MLP: Darkest Night

by kurusagi16

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

There was something...ominous in the air that night. Though most ponies didn't sense it, it had a strong presence among the Nightmares in Aestas. It hung like a thick fog, giving them unease. All of them discounted this of course, blaming it on how dark the sky seemed tonight, making them foolishly believe that something was wrong. In Aestas, the sky shines the colors of the evening and the night, and shifts in accordance with the lunar phases. During a full moon, the sky would shine as bright and vibrant as the northern lights. But this was the night of the new moon, so the sky was darkened, even the constellations had been dimmed so as to appear barely visible. None of them could know what this new moon was bring, it's shadow cast onto the Garden of Shadows, the interwoven canopy of trees moved on their own accord, opening upon to let in the new moon. The Tenebris could feel it, and began to soak up the darkness. The Garden of Shadows began to shake and quiver, the ground opened up, creating a large chasm.

The Tenebris shot forth from the chasm, revitalized by the new moon. Their form was that of wispy smoke clouds, their eyes were two little balls of fire.

"Feel that night air!" cried one of them, spinning around in a circle. "I can't remember the last time I felt such a cold and refreshing breeze."

"Ugh! I see you haven't changed a bit Momus, still as big a dolt as ever."

"Why are you always so mean to me Somnus?" blubbered Momus.

"He's only telling the truth, it's quite pitiful really. And to think you call yourself a Tenebris."

"You too Moros?! You're all cruel!"

"That's the idea." Four of the Tenebris gathered together and called for attention. Their leader, Nightshade, floated forward, and shouted out as loud as he could for all to hear.

"Fellow Tenebris! We've sat by, letting the Nightmares protect their precious dreamers and keeping us away from our meals." Nightshade's blue flame eyes flared up as he continued to speak. "Tonight we strike, follow me, as we take our rightful place." There were cheers and howls of agreement. The Tenebris joined together, forming into a large black cloud, swirling and spiraling up into the air and past the tops of the garden. Nightshade led them as they descended toward the kingdom.

The Nightmares immediately saw the looming cloud and fell into a state of panic. They had never seen such a threat before, and knew not what to do in order to stop it. Every Nightmare trotted for their lives, locking themselves away in their houses. The Tenebris tore up the ground, making it hard and lifeless, they seeped into the houses, through the chimneys and the cracks, while the Nightmares still outside felt the full force of the attack. Nopony could see what was happening to the Nightmares that were consumed by the Tenebris, the last they heard from them were ear-piercing screams.

The screams of terror could be heard from the castle. Queen Amalthea rushed out to see what was going on and was shocked by what she saw.

"No, it can't be." she whispered. "The seal should have held, what could've..." Realization filled her eyes, she whipped back into the castle, and called out, "Eve!" The queen had to hurry, she had to find her, there wasn't any time left to spare.

"Eve!" She found her at last, she'd been re-shelving the books in the library when she heard the screams from outside, and was about to go and see what was causing it.

"Thank goodness." said Queen Amalthea.

"Is something wrong?"

"There's no time to explain, you must leave now!"

"What, why?!"

"We're under attack."

"WHAT?!!" Eve couldn't believe it. Under attack?! Who'd want to attack them?! Queen Amalthea grabbed her by the hoof and dragged her along, Lumen hopped onto Eve's back, holding on tight. As the queen pulled Eve, she glimpsed out of one of the windows to see the black cloud.

"What the heck is that thing?!"

"The Tenebris, they've returned."

"The Tenebris?! You can't be serious!!" The expression on the queen's face was one she'd never seen before, a mix of dread and fear.

"Where are we going?" Eve asked.

"Someplace safe, where you can open up a portal to Equestria and get help from Princess Luna. You must be quick about it. Once you're through, I'll cast a spell to prevent the Tenebris from getting through."

"But, what about you?"

"A queen must stand to protect her subjects, I'll stay behind and fend them off for as long as I can." There was a sound of a loud crash. Queen Amalthea and Eve stopped and turned slowly behind them, a loud rumbling sound was working its way toward them. The two Nightmares galloped with all their might, ending up in the throne room. Eve bolted up the door and panted, trying to catch her breath.

"That won't hold them for long, create the portal now!" Queen Amalthea stood tall before the door, she began to mutter a chant under her breath. There was thunderous pound on the door, from underneath it, wisps of smoky tendrils were coming through. In seeped four of the Tenebris, their flame eyes flickering at the the Nightmares. They shot out toward the queen, but were pushed back by an invisible barrier. Queen Amalthea was chanting a spell to keep them at bay. Three of the four made continuous attacks to break through it, while the fourth faced Eve, who despite the queen's orders, was frozen to the spot with fear.

