Author's Note

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never heard anyone speak of gods in the show... Thus, I'm just going to assume that the ponies don't even have gods, and that princess Celestia and Luna are the next closest thing.

Shadow in the night

"Oh ho ho!" Sanguis cheered and clapped his hands in amusement. "Now this just got a whole lot more interesting!" Chuckling quietly, he kept speaking with a satisfied grin on his face. "Am I to actually believe that you ponies are capable controlling the very time of day in your land?"

"Yes," Twilight confirmed and nodded. "Well, not us personally, but we know two individuals who can."

Baffled by such a claim, Sanguis flinched into a straight, towering position and arched his eyebrow. "So you know someone with godlike abilities, and yet you're still asking for my help in an oncoming war?"

Too embarrassed to admit it, Twilight hesitated to confess that she had no clue about the meaning of one of the words Sanguis had just said. "Uhm... Pardon me for asking, but what was that strange word you just used? Gaad-like."

Strange... Sanguis thought to himself. I actually took her for a clever one. "Godlike simply means worthy of a god," he nonchalantly clarified and watched as the faces of the ponies still didn't light up with clarity. "Curious..." he whispered. "If they're not gods, then what are they? These, "two individuals" who can control the time of day."

"They're princesses, of course," Twilight told him the seemingly obvious answer. "What's a god anyways?"

Princesses... Sanguis repeated in his thoughts, nearly bursting into laughter. This just keeps getting better and better. "Never mind." He avoided the question. "Let's assume for a moment that you really do know two individuals capable of controlling the time of day... If so, then, one -- Can't they help you in this war of yours if they're really as powerful as you say?"

"I'm afraid not," Twilight regrettably admitted. "Most of our kind's strength lies in our ability to use magic, but these giants we're facing seem to be completely immune to any spell we throw at them."

"Interesting..." the shadow replied and began rubbing its chin. "Well, I'll certainly be in for a fun ride if I happen to end up being the one standing against them... Very well, on to the next question... I can only assume that these princesses of yours are at the very top of your important individual list here in your homeland... Am I to trust you on your word when you say that they would just agree to turn the day into night simply because you asked nicely?"

"They won't like it..." the purple princess admitted. "But they'll agree... After all, this is their home as well."

"A fair point." Sanguis smiled and nodded. "Hmm..." He started rubbing his chin and pondering on the deal whilst aimlessly walking forward and backward in a small area. "This is indeed, a worthy offer... The freedom to roam around your land as I see fit, and when I see fit, and all I have to do in return is drive away some horde of stone giants..." Finally stopping and releasing his chin, he chuckled and clapped his hands together. "Very well, my dearies... Over these last few minutes that we've spent chatting, you've aroused my interest, vigorously... If it is within my power, then I shall rid your lands of these enemies... Quite frankly, I've nothing to lose from this agreement."

"Don't get too cocky there, partner," Applejack stepped in. "You ain't even seen these "nomads" yet... How can we even know that you won't just show up and run away at the first sight of em?" she inquired in a somewhat unfriendly tone.

"You can't," he cheerfully admitted and laughed. "But what other choice do you have? Bwa ha ha ha ha!" He kept laughing up until the moment he dashed back to his spot up in the tree and made himself comfortable.

"Why, of all the--"

Before Applejack could say something she'd regret, Twilight raised her foreleg in front of her, blocking her from advancing. "Not the time, Applejack." She lowered her hoof. Despite her friend's sulky expression, she held back any further comments. "So... Is that it?" Twilight curiously asked. "The deal is on? No additional assurance that either party will hold up their end of the bargain?"

"Well, I already know that you will hold yours," he slyly replied, making most of the ponies deadpan. "As for me... Well, you know, my mind can sometimes be a mystery even to myself... Maybe I'll show up, maybe I won't... I guess you'll just have to take a chance," he nonchalantly added and began whistling a cheerful tone, acting as though he was already alone again.

"Then I suppose that's that..." Twilight quietly answered. "Hope to see you again soon... I guess..."

