The Rise of Nightshade

by Brickbrock24

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Original Character
Length: 19001

A new villain has risen to lead evil to victory by binding Equestria in darkness. His name is Nightshade, and he's pulling no punches! Can Twilight Sparkle and her friends figure out what Nightshade is up to and thwart his malevolent plans?

It was a time of peace in Equestria. With Tirek out the picture, it seemed ponies could finally go about their lives without worry.

Of course, that's never the case! Ponies have been disappearing throughout Equestria and there have been sightings of a scoundrel with glowing scleras the color of honey. Because of this, Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends must, once again, embark on a journey to stop the new threat that puts all of Equestria in grave danger! Be warned, little equines, there may be more to this villain than meets the eye...

Cover art by Brickbrock24 (That's me! :raritystarry:)

(I am currently planning to redo the cover art!)

Progress of next chapter: 25%

Published 2015-02-03 06:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-03-14 02:41:27 UTC

Chapter 1: Enter Prince Nightshade!

The Rise of Nightshade

By: Brickbrock24

Chapter 1

‘Twas just another day in the humble town of Ponyville. The weather was beautiful, the air was fresh and clean, the food was delicious, and everypony was enjoying the time of peace and prosperity. The citizens of the town could go about doing their share for the community without the fear that fate would suddenly throw a curveball; like a supernatural disaster, a random demon lord, or some other scenario that would surprise them like a cruel jack-in-the-box. It had been a few months since Twilight Sparkle, the esteemed Princess of Friendship, had defeated Tirek in battle. It seemed, at that point, that Equestria could finally catch a break from all the terror and hullabaloo that these villains would cause.

The story begins at Rarity’s boutique, where the fashion enthusiast herself was hard at work creating top-of-the-line attire and jewelry for all, from the normal to the ridiculously foppish. And, of course, who better to be Rarity’s guinea pigs than her own best friends. Rarity, along with Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash had been burning the candle at both ends for the past day and a half during one Rarity’s "Inspiration Bursts”. The group had been helping out Rarity all morning and were settling down for a lunch break.

“Everypony, I cannot thank you all enough for your help with my fashion designs!” said Rarity cheerfully, “We’re almost done! If we keep at it, we’ll be done in half an hour!”

“Ugh, you said that about 50 dresses ago, Rarity!” grumbled Rainbow Dash, “Can I go now? It’s the perfect day to be flying and I don’t wanna be stuck in here all day!”

“No, Rainbow Dash, you promised me and Rarity that you would stay until she was finished! After all, you owe her,” said Twilight with a hint of rebuke in her voice.

“I never should’ve made that promise, stupid Element of Loyalty!”

Rarity sighed, “Well, since fashion is such a bitter subject right now, is there anything somepony would like to discuss?”

“Well,” Twilight began, “My brother’s wedding anniversary is coming up soon and I was thinking of throwing a party for him to celebrate.” The word ‘party’ made Pinkie Pie turn on like a light. She became hyper, as if she had eaten five gallons of sugar in one sitting, and began to splutter out words faster than Rainbow Dash could fly.

“Oooooooh, a party! I’ll create the ultimate party for you!” Pinkie Pie began, completely forgetting that her mouth was full of chewed up sandwich. With almost every word she said, bits of sandwich goop flew out her mouth and bombarded everything on the dining room table (including the other ponies) like a volley of arrows, “So we’ll decorate your castle with streamers and balloons and -- OOooooh! I’ll make this new dessert I’ve been working on! The Q.L.P.C.C.C.B.L.C.S.L.F.T.V.T.C.P.C.F.T.C.S.P.S.H.S.B.C.W.C.! I’ll invite everypony we know and we’ll jump out and surprise him when he arrives with Candace! I’ve definitely gotta break out the party cannon for this occasion! I’ll bring confetti and party hats and cupcakes and -”

“Slow down there, Pinkie!” interrupted Twilight, Pinkie Pie was talking so fast that Twilight could barely comprehend what she was saying, “I’m sure whatever you’ve got in mind will work just fine. But what was that obnoxiously long acronym?”

Pinkie hastily answered, “Quadruple Layered Pound Cake with Cookie Cake on the Bottom Layer, Chocolate in the Second Layer, Fudge in the Third, and Vanilla on Top Covered in Pink Chocolate Frosting Topped with Cherries and Sprinkles and Peanuts and Strawberries and Hot Sauce and Brownie Chunks and Whipped Cream!”

Rainbow Dash, who had been wistfully staring out the window at the perfect day that mocked her, suddenly chimed in, “Don’t forget the cider! If you forget, I’m gonna be REALLY disappointed in you!”

“Don’t worry, Dashie!” Pinkie assured Rainbow Dash, “I’ll make sure Applejack brings a whole ton of cider for the party!”

“Hmph, you’ll probably guzzle it all down before I even get a drop…” mumbled Rainbow Dash.

“I’m sorry, but-” Rarity said, still confused in trying to understand Pinkie Pie’s run-on acronym - “why in Equestria would you add hot sauce to a cake?” Before another word could be said, the conversation was put on hold by a knock on the door, “Hold that thought, darling, I’ll be right back.” Rarity got up from her seat and went to answer the door.

“Aw, no!” groaned Rainbow Dash, “Look at the storm clouds coming in, and they’re way too big for me to destroy by myself!” Rarity had returned to the table and along side her came Fluttershy, who was holding too rolled up pieces of paper in her mouth - one of which was slightly larger than the other.

Twilight got up and greeted her, “Hello, Fluttershy! What brings you here?”

“Um, well… I was strolling in town today and Spike came up to me,” said Fluttershy, “He, uh, told me he had gotten a message for you shortly after you left to come here and, um, asked me to deliver it to you.” She spit out the two rolled up papers onto the table and passed the smaller one over to Twilight.

Twilight unrolled the paper and said, “Hey, it’s a message from my brother, Shining Armor!”

“OOOooooh! What’s it say?! What’s it say?!” asked Pinkie Pie. Twilight slowly began to read the letter out loud. As she read the letter, anxiety slowly crept into her body and spread to the the other ponies listening like a virus.

Dear Twilight,

How are you doing? Are you enjoying yourself as an alicorn princess? If you are, then I’m happy for you! It’s nice to know that my little sister is doing alright!

But that’s not why I’m writing to you. I pray that you get this message before anything happens to you and your friends. I hate to be a bringer of bad news, but there’s a major crisis going on right now in the Crystal Empire! Ponies have been mysteriously vanishing throughout the Empire and I don’t know why! It’s been happening so gradually that I didn’t even notice what was going on until about two days ago. I’m not sure why this is happening, but I get an ominous vibe from it. I do not believe this is a natural occurrence, as nopony in the Crystal Empire has any problems with living there.

What adds to my apprehension even more is that one of the ponies that have gone missing is my wife, Princess Candace. I left her alone only for a few minutes and she was gone in a flash! I’m very worried for her safety, for I fear she might have been ponynapped! The anguish I feel thinking about what the cruel, heartless scoundrels responsible for such a heinous act might do to my sweet Candace torments me every minute of everyday! But, unfortunately, it doesn’t end there…

I’ve been hearing rumors that the Crystal Empire is not the only place that is suffering from this catastrophe. According to reports from tourists who come to visit the Empire, this has been happening all over Equestria right under everypony’s noses. Baltimare, Fillydelphia, Ponyville, and even Canterlot have several reports of missing ponies, some of whom have been missing for months and even years! I’ve already contacted Celestia on the matter and she says she’s looking into this matter with the Elders. She’s upped the security in Canterlot tenfold and last night, she wrote to me about something interesting that she discovered.

There have been sightings very recently around Ponyville and Everfree Forest of a suspicious character prowling about. Mayor Mare sent Celestia and I some sketches that were drawn based on the descriptions of the witnesses. We closely examined the sketches and came to the inference that the pony that was seen is most likely an elusive fugitive that we had failed to capture half a decade ago, back when I still lived in Canterlot. The criminal’s name is Nightshade and the soldiers he escaped from reported that his brother and sister also fled with him. I’ve been told by Celestia and Mayor Mare that they’ve had their citizens put up wanted posters of this pony all over Ponyville and Canterlot.

I should probably wrap up this letter, lest I let my worries turn into rambling and a waste of ink. Twilight, please be extra careful! I don’t recommend that you go out alone or during the night, as it would be throwing caution to the wind to your safety. Promise your big brother that you and your wonderful friends won’t do anything foolhardy, as I don’t think I could endure another round of grief that would puncture my heart if something were to happen to you. Again, please be careful!

Sincerely Yours,

Shining Armor

Twilight put down the paper and everypony just sat still in fearful silence. What they had just heard Twilight read had cast a blanket of apprehension over the room, much like the dark clouds that now fully covered the sky outside. Twilight then unrolled the other paper that Fluttershy brought with her and spread it over the table so everypony could see it and read it. It was one of the wanted posters of Nightshade that was mentioned in the letter. There was a colorless sketch of his face, which was very handsome to everypony’s surprise. Below it were some highlights and descriptions:

Wanted: Nightshade

Be on the lookout for a jet black Earth pony with a crimson mane and tail. This fugitive is responsible for a series of major heists from several stores in Ponyville five years ago. Subject has been described to have red eyes with scleras the color of honey that appear to slightly illuminate in the dark. If you spot this pony, file a report to a guard or Mayor Mare immediately!

Reward for capture: 10,000 bits

After examining the poster, Rainbow Dash finally broke the silence, “W-wow, ten thousand bits! This pony must be quite the baddie!”

“Th-that’s, um, n-not the part I’m w-worried about…” quietly stammered Fluttershy, trembling with fear “Wh-what I’m w-worried about is th-that h-he’s right around Ponyville. Wh-what if he’s n-near -- EEEEEK!” A roaring boom of thunder shattered the silent atmosphere of the room and made Fluttershy dive under the table with her hooves covering her head, her trembling doubling in strength.

“Well, I’m scared right now! Are you scared right now, Dashie?” asked Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow Dash knew she was frightened on the inside, but she tried to look like she wasn’t, “Ha, I’m not scared in the slightest! I bet I could-” Suddenly, there was a very loud banging on the front door that effortlessly broke Rainbow Dash’s poker face - “YAAAAH! It’s him! He’s gonna get me! He’s gonna break my wings!”

“Well, so much for the big, brave Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight, rolling her eyes, “I’m pretty sure that was just the door…”

“I wonder who could be at the door?” asked Rarity, “I couldn’t imagine anypony would want to walk outside with the weather we’re having.” The knocking on the door got louder and harsher. Rarity walked to the door shouting, “Alright! Alright! I’m coming!” A few seconds later, a horrible crashing noise echoed through the the house followed by Rarity’s scream. Everypony in the kitchen got up and cantered towards the the front door.

When they got to the living room, Twilight and friends were shocked at what they saw. Three evil-looking ponies had broken down Rarity’s front door and had backed her into a corner. The pony in the center of the group had scarlet armor that looked different from the other two, along with a coat the color of an eggplant and a neon green mane and tail. The two ponies beside him looked a smidge different. Their eyes, unlike the center thug pony’s normal eyes, were cherry red and lacked pupils and irises. Their armor was as black as the night and had manes and tails that were turquoise instead of green. Like the center pony, whom Twilight and friends assumed to be the leader of the pack, their coats were also purple as an eggplant. All three of these malicious ponies wielded long, sharp spears and pointed them at Rarity.

“Now look here, little pony, I don’t want to have to gut who with my spear. So be a good little filly and hand over all of your jewels!” said the center pony, his voice was deep and demonic-sounding.

“Ya, you better hand over all your gems to da boss!” added the thug to the leader’s left.

The pony in scarlet whipped his head towards the pawn that spoke and snapped, “Hey, I already said that! Why do you have to repeat everything I say? It’s so freaking annoying!”

“Sorry, boss…” responded the pawn, looking down at his hooves in shame.

“Boss! Look over dere!” said the other goon, looking at and pointing his free hoof at Twilight, “Da little white mare’s got friends over! What should we do about dem?”

The evil leader turned his head and stared at Twilight, “Well, look at that! Seems you have some company today, little mare.” He thought for a second, then smiled sinisterly, “I ask again, fork over your jewelry and I won’t have to hurt you in front of your friends!”

