//------------------------------// // 3. Kindness and Regret // Story: The Night That Never Ended // by BronyCray //------------------------------//             Pinkie jumped excitedly in her home, though her face betrayed no emotion. Outside, somepony was yelling in the town center, but Pinkie paid them no heed. Adjusting the party hat on her new friend, she looked at the table before her. A ball of lint, a sack of flour, a bucket of turnips, an old book, and her new friend Rocky Slide sat attentively. “Oh thank you all so much for coming,” she said, trying and failing to force a smile out, “I just felt so alone all of a sudden. I know we will all be the best of friends from now, and we won’t ever, ever leave eachother! Now we can all be happy again, just the six of us, forever and ever.” To her horror, she found that not even her delusions could make her smile. Maybe if she just believed they were real a little bit harder…                                  Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash sat in the bush, each holding a space open with their hooves. Ahead of them, Fluttershy’s cottage stood looking dark, but not abandoned. No light shown from the windows, but neither was there a sign of broken wood or glass. The grass around the cottage looked wet and sickly in the moonlight, and Twilight quickly realized that it had died long ago from lack of sunlight, and was now in varying stages of decomposition. However, a path had clearly been forged through the decaying grass, straight to the front door. The smell of rot hung heavy in the air, and the dead silence of the scene unnerved both ponies. It lay silent now, but the cottage seemed to be the center of recent activity.             “Ok, I’ll fly in low and peek through the windows. If I don’t see anything strange I’ll motion you up”. Dash looked suspiciously from side to side, and at a nod from Twilight jumped out of the bush. She hovered stealthily across the yard and flattened herself against the wall of the cottage. Slowly, she stuck her head up enough to see through the window.             The inside was much what the outside suggested. It was in complete darkness except for the moonlight coming from the window, but it was also neat and tidy. It was clear that someone was still living here, but Rainbow Dash couldn’t get a view of Fluttershy’s bed from her spot by the window. Pulling back, she motioned Twilight with her hoof, and the purple unicorn left the bush and snuck up close beside her.             “I can’t see Fluttershy, but the cottage is definitely inhabited. Should we try knocking?” Dash was hovering impatiently. This sneaking stuff was starting to grate on the pegasus. She was used to solving her problems by rushing at them headlong, not by snooping around. Still, Twilight was right that drawing attention to themselves couldn’t possibly end well, and so Dash put up with it for now.             “If she’s there, it would be rude to burst in on her while she was sleeping. Of course we should knock first.” Twilight cantered around to the front of the cottage while Dash put her hoof to her forehead. They were stuck in some sort of post-apocalyptic crazy-world, and Twilight was worried about manners. Great.             “Hello? Fluttershy?” Twilight called as she knocked tentatively on the door. “This is, uh, well it’s hard to explain. Could you open the door please?” There was a moment of silence, and then a small click from within. Twilight gingerly tried the door, and found that it was now unlocked. Pushing it slowly aside, she let her horn illuminate…nothing. The room inside was empty, except for furnishings and an equally empty glass bottle at her feet. Stepping over it, Twilight surveyed the inside of the room as Dash followed behind. “It smells like the rotten grass in the yard, but it looks like somepony lives here. What’s going on?”             “Sorry, what was that? There’s this ringing and I couldn’t hear what you said.” Dash stuck a hoof in her ear and wriggled it around, looking annoyed. “I can’t h---        -----ing. ----light?”             Twilight caught her balance as she began to fall over, Dash’s voice fading behind a ringing that grew louder and louder. She began wavering again and noticed that blue patches were forming over her sight, like they did when she stood up too fast after laying down reading. But instead of going away after a few seconds, the blotches became more frequent. She was distantly aware that Rainbow Dash had just fallen over, but even the sounds that made it through the ringing seen dampened by something. Twilight had felt like this once before, when she had locked herself in a closet with her inks by mistake. As Spike went to find the keys, she noticed that the smells from the inks were overpowering all her senses, confusing her mind and depriving her of the clean air she needed to think properly. Twilight let herself fall into her memory as she too hit the ground, consciousness rapidly fading without her even noticing.   --------------------------------------------------                 Twilight awoke to the sight of light. Light! Her vision was blurry, but she could make out the shapes of moving ponies on the other side of it. As her head cleared she could see the light was a fire in a pit in the center of the room, and all around her were strange faces leering down at her. Masks, masks were hung on the walls. And those designs… Zecora’s hut? How did she…?             As her memories came rushing back, Twilight couldn’t help but groan. Would it be so unreasonable to fall asleep on her own terms just once? She noticed that the ponies on the other side of the room had stopped talking and were now looking at her. Before she could get a good look at them, they ran outside together.             Left to herself for the moment, Twilight blinked and sat up. She heard light snoring and turned to see Rainbow Dash on some mats beside her, but Twilight decided to let her sleep. Whoever those ponies were, and wherever Zecora was, if they had meant her and Dash harm then they could have done something already. Twilight ran through her memories of what had happened before she blacked out. The room was empty except for a bottle, albeit nearly the size of a jug, and it smelled like rotten grass. Both her and Dash had experienced symptoms akin to oxygen deprivation, and then blacked out.             Before she could draw any conclusions, the door outside opened again. In the light Twilight could see the faces of Fluttershy, Zecora, and Nurse Redheart, who each walked over to Twilight’s side. Fluttershy’s expression was one of utmost worry as she looked down at the purple unicorn. “Oh, nurse Redheart, is she ok? Can she hear me yet?” “I can hear you fine, Flutershy. I-” Twilight was interrupted as her friend leapt down at her, embracing her in a bear hug that she must have learned from bears themselves. As Twilight struggled for breath, Nurse Redheart pulled Fluttershy off amid her torrent of words.             “Oh Twilight! I felt so bad after I gassed you and Rainbow Dash, I thought you were Shadowbolts! Oh, how did you get here? Everyone thought you were both gone! Twilight I missed you both so much, and since that night everything has changed!”             Twilight’s head was spinning from the flurry of words, but she shook her head and interrupted Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, please, I’ll tell you everything I know if you tell me everything you can too. But we should wait for Rainbow Dash to wake up first, she can fill in a lot of the blanks that I wasn’t there for.”             “Oh, of course, and I have to introduce you both to my new friend Zecora!” Fluttershy nearly leapt for joy as Zecora stared at Twilight Sparkle suspiciously. Belatedly, Twilight realized that this Zecora had never met her, confirming some of her suspicions. A particularly loud snore from Dash turned the group’s attention to the sleeping pegasus. Nurse Redheart rolled her eyes and gave the sleeping pony a light prod, jolting her awake instantly.             Dash leapt to her feet, punching the air with her hooves. “Who’s there? I’ll take you all on. Stay behind me Twilight, and- oh, Nurse Redheart? And Fluttershy? Zecora?” Fluttershy ran to Rainbow Dash and gave her an embrace as large as the one she gave Twilight, but Zecora eyed her with surprise.             “I know of Rainbow Dash, hero of fame, but how is it that you know my name?” Twilight was heartened to hear that some things simply never changed, no matter how bleak the world looked. Zecora was still Zecora, and she still spoke in rhyme.             “What? Zecora, we’ve met before. You cured us all of Poison Joke and, wait, right.” Rainbow Dash’s reply petered out as she remembered her situation. She looked pleadingly at Twilight, who stood up and cleared her throat. “I think it’s best if everyone sits down somewhere comfortable. I’ll tell you how me and Rainbow Dash got here, but it will take some explaining. But first, we haven’t eaten in days, could we please get some food if you have any? You must have some to have stayed alive so long.” Nurse Redheart excused herself to prepare a meal for the two travelers, and the other four ponies sat down around the fire. ________________________________             Twilight chewed and swallowed her stew, relishing the sustenance if not the taste. Fluttershy had explained that although plant life was mostly gone, the husks of trees and plants caused fungus and mushrooms to flourish in the forest. They didn’t need the sunlight to survive, and while not as tasty as hay most types were more than edible. Some of them also had very strange properties, and Zecora had explained that one particular fungus could be fixed with some ingredients and bottled, concocting a potent mixture that would put to sleep anyone in the room that the bottle was opened in given enough time. The smell of rotting grass had been caused by the deadened field around the cottage; the gas itself was scentless.             There was also something else in the stew, but Twilight couldn’t quite put her hoof on it. She had never tasted anything like it before, but some chunks had a slightly metallic taste to them. It wasn’t unpleasant, and Twilight paid it little mind as she swallowed another bite, pausing to finish talking to the two enraptured ponies across from her. “So then I told Dash that going in without knocking would of course be rude, and I knocked on the door myself. It opened and I walked in, then, well, I guess you know the rest of it from there.” She raised the spoon again with her magic and savored another bite. She had never known mediocre stew could taste so good!             