The Rise Of Darkness Night: The Ultimate Evil
It was another day in Ponyville, a day like any other day, the fillies were playing, the birds were chirping, the trees swaying with the gentle breeze, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was mid-summer in Equestria by now, and everypony was out enjoying the sun, even Zecora was enjoying it too, after her errands in town were done, everypony except one. That pony was a dark pony named Darkness, a stallion who remained hidden and alone, deep within the Everfree Forest, he had made sure nopony could get close to his home. Nopony knew why, in fact nopony really knew he was even there. Except for Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Twilight of course, otherwise, his presence was invisible to all. There was a rumor in Ponyville, that this dark stallion comes out, in the middle of the night every night, and just walks around with a hood and cape, his face completely hidden, he walks until he comes to a bench, and if you listen real closely, you can hear the sound of soft crying and agony from where he sits.
By the morning the next day, the rumor had somehow reached to everypony, so now everypony knew what happens every night, but only Princess Celestia, Princess Luna,and Twilight knew his name or had even caught a glimpse of him. This was all to change, because for the next few weeks, the earth began to have little tremors, the animals were scared and restless, and all this set everypony on edge as well. Suddenly, Twilight got a letter from Princess Celestia that said: "Dear Twilight Sparkle, please bring you and your friends to Canterlot Castle, a new threat has come to Equestria, and it will be the end of us all, please hurry." Baffled, but concerned at the sense of urgency of the Princess, but nonetheless, did as she was asked, as she and her friends headed to Canterlot Castle.
When they all got there, Twilight and her friends bowed to the princess and said, "We came as quick as we could, what's wrong, Princess?"
Princess Celestia replied with, "Good, you came just in time, Twilight, as I said in your letter, a new threat has come to Equestria, and this time, it is a whole lot worse than even Discord."
"What could be worse than Discord, is there a book of some sort that might give us a clue?" Twilight asked.
"There is one" Celestia said as she drew out a medium-sized, but thick book that looked really old with the title, "Myths and Legends of Equestria." Celestia gave the book to Twilight and said, "Please turn to page 446, and read the middle of the page, there isn't much, so it shouldn't take you very long." Sure enough, Celestia was right; in the middle of the page was a legend that said, "The Ultimate Evil has been foretold by the prophets, that will come one day as a result of being treated terribly by all of those around him, and will bring an end to all things living and the world will be a desolate wasteland, as he the world, and survivors will live in his nightmares, forever."
Confused, Twilight said, "This is a legend, the Ultimate Evil hasn't come yet, and if it has, who could it be?"
Celestia said, "Actually Twilight, it has come, and this legend is referring to Darkness, which explains the recent events, to where the Earth trembles and I hear that all the animals are all scared, and everypony is on edge, it's already begun to happen, which means he has begun to turn into Darkness Night. We must hurry, Twilight, he must be stopped and be redeemed, only you and your friends can do this, but this time, it will take two more ponies besides yourselves, to defeat and redeem him, you must find these ponies if you are to succeed and to have any hope of redeeming him is to be accomplished." "The first one that you must find, is a stallion as well, but you will find him somewhere in the Everfree Forest, I think his name is Shylight. Oh, Twilight, by the way, this will help you find him, my sister and I usually see him with animals, so, if I were you, follow the wild animals that you see, they sometimes will go to the outskirts of town, to find food, especially at this time of the year, when Fall is already halfway here.
The second one, however, will prove to be more difficult, because I do not know where to find this one: she is a mare, and I believe her name is Snowshy, all I can suggest is that when you find Shylight, perhaps he will know something that will help you find her, because I do not know where she might be."
With a tone that had much curiosity and concern in it, Twilight asked, "Princess Celestia? May I ask you a question? There has been one thing that has been bothering me since I came here, but couldn't ask it until I knew why you called me and my friends here."
Celestia, with a warm smile, said, "Go ahead, Twilight, now is a good time to ask any questions you have."
With a hint of relief in here voice, Twilight said, "Thank you, Princess Celestia, I just wanted to ask, where is Princess Luna?"
Celestia's smile quickly faded and her eyes had a hint of pain in them as she said, "Twilight, I'm actually glad you asked that, I was going to tell you that before you and your friends left, you see, Twilight, Princess Luna is not here because a couple weeks before Darkness turned, she was the only one at first that could hear his cries of agony and pain, so, she decided she to go into his dreams to find out why he was so sad and in so much pain, and what she found, has had her crying every time I mention his name, that's also how we found out what his name was as well." "But, the only other things I was able to ask her before mentioning his name, which made her cry every time I said his name, is: his mother died when she gave birth to him, his father died valiantly in a historically major war long before his mother died. So, he never knew his father, and he was just a newborn when his mother died, so he never got to know her either. After that, he's lived by himself, fended for himself, all these years, with no friends, no family, absolutely nopony." "Now, here's that last thing I have found out, and if you want to know more, Twilight, you're going to have ask Princess Luna, so here it is, he tried many times more than I can count in his years as a colt, to try and make new friends, be more friendly, but instead, all anypony did to him in return for him being so kind to them, was call him names all the time, every single day, and use him by faking and telling him they were his 'friends', but all they were was ponies just wanting to make his already troubled life even more miserable."
"Now, go Twilight, there is not is no time to waste, the fate of Equestria rests in you, your friend's, Shylight's, and Snowshy's, hooves, oh, and Twilight, take the book with you, it might come it handy." Twilight and her friends bowed to Celestia, and Twilight said, "You can count on us, we will not fail you."
As soon as Twilight and others arrived at her house, she said, "Okay everypony, as Celestia has told us, we need to first find Shylight, if we are to succeed in our task, Celestia said that he will be found with some of the wild animals of the Everfree Forest at the edge of town, so that's where we will look first. But, I don't know about you guys, but when we do find him, he won't have an element of harmony, and neither will Snowshy, and there's only six ever in existence, and they're all in use right now. And it will take all of us, Shylight, and Snowshy to defeat Darkness Night."
Spike, up until now, who had been quiet since the whole conversation, said "Twilight, maybe there's a book in here that might help us out or at least give us a clue, maybe.....possibly there might be a seventh and eighth element of harmony?"
Twilight and her friends said, "A seventh and eighth element?"
Spike said, "Hey! It was just a suggestion!"
Twilight said, "It's okay Spike, well we better get looking, let's all spread out and see if we might find something that will help us, look for anything that has or might mention something about this "Seventh and Eighth Element Of Harmony." I'll start with the book Celestia gave me and see what I can find." So everypony began to spread out throughout Twilight's library, and after looking for hours, looking in book after book, Twilight asked everypony, "Has anypony found anything yet? I looked through the book Celestia gave me, but found nothing but the myth about the "Ultimate Evil". Plus, I've been looking though some of my history books, but have found nothing in them as well."
Applejack said, "Nope sorry, Twi, I've not found anythin' either."
Fluttershy said, "Me neither."
Rainbow Dash said "Sorry, Twilight, I got nothin"
Rarity said, "Sorry, dear, but I have found nothing as well."
Twilight asked, "What about you Pinkie Pie?"
Pinkie Pie responded with, "Nope! nothing!"
Spike then said, "Hey guys, over here, look at this!"
Everypony came over to where Spike was, and Twilight read what Spike was looking at, and said, "How is that possible? According to this book, there was at one time, long ago, before the first heroes that defeated Discord banded together, there was a Seventh Element of Harmony, the element of Nature." Twilight continued to read, "It also says what happened to it and it's owner, but doesn't mention any name. It says that the seventh element of harmony was lost in the Everfree Forest and the owner went into exile, never to be seen again."
After she finished reading, she said, "Well, that doesn't make much sense, it doesn't say why the element was lost and why it's owner went into exile, wait....... there's something else here." Twilight looked at the back of the book, to the final page, and saw that there was something written on the back page, Twilight read it, and said, "It says here that the owner tried to fight Discord alone, and lost, with Discord taking the Element of Harmony and throwing it into the Everfree Forest, and forcing the owner, against his will, to the Everfree Forest as well, but it also says that because of his brave, and daring move against Discord, the first heroes that would fight and win against Discord would've never banded together if it was not for Shylight, the lone hero." Twilight was just about to close the book, when she noticed something irregular after the final page, it looked like....... a hidden page! Twilight said, "Hold on just a minute, guys, I think I found something else in this book." Everypony patiently waited, and as Twilight peeled the page open, it spoke about the eighth Element Of Harmony.
"Guys! Look at this! This page talks about the Eighth Element of Harmony, it says: 'The Eighth Element Of Harmony, the Element of Weather, existed and was lost the same time as the seventh was, little is known about this element of harmony. All that is known about this element, is that it is very closely connected to the seventh element, the two co-inside very closely together, the two function and work as one, neither can work without the other. Everypony was shocked to hear what Twilight had just said, nopony could say anything for a while, until Twilight finally broke the silence and said, "I never knew there was a seventh, or an eighth, I always thought there were only six. But now, thanks to this, we now know that there is a seventh, and that it's owner is who we are looking for. I wonder, though, did Celestia ever know about this?"
Spike said, "Even if she did, we don't have time to think about it, we must find Shylight, Snowshy and the seventh and eighth Elements of Harmony! The more we sit here, the closer Darkness Night is coming!"
Applejack said, "Spike's right, we got to get a move on, or else...."
Twilight went over to where Applejack was, and put a hoof over her neck and said, "I know, Applejack, we're not going to let that happen though. Alright, everypony let's go." Before they headed off, Twilight put the book Celestia gave her, on one of her bookshelves. As Twilight and her friends headed off to the Everfree Forest, the Earth began to tremble a little worse than before, then slowly, but surely, it got steadily worse and worse, to the point of a earthquake, cracks began to form in town, with everypony running for their lives, then suddenly, the trembling stopped, and everything was still.
Then, the Earth began to violently shake again, this time, with such force that the very ground caved in, the edge of Ponyville was caught in the cave in, and then, a terrible, violent, scream was heard throughout Equestria, and then, the screaming stopped, the Earth stopped shaking, and then came a maniacal evil, laugh that resounded in the air, with the words, "Darkness Night has come to Equestria! And there is no escape! All shall fear and tremble before Darkness Night! the devourer and destroyer of all that lives! Muwhahahahahahahahaha! Muwhahahahahahahaha! hahahahahaha!" Lightning began to flash throughout the forest, the clouds grew dark, the air grew cold, several holes opened up in the clouds, and dark power surged from the holes in the clouds and all met at the center of the forest, and then, the holes closed up, and a massive shockwave shook and destroyed any building in its path, every building in Ponyville was reduced to rubble. Then everything went silent,and still. After everything settled, there now was a gap between Ponyville and the Everfree Forest because of the violent earthquake before.
Unburying herself from the rubble she was under, Twilight began to look and call for her friends, "Applejack! Pinkie Pie! Rarity! Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy! Spike! are you all right?"
One by one, each and every one of them got out from under the ruined roofs, walls, and other things, and they responded to Twilight's call with either "I'm okay!" or "I'm over here!" To their surprise and amazement, none of them were injured,with no cuts or bruises of any kind, just a bit dirty or dusty. Once they were all back together, Twilight and her friends then began to look around to see if anypony was hurt, and thankfully, to everypony's relief, everypony was okay with only minor bruises and cuts, but nothing serious. As everypony looked around them, they all saw a horrific sight: Ponyville was completely destroyed, not a single building was left standing, parts of buildings were everywhere, the streets were littered with parts of buildings and furniture and other items from within the houses.
As Twilight and her friends looked at all the damage, with their mouths open, even Rainbow Dash, Spike finally snapped them all out of it, and said, "Guys, come on! Let's go! If we don't stop Darkness Night now, whatever he does next will be worse, it might be a whole nation next time!"
They all drew their attention from the now-destroyed town and Twilight said, "Spike's right, Darkness Night must be stopped, whatever he decides to do next, will be a whole lot worse than what just happened, and we have to be there when that happens to stop him."
Rainbow Dash said, "Uh, how do suppose we do that? There's a wide crack between here and the Everfree Forest!"
Twilight said, "We'll use my hot-air balloon,...... oh yeah....,that's right, I was getting it repaired and it won't be available for a couple of weeks from now."
Rainbow Dash said, "But we don't have a couple of weeks!"
Twilight said, "You're right Rainbow, we don't, it's a good thing I've been working on a bridge-making spell and mastered it just yesterday, okay, here goes." Twilight's horn began to light up, magic began to flow, and in front of them, a magical bridge began to form, little by little, as Twilight concentrated harder, the bridge became solid, and formed the rest of the way across the gap.
As Twilight finished, she took a breath and said, "Now, let's go find Shylight, Snowshy, the seventh and eighth elements of harmony!" As soon as Twilight and the others got over to the other side, Twilight disarmed her spell, and as they all headed off into the forest, a soft, evil chuckle sounded in the distance and the entrance to the forest closed with the trees on either side blocking the path. When they were all in the forest, Twilight said, "Now remember guys, stick together in groups, nopony should be by themselves, even though we've been through this forest before, it's still dangerous alone, and look for some wild animals, if we find them, then all we have to do is follow then, and they will lead us to him." Nopony said anything, they all just nodded their heads in agreement, and began to look around, and before long, they came to a three-way fork in the road, so they all decided to break up into two groups of two,and one group of three with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash in one group, Applejack and Rarity in another and the group of three was Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie Pie.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash decided to take the far left path, Applejack and Rarity decided to take the right path, so therefore, Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie Pie had no choice but to take the middle path. But before they all went their way, Twilight said, "Remember why we're here, Equestria's counting on us, we have to succeed or none of us will live to see the total destruction of Equestria." Twilight at this moment, turned to Applejack and Rarity and said, "Applejack, Rarity, if you guys find them, Rarity, use any magic spell you know the will get the rest of our attention,and stay with the animals until the rest of us find you and catch up with you, okay?"
Rarity responded, "Of course dear."
Twilight then turned to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and said, "Rainbow, Fluttershy, if you guys find them, one of you stay with the animals and the other one come and find us and lead us to them, alright?"
Rainbow Dash responded, "Seeing as I'm the better flier, I'll go when we find them, and Fluttershy will stay with the animals, is that fine with you Fluttershy? "
Fluttershy responded with a quiet, "Yes, I can stay with the animals, and Rainbow Dash is right, she would be better to go and find you guys when we do find them."
Twilight then looked at her group and said, "In the case we find them, I shall use a magic spell that will get everypony else's attention and stay with the animals until everypony finds us and catches up with us. Okay, everypony know what we're doing? Okay! Let's go!" Everypony nodded, cheered, and whooped as they went their separate paths, with renewed strength. and full of hope. Not to far down on the far left path, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were having some troubles: Fluttershy was afraid of the forest at night, and seeing as it was night in the forest, was becoming more and more reluctant to keep moving deeper into the forest, luckily, Rainbow had a plan.
Fluttershy said,"I-I-I ummmm.....I don't think I can go any father, can I just wait right here?' There we go, the very words Rainbow was expecting to hear Fluttershy to say, Rainbow Dash thought to herself, for she knew Fluttershy didn't like being in the forest at all at night, but this time, she had a plan to counter this minor setback.
She said to Fluttershy, "Come on, you'll be fine, I'm right here, nothing bad's going to happen to you as long as I'm here." As Rainbow flew away slowly, she called back to Fluttershy in a scary tone, she said, "But if I'm not around, and you're not with me, the monsters in the forest will come after you and get you!" When Fluttershy was out of earshot, Rainbow started snickering out loud.
Fluttershy's eyes grew wide with fear, and picked up the pace, to where Rainbow was in her clear sights at all times and said "M-m-m-m maybe it's a good idea if I follow you then." Rainbow Dash, not turning around, continued to fly slowly, and smiled, feeling happy at the success of the plan.
Rainbow Dash after a while, turned around and landed in front of Fluttershy, Fluttershy who had not let Rainbow out of her sights, watched her as Rainbow landed, and Rainbow Dash asked, "Have you seen them yet?"
Fluttershy responded with a quiet, "No, have you?"
Rainbow Dash replied, "Not a thing."
Fluttershy then asked in a quieter tone, "Rainbow Dash, can we take a break?"
Rainbow, not wanting to stop, had second thoughts when she saw that her friends hooves were covered in sores from walking so far, with a sigh of resignation, she said, "Alright, fine, besides, it looks like you could use a break anyways"
The two stayed on the road, but just off to the side of it, as Rainbow Dash waited for her friend to recover a bit, so that they could be back on their way. Meanwhile, on the right path, Applejack and Rarity were walking down the path, looking everywhere as they walked, after a little bit, Rarity began to complain, "Applejack, darling, you think we can take a break and rest for a little while?"
Applejack responded, "No, seein' as you've been doing more stopping and complain', than you have been lookin' and walkin', we can keep goin'."
Rarity began to complain even more, "But Applejack...."
Applejack cut her off, "Look, I don't wanna' hear it, we have a job to do, everypony countin' on us, our friends, our families, and all of Equestria, too. So quit your' complainin' and keep walkin'."
Rarity didn't say anything for five seconds, just walked and looked, then looked at one of her front hoofs, then said, "But my manicure is all ruined and dirty!"
Applejack continued to walk, rolling her eyes, saying to herself "Ugh, this is goin' to be a long day." And then called to Rarity, "Just keep lookin' and walkin', you'll be fine." On the middle path, Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie Pie, were all searching the area as they walked, Twilight, using a light spell, to cast light on the area she was looking at at the time, to better see in the dark of the forest.
Spike broke the silence, by asking Twilight, "Twi? I was just thinking......do you really think you guys ,Shylight, and Snowshy can stop Darkness Night? What happens if we fail, or don't even find Shylight?"
Twilight reassured him, "Spike, we're not going to fail, we cannot fail, if we do, then, as I said before, there will be nothing left of Equestria, not very many forms of life that is here now, will exist, and besides, Spike, we'll find Shylight, how hard can it be to find a stallion with a bunch of wild animals? Don't worry Spike, we'll find him, and when we do we'll go find the seventh Element of Harmony, and stop and redeem Darkness Night." Nopony said anything else, they all just continued to walk and search in silence, with each one having worries of their own, of the ever present threat of their failure. Meanwhile, back on the left path,
Rainbow Dash was getting ready to set out, and asked Fluttershy, "Fluttershy, are you ready? We need to get going now."
Fluttershy answered with, "Yes, I feel much better now."
Rainbow Dash said, "Alright then, let's get going, we got some animals to find!." And so, the two headed off, got back on the path, and continued down.
A little while later, as Rainbow Dash was flying overhead, she spotted something: it looked like..........a wild pack of animals! And they weren't that far away, before Rainbow Dash could say anything, Fluttershy called out to her, in a quiet tone, that she could hardly hear "Rainbow Dash! I see a wild pack of animals ahead!"
Rainbow responded with, "I know! I saw them too! Let's get a little closer, so that way we're not far away."
The two got within a short distance between them and the animals, and Fluttershy said, "Ummm. Rainbow Dash? I-I-I think this as close as we can get without scaring them."
Rainbow Dash landed and said, "Yeah...., you're right....okay, you stay with the pack, and whatever you do, don't lose them, I'll go and find the others, alright?"
Fluttershy said, "Okay" Rainbow Dash didn't waste time, she took to the skies, and began to look for the others.
Rainbow Dash started looking down on the right path , and it wasn't long before she found Applejack and Rarity, halfway down the path, as soon as Rainbow Dash was right over them, she called out to them, "Hey guys! up here!"
Applejack replied, "Did ya' find them?"
Rainbow replied, "Yeah! come on! follow me!"
Applejack said, "We'll be right behind you!"
And the three headed off out of the right path, with Rainbow Dash, staying in Applejack's and Rarity's sight, with Rainbow Dash saying to herself, "I hope Fluttershy's doing alright."
As soon as they got to the middle path, Rainbow said to the others, "I need to go get Twilight and the others, I'll be right back, wait here."
Applejack asked, "But, can't we come with you?"
Rainbow Dash replied, "It'll be quicker if I go by myself, the faster I get them, the better, the quicker we can catch up with Fluttershy."
Applejack said, "Yeah, yer right, we'll be here, but you hurry up now, ya hear?"
Rainbow Dash nodded, and took off down the middle path, and a little while later, Rainbow found Twilight and the others, almost about to hit a dead end. Rainbow Dash got over the group and called out, "Guys! over here! We found them!"
Twilight replied, "Okay! You lead and we'll follow!" Rainbow Dash turned around, and began to fly back the way she came, and it wasn't too long after, that they all came to the beginning of the middle path, and reunited with Applejack and Rarity.