After he said that, the sound of clanging metal filled his ears. The lead pony thug turned around and before he could assess the situation, he found himself slammed against the wall after taking a mighty kick to the face. Applejack, who arrived unnoticed by both the evil ponies and Twilight and her friends, had snuck up behind them. When she got up close, she slammed the heads of the two black armored ponies together and whalloped the scarlet armored pony with her two back hooves. When the two black armored ponies fell to the ground, something happened that truly astonished everypony. They exploded into black smoke filled with golden glitter that twinkled like stars in the night sky.

“Oh, Applejack! Thank goodness you’re here!” said Rarity, sighing a huge breath of relief.

“Um, wh-what just happened?” quietly asked Fluttershy, “Why did those thugs just… explode like that? A-are they…”

“I dunno, but that was SO COOL!” shouted Pinkie Pie, “They were all like happy festival fireworks! Oooooooh, do you think we can find more?! Maybe I can launch them out of my party cannon into the sky and we can put on a show!”

“What I’m even more curious about is why the one in red didn’t turn into glitter…” pondered Twilight.

“Will y’all stop talkin’ about why the thug I gave the ol’ one-two and fillin’ the sky with razzle-dazzle and listen up! There’s an emergency over at the farm!” yelled Applejack, who already had something else on her mind, “A whole bunch of these creeps are attackin’ mah farm as we speak! I was doin’ mah chores and enjoyin’ the nice weather when these thugs showed and started stealin’ apples from our trees! Mah brother an’ I tried to fight ‘em off, but there were far too many of ‘em! Now they’re holdin’ mah family hostage while they continue to plunder apples and cider!”

“WHAT?!” shouted Rainbow Dash, the memories of the sweet savory taste of Apple Family cider awakened some sense of justice inside her, “What’re we waiting for? We gotta stop those crooks! It’s bad enough Pinkie steals all the cider during cider season, and I’m not gonna let them hog it all now!”

Suddenly, the group a hoarse chuckle. They turned and saw the goon that Applejack defeated staring at them with a smirk on his face, “Hehehehe… You foals will never make it in time! My master knew you all would be here, so he sent me and those other two to raid this boutique in order to buy him some time! My master’s probably wrapping things up right now! Hehehe…” The fallen thug leader let out a final chuckle before losing consciousness.

“Let’s not waste anymore time! Let’s go, everypony!” said Twilight.

“Yeah!” shouted everypony else. The six friends galloped out the door and headed for Sweet Apple Acres. As they ran to the farm, the wind began to pick up intensity. The sky was now painted with storm clouds, which began to drool on the land with a light drizzle. Every now and then, a flash of lightning brightened the sky and was followed by an intense crack of thunder. When they got to the farm, the six friends saw exactly what Applejack told them. A horde of the same black-armored and scarlet-armored ponies (mostly black-armored) had surrounded the Apple family against the barn. There not only Earth ponies, but also unicorns and pegasi in the mix as well. They grinned and laughed as they pointed their spears and drawn bows at their prey. In the distance, another dozen of these evil ponies were harvesting apples and hauling off large barrels of cider.

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy rushed into the entrance and cantered towards the crowd near the barn.

Applejack walked up and shouted, “Alright, you monsters, I’m back! I demand you release my family, NOW!!” The horde turned and stared stared her down. When they noticed she had company, they looked among each other with a bit of concern and looked back towards something. Suddenly, from the back of the crowd came a loud chuckle. The voice was very mature-sounding, not too high and not too low. The ranks of the evil ponies divided in two as they made way for their leader to stride through and greet his enemies.

Their leader stood in front of Twilight and her friends, analyzing them with a . He was a handsome jet-black pony with a crimson mane and tail that was very neatly groomed. He looked about the same age as Twilight and was only a bit taller than her. He was clad in silver colored armor that had gilded edges, as well as gilded streaks along the breastplate. But the feature that was immediately noticed by the Mane Six was his eyes. The honey-colored scleras glew with the brightness of a faint candle in the dark stormy weather and the red irises pierced through the souls of what they leered at. He cleared his throat and spoke,

“Well, well… Looks like the hillfilly has returned, and I see you’ve brought some friends home with you!” He stepped towards Twilight and stared at her for a bit. His eyes then gleamed as he recognized the purple mare, “Ah, Princess Twilight Sparkle! It is a pleasure to finally meet you! Wow, you’re so much prettier than I expected... Um, anyway, I hear you’ve been a busy mare in the last couple of years, knocking down villain after villain and studying the so-called ‘magic of friendship’. Excuse me, but where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself -”

“We know exactly who you are!” said Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah!” shouted Pinkie Pie, “You’re Fightglade!”

The crimson maned pony sighed in annoyance, “No, you pink foal, my name is Nightshade; though I’d prefer it if you called me by my full title: Prince Nightshade! As you can see, my soldiers and I are helping ourselves to your delicious apple goodies!”

“Why are you doing this?!” asked Twilight.

“Hey, a villain’s gotta eat, right?” answered Nightshade, he paused and pondered for a moment, then said, “There is undoubtedly a fascinating story on how the princess of friendship came to be friends with a spunky athlete, a pink weirdo, a fashion freak, an apple slave, and a pathetically shy animal lover.”

“Well, actually there is!” said Twilight, “You see, I-”

Splat!

Before Twilight could say anymore, Prince Nightshade had thrown a water balloon filled with ink at her face. Rainbow Dash started giggling, but all of her friends stared at her with grimaces on their faces.

“What?” she mumbled, “I can’t be the only one who found that funny…”

“I’m sorry, were you saying something?” Nightshade mockingly asked, “Anyway, I’m sure you’re all truly fascinated by my soldiers. They really are a phenomena of magic. You see, the ponies clad in black are made entirely out of magic. I call them… Shadow Ponies. Now, while they are very efficient in carrying out the tasks I give them, they weren’t exactly the ponies I was looking for in my army.”

“Wait a minute,” said Rarity, “There’s no way you can use magic! You’re not a unicorn!”

“Very observant, Ms. Fop!” said Nightshade, glad to see his assailants were paying attention, “Indeed, I am no unicorn, and yet…” He took two little emeralds out of a pocket in his armor and began to squeeze them in his hoof. The gems suddenly were enveloped in a pink light and soon the emeralds had turned into mysterious purple crystals that looked like there were little dark embers on the inside.

“Isn’t malicite such a beautiful crystal?” asked Nightshade, staring at the jewels he had just created with fascination. He tossed one in the air and it landed at Twilight Sparkle’s feet, “Here, think of it as a little something from me! May some of its evil rub off on you!” Twilight and friends stared at Nightshade in awe, as if they’d seen a ghost. They just stood there speechless with their mouths ajar at what they had just witnessed. A pony, not a unicorn, had just performed incredibly advanced dark magic.

“I-it’s not possible…” murmured Twilight.

“Ha, look at your faces!” said Nightshade with a grin, “I just blew your minds, didn’t I? No, I don’t even need to ask, I know for a fact that you’re all dazzled! And now, mares and gentlecolts, I present to you my next trick! The amazing flying filly!” He turned around and lifted his left front hoof towards his hostages. His hoof became surrounded in an eerie purple light and so did the ‘volunteer’ he picked out - Apple Bloom. Soon she was lifted in the air by Nightshade’s powerful telekinesis.

“Hey! Put me down!” she squealed. Apple Bloom writhed and struggled, but it was no use. Nightshade’s magic had an iron grip on her as he waved his hoof around to make her fly in random directions at high speeds. “I… I think…” stammered Apple Bloom, “I think I’m gonna be sick…”

Applejack and her friends watched in both horror and outrage as they watched this cruel, sinister pony torture Apple Bloom.

“Put. My. Sister. DOWN!” snarled Applejack through gritted teeth. She couldn’t watch Nightshade’s heartless demonstration for another minute. Nightshade said nothing; he simply took the hoof he was using to control Apple Bloom’s crazy flight, put it in his mouth, and bit it at her.

“D-did you just bite your hoof at her?!” yelled Rarity and Twilight simultaneously, they were just as offended as Applejack.

“Why, yes, I did bite my hoof, little fillies! I didn’t necessarily bite my hoof at the farmer, but I did bite my hoof!” responded Nightshade.

“Oh, that’s it!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “I can’t take this anymore! I’m gonna teach you some manners, you red headed thug!” With a flap of her wings, she charged at Nightshade as fast she could. Nightshade simply chuckled and infused his hoof with a different type of magic. He held it out in front of him and stopped the speeding bullet that was Rainbow Dash dead in her tracks, barely being pushed back by her outstanding velocity.

“H-how did he…” muttered Fluttershy in terror, her eyes were lit with fear as she watched her friend be stopped like a bird flying into a window.

Nightshade slowly shook his head and clicked his tongue as he held Rainbow Dash in his magically strengthened hoof, “Tsk-tsk, out of all the things you could’ve possibly done, you choose to charge directly at me as fast as you can? How boring! I was really expecting more from the great and vigorous Rainbow Dash!” He quickly spun around and sent Rainbow Dash flying into an apple tree with a swift and powerful kick of his back legs, “Anyway back to the the story of my troops! I was getting to the good part about the ponies clad in scarlet! You see, little mares, they were once ordinary ponies! That is, until I infused dark magic into their hearts and souls. The results were better than I had hoped; they’re stronger, faster, smarter, and more durable than the Shadow Ponies. I call these perfect soldiers... the Darklings!”

Twilight tried to evaluate all that was going on. The sheer amount of thoughts and emotions that her mind was taking of the situation, from the anger towards Nightshade to trying to hypothesize how Nightshade had his powers, was turning her brain into spaghetti. Then, a realization suddenly reached her brain,

“It’s you…” she said emotionlessly, “You’re the one behind the disappearances of all those ponies! You’re turning them into warriors for your army!”

“Wow, you catch on fast!” said Prince Nightshade, “Then again, I should expect that from a nerdy mare like you. Anyway, I hate to be a stick in the mud; but I’m afraid I must be going, now! I’m a busy colt, you know, and I have much bigger plans for Equestria that I must be preparing for! Plus, this rain is really messing up my mane and I really don’t want to catch a cold! So, I’ll just place this filly down nice and easy and - Aaaaaaaargh! My head!” Suddenly, Nightshade felt a great deal of pain in his head. He released his grip on Apple Bloom and fell to his knees while clenching his head with his front hooves. Ominous purple lightning sparks began to emerge around his head and flew out in all directions.

Apple Bloom fell like a stone, screaming her head off as she did so. Luckily, Rainbow Dash had recovered from her tree injury and managed to swoop in and save her from hitting the ground. Nightshade continued to endure the immense amount of pain he was feeling. Then, as quickly as it came, the pain suddenly went away along with the purple lightning around his head.

“Urgh… Another one of those awful headaches…” mumbled Nightshade to himself, “They’ve been getting so much more painful and frequent recently! U-urgh… I don’t think my head can bear it much longer. I must recuperate at the campsite!”

“Your Majesty, are you alright?” asked one of the Darklings.

Nightshade turned to his platoon, where they immediately stood at attention when he did, “I’m fine! Don’t worry about it! Now, listen up, my minions! We’re going back to the campsite! Once there, we will finish the final preparations for our next big plan!” Prince Nightshade glanced at Twilight and friends and smiled, “Au revoir, my pretties! I warn you, the magic I have demonstrated tonight was but a mere hors d’oeuvre compared to my true power! Get in my way again, and you shall all feast on a five-course meal!” With that being said, he threw a smoke bomb down at his feet and disappeared in the puff of purple smoke. His soldiers soon hustled out of the farm after their master.

Applejack ran over to her little sister and hugged out of relief, “Are you alright, li’l sis’?”

“Not really…” answered Apple Bloom, trying to hold in the vomit, “Listen, sis… Th-they took Big Mac…”

“WHAT?!” yelled Twilight, “That monster of a pony took your brother?” She thought for a moment, then her eyes shrunk at a terrifying realization, “I think I know what’s he’s gonna do with him…”

“What’re we waiting for?!” said Rainbow Dash, “We gotta go after him!”

“Are you crazy, Dashie?” said Pinkie Pie, though that slightly ironic statement gave her some funny looks from her friends, “Did you not hear what Prince Heightraid just told us? He was gonna serve us five courses of dark magic into our faces if he ran into us again! Oh, why couldn’t he have meant a five-course cheese dinner?”

“Rainbow Dash’s right,” said Granny Smith, she was shivering a bit from the rain and wind that got ever so slightly heavier by the minute, “Y’all gotta go after that crook and save my grandson!”

