“AJ, stop it.” Rainbow pouted as the farmpony tended to her wing.

“I warned ya, Sugarcube. Ya did it anyway and hurt yourself. I gotta feel some responsibility.” Applejack explained, tying off the bandage.

The pegasus frowned as she stood up, stretching her other wing grumpily. “Yeah, but now I can’t even open my wing!”

Applejack shook her head. “Good! Now ya can’t hurt it anymore.”

“Whatever.” Rainbow sighed, pushing open the door to the barn. The pegasus suddenly jumped back in fright as a large black bug, glowing gold, scurried inside.

“What in tarnation?” Applejack exclaimed as the bug scuttled around the barn, sparking with golden energy.

“What kind of bug is that?” Rainbow gasped.

“I don’t know, but we better get rid of it.” The earth pony stepped towards the bug, which stopped as she drew near.

Rainbow stared at Applejack. “You think you can squish it?”

“Maybe not but it’s worth a try.” Taking a deep breath, Applejack reared up before bringing her hooves down on the bug. Not only was the bug hard as rocks, but the energy sparking around the bug suddenly shot up her legs, sending the farmpony reeling.

“AJ, you okay?” Rainbow asked worriedly.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine… just a lil’ shock, s’all.” The earth pony panted.

The pegasus launched at the bug angrily, only to bounce harmlessly off of it, mane sparking. “What is that thing?” she cried.

In the woods, the golden figure emerged from their spring. Sitting at the banks was another figure, just a little bigger than a pony. The golden pony nodded to the smaller, dark figure, sending an orb of golden light towards them, before retreating to the water. A smaller creature appeared beside the dark figure and giggled as they fled the spring, the dark figure seemingly absorbing the golden orb.

Twilight cried out in anger as yet another spell failed. “Every single one!” she ranted. “Every single spell in this book has failed!”

“Twilight, are you sure you’re okay?” Spike asked worriedly.

“Fine!” the alicorn lied, mane hairs springing out of place.

“You don’t look it.” The dragon muttered, shelving another fallen book.

Twilight groaned and face-planted the windowsill. “I’d get closer to the wall, that could work, but those… bug… things are blocking the way!”

“What are those bugs, anyway?”

“I don’t know!”

“Um, Twilight? Why don’t we just take a break… and try again later?”

The alicorn sighed. “Okay.”

“You’re definitely not okay. You usually don’t give up that easily.” Spike worried as Twilight sat down beside him.

“It’s this… shadow… stuff. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know how to break and I don’t know what these bugs are! It’s just…” Twilight sighed. “Really annoying and tiring…”

“It’s okay, Twilight. You’ll figure something out – you always do!” Spike assured her.

“I hope you’re right, Spike.”

The dark figure growled with annoyance as they wound around another tree. The smaller creature snapped their fingers and a map appeared before the dark figure, dotted with white lights. The dark figure nodded and the map disappeared. With that the two took off, disappearing into the trees again.

“Oh, I wish Twilight would hurry and get rid of those walls already. They’re blocking out the sun and those horrid bugs are running around now!” Rarity whined, glaring out of the window at the bugs scuttling along outside her boutique.

“I hope so too. I have to go see if the other crusaders are okay!” Sweetie insisted. “I-I d-don’t know what I’d d-do if they g-got hurt!”

“Oh, Sweetie Belle…” Rarity sighed softly, embracing her sister again. “I’m sure that Twilight will get rid of these walls, get the sun back, and then you can go straight to the clubhouse to see Applebloom, and then you two can go find Scootaloo, okay?”

Sweetie nodded thankfully.

“Okay, now we need to go make sure all the doors and windows are locked so that those bugs don’t get in, alright?”

“O-okay.” The filly sniffed, pulling out of the hug.

The two unicorns trotted out of the room and down the stairs to Rarity’s styling room. A window was hanging open, quickly snapped shut by Rarity’s magic. The white unicorn locked the window, tested its durability, and left the room again, this time heading for the main room, where all her dress designs were.

