Twilight Sparkle was sent to Ponyville by her mentor Princess Celestia. She brought along her number one assistant and best friend, Spike and her daughter, Eclipse. There she met a white, unicorn mare named Rarity and her little sister, Sweetie Belle. Twilight ended up living with Rarity because she had nowhere else to stay. Soon the five became best friends. They lived together happily for a year before disaster struck. Nopony knew why or how it happened but nopony would ever forget.
Walking home cheerfully from the store one afternoon, Twilight was humming a song she heard long ago. Looking about Ponyville, she noted something odd, causing her to falter in her steady trot: a pony had two shadows behind him! The shadow slowly began to move away from the oblivious pony and into the dark alleyway where it disappeared into the shadows.
Twilight shook her head and convinced herself that she was just seeing things. She continued on her way home, not quite as happy as before. She thought it was over until a few minutes later, it happened again, to a different pony who was buying a cake from Sugarcube Corner. Twilight was beginning to panic as she saw the double shadows trail behind ponies everywhere she walked. She began wondering if she was losing her mind, but she managed to make her way home without having a nervous breakdown or dropping her groceries.
She felt a little bit better when she was greeted by an enthusiastic, "Yay! Mommy's home!" from her daughter Eclipse. Twilight was relieved to see that everything at home was normal. Rarity was working on some dress orders and Sweetie Belle was practicing her singing. So, now that Twilight was almost certain that her mind was just playing tricks on her, she put the groceries away and then walked over to the two fillies and said, "Hey, girls!"
"What is it Twilight?" Sweetie asked.
"I think it's a beautiful day and we should all go on a walk while Rarity is working," Twilight said.
"Sounds fun, Mom!" Eclipse exclaimed.
"Can I come, too?" Spike asked excitedly.
"Of course," said Twilight, "Let's go then!"
The four of them trotted along happily. until they came to the edge of town. They spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying themselves. But, that evening, something ominous pervaded the serene atmosphere. Twilight noticed a certain yellow Pegasus hiding underneath a bench, she recognized her as Fluttershy, since she was Rarity's closest friend before meeting Twilight. They had met briefly a couple times, but the timid Pegasus preferred to keep to herself. Twilight walked over to her and asked her, "Are you okay, Fluttershy?"
"No," she replied, almost in a whisper.
"Why?" Twilight inquired.
"They're after me," Fluttershy said, her voice tremulous.
"What are?" asked Twilight.
"The Shadows," Fluttershy replied solemnly.
Twilight gasped when she realized this couldn't be a coincidence.
"They're making everypony either really sad or extremely angry," Fluttershy said.
"Oh, dear," Twilight said.
"Oh and one more thing, the Shadows are really fast," Fluttershy added matter-of-factly. And with that, Fluttershy ran off.
Twilight quickly ran back to where the kids were playing and said, "We need to go. NOW. Sweetie, tell Rarity to pack only the essentials. Spike, Eclipse, you pack, too. We're leaving tonight. Don't ask questions, I'll explain later." And they all went home and of course Rarity packed everything. They left at sunset, when shadows lengthen.
