Darkness shrouded the land, as it had for so many years. Not the light of the moon could be seen, nor the twinkle of a star, it was all taken away.
A thousand years ago...
"No Celestia, you can't go too!" Twilight sobbed as she stood over her old mentor. "Not after Cadance just died, you can't! You just Can't!"
"Twilight," Celestia gasped. "I appoint you as my successor." She tried to get up, but collapsed with her pink, aqua, purple and blue mane falling in her face.
"Celestia, no! I can't raise the sun! You can't die."
"My dear sister...oh, Celestia to whom will I show my gorgeous night?!"
"Oh I'll miss you sister, Twilight, you must raise the sun befor-." She exhaled and closed her eyes saying goodbye to the world, breathing out all her life and power and there was no more to replace it. Their princess was dead.
Present...
"Do you think it's time?" Twilight asked staring out into the dark abyss of the world.
"Not yet, my child, soon... But not yet." Luna answered. Just then a manical laugh sounded echoing out across all the world, chuckling deeply and insanely and ending in bouts of gibbering laughter.
"You can run, but you can't hide!" The voice cackled again sending trickles of fear shivering down the princesses's backs. "You will bow to your queen, BOW! Ahahahahah!!" It screeched.
"Make it stop, Luna, make it stop!" Twilight cried into Luna's shoulder and Luna hugged Twilight tightly. She tried to hush her and tell her everything was okay, but it was no use, everything was not okay, and Luna couldn't do a thing about it.
A thousand years ago....
Twilight sobbed on the dead princess. "Come back princess Tia, come back!" She was sounding like a five year old looking for its mom.
"Nothing can save your princess now!" A sinister voice came behind Twilight.
"You, you did this. You KILLED TIA!!!!!!!!!!!" Twilight turned around and screamed. "You KILLED her! You killed MY Celestia!" An aura brighter than one thousand suns enveloped Twilight. "You Will PAY!!" She screamed, tearing her throat up. A silence covered the world for three seconds and then Twilight's light bubble burst showering blinding light across equestria, and then pitch dark. This however did not even phase the queen of changelings, and now she had a new equestria to rule.
Twilight shivered at the darkness, "Did I do this?" She asked in disbelief. Luna, from behind her, put an arm around her.
"I'm afraid so, Twilight." She said. Twilight closed her eyes and shuddered, it was all her fault, all of it. If she had been there to defend Cadance from Queen Chrysalis, she would of lived. If she had listened to what Celestia said instead of what she thought was right, Celestia would be alive. If she hadn't gotten so mad, Equestria wouldn't have gone dark.
"Twilight." Luna said breaking her train of thought. "This wasn't your fault."
"How could you say that?" Twilight asked her voice breaking. She sat down broken and started to weep.
"This was Chrysalis's fault, now is not the time to mourn. Twilight, we must hide." Luna grabbed her and flew away. Twilight looked back to where her mentor lay. Somehow through the darkness she saw what was happening; ponies were screaming and running in fright, and she could tell why, everywhere the ponies ran stood a changling. The changlings put shackles on the ponies and chained them like slaves. Twilight couldn't look, she turned her head away.
"Lulu, why are we hiding?" Twilight asked weakly.
"Hush, Twilight. I will explain when we get there.
Twilight had fallen asleep. She didn't know when or how, but she did. When she awoke, it was dark...still. She could not see so she tried to light her horn, a wet hoof extinguished it.
"That is not wise, Twilight." Luna said, apparently the hoof belonged to her.
"Where are we?"
"This cave was a rendezvous place in case Equestria was in danger. Seems we need it now." Spoke the familiar, deep voice of Discord.
"Gather 'round ponies." Luna said. Twilight felt Luna's soft fur on her left, and Discord squeezed her hoof on her right. Twilight was shocked by this action, was it so bad that Discord was scared too? Twilight was also surprised when she felt the fur of other ponies around her.
