Dark Spectrum

As I ran through the forest, trying to catch up to my friends, logic starts to seep back. I realize that we must find out a way to bring the world back to Celestia. The only problem being that we currently have no way to defeat him. Even with the elements of harmony (which I have seem to lost track of), he has untold power. Something is strange about him; no being I know of can harness that much power and still be mentally stable...

I ram into Applejack, face first, and fall to the ground. I was so deep in thought I barely realized that my friends have stopped in their tracks. I slowly stand up, and shake the mud away from my coat. Applejack does not seem bothered by the fact that I just ran into her back, and continues sitting and looking up. Looking around, I notice that my other friends are looking at the sky, confused. I look up in an attempt to understand what is going on. Looking up, I could see the shocking scene, the moon and stars faded away, disappearing into complete darkness. It was official, Canterlot has fallen, and Luna was defeated. Now, the sky is pitch black.

I quickly act to illuminate my horn, allowing us to see. We all exchange glances, none of us daring to speak. We all know what this means, it is unnecessary and demoralizing to clearly state what has happened. We continue on our way, as I lead them through the darkness that has engulfed the world.

We soon make it to Zecora’s hut, which appears deserted. There are no lights on, and the windows are covered by drapes. I proceed to walk to the door, and pound at it. I put my ear to the door, to see if I get a response. As expected, there is no answer.

“Zecora, open up, it’s me, twilight!” I say. There is no response. “Applejack, kick the door open.” I ask Applejack.

“Wait...” Applejack says, trying to interject.

“Damn it Applejack, we don’t have time for this! This is an emergency!” I yell at her. I don’t care about being kind, this is an emergency, we don’t have time to waste.

Applejack stares at me, bothered, but then acknowledges me. She understands, and walks to the door. She turns around, and bucks the door down. It collapses inward, and makes a thud on the ground. Inside I see all the bottles and containers around the room, just as I would expect. In the center of the room is a barricade of items, a cauldron, table, and chairs.

“Turn and leave, you unwanted foe, or you shall experience eternal woe!” I hear Zecora nervously say, behind the barricade of items.

“Zecora, it’s us. Come out.” Pinkie Pie says, without emotion. I don’t even want to know what is going through her mind; as she can no longer laugh in the face of our current situation. It must be driving her mad!

“Oh, its just you, my....” Zecora says, before being cut off.

“Yes, it’s us. Now, we are in need of urgent help! Celestia needs immediate medical aid, and you’re the closest thing to a healer around. Please, help us!” I say, rudely. I didn’t want to be rude, but I was too stressed out to know what exactly I was doing.

“Yes, I will help you, don’t throw a fit. Now, let me just find my first aid kit.” Zecora says calmly, walking to the back wall. At this moment, I realize something. Zecora must have a speech impediment, because now isn’t really the best time to be compulsively rhyming.

She walks over to her back wall, stepping over her barricade of tables and chairs, and opens a cabinet with her mouth. Inside is a brown silk bag, with a bunch of items inside. She grabs the bag with her mouth, the bag dangling down, slowly swaying left to right. She nods at me, with a small smile. She seems collect and calm, despite current events. I envy her. Anyways, we all exit the hut, and race to Celestia.

After a long run that seemed to go on forever, we finally get to the edge of the Everfree forest, where we see Fluttershy and Rarity talking to Celestia, trying to comfort her. I turn to Zecora, and see that she is now worried. I guess she hasn’t seen how bad this scenario really is.

She rushes over to Celestia, and takes a seat in front of her. She lets go of the bag in her mouth, and it instantly folds out to reveal a bunch of medical supplies: bandages, gauze, surgical string and needle, tons of herbs and liquids, among other things. She goes to her wound, and examines it.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood, my friend. If it wasn’t for your immortality, you would be dead.” Zecora says, making her creepiest rhyme to date.

Zecora goes to her bag, and takes out a syringe. She puts some liquid in it, and injects Celestia with it. She then goes rubbing some herb on the wound, and then stitching it up. I turn away from this, and walk over to Fluttershy and Rarity.

“How’s Celestia doing?” I ask the two.

“Well, I believe we did a good job at calming her down. We talked to her about her experiences in Canterlot, and tried to talk about anything but what is going on. She should be relaxed now.” Rarity says, calmly.

“Yeah... she is calm now...” Fluttershy says, finally talking like her old self.

“That’s good. So, how are you guys holding up?” I say.

“Well, I feel that we have had time to relax and regain our thoughts. I know things are really bad, but we can stop this.” Rarity says, calmly. This is good.

“Yeah... I guess...” Fluttershy says.

“Yeah...” I say, sadly. I look behind Rarity, and see a pile of ashes, which causes me to be sad.