As saddening as it was, the ponies were forced to accept the deal as it was. Looking upon one another with deep frowns, they began to slowly make their way back to the princesses to deliver the not-so-good news... As they dragged themselves forward with their heads hanging so low they almost brushed against the ground on their every step, Sanguis couldn't help but pity them.

"Bah!" he uttered, immediately catching their attention. "For the love of god-- err... princess... Show a little spirit, would you? You look like you're going to your own funeral, for Christ's sake!"

"Uhm... We kinda are, probably," Rainbow Dash replied.

"Grr!" Sanguis facepalmed himself. "Must I honestly stoop so low as to make formal declarations and promises!?" he retorted. "I will be there as soon as you start the endless night, and I will reduce those walking boulders to a pile of rubble! Just... For pete's sake, keep your chin up! Would you? Your faces are longer than my lifespan!" he blurted out, only later realizing that he's talking to actual horses. "Erm... No pun intended."

While it may have been wrong to say that his statement made their hearts fill up with joy, it did still manage to make them lighten up... Twilight even giggled before replying.

"Sorry... Given our circumstances, it's not exactly easy to stay cheerful... To be honest, I'm actually rather surprised about your way of managing to stay so relaxed considering you might just be going to your own doom."

"He he he," he laughed quietly. "Once you've lived for as long as I have, even a chance to just die epically may seem like fun."

"That's... an interesting way of seeing things."

"Well, I do strive to keep things interesting in my life," he said with a sly smile on his face. "Bring the night, Twilight Sparkle, and the shadow will come by itself," he declared as he got back into a more comfortable position. "For all it's worth, this much I can promise you."

"It's worth more to us than you know... Thank you." Closing her eyes and nodding sincerely, Twilight and her friends now made their way back home with their heads no longer bowed.

"Don't mention it," Sanguis muttered. A good moment later, after the ponies had already left the vicinity, he whispered one more word to himself in a somewhat disgruntled tone, "Mortals... Pfeh!"

***

On the next day...

As the new day's sun reached its highest point, the ponies gathered near the borders of Canterlot to watch and wait for their enemies to arrive.

The air was still and silent, and tension tore away at everypony's heart all the while... Before long, the first stone giant became visible on the horizon.

"There!" a scout exclaimed.

"It's time," Twilight declared.

"Are you sure about this?" Celestia asked, sounding rather troubled.

"No," Twilight quickly replied in about the same kind of tone.

Despite the negative answer, the other princess knew what had to be done. Replying to Twilight with a saddened nod, she then turned to her sister who had been wearing an unforgiving gaze since the moment they left Canterlot. "Are you ready?" she asked, sounding almost frightened.

"I would not be here if I was not," Luna replied firmly, her tone devoid of any emotions, but no matter how hard she tried to hide her emotions, they were still evident to all around here.

"Luna... I--"

"Save me your apologies, Twilight Sparkle," Luna ordered. "My quarrel is with these nomads, not any of you." She closed her eyes for a moment to hide the pain in her eyes. "We all make mistakes, and I've long since gotten used to some of the more demeaning ironies of life." She opened her eyes again and took a few steps closer to the fray, her gaze now being even less pleasant to look at than before. "Let us just be done with this already," she told her sister whilst retaining her grim expression.

Saddened by her own sister's pain, Celestia winced and closed her eyes for a short moment, and once she opened them again, the look on her face had become the same as that of Luna's. Nodding at one another solemnly, the two sisters spread their wings and started slowly ascending, and the higher they rose, the darker it got. Before long, the moon was the only source of light in the area.

"It is done," Celestia announced as she and Luna reached the ground again. With an expression full of pain and hatred, she got back in line with the rest of the ponies that were watching the nomads approaching. "Let us hope that this shadow of yours doesn't disappoint."

One large step after another, the giants drew closer and closer to their city. As their steps became louder, the ponies started trembling, and as they got close enough for the impact of their marching to be felt throughout the land, the ponies started losing what ever was still left of their hope.

"Where is he!?" Rainbow Dash asked with both fear and anger present in her tone.

Stopping just a few steps away from the line of defenders, the nomad leader looked to the sky before addressing the ponies. "Hah! Is that the best you could come up with?" He laughed. "Was this really your final effort at stopping us?"

