Along a cobbled path running through a burning village, a orange Earth pony with a yellow mane and a stetson and a white unicorn with a fabulously curled purple mane fled. Chasing them were small black creatures; with a small slightly anthropomorphic body, a round head with a set of twisted antennas, glowing yellow eyes and sharp claws. At least fifty of these black monsters dashed after the mares, switching from dashing after them on all fours to flattening themselves of the ground like a Shadow.
"Applejack! Where are we running to! These creatures are relentless, and I'm getting sweaty!" cried the unicorn
"A'h figured Twi's library would be where we gonna find the rest of the girls! We gotta blast the whole town with a rainbow!" Applejack suddenly put on a burst of speed, lowering her head so she rammed straight through one of the Shadows that appeared in front of them.
A voice yelled out from above them "Sup Rarity, AJ. Need some help?" A rainbow maned pegasus flew in a small yet fast circle above Rarity, before Corkscrewing right into the mass of Shadows. Half of them morphed into the ground, while the rest were sent flying before slamming inti the ground and disappearing into a puff of smoke. "Ten points for Rainbow Dash!"
"Girls, are you all right!?" The three turned and saw a lavender alicorn and a pink earth pony with a mane poofed from here to Neverland come charging down the road; Twilight Sparkle and Pinkiemina Diane Pie, or Pinkie Pie to her friends, respectively. Following them was a considerably smaller group of Shadows.
"We're all good Twi, but can you tell us what in the world these critters are?" Applejack bucked a Shadow that rushed forward back into the growing crowd.
"Oh, Oh! Maybe there aliens! Or demons! Or maybe there alien demons! Aliemons! Demlens? Adilemonens?" Pinkie bounced repeatedly on a Shadow before it made a loud POP and vanished in more smoke.
"I don't know! I've never seen or heard of creatures like thi- Gah!" A fireball flew past Twilight's head, barely missing as she was pulled aside with a strong tug of Rarity's magic. The caster was a red floating creature that flew down and floated above the ranks of Shadows, joined by several others.
"Do be careful dear; and also, has anypony seen Fluttershy? I fear for the poor dear..." worried Rarity.
"Bah, Shy's probably holed up with her animals. She'll be fine with their help." said Rainbow.
"Um girls, A'h don't mean to interrupt, but A'h think we should focus on the problem at hoof." Applejack lowered herself into a fighting stance as the swarm of creatures began to move forward from all sides. The mares formed a ring back to back, with Twilight and Rarity's horns lighting up, Rainbow hovering above the ground, and Pinkie bouncing up and down like a spring.
The Shadows swarmed forward, but were blasted back by a combination of lavender magic and assorted party supplies. Rainbow flew upwards, drawing the attention of the Red Nocturnes that moved to chase after her and Applejack leaped into the remaining Shadows that weren't sent flying. Pinkie set about reloading her Party Canon Mk 2 (Now with more streamers!), Twilight cast more Magic Blasts into the group, and Rarity levitated some rocks off the ground.
Up in the air, Rainbow flew in loops threw the air around a cluster of Red Nocturnes, throwing her hoof out in sharp jabs as she raced past them. A couple of Fireballs were fired at her, but Rainbow dodged them with ease, before dashing straight at the casters. Spinning into a Corkscrew, she blasted straight through the creatures before they could scatter, causing them to explode into into puffs of black smoke that temporarily blinded Rainbow Dash after her charge straight through. After the few seconds it took for her to recover, she looked around and saw more Red Nocturnes surrounding her.
"Uh oh..." Rainbow gulped before evading more fire balls.
Back on the ground, the rest of the present Mane Six were having their own troubles. Applejack was right in the fray of combat, bucking at Shadows left and right and up and down and sideways trying to stem off the coming storm that were the shadowy monsters. Luckily, whenever the Shadows tried to attack her, they couldn't flatten onto they round to avoid her deadly hooves. But even her ferocious bucks could hold off the sheer numbers of her attackers for long; until they where thrown upward with a heave of lavender Levitation. As the Shadows floated above Applejack they were picked off by rocks flung by Rarity, hitting them dead on in the eye and causing the shadows to poof off into the afterlife.
"Wowzez Rarity, awesome shot!" Pinkie sent a wave of assorted party supplies into a crowd of Shadows that were sent flying and became tangled up "Man the canon Gummy, I'm going out there!"
