Friendship is the Key

by appendingfic

Interlude: Spring Tide

Friendship is the Key
Interlude: Spring Tide
by Appending_fic
--------------------------
Ditzy Doo trotted out of her house bright and early, mailbag slung over her flank. The fact that it wasn’t particularly bright out didn’t bother her; she was used to carrying the mail in the winter, when Celestia was too tired to get up early. Sure, it was still spring, but there were also clouds stretched from horizon to horizon, so Ditzy left that mystery to the meteorologists. She had mail to deliver.
Her first stop, Sugar Cube Corner, was shuttered and closed. No one answered at her knock. Ditzy frowned. She knew Pinkie Pie was gone, so Ditzy was keeping her mail back in the post office. But the Cakes should have been home. Ditzy stared at the door blankly for a few moments before she made a note of it. She would make a little cubicle to keep the Cakes’ mail in until they showed up again.
Ditzy placidly made the rounds of Ponyville. More than half of the residents weren’t home, and none of them had left notices so Ditzy could expect to hold their mail. She paused outside the Mayor’s house, an unfamiliar feeling of annoyance rising in her chest. It was downright inconsiderate, she thought, leaving without telling the mailpony.
Slowly, something came to Ditzy’s attention. She looked down to see a doggie’s jaws latched onto her boots. She shook her foreleg experimentally, but the dog’s jaws remained clenched tight. Luckily, Ditzy had commissioned a truly excellent set of boots from Rarity a month ago. She’d had problems with people’s doggies, who for some reason didn’t like the mailopony. They got feisty and bit Ditzy, so she’d gotten a set of boots an alligator couldn’t bite through.
The doggie seemed to realize it wasn’t getting through to Ditzy, so it opened its mouth to lunge for a higher target.
Ditzy reacted with a kick that sent the doggie skittering across the dirt road. It made no sound, but scrambled back onto four feet and glowered at Ditzy with golden eyes. She raised one hoof and rested it lightly against the ground. Sometimes you had to be firm with doggies. They didn’t understand how important it was that the mail get through, so sometimes you had to be a little rough. The doggie seemed like it wasn’t the type to learn easily, as it began inching closer to Ditzy, opening its dark mouth to reveal gleaming fangs.
Ditzy locked gazes with it. Normally, that was enough to dissuade doggies. And other ponies. She wasn’t certain, but she thought it was like Fluttershy’s Stare.
But the doggie seemed to be made of stiffer stuff than most doggies; after a few seconds of straring, it leapt from its place, fangs bared. Ditzy ducked her head and swung the mailbag at the doggie. She hated to make light of the mailpony’s duty, but some doggies needed to understand the gravity of her responsibility. And if that meant hitting a doggie with fifty pounds of letters and packages, she’d do it gladly. The doggie ran away, yelping, from the blow, leaving Ditzy in peace.
She completed her Ponyville route without any more incident, and then took to the air to make the aerial rounds. Almost immediately, she was beset by hawks. Some pegasus ponies would try to fly faster than aggressive birds, or dizzy them with amazing maneuvers. Ditzy wasn’t that fast of a flier, and she wasn’t quite as maneuverable as a weather pony. She casually folded in her wings, dropping and spinning as she did so. Above her, a pair of hawks ran into each other, tumbling to the ground with weak cries. Ditzy caught herself and glided for a few moments. The cries of hawks above her suggested that the darkness was agitating all sorts of animals.
Ditzy sighed and dragged herself further up with a few beats of her wings. She was beginning to suspect this was going to be one of those days, the sorts of days when all a mailpony can think is that she’d like to be doing anything but carrying the mail. Luckily, Ditzy didn’t have days like those very often. And the feeling passed when she swatted a hawk away from her mailbag. If Ditzy didn’t carry the mail, somepony else would carry the mail. And that pony might not understand how important the mail was.
Ditzy steeled herself and climbed higher until she reached Rainbow Dash’s home. Rainbow Dash’s mailbox still had its flag down and no one answered at Ditzy’s knock. She sighed. Sure, someponies said Rainbow Dash had left town, but she hadn’t left an official message, and that meant it would be irresponsible not to check every day, just in case Rainbow Dash was in.
