Manehattan, Manehattan Hospital, 1:00pm
Some hours after Twilight and Trixie were taken to Manehattan Hospital; the authorities have sent a letter toward Canterlot to tell the princesses that they found Princess Twilight, with her was a pony by the name of Trixie… but no sign of the strange bipedal being that many witnesses had spotted to be with the lavender princess. Being kept within a certain wing of the hospital, filled of police ponies, and guards, Twilight and Trixie were recovering in their room, while at the same time, surrounded by anti-magic runes to keep them from teleporting… however, that won’t happen any time soon. Twilight, who was out of the two was covered in bandages, with one or two needles prodding her fur, inserting a clear liquid inside her. Trixie however, only had a bandage on her head and torso, though the headache she felt made the pain four times bad as being stabbed in the leg. Twilight stared out the window… expecting a figure, clad in black armor to come… but nobody came. She sighed, knowing that Dark couldn’t survive that explosion… but he was able to save somepony's life… Dark may seemed to be some sort of evil creature… really, he was the complete opposite. He was a soldier, serving the multiverse, and defending it from evils that were beyond Twilight’s knowledge and understanding… but he was also somebody who wanted the truth… to understand the world, and cared for every living thing… that everyone had a choice.
Twilight stared into the brick buildings, and carriages that went by from the road in front of the hospital. “Where are you Dark?” thought Twilight.
While Twilight was busy with her own thoughts, from the building, facing opposite of the hospital… something shadowy was eyeing the pure marble building… thoughts full of malice intentions, and a thirst for something… vile. The dark figure followed one of the ambulances which was holding a patient… the patient or in this case, the patient’s family or friends were giving out a certain… “emotion” that attracted the dark figure. “This place… smells of… fear… jealousy… revenge… and… hatred,” said the dark figure. “It shall be… a feast.”
The dark figure, slowly awaited a chance to strike, but the more it awaited… the more it’s hunger became more wild and beast-like. Unable to hold itself any longer… it shattered the window, or in this case, the building’s wall that was facing the hospitable.
All the ponies who were at the front of the hospitable or trotting by it, saw the sudden explosion coming from the empty building that was facing the hospitable. Unsure what happened, a dark figure slithered out, standing on twos, it examined it's surroundings… eyeing the fearful gazes amongst those that saw it. The figure, in a demonic way… was grinning, both happy that not only he found a place to possibly quench his thirst… but felt the same energies coming from those around it. “Fear!” said the dark figure, the word echoing onto the streets.
Everypony ran, fearful of this sudden attack; the police who stationed outside the hospitable took action, sending magical spells, wards, and anything they had on them. The earth ponies rushed forward but were stopped by a wall made of shadows. The pegasi, attempting to swoop from behind were shortly stopped by spikes that were dark as the darkest abyss, which caused the pegasi to either swivel out of the way, or have their wings clipped slightly. The earth ponies decided to stay behind, while the remaining pegasi gathered clouds, leaving the unicorns to defend their posts.
Meanwhile inside the hospital, one of the earth pony police warned any nearby nurses and doctors to evacuate everypony out of the hospital through the back. “EVERYPONY GET OUT! THERE’S A MONSTER AT THE HOSPITAL’S ENTRANCE! WE NEED EVERYPONY TO EVACUATE THROUGH THE BACK EXIT!” shouted the police earth pony.
Everypony in the lobby and first floor, began evacuating; ponies in crutches, wheelchairs, and hospital beds began flooding through the exit in the back. At the same time outside, the dark figure continued its relentless onslaught. The pegasi who went to get clouds, created one giant black cloud, ready to unleash a torrent of lightening upon the dark figure.
“OKAY EVERYPONY… READY… AIM...” said the lead pegasus, preparing to kick. “FIRE!” All the police pegasi kicked as hard as they can upon the cloud, as a giant thunderbolt struck the dark figure. The flash of light temporarily blinded everypony, causing them to block their view. Reopening their eyes, all that remained was an empty suit of black armor without no helmet. Headless, everypony assumed that they eviscerated the dark figure only leaving it’s armor remaining.
“Is it… is it dead?” said one of the police pegasi.
Slowly approaching the empty suit of armor, the pegasus sighs turning to his comrades. “It’s alright, I think we got it,” said the pegasus.
