MLP: Against the Darkest Night

Chapters

Chapter One: A New Celebration
Chapter Two: Insight All Around
Chapter Three: The Overshadowing
Chapter Four: Violent Fireworks

Chapter One: A New Celebration

My Little Pony: Against the Darkest Night
By Memphiston

Prologue:

Evil is the brother of good, the counteracting weight on the scale that balances out existence. Without light there is no darkness, without black there is no white. In Equestria, that balance has been tipped over to one side for many millennia, with evil making itself known in diminutive amounts, trying and bring the scale back to balance bit by bit. But mere whimsical chaos, like cotton candy clouds and chocolate rain pouring from the sky, or replacing the sun’s brilliant glow with the moon’s dimmer light, is not enough to match the amount of virtue and good that flows within Equestria. With the amount of virtuousness that this world has, with all of its carefree creatures and radiating positivity, somewhere deep in the cold darkness of the world, an evil of rivaling power has formed. Chaos and Envy, two powerful advocates of evil were easily defeated by harmony and unity. Now, the question is, how will they fare against one of the most powerful, most infectious evils of all?

Corruption…

This story is about the emergence of that evil, an ancient being from an incredibly long time ago that has slowly been gathering strength ever since its first defeat at the hands of both Princess Luna and Celestia. Now, the six patrons of harmony: Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle, will have to face something that even the princesses fear to fight, something that yearns to see all of Equestria crumble to the ground, so it may feed on the misery and dread that will follow the inhabitants as they view the destruction. In this journey they will discover truths kept hidden away from them by their own rulers, have to join forces with both ally and enemy alike, and realize that sometimes, you need to fight, not only for your friends, not only for your country…but for your own self as well.

Chapter One:
A New Celebration

Wondering through the main square of Ponyville, watching everyone scurry about getting ready for the celebration, being sent to oversee the preparations…it was like old times for Twilight Sparkle and Spike. The only thing that really changed since the last festival was that everything seemed a little smaller, mainly because in only a year, both of the two had matured.

Twilight had grown about a third her size, her legs being much more slender than they had been before. Her body had yet to match her leg's growth so she did seem a bit awkward, but it was easy to overlook. Her hair had also flourished, sweeping down her back and becoming a tad curlier down the bottom. Spike on the other hand had grown almost two thirds his size. If he were to stand up he'd slightly pass Twilight's horn. The same growth had found its way into every other pony in town: Rarity, Applejack, even the Cutie Mark Crusaders had grown up a bit. The past year, even with all the troubles and toils the town had trucked through, had been fruitful and prolific for the entire community.

Every pony in town was busy with their own little jobs to do. Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders put their own efforts into decoration, standing on top of one another so they could reach the roof of the bakery to hang lights. Scootaloo heldthem up at the bottom, Sweetie Belle occupied on top trying to reach the roof’s edge, and Apple Bloom, sandwiched in between them. Right after Belle hooked the light wire onto the roof, they all toppled down on top of each other like a tower of dominos. Twilight held in a laugh as she and Spike walked over to help the fillies, who were desperately trying to scurry out from one another at the sight of her. They all stood up trying to look presentable, hoping that the two didn’t see the mishap.

“Seems you girls are having a bit of trouble. You know Scootaloo, you could just fly up there and hang the decorations.” Scootaloo chuckled nervously, looking at her wings and then back at Twilight.

“Um…I can’t. My wings aren’t working very well.” A curious look formed on Twilight’s face. “Well, we were hanging outside the tree house earlier today trying to figure out what we could do for the festival and I fell into a patch of that Poison Joke. When I tried to fly, I nearly broke the window next door.” Twilight chuckled and turned to Spike.

“Spike, can you poof up Zecora’s left over Joke Potion I kept?” Spike nodded and turned away, taking a deep breath. With a bit of effort, he blew out a burst of green flame and from it emerged a small bottle, filled with green liquid. Using her horn to levitate it she moved it towards Scootaloo and tipped it lightly. “Here, try this.” Scootaloo opened her mouth and she drank for a moment before Twilight pulled it back. “Not too much.” She said. The purple haired pony smacked her lips together before letting out an unexpected belch. As she turned to face her wings, the signature blue spots faded away. She flapped them slowly, making sure she had control over them once again. The flapping sped up until she lifted herself up into the air. She giggled with happiness as she flew in circles, and they all thanked Twilight for her help. Scootaloo then grasped the edge of the light and ran it across the roof’s edge, while Belle and Bloom scurried off to get more for the other buildings. Twilight smiled at the separating trio, then continued walking with her friend to where they were needed, Sweet Apple Acres.

“We should’ve learned that freight teleporting magic way earlier. It’s come really handy when we’re out and we forget things at the library.” Spike nodded vigorously.

“I know, it’s like having a bottomless bag filled with everything we’d ever need. I always wondered why I learned how to send things off, like scrolls to the princess, but never how to get them by myself. The only thing is that sometime-” A sudden burp pounded out of Spike’s mouth, and Twilight looked at him with a look of both inquiry and humor. Spike composed himself and continued. “…Sometimes I get these fits where I can’t stop burping every few minutes. The longest one so far lasted about twenty minutes.” Spike sighed. “I hope this one ends before we show up at Rarity’s.” Twilight chuckled.

“Don’t worry Spike, Rarity’s place is our last stop. I think you’ll be fine by then.” Twilight’s trot suddenly became a run down the road, catching Spike off-guard.“Now c’mon, we have to hurry to Applejack’s!”

“Hey? Wait for URPPPPP me!” Spike hollered as hetried and catch up to the speedy Twilight, who was already beginning to put vision-blurring distance between them.

Twilight never knew how far the sweet and sour scent of apple cider could reach, but considering that the orchard was but a mere dot in her sight, and the fruity smell had surrounded her nostrils, it had to be a good distance. Muffled belches followed her, as did Spike, still a long ways from reaching the purple pony. As she passed under the orchard sign, Twilight slowed down from a run to a trot, allowing Spike to catch up. Huffing, puffing, and burping, the dragon took deep breaths as he trailed behind Twilight.

“You know, sometimes I wish I could run on all fours, at least until I finally get wings. Then I’ll be the one leaving you guys in the dust.” The purple pony could only chuckle at her friend’s comment.

“Sorry to burst your bubble Spike, I don’t even know if you’ll grow wings when you get older.” The dragon only smirked as he marched alongside the pony in a playful confidence.

“Pfft, just wait Twilight. They’ll come, and when they do, I won’t even have to say I told you so. I’ll just spell it in the clouds-WHOA!” A loud thump followed Spike’s gloating as he felt flat on his stomach. Twilight began to laugh as the clumsy dragon had tripped over a bucket of apples. Looking back at the mess he made, a familiar voice called out.

“Aw, Spike? Look at the mess you made?” From the nearby apple tree appeared Applejack, wearing her applebucking saddle, the bags of which were almost filled to the brim with the red fruit. She nudged the bucket back upright before turning back to the two. “You gotta watch where you’re going around here. We can’t have people eating apples off the ground, you know.”

“Sorry Applejack, Spike was just daydreaming about getting his wings.” Twilight playfully explained as she used her magic to place all the apples back into the bucket. Applejack thanked her before smirking at Spike.

“Wings? Heh, well I can see why he’d dream of getting them. Those would be swell to have.” The orange pony chuckled as she trotted over to another apple tree. “Rainbow Dash used to brag about how wings made everything easier.” She bashed into the trunk with her back legs, and all of the apples came raining down, most landing in her bag, causing it to swell up even more.“No doubt it’d get this apple bucking over and done with in half the time. That’d give me and Macintosh more time to work on the delicacies. Sometimes apple pies and cider aren’t enough, we need more variety.” Applejack dropped her saddle next to the barn, and then slipped into another, empty one.

“What do you mean? I’ve never heard any pony complain that you guys didn’t have enough apple treats?” Spike asked, now incredibly curious.

“Me neither.” Twilight agreed.

“Well it’s not that we get complaints or anything like that. It’s just that Granny Smith and the rest always have great ideas for new recipes and such, but we rarely ever get to make them since it takes a lot more time. Oh! Macintosh came up with an idea for a bowl of apple slices in a sweet cinnamon sauce, it was to die for! Thing is it took a good chunk out of the day to make, so we know we would be able to make enough for the whole town.” Applejack bucked two more trees before heading to the last one in the bunch near them. “But as long as we can keep giving everyone what they like, it’s all fine and good for me.” The orange pony finished her account, just as the last rain of fruit landed in the bag. Placing it amongst the rest she came over and sat next to her two friends. “Plus, no pony can complain about Big Mac’s tang apple cider, no pony at all.” Twilight giggled at the comment.

“Yeah, it is pretty good. Hey, where is Macintosh anyway?” The purple pony wondered. Usually a colt Mac’s size was hard to miss, even in a forest of apple trees. But so far there was no sight of him between Twilight and Spike.

“I’ve been asking myself the same question all afternoon. After lunch he just disappeared. I think I may have over heard Apple Bloom say that he was with Fluttershy, but I can’t think of a reason why he would be. I honestly think he’s just hiding somewhere in the orchard sneaking a nap, knowing full well he’s still got a third of his side of the acre to buck!” Applejack raised her voice on purpose, hoping a slumbering Macintosh would wake up at the sound of duty. She rolled her eyes when no answer came. “Anyway, did you guys want to come inside for a little bit, maybe sample some of the sweets?” Spike looked at Twilight with puppy dog eyes that practically screamed “Pleaseeeeeeee?” She rolled her eyes and smiled.

“Well, we did skip lunch. I guess we can-” Spike was a green and purple blur as he sped towards the barn, towards the many delicacies that he predicted awaited him.

“Easy, Spike! Remember we have a whole town to feed!” Twilight shouted as she and Applejack gave chase after the ravenous dragon.

“You managed to scarf down two plates of sliced cinnamon-covered apples, a whole apple pie, two caramel candy apples, and two full pitchers of cider. That was a three course dinner, not a sampling, Spike.” Cleaning out his teeth with a toothpick and flicking the small bits of fruit out onto the grass, Spike merely shrugged at Twilight’s comment.

“More like an appetizer, Twilight. More like an appetizer.” Right after he finished, a loud burp suddenly burst from his mouth. Twilight smirked.

“Was that the food or the spell?” Spike whined in annoyance at Twilight’s jeer.

“Ah man, this thing still hasn’t gone away yet?”

“Maybe you should stop wondering when the burps will stop, and start wondering about how many jokes Pinkie Pie is going make when she hears them?” Spike’s inevitable face palm was accompanied by a long, droning groan.

“You certainly know how to comfort someone Twiligh-URRRRRPPPPPP!” Spike wrapped his hands over his mouth, hoping to stifle the belches once and for all. But, it was too late, and nothing could stop the barrage of laughs that burst from a nearby tree. Both gazed at it in curiosity, until a certain perky pink pony popped out from behind, stumbling from the dizzying effects of such merriment.

“Pffffftttttt hahahahahaha! I don’t…think I’ll be able to…come up with any…jokes, it’s SO funny!” Pinkie Pie fell to the ground in a fit of unstoppable hilarity, turning over onto her sides as the ha-ha’s and he-he’s fluttered out of her. Twilight’s slightly embarrassed expression and Spike’s extremely embarrassed looks only took form for a few seconds, as a “poof” sound popped into their ears from above. Facing up they found Rainbow Dash, poking her head out of the clouds, mimicking Pinkie Pie’s laughing fit.

“Well, excuuuuuse you Spike.” Soon enough the laughter simmered down and the normalcy returned. Pinkie Pie, still giggling, stood back upright while Rainbow Dash flew down to join the group.

“What’re you guys doing here? We were just heading to Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s.” Twilight inquired.

“Well, the me and the Pegasus’ managed to get the clouds out of the sky way early, and Pinkie Pie needed a break from party-planning. So we decided to get some pranks in before the celebration really ramped up.” Pinkie nodded sporadically.

“Looks like Spike saved you from being drenched by Dash’s storm cloud, Twilight.” Pinkie joked, pointing her hoof skyward. A second look at the cloud Rainbow had emerged from revealed it to be dark, purple, and filled to the brim with rain. Twilight’s rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Well since you two have time to try and drench every pony that’s out here, I guess that means you’ve got your duties under control?” The purple pony raised her eyebrow to both ponies, only to be met with a cocky smirk from Dash, and a giggly smile from Pinkie.

“Like I said, we got the clouds out wayyyyyy early. We’re just waiting for a stray storm cloud that’s supposed to be headed here in about two hours. We have scouts looking out for it all around Ponyville, so there’s no way we’ll miss it. As for Pinkie, well we all know her parties never disappoint.”

“Nooooooo they don’t! This one will be a party to remember!” The pink pony began to bounce around with uncontrollable giddiness, nearly ricocheting off the nearby tree into the sky. Spike leaned towards Twilight, whispering into her ear.

“Didn’t she say that about her last three parties?” The purple pony snickered under her breath so no pony would hear.

“Well it’s good to see things are going smoothly with you guys. All we have left to checkis Fluttershy’s music and Rarity’s décor and we’ll be all done. Then it’s party time.” Pinkie Pie squeaked with muffled excitement at the world “party”, bouncing up and down trying to keep from blowing up. At that moment, Twilight remembered the absence of Applejack’s brother at the orchard, and since she was already here, why not ask? “Hey, by any chance, would you guys know where Big Macintosh is? Applejack’s been looking for him and he’s been nowhere to be found.” Pinkie and Rainbow looked inquisitively upwards, scratching their heads in thought, before responding “No.” at the same time.

“I figured so. Alright, I’m off girls. See you at the party tonight!”

“Bye, Twilight!” Both ponies shouted before the tone hushed to soft whispers, no doubt being about what pranks to do next and who to prank. Twilight knew she and Spike were safe from any second attempts, now that Pinkie and Dash knew they were onto them. But even if they did try anything, Twilight had been itching to try out this new reversal spell she learned. Maybe give Rainbow Dash a little shock with her own thunder cloud.

Twilight always loved the wooded areas around Ponyville, well except for the Everfree Forest of course. But the areas decorated in bright green with white and gray barked trees were always beautiful and grand, whether viewing in the gleaming sun or the luminous moonlight. All of Fluttershy’s friends knew that this was the most likely place to find her during times of preparation. It was her own little quiet spot, and everyone respected that.

As Twilight moved further down the beige path, the melodic sound of birds singing slowly began to fill her ears, accompanied by the soft leading voice that was Fluttershy. The pitch and intensity of the tune suggested that the singing creatures were nearing the end of their performance, but then again bird’s never had strong expression, at least in small numbers. One bird chirp was peaceful to listen to, but a flock of birds…majestic. Plus it was easier to tell what place in the song they had reached. Twilight and Spike slowly sneaked towards the avian chorus, trying to avoid a repeat of last year’s occurrence where the birds scattered in all directions at the pony’s sudden approach. From behind a small bush they gazed upon it.

Fluttershy hovered inmidair, leading the troupe with both hoof and voice, accompanied by a group of about twenty or so birds, all of different tones and voices. Blue jays sang low, black birds held high, and robins owned the tone in between. They watched for a few minutes as the performance slowly came to its end, with the birds moving to an extremely high note, and then a relaxing fade out of sound. Twilight felt that the ballad that blessed her ears was enough to check off music as thoroughly ready, but of course she couldn’t leave without saying hello. Silence was expected to take melody’s place, at which Twilight planned to come out and compliment her friend’s recital. But instead of quiet, came the sound of two lone hooves clapping together. A single applause played from the right of Fluttershy, at which she smiled humbly. Trees obscured Twilight’s view of the lone clapper, but through the small holes between the leaves she saw a red entity slowly make its way over to the cream colored Pegasus.

It was Big Macintosh. Apple Bloom had been right on the money.

Twilight wasn’t dumbfounded, but rather a bit perplexed. She had never seen Fluttershy and Macintosh have any sort of interaction before, not even a hello to each other while passing by. It was interesting to the purple unicorn, but astonishing to Spike, whose look of utter shock was a constant expression of his tendency to overreact. Macintosh had an impressed smile on his face, mixed with a little bit of soothing and a hint of wonder. Soon it opened up to allow the plentiful and much deserved praise to begin flowing.

“I must say Fluttershy…that was some mighty, mighty fine work. Ponyville will be dazzled.” The tall red colt extolled, causing the shy Pegasus to blush a warm pink. She turned to the ground with her expected humility.

“Heh, I guess it was okay. But, the tempo was off towards the bridge and some of the altos came in late at the end. It wasn’t my best.” Mac raised an eyebrow playfully.

