The Eyes Are Blind

by Fe94Knight

Chapter 18

Chapter eighteen

The lab area that has been set up for the occasion of studying the colt has now been turned in to an arena of some sort. All the while, Twilight uses her magic to set up a few targets for Midnight to take aim at. Flash assists where he can, while their son stays on his mother’s back, eager to see the colt he’s heard about in action. Midnight, as advised by the princess, does his best to clear his mind so that he can make the most of the tests that she wants to conduct.

“Now Midnight…” Twilight sets up the final target of wood with a bull’s-eye on it, “…The point of this is to test the extent of your magic. How many spells you actually know, and how strong they are. Also, to see what your actual limit may be, not to push it, but just keep it at the threshold. Considering many of the spells you have talked about are combat spells…”

“…Besides the Levitation spell that is,” Flash points out while he takes a spot next to his wife. While Snow leaps off of her, and on to him.

“Besides that,” she acknowledges, “training targets would seem like the ideal thing to test on,” Twilight answers as Snow looks at the targets that have been set up, and back at the colt ready to do his work against them.

“Is Mister Midnight going to make magic?” The small colt beams to both his parents. More fascinated by the demonstration.

“That’s the plan sweetie,” Twi gives her son a peck on the cheek before him, and his father step off to the side. The first of the targets that are put up, in a line of three, are to test his aim of any projectile spell he knows. Nodding to the subject, Twilight finishes the check of the area to make sure there isn’t anything too bad that will be damaged, should it go awry, “Now considering you’re not a unicorn, I have no idea how to possibly gauge your magic levels any other way, than to have you use them,” she reminds herself of their dilemma, “though considering you become less than a desirable colt should you pass your capacity. Do make sure to keep yourself under control. Who knows what will happen if you push it too far.”

“Well ma’am if it comes down to that, I’m sure your husband will more than take care of that problem,” He snickers under his breath. However, any attempt for Twilight to try and quell Midnight’s possible fear of getting the snot kicked out of him by the Pegasus, is completely destroyed by said Pegasus calling over to them.

“I like him already!” Flash shouts out.

The mare sends a cold scowl over to her spouse, before she turns back to Midnight, and gives a polite nod for him to continue, “First spell, you may start when you’re ready…” He nods in return while thinking of the simplest one he knows.

Breathing in deep, Midnight attempts to clear his mind from thoughts of the very real possibility of Shard taking control here in Canterlot castle of all places, and going on a rampage. No less in the presence of ones that are only trying to help him, and if Midnight does slip, their lives would likely be ended before any pony had the chance to put him down.

‘Flash is a strong one from what I have learned so far,’ the colt lowers his head while silencing his thoughts, ‘But if Shard takes over, the Captain would only act as a subtle speed bump in my path. If anything, that would certainly be the death of me here… Well… here goes everything.’

A green surge powers its way up through his spine and neck. Engulfing the golden orbs in his skull and replacing them with nothing, but a thick neon haze as Midnight takes aim. Through the haze, he eyes the targets, and with nothing more than a thought. The solid emerald rays shoot from him as they speed towards the bull’s-eye. The bright light of the attack, forces the others present to avert their eyes, while Midnight runs the beam in a clear line across all three targets. The heat of the spell, scorches the surface to the point that it singes its way all the way through, cutting them neatly in half the upper portion slides off.

The ambient glow leaving her eyelids, and the sound of hunks of wood hitting the floor, lets Twilight know that it’s safe to look while she brings her eyes open. The scorch mark etched in the back wall, show her clearly the power that this colt has inside him, as she examines the targets.

“Well you certainly have that one under control,” she chuckles wholeheartedly, almost admiring the destroyed pieces of wood, “How do you feel though?”

Midnight looks himself over, and then listens in for any adverse thoughts from his counterpart, “Actually… quite well still,” he responds after hearing nothing but sweet silence, ‘That feeding from last night must still be holding me together.’

“I have to hand it to you,” Flash, and his son look over the damage done to the targets. Normally these are used by average unicorns to practice simple plasma bolts. Being married to an alicorn, the captain knows that they can be extinguished easily, and reused fairly often. These ones though, not so much, “That is quite impressive.”