Rainbow Dash landed, when Twilight asked, "Alright, everypony here?"
Applejack spoke for the group, "We're all here an' accounted for."
Twilight said, "Okay then, let's get going, Rainbow, lead the way."
Rainbow Dash said, "You got it!" Thirty minutes later, they were all on the left path, Rainbow Dash had already flew ahead to find Fluttershy, and couple minutes later, Rainbow Dash came back, ans said to the others, "Guys! Over here!" Some time later, they caught up with Fluttershy, and thankfully, she was sitting with the animals, happily enjoying herself with them.
Twilight asked everypony, "Okay, now that we found them, how are we going to follow them? They're not exactly moving." Fluttershy said,"I can help with that, she then asked the animals, "Ummm, would guys please lead us to Shylight? We need his help." The animals responded by happily nodding and began to lead them the way, with Fluttershy going first, and the others following closely behind. The animals lead them through branches, brambles, and onto a wide clearing, with a enormous lake and a small shack that was built into a giant tree behind the lake.
Twilight said, "That must be Shylight!"
Before they could move any further, a fair, but stallion voice rang out from the shack, with the words, "Welcome, Twilight and friends, you have no need to ask, I already know why you are here. You seek my help, do you not? Come over here, so I can hear your answer."
All the animals had disappeared, without anypony noticing, now, as they were heading toward the shack, had any of them noticed that they were gone. Nopony said anything, they just kept moving forward, all of them nervous of what was going to happen next. As they cam near the shack, Shylight said from within, "Come in, there's no need to fear me." As they entered, they saw Shylight for the first time, he was a yellow stallion with a red-like mane, with light blue eyes, and a warm smile. He looked rather young for a hero from the past, everypony was surprised that he was even alive, and Twilight wondered, "How can it be possible, after all these years, can he still be alive?"
Shylight was the first to speak, "Please, make yourselves at home, is there anything you would like? Food? Something to drink?" Everypony shook their heads no, so he said, "You came a long way to find me, my animals lead you here, correct?" The looks in everypony's face was enough answer for him, he said, "Whatever it might be, it is of high importance for you to come all this way. My animals tell me that you all need my help, in what way can I be of assistance? But first, please explain to me what is going on and why you have come to me."
Twilight stepped forward, and said, "Shylight, we have come to you, in Equestria's most dire time of need."
Shylight put a hoof up, and said, "Equestria's most dire time of need, you say? Okay, please continue."
Twilight continued, "As I said, we have come in Equestria's most dire time of need, because Equestria's greatest threat has awoken and has already completely destroyed Ponyville. Darkness Night, 'The Ultimate Evil', has awoken. We need your help and your Element of Harmony, to defeat him, and redeem him. And only once we find your element, will we have any chance against him, without you and your element, most of all life on Equestria, will cease to exist." Twilight said no more, and stepped back, as she saw the reaction on Shylight's face; grief-stricken.
There was a long silence, and then Shylight broke the silence, by saying, "So, it has happened, he has finally awoken, with much more power than the last time I saw him."
Twilight stepped up to him, "You know Darkness?"
Shylight looked Twilight in the eyes, and said, "Knew him? He was my closest friend, my only friend, besides my animals. He was the greatest, kindest, most generous, supporting, and most understanding pony I've ever known. He was an inspiration to me, where he lead, many followed, he was unlike any other, with powers extraordinary, four times of all the Unicorn's, villain's, or any of the princesses' power combined, and all of the Elements of Harmony's power, at that time, now, it looks like it's more than tripled."
Twilight asked, "If he had followers, and was an inspiration to so many, why has he turned?"
Shylight's face was filled with much sadness, and he said, "Nopony, except for myself, understands why this is happening now, to explain the current events, we need to look back to his days as a colt, as you already know, both of his parents died before he got the chance to know them."
"He never got the chance to see his father.......his father was hero, a legendary warrior, who sacrificed his life for Equestria. But what you don't know is: He once lived, long ago, from when he was a colt, he once lived in Ponyville, and yes, he did have followers, he was a inspiration to so many, everypony looked up to him, but........, he tried so hard to be social, and friendly. He did, he was always willing to help out those in need, he always put some other pony's needs, in front of his own, not once, did he ever put himself first, if he did, it was either always last or not at all, he even gave away bits to those who were poor, and was willing to be open to those he talked to, but........as time went on.....his power began to grow, to the point of a full grown unicorn. For a colt his age, at 7 years old, nopony had ever seen such power in anypony, and they feared him and his power, and what made it worse for him, was when everypony found out that both his parents were dead."
"Apparently one of his 'supposed' friends at school, who was actually bully in disguise, and thought, to make Darkness's life more miserable, this bully told everypony in school, what Darkness had told him about his parents, and fashioned up a story that Darkness had killed them, and that was how Darkness had so much power at such a young age, is that he took it from his parents. Unfortunately, the fashioned-up story stuck, it spread from the school, through the entire town. The entire town isolated him, avoided him, nopony would even talk to him, if he was outside, everypony would go inside, shut windows, and locked their doors. But, it didn't stop there, the few friends he did have, began to make fun of him, and isolated him at school, even the teachers wouldn't be in same classroom as he was, he put up with the terrible treatment, for 18 years, and graduated from school."
"And then, one day, when everypony was still asleep, he moved out of his house in town, left, and went into the Everfree Forest, never to return. I tried to get him to stay, but he told me, 'I made a promise, and if I stay here any more, the promise will be broken, and I cannot do that, I promised my mother, I would never...... and I plan to keep that promise." Shylight stopped the story and looked at the group and said, "At the time, I didn't understand what he was talking about,and that's when he told me about his mother: that he watched helplessly as his mother died before him, which was an event he never did recover from, and constantly haunted him but, he never told anypony his mother's last words to him, he only ever told me, his one and only true friend. His mother's last words were, 'Darkness, whatever you do, don't let the gift you have been given, don't let it change you.......don't let it control you.......you are the last of your kind, you are special, you are not evil, you have the ability to do many great, kind, generous, things, don't you ever forget that, okay? Promise me you will make your mother proud by using your gift for good? Promise me you will never let it control you? Promise me..........please?"
Shylight continued, "Darkness very tearfully, and could barely say the words as he promised his mother, when she heard him say that he promised, she took one last breath and died. He told me, that for a good six days and nights, he cried, nopony even cared that he just lost his mother, this was when he first came to Ponyville, you see, he was born in the Everfree Forest, because that's where his mother lived, but couldn't make it in time to get to the hospital. And as time went on, he, his name, even his house was forgotten, as it fell into disrepair, and was torn down, by the time it did get torn down, nopony could remember who once lived in it. So, for all these years, he's been fighting his alter ego, to keep this world safe, but as you can see, he cannot do it alone, he needs support, he needs friends, things he's never really had his whole life, I tried my best to be there for him....but....."
Spike was the one to ask, "But what? Some friend you are, aren't you supposed to be there for your friends? If he was your one, true friend, why weren't you?"
Shylight was slightly angered by Spike's remark, and the shack began to violently shake as he said, "DO NOT make such accusations! Did you forget who I am?." His expression softened, the shaking stopped, and he said with a sigh, "I was there for him every chance I got, he told me things that nopony has ever known about him, they never really knew a whole lot about him in the first place. when he decided to move away to the forest that night, I asked and pleaded with him to stay, and as I have told you before, he told me he couldn't stay any longer, that he had made a promise to his mother, and that there was no way he was going to break that promise. But, I saw something more, I began to see the anger and the hatred he had for those who had treated him so terribly, and even I feared it, but I put my fears away, in the deepest corner of my mind, because I knew he could feel my fears, he could sense it.
His powers enabled him to see anything that anypony might be hiding from him, if you lied to him, he knew it, if you were hiding something from him, he could see it, if you were starting to use him for your own benefit, he would know about it. The instant you started to, and seeing as I was the only one who knew that, I put my fears into a place, that would take a little time for him to reach. But, I didn't need to, he trusted me, so he never used his powers, when it came to those things, on me, in fact, when I was in trouble, he was instantly there to help me. You see. he too, could also teleport, just like you can Twilight, the only difference being is, he could teleport over any distance, through any obstacle, plus, he could walk through anything, if he decided to. But, the point is, he was always there for me, no matter what. He protected me, helped me, supported me, in any way he could, he never once harmed me, he couldn't, not to his only friend. I should have stopped him......" With this, Shylight grew silent, looked down at the floor, with tears in his eyes.
Twilight said, "We're sorry, Shylight, we didn't know, we shouldn't have assumed you weren't there for him." Everypony gathered around Shylight, gave him a hug, and Twilight said, "You did everything you could for him, you shouldn't beat yourself up about it."
Shylight looked up at them, and said, "But, because of my poor lack of support, is the reason why this is happening now! This is all my fault........I didn't do enough.......I-I-I-I I've failed him as his only friend......his only friend......."
Everypony was silent, for a few minutes, as they all stood in silence, and the Fluttershy said, "You did all you could, it's not your fault."
Rainbow Dash said, "Fluttershy's right, and if you want to continue to help him, now would be the time, show him that you still are his friend, and that you will still be there for him. Now's your chance!"
Everypony agreed, and Twilight said, "If you don't do something now, you will never get the chance to set things right again."
Everypony was silent again, Shylight looked at them, then at the ground, at them, and then the ground, and then finally, with a look of renewed strength and determination, he said, "Very well, I shall help you, I have to set things right once and for all! I shall give it my all, I will fight among you, and either we succeed, or die trying! I will do whatever it takes! If it means my life, then so be it! I will not abandon my friend!"
Everypony cheered, and everypony gave him another hug, and then Spike asked, "Ummmm, I don't mean to ruin the moment, but I have one thing that have been bothering me up until now, Shylight."
Shylight, with a look of kindness, said, "And what might that be?"
Spike said, "I've been wondering, how is it, after all these years, are you still alive?"
Twilight said, "You know, I've been wondering that as well"
Shylight said, "That would be with the help of Darkness, as I told you, his powers are beyond anything in this world. He casted a spell on me, to where I would be immortal, but the only thing side effect of it was, not only could I not die, at least, not by time anyways, and I can not age physically either."
Twilight said, "That doesn't seem so bad"
Shylight said, "Perhaps not, but when you've been around as long as I have, you begin to want to age, and move on like everypony else does, because right now, my age is nothing more than a number, it has no meaning."
Rainbow Dash said, "Well, so much for not bad side-effects."
Twilight said, "Is there is a reverse spell, I could help you."
Shylight sadly shook his head, "Yes, there is a reverse spell, but, seeing as he was the one that casted it, he is the only one that reverse, or break the spell. Also, there is one thing I have not told you, up until now, you see, he does not need to learn spells like you, unicorns, or even alicorns, need to, you all need to learn and practice a spell before you can correctly and shall I say, safely cast it. He is a sorcerer alicorn, he cast anything his mind can think of, in an instant. The sorcerer ponies were an ancient race, that were powerful, strong,prominent, and an intelligence that is far beyond any of our understanding."
"They had great and just rulers, their kingdom was massive, it covered the land from what is now the Crystal Empire, all the way to the ruins of the royal sisters, plus, they had a mobile fort, that floated in the air, you would know it as Cloudsdale today, although, that is only a small piece of a once great fortress." Rainbow Dash had a look of complete shock on her face and said, "Wow! That is so cool! I bet nopony at Cloudsdale knows this!" Shylight said, "No, nopony does, they were forgotten in the pages of history, all the remains of them, is what I have. Anyways, as I was saying, all the land the was on either sides of them, was land that belonged to other rulers, none of which dared to cause harm to the kingdom of the sorcerer ponies."
Twilight said, "So what happened to them? Why are they all but gone now?"
Shylight explained, "Good question, but if you want to know everything about them, you should take a look at my books, over here, on the second and third bookshelves, these are the only records and knowledge of them that has survived up to this age, there are no more than what I have here. I shall tell you, but I will make it brief, and tell what you need to know for now, if you want to know more, if we survive through all this and succeed, you are more than welcome to borrow any of these, anytime you want. The answer to your question is: thousands of years before the founding of Equestria, there were only four races: the Earth ponies, the Pegasi ponies, the Unicorn ponies, and the Sorcerer ponies; alicorns did not exist."
"The sorcerer ponies only relative, that has survived this up to this age, besides Darkness himself, he is the last of the sorcerer ponies, are the alicorns, they are distant cousins to the sorcerer ponies, but not all alicorns are related to the sorcerer ponies, this includes, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna. Plus, alicorns only have a very, very, very small fraction of magic of what the sorcerer ponies had. Anyways, what lead to their downfall, was towards the end of their reign, there was a great, terrible war, all races were involved. In those times, the Earth ponies had the best equipment, and food, the Pegasi ponies had the best weapons, and the Unicorns were very well known, in that age and time, for their magically crafted armor, and the Sorcerer ponies, were, well, of course, were known for their exquisite knowledge and power of magic."
Shylight continued, "What stared this war, was the ruler of the Earth ponies invited all the races to a grand party, to celebrate the peace between the Pegasi and the Earth ponies, you see, a treaty had just been recently signed and agreed to by both, to not violate each other's borders or cause harm to the other's kingdom, those were the terms the Earth ponies demanded. The Pegasi terms said that the Pegasi would only accept the treaty, if the Earth pony kingdom, gave 40% of all rare minerals and gemstones to the Pegasi nation, which would then they would craft some of them into their weapons, and would sell the rest to the Unicorns, so that way, the Pegasi would have magically-crafted-embedded gemstone armor, an armor that would be impenetrable to almost everything. Both rulers agreed to the terms, and it was signed on the same day."
"This party was made a couple days later, to celebrate the treaty, and as a sign of goodwill to all other races. As all the races arrived, thirty minutes later, an argument broke out between an Earth pony, a Unicorn pony, and a Pegasi pony. The Earth pony was jealous that they the treaty forced their kingdom to give up so much minerals and gemstones to the Pegasi, the Pegasi pony was upset that the Earth pony was trying to get the Earth pony king to back out of what the Pegasi demanded of the Earth ponies, and the Unicorn pony was mad because if the two nations fought with each other, it would severely hurt their supplies, seeing as in those days, a lot of food and other needed items came from the Pegasi and the Earth ponies. The argument quickly escalated into a fight, other Pegasi, Earth and Unicorn ponies saw what was going on, but didn't do anything at first until an Earth pony began to throw various things at the Pegasi."
"Now, all the Pagasi and Earth ponies were fighting. I forgot to mention this to you, but the Pagasi and Unicorns at that time, had a bitter rivalry with the Unicorns, the Pagasi were jealous of the Unicorns superior armor. Anyways, a Pegasi in the fight, riled up a Unicorn in the crowd, and began to offend the rest of the Unicorns as well and then, all the Unicorns were involved. The party had quickly turned into a momentous disaster, but what ended the fight was, the sorcerer ponies, who had been quietly waiting in a far corner of the room, went into the crowd and stopped the fight, by using their magic, and creating a shockwave. just enough to get everypony's attention. and then they went back into their section of the room. The Earth and Pegasi kings both upset at the other, backed out of each other's terms of the treaty and disabled the treaty, by both telling the other the treaty was no longer in effect, and declared war on the other for the other not accepting the others terms or respecting the other's subjects."
"Because the Unicorns were part of the fight, were very offended by the Earth ponies, and declared war on them as well. As for the Sorcerer ponies, they had left shortly after the Earth and Pegasi kings declared war on the other. So began the war of 500 years between the three races, I will not go into detail on the war too much, but after 250 years into the war, the three races were losing much of their brethren, and each of them called on the help of the Sorcerer ponies, because each race knew, if any one of them could get the Sorcerer ponies to help any one of them, their army would be unstoppable. Each race, one at a time, requested the help of them Sorcerer ponies, and each race got the same answer: No." For the Sorcerer ponies, they had nothing to fear, and the war did not effect them, plus, the Sorcerer ponies were a peaceful race, and did not accept the idea of war at all and did not like the idea to be a part of one."
"The three other races quickly realized none of them were going to get any help from the Sorcerer pony nation, so one night, each race sent a spy into the Sorcerer pony nation, to perhaps get an answer as to why they didn't want to help, because everypony knew that the Sorcerer ponies did not like war at all, but, everypony also knew that if they really, absolutely had to, they would help end a war. Shylight continued the story, "Each of the other race's spies only stayed for a night, for their own protection, because each race knew that they would be found out if any of their spies stayed longer than a day. What each spy found out that night, shocked and severely angered all the races. Each spy found out the same thing: they had seen how their knowledge and power had gone to their heads, they had been hiding a massive amount of gems, bits, gold, treasure of all sorts, rare items, documents and other things that should've been shared with the other nations, or put in a museum."
"It was that morning, all three races realized that they all had to band together, because after finding all this new information out, began to see the signs clearly, and they all began to see how mistreated, how greedy, and corrupt the Sorcerer pony nation had become, and the other three races realized that if they all did not band together, all three of their races, and kingdoms, would be wiped out. The races realized this, because there had been many times before, that the Sorcerer ponies, had tried to get each of the races to give up most of their land to the Sorcerer pony kingdom. That evening, the three races made a temporary treaty, and all agreed to band together,, they all realized that the Sorcerer pony kingdom had become a very grave threat to all them."
"So it was on that evening, all three races declared war on the Sorcerer pony nation, however, the Sorcerer ponies already knew that the other three races were coming, and had already prepared a formidable defense, and had activated their mobile fort, which its true name has been forgotten, and I do not know its name, for none of those particular records have withstood the test of time." Shylight said, "In the end, the three races won the war, the Sorcerer pony kingdom was wiped out, their mobile fort was destroyed into four pieces, one piece of the fort, that still functions today, is what is known as Cloudsdale, and the other pieces, were destroyed beyond repair. Each and every last Sorcerer pony was hunted down and killed, all but one Sorcerer pony escaped the madness; a pregnant mother, Darkness's mother, was the only one of her race that survived, and remained hidden. Darkness's father was the only Sorcerer pony who actually joined the three other pony nations, and went up against his own kind, because he too, believed his brethren had done much injustice to the other races."
"He fought valiantly, and hard, until his last dying breath, he died fighting three elder Sorcerer ponies, however, Darkness's father did not die alone, shortly after Darkness's father died, so did those three elders, from too many mortal wounds. After the war was over, Darkness's father was celebrated as a hero for the three races, and they made a statue and building in his honor. However, I have never seen it, and from what these records show, it has been lost over time. Also, all three races agreed that no race, or kingdom should ever have some much power, land, knowledge and riches as the Sorcerer ponies did, and made a permanent peace treaty, a couple days after the ending of the war, for all three races, and that treaty still remains in effect today."
Nothing was said for what seemed like a really long time, and then finally, Twilight said, "So, what you're saying is, these 'Sorcerer ponies' caused their own demise?"
Shylight answered, "In simpler terms, yes, the Sorcerer ponies caused their own destruction and pretty much near-extinction, with Darkness being the only surviving one left of his kind."
Twilight asked another question, "Shylight? Perhaps you might know something, but we was all wondering if you might have heard of somepony named 'Snowshy'? And we was all also wondering if you might perhaps have an idea of where to find her?" Shylight said nothing for a while, but his face was filled full of emotion, and he was blushing tremendously. Finally, Shylight seemed to be able to control his emotions long enough to say, "Snowshy? Yes, I know her, you see, she's my special somepony, and I have Darkness to thank for that." Before anypony could ask, Shylight continued, "Years ago, Darkness, Snowshy, and some of their friends were taking a walk through the park, and it just so happened that I was in the park at the time as well."
"Darkness had told Snowshy about his one true friend, that had been there for him, since they had become friends, and Snowshy wanted to meet me. Darkness saw me first, he rushed over, and gave me a big hug, and introduced me to Snowshy. In less than a couple of minutes, there was already a very strong bond between Snowshy and myself, and the conversations just started flowing." Shylight said, "Darkness saw this as well, and when Snowshy went home, he asked if he could come over to my place, he said 'he had something important to tell me.' I gladly accepted him over, for I always enjoyed his company, and him and I talked for a while, and then he said, 'You know, you and Snowshy should get together, you guys are so perfect for each other, I saw and felt something very strong between you two, a connection, unlike anything I've ever seen from either one of you."
Shylight took a break, and then continued, "I thought about it for a couple of seconds, and realized: Darkness was right, there was something really special between Snowshy and myself, for I too, had felt it. And I learned later the next day, when Darkness came by to visit me, that Snowshy felt the same way too. And so began a very strong relationship between Snowshy and myself, when Darkness saw that both Snowshy and I decided to be together, he couldn't have been more proud or happier for us, the smile on his face that day, was unlike any other time I had seen him happy, he had tears of absolute joy, and if he had really wanted to, he would've been more that likely, been bouncing all over the place.