“Fluttershy…it was great. No deep voices came late, no rhythm was off. It was amazing…heck, you should already know that about yourself, and everything that you do.” Fluttershy’s blush bloomed to a lighter red now, and she smiled at Big Mac.

“You, you really think so?” Fluttershy asked, flattered at the colt’s compliment. He nodded with pure sincerity, and smirked mildly.

“Eeyup.” Macintosh gingerly lowered his head to Fluttershy’s as she stepped closer to him, and they nuzzled tenderly, both in a sort of close-eyed daze of carefree, tranquil happiness. Twilight was touched by the sight, trying her hardest not to let out an adoring “Awwwwww”, while Spike was rolled his eyes, trying to seem unsurprised. In reality he was imagining that he and Rarity were in the place of the pony and the colt.But out of nowhere, the birds suddenly began to scatter away in a frenzy, fluttering further down the path in a hectic flock. Fluttershy cried out for them to stop, but with her voice being incredibly low, the airbornefowls ignored her. She sighed in disappointment.

“It’s gonna take forever to get them back.” She looked to the ground, disheartened, much to Big Mac’s disliking. He brought her chin up with his hoof.

“Don’t worry...I’ll get ‘em back. Your birds never go far from you anyway.” Fluttershy’s frown faded away. Her trust in Macintosh outweighed the fact that she had no idea how he handled animals, indicated by her nod for him to go. He then turned and trotted off in pursuit of Fluttershy’s musical companions. Once he was gone, another affectionate, dreamy sigh wisped through Fluttershy’s lips. Finally Twilight could come out of her hiding place, while Spike decided to stay behind the bush. She approached the Pegasus delicately, being sure to try and not startle her.

“Hey, Fluttershy?” The cream colored pony quickly turned to face her friend. She smiled, delighted to see a familiar face.

“Oh! Hi Twilight. I didn’t expect to see you around here.” Fluttershy floated closer to Twilight, landing right next to her.

“Yeah, Princess Celesta wanted me to make sure everything was ready for the celebration tonight: food, decorations, music etcetera. Just came to see how you were doing. From the music I heard on the way here, it seems to be going great.” A hint of red found its way into Fluttershy’s cheeks, not because of humility at Twilight’s compliment, but because of her uncertainty of whether or not Twilight had heard everything after the music.

“Well um, gee, thanks. It’s coming along nicely, a few kinks here and there.” Twilight raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“Like the tempo being off towards the bridge, or some of the altos coming in late towards the end?” Fluttershy’s face had gone completely crimson at this comment. Twilight kept it at a joking tone, trying to keep it from seeming like mockery. She chuckled a little at Fluttershy’s embarrassment, before sitting next to her friend.

“You don’t need to feel ashamed. I just had no idea you and Big Macintosh were…together.” The light yellow pony kept silent, only kicking around some dirt under her hoof. Twilight knew she may have struck a bit of a nerve, so she tried to not pry, only choosing to ask one more question. If Fluttershy didn’t answer, she’d leave it at that, out of respect.

“Has it…been for a while now?” She asked. Silence remained bricked between them, until Fluttershy quietly gulped, and responded.

“N-No…it was…it started about two months ago, around that time the heavy downpour hit Ponyville?” Twilight nodded, she remembered that day, or few days rather. A stray cloud had emerged from the direction of the Everfree Forest, a massive, colossal storm brewing inside of it. It was large enough to cover all of Ponyville in its torrential rain and powerful winds. Trees were uprooted, houses were nearly torn from the very ground, and no smart pony would dare be outside in the gale. Twilight and Spike had locked themselves in the cellar of the library for the day and a half that the storm spent ravaging the community.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?” Twilight questioned, interested in how these two ponies who barely ever spoke a word to each other, ended up where they were now. Fluttershy sighed, readying herself for the long story she would have to tell.

“Okay, I was caught in the storm while looking for Angel in the fields, and I couldn’t make it back home in time. I managed to hide under a tree for a while till I noticed that I was close to the Sweet Apple Acres barn house. I saw that Big Mac hadn’t made it inside either and was taking shelter in the barn. When he poked his head out to shut the barn windows, I guess he saw me becausehe came right out and got me inside. He was really nice.” Twilight nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, Big Mac’s definitely a gentle giant.” Twilight gasped in fake surprised. “Speak of the devil?” Fluttershy jolted back to the path, and along came Macintosh, carrying three of the thirty or so birds that had flown away, one robin, one blue jay, and one black bird. These three were slightly bigger than the rest of the flock, with subtle differences from their common peers, such as: white on the edges of the blue jay’s feathers, yellow feathers on the robins, and the black bird had a small cluster of white spots on its tail. Before Fluttershy or Twilight could say anything, he spoke.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking. But y’all just wait a moment.” The two ponies did so, but nothing broke the silence, save for Big Mac’s voice after a few moments. “Wait for it…” Then, the sound of dozens of flustering wings filled the air, and soon enough, the whole bunch of avian creatures returned, taking their places back on the tree. It was like they never left, save for the three that remained perched on Big Mac. He had a bit of a smirk on his face. “I noticed that the other birds tended to follow these specific three, so I got ‘em first, knowing the rest would have to follow.” The three birds hopped off Mac, hovering back over to their place on the tree. Twilight was impressed.

“Seems like rounding up animals doesn’t just apply to cows and parasprites, huh Macintosh?” The colt nodded with a snicker.

“It would’ve been easier if I could sing. Birds follow music better than pack leaders.” Both ponies chuckled, but then Twilight’s memory then snapped back to her conversation with Applejack.

“Oh, Big Macintosh, Applejack is looking for you. She said that you still have your side of the orchard to buck?” Fluttershy turned to the mare in confusion. Mac’s smirk grew into a low chuckle as he shook his head.

“Oh, that sister of mine.” Mac sat down.“Twilight, I finished bucking my side of the orchard fifteen minutes after lunch….wanted to get it done early so I could help Fluttershy with her music.” Fluttershy looked away, blushing as Twilight thought back. Applejack was really busy when she came to the barn, and Big Mac was not one to lie.“I don’t think she would choose to take a peek at my pile of apples over getting right back to work on hers. Maybe she thought that because I finished up quick?” Twilight shook her head in consideration. Big Mac stood back up and stretched a bit. “Then again, if she askin’ about my whereabouts, I reckon it’ll be a matter of time before she starts worrying. I should be heading back.” He leaned in towards Fluttershy. “Your chorus is gonna be amazing.” He moved his gaze to catch both Twilight and Fluttershy in it. “I’ll see you both later tonight.” The tall red horse then trotted away, disappearing into the trees. Twilight turned to her still-blushing friend.

“I have to get going too. Rarity’s my last stop before the party.” A bird circled around Twilight before landing on Fluttershy. Then she continued. “Well, good luck with everything, I hope it goes well for you two.” Twilight turned, readying herself to leave, but Fluttershy’s hoof came down on her shoulder, halting her from doing so. Looking back, she gazed upon the eyes of a worried, fearful, and trusting Pegasus.

“Twilight...um, could you please just, not say anything?” Twilight’s raised an eyebrow in question. Fluttershy let her shoulder go and stroked her own. “It’s just that, Applejack doesn’t know and, Big Mac doesn’t want her to know…yet.” Twilight turned to face the confiding pony. “I don’t know what she’ll think.”

“Fluttershy, Applejack’s our friend. I don’t think she would see anything wrong with you two being together.”

“Just…please Twilight, don’t tell anyone, especially Applejack. I’m…not ready for her to know. Just…please…” Twilight saw the deep, sincere pleading in the cream-colored pony’s eyes. This was something that she wholeheartedly needed, prayed for from Twilight. There was no way Twilight could argue, not even question Fluttershy’s request. She placed her own hoof on her friend’s shoulder, smiling.

“Okay, Fluttershy. You have my word. I won’t say a thing, until you feel you’re ready.” Both ponies smiled back at one another, said their temporary goodbyes, and faced opposite directions to return to their own endeavors. As she passed the bush Spike was curled up behind, the reptile sprang out and began to follow her.

“So what happened, Twilight? I couldn’t hear or see from inside the bush to well.” Twilight tried to look as placid as possible, and fed Spike some generic story about Fluttershy having Big Mac there as a critique. The purple dragon bought into the story, sparing Twilight from being drowned under the wave of questions that she knew would’ve been asked, had she told him the truth.

Ever since they had made for Rarity’s place, Spike had been fiddling around, making sure that everything a dragon could have in order was in order: smelling his breath, changing his walk to a more confident stroll, and letting a self-assured grin slither onto his face. Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at his antics.

“Spike, I don’t think Rarity’s gonna be focused on how suave the spines on your head are looking. Usually she’s got her hands full with the town’s décor. For this kind of occasion, every detail has to be perfect with her.” Spike rolled his eyes, practically deflecting Twilight’s conjectures. In his mind, while his friend’s assumptions were definitely accurate and truthful, they still were assumptions nonetheless. Nothing could keep Spike from at least trying to catch Rarity’s eye, but deriving Rarity’s attention away from the adornment and furnishings of anything significant was in itself, a rarity. Yet, against all odds, the dragon was determined.

The door to Rarity’s home soon crept close, and Spike moved to swing it open. But before his hand could even turn the knob one degree, grumbling sounds slithered from his stomach, to his chest, to his neck, and finally to his mouth, morphing from a gurgle into another powerful belch. He wrapped both hands over his mouth, hoping that his crush that lay inside did not hear the indigestion. No windows opened, no hmm’s or what the’s let out from within the house. Spike sighed in relief, but immediately 180’d from utter confidence to sheer nervousness. The tirade began.

“Why won’t this stupid thing go away? It’s been hours, why am I still-URRPPP!” Twilight began to laugh as Spike raged at his own stomach, the belches overpowering him numerous times while in mid-sentence. “Twilight it’s not fun-” Spike was cut off once again, but not by another belch. It was the sound of a knob turning slowly. He straightened himself up, clenching his mouth shut to keep not even a small bit of gas from escaping. The purple door slowly swerved open, pushed by magic rather than hands. Inside a plethora of tools and trinkets commonly used in the architecture of fashion were surrounded by white auras, maneuvered and handled by unseen hands. Scissors snipped fabric, needles sewed stitches, tapes measured, and all while the orchestrator of this invisible clothing line sat in the far side of the room, working on her own little project.

“Uh…Rarity?” Twilight called out, tilting her head in concern.

“Oh, Twilight, Spike! Please do come in, I’m just getting some last minute things done.” Spike and Twilight looked at each other in confusion.

“Last minute things? Looks like you have a lot of your plate for last minute.” Spike only nodded, keeping himself as quiet as can be. Rarity turned, looking tired and in need of a good nap. She bustled around the area at different stations as she spoke.

“I know, those three fillies and Pinkie Pie are getting so much of the decorating done in such short time, they’re asking for more and more.” Rarity began to ramp up the speed of her rant. “I originally made the amount I usually make for the celebration but then Sweetie Belle comes in telling me that Pinkie Pie told her to tell me to make more decorations for the rest of the town. But I made enough to decorate the whole town so I ask why does she need more and she says-”

“Rarity?!” Twilight shouted, trying to get friend to cease with the rushing. It worked, as the pearl white unicorn froze in her place, as did the many utensils she was controlling. Twilight stepped up to her, moving a stray curl from her mane out of her eyes. “Rarity I don’t think you need to make a whole other layer of decorations for the town. I’m sure just a few extras are fine.” The white pony took a deep breath and nodded, knowing Twilight was right. She had been treating the ornaments like a fashion project, rushing to make sure that every detail was perfect, and that there was enough to meet the demand of her peers. Thing was, the demand was nonexistent, and the decorations were simple enough that no extra attention needed to be paid.

“I’m sorry dear, you’re right.” Rarity admitted as she returned all the airborne tools back to their holdings and places in her workshop. The last thing held by her magical grasp was a ribbon, which tied itself to the edge of a long streamer, before the whole ornament was tucked away in a drawer. The blue-eyed pony then wiped a hoof over her moist sweaty forehead, making an “ick” sound at the sight of her wet hoof. “I need a shower, and a nap.” Twilight smirked at the comment.

“Well, I don’t think I need to inquire about the décor, especially with the fact that you were working on a second set. We’ll get out of your hair so you can get some sleep before the party.” Rarity smiled in thanks, before noticing that Spike had been quiet the whole time. Normally he was the one that always tried to get a word in, but here his jaw seemed clamped shut. Obviously the pony’s gracious etiquette wouldn’t allow her to blatantly point out the change in the dragon’s attitude, so she decided on a different acknowledgement.

“It’s alright, it’s natural for you to make sure the celebration is the best it can be. But I do need a rest. Spike, would you be a doll and fetch me the Deep Basket? It’s in the closet in the far room to your left, the large white one?” Spike nodded, nearly saluting Rarity, before speeding off towards the direction she specified. Once he left, Rarity began turning off the many work lights around the room, all of which lit the up the craft areas that lay around corners. As she dimmed each one, she conversed with Twilight. “So, why does Spike look like he’s clamping his jaw?” Twilight chuckled at the question.

“Um, well a new spell I taught him has been causing him to have some indigestion problems. He hoped it would go away by the time we came here but…” She winced. “…it didn’t. Now he’s afraid if he opens his mouth he’ll be grossing you out.” Rarity’s “ick” face returned as the thought of belches slithered into her mind.

“Well at least he’s being gentlemanly about it.” Two more bulbs flashed off. “There’s nothing worse than passing gas in the presence of a lady.” The jewel-marked pony shuddered at the word ‘gas’, trotting across the room to shut off the last two work lights.Suddenly, an unexpected sigh was heard from the fashionista pony, which caught Twilight’s attention. Rarity turned back to her with uncertain eyes, before speaking. “You know, I always thought those creatures were angry, fire breathing monsters that scoured Equestria, but Spike’s shattered that assumption. Sometimes, I honestly wish that Spike…wasn’t a dragon.” Twilight’s facial expression had contorted into one of interest and surprise. Admittedly she did always wondered about Rarity’s feelings toward Spike, as his has always been obvious to everybody who knew anything about him. It seems a lot of surprises were making themselves known today. Rarity caught sight of Twilight’s shocked face, and immediately rebutted what she knew the purple pony had thought she meant. “O-only to see what it would be like!?” She nearly stumbled on her words, trying to revoke the idea of returned feelings that she had accidentally let on.

“Well what about that Prince Blueblood you always used to talk about?” The utmost look of disgust slithered onto Rarity’s face as the name of her former crush spewed into the conversation. Twilight was met with a blue-eyed gaze of disbelief.

“Twilight…we’re you not there at the Gala when that atrociously selfish mare tossed me in front of the catapulted feast? His name doesn’t deserve to ever cross my lips again.” Twilight raised an eyebrow at Rarity’s comment, accompanied by a smirk. Rarity turned back to the desk and began to put the last remaining tools in their places, resuming her confiding in Twilight. “But in all seriousness, I do sometimes wonder how it would be between us if we were the same…I don’t know, maybe it’s just one of the ‘what if’ scenarios whose contemplation pops into the mind without warning.” Twilight juggled both possibilities: that either this was just Rarity’s exhaustion pulling the strings of her inner expression, or this was how she really felt about her dragon admirer. But before the purple unicorn could offer her thoughts to her friend, Spike strolled in with the Deep Basket wrapped under his arm, his jaw still airtight. He wisped by Twilight and handed the container to Rarity.

“Thank you, Spike. Much appreciated.” As Rarity closed her eyes, her horn began to illuminate, and all of the decorations, ornaments and bits of beautification flew into the basket. Obviously the container was enchanted, as enough decorations to fill a sixteen-wheeled truck were packed into it. Once the basket was full, Rarity then concentrated her magic, straining a little bit, before the basket vanished into thin air. She sighed with relief. “All finished. Pinkie Pie and the rest should be receiving that basket any minute now.” Rarity stood up as she yawned, stretching her front hooves.

“Alright, we’ll get out of your hair so you can get some sleep, wouldn’t want you to snooze right in the middle of the festival. C’mon Spike.”

“Goodbye, Twilight. Goodbye, Spike.” Rarity waved them goodbye as they left her home, with Spike, never refusing to try and be the considerate dragon, making sure to close the door behind them. He then leaned against the door and sighed affectionately, with hearts practically floating up and away from his head. Twilight shook her head at Spike’s antics.

“Oh c’mon lover boy, we’ve got to head home, there’s still some things I have to take care of before we head off to the party. Don’t think I forgot about that mess of books you stuffed under the table.” Spike groaned as he lazily trailed after Twilight.

“It was only like eight books, and I put them there because there was no more room on any of the shelves, in any of the closets or any of the drawers.” Twilight then shrugged.

