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Summary


A young unicorn wakes up in a forest. He finds his way to Canterlot, unable to remember his past. All he knows is his name. He is then found by Twilight Velvet and Night Light and brought into their home, being raised alongside Twilight Sparkle. One day, when the two are studying under Celestia, Twilight comes across a book that foretells Nightmare Moon’s return.

The two head to Ponyville to oversee the Summer Sun Celebration. But, the two are also keeping an eye out for Nightmare Moon.

And, well, we know how the story goes.

While Cipher Ravenlight isn’t one of the Elements, he still accompanies Twilight and her friends in the hopes of finding something about his past, whether or not it’s good or bad,

(note, this is not a sibling or romantic relationship between the OC and Twilight. They merely see each other as friends)

Title: Chapter 1

At first, there was only darkness. It was calm. Peaceful, even. There was no sound. Only silence. Devoid of life, it felt empty. Nothing could disturb the never ending shadows. There was a presence, though. One that could not be seen within the darkness. Or, perhaps, it was the darkness. The darkness slept, content with knowing that nothing could pierce through it.

It was eternal, afterall. There would always be darkness.

But then, it twitched, as if reacting to something.

Something had finally pierced the thick veil.

In the distance, light seeped through, slowly at first. Then, as more cracks appeared, it began gushing. The cracks grew bigger and bigger, until finally, the light itself exploded with a thunderous noise. Bright and loud, the darkness tried to draw away, but was soon caught in the blast.


The unicorn colt’s eyes flung themselves open, and he shot up with a startled yelp, his body in a panic, his heart racing. The dream had long since dissipated, and he had forgotten it entirely.

He looked around, scared and confused, with a million questions forming in his head.

Where am I?
Who am I?
What am I?

The colt did his best to think, to try to remember something, but he could only find an answer to one of his questions.

Cipher Ravenlight, a voice whispered. He looked around, searching for the voice, but there was nothing among the trees that could have spoken to him, so he concluded that it was in his head.

He thought over the word for a moment. Cipher Ravenlight? A name? Yeah, that has to be his name. It felt foreign to him, but anything was better than nothing, right?

Cipher Ravenlight looked around again to get a better look at his surroundings. The trees, as he noticed earlier, stood tall, and seemed to be a little twisted in nature, no pun intended. They nearly covered the sky, which was dotted with tiny white lights.

Stars, the voice reminded him. Those are stars.

Stars? He stared passed the leaves in awe. The stars were pretty. The more he looked, the more he noticed a bigger, much brighter star. He smiled, standing up.

Go left.

He did as the voice said, turning left and walking in the given direction. Thorns snagged on his coat, mane, and tail as he walked through the dense foliage, loose leaves and twigs sticking to his mane and tail. At one point, a low hanging branch he shoved out of the way came swinging back at him, hitting him squarely in the face. “Oof!” he cried as he fell on his rump, clutching his face with his front hooves. Tears began to gather in the corners of his eyes, his face stinging with pain.

Keep going.

Nodding, he got back up, ducking as he passed the offending branch. Cipher noticed that as he kept walking, the foliage lessened in density. He still had a ways to go, and his hooves were beginning to feel sore from walking.

“My hooves hurt…,” he complained, slowing down. He even began to feel tired. He had lost track of how much time he had spent walking, too.

You’re almost out, don’t worry.

And the voice did not lie. He looked straight ahead, noticing an opening. He picked up the pace, ignoring the pain.

Soon, he exited the forest, and he had a clear view of the big star. It was shining brightly, illuminating everything in a soft glow. He looked up, staring in wonder at the big star.

It was shining in a bright, white and greyish light. On its surface, it had a peculiar pattern, like that of a unicorn. Was this star special?

The more he stared at it, the more he felt that it was staring back at him.

Moon, the voice spoke again. He smiled, staring at the moon. “It’s pretty,” he said aloud to no one in particular.

Then, he looked straight ahead. In the distance, he saw what looked to be a city clinging to a cliff.

You must go there, the voice said. Without hesitation, he began trotting towards the city. The sounds of crickets softly chirping felt calming, and the soft breeze gently blew a couple loose leaves off a nearby tree. He paused, admiring the quiet of the night.

When he got in range of the city, the crickets were quieter, and less in number and song, and the moon was being lowered from the sky, the stars following it.

