Chapter 0: The Shadows, They Come
As soon as she saw the bright colors of the sky, Pinkie knew today would be special. Grabbing a cupcake to go, she bounced out of the bakery to her friend Twilight's house for a picnic. Yes indeedy, today was a good day for a picnic! As Pinkie bounced her happy way to the library, she caught a glimpse of something over the mountains.
"Oooh, I wonder what the pegasuseseses are doing over there today?" she asked nopony in particular. Above the mountains, a large purple and black cloud was swirling rather ominously, but Pinkie was in such a good mood today, she just couldn't bear to think of it as anything other than pegasus hijinks.
After collecting Twilight, in a shower of confetti as is typical of the party pony, they made their way to each of their friends' houses, gathering up supplies for the picnic Pinkie decided she would plan. Only slightly after that, they were sitting out in the middle of the grass, the glittering blanket spread, streamers decorating the trees around them. Rainbow Dash lazily floated over to them, flying backwards onto a soft spot on the blanket, and looked around.
"So, Pinkie," the rainbow-maned pony asked, "What's the occasion today?"
"Oh, no special occasion, i just thought it would be super duper to have a picnic on such a colorful day! And i especially like how you pegasi made it dark over there so more color would be over here!" the pink one jibbered.
Rainbow looked confused, looking over to where the dark cloud was, over the mountains. "Uhhh, pinkie, we didn't do that." Dash said, hovering up. "I'd almost blame Derpy for that, but she plays with storm clouds, and that's not a storm cloud. Wait here, i'll be back in ten seconds flat!" he said, and flew right off towards the dark cloud.
A minute later, Dash was zooming back, stopping mere inches from Twilight, babbling. "Twi! You gotta do somethin, that cloud's not even a cloud! it's not even coming from EverFree! It's just this big blob of shadowy stuff that's covering the sky!" Dash said frantically.
Twilight blinked, looking up to the sky. "Well if it's not a cloud, what is it?" she asked. "Cause it can't be a blob of shadows, that's just silly!" Upon further inspection, however, she noticed that it was indeed some form of shadow. She just stared, and tried to use her magic over the long distance. She felt her magic hit a wall, and pushed against it. Whatever was causing the cloud, however, was also magic, as something zapped her horn as the wall began to push back. Twilight gasped from the sudden shock, lowering her ears. "I've gotta tell the princess about this!" she said, and looked to Spike, who immediately took out a note and quill.
"Dear Princess Celestia, i hope you know what to do, but there's a giant cloud of darkness heading towards Ponyville, and i can't stop it no matter how much of my magic i use! Please respond quickly, your Faithful student, Twilight." Twilight finished her narrative and Spike immediately blew it away in a puff of green fire.
Twilight paced back and forth nervously, as Rarity began complaining. "Oh no, and i had a lovely new dress to show off today!" the white mare said. "That cloud's going to block the sun, and i need the sun to show the shine on the new Icy Sapphires i put into my latest design!" She grabbed a couch and collapsed back onto it. "Ohhh, the pony-manity!"
Dash just rolled her eyes, glaring up at the darkness slowly advancing towards Ponyville. In the span of five minutes, it had grown at least a mile closer, and was advancing all the time! Spike finally belched up a letter, and read it out loud:
"Dear Twilight, I'm so sorry i forgot to warn you, but a prince from a far-off island has let me know he was going to come to visit Ponyville for a while. The shadows in the sky must be travelling with him, so when he gets here, I'll talk with him about turning them off, since his people live on an island with no sun. Please rest assured that this isn't a disaster, and i shall be there as soon as i can."
Twilight suddenly gaped, and the other ponies just stared. "And island with no sun? What kind of ponies could even do that?" Twilight asked, her ear twitching in disbelief. "I mean, without the sun, how do they grow their plants? Their food? Hoe do they get healthy coats? It doesn't even make sense! Are you sure you read that part right, Spike?"
Spike looked rather indignantly at the purple mare. "Of course i did. I may be a baby dragon, but i certainly know what the princess' handwriting says, squiggly curls or not."
Twilight levitated the letter and re-read it. "Spike's right, an island with no sun!" she said.
Pinkie gasped. "OOH, OOH, YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS? I get to throw a PRINCE PARTY!!!"
Rarity shot her a look. "Pinkie Pie, puh-lease, you can't throw a party for some strange pony from a island with no sun? Who knows what kind of ponies they are? I mean, Zecora lives in EverFree, but even SHE has to live in the sun most of the time!"
Pinkie didn't seem to notice Rarity's complaints, and was already bouncing around. "And there'll be punch and cupcakes, and more cakes than the table can fit then the table will break and we'll need to make the cakes sit on the floor, and we'll need to bake even more cakes because he's a prince andandandandand-"
Twilight facehoofed. "Ugh. Let's just wait for the Princess before we go making any plans, all right Pinkie?"
Much later, as they headed back into Ponyville, the mane six noticed something was off. A large crowd of ponies had gathered around a house...or what seemed to be a house. As they got closer and closer, Twilight's jaw slowly opened more and more, dropping lower and lower. "Bububbu....bu...bu...HOW?" was all she could ask. For this house wasn't an ordinary house.
For one, the house was two-stories, and painted a manner of dark colors. Dark grey stones built the foundation, and the walls had been painted black with strange glowing symbols on the sides and roof. The back of the house was even stranger, a huge wall of black with golden symbols etched all over the surface. Now, that wasn't what Twilight had seen to make her jaw drop. No.
The fact that had made her jaw drop was the fact that the house's only support was the two ramps leading up to it! There was a single ramp, decorated much like the roof, which led to a small, rectangular platform. The rectangular platform extended lengthwise to the left, where another ramp was going up in the opposite direction, leading to the small patio area that held the front door....but that was it. The house itself, despite the ramps, was being held in midair by practically nothing! Even more, Derpy Hooves had already landed on the porch and was looking over an envelope.
"Welp, looks like this is the place, it says forward to new location." Derpy said, and shrugged, placing the mail into a slot in the wall 90 degrees from the door before flying off, her job finished for the day.
Twilight and friends could only sit and stare as the door opened. Who came out wasn't what they expected. Rather than a tall, regal, evil-looking alicorn, they got a dark-grey colt, roughly the same size as everypony else yet slightly taller, with a sky-blue mane and tail, golden eyes, a funny-looking blue hat, and a small silver crown (which, Twilight noticed, just as jarringly as the house, was floating a few inches above the colt's head.). The colt smiled at everypony and struck a dramatic pose.
"Greetings, citizens of Ponyville!" the colt said, in a voice strangely both masculine and rather feminine at the same time. "I, Dark Maker, Prince of Luneightea, have come to free you from the burning blight of the sun while i am on my extended vacation here in Ponyville!"
Twilight gulped, even as Celestia's carriage rode into town, as the dark clouds now completely blotted the sky. The purple mare hoped the princess would be able to convince the dark grey stallion to release the dark clouds, because as soon as she heard that his name, itself was "dark maker", she figured it would be very, very difficult convincing him of letting the sun back out.
Pinkie, meanwhile, was staring in wonder at the house, suspended in midair, clapping her hooves. "Wow, a floaty house! I could throw a great party in midair!"
To be continued...
