The Dark Ones

“Ready, Rainbow?”

“Ready as the last fifteen times!”

The sky-colored Pegasus leapt off the cloud and into the open air. She immediately nosedived, aiming towards a lavender unicorn.

“Come on… This has got to work…” muttered Twilight as she readied her magic.

It was a bright, yet chilly, winter day in Ponyville. White blanketed the entire area, and everywhere you looked, a white horizon displayed itself. If you focused enough, you could even see Canterlot, which had similar conditions.

Twilight Sparkle, prized pupil of Princess Celestia, would’ve spent the day inside, as usual, reading and studying. Right now, she felt like maybe even taking Spike up on his offer to move her studying for the season to her nice, cozy-and-toasty warm bed.

However, her ever-curious nature led her to all manner of assorted subjects. Presently, she found interesting data on Pegasi magic. She developed a theory, that, if successful,

“NOW!” yelled out the speeding pony, as the sound barrier bent around her, barely making her yell relevant.

Could disprove Starswirl’s theory of supercraftian relativity!

As her horn flashed brightly, Rainbow Dash smashed through, boosting to ludicrous speeds while leaving a prism trail behind her. She quickly pulled up as a bubble appeared around her, and started spinning in tight circles.

Twilight focused, and the bubble slowly started shrinking. Rainbow’s blurred form started shining. She felt as if her body was lighting up in a non-burning flame.

A second aura appeared around Twilight’s horn, as the bubble was constantly shrunk and reinforced. Rainbow had become a white brightness inside the magic, which was quickly turning the floating object into a ball of light.

“GO!” The prodigy’s horn gained a third aura, and the sky and land seemed to darken against the potent light. Rainbow shot out of the bubble, barely avoiding being crushed inside the ever shrinking ball. As she landed haphazardly on the ground, ruining the green sweater she wore, at least more than it already was destroyed, Twilight’s teeth gritted under huge pressure.

“Oooo! Pretty!” came a newcomer.

Pinkie bounced next to Twilight, as did a yellow Pegasus.

No, not now!

“What’s that Twilight? It kinda looks like a disco ball. IS IT A DISCO BALL?! I’d LOVE to have one as bright as that!” The pink pony rambled almost to her ear.

“Pinkie…” tried Fluttershy, although she was ignored.

Her horn sparked.

NO, oh no, nononono

“I mean I’ve seen tons of disco balls at all the parties I’ve gone to, but I’ve never seen anything like this!”

“Pinkie…”

It sparked twice.

Nonononononono

“ExceptthatonetimewhenVinylhadputliketenpairsofglassesaroundone,itlookedfunnytoo!”

“Please, Pinkie…”

NONONONO-

“EVERYPONY DOWN ON THE GROUND!”

The ball of energy suddenly was released, and an enormous, prism wave burst from it. The four ponies around did their best to hold on, but to no avail. The force yanked them away from the snow, and a house’s worth of land was sent behind them.

“Ah, I simply love this season!” the white unicorn exclaimed to herself.

Unlike many other businesses in Ponyville, winter brought much more customers to Carousel Boutique, since the ponies’ coat alone wasn’t enough to keep the biting cold of the season away. Not only that, but the white expanse of snow glistening in the light made Rarity smile contentedly, as it reminded her of other beautiful, white beings.

Namely, herself.

She was currently seated behind the machine, stitching away with her gold thread. It was no request or order, but rather just a design made out of simple, yet fabulous ingenuity.

Covered in a thick, blue and golden mantle-like dress, donning a stylishly-ridiculously sized hat, she was in a moment of perfect placidness, in her own world.

A world in which she didn’t notice the brief darkening of the land outside.

“Eek! AAAAAGH!”

Her little world exploded in pain, blindness and a high pitch whistle in her ears as the hyper-charged Sonic Rainboom turned her windows to dust. Her eyes stung, but were yanked open by the horrible bolt of pain, calling from her hoof.

She looked at the blurred image of her hoof being painfully and repeatedly pierced by the machine, stitching it messily to her work.

Magic blasted out from her horn, as she mentally felt for a way to turn off this suddenly hell-born machine, over the repeated stabbing coming from it.

As the puncturing stopped under her command, she let out a yowl of pain.

Trying her best not to call anyone’s current attention, she clenched her teeth and let nary but a hiss escape her mouth. Broken, silent moans alternated with her breathing, a few tears marking the picture of her pain.

Her forehead pressing on the desk, she slowly opened her eyes as she collected herself.

Alright… Alright Rarity. Look up. Slowly. No sudden movement. In the slightest.

She closed her eyes as she slowly, and stiffly, pulled her head up.

It’s horrible…

IT’S TERRIBLE!!

Oh sweet Celestia, guardian and dame of Equestria why?!

My… Its… ruined! Useless! Ugly!

MY GOLD THREAD HAS BEEN STAINED!

Rarity nearly fainted as she saw her own blood, specifically the way it tainted her glamorous design.

She could’ve ignored the injury, was it not for her hoof’s new calling of pain.

Right. Got to deal with this.

No cotton available under her sight, she pitifully used her unfinished work to suppress the blood flow. Inspecting it once more, she saw how bad it was.

Her hoof had been stitched 12 times to the cloth. Not pretty.

Her technical, accurate prowess came forth though, as she quickly and efficiently cut the thread and cleaned the desk from anything that could get in her way.

Now, I could cut the thread inside into parts, but that is a bit dangerous, or I could pull it out, but that would be worse.

Oh Rarity, how do you ruin a perfect day AND dress like this?

