//------------------------------//
// In the Dark of Morning 
// Story: Dark Matter 
// by moguera 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 28: In the Dark of Morning

"Take care, both of you," said Rarity, looking from Flaxseed to Coco Pommel and back again, "I don't know how long I'll be gone, but please do your best to keep the Boutique up and running."
"We will," said Coco, doing her best to give Rarity a confident smile.  She still felt shaky though.  The evening she'd spent with Perlin and the mixed bag of feelings it had presented her had left her feeling uneasy and uncertain.  She wished she'd handled it differently.  Normally, she might have tried talking to Rarity to help her through her confusion, but now Rarity was heading off on some sort of quest with her friends.
"I hope you'll look after Sweetie Belle too," said Rarity.  The two ponies in front of her nodded.
"Please be careful," said Flaxseed, his voice plaintive.
"I will," said Rarity, giving him a light kiss on the lips, followed by nuzzling his neck affectionately.  Hidden as her face was by Flaxseed's neck, she didn't need to worry about anypony seeing her smirk at the surprised squeak that came from Coco in response to the gesture.
Pulling away from Flaxseed, Rarity turned to Coco.  "Oh...I just remembered.  Your apprenticeship is almost finished.  There's something I want to discuss with you once my friends and I get back from saving the world."
"O-okay," said Coco, a bit surprised by the sudden shift in topics.
"All right.  I'll see you dears later," said Rarity as she trotted out the door, a pair of saddlebags on her back being her only baggage.  It was enough to make Coco realize that the situation must be grim if Rarity would leave without a small mountain of luggage without so much as a remark.
As she thought about it, her mind turned to what she knew about grim situations and, namely, a certain pony who seemed to be at the center of them.  Her mind began to carefully sort out facts and put them together.  Something had happened in Canterlot.  Twilight Sparkle had required that her friends, who bore the Elements of Harmony, go to Canterlot.  Perlin Bluestreak was in Canterlot, or would be soon.  For some reason, that idea struck Coco as important and seemed to imply that, whatever this serious situation was, Perlin was involved in some way.
Pursing her lips, Coco hedged and glanced over at Flaxseed, who was still staring at the door with a blank expression.  Given the situation, maybe right here, in the Carousel Boutique, was not where she should be at the moment...



"I wish I could join you," said Red River with a sigh as he watched Applejack settle her saddlebags across her back.
"Ya did yer part when that Terra Heart fella came a callin'," said Applejack matter-of-factly, "Now it's time to do our parts.  Ya stay here and rest up.  Ah'll be fine.  We've done this before, ya know."
"I know," said Red, giving her a wan smile, "But do you think that it makes the ones who love you worry less whenever you go out and put yourself in danger like this?"
"'Course Ah don't-wait!"  Applejack froze in place, her eyes bulging before she whirled around to stare at Red.  "Love...?"
"After everything you've put up with from me, I can say at least that much," said Red, his smile widening, "I love you, Applejack."
Applejack's cheeks burned, turning a brilliant red as she stammered incomprehensibly.  While she was busy getting over her shock, Red carefully made his way towards her.  Before she'd noticed, he'd wrapped his forelegs around her shoulders and pulled her towards him, bringing their muzzles together and allowing him to sweep her up in a passionate kiss.  Because he was still tired from walking out to the picnic earlier, he wasn't able to exert much strength.  But Applejack didn't even try to resist and, as the kiss deepened, she pulled him in even tighter.
"Ahh love ya too," said Applejack after she finally pulled away.
"Come back to me safely," said Red, "It would be a shame to lose my home after finally finding it after so long."
"Mah family ain't gonna throw ya out just 'cause Ah ain't around," said Applejack, raising an eyebrow.  She didn't even bother to object to his silly idea that she might not come back.
"I didn't say that they would," said Red, "While they are wonderful ponies and this is a wonderful place, you are what makes this home for me."
"That may be the sweetest bit 'o romantic yammerin' Ah've heard yet, ya silver-tongued charmer," said Applejack with a smirk, "Ah'll be back fer sure.  Ya just focus on gettin' better."
"Of course," said Red, dipping his head in a nod and letting go.
As Applejack left her coltfriend and headed for the door, she saw the rest of her family waiting there.  Big Macintosh and Ditzy both gave her encouraging smiles, while Apple Bloom looked on with worried tears in her eyes.  "Be careful, sis," she said.  Behind her, Dinky nodded in fervent agreement.