"So we meet again, little Nightmare." he trilled. Eve's eyes widened, recognizing the voice.

"You're the voice that spoke to me in the garden!"

"Ah, so you remember me, I'm touched, really I am." Eve stared into his blue flame eyes, unable to look away. "I really should thank you, you know. It was dreadful being sealed away in that forest, when who should come around but you, a tasty little dish just waiting to be made and eaten."

"I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Oh don't you?"

"Eve! Don't listen to him!" shouted the queen, the Tenebris almost broke through so she had to quickly resume chanting.

"Stay out of this Amalthea, this is a private matter after all." Eve knew she had to run, but she couldn't seem to move, and she couldn't help but listen as the Tenebris spoke in a smooth, silky tone.

"We've been trapped in that lovely garden for countless centuries, when 1,000 years ago, an Alicorn came lurking around. The darkness growing inside her is what woke me, the others weren't as strong as I was and remained under the seal. I managed to regain my strength, but only enough to whisper my influence. I gave her, a little push to do what she wanted to do to her sister. Deep down it was her wish."

"Then, you're the one who corrupted Princess Luna!"

"As much as I'd love to take credit, she found corruption else where. There were other creatures of the night that roamed about, though now I hear word that they are no longer the vicious beasts they once were. Such a shame too. I'd been hoping that the princess would come back, that she'd been full power and negativity for me to consume. But as you must know that was not meant to be. That honor was bestowed on you."

"M-me?! I did no such thing!"

"You went into the Garden of Shadows, listened to my advice, accepted the gifts of power I gave you, and in turn you provided a tasty meal that I and my fellow Tenebris used to awaken and we have you to thank for it."

"You're lying! I-I'd never..." The Tenebris let out a maniacal laugh.

"So precious, you truly believe that you're innocent?"

"Eve..."

"The reason for me telling you this, little Nightmare, is because when all of Aestas and Equestria are doomed to fall because of us, you have the right to know that it's all. Your, Fault."

"Eve!"

"There's a feast awaiting us in Equestria. Now what was the name of that pegasus friend? Fluttershy was it? She'll be sure to be just as sumptuous a dish as you were."

"EVE!!" Queen Amalthea knocked Eve hard onto the ground, breaking contact from her and the Tenebris, her chatting beacame much faster, as exerted her strength. Eve came back to her senses, but was still shaken up by the Tenebris' words. But there was no time to think about that, she needed to get out now and get Princess Luna. A small portal was quickly created, it would send Eve to Ponyville, the only place she'd been and could think of on such short notice. She looked back at the queen with sorrowful yes.

"I'm sorry..." She jumped into the portal and it closed swiftly behind her. The queen needed to say the spell now.

"Dispergimini malae tenebrae!!" Yelled Queen Amalthea. A shock wave rippled from her, spreading out over Aestas. She got down onto the floor, feeling drained. The spell would keep anypony from leave Aestas, though there was telling how long it would last. At least Equestria would be safe enough to prepare for the Tenebris. But the fight was not over. She glared up at the Tenebris who'd been talking to Eve.

"I won't let it end like this. I won't lose to the likes of you Nightshade!"

"Let's see how you fair, my queen." The Tenebris attacked her all at once, she pawed at them, and drove them away with her incantations, but she wasn't up to full strength to seal them again.

"This hardly seems like a fight, let's change things up a little." Amalthea gasped as the Tenebris took on physical forms. There was one Pegasus, one pony and two unicorns. Nightshade, now a Unicorn with a deep purple coat and a white mane, smirked evilly at the queen and her shocked expression. Lances were conjured up for each of them.

"En guarde!" Once more, they attacked at once from all sides. Whenever they saw an opening, they'd lunge, and Amalthea would need to act quickly in order to deflect it. The lances sang as the metal clacked and clanged against each other. The Pegasus did an aerial attack, dive-bombing on Amalthea to stab her in the back. Amalthea ducked so that he'd crash into the pony, narrowly missing the lance's tip.

"Tend to those two idiots, I want a little one on one with her majesty." said Nightshade, sneering as he said 'her majesty'. The two fought with skill, a couple times Nightshade would catch her off guard and would come close to hitting her.

"You're out of practice." he remarked. "Surely you've come up with some plan in the event that we should return."

"I would've thought you'd come much later, when I was gone, but it seems that wasn't meant to be."

"Indeed, though, you hardly seem like a worthy queen. Protecting yourself instead of your dear subjects."