For her part, Dash wasn’t listening at all. Her bowl of stew law on the ground with Dash standing over it, head buried in the bowl. Noisy chewing and slurping sounds could be heard from there as the bowl moved around the floor with the force of her eating. Dash was so happy to finally have food that even her wings stood up as she ate, savoring every drop.             “Strange this world of sun and moon, where trees still grow and flowers bloom,” mused Zecora, her head propped on her hooves.             “But Twilight, none of those things ever happened. We’ve been living in darkness for months, and we saw you die! How can you be from this world and a different world at the same time?”             “I’m not exactly sure, Fluttershy,” began Twilight. “I’ve been thinking, or trying to between being knocked out, and I think I might have teleported us into a parallel universe.” Their blank stares told Twilight that none of them knew what she was talking about. “Well, the theory is a little complicated, so let me put it this way. Every time you make a decision, there’s a world where you made another decision too. Two parallel worlds continue onwards except for one difference, and there’s one for every decision every pony has ever made. In this world, I think I somehow failed to earn my Element of Harmony, while in my world we discovered the element of magic and defeated Nightmare Moon. As time passed in our world, time passed here too, and so we crossed over to the same day of your world as we left ours.”             Dash had finally finished her stew and was waiting for another bowl. Her face was confused as she tried to catch up, mumbling to herself as she did the mental math. Zecora simply looked like she was waiting for more, and so it was Fluttershy who spoke up first. “But why did you get teleported here? And how?”             Twilight dropped her head in exasperation. “That’s what I can’t figure out! It was new magic and maybe I couldn’t have accounted for everything, but I sure as hay tried. The only thing I can think of was this strange pull that Rainbow Dash and I felt during the spell, but I don’t know what that was. If that’s what got us here, getting back might take longer than I thought. But please, can you explain to us what has happened here? Pinkie gave us some information, but she clearly wasn’t in her right mind.”             Fluttershy stood up and walked to the window, where the moonlight poured in. In the steady light, Twilight could see the lines that had formed on her friend’s face. She may look similar she told herself, but this is not the same Fluttershy. Fluttershy’s face reminded Twilight of Princess Celestia. Usually cheery, almost always smiling, but underneath lay the will of a pony who had made hard choices. It wasn’t always rainbows and butterflies, but compromise that moved Celestia’s court along, Twilight knew. Moral virtues had to be weighed against duties to the people, and every heavy decision hung a little harder on her mentor’s spirit. Impossible choices had been made over the years, and Twilight yearned to know what had happened to Fluttershy to give her a similar appearance. As the pegasus began to talk, Twilight’s interest returned to the conversation.             “What Pinkie said was mostly true, if a little disjointed. We all saw the sixth element vanish, and then Nightmare Moon attacked you. I- I was the first one to run, and everybody else followed suit. I’m sorry Twilight, but there was nothing we could have done.” A nod from Twilight prompted her to continue. “We reached the bottom of the ruins again, but Nightmare Moon was waiting for us…               Fluttershy’s lungs burned. Her wings were tired from flying and her legs were tired from running, but she threw herself out of the archway behind Applejack anyway, blindly following the pony in front of her. Applejack came to a halt suddenly, and Fluttershy barely managed to avoid crashing into her flank. She raised her head up to see over the orange pony’s shoulder, and standing barely ten yards away was Nightmare Moon, her fiery blue mane blowing madly in the wind.             “You foals, did you really think you could simply run away from me? You can’t even all fly!”             “Well, good thing only one of us has to!” yelled Rainbow Dash. Without looking back once, she simply said “run,” and then launched herself in the air. Rainbow Dash and Midnight Moon both smiled at eachother for a moment, and then Dash charged at her at full speed. Pinkie Pie yelled something and charged forward, but Rarity and Applejack grabbed her and pulled her toward the tree line. Nightmare Moon stood in one spot and lashed out with her purple flames while Rainbow Dash flew madly around her, trying to get close enough to buck or ram her. Together, the two formed a cloud of purple smoke pierced over and over by rainbows, and Fluttershy could no longer tell what was happening. Fluttershy backed away until she was able to rip herself away from the sight of the battle and followed her friends into the forest. They were still running when they heard the scream, followed by Nightmare Moon’s laughter.             