Done by a Single Night

Author's note: Damn you Season 3! You messed up my master plans with canonical information!

At least, I thought that. Then I had a brilliant idea.

My fanfic takes place after the events of... whatever.

Anyways, I have a collab to attend to.

Expect a Dark Octavia fic soon.

Unrelated to the following paragraph (YEP DONT READ THIS), whoever that pony's name was in the Wonderbolt episode, you know the one who accompanied Dash? yeah, her! I can write a revenge dialogue for her! Which isn't related to the following paragraph!

I have no idea how to use the Author's note function. I can't see it. If you can, please tell me. I have no clue how this works.

West Manehattan - One Year Ago

A firm knock tapped the door to the small apartment. The resident knew who it was. The sweat fell down her brow in large drops. She opened the window. It was best she fled as quick as possible.

Right as the latch was undone, a voice pierced the silence.

"You there?" The gruff landlord knew something was amiss.

A shiver cracked through the mare's spine. She slowly lowered the hatch and turned. "Y- yes?"

He opened the door and entered. He threw a bill on the ground in front of her. "Your apartment fees are... starting to stack up ridiculously."

"D- I- I'll be able to pay them back soon, I promise!" Her knees wobbled. She knew it was a lie. Like all the others.

"You said that six months ago."

"..."

He picked up the scroll and unfurled it, looking over the numbers. "The figures we're looking at here... quite a few bits."

"I... I think I might be able to make the money..."

He knew his tenant's profession. Not like he cared. At one point, she would have laughed at the notion of living here. This was the poorest part of the city. The apartment was not much better than the dirtied streets and allies outside.

"I'm fairly sure your cheap tricks won't do you any good. They didn't work once. They didn't work twice. It will never work, no matter what you think."

She could only sigh in defeat. It was true. It was all true.

"Does this mean I have to leave...?"

The stallion thought for a bit, and eventually smiled. He urged closer to the quailing mare. "No... I'm sure you can pay it back in... other ways..." The heavy bolt slid shut.

I... think I've actually, for once in my life, met a normal pony.

Then I realized she was so unexplainably normal that that made her abnormal.

I just bought the dang picture frame and left.

I put it up on the wall. Excellent. A frame with nothing in it. Brilliant art. Take that you damn art freaks!

I think I'm getting better at actually hurting and potentially killing things other than myself. For the past two weeks, I've practically been doing nothing but that. And trying to figure out what the weird sanctuary Lexis showed me is about. It disappears during the Dark Hour, though. I only died eight times this week! Yay!

What happens if we all die, or we run out of pearls? I guess if that happens, I won't be able to figure out.

Work's easy. I guess life is kinda at a standstill now. That is, until one thing changed.

I was just out with my friends, wanting a perfectly normal dinner... when I saw a flying manticore enter the room.

Nopony else in the restaurant had noticed yet, nor any of my friends. I just sat back, the only one angled to see it and rubbed my eyes.

I tapped Fluttershy on the shoulder. She looked up from under her shield of pink, and her eyes widened. She looked down again.

I suppose she's no help outside the Dark Hour.

I looked at Twi, and gestured with my eyes, which really didn't work. But, she got it anyways.

She stood up "...I have to use the restroom."

"Bye!" I said.

"Ahem."

"What?"

"*cough* AHEM!"

"Oh, right. Um, me too. Yeah."

I walked backwards awkwardly while everypony else just watched.

We went outside.

"...Wasn't one of those things the first thing that I killed?"

"You mean, killed you."

"Whatever! Still. It's like, four o'clock. How the hell did it get here?!"

"I don't know! I was going to ask you! You're the one with a freaking mental librarian!"

"Well you are a librarian."

"Yes, but I don't know everything..."

"But I can't tell if-"

"Uhm, Ah'm assuming this ain't a good time." AJ suddenly was there, watching. And I thought I had crazy powers.

"...No, no it isn't. Umm, could you help us?"

"Sure. What can I do you fer?"

"We have a... problem." Nice understatement Twilight.

"An Ah ain't Miracle Mare. But Ah'll try to help."

"So, um, could you distract everypony else and get them out of the restaurant and as far away from here as possible?" I smiled.

Twilight punched me as hard as she could. Which wasn't that hard.

AJ opened an eye. "...Okay...?"