“Do I have to go there?” he asked the voice. With the sun barely peeking over the horizon, he felt anxious.

Yes.

Well, there was his answer. Steeling himself, he made his way to the city, following a long set of tracks to get there. In the dark, he was hard to be seen, and evaded the sights of anypony that happened to be at the station.

When he reached the city gate, he found a group of ponies he could trail behind, avoiding the guards. He didn’t know why they intimidated him. Perhaps that was how they were meant to appear to outsiders.

When he was inside the city, Cipher broke off from the group undetected. He was intimidated yet again, this time by the sheer size of the city. It towered above him. He chalked it up to him being small and young, and the city would most likely be a bit smaller when he was older.

As he walked some more, he would glance around, looking at the many buildings that decorated both sides of the street. Some had a sweet smell lingering around their doors, while others had a nice glow to them. Some had food, some had plants, others had dresses and such. He assumed that the buildings without display sections were actual homes.

I wish I had a place to stay.

He continued staring across the street, unaware of a door opening in front of him. “Ack!” he cried out as he hit the side of his head against the door, and he stumbled back, disorientated a little.

“Oh, goodness! I’m sorry about that!”

The voice sounded concerned, and genuinely apologetic. He looked up and was met with a light grey unicorn with a purple and light grey mane and tail. He shook his head, and attempted to wave it off, “It’s alright. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

She smiled, “Well, we all make mistakes sometimes. What were you doing up so late?”

He hoped the unicorn paid him no mind and let him go on his way, but she stayed. “Oh, how did you get all these scratches?” she asked, leaning down to get a better look at him.

Oh, that. He had completely forgotten about the minor scrapes, and they started to sting a little, the soreness returning to his legs.

The unicorn held the door open, “Come on, let’s get those cleaned up. Then we’ll go find your parents. They must be worried sick!”

He froze for a moment, unsure of what to tell her, but the unicorn was already ushering him inside the building.

“Don’t worry. Once you’re cleaned up and fed, we’ll go out and find them, alright?”

He didn’t have a chance to respond as the door closed behind them, and he was inside the unicorn’s home.

“No no, I’ll be fine. I don’t need any help,” he tried to refuse her help, but she simply smiled, “Nonsense! It just isn’t right to not help someone who’s lost.”

So, he gave up on refusing help. The voice in his head wasn’t speaking anymore, so, really, he had to trust his own instinct. And right now, it said to trust her.

She sat him down at the table, then left him by himself for a little bit to search for first aid. “Night Light!” she called across the house. “I’m helping this young colt out. Why don’t you come down and meet him?”

Another voice responded, “I’ll be right there!”

The sound of hooves walking across the floor could be heard, along with a smaller set of them.

“I wanna meet him!” a smaller voice rang out.

“Me, too!” a voice older than the smaller one, but younger than the first one, chimed in.

Within seconds, a small, purple unicorn and a white unicorn entered the room, with the purple one running up to him. He flinched, startled by how fast she had approached him. The white unicorn had approached him, but was doing so in a way that wasn’t as fast as the other one.

A blue unicorn entered behind them, keeping his distance, “Now, don’t crowd him!”

Their presence still felt strange to him, and he shied away a little.

“Hello!” the little one greeted, face beaming. Cipher hesitated, before replying, “Um… hi?”

He felt scared, being in a place that was unfamiliar to him, with unfamiliar unicorns. However, the best he could do right now was play along.

“What’s your name? Where did you come from?”

“I-I’m Cipher Ravenlight.” I think, he added silently.

The little unicorn gasped, “I’m Twilight Sparkle!”

The white unicorn held a hoof out, “I’m Shining Armor.”

Cipher stared at the outstretched hoof, then shakily reached out his own.

“Twilight! Shining Armor! I still need to clean his cuts!”

“Sorry, mom!” they shouted in unison, and Cipher flinched at the sudden raise in volume. No one noticed. Twilight Velvet re-entered the room, holding a brush and a red box with a white plus on it, laying both out on the table and opening it.

“Now,” she spoke gently, “let’s take a look.” She took one of his hooves, studying it. He winced a little, but it didn’t hurt as bad as it did earlier.

“The cuts aren’t deep. However, I am going to have to clean them so they don’t get infected.”

