//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: MLP: Darkest Night // by kurusagi16 //------------------------------// Chapter 1 There is a dark spot in Aestas, where no sunlight, moonlight, or even starlight ever shines, known as the Garden of Shadows. A forest of black, near dead trees and innumerable thickets of thorns, intertwining with one another to keep the light from passing through. It was once a part of an ancient kingdom of bad dreams, until it and its inhabitants vanished without a trace. All that had remained was that forest, and no sign of any other creatures. That is, until now, after all these centuries, when they finally resurfaced. Within the garden's bowels, their voices echoing through the dead silence, but their bodies still weak, remained beneath it. One by one, they began to wake up. Yawn! That was some nap, right Moros? How long have we been out? Long enough I think, I've grown quite famished. I want to eat now! Can we, can we eat them all?! Patience you fools! There are plenty of succulent morsels, waiting to be eaten by us, but wait a bit longer. No fair! You already got to eat when that Nightmare arrived! You left us nothing left but your scraps after taking all the good stuff! I'm sick of waiting! I'm so hungry! Yeah! I want to eat and eat and eat! SILENCE! We shall wait, until the new moon rises, and under its shadow we shall arise. And bring vengeance down upon the queen. She who thought she could thwart our plans. Well, the time shall come soon. So dream little dreamers...while you still can. The true nightmare is coming for you yet. In the large crystal structure that was the friendship castle of Ponyville, Princess Twilight Sparkle had finished reading one of the numerous new books she'd gotten, and was placing it on the shelf of her library. "There's nothing better than curling up with a good book." she said blissfully to herself. The story had been very good, it had kept her guessing on the what ending would be like , and what a provocative ending it was. Spike, her #1 assistant and a baby dragon, came in with a new Power Ponies comic book under his arm. "Hey Twilight! You finished reading that already?" Twilight nodded, turning to him as he addressed her. "It was so good, I couldn't put it down! The only problem now is, what to do for the rest of the afternoon." The purple Alicorn tapped her chin with her hoof, thinking thoughtfully. "Maybe you can reorganize the books like you always do." suggested Spike, plopping down to read his comic. "I already did that last week, no I need something different to do. But I can't really think of anything off the top of my head." Twilight had, for lack of a better word, become bored, and was itching for a little bit of excitement. Though nothing short of her princess duties had arisen lately, and even then she was free for the next few days. She could read the rest of her new books, but she didn't want to finish them off as quickly as she had the last one. 'What to do? What to do?' she mused in her head. Spike however was flipping through his comic, feeling that Twilight was stressing over nothing like she tended to do now and then. "It's not like something interesting is just gonna suddenly appear." Spike said, showing little interest and instead reading about the Mane-iac's latest dastardly deed. Very suddenly, there was a white flash from the far corner of the library, that was obscured by one of the book shelves, and there was a distinct sound of magic being activated. Twilight was baffled as to what was going on and raced to that end of the library to see what was happening. The light was coming from the special mirror that served as a gateway to another world. Through it stepped a unicorn mare with an amber coat, light cyan eyes, a yellow and red sun-shaped cutie mark and a slightly curled yellow and crimson mane. Twilight broke into a smile. "Sunset Shimmer!" she said joyously. The unicorn returned the smile and the two shared a quick hug. Sunset Shimmer had been Princess Celestia's old student before Twilight, and had left through the mirror to the other world. It was there that Twilight showed her the power of what friendship could bring, cementing the two of them as friends. She'd even saved the other world a couple of times (the first being against Sunset, but that's a different story). "I can't believe it, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked. While it was good to see her friend, she hoped that there wasn't any trouble. Then again, if there were, Sunset would've written to her about it. The two pulled away from their hug and Sunset explained the reason for her appearance. "Well, it's summer vacation and I thought it would be nice to spend the next three months here in Equestria. I was going to write to you, but thought it would be better to surprise you." said Sunset. "I'm glad you decided to visit, you can stay here in my castle during your stay if you'd like." Sunset looked around, taking in the large room, and the crystal surfaces. "Whoa, nice castle." she said. "Thanks. I can't wait to tell the girls about this, I know you'll all get along just fine." Sunset Shimmer cracked a nervous smile. "Do you think, Princess Celestia would mind if I paid her a visit? There are some things I need to get off my chest." Sunset said anxiously. It had been a while since she last spoke to her old mentor. "I don't think she'd mind at all." Twilight said. "In fact, I think she'd be quite pleased." "You think so?" "I know so." "What's going on back here?" asked Spike, checking to see what was taking Twilight so long to check out the disturbance. "Oh, hey Sunset." He said nonchalantly. Sunset waved at Spike. "Hey Spike, good to see you." "Spike, do you mind showing Sunset Shimmer to one of the guest rooms?" asked Twilight. Spike gave a little salute. "No problem Twilight." he said, leading Sunset to her room. Twilight was thrilled to see her friend again, and she knew that her friends would come to like her just as much as the others at Canterlot High School. She needed to tell her friends about this right away, so that they could help to make Sunset feel right at home. "I better get a list going of things we'll need to get done." said Twilight, levitating a piece of parchment and a quill, and began writing down her list. She'd make her friend's visit as memorable as possible. At a cottage outside Ponyville, Fluttershy was watering the many flowers that bloomed around her home. She stopped for a moment to smell their sweet fragrance. A fat honey bee landed on one of the flowers. "Why hello there, and how are you?" she asked it kindly. The pale yellow pegasus was friend to animals of all types and sizes, having a few furry friends herself that she took to caring for in her cottage. The bee looked up at her and then flew off to find a new flower. "Take care!" Fluttershy called after it. She couldn't help but sigh at how peaceful everything seemed to be around here, especially after what had happened four months ago. When her fillyhood friend, a Nightmare named Moonlight Eve, had kidnapped her and taken her to the Kingdom of Nightmares in the land of Aestas. It was there that Eve had tried to force Fluttershy to be hers and hers alone, living in an illusion for the rest of her life. Of course she'd forgiven Eve, who'd only acted out of loneliness and jealousy. She and Eve hadn't spoken in the entire four months, and she began to wonder how Eve was doing. 