The Origin: Part 1

The Origin: Part 1

In the smallest bedroom in Privet Drive 4, a raven haired teen awoke with a start, sitting up on his bed and breathing hard. He shuddered as the nightmare that plagued him, replayed in his mind before it began to fade. With a long sigh, Harry Potter brought his left hand to his head and started massaging his temple. It wasn’t enough, that he couldn’t sleep properly for almost two weeks now, the nightmare also brought with it headaches. They were minor in his opinion, but still annoying. As if his mood wasn’t bad as it was without them...

The young wizard looked at the old alarm clock at the nightstand. It was barely few minutes past three in the morning. With another sigh he thought himself as lucky tonight, at least he got more than five hours of sleep this time. Heavily he fell back, for now just looking at the ceiling.

It was a great burden, to know that he could prevent the death of his godfather... If he just stopped and thought longer about his course of action that fateful night. He should have less faith in Kreacher, as he should have had more faith in Snape. As infuriating as the man was, he still was a member of the Order of the Phoenix.

Harry clenched his hands into fists, as anger began to take over grief. He could blame himself however much he wanted, but he knew that it was not only his fault. It were the mistakes of many that lead to Sirius’s death. Voldemort, Bellatrix, Dumbledore, Snape, Fudge, Umbridge, Kreacher even Sirius... and of course he, Harry Potter. He couldn’t really get revenge on himself, he could only try and learn from this, but the others... He could get his revenge somehow, if he wanted to that is.

“I’m too damn soft...” He whispered dejectedly. The raven haired wizard knew that it was not a bad trait to have per se, to be forgiving. But he was sure, that there was a limit of how much one can forgive others for. He was certain that he was reaching that limit... for years. He suddenly realized that he had enough.

Enough of being just a pawn, on this great chessboard that was his life. He had entered the wizarding world unprepared, he was naive and a child then. But now he knew better, he had seen more... maybe even too much.

However he knew that there was a problem with his sudden realization. The prophecy. He truly didn’t think much of Divination as a branch of magic, but the prophecy seemed genuine. Harry didn’t want to think about the destined duel to the death, as it only gave him another headache. Voldemort outclassed him in every aspect, the damned prophecy gave him an impossible task to accomplish. But he would have to keep this thought in mind, that one day he would have to kill the Dark Lord.

One step at a time, after all. He couldn't burden himself with too much, or he would fall under the weight. First came the matter of his knowledge, that was possibly the easiest thing to gain. Experience would come with time... although he didn't know how much time he did have. Power... now that he had, according to his teachers and his friends. His Patronus in his third year was a proof of that. However he didn't quite know how he did manage to cast such a powerful one back then at the lake, it was a bit of an enigma. He had power... he just couldn't control it, and he didn’t know why.

Putting those thoughts aside, he had a bigger obstacle before him. He couldn’t practice magic during the summer. He closed his eyes. That would have to wait sadly, for now he would have to focus on theory. And that meant shopping for some extra books.

With those final thoughts he slowly began to fall asleep again. During almost an hour of laying in his bed and thinking things through... he made peace with a small portion of himself. It was a small progress, but a progress nonetheless.

For the next three days, Harry went on with his life as normally as he could. He knew that he was being watched by the Order, and he was trying to pinpoint where were they hiding during their shifts. For three days he tried and saw nothing out of the ordinary. No strange shadows, no grass being flattened by shoes or a person sitting, no out of place sounds. That made him realize that either there was no one watching him, or he underestimated means of magical concealment.

On the fourth day he decided to risk it and called the Knight Bus. The raven haired boy was pleasantly surprised when no one stopped him, when he boarded the purple triple decker.

The ride was as nauseous as he remembered it from his first time, getting through the Leaky Cauldron wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. Luckily there were no Order members in the pub or Hogwart’s staff. The Diagon Alley was surprisingly quiet, with only a few witches and wizards walking around, sparing him a glance and a wave.

In Gringotts Harry’s luck run out. There was only four occupied tellers, however the one closest to the doors was talking with a young woman, with unmistakable vibrant pink hair. As he stared at the back of her head, Nymphadora Tonks turned around, with a frown... that turned into a shocked look when she saw him.

Quickly she masked her surprise and marched towards him with a purpose in her steps.

“Wotcher Harry... What are you doing here? Alone?” She kept her voice down as to not disturb the goblin tellers. But even then, only a deaf man would miss the anger and disbelief in her voice.

“Uh... I can explain Tonks...” Harry was struggling with words right now, as he saw her hair turn red. He saw that happen a few times, when people forgot how she disliked her full name.

“You better have a good excuse then, Harry.” Tonks said as she crossed her arms over her chest, looking at him, waiting to hear what he had to say. The now read haired witch saw the younger boy take a deep breath.

“I need gold... For books and maybe some other stuff. I know, I can’t practice magic... but I can still read and that’s better than doing nothing. I want to learn Tonks, so that... so that nothing like the DoM happens again...” He still couldn’t say his godfather’s name. It brought too much emotional pain. He even stuttered when he talked about the Department of Mysteries. “I’m such a mess. Can’t even talk about... him.”

Instantly Tonk’s posture relaxed, and she sighed heavily. She put her right hand on his shoulder.

“Look Harry... We all in the Order know that Sirius’s death hit you hard. But going all alone into Alley, even with good intentions... You’re wasting his sacrifice.” She saw how Harry flinched at her last words. “That said, I will just have to stick with you for your shopping trip. I’ll still have to report this later to Dumbledore though.”

His mood lifted significantly when she finished, but he frowned when she mentioned that she wanted to inform the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Harry wanted to be his own man, make his own decisions... Dumbledore had good intentions, Harry knew that much. But he was annoyed with the man and his meddling.

Through the last few days he realized, that his first four years at Hogwarts were suspicious, when it came to his... adventures. It appeared as if only his last year, and what went on during it, was mostly the sum of his own decisions.

“Do you really need to talk with Dumbledore about my... our shopping trip?” When those words left his mouth, he saw how Tonks stiffened a bit once again. She looked at him, exasperated.

“Harry, why should I break the rules of the Order? You want books... and we could look into getting you some new clothes, that’s fine. That’s small stuff. Why do you want to keep this... silent?”

“Tonks...” Harry looked to his left and right. There was still no one close to them. ”The truth is... Dumbledore is a good man, but I’m annoyed with him. He kept me in the dark for years now, maybe it’s petty revenge, but can you blame me?” He decided that going with the truth, or most of it, was the right thing to do.

Tonks lifted her hand from his shoulder and in an over the top gesture, spread them wide and then let them fall to her sides. She sighed.

“Fine, fine... it’s more trouble, than it’s worth it. But I can understand it. Just this once Harry I will keep silent.” The young witch was rewarded with a sight of a smiling Harry. There was something in that way he smiled, that made her mind wander, and her hair turned a delicate pink shade. She turned around, to hide her own smile and slightly pink cheeks. “Now then, lets get you some gold.”

After that everything went smooth for the pair, as the goblins didn't waste time. And even Harry not having his key, wasn’t going to change that. The whole episode in the Gringott took only around half an hour, which surprised Harry.

When he and Tonks left the bank, with Harry carrying a medium sized pouch filled with galleons, the Alley was fully coming to life with many more wizards wandering the street. Both of them reached Flourish and Blotts without any incident. Inside Tonks guided Harry to the books she thought would help him the most. However what annoyed the young wizard were two specific books.

“Really Tonks? Basic Magical Theory and The Nature of Magic? Those sound like... I don’t know, something kids would read.”

“Believe me Harry, those two are a great read. And The Nature of Magic is age restricted. I will buy that one for you and you will pay me back.” She said taking the thinner of the two books in her hands. Its cover was dark grey, it had some decorative silver design on its edges that looked arcane. “Seriously though, that’s dumb to restrict this book in such a way...”

“Why’s that?” Now that she said that, Harry’s curiosity was piqued.

“You will have to read it to find that out.” The pink haired metamorphmagus said sticking her tongue out.

“Very mature, Tonks...” Harry grumbled with a slight smile.

In the end, alongside those two books Harry bought only three more. One was a thin spell booklet of offensive, non-lethal charms and curses titled 101 Basic Dueling Spells. It had only like thirty pages in it but, according to the young witch that one was the most useful and ‘to the point’ title that he could find in this bookstore. It still came as a surprise when he had to pay over twenty galleons for it...

The second one was something he picked in hopes of honoring Sirius and his father. The Animal Within, was a promising title when it came to animagus transformation related magic. At least Tonks said that it was a good book, not the best, but still better than most written about this particular subject.

The third one was a bit different. It was a thick, large tome easily rivalling the Monster Book of Monsters in size. The Inner Magic, a comprehensive guide, was something he picked out of curiosity. But Harry quickly decided that he had to have it, after he browsed the book to look at what it had to offer. And it had much. It shocked him when he discovered that it was mostly centered around Occlumency.

That book dampened his mood significantly. He was beyond angry, at knowing that such book existed and that neither Dumbledore and Snape told him about it. But with a few deep breaths he calmed himself, he would not allow his temper to run unchecked. Not any more.

All in all Harry left the bookstore with almost fifty galleons less in his pouch.

After that, and a quick second visit in the bank to exchange the rest of his gold from the pouch into a significant number of pounds, they moved to Muggle London. As Tonks had promised, they spent next few hours picking for him some new cloths. They were in the fourth shop, not even an hour into their shopping spree, when the young witch decided to give her true opinion about Harry’s choices so far.

“You know, I understand that you’re in bad mood, and griefing... But for Merlin’s sake! Are you trying to be the new King of Gloom? Pick something that isn’t gray or black!”

Harry just rolled his eyes at that. He was as annoyed with the shopping as apparently she was... But having clothes that actually fit, was something he didn’t want to pass up on. And suffering through the boring routine of searching and trying on countless clothes, was far easier when one had company. But for her sake, he bought some red and white coloured clothing afterward.

To show his appreciation to her, he invited her to a restaurant that they found during their wanderings. She was resisting the idea at first, but quickly gave up.

It early evening when Harry returned to Private Drive. Luckily Tonks had cast a minor extension charm at the pouch he got from gringotts, when they were parting, so everything fit into it. It was a tight fit, but they managed nonetheless.

Before he entered the Dursley's house, Harry took a deep breath. He would have a hard time explaining his absence and the new clothes he wore.

As he expected, when he closed the doors behind him he heard his uncle’s voice.

“Boy! Get into the living room. Now!” Harry breathed with relief, his uncle’s voice sounded more annoyed than angry. Without further ado he did just what he was told to do.

When Vernon and Petunia Dursley saw their nephew enter the living room in brand new black jeans and a dark grey t-shirt, with new white and gray sneakers on his feet, for a minute they just gaped at him.

“What is the meaning of this?! Where did you get those clothes from, boy?” Vernon was the one that recovered quicker.

“I bought them. I think that should be obvious.” Harry kept his face as devoid of emotions as he could, he wanted a peaceful summer, and he would get it. He even know how to accomplish that. When the idea came to him, he wanted to bang his head on the nearest wall for not thinking about it sooner.

“Why you...” But before he could continue, Vernon was silenced by Petunia’s hand lightly gripping his shoulder. He took a deep breath, but said no more.

“Explain.” Petunia’s voice was neutral, but it was obvious she wanted a good explanation. It also served as a hidden warning, no one wanted Vernon to explode, but she could do only so much before hers husband patience for her nephew run out.

“I don't really have to explain anything to you. However, as I want to have a peaceful summer, lets make a deal. I will pay you one hundred pounds for every week of my stay here, and you leave me alone. I will do no chores in that time of course. Let’s just... stay out of each others way as much as possible.” Harry looked his uncle in the eyes, and he saw the greed in them. He really should have done this sooner. “What do you say?”

“Boy, you got yourself a deal. So where are the money?”

Without saying anything Harry took out of his pocket a hundred pound bill. He walked to the coffee table and laid the money on it. He shot his relatives a smug look, before turning around and leaving the room.

When the young wizard reached his room, he closed the door, tossed the pouch on his bed... and leaned against the doors, closing his eyes. He got what he wanted and still had trouble grasping the idea, that his relatives would be so shallow, so greedy. Well his uncle was those things anyway, it was harder to tell with his aunt. But she really didn't matter that much.

Harry finally walked towards his bed, took off his clothes and collapsed on it. This was one of the most tiring days in his life. The shopping drained him physically, and the short confrontation with his relatives drained him emotionally. Acting so... unlike himself in front of them, was the hardest thing he did so far in his life. Probably because on some level he was still scared of his uncle...

He didn’t think about many more things that night as he fell asleep quickly. Sadly even his small victory in the living room, could not lift his mood so much to protect him from the nightmares...

The rest of the summer went according to his plan, that is with the exception of Dumbledore visiting. And their little trip to ensure that Professor Slughorn would return to Hogwarts willingly. His earlier departure to The Burrow was also nice, however that in itself also brought questions that he really didn’t want to answer.

“Finally Harry you look presentable, did the muggles get these for you?” Mrs. Weasley question brought Dumbledore's attention to him, and of course everybody else present.

At that moment he had to quickly decide, to hide the truth from them all, to get one over the old Headmaster, or to just admit to his little shopping trip and probably get scolded for his foolishness. In the end, it really was a simple choice...

“I finally managed to talk them into it. It was not easy, but my aunt was surprisingly supportive this time.” Harry kept his voice low and looked anywhere but at Molly, smiling sheepishly. He was surprised when they didn't question his answer, taking it for the truth.

For that day until the first of September, Harry found himself following a new routine. He would wake up, eat breakfast with the Weasley’s... which was an adventure on itself sometimes, with the twins around, then he would read and practice what he could, mostly Occlumency. Hermione was showing almost motherly pride at his new study habits, Ron was mostly just confused about his change in attitude and a bit terrified that he would have to deal with two bookworms now.

After dinner he would find a secluded place, as much as it was possible within such a lively household, and start reading the book he decided not to share with Hermione yet. The Nature of Magic. The book was written more to question one’s understanding of Dark and Light magic. The author it would seem, wanted to provoke the reader to form his own opinion on the matter. Harry was still conflicted about the book, as it mostly teared apart the view on magic that was presented to them at Hogwarts and by the Ministry.

When it came to his other study fields, especially Occlumency, he was making progress that exceeded his own expectations. Admittedly, it was easier to learn it without a teacher that had a grudge with his dead father, that tried to settle it with him by making his life harder than it already was. He was still at the basic level, dealing with his memories, and sorting his knowledge. But it was a tremendous progress in his opinion, compared to what he achieved under Snape’s... tutelage.

Surprising himself, he devoured the book about basic magical theory in the first few days of his stay. It was written so well that a five year old wizard child could understand it. The day he thought about that, made him snort in amusement. It probably was written that way with that exact purpose anyway.

His Animagus study was slow going, which frustrated him to no end... He realised that there was nothing really he could do about that until he got to Hogwarts.

And so it went for the remainder of the summer. Although, even his slowly expanding knowledge of Occlumency, and the undeniably familial and cheerful atmosphere of The Burrow, could not always protect him from relieving the night of Sirius’s death...

The mood among the students in Hogwarts was dampened. That much became obvious during the first week of the lessons. The looming threat of Voldemort, and Snape becoming the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor were enough to subdue the usually energetic, young population of the castle.

It also so happened that during that week, Harry found the answer to all of his problems... well most of them. The Room of Requirement. He would need to thank Hermione later on for giving him this suggestion, and helping him come up with the phrasing for what he needed the Room for.

On the evening of the second Sunday of his sixth year, Harry Potter stood before the wall that served as the hiding spot for the doors to the peculiar room. There was nobody in the corridor, so he decided to whisper his request, increasing its power.

“I need a place where I can learn and train. Where I could become strong enough to defeat Voldemort.” The young, raven haired wizard repeated the phrase until a door appeared. The strange thing about them was, that they were engraved with two unicorn heads, with their horns crossing.

Cautiously he opened the door, only to see a circular room with a small table in the middle. On it rested a glowing, bluish crystal. That in itself was odd, but the Room did provide what he needed last year...

So he entered the room and closed the doors, which then melted into the wall and disappeared, the only light in the room was coming from the crystal. When Harry was by the small table, he raised his hand and held it over the crystal, not really knowing what else to do beside touching it.

“Here goes nothing...” The young wizard said, closed his eyes, and put his hand on the crystal.

He felt a pull, not unlike the one he experienced while using a Portkey, but this one was accompanied by a pressure that enveloped his body, trying to stretch it in ways that should be impossible.

When he finally hit the ground, he was barely able to feel his body. His vision was blurred, but he could make out trees surrounding him. His ears flicked at the sound of slowly flowing water somewhere in the distance.

“Wait... what...” He blurted out, he could feel his ears flicking back and forth tracking the sounds around him. That was wrong.

His vision began to regain focus again, and he decided that he had enough of lying in the dirt, so he sat up... or tried to at least. His arms felt weird, so he immediately lost balance. Curious he looked at them, only to find that his arms became forelegs, covered in dark gray fur and adorned with hooves.

“What the hell?!” Harry started to frantically look himself over, and to his growing horror discovered that he was turned into a horse of some kind. And he could still talk apparently. He could now clearly see that he had a black tail and black mane, if the few bangs of hair falling into his sight were any indication. What made his jaw drop was the red lightning bolt adoring his... flank. He frowned, something about it felt wrong but, for now he had greater concerns than a tattoo on his rump.

“I need to stand up... and I need a mirror.” Knowing what body he was currently occupying, it was a bit easier to sit up. Standing up was a bit more problematic, so he took his time. When finally after his seventh try he was standing on slightly wobbly legs, Harry tried to walk.

If he had to tell how much time it took him to reach the small stream he heard earlier, he would tell it took hours. And maybe it did. Despite being in the forest he could feel the heat of the midday sun. So when he reached the stream he was overjoyed.

He stood at the water's edge, before he took a deep breath and looked down. His eyes widened at what he saw. First thing he noticed in his reflection, was the horn. I’m a freaking unicorn! Then he took notice of his still unruly black mane, that seemed a bit longer than it should be. Then Harry sighed with relief, he still had his brilliant, emerald green eyes. Lastly he noticed that the fur on top of his muzzle was partially black, creating an interesting, geometrical pattern.

“Now to figure out where I am...” Suddenly he scowled, and shouted in anger. “I’m so stupid! Where is the crystal?” He turned around and started looking for the clearing he had landed in.

He quickly realized that he couldn’t find the clearing... He was so focused on not falling muzzle first into the ground, that he didn't pay proper attention to what route he had taken from his landing place to the stream.

When the sun began to hide behind the horizon, and the forest was becoming progressively darker Harry knew he was lost. More than that, he was exhausted and dismayed. In frustration he punched the nearest tree with a grunt.

Having nothing to lose anymore, he just walked forward.

When the moon was almost gone from the sky, and the slight pinkness of the east horizon indicated that a new day will begin soon, he reached the edge of the forest. From there he saw something that gave him hope again. Lights in the distance. His exhaustion suddenly forgotten he galloped, yes galloped, in the direction of the lights that probably were a village of some kind.

When he finally saw the outline of low houses, he started to stumble. Every breath he took brought with it pain in his sides, every step he took made his muscles felt as if they were on fire. But he pushed forward.

When the first rays of the morning sun hit his face, he collapsed at the edge of a wheat field. For a while he drifted on the edge of consciousness. That’s when he heard soft steps and then a high pitched, girly scream. Something tucked at his mane.

“Sir! Sir, are you all right?!”

Before he blacked out from the extreme exhaustion, Harry heard the girly voice scream.

“Mom! Dad! Somepony needs help! Come quick!”

When Harry slowly awoke, he was confused. Last thing he remembered was the exhausting run... Or was it a dream? With an effort he lifted his head and looked down at his hoofed legs and dark gray coated body. So... not a dream.

He looked around the small room he was in. It walls made of what looked like clay bricks, were bare, except for the small window with wooden shutters, he could see that there was no glass pane in it. Through the cracks in the shutters rays of sunlight flooded the small room. When he looked at his bed it turned out to be a simple wooden frame, filled with straw and covered with some material. At least his pillow was stuffed mostly with feathers.

In that moment, when he was studying the simple bed, the doors opened and a young filly walked in. She had a light green coat, and pale blond mane tied into a simple braid. When Harry looked at her he noticed that she didn’t have a horn.

“Oh you’re awake!” Her voice was excited and she quickly ran out of his room.

Not a minute later the filly returned with an adult mare in tow. At a first glance he could tell that she spent a lot of time working, probably on the fields. Her moves and the way she carried herself spoke about her hidden strength. Her coat was brown and her main was a rich honey color. What surprised him was the three wheat stalks image on her flank. She held a wooden bowl filled with water in her teeth. She approached him, Harry took the hint, and when she touched the bowl to his lips and tipped it he drank greedily. After he drank the water she put the bowl on the ground.

“My name is Golden Harvest, and this is my daughter Summer Harvest. She found you passed out in our field. What made you run like that, and what’s your name stranger?” Golden’s voice was full of concern when she asked her questions.

Harry blinked slowly. Those were some strange names... However what surprised him more was that the two ponies could talk. That and their colouring at last made him realize, that he probably was not on Earth anymore. The Room of Requirement had outdone itself this time. But then... where was he?

“I was lost, your village...” His voice was raspy, and he wondered how long he was unconscious. He laid his head down on the pillow again. “Was the first I saw, so I ran. As to my name... I don't know. I don't even know where I am.” Harry decided to keep his real name to himself, seeing as the locals had a different approach to them, at least he guessed so.

“Oh you poor thing... You're in the village of Trottingham, we are a small and relatively new settlement, and we’re on the far south-west border of the Kingdom of Equestria.” The mare said looking at him.

“Equestria?” To Harry that was one of the most ridiculous names one could give to a country, but it was only his ex-human opinion.

“After the fall of the Spirit of Chaos, the Royal Sisters created a new country for us, ponies to live in. You have to be from the Wilds to not know that... I heard that some communities still live in self imposed exile, too scared of the Spirit to return even now.” When she said that her muzzle took on a somber look. But as quickly as it showed, it was replaced by a small smile. “You should be able to leave the bed tomorrow. Your case of exhaustion was one of the worst I have ever seen.”

Suddenly Harry’s emerald green eyes widened.

“Oh... It probably was quite a burden to care for me... however long I was unconscious. Thank you.” A roguish smile appeared on his muzzle, not that he was aware of how it looked, but he saw its effect, when the mare blushed slightly and her smile widened.

