Pitch Black in Equestria

by PinkMantis

Night Falls

Chapter 1

Dune was unremarkable in a sea of remarkable. A small grey earth pony with a black mane and tail, almost thirteen, he stood out like grass in a paddock - not at all. In the classroom, he was constantly surrounded on all sides by energetic Technicoloured equines with overabounding enthusiasm, of which he (usually) took no part; he was for the most part a mildly cynical and reserved mind, watching as if from above the antics of his friends. Yes-for though immediately others see him as aloof and holier-than-thou, he still sees friends as a great necessity. He enjoys their company, though they are (as he often ruefully thinks) blissfully unaware of sarcasm, and do not appreciate the great majority of his humour.

He was just finishing a brilliant mental lecture to the princesses, the nobility and everybody in general about the ridiculous names for public places-“I mean-PONYVILLE. This is nothing but a thinly-veiled attempt at bad pun-ular humour- hardly an appropriate –...”

“Dune!”

Dune awoke from his reverie, only to see the brightly-coloured green nose of his teacher, Mrs Hoofalot (Another ridiculous name) staring down at him.

“Is there anything so dreadfully important about that window that is so much more interesting than my lesson?”

“Well…”

The best answer was yes-if followed by a witty explanation, possibly even a witticism …no, he was too tired for this. Whatever, answer ‘no’ it was. Score one to the teacher. Actually, maybe not-maybe I shouldn’t concede this yet-yes, that’s it! Mrs Hoofalot was a sucker for fake sadness.

…no”, he said, his eyes downcast. Play up the remorse card, more, and shuffle your foot, yes…

“Well then…stay focused, and, um, pay attention”. Yes! Success!

“Now class,” Mrs Hoofalot continued, “we are doing a history project on the Canterlot royalty, as part of this term’s learning inquiry subject. So everyone will bring in something to do with the royals for show and tell, on Friday next week.”

Dune groaned and covered his head with his ‘Diversity is Wonderful’ exercise book as the rest of the class cheered. Sunshine Daisy (Why are lots of names simply combinations of obscenely cheerful nouns?), a fluorescent yellow Pegasus, was so excited about getting some wonderful homework that she started frantically flapping around the classroom. Mrs Hoofalot smiled and waved for the class to settle down, after a few seconds of gazing round the classroom fondly.

When the timekeeper sounded the trumpet for the end of school, Dune awoke from the trancelike staring state that he had slipped into, slipped on his bag and began to slowly trudge home. Around him the others trotted happily down the cobbled road, laughing and chattering excitedly about what they would do for their projects. Dune walked slowly out of main Ponyville (I mean, really? PONYVILLE?!!), and slowly up the dirt track that led to his home, nestled inside a small pine forest on the outskirts of Ponyville. He was not walking slowly for misery, or tiredness- merely caught up in the luxurious limbo between the trauma of school and the boredom and unfulfilment of home. This was his time-the time to reflect on the day’s successes and losses, the mental and emotional sacrifices of maintaining a stable existence in this most hectic of surroundings. He waxed lyrical in his mind, bemoaning the failures of the ruling classes, while still appreciating the many sacrifices and made and challenges met by their two rulers. Part of this self-reflective thinking stemmed from the ever-persistent desire to find out-Who am I? What is my purpose in life? How in Equestria did vibrant Technicolor manes evolve, and why don’t I get one?!

Dune arrived home sooner than he would have liked, as always. His home was relatively simple, made of cobblestone held together by unicorn magic, with a thatch roof. His parents were quite normal, his mother a doctor and his father a writer in the Weekly Hoovespaper. (An exceedingly obvious pun). He trotted through the front door, looked around the living room and yelled,

“HI MUM!” No reply. He tried again, louder. Still no response. He did a quick check of the house, and ascertained that neither of his parents were home. This in itself was not unusual, as both of his parents sometimes worked late. He picked up the Unicorn-Driven-Handheld- Telecommunications –Device TM and checked that there were no messages. He shrugged, got some clean paper from his father’s office and began a brilliant speech on the impact of solely unicorn-powered devises and their negative impact on society, along with a brief tie-in to Princess Luna to make it acceptable. Controversy was the key, and he was a master. The teacher wouldn’t be able to complain, as it was just in keeping with the ‘Happy and Educational Learning Publicly Society’. The HELPS. What was it with ponies and weird names? I swear they just made the words to fit the acronym. He worked on this for ages, self-dictating, testing, thinking and chuckling madly at the thought of Mrs Hoofalot’s face. He happened to glance up at the wall mounted clock, before after a few minutes of attacking the rigid industrial culture of subterfuge and elitism the information from his eyes reached his brain through a fog of righteous moral outrage. He started in shock, his blue-grey eyes darting to the clock. He gasped. It was 7:43, and he hadn’t heard anything from his parents. And he had written 8 pages.