Ditzy turned, ready to leave the clouds, when she heard an odd sound. She paused. On one hoof, turning might waste time and the mail would be late. On the other hoof, it might be another doggie, and she preferred to meet doggies head-on.
There was a pegasus pony on Rainbow Dash’s cloud, its skin as dark as the cloud cover and eyes as gold as the doggie’s. There was something else very important that Ditzy noticed. She did not recognize the pony, which meant she needed to know their address.
“Excuse me,” she said. “Do you cloud around here?”
The pony did not reply, although it turned its head, fixing its gold eyes on Ditzy. She glanced around the pony’s head to get a glimpse of its cutie mark, a red, hollow heart covered in spikes. It was a strange cutie mark, like Ditzy’s, which nopony knew what it meant. Ditzy’s heart fluttered. Maybe this pony and her could be friends, two ponies that no one else understood!
“Or do you Cloudsdale instead?” she asked. “I haven’t been to Cloudsdale since I left it.”
The other pony took a step forward, eyes unblinking. Ditzy took a step back, and grinned at the other pony. It took a step to the left, twisting its head to examine Ditzy’s cutie mark. Ditzy felt her grin widen.
“I have bubbles,” she said. “They’re my best talent. What’s yours?”
The pony crouched, flank tensing as it bent down. “Ooh! Racing! I don’t speed, but I got a fun flying. I have to deliver the mail, but maybe after.” She leapt off the cloud, stretching her wings to catch the wind and dive down towards the Everfree Forest and her last delivery.
She landed lightly at the very edge of the forest, easing into a trot. It was oddly quiet. Normally, this time of day, every creature was waking up, except those that were only up at night, or those that wanted some extra sleep. It was normally noisy, though.
Now, it was dead silent.
Ditzy slowed and stopped, beginning to feel uneasy. Sure, doggies attacked her all the time, and sometimes, all sorts of hawks made trouble when she was flying. But the forest was never this quiet. She looked left, and saw nothing but trees. She looked right, and saw nothing but trees. There was only a winding path ahead of her.
Ditzy turned her head, slowly, until she was looking directly behind her. A gargantuan creature, twenty feet tall and dark skin marred by bloody streaks, loomed over Ditzy. Three sets of slavering fangs waved back and forth. And wild eyes stared out from the creature’s three heads.
“Big doggie,” Ditzy said uneasily.
It threw back its heads and howled, a sound that echoed through the forest. Ditzy turned tail and ran. The doggie tried to bite her in half, but Ditzy ducked off of the path, and the teeth closed on empty air. The doggie charged off of the path to trample Ditzy, so she darted back across the path, forcing the doggie to change direction to chase her. If Ditzy didn’t go through some variation of this chase every day, avoiding doggies and kitties and hawks who didn’t appreciate the mailpony, she might think this was fun.
Ditzy led the doggie on a semi-merry chase through the Everfree Forest, dodging its frequent attempts to nip at her heels and tackle her. The run took much less time than Ditzy was used to, perhaps because doggies gave ponies more energy. Eventually, she broke out of the deeper woods and into the clearing holding Zecora’s house. Ditzy skidded to a stop and, with practiced motions, kicked the mailbox, forcing it open. She grabbed the letter waiting in there, and stuck a mouthful of mail back in the box.
She turned around, the normal feeling of accomplishment at a day’s mail delivered suffusing her.
The doggie still loomed over her, fangs wickedly sharp and bared in vicious intent. Ditzy peered at the doggie carefully. Something was strange about it...
Of course, Ditzy realized, straightening up. The stone doggie had a chip in its tooth!
She looked down at the doggie’s feet. A chicken with a long, scaly tail was coiled menacingly on the ground.
“Chicken!” Ditzy exclaimed. The chicken turned to look at her, but Ditzy deftly swept it up and wrapped it around her neck. “Come along, chicken. We’ve got mail to deliver!”
