Dark Realization

Golden Oak Library: Night's POV

Night open his eyes after another restless sleep. "This is getting old," Night thinks to himself as he gets out of bed and uses his magic to open the blinds to see that dawn had just started. After a few minutes of stretching to get any cramps out, he heads downstairs to see Twilight was already up and was making breakfast in the kitchen.

"Morning Night, sleep alright?" Twilight asked as she saw him.

"Yeah," Night lied. He didn't like lying to Twilight, but he also didn't want her to worry about him. "Anything exciting happening today?" he asked.

"Well, me, Rarity and Spike were planning on looking in this cave system Rarity found recently," Twilight answered with some excitement in her voice. "Care to join us?"

"Sure," Night answered quickly. "Not like I have anything better to do today," he muttered to himself which Twilight thankfully didn't overhear. After breakfast, Spike finally got up and grabbed a few gemstones for the road as Rarity was already waiting for them at the mouth of the cave when they arrived.

"Thanks for coming Twilight," Rarity says. "I'm quite curious if there are any good gemstone's in this cave."

"No problem Rarity. Although this could be a good study, and Spike will be able to sniff out any gemstones," Twilight responds. Night didn't say anything about the fact that he was being left out but followed the group into the cave with Twilight writing down notes on a scroll that she brought. It wasn't long before the group reached a large opening that was filed with gemstones of all different types and Night had to step on Spike's tail to prevent him from eating all of them.

"Wow, they're so many," Rarity said in awe. She quickly activated a spell that would allow her to pick up gems hidden under rocks or the ground. "Spike," Rarity calls. "There is a large amount of gemstone's buried here, can you come over and dig them up, please?" Spike gets his tail out from underneath Night's hoof and heads over to Rarity.

"Sure thing Rarity," Spike replies and starts digging when Twilight attracts Night's attention.

"Alright Night, what's wrong?" Twilight asks.

"Nothing's wrong, just bored," Night answers. Twilight clearly didn't like that response, but she didn't press her point when Rarity calls the to over.

"Night, Twilight, can we get some help here? This gemstone seems to be stuck," Rarity calls and the two head over and Night sees what Rarity's talking about. Night looks down to see a long green stone wedge in between two rocks. The three magic users focus their levitation spells and pull the stone free of the rocks.

"Alright!" Spike yells and tries to eat the crystal before Rarity pulls it away. Night then felt the ground shake a little and looked down to notice the ground splitting apart from where the crystal originally sat.

"Everypony run!" Night shouts just as the ground caves in and the group starts to fall down a large hole. Night spreads his wings and catches Spike on his back. "Hang on!" Night tells him as he dives to get Rarity and Twilight. He fell when something heavy slammed into his right-wing, causing him to scream in pain as he loses control before slamming headfirst into a bolder, which, if he had his lightning, he could smash through. Before beginning to lose consciousness, the last thing he sees is red magic surrounding him before his world got dark.

Twilight's POV

Twilight used her magic to grab everypony and sets everyone on the ground. "Is everypony okay?" Twilight asks concerned.

"I'm alright," Rarity says as she walks up to Twilight.

"Spike! Night! Are you here?" Twilight calls out.

"Twilight, get over here, Night's hurt!" Spike yells out and the two unicorns run over to Spike to see Night unconscious and his right-wing sitting at an odd angle.

"Night!" Twilight calls out and kneels by the alicorn as Spike puts his head on Night's stomach and sighs in relief and nods. "Calm down Twilight, he's still alive and is probably just knocked out. He'll be alright," Twilight thinks and gets a better look at Night's injured wing to see one of the bones was likely broken based on the wing's angle. "Anyone have anything sturdy and straight?" she asks.

"The gemstone!" Rarity yells and leaves to go find it coming back soon with it. Luckily, the stone is about the same length as Night's wing and Twilight pulls out the rope in her bag and the two unicorns use their magic to make a temporary sling.

"That solves the problem with his wing," Twilight states and gets a better look at their location and notices a single tunnel leading out of the cavern, any other tunnels were likely blocked. "We'll have to carry Night out of here and hopefully find our way back." Rarity nods then uses her magic to carry Night as Spike climbs up on Twilight's back. After a few minutes of walking the two come to a two-way fork.