She stared at us awkwardly.

"...Sure!" She turned around and went in. I heard someone scream in pain as a frying pan flew out of the roof.

Soon enough, ponies began running out of the door like their lives depended on it. Which probably was true.

We just stood back. When everypony had left, AJ flipped the sign to closed. "Well, that was fun. Ah'll see ya'll later."

She left.

"...Why did she agree to this?"

"I don't know. Let's go."

When we entered the restaurant, we saw that the manticore had two other friends. They each could fly, but were substantially smaller than any manticores I've seen. And they all faded blue, like a ghost.

Of course, like anypony would think, I blasted it with fire.

I unsheathed my evoker and stabbed myself through the chest. Canvas appeared, floating over my head, and lit them on fire.

Their form flickered, but nothing happened.

He looked at me and shrugged before disappearing.

Thanks a lot.

Okay... well, hack and slash as usual.

I sliced the first to shreds. The gold blade, I noticed, was a little over the length of my foreleg, while the silver one was about half that length.

Hooray for extra reach.

The first ghost manticore jumped at me. I used the silver blade to deflect his claw, and sunk the gold one through his chest while he was open.

His form flickered before fading into mist.

One down, two to go.

Twilight stabbed herself in the arm and Monocerotis appeared. His hat was as angering as ever. He raised his orb into the air, and her disc thingy began to glow. She threw it, and it sliced the second through the ribs like it was made of butter. It didn't bounce off the walls or anything. It didn't come back like a boomerang. What did you expect? Idiots...

One more.

The last one was a bit different. Unlike the other two, it looked a bit more ghostly. It charged at me... and passed right through.

Little help here, Canvas?

Fire.

But we already figured out that didn't wo-

Trust me.

Okay...

I sliced my hoof with the evoker one last time. Canvas, this time more confident, raised his paintbrush, and the manticore burned. Sure, it did nothing, but its form became more... corporeal.

I took that as an opening and sliced it while I still could.

Nice job, eh?

I looked around. Nopony's gonna come back here for a while.

All in a day's work.

Now we have a night's work...

"So what do you think's the problem?" I asked Twi. She was oiling her disc thing.

"I don't know... Shadows normally cannot leave the Dark Hour. There could be a Chrono-Spacial influx that could lead to a dimensional pocket, and potentially-"

"Erm, laymare's terms?"

"...A piece of the continent might have been replaced with the Dark Hour. But we would notice that. So that's out anyways."

"Next!"

"I'm not a dictionar- okay, maybe I shouldn't say that. Anyways, another possibility would be that the Shadow transcended time. But if three did that at the same time, that would cause a major influx in space at the same time, and there'd be big leylines forming from nowhere, and I'd definitely feel that. So, the only conclusion I can draw is that the Shadow somehow got the power to physically leave the Dark Hour..."

"And this is important because?"

"Everypony in the town could get mauled, without them knowing anything."

"Oh. Gotcha. Solution?"

"None, that I can see."

"Great. Well, we're screwed."

"Well, I've studied the area around the Castle, and the leylines should prevent any abnormal fluctuations in space up to about 3 cuils, so-"

"Meaning?"

"It's not a big deal, as long as we're vigilant."

"Ah. Okay. We should still check out the den, see what's the problem."

So we went down there, and I had to drag Fluttershy. She seems scared... again. She was fine last week. What's wrong?

Anyways, I brought both swords, and Twilight gave me a double sheath. Said it's an ancient Chineighse invention. However, it was impossible to use. I mean, physically impossible. The swords were practically magnets, and wouldn't go in, for some reason. Well, that's out.

The portal went to Engo, which seemed normal enough to me. Why do Shadows come from here? Looks like a perfectly normal city to me... even if they are brainwashing their citizens in a fake forest.

Whelp, time to figure out.

I looked around. Black-and-white sky... everything looked just as we left it.

Except for one thing.

Nopony was in the streets.

A little odd, for a government that wants their citizens to spread word of their nation's amazingness. But no matter.

The posters that usually filled the air with propaganda and cheerfulness were all tattered, colours faded.

I have no clue what happened here.

We went up to the palace, which had begun to fade out into monotones like the rest of the city. The statue hall, however, was as shiny as usual, but this time, it was... different.

