I was stirred awake by the sound of a fire crackling and the smell of a wood fire burning. Puzzled, I sat up from where I was laying down at, and looked around. Currently, I was in some sort of dark forest, with the light of the moon barely shining through the thick canopy of trees. A campfire sat a little ways from me to the side, where I saw a man tending it; the first sign of human life since I left Lori's house. As I tried to get up, I nudged a bowl to my side, causing it to slide across the dirt, and ultimately caused the man to look up from his job of fire making.
"Good evening." The man said in a gravely voice, looking back to the fire. I sat up, and picked up the bowl, which clearly had some sort of soup in it. "That's for you." The man assured, not looking up from his task at hand, "Hope you like vegetable soup."
"Thanks," I said, putting the bowl off to the side of me "But I'm not really that hungry at the moment." The man looked at me again, his black hair covering his green eyes.
"You'll need the energy." The man assured. Convinced, I started to eat the soup, which tasted like a beef stew, yet had no meat in it. I instantly felt refreshed after I finished my meal.
"Thank you, it was delicious." I commented, wiping my mouth off on my arm. The man stopped stoking the fire and stood up, his black cloak flowing about him. I glimpsed a small badge on his chest that resembled a crescent moon in the midst of stars, but it was quickly hidden back by the cloak.
"Tell me," The man said, approaching me, "How well do you know about the legend of the Night Child?" I gave him a puzzled look.
"I have honestly never heard of that before." I answered the man. He sighed, and sat down next to me.
"Well," The man continued, "According to the citizens of Equestria, there was a secret student and guardian of Luna, the Princess of the Night, who was chosen by Celestia to watch over her younger sister. Many didn't even know who or what this student was, and most determined that it was just a story told to children to keep them from being out too late at night. Some say that it was a reminiscence of Nightmare Moon after she was banished, plotting to return it's master to the world of Equestria from the moon's surface. Others tell that it was a savior of the realm and helped turn Nightmare Moon back to her original self, and served as a safeguard so that Luna may never go back to the way she was before. But honestly, you know what I think?"
"What?" I asked, intrigued at this story the man was telling me. The man looked at me, his eyes staring into my soul.
"I believe that this being is out there waiting to be discovered." The man continued, "And thus beings like myself exist to search and to seek out this student so that it may be taught the ways of our order." The man then looked down at my arm. "It seems that you might be the student that we have been searching for..."
"What are you talking abou-" I started, and then I looked down on my right arm as well. There was a black and blue symbol on the back of my hand, resembling a moon within the midst of dark clouds, and seemed to travel up my arm and fade into nothingness.
"You are the chosen student of Luna." The man stated, "She has chosen you to be her guardian."
"Who are you?" I asked, looking up at him, but then I realized that he had disappeared. Looking around, I saw that the fire had disappeared as well as the forest around me. Instead, I found myself sitting up in a bed not of my own, in what seemed to be a room of a castle. Around me were decorations and wall paintings of stars, planets and a single blue moon in the center of the ceiling above me. The sun was shining through the stained glass windows of the room as well. I looked at my arm again, but saw that there was no depictions of a moon-in-the-clouds on it anymore: it was as plain and tan as ever. My Wolfpack jacket had been neatly folded on the floor beside the bed i currently resided in, which i grabbed and slipped on. Getting out of the bed and stepping onto the floor of the room, I heard a door open behind me, and turned to see a familiar sight.
"Good morning, human." Luna addressed me as she stepped into the room, her hooves clinging on the hard, marble-covered floor. She then shut the door and trotted over to her large bed-like cushion in the corner, and sat down on it, yawning.
"Wait," I started, "I was in a cave not too long ago. How did I end up-"
"My guards brought you here so that you could recover." Luna stated through a yawn, laying her head down on the cushion.
"Where exactly am I?" I questioned. Luna looked up at me.
