Prologue - Darkness
A yellow earth pony colt in a blue hoodie knocked on the Manehatten apartment door with a metal hoof. Pulling back his hoof from the door, he brushed his cyan mane out of his eyes before resting it on the ground. After a few moments, the door swung open, revealing a pinto earth pony mare with a white and dark brown mane and tail. Her bright green eyes displayed great worry and fear to the colt in front of her. Something was inspiring great anxiety in the mare. When her gaze met the colt in front of her, the distressed stare turned to one of confusion.
“Uh…” the mare uttered. “Do I know you?”
“Not you, particularly,” the colt responded. While he had a thick Trottingham accent, it established him as someone not of high birth. He might even be from somewhere else on the Grittish Isles instead. “Would you happen to be Spore Sprout?”
The mare nodded with uncertainty.
“Then I am skip of your gaffer, Archimedes. I wanted to come because I heard summat, uh, interestin’, ‘as developed.”
“Who is zat at ze door?” a Germane voice sounded from the inside of the house.
“Some stallion that claims to know you,” the mare shouted over her shoulder.
A brief pause punctuated the air, leaving only the faint sound of a colt crying to fill the empty space.
“Uh, vat might zis stallion look like?” the Germane voice asked with hesitation.
The mare scanned the colt in question. She then called back: “Yellow coat, cyan mane and tail, has a cutie mark of gears with starbursts around them, a metal foreleg…”
An audible sigh escaped the apartment.
“Let him in. He is a friend of mine,” the Germane voice said. “I’ll be out zere in a bit. Can you comfort Night Shade vile I talk to him?”
“Okay then,” the mare said hesitantly. She opened the door wider and stepped aside, beckoning the colt inside. Said colt wasted no time accepting the invitation.
The apartment wasn’t large; it seemed big enough for three ponies to live in with no problems. The living room connected to the kitchen with no wall between them. The hallway on the other side of the room likely led to the bathrooms and two bedrooms.
“Just sit anywhere,” the exhausted pinto mare said. “Would you like anything to drink? Tea, coffee, water…?”
“I think I am fine right now,” the yellow colt replied. He took a seat on the couch on the far end of the room.
The mare disappeared into the hallway. A few moments passed and a white stallion with a black mane and tail revealed himself. He pushed up his glasses and blinked his red eyes a few times before he focused them on the colt in from of him. In spite of the weariness setting in on his face, he attempted to give the yellow colt a smile.
“Hallo Shortie,” the white stallion managed, collapsing on the couch next to his guest.
“Alright Doc,” Shortie returned. “I take it now is an interestin’ time?”
“You can say zat again,” the doctor sighed. “I take it you read the message completely zen?”
“Ar, this is an unusual precedent,” Shortie stated. “I don’t know of anyone that ‘as ever gotten a cutie mark in ‘dark magic’ before. What happened even?”
“I have no idea!” the white stallion worried. “Zis is not good! My son might have irreversibly damaged himself with zat dark magic grimoire and I might lose my job as a Royal Guard medical researcher! Or even if I keep it, I might lose access to zat section of ze archives again. Just ven I was making progress!”
The doctor buried his face in his hoofs, groaning out of frustration.
“Come on, Archimedes, it can’t be that bad, right? ‘Ow did ‘e even access the book?”
“It vas in a locked cupboard! I must’ve left ze key out somevere, but I don’t know vy he even wanted to seek it out!”
“Well, maybe this really was his destiny, an’ ‘e felt a pull towards the book?”
“Ugh!”
Archimedes rubbed his face, anxious about his own destiny at this moment.
“Have you contacted the princess? Or a higher up of yours?” Shortie queried.
“Yes, ze Royal Guard should be here any minute now. I don’t know vat zey are going to do, but I know I cannot keep zis secret,” the doctor answered.
“Hm,” Shortie grunted.
At that moment, the pair were alerted to a knock on the door.
“I’ll get it,” Archimedes said.
He pushed himself up from the couch and trotted to the door. What was on the other side made him drop his jaw.
“P-Princess!” the doctor stammered before prostrating himself before her. Princess Twilight Sparkle stood in the doorway between two Royal Guards. She frowned and shook her head and signaled him to get up.
“Rise, Doctor Archimedes,” Twilight answered calmly. “I would rather you not kneel before me now. Regardless, I am highly curious to see the colt. I sure hope he’s okay.”
