Three seconds.
That’s how long it took the chunk of stone to collide with the ground from its original resting place high above on the ceiling.
Another smaller chunk fell, breaking into smaller pieces as it crashed into the ground.
Trixie didn’t even know why she was counting the seconds it took for the stone to hit the ground. Maybe it was the stress of the situation at hoof making her mind lose focus. Or maybe she was just finally losing it. She shook her head, dismissing the thought almost immediately. The Great and Powerful Trixie did not “lose it.”
She raced onwards towards the Canterlot Archives. She still wasn’t even sure what she was supposed to be searching for in there. Her instructions hadn’t been very clear or detailed. All Starlight had told her was to get to the Archives as fast as possible and find a book about comets. Did Starlight expect that to be easy? The task of locating a singular volume in the vast Canterlot Archives would be monumental in and of itself, but doing so on a time crunch while the royal capital was under siege? It was almost ludicrous. And what did comets have to do with anything? Trixie couldn’t imagine how that was relevant to their situation. Still, though, she was determined to not let her friends, and the rest of Equestria, down.
She dodged another chunk of ceiling as it crashed down next to her and grimaced, quickening her pace. Time was not on her side.
Nine hours earlier.
Applejack yawned and stretched, opening her eyes. She blinked a few times, her eyes still trying to adjust to the perpetual gloom that encompassed her bedroom. It must be hours before dawn. She yawned again and rolled over onto her side to read her alarm clock.
9:44 AM
Applejack bolted upright in her bed, wide awake.
Where was the sun?
By rights, it should be high in the sky. Roughly two hours from midday. And yet, outside her window, there was nothing but more of the perpetual gloom that filled her room. Applejack shook her head and slapped herself across the face. You’re dreaming, she thought to herself. Wake up, consarn it!
She slowly opened her eyes.
Rainbow Dash couldn’t fathom it.
It was still nighttime. Even though it was daytime. At least, it still looked like nighttime. But it was supposed to be daytime. If her clock wasn’t wrong, it should be late morning by now. And yet, an unnatural gloom covered everything. Everything. Not even the moon or stars were visible.
Something was seriously wrong, Dash concluded. Despite being the tough pony that she was, she couldn’t help but suppress a shiver.
The perpetual gloom that hung over the world did not do any favors for Rarity’s mood. After being awoken by Opalescence hissing up a storm at Celestia-knows-what, she had gotten tangled up in the sheets and fallen off her bed.
After a long while spent trying to untangle herself from her bedsheets, which had seemingly made it their new life mission to ensure that she remained ensnared, the white unicorn had marched over to her window and threw open the panes with her magic, trying to see if her eyes were playing tricks on her or not. She had gotten her answer right away, gasping and even physically recoiling at the unnatural, thick gloom that had consumed the world. It was hideous, plain and simple.
She couldn’t help but wonder how her friends were handling the situation.
It was all Fluttershy could do to comfort the multitude of animals that huddled around her, shivering in fear.
“H-hush now, quiet now, m-my friends,” Fluttershy stammered out. She was as scared as they were. The unnatural gloom that had encompassed the world felt dark and oppressive, even going so far as to border on outright evil. Angel Bunny, who was usually rebellious and aloof, was now huddled up under Fluttershy’s wing, gripping onto her with a surprising strength. They had been huddled like this ever since Fluttershy had woken up.
“I-it’ll be alright, f-friends,” Fluttershy continued. After a few moments, she whimpered. She wished she had someone to comfort her.
Pinkie Pie hung out of her bedroom window on the second floor of Sugarcube Corner. She gazed at the darkened sky with a quizzical look, her head cocked to one side. After a few moments of silence, she shouted up at it.
“Hey! You! Sky!” She paused and cocked her head again, as if waiting for an answer from the heavens. After hearing nothing, she continued.
“What’s the deal with being all dark and spooky like this?! It’s supposed to be morning! You better fess up right now or else!” She cocked her head yet again, waiting.
The sky offered no response but silent gloom.
The numerous crystals scattered around the Crystal Empire reflected the dark gloom above, casting eerie shadows. It pained Cadance to see them this way. It was as if they were slowly but surely becoming corrupted by the unnatural darkness that hung above everything.
“What do you think is happening?” A voice came from behind her. Cadance turned away from the balcony she was standing on to face her husband, Shining Armor.
“I have no idea, Shining. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Could it be Sombra? Is he back?” Shining questioned nervously.
