Light and Dark
Chapter 1
By Kashiro

Kashiro was having a bad day. His special talent was once again being misused by the people around him. His cutie mark was a gavel, and it meant his rulings were just, and that he was a judge. Being a judge was quite hard. He had to adhere to the law, and that meant in every second case (he has a gut sense of who was guilty and who wasn’t) was unfairly decided because of either good lawyers or a lack of lawyers. The best he could do in that situation is give out lighter sentences. He hated it when people telling the truth were charged with ‘false accusations’. It sickened him. He wished he knew what his cutie mark actually meant. Was he an Arbitrator? He didn’t know. At least his parents gave him an ambiguous enough name. It meant ‘White Fire’ in Neighponese. He had known his share of people with bad names. He shuddered at the thought of his friend Pirouette the policepony. His day just got a lot worse.

He was making his way through Manehatten, walking through the main thoroughfare, moving with the crowd, when a nightmarish pony, matt-black and with leathery bat wings, jumped in front of him and spoke one word before being struck by lightning near him. He didn’t even try to remember what he said, just bolted away, pushing and shoving his way through the crowd, and getting more than his fair share of disdainful expressions and rude gestures being sent his way. He didn’t care, just doing his best to get away from whatever happened back there. His gut told him to run, and his gut was never wrong. While running, his mind wandered, and he started to think of the black pegasus who got hit by lightning. He seemed to be the type who would be fast enough to avoid it, so why was he hit? Kashiro’s mind went into overdrive as he went through possible scenarios of why the mysterious black Pegasus was hit by lightning, until he realised it was to protect someone. More than that, what he was trying to say was aimed directly at him, and he inferred the mysterious black pegasus was protecting him. Him, the odd, judge pony from Neighpon. Him, the nothing special pegasus. Him, the pony who just ran into a tree while ruminating on what was going on.

He rubbed in head, regretting getting so engrossed in his thought processes. He started to go into a slow glide, wondering where he was going, but letting his gut guide him.
“Stop! Please!”
The voice made him turn around and he saw a glowing white pegasus, the epitome of angels, flying behind him. His gut told him not to trust him, so he turned forwards, gearing up to start racing away from the suspicious white pegasus. It didn’t work.
“Please stop, I’m Lightwing, and I just want to help you. The black pony back there, Darkhoof, was trying to harm you, and I got him away from you. Do you trust me?”
Lightwing was putting on one of the most innocent faces Kashiro had ever seen, but his gut told him not to trust Lightwing, and that Darkhoof was the good guy. He would play along with the façade, however.
“Okay.”

He would regret it.