“B-but Granny Smith…” said Fluttershy, she was shivering the most from the rough weather, though that wasn’t the only factor, “I g-get the feeling that that d-dark prince is much more than an apple thief!”

“No, my grandmother and Dash are right!” solemnly said Applejack, “We can’t just stand around like a couple of haystacks while that no-good Nightshade threatens more innocent ponies! I say we go after him! Who’s with me?” Applejack put her out her hoof and all of her friends joined in by putting their hooves in as well.

“Count me in! I’m always in for an adventure!” excitedly exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

“Of course, I’m in! We ponies have gotta stick together!” said Twilight Sparkle.

“Absolutely! I can’t forgive that cruel pony for sending his goons to trash my home and hurt my friends!” said Rarity.

“I’m in, too!” Pinkie Pie chimed in.

“Um, alright,” quietly said Fluttershy, “I, um, I guess I’ll put my hoof in as well…”

“Aw, yeah! It’s settled! We’re going on a quest!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah, but where do we go?” asked Twilight. She didn’t want to waste time searching random locations.

“They’re… camped in Everfree Forest…” said Apple Bloom, still fatigued from her traumatic experience, “I heard... one of Nightshade’s minions... talk about it to each other while they… had us surrounded…”

“Then, it’s settled!” said Twilight, “We’re going to Everfree!” As she prepared to leave, Twilight closed her eyes, lowered her head, and quietly whispered to herself, “Celestia, please let us be safe…”

The group gave a final glance towards Sweet Apple Acres and galloped towards their destination.

Chapter 2: Within the Woods

The Rise of Nightshade
By: Brickbrock24

Chapter 2

The hard sheets of rain slashed against our heroes as they galloped towards Everfree Forest with great haste. The wind ferociously howled as it swept across the land and gave chills to anypony unfortunate enough to be caught in its wrath. The rain, the wind, and the complaints of some of her friends were nothing compared to the real monkey on Twilight Sparkle’s back: Prince Nightshade. Thoughts of curiosity and apprehension flooded her mind with questions about this new enemy - he wasn’t some legend that could be looked up in a book or be told about in a fascinating oral tale by Princess Celestia.

Twilight looked at the ominous purple gem that Nightshade gave to her during their encounter, “What is this gem?” she asked to herself, “I’ve never seen a crystal like this before, nor have I ever seen anypony, much less an Earth pony, turn a normal crystal into another kind of gem before! How does he have that kind of magic?! Oooooh, my head hurts!” The amount of toil Twilight’s mind was enduring was incredibly exhausting and she began to feel sharp pangs in her head. She decided that it would probably be best if she relaxed her thoughts on the heat of the moment and focused on the task at hoof.

Twilight and friends arrived at the edge of the forest. Everfree had a much darker feel than it usually did. The moon had risen, but it really didn’t make a difference whether it was night or not due to the thick storm clouds that shrouded even the sun’s shine from those under them. The harsh wind made most of the tree branches waver fiercely about, preventing them from sheltering the woodlands from the torrential downpour. Lightning flashed and struck more frequently. The thunder it generated seemed to get more deafening as the storm raged on.

“Uh, d-do we really h-have to go into the forest?” stammered Fluttershy, the shivers from the dreadful weather, the darkness of both the night and the storm, and the terrors of Nightshade had really withered down her sanity, “It’s so d-d-dark and wh-what if we r-run into you-know-who in there…”

“I’d like to get this over with,” said Rarity, “The mud’s really starting to build up in my hooves. It’s because of that Nightshade creep that I’m going to be spending weeks scrubbing off this awful caked sludge!”

Twilight put an assuring hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder, “We’ll be fine, Fluttershy,” she said in a soothing tone, though she wasn’t sure if what she was saying would turn out to be true, “We’ll be right by you the whole time. We’ll explore Everfree Forest one baby step at a time and find Prince Nightshade.” Her words helped to lift a small bit of Fluttershy’s fear; but it would, without a doubt, be back with reinforcements.

The group entered the forest. Their coats were awfully drenched from all of the heavy rain that fell from the sky. The woods were much more terrifying on the inside, filling them all with the fear that the enemy could literally be hiding behind any one of the thousands of trees that stood stalwart against the weather. Well, except for Pinkie Pie, who bounced about in a cheerful mood, humming a diddy to herself.

“How can you be bouncy at a time like this?” asked Rainbow Dash, “It’s pouring rain and we’re in the middle of a stinking forest looking for a deranged magic Earth pony!”

“Hey, that’s no reason not to smile, right?” answered Pinkie Pie, “Would you like to join me in imagination land? Right now, I’m pretending I’m a pink mop being used by the royal janitor! Today, I get to clean Celestia’s throne room!”

“I’m sorry I asked…” mumbled Rainbow Dash.

It didn’t take long for Pinkie to come up with another idea, “Not up for imagination land, huh? OOOOOooh! I know! Hey, Applejack! Do you wanna play ‘I spy’ again?”

“Ugh, no…” said Applejack, but it was in one ear and out the other with her hyper pink friend.

“Ok, I spy with my little eye something… tall!”

Applejack sighed. It was another stupid, obvious clue that pointed to the same answer as the previous three rounds, “It’s a tree again, isn’t it?”

“Wow, you’re so good at this game!” gleefully said Pinkie Pie, “Okay, now it’s your turn! Gimme a clue!”

“I really don’t wanna…”

“Aw, come on! Show me some enthusiasm!”

“Fine!” snapped Applejack, “I spy, with my l’il eye, somethin’ pink and irritating!”

Pinkie Pie thought long and hard about this painfully obvious clue, “Wow, this is a tough one…” she said as she looked around the shady woods.

“You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me,” whispered Applejack to herself.

“I bet it’s that rash on your hoof!” said Rainbow Dash, pointing at Applejack’s left foreleg.

“What in the hay are you talkin’ about?” asked Applejack, looking down at her hoof, “I don’t have a rash…” As soon as Applejack looked down, Rainbow Dash flicked the hoof she was pointing with up and playfully bopped Applejack in the nose.

“Ha, gotcha!” giggled Rainbow Dash, “Hey, you’re right, Pinkie! That did make me feel better!”

“Will you two stop goofing around and focus?!” irritably asked Twilight. With all the racket Pinkie was making, she was surprised they weren’t ambushed by a party of Nightshade’s soldiers, “Look, I see a light over there!” The group trotted over to the dim flicker of light to see what was making it. When they got close enough to see more detail, Twilight and friends discovered that it was what they had been seeking: Nightshade’s camp.

The camp was located in a medium-sized clearing with a thin canopy of branches reaching over it that shielded the campground from aerial view. There were large white military tents surrounding a huge bonfire pit, which was surprisingly still burning in the deluge. Shadow Ponies and Darklings were all about the site. Some stood guard, standing like statues oblivious to the rain. Some were being competitive with each other, others were training themselves in various weaponry - such as shattering cinder blocks with arrows with horseshoes on the end of them instead of broadhead tips. In the tents, Twilight and friends could hear some of the soldiers playing competitive games such as cards and hoof wrestling.

“Look, there’s my brother!” whispered Applejack, pointing her hoof. There stood Big MacIntosh, sad and alone, enduring nature’s cruelty. His neck was chained to a sturdy pole and his legs were in shackles. A muzzle had been placed tightly on his mouth. Applejack was about to rush in and save him, but was stopped by Twilight’s hoof. For a second, Applejack was furious that Twilight would stop her, but then she noticed that Nightshade was walking toward her brother. Twilight and friends crept up closer to get better clarity on what Nightshade was saying to him.

“Why, hello there, my big red friend,” mockingly said Nightshade, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you… anymore, that is.” Nightshade slowly paced around Big Macintosh, analyzing him as if he was judging art for an art contest. “Such magnificent brawn! I’d expect that from a pony who slaves away on a farm all day for a living. Such a waste of your time…” Big Macintosh struggled with his bindings and yelled muffled sentences at Nightshade, for what he said about his life being a waste greatly insulted both him and his family.

Nightshade ignored him and continued, “Now, I know you must be not on the ball with what’s going on or why you’re here, my friend. But I can assure you that your life’s about to get better. With your healthy body and great strength, you are worthy of becoming a Darkling and serving me! Doesn’t that sound wonderful?” Big Macintosh’s eye shrank with fear when Nightshade told him this. Knowing how cruel his captor was, Big Mac realized what Prince Nightshade might make him do: attack his own family as a Darkling.

Twilight and friends watched in horror as Nightshade imbued his hoof with dark energy and walked towards Big Macintosh. He placed his hoof on the forehead of his prisoner and started infusing the evil energy into him. Big Mac writhed and howled as his body filled up with Nightshade’s dark magic. Like a drop of dye diffusing in water, the eggplant purple color of the Shadow Ponies and Darklings began to paint over Big Mac’s red coat, starting from where Nightshade was infusing his magic into him and working its way down. The hue of his mane and tail, which had grown slightly longer, slowly ebbed away and was replaced with a neon green color. But perhaps the most startling change happened to Big Macintosh’s collar. Somehow, Nightshade’s spell had turned the work collar into a steel collar adorned with spikes, much like the collar of a thuggish dog.

“Now, whom do you serve?” asked Nightshade when he had finished the spell.

Big Macintosh looked down at Nightshade and spoke in the low, demonic voice of all the other Darklings, “Nightshade…”

Nightshade smiled and took out three tiny malicite shards, each of them flashing white every few seconds. He threw them a few feet away from him; when they hit the ground, they turned into Shadow Ponies - one Earth, one Unicorn, and one Pegasus.

“You three, take our new recruit to the armory and dress him in armor,” Nightshade ordered them, “But don’t give him any weapons. I’m sure that this beefy farmer here will be greatly satisfied with pounding his enemies into mulch with his bare hooves. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must be getting to dinner. It’s spaghetti night and nopony makes better pasta than Sponduli!” Prince Nightshade left his soldiers to unchain Big Mac and walked towards the big tent at the edge of the camp.

“Oooh, that rotten Nightshade!” snarled Applejack, “When I get my hooves on him for transformin’ my brother into a pawn fer his army, I’m gonna-”

“Easy there, Applejack!” whispered Twilight, “Try to keep your voice down. Look, I’m just as concerned for your brother as you are, but we need to focus on finding out what Prince Nightshade is up to!”

“I bet Nightshade’s going to discuss his plans over dinner,” said Rarity, “If we sneak on over to that dining tent, I’m sure we could learn some valuable information.”

“Good thinking, Rarity!” said Twilight, “Alright, here’s the plan! Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and I will sneak over and eavesdrop on Nightshade. Rarity and Fluttershy, you two stay here and keep a lookout for his soldiers. Does everypony understand?” Twilight friends nodded and put their plan into motion. With the stealth of thieves, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie crept around the enemy camp, taking great care not to make even the slightest of noises. When they got the tent, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie poked their heads under the back tent of the tent to listen in on the conversation that went on within while Applejack kept a lookout for guards.

Inside the tent, Twilight and the others saw Prince Nightshade sitting at a round table with a single lantern hanging overhead. With Nightshade sat three other ponies, none of which looked like they had been turned into savage Darklings. The table was set with a huge bowl of spaghetti with marinara in the center, surrounded by an array of cheeses, apples, salads, and cider. The pony to the left of Nightshade was a pegasus about the same size as Big Macintosh. His coat was ash gray and his tail was a light teal color. He had the same red eyes as Nightshade, but his scleras were normal white ones. He wore a helmet very similar to that of Celestia’s royal guards, though it lacked a crest. It had three blade-like prongs running up the center of the helmet and from the ends of the eyes. The helmet, along with the pegasus’ armor, was painted shamrock green and streaked with silver along the edges. On his left foreleg, he wore a golden bracer with a malicite crystal like a sword from his cutie mark. His cutie mark was a pair of crossed swords. Leaning on the table beside the pegasus was a large broadsword dressed in a leather sheath. On his back legs, he wore leg guards with little prongs sticking out of them that looked like they could slice a pony open.

The pony to right of Nightshade was a mysterious looking mare. Most of her light blue face was veiled in a large tattered mud-colored hood held loosely together by stitches. There was a large tear on the right of the hood, allowing a glowing white dot to stare out into the tent. The rest of her robe wasn’t any less shabbier, with multiple tears and loose stitches, not to mention it looked like it hadn’t been washed in years. On her neck, she wore a pearl necklace with a large gold plate with a bit of malicite shaped like an eye. Her tail was a dark violet hue and was styled into two pigtails. Leaning on the table beside her a long staff with a red magic orb on top of it.

