As the sun went down, and the pair of them returned to the main part of town, Nightfall glanced back at his Unicorn assistant. “Wishful? Does the list say where we’re staying tonight?” he asked a bit impatiently, feeling all those calories from having to eat every single refreshment the farmers had put in front of him burn away while he flew, to the point where he was actually starting to get a little hungry again. After they got settled in for the night, maybe he could hit up a restaurant or two and pick up a sandwich for himself and a salad for his assistant. That shouldn’t prove too expensive for even the meager funds he had, even though Lumin didn’t give him money except for emergencies, and his parents only sent him money once a month, on the last Monday of each month. He usually spent it at bookstores, but he had enough for food.
“Yeah,” the filly replied. “He wrote that we’re going to be staying in that huge tree. Apparently, it’s the town library, but the old librarian moved out a year ago and they haven’t been able to replace her, yet.”
The first thought that entered Nightfall’s head was, Library = books, and he grinned widely. He knew what he was going to be doing until he hit the sack; reading! So many new, old, and possibly ancient tomes ripe for his perusal. I could just find myself a stack or two, and find a nice, comfy chair— Oh wait... Then he remembered that Midnight Darkscales was going to return soon, and hoped that the library actually had a book that would help.
Nightfall swooped down in front of the massive tree and fumbled with the doorknob. It wasn’t locked, so he wouldn’t have to ask the mayor for the keys or anything annoying like that. Not even stopping to ponder why the door to a closed library would be unlocked, Nightfall turned the knob, then pushed the door open, revealing almost complete darkness inside.
“N-nightfall, it’s dark in there,” Wishful whispered, a slight trembling in her voice. “What if there’s… bugs in there?” Her eyes were wide at the thought of any lurking creepy-crawlies, “We won’t see them in the dark!”
“Eh, it’s dark in there because the sun has set out here,” Nightfall replied with a shrug, not particularly fazed. Sometimes, Wishful’s fear of bugs was adorable—this was not one of those times. “Besides, light your horn up, Wish. I think I see something on the ceiling of the front room.”
“Why don’t you just use your own magic?” Wishful huffed, glancing around nervously.
“My horns are on the left and right, yours is in the middle,” Nightfall explained matter-of-factly. “What I think I see is in the middle, and with two light sources from the sides, I won’t be able to get as good of a look at it as you will, Wish.”
“Okay, you win,” Wishful sighed in resignation before her horn took on a green glow, shining a beam of green light at the ceiling to illuminate a hanging gas lamp.
“A lamp!” Nightfall exclaimed, snapping his fingers on both front claws and breaking into a grin. “Perfect! You keep it illuminated while we get inside, then I’ll light it with my magic!”
Wishful nodded and kept her spotlight spell focused on the lamp hanging from the ceiling as the two entered further into the library and Nightfall closed the door behind him, blocking out the last rays of dying sunlight from outside.
“Now, I just have to light the lamp,” Nightfall said as his twin horns started to glow, encasing the lamp in a dark purple aura. With a squeaking sound, the lamp’s knob turned, and a slight hissing sound indicated that the gas was now running. Switching spells, Nightfall used a small spark spell to produce a flame in the lamp, quickly illuminating the room.
“SURPRISE!” came the shout of dozens of dragons at once, suddenly popping up from behind furniture and bookshelves while more lights turned on, confetti fell from the ceiling and an eye-wateringly gaudy banner drifted down onto the wall. It proclaimed, in large, sparkly lettering: “WELCOME TO DRAGONTOWN, NIGHTFALL SHEEN!”
Nightfall blinked. “Nope,” He said flatly, turning to head back out the door. “I’m not doing this.”
