War of the Unfoals

by NPP6

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Adventure, Diamond Tiara
Length: 39139

Two months ago, a Nightmare Alicorn tried to escape Tartarus. He was stopped by the very foals he was trying to use. He hasn't given up. He's coming for them.

The Blood's Eye Event. A cult, bent on releasing their master from Tartarus, foalnapped over four dozen fillies and colts to farm them for their life energy. They fooled the princesses, avoided the detection of the guards, and would have succeeded if not for a filly and her friend.
That was two months ago.
Since then, Black Diamond had gone back to her life as Diamond Tiara, and Featherdown has been living with the recently returned Midnight Star. Both are making progress in their training as Shadow Rangers. The colts and fillies that they saved have for the most part rallied behind the flag of the filly who led them directly, flooding the ranks of the Crusaders' Manehatten Branch. The cultists have been imprisoned, with any of their escaped comrades actively hunted down by the guard.
And Demon Blood has not given up on his quest to return.
He knows who stands in his way. He knows he needs to deal with them. And thanks to them, he knows how.
The last time, he lost to untapped potential. Now his enemies will fall to the same power.

Published 2016-06-22 23:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-05-03 03:06:47 UTC

Chapter 1 - Drastic Measures

To be honest, Black Diamond reflected, it was only a matter of time.

She, Midnight, and Featherdown were sitting in what amounted to Twilight’s throne room. The princess in question, her student Starlight Glimmer, and both Nyx and Spike were staring at the three ponies in abject shock. Given what had just been said, that was to be expected.

Diamond didn’t think she could have gotten a better reaction if she’d revealed that her Day form was Diamond Tiara.

“Now hold on Sugarcube, are ya sure ya wanna do something that drastic?” It had been a couple of hours, and the six mares that most of the town's events seemed to circle around had congregated to decide on an answer to Featherdown's request.

“I must agree with Applejack dearie, why would you want to get rid of your cutie mark?”

Featherdown gaped for a moment before she let her shoulders droop. “That’s right, you’ve never seen it. I forgot I managed to keep it hidden from most of the adults.” The filly shifted her weight, allowing her saddlebags to slide off and reveal her cutie mark. She turned to display it to the six mares who were to decide her fate. “Why don’t you tell me, why wouldn’t I want to escape this destiny?”

Response was preempted by the force of nature collectively known as “The Trio” barreling through the doors. “Featherdown, wait!” Applebloom called out, “Ya can’t just throw away yer special talent!”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo joined in, “Your cutie mark is a part of who you are, why would you want to get rid of it?”

Sweetie Bell cocked her head, “What does a bed cutie mark represent anyway?”

Featherdown glanced back at the familiar red curtained frame on her flank. “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

Rainbow cut in before the three younger fillies could voice further curiosity, “What are you three doing here anyway?”

Several sheepish grins and half-hearted excuses later, Applebloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo were shuffled out by their sisters. Any further attempts on their part to eavesdrop mysteriously backfired, though it never occurred to them that the flickering shadow that occasionally flashed through their vision might be related to that.

Meanwhile, Featherdown continued presenting her case, “You see? That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. How am I supposed to explain to fillies like them that I legally can’t tell them my cutie mark story until they’re eighteen? Even when they’re old enough, how do I even begin explaining my ‘special talent’ to them?” The young mare’s head drooped, shading her eyes.

Twilight looked over to where Midnight sat behind his ward. “When you told me that taking her in yourself was the only way to keep Black Diamond from killing Duke Holder…”

Midnight nodded. “I was being very literal.”

Twilight swallowed. “But… How… If he was doing things to her, then how did she…”

“Because I didn’t get my cutie mark the first night he did things to me.” A single tear hit the crustal at her hooves as she looked up again to meet the princess’s gaze. It was obvious to all present that she was holding back a torrent of other tears as she spoke, “I got my cutie mark the first time… my first time doing things back to him.”

There were several seconds of silence following that. During that time, Fluttershy closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. “Girls?” Her voice echoed slightly, a strange effect given its volume, “Why don’t I take Featherdown into another room and talk to her, this is obviously hard on her already, we shouldn’t make it any harder than it has to be. We’ll be back when she’s feeling a little better.” She shot Rainbow a glance.

The other pegasus nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably the best call for that one.”

Pinkie looked at the polychromatic mare. “Whatcha mean Dashie?”

Both pegasi seized up in the lightning quick moment before Midnight responded. “Featherdown’s in a… tough place right now. It would be pretty easy to hurt her accidentally, but with how gentle Fluttershy is…” He shrugged. “Anyway, I agree, Fluttershy’ll have the easiest time calming her down."

The Trio had finally given up on breaking into Twilight’s Castle and were buzzing out to Sweet Apple Acres to meet a hoofful of the other crusaders (The club having expanded greatly since the Trio got their cutie marks) for another crusade just inside the Everfree. They had gained a sense of responsibility for the other foals (For a given value of “responsibility”), and knew that the Everfree could be dangerous, so they were taking the scenic route.

A quick pass along the edge of the forest would give them an idea of whether anything had come to the edge today. Nothing was visible, but for some reason Applebloom still felt nervous. She could… feel something out there.

Finally she’d had enough. If something was stalking them, they were probably better off turning this into a chase before they led it back to the other crusaders. “Girls, let’s stop here a bit.”

Scootaloo braked, the wagon rolling to a stop next to her. “What is it Applebloom?”

The earth pony shook her head. “I dunno, something just feels weird.” As she spoke, she hopped out of the wagon and started walking towards the tree line.

“Applebloom, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Sweetie squeaked.

Applebloom nodded. “I’m just gonna see what’s there, and…” She had turned to look over her shoulder at her friends as she spoke. At their terrified screams, she turned herself to see a pair of ghosts standing in front of her.

In surprise, she fell backwards onto her rump. It took a moment for her jaw to work, but finally she managed to get out:

“Ruby? Mitta?”

“Starlight, are you sure about this? Midnight or I could probably cast the spell if it would bring back memories.”

The unicorn in question shook her head. “No, I need to do this. I caused years of hurt with the original spell, if this version can do some good, then I need to do it.”

The only stallion in the room turned to the only pegasus. “Rainbow, can you go let them know we’re ready?”

As the cyan mare left through one door, three familiar fillies burst through another for the second time that day. Twilight’s shoulders slumped. “Oh for crying out loud. Girls, please, this is Featherdown’s choice to make, and you really need to accept–”

Applebloom cut her off, “No, this ain’t about that. We’ve got trouble in the Everfree.”

Applejack spoke up, “Now hold on a minute there Bloom, what’s going on?”

“Something bad.”

“…Something bad?”

“Uh huh.”

“Have ya got anything more specific than that?”

“Wha… ya mean ya don’t believe me. Sis, I’m telling ya, there’s some kinda weird magic going on out there right now!”

“Now Sugarcube–”

“Indeed dear Applebloom speaks true, I know for I have sensed it too.”

The group looked up as Zecora walked in. Her eyes widened briefly when she noticed Midnight sitting just out of sight of the door itself, but she gave no other sign of surprise at seeing an alicorn stallion. “Somewhere out there, you I tell, Darkness works through magic and spell.”

It was at this point that Midnight rose, walked over to Applebloom, and whispered something in her ear. She recoiled in surprise, then hesitantly nodded. He grimaced. “Black Diamond, you’re with me. We’ll go take a look at things, see if we can nip this in the bud. If the rest of you ladies could please let Featherdown know where we went, it would be appreciated.”

Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Featherdown trotted back into the room scant minutes after he left.

An alicorn filly and a unicorn colt were walking along through the streets of Ponyville. Given that it was now three in the afternoon on a Saturday, nopony really paid them any mind. As they turned a corner however, the filly posed a question, “Uh… Is this a shortcut?”

The colt looked at Nyx, then shook his head. “Nah, my house is down this way. My parents aren’t home right now, so it’ll be locked, but there’s a key around back for these kinds of situations.” He paused, looking between the filly and the alley they were turning down. “If you want, I can take you around front and then come around back and let you in that way.”

Nyx thought about it for a moment. The alley ran between two rows of houses, set so that it was behind both of them. She wasn’t entirely comfortable with it, but Night had never given her any reason to not trust him.

He had been careful about that.

Nyx shrugged. “I’ll just follow you, I don’t want to make you walk all the way around twice.”

He gave her a grateful smile and the pair trotted into the alley, turning at a fork that you wouldn’t notice from the road. The path turned again, and as Nyx rounded the corner, she heard the “pop” of displaced air behind her. She turned to see that Night had teleported, and a suspicion started to build. Glancing behind her to find he had led her to a dead end only grew that suspicion. “Night? What’s going on?”

He gave her a gentle smile. “I think that’s obvious Nyx.” Faster than she could blink, her saddlebags – and the emergency signal inside them – were pulled away from her in his magic. “Now I get that they told things to you, so this will probably scare you a little, and I’m going to have to use more force than I’d like. But trust me, this is for the best, for both of us.”

Nyx’s brief time as an adult combined with what she’d managed to infer about Featherdown’s story earlier that morning to cast those comments in a particular light. The filly’s ears flattened out, her tail tightened down between her hind legs, which she brought far closer than she usually would as she slowly backed away. “Night, please. Don’t do this. My mother and her friends–”

Night chuckled gently. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about them, the agents of Harmony, as well as the Shadow Ranger, are going to be quite occupied for the foreseeable future. You and I will have all the time in the world.”

Nyx jumped. Her wings snapped out as she took flight, rising straight into the air… for about two feet. Then she froze, caught in a telekinetic grip that dragged her back to ground. She tried to cast a spell, only to have her horn tapped by his hoof. It wasn’t hard, he clearly didn’t want to hurt her, but it was enough to disrupt her magic.

“None of that now,” His voice was as gentle as ever, “We wouldn’t want anypony getting caught in the crossfire.”

Calm down Nyx, this isn’t your first foalnapping. “Why? Why do this?”

His gaze was pitying. “Because I’ve seen what they’ve done to you, even if you can’t. And it sickens me. So, I will release you from their chains, even if I have to fight you to do it.”

“Where do you get off!? In case you hadn’t noticed, the only one trapping me right now is you!”

He sighed. “I told you, I know that they’ve told you things, so don’t worry, I know it’s them talking and not you. Because you would never be happy like this Nightmare Moon.”

Nyx swallowed. Something about the way he said that name was different. It was the same kind of familiarity she heard when her mother said her name. “Who are you?”

Night closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, they were the same color, only… different. Slitted, draconic, like hers. His windbreaker burst at the seams as his leathery bat wings erupted from it. “I am Despair. Come along Sister, we have much to do so that you may awaken.”

They had teleported out before Nyx even thought to scream.

A tan colt with a light blue mane watched a filly from the shadows. He had been following her for the better part of the day, analyzing her. Supernatural Capacity, high physical strength for her age, high damage capacity, high value hostage… Priority Two. We’ll come after her once the Ranger is dealt with. Course of action: Elimination.

Author's Note

Nyx is from Past Sins by Pen Stroke.

Chapter 3 - Teeth of the Trap

Midnight dropped his apparently useless shield, lashing out with a magical blast. A magical blast that did absolutely nothing to the approaching creatures. They didn’t even break stride.

Meanwhile, Diamond rushed the enemies approaching from her direction. Blacklight remained tight against her legs – these things looked like they were about her age after all – but her punches and kicks were still enough to send several sprawling.

She laughed, “This is the best they’ve got?”

Midnight snorted in frustration, “Given that we can’t seem to touch them…”

There was a momentary pause before both ponies glanced over their shoulders to check on the other’s situation. They blinked in unison. Midnight sighed, “I seem to have been relegated to support magic. As you were Captain.”

The alicorn spread his wings and took to the air, hovering ten hooves off the ground. The earth pony drew back to a position that was not quite under him, one that kept her enemies at an equal distance on all sides.

A particularly brave one darted in, lashing out at her, and she responded in kind, blocking with one forehoof while striking with the other. As both hooves passed through the flinching creature, Diamond’s eyes widened, and she threw herself into a sideways roll on honed instinct.

Her eyes narrowed as she regained her hooves. She had hit these things once, so what was different? She went on the defensive, dodging and slipping around her enemies as they grew emboldened.

She tried to stave them off, but they weren’t flinching as badly. They knew she couldn’t hurt them; her hooves would just slide through them like… Shadow!

That was what was different, the first time she had been slipping just slightly into shadow so that she could move faster. She had never used the trick for anything but a single rush in a straight line, but…

She shrugged. Now was as good a time as any to try.

Midnight watched as he floated overhead, layering protective and strengthening enchantments on Diamond. He swallowed nervously, but pushed the feelings away. He had to trust her, she had earned that much. He would intervene if she was seriously in trouble, but for now she was holding her own.

And then he saw that roguish grin, the one he had supposedly invented. He couldn’t help smiling at it. She had this. He didn’t know how she was going to win, but she had figured it out, that much was clear.

There are times on the battlefield when a pile of enemies will literally explode outwards from an individual. This wasn’t one of those times, but it was akin to it. Diamond stood again in the center of a circle of enemies, but this time, it felt different to all involved.

The balance of power was clear.

“No.”

“Ditzy, please, be reasonable.”

“No. No more Doctor. No more running.”

“Ditzy, please, think about Sparkler and Dinky.”

“I am. What kind of example are we setting for them?”

“Ditzy, please–”

“Ditzy, please, Ditzy, please, have you forgotten all the other words?”

“…Ditzy, I… You’re right. We can’t keep doing this. We can’t keep running off and abandoning our friends when things get to this point. We had to keep the girls away from the Darkness for as long as we could, but we can’t do that anymore. We can’t afford to and neither can they.”

The stallion took a deep breath. “That said, tonight we run. Tonight is different Ditzy. Tonight, nothing good happens. Tonight has a lot of ways it can go, all of them bad. Ponyville burns. Ponyville falls. Ponyville turns. Twilight and her friends die. Midnight falls to despair and Starless Night returns. And in the absolute best case scenario, dozens of foals are slaughtered in the streets.”

The pegasus leaned back. “W-What? No… No, there’s no way–”

“It’s the unfoals Ditzy.” The Doctor waited for a half beat while his wife processed that sentence, then added, “Tonight is the night they blow a hole in the universe.”

Ditzy sat there for a full minute while her mind raced. Then she stood up, trembling, and called out, “Girls? Pack your things, we’re taking a trip.”

Diamond was starting to get a little worried. This was too easy. These things didn’t know how to fight, they were relying completely on their ability to phase through attacks, something they couldn’t seem to do with her.

She was waiting for the bit to drop.

Midnight was making the same observations, but was significantly less worried. For now. They would just have to deal with things as they came. Until then, he just kept layering support spells on Diamond.

The earth pony’s ear flicked as his eyes narrowed. “Well that’s annoying. Still, I suppose it’s to be expected. After all, there must be some reason why she is the only mortal my master considers a worthy opponent.”

“I assume you refer to Black Diamond?” The alicorn replied.

“Yes. It would seem that while our protections against Midnight Star hold, Black Diamond is capable of fighting us.”

“That complicates things.”

“Not overly. She will be dealt with.”

The turning point, Midnight would later decide, was the blood.

It was an accident on all sides really. Diamond had been trying to subdue her foes without bloodshed, exactly as she had been trained. Her opponents certainly weren’t going out of their way to injure themselves. And then it happened.

One of the things tripped while she was trying to punch it. It was a good thing that Blacklight was still tight against her foreleg, otherwise her enemy would have lost its head. As it stood, the creature was left with a nasty gash in its cheek as its blood soaked Diamond’s weapon.

She hesitated momentarily after that, and when she resumed fighting, her style had shifted slightly. Midnight knew why. Blood changed things. Bleeding opponents were alive. Whatever these things were, they weren’t mere magical constructs, and their size indicated youth. It seemed that some dark sorcerer had forced what equated to foals into his service.

It was at about this point that Midnight decided that there would be no quarter for whoever was behind this.

There was a faint rustle, more a motion of wind than a sound, and when Midnight returned his attention to the battlefield, he found the fight had ended. Diamond had pinned one of her foes to the ground, and Blacklight was against its throat. Idly, Midnight noted that it was the same creature that she had cut earlier, the slice on its cheek still bleeding.

“Alright,” Diamond panted, “Now I’ve got some questions and you’re going to give me answers. If you don’t, well…” She lazily glanced down at her captive, “We all know I’m already a killer.”

There was a faint sound, somewhere between a buzz and a hum, but not really a drone. It was felt more than heard, and it accompanied the circle of enemies around her backpedaling several paces.

The next sound was quite audible. It was a battlecry.

Diamond rolled with the impact as she was tackled from the side. As she hit the ground, she melted into her own shadow, letting the filly who’d tackled her continue to roll across the ground as Diamond escaped. The ranger rose up as the other filly got back on her feet.

She was wearing a loose brown cloak that revealed nothing about her, the hood even covering her face. That didn’t matter, Diamond had seen her face when they had made contact. She had a cornflower coat, an azure mane, and silver eyes. She was also a unicorn.

Diamond didn’t bother with the dance. “Who are you?”

“We are the ones without a voice. The children of the futures that your kind stole from us.”

“My kind?”

“The born. The real. We are the ponies who are not because you are. Those who could have been, had things been different.”

“So what, you’re… un… ponies? Unfoals?”

“Yes. And we’re taking back what was taken from us. From tonight on, the future belongs to us, our master, and his allies.”

“Oh? And what does it take to be one of your master’s allies?”

The cloaked filly laughed. “For you? There’s no chance. He hates you too much.”

Diamond’s eyes narrowed. “So Demon Blood’s behind this.” She smirked. “Oh, don’t look so surprised, I don’t have all that many enemies on his power level yet, it wasn’t hard to figure out. Let him know I’m coming for him.”

The magic blast struck without warning. This filly was quick on the draw, that was for sure. It struck Diamond across the chest, pushing through the hardened shadows armoring her body. The jagged cut it left was roughly nine inches long, though fortunately not very deep.

It began healing instantly, shining with a dark blue aura. Midnight smiled from his position in the sky. “I might not be able to touch you foals, but my magic can still affect her.”

The cloaked filly stood still for a moment, then shook her head and snorted. “Retreat.” She looked at Diamond, and the black filly saw her face a second time. “This isn’t over.”

The filly vanished into the undergrowth with the rest of the unfoals.

On a hill outside of town, a tan earth pony colt’s eyes widened. “That’s…” The unfoal shook his head and turned to his companion. “Change of plans, Midnight Star and his Shadow are loose in the Everfree. We have to strike before they have a chance to return. Alpha priority targets are now to be ignored, focus on betas and gammas.”

The alicorn nodded. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, my sister just woke up. I’ll try to talk to her, but something tells me I’ll need to sedate her again. After that I will gladly help you burn this place to the ground.”

Author's Note

Wow. My update cycle is slow on this one...
Anyway, here's a chapter.

Chapter 4 - Magical Misfires

Midnight and Diamond came to a halt as they entered the clearing. Diamond heard her mentor hiss lightly. “So that’s how it happened…”

“Midnight? What’s going on? This place feels funny.”

“This clearing has a history. At one point, it was saturated with dark magic. This was then overlaid with purification magic. At some point harmony magic got mixed in as well.”

“What happened here?”

“A cult tried to resurrect Nightmare Moon.”

Diamond looked around the clearing wide-eyed. “You mean… This is where Nyx was born?”

“Yes, and something reactivated the spell.”

“So there’s another Nightmare Moon running around?”

“Another nightmare foal at least. This is also probably how our new friends happened.”

“Alright, has everypony got everything they need?” Ditzy Doo looked around her family. “Nopony forgot anything?”

Her husband was gently nodding, then gave a start. “Oh! Actually, I did almost forget something. Just a moment.”

Ditzy shook her head as the Doctor ran out to go into the house for whatever he’d forgotten. Then she sat up straight as she heard the doors close and lock. The TARDIS started powering up for travel.

“Doctor? Doctor, something’s wrong!”

“I’m sorry Ditzy, I’m so sorry.”

The pegasus felt ice in her veins. “Doctor, what are you doing?”

“What needs to be done.” There was a muffled thump that Ditzy could only guess was her husband letting his weight fall into the door. “You’re right Ditzy, we can’t keep running away when our friends in Ponyville are in danger. I was right too though, the girls need to not be here for this one. The TARDIS will bring you back in a day or two, if everything calms down… if it doesn’t… Please take care of our girls Ditzy. For all the dark things that followed me into this universe of light, those two make me regret nothing.

“If the TARDIS can’t get a lock on this time and place… I programmed it for one last trip. It’ll take you somewhen safe, somewhere you and the girls can be happy. Take care of our girls Ditzy, and take care of yourself.”

Ditzy eventually managed to get the door open. By that point, Equestria was very far away.

The Doctor collapsed and let himself cry for just a moment. He could afford that much, just a minute to grieve.

“Doctor.”

The stallion paused for a single beat of each heart, then wearily picked himself up and dried his eyes. He knew that voice, it meant he might have to explain a few things. “I’m sorry, but Dinky can’t play tonight, she’s–”

“On the third moon of Kirjath 726 years ago.”

The Doctor froze mid-turn. “How could you possibly know that?”

“Because while she’s there, a group of smugglers are going to come across your family. Don’t worry, these ones are fairly friendly, especially when they figure out who they’re dealing with. A year later, one of the members of the crew will tell me about that, and I will investigate, hoping she’s still there. Much later in her timeline, I will ask her about it, and return an item she had forgotten there and thought lost to her forever.”

“…So you get sucked in too.”

“No Doctor, I dive in headfirst. As you have probably guessed, the pony you think I am is currently at home with his mother, sound asleep. If all goes well, he will wake up tomorrow and be rather upset that he missed out on everything that’s going to happen tonight.”

“The Unfoals.”

“Actually, they’re only the start of the problem. Don’t worry, the others can handle them. We need your help to deal with another threat, one that is going to strike without warning.”

“What?”

“Think about it Doctor. The Unfoals are potential. Raw, pure, unfiltered potential. They are the ones that might have been but never were. Which means that they are custom made to be their prey.”

The Doctor felt his blood run cold. “No. No, not them. Not in Ponyville.” He turned to face the voice.

The Time Pirate had changed slightly since The Doctor had last seen him. He now had a large metal cutlass strapped to his back, over the cloak that completely obscured his features. The colt took a step forward, revealing a needle suspended in a clear bubble on his fetlock before the cloak shifted and covered it again. “We need your help Doctor. We can’t stop them alone.”

Black Diamond stepped around a corner, an old scar notching her ear the he knew for a fact she had not had yesterday. A slightly less familiar face came around the other corner, Distra, the unicorn with the Gallopfreyan cutie mark, gave him a sad smile as she took her place in the formation.

The Doctor swallowed and nodded. “Right then, let’s save Ponyville. Allons-y.”

Black Diamond coughed. “Actually, we need to grab one more pony before we do that.”

Button’s ears perked as he neared his destination. Carousel Boutique. He wasn’t sure why, he just felt like if something was going to happen, then that’s where it would happen. Sweetie Bell and her friends tended to attract trouble.

It seemed like his hunch might be paying off though, he could hear shouting from inside. He had come at it from the side and a little back, the shortest route from his house. He galloped around to the front and charged through the shattered front door. He froze at what he saw inside.

Ponies. Small, about his size. Black coats, no manes, solid white eyes. They were a little less twisted in real life, but long hours of mowing these monsters down had conditioned his mind enough to identify them automatically.

Shadows.