The pony across from Nightshade was certainly the most interesting of the bunch, particularly due to his massive portion sizes. This pony was plump like an elephant and rather short. His coat was a light brown color and his mane, tail, and handlebar mustache were all white as snow. All of them were neatly groomed and styled. He wore a big black top hat along with a tuxedo with a red bow tie and a white dress shirt underneath. On his hooves, he wore shiny black dress shoes and wore a pin on his lapel with a flat circular piece of malicite. His cutie mark was that of a gold coin.

“Vot?” said the pony in the green armor, he had a very thick accent, “You say you met Twilight Sparkle, brother?”

“That’s right, Sky Blade,” said Nightshade, taking a bite of spaghetti, “And I gotta say, she was so much cuter than I thought she’d be!” Twilight felt her cheeks flame up a bit from within, but she wasn’t sure if it was from flattery or awkwardness. “Heh heh, if she didn’t catch me stealing from her friend’s little apple farm, she’d so be into me! I mean, I like to read, she likes to read, and she’s so very pretty and -”

“Oh là là, slow down zere, lover colt!” said the pony in the tuxedo after stuffing a huge slice of cheddar into his mouth, he had a very thick French accent, “So you met zee alicorn we have heard so much about and you, zee great mighty Nightshade, find yourself falling victim to amorous feelings? Zut alors! You should take my father’s advice: To never fall in love… unless eet eez with money!”

Nightshade rolled his eyes, “Yeah, Sponduli, I’ll take advice from a friend whose idea of a healthy meal is giant portion sizes and embellishing them, along with your beverage, with abnormal amounts parmesan cheese!”

“Hey, in order to fully live fancy, every meal must be avec fromage, no?” responded Sponduli, guzzling down his mug of cider after stuffing apple slices in his mouth and vigorously chewing them up like a garbage disposal.

Nightshade sighed, “Never mind,” He turned his head over to the hooded mare, “Any news from the others during my absence, Hitchcolt?”

“Why, yes, Nightshade,” answered Hitchcolt, “I have received a letter from Roger, he’s bringing the fifteen thousand soldiers you requested down to the rendezvous point near Canterlot, along with your sister: Zinnia. He’s also bringing the ‘special prisoner’ that you wanted. They will arrive within three days.”

“Three days?!” shouted Sky Blade, “Me and Blayshar vant to lop off heads now, brother Nightshade! I really vant my sword to taste blood of Sun Goddess!”

“Do not worry, mon ami” said Sponduli, “I am sure you will be able to shine soon enough.”

Sky Blade snarled at Sponduli and gave him an icy stare, “And vot about you, blubber donkey?! I haven’t seen you do anything useful around here! I go out and risk my life for Nightshade, vhile you hide in tent like cockroach! You vouldn't know usefulness if it came up, sliced you open, and harvested your fat for butter! Vot have you done to help, comrade? VOT?! I should pop your head like cranberry, you-”

Nightshade slammed his hoof on the table, his eyes seeing red as they gazed at his brother, “THAT’S ENOUGH, SKY BLADE!” he yelled, “You will treat Sponduli Moolalli with utmost respect! He has been just as useful as you have, Sky Blade! After all, he’s the one who supplied me with the mythril I used to forge our armor and your sword. He also supplies me with other metals, as well as mountains of gems for me to turn into malicite! Also, he’s a wonderful cook! Usefulness doesn’t just apply to being able to fight, Sky Blade. Sponduli is a prime example of the point I’m trying to make! Do you understand?”

Sky Blade grunted, “I understand…”

Just then, one of Nightshade’s hooded Shadow Pegasi entered the tent. He saluted to Nightshade and said, “Forgive me for interrupting, my lord, but I have good news to tell!”

“Oh yeah?” said Nightshade, “What is it?”

“We have managed to find and capture the little purple creature you told us to find! We found him strolling about the streets of Ponyville with an umbrella!”

“Excellent, you are dismissed!” The pegasus nodded and took his leave. Nightshade turned back to Hitchcolt, “Now, where was I? Oh yeah, tell me the current status of ‘Project: Dark Sun’, Hitchcolt.”

“Well, the ooze isn’t quite perfected yet, your majesty, “ said Hitchcolt, twiddling her fork around, “But I can assure you it’ll be ready soon! I just need one last ingredient! I suspect that some energy from our six Elements will be enough to perfect the Dark Ooze.”

“Yes…” said Nightshade, gazing down at the bat shaped malicite crystal embedded in the gold bracer on his hoof, “Yes, of course! Very well, at the rendezvous point; Me, you, Sky Blade, Sponduli, Roger, and Zinnia will combine the powers of our Elements into the Dark Ooze. Then, at nightfall on the fourth day, we begin our attack on Canterlot to claim our prize!”

Hitchcolt glanced at Sponduli, the conversation seemed to pass right over him like a river washing over stones. He had already devoured the whole nine yards of pasta and was stuffing his mouth with cheese like a chipmunk.

“Geez, slow down there, Sponduli,” said Hitchcolt, feeling a bit nauseated from watching her friend wolf down food into his bottomless pit of a stomach, “With the all the food you’ve eaten tonight, you must weigh as much as Appleloosa!”

At the drop of a hat, Sponduli responded, “Zat eez alright. After all, zat eez a pretty small town, no?”

“Yeah, but you’re going to risk putting yourself into the hospital again!” said Hitchcolt, “I mean, haven’t you ever heard of savoring your meals?”

“No way, mon amie!” said Sponduli with a mouthful of cheese and apples, “You see, zee philosophy I follow when I eat eez to treat every meal you eat as eef eet were your last! Besides, my supposed ‘disgusting’ dining etiquette cannot possibly be as grotesque as zat hideous face of yours!”

Feeling her anger flare up inside of her, Hitchcolt lashed at her chubby friend with her personal vendetta, “It was because of an idiot student of mine that my face is like this! You’re all lucky that I veil it with this hood; otherwise you’d be peeing yourselves out of fear! I mean, sweet Luna, I bet my face is so mangled that I could even give Princess Celestia nightmares! Don’t push me, Moolalli, or the hood comes off!”

“Don’t aggravate her!” said Sky Blade, “Please, I can’t stand looking at her gross face!”

“Well, maybe she should mind her own business on how I eat!” shouted Sponduli, “After all, I do not criticize her alchemy or any of her magical work. Why should I be treated any different?”

“Oh, please! You’re just a fat, greedy mule with eyes bigger than his stomach! You call yourself fancy? You know jack-squat about courtesy at the dinner table! You’re lucky nopony knows that you’re associated with Nightshade yet, otherwise the hospital wouldn’t admit you and you’d be as dead as a doorknob, you pompous-”

“STOP IT! JUST STOP YOUR SAUCY BICKERING RIGHT NOW, YOU FOALS!!” screamed Nightshade. Another voice, a higher-pitched demonic one, seemed to be simultaneously coming out of his mouth along with his normal voice, echoing in the air as Prince Nightshade continued to scold his companions. The same purple sparks that appeared around his head before had returned and seemed to be raging more fiercely than before, “I’VE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOUR FIGHTING! I’M TRYING TO ENJOY A NICE MEAL AFTER A LONG DAY, BUT I GUESS THAT WAS JUST WISHFUL THINKING! I AM SICK AND TIRED OF HAVING TO REMIND YOU TWO THAT NOT A SPARK OF DECENCY COMES OUT OF ARGUING AT THE DINNER TABLE, ESPECIALLY MY DINNER TABLE! NOW APOLOGIZE TO EACH OTHER OR I WILL HAVE MY BROTHER CUT OFF YOUR EARS!”

As quickly as they came, the creepy voice and the purple lightning around Nightshade’s head had vanished, leaving him clenching his head in anguish.

“You alright, Nightshade?” asked Sky Blade, a small hint of compassion could be heard in his voice, “Vot vas vith that creepy voice that came out of your mouth?”

“I… I don’t know…” mumbled Prince Nightshade, “U-Urgh… P-please excuse me, I have to go lie down. I’m feeling a bit under the weather right now…” Nightshade rose from his seat and slowly walked out of the tent.

Meanwhile, Twilight and friends, who had taken in every last detail of what went on in the dining tent, all had one thought in mind after the talking stopped: They had to get this information to Princess Celestia.

“Alright, I’m back!” said Rainbow Dash, who suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

“What the-” whispered Twilight with a blend of both confusion and aggravation, for she was so caught up with eavesdropping on Prince Nightshade’s planning that she, or anypony for that matter, didn’t even notice she had left, “Where the heck have you been, Rainbow?”

“I got bored of staring into that tent, so I decided to do some exploring! I snuck into a tent next door and found this sweet little chest under the bed!” Rainbow Dash showed Twilight a medium sized treasure chest-like box. The box itself was the same color as her coat and gilded with gold around the edges of both the lid and the actual box.

“Maybe it’s treasure!” said Pinkie Pie, the excitement in her voice was undeniable.

“That’s was I was thinking,” said Rainbow Dash, “I mean, what’s a quest without a little treasure reward, am I right?” At the moment, a panicked scream could be heard from the tent that Rainbow Dash just returned from. The ponies looked and saw Nightshade gallop out of the tent flaps and back towards the dining tent.

“Where is it? WHERE IS IT?!” he shouted hysterically.

“Oh là là, calm down, mon ami!” said Sponduli, confused by the heat of the moment, “Where eez what?”

“My box!” shouted Nightshade, “The little cyan box I keep under my bed! It’s gone! My most prized possessions are in it!”

“Vot?! How can this -” Sky Blade suddenly caught a peculiar smell in his nose and started sniffing the air like a scent-hound “- Vait… Vhy am I smelling… the cotton candies?” The other ponies sniffed around and found themselves smelling it too.

Nightshade looked around, his eyes scanning the tent for the source of the smell. He sensed something behind the tent wall and fired a blast of dark magic from his hoof. The blast tore through the tent and barely missed Applejack’s head.

“What?! You foals actually FOLLOWED me?!” yelled Nightshade, the shock in his voice was undeniable.

“Twilight, we gotta get out of here!” yelled Pinkie Pie, “I don’t wanna get incinerated by Prince Whiteclay!”

“It’s NIGHTSHADE!!” yelled Nightshade from within the tent. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie galloped as fast as they could towards Rarity and Fluttershy. They didn’t even need to use the signal that they had planned to let them know it was time to skidaddle.

Nightshade burst out of the dining tent and frantically looked around. All of the hullabaloo had compelled his soldiers to gather around the source of the noise.

Prince Nightshade barked at his soldiers, “Do not let them escape, you foals! I want half of you to go pursue them at once! GO!!” Without hesitation, half of the gathering of Shadow Ponies and Darklings saluted their master and scattered into the woods to seek their prey.

Nightshade shivered by himself in the rain. Tears began to well up in his eyes as sorrow seeped into his body from the loss of his special box. But that sadness was only fuel for the fiery rage that soon followed. He gazed up at the sky and screamed the name of the pony that duped him at the top of his lungs,

“Curse you Twilight SPAAARRRRRRRRKKKLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEE!!!” After emptying his anger and hate to the heavens, he fell into the mud on his knees and wept.

Chapter 3: Rush to Canterlot

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long to publish. Thank you for those who waited! :twilightsmile:

Chapter 3: Rush to Canterlot

The Rise of Nightshade
By: Brickbrock24

Chapter 3

“Are ya sure it was a good idea stealin’ that lunatic’s treasure box, Rainbow?” asked Applejack as she and her friends galloped out of the forest and towards their destination.

“What’re you so worried about, Applejack?” asked Rainbow Dash, “Nightshade stole a bunch of apples from your farm, as well as your brother! If you ask me, I think giving that punk a taste of his own medicine was the right thing to do!”

“I don’t think two wrongs make a right,” said Fluttershy, “If anything, I think stealing that box from Nightshade will only further motivate him to hurt more ponies. I mean, you did hear him scream in rage back there, did you not?”

Twilight and friends had galloped out of Everfree Forest and were blitzing through the streets of Ponyville. The rain had ceased a moment ago; but the thick blanket of dark clouds had refused to ebb from the sky. The harsh winds continued to sweep across the land. Although they didn’t howl with as much force as before, the gales still maintained the ominous ambience of the situation.

