//------------------------------//
// Return of the Night 
// Story: The Lone Wolves 
// by InfinitySlayer 
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	The ethereal lights winking in the heavens danced. They swirled and shimmered around her, a symbol of the majesty that she commanded. The entirety of the infinite cosmos waited for her command; she had no order yet to give, no rally call for her troops. The limitless power of space would have to wait and observe rather than become a player in this masquerade. 

Penetrated like water as a small stone pebble shatters the zenith of the liquid, the empty space tore open a shining hole to make way for its ruler. The commander of the unknown facets of the eternal black depths glided through the bright white light, her expression cold and determined. 

Instantly,  the blackness vanished, leaving only an endless tunnel of undying light. With the unconquerable will of the night she accelerated, traveling at immeasurable speeds through the blinding corridor. Rather than sapping the energy from the princess of blackness, the light only gave her more strength. The quintessence of heaven itself was a mnemonic of what she had come so far to attain. 

With a battle cry as shrill and beautiful as the sound of the creatures dwelling under her moon, the princess of the night burst forth from the tunnel like a speeding train, suddenly shattering the veil that separated the night from her prize. 

The great gap separating the planes of reality was traversed, leaving Princess Luna surrounded by the reality she knew so well. Vibrant green swirled and danced below her hooves; cerulean blue dotted by great cotton ball clouds wafted above. From her vantage point a mile in the sky, the immense nation of Equestria sprawled outwards in all directions, a great canvass of unimaginable beauty and grace. 

One evil blot of darkness distorted the heavenly landscape. Five vessels of unknown design and infinite power hovered in combat formation above the ruins of the once breathtaking town of Ponyville. Luna's eyes darkened in fury. The invaders must be punished. 

The Princess of the Night took in a breath of fresh air, her first in what felt like millennia. She wiped rapidly accumulating sweat from her forehead with an armored hoof. Despite the fact she had survived, Luna's mission within the unfathomable nether regions of the Beyond had been a failure. Her theory that Celestia might be trapped in some unknown dimension of time and space begot nothing but further pain. 

A rush of emotions accelerated into her mind, swirling a great stew of anger and sadness and helplessness. The Veil that separated her universe from every other had taken every ounce of the Princesses power and focus to shatter without a portal. For what, abandoning her subjects on a whim? Leaving them to battle an unknown force alone? 

She reminded herself of the plan. The mission to retrieve Celestia from beyond the void was indeed a disaster, but all that is fallen is not yet lost. With a snort, Luna decided she would continue the operation after every single alien threat was eliminated. She hadn't spent a thousand years locked away on the moon to lose the earth now. 

With all of the majesty of her eternal night sky, Luna raised her midnight blue wings upwards in a preparatory stance. Ponyville may have been dozens of miles away from her position, but distance is of no matter for the Night. 

With a gust of wind powerful enough to shake the trees thousands of feet below her hooves, Princess Luna ordered her majestic wings in a sweeping arc downwards, gaining thousands of pounds of thrust in less than a second. The acceleration thereafter was both instantaneous and unimaginable. Similarly to how Rainbow Dash's extremely high speeds mid-flight cause the eye to only be able to perceive a rainbow streak across the sky, Luna left a dark blue, almost black line of power in her wake. The wind tore past her frame at incredible velocities; nonetheless she pressed on with all the will of the stars. 

Her targets approached within her field of view so quickly that one might perceive she was focusing in on the position with a telescope far away. Ten miles, then eight, then four, then one. 

Thrusting her wings upwards, she halted on a dime. The wind tunnel created by the sudden negative acceleration blasted forwards like a cannon, causing the nearby alien vessels to tremor slightly as it passed. Her eyes burned with furious white light. Her teeth were barred outwards in a blood chilling snarl. The innocent animals below cowered behind flora; the soaring birds of the air fled for their lives. The sky darkened as the night overtook the sky, leaving the area in a perpetual state of dusk. Even the eternal sun seemed to retreat slightly, fearing the wrath of its counter partner. 

For a long moment, all was trapped by a state of silence as the Princess of the Night calculated the enemy before her. What she assumed to the bow of the closest alien ship slowly rotated to face the new enemy. Screeching alarms sounded from the strange floating vessel; a battle cry in the ears of the warrior Princess. 

The white power of eternity glistening in her eyes spewed sparks and fueled licking flames as her majestic horn glowed ocean blue. Disregarding all of the self-restraint developed by Celestia since her return, she spoke with the the thunderous Royal Canterlot Voice,

"Creatures of darkness! Foul beings from the pit! I send you back to the void from which you came!" 

As she focused all of the cosmic energies of the eternal night into the tip of her horn, a new noise came to her ears from far above, a sound that reminded Luna of one of Rainbow Dash's legendary Sonic Rainbooms. Years of battle reflexes subconsciously ordered her muzzle to look towards the possible new danger. However, the energy boiling within her horn acted as a hot gas inside a sealed container. With nowhere else to go but out, the blue and black blast of magical energy exploded upwards towards the sky. 


_/.o0o.\_


The air is quiet and still. The heat of the day creates a musty environment for the creatures crawling across the warm earth. Evaporating pools of water create whips of swirling steam slowly streaking through the damp green grass. A red and blue speckled songbird nests in the knot of a tree comfortably with her young chicks. An energetic squirrel scuttles from one tree to the next in search of nuts to crack. A black and silver snake slithers across a collection of nearby limestone rocks in stealthy pursuit of a nearby mouse. 

The songbird notices an odd grouping a very large creatures floating in the distance. Curious, it chirps a swift goodbye to its chicks and investigates, fluttering to a taller tree as a vantage point. Resting upon an extended branch above the forest canopy, the songbird turns its small head inquisitively. Magical and often threatening creatures were a common occurrence in the Everfree, but she did not recognize those large and seemingly dangerous things imposingly grouped together.

The faint and tranquil noises of the day are ruptured instantly by the sound of something penetrating the atmosphere. The supersonic waves of air shake the trees of the forest as an earthquake. Squirrels are knocked violently from their perches upon branches, birds of all kinds scatter in huge waves to flee the unknown force. The red and blue speckled songbird retreats swiftly to her nest in order to protect her defenseless hatch lings from the oncoming storm. 

A blue stream of crackling light erupts from the middle of the sky, moving upwards at unimaginable speeds. The energy burst creates yet another shock-wave, causing strong trees in the near vicinity to collapse on themselves. After a few seconds of terror, the energy subsides. A black and blue figure falls. 

For a few precious moments, the stillness returns. It is shattered again by something far worse. 

A purple and orange lightning bolt suddenly strikes one of the alien objects floating in the sky. The air is blinded by a flash of white light for a full second, suddenly subsiding to reveal the evisceration that followed upon the poor vessel. 

A shadow falls upon the Everfree, a shadow in the shape of a teardrop.