He nodded, closing his eyes as she began to clean the cuts. It took a little bit, but after they were cleaned, he was covered in bandaids. She then grabbed the brush in her mouth, “And now for those leaves and twigs.”

That process wasn’t as painful, save for the knots.

Once that was done, Velvet invited Night Light to the table, while telling their children to play.

“Alright, Cipher, we’ll need to know who your parents are so we can take you back home.”

Again, he hesitated. But he knew he had to tell them. It wouldn’t be right to lie.

“I… I don’t know.”

The room went quiet. Quiet enough you could hear a pin drop. “You don’t know?” Night Light asked, skeptical. Cipher shrugged, “I don’t know. I just woke up in a forest and walked here. I don’t remember anything else.”

The couple shared a look between each other, and Cipher felt scared. “I-I’m not in trouble, am I?”

They both shook their heads. “Cipher, it’s alright if you don’t remember. Someday, you might, and your parents might be looking for you.”

Night Light nodded, “Until then, we’ll look after you. First, we need to let other people know we found you. Your parents will find out, and then they’ll bring you back home.”

Cipher sat there for a moment, thinking. Maybe his parents would come back for him.

He nodded, “Yeah, that sounds good.”

For the next week, the family, while attending to their usual business, would also watch over Cipher while they searched for his parents. There were flyers with a picture of Cipher on them, asking for his parents to show up, and that they had found him. He had even heard some pegasi had taken the flyers to a place called Ponyville.

But there was no luck in the search for his parents.

In the second week, they went ahead and started teaching him. He learned about Canterlot and the surrounding cities and towns, though it felt like basic knowledge. They even helped him with learning magic. Slowly he began to learn how to lift things with his magic, starting with smaller objects like pebbles.

Of course, he wasn’t as talented as Twilight Sparkle, who seemed to be very capable of performing it. Her parents even said that it was considered a gift. But, Cipher would try his best, not wanting to be left behind.

So, he found a small rock to practice on, bringing it inside. He had the window open to let the air in. When he aimed his horn at the rock, a nearby bird cawed, and he briefly looked out the window to see a raven watching him from the tree it sat in.

It looked strange, almost out of place. The longer he looked at it, the more details he could see. Its feathers appeared to be coated in some sort of liquid, which dripped off its feathers occasionally. The liquid that fell off would evaporate before it ever hit the ground, leaving no trace.

The two stared at each other, only for Cipher to feel nervous and break eye contact, focusing on the rock again. He charged his magic once he cleared his mind, and he imagined the rock turning into another object.

His mind went back to the raven, and the spell went through. The rock began to change shape before him, and he stared in awe. When the rock was done changing, he trotted over to get a closer look.

“It’s… a feather?”

Instead of seeing a raven, there was only a feather of the bird. It still held its lifeless rock-like composition, unmoving. It looked like a normal feather, if one ignored the frozen, rocky formation of a liquid dripping on the tip of it.

Well, it’s better than nothing.

He picked up the rock with his magic, bringing it out of his room.

“Mr. Night Light,” he called, being as polite as possible. He didn’t view them as his parents, but rather as his caretakers, so he did his best to be formal. The blue unicorn walked in, “Yes, Cipher?”

Cipher levitated the feather-shaped rock over to him, “Um, I made this with magic.” Drooping his head, he sighed, “It didn’t work as well as I wanted it to.”

Night Light inspected the rock, looking it over once, twice, even three times.

“Well, you certainly didn’t use your hooves,” he remarked. “It looks like something only an expert stone carver could pull off!”

Cipher beamed, “Really?”

“Yup!”

Then, at that moment, the rock-feather reverted back to its original state, startling both of them. The two shared a look between each other, then began chuckling.

“Well, we’ll see if we can get you and Twilight enrolled at the School for Gifted Unicorns. The two of you have amazing talents in magic!”

A loud gasp sounded from across the room, “Cipher’s coming, too!?”

Twilight ran over, nearly tackling Cipher with a hug.

Cipher couldn’t help but smile, being surrounded by ponies who cared.

Better practice your magic, the voice in his head suggested. He made a mental note to find more rocks to practice on. But, for now, that could wait.

He wasn’t being left behind. He wasn’t alone.

Strangely, he felt at peace, however temporary that peace may be.