“Twilight, dear,” said Rarity, “Why are we running all the way to Canterlot when we could’ve just gone to your castle and had Spike send a message to Princess Celestia about Nightshade’s plan?”

Twilight was quick to answer, “Because this kind of information is far too important and complicated to be summed up in a letter! There’s so many things that I gotta discuss with Celestia about this predicament. I have so many questions that my brain is turning into spaghetti! Besides, we don’t have time to stop. I’m pretty sure Prince Nightshade sent a bunch of his goons out to get us. It would be really bad if they caught us during a breather!”

“I’m guessin’ they want that box that Rainbow went and stole,” said Applejack, “If ya ask me, I say that box will attract ‘em to us like bloodhounds to a scent!”

“To be honest, I’m hoping they actually do find us and try to take the box back by force!” said Rainbow Dash.

Rarity looked at her with a bewildered look, “Why would you want that?”

“Because fighting off an army of baddies would be super awesome!”

The group continued to trek forward, continuing their conversation as they went. As they approached the foot of the mountain that Canterlot rested on, a group of black hooded pegasi suddenly swooped down and landed in front of them, barring the path of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. They stared at the girls with icy gazes through their red tinted goggles as Darkling pegasi descended from the sky to join them.

“Well, speak of the devil!” said Rainbow Dash.

One of the Darkling pegasi, presumably the captain of the unit, stepped forward and spoke, “Well, well, well, looks like we’ve gotcha surrounded, little mares,” As he said that, Twilight and friends glanced behind them to find that about fifty Shadow and Darkling ponies and unicorns had showed up. They glared menacingly at their prey as they pointed their spears and aimed their drawn bows and ink-filled water balloons at Twilight and her friends. The Darkling captain spoke again, “I believe you have something we need.”

“A better leader?” yelled Rainbow Dash. The Shadow Ponies and Darkling hissed at the insolent remark.

“You dare insult his majesty, Nightshade the Great?” angrily snarled the Darkling captain, “Do you fools have any idea of how furious you’ve made Prince Nightshade?! The worst part is that we ran out of ice cream to keep him calm. I reckon that fat Sponduli Moolalli friend of his wolfed it all down like the gluttonous pig he is and couldn’t be bothered to leave even so much as a spoonful for us to make Nightshade a banana split! Now, please, give us back what you stole!”

“Why? What’s in that cutesy-wootsey little box of his?” asked Pinkie Pie, “Is it treasure? Oh-oh! Maybe it’s an embarrassing secret or an idea for an asparagus-powered blimp! Or maybe-”

The Darkling captain cut in, “Will you be quiet?! Seriously, ans asparagus powered blimp? What in the hay goes on in that head of yours, pink one? Look, I’ll be frank, I haven’t the foggiest idea what Prince Nightshade hides in that box. What I do know is that the contents of that box are more valuable to my Prince than Sponduli’s multi-billion bit fortune. If I don’t seize that box from you, Nightshade will have my head on a platter!”

“OH! OH! OH! It must be embarrassing photographs! Or maybe it’s a secret stash of sweets or maybe something totally weird and creepy,” enthusiastically shouted Pinkie Pie, she was having a blast guessing the contents of the box, “After all, Dashie was telling us how she found these drawings of Twilight in his tent in Everfree Forest, apparently Prince Lightglade has this weird thing for Twilight, which, if you ask me, is super-duper-”

“SHUT UP!” yelled the Darkling captain, to which Pinkie Pie immediately zipped her lip, “Sweet Celestia, Nightshade’s right! You really are an annoying pink party freak! Seriously, is there an off button on you?”
Fluttershy spoke up, “Oh my... Um, that was a bit uncalled for…”

“Oh, lookie ‘ere!” scowled a soldier, “The yellow-bellied scrub thinks she can jus’ preach to us like we’re a buncha kiddies visitin’ some anti-bullyin’ assembly. Well, I got news fer ya, wuss, we’re-”

The captain shook his head, “That’s quite enough, corporal,” he said with a grimace, the Shadow Pony responding with a dissatisfied grunt, “I’ll finish it from here.” He took another step towards the mane 6 and spoke in a lower, more serious tone, “Now, listen up, you lowly mules, I will not go back to Master Nightshade empty-hooved!”

“Why? Is your dumb prince gonna spank you or something?” teased Rainbow Dash.

“Even worse…” responded the Darkling, Twilight Sparkle noticed that he was trembling slightly. He took off his helmet and Twilight and her friends immediately noticed that his mane, along with his tail, were violently glowing a fiery orange color with brighter white crack-like patterns that flashed every now and then. When they listened closely, they could hear a slight ticking sound, much like that of a clock. “He’s turned me into a living bomb…”
“A living BOMB?!” exclaimed Twilight. In her many years of studying magic, she had never heard of such a magical curse.
“If I don’t get that box back from you, this curse will explode and kill not only me, but everypony around me, too! Which is why there is no room for failure! I will ask you one more time, Princess Twilight, give us the box, or we will confiscate it from you by force!”

“Tell us the part where we have a choice,” said Twilight, “If we do give you back the treasure box, how do I know you won’t just attack us anyway?”

The Darkling captain grinned maliciously, “Of course we’re gonna attack you! You know Prince Nightshade’s plan to invade Canterlot and we cannot let you warn that whelp Celestia!” He suddenly pointed his hoof at his prey, “Enough stalling! FIRE!!”

The Shadow Ponies and Darklings surrounding the heroines released their arrows and threw their ink balloons in a terrifying volley. Twilight Sparkle was ready for them, however, and quickly summoned a magical shield that surrounded her friends. The horseshoe arrows and ink balloons bounced off the shield like birds flying into a window.
“Quick, everypony!” shouted Twilight Sparkle, “Let’s move!” With careful concentration and a slam of her hooves, she launched the shield directly at the adversaries in front of her, knocking them down like pins in a bowling game. Her friends were quick to listen to Twilight and followed her as they made a mad dash to start scaling up the mountain to Canterlot.

“Don’t let ‘er get away!” shouted a Shadow Pony, “Get ‘em!”
Rarity glanced behind her, “They’re following us!”, she shouted. She looked up at the sky and saw enemy pegasi soaring above them. They landed in front of the group to attempt to bar their path.

“Good, let ‘em come!” shouted Applejack as she tackled a Shadow Pegasus that landed in front of her, “I could sure use a way to get some of this bottled up anger outta me!” She gave the pegasus she tackled a mighty kick to its head with her hind legs, causing the whole thing to explode into black smoke with sparkly yellow glitter.

“Look, there’s Canterlot!” shouted Rainbow Dash. The group looked and saw the great city was finally in their sight. Rainbow Dash was having fun with this predicament, toying with her enemies and belittling them by calling them ‘too slow’.

The gang rushed through the gates, which quickly closed behind them once all six of them were inside. Twilight and her friends looked back and saw their enemies seething with anger at the fact that they had escaped them. Shortly after, the girls heard a loud bang from the herd of enemy forces they had just outran.

Twilight and friends burst into the throne room of the castle without any sort of hesitation. Inside, not only did they find the majestic Princess Celestia, but also her sister, Princess Luna, and Twilight Sparkle’s brother, Shining Armor.

Princess Celestia looked at her faithful student with a bit of scorn, “You know, I remember a time when ponies used to knock before entering.”

“Princess, I’m sorry,” panted Twilight, still out of breath from the arduous journey she had to go through to get to Canterlot in the first place, “But we’ve got a predicament! A huge, HUGE predicament!”

“Um, Twilight?” said Shining Armor, “If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly happened to your face?”

“Oh, she got hit with a water balloon filled with ink!” said Pinkie Pie, “Honestly, I didn’t expect that, I was trying really hard not to laugh! I was expecting water, but that Nightie’s a real knee-slapper! I wonder what else he could’ve filled the balloons with? Oatmeal? Cream? Milk? Flour? Fake slime? Rainbow paint?”

“Wait,” said Princess Luna, ignoring the rest of what the hyperactive pink pony was rambling about, “Who’s ‘Nightie’?”

“Hang on,” said Shining Armor, a bit of apprehension began to get sprinkled into his voice, “Twilight, are you saying you met-”

“Yeah, we encountered Nightshade,” admitted Twilight, “And you’ll never believe what this pony’s got in store for Equestria! I don’t even know where to begin!”

“Why don’t start by telling us what happened, Twilight.” calmly said Princess Celestia, it amazed the others how the princess could stay so calm during dangerous situations such as the one being discussed.

“Oh, I’ll tell ya what happened!” quickly said Applejack, who was quite eager to start the story of what happened, much like a filly enthusiastically begging for the teacher to pick her to go first in some sort of fun assignment, “I was mindin’ my own business, enjoyin’ the lovely weather as I went about my daily chores: bucking apples, sweepin’ the barn, stuff like that. Then outta nowhere, these malicious ponies wearin’ fancy-schmancy armor, some were in black, some were in red, went and rushed into Sweet Apple Acres like a herd of rampaging cattle! Me and my brother, Big Mac, tried to fight ‘em off, but there were just too many of ‘em!” Anger began to fill Applejack’s voice as she got to the next part of the story, “That’s when that rat-scallion entered the scene actin’ all high and mighty as the leader of those armored thugs! That Nightshade’s a real hoof full, talking about that weird malicite stuff and talking in a confusing language while starin’ at me with those creepy yellow eyes!”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure he was just using higher level vocabulary, Applejack,” interrupted Twilight, “I can assure you he was speaking normal Equestrian!”

“Eh, whatever! That’s not the point!” said Applejack, eager to continue with her tale, “While Nightshade’s thugs cornered us against the wall of the barn and that ketchup-headed menace went on babbling off insults and other jibber-jabber that I can’t remember fer the life of me, the rest of his soldiers were out in the field stealin’ our apples straight off the trees and carrying ‘em to the Everfree Forest. That’s when Big Mac whispered to me to go find Twi and the others. So, he charged straight at those weirdos to distract them so I could slip out and gallop to Ponyville to get help!”

Princess Celestia nodded, “I see. So Nightshade attacked your farm with a squad of his soldiers just like that? And when you were surrounded, your brother distracted the enemy so you could run to get help?”

“Yeah,” said Applejack, “I remembered Rarity sayin’ something about Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow helpin’ her out with her fashion designs that day, so that’s where I went first!”

“Why, yes,” started Rarity after Applejack had passed her the baton, “I was on an inspirational blitz for the past two days and had so many ideas that I just needed to try out! I couldn’t do all of that work by myself, of course, so I asked Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash to help me!”

“That was when we received your letter, Shining Armor, and saw a wanted poster of Nightshade, courtesy of Fluttershy,” said Twilight.

“If I may interrupt for a minute, Twilight,” said Princess Celestia, “I have a question for Fluttershy.”

“Um, yes?” quietly murmured Fluttershy, “Wh-what is it, Princess Celestia?”

“I am very curious, Fluttershy,” said Celestia, “The letter that Shining Armor sent to Twilight Sparkle should have been delivered to her by a mail courier. How exactly did you come to obtain it?”

“Oh, um…” stammered Fluttershy, a question like that instantly made her go into ‘submissive wimp mode’, “Sh-should I not have t-taken it? Oh, I-I’m so sorry! It’s just that I-I was taking a walk in Ponyville wh-when I saw a mailmare collapsed on the road.”

“What?!” uttered Shining Armor, “What happened to her?!”

“I-I don’t know!” whimpered Fluttershy, feeling as if Shining Armor was uncomfortably pressing her, “He w-was horribly bruised and somewhat mangled, a-as if s-somepony beat her up!”

“Hmph,” said Princess Luna, “I’m pretty sure we all know who’s responsible.”

“I went up to her to try and help her,” continued Fluttershy, “She recognized me as one of Twilight’s friends and asked me to deliver the letter to her. I really wanted to go get help for her, but the mailmare insisted that that particular letter was more important than her condition.”

“So, then you gave in and decided to carry out her wish to deliver the letter to Twilight,” said Celestia, who had already finished Fluttershy’s story in her head, “Is that correct?”

“Y-yes,” answered Fluttershy, “As I was cantering to Rarity’s, I saw a wanted poster of that scary pony we saw earlier and decided to take it along with me.”

“Why did you feel the need to do that?” asked Princess Luna.

“I-I’m sorry,” unnecessarily apologized Fluttershy, “I-i just thought it should be something my friends should see. After all, I’ve never seen that wanted poster put up in Ponyville until today.”

