Tales of Midnight: The Colony

by NA_SolarEclipse

Chapter Seven: The Cursed

The next week or so went by exceedingly quickly. Graham was working with the colonists to teach them how to farm, how to build proper living arrangements, and effective spear techniques. Until the time came the plants that were planted could be harvested, we still had to find food. I found myself taking the lead of several of these groups. We would look for things like berries, flowers, and the occasional banana tree. While it wasn’t the most glamorous task at hoof, it made the days seem to pass quicker.

Several successful ‘hunts’ a day gave the Colony an abundant food supply, one that would last for at least three more days before we would have to go out and find more. Edge told me that there was more luck with such food hunts with me around, but I didn’t really think he was honest.

About two days ago, Graham decided it was time for him to leave. With the Colony now relatively well secured as far as shelter and food went, the ruffian ponies couldn’t help but be sad about his leaving. While they didn’t like him at first, they found that he made a certain amount of sense in some ways. Others just wanted him to keep giving them more stuff, but didn’t object to his leaving. As he said, it was his time to move on. He couldn’t be discriminate who he helped, so he went back to his Mission to pray or something. Said he’d be there for a few days if we needed anything, so it was good to have a friend to go to for help.

One of the most annoying things however was the fact that I still didn’t have any lace to tie my mane back. It was irritating most of the time, and made me unnecessarily sweaty on my neck. I wished that I could either cut my mane, or just find another piece of lace. Graham told me he found me that way and that he didn’t know what I was talking about, but I still suspected that he did.

It may have taken a while, but as the week went by I found that the other ponies of the Colony were actually becoming friendly to me. There were several who were still obsessed with the fact that I was the only female they had seen in the longest of times, but the others were actually pretty stand up ponies. Several of them were wrongly accused, according to them of course. I didn’t know if that was entirely right, but I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

While I hadn’t needed to use my black magic for anything, I found myself wanting to read the last black book. There were so many questions that I had, but couldn’t find an answer for. Several nights, I found myself almost opening it just out of curiosity in the small log cabin that Graham helped me build. While I always decided not to, I got ever closer to just reading it to alleviate my curiosity about it.

Today, I decided that I had to find the shipwreck of the Silver Sapphire. I convinced Sharpe and Sunset to come with me, but the ladder of whom was simply for my own personal whims rather than directional as with the former. We just left the Colony, and it was actually a very clear day.

Sharpe led our little band of merriment, and was noticeably bright. “I have to say Midnight, it’s about time that we went back to the shipwreck. I haven’t been there since Graham offered me a better place to stay.”

I found myself somewhat somber over the decision to find the shipwreck though. “Well, there’s been a lot going on and we all have had better things to do. Now however, I just want to see what’s left and hopefully get a clue as to where the hell Warner is.”

Sunset was picking up the rear of our group, if only to stare at mine. I didn’t mind too much, but he could be a little less obvious. “There’s that name again, Warner, who exactly is he? You two have talked about him like he’s some sort of saint or something. What’s the big deal about him anyway?” Clearly, Sunset had never met any pony like Warner.

I was about to explain why we had to find the mysterious blue sailor pony, but Sharpe started talking first. “Warner is, to say the least, different. He has a unique skill with sailing. If we ever want to get out of here instead of just fester where we are, it would be wise to find him. That’s not to mention that he has a remarkable positive outlook on life.”

It had been a while since I had seen Warner, the last time being before the shipwreck, but I still remembered a lot about him. “He’s like Graham but actually happy instead of expositional happy. If we do manage to find him, you will know exactly what I mean.” I couldn’t help but smile while Sharpe and I reminisced about Warner. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss him.”

I gave Sunset a look behind me, and couldn’t help but laugh a bit. He was noticeably jealous about the whole Warner thing, but he didn’t say anything. Still had the silliest expression on his face though.

A few hours of traveling, and we had finally found the shipwreck. It was amazing how we preserved everything was after a good ten days. The ship itself was lodged on a rocky beach that tore into the wooden hull. While the bottom had seen the worse of the wreck, the upper part of the ship was too high to get up on without climbing the anchor carefully.

