Dawn broke through the clouds as the sun rose high in the sky. Nightwing removed the covers from his bed but stopped when he heard a crumpling noise. He pulled the covers back and saw that a rolled up letter with the signature lunar stamp keeping it closed.
Nightwing removed the seal and opened up the letter.
'Our dear student.
We happy to hear that you are alright. Although your where you are is still unaware to me, I trust that you will be wise and careful. Stay safe dear student.
Your Teach, Luna.'
Nightwing couldn't help but grin at that last part. His Teach always disliked that nickname but now she seemed to be used to it.
Nightwing crumpled up the paper and threw it in a trash bin.
The morning had been very dull, the group had breakfast, had small talks, and cleaned the kitchen. Only thing left to now was to make adjustments to the defenses.
Nightwing, John, and Ranger where making final touches on the wall. Meanwhile the mares were
"Hey Ranger." Nightwing asked as hammered a nail through one of the planks.
"Yeah."
"I heard you say your ma and pa built this barn. But I haven't seen your pa anywhere. Where is he?"
Ranger stopped what he was doing. His eyes revealed pain as he remembered a painful memory.
"You okay?" Nightwing asked.
"Yeah...it's...it's alright...I-"
A hoof rested itself on Rangers shoulder. Ranger looked behind him and saw that it was John who had placed his hoof on his shoulder. John had a look on his face that said 'I know'.
John removed his hoof and walked a bit forward.
"Rangers father was one of thee most kind stallions I have ever seen before in my life. When the Spooks came they tried to destroy the barn..." Pain was in Johns voice as he tried his best to continue the memory. "Ranger and him where in the barn when it happened. The top layer were we kept most of the hay caught fire and burned the top layer. It collapsed and crushed everything below it....Ranger made it out...but Harvest...never made it out." His voice had began to crack. "What's worse is when we put out the fire...we couldn't even bury him...his body was never found."
"...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to bring you this kind of pain...I know what it's like to loose someone you care about." Nightwing expressed.
"It's not your fault. After all how could you know about it." Ranger said.
Nightwing nodded at that and went back to working on the wall.
Canterlot. Two days later.
"Time had passed and we added braces to the back of the wall for double protection." Nightwing said as he shuffled a deck of cards. "The traps were set. Our defenses up. And we had our weapons ready."
"Interesting." Luna said as she observed the board.
Nightwing and Luna sat opposite from each other, a board game known as 'Warriors and Soliders'. It was a game of strategy and warfare. The board was almost life-like because it was being projected by a crystal that hovered above the table. The board covered most of the table except for a space in front of Nightwing and Luna.
"Tell me more of what happened." Luna asked.
"Anyways there was nothing else for me to do so I did what I always do when I'm bored...I tinker." Nightwing said as dealt eight card to Luna and eight cards to him. "I tinkered around with their crossbows and tried to turn make it easier to use." Nightwing said as he chose four of the eight cards and placed them down face up.
All four cards had the word 'Building' on top of it in gold. The first building card was called 'Farm'. The hovering crystal recognized the card and a windmill with four fields connected to it materialized onto the board. The other three cards were 'Blacksmith', 'Tower', and 'Archery Range'.
The Blacksmith building looked like an extended shack but had a furnace on the outside of it. The Tower was like a wizards tower. Tall, made of bricks stacked on top of each other, had a cone roof, and had a window carved at the top of the tower. The Archery Ranger was an open field with a small outpost connected to it and at the end of the field were targets.
"Interesting choices dear student." Luna said as she placed her four cards face up. The crystal saw them and materialized them onto the board. Nightwing recognized them as the 'Huts', 'Church', 'Pit', and 'Castle'.
The Huts were four large straw made flipped bowls with a doorway in each, the Church had the shape of a barn but had a small tower with a bell in it on the front of the roof, the Cave was a hole in a rock that had a red and fiery light coming from inside it, and the Castle was a single square tower surrounded by four walls with four square towers on the edges of the walls.
"Your move first student." Luna gestured.
"I'll have my farm start producing food, which will take one turn." Four red pony figures appeared on the windmills fields as the began to tend to the crops. "Then I will have my Blacksmith begin designing weapons, which will take three turns." A red figure with a beard and apron on him appeared and entered the blacksmith.
"Wise move. For my first action my Hut dwellers shall go to the church and pray." Tiny blue ponies emerged from the huts and entered the church. "That will take three turns, for my second action I shall call forth a creature from the cave which will take four turns." Luna said. "Now tell me, what else happened on the farm?"
"Well like I said I tinkered with their crossbows and I was able to add a six round revolver to it that could hold the arrows and a pull back trigger on it that pulls back the string."
