• Published 2nd Jun 2012
  • 13,299 Views, 252 Comments

Creeping Darkness - Pen Stroke



Alan Wake must write a story where Twilight faces the Darkness of his world to save Equestria

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Stand Against the Darkness

“I won’t let you interfere again, Poet.”

Twilight had not realized she had fallen asleep until she was jarred awake by the voice shouting out loud. It snapped both Twilight and Nyx awake, the young foal jumping up and grabbing hold of Twilight’s neck while the unicorn herself looked around. She expected to see some monstrosity looming over them, but she could only see darkness.

“They shall both sink, sink into the depths and be swallowed up. ” The voice called again, and this time Twilight was able to hear it properly. It rung not as a single voice, but two voices speaking together. One voice was recognizable: it was the voice of Nightmare Moon. Still, she spoke only as an echo to the stronger thing speaking. A dark, rumbling voice that shook Twilight down to her very core.

And something else began to grab at her... fear, panic, terror from a source Twilight couldn’t explain. It was something she had felt before, her memory fresh from the experience. When Zane had been pulling the unicorn into the deeper parts of the Dark Place she had felt this kind of creeping terror trying to overtake her. Nyx must have been feeling the terror too, the alicorn foal’s grip on Twilight’s neck was growing tighter and tighter.

Twilight could only think of one explanation: they were sinking... sinking back into the depths where Twilight had found Nyx. Zane only confirmed this, his breathing and voice sounding panicked as it reached Twilight’s ears.

“The Dark Presence, it’s trying to stop us, stop you. koooh....kssssh It knows you have the light to defeat it. I can’t save us all. You cannot defeat her like normal Taken. The darkness of this place protect her, and it is infinite. Taken are only destroyed when they are filled with light. Her heart is filled with darkness. You must turn on the light. koooh....kssssh

A light clicked on below Twilight and Nyx, blinding the unicorn for a moment. When her eyes adjusted she looked down, and saw the form of Zane floating just beneath them. The light from the glass window in his diving helmet was growing brighter and brighter, and as it did Twilight gained a sense of being pushed upward. Zane was using his light to push them back up to the shallows of the Dark Place. Yet, as Twilight and Nyx ascended, the unicorn took notice that Zane looked like he was sinking... and sinking quickly.