"He supported both Snowshy and me completely, and was willing to protect both Snowshy and I, at any cost, even if it meant his life. He told both Snowshy and I that, 'As long as both Snowshy and you are safe, that's all that matters, I will protect you guys, at any cost, no matter what, even if it means my life, you both are a cause worth dying for." Shylight explained, "After that day, the friendship between Snowshy, Darkness, and myself only grew stronger every day, but then...." Everypony asked, "But then what?" Shylight looked down, took a deep breath, and said, "But then came the day Darkness moved away, then shortly after, I got defeated by Discord and was exiled here, and Snowshy began to look for me, I don't think she got lost, I think something bad happened to her, but I do not know what might have happened, you see, ever since my exile, I cannot go very far from my home, you see, before Discord had exile me, and threw my Element of Harmony deep into the forest, he also placed a curse on me, to where if I went too far away from my home, I would die."
Shylight took a deep sigh, and said, "Now, as far as your other question is concerned, unfortunately, I do not know exactly where Snowshy is, but I do know where I last saw her: I do know, that she is here, somewhere deep within this forest, far beyond from this place, down a path that leads into the heart of the forest, which, as you have witnessed, that is exactly where Darkness Night awoke. I believe she knew this was going to happen eventually, and probably was trying to find Darkness, to try and stop what is happening now from happening. I fear something terrible has happened to her, and I am powerless to do anything about it.....until now....
Rainbow Dash was the one to ask the question this time, she said, "So, how are you going to be able to come with us, if you cannot go very far from your house?"
Shylight looked up at everypony, with a look of hope in his eyes, and said, "Your elements, I remember clearly Discord telling me, before I got exiled into the forest, he told me, "The only way the curse will end, is to find the ones that carry six items, that can defeat me." Shylight laughed, "Apparently, he thought that I would never find them, seeing as I cannot go very far, but what he didn't count on was, that those that carry what is needed to lift this curse, came to me."
"I don't think he accounted for that, I guess he thought I would be foolish enough to take a journey far away from my home, searching for these 'six item bearers'."
Twilight asked, "So, how do we lift the curse?"
Shylight simply said, "You already have, your arrival here, has already lifted it, I am free.....thanks to you all." Before anypony could give Shylight another hug, he said, "Please, save the celebration until after we all complete this task, shall we get going? I know a shorter way to get to the heart of this forest, it's down a path Darkness and I used to play in all the time."
Everypony agreed, and Twilight said, "Lead the way, Shylight."
Shylight nodded, and said, "Follow me, stay close, and stick together, something tells me that Darkness Night will have things that will try and stop us from getting to him, finding the elements, and Snowshy."
Nopony said anything else, as they all stuck together, and followed Shylight down a hidden, narrow path that was a little ways from his home, when all of a sudden, a evil chuckle echoed softly from behind the group, and the way they came was now blocked by branches and brambles. Shylight stopped, looked back the way they came, and said, "I knew it, he's trying to stop us, well, luckily, I happen to know there are a couple of other ways to get out of this forest. Come on, everypony, let's keep going, and stay alert." A couple of hours later, Shylight stopped near a big tree, that was off the path, looked at the group, and said, "We should camp here for the night, besides, you all look very tired, don't worry, we will be safe here, at least,... until morning, and then we will have to keep moving. I don't want Darkness Night detecting our presence."
Everypony agreed, and set up camp for the night, nopony said anything, they were all too tired to, and they all went straight to bed. A little while later, Twilight noticed that Shylight had not set up a place for him to sleep. She got up out of where she was sleeping, and found Shylight, on the path, guarding the camp.
Twilight went over to him, and said, "What's the matter? Can't sleep?"
Shylight looked back at Twilight, and said, "No, I don't sleep very well during the night, and besides, I need to guard the camp, and make sure nopony gets hurt while you all are resting. You should really go back to bed, you will all need all the rest you can get."
Twilight thought for a second and said, "You know, I could guard the camp for a bit while you get some rest of your own?"
Shylight was just about to argue, but then sighed, and said, "You're right, Twilight, I need rest just as much as the rest of you do, you can guard the camp for the rest of tonight if you want."
"But when you're ready to go back to bed, just wake me up, and let me know, I need to be just as alert as the rest of you. Thank you, Twilight,"
Twilight said, "You're welcome Shylight, good night." Twilight ended up guarding the camp for rest of the night, and she woke Shylight up, in the early morning, and she went back to bed, as Shylight went back to guarding the camp. When the sun rose,
Shylight woke everypony, and said, "Come on, everypony, we have to go soon, otherwise our presence will be discovered, and Darkness Night will make sure we never succeed in our task." Everypony set off, got back on the path, and as they continued down the path, they began to realize the path was getting wider, and Shylight didn't look back, he kept moving, but said, "We are halfway there, do not spread out too far."
"Darkness Night is probably concealed right now, and will only come out if he needs to, he's not asleep, Darkness's alter ego, Darkness Night, does not sleep, but he's not all that alert at this time either, come, it will be during the day where we will cover the most ground,"
Applejack said, "Good thinkin', let's get movin' then." Time seemed to slowly pass, and after what seemed like an eternity,
Shylight stopped the group, when night had just fallen, and said to the group, "We should take a break here, find something to eat, or drink, the river's just a little ways from here, we are getting closer, by sometime tonight, we shall be at the heart of this forest." After everypony took a short break, they all set off once again, and began to walk down the very wide path, when all of a sudden, Shylight gasped, stopped in his tracks, mouth open, as he looked at the ground, everypony stopped as well, as soon as they saw that Shylight had stopped.
Fluttershy asked, "What's wrong Shylight?"
All Shylight could say was, "It can't be.....it can't be..." Everypony, now puzzled, looked at what Shylight was looking at on the ground, and saw hoof tracks, that went off the path. Shylight was overcome with emotion as he saw that by one of the tracks, was strand of pink hair from somepony's mane, and Shylight could only think of one pony: it was Snowshy's! It had to be!
Spike asked, "Who's hair could that be?
Shylight only said, "It's Snowshy's, and from what I can tell from these tracks, she's not far from here."
Rainbow Dash asked, "How can you tell?"
Shylight said, "Did you forget what I am? What my Element of Harmony is? My element is the element of Nature, so therefore, I can see things in nature in a way that any of you cannot."
Rainbow Dash said, "Oh yeah, right."
Shylight was already into a trot, and followed the tracks, and temporarily forgot about everypony else, and then stopped and looked back and said, "Sorry about that everypony, let's go, the sooner we find her, the sooner we find the rest of what we need." Everypony followed the tracks down through the trees, and came to a wide clearing, Shylight was the first to come out onto the clearing and Shylight saw her first, his eyes were wide, full of emotion and tears, and he trotted as fast he could to her and then everypony else saw her: she too, was a Pegasus, with a light blue body, a little darker shade of blue eyes, a light pink mane, the end of her tail was torn, she had a scar on her face, and her head was down, eyes closed.
When Shylight got to her, he immediately, bent down, picked up her head, his eyes overflowing with tears, and said, "Snowshy? Can you hear me? It's me, Shylight."
There was no response. Shylight said again, "Snowshy? Please answer me, please...." Shylight began to sob loudly, and then
Snowshy opened her eyes, looked into Shylight eyes, and said, "Ehh Shylight? Is that you?"
Shylight said," Yes Snowshy its me, what happened to you?"
Snowshy explained," I was running away from Darkness's transformation, his darkness power cloud mist grew closer and closer toward me, just barely nipping at my hind hooves. So I ran as fast as I could away from him but as I was nearing the heart of the forest and I had jumped over a split tree and my tail had snagged on the shattered wood splints. I had fallen and tripped, scratching my face on one of the shattered splints. I tugged and pulled as it slowly ripped my tail hairs, were splitting as they ripped apart as I tried running away, finally i was free! I trotted off as fast as I could, I trotted so fast that I twisted my ankle and rested here where i am now."
Nopony said anything, but Shylight asked, "Can you walk now?"
Snowshy said, "I think so, but I will need some help getting up and around."
Shylight nodded and said, "I can help you."
As Shylight said this the two looked deep into each others eyes, and both of their faces were full of affection for the other, but then, Snowshy suddenly noticed the group that was standing behind them and asked Shylight, "Uh, Shylight? What are they doing here?" As the two of them awkwardly backed off from one another.
Shylight said, "Alllow me to introduce...."
Snowshy interrupted him, and said, "Yes, I know who they are, Twilight, her friends, and Spike, just what are they doing here?"
Shylight replied, "Allow me to explain, they are here to find you and me , and our elements, because without us, they don't stand a chance defeating Darkness Night, or even think about redeeming him either."
Snowshy looked down, and said to the group, "I-I-I-I I'm so sorry for my recent actions, it's just...I saw you guys, and I just didn't know why you were all standing there."
Twilight said, "It's alright, we understand."
Snowshy nodded in gratitude, and said, "Thank you.."
As she said this, at the same time, Shylight began to put some bandages on Snowshy's twisted ankle, and said, "That will help you walk better, so how does it feel now?"
Snowshy began to walk on her own, slowly at first, and then began to walk at her normal pace, and said, "It feels much better now, thank you, Shylight, but I won't be able to trot again for a while."
Shylight said, "That's okay, where we are all going next, we will need to walk anyways" As he said this, he looked at the group and asked, "Is that fine with you all? We might be going slow for a while until Snowshy's ankle gets better." Everypony nodded and
Fluttershy spoke for the group this time, and said, "That's okay, we wouldn't want Snowshy to hurt herself by straining her ankle too much."
Snowshy replied gratefully, "Thank you all again for understanding."
Twilight asked, "Now that we found you, will you help us defeat Darkness Night, possibly redeem him, and help us find your and Shylight's elements?"
Snowshy answered, "Of course I will help you, I am more than happy to help, if there is any way I can help you guys and Shylight out with your task, I will, and just in case you ask as well, I will come along with you all."
Everypony let out a sigh of relief and Twilight said, "Thank goodness, we've come a very long way to find you two, we need both of your help if we are to succeed in our task.
Shylight agreed, and said, "Yes, we all have, but our journey is not over yet, Snowshy and I still have to find our elements in order to have any chance of defeating Darkness Night." Shylight then turned to Snowshy, and asked, "Snowshy, do you know where our elements might be?"
Snowshy thought for a moment, and then replied, "The last time I saw your element was after Discord exiled you, and threw your element into the forest, I saw the general location of where it might've landed, an area where the ruined castle is."
"But, as far as my element goes, my element is somewhere in the heart of the forest, Darkness Night took my element when my tail was stuck, I didn't realize it at first, until I no longer felt the weight of it around my neck, and then I realized that he had been after my element, not me."
Nopony said anything for a long time, until finally, Applejack broke the silence, by saying, "Well, now that we know where they are, what are we waitin' for? Let's go and get Snowshy's and Shylight's elements before Darkness Night realizes what we're here for!" Everypony agreed, and Snowshy said, "We should go get Shylight's element first, with Shylight's element, it will make it easier to find mine."
Shylight agreed, "She's right, our elements are very closely intertwined with each other, so if we have mine, it will make things much easier to find Snowshy's element."
Twilight said,"That's a good idea, I have a feeling, that if we head into the heart of this forest now, we might not be able to come back the same way that we came."
Twilight continued, "I realized that Darkness Night has been closing up the paths from which we come out from, because I thought I heard a evil chuckle when we followed Shylight down the secret path to the heart of the forest, and when I looked to see if there was anypony following us, I saw that the path from which we had come from, was blocked. But, anyways, the ruins are away from the heart of the forest, and are on a path that takes us little ways from the heart of the forest."
Shylight said, "Then it's settled then, we will head off to the ruins tomorrow, we should all get some rest and set up camp for tonight, don't worry, we will be safe here, this clearing is not all that large, and at first glance, can easily be missed by somepony in the sky."
Everypony agreed, and once again, everypony went straight to bed, there was no conversation, everypony was worn out from the day's events. Everypony was soon asleep, everypony except for two, Snowshy and Shylight were guarding the camp together, and the two had walked out of anypony's earshot within the camp, just in case anypony was still awake and might be listening in.
Snowshy was the first to speak, and turned to Shylight, and said, "When this is all over, I want to have us catch up on our time apart, by you telling me, all that's happened and what you have been doing, since we've been apart, and I want to tell you what I've been been up to since we last saw each other."
Shylight could only say, "I would love to hear how you have been, and what you've been doing, since last we met."
Snowshy blushed and looked away, and said, "Shylight..."
Shylight picked up one of Snowshy's front hooves, gently nudged her face back up, and said to her, "When this is all over, there's something I want to ask you, but only once this is all over, okay?"
Snowshy smiled, and said, "I look forward to it." The two looked very deeply into each other's eyes.
Shylight's and Snowshy's eyes were both full deep emotion, their faces drew closer to each other, and they kissed, under a beautiful starry night sky, and a full moon.
When they finished, they sat side by side, and watched the night sky, and then a shooting star went by, and Shylight said, "Quick! Make a wish!"
They both wished, and Snowshy asked, "What did you wish for?"
Shylight answered, "I wished that we will be together when this is all over."
Snowshy was now blushing deeply, and then she said, "I wished for the same thing too."
The two looked into each other's eyes again, and then Shylight said, "When I look into your eyes.......I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I see....."
Snowshy finished Shylight's sentence, "Myself, I know, I feel the same way too."
All Shylight could do was look into Snowshy's eyes, tearfully, and their faces drew closer once again, and they kissed again, this time, with much more emotion than the last.
When they had finished, Shylight said, "We should get some sleep, we have a very hard day ahead of us." Snowshy nodded, and the two went to their tents, and Shylight woke up Twilight to guard the camp for the rest of the night. Morning came, and everypony was ready, and together, they helped pack up camp. Shylight took the lead, with Snowshy right by his side, and he said, "Okay, seeing as it is day, Darkness Night is probably hiding out in the shadows in the heart of the forest somewhere, so we have the chance to cover as much as ground as we can, and then, once we reach the ruins, we'll split up into teams, and begin to look for my Element of Harmony."
When Shylight said this, he looked down, and Snowshy put a hoof on his shoulder, and asked, "What's wrong?"
Shylight said, "It's just....it's been so long since I've last seen it, or had it, I don't know if it will be there anymore, or if it will even work."
Snowshy gave Shylight a hug, and said, "It's okay, we'll find it, and it will still work, I know it will, if it wasn't, you would've known by now, you would've felt it, and so would've I."
Shylight looked up, and said, "You're right." He looked back to the group, and said "Alright, everypony let's go!" Everypony began down the path that lead to the ruined castle, and by late afternoon, they had reached their destination with no problems along the way.
When they reached the front door of the castle, Shylight stopped, turned around, and spoke to the group, "Okay, everypony, we all know what we are looking for, but I forgot to tell you what my Element of Harmony looks like: it has the same gold lining like your elements do, but the element itself looks like a tree, and is green. So does everypony know what to look for now?" Everypony nodded, and Shylight said, "Okay, now, as we discussed before, we will split up into teams, there are five ways to go in here, so we should have four teams, Snowshy and I will be together as a team, so does everypony know who they wanted to team up with?"
Rarity responded, "I'll go with Applejack, if that's fine with you dear."
Applejack replied, "Fine with me."
Rainbow Dash said, "I'll go with Fluttershy."
Twilight said, "I'm going with Spike, and Pinkie Pie can come with us."
Shylight said, "Okay, now we are all in our teams now, we will all choose a different path, I know there are only four teams, so we will all go down the fifth path together, so which way are you all going? Snowshy and I shall go down the upper left path."
Applejack replied, "Me and Rarity are goin' down the lower left path."
Rainbow Dash said, "We're going down the upper right path."
Twilight said, "We shall go down the lower right path."
Shylight said, "Very well then, be careful everypony, when you are done searching, come back to the main hall, and we shall go down the middle path together, okay? Good luck everypony!"
Nopony wasted time with any more words, they all just nodded in approval, and all headed down their paths, eyes sharp, and on alert. Behind them, a dark mist shut the main doors and went down the lower left path, with an evil chuckle that sounded throughout the castle. Meanwhile, on the upper left path, Snowshy and Shylight began to search down the hallway of their path, and came to a large room, that two other small side rooms,
Shylight said, "We should search the smaller rooms first, and then come back to this room, what do you think Snowshy?"
Snowshy replied, "I think it's a good idea, if your element is here, it will be easier to find in smaller areas."
Shylight nodded, and said, "I'll shall meet you back here, after I am done searching, and please be careful."
Snowshy said, "I will, see you back here." With this being said, the two split up, and began to search the smaller rooms. In the room Shylight was searching, it was full of all sorts of small items, and everything was covered in dust and cobwebs. As Shylight began to look through the room, he found all sorts of things, but nothing he was looking for, after an hour or two, he had finished searching the room, disappointed, and he went back to large room and waited for Snowshy to finish her search, and after a little while later, Snowshy came out of the room, and went over to where Shylight was.
Shylight asked, "Any luck?"
Snowshy answered, "No, there was nothing in there except for old musical instruments, tools, and other items that looked like they would be used for chemistry."
Shylight said, "Well. at least we know the element is not in those rooms, so let's search in here."
Snowshy said, "That's a good idea."
The two began to search throughout the room, and both of them we thinking, "I hope the others are having better luck." Back down the lower left room, Applejack and Rarity had gone down a long hallway that lead into a large chamber the split into to four different large rooms, and each one had large doors, and each of them were closed.
The two stopped, and Applejack said, "Well, Shylight's element could be in any of these rooms, so you go in one room, and I'll go in another."
Rarity simply said, "Fine, as long as there's not any spiders, cobwebs, and dust."
Applejack said nothing, knowing it was better not to say anything, she simply rolled her eyes, and opened the farthest left pair of doors, and Rarity opened the pair of doors next to the ones Applejack opened. In Applejack's room, was a large library, and Applejack said to herself, "If only Twilight was here, she's good with books, but maybe Shylight's element is hidden in one of them." She searched, for what seemed like an eternity, but found nothing. Applejack said, "Well, Shylight's element's not in here, good thing too, this room gives me the creeps." She came back into the main chamber, and went into the upper right room. Back in the room Rarity was in, was a enormous ball room, but seeing as it had not been used in a long time, the room had fallen into disrepair, the room had a dusty smell to it, and that was something that she did not care for at all.
She said, "This room could use some tiding up, and some freshener too." She was just about to start cleaning and fixing up the room, when she stopped herself as she said to herself, "Kept it together, remember what you're here for, just look for Shylight's element and get out of here as soon as possible." As she said that, she began to look around, carefully, and without touching the old, dusty tables, and in the back of the ball room, she saw, a very small room in the back, and door was hanging from its hinges. Cautiously, she went into the room, and was amazed at what she found: the room was full of beautiful dresses, most of them were covered in a protective covering, but most of them were destroyed from sitting so long. But also in the room, was a very large desk. that had wonderful wood carving decorations into it and Rarity said to herself, "Maybe Shylight's element might be in there, it can't hurt to look."
The desk had many different drawers, each one had all sorts of things in it, most of them items needed to repair or make dresses or suits. As Rarity searched, there was one more drawer left: and this one was different from the others: this one had no handle, and had Luna's face on it, and Rarity concluded, "I don't think its a good idea to open that one." And with that, she left the room, and the ballroom, went back into the main chamber, and into the lower right room. In the upper right room, Applejack had stepped into a rather large, dark room, immediately, she began to search for the lights, she found the switch, and flipped it up. At first, the lights flickered on and off, but steadied, and lit up the room, Applejack realized, now with the lights on, that she standing in a huge theater, with an intricately decorated stage, and it looked like that it had been recently decorated, if it were not for the faded colors, and cobwebs.
Applejack looked around for a minute or two, and then concluded, "Well, the only place that might be a good place to search is backstage, because from what I see here, all the seats are empty." With that, Applejack headed down to the stage, and from the entrance, the stage looked small, now that she was in front of it, it was bigger and taller than what she had seen from the entrance, she climbed on stage, and went behind the curtains. Of course, as with any stage, it had all sorts of props, and different clothing that were used for different shows. Applejack began to search around, but found nothing. Applejack looked at the ground, and one section of the floor looked........odd, it wasn't like the rest of the floor, it seemed out of place, like it didn't belong there.
