The Blackened Skies

by gosha305

This Game Isn't Won Yet

Now happily chatting, the eight friends continued their journey at a much faster rate. Traveling amidst the green plains and little forests, they continued musing about the incoming defeat of the Entity. But even away from the civilization, the Entity's influence never faded. Apart from the obvious celestial signs of its presence, it also had some unhealthy effects on Equestria's wildlife. The grass and trees, malnourished because of the lack of sunlight, already started wearing off. Their once vivid colors were turning vapid and bland. But the flora wasn't the only one to suffer. The poor animals, not only running short on food, were also scared by the terrifying Eyes scattered throughout the sky. Some were even too scared to feed or sleep.

On their way, Fluttershy helped countless critters to overcome their fright, but she couldn't help everyone. The Eyes stayed indeed the most disturbing reminder of the Entity's presence. Now that most dangers were far away and the pressure had the time to settle down, Twilight noticed that most of the Eyes adjacent to their current position continued their silent observance, focusing on her, or at least on their group. This made her uncomfortable, forcing her to go back to her thoughts and quit the conversations once again.

---

Despite the lack of any celestial clock, most of Equestria felt the night approach. Having trotted the biggest part of the day, tiredness came crawling into the eight friends' minds. According to the map that Twilight managed to conjure, they had already traveled about half the distance to Ponyville, thus making the idea of making a camp and resting for the hypothetical night perfectly feasible.

As the group of friends continued their preparations, putting their things down and creating improvised beds, they remained unaware of another observer, eyeing them in addition to the gloomy oculars. In the shadows, the cultists remained. Despite several of them being former royal guards, most had no experience in combat. However, the words of their leader were too convincing to be doubted: the Princesses needed to be tracked and sacrificed. They all saw what had happened to the city during Celestia's nerve crisis. This alone persuaded these poor ponies that Equestria's government needed to change. In addition to this, the short time that this planet had left didn't alter their conviction.

Thus, they now lied in the gloomy light of the Entity, waiting for the Princess of Friendship to make herself vulnerable, surrendering to the warm embrace of sleep. But sadly for them, the latter wasn't about to happen so soon.

---

Staring at the sky above her, Twilight couldn't help but feel observed. The countless gloomy Eyes staring at her from the blackened skies weren't helping her to get rid of that feeling. She shifted on her bed, ceaselessly turning, unable to find a comfortable position. As she did so, a strange movement amidst a bunch of trees nearby caught her attention. Of course, it was probably a wild animal, but it didn't look like one. In addition, most of the animals still remained hidden, as disturbed by the Entity's Eyes as Twilight herself. So, what could it have been? There was no wind, so it wasn't a movement of one of the trees. Maybe a dry branch that fell off? Or maybe it was something else...

Concentrating on these thoughts finally occupied her weary brain with something other than the feeling of being observed, thus having an involuntary effect on her consciousness. Twilight slowly fell asleep...

---

Seeing that their target had finally settled down, the cultists exited their hideout. Painstakingly, they approached the camp, forcing themselves to do as little noise as possible. But despite their extreme precautions, they were already detected.

In fact, the eight friends' cheer and optimism didn't get in the way of their carefulness. One would stay guarding the camp at any time of the night, thus protecting the others' well-being. It was now Spike's turn to stay up. And although he might have seemed being asleep, leaning against an adjacent tree, he was in fact still well aware of his surroundings. Thus, he had remarked the cultists approach in no time. Immediately getting up, but remaining careful, not to be seen, he crawled to the nearest pony, shaking her slightly in hope to wake her up.

The latter happened to be Starlight. She shifted mumbling "please Dad, I don't want to wake up" in her sleep.

Ignoring her grumbling, Spike continued his attempts whispering "Come on, wake up, I really need your help now!"

Still unconscious, Starlight went on with her rambling "but the Sun isn't even up yet"

Meanwhile, too concentrated on their task, the cultists continued their grim approach, unaware of being detected. They were now only a few steps away from Twilight's sleeping form, getting closer each second.

Growing highly frustrated, Spike suddenly had an idea. It may not have been the smoothest way to awake somepony, but it had the merit to be almost instantaneous. He decided to use a tiny bit of his fire breath as an alarm clock.

As the flame came into contact with Starlight's skin, a loud "OUCH!" echoed around the camp. She jumped on her hooves, unaware of what caused her to wake up so suddenly. However, the first thing she saw were the cultists, slightly stunned by her awakening. Confused and quite angry, she immediately understood who these ponies were and what was their current plan. Rapidly coming up with a spell, she wasted no time, attacking the intruders immediately. The latter, too confused to defend themselves, turned to flee instead. They were however too slow, one of them getting frozen in place by a paralyzing spell.

As the other ponies had also awakened, each prepared to fight for their lives, the cultists judged that they could tent their luck sometimes later, thus leaving the camp site as fast as they could.

The consequences of this encounter might not have been dire, but it reminded the eight friends that there were still some dangers that remained, never truly defeated...