“I guess that means we’ll have to buy another shelf on the way home.” Spike’s moan grew louder, knowing he had just set and sprung his own trap. Twilight also took notice, and began to chortle in the irony.

Still, she was serious about getting those shelves…

Chapter Two: Insight All Around

Chapter Two:
Insight All Around

Twilight’s room echoed with the taps of hammer as she used one to mash the nails into the wall. Purple and white aura glowed around the tool, some nails, and the shelf she had just bought. Spike was under the table, retrieving the books he had stashed beneath. Clumsily he tried to collect them all in one stack and walk them over to Twilight, only to have them topple over right in front of her. The unicorn rolled her eyes in slight annoyance as she used one of her hooves to stack up the books into an orderly fashion. Simultaneously, the last nail was hammered into the wall, and the shelf seemed to fly over on its own, setting itself on top of the peg’s bulkheads. Twilight then turned her magic to the books, carrying each one up to the space on the shelf and placing it in her own little specific order. Soon enough the eight volumes were packed snug together between two wooden holds.

“Perfect. Everything’s picture perfect now.” Twilight reveled, gazing upon the neatness of her house. Everything was where it was supposed to be, no books stashed in hidden crannies, no instruments away from the drawer, container or shelf that they belonged. Twilight’s summer cleaning was finished.

“You know, isn’t there only supposed to be a spring cleaning Twilight? I mean, for you it’s every single season.” Spike complained, leaning on a nearby wall. Twilight merely shrugged.

“I like to keep tidy, so what?” Spike raised his eyebrow in disbelief.

“Tidy? This is like obsessive super mega clean. Last time I saw a single spot on the floor was when we first move-”

BANG! A sudden quake shook the entire house for a few seconds, the source of it coming from the roof. Several objects toppled out of their place, either landing on the floor, or crashing into whatever lay below them. Twilight’s reaction, a facehoof accompanied by a groan. Spike looked up to the ceiling, then back at the annoyed unicorn.

“…Twitchy tail?” Spike referenced Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense fiasco. From what he remembered, “Twitchy Tail” meant something was going to fall from the sky. Twilight swiftly moved to set everything back into place, not even caring to notice that one of her ceiling windows opened up, on its own. The tapping of the window against the wall is what grabbed her attention. She quickly swerved back around, before mimicking the wide-eyed gaze that had spread across Spike’s face moments before.

A familiar set of pearl white hooves, decorated with majestic golden coverings. Following was the large, unmistakable sun cutie mark, a pair of beautiful, feathery wings, and finally the stunning, transparent, flowing rainbow mane, owned by only one, single pony. Landing before Spike and Twilight was the ever so regal, yet humble, Princess Celestia, head bent a bit down so she could fit through the window.

“Princess Celestia!?” Both of them murmured. Twilight and Spike both kneeled in acknowledgement, before Celestia bought her hoof up, signaling them to stand. The messiness of the room dissolved from Twilight’s mind, replaced with wonder as to why Celestia had come. But it suddenly shot back into her thoughts: How could she have her home looking so disorderly in presence of Equestria’s ruler! She scurried to put everything that knocked over back up right again, but was stopped by the tall white mare.

“Oh Relax, Twilight. Don’t worry about that mess, it can wait.” Twilight looked back, and then nodded in compliance, ceasing her magic and returning to face her mentor. The princess slowly walked over to her. “I just came by to hear your report on everyone’s progress for the celebration. I didn’t want you to have to come all the way to Canterlot since Spike’s burping side effect would probably interfere with sending reports.” Spike sort of had to nod in agreement. There was no telling what his belches would do to the scrolls. “I trust that everything is in order?” Twilight shook her head vigorously.

“I checked on everyone, and everything is going flawlessly. Rainbow Dash and her cloud control group cleaned up the skies with time to spare. She told me they’re just waiting to intercept a rogue storm cloud. Pinkie asked Rarity to design a second set of decorations since she and the Cutie Mark Crusaders finished putting up the ones she already made. She kind of overworked herself making a whole second layer for the whole town. Heh, we sort of had to stop her ourselves.” Celestia chuckled at the comment.

“…And what about Applejack and Fluttershy?” The alicorn asked. Twilight’s thoughts returned to the problems both of her friends had expressed to her, with Applejack’s “lack of variety” and Fluttershy’s blossoming relationship. Twilight decided to keep it to herself for now, until she could find a way to help them herself.

“I caught a bit of Fluttershy’s music when I went to see her. All I can say is that her recital will blow last year’s out of the water.” Celestia let out a smile, but it wasn’t one that symbolized her being impressed. But rather a smirk that made it seem like she knew something. Twilight didn’t notice the leer’s true meaning and went on. “Applejack’s got more than enough apples for Ponyville to feast on tonight. She let me and Spike have a bit of what she plans to serve. It was simply superb.” Spike nodded with a grin, patting his belly. There was a quiet moment between the two ponies, lasting almost a minute, until Celestia finally broke the silence.

“Well it’s good to see everyone’s doing a fine job.” Celestia complimented, knowing Twilight was keeping things hidden from her. But she would rather wait until Twilight felt ready to share them with her. The unicorn had a contained relief wash over her, signified by an otherwise unnoticeable whisper of a sigh. The winged unicorn then continued. “There was also something I wanted to talk to you about, regarding…an addition to the celebration’s normal schedule.” Twilight’s ears perked up at the use of both addition and schedule in the same sentence due to her need for organization. She listened intently as her teacher paced towards one of the large windows, looking out upon Ponyville. “I’ve been thinking about Ponyville and its citizens, and how they all constantly tell stories about how you and your friends saved Equestria time and time again.” Twilight let out a humble chuckled, scratching the back of her head with her hoof.

“Well, it wasn’t just us. We couldn’t have done it without the Elements of Harmony.” Celestia nodded in agreement.

“The thing is that everyday people see you, talk to you, and socialize with you like every other pony. You six are never a secret, nor should you ever be. But, I feel it is wrong to keep secret the tools you six used to combat all of the evils you faced.” The alicorn turned to meet eyes with her student. “Which is why, tonight, I plan to unveil the Elements to all of Equestria, so that all may gaze upon them and know that it is those six aspects: Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Honesty, Loyalty, and Magic, that keep our world safe.”Twilight understood what her ruler meant; ponies could always hear rumors and stories about the elements, but remain skeptical unless they can see them for their own eyes. Doubt was a natural thing for any pony, and doubt could always evolve into panic, and then to chaos, and with this revelation, the legends could become reality, and no pony could ever doubt again. Twilight’s mind pumped that all out in the mere moments between Celestia’s explanation, allowing her to keep her attention on her teacher’s speech.

“After that I plan to lock the powers away, far and deep, so that no one, and I mean no one but you six can wield them when needed.” Twilight felt an undeniable sense of honor, trying to keep it hidden as she never liked to showboat. “And when I say far and deep, I mean that even I will not be able to unlock the barrier I plan to set upon them. Only in a time when harmony’s existence hangs in the balance will the gems reveal themselves to you.” Twilight slowly nodded in understanding. Celestia stood by her apprentice, and gazed into her eyes with the utmost trust. “After Discord managed to break past the vault I had the Elements in, I don’t trust myself with their protection. Only those connected to the Elements should be entrusted with them.” Twilight turned her gaze to the floor, pondering her teacher’s announcement. Celestia could see the deep contemplation boiling in the teenage mare’s mind, knowing she had to set her mind at ease.

“I’m sorry I came to you with this last minute, Twilight. I know it is a lot of sudden news but I felt you needed to know my decision.” Twilight nodded in agreement.

“It’s okay Princess, I understand. I’m glad you came and told me regardless of the time.” Princess Celestia smiled. “So I’m guessing the unveiling would be taking place before you raise the sun?” The ivory alicorn nodded.

“Yes, I set it to be right before, that way everyone’s dancing and partying will be out of their system. I want everyone to be focused when the time comes.” As she replied, Celestia a mere bit of her magic to open one if Twilight’s windows, flapping her wings once in preparation for her departure. As a light wind filled the room, Celestia turned back to her student, leaning her head down to get close. “Twilight, I’ve never really expressed how much you and your friends mean to me, to Luna, and to all of Equestria. Everything you’ve done for every pony, if you and your friends weren’t around, who knows what Equestria would’ve been reduced too…” Twilight blushed.

“Thank you, princess. That’s quite an honor coming from you, but Equestria’s always stood proud and tall under your rule, way before we came around. It wasn’t just us that kept Equestria strong.” Another smile grew across Celestia’s face as she leaned down to nuzzle her student.

“They could build monuments to your humility, my student.”The princess faced the window, flushing her wings out once more before making a small glance at her underling. “I know there are several other things going on in your friend’s lives Twilight, particularly Fluttershy and Applejack.” Twilight shot her gaze up in surprise as the princess continued. “You need not worry about them, my student. Applejack’s protectiveness will be an obstacle for her brother and Fluttershy, but you’ve seen her inner strength. She’ll overcome.” Celestia assured. Twilight felt a subtle wave of relief flow through her, knowing that Celestia was always right…always.

“I know I shouldn’t be telling you this, but your other friends are a lot better at keeping their own feelings secret.” Again, surprise grasped Twilight’s sight, and redirected it to the alicorn. “That’s right…Fluttershy isn’t the only one experiencing a blossoming fondness of others. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, even the hardened Applejack herself, they’re seeds of affection have begun to sprout.” Twilight continued to ponder everything she was being told. Rarity did let on a bit about her own feelings, but she would’ve never seen it in the eyes of Rainbow or Pinkie, and especially not in Applejack. Maybe her observational skills weren’t as sharp as she had thought. The train of thought halted at the continuation of Celestia’s discourse.

“I’ll see you at the celebration, Twilight. But don’t wait around all night for me to appear. Dance, eat some food, go nuts, have fun. It is a party after all.” With that jest, the royal alicorn hovered out through the window and flew off into the sky, disappearing into the clouds. As she faded from view, a mystic white aura surrounded the window doors, shutting them closed. A moment of silence fell upon the room, until Spike broke the noiselessness.

“So everyone’s apparently in love…that’s…interesting…” He turned and cocked an eyebrow, hoping to get a laugh out of the unicorn. Instead, Twilight immediately shot him a look of annoyance.

“Spike…never become a comedian.”

It was nearing 8:00 at night, and all of Ponyville was outside, piling into the streets, making their way to the Grand Festive Centre. The massive building would be this year’s host to the Summer Sun Celebration, with every able-bodied pony in town piling inside. Behind the towering light gray stone walls, every pony of the party staff was scurrying about to make sure everything was ready. Twilight and Spike got their early, she being chief organizer and all, to oversee everyone’s preparations.

In the front of the manor lay the setup for Fluttershy’s recital, which would perform after the initial mingling session that every party started with. The yellow pony was arranging all the stands for her animals to stand upon when the time came, knowing everything had to be stable and perfect for her choir of creatures. While opposite of her was Octavia, the professional violinist pony who had performed at the Grand Galloping Gala last year. She was checking the instruments of her four pony orchestra, who would be backing Fluttershy’s melody with their own sound. The two had collaborated on the project since the beginning of planning, discovering that the mixture of orchestral melody and grandiose tune nature’s creatures formulated a harmonious mixture that was sweet, sweet sugar to the ears of any pony who heard it. The dark gray haired mare tested the tuning of strings on her own personal violin, plucking each plastic strip one at a time, making sure the twang from each one was at the appropriate pitch.

Octavia always prided herself in her ability to express beautiful, regal music to her peers, and always made sure her group was able to give their best, and only their best, in every performance. Plus, she felt she had to make up for the ear-ravaging random noise that was Vinyl Scratch’s musical work. Musical was a word that couldn’t even accompany anything of Scratch’s, it was bass-heavy, synth-powered, techno garbage to her ears. She was nowhere to be found on the dance floor when the synth started running and the static drums began to hiss. Usually she would be outside, waiting until the torture to hearing had ceased, before returning to mingle.

As the violinist placed her instrument down in satisfaction, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were helping with the fare and food tables, setting up the tablecloths, organizing the centerpiece, a tall, glass sculpture of the sun, and finally, setting all of the course selections down in their designated places. Apple pies, caramel, chocolate and candy apples, and many other apple-based delicacies decorated the tables, awaiting consumption by the dozens upon dozens upon dozens of guests that lay behind the great red doors of the hall. The waiting room was near full capacity and only a little over half of the intended guests took up the space on its floors. Now everyone was bolting twice as fast before the door bust open with a tidal wave of ponies behind it. Everything was almost ready, only a few last second placements of chairs and bits of décor were being made. Twilight, Spike, Octavia, Fluttershy, and all the other ponies of importance to the party’s conception lined up in front of the door, primed and ready to greet their guests. Twilight nodded to one of the service ponies, who proceeded to pull up the door bar, and slowly unfasten the great red and brass gates. An ocean of colts, mares, fillies, and stallions stood outside the doorway, all eager to pour inside and run amok. But they knew they had to respect the benefactors of the celebration, and waited for their welcoming. Mayor Mare marched in front of the small group of party staff and spoke, her voice twice as loud thanks to a short-lived voice amplification spell.

“My fellow citizens of Ponyville, I am honored to welcome you all again to this year’s annual Ponyville Summer Sun Celebration!” A booming cheer emitted from the mass of mounts quickly toning down to allow the mayor to continue. “Before we begin the night, first we must cover the curriculum. Tonight will begin with a bit of a mingling session, allow all ponies to catch up and meet with their friends, followed by the dual performance of both Fluttershy’s Nature Choir and the Octavian Orchestra. After that, we will proceed with the banquet, and the rest of the night is to, for lack of a better word, PARTY TILL THE SUN RISES!” The previous cheer was a whisper compared to the one that boasted out of the crowd this time. Every pony was stamping and jolting with eagerness, practically counting every second before Mayor Mare would let them commence.

“…And so, without further ado, let the celebration begin!”

A small soft string ballad gave ambiance to the entire hall as the mingling session commenced. Groups of about five to eleven ponies scattered the floor, most either embracing in reunion, engaging in conversation, or raiding the table for refreshments. Ditzy Doo and Carrot Top had the latter occupied, vacuuming up a whole row of food before anyone could even touch a succulent bit. Luckily the other rows of banquets would settle the hunger of any pony that passed by.

At the left of the hall where the majority of windows resided, stood the several members of the Wonder Bolts, most of which were occupied with the seemingly endless admiration of fans. Spitfire and Soarin were present, being the most publicly prominent of the flying squad, as well as three others, usually unseen until now. The first was Solaris, a tall, red-orange pony with strong bright-orange eyes, seeming to own the unspoken role of the leader of the Wonder Bolts. The second one, standing to his left was Sprite, a light pale green pony with blasted-back dark green hair, decorated with lime-green streaks. Lastly, the one to his right was Sonic, the newest recruit, an eager, young colt with a mane of sky blue. He was still getting used to the fame, so he seemed humble with all of the admirers showering praise and questions upon him.

Only a few feet from the flying squad were the Mane Six, each preoccupied with their own exchanges with other ponies. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were being commended on the decorations, Fluttershy was off with the orchestra and performers, getting ready for their performance, and Twilight and Applejack were just making small talk with several others, many complimenting the cowpony’s culinary skills. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, well, everyone except Rainbow Dash, who was giving a deep, envious stare at the sky blue performer across the hall. She has spent a good chunk of her life and energy trying to get the attention of her idols, and out of nowhere this new colt is picked to join their ranks. Why was he so special, what did he do that impressed the team so much? She leaned towards Twilight’s ear.

“Hey Twilight, I’ll be right back. I’m gonna go say hi to the Bolts.” Twilight okayed her, and Dash dashed across the floor to meet the famed flyers. She slinked on over, passing two other mares, before looming behind the sky-blue colt fledging. After some moments of silence, with Dash’s ominous presence driving away the rest of the fans, she finally spoke.

“So…you’re the new Wonder Bolt…” Sonic twisted his gaze back, meeting the resentful primrose eyes of Rainbow. The stare was held for a moment, before the Pegasus continued. “That’s quite the achievement, if you don’t mind me saying.” The new recruit chuckled with humility at the comment.

“Well, um, thanks. Believe me I’m just as surprised as everyone else. I never expected to become one of them in my entire life…ever.” Rainbow’s face morphed from a spiteful glare into a perplexed look. She’s always heard stories about how the members of the Wonder Bolts ate, slept, and dreamt about fame and being a part of the lineup, nothing anything else.

“You mean…you never wanted to become a Bolt?” Sonic tilted his head, knowing that his words were slightly misunderstood by the winged mare.

