//------------------------------// // Chapter XXV: The Encroaching Darkness // Story: A Purple Pony Princess's Problems on Planet Popstar // by ANerdWithASwitch //------------------------------// Twilight squirmed a bit as she awoke. Everything felt…off. As if she had woken up and everything was shifted slightly to the left. It was rather disorienting, and for a moment, her sense of balance was entirely thrown off. It left an odd taste in her mouth, even, a lot like when she had used dark magic to open up Sombra’s staircase; there was a permeating sensation of wrongness around her. But she knew that she hadn’t used dark magic since then, which just made everything even more baffling. The splitting headache certainly didn’t help things. A slight purple glow drew her eyes upwards, and they narrowed in confusion. Why was the Element of Magic glowing?  As it did, though, the headache began to recede and the feeling of something being wrong faded. It was a soothing feeling, having harmony magic wash over her. It was nowhere near the same scale of what happened when she and her friends actually used the Elements, of course, but the feeling of rejuvenation was the same. Her mind a bit clearer, she finally noticed the movement in the room. It was still dark enough that it was difficult to see, but the glow of her Element was bright enough to make out Spike’s silhouette. Frowning, Twilight cast a brightening spell and glanced at the clock. It was just past five thirty–well earlier than she had ever seen Spike willingly get up. “Spike?” she asked. “Why are you awake?” Spike froze. “I, ah…couldn’t sleep,” he replied, not turning around. “I’m just going to get some water. You can go back to sleep…” he paused, as if trying to remember something, “Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight yawned and nodded, content with the explanation. As Spike left the room, though, her brows furrowed. Why couldn’t he sleep, exactly? They couldn’t have nightmares in Dreamland, the Fountain made sure of that, so it had to be something troubling him during his waking hours. Was he still upset with her? She supposed that she had been a tad bit overprotective of him ever since Kirby ate him, what with her sticking by his side at nearly all times. But she thought that she’d worked that out with him when she impressed upon him how badly Sunset had been injured during her experience with Nova. Hay, she’d even let him sit in on the planetary defense league-thingy meeting (they really needed a name for that). And he hadn’t been having any issues sleeping lately, anyway, so she couldn’t for the life of her fathom why- Twilight jolted into an upright sitting position and let out half a gasp as she realized something else had been bugging her as well. Spike hadn’t called her by her full name in years. It was always “Twilight” or “Twi” with him, but never “Twilight Sparkle.” The last time he’d called her that was over six years ago, back before he lived with her parents. For the two years between when Princess Celestia took Twilight on as her personal protégé and when she considered Spike old enough to be reared by ponies other than herself, the Princess always called Twilight by her full name. Spike, being a rather young dragon at the time, had been around for her lessons and caught on to what Princess Celestia called her. That didn’t change until he started living with her parents and learned that everyone close to her (other than the Princess) just called her “Twilight.” For a moment, Twilight frowned to herself as she thought about that timeline. She passed the entrance exam to CSGU over a decade ago and had about two years of regular schooling until Princess Celestia personally started teaching her. It had been impossible to avoid the rumors around the palace, that the Princess had only taken her on to fill the hole left by her previous student’s disappearance, but Twilight had never pried. Even as socially awkward as she was as a filly, she knew that that was considered rude. Though, Sunset did seem to know Princess Celestia personally, and did seem to be the right age… Twilight shook her head. She could ask Sunset directly about this later, but she had something else to worry about right now. She clambered out of bed and wrenched the door open with her telekinesis, skidding out into the hallway. “Spike!” she called. Spike was already near the end of the hallway. Instead of turning around, or even just slowing down, he kept pressing forward, entirely ignoring her shout. Eventually, he reached the corner, where Castle Dedede’s residential suites ended in an intersection with the castle’s main hallway. Spike turned left, continuing down it. The way to the kitchens was to the right. Even more sure that something was wrong, Twilight picked up the pace. Fluttering her wings a bit to stay balanced, she rounded the corner after him. “Spike, wait up!” she shouted again, lighting her horn. It was more difficult to get Spike in her telekinetic grip