“It is, now isn’t it?” Another voice in the room beckons them to turn around to see who has graced them with their presence.

Though the smiling face of the lunar princess entering the room brings the same gesture from the tallest colt there as well. Mostly because of the particular floral arrangement in her hair at the moment. Also because of the twinkle in her eye from her seeing him preform finally. Luna steps in to the group, and looks at the targets, or what’s left of them. All the while, she teasingly ignores the smitten expression on the colt for the time being.

“Having never seen your other spells at work in the presence of you, until a few seconds ago when I walked in unannounced. I would have to follow Flash’s answer with this matter,” She turns now to the colt that has her interest, giving him a gracious smile and a wink, “You do impress.”

“I live to please,” Midnight returns the gesture to her, getting only the snide expressions from the other two adults in the room at the moment while they keep quiet.

“Though as I would imagine, Twilight did tell you to make sure you are careful about using your gift?” Her face turns from cute to serious, and then all the way to grim in the space of a few seconds as Luna finishes up her statement, “I wouldn’t want to have to put you down… should it come to that.”

The grim thought alone is enough for her head to lower a bit, while she ponders the possible outcome of putting the colt she is smitten with out of his misery, just for the sake of other’s lives.

“Don’t worry Luna,” Midnight smiles softly at her. Even his fangs becoming not intimidating in any sense of the word from his sweet words. “I’ll be sure to not take it that far… though you may like if I go a little too far.”

“What could I possibly like about having to kill you?” ‘A colt that I will admit I am rather… taken back by,’ she mutters in her head, while expressing her own worry in her words, ‘I’ll leave it at that.’

“Well not, so much that part,” Midnight pauses to recognize that fact, and try to alleviate some of her stress, “Though if that’s the case, and there isn’t any more of that elk left. As you called it, a date may be in order.”

Even from his distance from her, Midnight can still feel the rising heat coming off of the mare across from him, as Luna turns her eyes away from him in a sheepish smile. Neither of the others though have a clue exactly how to go about this in any sort of way, seeing as they haven’t a clue as to what they are talking about. Leaving Flash and Twilight standing there for a few moments just glancing between the pair and themselves.

“Well I might just take you up on that offer then,” She canters off to the side to avoid Twilight’s gaze at her for the comment, “Shall we get this show on the road though?”

“Yes ma’am,” Midnight agrees while the others take their place with the lunar princess.

More targets set up in a matter of seconds while the gifted colt picks a new selection from his bag of tricks. The steps of going through several spells now just start to blend together as he repeats them over, and over again.

Target, engage, and have Twilight gawk over the sight.

The simple spells he has been casting all over the place on their own, are enough to push the limits of what Twilight even thought would be possible with magic. Especially considering that Midnight, by physical appearance alone, shouldn’t even be able to cast something as simple as an Illumination spell. Though the colt sends out bolts of lightning from whipping his tail. Creates almost magical boxing gloves around his fore hooves as he smashes apart targets. While the shockwave spell, Twi knows all too well, radiates from his voice, and hasn’t lost any of its touch.

Though the appearance of him being fine is just that, an appearance. Every single time Midnight continues to use his magic, it brings him closer and closer to the return of a companion that he would rather not see ever again. Though on the flip side, there is another drive in the male mind of his, which has beckoned itself forth and now he must address. Now surrounded by a dozen or so of the targets, Midnight shakes his head for a second. Fighting back the urge to try, and impress a certain mare honoring him with her presence.

‘She would kill me if I did,’ Midnight tries to reason. However, as he looks back to the mare in question, the same stars in her eyes that he saw last night. Appear while she stands there in wonder at what he is doing. Doing their own part, and pushing him onwards, ‘I really shouldn’t. Though I guess it couldn’t hurt. I feel great after all,’ He sweeps aside the foolish act, as nothing more than just pushing his own limits. After all how are you supposed to increase them? Something that he used to do very often while younger. Much to the dismay of his conscience later on in the day, when he would try to suppress the darkness in him from taking over.

