Twilight hummed quietly to herself as she slid book after book onto their respective shelves in her castle's library. The sunlight shone through the perfectly cut windows, shedding light into even the darkest corners of the room - an impressive feat, considering its size. The alicorn stretched, placing the last book onto its shelf and trotting to the window. She gripped the curtains - courtesy of Rarity - and dragged them closed across the window, blocking off the sunlight. But not before something odd caught her eye.

She opened the curtains again and looked out in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. A large black cloud was forming over the farm, blocking off all sunlight. Twilight gave one last worried glance before leaving the library and trotting down the stairs to the map room.

“Spike?” she called out, walking past the large crystal table towards the door. “Spike, where are you?”

“Over here, Twilight.” The baby dragon waved from across the room.

“I’m going out for a while, so take care of the castle while I’m gone.” Twilight told her assistant, pushing open the door.

“Okay then.” Spike sighed.

The alicorn smiled as she stepped through the door, but broke into a full gallop as the door closed behind her. At full speed, it took her just a few minutes to reach her friend’s farm. The cloud had grown considerably since she’d seen it through the window, and it seemed to be acting almost like a dust cloud, the shadows shrouding the bottom of it reaching down to the ground.

Twilight trotted up to the shadows that had reached the ground and cautiously tapped it with her hoof. They were solid. The alicorn pressed harder against the darkness, even resorting to magically bashing it, but nothing worked.

“Applejack!” she cried, banging at the dark wall as the shadows thickened. “Come on… break already!” But no matter what she did, the shadows stood steady, not moving. Finally, it created a solid black wall, devoid of colour and completely unbreakable. “Applejack!”

Applejack stretched and trotted out of the barn, ready to resume applebucking. For a while it was fine – she cleared a good percentage of the orchard before she realised something was wrong. A black cloud had formed above the farm a while ago, and the earth pony had just passed it off as a storm she’d talk to Rainbow Dash about rescheduling later.

The farmpony bucked her hindlegs against one last tree before sighing and looking up. She instantly recoiled at the sight – the cloud was slowly seeping down through the trees towards the orchard, covering the land in darkness.

Applejack forgot her applebucking and ran, ran all the way back to the farm. She reached the house, looking through the window to ensure Applebloom and Granny Smith were still safely inside, before darting towards the fence to the Everfree Forest, where her brother was working. After a moment she reached the fence, stopping by the firm wood and looking up and down for her brother. She eventually saw him and galloped towards him.

“Big Mac! Do ya’ll have any idea what’s goin’ on wi’ this cloud?” she panted, coming to a stop besides him.

“Nope.” He stated simply.

“Well, it’s coverin’ the orchard and startin’ to trap us all in!”

“Eeyup.”

“We need to stop it!” Applejack sighed, looking up at the cloud as it covered the orchard, reaching to the ground and building thick, black walls around it. "Somehow..."

Over the next hour, the shadowy cloud spread across the entirety of Ponyville, swallowing ponies as the darkness trailed across the ground. It trapped anypony who ran inside, and chased those who did not. Once you were inside there was no coming back out.

Twilight had tried to warn ponies away, evacuating around ten percent of Ponyville, until she saw Rainbow Dash’s cloud home get enveloped by the darkness and realised it was hopeless.

The alicorn had fled to her castle, where the shadow was slowing eating at one of the ‘branches’ of the treehouse-shaped building. Inside, her faithful assistant was running around in a panic, gathering books that were falling from the shelves as the shadow shook the castle..

“Spike!”

“Ah, Twilight!” Spike cried, dropping the books and hurrying to his mother figure. “W-what’s going on?”

“We need to get out of here!” Twilight panted. “There’s some weird shadow thing trying to cover the castle and it already got Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and judging by the rate it’s growing, probably Pinkie and Rarity too!”

“R-rarity?” Spike repeated sadly, spines drooping.

“I said probably, Spike.” Twilight smiled reassuringly. “And even if it has got her, we’ll save her. But we can only do that if we’re safe.”

Spike sighed. “I guess you’re right...”

“I am right, Spike. Now let’s go!”

The two fled the castle in a hurry as the darkness closed in behind them.

Applejack bit her lip as she studied the dark wall. The shadows had spread all across Ponyville, so she wasn’t just confined to the farm anymore. The wall was completely solid, despite being made of shadow. No matter how much force she applied, it just wouldn’t break! The earth pony was actually considering getting a sledgehammer from the tool shed.