"Ah'll be fine," said Applejack, "Don't fret, y'all."
With that, she marched out the door.  As soon as she cleared the porch, she broke into a gallop, heading for town and the train station as fast as her legs could carry her.



"But Mooooom!" protested Scootaloo.
"I said no," replied Melon Cream firmly, putting her hoof down on the floor with a moderate thud to emphasize her decree.
Scootaloo had been shocked to learn that Rainbow Dash and Firefly were leaving and even more shocked to find out why.  Naturally, she wanted to come along.  The prospect of not only fighting alongside Dawn, but her idol, and even other members of the Celestial  Knights was a tantalizing prospect that Scootaloo couldn't be dissuaded from easily.
"Need I remind you that you are still grounded, young lady," said Melon in an icy tone, "You accepted your punishment.  If I need to, I will not let you set hoof outside of this house."
Scootaloo tensed, her anger flaring, her wings flaring along with it.
"Scootaloo."
Dawn's voice stopped her in her tracks, the angry words on the tip of her tongue dying unsaid as she turned to look at her coltfriend.  Fluttershy had already gone ahead to the train station to get ready for departure.  But Dawn had come with Rainbow and Firefly to say goodbye to Scootaloo.
"You're strong," said Dawn, giving her a small smile as he brushed his hoof through her mane, "You've been in a real battle now and I know you can handle yourself.  But..."  He looked down at the floor.  "...this battle will be a very different matter."
"What are you talking about?" asked Scootaloo.
"Morning Star...Wight Shade, I suppose...is not an ordinary enemy.  He's a far cry from the likes of the ponies you and Rumble fought.  I've seen his Dark Matter in action.  It's an alien power that twists the reality of this world to produce unnatural results that are terrifying to behold.  I'm not sure that I am ready to face an enemy like that."
"Then why are you going?" asked Scootaloo, "You're not an Element of Harmony, like Rainbow Dash or your mom.  Why do you need to be there at all?"
"Because..."  Dawn hesitated slightly.  "...there is something I need to confirm.  As it stands, my role may not be to fight Morn-Wight Shade himself.  There is something I need to do, someone I need to see."
"Oookay..." said Scootaloo, raising a confused eyebrow.
"It really is for the best if you stay here, squirt," said Rainbow Dash, descending from upstairs, Firefly following behind her, "I'd get distracted worrying about my favorite little sister."
Firefly walked past Rainbow and gave Scootaloo a light nuzzle.  "You're learning fast kiddo, but you don't quite have the experience for this kind of fight yet.  It's going to be very different from the little field trip you took with Arkenstone.  Dawn has enough experience to see him through.  You'll be ready one day, but not yet."
With a defeated sigh, Scootaloo sagged down.  "Okay," she said.
"I promise we'll be fine," said Rainbow, ruffling the filly's mane, "Heck, I'll probably have this wrapped up and'll be back in time for lunch tomorrow."
"Be careful," said Scootaloo, giving Dawn a plaintive look.
"I will be," said Dawn, leaning in and giving her a kiss, "Look after your mother...and please take notes for me.  I miss enough school already."
"Egghead," muttered Scootaloo wryly, though her heart wasn't really in it.
"Let's go," said Firefly, leading Dawn and Rainbow out the door.



"I'm super sorry I have to go like this," said Pinkie Pie, giving Mayweather her most apologetic look, "But Twilight says it's super important."
"It's fine," said Mayweather, giving Pinkie Pie a quavering smile.
"What's wrong?" asked Pinkie, tilting her head.  Something told her that Mayweather wasn't just upset about how dangerous this mission might have been or that she now had to handle all the cleanup and closing procedures after the Hearts and Hooves Day rush on her own.
Mayweather looked down in shame.  "It...it feels like some of this is my fault."
"Huh?  Why?"  Pinkie tilted her head.
"Morning Star was the one leading the Or-the Cult Solar, right?  That's what Twilight said."  At Pinkie's nod, Mayweather sighed.  "Then that means that this is at least partly my fault.  If we hadn't let ourselves get taken in by his lies, we wouldn't have built his devices...the world wouldn't be in danger."
