MLP: As Evening Falls

by kurusagi16

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Sigh! I miss Twilight already." said Spike, feeling a little bored and lonely, even though there were two friends sitting right with him at the castle's dining table.

"Hey, I'm sure Twilight will be back before you know it, we just gotta be patient." said Starlight.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." he replied.

Then, without any warning, the castle began to shake and groan.

"What in Equestria?!" shouted Sunset in surprise.

The three of them headed for the nearest window to see what was going on. They gaped up at the sky, watching as it became pitch black and warped. Little tears then began to appear here and there, from which they could see magic flowing out from them.

"Sweet Celestia!" cried Spike. "What is that?!"

"I...I don't know." said Starlight. "It looks like, portals of some kind."

"Yeah, but portals to where?" asked Sunset.

Screams of fright and panic filled the air. The threesome looked down below and watched as the citizens of Ponyville were running for their lives.

"Oh great, just what we needed. Not only does some freaky event happen, but now the entire town is starting to panic." said Spike.

"We need to get out there and see what's going on." said Starlight. "I got a strong feeling that those tears in the sky are very dangerous, we need to try to figure out what's going on and seeing if we can help anypony on the way."

"Got it." said Sunset, heading off with Starlight.

"Hey, wait for me!" called Spike, chasing after them, not wanting to be left behind.

---

Fluttershy had been doing her usual routine of feeding the animals and watering the plants that grew outside her cottage, when she noticed immediately that the sky turned black, and ominous tears began to form.

"Oh my goodness!" she cried in fear.

Her first thought was to hurry and get all her animals to safety. She gave a whistle, calling all her bird friends to her aid and asked them to warn all the animals they came across to hide and look for cover. Then she sent all the animals that had been with her during their feeding time into her house, and securely bolted the doors and windows.

Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief. "Phew! There, we should all be safe in here." she said.

The various animals clamored in agreement. Fluttershy began to do a head count of all the critters that were present, by the time she finished, she made a shocking discovery.

"Where's Angel?" she asked worriedly. None of the animals new the answer. "Then that means...he's out there." Fluttershy pointed a hoof to the door she'd just bolted. She knew it was dangerous to go out, but she couldn't stand the thought of her poor little bunny being out there, utterly helpless against this odd and frightening phenomenon.

Fluttershy took in a deep breath and put on her brave face. "I'm going out to look for him." she said.

The animals all rushed to Fluttershy, each one chattering over the other, trying to convince her not to go out there.

"I know, I know it's scary and dangerous out there, which is why I can't sit here and do nothing while he's outside, facing Celestia knows what kind of peril." She then looked each critter in the eye and added, "If any of you were in his position, I'd go out to bring you home safely, just as I am now."

The animals were still reluctant, but they backed down, and could only watch as their kind, wonderful friend stepped out to face the ongoing danger alone. The last things they heard before she was gone, was Fluttershy saying that she'd be back soon, and the sound of the lock clicking from the other side of the closed door, locking them all safely inside.

---

"Angel!" Fluttershy called out as loud as she could (which wasn't very loud). "Angel!" A harsh wind blew through the trees and around her body, sending icy chills down her spine and making her shiver. "Oh, where could he be?"

When it appeared that he was nowhere to be found near her cottage, Fluttershy decided to try looking for Angel further toward Ponyville.

'Perhaps he's somewhere in the park.' Fluttershy thought hopefully.

As she headed into town, she passed by some ponies who were searching for cover, or helping with maintaining the peace and order despite the circumstances.

"Angel! Where are you? Angel!"

"Fluttershy?" Fluttershy whirled around to see Spike, Sunset, and Starlight heading toward her. "What are you doing? You should be heading for cover like the others." he said.

"It's Angel, he's out here somewhere and I need to find him." she explained.

"Let us look for him." said Sunset Shimmer. "That way you can go home and wait where it's safe."

"But--!"

"Please, Fluttershy. We just don't want you to get hurt." said Starlight. "When we find Angel, we'll bring him straight home, okay?"

Fluttershy tried to argue, but ended up hanging her head and replying, "Okay."

"Good. We'll see you later then." said Starlight.

The three headed off, leaving Fluttershy behind. She was about to do what they said and go back home, but out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something small, white, and fluffy darting by.

"Angel!" she cried, and ran off in the direction of the blur. "Angel!" Fluttershy looked wildly around her, until she caught sight of the blur once more, heading around the corner of a cottage. She continued to pursue after it, until she followed it until she finally managed to catch up. Angel Bunny looked a little panicked, as his ears twitched as if listening for something, and sniffing the air for some kind of scent. Fluttershy scooped up her beloved bunny into her arms and cooed, "Oh Angel! Thank goodness I finally found you! Let's get you home quickly, so we can wait until the danger has passed."