"..." Gummy blinked before licking his eye from atop the canon.
"Good gator!" Pinkie then a candy cane battle axe from behind her and leaped into the fray, swing her delicious tool of death in an arc that burst some Shadows into clouds.
"Where did... You know what, never mind. We need to get out of here girls! There's no way we can fight this many creatures!" shouted Twilight. She let loose a stream of Magic Blasts that hit both Shadows and a few Red Nocturnes that weren't interesting in Rainbow Dash.
"Yah, as awesome as I'm doing, I can't keep this up for much longer!" Rainbow, scorched and burnt all over, landed (more like crashed and quickly recovered) onto the ground next to Twilight.
"There are simply to many of these beasts for us to keep fighting alone! We need to fall back, find Fluttershy, and get to the train station; that's where the Guard is evacuating to Canterlot." Rarity launched rocks into the crowd with surprising precision into the crowd as the five ponies were surrounded by the ever growing mob.
"A'h bet out brawl here has been drawing all of the critters from across the town, so hopefully we bought em some time for everypony to escape" Applejack sighed "I hope ma family's alright..."
"Don't worry girls, we'll make it out of this! We've faced all kinds of threats together, and this one is no different!" said Twilight cheerfully "I hope" she finished under her breath.
The mares continued their assault on the approaching creatures with a barrage of magic, rocks, hooves and colorful party supplies. But it wasn't enough, as the Shadows leapt up and above like an ocean wave from all sides into a pile on the six tired mares, burying them in darkness.
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Twilight was falling. Falling through a never ending void of Darkness. Suddenly, there was a light from below her; turning she saw a curious sight. It was a large dark-purple stained glass platform, with herself positioned in the center with her wings spread and her eyes closed with a peaceful look on her face. The image of her wore a long sleeved black vest with violet and pink trimmings, and a short purple cape covered her wings. She also wore a pink pants with her cutie mark emblazoned on them. In six circles around her depicted self with each of her friends and her own cutie mark, while in six smaller circles in between those were Celestia, Luna, Cadence, her brother, Spike, and even Discord's faces. Slowly Twilight's descent slowed until her hooves lightly landed on the glowing platform. She trotted over and looked over the edge, seeing the platform was atop some kind of dark pillar that stretched down into infinity. Twilight tried to fly off the platform, for some reason no matter how hard she flapped, she couldn't rise into the air.
"Where am I? And what happened to the girls!? I hope their alright... But first I need to get out of here! Wherever here actually is..." as Twilight mused, she was startled by a genderless indescribable voice came out of seemingly everywhere and nowhere.
Don't be afraid. Your friends are closer than you think.
"Well, I'm not so much afraid as worried and confused, but if you know where my friends are, you have to send me to them now! Their in danger!" shouted Twilight out into the void, looking around and ears twitching to pinpoint the origin point of the voice.
Your friends are the Light that guides your path. Your Light is bright, brighter than most, and must be ready to defend your light from the Darkness
"The Darkness? Is that what those weird creatures were? Please, you have to help me!" Twilight had given up searching for the voice and instead spoke upwards to the void. But suddenly she was startled by a pound metallic grating sound as three slanted cubes rose out of the platform sitting at each one was a different item; on one a sword with a star-shaped guard, another a shield with a star on it, and the last was a staff with a gem shaped like a star. the mysterious voice spoke again.
You have great power. You must choose to give it form. Choose wisely
Twilight slowly walked over to the staff, which was the closest pillar. As she set a hoof on the pillar the voice rang out again.
The power off the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and wisdom. Is this the power you seek?
"Mystic power? Yup, this one sounds good, but what is this a outs." Twilight's question went unanswered as the staff vanished in a flash of light, and once again, the voice spoke.
And now what will you give up in return?
"Ok? I'll just go and look over here..." Twilight approached the sword and reached out for it like she did with the staff.
The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Will you give this up?
"Terrible destruction? Yah, I think I'll give that up." And with her words, both the sword and the shield vanished in a bright flash just like the staff. At the far side of the platform, small squares of colored glass much like the platform she stood on appeared off, floating in the air.
Twilight moved up the steps, but as she reached the last of the five that appeared, another popped up in front of her, while the farthest one behind her disappeared.