“That’s was no problem really. It was mostly Summer that watched over you...” Golden said while she put a hoof on hers daughter head. The young filly smiled broadly.

“Well then... Tomorrow I can leave?”

“That’s right, you should probably speak with Glimmer then, she’s the oldest unicorn in our village right now. Whatever help you will need, she will probably be better suited to help you...” Said the earth pony mare, while she started to usher her daughter out of the room. “Get some sleep...” She blinked a few times. “Oh, and pick something to call you by, at least for now?” She added with a quiet, embarrassed laugh. With that she closed the door, leaving him alone again in the small room.

The Origin: Part 2

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The Origin: Part 2

Harry woke up in his new unicorn body the next morning, feeling well rested. When he looked at the shutters he could see the morning sun’s rays. If he had to guess, it was late in the morning. With a look at his hooves he assured himself that the last few days were not some crazy dream.

“This is going to take some time getting used to…” He said, as he swung his body out of the simple bed. Standing on all fours was still new to him, but at least now he didn’t wobble on his legs like he did after his arrival.

The doors creaked, as the young filly, Golden Harvest… opened them with her hoof. She was balancing a fruit bowl on her head and had the look of utmost concentration on her young muzzle. Harry didn’t wait for her to drop it, with a bit of thought, he approached her and took the bowl from her. Holding it with his teeth, as he had no other idea how to grab it, he put it on his bed. When he turned around he saw the filly smiling at him.

“Thank you Golden.” Harry said smiling himself. “You and your mother are too kind.”

“That’s no problem mister, we had a really good harvest this year.” She said as she almost bounced up to him. “Besides, my mother always says to be polite and helpful.”

“Are all… ponies... so generous around here?” Using the term ‘pony’ left him feeling rather weird. Despite this he couldn’t help but think, that maybe being thrown into this world wasn’t such a bad thing, if this first impression was anything to go by.

“Well…” Golden scrunched her little muzzle in thought, which to Harry looked rather cute he had to admit. “There's this old, grumpy pony… And a couple that settled in the last week, that keeps complaining about things… Oh, and there's that strange pony that lives on the outskirts that keeps to himself. But other than those ponies the rest is really nice.”

As she was talking Harry decided to eat some of the fruits. He saw a couple of oranges and cherries in the basket but he went for the apples, that looked far more shinier and healthier than any he had seen. And as it turned out they also tasted much better. In no time he devoured the three apples that were there. He looked at the filly again, when he heard her giggling.

“What?” He asked a bit playfully with a raised eyebrow. Suddenly he realized that he got carried away in his eating frenzy. A small blush showed on his dark gray furred cheeks.

“You got something stuck over here mister…” Golden said still giggling, but she pointed with her hoof at her lower left jaw. She laughed, when she saw him sticking his tongue out and manoeuvring it to the right place to get rid of the offending apple piece.

“Now that that's taken care of, care to show me around the village?” He asked with a small smile.

“Sure! Mom is on the fields with dad, so we can go to her later on, if you want to.” Harry nodded as an answer to that. The filly jumped up excitedly, and then pouted. “There's really not too much to show around here. But common…” Golden said leading him out of the room.

For the first time, Harry got a look at the rest of the house. It was simple in design, and had simple furnishings. In the the far end of the moderately sized, rectangular room, he saw a fire pit and near it some cauldrons, blackened from the fire. There was a table with two chairs, on which he spotted a large bowl filled with fruits. There were two chests at to his left, probably with whatever was needed around here. Across the room he could see another door, he guessed that it was Golden and Summers room. On his left there were two windows, with wooden shutters and a door. The room was surprisingly dim.

Golden went to the door on his left and opened them, flooding the room with light from outside. She waited for him just outside as he moved to stand at the entrance. What he saw made Harry, sigh sadly as it started to sink in that he could be very well stuck here.

A dozen houses, made from clay bricks and with thatch roofs were arranged in a circle, creating a large square, with a well in the middle and some randomly set up stalls. He could see that the ponies sold mostly fruits, vegetables or even baked goods, but he could see one pony selling pottery and some tools. The square was not even paved with stone, it was just dirt hardened by the hooves of the villagers that he saw walking around. As Harry and Golden began their tour she pointed out the vendors and named them, giving him a short, if sometimes humorous description of said ponies.

Not even twenty minutes later, the grand tour was over, as the two stood before the doors to a comparatively larger house than those surrounding it. What piqued his interest was that he could see glass windows in this house.

“Who lives here Golden?” Harry asked even as the filly knocked on the doors.

“Glimmer.” Was the fillie's answer, as they heard a muffled “Coming!” from behind the doors.

When the door handle glowed with a pale blue aura the doors swung open, revealing an aging unicorn mare with silvery mane and indigo colored coat, that had a more than a few gray hairs in it.

“Golden my dear child, who have you brought with you this time?” The second thing that stood out to Harry was the accent. Compared to those in the town he manage to listen, Glimmer’s voice spoke of nobility, or so he imagined a noble would sound.

“You know how we found the exhausted pony on the fields. It’s him.”

“Good morning.” Harry decided to be polite and greeted the other unicorn with a nod.

Glimmer sized her guest with a quick look, before stepping aside.

“Come in, come in. Golden, why don't you go play with other children, I heard they’re at the orchards.” The filly didn’t protest too much at being dismissed.

When Harry entered the well lighted living room, first thing he saw was the bookcase filled with scrolls, and more than a dozen books. Other than that the furnishings weren’t that different from those in Summer’s house, if one ignored the wood covered floor.

“I must say, I didn’t quite expect such a young handsome stallion to be the reason for my killer headache a few days ago…”

He almost jumped when he hear Glimmer’s voice to his right. Somehow without him knowing it she settled on a blanket near hers fire pit.

“What do you mean by that?” Harry asked immediately turning suspicious.

“The magical discharge. My special talent is sensing magic young one.” She said pointing hers flank with a hoof. Now that she pointed it, he saw what looked like wisps of glittering smoke forming a vague eye shape. “Whatever method you used to come near this village, was powerful beyond anything I felt in a very long time.”

“Is that what this… mark of yours mean?” Finally Harry would get an explanation about his own mark, he could feel it.

“Mostly yes. That’s why I moved over here… I noticed that as I aged could not handle magically rich environments as I could in my youth. Too much… noise, one could say.” The elderly mare said, as she levitated a steaming cup of something that smelled vaguely… fruity. “Tea? My own blend.” Harry nodded.

He closely observed the kettle beginning to glow with the same pale blue aura that Glimmer’s cup was surrounded in. The kettle began to pour hot water into another cup. With a quick glance at the other unicorn he saw how her horn was shrouded in the same pale blue aura. Before he knew it, a second cup was floating before him. Then he realised his mistake…

“I don’t…” Harry licked his lips nervously, when he saw his host frowning slightly at him. “I don’t know how to use my magic.” Now that he thought about it, he could feel the warmth he always associated with his magical power, but without his wand he was lost as to how he was supposed to access it, or even use it. And being in a body so different wouldn’t make it easier.

“Interesting…” Glimmer put the second cup before him. “Sit down, this is going to take longer than I thought.”

The ex-human looked at how Glimmer sat, and did his best to imitate it. With a blush he quickly fought down, he realized how embarrassing this position was for a stallion. Before he could really began to ponder the sense of modesty and intimacy among ponies, he shot that thought down. He could have a philosophical debate about his state of undress later. Getting a grasp on his magic was the biggest issue he should be thinking of right now.

“You know, in my youth I heard of a case in which a spellcrafter miscalculated in his new formula and the magic involved in the casting drove him mad.” She took a sip, after she voiced her thoughts. “It’s possible that what you did resulted in memory loss.”

Internally Harry sighed with relief, the old unicorn basically created his back story for him. He could think later on how to improve upon it, to make it more authentic.

“All I remember is a magical crystal, and then I found myself in the forest.” Harry tried to sound thoughtful and a bit unsure.

“That would fit then.” Glimmer sighed as she put down her own cup of tea. “I can help you relearn a few things about magic, if you want to.”

“Yes of course.” He answered hastily.

“But before that… Show me your cutie mark, and try to remember your name. I have to call you something, and young stallion is too cumbersome.”

Harry blinked, and then it clicked. It was such a strange name for the thing that was supposed to show his special talent, which still felt off somehow. He stood up took a step closer to the older unicorn and showed her his flank.

“Hmmm… Definitely something tied to magic.” He saw how a moment later her eyes narrowed, and without warning she prodded his cutie mark with her hoof.

“Hey!” Harry jumped out of hers hooves reach and glared at her.

“Oh don't be such a prude, young stallion. One would think you would like mares touching your flank…” Despite it sounding as if she tried to joke, however the seriousness he could see on her muzzle unnerved him. “There is magic, powerful magic lingering around your cutie mark, what it is I don’t know. But it’s… revolting to my touch.” He could hear the worry in her voice.

Harry’s own muzzle twisted for a second into a look of loathing. Always something went wrong for him sooner or later. Quickly a look of resignation settled into his features.

Glimmer looked at the unicorn before her with sympathetic look. Cursed cutie marks were a rare thing, and a sign that the young one had powerful enemies in the world, if they were able to do that to him. She stood up and went to give him a reassuring hug.

“Every magic has its counter young one, it’s just a matter of finding it. I will help you to the best of my abilities, but your best bet would be to go to Everfree City, the seat of the Royal Sisters power. There is a vast library there with books and scrolls about the arcane arts. You will probably find your answers there.”

Harry stiffened after the initial contact, but then relaxed and sighed deeply. He listened with attention to what the other unicorn said. What the older unicorn said sounded almost like a plan.

“Thank you.” He raised one hoof, balancing on the other three proving a bit less challenging than he thought it would be, and briefly returned the hug. After that he took a step back, out of her embrace. “Well then… what now?”

Glimmer smiled sadly, at least he wanted to do something.

“Now we begin your lessons…” She stopped and tilted her head slightly to left side. “Blackmane…”

“What?” Harry asked not catching on immediately.

“Well I have to give you a name, if you don’t pick one.” The older unicorn said with a stubborn look on her muzzle.

He looked at her and sighed in defeat. She really looked like she would just name him without his input, if he didn’t pick something.

“And you did it again, all that sighing and being all somber…”

“What now?” Harry didn't exactly see where she was going with all this, given his situation he had a right to behave like he did… didn't he? And it wasn't like he was somber before this talk...

“Somber Blackmane.” Glimmer said testing it out. “Sounds almost noble… For a unicorn it will do.”

“Now stop right ther-uff...” Before he could continue a levitated apple found its way into his mouth.

“Shush you. If what Golden told me yesterday was true, you had almost two days to think about your name. First lesson in magic Somber, if you are going to do something, do it. Being uncertain or indecisive while wielding magic can be disastrous. For example, it’s better to finalize a spell that you realized too late will drain you to the point of exhaustion, then cut the flow on such a powerful spell.” She looked him in the eyes. “Because believe me, you are powerful and the backlash from such a spell, that would drain most of your power, almost certainly would be fatal.”

All Harry could do was nod in understanding. Finally he was able to chew his way through the apple.

“And what about Harry Blackmane?” In his opinion that wasn't half as bad as the one the older unicorn came up with.

“I’m still calling you Somber.” Glimmer said in a bout of stubbornness, as she quite liked the name she came up with. “Anyway back to the topic of magic…”

By the time Harry managed to get out of Glimmer’s house, the sun was low on the horizon. It was almost terrifying how the old unicorn became excited about teaching him magic. But he could somewhat understand her. Her sensitivity to magic, meant that she was on a self imposed exile. With most of the villagers being earth ponies, and a few being pegasi… she was the only unicorn in town, him not counting. She hadn't had the occasion to chat about magic with anyone in years.

At least now, after hours of lectures, discussions and exercises he was able to use levitation like almost any other unicorn. It still required a bit more concentration on his part, compared to the almost instinctual use Glimmer seemed to show.

From what Harry gathered, the older unicorn could tutor him for almost a three months before she run out of material to teach him safely. He guessed that it was also long enough to learn the customs of this world, and get used to the idea of being a unicorn.

On his way to the fields, he noticed for the first time the curious glances the other ponies gave him. He answered to those glances with a small smile.

When he went past the ring of houses, he could finally appreciate the nature around him. Fields of wheat, and young orchards. In the distance he could see young fillies and colts running around in the shade of the orchard trees. In the fields ponies worked, plowing, harvesting and generally tending to the plants.

He saw Summer Harvest with another, bulkier pony in the wheat field constructing what looked like scarecrows. In no time he approached them.

“Hello Summer.” Harry said looking at the pony by her side. The stallion was also an earth pony, and stood almost a head taller than Harry. His coat was light brown mostly save for few white spots on his rear and back. He had a dark brown mane, that looked almost as unruly as Harry’s. He had a hoe and what looked like gardening scissors as his cutie mark.

“Hello there… This is my husband, Keeper.” Summer said with a bit of an embarrassed laugh when she couldn’t come up with something to call Harry.

“I’ve finally decided to go by Harry Blackmane.”

“Nice to meet you… well, when you're awake.” The stallions voice although having a rough quality to it, was quiet and calm. Keeper extended a hoof, which Harry hesitantly shook.

“We are almost finished here Harry, if you want you can wait or help putting up the last few scarecrows.” Summer said waving her hoof at the pile of sticks, straw and strips of material that laid a near her side.

“I can help, finally.” Harry smiled as he concentrated. His horn began to glow a with a vibrant emerald aura.

Under the instructions from both Summer and Keeper, Harry helped them on the field for which both of them were grateful. But on their way to the village Keeper decided to share with Harry a bit of his social knowledge.

“It’s an earth pony village Harry, you will get far more respect if you do most things earth pony way. Not that we don't appreciate magic.”

That gave Harry something to think about, apparently some prejudice was present among ponies.

When the trio arrived at Summer’s and Keeper’s house, Golden greeted them with the energy that only a child could posses. Over the course of the following supper, the filly regaled them with the tales of her plays with other village youngsters. And it was when Harry thanked them all properly and voiced his plans to leave in a few months.

“If you plan to stay for three more months, you can live with us. We have the room.” Surprisingly it was Keeper that proposed this.

“I couldn’t, it’s too much to ask of you.” Harry answered a bit embarrassed that some...pony would offer such a thing to him, a complete stranger.

“If it would make you more comfortable, you could always… work it of on the fields. However… We still have lots of grain to sell, but don't have the time right now to travel to the mills in the neighbouring towns to trade.” Summer offered with a thoughtful expression, looking at her husband. “You could do it, if you’re up to it?”

“That’s not a bad idea Summer. They would think twice before cheating a unicorn…” Keeper added.

So Harry agreed to help them out. Having the next three months planned, he guessed he would have little time to himself between his magic lessons and helping the earth pony family. But maybe that’s what he needed right now.

He just hoped that everything would be all right at Hogwarts in the meantime, and that he could find a way to return to his world.

The Origin: Part 3

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The Origin: Part 3

For the next couple of days Harry worked out a new routine. He woke up early with the rest of the family just after sunrise. The four of them would eat breakfast, that consisted mainly of vegetables. After that Harry, Summer and Keeper would go out on the fields to tend to them, which consisted mostly of uprooting weeds and chasing out rodents that would make their burrows on the fields.

At the beginning it sounded simple enough for the human-turned-unicorn, but just after one day spent on the field under the late summer sun, he ached all over and his whole body was covered in dust. Harry truly tried to do most of the work on their fields the earth pony way, and that lead to him painfully discovering muscles he didn’t know that even existed.

While they worked, Golden Harvest would bring them water or a small snack when they requested it, or she would bring them tools if they needed them.

After the morning chores were done, Summer and Keeper would go on their way to do whatever they saw fit to do around their home. Golden ran away to find other children to play with and Harry would go to Glimmer for their daily lessons in magic, but not before visiting the small stream that flowed behind the village. It was a half of an hour of a brisk trot to get to it and then back to town, but at least he could somewhat clean himself after the morning work. And the cool water tended to help him relax.

As to his magical studies he was making progress. It probably helped that he had five years of experience in using his magic under his belt already. The older unicorn was excited at his progress.

His speed of learning slowed significantly however, when he discovered that although he could speak Equestrian, reading and writing were a different matter. Glimmer not being put out by this development, took to learning him such basics without a pause, with a simple “Huh… that’s unfortunate.” as her only commentary.

From that day he practiced reading and writing with the scrolls and books from the older unicorn’s small library.

In his routine, after the lessons with Glimmer came a late dinner. The time between dinner and supper Harry spent however he saw fit. Most of the time he practiced his magic and his reading, learned from Summer or her husband the customs of Equestrian ponies, helped around the house or kept an eye on Golden Harvest on her... adventures with her friends.

Harry spent almost two weeks following this schedule with little to no interruption…

If he was counting days correctly, it was his fifteenth day, when Harry woke up with the sunrise as it was now his habit. When he entered the living room, first thing he noticed was the grim looking older stallion.

“What’s the matter Keeper?” He asked as he watched him from across the table.

“There is a storm coming Harry, you can see the clouds on the horizon. It’s going to be a nasty one.” There was a tone of resignation in the large earth pony's voice.

The gray unicorn looked at the other stallion, and then turned to the doors. He opened them, grabbing the door knob with his emerald magic, took a few steps outside and searched the horizon for the mentioned clouds. What he saw made his eyes grow wide. In the distance, the whole north-west skyline was covered in dark, massive clouds.

When he heard flapping of wings, he looked up to see the three resident pegasi, glancing worriedly at the storm front. By now Harry knew of the pegasi ability to control clouds and weather. According to the tales told him by Glimmer there was a time when pegasi held total control of the weather over ponies lands. But with Discord’s, the Spirit of Chaos, rule their influence was diminished significantly and they were hard at work even to this day to regain it. It wasn’t uncommon for rogue storms to appear, and the farther from capital the less control pegasi had over the skies.

So the danger this massive storm front posed was clear even to Harry. For one, he knew that thatch roofs could withstand only so much before being ripped apart. And thanks to working on the fields and listening to Summer’s and Keeper’s talks, knew that a heavy rain or even worse hail, could devastate the plants.

In his thoughts he didn’t notice a young, cream colored pegasus with a vibrant blue mane that landed beside him.

“Hey there. Somber Blackmane, right?” The pegasi was shuffling nervously on her hooves. The mare’s voice caused Harry’s head to quickly turn to look at her.

“That’s me, and who might you be and what can I do for you?” He answered with a resigned sigh. It would seem Glimmer was adamant about him sticking to the name she chose for him, going as far as apparently telling it to everypony. And he had a feeling where this was going, being one of the two unicorns in the village.

“I’m Wind Dancer, an unofficial leader of us pegasi in here.” He had to admit, she was kind of good looking for a pony. She had a lithe figure, and her smooth shoulder length mane, with a permanently wind swept fringe was well kept. Wind Dancer sighed. “You saw the clouds… We can’t tackle the storm of this size. I can fly to the capital to get help, but it’s going to take me more than a day of flight at my top speed, hopefully. And the storm is going to hit the village before midnight, if not sooner. You could help.”

“What do you want me to do?” Harry or Somber as most of the village now called him it would seem, asked with determination in his voice.

“I know that Glimmer isn’t that powerful, she always says she’s better with theory or whatever… But maybe you could shield the village for the duration of the storm? At least until help arrives.” The cream colored mare almost begged, looking at him with those big, hopeful, dark green eyes.

“I will do it…” Because he had to be honest with himself, what guy… stallion, would not fall for such a look.

“Thank you!” Wind Dancer almost almost jumped up from happiness. Her grandfather was one of the first settlers, she couldn't bare the thought of her family’s work being destroyed. In her excitement she leaned forward and quickly pecked him on his chin. “Well then… time for me to go…” She stammered with a blush.

The dark gray unicorn just nodded, dumbfounded. He watched her as she crouched down, stretched her wings, and then with one powerful flap she soared into the sky. The resulting gust of wind made his mane billow behind him for a few heartbeats.

As Harry watched her flying at speeds he thought impossible for pegasi, he lifted one of his hoofs to touch the place Wind Dancer so hastily kissed.

A boisterous laugh that sounded from behind him, pulled him out of his reverie, and this time made him truly jump up. When he turned around he found Keeper standing in the door frame grinning widely at him, still laughing quietly.

“Be careful Harry, or is it Somber?” The still grinning stallion began with humour in his voice. “Mares can do strange things to us stallions… I should know.”

“Know what honey?” Summer’s still sleepy voice sounded from within the house.

“Nothing, nothing dear.” With a sigh Keeper turned around and walked inside, it was time to break the bad news to his wife. He stopped and shot a last look, before entering, at Somber. “Go to Glimmer, think something up to keep the village safe for as long as you two can.”

Not having to be told twice, Harry galloped to Glimmer’s house. According to Wind Dancer’s words, they had the whole day to plan and prepare for the storm.

A few hours later, both Glimmer and Harry were working at the town’s square. The stalls were moved out of the center and up to the walls of the houses. At the well, both unicorns were setting up a series of moderately sized stones in an even hexagonal pattern, with the well in the middle of the created shape. On the surface of the smooth stones, that the farmers often found just below the ground on the fields, Glimmer was carving short cantrips in a runic language that Harry had yet to learn. She told him however, that those were the basic protection and shield spells that every unicorn mage learns. The elder unicorn looked up from her work on the second to last stone, a chisel still in her magical grasp.

“That’s quite good Somber, you have an eye for geometric shapes.”

“Thank you. But are you sure this will work? It is a rather quickly put together plan…” Harry asked not even trying to correct Glimmer, when she spoke the name he was fighting hard not to use. Having said that, he looked around the town square, their activity garnered the attention of the whole village. It was only forty three ponies, but for him it counted as a crowd. And they were staring…

“Ignore them Somber, their just curious.” The unicorn mare said, reading his tense body language. “And yes I have faith it will work. Seven is a magically powerful number after all, six ward stones with the well as the centrepiece. The water in it symbolising protection and rejuvenation, but also flexibility and persistence. For a shield that must hold for hours against changing forces, its probably the best set up we can create here.”

Not only Harry was listening with rapt attention. The other ponies, most of them for the first time in their lives, were looking curiously at the display of practical magic that was meant to shelter their homes during the storm.