“You are a fool, Poet.” The voice from the dark taunted as Zane began to fade into darkness, only the light from his helmet still visible. “Your sacrifice will be for nothing. They will not be able to bring light back to Equestria. All you have done is let yourself succumb to the darkness.”

~~~

The darkness around Twilight faded, revealing the familiar landscape of the Dark Place. Twilight, now armed with a bit more understanding of the Dark Place and couldn’t help but wonder if where she was now was the surface of the Dark Place. A thin, aged, stone crust that surrounded an endless sea of darkness below. That would explain why trails of blackness floated into the air from almost every crack in the earth.

Nyx was still clinging to Twilight’s neck, eyes shut tight as if afraid of what she’d find when she opened them. Twilight lifted a hoof, trying to comfort the foal, both for Nyx’s sake and also because Twilight had come to realize she was being choked by Nyx’s frightened embrace.

As Nyx calmed down, Twilight let herself looked around. Most of the terrain was what the unicorn expected, just more darkness and an endless horizon, but upon turning to look to her left Twilight was surprised to see something standing there. An aged archway, made of old tree limbs nailed crudely together. From the arch a sign hung that read “Diver’s Isle”, the lettering made out with small pieces of wood.

Twilight got to her hooves, using a bit of telekinesis to shift Nyx so the foal could still hold onto her neck but was also sitting on the unicorn’s shoulders. She walked beneath the sign, stepping onto an aged wooden bridge that appeared to rise from the darkness as the light from Twilight’s horn spread upon it.

The bridge was suspended over a swirling sea of darkness, and Twilight had to struggle to keep herself from looking down. Was that what she had just been in? What Zane was now sinking in? Twilight couldn’t let herself wonder or even think about. She just focused on the bridge, finding a minor distraction in making sure each hoof step landed squarely in the center of a board.

It didn’t take long to reach the end of the bridge, Twilight’s hooves once again on solid ground. This ground, however, was different from the ground of the rest of the Dark Place. It was softer, and there were patches of grass and gray stone. The island in the sea of darkness also featured a cabin, and Twilight could hear the sound of something metallic ticking away from one of the windows.

“You are a strong one, little pony.”

Twilight jumped a little, the ground shifting beneath her hooves. The island began to twist and mutate, shadows stripping across it as trees were knocked over and rocks were crushed. The island was stretched and pulled, like a giant piece of taffy, until Twilight suddenly found herself on the edge of large open field, easily a few hundred feet across.

The cabin rested on the opposite side of the open field, and was now covered in a black ooze that looked as thick as tar. It dripped and hung from the aged logs, covering every window and enveloping the cabin’s front deck.

The voice, or rather voices, that had announced the sudden change to the terrain had been the same Twilight had heard minutes before. A deep rumbling voice echoed and mixed with Nightmare Moon’s. The voice began to fill the air again as Twilight saw a figure rise out of the black ooze that engulfed the cabin.

At first there was no solid form to the figure. It was large and it had four legs, but beyond that the shape was undetermined. Yet, as the creature stepped completely out of the ooze and away from the cabin, its shape began to solidify. A pair of huge black wings, a long alicorn horn, and a waving black mane of inky darkness. A pony, equal in stature to Celestia with dragon shaped black eyes.

It was Nightmare Moon, or, as Zane put it, the Dark Presence that wore Nightmare Moon’s face. Twilight couldn’t deny that this vision of Nightmare Moon was far more frightening than the one she and her friends had faced down. The true, original Nightmare Moon had looked threatening, but at the same time regal. This creature, however, was just terrifying. There was nothing pleasing about her or its appearance.

“There are only a few that have ever been able to defy me: the poet and the writer. With their help you’ve survived my darkness. You’ve kept your light on. Now that both of them are gone, I wonder how long you can keep yourself from sinking.

“But I am merciful. I’ll let you free yourself. You can just write a little story, and the words will carry you from this place. You can go anywhere you want, be anything you want on the other side. I’ll let you write yourself free, if you hand over the foal.”

“NO!” Twilight snapped without a second thought.

“Are you truly willing to give up your own chance at freedom for a foal you just met?”

Twilight stamped, lowering her head as she glared down Nightmare Moon. “If you want Nyx, you’ll have to go through me.”

“Strong... but ignorant. Very well; succumb to darkness.”