than she expected. Far more difficult. It was as if his body was actively resisting her magical influence, trying to reject the foreign intrusion as he slowed to a stop and was lifted into the air. Eventually, it became too much for Twilight to maintain, and she dropped him. But not before managing to spin him around, illuminated by the shaft of moonlight coming in through the window next to him. She gasped, knowing that she would have dropped him in surprise even if her telekinesis hadn’t failed. Her little brother’s eyes, she knew, were green. A brilliant emerald green, to be precise. She’d been on the receiving end of those little green eyes many a time in the last decade, from when he was four and begging for an extra ruby at desert, to when they lit up in joy and adoration as she subdued that ursa minor, to recently, when those emerald-hued irises were teary and the two comforted each other over their shared longing for home. These eyes were not green. Not Spike’s. Instead, they were blacker than the blackest of nights. Twin pools of darkness, unmoving, unblinking, stared at her. Staring into them was like staring into the void, and for a few moments Twilight was paralyzed with fear as her ever-active brain provided an explanation. She was familiar with psychoturgy, of course. It had been brought up extensively in her CSGU ethics course and she was familiar enough with the theory to cast certain spells in the school–the Want-it-Need-it incidents more than proved that. But mind magic–or at least, mind-control–always left its victim’s eyes in a poor state, usually shrunk to pinpricks as they endlessly pursued whatever goal the caster set for them. But these eyes, terrifyingly, held none of the usual tells that this was just a simple psychoturgical spell that she had to shake Spike out of. She could tell that Spike’s eyes–no, she corrected herself, the eyes of whatever was controlling him–held that spark of intelligence. That something had taken her brother’s mind hostage and was puppeting his body around in his absence. Then, before Twilight could get a hold of herself and properly confront the situation, Spike whirled around and took off. He got all the way around the next corner before she recovered and started galloping after him. He was gunning for Castle Dedede’s front gates, seemingly hellbent on getting out of there. The corridor they were in now led directly to that exit, and Twilight galloped even faster to try and stop him. Summoning some earth pony and pegasus strength, she made a flying leap, gaining on him with every second. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she managed to physically grab hold of Spike’s left arm in her hoof. With this proximity, her Element began properly glowing again, and with a start Twilight realized that whatever this was must have tried to possess her before going after Spike. The darkness in Spike’s left eye receded, and just for a moment, Twilight could see her little brother at the helm again. The eye was wide, almost shaking, and prominently displayed his utter terror. But to Twilight’s minimal joy, it was green. Then the moment ended, and Spike’s right arm shot at her chest. Being clawed by a dragon was a novel experience, and a painful reminder that Spike’s claws were sharp. She gasped at the sudden pain, the attack forcing her to let go of his arm. She was forced back further as Spike jumped up, kicked her in the chest with both of his legs, and performed a mid-air backflip to land on his feet as she took a tumble backwards. In a horrifying sequence, she could watch in real time as the darkness reclaimed its territory and Spike’s left eye turned black once again. Flames jutted out of the corners of Spike’s mouth, but they were not his usual green fire. Twilight, still recovering from having the wind knocked out of her, could only watch helplessly as impossibly black flames shot upwards, enveloping a wooden support beam near the ceiling. They ate through the sides of it like acid, dropping the beam directly between her and Spike and obscuring him from view. It was almost a trivial matter to summon her magic and quell the flames, though they put up far more of a resistance than regular fire would. Reattaching the support beam to its proper place near the ceiling was easy as well, as powerful adhesive charms were among the simplest of kinetic spells to perform–she’d just need to check up on it sometime and get a proper replacement beam in place. But in the few seconds the whole thing took her, Spike had vanished. “No,” Twilight whispered, “no, no no no NO!” Castle Dedede’s gates glowed violet and flew open in Twilight’s telekinetic grasp, slamming against the sides of the castle with an ear-ringing bang. “SPIKE!” the alicorn shouted into the night, desperation coloring her voice. “Where are you?” She choked out a sob. “Where…where did you go?” It was no use, of course. He had vanished off into the night. She looked down at her chest, three ugly red gashes