• Published 1st Dec 2015
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Waking Night - CrowMagnon



AU: 1,000 years after the demonic Eclipse cursed Princess Luna to eternal slumber, six mares must find her resting place to save Equestria from eternal shadow.

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Prologue

Waking Night
by Crowmagnon

When the moon's shadow falls upon Equestria, the sleeping stars will wake and light the path to the Valley of Dreams once more.

-- prophecy attributed to Queen Sapphire (apocryphal)


For most ponies in Equestria, it was simply the day before Waking Night, and Ponyville was no exception. All across the town, homes and businesses were decorated in a unique mish-mash of colorful or macabre styles. Sugarcube Corner, which always looked like a gingerbread house to begin with, was covered in fake icicles and painted to look like it was made of ice and snow. Town Hall had brightly-colored tarps draped over it in the style of a circus tent. From the branches of the Golden Oaks library hung enormous faux spiderwebs and stuffed spiders the size of ponies.

The effect of such a chaotic display was that walking through the town felt like an ever-shifting dream with surprises around every corner. It would only become even moreso on Waking Night proper when everypony would be out and about in their costumes.

And yet, for all of the variety on display, one of the few constants found all across Equestria was the iconography of moon and stars which adorned every celebrant's doors. Even the Apple Orchard Farm & Loan, standing out among its neighbors in its austerity, decorated its door with a patch of night sky.

Beyond that door, and doing her utmost not to fidget, Rarity sat one one side of a well-crafted oaken desk and smiled nervously whenever the portly, mustachioed earth pony stallion on the other side glanced up from the paperwork before him. The bronze nameplate sitting on the desk bore the name "Bottom Line".

Eventually, he set the papers back down, shuffled them into a tidy stack atop his desk, and leaned back in his chair as he looked Rarity in the eye. "Miss Stone, allow me to be blunt."

Rarity's ears instantly flattened against her head, and she reached up to stroke her long purple braid. "Is there something wrong with my application, sir?"

The stallion tapped the tips of his front hooves together and took a long sniff. "Well, for starters, your business plan doesn't even begin to take payroll costs into account. How many employees do you intend to have working this rock farm of yours?"

"Well... none at first," Rarity admitted, "I'll be starting out on my own, but after a few harvests, I should be able to start hiring help and expanding the fields."

"Yes, the harvests," he said, turning his focus back to the stack of papers. "Miss Stone, according to your references, you've been working for the Quarry family for the past three years, correct?"

"As a paid farmhand, yes, though I apprenticed with them for four before that."

"Yes, and according to this reference letter from your former employers, you've been a very dedicated, hard-working employee. However..."

Rarity's ears flattened against her head, and she started nervously fussing with her long, purple braid. "However...?"

-----

For Pinkamena Diane Pie, her plans for the day involved serving dozens of ponies an assortment of coffees, occasional teas, and small sandwiches or cookies to go along with them. Granted, this was pretty much the same as her routine every other day of the year, except that pumpkin-spiced drinks were on the menu along with cookies frosted with moon and star patterns to commemorate the coming holiday.

"Oh, this is one of my favorite times of year," her employer gushed as she placed several mugs of hot beverages on the tray balanced atop Pinkamena's back. "I just can't wait to see everypony's costumes! Especially all those adorable fillies and colts. How about you?"

"It's a magical time of year," Pinkamena replied tersely in a flat monotone. She then nodded once to punctuate her statement.

Cuppa Joe, co-owner of the Bean There, Done That coffee house practically danced behind the counter, her cheer and energy compensating quite starkly for Pinkamena's apparent lack of either. "I know, right? Oh, I just hope that I can get Mugga to leave the shop and go out on the town with me this year, but he can be such a stick in the mud sometimes. Not like you, dearie. How is your poem coming along?"

"It's done, Mrs. Joe."

Cuppa clapped her front hooves together in delight. "Oh, that's wonderful, dearie! I don't suppose you could give me a small preview?"

Pinkamena nodded once and walked away to deliver the drinks on her tray. She navigated her way between the coffee house's tables with practiced ease, keeping the tray perfectly balanced as she delivered cup after cup to thirsty customers. When there were only two left, to be delivered to a couple of farmers sitting near the windows, she arrived just as one of them, Rarity, laid her head on the table and covered it with her hooves.

