Midnight Star

by Nebula Star

Epilogue: Lesson Learned

Midnight Star
By Nebula Star

Epilogue: Lesson Learned
***

Twilight smiled to herself and sat with a content sigh at the small writing desk in her bedroom. A fresh piece of paper lay before her with a bottle of ink and in her magic she held a sharp quill.

It had been five weeks since the incident with Midnight Star and her life had changed drastically in that time. At times she couldn't believe it had already been five weeks, at others she couldn't believe it had only been five weeks.

She'd made the public announcement of what had happened at the end of the first week. As she'd planned she told Equestria the truth. That she'd accidentally brought an evil spirit into their world from another, and that that spirit had taken control of her and caused all the chaos of that night. However she never named the spirit as Midnight Star, nor did she give any indication at all that the filly was in any way responsible for the incident.

As Celestia had predicted, there were quite a few ponies that were upset with her for risking all of Equestria with experimental magic. Twilight was apologetic though and Celestia and Luna were confident that Equestria would forgive her in time. One relief however was that once all the reports had come in, there had been no fatal injuries, in all the land of Equestria, nopony had died in the chaos.

Twilight looked down at the paper on the desk. So much had happened since then, how to begin? Well there was only one way to begin really...

Dear Princess Celestia,

Twilight smiled then continued to write.

I hope you are well, and that your horn is healing quickly. I know Luna must be getting tired of managing both the sun and the moon. I'm sorry I haven't been more help there, but things have been quite busy here. I'll admit, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into when I decided to take care of Midnight myself. But I don't regret the decision...

She paused writing to look over at the young filly Midnight where she was sleeping peacefully in her small basket bed. She couldn't help but smile fondly looking at her and remember some of the events of the past few weeks.

As she'd expected, Midnight had remembered nothing when she woke. She knew how to talk, read, write, and even remembered some basic uses of her magic. But as far as memories of her life before that day, there was nothing. She'd proven to be a very confident young filly, and though she seemed nervous, she had immediately begun asking questions starting with who Twilight was and who she was.

What Twilight had decided to tell her was the truth, though only part of it. She told Midnight that she and her friends had saved her from a great evil, but that what they'd had to do to save her had caused her to lose her memories. Midnight had accepted the explanation and then asked who Twilight was to her.

~ Twilight was at a loss of what to say, she hadn't thought the filly Midnight would ask how Twilight knew her. “I've always been a close friend of your family,” she said finally. “I guess I'm practically your sister really.”

The little filly looked up at her with her bright red eyes. “You're like my big sister?”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “Yes, but now, I'm going to be taking care of you from now on.”

“What about my family?” Midnight asked causing Twilight's heart to clench.

“They... they're gone, Midnight,” she said softly, “I'm sorry, I was only able to save you...”

Seeing the Filly's eyes start to fill with tears, Twilight did the only thing she could think of. Pulling the filly in with on hoof, she wrapped both her wings around her hugging her tightly. “I'm sorry, Midnight, I know they loved you very much,” Twilight said gently as the filly began to cry in her wings. “I'm here for you though, I promise, I'm going to take care of you. I'll never leave you.” ~

It had taken Midnight some time to stop crying, but eventually she'd recovered and began asking questions again. One of the first being where they were.

~ “This is my home, so that means it's your home now too.” Twilight told her. “Would you like me to show you around?”

The little Filly nodded and Twilight gladly showed her around the bedroom and bathroom, before heading down to the main floor. As they started down the stairs though and the main room came into view, Midnight looked around with wide eyes. “Whoa, why are there so many books? Is this a Library?”

Twilight smiled at her surprise. “Yes actually, it is a library.”

“You live in a Library?” Midnight exclaimed, her small voice squeaking. “Why does a library even have a place to live?

Twilight smiled. “Ponyville is a small town, this was a house before it was a library. The original owner made the main floor into a library because they felt that every town, even one as small as Ponyville needed a library,” she explained. “One good thing about living in a library though, there's no shortage of books to read.”

“I guess,” Midnight replied without much enthusiasm. ~

Knowing the truth about what she was, Twilight was actually quite surprised that Midnight didn't seem to be anything like herself at that age. She did enjoy reading, and liked to learn new things, but she was also adventurous, very active, and athletic.

She was also more outgoing. Only two weeks after the incident, Twilight had started Midnight in school. Midnight had promptly made several friends that were around her age including a pair of pegasus twins, a colt and filly, both with icy blue coats and silver manes and tails. She did become acquainted with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. But as they were a couple years older, she didn't spend much time with them.