laying where Spike’s claws had scored a hit. They weren’t terribly deep, despite the immense pain, and it was nothing some food wouldn’t be able to fix. But for the second time in under a month, physical pain was far from Twilight’s primary concern. As a drop of blood hit the ground below her, a tear splashed down just next to it. “My aunts briefed us that you can't do anything to get them out of there, but is there really-” Discord groaned, cutting Cadance off. “Listen, as much as I adore the mayhem this whole situation has been causing, do you really think so little of me? That I would allow my one and only friend in the universe to undergo so much distress from this?” Cadance’s face displayed a ghost of a smile as she realized Discord’s admission, but a low growl from her husband prevented her from directly responding. “How far along is research on how to break in?” “Not very,” Cadance sighed. “Aunties Celestia and Luna have been too busy dealing with the political fallout of Twilight going missing to properly organize it.” “I do hear that that Sunburst fellow has been doing as much reading as he can in regards to it,” Discord chimed in with a shrug. “I wouldn’t put too much stock in it, though. Why, are you going to try and help?” “My little brother just got possessed,” Shining growled, “and you expect me to just sit here and do nothing?” A gasp behind them drew their attentions away from the screen as Fluttershy accidentally dropped the tray she was holding. Three coffee mugs and a teacup clattered to the floor, though the strange properties of Discord’s house prevented any of them from shattering or spilling (one did, however, bounce all the way up and stick to the ceiling). “Spike’s been possessed?” the pegasus asked. Discord snapped a talon, teleporting the tray and cups in front of him, the three coffee mugs balanced precariously atop the teacup. “In a manner of speaking.” Cadance raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure how you can just call that a ‘manner of speaking,’ given that we saw that thing directly possess him.” Discord stroked his beard in thought as Fluttershy distributed the drinks, reminding herself what they had as she did so. “Black, cut with milk, and I made yours just how you like it, Discord!” Discord raised an eyebrow. “Oh, and how would that be?” Fluttershy winked. “It’s a secret!” Discord shrugged. “To answer your earlier question, Mister Armor, I’ll repeat what I told Celly: I’m just outclassed. I can’t get anypony in or out of there, so yes, I do expect you to sit here and do nothing. Because that’s all we can do!” Even Discord sounded displeased with his own limits, on that one. “How did you get a window in, then?” Shining asked. “I know shields, and one that’s supposed to be opaque to everything should be able to prevent windows like this unless it’s weakening!” “Oh, it is,” Discord confirmed nonchalantly. Everypony was silent for a moment. “So could you…” Fluttershy trailed off. “Given enough time and effort, I probably could force my way in,” Discord noted. Shining’s horn lit up. “So why aren’t you doing that right now?” Cadance comfortingly rubbed her husband’s foreleg. “Honey, I know it’s vexing, but I don’t think threatening the chaos god in his own home is a good idea.” “It's cute that you think you could do anything to me,” Discord agreed. Eventually, though, he did answer. “The problem is that time component. Why, sure, I could use basically all of my magic around the clock for a few thousand years and take down Void’s barrier, but why in the world would I do that?” “A few…thousand?” Shining asked in disbelief. “Well, that is an optimistic estimate,” Discord mentioned. “That thing’s been up for over two millennia and only just weakened to the point that I could get visual and audio from there.” He shrugged again. “But hey, you ponies do always excel at surprising me. Maybe you’ll figure something out.” Fluttershy cleared her throat. “So, um, the possession?” “Ah right,” Discord remembered, “Spike’s been possessed by a darkness monster alien thing.” The pegasus looked back at the drawer she’d crawled out of with the coffee. “This is big,” she noted, “I’ll go get the others.” “Good luck waking up Rainbow Dash!” Discord called as she vanished. Taking a sip of the coffee she’d given him, a surprised look passed over his face before he nodded his approval. Exactly how he liked it, indeed. Though he was a bit confused on how Fluttershy had managed to get her hooves on kitchen sink flavoring. Teleporting with a host was always tricky if the host was unable to teleport on its own, but the Darkness cared not for the intricacies involved. It simply recognized the danger of being expelled from its host and took measures to prevent that, namely warping it and its host a ways down the mountain. Picking itself up and dusting itself off, the Darkness began making its way south–towards the rainbow bridges it had seen earlier. Still, it took far more energy to teleport than