Done by a Single Night

When I woke up again, I was at the white plains. But there was a new addition to them. Right in front of me was a large, dark blue mansion. It looked like a mansion, at least. Really, it was only the size of a small house. I don't know why, but I had a very strong and uncanny will to step in. My weight now meaningless, I was drawn towards the door like a magnet, which opened up for me. The light coming from inside was extremely bright, somehow able to be bright in an already bright area... yeah I don't know how that worked. It looked awesome though. I kept getting dragged through the light, against my will. It took about a good thirty seconds of movement before the door closed off into a room.

Looking around, I gasped. The inside was quite larger than the outside. The walls were all a dark velvety blue. It was quite an open room, with most of the furniture against the walls. Though it was only a bit larger as of floor space, the sides went up into oblivion. I couldn't tell how far up it went. There were railings on each floor, and doors in the walls behind them with plaques, so it looked a bit like a really tall motel.

In front of me, sitting behind a rather large desk, was the white mare 'Lexis. She had a wide smile on her face. "Come Dash. Take a seat." Rising  out of the ground, inch by inch, like it had sunk through a bog and brought up again, came a chair. The back was odd, a thick, flat rectangle with rivets on the sides of it. I didn't pay much attention to it though, and sat down. "It is about time you came. We are very impressed."

"What did I do?" I suddenly grinned. "Will whatever I did be something I can tell the Wonderbolts? Would they be impressed?"

She chuckled softly. "Oh, if they knew the whole truth, they'd be practically bowing to you. But, alas, they never will understand."

I made a pout and kicked the ground with my hooves.

"Why, although they'll probably never know of your accomplishment, you should be very proud of yourself. Anyways, you have unlocked your potential."

"Potential for?"

"Personas."

"Erm, I don't follow..."

"Trust me, your friends will fill in for you. All that matters is you pay attention to this." She waved her hoof. "Canvas!"

The said colt came out of one of the rooms on the second floor. He jumped off and landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"Ready?" 'Lexis asked.

"Ready." Canvas said steadily.

Canvas stood in the center of the room, behind the desk, facing me. 'Lexis got up, and the floor suddenly started to turn. She walked in a circle around the room, until it stopped rotating and the desk now faced the doorway. However, my chair seemed to not be attached to the floor, and hadn't moved at all, as if it floated above the ground. Now, Canvas had his back to me and 'Lexis was facing him. She closed her eyes, and a pattern appeared on the floor and began to glow, shifting different colors. From somewhere up in the abyss that was the endless ceiling, a giant picture frame came down and slammed into the ground. I jumped back in surprise. Seriously, that thing could kill somepony. Anyway, Canvas stepped forward toward the frame.

When he got close to it, he kept walking. Once his muzzle touched the picture, he started passing through. A muzzle appeared on the drawing. As he stepped through, and his forelegs went, the drawing now had the body of a pony to his forelegs. Within seconds, the drawing was complete, and Canvas was gone. The lines on the ground suddenly flared up with multicolored fire, and the big painting began to glow. It came off the ground, and floated in the air, spinning. The floor shifted back. 'Lexis opened her eyes and walked behind the desk as if this were normal.

Now there was a big painting whirling above our heads. I felt more than a little scared, as I had seen how hard it struck the ground before.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt you," 'Lexis said with a smirk, seeming to read my thoughts. "But when it does fall to the ground, I doubt you'll be scared."

She raised her hooves, and the painting rose higher... and higher... until it suddenly started to fall, really fast. Of course, even though she just told me it wouldn't hurt me, I was still very terrified. But while it fell, it seemed to get smaller, just like the contract. By the time it had reached the desk, it was as small as the contract had become before. It hovered gently, then slammed into the table vertically and melted through.

"We have faith in you, Dash. Now, you may leave."

Just as if in reverse, the chair melted through the floor and I was thrown back, out through the white door, back to the plains, where I landed on my head. I fell unconscious. I still find it odd that falling asleep there makes me wake up here. I mean, seriously. What the hell?

I looked around. I was in Twilight's library. And I wasn't dead, or chopped to pieces. Good! But it was still rather dark. A look at the clock said it was 11:15. Twilight did hold her sleepover rather early... And speaking of her, she just entered the room, with Fluttershy trailing. She saw that I was awake, and looking straight at me. She didn't even act surprised when I noticed her weapons. "Hello Rainbow Dash. I think I can predict what your dream was about... please, follow us."

