Midnight Angel

By Key Gear

• March 18, 2013




Age: 54

Gender: Female

Species: Pegasus

Appearance: Midnight Angel is a middle-aged mare, a frail looking pegasus with a rather unassuming demeanor and a youthful appearance that belies her years. Her coat is a deep shade of green, midnight green. Her mane, which is simply styled, is a deep shade of blue. She is slightly shorter than most mares and her picky diet keeps her thinner than a normal pony would be. Despite her age, she is a blank flank.

Cutie Mark: Midnight does not have a visible cutie mark. There is a reason for this, but it is unknown to her.

Personality: Generally, Midnight prefers to be silent. However, behind her silence, she is remarkably intelligent. When she does speak, she speaks succinctly. She rarely expresses emotion, except in the company of her older parents or her son.<br /><br />She is extremely protective towards her son, and will fiercely defend him, even if he is more than capable of defending himself. To her, he is the reason that she was able to recover from her strange collapse so many years ago. The two were inseparable until Dusky became a train engineer. Even then, she will often shadow him on his journeys.<br /><br />While she is intelligent, she often seems blissfully simplistic and naive. Whether this is her true manner or an act designed to put others off their guard is never really revealed by her. She is an observer, and extremely skilled in understanding the complexities of certain situations without needed to be told much in the way of details.

Backstory: In her youth, she had been a dazzling beauty. Her lithe, graceful form and brilliant cerulean eyes commanded the attention of all when she walked into a room. Attending one of the finest schools in Vanhoover, she had been an excellent student. She was skilled in so many arts, sports, and studies that it became something of a local sport in itself to attempt to guess what her cutie mark would eventually be. <br /><br />A rising star, the popularity and respect of her peers and elders were all hers to enjoy. But, Midnight was never really happy. No matter what she did, no matter how hard she poured herself into the pursuit of excellence, a hunger always seemed to remain. It was a strange, gnawing anxiety. The feeling grew incessantly and rapidly as she aged. <br /><br />When she was an older filly, her anxiety began to sometimes manifest itself in the form of vivid daydreams. These daydreams would occur primarily when she was in stressful situations. In the middle of a tense race or even in the midst of an exam, she would sometimes, without warning, find herself stunned still by the most incredible visions - images of a monstrous frozen tundra, the whispering forms of shadows shifting across an infinite, lifeless landscape. <br /><br />At first, her parents dismissed the rare episodes as panic attacks. It was normal, to them, that even the strongest ponies could panic under enough pressure. However, as time went by, these episodes became more frequent. Troubled, her parents sought the assistance of the finest local medical ponies. Each time, the diagnoses merely served to confirm their own. It was panic, they would all say. Eventually, the explanation began to focus on Midnight's possible anxiety over her lack of a cutie mark.<br /><br />While her parents sought help in whatever way they could, Midnight began to deteriorate. Her visions, which always occurred only during the day, had begun to threaten her sanity. Midnight's nerves, once seemingly stronger than the strongest metal, were fraying to just worn threads. No medical pony knew what was happening to her. Her parents' desperate attempts to save her were fruitless.<br /><br />She was just barely able to finish school before she began to cut herself off from society. Only a few years after becoming a young mare, she became completely nocturnal, only venturing out of her room in the dead of night. It was only then, in the night, that the visions would not trouble her and the noise of the city was silent, sparing her anxiety. During the day, she slept.<br /><br />Eating only once per day, at night, she began to waste away. Her parents were devastated, but the weight of their tears could not tilt the world in the favor of their child. Eventually, there came a time when, emotionally exhausted and tired of the baffled looks on the faces of so many medical ponies, Midnight's parents stopped seeking to find her any help. Content in the knowledge that she lived, they were happy to just leave her be, comforting her in any way that they could. <br /><br />This situation persisted for a number of years. Then, on a night lit by a brilliant full moon, Midnight was out walking, as she did, though the deserted streets when she saw and heard something unusual. There, in the distance, a decently sized older home was on fire. From where she stood, she could clearly hear what sounded like the cries of younger ponies trapped inside.<br /><br />Her instincts were both unexpected and powerful. Overcoming years of ill-use, her wings unfolded, and Midnight had covered the distance between herself and the burning home in just a split second. Without even the slightest hesitation, she quickly moved into the fiery structure. Powered by instinct and pure adrenalin, she located and rescued the first pony, a small foal, with frightening speed.