had been ideal. The Darkness was far from annoyed at that–it couldn’t feel much of anything, after all–but it was something for it to take note of. Its attempt at enough infiltration to get away unseen had been foiled as well, and it did feel as close to annoyance as it could that its quick skim of the dragon’s memories to find the purple mare’s name had proven to be insufficient. Its mission remained unchanged, however. This planet had a surfeit of emotion, sure, but it was so intensely full of Dream that it was worth putting in the effort to prepare it for invasion, even if simply being here weakened the Darkness considerably. Those islands were essentially condensed emotion in-and-of themselves, so destroying the bridges should reduce the overall happiness of the population and–if the Darkness was right with its estimates–do nicely to prepare. Wh-what’s going on? the dragon’s voice echoed through his head. The Darkness, of course, did not respond. Where am I? Why…why can’t I control my legs? The dragon’s mental voice was becoming increasingly panicked. This was of no concern to the Darkness, though it could prove to be a problem later on. Left unchecked, a panicked mind may manage to take back control for a few seconds. If that happened during some critical moment, it could be an issue. Thus, sure in its path, the Darkness sent a command at the dragon’s mind. Rest. Who said that? Wh-where are you? The dragon’s thoughts took a moment to compose themselves as many ideas flashed across the mindscape at once. Y-you used me to hurt Twilight! So, the dragon was being a bit feisty. Clearly he had a stronger Heart than the Darkness had expected, but it was no matter.  Subduing such minds was only a slightly more complicated process than simply taking control and keeping it. Sacrificing a slight bit of power, the Darkness began siphoning away the emotion from the Dragon’s mind. Rest. Why are you doing this? Why did you hurt Twilight? Rest. Hey, isn’t this town near where Kirby lives? Rest. Who are you, anyway? Rest. …Why did I care, again? Rest. The dragon’s thoughts gave the mental equivalent of a yawn before being silenced. The Darkness gathered up the emotion it had siphoned off and produced a small blob of itself at the tip of the dragon’s claw. With a flinging motion, it threw it into a bush as it passed by, and the constant drain on its power stopped. Fear was by far the easiest emotion for it to handle–being such a primal instinct, it was closer to apathy than anything else–but prolonged exposure could still prove complicated. That issue resolved, the Darkness considered its surroundings. True to the dragon’s earlier thoughts, it could feel the Voidspawn nearby, but thankfully it was asleep. If all went well, the planet’s emotions would be drained and the Darkness would have overtaken all before it even knew what was happening. The Darkness did, however, pick up the pace a bit. This scout in particular hadn’t been around the last time the Darkness encountered a Voidspawn, but it had brought that information with it when it split from the Whole. That encounter had gotten the Darkness sealed away for multiple decades, though not without having managed to drain the Voidspawn of all emotion other than anger. Encountering another one without taking every possible precaution was not in the Darkness’s to-do list. Hence, its distraction. Having left the village but still several kilometers north of its destination, the Darkness took a proper look at its host’s memories as it traveled. It had banked on fire breathing being an option and fortunately lucked out on that, but it didn’t want to chance anything else while so low on power. It skimmed through much of the dragon’s earlier memories, though it paused on noticing one thing in particular. A single being capable of moving a star, or at least rotating an entire planet? Far from preposterous, in the Darkness’s experience, but certainly unique. It would have to figure out what world the dragon came from–clearly it wasn’t this one–and pass that information on to the Whole; it was a prime target for later assimilation. It pressed on, looking for anything that might give away any of the dragon’s abilities. They were…disappointingly few. The fire breath could be used for storage and transportation, which was useful and probably how the Darkness got away with teleporting at all. The dragon was also absurdly durable and its claws and teeth were appreciably sharp, along with having a rather long and dexterous tongue, but that was it. It would have to hold off on using its true power until it had removed the stifling cloud of emotion permeating the very air around it. It did, however, stumble across one memory that could prove useful. One of the dragon spontaneously growing to the size of a skyscraper and shrinking back down, seemingly powered by his own greed. That was an emotion, so using such an ability that way was right out for the Darkness. But if it could be induced artificially… It