Back on the farm
"Like so." Nightwing said as he cocked the crossbows string with the pump and pulled the trigger. The string was released, pulling the arrow forward, and launching it at the target. The arrow whizzed through the air and struck the target. Nightwing spun the holder to the next arrow, cocked the string back and fired another arrow at the target.
"Time!" Nightwing asked.
"6.8 seconds." John looked at the stopwatch.
"Compared to the older version of the crossbow?"
"Ummm...fourteen point seven seconds faster." Eve said as she compared the two speeds.
"Wonderful, test is a success. Now to change the others."
"So you had given them weapons to defend themselves and a wall to protect them. Why didn't the Spooks attack you?" Luna asked as she ordered her Knights to attack a goblin camp.
"I found that strange as well, turns out they weren't attacking because they were giving us time." Nightwing said as his archers moved into the forest. "Archers gain plus three stealth."
"Time to do what? Knights destroy goblin camp." Luna said.
"Well it happened on the second day."
"Nightwing! Nightwing!" Ranger shouted as he shook Nightwing's body.
"No Teach I don't want to go into the scary woods." Nightwing murmured. "Huh...wha?"
"Nightwing your awake! Come quick you need to see this!" Ranger screamed in a panic.
"Ranger..." Nightwing paused as he rubbed his eyes. "What's going on?"
"Spooks! Hundreds of them! Quick!" Ranger said as he ran out the room. Nightwing, half asleep, followed him.
Ranger went downstairs, through the living room, and out the door towards the wall. There John, Eve, and Blossom were all standing in front of a separate window. All three had a crossbow in their hoofs.
"Okay what's this about-" Nightwing cut himself off as he looked out one of the windows. "-Spooks."
Hundreds of Spooks surrounded the farm in a 360 degrees circle. Each stared at the barn and house with their blank faces. Tentacles writhing from out of their backs.
"Huh...well that's a lot of Spooks." Nightwing stared in disbelief.
"Nightwing what do we do? There's no way we can fight this many Spooks." John said, not taking his eyes off the Spooks.
Nightwing scanned the Spooks but stopped when he saw the Spook with the fiery eyes Spooks standing in front of the other Spooks.
"Why is that Spook always here?" Nightwing asked no one.
"What Spook?" Ranger asked as he looked out the same window.
"That one right there. The one with it's eyes on fire." Nightwing pointed.
"There's no Spook with any eyes."
"What are talking about, he clearly-" Nightwing paused as he put two and two together. "Wait here." Nightwing said as he spread his wings and flew over the wall. "Don't fire until I say so."
"Why couldn't Ranger and his family see what you saw?" Luna asked.
"I'll tell you why just don't interrupt me." Nightwing answered.
Nightwing approached the Spook and stared at it dead on as it's burning eyes bored into Nightwing's, no matter how terrifying they looked he did not avert his gaze.
"Okay you. What do you know about the crack?"Nightwing demanded.
The Spook continued to stared at Nightwing.
"Oh don't give me that blank look, I know you know what the crack is now tell me."
A tentacle reached out of the Spooks back and rapped itself around Nightwing's crystal.
"The Cataclysm must be averted."
"Okay but what is the Cataclysm?"
"Death." The Spook answered.
"Does Cataclysm mean anything else?" No reply. "Okay." Nightwing sighed as he facehoofed. "What about the Crack? What is it?"
"A split."
"A split? A split in what?"
"In space."
"A split in space... Wait you mean a wormhole?"
"No...a split in space."
"Split in space...split in space...split in space...a split in the multiverse?"
"Yes."
"Yes! Knew I'd get it-
"Wait." Luna interrupted Nightwing's story. "What did it mean by a split in the multiverse?"
"A split in the multiverse is what happens when a universe is cut. That's basically what the crack was, a cut in our universe, allowing another universe to bleed into ours." Nightwing explained as he rolled a die. "Archers kill Knights."
Six Archer figures pulled back their bows and shot six arrows at Luna's three Knights. The arrows struck all three Knights and they vanished from the board.
"Well done. No then continue your story." Luna said.
"Okay now that I know what the crack is time for some more questions. Why do you want to destroy the farm?" Nightwing asked.
"Innocents." The Spooks answered.
"Innocents. What do you mean by..." Nightwing paused as he looked back at the wall. There Eve, John, Blossom, and Ranger stood ready to fight for their home. "Oh...you don't want to harm them. Wait if you don't want to harm anyone why did you attack my home?!" Nightwing demanded.
"Had to convince."
"Yeah did a pretty good job at that. But why must you destroy the whole farm? Can't you just...I don't know, somehow seal the crack?"
"The crack is like furnace, it must be fed so it can be sealed."
"Is that why you destroyed Whitetail? Because of a single crack?"