Pinkie's smile faltered.  "Yeah, I guess that's true," she admitted, "But it's still mostly his fault, you know."  He words caused Mayweather to look up.  Pinkie continued.  "Yeah, you might have helped him, but you helped that meanie because he lied to you about what those thingies were for.  That doesn't make what you did right, but you can't be the only one who gets blamed or even most of the blame...or even more than a liiiiiiiiiiiitle, teeeeeeeeny, tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit."  Her grin reclaimed its proper position on her face.  "And that means it doesn't really matter now, 'cause all that does matter is making sure that meanie doesn't destroy the world."
Pinkie cupped both sides of Mayweather's face with her forehooves and forced their eyes to meet.  "I'm gonna come back, and when I do, I wanna see a big, happy smile on that face.  No more frowns, okay?"
"Okay," said Mayweather weakly, a small smile worming its way onto her face in spite of her melancholy.
"Good!" chirped Pinkie, rubbing their noses together, "I'll be going now, so remember...Smile!"
Letting go of Mayweather, Pinkie proceeded to bounce towards the door, a radiant look on her face.  When the door shut after Pinkie's exit, Mayweather stayed stock still for a moment before shaking her head and chuckling.  "I'll never figure out what we see in each other.  Maybe that's for the best."



Kombu peeked his head around the doorway, looking into the throne room.  This was one of the smaller servant entrances, actually situated behind the throne itself so that servants could discreetly provide refreshments for Celestia in between hearing the prolonged whining sessions of entitled fools who thought their personal grievances with the tax code more important than the task of running the country.  The fact that she bothered with such a waste of time and energy was one of the things that made Kombu suspect that Celestia was nowhere near as competent a ruler as many of her little ponies would believe.
From where he stood, everything looked fine.  The throne was untouched, the hall was spotlessly clean.  The doors stood closed and silent, the massive hall empty and untouched.  However, as Kombu took a tentative step through the door and into the throne room itself, the scenery changed radically.  The throne was gone, having been reduced to splinters.  The luxurious red carpet that led from the doors to the base of the dais the throne rested upon had been scorched into blackened tatters.  The proud columns on either side were cracked, chipped, or even completely shattered.  The windows lining the upper walls had all been broken, leaving shards of glass all over the floor, which had been pitted and blackened.
"Ah, you're here," said Wight Shade, looking up as Kombu stepped up by the remains of the ruined throne, "Come give me a hoof.  I'd like to at least tidy up a little bit."  Wight was calmly using all six of his wings like a massive set of brooms, sweeping debris off the floor and shifting it to the sides of the room.  His casual manner was more like that of an overworked janitor than the stallion who had just dethroned one of the most powerful ponies in the entire world.
"Well..." observed Kombu, stepping down from the dais, "...this all looks...horrible."
"I suppose it does," agreed Wight, "Unless her sister is involved, Princess Celestia isn't the sort to just go gently into this good night."
"She's not dead, is she?"
"Nope," replied Wight, "I just locked her in a self-contained spatial distortion, where she'll be out of the way.  I'm not interested in killing her after all.  This is just a temporary measure to ensure that she's out of the way while I run my experiment.  After I'm done here, she'll just be able to go back to running Equestria like usual, I'm sure."
"Sure..." said Kombu dubiously, "What about the sentries?"
"Still there, for now," said Wight, "Princess Celestia told them not to move unless they heard something unusual."  He jerked his head to the massive pair of doors that marked the throne room's main entrance.  The seams along the walls and floors as well as between the doors themselves, were filled with jagged, white, vaguely crystalline substance that almost made it look as though the doors had been frozen shut.  "Once Celestia was inside, I sealed the entrance and established a spacial isolation so that no sound could get out of here.  It even drew in all the glass fragments from the broken windows so that there's no evidence visible from outside the throne room.  As you no doubt observed when you entered, anypony looking in from the outside will see nothing amiss.
"Of course, I'm sure that it's only a matter of time until the Guards realize that the lack of any unusual sounds or any sound at all from the throne room is unusual in and of itself, as well as the fact that it's been over an hour since Princess Celestia came in here and she hasn't yet come back out.  Then they will try the doors, find them unable to be opened and will go to fetch Princess Luna.  That's when the clock really starts ticking."
"Surely, if you handled Celestia, Princess Luna will be a minor obstacle at best," Kombu pointed out.
Wight sighed and groaned.  "Yes, but since I will be busy raising the focus and deploying the array, it would be hassle to deal with Princess Luna at the same time.  It's bad enough that I'm going to have to unseal the space so that the distortion caused by the isolation doesn't interfere with the array's deployment, which is going to make enough noise to wake the entire city.  If we want everything to be ready in time, I can't really afford a distraction from our resident Lady of the Night."