“And done.” Glimmer proclaimed after another quarter of an hour of working in silence. She looked up, at the dark gray unicorn that was now standing closer to her, looking at her work. “Now remember, I will cast the spell and provide the first few charges of magic for the shield, but its going to be you that will hold the shield the rest of the time. So shoo, go rest, take a nap. You will need it…”

Harry looked up, at the approaching clouds. If he had to guess they still had at least four hours before the storm hit them. The light of the setting sun, colored the clouds an angry purple making them look far more threatening than before.

“This is going to be a long night…” He sighed, walking towards Summer’s house to take the suggested nap.

The next time he woke up, it was to the sound of a thunder. Harry jumped out of his bed and hurried outside. As he left the house, now illuminated only by a few candles and the fire if the fire pit, he walked into almost total darkness. He could hear the wind howling and the heavy droplets of rain hitting the light blue, swirling, magical dome shaped shield. In the middle he could make out the ward stones also glowing with the soft blue aura, Glimmer was laying near the well, occasionally discharging an arc of magic from her horn that hit the nearest stone, that in turn arced the energy to the neighbouring stones, and so on, creating a crackling circle of light blue magical energy. An ethereal glow emanated from the well.

“It’s working Somber, it really is working…” Summer whispered near him, but it was almost drowned out by the sound of the rain pounding on the magical barrier. Harry looked at her only to see her watching in equal parts fascinated and terrified at the raging storm behind the shield. The world was suddenly lit up by another lightning and the thunder was deafening, as it hit the shield, sending ripples through its surface.

Harry also watched and couldn’t help but feel, that whatever was behind the storm’s creation, was certainly more than natural. He couldn't remember in his life seeing a storm that powerful.

“You need to help her, Glimmer is close to her limit by the looks of it.” Keeper said approaching him.

Not wasting any more time, Harry trotted over to the circle. The magic in the air causing a tingling sensation all over his body.

“Glimmer I’m here. What do I have to do?” Harry had to shout, as another lightning hit something close to the village. He saw her open her eyes and he could tell right away that she truly was tired and by looking at the grimace on her muzzle, probably also in pain.

“Reach for your magic, and focus on channelling it in short burst into one of the stones. Until at least close to half of the flow is not your magic, don’t cross the line.” Her voice was pained, he could only imagine what it was for her to be inside such maelstrom of magic, with her heightened magical sensitivity.

Doing as she said, the dark gray unicorn began to slowly add his emerald magic to the flow. After another thirty minutes or so, he was finally able to safely cross the magical flow. When he did it, his legs experienced a strong, almost painful prickling sensation.

Glimmer stood up, her legs shaking. But she exited the circle and immediately one of the other stallions in the village went to support her, as she slowly walked towards her house. Harry laid down, closed his eyes and focused on the magic within and around him.

It was probably late in the morning, and the storm still stubbornly circled Trottingham. Now that Harry was focused for hours, he could definitely feel some kind of chaotic energy permeating the storm clouds.

Then his focus almost broke, as his senses were assaulted by a gigantic surge in the magical energies above the village. He could see a bright flash of light and heard a tremendous crack, that sounded almost like apparition. Following that there were gasp of awe, and then a cheer from the ponies on the Trottingham square.

When Harry opened his eyes and looked up, he almost lost concentration again. Above the village hovered the most majestic being he ever saw. She, he was quite certain that it as a mare, was pure white and decidedly larger than surrounding her pegasi. Her mane looked like the sunrise horizon as did her tail. Both glowed with ethereal light, waving and flowing majestically. The golden plate armor she wore, glowed with inscribed on it cantrips. The heavy white cloak with golden trimmings billowed in the wind behind her.

Accompanying her were at least thirty pegasi in light, golden armor. Their armors were only a chest piece and a helmet. The chest pieces were made from many segments as to not impede movement. The helmets were angular, with something that looked like two horns. But when he looked closer, Harry saw that the horns were actually shaped like lightning bolts. The rest of their bodies was covered in what looked like leather armor that was dyed blue.

“Princess Celestia!” Somepony shouted and again a cheer rose.

In the meantime, Harry saw the Princess preparing a spell. When she finally cast it, he could hardly comprehend what he was seeing. A ring of white light almost too bright too look at, burst forth from her horn, vaporizing the clouds as it expanded, and purging the chaotic energies from the sky. Instantly the pegasi she brought with her began, at amazing speeds, herding and shaping white puffy clouds, that reformed inside the circle of still expanding light.

For the first time in what felt like ages, sunlight illuminated the village. Harry sighed with relief, he was not too exhausted, but the strain of remaining constantly focused was beginning to get to him. He stopped the flow of magic. The shield quivered, and then began to slowly disappear in a shower of emerald sparks.

Slowly he stood up, his muscles protesting after lying unmoving for so long. He felt a hoof on his shoulder, it was Keeper.

“We all owe you our gratitude. You saved our village.”

He was not the only one to thank him, everypony slowly went to shake his hoof or pat him on the shoulder and congratulate him. Harry kept smiling all the time. Finally something in his life that he did right all the way through.

When somepony clear their throat behind him, he turned around. Only to came face to face with the golden clad Princess. Her white cloak was now covering her back and hindquarters. Now he could also see the tiara that marked here as a royalty.

“We believe, that you are the pony that shielded the town until we arrived with our troops, yes?” Harry cringed at the volume with which the Princess spoke, however her speech was all he could expect from a royalty. Soft but in the same time confident. “What is your name my pony?”

“Somber Blackmane.” Harry from now on know as Somber said with a tired smile, he really had no will in himself left to fight a lost cause, which was his new name given to him by Glimmer. “But it’s hardly only my doing, your highness. I had help of another unicorn, Glimmer is her name.”

“Ah, a modest one.” Celestia smiled slightly. “Do you plan on visiting our fine city?”

“In a few months, your highness.” Somber answered politely.

“Then we shall await your arrival, a pony with such power is destined for great things...” The white alicorn took a step forward and placed her golden clad hoof on his shoulder, as she smiled at him. “And you Somber Blackmane, we shall watch your progress with great interest.”

With those words the princes flared open her wings, then Somber remembered something important.

“Your highness, what happened to Wind Dancer?”

“Ah, the messenger. She sprained her wings in her haste, and will spend the next few weeks grounded under the care of our healers.” Celestia looked around, at the gathered ponies. “If that’s all, we shall leave. Some of our troops will remain behind to take care of the remaining clouds. Farewell my ponies.” After those words she took flight, almost half of her pegasi flocked to her and then they all disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.

For the rest of the ponies, that day resolved around assessing the damage done to their fields and the orchard. As it turned out, majority of their crops were easily salvageable with enough care. The orchard was hit the hardest, so that meant less fruits for the next year, but they could live with that.

As to Somber… While he recovered from sustaining the shield, he couldn’t help but ponder Celestia’s words. Also oddly enough thoughts about Wind Dancer took a lot of his free time. Was it possible that he developed a crush? On a pony of all things? Obviously that thought alone confused him…

And so the life in Trottingham returned to an almost boring normality in the span of the next few days, for all but one pony in the village that had too much to think about.

Three weeks after the storm, at a family dinner, Summer finally broached the subject of selling the extra grain from the first harvest, so that it would not waste. The autumn was coming and even if they had to use it as emergency food in the coming winter, they still had far too much of it.

“You think you can handle this Somber?” Keeper asked looking at the unicorn.

“I think that’s going to be easier than powering that shield three weeks ago…” Somber said with a small smile. “And I really need to get out of the village for a few days.”

That statement brought embarrassed smiles to the muzzles of the earth pony family. A week after the storm the ponies in the village decided to honor him, Glimmer and Princess Celestia by building a small shrine around the well. The elder unicorn, having recovered from her ordeal, immediately loved the idea. She paid for the majority of materials.

And so now, the well and a small circle around it was made from marble. With the six ward stones now laying atop small pillars. There was a small plaque with their names, meaning his, Glimmer’s, Wind Dancer’s and Celestia’s and an inscription: “In the year 214 After Discord, those ponies stopped a chaos storm from levelling the village of Trottingham.”

It was not much, but for Somber it was too much anyway. He hated attention.

“We will prepare the grain then… I think we have some sacks laying around, there's going to be at least… eight of them.” Summer said with a thoughtful look on her muzzle.

“Can I go with you uncle Somber? Please?” Golden Harvest asked in whiny voice, looking between her parents and said dark gray unicorn. That was also another thing that changed. With him living with the family for five weeks now, the filly grew attached to him. When she first called him uncle, he was dumbstruck. However when he saw that Keeper and Summer didn’t have anything against their filly calling him that, he accepted it with a smile.

In the end, with reluctance, the adults bowed to the filly’s demand as she pestered them about it all day long. When they finally agreed Golden wore a broad grin and walked with head held high, proud of her victory.

In the early morning of the day after their discussion, a covered wagon was packed with sacks of grain. Surprisingly, or maybe not so, another two ponies prepared their own carts when they saw Somber’s preparations. One was a burly, green coated, black maned stallion that was the local blacksmith, second was a mare with a smaller cart full of cherries. She had a red mane with a white stripe in it and her coat was a delicate yellow color.

“It’s safer to travel in groups. You never know what may happen on the road.” The stallion that by now Somber knew was called Iron Hoof said to him, as he approached to shake hoofs. “Especially, if you take the squirt with you…” Iron grinned saying that.

“Heeey!” Golden protested form atop the wagon’s bench.

“Oh it’s going to be such an adventure!” The red maned mare, Cherry Blossom, added her own excited thoughts to the talk. Everypony knew that Cherry was especially easily riled up for anything she considered adventurous. That’s why she was most of the time keeping an eye on the young ones, she had almost as boundless energy as they had.

“You sure you can handle that wagon of yours?” Iron asked, as he looked at the wagon and then at Somber with a bit of doubt.

“Being unicorn doesn't mean I can’t pull it.” With those words the dark gray unicorn buckled up to the wagon and gave it an experimental pull. The wooden wheels moved and Somber nodded, it wasn't that bad. Even Iron gave an approving nod.

That day marked the beginning of week long journey around the neighbouring towns. Somber underestimated how the wagon would slow him down, or that sometimes he would just have to wait until the next morning to bargain with the different mill owners.

For his shame, Somber was happy when Cherry didn’t continue her travel beyond the first town of Grassgow, admittedly the biggest of the three towns in a reasonable distance for him to travel with the wagon. In small doses the mare was a great pony, but over the first two days on the road, she began to annoy him. At least Golden had a blast with the red maned mare. Iron Hoof opted to stay in the town for a few days.

“Search for a pony going your way Somber, I just heard in the inn that there is a bandit group lurking around.” The news disgruntled both stallions. It was rare for ponies to take up bandit lifestyle, but it did happen. Mostly in the areas near the border of the kingdom.

Ponychester, was a disappointment to him. The town’s mill owner was a greedy bastard, that didn't even try to bargain. If it wasn't for Golden Harvest he could have vented his frustration aloud, but with the filly nearby, he just simmered in his anger until he got it under control on the road. Pulling a wagon was a mind numbing experience, that at least let him forget about most his concerns or annoyances.

Good fortune returned to him in the last town he visited. The owner of mill in the Oldhay was a really pleasant pony to be around. The two of them, Somber and Golden, even got invited to dinner. It was the end of fifth day of their journey, when they left Oldhay with their wagon empty and with a pouch heavy with golden bits.

They were travelling south, the town disappeared behind them a few hours ago. The midday sky was mostly cloudless, only a few white, puffy clouds drifted lazily in the delicate wind. Golden pranced around him humming some nonsensical, happy tune.

Sombra looked at the forest they were about to enter. The hardened dirt road from Oldhay to Trottingham was relatively new, or so he heard.

“Hey uncle, who are they?” Golden asked pointing a hoof at a five figures standing on the road.

Suddenly alert, the dark gray unicorn looked around him. As expected a lone pegasus pony was blocking the road behind them.

“Trouble. Stay close to me Golden.” When he said that, he saw the group of five cloaked ponies approaching them, four held long daggers in their mouths.

“Well hello there traveller. And hello filly.” The stallion in the middle said with a way too cheery voice. “A fine day it is for travelling, and it will stay that way if you would… shall we say, pay a fee for... crossing this woods.” One of his comrades snorted in amusement at those words.

“And if I say no?” Somber said with a cold, hard voice, that he wasn’t certain from where it came. Maybe because not only he was in danger?

“Now, now… We wouldn’t want for you or the filly to suffer an... accident on the road. Now would we? Timberwolves are rather common here, and they always leave a bloody mess...” A sinister glint appeared in the apparent leader’s blue eyes, his comrades moving apart to flank him.

Somber sighed, they were all earth ponies, with the exception of that one pegasus.

“Are you serious?” The dark gray unicorn replayed with contempt and sighed. His emerald magic surged forward grabbing the daggers and yanking them from their mouths, some of them lost a tooth or two from the forceful pull. He turned the blades and levitated them to the throats of the now terrified ponies. “Now then, I propose a different kind of deal…”

He didn’t have time to finish as he heard, more than saw the incoming pegasus. The wing tips of the pegasus brushed his side and then the forest was pierced by Golden’s shrill scream. Not thinking, Somber launched one of the daggers at the foalnapper. There was a second scream, and the pegasus crashed into one of the trees, with the dagger embedded to the hilt in the winged ponies flank. In the commotion, rest of the group fled into the forest.

Somber unbuckled himself from the wagon and raced towards the downed pegasus. Golden squirmed from under the pegasus unmoving body. She was crying and looking with wide, terrified eyes around herself jerkily. He quickly hugged her.

“It’s alright now. Come on, everything is going to be fine…” He was at a loss as to what exactly he should say to the upset filly. But he knew one thing for certain. “We can’t stay here Golden.” He whispered to her, as she began to quiet down.

Without wasting any more time, he helped her get into the wagon, quickly buckled himself up to it again and began to pull it a brisk trot. Luckily, they got out of the forest soon enough without any more trouble. Now it was just a matter of crossing the plains.

Two days after they returned, word got around about how he defended Golden Harvest. It was mostly due to Summer and Keeper keeping thanking him, and telling everypony willing to listen how brave he was.

That of course got him even more attention, but he began to slowly accept it as a result of his own actions. Compared to the attention gained by something he didn’t even remember doing and which cost him his parents, it was a welcomed change.

“I swear by Celestia… Trouble is attracted to you, like a moth is attracted to a flame.” Having said that, Glimmer was all too eager to step up their lessons intensity, when she heard of his latest misadventure.

The most surprising development was finding out that Wind Dancer has returned, while he was away. It wouldn’t have been so shocking for Somber, if it weren’t for the fact that the lithe pegasus mare decided to spend a lot of hers time with him. He suspected that she developed a crush, but he was still conflicted about creating any deep bonds with ponies in this world. Bonds he knew some day would have to be broken… So for the time being, he didn't allow things between them to escalate further than friendly banter.

Two weeks later the village was preparing for a celebration, as that day was the day of autumn equinox. Somber overlooked the preparation of the tables and the bonfires. After two months of living in Trottingham, he now had a lithe figure, and even grew a bit taller. His mane and tail have also grown, while still being uncontrollable giving him almost a wild appearance. The most striking feature was his eyes however, now almost glowing with hidden power.

Glimmer was running out of material to teach him, and he knew that his life in this quiet town was slowly coming to an end. For some time now he often wondered, if it wasn’t better to just stay here. But he knew he couldn’t. He had promises to keep and people to protect at Hogwarts, and sadly he knew that he would not find a way back to his home world in this village.

A tickling of a feather on his flank, brought him out of his musings. Somber turned his head to his right only to be greeted by a pair of dark green eyes. With great reluctance, a few days earlier he… showed Wind Dancer his consent to go a bit further in their odd relationship. For now they never move past simple gestures, and the occasional snuggle.

“This is going to be great party.” She said, nuzzling his neck in her greeting.

“You know it will be, with Cherry planning it.” He answered hugging, but then he took a step back. The dark gray unicorn could see the slight disappointment in her eyes, mixed with growing frustration. But they kept talking about unimportant things, as if everything was all right.

By the time the celebration was set up, the tables were filled with fruits, vegetables and many dishes and desserts made out of them.

When the celebration started at dusk, they entertained himself with singing, telling of tales and three ponies even provided music with a flute, drum and a lute. The adults also indulged in hard cider that Iron Hoof managed to buy in Oldhay.

Somber was having the time of his life, with fillies and colts listening with rapt attention to his tales, about a unicorn colt that just discovered his magic and his adventures in a magical school. From the corner of his eye, he saw Wind Dancer, living up to her name. Her moves were gracious and almost sensual, and her dancing with one of the bonfires in the background moved him in a way he couldn’t describe. For a moment he lost interest in anything else, not realizing he stopped his tale mid sentence.

Then he felt a pair of hooves on his back. He looked behind him only to see a grinning Golden, and a few other young fillies giggling behind her. The colts on the other hoof were nowhere to be found.

“Oh, I’m sorry Golden… where was I…” He was not going to admit to the filly he was staring at Wind Dancer.

“Just go dance with her uncle Somber… Sheesh, everypony in the village knows she fancies you.” Golden’s blunt words made his jaw drop, and the fillies giggled louder as he felt himself blushing. The resolute fully butted her head into his back to make him move.

“Alright, alright…” He muttered standing up, and firstly walking towards one the barrels of the hard cider. Somber knew that it was a bad idea, but he had no courage to join the cream colored mare in the dance. He drank one of the mugs in hasty gulps, and then moved toward the sensually moving mare, hoping he wasn't making a mistake.

Somber was unaware that most of the gathered ponies were watching him, as he come up to Wind Dancer, and matched her moves, which resulted in the most passionate dance some of the villagers witnessed in their lives, some even blushed looking at the pair as they dance with bodies pressed together. Of course bits changed owners, as bets were lost or won…

The party lasted until the moon was at its highest, and everypony was either too drunk or tired to notice a pair of ponies heading toward Wind Dancer house. And those that cared, and saw, knew that it was going to be special night for those two...

The Origin: Part 4

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The Origin: Part 4

When Somber began to slowly wake up, the first thing he noticed was the warmth of another body against his chest and belly. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the blue mane. Looking a bit down he could see Wind Dancer with her head nestled against his chest, her warm, steady breathing felt slightly tickling against his coat. For a second his mind began to panic, then the memories of the previous night returned to him.

The celebration of autumn equinox, his story telling… the dance with Wind Dancer. Then his memories began to blur somewhat, probably he drank too much. However his memories gained clarity when he thought about where he was, and who was sleeping in his embrace.

His late night activities with the cream colored pegasus sent his mind into another panic attack, as Somber tried to grasp the idea of his… first time being with a pony. His pony body and ex-human mind were at odds in that matter. For some time now he believed that he had come to terms with being a pony… but now it became obvious that he still had some issues.

“Somepony’s thinking hard…” A husky whisper followed by Wind Dancer nibbling his ear, startled the dark gray unicorn out of his thoughts. Somber couldn’t hold back the goofy grin that appeared on his muzzle.

“I’m probably overthinking some things…” He answered nuzzling her neck. His panic attack interrupted, Somber decided to just enjoy himself for once in his life.

Two hours later, when the sun was already high in the sky, Somber found himself sitting at a small porch Wind Dancer’s house had. He was observing ponies finishing cleaning after the party and setting up their usual stalls. Everypony that passed by, greeted him with a smile and a wave, and he responded in kind. The spirits in Trottingham were high after the party, and the mostly cloud free and still warm autumn day probably helped.

When he heard hoofsteps coming from the inside of the house, he turned his head around to look at the lithe mare that walked towards him with a fruit bowl held with her wings. Wind put the bowl down before him, when she sat at his side and leaned against him.

“You know that I can’t stay here in Trottingham, right?” Somber asked quietly after he ate an apple, sharing bits of the juicy fruit with Wind Dancer. He felt the mare shift a bit against his side. When he turned his head to his right, he came nose to nose with her.

“I understand that.” When she spoke their noses rubbed against each other, making him smile a bit sadly at the thought of leaving her. “But… Nopony said I can’t travel with you silly.” Wind finished with a quick kiss.

“Wait… What?” Somber blinked rapidly before he leaned back and rubbed his forehead with his hoof. “Well, if you want to you can… But are you sure? This is your home you plan on leaving.”

“It’s not like I have too much to leave behind.” Wind Dancer admitted with a bit of sadness in her voice. “Also, if I… if we plan on doing it… I would join you after a few weeks, by the time you will hopefully find a place for us to stay and a way to earn a few bits.” She turned her nose up at the end, when she used her best posh tone, a large grin was spread on her muzzle.

Somber chuckled lightly and shook his head. After the last two weeks they spent together he was used to her antics, but he still couldn’t understand her mood swings sometimes. Anyhow he played along, taking a step back and mock bowing before her.

“As my lady wishes.” He was rewarded with a bout of giggles.

They ate some more fruits and after that went to do their daily chores. For Wind Dancer it was patrolling the sky around the village, for Somber it meant helping Keeper and Summer at the fields.

When he reached the fields, he quickly spotted the two earth ponies and approached them. Keeper noticed him first.

“Well hello there Somber.” The burly earth pony said with a mischievous grin. “For a moment I was worried that you got lost in Wind Dancer’s bed.” Keeper laughed when he saw the other stallion blush fiercely.

“Keeper!” Summer looked up sharply at her husband. However she too had a small smile on her muzzle when she turned around to look at the dark gray unicorn. “Forgive him Somber, I think that not all of the hard cider he drank… flushed out of him.”

“It’s alright Summer.” Somber stammered slightly, warily watching the earth pony stallion, waiting for him to drop another comment about his last night. “Well there is one thing we should really talk about… Me and Wind Dancer…” He almost stopped when he saw the light brown coated stallion raise an eyebrow in half questioning, half humorous way. ”It’s just that, well… after some thinking we decided that from now on I should live with Wind Dancer.”

Keeper was opening his mouth to say something, but then he noticed Summer glaring at him.

“What? I just wanted to say that it’s his life and he can do whatever he wants.”

“That’s… Good then.” Summer said slowly. “And Keeper is right, it is your life Somber.”

The dark gray unicorn felt surprisingly touched by their words.

“I still plan on helping you, you know. Otherwise I wouldn’t know what to do with myself…” Somber said with a smile on his muzzle. He knew that they wouldn’t have anything against him moving out, but he felt that much better now that it was kind of official and they approved.

