The Magic of Animosity

The little box was taunting her.  It was always in her grasp, but she could not unlock its secrets.  The only thing that lay between Twilight and the contents of the box was its smooth onyx surface and the round, golden lock secured on its side.  Twilight was sitting at a table in Sheriff Silverstar’s office, staring down the box sitting on the table in front of her.  Braeburn was looking out the window, and PaulaRed was pacing back and forth.

“UGH!” Twilight yelled suddenly, breaking free of the quiet that had fallen over the room for the past half an hour, “Where’s the Sheriff, PaulaRed?!  Shouldn’t he be back by now?”

“Ah’m afraid I wouldn’t know,” Paula confessed, “He didn’t even tell me where he was headed off to ‘r what he was gonna do when ‘e got there.”

“Did you see which direction he went?” Twilight asked, starting to become desperate.  She REALLY wanted to know what was inside that box.

“No.  He told me he was goin’ out, said he’d prolly gonna be a couple’a hours ‘fore he got back, but that was a couple hours ago…” Paula trailed off.

“Y’think the Sheriff may’ve gotten in some sorta tussle?” Braeburn offered.

“Doubt it,” Paula answered, “Silverstar can cert’nly hold his own when the goin’ gets tough.”

Twilight whined loudly again.  This day sucked.  None of her friends being around, having to take a long train ride all the way from Canterlot to Ponyville to Appleloosa, just to deliver a little black box from Princess Celestia to Sheriff Silverstar, neither of whom thought it would be a good idea to actually tell someone what the hay was inside of it.

“Aw, c’mon Twi,” Braeburn said, trying to comfort the strained unicorn, “Just wait a lil’ bit longer, ah’m sure the Sheriff’s gonna show up any minute!”

Twilight wasn’t even listening anymore.  Oh yeah, she thought; to top it all off, she got to meet ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’ again.  What a lousy day it was turning out to be.

Twilight’s eyes lit up as she came up with an idea.  “Perhaps the Sheriff left the key to this box around here somewhere?” Twilight asked, more talking to herself than Braeburn or Paula.

“Twilight!” Paula said in an upset tone, “Don’t go an’ think that you can go an’ steal from the Sheriff and not have to deal with’tha deputy!”  She clanged a hoof against the silver star pinned on her vest.  Twilight had forgotten that she was working directly under the Sheriff.

The streets in Canterlot were bustling as always, and the castle was abuzz with all the high-end ponies living within the embedded city.  At the top of the castle, Princess Celestia was sitting at her throne, accompanied by Princess Luna, who had recently had a throne made for herself.

“Do you think it was a good idea to send Twilight Sparkle by herself?” Luna asked her sister.

“I do not think it was a bad idea, Sister,” Celestia replied.  “It’s not like she’s in any danger or anything, anyway.”

“I would think she is in danger if she carries with her that precious ‘cargo’,” Luna rebutted.  “Did you even tell her what it was that she was sending to Appleloosa?”

“I felt that the time had not yet come,” Celestia said.

Luna cocked an eyebrow towards the Princess of the Sun.  “Do you honestly believe that she would have taken the job had she known the potential consequences?”

Celestia returned Luna’s look with one of pouting disbelief, saying, “She is an excellent student and is extremely capable.  If I were to trust that box with any pony in all of Equestria, it would be Twilight Sparkle.”

“If you say so, sister…” Luna replied as she turned away from her sister to look straight ahead and assume her regal form.  Then, she quickly turned back to Celestia and started the conversation back up, “That Shadow is travelling faster with each town that it brings down; perhaps it was a bad idea to send Twilight and ‘that’ together to Appleloosa?  I mean, it does appear to be ‘next on the list’, as far as location goes.”

“Do not worry, Sister,” Celestia assured, “By the time the Shadow reaches Appleloosa, it will all be too late for it.”

“I sincerely hope you are right,” said Luna.