Applejack said, "Aw, what the hay. might as well see if there might be anythin' interestin' here." Applejack removed the board easily, looked inside, and found a strange-looking box. Applejack opened it, and inside was an beautiful amulet, that looked like Shylight's element, but after closer examination, Applejack realized that the gemstone was not real, that this one was a fake. Puzzled, she said, "It's s good thing, that Rarity taught me how to do that, but.......it's almost like this was used to act out what happened to Shylight." As she continued to look around, she found other things that looked all too familiar, things that related to what she just said. she asked herself, "If what happened to Shylight was acted out here, then who could've known about it? The princesses couldn't have known about it?"
"Anyhow, there's no sense in thinkin about that now, besides, it doesn't make any sense anyways, I think I'm done here anyways." After she finished, she began to head back to the entrance, until, suddenly, an evil voice rang in the air, with the question, "And were do you think you might be going?" Applejack froze, and looked around, and asked, "Who are you?! Show yourself!" The voice said, "Fine, I have no reason to hide anyways." Suddenly, a wind arose, blowing chairs, dust, props, and others things to the side, and from above, was a dark, but powerful mist. It descended down to the middle of the theater, where everything had been pushed out of the way, and dark powers surrounded the figure, until finally, it stopped to show who it was, it was Darkness Night himself!
Applejack was scared, but pushed it aside, and said, "I know who you are, you are Darkness Night, aren't you? What are you doing here and what do you want?"
Darkness Night replied, "Nothing........yet.......I've simply come here to tell you something and to give you a warning." Applejack was going to say something, but Darkness Night lifted her, and brought her closer to him, to where the two were eye-to-eye, and Darkness Night said, "Quiet, first of all, I've known you were all here since you all entered the forest, surely one of you must've realized this? Why else do you think all your paths that you entered, suddenly closed behind you? Why? Me, of course, I've been following you all since you came into the forest, although, I have to admit, I did not know Snowshy was still in the forest, I thought I had gotten rid of her."
When he said this, the look of much anger and rage was written in his face, and he gripped Applejack tighter with his magic, and said, "Now listen here, and listen closely, the item you and friends look for is a lost cause, you will never find it, and your mission is complete waste, if any of you value your life, I suggest you leave this place. If you continue to search, I will make sure you all regret it. And as far as your new friend, Shylight, is concerned, I shall deal with him soon. MuwhahahahahahahahahahahahaMuwhahahahaha!!!" With that, he let Applejack go, and was surrounded by dark powers again, and disappeared as his maniacal laughter filled the air for several seconds.
Shaken, but otherwise okay, Applejack stayed and stood where she was for a minute or two, to make sure he was gone, and hurried to find Rarity.
In the room that Rarity now had just entered, was full of boxes, most of them looked like that hadn't been moved in ages, and Rarity said, "Ugh, this is going to take forever!." She was just about to open the box closest to her, when Applejack stormed in, with wide eyes and stopped in front Rarity. Alarmed, Rarity asked. "What's the matter dear? You look like you saw a ghost and other horrible things. Come on, dear, tell me what's bothering you?"
Applejack caught her breath, and said, "First of all, I'm.....just glad I found you....and...that...you're...okay."
As she finished, she gave Rarity a tight hug, and Rarity said, with effort, "Of....course...I'm...okay....why....wouldn't....I....be? Now.....if...you....don't....mind.....can...you...please...let...go? I....can...hardly....breath..."
Applejack quickly let go and said, "Sorry."
Rarity said, "It's okay, now tell me what's bothering you so much that you to squeeze me so hard?"
Applejack sighed, took a breath and said, "We've been followed this whole time."
Rarity, now puzzled, said, "Followed? What do you mean? You're not making any sense dear, there couldn't have possibly have been somepony following any of us, we would've noticed long before now."
Applejack shook her head, and said," No you don't understand, we've been followed since we entered the forest by Darkness Night!"
Rarity scoffed, and said, "Darkness Night, oh, how ridiculous! I think you've been in this castle too long dear. I think you just need some fresh air."
Applejack began to get frustrated and said, "No, it's not this castle, and no, fresh air is not what I need! I'm serious! I'm not making this up!" She turned her head to reveal her neck and said, "Look! You see those marks?
Darkness Night was holding me with his magic in a tight grip, now, can I make that up?"
Rarity examined it for a moment, and said, "You're right, no, you can't, but, when did this happen, and did he tell you anything else?" Applejack told Rarity everything that had happened in the theater, and after a little while later, Rarity said, "This is not good."
Applejack said, " I agree, and as far as this room goes, don't waste yer time, you see? The boxes are all marked, "theater", and seeing as I was just in the theater, the element's not going to be in here."
Rarity said, "Good, I really didn't want to look through all these musty boxes anyways."
Applejack said, "Let's head back to the main entrance, and wait for the others, I have a feeling, that anything of high value or power, will be found in the heart of the castle, down the middle path."
Rarity said, " I think you're right, and I think it would be a good idea to wait for the others, just in case we encounter Darkness Night again, that way, next time, we'll have some help." Applejack nodded, and the two began to head back to main entrance, and Rarity asked while they were heading back and asked, "But what about Shylight?"
Applejack had a worried expression on her face, and said, " Hopefully, by then, we will all be together again."
Down the upper right path, Rainbow Dash went down a rather short hallway, and came out into a small chamber, that had two separate rooms go off on either side, both with intricately decorated doors, and of course, both were shut.
Rainbow Dash wasted no time, and said to Fluttershy, " I'll take the room to the left, you take the one to the right, okay?"
Fluttershy said nothing, she only shook her head yes.
Rainbow Dash said, " Okay, when you are done searching, come back here, alright?" Again, Fluttershy said nothing, she just nodded her head in agreement. Rainbow Dash noticed Fluttershy's strange behavior, and asked, " Is something wrong Fluttershy? You've been acting weird since we entered this pathway, If it's the castle, it's okay, I'm here, I won't let anything happen to you."
Fluttershy seemed relieved to hear Rainbow Dash say that, and said, "Thank you, I feel much better now."
Rainbow Dash said, " Good, now lets get going, we have no time to waste." Rainbow Dash went to the left, and Fluttershy went to the right, they both opened the doors to the rooms, and went in. In the room Rainbow Dash had entered, it was a small room: it had a bed, a bookshelf, a window, a table in the middle of the room, a small wardrobe cabinet, and a small in-table beside the bed. Rainbow Dash thought to herself, " A bedroom.....great, I guess I'll start with the cabinet first." She walked over to the cabinet, opened it, and found it empty. She searched the bookshelf, it too, was empty, she searched the table for any hidden compartments, there were none. She noticed something on one of the table's legs.....it looked like something was there......it looked like.....a button!
Rainbow Dash pressed it, and the bookshelf suddenly moved to the right, revealing a hidden door. Rainbow pressed it again, and the bookshelf slid back into place, and she said to herself, "Once I'm done here, I'll go check that out." Rainbow went over to the in-table, and began to search its shelves, all were empty except for the bottom drawer, in it, was a note, that said: "On one of the table's legs, is a button, press it, and it will reveal a hidden doorway. The door has no handle, it can be opened by correctly answering the question it asks, and that question can be: 'what is the sister's favorite spot to spend time together?' or: 'Is there a library in this castle?' or it can be: 'how many main paths are there in this castle?'
Rainbow Dash continued reading, "Whoever wishes to open the door, must answer correctly, or be locked in this room........permanently.....the one who wishes to open the door, only has three chances, to correctly answer the question." Rainbow looked to the bottom of the note, there was a signature, but it had faded so badly from sitting there for so many years that it was not readable. Rainbow Dash gulped and said, "Permanently locked in this room.............., that's not so bad, if I actually wanted to be here for the rest of my life." Rainbow went over to the table, pressed the button, and bookshelf slid over.
Rainbow walked over to the door, and a voice asked, " How many main paths are there in this castle?" Rainbow Dash thought for a moment, remembering the main entrance from which everypony had come from, and she began counting, one....two...three....four....five....wait.......six! Rainbow Dash answered, "Six." The voice answered, "Correct, you may enter." and with that, the door handle appeared, and unlocked. Rainbow Dash opened the door, walked inside, and was amazed at what she saw: all sorts of gems of every kind, common and rare, and ones she had never seen before. She said to herself, "If only Rarity was here now, I can see it now....the look on her face!" She snickered at the thought, and then noticed there was another door to the left, she also noticed that this room was rather small.
She looked at all the gems, but none of them looked like an Shylight's element, disappointed, she walked over to the door on the left and opened it. The door revealed a balcony, overlooking the forest, and Rainbow said to herself, " Well, I guess I better be heading back, and wait for Fluttershy to see if she found anything." In the room Fluttershy had entered, it was not really a room at all, it had a glass roof, and so were the walls, this was not a room, it was a greenhouse! Fluttershy was excited now, but that quickly evaporated as she looked around and saw that any plant that might have been living at one time, were now long dead. Fluttershy sighed, and began to look around, and within a couple of minutes, she saw something strange on the floor....it looked like......an rather old piece of parchment... She picked it up, and looked at it: the ink was horribly faded, but was still visible enough to see what was on it: it was a drawing of the castle, with arrows pointing to the middle path.
She followed the arrows, and in the middle of the drawing was an amulet-looking drawing.
Fluttershy gasped, realizing what this was, and that it could be a clue to finding Shylight's Element Of Harmony! Fluttershy said to herself, " I better get back, and show Rainbow Dash this!" She left the greenhouse, and headed back to the chamber from which the two split up. Rainbow Dash was now back in the chamber, and was waiting for Fluttershy to return, she wasn't waiting for long when Fluttershy came back, with something in her hooves.
Excited, Rainbow Dash rushed over to Fluttershy, and asked, "What did you find, is it his element?"
Fluttershy said, " No, but I did find something that might lead us to it."
She showed Rainbow the parchment drawing, and Rainbow said, " Well, it's not the element, but at least now we have a clue, let's head back, and for the others to get done with their search.
Fluttershy said, " Shouldn't we just notify the others that we found this?"
Rainbow Dash thought about it for a moment, and said, " You're right, but how are we going to do it.......?"
Fluttershy said, "Leave that to me, I have an idea!"
Rainbow Dash smiled and said, " Alright then, let's go!" In the lower right path,
Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie Pie, were heading down a rather long hallway, when they suddenly heard a scream, it sounded like..........Fluttershy!
Spike said, "Fluttershy's in trouble!"
Twilight said, " It sounded like it came from where we all split up." Pinkie Pie said, " Let's go and see what's wrong." The trio quickly went back the way they came, the others had heard it too and were all coming as fast as they could back to the main entrance hall. Snowshy and Shylight were the first ones to get back, then Applejack and Rarity, followed by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and then, finally, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Spike.
Snowshy was the first to ask, " What's wrong, Fluttershy? We all heard you screaming."
Fluttershy smiled and said, " It's okay, nothing's wrong, it's just.....it was the only thing I could think of that would get you all here. I wanted to show you something."
She pulled out the piece of parchment, and everypony came over and looked at it.
Everypony gasped, and Shylight said, " It's......it's........."
Twilight said, " It's a clue of where your element might be! And it looks like it's pointing to......"
Snowshy finished, " The middle of this castle, down...."
Rainbow Dash said, " The middle path!"
Shylight said, " Then, let's get going then! We have no time to lose!" Everypony nodded, and trotted to the middle path, but they all stopped when the wind suddenly picked up, everypony was on alert.
Applejack said, " Oh no, it's him!"
Everypony asked, "Who is it?"
Applejack, with worry in her eyes, looked at the group, and said, "It's Darkness Night!" Snowshy was going to say something, but was cut off by the force of the wind, and then a dark powerful mist appeared before the balcony leading to the middle path. Dark powers encircled the figure for a couple of seconds, and then died out, revealing Darkness Night himself.
Shylight stepped up, and said, "Darkness! Stop this madness! This isn't you! I...." Shylight was cut off, as Darkness Night picked him up, with a grip tight enough to where he couldn't speak, and with his powers, threw him through a wall to the left of castle.
Darkness Night then turned to the rest of the group, and said, " Fools! You search for something that will not help you! Your mission is in vain! You will all fail! Your efforts are pitiful!" He said the next few words with much hate and venom, " I have already given a warning to one of your 'friends', and you have ignored it!"
He looked straight at Applejack, and everypony looked at her, and she said, " I'm sorry! I didn't get the chance to tell you all! I was a goin' to, but...."
Twilight came over to Applejack's side and said, " It's okay, Applejack, it's not your fault, there was no way you could've warned us, we all came back too late for you to tell us, but we are here together, and together, we shall face this together."
Applejack said, "Thanks, Twi, and thanks everypony."
Everypony nodded, and Darkness Night drew the group's attention back, and he said, "Ahh...... she's not told you.............how unfortunate."
"Nonetheless, enjoy your final night together, because it shall be your last! Muwahahahahaha! Muwahahahahaha!" As he finished, all doors were slammed shut, and he began to use his powers, and then, everypony realized, that they were surrounded by all sorts of unworldly beings, beings none of them had ever seen before.
He was just about to leave when Snowshy, with some anger in her face, said, " What's the matter? Darkness Night? Too weak to fight us on your own? Too cowardly, that you're going to have your followers do the dirty work for you?"
Darkness Night stopped, turned around, and with a flash, all his followers were gone, and his teeth were barred, his face was in a snarl, and his eyes were full of rage and anger. Darkness Night said, " You don't think I can defeat all of you? You are all so weak, you're not even worth my effort or time."
Snowshy took another brave step forward, " Then you have nothing to worry about, you have nothing to lose then."
Darkness Night laughed and said, " This will be easy, and besides, aren't you missing somepony?"
A voice said, " No! They're are not!" It was Shylight, a little dirty and bruised, but otherwise okay, and he was wearing something on his neck.......it was his element!
Twilight asked, " How did you find it?"
Shylight explained, "When I got thrown through the wall, I happened to glance something...shiny... As I got up, after being thrown, I went over to it, and it happened to be a switch, I pulled it, and the wall behind me opened to reveal a small chest, it was not locked. I opened it, and I found my Element Of Harmony in it, and that's when I heard Darkness Night use his powers against you all, and I began to trot back here, as fast I could, and it looks like I came just in time."
Twilight said, "Yes, you did, and thank goodness you're okay."
Shylight said, "We have no more time for this, we'll talk about this later, right now, we have to deal with him." Twilight said no more, and Shylight came over, rejoined the group, and Twilight and her friends put on their elements, ready, and focused.
Darkness Night noticed what Twilight and her friends were doing, and said, "Oh? You think your 'oh so precious elements' are going to save you?' Please, even with Shylight's element, you are all still DOOMED!! hahahahahahaha! Now, prepare to die!" As Darkness had been talking, Twilight, her friends, and Shylight, had already charged up their elements. Snowshy stood behind them, for she had no element, for they still had to find hers. Darkness Night was the first to attack, he shot a massive wave of pure energy at the group, and they shot the power of the Elements of Harmony at him. The two powers collided, and shook the very foundations of the ruined castle, the two powers went back and forth, back and forth, Darkness Night put more effort and power into his, and Twilight, her friends, and Shylight put everything they had into their elements.
Darkness Night's power blast got closer, and closer, and Twilight, her friends, and Shylight strained themselves, as much as they could, into their elements, and pushed Darkness Night's power blast back. When the two powers, went back to the middle of the room, they exploded, and everything went white, the wall that Darkness Night was standing behind, and the roof that was above him, collapsed, and fell on him. For several minutes, everything was still white, and then, it cleared, and then Shylight got up, realized he was okay, and began to look around for everypony else.
As Shylight looked around, he asked, "Can anypony hear me? Are you all right?"
A small pike of rubble moved, and Twilight came out of it, and said, "I'm okay!"
Rarity and Applejack said from behind, on either side of the main entrance doors, waved to Twilight and Shylight, and said, "We're okay!"
Applejack said, "We just thrown across the room, and slammed against the wall, but otherwise than that, we're alright."
A pile of dust moved, from the right side of the room and out came Spike, as he shook off all the dust, and said, "I'm fine guys, just a little dusty." A big pile of rubble, on the left side of the room, began to move, and out first came Pinkie Pie, followed by Rainbow Dash, and then Fluttershy, as she was pulled out of the rubble.
Everypony came to where Twilight and Shylight were, as they were coming, Shylight began counting, and said, "Everypony's here, but somepony's missing......wait....where's Snowshy?"
As he said this, there was a response, " I'm over here!" It had come from behind them, they all turned around, and there was Snowshy, slouched against what was left of the balcony of where Darkness Night once stood. Everypony rushed over to her, and
Shylight went to her side, bent down, and asked, " Are you alright?"
Snowshy said, " I fine, I just got thrown violently against the balcony here when the explosion happened."
Shylight asked, " Can you stand?"
Snowshy answered. "Yes" As she said this, she got up, and Shylight brushed dirt and dust off her.
Everypony looked at where Darkness Night had once stood and saw that there was now a giant pile of rubble where Darkness Night was standing.
Applejack asked, " You think we beat him? Because I don't know about you guys, but we barely won that one, and when I barely, I mean we got lucky."
Shylight shook his no, and said, " No, he's not defeated, his powers are still at a minimum, his powers have not reached full strength yet."
Twilight said, " Minimum? If that's his minimum powers, what is his full powers like?"
Shylight had a worried expression on his face, and said, " At least 10 times what we've seen here."
Everypony went silent, and then Rainbow Dash said, " How are we supposed to fight against something like that then?"
Shylight could only say, " The next time we fight him, we will need Snowshy's element next time, or we will not live to see another day." Their conversation was interrupted when the collapsed parts of the castle began to violently shake, and everypony backed away from it.
And then, rubble went flying everywhere, as Darkness Night stood, with much anger, and hate.as he looked at and addressed the group, " This is far from over! This too, is destiny! The next time we meet, will be the end of you all! I will make sure of it!" And with that, dark powers, and a strong gust of wind encircled him, and he disappeared with a flash and a shockwave of power. The collapsed parts of castle that Darkness Night had sent flying, had hit many of the supports of the ruined castle, and the castle began to shake and quiver, as the castle began to fall apart.
Twilight said, "We got to get out of here! The whole castle's going to crash down on us!"
Shylight said, "The doors should be able to be opened now, so let's get out of here!" The group opened the door together, and rushed away from the crumbling castle, went across the bridge, and stopped to catch their breath. Shylight asked, "Did everypony make it out?" He expected no answer, everypony was still out of breath, he looked around at everypony, and was relived to see that everypony had made it out safe and sound. They all looked out at the castle, as the entire thing collapsed in on itself, and crashed to the ground, leaving a huge pile of rubble, where the castle once stood.
Snowshy said, " Well, at least you found your element."
Twilight said, " Yeah, Darkness Night almost killed us all for it, and destroyed the castle in the process."
Applejack said, " I'm just glad we're all alive."
Pinkie Pie said, " Oh! Oh! That's something to celebrate about!"
Twilight had a confused look on her face for a moment and said, Shylight? May I ask you a question? How is it that you were able to use your Element of Harmony? I remember clearly, in the book Princess Celestia gave me, that Snowshy's and yours cannot work without the other? And how is it that you were also able to use your element without my friends and my elements charging up first?"
Shylight replied, " Those are good questions, and my answer to the first one is: what you read in that book, means that as long as Snowshy and my elements are at least still in existence, either of ours will work. Plus, if Snowshy's Element of Harmony was destroyed, my element wouldn't have been shining in the first place. Now, as for your second question, my answer to that one, is this: Snowshy''s element and mine, are special, they were made by nature in a very special place, a place that no longer exists. And when Snowshy and I got our cutie marks, we also gained our Elements of Harmony, on that night. To further explain this, Snowshy's element, and mine, are not connected to any of yours, Snowshy's element, and mine came from a special place in nature, and it is because of all this, that gives Snowshy and me the ability to use our elements at will, without having to be connected to somepony else's, or having to charge up."
Twilight said, " Thank you Shylight, I think I understand now, and um, Pinkie, let's not start celebrating until Darkness Night is defeated and redeemed, okay?"
Pinkie, disappointed, but nodded, " You're right Twilight, let's wait until all this is over, then, it's party time!"
Shylight was silent for a moment, gasped, turned to Fluttershy, and asked, "Fluttershy! Do you still have that piece of parchment?"
Fluttershy said " Yes" and she took it out.
Shylight asked, " Can I see it?"
Fluttershy replied, "Sure" and she handed it to Shylight.
Shylight took the piece of parchment, looked at it, for a moment, and said, " I knew it! I knew that wasn't what was here! Here guys! Come look at this!" Everypony went over to Shylight, and looked at the piece of parchment: it was different: it no longer had a drawing of the castle, it showed a drawing of the forest, that had arrows that pointed to an element-looking icon in the heart of the forest, a little ways off in the other direction from the very center of the forest.
