//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Mistress of the Night [Part 1] // Story: Discord's Little Butterfly // by Fluskie //------------------------------// “Oof! Ouch…” Fluttershy groaned as she popped out of a random portal that formed out of nowhere, rubbing her head as she was now lying on some grass. The colorful portal soon disappeared behind her as she sighed, dusting herself off.  “Okay..Now I just need to find Twilight’s house and..Wait..It’s night here? I thought it was supposed to be day right now in Equestria. Unless I’ve got it all wrong?”  Fluttershy stared up at the shimmering moon in the sky and then to the nearby town, Ponyville. There seemed to be a lot of ponies out at this time of night which made her curious. Was there some kind of event going on that she was missing? Twilight didn’t mention anything in her letter except an ‘emergency’ of some type. That was all that she was able to read before Discord took the letter away from her. At least now maybe she could figure it out. She shyly trotted into Ponyville, looking around at the many open shops still. There really must have been some kind of event going on. But what? If there was one going on then wouldn't her pony friends invite her to join? What in Equestria was going on? “Sooo..We’re not going to get milkshakes then?” “No, look how dark it is! They’ve definitely closed now.” “But it’s not even the Summer Sun Celebration today! How is it already night time?” “I don’t know. I’m just as clueless as you are.” Fluttershy overhead the two unicorns behind her speaking to each other and got an idea. It would take a bit of self confidence on her part but maybe she would be able to get a bit of information. She took a deep breath and put on a smile, trotting over to the two unicorns. She took into account their outside features as she approached them. A dark unicorn mare with a short blue mane and purple eyes and a light blue unicorn stallion with a brown mane and green eyes.  “U-Um..Excuse me? D-Do you two know if there’s an event going on t-today in Ponyville?..I..I happened to notice that everypony is out right now and I was curious.” Fluttershy asked, stuttering a little in her speech. “Not that I know of. The moon is not supposed to be out for another five hours. Maybe the princess had a mishap with the moon and sun or something. Although, I don’t think that’s ever happened before..” The light blue unicorn replied, scanning the dark sky with his eyes. “I’m telling you, it’s the Mistress of the Night!” The dark unicorn replied. “No it’s not. There is no such thing as the ‘Mistress of the Night’, Flusk. It’s a stupid story you were told when you were a foal. Give it a rest.” “Not all stories are made up and I know that one is true. It’s predicting what’s happening right now! The sky showered with darkness in the middle of the day and a mare made from the stars and darkness brings eternal night forever!” “Don’t listen to her. She’s delusional.” The light blue unicorn whispered to Fluttershy. “I heard that and I am not!”  Suddenly while both the unicorns were bickering, Fluttershy spotted a pony running away screaming. They looked particularly frightened for some odd reason and she wanted to know why. Should she just up and leave these two without a word? “Hey! You three, I’d recommend getting out of here. Something odd is going on in Ponyville near the town hall. The mayor has asked everypony to evacuate immediately!” A pegasus said, flying above them looking rather worried. “What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked. “From what I’ve seen, the ground is cracking in random places around the town hall. It definitely isn’t any earth ponies doing it, that’s for sure. The cracks are quite large though..The town hall might just fall into the ground if it doesn’t stop.” “Oh my..That’s awful!” “I bet the Mistress of the Night is reshaping Equestria to fit her own kingdom..” The one named Flusk mumbled to herself. “Oh shut up, Flusk!” The light blue unicorn shouted. “You shut up!” And thus the arguing began once again as Fluttershy sighed in frustration. However, their arguing was soon drowned out by screams of terror and cries from other ponies as they all pointed towards the mountain where Canterlot Castle was..It was falling! Fluttershy’s jaw dropped as the two unicorns and the pegasus watched in horror as the castle simply broke off the mountain and began splitting into pieces as it descended from the air all the way into the valley below. She could have sworn she saw ponies falling with it and fighting to stay in the air as well as it disappeared out of sight. The mountain now was left bare where the castle once