“He really is amazing isn’t he?” Twilight nudges the shoulder of a flattered mare standing next to her, noticing that she doesn’t even blink, as Luna watches the intimidating form of Midnight stretch out.

“Yea…ahh…yup,” Lulu mutters under her breath to her companion. Barely even recognizing the fact that Twilight said something.

“That wasn’t even a sentence, you know?” Flash starts to chuckle a bit at her falter, “I guess he too, has an admirer.”

“What do you mean too?” Luna finally picks up.

“Well Midnight asked about you while we were running the first tests,” Twilight says rather proud of this fact. Wondering herself if the princess has picked up on any of his flirts that Midnight has for the most part, been screaming her way.

“Really?” Luna manages to contain her own excitement in her body. Resisting the urge to jump up, and down, and scream at the top of her lungs, ‘Well… that’s just…’ Her thought process though is cut off without Twilight even realizing it, as a single hoof of hers rests on Luna’s shoulder gently.

“We can talk about that later,” Twi points out to the colt in the middle of the room, “it seems that your colt is going to start again.”

If it wasn’t for the interesting events that Luna was looking forward to seeing, then she may have caught that last comment. However, being caught up in the zone can do this to you, as all four of them watch the colt go to work. Flapping his wings hard against the ground below, Midnight never seems to leave the ground. Instead the individual veins of his wings, which make up the frame, start to glow red as the enchantment inside of him takes hold. Flowing through the veins, the aura wraps itself around them and starts to stick out the ends. Tapering to a point, they stick out a full foot, making a series of spikes along his wings like a dragon.

Almost at the drop of a hat, Midnight angles his wings differently. Spinning him in to a circle, as the javelins fly out the instant centrifugal force is applied. Though the colt doesn’t stop at one volley. As one set leaves his body, they quickly solidify in to a sort of crystal it seems, and are quickly replaced by his magic to reload and go all over again. Each and every spike sticks itself in to the targets around him with enough force to punch through the back of it as the colt picks up speed. Though Midnight only stops when each target looks more like a seamstresses pin cushion, rather than a target for combat practice.

The screech on the tile from his hooves grinding against it, announces his cease fire. Leaving the others, even Luna, at a loss of words while two of the targets just fall over from the weight of the number of quills sticking out of them alone. The expression on Midnight’s face stays it all. The rather smug grin he wears, full of pride at what he accomplished, gives him a little boost in confidence of his limits. However, the sweat dripping down his brow from his exertion, and the sight of seeing him cast the spell itself, only excites Luna further while she tries to regulate her breathing in order to calm herself down.

‘Easy there Luna…’ She tells herself, ‘even though he looks downright attractive right now. That’s no reason to have thoughts of throwing yourself at him, and dragging the already sweaty colt up to your room so you two can- Oh just stop it!’, “You look…” The night mare stomps on her hind hoof to give her mind something else to pay attention to. Finally managing to get a better look at the colt, and not liking what she sees, “Tired… are you feeling alright?”

“Just a little weary,” Midnight huffs, sounding more like a smokers hack than simply being out of breath, “Crystal Storm spell… will do… that.”

Slowly but surely, a pain rises up in his chest where his heart would be as Midnight clenches it with a hoof. The action forcing his weakened body to the ground, as he puts up a brawl, to hold his own against the dark force working against him. With-in an instant Luna, is next to him and holding the colt up in her fore hooves. Soon followed by the others as they come to his side.

“Is he alright?” Twilight looks Midnight over to ensure he is at least still breathing, “Did he reach his limit?”

“It… doesn’t seem so,” Luna peers in to the colt’s eyes. The solid onyx tint flickers in and out as they cover up the golden orbs she was captivated by in the first place.

“Not… limit…” He gripes out, “…Pushed self… too far,” Midnight fights between himself and Shard, already feeling his presence there trickling back in, even if he can’t hear him. Though at the same time kicking his own flank that he would do something so careless.

‘And this is where I get my head chewed off,’ He couldn’t have predicted that much better.