"It is as we expected, Chrysalis now has control over Equestria. We must remember, Do not, under any circumstance, use. Your. Magic. When the time comes we will raise the sun. until then, stay safe and stay hidden. Scatter, now!" A great draft came in as the ponies left.
"How did I not know of this place, or this plan?" Twilight turned to Luna, the only remaining pony there.
"I'm sorry, Twilight. Since you were newly appointed princess, we never got the time to speak about this with you. In fact, we, the princesses, never spoke of it at all."
Twilight's eyes widened. "At all? Never?"
Luna looked at her solemnly. "Twilight, these secrets so important we don't even dare think of them. Do not speak a word of this, trust no pony."
"Not even you?"
She shook her head. "Not even me," suddenly a scream erupted from no where, echoing all around and inside them.
"What was that?!" Twilight ran over and hugged Luna as hard as she could in fear. Luna stroked her mane comfortingly.
"That was Chrysalis, she's searching for us, and I have a feeling she won't give up for a long time."
Present...
Blackness painted the sky, it was dark, bare and cold inside the cave and Twilight was starting worry Luna would never come back. Her fears were silenced when she heard the familiar voice of her dear friend.
"Twilight, it is time." She spoke from the entrance. Twilight quickly joined her. "Ready?"
"Ready!" Twilight said and light enveloped her horn. Levitation spells were by far the easiest spells Twilight had ever known, but raising something as heavy as the sun? Not so easy. Twilight could feel herself start to rise of the ground. Yes, it's working! She thought excited. Suddenly, Twilight felt her light flicker and go out. She collapsed onto the hard floor.
"What? WWhat happened?" She looked up. Darkness. "Wah! Where's the sun?!"
"Wah! What do you mean it's gone?! How can the sun be GONE!?" Twilight yelled, panicked.
Luna looked at her with wide eyes. "I don't know, but i-it's gone."
"How can you tell?"
"Celestia taught me how, last time the sun went missing was..."
"The sun's gone missing before?!" Twilight said shocked and confused.
"It was when Discord used to rule Equestria, he stole it." Luna replied.
"You can steal a sun?" Twilight asked her face deadpan, nothing surprised her anymore.
"We must find Discord."
"How do you suppose we'll do that, even if we tried 'searching' it would still be dark." Light shined from Luna's horn, as if an answer.
"Oh, right." Twilight smiled sheepishly. Luna's light flickered out and she collapsed. "Luna!" Twilight fell on the ground next to her. "Luna, what's wrong?!" Luna stood up again and shook her head.
"Seems Equestria wants to stay dark, that spell I just did took great amounts of energy, we should take turns." Twilight nodded getting up.
"You scared me for a second there, it was just like, just like- never mind." Luna hugged her momentarily.
"We must leave at once."
Discord's chamber...
"Good." Chrysalis purred. Discord looked away in shame. "Now give it to me." She said harshly and held her hoof out. Discord looked at, then looked up at her defiantly.
"No." Chrysalis's eyes widened a little.
"No?" She laughed. "Are you forgetting who your speaking with? I have you locked and chained, I have complete power over you."
"No, and you never will." Chrysalis just laughed again and started to walk away.
"Give it to him, Furball." She said as she passed a changeling guard, the changeling cackled evilly and made his way toward Discord.
"No, nooo!" Discord screamed.
One thousand years ago....(Discord)...
Discord sat worriedly in Fluttershy's cottage. Why wasn't she here? Suddenly the door flew open and the figure of Fluttershy walked in.
"Fluttershy," Discord flew over to her worriedly. "what happened?!" Then he saw it, the knife protruding from her chest. She coughed and blood trickled from her mouth. She stumbled onto the floor. Discord picked her up gently, distressed.
"Discord." Fluttershy said weakly.
"No, Fluttershy don't leave me! Your all I have. I love you." He gently caressed her face.
"I love you, too." She whispered. She gasped in pain.
"NO!" He said desperately as a tear slid from his cheek. "Don't die! Please." His voice cracked and he started to sob. Fluttershy looked at him and smiled sadly, then her smile grew and it turned evil.