Once we were all on board, we organized a sort of search plan. Sunset, not knowing anything about the place would just search the upper deck, Sharpe would search the hull, and I would search Warner’s quarters. While I didn’t really want to go back, I complied. I don’t know why it felt wrong. I guess I thought if Warner actually was dead he’d be pretty steamed about the fact that I was going through his personal belongings. I wouldn’t want any pony doing that with my stuff when I was dead. Then again, all I had was a wooden cabin with a grass mat and the back pack I was wearing. What was in it wasn’t even mine.

Once inside Warner’s room, I stopped and marveled. The room was perfectly undisturbed. The mirror upon the dresser was not cracked, the painting of the yellow mare above Warner’s bed was unmoved, and even Warner’s journals were nicely lined up on his bookshelf. It was…almost disturbing.

I couldn’t bring myself to read any of Warner’s journals again, it was just wrong. Instead, I perused the rest of his room. I looked at the intact mirror at my reflection. My mane was still, annoyingly, down around my neck and sweaty. Other than that, I was mostly the same as when I had looked into the water reflection almost nine days ago. Except, my eyes.

Instead of their once blue color, my eyes had faded to a much duller silver or grey. I blinked, and they turned the sinister completely black color that I had seen in the ponies residing in the black books I read. I started to panic a little. I felt my heart racing, and sweat on the back of my neck. I stared into the black abyss of my own eyes for a few more seconds, until I blinked and they were gone. Back to the blue that I had before seen in the water’s reflection.

I looked away from the mirror and instead looked at the picture of the light yellow mare in the white dress, trying to calm down a little. When I saw the painting however, I was a bit disturbed. The sad looking mare in the white dress looked exactly like the mare who breathed red smoke. She looked just like Inferno.

I suddenly very much didn’t want to be here at all. Warner wasn’t here, so there wasn’t any reason I should stay right?

I started to walk back through the door. “What’s wrong lass? Don’t like what you see now that you know?” That voice. I turned around quickly, but saw nothing. I swore I heard Warner’s voice though. Was I going crazy? Well, crazier?

“Hello?” Yeah, calling out to an empty room where you heard the voice of a pony you hadn’t seen in a good long while was a great idea. “Is any pony in here?”

“Not in there, no.” The strikingly familiar voice sent chills up my spine. “In here, yes. Along with you lass. Always been with ya’, you just didn’t know it.”

“What? Is that you Warner?” I looked around again, getting frustrated and creeped out at the same time. “I swear, if you are hiding somewhere in here I’m going to be so mad at you!”

There was silence for a moment, but only for a moment. “That names empty lass. Might as well forget it if you know what’s good for ya’. Too many memories tied to that old worthless name. But you may want to try looking at me if you want to communicate better.”

I spun around again, looking to every corner of the room. “Then where are you? What are you?”

The disembodied voice gave out a sigh, if that was possible. “In the bag lass. You act like this has never happened before.”

I slung the back pack to the floor boards and took out the final black book, the only one that wasn’t blank anymore. “Has it been you?” I accused the book, putting it on the floor. “Has it been you this whole time?”

The damn thing chuckled. The book freaking laughed at me! “Ha-ha! Oh goodness, about time you caught on. I was thinking you were going to search the damn room again looking for your precious Warner. What? Think that seeing that old bastard is gonna make all your problems go away and make everything alright? No, he can’t do that. He never could, and never will.”

“Well if you hate Warner so much, why do you make such an effort to sound exactly like him?” I demanded.

Once again, the damned book laughed at me. If I didn’t get a good explanation from this thing, I was going to burn it along with the rest of the boat. All I had to do was say a name. “Alright lass. Gonna let you in on a little secret alright?” I stared the book down, as if that was going to do anything. “Warner is all that’s left of what we were before he forced me out into this book. In a way, I’m more Warner than he ever could be.”

