50. Coming to a Sunset - epilogue
Canterlot, the royal capitol of Equestria!
Pristine architecture, high-end restaurants, theatres rivaling Bridleway performances in Manehatten. Here and there, high society went about their business. An up and coming business-stallion had arrived from Ponyville for his first solo entrepreneurship with a famous airship company. A college couple, the mare a pudgy yet adorable blue earth pony with a mane resembling frosting, her beau a tall and lanky yellow stallion with a short carrot-orange mane-cut, were celebrating their one-month anniversary in Canterlot. A purple earth pony teenaged filly with a two-toned light rose-colored mane in a questionable style had come with her fillyfriends to party. A gray unicorn with a jet-black mane and his fillyfriend, a yellow unicorn mare with an indigo mane, were enjoying tea in front of a high-class teashop before the stallion had to return to his father’s company to attend a business-meeting.
For all of these ponies in Canterlot Square, it was a bright and promising day. The sun was gentle warm, the breeze felt great, the central fountain was gorgeous as the statues poured water from their spouts.
It came to a grinding halt as a flash of light earned everypony’s attention and they gasped to see a blue unicorn stumble out of sphere of misty energy that vanished like smoke! He held his hoof over his heart as a black goopy substance bled out from a wound, a similar blackness inflaming his veins, making them visible even through his coat. He gasped and wheezed, struggling to stand before he fell over. The dating earthy pony couple gasped in horror, the mare hurrying over, ignoring her coltfriend’s warning, “Hold on, sugarplum! He might be sick with something contagious!”
Ignoring him, the mare knelt by the wheezing unicorn, asking, “Dearie, what happened? Who did this to you?”
Midnight’s eyes struggled to focus at this good samara-itan and they widened in recognition.
“C-Cup Cake…!”
She gasped, “How do you know my name?!”
“H-help me...” Midnight begged before he started coughing trying to cover his mouth with his hoof. But then he gasped and started to panic as he saw his hoof had blood on it.
Cup Cake shouted, “Somepony help! This poor dear needs a hospital!!”
Two royal guards bearing hospital crests on their uniforms helped carry Midnight through the hospital doors, one of them shouting, “Somepony get a stretcher! This is a Code Dark!”
The nurse-ponies hurried over with a stretcher ready to go, the two guards assuring Midnight, “Now, sir? We’re just gonna get you onto this stretcher, are you ready?”
Midnight answered with a painful groan, the two guards and the nurses frowning in worry. The guards gently held Midnight, “On 3? 1… 2... 3!”
Midnight groaned even more as he was lifted onto the stretcher and laid down, one of the nurses coming forward, “We’ll take it from here, sirs. Somepony hurry ahead and have them prep the emergency room for a Code Dark patient, STAT!”
“I’m on it!” One nurse hurried off to the emergency room as the rest, along with a doctor, hurried over to Midnight and started wheeling him through the halls.
“Sir, my name is Doctor Pure Heart,” the doctor spoke as his aura levitated a tiny flashlight. “Can you tell me your name?”
“M-Midnight…” Midnight wheezed.
“OK, Midnight, stay strong,” Pure Heart encouraged, “we’re gonna help you! Can you tell me who did this to you or do you know what dark spell they used?”
“No…!” Midnight moaned as he felt his heart shiver, and he whimpered, “I’m scared!”
“Midnight, Midnight!” Pure Heart put a hoof on Midnight’s shoulder, “I promise you we’re gonna do everything we can! Just hold tight, we’re taking you to the emergency room.”
Midnight shivered as he broke into cold sweat, he wheezed with every breath, he felt it spreading through his veins. The ceiling lights passed him over as he was wheeled towards the emergency room, Midnight turning his eyes away from them and looked towards his right when they passed by an open hospital room. It had been for only a moment but he saw them!
Twilight Velvet looking exhausted, Night Light relieved, the both of them happy, their faces full of love as they couldn’t take their eyes off the tiny foal in Velvet’s arms, a foal with a coat of bright white and a mane streaked several shades of blue.