"Actually, no," a voice answered from the shadows. Everyone looked in the direction it was coming from, but nobody saw a thing. "That would be me," the living shadow added, opening its eyes and thus making itself visible.

Pausing for a moment before saying anything, the leader of the nomads started laughing. "Oh, my, I'm shaking! Ha ha!" He mocked the shadow. "So you called for the night so one of you could become invisible... So, what? Were you planning on backstabbing us while we're busy reducing your city to dust?"

"Who said anything about becoming invisible?" Sanguis asked. "I was actually hoping for a fair fight... No smoke and mirrors or anything of the sort."

"Bwa ha ha!" the giant leader laughed. "Well, now. Aren't we cocky? Am I really to assume that you're just going to stand there as I bash you into the ground?"

"You're certainly welcome to try," Sanguis answered with a satisfied grin on his face. "Go ahead... Take your best shot."

The leader of the giants wasn't the brightest sort, but even if he suspected that this small shadow had some kind of trick up his sleeve, his pride wouldn't let him show fear or uncertainty at a moment like this. "Well, who am I to deny someone with a death wish?" Raising his fist up in the air, he sent it crashing down right at where the two red eyes were located.

Twilight watched the sight anxiously. She was sure Sanguis would move before the giant got to strike, but all he did was turn his head towards her and wink at her before disappearing under the giant's fist.

As the giant's hand collided with the earth, it made such a strong impact that it even made some of the ponies standing in the front-lines fall down on their backs. Utterly shocked to see that Sanguis didn't even flinch, the ponies stared in sheer shock as they waited for the giant to remove his fist... Alas, the moment he did so, all their hopes got erased as they witnessed the massive dent that the giant left in the earth, and in its center, a pile of ashes, which could have only been what remained of Sanguis.

Still flat on her back from the blast against the ground in front of her, Twilight kept her mouth open without breathing a word, as did the majority of the ponies around her... There just wasn't anything to say... Hope was gone, and their end at the hands of the giants was now certain...

A lot of good he did us, some of the ponies thought. The last resort of the ponies ended up being nothing but a massive embarrassment to Equestria.

In front of her eyes, time slowed down for Twilight as she watched everything around her... In front of her, the leader of the giants reveling in his guaranteed victory. Behind her, her own friends who looked no less shocked than herself, as well as hundreds of ponies who had already begun to tuck their tails in panic, and most importantly, those blasted ashes of their "hero" as she nearly called Sanguis. Part of her wanted to cry, but another part just wanted to blast what was left of him as his ashes kept on sailing through the sky...

Wait... What!? Twilight suddenly jumped up as she realized something that made absolutely no sense... There wasn't so much as speck of wind in the air that day. All of the weather was cancelled for that day and not a single pegasus was up working the sky that day... but then, how could the ashes of Sanguis possibly be floating through the air? More importantly, how are they sticking together so well, rather than just being scattered across the land?

"Bwaha ha ha ha ha!" the nomad laughed. "Pathetic doesn't even scratch the surface of this event! You pitiful creatures are absolutely hilarious!"

Ignoring the giant's moment of pride, Twilight kept watching the ashes all the way up to the point where they flew up to the head of the giant and then just mysteriously vanished.

"You miserable swine deserve to be put out of your misery!" the giant screamed. "You should be thanking us! We will make sure that your lands are from here on kept and maintained by a race that is actually worthy of-- Ah, I see." The giant suddenly switched its tone drastically, confusing everyone around it. "What in the... How--" Before the giant could say another word, it started shaking and making strange movements while even stranger noises started coming from its mouth. After a few moments of the same kind of behavior, the giant just seemingly... shut itself down?

Everyone kept staring with utterly bewildered expressions as the giant just sort of started resembling someone who was trying to catch his breath after straining himself for too long, only it wasn't moving or speaking at all.

"Aaaaaah!" a scream echoed through the sky.