"It looks like I'm walk go back, and since I can't fly for whatever reason, this is the point of no return. But if moving forward will get me back to Ponyville, then I have no choice!" Twilight set forth with a confident pace, and within moments she had reached another platform.
This platform was different from the previous; it was a lime green color but the center was as black as the void around Twilight. In the center was a another pony, but this time with a white stallion with a green mane that matched the green on the platform. He wore a suit of steel armor, light enough as not to obstruct mobility or slow him down to much, but his cutie mark was obstructed. Resting under one arm was a full face helmet, and the stallion gazed away in the picture, so his was was unseeable. Around the edges of his platform were only three yellow squares, one with Twilight's face, another with Rainbow Dash's, and in the last was another unknown stallion, also white but with a yellow mane. Twilight didn't recognize that pony, though she wondered why her face and Rainbow Dash's were on here. In a sudden flash, the staff from before appeared in front of Twilight, which startled her and caused her to jump backwards and give out a startled yelp. Blushing, Twilight recovered from her surprise and griped the staff in her magic before swinging it back in forth lightly.
Your true strength has come fourth. You can now combat the Darkness.
Black shadowy shapes crawled from over the edge of the platform, before rising up to form five Shadows
Keep your light burning strong, and never lose hope, and the Darkness shall be vanquished
"More of those creatures from earlier" Twilight gasped "well let's see how you like this!" Twilight threw herself forward, her wings giving her a extra push as she kicked the first Shadow with her hooves before swinging the staff at it, destroying the Shadow. Turning, she fired a Magic Blast at another one of the Shadows, but the Shadow flattened itself beneath the projectile and moved towards the unicorn. It swiftly moved behind her, but she smashed it with the staff before hitting it again with the staff. But as her back was turned, another Shadow leaped at her and racked her hind leg with its claws. Grunting at the sudden pain, the Shadow responsible was blasted out of existence with a Magic Blast as Twilight spun around. But as the third Shadow was destroyed, the remaining two shrank back into the ground and disappeared as quickly as they came.
"Now where did they go?" questioned Twilight. Out of the corner of her eye she saw more of the strange stairs from before appear. Limping over to and up the stairs, Twilight called upon her rudimentary healing magic to knit the layer of skin together, making a slightly painful patch job on her thigh.
Twilight reached the third platform, which was a sky-blue, almost a white, color and in the center this time was Rainbow Dash, wings spread like she was flying. She wore a red hoodie with small rainbow gems lining the sleeves and edges. A line of gold trim ran along the edges just past the gems. She also wore steel boots that stretched up her forearm and ankle; there were metals spikes ran along the whole of them stopping just at the hooves. The sleeves of the hoodie were tucked into the boots, creating assumable a layer of comfort. But something was disturbing about this platform: Rainbow's right eye had a strip of the same material her hoodie was made of, with her cutie mark woven onto it.
The Light heals and the Light destroys. Learn to do both so you may become strong.
On the platform, two white spheres appeared, with glowing gold numbers running horizontally rushing along them. Twilight approached one of the two spheres and reached out to it. Her hoof passed straight into it, and Twilight gasped as knowledge rushed into her mind.
The power to heal ailments is yours
"Ow" Twilight muttered, blinking rapidly as her mind assimilated the sudden memorization of magic "Did I just learn a spell? That's amazing! A way of instantly teaching a unicorn a spell has never succeeded before! How did you do that!?" Twilight gleefully hooped up and down before grinning sheepishly "oh yeah, creepy magic voice, hehe... Anyway, now let's try this out... Cure!" Twilight's horn lit up its normal lavender color before flashing green. A transparent flower bloomed above her head, and with a twinge of pain the what remained of the cut on Twilight's flank that she hadn't managed to heal was fixed.
"Amazing! I wonder what the second one does!" Twilight early reached her hoof out to the next orb, once more gasping as the spell rushed into her mind.
The power to burn your foes is yours
Wincing once more, Twilight noticed a barrel with an odd three circle shape on it appear in a flash "A fire spell huh. Nothing to complex, but this one is certainly more powerful than any I know. Well, let's put I to the test... Fire!" Twilight's horn lit on fire before the fire was launched at the barrel, the flaming projectile demolishing the barrel and sending chunks everywhere.
