Dark visitors

Those who live in the darkness are blinded by the light.

Usually those beings back to the darkness they come from, but others…

They think: If the light blinds you… shut it down.

Chapter 2

Darkness

Twilight and her friends run in the middle of the Everfree forest, now called dark forest, a right name now that it had been consumed by the black mist. Perhaps this was what the unicorn had talked about before left trough the portal? That doesn’t matter now. Now the only thing that should be in their heads was escape from those creatures.

They can hear its footsteps behind them. It had already devoured the royal guards that had come with them, and now it chased them. The ponies stop when they see something in front of them. A pair of red points rose from the thick cape of black mist that cover the ground of the forest and didn’t left see anything under the chest height.

They had already seen these red points; it was the eyes of those things. One of the creatures jumps to a branch revealing its form. It was like a wolf as big as a pony and covered by a metallic exoskeleton. Its small and cold eyes full of fury looks like were made of red glowing glass. On its back there were hundreds of long thin needles. The needles were leaning on the back, but when the creature growled aggressively the needles got up and vibrated emitting a menacing metallic rattle sound.

Twilight looked from side to side but there wasn´t escape, it had surrounded them. This would be her last... again ... again? She wished somepony mysteriously come out from nowhere and saved her as the last time, but how likely was that to happen?

~ S ~ That morning, before the darkness spread. ~ S ~

Twilight opened her eyes a little tired for the party last night, but still willing to investigate tirelessly to find all the information she could about everything that had happened the day before.

The pony, eager to study, got up and glanced at the bed of his number one assistant. The bed was empty, which didn't surprise her; he must have been raised to do their morning chores. He hadn’t gone to the party so he had gone to bed earlier. Maybe she should do the same, the party had ended much later than she had expected, and as a result she was wake up later than expected. In the clock was 8:00 AM, an hour later than she had planned. Now she had one hour less to investigate that day.

Twilight rushed downstairs to start her research and smell the delicious aroma of the breakfast her number one assistant had prepared for her. Spike was finishing setting the table when he saw Twilight down and greet with a smile.

"Morning, Twilight. The last night must have been quite a party. You wouldn’t wake up an hour late if you weren’t really tired." That comment was not amused at Twilight. "Are you going to investigate everything that you told me yesterday when you back to the library to pick up that thing last night for the party? By the way, what you came to pick up?"

"Nothing important." She answered as sat to eat. "Why don’t you wake me? Now I'm very late with my research."

"I didn't want to wake you. You looked very tired. And how you can be late in research? It's not like you can know when you'll find the information you seek. Maybe you'll be lucky and find it in the first book you open and so you'll have the whole day off ... and me too."

"I think not. I have read almost every book in the library and no one has anything about what happened. Definitely it will take a long time, maybe even several days." Spike had face of want to run away. Working tirelessly for several days didn’t sound good for the young dragon.

Twilight finish his breakfast and go straight to find the few books she hadn’t read, to find the information she needed. Just as she opened the first book was surprised by the sound of somepony knocking on the door.

"Read the sign, the library is closed today." The pony Shouted while trying to concentrate, but again the sound of somepony knocking on the door distracted her. "If you can't read a sign, you shouldn’t be here." Twilight remained in silence waiting for somepony to knock on the door again, but it didn’t happened. The studious pony refocused her attention on the book to finally investigate.

"Twilight!" A shout behind Twilight made her jump in surprise throwing the book into the air. Twilight turned and saw Rainbow Dash standing behind her. "Why don’t you open the door?"

"Because the library is closed. If you want another Daring Do book you have to wait until tomorrow. And how you get in?"

"Through the window. And I don’t come for a book of Daring Do. There's something strange going on in the Everfree forest."

"Is that weird?" Spike said dismissively. "There's always something strange going on in the Everfree forest. It's the Everfree forest!"

"I mean something stranger than usual. I was working hard on the forest with a cloud ..." For work, she mean to nap on it. "...when a noise in the Everfree forest caught my attention and I saw that the leaves of the trees were black and there was a weird black mist covering the entire floor in a part of the forest."

"You mean a black mist like..."

