He looked around and around, but no matter where he looked, all Dark Horn could see was darkness.
He looked down, and he was sitting on top of the darkness itself, but it seemed to be coming from his mane and tail. A few seconds passed while Dark Horn attempted to make sense of his surroundings. Eventually, he realised that he was dreaming, then at that exact moment, he began to sink into the darkness.
Panicking, he began to struggle. He could feel himself being submerged, but at the same moment, the parts of his body that were submerged felt disconnected, and it was as if he was the darkness.
Only his head remained above the sea of darkness, and he closed his eyes and stopped struggling.
Once his head was under, he opened his eyes. He could see the whole of Equestria. It was as if he was looking from the shadows. He didn't enjoy the disconnected feeling he was experiencing, so he wished for nothing more than for him not to be anywhere except his own body.
With a startled gasp, Dark Horn jolted awake to a bright room. Looking around, there were no sources of light, and he knew it was still the middle of the night. It was as if everything was its own light source, and was self-luminescent.
He looked out the window. The sun was nowhere in sight, and the moon was high in the sky, which was as black as his mane, but the ground was as bright as day, littered with tired ponies looking for the reason they could not get to sleep.
Deep down, he knew this was related to his dream. Still panicking, he came to the hasty conclusion that he stole the darkness.
He felt the duvet of the bed in an awkward position, and he began to move around, trying to get to a comfortable position, when he heard a fwomf and the duvet came away from him. Looking around, he gasped loudly when he noticed that he sported a pair of wings.
"Twilight!" he yelled.
"What is it? Why is it so bright? What's happ...en...ing?" she stopped as she saw the wings too. "You have wings."
"Good, so I'm not imagining them."
"Dark Horn, you don't realise how serious this is. You're an alicorn. Like Princesses Celestia and Luna."
"You don't realise how serious this is. I'm pretty sure I stole the darkness."
"You stole the- so you think you've got control over darkness?"
"I'm pretty sure."
"Twilight!" came another yell.
"What is it, Spike?" she asked as the baby dragon ran into the room.
"A letter from Princess Celestia!" he said, holding up the sealed scroll.
Twilight picked up and opened the scroll with magic, and read it aloud.
"My faithful students, Twilight Sparkle and Dark Horn, I am sure you have noticed the lack of darkness in Ponyville. This is far worse than it seems. Not only has this affected Ponyville, this has affected," Twilight gasped, "the whole of Equestria! I believe it will be necessary for you both to return to Canterlot to discuss what to do. There is a chariot on the way to you now. I expect it to arrive within the next few hours."
"Wait a second, I don't remember you having wings last time I saw you."
"That's because they just appeared."
"So, they just grew, like, right now?"
"Pretty much."
"I think that's a bit coincidental, don't you think?" he asked, "I mean, with the darkness disappearing and all?"
"Yeah, we came to the same conclusion." Twilight stated
"Wait, I can't go to Canterlot looking like this. Not with this much light. Are there any spells to hide wings?"
"I'm sure I saw one somewhere..." she pondered, running over to the 'Cosmetic Spells' section of the library.
A few minutes later, Twilight returned with a book, and read through it four or five times before setting the book down and pointing her horn towards Dark Horn.
Her horn began to glow very brightly, and, after it subsided, Dark Horn didn't feel any different. Looking at his flank, he knew that it had worked. In place of wings, he could clearly see the horn over a moon that was his cutiemark.
"Fantastic! Thanks, Twi!"
"No problem, Dark."
As promised, in two hours, a chariot pulled by armoured Pegasi appeared in front of the Library Treehouse, ready to take them to Canterlot.
After a long ride with Dark Horn and Twilight discussing how it could be possible for a Unicorn to turn into an Alicorn overnight, they arrived. Unlike the usual tradition of stopping at the chariot docks, this chariot stopped directly next to the balcony to Princess Celestia's chambers.
Tentatively, the two ponies stepped in through the balcony and looked around. Instead of Princess Celestia, as expected, they met Princess Luna.
"Where's Princess Ce-oh, of course, it's still technically night."
"And what exactly do you mean, technically? Is there something wrong with my glorious night?"
"Not really, it's just, right now, it's not as dark as it should be." Dark Horn said sarcastically.
"That is why you two were brought here, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is."
"Do you have any ideas what might have happened to the darkness."
"We think that any ideas we may have would be best sent to Princess Celestia first." Twilight butted in, to prevent Dark Horn from spilling the beans straight away.
"Well, here she is now." Luna said, pointing out the window to the entrance hall. She turned back around to see a blinding flash of purple-and-black light, as the two ponies disappeared.
Instantaneously, they reappeared in front of Princess Celestia.
"Princess, I'm sorry!" Dark Horn cried before Twilight could stop him.
"Why are you sorry?" Celestia asked, confused.
"I stole the darkness!" he cried.
"Impossible," she laughed, "The only kind of pony powerful enough to do that would have to be an-"
"Alicorn?" Dark Horn finished, using his magic to remove Twilight's hiding spell.
"Oh, my," Princess Celestia gasped, "This most certainly is odd."
"You can say that again. What exactly happened?"
"You tell me. What happened before your wings appeared?"
Dark Horn began to explain the dream he had before he awoke to a lack of darkness and acquisition of wings.
"It appears that you have become able to control darkness and shadows."
"Why me?"
"I don't know. That's exactly what Luna and I wondered when we became alicorns."
"You weren't born alicorns?"
"No, nopony has been since before Discord first came around. It was when we realised our connection to the sun and moon that we gained our cutiemarks and became alicorns."
"But I already had my cutiemark. How could this be my talent?"
"Tell us how you gained your cutiemark."
Dark Horn retold the story of how somepony had stolen from him, so he tracked down the pony responsible, and attempted to take it back.
He remembered hiding in the shadows, but he realised how the shadows weren't dark enough to hide him, and how his horn began to glow with a dark aura, and the aura spread from his horn over his body, to the edge of the shadow, darkening it and making it opaque and impossible to see somepony hiding in them.
This was as far as he got when Princess Celestia butted in to tell him that that would have been when his cutiemark appeared, because that was his talent: control over darkness and shadows.
"Why didn't I grow wings back then, if that was when I realised my talent?" he asked, dumbfounded.
"Not all alicorns manifest instantly. For example, Twilight Sparkle could manifest into an alicorn at some point in the future." she pointed out, which made Twilight blush.
"How do I return the shadows, then?"
"I'll show you." she said, asking him to follow her out to the balcony.