<br /><br />The next young pony was similarly easy to find and rescue. Like an eagle's shadow, she rapidly made her way through the flaming structure and emerged with a colt. At this time, a few other ponies had begun to awaken, roused by the roiling light and intensity of the flames. Those who had arrived first at the scene were startled by the sight of wiry pegasus with flaming blue eyes and singed fur depositing a neighborhood colt outside and then fearlessly darting into the burning home. <br /><br />A unicorn that was among the early arrivers, a stallion with some skill in magic, attempted to use a defensive spell to protect himself against the flames so the he could help Midnight. Strangely, though, the shield had no effect. The fire, assumed by the onlookers to be of natural origins seemed to be magical. Ponies from the local fire station, alerted earlier on, shortly after Midnight had first entered, arrived. However, regardless of what they tried, the building continued to burn. <br /><br />As the fire continued, unabated by any efforts to contain it, alternating waves of fear and panic passed over the ponies in attendance. The strange, dark pegasus that they had all seen earlier had failed to reappear with the last young pony. Hearing nothing more than the roar of the fire, powerful and steady, the crowd of ponies began to lose hope. The other younger ponies that had been rescued earlier were whisked away so that they would not have to see what became of their savior and their remaining friend.<br /><br />As most of the roof collapsed with a sickening crackling, it crushed the remaining hopes that the onlookers might have had, many looked away in sorrow. For those that remained watching, they were treated to a sight that made a lasting impression on their memories. From one of the windows in the portion of the house that still remained intact, a pegasus shot out with blinding speed. It was quiet a sight, indeed, to see Midnight in the full light of the moon, with more than a few of her feathers alight, and the small unicorn filly safely in her grasp.<br /><br />Rolling over to hit the ground with a thud on her back, Midnight was able to guard her precious cargo from injury. While Midnight was burned in a number of areas, her unusual toughness, still preserved despite her time as a hermit of the night, had served her well. Awestruck, the crowd stood in silence as she stood to her hooves. Their awe only increased when they saw that the filly that she had saved was barely singed by the fire's blaze. Even as the fire behind them consumed the last vestiges of the building, the crowd began to cheer exuberantly for this unknown protector. <br /><br />Unfortunately, their cheers, unknown to them had a deleterious effect on Midnight. Shaking with exertion, no longer blinded by instinct - she was extremely vulnerable in that moment. The cheer of the crowd drew her attention to the fact that she was now surrounded with more ponies than she had interacted with in years. Her panic was immediate. With the same speed that she had used to exit the burning structure, Midnight launched herself into the air and made a beeline for the darkest place that she could find - the forest.<br /><br />It was there, in the forest, that she remained. It was there that she discovered the home that she now resided in. It was there that she finally found the seclusion that she had long craved. Once safely ensconced in her new home, she had no reason to venture out. She obtained food from the local plants, and she eventually created her own orchard. As she had in the city, she still spent most of her time asleep. Her daydreams, still worsening, continued to trouble her, chronically. <br /><br />Her daydreams were now day-nightmares. Where they had once carried menace, they now carried horror, and this horror was unescapable. When she would awaken during the day, no more than a few minutes would pass before she would be terrified by visions of ferocious intensity. Sometimes, she would see a monstrous, shapeless creature that writhed and shambled with the most grotesque of motions. Sometimes, she would see a badly wounded dragon, its behemothic form covered with uncountable gashes and wounds, its cyclopean wings broken and dragged by its sides as it moved. Alive despite its brokenness, the dragon's eyes were nonetheless filled with the cold stare of death.<br /><br />She would see other things, too. Sometimes she would see a machine, a system of indescribable complexity that seemed to stretch out infinitely in front of her vision. She would see a door of terrible size. Eventually, she would see the shadow of what would, initially, appear to be one of the princesses. It was an alicon, doubtlessly, but it was larger than either Celestia or Luna. Like the dragon, the alicorn's shadow had wings but they dragged uselessly by its sides. It would always appear to be building, but what it was building seemed disproportionate, twisted, mangled. The strangeness of the visions would reduce her to a shivering wreck of a pony. <br /><br />Under the influence of her dreams, her fear of the daytime became far pronounced than it had ever been. The march of time progressed, and the days gave way into years. She kept to herself, ventured out only a night, and continued to exist, purely and simply. It was in this process of existence, on a cold winter day late in the dusk of evening, that she found the strange foal.