The Mage's Brother

by NightShadow-z

Chapter 5

Strange images in different shades of blue surrounded Night as he walked. He felt different and yet… it also felt similar. He was bipedal and wore strange clothes, with a strange bag strapped to his back. Strange creatures who looked similar to his dream self walked alongside him, their faces blurred, and their words muted. After waving to a group of them, he ran out into a strange type of road, trying to cross the street. A scream suddenly cut through the air and he stopped, looking to his left. A strange metallic object was racing towards him at high speed, dodging cars as strange sirens and red and blue flashing lights gave chase behind it.

He didn’t have any time before it was too late. The strange metal object hit him and he was pulled under it, crushed by strange black wheels. By the time the object passed, all his legs, even the strange pair he with the fleshy claws, were bent in strange angles, and his ribs were no doubt shattered. He saw the strange bipedal creatures crowd around him before everything went dark.

Night bolted awake, Celestia’s sun streaming in from the window as sweat rolled from his face. What was that just now? Could it have been a memory? Was… Was that how I died? He thought to himself.

Shaking his head, he cleared his thoughts before sliding out of bed. Even if it was, it doesn’t change anything. I’m still Night Shadow, and I still live in Equestria.

The smell of pancakes reached his nose, interrupting his internal musings and causing his stomach to growl. Nodding to nothing in particular, he made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen where he saw Spike flipping a few pancakes.

“Oh, good morning, Night.” Spike greeted upon seeing the smokey blue unicorn walk into the kitchen. “I thought you were Twilight for a second.”

Night tilted his head in confusion at that. “Wait, you mean Twilight doesn’t cook breakfast?” He asked, a bit surprised.

Spike laughed a bit before shaking his head. “Nah, we do it this way because it’s safer. She can’t actually cook.” He replied.

Night held a hoof up to his chin in thought. “Well, that certainly explains why she’d always visit my dorm on her days off.” He muttered in thought.

“By the way, what happened to your eyes?” Spike asked, causing Night’s ears to perk up and look at the baby dragon who was now staring at him.

“What do you mean?” Night asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“Take a look in the mirror and you’ll see,” Spike answered, still a bit confused.

Blinking a bit in confusion, Night walked up the stairs to the bathroom and took a look in the mirror. His deep purple eyes, which his mother used to call purple gems, had slit-pupils in them. The illusion magic his family cast on him had worn off, and he totally forgot to have Twilight cast it on him again before he went to bed.

Heading back into the kitchen, he saw that Spike was now serving pancakes to Twilight, who had woken up and managed to get into the kitchen without him noticing.

“Morning, Twilight.” He greeted, before taking a seat.

“So, why are your eyes suddenly different?” Spike asked as he served Night some pancakes as well, causing Twilight to nearly spit out her coffee before looking at Night as well.

Sighing, she slapped her forehead before speaking. “I totally forgot that the spell was starting to wear off…” She muttered before looking up at Spike. “You see… Night’s actually not my brother by blood. My parents adopted him when I was only two years old. They found him abandoned on our front step, and they couldn’t just sit back and watch him go into the foster system.”

Spike nodded as he sat down with his own breakfast. “Okay, but, that still doesn’t explain why his eyes are suddenly different from yesterday.”

“That’s because someone in our family would cast illusion magic on my eyes to make them seem like normal eyes. And it was powerful enough to last months at a time.” Night answered as he took a bite of his breakfast. The pancakes were expertly made and had a nice apple cinnamon flavor to them. And the eggs were nice and fluffy, too.

“Would ponies really find your eyes strange?” Spike asked.

“They would and have,” Twilight answered, suddenly sounding angry as her horn flared a bit, twisting the fork that her magic held. “They would either run in fear or attack him whenever they saw his eyes.”

Night reached over and placed his hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile. “It’s fine, Twi.” He promised. “But, just to be safe, can you cast the illusion spell after breakfast? I’d like to be able to explore the town today.”

Twilight smiled and nodded before she took another bite of her pancakes. When she noticed how the fork looked, she blushed in embarrassment before using her magic to fix the spoon. “Hehe… whoopsie.” She muttered sheepishly.

*****

As Night walked through the market area of Ponyville, he looked around at all the different stalls that were set up and even spotted Applejack standing next to an imposingly large red stallion behind an apple stall.

“Oh, Night!” He heard her call. “Great timing! We were just talkin’ ‘bout ya.” She smiled and waved him over.

"Hey, Applejack." Night greeted upon getting closer to the stall. "You guys sell apples in the market?"

“Yup. We also sell apples out to other parts of Equestria as well,” She replied, before motioning to the other ponies walking by them. “But, we also sell cider, and other apple-based products to the fine folks of Ponyville.”

Night nodded before glancing at the red stallion that stood next to her before suddenly shrinking down in fear. He may not have been glaring at him, but the intense look on the stallion’s face made Night feel uneasy, almost like he was being sized up.

Applejack swatted the red stallion’s shoulder a moment later, a stern look adorning her face. “Now, y’all quit that, ya hear?” She told him before walking over to Night and helping him back into a sitting position. “Yer makin’ Night feel all uncomfortable with yer starin’.”

The red stallion chuckled before making his way to Night. He wanted to hide behind Applejack but was surprised when he raised his forehoof up in greeting.