;;;:::::{-]
Trixie’s tower shuddered with the force of some monstrous thing. She crouched lower under the bed as a crash suggested a tree had just been felled nearby. It had been a week since what Trixie called the Call from the Moon, when monsters had rained down on Equestria from the sky. She’d only survived by stumbling across this tower, the home of some unicorn who’d lived ages ago. Musty tomes, most falling apart, filled every floor. There were even murals of the sister-princesses of Equestria, as it must have been before Nightmare Moon.
How ironic that Trixie was hiding from Nightmare Moon’s return in a relic of the time before the wicked mare.
Oh, nopony had said anything. Not that Trixie had access to any news; it would take a pony who’d taken complete leave of her senses to try delivering messages in this environment. But it didn’t take a bookworm like Twilight Sparkle to figure out that monsters falling from the moon could come from only one source: Nightmare Moon.
Plus, even in the middle of the day, the moon hung high in the sky, casting an unnatural pallor over Equestria.
And that was to say nothing of the monsters. The squat little black ones swarmed over everything, and the fluttering sorcerers threw magic like it was going out of style. The terrible two-legged soldiers, too, were spreading like an...well, an army.
The worst part about it were the dark-skinned, golden-eyed ponies.
Trixie had seen one a few days ago, a dusky-skinned earth pony walking around the tower aimlessly. It had run into the walls occasionally, butting its head against the stone as if trying to get through. It hadn’t knocked, though, and that was what had kept Trixie from letting it in, wisdom borne out when a horde of the soldier-beasts had arrived, completely ignoring the dark pony.
They only ignored their own.
Trixie was beginning to wish Twilight Sparkle was here. Not because she needed help, or even companionship. But she wanted...something other than this stupid, lonely tower. There was some sort of magic that kept hostile sorcery and the monsters out, but Trixie was going crazy up here.
At least, she thought she was.
The tower shook again, nearly knocking Trixie from her feet. Either it was an earthquake, or the tower was being attacked by a monster at least the size of an Ursa Minor. And that was a real problem. The tower might have had magic to protect it from...well, evil. But it could be knocked down.
A paw larger than most animals Trixie had seen smashed through the wall to the outside; she scrambled back, squeaking in fear. She was not made to fight horrible monsters for her life! She was meant to be on stage, looking fabulous, the center of everypony’s attention!
Trixie blinked away tears from her eyes. She’d never wanted this. She just wanted fame and fortune and adoration. But these stupid monsters were going to ruin everything!
The paw withdrew, and Trixie set her jaw and trotted to the newly-made window. What was outside was...not an Ursa Minor. It was a pitch-black bear-shaped beast with claws nearly as long as an Ursa Minor, and fangs at least that long. Rather than an Ursa Minor, which looked like a window into the night sky, this was like a window into an eternal void, a gaze into the darkest parts of the pony heart.
Trixie set her feet apart and glowered at the beast. She wasn’t Twilight Sparkle, but she was the Great and Powerful Trixie, and that should be good enough. It always had been, until she met Twilight. Now that she hadn’t seen Twilight in more than a year, it could be good enough again. Her horn glowed with the concentration as she called forth bands of rainbow light and flung them at the monster. The bands landed around the creature’s neck to no apparent effect. But while Trixie might not have been as versatile as stupid Twilight Sparkle, she wasn’t just a one-trick pony.
She contracted the rainbow bands around the creature’s neck, and it suddenly swung its golden eyes around to stare at her. Trixie gulped.
It roared and lunged forward, the force of its bulk hitting the tower making the whole thing sway alarmingly. Its head pushed through the hole in the wall, jaws snapping inches from Trixie, but she didn’t move. She’d embarrassed herself in front of all of Ponyville. The story had spread, and nopony had taken her seriously after that.
Well, no more. Nopony might ever hear about it; Trixie and anypony who might care might be dead in a month. But she wouldn’t die knowing she was a coward.
The creature drew back and slammed its head back into the wall, shattering it enough to admit its entire mouth inside. Trixie stood fast, let out a battle cry and called a rainbow down around the thing’s jaws. It tried to pry them open, but Trixie’s magic held. It struggled against the bonds, but Trixie’s magic seemed to hold a strength it never had before, her illusions practically real. The light...was binding the creature.