<br /><br />During a moonlit winter night that was colder than normal, Midnight was out gathering food from the area near to her house. Entering a clearing, she was greeting be a startling sight. A small unicorn foal was sitting in the middle of a frozen lake. Even in the midst of the freezing cold, the foal was calmly examining its own reflection in the surface of the lake. As she approached, the small creature looked up and stared at her with such fascinatingly intense dark eyes that Midnight was forced to look away.<br /><br />The foal had a coat that was vaguely reminiscent of the color of charcoal. Its mane was a peculiar, rich shade of black, rather like another type of mineral. Watching the foal from the corner of her eyes, Midnight wasn't sure what to think. In all of her time in the forest, she hadn't encountered another pony during her nightly walks. She hadn't even spoken with another pony in many years. Now, she was faced by this mysterious foal. <br /><br />She hesitated at first, but a long sleeping instinct arose in Midnight. She wrapped him in her own shawl, despite the fact that he seemed completely warm and unaffected by the cold. She then carried the foal on her back and returned to her home. Initially, she was barely certain of what she was doing. However, she was, by nature, a motherly pony, and within just a few days, she had become comfortable caring for the foal. <br /><br />Really, it was surprisingly easy. The foal seemed to share her dislike of the daytime, and he also shared her unusual sleep schedule. He would move soundlessly. He was strangely quiet. He never cried, fussed, or made much of any other sounds. Occasionally, he would laugh, but even the foal's laughter was strangely silent. To another pony, the silence of the foal would have been disturbing, but to Midnight, it was a comfort. Caring for the small foal brought her a feeling that she had not felt in many years - joy. The occasional smile was all that she needed to sustain her enthusiasm. <br /><br />The addition of the foal into her life changed Midnight. Before she took the foal in, she had merely existed. She would sleep through each day, awaken for each night, and every day was the same. Like a wildflower, she had simply been, but now, existence was not enough. It had become important to her, essential, that her foal be well provided for. There would be times, on occasion, when Midnight pondered taking the foal to the city, leaving him there so that another pony could find his true parents, but one glance at the foal would be enough to dissuade her. She loved him.<br /><br />After some weeks, a strange sound awakened Midnight during the day. At first, frightened by the thought of her daydreams, Midnight closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep, but she was startled into action when she reached over to check for the presence of her foal. He was gone. Panicked, Midnight was up immediately. She checked everywhere before the strange sound recurred. It sounded like like a bird. Venturing outside, Midnight saw her foal, completely unharmed. Not very far away, there was a rather large predatory bird dragging a broken wing behind it as it retreated back into the forest. <br /><br />The vision seemed familiar to Midnight. Her mind wandered back to the daydreams that had haunted her. It was then that she realized it. She had been awake for nearly 15 minutes, and no daydreams had occurred. At first, she couldn't believe it, but then the thought occurred to her that, perhaps, the sight that she had just scene was somehow symbolic. The bird, dragging its wing, represented her visions. Her foal had frightened them away. She took her foal into her hooves and hugged him tightly. From that moment on, her already unmatched devotion increased even more. Her nightmares never recurred.<br /><br />That was the beginning of Midnight's new life. No longer constrained by her fear of the day and in the company of her foal, Midnight was happier than she had ever been. Over the next few years, her foal grew rapidly, much taller than a normal pony of his age. As a young colt, he was already just as tall as she was. He was also unusually strong and seemingly tireless. Sometimes, he would work from dawn until dusk, fixing things, gathering food, cooking meals. He would also occasionally gather flowers for Midnight, always the more unusual ones. It was in doing this, seemingly rudimentary work, that he earned his cutie mark - a shovel.<br /><br />While he was still completely silent, it was as though he could read her thoughts. Whenever she was about to do something, she would find that he had already done it or was just starting. Eventually, Midnight realized that his was her colt's way of reciprocating her own devotion. He wasn't the one to initiate a hug or anything like that, but he clearly protected her and did everything that he could to help her in any way. In the morning, he would sometimes make food, he was a gifted cook at a fascinatingly early age. In the evenings, he would accompany Midnight to gather food from the local forest and to work in the orchard.