"Silence! My Nightmares can hold on without me, besides, we both know you won't kill them. They're of no use to you dead."

"Perhaps, but why go to all the trouble of helping that little Nightmare escape? What is she to you?"

"I could ask the same thing, but neither of us will get the answer we want. It's time to end this."

"Agreed." Amalthea and Nightshade put in their best skills into the next few moves, lunging, deflecting, looking for openings to disarm. Their eyes like daggers pointed at one another, not afraid to kill their opponent. Amalthea saw a perfect opening, she lunged, but Nightshade vanished, her eyes widened in confusion.

"Too slow." he whispered. A pain shot through her shoulder as the lance pierced into it, Nightshade sent her flying into the wall. She fell to the floor in a heap and didn't get up.

"A shame, I was beginning to enjoy it, and I almost believed for a second that you had a chance." Nightshade gloated. He turned to the others. "Chain her up and send her to the dungeon, I'll deal with her later."

"What about the Nightmare that escaped?"

"Leave her for now, she may think she's escaped, but we'll be in Equestria soon enough. And then shall we begin the endless feast!"

---

Traveling through the portal from Aestas to Equestria is perfectly safe and harmless. To travelers, it's like passing through silk or plunging into cold water. But as Eve and Lumen went through, they felt the shock wave of Amalthea's spell hit them. The air with in the portal felt abrasive, like it was tearing them apart as they were forced out. Eve landed on the ground with a thud, outside of Fluttershy's cottage.

"Are you okay?" she asked Lumen. The dust bunny smiled and nodded. "Thank goodness." She turned her head toward the cottage of her best friend and hurriedly pounded on the door.

"Fluttershy?! Are you home?! I need your help! Fluttershy?!" No matter how much she called out, there was no answer from inside. "Darn, she's not home. Maybe Twilight can help." Eve set Lumen on her back, and galloped toward Ponyville. Her mind turned to the Tenebris, how one of them had told her that she was responsible for them attacking everypony. 'It was your fault.' She wasn't paying attention and accidently tripped, scrapping against the path. When she got up, she cried in pain, she'd sprained her back leg. She winced as she continued to gallop on it. 'Must get help! I need to find help!'

---

Sunset Shimmer's welcome party was in full swing at Twilight's castle. There was plenty of snack and drinks, and the music was dealt out by none other than DJ Pon3. The bass of the music swayed the crowd into a dancing mood. The mane six were enjoying the night, but the pony the party was thrown for was still looking a bit gloomy.

"Hey, Sunset, I'd like you to meet somepony." Sunset Shimmer turned to Twilight, trotting by her was a pale lavender-pink Unicorn with a slightly curled purple mane with pale aquamarine streaks. Twilight introduced them to each other.

"Sunset Shimmer, this is Starlight Glimmer. Starlight Glimmer, Sunset Shimmer."

"Hey they rhyme!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed with a giggle, as she literally jumped into the conversation. Wrapping her arms around the unicorns' necks and bringing them closer together.

"Pinkie, do you mind going to the snack table and making sure we have plenty of, uh, punch?" asked Twilight.

"Okiee dokie! Be back in a jiffy!" Pinkie Pie then bounced off to the refreshment table in the next room.

"Sorry about that, you know how excited Pinkie can be." said Twilight.

"It's okay." said Starlight smiling. She turned to Sunset. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Both shook each others hooves.

"I thought it'd be good for the two of you to meet each other." said Twilight. "After all, the both f you are learning about the magic of friendship." There was a sound of breaking glass. "I'll just leave you two to talk while I go make sure that Pinkie Pie doesn't accidentally break anything. Another shatter sounded as Twilight rushed to the other room. The two unicorns smiled awkwardly at each other.

"So..."

"So..."

"Twilight told me a bit about you actually, the last time she visited me." said Sunset.

"Oh, really? What did she say?" asked Starlight.

"Only that you were having problems making new friends which sent her on an adventure through time and alternate realities, and in the end she got you to open up." Starlight Glimmer laughed nervously.

"She's just being nice. I did far worse to her, and her friends, and the ponies in my village."

"If it makes you feel any better, I had a bad experience with Twilight too."

"It can't be as bad as mine." Starlight said, guilt in her voice.

"I turned into a raging she-demon and was going to invade Equestria with an army of zombie teenagers."

"I took away their cutie marks and attempted to brainwash them into following my ideals. And I tried to change the past to get back at them." Both looked each other in the eye and laughed.

"That's pretty bad." they said in unison.