Rainbow Dash asked, " So, what does this mean?"
Shylight explained, " This parchment was disfigured and changed by Darkness Night so that way we would fall into his trap that he had set up for us."
"When we didn't really fall for it, that's why he appeared before us when he did. Another reason he changed it was he was trying to distract us away from my element, so that way we would never find it, or Snowshy's element, because he knows that our only fighting chance against him is Snowshy's and my elements. Now that he is longer in the area, his spell on it has worn off, and so it has revealed what is truly on this parchment: it's a clue, or at least it shows where to start looking. However, it is late, and I think it would be best if we camp here tonight. Don't worry, seeing as we battled him here, and barely won, he will not come back to this area for some time, so we can make camp here for the night."
Twilight said, " That's a good idea, we might not find another safe place to camp, or rest even."
Shylight said, " In the early morning, we set off, we need Snowshy's element, as you have seen; Darkness Night's power is getting stronger; he destroyed Ponyville, like it was a bunch of toothpicks, and destroyed, a rather still sturdy and stable castle rather easily. His powers grow closer, by the day, to his former strength, if he reaches that point, he may not be able to be stopped." Everypony said no more, they were all worn out from the days events, Spike, had fallen immediately to sleep, the minute Twilight's tent and bedrolls were set up. Shylight was at his usual spot, guarding the camp for the night, Snowshy was by his side as well. The two guarded the camp for most of the night, until they went to bed in their separate tents, everypony was asleep by the time they went to bed.
Morning came, and everypony got up, buried their campfire, packed up camp and was about to set off when Snowshy took the lead and said, " Seeing as it is my element that we are going after, I think it's only right that I take the lead from here. Is everypony okay with that?"
There was no disagreement, everypony agreed, and Shylight said, " You're right, I had the lead when we went after my element, so it is only fitting that you do the same with yours. Lead the way Snowshy." And he handed the piece of parchment to her. She took it, and began to set off, as everypony followed. By midday, they were getting close to the heart of the forest, because it became more darker, more misty and foreboding it became, the closer they got.
Applejack said in a low tone, " I don't like the looks of this."
Snowshy looked back at the group and said, in a lone tone as well, " Everypony, stay close together, and follow me, and we'll be fine. Make sure everypony stays close together, we're very close to Darkness Night's home, so it won't take much to get lost in this mist." Everypony stayed very close together, alert, and wary of their surroundings. A little while later, they came to a fork in the path. there was two ways to go: one way went to the left, that headed straight for the heart of the forest, and the other went on straight ahead, in the same direction they were heading, and then went to the right. Snowshy looked at the drawing, and said, " According to this, the direction we want to go, is straight ahead, and from the way the path is shown on here, the path looks like its not going to be an easy one to take."
Applejack said, " Let's get a move on then, the other path is beginning to really give the creeps." As she said this, she began to shudder.
As they headed down the path to the right,
Shylight explained to the group, " As you can see, the heart of this forest, is not exactly the most welcoming, it wasn't always like this. There used to be beautiful things here, there was no mist, no fog, no darkness, this part of the forest had the most welcoming feel to it, it was not how it is now. But, because of Darkness Night's awakening, it has defiled, corrupted, and cursed this part of the forest, it is not safe for anypony that comes here, alone. Even for those that come in a group, even then, they are still at a great risk. The heart of this forest has also become very unwelcoming, dark, and evil, this is all Darkness Night's doing, which makes it all the more important that he is stopped, before things like this forest, are beyond repair. It saddens me deeply to see the very heart of this forest in this state. Sad, isn't it?"
Shylight continued, "This is but a small example of what the rest of the world will look like, not only will every living thing be completely annihilated, but over time, the entire world will rot and die, leaving nothing behind, but a lifeless rock, literally. Darkness Night's heart is cold and cruel, there is no mercy or light in his heart, and because of this, he is going to make everything else wither and die, and become just as cold and lifeless as he is." Shylight grew silent, and so did everypony else, as Snowshy continued to lead the way and as Twilight and her friends realized even more the sad fate for their world if Darkness Night could not be defeated. Nothing was said, as all were deep in their own thoughts.
By late afternoon, they were most of the way to their destination, and Snowshy stopped, and said to the group, " We should take a break here, there's no telling what Darkness Night has in store for us. We'll continue after everypony has rested." It was the early parts of the night, when they continued down the path, and Snowshy looked at the drawing once more, and said, " We're getting close, we should be seeing a large opening soon." Sure enough, as they went over a hill, they saw the biggest lake they had ever seen, with all kinds of animals, and the water was very transparent, and sparkling, with a waterfall nearby.
Shylight said, " This is amazing! I've never seen anything like it! In fact, I didn't even know this was here!"
Snowshy smiled, and said, " Of course not, its easy to miss, with that giant hill that we passed over a while ago, without this drawing, I think we all would've missed this."
Twilight snapped out of her transfixed gaze, and said, " It truly is an amazing sight, but, is this the destination of where you element might be?" Snowshy said, " Yes, from what this drawing shows, my element should be behind that waterfall." Twilight said, " Does it show where in the waterfall?"
Snowshy shook her head, " It doesn't say."
Twilight said, " Well then, we better get looking for an opening behind that waterfall." Everypony spread out, throughout the lake, and looked up at the waterfall and began to study it, looking for a dark spot in the waterfall.
Rainbow Dash gasped, and said, " Guys! Over here! I think I might've found it!"
Everypony came over to Rainbow Dash's spot, and Rainbow Dash pointed to the middle of the waterfall and said, " It's right in the middle, under the giant boulders." Everypony looked where Rainbow Dash was pointing and sure enough, there it was: a dark hole, was under two giant boulders, in the middle of the waterfall.
Spike said, " I don't mean to be the pessimist here, but how are we going to get up there? I see no ledges, or anywhere to pull ourselves up on."
Shylight was the one who answered this time, and said, " That's actually a good question, in fact, I don't know yet, but there has to be a way."
Everypony began to think hard, and then Twilight said, " I got it!"
Everypony stopped, and said, " What?"
Twilight said in an excited tone, " I'll just use the bridge-making spell that I used before! But we need to get a bit closer though."
Shylight said, "That's a great idea! Snowshy, lead the way, if you don't mind?"
Snowshy nodded and said, " Of course not, I'd be happy to." Snowshy lead the group through the trees, and little while later, they came out on the other end of the lake. From where they were standing, they had to look straight up in order to see the opening in the waterfall.
Twilight said, " Now this is too close, I'm going to back up a bit, and then I'll start making that bridge."
Twilight backed up a ways, and began to concentrate, magic began to flow, and a bridge began to form. Slowly, but steadily, the bridge grew and grew, until finally, it went up to the waterfall, and finally stopped at the opening of the waterfall. Twilight stopped, and said after a big breath of air, " Finished, for a minute there, I didn't think I'd get the bridge all the way up there, but, thankfully, I did. Now that we have a bridge, Snowshy? Shall we get going?"
Snowshy asked, " Are you okay Twilight? You don't look so well."
Twilight said, " I'm fine, just a little worn out from making such a long bridge, I'll feel better once I sit down, once we get up there, I'll rest up for a bit."
Snowshy said " Okay, but I think I speak for everypony here, we don't want you to over exert yourself."
Shylight said, " Actually, it might be a good idea, if we all take a break for a while, once we get up there."
Twilight said, " Thank you...."
And she began to stumble and falter, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash helped to support her, and Shylight said, " Yeah, we're taking a break once we get up there, Twilight needs to recover." They walked up onto the bridge, and began their ascent upwards on the bridge, before long, they had reached the top, and everypony looked down, and realized how high up they were. Shylight said, " Wow, we're up pretty high, it's no wonder Twilight's exhausted." They all went through the waterfall, and got off the bridge, onto the hard, rocky surface of the opening. Shylight said, " Alright, let's take a break for a while, and the we will begin the search for Snowshy's element." Applejack and Rainbow Dash were the last ones to come inside behind the waterfall, off the bridge, and onto the surface of the opening, and they laid Twilight against the left wall, where she thanked her friends, and immediately fell asleep.
Fluttershy said, " Poor Twilight, I hope she gets to feeling better."
Rarity said, " Me too, I don't like seeing Twilight like this."
Snowshy reassured the group, " She'll get better, she just needs some time to rest, now if you all don't mind, I'm going to rest up a bit myself for a while."
Shylight said, " It's kind of chilly in here, I'll get a fire going." Pretty soon, Shylight had a roaring, hot fire going, that illuminated the surrounding walls around them, and casting their shadows on the walls. Shylight said, " I think I'm going to rest up for a bit as well." He curled up next to the fire, and fell asleep.
Applejack said, " We should get Twilight closer to the fire, she's goin' to freeze to death if we don't."
Rainbow Dash said, " Good idea, let's get her over there then." They moved Twilight from the wall, over to the fire, and laid her down. After the task had been completed, everypony else sat close to the fire, and fell asleep as well. Hours went by, and Shylight was the first to get up, as he guarded the entrance while the others were still asleep.
Snowshy and the others, except, Twilight got up next, and Shylight turned around, and asked, " Did everypony sleep well?"
Applejack replied, " Ah know ah did, but what about Twilight?" Just about then,
Twilight groaned and said, " Ow, my head."
Snowshy asked, " Are you alright?"
Twilight said, " Yeah, I'm fine, it's just my head hurts, that's all, but I'll be fine, I feel much better now." Twilight asked, " How long have been asleep? It looks like early morning."
Shylight said, " That's actually a good question, one I don't have an answer to, but at least the sun's out, that will make it easier to look around in here."
Snowshy said, " If everypony is ready, we should get going." With Snowshy in the lead, they walked deeper into the opening of the waterfall, and before long, it became dark enough to where nopony could see one another. Twilight casted a light spell, and the whole area around them, lit up with light.
Snowshy said, " Thank you Twilight." She looked at the drawing, and said, " Well, from what is shows here, it only shows that it is somewhere deep in here."
Suddenly, a loud crash went through the air, and everypony looked behind them, and entrance was blocked, and Shylight said, " It's Darkness Night, he knows we're here, be on your guard. He might show up, or try something to try and stop us from finding Snowshy's element."
There were no split paths, only one, and Twilight said, " Well, at least this time, we only have one way to go, which makes our search much easier."
Snowshy said, " Yeah, but just because we only have one way to go, doesn't make searching for an Element of Harmony any easier. If we were searching for something else, then, I would agree with you." There was silence, as the group continued down the path, with a turn to the left, then to the right, until finally, they were deep within the cave.
There two holes, one to the left, and one to the right, and Rainbow Dash said, " Twilight, now what was that you said about the search being easier because there was only one way to go?"
Twilight said with frustration, " Okay! Okay! I get it! Alright! Alright! Fine! Maybe there isn't just one way to go, and maybe this search isn't going to be easy after all! Everypony happy now?"
Spike said, " Wow, Twilight, take a joke, Rainbow was just kidding with you. Come on, Twilight, lighten up a little."
Twilight sighed and said, " You're right Spike, I guess I have been a little edgy since we got in here. It's just.....I don't know what it is....something just doesn't feel right....ever since I woke up.....something feels......threatening..."
Snowshy said, " I feel it too, something's wrong......something feels out of place here."
Shylight said, " I've felt it as well, I don't like it. I get the feeling this has something to do with Darkness Night. Whatever he's got planned for us, it's got even Twilight on edge, and that's not a good sign."
Twilight said, " Anyhow, which way is everypony going to go? I'll go to the left."
Shylight said, " Snowshy and I will go with you." Spike said, " Naturally, that means I'm going with Twilight, so, I'll go to the left as well."
Applejack said, " The rest of us will go to the right."
Shylight said, " Now that that is settled, let's get going, the sooner we find Snowshy's element, the better, then we will have everything we need to stop Darkness Night, I hope....."
Snowshy said, " I hope so too."
Shylight said, " Well, good luck everypony, and we will all meet back here, once you are done searching. And if you find it, find someway to contact the rest of us, alright? Alright then, let's get that element!" Everypony exchanged farewells, and good lucks, and then the group split into two , with half the group going left, and the other half going right. Down the left hole, Snowshy, Shylight, Twilight, and Spike, went down a short tunnel, and came to a giant, gemstone-walled opening, and there was another hole on the right. There was nothing in the middle, but a deep, dark hole.
Spike said, " Man, that looks like it goes pretty deep.
" Twilight said, " We better be careful, otherwise things could end up very bad for us, really fast."
Snowshy said, " We need to get to that hole over there on the right."
Spike asked, " But how do we do that?"
Twilight said, " I could make us a bridge! Hold on, while I get ready." She took a deep breath, and then began to focus. Twilight's horn began to light up, as magic began to flow, but then Twilight stopped, and almost fell, if Snowshy and Shylight had not caught her. Twilight steadied herself, and said, " Thanks guys, that was close...too close.."
Shylight said, " We'll just use the ledges on the edges in here, you're still too weak, to cast any big spells right now. None of us should've let you try to do so right now. For now, Twilight, I think it would be best for you, if you just stay to just small, less complicated spells."
Twilight said, " I think that would be best as well."
Spike said, " I wonder what's down there?"
Shylight said, " I don't know, and without the proper equipment, I rather not find out right now, let's just focus on getting to the hole on the right over there." Shylight said, " Twilight, and Spike, you two go first, Snowshy and I will go after you, just in case you slip again."
Twilight said, " Good idea, alright then, here goes..." Twilight then began to get on the ledge, and started to go around, to the hole on the right, with Spike following close behind. Snowshy and Shylight waited a minute or two, and then, they started their journey around. As Twilight was halfway there, part of the ledge completely fell, and loose rocks and soil spilled out for a couple of seconds and then everything was calm again.
Shylight saw this, and said, " Twilight! Be careful when you jump! Apparently, these ledges are not a very hard rock, they are some sort of soft rock, which means this ledge will not support our weight for very long. We're going to have to get across this ledge faster."
Twilight replied, " Okay! I'll try."
Twilight prepared herself to jump, and then, leaped over, and landed nicely, and Twilight said to herself, " Well, that wasn't so bad, okay, got to keep moving, who knows how long this ledge is going to hold up." Twilight finally got to the hole on the right, and stepped off the ledge, and into the hole and waited for the others. Spike came next, then Snowshy, and finally Shylight, and
Shylight said, " Well, that went rather nicely, we were rather fortunate, we could've had much more problems than we did, thankfully, the only problem we had, was part of the ledge halfway through, fell apart, but otherwise, the ledge held up."
Spike said, " Thank Celestia for that." All of a sudden, a large crashing sound, interrupted their conversation, and a dark figure was hovering in midair, in the middle of the hole, as the dark mist vanished, it revealed Darkness Night! Spike said, " It's Darkness Night!"
Shylight said, " Darkness Night! What are you doing here?"
Darkness Night replied with a soft chuckle, " heheheheheheh, What? You really thought I was just going to leave you all alone, so that way Snowshy here can find her element? I don't think so! I have already sealed the entrance, and now, I"m about to destroy your only way out of this part of the cave. hahahahahaha! You and the rest of your friends will not make it out of this place alive! hahahahahahahhahhaha!" And with that, Darkness Night, using his powers, broke the ledge into many pieces, and let them drop into the hole and he said, " Opps, was I not supposed to do that?"
Shylight said, " Darkness Night! When we find Snowshy's element, you will be finished!"
Darkness Night said, " Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that, seeing as the last time we met, you all barely made it out with your lives."
Shylight said, " But how were you able to come out into the day?"
Darkness Night said, " Oh, that's simple, my powers have regained the strength, to change the day, or the weather, to whatever I want, and your princesses can do nothing about it!"
Darkness Night said, " Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to take care of the rest of your pathetic ponies, that you call your friends, I have something special planned for them. Muwahahahaha! hahahahahaha! hahahaha!" And with a flash of dark power, he was gone.
Spike said, " What are we going to do now, the ledge is completely gone! How are going to get back?"
Shylight said, " I don't know, the only thing I can think of, is if Twilight is well enough, we will have to try her bridge spell, it might be the only hope we have on getting back. But, for now, let's just focus, on searching this area, we might find Snowshy's element, and maybe even something useful too."
Twilight said, " Okay then, we better be going. Alright Snowshy, lead the way." With Snowshy in front, the others followed her down the tunnel, and it had a couple of turns. The tunnel first went to the left, then to the right, then to the right again, and then finally to the left before it straightened out, to a rather long hallway.
Shylight said, " If I remember correctly, Snowshy? Wasn't it Darkness Night that stole your element and hid it somewhere?"
Snowshy replied, " Yes, that's right, why do you ask?"
Shylight said, " Well, knowing Darkness as I do, I also know how Darkness Night kind of works, and from what you all have seen and went through because of him, you have an idea, of how he works as well."
Snowshy said, " Okay...that makes sense." They were still walking down the hallway, when what felt like hours, they came to the end of the hallway, into a gigantic room, with a hole in the ceiling, and a large pedestal in the middle of the room, from where they were standing, it looked like......Snowshy's element!
Shylight said, "We've found it!"
Shylight took off, and was caught by the neck by Snowshy as she said, " Hold on, you really think it's going to be that easy, to run up there, and get my element back? And besides, you got to get your element, by yourself, so don't you think it's only right, that I should do the same?"
Twilight agreed and said, " She has a point, back in the ruins, you got to retrieve your element, by yourself."
Snowshy said, " Thank you Twilight, and thank you all this far, but I shall take it from here, you all wait here."
Shylight had a worried look on his face, as he said, " Snowshy.......be careful."
Snowshy said, " I will, now stop worrying, I'll be fine, I just got to keep my eyes open for any traps, or other things, get my element, and get out of this place."
Spike said, " I agree, I've about had enough of this place, it's starting to give me the creeps." Snowshy moved forward, carefully, one hoof at a time, she was careful not to step on anything suspicious, and after a few agonizing minutes, she got to the pedestal. Snowshy examined the pedestal for a few moments, shrugged, and took her element of harmony, when all of a sudden, all traps went off, and deactivated.
Snowshy said to herself, " Well that wasn't so bad."
A voice called out, " Not yet it isn't!" Everypony turned around, and there was Darkness Night. Everypony backed away from him, and he said, " You think, for one moment, just because there are two special elements. besides the mane six, that you have any chance against me? What you have seen and experienced, is only but a small fraction of what I plan to do. Besides, you're too late! My powers have regained their full strength! You cannot hope to stop me now! Muwahahahahaha! hahahahahaha!"
Darkness Night continued, " And you all will not live to see what I have in store for this wretched world! Too bad, just like you're not getting out of here!" He started to use his powers, when Shylight rushed forward, while using his element at the same time, and shot the powers of his element at Darkness Night. Darkness Night said, " Get away from me you fool!" Darkness Night deflected the blast rather easily, and it dissipated in the other direction, and then, Darkness Night, called forth, a forceful wind, and pushed everypony back, and then resumed what he had been doing. Dark clouds gathered, lightning began to flash everywhere, and then one powerful blast of lightning struck the top of the waterfall, as the top part of the waterfall fell, and crashed into the ground. The entire cave began to shake, cracks began to form everywhere, and the cave began to crumble, and Darkness Night said, " Enjoy your last moments together! If you can all find each other! hahahahaha!" And with a flash of dark powers, he vanished.
Twilight said, " We have to find everypony else and get out of here!"
Shylight said, " I don't know if we have the time for that! But I feel the same way you do Twilight, I will not leave my friends behind, no matter what!"
Spike said, " I don't mean to be rude, but we need to get going now, if we have any chance of finding everypony else. Otherwise, we have to go now!"
Shylight said, " You know, he's got a good point, okay, let's go!" Everypony ran as fast as they could, going back down the long tunnel, and went back through the tunnel, and before they got back to the area with the giant hole in it,
Spike asked, " Ummm, guys? How are we going to get back? The ledges were destroyed!" There was no answer, everypony was focused on getting to the rest of their friends. When they came to the area with the giant hole in it, they found that the entire ceiling had collapsed, and had filled up the hole,
Snowshy looked at Spike, and said, " Does that answer your question?"
They all went across, to the other tunnel, and rushed back to the main part of the cave, where they all split up, and they all began to look around, and Twilight said, " Guys! Look! The right tunnel entrance has collapsed! Come on, everypony! Help me get these rocks out of the way!"
Everypony came over to help, and Twilight called, " Came anypony hear me?"
Applejack's voice answered on the other side, " Yeah! We're alright! We just can't get through! Can you help us out? We'll do what we can over here."