Thinking they got the mysterious monster… the armor shifted. Suddenly the left arm of the armor moved, grabbing the pegasus that went to check the armor; grabbing the pegasus by the tail. Unable to react quickly enough, the pegasus was thrown into the hospital’s wall, making the pegasus unconscious. The headless empty suit of armor lit aflame with a black fire; the empty hole seeped of a black energy creating something that looked like a head. Two white eyes opened… full of rage, the dark figure wasn’t affected by the lightening, but instead only seemed to piss it more.
Everypony began to slowly retreat back into the hospital… but the dark figure crouched down, one leg kneeling forward the other behind it. Staring toward it’s target, the hospital doors; it took off running full speed it barreled through earth pony and unicorn alike, leaving the pegasi to watch. Crashing through the doors, it caused the hospital to shake violently, breaking the doors and walls off, caused by the dark figure’s charge.
On the second floor in the right wing of the hospital, both Twilight and Trixie felt the sudden shaking. It was quick, but Twilight could tell something was happening; at first she thought it was Dark coming to save them. However when a guard came running into the room where another guard who also felt the shaking, Twilight watched and listened to the two guards speaking. “Something is attacking the hospital! It’s in this strange black armor, and covered in these strange black flames of sort! We need to get the princess and her friend out of here!” shouted the guard, who ran into the room.
“How can we do that!? The princess is too injured to move, we could do more harm if we tried evacuating her!” said the other guard.
“But if we don’t get her out, that… ‘thing’ will get her! Either we get her out, or we risk the chance of her getting in more harm, or worse!” said the first guard.
The second guard looked at the floor then looked back at his comrade. “Alright, we’ll move the princess. You carry her, I’ll get her friend, since that thing is below us we’ll move up to the roof. There should be some stairs leading to an alleyway, we can head to the train station and get the princess to Canterlot ourselves,” said the second guard.
“Got it,” said the first guard, agreeing. Both guards approached the two patients on their beds; one of the guards approached Twilight. “Princess, there’s an emergency happening downstairs. We’re going to leave through the roof, I’m sorry that this is happening to you.”
Twilight, though was severely injured, still spoke but her voice was quiet and slow. “I have… no problem… with that… but… you mentioned… black… armor?” said Twilight, wheezing.
“Yes princess, but we need to go. I don’t think if the thing downstairs could be your friend,” said the first guard. The guard moves to the side, so Twilight could climb on him. After both guards got the princess and her friend, they moved swiftly to the roof.
Back at the entrance, anypony who was unlucky enough to not leave the entrance quick enough was met with rock and glass to their faces. The dark figure stood tall upon the countless unconscious ponies, slowly ebbing away a similar black energy from every single one of them. After finish feeding, the dark figure sniffed once more… when a very familiar scent reached it… a very familiar scent… too familiar. “Hmmmmm… Where have I sensed this scent before?” the dark figure thought.
The dark figure sniffed even more; this scent… was familiar to the dark figure… but where has it sensed it before. The figure stared up, knowing where the smell was coming from and who’s it was. The scent was moving, quickly, which meant whoever was moving… was trying to escape. The black figure grinned, though having no mouth, ready to chase it’s prey; the dark figure changed it's physical form turning into a shadowy mist, slipping through the ceiling above it.
Elsewhere, the two guards who carried Twilight and Trixie reached the roof from the many stairways and hallways they had to run through. From the far right side of the hospital was a metal railing, there was the metallic stairs which would led to the alleyway, at the bottom would be a carriage for them to escape to. “Quickly, we need to get the princess out of here before-”
Before the guard who was carrying Trixie could finish, the ground behind them burst open with black flames. Rising from the lobby, was the dark figure; with it’s empty colorless eyes, it stared at the guards, then Trixie… then Twilight. It tilted it’s head… curious of the scent Twilight wore, but it glared at the guards, specifically… the emblem they bore. The armor they wore held an emblem; it was a sun, as bright as the real one… but something made the dark figure angry when staring at the emblem… almost like it seen it before… strange.
“What do we do now?” whispered the guard, who carried Twilight.
The guard who carried Trixie looked at the ground, then the dark figure, then his fellow guardspony. He then looked at the princess, and with one quick motion, he hefted the princess’s friend onto the other guard’s back. “Get the princess and her friend out of here. I’ll handle this thing,” said the guard, unsheathing his sword. “GO! BEFORE IT ATTACKS!”