was. “Did..Did that really just happen?..” Fluttershy asked in shock and disbelief. “Yup..I’m sorry, I have to go.” The pegasus said before flying towards the direction of the fallen castle. Many questions ran through Fluttershy’s mind as she watched the pegasus become nothing but a flying dot making its way towards the valley. Were the princesses in there when it happened? Was anypony in there when it happened? What could have caused this? Was anypony hurt? And what was going to happen to the castle now?..Surely they would have to rebuild or do something..Wait, what if Twilight was there when it happened? What if she fell as well?.. “Do you feel that?” The light blue unicorn asked. “Feel what?” The darker unicorn asked. The ground suddenly started to shake, almost knocking Fluttershy off her hooves. What in Equestria was going on? She looked anxiously at the other two as they themselves were trying to keep their balance against the violent shaking going on. Houses around them began to crack and crumble as a giant piece of somepony’s roof fell right beside Fluttershy, making her squeak and jump back. She and the others had to get out of here now! “We need to leave!” Fluttershy shouted. “Where?” Flusk asked. Where..That was a good question. Her mind immediately went to Discord’s dimension but..That wasn’t an option anymore. It might have been safe when her and Discord were getting along but she couldn’t go there now. She had to think of something..Anything! She looked around at the many houses crumbling and falling apart around them along with the many ponies frantically trying to escape. She wished she could save all of them but she was one pony..If she came back with her friends then perhaps she could.  She flexed her wings anxiously when she suddenly got an idea.  “I’ve never carried anything lighter than a tiny bunny so you’re just going to have to trust me in this..” “What do you mean, ‘trust you in this’?” The light blue unicorn asked. “Get on to my back..Both of you. If the two of you can’t fit then try and hold on to my tail or something.” Fluttershy replied, bowing her head to them and lowering her back. “Wait, wait, wait..You’re going to fly us out of here?!” The light blue unicorn asked. “Yes..Well, I’ll try to find a safer place than here. All I know is we have to go now.” Flusk was quick to jump on her back as she flinched and made a bit of a groan noise from her weight. She rested on her back after a bit of shifting and grinned at her unicorn friend mischievously. “Come on, Drizzle! It’s not that bad. Unless you’re too scared.” Flusk snickered. “I’m not scared! I’m worried because she’s never carried anything more than an animal before. What if she drops us because we’re too heavy?” “You worry too much and that’s coming from me who always worries. What other choice do we have anyways? Get crushed by a giant house or escape and get a higher chance of survival?” Drizzle thought for a moment as sounds of crashing and screaming continued around them. Fluttershy spotted the bakery, Sugar Cube Corner, beside them starting to tilt toward them. It seemed like it was going to fall on them any second now if they didn’t move. She stared at Drizzle hopefully as her heart began to race with fear. “..Fine, make some room.” Flusk cheered in success as she offered her hooves to Drizzle, pulling him up as well. Her legs shook a little with the added weight as she bit her lip, refraining from possibly collapsing or just kicking them off herself.  She heard the bakery behind her starting to fall as she quickly spread her wings and took off into the air. The weight hit her pretty hard as she found herself slowly inching to the ground again from the air as the bakery fell right where they were standing before. “Wow, we made it just in time!” Flusk said. “Yeah..How are you doing down there uh..Fluttershy, was it?” Drizzle asked. “I-I’m..I’ll be fine!” Fluttershy forced out as she began to tilt sideways while flying through the air before correcting herself again. “W-Where should we land?..” “There’s a big hill just south of Ponyville. I’m sure that would be the safest place to go for the moment. We’re usually told to gather there if there’s a catastrophe in Ponyville. Although..I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here before. Are you visiting from Cloudsdale?” Drizzle asked.  “C-Cloudsdale?..N-Never heard of it..” Fluttershy replied. “You’re a pegasus and you’ve never heard of Cloudsdale?..Truly odd indeed.” “Oh wow, there’s lots of ponies down there already!” Flusk pointed towards lots of colorful ponies down below on a big green hill. Finally, somewhere to land! Even though she hadn’t been in the air for too long with the two ponies, she was looking forward to being able to just carry her own weight again and being allowed to fly as free as a bird.  