Arrival at Dusk

by Vohira

Arrival 8: Of things to come

Midnight trudged through deep snow, against a blizzard that pelted him with thick snowflakes. The cold wind that whipped his black mane around made his eyes water making his journey even harder than it already was. Black, heavy clouds covered the sky allowing only an occasional glimpse of the full moon. Only the cold, blue light of his spell allowed him any kind of vision.

He wasn’t sure how long he walked among the snow, wind and mountain peaks that surrounded him on all sides. The highest of the peaks sometimes showed itself before him where his path lead, when the winds settled and snow parted for a few heart beats... then the cold fury of nature returned as if a howl of a great beast that just had to take a deep breath.

He wasn’t sure what awaited him on the highest peak, but he knew in his heart it was important. He could hear a faint whisper over the wind that gave him strength and direction...

“Midnight Blackmane... Do not stop, do not give up. Whatever may be in your way… come find me.” It was a mare’s voice, faint and yet compelling.

It all felt kind of strange really...

As he slowly moved closer to the highest peak time lost any meaning. The wind, the cold, the darkness, the voice… and him, it was all that remained and mattered. In the distance, he could faintly hear other voices, screaming, desperate… filled with all kinds of emotions but he had to ignore them if he was to reach his destination.

He could not allow himself to be distracted.

When his, white coated hoof reached over the last, rocky ledge Midnight found himself on a plateau where the snow drifted lazily and he could hear only his racing heartbeat and labored breathing.

The eye of the icy storm.

And there in silence and darkness a pony shaped, living shadow waited for him.

“I’ve come… Who are you? Why have you called me?” Midnight asked still a bit out of breath.

As he finished his question, a shadow rose from the ground taking a pony shape that was taller than him. The shadow stretched one of its forelegs in an inviting gesture and delicately beckoned for him to move closer.

Midnight raised his left forward leg in an exhausted manner, determined to reach out to the shadow living shadow with teal colored eyes when his world suddenly erupted with noise and light...

This particular Saturday morning, three weeks after his first Nightmare Night started off with a rude wake-up call for the ex-human... courtesy of Dandelion.

His first reaction was to turn around and hit whatever woke him up with his… hoof. There was an audible exhale and a slight moan as somepony landed on the floor.

The white colt blinked trying to clear his bleary eyes only to see Dandelion massaging his left side.

“Huh… Whaaaat?” Midnight asked while trying to suppress a yawn.

“That was mean.” The light brown earth pony colt said with a pout, that in a blink turned into a brilliant smile. “But it was worth it… Come on! It’s snowing!”

Still not fully comprehending what was happening Midnight was dragged out of his comfy, warm bed downstairs and out to the backyard, where he was meet with a snowball to his muzzle.

“Ups! Sorry Midnight!” One of the twins called from behind a hastily built snow fort.

To say the least, that did wake up Midnight fully… “Cold, cold, cold... “. He shook his head to get rid of the lingering snow. If looks could kill, he was certain that Dandelion would have been dead twice over.

“Dandelion... “ Midnight started in what he hoped was an intimidating voice, but he was interrupted by a snowball hitting him again. He could just feel his left ear starting to twitch…

“I needed an ally Mid! Rumble and Bumble…” Now it was Dandelions turn to be interrupted by a snowball to his muzzle. “Are annoyingly good.”

“That’s it? Really?” Midnight took a step towards his roommate and the other colt made a step back.

“Let’s just focus on the twins and… Incoming!” Dandelion ducked, saving himself.

“Get back here so I can have my revenge!” Midnight demanded, starting to run after the wide-eyed Dandelion that broke into a gallop in the meantime scooping up into his magical grasp a snowball worth amounts of snow… At least he could do that much.

All the time snow slowly fell from the cloud covered, early morning sky.

Almost an hour later the four colts all sat near the lit fireplace in the day room, three of them shaking a bit and all of them dripping water as the snow melted off their coats.

“I should ground you all for not wearing anything warm… All we need is you catching a cold.” Mrs. Rose said as she walked in with four towels and with Mr. Soup at her tail levitating a tray of four mugs with something steaming in them.

The orphanage matron began to forcefully dry Bumble, eliciting a few grunts of annoyance from the earth pony colt. After less than a minute, Bumble was dry with his coat and mane puffed up a bit. Dandelion and Rumble snickered a bit seeing the other twin’s state but soon joined him in looking a bit ridiculous.