"And he just denied my application! Just like that! Because I'm a unicorn," Rarity groaned into the wood.

The other, Golden Harvest... or was it Carrot Top? Pinkamena always got confused about that for some reason. She leaned across the table to pat her friend on the shoulder. "Hey, hey, I'm sure that wasn't the only reason."

Rarity lifted one hoof to peer up at her curly-maned companion. "No, those were his exact words! 'It's because you're a unicorn.' He said I 'don't have the hooves' for starting a rock farm of my own."

Pinkamena placed the farmers' beverages beside them on the table and said, "That's true."

"Pinkamena! How can you say that?" Carrot Top cast an angry glare at her.

"I grew up on a rock farm," she replied. "My dad could always tell what the rocks needed by feeling it through his hooves. Unicorns can't."

Rarity's response was to bury her head under her hooves again and let out a muffled grown.

"I've upset you," Pinkamena remarked.

Carrot Top snapped, "Yes! You have! Now will you please leave us alone?" She then resumed consoling the distraught Rarity while giving Pinkamena a harsh glare.

"Okay," the pink pony replied. Her tray now empty of its burden, she made her way back to the counter.

Once there, Cuppa Joe looked over at the farmers' table while she washed a cup. "Oh dear, they don't seem very happy. Did you find out what's wrong?"

"I talked to them."

"Oh? And what was the matter?"

"I talked to them."

-----

For Applejack, the most important day in the last seven years of her life was just around the corner. Naturally, it seemed that everypony and everything was trying to give her a heart attack before she could get there. "I already talked to them, didn't I?"

Her personal assistant, Check List, levitated her itinerary in front of his face. Still maintaining the facade that he was not, in fact, a psychic vampony feasting on her aggravation, he informed her, "No, you met with the Union of Equestrian Agricultural Workers. You're still scheduled to meet with representatives of the Farm Owner's Guild of Equestria and the Manehattan Small Business Association before you leave for Canterlot."

Applejack took a deep breath and rubbed her temples. "Right... right. Okay, I can do both of those and take the overnight train. Then when I get to Canterlot, it's just the Waking Night luncheon and photo-op at the palace, right?"

Check List happily replied, "Even better! I was able to wrangle you an invitation to the Waking Night Ball!"

Applejack looked up at the bespectacled unicorn in disbelief. "You did what?"

Check List beamed at her, solidifying Applejack's opinion of him as an irredeemable psychopath. "Oh, it wasn't easy. I had to call in some favors. You're probably better off not knowing the details, but you'll get far more exposure for yourself and Apple Orchard by hob-nobbing there than at some luncheon where you'd be tucked away somewhere in the corner. Especially since I've made arrangements for you to receive a personal audience with royalty."

Applejack wondered if anypony would really blame her for bucking her assistant off the roof at this point, but briefly held off on putting it into action. "You... wait, you're saying you got me an audience with Princess Celestia?!" When he shook his head, she asked, "Princess Cadenza, then?" He shook his head again, though, and she felt her body tense in a full-body shudder. "...Prince Blueblood...?"

"You're welcome," Check List replied.

No, Applejack, don't do it, Applejack thought to herself. He could land on somepony who doesn't deserve it.

Applejack took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Check, when Apple Orchard Farm & Loan first opened its doors, I could have counted on my hooves the number of ponies who thought that we would last more than a month. Since then, I have worked very, very hard every single day to prove those ponies right. I would need to use the hairs in my tail to count the number of times I went without sleep in order to pull this company back from the brink of financial ruin."

Check List looked like he was about to respond, but Applejack was so quick to raise her hoof and shush him that it sounded like the crack of a whip. When he shut his mouth again, she slowly turned one of the photographs on her desk around so that he could see. The subject of the picture was a small, smiling filly with a bow in her mane.

"This is my little sister. Her name is Apple Bloom. Because she lives in Ponyville with my big brother and grandmother, I haven't seen her since she was two. My dear, sweet granny had to send me this photograph in the mail so that I would know what she looks like."

