//------------------------------// // Prologue- The Dark of Night // Story: The Nightmare Knight // by Mind Jack //------------------------------// The Nightmare Knight All standard disclaimers apply. I own my OC’s, the story itself, and a couple of locations. This is BASED on Batman. It is not just a retelling. Prologue: The Dark of Night All standard disclaimers apply. I may decide to bump up the rating to M later, depending on how things go. -Twenty years ago, Eclipse City- The musical was called The Fall of Princess Luna. Blue Moon cowered into her seat in the theater. The seven year old Earth Pony filly had a royal blue coat, a short black mane and tail, and pale hazel eyes. She had not yet gotten her Cutie Mark. Actually, she was half Earth Pony, half Night Pony. She had just taken after her mother, and had no wings. Up on stage, Pegasi in bat costumes, or perhaps costumes of some kind of bat-demons, flew around, singing. Blue didn’t like bats, or even normal Ponies dressed as bats. She was deathly scared of them. Trapped in a cave, countless leathery wings flapping all around her. In the seat next to her, Harvest Moon noticed the look of terror on his daughter’s face. Harvest was a massive Night Pony stallion with a dark blue coat and feathers, a neat silver mane and tail, and gray eyes. The Night Ponies were Pegasi with an ancient heritage. Some of them, such as the Moon family, could trace their lineage to the real Princess Luna. The mark on his flank was an orange full moon. “Bluey, are you okay?” He asked with concern. He’d known that Blue had been affected by the incident, but the look of sheer dread on her face showed that it might have been much worse than he’d thought. On the other side of Blue, Moon Dust, a thirteen year old filly, also a Night Pony with a golden-brown coat and feathers, a long silver mane and tail, her father’s gray eyes, and a silver coin with a crescent moon on it on her flank, turned from the happenings on stage to look at her little sister. “Is she having another panic attack?” She whined. Harvest silenced Dust with a look. He nudged Blue. “Bluey?” Blue actually jumped. She was so frightened out of her wits that it took her a moment to recognize her father and sister. Harvest put a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her. “Hey now, Bluey. Just calm down. Do you want to go home?” Blue nodded emphatically. She wanted nothing more. Harvest smiled. “Alright, lil’ Blue. Let’s go.” ===================================================================== Their house was a mansion. Blue knew that her father was an important business pony, but she didn’t really know what he did. Dust claimed to know, but refused to tell. Blue wasn’t sure she actually knew. Blue had apologized profusely for making her father leave the musical early. She knew how much he enjoyed the theater. But he had just laughed it off, saying that he didn’t mind, and that the musical was really inaccurate anyway. Dust, on the other hoof, grumbled and whined the whole way home. Silver Platter, an almost pure white Unicorn mare with scarlet eyes, and a silver cloche cutie mark, greeted them at the door. “You’ve returned early, Master Moon!” The butler exclaimed in her Trottingham accent. “Has something happened?” Harvest shook his head. “No. Little Bluey just got a bit scared, so we decided to come home.” Silver Platter nodded acceptingly. “I see. Would you like me to tuck her in for you, Sir?” Harvest chuckled. “No thank you, Silver. I think I can handle that. Go ahead and get Dusty some cocoa in the kitchen, though. She’s a bit steamed at having to leave early.” “Yes, Master Moon.” Silver Platter lead Dust off. Dust looked rather satisfied at the cocoa bribe. Harvest tucked Blue into bed. Blue’s room was actually an attic. Unlike her sister’s room, there weren’t any posters on the walls. Instead there were books. The walls were lined with shelves of them, Blue wasn’t precisely a reader, but she did like learning new things. Whenever she found a book she liked, she asked her father to get it for her. But that wasn’t why she had chosen to stay in the attic. She had done it because liked the open space. Tight spaces frightened her. Not as much as bats, but still… Harvest kissed her on the cheek. “Goodnight, Bluey.” Blue gave him a hug. “G’nite Daddy.” Harvest descended the ladder, pushing it up and closing the hatch. The night was calm and quiet. It didn’t take long for Blue Moon to fall asleep. ================================================================================== Blue would never figure out what it was that woke her up. Maybe it was a noise, or maybe it was just an ordinary nightmare. Nevertheless, she yawned, prepared to go back to sleep. Then she saw the light filtering up through the attic door. Blue was puzzled. As a member of the Moon family, which was related to Princess Luna, the Princess of the Night herself, her Daddy was often up late, reading or examining documents until almost morning. But he always liked having the lights off, with a simple candle to light his reading. He thought it created a ‘better atmosphere for thought’, whatever that meant. Blue may have had a few phobias, but she was still a curious filly, and something odd like this deserved an investigation. She climbed out of bed, opened up the hatch, and slid down the ladder, being careful to land quietly. She snuck as quietly as possible down the hall, so as not to wake Moon Dust or Silver Platter, and be sent back to bed. ‘Where could Daddy be?’ She pondered to herself. He was usually in his office, so that seemed like a good place to start. Blue pushed her father’s office door opened slowly. Her father was sitting with his head on his desk. The candle next to him was blown out. Blue smiled. ‘Silly Daddy! He must have fallen asleep.’ She walked up and nudged him to wake him up. He was COLD! Blue backed away, surprised. Her father slumped over sideways. That’s when she saw the wound on his chest. Blue Moon screamed. As she heard hoofsteps rushing into the room to investigate, everything went black. ===================================================================================== The police came. They said that Daddy had been stabbed. There wasn’t any evidence, or any type of weapon found. Nothing was stolen. There was no way to tell who did it. It was assumed that he was murdered by some unknown business rival. Less than a week later, it was condemned as a cold case. The funeral was full of Ponies Blue didn’t know. The Moon family was large, and had many members, most of whom did not speak to one another. Most of them were there to see if Harvest had left them something in his will. One of them handed them a pamphlet about dealing with grief that was insulting to even a seven-year-old’s intelligence. Moon Dust hugged Blue Moon to her side, tight. Both of them were wearing uncomfortable black dresses that an aunt they didn’t know that they were related to had provided. “It’ll be okay, Bluey.” Dust assured, kissing Blue on the forehead. In the few days since their father’s death, the dynamic between them seemed to have changed. The one-sided sibling rivalry had all but vanished. It made sense. They only had each other to lean on, now. Blue felt numb inside. Her mind swam with how unbelievable this all was. She was too young to know what shock was, but that was exactly what she was experiencing. “Why did they give up?” Dust looked at her, concerned. “What do you mean?” Blue looked up at her, and Dust flinched at the look in her eyes. It was sadness, fear, and confusion. She knew the same emotions were in her own eyes, but tried to hide them for her sister’s sake. “Why did the police just give up?” Blue clarified. “Don’t they want to find the one who…who killed our daddy?” Dust bit her lip, her ears folding down. She didn’t really know either, but, like always, she didn’t know how to admit it. “Because they can’t.” They both turned. Silver Platter sat a few seats away from them. Both fillies felt sorry for the middle-aged mare. She had been there for them since birth. She had worked loyally for their family for years, and now she was likely out of a job, and since she had lived with them, she was probably homeless too. Silver took a deep breath. “They just can’t. They need clues to find who committed this horrible atrocity. But they have none. I am truly sorry, children. I wish I had been able to prevent this.” “It’s not your fault, Silver.” Dust comforted, hugging the butler. “I don’t think anypony could have seen this coming.” Blue wasn’t so sure about that. Surely somepony, somewhere must know who did this? Wasn’t there somepony out there who knew why this had happened? Although she never voiced the question, that thought would haunt Blue Moon for years to come.