“Heh, no, that’s what I meant. I mean, I always thought they were really cool and that to become one was the luckiest thing that could happen to any pony, but I never thought that I, myself, would even be considered for a spot. I mean, I’m not even that good a flyer.” Rainbow Dash was torn between believing in his assertion of mediocre flight skills, or that his self-description was severely warped by extreme modesty. The jealousy cultivating deep within her tipped the scale to the former, and right before she could open her mouth, a familiar yellow and bright orange Pegasus popped up behind the rookie flyer.

“Oh, so all those triple helix skyrockets and swan dives you seamlessly performed were all just a bunch of flukes then?” Spitfire praised, wrapping a hoof around her new teammate, who was blushing with slight embarrassment. Rainbow’s scowl evaporated, morphing into a wide grin, walling the contempt she had for the colt behind a barricade of teeth. Spitfire turned to face the rainbow mare. “Ah, Dash. Nice to see a friendly face. I see you’ve met our little rookie, heh.” Spitfire ruffed up Sonic’s mane playfully before hopping off his shoulder to a stand. “Let me tell you, this colt’s wings are like magic. He can literally, make any turn at any speed, like a dang hawk. You should come and see him in our show next week…” Rainbow’s jealousy was a slithering monster lodged in her throat, boiling up and ready to burst out with one more comment. “…then we can try and talk afterwards.” Rainbow froze, her confusion back with a vengeance. Spitfire cocked an eyebrow at Dash’s reaction. “What’s wrong?”

“Talk, about what?” The sky blue Pegasus asked.

“Didn’t Soarin ask you?” Dash shook her head. She hadn’t seen much of Soarin ever since her great pie rescue, let alone spoke to him. Spitfire’s agape mouth indicated her shock. The fiery-haired Pegasus turned and called out to her teammate, who was hamming it up with two earth pony fans. Trotting on over, he maintained a casual look, but for some reason, tried to avoid Dash’s gaze, keeping his eyes on Spitfire and Sonic.

“You called?” Spitfire shot the dark haired pony to look of question and slight contempt, before marching up and leaning in close to his ear. Whispers were exchanged, some rose to hushed shouts, particularly from Spitfire. All that Dash could make out from the quieted argument was “Should have told her, all this time I thought” and “Get over there” before the conversation went silent, with Soarin looking down to the floor in embarrassment. With a strong hoof directing his way, Soarin slowly trotted up to Rainbow, now completely lost. “Um, hey Rainbow Dash…uh, listen, umm…can I talk to you alone for a minute?” Rainbow’s ears fell as she pondered the reason why the Pegasus would want to speak in private. Given the argument she had just witnessed between the two performers, it was something that Soarin had been keeping quiet for a while. He led her up the stairs towards one of the balconies overlooking the rear garden, and seated himself on the floor, looking up at the night sky. Needless to say Rainbow was at a complete loss for any attempts at piecing this puzzle together, so she just went along with it, taking a spot next to the performer.

“Long time no see, huh?” The dark haired pony managed to spit out, with Dash giving a slight nod as a response.

“Yeah…a bit under a year…wish I could’ve seen you guys earlier.” Soarin let out a “hmm” of understanding before a silence came over the both of them, lasting for quite a few minutes.

“I already thanked you for saving my pie right?” The pure strangeness and awkwardness of the sentence narrowed Rainbow’s eyebrows the same as if she had been staring into the sun. Would’ve used that kind of a question was that? Thought the both of them, Rainbow because it was indeed, a weird question, and Soarin because of all the things he could’ve dead he had to spew out that oozing mess of syntax. If this was ANY other pony, Dash would’ve allowed her tail to brush on the other’s face as spun and trotted away, but this was a member of the Wonder Bolts. To exhibit her normal reaction would be insulting to the colt, brutally damaging her chances of becoming one of them. So she just grinned, managing to keep the annoyance and confusion under wraps.

“Yeah, you already thanked me.” Silence, once again. Soarin’s eyes zipped around as he slowly tried to come up with his next words. Levels of awkwardness reached new heights, to the point where Dash had to take control of the conversation. “So what were you and Spitfire talking about? I think I heard her say you were supposed to ask me something?” Soarin jolted at the reminder.

“Um yeah, actually, I was supposed to ask you something but, I kind of fell off track.” This time Dash couldn’t help but roll her eyes this time. Fell off track…for almost a whole year? Dash had given up trying to make sense of the blather this Pegasus was spewing, and began praying that he would stop beating around the bush. The navy blue haired colt then jerked up in realization. “Not that, it wasn’t my top priority! It’s just that a lot of things kept me from doing so…”

“Doing what?” A hint of displeasure squeezed into Dash’s tone, causing the other Pegasus to become more anxious.

“Well, it’s complicated. There’s what Spitfire wanted me to ask you, and then there’s what I wanted to ask you, but I can’t choose what to ask first.” A solemn, drawn out groan echoed in Dash’s mind. All she could think was, GET TO THE DARN POINT ALREADY! The build-up was beginning to become too much. She was, again, forced to take the reins of the conversation, driving it forward.

“Well, maybe you should just choose one. Does it really matter which?” The colt sighed, acknowledging that Dash’s impatience was beginning to spill. He took a deep breath, replacing the tense look on his face with a new, determined one.

“You’re right, you’re right, Dash.” Another breath. “Okay…” He turned to look Rainbow Dash straight in the eye. Her magenta eyes almost retreating against his emerald ones. “Dash, would you…want to…g-”

“What are you two ponies doing out here?” The two Pegasi sharply turned to see Mayor Mare, with a stern look on her face. “You two shouldn’t be lollygagging out here. Every pony needs to head downstairs and take their seats for the performance, and that includes the both of you.” As the mare retreated to the auditorium, the two Pegasi looked at each other. Soarin sighed in disappointment.

“Never mind, I’ll ask you later.” With that, the Wonder Bolt stood and walked away. Dash could hear mutters of self-loathing and put downs, which of course, drew her further into the arms of misperception. With a mountain of questions piled up in her head, sprinkled with the suspense of finding out Spitfire and Soarin’s questions, she chased after him.

“Wait, Soarin, why don’t you just tell me now? What’s so important?” Soarin let out a noise that sounded like the mix of a groan and a sigh.

“Look Dash I swear I’ll tell you later. But if we don’t get downstairs then we’re really gonna hear it from every-”

“Will you two lovebirds get down here already? You’re gonna miss the orchestra!” From the stairs below popped out the ever-so energetic Sprite, giggling at his own taunt. Soarin’s face seared to a bright red, jerking over to face the vibrant-green Pegasus.

“Fizz, get out of here! Don’t you have your own seat to take!?” Sprite grinned at Soarin’s retort, before disappearing behind the wall below. The blue Pegasus sighed in embarrassment before glancing back to Dash. The redness in his face was still prominent. Dash’s solution to lightening the discomfort came in the form of a chuckle.

“Fizz…?” She asked. “I thought his name was Sprite.” Soarin nodded.

“Stage name, most of the Bolts have them. You think all of our names starting with an S was a huge coincidence?” The both of them aired out some the awkwardness with snickers, but the scentless stink of ineptness remained. “We uh, we shouldn’t keep the others.” Rainbow agreed, and with no hesitation, Soarin bolted away from the situation, hoping the wave of failed socialization wouldn’t pursue.

At the top of the stairwell Dash finally had a moment to sort through the mess of confusion that had amassed in her brain. Spitfire’s sudden agitation, Soarin’s nervousness…Sprite’s lovebirds comment, they all had to mean something. All of these factors don’t come to light unless…

“No…” She muttered.

All of these factors don’t come to light unless…Soarin planned to ask her on a date…

Almost every pony was seated in there designated spot, save for a few stray mares. Mayor Mare and several others kept piling the wandering ponies in when they stumbled upon them. Right now she was hurrying along both Bon Bon and Lyra, the mare couple obviously agitated at the mayor’s interruption of a secluded moment. Sprite zipped in, letting two fillies ride on top of him, before landing near the third row and letting the kids return to their parents. Four of the Mane Six were settled at the very front of the audience, eagerly waiting for the opening of the crimson curtains. Twilight however occasionally turned her head from side to side, hoping to catch her friend Dash in her gaze. She wondered what kept her, almost all of the invited Wonder Bolts members were seated, save for Sprite who was spending some last second time with the fillies he collected. As she gazed at the archway between the hall and auditorium, she caught the multi-colored Pegasus, hovering through the crowd before taking the neighboring seat. She was uncharacteristically quiet, with a blush so strong, it seemed painted on. Twilight tilted her head.

“Dash, what happened? Are you okay?”Rainbow glanced up at her concerned friend. Her only response was a single nod, accompanied by a slight smile.

“Yeah, everything fine. I’ll talk to you about it later.” Before the unicorn could give another question, the room lights dimmed, the spotlights shined, and the hum of an activated microphone flowed through the room. The Mayor trotted up to the stand, before tapping the mic to make a sure it was on. Then she began.

“Well, every pony, it’s that time of year again. The time where we all come together to celebrate the luxury our beloved rulers bestow upon us every day. This year a few of our citizens created an amazing performance, to which we dedicate to the Princess of Daylight.” The curtains behind her unfastened as she moved to the side, allowing the bulk of the stage could be seen. At the center of the stage stood Fluttershy, as humble and timid as ever, with the orchestral assembly surrounding the area behind her. “Leading our Nature Chorus this evening is none other than our very own Fluttershy…” A loud, thunderous applause arose from audience, just as a deep blush arose on Fluttershy’s face. Through the loud static-like sound of ovation, Mayor Mare continued. “Accompanied by none other than the Canterlot Octavian Orchestra!” The praise boasted in loudness, with Octavia and her troupe all giving a slight bow in acknowledgement. This time the Mayor let the clamor fade away on its own before giving the rest of her introduction.

“Now, without further ado, I present to you, our Summer Sun Orcapella.” The lights on the stage bloomed with multiple colors, all focusing on the cast of birds and their leading pony. The cream-colored Pegasus faced her avian companions, clearing her throat before taking a deep breath.

What came next could be described only as a soft, beautiful melody of pure, unadulterated majesty. Fluttershy’s voice flew up and fell low in a series of notes, and once she her tune has finished; the assemblage began to imitate her exact tone. Then the strings came in, followed by the piano, and finally the percussion.

The orchestration began.

Chapter Three: The Overshadowing

Chapter Three
The Overshadowing

With powerful bass emulating from the hall, you would think this was some impulsive, underground rave rather than a celebration dedicated to the everyday rising of the sun. Maybe forty five minutes before, you would have, with a beautifully composed melody filling every sound-empty space in the chamber. But now, the sweet hum of string instruments and soft vocals of nature’s creatures were replaced with adrenaline-triggering synth and echoing beats that practically forced ponies to bang their heads. The pure white lights that once illuminated the space around every instrumental performer was now replaced with a plethora of beaming multicolored strobes. In these flashing lights was an ocean of colts, fillies, mares, and stallions, all dancing and pirouetting to the rhythmic beat that fired out of the surrounding speakers.

While the sea of partygoers rippled and swayed on the dance floor, high above them, seated in the Performer’s Tower, hooves operating a duo of tune-rich records accompanied by an overabundance of buttons and dials, was the renowned DJ Pony herself, Vinyl Scratch. Her red eyes were overshadowed by sleek shades which mirrored the entire hall, narrowed in mix of pleasure and success. With her head rocking back and forth steadily, she orchestrated the powerhouse of techno and electronica that coursed through the party like electric current through a wire. Now while the energy was widespread among all the ponies, it was in the center of the dance floor where all the verve was cultivating.

Sprite, Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and a crowd of partygoers had gathered together for a good old fashioned throwdown, and right now, Pinkie was letting her bouncy demeanor conduct her moves, becoming an aerial blur. With every touch to the ground, Pinkie propelled herself higher and higher into the air, spinning like a mint-condition gyro at full speed of operation. After four of these seemingly fluent gyrations, the vigorous mare ended her routine with a stylish triple back-flip, landing on her front hooves in a fresh handstand. She then flew back into the crowd to make room for the next contestant, Dash.

A flurry of kicks off the ground, flips, spins, and impeccable moves came after one mere flap of her wings. The expertise of her execution and the difficulty of her stunts wooed the many onlookers, with the use of her wings slashing the complexity in half. Two other mares became part of her routine as she leapt over both of them, touching her hoof onto the back of the second one so she could make a quick spin. Now facing out towards the DJ’s tower, Dash primed her back legs, crouching against the floor in preparation for her final act. Then, she blasted off towards the tower, appearing keen on crashing into it. The sea of ponies parted to make away for the multicolored Pegasus as she headed for the structure. She came within inches of colliding with the spire, much to the fear of some of the viewers, but Rainbow always knew the perfect moment in which to turn, clearly demonstrated as she bounced up along the tower’s side.

A grin of determination spread across the blue pony’s face as she neared the spire’s roof. With only moments left in crashing into the ceiling, Dash repeated her split second redirection trick, bucking her back hooves off the edge of the tower’s peak. As she freefell back towards the center of the dance floor, a streak of rainbow trailed behind her, gracing all the eyes of the onlookers. Their gaze followed the Pegasus until she made her powerful landing, before she stood up and rolled her front hooves tauntingly.

“Beat that!” She goaded to her competition. Spitfire had begun the competition with her own routine, which now seemed overshadowed and bested by the two. The only one that was left to challenge the dazzling duo and keep them from enjoying the taste of victory…was Sprite. Dash’s grin was mimicked by the lime green Wonder Bolt as he stepped up to the plate.

“You’re good with your wings Dash, but it seems all you and Pie can dish out are fancy acrobatics. I have yet to see what you can do…on your hooves!” That was it…the entire dance floor echoed with potent cheers as a tidal wave of astonishment crashed over them. Sprite’s back hooves were blurred patrons of pure skill at dance, something that Dash and Pinkie lacked and tried to hide with flashy stunts and airtime. Both their routines, unforgettable and seemingly unbeatable before, were now like flecks of dust in the gusts of wind that blew from Sprite’s swift, chic moves. It was like the music was an expert puppeteer, and the jade Wonder Bolt was the act, pulled by strings of faultless melodic synchronicity. From atop the tower, Vinyl Scratch gazed upon the spectacle through her slim shades, and decided to give Sprite a nice, sweet beat to power on too. That final wave of synth and bass flow would seal Dash’s and Pinkie’s fate. The competition and props went to the Wonder Bolt’s most brisk, vigorous member.

A final breakdown and outro to the techno medley would cease all the commotion, with everypony stepping off the dance floor and into their seats. They all immediately faced the balcony in the center of the hall, knowing that it was time for the pivotal moment in the all-night celebration: It was time for Princess Celestia to address her public, and use her magic to raise the splendid sun. The whole chamber clamored with excitement as they awaited their ruler to give her speech. But a shutter of silence cut off the noise as Mayor Mare once again took the stage. She tapped the microphone to catch the attention of those few talkative fillies scattered amongst the group, and then began.

“That was quite an intense party wasn’t it everyone?” A resonance of agreement bellowed through the room. “Believe me I wish it could’ve gone on forever. But now it’s time for a very special surprise. We will be having a direct address from our eloquent ruler before the sun is raised. Fillies and gentleponies, it is my great honor to present to you, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia!” The audience roared with joyful applause as the Mayor removed herself from the stage, allowing the sight of parting red curtains to be seen. From behind the massive veils the two princess sisters were revealed. Luna seemed to be smiling at her sister, which seemed appropriate since she had made sure her name came up first in the announcement. Celestia winked at her sibling before turning her attention to the public. Both sisters raised their hooves and waved to their adoring subjects, which were met with shouts of love and adoration. After a few moments of bathing in the esteem, Celesta’s hoof halted, signaling the audience to quiet down, which they did. She then proceeded.

“Greetings, everyone…it is a pleasure to see all of you here today. It is very honoring to see you all having fun, celebrating, cutting loose.” A light wave of chuckles rose and shrunk as the royal alicorn continued. “It truly is…” She cleared her throat. “Now normally I would be raising the sun at about this hour, but Luna will be keeping the moon up for a while longer so I can give this special presentation.” While Luna’s shy demeanor did knock down a couple notches, she couldn’t help but blush and let her eyes wander away from the crowd. But regardless of her bashful assumptions, the crowd’s craze did not lose one cheerer because of who she was. You could see Luna relished in the love and support the ponies showered upon her. But after a while, Celesta’s hand silenced the crowd once more.