Archimedes picked himself up with haste.
“Right, yes, zis vay, your Highness,” he faltered, leading the princess and her guards into his flat, to the colt’s room.
Opening the door to the colt’s room revealed the same pinto mare coddling a small unicorn colt. He had a similar pinto coat as the mare holding him, but with bluish-grey splotches instead of brown. The jet black mane, however, definiely came from the doctor at the door. He wailed into his mother's forelegs as thick black tears streamed down his face.
“Please, your foal needs your attention right now more than I do,” she said. “You must be Spore Sprout, if I am not mistaken.”
“Y-yes, I am Spore Sprout, your highness,” the mare answered. She brushed a hoof through the sniffling colt’s mane. “And yes, this is my little Night Shade.”
The princess gestured to her guards to wait outside before stepping into the room. Once near enough to the colt, she kneeled down to his level and put on a warm smile.
The princess gestured to her guards to wait outside before stepping into the room. Once near enough to the colt, she kneeled down to his level and put on a warm smile.
“Hi there, little guy,” Twilight said, mustering up as much warmth as she could. “What’s wrong? I heard you got your cutie mark. That’s really exciting! Mind if I see it?”
On the colt’s flank sat a black belladonna with the signature purple and green smoke of dark magic rising up from it. The princess focused on it and flashed her horn a few times before relaxing her gaze.
“From what I can determine, it’s definitely a real cutie mark,” Twilight stated. “I don’t detect any traces of cutie mark manipulation or even dark magic anywhere beyond his head. His special talent is clearly dark magic related.”
“Are you gonna take me away?” the colt asked, his eyes wide open. His blackened eye whites, red irises, and skirted pupils themselves to Twilight. Streaks of some dark liquid ran down his face like tears. “Or banish me to the moon‽ Or turn me to stone‽ Or—”
Twilight put up a hoof and cut the colt off before he worked himself up again.
“Hey, hey, hey, of course not,” Twilight chuckled. “Where would you get those ideas?”
“I dunno,” Night Shade replied, looking down. “I’m scared, princess. I didn’t know this would happen. I never wanted to—!”
Twilight shushed the little colt, trying to help him maintain a somewhat level head. She wanted answers and knew she wasn't going to get them from a foal bawling his eyes out..
“It’s okay, what’s done is done,” the princess reassured. “Can you tell me how you ended up with your cutie mark?”
The colt nodded and began to speak: “I really wanted to do magic, but nothing about it made sense! After trying to cast spells again and again and again, nothing worked! I started to think maybe I’m a magic-less unicorn!”
Twilight nodded her head, listening to the colt with a practiced patience.
The colt continued: “But then daddy came home with this weird book. And I couldn’t stop thinking about it! I asked daddy about it, and he told me it was a book about a special kind of magic. Magic most colts weren’t supposed to be playing with, much less ‘little colts like me.’ But I thought that I’m a big colt and I wanted to do magic so badly! So, I found the keys to daddy’s locked closet and got the book. I didn’t mean to do anything! I just wanted to finally do magic!”
Twilight closed her eyes to let the words of the colt sink in. After opening them once more, she asked her next question with caution: “And the book you stole made sense to you?”
The colt nodded, almost lighting up a little. “It felt like everything made sense! Like it didn’t just jumble my head like the other books I had!”
“And what did you do?”
The colt removed himself from his mother’s embrace before reaching under his bed. He retrieved a small box and opened the top. On top of the toys covering the bottom sat a black rose, fuming just like his cutie mark.
“What were you trying to do?” the princess followed up with.
“The book said to ‘infuse my power within it to bend it to my will.’ I didn’t know what that meant. But I could understand the magic itself and the book said it was a beginner spell. It said to practice by making the flower blossom from a bud.”
Twilight took up the fuming rose with her magic and examined it. Looking at it with her own magic sense, she could tell it was definitely the colt’s magic.
“I see. Well, I hope you have learned your lesson about playing with things you don’t understand.” Using a simple counter-spell, she exorcized the dark magic from it. All that remained was a still-black but no longer smoking rose. “I understand being eager to do your first bit of magic. Trust me, I have been in your position. But you could have really gotten hurt doing what you just did. There’s a reason these are restricted to certain ponies.”
The colt’s eyes turned to the ground, breaking eye contact from Twilight.
“I’m sorry, princess,” the colt apologized.