While for Midnight it was not a big deal… he had to wonder, why the cold didn't bother him so much as his friends? He would have to ask Magister Heartfire. Almost without thinking he took a sip from the mug that entered his line of sight.

His tongue registered two things, one it was hot, two it tasted like chocolate. He stuck his tongue out and tried blowing on it to cool it to the amusement of everypony in the room. Luckily all other occupants were spared being glared to death as Midnight was rather busy with trying to cool his poor tongue.

A few minutes and a throughout toweling later, Midnight was slowly seeping his hot chocolate still contemplating the morning and drawing his own conclusions. “It must be the nature of my magic. It feels cold or rather… colder somehow? But it’s a good thing that the cold doesn't bother me… Now how to convince Mrs. Rose of that…”

“You know, you should have helped me with Rumble and Bumble not throw snow at me… I thought we were friends?” Dandelion said with a pout.

“Oh just let it go…” Midnight mumbled startled out of his musings and almost dropping the now half empty mug that he held up with his magic, which made the white colt frown.

It took him three weeks to get to this point with his magic and he still could slip up when startled. The fact that he had been learning magic for more or less month and a half to get this far brought with it the realization why not that many unicorns decided to delve into magic beyond what their cutie mark encompassed. It was just basic levitation for crying out loud! And he was not even close to mastering it… Granted, by looking at his age group and comments that Heartfire sometimes let slip he was advancing quite faster than an average young unicorn... but still…

“You're doing it again Midnight.” This time, it was Rumble - seated on his left - that disrupted his thoughts by lightly bumping his shoulder with his hoof.

“Doing what?” The ex-human asked with a small frown.

“Sitting and staring at nothing.” Bumble leaned out from behind his brother to send the most serious look a young colt could achieve. “Don’t go Trixie on us...”

“That was kind of mean Bumble…” Midnight muttered with a huff. He took one last, longer gulp of the now lukewarm chocolate and put down the mug. “I’m going to Mrs. Rose.”

“Hey, hey it kind of slipped out I’m sorry,” Bumble said with his ears laid against his head.

“Not about that Bumble but apology accepted anyway. See ya.”

With a quick tug of his magic the towel that he was wrapped in fell off and he moved out of the day room, across the hall and stopped before the door to the matron's office. Taking a breath, he knocked.

“Come in.” Almost instantly came the muffled response.

So Midnight grabbed the knob with his magic and entered. The office looked the same as it has the first time he came around, minus the Princess and Silent Flight obviously.

“Midnight? Something happened?” Mrs. Rose started with a worried voice.

“No, Mrs. Rose I just wanted to ask something.” Midnight said stopping before the desk on which laid a moderately sized stack of papers that the matron was probably filling out. Seeing her nod he continued. “Can I go out today to the market? I’ve read on a pamphlet that today’s going to be special ‘Arcane Day’ or something.” His voice filled with excitement as he spoke.

The red-coated earth pony mare frowned.

“If you find somepony older to accompany you.” She saw the look her young charge gave her and she wanted to shake her head, then she looked at the stack of paperwork she resigned herself to fill out today. It was Saturday... “Well alright, just get your scarf at least.”

“Well, Mrs. Rose the cold doesn't really bother me that much...” Then it was Midnight’s turn to look at the matron who just raised one eyebrow in a questioning manner. “I’ll go get the scarf.”

As he closed the door to Mrs. Rose’s office behind him Midnight though he heard a small giggle.

After rushing upstairs to get his scarf that Mrs. Rose bought him some time ago and then running down, the ex-human had to wait a few more minutes. When he heard the doors to the office open and saw the adult mare come out he was almost bouncing in place.

“All right Midnight I’ll just ask others if they want to come, do you have everything?”

Midnight stopped and thought about that question… and his eyes widened. Once again he rushed upstairs, picked up his school saddlebags and stuffed his coin purse inside. It had all his meager savings inside and he intended to spend them today.

Twenty minutes later, Mrs. Rose, Midnight and Summer Dew were trotting through Canterlot streets that were covered with freshly fallen snow. While the sky still had the occasional cloud drifting in it, it was no longer snowing and the sunlight was making the snow blindingly white at times.

Midnight couldn’t help himself but smile as he saw other colts and fillies playing around in the snow, with older ponies standing to the sides looking over their kids and chatting amongst themselves.