“Now then. I’m sure you all are familiar with the many hardships we have had to endure this past year, the enemies of harmony we have had to face. They did have great power and stood strong against everything we believe in, and yet we always managed to rise up against these beings. And for that, I have to give our personal gratitude and everlasting gratefulness to our Six Patrons of Harmony!” From the ceiling, a beam of light flashed upon the Mane Six as the crowned alicorn acknowledged them one by one. “…Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle!” Each of them had their own feelings towards being put on spotlight: Pinkie’s trademark grin appeared, followed by a small chuckle, Rainbow simply gave a prideful smirk, as did Rarity, while Applejack, Twilight, and Fluttershy each displayed their own kind of humility. The princess gestured her head towards the space between her and her sister, signaling the six to take their rightful places beside them. Hurrying off their seats they scurried up towards the stage, trying to remain posh and proper. One lined up the Princess proceeded with the rest of her speech.

“Each of these ponies represents the epitome of the powers that keep our world strong and alive, through all our hardships and turmoil: Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, and Magic. It is because of our refusal to let these qualities go that we have always overcome whatever enemy seeks to disrupt our way of life, they are and always will be…our strength.” The crowd was riled up with more and more energy as the princess’s address seemed to become an old fashioned pump-up session. But it didn’t matter, Celestia’s words could never be more true, and why try to nitpick the truth? “This address was created not only to honor our heroes and everything that we’ve all faced together, but also to grant Ponyville and every other viewing city in Equestria one last look at what we have used against our foes, before I have them locked away for only their patrons to use.” A stand began to rise up from the space between the two princesses, behind the Mane Six. A lavender veil shrouded whatever lay on these pillars from view, but some silhouettes managed to form from the powerful lighting. This moment was full of awe as everypony sitting in the chamber, everypony watching from home, and everypony from the neighboring cities awaited the veil’s removal.

“Citizens of Ponyville, of Manehattan, of Canterlot…of all of Equestria. I present to you, the Elements…of Harmony!” Luna’s horn shined a bright translucent white, as did the curtains she had directed her magic too. The light-purple cloak unfastened and parted into two.

Levitating over the pillar by their own vim and vigor were the six gold-rimmed gems of unifying energy. The Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Pink, and Purple Elements were all positioned in a pyramid, and with the removal of the obscuring drapery, the whole world became one, thunderous applause. Cheers, whistles and other forms of acknowledgement and celebration echoed all around Equestria, the kind of merriment and pride that didn’t need any accompanying fanfare.

It was glorious.

Celestia leaned down towards Twilight and whispered. “Was that too much?” The purple unicorn smiled and shook her head.

“I think it’s just right amount.”

The Mane Six took a moment gaze upon the ocean of rejoicing ponies, actually seeing for the first time exactly what their deeds meant to these colts, mares, fillies, and stallions. Celestia also took part in their viewing, proud and filled with the soothing warmth of bliss. They only one not giving any celebratory action, was Luna, because something else had caught her eye down in the stage. At the chamber’s far end, right behind the last row of gleeful mares, the window had opened itself from the outside, with no hoof to guide it. At first the princess dismissed it as merely wind, but wind isn’t usually accompanied by a black murky tendril. The inky tentacle-shaped smoke slithered into the party, remaining behind the public to avoid being spotted, and soon enough, all the other windows began to click and unfasten themselves. More smoke filled into the outer corners of the room, and Luna’s worry voiced itself. He practically leaped next to her sister, tapping her side to get her attention.

“Tia, look!?” Luna shot her hoof out towards the mist, now incredibly thick and obscuring, to the point that the row of windows at the back of the hall were now completely shrouded in darkness. The minute Celestia’s eye caught sight of the ethereal smolder; an ominous cackle filled the room.

No pony from Ponyville had the deep, threatening tenor that emulated from this voice; this was not a native being. As the laughter continued the edges of the smoke began to twitch like broken, leafless tree limbs, and fear began to seep into the hearts of the whole crowd. The royal Pegasus guards of the princesses quickly sprang into action, firing themselves towards this potentially harmful entity. At that moment the many tendrils of smoke wrapped around themselves, becoming solid and black like whips, and swiped at the Pegasi like flies. Two of the guards were sent crashing into the wall, while the others were used to thrash the food off the dinner table. They crashed into the solid, wooden furnishings several times, until they were tossed out the windows like trash. By this time the party had fallen into chaos, panicking and scurrying about for an escape. Celestia gritted her teeth at this, taking to the air and changing her voice from the sweet acknowledging tone, to the outdated but always powerful Royal Canterlot roar.

“Who are you who dares to come and spread chaos upon our celebration? I demand that you come out from that shroud and make yourself known!”

It seemed like the sound had went away to its own hiding place, because the entire chamber was silent right after Celesta’s challenge. The smoke had frozen in place, as did the entire mass of ponies, who fearfully yet eagerly awaited a response. And soon enough…that raspy, menacing voice made its return.

“I wouldn’t expect you to easily remember my voice, Celestia, given how long it has been since we went our separate ways.” The tone of voice was aged and purely hateful, yet somehow it had a sprinkle of elation, like it was happy to be noticed and acknowledged. “But hey, how could you forget me? I mean, all the great times we had together, all the adventures we took on together? But then again, if Luna was able to notice me crashing the party so easily, maybe that’s the sign of age finally rearing its head to you.” Another cackle echoed from the mist, but not even the fear of this being could restrain Rainbow Dash’s mouth.

“Who are you to call out the princess like this!? Why don’t you do what she told you and show your face, coward?” Her brave retort was met with chuckles.

“Dashie, Dashie, Dashie. You hotheaded ways are always so amusing to watch. I wish I could’ve seen more of them but I haven’t been back long. But you’re right…I think it’s time for me to make a proper entrance!” The smoke collected into a sort of bubble, with flashes of monochrome lights pulsing from within it. Muffled booms reminiscent of faraway lightning strikes emitted from the inside of this unholy bubble. Then the center began to glow brighter than the rest, a dangerous-sounding surging noise blasting from it. “Here I come!” A beam of black and white energy shot out from the center of the cloud mass, racing towards Princess Celestia like an ignited bullet. There was no way to escape this sort of blast, no time to fly away or side-step to any direction.

The blast made contact…but with Luna.

Out of loyalty and fear for her sister’s life, Luna fired herself in front of the bolt, and it shattered into a wave of misty black lights. She screamed in utter agony before the force of the hit would throw her back to the balcony like a rag doll. There she lay, clutching herself in what seemed like a burning, inner pain, pain she bore for her sister. Gritted teeth, whimpers of pain, and streaking tears were all that came next from the younger alicorn.

“LUNA!” Celestia cried out, hurrying over to her sister’s aid. She knelt down to try and see what she could do. “Hold on, sister, the pain will be gone in a moment.” Celestia aimed her horn, now glowing with a sun-yellow shimmer, at her sister’s abdomen, hoping a dose of healing magic would take the pain away. The energy flowed from her horn to her sister’s body, seeping into the dark blue alicorn’s torso and coursing through the rest of her being.

For a moment, it seemed like it worked, but then Luna began to jerk and twitch violently, as if being electrocuted. Then from the same area Celestia had sent her magic, bolts of night black lightning cracked and whipped out, shocking the older princess. She grunted in pain, forced to back away so the volts could not reach her. It was hopeless…her sister was infected with some kind of dark magic, one that required serious treatment beyond that of a healing spell. Lament held a loose grip on Celestia, for in seconds it was torn off of her conscience and replaced with an untold, burning wrath.

“That was my real hello.” She heard the voice taunt, which was followed by a mocking chuckle. The princess’s narrowed eyes flashed from their normal pink tone into an ethereal white, with a mist of pure magic emulating from both. She shot into the air and aimed her power-filled horn at the cloud, and fired her own wave of solar energy. Sparkles showered the crowd as the blast flew over them like a shooting star, before colliding with the smoky entity. The explosion lit up the inside of the bubble, revealing the silhouette of a tall, broad, fully-grown stallion.

“SHOW YOURSELF, STALLION!” Celestia’s raging voice shook the entire hall, nearly throwing many ponies off of their hooves. Her order was met with a moment of silence, to which she charged her horn for another assault. But before she could whip her head back to empower the bolt, an answer came.

“Always so impatient, Cellie. I’ll be out shortly.” The tendrils began to fade back into wisps of smoke, spreading open like some kind of ugly, flourishing plant. From the shroud of seething smolder a long hoof extended out. The hair on this horse arm was blacker than the night before dawn, and the hoof itself was a silvery gray, gleaming with the reflections of chamber lights. Soon enough the rest of the villainous horse came into view, causing every single pony that viewed it to shiver and twitch in fear and caution.

He had unnatural yellow eyes with slits for pupils, thick muscles in the legs, body and neck, umber red hair swooping down the left side of his face, and right after he himself emerged, the smoke that hadn’t faded away cultivated on his back, over the shoulders, before solidifying into a pair of massive, condor-like wings. The being surpassed Celestia by only a few inches in height, but in presence, he exceeded hers by gargantuan amounts. His face was seemingly stuck in a sort plotting and eerie glare, topped off by the smallest, yet most daunting of grins. With all this, the last detail to be noticed, was the deadly-looking mark on his flank: a meteor-like shooting star, curved at the tail of orange astral flame, as if it had missed its intended target and was circling back to destroy it.

Celestia’s angry expression dissipated, with a wide-eyed, open-mouthed stare of utter shock taking its place. The astonishment forced the princess to return to solid ground, but her eyes remained frozen and wide. The black stallion smirked at the ruler’s sudden hesitation.

“What’s the matter Celle? Paralyzed, dumbstruck? Well, allow me to nestle the idea into your sweet, little brain. I AM indeed standing here right now, I am NOT light-years away in some corner of the universe surrounded by nothing like you had left me.” Twilight glanced at her teacher, frightened by the fact that this was the first time she had ever seen even a twinge of fear or insecurity in her idol. It took a moment for Celestia’s fright to slowly deteriorate enough to allow words to be spoken, but that was all…words.

“I…but…you…we…we ended you.” Celestia turned to her sister, still in pain. Obviously she had a part in this sequence of events the horse was vaguely describing. The stallion looked around as if surprised, taunting the alicorn once more.

“Well, I’m still here…guess you didn’t do a very good job.” Chuckles followed. The black implicit Pegasus then turned his glance over to the shivering pack of frightened foals. Each of them could feel his gaze pass over with an unnatural foresight, as if he could see all their happy memories, all their veiled pasts, and all their darkest secrets. A smirk curled up on his face. “My, my, has Equestria changed. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this town before.” The stallion leant his head down, meeting the frightened stare of a cyan-coated unicorn with white and blue hair, a unicorn named Romana. Her body froze in an instant, kept motionless by pure fear. “Could someone please…fill me in?” He and the innocent unicorn kept eyes locked for a while, as silence filled the room like a flood of water. It seemed Romana would have to be her own saving grace. Regardless of her cowardly stutter, she was the only pony that spoke.

“This…is…P-P-Ponyville.” The stallion nodded slowly in response.

“Ponyville.” As he faced away from Romana, she almost immediately broke down into whimpers and silent tears, as several ponies tried to console her. The tall horse chortled. “I was right, this place indeed has changed. It’s become weaker. I mean, not one single pony stood up for this innocent little mare. You all left her to fend for herself, like a pack dropping one of their wounded to shun the dead weight. That is…truly…pathetic.” A fire had been boiling inside of Applejack since the appearance of this threatening Pegasus, and it had only grown and grown. Threatening one of her peers was like pouring lighter fluid into the flames, and her silence could no longer be held.

“Who do you think you are? Scaring the daylights out of innocent ponies and calling us weak? I have half a mind to just come down there and change your little perception!” The stallion raised a hoof gingerly, before making the gesture of an invitation.

“By all means, oh so strong Applejack. Please, educate me in the ways that this place is strong. I have been feeling the need to loosen my joints with a good ol’ fashioned brawl.” The stallion mimicked AJ’s accent in a tease, fueling the fire within the already enraged earth pony. But even with this rage, she was still amongst those startled by the stallion’s presence, and began to think she may have let her emotions drag her into a pit. She didn’t know whether to respond or to keep silent, but in the end the latter was what she chose.

“I guess that half of mind is the lesser half than, Jack.” The brown mare growled as the Pegasus turned his attention back to the frightened public. He flapped his wings once and then spoke. “I always believed in a fighting chance for everyone, no matter what the situation was, everybody deserves a fair chance. So this is my gift to you all: a warning.” Muffled gasps could be heard scattered amongst the crowd. “This day marks the beginning of a great conquest of this...Ponyville, of Canterlot, of all Equestria. You have mere hours left to enjoy this final sunrise and this final sunset, because they shall no longer be once we succeed in our endeavor.” A cry suddenly burst out from Luna, and she began to twist and contort as if possessed. Celestia returned to her sister’s aid in a great panic. From the floor below she could the black stallion mock her once again. “Hmm, the transformation took longer to kick in then I thought. Seems Luna’s will is the only thing that’s gotten stronger since my absence. But then again, how would you know Celestia, since you imprisoned her in her own celestial body for 1,000 years?”

Celestia’s eyes were cursed and tortured as she watched her sweet little sister become something she had thought had been dust in the wind by now. Her limbs stretched and forced themselves to grow like elastic, clearly painful given the gritted look Luna had on her face. Underneath her shut, tear-rimmed eyelids, her irises became pale-green and snake-like. Her ears sharpened and curved themselves, her horn grew twice its size, and her flowing star-sprinkled hair faded to a mane of pure mist.

“STOP IT, PLEASE! STOP IT!” Celestia rose up into the air and desperately fired three more sunbeams from her horn at the stallion. The Pegasus smirked and closed his eyes, channeling his own sort of energy. With seconds a curtain of pure night shrouded over him. It was transparent but seemed as if some cut out a bit of the night sky and fashion a protective quilt out of it, with star-like lights decorating the barrier all around. This strange covering shielded him, and the beams landed inside the night quilt, shrinking down until they seemed to be part of the stars themselves. Twilight’s mouth lay agape at this sudden realization: the Pegasus could perform magic, WITHOUT a horn. Celestia snarled in anger, but was called back to her sibling’s side by her final grunts of agony. The final bit of change began to set in.

Beginning from behind Luna’s flank, a slithery black coat began to spread across her body like a viscous ink. Pure dread hung on Celestia’s heart like a hundred-pound weight as she watched the metamorphosis complete itself. Luna could only manage to open her one eye, gaze at her distraught sister, and say the last words she would say as Princess Luna.

“Tia...” The white alicorn leaned in closer, desperate to hear this last utterance. She sniffled and answered.

“Yes...Lulu?” The once blue alicorn used her remaining strength to stretch her head up close to Celesta’s completely open ear. She grunted as the vigor she used to hold her tears faded and let loose the natural undammed stream.

“For...everything...I do...after this moment...I’m so...sorry.”

The next audible sound that was heard was Luna’s head landing on the floor, completely drained of all remaining essence.She appeared lifeless as the murkiness collected around her neck, eating up the last remnants of blue.In moments, every speck of indigo was cloaked in a midnight gloom, and it was no longer over Luna that Celestia was grieving.

It was the all-to-familiar form of Nightmare Moon, seemingly unconscious, and completely devoid of all movement.

Celestia could only lower her head in muffled sorrow, clamping her eyes and teeth shut to try and keep strong. What would the whole world think if the ruler began to show weakness now? Every ounce of effort went into holding onto the last sliver of composure left, allowing the sorrow to slowly evolve into anger and hatred. One more moment of letting the rage simmer and the perception of Celestia as a stern yet calm leader would’ve been shattered, with a whole supernova blast eviscerating the entire theater in an uncontrollable rage. But the sudden thump of a thrown down hoof snatched her attention, and she opened her eyes, before the figure beneath her did the same. An eye, pale green like aged venom shot open, narrowing its devilish stare against Celestia’s own. The second hoof hit the floor, followed by the third and fourth, and the new princess of darkness brought herself completely upright. Eyes still fixed on the sister she tower over, the black royal alicorn merely smirked, before giving an extremely exaggerated inhale. A long sigh followed.

“Ah, I missed that cool, misty smell of the night. It’s good, to be back.” Her neck lowered down to further close the gap between the siblings’ gazes. “What’s the matter, Tia?” She mocked, knowing that only her sister would use that name to acknowledge her, no one else. “Why so quiet? Aren’t you going to say, HELLO?” Nightmare Moon’s front leapt up into the air, front hooves ready to smash her sister into a pulp against the floor. Celestia dashed backwards, barely escaping the lavender-armored sledgehammers that were her sister’s arms. As the floor before them shattered under the enormous pressure, Moon looked up to meet her sibling’s eyes once again. In this gaze, Celestia became certain of one thing: this was not the same Nightmare Moon she and her subjects had encountered a year prior. No, this was some sort of new, twisted, violent manifestation of her old foe, whose face constantly bore an unnatural grin of undying, malicious intent.

