The sun was just beginning to set in the Everfree Forest, a fact that was only peripherally noted by the two ponies walking through it. What they cognitively noticed however was the slight rustling that, despite its best efforts, only just missed being synchronized with the wind.
Midnight came to an abrupt halt. Diamond, watching him for signals, stopped a pace later as she drew up alongside him.
“We’re surrounded, aren’t we?” The filly asked.
The stallion grinned. “Most likely.”
“So what do we do?”
Midnight thought about it for a moment before loudly replying, “Well, we could try politely asking them to come out and say hello.”
There were more rustles from several points around the pair as a half dozen individuals slipped out of the undergrowth. They were black and pony-like, and interestingly all small, roughly the same size as Diamond.
“That worked?”
“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it to either.”
“Changelings?”
The alicorn shook his head. “It’s possible, but not likely. No wings or horns.”
Diamond rolled her eyes. “Great. Another new enemy. What now?”
“Their move. Remember Diamond, this isn’t like the other fights you’ve been in recently. The protections the Dreamscape affords are not present here.”
“Come on, look at them, how much damage can they do?”
“Exactly how many times has the same thing been said about you again?”
“…”
Midnight smirked as he lit his horn. “Let’s try and keep things from getting violent for a little bit longer.” A glowing blue shield materialized around the pair, the bubble separating them from the… enemies? …Sure, let’s go with that.
Diamond and Midnight shifted positions so that they were facing in opposite directions, then waited for the storm to break.
The blinding light filling the throne room of Twilight’s Castle faded rapidly, revealing Featherdown standing in the center of a spell circle, flank as blank as the day she was born. The unicorn herself felt strangely drained by the experience, swaying slightly on her hooves.
She heard voices. It took her a moment to focus in on them. “…own? How do you feel?”
The unicorn smiled as she looked back at her haunches, free of Duke Holder’s taint for the first time in years. Only one word really came to mind: “Clean.”
A violet aura enveloped her as exhaustion carried her into unconsciousness.
As the last of the sunset’s dying light faded, an alicorn colt walked up next to an earth pony colt on a small knoll just outside of town. The earth pony glanced over his shoulder. “I’m surprised to see you here.”
“Nightmare Moon found her rescue… dissatisfying. I was forced to restrain her. It will be a few hours before she wakes up, so I felt that it might be prudent to lend my aid on this front.”
The tan colt cocked an eyebrow. “One would think that having her unconscious would be your perfect opportunity.”
The alicorn’s eyes narrowed. “Just what are you insinuating about my sister and I?”
His companion blinked. “Oh! So that’s what the obsession was about. We all thought… never mind.”
There was silence for a moment, then, “Speaking of sisters, where has yours gotten to?”
“Hah! She’s not my sister, just the only other one to come out of that spell looking like a real pony. I guess you could call her my partner, but… anyway; she’s currently taking care of something else. It seems your… Father? Brother?”
“I assume you’re referring to Midnight Star?”
“Yeah, him. Apparently he and the Ranger went into the forest; we must have tipped our hoof somewhere. Point is, she’s making sure they can’t interfere again.”
It was the alicorn’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “I wish her luck; the best have tried to kill Hope. He has this annoying tendency of coming back.”
He was answered with a shrug. “Eh, she doesn’t need to do much, just buy some time until we’re all in position. Tonight, Ponyville falls to Darkness.” A chill wind blew out across the town at that.
The Doctor froze as he felt the breeze. Centuries of experience had taught him what that feeling meant. “That doesn’t make any sense, right now…” His eyes widened. “It’s tonight… Ditzy!? Get the girls into the TARDIS, we need to go somewhen!”
Button was taking out the garbage after dinner. That was his chore on Saturdays, one he never once complained about considering that the deal he struck with his mother (a slightly quirky mare who had deliberately raised him to make bargains when he was in no real position to do so) meant that as long as he took care of this, he was free to do whatever he felt like with the rest of his day. (It would be years before he realized that the timing of the chore was such that it cut cleanly across any timeslots for Saturday night dates.)