"Oh, but it's your fault." She sneered.
"What?!" Discord said shocked. She flew out of his arms, summoning handcuffs and slapped them on his wrists. The queen cackled her eyes turning a shade of green and her body morphing and growing into her natural form. Discord stared at her his anger boiling inside him. "You NEVER DO THAT! You NEVER do that to MY FLUTTERSHY!" He screamed. he summoned up all his powers and tried to boil Chrysalis alive.
"My it's hot in here." She said fanning herself.
"What?" He said shocked looking at his hands.
"I stole it you dummy!" She said referring to his powers. "And oh, you are strong!" She twitched with pleasure as her body began to grow. "Oh, I feel it coursing through me, OH, it's so GOOD! It's soo RICH!!" She cackled, screeching. "You loved Fluttershy more than I thought."
"Loved? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!?!" She looked at Discord.
"None of your business." She laughed and teleported them to her castle. "Ooh, it's gonna take me a while to get used to that." She smiled and summoned a cage, she opened the door. "Oh, Discord." She said in a sing, songy voice. Discord turned his head to her tiredly, without his powers he felt weak. Chrysalis hip bumped him into the cage and slammed the door shut. "Bon voyage!" She flicked her tail and walk away.
Darkness will fall. A voice spoke. The void of eternal chaos. Stop! Your moon will die! No! DIE! Luna awoke screaming. Celestia came in quickly.
"What is it sister?! What's wrong?" Celestia came to her side. Luna sat there, panting and shivering in fright. "It's those dreams again isn't it?" She said hugging her and rocking her. Luna pushed her away.
"They're not dreams!" She screamed. She then covered her mouth. "I'm so sorry, I-" Celestia hugged her once more.
"You say they're visions?" Luna nodded shakily. "I'm sorry sister, I did not see the toll they toke on you."
"You were dead." Luna choked out. She cried silently and Celestia hugged her tighter. "A-and the sun was gone, and the moon and stars were dead and, oh, Tia what does it mean?!" She cried fully this time, sobs racking her body. Celestia rubbed her back reassuringly, but the words she said next weren't.
"I do not know, sister. I don't know.
Present...
"Lulu, I think you have to take over." Twilight said as she felt her knees start to buckle underneath her.
"No, we can stay the night right here." Luna said.
"Here?"
"Do you not recognize these woods? You friend Zecora lives here."
"Zecora's alive?" Luna smiled and parted some vines, revealing the zebra's home. It had a homey glow from the yellow light coming from inside. Twilight walked up and knocked. Zecora's head popped out frowning. Her hair was disheveled and one eye was blood shot, the other twitched involuntarily.
"Get out!" She yelled and popped her head back inside before slamming the door. The door creaked open ever so slightly as the zebra popped her head out again. "Princess Twilight?" She let go of the door to bow.
'Zecora!" Twilight knocked her over with a hug. The zebra awkwardly got out of the embrace. She sniffed Twilight.
"Wah!" Twilight pulled away. "What are you doing?" Zecora walked up to Luna and bowed before sniffing her.
"I assure you, I am no changling." Luna said letting the zebra sniff her. Zecora gave a slight nod.
"What brings you here?" Zecora asked. Twilight was a bit confused by the question.
"You not rhyming." She stated bluntly.
"The world is in disaster, Twilight. Rhyming is a hassle. Now may I ask again, What are you doing here." Twilight looked at Luna asking what she should say.
"I think you have noticed by now, the sun has been stolen." Luna said, Zecora nodded knowingly. "We have been searching for Discord, hoping he might have an answer. We were wondering if we could stay the night."
"Yes, but first may I treat you with some food?"
"That would be lo-" Luna started.
"Yes! YES Please, I'd LOVE Food!!!" Twilight said jumping up and down, excited. Luna and Zecora exchanged an amused look.
"Alright then, mushroom soup coming up." Zecora smiled for the first time.