Trixie was mumbling to herself as she brushed her mane in front of her mirror.  Very little could be made out, save for when she gritted her teeth and hissed, “Twilight Sparkle…!”

Trixie honestly thought that Twilight was ‘out to get her’.  The performance in Appleloosa was the first since her humiliation in Ponyville, and until Twilight came along, it was going nicely.  Trixie was no stranger to the stage—she had performed in front of many crowds from across Equestria, all the while gaining her prestige and popularity.  But her status, and her ego, had taken a large hit after word had spread about her lies and cowardice at the feet of an Ursa Minor.  Trixie wasn’t sure what her next move should be now; if she left Appleloosa immediately, not only would that give Twilight Sparkle a sense of triumph over her, but she’d probably just follow her to the next town and make a laughing stock out of her there, too!

Giving up on ideas for the moment, Trixie plopped on the floor and heaved out a large sigh.  She decided she may as well take a nap at the moment, despite it being the middle of noon.

Wait a minute, she thought. It's the middle of noon, so why is it so dark outside?

Trixie got up and looked out her window.  A large, dark mass of clouds were slowly rolling in towards Appleloosa.

“Strange…” Trixie said to herself, “I don’t remember any clouds being in the sky half an hour ago…The sky was completely clear, so where did these clouds come from?”  Trixie retreated back into her trailer and shut the window, then turned to her mirror.  “Perhaps it’s those pegasi playing some kind of practical joke on the Appleloosians,” Trixie sighed to her reflection.  If she had wanted to get out of town earlier, she certainly wasn’t going to do it now; it looked like a large storm was brewing, and there’s no way she’d let herself get caught in that.

Trixie glanced out her window again to see the storm, and noticed that it seemed a lot closer.  “What in the…?” she said, perplexed.  The clouds were rolling in much faster than they should be physically allowed to.  In fact, the clouds themselves seemed quite different from any normal storm clouds.  Trixie knew now that something was up.  Looking down at the rest of the town, the civilians seemed none the wiser about the incoming mass of clouds.  They were going inside their houses or putting on an umbrella, but nobody else appeared concerned about the ominous cloud fast approaching.  “Perhaps it’s just me…” Trixie said to herself, and decided to forget about the storm and simply let it pass, not giving it a second thought.

Twilight felt a sudden twitch.  Jerking her head up from the table it had been securely planted on for the past ten minutes, Twilight looked around the Sheriff’s room, to Braeburn and Paula, and finally to the window outside, where she immediately stopped.  Slowly walking up to the window, and getting strange looks from Braeburn and Paula, Twilight looked around every corner of the window to get a good look outside.

Twilight turned to Braeburn and Paula and said, “When did it get so dark?”

“There was a mass’a clouds comin’ in from the north, and it’s blockin’ out th’ sun right now,” Braeburn replied.

“Well that was fast,” Twilight said, looking back out the window.  “Only fifteen minutes ago, the skies were completely clear.”

“Meh, th’rain comes and goes, Twah’light,” said Paula, shrugging off the dark weather.

Twilight couldn’t help but stare at the clouds in the distance.  They were coming in fast, that was for sure.  Could pegasi be pushing the clouds in?

“Did Appleloosa schedule a rain around this time today?” Twilight asked the two earth-ponies.

“Uh, we don’t usually go so far as t’ request any rain unless we get a nasty drought, so I kinda doubt those clouds aren’t natural,” Braeburn replied.

Twilight was surprised at how little the two were concerned with these ominous puffs in the sky.  You ‘kinda doubt those clouds aren’t natural’?  They’re anything but natural.  She turned to look out the window again and noticed the clouds were even closer now.

This isn't normal.  This isn't normal at all.

“Hey, where’re ya going?” Braeburn called out to Twilight, who was exiting the door, “I thought we were gonna wait fer Sheriff Silverstar!”