There was no next day, for the sun was never seen again. Some hours later, however, the four friends gathered in Fluttershy’s cottage, heatedly discussing what to do next when a frantic knock on the door brought silence over them. The door was opened hurriedly, and an exhausted Spike dropped onto the floor.             “Hey, ain’t ya that little dragon a’ Twilights?” said Applejack, helping him up.             “Yes! I’ve been looking everywhere for you guys! I haven’t seen Twilight at all since she set out with you, and now there’s something going on in the middle of town. What happened? Why is it still dark out?” Rarity gave the group a look and nodded, and settled down to explain to Spike what had happened. Fluttershy and Applejack went off the a corner to discuss further while Pinkie Pie sat in a chair and muttered to herself, looking at the wall.             “Fluttershy, I think we should go an’ see what’s happening in town. There ain’t no telling what’s in store for us all next, and we should be there to see it so that we know firsthoof.” Applejack looked pityingly at Pinkie Pie, whose muttering had become angry. “At least some of us need to keep our heads if we’re gonna make it through this.”             “Oh, I agree, I think,” began Fluttershy, “but not completely. I don’t think leaving Rarity alone here alone to deal with Pinkie and Spike is a good idea. What if Nightmare Moon comes back? She’ll search our houses eventually for sure.”             “Darn it all, you’re right sugarcube. I’ll go into town alone and-“             “No, please, let me. I- I just need some space to clear my head, and there’s so much noise in here. The walk into town will be good for me, and I can stay unnoticed better than you.” Applejack looked at the yellow pegasus skeptically. This courage hadn’t been there before, but Applejack knew she was more needed here on watch than running back and forth between places. Fluttershy would be able to cover the distance faster with her wings anyway.             “Fluttershy, are you feeling alright? Ya made the right decision in running back there, there was nothing anypony could have done.”             “I’m…fine. I just need some time to think is all. Please, let me do this at least.”             “All right sugarcube, but ya better leave now. Spike said it was already happening.”             Fluttershy nodded and grabbed a heavy cloak from her closet. Between the low moonlight and the hood, she should be unrecognizable in town. With that, she took flight and made a beeline for the lights of Ponyville.             “Wait, what happened to Spike? Oh Celestia, I haven’t even thought about him in days! He must be so worried-“             “Oh, please, I’ll get to that, but first I need to tell you about the Shadowbolts.”             “The Shadowbolts?” piped up Rainbow Dash, “but they weren’t real ponies, just an image that Nightmare Moon conjured up to test my loyalty. How could they terrorize Ponyville?”                       “These were real, and it wasn’t just the three that you saw.” This came from Fluttershy, who only continued to star at the moon, lost in memory. “As I got into town, three pegasi came to Ponyville…”               Her uniform perfectly conformed to her body as she touched down on the stage, purple overcoat on top of form-fitting black cloth. She grinned at the crowd before her as her team members lined up behind her, knowing her yellow goggles would unnerve the citizens. Like the ponies behind her, her fur and mane were grey. The only distinguishing details between them were the ranks on their flanks, and the figure who stepped forward had the connected silver bars of Captain. All of Ponyville looked up in fear as the figure stepped up to the podium and began to speak.             “Citizens of Ponyville, we are the Shadowbolts, Her Royal Majesty’s will in the sky. We are here for two reasons, firstly to make an offer and secondly to make a request.” “First, Her Royal Majesty has kindly extended an offer of employment for all interested parties, as positions have opened up in the ranks of the royal guard and in our own team of Shadowbolts.” She paused to let the crowd’s murmurs subside. “Tryouts for the Shadowbolts will be in Canterlot for all pegasi, and the royal guard has positions open for specially gifted unicorns.” Again, surprise washed over the crowd at the replacement of the winged guardians of Princess Celestia. “And now, for our second reason for coming today...”             “Ponyville, you have been honored by being the first to bask in the presence of Her Royal Majesty Midnight Moon! However, it has come to Her Majesty’s attention that your town is harboring fugitives, namely the four ponies known as Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy. Surrender them to us, and you may continue to live in peace under the majestic night of Her Majesty. Refuse,” The equine’s grin grew wider, “and we will have no choice but to search for them ourselves.”             