It was a warm, cloudless summer day in Canterlot. Ponies of all tribes and wealth milled about on its cobbled streets creating a buzzing cacophony of noises that only a bustling city could create. Elegant carriages pulled by well groomed stallions mixed on the streets with simple wagons filled to the brim with boxes and barrels of valuables pulled by simple, gruff workers.
On occasion a large shadow would pass over the city as an airship sailed to Canterlot Sky Harbor.
One of the passing air ships was followed by a partly dreamy, partly curious eyes of a young colt. Said colt was looking at the ship taking in every detail… The monstrously large, long balloon filled with hot air and covered in a net of thick, strong ropes that held the ship’s hull. The ship’s body that by all means should fall and turn into a pile of splinters and steel was painted light blue with darker accents and gold details. The name HMS Dawn was proudly displayed on the ship’s visible side. But what truly intrigued the colt were the Mana Engines, glowing with brilliant, blue light that propelled the ship.
He read about them in the public library out of curiosity. They were a relatively new discovery and-
“Midnight Blackmane!” His teacher’s musical voice reached him and he quickly focused on the unicorn mare that stood before the blackboard with her disapproving glare focused on him. “Being top of the class in mathematics, doesn't mean you can not pay attention!”
“Sorry, Ms. Note.” Midnight apologized silently before with a bored sigh he rested his head in his left front hoof and slumped against in his school desk. His teacher looked at him for a moment longer before returning to lecturing about simple fractions.
“I hate Tuesdays…” Well maybe hate was a bit too strong of a word, he mused, but spending half a day in classes that he could ace with his eyes closed was not something he liked. It was just wasting time… He knew… He remembered mathematical problems that he suspected were far above Ms. Note’s skills.
“Ugh… Whoever said they missed their school days must have been crazy…” Not that Midnight Blackmane was going to complain out loud. Being given a second chance in a land that was so different yet familiar and sometimes frighteningly similar to his own was something he was not going to moan about.
So what if his appearance in Equestria was far from perfect and his current situation was less than ideal… He could deal with that and maybe for once not fail to fulfill his dreams.
It was a hot summer afternoon as a young man walking down the road - towards his workplace - was beginning to consider if maybe he should have just used public transportation instead of walking across the whole city. Sure it was his idea of getting some form of a work out as opposed to just sitting the whole day before his computer, but three hours in the sun was beginning to get to him.
“It’s a good thing I’m almost there.” Truth be told, the prospect of spending the whole night at work was not an encouragement to get there quicker. Not that a night shift bothered him, on the contrary, he quite enjoyed them… but dealing with rich, arrogant guests of the hotel he was working in was a grueling and ungrateful task sometimes.
That train of thoughts stopped as an uplifting orchestral music began playing in his headphones.
So engrossed was he in his own little world of music and thoughts, that he didn’t had a chance to react as a speeding car turned from the main road - from behind a transporter parked right on the corner - into the street he was crossing. And in the sudden contest of two and a half thousand pounds versus one hundred sixty pounds, winner could be only one...
“What happened… did I pass out from the heat?” That was his first thought when his senses began returning to him. Three things however, quickly made him thrash the theory of just passing out. Firstly, he ached all over in that particular way as if he returned from an intense gym session which wouldn’t be the case if he simply fell to the ground. Secondly, even sore and wishing right now for a painkiller a sense of wrongness began to set in, but he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly it was. And thirdly… when he opened his eyes he saw an impossible view.
In the light of the setting sun, lying on his side he saw a grand castle perched on a mountain side. The shape, the colors... they were unmistakable. Canterlot. He saw that particular castle more than a few times... but not like this.
“It’s impossible... “ He whispered as his mind went blank, trying and failing to comprehend what he was seeing. Something else dawned on him as he gazed at the impossibility in the distance. Much, much closer he also saw something that made his heart race.
Slowly, heavily he moved his arm. Tiny pinpricks of pain began to spread across his limb, a clear sign that he hadn't moved in quite a while. What entered his vision made him stop. It was a hoof...