Following the direction of the scream, the ponies saw a strange humanoid creature with light-blue skin falling from the sky. As it came closer to the ground, it became clear that he wasn't falling, but was instead being carried by the shadow they had thought to be deceased. Landing on the ground in front of the ponies, Sanguis tossed the creature that was hardly more than half his size towards the ponies, making it land right in front of Twilight's hooves.

Stepping back to free up some room for the creature, Twilight stared at it for a brief moment as it raised its head and started staring at her with a sheepish grin, afterwards turning to Sanguis for some answers. "W-wh-wha... How..."

"Turns out these "Nomads" of yours are nothing but a bunch of robots with weirdos like this one controlling them," Sanguis explained without waiting for Twilight to find the right words to ask.

"E he he..." the creature laughed sheepishly and then gulped nervously. "I, uhh... We..."

"Not so tough when talking to someone your own size, eh?" Sanguis made fun of him.

"Hold your tongue, fiend!" the nomad snapped back at him. "You forget that I still command a whole army! Your dirty shadow tricks may have worked on me, but--"

Not waiting for him to finish, Sanguis vanished from sight, leaving only his signature trail of red and black smoke behind himself.

Moving miraculously fast, the smoke trail quickly reached the nearest still-active stone giant and began climbing it. The giant barely even managed to react before the trail reached its head, instantly shattering the large stone on top of it into dozens of smaller stones and sending the pilot flying right out of it while screaming in terror.

Hardly had the other giants realized what had just happened before the trail reached them, as well. One by one, the heads of the giants got popped open like balloons, and before long, the nomad leader's army was laid down next to him without their giant robot shells to protect them anymore.

"You were saying?" Sanguis playfully said to the nomad leader with a cocky victory grin covering his face.

Odd how just minutes ago, hope seemed like a myth to the ponies, but now, just mere minutes after Sanguis got turned into ashes, victory was already theirs... Ponies and nomads alike kept staring at the shadow with both their eyes and mouths wide open from sheer shock and awe.

"Who... W-what are you?" the nomad leader asked in a trembling voice.

"Just a shadow of my former self," Sanguis happily admitted and gave a friendly pat on the cheek to the nomad leader. "Now... on to a more serious matter." He turned towards Twilight and her friends. "What do you want done with these savages?"

"I'll give you savages, you--"

"Hush, Caerulus!" a lesser nomad told their leader. "This is not the time to show pride and stubbornness." He knelt down on one knee, as did the rest of the pack behind him. "This is a time to admit defeat..." Raising his head, he turned towards the victors. "We are fully at your mercy, brave warriors."

"Well, well, well..." Sanguis uttered, somewhat impressed by such a humble attitude from one who was just towering over him by nearly half a mile. "Your leader could certainly learn a thing or two from you... Perhaps a change of rulers is in order?"

"Grr!" Caerulus gritted his teeth at the shadow. "They'd be nothing without me! I was the only one who took initiative and got them to where they are today!"

"Which is where?" Sanguis asked, retaining his satisfied grin.

Realizing his poor choice of words, the nomad leader just crossed his arms and maintained his sulky attitude. "Enjoy your victory while it lasts, you filth... Say your terms, if you even have any, but I will never bow," he told Sanguis and glared at him viciously.

"Fair enough," the hero of the day nonchalantly admitted. "Quite frankly, that means I won't have to strain myself by looking downwards every time I have to address you." He chuckled, only forcing Caerulus' stare to become even more deadly. "Now, then... Where were we?" He turned back towards the ponies. "Ah, yes. I believe you were about to decide what to do with these fine fellows."

Seeings how Twilight and her friends were the ones who secured the aid of this unlikely hero, Celestia and Luna nodded in agreement that it should be them that get to decide how to proceed.

Twilight was still busy being rather dazed by Sanguis' display of power the first time he asked the question, but during his little moment of reveling in his victory, Twilight regained most of her senses... Even though she still couldn't help but get chills every time she remembered just how powerful their ally really was... Thank Celestia he's on our side, was about the only thing she could tell herself at the moment.

Donning a gaze full of hatred, Twilight raised her hoof, ready to have the nomads locked away in Tartarus for good, but somehow she managed to hold back her anger. Exhaling loudly and calming herself, Twilight addressed Sanguis, "You should be the one to decide their fate," she declared.