A thought struck him and he looked back and forth between the stock enemy from his favorite game and the key he had strapped to his back. A manic grin slowly began taking over his face as he drew his blade. Best. Night. Ever!

His enemies took a collective step back, unnerved by the glee pouring off the colt. He moved to attack–

And changed his plans abruptly when he heard Sweetie Bell scream again, jumping onto the register counter to dodge one of the only creatures in the room not watching Button warily. Button swung his keyblade into his mouth and charged, weaving his way through his foes and shoving several dress racks to be obstacles.

He jumped up onto the counter and rolled, coming up with a vicious horizontal slice at the shadow between him and Sweetie. To his shock, the blade just ghosted through the monster, and the momentum of the attack carried Button through it as well.

Button spun as he slid across the counter into Sweetie Bell, and then both of them careened off the end, sending the cash register flying. By the time the pair picked themselves up, they were surrounded.

Sweetie shot a magical pulse at one of the shadows, but it ghosted through just like Button’s attack had… and like her others spells had, he realized. Button’s eyes darted frantically, and then he saw it, a way out. There was no way to tell Sweetie about it though… He really hoped she’d be understanding about this…

He pulled his keyblade out of his mouth and threw it towards the door. In the instant of distraction that bought, he ran at Sweetie Bell from behind and dropped, sliding forward with his forehooves outstretched. When he was just past being directly under her, he popped up, slamming his back into her stomach and taking her hooves off the ground.

And then Button charged, hoping he was right.

He ghosted through the shadow he was trying to tackle, then used the fallen register as a launch ramp to jump over some boxes and a tipped dress rack. He landed softly, bending his knees to absorb the shock of the impact and then redirecting the energy into forward momentum. He barely paused as he bent his head to grab his weapon in his mouth on the way out the door.

Scootaloo braked hard as she stopped just outside of town hall. There was another filly there, coming from the other direction. “You can feel it too, huh?”

Lily Longsocks nodded. “Something’s gonna happen tonight. I’m gonna help.”

Scootaloo smiled, opening her mouth to respond. She never got the chance.

Both fillies sensed danger at the same time and dodged reflexively. As it turned out, that was unnecessary, as no attacks were inbound. There were however a lot of strange looking foals surrounding them.

“Changelings?”

Lily shrugged. “Maybe. Does it matter?”

Scootaloo’s wings buzzed as she righted her scooter. “Nah, guess not.”

The colt was silent as he stalked his prey. He had her now. He would taste sweet vengeance soon.

He hated her, this bright filly. He had honestly signed up with Demon Blood just for a chance to hurt her. And she deserved it, after what she’d done.

He was so close, he could taste victory. He had been patient, biding his time and studying her for weeks. He had already known much about her, but now, he knew everything he needed to know to hurt her in the worst ways.

And now it was time. Time to use the weapon he had taken such care to prepare, just for her. The very alchemy that she loved so much would be used to bring her down.

He allowed himself a small, feral smile as he pointed the charm at her…

Applebloom twitched. Something felt off. She was alone in the barn – so long as nopony counted the ghosts she knew were keeping an eye out for her – but something felt… off.

She closed her eyes, trying to reach out with her senses to find what was wrong. On instinct, she opened her eyes and spun, locking eyes with a colt hiding in the shadow of a haybale. He was pointing something at her, but before she could figure out what it was, she felt a rush of magic.

You Are Mine.

She felt the press on her mind and realized what was going on – at least basically. A mind control spell of some kind.

Be Mine.

Zecora had warned her about these. They were dangerous on both ends. Applebloom smirked as she remembered how to deal with this kind of attack.

She reached out with her own magic – the spell had already connected to her. She grappled with it, turning it, forcing it back on its source. She turned the spell back on the caster. Be Mine.

She could sense his worry, this was not something he was expecting. Distantly, she could hear Ruby and Mitta shouting her name, sensing the magic at work below them. The colt’s voice echoed in her head again. BE MINE.

Her grin widened. This colt had no idea what he was doing. He was just pushing, trying to force his way into her mind. He had no control, no technique. Applebloom sensed her ghostly friends hitting the connection with their energy, trying to break it from the outside. She redoubled her efforts, striking with a well-placed applebuck that shattered his clumsy ramming. Be. Mine.

Something snapped. Something else clicked. She felt the spell rushing through her, looping back and forth between her and the colt. They were both lifted into the air, drawn towards the center of the spell’s path until they slammed into each other, muzzles bouncing off each other and threatening nosebleeds.

And then the spell ended explosively, throwing both foals away from each other as their worlds went white.

Inside the farmhouse, Granny Smith was smiling gently as she moved back and forth in her rocking chair. Her smile abruptly fell when she heard something.

She opened her eyes and turned to look at the old curio cabinet. There were several things in there, but the one that drew her attention was an old wooden box with a gemstone embedded in the lid.

The box was nothing new, it had been there since her son and his wife had died. What was new was that the gemstone was glowing with a brilliant white light.

Granny slowly got up and walked over. She opened the cabinet and then gently placed a hoof on the box in reverent confusion. Leaning in, she asked the box the only question she could.

“What in tarnation?”

Chapter 5 - Stormbreak

There was a flash of blue light as Luna materialized in Celestia’s chambers. “Sister, something is very wrong in Ponyville. I have been cut off from their dreams.”

Storm clouds were gathering over Ponyville as Pinkie reached Sugarcube corner. Sensing something, she paused to sniff the air. Her eyes widened as her Pinkie Sense kicked in, leaving her vibrating on the doorstep for a bit.

Her mane drooped a bit as she looked around again. She swallowed, forced the perk back into her pink, and pronked through the door and up the stairs.

Arriving in her room, she began readying extra rounds for her party cannon.

Rarity’s heart stopped as she reached her home. The door wasn’t just open, it was gone.

Unbidden, memories of the last time somepony had forced their way into her boutique sprang to mind. Rarity rushed in to find the place thoroughly trashed. Terror made her hoarse as she screamed her sister’s name, desperately hoping to find her hiding somewhere.

It also quickly became clear that the filly was nowhere to be found. In her mad scramble to flee, she tripped over one of the toppled dress racks, tumbling out the door. Tears in her eyes, she began picking herself up.

It was then that she heard something. Looking around, she realized that there were several foal-sized creatures approaching from multiple directions. Her eyes narrowed. “So you lot took her then. Well come on, let’s begin.” An eldritch wind swirled as everything lighter than an apple within ten yards of the unicorn began floating. “This is for my sister.”

The dark foals rushed to meet her attacks.

A few minutes later, a mare’s scream split the night.

Fluttershy froze at a noise from the edge of the path. Whimpering, she backed up slowly as a figure slowly began to become defined in the shadows, red and yellow eyes peering out at her.

She felt her heart seize up when the figure started towards her…

…and then let out a sigh of relief as Discord stepped out of the shadows.

“Oh, Discord. You frightened me.”

“My apologies dear Fluttershy. However, there is much for you to be afraid of tonight.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I can feel something fundamentally wrong with the universe. And do believe me, I realize the irony of that coming from me.”

“What is it?”

“Something dangerous. Something Dark. Beyond that I’m not sure.”

“So what do we do?”

“Well, I had been planning to keep you safe. Without the good old rainbow friendship cannon you’re rather vulnerable.”

“Thank you Discord, but… the others?”

Discord sighed. “Something told me you’d feel that way. Shall we see what we can do?”

Fluttershy smiled gently. “Let’s.”

Rainbow was flying home from Twilight’s when she heard the crashes. Curiosity piqued, she turned to investigate.

She found Scootaloo, racing down a street pulling dangerous stunts while towing a wagon with another filly in it. The pair were pursued, a group of black foals chasing them.

The new filly grabbed a wrought iron table as they passed a café. She threw it at the foals and it simply passed through them. Fortunately the waitress had already put the weather cover on it, and that popped off as it wrapped around three of the chasers.

Rainbow knew trouble when she saw it. She pulled into a dive and leveled out close enough to the ground that she was brushing it. “Squirt! Duck!”

To Scootaloo’s credit, she had the presence of mind to comply before questioning the command. Rainbow swerved tightly around the filly in the wagon, pulling up as far as she dared, which still meant that she felt Scootaloo’s mane in her pelt as her forehooves made contact with the handlebars.

The mare and fillies vanished in a polychrome blur.

Applejack’s ears perked as she heard her name. She smiled as she approached the farmhouse. Looked like her family had seen fit to greet her at the door.

Her smile fell when she got close enough to see Granny Smith’s face. “Applejack, somethin’s happened. Mac’s out searching the orchards. Find yer’ sister, now!”

In all her memory, Applejack couldn’t remember seeing Granny like this. Not even that blasted cave had scared her like this. Applejack took off at a gallop, screaming Applebloom’s name. She about had a heart attack when a glowing pony showed up in front of her.

“My name is Ruby. This way, quickly.”

It says something about her emotional state that Applejack never bothered to question following the ghost.

“Nyx, I just wanted to say that I’m proud of you for understanding the situation and playing in here quietly while we–” Twilight broke off as she entered the room fully. “Huh. Not here… Oh! She must be with Spike. That’s great, I can thank both of them together.”

Twilight shut the door behind her and pranced humming down the hall.

Sighing, Zecora set a log to brace her door and then turned to look up at the stars out her window. “Tonight it seems I must trust you, stallion bold of midnight blue. And if there’s anything you can do, I pray again you’ll lead us true.” The shutters closed.

Cheerilee sighed into her cocoa as she contemplated her role in this town. She heard something and turned to look out the open window. She blinked as two of her students came soaring in through it. It would have been an impressive feat for non-pegasi, considering that she had seen the leap from the top of her fence, but these two were… special. One was a crusader, the other… his mother’s son.

Button hit the linoleum and slid, reaching out with the giant key in his mouth to snag a table leg as he passed, redirecting the slide away from the refrigerator. Sweetie, clinging tightly to her hold on his back, slammed the window behind them with her magic, then dragged several cushions off of the couch she and Button were about to crash into.

After a muffled “whump” a pair of heads popped up out of the pile of pillows.

Button gasped for air. “Cheerilee… need help… not safe… couldn’t make… it home…”

Cheerilee stood up so fast that her chair tipped over. “Vertigo?” She asked.

The colt shook his head. “Lullaby,” He returned the safe word. “Carousel Boutique attacked. Don’t know what they are.”

Sweetie piped up, “They’re like foals, but… not. Black coats, no manes or tails, creepy white eyes…”

“They phase through attacks, but only attacks. Obstacles and barriers still work.”

Cheerilee nodded slowly, mentally prepping herself to defend her home. Whatever was after these two, it wasn’t getting them tonight. It was at that point that she noticed the smell. “Bathroom’s down the hall, second door on you left. Careful with the water, it’s pretty hot at first.”

To her surprise, both foals started heading back. “Sorry again Button.”

The colt replied to the low murmur with one of his own, “Don’t worry about it. I told you, it’s fine. My hip kept hitting your bladder, it’s not your fault, honest. You can even use the shower first.”

For a moment, Cheerilee considered telling Button to use the shower upstairs. Ultimately she decided against it; she trusted both of them and somepony really should stand guard over whichever one was cleaning up. Nodding to herself, she wandered off to start locking down her house.

She could still keep an ear on the pair.

Midnight and Diamond slipped into shadow to travel back to town. The pair rematerialized on the edge of the Everfree. The filly looked up at the stallion. “Where to?”

“Twilight. We’ll need her help to–”

The pulse washed over them like a gentle wave. “What was that?”

“Emergency beacon.”

“Didn’t seem very strong.”

“We’re a good way from the source. Also, what do you think would happen if a strong version of that hit while you were fighting?”

“Oh. Who’s in trouble?”

“Well, given that that was a Shadow Ranger beacon, and that aside from you there’s only two rangers, and that I haven’t taught you or Vambrace how to do that…”

“Zap Apple, got it. Sweet Apple Acres?”

“We can actually pinpoint it exactly, but that’s a good place to start. We’ll travel by shadow again, walking takes too long, even if it does take less energy.”

Twilight’s heart clenched. “You’re sure?”

Spike and Starlight both nodded. “I haven’t seen her since she went to visit Night.” Spike said.

Twilight relaxed visibly. “Oh, that’s right. I told her she could go play at a friend’s house. I guess it’s not really that late, sundown was only a couple hours ago… still…”

Starlight coughed politely. “Didn’t you tell me that you’d put tracking charms on her things so you could find her in exactly this situation?”

Twilight facehooved. “Yes. Yes I did.”

Spike sighed. “I’d better come with to keep you out of trouble. Starlight, can you wait here in case she comes home while we’re gone?”

“Hey!”

“Yeah, how come I can’t keep her out of trouble?”

The only sound in the room was the blinking.

“Oh… hehheh… right. I’ll keep an eye out, keep Twilight out of trouble.”

“Hey!”

The door to Sugarcube corner slammed open and closed in a rainbow blur.

“Pinkie, I didn’t know where else to go, we need help, and nowhe–”

The mare in question was sitting behind the counter, three cupcakes sitting out. Two were Rainbow’s and Scootaloo’s favorites, the speedster could only guess that the third was for the new filly. “How…”

“What’re we up against Dashie?”

“No idea, these things are weird. They look kinda like ponies, about the size of these two. No manes. No tails. No horns or wings. Solid white eyes. Almost like changelings, but… not.”

“Poneekinns? Golems?”

“No, these things… they’re like ghosts almost. Anything we throw at them just passes right through.”

“Hmmm… fake ponies, foal sized, ghost-like powers… there’s only one thing they can be!”

“Really? What?!”

“A mystery.”

Rainbow left a small dent when she hit the floor.

Celestia and Luna gaped when they arrived at Ponyville. Or, almost arrived at least. They could see the town, just beyond a shimmering barrier of some kind. They could pass through the barrier, they’d tested. It just wouldn’t take them to the town if they did.

“Luna… I haven’t seen this since…”

“Dragondoom, I know… Walking into the barrier shifts space to let you out on the other side of the bubble… I doubt we’d even be aware if we were normal ponies…”

“A dimensional twist and a Timelock.” The sisters turned to see a stallion with a large scythe across his back. “It never ceases to amaze me how many new ways they can come up with to keep me in check. Still… I honestly wasn’t looking forward to tonight.”

“One of my threads is running away from me again.” Fate materialized beside her father. “Destiny’s laughing her rear end off. Mom’s feeling kinda funny though. Tonight’s gonna be interesting.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, which thread is running away this time?” Celestia queried.

“Most of this town honestly. Tonight though… There’s a filly who’s supposed to do some terrible things tonight because they need to be done. That doesn’t stop it from destroying her. She never forgives herself for the massacre, goes crazy, pulls off several more slaughters, and eventually has to be put down. And then this thing popped up and now her thread refuses to behave. I have no idea what’s going on in there.”

Luna’s voice was uncharacteristically soft. “Are they going to be alright?”

Death shrugged. “I’m locked out, so I guess as long as they fix everything before I can get to it… Maybe. If somepony actually dies it might just warp me there. Dunno. We’ll have to find out the hard way.”

Chapter 6 - Mistletoe

“The Left Hoof is lost. I can no longer sense him.”

“Well that’s annoying. Still, don’t tell me you were expecting this to be a bloodless victory.”

“No. Not in the slightest. My entire army is expendable, I just hope he didn’t waste his death. How goes your front?”

“Nightmare Moon is proving to be as stubborn as I remember. Her prison refuses to let go of the illusion. Hopefully that will fade when Ponyville is ashes.”

When Midnight and Diamond arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was waiting out front for them. “I dunno how she knew, but Granny said you’d come.”

“When I returned I gave several ponies in town a way to alert me to emergencies. Your grandmother was one of them.”

“Why?”

“Aside from living with an agent of the Tree of Harmony and a Cutie Mark Crusader? Sweet Apple Acres covers an entire cardinal direction of approach to Ponyville. Anything coming from the west is going to pass through here.”

“Ah see…”

The three ponies walked into the farmhouse and the two guests stopped in shock.

“What happened?” Diamond asked.

Granny Smith gestured to the pair of unconscious foals on the living room couch. “We was hoping one of you could tell us.”

Twilight landed in a small pathway between rows of houses. “This doesn’t make any sense. I should be able to pinpoint her exact location! What are we supposed to do now, go door to door?”

Spike took a breath to respond, but froze as he noticed something shiny in the leaves on the ground. “Huh.” He jumped off and walked over a few paces. He knelt and started rooting through the pile of leaves, freezing after a few moments. “Tw… Twilight?”

“I mean, we could, but that would be ridiculously inefficient. Maybe I should have refreshed the spell more often?”

“Twilight?”

“Seriously though, how much more often than weekly should I go? Re-application daily? Maybe all I need is to focus more.”

“Twilight.”

“You’re right Spike, if I tighten down the calibration, I should be able to zero in exactly and–”

“Twi-light!”

“Yes Spike?”

When the Drake turned, there were tears in his eyes. “The spell worked. You found them exactly.” Twilight paled at what she saw.

A pair of saddlebags and a crusader emergency beacon were cradled in his hands.

Midnight opened his eyes. “Something’s blocking me out. Also, I seem to be cut off from my star, so I can’t just overpower it.”

“Are you saying there’s nothing you can do?”

“Let me try something.” Midnight inhaled and a ripple passed across his form. When he exhaled, he had shifted from an alicorn to a bat pony. “Alright, let’s see if the old magical theory talent still works.” His slit pupils widened until they were as round as most other ponies’, and then they began to glow. A circle formed through the irises, and then a septagram appeared across his pupil, the points touching the circle.

After a moment, he spoke, his voice strained. “They’re in the middle of something… ritual magic of some kind. I can’t tell what the purpose of the spell is, but… it’s incomplete. They won’t wake up until it’s finished. They still need something… approval? No, not quite… Acknowledgement. On Applebloom’s end, she needs her clan head to acknowledge… something… That’s the last thing they need, is a Rite of Acknowledgement… I need a nap now.”

Inkwell collapsed, Diamond barely catching him with her outstretched shadow before he hit the floor. “Any idea what he was talking about? What’s a Rite of Acknowledgement anyway?”

Granny Smith looked over at the box with the glowing gem again. “I think I have an idea… Big Mac, run out to the barn real quick like and bring me a couple bales of hay. Applejack, be a good filly and fetch me a few sacks of potatoes, would’ja?”

The stallion rushed out the front door while his sister headed towards the back and the cellar door. As they did, Granny caught Diamond’s eye and mouthed “Lock her in.”

The filly melted into shadow, returning a moment later. “So what was that all about?”

Granny looked over as she finished locking the front door. “I needed to get those two away so’s they don’t panic.”

“And I’m still here because?”

“If this goes wrong I’m gonner need a killer.”

“What?”

“Shush now.” The elderly mare leaned over her granddaughter and the strange colt they’d found. “I hope this is the right thing to do… Never hesitate.

“Plant the seed while gathered round,
Let this always be fertile ground.
Through wind, rain, sun, and winds that howl,
The Apple Clan does claim him now.”

Both unconscious foals seemed to let out a breath as she finished. A warm breeze blew around the room, and Granny Smith slumped as her ears drooped. “I was afraid of this…”

Button and Sweetie traded nervous glances as the windows rattled again. Both were still damp after cleaning up, and were huddled together for warmth – Cheerilee had sealed the flu, so a fire was out of the question.

“I wish my Uncle Angus was here,” Sweetie whispered, “He handles this kind of thing all the time.”

Button blinked in surprise. “You have an Uncle Angus too?”

“It’s the same Uncle Angus.” The pair turned to see Cheerilee coming in with three cups of hot cocoa balanced on her back. She slid the tray the cups were on onto an ottoman and sighed. Sitting, she began kneading her forehead with one hoof. “I really need to have a chat with both of your parents… It doesn’t matter, I’ll tell you anyway if it comes to it.

She sighed again as she lowered her hoof. Her head tilted slightly as she looked at her students, and then she let her forehooves slide forward, lowering herself to their eye level. “We need to have a talk. A very serious one. I need the both of you to be grown up about this.”

Button choked and Sweetie went beet red. “U-u-um, Miss Cheerilee? I’ve already done this with my sister…”

Button nodded vigorously. “My mom already talked to me about it too.”

“And, um… Well, even though we were both in the room, we weren’t actually in the shower together, and… uh…”

“Nothing happened?” Button’s squeak seemed to be the end of their ability to be embarrassed.

Cheerilee was legitimately confused for a moment. She had been focused in a direction so different that this blindsided her. And when it caught up…

It started somewhere between a snicker and a snort, a suppressed explosion of air that wanted desperately to leave her violently. It gained rapidity until she couldn’t hold it down any longer and it forced her head back. Within seconds she was desperately gasping to get enough air to breathe around her laughter as tears streamed down her face.

After a solid minute, she rolled onto her side with all the finality of an exhausted collapse. It took another minute for her spasmodic chuckles to subsides. Finally she managed to get enough oxygen into her system to prevent asphyxiation and rolled back onto her stomach.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh, it’s just… you caught me off-guard is all.” Cheerilee noted idly that while both of her students were now very red, neither one was making any attempt to protest the possibility. “Anyway…” She took in one more shuddering gasp, “This isn’t that talk. This is a very different one.

“You two… I don’t know what’s going to happen tonight. But something is wrong, I can feel it. So I want you to listen to me very carefully. You take care of each other, no matter what. If these things get into the house, you run. Together. As far and as fast as you can. You leave me behind if you have to. Am I clear?” A pair of mute nods were her only response.

“Good. Now then, the second thing. There are things that you two don’t know about yourselves… both of you. If things start going wrong… I want you to promise me, use what your parents taught you. Everything. That. They. Taught. You. Do you understand me?” Another pair of nods. “Do you understand what I’m asking you to do?” More nods, hesitant this time.

Cheerilee sighed. “I…” She swallowed. She’d known she’d have to do this someday, that was life. But did it have to come so soon? Wasn’t it bad enough that Diamond had to be a killer? How many more of her students would have to face the darkness? “I am authorizing you to kill. And I’m telling you that I expect you to do so before you let yourselves or each other get hurt.” She locked eyes with Button Mash. “Skeletons in the Closet.” She turned her gaze on Sweetie Bell. “Blindfolded, Bridled, and Bound.”

Cheerilee took another shaky breath, this one to steady her emotions. “I want you two to promise. Promise me you’ll keep each other safe.” More nods, her students wide-eyed with a multitude of emotions. “No, not good enough. I want you to… Pinkie Promise. Pinkie Promise me that you will do whatever it takes, even kill, to keep each other safe.”

The pair traded looks, sensing a threshold. Then together they turned and in stereo took a step towards adulthood.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

The Apple Family’s living room was once again full. Tempers had cooled after the initial surprise of deception and locked doors, all three sleepers had regained consciousness, and the mysterious earth pony colt was currently held tightly in Black Diamond’s umbrakinesis.

Applejack broke the silence. “So what exactly happened?”

Midnight cleared his throat. “Why don’t we let Applebloom tell us things from her perspective first, that way we can sort through things in order. Or at least, as close as we can get since our new friend doesn’t seem very talkative.”

The filly nodded. “Well, I was out in the barn, working on learnin’ that potion fer Granny’s knees. Alluva sudden, I felt something behind me–”

“You mean he–”

“Applejack! For the fourth and hopefully last time, the medical analysis spell showed she was intact! Now I apologize for shouting, but we are never going to solve anything if you keep interrupting at every turn.”

“What? How can you–”

“Hold yer tongue or I’ll hold it for you filly! Finding out what happened to yer sister is more important that your goldurned pride!”