Twilight answered, " We already are."
Applejack said, " And that's why I can always count on my friends, alright now, let's get a move on!" Everypony worked furiously, and after a couple of minutes, there was a hole big enough for everypony to climb out onto the other side.
Once everypony was on the other side, Shylight said, " We have no more time to waste! We must go now! This cave is not going to hold out much longer!"
Snowshy said, " Twilight, are you well enough to use your bridge making spell?"
Twilight nodded, and said, " I think so, I guess I'll find out, it's now or never!" Twilight began casting the spell, and she did not falter this time, the bridge began to form, and a few seconds later, it was complete. Everypony ran to the bridge, as the cave began to fall apart behind them.
A part of the ceiling crashed in front of them, they all dodged it, and Spike said, " We're not going to make it!"
Twilight said, " We'll make it! Hurry!" They all ran as fast as they possibly could muster, and all jumped onto the bridge, just in time, as the entire cave collapsed, and then, the entire waterfall fell apart, and crashed to the ground. Luckily, seeing as the bridge was made out of magic, was not affected by it. As soon as everypony was at the bottom and off the bridge, Twilight deactivated her spell, and the bridge dissipated.
Shylight asked, " Is everypony alright?" Everypony nodded, and Shylight said, " Now that Snowshy and myself have our elements back, it's time to find Darkness Night and put an end to this, once and for all.
Spike said, " You sure about that? Look at what he's done already, plus, we've barely made it out with our lives, Twice! For one, he destroyed Ponyville, like it was a bunch of toothpicks, turned the castle ruins, into a bunch of rubble with ease, which we barely made it out of, and now, he tore apart a waterfall, as if he was slicing cheese, and again, barely escaped with our lives!"
Twilight went over to Spike, and sat next to him, and said, " I understand how you feel, and your concerns, we all have the same ones."
The rest came to him, and Shylight said, " Spike, if don't want to, you don't have to, but if you want to come along, you're more than welcome, but if you want to stay someplace safe, we all understand, and if it makes you feel any better, if you decide to stay behind, you are welcome to stay at my home."
Spike thought for a moment, sighed, and then said, " Thanks guys, I guess I had a moment there for a second, and Shylight, thank you for the kind offer, but I want to go with you guys, whether it's going to turn out good, or bad, there's no other way I'd rather spend these moments, than with my friends."
Everypony gave him a hug, and Shylight said, " Are you sure Spike? We might not succeed, you still want to come?"
Spike said with a determined look on his face, " I'm sure."
Shylight said, " Very well then, now that that is settled, we need to find Darkness Night."
There was loud crash, and giant dark flash in the distance, and Applejack asked, " What in tarnation what that? And does anypony know where that's coming from?"
Snowshy said, " It's coming from the North, that much is obvious."
Twilight gasped, and said, " North! Oh no, he's at the Crystal Empire!"
Rainbow Dash asked, " But, how are we going to get there in time?"
There a bright light that came from a above, and a voice said, " Allow me, I can help you with that." The bright light faded, revealing....Princess Celestia!"
Everypony bowed, and Twilight said, " Princess! We're all so glad to see you! But....how are going to help us?"
Celestia smiled and said, " I am glad to see you all are safe, and that Snowshy, Shylight, and that your elements have been found. But we have no time for talk, I'm afraid that will have to wait. I can help you all get to the Crystal Empire, by using my powers of the sun, and teleporting you all to the Crystal Empire."
Twilight said, " Princess? Are you sure you can teleport us all?"
Celestia said, " Twilight, of course I can, otherwise, I wouldn't be fit to raise the sun, now would I? Now, enough talk and questions, farewell, everypony, and good luck. I hope you all succeed, Equestria is counting on all of you." Celestia raised her head to the sun, and then, her horn began to light up, and she aimed her giant ball of light at the group, and engulfed them in it. And in a bright flash, they were all gone, and Celestia sat down, exhausted, and said to herself in a low tone, " I just hope they get there in time." With another bright flash, she was gone. Seconds later, the brightness faded away, as the group landed softly in the middle of the Crystal Empire.
Twilight immediately looked around, and said, " Is everypony here?"
Applejack said, " We're all here an accounted for."
Twilight said, " Thank Celestia! I didn't think she could teleport that many at once!"
Their conversation was interrupted by another loud crash, the sound of running hooves, and the screams of ponies, and
Rarity said, " Good heavens, what is going on?"
Twilight was about to answer when they all heard a voice and an evil laugh, that said, " On this day, the Crystal Empire shall be no more! Run and hide, it will do you no good! Nopony can escape the Darkness now! Muwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" There was a large dark flash, and a streak of dark power, as it struck the Crystal Castle, and then another one, stuck the castle in another spot. The Crystal Castle shattered, and broke into four pieces, two at the base, and then the top in halves. The entire castle fell, and Twilight, her friends, Snowshy and Shylight, who happened to be standing the middle, right in front of the castle, trotted as fast they could, to get out of the way. The castle continued to fall, and crashed violently int the ground, as crystal shards went everywhere. The entire empire was in a state of panic, as the mayhem continued,
The group got back together, and Shylight said, " I think, by now, I think we all know who it is, there's only one pony, that can destroy a castle, made out of crystal, no doubt, and cut through it like butter, it's Darkness Night. But, I have no idea where he's at."
Rainbow Dash said, " Guys! Look! Looks like he's coming this way!"
Rainbow Dash was right: sure enough, Darkness Night flew over to the now decimated castle, and landed underneath of what was left of the base of the castle, and said, " Darn, the castle didn't shatter the Crystal Heart. Oh well, no matter, I guess I 'll have the honors of doing it." Darkness Night took the Crystal Heart, and was just about to shatter it with his magic, when Snowshy And Shylight shot bolts of their Elements Of Harmony at him, and stopped him from what he was doing. He turned around, and saw the group, his face turned into a snarl, and he became enraged, and he said, " Well, well, well, the so-called 'heroes', have once again come to stop me, and as you can tell, you're too late! The castle is gone! And so will be the Crystal Heart! There is nothing you can do to stop me now!"
Rainbow Dash said, " Wanna bet?"
Darkness Night put the Crystal Heart back and said, " You want to fight me? You stand no chance! Even with two more elements!"
Snowshy said, " Then this won't take too much of your 'precious' time, now will it?" Darkness Night growled, and began to cast his spell, and the mane six charged up their elements, and Snowshy And Shylight waited for the mane six elements to fire off.
Seconds later, the mane six elements fired off, and Snowshy and Shylight fired theirs off as well, Darkness Night had just fired his spell off as well. The two powers, clashed, with a loud crash, and already, the element powers, were not holding up very well, and a few seconds later, Darkness Night's power overcame the elements, and there was large explosion, and everypony was blown back, in different directions, except for Darkness Night, who still remained where he stood.
Darkness Night laughed, and said, " Hahahahahahahahaha! And you all thought you had a chance! Ha! You are all so weak! You all only won the first time, because my powers had not regained their full strength! Even that was almost too much for you all then!" Everypony got up, and thankfully, nopony was hurt, some of them were just a little bewildered at what just happened, and then, Darkness Night began to speak again, " And now, to rid of you all!" He began to shoot multiple bolts of power at the group, everypony ran out of the way, and some of them got separated from the the rest of the group, Darkness Night flew up high into the air, the air grew cold, clouds grew dark, and the day was now engulfed into the night, everything was now in complete darkness. Lightning began to flash everywhere, and massive dark- powered tornadoes, with lightning flashing in them, began to appear all over the empire.
Houses one after another, were torn to pieces, the tornadoes picked up ponies that were unfortunate enough, and that couldn't get away fast enough, were caught up in them. Some were thrown into buildings, others landed on crystal shards, some were thrown against the ground. Others were crushed by falling or flying debris, the entire empire was being torn to shreds. The group hid wherever they could, as they watched in horror, as they saw ponies being killed, and their screams of fear, pain, and agony. Minutes later, Darkness Night said, " Hear me now, Equestria! Feel my pain and agony! None shall live! Manehattan is next!" With a loud crash, he was gone, and everything went silent.
Twilight was the first to come out of hiding, and began to look around, and said, "Does anypony hear me?"
Applejack's voice answered from behind, " We're all behind you!"
Twilight turned around, and saw everypony else, and she said, " But...how?"
Rainbow Dash said, " We all just happened to find a large, and might I say sturdy building, at about the same time, and went into it. We couldn't find you in time, we had no choice, otherwise, we would've ended up dead, or worse..."
Twilight rushed over to them, and hugged them all and said, " I'm not mad at any of you for what you did, you saved everypony that you could. And it's okay, I found a very sturdy house, and bunkered myself inside. I'm just glad we all alive."
Rainbow Dash said, " Thanks Twilight, we all knew you would understand. But as far as everypony else is concerned, I don't think too many of them made it through this."
Applejack said, " Yea, I know, I saw probably what the rest of you saw, and from what I saw, I don't think we have too many survivors, if any."
Twilight gasped, and said, " Shining Armor! Cadence!" And she trotted off, as fast as she could, to the Crystal Castle.
Rainbow Dash and Spike said, " Twilight! Wait!" and the two took off after her.
Applejack said to the rest, " I know what you're going to do. Don't. We all don't need to be in there, and besides, the castle's not so stable right now, so in the meantime, we need to look around, and see if there's any survivors, and if there are, bring them all to the front of the castle, and tend to them there. Everypony got it?"
Everypony nodded, and Shylight said, " Alright, everypony! Let's all split up, in different directions, by ourselves, and start looking! Good luck everypony! And be careful!" Meanwhile, Twilight had stopped, as she had heard Rainbow Dash calling after her, turned around, to see Rainbow Dash and Spike, rushing to catch up with her.
As soon as they caught up with Twilight, Rainbow Dash said, " Twilight! Spike and I are coming with you! You're not going in there alone!"
Twilight smiled, and said, " Thanks Rainbow, and you're right, I might need some help, in case they got buried in rubble." Rainbow Dash found a hole to get inside the castle, and with Twilight's and Spike's help, lifted crystal shards out of the way, and went inside. The inside of the castle was a mess: all the windows were broken, glass and crystal shards were everywhere, there were even a couple of dead guards. They moved on to the throne room and it was in no better condition: the doors were completely off their hinges, the two guards that would've been guarding that door, were dead as well. The throne chair had cracks in it, but it was in better condition than the rest of the castle. A guard stood in front of the chair, and upon seeing Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Spike, bowed his head in respect, left the room, and waited outside.
Twilight said, " Shining? Cadence? Are you guys alright?" Shining and Cadence came out from behind the chair, and came in front of the chair,
Twilight hugged both of them and Shining said, " We're fine Twi, and it looks like you guys are okay as well. Did everypony else make it?"
Twilight answered, " Yes, everypony else made it and are alright. But... why were you two behind the chair?"
Cadence replied, " Well, as Darkness Night began to lay siege to the castle, I had an idea: I figured that the safest place to be, was behind the chair, and it looks like it was a good idea. I tried to get all the guards in this room, but, as you can see, only one of them made it, the others were killed either by the blasts of Darkness Night's power, crystal shards, or by debris.
Spike said, " Good idea, Cadence."
Twilight said solemnly, " I'm just glad you two are okay."
Cadence asked with a concerned look on her face, " Are there any other survivors, besides yourselves and the rest of your friends?"
Rainbow Dash answered the question, " Not that we know of, I think that's what the others are doing, searching for survivors."
Cadence, with a sigh of relief, said, " Good, I hope everypony made it out okay."
Shining Armor agreed, and said, " As you can see, we've already have suffered high losses: the castle is destroyed, most of the town is gone.....wait.....what about the Crystal Heart?"
Spike said, " Don't worry about that, we all was able to distract Darkness Night from shattering it into a million pieces....however..." Spike went silent and would say no more.
Cadence asked, " But what? What happened? What's wrong?"
Twilight answered, " I'm sorry, Shining and Cadence, we weren't able to stop him, his powers are beyond the Elements Of Harmony, even with Snowshy and Shylight's, we still were defeated. As Spike said, the only thing that we were able to accomplish, was to get Darkness Night's focus off of the Crystal Heart, and on to something else. He began to pursue us, with his magic, but we all managed to find a safe place, and hide in it."
Both Cadence and Shining put their heads down, and Shining said, " I see, this is bad news, this is a very dark day."
Cadence suddenly lifted her head up, gasped, and said, " Hey! I have an idea! How about Shining and I come with you to wherever Darkness Night plans to attack next, and Shining and I use our powers, and channel them through the elements! By the way, did Darkness Night say where he was going next?"
Twilight said, " Yes, in fact, he did, he plans to attack Manehattan next."
Shining said, " Oh no, those ponies in the city, won't stand a chance against him."
Cadence then said, " So, what do you guys think?"
Rainbow Dash said, " I say we give it shot, I don't have any better ideas, do you Twilight?"
Twilight said, " No, and you're right Rainbow, when everypony is ready, we shall head off to Manehattan."
Cadence then turned to Shining, and asked him, " Shining? Dear? If that's okay with you, that we go, if not, let me know."
Shining said, " It's fine, it's a good idea, we defeated a villain before, so maybe this time, if we can't defeated him, maybe we can throw Darkness Night off balance, at the very least, by channeling Cadence and my powers through the Elements Of Harmony, it's worth a shot, we got to try."
Cadence said, " Thanks dear, oh and Twilight, we'll follow you guys outside. As you can see, at the moment, Shining and I have no reason to be here right now."
Twilight said, " That's fine, but what about....."
Shining said. " The survivors? Don't worry, I've already thought of that." He went over to the guard, said something quietly in his ear, and said, " There we go, I ordered the guard, that if any survivors are found outside, that he is to take them to Canterlot, seek shelter, and aid there, , and to inform Princess Celestia of what has transpired here, she will need to know."
Cadence said, " Now, that that is taken care of, shall we go outside Twilight and see if your friends have found anypony else?"
Twilight said, " Yes, I believe so, alright, let's go."
Spike asked, " What about all these dead guards?"
Shining answered, " Good thing you asked, I forgot to mention, I also told the guard, to round up all the bodies, and put them in one place. We'll give them all an honorable burial later, after this is all over." They all walked in silence, through the halls, and before long, came to the hole that Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow Dash had come through earlier, and they all went through it, and waited for everypony to get out. Once everypony was outside, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Spike, Cadence, and Shining Armor were greeted, by the survivors, and by the rest of Twilight's friends.
Shining looked at the survivors, and said, " Looks like a good number of ponies made it out okay, thank goodness too.:
Cadence said, " Excuse me for a minute everypony." And she walked up to the front of the crowd, and said, " Dear fellow, Crystal Empire inhabitants! What has happened to us today, has been a terrible ordeal. But do not fear, for Shining and I have come up with a plan of where you can all go. You will all be heading off to Canterlot, where, the only remaining guard inside the castle, will escort you, for your protection, to Princess Celestia, where she will notified of what has happened to us here. There, you shall receive shelter, food, supplies, and any other aid, that you require. In the meantime, Shining and I will be going with Twilight and her friends, to try and stop Darkness Night's terror, before somepony else gets hurt or killed. If there is anything that you want to take with, now would be a good time to start packing. As far as those who were killed, unfortunately, they will have to stay where they are at, I know that sounds heartless, but, you all must reach safety, if you don't, there will be nopony left to mourn those who lost their lives. When this is all over, they shall get a proper burial."
The remaining Crystal Ponies put their heads down, nodded in agreement, bowed to Cadence and Shining, and then began to go throughout the town, to their former homes, and began packing and salvaging anything that would be of use along the way. Cadence then turned around to Twilight and the others, and said, " Whenever you are ready, Shining and I will be waiting here. If there's anything you need, or have to prepare for, do it now."
Twilight looked at her friends, they looked at each other, and they shook their heads, and Twilight said, " The only things we need are, water and food."
Shining said, " I would suggest looking in the market square. I bet not all the food was decimated by all this. As far as the water goes, let Cadence and I take care of that. Well, we'll be waiting here, see you all when you come back. Oh, and be careful, we saw from the castle windows, before they all shattered, that crystal shards and others things, were thrown all over the place, so watch your step."
Twilight gave Cadence and Shining a hug, and said, " Thanks Cadence and Shining, we'll be back as soon as we can."
Shining said, " I hope so, because I don't how much time we have, before Darkness Night begins causing mayhem in Manehattan."
Nothing more was said, as Twilight and her friends headed off to the market square to see if there was any food left, that was not destroyed. Moments later, they all came back, with all their packs partly full, and they went over to where Cadence and Shining were standing, with twenty large-sized jugs of water beside them.
Cadence was the first to speak, " So? How did it go? Were you all able to find enough?"
Twilight answered, " We did, barely, much of the food, was either on fire, or covered in crystal shards, and other things, hardly any food made it through, unscathed."
Cadence asked, " Well, do you have enough to last you all long enough until we get to Manehattan?"
Twilight said, " Yeah, we should be alright until then, then we will have to find more food there."
Shining said, : Alright then, we better be going, the sooner, the better."
Cadence said, " I agree."
Twilight asked, " Perhaps this is a silly question, but where did you get the water from?"
Shining smiled, and said, " That's an easy one, you see, Cadence and I had been putting food, water, and other supplies, in our storage room in the castle, in case of something like this ever happened. But neither one of us were expecting something like this, to this devastating degree, to happen. When we checked out the storage room, we had no better luck than you guys did with food, all the food that was in the there, were strewn all over the place, against the walls, or covered in dust, dirt, or shards. Thankfully, a good portion of the water jugs were in good condition, and Cadence and I got as many as possible."
Rainbow Dash said, " That ought'a last us a while."
Twilight agreed and said, " Yeah, it should."
Shining gasped, and said, " Oh! I almost forgot, Cadence is going to use a spell, only the princesses know it, and will get us all to Manehattan, instantly." He turned to Cadence, and said, " Are you sure you can do this?"
Cadence said with assurance, " I'm sure."
Shining said " Okay." Cadence began to concentrate, her horn lit up, and soon, they all vanished. Seconds later, the appeared in Manehattan, and everypony adjusted to their surroundings. They all looked around, everything looked fine, until a sudden crash of thunder, and forceful gust of wind picked up, and a flying, dark figure high above the city, appeared. Shining said, " Oh, thank goodness, we got here just in time, now, we need a way to either get to him....or....."
Applejack finished his sentence, " Have him come to us. But how in tarnation are we gonna do that?"
Shining said, " Good question, I.......have no idea. I do know that yelling at him won't do any good, because there's already plenty of screaming already, and nothing seriously bad has happened yet. If he'd stayed still, we all could have a shot, and throw him off course of whatever he's going to do."
Cadence said, " I don't know, and I rather not wait around to find out." She spotted a skyscraper, not far away from where Darkness Night was hovering, and said, " Guys! Look! How about we try and get to that skyscraper over there? Seeing as he probably won't come to us, we're going to have to go to him."
Spike said, " Sounds good to me. Although, I think we should put all our supplies somewhere safe."
Twilight said, " Good idea, we can put our things, except our elements, underneath this grate. It's underneath the sidewalk, but sturdy enough to protect whatever's inside, from the outside."
They all began to put all their possessions, except for their elements, underneath the grate, and began to head off into the direction of the skyscraper Cadence had pointed out. Their attention was suddenly drawn away from the skyscraper, as Darkness Night caused the clouds above him, to spread out over the city, and begin to swirl over the city. Flashes of green, red, and black, came out of the clouds. Then holes began to open up in the clouds, and make connections from them, to Darkness Night.
Rarity said, " I don't like the looks of this, but it does provide us with an opportunity while he distracted."
Shylight agreed, " She's right, we have a chance to get to the building,." They all put their attention back to the skyscraper, and trotted off to it. As soon as they got inside, Shylight said, " Okay, now that we got in here safely, we need to find the stairs, or an elevator would be nice too."
Rainbow Dash said, " That's easy, I see the elevator, just down the right hall, and the stairs, are at the end of the same hall."
She pointed them out to everypony, and Spike said, " Well, that was easy. I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to try the elevator first."
Everypony looked at each other, for they too, was thinking the same thing, and Twilight said, " Actually, Spike, we was all thinking about trying the elevator first."
All Spike said was, " Oh, okay." They all headed off to the elevator, and Rainbow Dash pressed the switch, the elevator came down from whatever floor it was on, and the doors opened.
Shining said, " Well, at least we know now the elevator works, this will make getting up to the top much faster." They all were able to get inside, it was a tight fit, and seeing as Twilight was the one nearest to the button, pressed the one labeled 'roof'.' As soon as she pressed it, the elevator began to move upward, and they all waited in silence. Minutes later, the elevator chimed, and the doors opened, revealing the rooftop. Everypony got out, and as soon as everypony was out,
Twilight said, " Okay, now that were up here, anypony see Darkness Night?"