“Then you’re more than welcome to help.” Keeper, now with a more serious demeanor, walked towards him and slapped him on the shoulder, making Somber stumble. “Now then, that the brake is over we have a field to plow and this one to inspect…”

During their work, the trio, or mostly the more experienced couple talked about their relationship making the dark gray unicorn blush many times…

**********

He was sitting near the stream that flowed not a half an hour of a trot behind the village. Glimmer was laying on a blanket, and was covered with another one she brought with herself to ward of the morning chill that lately dominated the mornings. But that was the way things were, five weeks after the autumn equinox.

With critical eye she was observing her student performing the hardest exercise she could came up with. Holding up multiple spheres of water, in varying sizes. The smallest one was apple sized while in the largest, Iron Hoof could have bathed easily.

“Very good, there are only small ripples on the surfaces this time.” She said with pride in her voice. She had introduced him to this exercise almost two months ago, and right now he was ahead of any average unicorn, if one compared them after those two months. “You can let go now.”

With a weary sigh, followed by five splashes of the cold water, Somber looked at the older unicorn.

“It’s still hard to keep myself so focused.”

“I would be surprised if it wasn’t.” The older unicorn stood up, an action that was accompanied by several of her joints popping. She grimaced. “Winter will be starting early this year, I can just feel it in my bones…”

For almost a week now Somber knew that Glimmer was avoiding a certain topic in their conversation. This water sphere exercise, was lately the only one he had been doing. He had read through majority of the older’s unicorn small library, even copied some of the books… And it was no small achievement, requiring him to copy the book word after word. The speed of the process just depending on his ability to focus, on reading and writing with a quill held in his magic at the same time.

He knew that he had learned everything Glimmer had to offer. And she was stalling.

Somber didn’t hold that against the older unicorn. With each passing week of his life with Wind Dancer, making the decision to travel to the capital was harder to make. However he had a late night talk with his marefriend about it, that just left Glimmer and Summer’s family, the other four ponies he felt close to in this world.

“Glimmer.” He said to get her attention, as she was folding her blankets. That meant they were ending for today, far sooner than any other times.

“I know Somber…” She responded after some time, with the folded blankets resting on her back. “It’s time for you to go, if you still want to.” She finished with a small, sad smile.

“You know I need to.” He answered falling in step beside her, on their slow return trip to the village.

“Then listen well Somber.” Glimmer began talking, not really looking at him. “Everfree City is far different from our village. And I don’t mean the obvious things like size.” Her eyes narrowed. “If you step on the wrong pony’s hooves, they could make your life very difficult. But it’s the political heart of the Kingdom, one couldn't expect any less there I think...”

“So on who should I watch out? Nobles?” Somber in his time in Trottingham heard quite a few stories of vindictive, young noble families that sought out power and influence.

“Them but not only.” She looked at him briefly. “Tell me, you saw Princess Celestia weeks ago, what do you think of her? Of the Alicorn that controls our Sun?”

The strange question made him stop and look at her with narrowed eyes.

“That she was the most magnificent and powerful being I have ever seen. But what does that have to do with anything?” He decided to tell the truth.

“Everything. For over two hundred years now, ponies looked up to the Royal Sisters, writing down their deeds, forming opinions… and legends.” Glimmer now too stopped and turned to face him. “That inevitably lead to forming of cults. The worst thing is that the Princesses didn’t discourage them. When I was leaving the city more than ten years ago, grand temples of both Day and Night were being finished, I shudder at the thought of how much influence the so called priests have now.” The older unicorn looked quite sour while she talked.

“If such cults exists, how come I didn't see any signs of it in the village?” Somber’s head was spinning with the news. So it would seem that this world even had something like religion…

“Trottingham, like all new villages is poor, as such no ‘priests’ come by. Not yet at least. But given enough time there probably will be shrines build in honor of the Royal Sisters, and some naive novices will be sent over to watch over them.” She shrugged. “And besides, all of us here have a lot of other things on their heads. However I’m sure that if you ask around you will find, that all of the ponies in the village have some small token of their faith in Celestia. Especially after that storm…”

He was intrigued to such a point that he did as Glimmer told him. He asked Wind Dancer first, and she surprised him, showing him a small pendant made from false gold, shaped like the sun.

“Why do you not wear it then?”

“I would have lost it, with all the flying I do a long time ago. And it’s too precious to me. It was my mother’s, you know?” Wind Dancer said, putting the small pedant back inside a small wooden box.

That alone was enough for him to know that Glimmer was right. But what he didn’t found was far more surprising, as only a few ponies had any token of their faith in Princess Luna... That only brought to his mind more troubling thoughts. What would he find in the capital? For the first time in weeks, he didn't sleep well as a long forgotten nightmare about his godfather dying in the Department of Mysteries returned to haunt him.

**********

The following two days were rather stressful for Somber. It was not that he had so much to pack, but rather that he had to leave the village behind. And even the knowledge that Wind Dancer will be joining him in the following weeks wasn’t as comforting as he thought it would be.

It was now late morning, and beside Wind Dancer, Glimmer, Summer, Keeper and young Golden more than a dozen other ponies was standing before him, to say their goodbyes. Golden Harvest was especially emotional, as she was hugging his leg.

“But you will write to us, right?” The filly asked looking up.

“Of course Golden, how could I not?” Somber answered petting Golden's head, and delicately prying the filly from his leg. When he freed his leg, he was assaulted by a creamy streak of colour with blue mane… again. “Wind, I’m not leaving you for good and you know it.” He whispered into his marefriend's ear.

“I know, I know… It’s just it will be a few weeks before we see each other again…”

He kissed her briefly, before letting her out of his embrace.

“I really should get going, it’s a long way to Everfree.” At the beginning he thought that he could make it to the capital in a few days, what with Wind Dancer reaching it in just over a day. But then he realized that by hoof at a moderate speed, it would take him more than a week. Possibly longer, if he stopped for longer breaks in other villages and cities. Wind admitted that she only made it in such a time at great cost to her health, of which everypony knew, and because she was quite the gifted pegasus when it came to flight.

He looked at the assembled ponies before him, and smiled. At least he was happy for a time, with a simple life. Somber put his traveling packs on his back, with a few of his copied books and some golden bits, along with some bread with fruits. He also had a water skin, which was a rarity but still affordable.

The dark gray unicorn turned around, and slowly began to walk away. Nopony said anything, as they all said their goodbyes earlier.

**********

Somber’s first major break was in Ponychester. He still had some bad memories regarding the mill owner, but when he took some time to look around he found the small town quite enjoyable as it was growing into a trading center for this part of the kingdom. When the cold rain began to fall, he was glad that he was in still inside the borders of the town, as he made a short detour to the local sew mistress to buy a heavy, black hooded cloak. He paid almost a third of his bits for it, as it was enchanted to be waterproof and somewhat warmer, but he didn't regret it.

In the coming days his new hooded cloak turned out to be invaluable as it was drizzling almost every day for hours, if not the whole day. However the roads turned muddy, making traveling that much harder.

During his fifth day on the road he came across a wrecked covered wagon at the side of the road. The sky was mostly clear and it didn't rain that day so he immediately knew that whatever happened here was recent, as the traces of fighting could still be seen.

Alerted and seeing nopony around he hastily trotted forward. He decided not to sleep in the open that night and just continued his trot towards the capital in the moonlight.

However when the next night came, and he found himself in a forest, and unable to go another night without sleep. He found a small grove with a large, hollowed, fallen tree. When he kaud down inside the slightly rotten tree trunk, he immediately fell asleep not minding the occasional bug crawling around.

He was having one of his more pleasant dreams about flying under the star filled night sky, with the full moon shining brightly.

“Wake up…” There was a serene voice carried by the wind. “Wake up.” He looked around trying to find the source of the heavenly voice. “Wake up or die!”

With a shudder and a gasp Somber woke up inside the tree trunk.

“Hey listen, did you hear that?” A stallions quiet voice asked, but in the middle of the night it could have been a shout.

“No brother, you’re sure the pony you followed is somewhere around here?” Another voice this time a mare’s, but cold and full of malice.

Doing some quick thinking, Somber cast on himself a basic illusion spell that made his coat’s color and whatever was on him blend in with his surroundings. And it was just in time as he saw two figures moving in front of the opening.

“Nopony’s here… Damn, we missed another one. Sorry Cinder.” It was the stallion.

“Eh, no matter there will be another chance soon enough, come on.” The now named Cinder answered, and Somber heard two sets of hooves moving away from his tree trunk.

Knowing that he would not get any more sleep in this place this night, Somber grudgingly returned to the road and began walking, all the time thinking about the voice he heard in his dream that probably saved his life…

In the afternoon of that day, the dark gray unicorn saw the first signs of approaching the Everfree city. Ahead of him he saw several ponies working on paving the road with stone slabs, around him he began seeing fields of wheat and other vegetables along with lone houses. In the distance, to his right he could see the border of a dense forest

Not an hour later he saw the first armed patrol. They were earth ponies and pegasi in chainmail armor, with swords or some with spears. He could see that their chest pieces had a crest resembling a massive tree. They looked at him suspiciously and even stopped him to ask a few questions but allowed him to move along.

When he first saw the Everfree City he was amazed. It was created on top of a hill, and had a river running through it, if he wasn't mistaken. He could see a massive wall surrounding what he guessed was the oldest part of the city, but now there were too many houses too count build outside of the stone wall. As he approached he saw that they were made mostly out of wood, some were made out of stone. The closer to the wall he got the better were the houses, they even began to have a second floor. However every roof was covered with thatch.

The city’s narrow, cobbled streets were packed with ponies milling around. Some of the building's he realized were in fact proper stores or inns, and some were just magazines.

He realized that in the whole city, there had to be thousands of ponies living, majority of them living outside of the wall.

Near the inner city’s gate there was a large square with two massive two stories high, stone buildings. They were simple in design. But he could see that they had a massive walled of backyards.

“Excuse me, but what are those?” Somber asked somepony.

“Those? City and land guard’s barracks and administration, why? You need help from them?”

“No, no… just curious.”

After that brief talk he continued his walk, entering the inner city. Inside the wall, it was almost a different city. Every building was two stories high, decorated and painted with small front yards. The streets were wider and cleaner.

When he reached the first larger square on his left he saw a massive, C-shaped three stories high building built from white marble that looked like some kind of school, it even had it’s own clock tower with a sundial. At least he didn't have to ask what it was as the words carved in a stone arch above a massive set of double doors said it all. “Academy of Magical Arts.”

Deeper in the city he also found the building of the Royal Archives, built in similar fashion to the Academy.

When he reached what looked like the central square, he was once again amazed. Before him at the crest of the hill he could make out a massive castle with a bridge over the river leading to it. On his right and left there were what he supposed were the temples Glimmer told him about.

To his left, was one made from white marble with rows of slim columns on the outside that had golden inlays that depicted the sun, or Princess Celestia. In front of it stood a row of brightly burning braziers. He could see ponies in white robes with golden trimmings and clasps moving around. It brought to him the images of old Greek temples, or at least what he glimpsed they looked like.

On his right was a temple made from black marble, with onyx and silver inlays that depicted the moon, stars and who he knew to be Princess Luna. It was built in similar fashion but instead of braziers it had a row of obelisks made from highly polished obsidian, with silver runic cantrips engraved into them.

The ‘priests’ also were far different.

While the Celestial ones were running here and there attending to the temples guests, the Lunar ones wearing their black robes trimmed with silver, with their hoods hiding their muzzles waited silently and observed from the shadows until someone approached them. Which didn’t happen often seeing as the Celestial Temple garnered far more attention.

So it almost made him jump, when one of the black robed ponies seemed to materialize beside him.

“Yes, can I help you?” Somber asked cautiously and maybe even a bit coldly, but the robed pony didn't seem to mind.

“Maybe. However I see you are tired from your’s journey traveller, come. We have spare rooms for ponies like you, those in need.” The Lunar priest’s voice was polite and cultured, Somber guessed he had to be a noble.

“Not to offend you, but how come you know I’m… ‘In need’?”

“Our goddess spoke with our Soothsayer, she predicted your arrival. Just as she saved your life.” The robed pony leaned a bit forward and whispered the last part, trying to sound mysterious… But to the dark gray unicorn he sounded only a bit creepy. Nonetheless the last part got him interested, maybe it was Princess Luna that woke him up in that grove? She was the Princess of the Night, who was to say she couldn't invade dreams?

That thought brought him to a sudden stop. If she could… Then she knew of his origins. That demanded a bit of investigation in his opinion.

Besides, didn’t Princess Celestia herself told him she would be watching his progres? Maybe it was time to make a visit in the castle. He raised his gaze, to look at the castle in the setting sun. Not today then, he sighed.

“Very well then, show me that room… I will not lie, it was a tiring journey.”

“Follow me then, and cover your muzzle my friend. At the Lunar temple we value privacy and secrecy.”

Somber followed his guide through the squire filled with ponies, walking towards the Lunar Temple and possibly the first night of good night’s sleep in days.

The Origin: Part 5

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The Origin: Part 5

When he woke up, for a moment he didn’t remember where he was. However after looking at the almost bare room basked in a soft blue light and the heavy, black curtains that covered the small window… the memories of his week long journey and his arrival at the Canterlot City came back to him. Somber had to admit, that was his best night sleep in about a week.

Still feeling a bit sleepy, he got out of his bed. He made his way towards the small dresser near the door, which for now was holding all of his belongings. On it was a wooden bowl filled with water, that he promptly used to freshen himself up. And he did it just in time, as somepony knocked gently at his room’s door. Quickly putting on his traveling black cloak and pulling the hood up, he opened the door with his emerald colored magic.

Outside, in the short corridor that had six doors in it and was lighted by the same soft blue light, coming from charmed crystal shards, stood a pony clad in the simple, black hooded robes with silver trimmings of a Night Priest.

“I was told to show you the way to the dining hall, that is… if you would like to eat something.” A shy mare’s voice with a strange accent sounded from beneath the hood obscuring her muzzle. His stomach rumbled, giving her the answer. Somber laughed quietly, embarrassed. “Well then, follow me.”

His guide lead him through the small corridors of the living section of the Temple of the Night, as he was told it was called. As it turned out the kitchens and the main dining hall were in the basement, conveniently placed next to a rather large wine cellar.

Before Somber and his guide entered, she stopped him.

“Please remember, that the temple grounds are a sanctuary to anypony worshiping our goddess. That means no fighting or killing obviously, even if you met somepony you want revenge on.” Her voice became far more serious than any other times she spoke.

“I don’t think I have enemies in this kingdom, but I will remember the rule.” The dark gray unicorn said, just now thinking about what kind of shady folk he will encounter in the room behind the double doors. The priests didn’t make it a big secret about the Temple being a sanctuary to those who indulge in… certain night activities, a pony just had to just ask the right questions. However when he witnessed the city guards forbidden from entering with a warrant of arrest for somepony, not long after crossing the Temple’s threshold… that was a major give away.

“You don’t have enemies yet, my friend, not yet…” Her quiet and ominous comment made him frown, but Somber sighed when he realized she probably was right.

When the doors were pushed open by his guide, he was almost blinded by the bright and warm light from the large fireplace, in addition to the sun light that flowed through small and narrow windows near the ceiling. In the middle of the quite large room stood a long table, with benches on either side. Only about a quarter of the space at the table was occupied, by a total of eleven cloaked ponies. That surprisingly had their hoods down.

“You can pull the hood down here, it would be kind of impractical to eat with them covering our muzzles…”

When Somber turned to look at her he saw a pale red, slender unicorn mare’s muzzle. She had long, slightly curly, amber colored mane and stunning blue eyes. For a moment he just stared at her, until he shook his head and thought about Wind Dancer.

“You certainly stopped drooling at my sight faster than most of the stallions at the table, when they first saw me.” She smiled slyly and then pointed with her head at the table. “Come on then, lets join the misfits.”

When they approached the occupied end of the table, that was farthest from the doors and closest to the fireplace, Somber now could clearly hear one the stallions talking…

“... And then he was all like ‘You’ll pay for this you son of a mule!’. I hadn’t run that fast since… last week?” He was a skinny, rusty red stallion with a short, black and shaggy mane that probably wasn’t washed in weeks. In Somber’s opinion the shallow cheeks, and slight shadows under his grey eyes only added to his sickly appearance. Then he looked at him excitedly. “Oh, a newcomer!”

That prompted every other pony at the table to look at him. Now that Somber was stared at, and he stared back, he clearly saw that everypony at the table wasn’t looking like life was good to them, also they all had a certain tension about them that didn't truly leave them even in this seemingly relaxing setting.

“Well, aren’t you going to introduce our guest Bella?” The pony asking was sitting at the head of the table, wearing far more embroidered Night Priest’s robes. He was and older pegasus, as his robes had a slight bulge at his midsection. His coat was black, speckled with gray hairs showing his age. His mane was dark gray and shortly cut.

“He didn’t say his name Your Eminency and I didn’t ask.” Bella answered sitting opposite to the rusty red stallion.

Somber almost took a step back when the intense gaze of the older pegasus caught his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped by a raised hoof from the pegasus.

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to tell us your name, if you don’t want to. We will understand.”

“But how can I welcome him properly to the family, if he doesn’t tell us his name?” It was the sickly looking stallion again, but now he was gesticulating wildly in Somber’s direction.

In the meantime, when he was ensured that everything was fine, Somber sat to the left of his guide, Bella. Again it was the older pegasus that answered.

“I’m sure he isn’t going to become as frequent guest of our Temple, that we have to set him up with his own room, like you Silvertongue.” The name of the stallion was spoken with such irony but also strangely enough fondness, that only a def pony would have missed it.

Somepony snorted with ill concealed amusement. Somber just looked at Bella and raised an eyebrow in silent question.

“Don’t listen to the loudmouth, his stories are mostly either exaggerated or wholly false.”

The dark gray unicorn didn’t quite know what to say to that, so he decided to take a bite out of the puffy bread stuffed with raisins, that he spotted and now had on his copper plate. He chewed slowly watching as others returned to their meals. Seven stallions and four mares. Three unicorns, two pegasi and the rest earth ponies.

“So Bella, was it?” Somber decided to start a conversation to distract himself from the knowledge that Silvertongue was staring at him.

“Actually it’s Belladonna, but Bella will do just fine.” She answered with that strange accent of hers after a sip of what he guessed was wine from hers copper chalice.

“So… What’s his story? Silvertongue’s I mean.” Somber asked, trying to be discrete…

“I’m here you know, you could just ask me…” The mentioned stallion then began to mumbling something about rude guests. Somber smiled sheepishly.

“Well our resident jester…” She was interrupted by a loud “Hey!”, which she ignored. “Had the, how do I put it... misfortune of having a thievery related cutie mark. It landed him in trouble Luna knows how many times… and a few times in jail, before the temple was build that is.”

Silvertongue became suddenly quite serious, a look that in Somber’s eyes made him look far more grim than his previous, almost jovial demeanor.

“And I thank Luna every night that it was build, if not I would probably still sit in a jail cell for something that is my special talent.” He looked down at his plate full of crumbles. “It’s just sometimes stronger than me, you know?”

Somepony cleared his throat to his right, Somber leaned a bit forward to see whoever it was. It was the third unicorn at the table, surprisingly his coat was white and his mane was long and straight, blue with a purple stripe. He was also wearing a black robe, but his looked more body fitting than that of the priests and had a leather, dyed dark gray armor that covered his shoulders and withers.

“Indeed, the Temple of the Night is a safe heaven for those with talents that make other ponies distrust us, or outright fear us.” The white unicorn shot a look at a group of three earth ponies, two stallions and a mare. “Of course those, that are getting their bits in more… forceful ways, are also sheltered here so long as Luna favors them.”

The first thing, that came to Somber’s mind with the given description of the huddled group of three ponies was ‘mercenaries’, the next one was ‘bandits’. They ought to have made a lot of enemies in their... line of work, no wonder that they stopped at the Temple. But it was not that, that intrigued him in what the other unicorn said.

“And how do you know, that Luna favors somepony?” He asked looking at Bella then at the yet unnamed pegasus at the head of the table.

“Those touched by our goddess, carry with them a tiny fraction of her magic mixed with their own magic.” The older pegasus answered.

“So that means that you have somepony gifted in sensing magic as a priest, right?” Somber’s curiosity grew, surely they had to have somepony as a sensor. He didn’t see how it could work otherwise.

“Now that is one of the Temple’s secrets, all you need to know is that our Soothsayer can easily detect such a… mark.” The tone of the older pony had that quality in it, that signaled the end of a discussion on this subject.

After that came a moment of silence as everypony thought either about their future plans, or about what was said in case of a certain ex-human.

About an hour after the breakfast ended, Somber was pacing in his small room. He was a bit nervous about the next step of this journey. Although he had nothing to lose and everything to gain, the thought of visiting the Castle of the Royal Sisters still made him uneasy.

Although he remembered Glimmer’s warning about the priests and nobles, he felt more confident in dealing with the priests so far.

With a snort Somber realized that he was being a bit cowardly. It was not something he ever thought he would be calling himself, the brave and even hotheaded Gryffindor at heart… a coward? He shook his head and took a deep breath.

“Just do it…” He all but snarled at himself, straightening, doning his cloak and pulling up the hood.

Within moments he was out in the main hall of the Temple, on his left stood the massive statue of Princess Luna made wholly from polished obsidian, and encrusted with diamonds and sapphires. On the right were two sets of massive double doors, made from mahogany with carved in them depictions of night sky, inlaid with silver. They were currently only slightly open and the openings were covered by massive dark curtains, allowing ponies to enter and leave, but letting in only the tiniest amounts of sunlight.

The day was cool and windy, but the sky was clear thanks to the pegasi weather teams.

During his walk towards the Castle he quickly noticed that ponies tended to get out of his way. For a moment he was wondering why they did it, the it hit him. He was wearing his cloak with the hood pulled up, amongst ponies that had nothing to hide, he had to look at least suspicious. To be honest he also had nothing to hide, but the cloak gave him a bit of a nostalgic feeling, he had to admit that. It was almost like wearing a Hogwarts cloak, but he pulled down the hood revealing his muzzle, which seemed to pacify the crowd around him.

At the bridge he came across two guards in golden looking, plate armour. It covered almost all of their bodies with the exception of legs and necks, which were protected by a golden chain mail. Both held long spears, and had short swords sheathed at their sides.

