2 – Appearances, Disappearances
There was a crack through the sunset air of Ponyville.
Twilight jerked, the quill drawing a ragged line across the parchment. "What in Equestria?"
As if in response, Princess Luna's amplified voice resounded throughout the castle. "Twilight Sparkle! Where art thou!"
Twilight gave a concerned glance towards Spike before answering, "I'm in the main hall!"
Luna appeared instantly with another sharp crack and a concussion of wind, her hooves braced against a crystal chair and wings splayed as if to stop herself. "Twilight," she said, "thou must come with me to the Castle Everfree at once. I must see the room where thy friends vanished."
Twilight gaped. "P-princess Luna? How did you get here so quickly?"
"There is no time! The night is upon us. Take us to the castle now!"
"Of course…" Twilight flexed her own wings in preparation.
"Time is of the essence. Take us Between."
Twilight blinked. "Between? Between what?"
"Thou must teleport us!"
"Oh. Right."
"We slept in this room, Princess."
Luna swept into the room quickly, eyes and ears darting. "Thou art certain?"
"Applejack," Twilight said, pointing, "me, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Spike."
Looking up, Luna asked, "And this spectre thy friend Rainbow Dash spoke of?"
"Uh... she didn't say. One of the halls, I think."
"One of the decayed walls? Where there be gaps in the masonry?"
"I…" Twilight frowned in thought. "I just don't know, Princess."
Luna paced, agitated, then lit her horn and froze.
"Princess?" Twilight ventured.
"Silence." Luna's voice was ice. She stood immobile for several breaths. Her horn lit and dimmed several times. Scarcely more than a whisper, she muttered, "Such malice…"
Abruptly, Luna turned. "Twilight, take us—" she stopped herself. "Twilight, didst thou have difficulty in the journey here?"
Twilight again messed up her face in thought. "Maybe a little? I've never had to teleport an alicorn with me before."
"That was not I hindering thee, Twilight." Luna quickly made for the exit, her wing scooping Twilight and pushing her alongside. "I fear thou wert correct. The barriers between this realm and… another… are most thin. Thy friends Rarity and Fluttershy have been taken."
"Princess, why are we running?"
"It is the light, Twilight. The sun is setting. Stay out of the light Twilight, whatever befall."
As Luna spoke, the last rays of the sun retreated behind the treetops.
"The hour has come—the night of the solstice has arrived, and I must do my duty…" Luna's horn lit. "The moon must rise, Twilight Sparkle, and I fear what will follow. Stay out of the light."
The pale disk of the moon cleared the horizon, its glow all but smothering the stars that had begun to glitter behind the few clouds in the sky.
"Now we run."
Their breaths were ragged. They glided between trees, their wings aiding them when able, but the path through the Everfree was long and twisting.
"The trees and clouds shelter the land yet," Luna said. "Their shadows protect us from what has become of them. Ponyville must be warned."
"Princess," Twilight said, "Who is them? Warned about what? You're much faster than me, why don't you go ahead?"
"The Nethe. The… spirits, as thy fable described. They have changed. This night is not safe." She paused, helping Twilight through a hairpin turn. "And I would never leave thee behind, Twilight Sparkle."
Something brushed Twilight's face. She gasped, stumbling, and turned to see what it had been. A bug or spider, perhaps? Luna skidded in the snow to stop reflexively.
There, floating behind them in their wake was a strange creature, perhaps twice the size of a parasprite. It has a small dot for a head with what appeared to be pupilless eyes, its body a small stem flaring towards the ground. Twilight took a step forward for inspection, but Luna held her back.
"No closer, Twilight."
"Is it… dangerous?"
Luna watched it guardedly. "Perhaps. In this form, it is most innocuous, though the scratch on thy cheek suggests caution is to be taken. However, in the light of moon…"
Twilight pointed to a spot of light on Luna's neck. "Like, there?"
Time stood still as a glowing filament appeared in the ray of moonlight, inches from Luna's withers, hovering like a wisp of silk. The creature's head twisted slightly to the side, as if puzzling. Luna's mouth opened as if to speak.
Then, with a sound like a sharp exhale, Luna vanished.
Twilight gawped, staring where Luna had just stood. The gossamer tendril continued to drift, almost careless. The small mote of a creature drifted closer. Around Twilight, several more curls of light flowed into being, like smoke blown into a projector's beam.
With a yelp, Twilight turned and ran, not looking back.
The air above Ponyville was filled with phantoms.
