Come Dawn or Darkness

Another night down, three days until this festival ends. Just three more days, then everything will become that much simpler... He looked at the mirror again, his reflection wavering in and out of existence as as the portal fought against him. Three more days, then I can look into closing you more forcefully... The Lunar Festival leading up to Nightmare Night had attracted literally thousands of extra guests to the little town since the first day. As such, he had not dared to attempt anything more ambitious than holding the portal's power in check, fearful of risking all of those souls should something go wrong. Now, however, he was beginning to regret that decision.

You made the right choice. There are too many innocent lives at stake.

The reflection rippled, little waves distorting his face as he gazed into the depths of the Abyss.

Yes, yes, think of all those innocent lives... Innocent lives which will now be caught in the middle of the coming storm... A storm that you have brought on!

Another ripple, this one revealing a brief flash of the darkness beyond the mirror's surface.

Both of you have lost track of what is important here. He should not be sitting here toying with this portal or worrying about the fate of this world. Its not his and their well-being is not his responsibility. Its high time we returned to Melcazan. Surely my new body is ready by now...

Two ripples, three, then a fourth. Each followed by a voice condemning the previous one as a fool. Yet they were all silenced by a massive wave that washed across the entirety of the portal, causing the reflection to vanish all at once.

SOULS! SOULSSOULSSOULSSOULSSOULS!!! THOU ART WASTING TIME, THERE ARE SO MANY HERE, RIPE FOR THE TAKING! LET US FEAST, BROTHER! SOOOOOOOUULLLLSSSSSSSS!!!!!

A boisterous rumble of voices overpowered the monster's influence, forcing it back into the deepest reaches of his mind.

Enough! All of you, be quiet... I know what I am doing, and your constant and incessant blathering is doing nothing but hindering my own thoughts.

Opening his eyes, he gazed deeply into the mirror once more. So long as he was focusing on it, the voices were locked out. Yet whenever his mind wandered from a task, their unrelenting babbling was never far off. So he redoubled his efforts, forcing himself to think of nothing but keeping the portal contained. This will not do... Twilight is progressing with her training quickly enough that we could close the portal tonight if we both focused on it... Yet if either of us were to lose our concentration for even a moment... with so many present... No, we can't take that risk... And yet now waiting seems to be an even worse option...

It had only taken a matter of hours in this world's time for them to amass. He had plunged back into the Void only moments before going to get Fluttershy the night before, just to check on how the repairs appeared from that side. Is that why? Well you could have fooled me... From here it just looked as though you NEEDED to dive back in, as if you were in great need of another taste of that empty, lifeless plane... You were like a fish, desperately flopping about after being pulled from your pond

A surge of raged quieted the voice, sending it flickering into the depths of his consciousness. Still, it was not wrong. No matter how many times he told himself that he had only gone back to assess the damage again, a part of him knew that he had reveled in the feeling of being on that side of the portal once more. So much so, that he had gone back again after the night's festivities had finished... Only this time, what he found had sent him fleeing frantically back to the mirror, crossing back into Equestria in a dire panic.

Where he had found only emptiness a few hours prior, a terrifying sight had awaited him on his second trip through the darkness. An massive assortment of bizarre monstrosities of every shape and size surrounded the doorway, their eyes and eyeless faces shifting toward his position. The magnitude of the situation slowly sunk in as he looked beyond the first group of creatures; the force stretched on for miles, but only the first few lines were made up of the abominations that he had grown so used to facing.

Beyond them stood countless legions of bipedal creatures, armed and armored in blazing metallic attire. Some looked almost human, but most were far too large or twisted in shape. Wings sprouted from many of their backs; leathery sheets of skin supported by cruelly exposed bone. Some were of truly titanic proportions, bound and chained by the others around them. Living siege weapons... These creatures mean to invade!

There was little time for any thought beyond that as the first wave closed in around him, attempting to grab at him with horrible deformed claws. He had made it back through the gate unscathed, but his mind had been sent into a storm of turmoil. They WILL break through if I leave this gate open much longer, its just a matter of WHEN now. But if I should attempt to fully seal it while they strike at it from that side, what's preventing the entirety of this world's structure from opening under our very feet? The rift would be massive enough that they could all walk through it at once.... side by side... And anyone who survived the opening would simply be thrown into their waiting jaws or lost to the Void...