"Like the black mist that used those weird ponies, exactly." Twilight ran straight to Everfree forest with Spike on his back and Rainbow Dash flying beside her.

"That's not all Twilight."

"What?! What else can happen?!"

"The mist began to spread through the woods, and put the leaves of the trees black colored. This is not cool."

Finally they reached the edge of the forest and, as Rainbow Dash had said, the leaves of the trees were black and there was black mist that reached chest height. Suddenly they heard the sound of footsteps coming from the forest. Twilight and Rainbow Dash were prepared for the worst; anything could be expected coming from the black mist.

The footsteps came closer and closer until they could see the silhouette of a pony. That figure came closer and they realized that it was not a pony, but a zebra. Zecora! It looked terrible, his body was covered with scratches and bruises, and his coat was cover with his blood.

"Zecora! What happened to you?!" Both shouted in unison.

"A dark evil consumed my home, now only the creatures with that evil can survive on it. Into horrible monsters turned the living beings of the Everfree forest, so I was forced to flee."

"Does the black mist turned Everfree forest animals into monsters?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Rainbow Dash takes Zecora to the hospital immediately." Rainbow Dash charge Zecora on his back and walked toward the hospital, she would have liked to fly to it, but with the weight of Zecora would have been impossible.

"What now?" Spike looked worried the black mist that had consumed all the Everfree forest and the blood on the floor that had dropped from the Zecora's coat.

"We write to Princess Celestia, I hope she knows something about this mist." Spike pulled out a pen and a scroll waiting for Twilight dictate what to write, but before the pony could say a word the dragon burp green fire and a scroll fell to the floor. "A letter from the princess." Twilight magic lifts the scroll and unrolled it to read it.

My dear and faithful student Twilight Sparkle:

Recently I have been informed that a strange evil power is spreading in the Everfree forest, a forest near to ponyville. It’s vital that you and your friends discover from where that power comes from and stop it. I would have liked to entrust this important task in person, but I'm afraid I cannot. I’ll send royal guards to accompany your for protection. Please be careful, I had never heard of something like this.

Princess Celestia.

"Looks like the princess had heard what happened. Come on Spike, we have to go by the other and wait for the royal guards. First look at Fluttershy, her house is closest." Spike jump to the back of Twilight and marched to the house of her friend.

~ F ~

"Umm ... sorry but I can’t go." Said the soft and shy Fluttershy's voice with a little of fear after Twilight explain the situation. "I have to feed the animals of the forest, and Angel's favorite food takes much time to prepare. You will have to go without me."

"Fluttershy, I know you're scared, but the whole Equestria could depend of this. There are many animals in the forest Everfree and we may need your help to deal with them. Like when you made that dragon go to hibernate to other place."

"Twilight, I don’t know, sounds very dangerous. And who will take care of my friends of the forest?"

"Fluttershy please, we need you, we can’t go without you. And, Spike can watch for your friends of the forest, like last time." Then Spike put face want the earth to swallow him, but nopony noticed. "In addition, we will have royal guards watching over us."

"Well ... I guess ... I can go."

"Great, let's find the others."

"HEY!" Rainbow Dash flew out the window a bit annoying. "Why didn’t you wait me?!"

"Rainbow Dash I'm sorry, but I received a letter from the princess saying that we must investigate..."

"So what are we waiting for?! Come! We must go for the other."

"In that we are, we have to go for the others and wait in the library for the royal guard."

"Royal Guard? What for? We can handle anything without problem. No need the royal guard."

"Don’t be so sure, I remind you that this mist is related to the ponies that beat us yesterday. We must take every possible precaution."

"All right." Rainbow Dash finally yielded reluctantly "But we could beat them without the royal guard."

"Sure." Twilight said sarcastically concealing laughter.

~ T ~

The six ponies were in the library waiting for the royal guards while they talked about things related to the incoming mission. It was almost noon when somepony knocked on the door. Twilight opened it and found herself face to face with not less than ten royal guards.

"Twilight Sparkle?" Asked one of the guards.

"Y-Yes." Twilight replied almost in shock, she didn’t really expect that Princess Celestia sent so many guards.