“Shining..?” Midnight struggled to hold his hoof towards the room and felt his nerves wrack as the room passed him by.
“Wait… was that-”
“We’re here!” Pure Heart announced as he and the nurses wheeled in their patient through the doors to the emergency room.
The hospital doors flew open and the staff gasped to see Princess Celestia hurry in, her face struggling to keep her composure.
“Where is he?”
Her tone was almost harsh as she spoke, “A Code Dark was instigated, I must see the patient!”
“Uh- Your Majesty,” a nurse stepped up and bowed respectfully, “The patient was admitted into the emergency room just twelve minutes ago, and they’re already-”
“Where is the emergency room?” Celestia said in a tone that was oddly polite and demanding at the same time.
“Th-that way!” The nurse pointed down the hall and immediately Celestia hustled. The staff and patients along the hall quickly noticed her approach and gangway'd to allow her past. Her eyes focused upon the lit sign that read ‘emergency room’.
Midnight laid upon the operating table, the best unicorn doctors going over his condition with various spells, trying to determine what dark magic had afflicted him, what it was doing to him, how to treat it. He wasn’t really aware – He was afloat, caught in a sensation somewhere between being awake and being asleep. The drugs had dulled the pain and his senses, allowing him to drift from reality.
He was afraid, and the more he thought about it, the more he thought of his friends, his family, his brother. His Twilight.
He didn’t know why, but the memories made themselves known. Happy memories, shared experiences, a special time he’d shared with each of them.
He remembered the first time he tried apple-bucking and hurt his left fetlock and Applejack laughing a little at his impulsiveness, the absurdity rubbing off on Midnight that he got a case of the giggles.
He remembered watching the sunset with Big Macintosh after a long day’s work on the farm, the moment just feeling like a reward somehow in its fading splendor.
He recalled his very first Pinkie party when Pinkie Pie challenged him to a cider-drinking contest, which he regrettably won.
When he introduced Dreamer the wolf pup to Fluttershy and she told Midnight all kinds of things about caring for his new pet, and they’d laughed when they saw Dreamer play with some of Fluttershy’s little animal friends.
The time he saw Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane in another rivalry-instigated argument and they tried racing only to both plow straight into an errant thundercloud. It took days for their manes to get back to normal.
How Rarity gave him a really nice scarf with his initials on it.
The look on his face when Twinken saw the adoption papers the day he and Midnight became real brothers, how happy he was to finally have a family.
The hard work he and Blueblood put into the airship they’d donated to Ponyville and the look of pride Blueblood had of his contribution and his gratitude for Midnight’s help.
How messy his and Soarin’s faces wound up after their pie-eating contest which Soarin won along with a rather unpleasant tummy-ache.
Seeing Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Rumble, Button Mash, and Twinken go on crusade after crusade in misguided ventures for cutie-marks.
The look on Spike’s face when he saw the rare comic book Midnight got him for his birthday.
That glorious experience in her tower, when she and he gave each other the other’s virginity, and how he said to her ‘Twilight Sparkle, with all my heart and soul, I love you…’
The doctors looked at each other as cold unfeeling reality sunk in, while in came, “Princess Celestia!”
They briefly bowed but Celestia paid them no mind as her eyes fell upon Midnight. His sapphire coat was pale, revealing black veins spread throughout his shivering body, his wheezing breath, the bandage over his heart blackened by his tainted blood, his horn flickering like a dimming lightbulb.
“Leave us,” Celestia ordered.
“B-but, You Majesty-” Pure Heart protested, only for a most intense look in Celestia’s eyes to ‘encourage’ him to obey as he quickly herded out his staff.
Celestia slowly approached the blue unicorn, seeing his belongings on a nearby table.
She was shocked!
Only months had passed since that terrible duel between this friend so dear to her heart and her student whose flaws her heart had blinded her to. She’d sent search parties for Sunset Shimmer yet no trace of her had been found, any leads led to nowhere, and she’d prayed with all her heart that Midnight had survived, that he would be alright, that she would see him again.
