Chapter 13
Nightfall rocked back and forth on her hooves outside the schoolhouse, unable to contain her nervous fear. It didn’t matter that the other students weren’t here yet, and likely wouldn’t be for at least two hours. Cheerilee was in there, and so were tests, and ponies who would stare at her, and figure out her secrets.
“I could do the test tomorrow,” she said, perhaps the third time this morning. “It’s just one day.”
“You’re going to do it today,” Midnight Storm said, without much annoyance. “I know you don’t want to… I remember hating school just as much when I was young. But it’s important. As frustrating as it is to spend so much time trapped in there, you need to learn what they want to teach you. You’ll be grateful for this when you’re older.”
Nightfall felt naked—and she was, except for the headband. But it was the bad kind of naked, being unprepared, not being carefree and having nothing to do. “I already know everything,” she argued, trying another tact. “I mean… I think?”
“You didn’t recognize running water.” Midnight stopped just outside the door, tapping one hoof loudly to signal the teacher inside. That was it—the moment of no return. Nightfall slumped slightly against her, defeated. After the night before, she had no intention of causing any more trouble. She had already given the kirin enough to worry about by staying out to play way longer than she should have.
A pony opened the door a few moments later, looking completely unaffected by the early hour. “Why hello there! I just got the note that I should be expecting somepony… this must be Nightfall Storm!”
“I am.” She shuffled forward, looking down.
“Well, don’t sound so excited. You should save some of that energy for the test.” She beamed, but Nightfall found it hard to return any of her enthusiasm. Why should she be excited about wasting her time in a classroom?
Cheerilee stepped to one side, and she got a better look inside. There was room for maybe thirty students inside, on simple desks and a dirt floor. Obviously this was no center of higher magical learning. All the desks except for one were empty, which had a few papers piled on it.
“This doesn’t have to be today,” Midnight muttered, following her into the classroom. “If you have lessons to plan or whatever, I’m sure she’d be happy to spend the day with me.”
Nightfall marched up eagerly, but her hope wasn’t to survive. “Oh no, it’s no trouble at all. There’s no worry about waiting for tomorrow to start her, even if she doesn’t have supplies. There’s plenty here for her to borrow. There’s nothing at all more important than a quality education!” They stopped beside the desk. Cheerilee gestured to it.
“Now, Nightfall. You can take as much time with this as you like. Don’t feel pressure to make things up, just leave the ones blank that you don’t understand. I need to know what things you know and which ones you don’t, so I can make sure you get the best education you can.”
“Sure.” Nightfall climbed into the seat, taking the pencil in one hoof like it was a hammer and she were in a chain-gang. “I get it.”
“I can stick around until you’re done,” Midnight suggested. “If that would make it easier.”
It would, though Nightfall felt guilty admitting as much. So she shook her head. “If I’m gonna be staying for class anyway, that wouldn’t make much sense.” Not only that, but she wouldn’t have fit in any of these desks if she wanted to. Midnight was just too big.
“You’re welcome to return to pick her up when class is over,” Cheerilee said, her voice a little lower. “We go until three. I ring the bell when we dismiss, if that helps. For a new student like Nightfall here, I’ll probably make sure she sticks around if she doesn’t have a friend to walk home with. I wouldn’t want her to get lost.
“I’ll pick her up,” Midnight said. She wandered over, touching Nightfall lightly with her wings. “Do good, kid. Make tons of friends.” She left, abandoning Nightfall to the mercy of her test and her peers.
But the test wasn’t as hard as she thought, at least, not most of it. The math and language questions were incredibly easy to her—instinct, though she hadn’t known she knew them. But then there were other things—history mostly—that she just didn’t know. Important events that she suspected had taken place after Nightmare Moon was banished. She struggled over a few of them, then got frustrated and left the rest blank.
Cheerilee took the test from her about an hour later, then gave her a puzzle to play with while she graded. “Well, that is remarkable,” she said, returning only moments later. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a perfect score in the language section before. Is that why you’re so shy, sweetheart? Smart fillies can colts can have a little trouble fitting in… but I’m sure you’ll have a fine time in my class. It’s a great group, you’ll see.”
“I already know a few of them,” Nightfall muttered, looking away from her. “If you could put me with… Aura, or maybe Zipporwhill, or Featherweight… that would be cool. I met them last night, and they seemed nice.”
“That should be fine,” Cheerilee said. “Yes, these are… we’ll be able to fit you right in. And it seems like the other students are just starting to arrive. Why don’t you come outside with me. We’ll make you a surprise!”
Midnight Storm watched with apprehension as the gigantic cart pulled up to the front of her house. There were a pair of burly stallions pulling it, the same kind of ponies she imagined at the front of angry mobs. But there was no mob today—no sign at all that it wasn’t just another ordinary day in Ponyville. Here she was, standing completely uncovered in broad daylight, and no one had screamed for help.
The schoolmaster hadn’t, hadn’t even asked about how strange she looked. Midnight wasn’t sure if she liked that or if she was annoyed by it. After spending her whole life dreading this moment, having it arrive without even a whimper felt a little anticlimactic. A constant reminder that I made myself suffer for no reason.
Sapphire Breeze appeared behind her, though she hadn’t been in the house that Storm knew. That pony was sneaky—maybe Celestia knew what she was doing in picking her spies. She had a large suitcase with her, resting precariously on her back.