Both of them looked as if they expected me to be awake. They weren't surprised at all. It was almost as if they had prepared. "We've been seeing that you have shown the signs," Twilight said, looking at one of her shelves upstairs. "Of potential. So we've been preparing for this..." Okay, apparently they had. "Aha!" Twilight saw a particular book on the shelf.

"A Mare and Her Persona," I read aloud. "Erm, Twi, isn't this book just some emotional self-guidance junk?"

"It is," she explained. With a punch, she hit the book, and it sunk into the shelf. "Its all about being your 'true self' and not holding away from others, all stuff everypony probably knows already. The title is just... easy to remember for meaning. But in all true Applejack honesty, I hate this book almost as much as... as..."

"Twilight?" Fluttershy suggested (asked?)

"Yes?" Whatever she meant, it still got answered. If Fluttershy was to ask anything then, she'd get cut off, as the bookcase swiveled, opening up a passage.

"Wha- what? Since when was this here?" I said, flabbergasted.

"Mmm, quite a long time ago." Twilight walked in, and Fluttershy motioned for me to follow. "The original librarian had this installed to be able to help keep his personal books separated, but seriously, even I don't have that many books. I use it for much different purposes." Fluttershy walked up to the bookcase and pushed it, setting it back in place to the wall.

The whole inside of the room was fairly sized, a little smaller than the library's foyer. On the roof was a dome skylight, which I didn't think was physically possible to be installed there. But, apparently that wasn't all of it, as there were three doors in the room. "The inside is a lot larger," Twilight explained. "It has a magical ward. Apparently the guy before me had quite the collection..."

Somepony having more books than Twilight? Next, I'll learn that Fluttershy is secretly a professional monster slayer.

"So, you may have figured this out already, but Fluttershy and I are professional monster slayers." Touche...

I was going to voice an objection, or laugh, but I made the amazingly sophisticated retort of "Um, yeah." Nice going Rainbow. Soon you are being able to beat Applejack inside languageistics, an- oh Celestia damnit.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, whether it be at my remark, or my futile attempts to the short circuits out of my brain.

"You're taking this awfully well," Fluttershy pointed out.

I stood silent for a bit, thinking, then threw up my head and laughed. "Did you two really think you could prank me? Nopony has been able to do that since flight school! And that was only because I was distracted by the upcoming test! You can't exactly jump me in on a prank like this," I said, still laughing. "C'mon Pinkie, come out, we all know you're here."

Silence. Fluttershy just stood there, shuffling her hooves. "Erm, uh, Rainbow, Pinkie isn't here," she said cooly. "In fact, she's never been here and probably also never will be..."

I laughed again. "I really didn't think you two had it in you. A prank, by yourselves? By Luna! I never thought this would ever happen."

Twilight pointed at a clock on the wall, that now read 11:58. "Erm, Fluttershy, I think we need to get ready soon... You know..."

"Know what?" I said.

"Yes, I suppose you're right." Fluttershy pulled out her vegetable knife, and threw it in the air, making it twirl in a circle. When it came back down, she had caught it in her hooves, and it was now a much more battle-orientated knife. It came out of a black handle, with a silver blade about the width of my hoof in size. On the other end of the handle was a ball, probably the other end of the knife, and for weight.

"W-where did you get that?"

If she heard me, she didn't respond. Twilight simply slipped her wagon wheel under her hoof, and it had changed, now a golden band. It looked a suspicious lot like one of Zecora's neck rings. But it was thicker, flatter, and had an extremely sharp outside edge. The inside edge was blunted, though.

I was going to ask another question, but was interrupted by a loud gong- the sound of Ponyville's clock tower in town square.

BONG! BONG! BONG!

"Get ready, Rainbow Dash."

BONG! BONG! BONG!

"Prepare yourself."

BONG! BONG! BONG!

"It will start soon."

BONG!

"Welcome,"

BONG!

"To the"

BONG!

"Dark Hour."