There was only one statue, the others were now solid pillars. It stood at the end of the hall, and showed nothing more than a simple Earth pony, smiling triumphantly. He held a spear tipped with solid gold, and pointed it to the sky as if to say 'fight me!'.

I had to admit, if I had somepony as confident as that as my leader, I wouldn't feel too bad about being his subject. Hard to impress me. But he somehow did it.

If that was true, then why was everypony gone?

"The statue could be magical, and this is an abandoned town," Twilight suggested. "Or, it could be made by a conquering ruler, who set this up to remind everypony they've been defeated."

I suppose. That old ruler was... weird.

Anyways, the walk to the palace was short-lived, as a big pillar had fallen and blocked the way. Twilight blasted through it with some explosion command that I didn't know. Remind me not to get her angry again. Her flaming mane is ridiculous enough...

We walked up to the big mountain where the throne was before, but nothing was there but an elevator.

There was only one button: "BF9". What happened to Basements 1-8?

Why not. Let's go down. Answers must be had.

The elevator slammed into the ground with a thud, and the doors opened with a click.

There was a small room, about as tall as the statue outside, but only about as wide and long as the library. It was hollowed ground enforced with solid rock, and the only light sources were four torches in the corners.

Across the room, I saw a colt, staring at a portrait of the old king on the wall.

We slowly approached him, and he responded surprisingly quick, still not turning. "What business have you here?" He said in a steely tone.

"That is no concern of yours." Twilight responded.

"You won't understand anyways," Fluttershy added.

"We simply seek answers. If we find them, we will leave as soon as we came." Twi bowed courteously.

"You aren't leaving. You never will."

That answer was... abrupt. "Why?" I asked.

"Don't question it. I don't trust you. You aren't leaving. Know your place. And your place is not here."

He turned, and I instantly recognized him as the colt whose statue was now outside. But he was... different. The charismatic smile was replaced by a stern scowl. The open eyes of warmth were now two cold orbs of ice. His courageous stance was now askew and awkward.

"Who are you?" I asked. "What have you done to the king?"

"The king is a fool. We're better off with him gone."

"I do admit he seemed a bit... off in the head. How did the country rule?" Twilight asked.

"Simple. That was me."

"Wha- the- why does it look different outside now?" Fluttershy's voice was feeble as ever, but the stallion in front of us managed to hear it on his first try. That's a major achievement in my eyes.

"Rules change. And so do kings. You see that statue outside? That was me. Was."

"Then why did it use to be the other guy?"

He sat down and thought. "That other king was, as you probably suspect, a figurehead. I really told him how to rule. I'm his brother. The country prospered. But that was a weak country. Nothing got done. I decided that things should be taken up a level.

"First, I revealed to everyone that 'king' was a lie. I ordered him to be exiled. He did nothing for the good of the people, anyways.

"Next, I erected a statue to edificate my rule. And everyone was happy. But again, nothing got done.

"The final part of my rule, the honest part, I redid everything. I burned all the laws, and started from scratch, but this time more... extreme. But it brought more order. Our nation prospers now." He stood up, his triumphant smile returning.

"But... outside, everypony seems... dead."

"Pah. You will never understand. Look. Ponies may want what is optimal for them. The rule that seems easiest. But they aren't doing the best rule. They're too stupid to see the better methods. Like mine. If nopony steps up to be the voice for the millions, then their feeble cries will be lost to history, faded and chaotic."

"That's... cynical."

"But it's true. They may whine about my 'strict' methods, but they cannot see it is for the better. If I do not step up now, they will be led to failure later."

"...I suppose."

"Yes. But you, you are new. You are not from here. Your look, your actions, your thoughts, they are not of here. You must be eliminated. If my people observe the wonderlust of a nation that is not theirs, they will surely flee."

He paused and rung a bell. "I'm sorry our meeting was short."

He disappeared like smoke in a tornado, and several giant Shadows dropped from the ceiling.

"They are like you," he said from somewhere unseen. "They are not of this land. But they are not pony, like you. They are undefeatable. They are from magics lost to your naive, pitiful minds."

I blew a strand of hair out of my face. "Yeah right. We got this!"

I drew my swords and charged.

Because I'm too lazy to write another fight scene. Ahahahaha. Trust there will be other worlds, and thus more stuff. Took me way too long to do this, I'm very sorry. Many fics are in the making and will be made.