Equestria's Midnight

by Snake Staff

Ponyville

The creature moved through the grey morass, eyes vigilant for the lights it craved. It didn’t know what it was or what it had been, if it had ever been anything else. All around it was merely a shapeless, misty grey blur. All it felt was the gnawing hunger that permeated its very being, driving it to seek out the lights.

There! In the distance. A light, dull and dimmed by the endless grey, but visible to the creature nonetheless. It didn’t need any encouragement to move as quickly as it could go. The light grew and grew in its vision, golden rays leading the creature to its food. The light was moving but slowly, much too slowly. The creature pounced, drawing the light into itself. Images flashed through the creature's mind, but they meant nothing to it. It consumed the light in its entirety, reveling in the brief reprieve from the endless craving that defined its existence.

Then the moment passed, and the creature was hungry again.
…

“All praise to Izrador, the Shadow, He whose reign shall be forever!” lead Nightflower, Legate of the Order of the Shadow.

“All praise,” chanted back the population of Ponyville. It was midnight, the time of Izrador’s service. Anypony not present would soon find cause to regret it.

“All praise to the Dark God, He who sees all, knows all, and rules all!”

“All praise.”

“All praise to He to whom we owe everything!”

“All praise.”

“To Izrador, we offer our lives!”

“Our lives.”

“Our service!”

“Our service.”

“Our souls!”

“Our souls.”

“All praise!”

“All praise.”

“All praise!”

“All praise.”

“ALL PRAISE!”

“ALL PRAISE!”

“All hail,” Nightflower half-whispered, abasing herself before the sacred symbol of the Horned Skull affixed to the high wall of the Temple of the Shadow. The rest of Ponyville quickly joined the light blue unicorn in bowing, from her fellow unicorn legates and acolytes to the lowliest earth pony menial slave.

A few moments passed in near-silence as the civilians awaited the order to get up again. Nightflower allowed them to wait, savoring the moment as she felt the slightest touch of her god’s attention on the congregation. Then it was gone, and she signaled the rest to resume their feet.

“And now,” she intoned in her best solemn voice, “The time has come. Five weeks it has been. Five weeks since the sacred rite. Now we once again prove our devotion by offering that which Izrador prizes above all else: the blood of a traitor.” She looked out, to see if anypony was reacting. She was almost disappointed that nopony was – it made dissidents easier to identify.

Two acolytes waited by a small cloth-covered basin in the floor. At the Legate’s approach, they slowly removed the cloth, folded it, and set it aside. Inside the basin was a small pool of utterly black reflective liquid, its surface completely devoid of even the slightest ripple or blemish. One of Izardor’s Black Mirrors, set to drain the magic from the land. And now, it required blood.

“Bring in the prisoner!”

A pair of guards filed down the main aisle of the temple, dragging an elderly green pony behind them. Bound and gagged, she could do little but glare angrily at her tormentors. Nopony so much as gasped or whispered when they recognized the well-known and loved matriarch of many of the local farms, so well-conditioned were they. Not a few had seen their own friends and family go the mirror before.

“Granny Smith,” Nightflower declared, magically amplifying her voice to boom throughout the Temple of Shadow. “Nine days prior, you objected to the amount of food the Shadow required of you. To compound your sin, you struck at a Legate.”

At this, the audience did gasp. To strike a Legate was unthinkable, the act only of the suicidal and insane. Those who knew the old pony better questioned how she would have survived as long as she had had she genuinely been so foolhardy, but kept such thoughts to themselves.

“A Legate is the ultimate representative of the Dark God to his subjects! To strike at a Legate is to strike at Izrador himself! And for that...” Nightflower paused. When she spoke again her voice was much lower, more hissing, “There can only be one penalty.”

The guards dragged their prisoner to the base of the Black Mirror. Granny Smith didn’t bother to struggle; it would have done no good, and put her family in even more danger besides, if that was possible. Her bare throat hung over the mirror, ready to drop her life’s blood into the depths.