Well, here he was in front of her, clearly not alright, and as she cast a spell to ascertain Midnight’s condition, she felt her heart break. The dark magic had spread throughout his body, carried by his heart beating hard in futile effort to keep Midnight alive. Even now, the taint was eating away at his life-force, that glorious spark that was Midnight’s life was flickering, struggling to keep burning, a soft ember weakening as it was slowly surrounded in deepening darkness.
She felt the tears well up in her eyes as she realized that even her seemingly divine power was not enough to undo the damage that had been done. She struggled to keep her composure as she came over to the blue unicorn’s side.
Seeing him as he began to fade, she couldn’t stop the sob from escaping her quivering lips. She noticed his eyes twitch a bit before they opened, and widen at the face above them.
“P-princess…”
“Shh, don’t talk, I’m here,” Celestia spoke softly and soothingly, as she placed her hoof on Midnight’s cheek. He reached up and grasped it with his own as though it were a lifeline.
“Celestia… I saw him!” Midnight’s eyes widened, Celestia shaking her head, not understanding. “Just born, in his mother’s arms…”
“Who?” Celestia wasn’t sure if Midnight was of sound mind but if he was this newborn was obviously of importance.
“Who was just born, Midnight? Who is the mother?”
“T-Twi- Twilight…” Midnight coughed, flecks of blood flying from his lips, to Celestia’s grief. “N-Night Light…”
“Twilight Velvet?” Celestia tried, the name familiar to her, Midnight nodding vigorously, groaning as he lowered his head back to his pillow.
“I’m almost there!” Midnight whispered with a faint tone of hope as he looked up to Celestia, his eyes searching for assurance, and feeling his heart break when he saw none upon her face.
“No… No, no! It can’t be…!”
“I-it’ll be alright!” Celestia sobbed, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself. She should’ve been used to it by now. She’d lived over a thousand years, seen friends come and go, witnessed hundreds of births, attended more funerals than she’d cared to count. So many friends, all with a limited time in this world into which they were born as tiny little foals that grew up and then withered away. She’d seen many friends die.
Why was this so much more painful?
Seeing the crushing heartbreak in his eyes flowing with tears, his face marred by those blackened veins, his nose dribbling, his lips quivering and never had Celestia heard a voice that sounded so defeated.
“So close… I was so close!”
He gazed up into Celestia’s weeping face, his pleading turquoise eyes glazed with pain.
“Please, Tia… Why can’t I stay…?”
And the Princess of the Sun watched helplessly as those turquoise eyes struggled to stay open, losing focus upon the heartbroken mare above them before they slowly and inevitably closed.
Forever.
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I have one word to describe you right now.
Tease.
Thanks for this story. It was fun to read and great to see all the different points in history. Good luck with the next chapter. I can't to see how the main story will progress now.
5764529
The explanation will be long, confusing, but it will be worth it!
Surrogate rebirth?
so this is how midnight became en alicon
, Celestia just did not want to let him go, I thrown that he would have to accomplish some quest or spell to obtain it. But this is fine by me
, now I just wonder how the loose end are going to tie in. It was suggested that Shining Armor known Midnight, even considers him en old friend, as well as Big Macintosh hinting to have met a stranger that consoled him. I have a broblem the chronology of some of the characters, if Shining is in fact just born and that to obtain the position of caption of the guard he must be at around thirty years old and Sunset Shimmer is around ten or so than that would mean that in Equestia Girls she would be between some where thirty five to forty. Also, if Midight is stuck til his present time, and he is at around twenty two to twenty four, then that would meaning he would be at around fifty five years of age. Even with his alicornhood, I am not sure that the age deferents between him and twilight, as well as the hard experiences that he had to endure, would allowing to have the love relationship, such a gape would be hard for her to take, at list it would have to start over again. Also, after all this time I wounder if Midnight has been clinging to an idealize version of his marefreind created of her over time rather than the pony her-self. last thing I wounder if Sunset Shimmer is going to make a comeback at some point in time?