<br /><br />In the dusk of the evening, on a day that had been even quieter than normal, Midnight had a thought. It had been quite a few years since she had seen her daydreams, and now, for some strange reason, she found herself remembering them. However, with the horror diminished by the passage of time, she merely found them fascinating. Sitting there, thinking through them all, she began to piece them together like the pieces of a puzzle. Soon, a story began to take shape in her mind. Pleased with her accomplishment, she opened her mouth to call out for her colt, but she stopped. She had never named him.<br /><br />Taking a quick glance outside at the waning dusk, she decided that she knew what she would call him. Just as she was about to go looking for him, he was, as usual, standing there next to her. She spoke to him, simply. "I'm so sorry, I didn't give you a name. It isn't too late. Can I name you Dusky Coal?" The colt smiled pleasantly and nodded before speaking in response. "Yes, mother, that would be quite acceptable. I find it to be a fitting name for a pony such as myself." <br /><br />Midnight blinked. It was the first time that Dusky had ever spoken, and it was the first time that he had ever called her his mother. The sound of his voice and his manner of speaking - distant, forceful, formal - it was surprising to her. He continued. "I am here because I believe that you have something important to tell me. A type of story?" Midnight nodded, and she smiled. His way of speaking was unusual but it also seemed fitting. She proceeded to tell him the story that she had come up with, it was a story of how a once mighty pony had fallen and become a monstrous, fallen creature.<br /><br />After she shared this story with him, Dusky congratulated her, but he did not say why. The next day, Midnight found Dusky doing something unusual. He was writing, and he was writing a lot. When she read what he was writing, she realized that it was a version of the story that she had shared with him on the previous day. Over the next few weeks, he would make time for writing every single day. After a while, he finished the first story, but then he began working on another, a small variation of her original story. <br /><br />For once, Midnight was disconcerted by Dusky's behavior. Thinking that perhaps he was bored, she decided to return to the city and to enroll Dusky in a normal school. No longer afraid of the daytime, Midnight was certain that she would have a much easier time with the noise of the city as well, particularly with Dusky by her side. When she told Dusky, she was afraid that he would be upset, but he simply smiled, nodded, and began to pack. The next day, they made the journey to Vanhoover. As she had supposed, Midnight was no longer troubled by its noise and activity.<br /><br />The first thing that she did upon returning to the city was to find her old home. Nervously, not knowing whether her parents were still there, she knocked on the door. Much to her happiness, the door opened within a minute, and she was there, standing face to face with her parents. After a tearful reunion, they welcomed her and her child in. Though they were now much older, their love of their daughter had not diminished over time. They never even questioned the origins of Midnight's colt, instead, overjoyed to have a grandchild, they welcomed him as well.<br /><br />After a week spent refamiliarizing herself with the city, Midnight put Dusky into a local school. From the moment that he showed up, in the company of his seemingly overprotective mother, Dusky was a target for mockery by the other students. His tall, gangly appearance and well groomed mane and tail only made him more of a target for amusement. In his first class, he said his name and spoke of his old home in the forest. His formality and strange origins were too much for the other students, and the class laughed openly at him. However, their laughter had no effect, Dusky merely smiled as the teacher quieted the classroom.<br /><br />In school, Dusky was immediately a stellar student, Midnight was reminded of her own time in the same school. His grades were excellent, his reputation as a quiet and respectful student earned him incredible praise from the teachers. He was never late for class, he always met his assignment deadlines. The only negative thing that was remarked on was that Dusky never really even tried to relate to his peers. Much as he had on his first day, he remained a target. Midnight worried, and she spoke to Dusky on the subject. However, he would always dismiss her concerns with a smile.<br /><br />As the weeks went on, the other young ponies had begun to intensify their mockery. They would laugh at him openly, they would make disparaging remarks about his appearance, they would isolate him at every opportunity. Dusky was completely unaffected. In fact, he seemed to regard them as not dissimilar from insects. They could do nothing to even cause him to register their existence. This situation persisted until a pony that was slightly taller than Dusky and far less gangly in appearance decided to try a different tactic. <br /><br />Every morning, Midnight would walk Dusky to the school. Each evening, she would return to retrieve him. Every pony in the school knew how much she cared for Dusky, and a few of them decided that they would take advantage of this fact to humiliate the strange colt. One day, after classes and shortly before they knew that Midnight would arrive, the larger colt, a black griffon that was sizable for his youth, and some other younger ponies made their way over to the somewhat secluded area where they knew