“But Izrador is not without mercy,” Nightflower continued, “And as such, I offer the family of this traitorous scum a chance to redeem itself.” She took the sacred dagger from its anointed resting place, the sharpened obsidian glinting in the pale light of the temple’s blue torches. “Applejack! Come to me!” she called into the crowd.

Slowly, reluctantly, an orange earth pony made her way out of the crowd and down the aisle. Eyes followed her every step of the way as she climbed the steps to the sacred alter of the temple. The more superstitious among them would later swear they saw the space where Horned Skull’s eyes would have been following her. The whole way, she never took her eyes off her own hooves – a wise precaution.

“Y’all called, ma’am,” she said, her head and ears deferentially low.

Nightflower nodded. “You are a loyal subject of Izrador, are you not?”

“Yes ma’am,” Applejack replied, still not glancing up or at her grandmother.

“And you know your place in the divine order of things?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“And you do not object to the sacrifice of your traitor grandmother to the Shadow?”

Applejack’s eyes briefly wavered, stealing the glance at Granny Smith before settling back on her hooves. “… No ma’am.”

Nightflower nodded, looking satisfied. “Good. Then I grant you the honor of cleansing your bloodline of treachery. You will be the one to end her life.”

That got a reaction. Applejack’s eyes shot wide, and she almost looked up into the Legate’s eyes, before checking herself at the last second. “What?! But I…” she trailed off briefly, then swallowed. “I-I ain’t qualified! I can’t do any of them rituals or-”

Nightflower cut her off, bending down slightly to address her. “I assure you that all will be well in hand. I simply felt that an upstanding citizen of your stature should have the opportunity to purge the rot from your family. Are you saying that you do not wish for it?”

Applejack swallowed, hesitating.

Nightflower whispered so softly that the earth pony could have sworn it was magical. “And I should hate to imagine what might happen if it transpires that the corruption goes deeper than one member. You have such a lovely brother and sister. It would be such a shame.”

Applejack swallowed again, then finally nodded, tears dripping down her cheeks.

Nightflower smiled. “It gladdens me to know that your heart is true.” She turned to the acolytes behind her. “Begin!”

The unicorns began chanting, their horns uniformly glowing a dark grey. In a language very few ponies outside the Order of the Shadow knew, they sang praises to Izrador, offering him the blood he had commanded. They chanted long lists of his names in demonic tongues not even they understood. They spat blasphemies at the false deity Celestia, and thanked Izrador for bringing the world enlightenment.

Nightflower listened contentedly, enjoying the power she could feel in their words, and relishing what was to come next.

“Now,” she whispered, placing the dagger in Applejack’s hoof. “Do it now.”

The earth pony looked at the obsidian, hesitating, tears now flowing freely down her cheeks.

“Do it!” Nightflower hissed more impatiently.

“I… I… I….” Applejack was openly choking back sobs.

“Now!”

Tears ran down Applejack’s cheeks like a waterfall. Shutting her eyes tight, she placed the blade along her grandmother’s throat. She couldn’t bear to look at her. The old mare’s expression wasn’t anger, disappointment, or even fear. It was just a calm, almost lifeless acceptance. She might have been dead already.

Then Applejack slit her throat, and she was.
…

The sun slowly rose above Ponyville. Pale, weak, and sickly-looking, its rays barely pierced the cloud layer seeming to hang perpetually above that benighted community. The town nonetheless gave thanks for the meager light and warmth it offered them. With the sun came some measure of safety from the ever-lurking Fell, the orcs, and of course, their masters.

Most ponies had been asleep since the past night. One had not. Applejack barely managed to limp out of the meager farmhouse door, mane ruined, eyes dry and bloodshot from a night of crying. Big Mac had been in the temple, but he hadn’t said a word to her all night, just stared sadly. That had only made her feel worse. At least he’d done something about Apple Bloom, who had been too young to be present. Applejack might have been thankful for small mercies if she weren’t so utterly consumed with grief and self-loathing. She looked at the Apple Family’s old barn, picturing herself hanging from a noose from its rafters. After what she had done, the notion was attractive.