Applejack swung to face the matriarch and the fire in her eyes went out. She looked down at her hooves in shame, opened her mouth to apologize, then swallowed it and sat back, shuffling a few paces further from the center of conversation.

Granny Smith nodded sharply, then turned to her other granddaughter. “Keep going.”

Applebloom gulped. “W-well, Like I said, I sensed somethin’ behind me, so I turned to see what it was. He was there, pointin’ something at me, and then I felt it. It was some kinda mind control spell. Zecora’d warned me ‘bout them, so I tried turnin’ it back on him, reversin’ the flow.”

Midnight nodded. “That is the safest way to handle those. I take it it worked?”

“Sorta. He didn’t really become my puppet, it was more like… Like a tug-o-war. And then it wasn’t, and I could feel the spell flowin’ through both of us. After that… I don’t remember.”

Granny nodded. “Didn’t you say that talisman thingy we found strapped to the colt’s hoof smelled like alchemy?”

Midnight nodded. “Yes, I didn’t recognize the charm, but Applebloom might. Do you remember where you put it?”

“Eeyup.” Big Mac went into the kitchen.

Midnight nodded and then turned back to the others. “Whatever Applebloom did triggered something. The intended one-way connection became two-way. It turned into an unstable ritual spell. I’m guessing your ghost friends tried to help?”

Applebloom nodded. “I felt Ruby and Mitta trying to snap the thread from the outside.”

Applejack spoke up, “About them. Why didn’t that one ghost just tell me all this when she led me to ‘Bloom?”

Midnight sighed. “Not out of malice, I assure you. It is very difficult for ghosts to manifest to normal ponies. The reason Applebloom can see them is something we need to talk about, and I’m not sure if we’ve got time tonight.”

At this point Big Mac returned with a small bundle held together with twine. He held it out to his youngest sister and she took it with a “Thank you.” Applebloom turned it over a few times, nodding, and then her gaze turned quizzical.

“What is it?” Diamond asked.

“I dunno. I’d say it’s a standard puppet charm like Zecora showed me… Ya hafta know how to make these things to know how to break ‘em.”

Midnight nodded. “A standard rule for most magic.”

“Anyway, it’s like the puppet charm she showed me, but…” The filly pointed to a segmented plant with white berries and flat, teardrop shaped leaves. It was the obvious center of the charm, the focal point of the spell. “This plant don’t belong here.”

“It’s holly.” It took a moment for the voice to register. The group turned to face the colt. “If you disobeyed me, it would slowly make you feel the pain of its poison until you bent to my will. It was supposed to turn you into the ultimate weapon against these fools, an innocent filly they couldn’t bear to hurt but who was more than capable of killing them.”

Applejack was fast, crossing the room and spinning into a beautiful buck intended to throw the colt through the wall. Diamond was faster, catching the mare’s hooves on the flats of her crossed blades. The filly was still thrown clear, and she vanished into a puddle of shadow on the wall.

The colt made it all of one step in his escape attempt before Midnight’s magic caught him.

After a moment, Diamond dropped out of her shadow. “That was stupid.”

“Yes it was, what were you thinkin’ Diamond, protecting that no good–”

“No!” Diamond’s shout cut the orange mare off, “You were stupid Applejack. We’re dealing with an undefined magical connection here, what if hurting him hurts Applebloom?”

The mare paled and backpedaled, glancing from side to side. “N-No, I…”

Applebloom’s voice spared her sister any further glares. “It doesn’t matter, I don’t think this plant has those properties, and nothing happened anyway.” She turned to the colt. “And this ain’t holly.”

He snorted. “What are you talking about, of course its holly. Trust me, I’ve watched ponies hang it up at Hearth’s Warming for years.”

“Yeah, ya have, but this ain’t holly…”

Author's Note

Points to anyone who can guess what the end result of that spell was...

Chapter 7 - Contracts

The glow around Midnight’s horn faded. “Alright, the good news is they aren’t lifebound or bloodbound and there’s no sign of reflective wounding, sympathetic pain, or empathetic injury. The bad news is that Applebloom was right about what the mistletoe did to the spell.”

Applejack took a step forward. “So yall’re sayin’…”

Midnight nodded. “Under the Ancient Laws of the Deep Magic, these two are married.”

The colt snorted, crossing his forehooves over his chest as he smiled smugly. They had locked him in a small side room while they discussed options. He didn’t care, every minute they spent trying to decide what to do with him was a minute they wasted not stopping the attack.

He closed his eyes and rested for a moment, letting himself – his eyes snapped back open. Somepony was watching him.

As he scanned the room, the shadows in the doorframe pooled and flowed into the center of the room. They then solidified, a filly rising up from the midst of them.

“Ranger.”

The filly sighed, “Well, there went the chance that you were just an idiot who got handed a script.”

“You’re wasting your time Black Diamond, I have nothing to say to you and you have nothing to offer me.”

The filly nodded. “Fair enough. I’m curious though, what are you getting out of this?”

“What?”

“This whole fiasco, what are you in it for? You’re obviously not just some loyal lapdog, you’re acting all wrong for that. No, you’re a mercenary, you get something out of this. What is it?”

“The chance to destroy Applebloom.” His smirk widened as he said it, he knew how these spineless cowards would respond.

“I thought so.” For the first time since the pair had met, the colt visibly reacted to something Diamond said. As he stared at her in surprise, she continued, “I recognized that look in your eye, when you see her. I know that loathing very well.”

The colt spluttered, knowing he was on his back hoof. “What could you possibly know about my vengeance?!”

She laughed, “Oh, I don’t know anything at all about why you hate her, I just know that you do. And I’ll let you in on a little secret about hating Applebloom; it never ends well.”

“You know nothing. You know not my rage, my pain, my anguish, my–”

“Blah, blah, blah. You’re right, I don’t know about any of that garbage. But I do know about your path. Oh, do I know that road. You see, you don’t know who I am. I’m something of an authority on hating Applebloom.”

The shadows began rising around the filly, whipping about and creating the impression of a billowing cloak. “Do you get it yet? You’re following in my hoofsteps. I forged the way you’re taking, I blazed the trail you’re galloping down, I hated her first. And do you know where that took me? Where it will take you?

“Right off a cliff.”

The colt was backing away from her now, still trying to save face though. “You think you know hate? Because you’ve seen a few dark things?”

“You just don’t get it, do you?” Diamond headed the tirade off at the pass. “Alright then, I guess I’ll have to show you.” The billowing shadows peeled away from her fur, revealing pink one strip at a time.

The colt’s jaw hung limply. “What?”

Diamond Tiara smiled. “So tell me, do you hate her as much as I did? More? If so I pity you, it just means you’re that much more gone, and I was barely salvageable.”

“N-no, you can’t… you can’t even begin to understand–”

“Kinda like you refuse to! I was born to hate Applebloom. That road only leads one place, and the Darkness is waiting for you with open hooves at the end.”

“What do you know of Darkness? What do you–”

“Great Faust you’re annoying! Again with the same shtick! Alright, I tried this the nice way, now we do it this way.” The shadows wrapped the filly again, then reached out and started wrapping the colt as well. Tendrils of the edge of light snaked about the colt, coiling around his head. “And, Sleep.”

Both foals dropped to the ground, shadows rising to cocoon them both with a few tendrils connecting the chrysalises.

The colt’s eyes fluttered open. He twisted, finding himself floating in a void. Even as he thought about it though, the void began to fill, stars appearing in the distance, including one blue one that seemed particularly bright.

A pink ledge appeared beneath him and gravity asserted itself. He looked around again. The pink ledge was sticking out the side of a cliff made of the same stone. There was no way for him to get down or up, but he could see a purple forest at the top of the cliff. “Where am I?”

“A Dark place.”

The colt spun to find Black Diamond standing in the air behind him. She was walking as if her hooves were on a floor of glass or… shadow. He could see it now, tiny platforms under her hooves giving the impression that she was walking on air.

“Don’t worry,” She continued, “The Darkness here isn’t dangerous to most ponies. It’s subtle, quiet Darkness. The kind that patiently works away at you a tiny bit at a time until it gets under your skin. After that it owns you, but until then it’s perfectly harmless.”

“Why did you bring me here?”

“Because you need to see, but refuse to open your eyes.” The colt turned again to see Diamond Tiara sliding down the side of the cliff to where he was. “So we had to bring you somewhere where you didn’t have any eyelids… That metaphor sounded way better in my head.”

“Oh, and so this is where you convince me of the error of my ways?”

The fillies were circling him now, even as he turned in the opposite direction, trying vainly to watch both of them at once. Black Diamond shrugged. “Not really. Honestly we didn’t really move you, this is just where you already are with a new paint job.”

“And we already tried talking you out of this, did you forget that already?” Tiara chimed in.

“So then why go through all this to show me a metaphorical cliff?”

Black laughed. “There’s not really much metaphor here. Your cliff is very real, trust me.”

Tiara picked up where she left off, the pair speaking in an eerie tandem, “As for why; we wanted to make it very clear that if you decide you don’t want to be saved, we’ll throw you off the cliff ourself.”

“And why should death scare me?”

“Who said anything about death?”

“You have no idea what waits for you beyond the shadows. The Darkness is eager for your soul, can’t you feel it? It wants you bad, especially since it’s so close. You’re almost a Nightmare already.”

“And I hunt Nightmares.”

“You actually think you’re scaring me, don’t you? Do you honestly believe that Day or Night hold any terrors for me?”

“He just doesn’t get it does he?”

“We’ll have to show him.”

“No. We don’t let her out. Ever.”

“I’m not saying that. Let him see her as she is now, in her prison. Not a door, a window.”

“…It’ll scare him.”

“Not a bad thing.”

“That makes her more powerful.”

“He can’t be any more afraid of her than Featherdown was.”

“It’ll still help her.”

“More than the alternative? You know what she feeds on first and foremost.”

“She can only feed if it’s not right.”

“You know as well as I do what our real intentions would be. It would feed her.”

“There’s no other way to do this?”

“Not that I can think of.”

“…Fine.”

One filly stopped moving and the other continued her path until she joined her. They had their backs to the cliff, which left the colt with open air behind him.

Tiara started, “We’re about to show you something, because somepony we’re trying to learn how to trust told us that you need saving.”

Black picked up, “Be prepared, this… The last pony who saw this still wakes up screaming some nights.”

“You see, this entire time you’ve been thinking of this in terms of Day and Night. And you’re right, you don’t have much to fear from either side of light. Yet.” Tiara stamped her hoof and a tendril of light shot across the ground towards Black, arcing up before it reached her and curling back towards itself.

“But in all the times we told you to be afraid, we never said anything about the light.” Black mirrored her counterpart’s move and shadow responded, crossing the light twice to complete a large oval between them.

A large oval that quickly filled with a black, oily substance. The colt could only stare at what looked for all the world like a mirror that devoured light instead of reflecting it. The Darkness thickened, forming up into a shape.

A filly, hanging suspended by the chains that bound her. A black chuckle began resonating as the picture clarified, and then…

The filly opened her eyes and looked through his and straight into his soul.

prey

He took a step back. He could see the portal leaking round the edges. She was going to escape, to come for him. He took another step back as she gave him a fanged smile. This was it, he had finally met his death. Another step. No, not death. Death was too simple a word for what this nightmare was…

His next step almost sent him tumbling into the void, he had reached the edge and there was nothing beneath his hoof. As it was, he fell and hit the ground hard, scrambling with his three hooves still atop the ledge to keep his weight up there.

He saw the filly’s cat-like eyes again and began wondering if falling to his demise was really such a bad idea. Demise? That was it, that was what this filly was, not his death, his demise. Without even realizing it, he let the word slip between his lips.

“Demise.”

Both Diamonds went wide-eyed, but their eyes weren’t the ones he was worried about. In the instant before the not-mirror collapsed, he saw the nightmare’s eyes. And he watched as they turned golden.

There was a long moment of silence before the colt asked. “What was that thing?”

“That was us. That was us if we had stayed on that path.”

“That was where hating Applebloom leads.”

“That was your future.”

“Or not. Up to you.”

“…What do you mean when you say that was my future?”

“The Darkness will take you and make you like her.”

“And then she’ll probably have to be the one to kill you.”

“…Why do I feel sick?”

“Because the Darkness doesn’t own you yet.”

“I guess that means you’ve still got a chance.”

“You’re not of the Day by any stretch of the imagination.”

“But if exposure like that affected you, you’re not Dark either.”

“…So what am I then? If I can’t have my vengeance and I can’t walk away from it, where does that leave me?”

“The Night.”

“Which brings us to the plan.”

“We should mention, this is a terrible plan.”

“And it probably won’t work.”

“But that pony we’re trying to trust?”

“She told us to do this.”

“So we’re gambling on her.”

“And we’re gambling on you.”

“One question, do you want to fight the Darkness trying to take your heart?”

“I can sense the burning in there that’s driving you to this.”

“Something just corrupted that.”

“So, do you want to fight the Darkness?”

The colt hadn’t looked either filly in the eyes since the window had collapsed. Finally he took his eyes from his hooves and shakily nodded. “Yes.” He gulped. “Free me.”

Tiara smiled and returned the nod, then turned and walked up the side of the cliff.

Black Diamond smiled as well, though hers was sadder. “I can’t actually do that.”

“What?”

“Only you can save you from this, and I can’t give you the ability to save yourself. I can however give you the ability to save others, and if that lets you protect yourself, that’s really not my doing.” A wind picked up, washing away their surroundings, and a moment later, the colt found that they were on a different cliff, with a sheer drop behind him and a sheer climb before.

“I still can’t believe I’m doing this, but there is an order…”

The conversation was lively to say the least. Four of the ponies involved were struggling to get a word in edge-wise as they talked over each other. The fifth was sitting quietly to the side, waiting for the cracks he was seeing to fully burst.

The conversation was cut off by a colt’s scream. Amid the traded glances, Midnight asked the question, “Where’s Black Diamond?”

It wasn’t so much a race to the door as everypony travelling in Applebloom’s wake as she rushed to keep her friend from doing something she’d regret. The filly threw the door open just in time to see the shadows finish cocooning both Diamond and the mysterious colt.

Midnight and Granny Smith traded a glance before the alicorn lit his horn and lowered it to the strings of shadow running between the encased foals. “It’s the Cloak of Nightshade spell… I have no idea how she knows this…” He looked up at the Apples. “The Cloak of Nightshade is a spell that lets you force one pony into another’s dreamscape. It’s frowned upon, as it can have severe consequences, but not technically forbidden, as so few can cast it.”

“How many ponies we talkin’ about?”

“Apparently counting Diamond? Ten, possibly eleven.”

“Oh… So Diamond just invaded his mind? Good on her, after what he did to Applebloom he–”

“Applejack, one, never even joke about that. My apprentice has to tread too close to Darkness as it is. Two, no. She didn’t go into his dreamscape, she dragged him into hers.”

Author's Note

And now waiting for fallout.

This is actually the scenario I originally created the character of this colt for, although my original plan was to have Applebloom be the one to botch a control spell, and the colt (Whose name I know, I swear, he just doesn't have one yet in the story) to join the Rangers when all this blew over. That just didn't fit, so we wound up with this.

As a side note about the unintentional marriage, there will be nothing resembling Stockholm Syndrome going on here. Applebloom is not going to just accept the situation, Applejack is not going to start liking the colt because he's technically family, and our heroes are not going to simply move on with the important details.

That said, there'll be about one more chapter directly dealing with this and then it'll take a backseat while our favorite ponies try to figure a solution out instead of blindly trying everything that comes to mind.

I'll go ahead and let you know, I already have the direct sequel to this planned out, and it'll be in the direct sequel to that that the marriage fiasco gets resolved.

Chapter 8 - Options

Midnight sighed tiredly, “Applejack… There’s nothing I can do. Magical contracts like this are binding, there are only so many ways to undo them, and none of them are available to us right now. Trying to sever this contract right now would weaken all contract magic. Do you realize what you’re asking me to do? Contract magic is what keeps Tartarus sealed. Contract magic is what keeps several of our treaties in place. You’re asking me to risk the existence of Equestria.”

“So I guess that whole ‘sacrifice the world to save one pony’ thing was always just talk.”

“Save them from danger, yes. From death or harm, absolutely. From an awkward situation?”

“She is in danger!”

“The greatest threat to either of you right now is embarrassment!” Midnight blinked after that came out. “That’s it, isn’t it? This is about how embarrassed you are.” Applejack started backing away from the stallion, even as his eyes narrowed. “That’s what’s been so off tonight. You might have even convinced yourself that you’re just trying to protect her, but… Some Honesty.”

Before the stricken mare could react, Midnight turned and opened the door, walking out to rejoin the rest of the Apple family in the living room.

The cocoons had released Diamond and the colt shortly after they’d burst into the room. The pair were now lying on the couch, Applebloom and Diamond having essentially switched roles since arriving. The Apple filly was sitting around the coffee table with her brother and grandmother, speaking in hushed tones.

Midnight paused as he entered the room, but Granny Smith waved him over. He plopped down on the open side of the table. “So what’re you all talking about?”

Granny answered, “Same thing as you, we’re just being more level-headed.”

The alicorn winced. “Apologies, my temper–”

“Yah ain’t got nothing to be ‘plogizin’ ‘bout. My grandfilly in the other room needs ter get her head on straight.”

“So what are we gonna do?” All eyes turned to the filly who’d spoken.

Midnight sighed. “The simplest solution is one I don’t want to tell you about.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s very unlikely and rather dangerous. And I’m afraid that if it occurred to you, you’d try it just to save us all some trouble.”

Granny Smith coughed. “I think the best fix is gettin’ one a them annulments.”

Big Mac nodded. “Eeyup.”

Applebloom looked between the adults. “What’s an annel… annulmy… that thing?”

“It’s like a divorce, just… simpler.” Midnight offered. “And I agree with your grandmother and brother, it’s the best answer. Unfortunately, finding somepony who can do it will take a while.”

“And… and if we can’t? Find ‘em that is?”

Midnight glanced over at Black Diamond’s form as the unconscious filly shifted. “I think my apprentice has already put her own plan for that into action, but I’m not sure where she’s going with it yet.”

“What about a herd?”

The other three stared at Big Mac for a moment. Granny spoke first. “I think that’s fer the best.”

Midnight nodded. “Register them as a herd that’s open at both ends. That way if we never sever the contract, they can still marry if they fall in love later.”

“Eeyup.”

Granny sighed, “Still, herd’s nowadays ain’t exactly popular with folk… I say short term we do it, but long term it’s our last resort.”

“No.”

All four of them turned at that to find Diamond rising to a sitting position. “Our last resort is making Applebloom a widow.”

The momentary silence was broken as Applejack walked in, her hat low enough that the brim completely shaded her eyes. “Y’all, I’ve got a piece to speak ‘bout this whole mess, and I’m gonna speak it.” She took a breath, but anything else she was going to say was cut off by an impact outside.

“Applejack! Are you in there!?”

“So…” Twilight blew on her mug of hot chocolate. “Nyx has been taken, the boutique is trashed, Rainbow’s house and Fluttershy’s cottages are both empty, the attack here ended with Applebloom getting married, and Demon Blood has an army of foals.”

“Unfoals.” Diamond corrected.

“Unfoals.” Twilight acknowledged. “Do we know what makes them… whatever they are?”

Midnight shook his head. “No.” He looked thoughtful after a moment. “But I think we know somepony who does. The way Diamond put him to sleep means his dreamscape is locked now, so we’ll have to wait until he wakes up to ask.”

“What about what that one filly you met said?” Applejack asked, “The ponies who are not because we are? That make sense to any of you?”

The alicorns traded a glance. “Not any of the good kind.” Twilight said.

Midnight closed his eyes. “There is an afterlife gate in Tartarus. It’s possible that Demon Blood used it to capture the souls of foals as they died and use them to create some kind of golems.”

Granny Smith set a platter of apple fritters on the table. “However they got here, they’re here. Do we know who all’s left?”

Twilight swallowed the bite she had already taken. “I haven’t checked Sugarcube corner yet, so we may or may not have Pinkie. Spike hasn’t been able to flame any messages to Princess Celestia since we got turned into a pocket dimension, so definitely no help there. Beyond that… Everypony’s gone.”

“What about Bon Bon and Lyra?”

Applejack looked nervous. “What about ‘em Applebloom?”

Midnight chuckled. “The only pony at this table who doesn’t know the answer to that is Diamond. It’s time she started learning a few ponies to trust anyway.” He smirked when the mare in question made a gesture with her eyes. “Applejack, have you ever tried to pull the wool over your grandmother’s eyes? Let me tell you, it doesn’t work.”

He sighed, “Lyra is an accomplished necromancer, which might really help if the unfoals really are spirits of the dead given new bodies. However… we have to ask if we want to risk her cover, especially considering… If Demon Blood knew what they protect…”

Twilight nodded. “That would mean disaster. So they’re out, do we have anypony else?”

Big Mac snorted as he entered the kitchen. “Eeyup.”

Applejack turned to him. “Who ya thinkin’ of?”

The stallion merely pointed in the direction of town. “Ponyville.”

The group collectively facehooved.

“That makes entirely too much sense.” Midnight said, “Twilight, Applejack, you two head into town.”

“And get anypony who’s fighting organized.” Twilight nodded. “They’ve all probably made their own decisions about risk versus reward with their covers.”

Granny Smith sighed. “Before ya go Applejack, there’s something ya need to be here fer.” She walked out of the room, then reentered with a glowing box balanced on her back, “Applebloom, come here.” As the filly stepped forward, the family matriarch turned to her other two grandfoals. “Applejack, Big Macintosh, you two bear witness now that I did my duty, y’hear?” She turned back to the youngest and sighed.

“Applebloom… There’re a lot of reasons I’m doin’ this, but it comes down to it bein’ time. Yer ma, she left ya an inheritance o’ sorts, and I’ve been keepin’ it safe for ya until ya were old enough. I reckon it’s about time ya had yer birthright.” The old mare reached up and pulled the box off her back, setting it on the ground in front of her.

“Ya see, yer ma weren’t from a happy place. T’were lots of dark things where she’s from, even today. But one thing she brought from there on purpose was this. It’s an heirloom of sorts, passed from a mother to her youngest daughter when that daughter becomes a mare. I don’t know its whole story, but I know the mother weren’t always around to tell her daughter, so I’m guessin’ there’s a way you’ll find out.”

Granny Smith took a deep breath and pulled the lid of the box open, lifting it towards herself. “Its name is Sanas.”

There were a few varieties of gasp around the room. Applebloom reached out in reverent awe and brushed her hoof against the box. Inside, a beautiful silver and blue chainsword lay coiled on a bed of red velvet.

Twilight’s voice from the back was slightly shaky. “Th-that’s mithril… and those blue parts, I-I think they’re adamant.”

Midnight swallowed. “There are few things that draw breath that that blade can’t kill.”

Applebloom heard both alicorns only distantly. Gently, she lifted the sword from the box and held it in front of her. “Sanas.” She breathed.

As Twilight and Applejack left the farm for town, the rest watched them from the porch. Around the point the two mares vanished behind the trees along the path, Midnight turned to Applebloom. “You know, it just occurred to me; we’ve been talking about your future all night, but we’ve barely even consulted you. You heard all of the options earlier, what do you want to do about the marriage?”

Applebloom opened her mouth to respond, stopped, and deflated slightly as she glanced to the side. “I dunno.”

Diamond walked over and threw a hoof around her neck, pulling her into a sideways hug. “You don’t need to decide now, I think he’s just saying you need to think about it. Whatever you decide, just remember we’ll help you fight for it.”