"How long until you can raise the focus?" asked Kombu, using his magic to help Wight clear a space in the center of the throne room.
"It's already being raised," said Wight, "Bringing it up through several-hundred feet of rock and crystals takes time.  The real ruckus is going to start once it reaches the lower levels of the Palace."
"It sounds as though things are going to get...chaotic," said Kombu, glancing to one side of the throne room, where, if one looked out through the windows, one would be able to see the hedge maze and a particular statue contained within, "Are you certain Discord's seal won't break?"
"I don't think it should," said Wight with a shrug, "I mean, it didn't actually start deteriorating until Celestia sealed her sister into the moon, severing her connection to the Elements of Harmony in the process, and, even then, it took over a thousand years for it to actually break.  With the current Element Bearers fully empowered, there shouldn't be any issues with the seal.
"Besides, I used some of my Dark Matter to place his statue in stasis and isolate it from the reality of the world.  Even if the seal is compromised, he won't be able to escape even when all hay breaks loose...probably...maybe...hopefully...if he's in a good mood."  Wight sighed and shrugged.  "In all honesty, I think Discord might just want to sit back and watch.  After all, this is right up his alley, I think."
"You're actually gambling on that?" asked Kobu incredulously.
"It's chaos...there's only so much you can do," replied Wight helplessly, "Pretty much the only thing I can do is gamble."
"That is a most troubling notion," said Kombu, "I'm so glad I brought it up."
"Such is the way of the world...or, at least, Discord's little corner of it," said Wight, "Now help me open up the floor.  I'm going to need a solid platform once the focus arrives."
"All right," said Kombu nervously as he watched Wight's horn uncoil.  White sparks flew up from the floor, inscribing a large, perfect circle.  With a grunt, Kombu applied his magic and bent to the task of helping.



"So...why are we taking the train?" asked Spike, looking around at the station, "I mean, considerinng the fate of the world is riding on this and we need to get to Canterlot pronto, I don't think it would be too hard for the Princess to spring for some pegasus chariots."
Technically, there was no train scheduled to leave this time.  Fortunately, there was a locomotive stopping over for the night.  It had originally been due to set out for Manehattan the following morning, but Twilight, with a little persuasive assistance from Arkenstone, had been able to convince the conductor to set the train on the route for Canterlot.  They would pass Shining Armor's train on the way down.  Twilight hoped her brother would be quick to get his train turned around so that he could follow them up.
"It would be faster," said Twilight, "But there are a couple of problems with that."
"Namely Flash Spark and Perlin Bluestreak," commented Dawn as he fluttered his wings slightly, "With those two in Mo-Wight Shade's stable, approaching Canterlot from the skies would be far too risky.  Firefly and I could probably hold them off, but it could expose the ponies in the chariots to serious risk."
"Besides," continued Twilight, "Given the way this ruse was set up, I think Morning Star...er...Wight Shade...wasn't expecting us to figure everything out so quickly.  He was playing for time, time we can take to make sure we have the best advantage against him."
"Trains come and go from Canterlot all the time," added Arkenstone, "Unless Wight Shade or somepony working for him has memorized the schedules, another train amongst those would hardly be considered amiss."
"Question," said Applejack, raising a hoof like she a filly in a classroom, "What are we gonna do when we actually get to Canterlot?"
"Come on, AJ!" said Rainbow, pulling an excited loop over the group as they waited on the platform, "It's obvious what we're supposed to do.  We face down this jerk and blast him with the Elements!  One rainbow to the face and...POOF!...problem solved."
"That's nice and all, but just how do we know where this feller's gonna be?" asked Applejack, "Ah mean, we ain't gotta clue 'bout where he is or where that freaky contraption of his is."
The wind was taken out of Rainbow's sails and she sagged, dropping down to the platform with a disappointed "Oh..."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said Rarity, "I am sure that there must be some clues as to where that lout is hiding.  If I remember what Princess Celestia told Twilight in her letter correctly, that Flash Spark brute exited Canterlot by blowing out a hole in the ground.  Surely that might be a route to locating his lair."
"Maybe," said Twilight, frowning, "But we're operating under the assumption that Wight let Flash Spark out that way to make it look like he was escaping, which means that, if he allowed Flash Spark to get out that way, it would probably be because Wight doesn't feel that he can be threatened by ponies investigating that way."