"I'm picking up gemstones in both tunnels, but I can't tell which leads to the surface," Rarity states. "I'll head down one while Spike heads down the other to see which one surfaces."

"Alright," Twilight says as Rarity sets Night down. "And if the air feels damper it's more likely to lead to the surface," Twilight points out as Rarity and Spike head down the tunnels. As she settles down beside Night, she checks the sling as sees it's still secure. Just as she checks for a pulse Night shifts and groans.

"What... what happened?" Night asks as he tries to stand before Twilight gently pushes him down.

"Don't try to stand Night, you've taken a blow to the head," Twilight says. Night sits back down, grumbling something under his breath. "What?" Twilight asks but Night ignores her which drives her over the edge. "Alright Night, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Night says quickly, trying to not have a conversation, but Twilight's having none of it.

"It's not 'nothing,'" Twilight states. "If it was nothing you wouldn't be acting like such a grouch lately. You've been like this since the dragon incident two weeks ago. Hardly talking to anypony, lying about how you're feeling, do I have to continue?"

"I said 'it's nothing,'" Night snaps. "Nothing you would ever understand."

"You're right. I don't understand because you won't let me understand," Twilight says and Night looks away. "Why won't you just talk to me?"

"Because I'm tired of being useless!" Night yells. Twilight's eyes widen in shock, half from Night yelling at her and half from what he said. She doesn't say anything as Night continues. "Ever since I've got here I haven't been able to do anything to help those I care about. I couldn't save my sister on my own, I couldn't stop that Ursa Minor, and I got eaten by a dragon like I was just a snack to it."

"You're not useless," Twilight reassures him.

"Am I? Ha. You don't even know what I've had to live with," Night scoffs.

"I try to learn more about you, but every time I do you just don't answer!" Twilight yells. "Why is it so hard for you to just talk about Earth?"

"BECAUSE ALL YOUR LIVES HAVE HAD EVERYTHING I COULD EVER WANT!" Night screams at Twilight. Twilight looks at him in shock and confusion as Night explains. "As long as I can remember I've always been an outcast. I didn't have any friends. People made fun of me because I didn't have a father. And I was always the one who people took out their frustration on. 'I've had an argument with a close friend,' blame me. 'Got a bad grade on a test," blame me. 'I'm just having a bad day,' blame me. And when I finally made a few friends—" Night cuts himself off as tears fall from his eyes. "They didn't stop it. They rarely helped me back up, and I was tempted to just end it all. Only mom kept me going, always finding a way to make things better. Then, *sniff* then she was hospitalized. The doctors examined her and found out she had terminal heart cancer. She only had about a month to live, and even then she talked like she would be up and about soon and we would do the things we enjoyed doing together. Then she died, with me right next to her. After that I- I…" Night didn't finish as tears were now raining down his cheeks uncontrollably and he buried his face into his hooves. Twilight was crying as well and she leaned on his uninjured side to comfort him.

"I'm sorry," Twilight said through her tears. After a few minutes, the two started to calm down as Rarity and Spike showed back up.

"I think I've found a way out!" Spike shouted excitedly before noticing the mood between Twilight and Night.

"Thanks, Spike," Twilight said as she helped Night stand. The three followed Spike down his tunnel. As they walk thought they found some passages that Night had to get creative to get through. As they saw the tunnel end Spike ran ahead with the group right behind him only to find out that they were looking at a cliff face with only the tunnel they came from out of the area.

"Great, you've led us to a cliff Spike," Rarity stated.

"We can climb it," Spike argued.

"But Night can't. Not with his injured wing," Twilight pointed out.

"Can't Night just summon lightning?" Rarity asked.

"No point," Night answered. "We're underground. I can't get a stable current down this deep. Otherwise, I would have already done it."

"There must be some way out of here," Twilight said when the group heard what sounded like a bird and looked up to see a black and white bird about as tall as a foal, flying down toward them and landed on Night's back. Twilight then gasped as she recognized the creature. "That's a Thunder Bird" Twilight stated in shock.