“You made a mistake, creature of darkness, when you attacked the Great and Powerful Trixie! You forgot that pony magic is, and ever has been, about light, and I am the...third-greatest magician in all of Equestria. So look upon my work, ye mighty, and despair!”
Even a pony a thousand times as powerful as Twilight Sparkle couldn’t create light a tenth as powerful as Celestia could when she raised the sun. But from desperation, determination, and wells of untapped courage, a unicorn could find power she had only dreamed of.
The glimmer of light Trixie summoned would never compare to the sun. It was a pinprick against the darkness slowly engulfing Equestria.
But Trixie had placed her whole heart into the magic. She might not have been kind, or generous, or loyal or much for truth when she had a better story, or even prone to simple laughter. But she was a born unicorn. Magic was her blood. And so the light flared so bright Trixie couldn’t look at it. The beast roared in pain, a sound that shook the tower again; Trixie heard crashing that suggested the building was on its last legs. Still, she crouched, readying her Rainbow Snare spell. She was breathing hard and her heart racing. Trixie wasn’t certain she could manage even that much, but if anypony survived this, she vowed they would find the remains of this place and know that the Great and Powerful Trixie had done her part.
The next spell proved unnecessary. As the light faded, Trixie could see the beast, sprawled into the tower, writhing and growling while its skin burned and flaked away. It was like watching an onion being peeled, or like chipping away the outside of a geode, because beneath the creature’s black skin was a translucent hide the color of midnight, a deep purple speckled with stars of every color.
Trixie stared. An Ursa Major? The creature swung its head towards her, and Trixie stepped back, nervous. The solid gold melted away to be replaced by red irises in a far more...intelligent gaze. The Ursa Major stared at her for a few more moments before backing out of the tower, cracking and crunching it enough that Trixie knew the building was well and truly done for.
She yelped when the Ursa reached back into the tower and grabbed her around her middle.
“Hey! I’ve got plenty more where that flare came from!” Trixie shouted. “So you’d better drop me-”
But rather than dropping her into waiting jaws, the Ursa set Trixie on its back before settling back on all fours and lumbering away from the tower in the general direction of Canterlot.
Trixie remained still for a few minutes, in case this was all a trick, but when the Ursa failed to eat her, she let out a laugh.
“Look out, monsters! The Great and Powerful Trixie...and her terrible ursine companion are on the move! Ahahahahaha!”
;;;:::::{-]
Gilda landed heavily on the landing strip at Cloudsdale, panting and too tired to even fan herself with her wings. Another flight of pegasi and gryphons took to the air; she waved weakly to them before collapsing onto the ground again.
“You all right?” Gilda turned her head slightly to see Spitfire’s blinding plumage near her.
“No,” Gilda grumped. “I might be fine after a night’s sleep, but we can’t keep this up forever.”
Spitfire sighed and sat heavily next to Gilda. “Well, Soaren’s with the flight sent to meet with Princess Celestia, so we should hear something back soon.”
“Do you honestly believe that?” Gilda asked. “We can’t get more than a mile from Cloudsdale before hitting a wall of gargoyles. If I couldn’t make it out, what makes you think Soaren and the others could?”
“You could be at least a little optimistic,” Spitfire said.
“Oh, come on! You think we’d have this problem if Princess Celestia could deal with it? Or Rainbow Dash and her lame-o friends? Face it; we’re grounded. It’s just a matter of time.”
“Then why are you still out there fighting them?” Spitfire asked.
Gilda turned on her, snapping her beak close enough that Spitfire recoiled from it. “Because I’ve never given up without a fight, and I won’t stop now. If we’re all going to die, I’m going last.”
Spitfire shook her head at Gilda. “That’s...well, whatever keeps you going.”