“I’m dreaming. I’m probably in a hospital and I’m just dreaming…” Even when saying that out loud, he manouvered his… hoof... to touch what had bothered him in his field of view. Hard hoof meet tender nose far earlier than it should have.
He sneezed as an intense smell of earth and grass registered, it almost made him dizzy.
“Ok then, either this is one hell of a dream… or something…” A nervous sort of energy began to fill him making him restless. Finally deciding to stop gawking at a hoof…well, his hoof? He shook his head trying to focus but felt something strange on his head, however he could guess what that was or rather what those were.
“For a dream this is getting really distracting…” His body was beginning to bombard him with new sensations as if everything began clicking into place, one by one… Or maybe he was just beginning to take notice of new parts of himself?
Deciding to do something before he went totally crazy, drowned in the new sensations, he began a short inspection of himself.
First thing he noticed was that he had a fully white coat with a black tail so he made a safe guess that his mane was also black. With a small pout that surprised even him, the white colt noted his blank flank.
“Eh, figures. Can’t think of what to do in life, so the dream HAD to reflect that…”
Next thing he saw were his manly bits making him relieved for some reason, even if they changed accordingly.
Using his hooves he got a feel for his muzzle and there he discovered something that made him stop again. He had a horn…
“A unicorn…” The white colt could practically feel his eyes widening. For the longest of times he fantasized about magic and what he would do if he had access to it. But what made this so special was that he felt something… spark, when he touched this horn. No dream he ever had made him feel anything similar… and then it finally clicked.
“If this Equestria IS a dream, it makes this MY world…” He concentrated willing something to happen, the first thing that came to his mind was casting an awe inspiring spell of mass destruction… maybe a poor choice but he didn't care right now.
Something began to build inside of him and soon he knew what it was. Excitement. The reason for that was simple, nothing happened. No scorched land as far as the eye could see, not a single blade of grass singed, not even a single spark from his horn. Oh, he felt a peculiar tingling in his horn all right, but that was it.
“This is crazy…” The white colt said aloud finally trying to sit up while a grin started growing on his muzzle. “But then what happened…” And as quickly as it came the growing excitement vanished along with the brilliant smile, replaced with worry and rapidly growing uncertainty.
His negative feelings were somewhat lessened by the feeling of satisfaction. He managed to sit up on his first try… and then decided to focus on trying to move around. For now he didn't want to think what happened that placed him here, on this grassy hill in Equestria.
“Two years of horse riding lessons are about to become significantly useful… Maybe not in the way they were intended but still...” True, his last lesson took place more than a few years ago but it was like riding a bike, it never fades out of memory.
As it turned out sitting up and standing up were two different things, with his centre of mass shifted. After less than ten minutes the unicorn colt managed to stand without much difficulty.
Concentrating on his coordination was proving to be a great distraction from his more existential thoughts and questions for now so he continued, deciding to try to trot towards Canterlot at a reasonable pace.
For him maybe minutes passed but he was concentrating so hard on not falling muzzle first into the ground that it took him a while to notice, that the last rays of the sun were replaced by the moon's silver glow quite some time ago.
Only then did it dawn on him that in his confusion, excitement and later single mindedness he forgot about a few quite important things.
“I have nothing on me. No… bits, no food… no home... “ The last thought was actually rather depressing and more than a bit frightening. “And apparently I ended up in a body of a young colt. That is not a good mix...”
Under the delicate, cold light of the moon he finally began to see just how precarious his situation was, now that he began accepting that this was not just another dream but very possibly a permanent change.
Nonetheless even if his good mood was ruined the young unicorn decided to trot forward, towards the city lights he could see sprawled on a mountain side.
During this long walk he became so used to the silence of the night, disturbed only by the sound of grass being moved by the weak wind, that what happened when the moon was close to its peak made him jump and fall muzzle first into the ground with a shrill scream that he would forever deny escaped his mouth.
“Hello there little colt.” That silent greeting, spoken by someone from behind him with hints of amusement, made him groan into the ground before he decided to get up.
“That was not funny! You could... have…” After getting up, the white colt turned rather quickly on the spot almost overbalancing and falling again but he somehow managed to stay standing with a hoof pointing at the gray coated Royal Guard that silently hovered in the air, his wings beating the air almost lazily.