“Halt! Stranger, what business do you have within the Castle?” The shout was so unexpected, coming from the perfectly still guards, that it stopped Somber immediately. He looked between the two guards.

“I need to speak with Princess Celestia.” The dark gray unicorn stated with determination.

“A lot of ponies want’s to speak with our Princess. State your name and say what you want to discuss with the Princess.” Said the guard to Somber’s right, waving one hoof. It turned out to be a signal of some sorts, as from a small building near the river bank flown out a pegasus in a lighter version of the golden armour. The pegasus was carrying a saddlebag with scrolls, an inkwell and a quill.

“I’m Somber Blackmane, and what I want to discuss is a private matter.”

What Somber didn’t expect was the guards standing even straighter, if that was possible, and saluting him by hitting the spears against their armor with a loud clang.

“Sir Blackmane, we didn’t recognize you, sorry sir. The Princess will be notified about your arrival immediately. Please go directly to the throne room.”

Somber blinked owlishly, and then blinked again before his mind processed what happened. Not wanting to test his luck, he began walking forward, towards the castle not really paying attention to where he was going still dumbfounded by the guards reaction.

While he walked, he duly noted that the Castle built mostly from gray stone, was obviously built with a military purpose in mind, and the expensive furnishings and decorations were probably an afterthought.

He had to ask for directions a couple of times, but finally he reached the throne room’s door. They looked normal enough, if he ignored the solid gold and silver insignia on the center of the double doors, that depicted the Sun and Moon in a Yin-Yang symbol like fashion.

The guards stationed by the doors pushed them open allowing him to enter.

When Somber entered the throne room he was once again astonished, this time by its simplicity. High windows on both sides allowed the sunlight to flood into the large room. In the center, between two rows of slim columns a lush red carpet lead from doors to the dais on which stood a white marble throne. Behind the throne was a round alcove, which wall was one big window.

On the throne, on some red and golden pillows sat Princess Celestia with her flowing mane. This time she was wearing a simple, flowing, white dress with gold threads sewn in that made it shimmer when the alicorn made even the smallest of movements. She was also wearing a heavy looking golden torque with a ruby set in its center, and on her head was her golden tiara.

A few steps lower on the dais stood an elderly, white coated, blond maned unicorn stallion clad in golden armor similar to the one of the guards, but his had a heavy white cape trimmed with gold attached to it that covered most of his body, and when Somber approached the dais he could see the now familiar protective cantrips engraved into the visible parts of the metal. The only other differences was that he was not wearing a helmet or any visible weapon.

“Ah, Sir Blackmane, finally. We were beginning to worry you would never come to our city.” Celestia’s loud voice echoed in the throne room, making Somber a bit uncomfortable.

“Princess Celestia.” Somber said, bowing slightly and then looking at the monarch. “I must say, I’m curious what is it with the ‘Sir Blackmane’, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“A sign of our gratitude for your service for the good of our kingdom.” Celestia saw the still questioning look she was given and smiled slightly. “You Somber Blackmane, have been given the title of Solar Knight. And now that you are here we can make it official.”

For a moment Somber didn’t know, if he should feel honoured or annoyed because he seemingly had no say in this matter. In the end he decided to go with the flow… And in the end, he figured that such a title will be only beneficial to him.

“Very well then. What should I do?” Even if he tried not to sound annoyed, a bit of it still crept into his voice. The white gold clad stallion noticed it and frowned slightly but said nothing, and the Princess either didn’t catch it in his voice or she just ignored it.

“Come closer to us, five steps below the throne and kneel.” Although she the alicorn was still speaking so loudly Somber was getting used to it now.

The dark gray unicorn approached the throne and stopped five steps below it. Just now he observed that the steps were designed to be wide enough so a pony could kneel on them without it feeling too awkward.

Somber looked up at the Princess, now being that much closer to her he could see her stunning pale magenta eyes. But soon enough his gaze focused on her mane, as the alicorn horn glowed with a gold aura, something began to emerge from her mane.

It was a hilt of a sword caped with a large triangular ruby set in a golden pomel, its grip was wrapped with white cloth with two short tassels moving in an unseen breeze. The guard, also made from gold, looked like the sun. It was a hollow circle with six golden spikes emerging from it. The blade surprisingly was also made from gold, however it had runes he had never seen before carved into its whole surface that glowed slightly. It was long, tapering to a point. If Somber had to guess from its size it was a claymore.

Celestia’s golden aura was holding the grip, and the sword levitated between the two of them with it tip pointing up.

“This is Zenith, nowadays it serves more ceremonial purpose than in ages past, thankfully.” For a moment, as she eyed the sword, hers voice quieted and took on a thoughtful quality as if she spoke more to herself than to anypony.

Somber could feel the raw magical power radiating off the golden claymore. It was like a hot summers wind... he could even feel his mane waving slightly, which made his eyes go wide when he realized it. The magic was powerful enough to manifest as a hot wind. No matter how weak it was, it spoke volumes of the blade’s hidden power.

“Your highness, you don’t really plan on knighting him here and now, are you? It’s improper for ceremony of such significance, this should be a grand event!” The until now silent stallion spoke with a bit of agitation in his voice, he also made a step forward.

“We do Count Stronghoof. It’s a mare formality at this point in our eyes. And you, the Grand Master of the Solar Knights are enough, when it comes to the knighting requiring a witness.” Although her voice and demeanor were calm, Celestia’s gaze dared him to challenge her words.

“And I don’t really like crowds staring at me anyway…” Somber muttered, but he had to say it far louder than he wanted because the Count shot him a displeased look, while the Princess smiled a bit broader.

“Now then that’s settled, let us begin.” The golden magic moved the sword to rest above his left shoulder, this close the blade felt scaldingly hot. “Dou you Somber Blackmane swear your undying loyalty to us? To obey our orders and carry them out to the best of your ability?”

The dark gray unicorn was catched of guard. The Princess didn't mention any oath earlier… On the other hoof he should have expected it, nothing ever came without a price it would seem. He sighed.

“I do.” After his words, the blade moved to his other shoulder.

“Then as the Avatar of the Sun I proclaim you a Solar Knight. May you serve our ponies and kingdom well.” The blade floated to Celestia’s right side. “And do you Count Stronghoof of House Blueblood, the Grand Master of Solar Knights, recognize this stallion as a Solar Knight?”

“Aye, I do.” Stronghoof said, also with a sigh. His Lady’s word was law after all and he would not disobey and disgrace his family.

“Then it is done. You are now Sir Somber of House Blackmane.” As she finished talking, Celestia hid Zenith in her mane.

Somber guessed he could now stand up, so he did. He began looking between the Princess and Stronghoof.

“So what happens now Princess?” He decided to break the silence that settled into the throne room.

“Now you will go with Count Stronghoof to discuss your nearest future. As a Knight he is your superior, unless we personally give you an order.” The white alicorn wanted to speak again, but was interrupted by a pony walking through a small side door. He, as it was a stallion, approached the dais and bowed.

“Princess, the Day Court should begin in half an hour, nobles are already gathering.”

“Very well, have them entertained for now.” She dismissed the servant with a wave of a hoof and focused on Somber once again. “Our time is growing short for now, but later we will wish to discuss other matters with you Sir Somber. Await our summons.”

Both Knights, knowing when they were being dismissed bowed, with Somber being a bit hesitant about it, and began walking toward the double doors.

“So… Count Stronghoof, what should I do now?” The dark gray unicorn was one more today, dumbfounded by the turn of events. It was beginning to look like he was once again losing control of his life.

“For now young one, we shall go to the library where in peace, we will be able to think and talk what to do with you.” The voice of the older unicorn was calm and almost as rhythmic as the clanging of his armored hoof on the stone floor. “I admit, I’m not happy with being saddled with another recruit, after the training of the five other newest additions to our order is months ahead. The ceremony is performed once per five years for all of the carefully selected recruits for a reason.” He eyed the dark gray unicorn critically from the corner of his eye. “And your coat color will stand out as a soar hoof. But if the Princess want’s you to be a Knight, then she had to see something in you. What? I don’t know... but who am I to disobey her?”

Somber listened with attention, he could already feel a slight dislike for the Grand Master growing in him. At least the golden clad unicorn behaved professional and didn’t let his annoyance influence him too much.

As the two walked through the castle Somber saw far more ponies milling around, mostly in extravagant clothing and costly jewelry. Nobles have arrived for the Day Court.

And amongst the crowd, the two unicorn were walking towards the library, one thinking about how to smoothly integrate his new underling into the training, the other thinking hard about what he got himself into...

The Origin: Part 6

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The Origin: Part 6

The castle’s library was in Somber’s opinion a bit disappointing. It was a high circular room with two levels, if he had to guess it was similar in size to the Gryffindor common room. It was smaller than he expected it to be. Although he had to admit, that the lush dark green carpet, the many pillows on which one could sit or lay and the large fireplace across from the double doors, did make it feel cosy.

“I can see you're disappointed Blackmane, not exactly what you expected?” The older white unicorn said smirking slightly, as he moved to sit on one of the pillows near the fireplace.

“I thought it will be… larger.” Somber admitted as he made himself comfortable on one of the many a pillows.

“Yes, many think so. But The Princesses have written only so many books through their lives…” Stronghoof said with a smile, watching as the knowledge that every book in this room was written by the princesses sank in. “Now then lets talk about more important things, like where are you going to live while you train.”

The Grand Master’s words brought Somber out of his stupor. The dark gray unicorn blinked a few times before he was able to respond.

“Well for now I’m staying in the Temple of the Night, as I don’t have my own place to stay in the city.” Somber sa the small scowl that formed on the older’s unicorn muzzle when he mentioned where he was staying.

“That will not do.” Stronghoof said with a frown. “One of my knights will not be seen living in that… temple. You will go there today for anything you have left there, and I will arrange a room for you in our quarters.”

“Sir, in about two weeks my marefriend is going to join me here in the city… I was wondering…” A tired sigh interrupted Somber, he looked at the white coated unicorn as he in turn looked at him in exasperation.

“Only members of our Order can live in properties owned by the Solar Knights. If you want to live together with her, you better get a move and start searching something on your own. But I can tell you right away that buying a house is far too expensive for you right now. And nopony will rent you a room, that is why most of the newcomers just build their homes in the outer circle of the city.”

“But building a house is also costly…” Somber almost pouted as he said that. If he didn’t know better he would probably think, that the older unicorn was purposely making things harder for him and Wind Dancer.

“Be that as it may, we still can still give you one room for you, and you alone.” Stronghoof said with a small scowl, ending that part of the discussion. “Now, let us talk about your magic. I’ve been told by our Princess that you managed to power and hold a large shield for an extended period of time, and against a chaos storm of all things.” The white unicorn looked around, and then settled his piercing gaze on Somber. “Shielding an entire village for hours against that kind of force is… an astounding feat. However even the Princess can be fooled.”

The dark gray unicorn felt anger swell in him. For the first time in this new life of his, somepony called him a cheater. And it should go without saying that such insinuations brought forth rather unpleasant memories.

“You’re calling me a cheater, a liar?!” Somber hissed with barely restrained anger in his voice, as he glared at the older unicorn.

“Now, I didn’t call you anything. I’m merely voicing my concern.” Stronghoof said still scowling slightly. “Such power is, more often than not nowadays, a result of dabbling into Dark Magic. I would hate to allow some dark sorcerer to be called a Solar Knight.” His horn glowed with magenta aura for a few seconds before the aura disappeared.

Meanwhile Somber stood up and tensed waiting for whatever magic was cast to take effect.

There was a brief knocking on the doors, before a servant earth pony mare brought in a small wooden box, she put it down before the two stallions, and opened the lid revealing a crystal shard of some kind. She bowed and then left without a word.

“What’s that supposed to be?” The dark gray unicorn said looking at the shard with a mix of curiosity and suspicion.

“That is a Resonance Crystal. They’re hard to come by, especially this variety that reacts to even miniscule traces of dark magic in a unicorn’s aura.” Now it was Stronghoof that stood up, he took on a more defensive stance.

“And you want me to do what exactly?” Somber asked eyeing the older stallion cautiously, he really was beginning to dislike the white coated unicorn.

“Levitate it. And then we will see…”

“That won’t be necessary Count Blueblood.” A commanding mare’s voice sounded from above them.

Both stallions looked up at the second level balcony. Behind the railing stood a dark blue coated alicorn. With the hood of her black cloak lowered, her star filled mane flowed gently around her head. The sharp and cold gaze of her cyan colored eyes was directed at both of them. Her muzzle was a stone mask, that showed no emotions. Princess Luna stood in the library.

Stronghoof was opening his mouth to speak…

“We said, that the test won’t be necessary. The word of two Princesses in not enough for you, my dear subject?” Luna’s words made the older unicorn scowl, but he refrained from answering.

Somber in the meantime was just gazing at the Princess that saved his life a few nights ago. He followed her with his gaze, when she spread her wings and glided down from the balcony. In flight her cloak revealed a black armor with silver designs on it. Now that he had a look at it he could see that where Celestia’s armor was heavy and designed for maximum protection, Luna’s was meant to be light and not restrict her movements in any way. The black armor had even pads on the armored horseshoes to muffle the Night’s Princess steps.

When the dark alicorn landed silently on the floor, she shot one gaze at Stronghoof.

“Leave, we desire to speak with this young stallion, alone.”

While the dark gray unicorn looked surprised, his superior looked just a bit miffed. But Stronghoof knew his place and decided to leave without saying another word. When the library’s doors closed behind him, Luna moved. She slowly started to walk around Somber, with a small frown on her muzzle. Somber suddenly felt like he was trapped with a predator and he was the prey, which made him shuffle his legs.

“We have to admit, while we don’t blame you for your choice, we are slightly… dissapointed.”

Her voice and what she said caused Somber some distress. He knew of what she was speaking, it caught him by surprise and he, even if reluctantly, jumped on the occasion to elevate his status a bit…

“We see you understand.” Luna was by his hindquarters by now, and while he followed her with his gaze, he had to say something at last or he felt he would crack, under the unexplainable tension that was building between them.

“Why did you stop Stronghoof’s test Princess?” Somehow his words came out more aggressively than he intended. Corners of Luan’s mouth twitched.

“He’s a paranoid one, and most of the time he is wrong…” She took her time, circling him until they stood side by side. He could feel her cloak against his side. “However…” She leaned forward, so she could whisper into his ears, her hot breath made his right ear twitch a bit. “You have so much potential, a darkness that no matter how deeply it is hidden, can not be hidden from us. And from that infernal crystal… with the way you are now.”

As she finished whispering into his ear with that silent, almost seductive voice, she stepped forward, brushing lightly the tip of her star filled tail against his cutie mark, and lower belly… coming too close to his privates for his comfort. Somber couldn’t hide the small blush that showed on his muzzle. But he fought through his embarrassment, that disappeared as quickly as it appeared as he processed the Princess's words.

“I don’t know what you are talking about… I have no ‘hidden darkness’ in me.” Somber replied with indignation.

“Oh, but you do... And you have been touched by the most vile dark magic we have ever felt.” Luna was now facing him again, she was smirking. “With your potential, and origins… You are the most interesting thing that happened to this kingdom in over a hundred years… Harry Potter.”

He gaped at the dark alicorn in shock. He tried saying something a few times, but no sound left his mouth. For months now, he had been just Somber Blackmane…

“How do you know?” The dark gray unicorn asked silently, with his head now lowered, waiting for whatever the Night’s Princess had planned for him.

“We are the Ruler of the Night, Avatar of the Moon and Stars, Guardian of Dreams…” Luna said stepping closer to him, and she willed her star filled mane to raise his head.

He flinched at the last title, that explained a lot. The ex-human found it odd that the mane felt so solid… and cold. Their gazes locked.

“But your secret is safe with me… for a price.” The dark alicorn’s voice gained a bit of warmth as she said that, a glint of mischief could easily be seen in he now half lidded, cyan eyes.

“What do you want?” Somber sighed, sounding resigned. Inside he was however truly afraid of what she would ask of him.

“A lovers kiss.”

His jaw dropped from the ridiculousness of her request.

“You… You’re kidding, right? Right?” For a moment the unicorn stallion forgot with whom he was speaking. He pulled his head back, just now noticing how close they have been for a while.

“No, I’m waiting.” Luna said with a slight smirk.

Somber took a few deep breaths. One kiss was not the end of the world…

Almost a quarter of an hour later, Somber walked out of the castle’s library. For the most part his thoughts were in turmoil. But one thing he was certain of, what… happened between him and the Princess of the Night would not be quickly forgotten. It made him that much more ashamed when his thoughts betrayed him. He knew that he would not dump Wind Dancer, but he also knew he would now always compare the two… a pegasus and an alicorn. One of them had the unfair advantage of being almost perfect on top of being experienced, if the last quarter of an hour was anything to go by.

In his sulking he missed the form of Stronghoof, apparently waiting for him.

“Blackmane!”

His name being shouted, made him jump and look around. When he saw the white unicorn his mood worsened. By some twisted logic, Somber’s mind instantly declared all of his heartache to be his superior’s fault. Not that he was going to tell him that…

“Yes, sir?” Even if the noble pony heard the heavy sarcasm in Somber’s voice he didn't comment on it. He just smiled grimly.

“Well, what did Princess Luna want?” When he heard the question, the dark gray unicorn just stared at the older one.

“With all due respect… That is a private matter, sir.” A bit of anger slipped into Somber’s voice, Stronghoof couldn’t know, he just couldn’t!

“Hmmm…” Stronghoof grunted and scowled. “I will let this slide this time. Come then, let me show you to your new room.”

The older unicorn started slowly walking, but after a few steps he realized that he was walking alone. He turned his head to send a glare at the still standing younger unicorn.

“Not coming Blackmane?”

“Not if it means leaving my marefriend to fend for herself.” Somber answered with determination in his voice. At least he would try to appease his conscience this way, and try to forget about Luna.

Stronghoof’s scowl just deepened and he stormed off, down the corridor they were standing in, leaving the dark gray coated unicorn alone with his thoughts.

A few hours later, and after getting himself quite familiar with the castle, Somber once again stood in the throne room. This time however Princess Celestia stood by one of the windows overlooking the city, and he was standing right by her side. He had made his case known to the Princess and now he was waiting for an answer.

“We do not normally grant favour to one of our Knights, to not be seen as playing favorites. But I was not aware you had a marefriend… We should have foreseen that possibility.” The white alicorn said quietly while looking through the window at the city, basked in the late afternoon light. “However as we have a great interest in you, we will help you. It would do nopony good if you were to blame us or your superior for losing your marefriend.”

Somber grimaced internally, special treatment was the last thing he wanted, but when it came to Wind Dancer... he would gladly use every opportunity to save what he has with her so far.

“I am most grateful your highness.” He said sincerely and ended with a low bow.

“Do not thank us yet.” Celestia sighed as she said those words quietly. She was sadly aware that even if she helped the young stallion now, in the future his assignments may take him away from the capital for weeks, even months. Rarely romantic relationships survived such things.

The white alicorn turned towards the doors, her flowing, white dress shimmering.

“We must admit, we don’t know that much about you… And as we will help you, so we may as well indulge in our curiosity. Come join us at supper, and tell us more about yourself.” She kept her pace slower, so that the shorter pony could easily walk by her side.

Somber didn’t hesitate and marched up to the white alicorn’s side.

“Well, a few months ago I woke up after a magical incident in a forest…”

As the two walked through the castle in the setting sun’s light, two figures watched them.

Stronghoof couldn't help himself but feel a bit of pity towards the young stallion, he had entered a world of politics, customs and alliances he didn’t understand after all..

The second shadowy figure smiled thinly. For now she would keep her distance. Sooner or later Somber Blackmane would come to her, asking for knowledge her sister couldn’t give him… Princess Luna smiled a bit wider, before she seemingly melted into the shadows and disappeared.

Gathering Shadows: Part 1

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Gathering Shadows: Part 1

His golden armor and white cape clashed horribly with his dark gray coat and black mane, but he got used to it months ago. Among the Solar Knights that was still a running joke, what with all others having white or off-white coats. A small smile crept onto Somber’s muzzle hidden beneath the white hood. They could poke fun at him, but his revenge pranks were legendary by now and nopony truly could put forth evidence that it was him.

When he thought about it, he did fit in with the rest of the Knights quite well. The first two weeks were the toughest, because as she promised Princess Celestia acquired for him a place to call his own. It turned out to be a small and cozy house in the inner city right by the wall. Such treatment garnered much unwanted attention and snide remarks from his fellow recruits.

Somber sighed. The Grand Master, Count Stronghoof of House Blueblood, was only a bit better than them. Back then it would seem he made it his life’s goal to be cold and uncaring when it came to anything concerning him. Lately when he began doing something more than patrolling the Everfree City their talks became more civil.

“Hey… Captain. We are close, if you want to know.” It was the sarcastic, female voice of one of his traveling companions. A white coated pegasus with violet striped, neon-blue mane and tail named Lightning Flash. The third pony in their group was a pegasus stallion with white coat and a fiery orange-red mane, Blaze.

Lightning has just landed near Somber as she returned from her patrol over the quite dense canopy of trees. The road they were traveling was well kept but the trees around them were large enough to cast shadow on the road as they blocked some of the late afternoon sunlight.

“Well… finally. I got enough of this slow travel…” Blaze’s gruff voice was filled with annoyance. However, he had the right to be annoyed… or so he thought. The travel to their destination took the group the better part of two weeks. And the fire maned pagasus blamed it on their earth bound unicorn captain. When he tried to argue with the gray coated unicorn that he should be doing teleportation jumps, Somber refused citing the need to conserve his strength.

“I personally liked the countryside and wilderness Blaze.” Somber smirked while he responded to the hidden slight. “Besides you have to admit, the Barrier Mountains do look impressive when you slowly walk towards them.”

Their destination as it turned out pretty quickly after their debriefing was a small village at the far north western border of Equestria. The Barrier Mountains, at the base of which the village was built, separated the Ice Plains from the rest of the country.

“To think that we are so close yet so far from our ancient ancestors land...” Lighting Flash said quietly with a thoughtful look on her muzzle.