She wanted to hurt her sister, and hurt her bad.

The black alicorn charged, needle sharp horn outwardly ready to pierce any being in her path. Celestia forced herself to dive backwards, barely avoiding her sister’s attack. But before she could collide with the stone banister, Moon evaporated into a puff of midnight blue smoke. Celestia flapped her wings to get back up right, shooting her gaze around the entire chamber for any sign of her sister. It remained quiet, the entire room void of any sound or sight of Moon. Regardless of the silence, Celestia kept her horn at the ready. Luckily, no second assault came to her, as the black alicorn faded back into sight, right alongside her new, silver-hooved ally The stallion smirked as he faced his new apprentice, observing just what he had created. He circled around Moon several times as she strong and eerily proud.

“So this is what I created those many, many years ago. This is the fire I helped fuel into an inferno.” Halted right before the alicorn mare, their evil gazes clashed. “Very strong, very powerful.” He gave a sneering glance at the shaken ruler of Equestria. “It’s a real shame I couldn’t have seen Luna’s jealousy and envy shatter your bond to pieces. What name did you choose to grace yourself with, my new friend?”

“Nightmare Moon.” The Pegasus cocked a brow, nodding in understanding.

“Nightmare Moon…very, very fitting given what I have in store for this whole pathetic world.” The stallion gave one last look around the entire room, taking in all the unforgettable pony faces of dread and fright, relishing in it all. “Well then, Nightmare Moon, I believe that this is enough terror-instilling for one night. But now we must go, there’s a lot of work to be done.” The stallion’s wings bloomed out, smoky and obscuring once again. It began to consumeboth of the dark horses, but suddenly, the closing of mist halted in mid-air. “Oh wait! I forgot, did you get our little trinkets.” The mare gave a single nod, before unwinding her closed wings.

Within them lay all six Elements of Harmony, their natural shimmer shut out by the cage of shadowy feathers. Everyone gasped as Moon grinned at her handiwork. Not one single pony noticed the gems seemingly evaporate from the stands in that short moment Moon disappeared. She had slipped by them, stole and slipped away; all the while everyone was blinded with panic. The stallion grimaced at the sight.

“Perfect. Excellent work...” The stallion faced the shaken gathering for his final address. “To all you little mares and colts, I must bid a final farewell. I’ll give you a little bit of advice before we depart. When that sun rises, I recommend that you take this last day to say goodbye to everyone and everything you hold dear, because once the sun sets, you will never see any of them, ever again.” Closing his eyes to focus his magic, the stallion drew the fog inwards, shrouding him and his ally.

“NNNOOOO!” A blaring voice exploded from somewhere within the chamber. Everyone twisted and turned in search of the shout’s owner, but they found her soon enough as she fired herself into the air. A cyan and rainbow blur zoomed up to the ceiling, before nose-diving down towards the cloak of smog and silhouettes. At the blur’s front everyone could see the face of Rainbow Dash, twisted and distorted by wrath that roared beside her own battle cry. The distortion of her speed pulsed through the entire room as he approached the blackened mass. With iron will and diamond strength, the Pegasus buried herself into the plume of fog like a dagger through cotton, the force palpitating outwards, shattering all the windows and sending numerous ponies onto their backsides. The cloud burst from its place in the center of the room, soaring back towards the window frame facing the courtyard. Blasting towards the stone platform in the center of the garden, the cluster of thick smoke splashed out in all directions with a loud boom and hiss. Every pony hopped out onto the steps leading down to yard, desperate to catch a glimpse of the ensuring brawl. Sounds of struggle and assault echoed from the mist, until they were all overpowered by a sort of whirlwind noise. Then, it went silent.

The remaining five of the Mane Six led the dashing stride down the stairs to the center of the courtyard, approaching the curtain of mist with great caution. At first there was nothing but massive puffs of black and grey, but soon enough a lone silhouette faded within the shroud, the silhouette, of a small wounded creature.

“Dash!” Twilight cried out as she dived into the smog, quickly followed by Applejack and Pinkie. Sounds of strain and grunting spotted the silence, and in moments the three dragged their friend out of the misty black pen. The Pegasus’ was face down on the ground, letting out small groans of weakness as she tried to bring herself up. A few bruises were scattered on her back and left wing, but luckily, no cuts of serious lacerations. Applejack and Twilight gripped both her arms to help her to her hooves, and once she was semi-upright, Dash looked up.

Clenched in between her teeth where three of the six Elements she had managed to wrestle from the two black stallions. Laughter, Generosity, and Honesty all remained in the hands of the public thanks to the brave mare’s intervention. It didn’t matter that she had not managed to get all the elements, the crowd cheered for her efforts anyway.

“C’mon, we need to get you inside. Girls, help me.” All of the six gathered around Dash, pulling her up to her feet and making their way towards the inside of the hall. Hopefully there would be some pony here that could tend to her wounds. While everyone followed as they piled back into the chamber, Celestia remained standing at the second floor balcony, gazing with utter dread at the massive hole her sister had just escaped with this stallion through. Emotions of many kinds were swimming within the alicorn’s heart, sorrow for her sister’s forced regression into her evil ways, embarrassment that she could not keep her pony public from panic, and fear of the events that were left to unfold at the hooves of this new villain.

But the shocking, unspoken truth was…to the princess, this villain was anything but new.

Chapter Four: Violent Fireworks

Chapter 4:
Violent Fireworks

Back inside the hall, in one of the second floor rooms, Dash was plopped on a divan of sorts, her wounds being medicated and bandaged by Doctor Julian Whooves. After putting a drop of a vibrant green potion on a gash on her flank, he covered it with gauze and taped it in place.

“There, the potion should fully kick in in about an hour. For what that stallion was talking about, I’d say you got lucky walking away with the injuries you had, and not much severer ones.” Many of the six nodded, except Fluttershy, who gulped in fear. He turned to face his patient. “Just try not to strain yourself for that time. Some of the bruises are muscle deep and will take longer to rectify.”

“Thanks for coming here, Julian. We didn’t know who else to call.” Rarity thanked. Whooves chuckled at the comment, given the fact that he was currently the only doctor in Ponyville. The other four had left for Manehattan to observe the Summer Sun Celebration there.

“Well, the only reason I was close at all was because of Ditzy. She managed to sneak out of the hall and ran to come and get me. I guess she figured someone was going to get hurt.”

“And she was right too.” Twilight added, with gloom in her tone. Twilight took a seat next to her multi-colored friend, who was starting to feel the slightly loopy effects of the potion. “Dash, do you remember what did you saw in that cloud?” The cyan Pegasus nodded.

“Oh yeah, I remember. It was like some kind of portal, because when I leaped in, I landed in this sort of cave. It was nearly pitch black, but in the distance I saw those two foals!” Rainbow grunted as she accidentally strained herself in the aggravation. Taking a deep breath she lay back onto the bed, trying to relax herself as she continued to reminisce over the enraging events.

“They were standing next to a cliff, and it looked as if they were talking down into the hole. They seemed really into their conversation with whatever was down there, so I dashed in and made a grab for the Elements. Those three managed to slip through his hooves, and I rushed back as quickly as I could. But Nightmare used her horn to lob some boulders at me.” She turned over so a large bruise on her neck, now wrapped, was facing her friends. “She got a few good shots in.” Her gaze fell to the floor as she sighed. “I wish I could’ve gotten them all.”

“Regardless of whether or not you retook all of the elements or only some, that was an incredibly brave thing you did for all of us, Rainbow Dash.” Celestia marched into the room as she commemorated the cyan Pegasus. Instinctive bows came from all the other ponies but their ruler almost immediately dismissed them. “Hold off your bows every pony, we have more important things to focus on than acknowledgement, like finding out where those two foals have run off too.”

“And who that one Pegasus is, too. I’ve never seen any pony like that, ever. Not in Ponyville, Canterlot, or anywhere else in Equestira.” Twilight informed. The rest of the Mane Six concurred with Twilight, this black stallion was completely off-radar…until tonight. Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves in frustration.

“Well, then how do we fight against some pony we’ve never seen before?” Everyone pondered for a moment, trying to dig up an answer to this dilemma. A while passed by without a single word, even the Princess was stumped. But finally, Rarity raised her hoof to grasp every pony’s attention.

“If we’re trying to combat something that isn’t from anywhere familiar, maybe we should talk to someone who also isn’t from around here.” The stumped expressions on each pony’s face resumed their prominence, and Rarity’s hoof met her face, followed by a groan. “Who is the only one we know that isn’t from a place in Equestria, that we know of?” More silence poured into the room, as if everyone was waiting for the purple haired unicorn to burst out with the answer. The shout came, but from the opposite direction, stemming from the wide open maw of Pinkie Pie.

“ZECORA!” She blared, repeating the name about four more times before she would allow gravity to bring her back to ground level. “No one around here knows where she’s from! Maybe she’s seen this pony before back home or lurking around the forest!” The alicorn nodded before turning towards the door to alert transportation.

“Good, I’ll have the chariots escort you all to the forest entry, but they can’t enter any further than that. The trees will knock them clear out of the sky.”

“That’ll be okay, Princess, we remember the way to her place from there. C’mon every pony, let’s get going!” Twilight rallied. Everyone stood up ready to get this venture rolling, but Dash’s efforts to get off the bed were for naught. She plopped back into the bed like a sack of potatoes. “Sorry Dash. You need to stay here and recover, we’ll go and tell you what happened when we come back.” Dash groaned at the unicorn’s proposal. She always hated being on the sidelines, but knew that if she strained herself, she wouldn’t be doing herself any favors. Her hot-headedness had cleared out a bit over the course of the year.

“Fine then, make sure you guys come back and tell me the whole thing. You fight any monsters out there, tell me. The trees come alive and try to eat you, tell me.” Pinkie Pie bolted over and shut Dash’s mouth with her hoof, as she had seemed to forget that Fluttershy was still in the room, her eyes wide with sudden caution. But regardless, the five of the six quickly maneuvered out the door to get ready for this new trek. No telling what could be lurking in the Everfree Forest now, especially with this new threat in place. As the last colorful pony tail disappeared behind the doorway’s edge, Celestia turned to look outside the window. The moon was beginning to set for the seemingly final time, and the sun was rising, under the same circumstances. She focused on both celestial bodies as she dove into contemplation of everything that was happening, because in truth, this was not a foreign threat to the alicorn. She had kept this story hidden from Twilight and all of Equestria, the only person who was the wiser was her sister, and she had just been overtaken by some sort of controlling darkness. In this deep state of thought, she didn’t even notice that Rainbow was staring at her own gawking to the sky. “Um…princess? Are you okay?” The acknowledgement snapped Celestia back into reality. She turned to her subject.

“Oh! Um, yes, Rainbow. Just lost my train of thought.” She lied. “I need to take care of some things back at Canterlot, but I’ll return for your friends’ news.” Rainbow nodded in understanding but buried her head into the pillow in annoyance at her predicament. The princess chuckled. “Don’t worry Dash. You’ll get your chance to face them again. Knowing your friends they’ll certainly rattle this new villain’s cage somehow. Then he’ll have to come up from his little hideaway to see what the problem is. Then that’s your moment.” Dash smirked and nodded in agreement, before the alicorn opened the window so she could make her exit. “But for now, try to get some rest. A good sleep will do you good.” With that, the ivory wings spread and Equestria’s ruler was airborne.

Moments later, the echo of signature Pegasus snoring poured out into Ponyville through the left-open window.

“Eugh, I always hate coming to his disgusting place.” Rarity complained. Several of her friends nodded in agreement, but only one spoke.

“Believe me; I don’t want to be here anymore than you do, none of us do.” Applejack retorted. Behind her was Fluttershy, who carried on the row of complaints with a mere whimper. The speculation of horrors Dash carelessly spewed out only moments before still lingered in her head, taking visual form. But Pinkie Pie continued to push her on, with Twilight leading the pony troupe. “You sure you know where you’re going Twilight? I don’t want to spend any more time then I have to in this Celestia-forsaken place.”

“Trust me Applejack, I know where we’re going. I drew this up last time we visited incase we’d need to come back.” Floating in front of Twilight was a crisp beige map, drawn with exact precision and proportion to the actual forest. “There’s a fork in the path coming up, everyone stay to the left side. The right just leads to the ruins of Old Canterlot.”

“Old Canterlot?” Applejack asked. “I didn’t know there was an ‘Old Canterlot’.” Twilight let out an ‘mmhmm’ in response.

“Thousands of years ago those ruins were once the royal palace and plaza of Canterlot. Everything that we’ve seen in the royal city now, used to be here instead. But apparently the forest had a sudden overgrowth and consumed the entire city, and no pony’s magic or labor could stop it. So they were forced to build a new one, high up on the mountain it’s on now. All we’d find there is a bunch of abandoned buildings and an old fort.” Everyone let out murmurs of understanding, before meeting up at the predicted fork in the path. Every pony followed the unicorn’s instruction and kept on the left side, trying to avoid looking into what lay in the right. But Fluttershy’s will to blot out her curiosity wasn’t strong enough, and she snuck a peek into the corridor of dead, entangled trees.

Standing at the far end like nothing was the shape of a normal pony. She couldn’t tell which kind it was in fault of the distance, but it wasn’t the body that captivated her gaze…It was the pure, shimmering white eyes that seemed to stare directly into her own, regardless of space or the fact that the being owned no pupils. The blank stare caused Fluttershy’s heart to sink in pure fear; she had no sort of idea what the intent of this gaze was. It looked like one of wonder, but the lack of blinking shrouded it in a cloak of eeriness. Their clashing glances held against one another for a while, until a tap on the head caused the Pegasus to nearly fall over.

“Hello, anyone in there?” Pinkie Pie joked as Fluttershy tipped over. “What’re you looking at?” The earth pony popped her head out of the bushy wall and into the wooden laden path. But nothing of interest lay at the end, just a tunnel of growing darkness. Pinkie Pie propped Fluttershy back up and dragged her along the path in attempts to catch up with the group. As she floated off the ground from the speed of the pony’s galloping, the Pegasus tried with utmost effort to contemplate what, or who she just saw. Someone was following them, and every pony had to know.

“Well, we’re here everyone.” All five ponies glanced up to the home of Zecora, completely unchanged since their last visit, minus the addition of some black lanterns with green lights glowing inside of them. “Alright, let’s see if Zecora has anything we can use.” Twilight began to make her way up to the door to knock, but she was stopped by a tapping on her flank. Curiously she turned and met Fluttershy’s worried gaze.

“Um…Twilight? Um, I think that…you should know that…I-.” Stuttering left several glitches in her nervous sentence.

“I’m sorry Fluttershy but could you just spit it out? We don’t have a lot of time here.” Applejack did nothing to hold back the tone of annoyance in her voice. Fluttershy took a deep breath, hoping to have smothered the stutter away.

“Back at the fork…I saw someth-.” The sound of an unlocking latch cut off the Pegasus, followed by the creaking of a door. Knocks on wood grew subtly louder as a figure emerged from the blackness behind the doorway. Out of the cloak of black came Zecora, eyes fighting to stay open, battling the lingering grasp of tiredness. The troupe had just woke her up with their short-lived but loud noise. Using a hoof to rub her left eye, the zebra spoke.

“Are you not at all aware of the time, my friends, why do you disturb this nap of mine?” Twilight stepped forward right after the shaman-esque zebra finished her rhyme.

“We’re sorry for disturbing you Zecora, but this is an emergency. Ponyville’s been attacked by some sort of Pegasus, and we were hoping if you knew anything about it.” Zecora’s face instantly morphed to from groggy and half-awake, to confused and interested. She had been sleeping for the past few hours so she had no instant bringing of attention to the events occurring in her neighboring town, so she turned and signaled for the group to follow her inside. She would have to consult her crystal ball.

The gathering of seven watched the previous events unfold once more behind the spherical screen of Zecora’s enchanted orb. The black and white animal studied each vision that focused on the new enemy Twilight spoke, eyes narrowed in effort to try and remember any sort of sign of something even remotely related to the creature. But her memory was blank of any sort of character resembling this new foe. Finally the fog containing the images dissipated, leaving the interior of the orb empty and green. Zecora looked up to the group, all wearing gazes of hope that the zebra would have an answer. But their hopes dashed away as Zecora shook her head left and right.

“Nothing?” Twilight asked, even though she already knew the answer. It was only to this, that Zecora would nod.