He didn’t get to move more than three steps before he walked right into a bright pink blur that was suddenly in his face. He instinctively backed up a foot to see it was the pink Nature Dragoon from before, grinning from ear fin to ear fin, his blue eyes practically shining with excitement. “Oh, it’s… you again…”
“Sorry I didn’t introduce myself before,” the Dragoon said brightly, placing a claw on Nightfall’s shoulder and turning him back around, dragging him to the center of the room, where a table was spread with lots of sugary treats and drinks. “My name’s Goody Gumdrops!” The Dragoon proclaimed, with a voice so fast and enthusiastic, he’d probably been raised eating gumdrops for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. “But you can call me Goody! When I saw you earlier today, I realized I’ve never seen you around before, which means you must be new to Dragontown! And new dragons don’t have any friends here when they first get here, so I thought to myself, ‘Goody, that dragon must be so lonely and sad! You have to do something about that!’ So I decided to throw you one of my famous ‘Welcome to Dragontown’ parties! I had to wait until you gave your name, but once I got it, I headed right to the bakery I work at to prepare this party just for you! I contacted the mayor and found out you’d be staying here, and I got him to lend me the key to this place, so long as I give it to you after!” He gently pushed Nightfall towards the food, “Anyway, it’s a party! Stuff your face with treats! Play games! Have fun! This is for you, after all!” Before Nightfall could even reply, the pink Dragoon literally bounced to another part of the room, chatting loudly with a group of party-goers.
Nightfall sighed to himself. He was planning on getting some reading in, but with all the chatter and music, there was no way that was happening tonight!
Resigning himself to his fate, Nightfall picked up a cupcake and shoved it into his mouth, only getting halfway through chewing it before realising his tongue felt like it was on fire. He grabbed the nearest bottle right off the table without reading it first and started to pour the contents into his mouth, only to find the burning got even worse, his eyes watering. It was a bottle of tabasco sauce!
Growing desperate to soothe his scorching tongue, Nightfall dashed to the kitchen, lit the room, and grabbed a cup from a cupboard. It was a little dusty, so he quickly washed it off with water from the tap, then filled the glass with cold water and washed the infernal cupcake down his throat before sifting through the cupboards, trying to find a salt canister.
In the very last cupboard, he thankfully found one, flipped the tab up to open it, then poured the salt straight from the container onto his tongue, finally getting soothing relief.
After waiting for a few seconds for his tongue to cool down, he put the salt canister away and used the water from the sink to wash the excess salt from his mouth, then sighed in relief right before Goody burst into the kitchen.
“Sorry about that!” the pink Dragoon said apologetically, his fins losing their poofy and springy appearance, falling flat. “I forgot to label which cupcakes were hot!” Suddenly, his fins sprang back to their previous appearance and he sounded chipper again. “Well, I’ve separated them, now. The hot ones are on a separate table with the tabasco sauce, so you can avoid them if you don’t want them.”
Nodding in gratitude, Nightfall followed Goody out of the kitchen and took a slice of cake and shoved it into his mouth. To his delight, instead of some spicy concoction that even ice from the depths of Echidna’s frozen prison of Cocytus couldn’t counter, it was devils’ food, one of his favorite kinds of chocolate. Humming happily, he washed it down with a glass of fruit punch, then noticed a book with the same title as the one he’d been reading at the castle, but with an extra line added to the title: “Unabridged Edition”.
Ignoring the party, his eyes lit up, as did his horns for the purpose of grabbing the book. Unfortunately, the feminine clearing of a throat behind him forced him to delay his plans for a bit.
Turning around, he found himself snout-to-snout with a tan Nature Dragoness wearing a blue pinstriped blazer over a white blouse and a large red bow at the neck, with an hourglass Skill Emblem. Her fins were a dark brown, and her ventral scales were a more neutral brown.
Her conversation partner from a few seconds prior was also looking at Nightfall: A light gray Fairy Dragoon with golden yellow head fins, ventral scales in an even lighter gray, a collection of bubbles serving as his Skill Emblem, and amber eyes. He was dressed as well, though a blue postmaster's uniform was far from what Nightfall would've expected from anygon to choose to wear to a party.
"Oh, sorry about that, Mr. Sheen!" the Dragoness said after Nightfall let out a yelp and backed up. "I'm the Professor, though most prefer to call me either Professor Enigma, or even just Enigma." She giggled and shook her head a little at the silly nickname, then returned to being all-business. "My companion—or, my current one, at least—needs to speak to you about your temporary lodging here, as he has orders from El Dragado concerning your mail being redirected for a day." Motioning for the Dragoon to step forward, she added, "Well, go on, Mr. Claws! We've got the chap's attention!"
