CH 1 - Into the Dark

The Everfree Forest was dark, and quiet as usual. The trees' branches swayed lightly in the cool night breeze, barely illuminated by a sliver of the crescent moon. It was a cold winter's night, though no snow had fallen yet this year, and there were few clouds in sight of those few breaks in the canopy above the forest floor.

"Midnight!" A gruff voice called out into the forest. "Midnight, where are you?"

"Come back, dear," Called out a second, softer voice. "We aren't mad at you."

"Speak for yourself" Grumbled the first voice, earning a brief look from the unicorn mare beside him.

"Blaze..." The mare sounded almost like she was scolding a child, even though the earth pony beside her was much larger.

The two were quite a contrast from eachother - While the earth pony's coat was a deep, dark brown, and his mane a barely lighter red, his counterpart's coat was a snowy white, her mane dark purple like the night sky. His fiery orange eyes met her violet hues, and the larger male winced a bit.

"Sorry, Moon. It's just.. Making us come this far into the forest just to find her? What's gotten into her?"

"It might've been your temper, dear. You know how sensitive she can get."

He sighed, nodding quietly as the previous few hours played over once more in his mind. He hadn't meant to be so cross with his daughter - It was just that he didn't understand her magic, and why she liked to hide in the shadows, sometimes frightening the first pony to happen across her. It wasn't easy for an earth pony to care for a young unicorn - Especially one like Midnight Dusk.

When he had returned from the days work ensuring Ponyville was safe from fires and other dangers, Blazing Shield had not expected his daughter to suddenly bolt out of a dark corner when he turned on a light. The sudden motion of a small, dark form whizzing by him had scared him, though he'd never admit it. He had actually given a shout, loud enough to stop Midnight in her tracks and get his wife's attention. As Moon's head poked around the doorway to see what was going on, the young unicorn filly had peeked up at him with her deep violet eyes - The same eyes her mother had.

His reaction was not something he was proud of. Perhaps it was that fiery temper his old friends always said he had, as much as he had calmed down after marrying Moonlit Star. It might have been because that day had been rather stressful for him, having to explain proper firecode procedures to a rather proud architect who had recently arrived to create a public library out of one of the town's trees. Maybe it was the countless other times his daughter had frightened him with her antics with shadows that he never understood. It may very well have been all three combined.

Whatever the reasons, that did not change the fact that he yelled at his daughter. He yelled with a fire he had not shown to the dark colored filly before, and he regretted it almost immediately. Those violet eyes welled up with tears, before she suddenly ran out the door crying, into the cold winter night. She was running away from town, away from all the lights cast by the other houses, and toward the Everfree Forest.

Seeing the frightened looked on his daughter's face when she ran from him into the forest pained him, and he'd chased immediately after her, his wife following the moment she'd realised where Midnight had gone.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he called out again, eyes flicking from shadow to shadow in the pale blue light his wife's horn cast around them.

"Midnight, please! Your mother and I are worried sick about you."

There was no response. They couldn't even be sure their daughter was there or not. Her coat and mane were so dark, it was very difficult to see at night, especially when she was actively trying to hide. They had been searching for at least half an hour.

Blaze was on the verge of losing hope of finding his daughter, when he suddenly saw a shadow moving just outside of his vision. Stopping short, he looked toward a bush at the base of a tree. Moon nearly walked into him.

"Blaze?" She asked, looking first at him, then the bush he was staring at. "What is it?"

She focused the magic in that direction, throwing a soft blue light across the bushes. The bush's leaves were moving, against the wind, and the two caught the sound of a faint, sorrowful whimper. A whimper that they both recognized immediately.

---

Midnight had been running for what felt like hours. Her legs were burning from exhaustion, and she was panting for breath. She was never very athletic, and running long distances was not something she was good at. But she had upset her father, and that fire in his eyes and voice had scared her more than anything else. So she kept running through the trees, until she tripped over an exposed root, tumbling head over hooves into a group of bushes.

Her knee hit a rock, and her horn bounced off a tree trunk that was growing next to the bushes, sending pain shooting down her spine. Instinct drove her to curl up, a faint purple glow emanating from her horn for a brief second before the comforting cold of a shadow washed over her, further hiding her from sight.

As she lay curled up underneath that bush, the pain slowly fading from her body, she silently cried. Why had her father yelled at her? Did he not love her like he always told her he did? She wondered if it was because of her magic shadow. Her mother had always told her that she had a special gift with shadows, and that she should practice her magical abilities. But the only thing she knew how to do was hide inside of her own shadow or the shadows around her, making herself as dark as night.

So that's what she had practiced, day and night. She had gotten so good at it, she could be hidden, perfectly quiet, in a dark corner and nopony would ever see her until they turned on a light. That's exactly what she had been doing when her father came home. So focused on seeing what else she could do with the shadow, she didn't hear him come in, and didn't expect the light in the room to suddenly turn on, making the shadow and the comforting cold suddenly vanish.

Startled, she'd instinctively made a break for the first dark place she could think of: Underneath her bed. But, the sound of her father shouting stopped her. Worried that he might be hurt, she looked up at him, only to be greeted by eyes of fire and a loud, scary voice. All of that combined proved too much for the little filly to handle, and she fled out the front door, away from every light those fiery eyes could find her in.

The sound of hoofsteps nearby broke her out of her thoughts. She could hear her mother's soft, gentle voice calling out for her. Cautiously, she lifted her head to peer out of the bush, and caught sight of a faint green light surrounding a white mare with violet eyes - Her mother. Overjoyed that she had found someone who would always keep her safe, she burst out of the bushes, straight into the mare's waiting, warm arms.

"Momma!"

She hugged tightly, nuzzling affectionately into her mother as she was hugged in return.

"Shhhh. It's alright, dear. You're safe now. Just stay here with mommy and she'll keep you safe and loved."

As the soft, greenish glow started to grow brighter around the two ponies, Midnight found herself growing tired, feeling even more exhausted than she had before. Curling up in her mother's arms, she closed her eyes and slowly drifted to sleep as the mare carried her deeper into the forest.

490 views