“This new evil is surely not one I have seen.” Zecora turned back to face her wall, feeling a bit depressed that she couldn’t aid in her friend’s investigation. But suddenly, something had sparked in her thoughts. “Wait! Could it be the ruler of those repulsive changelings?” Every pony suddenly started to mumble and think themselves as to if this mysterious creature was a conjuring of Chrysalis. Murmurs emitted from every pony…accept Fluttershy, who had spent the entire time staring out the window of Zecora’s dwelling, with the uneasy feeling that an invisible pair of eyes was watching over them.

“It could be Chrysalis, but none of us know for sure. I mean, it had feathers like a Pegasus, but no horn or thorny features. The only person who I think would know 100% would be Rainbow Dash. Ergh! But she’s back at Ponyville recovering!” Twilight tried desperately to keep herself from smashing anything of Zecora’s in a blind lashing of anger, managing to only hammer it against the floor. Applejack quickly came to Twilight’s side.

“Relax, sugar cube. None of us think it was her, so I think it’s safe to say Dash would agree with us on this.” The lot of them nodded, minus Fluttershy, gaze still being held by the one she knew lay outside. Rarity then decided to pitch her idea.

“Maybe we should go to Canterlot, take a look in some of the Ancient Pony Archives. There could be something in there.” Every pony nodded in agreement.

“Yeah Twilight, you love reading up on old stories right?” Spike joked, which was met with a long annoyed sigh from the purple unicorn.

“I guess that would be the ideal place to keep looking.” Twilight agreed. She then meant to say something else, but Zecora’s clearing of her throat cut her off.

“Well, there is one thing I think may help all of you, but it may be quite dangerous for you to try and do.” Questioning looks morphed onto each pony’s face.

“Please, Zecora…at this rate I’m willing to try anything if it means figuring out who this stallion is.” Twilight announced. Zecora then opened one of her many books, a brown one with black markings across the edges and corners. She turned to a page where the image of a sort of web was printed. Sketches of monstrous creatures and evil looking beings took place in the spaces between the strings of the web, and the zebra began her revealing.

“In my culture, it’s believed that when evil’s alone, often finds comfort and coherence amongst its own. Those who are of evil, or commit deeds in its name, will know of the others who involve themselves in the practice of the very same.” Every pony was dumbfounded, as Zecora’s habit of rhyming had forced her words to jumble and become elaborate to fit her expressive preference.

“What...in the hay does that mean?” Applejack asked, scratching the back of her head in completely confusion. Uhh’s and umm’s droned from of the Mane Five, until Twilight’s logic finally shaped what seemed like a decent conclusion.

“I think it means that if we want to find out about this evil…we should speak to someone who is evil.”

“But who do we know that’s evil and had their flanks bucked already?” Pinkie Pie blurted out. At that moment, only one answer came to each pony’s mind. But while they all knew who it was, they all kept silent, thinking that the others would call them crazy if they suggested it. Finally, Twilight came out with it.

“…Discord.” Five gulps played out practically in order.

“But didn’t we buck his flank too? Well…he doesn’t really have a flank, so then we bucked his-?” Applejack wrapped a hoof around Pinkie’s mouth to keep her from falling into a complete ramble fit.

“That’d be true, Pinkie, but we also have him frozen in the holding chamber of Canterlot. But there’s no way that Celestia would let anyone near that creep, let alone unfreeze and talk to him.”

“Maybe, but we still have to try. It may be the only way and if Celestia knows that, then she’ll have to let us at least try it.” Twilight proclaimed with a sort of determination in her voice. The conversation was completely blocked out by Fluttershy, as she stared off into the darkness of the forest for any sign of alien life. In the whole half-hour she had spent on this reconnaissance, not one thing moved within the trees that seemed out of order, until they were back again. The same pair of pure white eyes that she caught sight of back at the fork. But this time, they were not open or devoid of any emotion, they were narrow, furrowed, and seemed to collide against Flutteshy’s own stare. Fear sank into the Pegasus, forcing her to have to do something she has done only a total of three or four times in her life. She yelled.

“THERE’S SOMEONE OUTSIDE!” Every pony jumped at the cry, getting a good two feet off the floor before landing on their flanks in the confusion. Twilight rolled back upright and rubbed the part of her other hoof that she landed on.

“Geez, Fluttershy. You could’ve just tapped some pony’s shoulder…and what’s outside?” Twilight moved up to the window and looked out, taking only seconds to catch the two bulbs of white in the botanical darkness. She gasped. “Fluttershy’s right, someone’s watching us, and it looks like it’s been for a while now too.” Applejack’s brows pointed down.

“I don’t very much appreciate being watched. Let’s go see who our little peeper is!” Following behind the earth pony were the rest, the last being Zecora, and Pinkie Pie who was dragging the frozen Fluttershy. After climbing down the steps and forming a sort of circle in the front yard, the Mane Five each looked out to their own little section of view of the forest. Applejack was the first to call their stalker out. “Whoever you are, come out and show yourself! Why in the hay are you following us anyway?!” There was no answer, save for a few birds fleeing to Applejack’s shouting. Growling she stood up on her hind legs and lobbed her front hooves back and forth. “If you don’t come out by yourself I’ll come in there and drag you out! I’m not in the mood for any games! SHOW YOURSELF!” The earth pony’s apparent anger caught the attention of her friends, but this wasn’t the time to bring up anger issues. After that last threat, the figure owning the white eyes began to slowly move towards them. Every pony took battle and pounce ready positions, should the thing emerge with a harmful agenda. But as the amount of trees covering the being lessened, the blackness began to fade away. A familiar hat and cape outfit colored blue came into sight, the pattern of white stars seeming to come later. White mane, blue coat, and narrowed purple eyes all came into view as the all to reviled form of the “Great and Powerful” Trixie came to prominence. Mental groans scoured each pony’s mind as her presence scoured their sight, except for Fluttershy, who only noticed that the white eyes she saw before had seemingly morphed into Trixie’s own. Twilight was the first to speak.

“Trixie, what the…what are you doing here?” The unicorn asked. The star-clad Trixie only smirked at first, keeping her head slightly downward, allowing her eyes to barely show under the edge of her hood’s rim. Then she responded, her normal voice seemingly darker in tone.

“I should be asking you the same, this place is dangerous you know?” She seemingly mocked. This fueled Applejack’s anger even more.

“That’s no one of your business, Miss Fireworks. I’m sure you’ve got your own sort to attend to, one that involves playing with your little smoke and mirror kit. If that joke was too elaborate for you, to put in simply, get out of here and leave us alone.” The threat was very real, accompanied by Applejack’s scraping of the ground with her hoof. Trixie merely whipped her head up, her curled white bang lashing up and out of her eyes. Her smirk had straightened out to a flat line at the insult. Then, out of nowhere, came the infamous, unexpected Pinkie Pie witticism, which had now become expected of her.

“Well wait a minute Applejack, Trixie’s kind of evil, let’s ask her about the Pegasus!” Pinkie Pie joked. There was a moment of silence, but the Mane Five could not keep their teeth clenched, and bursts of laughter began to blare from them all. Even Applejack, with all her present annoyance, was hysterically chortling with uncontrollable hilarity. Trixie’s line curved to a frown as the sounds of amusement continued to play out. After a while they started to get annoying, so she decided to break it up with a retort of her own.

“You know, you do look a lot better with your hair straightened, Pinkie. Pity it can only loosen like that during times of loneliness.” The laughter immediately left the voices of every pony as the magician unicorn continued. “Like that time no one would come to your little birthday party for that cross-eyed pet alligator of yours?” Pinkie’s gaze lowered to the floor as her thoughts reverted back to how she felt that day. Trixie was right about her feelings: that moment of forced solitude did tug at her heartstrings with sharp nails. Applejack saw this reversion, and relapsed back to her previous fury.

“I believe I told you to get, Trix! Unless you have a reason to be here, which I highly doubt, get to stepping.” Trixie’s smirk had returned, and she continued.

“I find it funny how you seem to be the only one defending your friend Applejack, while the others lay back and stay silent. You’ve always had the burden of carrying the world on your shoulders. Like when you had to buck the apples of your entire farm, or win all those races in hopes of get the money that Ponyville needed…and failed.” Applejack’s eyes were reddening now with anger. But while all she could see was a trash-talking pony in need of a lesson, the others saw something else. They watched as a webbing-like blackness began to emerge from behind the wizard-garbed unicorn, slithering across her skin and outfit. The tendrils slowly made their way towards her eyes from behind her head, and she sustained her threatening discourse.

“You know what? I find a lot of things funny nowadays. I find it funny that your beloved Princess sends her subjects out to do the work of finding the enemy, especially when her sister is the one in danger. I also find it funny that you still believe that you have a chance to save Equestria. Tenacity is often more annoying than comical, but under these circumstances, it’s definitely the latter.”

Trixie started to laugh, and as she did so, her voice seemed to split into two different tones, speaking in unison. One was her normal, somewhat whiny voice, and the other was some sort of demonic alteration. The black web circled around her eyes like sharks circle around prey, and as they finally filled the bit of blue hair in the center, the white, soulless eyes familiar to Fluttershy flashed back to subsistence. With the cackling seeming to never end, the possessed unicorn ascended off the ground and into the air, assuming power over the six friends.

“I knew deep in my heart I wanted to rid this world of you nosy ponies. I told myself time and time I again, that I hated you, but I’d never do such a thing like that…when in reality, that is what I craved. I just never realized it could actually be possible…until NOW!” Trixie’s horn flashed up with blackened energy, and with no hesitation, fired off five beams of power one by one at each pony. Applejack dived out of the way, barely managing to regain her footing, and sped off to the left towards the trees, hoping they would shield her from the Trixie’s rays. The others scrambled away from the rain of energy, with Twilight forming a barrier between herself and the attack. Catching up Rarity and Pinkie Pie, the unicorn then shoved them behind a large boulder for cover, all the while Fluttershy had flown up into the air in a panic, the beams barely missing her by inches. Watching the Pegasus shuffle around in the air entertained Trixie, but a blaring cry from her right took her away from her fun.

“Now you asked for it!” Applejack charged from the woods as fast as she could, reaching the semi-distracted unicorn in seconds. Right before she could blatantly collide with her, Applejack dug her back hooves into the ground and rose up onto her hind legs. By now her front hooves had the force and strength of new giant steel mallets, and she hammered them down to her enemy. The magician caught sight of the enraged pony last second and threw herself backwards, with Applejack’s hooves shattering the earth she had just stood upon.

Trixie released her control and turned her full concentration on the furious farmer. Even with the missing her initial strike, Applejack kept on thrashing at the wizard. Hoof after hoof Trixie avoided each hit, either by swooping left and right, or slapping them away with her own two hooves. Each deflection bought more rage, more rage bought more oomph in the strikes, but the more oomph, the less speed between hits. Applejack’s attacks became slower and slower, but they would have shattered bones had they made contact. But Trixie just kept on dashing away, almost purposely allowing the wind of the blows’ speed to brush the hair of her mane up and around. The sixth attack would’ve been enough to crush the boulder Twilight and the others were hiding behind to dust, but sadly it only met contact with the dirt, for Trixie rose up on her own hind legs to avoid it. The pony quickly pulled back to ready for another strike, but this time, her hoof had been trapped between the jaws of the earth, holding her in place temporarily for Trixie to do as she pleased.

“My turn.” She taunted. Trixie then took a single jump, using it to spin so that her backside was facing the vulnerable Applejack, and with magical force empowering her, shot her two back hooves out like rockets. The blow bashed Applejack’s face, sending her on an aerial flight back towards the boulder. Finally touched onto the grass Applejack spun several more times, before coming to a slow, scratchy stop. Scrambling to get back on her feet, an explosion of magical energy fired right behind her, as if someone had stood on a land mine. Trixie had continued firing her rays. The earth pony sped for the boulder, galloping furiously and then leaping the last few feet. Landing on the inner edge of its cover, Applejack flustered up against the rock wall, panting with exhaustion. On the other side, Twilight popped in and out of the rock’s cover, firing her own bolts of energy during these intervals.

“That…Trixie…is a lot…tougher than I thought.” Rarity noticed Applejack’s sudden appearance, wincing at the sight of the long scratch across the side of her cheek from the wizard’s kick. The farmer pony wiped the trickle of blood from the scrape, giving not even a smidge of concern for the miniscule sting it bought. She then turned to her friends. “Anypony have any ideas!?” Applejack shouted over the roar of the neighboring magic battle. Twilight whipped herself back behind the rock as a massive blast fired past her, landing in the trees with a fiery burst. Twilight searched for a means of either escape from their corner or to fight Trixie. A tree that had fallen over from an earlier explosion caught her eye. It was at least fifteen feet in height and two feet in thickness, definitely something someone would want to avoid being crushed by.

“I got it! Rarity, do you see that tree over there?” Twilight pointed at the torn log, and the white unicorn nodded. “Do you think you can lift it up and over the rock?” Rarity pondered the thought for a moment, trying to think of all the heavy things she had lifted in the past. In the end, she gave a slightly reluctant nod.

“I believe I can, but for what purpose?” Twilight smirked slightly.

“I can draw Trixie’s attention away from you. Once she’s turned around, you lift that tree up and lob it straight at her!” Twilight’s hoof pointed from the tree to the area she had been peeking over to return fire. Rarity’s face expressed confusion.

“But wouldn’t she just catch it? She’ll probably throw it back even harder!”

“Exactly, magic requires constant concentration on the thing you’re trying to manipulate. If we can turn her attention away from us with a distraction, that’ll give us an opening to attack at the same time. She can’t hit all of us at once if we’re in front, behind, and all around her.” Twilight’s deduction skills had proven invaluable yet again. As she finished her explanation, Applejack stood back up on all four feet.

“I’m going with you, Twi. She’ll have a lesser chance of hitting us if she’s got two targets.” Twilight didn’t have time to disagree or convince her friend otherwise, for their rock shelter had begun to breakdown from the constant assault of magic. The purple unicorn took a deep breath, readying her nerves and hooves for the desperate run, and leapt out in unison with Applejack, each from a different side. Trixie targeted Twilight first, knowing she would be the main source of resistance to her attack. Beams lashed out at the purple pony’s feet like aggressive rattlesnakes, but dashing from side to side allowed her to avoid being tripped up. The wizard turned her attention to the plethora of trees that lay in front of the galloping horse.

As Twilight ran through the forest, hoping the trees to her side could provide shielding from the blasts she predicted Trixie would fire, and continued to look back to see if Rarity had begun lifting trees. One peek and she was disappointed, as the tree had not been moved an inch. She hurriedly faced forward once again, but this time an eerie aura had fallen over the woods before her. Then, out of nowhere, long dense tree branches started to drop down from the leafy ceiling, like hands trying to grab or hit Twilight and knock her off course. Pivoting left and right to dodge the tree arms, Twilight didn’t notice that Trixie returned her attention to Applejack.

The farmer was like a lemur in the trees, using the trunks to kick off and upwards into the foliage. The leaves soon became a quilt that cut off Trixie from catching any sight of her target. In this cover, Applejack slinked around the forest, and peeked through a hole between the branches. There, like a panther, she awaited to pounce. The lack of pony-sighting began to probe at Trixie’s patience, shown by the gritting of teeth.

“Come out and face me you lot of prancing ponies. All you’ve done is run and hide from me so far, except for one!” The wizard felt something at that moment, two taps on her shoulder. She whipped around and was shocked by the ever-so wide signature grin of Pinkie Pie.

“Ahem, I believe it’s two of us.” A powerful bucking kick from Pinkie sent the off-guard wizard soaring back a good ten feet. Skidding on the ground the last third of the way, she quickly rose back up, whipped her dirty, grass-covered mane back, and now focused on the pink party-thrower. Trixie fired, the blast hit, and the smoke cleared. Pinkie was gone. “I’m sorry was that for me?” The bubbly voice taunted out of sight. Trixie frantically looked around, seeing the pony had buzzed to the side like a frenetic wasp. The wizard growled and fired again. Blast hit and smoke cleared, but Pinkie dashed off again, this time ending up on the top of a tree branch. “I’m sorry; it’s a force of habit. I usually don’t get hit by magic so it’s natural to bounce away. Like this!” Pinkie hopped back down to the ground, right as another magical beam blew the branch to splinters. Trixie had enough of this joker, and charged her horn for an all out rain of energy. Like an automatic rifle, she fired beam after beam of magic at the balloon-marked pony. But Pinkie was just too fast, becoming a pink blur between the cracks of smoke each crashing bolt left behind. The fired of frustration burned brighter with every miss, and Trixie eye’s narrowed with hatred.

Twilight had become fixated on the battle between Trixie and Pinkie. She watched as the pony bounced in between energies like a pinball. But then a rogue blast fired straight at her from the massive fog, and she desperately dug her hooves into the ground to stop. Her eyes met the glimmer of the energy blast at nearly half-inches, but she did not halt.

