The Hidden Student

The ‘mane six’, now only down to five, traveled through the streets of Canterlot together. “Mystery can fix Fluttershy…hopefully.” Twilight said to herself, looking up at the sky seeing a pink colored glow covering it.

“Must be Celestia and Luna’s shield.” Applejack commented.

“Still don’t get why they aren’t going to help us more than THAT.” Rainbow Dash sighed. “Don’t get the wrong idea, I still want to get back at that unicorn...alicorn...whatever he is! Especially after what he did to Fluttershy!”

Twilight turned to the group. “They said it earlier- they’re vulnerable as any of us, and if they turned…nothing would stand a chance. They’re better off making it so no dark pony can escape this city.” She paused for a moment as she looked around.

The city was filled with buildings and streets as far as the eye could see outside of the garden, but not a single pony was in sight- except statues of ponies at least, or what USED to be ponies, most of them having a look of fright on their face.

“It’s really creepy when you get a closer look at them.” Rarity said with a shiver as she poked a statue- the statue wobbling in place for a moment. “KNOWING that they used to be real.”

“Tell me about it.” Twilight started up walking with the rest of the group, passing by buildings, petrified ponies, and seemingly nothing else.

Out of the corner of her eye though, Pinkie Pie saw a balloon float up in the air from an alleyway. “Oh! I found something!” she said bouncing happily. She just couldn’t get the feeling of happiness out of her- or maybe she was just trying to express happiness to ‘get rid of the ghosties’ she might say.

“What is it?” Twilight turned to Pinkie.

“A balloon! A big shiny red balloon!”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “We aren’t here to search for balloons, Pinkie. We’re searching for Mystery.” While the ponies started to leave, Pinkie stayed behind and ran into the alleyway on her own, eager to see a party.

What she saw in the dark alleyway was, indeed a party. At least what was set up to look like a party. Purple cloth covered tables, perfectly placed presents, a colorful cake painted with rainbow frosting and at least three layers tall! What Pinkie loved most though, was a bouncy house. A small inflatable pink castle that she couldn’t resist but run in and bounce up and down on it- having the time of her life, not even questioning how a party was in the alleyway- or whom it was even for! There weren’t even any petrified statues in the party.

After what seemed like days of bouncing, she finally stopped and ran up to the cake. “If those party poopers don’t want to come to the party, more cake for me!” She said trying to dive her face into the cake. As she moved her face to the cake, the cake moved back, as if on its own, away from her. Pinkie followed it and the cake soon fell over onto the ground with a ‘splat’, spreading the three layers across the ground. Suddenly, from the darkness, a large amount of ants surrounded the cake, taking it for them.

Pinkie laid on the table, watching the cake with tears in her eyes and her mouth in a frown, soon opening it in a crying fashion. “Why cake?! Why!” Pinkie cried out.

“I’ll give you all the cake you’ll ever need.” A voice called out to Pinkie from behind her- the voice sounded familiar, but distorted with a hint of an echo to it.

“Oh?! Where?!” Pinkie didn’t seem concerned as she turned to see who was behind her- it was Mystery in his dark form, his eyes glowing beet red into her own.

Pinkie’s eyes widened seeing the creature. More importantly though, he didn't hold any cake. "How could you lie about cake?!"

Meanwhile, the rest of the group wasn’t far from the ‘party’ where Pinkie was. “Who throws a party in an alleyway anyways?” Rainbow Dash had to ask.

Twilight nodded, but paused in her tracks. “Hey…you don’t think…” she turned around to see Pinkie wasn’t even following the group anymore.

“Pinkie!” The whole group shouted, running back to the alleyway to see Pinkie Pie…and her statue form. She was on her hind hooves, leaned up with what looked like a face combined between fear, and anger. Her eyes were in a leer, but her body was arched back away. Surprisingly, there was not even a single sign of a party around the ponies.

Twilight frowned, trying her magic again, but to no avail. “Pinkie…we’ll get you and Fluttershy back to normal, we promise.” She turned to what ponies were left with her. “We need to think…where would a dark pony be in Canterlot?”

“I don’t know how dark ponies move around, don’t ask me.” Rainbow Dash said defensively. “But he’s already turning so many…into these things, that maybe he’s already trying to storm the castle.”