Twilight stood panting at the edge of Everfree, shaded from the bright low moon by the trees, peering out at the town. Hovering in the sky, the faintly glowing gossamer nebulae of the Nethe drifted as if on a breeze. Her own castle glowed with a magical radiance, filling her with hope. The light filled the immediate area, the glow reducing the wisps of the spirits into nonexistence.
"Celesta," Twilight breathed.
No sooner had the word left her lips than a brilliant light flared from the castle spire.
"TWILIGHT," Celestia's voice boomed, "RUN TO THE CASTLE NOW!"
With an obedience Twilight wasn't aware she had ever known, she sprinted for all she was worth. Only after a hundred meters did her brain catch up to what Celestia was doing: clearing Twilight's path of true moonlight. Spurred on by Celestia's urgency, however, Twilight did not lessen her pace until she was within the confines of her castle gates and shut the doors behind her.
She skittered to a stop in the main hall, where Celestia hovered in the air, her horn brilliant with gold magic, light pouring from her body.
"Princess Celestia?"
"Twilight!" Spike, and Pinky Pie cried instantly, running over to hug her.
"Thank goodness you're here!"
"Thanks, everypony," Twilight answered. "What's going on? Why is Celestia here?"
"Celestia's keeping the castle safe from the... whatever they are," Spike explained. "Everypony's been told to stay inside and out of the moonlight, but..."
"But what, Spike?"
"Not everypony was told in time," Pinkie Pie said, her voice shaking.
"What?" Twilight said. "Were more ponies taken? Who..." She stopped. "Where are Rainbow Dash and Applejack?"
The three just shook their heads.
"They have been taken, Twilight," Celestia said. Her voice was strained and airy with distant preoccupation. "They have been taken, and I am powerless to help them." When Twilight didn't answer immediately, Celestia spoke again. "Twilight, where is… Where is Luna? She was with you, was she not? Did she find something in the Everfree?"
"Princess…" Twilight started, caught her breath. "It was unexpected, Celestia. She was taken, too."
It was a long moment before anyone said anything. The glow from Celestia's horn flickered only once.
"I see."
"I'm sorry, Princess."
"I am certain you did your best, my faithful student…"
Twilight shook her head as her friends hugged her.
"No. Not yet…" Twilight got to her hooves again and began pacing. "Luna said to stay out of the light. That there was 'malice' about them… Celestia, what changed? Why have the Nethe—that's what Luna called them—only appeared now after over a thousand years?"
"Maybe because the moon is different," Pinkie Pie offered.
"That's impossible—" Twilight began, but was interrupted by Celestia.
"—Quite possible. The moon has not been blemished since my sister's return."
"But if that's true, why now? Luna's been back for years."
"I do not know, Twilight."
Twilight paced three circuits before Spike snapped his fingers. "The solstice!" he said. "It's always been cloudy this time of year!"
"Spike, you're a genius! They've been here, but they've been kept above the clouds! I remember Fluttershy saying something about a strange bug in the winter, that must have been them!"
"But," Pinkie Pie said, "that doesn't answer the question of why they're ponynapping, though." She shuddered, remembering Rarity and Fluttershy. "Bad good pun."
"Celestia," Twilight said, "what are the Nethe? All Luna said was that the solstice was a time when the barrier between this world and another were at its thinnest."
"They are… spirits, Twilight. Ponies once believed that they were the souls of the dead, but even my sister and I do not know the truth. They are an enigma. Over many many years, all we can say is that they were alive and have as unique personalities as any other aware being."
Twilight paced some more and began listing the facts. "They are alive. They are probably knowing. They can be thought of as a pony's soul. They're angry, according to Luna. What's there to be angry about?"
"You mean aside from being locked away for a thousand years?" Pinkie Pie said.
Twilight stopped instantly. "What did you say?"
"Hey," Spike chimed in. "She has a point. Maybe they're just lonely? Jealous or something?"
Twilight stared at nothing for a long moment.
"Twilight?" Pinkie Pie said, waving a hoof in front of her. "Equestria to Twilight."
"I… I think I know what I need to do." She quickly hugged her friends and looked up to Celestia. "I just hope I'm right."
"Twilight," Celestia said, voice hardening, "What are you going to do?"
"Luna said teleporting would be unsafe tonight. I think I know why."
"Twi—"
There was a flash of light and the rest of her name was swallowed by the between.