The crowd began murmuring amongst themselves as the figure turned and left the stage. Another Shadowbolt came to her side and saluted. “Send up the signal,” said the captain, “we’ll burn our priority targets to the ground. This was merely a formality; Her Majesty knows that the ponies here will never betray their friends, but there are plenty of other opportunistic ponies across the rest of Equestria. Let the memory of what happened here serve as a warning to all.”             Minutes later, the crowd was shouting at the long empty stage, their fury at the audacity of these invaders having built to critical mass. When the first filly cried out, all turned their eyes to the sky. Flying in front of the moon came dozens of figures, each holding a torch their mouth as they soared over the town. The first torch dropped into the boughs of the library, and the rain of fire began.   _____________________               Twilight and Dash sat in stunned silence as Fluttershy finished, tears welling up in her eyes. “They didn’t burn all the buildings, just the ones that we needed to survive. The Library, the school, storehouses, granaries, even Sweet Apple Acres. Immediately afterwards and in the days following, people began to leave for the larger cities, where there would be more food. Nightmare Moon had her own supply, and was using it to control the populace. If a town became unruly, she cut off trade with it and let it wither and die, or else simply gave her Shadowbolts the order to raze it. Ponyville has been deserted for months, but most of the population escaped, and nobody ever gave up our hiding places to Nightmare Moon.” At this Fluttershy’s face beamed with pride for the loyalty of her friends, and silence fell over the room again.             “They escaped?!” Twilight’s voice cracked as she broke the spell of silence. “Where is everypony? Are Rarity and Applejack ok? And Spike?”             Fluttershy nodded and continued. “Oh, they’re fine, but we don’t know exactly where they are. I sent Nurse Redheart to a meeting place, but she hasn’t returned yet.”             “Wait, you don’t you know where they are?” Twilight questioned. “You aren’t part of their group?”             Fluttershy shook her head. “Zecora and I stay here to harvest food for the survivors, but that puts us close to the edge of the forest. If we were captured by the Shadowbolts, everypony would be in danger.”             Dash flicked her tail in annoyance and butted in. “Why doesn’t anypony try to just fight back against these Shadowbolt guys? If they weren’t the creations of Nightmare Moon that I saw, then that means they’re ponies just like us. How can a flying stunt team keep a nation oppressed?”             Fluttershy turned a stern eye to Dash, surprising Twilight. She had expected the yellow pegasus to cower beneath Dash’s harsh questioning, but this Fluttershy had apparently learned her own lessons of being forceful in her time surviving. “You think we haven’t tried that? It’s not just the Shadowbolts! The royal guard is as strong as an army, and composed entirely unicorns now. If anypony refuses the Shadowbolts, a detachment of magic wielders comes to your home.” The sound of voices came floating through the window, and Fluttershy turned her gaze back. “Oh, it looks like Nurse Redheart has returned, and she brought our contact with the town.” She smiled warmly at Twilight, “It seems like there’s some good news for you today, after all.”             Rainbow Dash and Twilight looked at eachother suspiciously. The sound of hooves approaching the door became clearer, and Nurse Redheart stepped inside followed by… “Spike!” _____________________________               Some distance away, a pair of Shadowbolts finished their reports in the captain’s office.             “You’re sure you weren’t seen?”             “We hung around the area to make sure, but no alarm was raised after we ran out. We waited outside beneath the window, but that silly yellow pegasus only ever looked up at the moon, never at the ground beneath her.” The insignias on their flanks marked them both as Airpony First Class, not a particularly high rank amongst the Shadowbolts.             First, there had been a report of a rainbow-maned pegasus pony. Now, after she had sent two more men to follow up on it, they were also reporting that she answered to Rainbow Dash, and that Twilight Sparkle was with her. On top of all that, they had found where Fluttershy was hiding. This certainly warranted her personal attention.             The captain rose and stretched her wings, then walked to the doorway. It opened into empty sky, the horizon a mass of stars. By daylight, it would have overlooked an ocean, but with only moonlight to see by the water was invisible. Only more stars, as far as the eye could see. She stared thoughtfully before flexing her wings again, then spoke a final time. “Thank you for your report, now go back to patrols. I’m stepping out to attend to some personal business. Don’t mention anything you’ve said here to anyone else.” And with that, the captain let herself plummet off the edge, letting the air rush by her in freefall before catching herself and gliding towards Ponyville.