The postmaster stepped forward, and Nightfall found it impossible to make proper eye contact, as the other dragon's eyes were skewed.
"Uh… Sir?" Nightfall said slowly, "Are you okay? Did you hit your head? I might have a healing spell for—"
The other Dragoon chuckled and shook his head. "Don't bother. They're always like that. Nothing new." Nightfall opened his mouth to apologize, but the postmaster cut him off. "Don't bother apologizing, either. It's happened so many times, I've lost count and stopped caring. Now, uh…" he scratched his head for a few seconds before lifting a clipboard out of his bag and clawing it to Nightfall. "I'll need you to fill this out, please. By the way, my name's Dopey Claws. Silly name, but everygon respects it because I'm the postmaster! Somegon once suggested I change my name to 'Daffy Doo', but, respect more than balances out a silly name." He looked down sheepishly for a second before adding, "Though, it's a small town, so there's really just me. Well, my younger son, Tiny, helps when he's not at school." He let out a hollow laugh. "It's tough being a widower, ya know? But still having family in spite of it makes it all better. Makes me feel like their mother's still with me without having to visit the house's family shrine. Although the Professor here has offered to be their mother, and while I'd love to agree, I just can't shackle a traveling Dragoness like her to myself on good conscience."
Nightfall quickly filled out the form, clawed it back to the postmaster while nodding politely as he spilled his life story for seemingly no good reason (the dragons of this town seemed to have a very bad habit of just telling strangers everything about themselves), then as the odd pair left with the Dragoness saying, "Come along, Mr. Claws! We're at a party, and I forgot to bring a banana! This must be rectified! I always bring one to a party!" Nightfall left to accomplish what he'd intended to do earlier, trying to forget about the odd pair. If he couldn't stop Darkscales, tomorrow's mail would be the least of anygon's worries.
He grinned as he finally grabbed the book with his magic, quickly floating it over to himself. He then hastily flew upstairs and over the banister into an almost-empty bedroom, which happened to have a telescope pointing at the window.
Looking through the telescope, Nightfall gazed up at the moon, and noticed the three stars mentioned in the book were getting very close to the moon. It wouldn’t be long now…
Moving over to the bed, Nightfall opened the book to the same tale from the abridged book from back at the castle, and began to read the complete version of it, attempting to use pillows to muffle the noise from downstairs. At this rate, he was going to get a headache.
An hour later, Nightfall was tired, frustrated, and his head was throbbing. He was growing tired of trying to study the complete version of the tale, because the noise from downstairs made it nearly impossible to concentrate, even with the pillows pressed on either side of his head.
Wishful trotted into the room with an overturned cup dangling on her horn and said, “Hey, Nightfall! We’re having a great time downstairs! Come and join us! Goody has something awesome in store for everygon!”
“No!” Nightfall snapped crankily, trying to bury himself in the covers so he could block out the noise and get some sleep. “Disaster is coming, and all everygon wants to do is have fun! Am I the only one here who actually cares?”
“I think so,” Wishful replied with a shrug before shaking her head in disappointment. “Well, you can try to sleep if you want, but I’m going to enjoy the party! I’ll have them gone by ten, I promise.”
Nightfall groaned and rolled over, resorting to using a noise-cancellation spell to finally get some sleep.
Nightfall woke at around five in the morning with his headache thankfully gone, about an hour and a half before the festival. He climbed out of bed and used that time to inspect the library, which was amazingly spotless after the party from the night before. Wishful must’ve either cleaned it up herself or got the partygoers to do so, being the sweet, if mischievous filly she was.
There was a scroll on the center table, so Nightfall picked it up, broke the seal with a talon, and unrolled it, resulting in something falling out, clattering when it hit the table. The scroll read in an untidy scrawl:
Dear Nightfall,
Sorry you couldn’t enjoy the whole party. At least your Unicorn friend enjoyed it until it ended.
Anyway, I promised the mayor to give you the key to the library when we finished up, so after we cleaned up for you, I decided to write this letter for you to give it to you.
Your new friend,
Goody Gumdrops
Nightfall looked down at the table to see a worn key had fallen out of the scroll. He picked it up, and immediately used it to lock the door to the library so he could finally finish studying that book.