selected a cell at random and sent a probe in there to start reading the dragon’s genetic code. It was a complicated probe of Darkness, running a search algorithm to compare genes with the proteins they coded for and determine which was responsible for the rapid growth, but it would be more than worth it if the Darkness was able to manually activate and deactivate it. Just as it made sure that the search was underway, the Darkness finally reached its destination. A great bridge of rainbow arced from the mainland to an island covered in yellowing grass. The Darkness could feel the repulsion from the sheer concentration of emotions in it, but was undeterred. It stepped onto the bridge. Color drained away under its foot, the many-hued rainbow giving way to monochrome. The Darkness’s lower claws dug into the bridge, and cracks emanated out from where it stepped. It took another step, and the process repeated. Then another. Then another. Soon enough, it had covered the nearly kilometer-long bridge. As soon as it took its last step onto the island, the entire thing dissolved, flaking apart like dust in the wind as its destruction traveled from the mainland all the way to the island. Finally, the last little bit coiled up into a floating yellow gemstone, shaped almost like a droplet. For a moment, the Darkness debated whether or not to keep it. Destroying it wasn’t an option–doing so would just unleash the pent-up emotion that had been emanating from the bridge. It had originally planned to hide it somewhere on the island, but a quiet voice–probably some influence from the dragon, the Darkness had never been able to subdue everything about its host–was disagreeing. Keep it. And the Darkness did. It took the yellow droplet in its claw and breathed a lick of green and black flame over it–green for the magic, black to keep the emotion contained. It vanished into magical storage just as the Sun started to rise, and a pulse of apathy soared out as a significant source of the planet’s ambient emotion was suddenly just gone. The Darkness turned around and began its journey to the next bridge. But imperceptibly, even to it, the dragon’s spine grew just a bit longer. Kirby was usually a pretty heavy sleeper, only ever really woken by food or someone directly shaking him. He’d even once fallen clean out of his bed and just continued on snoring away. But he had gotten to bed earlier than usual the previous night, so the giant thump of something impacting the roof of his house at high speeds was enough for him to jolt awake. He wasn’t happy about it, though. The Sun hadn’t even risen, yet! He stomped up to his door, ready to give whoever had dared to wake him at this hour a piece of his mind. He wrenched it open and stopped short, though, at the creature in front of him. It was new! Its body was a dark blue. Nearly black, even. It didn’t really have any defining features, just being a sort of blob shape, but even as Kirby looked, two eyes blinked open. A wide, dopey grin spread across it, and a long tongue lolled out. In lieu of any other appendages, the creature waved its tongue in greeting. “Hi!” Kirby responded, waving back with a wide smile of his own. This, he decided, was to be a new friend. “I’m Kirby!” He tilted his head and waited for a response. The creature seemed to be a bit confused at the concept of names. It narrowed its eyes and balanced on its tongue, but didn’t answer. Curiously, Kirby poked it, a bit of material sticking to his hand as he pulled it away. “Gooey!” he decided to call it. Gooey seemed satisfied with its new name, hitting the ground again and giving Kirby a lick. It bounced off, and Kirby realized what was going on. Gooey wanted to play tag! He loved a good game of tag! The two chased each other around for a while, and eventually Kirby decided to invite Gooey inside for breakfast. It was still a bit early, but he was never one to ignore an opportunity for food! The Sun started to peak over the horizon as they went inside, but before Kirby could reach for his cupboards, it suddenly felt like the world was just a bit…duller. Kirby was undeterred, albeit confused, and shook it off rather easily. Gooey, on the other hand, did not. It was shaking, almost like it was panicking at the sudden shift in the world’s emotions. Carefully, Kirby did the only thing he could do when he saw a friend in pain. He walked up and gave Gooey a big ol’ hug. Instantly, the shaking stopped. It felt like there was some sort of connection between them, but Kirby didn’t particularly care what that connection was. All he cared about was that he had made a new friend, and that that new friend was happy, now. Gooey’s appearance had changed, too. The darkness in its form had receded a bit, giving way for an ocean blue coloration. Its smile seemed just a touch more genuine as well, and it maintained a happy grin as it broke from Kirby’s embrace. It bounced up a solid couple of meters and lashed out its tongue, grabbing a box of cereal