“I don’t get it,” suddenly said Rainbow Dash, “Why in the hay would the mailmare in your story, who you claim was ‘horribly beaten up’, not want you to get help? Like, I know some ponies are really dedicated to their jobs; but jeez, that’s just super weird!”

“Okay, first off, the correct term in that sentence is ‘whom’, not ‘who’, Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight, “And second of all, that’s not important! Can we please just continue where we left off?”

Princess Celestia shook her head, “Patience, my faithful student. We mustn’t rush this retelling of the events that have transpired tonight. The gravity of this situation is not to be taken lightly.”

Twilight sighed, “I understand, Princess.”

Rarity decided to pick up where they left off, “So, after we got the letter and wanted poster from Fluttershy, some of Nightshade’s goons broke into my boutique and tried to force me to give them a large quantity of gems to them! Luckily, Applejack showed up in the nick of time and gave them a little surprise!” Applejack smiled smugly to herself at that remark.

“Alright, let’s just fast forward to the part where we encounter Nightshade already! We don’t have all night, y’know!” impatiently shouted Rainbow Dash, the crankiness that ensued from her weariness had started to show its ugly face.

“Oh! Oh! Oh! I wanna tell this part of the story!” suddenly hollered Pinkie Pie, “Pink me! Pick me! Pick me!”

Shining Armor chuckled to himself, “You’re just as enthusiastic as always, Pinkie Pie. Very well, let’s hear what you have to say about what happened next. I assume this where you encountered Nightshade?”

“Yup-a-rooni! Although he prefers to be addressed by his full title ‘Prince Nightshade’. I couldn’t remember his name very well at first and he’d get really cheesed off when I said his name wrong. Now, I just call him ‘Nightie’!”

“Um, th-that’s great, Pinkie Pie,” said Shining Armor, unsure on how else to respond to the hyperactive pink pony, “But could you actually tell us what happened now?”

“Okie-doki-loki!” said Pinkie Pie. Being the dramatic fun-loving pony that she was, Pinkie Pie decided to narrate the story in voice that resembled a storyteller retelling some epic tale or legend. As she spoke, she made prance all around the room, acting out scenes and making weird balletic gestures with her hooves, “So, there we were at Sweet Apple Acres. Dark clouds were spread across the sky like chocolate frosting over a cake and the wind was howling like an angry monster! We looked all around to see all of those armored soldiers causing ruckus in the farm! Some were in black armor, some were in red! Some were stealing apples, some were surrounding the Apple family that had been cornered at the barn! OOOOOOH! It was just like this dream I had two nights ago where I was a lone vigilante on a mission to protect sweets like cake and candy from the vegetable thugs that prowled about and filled the town with evil! So, I was wandering about when suddenly I saw a donut being mugged by three stalks of broccoli! At the speed of sound, I whipped out my laser pistol and was all like: Pew! Pew! Pew! And the broccoli thugs were all like: Splat! Splat! Splat! OOOOOOOH, but the best part of my dream was when-”

“Pinkie Pie!” shouted Shining Armor, though it didn’t sound like he was surprised by what the energetic pink pony had just told the group, “You’re getting way off topic! Slow down a bit and continue with the story without making any connections to… whatever it is that goes on in your head!”

“Laser pistol?” said Rainbow Dash, just as bewildered as everypony else was, “That’s sounds like something from a comic book or movie.”

“Let’s not ponder about Pinkimena’s… strange dream and get back on track,” said Princess Celestia, “Pinkie Pie, if you would please…”

“Alrighty, then!” continued Pinkie Pie, still in her ‘dramatic story teller’ character, “So after we arrived at the barn and saw what was going on, we cantered down to where the Apple family was cornered at the barn to help them! And that was when we met the villain of the hour: Prince Nightshade! But now I just call him “Nightie”. Anyway, there he stood, all smug and handsome like the heinous crook that he was. I’m pretty sure he mumbled something about Twilight at first. Then, he started talking about some mumbo-jumbo that I didn’t exactly understand.”

“What was not to understand, Pinkie?” interrupted Rarity, “He introduced himself, threw an ink balloon at Twilight, turned two emeralds into what I believe he called ‘malicite’, and gave us a lecture about his magic and how he uses it to make his soldiers.”

“Hold on for a minute,” said Princess Luna, “Did you say he turned emeralds into… malicite?”

“Mhm,” responded Twilight, “He even gave me a piece.” Twilight Sparkle pulled out the malicite crystal that Prince Nightshade had given her as a memento of their encounter and presented it to the two princesses. Celestia’s eyes widened as she stared at the ominous gemstone that her faithful student held in her hoof.

“I-It can’t be…” stuttered Celestia, which surprised everypony.

“Princess, do you know something about the gem in my sister’s hoof?” asked Shining Armor.

Celestia stood silent for a moment, slightly looking down at the floor while deep in thought. She looked up and answered Shining Armor’s question, “Yes, I do. I do not know much about these crystals, as they are quite rare. There have been only a small hoof-full of documented cases of these gems during my long reign as the monarch of this land.”

“So, what exactly is malicite, Celestia?” asked Twilight, her immense thirst for knowledge had filled her with enthusiasm.

“Malicite is a very dangerous magical crystal,” she began, “It’s dark magic energy either comes from being infused with pure dark magic or the soul of a malevolent entity. I do not know what these crystals are fully capable of, considering how finding one here in Equestria would only happen once in a blue moon.”

“Wait just a sec,” interrupted Applejack, “Didn’t that creep use those flashy purple gems to create those Shadow Pony soldiers of his?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” said Rainbow Dash, “While we were in the forest, we saw Nightshade create pure magic clones out of those malicite crystals!”

“I see…” said Celestia, “There are many things that intrigue me about this case…”

“Same here,” admitted Shining Armor.

“Hey, what about my story?” asked Pinkie Pie, her eagerness to continue with her story made her all jittery and bouncy, as if she had eaten an entire bag of jelly beans in one sitting and was trying to hold in her urine as the sugar rush kicked in, “I was getting to the good part about how Nightie made Apple Bloom fly with his telekinesis and the part about how he got that really painful headache and there was weird lightning around his head that was all like: Bzzzzzzzzt!! OOOH, and the part where we followed him and spied on him and his friends that he was having dinner with!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up for a minute,” cut in Shining Armor. He turned to his sister with a mixture of shock and scorn expressed on his face, “Twilight, you followed Nightshade into the Everfree forest?! Didn’t you read my letter at all?!”

“I’m sorry, Shining Armor, but I had to!” said Twilight, her ears drooping a bit in shame, “This all happened out of the blue. We needed to know what was going on and Prince Nightshade was the only pony that would give us that information one way or another!”

“Alright, let’s skip to the part where you actually spy on Nightshade,” responded Shining Armor, trying to piece together the story in his mind like a jigsaw puzzle, “What exactly did you learn from him?”

“Well, we learned a bunch of things from that dinner conversation,” said Twilight.

“Who exactly was he having dinner with?” asked Princess Celestia.

Rainbow Dash was the one who answered her question, “Let’s see… One of them was this pegasus in green armor. I believe that one was called ‘Sky Blade’ or something. Then, there was this hooded alchemist named Hitchcolt and the other one was this really REALLY fat pony in a tuxedo that went by the name of Sponduli Moolalli.”

Upon hearing the the names spoken, Shining Armor’s flabbergasted facial expression turned on like a light.
“Sk-Sky Blade?” he stuttered, “A-as in… S-S-Sergeant Sky Blade?! And did you you also mention Sponduli Moolalli?! As in the Sponduli Moolalli?!”

“I really have no idea what in the hay you’re talking about when you say ‘sergeant’,” said Rainbow Dash “But yeah, I’m pretty sure we all heard those names clearly.”

“Do these ponies ring a bell, Shining Armor?” asked Twilight Sparkle, whose curiosity grew as she watched her brother recollect his memories.

“Yes, I do know who Sky Blade is. He was a member of the royal guard back when I was captain and used to live in Canterlot.”

“Really? I never noticed,” responded Twilight, “Then again, I never really went to great lengths to memorize the names of all of the guards of Canterlot. None of them really stood out like a sore hoof.”

“Let me finish, Twilight,” continued Shining Armor, “Sergeant Sky Blade was one of the best there was. He was a remarkable pegasus warrior. His skill with a sword was legendary. Criminals feared him for not only for his persistence and his ferocity as a warrior, but also his unusual hind leg muscles that allow him to walk and run on two legs like a human.”

“He can do that?! That sounds awesome!” said Rainbow Dash. She hadn’t thought much of him when she first spied on him back in the Everfree Forest. But hearing about the cool things Shining Armor was telling her made Rainbow Dash want to meet this pegasus as much as she wanted to get an autograph from all of the Wonderbolts.

“I warn you, Rainbow Dash, he’s just as good of a flier as you are. In fact, Princess Celestia called him the best flier in Equestria before you came along and took the title.”

“What about the other one?” asked Rarity, trying to change the subject, “That ‘Sponduli Moolalli’ character?”

“I don’t know him personally,” answered Shining Armor, “But I’ve heard my fair share of rumors about how powerful this pony is financially. He is the owner Moolalli Industries, a very successful monopoly in Manehatten that is constantly expanding.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of that company,” said Rarity, “They provide much of the quality textiles I use in the boutique. My goodness do they put a hefty price on their products!”

“I, too, have heard of this pony,” contributed Princess Celestia, “Sponduli Moolalli is by far the richest pony in all of Equestria.”

“Not to mention the fattest,” mumbled Rainbow Dash.

“I am very glad you’ve decided to speak up, Rainbow Dash,” said Princess Celestia, eying Rainbow Dash with a gaze that made her afraid and lost for words, “Because I have another question for you. What is in that chest you are holding? And, more importantly, where did you get it?”

Rainbow Dash felt the sweat trickle down her face as all eyes in the were fixed on her, awaiting a response.

Pinkie Pie, however, beat her to the punch, “Dashie totally swiped that from Nightie like a master thief! She totally gave Nightie a taste of his own medicine after he stole Applejack’s apples.”

Princess Celestia shook her head in disgust, “You should have let sleeping dogs lie, Rainbow Dash. Now our enemy will be more determined than ever to take us all down.”

“I am curious to see what exactly the contents of this box are,” said Princess Luna, ”If only we had the key…”

“I’ve got yer key right here,” said Applejack, “Twi, hold it steady!”

Twilight Sparkle levitated the box out of Rainbow Dash’s hooves. With a swift kick of her back legs, Applejack shattered the tiny lock, making the chest pop open. Twilight levitated the contents out the box. The items included a white plushie-like pegasus doll with blue button eyes and an azure mane and tail, an old pair of glasses, and a family portrait.

“What? That’s it?!” shouted Rainbow Dash. The fact that what was in the box wasn’t what she expected was a killjoy for her, “There I was thinking the chest was brimming with treasure and what I get for risking all of our lives when I took it was just a hunk of junk!”

“I wouldn’t be so quick to say that,” said Fluttershy, “One pony’s trash is another pony’s treasure. I’m pretty sure Nightshade valued this stuff if he sent soldiers after us to get it back…”

“Let’s not worry about the box,” cut in Princess Luna, “I’d like to get back on track to the important information. Twilight, what did you hear Prince Nightshade say at the dinner table?”

“Well, he mentioned something called “Project: Dark Sun” which apparently involves this ‘ooze’ that the alchemist is cooking up,” responded Twilight, “But the biggest news is that most of Nightshade’s army is on its way down; he’s going to invade Canterlot at nightfall in four days!”

“What?!” gasped Shining Armor, “Did you hear exactly how big of an army he’s bringing?”

“Approximately fifteen thousand…” said Twilight Sparkle. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Shining Armor stood with with horrified expressions on their faces, completely at loss for words. Yes, even Princess Celestia was shocked at what her faithful student had told her.

“F-fifteen THOUSAND?!” stammered Celestia, everypony was shocked that she showed fear like this, “Twilight, are you absolutely sure of this?!”

Twilight nodded, “Mmhm, fifteen thousand soldiers, all fully armed and ready for war.” Everypony stood in awed silence before Rainbow Dash spoke up,

“Well, we’d better start getting ready!”

“Excuse me?” said Shining Armor.