The few restaurants and cafes they passed by were stuffed to the brim.

The occasional Royal Guard would pass by and greet them as he patrolled the streets.

All in all, Midnight loved every second of it, especially as he thought that at one point he saw a large, blindingly white figure flying high above the Castle lazily circling the mountain top.

Soon enough the three of them reached the market and what was a cozy snow-covered town, turned into a crowded square with colorful stalls and tents. Not surprisingly, the majority of ponies present were unicorns and a lot of them wore clothes similar to Magister’s Heartfire.

“Well then. Summer you can walk around on your own. If we miss each other as we leave just be back in the orphanage before sunset.” After a quick ‘Yes Mrs. Rose’ Summer left them and disappeared into the crowd.

“Now, is there anything special you want to see Midnight?”

“Well… I thought about looking for some interesting books, but there's just so much here…” It was either that he was just short and everything looked bigger, or this really was a large square with dozens of stalls and tents. And not everything sold here was magical, he could smell hot chocolate and an apple pie somewhere from his right.

“Let’s just see what the ponies are offering then.” Mrs. Rose said with a smile and slowly began to lead him from one trader to the other.

For Midnight the following hour or so of wandering around the market square was as exciting as it was tiring. In his past life, his lack of love towards shopping was well known to his family and the few friends he had. But this… this was something of a unique experience.

The majority of the stall owners were the average, easily forgotten sellers… as were their wares.

However one caught Midnight’s interest and he just had to get a look, even if Mrs. Rose protested somewhat.

“You’re a bit young to shop here kid, but at least you’re not alone. Good day, mam.” The unicorn owner of the stall greeted the duo.

Midnight just frowned a bit as he had to rear on his hind legs and lean on the table to see everything that the unique looking unicorn had to sell. Because really, what do you call an elderly unicorn with a stubble, long ash colored mane, a deep red almost black coat that was dressed in a black robe adorned around his neck with what looked like a griffin feathers? And his stall looked rather rickety with no tent behind him to suggest he had more things to sell and with no pony even looking at what he was offering.

“Good day Mr.?”

“Ah… I’m Bright Blaze, retired battle mage of the Royal Guard.” The mage unicorn bowed slightly. “I see you have an inquisitive colt on your hooves…”

As the adults talked… and wasn't that an annoying thought in itself, Midnight almost devoured with his gaze the contents of the table. Like with other stalls before some books were present, but the titles were… a bit different.

“How much for that one?” Midnight asked pointing at a book titled Most Common Battle Modifications of the Levitation Spell. Drawing the adult’s gazes to him.

“Ten years too early for you colt, that much.” Bright Blaze said with a thoughtful frown. ”I know that young colts always go for the flashy and dangerous things but I can't sell it to you with a clear conscience. Sorry kid.”

Midnight pouted… he was twenty-five damn it! At least he was in his old life.

Almost immediately something else on the table caught his gaze. It was a simple pendant made out of a six-sided, diamond cut, black crystal held in a simple silver frame. Two black pieces of some kind of cloth were also tied to it.

He frowned… There! As he gazed into it, he saw a smidgen of a dark blue… something moving in it.

He was not aware that as he gazed into the crystal the retired battle mage looked at him with a thoughtful look.

“Say, colt. Do you like it?”

Midnight was so engrossed in trying to spot the streaks of dark blue inside the crystal that he tuned out the rest of the world and almost jumped when he was addressed.

“Uh… yeah?” The ex-human groaned. “I mean yes, does it do anything special?”

“Not that I know of. Just plain black crystal... There’s a funny story of how I got it actually.” The stallion looked at Mrs. Rose looking for permission and she nodded, curious herself. “When I was stationed in the North-Western Gryphon Colony as part of a security detail for one of our ambassadors years ago, I won it in an intense poker match. The poor gryphon lost everything that night so he bet this pendant that he swore was in his family for three generations. Which they pillaged from a pony noble during the third Gryphon War some two hundred years ago. So I took it upon myself to win it no matter what. And I won, that gryphon's face was priceless. He had a straight flush… but I had a royal flush! The chances! Never happened to me again, though… And now I’m the one to sell almost everything I have.” He ended with a somber tone.

“That’s not really funny, you know that?” Midnight commented with Mrs. Rose just saying ‘Indeed’ not looking the happiest.