Glaring daggers at Check List, Applejack propped herself up on her desk in order to look down on him. "Ponyville is very close to Canterlot. That luncheon was my excuse to be close enough to take a train with enough time to meet my little sister and celebrate Waking Night with her. Instead, you would have me spending that very precious time listening to the insipid blathering of a spoiled narcissist with more mane than brains. Do you understand what you did wrong?"

"I... I think so... yes," Check List stammered, feeling very small all of a sudden as he looked back up at his employer. "I'll cancel..."

"Do that, and the morning after Waking Night, everypony will know that Apple Orchard is run by an 'upstart hick' who thinks that she can snub a member of the royal family!" Applejack angrily scrunched her muzzle before letting out a long, exasperated sigh and falling back into her chair. "Do whatever you can to move that meeting with the prince up as early in the day as possible. I'll find a way to get out of the Ball without destroying the company. Go on, get to it."

She waved him off, and Check List quickly made his way out of the office. Once he was gone, Applejack rested her forehead against the desk with a heavy thump.

-----

For Fluttershy, Waking Night was a day for thrills, surprises and scares. Thanks to that, she was spending the day leading up to it curled up in her bed and buried beneath several layers of blankets. She stayed as quiet as she could, but let out a high-pitched squeal when she was suddenly startled by a loud, heavy pounding on her door.

"Fluttershy! Get out here," boomed a deep, powerful voice from outside.

Fluttershy poked her head out from beneath the covers just enough to call out, "There's no Fluttershy here! Go look somewhere else," before ducking back down.

The yellow pegasus "eeped" again when she heard the door get thrown open forcefully enough to slam against the adjacent wall. She huddled and pulled the blankets more tightly around herself as heavy hoofsteps stomped their way to the side of her bed.

Her body trembled. "Please... no! Don't make me go out there," she whimpered, but the covers were forcefully torn from her body by a pair of large hands. Hands that belonged to the hulking, horned biped looming over her. The brutish minotaur tossed the blankets aside, then reached down for her while Fluttershy let out a fearful shriek.

A minute later, Iron Will sighed as he carried Fluttershy out into the light of day. He had her cradled in one arm and rubbed his ear with the other. "Come on, Flutters, if you keep screaming like that, ponies are gonna get the wrong idea. You can't do this every time Waking Night comes around."

Fluttershy pouted back at him. "But I want to be surprised! You know how much I care about that. Especially this year!"

Iron Will chuckled at that. "Come on, Flutters, every time you see something halfway scary, you come flying right to me. Last year, you saw a filly dressed as a dachsund and wouldn't let go until the next morning!"

Fluttershy grinned up at Will and nuzzled into his chest. "Well, what's the point of having a big strong husband if there's nothing scary for him to protect me from?" With a shudder, she added, "And dachsunds are creepy! Why do they have to stay so close to the ground, anyway? They're sneaky is what they are."

"Yeah, well... we're supposed to be the surprisers this time around," Iron Will said while a small blush colored his cheeks. He cleared his throat and looked up from his adorable pegasus wife to see how their goat stagehooves were coming along. Beside the trailer that the couple called home, the royal hedge maze that had been a Canterlot fixture since the reign of Queen Sapphire was surrounded by massive tarps to hide the activity going on within. The tarps even covered it from above, to keep their work secret from any overly-curious pegasi passing overhead.

The only thing visible from the outside that told the ponies of Canterlot what was occuring there was a large banner bearing the couple's likeness, inviting one and all to spend part of their Waking Night celebration at Fluttershy & Iron Will's Labyrinth of Dreams, with the tagline below, "Do you have what it takes to save Princess Luna and win the grand prize?"

Beyond that, Will and Fluttershy could see a few of the goats busily checking lights and setting up fog machines to enhance the mood for the hundreds of ponies that would be flooding the maze the next day. Well, except for one, who Will gruffly chastised, "Hey! What'd I tell you about snacking on the walls? Get back to the upside-down cloud city!"

Fluttershy giggled and looked at their project. A labyrinth filled with bizarre imagery and obstacles to challenge the confidence of anypony who went inside. As she reached up to wrap her forelegs around Will's shoulders, she cooed, "This is going to be the best Waking Night ever."

-----

For Lt. Twilight Sparkle of the Royal Guard, the day before Waking Night meant only one thing: Duty.