"Neat!" In a sudden flash of light, a large white door appeared. On one side there was an orange sun and on the other a blue crescent moon. Walking forward Twilight pushed the door open for a bright light to was over her. When the light faded she found herself in the main room of Golden Oaks Library! "Wha! This was destroyed! How am I here!?" It was then Twilight noticed, standing off to the side browsing books, was Princess Celestia, white coat and flowing mane in all. "Princess Celestia!?"
With Twilight's words the solar alicorn turned to Twilight "What are you afraid of?" Celestia asked.
"Well if I had to say it would be being alone, but that doesn't answer my- Princess!" As Twilight answered Princess Celestia faded from existence, and Twilight heard a noise from up stairs. Dashing up the stairs into what used to be her old room, Twilight was startled to see Princess Cadence, who had just knocked over a pile of books.
"What is it you want out of life?" Cadence smiled happily at Twilight.
"I guess I want to make new friends, but are you really- hey! Com'on!" Just like with Celestia, Cadence faded out of existence. It was then Twilight heard a light humming from her balcony. Walking out onto the balcony, she saw Princess Luna gazing up at the night sky. When Twilight walked out, Luna turned towards her.
"What is most important to you?" asked Luna.
"I bet you'll disappear just like Celestia and Cadence after I answer, so I'll just say it. Friendship is most important to me." Twilight sighed.
"Of course it is" Luna said with a huge grin, before the whole world flashed white once more.
When she could see again, Twilight saw she was once again standing on a stained-glass platform. This was was a gray-ish white, wearing a pony in a full black coat with a drawn hood. The pony had the figure of a mare, and was gazing up at what appeared to be a heart shaped moon. Surrounding the edges were 13 numerals, with 11's circle bigger than the rest. A beam of light shined down on Twilight and the mysterious voice spoke once more.
The brighter your light, the stronger your shadow becomes.
Twilight heard an odd warping noise and saw her shadow stretching out longer and longer, before it began to rise up from the ground.
But don't be afraid.
The shadow took on a more anthropomorphic shape arms with thick fingers reaching upwards, it's colossus body taking shape.
And don't forget...
Curled feet stepped forward and glowing yellow eyes gazed down at the lavender unicorn from under waving tentacles for hair. Twilight ran from the Darkside, only to reach the edge of the platform. Turning, the magic staff appeared once again as she held it defensively in front of herself. The Darkside brought its arms together, in which between a orb of darkness temporarily formed before the creature brought back an arm and slammed down where Twilight was standing; was, as she flung herself out of harms way with a quick flap of her wings and leap of her hooves. From the giant shadow's fist darkness covered a patch of the platform, from which a few small shadows rose up. Twilight threw herself at the giant hand, launching Fireballs at two of the Shadows while the rest were destroyed in wide sweeping attacks that hit them and the Darksides hand. As the Darkside drew back its arm, Twilight kept up her attack; her wings now could lift her off the ground, so she flew up and barraged its face with Fireballs, Magic Blasts, and strikes from the staff. The Darkside swept its arms at Twilight but she avoided them and kept up her weak but efficient attack. With a final, more powerful Magic Blast, Twilight carved a hold right through the giants face.
"Take that! Whoa!" Twilight fell from the sky as her wings couldn't seem to keep her in the air again "Ow." The Darkside collapsed onto the platform, covering in in darkness that Twilight began to sink into. She struggled to get her hooves loose, but she sank lower and lower into the darkness.
Never stray from the light.
"Help! Somepony, anypony, help! Please help me!" Twilight cried out, her neck just now sinking into the darkness.
You hold the mightiest weapon of all.
Twilight's face sunk into the darkness, and her horn soon followed after. Then nothing was left but the eternal dark void.
You will defend the Light from the coming Darkness. It will not be easy. So don't forget...
A single yellow eye with a red iris appeared.
Friendship is Magic.
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Back in Ponyville, the Red Nocturnes floated lazily around a withering mass of Shadows when suddenly-
BANG!
In a flash of lavender light, the pile of Shadows was annihilated. Four ponies looked up from their sprawled positions on the ground at the purple unicorn, with a strange purple and gold weapon floating by her side.
"Ready for round two?" Twilight grinned.