"A Thunder what?" Spike asked.

"A Thunder Bird: they're rare birds that are said to generate lightning on their own," Twilight said. (Fun Fact: I've based the Thunder Bird on the real-life bird, Impundulu, from South Africa)

"Wait, did you say they could generate lightning?" Night asked intrigued as he looks at the bird, which was looking concerningly at Night's injured wing. It then took off and then drew upon the lightning in its body and shot the bolt straight at Night.

Night's POV

Night felt the lightning strike him and felt a sudden surge in energy. He then spread his wings and pushed off the ground with his injured wing as good as new. "Wahoooooo! Yeah!" Night yelled as he flipped back around and landed in front of the group. "Who's ready to get out of here?" Night asked and the group smiled. Night then used his magic to pick up Rarity and Twilight as Spike got on his back and flew up with the Thunder Bird right behind him. As they reached the top of the cliff the found a tunnel that looked familiar. It didn't take long for the group to find the cavern where the fell down from. It took less time for the group to notice that the hole wasn't that big, but with the group clumped up the way they were, it didn't surprise Night they fell down. The group easily made their way around it and headed back up to the entrance where they could breathe fresh air again.

"Sweet, sweet fresh air!" Rarity gasped as she took a deep and overdramatic breath. "I hope I never have to be in one of those nasty caves again. Why I may never go into another cave as long as I live." Night just chuckled then felt the Thunder Bird land on his back and he turned to look at it.

"I think it likes me," he said to Twilight who just smiled in response.

"That explains it," Twilight suddenly said.

"Explains what?" Night asked.

"The reason why that Thunder Bird is attracted to you is that they are attracted to lightning rods," Twilight explained.

"Well, I am basically a walking lightning rod," Night joked. "Wait, did I just make a joke? I haven't done that since sixth grade," Night thought suddenly. Twilight just sighed and started heading home but something in Night made him stay.

"You alright Night?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, I think I just need some time alone," Night replied as Twilight nodded in understanding and continued home. "And Twilight," Night called out. "What I said back in the cave, that came from a place that wasn't meant for you, but… thanks. I needed to get that off my chest."

"No problem Night," Twilight said. "But you know you can talk to me whenever you need to."

"Yeah, and I hope you understand why I don't like talking about Earth," Night said and Twilight just nodded before heading home.

Golden Oak Library: Spike's POV

Spike opened the door and started to head to the kitchen to get some food as he was starving. He was about halfway into a bowl of gemstones when Twilight entered the home. "Spike, take a note please," Twilight said and Spike grabbed a scroll and a quill as started to write…

"Dear Princess Celestia, I've learned something extremely important about friendship today. It's important to understand one's friends, and respect their wishes when they don't want to talk about something. But I'm afraid that this note contains some bad news, I learned this lesson from Night, who recently revealed to me what happened to him on Earth…"

Spike stopped writing in shock which Twilight noticed. "You good, Spike?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, just got a cramp," Spike lied and moved his claw that held the quill to make the lie convincing as Twilight continued.

"...I won't explain what he said to me, it's not my place to, but maybe you can help him out. I'm not sure what to do myself. Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle." Spike finished writing as looked up to see Twilight staring out the window.

"You want me to send it Twilight?" Spike asked.

"Please do Spike," Twilight said somewhat distractedly. Spike opened another window and breathe his green fire on the note and watched it head towards Canterlot.

Canterlot Castle: Celestia's POV

Celestia opened the letter from Twilight and was initially proud but quickly became concerned as she read the part about Night. She exited her room and made her way toward Luna's quarters. "Luna, when was the last time you saw Night?" she asked.

"A few weeks ago, why?" Luna asked worriedly.

"Twilight's latest letter has raised some concerns. Maybe you can talk to him" Celestia suggested.

"Sister, he's our brother. We both need to talk to him" Luna said.

A/N: Man, that was kind of depressing writing about what happened to Night of Earth, I almost cried and it takes a lot to get me to cry. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, please consider following this story. Also, Happy Halloween.