Pinkie Pie grinned at her opponent, smug with the demonstration of her speed and agility. But that smile broke into a gasp as an explosion erupted from the bit of forest behind, the bit that Twilight had been running through.

“TWILIGHT!” Pinkie cried out, her hair losing some of its curls from the sudden despair. But despair changed to anger, and she shot her gaze back to Trixie’s direction. But a bolt of magical energy clouded her vision, and the sent her flying into one of the trees behind her. As the party pony slid from the bark onto the grass, Trixie moved in for the final blow, tittering with sadistic glee as she neared her prey.

“Nice work, Pinkie. All your dancing and bouncing around was so funny to you, wasn’t it? Well Twilight doesn’t seem to be laughing now, huh?” Trixie taunted, repaying the party pony for all the jokes her spewed out. As she slowly trekked towards the disoriented Pinkie, the trees behind her began to rustle and shake violently. Then a figure burst forth from the gate of branches.

“NOOOOOOOO!” Applejack howled as she leapt out, hooves of iron aimed at Trixie’s face. The wizard had no time to turn around, and the hoof met with the skin and bone of her nose. Applejack’s weight and speed caused them both to fall backward, to which Trixie pushed the farmer off with all she had. After hitting and bouncing against the ground, she slid up next to her pink ally. Trixie stood up, clasping her snout with one hoof in pain, blood squeezing through and dripping on to the ground. Muffled grunts and curses sputtered from Trixie’s covered mouth as she glared up at her assailant.

“Okay, you two want some real fireworks? FINE! I’LL GIVE YOU FIREWORKS!” Trixie’s eyes shut as she willed all of her magical power into her horn. Pulsing with black and mauve energy, a collection of fist-sized sparks collected and revolved around the appendage. Finally, the wizard leapt from onto her hind legs, let out a howl of pure malice, and brought herself back forth, firing the spell. From her horn came ten sparking bolts akin to firework discharge, accompanied by the tell-tale scream of their travel. The two ponies had nowhere to run. While Pinkie’s eyes widened with fear, Applejack sought to brave the assault, standing firm and clenching her eyes shut. She would not stay down if she had the will to stay up. The flares homed in towards their targets, and then collided into bursts of dissolving spheres of light.

Pinkie felt weird. She expected the blasts to have some sort of shocking, painful feeling. But instead she felt nothing, not even a prod or touch. She removed her hooves from over her eyes and discovered the bolts had hit something else.

Before her was a wide shield of energy, widen enough to cover both her, Applejack, and even three other ponies if needed. It was golden in color and transparent in view, and before the barricade stood a silhouette of pony-like features. The figure turned around and the light of the colliding magics revealed her face.

“Zecora!” Pinkie exclaimed, back up in spirits that her friend had come to help. The fireworks pounded against the barrier like snowballs against a tree, shattering to sparkling bits when they rammed against it. The zebra showed strain as she held up the shield, her eyes glowing the same exact color as the shield. Noticing this, Trixie fired more and more bolts of energy, knowing she was wearing down the shaman-esque animal. I wasn’t long before Zecora was forced to take a knee from the stress, and that was when Trixie moved in with everything she had. The shield began to exhibit cracks and breaks from the barrage of magic, looking like a broken mirror, which distorted the vision of Trixie before them into multiple sights of the pony.

“You think your magic is enough to stop me? If Twilight couldn’t best my abilities, what makes you think you can, foreigner?!” A cackle followed the taunt, as Trixie pushed on. At this point it was a reverse tug-o-war, pushing against one another instead of pulling away. But as the feud raged on, a lengthy shadow slithered over the wizard pony. It grasped her interest once it moved over her visibility-limiting hat, and she turned to see what great thing could cast such a dark double.

Rarity, had lobbed, not only one tree, but three trees, all the same gargantuan size, straight at Trixie’s position. The wizard let go of her hold on the firework spell and desperately fired at the aerial arms of nature. With little time before they would crush her, she shot as many bolts as she could to tear the wooden poles of apart, only managing to break them into many, spread out pieces. Normally her spells would’ve sent them flying back or disintegrating into splinters, but she had spent all of her magical ability fighting off the Mane Five. She could only run, but the enlarging shadows of the falling trees surrounded and trapped her, as did the shield.

From within the barrier, the three watched as Trixie was lost in the pile of crashing wooden pillars. The sight caused Zecora to lose concentration, and thus, when bits of the trees smashed into the shield, it finally shattered to bits. All three of them were sent flying back into the forest, where the rest of the wood poles were ensnared in the grasp of the protective trees. Pinkie was lobbed into a bush, as was Applejack, while Zecora rolled into a pile of tall grass. No rustles or movements sounded from Trixie’s direction, so the three simply lay still, taking this moment of peace to relax in their leafy cradles. Pinkie wiggled out of nature’s arms and onto her feet after snuggling in for a minute. She looked around the woods for her friends, catching sight of both Applejack and Zecora right next to the fog of smoke from Twilight’s affliction. The farming pony rolled out from her bush, stumbling back onto her feet.

“Huh...is...every pony...okay?” She asked. Both Zecora and Pinkie Pie nodded weakly, before turning over to the pile of smolder before them, where Twilight once was. The trees slanted and bent away from the crater, as if they were trying to get away from it. Pinkie looked down while Zecora and Applejack sighed. “Maybe the blast flung her into woods or something? I mean, c’mon? This is Twilight, remember? She’s always got something planned. She’s gotta be lurking around here somewhere.” Zecora’s ear twitched as a distant, seemingly muffled sound flew into it. She turned to try and hear better, and the faraway sound of several other ponies came into prominence.

“I can’t see them anywhere.”

“Check by the smoke pile! Rarity, do you see them at all?”

Behind the three friends, the trees and leaves began to rustle, like something was trying to tear through it to get to them. Still battle-weary they took attempted ready stances for another fight, even though their bruises, scratches and fatigue were predicted to work against them. After a few moments of shaking noises getting louder and louder, a lone white hoof punched through the vegetation. Then another hoof came, then a purple mane, and then the whole rest of the pony.

It was Rarity, mane filled with leaves that were soon shaken off by her jolting movements. She smiled and looked upwards to the sky.

“Fluttershy, I found them! Down here!” Moments after she called out to them the sound of rapid flapping was heard. From a small hole in the trees that the sun had brightened up, Fluttershy flew on through. But she was carrying something. The silhouette kept the three from recognizing it until close, to which joy and relief would begin to emulate.

It was Twilight, latched onto Fluttershy’s arms. They landed right before the other three, before taking a gander to their left. There lay a hole the size of three Mack trucks stacked upon one another, spawned from the intense battle that occurred. Twilight smirked.

“Now who did tha-?” The pony was nearly tackled to the ground from the force of Pinkie’s dive. The party pony lashed hers arm her friend in glee.

“OH! Twilight I thought that blast Trixie threw exploded you into a million million tiny pieces! I’m was sooooooo so so so scared!” Twilight chuckled nervously as she coughed from the near-strangulating embrace.

“Sorry I…scared you Pinkie.” Twilight squeezed through and broke the tight hug, landing back to a stable stand. She then continued. “I thought I was done for when I saw that blast. But Fluttershy dived in and caught me at the last second.” The cream-colored Pegasus blushed at the recognition, to which Applejack chuckled and tipped her hat.

“Well shoot, that’s some speedy flying there, Fluttershy.” Applejack playfully nudged her shoulder as Rarity nodded in agreement. “Rainbow Dash would be mighty proud.” Twilight smiled as Fluttershy silently accepted her compliments. But her leer quickly flipped over to a frown as she looked back at the pile of trees, where she was sure housed a beaten-down Trixie.

“C’mon girls, we shouldn’t keep Trixie waiting.” Everyone followed behind Twilight as she trotted towards the wreckage, all eager to get some answers to this whole mess of events…even if it meant a few nice, firm bucks to the face. Undoubtedly, Applejack would be the one handling that, with exquisite enjoyment.

Rarity, Zecora and Twilight tossed several of the tree chunks off one another, peeking through each crack and opening for any sign of Trixie. One by one, the mountain of leaf and bark was taken apart and tossed onto the ground, the ponies squirming in through the breaks like burrowing moles to search. After breaking down almost a third of the tree pile, Rarity caught something.

“Everyone, down here, I think I’ve found her.” The five other seekers plopped down into the opening Rarity was in, and there they saw their mark. Trixie was lain on her side, wounded by the barrage of trees crashing and pounding against her in the hectic landing. Her hat and cape were muddied and torn and her right hind leg seemed to be broken from a wood pillar landing on it. The look on her face appeared to be one of extreme concentration, as if she was trying desperately not to focus on her injuries. But like a mosquito’s constant buzzing around, its presence could not be ignored. The six all circled around the wounded mare, each with looks of disappointment, inquisition, or a slight bit of satisfaction.

“So much for the tree’s being a distraction, huh Twilight?” Applejack joked. She overlooked the hurt Trixie, taking interest particularly in her shattered leg. “I think its time we got some answers from little Miss Fireworks.” The cowpony quickly trotted over to the front, and leant down to meet the wizard face to face. “Who sent you over here, Trixie?” The cyan mare slowly opened her eyes to gaze up at Applejack. They were no longer a ghostly bright white, but the black outline of faded tendril designs still scoured the edges. She coughed out some sort of muck before responding.

“I think you already know the answer to that question.” Applejack sighed with annoyance before bowing down closer, enough that her and Trixie’s snouts were almost touching. Her forest green eyes narrowed with extreme hostility against the wizard’s seemingly weak yet apathetic blue ones.

“We know who he is, but we don’t know his name. What is it?” Trixie scoffed at the question.

“A name won’t do you any good; you won’t find anything in the history logs or story books about him.” Applejack nearly hissed at her enemy, but Twilight held up her hoof, silently asking to calm herself. She had some of her own questions.

“I assume he was the one that gave you these new powers? Because we know, for a fact, that you don’t practice this kind of magic in your spare time.” Twilight announced, joining Applejack in the shooting of gazes towards the wizard.

“No, you use that to figure out new stories to tell about yourself, don’t you?” Pinkie bitterly added. Trixie just let out a weak chuckle.

“Go on with your insults and your jeers…I don’t care anymore. Even with this new power I still can’t best any of you…” Twilight and Applejack looked up to one another, both thrown off by Trixie’s sudden change of tone. “I’m still the pathetic trickster you all made me out to be.” Twilight sighed with annoyance.

“You did that to yourself, Trixie. You filled everyone’s heads with your false stories and fake accomplishments, but when push came to shove you fell over on your flank side. We just cleaned up your mess.” Applejack was getting antsy, irritated with all of this depression and self-loathing. Clasping a hoof onto Trixie’s cheek she forced her gaze to meet hers.

“Enough with the sob-stories! All of Equestria’s been put at stake here, and you’re helping it ride the wrong side of the track.” Applejack used her other hoof to push down on Trixie’s other, undamaged leg. “Now you tell us who that black stallion is and what he’s after, or I’ll be completing your pair of broken hinds!” Applejack’s rage had hit new heights, ones that even caused her friends to shy back. Twilight especially was concerned, she had never seen her friend threaten someone with bone breakage.

“Applejack?” The unicorn tried to reach out to her, but the infuriated farm pony cut her off.

“This looks like the only way we’re gonna get any answers from this dang stubborn foal, Twilight. I didn’t come here to hear the sad life story of Trixie the Trickster, I came here for answers!” This tirade forced Twilight to join her friends in this shying away. This fire was too big to put out right now. Still, even with what the wizard had done, Twilight feared for Trixie’s safety. Anyone with a brainstem could figure out that Applejack’s hooves already had the strength of steel sledgehammers, and with this rage tightening its grip around her rationality and actions?

The status of Trixie’s wellbeing would be decided on her next words. Twilight stared down at her, and was disappointed. The next words out of the wizard’s mouth her not words at all, but chortles.

“His name will give you no aid, and defeating me has brought you nothing as well. Don’t think I’m the only one whose given myself to this new power, there are others that scour this forsaken land under his grip, waiting to pounce at the exact moment. I was merely sent here…to stall.” With her last word Trixie’s body began to slowly disintegrate into a sort of ashy blackness, piling onto the grass like crushed up autumn leaves. Even in this strange state of slow decay, Trixie continued. “You only have the rest of this day to exist, I’d say make the most of it but I know you’ll spend it fighting until the last bit of sun illuminates the battleground. Even with no hope, you will push on and on…I guest hat deserves some sort of recognition:

“You look for the one with the curved meteor for a mark, you look for the alicorn with no horn to fit the name…you look for the one, named Darkest Night.”

The Mane Five’s faces all morphed into some look or fear, horror, worry, or tension, all the while Trixie laughed her existence away. Her cackling followed her until the last of her being was now that strange dark dust. They all gazed upon the pile, and Rarity gulped with fear.

“Is…is she?” The others whipped their heads back and forth, seeking answers they knew they wouldn’t find from one another. But it came on its own, as the massive pile suddenly leapt up into the air, like a whale lashing out of the water to snatch its meal. All of the ponies flew backwards from the sudden burst of force, scrambling to get back up onto their hooves.

“She’s gettin’ away!” Applejack cried, charging after the slithering wave of ashy particles. Its movements mimicked that of a tidal wave, soaring up off the ground before rolling back down against the dirt. Twilight and the rest of the ponies barely managed to keep up alongside the black mass, galloping at the fastest speeds they could muster.

“Girls, try and catch some of it!” Twilight announced from the rear of the pack. She herself attempted to carry out her own order by collecting some of the entity and trapping it in a sphere or magic. The orb seemed to have totally isolated the creature with no problem, until it rematerialized into the form of massive jaws, and ate through the trap, crunching through the glass-like shielding like a kid biting a lollipop. It then slithered to join is massive other body. Applejack whipped her head back, letting her hat fly up into the air, before leaping up and clamping the edge of it between her teeth. Then closed in next to the massive being, and jammed her hat inside, hoping to scoop out some of the essence. When she pulled it out, inside she saw the ashy bits starting to eat their way out of her hat, like termites through wood. Avoiding contact with the little fragments of darkness, Applejack whipped her hat away.

“Nothings working!” The hatless cowpony shouted between pants and wheezes, finally losing her speed and letting the colossal mass put distance between them. It dived for a darker, deeper part of the forest with all it had, knowing the ponies couldn’t navigate through such a nature dense, tree cluttered path. Two massive paws grew out of the massive locomotive of a heap, and with them it fired itself into a dolphin dive, straight into the trees. The whip-like tail of the mass was the last to attempt to enter the forest, but something came between it and slashed the appendage from the rest of its being. Pinkie Pie dived through the back, whipping her hoof around the black substance in mid-air, before landing on the ground near-seamlessly. The monster formerly seen as Trixie had already gone, so the Mane Five simply stopped by the party pony to see what she had done. With her back facing the ponies, Pinkie grunted and muddled to herself as her hooves fidgeted and tinkered with something concealed. Applejack tired to look over her friend’s shoulder. “Uh, Pinkie Pie, what’re you-?”

“SSSSSHHHHHHHH!” Pinkie silenced Applejack with a sputtering shush, and then returned to her task. A few seconds passed before Pinkie’s fluttering finally ceased. She then whipped around to present her feat.

The five found themselves gazing upon one bit of the monster, twitching and throwing itself against the prison Pinkie had trapped it, in a pink rubber balloon. Dumbfounded faces surrounded the creature, as it bashed against the elastic walls of its prison. It then took the previously seen form of a pair of jaws, and bit into the balloon’s side. Every pony flinched sharply, awaiting the loud, startling pop. However, it never came. Twilight was the first to open her eyes, and the dumbfounded look over too her previously clenched face.

“Pinkie…how did you...?” The party pony held up the party favor with a sense of delight and success.

“You guys remember that time Pokey Pearce nearly popped all of my balloons at my last party?” Every pony took a minute to consciously search for that moment in time. Quickly the image of the blue-coated, white-haired unicorn splitting every rubber orb at Pinkie’s party came into view, startling the nearby fillies and colts. A drawn-out “Ohhhhh” floated out of every pony’s mouth as realization came, with Pinkie nodding. “Remember that day went to Manehattan for some shopping? I bought myself these new, unpopable balloons!” Pinkie giggled at herself, feeling unintentionally clever and witty with her tactic. Twilight and the rest didn’t bother to question her as to why a set of balloons were on her person, they had come to accept such surprises and discovery of random possessions on the pink pony. All they cared about was what they had just collected from all their strife against the powerful Trixie:

Discovery that this creature could manipulate and control other ponies, an actual piece of the creature controlling her…and a name.

Darkest Night…