from Kirby’s shelf. Kirby giggled and puffed up to grab one as well. A knock at the door interrupted the breakfast plans, though. Kirby jumped over and opened it, entirely prepared to invite a third face to breakfast. He blinked in confusion when he saw the spear-wielder there, though. “Bandee?” “Hey, Kirby,” Bandana Dee replied. “Sorry I couldn’t swing by on happier circumstances, but could you come to the Castle? We’ve had a…situation.” “But wouldn’t it be faster if Twilight flew to Orange Ocean?” “Yeah, no. I’m going out there and saving my brother first and foremost.” “I wouldn’t fight her on this one, Your Majesty. She seems pretty set.” “But-” Twilight huffed and stamped her hoof down. Was she being a bit irrational? Yes, she absolutely was the best choice to fly down to Orange Ocean to let the Meta-Knights–and Sunset, who had gone down there just yesterday to speak with Meta Knight about the book she’d found–know what was going on. But she felt like she was owed just a bit of irrationality, and besides. Her brother was out there, somewhere, and a foreign entity was doing who-knew-what with his body! She needed to get out there and help him! Plus, focusing on that goal was helping her recover from that wave of intense apathy that had hit her–and the rest of the Castle–a few minutes ago. The room they were in–the castle’s antechamber–was a buzz of activity at this point. The ruckus had woken up basically the entire castle, and they were using this spot to work out a plan. It helped that they could head out as soon as they decided on one. “I’m going out there to find Spike, and that’s final,” Twilight insisted. The Waddle Dee guard that had been backing her up nodded in agreement. Dedede sighed, conceding. “Alright, fine. I guess if we have to get the Meta-Knights involved, we’ll do it the slow way.” He pointed to a random member of his staff in the room, a Broom Hatter. “You, head out to Orange Ocean and tell ‘em what’s going on.” The Broom Hatter jolted up in surprise, nearly dropping his broom. “That’s an order!” Dedede reminded. The Broom Hatter gave a salute and ran off. Twilight nodded and took a bite of the apple she had on her. It wasn’t much, but it was breakfast, and it had healed the wound she’d sustained earlier that morning. It was absolutely massive, too, nearly the size of her head. It still wasn’t better than Sweet Apple Acre’s apples, but then again, Twilight doubted that any other apple could compete with those. Bandana Dee sprinted in through the open doors. “We came as fast as we could!” he called, Kirby and a creature that Twilight had never seen before entering after him. She resisted the urge to ask what it was. She had more pressing matters to worry about, after all. Dedede didn’t, though. “Hey, what’s that?” “Gooey!” Kirby excitedly declared. “New friend!” Impatiently, Twilight fluffed her wings. “Alright, now that we’re all here, we can head out and find Spike!” She launched outside without waiting for an answer, the others not far behind. Immediately, she started casting scrying spells, starting with Spike’s last known location. There was a bit of residue left on the ground from when he burned through that beam, which meant that hopefully she could find where he had went and- The spell fizzled out as soon as it hit the small splotch of darkness. Twilight sat down hard, on the verge of panicking. She would find Spike, she had to. This was just…a setback. A major one, but one she would overcome, she reminded herself. Just barely avoiding falling into despair, she was relieved when a new voice spoke up. “Sir!” Captain Montoya, a blade knight and third in line in Dedede’s military command, shouted as he crested the mountaintop. “We’ve received a report from the village! A dragon was sighted early this morning heading south!” Dedede frowned as Twilight suddenly perked up. “South?” she asked. Bandee’s eyes widened. “He must’ve been going after the Rainbow Bridges!” “Rainbow Bridges?” Twilight asked. “They connect the Rainbow Islands,” Dedede unhelpfully explained. At Twilight’s confused look, Bandana Dee chipped in again. “They also channel most of Popstar’s ambient emotion magic.” Twilight frowned. “Emotion magic? I know harmony magic–that’s my native unicorn magic–is based mostly on emotion.” She gasped. “Maybe that’s why the Element of Magic almost pushed whatever was possessing Spike out of him, and why it protected me!” “But if that thing is going after something that can channel emotion magic…” Bandee trailed off. Everyone had a moment where the severity of the situation sunk in. No one really knew exactly what this parasite was capable of, but if emotion magic repelled it and it was actively seeking to subvert that… “We need to act quickly,” Twilight decided. She spread her wings and launched upward, but very quickly came back down. “Um…which way are the Rainbow Islands?” Dedede chuckled. He started down the mountain, gesturing for everyone else to follow. “C’mon, I’ll lead the way.”