

In addition, Midnight, as you are becoming a lunar pony, I feel the time has come to teach you of a very useful and powerful magic that lunar ponies are uniquely adept in. It is an art I spent years mastering, an art I studied with alongside Luna.

When we were foals, our master Star Swirl determined we both had potential in the Art of Shadow!

It is the art of using shadows themselves for a myriad of purposes, offensive, defensive, transportation, and more! However, looking back, I realize the time we spent together learning the Shadow Arts was what began Luna’s attraction towards me that turned into a great envy when she realized I was in love with her sister.

But I digress.

As a lunar pony, you have the innate potential to become a skilled Shadowist (a practitioner/master of the art). What this means is, you can use the shadows around you, including your own, to act in accordance to your will.’

The entry went on in detailed instruction as to how to first tap into one’s shadow powers, how to use them, and so on. Midnight was definitely interested. He’d gotten a sonic-scream, gravitokinesis, now he had untapped shadow powers?!

“This is gonna be sweet…!” Midnight grinned like a colt about to play a prank.

“I can help you slay this gorgon,” Midnight spoke with Blazing Spirit in a secluded grove on the far side of the oasis.
“However, I need a little time to master the right magic that will give us the edge we need to destroy it without destroying ourselves.”

“It will be quite perilous however we approach it,” Blazing Spirit reminded the unicorn. “I have no idea where the gorgon may spring up, and from what you tell me she can use her petrifying gaze upon us whenever she chooses.”

“Only if we look at her when she has her hood extended,” Midnight assured. “With the right spell I think I can disable her hood from opening, leaving her to get her hands dirty. Even so, I say caution, for you are not wrong that however this goes it will be risky.”

“I take it you have a plan?” Blazing Spirit inquired.

“I do, but I also must know,” Midnight brought up, “does your father and tribesmen intend any more attacks on the gorgon anytime soon? Find out, and report back to me later. I must take some time to practice a certain spell.”

Midnight sat in the shade of one of the trees of the oasis, the noon-day sun glaring down so the shade was sufficiently dark for his intended purposes. He concentrated on the rhythm of his breathing, his eyes closed, and willed his mana out. It surrounded him like a shimmering haze of turquoise before it followed his will into the shadow in which he sat. He felt it!

It was oddly comforting, like being wrapped in a blanket of velvet from horn to hoof, the shadow slowly coalescing around him. Not cold, not hot, not even warm, and yet appealing as though he were floating without a care.

Recalling his master’s instruction, he willed the shadow to deepen, to darken, to spread! He felt it as though it were a balloon spreading in mass.

“Midnight!”

It was incredible! It was as though he were spreading his presence wherever shadow lay about the oasis.

“Midnight!”

And to think, this was but a mere taste of what he could do with the Shadows bent to his will!

“Midnight!!!”

“Huh?!” Midnight jolted and felt like a rubber band, snapping back to reality and fell flat on his face to the ground.

Groaning, he felt hands help him up and heard Blazing Spirit, “Are you alright?! I came back and found you in some kind of… haze!”

Spitting out some sand, Midnight regained his composure and said, “Well, I was meditating my powers when you interrupted me. But I take it you know when your father intends to strike.”

“Yes, tomorrow morning,” Blazing Spirit reported, much to Midnight’s chagrin. “He intends to take four with him to the gorgon’s lair, armed with bows and arrows and oil, to set the serpent aflame.”

“That could work, but not guaranteed,” Midnight considered. “What I have planned will easily turn the tables in our favor.”

“Which is…?” Blazing Spirit waved his hand for Midnight to go on.

“I have an innate potential and skill for a unique magic called the Shadow Arts. I was practicing it, with the intention of spreading blinding darkness over an area. With this advantage on our side, along with another spell, we can blind the gorgon, make it next-to-impossible for us to see her hood at all, and easily take her down, provided we have proper weapons.”

“I can get them, what would you prefer?” Blazing Spirit asked.

“A sword, long and sharp,” Midnight requested, “and you should get something with a long reach.”

“I have a labrys, that’s a double-headed axe,” Blazing Spirit answered.

“Bring the weapons but don’t let anyone know what you’re up to,” Midnight instructed. “We have to do this tonight otherwise your father may very well wind up another statue.”

As the sun set, darkness enclosing the world, two figures moved along a river that ran along the foot of the mountain due east. Midnight had a sheathed sword strapped to his back along with his saddlebags, and Blazing Spirit wore leather shoulder pads and a cross-belt harness with his double-headed axe strapped to his own back. They’d managed to sneak away from Blazing Spirit’s tribe without suspicion and now journeyed to the lair of the gorgon.

But as they made their way there, Blazing Spirit had to ask, “You said you could darken the gorgon’s lair so we won’t be able to see her hood when she tries to turn us to stone, but how will we see her in the dark?”

“We won’t be seeing in the literal sense,” Midnight assured, “I have a spell that will enable us to sense our surroundings. Think of it as seeing without your eyes.”

“Will it allow us to look at the gorgon without risk of seeing her hood?”

“It will. But it won’t be as you think.”

Before long, they came to a pathway between the mountain and another range of mountains Blazing Spirit explained was the Macintosh Hills. Blazing Spirit pointed out a dark cave at the foot of the other side of the pass, the foot of the mountain that began Macintosh Hills.

Midnight knew this was the place when he saw what appeared to be statues set around the entrance.

There were at least a dozen, some were ponies, others were desert animals, but the biggest among them were four statues of minotaurs. Midnight heard Blazing Spirit sigh sadly, and asked, “You knew them?”

“One of them was my teacher,” Blazing Spirit nodded morosely as he pointed to the minotaur statue at the far left.
“He always said I’d be a warrior our tribe could be proud of…”

“Well now, you’re gonna prove him right!” Midnight promised. “With our strategy, we can do this!”

“Ok… how do we start?” Blazing Spirit asked as he drew his axe.

“First let me see that,” Midnight requested. Blazing spirit held it up and Midnight whispered a spell, causing the axe’s metal to become shiny and reflective.

“Why’d you do that?”

“Um… we wanna do this in style?” Midnight had done it for an entirely different reason but he didn’t wanna give the young minotaur false hope if it didn’t work.

“O… kay? Anything else?” Blazing Spirit asked while raising a brow.

“Hold on,” Midnight looked to the cave and cast a spell. An invisible pulse shot into the cave and Midnight waited a few moments before saying, “Well, wherever she is, it’s pretty deep in that cave.”

“But you never told me, how are we gonna fight her if we can’t look at her?” Blazing Spirit brought up a tad anxiously.

“Like this!” Midnight cast another spell, affecting himself and Blazing Spirit at the same time, the young minotaur yelping as he covered his eyes.

“What did you do?! My eyes!” Blazing Spirit scrunched his eyes, trying to get his vision back.

What he saw were shapes and dim light but not actual features. But when he looked at Midnight, he saw his outline glowing with an energy that came from within the unicorn.

“It’s ok, Blazing Spirit,” Midnight assured. “This spell will enable us to fight the gorgon without seeing her hood when she opens it. Her power can only work if we are able to see normally, but since we’re not at the moment…”

“Ah! I see what you’re saying, but… this is still kinda… disorienting,” Blazing Spirit debated.

“Well, nothing ventured nothing gained! Hold onto my tail,” Midnight whipped it up at Blazing Spirit’s hand, who reflexively caught it.
“Are you ready, friend? Tally-Ho, a hunting we’ll go!”

He chuckled as he led Blazing Spirit and thought, I’ve always wanted to say that!