As the dark filly went to pull away, the light one grabbed her. “I… I think…” Applebloom whispered something in Diamond’s ear.

The ranger nodded. “Then that’s what we do.”

Cheerilee leaned on the dresser she had just moved against her bedroom door. She glanced over her shoulder at the two foals currently in her care. “Button, Sweetie, you two remember how I told you to leave me if you have to? It’s time.”

“What?”

“But Miss Cheerilee–”

“No arguments. We don’t have much time before those things get in here. You two need to go out that window. Sweetie, you’ll have to ride on Button’s back again. While he gets you to the ground, you keep those things off him. He’s the pilot, you’re the gunner.”

“But… you’re not coming with us?”

“No. I’m sorry. If I leave with you, they’ll see me. You two need to slip off unnoticed. This window will let you out onto the roof. Jump to my neighbor’s roof, find your way down from there. And keep your promise, take care of each other.”

When the unfoals broke down the door four minutes later, the only things waiting in the room for them were Cheerilee and a cold night chill.

Author's Note

One thing I want ot say about the argument Midnight and Applejack had at the beginning: Neither of them is completely in the right there. Also, neither of their opinions are ultimately important in where this eventually ends up.

Chapter 9 - The Unfoals

The colt sat up blinking. “Where…” It came rushing back.

To his credit, he did not scream. He did choke in the process of not screaming however, which led to him falling off the couch. A few rough pats on the back later, the colt was warily eyeing the other five ponies currently in the house.

“Colt…” Midnight paused for a moment, shook his head, and continued, “What are you?”

“…What do you mean?”

“The Unfoals. What are you? Exactly? How did you come to be?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“…Diamond. She tells me she thinks you deserve a chance, which means there’s probably something we aren’t seeing about why you’re working for Demon Blood. I thought it might be a good idea to start with what you are before talking about how you got here.”

“And why should I tell you anything?”

“You already know.” All eyes turned to Black Diamond. “You’ve already seen what’s waiting if you don’t help us. From within or without, the Darkness will take you, all of you.”

The colt sighed. He closed his eyes for a moment, then spoke…

You call us Unfoals. The name is more fitting than you know. We are those that are not, yet might have been.

What if he had asked her instead of her? What if she had said yes? What if they had turned right instead of left?

We are potential unfulfilled. We are the unborn, unconceived. We exist in the void, without bodies, souls floating between the universes.

Some of us stay that way longer than others. Once you are no longer possible, you begin to fade away from your old birth. Souls are not abandoned by any means; you get repurposed, given a new set of birth conditions, just as soon as you move on.

Some of us don’t want to move on.

The fewer “what ifs” it would take for you to be born, the fewer changes you would have to make, the stronger you are. You can hold on longer, retain details better.

We aren’t really as common as you’d think. There are plenty of universes out there where this colt was born a filly, or that pegasus is a unicorn instead. And almost none of us last past a decade.

We cannot enter any of these worlds, but we can view them. We can watch as life happens without us. It can be torturous.

There’s a group of us who would have been born to ponies around here. For some reason this is one of the easier realities to watch. A little while back there was a painful day, one that hurt all of us in one way or another.

He came to us then.

He was… suffering some long-term effects from the battle in Manehatten. It left him sensitive to fluctuations in reality and the various planes. He made us an offer we couldn’t refuse.

A recent ally of his had knowledge of a spell that would let a pony create a foal, as long as a soul could be provided. He could give us bodies, make us real. All we had to do was take vengeance on those who were denying us our existence through theirs.

You all have so many realities, so many versions already. Why do you get to be real? What makes you so special? I… I’m getting off topic.

We took his offer. All seventy-one of us took his offer. The bodies he provided were… basic. He explained that that was a consequence of the rush jobs. He was under time constraints.

It wouldn’t be long before the other alicorns sensed his actions and stopped him. That could not be allowed.

Two of us came out different than the others. We were detailed, distinct. We had definition in our bodies and personalities that the others lacked. I don’t know why she was so close to being real, but I know that my existence was averted by a single day. We became his lieutenants.

There are side effects. For example, even now we aren’t quite real. That’s why we can ghost through ponies’ attacks. We exist on the fringe of reality and you have to go there to touch us. We were also specifically shielded against the magic of each alicorn individually. We were also carefully instructed to avoid Laughter, as it is unknown what affect her reality warping powers would have on us.

We spent two weeks having an agent infiltrate Ponyville, and when he’d discovered what we needed, we attacked with a perfect plan.

The first snag was when we found out the Ranger could touch us. We thought there would be no resistance.

We changed tactics after that, focused on softer targets. You already know what happened here, and an unknown factor rescued Generosity’s sister. I can only assume that the attempts to capture Kindness and Loyalty’s apprentice met with similar results.

They’re going to be desperate soon, especially since I am no longer connected to the mind-link. Which means they probably think I’m dead.

Whatever you’re planning, do it quickly.

Midnight nodded slowly as the colt finished his tale. “That… actually explains a lot.” He sat in silence for a moment, and then a wicked grin began to spread across his face. “I… have an idea. An absolutely terrible idea…

“Diamond, I’m going ahead. I need to try and catch Twilight before she does something stupid. Meet me at Nightstone Castle, and bring the colt.” Midnight paused halfway out the door. “Actually, bring Applebloom as well; the Doctor’s family usually skips town at times like this, so if I can’t track down Discord or Pinkie, the Crusaders are our only real source of Chaos magic.”

“Chaos magic?” Applebloom asked.

Midnight smiled. “How exactly did you get tree sap on you the times you weren’t even near trees? Answer: It wasn’t tree sap.” The alicorn stepped out the door and vanished in blue light.

Inside Sugarcube corner, a pink mare was tapping her hoof impatiently. “Why did my Pinkie Sense tell me to be ready for a siege if nothing was going to happen?”

Lily raised an eyebrow. “Do you really want a fight here?”

Pinkie shook her head, her mane drooping slightly. “No. It’s just… the feeling keeps getting worse. Something’s coming and… I don’t know what more I can do.”

The filly thought through what her father usually did. There were entire racks of rations in back in case this battle ran on for more than a few hours. She had seen all of the cannons around the building. What little they had in way of medical supplies was gathered, and none dared venture out for more. There weren’t really any sails to speak of, or any point in tying things down for that matter. That really only left…

“Raise the colors?”

For a moment, Discord had the highly amusing image of Pinkie Pie hoisting Rainbow Dash up a flagpole flash across his mind. He waved it off after a moment, blinking as he saw something in the distance.

It was a cupcake.

And somepony was shining industrial grade floodlights on it.

“Discord, I… I’m scared. The entire town is dark and I don’t know where to go and–”

Discord silenced her with a single claw on her lips. He then reached back and gently turned her head to face the artificially lit baked good.

“Oh good, Pinkie’s home. Let’s go talk to her.”

Button and Sweetie were running again.

Well, Button was running and Sweetie was along for the ride.

They had actually jumped several roofs over before jumping down, but their departure from the last roof had been less than silent, largely due to Button misstepping when they heard Miss Cheerilee scream. They had a good head start on the creatures chasing them, but they were slowly losing ground.

They also had no idea where to go. Whether intentionally or otherwise, their pursuers had cut them off from all routes to Button’s house.

It was at this point that a light began to flicker in the distance. Then another, and another. They came around the corner and almost lost time to a shocked halt. Sugarcube corner’s cupcake was lit up bright as day, a dozen more lights waving around randomly to draw even more attention to it.

“There’s a good chance that’s a trap.” Sweetie whispered.

Button nodded.

“What do we do?”

“Either way, we have to go.” Button spoke around the key in his mouth.

After a moment, Sweetie nodded. “If it’s a trap, we have to go save whoever walks into it. If it isn’t, we’re running out of places to run and we need to get to safety.”

The filly tightened her grip as the colt redoubled his efforts. The pair raced towards the shining confection at a full gallop.

Midnight appeared in front of the two mares in a flash, then teleported again to avoid their instinctive attacks. “Twilight, I need your help. I think I know the solution to the unfoal problem, but I need to know what you know about Nyx’s spell.”

“Nyx’s spell?”

“The one that birthed her.”

Twilight opened her mouth to ask, paused, thought better of it and settled on, “I’m getting an explanation later. For now head to my castle. Starlight should still be there, have her get the file on Nyx from my lab. The one in my room won’t be very helpful unless you want to see long-term effects–”

“I might need to.”

“Then feel free to take that too. Just… promise me that this will help bring my daughter home.”

“Twilight… I think this may do more for her than that, but yes. I swear to you, this will help us bring her home safely.”

The stallion took to the air and the mares returned to their gallop.

Diamond glanced at her companions. “Okay. I’m going to try and shadow travel us all the way to the castle. There’s a good chance I’ll pass out afterwards.”

Applebloom rolled her eyes. “Ya sound like Midnight.”

The black filly beamed. “I guess my master is rubbing off on me. Anyway, if I can’t make it all the way, leave me. I’ll be fine, trust me. If all else fails, my armor will pull me into shadow and let me rest.”

The colt raised a hoof. “Didn’t you just say that entering shadow uses energy?”

“It does when I have passengers, or when I want to be aware and moving. If I don’t go anywhere, do anything, or pay attention to what’s going on around me though, it keeps me safe while I recover.”

Applebloom nodded, already deciding to ignore the request to leave Diamond behind. “Alright then, let’s go.”

All three of them vanished into a shadow that raced off into the distance.

Chapter 10 - Reckless

Midnight stepped into the darkened entry hall. “Starlight? I know you’re here, you opened the door. Twilight told me you could help me find some records; I need everything she has that’s even remotely connected to the spell that made Nyx.”

“First prove you are who you say you are. I can see the black not-ponies moving around out there.” Midnight rolled his eyes; the mare was magically disguising the location of her voice, but not subtler sounds like her twitching tail brushing the crystal floor. Since Vapor didn’t seem to have an heir at the moment, he decided to mention that flaw to her later.

“I’m afraid this will hit a little close to home. They’re called the unfoals…”

Twilight was panting slightly as she followed Applejack and Spike into Sugarcube Corner. “Why did they stop chasing us?”

“They won’t come near the bakery for some reason.”

Twilight looked up and gasped as she saw Rainbow, Fluttershy, Discord, and Pinkie. Glancing around briefly, she saw Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo sitting in a booth with another pair of foals. “No Rarity?” She grimaced at the headshakes. “Anyway… The unfoals are afraid of Pinkie Pie.”

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. “Why would they be afraid of Pinkie? I mean sure, she can come off a little strong, but…”

“Rainbow, do you know what happens when something that’s only half real comes into contact with Pinkie’s… Pinkie-ness?”

“…No?”

“Well, neither do they.”

“So what are these things?”

Twilight looked over to find that the foals had left their booth and inserted themselves into the conversation. “Well,” She answered Sweetie, “They’re called unfoals…”

Nursery Rhymes was tracking her son. She knew of a few places he could be, though the state of Carousel Boutique and Cheerilee’s house had her worried. And then she froze at a single word.

It was a name, one that only eight ponies in Ponyville knew. She recognized the voice, but it was definitely not one of them. She turned slowly to find a cloaked figure standing behind her.

Twilight sighed as she finished explaining the unfoals. “Midnight says he has a plan, I’m just glad we found all of you here. If we hadn’t been able to find Pinkie or Discord, he was going to have to use the Crusaders as a source of Chaos magic.”

Spike nodded. “He even had Black Diamond take Applebloom and her husband to Nightstone Castle.”

“HUSBAND!?”

Upon later questioning, Discord would emphatically deny manipulating time in that moment. Either way, the echoes of the word “husband” had not even begun before the front doors of Sugarcube Corner had slammed against the outside wall in the wake of three fillies and a colt. In the impossibly short timespan between, the four had come to an agreement with a glance.

Already, the buzz was pulling away. Applejack, being the one most experienced with failing to catch the Crusaders’ favored mode of transport, spun to the resident Draconequus. “Discord! Bring ‘em back here!”

The chaos being shrugged. “Sorry, can’t. Chaos-blinking doesn’t work in this pocket dimension.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Pinkie’s stuck moving normally too.”

The farm mare turned again. “Rainbow, after them!”

A polychrome contrail led out the door. After a moment, Twilight turned to Spike. “You and I are going to have a talk. Now.”

Featherdown gave a yawn as she entered the library, “Wha-a’s going on?”

Midnight and Starlight looked up from where they were sorting through scrolls and notebooks. “We were largely waiting for you to wake up.” Midnight turned to Starlight. “I’m going to need your help crafting both spells.”

The mare nodded. “Sure thing.”

“Spells?”

Midnight smiled. “I’ll explain on the way, for now, we need to get going.” Shadows rose around him and reached out to envelop Starlight and Featherdown.

The rainbow pursuing them pulled a ninety degree turn straight down and slammed into the ground in front of them. Scootaloo slid to a stop scant inches from her idol, the wagon fishtailing behind her and to the side.

The orange filly spoke first, “Rainbow… Please don’t stop us.”

The racer thought for a moment. “Scoots…” She met her gaze. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“I know my friend probably needs help.”

“This is a bad idea. I don’t know what the situation is, but if Applebloom’s married then getting involved will lead to some bad things for you.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“At least come back so Twilight can explain things.”

“No can do. If we go back they’ll never let us leave, you know that.”

After a moment, Rainbow sighed and turned away. “Take your next left, it’ll leave you the most routes to Nightstone, make it harder for the unfoals to cut you off. Shame I couldn’t find you in the maze that these streets are.” Her takeoff was abruptly interrupted by a hug from behind. The mare reached around and hugged the filly back. “I’m proud of you squirt.”

Four seconds later, the street was empty. None of her companions could hear as Scootaloo sang under her breath.

“Spike, you did that on purpose didn’t you?”

“…Yeah, yeah I did.”

“Spike, why?”

“You weren’t going to.”

“Yes we were, we would have–”

“Don’t kid yourself Twilight, you would have never told them. And deep down you know why.”

“Spike now they’re going to go running off to pester Applebloom and–”

“And that’s what you’re afraid of. You and Applejack both. Neither of you likes the fact that you aren’t in control anymore. Because they’ll never let you make Applebloom’s decision for her the way you were going to. She’ll follow her own heart now, and that terrifies you.”

“Spike… this is about Rarity, isn’t it?”

“Maybe it is. Maybe Applebloom’s not the only one you need to stop babying.” And with that, the tiny purple dragon walked out the kitchen’s service entrance into the alley. Twilight moved to follow, but stopped when she heard her name.

Deciding to give Spike some space, she went to see what Applejack wanted.

Scootaloo was belting her song at the top of her lungs as they raced down the streets. As she took one corner particularly sharply, Button caught a lamppost with his keyblade and swung the wagon around it to keep it from whipping out and throwing passengers.

Sweetie Bell lashed out with desperate energy at a wooden awning, collapsing the near end to the ground. Scootaloo made a minor course correction, and flew from the improvised ramp over the group of unfoals that had crowded to block off an intersection.

“How are we not dead yet?” Lily shouted to be heard over Scootaloo’s wings and voice.

Button laughed, “Are you kidding? The Crusaders make this run every day! The only thing new is that the other ponies are our size!”

Fifteen minutes of trick riding later – including one impossible grind where both wagon and scooter had slid along the railing of a bridge – their goal was in sight. The problem? Scootaloo had been scooting all night. She refused to acknowledge it, but she was tiring. The unfoals were gaining on them.

They took another corner, Button stabbing a short cobblestone wall to prevent them slamming into it. As he did, there was a cracking noise. His keyblade had a narrow split starting, running most of the middle third of the shaft.

Sweetie looked from the fractured wood to the colt holding it. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we can fix it.”

Button was silent for a moment. He glanced back over his shoulder at their pursuers, then forward to the road ahead. “No Sweetie, I don’t think we can.” The colt reared up, lifting the key high, then dropped with a battlecry, swinging the weapon low.

The shaft shattered as he struck his target, sawdust and splinters trailing through the air between the handle still in his hoof and the teeth spinning off into the night. The chocking block he had attacked was thrown as well, though it didn’t fly nearly so well. And then the barrels shifted.

The barrels had been stacked to the side of a shop, and now free of impediment, they began to roll. The shifting knocked loose the second line next to them, and the barrels flooded the street behind the foals. Button couldn’t help himself, he had seen the potential for the barrels to bowl over the unfoals, and so they phased through them.

Or at least, the leading side.

Button had never intended for them to be caught by the far side and then trapped in the barrels, but that’s what happened.

Sweetie put a hoof on his shoulder as they watched the chaos behind them. “I’m sorry, I know that meant a lot to you.”

“It’s fine.” Button slid the hilt and remaining four inches of shaft into the holster, clicking the crossguard into its locks. “I’m getting too old for toys anyway.”

Twilight shook her head. “I’m sorry Applejack, but at this range and their usual speed, the risk of splicing is too great.”

“Splicing?”

“What happens when a pony rematerializes overlapping something or somepony. It’s messy, and often lethal.”

Further response was cut off by Midnight, Starlight, and Featherdown rising from the shadows. “Hey, saw the lights were on. What’s going on?”

Twilight sighed. “Sweetie Bell, Scootaloo, and two other foals are on their way to Nightstone castle, and it looks like this is all we’ve got to work with.”

Midnight nodded. “Alright, good.”

“What!? How is–” A blue glow enveloped Applejack’s mouth.

“Apologies for the rudeness, but we’re short on time. Discord, I need you to get as many civilians out of here as you can. Get a message to the princesses, tell them to move the sun and moon so that they have my castle between them.”

“Let me guess, at midnight?”

“Yes. Starlight, Featherdown, and I will get to the castle – picking up four friends along the way if possible – to set up the spell. As for you five, I need a distraction. You need to buy me at least twenty minutes so we can reach midnight, possibly more. I have to hurry now, we don’t have much time.”

Twilight stepped outside. “Spike, I… Spike?” No. No, this couldn’t be happening, not again. Not twice in one night.

Just as she was about to start hyperventilating, the mare noticed a note scorched into the brick of the alley wall:

“Twilight – Had to borrow your dragon. Don’t worry, I’ll have him back by sunrise. – Distra”

She sighed gently. She didn’t know whether to worry or not anymore, but she supposed this was better than the alternative.

“Just because you’re ready to say something doesn’t mean they’re ready to hear it.”

The alicorn spun to find another alicorn behind her. This one was a colt, somewhere between seven and thirteen, she couldn’t quite tell. “Who are you?”

“Panpipes, Alicorn of Pocket Dimensions.”

“Midnight told me you were trapped on an island.”

“I am, but occasionally I get to bend the rules. Like right now; I was waiting in the wings in case somepony needed to pull the foals out of town. Also we’re not technically in Equestria, this is an island in space-time. So I can visit for a few minutes. Just long enough to warn you really.”

“Warn me about what?”

“It used to be that the lost foals that washed ashore on my island were abandoned, forgotten, or had simply wandered off. Nowadays, it’s far more common to see them show up because their parents don’t let them grow up.”

“That’s not what’s going on here, Spike’s still a baby.”

“…Have Midnight talk to you about that, he’ll have the time to answer. What I can tell you Magic is this; We’re going to meet again, fairly soon. And when we do, you’ll need to answer this question: Do you want Spike to be your baby or your son?” Before Twilight could answer, the colt took wing, made a vertical loop, and nosedived into a puddle, spraying her with water as he vanished.

Discord stood in the middle of the bakery’s dining area. He took a breath, let it out, took another, and then, in the space between his heartbeats, reality twisted.

When he opened his eyes, the five mares he had been with were gone. He stepped outside and waited for a moment, smiling as Celestia and Luna landed in front of him.

Author's Note

Next chapter, the promised moment where they blow a hole in the universe. I'll be honest, I wasn't originally planning on it taking this long.

Chapter 11 - To Catch A Thief

Midnight glanced over the waiting foals as he materialized out of shadow with Starlight and Featherdown. “Where’s Diamond?”

The still nameless colt technically married to Applebloom spoke up, “After informing me of exactly how she was going to geld me if I tried anything untoward with Applebloom, she collapsed.”

Applebloom picked up from there, “We put her in Nyx’s old room, figured that was probably the safest place in the castle.”

Midnight nodded. “Safest place you could have put her. I hope she didn’t overextend herself too badly…”

“I’m fine.” The group turned to see the filly in question descending from the battlements into the courtyard. “Shadow Nap, recharges you like lightning.”

Midnight blinked, then nodded again with a smile. “Alright then, I need you to help me retrieve a few things from my study. Featherdown, could you please show everypony else to the Main Hall?”

The unicorn filly led the others away, and for a moment, master and apprentice watched each other in silence.

“So where is she?”

“In my shadow. Wow, I actually just said that.”

“Where’d you get the scar?”

The ear in question flicked. “Port Salinus.”

“That was you!?”

“Well… The Duke was me, the Pirate handled the marauders and Distra took care of the lich.”

“And then you vanished before we could arrive…”

“We couldn’t risk you meeting me, it could have locked in a causal loop, and we still had things we needed to change. Still do really.”

“Isn’t the Doctor constantly talking about why we can’t do that?”

“Yeah, well… We’ve got an ace in the hole.”

“Really?”

“Time herself told us what to change. If… what we saw happen, happens, then… Did the Doctor ever tell you about the Time War?”

“Every moment in time and space burning at once.”

“Alright, now imagine that happening to hundreds of universes. That’s where we were heading. That’s why Distra’s time magic hijacked her teleportation spell.”

“So what are you doing tonight?”

“Mostly dealing with an unforeseen consequence of the unfoals. Right now though… I need a few minutes alone with Button.”

“Why… What are you preventing?”

“The same kind of thing you are with Scootaloo. Oh, don’t give me that look, it wasn’t exactly secret once it all came to a head. Listen… Button’s going to take the absolute wrong lesson out of tonight, and it’s going to get him killed. Soon. I have to stop that from happening.”

“Not arguing, but why him?”

“We lose him, his mother falls apart, not to mention the direct effects of the disaster he fails to stop. And then we go a little further down the road. Sweetie Bell never recovers, and a few years from now it kills her too. Rarity goes dark trying to avenge her. The other crusaders… Applebloom tries to stop Rarity, gets claimed by her powers. Scootaloo keeps charging into the forest, trying to push herself further and further. One day she doesn’t come out. After Rarity goes dark, Spike turns into a wreck, blaming himself for being the on to introduce her to dark magic. It just keeps snowballing from there.”

“I see.” In a flash of blue light, several scrolls and items appeared next to him. “I need you to get one more thing for me, take Button with you.”

Diamond nodded, “Oh, that’s right, that one thing. I think it’s in the trophy room.”

One of the scrolls floated up, spun slowly, then vanished. “Yes, I do believe it is.”

The star of prophecy smiled as she watched events unfolding in the starlight windows slowly floating around her. “It’s all coming together.”

“Two thousand years of preparation… And you still haven’t gotten lost like Sunny did.”

Asteralda glanced over her shoulder. “Hello Snowy, come to watch the show?”

“Yeah, figured that you’d have the best seats. Tonight’s really the night?”

“Yes. In fact, we’re only minutes away.”

“Oh I can’t wait to see the Zodiac and the rest try to control things after this.”

The five mares stepped out of Sugarcube corner ready for a war. Silence and empty streets greeted them.

“What? They were holding a perimeter before, where could they have possibly gone?”

Applejack paled as the answer occurred to her. “Nightstone.” She breathed.