Knowing now what she did about friendship, Twilight had encouraged Midnight to spend time with her friends and ensured that the filly had plenty of time to play so long as she got her homework done. This of course had ended up teaching Twilight about another part of parenthood: worry.

Even in the three weeks since she'd started school, Midnight had on two occasions managed to worry Twilight sick when she'd disappeared with some of her friends on an adventure and been late enough getting back that Twilight had gone out looking for her. This had led to Twilight setting several rules about being back on time and keeping Twilight informed of her plans with her friends.

Midnight had abided by those rules ever since, and had even apologized sincerely for causing Twilight to worry.

All in all, with all the new responsibilities of taking care of Midnight though, she'd found she had much less time for her own studies, but she didn't mind. Smiling she turned back to her letter and continued writing.

...Taking care of her is just a lot more work than I originally thought, but a joy all the same.

I'm writing you for two reasons. The first is that tonight, Midnight called me 'Mom' for the first time. It was while I was putting her to bed and I was surprised of course, I'd never asked her to or even suggested that I was her adoptive mother. I asked her why she'd called me that and she'd simply answered. “That's what you are.”

It made me realize for the first time, just what I'd gotten myself into. I asked her if she really wanted me to be her mother. She told me that she knew I wasn't her real mother, but that she still thought of me as her mom. Because of this, I've decided to make it official and file the paperwork necessary to formally adopt her. I know it will likely cause a lot of talk and gossip, a princess adopting an orphan filly, but I don't mind. Besides, it will give them something else to talk about besides my 'reckless experimentation' endangering Equestria.

Twilight rolled her eyes at this before going on.

The second reason I was writing was to tell you what I learned from all this. I know you no longer require such reports from me, but all the same, I thought this might be something you'd want to hear. I don't think anypony ever just chooses to be evil. I think that they always have reasons for what they do.

Some may think that they truly are doing the right thing, and are just misguided. Some may just have never been taught to care about others and only ever care about themselves. While others, I think, have just been hurt so badly that they're lashing out, just wanting to stop the pain.

As you guessed, Midnight had been with me for weeks before the incident, and while she didn't talk much about her past, she did tell me a little of what she had suffered as a filly. She'd lost so much, and witnessed such horrors at such a young age, I can't imagine how those memories must have tormented her. It was because of that that I never could bring myself to hate Midnight. Not even when she was hurting my friends.

I think that Midnight had lost so many, family and friends, that she became afraid to care for anypony at all. She began to see friendship as just another source of pain. She didn't want anypony to get close to her for fear of losing them, and so to ensure that nopony would try to be her friend, she made herself into a pony that everypony would hate. In doing so however, she also came to hate herself; hate what she had become. And in order to punish herself for the horrible things she did, she did things that would only make her hate herself even more. I think this is what eventually drove her into madness and chaos.

In the end I guess what I learned is this. We are all the product of our life experiences and choices, and that it's important to try to understand why a pony is the way they are before you pass judgment on them. I'm glad I chose to give Midnight this second chance. After all, I think everypony deserves a second chance. Everypony deserves a chance to be happy.

Sincerely,
Princess Twilight Sparkle

The End.

Midnight's story continues in Midnight Star: The Frozen Empire

Also check out the sides story: Checklist Capers

Author's Note:

Minor revisions as of 10/2/2014

This has been an interesting experience writing this as I have never written anything that wasn't based on my own worlds, my own creations before now. I hope you all enjoyed this little story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Comments

[Gabrielangel13]

Great story! I do have to say that there were a few errors. Such as: throughout the whole thing you wrote coarse. The real spelling is course.

[Nebula Star]

3214563
Lol, thanks for pointing that out. I'll have to fix that.

[Nebula Star]

Alright, fixed those pesky coarse / course, mistakes as well as many other minor corrections. Hopefully there's no more glaring mistakes. No work is ever perfect though, so feel free to point out any you may find.