Applejack pointed him out, and said, " Yea! He's over there! On the left side of this roof!"
They all went over to the left side of the roof, and sure enough, they could clearly see Darkness Night, not far away from where they were.
Cadence asked, " Everypony have their elements ready?" Everypony nodded yes, and Cadence said, " Now, if we can only get a clear shot of him and if he will stay right there long enough for us to....."
Cadence was cut off, as Darkness Night began to speak, and he moved from where Twilight and the others were, and he said, " Citizens of Manehattan! Today is the final day of your glorious city! Not one of you shall be spared! Today is your reckoning day! Nothing shall forestall my judgement! Now, all of you prepare to meet your end! Hahahahahahaha! Hahahahahaha! Hahahahaha!" The flashes stopped, and the sun was blocked out, and was covered by dark clouds, covering Manehattan in darkness. The connections to Darkness Night vanished, the swiveling cloud stopped, everything was silent for a moment, and then Darkness Night began to manically laugh, as the ground began to shake violently, the giant swiveling cloud that loomed over Manehattan, began to spin violently, and enormous bolts of lightening flashed in every direction, onto the ground below.
Everypony below Twilight and the others, began to trot in every direction, and then they saw the spinning cloud began to suck up the skyscrapers, citizens of Manhattan, and anything else that it could pick up. There were screams, and sounds of panic coming from everywhere. A couple of moments later, the giant spinning cloud stopped, and it let everything drop that it had sucked up. Ponies, ruined buildings, and everything else began to fall down, onto the city below, and it wasn't long before everything that was in the air, hit the ground. Ponies that were in the air, were immediately killed the minute they hit the ground, some of them landed on other ponies, killing them as well. The ruined buildings, and skyscrapers, crushed ponies below, smashed into other buildings. Ponies were also getting incinerated by the giant bolts of lightening, and buildings came crashing down, from the impact of the falling ones from the sky. Debris, dust, and parts of buildings flew everywhere, and Twilight and the others watched in horror, as Manehattan was getting torn apart.
Cadence said, " He moved away! But we still have a chance! Twilight! You and your friends, charge up your elements, and be ready to fire it off when I say so, okay? Snowshy! Shylight! Be ready to fire off your elements, as soon as Twilight and the others do, alright? Good! Now, everypony be ready to fire off your elements when I tell you to. When you all do, Shining and I will use our magic, and channel our powers, through your elements." Everypony said nothing, for it would take their total concentration, and Twilight and her friends began to charge up their elements, and Snowshy and Shylight were alert and ready. Darkness Night began to move once again, but a little towards them, and out of the fog, and Cadence said, " Wait! Hold on, wait for it...........wait for it.......wait for it...." Darkness Night, had moved a little closer to them, and Cadence yelled out, " Everypony! Now!" Twilight, her friends, Snowshy, and Shylight fired off their elements, and Cadence and Shining mustered up as much of magic from themselves as they could, and shot it at the elements. It worked, the elements, took the raw power, and put into the element blast, and it grew three times in size.
Darkness Night, just happened to notice it coming towards him, and he turned to get out of the way, but, he had noticed it too late as he said, " What's this? If you think...." He was cut off, as the Elements of Harmony blast hit him, and sent him spiraling into the nearest skyscraper. The mayhem in Manehattan stopped, everything was still, everything silent. Twilight and the others saw after the dust cleared, that there was now a giant hole, where Darkness Night had went through, and seconds later, he came out of the skyscraper, extremely angered, and began heading in the direction of Twilight and the others. He came within a building's distance, and was just about to fire off blast of power at them, when suddenly, bright, sun-like rays came out of the dark clouds, and dissipated them, and headed straight for Darkness Night, and came in front of him. It stopped him, from finishing the spell, as he began to scream in pain, he began to back away, but the rays got only brighter, and finally he flew far away, on the outskirts of the city, he stopped and said, " This is not the end Manehattan! And because of this, Phillydelphia shall pay dearly for this!", as he finished, he vanished with a dark mist left over.
Meanwhile, the rays of light, began to lessen, revealing....Princess Celestia! Twilight and the others saw her, and Rainbow Dash said, " It's the princess!" Princess Celestia turned around, and flew over to them, and landed in front of them, and as soon as she was on the ground, everypony rushed over to her.
Princess Celestia said with a smile, " I am glad to see you are all safe, unfortunately, I cannot say the same for Manehattan. Most of the city has been destroyed."
Twilight said, " Yes, we know, but I think we all have the same question: why are you here?"
Princess Celestia said, " Well, as soon as Cadence and Shining's guard told me what happened at the Crystal Empire, and that he was told to take to remaining survivors, to Canterlot." She stopped for a minute, and turned to Cadence and Shining Armor, " That was a very idea, you two, Canterlot is the perfect place, for your subjects to have gone, and to seek shelter, supplies, aid, and food."
Cadence said, " Thank you, Princess Celestia, Shining and I, thought it would be of the highest importance, that you were notified as soon as possible."
Princess Celestia said, " And I appreciate that the two of you thought of that." She then addressed her attention, back to everypony, " After the guard told me what had happened, he also told me, where Darkness Night planned to attack next, and so, I headed here, as soon as I could. Good thing too, I came just in time. For I have seen, that you all have been having some trouble on your own dealing with him, and then I contacted Luna before I left, and after I told her what had happened, she told me something to try against Darkness Night: the sun's rays.
She said, " It may be thy only thing that may help Twilight and her friends right now, against Darkness Night. My sister was right, but that will not work again, what I just did will only work once on him."
Rainbow Dash said, " Let me guess, he's going to become immune to it?"
Celestia said, " In a sense, yes, it won't bother him as it just did, it will still affect him, but he will be able to ignore it next time. Which makes it all the more reason that you find something that will stop Darkness Night in his tracks, once and for all. Equestria cannot suffer more losses like this, so I am counting on you all, to find something or a way to stop Darkness Night."
Rainbow Dash said, " We'll do our best, Princess! We won't let you down!"
Celestia said, with a sigh of relief, " Good, now, if you'll excuse me, I would love to speak with you all, especially Snowshy and Shylight, but under the circumstances, I'm afraid, it will have to wait until another time, good luck everypony, and may the stars watch over you all." As soon as she finished, she vanished with a ball of light.
Cadence said, " We should leave immediately, Phillydelphia will be attacked soon."
Shining said, " She's right, we should go as soon as possible."
Twilight said, " Wait! We can't leave until we get our things!"
Spike said, " Oh, yeah, that's right! We need to get down from here, and go back to that grate!"
Cadence said, " Then, we have no time to lose, let's get going then." Everypony got out of the building, as quick as they could, after they had taken the elevator back down, but stopped, as they saw the total destruction and devastation on the ground: the streets, were littered with with rubble, and torn-apart buildings, shattered glass everywhere, streetlamps, streetlights, and other miscellaneous things, covered the streets, some streets were completely blocked. There were also dead ponies everywhere as well, hardly anypony survived the devastation, what few were left, were either injured in some way, or covered in dust.
Twilight said with utter shock on her face, " This is awful...... it doesn't look like hardly anypony survived all this.....'
Applejack said, " Ah have tuh agree with ya, Twi, I don't really see too many ponies out here." Sure enough, Twilight was right: all those that survived, gathered at the street they were on, and from the way it looked, most of the city's inhabitants, were killed by Darkness Night.
Shylight said, " I'm no mathematician, but from what I can see here, I would say there are maybe 200 survivors?"
Spike asked, " And there were how many living in this city?"
Twilight shook her head, and said, " Thousands."
Rainbow Dash said, " Now, the next question is, is where are they going to go?"
Cadence said, " Let me handle that, the rest of you, go ahead, and get your things, and meet me back here. I know where they can go."
Shining said, " Well, you heard her, we can go get our things, she will be alright." They all trotted off, and got to the grate, got their things, and went back, and met Cadence back from where they came from.
Twilight said, " Everything was okay, nothing got damaged, and here are your things Cadence."
Cadence said, " Thank you Twilight."
Twilight said, " So, where are they going to go?"
Cadence said, " Well, seeing as there are no other places of shelter really to go to, and I would've sent them to Phillydelphia, but, they are about to be attacked, so I sent them to Canterlot as well, I instructed one of them, to inform the Princess, that they are survivors of Manehattan. I know that's putting a heavy burden on Princess Celestia, but there is nowhere else for them to go..."
Twilight came over the Cadence, and said, " I know, and Celestia won't see it as a burden, I know she won't. She knows as much as you and I do, that they truly have nowhere else to go."
Cadence said, " I know, it just puts a heavy weight on her."
Twilight said, " She'll be fine, she has a sister. From the way she was talking, she said she had contacted Princess Luna, before she left to come here, so she's probably already in Canterlot now."
Cadence said, " Thank goodness, that makes me feel much better."
Cadence said, " Now, let's get going to Phillydelphia, I'll get us there, alright, everypony, hold on..." Cadence concentrated, and within seconds, they all vanished from Manehattan.
Minutes later, they all appeared within Philadelphia's central square, and as soon as everypony orientated themselves with their surroundings, Twilight said, " Well, everything looks fine, I don't see that Darkness Night is here yet." Suddenly, a large, dark-flamed fireball came out of the sky, and crashed straight into the ground of the city and the sky grew dark, a little ways from where Twilight and the others were at.
Applejack said, " Well, that's new, I've never seen Darkness Night do that yet."
Shining said, " Well, whatever it is, it can't be good, let's...."
Shining was cut off, as the building that was blocking their view, of where Darkness Night was, exploded into millions of pieces, and there was Darkness Night, standing, and then he said, " Inhabitants of Phillydelphia! Because of your fellow pony friends, in Manehattan, you all shall pay for their insolence!" Then with a cry, he said, " Now, witness your own end, you cannot escape your fate! Come out, my faithful servants! Lay waste to this city! Leave not one pony alive! Mwuhahahaha! hahahahaha!"
Then, the ground began to shake, cracks began to form everywhere, and the ground began to open up. A green light began to shine through, and out came....dead ponies! Some of them were ancient warriors, others looked like knights from kingdoms long past, and the rest looked like everyday, regular ponies. They ranged from Earth ponies, to Unicorns, to Pegasi.
Spike said, " Uh oh, this doesn't look good.....We have to do something!"
Darkness Night heard Spike's voice, turned to Twilight and the others, and said, " I've had enough of you, foiling my plans, you have all gotten in my way, long enough! You shall all die here! Faithful servants! Get them! They have been trying to stop us, they are trying to prevent what is yet to come! Destroy them! Kill them! I want not one of them alive! hahahaha!" Darkness Night then said to them, " There is no hope for you! Your Elements Of Harmony won't save you now! hahahahaha!"
A fleet of Darkness Night's minions, began to head in the direction of Twilight and then others, and Twilight said, " Until we figure out, how to deal with them, run!
Shining said, " You don't have to tell me twice!"
They all began to run for their lives, and then, a wind blew, and then a hooded pony landed in front of them, and said, " Thee shall not run from what is pursuing you. If thy need assistance, I shall help you."
Twilight asked, " Princess Luna?"
The hooded pony took of the hood and said, " Yes, Twilight, and my sister shall be here in....well, there she is now." Sure enough, a large ball of light shone through the dark clouds, and landed in front of them, the light faded, revealing Princess Celestia.
Celestia said, " Me and my sister are here to assist you." Twilight said, " Thank you, we could use it."
Celestia said, " When you and your friends, use your elements, my sister and I will channel our powers through your elements."
Cadence said, " That's the same idea I had, back in Manehattan!"
Celestia said, " I figured you thought of it, and I was counting on you that you would."
Shining said, " Guys? If case you all forgot, but we still have Darkness Night's minions chasing us!" Everypony reverted their attention to their pursuers, and those that possessed elements, concentrated, charged them up, and seconds before they fired them off, Cadence, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna, mustered all their magical powers, and channeled them through the elements. When they elements were fired off, it came out, in gigantic, light-blue blast, as it headed straight for their attackers. The blast destroyed their attackers, went through them, and continued straight ahead, right for Darkness Night.
Darkness Night was prepared this time: he saw the blast coming, and quickly darted out of its path, and instead of hitting him, it blew apart four others buildings, that he was standing behind. Darkness Night laughed and said, " Ha! You thought that was going to work? That doesn't work...." Before he could say anything else, Twilight and the others, had already fired off the elements again, and this time, it caught Darkness Night off guard. He tried to move out of its path, but he had noticed it too late, it hit him, and sent him spiraling through the air, to the outskirts of the city. There was a loud crash, and a huge pile of smoke in the air, as Darkness Night hit the ground, nopony saw where he landed, but after a couple of minutes, that he did not return, everypony began to celebrate, but they celebrated too soon.
Seconds later, Darkness Night, flew up into the air, but it looked like one of his wings was slightly bruised, and Darkness Night called back his minions, and then he said to Twilight and the others, " Because you have continued to annoy and try and stop me with those things you call elements, I am going to end this little game once and for all!" He then looked at Princess Celestia and said, " Princess, you might want to run, because, on this day, Canterlot shall fall! And so shall you! Mark my words! And as for the rest of you, I have plans for you, once I defeat you all, you all shall die a slow, painful death, for even thinking you could try and stop me, and for getting in my way. Prepare yourselves Canterlot! Your end has arrived! hahahahaha!" With a dark flash, he was gone.
Celestia said, " I must go now, I have to warn my subjects, and prepare the guards for his attack. I shall see the rest of you when you get there. If we can prevent him from reaching the city, then the city will have a chance to survive, otherwise, the city stands no chance against him, he is too strong. Now, I must be going."
In a bright ball of light, she had vanished, and Luna said, " I shall go as well, my sister will need thy help, we shall see the rest of you, when you arrive. Please hurry, we do not have much time, before Darkness Night makes his move on Canterlot." Luna said no more, as she lifted her wings, and flew off in the direction of Canterlot.
Twilight said, " Well, you heard them, we need to get to Canterlot as soon as we can, but first, we need to see how many survived Darkness Night's attack."
Rainbow Dash said, " Well, from what I see, not too many buildings were destroyed this time, but I see dead ponies everywhere."
Twilight said, " I don't like the sound of that, we should start looking for any survivors." Everypony spread out, and began looking: they all saw the damage Darkness Night's vicious attack caused, the streets were littered with dead ponies, rubble from the buildings that were destroyed, giant holes in the ground, from where Darkness Night had opened the ground up to awaken his followers, but not a single live thing was in sight, besides themselves.
After a while of searching, everypony met back at the city square, and they came up with the same results: nothing, not a live pony was in sight.
Cadence said, " Perhaps we should wait to see if there are any survivors, that's what happened before, we didn't have to go to them, they came to us."
Spike said, " That's right, except for the attack on the Crystal Empire."
Twilight said, " Then I guess we'll wait then." After thirty minutes had gone by, they saw nopony, and they all realized, nopony had survived Darkness Night's attack.
Spike said, " Well, at least we managed to save most of the buildings this time, but the entire city's inhabitants, are.........dead."
Shining said, " I know what you are all thinking, but we have to go, there will be a time to mourn for them after all this is over, but right now, we have to go, and save Canterlot, so another city doesn't have to go through this."
Twilight said, " He's right, we have to go now, or Canterlot will suffer the same fate."
Cadence said, " Then we have no more reason to be here right now, let's go, and do everything we can, and prevent Darkness Night from reaching Canterlot." Cadence began to concentrate once more, and seconds later, they had all vanished from Phillydelphia. A couple of seconds later, they appeared on the outskirts of Ponyville. When everypony became accustomed to their surroundings, everypony from Ponyville began to ask Twilight and the others questions, like what was going on, if Darkness Night had been defeated, and if he hadn't been, where or what was he planning to attack next.
Shylight finally yelled out, " Quiet!!!!" and everypony was silent.
Twilight turned to Shylight, and said, " Thank you Shylight." She then turned back to everypony, and said, " I know you are all very anxious to hear what's been going on, but I cannot tell you, if you won't be still for a couple of moments, to allow me to explain. Okay, no, Darkness Night has not been defeated, and he plans to attack Canterlot next. I would like to tell you more, but due to the current situation, I have to cut the explanations short. Me and my friends have to go and try and stop him, and save Canterlot from his wrath."
Everypony seemed satisfied with what Twilight had told them, and began to get out of their way. Twilight said, " Now we have to get to Canterlot, before Darkness Night does, and help Celestia defend the city."
Shining looked up, and said, " Too late, he's already here."
Twilight said, " Then we will have to stop him here, if he gets through us, he will have to be stopped by Celestia's defenses."
Darkness Night landed not far away from where they were, but did not notice that they were there yet, and he went over to the crack, that was separating Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest, and he said to himself, " I will not need that anymore." And he sealed up the crack, reuniting Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest once more. He then turned around, and saw Twilight and the others, flew up into the air, away from them, but Shining Armor took off, and began to shoot blasts of magic at Darkness Night.
Darkness Night stopped, turned around, and landed at the entrance of the Everfree Forest, facing Twilight and the others. Darkness Night said, " You have all foiled, or ruined my plans, and have gotten in my way every place, that I have tried to destroy. And yet, here you all are, getting in my way once more, and I see you are all still alive, which means my followers didn't do their job correctly. You shall not get in my way no more! Enough of this! It all ends here! Only one will come out of this one alive! I was saving this spell for something else, but you give me no choice! So, I will give you one more final chance: surrender now, and you can all die quickly, or continue to try and stop me, and die a slow, painful death! What shall it be?"
Everypony looked at each other for a moment, and Twilight spoke, " We will never give up! Not until you are defeated!"
Darkness Night's face turned into a snarl, and he growled fiercely, and said, " Oh, so unwise, you have all just made a grave mistake, and I will make sure you die as slow as possible. Very well, then, I shall take care of you myself!!!"
Twilight said, " Everypony in Ponyville! Get away from here! Go to the to the other side of town!" She then turned to Spike, and " Spike, you too, for your own safety."
Spike began to object, " But I..."
Twilight sighed, and said, " I know, but this is a battle, dealing only with those of us who have elements or magical powers. You've done very well Spike, let the rest of us handle this."
Spike said, " Okay, but you better come back in one piece!"
Twilight said, " I can't give you any guarantee on that, but we'll try." Spike waved to Twilight and the others, and went off with the citizens of Ponyville, to the other side of town. Once Spike was out of sight,
Twilight and the others turned their attention back to Darkness Night, and he looked straight at them, his eyes burning with hate and anger, and he said, " It's time to end this little game! You cannot stop from what is to come! The world shall rot, by the time I'm done with it! Because of your actions, you have forced my hoof! Now, feel my wrath!",
The sky began to turn black, the stars were blotted out, dark clouds rolled in, and lightening began to flash everywhere, striking the ground, all around them. Darkness Night began to laugh manically, as many holes opened up in the dark clouds, and the sky turned purple all of a sudden, and down came raining dark-flaming meteors, each one about mid sized, and they headed in all directions. When each one landed, it created a crater, the meteors, landed all around Darkness Night and Twilight and her friends. Then, suddenly,many gigantic bolts of lightening stuck Darkness Night, surrounding and engulfing him, in large lightening ball, and then, it exploded upward, turning the many bolts into one, tremendous, cylindrical lightening bolt. Darkness Night then walked out of the lightening, used his powers, and began to aim.
Shylight said, " I know this spell! He used it only once before. Everypony! get ready to move out of its way, you only have one chance! If you get hit by it, your body will electrocuted and incinerated." Everypony tensed up, and focused, as Darkness Night finished aiming, and fired all the lightening off at them. Everypony waited until the last minute, and did whatever they could to get out of its way. It rushed past them. everypony on the other side of town, got out of its way, thankfully, nopony got hit by it, as it stuck the mountain the red dragon once slept in. At first, nothing happened, then, the mountain began to shake, followed by a deafening crash,and a loud explosion as the entire mountain exploded into millions of rock shards and large chunks, and flew high up into the air, in every direction.
The shards and chunks began to land in Ponyville, and everypony began to run for their lives, trying to stay from being smashed by the falling rocks and shards.
Twilight shouted out, " Everypony! Get out of here! Get out of Ponyville! It's not safe here! Go to Canterlot! Hurry!" The citizens of Ponyville heard and began to head in the direction of Canterlot.