Cadance shook her head. “No, this seems unlike him. It’s too…calm. Unchanging. Static. And yet I can tell that it exudes evil; more evil than anything I’ve ever encountered.”
Shining merely gulped.
For the first time in her life, the sun did not obey Celestia’s commands.
No matter how much she willed the sun to rise, move, or do anything at all, her efforts had proved to be futile. After waking up at a strange hour and seeing the state of the sky, she had raced to Luna’s bedchambers. She found her sister awake as well, on her balcony and staring up at the perpetual gloom. She looked back at her sister as she entered, and from the singular look she gave her, Celestia knew that Luna wasn’t able to control the moon anymore either.
Nothing like this had ever happened before. Celestia hadn’t the slightest idea what could be going on. Whatever it was though, she knew that the fate of Equestria and of the world itself hung in the balance.
Starlight Glimmer had never seen anything like this. The darkness that gripped the world was wholly unnatural, like something out of a horror story. The absence of the sun, moon and stars sent shivers down Starlight’s spine, and she was not one to scare easily. Gazing up at the gloom from the balcony of her bedroom in the Castle of Friendship, her mind ran through a thousand possibilities of what could be happening. Is this something Discord would do? No, nowhere near chaotic enough for him. What about King Sombra? This darkness seems more his style. Then again, what purpose would this unchanging gloom serve? She gave up racking her brain for possible scenarios that would explain the darkness. Right now, she had other priorities.
Dashing out of her room and into the darkened hallway, she tripped over something and heard a loud “Oof!” Rubbing her head and standing up from the floor, Starlight ignited her horn, illuminating the hallway.
“Spike! I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there. Are you alright?”
She could almost see the stars spinning above the baby dragon’s head. Spike flapped his newly-grown wings, shaking his head. “I’ll be alright. Watch where you’re going next time though!”
“Sorry,” Starlight muttered sheepishly. Then, the reality of their situation came back to her. “Spike,” she continued. “We need to find Twilight and get her opinion on this…gloom.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Spike agreed. “I was actually on my way to her bedchambers right now.”
“Come on! We haven’t got a moment to lose!” Starlight exclaimed. Still illuminating the hallway, she took off galloping down its length.
“Hey! Wait for me!” Spike cried, flapping his wings furiously to try and catch up to her.
As they moved through the darkened castle, the light from Starlight’s horn combined with the movements of her running cast eerie shadows on the walls that seemed to move of their own accord. Eventually, they reached Twilight’s bedchambers. Long past considering politeness, Starlight thrust open the doors with her magic.
“Twilight!” She exclaimed. “Something’s horribly wrong. I’m sure you’ve noticed it by now, but--” She stopped dead in her tracks, looking frantically around the darkened room, hoping against hope that her eyes were playing tricks on her. They were not, she concluded almost instantly.
There was no sign of the Princess of Friendship.
One hour later.
“It didn’t work. This oppressive gloom seems to be affecting even my magic,” Celestia regarded solemnly.
After Spike had suddenly belched out a letter with instructions from Princess Celestia, him, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Starlight, Trixie, Luna and Celestia herself had gathered in the throne room of the Castle of Friendship. Celestia had earlier received a letter from Cadance saying that she and Shining Armor would be staying and taking refuge in the Crystal Empire.
The Princess of the Sun had just attempted a powerful locator spell that would sweep all of Equestria in order to determine the whereabouts of Twilight Sparkle, to no avail.
“Consarn it all!” Applejack cursed. “I wish we knew what in the hay was goin’ on! I hope Twilight is safe out there somewhere, wherever she is.”
“As do I, Applejack,” Celestia agreed. “But like I said before, nothing like this has ever been seen in the history of Equestria.”
“Well that’s just great,” Rainbow Dash remarked exasperatedly. “So we’re basically screwed?”
“Has anyone considered that someone we know may be behind this?” Starlight interjected. “Maybe King Sombra, or Chrysalis, Tirek or Discord--”
“I assure you, my dear Starlight, I am most certainly not behind this,” Discord remarked in a bored tone, causing Starlight to nearly jump out of her skin. The draconequus had appeared directly behind her at the mere mention of his name. Starlight jumped away, turning to face him.
“Discord,” Luna said. “How kind of you to stop by.”
Discord did a little bow and flourish.
“Discord, do you have any ideas about what this gloom could be? Or where Twilight could be?” Fluttershy asked, stepping forward. The Lord of Chaos snapped his fingers, disappearing in a flash and reappearing at the yellow pegasus’s side.