But the number of pages was irrelevant. He galloped to the phone and rung the first number he could think of. April Sunshine, a unicorn filly who he sometimes hung out with. He waited, nervously, for her to pick up. He was suddenly painfully aware of just how dark the shadows in the corners of the room were, and how deep the mist was in the dimly-lit trees outside. He gulped nervously, and brushed a few stray hairs from his eyes. He let out a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding when he heard the phone click and she said,

“H-Hello? Who is it?” She sounded nervous.

“Hey, April, it’s me. Look, it’s probably nothing, but... my parents haven’t got home yet, and... I was kind of, Y’know a bit-”

“Ohmygosh I’m scared, Dune, my parents aren’t here either and-I’m scared now. W-what should we do...?!” Dune thought. Years of practice had enabled him to very analyse a situation and think up a response. He did this now and spoke in a calm, collected voice.

“Look. If there’s nothing wrong, we don’t want to rush in, call the cops and end up looking stupid. However, if something is going on, we do need to address this properly. To tell the truth, I’m a bit worried too. What do you say?”

“Yeah-ok then. But I, I...”

“Yes?” She replied in a weird voice.

“Look, I don’t mean for you to take this the wrong way but I am actually getting quite worried here. I am a thorough believer in filly rights, and do not at all take this as a concession on my part of male support being necessary, but-”

“You are worried about Buttercup?” Buttercup was April’s younger sister, a five-year-old who she was fiercely protective of. April took a deep breath.

“Yes. I hate to concede this to you, but you are a pretty good fighter-

“You mean that time when-”

“Yes, with the trash can.”

“...Ok. I think I should come down to your house, and then the three of us can walk into Main Ponyville and figure out what the hay is going on. Ok?”

“Thanks.” Her reply seemed unusually heartfelt. He could guess what was coming-

“And don’t you dare tell anypony about this” He smiled. She was often highly predictable in her bouts of femininity. He said goodbye and hung up. He stared outside at the dark forest and sighed. Picking up his backpack, he emptied it of school-related materials and proceeded to rummage around the house for anything useful. He picked out a flashlight, a small folding knife, a rope and a medical kit. Just in case. He slung the backpack over his back and began to trot swiftly down the ever-darkening road.

The road was usually nice at night, with Luna’s stars and moon shining, the cool wind blowing; but not tonight. The air was heavy and hot, and his mane was soon plastered to his coat as he trotted. The moon barely shone through the deep fog, and the world was ruled by swirling columns of writhing white mist. Eyrie sounds wailed and clattered in odd ways, echoing creepily. Dune licked his lips nervously, his hooves’ clattering oddly muffled. Great Celestia, this is so cliché. A vampire is probably going to loom out of the fog any moment now, grinning and yelling ‘I vill sukka your bluurd!’ .April’s house was not that far away, but the journey seemed to be taking ages. The flickering unicorn-powered streetflames were nothing more than faint glows. Dune was well and thoroughly creeped by this time, and would have happily turned tail and galloped all the way back home. He almost fell over the small blue letterbox outside April’s house, and cautiously turned up the driveway. He knocked cautiously on the blue front door, and heard muffled thumps and a high-pitched squeal emanating from inside the house. Fortunately, he stepped back alarmed just as the door opened and a wide-eyed April leaped out, clutching a tennis racket and looking very fierce. Her eyes softened when she saw Dune, and her hoofhold on the racket relaxed.

“Oh thank goodness, it’s you. Come in.”

“No, why don’t we just stand here in the cold, and freeze to death”.

“What?”

