//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: MLP: As Evening Falls // by kurusagi16 //------------------------------// Chapter 4 Eve wasn't sure what sort of work Princess Luna wanted her to do while she was helping Twilight and the other princesses prepare the spell, but she soon got her answer when she was directed to a room filled with a mountain of paperwork, all of which had to be looked over and organized. "I've gone back to being a secretary." Eve said glumly to herself. "Oh well, there's not much point in me complaining about it." Eve went over to the desk and sat herself down as she grabbed the first paper. It was all on the usual stuff, petitions from the Nightmares to help build upon their little kingdom, but also mixed in were forms for the damages that had been done to various buildings from when the Tenebris attacked. Eve did her best to go through the paperwork, filing it accordingly, but no matter how many forms she went through, there always seemed to be even more in its place for her to go over. After what felt like a couple hours (which, it probably was), Princess Luna entered the room. "Oh, Princess Luna, is everything alright?" asked Eve. "Yes, everything is fine." replied Luna. "I just wanted to have a word with you." "What about?" asked Eve. "About how you've been away from Aestas for so long." Eve gulped as she stared at the Princess of the Night. "Both you and I know very well what happens to Nightmares if they are away from Aestas for too long. Since you didn't show any signs of returning on your own, I felt I had no other choice but to summon you along with Twilight." Eve looked at her in surprise. "You...you used that letter as an excuse to bring me here?" "Forgive me, but I felt that it was necessary. If I hadn't done that, there's no telling what could've happened to you. It was for your own good." "Um, well..." Part of Eve wanted to argue, but the other part agreed with Luna. She still felt a little weak, but she was regaining her strength little by little, and didn't feel quite as tired as she had before. "I can understand how you may feel reluctant to returning to Aestas, after everything that has happened here." said Luna solemnly. "After I disgraced Amalthea and the Nightmares, I wasn't sure if I'd ever face them again, or be able to properly atone for my actions." She lifted her head up and looked Eve right in the eye. "But because of you and Princess Twilight, I was able to return and make amends, and for that I thank you." "Um, your welcome?" said Eve unsure. Luna gave her a small smile. "I want you to know, that if there's anything you need, or if you ever want to talk, I'll be right here to help." Eve felt a little stunned, and confused. The princess was offering to help her and give her advice? Why? "O-okay." she replied back. "Good." Luna then turned, heading back for the door. "I must go and see how Twilight is doing with the spell, keep up with the good work on those papers." Eve sat back down in her seat and let out a sigh. Why did royalty have to be so mysterious? Why couldn't they just give a straight forward answer like normal ponies? Eve couldn't dwell on this for too long though, she had work to do. Thus, she resumed sifting through the papers, letting her thoughts only drift to Luna's somewhat comforting words now and then. "I've sent the copies of the spell to Celestia and Cadence." said Twilight to Princess Luna. "What should we do next?" "Next, we should go over the spell until we have it etched into our minds." said Luna. "We cannot risk any mistakes when it's time to cast it, otherwise we'll end up draining ourselves of our magic and leaving ourselves completely vulnerable." Twilight gave a firm nod. "Got it." She laid the spell out on a nearby table for both her and Luna to look over and scanned over the writing that had been scribbled onto the parchment. "It would be best if we try to surround the Tenebris, that way, we can properly converge our powers together for the attack to work effectively." said Luna. "But there are so many of them." pointed out Twilight. "How would we be able to surround them all?" Luna sighed. "Then we'll have to come up with something else, so long as our magic is able to converge to form the spell and is able to affect all the Tenebris, then it shouldn't matter too much how we do it." "What if we line up side by side? That could work!" "I suppose. Maybe if--" Luna cut herself off, her pupils shrinking as she stared off into the distance. "Princess Luna? Is everything--?" "Something is wrong!" Luna cried. Before Twilight could ask what was wrong, she soon got her answer, as the castle began to quiver, and their shadows began to tremble. Twilight and Luna gave out a loud cry as their own shadows rose up and swallowed them whole, and began to pull them down into the heavy darkness. By the time the Nightmare guards arrived to see what was the matter, it was too late. Princess Luna and Twilight, were gone, without a single trace. Twilight gasped for breath, her heart beating a million miles a minute. She looked around and found herself in some kind of iron cage, on