"I've moved on from that though, and made a lot of good friends at CHS." said Sunset, thinking of them fondly.

"Me too, Twilight has been really nice to me, and it's nice to have new friends. Especially after what happened between me and Sunburst." Twilight poked her head from the doorway and smiled as she saw Sunset and Starlight chatting and laughing with one another. She knew they'd get along.

"What was it like being Princess Celestia's Student?" asked Starlight. "I know Twilight was one of her students, but what did you do?" Before Sunset could answer, a voice spoke up for her.

"I can only imagine how boring it'd be, being taught by Celestia." The unicorns turned to see floating a few inches behind them was Discord. "You must be Sunset something or other." he said addressing Sunset."

"It's Sunset Shimmer."

"Whatever." he waved a dismissive claw. "And you'd be?"

"Um, Starlight Glimmer. Mr...?"

"How rude of me not to introduce myself." He pulled out a card from an invisible pocket and handed it to them. "My card." It read:

Discord

Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony and mischief maker extraordinaire

Both the unicorns raised an eyebrow at the Draconequus.

"You're Discord?"

"Yes, as you can clearly read from the card." The card disappeared in a small flash of light. "It seems the number of Twilight clones has grown, I was expecting one but now I find two. It's like you're part of some mass production line." The girls felt insulted by his comment.

"Did you need something? If not, then let us get back to our conversation." said Starlight.

"Oh yes, you haven't seen Fluttershy around by any chance? I turned my back for a minute and next thing I know she's disappeared." Sunset and Starlight didn't mind the idea of disappearing from him.

"We haven't seen her."

"Drat, I'll have to look elsewhere. Ta-ta ladies!" He vanished out of thin air.

"He was certainly odd." said Starlight.

"Of course, he's Discord for Celestia's sake."

"Well, with him out of the way, you were saying about being Celestia's student."

---

Fluttershy felt a bit flustered with the loud music and the crowd of ponies, so she left to someplace more quiet to relax from all the excitement. It wasn't long after when Discord popped next to her.

"Finally, this is where you trotted off to." he said.

"Sorry, I told you I needed some air, but a guess you didn't hear me."

"No need to explain yourself my dear." He smiled reassuringly. "On another note, I ran into that Sunset mare, and next to her was another Twilight look alike. Star something I think."

"Starlight Glimmer?"

"That's it!"

"That's wonderful! It'd be good for Starlight to make friends with Sunset."

"Yes, wonderful." he said sarcastically. "I can imagine it now, those two conspiring with Twilight to do Celestia knows what."

"Discord..."

"I'm just joking Fluttershy, for the most part." Fluttershy sighed and shook her head.

"What am I going to do with you?" she asked teasingly. Discord conjured a bench and sat down on it, and Fluttershy saw no harm in sitting beside him.

"Have you been enjoying yourself?"

"Yes, I still seem to get so nervous though around so many ponies. It's embarrassing that I still haven't gotten over it."

"You will my dear, with a little time." Discord shifted on the bench and cleared his throat. "There's, actually something, I've been meaning to tell you."

"Yes!"

"I'm glad that, we became friends, truthfully, I'd never in a million years, maybe more, imagine myself having any of our tea parties together or our talks."

"That was the old you though, since then, you've changed for the better."

"Yes, well, I might've been changing, a little too much."

"Huh?"

"What I mean to say is, that I value our friendship, and I don't want anything to change it."

"You don't have to worry about that Discord, what could possibly change?"

"You see, Fluttershy, I..." Before he could finish, there was a tremendous pounding on the castle door.

"My goodness, who could that be?" As the door opened, in staggered a pony, her breathing was erratic. The music screeched to a halt by the mare's sudden appearance.

"Help..." She whispered weakly, and collapsed onto the floor unconscious. Fluttershy's eyes widened as she saw who it was, and cried out her name.

"Eve!"

Author's Note:

I've been trying to work up to this chapter, the turning point where things get intense. I also thought it'd be nice to bring the reformed villains (not including Discord) and having them bond. In case you're wondering, there is a chance of more bonding with Other Characters.

Comments

[kurusagi16]

6815058

Thank you, I needed to hear that. As for my grammar, sometimes I get so excited when I write I end up leaving out words or misspelling them or something. I should really read through my work before publishing it. Also, thanks for the compliment on Pinkie. I see her and Discord as the kind of characters you'd meet in Alice in Wonderland. Wacky, nonsensical, and all around full.

[Redrose99875]

OMG,.........WHY! WHY OUT OF ALL TIMES THAT EVE NEEDED HELP, WHY IT HAVE TO BE NOW???