'She must be very busy with all those chores Queen Amalthea has set her up with. I think I'll ask Princess Luna to send a letter from me to her. She might like that.' Just as Fluttershy moved the watering can over a particularly dry patch of daisies, something sprang out of the ground startled her, making her drop her watering can and ducking down in fright. "Good day my dear, I hope I didn't give you too big a scare." trilled a familiar voice. Fluttershy lifted her head, no longer afraid. She turned around and smiled at the tall figure that stood in the middle of the soil as if he'd bloomed from it like her flowers. A grin on his face. "Discord! What brings you here?" she asked happily. Her Draconequus friend floated a few inches out of the flower bed and said, "I just thought I'd pop by and pay a visit to my favorite pegasus, to see how she's been." He handed her a flower that had somehow gotten onto his shoulder, which she gratefully accepted. Fluttershy's smile grew, he could be such a sweetheart sometimes, she only wished her friends could also see this side of him. "I've been doing well, it's been so quiet and peaceful here. And what about you? How have you been Discord?" "Oh you know, the usual. Princess Celestia sending me out on her ever boring assignments from time to time. I needed to get a way for a little while, do something far more interesting to liven things a bit. Like tomorrow's tea, I've been looking forward to that all week. We're still on for it, correct?" "I'd never miss one of our tea parties." Discord flashed a toothy grin at Fluttershy. "I'll bring the sandwiches if you bring the tea cakes." he said. He waved his eagle claw with a flourish and said before vanishing, "Ta-ta my dear! Until next we meet." Fluttershy giggled. Discord certainly had a flair for dramatics, kind of like her friend Rarity (though Discord would argue that the unicorn was much more of a drama queen than him. And that he was simply keeping things from getting too boring in the world). When she was first asked to reform Discord, she'd been a bit unsure of him and how things would turn out, but now, she was proud to call him her friend. 'He's also been a big help around here lately.' Fluttershy thought, thinking to how he'd helped her out with her chores and her animals, and just being there when she needed somepony to talk to. 'I ought to do something nice for him, to show him my thanks. But what?' Spike came running up the path to Fluttershy's cottage, a small scroll in claw, he appeared to be panting frantically as he ran. "Are you alright Spike?" she asked him with concern. Spike stopped to catch his breath, holding out a single claw to tell her to give a minute before answering. "I'm....fine." he wheezed. "Just...been going....all over....Ponyville." "Why don't you come inside and rest for a bit?" Spike shook his head. "No, I'm good, besides I still have to deliver a message to Rainbow." He handed the small scroll to Fluttershy, and ran off to find Rainbow Dash. "See you later Fluttershy!" Fluttershy waved goodbye to the little dragon and opened up the scroll. Girls, There's some important news I'd like to share with you at the friendship castle. I would tell you now, but it'd be better if I show you. You're all in for a great surprise! Please come as soon as possible. Your friend, -Twilight Sparkle. Fluttershy was curious, what could it be that Twilight wanted to tell them? The only way to find out was to head on over to the castle and see for herself. Setting the watering can neatly on the ground, Fluttershy began to trot down to her friend's residence. The girls were gathered in the cutie map room, sitting on their thrones around the large round table. All were wondering why Twilight had called them there. The room door opened halfway and in entered Spike while Twilight stood in the door way. "Hey girls, I'm glad you could make it." she said. "What's this about Twi? Is something wrong?" asked Applejack. "Is it another monster attack?" asked Pinkie Pie. "I hope not." shuddered Fluttershy. Twilight shook her head. "No, it's none of that. There's somepony here I wanted to properly introduce you to." Twilight's horn light up and the door opened all the way to reveal Sunset Shimmer standing next to her. "You all remember Sunset, right?" The girls nodded and talked over one another. "She's here visiting, and will be staying here in the castle for the next three months until she goes back.I was hoping that you girls could help me make her feel right at home." Applejack tipped her hat to Sunset and offered a friendly smile. "Good to meet you Sunset." she said. "I love your mane, it has a nice curl to it." Rarity complemented, stroking her own deep purple curled mane. Rainbow Dash just did a small wave and said, "What's up?" Fluttershy smiled a small, timid smile at Sunset. "Welcome.' she said shyly. Pinkie Pie jumped out of her seat and wildly shook Sunset's hooves. "Welcome to Ponyville Sunset!" she exclaimed. The she gasped and said, "This call for one of my welcome parties. I threw one for Twilight and everypony else, and now it's your turn." Sunset Shimmer smiled, feeling more relaxed now that introductions were out of the way. "Thanks Pinkie, I'd like that a lot. I already feel like I know all of you." Sunset said. Spike whispered under his breath to Twilight, "She kinda does already know them." Twilight just smiled and playfully rolled her eyes. "Alright then, Pinkie can have the party here at say... tomorrow evening?" she said. Pinkie Pie nodded, her poofy magenta mane flying as her head moved. "It'll give me enough time to get everything planned and to make up the guest list." Pinkie said. Twilight leaned over to Sunset while the other girls were caught up in discussing the party, and whispered, "Well, what do you think?" Sunset smiled. No longer feeling stressed about whether or not she'd get along with Twilight's friends from Equestria. "I think I'm gonna like it here just fine." she whispered back.