"The Princess Celestia has sent us to escort you and your friends as you investigate the unusual events in the Everfree forest."

"Mmm ... ok. When do we leave?"

"We are ready to leave on your mark."

"Ok ... then go."

Twilight and her friends left the library and the guard who talk make a signal to the others, who immediately surrounded the ponies and marched off at their side toward the woods.

Finally, after Rainbow Dash tried to break the concentration of the guards several times, Fluttershy tried in vain to make conversation with one of them and Twilight interrogate the leader of the guards about how his brother was, they came to the edge of the Everfree forest.

Still not getting dark, but it was better that entered and left before it did. As they entered the forest something unusual happened, everything became a little darker, as if there was a cloud over them, but it wasn’t. But the strangest thing was that suddenly became much colder than usual, almost freezing, and seconds later the temperature was normal.

All, both guards and ponies looked at each other confused, but decided to go ahead. More and more they approached to the center of the Everfree forest or dark forest as Pinkie Pie had called it as a joke, though in truth the name it wore to perfection. There they hoped to find what was causing this sudden change, or at least a clue.

Twilight announced that they were close, which was a relief for her friends who were beginning to tire, but spotted something in the way. A pair of red points rose of the thick mist that covered the forest floor.

Slowly the head of a wolf, apparently with a metal armor, appear in the mist. Fluttershy immediately hid behind a guard and Pinkie Pie jumped in front ready to greet this creature, but Twilight stopped her with magic and returns her to the group. One of the guards stepped forward to look a little closer at the creature, but when he was at a few steps the mysterious being gave a roar and hundreds of long thin metal needles rose, from which one might assume was his back, and vibrated emitting a menacing metallic rattle sound.

Immediately a group of these creatures, no smaller than the group of the ponies and the royal guards, rose from the darkness growling furiously and with those needles in his back got up and vibrating menacingly.

"Get out of here, we’ll ... Aagh" Before the royal guard could finish speaking one of those creatures jump out of the mist on one side of the guard and bit him in the neck diving into darkness along with the body of the now dead guard.

"RUN!" Twilight scream terrified and ran along with her friends as the guards were fighting back fiercely with those monsters.

The six ponies were now running through the dark forest for their lives. Suddenly a thought came into the mind of Twilight. Perhaps this was what the unicorn had talked about before left trough the portal? That doesn’t matter now. Now the only thing that should be in her head was escape from those creatures.

They can hear its footsteps behind her. It had already devoured the royal guards that had come with them, and now it chased them. The ponies stop when they see something in front of them. A pair of red points rose from the thick cape of black mist that cover the ground of the forest and didn’t left see anything under the chest height.

They had already seen those red points; it was the eyes of those things. One of the creatures jumps to a branch revealing its form. It was like a wolf as big as a pony and covered by a metallic exoskeleton. Its small and cold eyes full of fury looks like were made of red glowing glass. On its back there were hundreds of long thin needles. Those needles were leaning on the back, but when the creature growled aggressively the needles got up and vibrated emitting a menacing metallic rattle sound.

Twilight looked from side to side but there wasn´t escape, it had surrounded them. This would be her last... again ... again? She wished somepony mysteriously come out from nowhere and saved her as the last time, but how likely was that to happen?

As soon as that thought crossed the mind of Twilight another pair of red eyes appeared in the mist between Twilight and the creature in front, but it weren’t like the eyes of those beings. The eyes that appeared in the mist were reptilian with a cold and soulless glare and when appeared a mass of black mist rose where they were drawing the silhouette of a unicorn.

The creatures like wolves looked t the being of black mist and took a couple of steps away from him before running away. Twilight stared at the image before her. It was clear that that was what had followed the three mysterious ponies. Now the question was whether this creature was friend or foe. Although seeing the kind of creatures that were related to the black mist, Twilight was the only one with some hope, and it wasn't much.

"H-hi I-I’m Twilight sparkle and te-they are ..." Before Twilight over the presentation the creature just suddenly appeared in front of her just at a few centimeters making all jump with fear. The creature was only at centimeters. Centimeters! What would be its next move? Twilight thought about running, but his body wasn’t responding ... What could she do now?