He prepared a small breakfast of oatmeal, eggs and bacon, first. Apparently, Goody had also stocked the fridge for him so so he could eat that morning, since it had been entirely empty the night before.
“That was rather thoughtful of him. He’s trying so hard to be a pal to me… Hmm, maybe I should give him a chance,” Nightfall mused as he munched on his food.
After finishing, he cast a spell on the remainder of the oatmeal to heat it up a bit, so Wishful could have a warm breakfast of her own after she woke up.
Moving to the front room, Nightfall sat in a lounge chair, lit a candle, and resumed studying.
An hour later, he closed the book, still a bit puzzled. Apparently, the ‘Components of Balance’, as they were called, were used to banish Midnight Darkscales to the moon, but despite what the book said, he knew the ones on display in El Dragado weren’t the real ones. Lord Lumin helped Nightfall realize this, as a couple years ago, he had him test a secret spell Lumin taught him for detecting magic of all kinds, including magic that could be used to fool other magic detection spells. Such magic was in place on the “Components” on display, but other than that spell, they were just hunks of colored rocks with no magic whatsoever. There just had to be some clue as to where the real ones were, but where in the jumble of words that made up that tale was the answer?
However, he didn’t have time to ponder this, as a clock chimed six AM, which meant the festival would start in half an hour. Nightfall heard the sound of hooves, and turned to see Wishful Legend trotting groggily down the stairs, looking haggard from staying up for too long the previous night. Her mane and tail were a mess, too.
“Morning, sunshine,” Nightfall said with a bright smile as he set the book down and waved to the filly.
“Morning,” she grunted in response.
“I left you some oatmeal for your breakfast,” Nightfall told her, levitating a bowl onto the table for her with his magic. “I cast a spell on it to keep the heat in.”
“Thanks,” Wishful muttered as she poured the rest of the oatmeal into the bowl, grabbed a spoon with her magic, and started eating.
“The festival’s in half an hour, and you look like a wreck,” Nightfall observed, giving her a small smile. “Would you like me to brush your mane and tail for you?”
“I’m eleven now,” Wishful snapped, crossing her forehooves, though her eyes said something different than her stance. “Lumin had you start caring for me almost right after he started giving you private lessons, but that doesn’t make you my daddy, and you know it. I’m a big filly. I can do it myself.”
“We only have half an hour until we have to be there, though,” Nightfall told the filly gently. He knew, despite her protests, she did want him to brush her mane and tail. He’d always done that for her whenever she’d do something crazy and get them tangled up. “It’s not a matter of me wanting to treat you like my little girl or anything. It’s so we can get there in time.” Even though half of that was bullhonkey and they both knew it.
“Fiiiine Da- um, Nightfall,” Wishful sighed, stifling a giggle that Nightfall just barely heard. and he shook his head before removing a brush from his backpack and moving to the kitchen so he could help Wishful get groomed while she ate.
He had, of course, groomed her many times before, all the way back to when she was a little foal and actually thought he was her daddy. Applying the brush to Wishful’s mane first, Nightfall carefully worked out the knots that had formed in her sleep, stifling a giggle of his own when the filly leaned into the feel of the brush and hummed happily while chewing her oatmeal. No matter how much she fussed before, she couldn’t help doing that. Nightfall eventually worked out all the kinks in her mane, and it returned to its usual pretty, flowing state. “There,” He said, floating a small claw-held mirror out of his backpack and holding it in front of her. “Pretty as ever.”
She gave a poor attempt at an indifferent shrug, though her eyes were grateful. Moving on to her tail, he performed the same process again. This time, she didn’t lean into the brush, but continued to hum as she ate.
With the tail done as well, Nightfall moved on to brushing the filly’s coat, gently getting the hairs back into place. She once again leaned into the brush, letting out the occasional barely-audible giggle and instinctively pressed herself closer to him, almost practically snuggling into his side.
With fifteen minutes to spare, Wishful finished eating at the same time Nightfall finished brushing her, and they raced to the bathroom to brush their teeth. Nightfall arrived first, but he didn’t stop the filly from entering, and just gave her a toothbrush with toothpaste on it, which she took in her magic. Finally, the pair started the last part of their morning routine, which lasted for about three minutes before they finished, cleaned up, and left the library with the door unlocked, but Nightfall still took the key with him.