Diamond and Button came running out of the vault at the shouts of alarm. Applebloom’s husband and Lily were running towards them. “The Unfoals know something’s up, they’re attacking the castle.”

Diamond grimaced. “Alright then. You.” She hoofed the nameless colt the scroll she and Button had retrieved. “Get this to Midnight, he’s going to need your connection to the original spell. Lily, Button, you’re with me. There’s no way they’re getting past all the wards, so they’ll have to come through the front door.”

Button nodded, but then paused mid-step. “Question. These guys are vulnerable to things that aren’t quite real, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“So say I used an imaginary sword with a real hilt…”

Diamond grinned. “That’ll be perfect.”

Lily sighed. “My imagination’s not quite that good, but I can definitely play support.”

Button smiled, swinging what was left of his keyblade off his back as a new blade of starlight grew from it. “Alright then, let’s do this.”

Midnight struck, and with it, a blue star rose over the horizon. The sun and moon moved as well, and, after a moment of simply sitting there, a line of light lanced between them. Another beam came from the midnight star, all of them cutting through the stone of a forbidding castle to focus on a single point, a crystal, set as the keystone in a decorative arch set in a wall as ornamentation.

A few runes left the scroll that the nameless colt had just given Midnight, glowing as they floated through the air to key points around the spell circle. Distantly, and explosion could be heard.

Midnight took a breath as he stepped into the center of the circle. “Alright, here’s hoping this doesn’t kill us.”

“Wait, what!?”

Midnight’s only response was to close his eyes. A heartbeat later, light exploded from his hooves, racing across the stone floor of what had once been a throne room to create what looked like a flower with eight petals. The light spilled from the tips of the petals, closing a circle around the stallion. Three more circles appeared, forming around three fillies spaced equally around him. The trio began to float in the air as rings of runes appeared around them individually and the spell as a whole. Slowly, a septagram inscribed itself across the spell circle, growing as a single line bounced off the circle’s edge. Across the circle from Applebloom, at the point where the star’s drawing had begun and finally ended, stood the colt. A pair of circles around him lit up, runes rising into the air. The two circular walls of magical symbols began to spin in opposite directions, lifting the colt into the air, though less so than any of the fillies.

Midnight spread his wings, threads of light leaving them to reach out to every intersection the mystic circles had. Recognizing her cue, Starlight lit her horn, placing the spell and everypony inside it into a containment bubble. Shadows began tracing along the light of the magic, growing along it like ivy. When the entire spell was wrapped, the shadows sank in, merging with the rest of the magic, strengthening it. Midnight’s eyes opened, shining white as he smirked. One by one, the four foals in the spell with him opened theirs as well.

When Midnight lit his horn, Starlight opened the barrier in the designated spot, leaving him the window he needed. Energy rushed through him, the kind of volume that only an experienced mage could hope to create and only an alicorn could hope to control. As magic poured from his horn, the spell around Midnight began to unravel, dimming from where it had begun, losing its detail, until the only thing left of the intricate patterns was a set of five beams, four connecting him to the foals, and the fifth pouring from his horn into a purely decorative stone archway, one that had never been intended to have ponies travel through it.

Finally, the cords connecting Midnight to the fillies withdrew, gently depositing them on the ground. After a moment, this repeated with the colt. Midnight continued pouring magic into his target for several more minutes, then the stream thinned and died as the light faded from his eyes. After he collapsed, Starlight Glimmer alone was privileged to bear witness as a nebula of magic formed around the archway, trying to escape even as it pulled itself back in. Slowly, the magic was drawn and compressed, until the only sign of it was a faint, almost oily shimmer to the stone inside the arch.

And then there was a noise, a single chord, the same sound as the ringing explosions left in her ears. There was a flash, and a concussive shockwave roiled out from the arch, and then Starlight knew no more.

There was a wash of energy, accompanied by the sound of an implosion. It sent Diamond, Button, and Lily reeling along with their foes. The black filly was the first to pick herself up, and as she looked around, she noticed the light streaming from the few windows she knew the Main Hall had.

She smiled as she helped the other two pick themselves up. “Well, it worked.”

Twilight and her friends looked to the sky as energy cascaded across it, almost reminiscent of a Sonic Rainboom. Pinkie Pie’s eternal grin grew almost manic. “Ooooooh, I like his style!” She was the only one who stayed standing when the shockwave passed over the group.

“What’cha mean Pinkie?”

“Well, he gets it! A party’s no fun if you don’t invite enough ponies!”

“What?”

“Pinkie.”

“Fair enough.”

Discord, Celestia, and Luna watched in curiosity as the lines of light faded, leaving only a glowing gemstone. After a moment, Discord shuddered. “What? Why would he do that?”

“What?”

“What is happening?”

“Well, Midnight – had to have been him, nopony else’s magic tastes like that – just anchored this one point in reality rather heavily, allowing him to bridge the dimensional gap for a single instant. I’m just not sure why, or for that matter, how he did it without… unless… oh, now that is clever. Oh, I love the way that pony thinks, he always was my favorite of you lot – no offense KK.”

Celestia’s eyes leveled. “KK?”

“Yes, it’s your new name.”

“We see nothing wrong with it sister.”

“Laugh it up Luna, wait until he renames you.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“What, you respect her but not me?”

“Oh no, not at all, I simply have no desire whatsoever to see what Midnight turns into if somepony starts calling his precious Luna by a pet name. And even less desire to have that coming after me.”

“Well, it was nice while it lasted.” The alicorn colt sighed.

“What?”

The colt turned to look at the ghostly stallion behind him. “Midnight had several hours to come up with a plan and the entirety of Ponyville’s resources at his disposal. You felt that just now, whatever he came up with, it shook the deep magic. We’ve got no chance, so I’m taking my sister and leaving. We’re done here.”

“We’re done when I say we’re done.”

The colt raised an eyebrow. “Stop posturing, we both know how badly a fight with me would end for the both of us.”

“Yes, and we both also know how badly a fight with me would end for her.” The unconscious form of a purple-maned black alicorn filly was carried into the light by a pair of unfoals – the name had stuck since it came across the telepathic link from the skirmish in the forest.

The colt’s eyes narrowed. “Bad choice. You know where this goes.”

“Yes, yes, you’ll kill me at the first opportunity I give you, I know. I will simply have to not give you that opportunity.”

“…We’ll see.”

Author's Note

As promised, the part where they blow a hole in the universe.

What else did the spell accomplish? Well, there's a clue hidden in the last place any of you will look.

Chapter 12 - Dreamgate DG-1

“Is everypony alright?” The voice was distorted, watery sounding.

A colt groaned as he sat up. He hadn’t felt this off-balance since a crazed maniac nearly used dimension twisting to destroy the world.

“Hey, you okay?”

The colt opened his eyes to see a pair that were scarily similar to his own. He only knew of two other ponies with eyes like his, and he was fairly certain that none of them were the white bat pony filly in front of him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Who are you?”

“Can you all~ Ah, that’s better, can you all hear me?”

A stallion had popped into existence in the center of what the colt realized was a large group of foals. There were both fillies and colts, all varying in age, size… and sometimes species apparently. He saw griffons, diamond dogs, changelings, a dragon, and several unidentifiable creatures intermixed with the ponies.

“Anypony? Can any of you–”

“Oh for crying out loud Midnight, they’re all too confused to answer, they can hear you just fine. Look at their heads turning.” A unicorn filly with a blue coat and a red on black mane appeared next to the stallion – who, the colt noted idly, was an alicorn. “Just get on with it already, would you?”

The stallion raised an eyebrow. “I’m starting to think Diamond’s a bad influence on you.”

“I’m sure she’ll be proud to know that.”

The stallion shook his head with a chuckle. “Alright, I guess I should let you know what’s going on. I need your help.

“The Alicorn of Tartarus has forced an army of innocents who exist half in and half out of reality under his control. They have little choice in the matter, but their abilities mean that they are about to take Ponyville. I trust you realize how dire this means our situation is.

“To combat his army of unfoals – yes, they are foals, your age – I broke a few rules. Nothing major, even less so considering Ponyville is currently sealed in a pocket dimension, but honestly, I’m desperate.

“My name is Midnight Star. I am the Alicorn of Hope in this world. My responsibility is to shine out and lighten hearts taken by despair. The best way I know to do that right now is you.

“I programmed the spell to assess needs and select ponies automatically. Each of you has a reason for being here. That said I will not force any of you to join our war. The spell has not finished yet, and any who wish to may simply walk away before going through the gate.

“Right now, you are asleep. I summoned you all here from your own universes – sometimes even different points of time within those universes – through the dreamscape to minimize the damage to dimensional barriers. In most cases, there will be no effect whatsoever. You will awaken tomorrow and this will all be as a dream – though you will find that even though it feels detached, it will never truly fade from memory. Your native universes will be unaffected. Even if you die, it will be like a dream, and your consciousness will simply snap home.

“You were chosen, seventy-one of you to balance the seventy-one lost souls that Demon Blood has enslaved. While we can likely save the world without you, I… sincerely doubt it will be anything but a pyrrhic victory. Throughout thousands of universes, and from different points in time and space within those universes, you seventy-one are the most capable of ending this well.

“We are not your world, and cannot expect you to help us in our fight, but we need help nonetheless. Will any of you answer?”

Lily raced into the Hall ahead of the other two. “Get ready! They’re coming!”

Button slid to a stop in front of Sweetie Bell. “We couldn’t… hold the gate… any longer.” He panted out.

Black Diamond smiled. “It’s alright you two, we bought enough time. They pushed harder because they knew something was up. I take it the spell worked?”

Featherdown nodded. “Yes. I got pulled into the gate at first, so I know our reinforcements at least arrived… whether they just turned around and went home though…”

Starlight shook her head. “I can’t believe that this kind of spell would pull that kind of pony.”

The younger unicorn sighed. “I guess. Still, I’d feel better if Midnight would just wake up.”

Diamond walked over and placed a hoof on the still sleeping stallion. “He’s not going to wake up anytime soon.”

The only adult left nodded. “He pushed himself past where most ponies would have died. He’s gonna be sleeping this off for a while.”

The doors Lily had just braced shook under an impact. “We’ve got company.” The group continued to watch with bated breath. After a few more hits, the wood began to splinter. “That’s not going to hold much longer, they’ll be in here any second.”

“Cool, I hate waiting.” The group turned away from the door to find that the archway the spell had been focused on earlier now had milky white energy swirling in it. An orange pegasus filly with a blue and pink mane had spoken, and several more ponies were stepping out of the portal behind her. “So can we get started already?”

Diamond smiled as she ran. She had viewed this night dozens of times, and knew exactly who was doing what with what timing, even if she had shadowed out through a window as soon as the battle started. At this exact moment, she alone knew the full effects that opening the gate would have.

Midnight had been in the center of the spell itself, and since Diamond was in the same place twice, she was the epicenter of a paradox in close proximity to the spell. The next thirty-seven times she and Midnight went to sleep within ten miles of the gate, they would balance the equation and visit the worlds of their friends.

The direct effects of their visits would vanish when they left, but the things they managed to cause to happen indirectly… With one night in her world being able to stretch for years in theirs, the next five and a half weeks would be the most intense training period Diamond would ever undergo.

There would be Tartarine moments, but even if this one night was the only reward, it would have been oh so worth it. Diamond’s smile grew as she raced across town, and in her mind’s eye, she replayed the key points of the night.

Anthea had made a request that they not hurt the unfoals, to which Dawn Lightwing had added something about a true warrior being able to save his enemies rather than beating them. Perlin Bluestreak had naturally used that comment to challenge him to what amounted to a fishing competition – whoever bags the most unfoals wins.

Starburst had weaseled her way into the challenge at that point, turning things into a transdimensional free-for-all that Prism Bolt, Nidra, Chiphoof, Carmine, Bethany, Bright Pinion, Hairpin Turn, Finesse, Kildeer-Adder, Bomber Jacket, Vulcas, Val, Blazing Dawn, Dreamcatcher, and Terra got sucked into as well. The powerhouses in the group spent so much time sabotaging each other that when the contest ended as they left the castle, Finesse and Starburst wound up tying for first place.

Twilight and her friends had split up to try to figure out where the unfoals went. This had been a terrible idea. Roughly thirty of the unfoals had been putting siege to Sugarcube Corner, which left almost forty more patrolling the rest of town.

Four of those had cornered Twilight in an alley and were stalking towards her slowly.

Three beams of light lanced over her shoulder to destroy the ground at the unfoals’ hooves. While the unfoals were still picking themselves up, three figures – one human and two fillies – left the rooftops.

“The first thing you’re going to do is step away from our mother.” Joshua said, his hands lighting up for another spell.

“The second,” Midnight Wish spoke around the wand in her mouth as she hovered, “is tell us where our sister is.”

“And third is that you’re going to quietly surrender.” Midday Wish smirked.

Fluttershy shrieked and dove as another unfoal tried to tackle her. She screamed again as something dropped to the ground in front of her.

The colt glanced over his shoulder as he whipped out his wing and scattered several feathers. “Oh, hey! Fluttershy, nice to see you. Dawn’s around here somewhere…” He twitched his wing again and the feathers he had shed danced around the area, herding a trio of unfoals into a corner. “I kind of have to take care of this… still, he and Coco would both kill me if I let you go off on your own.”

“Lightning Twister and I can get her to safety Perlin.” Fluttershy turned to see a gray unicorn and a blue pegasus coming around a corner.

“Alright, thanks Charcoal.”

The unicorn nodded. “Don’t worry about it, she’s our mother too.”

Rainbow about fell out of the sky as the first one blew past her with a “Hi Mom.”

The black pegasus with a familiar mane was followed by a gray bat pony with a purple mane and wings and the same greeting. “Hi Mom.”

A sky blue pegasus with a white mane was next, “Hi Mom!”

Rainbow halted her forward momentum and stared as the three foals dove to corral a group of unfoals.

“Eh, they’ve got this.”

Rainbow turned to find another blue pegasus filly with a white mane. “So… Please tell me I’m not your mom too.”

“Huh?” The filly looked at her. “No, but you’re my mom’s best friend. My name’s Keen Arrow, and those were Prism Bolt, Taboo, and Cumulus. Don’t know how those three work together so well, they aren’t even from the same dimension.”

“Dimension?” Rainbow shook her head. “Never mind, I’ll figure it out. Who’d you say your mom was?”

“Lightning Dust.”

For the second time in as many minutes, Rainbow nearly fell out of the sky in shock. “On second thought, I could really use that explanation.”

A pony, dragon, pony-dragon, and pony-shaped dragon stood in the middle of town square as flames washed out from them. The crackling of the fire that was forcing a group of unfoals closer and closer together was interrupted by a crack of thunder and heavy wingbeats.

“Guys, seriously? You’re going to burn down Ponyville!” Flicker, Vulcas, Claire, and Chiphoof all looked up to see Dawn Lightwing.

Claire laughed. “Come on, don’t be such a scaredy-cat!”

“Yeah,” Vulcas added, “We’ve got it controlled.”

Lightning crackled along Dawn’s wing. “It’s a basic force of nature. I know exactly how well you can control it once it’s released.”

Flicker gave a nervous chuckle. “He’s got a bit of a point. I really don’t want to burn down another building. Let alone a whole town.”

Chip couldn’t stop grinning. “I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. Do you know how many beings our age can do this kind of thing in my world?”

An explosion on the other side of town drew their attention.

“Oh come on!”

“We are surrounded.” Finesse’s deadpan would have given Maud a run for her money.

Starburst flared her wings as a ring of over a dozen unfoals closed in on the tail to tail pair. “Just the way I like it.”

An explosion a few blocks away was the fillies’ starter pistol.

Bomber Jacket’s manic laughter was matched only by Marshmallow’s as the bridge was obliterated in an explosion. It was strategic destruction, the unfoals would have to cross that bridge to get to Sweet Apple Acres, and since nopony knew if they had been close enough for Discord to pull them back to reality with him, they had decided to err on the side of caution.

Bomber gave the pegasus next to her an appreciative glance. “I’ve gotta say, most ponies really don’t get why I like this stuff. It scares them off.”

The colt laughed even harder, “Are you kidding? My mom is the most powerful pyromancer in existence! This is awesome!”

Carmine, Bethany, and Kildeer-Adder traded smirks. “I guess that means it’s our turn now.” Kildeer-Adder said.

Doubloon surfaced in the water the bridge had once crossed. “I’ll keep an eye on the rest of the river while you guys – Look out!”

The group spun just in time to see a tawny blur intercepting an unfoal that had snuck up on them. Bethany cocked an eyebrow. “Didn’t we leave her at the castle?”

The griffon chick pinned the unfoal she was wrestling, talons to its throat. “I am Princess Sun Shines on the Misty Mountains at Dawn through Early Morning Hazy Skies! Underestimate me at your own peril!”

As the other three unfoals drawing near hesitated, Carmine burst into laughter. “I like her. Please tell me we’ve got one of her in our world.”

Pinkie giggled as she pronked through the battlefield the town had become. “I’m not too upset about being sidelined like this, I’m just glad I got to say hello to my extra-dimensional daughters first. I mean, I know about all of them, kinda-sorta, but it’s nice to be able to actually meet some and–” She came to an abrupt stop. “Hey, you aren’t supposed to be watching this part…

“This isn’t the scene you’re looking for. Move along.”

Applejack heard something coming up on her left as she galloped down a street.

“Hi, you’re Miss Applejack, right? My name’s Bright Pinion, call me Penny. I’m supposed to tell you to that if you can get to the forest, you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for by going wherever they don’t want you to.”

A bronze pegasus filly was flying alongside the farmmare, and it was her who had spoken. The white earth pony colt in the chariot she was pulling smirked at Applejack. “Don’t worry, Ponyville’s in good–” His eyes widened. “Oy, Paladin’s hurt! Terramancer, four spaces left, one back. Reinforce forward, three wide one deep. Knight, get Paladin to that shelter. Cleric, reinforce, patch him up. Cryomancer, you reinforce too. Area effect, freeze ‘em out. Ranger, we’re gonna come in low, hop on. Flygirl here’ll circle around while you snipe any unfoals trying to get close to the others.”

A diamond dog somersaulted away from a pair of unfoals he was fighting, spinning as he stopped and bringing one paw up swiftly. “Ruff protect!” The earth itself responded to his will, a curved wall rising that arced slightly over him, creating a shallow alcove three yards wide and one deep, the tip of the wall nearly ten hooves in the air.

A tan colt broke off his own fight, rushing off and snagging a younger orange colt by the scruff. With a flick of his head, Clay deposited Autumn Leaves on his back. “Hold on!”

The younger of the two brown-maned earth ponies snorted and rolled his eyes. “For crying out loud it’s just a scratch.”

“That’s a four-inch gash.” Terrycloth corrected as she arrived at the make-shift shelter at the same time from a different direction. “Although I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, patching up ponies is completely different from patching up stuffed toys!”

“It’ll be enough to get us through the night.” Kaneq spun as he slid to a stop, burning the momentum from his gallop as he left a trail of frost along the ground. “Also, it ain’t all about you Autumn. This gives all of us a chance to recover a bit from that last push.” With that, the half-windigo let loose, a blizzard spiraling upwards with the small shelter at its center.

Meanwhile, a white-coated unicorn’s red eyes flashed as she jumped into the chariot that had just buzzed the unfoals she was fighting. Rare Belle smiled as she started raining spellfire on their enemies. “Well this is going well. Exactly how many battles like this have you been in?”

Quest Talltale returned the roguish grin with a wink. “Oh, hundreds.”

The sunshine yellow unicorn filly turned, panting, as a pair of unfoals cornered her in a blind alley. “You know… for scary… faceless monsters…” Dandelion gasped out between breaths, “You’re really bad at this.”

There was a muffled thump as a cream filly and a gray colt landed behind the unfoals.

“Kinda makes ya wish our problems were this easy to deal with, doesn’t it?” Willow Wisp asked his compatriot.

“I don’t know about your world, but my mom just blasts our problems with fire and then cuts apart the ones that don’t burn.” Squeaky Wings returned.

And with that the bat ponies charged.

Glitter Belle was laughing as the brawl spilled through yet another empty shop. “This is fun! I never get to do this kind of thing back home.”

Light Stream smirked. “I’ll admit, this is a lot less scary than the last time I was in a fight like this.”

Terra knocked an unfoal back with a chair. “What I’m curious about is how this turned into a saloon brawl when we’re nowhere near a tavern.”

Bella raised an eyebrow as she ducked to let an unfoal fly over her and into its comrade. “A saloon brawl? I’ve always wondered what it’s like to be in those. Are they like this at your place Sunshine?”

The filly in question snorted. “Are you kidding? We cater to dragons, Pig Iron stops any fights long before they turn into real brawls.”

“Okay Starlight, final check. Is everything in place?”

“Alright, Tootsie Pie and Cotton Cloudy are providing the raw chaos…”

The pegasus turned to her extra-dimensional earth pony half-sister. “How did you get here anyway? I heard you weren’t going to be able to make it.”

“Well I wasn’t, the author accidentally miscounted and left me out, but everypony else was coming and I didn’t want to get left behind, so I went around the fourth wall and followed everypony else. The extra Moms here let me in through the mirror world once I got here. Should be able to get back no problem though.”

“…along with Illusion…” The draconequus-pony hybrid waved at the nonexistent camera. “…which is going to be stabilized by Dreamcatcher’s and Nidra’s dream magic.” The epicene and its extra-dimensional sister nodded. “This will allow us to pick and choose which magical rules from which universes apply where, as well as providing a central point for the various species-specific magicks.

“Blazing Dawn and Clover will be tapping directly into Alicorn’s Release and focusing the ethereal powers of that place, which will be filtered through Dulcet, Auspice, and Serendipity, who can handle the energy because of their part alicorn heritage and translate it into an equivalent form that will be safe for the rest of us to handle. The innate element of guidance will be offset by Pebble’s wild magic, at which point the order core will be brought into near-contact with the chaos core, allowing us to create a debatably stable pinhole in reality.

“Bright Eyes, Nebula, both Auroras, Golden, and Candy will be at the six cardinal points, their status as not being able to exist without manipulation of reality allowing them to be used as foci for the containment field until the spell completes and targeting loci when it is finished to make sure that we get everypony.

“Picket’s artificial life capacity is being combined with Val’s life-draining ability to focus and fuse life and death energies. Claw, aside from being a source of enough chronitons that we were able work an always-was paradox into the spell, is acting as a focus for the concept of hybridization tangentially attached to the transformation magic supplied by Flitter, Melody, and Lofty. Also tangentially attached to this is Gossamer, who is the unreal at the seventh cardinal direction. This should let the changelings’ magic play mix-and-match with any creature from every universe should it need to.

“Silverbelle will be maintaining the integrity of the physical aspects of the spell – specifically the runes and circles – while Solstice, Twinkle, Anthea, Wishful, and our visiting Midnight keep the mana structure stable. Sumac will act as a relay point, amplifying everything and smoothing it all together one last time before the spell is passed to the targeting loci and everything fires.”

“So we’re good to go?”

“No, are you kidding me!? This is a completely insane hodgepodge of cut-and-pasted theories that we’re hoping won’t play by the rules because we don’t want them to! If any part of this mishmash goes wrong each of our atoms is going to wind up in a different universe!”

“Yeah… how’d you come up with something like this so fast anyway?”