"Me?" he asked, surprised by this decision. "My lady, you honor me beyond words." He bowed before Twilight. "Very well," he said as he faced the nomads again. "Hmm... What, oh what should I do with the lot of you?" He began rubbing his chin. "Aha!" He snapped his fingers. "You know... I think I'll just go ahead and take a page from the book of these lovely and peaceful little creatures that you were just trying to eradicate."

A bit nervous at first, the nomads were now confused by what had the shadow meant by such a statement.

"You are free to go," Sanguis said nonchalantly and crossed his hands behind his back. "Leave this land and never return..." Dropping his friendly manner for a moment, he ignited the fires in his eyes and revealed his sharp teeth as he added two more words, "Or else!" He then quickly turned back to his friendly tone again. "Have a nice day!"

Bowing their heads, the nomads rose up and made their way out of their lands.

"Thank you," one of them whispered before leaving.

The leader, however, only gritted his teeth and muttered something unintelligible as he turned his back on them.

"That's it?" Rainbow Dash suddenly asked, disappointed by such an outcome. "You're just going to--"

Before she could finish, Sanguis grabbed Caerulus by his right shoulder and turned him towards himself. "Oh, and one more thing, just to be sure you don't forget."

"Get your filthy paws o--" were the last words of the proud nomad leader.

Not waiting for Caerulus to finish, Sanguis grabbed him by both shoulders and let out a demonic shriek as he sank his fangs deep into his neck.

Instantly widening both their eyes and mouths, both the ponies and the nomads stepped back and watched the sight in terror... The nomad leader started shaking erratically and vigorously and moaning in pain, whilst the shadow let out beastly sounds that only inspired even more fear in those around it.

As the event continued, Caerulus' body seemed to begin to lose mass... It seemed as though his lifeblood and energy was being transferred to Sanguis as lines of blood-red energy started coursing through his body.

Finally, it stopped, and instead of their proud and stubborn leader, Sanguis was now holding a deflated balloon with Caerulus' face on it. He tossed the drained leader towards the nomads. Sounds of bones colliding with one another were heard as the remains of the body dropped and changed shape.

Still terrified by the sight, the nomads kept their gaze fixed on their deceased leader for a moment longer before turning back to Sanguis, who was now wearing a look more demonic than ever.

"That shall be your fate should any of you ever again be seen even close to these lands!" the demon screamed, its eyes burning like wildfire. "Leave, now! Before I change my mind!"

Not requiring any repeated explanations, the nomads ran as though a demon by the name of "Sanguis" was on their tail.

After they were gone from their sight, Sanguis ditched his demonic state and turned back towards the ponies with a friendly smile on his face, but despite it, all of the ponies were leaning away from him as far as they could without falling on their backs, all whilst keeping their nervous stares fixed directly on him.

"Oookay..." Rainbow Dash slowly uttered. "Not what I would have suggested, but I think they got the picture."

"You think?" Sanguis asked. "Perhaps I should go grab another one, just in case..."

"Umm... No... That's quite alright," Twilight insisted.

"Have it your way," Sanguis replied and took a few steps away from them. Looking up to the darkened skies, he took in a very deep breath. As he let the air out, it was clear that he was thoroughly pleased with his surroundings. "Aaah, now this is my kind of place to be in..." He chuckled. "I really did hit the jackpot with that last rift, it seems."

"Huh?" Twilight uttered. "What do you--"

"Have fun adapting to your new home, my lovelies." Sanguis took a deep and graceful bow before the ponies. "I know I will."

"Wait!" Twilight exclaimed, but it was already too late...

Just as suddenly as their hero had arrived, he vanished, leaving so many questions still unanswered...

And so, even though victory was theirs, the ponies still wanted to frown...

Seems rather ironic how just a few years ago, Twilight and her friends gave it their all to prevent the eternal night...

Who knows? Maybe it's not as bad as they had thought... Or perhaps this just wasn't the kind of price they were willing to pay...

And by the gods, look at the mess Sanguis left behind himself! It looks like a quarry over here!