The sun shone down on the training field where she addressed the guardponies under her command. While levitating a scroll in front of her, she called out, "--Bolt Hole, Turret, and Vigilant Watch are assigned to the perimeter detail." The dozens of ponies that she had just named nodded solemnly, despite Turret spontaneously blurting out some rather colorful profanity while he did so.

Twilight nodded and checked their names off of her list before continuing on. "And finally, Princess Celestia's personal guard. Ice Arrow, Flash Sentry, Body Tackle, and Steel Hoof. Report to Captain Armor where you will receive further instructions. Everypony I have not named, enjoy your holiday. Dismissed."

As she walked away, Twilight could hear the ranks of guardponies breaking up. Silent attention (well, mostly silent in Turret's case, but nopony could hold it against him) was replaced with the buzz of conversation as those who would be off-duty the next day talked about spending the holiday with their families and loved ones.

As she stepped inside to go to her office, Twilight considered her own options. She had read a list of names belonging to ponies who would be on-duty during Waking Night, but her own had not been among them. She was sure that it was just an oversight, though. Unlike the others who had been granted leave, she didn't have children to spend Waking Night with, or even a particular fondness for the holiday.

When she reached her door, she started to open it, but then stopped a moment and considered going to see her brother about it instead. As the recently-appointed Captain of the Guard, Shining Armor made those decisions. It wouldn't come as any surprise if he had given her the night off in a small, well-intentioned act of sibling favoritism, but there was no need for her to be off-duty. She hadn't even asked for it, so she seriously thought about going to see him to have it changed.

Had she simply gone into her office and filed her reports without a second thought, she would have never noticed anything amiss. Because Twilight hesitated, however, she happened to be looking at the door to her brother's office right when it opened, and instead of her brother, she saw Princess Celestia's personal student step out into the hall, and she was angry. Her light purple eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and her silvery-blue mane, usually so carefully styled to maintain her image, seemed frazzled.

"You can't keep me locked out forever, Shining Armor," Trixie Lulamoon hissed back through the open door in a loud whisper. "You know how important this is!" Instead of a verbal response, a magenta aura grabbed the doorknob and slammed it shut. The same aura then formed around the outline of the door, sealing it shut.

Trixie ground her teeth together and slammed her hoof against the door to no avail. It didn't even produce noise, indicating a sound-dampening spell was in effect. In her anger, she didn't even notice Twilight's presence until the armored mare asked, "Trixie? What are you doing here? And why are you getting kicked out of my brother's office?"

Trixie's body tensed up the instant she heard Twilight's voice, but when she turned, it was with a haughty sniff. "Twilight Sparkle! Fancy running into you. I was just trying to get your oaf of a brother to help me gather some materials for a project I've been working on. Apparently, he's too busy to spare a few measly minutes. I'm only Trixie Lulamoon! The one and only apprentice hoof-picked by Princess Celestia herself!"

That last bit was shouted over her shoulder at the magically sealed door behind her, but it remained shut. "I don't think he can hear you, Trixie," Twilight said before a teasing grin spread across her face. "And I distinctly remember you saying you were going to marry 'that oaf.'"

"I was twelve!"

Twilight smirked at her old friend and reached out to pat her on the shoulder. "Well, how about I talk to him for you? I was just about to see him about changing my schedule for Waking Night anyway."

"No!" Twilight was taken by surprise when Trixie practically shouted in her face with a wild look in her eyes. It was just for a moment before she regained her composure, but Twilight was stunned by sudden flash of fear in her friend's expression. And just like that, it was gone. Trixie reached up to smooth her mane and told her, "I mean, come on, who goes out of their way to work on a holiday? If anypony needs a day off, it's you, Sparkle. I know for a fact that Moondancer is throwing a party for the old gang. Lyra's even coming up to visit with that marefriend of hers. You should totally go. Get away from the job for just one night."

"Oh... I must not have gotten an invitation," Twilight lied before quizzically tilting her head. "Wait. You meant 'we' should go, right? I mean, they're more your friends than mine."

Trixie scoffed and waved a hoof. "I wish. I've just... I really have to finish this project. Don't worry about me." Trixie patted her friend on the back as she walked past her toward the front door.