“I said we’d better start getting ready! We know that creep Nightshade’s comin’ up. So, let’s quit dawdling and prep the city’s defenses to send that nutjob back to whatever dark void he came from. We can’t waste time standing here with our hooves up our noses just because ‘Ketchup Head’ has a few extra goons!”

“Did you not hear the number my sister said, Rainbow?” said Shining Armor, “This invasion must be at least twenty five times the size of the Changeling force Queen Chrysalis used to attack the city not too long ago!”

“And this is no mindless Changeling horde that’s coming!” added Twilight, “These are Shadow Ponies and Darklings; Clad in armor and equipped with tools for maiming and killing.”

“Not to mention they’ll be led by Prince NIghtshade and Sergeant Sky Blade,” added Princess Luna.

“No, Rainbow Dash is right, we mustn’t waste anytime!” said Celestia, she had regained her composure and started to piece together a plan, “Shining Armor, go back to the Crystal Empire and bring back as many soldiers as you spare. Twilight Sparkle, go down to the archives and see if you can find any information regarding malicite or Prince Nightshade’s mysterious eyes. Rainbow Dash, go to Cloudsdale and see if you can get any pegasi there to join our cause. Whether or not you succeed, come back to Canterlot and help train our soldiers. Fluttershy and Applejack, assist the citizens of Canterlot with tasks to help them prepare for the inevitable siege. Rarity and Pinkie Pie, help out with creating weapons, armor, and other supplies our soldiers might need. Princess Luna and I will stay and try to convince the citizens of Canterlot to join the garrison.” After getting their instructions, everypony set off to do their tasks without question. “Go and prepare yourselves, my friends,” shouted Princess Celestia as everypony was taking their leave, “For as of this moment, we are at war!”

Chapter 4: Nightshade's Sister

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Chapter 5: The Battle of Canterlot (Part 1)

The Rise of Nightshade
By: Brickbrock24

Chapter 5

“Come on! Come on! Let’s move! Put some hustle to your muscles!” Shining Armor shouted to the soldiers and drafted recruits. He nervously glanced at the setting sun, “Time is short! Princess Celestia is setting the sun as we speak! Nightshade and his merciless horde will be here any minute! Everypony, report to your posts!”

Shining Armor strolled down the streets of Canterlot. They were overcrowded with soldiers trying to get to where they needed to go. The buildings of the great city had been boarded up. Some of the citizens that wouldn’t be participating in the battle hid inside their reinforced homes while some hid in the safe room of the castle. Shining Armor wondered to himself if what the city did to prepare in the past three days would be enough to endure Prince Nightshade’s attack.

Shining Armor had recently returned from the Crystal Empire with as many soldiers as he could possibly spare. Rainbow Dash had done the same with Cloudsdale and brought back a squad of pegasi to help defend Canterlot. Both of them had done their best to train the volunteer recruits for combat with the little time that they had. Shining Armor approached one of the soldiers he brought from the Crystal Empire.

“Quartermaster!” Shining said to him, “Have all of our troops been armed?”

“Yessir, Captain Shining Armor!” the soldier responded boldly, saluting his leader as he did so, “All soldiers have been to the armory and were given weapons appropriate for their posts as well as a suit of armor! The magical barrier we have conjured around the city is up and will hopefully help tip the odds of this fight in our favor. We have twenty five unicorns stabilizing it at all times to ensure maximum durability.”

Shining Armor nodded, “Very good. Now, prepare for battle!” He galloped at top speed to get to his spot at the wall’s garrison. He hoped that Prince Nightshade wouldn’t have too many tricks up his sleeve.

Princess Celestia stared out a window in the throne room. She had just got back from setting the sun and just gazed blankly at her city.

“Celestia, what’s wrong?” asked Princess Luna as she walked into the throne room and saw her sister’s facial expression.

“I did not want to have to do this to my citizens, but I had no other options,” Celestia said in a low, somewhat saddened voice, “I want to take one final look at Canterlot, for I fear this it may be the last time we get to see it intact…”

“Are you talking about the conscription?” asked Luna, “What other choice did we have? Prince Nightshade is marching fifteen thousand soldiers to Canterlot as we speak. Canterlot needed all the help it could get!”

Princess Celestia turned to her sister, “It’s not that, Luna! Many of the ponies in Canterlot and even the ones Rainbow Dash brought from Cloudsdale are not cut out for the rage of war! I could feel the volunteers trembling as they approached me to enlist! These ponies weren’t born to fight; that isn’t what their cutie marks are telling them to do! They have so much potential in their lives and now some of them will most likely perish and never get to live up to that potential…”

“It’s going to be alright, Celestia,” said Luna, trying to cheer her sister up, “I know we’re going to win this fight, I can feel it! I will not let Nightshade and his foul horde lay a hoof on you!”

“I appreciate the efforts to raise my spirits, Luna, but I’d throw that pretense aside. My faithful student tore through scroll after scroll in our archives trying to find any kind of information about Prince Nightshade, but to no avail. All I could do before I went to set the sun for today was give Twilight Sparkle and her friends their Elements of Harmony and pray that they would be able to survive this conflict.”

“I have every bit of confidence that Twilight and her friends will be able to defeat Prince Nightshade and save the day! Their friendship can conquer even the most frightening of challenges!”

“I hope you are right, for all of our sakes…”

A thick blanket of dark clouds loomed over Canterlot. The occasional rumble of thunder echoed through the sky. Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie stood with the rest of the garrison on the main wall, waiting for Nightshade’s army to arrive as scheduled. Shining Armor looked at the conscripted recruits. Most of them were not good at making poker faces, which made their fear as bright as day. They trembled with nervousness; their armor making a fast-paced clinking noise against the stone as the thought of the merciless enemy that was marching up the mountain gave them the heebie-jeebies. The only ponies that Shining Armor saw that weren’t afraid of what was coming were himself, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, some of the soldiers he brought from the Crystal Empire, and some of the already existing Canterlot guards. He didn’t blame the recruits for feeling the way they do, it had been quite some time in since the last major war in Equestria’s history. Nopony had expected this event to just pop up like a jack-in-the-box.

The soldiers on the wall began to hear the loud clanking of armor as they saw the torch-light of Nightshade’s army start to come into view. Shining Armor got out his binoculars. As the enemy marched towards the wall, Shining Armor noticed that there were barely any pegasi in the crowd. He also noticed that Nightshade was accompanied by only three of his friends when Twilight claimed there were five. Some of Nightshade’s soldiers held flags and banners that depicted his sinister cutie mark.

“Wait, do you hear that?” said Rainbow Dash, perking up her ears to listen.

“Yeah, it sounds like they’re singing something!” said Pinkie Pie, “OOOOOOH! Do you think they know “Smile! Smile! Smile!”?” Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie leaned forward and listened. The song that Nightshade and his army were chanting became more clear as they got closer.

You can’t ride my little red wagon!
The front seat’s broken and the axle’s draggin’!
Chug! Chug! Chugga-lug-lug!
Next verse, same as the first!
A whole lot louder and a whole lot worse!

You can’t ride my little red wagon!
The front seat’s broken and the axle’s draggin’!
Chug! Chug! Chugga-lug-lug!
Next verse, same as the first!
A whole lot louder and a whole lot worse!

The evil army kept chanting the lyrics over and over as they marched toward Canterlot. The defenders of Canterlot could immediately recognize Nightshade from the crowd because his glowing eyes made him stick out like a sore hoof. When the Shadow Ponies and Darklings got close to the wall, Prince Nightshade held up a hoof. His soldiers immediately stopped in their tracks and stopped singing their marching song. Nightshade stepped forward and politely bowed to his enemies on the wall,

“Salutations, Shining Armor! I see that you took some time to prepare for my arrival! Good, good! I was kinda hoping you would because now this fight’s gonna be a whole to more interesting for me!”

“I’d sooner lose my right hoof than let you take Canterlot and destroy more lives, Nightshade! I never thought that a runaway thief like you would turn into the monster you are now!”

“That’s a lie, you pampered oaf!” yelled Nightshade, suddenly outraged by what Shining Armor just said, “You have no proof that I did that! Zilch! And yet Celestia’s idiot minions just jumped to the conclusion that it was me because of how I look! What a load of bull!”

“Well, your minions are just as stupid!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

“I’m sorry, was I talking to you?” snapped Nightshade.

“You are now, ketchup head!” said Rainbow Dash.

“Don’t you ever call me that!!” snarled Prince Nightshade, “And, besides, who are you to make fun of my mane? Your mane looks like a horrible paint accident!”

“At least my eyes are normal!”

“How is it my fault that my eyes are like this?! I was born this way!”

Sky Blade tapped his brother’s shoulder, “Uh, brother,” he whispered, “Can ve spare the chit-chat and just get on vith the battle?”

“You’re right, Sky Blade!” said Nightshade, nodding at his brother. He turned his head back towards Shining Armor, “Meet my demands, Shining Armor! Surrender this city to the Nightmare Legion and give me Princess Celestia! Or else you can kiss Canterlot and your friends goodbye!”

Before Shining Armor could say anything, Rainbow Dash spoke up again, “Seriously? Your plan is to ponynap the princess? How unoriginal!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Shining Armor whispered angrily, “What in Celestia’s name are you doing?!”

“I’m heckling him!” responded Rainbow Dash, “It’s one of the fun things to do during sports events and these pre-battle encounters!”

“Well, it’s much more original than ponynapping Princess Luna and turning her back into Nightmare Moon!” shouted Prince Nightshade, “At least my army’s better than the pathetic one that’s shivering beside you! Don’t try to hide it, my eyes can see their auras of fear!”

“No, the ponies on my side are better than yours!” said Rainbow Dash, “They’re at least twenty percent cooler than your soldiers; whose rumps we kicked when they chased me and my friends to Canterlot! Whadda ya say to that, lame-mane?”

“It’s “My friends and I”, you dummy!” shouted Nightshade, rolling his eyes as he corrected Rainbow Dash’s grammar, “Besides, that was just a tiny fraction of my army! You, uh, just caught them on a bad day! And stop making fun of my mane, you meanie! The mares love it! I spent, like, ten minutes styling it this morning!”

“Ugh, what a hypocrite you are calling me a meanie! What about you, Prince Biterump? Besides, I’ve achieved far more than you have!”

“Night-shade! It’s NIGHTSHADE!!” screamed Nightshade. Now he was beginning to see red, “You said my name wrong on purpose, you insolent foal! And what the frosting are you talking about?! I’m a master blacksmith and an Earth Pony that’s able to use some of the most powerful dark magic Equestria’s ever seen! You’re just a stupid athlete!” Nightshade began mocking Rainbow Dash in a stupid voice, “Ooooooh, look at me! I’m Rainbow Dash! The only thing that I’ve ever accomplished in life is doing a stupid move I call the Sonic Rainblast!”

“It’s Sonic Rainboom! And I’ve done far more than that! I’ve helped save Equestria from the likes of Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra! Ponies are eternally grateful for it! They’re gonna be even more grateful after I mop the floor with you and your pawns!”

“My, my! Cocky, aren’t we? You’re biting off more than you can chew if you think you can take on my friends and I!”

“No way, I’m tougher! I’m a star athlete!”

“Are you kidding? I’ve endured more hardships than you ever have! Sky Blade, Zinnia, and I were forced to live in a freaking cave and had to live off whatever we could forage in the wilderness for half a decade! Plus, I know I sound like a broken record, I possess formidable dark magic! Last time I checked, that qualifies as being tougher than you!”

Rainbow Dash thought for moment. She needed a comeback and she needed it quick. Then she smiled a sly smile and shouted to Nightshade, “Well, at least I don’t develop crushes on my enemies!”

Nightshade’s anger was immediately replaced by nervousness. Although it was a dark night, Nightshade’s glowing eyes showed the Canterlot soldiers on the wall the unmistakable blush on his cheeks,

“Wh-what?” he stammered, “Heh heh, um, wh-what are you talking about? I, uh, I-I d-don’t have a crush on anypony… Heh heh…”

Now I’ve got him! thought Rainbow Dash, satisfied with herself that she’d emerge the victor of this little heckle war, “Don’t lie, ketchup head! I heard how you thought Twilight was cute and I saw the pictures you drew of her in your tent! A lot of them had little hearts around her! You looooooooooooove her, don’t you?”

“Wait, what? This pony likes Twilight?!” said Shining Armor. Nopony seemed to really hear him because Rainbow Dash and much of the garrison on the wall burst into laughter. Prince Nightshade looked at the ground with embarrassment. His entire face was now beet red with blush. He looked like he was about to wet himself.