The only thing that greets Midnight, is the split second image of a hoof careening in to his face at high speed. The impact throws the colt from the princess’s hooves while he flops on to the ground in a limp pile. Even then he has no chance to get up, for Luna is atop him in no time. Fuming over his face as smoke starts to pour from her nostrils.

“What were you thinking?!” Luna screams at the top of her lungs. “You could have died! Either from it consuming you… again! Or by one of us having to kill you ourselves to protect others!!!” In her rant on, and on to the colt of the implications that could have resulted from his hasty actions. The princess of the night fails to realize that she in fact is now tearing up, as the final thought continues to replay itself in her head and drives her emotions wild, “Why?! Why would you do that?!”

In reality anything that Midnight could say to her, would be lost in translation as the mare he is starting to hold a higher regard for, tears him a new one. Nothing could explain why he may want to impress her. Only thing he could say would be that he just wants to astound Luna. Though that would probably lead to another face/hoof interface. To test his limits? Normally that’s a strength building exercise for a unicorn to build up their magical reservoir. Though in his case it could hurt others, if not kill them. After all, he isn’t your average unicorn. Fully unable to say a word to her that would save his flank. The only thing Midnight can do, is sink his head further down in to his chest as the mare stays atop him fuming.

“I just… I just wanted to amaze you,” He mumbles the poor excuse under his breath, as the family next to them hold their distance a bit. Knowing full well that if any pony would get him to talk, it would be the nocturnal princess. Though that idea is lost, as she tries to figure out how exactly to answer him herself as Midnight continues, “There aren’t many that find what I can do normal, impressive yes. But also terrifying to some extent and not many are openly welcome about it… so having one pony that takes interest in it because it makes her eyes dance,” He pauses for a second to raise his slightly teary eyes to her, as the golden shade pushes out any darkness remaining. The powerful emotions of whatever he finds himself feeling now for the mare, overpowering Shard, just as much as flesh does, “I just wanted to show you what I could do… I… I’m-”

Once again, a single hoof contacts his face, cutting him off.

Though this one is far gentler than Midnight previously expected, as the sapphire hoof holds against his crimson lips hushing any, and all words to follow his attempted apology. The only thing on her face now is just a monotone scowl, not really directed at him, but down to the floor as she holds back her true colors with only a soft voice and looks through the colt.

“Midnight, prepare yourself…” Luna gets up from him, and takes a few steps away. Only turning her head back to continue her statement, “If there is anything I have learned about you. After a demonstration like that, you will need sustenance,” Luna maintains the same calm expression on her face as she reaches the others there that just saw her go off on the colt, “Twilight, Flash, and little Snow Bolt… Midnight, and I are going to go out for a bit to get him something that he needs… we will be back later,” Neither Flash, nor Twilight dare say a word against her. Not like they have a reason to. Luna is helping him with what’s wrong with him, so they decide to let her do her own thing. The lunar princess turns her attention back to the stallion as he sits up on his fore hooves with his rump on the ground. Still hanging his head low like a puppy that’s done something wrong, “Midnight… we’re going on a hunt.”

At the sound of that, and her hoof steps leading away from him. Midnight gets up to all fours, and follows her without challenge. Slumping his head down almost all the way to the floor in shame. Knowing that he has fallen out of good graces with the mare that his heart is becoming more than smitten with.

Muttering only two words as they head towards the door, “Yes Luna.”

The door slams behind him, as Midnight makes his way after the mare. Meanwhile though the couple with their son stand there in the room, and only the mother can shake her head at the actions of the colt after over hearing some of what he had to say to Luna at the time.

“Silly colt,” Twilight responds, “Luna would much rather want to see him safe, than what he is capable of.”

“Well I don’t know,” Flash responds with at first while they start to walk towards the door as well, “I can understand his view.”

Twilight snaps back at her husband with her head at the comment, “How do you figure that?”

“Well that’s simple, my dear,” Flash gives her a simple, but sweet kiss on the cheek as they start to part the room, “it’s in a colt’s nature to want to astound a pretty mare. I recall trying to impress a certain Princess when I first got here as her personal guard.”

Comments

[-Brutus]

Certainly, I agree it is in our nature.