[Apple Blumpkin]

cute story ya got here, reminded me of past sins quite a bit. I do feel as though the ending was a bit too happy. I would of liked to see some lasting after affects of midnight star's actions. it seemed to be wrapped up a little too nicely. I'd recommend spike dieing somehow, but that is just because i hate spike. anyway, i liked the flow or the story. the writing was simple and easy to follow, which i appreciated. While the action flowed well, there were a few parts that came off as slightly rushed, but that might just be my own preference for wanting things to slow down during some interesting parts. anyway, let me know if ya write anything else, i'd love to read it. -appleblumpkin

[Nebula Star]

3236099
I am already working on a sequel to Midnight Star set 16 years later, but it is definitely a more complex story and with that much time passed; obviously there has to be changes. This presents me with a chance to have some fun though in imagining what could have happened in those 16 years. I've written a rough summary and started a more in-depth one, as is my typical method, I'll keep in mind what you said though and try not to make parts seem rushed.

Edit: I'm readjusting the timeframe on the sequel, it will probably be 10-11 years later.

[Apple Blumpkin]

3236194
this story really should have more comments and views. It is a lot better than the attention it has gotten. you could always release the next one in staggered measures instead of all at once. I get more views when i release stories like that... of course i usually take too long to update and lose some viewers there too. I'll follow just so I know when you put up more stuff.

[Nebula Star]

3262887
Thanks for pointing out some of those corrections, I thought I'd gotten all the coarse/course ones but apparently not.

[Felyon]

Finally reached the end of my reviewing. Not that I did not enjoy the great read, but I really should go to work now.
What colour is Midnight now?

original owner made the main floor into a library because they felt that every town, even one as small as Ponyville, needed a library

Ah that's why.

Knowing the truth about what she was, Twilight was actually quite surprised that Midnight didn't seem to be anything like herself at that age. She did enjoy reading, and liked to learn new things, but she was also adventurous and very active and athletic.

Pfew, she's her own pony, not a mini-Twi.

pair of pegasus twins; a colt and filly, both with icy blue coats and silver manes and tails

Should I know them?

I don't think anypony ever just chooses to be evil.

A shame I did not hear about this gem sooner.
It's sad, but you really have to publish one chapter at a time if you wnat people to notice you. Thereis only so much space on the update list.

Well, that's it. Let me know what you thought of my work.

Fey out.

[Nebula Star]

3265221
Well thanks again for pointing out those corrections.

I've heard from a couple people now that it's better to release new fics a chapter or two at a time, and I'll probably do that with the next one.

As for the Pegasus twins mentioned in the last chapter, no you shouldn't know them. They're OCs that come into play in the sequel I'm currently working on that takes place 10-11 years later.

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[Felyon]

.3266364
Always happy to help out a fellow brony

I did not seem to pretentious, right?

I'm looking forward to reviews of my story, but some people actually feel offended by them.

[suppermug]

this is one AWESOME STORY
HELL YHEA
can't wait till next one
thx for writhing this story

[Exia01]

Short version: Amazing!

Long version: AAAAAMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a damn good read. I look forward to anything else you write.

[Starlight Nova]

Shouldn't you wait until After Midnight is complete before starting this story?

[Nebula Star]

5286858
Just finished responding to your other comment, lol. This one was written first before I ever had the idea for the story of After Midnight. That's why After Midnight is a prequel / side story.

[SudokuBrony]

[Nebula Star]

7251892

I've never heard that one before. Lol.

[Tarlek]

You know, this only needs a few fine tuning and it might become as big as Penstroke's masterpiece, though I can definitively see the connections between the two!

[BeardBoy]

this was a fun story but my one problem with it is that none of the actions of any of the characters have any real consequences. I think that in future story's that you right there need to be some actual consequences for the actions of the characters and your story's wold go from a fun reed to something that truly draws me into it.

[Nebula Star]

8109969
I actually have gotten a similar comment on this one before, that there weren't really any lasting affects when all was said and done, which is why I've mostly tried to avoid using a fix-all-button in my later stories even if it is common in the show.

[McBehrer]

7251892
This is the main reason I came here

[Nebula Star]

9799031
It’s funny, until I saw that comment, I didn’t even know that song existed. And I used to listen to a lot of Weird Al

[McBehrer]

9799083
Yeah, it's not the most well known song. Amusingly, it's the second song off of the "In 3D" album, right after Eat It, one of his most well-known songs.

Maybe it's because of the size of the shadow it's sitting in.

[Nebula Star]

10021349
Well I did start writing this about a week after I read Past Sins for the first time. It was definitely a major influence.

[Starlight Nova]

If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?

[Nebula Star]

11352573
Well in this first story there's really only Midnight, and being an alternate version of Twilight, I always imagined her as sounding like Twilight, but with a different attitude. Kind of like the Twilight clone in season 8.