Hitchcolt stepped forward and shouted, “Shut up, you sniveling oafs! Stop teasing my friend!” When nopony on the wall listened, Hitchcolt took off her hood and used her magical staff to conjure up a huge projection of her face. The garrison ceased their laughter with a scream of terror. Much of Hitchcolt’s face was horribly mangled and covered in hideous scars and stitches. Her horn was almost completely gone, save for the little stub that remained. About half of her face had horrendous magical burns. Her left eye looked entirely hollowed-out with only a white pin-pricked iris present in the socket. Her teeth were a disfigured set of sharp chompers. It looked as if she hadn’t worn braces as a filly when she needed them. Hitchcolt had not one, but two snake tongues that she flickered at the Canterlot soldiers through her projection. Half of her right ear appeared as if an animal chewed it off. Hitchcolt then turned off her projection spell when there was nothing but silence in the air.

“Now, Nightshade, I believe you wanted to show Shining Armor something?” said Hitchcolt.

Nightshade snapped out of his mortified state, “Thank you, Hitchcolt! You’re a true friend! I almost forgot that I had a little surprise for Captain Tarnished Armor!” Nightshade turned to his soldiers, “Bring up the royal prisoner!” Nightshade’s troops made a hole in their ranks. Pushed by about six Darklings was a huge trolley cart that came through the hole. Whatever or whomever was on it was covered by a large white sheet.

“Hitchcolt, illuminate this area with your staff!” Nightshade ordered, “I want to make sure those deadbeats on the wall get a good look at this!” Nightshade turned back to Shining Armor as Hitchcolt used her magic to light up the area around the trolley cart, “Let me ask you this, Shining Armor, do you miss your wife?”

“What’re you getting at?” asked Shining Armor with a raised eyebrow, “How did you know Cadance was missing?”

“Isn’t it obvious, you twit? I took her from you, courtesy of the greatest stealth specialist in Equestria! My friend Roger!” Nightshade pulled of the sheets to reveal his special prisoner: Princess Cadance.

“Cadance!” gasped Shining Armor. He was horrified by what he saw. Princess Cadance’s hooves and neck were chained to the trolley cart she stood on. Her magic had been sealed by a powerful spell that had been cast on her horn. She had a black eye and several bruises all over her body. Her body itself was much skinnier than it used to be thanks to being malnourished as a captive. She was gagged with a muzzle over her mouth that looked a lot like a the kind of muzzle used on dogs. She looked up her husband and tried to shout to him; but her muzzle just made it come off as muffled gibberish. Shining Armor shouted to Prince Nightshade in anger, “Let her go, you monster!”

Nightshade smirked, “I’ll let your precious wife run back into your arms if you give in to my demands! Give me Canterlot and Princess Celestia!”

“Never!! I will not be blackmailed!” shouted Shining Armor.

Nightshade turned to Princess Cadance, “Did you hear that, Cadance? Your spouse doesn’t love you anymore! He’d rather die than save you!”

“That’s a lie, Nightshade! I love her with all my heart!”

“Really? Then why don’t you practice what you preach and save her? If you really love her as much as you claim, you’d agree to our little deal! I’ll even leave the Crystal Empire alone if you say yes! I cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” He then gave Princess Cadance a punch to her stomach, which enraged Shining Armor even further,

“Don’t do that to her! You’re really pushing your luck now, Nightshade!”

A mischievous smile grew on Prince Nightshade’s face, “Oh, I’m sorry! Do what exactly? Ooooh, you mean this?” He punched Cadance again, this time in her face. Shining Armor was outraged, but he decided to keep quiet because saying things only made things worse for his wife in her predicament.

Nightshade laughed, “Oh, yeah! Look at that aura of yours! It’s searing with pure anger!” He turned to his soldiers, “Hey, everypony! Let’s play a game! I need six volunteers to help me out!” Most of the Shadow Ponies and Darklings in Nightshade’s army enthusiastically raised their hooves in an instant. Prince Nightshade selected six at random and using his own dark magic, he gave each of them a small but firm club. Nightshade turned back to Shining Armor, “I hope you don’t mind, my friend, but my soldiers and I are very curious to know if there’s candy inside your wife!”

Shining Armor gasped, “No! You wouldn’t…”

Nightshade made a gesture with his hoof and the six soldiers with clubs began to savagely beat Princess Cadance with no mercy. Pinkie Pie and many of the Canterlot soldiers looked away with disgust at the sight of such an atrocity. Shining Armor gripped the wall in anger. He wanted to help Cadance, but he couldn’t do anything but watch.

Nightshade was enjoying the show he was putting on,

“Yes! That’s it! Really let her have it,” he laughed, “Mind her head, I don’t want her dead! I want her to feel every bit of pain! A little more to left!” Nightshade thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s make this more interesting! Let’s grime her up! I need two more volunteers to smear mud on her!” Nightshade selected two more soldiers. They scooped up mud from the damp ground and began to dump it all over Princess Cadance’s body. They vigorously rubbed it into her coat as if they were trying to wipe a tough stain off a kitchen counter.

After about a minute, Roger tapped Prince Nightshade’s shoulder. He communicated to him with sign language. Whatever he said made Nightshade’s grin grow even wider.

“That’s a brilliant idea, Roger!” said Nightshade, “Everypony, take a break from the clubs and mud and ready your ink balloons!” The eight ponies did as they were told. They stepped back from Princess Cadance and each pony took out a water balloon filled with ink from their saddle bags. They hurled the balloons at her as hard as they could. The balloons exploded when they hit Cadance, spreaded ink all over her body and on some Shadow Ponies and Darklings who were in the ‘Splash Zone’.

Nightshade spoke up again, “Hmmmm, I don’t really like this alicorn’s style! Sky Blade, give her a mane-cut!”

“My pleasure!” laughed Sky Blade. He got up on his hind legs and walked towards Princess Cadance. He drew his broadsword with one hoof and grabbed the alicorn’s mane with the other. He yanked it up as hard and as far up as he could and with one quick slash, Princess Cadance’s beautiful mane was now history. Sky Blade threw the mane at the Canterlot wall for the garrison to see.

“That’s some fine barber work, Sky Blade! Cut her tail, too!” Sky Blade nodded and did the same to Princess Cadance’s elegant tail. Nightshade applauded his brother, “Awesome job, Sky Blade! I really should tip you! Now, let me add the finishing touch!” He walked over to Princess Cadance and made a red marker appear out of thin air. He wrote “LOSER” in cursive on her flank where her cutie mark was (which was now covered in ink and mud).

“That tears it! I can’t watch this anymore!” shouted Rainbow Dash. She picked up a rock from a crate on the wall.

“Dashie, no!” shouted Pinkie Pie, but it was too late. Rainbow Dash hurled the rock at Nightshade with all of her might. It passed through the magical barrier around the city and hit Nightshade on the back of his head. Nightshade clutched the back of his head in pain and stumbled around. The Shadow Ponies and Darklings began to snarl with anger. When he regained his composure, he turned to Rainbow Dash and gave her fierce glare,

“I never thought that the protagonists would have the guts make the first strike!”

“You better believe it, you cruel freak!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “If you want Princess Celestia, come and get her!”

“You want a battle? Fine! Let the games begin! Bring up Bucephalus and get this pathetic prisoner out of my sight!”

“Da! Finally!” uttered Sky Blade, jumping with joy on all fours, “Is party time!” Nightshade’s army once again made a hole in their ranks to allow the trolley cart that Princess Cadance was chained to to pass through. Then they made an even bigger hole and allowed a terrifying siege weapon to come through. It was a large ballista loaded with a special bolt designed by Prince Nightshade. The ballista bolt’s head was made of steel and shaped like a horse’s head with its mouth gaping wide open. Within the horse’s mouth was a huge piece of malicite.

“Ha, you’re wasting your time, ketchup head!” laughed Rainbow Dash, “It’s gonna take a lot more than a prehistoric weapon to take down our barrier!”

Nightshade sneered at her, “You shouldn’t be so quick to judge, little pegasus!” Nightshade supercharged the malicite crystal by imbuing it with even more dark magic. This made the crystal shake violently and emit tiny purple sparks. The crystal would flash red for a second on occasion.

“Where’s that magic bulwark’s weak point, my lord?” asked the engineers who controlled Bucephalus, “Can you see it?”

“My eyes can see many things, my loyal subjects!” said Nightshade. He analyzed the magic barrier around Canterlot for a minute and then said, “I found it! Aim Bucephalus up a little higher!” Nightshade rattled off more instructions for adjusting the ballista’s aim. When they found the sweet spot, Nightshade motioned for his engineers to stop the adjustments. Then he shouted, “Let’s do this! Launch this sucker!”

The engineers nodded and pulled the weapon’s launching mechanism. The bolt from Bucephalus launched into the air towards its target. When the bolt hit the barrier, it exploded with such destructive power that it completely shattered Canterlot’s magical shield. The unicorn’s in charge of keeping the barrier up were knocked back and found that their magic was suddenly shorted out.

“Those malicite crystals can be used as bombs?!” said Rainbow Dash in disbelief. Even at this surprise, her confidence would not be outshined by concern.

“It’s showtime, everypony!” shouted Prince Nightshade. He pointed at Canterlot and said, “Charge! Take them down! Make your prince proud!” Nightshade’s army did not hesitate to obey this order. His soldiers sounded their battlecries and began to make a dash for the wall with their spears up and full of hatred.

“Prepare to fire!” shouted Shining Armor. The Canterlot garrison quickly drew arrows from their quivers and attached them onto their bowstrings. Some of the arrows had broadheads while others had Nightshade’s blunt horseshoe-shaped design that the fletchers and smiths of Canterlot managed to reverse-engineer. “Release arrows! Fire at will!” shouted Shining Armor. The garrison released a flurry of arrows. The arrows that made their marks took down their victims, making the Shadow Ponies explode into black smoke and yellow glitter and severely maiming the Darklings. The garrison fired volley after volley at the horde, but that didn’t stop them from coming. The Shadow Ponies and Darklings equipped with bows that got close enough to the wall began to shoot at Shining Armor’s soldiers, picking them off one by one.

“Sky Blade!” shouted Nightshade to his brother, “Ascend to the dark clouds above and tell the soldiers up there that it’s time to kick some Canterlot rump!”

“You don’t have to be asking me twice, Nightshade!” said Sky Blade. He spread his wings and took off. Rainbow Dash saw him fly into the clouds. For a moment, nothing happened. Suddenly, the dark clouds began to open like sliding doors on a patio and huge swarms of Shadow and Darkling pegasi flew out of the to join the brawl.

“Rainbow, get your squad of pegasi up there!” yelled Shining Armor after following Rainbow Dash’s eyes.

“I could’ve figured that out on my own, thanks!” said Rainbow Dash. She put on a pair of shades and flew to the pegasus soldiers that were waiting on the rooftops of the city. “Come on, everypony! Let’s do this like Brutus! To battle!” Rainbow Dash and her team took off like rockets towards the enemies, ready to duel them in Celestia’s name. The pegasi on both sides drew their weapons and clashed in an epic aerial battle. Some wrestled in the sky, others clashed weapons. Explosions constantly went off both in the sky and on the ground; as Prince Nightshade’s soldiers consistently chucked malicite bombs at the defenders of Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash flew around, looking for an enemy to take down. Just then, the pegasus she had been waiting to duel flew right in front of her.

“Vell, vell, vell! I finally get to be meeting the great Rainbow Dash!” said Sky Blade, “Vurd has it that you’ve been named the best flier in all of Equestria!”

“Yeah, that’s right!” said Rainbow Dash, “Sweet sword you’ve got there. I hear you’re quite the savage with it!”

“You bet I am, little filly! Thanks for throwing that rock at my brother. I thought he’d never shut up!”

“I couldn’t let him abuse Cadance like that! Apart from that, I just wanted to get to the part where I kick your butt!”

“Ve’ll see about that, Dash! En garde!”

Author's Note

What will happen in Sky Blade's and Rainbow Dash's duel? What will the fate of Shining Armor and his garrison? What are the roles of Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle in this heated battle? Where are Zinnia and Sponduli Moolalli? When will I stop asking you these questions?

Find out next time in Part 2 of The Battle of Canterlot!

Chapter 6: The Battle of Canterlot (Part 2)

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