Those who see a different kind of Light

by Lazydrill

Sense of Purpose.

The grey clouds which had hidden the night sky and poured down rain with no end had passed. The sky was clear and open once more, thousands of stars filling the dark void, with the full moon hanging high up in the center of it all. The light that the univers emitted
shined down upon the city Canterlot, just as our pegasus awoke from a quite particular and odd dream, but doing so with a new sense of direction, a new way of seeing things, a sense of purpose.

As the pegasus awoke, he found himself in the same ally where he began his slumber, the apple core standing in front of him just as he left it, the flattened carton mattress formed to his body of how he fell asleep. His eyes were open, but his thoughts brought him back to his dream with the shadow covered mare, her tale of better times in Equestria, how she remembered that and how she wanted to bring those times back, with his help. But how would that unfold? How could he help her make Equestria a better place?

He stood up with firm hoof steps. His eyes open, but not paying attention to what was in front of him, his eyes were looking further than that, they were looking how Equestria could become if he would be able to truly help the mysterious mare. Before he knew it himself, he found that he was on the main road of Canterlot city, the road leading up to the castle, the home of the two most powerful beings in Equestria; Princess Celestia... and Princess Luna.

Princess Celestia has been the ruler of Equestria for many generations, his ancestors also lived their lives under her rule, to the very founding of his family. But Princess Luna became co-ruler together with Princess Celestia about three years ago. Stories were told that Princess Luna was the guardian of the night, the watcher of dreams, the keeper of visions, the angel who protects everypony during dark times. She was the sentinel between the ponies of Equestria, and everything that would try to harm them.

They say that Princess Luna returned about four years ago from her in prisoning on the moon where she spent a thousand years of her life alone. Ponies said that she turned into hatred, went mad, became a servant of evil through living in the shadow of her sister, who also send her to her confinement; Princess Celestia. Old lore teaches us that Princess Luna turned into a monster called; Nightmare Moon. But never was accurately described, nor told, why that happened. It as always the same vague reasons, it was always said to be 'jealousy' that was the main reason, jealousy of her sister because she shined brighter than her.

While there is nothing claiming that anything else would be the reason of her changing, our pegasus always thought it to be quite 'unbelievable' in terms of becoming evil just by emotion, there had to be more to it then simple jealousy for somepony to change like that. Ponies adored Princess Celestia for raising the sun back then, and they still do. They see her as their leader, which she indeed is. But that is all she is; a leader. In the eyes of ponies like our pegasus, Princess Celestia always was to busy running the country to actually see how her ponies were doing. With one of the two princesses gone, running a country becomes a lot harder, especially when the night time arose.

With nopony to watch over the ponies during the night, nopony to take care of them during those darker times, and the only remaining princess overlooking those who need her because she can't spare the time, the night became something to be feared when alone in the streets. Fear that had been growing for centuries in the time of Princess Luna's absent. The night became the time where ponies who wanted to do harm would come out, since the guards of the solar sister would be more tired and less in number than during the day, it was their time to go onto the streets and do whatever harm they could. The same harm he felt only a few days before the return of the Princess of the Night, something that haunted him until this night.

Our pegasus took an deep inhale with his nostrils and letted it out through his mouth, creating a small condense cloud which disappeared as quickly as it was created. He knew where to go, he now knew who that shadow covered mare was; Princess Luna. At first in his dream he couldn't think of her, since it didn't make sense to him at the time of happening. But as he thought about the royal sisters as he glanced at the castle that looked over Canterlot, it clicked. She watched his dreams, she knew of better times when ponies like him didn't have to live their lives like this, it was her duty to look out for her ponies.

But then he remembered something, she gave him a bracelet around his left wing base in his dream. He remembered her telling him that he now had the means to find her, or them, she also said his 'brothers and sisters' would be waiting for him. He has... or rather... 'had' only one true sister. But she was taken from him by force, long before her time was supposed to be. He began to walk towards the castle, thoughts and questions filling his mind as to how and why everything had let up to this point. The point where he became the one able to help the Princess of the Night with rebuilding Equestria, helping her to make it better.

Reaching the walls surrounding the castle of the royal sisters, our pegasus saw two guards standing at attention in front of a large, well crafted and closed gate. He wanted to approach but hesitated in doing so, he didn't know how it would turn out if he did. A lowlife pegasus colt coming in the middle of the night towards the castle while looking unkept, asking if he could see the Princess of the Night, for what? Because she told him too in a dream? He didn't know how to approach this without being turned away where he came from, or being thrown into the dungeons should he try to go inside even when the guards told him not to.

The guards both had their eyes fixated on him, their spears held by their wings aimed at him in defense of what he might do. He halted in his tracks, looking in slight fear as the guards could charge at him any moment. As he stood frozen, his mind wandered back to what one of the guards said; 'the castle of the royal Princess'. He said it like there was only one princess, he probably meant Princess Celestia. But why would he say it like that? It is publicly announced that Princess Luna was the co-ruler of Equestria and also living in the castle, so why call it only for the solar princess?

He casted down his eyes and planted his lifted hoof back onto the ground. How would he approach this? The guards seemed to be like the so called 'Solar Enthusiast', those who claim that Princess Celestia is the one and true ruler of Equestria, and refuse to accept Princess Luna's return. Brining up Princess Luna would probably make him a traitor in their eyes. He fought inwardly with himself; would he mention Princess Luna? and risk of being called a traitor and possibly end up in the dungeons? What was the wise decision? What would he do?