“Never mind”. Dune’s hopes fell slightly. Maybe next time. Dune stepped carefully through the doorway, pausing only to wipe his hooves on the mat. They stepped into the living room, where they could see a pair of tiny yellow hooves sticking from under the curtain. The whole curtain was shaking madly and high-pitched whimpering could be faintly heard. When Dune walked in, the hooves scramble out from under the curtain, only to end up in a little tangled heap on the floor. Buttercup stared up a Dune sobbing and shaking until she realised that it was only Dune, and she wasn’t going to be eaten. April immediately started comforting her. Dune spoke up.

“Have both of you packed?”

“Yes, I’ve packed some food for all three of us, and some other...things”, said April. Dune looked at her oddly before continuing.

“Well then, the sooner we get this over and done with the better. Let’s go!-Oh wait-do you have a flashlight?”

“Yeah, I’ll go get it”. April dashed upstairs and came back shortly after, holding a large orange flashlight in her hand. It was covered in thick bright orange fuzz, and had a fuzzy orange handle. Dune looked at her. She blushed and strode past him to the door. Dune just kept looking at her. She turned to him.

“Don’t judge me!”

“Are you sure you know where we are?” asked Dune, exasperated.

“For the last time, NO!” They had just passed the same paddock, for like the fourth time. After following Aprils brilliant idea-‘TRUST ME, I know a shortcut’- they had crossed several paddocks and were now standing in the middle of Ponyville. Or they should be, according to April. They were in fact standing in the middle of some paddock, on an unspecified farm, in either the general vicinity of Ponyville, of in the general vicinity of... elsewhere. Dune groaned. April was grumpy, convinced that her shortcut’s failure was due to the mist, and therefore somehow Dune’s fault. Buttercup was whingeing about how much her hooves hurt, and Dune was running out of bad jokes, and was now being periodically told to shut up.

“What did the policepony say to the pony who phoned to say he was dangling from the edge of a cliff??” He whispered.

“Oh god. Whatever. What did the policepony say to the pony who phoned to say he was dangling from the edge of a cliff?” She said, quietly.

“Hang on!” Groans. Very quiet groans. They felt as though they were being watched, and though Dune said it was probably their just their sub-consciousness having a nervous breakdown they had unanimously resolved to be quite. Just in case.

“What did the real estate agent say to the evil villain?”

*sigh* “What?”

“That’s a nice plot you’ve got there!”

“That is terrible.”

“You just don’t understand my genius.”

“Shut up.”

They kept walking. The fog had receded somewhat, but the night air was still pitch-black, kept at bay only by the shining of the unicorn-powered fires. The feeling of being observed had grown now, and Dune shivered. The silence was all around them now, a tangible wall. And then the lights flickered. Not the gentle wavering of a fake-flame, but a full-blown blackout. For a moment, it was absolutely dark, with not a single trace of light. Buttercup would have screamed if April hadn’t clapped a hoof over her muzzle.

“Holy Luna, what was that?” hissed April.

“I know exactly what that was.” said Dune. She looked at him confused, then her eyes cleared and she nodded.

“Ah, I get it. You don’t, you’re just insulting me for asking you.” She smiled, and then frowned.

“Yes, you get it!” he said happily.

“So... in effect you’re mocking me...”

“I prefer to call it...um...yeah, mocking. But really-”

“Dune?”

“Yes?”

“Shut up.”

They kept walking. They had a vague idea of where they were, and then they saw a signpost. His pulse quickening, Dune motioned for the others to follow him. He jumped over a fence and cantered up to it. He read it and his eyes widened in shock. April read it too looked at him with surprise.

PONYVILLE- 6 KILOMETRES

How in Equestria had they managed to walk 6 kilometres? But at least now they had a destination. Dune raced ahead a bit, telling himself he was scouting or something, but he was really just excited. They were trotting now, secure on roads they knew and eager to get to Ponyville and figure out what the cause of their parents’ mysterious disappearance was. And then Buttercup saw something and started screaming. And April looked, and saw it and cried out, and stopped and went all still and was staring at the thing. Dune rushed over, and saw it, and his mind froze.

Comments

[Biker_Dash]

Is this Riddick done as a pony?

[MDNGHTRDHTLN]

Pretty good. No major gripes. Liked and added to favorites.

[PinkMantis]

3095809
No, just with the creepy monsters

[Biker_Dash]

3102584 Bummer... cause I would LOVE to see Riddick done as a pony!

[Ranger Sonicboom]

he is badass