That didn’t make any sense. How could a book be more like a pony than himself? “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you implying that you are more than Warner or something? You’re just a pony stuck in a book.”

The book sighed again, apparently getting tired of talking to me. “You think you know how these books work, but you don’t. It’s more complicated than ponies in books lass. There’s more at work here than supposed ‘evil spells.’ Then again, I don’t think you really want to know. Better off in your ignorance really.”

I was getting tired of this damned book making me feel like an idiot. “Well then, since you’re inevitably going to demoralize me until you show me then just make it happen alright? That’s what you damned book ponies seem to be after.” Sure, anger was driving my thoughts but I had enough of these stupid books. Should have just burned them in the first place.

“Well if you’re going to take the fun out of it.” The book almost complained.

I waited expectantly for a maw to swallow me up or some black smoke to suffocate me, but nothing happened. I looked around a bit in confusion, but when I tried to open my mouth to say something I was struck with a bolt of lightning from the book itself. Consciousness immediately left me and was replaced with dull blindness and numbness.

I opened my eyes quickly and got to my hooves, trying to assess the changes around me. However, there were none. I was still in Warner’s room, in the same place. “What?” I asked myself. Usually these books took me elsewhere or something like that. This time, I hadn’t even moved! Was this some kind of joke?

I then realized that things were different. The flooring wasn’t the normal brown color, but a dull grey. Oh great, more grey. I looked over to the books on Warner’s bookshelf, but they were all missing. I turned around to the mirror on the dresser but it was shattered, the pieces strewn about on the flooring. I then looked up above Warner’s bed to the painting of the yellow mare, and gasped at it.

Where once the beautiful yellow mare was in a white dress, was now a sinister version of her covered in blood. Her eyes as black as Inferno’s, crying more blood. It was terrifying to say the least.

I turned to the exit and pushed on the door, finding that it was locked or something. No matter how much I pushed on it, it didn’t budge. I stepped back a bit and hurled myself at the door but when I expected to hit it, the door instead swung open and let me fall to the floor boards. After I got up and gave the doors a sour look, I found that I was no longer on the boat. Under my hooves was grey sand, behind me were ghostly seas, and above my head were black skies. These things didn’t surprise me anymore though. I knew strange things happened with books struck you with lightning.

I looked about the grey beach and found three ponies dressed in black staring at something that I couldn’t see on the sand behind them. “Hello there, um what are you doing?” I asked the black clad ponies, but got no answer. “Hello?”

I stepped forward and stood beside the ponies and tried to look at their faces, but I shouldn’t have. They were all wearing black masks, each with a different expression. There was one on the far left that was sad, and had white painted tears rolling down from closed eyelids its wooden face. The one in the center of the three was angry, with teeth bared and white eyes screwed up in hatred. The third one that was closest to me was simply nothing. It was completely black, with no sort of eye holes or expression.

I took a few steps away from the black clad ponies and looked at what they were all staring at. I felt myself grimace at the broken and battered form of the same earth pony mare I had seen in the painting before. She wore a white dress and had a vale, but both were caked with blood. What the hell was wrong with this book?

Instead of visions of the unknown field or my home where I was lied to, here I found the scene of either murder or mourning. I had a feeling I knew which it was too.

“Painful to look at isn’t it?” I turned around to the source of the voice and both smiled and grimaced at the same time. There behind me was Warner, the light blue sailor pony with his brown mane and tail. Except his eyes. Those eyes that were once green and filled with life were now black and empty as the other two ponies’ had been.

“Warner, what the hell is this? Why are you in this book? Why is she-?”

“Because this is where he let go of me and her. I wanted to show you where I came from, so you wouldn’t have a doubt in your mind.” The empty Warner figure took a few steps toward me with a frown on his muzzle. “This is where I was born, in a sense.”

I took a look back at the scene behind me. “What do you mean this is where you were born?”