Darkness Night created a giant, and very long stone wall in front of them, and he said, " And where do you think you're going? You will be the first ones, along with Twilight and the rest of her friends to witness the end of most of life on this world, and the destruction of Canterlot, and fall of your Princess!" He then reverted his attention back to Twilight and the others, and began to chant: " Veni, veni, venias! Ne me mori facias! Veni, veni, venias! Ne me mori facias!"
Applejack asked, " What in tarnation is he doing?"
Shylight answered, " I don't know, but I can guess, that whatever it is, we cannot allow him to finish it. I have a bad feeling that it's probably going to destroy us all."
Twilight said, " Then we have to do something! We have to try! Everypony! Use your elements! Maybe seeing as Darkness Night is preoccupied, with his spell, we might have a chance to defeat him!" Everypony agreed, and those that had elements, concentrated, and began to charge up their elements. Once the elements were ready, Cadence and Shining used their magic, and channeled it through the elements, and then all those that had elements, fired them off at Darkness Night.
Darkness Night was caught completely unawares, until the last second, when he parried the elements, with his own magic, and he said, " How dare you!" And he fired off his magic, at Twilight and the others, who then, in turn, fired off their elements again.
The two powers met, each going back a forth, but it lasted for only a few seconds, and then Darkness Night's magic began to slowly, but surely, get closer and closer to Twilight and her friends.
Twilight said, " I can't hold on much longer!"
Applejack said, " I can't either! An I don't think the rest of us can either!"
Twilight said, " If we get killed, I just wanted to say.......I.....I am happy to have you all, as my friends, and I can think of nopony else I'd rather spend my final moments than with...my friends."
Applejack said, " I know, Twi, we all feel the same way too, well,, it was nice knowing y'all, it's to bad it had to end like this."
Suddenly, a voice said, " Now, that doesn't sound like the Twilight I know." It took Twilight a minute, and then she realized, and everypony else did too, it was...Princess Celestia! Celestia said, " I know you all have questions, but not now, you all are in need of help, and I know just what to do."
She spoke, in reverberating voice, and said, " Unicorns, Alicorns, and all those who have any magical talent, I call upon thee! Equestria is in need of your help! Defend the places you love, and those you cherish most, and if you have no other reason to fight, than do it for the promise of a tomorrow! Do it to see the sun again, do it to see the stars, the sky, the moon, the grass, the flowers, the things that make this world a wonderful place, do it for those things! If you have no other reason to fight, than do it to see these things, and to save your life!" Everything was quiet, Darkness Night stopped his magic at Twilight and her friends, released his wall spell and Twilight and those who had elements, relaxed.
Rarity said, " Did you hear that?"
Shining said, " Hear what? I didn't hear anything."
Twilight said, " I hear it too!"
Applejack said, " Me too!" Everypony listened, and they hear a faint rumble, as the seconds went by, it got louder and louder, and it began to sound awfully like.....the sound of a tremendous amount of hooves, and they all sounded like they were trotting as fast as they could!
Rainbow Dash said, " Look! over the hill!" Everypony looked where Rainbow Dash was referring to, and in the distance, was a colossal multi-colored army of unicorns, and it also looked like.......the entire army of Chrysalis, and Chrysalis herself! It wasn't long before, the unicorns, Chrysalis, and her changelings, to arrive where Celestia was. Darkness Night face was expressionless, but had a look of worry in his eyes.
Cadence said, with much bitterness in her voice, " Chrysalis!"
Queen Chrysalis said, " Cadence, I would suggest you keep those things to yourself, the only reason me and my changelings are here, is to save Equestria, so I can take it over later, I'm not going to let him take over. All he wants to do, is to completely destroy it, how boring."
Cadence said, " Wait...how did you know about that?"
Chrysalis said, " I figured it out, by the way Celestia called everypony with any 'magical talent' to come and save Equestria to see a bunch of things, which those things I really don't care for, and to 'save your life."
Cadence was quiet, and then said, moments later, " You're right, it does sound pretty obvious."
Chrysalis said, " Don't get any ideas. We will put our differences aside, until he is defeated. Once he is, we will go back to being bitter enemies."
Cadence smiled, and said, " I will be happy to fight against you again, any time, any place."
Chrysalis said, " Now, that we have that out of the way, let's show this 'Darkness Night', what true power is."
Celestia said, " Is everypony ready?"
Twilight said, " Wait, where did you come from?"
Celestia said, "Twilight, you should know that answer. Thanks to Cadence, , mostly everypony, were survivors, and were sent to Canterlot. The only ones that were not at Canterlot, was well, of course, Chrysalis, and her army, all those that didn't get their town or city attacked, and all those that live everywhere else."
Darkness Night interrupted the moment, by saying, enough of this! You will all die! No matter how many of you there are! You will all suffer the same fate!" He began a blood curtiling scream, and with all his might, and power, fired off all his magic at Twilight and the others.
Twilight said, " Everypony! Use your elements! Now!" Those that had elements, fired them off, and clashed with Darkness Night's ultra powerful magic spell.
Twilight and the other's elements were losing ground quickly, and Celestia said, " Everypony now! Use all the magic you possibly have!"
Everypony used all the magic, that each of them could muster, and channeled it through Twilight's and the others elements. The rainbow element blast completely changed, it began to sparkle, the colors turned a lighter color, and became transparent. Darkness Night's magic began to lose ground, slowly, steadily, inch by inch.
Darkness Night said, " No!: And he used everything he had. His magic began to slowly gain some ground back, and everypony strained, and used every ounce of energy, and magic they had. Darkness Night's magic began to lose ground, but this time, more quickly. Moments later, Darkness Night's magic faltered, and the elements of harmony blast broke through, and headed straight for Darkness Night.
It quickly surrounded, and engulfed hum. He began to scream in pain, and said, " Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOO!!!! This.......Cannot......Be!" He began to try and get out of the elements embrace, and started to trash against it, but it was no use. Darkness Night screamed even louder, and said, " Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And then a gigantic explosion erupted, and everything went sparkling white. For a couple of hours, there a was ringing sound, and everything was still sparkling white. Finally, the ringing went away, and the whiteness dissipated, revealing a massive crater where Darkness Night once was standing. There were smoldering ashes in and all around the crater, and as the smoke began to clear, everypony could clearly see there was somepony in the middle of the crater. Everypony quickly ruled out that it wasn't Darkness Night, because the pony that was there, was a bit smaller than Darkness Night. Plus, the dark skies were gone, the lightening, the meteors, and the dark clouds were all gone.
Chrysalis said, " Okay, he's defeated. Cadence, you and I are now very bitter enemies once again. I will be going now. Oh, and by the way, the next time we meet, it will be me, attacking and taking over the Crystal Empire!"
Cadence said, " Well, that might be a while, the Crystal Empire is in shambles right now."
Chrysalis said, " I wasn't meaning right now. I was saying in a year or two years from now."
Cadence said, " And we will be ready, I'd be more than happy to fight and defeat you once again."
All Chrysalis said, was, " Hmph. We'll see about that." And with that, she and her army left and flew away. Everypony then reverted their attention back to the pony in the middle of the crater. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Snowshy, And Shylight went into the crater, and got closer to the pony in the middle.
From what could be seen, it was a stallion, and he struggled to get on his hooves, he tried, but collapsed back to the ground, and he said, " Ohhhhhhhhh, my head...."
Snowshy and Shylight were the first ones to get closer to him, and Shylight asked, " Darkness? Is that you?"
And Snowshy said, " Darkness? Do you remember me? It's me, Snowshy." He strained his eyes, and looked hard at Snowshy, right off she could tell, that this was not Darkness Night, his eyes were softer than Darkness Night's.
Darkness said, " Snowshy? Is it really you? It's been so long since I've seen you. And yes, it's me, Darkness." Everypony was relieved to hear that, and Darkness said, " Ohhhh, I feel like I've been through some horrible dream, and that I've been sleeping for years."
Snowshy was the first to say, " Darkness, it wasn't a dream, it was real."
Darkness said, " Huh? I don't understand. Will somepony please explain to me, what is going on?"
Snowshy said, " I'll explain it to you." And she began to tell him, how it all started, how Darkness Night had awoken, and destroyed Ponyville, the Crystal Empire, and other major cities, and how he had been defeated."
Darkness said, " Wait....did you just say, Darkness Night? Oh no, don't tell me, my alter ego...."
Shylight said, " Sadly, yes, he did all this."
Darkness said, " This is all my fault..."
Snowshy came over to him, and gave him a hug, and said, " No, it wasn't your fault, we all know it wasn't you, who did these horrible things. It was Darkness Night, and he has been defeated."
Shylight asked, " Will he return?"
Darkness replied, after looking around, and said, " Not likely, seeing as you blasted him with that much power from the elements of harmony, and everypony else's magic, you pretty much turned him into ash. In other words, he now has no physical form. However, I would strongly suggest that Celestia takes the ashes of Darkness Night, and puts them in a safe, secure place, that only she has access to. Because there is a slight possibility, that they can become remnants, and merge together. If that happens, Darkness Night will have returned, but in a shadowy form, seeing as his physical form was incinerated. His powers would be very weak, but he would still have the ability to possess anypony he pleased ."
Twilight said, " Well, that's a relief to hear, I'll inform Princess Celestia immediately of what to do with Darkness Night's ashes."
Darkness said, " Now, if will excuse me for a second....I have to do something first, and I will be right back with you" He struggled once more to get on his hooves, and he finally was able to stand, .although he was wavering a little. He walked over to where everypony else was outside of the crater, and he said, " Fellow citizens of Equestria, for four weeks, have been the worst. Indeed, these have been dark days, but! The darkness has been lifted, and has passed. It is over! Thanks to you all, I have returned back to my original self. But, I also wanted to apologize. I know that saying sorry for all this, isn't enough, it doesn't cut it. It doesn't cover the fact of what you all have lost: loved ones, your possessions, your homes, and so much else. I know it doesn't cover these things, but, I am so sorry, this is all my fault. I know it wasn't truly me, but Darkness Night still used my body, to do his evil deeds."
Some said, " It's okay, we know it wasn't you"
Or others said, " Don't blame yourself, we know that Darkness Night did this, not you, please don't blame yourself."
Darkness smiled, and sighed, and said, " Thank you, everypony, that really does mean a lot to me. I also wanted to tell you, I pledge my life to protecting Equestria, and everypony in it, from evil, or from harm. This I promise to you all. But only if all else fails, and the Elements Of Harmony cannot defeat whatever evil it might be. I also wanted to say, all the possessions that you all lost, I will find the exact same ones, and give them to you. I will also, for those of you, who lost their homes. I will help rebuild them for you. Also, seeing as Ponyville, from what I have been told, was the first place to get destroyed, it shall be the first place that is rebuilt, and I shall rebuild it, for you all by myself."
Everypony asked, " How are you going to do that?"
Darkness said, " I'm a sorcerer pony, if I can think it, I can cast it, in a instant. My powers, from what I can tell, are limitless, there's nothing that I haven't been able to cast."
Applejack said, " Well, that makes sense."
Darkness said, " Now, that is settled, I think now would be a good time, that we bury those who died, and to mourn, and honor their death, their bravery, and their honor for Equestria. At this time, I believe that you all go back to your hometowns, or cities, and do this. We shall all come back here tomorrow." Nothing more was said, as everypony went their separate ways, and went to mourn those they had lost.
Shylight came up to Darkness, as everypony else was leaving, and asked, " Darkness? I have a question for you."
Darkness replied, " Of course, old friend, what's on your mind?"
Shylight asked, " I want you to take away my immortality.....I want you to break the spell."
Darkness asked, " Why do you ask, my friend?'
Shylight said, " Well, it's just........as I saw everypony else move on, I was the only one, that kept on living, never aging, staying the same physical form, since the day I gained immortality. I just want to pass on, like everypony else, I want to age, I want my age to mean something."
Darkness said, " If that's what you wish, then I shall do it. But just so you know, your age will continue from where it left off last. In other words, the age you were then, will be what age you are now. And another thing: you won't lose anything, just your immortality." Darkness closed his eyes, put his hooves together, and clapped them once, and a gold shimmering light erupted, and exploded throughout Ponyville, and as it passed everypony, it felt like a gentle breeze.
Shylight asked, " What was that?"
Darkness answered, " I broke the spell, and that's just what happens, now, from what I can see from here, it looks like, Snowshy is waiting on you,. You better get going."
Shylight gave Darkness a hug, and said, " Thank you."
Darkness replied, You're welcome, now get going." Shylight said no more, and went to rejoin with Snowshy, as Darkness stood alone in the town square, watching everypony leave.
The following day, they all met back in Ponyville, to find it completely rebuilt, exactly the way it had been, before it was destroyed. Darkness stood at the entrance, and said, " Welcome, everypony! Welcome to Ponyville! For those of you that live here, all your possessions have been restored. Check your houses, you will see that you all have everything back, that you once had, exactly the way they were." Everypony that lived in Ponyville, did exactly as Darkness had asked, went inside each of their homes, came out, and confirmed what Darkness had said was true. Darkness said, " Follow me, there is something I want to show you all." Everypony followed Darkness, to the town square, and he stopped in front of a large, tall object covered in a white sheet. Darkness said, " I thought it would be only fitting, if there was some way, we could commemorate, what has happened these past four weeks. So, without further ado, I give you.......the Darkness Night statue!" Darkness pulled off the white sheet, revealing a black statue, that looked exactly like Darkness Night. His front two hooves were in the air, his face was in a snarl, and his eyes looked hateful, and there was a plaque at the base of the statue, that said: THE BATTLE OF CANTERVILLE. IN HONOR OF THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES TO A GREAT EVIL. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE, AND IN GLORY,AND HONOR. MAY WE FOREVER REMEMBER THEIR SACRIFICE, FOR THE WORLD THEY LOVED. MAY WE NEVER FORGET WHAT THEY DID FOR THIS WORLD. THEY SHALL LIVE FOREVER IN THE HEARTS OF THOSE WHO LIVE AND SURVIVED.
Everypony read it, and thanked Darkness, and Darkness said, " Don't worry, this is for everypony to see, this belongs to everypony though."
Pinkie Pie said with much excitement, " You what this calls for?"
Twilight said, " I know, Pinkie Pie, but that will have to wait another day, now, it's just not right."
Pinkie Pie said, " Oh, okay, and you're right, it doesn't feel like the right time for it anyways, I can wait another day, but you will all love it!"
They all giggled, and Twilight said, " And I would be happy to attend. We all would."
Darkness said, " This does, however, call for a celebration, to the end of a great evil. How about it? Who's with me?" Everypony agreed, and cheered.
Just then, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna came, and Celestia said, " My sister and I would like to take part in this celebration as well, if you don't mind Darkness."
Darkness said, " It's fine with me, besides, this is for everypony anyways."
Celestia smiled, and said, " Thank you."
As soon as Celestia walked away,Darkness went over to Princess Luna, and asked, " Princess? I have a question to ask you. Would you meet me here, in the town square, sometime tonight? It's important."
Princess Luna said, " Of course, should I need to bring anypony along?"
Darkness said, " No, that won't be necessary, and if you can, try not to have your sister know about this, please? I shall tell her about this later."
Luna nodded, and said, " Does it matter what time tonight?"
Darkness said, " No, just sometime tonight, I'll be waiting here."
Luna said, " Alright, now If you will excuse thee, I have a celebration to enjoy. I shall meet you here sometime tonight." As soon as she finished speaking, she walked off, and joined her sister in the celebration. Darkness, by now was blushing terribly, and after a few minutes, he stopped blushing, and joined everypony else in the celebration. Night came, Darkness was waiting for Princess Luna to show up, and moments later, she did.
She saw Darkness, and went over to him, and she asked, " What is it you wish to ask thee?"
Darkness got down on one hoof, presented a ring, and asked, " Princess Luna? May I have your hoof in marriage?"
Princess Luna blushed, and was speechless, all she could say was, " Y-y-y-y-y-y Yes!"
Darkness got back up, and the two kissed. They stopped, and Darkness said, " Now, when and where shall the wedding be?"
Princess Luna said, " Let thee take care of that. You need to tell my sister about this. It wouldn't be a good idea, if I told her, she would probably get mad at me. So I shall leave that up to you."
Darkness said, " That's a good idea, I'll take care of that. And I shall still help you out, as soon as I get done telling your sister about this."
Princess Luna said, " What about Twilight, her friends, and your friends and everypony else?"
Darkness said, " I shall tell them, once we are both ready to. And I will tell my friends, Snowshy and Shylight, as soon as I'm done telling your sister about it."
Princess Luna said, " Fair enough."
Darkness said, : For now, until Celestia knows about this, and accepts it, we shall keep this a secret, for now."
Princess Luna said, " Okay, I shall see you tomorrow then."
Darkness said, " See you tomorrow, my wife." He blushed when he said this, and so did she, and they both went their separate ways, and back to their homes.
The next day, the two spent most of the day together, talking about their pasts, their alter egos, what they liked, what they didn't like, everything about them was the same. When later afternoon came, they went their separate ways, while Darkness went to Canterlot Castle.
He went to the throne room entrance, and the guard said, " Halt! What is your business here?"
Darkness said, " I have to speak with the princess, it's urgent."
The guards looked at each other, and one of them said, " You may pass, but be quick, her majesty is planning to go to bed soon."
Darkness said, " This won't take long, don't worry about that." As the doors opened, and he walked down the hall, he said to himself, " Hopefully......."
He came before the princess, and bowed, and she automatically said, Darkness, you have no need to do that, after all, you are a sorcerer pony, we should be doing that to you."
Darkness immediately got up, and said, " Sorry, in my time, this is a sign of respect and thankfulness, for one that does something as honorable as you, and all the other ponies did for me. In my time, this is a way of thanks. And no, you all have no need to do that, I am a pony, just like the rest of you, I don't want to be treated any more different."
Celestia smiled and nodded, " I'll have to keep that in mind, and if that is what you want then, we shall all honor it, now why are you here?"
Darkness began shyly and a little quiet at first, and said, " Well............um..........well..........me and Luna plan to be married. Will you give us your blessing?"
She said nothing, her face was hard, expressionless, and then suddenly, she perked up, and was alive with energy, and said, " Of course I will, I couldn't think of a better suitor for her than you. Besides, I was going to suggest you to her anyways. I must ask though, did you ask her first?"
Darkness said, " Yes I did, your highness."
Celestia said, " Darkness, please, you have no need to do that, it should be me and everypony else giving you a title and calling you by it. And I am glad, that shows me, you have a courage that surpasses any other stallion I've ever met. My sister and I have been trying, for so long, to find somepony that would the best suitor for her, but every stallion that was asked to marry her, ran away in terror. You did with so with no fear, no worry, you did it with courage, and honor, and I thank you for that. When you see Luna again, tell her that you both have my blessing, and that I wish the absolute best for you two. Can you tell her that for me? I would, but I would be too teary to tell her myself, so I am leaving it up to you. Can you do that?"
Darkness said, " Of course, your.......I mean, Celestia."
Celestia smiled brightly, and very happily, with some tears forming up in her eyes, and she said, " Now, I must be off to bed, and thank you for asking me. You need to get going, You and Luna have some planning to do, just let me know in advance when you are ready, I am giving you both permission, to have your wedding anywhere you want. I shall write up the official decree tomorrow morning. Guards!"
One of the guards came in, bowed, and said, " Yes, your highness?"
Celestia said, " Have one of my secretaries, write down a reminder note, to make an official decree for Darkness and Luna tomorrow morning. Did you get that?"
The guard said, " Yes, your highness, I shall inform one of your secretaries immediately."
Celestia said, " And be discreet about it, I don't want anypony else to know about this, you know, jealousy and all."
The guard said, " I understand your highness."
Celestia said, " You can go now, that is all."
The guard bowed, and rushed out of the room. Celestia then asked Darkness, " Darkness? May I ask you a question?"
Darkness said, " Of course you can."
Celestia said, " What do your friends plan to do now, now that Darkness Night has been defeated?"
Darkness replied, " Oh, you mean, Snowshy and Shylight? Well, from what they told me, they have already got engaged, and they plan to get married. As far as their elements go, they're not going to use them anymore, they're retiring from hero work, and plan to live a quiet life, from now on. They live together now, in Shylight's house in the forest, but they don't know when or where their wedding is going to be, and they plan on attending Me and Luna's wedding, so we can count on them being there.
Celestia said, " Okay, that's all I needed to know, now, will you walk with me to the exit?"
Darkness said, " Of course." The two walked together, until Darkness came to the exit of the castle, and started for his house, and Celestia headed to her quarters, and into the moonlit night Darkness pranced happily into the dark of the woods humming to the tune "Love is in Bloom".