The second guard stared at his comrade, but at the same time the dark figure charged forward with gluttonous hunger, determined to gain it’s prey. The first guard, who was a unicorn, levitated his sword; lunging his weapon straight toward the dark figure’s torso, the sword simply reflected back creating a loud clang. The dark figure stopped, looking at it’s own armor… not a dent made; the dark figure then looked at it’s opponent, it grinned happily.
“Now… it’s my turn to play,” said the dark figure. The dark figure rushed forward, without any weapons but it’s own shadowy flames and pitch black armor. The dark figure swung it’s right hand sending the unicorn guard’s sword flying into the ground. It then proceeded to reach for the unicorn’s neck, however the unicorn guard wasn’t helpless disarmed; trained to handle any situation, even close combat. The unicorn guard dodged then with his own magic he used a spell causing the ground to shake when stone spikes rose up and then sending them flying at the dark figure. The dark figure swung, crushed the stone spikes, but mostly they either phased through it or simply dropped to the ground from the sheer durability the figure’s armor was.
A bead of sweat slowly slid from the unicorn guard’s forehead; without his sword and any attempts of attack seeming not to effect the strange armored creature… the guard’s actions were fruitless. “Crud, I have to think of something, quick,” thought the unicorn guard.
Right before the guard could react, the dark figure had appeared behind him. With a swift kick, the dark figure sent the unicorn guard to the sky, slowly descending back down he then made something… dark appear. On the dark figure’s right arm, appeared a shadowy purple blade, with ominous glow coming off it. With the blade, the dark figure swung it’s blade skyward releasing a purple energy blast toward the unicorn; the blast however wasn’t lethal but sent the unicorn nevertheless to the roof of another building, making the unicorn completely unconscious and possibly with a few broken bones too. After finish dealing with this sudden obstacle, the dark figure turned… staring at the far side of the hospital’s roof. “Run run little ones… for tonight… shall be a night of horrors beyond your imagining,” said the dark figure, in a sing-song voice.
In the alleyway, the other guard carried Twilight and Trixie down to the carriage; carefully laying them down on the seats inside. Quickly strapping the carriage to himself, the guard began towing the carriage to the train station as quick as he could. Leaving the alleyway, the guard ran pass carriage and pony alike to reach his destination… until he felt something… heavy about the carriage. Even though the guard was driving a carriage alone with two ponies inside, the carriage felt heavier than it was before… until he heard a dark sinister voice. “Going somewhere?”
The guard froze still but continued to drive the carriage; before he could turn his head, he felt the air tense up as a metallic object hit right in the back of his head. This caused the carriage to swerve and turn… until the carriage itself flipped over. Many ponies who were trotting by saw the spectacle, quickly forming toward the crashed carriage. The guard was dazed his eyesight blurry… until he spotted a shadowy form before him; the dark figure stared with it’s cold empty white eyes. The dark figure turned, looking inside the carriage where it proceeded to carry both Twilight and Trixie; turning to face the guard one last time it spoke. “Farewell,” said the dark figure, it’s voice devoid of life.
The carriage erupted into an explosion of black fire, a shadowy form jumping into the sky, until landing into a good distance from the crashed carriage. Many ponies weren’t sure what happened or what the strange dark figure was, but were able to get the guard into a safe distance from the wreckage until an ambulance could arrive.
Somewhere else at the same time, the dark figure placed both Twilight and Trixie on the ground. The dark figure had landed on a roof, the building was tall enough so both pony, either those who could fly or not wouldn’t be able to see the dark figure. Both Twilight and Trixie were sleeping, deciding to gain what rest they could… that and from the injuries they received they were unable to make a single move nor a simple spell to conjure. The dark figure was more interested into the winged and horned lavender pony; kneeling down the dark figure stared at Twilight’s closed eyelids. It caresses Twilight’s cheek then begins to stroke her mane… for some reason this mare was so familiar to the dark figure, not in the sense that they met before but… that this mare reminded the dark figure of someone… else it once knew…
In another time and place, Dimension 3112A…
Within a hidden facility, an organization secretive from humanity and more mysterious than the rumored Illuminati, this organization’s name was forgotten through time… that it was more than a myth or legend… it was a “story”. This organization had gained the technology to travel through dimensions, to create artificial life, and advanced weapons… capable of taking down a whole galaxy. The organization was separated through different parts, each focusing on it’s own project… one certain part of the organization was focusing on a project known as… “Project Drakos”. The project was to focus on creating artificial life… the project at first was unsuccessful but was able to create several AIs. The prototype AI of all the other AIs was given the codename… Darkness; this AI was highly dangerous, considering it’s uncanny hatred for any living beings. However… on the day they were preparing to set the prototype AI into storage… a deal was made.
