The Darkness Saves the World

by Eon Seb

Chapter 4

Twilight had managed to grab a seat and had not moved. She hated large parties. She had always hated them.

She remembered crying during her first birthday party because she had not met the other members of the family yet and was afraid of them. The only one she had never been afraid of was Cadence. It was not until she met Moondancer that she finally remembered why. It's hard to be afraid of someone who you watched try to walk around with a crown too big for her head while wearing her blanket as a cloak.
Twilight was still sorting through all her unlocked memories. They got fuzzy around the time the Crystal Heart was created so she was still trying to fill in some blanks. But one thing that was very clear was that grin.

The grin of that cotton candy loving lunatic.

The same grin that had been on the face of the pony who planed this party.

Moon was mingling while keeping an eye on her king, or more accurately, her queen. The Nightmare was not very smart. It was a creature of instinct. Most of the plans had been Luna's back when they had merged.

It had been summoned by the tree to find the remaining members of the dark tribes. These were the ponies cursed by the smooze back way before the arrival of the Windigos. The magic of the smooze was directly responsible for the current state of the world.
Once the central mind was destroyed, the power and magic coated the world, mutating everything it came into contact with.
Those who were cursed by it before this became many of the 'monsters' of modern day, including changeling and ghouls. Ghouls included all 3 tribes triclops, tenome, and ogres. Ghouls earned their name due to their indiscriminately carnivorous diet. Most of them, by this, point were dead due to paranoia, but a few small pocket remained soon they would return. Someone just had to make sure the Princess did not kill them when that day came.

Pinkie looked around at everypony enjoying the party. It was like all her parties for the most part. A bit more subdued than she would like, but seeing how many others enjoyed her parties was a good enough reward to stop her from going all out again.
That and Sunbutt was even more of a killjoy now then she had been back then. Hopefully, Crystal Head and Moonbutt 2.0 would be able to help bring her around.

Which reminded Pinkie. She still needed to talk to those two.

Rainbow was flitting around enjoying the games when she noticed the small triclops from earlier with a glass full of liquid rainbow! Who ever was cruel enough to try and prank someone like that was getting kicked in the pants when she found them (the worst she did was trick others into trying a taste of it; she never tried to get them to drink it.)

"Careful that's really.."- She watched as Twilight chugged the glass. Her face never changing from the blank look it had gained at the start of the party-"spicy"

She waited for the screaming, the freak out, the begging for water. She watched as the small mares face changed to every color.

Not one sound came out of her until she burped a cloud of chromatic fire before getting up and walking to the snack table.

Rainbow felt her eye twitching 'What the hell?" The only one she knew that could do that was Fluttershy and even SHE needed a glass of water the same size immediately afterwards!

While Rainbow was working herself to a headache, Twilight's brain was screaming about a core meltdown. Once she reached the snack table, she checked around and summoned a handful of obsidian crystals before scarfing them to counteract the agonizing heat of what she just drank. She had wanted to try liquid rainbow since she first heard of it and she was never using it again!

Several hours later, Pinkie finally manged to drag Twilight and Moondancer into another room during karaoke (no one asked how Vinyl managed to get a machine into the library). By snapping her fingers Pinkie summoned a table with three thrones. Two were jet black with different designs.

Her chair, on the other hand, looked like it was pieced together by a drunk taxidermist. "So how are things for you two?"

After checking the chairs for pranks, they sat down . Twilight spoke first "You are surprisingly calmer then I remember, Discord"

"Oh call me Pinkie. Otherwise, I'll have to start calling you Sombra and I don't think you'll enjoy that. As for my behavior, well, growing up on a rock farm helped me learn how to gauge my audience better when it comes to parties."

Nightmare twitched "Please don't tell me that the craziness you were causing was supposed to be a party?'

"Okay. I won't. Besides, you figured it out on your own anyway."

They decided to ignore that line of thought for the moment. Moondancer decided to try and get things on some form of track. "So, do you have a plan for when Celestia arrives in a few hours, Pinkie?"

"Oh, I'll handle Celly, but if we want to get Lulu out, one of you two will need to keep Beardy busy. That won't be a problem, will it?"

Twilight's eyes flashed green "I think I can manage old star brain. Moon, feel up to arranging the stars?"

Moondancer huffed "Who exactly do you take me for? I am the fearsome Nightmare Moondancer! Nothing is beyond me. Plus, I remember the spells Luna used to move the stars and make the constellations."

Pinkie clapped "Well now that we have that sorted, we need to look the part. Show me your game face, ladies."
With a flash of energy they changed.

Moondancer was decked out in a set of blue plate Amazonian style armor welding a scythe so black it made her fur look bright.

Twilight was wearing thick plate mail reminiscent of a long dead dark lord who was obsessed with a ring. The only part of her which was visible was her third eye glowing like a dying star through a hole in her obsidian crown. In her hand was a crimson sword curved like the fang of an ancient dragon.

Pinkie in contrast was dressed like a 19th century gentlestallion complete with gloves, top hat and cane. The only thing out of place was her eye searingly pink tailcoat.

They were about to put on illusions and join the party when Pinkie started shaking before exploding like a balloon. She came down with a manic smile.

"Well girls, I hope your ready, because I just felt the Princesses herself. That's right, the honorable Celestia Sol JUST entered town. In other words, It's show time."