Not-Warner laughed a bit, a slight chuckle. “Well I can thank them really, those ponies in black, for my existence. They were on a mission to be set free from their curses, and found Warner and his Carlotta here on the beach. Long story short, they wanted to move on but couldn’t. They needed souls to take their place in the books so that they could pass on at last. Warner wasn’t going to have that though. He was too protective of Carlotta, and tried to stop them. They ended up killing the girl, and making her into what you saw. Not just a bloody corpse, but the mare of fire: Inferno.”

I turned back to the empty Warner, confused. “What the hell do you mean by that? If she died here, why was she in the first book?”

“That wasn’t her lass. That was her broken and corrupted soul, waiting to be released. You finally gave her that, so she could give up her existence at last. You took her burden.”

While I stared into his black, empty eyes, I found that I wasn’t feeling lost as I had before when I stared at Blackmore or Inferno. I could still think and focus. “So what about the other pony? What about Blackmore?”

“Oh that one? I think he found a pony to consume eventually. Perhaps one of your family?” I narrowed my gaze at the Warner-figure in anger. “Not really sure though, I don’t keep up with every pony’s problems.”

“Then what about you then? If Carlotta had to die to give up her soul and the other pony found one eventually, why are you here? If Warner is what’s left after he gave you up, where is he?” Nowhere on the beach did I find a light blue pony, except right before me.

“That’s because Warner didn’t want the same for himself as he saw happen to Carlotta. He didn’t want to die like her. So instead he split himself from his soul, leaving him as a husk of his former self to walk the land for eternity.” Not-Warner walked a ways towards the black clad ponies in the masks. “Crafty pony I was.”

I followed for a bit, trying to wrap my head around the concept. “So how exactly does Warner still live, apparently for an eternity, if he doesn’t have a soul?” The premise seemed a bit wrong. Weren’t souls the reason things were alive? To be honest, I had no idea what souls had to do with anything.

Not-Warner stopped and turned to me. “It’s not that simple lass.” Of course not! Why would anything be as simple as what I thought it should? “Souls, as many religions would have you believe, is what makes ponies and creatures individual. They aren’t quite spot on though. It’s more like a spark starting life. Existence is started by biology of course, but it isn’t truly alive until it has a soul. After that it just kind of lingers on forever, even after that thing has died. That’s why you get ghosts lass, souls that linger around because they feel spiteful or something.”
I didn’t believe that in the slightest. Ghosts weren’t real. Then again, what did I know? Here I was believing things could possibly be simple. “Alright, but that doesn’t answer my question. Why is Warner still around, or at least I think he is, if he apparently doesn’t have a soul because of you?”

“Oh you got the wrong idea lass. I didn’t do anything to separate myself from Warner, he did that with these ponies’ help. What you didn’t wait for me to explain, is that souls are needed for something to be and to cease to be.” I stared blankly at the apparent soul of Warner, with his black eyes and angry expression. “Ugh, you aren’t making this easy with your simple mindedness lass. A pony can exist without a soul, but does so until the soul is vanquished or absorbed or dies!”

Well, he certainly sounded aggravated. “Hey! This concept can be a bit difficult to grasp. I haven’t exactly taken ‘souls 101’ alright?” I couldn’t have sounded more like an angry student not getting the right classes for magic school.

The light blue pony sighed exasperated. “Alright, fair enough. Souls, after their needed spark for life, linger within the being until the being dies. It is then that it is released and allowed to pass on alright? They just want to get to the afterlife so they can stop being. But when a soul is torn away from something before that, the being can still be alive. However, the being is still tied to the soul like a sort of spiritual string until the soul passes on. In such cases though the soul is usually sealed into something, to make it indestructible or into a spell like I was.”

I stared blankly for a moment, taking the explanation into consideration. Heavy consideration. “So if those ponies’ souls were trapped in the spell books, why does some pony else have to go beyond reading to understand the spell?”

“It’s not just a spell that you cast when you use ‘black magic’, it’s the pony’s soul that you call on. Like I said earlier, a soul can move on through absorption. It still ceases to be, but its power can be used by others. The power of ‘black magic’ is from those ponies who gave their souls up, willing or not. Poor Carlotta wasn’t willing, and after seeing what happened to her, Warner became willing.” The blue pony turned his head again to the black clad ponies.