Twilight nodded. “It’s possible, but he’s clearly pulling off tricks to separate us. We can’t afford to stray from each other- even for a second.”

Applejack agreed. “I hear you Twilight. Together, we’re still stronger than ever to beat this pony!”

Just as Applejack said it- a large gust of wind blew in the ponies direction, blowing Applejacks hat clear off. More importantly though, it was so strong that it even blew Rainbow Dash away- she being far too caught off by the wind to try to fight it.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted, using her magic to cause a tentacle to appear from her horn, the tentacle a sparkly purple with the tip sprouting into a hand to try to grab her, but the wind formed a small tornado around her like a shield and carried her off.

“My hat!” Applejack shouted- but then looked up at Rainbow Dash. Clearly, she knew what was more important than her hat. “Nothing…Twilight, you know what to do to get us after Dash!”

The tornado kept Rainbow Dash in it’s grasp, dragging her on for what seemed like miles before releasing her on top of a building in front of the dark pony known as Mystery. “Hello…Dash.” He said, his eyes leering down at the Pegasus. His eyes…retaining the pure white.

Rainbow Dash shot up from the building, lowering her front half and keeping her wings spread. “Mystery. You just made a BIG mistake buddy. You’re going down!”

“Oh…I’m sure I am.” Mystery said half-heartily. “But, let’s make this easy shall we? How about a race? If I win…you’ll be nothing more than paperweight.”

“But what if I win?” Rainbow Dash asked her eyes staring directly into Mystery’s, still ready to fight him.

“Then I’ll release your friends and leave you be.” Mystery’s horn glowed briefly as he turned away, putting a hoof to his chest, then suddenly looking right back at her. “Come on Dash, my sources tell me you can’t turn down a race. I won’t use my magic on you during the race either, you have my promise.”

“A race huh?” Rainbow had to give it some thought for a moment. She thought she could single hoofedly beat this dark pony in something like that and not get the rest of her friends involved in such a risk.

“Just you…and me…” his horn glowed again and a nearby cloud reshaped into a purple colored circle with a large hole in the center. “First one through there…”

The cloud didn’t seem too far away- only about four buildings, half a mile perhaps. “You’re on! But no magic!”

“I may be a thief, a sneak, evil, cruel, merciless, but I am not a liar.” Mystery said calmly. “Now then…” his horn glowed again and a small gold coin appeared in the air, floating up in front of them. “To make this fair, when the coin hits the building, it’s the sign to go.” And with that, his horn stopped glowing and the coin fell down.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes turned to the coin as she watched it. She couldn’t help but grin suddenly. “For you, friends.” She said to herself. When the noise hit her ears of the coin touching the rooftop, Rainbow Dash took off in an amazing burst of speed- leaving only a rainbow trail behind her. Mystery stood still for a moment before following her from behind.
Rainbow clearly had the lead of at least five ponies length. She was giving this ‘race’ her all, and for her friends seemed to encourage her to go even faster. Mystery though, was catching up despite her amazing speed. Down to four ponies length…three…two…the two were soon neck and neck with Mystery leading by a horn. When they got to the building that had the cloud over it, Mystery suddenly came to a screeching halt- giving Rainbow Dash the lead to the cloud.
“Hah! I got it! I got it!” As she passed through the dark cloud, she came out gray colored and stuck with a smile on her face and her wings spread. She fell to the rooftop with a ‘thunk’ as nothing more than a statue, much like the fate of her friends.

Mystery flew above Rainbow Dash with a smile on his pitch black face. “You never let me finish. First one through the cloud…LOSES. I did keep my promise though, didn’t use magic during that race at all.”

Twilight and what remained of the group suddenly floated up above the buildings, being held on a blue colored bubble being maintained by Twilight’s magic, as shown with her glowing horn. The group noticed an odd statue on top of a roof and landed next to it, seeing it was Rainbow Dash- petrified with a smile on her face, her wings spread, and body straight. “Dash…” Applejack said quietly.

“Ugh…this is going TOO far.” Rarity added.

Twilight lowered her head. “Sorry Rainbow.”

The hopes of what remained of the group were beginning to diminish- three of their friends have become nothing more than statues to Mystery, the dark pony’s magic, Mystery seemed to be able to split them apart even when they wanted to stick together.

“The castle…let’s go.” Twilight said quietly.