The two swooped down from the air with Wishful riding on Nightfall’s back, landing right outside the Town Spire before entering the main hall. It looked absolutely incredible with all of Extraordinaire’s decorations up, but would be even more fantastic once Lumin began raising the sun with the extra flair he only gave it once a year.
“Ladies and Gentledragoons!” a beige Nature Dragoon with gray fins called from a balcony overlooking the hall with a curtain behind him, “It’s almost time for the festival to begin! At six-thirty, Lord Lumin himself will grace us with his presence!”
Applause could be heard coming from dragons all over the hall, but Nightfall looked at the setting moon and tapped Wishful on the shoulder. She turned her head, and Nightfall simply pointed towards the setting moon on the horizon, as seen through the east window. Before their eyes, the stars from the prophecy began to shimmer and converge in front of the image of the Dragoon in the Moon. In a single dim flash of light, the image suddenly vanished, along with the three stars, leaving a nearly blank moon behind.
Wishful just stared in disbelief, but Nightfall set his jaw in determination. As soon as Lord Lumin stepped onto the stage, he’d confront him about what was going on and demand they take immediate action.
Backstage, Lumin Draconis stood ready to show himself to the dragons of this town.
His three pairs of wings, one for each major dragon tribe, were all prepared: the feathered Fairy wings preened, the crystalline Mystic wings polished to sparkle dazzlingly, and the bat-like Nature wings properly loosened up to prevent cramps.
His golden helmet and crown combination was perfectly polished, especially the front spike, which had an image of the sun carved into it, and his three pairs of horns, one for each major tribe, had been filed and polished recently.
The rest of his armor was polished as well, his white main scales and gold ventral scales properly buffed and cared for, his three-tone orange head fins, like a sunrise, appearing to merge together on his head and wave in a non-existent breeze. Even the scales where his Skill Emblem of an eight-armed sun was had been polished to shine brightly. All in all, he looked regal and powerful, as an Ultima Dragon and regent should.
As he prepared himself to meet his subjects, Lumin felt something snap. Glancing up, he saw the moon sinking below the horizon. The empty moon. The seal on the moon had just broken. Whether Nightfall knew it or not, Lumin had been preparing him for this very day for years. The Dragoon was the only one who could do what he could not, if Nightfall would just open his heart to others.
Lumin sensed a dark presence behind him, radiating a sense of tyrannical extreme Order, and without even turning around, he said, “Hello, Umbra.”
“I am not Umbra anymore,” a menacing voice snarled, the air growing heavy and noxious around Lumin. “I am Midnight Darkscales, and I will get all dragons to appreciate my night for what it is, and become the sole leader of Draconia! Not just a regent, but a King!”
Lumin then whirled around to face his corrupted brother. The wicked Ultima Dragoon’s scales were pitch black, as were his three pairs of wings and his three pairs of horns. His head fins were merged into a blue and red nebulous structure that grew or shrank in size whenever he wanted, while his ear and back fins were midnight blue, as were his ventral scales. He was arrayed in dark red armor, and his teal eyes were the same as they were before he had turned evil, except the sclerae were a dark red instead of a lighter shade of teal.
Finally, his Skill Emblem was similar to Umbra’s, but it depicted a blood red crescent moon held in a black dragon’s claw on a midnight blue background.
“Brother, I know this isn’t you,” Lumin said firmly, narrowing his purple eyes. “The real you would never want to usurp Mother and Father! The real you always said the night truly belonged to Mother! I suspect Havoc made you turn into what you are now, for the Umbra I knew was balanced, like me. You're over-saturated with Order, brother.” His eyes turned hopeful, almost pleading. “I’m sorry I didn’t pay attention to you more, but if you let go of the hatred in you, I promise to make it up to you.”
“Make it up to me? Bah!” Midnight Darkscales spat. “I’ll consider your proposal… After you’ve spent one thousand years confined inside the sun, just like how you trapped me inside the moon for that amount of time! Farewell, brother!”
The wicked Dragoon enveloped his brother in his fin nebula and converted him into an energy form, before casting him towards the sun’s current position, just below the horizon.