He was on his way back to the door when a strange prickling sensation shot up his spine. He recognized it instantly. It wasn’t exactly familiar, but he had felt it before. Once. His breathing went ragged, his mouth dried out, and his lip started quivering. It was the same sensation he and most of his friends had felt the day Sweetie Bell and Nyx were foalnapped.
The colt still hadn’t quite forgiven himself for not being able to do anything to help. It was stupid, he knew that, but still… He couldn’t stop hating the fact that he’d been useless. He called on that anger now, using it to help quench the fear he felt tightening in his chest. At the same time, he raised a hoof to his lips, covering his mouth while he drew several deep breaths through his nose.
Button smiled and put on his best poker face, the one he always used while playing Uno with Pipsqueak (What? You thought he was only good at video games?), and mechanically went through the motions of washing his hooves and finishing cleaning up in the kitchen.
He then went up to his room, carefully selected a video game, cranked the volume, and waited. Sure enough, a few minutes later his mother opened his door and asked him to turn it down. He obliged, but still made sure it was plenty loud enough to be heard down the hall with the door shut. His mom left and he smiled to himself; he now had at least two hours before she would be back. He set the game so that four CPUs were fighting each other in a lengthy, drawn-out battle.
He walked over to the closet and took out a harness that he had put together for the next comic-con in Canterlot. It happened around the same time as his birthday, so his mom usually took him. Carefully, he opened his window and slipped out to climb down the ivy-covered lattice, an oversized wooden key strapped to his back.
Lily looked up as the chill blew past her. She knew that feeling, she had been raised to identify it. The last time she’d felt it, she hadn’t done anything. Her father never mentioned it in his letters, but she knew he was disappointed by that fact. She was disappointed by that fact.
She wouldn’t be letting herself, her father, or her friends down again. She had a crew to represent.
Cheerilee felt old instincts stirring as what her first combat instructor had called “The Ill Wind” rushed by. She abruptly ended her plans for a quiet dinner at a restaurant in town and went home to think heavily on the long-term safety her cover provided her town and students, and the short-term risks that preserving that cover entailed.
Silver Spoon knew what the chill in the air meant. How could she not? After all, she had been waiting for it since the last time…
She picked up and rang a small silver bell. After a moment, her family’s butler trotted out to the patio table she’d been eating at. “You rang Madame?”
“Yes. I’m finished with my meal, you can have one of the other servants collect the dishes now. Also, if you would be so good as to turn on the yard lights, I wish to use the outdoor range tonight. My night shooting needs some work.”
“Of course Ma’am. Would you like me to fetch you a bow or a crossbow?”
The filly shook her head. “Neither. I shall retrieve my crossbow from my room myself. A weapon is not a burden to be borne by servants, but a responsibility that the wielder must take themselves.”
“Very good Ma’am.”
Years of practice kept Silver from rolling her eyes at the outdated code of conduct her mother insisted everypony follow while at the house. At least it gave her the advantage of nopony ever questioning her actions.
Diamond and Midnight were still in the same spot on the trail. None of the creatures surrounding them had moved so much as an inch in the past twenty minutes.
“Is it just me, or are you starting to think that their job is just to keep us here?” Diamond muttered.
“One way to find out,” Came the whispered reply. Raising his volume, Midnight declared, “Well, seeing as you lot are quite amicable and nonviolent, you’re probably not what we came out here for. That being the case, we’ll just be on our way now, likely improving your neighborhood before sunrise.”
There was no reaction until the pair started walking. Then the things moved almost as one. They trotted up to the shield… and then went right through it. One of them spoke in an eerily monotone voice, “There is no Hope for Ponyville tonight.”
Diamond made sure to remember the word that Midnight let slip after that. She was going to look it up later, it was probably a good one.