“…Time dilation. Please don’t tell Twilight, but… It was the only way I could think of. That’s why my part in this spell is so small, just ignition and statement of purpose, I’m almost completely spent. I actually spent a few weeks getting this worked out and this is still the best I could come up with. If anypony from the GCEM ever saw this groundwork I’d have my mage’s license revoked on the spot, be forbidden from ever casting magic again, and probably have my horn removed for good measure. We had to build a special platform just so that some ‘circles’ could arc around others without touching by playing in more than two dimensions. Tartarus, we had to warp space to make things connect right in two spots!”

“But will it work?”

“I don’t know! This is asymmetrical ritual magic! I’m completely out of my depth and territory! Maybe if it were Twilight, or Midnight, or hey, even Discord–”

She was cut off by Featherdown slapping her. “Sorry, you were going into hysterics. Also, don’t you dare put yourself down. You are Starlight Glimmer. You are the personal student of the Alicorn of Magic. You debatably usurped the position of Last Apprentice of Starswirl the Bearded from Midnight Star when you finished his chronomancy research. So I am going to repeat my question, and you are going to answer with confidence in either the affirmative or the negative. Will this work?”

“There’s only one way to find out and we’re out of time and options.”

“Close enough…”

Diamond smiled as she reached the cave. She turned and looked over her shoulder as the magical pulse spread through Ponyville, an ever-expanding sphere that penetrated even ground as it spread, rewriting a single rule in its wake. Two drastic, deep magic involving, reality altering spells in one night – not counting the… interesting bit… that was still waiting once it was all over. Really, it was no wonder that all the ancient powers started getting worried after this, with what they did, nothing could stop the dominoes from leading to Mrtyu Dara’s invasion… ironic that the chaos only led one place… of course, they were changing the route now. The Nightborn filly smirked as she manifested Blacklight and activated her beacon, stalking into the darkness in search of her quarry with predatory grace.

Author's Note

This chapter was tartarus to write. I was planning a small set of sidestories connected to this entitled "The Dreamscape Wars." The premise of which involved circumstances forcing Midnight to bring radically alternate versions of the mane six and other mainstay characters into the dreamscape to free their counterparts from the Nightmares they had been locked in while sleeping (Pinkie trapped dreaming of "Cupcakes," Rainbow having nightmares about the factory, etc.), culminating in a confrontation with the Tantabus where Midnight has to call on other "Midnight"s from across the multiverse. That's not happening now. Ever.

I anticipate many questions regarding Starlight's bit and Diamond's bit at the end.
Heading off what I assume to be the most obvious/common. Cardinal directions:
1. Forward/North
2. Back/South
3. Left/West
4. Right/East
5. Up
6. Down
7. In (The other six being variations on out. Solid theory, only works in practice if spatial distortions are in play, which, hey, they were.)

Alright then. Credit where credit is due. All of my guests. I should mention that all of these characters were borrowed without permission. Since several of the authors involved are quite simply gone, I fel tthat the only way to be fair about this was to be equally unfair to everyone involved. If the original author (No "Freinds protecting interests," etc. unless you're just directing me to a generalized statement I missed) has an issues with my use or portrayal of their character, they may feel free to contact me, at which point I would be more than happy to modify said character's portrayal or even write them out completely.
And now the fun part where I post a bibliography disguised as an author's note:
Tootselina Pie, Dulcet, Auspice, and Serendipity are from Earth & Sky by Warren Hutch
Midnight Wish and Midday Wish are from Midnight's Wish by catcatpuss66
Joshua is from New Life in Equestria by jkreader
Princess Sun Shines on the Misty Mountains at Dawn through Early Morning Hazy Skies and Clover are from The Travelling Tutor and the Diplomat's Daughter and its sequel The Travelling Tutor and the Royal Exam respectively, both of which were written by Georg
Picket Post is from The Three Whooves, while Bomber Jacket and Quest Talltale are from School Daze, both of which take place in the same universe created by Paleo Prints
Lycaenida (Gossamer), Killdeer-Adder, Doubloon, Bright Eyes, Flitter, Kaneq, and Willow Wisp are all from the same series by RHJunior, which begins with Nyx's Family
Squeaky Wings is fromThe Witching Hour by Chaotic Ink
Lightning Twister is from A Mother's Love by GunsNRoses365
Aurora Blast, Candy Cloud, and Golden Apple are from My Little Mommies by 3Power
Keen Arrow is from No Heroes by PaulAsaran
Flicker is from Flicker by Silicas
Marshmallow is from Something Stuck Up In the Chimney by kudzuhaiku
Prism Bolt, Anthea, Nidra, Ilusion, Starburst, and Crystal Clarity are all part of the Kilalaverse and belong to kilala
Taboo and Finesse are from Taboo by Hooves Like Jagger
Chiphoof Irontail Leatherback, Isabella Liriope, Bright Pinion, Carmine, Bethany, Sunshine Filligree, and Ruff are from The Ambassador's Son by Midnightshadow
The visiting Midnight is from Out in the Cold by EsperDerek
Nebula Sparkle and Aurora Lulamoon are from Twixie Answers
Vulcas is from Family Secrets: The Reveal by Schrodinger's Pony
Lofty Wings is from Thrown Abroad by Niaeruzu
Blazing Dawn is from The 7th Element by thunderhawk7865
Melody Swiftsong is from The Melody of the Heart by Star Origin
Glitter Belle is from Patience, She Said by TheMessenger
Light Stream is from Project Ascension by TheMyth
Dreamcatcher is from Tantabus, Mk. II by Rambling Writer
Rare Belle is from How to Save a Nightmare by LostUmbrella
Twinkle Star is from Twilight's Family by ApexSixtail
Solstice Shimmer is from Daughter of the Phoenix by Solstice Shimmer
Terrycloth is from Incombatibility by TheBanteringBrony
Wishful Fortune is from Memento by LuminoZero
Dawn Lightwing and Perlin Bluestreak are from Savage Skies by moguera
Charcoal is from In the Shadows by JLBDreamer
Terra is from "Are You Not Afraid of Me?" by WhiteSun28
Cumulus, Dandelion, and Autumn Leaves are from Instant Mom by SeasonTheWiccan
Clay is from Wings for a Pony by Brawney Hooves
Valkala Del Hsskrugnr of house Araknioss, Silverbelle, and Claw are from Where Did You Come From? by Maskinos
Sumac Apple and Pebble Pie are from The Weedverse by kudzuhaiku and first appear in Trixie Lulamoon and the Horrendus Hypothesis

Chapter 13 - The Cost of Defiance...

Diamond clenched her teeth as she felt the stomach turning sensation of being dragged out of shadow travel. Buck, she hadn’t realized he could do that this far back.

“I am Starless Night, Alicorn of Despair. I guard this path and you shall not pass.”

Blacklight opened with his familiar his of oiled metal on leather. “I am Black Diamond, Shadow of the Star.” She met the colt’s eyes with the smirk she’d learned from her master. “And I exist to hunt Nightmares and fight Despair.”

Vambrace glanced around as she and her passenger rose from her shadow. She hadn’t realized it would be so tiring bringing somepony else along.

“So there is more than one Ranger.” The voice from her left was almost mocking. “Well that explains a few things. And Left, I’m surprised to see you here.”

“I am no longer the Left Hoof Right.”

“Oh?”

“My contract with Demon Blood was shattered when another took its place. I am no longer what I was. Neither are any of us for that matter.”

“…That wash of magic…”

“Yes. It changed the game. We have a chance now, all of us.”

“..I see. Well yippee for you.”

“What? But… We’re free now; we don’t need Demon Blood anymore. The contracts are void, we aren’t unfoals.”

“And I’m not like you! I never was. Demon Blood is still my only chance at living. And I’m no traitor either.”

“You know he’s going to betray you, right?”

“So far he’s the only one who hasn’t.”

“She won’t listen.” Vambrace cut into the conversation, her horn starting to light up. “Let’s just finish this.”

“No, I have this under control.” The colt jerked his head towards the cave. “Diamond’s waiting for you.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, I can handle her tricks. Just let me make sure this works.” As he strode towards their opponent, his shadow began rippling. “Fighting Darkness, born of Night, live in Shadows, protect the Light. Stand for Right and never Fall. I now heed the Shadows’ Call.” When the colt finished, his tan coat had turned slate gray, his bright blue mane had darkened into a rich sapphire, and his eyes had changed from blue to amber. “Oh good, it worked.”

Vambrace rolled her eyes. “If nothing else, your sense of dramatics fits right in.” She turned and started walking to the cave.

The colt simply smirked, then tackled his former compatriot while she was aiming a spell at his current one. The two nameless foals tumbled through a bush and down the bank of a dry riverbed.

Black Diamond awoke to the sight of her own face. Not unusual in itself, there were a number of mirrors in her bedroom after all.

What was unusual was that this face was covered in dust and had a black eye. Diamond knew what was going on; they had met earlier at Sweet Apple Acres. “Where–”

“Shush.” Future Diamond put a hoof to her lips. “No questions. Not enough time. We just had a duel with the alicorn colt. He’s off chasing us now, thinks we left the caves. Demon Blood is that way.” She pointed down the tunnel. “You need to go face him and I need to get out of here. I’ve already probably done too much and we really can’t afford tonight falling apart from a paradox.”

The colt smiled as he stalked the tunnels. He had just been informed that three of the unfoals were keeping Honesty busy and away from the caves. The Ranger had briefly given him the slip, but he had realized quickly that she’d doubled back into the underground network to hide, and from the sounds of it she was just around the corner.

As he jumped around said corner, the spell he was charging fizzled out. He clamped down on his emotions quickly however, revealing no other outward manifestations of his surprise.

“So,” He said, “Magic has decided to come and play. Do you really think I’m going to simply let you take Nightmare Moon away?”

The purple alicorn turned from the intersection she was contemplating with glacial slowness and mechanical precision. The way she was using her powers to wreathe herself in shadows would have made it quite impressive if he weren’t above such things as being impressed.

“You.” Her voice was almost hollow, she was so near beaten she couldn’t even bluff properly. “I recognize you. I memorize the magic of all Nyx’s friends. You’re Night, aren’t you? The colt she was supposed to be playing with?”

“I am Starless Night, Alicorn of Despair. Look upon me and tremble, for you–”

“Where is she?” It was impressive how steady the mare’s voice was, considering how much punishment she must have taken getting here.

“Safe, away from you who poison her mind with–”

“You didn’t hurt her?” It was odd though, he didn’t remember any reports about a fight with Twilight, and he was sure they’d have been noticed.

“I would never harm my sister! It is the rest of you alicorns who are–”

“So you only took her then? Fair enough, you get to live… for now.” It was at about this point that the colt’s sense of smell kicked in. As it did, he realized that it was smoke rising from Twilight, not shadow.

He felt time freeze as he drew a few conclusions from that. Not the least of these was the realization that the bursts of power coming off the mare in pulses were not the final waves of her depleted energy, but her ironclad grip on her magic slipping ever so slightly.

The colt gulped nervously as he stepped back.

“Huh.” Diamond idly spun as she entered the large cavern, masking her scan for Nyx. Unfortunately she found her lying unconscious at the hooves of a familiar alicorn. “Huh.” She repeated, forcing herself not to react and give anything away. “Wouldn’t have expected to be able to face you this quickly. Couldn’t find a cult on short notice?”

Demon Blood smiled. “Oh, I did, it simply seems you have reinforcements this time.”

“Ooh, yeah… Sorry, we’ve been trying to solve the problem with the whole shortage of guardians… that didn’t inconvenience you, did it?”

Demon chuckled. “Greatly child. So here we find ourselves again, you and I, in a cave.”

“No pits or cultists this time.”

“No armies of escaped foals either.”

Shadows rose to fight the Dark.

Vambrace picked herself up from where she’d taken cover when the wall exploded. Looking through the new hole, she could see several more ruined walls before her view was cut off by one that had collapsed completely.

She turned to face the other side of the tunnel, where a colt with a horn and bat wings was just pulling himself out of the wall, wincing as he stretched a wing.

“Broken, definitely broken. Waiting for rege–” He broke off as he noticed her. “Hello, who are you?”

“Captain’s Lieutenant Vambrace, Shadow Rangers.”

The colt blinked. “Of course. There’re two of you. That’s why I underestimated you.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Starless Night, Alicorn of Despair.”

“Don’t suppose I could talk you into surrendering?”

“Nope.” The colt popped the “P” in the word.

“Drat.”

Diamond slid into shadows as she landed on the wall. Not very far, just enough for three of her hooves to stick there while her right forehoof drew part of her shadow across her body to create a barrier. The shield blocked the dark blast it was intended to, but her eyes widened as she saw another coming on its heels.

Demon’s gaze was unblinking as he waited for the smoke to clear from the new crater in his wall. He’d seen too much to think it was already over.

He turned at the sound of an impact to find the filly panting but on her hooves. She had landed heavily, but she wasn’t done yet. Truly, she was the most unconquerable mortal he’d met since that fiddler all those years ago.

“Still fighting?” He asked.

“Always.”

He sighed. The amount of respect she demanded was starting to annoy him. “Why bother? Really? This is a repeat, I’m sure we’ll have many more if you win. Why keep fighting if locking me back up today simply means fighting me again tomorrow?”

“Because today’s worth living.”

“…I don’t follow.”

“I fight today so that there’s a tomorrow to worry about. I fight in shadow so that day need not fear. I am Nightborn, so I will always stop the Darkness.”

He smirked. “You little foal. You have no idea how deep the Darkness runs. Someday the light will fade, the protectors of Equestria shall falter, and then we will rise.”

“No.”

“What?”

“No. Never. I promise you, today, tomorrow, a year from now, wait as long as you want. You and your kind will never find Equestria unprotected. The Day will always be defended by the Night and I will always be right there on the front lines, defying you until the end.”

Demon hadn’t even noticed his smile falling. “So much like him. I wonder… If I kill you, will it kill Him?” With no more warning than that, he fired off five blasts in a row.

Diamond was more prepared for a rapid-fire attack this time, and managed to block two of them outright. The third was deflected, destroying the ground next to her and throwing her to the side. Because of this, the fourth struck only a glancing blow.

The fifth bolt however struck true.

Death, Fate, Luna, Celestia, and Discord were seated around a table making empty small talk in the hopes that it would take their minds off their worries. They were all failing miserably, but none of them were willing to admit to that fact.

That is, until Death cut off mid-sentence and his coat changed colors from pale gray to white.

Fate found herself struggling not to choke on the air that had suddenly solidified in her lungs. “Dad?”

Death swallowed, slowly washing his gaze over the other four. “I… Just found out what happens. I’m sorry. I… I have to go.”

Luna hesitantly reached out with a hoof to touch his shoulder. “Midnight?”

Death shook his head. “No. I’m not entirely sure who, it’s… fuzzy. But I know it’s not an alicorn or legend. You and us… we all feel completely different when it’s time.”

Celestia’s head twitched in what was probably supposed to be a sympathetic nod but didn’t quite have enough energy to it. “Do what you must.”

The stallion nodded, and with another “I’m sorry,” he stepped away from the table, materialized his scythe, and faded from view.

As she entered the cavern, Twilight watched the shattered ground swallow Black Diamond with a certain sense of detachment. On some level, that worried her greatly, and she wondered if she could consider herself mentally healthy.

The other alicorn present recoiled slightly in surprise upon seeing her. “Ah. Magic. Come to punish me for trying to escape Tartarus? I must say, I’d be slightly more worried it you had Harmony at your command, but without your friends…”

“I don’t care.” The clinical part of Twilight’s mind decided that it would be best to let others know about her observations of her current mental state.

“Oh? Such spirit! Do you think you can defeat me just because you’ve decided to?”

“Not what I meant.

“I don’t care. I don’t care about you getting free. I don’t care about you potentially taking over Equestria. I don’t care about your grudges with Celestia, Luna, or Midnight. Tartarus, I don’t even think I care right now that I probably just saw you murder a filly.

“At the moment, I find I can only seem to care about one thing. And that’s that you foalnapped my daughter. Again. That’s all I’m here about. And that’s why you’re going to go lock yourself in Tartarus now…” Twilight finally unclenched the tight hold she was keeping on her power and emotions, slowly letting it out.

It was the first time she’d found herself truly mad since she’d become an alicorn. Oh, she’d been annoyed, scared, tired, even mildly angry, but this… This was the kind of emotion that could consume a pony, mind and soul. She’d rage-shifted before, but this was almost something else. That was a burning heat, this… this was a burning cold.

Her mane changed first, purple hair slowly igniting with a violet fire speckled with silver that almost clung to her coat. Her tail soon followed, and in the light cast by the blaze, her coat seemed paler, almost changing to white. The whites of her eyes began shining a pale blue, even as her irises and pupils turned crimson. Finally, her wings ignited with the same flames as her mane and tail, though there was black mixed in. The ground at her hooves began distorting slightly as the temperature rolling off the mare in waves alternated between unbelievably hot and impossibly cold.

All of which went unnoticed by the mare herself as she finally met Demon’s eyes. “…Because that’s the only place I won’t be able to get to you.”

The Alicorn of Tartarus hastily threw up a shield to absorb her laser.

Death sighed.

It just wasn’t fair. The filly was vibrant, full of life… but it was her time. He closed his eyes as he rested his scythe across his withers. There were times when he really hated his job. Fortunately he likely wouldn’t have to do it much longer – he really didn’t see Midnight letting him live after this.

He looked down at Black Diamond again, trying to think of a way out. Unfortunately, without anypony around to “cheat” him… He sighed again. He could delay no longer, the necromantic energy she had absorbed had likely already forced her soul from her body; it was time for him to claim her.

The scythe rose and fell.

Author's Note

You have no idea how tempting it was to mark this complete here...

Chapter 14 - ...Is Paid Her Way

The lower cavern echoed with the tortured scream of metal and souls. Death stared in shock at the filly beneath him who had raised one hoof to protect her neck.

The shock deepened as he met her burning eyes.

The colt shook his head. The charcoal filly had put up a respectable fight, never surrendering or trying to run. She should be proud. It was just a good thing she hadn’t had more skill or power; he might not have been able to simply leave her unconscious then, and as much as it pained him to admit it, Black Diamond was right: He would have to save all of Nightmare Moon’s friends as well.

His regeneration was starting to kick in; he could feel the bones in his broken wing shifting. It would take longer now; the unicorn had deliberately aggravated the injury. Not that he could blame her, it was a weakness she couldn’t afford to not exploit.

He entered the cavern intent on reporting the situation to Demon and trying to find a way to get Nightmare Moon out. He never even noticed his momentum fading as he gaped at what he found.

Magic had declared war on Tartarus.

That was the only description that fit what was before him. Twilight had seven spells going at once, conjuring a new attack as each of the old ones faded. Demon Blood was clearly on his back hoof, it was all he could do to keep up with the mare.

Said stallion brightened slightly as he noticed the colt. “Starless Night, get over here and help me!”

With a sigh, the colt launched himself, taking advantage of the few moments he now had before Twilight targeted him. He ran up and along a wall, curving behind Twilight’s current position as he did. He slid to a stop next to Demon – a flanking maneuver would leave them too prone to potentially shooting each other.

The colt focused on getting a stable shield up while Demon began returning fire, forcing Twilight to split her focus between attack and defense.

Death absently checked his scythe as he leaned it against his shoulder. Yep, right there, the filly’s blade had put a notch in his. Of course, hers had been marked in turn, about a third of the way up on her left forward blade.

His attention returned to the situation at hoof. “Kiddo… it’s time to go.”

“No.”

“Look, I get that it’s scary, but I can’t let you stay. Trust me, lingering won’t be good for you, especially with the amount of necromantic energy you absorbed. I think the split nature of your soul is the only thing keeping you in your body right now.”

“I can’t die yet.”

“We all have to go sometime Little Lady. Even I will die one day.”

“No, I get that, but…” Black Diamond turned her gaze up towards the sounds of battle raging on the floor above them. “It’s not over yet. I’m not finished.”

The cloaked filly was moving through the tunnel cautiously. She had dragged her former counterpart back after his transformation collapsed, but the obvious signs of combat she’d seen early on had made her decide to leave him to allow herself freedom of movement.

She had started hearing the sounds of battle a little ways back, and had slowed her progress then, being sure she retained the element of surprise in case she needed it. She was glad she had.

She fired off a quick blast before teleporting to her master’s side. From within the protections there, she continued to attack the mare that dared assault her master, freeing Demon up to balance his own magic between helping her attack and shoring up the colt’s defenses.

Twilight Sparkle found that she was being slowly but steadily overwhelmed.

Death sighed again. It wasn’t often, but occasionally he had to walk an individual through the stages of grief as they mourned themselves before he could claim them. He just wasn’t sure if the filly was in bargaining or denial right now. “Look, I know that it’s not fair and that you had a whole life ahead of you, but–”

“Oh no, I get that.”

What?

“What?”

“I’m a Shadow Ranger. Dying is an occupational hazard. I accept that. You can take me when this is done. But not until then. I’ll go with you just as soon as the fight is finished.”

Dark laughter echoed around them. “Twilight darling, you still haven’t learned, have you?” There was a green flash and suddenly the walls were gold plated and covered with gems. “You need to put some sparkle in situations like this!”

Rarity entered, eyes a brilliant emerald color and an unfoal gripped in her green telekinesis. “I would have been here sooner darling, but it just takes so much inspiration to get anything out of these dear little things, and then I spent hours searching these caves looking for my darling little Sweetie Bell. In any case, I’m here now; shall we annihilate our enemies together?”

Twilight gave an absolutely feral smile, the faintest hint of green and purple fire coming from the corners of her eyes. “Let’s.”

“I understand that you don’t want to go, but it is your time.”

“I’m not asking for much, not even a chance to say goodbye. But I have to finish things. I can’t just abandon them like this. The moment it’s over, you can take me, but I have to end this first.”

“…There will be a price.”

“So be it.”

“Black Diamond, please reconsider. I know you can sense the powers being unleashed. The Trio is only a few moments away, with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie not long behind them. Applejack won’t be much longer. They will win this.”

“And will anypony else die?”

“…I …It doesn’t work that way. I don’t know when an individual’s time is until it is come.”

“Then I can’t go. I have to get up there. Are you going to stand in my way?”

Death hung his head. “His in every way... I beg you to reconsider, but no; I will not stop you.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I will come to collect when the battle is done.”

“I’ll be waiting.” The filly slipped into shadows for what she was sure would be the last time.

Rarity was using he telekinesis to launch gems at her enemies from every direction. This light but constant and omnidirectional physical attack combined with Twilight’s high powered energy based attacks meant that they were currently stalemated.

It was a situation that could not last long, either the mares’ powers would burn out or reinforcements would arrive to overwhelm the colt and his allies as their endurance flagged.

And then it happened. Shadows began rising from a shattered portion of floor, coalescing into Black Diamond, who showed signs of having been in multiple fights. It was her eyes that did it though. Every time he’d seem them before there was fire, but now…

Now there was a different blaze altogether, a burning calm that honestly terrified him more than the roiling fury coming from Magic and Generosity. He felt Demon seize as he noticed the filly, noticing the same thing the colt did if the almost imperceptible shaking was anything to go by.

Diamond reared up with a whinny, forehooves waving before she brought them down with a crash that launched a tendril, composed of the signature combination of Dream and Shadow magic unique to Luna, Midnight, and the Rangers. The tendril was also a focused blast and it struck their shields with all the force thereof. Fighting on four planes of magic at this level…

It was too much, and as the colt recognized the voices echoing into the cavern, just barely discernable over the din of combat, he realized that Chaos, Alchemy, Shamanism, and Storm magic were likely to join the mix. Oh well, he would just have to rescue his sister and her friends another day.