“Twilight, I’m sorry for your loss, but you have to remember, Equestria is in danger. There will be time to mourn later, but there is somebody dangerous out there, who will do the same thing to other ponies. We have to stop him, before he... kills anypony else.” Rarity tells me, trying to comfort me.

“Thank you Rarity, you are a great friend.” I say. I admit, I’m sad, but Rarity is right. I’m glad to have her as a friend. And she’s right, I have to fight him. I won’t allow him to do this to anybody else.

I turn around to Zecora, and see that she has done a pretty good job. She was able to stitch up Celestia, and wrapped bandages around Celestia. The only thing that is a problem with her patching up was that her wings were bandaged also, making it impossible for her to fly. Well, at least she’s standing up. I walk up to Celestia and Zecora.

“Thank you Zecora, I am in your debt. Now, I must talk to Twilight” Celestia says to Zecora.

Zecora nods, and walks away. Afterwards, Celestia walks towards me.

“Twilight, thanks for your help. I knew I could count on you and your friends.” Celestia tells me, finally being able to act like herself.

“... What happened to your horn?” I inquire, more nervous than curious.

“I’m not sure how, but this stallion is something I don’t know about. He has the ability to nullify my, and apparently Luna’s, magic. I fear that he is too powerful.” Celestia says, starting to worry a little.

“So... what should we do?” I ask Celestia, finally gaining the courage to speak up, to say what I need to say.

“We have a lot to do.” She begins.” The first thing we should do is try to regain our bearings. Most of you seem to be doing good, but your pink friend is looking uneasy. We need all of you to be brave and strong for the task up ahead. We also need someplace to stay while we do so. Also, I need you to turn off your light spell. We need to work in the shadows if we are to defeat him.”

“Alright.” I say, dimming the light from my horn. “I think we should stay at Zecora’s hut until we are ready.

“Twilight, Celestia, you have to see this!” I hear Rainbow Dash yell behind me. We both turn around to barely see Rainbow Dash in the pitch black. “There is no time to explain, just come!” Rainbow Dash slowly flies away, and Celestia and I follow.

Rainbow Dash leads us to the rest of the group. They are all looking at something floating in the air. At first glance, I think it’s a parasprite, as it is about the same size as one. Looking closer, however, I see it has bat wings, and horns. The creature is very unsymmetrical, it’s eyes being two different sizes, along with it’s horns. Somehow, though, the thing seems cute. I look at Celestia, who looks puzzled. She obviously has never seen this creature before.

“Fluttershy, what is it?” I ask.

“I.. I don’t know. It just suddenly appeared. I’ve never seen anything like it. But... it’s so cute... It looks harmless...” Fluttershy says, with glee in her voice. She seems to have found a bit of happiness in this creature.

“Yeah, this thing is adorable!” Pinkie Pie yells. She is bouncing up and down, her mane back in a mess. She finally seems to be herself.

“My, it looks horrible and uneven, yet undeniably cute. This goes against everything I know about fashion!” Rarity says, disgusted with her appeal to the flying bat thing. It seems that this strange creature has caused my friends to finally be happy. This is good, but I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong about this.

“Wait a sec, what is it doin’?” Applejack asks. I look at the creature, and it starts shaking. It looks like it is about to throw up. Before anyone can say something, a beam of green light comes out of its eyes. It goes forwards a little ways, and then shapes itself into a flat square of light. Right before us, it starts to form shapes, and paints a picture. In it, we can see him, inside Canterlot Castle! Sitting on Celestia’s throne! I can only tell this from the background, as it is zoomed on his face. I thought it was a picture, until he started moving.

“Why, hello there, my friends. How are you holding up?” The stallion in the green light asks. It seems to be some sort of magical communication. I admit, I am confused. I wasn’t aware such a spell existed.

“What is this?!” exclaims Rainbow Dash, both confused and angry.

“Sorry, we got off on the wrong foot, didn’t we? I am Black Moon, and my associate who is bringing us this talk is Puff, one of my only two friends left in this world.” He says this with an unsettling enthusiasm. “Look, I don’t want you to ask any questions until I’m done talking, as I want to catch you up. You have been out for two weeks, which I am really surprised about. What I did to you should’ve killed you, but I guess I underestimated Celestia’s allies. Anyways, while you were taking a sweet nap, I have captured Ponyville and Canterlot, leaving tales of destruction and woe along the way. Let’s just say, Equestria is crumbling. So, Celestia, it seems I have taken everything from you. Your power, your land, and even your sister. So, how does it feel to feel my pain. Having everything you ever loved stripped away from you and you just having to sit down and watch everything burn?”

“You fiend, what have you done to my sister!” Celestia yells at Black Moon.

“Not so fast, your “majesty”. I need a question answered before I tell you. How does it feel?!” He says, starting to get a bit agitated.