they would find Dusky waiting for his parent. <br /><br />When they arrived, Dusky, sitting as if he had been expecting them, greeted them cordially. "Good evening. It's unfortunate that none are you are well-versed in combat magic. For you see, this would help you considerably in your current venture." Dusky smiled. Undeterred by his oddly unconcerned demeanor, the other students made a half-circle around him as the griffon and the larger colt, a unicorn, approached. The griffon surveyed Dusky with wild eyes. The colt spoke. "We want you to leave the school. We don't think that you fit in." <br /><br />Still smiling, Dusky spoke icily in response. "I see plenty of space. If you are feeling crowded, perhaps you should shed some of your excess weight. As an alternative, I'm sure that you could easily convince your friend to do something about his excessive plumage. Perhaps he could make you a feathered hat? It might do something to offset your garish appearance." The words, spoken so calmly, had an electrifying effect on the ponies. The griffon launched itself at Dusky with frightening speed. <br /><br />Dusky was on his hooves. With precision, he maneuvered to meet the griffon with his shoulder, and he lunged directly into the griffon. When they made contact, it was as though the griffon had collided with a moving wall. The impact threw him clear over the head of the other colt; his feathers filled the air. The surrounding younger ponies then backed away as Dusky swiftly, silently approached the griffon's accomplice. Startled by the speed and apparent skill of his opponent, the colt put up a defensive shield. <br /><br />Dusky stopped when he saw the shield. Resuming his earlier pose, he examined the colt with his head tilted and a small frown. A minute passed in this fashion, with the colt no longer considering his larger size to be adequate protection and unconvinced by Dusky's calmness. The griffon had picked himself up from the ground and was now staring, disgusted at both ponies. Dusky glanced over at him and offered advice. "You could try again."<br /><br />Viewing his words as a challenge, the griffon paced around Dusky, looking for any potential weakness. When he realized that Dusky was completely unconcerned with his movements, he positioned himself behind Dusky. With a signal to the other colt to match his movement, the griffon tried his charge again. This time, the outcome was considerably worse. Dusky remained stone still until the other two were no more than a meter away, then he threw himself to the side. <br /><br />The other unicorn colt, expecting this, matched Dusky's movements. Believing that Dusky would try to hit him with a buck or some type of magic, he preemptively dodged before attempting to aim his own kick. That was a mistake. While he dodged an attack that never came, Dusky had already covered the distance between them and was well positioned. Dusky slipped under the incoming attack, and allowed his forward momentum to carry him as he rolled onto his back and aimed a kick at the side of the other colt's ribcage. The hit made contact with frightening force. <br /><br />Despite being the larger of the two, the other colt was roiled by the hit. He staggered to the side just enough to collide with the griffon, who was becoming increasingly frustrated by his inability to get a clear line of attack. Now furious, the griffon let loose with an ear-splitting screech before flying straight into the sky. He made it just a few meters into the air before a green blur smashed into him and threw him to the ground again. Dusky recognized his mother's form immediately. She had arrived a few minutes earlier than he had expected. Green and black feathers flew.<br /><br />Despite its youth, the griffon was already as large as a mare. In addition to that, the griffon was gifted with talons and powered by rage. Dusky immediately recognized that the griffon would be more than a match for his fragile adoptive parent. Hissing in frustration, he barreled through some of the other ponies and galloped to cover the distance. He threw himself into the melee, horn first, intending to interrupt the flying feathers before any serious harm was done on either side.<br /><br />He succeeded in separating the griffon and Midnight, but containing the griffon was more of a challenge. Annoyed at being interrupted, yet again, the griffon was completely blinded by anger. It tore at Dusky furiously. While Dusky was able to avoid most of the attacks, he was more focused on positioning himself to protect his mother than he was on preserving his own safety. The seconds seemed like hours, but finally, a gruff voice spoke loudly. "What in Equestria is this! Hey! That's enough!"