Prism Star and the Nightmare Winter

by CherryRush

Interlude: A Dream of Blizzards

Author's Note:

Chapter 2 is still in the works, but I wanted to create this short interlude in the meantime to give some character development for Midnight Shine and Sour Apple that didn't quite fit into Chapter 2's story.

Midnight Shine

A black cloud slowly closed in on a young earth pony as he ran between the dark back alleys of Manehattan, every building painted a deep blue under the moonlight by a shield that covered the city at all times. His fur was a pale green and his rough, sloppily self-cut red hair and tail blew in the wind that was whipping between the buildings and hindering his flight, and the teenage pony had a cutie mark of a bright green apple with a bite taken out of it.

Of course, running never worked. It was a good try, and Sour Apple was a great runner, but the clouds always caught up. This time, more appeared in his path and ambushed him, constricting and slowly smothering the pony with their wet weight, and as he struggled against them another pony appeared - a smaller, younger colt with a dark blue coat and long, pitch-black hair that partially obscured his eyes - big, round silver eyes with an unnatural gleam to them, seeming to shine in the moonlight as the unicorn watched from a fire escape.

"H-hold on, Sour Apple! I can help!" He lit his horn with silver light and groaned with effort as he started to channel his magic. There has to be something I can do... Then an idea came to him- there were never more than three clouds! If he could open the playing field, maybe Sour Apple could... He closed his eyes and channeled more magic into his horn than ever, and the buildings slowly started to melt away with a rumble.

But his triumph, and Sour Apple's escape from the clouds, didn't last long, as the unicorn quickly started to feel the spell slipping away from him. He cut the magic and opened his eyes with a panicked gasp as he watched the entire city slip away to be replaced by an open field. An open field with no shield, and he watched Sour Apple's eyes go wide as the snow began to fall in thick blankets, black thunderclouds blocking out the stars and moon. The wind whipped up and started to flow the snow upwards towards the top of the gentle hill, and a huge pony appeared in the middle of the blizzard.

She was nearly twice as tall as the normal mare, with huge white wings and a long horn. Black pony armor and a deep violet cloak covered her body, and a round, smooth black helmet covered her head and concealed her mane. Eyes the red of blood glowed in the darkness as she regarded the earth pony who was quickly being encased in snow.

"Well, well, well..." Her voice was like shards of ice scraping against steel, and her smile was a cruel smirk that didn't reach those creepy eyes. "Sour Apple. We've finally caught the notorious little thief and traitor."

He's not a traitor, the unicorn wanted to cry out, but the words wouldn't leave his mouth. He tried to do something- anything- but his hooves felt like lead and his horn wouldn't respond. The colt had never felt more helpless in his life. And he only steals because he has to take care of me!

"I... I know what you are! I'm not afraid of you, Nightmare Winter!" Sour Apple made a determined face, but his voice cracked and his body was shaking with more than just cold. "You're... you're just an old pony tale!"

Nightmare Winter cackled. "An old pony tale? Oh, no... I'm very real. And very dangerous. But don't worry, I'm ready to forgive you, young one, for all of your crimes against your fellow ponies. All you have to do... is to give me Midnight Shine!" She looked right at the blue and black unicorn, and the older colt seemed to get a new burst of courage from somewhere.

"Don't you touch him!" Sour Apple shook off the shackles of ice and growled angrily at the monstrous pony, his voice steadying at the mention of his adopted brother. "I don't care what you do to me! Midnight is the best thing that's ever happened in my life, and I'll die before I let you or anyone else hurt him!"

The monster alicorn leaped at Sour Apple with a snarl, and Midnight Shine pulled away from the dream with all of his might. The young colt woke from his trance state shaking and in a cold sweat, and carefully stepped away from the pile of old blankets where his brother was still turning in his sleep.

Sour Apple

Sour Apple woke up only a couple of hours later. His first instinct was to look around for the little blue unicorn who was usually curled up next to him in their makeshift bed, but... the earth pony just sighed. Midnight was probably in his spot again.

Any time that he had a bad dream, or more recently, tried and failed to stop one, Midnight could usually be found out on the fire escape of the old, abandoned tenement building that they called home. Tonight was no exception, and after he put on his brown hat and coat, Sour Apple went out and found Midnight standing up with his hooves up on the railing of the escape, watching the moon rise - the two of them had always been nocturnal. "You know, Midnight... You need your sleep, too. I know you're still figuring out this whole 'moon-touched' thing, and I know that you're just trying to practice your new talent..." Sour Apple gestured with a hoof at the cutie mark that had only appeared a month ago on the younger pony's flank - a full moon surrounded by a patch of pinprick stars. "...But I don't want my nightmares giving you nightmares."

"You... you were going to let her kill you. To protect me." Midnight Shine's voice was somber and sad, and he looked back at Sour Apple with the haunted eyes of somepony forced to grow up long before their time. "You gave up your childhood because some old guy showed up and gave you a baby. I can't remember a time when you weren't trying to hide me, or protect me. You're stuck squatting here and working for gangs because I can't be seen at the shelters. I... I'm not a little foal anymore, Sour. I see the big stallions in suits. I see the way you hide me from the police, I've noticed that you always make me wear big coats that hide my cutie mark and hats that hide my horn. You shouldn't have to do all this for me, just... just because of some stupid old legend!" By this point, Midnight had tears flowing down his face, and was half shouting at Sour Apple, who for his own part simply let the unicorn vent until he fell silent except for small sniffles, before wrapping a warm blanket around him - careful, as Midnight had noted, to hide his brother's cutie mark from anypony who might be watching.

"It's not some stupid legend, Midnight. You really are special. How many ponies can enter dreams, hmm? How many ponies have the moon as their cutie mark? You're moon-touched. You have the blood of an alicorn princess running through your veins, and that's always going to make you a target." He lifted Midnight's chin with a hoof, looking him in the eyes. "You've always been special, and not just because you're my baby brother. Eight Point wouldn't have given you to me if you weren't." This had always been Sour Apple's name for the old pegasus who had given him Midnight, because he had noticed a small brand in the shape of an eight-pointed star at the base of the stallion's neck.

"So I'm special just because you got me from a crazy old pony with a weird scar, who told you that the queen of Equestria is secretly a monstrous super-villain who murdered her own father and aunts?" Midnight raised an eyebrow skeptically at Sour Apple.

"You're special because you have incredible potential. You wouldn't have all these scary ponies looking for you if that weren't true. You can do magic that I'd never even heard of before I met you, and I bet that when you're grown up, you can be powerful enough to do whatever you want! But for now..." Sour Apple pulled the smaller pony into a hug. "Promise me you'll try to get some sleep, and you won't go out while I'm away. I got some more work, but I should be back in the morning."

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?

[CherryRush]

8915513

I've thought about it some, and I would say that Prism Star has a somewhat high and reedy voice, a bit like Sweetie Belle without the voice cracks. Midnight's voice is deeper than normal for his age but still pre-pubescent, and he tends toward careful and precise diction most of the time; he often tries to imitate his brother's Manehattan accent to try and fit in, but drops the accent sometimes when he's not paying attention to what he's saying. Sour Apple has a slick, fast way of talking and a thick Manehattan accent. Finally, Shimmer has a voice only a couple of octaves lower than Prism Star, but her tone is often rough and snide, ruining what would otherwise be a beautiful voice.