He stood there with his hoof extended making a good impression of a fish, with his mouth hanging open and eyes wide. Seeing pegasi in golden armor in a show and looking at a live one were two different things.
“Oh but it was and still is.” The Royal Guard’s smile widened for a moment, before his expression turned serious. “However I wonder, what does a colt your age do on the plains at this hour. Alone?”
As the pegasus talked, he landed in front of the white colt.
“Uhh… Now that I see an adult pony…” Just by the fact that the Night Guard was almost more than twice his size he finally could tell that he was pretty young in this body. Maybe six or seven? That was a significant change from his previous twenty five years old self.
“You know I was told not to talk with strangers…” If the Royal Guard decided to introduce himself by pranking him, he could decide to be difficult and showed that by sitting down petulantly with his forelegs crossed, glaring at the other pony.
“My, my… You really think this will work on me?” The silent staring match that followed, with dark blue eyes focused on dark green eyes, lasted longer than the Night Guard expected. “Persistent young colt…” He sighed.
“Alright, you win.” The Royal Guard said blinking and sitting down on the grass. “My name is Silent Flight. There you go, now I’m not a stranger, right? So what’s your name?”
The white colt just gave him a look, that clearly conveyed his disbelief. However thoughts raced a mile a minute in his head. “Damn I have to came up with a name for myself.”
“Right... So you took that lesson about strangers to heart, however I’m a Royal Guard and you can trust me.” Silent chuckled in partial amusement and then got serious once more. “Now I really need to know what are you doing here all alone.” That much was true. While he was circling above the plains he saw no other ponies in any reasonable distance from the white colt.
The white colt sagged visibly unfolding his forelegs and looking at the ground. Somehow he thought that saying what he was about to say would make it definite.
“I’m… Midnight Blackmane. And I’m alone because well… I’m alone.” A partial truth, but Midnight decided to omit the fact that he just recently, spontaneously appeared on the field in a new body.
The sudden movement and then the feeling of being embraced by a strong foreleg and hugged managed to shock Midnight out of his negative thoughts. The warm of another's body was comforting and as if it was a kind of signal, a long yawn escaped him and drowsiness began setting in.
“Then I will take you to the city, to a place where you will be well taken care of.”
Midnight couldn’t react in his sluggish state as he felt himself being lifted by Silent Flight’s hooves and before he knew it they were flying, him being carried by the Royal Guard.
Silent Flight now and then looked at the white colt he held in his hooves, watching him struggle against his tiredness only to finally fall asleep. The pegasus let out a sigh. Orphans were rare in Equestria but not so rare as to not build orphanages… At least the Canterlot City one was rumored to be one of the best. With destination in mind, Silent flew towards the mountain.
In the meantime Midnight Blackmane dreamed.
At the beginning he was just flying, soaring under the clouds with his arms held along his body. Warm wind tugged at his medium length dark brown hairs and he was quite happy to be wearing his glasses that shielded his eyes from the winds. The only true discomfort was the unrelenting sun.
Land passed beneath him. Cities, roads, forests, rivers… everything went by too quickly to make out any details. It was pure bliss.
Then out of nowhere, a car falling from the sky crashed into him. In pain and fright he began to fall towards the unforgiving ground…
Only to wake up with a short scream, his dream addled mind and fear induced adrenaline making him thrash around. Midnight’s confusion and fear rose as he felt something wrapping around him before he tumbled over the edge of a bed and met the wooden floor beneath muzzle first.
That served as the shock that finally woke him up fully. With a groan he reached his hand to massage his abused nose… only to feel a hoof doing the massaging. It all came back to him in that instant and that made him groan one more time.
“So definitely not a dream.”
A silent snicker finally managed to reach him. Still lying awkwardly with his chest pressed into the floor and his rear leaning against the bed, he looked around with his eyes.