Halfway to the door, though, Trixie stopped and looked back over her shoulder with a strained grin. "Hey. I really mean it about taking the day off tomorrow. Spend some time with your folks if you don't have anything else to do. If Equestria survives Twilight Sparkle taking a holiday, then I'll see you on the other side. Take care, Sparkle."

Twilight gave her friend a dubious look, but replied, "Sure. I'll see you around, Trixie."

-----

For most of the fillies and colts of Equestria, the day before Waking Night was a time for fantasizing about the sweet treats that they would be extorting from every household and business in their vicinity. For most. The young pegasus known as Scootaloo had a higher calling.

She was going to save Ponyville.

Her wings buzzed like a hummingbird, flapping rapidly to give her extra thrust as her scooter zoomed at breakneck speed. She kept her eyes narrowed and focused, however, calmly weaving around ponies and Waking Night decorations as she pushed herself to the edge of the town center and beyond. Even as the dirt roads grew rougher the farther she got from Ponyville, she pushed on until she found herself at the edge of the Everfree Forest.

Scootaloo skidded to a stop right at the edge of the woods and looked inside. Although the sun was still up, the thick canopy of the forest made it impossible to see farther than a few dozen feet past the border. Even then, what little she could see of the gnarled foliage and small, skittering creatures on the outskirts of the Everfree were enough to keep even an adventurous filly like her from daring to set a hoof inside.

Regardless, it was important that she be there, so Scootaloo got off her scooter and removed her helmet, then reached for the bag she had brought with her. Within seconds, Scootaloo gave a practiced flourish as she donned the purple cape and wide-brimmed hat of the mysterious Mare-Do-Well, the greatest heroine of all time.

As she felt the cape rest on her back, whatever fear she might have felt melted away, and she turned toward the cursed forest. "I know you're there! Come on out where I can see you!"

For a moment, there was no reply, but then Scootaloo heard a twig snap. She immediately braced herself, just in case it was a wild animal, but as she stared into darkness, an equine shape slowly took form. Hidden in the shadows with a dull brown cloak further obscuring their features, the figure spoke in a raspy voice. "Waking Night's coming once again. Will you still keep your end of the bargain?"

Scootaloo dug in her hooves and nodded. "As long as you keep yours. No cursing anypony."

The shadowy mare laughed at that. "You'll give up your Waking Night candy to spare the town from my tricks. Who do you think you are? The first ranger, Nyx?"

Scootaloo felt herself grin a little at the comparison, but quickly forced her face into a scowl. "I'm the pony who'll beat you down if you break your word."

"I'm shaking in my horseshoes, as you can see. At least you've already got a costume for gathering candy."

"Hey! Mare-Do-Well isn't a costume," Scootaloo replied with a glare. "She's a way of life. You remember that."

"Okay, okay, I stand corrected. Just as long as our deal isn't neglected. Ponyville will be spared from my evil ways. Just leave your Waking Night treats here before the first morning rays."

Scootaloo nodded and got back on her scooter. "Got it. See you tomorrow night." With that, she flapped her wings and took off at a breakneck speed back toward Ponyville. She didn't get very far, however, before screeching to a stop so that she could remove her heroic outfit and place her helmet back on her head. Then she resumed zooming off.

Once Scootaloo was out of sight, the hooded mare chuckled to herself. "That's a good little squirt. Almost worth risking putting her mom on alert," she mused to herself as she turned and slipped back into the depths of the dark forest.

At the same time, Scootaloo grinned to herself as she raced back to town, feeling the wind in her face. For most fillies and colts, the thought of giving up their Waking Night candy was... uh... unthinkable. But a hero would have to be willing to make that sacrifice if it meant protecting her town and the ponies in it from the wrath of the rainbow-maned witch of the Everfree, the greatest villain Ponyville had ever known.

-----

Eventually, the time came for Princess Celestia to lower the sun and raise the moon. As the day before Waking Night gave way to the night before Waking Night, a pair of crimson eyes opened onto darkness. The one to whom those eyes belonged was, by all appearances, a comely green-coated pegasus mare. A pegasus's vision would not have cut through the darkness as hers did, however, allowing her to make out the cavern walls surrounding her through the pitch blackness.