“Sorry ‘bout that.” The red stallion started, a kind smile on his face. “The name’s Big Macintosh. Ah’m Applejack’s elder brother. Y’all can just call me Big Mac.”

Night stared at the hoof in front of him for a few seconds before slowly reaching up with his own forehoof and shaking with Big Mac. “I’m Night Shadow, Twilight’s younger brother.” He finally replied, starting to calm down a little bit. “I actually just moved in with her yesterday.”

Big Mac nodded before motioning to his sister. “AJ was just tellin’ me ‘bout that.”

Night looked over at Applejack who nodded before walking back over to the apple stand. “Ah was tellin’ Big Mac here about how you acted at the party and that I offered to help ya around Ponyville if ya needed it.”

Night smiled at that and opened his mouth to speak when he heard somepony call his name from behind. He rotated his head around to see who was trying to get his attention and was surprised to see Spike running up towards him.

“Hey, Spike. Did you need me for something?” He asked, tilting his head when the baby dragon slid to a stop in front of him.

Panting a bit to try and catch his breath, Spike lifted up a gold ticket up to Night before explaining, “Princess Celestia sent Twilight a letter a few moments ago, inviting you to this year’s Grand Galloping Gala with the rest of us.”

Night’s pupils shrank when he realized that he’d have to be in a room with tons of ponies that may or may not have bullied him in school for being a blank flank.

“Oh, that reminds me!” Applejack suddenly exclaimed, causing Night to jump at the sudden outburst. “Rarity wanted all o’ us to come by her shop today to see the progress of our gala dresses. Since yer gonna be goin’ with us, why not see if Rarity can make ya a suit as well?”

“If y’all are gonna be doin’ that,” Big Mac started, setting a closed sign on top of the apple stand before picking up the wagon of apples. “Ah’m gonna head back to the farm and get started on today’s chores.”

Applejack nodded before herding Night towards Rarity’s boutique despite him voicing his apprehension.

*****

Night idly fidgeted as the measuring tape flew around him, surrounded in a turquoise aura. Rarity was nearby, floating a clipboard and pencil as she jotted down his measurements.

“We’re almost done, darling.” Rarity promised after a few more moments. "Do try to hold still as best as you can.”

Taking a deep breath, he willed himself to calm down before nodding to Rarity. The tape measure wrapped around his ankles before it flew up and wrapped around his neck. It was only there for a few moments before it was rolled up nicely and placed on a nearby table.

“There. That’s all the measurements I need.” He finally heard Rarity say. Sighing to himself, Night stepped off the platform he was standing on just as he heard Twilight and the others walk into the room. Turning his head and saw them chatting amongst themselves about the dresses Rarity had made them, and by the sounds of it, they weren't too entirely pleased.

"Well, I think I'll leave the dress talk to all of you," He started, walking towards the door. "I've got a few errands to run before the Gala, so, I'm going to try and get those done within the next few days."

Twilight smiled to him and nodded. "That's probably a good idea. You should probably let mom and dad know that you're living here as well, now that I think about it."

Night nodded, waving to them before he left Rarity's boutique and headed towards the train station, waiting for the next train to Canterlot.

*****

Walking down the familiar Canterlot Streets, Night made his way towards his parents house, running a list of scenarios in his head, ranging from his mother pulling him into a back-breaking hug once she finds out he got his Cutie Mark to his father grilling him about Princess Luna sending him a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala. He loved his father to tears, but, sometimes he took tradition way too seriously.

Shaking his head to refocus, he finally arrived at his parents house and knocked a few times on the door before counting.

It surprisingly only took four seconds before he heard somepony on the other side move towards the door. Watching it open, he was actually completely surprised to see Shining Armor standing before him instead of his mother.

"Oh, hey, Night. Visiting home to get away from school?" He asked with an impish grin.

"Haha, no," Night replied, his voice dripping with sarcastic humor. "I actually came by to tell mom and dad a bit of news. Though, you should probably hear this, too now that I think about it." He finished, scratching his chin with a hoof in thought.

"Oh? What news?" Shining asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"Well, I'm now living with Twilight in Ponyville and I actually got my Cutie Mark yesterday."

Shining's face slowly broke into a grin and he opened his mouth to reply when he was suddenly shoved out of the way by their mother grinning down at Night with what could only be described as overly exuberant excitement.

"You finally got your Cutie Mark?!" She cried out in joy.

Night, of course, winced at the volume and lowered himself to the ground, an embarrassed blush starting to form on his cheeks.

Comments

[ravager666]

i love it

[Mix-up]

Nice to see an update and I do like the cover art too, keep it up.

[djponyfl]

update?

[John bostock]

Update?

[NightShadow-z]

11056918
Working on an update now. Got a new job so I haven't had much time to write

[Lord BLACKHUNTER]

I like how this story is going, but I hope it is updated soon.

[NightShadow-z]

11468949
It will be. I finally managed to get back into writing after life threw me for a loop, so, I'll be updating all 3 of my fanfics in the near future

[Lord BLACKHUNTER]

11602793
Glad to hear your doing better. That is what counts first. Second is a working computer and good internet access. I sadly am lacking in the second. I will be happy to read the updates when I can.