He closed his eyes and let his defenses drop, turning all of his magic to reinforce his body.

His supposed allies turned to him in shock even as the blast overtook them all.

Death waited patiently for the smoke to clear. The deal was that she could finish it and he wasn’t going to take her prematurely because he’d gotten overconfident.

The nearly astral form of Demon Blood was the first one to come into focus, followed swiftly by the foals who had been fighting alongside him. He was also the first one to pick himself up, sweeping his gaze across the three ponies who had just hurt him, the three fillies who had just arrived, and Death himself standing otherwise unnoticed in the corner.

“Right, I can maintain no longer. We must retreat.”

The filly made a cursory sweep of her own and nodded. “I shall escape and await your instruction my master.”

The stallion faded out as the filly sank into a puddle of darkness that then raced away.

The alicorn colt picked himself up as well, before giving a pained and shaky smirk to his audience. “Yeah, not sticking around either.” With a flash, he was gone.

Death nodded, satisfied that he’d kept the deal. He started forward only to stop short as the three fillies pony-piled his target. “Thanks girls, but I–” She cut off suddenly, apparently picking up on the strangled noise that had slipped from his throat when they made contact.

She nodded to him, then turned to her friends with a sad smile. “I need to take care of something real quick, okay?”

She walked away from the confused trio towards him. “Alright, I’m keeping my end of the bargain. You can take me now.”

Instantly, the Crusaders were in front of her. “Hey! One foalnapping at a time!”

The other two looked at Scootaloo. “I mean… We won’t let you take her!”

Rarity was a bit less reactive, trying to place the stallion she felt she should know. Twilight on the other hoof had recognized him instantly. The flames wrapping her went out, her voice soft and almost quavering. “Girls… Come here girls… She has to go with him…”

Sweetie spun on her heels. “Come on Twilight, you guys beat threats all the time. Sure we’re a bit tired,” (More than they would ever admit, although they had started recovering more quickly once they’d gotten into the Everfree) “but we can take him can’t we?”

“No.” Pinkie’s statement was not intended to be a response to the preceding question, but that was how it played out as the pink pony paused mid-pronk while paling. “No, it can’t…” Her lip quivered as she looked at the stallion. “Who?”

“It’s okay Pinkie Pie.” Diamond reinserted herself in the conversation, her umbrakinesis reaching out to pick up the other three fillies and physically move them aside. “All of you, it’s okay. I accept this. I’m not running from it. He gave me more than he should’ve just letting me finish the fight. It’s time for Death to take me, and you need to let him.”

“Vambrace,” She turned to the recovering filly who had managed to hold her transformation through unconsciousness by way of trained instinct, “You’ll be the Captain when I’m gone. Take care of them, especially Midnight. Luna’s gonna need help keeping his head on straight.

“All of you thank you, I… I can’t… Ah buck it, I’m dying. You’ll know soon enough anyway.” She let the shadows part, revealing pink fur, purple and white mane and tail, and tiara cutie mark to the surprise of many. “I’m going to die as Black Diamond… I feel like I was better as her. But I just wanted to say, as Diamond Tiara too… Thank you all. For everything. Tell the others I said that too, will you?” The shadows wrapped her in their comforting cloak and she was Black Diamond again.

She walked the last few paces to Death with a smile on her face, sitting down at his hooves. “I Submit to Death. I am ready. You may take me now.” She wanted to meet his eyes, to face her end, but… She decided that in this one, final, private, nearly sacred moment, she could set the warrior aside and allow herself an instant of being a scared little filly. So she turned her face to her hooves and closed her eyes to wait for the reaper’s blade.

After an agonizingly long moment that she was sure was shorter than it felt, she heard him raise his scythe. She waited for another heartbeat before she heard the sound of his weapon drawing across skin. Odd, she would have expected to feel the blade cleave her soul from her body… And for her to not feel her body anymore after dying…

She forced herself not to be annoyed with the ponies who were obviously only trying to help. Apparently she would have to die a warrior after all. She opened her eyes, ready to turn to her inconsiderate protectors and deliver the words already flying to her lips only to have them die unspoken in her place.

Death was staring at her, his scythe stowed on his back. “It is no longer your time, I cannot take you now. The necromantic energy has been purged from your body and your time is passed. You do not belong to me Black Diamond. We will meet when your time comes again.”

The stallion made sure to fade from mortal sight completely before he let his composure break and ran. He had known there would be a price, even warned her. Had he known it would cost her so much he would have never made the deal. As he raced through the tunnels, one idea consumed his thoughts:

Midnight was not going to be happy with him.

Author's Note

Before anyone brings it up, yes, the methodology will be discussed. At length. I'm still deciding exaclty how much of a dissertation to give. I'm probably going to either give it piecemeal or have Midnight and Twilight launch into a technical discussion about all the contributing factors.

Anyway, climax over, just a couple chapters of cleanup. I'm also probably going to be turning one of the two epilogues I had planned into a one-shot, because it doesn't fit the tone of this story at all. Problem is, I'm not sure if there's enough there to warrant an entire one-shot... I'll have to think hard about it.
Anyway, a few more chapters and we're done here and moving on to the lighthearted sequel in which a civil war tears our heroes apart.
Thanks for reading,
~NPP6

Chapter 15 - Picking up the Pieces

“Uh… What just happened?”

Twilight answered for all of them, “I have no idea Rainbow.”

Diamond just stared into space, wondering if she should be worried that Death didn’t seem to want her anymore.

The Time Pirate and Distra were waiting for her when Black Diamond arrived at the clearing. “How’d things go?”

The Pirate grinned. “Swimmingly. Even managed to keep Silver Spoon in the dark about the Doctor.”

“And the fragments?”

Distra gave a soft smile. “Crated up and sent by dragonfire to Celestia. They’re caught in the dimensional barrier right now, but they should be able to complete the journey once we pop back into reality.”

“That shouldn’t be too long now. Does the Doctor know about the Time Lock failing?”

“No, it is a side effect of the combined magic that he would have no way to predict. We decided it was best he not know about what we just set up.”

“True… What we just unleashed on Canterlot… I don’t like it. I…”

“I know, it isn’t right. It isn’t fair. But you know what happens if Founder’s Day doesn’t.”

“Yeah, but… I still don’t know how I’m ever going to face the Spectres again, knowing that we killed Flint and Lace.”

“They choose their deaths Diamond, you know that.”

“Still though, she’s got a point. Remember when we were the good guys ‘stead of the ‘bad guys on the right side?’”

Diamond barked a laugh that was somewhere between sad and angry. “Yeah, welcome to the night Pirate.”

Distra looked thoughtful. “I’m not sure if having to deal with shades of gray is a part of being Nightborn, or just part of growing up.”

A little over an hour had passed, and (detouring along the way to pick up Applejack and her tormentors) the group that had gone into the cave had made their way back to Nightstone Castle. Starlight had recovered enough to move, and all of the unfoals except the one that had fled with Demon Blood had been rounded up.

Nyx had regained consciousness and was off in a corner of what had once been her throne room sharing a slightly-less-tearful-than-the-first-few-times reunion with her mother and brother. After the first couple foalnappings desensitization set in quickly, but there was still a need to express relief and verify health.

Starlight in the meantime was explaining the situation as best she could to Twilight’s advisors, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Black Diamond, the unfoals (all of whom except Applebloom’s husband were in magical restraints courtesy of the Nightstone armory and Rarity’s capacity for design replication), and the extradimensional reinforcements they had called on.

“Alright, this portal behind me is unstable, which is why Midnight has to stay inside it to keep it open. Once it stabilizes – probably when we reunite with the rest of the universe – everypony not native to this dimension needs to go into it. Those of you who came to help us should be able to get home from there… although to be honest I have no idea how Midnight set that up to work.

“You unfoals will be able to turn right around and come back in. From what Midnight’s notes say, once you do it should alter the way this universe recognizes you and stabilize your… I think defining these terms might take longer than anything else.” The stack of papers was set down next to her. “Basically once you come back through the portal it will alter you to belong to this universe, regardless of your universe of origin. Or lack thereof.

“Congratulations, you’re going to be real foals.”

“Righto, ready then?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Let us finish this.”

Distra’s horn flared, her magic channeling the time and space energies within her into a spell. One which was then joined by Diamond’s Dream and Shadow magic, and shortly thereafter by the Pirate’s own time-related energies combined with the dimensional travel magic of the glowing gold dust in the phial he held up.

For a moment, they all felt electricity shooting through the air around them without touching them. Then, there was a “kcilc” and it felt like the heartbeat of the world around them restarted as the pocket they were in reconnected with the universe.

Fate, Destiny, Luna, Celestia, and Discord were sitting in Twilight’s throne room. They had felt that should a message or messenger be sent through, none of their mages within the pocket dimension would want to risk sending them near whatever Midnight had done earlier.

They felt it, though it was different for each of them.

For the alicorns, it was an elemental tingle, starting at the focuses of their magic and then racing from there throughout the rest of their bodies.

For the draconequus, it was something akin to having the uncontrollable urge to sneeze. Rather like what he got when Pinkie Pie was on a caffiene binge, only moreso.

For Fate, it was the mildly uncomfortable feeling of having several dozen threads violently forced into the half-woven fabric on her loom. An odd sensation, given that events around Midnight that influenced her domain tended to have the opposite effect.

For Destiny, it wasn’t a feeling, but the sight of the deck of cards on the table before her bursting into flames. Not the first time, she simply called them again, the new set appearing in her hooves. As she spread them in the air before her however, her eyebrows began climbing her forehead.

There was a rolling pop as air raced into the spaces previously occupied by the five beings that had teleported out in near-unison.

Protections placed on Nightstone during the Nightmare Nyx event and not yet removed since the new tenants had taken up residence prevented three of them from simply teleporting in. So, Celestia, Luna, and Discord arrived in the throne room a few minutes after Fate and Destiny.

The first thing each of the three did was a head count of the ponies they were hoping Death hadn’t gone for. Luna nearly had a heart attack before Midnight stepped out of the gate in the archway that would likely never be decorative again.

Because of the anxiety of the situations, they could be forgiven the few moments it took them to realize that the room was filled with foals of varying ages ranging from at least four infants to a few that were as old as the Crusaders.

When she did notice the foals however – the reports she’d insisted on receiving since the Blood’s Eye event letting her state with confidence that they were neither Ponyville natives nor foalnapping victims – Celestia decided it was a good time to even the scales a bit for her sister’s earlier pleasure at her expense.

Thus, she stepped forward, clearing her throat to draw the attention of all in the room, and asked in a voice of innocent curiosity that she had spent centuries perfecting, “Dare I ask who the mothers are Midnight?”

It would long be debated whether the better imitation of a fish’s first exposure to the stratosphere belonged to Luna or Twilight.

Celestia’s joke had earned her the responsibility of following through on it. Luna cheerily helped her with this while Discord was forbidden from doing so after he had to be stopped from blinking in the not-parents of the first foal interviewed. (The protections stopped teleporters from pushing in, but not from being pulled.)

Pinkie had commandeered the Draconequus and with Fluttershy to help keep him in line, they were popping back and forth between the throne room and kitchen to bring everypony snacks. Few suspected she was also covering as she bought time to try and figure out what kind of party she was supposed to throw for the seventy colts and fillies who had just been not-born.

Applejack was being rather effectively distracted by Rainbow Dash, who was doing everything she could to subtly keep the other mare away from the trio and Applebloom’s unintentional spouse.

Said Crusaders were trying to set a speed record for recruitment drives, though with better intentions than siblings at first assumed. They were operating under the very valid idea that having a purpose and talent could be rather important to these ponies who had spent so long as literal nothings.

Spike, Nyx, Button Mash, Lily Longsocks, and a rather tired Silver Spoon (Who had shown up with Spike but gone unnoticed until now since she was taking a nap behind a pillar) had taken it upon themselves to stand guard, just in case an enemy decided that now was a vulnerable enough moment to attack.

Twilight and Starlight had sequestered themselves in the library, teleporting books over from Twilight’s library as needed. Nopony but Midnight could get a straight answer out of them about what they were researching, but the stallion could be seen to occasionally shift to Inkwell before writing something on a scroll and teleporting it to the pair.

Featherdown was everywhere. The unicorn filly had decided that since she was the oldest female permanently residing at Nightstone, she was a hostess and these were her guests. (This would eventually give rise to the nickname of “Lord/Lady of Nightstone Castle” which would forever after belong to the eldest “Ward of the Star” in residence at Nightstone. Many a weary traveler would be greeted and fussed over personally through the years by one of Featherdown’s successors.)

Midnight had offered to let his apprentice rest after the tiring battle he’d heard she’d been through (Though full details were yet to come), but she’d refused, insisting that her place was by his side. The pair had then grabbed the colt the unfoals still looked to as a leader, and were having him sort through the no-longer-unfoals, sending most of them to Celestia and Luna for interviewing while setting a few aside that would need to be handled more carefully than the others. (Two from a divorce, one whose not-mother had died, and another whose not-parents were siblings)

The three were currently working their way through those who couldn’t communicate their own stories. The mute pegasus was quickly discovered to be able to read and write very well, so he bowed out to have his interview with the princesses and let them get to the infants.

“So what’s the story with these four?”

“Well… The first one here’s easy enough. Her not-parents have actually been trying for a foal for a little while now. They don’t know it yet, but it won’t work.”

“Oh?”

“Her not-mother’s parents are tribal purists. When their pegasus daughter married an earth pony, they took exception. Upon realizing they couldn’t change her mind, they took measures to preserve the integrity of their bloodline. They slipped their own daughter a potion that sterilized her to prevent this filly from existing. Please get me a picture of the looks on their faces when they find out how badly it backfired.”

“Done. In fact, you might have to be there depending on what Twilight and Starlight find out about how we need to deal with this legally.”

“Oh, is that what they’re doing?”

“Among other things. Honestly, they’re only doing research for five projects, why is everypony having such a hard time understanding?”

Diamond groaned. “Well, at least now we know why none of us could understand what they were trying to do.”

The colt coughed nervously before changing the subject, “Anyway, her not-parents’ll probably take her in a heartbeat. The twins are complicated, so I’ll tell you about this one next. See, his not-parents aren a pair of teenagers who actually aren’t romantically involved at all.

“His not-father was split two ways trying to figure out which of two fillies he had crushes on to ask to a dance, and naturally neither of them realized he liked them. He asked one and they hit it off pretty well. They’ve been dating for five months now.”

“Wait… So this colt shouldn’t even be born yet?”

“We have four foals who seem to have just come out of the womb except for the fact that they aren’t demanding to be fed. Obviously they couldn’t all have coincided that exactly, so I’m assuming that those who wouldn’t have been born yet have simply been aged up?”

“Seems like it, these are the only four who wouldn’t have been born by now at least.”

“Alright, so teen parents who are dating other ponies. Yeah, we’re gonna need to be delicate there.”

“I will not be offended if you consider me too blunt.”

“Oh no, not at all.”

“I need to change that before you drag me into any of the more awkward conversations.”

Diamond gave the colt a curious look. “You know, I can’t figure you out. Your personality… it seems…”

“Mercurial? I’ve noticed it too. In my more intellectual moods I tend to conclude that after spending so long with my personality being ‘nothing,’ it’s trying to sort itself out by cycling through options until one sticks. Really hope it doesn’t last long, I’d like to know what sort of pony I am.

Midnight nodded, remembering another pony who had said something similar to him once. “Anyway, you said that these two were twins?”

“Yes, and… this is where things get… complicated.”

“How complicated?”

“Um…” He furtively glanced around to locate Applejack and Rainbow Dash before replying, “Their not-parents are Rumble and Scootaloo.”

“Oh.” Midnight’s reaction could be best described as a lack of one. There were no changes physically, it was simply like he missed a heartbeat of time and then continued. “Are you aware of exactly how that complicates things?”

“I’m aware that if Applejack’s reaction to my stunt and its consequences is anything to go by then you’d better get Rumble in protective custody before Rainbow gets her hooves on him.”

Midnight’s stillness held a moment longer, and then he smiled. It was a dark grin, an evil smirk that only those closest to him knew to fear. Luna and Celestia, feeling the spine tingling sensation of his scheming look steadfastly refused to glance in his direction – plausible deniability had served them well in the past when it came to Midnight’s schemes, so it should help them now.

In the kitchen, Discord and Pinkie both spasmed as their connections to Chaos jerked hard on them. Being the more experienced with the sensation and having learned the painful way what it usually meant, Discord turned to Pinkie and offered her the best advice he could.

“He’s a genius mage with two hooves in the mortal realms and two hooves beyond. He is both Alicorn and Star, and plays the two roles for or against each other as he sees fit. He has purportedly achieved unity between the trichotomy within his soul on two occasions. Most importantly, he is an Agent of Harmony with a talent for Rebellion. He is perfectly and completely sane right up until he comes up with a plan that makes you and I look like we’re following all the rules. I’m honestly surprised that with Twilight and Starlight at his disposal he didn’t break reality before tonight.

“Simply put, the best response to encountering Midnight Star’s wild side is to find a seat outside the blast radius and make sure to bring extra popcorn.”

Chapter 16 - Preparations

The trio and their siblings had been drawn aside to a room that had a magical fire dancing in the hearth. The alicorns sans Nyx were also present, as were Black Diamond and Applebloom’s husband.

The lattermost held the attention of the room as he spoke, “To understand, you need to go back a couple months. If Demon Blood hadn’t foalnapped Nyx and Sweetie Bell, things would have turned out differently.

“You see, this all comes back to Thunderlane. He threw a party, a little over a week after the attack on Ponyville Elementary. His brother had been planning to ask Scootaloo, but then the attack happened and he never got the chance. Thunderlane didn’t know about one of his friends spiking the punchbowl, and unfortunately neither did Rumble. He woke up the next day and has decided that alcohol might not be for him.

“Had he invited Scootaloo, they both would have woken up hung over, and consequences would have been discovered right about now.”

Rainbow’s fidgeting stilled slightly as she made eye contact with Midnight and he signaled her to calm down and wait. She instead focused with the rest of the room on her young protégé and pseudo-sister.

The orange filly had dazedly walked over to the small crib that had been conjured in the corner. “So… they’re… these are my foals?”

“If you want them.”

“Hold on,” Twilight turned to Midnight. “Isn’t it a bit premature to state something like that so unilaterally? It is ultimately her parents’ decision after all.”

Midnight laughed to keep attention on him and away from the steel in Rainbow’s gaze. “If her parents try to dispute it, I am prepared to grant Scootaloo emancipated minor status on the spot and grant her legal custody of the foals anyway. After that, only Nyx could do anything about it.”

“Nyx?” six confused voices echoed the name.

Luna cocked an eyebrow. “Surely thou didst not think anypony else could have been her patron?”

“B-But… Nyx, she’s… she’s just a filly.” Twilight voiced the thought of those who’d spoken with her.

Celestia sighed. “Twilight… She has her cutie mark. In the eyes of both Equestrian and Magical Law, that makes her an adult. With her heritage from both Luna and you, she would already be an active princess even without her alicorn status.”

Midnight nodded. “To be honest, I’m fairly certain that she’s bonded to the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the same way I’m bonded with my Shadow Rangers. It’s a situation that cannot be easily changed, and I would ask that you not try, it makes Nyx something of a trump card in a little something I’m working on.”

Twilight looked hesitant, but before she could reply another voice rasped out, “I want them.”

The room turned to Scootaloo again. “They’re mine, I choose them. I want them. These are my foals. You’ll stop anypony from taking them from me, right?” She was looking at a now shaky Rainbow Dash.

Midnight didn’t even want to guess at what the mare must be going through right now emotionally. It was obvious to anypony who knew the secret in her past what she was reliving. It was an almost eerie parallel to the failure that had nearly cost her her dreams. The polychrome mare closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. When they opened, there was a light in them. If it was history repeating, then this time she would get it right.

“Of course squirt. Anypony tries to take these two from you I’ll kick ‘em out of Equestria myself.”

Scootaloo relaxed visibly at the support from her idol and the echoes coming from her friends. “Thanks, all of you…” She hesitated a bit before asking, “Rainbow Dash… would it be alright… is it okay if my foals call you ‘Aunt Dash?’”

The speedster was obviously trying not to cry as she nodded. “Yeah… That’s fine… Heh… think I’ll actually like that Scoots…”

The three oldest ponies in the room traded looks before shimmering telekinetic fields pushed the mare and filly into a hug that they were both avoiding in their attempts to “Be strong.”

After a teary moment, Scootaloo turned to the colt, surreptitiously wiping the tears from her eyes. “Okay, can’t just keep calling them ‘the foals,’ what’re their names?”

Her answer was a shrug. “Up to you, they don’t have any.” To the general confusion this caused, he shrugged again. “None of us had names; they only give you one of those when you’re a real pony.”

Celestia cleared her throat to break the silence that followed that little ray of sunshine. “Scootaloo, you are their mother now, the magic running through Equestria that guides naming should be whispering to you already, just listen to what it says.”

Scootaloo walked back over to the cradle, gazing down at her children. “Dust… Dustup. The filly’s name is Dustup. And the colt… Blitz. His name is Blitz.”

“Dustup and Blitz.” Celestia summoned a copy of the necessary Extradimensional Adoption, Extradimensional Naturalization, and Alternative Universe Parental Counterpart forms and passed them to Raven entirely out of habit. “Excellent names. I’ll make sure everything is taken care of on the Canterlot end – for all of the foals.”

Fortunately Twilight happened to be the pony who was standing where Raven usually was in reference to Celestia. This not being the first time the older alicorn had accidentally given her paperwork intended for her assistant, the purple mare simply smiled and began filling out forms she hadn’t even known existed.

Death was sitting on a hill watching Ponyville while he waited for his destruction to come. As he sat gazing at the incomprehensible town, he felt the familiar presence of an old friend.

“I felt your power from Everfree. I trust you have not come for me?”

“No, not tonight. As a matter of fact, I’m waiting for somepony to come for me.”

“It can only be that stallion then, has he cheated you again?”

“No, tonight it seems he decided to launch a foray into my wife’s territory. His apprentice however seems to be making a habit of defying me.”

“And what could this filly do that would let her defy you?”

“It was her time and I came for her. She insisted on a scant few more minutes to finish the fight, and her time passed. I was unable to claim her.”

“What? How?”

Death cocked an eyebrow as he turned. “You didn’t rhyme.”

“That Hope and Death might go to war, can you think what might scare me more? Forgive me a little slip of rhyming, if only because of timing.”

Death smiled. “Your own apprentice was involved. Black Diamond was saturated with Necromantic energy. It was purged from her system before I could take her. I have no idea what’s going to happen now.”

“You need not worry about Applebloom, to Necromancy she is immune. But what can be said for the Ranger… I’m afraid that to that I’m a stranger.”

“So am I… About Applebloom though, you are aware?”

“I am aware who she’ll cast down. I also know of Sunny Town.”

As conversations broke out amongst those gathered in the room, Midnight gently inserted himself into a conversation between Twilight and her friends, “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to borrow Dash for a minute.”

The pegasus in question nodded sharply. “Just let me let Scoots know.”

As the mare trotted off, the stallion signaled his Captain. She was waiting by his side when Rainbow met them at the door. To her questioning glance, Midnight merely nodded.

Once they were in the corridor, Midnight’s horn glowed briefly. They turned a few corners and then entered another room, one of the many generic ones in the castle that were there simply to take up space and make the structure larger.