"The crack became to large we had to feed all of the forest to it."
"Final question, why are your eyes like that? And why can I only see them?"
"I am forever burning, I must always burn until I have finished my deed."
"Forever burning...wait are you...are Harvest? Rangers dad?"
"I am Harvest. His soul is trapped in me and will not leave until I can complete my deed."
"But you have no right to take his soul!"
"He chose this fate."
"Why would anyone choose that fate?"
"To protect his family. His will is strong, he is holding us back but will not be able to hold forever. The Spook said. "He says you must choose. You must tell them that they must leave, or they will all die. Choose wisely Nightwing."
The Spooks tentacle let go of the crystal and stepped back into the crowd of Spooks.
Nightwing turned around and flew back into the wall.
"Well what's the plan Nightwing?" Eve asked. "What do we do?"
-
"What did you do Nightwing?" Luna asked.
"...I ran."
"I'm sorry." Nightwing said as he placed a hoof on Ranger and Eve and vanished. Then he returned, placed a hoof on John and Blossom and vanished.
The group had been teleported inside a blue bubble that hovered high above the farm.
"Nightwing what are you doing?" Ranger pounded on the bubble creating ripples in the bubble.
"I'm sorry but I couldn't let you loose anyone else."
Since the farm was now empty the Spooks burning eyes disappeared. With nothing holding them back the Spooks charged at the house and barn. Tearing into it their tentacles ripped the house and barn to splinters.
"Good Lord." Eve gasped as she and her family watched as their home was being torn apart.
"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry but you couldn't stop this." Nightwing cried as memories of fire and screams returned to his mind. The screams.
They never left. They never stopped. Always the fire and screams.
"Nightwing!" Luna shouted.
Nightwing snapped out of his memory he looked around and saw that the room had black hit and scorched marks on the floor, ceiling, and all around on the wall. The furniture had been moved, knocked on it's side, or was flipped over. Luna had created and aura shield around her to protect herself. Nightwing put a hoof to his cheek. It stung a lot as he rubbed it.
"Did you...slap me?" Nightwing asked in disbelief.
"Forgive us student." Luna said calmly as her aura shield fizzled. "I did not mean to strike you with physical means, but I saw no other way to bring you out of your trance." Luna used her magic to put the table upright.
"What happened?" Nightwing asked.
"As you continued to recall your story you began to cry. I didn't understand what was the cause for this action but I tried to comfort you. But you attacked me, you shot a magic bolt at me. I was startled by this, but I had no intention of harming you so I defended myself. But-" Luna paused.
"But what?" Nightwing asked.
"Your eyes and crystal. They changed." Luna said. "I sensed fear inside of you when you kept attacking me, it was then that I understood that you had become possessed by something. So I slapped it out of you."
"Okay...so I attacked you because I was afraid. Now...where was I?"
"You aren't actually going to continue are you?"
"Relax if I get all ruff and fight like you can just slap me again." Nightwing smirked. "Anyways as the Spooks tore up the farm and then it exploded. Like a massive explosion that destroyed the Spooks, the Farm, and pretty much everything in a one mile radius."
The farm was gone, replaced by a smoking crater of ash and char. Nightwing gently sat the bubble down and it disappeared. The family looked at their once home, their minds tried desperately to wrap around what had happened to their home.
Nightwing's head dropped as he looked at the black grass. "I'm sorry." He said.
*WHAM!* a hoof collided with Nightwing's face as he was knocked down. He looked up and stared at Ranger who had tears that were forming in her eyes.
"I deserved that." Nightwing groaned as he got up. He expected another punch in the muzzle but instead he felt a gentle, but firm, set of hooves wrap around him. Ranger was hugging Nightwing.
"Not sure if I deserve this." Nightwing said.
"Our home is gone." John said as he looked at Nightwing. "But our family is still whole. And we have you to thank for that."
"But where will we go?" Eve asked.
"I think I have an idea."
"And what was your plan?" Luna asked.
"We traveled to the Apples farm in Ponyville where I asked the Apple family if they could stay there and help out. Turns out that Blossom was old friends with Granny Smith." Nightwing answered as he moved one of the nightstands back into place.
"So alls well that ends well I presume?"
"Not all, we still don't know what these cracks are. And what this thing called the 'Cataclysm'."
"So we must find out what this Cataclysm is."
"By the way I've been meaning to ask you." Nightwing paused as he looked directly at Luna. "What do you know about shooting stars?"
A yellow figure in the shape of a young stallion hovered above Canterlot as he observed the scene below through a window.
"The Shadow knight was rich with fear and anger." The figure said as he turned around. "I can't wait to bring more fear to this land." The figure chuckled as it began to fly away. "This is gonna be so much fun."