“What the hay is goin’ on here?!”

Applejack came to a scene rather hard to explain or understand.

Twilight’s mane and clothes were a terrible mess, although it fit her infuriated expression. She seemed to be trying to do something. Looking up, she saw an equally-messy Rainbow Dash being followed by dark clouds, surrounded by purple magic. To the side she saw Pinkie Pie trying to pull her head out of the ground, with Fluttershy and Spike helping her. Further to the side, she saw a green sweater, alit in purple flames.

Upon noticing her, Fluttershy jumped over Pinkie Pie towards Applejack, leaving the pink mare’s rump to fall on Spike’s head.

“Pinkie and I were coming from Sugarcube Corner since she had baked me some cupcakes for helping her with Gummy, when we saw Twilight doing something with Rainbow, and Pinkie came closer to Twilight. She did something wrong and it exploded then Twilight yelled at Pinkie for it then Rainbow defended Pinkie saying it was Twilight’s fault then Twilight told Rainbow it was her fault actually then Pinkie talked but Twilight put her head in the ground then Rainbow yelled and Spike ran in and I tried to help but Twilight is mad and I CAN’T STOP ANY OF THIS!” Fluttershy yelled, or at least what was considered a yell in her terms, as the farmer pony pulled out her rope, making a noose as the Pegasus kept explaining.

“Don’tfh werry shugerkube, ah goth thid.” She said through the rope.

She broke into a quick gallop, jumped on Twilight and pining her head down to break her concentration and view, while at the same time flinging the hoop towards Rainbow Dash, pulling her down and out of the clouds’ path.

Pinning both ponies down to the ground under her forehooves, Applejack started talking in a disappointed tone.

“Now when ah heard a big boom over the whole town, Ah thought somethin’ terrible had happened, and would you look at that, Ah was right! There were two of mah friends bein’ terribly immature!”

“Now, Ah’m not surprised ta see Rainbow involved in this,” she started, the pegasus rolling her eyes and mumbling over a mouthful of snow.

“But ah AM surprised ta see ya actin’ so foalishly, Twi! I dunno what sciency thing you two were doin’, but that doesn’t mean ya can go on an blame anypony for yer mistakes!” She continued, as Pinkie finally freed herself from the ground with an audible ‘pop!’

“Now ah want ya two to say sorry to Pinkie and Fluttershy for yellin at ‘em, ya hear me?” She lowered her head to look at the two mares she held down.

Just as Twilight was about to (begrudgingly) agree on it, Rainbow suddenly said, “Yeah, no, I don’t think so.”

Her hindquarters shot up, knocking Applejack off balance. She pushed hard with her forehooves and wing on her restraint, until the rope ripped open, granting her full mobility.

“Sorry MOM, but I’m not about to apologize when I’ve done nothing wrong. I just defended Pinkie because Twilight blamed her for her spell’s failure!”

Being released from the earth pony’s hold, Twilight shot up in defense, her thoughts being challenged. “It WAS her fault! She kept yabbering on and on about something I couldn’t give horseapples about, even though I CLEARLY needed to concentrate!”

“Why didn’t you just ignore her then?!”

“She was yelling right in my ear! Besides, it’s Pinkie for Pete’s sake!”

“That don’t allow ya to dig ‘er head in like an oyster or somethin’!” Applejack joined in.

“That’s an OSTRICH you’re talking about!”

“Oyster ostrich eldritch WHO CARES?! The point is you Are being a jerk, Twilight!”

“Me?! If anyone is a jerk here is you, Rainbow!”

“What?!”

“‘Look at me! I’m Rainbow Dash! I’m so cool and awesome and INSECURE that I would never be at fault for anything!’”

“Oh yeah? ‘I’m Twilight freaking Sparkle! I’m the best magic spouter ever and can’t ever fail at anything!’”

“Ya two are just bein’ stupid now!”

“As if you’ve ever even read a book!”

“That was too low, Twilight!”

Fluttershy, Pinkie and Spike looked on as the stubborn trio argued on and on.

“What happened? What’s going- ugh –on?”

The three of them turned to see Rarity, who limped towards them, her right hoof held up and bound in a golden wrapping.

“I’ll… explain later.” Said Fluttershy.

“Very well… Spikey, what is that you’re holding?”

Spike, clad in a blue hoodie, looked up from his temporary trance of adoration to point at the parchment on his claw. He released it as he let Rarity take it and inform them, since Twilight was…

“A chicken flies better than you!”

“Now you keep Scootaloo out of this! She needs time!”

…busy.

Rarity unraveled the scroll, and cleared her throat with a polite ‘m-hmm’.

“Twilight,

Gather your friends and wait for me and my sister in ten minutes.

Celestia”

Just as she confirmed the letter’s source, the scene froze as two rather heavy clops echoed on the now silent area.

Without wait, the two alicorns flared their wings as the elements of harmony appeared around the group of friends.

The jewels held in the necklaces and tiara flashed as their gold bearings vanished.

With a flash, the six jewels, with Celestia’s and Luna’s horns added in, sent out beams of corresponding colors towards their holders.

Everything went black.

" P.S., May the Founder’s wish be on your side once more, my little ponies."

NEXT CHAPTER!

The area sparked shortly, and they saw as a gray sphere expanded. Going through them, they appeared in the snowy area had been in. As the sphere continued its way, trees and hills started materializing. However, under closer inspection, they saw that everything was in a cold blue tone, the sky being a dark shade of it as well.

Darkness! Who are all these ponies?!