“That’s right!” Gilda snapped, shoving her face close to Spitfire’s. “I’m sticking with what’ll keep me alive. And fighting those things until one of us are dead is the only way I’m going to last!” The burst of anger gave Gilda the energy to take off with a few judicious flaps of her wings. She ignored Spitfire’s cries behind her and left the hangar. The midnight flight was supposed to be flying patrols, keeping the airspace around Cloudsdale relatively safe from gargoyles, the nasty little sorcerers, and the golden-eyes pegasi that even left Gilda feeling like somepony had walked over her grave. As a result, Gilda had a few peaceful minutes of flight before she approached that was nicknamed ‘the Kill Zone’, where the flocks of monsters got too thick for even the Cloudsdale flights to keep out.
And then, Gilda’s flight became a wild series of dives and rolls to avoid the mass of flying monsters. She wasn’t out here to fight, so she didn’t bother wasting the time to take swipes at the gargoyles as she passed. She did, however, take a wide berth around the dark pegasi. Nopony liked staying near them, even thought Gilda was certain she was the only one who’d seen where they came from.
It had been what drove Gilda to seek out the defenders of Cloudsdale. The falling stars had begun the night before, raining monsters down onto Equestria. Gilda had gone to investigate, and discovered something out of a nightmare. Three of the strange, landbound armored monsters were bent over a pegasus pony, who had faded, slowly, all color leeched away by the pitch black shade, its Cutie Mark replaced by a hollow, blood-red heart covered with spikes. When the pegasus had stood, Gilda had met solid gold eyes that seemed blind to the world around them, but terrifyingly aware of her.
Somehow, the monsters made ponies (and, presumably, gryphons) into something like them, because the gold-eyed ponies were just as enthusiastic attacking ordinary ponies as the other creatures.
Gilda gasped when she broke through the wall of monsters and emerged in empty space somewhere Ponyville. Or at least, it looked like Ponyville. It was too quiet to be the bustling town Gilda had, admittedly, visited only once. She landed on top of the library tree, scanning the empty ground below. Gilda winced at the sound of a distant howl. Something was hunting. She hoped, half-heartedly, that it was just a hydra or something, instead of one of those...other monsters.
Something much closer caught Gilda’s attention - a snuffling, sniffing sound that was entirely too close to her. One of the small things, antennaed, four-legged, all-too-plentiful, and thankfully ground-bound, had managed to climb to the top of the library. It was sniffing the air, edging its way closer to Gilda. She snapped a wing out, catching the creature and sending it tumbling to the ground far below. Experience taught her not even to hope that the fall had killed it. With enough beating, you could knock one of these things out, but after a time, they were back up and hungry, none the worse for wear.
A startled squeak rent the night. Gilda sidled to the edge of the tree and cautiously stuck her head out. Nothing tried to eviscerate her, which was the highlight of the evening. The squeaker turned out to be a trio of ponies, half grown, scrambling away from the small monster. Gilda snorted. Well. That’d teach them to stay inside at...Gilda squinted at the sky. It was impossible to tell what time of day it was anymore, what with the moon in the sky all the time, usually eclipsing the sun when it was out. Well, this was the sort of situation when fillies and colts shouldn’t be outside. Luckily, that thing was stunned enough they shouldn’t have too much trouble getting away-
A new sound stopped Gilda mid-thought. Sometimes, when they’d beaten back enough of the monsters, claps of thunder would herald the appearance of new monsters out of thin air. The sound was enough to set any of the battle flights on edge. And here...Gilda was outnumbered. The fillies shouldn’t have been outside anyway. And she wasn’t doing this to be a hero. She just wanted to get out of here alive.
“Help, somebody!”
Gilda crouched low, wondering if that would be enough to hide her from the monsters. Sometimes it was, but if they were hungry enough, they’d tear a place apart for something with a heartbeat.
“Stay back, or I’ll - I’ll kick you so hard!”
Gilda heard the sound of wings - small, straining - beating against the air. She glanced up nervously; some of the flying monsters didn’t look like they’d be able to manage it. But nothing swooped down on her from above. Gilda caught a brief glimpse of orange, and wide, startled eyes, before the pegasus trying to escape the battle dropped down below the edge of the tree.
“Hey! You going to help or what?” a third voice called out. Gilda knew it had to be the pegasus. But they didn’t understand. Gilda wasn’t out to save people. Sticking around at Cloudsdale made sense, because even though Gilda couldn’t stand ponies most of the time, sticking together kept her safe.