“As I said, what’s done is done,” the princess reassured. “And it seems that you would have likely discovered this at some point regardless. It’s good that you found your special talent now. It’s better to find this out before it becomes a problem. I prefer meeting you as a friend rather than a villain.”
Night Shade hugged his mother tighter. He didn't even understand why anyone did evil things. Being evil always sounded like a not-fun time. And yet, he felt closer to the evildoers his parents told him about than he ever thought he would be. All because of the magic that stained his face right now.
Twilight’s expression fell before continuing: “Still, there is the situation of what we will have to do now. With both you and your dad.”
Picking up on that last detail, the colt’s eyes widened as he pleaded: “Please don’t hurt daddy! It was my fault for playing around with the book!”
“Relax, my little pony. Nothing bad will happen to your dad. I promise. But we do still have to deal with these,” Twilight gestured to the colt’s eyes.
The colt retreated into his mother’s embrace once more. “I don’t want to go! Please don’t take me away! It was an accident, I swear!”
“I just said we weren’t going to take you away before, didn’t I?” the princess gave a cheeky half-smile. “At least, not without your parents right along with you.”
The colt looked up with curiosity and dread at what the princess had planned.
“I would like you to come along with me to Canterlot. I don’t think I have seen anything like this before,” Twilight pondered. “But obviously your parents would have to come with you. Can’t just bring you to the castle all by yourself now, can we?”
The colt wiped away some of the black tears that stained his face like ink, and continued to listen.
“According to my research, what you have right now is called the Eyes of the Abyss. It’s something many dark magic practitioners cast on themselves to bleed away dark magic that might affect their minds.”
“Is that why his tears are black?” Spore Sprout asked out loud.
Twilight nodded. “The book didn’t tell you about any precautionary spells before you cast this one, right?”
The colt shook his head.
“That’s pretty unusual. It is typically a spell that has to be actively cast before doing anything else. Are you sure you didn’t cast that spell on yourself?”
The colt nodded in response.
“Hm, that is strange. Do you recall anything about what happened before your eyes changed?”
The colt sniffled. “I heard something in my head, but I couldn’t understand what it was. It sounded like words, but garbled up. Even when it was loudest I couldn’t make anything out. It hurt my head a lot. It made me cry. Then, it just stopped, and my tears were black. That’s when I called mommy and daddy.”
“Hm,” the princess hummed, unsure of what to make of this. “I definitely want to see what my advisors who specialize in this field of magic say. I am a bit out of practice and understudied with this kind of magic myself.”
Her look softened before speaking once more: “I imagine that must have been very scary.”
The colt nodded once more. “I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t know…”
Fresh tears, clear ones now, fell down his face. His mother’s embrace tightened around him, comforting him through his recollection.
Twilight nodded her head before standing up once more. She then declared to the room: “I really hope you all take my invitation. I would love to see more of what knowledge little Night Shade can offer us.”
“Of course princess! We will be zere as soon as possible,” Archimedes chimed in.
“Great! I’ll have accommodations ready for you three in the castle! I hope to see you there soon!”
She turned to take her leave, before jolting up and turning to the Doctor.
“Oh! Before I forget, mind if I talk to you for a bit in the hallway, Archimedes?” the princess requested.
“Oh, uh, not at all!” the doctor stammered, trying to hide his anxiety. He followed Twilight and her guards out of the room into the kitchen-living room hybrid.
Once they were out of earshot of the little colt, the princess turned to Archimedes. She no longer wore the practiced calming air of her predecessor. The expression of a highly displeased alicorn took its place now.
“You understand I can’t just let you off for this gross recklessness, right?” she flatly stated.
“Yes, princess,” the doctor responded with as much of a neutral bearing as he could muster.
“I understand that you clearly took steps to ensure your foal didn’t have access to a highly restricted text. However, the fact that he still did is on you. I hope you are ready to take responsibility for this incident.”
“Yes, princess. I understand, princess.”
The princess sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her hoof.
“Had this outcome been any different, this conversation would've been very different. But, since we may have just averted the next ‘big bad’ popping out of the woodworks, I won’t be punishing you too severely.”
“Sank you, princess.”
“Don’t thank me just yet."
The princess sighed once more.
"Maybe letting ponies take restricted texts off castle grounds for study was a bad idea on my end. As such, I will be ending that privilege for all ponies, even ones with high-level access like yourself. So, to be clear, I'm not going to take away your access. However, you nor anyone else will be able to check things out of the restricted archives like it's a library. Understand?”