Sweetie was fiddling with another window, attempting to lock it. Rarity trotted over to the door to check if it was locked. The door swung open easily. Rarity sighed and closed the door with her magic. But not before a large, black, glowing bug scurried inside.

“Sweetie, look out!” the unicorn gasped as the bug scuttled towards her.

The filly let out an ‘eep’ and retreated to the stairs, terrified. The bug scuttled along the floor and stopped beside one of the dresses.

Breathing deeply, Rarity began sidling around the wall, flinching whenever the bug moved. She had to resist the urge to lunge at the creature as they came to rest atop one of the mannequins, instead finishing the trek around the room and fleeing up the stairs.

At the edge of the village, the dark figure emerged from the forest, growling up at the wall of Twilight before it. The smaller creature floated forwards and through the wall, and the dark figure braced themselves. A giant, dark orange hand shot out of the darkness, wrapping around the figure and dragging them through the wall.

Twilight gasped as the wall rippled with an odd light, jumping up and staring out of the window. Something was coming through the wall. But she couldn’t see it. Dust flew up by the edge of the wall, showing that something had just dropped there. How had it gotten through the wall? And what was it?

The alicorn bit her lip nervously. She wanted to go see what it was, but she couldn’t risk letting those bugs get inside! She settled for watching out of the window and using her magic to see further as dust flew up behind the invisible figure.

Rarity paced across the room, frustrated. Her sister lay back on the bed, breathing heavily. The larger unicorn once again glanced through the window, only to see clouds of dust being pushed up by… nothing.

Confused, the fashionista looked out of the window at the dust clouds, which abruptly disappeared. It was hard to make out much in the darkness. Maybe whatever is was just had a really dark coat?

The dust kicked up again, aiming for the boutique, and just moments later Rarity heard the door downstairs burst open.

“Sweetie, stay here.” Rarity instructed firmly, leaving the room and shakily descending the stairs. In the main room, the bug was running around madly as the table was kicked out of the way by something invisible.

The unicorn backed away as the bug scuttled by her hooves, feeling a rush of air as the invisible creature darted past.

“What is going on here?” she exclaimed as the bug scurried towards one of her designs. “Oh, w-wait, no!”

But it was too late. The invisible monster leapt at the mannequin, destroying the bug but also ripping a horrid tear along the side of the dress.

“NO!” she screamed, running towards the ruined outfit. It took only a second to realise the dress was doomed, and the unicorn turned angrily to where the monster had (presumably) landed.

There was a bark and the door opened once again, closing on itself and leaving the distraught unicorn behind.

Applejack panted heavily, glaring at the bug as her legs twitched slightly.

“What… is this thing?” Rainbow growled, backing away.

“I don’t know, but it’s obviously dangerous!” the farmpony sighed.

“We have to get rid of it.” Rainbow stated angrily.

There was a creak as the barn door opened. The two ponies whipped round to see… nothing. Hay shifted across the ground as something invisible moved into the barn. The bug suddenly began scurrying away in fear.

“Hello?” Applejack called out cautiously.

“Who’s there?” Rainbow snorted angrily.

Whatever the invisible creature was, it ignored them, kicking up hay as they chased the bug. Within seconds the bug was dead, shrivelling on the ground and bursting into light. There was a bark and the door closed again, leaving the two ponies dumbstruck.

The dark figure stretched before taking off again, heaving towards the small cottage by the forest, where the last insect was hiding. The smaller creature atop his back muttered something in a weird language, lazing back and laying atop the dark figure. The figure rolled their eyes and put on a burst of speed, shaking the smaller creature to attention. The creature garbled something else as the dark figure slowed to a halt beside the cottage. The dark figure growled as they forced the door open, pushing against the lock with surprising strength.

Author's Note

What is this mysterious dark figure? Will the poor ponies ever know? And what is this strange shadow trapping Ponyville?