“Ready to move in?” Midnight asked, suppressing a laugh. “You sure you don’t need more than that?”
“I would think a pony with your history would know what it was like to travel light,” Sapphire answered, with a similar tone. “Always on the move, roaming across Equestria. You can’t have taken more than you could carry.”
“I don’t expect a fancy pony like you to know anything about it. I’m sure you didn’t have to rough it in Canterlot.”
Sapphire only smiled. “You’ll need my help with that furniture, I’m sure. Just give me a moment to drop this off inside.”
Midnight Storm hurried over to the delivery pony, who looked more nervous to see her there than most of the ponies on the street around them. He stared the entire time at her tail, even though he didn’t once say anything. Midnight signed, handed over a sack of bits, and gestured at the house. “I’ll tell you where to put everything. You can do stairs, right?”
One of the stallions nodded to her—and even that seemed like a great struggle for him. “We, uh… yeah, miss. We can do stairs.”
It took just over an hour—far less time than she would’ve expected, considering everything they had ordered. Midnight Storm didn’t even want to think about what it would’ve been like to try and buy all of that herself. If she’d had the need, she probably would’ve just made something instead, and made due. But Nightfall wasn’t going to live like that. And neither will I, anymore.
“So, can you keep an eye on things for an afternoon?” Midnight asked, as soon as the movers had left. “I’d like to get my things from my house out in the Everfree. I wasn’t exactly prepared for this, so…”
“No problem.” Sapphire Breeze grinned at her. “I can do that. Will you be back before Nightfall gets out of school?”
She shook her head. “Probably not.”
“It’s fine,” Sapphire said. “I’m not the only agent here in town. Anyway, I doubt that cult will be back into Ponyville for some time—maybe never. They know we’re onto them. Their smartest play would just be to dig themselves the deepest ditch they can as far on Equestria’s periphery and never come up again.”
“Maybe.” Midnight hardly sounded agreeable. “If they were smart, they probably wouldn’t be in a crazy cult to begin with.”
Then Saphire looked up, a smile spreading slowly across her face. Midnight could practically hear the gears turning back there. “I’ve got a better idea, though. Why don’t I go with you? Midnight too… I could pack some lunches or something… it would be an adventure! A bonding experience. Just so long as we stayed away from the castle.”
“I… I guess so…” She trailed off, lowering her voice and glancing out the huge windows onto Ponyville’s main road. She walked over and gently drew them closed before she said anything else. But Midnight couldn’t remember why she’d been opposed to having Sapphire come with her in the first place. Something else seemed suddenly more important. “Do you think they might really be after Nightfall? Is she in danger here?”
Sapphire looked thoughtful, though she didn’t speak for some time. “I… I think the chances are good. We won’t know for sure until we get the analysis on that spell, but… these aren’t just some random crazies who think cutie marks are evil and maybe they should make a commune or whatever. These ponies are funded. Some of the raw materials they had at the ritual the other night…” She looked away. “Well, I probably shouldn’t tell you.”
“But you will tell me, because anything might help me protect Nightfall better.”
“Right.” Sapphire couldn’t meet her eyes for long. “Well, lots of it was illegal. We’re talking necromancy-type illegal. Code Sombra type stuff. Whoever tried to set this thing up had some powerful friends. Once we know the specifics about the spell we’ll be a little better informed. But we don’t have to get the analysis back to know that whoever this is won’t just throw all their hard work away. They were willing to kidnap the princess’s personal apprentice. Whoever did this wasn’t even afraid of Princess Celestia.”
Midnight did think about it—though mostly she was impressed with just how solemn Sapphire Breeze looked as she said it. It was harder to imagine what could possibly motivate somepony to risk so much. “Do we really need the analysis? They brought Nightfall back… a little piece of Nightmare Moon. Sounds apocalyptic to me. Somepony wants to try and end the world.”
“Maybe.” Sapphire Breeze turned away. “Wouldn’t be the first time Equestria has faced threats like that. I can see why the princess would want you to live here, if that’s the case. The Elements of Harmony live here, and they’ve already beaten Nightmare Moon once. Maybe if the worst happens they’ll be able to do it again.”
Midnight snapped the door open in front of her. “They won’t have to do anything like that, Sapphire. Nightfall is a different pony. We won’t need the Elements, because there won’t be any evil Alicorns for them to fight.”
She left the pegasus behind in the kitchen, before she could say anything she regretted. It’s alright, she didn’t mean anything by it. Nightfall will impress her, just like she impressed me. She’ll see.
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One of the Midnight's is a Saphire.
Interesting story so far.
There are some serious typos In this chapter... Midnight calling Saphire a Unicorn, and sentences like: "But Midnight couldn’t remember why she’d been opposed to having Midnight come with her in the first place."
Other than that the chapter was a pretty fun read. I especially liked how Nightfall kept worrying about causing trouble for Midnight. Pretty realistic in my opinion, a lot of people never quite get that's something a kid would think about.
i think you put the wrong name there
8892305
8892350
8892383
Fixed, thanks.
Nice chapter update.
Great work
The Monk
8892350
Good catch on the unicorn mistake, it blew right past me. I had to look it up myself in the story.
Sapphire is a pegasus.
The Monk
Ain't that the truth!
Nice chapter, good work.
storm
Foalnap.
The truth doesn't work on crazy
But it can be delicious
Pinkie? How did you get out here?
My travel cannon
*sounds of the universe ending off-screen*