The thought of such an event had plagued the entire night. It was not until the first light of dawn began to shine forth outside that he had realized the second problem. How will we finish her training now? There's no time left on this side... They had been able to make use of the timeless nature of the Void over the past week. In only a few hours of Equestria's time, Twilight had successfully spent well over a month in the Abyss, learning everything that she could from her new teacher. But now that there was an army waiting just beyond the mirror, crossing back over with her was entirely out of the question. Between the two of us we might take out two legions, maybe three before any particularly grievous wounds are suffered... but no matter what it would ultimately end the same. One of us would be injured, the other would rush to assist, and we would both be taken, our souls devoured by whatever those creatures out there are...

Slowly, he rose from his spot in front of the mirror, his cloak swirling about his form. What comfort the garment gave was countered by the shear weight of the cloth. It had once been the living skin of some strange predator who had hunted him through the depths of the Void. No blade seemed able to pierce it, and bullets simply ricochetted off of its hide; yet light, a substance in such short supply in that dark plane, had cut it worse than any blade ever would have. When he had first put it on it attempted to resist him, fighting back against his touch and doing all that it could to strangle its new wearer. Yet now it was just as much a part of his body as any other limb or appendage.

He left the library and made his way toward the forest, the sun beginning to set over head. I should have left sooner... Hopefully she will not have been waiting for too long. Thankfully, she hadn't been; having only arrived a few minutes before he did. She stood there in the clearing they had decided upon, gazing at the oncoming dusk as the sunset began to fade behind the tree-line, her ethereal mane and tail blowing behind her on the soft autumn breeze. She spoke without turning to face him as he approached, clearly aware of his presence regardless of silence with which he walked.

"We are pleased to see the once more...We must admit we were not entirely certain thou would be accompanying us tonight." She turned to him, a small smile on her face, but the same usual sadness in her eyes.

"No? I assure you, I can think of no where I would rather be right now. Besides, I gave you my word that I would be here if you needed me... Yet it does not look to me as though you are in any desperate need of my help just now, if I may say so."

"Not for ourself, no. It is our subjects for whom we would speak with thee... Surely thou hast sensed what is approaching?"

"Worse, actually. I sensed nothing at all until I saw the coming storm with my own eyes. Now the thought of this encroaching evil haunts my mind endlessly. I cannot remember the last time I.... My lady, what is it?"

Luna's concerned and confused expression had forced him to reconsider what he had just told her. "You... You weren't talking about what's waiting beyond Twilight's little portal... were you?"

She shook her head slowly, a look of renewed terror beginning to take shape in her eyes. "We were referring to something on this side, though perhaps the two are connected. Has thou not felt it? The gate Twilight Sparkle created... it has begun to spread. We have followed its progression only briefly, only since e arrived for the first night of the festival, yet we have already discovered a weakness in the structure of our world not half a mile from Ponyville. With what that alone could mean for the town and all living within it, we are reluctant to ask, but... what is is that thou has discovered on the other side?"

He regretted every moment of the story, but he told her what he had seen nonetheless. "I could do little else but run, so I fled back through the mirror and held the gate shut against them for a few hours... It became impassable after just a few minutes, actually, but I did not want to leave it for fear that something might have snuck through. After all of that, I came straight here to speak with you."

"This... This is most troubling. We will need to inform our sister of this development at once! Perhaps she will be able to devise a solution we have not... These monsters cannot be permitted to enter... We will not allow Equestria to experience horror of that endless darkness."

It was only then that he found the courage to finally ask her the question that had been bothering him since their first meeting. "...What was your reason for opening the portal?"

The inquiry seemed to take her by surprise, her answer coming only after a long period of hesitation and thought. "We... There.....hmmm... Truthfully, our reason was no different than Twilight Sparkle's. Our sister has always been better with magic... We simply wished to show her that we could be as good as her, that we could be... more like her... Finding that spell seemed like fate... until the ritual completed..."

She did not need to say any more, Twilight had explained the history of Nightmare Night and what Princess Luna had been turned into so many centuries before. The story had hit far too close to home for his taste; seeing Luna in her current state did little to ease his own mind on the matter. She has seemed so naive and unsure of her self, but there's no denying that she has been through some truly horrifying ordeals. Her sister hides it better, but I can't imagine she is any less burdened by the past... It pained him to see that even a world that was, at least at first glance, as pure and innocent as this was not free of the terrors of the universe.

The two would speak for another hour or so, both hoping to find a bit of comfort from the approaching storm in what the other had to say. Eventually though, there was nothing left to be said, and they began their walk back to town. The third night of the Lunar Festival was now officially upon them. Nightmare Night was just two days away...