Midnight was in a room that was large enough to fit in four moderately sized beds, that he was quite certain even a grown up pony could sleep in comfortably. His was in the right far corner, just next to a large window through which sunlight poured into the room . By each bead stood a night stand with what a small lamp on it. Two large dressers stood against the longer walls, between a pair of beds that also stood along the walls. It was a tight fit for all of the furniture but it left the middle of the room relatively open. A nice carpet in random, pastel splotches of colours laid there.
And there was the other colt still snickering at him, sitting on his bed on the right side of the doors.
“That's not funny!” Midnight grumbled trying to stand up. His efforts led to him falling on his side with a silent ‘thump’, before he managed to stand up and glare at the young earth pony that by the looks of it was maybe two or three years older than him.
“Sorry, but it was.” He had light brown coat, pale yellow mane and brown eyes that sparkled with amusement. The colt jumped down from his bed and approached the now standing and glaring white unicorn. With a bright smile he extended his hoof. “I’m Dandelion, your new roommate.”
For a brief moment they both stood just looking at each other, before Midnight smiled weakly and bumped hoofs with the other colt.
“I’m Midnight Blackmane. What do you mean by roommate, where am I exactly?” His voice got quieter as he spoke.
“Nice to meet you and you’re in Canterlot Orphanage.” Dandelion said the second part with noticeably less enthusiasm.
“That’s... actually quite surprising.” The white unicorn for a moment didn’t know what to say. On one hand… hoof it was fortunate for him, as he didn’t have anything. On the other hoof it didn’t uplift his mood that much. Sometimes in his wild imaginings, when he landed in Equestria in his thought up pony body he started in a much more favorable situation…
His thoughts must have showed on his young muzzle as Dandelion hoof bumped him in the shoulder, almost knocking him over.
“Being here is no reason to make sad faces, Mid. Mrs Tender Rose is a really nice matron and Mr Stew cooks the best soups I’ve eaten.” While he spoke Dandelion walked to his new roommate to be side by side with him and had thrown his left foreleg around the smaller unicorns shoulders. “Come on, I’ll show you around. I have to take you to Mrs. Rose anyway as the older one in the room knowing you didn't have a talk with her.”
Listening with only partial interest to Dandelion's little speech, Midnight was engrossed in his thoughts which mostly included recalling everything he knew about Equestria from the shows. Between the time when he somehow woke up here yesterday and his last viewing of the show, a few months have gone by. Those few months were filled with mind numbing job and lots of studying...
Then something clicked.
“What did you call me?” The young, white colt asked while being essentially dragged around by the earth pony. He could feel his eye twitch in annoyance.
“Well I could call you Whity? Midnight Blackmane is toooo long...” Dandelion’s voice have taken on a bit filli-ish tone which somehow managed to further annoy Midnight.
“Ugh… Fine. Whatever, Dandy.” Now that his attention was again fully focused on the world around him, Midnight looked around the corridor they were walking in. With a short glance behind them, he spotted doors to their room - last on the left. Beside theirs there were a total of seven other doors. On a pair of the doors at the opposite end of the corridor and closest to the stairs down he could make out plaques with word “Bathroom” engraved into them as they passed them.
“I know, right?” Dandelion answered back with a smile at the weak try of making fun of his own name. “Mrs. Rose’s office is at the ground floor as is the dining room, nurse’s room and day room.”
Soon enough both of them stood before the doors to Mrs Rose’s office which happened to be directly across from the entrance double doors in a rather large lobby style room. Midnight could see an open archway leading to the dining room and another set of double doors that probably led to the day room. In a corner a single door with a red cross marked the nurse’s office. Colorful carpets, notice boards that hung on the walls filled with colorful paintings and announcements written in large, colorful letters, potted plants and even a fish tank combined with the warm summer air and sunlight coming in through a pair of windows beside the entrance doors made the atmosphere rather cosy.
It strongly reminded him of his 1st grade class… An uncontrolled small smile showed on his muzzle. “Ah, good times... good, simple times…”
Midnight was torn from his nostalgia by the sound of knocking.
“You go in, I’m going outside on the playground. Come join us when she let’s you out.” With that Dandelion almost run towards the dayroom and went inside.
With nothing else to do the young colt pressed the doors with his right hoof open and entered the office.