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// Nightfall 
// Story: Descending Darkness 
// by Mr Tinkertrain 
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They looked at the town in front of them and Dust pointed to the largest building in there. “This is the ‘palace’. Even though it isn’t a real palace, they keep calling it like this. This is where the Chancellor and his servants reside. Are you sure you want to do this? You can still go back to your home. Once this began, there will no way back.” Pinkie was the first one, who hopped over to him and looked into his eyes. “You’re silly”, she said, “Why would we say we’ll do this with you and then go away?” She didn’t even wait for an answers, she just started to bounce around randomly. Dust looked a while on the bouncing pink pony, as he dedicated his attention to the town again.

“We will have to get into that building, I bet the Chancellor wrote down his plans and is keeping them in his workroom.” Rainbow looked at the large building in the distance. “Get in, steal the plans and get out again. Got it.” Twilight, however, contradicted. “How are we supposed to get in there? There are surely more guards in there than in the rest of the town. We need some kind of distraction so we can sneak in.” She looked over to Pinkie, who still bouncing around in their camp. “Hey Pinkie, you’ve surely took a loud and noisy instrument with you, am I right?” 

Pinkie stopped bouncing and looked at Twilight as if she made a joke. “Of course not, silly. How would something like that in those saddlebags?” She then started bouncing again, as Twilight placed her hoof on her forehead. “Somepony got another idea?” She asked. It was Rainbow, who had an idea. “Just leave that to me!” She said, spreading her wings. The others understood her sign. The wings would allow her to escape the guards once the others were inside, and she would get easily into the building through a window, even if she would have to break through the glass. 

Dust nodded, but had to mention another fine detail of their plan. “But you’ll have to lift her” - he pointed on Twilight – “over the walls of the town. They won’t let you two in the town again after what had happened down there in the prison.” Twilight just shrugged. “I could also use my magic to teleport in.” But the stallion shook his head. “No, as far as I know, this would cause a flash of light around you and would probably draw unwanted attention to you.” The lavender unicorn had to admit that the stallion was right and that it would certainly cause problems if she got caught behind the town’s walls. And she knew that they shouldn’t take too many risks. 

“And what about the guards at the main gate, Dust? Wouldn’t they stop you since they have seen you with me?” Rainbow threw the question in, and Dust had to admit that it was a pretty good one. “I guess they don’t remember everything. I could just be anypony, while a pegasus or a unicorn would rather cause a sensation after the incident in the prison. I don’t think that they would stop me or your pink friend here.” He smiled. “Let’s say, we two are much less suspicious than you two.” He looked then up into the evening sky. “We should better be going already; they won’t let us in after nightfall.” 

Twilight looked after them as the others left her camp. “Well, that leaves us two to wait here till it’s dark enough to get unseen behind the walls …” Rainbow just shrugged. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.” But she could see that her friend was not convinced at all. She still thought that there had to be another way into the town that was safer than to let Rainbow fly her over the wall and then meet up with the others. But since Pinkie and Dust were already on their way into the town, she couldn’t change it anymore. Without anything to do they just waited until the night finally came. 


The sky was completely dark, not even the moon was visible up in the night sky, but Twilight could still see the dark shape of the towns’ wall in front of her. She still wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, but she didn’t see another way to get into the town for Rainbow and herself. So she just let her friend carry her over the wall. As soon as her hooves touched the ground again, she went to the meeting point they agreed on. They didn’t run there, it would have caused too much attention if they ran through the dark streets. Also, the sound of their hooves on the ground would probably have led some guards to them. This in mind, both of them walked as silently as possible.

Soon, they’ve reached the point they’re headed for – The shop in which Rainbow and Dust bought some provisions. They couldn’t see anypony around as they reached, but Twilight was confident that their friends would make it in time. And she was right – just a few seconds after them, Dust and Pinkie arrived. While Pinkie was happy to see her friends again – even if they were separated for only a short time – and hugged them, Dust didn’t lose time and gave them a sign to follow him.

He led the group through the dark alleyways of the nightly town, sometimes he stopped to let a patrol pass past them and once one of them almost caught them, but it seemed like they weren’t too eager to follow them further than two street corners. As soon as they shook them off, Dust led them towards the palace again. Even it was dark night, the silhouette was still visible and the night gave it a somehow menacing look. Twilight became nervous as she thought what may lay in wait for them in there.

Two guards were standing at the gate; it was obvious that they were bored and it was even more obvious that they didn’t think that anypony would want inside at this time. It was only a short time after they arrived at the gate that one of the guards went away, and the other one looked as sleepy as he would fall asleep any moment – which was the case just a moment after the other guard left, he was leaning against the wall next to him and snored. Dust knew that they couldn’t hope for a better chance, one guard gone and the other sleeping.

He just waved his hoof as a sign for the others to follow him, as he sneaked towards the door as silently as possible. He pressed his hoof against the wooden door and pushed it open. It wasn’t even locked, but it let out a slight creak. The sleeping guard was still asleep and didn’t wake up. He slipped inside of the palace, shortly followed by the others. Now it was to find the chancellor and somehow stop him. He didn’t quite know how he would stop him, but he guessed that he could think about that when they found him. 

“Quiet now, we don’t know if there are any other guards around.” He told the others as they sneaked deeper into the building. He had been in here before; at long last this was his hometown. But he was never above the ground floor. When he was the last time in this building, they didn’t let anyone on the stairs without a special permission. 

But it was in the dead of the night; it is not that likely that somepony would show up at this time in the palace, especially without a guard watching his or her steps, so nopony tried to stop them while they went upstairs, into the highest chambers of the building. Somehow it seemed like nopony except them where wandering through the dark corridors, they never stumbled upon another pony or even a single guard past the entrance. 

It wasn’t hard for them to find the office of the chancellor – it was obvious that the pompously decorated door must lead to the chancellor’s office. A short inspect showed that the door wasn’t even locked, and Dust grew skeptical of what the chancellor thought when he left his office completely unlocked. Either he was a moron, or he didn’t keep any important documents for his plan in there … or he planned all this on long term. 

However, the dark office wasn’t lightened like the corridors and halls in the rest of the building. He just took a lantern from the wall and placed it with caution on the desk. Then it was the time to go through the chancellor’s belongings to see if they could find something that Dust could use to accuse him at court, or even show the king himself to put an end to this.

He ordered Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to search through the left side of the office, which was full of cupboards and drawers, eventually full of documents. He himself and Twilight searched through the other half of the office, which was mainly covered by bookshelves. He didn’t think that they would find anything in those books, but was convinced otherwise as when he tried to pull out one of the books, a barely hearable clicking noise sounded, followed by the rumbling as one of the bookshelves moved backwards and aside, revealing another corridor behind it, which lead down in a spiral staircase. 

They looked a while into the corridor behind the shelf, before Dust took the lead and moved on without saying a single word or an idea what will wait for them at the end of that corridor …