"You're in Equestria, of course." Luna explained, "Specifically in mine and my sister's castle." I thought for a second. Maybe this isn't a dream after all... I contemplated, walking around the room and to a bookshelf in on the far right of the room, right next to the stained glass window. I scanned the surface of the bookshelf, and saw that it contained various texts of a variety of subjects, from arcane arts and spell books, to leather-bound journals with gilded letter on them. However, one caught my eye. It was a book labeled "The Order of the Night", and looked VERY old. I grabbed the book, and pulled it open, dust flying into my nostrils as I flipped through the old, wood-bound book. In it, I saw many depictions of scenes of the past, a bunch of paragraphs and words in a strange language I couldn't understand, as well as paragraphs in English, which I could clearly read. Then I turned to a particular page in the book, where I saw something intriguing.
"The Prophecy of the Night" I heard Luna read over my shoulder, which caused me to jump and almost drop the book. She was standing behind me, observing my actions. "May I?" She asked, motioning to give her the book. I nodded, and for a second her horn glowed blue, and the book rose out of my hands and onto the floor, where it lay in the center between us. Luna then muttered something under her breath, and the curtains of the room then were shut by some strange force, plunging the room into darkness.
"Huh?" I said out loud, "What's going on? Why did you do that?" There was no answer, leaving me in a pitch black room in which I couldn't see my own hands. I then felt a rush of air as I felt the ground beneath me shake and tremble. I was very frightened at this point, and closed my eyes tight, cupping my hands over my ears, wanting this nightmare of a moment to end. Then I heard a booming, elderly voice echo around me, as the room continued to shake.
"Behold!
When other-worldly blood is brought upon thy night,
The conflict of Old shall begin to fight,
Causing chaos to rise to Harmony's Door,
And destroy worlds, forevermore!
But the one of the world in utter peace,
Shall come forth and forever cease
The reign of Darkness from which he was born,
And by this creed he's forever sworn!
But Lo! When chaos and The One first collide,
His identity shall be cast aside
To reveal his true and pure form,
And be the embodiment of the Oncoming Storm!
Hail be to the one of Night,
Who shall turn our darkness into light!
Come forth and answer our call,
To defeat the one who would destroy us all..."
Instantly the curtains swung open, flooding the room with light again, revealing the book, now closed, on the floor, and Luna sitting beside it.
"What was that about?" I asked Luna, who picked the book up with her magic and placed it back on the shelf where it originally was.
"Human," Luna stated, "I have something I need to ask you."
"Please," I answered, "Call me Joe."
"Okay, Joe." She walked over until she was face to face with me, and seemingly stared into my very soul. "I need you to retrieve something from mine and my sister's old castle near Everfree Forest: an old parchment with some names of certain beings in the kingdom. It's a long journey to there, I will warn you now, so you might need a little...help." Her eyes flashed for a second, and a left-hand gauntlet made of blue and black metal appeared beside her, and floated towards me. "Take this with you, it shall grant you the ability to use magic, as well as give you the knowledge on how to use it as well. However I do not know if you shall be able to-" Without thinking, I grabbed the armor piece, and slipped it onto my left arm, feeling it's cool, yet insulated, metal slide across my skin. In all honesty, it felt pretty awesome to wield something like this on my arm. It felt light as a feather, yet it seemed to be hard as diamonds, and a single, white stone in the shape of a moon stood on the back of my hand, surrounded by painted plates of dark grey metal that resembled clouds in a night sky.
Suddenly, my mind was filled with new knowledge of hand motions, concentrations, phrases, and even thought processes of magical techniques. While this was happening, my newly-armored hand gained a dark blue aura around it, but soon faded away as quickly as it came. It came upon me so fast, I became a little woozy and started to stumble a bit. Luna then walked over to the window, where the sun was starting to get higher in the sky, casting a warm, golden glow over the room. "You best be off while it's still light out." She continued, "You don't want to be caught in Everfree when it's dark..." I nodded, and bowed to her.
"Thank you princess." I addressed, before walking out. Luna sighed to herself. As i was walking out, she placed a hoof on my shoulder.
"Oh and one more thing." She added, "Please, call me Luna." I nodded and bowed once more before heading through the door, closing it behind me.
"He's definitely polite for some creature like himself..." She said to herself before going back to the bed and laying down on it, closing her eyes.