When Twilight woke in the morning her belly was pleasantly full for the first time in a thousand years. She sighed in pleasure, the light from the fire woke her and it felt like there was finally a sun. However when she opened her eyes it was still dark out. Zecora was gone and Luna sat impatiently waiting. Her hoof kept tapping on the ground in annoyance.
"Rise and shine, your highness." She said mockingly. "I've been waiting for you." Twilight was taken aback.
"Uh, okay." Twilight said sitting up.
"C'mon, we haven't got all day," She said pushing Twilight out of her hammock. "Or night, I don't know, I don't know 'cause SOMEONE made it pitch black."
"Hey!" Twilight yelled, her feelings hurt.
"Oh please, it's about time you got over that."
"Why are you being so mean?"
"I'm tired."
"Lulu would never be so mean." Twilight whined scared and suspicious.
"Your right, Luna would never say a thing like that. I'm not Luna." What Twilight thought was Luna turned into a changling. It laughed. Another changling came in with shackles.
"What did you do with Lulu and Zecora?!" She yelled backing away. They just laughed in response, closing in on her. Twilight panicked, she bent low, readying her wings. She pushed off the ground flapping her wings as hard as she could and braced her self for impact. She blasted through the thatch roof, which was surprisingly easy, and flew into the dark sky. She forgot one thing though, changlings could fly too. One by one they flew through the roof, there was more than she expected. Tens, maybe hundreds? She flew away as fast as she could with the changlings close behind. Twilight glanced behind her. They're catching up! She gasped. She summoned up a fire ball with her horn and blasted it at the changlings. It was surprisingly small and weak. She dove down into a crevice that led to a cavern, she tumbled down a slope and found her self staring at a pond that shimmered and reflected her image perfectly. Meanwhile, the changlings were lost and confused. The pond glowed with an eerie, blue light and Twilight immediately recognized it. The Mirror Pool.
"Now, I will say it again, give me the sun and I will set you free." Discord giggled insanely.
"What sonny, son, sun, sun, sun, sun, sun, Sun, Sun, Sun, SUN?!" He kept repeating the the words. Chrysalis sighed.
"What will it take you to gain back your sanity?" She groaned. Discord guffawed and fell over on his back.
"Sanity, sonity, sanity, Sanity, SANITY! I hate that word." He chuckled. "What fun is there is making sense, making sanity, Sanity, sanity, sanity, Sanity, Sanity, SANITY!" He cackled. "Why not you give me some chocolate milk, milk, milk- HAHAHA! Milk, milk, moo, mow, cow, coward, coward, coward, coward, Coward, Coward, Coward, COWARD! I AM NOT A COWARD!! Coward, coward, COWARD!"
"SHUT UP!" Chrysalis screeched.
"Sanity, sonity, son, sun, Sun, SUN!" He screamed forming the sun in his hands. Chrysalis's eyes widened.
"Yes, yes! Sanity sonity, Sun! give me that sun! Sun, fun." Chrysalis cackled with him. When Discord was done with making his sun his eyes were bulging and dark yellow. He let go of it and it bounced into Chrysalis's hooves. Before she took a bite she paused, what would the sun taste like? Did it matter? It might kill her. Discord grabbed it out her hooves and pushed it into nothingness with his paws. Voices swarmed in Chrysalis's brain. "Shut up, Shut up, SHUT UP!!" She grabbed her head.
Twilight stared at the pond in front of her. Was it really there? Was this a dream, was she actually sleeping in Zecora's den? No, she was sure this was real. She took a breath, she wasn't sure if she should do this.
"Into her own reflection she stared, yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly sweared not to be scared at the prospect of being doubly mared." Twilight hoped those were the right words. She walk into the water and she felt like she was being ripped open and turned inside out, while being split in two. It was oddly calming and she felt like she was being boiled alive and frozen to death at the same time, it felt...good. She pulled her reflection out. Reflection Twilight shook water off her head and looked up.
"Whoa." They said at the same time. "Are you...me?" They said in unison.
"You go first." Twilight said.