“Don’t do that,” said the all-too-familiar voice in her head.

“Why not?” Applejack managed between sobs. “And shut up! Can’t y’all see I’m tryin’ ta mourn here?”

“Because so many others depend on you as well. Your family, your friends, us. We need you, Applejack. We need you to be strong.”

“Strong? STRONG?! Y’all don’t know the meanin’ a the word strong! I had to sacrifice my own Granny! What the buck you ever done, huh? Safe in that there forest a yours! What have you ever lost?!”

“More than you know,” said the voice, now more subdued.

“Just shut up already.”

“No. You need attention. Without me, you might do something foolish in your emotional state.”

“Y’all think I’m an idiot?!”

“I think you’re angry. Angry at Nightflower for what happened. Angry at me for not bursting in and stopping it. Angry at yourself for what you did. I think you might just go charging off to try and kill her if I leave you be.”

“And why shouldn’t I?”

“Because that would be foolish in the extreme. She’s well-guarded, in her place of power, and a powerful Legate besides. And even if you somehow did it, what do you suppose would happen next? You’d die. Then your entire family would be executed. Do you want more of their blood on your hands?”

Applejack had no answer.

“And then your farm would be burnt to the ground. The other ponies would be forced to toil even harder and longer, and give up more food. Another Legate would come here to replace her. You would solve nothing, and breed only more misery. Is that what you want?”

“N-no.”

“Good. Now please, stop imagining yourself committing suicide.”

“You ain’t the boss a me!”

“No? As I recall, you swore eternal loyalty to me when you became one of my Avatars.”

“Shut up!”

“No.”

“I’m not just some lackey for y’all to order around! If I wanta end it, I’m gonna! What’s the point a existin’ when you’ve done what I’ve done?”

“To fight this.”

“Then let me fight! All y’all ever want me to do is watch n’ wait, watch n’ wait. Sometimes I move ponies to the Everfree, and that’s it! I didn’t sign up fer this just to sit here in silence as everypony suffers and dies! If yer so big and powerful, then help me!”

“I promise you that I am doing all I can. Even now, I’m already working on more than a dozen other tasks at once.”

“Well when is “all I can” gonna involve getting ‘round to savin’ this town?!”

“Applejack, I work weeks without sleep just to save this forest.”

“Well, good fer y’all! In case y’all haven’t noticed, me an’ mine don’t exactly live there! We’re stuck here! Why should I go on workin’ for y’all when y’all are too busy with yer precious trees to protect us?!”

“For the same reason you came to me in the first place: for the sake of the future. Before you do anything rash, think of what it will mean for the future.”

Applejack sat outside the farmhouse, deep in thought. Eventually, she spoke to the voice again. “Can y’all… Can y’all at least take Applebloom an’ Big Mac? Keep ‘em safe? I just… can’t think a losin’ them too.”

“I wish I could, but… If they disappear but you stay, your cover will almost certainly be blown. I know Nightflower threatened them last night, she’s far too cunning to fail to connect the dots if they’re suddenly gone.”

“Then… can y’all take just Apple Bloom? I can’t just let her grow up in a place like this?”

“I’ll see what I can do. That’s all I can promise for now.”

Applejack nodded. “Thanks, Twilight.”

Comments

[PrismShift]

Another chapter? A good one two. I imagine, at least from reading this, you are going to give us a sampling of each of the Elements lives and then go into them fighting the Shadow.

On that note poor Applejack, I can't imagine how she feels. In my game I would have probably resisted til my dying breath- but on that note I have a legendary presence among GMs for suicidal characters.

[Alex Wadegrove]

Good one.
Speaking of, I wonder where Trixie is.

[Silver Melodies]

O_o

MORE!!! Please, this is an amazing story!