As Twilight finished that last ominous sentence, the skylight began to falter in its transparency. I rushed to the center of the room in a panic, knocking down the table, and looked up. Slowly, ever so slowly, the full moon began to wash over, slowly, from its benign, soothing white to a malicious yellow. It now bathed the land in a malevolent green hue. I looked down again, to the walls of Twi's library. The walls began to seep- no, that can't be. Is that blood?

Fluttershy yelled for me to wait, and come back, but I bolted straight out of the library, breaking through a window. Looking down, the streets were filled with spilled blood.

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight yelled. "Get the buck down from there!"

I was about to ask why, when a giant stone pillar came out of nowhere, and punched me out of the sky. I fell to the ground, landing in a pool of blood. My body hurt all over, and I didn't think I could get up. Looking back in time, I could see the pillar go back through a portal in the sky, which then vanished.

I saw Fluttershy and Twilight standing on the balcony. Twilight yelled something to Fluttershy, and stood on the railing. Twilight said something, then managed to somehow leap over three houses over to me, and land without a hitch.

"Be careful Rainbow," Twilight said disapprovingly. "No flying allowed."

"What?"

"Erm, so, every day, between 12 AM and 1 AM, there is a 'hidden' hour. You probably haven't experienced it before. Anyways, everything you know about the world gets jacked up, and it'll be really hard to explain, but I think it'd be better if we did this back at the tree, where its safe, and nopony can... oh buck."

She pointed a hoof behind me, and I turned. Standing before us was a large... thing. It was a monster, composed entirely of a black goo. It was just a mass of the material, about my height but twice as wide as me across. Out of the lump came two large hooves, one reaching for me, the other for Twilight. Amidst it was a single mask, half white, half black, with a black eye on the white half, and vice versa. Under the two eyes was a single curved mouth, edges pulled up in a mocking smile.

Twilight pulled her land mine out of nowhere. I had no idea how she did that. She held it in one of her hooves, and rested the other firmly on top of it.

"What the hell are you doing! You'll get us all killed!" I protested. She didn't hear me though. The monster took a hoof, and sweeped it under Twilight, who got pushed back into a nearby house. The mine fell out of her hooves, and she lay there, unconscious.

Apparently that wasn't good enough for the monster. It went up to Twilight and pushed on her forcefully with its dark hooves. I heard the sound of bones breaking. It stood there for a good minute, simply massacring her as I watched in abject horror.

When it was done and pulled back, I could see that her ribs were all broken by the looks of it. A slow trickle of blood escaped her mouth, and her back was stained with it also. Her lungs had probably been punctured, and she was most likely dead.

I had just watched one of my best friends get mauled in front of me, and I could do nothing.

"Razamafoo!" I heard Fluttershy shout from the balcony. In a split second, Twilight and I had been teleported to the balcony in a puff of smoke.

"This is terrible!" I shouted to Fluttershy, tears in my eyes. "Twilight is dead! What will we do! What will the others think! What will-"

Fluttershy put her hooves on my shoulders and shook me profusely.

"Oh, you look so cute when you're worried, Rainbow," Fluttershy said with a chuckle.

"What are you saying?! Twilight's bucking dead, and-"

She raised a hoof to silence me. She produced a small orb in her hoof, that glowed with a strange green light. It looked as if it was made of glass. In the inside of it, a small spark glowed, and it was filled with a cloudy, starry look, like the Milky Way.

"Put this under her tongue," she commanded. As I took it from her, it seemed to burn with energy in my hoof. I could feel its heat, but it was kind, like a mother's touch. It felt like life radiated from it. I slowly opened Twilight's bloodied, mangled mouth and did what she said.

Fluttershy stood up, and put her front hooves on Twi's shoulders. "Iterum!" she shouted, loud yet clear. Well, not the loud part.

Twilight's body was surrounded with a green orb, just like the one I put under her tongue. It too, filled with the starry dust, but when it cleared, Twilight was alive again.

"Twilight! You're alive!"

She banged her head a few times. "Y-yeah, I guess I am."

"Umm guys," Fluttershy said, pointing down at the street. "We still have a problem."

"I'll go," Twilight said, getting up. Just as soon as she did, she fell, clutching her side.

"Twilight, you can't expect a pebble of life to work wonders."

"Hey, I think it does," I said, holding up my hoof.