“Yes, princess. I understand, princess. Sank you princess.”
“That won’t be it for your punishment, but that will come later. For now, you can keep the book on you. I expect you to bring it, along with any other restricted texts, when you arrive tomorrow. And I expect you to deposit them back into the castle archives as soon as you arrive.”
“Of course princess.”
Twilight looked past the stallion, turning her attention to the yellow colt standing in the hallway.
“Oh!” she blurted out. “I didn’t notice you when I came in. Were you here the whole time?”
Shortie cleared his throat before he spoke: “I was, but I figured you probably were here doin’ important stuff that I shouldn’t interrupt.”
“Still, it’s rude of me to not acknowledge someone I should have seen in the house. Are you a relative of Night Shade?”
“Not at all, but I thought I would pay a visit to a skip after I heard the news.”
“Supporting your friends through confusing times is always a good thing.”
The princess squinted her eyes at him before they widened in realization.
“Hey, I remember you!” she declared. “You’re Short Circuit. You’re the first earth pony to be admitted to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Foals after the expansion!”
“You would be correct,” Short Circuit confirmed with a soft smile. “Tar for that expansion by the way. I don’t think I could be anywhere else.”
“I am very glad to hear that. I know it was a bit of a rocky start, but it makes me really happy that it has worked out as well as it did. You must be graduating this year, right?”
“Anunst year, actually.”
“Oh, well, I’ll probably be giving the speech to the graduating class regardless then anyways. Have any idea what you’re going to be doing afterwards?”
“Probably what I already do now. Makin’ connections with interestin’ creatures and creatin’ machines.”
“Not going into an apprenticeship?”
“For what? I am pretty much the only pony I know that does the things I do, or at leas’ knows as much as I do with the subject I am interested in.”
“Hm. Well, I guess it’s your call to make. Regardless, I am already proud of you, my little pony. It must have been difficult being one of the first earth ponies in an all unicorn school.”
A guard cleared his throat at the young ruler of Equestria.
“Oh, right, I should get going then. I shall see you on stage next year then! And you…”
She pointed at the doctor, still standing in the room, “…in my castle before noon tomorrow. Until then!”
With that, the princess and her guards made their exit, leaving behind the doctor in his apartment. The second the door closed, he heaved a big sigh of relief. He then turned back to his foal’s room, only to brush by Shortie along the way.
He pulled Archimedes aside and whispered to him: “Y’ave a cute foal. I think they’ll do crackin' things in the future.”
“You sink so? Even despite this—”
“Ar, ‘specially because of this. Regardless, I have something I want to give them.”
“Wait, you can’t mean—“
Shortie didn’t wait for the doctor to finish his sentence before he walked into Night Shade’s bedroom. He stopped in front of the still sniffling colt and bent down to meet his gaze.
“‘Ello there, little bloke,” Shortie said to him with a warm smile. “My name is Short Circuit, but most call me Shortie. I happen to be a skip of your father. I just want you to know that I think you’re going to do wicked things in the future. In a good way, I mean.”
Shortie took something out of his pocket that looked like a tiny remote with one button on it.
“For now, just know that, even if there is nah ’un else, I am always there. There are a lot of ponies like you. Well, not particularly like you, but different from what is expected of them. ‘Specially in regards to magic. So, if there is an emergency, and I mean a serious emergency, just click that button and toss it to the ground. I will be there to help almost immediately.”
He put the remote in the bewildered colt’s hoof and backed away.
“Remember, only serious emergencies! Understan’?”
The younger colt nodded, looking up to the bigger colt. He wasn't even a stallion yet, but he was his dad’s friend? Intrigue and confusion filled the little colt's mind as he looked at the remote now in his hoof.
Shortie chuckled at Night Shade’s clear lack of understanding. “If you want to know more about me, you can ask your dad or ask him to contact me. I always respond, even if not always on time. But don’t use that remote if it is not an emergency.”
And with that, Shortie left the family to pack their things and head into Canterlot. Their future remained uncertain, yet more hopeful than they thought before
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First impressions? I'm a little skeptical, don't get me wrong it's a good start up but starting it off with ponies with accents? Makes it a little harder to understand but other than that it seems interesting.
This is a good start. I think I'll like this.
Nice. I've seen like 2 other stories like this that never got completed, so I hope you don't lose motivation. I'm interested so far.