“Come now Midnight, let's look at other stalls.” She said gently nudging her young charge with her hoof.

“How much for it?” Midnight said stopping Mrs. Rose in place and making Blaze’s eye go wide.

“You really want to buy it?” The stallion's voice dropped almost to a whisper.

“Yes. Although I only have forty bits…” Midnight looked to the side a little embarrassed.

“Deal. Take it kid.” The suddenness of the answer almost made Midnight back out of the purchase, but he just wrote it off as a desperation of a poor pony.

So coins changed hooves and Midnight became the owner of the pendant. He even got a silver chain for free to it. He decided to hide the pendant now hanging from his neck under his midnight blue scarf for now.

Mrs. Rose was not the happiest about their encounter with the retired battle mage, but it was nothing two cups of hot chocolate couldn’t fix. As much as Midnight claimed that cold didn’t bother him now, it seemed it just bothered him less than other ponies. And after almost two hours on the market, a mug of hot chocolate was the best thing ever to happen to him in his opinion.

Unseen by them, soon after the duo left the stall behind them other ponies began to come to the old battle mage to browse his wares…

“It’s pretty,” Trixie commented during Monday breakfast before they all had to leave for school.

“I know.” Midnight answered with a wide grin making the blue coated filly roll her eyes and return to eating her tomato sandwich. When he woke up, he battled with himself on whether to wear or not to wear his recently purchased pendant. In the end, he decided to wear it.

It was fascinating for him. His first potentially magical artifact! And despite what the old unicorn said as he was selling it, Midnight could feel something in the crystal…

He thought about it during their walk to the school, and he thought about it for the better part of the morning classes. Until he once again managed to earn Mrs. Note’s ire, it was not fun solving the next five grammar exercises on the board before the silently laughing class even if they were incredibly simple for him.

At the end of the day, the unicorns of their class were held up by Mrs. Note.

“I hope all of you remember that in the next month you will have to take the magical exams. They will be held on the last day of the semester so you will be excused from normal classes on that day. Now have a good day everypony and remember to do your homework.”

On their way out the group of colts and fillies gossiped about the upcoming exams. Even Midnight joined in, but as they left the school building the white colt got a bit of a surprise.

“Hey, Midnight!” Silent Flight stood outside the gate on the street.

“Silent!” Midnight made two quick steps before he remembered that he was not exactly alone. He turned his head. “Come on Trixie, time for you to meet somepony.”

Trixie apparently didn't know what to say so she just nodded and both of them quickly approached the older pegasus.

“Well Midnight, is that your special somepony? You grow up so fast.” Silent said with a wide grin causing both young ponies to blush. That earned him headbutt from Midnight and a kick in his foreleg shin from Trixie. Nothing serious for the Royal Guard but still… “Ow… you are so worth of each other. Ow! Stop it midgets!”

Adult ponies in the vicinity turned to look at the laughing pegasus making a scene and just shook their heads.

“Enough, enough… I get it. I came with news Midnight.” Silent managed to say when he finally was in control of his breathing.

“You’re in surprisingly good humor.” Midnight pointed out with a grin and then almost face hoofed. “Trixie this is Silent Flight. Silent Flight, Trixie.” He said pointing his hoof at the mentioned pony.

“Nice to meet you.” The older pegasus said finally looking closely at the filly. Or at least what was visible of the filly under the cap and a hat. He got only an annoyed huff in response. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something Midnight. Want to go to Donut Joe’s for that?”

When Donut Joe was mentioned both Midnight’s and Trixie’s ears perked up.

“If you take Trixie there, she may forgive you for what you said!”

Silent Flight blinked at that and was opening his mouth to say something…

“Fine, let’s go.” When Midnight stopped him with a look and a small, awkward smile. “We will have to stop by the orphanage and inform Mrs. Rose, though.”

“Sure kids.”

And so after a trek through the city with a short stop in the orphanage the trio found themselves in Donut Joe’s place, each with double chocolate donuts before them.

“Midnight, you remember that I’ve got those tickets for that cruise to Saddle Arabia?”

After a while of digging through his memory, the white coated colt nodded.

“I managed to secure myself vacations for that time. And as I don’t have a special somepony to share the cruise with and I would rather rest from my friends in the Guard I thought of you. Want to go on an adventure?” The pegasus ended slightly leaning over the table with a grin and almost sparkling eyes.