For questioning? About what? And why couldn't the questioning be done here in the open? Why was he being brought in for questioning? For mentioning Princess Luna? He looked at the guards as one was walking with his spear towards him while the other guard went to open up the gate. What were they going to do to him? He had heard rumors going on in the poorer parts of the city, that somepony would be pestered by one or two guards, they would question him or her about unnecessary things, and wound them if they didn't answer correctly. Was that going to happen to him as well? They wouldn't truly do that, would they?

He felt a sharp pain in his right hind leg, probably by the guard that moved towards him with his spear, ushering him to move. So he did just that. He started walking to the open gate where the companion of the guard behind him was still standing, his eyes fixated on him and his spear in an aggressive stance. Hoping that this was the right choice to make, he walked onward without stopping, clinging to his pledge to help Princess Luna and Equestria while he passed through the gate. The guard behind him followed him up the long steps towards the castle while his companion stayed behind and closed the gate.

He could feel a warm stream drip down his hind leg where he felt the pain not so long ago, likely bleeding because of the spear tip. Even so, he didn't waste time asking to be bandaged for that, the guard would probably ignore him or laugh it off if he would. Then something changed, not the world, but his feeling. He stopped in his track as he felt one more set of eyes looking at him, it made him freeze and feel slightly uneasy. The guard stopped right behind him, probably not sensing the extra set of eyes that gazed at them.

While the guard ushered him to move, he couldn't. Something was telling him to stay there, that 'something' felt as if it was coming from the roof of the castle. Just when he wanted to look up, he felt more eyes staring at them both from up there, making him feel tense, making him brace himself for unknown reason. Slowly looking up towards the castle roof tops, his eyes widened as there stood four shadows watching him.

The solar guard came standing next to him, his muzzle looking at the worn pegasus before joining in gazing to the rooftops. But just as he wanted to do that, the shadows all unfurled their what looked to be weird shaped wings, and took off with light speed into four trails of dark smoke as they leapt into the air and disappeared in the sea of darkness in the sky. Our pegasus never saw anything like that, the closest that came to look similar, were the skill and the trails of the Wonderbolts he saw when he was younger.

The guard was mocking him, but he paid no attention to that, for there now were standing more than ten shadow figures on the edge of the roof looking down at them. He could feel each of their gaze looking at them, but something told him that it weren't looks of hostility, or at least, not towards him. The guard stabbed the pegasus lightly once more, making him move and break his gaze away from the shadowy figures, just as some took off into a trail of black smoke, just like the four before them.

Nearing a big double door, the guard told him to stop in front of it and don't make a move, so he did that. The guard walked over to the door and raised his hoof to knock, but he didn't. Our pegasus could't see what was happening in front of the guard, but something made him step back and bring his spear in front of him in defense of whatever was making him step back. He could see the guard's fur standing up, his armor slightly clinking as he shivered.

The pegasus began to understand why the guard was stepping back, black smoke was seeping underneath the door, making the hooves of the guards and his own feel like it was freezing. But that was the least of his worries, black smoke was seeping through the door, not only through the edges of the frame, but through the wood itself. Black smoke was coming through the wooden surface. And out of the black smoke, a pair of narrowed slit golden orbs were starring back at the guard. The guard stepped back even more as through the door and out of the smoke, a shadow covered pony came stepping out of it slowly.

The pegasus couldn't think about what he was seeing as the shadow figure continued to step out of the smoke and revealed himself. The shadow figure looked just like a pony as it stepped out of the smoke, slight dark tentacle like trails seeping off of his armor that he wore. The smoke where he passed through in the door faded as his tail slipped out of it. The pony that now stood in front of the solar guard would be fearing for anypony to see him, but somehow, in some way, our pegasus didn't have that. It was the opposite, he felt relieved seeing this pony close to him. He did't know why, but he felt like this figure would take an arrow for him any day.

The pony that just arrived... his voice was deep, strong and merciful, it demanded respect of the one spoken too. Our pegasus noticed that this pony was not like any other, he wore dark, what seemed to be, obsidian armor. His fur was a dark grey, his eyes were slit like that of a cat, his ears seemed to be more sensitive in someway. But the most standing out of all, was that this pony had two sharp fangs, and what seemed to be bat wings. He took everything in about the dark shaded pony as he stood taller than the solar guard, taller then himself, not by much, but it was enough to notice the height difference between the two.

The solar guard trembled under the stern gaze he was given by the dark armor wearing guard. He backed off with trembling hooves before turning tail and trotting back down the path towards the gate. The young pegasus had never seen something happen like this. It had always been him or other ponies who would tremble and flee under the solar guard's strong gaze. The young colt's eyes followed the fleeing guard until he went passed the gate and disappeared out of sight.

The pegasus turned around at the sudden voice. His eyes widening as the dark armored pony now stood in front of him, and he was half a muzzle bigger than him. While he feared him for his sudden appearance, it didn't last long. His fear melted away quickly once he noted the concerned look the guard was giving him. He felt relieved, happy even. Something he hadn't felt in a very long time.

The guard gave Fog a nod and a warm smile, it made him feel welcomed... wanted. Was he now... adopted? Did he hear that right? Princess Luna did mention him as her child, and that his brothers and sisters would be waiting for him. Was he part of a family now? A family that wanted him to be among them? A family that takes him in just like that off of the streets? His thoughts were once again drowned in questions and speculations, until a gentle touch reached his right shoulder. Focusing on the sudden feeling, and tracing the hoof back to its owner, he found Onyx's friendly and warm gaze.

Not a moment later, Fog's ears flicked as he heard multiple sounds of landing hooves around him, together with the sound of folding wings and the clinking of armor. He looked around him, seeing multiple ponies like Onyx standing in a circle around him, not only stallions, a few mares as well. They all glanced at him with warm gazes, all of them giving him a welcoming feeling. A feeling of being wanted.