I too looked at them, standing in place like they were frozen. “So, Warner willingly gave his soul to live forever because the alternative was to die?” Not-Warner nodded in confirmation. “So, are you like Warner before he became Warner?”

“A part of him, yes. What he is now is simply what’s left.” He almost seemed sad at the thought.

I looked around a bit, trying to find a nice lovely door that said exit. There was none however. “Alright then, it’s been fun and all but I really must be going.” I started off towards the grey ocean in an attempt to find the door that I apparently flew in through before.

“That’s not how this works.” Not-Warner said solemnly. I turned around to look at him, but he wasn’t there. I again looked forward and found the light blue, black-eyed pony standing in front of me with a sad look on his face. “I think you know better than that.”

“Right, of course.” I did know better by now. “Is this going to be painful?”

“Do I have to answer that?”

“Isn’t there some way that you can let me leave without giving me some kind of powerful magic? Can’t you just answer my questions and let me go?” I pleaded to the familiar, yet foreign pony.

Not-Warner shook his head sadly. “Even if I wanted to just let you go, you can’t until you absorb my power. Otherwise, you would just stay in a magic induced coma forever.”

Right, no moving on until the whole ‘absorption’ thing happens. “Fine. Just, make it quick please. The last pony made me feel like I was dying from the inside. At least Inferno just made me cough for a while.”

“Unfortunately, I think this will be the most painful experience for you yet Midnight.” The light blue pony said solemnly.

“Wait, before you go on. Can you tell me where Warner is and how you all seemed to know my name?” I pleaded, looking into his black eyes.

“I can actually. He’s a lot closer than you thought he was Midnight, right next to you actually. He won’t be happy with you when you wake up. As for how we know your name? Blackmore knew you when you were young, even books get bored and talk sometimes Midnight.”

That was a bit disappointing. I thought it would be some kind of excuse about prophecy or something convoluted like that. Apparently not though. Just books getting bored. “Alright then. Go ahead and do your thing.”

Not-Warner smiled a little. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to move on Midnight. Thank you.” I smiled back at the light blue pony. Just for a moment, I saw a pang of sadness on his face. If only for a moment. “The gift I give you is a dangerous one. While fire and darkness may be destructive by your hooves, mine is one that is destructive without control.” That certainly sounded worse than what I already learned. “Twisters and howling winds from every direction, bolts of lightning to strike the life from all who stand against you, and rain to wash away the charred remains of everything that meets your wrath. Speck its name and you will know ‘Charon’, me.”

Around us, a storm began to brew. Thunder erupted from its clouds, and rain poured down in stinging sheets. While I could hardly hear myself, I willingly whispered “Charon.”

Hell’s boat pony smiled down upon me. “Don’t let the storm overtake you Midnight.” As if waiting for his last little comment, a bolt of lightning struck down on my horn like it was a lightning rod. It was only for a moment, but I felt like all the nerves in my body just begged for the life to wink away. I blacked out, screaming in pain.

I didn’t even know when the magic induced dream ended and reality began. I woke up from the blackness screaming. A hoof quickly covered my mouth, making me simply let out a muffled yell. “Shh, Midnight. It’s okay.” I managed to quell my screaming and looked at the light blue, green-eyed, frowning face of Warner looking down at me. As I stopped screaming, he lifted his hoof away and shook it a bit. “Do ya really have to slobber all over my leg lass?”

I rose up from my laying down position and hugged Warner tight around his neck. “Oh my goodness! Warner where have you been!?”

Warner let out a choking sound that told me I was hugging a bit too tight. I let go of the choking pony and stared up at him with a smile on my face, but he didn’t return it. “Midnight, why did you read those books?” Oh yeah, he wouldn’t be happy about that. “I told you to burn them!”