"No princess, you go first." Her reflection Twilight said. Twilight frowned, this was harder than she thought. "How about you fill me in." She suggested. Twilight nodded.
"Okay, Celestia's dead. The sun is gone, Equestria is dark and it's been like that for one thousand years." Twilight felt her voice start to give, it was all too much to handle. "Queen Chrysalis now controls the world, Cadance is...dead, Luna's captured. I-" Twilight broke down sobbing.
"There, there." Reflection Twilight said shakily trying to calm them both down. R-Twilight took a breath. "Send me back."
"What?!" Twilight looked up.
"Send me back, I'm no use."
"Yes, you are!" Twilight argued. Why was she arguing with herself?
"Send me back or...Or I-I'll send y-you back." She threatened lighting her horn up. It was clear she was lying. Twilight reluctantly powered up her own horn and sent her back. She had used so much of her magic she was exhausted and she collapsed on the cave floor and fell asleep.
When Twilight awoke she promised herself to stop passing out or fall asleep repeatedly. While she had fallen asleep, her hoof fell into the pond and when she took it out it was pruned. Funny, in all her years she had never seen a pruned hoof. She thought of who would freak out if she ever saw one, Rarity, the thought of Rarity made Twilight cringe. She thought she was dead, maybe she was still alive, who knew? Twilight rubbed her eyes, they hurt, the sleep wasn't as refreshing as she hoped. She had to find a way out of here, slowly she made her way across the steep tunnel that led outside. Finally outside, Twilight deep a deep breath and squinted to see. She lighted her horn, when she saw what was in front of her she gasped.
"Celestia?" As soon as the pony came she disappeared. Twilight rubbed her eyes once again, hallucinations were definitely not a good thing. One thing was for sure, that was not a changeling. Twilight flew up into the dark sky, which was considerably cooler, she wandered around aimlessly but then paused when through the light of her horn she saw a dark pillar. It didn't take her long to realize it was a castle, a deformed version of Canterlot. Twilight winced at the sight, How did I let this happen? She thought. The more she looked at it, the more it hurt her; Canterlot had developed holes that looked like a changeling hoof, it was morphed into the most hideous shape of what looked like a skull. On one of the holes, that looked like it was for an eyeball, green goo oozed out. When Twilight looked closer she saw ponies trapped in the green goo. She rushed over, then a low snarl sounded behind her. She turned, three changelings flew at her and grabbed her hooves. "Ahh! Let me Go!" Twilight struggled, trying to pull away from them.
"The queen has been awaiting you." One chuckled.
"Quiet, Furball, the queen said not to say anything." Another spoke.
"Shut up! I'm in charge!" Furball answered back.
"No, I'm in charge!"
"No, I'm in charge!"
"And, I'm still here." Twilight said bluntly as they tugged at her. The changelings glanced at her.
"Shut her up." Furball said to the one who hadn't spoke. The changeling took green goop and spread it over Twilight's muzzle. At first it stung, but shortly after it started to numb her mouth.
"Mhmhmh, ugh!" Twilight said muffled. They flew down to the door of the castle, Furball stepped forward and gave a knock. The one who opened to the door was Chrysalis.
"AHH! Get it away from me!" Chrysalis screamed.
"We've brought her like you asked." Furball said.
"Yes, yes, I know come in, but make sure you keep her dirty hooves away from me." She sneered. Twilight growled at her. "So, Princess of the Light, how does it feel, knowing that you were the one who made the world go silent?"
"Princess of the Light? Silent?"
"Not silent like quiet, silent like dark, cold, miserable." Chrysalis hissed in her ear and began to circle Twilight. "Oh, didn't you know Celestia was to appoint you Princess of the Light? After Luna and she retired, oh wait, you don't! Because I KILLED her!" Rage surged through Twilight and she wanted to scream, but the goop that the changeling put across her mouth impeded her. "Now that you have killed all the princesses, or mostly all of them, you should become a queen, Queen Twilight Sparkle, the Queen of Darkness!" Twilight screamed as loud as she could, but still to no avail. Just then, Twilight felt the goop absorbed into her skin.