either side of her were her fellow princesses, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence, all of whom were trapped in similar cages as hers. "What's going on? Where are we?" asked Twilight, demanding answers. Then, a sinister chuckled emanated from the nearby shadows, from them, out stepped Nightshade, his eyes glowing with wicked pleasure in their entrapment. "Your highnesses, so glad you could join us." he said with false sincerity, and giving them a mocking bow. "Nightshade! What is the meaning of this?" questioned Luna. "The meaning of this, Princess Luna, is us quickly dealing with the unwanted nuisances who think they stand a chance at possibly stopping our plans." he answered. Twilight narrowed her eyes at him. "We will stop your plans, Nightshade!" she said. "We've done it once, and we'll do it again!" Nightshade snickered. "I'd like to see you try." he said. "Oh yeah? Then watch this!" Twilight aimed her horn at Nightshade, ready to fire a spell at him. "Twilight, no!" cried Cadence, trying to warn her. But Twilight already shot the spell, only to have it end up bouncing around the cage walls before fizzling out. Twilight's eyes widened. "What?" Nightshade laughed cruelly. "You didn't think it'd be that simple, did you?" he asked. 'I kinda hoped that it would be.' Thought Twilight. "We've learned from the mistakes of our last encounter, and have prepared for any interference you or you fellow dreamers might concoct against us." said Nightshade. "It's pointless for you to struggle, so I suggest that you surrender quietly. It'll be a lot easier on you if you do." The princesses all gave him a hard look, not backing down or cowering before him. "We will never surrender." said Princess Celestia. "So long as we and the rest of Equestria are full of strength and hope, we will continue to fight until we triumph over you." Nightshade scoffed. "My, what a touching speech. Unfortunately for you, speeches won't help you to escape the fate our king has in store for you." From the shadows, the other three Tenebris generals came out, giving the princesses sinister looks as they began to advance toward the cages. "I suggest you all make yourselves comfortably." said Nightshade. "Because you're all going to be here for a very long time." After their little business with the princesses had been complete, it was time to move onto the next phase of their plan. King Morpheus emerged from his chambers and approached Nightshade. "Have you captured the princesses?" he asked. "Yes, my king, the spell worked just as you said it would." "Good, and are all the Tenebris ready for the ritual to commence?" "Of course, they're all waiting for you to begin right now." Together, the two of them went down to the spirit circle that had taken months to prepare. In its center, there was a pedestal, where there sat a gleaming moonstone, and a brilliant sun stone. All the Tenebris gathered around the circle, the four generals took their positions at each point of the circles border. King Morpheus nodded at the circle approvingly, and stepped inside it, floating just a few inches off the ground so as not to disturb the carefully made markings. He reached out and touched the two stones, beginning to enact the incantation. King Morpheus spoke in a series of whispers before the spirit circle began to glow, as the circle glowed brighter and brighter, so did the stones on the pedestal. It was time to commence the spell. One by one, the Tenebris bowed to the circle, giving to it their power, and siphoning it to their King. "Et apertum est inter regna, et in somniis et realitatem, et aperuerit mihi januam, ad aeternarum tenebrarum." Morpheus chanted. All the light in the circle flowed toward the pedestal, the light shot up from it, becoming a pillar of light and piercing through the ceiling of the cavern chamber. The two stones that sat on the pedestal began to darken, until soon they were completely black. Morpheus grinned. "And so it begins..." Discord had been taking a quick break from his very boring search, when suddenly it hit him. His body spazzed uncontrollably as he sensed a tremendous magical imbalance. When the spasms ended, he looked up and saw something happening to the sky. It was beginning to get darker and darker, and not only that, but the sun had prematurely set, and was now gone from the sky. "Oh my, this is certainly peculiar." he said to himself. The changes continued, as holes began to rip open, holes that led to Aestas, and the dreamscape. Magic poured out from them, altering the landscape and causing it to twist and change. Discord cracked his knuckles, and flew up to the holes, using his magic to seal off each one. But right as he was in the middle of it, Discord felt something blast him from behind. He whirled around to see what it was, and saw a few of the Tenebris soldiers, the ones who worked under the four generals of King Morpheus, and all of them were gaining up on him. Discord scoffed at them. "So, you want to fight me eh?" he asked them. He held out his talon, creating a ball of magical energy. "Well, if that's what you want, then let's fight!"