With a long waking sigh, her carcass rose, and she ran a hoof through her lustrous mane of black and red hair before sliding out of the luxurious four-poster bed in which she had waited out the daylight. They would be waiting, she knew, so she took her favorite black dress from out of the nearby dresser and slid her body into it before stepping out into a network of tunnels illuminated only by a series of dimly lit lanterns.

Along the way to her destination, she came upon two more ponies. Or so it would seem, at least. The first, a purple-coated, green-maned unicorn with an emaciated build and sickly yellow eyes, simply nodded as she approached. The other, a blue-coated earth pony mare with a pink-and-cream mane, didn't even afford her that much. She was instead sitting down and cradling her gravid belly, singing a soft lullaby to it.

The pegasus walked up to them and placed a hoof under the other mare's chin to tilt her eyes up toward her. Once she was certain that she had the attention of both of them, she asked, "Mesmer Eyes. Blue Rose. Are you prepared for tomorrow night?"

The unicorn grimaced. "Of course, Lady Moonshadow. We don't exactly have the luxury of do-overs, now do we?"

The earth pony, by contrast, smiled cheerfully at the question. This caused her to bare a mouthful of sharp fangs at Moonshadow as she caressed her stomach. "Oh, I'm so excited! My babies are, too! They know Waking Night is coming, don't you? Don't you?"

While she cooed down at her belly, tendril-shaped bulges briefly pushed out against her skin from within, squirming and writhing loathesomely. This only caused Blue Rose to laugh with glee. "Oh, you're such good babies! Don't you worry now, mommy is going to make sure you get lots and lots of sweet little treats so you grow up big and strong. Right, Lady Moonshadow?"

"Of course," Moonshadow replied with a grin, causing her own fangs to glint in the faint light. "As many 'treats' as you can catch."

Satisfied with this answer, the three of them proceeded onward through the tunnels until they reached a vast underground chamber. A central hub from which countless tunnels wound outward, it was nearly filled to occupancy with what, like them, had once been ponies. These once-ponies, however, were of a type that were thought the stuff of legend and myth by the vast majority who had never seen one of their kind. The sound of leathery wings rustling in the dark was like music to Moonshadow's ears as she spread her own feathered wings and fluttered up above the center of the chamber in order to address her followers.

"A fine evening to all of you, my little ponies," she exclaimed, her voice echoing off of the stone. As hundreds of crimson eyes turned up toward her, she slowly flew around the room. "Waking Night is almost upon us! A very special Waking Night! For nine hundred years now, I have devoted myself to one single purpose; re-opening the path to Dream Valley, the ancient home of all ponykind! Now, you may wonder why we should be so determined in this endeavour..."

"As if the thralls have a choice," Mesmer Eyes whispered in an aside to Blue Rose.

"... But Dream Valley is everything! Even when I was a mere mortal, I knew that reclaiming the birthplace of our species would be a monumental achievement. Having long ago shed myself of such petty ideals, it has only grown more important to our kind. Just imagine what was left behind when our ancestors fled that realm for this one! Powerful artifacts and magicks that have been lost to history! Impossible cities that stood for thousands of years! And, most importantly for us, a kingdom of unending night! A land where we, the vamponies, will rule eternal!"

Moonshadow swooped and flipped giddily beneath the tall ceiling as she boasted to her hordes, "So many times we have tried, and every time, that meddlesome princess, Celestia, has barred our way! No more! For nine centuries, I have watched her wither and weaken. She is frail and pathetic, and we finally have the means of taking from her that which she hoards so selfishly! Yes, tomorrow night, the sun and moon will be ours to command! Soon, the moon's shadow will fall upon Equestria! Eclipse will return, and open the gates of Dream Valley to us! And best of all, it will be Princess Celestia's own apprentice who delivers the celestial bodies into our hooves!"

Hovering over the center of the room, Moonshadow threw her head back and let out a wicked laugh which reverberated throughout the tunnels. When she realized that the caverns were otherwise silent, however, she put her hooves on her hips and scowled down at her thralls. "This is the part where you applaud."

When hundreds of hooves started stomping against the stone floor, her laughter resumed.