Angel looked up at her and was squeaking something, he appeared to be trying to warn her, but Fluttershy couldn't tell what.

"Huh? What is it Angel? What's wrong?" she asked.

Angel pointed a fluffy paw to something behind her, his eyes wide with terror. Fluttershy froze, her ears twitching as she now heard the distinct sound of something lightly growling behind her. She could feel and smell its warm breath breathing down her neck. Very slowly, Fluttershy craned her neck to catch a glimpse at what it was. Hovering over her, was some kind of shapeless monster, made of what appeared to be black tar-like ooze, with glowing eyes, claws, and a wide mouth. Fluttershy felt her whole body freeze up. She wanted to run, but she feared that if she did, then the beast would chase after her. But if she stayed here, she would still be easy prey. So either way, she was doomed.

"No. No. no, no, no." she whispered fearfully. The creature raised one of its claws, preparing to strike. Tears formed in Fluttershy's eye. "Somepony, help!"

As the claws came swinging down, Fluttershy tightened her grip on Angel to Protect him with her body, and shut her eyes firmly, bracing herself for the impact. But after a while, it didn't come. Confused, Fluttershy cracked open an eye to see why the creature was hesitating. What she saw made her eyes widen in surprise. She let out a soft gasp. Some of her animal friends had arrived, coming to her rescue. The squirrels and birds distracted it by throwing nuts and berries at it, while the bigger animals, like the raccoons and Harry the bear, made a head on attack, all of them were distracting the creature, giving Fluttershy a chance to escape. They let out a chorus of growls, chirps, and squeaks, signaling her to go now, before the monster could try to attack her again. Fluttershy looked at her friends with teary eyes, not wanting to leave them to deal with this beast on their own, but she didn't want to make their efforts meaningless either.

Turning on her hoof, she galloped at full speed, looking over her shoulder to reply back to the animals, "Thank you, my friends." And hurried off for her cottage.

---

Fluttershy wasn't the only one to experience a run in with the shapeless creature. Several others like it were also beginning to rampage around the little town, attacking ponies or simply frightening them away. Luckily, Sunset and Starlight were there to help the ponies, using their magic to subdue the creatures long enough for the ponies to escape, but other than that, it seemed as though most of their magic had no effect on these creatures.

"What are these things?" asked Sunset, blasting on of them to hold it back from attacking a colt and his parents.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that they're coming from these portals." said Starlight.

"Then seal them up!" cried Spike, directing ponies like a crossing guard.

"We'd love to, but that takes concentration, something we don't really have right now." said Sunset, struggling with a particularly big, hulking creature.

Spike let out a groan. "If only there was a way we could just cage them all up in one place." he said.

Starlight's face lit. "Spike, that's it!"

"What's it?" he asked.

"Sunset, how good are you at containment spells?" Starlight asked Sunset.

"I'd say I'm pretty good at it, though, I'm a little rusty." she replied.

"Well we're gonna need you to cast one. Get ready to do the spell while I try to round all the monsters up."

"You got it!"

Sunset Shimmer fired up her horn, while Starlight worked double time to encase all the monsters that were coming towards them or were in the surrounding area in her magical aura and levitated them off the ground. She grunted a little under the strain of lifting so many.

"You ready?" she asked Sunset.

Sunset nodded. "Ready."

"Then, fire!"

Sunset aimed her horn at the monsters and shot out a blast of magic at them, a large transparent sphere formed around them, trapping them all inside. Starlight lowered the imprisoned monsters to the ground and smiled triumphantly with Sunset, as they watched the monsters roar furiously and try to break out of the orb with no success.

"We did it!" cried Starlight.

"Yeah we did!" cried Sunset.

The too gave each other a victory hoof bump.

"Uh, guys? I don't think it's over yet." said Spike, as he looked upward and pointed a claw to the sky.

Sunset and Starlight turned their heads to see a massive swarm of Tenebris flying through the air, as they passed through it, the portals began to warp and distort even more.

In unison, both the Unicorns said as they gazed with wide eyes, "Oh crud."

---

Meanwhile, Discord's fight with the Tenebris soldiers had gone by spectacularly easy for the Draconequus. Defeating these little minions was foalsplay for a being like him, which is why, by the time he let the last soldier fall, he felt suspicious of just how easy it had been. In fact, it was hardly a fight at all. It felt more like...a distraction. His eyes widened with realization. He returned his attention to the rips, which had grown out of control and were now starting to merge with the plain of reality.