“Ah, my dear Fluttershy, it is with a heavy heart that I must say I really don’t know. And that’s to either question. However, I must say that whoever--or whatever--conjured up this nasty bout of gloom…they certainly have a very interesting taste. It’s not every day that something happens around here that not even I can explain.” He chuckled to himself a little before snapping his fingers again and disappearing completely.
“Well, that was enlightening,” Trixie said sarcastically.
“Darling, what did you expect from him?” Rarity questioned. “Discord isn’t known for being very helpful.”
“I guess you’re right there,” Trixie conceded.
“Well our first priority should be finding Twilight,” Spike said. “She might be our only hope for figuring out what’s going on.”
“Yeah!” Pinkie chimed in. “If anyone can pull the plug on this nasty-evil-yucky-no-good-gloomy-gloom, it’s her! But where in Equestria could she have gone?!” At this last remark, she stood on her hind legs, threw her head back, and waved her forelegs around in the air so fast that it almost looked like she was going to lift off of the ground.
“About that…” said a voice suddenly from the doorway of the room. Everypony quickly turned to gawk at the newcomer.
“I think I might have an idea.”
Eight hours later.
Canterlot Castle shook again, raining even more dust down from the ceiling. Outside the large windows that she ran past, Trixie could see flashes of strange light.
That wasn’t her concern right now, though. Getting to the Archives was.
She tore around a bend and came face-to-face with a large set of wooden doors that she knew was the entrance to the Archives. She skidded to a halt near one side of the doors, pulling down on a lever that activated a contraption to open them. There was the rumble of gears shifting, and the doors began to slowly open with a loud creak.
The castle shook again.
The moment the gap in the opening doors was large enough for her to slip through, Trixie did just that. Racing into the Archives, she skidded to a halt once again, dumbfounded at the sight that awaited her.
The Archives were larger than she remembered. Vast rows of bookshelves ascended up towards a high vaulted ceiling, from which hung numerous candle chandeliers, casting the entire room in a soft yet dim flickering glow. The bookshelves ran back into darkness, farther than Trixie could see. How in the name of Equestria did Starlight expect her to find a singular book in this massive library?
“Think, Trixie, think,” the light blue unicorn muttered to herself. Suddenly, a thought came to her:
What would Twilight do?
Trixie pondered some more.
If I’m lucky, the books in the Archives will be sorted alphabetically. So I should look in the “C” section, for comets. But where would that be?
Trixie looked down the length of the room, counting the rows. It took her a few seconds to realize that there were exactly twenty-six of them.
Each row has to correspond to a letter of the alphabet. So I should look down the third row!
Trixie galloped across the room to the aforementioned row, hoping against hope that she would find only volumes that began with the third letter of the alphabet. To her excitement, the first few books she laid eyes on were labeled: Camel-Hybrids of the Southern Expanses, Cardinal Sentinels and Their Applications, and Catbeasts of the Secluded Glades: A Guide For The Weary Traveler. She scanned down the books until she found what she was looking for: Comets of the Equestrian Night Sky. Pulling out the book, she opened it and rapidly flipped to the table of contents, scanning for anything that might yield some information. Curse Starlight and her vague instructions. Just what exactly was she supposed to be looking for?
A noise sounded behind her and a flash of light bounced off the books, illuminating down the darkened row for a moment. Trixie turned to see Starlight, gasping for breath.
“Starlight!” Trixie cried, running over to her. “Are you alright?”
Starlight caught her breath after a few moments. “Yes, for now. The others are holding them off, but they won’t be able to for long without my help. I need to be quick. What have you found?”
Trixie handed over Comets of the Equestrian Night Sky, and Starlight held it up in her magic, flipping through the pages. “Great job, Trixie. This will be vital to understanding our situation.”
“Uh…how is a book about comets going to be ‘vital to understanding our situation?’” Trixie asked.
Without looking up from the pages, Starlight answered, “this is just a theory, but I think something happened last night, something that Twilight was aware of was going to happen for a while. She may have tried to take advantage of the situation with good intentions, but doing so inadvertently disrupted the very fabric of magic, sending her away to an unknown place and covering all of Equestria in the Gloom.”
Trixie wasn’t following. “...and you think this ‘thing’ that she tried to take advantage of was…a comet? What makes you think that? And how is ‘taking advantage of a comet’ even possible?”
“Like this,” Starlight said, having stopped her flipping a moment before. She rotated the book around in her magic for Trixie to see the page she had opened to. As she read the page, Trixie’s eyes widened.
She couldn’t believe what she saw.