"Oh, you girls are all getting too worked up about this," said Pinkie breezily, "Figuring out what that meanie's up to will be easy as pie."
"What are you talking about?" asked Twilight.
Grinning from ear to ear, Pinkie giggled.  "Well...we know that Shady is trying to make that...thingamabob...right?"
"That's right," said Twilight, her ears picking up, "According to what Princess Celestia and I have figured out, Morning Star is finishing an array that's based off one of the old works of Starswirl the Bearded.  Just like the one Morning Star built, his array consisted of five foci built around the circumference of Equestria in a perfect circle.  The final piece of the array is at the circle's center, which is in..."  Twilight's voice trailed off as she figured it out.
"Canterlot, right?" asked Firefly.
"Not just Canterlot, but the point in Canterlot that lies at the center of the array, the center of Equestria," said Twilight, "The Royal Palace!  I don't believe it!  This entire time, Morning Star was building his the final focus of his array right beneath the throne room."  She smacked her hoof against her forehead as she realized that she'd overlooked an obvious fact.
"In other words, we know exactly where he will put the final phase of his plan into effect," said Dawn, "That's good."
"It also means the Princesses and everypony at the Palace are in danger," said Twilight, "We need to move fast."  She went to see what she could do to help the engineers prep the train for departure.



A few minutes later, the train pulled out of Ponyville's station.  At Twilight's urging, the conductors and engineers stoked the engine and pushed the locomotive as hard as they dared.  They had only needed to take one passenger car with them, which minimized the weight, allowing the train to move faster over the rails.  However, that only made things trickier for the conductors.  Being faster and lighter certainly allowed the train to cover ground more quickly, but it also meant that there was less weight holding the train to the rails.  They had to be extra careful to slow down enough for every twist and turn on the winding route leading up the mountains to Canterlot, all while trying to cut as much time from the journey as possible.  The staff believed that it was possible, but that didn't change the fact that it was a risky endeavor.
The passengers did their best to catch some sleep as they waited for the train to make its journey.  Thanks to the circumstances and the rattling of the train itself, their sleep was a restless one.  Sometime in the night, they passed the train Shining Armor and his hoofpicked Guards were taking down, but Shining wouldn't be able to return to Canterlot until he reached Ponyville's station and got the train turned around.
Despite their anxiety over the urgency of the situation, the travelers managed to drop off to sleep, expecting to be awoken by the rising sun.



Dawn lifted his head up and blinked, looking around the compartment he was sharing with Fluttershy.  Her wing was like a comforting blanket draped over his shoulders as they rested and the feel of her chest rising and falling as he leaned against it filled him with a sense of reassurance.  Her presence had helped him to relax and finally get some rest after the events of a most troublesome day.  Feeling well rested, he carefully slipped out from under her wing and descended to the floor of the compartment.
Stretching his wings, Dawn looked around, noting his surroundings.  I guess I didn't sleep all that long, he thought, noticing how dark it was.  If anything, it seemed even darker now than it had when he had gone to bed.
Opening the door, Dawn stepped out of the compartment and into the hallway, looking up and down the sleeper car that formed the only car of their train, apart from the tender car and the locomotive itself.  The hall stretched down the center of the car, dividing it into two halves, with doors on either side leading to additional compartments where the others were sleeping.  Up towards the end of the car, the hallway opened out into something resembling a common area, where the car's occupants could mingle.  Beyond that was the door leading to the rest of the train.
Dawn headed for that common area now, looking around for any signs that anypony else was awake.  However, all was quiet.  Reaching the common area, he spied the single table that occupied one side, surrounded by a padded bench.  The table was piled with food and snacks.  In their haste to depart, they had ultimately decided to leave the dining car behind at the station.  However, Pinkie Pie, the clever mare that she was, had foreseen that they would get hungry on their journey and had brought food for everypony, even picking out aa few snacks that served Dawn's peculiar pallet.
Deciding to ignore the food for now, Dawn instead made his way to the windows on one side of the car, trying to remember which side was against the mountain.  Pulling back the curtains, his eyes widened as he realized that the world was shrouded in darkness.  Has so little time really passed? he wondered.  Though he'd hardly considered his internal clock to be precisely accurate, he could generally trust it well enough to infer the time of day without having to check outside.  Right now, he felt as though it were morning, but the sky outside was as dark as the deepest night of the new moon, which wasn't scheduled for a few more weeks.
