Chapter 1: Ponyville

A stallion in a worn, brown cloak trotted over a small knoll. He studied the area surrounding the hill, and in the distance, he could see the lights of a small town or city.

I wonder what town that is. Maybe I can get some food and sleep in an actual bed there. Night pulled back the hood of his cloak. His pale blue horn shining in the moonlight. He proceeded to trot toward the town; in a hurry to get something in his empty stomach.

The distance between the knoll and the village was short, as was the trot. He trotted into the village. Despite it being dark out, ponies were still out and about, unlike how Canterlot had been. Canterlot barely had anypony trotting the streets, no matter what time of night it was.

Unlike Canterlot, this place seemed unaffected by the new ruler of Equestria. Almost. There still were a few ponies that stayed indoors and when they did go out, they'd try to stay in the light whenever possible. While most here, traveled through the night without fear.

The village reminded Night of back when he was happy. He may not have been the richest of foals on the streets of Canterlot, but he and his best friend had great times. Granted, they had to steal from other ponies just to stay alive, but it was one of the happiest times of his life.

Night wandered through the small village. His stomach growled. Night entered the middle of the town. Wooden stalls littered the area. One stall that stood out to him was a stall selling the biggest and juiciest looking apples he had ever seen. He walked up to the apple stall and looked at the earth pony mare behind it.

He could barely make out her orange coat and blonde mane in the darkness, only a nearby torch lit the area.

"How can Ah help ya?" she asked in an accent.

"I'd like to have an apple please," he meekly said. He hoofed over several bits and she gave him two apples. "I only asked for one."

"Ah gave ya two since you're new here an' all." She smiled.

"How'd you know that?" Night knit his eyebrows and slightly tilted his head.

"First off, Ah've never see ya here before a few minutes ago an' secondly, you have one of them Canterlotian accents. Oh an' the name's Applejack." Applejack offered a hoofshake.

"Oh, thanks. My name's Night." He accepted the hoofshake.

"It's no problem. Just think it as a small 'Welcome' gift. Since you're new here an' all I'm wonderin' if ya have a place to stay. 'Cause if ya don', there's a nice inn up thata way." Applejack pointed a hoof to her left toward a few buildings.

Night nodded a 'thanks' and continued toward the buildings Applejack pointed out earlier. He soon reached an inn, which went by the name of Celestia's Sun.

He entered through the doorway and inside stood a pink mare at the main desk.

"How may I help you?" the mare asked.

"May I have a room?"

"Sure thing."

Night hoofed over the cost of his room to her and she gave him the key to his room.

"It's down that hallway‒" she pointed a hoof to her right, "‒and is the sixth room on the left."

Night made his way down the hallway until he reached his room. He flopped down onto his bed and sighed. What am I gonna do?

/\\

Nightmare Moon stared down the pony that stood before her. "Star," she addressed. "Ponyville has been resisting the presence of my new rule. According to the ponies I have stationed there, they have been disobeying the rules I have set for them to follow and have been showing me a great lake of respect. I need you and a small group of your guard to travel there and show them who is really in charge."

Star grinned. "Of course, my mistress, but what would you like me to do to the ones who resist?"

"You may take care of them however you see fit; just don't kill too many. I do need subjects to rule over, otherwise, my rise would have been for absolute nothing."

"Yes, my mistress. I shall gather together some of my soldiers and we'll make our way to Ponyville." Star exited Nightmare Moon's throne room and took off his midnight blue helmet and ruffled his light blue hoof through his bright yellow mane.

"This assignment sounds fun. Much better than staying here in Canterlot, these nobles don't do anything of interest." He sighed. "But Ponyville on the other hoof, it sounds like it'll be interesting there."

Star trotted through the Castle of Canterlot toward the new home of his friends. He reached a set of doors that were incrusted with gold. He knocked on the door.

A dark blue unicorn with a purple mane answered the door. "What do you want, Star?" she asked calmly.

"Midnight, we have a job to do."

She looked at him, her calm face never changing. "Where at this time? Is it the castle again?"