They kept her safe...because she kept them safe.
Gilda swore, and bunched up her haunches, ready to leap into the air. She wasn’t getting soft; she wasn’t risking herself for no reason. The little pegasus’ shocked stare reminded her of Rainbow Dash, and despite the fact that Rainbow Dash was totally lame and didn’t want to see Gilda again anyway, Gilda felt she owed the pegasus something. They were friends, and maybe that meant rescuing stupid little pegasi too young to fly properly.
Gilda leapt from the roof of the library and dove straight down, claws extended. Being hit with a ferocious gryphon at that speed wasn’t good for anypony, even indestructible shadow monsters. And once the hit the first, she bounced to the next, casually tearing through the monsters like a cat through an unsuspecting party. She was sick and tired of fighting these things, and maybe that frustration gave her a little boost of energy. And it was satisfying to really tear into them. She wondered, ripping off a pair of antennae with her beak, whether they’d piece themselves together, or stay damaged after she was done with them. Not that it mattered. Gilda stood, panting, in the center of a circle of black blood and scattered body parts. Nothing dangerous seemed to be close by. Or at least nothing willing to risk getting close to Gilda.
The pegasus, an orange adolescent filly with a wild shock of pink hair and a blank flank, stared at Gilda; her wide purple eyes were watering as her lips pulled from her teeth in a wild grin. “That was so awesome!” she declared.
“Maybe,” a small, olive-colored earth pony said. “But I had it totally covered. I was just about to get my monster-fighting Cutie Mark!” She stood shakily, belying her confidence, but still managed to glance back at her flank, which was blank, as well.
The third pony, a white unicorn with a rose and purple mane, poked her head up from where it had been hidden between her hooves. “Is it safe yet?” she asked.
“No,” Gilda said, flicking her gaze around them. “The whole town’s crawling with these things. What made you think you should be outside at a time like this?”
“We thought our Cutie Marks might have been for hunting evil shadow monsters!” the earth pony declared.
“Your - okay, you’re getting back inside to your parents or whoever right now!” Gilda snapped. “I am not going to sit out here keeping you lame-os safe from monsters.”
“Hey!” the pegasus, who had wandered around Gilda while she’d been talking, “She doesn’t have a Cutie Mark, either!”
Gilda swept the pegasus back with a firm sweep of her wings. “Did anyone every tell you it’s rude to stare at a lady’s haunches?”
“No,” the three chorused in unison.
Gilda sighed. “Look, these things aren’t going to stay down for long-”
“Really?” the earth pony asked. “You tore that one’s legs off.”
Somewhere in the back of Gilda’s mind, she was vaguely aware that encouraging this sort of violence was considered unpony-like. And if this got back to Rainbow Dash...well, there would be unpleasantness.
“Look, kids,” Gilda said, glancing nervously, “We’ve got to get inside, like five minutes ago. So let’s save the questions about my flank and reveling in - very inappropriate - violence until we’ve got a door or something between us and whatever’s out there. Sound like fun?”
“No,” the earth pony muttered.
“Well, you’ll thank me when you’re still alive tomorrow morning,” Gilda retorted. “So come on; where’s the safest place around here?”
“Sweet Apple Acres,” the earth pony said. “We were staying there with Big Mac.”
“Then let’s get moving before something worse comes along,” Gilda said. “Shoo! Shoo!”
“Are we safe?” the unicorn asked.
“Yeah, and we’re going home,” Gilda said. “Your Cutie Mark can be for hiding for monsters.”
“We’re not supposed to go with strangers,” the unicorn said.
“Fine,” Gilda ground out. She thought she saw one of the antennae twitch. “I’m Gilda. Who’re you?”
“I’m Apple Bloom,” the earth pony said. “That’s Scootaloo, and this is Sweetie Belle.”
“Great. We’re best friends now. Let’s get inside.”
Gilda pushed the three ponies to move quickly; it only made her more nervous to see their lack of concern about the monsters. But they were bouncing along, ranging further away from her than Gilda felt comfortable with, given that she seemed to have taken on the responsibility of their safety.