“If the legends are true you mean. There are only precious few items left from that era and none of them indicates a place of their origin.” Somber added in a thoughtful mood himself. During his six months of training he was invited more than a couple of times for tea with the Princess. It was always in the evening so that everypony would think he was just going home. While in truth a few times in a month he spent an hour or two talking with Celestia. On a few occasions he was given the chance to look at some of the most fascinating items in the Celestial Vault, the storing place for some of the rarest items to which only the Princesses had the key. One of such things was the crown of Princess Platinum, or at least the platinum frame as nine of the crown’s jewels were lost to time and probably thieves before it was found by some adventures historian and then given as a gift to Celestia.

Sadly very few expeditions have been sent to the Ice Plains as they were risky at best. The ground was covered by thick ice and some blizzards were said to last weeks.

“Focus, we’re here.” Blaze interrupted the thoughts of his companions. Suddenly the two of them realized that it was much brighter.

Three pairs of eyes landed on about three dozen randomly arranged run down buildings. All of them were made from wood seeing as the town was build in a large forest clearing. The only unicorn in the group looked up, only to see the mountaintops covered by thick clouds. To his left he saw and heard a stream. There was a great water wheel build that propelled something in what was probably a newly build sawmill.

Some ponies were moving around the town and the newly constructed sawmill, all of them were burly earth ponies.

“So that’s Silent Woods. I don’t know what’s the great deal about it is… Beside that brand new watermill that probably some noble invested into.” Lightning said as she decided to hoover a bit off the ground to get a better view.

“Well, if it’s important to that noble pony that’s not my concern. We had a report about some disturbing happenings around here so we will focus on that and not what’s important to who.” Somber said in a strict voice.

“Then I’m going to look around, ask some questions.” Blaze said as he eagerly stretched his wings and took off without another word.

“Somepony’s impatient…” Lightning said with an amused smirk on her muzzle.

“You know how he is. All action with required minimum of planning.” Somber commented with a sigh. Not long ago but what seemed like a lifetime to him he was the same, so he could sympathize with the brightly colored pegasus. “But he has the right idea, time to ask some questions and get us settled in the village for the time being.”

The pair in a matter of twenty minutes managed to find the local inn. It turned out that the run down exterior was quite deceptive as the interior was warm and cozy. The Woodpecker Inn was also large and packed with clients, as they found out when Somber and Lightning entered.

When the doors closed behind them, almost everypony inside looked at them. For a brief moment all talks ended and activities stopped. And just as suddenly everything resumed as ponies began to lose interest in the appearance of the Royal Guard, or so it seemed.

As Somber moved to the long counter he could see ponies trying to glare at him and look away quickly as they spotted him looking at them.

“Something’s fishy here…” Lightning whispered to him as she moved closer to the dark gray coated unicorn.

The bartender looked at the pair of Royal Guards as they approached him. He was a cream colored pegasus, with a dark brown mane that was cut short.

“How can I help you?”

Somber in turn tried to measure the character of the pony before him.

“We would like to rent rooms, one for two and one single… or a single one with three beds, if you don’t have the two rooms.” It was more of a show of courtesy towards Lightning Flash than anything. She of course just glared at the back of the unicron’s head. Somber knew she didn't like being treated like a delicate mare made of porcelain, as she became something of a tomcolt during the basic training.

“Well Mister Guard, this is more of a workers hotel than anything so we have only rooms with four beds and four chests, and nothing much else. But the food is really good as are the drinks.” The bartender said this while he was cleaning one of the many tankards used by the guests.

“We will take it. Also do tell us has something… extraordinary happened lately in the village?” Somber said while he decided to sit at one of the barstools at the right end of the counter, further from the entrance doors. His neon-blue maned companion decide to also sit down, but she turned around to keep an eye on the Inn’s patrons. The clinking of several gold bits thrown at the counter by Somber briefly caught Lightning’s attention.

The bartender grumbled at being made to move after them but he masked it quite well. he quickly counted the bits, before swiping them behind the counter with one of his wings.

“That will be enough for ten nights.” The cream coated pegasus said and handed Somber a simple iron key, then leaned a bit more forward and lowered his voice as he continued. “Now as to… extraordinary things, as you put it kind stallion. Well it started almost two weeks ago when somepony vandalized Celestia’s shrine, up the stream. After that some of the graves at our local cemetery were found… open…” Now the bartender began to look scared and lowered his voice to a whisper. “And empty!”

Somber frowned, he had two theories right now. Grave robbers or the more sinister one, necromancy.

“Anything else happened?”

“Not really. No undead ponies attacking anypony… or something of the sort. But the villagers and workers are unsettled. We had seven unicorns in our village, but the tensions got high and they moved out.”

The dark gray Royal Guard just nodded his head in understanding and wordlessly tossed a few more bits on the counter, which disappeared as soon as the touched the well worn wood. He turned his head to his right, so that he could look directly at Lightning.

“You heard everything, right?” He asked and she nodded, not even turning around to look at him. “So what do you make of this?”

“The tension is high that much I can tell after watching the crowd. They kept trying to stealthily glare at your back. Royal Guard or not they will distrust any unicorns at this point.” She said with a quiet sigh. “As the the other things… We should investigate.”

“Then we will just check out the room now and then move out.”

The room they were given truly was a simple one. Four simple beds with spacious chests at the foot of every bed. There was also a round table with four chairs and bucket full of clean water.

After they got a look at the room, they decided to split up. Lightning Flash would go to Celestia’s shrine while Somber visited the cemetery.

**********

A short walk later Somber found himself at the outer edge of the clearing in which Silent Woods was built. The sun was setting casting eerie shadows around him.

He was standing before the small iron gate that was closed. Around the cemetery a low wall was raised from stones, it was topped with iron spikes forming a simple but effective fence. With his emerald magic he opened the gate and walked forward.

his first observation was that trees had to be cut down to form the clearing for cemetery. Some stumps still remained. Directly across from the gate, in the shadows was a small, round, stone building. It was decorated with black stone and dark wood.

As he walked forward Somber counted seven rows of graves on both sides of the alley, with more space unoccupied. To his right he could see a moderately sized mound of freshly dug out earth.

When he reached the stone building he realized what it was. It had no doors so he could see inside. There was a bust of a slender alicorn mare made from dark lapis.

“Luna…” The name escaped his lips unintentionally. It was sad really, that the local ponies decided to link Luna with death. A weak gust of cold wind ruffled his mane making him quickly look behind him, only to find nothing. He shook his head and decided to look around.

He only found a lot of burnt out candles for the most part and some dried Poison Joke.

Having found nothing of interest he decided to look at the graves. Quickly he spotted one of the opened ones. He carefully approached it before looking down. It really was empty, no bones or any other matter was left. But what intrigued him was how straight the walls of the hole were.

The dark gray unicorn was turning around to confirm that the others were dug out the same way, when he felt a pull on his magic. His magical sens have sharpened during his training, he was nowhere as good as Glimmer was as that was her talent… but he could feel magic, if it was sufficiently powerful. And he discovered to his dismay that he was especially sensitive when it came to…

“Dark Magic.” Somber said with a voice full of contempt.

He heard, rather than saw the beating of the wings as it was now night. He jumped into the open grave and then looked up and round. At first he saw nothing, and after ten minutes decided to get out of the hole he was in.

Then he saw it, a squad of five pegasus with bat wings and dark armour. They were hardly recognizable on the night sky but he knew that armor quite well. The Night Guard was flying low and they were in a hurry apparently.

After waiting for another hour in the opened grave and seeing no more of the bat looking ponies, he got out. The moist dirt was everywhere on his now not-so-white cloak.

It was a long fifteen minutes walk before Somber entered the Inn. Even the cozy and warm interior could not lift his mood. He quite easily spotted Lightning Flash and Blaze sitting and talking by the table in the far corner. The crowd that gathered in the Inn didn’t slow him down as everypony moved away from him. By the time he sat down, his companions had worried looks on their muzzles.

“Something happened captain?” Blaze asked with a bit of concern leaking into his voice.

“Nothing much. But now I have even more questions than I began this day with.” Somber answered reaching for a pint that a waitress brought for him. How she knew he needed a drink, he didn't truly care. The Ale was weak but quite good.

Lightning and Blaze looked at each other before the neon-maned pegasus decided to clear her throat to get the dark gray unicorn’s attention. Somber looked up.

“At the shrine I found nothing to indicated who vandalized it. But the damage is extensive and whoever did it was in a hurry. However… I found this.” She reached to one of her small traveling bags and pulled out a pendant on a chain.

It was made from dark almost black iron, it looked crude. But it’s shape stumped Somber so much, that he wrapped it in his emerald magical aura and levitated it closer to him. It looked like a unicorn’s head connected with a crescent moon.

“Have you ever seen something like that captain?” This time Blaze asked with curiosity and a bit of worry in his voice.

Somber kept looking at the small pendant as it turned around slowly in his aura. In the dim light of the Inn and the emerald glow of his magic it looked almost ominous. When it turned by the right angle he finally saw what looked like a draconic eye looking back at him from the iron.

“No…” Somber said quietly, frowning. “Nothing like that.”

The iron trinket found it’s way into one of his cloaks inner pockets. He took a long swig from his pint.

“And what about you Blaze, what did you find out?” The dark gray unicorn asked looking at him directly.

“Not much that you probably don't know. From the time of the vandalizing of the shrine of our Princess and emptying of the graves, nothing more happened.” Blaze leaned a bit forward. “But I found out and interesting small fact. Some ponies swear that they see almost every night the Night Guard flying north, into the mountains.” He looked from Somber to Lightning. ”Now the truly intriguing part, there are no forts or any registered outpost in this region. So what are they doing here so often?”

Somber leaned back in his chair, he took another swig from his pint now held by his magic.

“Now isn’t that the question?”

The rest of the night was spent mostly in silence as the trio pondered the many questions that they had. In the end it was decided that Lightning Flash and Somber would go into the mountains and Blaze would stay in the village just in case something happened.

**********

Somber and his mare companion were walking for a few hours now, they started at the sunrise so it was now around noon. Lightning Flash was surprisingly quiet for now.

The dark gray unicorn used the time to think about the pendant that was hidden in one of his pockets. Did they have a new cult to worry about? It would seem so. He knew that when they returned Celestia would have to be informed.

“Somber.” His name being called brought him out of his thoughts. He looked around only to see Lightning closely examining one of the bushes.

They were deep in the forest where no paths existed. The air was also getting progressively cooler as they moved even closer towards the mountains proper.

The dark gray unicorn moved to stand beside his companion and tried to see what she saw. She was pointing a hoof towards one of the leafs. He leaned forward and frowned. He took a tentative sniff and jerked his head back. It was dried blood, old one too.

“At least we are on going in the right direction.” Somber said with a deep frown.

By the time the sun was beginning to set they reached a stone wall, that was the base of the mountains. Somber and Lightning had to begin walking parallel to it until they found a canyon or anything that would lead them deeper into the mountain chain. When the moon rose over the horizon, they finally found it. It was a narrow, rocky path.

“We have to ditch the armor and cloaks.” Somber declared silently with an unhappy tone. Lightning just sighed but nodded nonetheless. Making too much noise would do them no good, as well as being spotted by moonlight reflected on their golden armor.

So lighter and quieter, they entered the mountain range after hiding their Royal Guard Armor in a hollow tree trunk. In a flash of inspiration Somber decided to put on the pendant.

His hooves were beginning to feel sore because of the sharp rocks he was walking on. Somber knew that, if they continued for a few more miles his hooves would be bleeding.

“Get down!” Lightning’s quiet warning came just in time for the dark gray unicorn to lay flat on the ground as a squad of Night Guards flown over them.

After a few minutes they both continued their walk onwards.

By the time Somber was ready to begin cursing the rocky path silently, he found himself facing an open space. He quickly crouched and waved his hoof at Lightning Flash making her move silently to crouch beside him.

They both quickly spotted what they were probably looking for. It looked like a temples facade, only chiseled in solid stone wall.

“What in Celestia’s name is that?” The pegasus mare asked with a bit of fear in her voice.

“I don’t know. But it’s old… ancient maybe.” The longer he looked at the… structure, the better he saw how the time had left it’s mark on it. Crumbled pillars, unrecognizable statues or in some cases just a pile of rocks, fragments of writing where probably whole stories were once written. “We should go in. That’s our best bet right now Lightning.”

“The way is clear, no guards or anything…” She said mostly to herself.

Their decision made they both moved as quickly and silently as they could.

The entrance chamber was quite small an undescriptive. Inside they finally found evidence of recent activity. A campfire that still had warm ashes in it. Carefully they moved into the next room which turned out to have a wide staircase leading deeper into the ground.

“I got your back.” Lightning said and he nodded before beginning the long descent.

At the end of them, the stairs opened into an enormous cave. It was deep enough that it looked to have no bottom. It’s width… Somber had no doubt that the Everfree City would fit into this cave many times over. It was a breathtaking view. In the dim light, coming from the naturally occurring crystals in the cave walls, he saw far to many to count delicate stone bridges, towers, gigantic balconies and tunnel entrances. It was like a maze, half made by… something or somepony half formed by nature.

“Incredible…” He said with awe in his voice. Somber began looking around searching for clues as to what this place was but was unlucky. He looked at the white coated pegasus mare, with determination shining in his emerald eyes. “We need to go deeper.”

Lightning Flash nodded and spread her wings, there was enough place to fly here. She saw Sombers concerned look when he realized what she wanted to do.

“I’ll be careful, don’t worry about me.” She said and as quietly as she could lifted off and began a slow aerial reconnaissance.

Somber approached the almost destroyed stone railing that separated the balcony he was currently on form the dark abyss of the cave. He waited for almost half an hour before he saw Lightning Flash again.

“And did you find anything?” Somber asked with barely restrained curiosity and relief.

“I will guide you downward to the lowest point I could access without getting spotted. There is a lot of activity down there.” She looked at the ark gray unicorn as he stared at her, she facehoofed. “I will hover above places you can safely teleport too.”

“I don't think this is the best idea Lightning.”

“You can do that or wander the maze of the tunnels, bridges and Celestia knows what else…” She said crossing her front forelegs in a display of stubbornness. “I checked the places, nopony will see even a tiny flash of your magic.”

The dark gray stallion sighed. He truly didn’t want to wander in this old maze, but he was concerned that the unicorn that raised the dead could be here. He could be giving away his position every time he teleported if the unicorn was a good sensor. In the end of a few minutes long inner debate he decided to risk it.

It took him all in all seven jumps to reach the lowest point they could reach in such a manner. As Somber crawled to the edge of the small ledge he was currently on, he saw below himself two Night Guards patrolling a stone bridge below him.

“This place is freaking me out…” It was muffled by the distance, but the pair of the Royal Guards could still understand what their counterparts were talking about.

“We’re not going to be stationed here for much longer. She’s getting impatient and Bones is walking on thin ice as it is.”

“Don't remind me... made quite a mess... almost compromised us too... the foal.” The venom in this dark guard’s voice was clear even from the distance. But as they were walking further away the conversation began to reach Somber and Lightning in parts.

When the two Night Guards disappeared in the far left tunnel entrance Somber decided to act. With a thought he quickly and silently teleported onto the bridge and began walking towards the tunnel on the right side. A heartbeat later his pegasus companion landed beside him.

“I’m beginning to think, that we stumbled upon something much bigger than a simple necromancer playing with his powers.” Lightning said with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

“You don’t say.” Somber answered frowning. So deep in the cave he had to light his horn with magic to give them light. It increased the chances of being discovered but without the Mage Light, they would be walking almost blind.

The deeper they went, the air became more stall and filled with the odour of decay. Twice since they overheard the first pair of the gourds on the bridge, they had to duck into side alcoves or tunnels to avoid a run in with other patrols.

But those close encounters allowed them to piece a bit more of the puzzle that was unraveled before them. It seemed like they were dealing with the more radical faction of Night Guard, a secret one, that evolved into a new cult centered about a twisted vision of Princess Luna.

After another two close calls, Somber and Lightning Flash arrived at a second floor balcony overlooking a great rectangular hall. It looked like a temple’s interior with its slim columns, arcs and many small and large alcoves. In the alcoves they could make out elaborately decorated tombs. At the far end they could make out massive stone doors covered with runic writings and a design of circles and lines forming mostly stars. All of it was surprisingly preserved in excellent condition.

Almost immediately Somber knew why this part of the maze was almost intact by time. The feeling of magic in the air and stone around them was almost suffocating.

As the two of them moved in the shadows closer to the highly decorated doors they saw how most of the free space was converted into a temporary camp, with almost two dozen cultist ponies milling around.

What both Somber and Lightning didn’t see was two shadows trailing behind them.

When the dark gray unicorn heard the unmistakable sound of a hoof hitting Lightning’s head it was already too late. Somber’s world swirled around him and exploded with pain as he felt a cold, metal clad hoof hit him in the back of his head. He was unconscious before he hit the stone floor.

Gathering Shadows: Part 2

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Gathering Shadows: Part 2

When Somber woke up, the first things he could feel was the throbbing pain emanating from the back of his head and the cold stone he was laying on. He began lifting his head only to stop abruptly as he felt a sharp point meet his neck from behind. His emerald eyes snapped open.

“Your awake Somber, that’s good.” Said the pony that was standing with his back turned to him. All he could see for now was a black mage's robe and a blue mane with a purple strip. Somber had a feeling he saw somepony with that mane before. “I must admit, it was quite a surprise to find you and your mare companion here.”

The dark gray unicorn was startled that his captor knew his name however, he masked it by looking around himself as much as the wielder of the sword at his neck allowed him. As he guessed that it was a sword or a spear readied to kill him if he tried something. What he did observe bothered him less than what he didn’t saw, he could not spot Lightning Flash anywhere near his current location. But what he confirmed was that he was surrounded, at least ten cultists were gathered around him and the black mage.

Their number was not the problem, it was their armor. As a Royal Guard he knew that the standard armor was engraved with basic protective and anti-magic cantrips. They were maybe not the most powerful but they would make Somber’s magic less effective, if he had to fight. In the waning light from many campfires and two braziers near the massive stone doors decorated with runic circles and other arcane formula.

“It’s quite troublesome, really.” The black mage said quietly still looking only at the stone doors. “And I’m sorry to say, that at least one of you will not leave this tomb.”

That made Somber quickly focus on the talking pony. His eyes grew a bit wider in surprise, only to narrow as he gnashed his teeth.

“What are you looking for in here? And who are you anyway?” Somber finally asked with frustration and a bit of anger in his voice. In response to his question, the unicorn finally turned around with a small smirk on his muzzle.

“Bones is my name and I’m a bit offended that you don’t remember me. It’s been only a couple of months…” The white coated unicorn answered.

“You…” Now that he could see the muzzle of his apparent enemy, Somber remembered. It was the same unicorn that was sitting at the table during the dinner in the Night Temple. He began to stand up, for a moment the dark gray unicorn ignored the sharp spear tip that dug a bit further into his neck drawing some blood. He forced himself to stop moving and just stand still and glare at Bones as he felt the warm, thick liquid dribble down his neck.

“I would not move too much, if not asked on your place. Your death would be such a waste Sir Blackmane.” Bones said with a slightly mocking tone. He turned his head to his left to give an order. “Bring the mare.”

One of the cultist guards left and after a few tense minutes of silence, he returned with three others dragging Lighting Flash all wore amused, dark smirks. Her legs and wings were bound by thick ropes. The four cultists dropped her unceremoniously before Bones. Anger boiled within Somber when he saw her unconscious, beaten and disheveled form and her tear stained muzzle. Surprisingly the white coated unicorn also grimaced.

“I gave you a simple order. She was not to be touched…” Bones said darkly glaring at the four stallions, their smirks replaced by looks of uncertainty and fear. “Get out of my sight.” The four hastily left the gathering.

“You will die for treason and what your stallions did to Lightning, Bones... you and all your cultist friends.” Somber managed to say in a surprisingly calm and devoid of emotions voice.

There was an unnatural coldness creeping up his front right leg. Somber lowered his head to look at it and his heart skipped a beat. There was a shimmering dark blue mist creeping upwards his leg. He also heard several gasps from the gathered cultists.

Bones was looking at his other prisoner, the dark gray unicorn with unease now. He knew what or rather who the dark blue mist truly was. He watched how the dark blue mist moved around Somber Blackamne. With his head lowered, the dark gray unicron’s black mane obscured his muzzle and eyes from view.

“Such anger, such darkness.” A cold, seductive mare’s voice whispered into Somber’s ear. “I can feel it. It gives you focus. Use it, embrace it!”

The guard that held Somber at spear point was beginning to shake in fear. The malice emanating from the mist was overbearing, even if he knew who it was.

“No I can’t…” Somber whispered as he was fighting a mental battle. For his entire life he stood against darkness, he was not going to surrender and fall into it now.

“Then you will die here as a failure, unable to protect your friend from certain death.” If the mist had a muzzle, it would have the biggest, knowing smirk it could on it.

Somber let out a silent, startled gasp as that one sentence triggered a flood of memories. It was as if he relived every moment of his Hogwart’s years as Harry, where his friends were injured, in mortal peril… or died. Because he didn't know what to do, was to weak or made the wrong decisions.

The guard holding the spear at Somber’s neck had enough. His mistress was doing something to the unicorn and he didn't want to wait and see exactly what. He clenched his teeth harder on the metallic shaft of the weapon and pushed.

“No!” Bones screamed in rage as he saw the guard preparing to kill Somber Blackmane. His plans for the dark gray unicorn were falling apart. He called his sickly gray magic but it was too late.

Everypony's gathered eyes widened when the spear flew through a cloud of black smoke, hitting the stone floor and burrowing the whole spear point in the stone. The black smoke with trails of dark blue moved close to the floor, flowing into on of the shadowed alcoves of the tomb.

**********

One thing Somber Blackmane was truly knowledgeable was about magical means of transportation in Equestria. He browsed the Royal Library and also the Library of Arcane Academy in hopes of finding something that would help him return to his homeworld.

For more than ten weeks now he spent most of his free time browsing through books, scrolls and the occasional stone tablet containing knowledge both ancient and modern.

A side effect of his studies was the it made him especially good at dodging incoming attacks. It always infuriated his sparring partners during the Knight’s training. But this made his offensive skills rather average.

Lately he began to relax more and read less as even Wind Dancer had run out of patience for his new obsession with books and studying, she more or less threatened him with sleeping on the couch. The threat was also a bit more hurtful as his marefriend began to make a career in Celestia’s elite Weather Observation and Defensive Equestrian Royal Battalion, who somepony shortened to Wonder Bolts as the full name was a mouthful. Wind Dancer’s career meant that they had even less time for themselves, but the evening were theirs to cuddle, talk and more… so getting kicked onto the couch was a harsh threat.