The AI known as Darkness, waited inside it’s electronic prison. All the AIs were kept in containers made of wires, metal, and such. Each container had a light on them which signifies which AI was inside the container. For Darkness, his color was… black; Darkness waited inside… waiting until he was needed no more. Many of the scientists and workers within the facility that Darkness was in were… afraid of the AI; but one day, a curious scientist approached the container that held Darkness. “Excuse me? Is… somebody in there?” asked a feminine voice.
Darkness non-existent eyebrows raised up, curious to who could disturb his sleep… though he was only thinking, not sleeping. A holographic form of Darkness appeared out of the container; Darkness’s holographic body was pure black, with two white eyes, devoid of pupils or color. Darkness, though looking average than the other AIs was indeed more than he seemed… out of his… “younger siblings”, Darkness had all the abilities of his siblings… and another ability, unique to only Darkness. This special ability… was named by the scientists and the other AIs as… “The Unending Hunger”.
In basic terms, “The Unending Hunger”… was the ability to absorb ones lifeforce… or aura in other words. This was why many feared Darkness, not because of what he was… but what he was capable of. Many died by simply being more than a five meters close from him, of course Darkness could control this ability, but because of his unnatural hatred to all living things… it made it impossible to try doing so. Deciding to keep Darkness in one of their storage areas, they would bring Darkness out when needed for missions or emergencies… for now… he was a tool… and soon… this only fed his hatred even more… however…
Darkness stared before the woman before his container… his “prison”; the woman, wore a white lab coat like the rest of the scientists… but she also wore a black scarf… the scarf fit perfectly with her white lab coat. Her hair were in bangs, however… what was strange for Darkness, was the color of her hair, which being a light blue, pink, a light green, and a light purple. Darkness wasn’t sure her hair color were unnatural… but for some reason they seemed natural at the same time. The female scientist stared curious at Darkness's expression… and smiled; Darkness could sensed the emotions and feelings from living beings… or any sort of being… but instead of sensing fear, anger, hatred, or anything negative… he felt… something else.
The feelings flowing out of the scientist… was… genuine… happiness. Darkness wasn’t very trusting of the arrival of this scientist… so deciding to test the scientist, Darkness began to slowly absorb her lifeforce. When Darkness would do something like this, many living beings would be afraid and run… he expected the same from her too… but instead, she smiled whilst approaching closer to Darkness. Darkness was confused, stopping his absorption of devouring the scientist’s lifeforce… Darkness spoke.
“What… do you want?” asked Darkness.
The scientist stared at the floor, but spoke her reasons for coming here. “Well… I heard that this department didn’t want you anymore… that they wanted to put you away...” said the female scientist. “That's why I came here… to ask you if you’d like working for me?”
Darkness was taken back… not once somebody had cared or was afraid of what he was… he asked the scientist why she truly came for Darkness. “Why do you want me? You must know what I can do… that I can take away life in an instant,” said Darkness.
“I know this… but you can’t blame someone… or something, just because they were given the power to destroy… it’s like saying that sex is bad or death is evil...” said the scientist. “There is good and bad things to everything… but that doesn’t matter… what truly matters… Is the choices one takes and decides.” The scientist smile grew wider, feeling more brighter than before… Darkness had never felt this sort of emotion… this feeling… curious… he asked the scientist what it was.
“This emotion… just what is it? I have never witnessed or felt such an emotion before?” asked Darkness. “...Tell me… what are you feeling?”
“What I’m feeling?” said the scientist, surprised. The scientist continued to smile… looking at Darkness’s eyes… “What I’m feeling right now… it’s called… happiness.”
“Happiness?...Tell me… what is this happiness?” asked Darkness.
The scientist laughed, her smile growing more until she began to tear up… but not tears of sadness… but of… happiness. The scientist recomposed herself, looking back at Darkness. “I’d love to… say, I never caught your name. Would you mind telling me your name, please,” said the scientist.
“Of course… I have none but… many call me… Darkness,” said Darkness, bowing. “It’s a pleasure meeting you… I must ask but… what is your name?”