"Nope. We're going to Ponyville." Star chuckled. "You ready to have some fun?"

/\\

Crash!

"Huh?" Night shuffled around on his bed. "What was that?" he mumbled. Night sat up and looked toward the door. The door just stood there, unmoving. "Probably wasn't anything." He stretched out his back and shot his hooves in the air. "Might as well get up now though." He looked out the window. "Too bad it's only night now. It makes it extremely difficult to tell what time it is by just looking at the sun… er, moon."

Night stood up and proceeded to ruffle up his gray mane. He pushed down the clumps of his pale blue fur that had been sticking into the air.

He continued into the hallway and then to the lobby. The lobby looked much worse than it had looked the previous night. The door that led outside had been broken off its hinges and random bobbles from the front desk littered the area around it.

Night approached the scared-looking mare at the front desk. "W-what happened?"

The mare jumped backed at the sound of his voice. She glanced up with her hooves covering the majority of her eyes. She let out a sigh of relief when she realized it was the costumer from the night before and not one of the newer ponies in town.

"Thank Celestia," she mumbled. "Now, how may I help you?"

"What happened here? This place looks like a stampede of minotaurs came through here."

"Some of Nightmare Moon's guards are in town. They say that they're 'spreading the word of the Savior of Equestria'." She gulped. "They came in here and trashed the lobby up for no reason.

"Their leader looked to be the worst of them all. The way he grinned ‒" she shivered "‒ gave me chills."

"L-leader?" Night took a step back. "What did he look like?"

"His armor made him hard to see, but I was able to make out his blue coat and blonde mane."

Night tossed down the key of his room onto the mare's desk. "Thank you for letting me stay. I'm gonna have to go now." Night rushed out the door and into the dark street.

Of all the ponies, why does he have to be here? Night galloped through the darkened streets of Ponyville. He reached the edge of town and stopped. I was hoping that I would've been able to stay a bit longer, but now Nightmare Moon has ruined something else for me.

"Stop right there!" a deep voice behind him shouted.

Night whipped around. A unicorn holding a torch who was wearing midnight blue armor approached him.

"Commander Star has issued an order stating: 'Nopony is allowed to leave Ponyville until they learn proper respect for the new queen'. I'm going to have to make you turn around and travel your way back to Ponyville, unless you want to face the commander, that is."

Night glared at the guard.

"I said you have to turn back, citizen! Don't make this hard on yourself!"

Night pondered his decisions for a few seconds and made up his mind. He started ambling back towards Ponyville. He got rather close to the guard and his horn lit up in a blue glow. A dagger shot out from under his cloak and toward the guard.

The guard jumped back. Causing the dagger to miss its mark and bounce off his armor.

Night cursed to himself. His hoof shot up to the guards face and it hit him across the muzzle. His dagger proceeded to come back around to him.

"It's a fight you want, eh? Well I'll give you the fight of your life!" The guard's own horn lit up and he pulled out a sword. "A sword verses a dagger. I believe we can both see the obvious outcome here." The guard smirked.

Night's dagger rushed toward the guard's neck. The guard's sword swung up to block the attack. Night grunted and tried another attack with his dagger, this time going towards the base of the guard's horn.

The dagger hit its mark, but did not enter the horn. Instead it only cracked the base of the horn. The guard screamed in pain. Blood streamed down the guard's forehead and into his eyes, mouth and nostrils. The horn itself now had a large crack in it. Blood oozed from the fresh wound.

Wincing at the pain he was feeling, the guard stood back up. "I'm not dead yet," he seethed through his grinding teeth.

Night rushed at the guard and slashed his dagger at the guard's horn again. The guard ducked out of the way and fell to the ground. He proceeded to roll away from Night. The guard's horn flared up for a spell. Night rushed toward the guard, who now lay on the ground and had a glowing horn. He slashed his dagger at the guard's horn again.

Unlike his last attempt, this one hit. With one final blow, the horn was severed off its owner's head. An explosion that originated from the guard's head lit up the night's darkness.