He really did, I just didn’t listen. “Yeah, I know Warner. But you don’t understand I-”

“Oh don’t worry, I understand. You just thought you’d take a peek, won’t be so bad right? Next thing you know, you’ve been given terrible magical power. Which one did you read Midnight? Which one?”
I looked up at Warner, a little hurt. “All three of them.”
Warner stared down at me looking both surprised and disturbed. “All of them?” I nodded. “As in, all three of them?” I nodded again. Warner ran a hoof through his mane, looking rather stressed. “That’s impossible. You must have miscounted or something. One pony can’t have three black magic spells Midnight. It’s never been done without a pony going insane.”

I gave him an indignant look. “What? Don’t think that I can handle it or something? I’m a bit tougher than you think Warner.”

Warner walked away from the bed that I was laying on. Was it bad that I woke up in ponies’ beds like this as often as I did? “No, no, no, no. You don’t understand Midnight.” Of course I didn’t. I’m miss ignorant remember? “It’s not a matter of if you’re strong or not. It’s a matter of having souls that aren’t yours. It’s a matter of losing yourself.”

“Well, I don’t feel any different Warner. I still feel like me. I just sometimes have an insistent voice in my head, but nothing serious. I don’t lose control of myself or anything.” I got up from the bed and found myself on wooden floor boards. I was still in Warner’s room. “Where have you been?”

Warner looked back at me, noticeably still angry. “I’ve been around. Thought I’d come back and see the old ship one more time before I accepted where I was, but who did I find? Sharpe and some bloke with wings onboard looking for me. Told me they’d been looking for me for a while on your behalf, then they tell me that you’re looking for me in my room like a mad pony. And just like they’d said you were here, reading a book. A black book.”

“Hey! In my defense, I had already read the other two and only wanted some answers. Your soul gave me all the answers I needed too.”

Warner was taken aback by that. “You…you know then don’t you? You know why I didn’t want you to read them.”

I looked around confused. “Um, no not really. Something about souls and you not having one?”

Warner shook his head, looking at the floor. “No. It’s not that Midnight. It’s that now that you’ve absorbed my soul, I don’t have a lot of time left.” He looked up at the painting of Carlotta. “I suspect I’ve only got a week before my body decays. Time is going to catch up to me pretty quick, then I’ll just die. End of the line.”

Wait, what? “But, isn’t that what you wanted Warner? Didn’t you want to die long ago?”

“No. I should have died long ago, with Carlotta. I was a coward though. I wanted to cling to this world like a foal. I wanted to live because I feared forever. Then I experienced it, couldn’t die no matter how much I tried to end my life. Rocks wouldn’t crush my bones, blades wouldn’t do anything but break the surface of my skin and when it did, my blood wouldn’t flow. I was cursed to live forever, even though I wanted to die. And yes, for a time I did want it all to end. In that time, I scrawled out the spell that consumed my soul in a twisted hope that I could get some pony to take away my curse. I thought the nightmare would never end.” Warner looked up from the floor. “Then I realized that I had a purpose. As long as I held the curse, some pony else wouldn’t. If I could just keep some pony else from experiencing forever in this hell of a world, I would have beaten it. Stopped it in it tracks. I would have won.”

I looked at the sorrowful Warner. “Warner…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know-”

“Of course you didn’t. And until you pass on the curse, you will not die either. I’ll decay from this world and my soul won’t transcend into eternity because of my foolishness. I’ll never see Carlotta again, just like she feared.” Warner looked down again, crying.

I couldn’t help but feel terrible. “Look, Warner I’m sorry. But what’s done is done. I know you think that everything is over for you, but there’s one thing that you can do that can help ponies in need.”

Warner looked up from his tears, more still rolling down his face. “What’s that exactly? I don’t think an old washed up walking corpse like me can do much of anything.”

I smiled at Warner. “You know a thing or two about boats. And I happen to know a group of ponies who need one.”

Warner looked at me, a smile slowly creeping upon his face. “When can I start?”

Author's Note:

Gotta say, Warner is one of my favorite characters to write.
Hell's boat pony sounds like something similar to Hell's kitchen.
Anyway, enjoy!
and don't eat too many fruit roll-ups