With that the corrupted Nightmare Moon’s mane flared out, the black tendrils spreading out into the air before lunging at Twilight. The unicorn lit up her horn, making the light shine as brightly as she could. The dark tendrils started to burn away, retreating from the light. Twilight smiled at this, meeting Nightmare Moon’s black gaze... but the corrupted mare was only smiling.

“I am an old spirit, older than your princesses, older than your world... older than most worlds. I have spent eons in the darkness, waiting for my chance. I am, if nothing else, patient. Your light is strong, your pure virtue of friendship has shielded you from my minor efforts.

“But now, unicorn, you have my full attention, the full weight of the darkness bears against you. It saps your strength, your virtue weakens and will soon break like thin glass. Even now you struggle to keep up the light.”

Nightmare Moon’s black tendrils inched closer, testing the strength and power of Twilight’s light and proving that it was diminishing. The unicorn, seeing this, grunted as she forced her light out again, sweat starting to build on her brow.

“You can struggle, you can fight... but your strength is fleeting, as are all mortal lives. Your precious purity, your virtues, crumble in time. Corruption is the only inevitable and the only thing eternal. I am eternal, I am patient... I can watch you be born and die like you would watch a grain of sand falling in an hourglass. I am patient... and my patience has allowed me to seize your world. With it I can spread to others, once I have broken the writer. I shall plunge all into darkness, all shall come to fear my new face.”

The tendrils began to encroach again, Twilight’s light weakening as Nightmare Moon continued to muse, the strange two tone voice rumbling from her mouth carrying undertones of victory.

“How long can you last? Not for very long, I’d say. Yes, it won’t be long until you will be sinking into the depths, just as the poet now sinks.”

Twilight grunted, pushing her light out again but finding it harder and harder to keep the light from her horn up. She didn’t know why it was so hard, why it was such a strain. Maybe it was because Nightmare Moon was pushing the tendrils of her mane against the light... Twilight wasn’t sure but the unicorn was forced to drop to her front knees.

The unicorn chanced a glance over her shoulder, seeing Nyx trembling there. The foal happened to open her eyes, and her gaze locked with Twilight’s. Zane had said it was Nyx’s light that could defeat Nightmare Moon, defeat the Dark Presence. Yet... in the very next breath, Zane said that defeating Nightmare Moon would be something Nyx might not survive.

Twilight’s light continued to fade, the black tendrils inching closer and closer, eager to strike. She couldn’t keep them away, she needed help... but her friends were nowhere nearby and Zane was sinking into the darkness. Nyx was the only one.

“Nyx.” Twilight grunted out, trying to keep her voice strong even as the strain of keeping the light up was starting to exhaust her. “I need your help.”

“My help?”

“I need you to try and light your horn; use that super special light spell I taught you. It will help make this monster go away.”

Nyx’s eyes drifted, turning to Nightmare Moon who stared black with her cold, solid black orbs. The foal’s grip on Twilight’s neck tightened, but the alicorn nodded her head. She closed her eyes, screwing up her face as she tried to concentrate. A few sparks danced from her horn, a light trying to take shape but failing.

Again and again Nyx tried to light her horn, but she couldn’t. She looked back at Twilight, tears in her eyes. “I... I can’t. I’m too scared.”

Twilight grunted, her strength starting to fail. The light from her horn barely encompassed her and Nyx at this point, the dark tendrils of Nightmare Moon’s mane within inches of being able to strike at some part of the unicorn. She tried to find some hidden reserve of strength, tried to make her light shine brighter.

Light was only a metaphor for purity in the Dark Place. Twilight tried thinking of fond memories, of her friends, of anything that had once given her strength against the darkness. Each thought, however, was burnt up like paper in a roaring fireplace. It helped fuel Twilight’s light, but only for a few brief moments before it was spent. The corrupted Nightmare Moon was truly the master of the darkness. Times before Twilight’s light had been enough to keep the darkness at bay, but now it was like trying to use a single candle to light the entire royal palace.

Her light was just too weak.

“Twilight!” Nyx wailed as a few of the dark tendrils started to lash out, leaping into the burning of the light as they tried to reach the foal. She wanted to fight back, she wanted to protect Nyx, but Twilight didn’t have the strength.

She sank to the ground, sweat pouring off her brow as her light dimmed further. She just couldn’t keep it lit, not against the Dark Presence’s direct assault. It was just too much. She needed help. She needed Zane or Alan, somepony who could help face the darkness. She needed...

“TWILIGHT!”