“So, why don’t you have a Cutie Mark? Have you not found your special talent, too?” Apple Blood, the olive earth pony, asked.
“Of course I have,” Gilda retorted with a snort. “Gryphons don’t go through all that mumbo-jumbo with Cutie Marks.”
“So how do you know what your special talent is?” Sweetiebelle asked.
Gilda caught Scootaloo by the tail when she tried to dart just out of reach. The orange pegasus yelped as she hit the end of her tail’s give, jerking to a stop. “I just figured out what I’m good at. It’s a dumb system, expecting a stupid tattoo to tell you what you’re good at.”
“Maybe,” Scootaloo conceded. “But it’s the best one we’ve got. And we aren’t going to quit until we’ve found our special talents. Right, girls?”
“Yeah!”
Gilda rubbed her forehead. “Are we there yet?” she asked.
Sweetiebelle giggled. “Almost!”
A shout cut through the night; Gilda snapped her head around, ready for danger. But instead of more monsters, Gilda saw a large red stallion lumbering towards them.
Apple Bloom broke into a gallop. “Big Mac!” The stallion bent his head down to nuzzle Apple Bloom; Gilda finally let go of Scootaloo’s tail, and the little pegasus darted to the stallion’s side.
“So, you’re the guy who misplaced these foals?” Gilda demanded. “They could have gotten killed - or worse.”
The stallion flinched at Gilda’s tone, green eyes glistening at his embarrassment and fear. “Sorry for causing you trouble, ma’am.”
“She didn’t have any trouble!” Scootaloo declared.
“Yeah, she ripped through those monsters like-” Sweetiebelle’s face scrunched up as she tried to find an appropriate metaphor.
“Bic Macintosh through a basket of apples!” Apple Bloom declared.
“With such an effort, you may win the fight, but not the war for the endless night.” The new voice drew Gilda’s still war-ready reaction; she whirled, snarling, in the direction of the voice. A creature dressed in concealing brown robes stood within a copse of trees. Gilda could see black and white stripes on the creature’s legs.
“Who are you?” Gilda demanded.
“That’s Zecora!” Apple Bloom said. “She’s a witch, but not a bad witch. Right?”
“My talents lie in helping and healing, and in this case, knowledge of defeating and sealing.” Zecora looked to the sky. “The moon calls down an uncommon foe, one that you seem intent on bringing low.”
Gilda snorted, tossing her mane disdainfully. “I’m just looking to survive this.”
“To survive the coming of endless night, everypony must rise to fight. But without the key to the doom that is nigh, all of Equestria is doomed to die. These creatures follow unnatural law, for they cannot die to tooth or claw. To fight the Darkness, you must have the Keyblade. You cannot survive without its aid.”
Gilda stared at the strange pony as she spoke, her words forming a sort of hypnotic rhythm. The edges of her vision seemed to fade as Zecora chanted, giving way to something deep and dark within her...
“Ages ago, for war was this sword made; a weapon that would not rust or fade. Against the Darkness, it can cut true, for it draws its strength and power from you.”
For a moment, Gilda thought of Rainbow Dash, a multi-colored arc cutting through the eternal darkness. She wondered where her one-time friend was. She somehow doubted Rainbow Dash and her friends had been killed or...taken; still, she also doubted they would have stood for these stupid kids getting attacked by monsters if they could help it.
“A rare few are born to carry this sword; for others, it must be a quest's reward.”
Gilda could barely focus on her surroundings anymore. She felt her legs buckling under her, but she couldn’t catch herself, and could barely see anything besides Zecora’s hooded cloak,
“This is how your quest must start. You must dive into your heart.”
;;;:::::{-]
Trixie stood at the very edge of the dark barrier that surrounded Canterlot. While the Ursa had been content to carry her thus far, it had returned to the wilderness, perhaps to fight the monsters itself. But ponies were still talking about Trixie’s arrival, astride one of the most powerful creatures in Equestria. It had certainly gotten her noticed, and everypony was eager to help her.