, I think it would be great.
5764693 Sunset Shimmer will eventually return but I haven't figured that out yet.
As to the rest of what you said, the show has never made things like age and chronology clear, not to mention I always thought that Sunset still being a teenager after she left Equestria High to Canterlot High (which in Equestria time seemed longer) was time/space displacement, as in time in both worlds don't match
Remember Chronicles of Narnia? After "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" when the Pevensies returned to Narnia only a year later they found 1300 years had passed! After that adventure another year passed and Edmund and Lucy saw only three years had passed that time around.
Duzent make sense, right?
I view Shining Armor to be in his mid- to late-twenties although I really don't think about it, since the show doesn't either. Though I consider him and Twilight to be at least a few years apart age-wise.
See? All this thinking and trying to make sense is just needless details and speculation - I am a technical person too and detail-oriented, but in this case? I recommend just going with the flow
5764201 Too bad, Midnight could teach Twilight about the human world and meet Sunset again, but it's your decision and I respect it.
5764720 I'm cool whit that
. it is just that I like speculating how the stories are going to go, and I love it even better when they deify my expectations and that is what keep me interested to the stories. last ting about by comments, I just present things as I see them, or the points of interest to me, that I think it could be exploited in the future. By no means am I trying to correct you, in fact I am the last that should do so, considering that I barely started to right in English
, it is just that I find it en-richening to my stories and universes when people ask about any inconsistency or need for details in them, and that allow me to better conceive them. I am just trying help in my own way, as frustrating as it may seem
, I know the filling
.
5764793 I understand the pull of trying to make sense of things, speculating and debating this and that of a subject you can't quite wrap your mind around.
But in the words of Discord, 'What fun is there in making sense...?'
Holy crap. Ive got to know how he gets back. YOU MUST POST NEXT CHAPTER ASAP!!! please?
A quite unexpected ending. It would have been more dramatic though if you had not already revealed in the main story that he was still alive.
6136077 I don't know
I did a little bit of researching and that's all I found
Hey do you think it would be possible if I could use your character midnight for my story. Midnight vs Nova. Please
6153432 PM me
6479730 It's basically willing your magic into your shadow or any surrounding shadows that are dark enough, and bending them to your will.
A skilled shadowist can use shadow-morphing in creative ways, offensively, defensively, or otherwise. Like making blades, walls, or even tendrils to grab things.
Then there's shadow-porting - a Shadowist dives into their own shadow, becoming one with it, and moving about virtually unhindered, before rising back out of it. Skilled shadowists could use shadow powers in a sensory sort of way, like imagine a shadowist is in a dark room. He reaches out with his mind and connects to the darkness around him and would be able to detect anything moving through the darkness almost like it were a spider web
6483284 I realize my work has typos but I'm so busy it's difficult to look back, browse for them and then correct them, what with life and my current projects
Anyway, those were rectified
Man that was a very emotional fic. A good fic with some feels bits.
7098056 Really? I almost got trampled by a bunch of bulls!
And so, the end of one story ends as another story begins. Or rather, the story picks up where it left off but the character has changed. Man, it's mind boggling how well you merged your two stories together. You are a genius at plot building and heck of a writer. But now i'll have to re-read chapters in the main story to understand the cracks between stories better.
By the by, it may seem silly, but i found this video in my mind while reading.
Can't say I'm too happy with the portrayals of Sunset and Luna in this series, although that's partly personal bias (Best Princess and Best Pone). Luna honestly felt a bit too petty. While Sunset does make sense with how she was pre-reformation, I feel her outright murdering Midnight was a bit too much. That said I hope she at least gets the chance to reform later on (I'm at the point of the main story where this side-story was linked).
I still think the story is good, just wanted to express a bit of disappointment on some choices, though they're your prerrogative as the author.