Her friends! The unicorn spun her head around, to the rickety bridge that had carried her and Nyx onto the island. Celestia, Luna, Applejack, Rarity, Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were all racing towards her. Those who could fly were in the air. Celestia's horn glowed like a miniature sun, her light blanketing half of the island while Luna, Fluttershy, and Dash followed in a tight V formation. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all galloped across the bridge and up to the unicorn’s side, putting themselves between Twilight and the corrupted dark moon.

“How did you find me?” Twilight asked as she watched Celestia and Luna land near the center of the island, ready to face off against the corrupted Nightmare Moon while Dash and Fluttershy landed nearby.

“Well, it was hard not to notice ya Sugarcube. We were able to see that light of yours from a mile away in this dark place.”

“Though you can imagine how worried we were when we saw it was starting to get dimmer. We raced over just as fast as we could.”

“Yep, because I knew you were fighting the meanie-mean pants that controls this place!”

“How did you know that?”

“Duh, my Pinkie Sense told me.”

Twilight laughed a little, smiling at all her friends. “Of course, I know-”

“Do you think you will fare any better?” The corrupted Nightmare Moon called, interrupting Twilight. The six mares of the Elements of Harmony turned, looking as Nightmare Moon stared down Luna and Celestia. “Do you truly believe you can defy me in this place where my darkness is bottomless, in this realm that is my home and prison?”

“Considering how scared you look, I think we can.” Celestia replied, scrapping at the ground with one hoof, proving the princess was ready for a fight. Luna had also lowered her head, the moon princess’ horn starting to glow with white, pale moonlight. The corrupted Nightmare Moon seemed to take this challenge, pawing at the ground once herself. With that final exchange, the three alicorns charged at each other, Celestia focusing her light into a strong, straight forward beam while the darkness that was Nightmare Moon’s mane began to launch itself in an attack. Luna kept her light glowing all around, the moon princess acting as a shield for Celestia as the sun princess focused her light for the attack.

“Come on Sugarcube,” Applejack said, the farm pony turning her eyes away from the ensuing fight, “Let’s get you back on your hoo-” Applejack’s voice died, the farm pony titling her head as she took notice of the black trembling mass clinging to Twilight’s neck.

“Uh, Darlin’, you got something on your neck.”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s just Nyx.”

“Nyx? What’s a Nyx?”

“Not a what, Dash, a who.” Twilight said, turning her head back. “It’s okay, Nyx, these are my friends. They’re here to help us. Nothing bad is going to happen while they’re here.”

Nyx didn’t move for a few moments, but then slowly pulled her head out of Twilight’s mane, her big turquoise eyes looking around at the five ponies that now encircled her. The expressions around the group were mixed. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were leaning in and smiling, as if Nyx was the cutest little thing they had ever seen. Rarity, Applejack, and Dash were not as drawn in, exchanging confused looks.

“Hi Nyx, my name is Flutttershy.”

“Hi...” The foal replied weakly, starting to gain courage despite being in front of so many strange faces. “Are you really friends of Twilight?”

“Oh yes, we’re her best friends.”

“And you’re not monsters?”

“No, we’re just regular ponies. Now, Sweetie, would you mind getting off Twilight’s back?” Fluttershy asked. “We need to help her back to her hooves and it will be easier if you stand over here by me.”

Nyx glanced at Twilight, the unicorn offering a smile and nod. With that the foal released her grip on Twilight’s neck, jumping down off the unicorns back and stepping slowly over to Fluttershy. With Nyx out of the way, Applejack and Dash moved to help Twilight up, the unicorn thankful for the assistance.

“Thanks girls.”

“No problem Sugarcube, but... uh, you feel like tellin’ us just where you picked up that little one?

“Or just who the heck she’s supposed to be? I mean, you call her Nyx but she looks an awful lot like-”

“I know who she looks like, Dash, and she kind of is that mare. She’s the last good piece of Nightmare Moon, a piece that the Nightmare Moon we knew gave up so she could use the power of the Dark Place. But, in giving up that piece, Nightmare Moon let herself become just a puppet to the darkness... a mask for something called the Dark Presence to wear.”

Applejack huffed. “This place is as confusing as an apple that tastes like an orange.”

“I know Applejack, but... it’s okay. Even if it is confusing I know what we have to do. If we can beat Nightmare Moon, then we can free Alan. He’s the one that started the story, and he’s the one that can write a happy ending.”

“Well, is that all? I would have imagined it being far more difficult than just beating Nightmare Moon again. After all, we’ve done that before, haven’t we?” Rarity offered.

“Yep, it will be easy-peasy.” Pinkie Pie chirped.

“Do not underestimate the darkness.”