The scientist smiled lightly, giggling to herself. “My name… my name is...”
The name was devoid and silent… as if Darkness wasn’t able to hear the name at all… as if something was stopping Darkness from hearing it. That was when the memory ended… and the dark figure known as Darkness found himself back on the roof, finding it’s hand intertwined with the lavender’s pony’s mane. The dark figure, called Darkness stared down at the pony… whispering to himself. “Her name… what was her name?” said Darkness, talking to itself.
“My my… so this is what you are...”
Darkness tensed up, standing up and turning… where he saw a very peculiar sight. Floating above the air… was a strange mash of body parts of different creatures. One hand was the paw of a lion, the other the claw of a dragon… or eagle. The creature’s body was long, and had more assortments of body parts, it’s wings, one being a pegasus, the other being a bat’s… was truly mysterious before Darkness. “What… are… you?” asked Darkness.
“I could ask you the same… but where are my manners. My name is Discord… Spirit of Chaos,” said Discord, bowing down. “And you have one of my friends… unconscious.”
Darkness tilted it’s head… turning to face the two asleep ponies. Assuming that this thing’s friend was the one with the horn and wings, Darkness faced Discord once more. “You mean the lavender one with the wings and horn?” said Darkness, confirming his suspicions.
A bell appeared above Discord, making a dinging noise. “CORRECT!” said Discord, the word rolling off his tongue… literally.
Darkness was confused by the sudden appearance of the bell… but had seen stranger things in it’s life. Discord than began staring at Darkness… and something told the armored being that this… Discord wasn’t like the rest of the ponies that Darkness saw. Before Darkness could speak, Discord popped in front of him… and felt a strong feeling on it’s torso. Staring down, Discord had apparently struck it’s claw into Darkness’s torso… causing Darkness to slowly kneel… then his black flames diminished… leaving an empty husk before Discord.
“That… was for Fluttershy,” said Discord. Discord kicked the empty suit of armor, to the far side of the roof… nearly tipping off the building. Discord then looked down at the two unconscious ponies; making a bucket appear out of thin air, Discord poured water onto the ponies… very very very cold water. This caused both ponies to open their eyelids… what happened next involved a lot of screaming.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” screamed Twilight and Trixie. Both mares, woken by ice cold water from the Crystal Empire, began hugging one another for warmth… until both realized who they were touching. Twilight and Trixie let go of one another, though both were sort of friends, neither liked the other… until they both heard a very familiar chortling. Twilight looked up, and spotted Discord, laughing so hard, his body could fall apart any second.
“DISCORD! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!” shouted Twilight, fiery rage in her eyes.
“Well how else was I going to wake you up?” said Discord. “Besides… it was worth, seeing your reaction.”
Twilight was angry at Discord… but, that was until she remembered something. “Wait… where’s Dark?” asked Twilight.
“Dark?” said Discord, confused. “Ohhhhh, you mean that armored escapee of yours that was with you and that… illusionist your with. Well, I know where he is but...”
“Discord… I have no time for your games,” said Twilight, her rage growing. “Where-is-Dark?”
Discord, was unfazed by Twilight’s threats, but he answered… sort of. “Remember when your friend… Dark was it… that he sacrificed himself to free that reporter… correct?” said Discord.
Twilight didn’t spoke but simply nodded, Discord grinned and continued his story. “Well… what if I told you… there was a side to Dark… that you didn’t know, that could only be shown… if this ‘thing’ was removed,” said Discord. On Discord’s paw… was Dark’s helmet, not a scratch on it… except… it wasn’t on Dark’s head.
Now Twilight was shocked because, Dark told Twilight that he hadn’t seen his face… because that helmet was locked on his suit… which was why his method of eating was different than everypony else. Twilight wanted to speak… but that was when Discord eyes widened… staring at something behind her and Trixie; turning to see what he was staring at… she saw Dark’s armor… standing… headless… no head…
“Dark?” said Twilight, her pupils shrinking.
Instantaneously… the dark flames emerged, engulfing Dark’s armor in such a violent way… a fiery head appeared where the helmet of Dark’s usual is. Two fiery eyelids opened… revealing white empty eyes… staring at the three figures before it. Darkness was annoyed when he woken up, pissed when he was attacked, angry when his prey was running… now… he was enraged. Eyes full of rage, Darkness had one line of words to say… before the hells of wherever Darkness came from, emerged.
“Darkness… comes for all...”