<br /><br />An instant later, a powerful hoof effortlessly grabbed the griffon and pinned its frantic form to the ground. An older earth pony stallion with a fiery color scheme spoke to the griffon on the ground. "You know, my granddaughter's told me about you. She says you think you run the school. Nice to meet ya'. My name's Vim. I hope you're comfortable." Turning to Midnight and Dusky, Vim spoke in a friendly fashion. "Are you both alright?" Dazed by the encounter, Midnight could only nod in response. <br /><br />With a questioning look, Vim looked at Dusky. "Why didn't you just use a defense spell or something?" Dusky frowned. "I don't use magic, and the result would have been the same. I would have won." Vim squinted at the unicorn and then looked from Dusky to Midnight. "You know, you're a strange one." Midnight spoke up. "No, he isn't. He's my son." Thoroughly chastised, Vim apologized hastily. A filly, with an equally fiery color scheme, stepped in to smooth things over, just as more ponies from nearby arrived on the scene. Teachers from the local school took the griffon off Vim's hooves, and the older earth pony and his granddaughter walked Dusky and Midnight back home. <br /><br />Later during the day, early in the night, the griffon breathlessly berated his accomplice. In a small park, under the cover of darkness, the griffon ranted in hushed but acidic tones. "Strong Wall, indeed. You seem more like a cowardly stupid rock, to me. Do you have any idea how many strings my parents had to pull to keep me from being expelled? Do you have any idea? Do you?" Wall merely shook his head and regarded the griffon, emotionlessly. "I don't. Sorry, Alioth, I couldn't help you. I had not agreed to carry things to that extent. You limited my actions with your own."<br /><br />Alioth shook his wings with irritation. "You're pathetic, completely pathetic. If I didn't depend on your idiotic magic for my schemes..." His speech was interrupted by the unusual sight of a shadow reaching towards him with a hoof from the darkness. He managed only a surprised squawk before he was yanked into the shadows. Wall used a light spell immediately, hoping to find his friend. It wasn't necessary. Alioth was thrown into him with such force that both of them rolled for some distance. A frigid voice spoke from the darkness.<br /><br />"I welcome your challenges but not during the day. My actions, the exercise of my strength, are limited under the gazes of others. I would prefer to be challenged at night, where I am free to meet challengers with all of my ability. Now, perhaps you would like to try again? Try what you were unable to accomplish earlier?" With a smile, Wall replied. "Of, course." Dusky responded, equally simply. "Wonderful." A shadowy blur dashed towards Wall. A blue light signaled the presence of a defensive field, but it was for nothing. The shadowy pony hammered away at it with frightening force, each blow leaving the field shimmering as it weakened. <br /><br />Wall was frozen in awe of the freakish strength possessed by the other unicorn. A frightened laugh interrupted the attack. Alioth spoke. "Wait, wait, wait. Isn't somepony going to ask me? Wouldn't that be fair? Ask me if I'm interested in continuing?" The shadow stopped and receded into the darkness. "Are you?" Smiling, charmingly, as best as he could with a beak, the griffon shook his head. "Plainly not. I'm no fool, you see. I know that you are intelligent. You wouldn't be here if you intended to lose. I'm not interested in the implied outcome of this encounter."<br /><br />A low hum emerged from the darkness. "Hmmmmmmmm...." Shaken, Alioth continued. "Regarding your intelligence. In fact, this is the reason why I arranged our earlier encounter. It was plain to me that you were a threat to my own dominance. You see, I have to be the best... I cannot allow another to overtake me. My parents would be highly disappointed should this happen, and I'm sure you'll understand, I cannot disappoint them. I just wanted to scare you. I never intended anything more, but... I can become angry, you see."<br /><br />Dusky spoke, menacingly, in a strange, sing-song voice. "I see, I saw. You attacked my mother. That was unwise." Alioth laughed again, nervously, before continuing. "No, no, no, no... She actually attacked me, you see? I was defending myself." Still standing, facing the darkness, Wall addressed Alioth. "You defended yourself against a blank flank, Alioth. This pony is right, that was unwise and unnecessary." Alioth stifled a groan, but Dusky spoke before he could respond. "Actually, she is not a blank flank, that's merely how her talent is perceived. Her true talent is that she is a Tabula Rasa, a canvas that can absorb information and details from the world around her, even those which are barely perceived by others."<br /><br />Pleased that the hint of menace seemed to be disapating, Alioth welcomed the change in topic. "That's really quite remarkable, but..." Dusky interrupted. "You've surrendered. I am the stronger. From this point on, you will keep in mind your place. If your parents question your performance, then regale them with tales of my strength." On the inside, Alioth bristled at the arrogance that was on display. On the outside, he graciously replied without a hint of malice. "I find that your request is more than acceptable, in fact it is noble, the optimum outcome for all parties. Wall, stand down."<br /><br />From the next day forward, Dusky had no further troubles with any of the ponies in the school. The griffon and his family visited on that same day to apologize to Midnight for the unfortunate encounter, which they promised would never be repeated. Midnight accepted their apology without hesitation and welcomed their friendship in the future. The older pony that had interrupted the fight turned out to have been a highly successful train conductor. He offered Dusky a job for when the colt finished his time in school. The colt accepted. Today, Midnight still resides in Vanhoover, though she sometimes joins her son on his journeys with Vim.