However, something Somber stumbled upon made him think hard and to his dismay he found that he could not get the answers he wanted from the books. That’s why he was currently sitting and sipping his tea in the Royal Sister’s Castle. Across the table sat Celestia, she had left her flowing white dress after she left the throne room and public areas of the Castle. Now Somber could truly appreciate her beauty.

“My Lady, I have a question about something I found out in one of the books in Academy’s Library.” The dark gray unicorn said as he put down his teacup and extinguished his magical aura.

“Then ask Sir Somber, you know I shall answer to the best of my ability.” Celestia’s silent voice answered. It was something she apparently did when not addressing somepony in public and only with those she considered trustworthy friends, she lowered her voice to a normal volume and dropped the Royal We.

“I found mentions of a spell that allowed the caster to transform into mist or smoke and move freely without the fear of ever being injured by physical weapons or such.” He started slowly remembering what he had read. “But it mentioned that it was a banned spell and told nothing more about it, why is that?”

Celestia sighed as she looked at Somber with a half worried, half calculating gaze.

“Because the spell you are talking about needs to be fueled by Dark Magic, you know as a Solar Knight what that means.” Indeed, he knew what the white alicorn was talking about. If found out, the practicing of Dark Magic was punishable by cutting off the horn, if the offender was lucky. Of course to almost every rule there are exceptions and so Princess Luna was the only being who could perform Dark Magic without worrying about consequences. “Remember Sir Somber, fear leads to hatred, and hatred fuels Dark Magic which can bring only suffering.”

“I know my Lady.” Somber reassured her with a polite smile.

**********

A steady and slow clopping of hooves on stone was the first thing the gathered cultists heard, then from the shadows came out the dark gray unicorn. At the sight before them some took a step back.

Somber’s emerald eyes almost glowed with inner light and his pupils became slits. His mane and tail flowed gently in an unseen breeze looking more like a liquid shadow than anything else. Small trails of purple smoke seemed to flow from his eyes.

Without a word his horn erupted with black lightning and his usual emerald aura. With a slight twist of his head a sickle of the same energy sailed from his horn expanding and cutting through everypony standing at the height of their necks, where no armor protected them.

Bones as the only unicorn managed to shield himself with a spherical gray shield, which had identical black lightning dancing on its surface. The sickle of warped, emerald energy flowed around his shield harmlessly. The white unicorn fell to his knees as he felt the magical drain needed to sustain the shield when the gray sphere flickered and bursted. With horror he watched as the cultist guard ponies slowly fell to the floor that suddenly became stained crimson, decapitated.

Behind him Bones could hear the spell ripping into the stone walls with a loud shattering noise, as a dust cloud blowed past him.

Somber felt like throwing up at the sight of carnage he caused but he could not show weakness right now. Slowly he made his way amongst the bodies, a quiet splashing sound now accompanied his steps, as his hooves were becoming covered in crimson.

“I… I...” Seeing Somber approach him with a stone cold expression on his muzzle and burning hatred in his eyes… With a desperate look Bones levitated Lightning Flash in from of himself and picked one of the swords from the dead. He stood up on his back legs, supporting himself on the levitating pegasus so that Lightning unconscious body shielded most of him and brought the sword tip to her throat. “I will kill her, if you make another step or use any magic!”

She could feel the ropes binding her, the lingering feeling of humiliation left her weak. Hearing screams Lightning slowly opened her eyes. What she saw made her tremble once with fear, and her eyes became almost comically huge. Her captain… no, the demon standing before her, surrounded by death looked at her, when concern shined through his merciless visage. That gave her hope, that he was not lost in his rage and darkness.

“What is so worth it Bones? Why are you here?” Somber’s voice was full of contempt but he truly did want to know what made the white unicorn do what he did, and it bought him time to think.

“Secrets. Old secrets are buried in the Starfall family’s tomb!” Bones decided to amuse his enemy as it bought him time to think, and the surviving cultist would soon show up alarmed by the sound of fighting. “An ancient family, who helped craft one of the Platinum’s Crown Jewels! Then sadly they fell out of favor as they began researching Dark Magic, but that’s beside the point.” The white unicorn briefly shoot a look at the massive stone doors still stubbornly remaining closed even after all his efforts to open them. “If the chronicles in the Crystal Empire were right, they crafted the Truth Jewel! Just imagine... every lie known, every truth revealed, no illusion would hide a thing from your sight! And the knowledge contained behind the doors… ancient spells, chronicles, possibly clues to the location of the other eight Jewels!”

As he was talking Bones, noticed that no cultists were gathering. Somber noticed the same only half listening to the white unicorns monologue. For some time now he was observing Lightning and her almost resigned body language that was so unlike her.

“But I think it’s time we end this lesson, Somber.” Bones said now knowing that he was on his own. With a great exertion of will he lifted all available weapons with his magic. The swords and spears moved to surround Somber and hung above him, ready to shoot towards him. “I will make you a deal. You die and I let her live, how about that?”

“No you won’t…” Lightning whispered weakly and smiling sadly knowing that, if Somber was to die she would also be dead before the dark gray unicorn’s body hit the stone floor.

“No…” Somber whispered seeing Lightning mouth moving, whispering something and smiling sadly, knowingly at him. He faced an impossible choice, he took action Lightning died, he did nothing both of them died. Despite all the power, albeit dark and cursed, he could feel flowing through him he was feeling powerless.

“What was that? Do we have a deal?” Bones asked, moving the sword at the mares throat a bit, drawing droplets of blood.

Somber closed his eyes.

Bones took that as a sign and sent the weapons flying at the dark gray unicorn, Somber winked out of existence and teleported behind Bones sending loose a concentrated beam of magic at the white unicorns head.

When the two bodies hit the floor, Somber galloped the short distance and with his hooves moved Bones headless body from atop Lightning’s. She was still smiling sadly as she looked up at him. A lot of blood was flowing from a cut on her throat.

“No… Celestia damn it!” Somber screamed in rage as he applied pressure to the wound, knowing it was futile. He was not a healer.

“Captain… Ss-omb-ra... D-on’t.…” Lightning managed to say before she closed her eyes and the last breath left her body.

Somber screamed in anger and grief. He felt weak, the Dark Magic coursing through his body left him as all he felt was emptiness. The world whirled around him and he collapsed onto the crimson stained floor.

Above him, on one of the balconies inside the large chamber stood a larger than average pony silhouette, cloaked in black and hidden by shadows. She looked down at the scene coldly.

“So it has begun…” The mare whispered before she left quietly, she had duties to attend to after all.

***********

The road back to the village of Silent Woods was a long one, but for Somber it felt even longer than it should. Only the knowledge that the faith of Wizarding Britain was on his shoulders kept him going for now. It was a grim determination of sorts.

His current burden was a pony body wrapped in the material used to make tents by the cultists, and two pouches. In then was the effect of him venting his frustration, anger and grief… he just reduced the damned stone doors to rubble.

It turned out that there was a small library in there among the highly ornamental tombs. He randomly picked the tomes and scrolls and packed as much as his expansion charm allowed to fit into one of the pouches. The second one held the Jewel that Bones so wanted. It was a fake made of red glass as he quickly discovered.

When he approached the village at the dawn of a new day, some of the lumberjack ponies that saw him run away terrified. He was still covered in blood, and a lot of debris has stuck into his mane and tail. Somber headed straight for the graveyard.

In no time it seemed Blaze found him and came to a sudden stop, as he saw Somber looking down a hole he dug up in the ground. Fearing yet suspecting what he will see, Blaze wordlessly also looked down.

“Blaze…” Somber began but came short, as to what he was supposed to say.

“I hope she went down fighting.” The fire maned pegasus said looking away. “You got the bastard that did it to her?”

“Yes.” The dark gray unicorn said quietly, his voice was sounding tired now, so very tired.

After a short burial ceremony, Blaze left to prepare himself for a fast return to the capital. He was to fill in a short report so that the Princess and Grand Master could handle things better when Somber would return.

The dark gray unicorn on the other hoof, wished to travel the road normally, to have time to think and come to terms with yet another death of a friend. It was currently sunset and he was sitting by the fresh grave with his punches and armor on him. For the whole day he just rested and tried to put into use his Occlumency with varying results.

The last light of the day shimmered on the iron, and crude looking cultist pendant he was holding in his emerald magic.

“I will discover who you are.” Somber whispered as Dark Magic flared in him briefly again and corroded the amulet, the fine powder left of it fell onto the grave.

He turned around and began the long trek back to the Everfree City.

Gathering Shadows: Part 3

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Gathering Shadows: Part 3

It was nightfall of Somber’s fifteenth day of journey from Silent Woods, where he had buried yet another one of his friends. During his slow walk toward the Everfree City, he at least managed to convince himself that this recent death was not entirely his fault. Furthermore, with the use of Occlumency with which he was becoming more and more proficient, he managed to focus his anger and anguish into a single purpose of finding out who was Bone’s superior. His mind was busy thinking and analyzing theories.

For now he was certain of one thing, whoever pulled Bone’s strings had to be one of the higher ups in the Night Guard. But there was a major problem with this theory, he had no real proof that he was right. He would have to listen to the castle gossip in hopes of piecing together anything useful, if he had luck and somepony talked a bit too much that is...

However a steady clop of hooves and the sound of hammers and other tools striking stone brought him out of his thoughts. Before him, Somber could see workers paving the road with cobblestone. It was a sign that he was within a days walk from the capital.

As he passed by them, some of the ponies greeted him cheerfully while others just nodded politely.

When the workers were out of sight a Night Guard pegasus landed silently beside the Solar Knight. Somber looked at his guest and while he tried to not be obvious or impolite, he tensed a bit and began searching the other pony’s form for weapons.

“Do you need help with something or is it a message from Princess Luna?” Somber asked voicing his guesses.

“Just a message. When you reach the castle immediately report to her. The Princesses were made aware of what happened and it was decided that it would be for the best to keep the existence of a fanatic group within our ranks a secret, shared only between the Royal Sisters and you two who went to Silent Woods.” The tone of voice of the bat looking pony was professional and almost devoid of emotions. The unnamed guard gave a slight bow before he took flight again.

For a while longer stood in place mulling over the message. It made sense that Luna would like to keep this under wraps. She was distrusted by many ponies as it was… His eyes widened by a fraction.

“That’s it! Princess Luna!” The dark gray unicorn whispered to himself with excitement audible in those words. She would be able to help him solve this! The dark alicorn made it clear to him during their first real encounter that she was interested with him. Somber started to walk again with a thoughtful frown that slowly morphed into a determined look.

The light of the day was beginning to fade when he saw the city in the distance. Somber could feel the weariness starting to set in. It should go without saying that during his slow walk back to the Everfree not all of the nights brought with them peaceful dreams. He was tired and although he could see the city, he opted to go into the inn that he saw not that far down the road from where he was.

As the dark gray unicorn clad in golden armor approached the inn, he could see the wooden sign hanging over the entrance.

“The Prancing Pony… How original…” Somber snorted with amusement before he entered. Inside he was surprised to find that beside him, there was only the waiter, the bartender and three other ponies.

The room was like insides of any other inn he had seen, maybe a bit newer, cleaner. The furniture didn’t have that well worn look to it. He observed all of this while he was walking towards the bartender.

As it turned out, the room he rented was a bit on the pricy side, but that was to be expected so close to the city. Finally when he entered the room on the upper floor and closed the door, Somber began to undress using his emerald magic. He threw his armor at the foot of the comfortably looking bed, and hung his white cape trimmed with gold on the back of a chair that was placed near a small desk.

The room had one window overlooking the surrounding fields. He had to admit that the fields basked in moonlight under the starry, cloudless night sky made up a peaceful image.

Using his magic to summon a Mage Light, Somber made himself comfortable on the bed before with the grasp of his magic he took out one of the books he took from the Starfall tomb. It had ash gray, leather cover. It had almost no markings on the cover, the only thing that made it recognizable was a stylized roman one inked in black or at least that’s what it was to him.

He had to admit to himself, that even after spending three nights on different occasions reading the book, he still felt quite queasy about it. By some small chance, Somber found this book with no title that had something like an introduction to some of the fields of Dark Magic. This one apparently focused mostly on hatred fueled elemental magic, but it did touch on other fields like necromancy, or summoning creatures from Tartarus…

What made Somber even more sick about his new chosen reading material was that for some unfathomable reason… he was good at it. The few basic fire spells he had tried, he mastered during one night. A shudder went down his spine when he remembered Luna’s words about his inner darkness.

He had a sinking feeling that she would notice that he began using Dark Magic, even if it was in truly minuscule amounts. But in the light of the latest events, maybe it was a good thing… Maybe that would make it easier for him to get close the the shunned Princess.

With a sigh, Somber opened the book on the page he had market by folding one of its corners and began to read.

**********

When the light of the rising sun hit his eyes, Somber rolled over on his other side. After about another quarter of an hour the dark gray unicorn finally, with a sigh decided to get up. With his mane messed up more than it normally was he slowly made his way towards the large bowl filled with water that he noticed yesterday standing on a low table in the far corner, but had no use of it then. Looking around he found a wooden cup standing close. With his magic he dunked it into the bowl and drank the cold, clear water. After that he just splashed his muzzle with the cold water which woke him up a bit more. Quickly he grabbed a piece of linen lying on the low table that he used as a towel.

When he finished taming his mane a bit, and after cleaning as much of himself as he could with the water and the piece of linen cloth provided, Somber stood for a bit looking into the reflective surface of the small amounts of water that were left in the bowl.

Sometimes he had a hard time remembering his human face. But he supposed, that what with him actually living and being happy as the pony he was now for almost a year that was to be expected. He had dreams about Hogwarts and his friends now and then of course, as he had dreams about Dursleys and he knew that he would eventually have to return, but he accepted that maybe it was not such a bad thing to live here as long as he could. Yes, it was a selfish thought Somber mused, but in his opinion he deserved some selfishness after all he lived through in his home world.

Sadly it would seem, he could not live without trouble finding him and those close to him… Somber’s reflection smiled bitterly on the water’s surface.

With a shake of his head he began to gather his belongings and suit up in his armor using his emerald magic. He decided to get a light breakfast before he headed out.

It was late in the afternoon when Somber crossed the gate’s to the inner city. He knew he was ordered to report directly to Princess Luna after he arrived, but for now he decided to head to his and Wind’s home. He couldn’t show up in the castle carrying books about Dark Magic after all.

The first thing he noticed after entering their two story high house, was that Wind Dancer was napping on the small cloud she managed to fit into the living room. The fire was burning gently in the fireplace. He tried to tiptoe to the stairs leading to the upper floor, where the two bedrooms and a small library-study type room were located. For now only the master bedroom was used, but Somber knew that Wind Dancer wanted to put the second smaller one to good use sooner rather than later.

He had made it a few steps up when one of the stairs decided to betray him as it squeaked loudly. Somber cringed and sighed, he always forgot to take care of this step.

Wind Dancer stirred, yawned and slowly opened her eyes only to see a sheepishly smiling Somber at the stairs.

“Sorry for waking you up, you had a busy day?” The dark gray unicorn decided to go and great his mare properly now that he had woken her. Somber nuzzled her affectionately feeling the weird texture of the cloud against his forelegs, it always reminded him of soaked cotton.

“You could say that. More important I think is how are you feeling, the rumors travel fast among the guards you know? I’m sorry for Lightning.” The cream colored pegasus said silently and with worry evident in her voice. She nuzzled closer to him.

Somber didn't really know what to say to that. How did he feel? Definitely not fine but…

“It was a shock when she died, but I’m managing.” While he said those words equally silently, he was praying that she believed him and didn’t ask more questions about it and simultaneously begged for forgiveness for saying half-truths.

“Come on, get out of this armor you need to relax... and I did miss you.” Wind Dancer said while she pushed herself up on the cloud to kiss him passionately. To her disappointment he was not as eager as she was. “So there is something eating away at you…”

“It’s just that I still have to report to the Princess. Sorry... I’ll be back later.” Somber said with a dejected look on his muzzle, but he did lean forward for a quick kiss before he went upstairs. In his haste he didn’t see the worried look with which Wind Dancer was following him.

In his private study, as Wind didn’t really need one, he took off his traveling bags and began to move the books he took from the tomb to a small chest which also had expansions charms on it. After a few minutes he finished and secured the chest with his magic, something he didn't do until now… Only he would be able to open it or somepony stronger magically.

A minute or two later Somber was walking down the stone paved street towards the castle. Ponies he went past by looked at him and greeted the Solar Knight with a nod, some younger ones even waved at him. At the bridge the guards saluted him and let him pass without a word.

Now inside the castle and after thinking quickly, Somber took the corridors and stairs that led to the southern tower’s top floors. It was still quite early for Luna to get out from her room, as the sun was only just beginning to set.

On the second most top floor he stopped before a grand mahogany double doors inlaid with silver veins, guarded by two Night Guards.

“Princess Luna requested my presence.” Somber stood as straight as the other two guards that judged him with their gaze. After a few seconds of that staring match the one on the right finally nodded and quietly entered Princess’s room. When the doors opened again the Night Guard waved at Somber to get inside.

The dark gray unicorn have never been inside Luna’s private study however, he was not surprised to find out that the round room was decorated in dark blues, black and silver colors mostly. As with Celestia’s study he had seen during their tea time, Luna’s had ceiling high bookshelves full of old tomes, rolls of parchment and other knick-knacks. Heavy black curtains hanged where he guessed the windows were, blocking any sunlight from entering. What surprised him was that the room was basked in a cold, silvery glow emanating from vines of silver that were snaking on the walls.

“It’s solidified moonlight not silver, if you're curious.” Luna’s voice brought Somber out of his musing and staring and made him look at the spiral staircase on the other side of the room, at the base of which stood the dark alicorn.

She was wearing nothing, not even her ceremonial black and silver torque and horseshoes. In the cold, silvery glow of moonlight she was looking almost ethereal. Somber bowed.

“We requested your presence to report with details what happened in Silent Wood’s.” Her commanding voice sounded across the room before she started to move closer to him.

“Yes, Princess.” And so he began to retail everything that has happened to their team during their mission, the one thing he omitted were the books he took from the tomb. When Somber finished speaking the room was quiet for a few minutes as the dark alicorn gazed at him in thought, a calculating look was plainly seen in Luna’s cyan eyes.

“While the false Truth Stone is an interesting find… Was there nothing else in the tomb?” She asked turning to her right and walking towards the fireplace, where some birch wood was laying which she ignited with her magic causing a blue-black flame to come to life. When she turned a bit to let him see her body in the dancing bright blue light, she looked at him with a small knowing smile. “The dark magic in you got stronger Sir Somber. You can’t hide things that fall under our dominion from us easily. Come closer.”

He had been expecting this, so he walked up closer to Luna and decided to stand in front of her, their bodies casting long flickering shadows on the floor as both stood in front of the fireplace.

“You do realize that, if somepony catches you studying or worse, using Dark Magic there will be no mercy for you? They would even be inclined to kill you, as a Solar Knight using Dark Magic is the worst sacrilege in the eyes of many.” The dark alicorn said with with a tone of voice that was a strange mix of worry and cold smugness. “Such a thing have never happened before.”

“I do know that.” Somber answered looking straight into Luna’s eyes.

“Then why did you do it?” The question was asked silently but still with that cold edge, as the Princess took a step closer to him and leaned forward.

For a brief moment Somber was rendered speechless and he turned his head to look at the unnatural blue-black flames. That was the question, wasn't it? He used untamed Dark Magic to kill Bones and that should have been it. But he began to study and practice the forbidden magic. He closed his eyes.

“Because I didn't have a choice…” Vividly he remembered the feeling of cold, controlled hatred coursing through him. Ever since that duel he hadn’t managed to immerse himself so deeply into Dark Magic. “Because it made me feel powerful, in control of the duel… Unbeatable even.” He added with self disgust clear in his silent voice.

“Dark Magic can achieve many things most think of as unnatural. It’s powerful, but destructive if not controlled. If you do not admit to yourself that deep in your heart there is at least a part that revels in Dark Magic you will destroy yourself sooner or later.” Luna said making him look at her with her starry mane. “That is the first lesson you will have to learn, our dear Somber. Accepting that maybe your destiny lies within shadows of Dark Magic not in the bright Light of the Sun.”

Again Somber was silent for a few heartbeats as he thought about what Princess Luna just said. She was offering him her guidance in the field of Dark Magic, he was sure of it… But he could also easily see that she wanted him to serve her not Celestia in return.

“If I were to serve you, I would be a traitor. My oath to your sister was quite clear on that matter.” The wide, predatory smile that showed itself on Luna’s muzzle was a bit disconcerting for Somber.

“You should by now realize that we like to operate from behind the scenes, officially you will not be breaking any oath. All we are asking is that you recognize my orders as of equal importance as those of my beloved sister. At least for now.”

“As long as your orders would not interfere with orders from Princess Celestia, I suppose that I would not be breaking the oath.” The last part that Luna said made Somber feel suspicious however, he did realize that there was only so much he will be able to learn from books. And having the backing of Princess Luna if worst thing came to pass and he was to be discovered, was something he could not afford to lose.

“That is an agreeable term. Well then, do you swear to fulfill our orders as long as they do not contradict those of our sister, for the time being?” Luna asked while she made another step closer to him, which made the dark gray unicorn look slightly upwards.

“I do.” Two simple words that would made his life so much more complicated. So there was no surprise that Somber sighed heavily after he said them.

“Very good. Now… I think we should discuss times when you will sneak into my study for some lessons on Dark Magic. Lets move closer to my desk.” Luna turned around and crossed the room, while Somber gazed at her sensually swaying flank and subtly flicking tail. The stallion was quite certain that the Princess didn't walk in such a way earlier in their meeting...

He had a feeling that this secret lessons would become a very trying time for him indeed. He just hoped that Princess Luna would stop just at teasing him...

On the other side of the room, while Somber could not see her muzzle, Luna smirked victoriously. She had finally laid her hooves on a pony that had potential to be her general and actually be worthy of the title. Oh yes, she had grand plans indeed for him and the whole of Equestria.