“Black Diamond,” Midnight began, “There is something going on that it’s time you knew about. Scootaloo is in a very precarious position right now, which she absolutely must remain ignorant of. There are a number of forces working to save her, but tonight’s events are going to complicate things.

“Rainbow, before you ask, because I know you’re thinking about it; Declaring her an emancipated minor would bring the contract due, not void it. You’ll need to let the others know that as well.”

The mare nodded. “What about her parents’ plan?”

“It’s still viable. More so considering we can spin things to look like it contributed to tonight’s decision – not difficult considering it probably did.”

Diamond raised her hoof. “So what trouble is Scootaloo in?”

Midnight sighed. “Please understand that I wasn’t keeping this from you out of mistrust, but… I didn’t want to face you with yet another impossible choice. Especially after… never mind.” He took a breath, closing his eyes as he considered options and angles. After a moment, he decided to simply go for it and told her.

There was no elegance to it, despite the delicacy. There were no complicated words, despite the intricacy. And there were absolutely no emotions in his voice, despite the fire burning within. He couldn’t afford for anything to set Diamond haring off. Her simply killing the problem was not something that would be helpful right now.

“Why tell me?”

“So that you can help.”

“You would have already told me if that was it.”

“Diamond… I may have to ask you to kill again.” Not helpful now was not the same as not helpful.

There was silence as Diamond considered her answer and Rainbow stared at the pair in shock. “…I trust you Midnight. You’ll be my conscience, right?”

“Yes.”

“And… if it… if it lets her out…”

“She’s not even quite real yet.”

“She’s closer.”

“…What happened?”

“The colt. When I scared him straight.”

“You let her out?”

“I showed him her prison. Hoped that would let him know what was waiting for him.”

“That was incredibly dangerous.”

“Worked didn’t it?”

“…It terrifies me how much I’ve rubbed off on you.”

“I am your Shadow. I couldn’t be happier about that.”

“Uhh…” Rainbow was doing a very good Fluttershy impression, looking like she wanted to be anywhere else even as she raised her hoof. “When you guys talk about killing ponies…”

Diamond sighed and settled in to set off yet another string of nightmares she’d no doubt have to fix.

Applebloom locked eyes with her husband as they sat down in a corner of the room. “What you were sayin’ ‘bout names… Do you have one?”

The colt hesitated before shaking his head. “No.”

“Alright, who’re yer parents? We can get them to give you one.”

“I… Applebloom… I’m not… I’m not a Ponyville Foal.”

“Whatcha mean? I thought all y’all were from ‘round here.”

“We are, I…” He sighed before leaning in and whispering his parents’ names in her ear. At her shocked gasp, he pulled back and nodded. “I told you, one day. That’s all that kept me from existing.”

Applebloom stared at him for a moment. “Okay. Okay. We’ll go see ‘em then, get yer’ parents to name ya.”

“Applebloom…”

“It’ll be okay, not like they’re gonna attack their own son after all.”

“Applebloom, we don’t need to–”

“Yes we do. You need to at least let ‘em know you exist. Everypony needs family.”

“I… Thank you Applebloom.”

Author's Note

And that's that. Still have the epilogue coming, and there'll be a one-shot one the side focused on Applebloom and her husband (Who will finally get his name therein). I decided that the tonal shift is enough that that'll deserve its own story.
Once we're through that, I'm probably going to put in a bit more on Spectre Squad and try and get things moving in the past again with For Everfree, but it won't be long before we're back in Ponyville again.
Thanks for reading,
~NPP6

Epilogue - The Last Unfoal

It had been decided that the best option all around was a slumber party at Nightstone Castle. It was late in the day when the group stumbled out of said building in search of lunch. They were just down the street from Sugarcube Corner when it happened.

There was a blinding swirl of light and magic in front of them. Arcane runes and mystic symbols spun into, through, and around the nexus.

In a hollow hidden in the roots of a tree, a filly who didn’t quite exist sat up and stared in the direction of Ponyville as she felt reality twitch.

Pulling her wagon behind her down the road, Trixie paused as she sensed the major spellwork from the direction of her intended destination. Maaaybe taking an extra day or two to get to Ponyville wouldn’t be a bad idea, she wanted this visit to go better than her previous ones after all. Besides, she had been camped two days journey outside of town for a couple weeks already anyway, what would one or two more days hurt?

Zecora was nearly home after staying up all night conversing with Death. She felt the magic in the distance, shrugged, and continued into her home. If it was worth another trip to Ponyville so soon, it would probably find her anyway. If it wasn’t, it could wait until she woke up.

Death suppressed his twitch as he sensed the deep magic parting to allow something through. After a moment he decided that Midnight was probably involved and he should make himself slightly easier for the alicorn to find. He stood stiffly, worked the kinks out of his legs, and began trotting into town. Maybe he should stop by Lyra’s while he was there, see if he could give her a scare.

The TARDIS had arrived a little over half an hour ago.

Ditzy Doo had finished ranting at her husband a little over half a minute ago.

The pair were just about to kiss and make up when several alarms started going off.

“Oh, what now!?” The Doctor started fiddling with the controls and checking several things with his screwdriver and the display. “Rogue chronomancy? Odd, haven’t had that since… Wait a minute, signature match coming in, and…

“STARLIGHT GLIMMER!!!”

The light faded, revealing a filly roughly the same age as the foals in the group. She was lying on the ground, unconscious, but gently stirring. Her coat was a deep azure that was partially covered by her charcoal cloak while her mane was a pale gray.

Suddenly she sat up with a gasp, steely blue eyes flaring as she looked around. She sank in a groan as she saw the group. “I’m still here.” At the confusion she caused, she sat up again. “You don’t know who I am.”

“Nope.”

“No.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Sorry.”

The filly’s hooves covered her muzzle. “I went even further back? Great, just great. Mom’s gonna kill me when she finds out I screwed up time.”

It said something about how accustomed to strangeness this group was becoming that that was the comment that made things click. Time travelling filly from the future? Must be Saturday.

“When am I?”

“Celestial Era 1030.”

The filly sighed with relief. “Good, I’m not that much further back then. I…” She paused and gave the trio a strange look. “When did you three get new cutie marks?”

“Uh… these’re the only marks we’ve ever had.”

“What are you talking about Applebloom, your cutie mark is supposed to play counterpart to…” She broke off as she gaped at Applebloom’s husband. “You’re a blank flank.”

He bristled. “Yeah, haven’t exactly had much of a life until recently.”

“No, but… You were supposed to get your cutie mark at the end of the War of the Unfoals.”

Midnight smiled. “Okay, we’re not completely out of time on that then.”

The filly swung to face him, paling. “What do you mean, I thought you said this was 1030?”

Midnight paused. He knew that tone. A time traveler taking that tone was never good. “It is.”

“How long ago was the Unfoal War?”

“Last night.”

“What, but… You shouldn’t be free then. You’re not supposed to be free yet. How long have you been free?”

Midnight shrugged, deliberately playing diffident. “Only a couple of months.”

“A couple of…” The filly looked like she wasn’t sure whether to cry, hyperventilate, or be sick. “Founders?”

Midnight’s eyes widened slightly as he shook his head.

“Amber?”

“No.”

“Necropolis?”

“No.”

“Scootaloo?”

“Still working on it, no open conflict yet.”

“Flim Flam Brothers?”

“Applejack didn’t take my advice when they came around with a more reasonable deal. She ran them out of town and never told anypony they’d been here. Next time they showed up they were peddling a fake tonic.”

The filly winced at that. “Spectres?”

“The initiative is currently under development, only one candidate has appeared.”

“No no no no no no no! It’s all out of order! We didn’t fix anything!”

“Why don’t you tell us what’s going on?”

The filly sighed. “Guess it can’t do any more damage to the timeline, right? A few months ago, things started getting… weird, even for us. We figured out there was a problem somewhere in history, but none of our time travelers could get to it. Twilight concluded that since my generation didn’t exist way back then, she could send us back with fewer paradoxes risked.”

“How many of you were sent back?”

“Seventeen. Time caught up with the others. I'm… We identified the spell as one of Starswirl’s, but you couldn’t quite place the magic powering it. We fell back to the Tree and used the Nexus to power the shields we were using to try and fix things. It wasn’t working, so since I was already outside of time they decided to try sending me sideways through it to slow the quantum mechanics by putting me into a version of the timeline where the magic hadn’t reached the present yet. Then I woke up here.”

Midnight nodded, falling back on the things The Doctor had coached him on for situations like this. “Okay, is there anypony you can stay with in this time period? Any relatives?”

“Well, my mother, but… I’m not sure she’ll want me around.”

“We should check anyway. If it doesn’t work out, you can always stay with me at Nightstone. Who is she?”

“She’s a filly, about the same age as this lot. Her name’s Diamond Tiara.”

Midnight deliberately did not react to that. For that matter, so did several unseen observers. “I see. We’ll check with her and her parents then. Will you need help getting back to the future?”

The filly stilled. “…I watched everypony I grew up with vanish like soap bubbles in a hurricane. Between that and how different everything is… I’m not sure there’s a future for me to go back to.”

“I’m Sorry!”

Everypony turned to Starlight, who had collapsed weeping on the road.

Half an hour later, Twilight gently picked her student up and carried her back to her castle, where she tucked her into her bed and then lay down next to her, draping a wing comfortingly over the unicorn.

It would be a long time before the crying stopped.

Author's Note

And here we are folks, the end of the story.

As I mentioned, Applebloom and her husband will be starring in a one-shot titled What's in a Name? wherein Applebloom's husband will meet his parents and finally recieve his name.
Also, a large portion of the scene with Diamond's daughter didn't work in this setting and got cut, but needs to happen, so I'll be reworking it into another one-shot entitled Tempus Temporis.

After the one-shots, this part of the storyline will pick up again in My Little Pony: Civil War - or - The Battle of Eight Armies.

As always, feel free to leave a comment; question, concern, or review, and thanks for reading,
~NPP6

Prologue

Two Months Ago

There were lights in the sky over Manehatten, the center of a magical shockwave that rippled out across Equestria, trailing several effects in its wake.

In Canterlot for example, a pair of terrified palace guards sat terrified in a corner, trying to figure out how they were going to tell Princess Luna that her favorite statue had vanished from its pedestal in the garden before their very eyes.

At the same time, Fleur-de-lis awoke with a start, an image burned into her mind that she had not seen in over a decade, not since… She burst into the bedroom across the hall from her, finding Fancy already awake and staring out a window. “You felt it too.” She whispered.

“Yes.”

“What does it mean?”

“I have no idea.”

Further down their street, Jet Set was up late working. He turned at a light and sound from behind him, and found an old family coat-of-arms he had hanging across the study was glowing, magical light pouring from a dark blue jewel. Having absolutely no idea what it could mean, he shrugged and went back to work.

Across Equestria, mages and university professors began running back and forth trying to figure out how the entire country’s magical communications network had been brought down.

In a distant star system, a brown earth pony stallion, grey pegasus mare, and their younger daughter watched as the sun of the planet they were standing on gave a massive pulsing flash. The stallion turned to the other two with an irrepressible grin. “He’s back!”

On the astral plane, in the place where the stars hold council, there was quite a bit of confusion. In the midst of this confusion, two mares – a pegasus and a unicorn – stepped into the center of the council. “The Winter Star and the Star of Prophecy are here.”

“Where is your third? The leader of your little group?” Ursa Major Prime asked.

The unicorn smiled up at him. “The Wishing Star has been released.”

The pegasus spoke in the hush that followed, “Midnight Star has returned to Equestria.”

In Ponyville, as the shockwave passed, Granny Smith’s eyes widened. She glanced around quickly to make sure she was alone, and then shifted to Zap Apple. She didn’t know how she knew, she just knew. She turned to face the source of the wave and saluted. “Welcome home General.”

And, unseen, vieled amongst the other effects, there was one hidden deep in the Everfree Forest. In a clearing tucked out of sight, one that had not seen magic in almost two years. Still, the spell lingered, shaping pathways of magic like dry creek beds waiting to be filled.

And then a compatible wave of magic hit like a flash flood. The spell had never completed in the first place, not here at least, and they took some damage from the sheer force of the magical pressure. But it was enough. The pathways shaped the magical energy, forming it to its pattern.

A small black orb formed, gently dropping to the ground as it began pulsing so slowly as to be unnoticeable.

One Month Ago

Three fillies and a stallion stood at the edge of a storm, blasting it with light and shadow.

“I don’t believe this,” The purple maned alicorn filly said, “I let them leave me behind for one family get together, and this happens!”

The stallion laughed, “Get used to it Kiddo, this was what the entire Draconequi war was like!”

Another black filly, an earth pony with an ice blue mane, added her voice to the shouted conversation, “Why is the storm trying to head south?”

The stallion nodded. “Territory claims. The Crystal Heart protects more than just the Empire. The Empire itself is a barrier, an outpost that certain forces won’t go past for fear of being in enemy territory. Even when it was outside of time, the effect was on the surrounding land.”

The third filly, a unicorn older than the other two, chimed in, “Equestria has enemies to the north?”

“Yes, plenty. Frost dragons, windigoes, ice wraiths, the list goes on. The point is that they can’t advance until the storm does, which means we need to hold this line!”

Two Weeks Ago

The unicorn colt was wearing a light blue canvas windbreaker that complimented his dark blue mane and black coat nicely. He was young, about thirteen most would guess. He made his way through town to the local schoolhouse and knocked on the door.

When a fuchsia mare answered it, he looked up at her. “Are you Miss Cheerilee? My name is Night; my parents sent you a letter about me?”

Cheerilee smiled down at him. “Yes, of course. I have your enrollment paperwork all ready.” She cocked her head as she looked out across her schoolyard. “Are your parents going to be joining us?”

Night shook his head. “Dad had to stay behind to take care of some things and Mom had things she needed to do with the house and her job.”

Cheerilee shrugged. “Well, it is a bit unusual, but I suppose we can get their signatures later. I’d much rather have you learning than make sure the bureaucrats have their precious boxes checked.”

Present Day

Night walked into the cave he’d called home for the past three weeks, finally allowing his guard to drop after another day of his mission. He blinked, his eyes shifting back to their natural form as he did. He shucked his jacket, leaving it on the floor by the entrance.

The colt walked toward the back of the cave, rustling his wings to get the blood flowing in them again. The others were waiting for him, just like they always were. “Do you have anything?” The disembodied stallion in the middle asked, just as he had every day for over a week.

“Yes.” The foals on either side of the stallion reacted with visible surprise. Night couldn’t help but smirk, he had never seen the faces of his ally’s lieutenants under their cloaks, and it gave him a small thrill of pleasure to break their guard-like impassiveness. “It was difficult, as I could not sense her Night while masking my own Darkness, but I know who the Shadow Ranger is.”

“And who is she?”

Night laughed bitterly. “Do you really think I’d just give you information that valuable?”

“Do not forget who you are dealing with colt!”

“Do not forget who you are dealing with Demon. You need my help to get your vengeance just as much as I need yours to free Her.”

“…Very well. My army is ready; there are only a few left to bring through the spell. My Right Hoof and I will see to that. My Left Hoof will go with you on a final scouting mission. The two of you will then begin planning the assault, targeting all threats to our plan.”

The foal on the left stepped forward, reaching up and removing his hood as he did, revealing a tan colt with a pale blue mane.

Night covered his mild surprise with a sly smile. “So I was right, these two are different. They’re detailed.”

“Yes. These two are special. More defined, more powerful. That is why they serve me as they do. The others… many are little more than basic concepts.”

“I see… How many of them will we have?”

“Enough. As long as you fulfil your end of our bargain.”

“No need to worry Demon Blood, Starless Night always keeps his word.”

Author's Note

Alright, sequel to Shadows' Call is up.

And, before I forget again, the purple maned filly I mentioned is Nyx from Past Sins by Pen Stroke. Most of my stories will only mention that once, this one'll have this every chapter... you'll see why later.

-NPP6

Chapter 2 - Darkness in the Forest

The sun was just beginning to set in the Everfree Forest, a fact that was only peripherally noted by the two ponies walking through it. What they cognitively noticed however was the slight rustling that, despite its best efforts, only just missed being synchronized with the wind.

Midnight came to an abrupt halt. Diamond, watching him for signals, stopped a pace later as she drew up alongside him.

“We’re surrounded, aren’t we?” The filly asked.

The stallion grinned. “Most likely.”

“So what do we do?”

Midnight thought about it for a moment before loudly replying, “Well, we could try politely asking them to come out and say hello.”

There were more rustles from several points around the pair as a half dozen individuals slipped out of the undergrowth. They were black and pony-like, and interestingly all small, roughly the same size as Diamond.

“That worked?”

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it to either.”

“Changelings?”

The alicorn shook his head. “It’s possible, but not likely. No wings or horns.”

Diamond rolled her eyes. “Great. Another new enemy. What now?”

“Their move. Remember Diamond, this isn’t like the other fights you’ve been in recently. The protections the Dreamscape affords are not present here.”

“Come on, look at them, how much damage can they do?”

“Exactly how many times has the same thing been said about you again?”

“…”

Midnight smirked as he lit his horn. “Let’s try and keep things from getting violent for a little bit longer.” A glowing blue shield materialized around the pair, the bubble separating them from the… enemies? …Sure, let’s go with that.

Diamond and Midnight shifted positions so that they were facing in opposite directions, then waited for the storm to break.

The blinding light filling the throne room of Twilight’s Castle faded rapidly, revealing Featherdown standing in the center of a spell circle, flank as blank as the day she was born. The unicorn herself felt strangely drained by the experience, swaying slightly on her hooves.

She heard voices. It took her a moment to focus in on them. “…own? How do you feel?”

The unicorn smiled as she looked back at her haunches, free of Duke Holder’s taint for the first time in years. Only one word really came to mind: “Clean.”

A violet aura enveloped her as exhaustion carried her into unconsciousness.

As the last of the sunset’s dying light faded, an alicorn colt walked up next to an earth pony colt on a small knoll just outside of town. The earth pony glanced over his shoulder. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Nightmare Moon found her rescue… dissatisfying. I was forced to restrain her. It will be a few hours before she wakes up, so I felt that it might be prudent to lend my aid on this front.”

The tan colt cocked an eyebrow. “One would think that having her unconscious would be your perfect opportunity.”

The alicorn’s eyes narrowed. “Just what are you insinuating about my sister and I?”

His companion blinked. “Oh! So that’s what the obsession was about. We all thought… never mind.”

There was silence for a moment, then, “Speaking of sisters, where has yours gotten to?”

“Hah! She’s not my sister, just the only other one to come out of that spell looking like a real pony. I guess you could call her my partner, but… anyway; she’s currently taking care of something else. It seems your… Father? Brother?”

“I assume you’re referring to Midnight Star?”

“Yeah, him. Apparently he and the Ranger went into the forest; we must have tipped our hoof somewhere. Point is, she’s making sure they can’t interfere again.”

It was the alicorn’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “I wish her luck; the best have tried to kill Hope. He has this annoying tendency of coming back.”

He was answered with a shrug. “Eh, she doesn’t need to do much, just buy some time until we’re all in position. Tonight, Ponyville falls to Darkness.” A chill wind blew out across the town at that.

The Doctor froze as he felt the breeze. Centuries of experience had taught him what that feeling meant. “That doesn’t make any sense, right now…” His eyes widened. “It’s tonight… Ditzy!? Get the girls into the TARDIS, we need to go somewhen!”

Button was taking out the garbage after dinner. That was his chore on Saturdays, one he never once complained about considering that the deal he struck with his mother (a slightly quirky mare who had deliberately raised him to make bargains when he was in no real position to do so) meant that as long as he took care of this, he was free to do whatever he felt like with the rest of his day. (It would be years before he realized that the timing of the chore was such that it cut cleanly across any timeslots for Saturday night dates.)

He was on his way back to the door when a strange prickling sensation shot up his spine. He recognized it instantly. It wasn’t exactly familiar, but he had felt it before. Once. His breathing went ragged, his mouth dried out, and his lip started quivering. It was the same sensation he and most of his friends had felt the day Sweetie Bell and Nyx were foalnapped.

The colt still hadn’t quite forgiven himself for not being able to do anything to help. It was stupid, he knew that, but still… He couldn’t stop hating the fact that he’d been useless. He called on that anger now, using it to help quench the fear he felt tightening in his chest. At the same time, he raised a hoof to his lips, covering his mouth while he drew several deep breaths through his nose.

Button smiled and put on his best poker face, the one he always used while playing Uno with Pipsqueak (What? You thought he was only good at video games?), and mechanically went through the motions of washing his hooves and finishing cleaning up in the kitchen.

He then went up to his room, carefully selected a video game, cranked the volume, and waited. Sure enough, a few minutes later his mother opened his door and asked him to turn it down. He obliged, but still made sure it was plenty loud enough to be heard down the hall with the door shut. His mom left and he smiled to himself; he now had at least two hours before she would be back. He set the game so that four CPUs were fighting each other in a lengthy, drawn-out battle.

He walked over to the closet and took out a harness that he had put together for the next comic-con in Canterlot. It happened around the same time as his birthday, so his mom usually took him. Carefully, he opened his window and slipped out to climb down the ivy-covered lattice, an oversized wooden key strapped to his back.

Lily looked up as the chill blew past her. She knew that feeling, she had been raised to identify it. The last time she’d felt it, she hadn’t done anything. Her father never mentioned it in his letters, but she knew he was disappointed by that fact. She was disappointed by that fact.

She wouldn’t be letting herself, her father, or her friends down again. She had a crew to represent.

Cheerilee felt old instincts stirring as what her first combat instructor had called “The Ill Wind” rushed by. She abruptly ended her plans for a quiet dinner at a restaurant in town and went home to think heavily on the long-term safety her cover provided her town and students, and the short-term risks that preserving that cover entailed.

Silver Spoon knew what the chill in the air meant. How could she not? After all, she had been waiting for it since the last time…

She picked up and rang a small silver bell. After a moment, her family’s butler trotted out to the patio table she’d been eating at. “You rang Madame?”

“Yes. I’m finished with my meal, you can have one of the other servants collect the dishes now. Also, if you would be so good as to turn on the yard lights, I wish to use the outdoor range tonight. My night shooting needs some work.”

“Of course Ma’am. Would you like me to fetch you a bow or a crossbow?”

The filly shook her head. “Neither. I shall retrieve my crossbow from my room myself. A weapon is not a burden to be borne by servants, but a responsibility that the wielder must take themselves.”

“Very good Ma’am.”

Years of practice kept Silver from rolling her eyes at the outdated code of conduct her mother insisted everypony follow while at the house. At least it gave her the advantage of nopony ever questioning her actions.

Diamond and Midnight were still in the same spot on the trail. None of the creatures surrounding them had moved so much as an inch in the past twenty minutes.

“Is it just me, or are you starting to think that their job is just to keep us here?” Diamond muttered.

“One way to find out,” Came the whispered reply. Raising his volume, Midnight declared, “Well, seeing as you lot are quite amicable and nonviolent, you’re probably not what we came out here for. That being the case, we’ll just be on our way now, likely improving your neighborhood before sunrise.”

There was no reaction until the pair started walking. Then the things moved almost as one. They trotted up to the shield… and then went right through it. One of them spoke in an eerily monotone voice, “There is no Hope for Ponyville tonight.”

Diamond made sure to remember the word that Midnight let slip after that. She was going to look it up later, it was probably a good one.

Author's Note

So yeah, shorter chapters on this one... Shorter story on the whole most likely.
Anyway, thanks for reading, feel free to leave a comment.
~NPP6