Around her the sky was a sickly white fog. Black motes floated far, far overhead, like an inversion of stars. The ground—if that was what it was—stretched on like rolling sand dunes as far as she could see. Oily pillars jutted rudely upwards with contorted limbs akin more to lamppost than tree. She noticed that her wings were gone, and the horn on her head felt thick, like stuffed sinuses.
Not far above the horizon, visible above the strange twisting treelike shapes, a hole in the sky gaped at her. Instinctively she took a step backward, as a phantom force tugged at her. She felt that if she were to jump, it would suck her up and away into oblivion. She pointedly turned away and walked quickly to the tallest landmark she could find, careful to always have one hoof touching the ground.
As she neared the visible crest, Twilight noticed another shape moving against the terrain, bearing towards her. She decided against her compulsion to run or change her pace, and instead took to watching it carefully.
She paused at the top of the hill, taking in the bleak desolation beneath the sticky, radioactive light surrounding her. It was not long before her visitor arrived.
The shape was vaguely equiform. A head lifted up over a longer body, a shape suggesting a muzzle and a slope in shadow where eyes might have been. Instead of any discernible features, it appeared as if a rumpled blanket had been draped over its entire body, the legs lost to filaments and plays of light and darkness. It would have been comedic where it not so disturbing.
"Are… Are you one of the Nethe?" she asked.
Its head tilted and gave a sound like breathing. A wisp of fabric lifted and the whole being shifted closer.
"Stay away!" Her horn lit instinctively, but the magic felt twisted up in her own head, fighting to answer her will. She gritted her teeth as the being continued to approach.
"I'm looking for my friends!"
The creature paused. Its form rippled slightly in an undetectable breeze.
"I'm looking for ponies like me that have been taken here."
The thing's body heaved. Two more limbs appeared, and from them two small colored orbs emerged. Twilight realized it was the first pieces of true color she had seen in this realm—this realization was overtaken by the colors themselves. One was a pale yellow and pink; the other white with stripes of purple.
Twilight's face tightened in a scowl. "That's two of them. Did you take them?"
The thing gave another breath, shorter than the last. A laugh?
"I want them all back."
Several more limbs unfolded from beneath the figure, each carrying a small dot of color. One, larger than the others, was a deep indigo. It throbbed, as if fighting the creature that held it, and the being looked down upon it.
"That one's called Luna," Twilight said. "She told me about you. Said you were angry. It's because you're alone, isn't it?"
The creature's head canted to the side again.
"Alone. Lonely. Trapped here for a thousand years. You want the company of us ponies, even if it's only for one day out of the year. Is that right?"
It shifted a few feet closer, and the pressure in Twilight's horn intensified as she pepared to—do what, she didn't know. But she refused to step away.
"Well, I'm here to tell you that you can have friends, real friends, right now. You don't have to take them away. They'll be there, waiting for you, if you let us return and tell them what you are. That you aren't something to be afraid of." She pointed at the indigo shape that was Luna. "Luna learned this when she came to Ponyville for Nightmare Night. I learned it when I helped save her from Nightmare Moon. Let us go, and we will be your friends!"
The creature turned to look at the maw in the glowing sky. It was almost directly overhead.
"The night isn't over, yet. Take us back. Take us all back, and we'll play with you in Luna's night."
The creature surged forward. Twilight flinched, but stood her ground.
"You can have what you want without stealing it. All I'm asking for is my friends."
She lifted her head and her horn flared. Glowing wings erupted in flame from her back and her mark burned against the sickly wrongness of the world.
A shaft of moonlight shone straight down into the Element Chamber of Castle Everfree.
Around the empty pedestal stood several ponies and a glowing shape.
"I'm telling you Applejack, I'm fine!" Rainbow protested. "I wasn't even scared!"
"I know they're not exactly a woodland creature, darling," Rarity said to Fluttershy, "but you can't say you aren't fascinated?"
Twilight and Luna stood aside one another. They shared a nod before turning to the Nethe. "So," Luna said, a smile forming, "we have a deal."
Author's Note
This story was originally written as a series of three responses to Thirty Minute Ponies Legacy Prompt "Winter Moon Light". The first two were written in thirty minutes or less, the last naturally went over by a significant margin. Each "chapter" was meant in part to address each of the three elective prompts in turn – winter night, moonlit night, light the night – the effectiveness of which you must be the judge.
I have long intended to rework this into something a bit more traditional, rather than the mere modest edits seen here, but I finally have decided 1) I'm lazy enough that the rework isn't happening, 2) that the unique approach is actually a feature of the work, and 3) it has been long enough and it's the solstice again already.