Secrets

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Secrets

Somber was looking into the mirror that he and Wind Dancer bought some time ago now. It was early in the morning as the sun just began to rise. His mare was not in the house or even in the city. The blue maned pegasus mare was on border patrol duty for the last five days and she was scheduled to return in two days time. So Somber was using this alone time to get more practice with his Dark Magic.

That was the reason why he stood in front of the mirror. With fascination he looked deeply into his emerald slitted eyes, that had small tufts of dark purple smoke like magic leaking from them. Those were something that Luna quickly explained to him on their first secret lesson more than a year ago… and it still fascinated him.

Dark Magic as the Princess of the Night said, wanted to be used. It was constantly looking for an outlet. And in this case the saying that ‘eyes are windows to the soul’ was almost literal. The dark alicorn also explained that in her case it was the mane and tail that took on this ‘trait’.

“Such a long time… And not one of those fools noticed.” As he thought out loud Somber couldn’t help himself, he smiled smugly about all of this. And then frowned. “It’s a shame I can’t help them with the holes in security now…”

To be fair, the dark gray unicorn thought, the Solar Knights and even Celestia herself were in a disadvantage. They never thought that one of their own would begin using Dark Magic.

However, lately Count Blueblood was becoming a nuisance. He was too curious, too paranoid for his own good. Luna had promised to rein him in or to… take care of him permanently, if she could not bend her sister’s views about the veteran unicorn to fit their needs. And if all of those options failed, there was a backup plan ready. One that made Somber frown and curse silently when he learned of it, but he knew that he had little to no say in the matter.

With a sigh, for a moment he closed his eyes and concentrated on wanting the darkness to hide in the furthest reaches of his mind and heart. When the dark gray unicorn opened his eyes again, the tufts of Dark Magic were gone and his emerald eyes looked normally.

He had to be careful to not get too emotional, as strong emotions sometimes triggered the changes that marked a pony as a Dark Magic user. So Occlumency was something that he trained extensively in the past year under the watchful gaze of Luna.

It surprised him when she told him what they would be practicing for the better part of their meetings, although he knew it shouldn’t. The dark alicorn was a master of mind related magics… And it made him hate Snape, the self proclaimed master Occlumens, all the more. Her lessons were nothing like those of the potion’s master. Where he was trampling everything in his path, she was meticulous. While Snape was uncaring, she respected the sanctuary that was his mind. He was blind, she saw… Luna saw during their third lesson that there was a part of his mind that did not belong.

For now the odd part was contained by mental walls that made the thick castle walls of the palace look like paper sheets by comparison. And nightly Somber was adding further layers… He had a sickening feeling of what the odd part contained but he did not want to even touch it, nor did Luna without his consent.

The black maned unicorn shook his head, there was little they could do for now with this unwelcome part of him. He was just not ready to wield magics required to get rid of it. Necromancy was by far the last subject he wanted to read upon and learn, there were things that even Black Mages and Princess Luna herself labeled as forbidden among that knowledge...

A clock chimed signaling noon.

Making final adjustments Somber put on his white, gold trimmed cloak and left the house heading towards the castle. His shift as a personal guard of Princess Celestia would soon be beginning.

After less than quarter of an hour, Somber was standing beside the doors leading to Celestia’s private study. His shift partner, somepony new in the ranks, was as still and professional looking as him. Standing straight, silent and showing no emotions. In his mind Somber was counting down minutes…

The door cracked open.

“Sir Blackmane, could you come inside and assist us with the paperwork?” Celestia’s smooth voice sounded through the corridor, just as Somber’s countdown reached three minutes…

“Certainly, Princess.” His answer was as practiced as the white alicorn’s question. The second guard whose name Somber didn’t care to ask for, just blinked slowly. That was the only sign he was curious as what was going on.

The doors closed behind him, enveloped in golden aura. Without a word Somber made his way to one of the pillows laying near the fireplace. For the better part of two years he had been a frequent guest in this particular room.

“It’s been a while since we were able to talk properly, my dear Somber.” Celestia began while she prepared tea for them.

“Yes, well it’s been harder to justify me spending time with you Princess. I’m sure you heard the rumors about us?” Somber said with a scowl, as he accepted the steaming teacup, enveloping it with his emerald magic. For a second the emerald and gold magic danced around each other, creating a pleasant, warm tingling sensation in his horn. He saw the corners of Celestia’s mouth twitch as she fought down a most unbecoming giggle.

“Yes… Nobles are always looking for an excuse to garner more attention, more power. Even if it means spreading such inappropriate rumors about me.” The white alicorn laid down on a large crimson pillow, with her forelegs crossed and her belly facing him. She took a sip of hers tea. ”They tend to forget just who and what I am.”

“I was in the temple not two days ago. The tensions are high Princess, I’ve heard that the head priest of your cult wants to start a smear campaign against Nobles who would as he put it ‘say such vile, blasphemous things about our pure Queen and one of our most gifted Knights’.” Somber said the last part with ill concealed wry amusement.

Celestia shot him a weak, scolding look as she took another sip.

“The Nobles and the priests will be reined in, they always are… They don't have the courage to stand up to me directly.” Celestia’s voice had a steel edge to it as she spoke. For a few minutes silence reigned in the room. Then the white alicorn smiled. “But enough about me, do tell how is Wind Dancer? I keep eye on her service records and lately they became one of the best. You must be proud of her.”

At those words Somber sighed deeply. For a year now they have been trying have a foal and they were less than successful. Wind Dancer was beginning to show signs of depression, but she was fighting with it by spending more and more time with her unit or on assignments. That in turn began to frustrate Somber, especially since she began to behave colder towards him… But whose fault was it, was an arguable thing... after all he had to keep a tighter check on his own emotions, he himself had became a bit colder. And he was just beginning to realize that this whole situation would probably not have a happy ending.

“That I am, but things are not as great as they once were between us.” Saying those words pained Somber, but he could count on Celestia to keep his secrets or to give him a good advice… at least when it come to majority of things.

Interestingly enough he saw a glint of something in her pale magenta eyes.

“But I see you both are holding up remarkably good.”

“Well, we do have things to do that help us… not think about our issues.” The dark gray unicorn said looking curiously at Celestia as her body moved slightly.

He had seen such a pose, relaxed yet expecting. Rear legs moved slightly apart to show him all of her belly, promising something hidden. Luna always tried to tempt him during their lessons and she did it with far more open displays most of the time. Still, seeing Celestia try to subtly seduce him, if the look she was giving him now was anything to go by was shocking.

“You can’t say that all you two have been focusing on lately is just working yourself to exhaustion?” The white alicorn took a slow sip of the now lukewarm tea, looking at the stallion before her with half lidded eyes.

The dark gray unicorn Knight was not certain what prompted the Princess to behave in such a way… Maybe she thought that he would be more accepting now, that he revealed he had problems with Wind Dancer? Somber closed his eyes. As if having one demigod mare trying to seduce him was not a problem big enough…

“Princess…” Somber looked at her with a small measure of uncertainty. Before he sat a bit straighter and put aside his tea. “Celestia, you know I don’t like to be lead around. If you could get to the point of what you want to tell me?”

“Let’s just say, that those rumors have some merit in them.” She leaned forward, which made Somber realize how close they were from the beginning. He could feel her breath on his lower jaw, as she nibbled gently on it from the downside. “Being a Demigod Princess is a lonely life, dear Somber. And everypony has their needs...”

An hour later, Somber left the study. For a moment he stopped, turned and looked at the other guard on the shift. He was a regular Guard not a Knight, as his golden armor didn’t have Celestia’s Sun anywhere on it, he outranked him.

“You’re taking over, I need to take care of a private matter.” Somber’s voice only slightly betrayed his tiredness. Without further words or even a thought, as he dared not to think about the last hour he moved down the corridor. As he was passing a mirror, he quickly checked himself over for any lasting evidences of his recent... activity. A crooked piece of armor, a loose pin in his cloak, everything pointing to him hastily putting on his armor was corrected. His hair was a bit of a mess but no one would point it out. It was more or less a mess everyday anyway. He was acting a bit paranoid he knew… but he just wanted to be sure nothing was out of place.

He left the castle grounds, he left the Everfree city and went to the nearby forest that stretched as far as the eye could see. To sit at a river bank and look at his reflection.

“What the hell did you allow yourself to do Somber?” He asked his own reflection, but it stayed silent as he contemplated what to do now. If word got out that the rumors about him and Celestia were now made true… He would be finished.

However a small part of him, the darker more egotistical part, was wondering… if he went half the way, why not go all the way? So to speak. His next lesson with Luna was tomorrow, he had some time to decide.

After all, nopony had to know anything. They were all entitled to having secrets.

**********

Somber looked at the city sprawling below him as he stood at the balcony of the highest castle tower. He was wearing nothing. The night was a windy one and a bit cold, but it only helped to keep the sleepiness at bay. The moon was high in the starlit sky as it was well past midnight. Normally he would not have stayed to this hour in the tower, but things have changed.

Tufts of Dark Magic of about two hooves length, wavered around his eyes. And with the slitted emerald eyes that glowed with inner power he was looking at the sleeping city. For the first time since the death of Lightning Flash, he felt Dark Magic coursing freely in his veins.

A steady clop of hooves on stone made him look slightly behind him, before he returned to looking at the world blanketed by the darkness of the night. Warm, soft body nuzzled into his right side.

“Beautiful isn't it? And to think so many shun it… fools all of them.” Luna’s silent, cold but seductive voice whispered into his ear.

“In time they all will learn to appreciate the Night.” Somber answered with warmth in his voice, he turned his head to look at the dark alicorn and place a gentle kiss.

“I may be immortal, but my patience is not everlasting.” She answered, smirking. She turned away and started to move inside again just a high pitched scream reached their ears from the city below. “Hmmm… It seems my Guards will have a busy night after all.”

Luna returned inside, while Somber sighed and looked up at the stars. Not for the first time in this life, he wondered if one of those was his Earth.

However, as he looked down again at Equestria, he couldn’t help the smug smile that showed itself on his muzzle. He missed Hogwarts and knew that someday he would return there, he felt it somehow now that he managed to create a deeper bond with Dark Magic, but he couldn’t complain at his life now.

His smile widened... by day Celestia, by night Luna. Both royal sisters... he would be the object of envy of every stallion, if they knew that is. Somber chuckled with deep amusement and just a bit of disbelief at his fate.

“Queen of the Day and Queen of the Night... and me. Maybe I should proclaim myself a King?” He continued to chuckle as he decided he had enough of star gazing and headed inside. After all he had come to Luna for knowledge, that they were… distracted, should not change that.

**********

As it turned out that day Wind Dancer returned first, so when Somber returned home the smell of a homemade breakfast greeted him. That, and a soft kiss from the cream pegasus. He was a bit surprised but he smiled returned the kiss and hugged her tightly.

“How was the week Somber? You didn't get bored to death without me, did you?” Wind asked with a cheery voice.

“Had a lot to do or to read.” He answered while they both walked to the table.

“Typical you.” She said as she began to eat a fruit salad.

“And how are things on the border with Griffons?” Somber asked between the chews of a bread with raisins.

“Peaceful, boring even.”

And so it went for the morning, both of them exchanging tales. And if they both smelled other stallions or mares on each other they, didn't talk about it...

The point of no return

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The Point of No Return

For the past two weeks the Grand Master of the Solar Knights, Count Stronghoof of the House Blueblood made it a habit to hang around the castle during early night hours. Using the most advanced illusions he could cast and some borrowed clothing, he disappeared in plain sight. After all very few ponies took notice of a lowly, old servant that polished the golden ornaments and candle holders around the castle.

The thing that made him do this, was his paranoia as someponies would call it. For the past ten months he began seeing a strange change in one of his subordinates. He couldn't quite put his hoof on it, but his experience and gut feeling told him that Somber Blackmane was hiding something from everypony.

And in the past three weeks somepony started playing around with castle guard duty schedules. It was subtle at first but now he could see a pattern. The dark gray unicorn’s name kept showing up on the schedule only on the last shift of the Day Guard. It was nothing special in the beginning, he knew that some of his Knights and the Royal Guards prefered this or that hours. What made him truly suspicious two weeks ago were the rumors flying around the City.

That Blackmane had an affair with Princess Celestia.

Now, while Stronghoof also was a stallion and could appreciate his Lady’s beauty, he knew that she was a symbol and a demigoddess. Therefore in his opinion personal feelings for her should be buried deep within one's heart and never spoken of.

So for the past two weeks he wanted to see what his arguably the most talented Solar Knight was up to during his shifts and after them.

It took him all of four days to come to the conclusion that indeed the rumors were true. What amazed him was how confident Somber looked during the times he saw him walking around the castle, when the dark gray unicorn thought no pony saw him. It bordered on arrogance.

What made him continue his spying after those initial four days, was Somber’s visit to the North Tower. Princess Luna’s own castle within the castle as it were. He could not wait around to see how long his subordinate would be up there, as the Night Guards would grow suspicious. But he always did wait outside the castle walls, hidden in the shadowed alleys of the inner city.

Count Stronghoof knew that his spying was coming to an end when during the last time he followed Somber back home, the dark gray unicorn began glancing around himself more than usual.

But he wanted to give it one more shot tonight, he needed to know what Somber Blackmane was up to.

**********

Tonight’s meeting with Princess Luna went as usual for Somber. After a year of their meetings they lately began delving into Necromancy. A subject that even now, after using and reading about some of the darkest magics he could imagine made his skin crawl and his muzzle take on a look of slight disgust.

But it was a necessary step if he… if they wanted to make progress with removing the strange soul piece stuck to him. It helped that Luna knew of his past and origins, he could share with here important bits of information about the true owner of the soul piece. He finally confirmed without a doubt that he was carrying around with him a small piece of Voldemort.

Luna had theories about how it was possible, but even the Princess of the Night admitted that she had never come across magics that could split a soul. Somber could see that it troubled her greatly. It troubled her to such a degree that she made him swear a magical oath to never share with any being the knowledge about splitting one's soul, that they were currently discovering or rediscovering…

Tonight also, after all the learning there was a time for… frolicking in the dark alicorn’s bed.

When he was leaving the Tower it was almost midnight. The Night Guards noded their heads in respect as Somber passed them. The dark gray unicorn, wearing a black cloak over his golden armor was in no rush tonight.

He and Wind Dancer came to an agreement three days ago. They would continue to be friends with benefits. It was a hard talk for the both of them, but after it both felt better. Thinking about it made Somber sigh with some regret.

“It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved, eh?” Somber muttered quietly to himself. He was walking down one of the main corridors when he passed an old, castle servant. He was polishing one of the great mirrors hanging on the walls. In the corner of his eye, almost too late to catch it, he saw that the old pony was trying to discreetly look at him in the mirror. When the pony noticed that he was caught he quickly focused on his task again.

Somber didn’t stop. He didn't even frown, Luna taught him better than that. However in his mind alarms sounded. It was curious how every night he spent in the Tower, or every evening he spent with Celestia he always came across that particular servant. The castle was rather big after all. The dark gray unicorn noticed him a week ago but didn’t think much about it. Until now…

The night was moonless, as the sky was covered by clouds and it was raining. The street lanterns were glowing with soft yellow light of enchanted crystals.

When he crossed the bridge, Somber found himself on the Grand Square now devoid mostly of ponies. Only those that served in the Temple of the Night or those that worshipped Luna milled around in the rain. He pulled his black cloak’s hood up and speed up a bit. His hooves making the occasional splashing noise when he stepped into a puddle.

When he entered the inner city proper he began looking for a shadowed, narrow alley. However the first few houses looked more like countryside villas, with small walls separating them and their gardens from the rest of the city.

His magical sense told him that a source of magic was following him… a unicorn. Somber had to focus, to filter out the magic emanating from hundreds of other sources around him. But it was doable.

When he was closer to the wall, the houses became smaller and clustered together, creating narrow alleys and inner courtyards. He made a turn right when he spotted the best hiding spot he could find.

He didn't have to wait long in the rain, to hear the slow clopping of hooves on cobblestone. The second that he could see the cloaked pony following him in the entrance to the alley, his emerald magic enveloped the stranger and yanked him roughly toward one of the walls.

A thud and a groan of pain could be heard among the constant pitter-patter of the rain, as his stalker slumped under one of the walls. Not wasting any time and knowing that it was a unicorn, he cast a magic inhibiting spell and conjured some ropes to bind the pony. With his emerald magic Somber pulled down his stalkers hood to see black crystals growing over the other’s horn.

“Who are you, and what do you want?” The dark gray unicorn stood over the slumped unicorn’s form with an angry frown on his muzzle. The answer he got was not what he expected…

“Dark Magic!” The other whispered with horror in his voice as his eyes crossed to look at his horn. “You fool! You will be hanged for this treachery. I’ll see to it personally!”

Panic was the first thing that Somber felt. He didn't know any mind altering magic’s… At least not the kind he would need right now. But it was clear to him that whoever this old castle servant was had to be silenced.

“Then I have no choice…” Somber whispered looking around. He spotted some old wooden boxes and trunks. With a bit of his magic he ripped of a moderately sized piece of wood and concentrated, transfiguring it into iron dagger. Without a thought he plunged it into the others chest.

The old castle servant’s eyes widened and he grunted in pain, then a choked laugh escaped his mouth alongside a small rivulet of blood.

“You’re finished... Somber… Blackmane. You will… die, I was… right.” The air around the pony began to waver and shimmer, as the illusions began to fall. When Somber finally saw the form of the Grand Master of Solar Knights, he took a step back and his eyes widened.

The lifeless eyes of Count Stronghoof stared at the dark gray unicorn. For a time Somber could not grasp the idea of what he actually did.

“Oh, buck me…” When he finally realized that he was standing in the rain staring at a bleeding corpse in a dark alley, he fled.

His first instinctual thought was to leave the city and hide in some small village or in the wilds, but by the time he reached his own house, he realized how stupid it would be. He would be the prime suspect if he run away now. He decided to wait it out, and if he caught wind of trouble, then he would leave.

He just hoped that the body would not be found until the morning, the transfiguration and magic binding spell were small pieces of magic and by morning, his magical signature should be unrecognizable.

*********

It was early morning when he received summons to an emergency meeting with the Princess. In no time he was standing on the throne room with the few dozen other Knights. Whispered conversations could be heard all around, everypony wondering what was going on.

“Hey, Somber, you know what’s going on?” A voice from above asked, and the dark gray unicorn looked up to see a pegasus Knight, Blaze.

“No.”

“Why the grumpy attitude? Didn’t sleep well?” Blaze managed to wedge himself between Somber and some other Knight.

“You could say that.” Somber answered.

At that moment Princess Celestia entered, in her white, shimmering dress. Everypony present quieted instantly and focused on the white alicorn.

“Our Knight’s, We regret to inform you that your Grand Master, Count Stronghoof was found dead in an alley this morning. A dagger was still lodged into his chest.”

The announcement was met with silence, but the mood shifted from uncertainty to anger and disbelief.

“Investigation is in progress, for now we know that it was another unicorn. Capable of Dark Magic.” Celestia said and waited, she didn't have to wait long.

“Then we will never know…”

“Princess Luna will surely protect the scum…”

“Let’s just storm the Temple!”

“And cause a civil war, are you crazy?!”

For a while Princess Celestia seemed content to let everypony present voice, or rather shout their opinions. She was intrigued by the fact that amidst the chaos Somber Blackmane remained calm but refused to meet her gaze.

After almost ten minutes of shouting matches between the Knights they began to calm down. When only whispers could be heard again, Somber finally looked at Celestia.

“Who will lead the Knights now? And will you Princess involve Princess Luna into the investigation?” He asked.

“Who will lead is yet to be decided, as to my sister’s involvement… Yes, We will be asking for her help. Now, Our Knights return to your duties, some of you will shortly be asked to help with the investigation. That is all.” For a moment Celestia seemed to hesitate, then… “Sir Blackmane, please stay.”

For a brief moment the dark gray unicorn panicked, and then calmed himself. He approached the dais on which stood the white marble throne beside which stood Princess Celestia.

“Yes, my Lady?” He asked knowing that they were not alone.

“We have a proposition for you. With the approval of my sister, We want to appoint you as a military representative and ambassador’s assistant in the Crystal Empire.”

Somber blinked. It was one of Luna’s plans if something ever happened that could endanger their secret. They have talked about such situations, but he honestly didn’t expect the dark alicorn to act so quickly.

“With all due respect my Princess, but why now? And why me?” He was honestly curious what made Celestia even agree to Luna’s plan… not that the white alicorn knew true motives behind her dark sister’s behavior.

“The Knights will need a talented leader now that Count Stronghoof is dead. For now anypony with enough administration skills and well connected with the nobility will suffice. But this is a military organisation. Being a noble is not enough.” She paused and gestured with her left wing for him to follow her. So they both began walking towards more private, but still official dining room. “You are truly talented, but you lack the connections. This would be your chance to make some of those connections. We are just offering you a good starting position.”

While he listened, Somber also kept looking at her muzzle, her eyes. He saw that Celestia was somewhat conflicted in the matter, her subtle expressions would be unrecognizable to most other ponies, but not to him. It took him a while to understand why. She didn't want to let him go, at least that was his guess.

“Then you see me as the next, after this one, Grand Master?” Somber asked with a bit of scepticism in his voice.

“Yes, We do.” Celestia answered simply as she sat down at the head of a long table in the official dining room. As if it was a sign, servants walked out of alcoves and hidden entrances to serve some light food for both of them.

For more than a quarter of an hour, both were silent enjoying the breakfast as much as it was possible with the current circumstances.

“How long will my service in the Crystal Empire be?” Somber finally asked.

“Ten years at minimum.” The white alicorn said, with a tinge of sadness in her voice.

Somber almost spat out the wine he was sipping from a golden chalice held in his emerald magic.

“That is… a lot of time.” He said with a slight cough.

“Indeed. If you are agreeing to this, you will be leaving in the next week.”

“Well then, I should prepare and make the most of the time I have left in this city to take care of my private matters.” Somber said standing up and looking at the Princess.

“Then have a good day Sir Blackmane.”

While he was leaving the dining room, both of them knew that they would be seeing each other in the evening. They had to make the most of the time they had left after all.

Between Worlds

by Vohira

The Origin: Part 1

The Origin: Part 2

The Origin: Part 3

The Origin: Part 4

The Origin: Part 5

The Origin: Part 6

Gathering Shadows: Part 1

Gathering Shadows: Part 2

Gathering Shadows: Part 3

Secrets

The point of no return