Looking up, Dawn noticed the other reason it was so dark outside.  The stars are gone!  The sky was a single sheet of continuous black.  The moon hadn't entered it's darkest phase; it was gone completely.  "What in the world?"
Trembling slightly, Dawn turned around to check the clock and see what time it was.  His trembling increased when he saw what the clock said.  It was about seven in the morning, a bit later than he usually woke up.  This time of year, the sun should already be well above the horizon.
Swallowing and trying to get his nerves under control, Dawn stepped away from the window and tried to think of what to do.  Given the circumstances, there probably wasn't anything he could do at the moment.  Whatever was going on with the sky had something to do with the Princesses in Canterlot, an issue they could not address until they actually reached the city itself.  However, he wondered just what the current state of the sky meant.
I guess I need to talk to the pony who would know the most about this subject, thought Dawn as he made his way to the compartment that was being shared by Twilight, Arkenstone and Spike.
Carefully, Dawn slid the door open and peeked in.  Spike lay snoring on one of the bunks, curled up in a scaled ball, his wings tightly curled up against his body.  On the other side of the room, Arkenstone and Twilight slept together, Twilight having gone to sleep in Arkenstone's arms, her head tucked carefully underneath his chin so that she wouldn't jab him with her horn if either of them shifted in the night.
There was a faint rustle of linens and Arkenstone lifted his head clear of the bedding, his muzzle orienting in Dawn's direction, his ears standing upright on his head.
"Something's wrong," said Dawn, his voice barely a whisper.  He knew that Arkenstone would be able to hear him.
The beige stallion's ears flicked forward, then backwards slightly in acknowledgement.  Moving slowly and carefully, Arkenstone began to disentangle himself from Twilight so that he could climb out of bed.  It took a minute, but soon Arkenstone was out in the hallway with Dawn, closing the door to the compartment behind him.
"What's the matter?" asked Arkenstone, his ears swiveling as he listened to the cues in the environment around them.
Dawn described the state of the sky and the utter darkness enshrouding the world.  The revelation made Arkenstone's eyes open, his pale white orbs almost shining in the darkness.
"That sounds...unsettling," he said finally, "From what you described, it would seem that something happened to Princess Celestia if she hasn't raised the sun."
"What about Princess Luna?" asked Dawn.
"It sounds as though she might not be aware of her sister's incapacitation," suggested Arkenstone, "From what you described, it seems the situation is that Princess Luna lowered the moon and extinguished the stars, but is not aware that her sister was unable to raise the sun, thus our current situation."
"What should we do?" asked Dawn.
Arkenstone merely shrugged.  "What can we do, besides wait?  We are unable to do anything about the situation until we get to Canterlot."
"Should we tell the others?"
"Let them sleep," said Arkenstone, "They had enough difficulty getting to sleep as it is.  There's no need to disturb them unduly.  Let them wake when they wake and we'll work out a strategy when we get to Canterlot."
"So...something happened to Princess Celestia," mused Dawn, looking pensively towards the window once again.
"And not so long after Flash Spark's 'escape,'"  added Arkenstone grimly, "Twilight was upset when we went to bed because she never received a response to the letter she sent to Celestia.  We were expecting some sort of reply.  An extended silence like this is...unsettling."
Dawn nodded and shivered.  It was rare for him to feel so completely helpless.  In a situation like this, the skills of the Gale King that he'd worked so long and hard to master were useless.  They could not lift the darkness that smothered the land, he couldn't miraculously replace the sun in the sky.  All he could do was sit and wait with everypony else and hope there was something they could do when they actually got where they were going.



About an hour later, the other passengers began filtering into the common area of the sleeper car.  Fluttershy and Applejack were first, the two of them used to early mornings.  They'd both slept in much later than usual, a consequence of the unnatural darkness and the restless night before.
Rainbow Dash and Firefly weren't far behind.  Firefly had actually been awake for some time, but had simply settled for observing things in silence until Rainbow had woken up, having come to the same conclusions that Dawn and Arkenstone had.
Behind them came Pinkie, looking as cheerful and chipper as ever, despite the dire straits they found themselves in.  Despite her upbeat behavior, everypony could see that even she was looking a little strained.