“It appeared the same...day the creatures fell from the moon,” one of the pegasus guards to Princess Celestia explained. “Nopony has been able to get in or out. We suspect the Princess...that is, Princess Celestia, is inside.”
“Then stand back, and let the Great and Powerful Trixie try her hand at freeing our...appropriately grateful monarch.” Trixie stepped forward, and drew on her magic. Ever since the confrontation with the Ursa, her magic had felt different. She had always been a master of illusion, but she was only just beginning to understand how illusion was a manipulation of light. And wasn’t light, the magic of Princess Celestia, the greatest in all of Equestria? Something was still missing, some grand revelation that would make it fall together, but whatever was happening to Trixie, it filled her to the brim and made her feel...strong as diamond.
She flung rainbows against the dark barrier, and felt the magic crack beneath her assault. Almost immediately, however, shadows flowed back into it, strengthening the wall. Trixie glared at the now-healed wall, and slowly looked up. The moon hung heavy in the sky, no comforting light against darkness, but rather a growing, hulking shape that filled the heart with dread. The Mare in the Moon, gone now more than a year, had been replaced with a new image: an empty heart, ringed by spikes. Looking now with her magic raised, Trixie could sense the lines of magic tying the moon to Canterlot.
“The moon is being used to imprison Celestia in her own palace,” Trixie mused. “How delightfully...cruel.”
“Lady?” the guard asked nervously.
Trixie spun on her hooves and quelled the guard with a sharp glare. “I’m going to need your help. I’m going to need to get...to the moon!”
“What-”
“If she won’t come down here to fight us, we’ll bring the fight up to her. We’ll show Nightmare Moon what us ponies can do!”
“Before embarking, I beg you to take heed. The powers of darkness are great indeed. Against your magic, the darkness may quail. But against your heart, the darkness will fail.” The guard shouted in shock, and Trixie fell back, horn glowing, as she saw a zebra dressed in brown, concealing robes, who had somehow appeared behind her.
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“Oh, come quick! Little Ditzy’s finally gotten her Cutie Mark!”
The gray pegasus foal looked up at her mother, smiling vaguely. She heard another voice in the background.
“And what is it? High winds? Soaring clouds?”
“Bubbles!” Ditzy declared.
“Oh.” Her father’s voice was quiet, now. “Well, that’s nice.” Ditzy didn’t mind if he wasn’t excited. He just didn’t understand.
The passage of the mailpony through the Everfree Forest, and then, after, through the land of Equestria itself, would have looked odd to any observer. It wasn’t that the monsters attacking the world avoided her. And when, eventually, the cockatrice abandoned her, she no longer even had the creature’s uncertain protection. Somehow, she simply failed to notice the darkness gathering and spreading over the world, and that meant she floated serenely from one congregation of soldiers to a herd of beshadowed ponies to a mass of the tiny shadow-things, causing brief eruptions of activity that had almost no effect whatsoever.
Ditzy, for her part, was excited. She’d realized after leaving Zecora’s that there was a letter addressed to Princess Celestia in the small pack of letters she’d collected. She’d never been to Canterlot before, and even if nothing interesting happened, Ditzy could see new sights.
Maybe there were more ponies there, and Ditzy could deliver the mail there until Ponyville was more densely inhabited. And maybe, she would receive a commendation, for delivering the Princess’ mail.
A pony could hope, after all.
Ditzy continued on her way to Canterlot, excitement rising in her heart.
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High on her throne, the Queen of the Moon watched darkness slowly envelop the world.
“Soon, it will not matter if they have concealed the Keyhole from me. When they all have fallen into darkness, the world will follow.” Nopony replied, so the queen sighed. “I don’t know why I bother anymore. There’s no one to talk to, no one to listen. You’d think I’d get used to it after all the time I had to spend stuck on the moon.” She growled and smirked down at the darkening world. “But I suppose I’ll have to get used to talking to myself. Those ponies won’t be very talkative once we’re through with them.”
So intent was she on gloating that she didn’t notice the tiniest glimmers of light flickering into being far below her.
Even if she had, she would have dismissed them. What were a few glimmers to the onrushing flood of darkness?
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