“I don’t negotiate with your kind, you tell me what you did to her, or I’ll...” Celestia says, afterwards being cut off.

“You are going to do what, kill us? We died the moment you ripped everything we loved away from us! You are powerless, pathetic, and weak! What are you possibly going to do! Now answer the damn question!” Black Moon yells, changing his voice. His voice scared us all, it sounded demonic, the way it sounded. There is obviously something different about him.

Celestia looks down for a bit, and then looks back at Black Moon. “You want to know how it feels? Well guess what, I can’t tell you. You might have taken away my powers, land, and family, but I have my friends. As long as I’m with them, I will never succumb to your sick and twisted ways!” Celestia says, confidently. She is so brave, even in the face of uncertainty.

“I guess your right, your “friends” do give you power. I will have to fix that.” Black Moon says, in his normal voice. “Anyways, I think I owe you an answer about your sister.” Black Moon turns to his left. “Luna, why don’t you say hi?” Black Moon says. This statement sends a chill up my back.

The screen turns to show Luna, sitting by the throne, smiling. Her face and hooves are bloody, and blood flows down Luna’s face like tears. Her horn is missing, as if it was torn away, much like Celestia’s. She looks horrible.

“Hi!” Luna says, merrily.

“You bastard, what have you done to her!” Celestia yells, angrily.

The screen zooms out to show both Luna and Black Moon. “Well, it took some mental altering, but I finally got her to stop peeling away her own skin. However, it did leave her with a... side effect. She has an undying loyalty to me. Quite convenient, if you ask me. She makes a wonderful pet, despite her limited thinking. Oh well, you get what you get.” Black Moon says, with a devilish smirk across his face. He then pets Luna on the head, and she just smiles, like a dog. It’s disgusting.

“You... You monster!” Celestia yells, starting to cry.

“Oh, you haven’t seen the half of it, watch this.” Black Moon says. He starts to use his magic, and holds out his hoof to his side. It rips apart, blood shooting everywhere, and shapes into a thin blade. He gets up and goes over to Luna. He grabs her head with his normal hoof, and lifts her head up. He takes his blade down to the right side of her neck, and peels away the skin downwards from the top of her neck to ¼ down. The whole time, Luna continues to smile, which is the creepiest part of this. He changes his hoof back to normal, and grabs the piece of flesh. Luna’s wound continues to bleed, but she doesn’t notice. She just continues to smile. “Darling, would you do me a favor, and eat this?” Black Moon says, dangling Luna’s flesh to her face. Like a beast, she pounces on the meat, yanking it from his hoof. She lays on the ground, and grabs the piece of flesh in her mouth. She throws it in the air, and catches it in her mouth, swallowing it whole. She then proceeds to sitting back down next to the throne, smiling. Looking over, I can see Rarity throwing up.

“You’re a good girl” Black Moon says, patting her on the head. He then uses his magic to regenerate the skin on her neck, to prevent her from bleeding out. “You all have five days to take back Ponyville. If you don’t, I lose a pet. If you don’t do it in six days, I’ll use these.” He says, holding up the elements of harmony. “And then, all will be lost.

“Now wait just a gosh darn minute, them elements will only work on us ‘ere.” Applejack says, making a valid point.

Black Moon chuckles at the statement. “You obviously don’t know who my friend is. These artifacts are easily corrupted in his eyes. Soon, they will be mine. The clock is ticking, so I think you should hurry. Isn’t that right Luna.” He says. Luna nods.

Before anymore questions can be asked, the green light goes away, and the cute bat thing flies into the air, and heads to Canterlot. We are once again surrounded by darkness. We all stay silent for a while, trying to digest what happened.

“What are we waiting for?!” Pinkie Pie says. We all turn to her. She has stopped bouncing, but still seems like her old self. “We all saw what that meanie did to Luna! We can’t let him do that! Come on, lets show him what the power of friendship can do!”

None of us talk, but we all nod our heads. We know what we have to do, and that message just clarified it.

“Yeah, let’s do this thing!” Rainbow Dash exclaims.

“Yeah!” We all say, except for Fluttershy, who says something along the lines of “Well, I guess so, so, yay.”

“I’m very proud of you all.” Celestia says. “Despite the darkness that surrounds us, your friendship is allowing you to push on, and tackle the challenge ahead of you. I will join you, and together, we will lift the darkness, and vanquish this evil.”

They all exclaim their excitement. I look behind me to look for Zecora, but she disappeared. She must of left after helping Celestia. I now realize that she cannot come with us, but she will be supporting us.

We finally started marching to Ponyville, ready to face the horrors of the darkness. But even in this time of fear and uncertainty, we will be able to overcome this. I am confident that we will prevail with the power of friendship.