Finally, Twilight and Rarity left their cars, the former carrying a still napping Spike on her back.  Twilight was horrified to find out about the state of the sky and began to babble ceaselessly about all the possible catastrophes that could happen if something wasn't done about the absence of both the sun and the moon.  Though Arkenstone did his best to calm her down, everypony felt the sense of panic that seemed to hover in the air.  With what they knew about Wight Shade and what he was planning to do, it seemed that this could very well be the first portent of the end of the world that Wight's experiments threatened to unleash.
The air felt cold, which was understandable, given that there was no sun to recoup the heat that had been lost over the course of the night.  What should have been a warm, early summer day was infused with a chilling cold more comparable to that of the early spring...and it would only get colder if something did not change.
Fortunately, that change happened a couple of hours later.  It was gradual at first.  The passengers didn't notice right away because they were far too engrossed in their discussion about what they would do when they got to Canterlot.  However, when Spike glanced out the window again, he realized the eastern horizon was getting lighter.  His words called everypony over to the window and they watched in fascinated silence (save for Arkenstone, for obvious reasons) as the sun crested the horizon.  Moving much more rapidly than normal, the orb ascended upwards into the sky, quickly approaching its zenith before it finally settled into the proper position for that time of day.  The watchers fancied that it actually slid back and forth a little before settling into its final position, as though the morning of utter darkness had never happened.
"What the hay does that mean?" asked Spike warily, eyeing the sun as though he expected it to plummet back below the horizon and leave them all in utter darkness yet again.
"Good news," said Twilight hopefully, "Maybe it means whatever happened with Princess Celestia is over and the problem's been taken care of."
"Well, Ah sure hope that's the case," said Applejack.
"Aw, it's a pain in the neck to come all this way and not have anything to do," grumbled Rainbow Dash, settling back into her seat.
"It would be better than dealing with whatever insanity this Wight Shade fellow might have been setting into motion," countered Rarity tartly, "I would much rather be told that there's nothing we need to do and be sent on our way than contend with the one who set that...beast on us."
Dawn raised an eyebrow, wondering if the "beast" Rarity had been referring to was Flash Spark...or maybe Perlin Bluestreak, who Rarity had had unpleasant dealings with in the past.
Twilight said nothing, instead keeping one eye anxiously on Spike, desperately hoping to see the signs of an incoming letter from him.  However, the young dragon remained unbothered by any signs of an incendiary missive.  That's not a good sign.
There was nothing they could do but wait fitfully as the train continued its climb.  It was well into the afternoon when they finally pulled into the station, having lost a great deal of time due to the hours of darkness in the morning.  The conductor and engineers had been forced to slow the train down to a speed much lower than normal traveling speed to compensate for the pitch darkness making it virtually impossible to see the curves and turns in the track until they were nearly right in front of the train itself.  They'd been able to speed up once they'd gotten light again, but the damage had been done.
When they reached Canterlot, rather than wait for a platform at the station or a place to be arranged at the rail yard, the passengers disembarked as soon as the train stopped and made their way to the station on hoof and wing, trying to get a feel for the situation the city was in as they looked around.  The answer they quickly received when they got to the station was chaos.  Due to the late arrival of the sun and the utter blackness that had preceded it, departures and arrivals had been severely delayed, throwing the schedule into disarray.  The station was packed by nervous and impatient ponies, many eager to be somewhere else, but unable to go anywhere until things were cleared up, which was taking an irritably long time indeed.
In the station, the group found one of the Guards tasked with keeping the place in some semblance of order, a daunting task under circumstances like these.  His eyes widened and Twilight saw a note of panic in them as they approached.  Clearly he thought they were another party of disgruntled travelers coming to demand that he do something about things he had no control over.
"Excuse me," said Rarity, coming forward to speak for the group, affecting her politest, most charming tone as she gave the beleaguered stallion a relaxed smile, "If you could provide us with directions, we need to speak with the Princesses at the earliest possible opportunity."
The Guard opened his mouth to respond, most likely about to say that the Princesses were too busy to deal with complaints, but stopped short when he looked over their group and recognized at least a few of their faces, Twilight's in particular.  His expression of frustration and nervousness was replaced with one of relief.  "Oh!  It's you.  I apologize for not recognizing you sooner, Dame Rarity."  He bowed politely to Rarity, who giggled at his formality.
"Can you tell us what the situation is?" asked Twilight, coming up to stand next to her friend.
"Some of it," said the Guard, "Princess Luna is encamped in the central plaza with her Guard and all the members of the Royal Guard she could muster."
"Encamped?" asked Twilight, her eyes widening and her ears going upright, "Why on earth would she be camping out in the city?  Why isn't she at the Palace?  Where's Princess Celestia?"