The six mares and one foal jumped, spinning around. The corrupted Nightmare Moon was standing in the center of the field, the black tendrils from her mane holding onto the limp, beaten forms of Luna and Celestia. The mare gave her head a toss, throwing the princesses at the hooves of the friends. Fluttershy quickly moved forward, hovering over the princess before putting an ear to each of their chests.

“They’re still breathing.” Fluttershy announced, letting everyone breath a sigh of relief.

“Yes; after all, they’re no use to me dead.” Nightmare Moon called, beginning to walk towards the six mares. “After all, I cannot make Taken out of the dead. No, they shall live, and become filled with my darkness. They shall be my Taken, my soldiers, just like all of you.

“Except you, unicorn. You and that foal are threats to me, threats that can serve no purpose. I let the writer and poet live after their rebellion because they are of use; they can dream me free with their words. You, however, serve no such purpose.

“No, I intend to kill you two.” Nightmare Moon said in her two toned voice. “So that nothing can stand to threaten my darkness.”

“I’d like to see you try.” Dash snapped, putting herself right between Twilight and Nightmare Moon.

“Yea, you want to get to Twilight, you gotta go through us.”

“All of us.” Rarity added as she, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy joined the wall of ponies.

“And you think you can stand against the darkness?”

“Twilight helped us escape your icky, mean darkness before. She just had to remind me of my laughter.”

“And me of my compassion.”

“My generosity.”

“My honesty.”

“And my loyalty.” Dash finished.

“Here’s the thing.” Twilight said, her friends stepping aside so the unicorn could join the line. “Zane told me how this place works. Light here represents purity, and me and my friends each represent six of the purest virtues a pony can have. And together... we are the Elements of Harmony.”

As if answering Twilight’s call, six points of light snapped to life around the ponies. They turned and spun as, from the light, things began to take shape. The necklaces and tiara that Twilight and her friends had once used before manifested themselves in the darkness, moving to their respective owners. Each trinket glowed brightly, casting out a light that forced the corrupted Nightmare Moon back.

The six ponies began to float, eyes closed as the ancient magic they summoned began to build. The power of their virtues began to infuse in the magic, the light becoming bright. Twilight opened her eyes, pupils encased in pure light as the six ponies were caught up in a spiraling rainbow. The rainbow shot into the air, spiraling before it shot down at the corrupted Nightmare Moon.

“YOU KNOW NOT THE DEPTHS OF DARKNESS YOU FACE!!!”

At the shout of its master the Dark Place itself seemed to rise up. The inky shadows that surrounded the island and hung in the air surged, gathering around the corrupted Nightmare Moon before surging up at the rainbow. The two clashed, a shock wave and boom cutting in the air as the two forces collided.

For a time the strength was stalemated, but then the darkness began to inch its way up the rainbow. At the source of the beam, bathed in light, the six mares began to grunt and focus, trying to urge the rainbow further. The Dark Presence that wore Nightmare Moon’s face had to do the same, struggling against the immensely powerful Elements of Harmony.

Yet, the darkness continued to overtake, inching its way up the rainbow until it reached the sphere of light. Then, Nightmare Moon reared back, spreading her wings and slamming her hooves down on the ground.This caused the darkness to swell, to surge, tendrils shooting out and engulfing the light. There was a crushing sound, a crackling sound, and then the darkness broke through the magic to reach the six mares inside.

When the darkness receded, Twilight and her friends dropped from the sky, crashing to the ground below. Each was covered in scratches and sore spots that would turn to bruises in time. They weren’t unconscious, but none of them were able to summon the strength to stand. They all just laid on the ground, trying to recover.

Nightmare Moon stepped towards them, folding her wings as she wore a gentle smile, her black eyes glancing at the defeated six while moving towards Twilight.

“How... how didn’t we...” Twilight asked, once again trying to stand but flopping to the ground.

“Surely you would have learned by now. Remember all the Taken you’ve fought? What the poet and writer have told you? The darkness cannot be defeated from the outside.”

Her heart is filled with darkness. You must turn on the light.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed as Zane’s last words echoed in her mind. The Darkness lives inside the Taken, the darkness lived inside of Nightmare Moon. The Dark Presence could only be destroyed where it lived, and that was on the inside.

“Now you understand... but far too late.” The corrupted Nightmare Moon mused, smiling devilishly before rearing back, lifting her front hooves high above the unicorn.

“Now, slip into the darkness of death.” The Dark Presence, at this point, then brought her hooves down, bring all her strength and weight down on Twilight in what would turn into a series of brutal, lethal blows.