Back in the main hall, nogon had realized what had just happened, and were talking in excited whispers as the mayor announced, “it’s time for the grand appearance of our leader and regent! I present to you, the Prince of the Day, caretaker of the sun, shepherd of the moon, regent of all of Draconia in the stead of King Bahamut and Queen Tiamat, Lord Lumin Draconis!
As the curtain started to rise, Timidwings’ bird choir began to sing the national anthem. But once the curtain was fully up, there was dead silence as everygon just stared at an empty stage.
“There’s got to be a reasonable explanation for this,” the mayor said, motioning for everygon to remain calm as the excited whispers changed to nervous mutters. “Maybe he’s still backstage?”
“Is he hiding?” Goody Gumdrops asked. “I’m good at guessing things! Just let me think for a second…”
“He’s disappeared!” Extraordinaire gasped.
“Aw, shucks, I was gonna guess that!” Goody whined, snapping his fingers.
Suddenly, there was a sound of rushing wind, and a black nebulous cloud spread across the stage, clearing away to reveal a black Ultima Dragoon in red armor.
“It’s him!” Nightfall gasped while Wishful just kept moving her mouth with no sound coming out.
“My dear, precious subjects,” the black Dragoon began warmly, looking around at the amassed dragons before him. “I’ve missed your day-obsessed faces so much for the past millennium.”
“Where’s Lord Lumin?” Prism Slash demanded, baring his teeth and preparing to lunge before Apple Slice grabbed his hind legs.
“Whoa there, pardner!” Slice exclaimed, “We don’t know what he can do!”
“I don’t care!” Slash snapped. “If you won’t let me get my claws on him, then I’ll just have to do something else!”
Slash closed his jaws, tilting his head down as seven-colored light started emanating from between his teeth.
“Slash! Don’t!” Slice shouted right before Slash opened his jaw and released seven different colored sonic projectiles, which were simply caught and crushed by the menacing Dragoon’s nebulous fin structure flowing out under the back of his helmet.
“If you must know, your precious Lord Lumin has been imprisoned in the sun for one thousand years,” the Dragoon stated calmly, as if he hadn’t just had sonic projectiles shot at him. “But, I am royalty as well, you know! Don’t you know who I am?”
“Ooh! Another guessing game!” Goody squealed with delight. “Um… Black Smog! Wait, how about King Jerkface? Wait! I’ve got it! Snobby Darkness! It’s gotta be—”
Apple Slice shoved a cupcake in Goody’s mouth to shut him up, but the damage had already been done.
“Is my crown rendered meaningless by my spending one thousand years in solitude?” the Ultima Dragoon roared, all three sets of wings spreading out to their full length. “Does nogon remember the legend? Did nogon notice the signs preceding my return?”
“I noticed,” Nightfall said firmly, stepping forward. “And I know exactly who you are. You’re the Dragoon in the Moon. You’re Lord Lumin’s corrupted brother. You’re Midnight Darkscales.”
Everygon else gasped in shock, but Midnight Darkscales just clapped slowly.
“Finally, somegon who actually remembers me,” the wicked Dragoon said with a slightly mocking smile. “You know who I am. Do you know why I’m here?”
“Isn’t your goal night eternal?” Wishful asked, confused.
“Do you take me for some kind of buffoon?” Midnight Darkscales snapped, looking more than a little affronted at the very suggestion. “No, I want to rule Draconia, not as its regent, but as its King. I want to make you appreciate my nights, but I’m not going to kill you to do it!” He moved towards the edge of the stage, shattering the east window with a blast of his magic. “Hear me well, my subjects! I will set a new system in motion! For fourteen days, there will be no sun in the sky anywhere. Not even on the other side of the world. Just my wonderful moon and my stars. But to go like this forever would be insane, for a world with no day, even if all life on it could be adapted to flourish in moonlight, would grow colder and colder until it froze and everything died anyway. So, after those fourteen days with no sun, the sun will return, and for seven days, the moon and the sun shall rise and set as they have for millennia. After those seven days to keep the world from freezing, those two segments shall repeat endlessly.
“So, remember yesterday’s sunrise well, dragons, for you won’t see the sun again for fourteen days! You will appreciate my night, like it or not!”