Midnight just gaped at the older pegasus, the one that found him on the plains and brought him to Canterlot. This, though… was a bit much.

“Wha- What? I mean, yes!” The ex-human finally stammered, excitement clear on his muzzle. “When?”

Meanwhile, Trixie sat on Midnight’s right with a pout. Silent saw that, but the unicorn colt was a bit too preoccupied with his thoughts to notice.

“You could maybe come too, you know. I would have to ask. If you’re good friends with Midnight that is.”

Hearing that the mentioned colt looked to his right with a silent “Oh…”

“Trixie would like that, if it would be not too much trouble.” The blue filly said shyly.

That tone made Midnight blink a few times. She still could surprise him it seemed.

“It’s settled then. I’ll contact you both when I get more information. Now let’s finish here.” Silent said before biting into his donut.

For Midnight while the donut was delicious he couldn't quite enjoy its taste to the fullest for some reason…

That night when Midnight was about to go to sleep, he put the pendant on his nightstand looking at it in the silver moonlight. He frowned when he noticed that the deep blue streaks moving about in the crystal became more apparent… or were they always there and he just didn’t notice them?

With a yawn, he flopped onto his pillow. “It would probably be a good idea to show this to Heartfire. Maybe he knows something about it as it does seem to be magical… But that can wait.”

That was his last thought before he fell asleep.

Author's Note:

Well what do you know... You probably thought me all dead, didn't you? Sorry for the very long wait, a lot was going on in RL still is as a matter of fact oh well.

Also before anyone asks, the pendant image was drawn by me. Something extra I decided to add.

Anyway enjoy the chapter! (I hope at least...)

Edit 25/09/2016: Thanks to HoneyBadgerr this chapter is now proof-read and edited accordingly

Comments

[Samellan]

Now, I can go to sleep happy!
Thanks for the update!

Noticed some typos, though.

In his past life, his lack of love towards shiping was well known to his family and the few friends he had.

Shopping

the blue coated filli

Filly

Well Midnight, is that you’re special somepony?

Your

Also, some commas are missing.

Was that his future mentor meeting him for the first time?

[Mortefleur]

Now I can't sleep because I'm excited for the next chapter

[StarzGecko]

It's been forever! I really like this story, it's very well pace and enjoyable to read, I hope to see more exploring into the world and maybe add things like what you did with the Aircraft in the story.

[Vohira]

7580942 Thanks for spotting those. Fixed.

[Prismmirror]

Dude, you gave him a bad luck charm? After the stuff that already went wrong last chapter? That's not cool... I wish you weren't just throwing in plot elements like that. Too many HiE stories start out talking about the human aspect and with a slice-of-life feel to them, but then completely lose their original feel when the author tries to force drama or a more compelling plot into them.

With a yawn he flopped onto his pillow. “It would probably be a good idea to show this to Heartfire. Maybe he knows something about it as it does seem to be magical… But that can wait.”

Please follow through on this comment by Midnight. When you give your characters thoughts like that but don't follow through on them, it doesn't build up tension. Instead, it makes the protagonist look stupid and frustrates the reader. That also applies to claiming the pendant exerts some compulsion that stops Midnight from asking for help with it. You don't have to resolve the issue of the pendant when they talk; you could just say Heartfire will continue to look into it. That way you can still let it screw up Midnight's life without making him look like a complete idiot.

Glad to see you're still updating this, regardless. Midnight is one of the best 'Human aware of Equestria before entering it' characters I've seen, so I would like to see more of this story.

P.S. love your drawings for the section dividers and the pendant

[Greatazuredragon]

So he got a cursed pendant huh?
Looking forward to more.

“Well Midnight, is that your special somepony? You grow up so fast.” Silent said with a wide grin causing both young ponies to blush. That earned him headbutt from Midnight and a kick in his foreleg shin from Trixie. Nothing serious for the Royal Guard but still… “Ow… you are so worth of each other. Ow! Stop it midgets!”

I ship it!

[Reykan]

So he has the Nightmare's attention and a pendant that could easily be linked to Luna/Nightmare. Add in the budding cold resistance and he's setting up to be a dark-child, only with a second life's experiences to help guide him.

[Chrome Masquerade]

He wasn’t sure what awaited him on the highest peak, but he knew in his heart it was important. He could hear a faint whisper over the wind that gave him strength and direction...

Have you played Journey, by any chance?