Twilight laughed, then proceeded to cough a bit. "It only works during the Dark Hour," she explained. "And only on those who have died within the same dark hour. Also, we don't have that many of them, so try not to die. And, as you can see, they aren't perfect. Just kinda like, a kick start. Won't exactly put you back to perfect condition."

"Oh uh, Twi, I um, think your ribs might be broken... I'll need to keep full watch on you."

"But what about the Shadow down there in the street?" Twilight protested. So that's what they were called...

"I'll get it," I volunteered.

"Um, pardon me for saying this Rainbow, but I mean, not that I don't think you can survive, but I think it'd be best for you to stay here."

"I agree with Fluttershy. Its too dangerous!"

"Oh come on, has dangerous ever stopped me?"

I saw Fluttershy raising a hoof to object, but she was too late. I had hopped off the balcony already. As I fell, right when I was about to hit the ground, I put out my wings so-

SLAM!

Okay, so the anti-flying pillars get you for just using your wings to glide three inches, but not for dropping off a three-story building. Go figure.

I groggily got up, and made my way down the street to the shadow. It was still pacing around, looking for Twi's body. And on the wall there was the lovely crude cutout of her body, surrounded with blood. Goodie. It was all just from the floor already... right?

I didn't take too much time to answer that. "Hey! You! Wanna fight?!" I yelled. It apparently did. It was too late, but I just realized that I didn't take anything for fighting it.

Buck.

I scanned around, looking for an improvised weapon. A glint of metal sparkled in the corner of my eye. I looked over, and it was probably the worst possible thing to use in a fight. I should've probably not used it altogether, but my body seemed to not respond to my actions. I walked over casually, as if doing nothing more than some grocery shopping, and picked it up. I set it on the ground in front of me. Slowly, ever so slowly, I moved my right hoof over to it.

"What are you doing?" I asked myself. I got no response. I commanded my hoof to back off, but I had seemed to lose control. My hoof inched closer.

"Don't!" I wanted to yell. My hoof touched the metal.

"Stop!" I pulled back, reeling in for a punch.

"I'm so screwed."

My hoof came onto the mine at full force, and it hit the mine, sinking the top down entirely with a CLICK!. But instead of exploding, from the small ridge where the mine top met the base, a big blue glow erupted, like an ancient volcano reawokened. Electricity coursed throughout the mine, and from the slit on its front, a single slip of paper flew out, onto the ground. I didn't catch what was on it though, as it began to float into the air, twirling. Just like 'Lexis's portrait, I thought silently. The card kept rising, until it floated high above me. It shattered into dust, which then floated down and started to form a large cloud.

"Thou art I," I heard a booming voice state. Somewhere I'd heard it before.

"And I am thou." It finished. Was that-

"From the sea of thy soul I cometh." He seriously sounds like-

"I am Canvas, the Celestial Painter. I have surfaced in your time of need for assistance." The dust began to clear, and standing there now, in front of me, was no other than Canvas himself. Outside of my dreams, he was quite larger than me. He let out a bloodcurdling roar, untamed, wild as the ocean.

He jumped up, and in midair drew something with his hooves. Where he moved his hoof, glowing white lines appeared. He traced the outline of something, and snatched it out of the air. He came down on the Shadow, thrusting the object into it. When he pulled back, I recognized the object as a sword.

"Ahi!" He shouted. A small flame flickered, then blazed to life on the monster. Canvas then drew back, for the final blow, and tossed his sword. It impaled itself on the Shadow's mask, right in the forehead. The mask split in half, down the midline, and fell to the ground. Canvas turned around, winked at me, and disappeared.

The Shadow howled in agony. It clawed for the skies with its hooves, slowly smoking and burning. It collapsed to a pile of ashes, and in the middle of them was a silver blade- Canvas's sword. I walked over, and picked it up.

"Rainbow Dash!" I heard Twilight yell behind me. I turned and saw her, slung across Fluttershy's back. "That was amazing, especially for a first timer. How did you do that?"

I smiled weakly, but was suddenly overcome with a wave of nausea. My vision began to blacken, and I hit the floor.

AN: Props to you if you can figure out where the fire spell came from. Or should I say Nu'i lo'a mo'ihi? No, it isn't a corruption of Agi.