"The Palace is...unsafe..." said the Guard hesitantly, "...that's all I know really.  As for Princess Celestia...nopony has seen her since last night."
Twilight and her friends all felt a chill run down their spines at those words.
"I suppose we'd best go see Princess Luna then," suggested Dawn softly, "She should have more detailed knowledge of the situation."
The others nodded and they politely thanked the Guard for his help.  Pinkie Pie even gave him a small cupcake to help cheer him up after what had already been a long day for the poor stallion, prompting an elated smile from him as they took their leave.
As they made their way through the streets of Canterlot, the group was able to make out even more signs of unrest.  Though it was well into the afternoon, many businesses were already closed and shuttered.  The streets were sparsely populated, with ponies ducking their heads and moving quickly as they went about their business.  Twilight didn't exactly begrudge them.  Canterlot had been through some pretty unsettling events recently, what with the attack on the Royal Palace by Elderflower's mercenaries, followed shortly by an attempted uprising by the Noble Court.  It seemed that the continuous disturbances had made the inhabitants somewhat skittish of anything unusual.  Even with the sun back where it was supposed to be in the sky, they were still anxious until they were absolutely certain that everything had returned to normal.
However, the light traffic did have the advantage of making the journey to Canterlot's central plaza relatively quick and easy.  The plaza was the center of Canterlot's mercantile district, ringed by high-class shops and restaurants, normally packed to the brim with bustling ponies exploring the wares being offered or relaxing by the fountains and sculptures that seemed to sprout in the center like a grove of trees in the middle of a park, dominated by large sculpture depicting a rearing Celestia, standing on a fountain pedestal, from which water streamed out continuously, giving the impression that the Princess' sculpture was standing at the headwaters of some mountain spring.  Celestia had once confided to Twilight that she considered the sculpture embarrassing and that the sculptor had exaggerated the fullness of her flanks.  Later, Luna had once secretly confided in Twilight that, after a thousand years of apparently enjoying more cakes than had been good for her, the sculptor had actually been exaggerating the thinness of Celestia's flanks.  Twilight, very wisely, had decided to keep her own opinions on the matter to herself.
Today, the plaza was not a bustling marketplace.  However, instead of being deserted, it was packed to the brim with ponies.  But these were not jittery civilians.  Instead, the place was filled with stone-faced Guards as they checked armor and weapons, relayed and responded to orders.  Tarps and tents had been set up, Twilight could actually see a group in the process of setting up a hospital tent, not unlike the one that had been erected in Ponyville after Terra Heart's attack.
At the plaza's center, amongst the sculptures and at the base of the Princess Celestia fountain was a tent that was clearly for the Guard commanders.  Breaking into a brisk trot, Twilight led her friends towards it.  A few Guards moved to impede their progress, but they either stopped or were stopped by their fellows when they recognized Twilight and her friends.  The two stallions standing watch on either side of the tent flaps quickly saluted and opened the flaps for Twilight and her group as they went in.
Inside the tent, they found Princess Luna staring down at a table, covered with what looked like a map of Canterlot as she and several ranking members of the Royal Guard moved pins and little flags around the map.
Luna looked up when Twilight and the others entered, her face going from surprise to relief when she saw who was there.  "Ah!  Twilight Sparkle.  Thank goodness you've come."
"What happened?" asked Twilight as she approached the table, her friends doing their best to find places behind her as two Guard officers sidled to make room for her between them, "Why was it so dark this morning?  Where's Princess Celestia?"
"The darkness this morning was my fault," said Luna, looking a bit sheepish, "I was underground at the time, exploring the path made by that lout, Flash Spark.  I lowered the moon and extinguished the stars at the appropriate time, but wasn't aware that my sister hadn't raised the sun in their place until a runner from aboveground came and told me."
She sighed and looked at the tent wall.  Had it not been there, she would have been staring up the street that led straight to the Royal Palace.  "As for my sister, I do not know what happened to her.  A pair of Guards said she went into the throne room, saying that something was amiss.  She told the Guards to report to me if they heard something unusual.  But they heard nothing all night long.  When morning came and the sun failed to rise, they realized that something was severely wrong and came to find me."
She turned her gaze back to Twilight.  "That is where you find us now.  My sister is nowhere to be found and the Royal Palace has been overtaken, most likely by Wight Shade.  It seems that the final phase of his plan is about to begin."