“Hold on a minute,” Twilight called from outside, already out the door.  She squinted at the clouds, as if to try and get a closer look at them.  The dark mass in the sky was almost completely on top of the town, and it was still moving in the sky at breakneck speed.  What perplexed Twilight the most was how the clouds could move so quickly in the air, while at the same time on the ground there wasn’t even a slight breeze; in fact, there was no wind at all—the air was completely dead.  As Twilight continued to stare up at the sky, so did any other ponies that were still walking the streets, wondering what it was that the unicorn was looking at.

At the same time, on the other side of town, Trixie was standing just outside her trailer, watching with an unwavering gaze at the clouds moving overhead.  Both she and Twilight were the only ones that felt something…out of place.  Perhaps it was because they were the only two unicorns in town, and none of the earth-pony Appleloosians could “feel” what was wrong.

But suddenly, everyone felt what was wrong.

There was a loud boom in the sky, originating from the center of the dark mass above.  Then, the clouds began to shift, moving around individually as quickly as they had on their way to Appleloosa; definable edges formed, and the cloud took the shape of a simple square.  The square was right on top of Appleloosa, blocking out the sun behind it.  The civilians, along with Twilight and Trixie, couldn’t believe their eyes.  Everyone stood in silence and stared up at the clouds, of which had now stopped and weren’t moving; the square stood overhead, looming over the entire town, not making a sound.  In fact, there was a dead silence throughout the entire town as everyone could only look up at the supernatural entity in the sky.

By now, Braeburn and PaulaRed had walked out of the Sheriff’s office and joined Twilight in looking up at the sky.  They all were at a loss for words at what they were witnessing, and unsure about what was about to happen next.

“What the hay…?” Braeburn managed to whisper softly.

Suddenly, another boom resonated from within the cloud, followed by a large halo of light enveloping the visible square.  The ring followed the surface to the corners of the square, where the light gathered into four small orbs of light, one on each corner.

There was another moment of eerie tranquility; the orbs floated motionless in the air, and the ponies below could only watch in horror at what could happen next.

After another several seconds of everyone standing as still as a statue, the cloud resumed its actions.  The orbs of light shone brightly for a second, and then shot down bright white beams to the Earth, the impact creating a massive shockwave throughout the entire town.  The places where the pillars met with the ground were so far away that they could barely be seen on the horizon.  As the light continued to crash into the ground, everyone looked on as a black barrier began to form between each of the pillars.  Like a waterfall in reverse, the pitch-black walls crept up the sides of the light pillars, towards the clouds high above.  It was at this point that the entire town began to fly into a frenzy.

The villagers were no long hypnotized by the cloud’s mysterious antics, but rather in a panic over seeing their town being boxed-in from the rest of the world.

An earth-pony ran up to PaulaRed, exasperated.  “Deputy!  Where’s the sheriff?  What the hay is going on?!”

“Ah don’t know!” Paula yelled back.  “Twi!” she called to Twilight from over her shoulder.

“Huh?” Twilight asked, slightly in a daze over what was going on.

“Do y’all have any idea ‘bout what the heck this is?!” Paula asked desperately.

“No…” Twilight replied.  “I have no idea what’s happening…”

The black walls completely covered each side of the box formed, and then they expanded upwards and connected together to create a ceiling, completely encasing the entire town of Appleloosa inside of it.  Twilight stared blankly at her surroundings, her dulled senses only taking in half of what was happening around her.  She tried to shake it off as she regained her composure, and was fully conscious again.

“Everypony calm down!” Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs to the wild crowd running about.  Some of them actually stopped and turned to Twilight, waiting for what she had to say.

“Now while I’m just as confused about what has just happened as you all are,” Twilight said while taking another look around at their new black-coated prison, “running in circles screaming certainly isn’t going to solve anything!  Now round up everyone in town and let’s all meet up back here at the Sheriff’s office!”  With that, the crowd dispersed, now with a determined goal.

Yeah, this day was really starting to become the worst day ever for Twilight.