She circled above for a bit before softly landing on the grassy hill, already feeling the weight on her back become less. Once the two ponies were off of her, she sighed in relief and stretched her sore back out a bit. “Fluttershy! Oh thank goodness you came!” “R-Rarity?” A white and purple unicorn came out of a crowd of ponies and embraced the pegasus. Shortly after they let go, their other three friends came trotting up with small smiles on their faces. Although they seemed to be missing one. Where was Twilight?.. “Twilight told us that you responded to her letter and I’m so glad you did. We were really worried about you.” “I’m so sorry that I ran off like that..That isn’t something a friend should do and I’m really sorry..” Fluttershy apologized. “It’s alright, we forgive you.” Applejack replied. “Yeah! At least you’re here now.” Pinkie said. Fluttershy noticed Rainbow Dash in the back nodding in agreement. She looked a little beat up..Probably from Discord’s magic. She remembered from Twilight’s letter that she had been taken to Ponyville Hospital for it and had been told she just needed rest. It surprised her that she was up and about today after that. “Hey..Speaking of Twilight, where is she?” Fluttershy asked. The others frowned and looked to Rarity to say something. She sighed and looked to Fluttershy once again. “She said something earlier about wanting to study the moon and the stars and disappeared off to her house to do some kind of research. We went to go get her when we all were told we had to evacuate from town but she wasn’t there. We tried to look for her elsewhere but we had to leave before we could continue and eventually made our way here. We still haven’t seen her.” Rarity explained. “Oh my..That’s very concerning..” “It is. I’m hoping she shows up soon before something else happens.” Rarity replied. “Oh no, it’s happening again!” A pony yelled out. “What’s happening again?” Another pony asked. “I think it’s way worse this time..” A third pony replied. Fluttershy and her friends looked at the panicking ponies pointing out towards Ponyville and gasped. Large cracks were forming in the ground all around Ponyville like cracking ice. They could see ponies trying to flee and get out the danger as houses continued to fall and crumble and the ground broke into even larger gaps.  Out of nowhere, broken chunks of land began to float in the air idly, carrying whatever was on them with it. This included helpless ponies trying to escape and crumbling buildings. It was like nothing Fluttershy had ever seen before. It was like..A dream. This was the kind of things you would see while dreaming. Her point was confirmed even more as she watched beautiful flowers she had never seen before sprout out of the ground from the floating islands and open their petals, showing off their many colors and shapes. She almost suspected this was Discord’s doing until she remembered that Discord’s kind of chaos was more destruction than beauty. “I don’t mean to sound like an egghead, but this is seriously defying the laws of gravity..” Rainbow said. “Ya’ think this is Discord’s doin’?” Applejack asked. “No..I know it isn’t him. I’ve seen his chaos with my own eyes and this isn’t him.” Fluttershy answered. “Does that mean he’s secretly wreaking havoc without anypony knowing?” Rarity asked.  “No, that isn’t what I meant.” Fluttershy replied. “Anypony else seeing that weird swirling dark cloud over there?” Pinkie asked, pointing towards a swirling dark blue cloud that was rotating right above Twilight’s house. “What’s it doing near Twilight’s house?” Rainbow asked, squinting a little to see. “Ah’ don’t know but ah’ think we’re about to find out.” Applejack replied. Right after Applejack said that, the cloud started to take the form of a rather large pony figure. It was about the size of Princess Celestia, perhaps even taller. The figure levitated in the air as the cloud continued to create its physical features such as a flowing dark blue mane that reminded the ponies of the night sky above. Two large wings were formed at its side and armor began to form on its chest area, head, and hooves. A horn that could easily pierce somepony right through was the last thing to be created as the dark figure began now flapping its wings to stay floating in the air. The figure wasn’t very clear to see from where they were all standing but it definitely resembled a alicorn mare as she gently landed on the grass of Twilight’s yard. One detail Fluttershy noticed in particular was that all the other parts of Ponyville were now floating islands in the air while Twilight’s home remained untouched. Why was that?.. “Ah’ see Twilight in the window!” Applejack said. They all looked very closely to see and indeed saw a unicorn mare with a straight mane peering out from a window, looking a little startled to see a dark alicorn figure right by her house.  “Come on, we should go to her. We don’t know if that thing is dangerous or not.” Rainbow said, spreading her wings and flying upwards. “Wait! Weren’t you told to take it easy by the doctor?” Rarity asked. “Yeah, but I don’t have time to ‘take it easy’. Twi might be in trouble and us stalling right now might put her in even more danger!” “You have a point, Rainbow. However, the only flyin’ ponies here are you and Fluttershy. Sure, y’all might be able to carry me and Rarity but what about Pinkie?” Applejack asked. Rainbow thought for a moment as her eyes darted between Fluttershy and the other three ponies.  “Alright, I think I can carry two at once. Who’s the heaviest here?” Rainbow asked. The three ponies on the ground looked at each other for a moment before Pinkie Pie waved her hoof excitedly in the air. “Go figure..You can go with Fluttershy.”  “M-Me?..But I’m not that strong.”  “Yeah right, I saw you carrying two unicorns on your way here. Besides, once I’m carrying Rarity and Applejack, it’ll add up to the same weight I’m sure. Depending on how much sweets Pinkie eats on a daily basis..” “Well, if you’re really curious of my diet, I eat three full cakes, five cinnamon rolls, a dozen cupcakes, eight glasses of milk, lots and LOTS of icing, cho-“ “Alright, you can stop now Pinkie.” Rainbow interrupted. “Alrighty! I’m ready for take off Fluttershy!” Pinkie put her hooves up.  Fluttershy was already cringing because of Pinkie’s meal choices and now she was going to have to carry her? She questioned now more than ever how that mare maintained such a fit figure. “You ready?” Rainbow asked. “Ready as I’ll ever be..” Fluttershy replied, sounding very unsure. And with that, Rainbow heaved the two mares on her back as she easily took off and headed for the direction of Twilight’s home. Fluttershy..Not so much.  She was already prepared for the weight she would experience considering Drizzle and Flusk had already given her a pretty good idea. She was NOT expecting this from only one mare and perhaps even worse than the two ponies she carried before. She had a rocky start and struggled to get off the ground with the pink pony on her back, but was able to make it into the sky, not too far behind from Rainbow Dash.  The purple unicorn cautiously trotted onto her tree house's balcony with a book in hoof, staring down at the dark figure below. She couldn’t decide if this was the ancient type of magic she had been reading about that came from the night or if it was just some very tall pony she had never seen before. The first option seemed more reasonable at this point as she now realized that it had alicorn wings and a long horn.  “Who are you and what are you doing here?” Twilight asked, a tiny bit of fear within her voice. The ground suddenly shook as she was almost knocked off her hooves as her tree home began to rise in the air like all the other floating islands. She could hear the crackling and ripping of the roots of the tree as the entire thing was pulled right out of the ground. She held onto the railing of her balcony as she stared down fearfully at the dark figure below. She could see its horn glowing a dark blue as it flew right up to her, giving her a chance to see its cat-like eyes.  “Are you..Princess Luna?..” Twilight asked hesitantly, noticing a bit of resemblance between this creature’s eyes and Celestia’s sister. “No..Not anymore.” A demented voice came from the dark figure. Twilight found herself beginning to rise in the air just like her home as she was enveloped by the magic of the dark creature. She was levitated right up to her face as she struggled in her magic’s hold. “Come now, there’s no reason to struggle and fight no longer. You were so manipulated by that sun loving princess that you’ve lost your way and who you truly are. I can help you if you allow me to. Princess Luna has already allowed me to help her so why not let me help you?” “What are you talking about? Princess Celestia never manipulated me! She only wants peace and harmony for all of Equestria. What you’re doing is destroying it!”  “I’m not mad at you for not seeing the truth, Twilight Sparkle. That ‘thing’ you call your teacher is all you have ever known. The night isn’t something that should be feared because all you fear is what is in it. The night and darkness are far more powerful than whatever lingers within it. WE are more powerful than the light.” The dark figure explained. “I..I don’t follow..” Twilight replied, rather confused. “I want to transform the land of Equestria into a world of peace and darkness. I want to rule it and take care of the ponies here that Celestia has mistreated badly for centuries. And I want you by my side.” “M-Me?” “Yes. You have a very powerful gift in magic you don’t even realize that you have. By my side, you can unlock it and assist me in bringing eternal peace and prosperity for all of Equestria. You will be recognized and loved by thousands, live in a wonderful kingdom of night far better than this old tree she gave you, and you will be my pupil..My star student.”  “B-But I..” “There is nothing else to worry about no longer. I will take care of everything..What do you say, Twilight Sparkle?..”  The figure held out her hoof and smiled reassuringly at Twilight. Twilight knew this was all wrong but somewhere in her mind, she wondered what an Equestria ruled by the moon and night would look like. What would her life look like as somepony else’s apprentice?  “Twiiiligghttt!” She turned and looked to her left to see Rainbow Dash flying towards her with both Rarity and Applejack just barely holding on to her back. The dark figure looked as well and her calm behavior seemed to switch to one of anger as Rainbow Dash crashed landed into the hole where Twilight’s house used to be. “Rainbow, Rarity, Applejack?..” Twilight asked. The three girls got up groaning as Rainbow was quick to fly up to Twilight and the odd figure levitating her in the air. “Put her down or I’ll make you!” Rainbow threatened. “Of course..I should have known you had very clingy friends..” The mare said, sounding rather annoyed. “Anypony would be if they saw someone like you threatening their friend!” Applejack called out from below. “For your information, I was doing nothing of the sort. I was striking a deal that would change your very lives and hers as well. It would be for the greater good of all of Equestria.” “Judging from what you’ve done to Carousel Boutique and the rest of Ponyville, I think not!” Rarity yelled. Fluttershy panted as she finally arrived with the others, plopping on the ground with Pinkie Pie on her back. Pinkie casually hopped off her. “Thanks for the lift, Fluttershy!” Pinkie said “No..Problem..” Fluttershy said tiredly as she laid her head on the ground and closed her eyes, feeling like she could just fall asleep any minute now.  “Ugh..I can't take this anymore. If you won’t take my deal yourself then I’ll make you take it!” The figure yelled.  The figure’s horn glowed brightly with dark blue magic as she sent a large beam of magic right towards Twilight’s home harmlessly floating in the sky. Everypony gasped as they watched as the beam hit her home and the house exploded into nothing but pieces of wood, burnt and destroyed books, and leaves falling all over the ground. Twilight’s Element Of Harmony fell out of one of the broken branches left from her home as the figure grabbed it with her magic and smirked. By now Twilight was already in tears as she couldn’t believe what just happened. Now her element had been taken and she still didn’t know what to do. “W-Wait..P-Please don’t..” There was a very loud shattering noise and what almost sounded like to be a cry of pain from the element as it was suddenly split into two halves. Tears rolled down Twilight’s cheeks as her mouth hung open, watching the hot pink star element just fall apart into many pieces on the ground..Nothing but pink shards. The figure released Twilight as she landed back on to her hooves and galloped towards the broken element. She scooped up the broken shards into her hooves as she felt her body start to shake upon seeing such a sight.  “N-No..This can’t be right..I-It can’t be broken..I-It can be fixed! I-I’m sure Princess Celestia accidentally dropped them before and repaired them..Y-Yeah! I-I can fix it! I-I just need to find a repair spell is all..” Twilight continued to mumble to herself as tears dropped onto the ground from her cheeks.  “Continue to tell yourself that all you want..I know you’ll give in sometime and see the truth..All of you will..” The figure disappeared as the others just looked around in complete shock. Twilight’s sobbing suddenly broke the silence however as they watched the purple unicorn completely break down into gasping and cries. Pinkie folded her ears and wrapped her arms around Twilight. Rarity did so next, then Fluttershy, Applejack, and finally Rainbow Dash as she remained flying and joined the group hug. “It’ll be okay, Twilight..I know we’ll find a way to fix this.” Fluttershy said.