"Oh no you don't." said Discord, with a flick of his claw, he attempted to seal off the rifts before they could properly merge. But each time he sealed one off, a new one would pop up in its place. "Darn it! There's no end to this!"

"That's the idea." chuckled an all too familiar voice.

Discord's eyes searched for the owner of the voice, falling upon the being in question. And that being, was none other than Pseudea, one of Morpheus' generals and the one who dared to use his own feelings against him. He was in his pony form, giving Discord a sickeningly smug smile. Discord shot a narrowed glare back at the Tenebris.

"You!" Discord hissed. "So, you decided to face me, did you?"

"But of course, Nightshade himself asked me to keep you entertained, and entertain I shall." he replied.

"Do you really think you can fool me with your little tricks after what happened last time?" asked Discord. "You may have gotten lucky last time, but no one messes with the Master of Chaos and gets away with it."

Pseudea smirked. "We'll see about that." he said. "Prepare yourself."

"I already have." said Discord.

Pseudea's eyes glowed, as he shifted to his wispy cloud form, he blasted a smoke at Discord, who conjured up and umbrella that opened up the wrong way, bouncing the smoke back at him. Discord smirked, thinking that this would be just as easy as taking down the soldiers. But Pseudea dodged out of the way of his returned smoke, and didn't appear to be angered by his attack being deflected. Instead, he continued to launch one attack after another, only to have Discord deflect each and every one of them. Discord was so caught up in how victory would once again be his, that he didn't notice the Tenebris soldiers melting into the shadows and oh so silently forming a circle around the Draconequus, and each whispered an incantation that created symbols on the ground.

"That was mildly amusing." said Discord. "But now, I think it's time to put an end to this." He held out his lion paw, preparing to throw a final attack on Pseudea.

However, Pseudea replied, "I couldn't agree more."

Suddenly, the soldiers completed their task and formed a spirit circle around Discord, causing him to be frozen in place.

"What's this?" he cried.

Pseudea laughed, returning to his pony form so he could properly gloat. "It seems you've once again fallen into one of my traps." he said. "Master Nightshade wanted me to whip up one of my usual illusions, and I was going to make my most powerful yet for you, to make up for my previous failures from last time." Then he added. "However, that didn't seem like enough. So asked I asked myself, 'What would Nightshade want?', and so, I came up with the brilliant plan to get rid of you entirely. That'll make Master Nightshade most pleased."

Discord gritted his teeth. "There's no way you can make a circle powerful enough to get rid of me."

"I admit, it was a rather difficult task to find a spell that would work, but luckily, King Morpheus was more than gracious enough to provide me with one, since I told him of my plan."

The circle began to glow, Discord could feel his power draining, as the circle prepared itself to get rid of him for good. He had to get out. He let what remaining power that was in him feel around for a weak point, something he could use to escape. But so far, there appeared to be none, and Discord's strength was fading fast, soon, the circle would be ready to activate.

Pseudea stepped closer to the circle, looking up at Discord, feeling that he now had won. "Farewell, Discord. It's been a real pleasure."

Discord's eyes darted downward, Pseudea's hooves were touching the circle's border. An idea came to his mind, as Discord said, "It won't work you know. Someone as weak and as pathetic as you won't truly succeed. And I'll bet all you'll do is end up failing that dear Nightshade of yours."

Pseudea's face went red, and without realizing it, he stepped further into the circle. "Don't you dare talk about Master Nightshade!" he screeched.

Discord bit back a small smirk. The Tenebris had unknowingly scuffed up some of the symbols, making the circle incomplete. Using every ounce of magic he could muster, Discord managed to teleport himself at the last split second, as a column of intense light erupted from the spirit circle. It was so blinding that Pseudea had to shield his eyes until its light dissipated. He looked down at the now empty circled, feeling quite pleased with himself.

"It's done, the Draconequus is now gone for good." he said. Believing that he had won, he flew up into the air, and headed back for the secret hideout, to report back to his superiors of what had transpired. Not knowing that Discord would be back again, and ready for more.

Author's Note:

Yes! Chapter complete! Onto the next one. BTW, I'm gonna be gone for about a week or so, so it'll be a while before I do any updates. But I'll try to get in what I can before then. Also, next chapter will have a bit of Flutter Fluff/action in it. I'll try to balance the two out.

Please comment below on what you think of the story so far.