"YOU BE QUIET!" Twilight screamed and struggled as the changelings grip tightened.
Ponyville was restless that night. The regular dark sky had the yellow glow from all the lights inside the houses. A shadowy figure snaked along the houses and alleys, barely making a sound. Finally arriving at the frosting covered gingerbread house, the figure pulled out a sharp blade.
"Fluttershy!" A high pitched voice squealed.
"Huh?!" The figure jumped in surprise and dropped the blade.
"What are you doing sneaking around at night with a knife?" The voice spoke again.
"Pinkie?" Fluttershy looked up at an orange pony with a neon orange, fluffy mane.
"No, not me. I'm Inkie, that's Pinkie." The pony pointed the source of squealing, Pinkie Pie was leaning over her window staring at Fluttershy with big blue eyes.
"Seriously, Fluttershy, why the knife?" Pinkie Pie asked again.
"Pinkie Pie!" Fluttershy whispered harshly, jumping into the window and knocking to mare over.
"What the heck Fluttershy?!" Pinkie yelled. Fluttershy pressed a blade against Pinkie's throat.
"Do not interrupt The Shadow Assassin!" Fluttershy spat vehemently.
"Fluttershy, what happened to you?" Pinkie said, tears starting to form in her eyes. "You're the Shadow Assassin?"
"What are you doing alive, for that matter, why are you yelling in a changeling infested area, do you have a death wish?" Pinkie stared at her old friend with shock and pain. "How do you know about the Shadow Assassin?" Fluttershy pressed the blade deeper.
"You're the one who's been killing ponies?" She choked out.
"What?" Fluttershy's eyes widened, dropping the knife. "I haven't been killing ponies!"
"Yeah, right! Ponies have been saying the Shadow Assassin has killing their family members!" Pinkie said standing up.
"I haven't been killing ponies, you idiot! I've been killing changelings. Pinkie, your in more danger than you thought." She walked over to the orange pony, Inkie, and sniffed her. "Changeling!"
"Oh really?" Fluttershy pulled a knife out and hit the pony with it's hilt. The pony hit the floor with a flop, as soon as it touched the ground, it turned into a changeling.
"What?"
"Pinkie, we have to get out of here."
"B-b-b-but, but."
"I'll explain later."
Fluttershy's cottage...
"They have my family." Fluttershy spoke. "The changeling's have my family, they took Screwball and Discord."
"What? How?" Pinkie asked.
"I don't know, I've been kidnapping changelings, trying them for information. When they don't give it to me, I...I kill them. But, I don't understand, how are you alive? It's been a thousand years."
"I've been visiting the mirror pond, the water there makes you immortal for a month."
"Hmm, I've never heard of that." Fluttershy pondered.
"How are you still alive?"
"When Chrysalis took Discord and Screwball, she cursed me with immortality." Pinkie winced. "She told me I could suffer knowing that I would never see my family again."
"And you've been after her ever since." Pinkie finished.
"You got it." The two sat in silence for a while.
"What about the others?" Fluttershy looked away. "Are they dead?"
"Applejack and Rainbow Dash got killed in a changeling battle, I found their bodies and buried them."
"And their elements, the ones in the tree?"
"Their branches shriveled up, but I took the elements. I assume Rarity's alive, last time I check the branch for her element was still intact."
"When was that?"
"Almost one thousand years ago."
"And Twilight?"
"I haven't seen her since then, I think she's alive, Celestia granted her immortality, so...maybe she's alive. At least I hope so." Fluttershy walked over to look outside her window. "Look at it." She breathed. "It's so dark and...evil." Pinkie walked up to her.
"It's not evil." She said putting a hoof on Fluttershy's back. "Chrysalis is." Fluttershy looked down and bit her quivering lip.
"I still can't believe he's gone!" Fluttershy wailed, collapsing into Pinkie Pie's arms.
"I'll help you in every way I can, Fluttershy, we'll get Chrysalis."