“Hey, AJ!” a voice cried out from above her. Applejack looked up to see a rainbow-coloured blur land beside her. “Any idea what’s going on?”

“None at all, Rainbow.” The farmpony sighed, turning away from the wall. “You?”

“Nothing.” The flier growled. “What even is this stuff? It’s just a cloud! How is it solid?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I’m gonna break it. I looked around and all of Ponyville is covered. Some ponies escaped, but the other elements are stuck in here. Twi tried to run but wasn’t fast enough. We need to get out of here!” Rainbow ranted.

“Now, hold your horses. What makes ya think ya’ll be able to break it, anyway?” Applejack frowned.

“Uh, Sonic Rainboom, duh!” the pegasus rolled her eyes. “Nothing can withstand one of those!”

Applejack shook her head. “Won’t work. Not enough room to get speed, Sugarcube. The shadow cuts off just above Twi’s castle.”

Rainbow groaned and sat down angrily. “You’re right. Celestia damn it, you’re right!”

“Wait. Are you feelin’ okay?” Applejack mused.

“What? Why wouldn’t I be, huh?” Rainbow pouted.

“You’re suddenly soundin’ alot... tamer... than usual.”

“What’re you talking about?” the pegasus sighed.

“Like that, right there. You’re sayin’ angry things, but there’s no aggression.” Applejack frowned.

“Whatever.” The blue pony claimed, taking off into the air.

Applejack paused. “I swear if she tries-”

The farmpony was interrupted by a loud thump and a cry of pain.

“Landsake’s Rainbow...”

Rarity glared out of the window at the shadowy walls surrounding Ponyville. The cursed darkness would be horrible for her complexion, blocking out the sun like that! The unicorn turned as whimpering reached her ears. Sitting on her bed beside her, curled into the sheets, was Sweetie Belle.

“Oh, it’s okay, Sweetie... I’m sure the darkness will go away soon.” Rarity smiled down at her sister, gently stroking the filly’s mane.

“Are you s-sure?” the unicorn sniffed.

“Of course. I’ve never lied to you, have I?”

“No...”

“Exactly.”

“Thanks, sis.” The filly sat up and hugged their sister.

Rarity stared sadly at the window. “I only wish I knew what it is.”

“I wonder if Applebloom and Scootaloo are okay.” Sweetie sighed.

“I’m sure they- oh for Celestia’s sake!” Rarity exclaimed as something in the window caught her eye. Sweetie looked over to see a pink blur appearing in front of every house, screaming something at the top of its lungs and disappearing, only to reappear at the next house.

“Well, I suppose it’s good to see that Pinkie isn’t getting down about this.” Rarity mused.

“If Pinkie was upset about this, all hope would be lost.” Sweetie pointed out.

“My point exactly.” The unicorn smiled.

Fluttershy ran around her cottage, trying to comfort every animal at once as they panicked. Just moments ago a giant wall of shadow had swallowed the house, sending the critters inside into a frenzy.

“Now, please, will everyone just calm down?” the timid pegasus asked hopefully. She gasped and ducked as a book sailed over her head before turning back to her animal friends. “Everybody calm down now!”

The creatures settled immediately, surprised at the pony’s outburst.

“Good. Now, I’m sorry for shouting but you all need to stay calm.” Fluttershy insisted. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I can’t find out if you’re all breaking everything.”

The animals dipped their heads apologetically.

Fluttershy smiled. “It’s okay. Now, please let me through so we can look outside.”

The creatures instantly protested, worried about their friend.

“Hush now, I’ll be f-fine.” The pegasus told them worriedly.

Angel suddenly jumped up the pony’s hooves, shaking his head determinedly.

“Angel, I know you’re worried but-” Fluttershy was cut off by Angel pushing her backwards, surprising her yet again with his oddly large strength.

“Angel, please...”

The bunny shook his head and pushed his owner again.

“Oh fine.” The pegasus sighed, following the bunny up to her room.

Deep in the forest, a spring began to glow gold. A golden figure rose from the water, in the shape of a large pony. The figure walked around the edges of the spring, still upset that they could not leave the banks. They looked up and were shocked to see a large wall of Twilight before them. The golden figure nodded before retreating into the water.

Author's Note