Click, click, click, click. The clicking noise got louder and louder as Rainbow Dash ascended the stairs. Normally it would take Rainbow a minute or two to find where she was going in this huge castle, but the rapid clicking told her just where she needed to go. As the clicking grew louder, Rainbow's temper grew shorter. As Rainbow neared the door she was searching for, she realized just how well those clicking noises bounced off the castle's crystal walls. Anypony would go mad from something like that, and a madpony was just what Rainbow was expecting to see when she opened that door.
The door creaked open slightly for Rainbow to peak inside, only to confirm her suspicions. A purple unicorn was settled down before a typewriter and was furiously typing away with her magic. As Rainbow slowly started to let herself in and approach her she could make out even more of the crazed details, like the messy mane and slightly twitching body. Though it made sense once she saw two empty thermoses once filled with coffee, beside the mare.
Rainbow Dash, being a loyal and dedicated marefriend to this crazy unicorn called Twilight for so long, fully understood this situation and already had a calm and responsible method of solving it. As fast as the pegasus could she grabbed a pillow off the bed and whipped it at her marefriends head causing Twilight to lurch back in fear almost making her fall out of her chair. Thankfully though it worked, and Twilight shook her head to shake herself out of her typing stupor. Twilight, only just realizing the severity of the situation, glared harshly at the Pegasus who simply grinned back at her.
"Morning Twiligh-" she was cut off by a pillow to the face though, causing her to stumble back a bit. As Rainbow pushed the offending pillow off she noticed Twilight's grin causing her to smile back.
"Good to see you're not too cranky. Sorry to interrupt your writing and everything, but you do know what today is right Twi?" she asked in her raspy voice, which noticeably carried a hint of vexation.
"Um no, what do you mean?" Twilight asked as she levitated her calendar over, covering her face from Rainbow's view. Twilight scanned the page only to realize what day it was, causing her to raise her eyes from behind the calendar to Rainbow.
They looked a little bit sad. "Oh i'm so sorry Rainbow, I can't believe I forgot that it was Hearts and Hooves day" she said, causing Rainbow to push the calendar away and wrap her hoof around Twilight.
"It's fine Twilight, I know how you get when you're reading. Plus now your kinda worse since you've been trying to write you're own novel" Rainbow Dash grinned only making Twilight frown. The unicorn looked over at the empty thermoses, and her gaze was followed by Rainbow's.
"How long have you been up Twi?" Rainbow asked, forcing Twilight to sheepishly answer "um.. all night.." she mumbled which made Rainbow frown as well.
"Twilight..."
"I know, I know i'm sorry. It's just that with all this free time lately i've been able to start writing my own novel finally. It's just sort of hard to stop writing it"
Rainbow Dash walked over and took a peek at the pages. "What's it about Twilight?"
"Since when did you care about any sort of book that wasn't Daring Doo" Twilight grinned causing Rainbow to spin around and face her.
"Well when it's causing my marefriend to lose sleep it kinda matters," Twilight frowned again "plus if it's written by you then its definitely gotta be something awesome" Rainbow finished, which perked the unicorn up again.
"Well it's sort of like a psychological thriller, where this pony named Alan Wake is a writer himself, who finds himself in a town where creepy things are happening. Eventually things start to get a bit crazy when shadow monsters begin to attack him and not everypony will believe him, and the only way he is able to defeat the shadow ponies is through light which he can use with his horn's magic. Other ponies have to use things like flashlights or lanterns to protect themselves. The shadow ponies only come out during the night though since they can't survive in the sunlight" she stated, having put on one of lecturing tones during it all.
"Well Twilight, I gotta say. Fighting monsters with a flashlight sounds kinda lame" she said sarcastically followed by a grin, followed by another pillow to the face.
"Oh it's already starting to get dark out, was I really writing all day?" Twilight asked as she looked out of her window.
"Yeah I guess so, I would have come sooner if I knew that" Rainbow said while trotting up beside Twilight.
"Again, i'm really sorry that I forgot Rainbow"
"It's alright Twilight, as long as my plan is still possible I don't care too much" Rainbow said causing Twilight to raise and eyebrow.
"You're plan? so you put a lot of work into this? Since when would Rainbow Danger Dash do something so romantic" Twilight giggled causing Rainbow to blush.
"Yeah well, only for you. Let's get going Twilight, before it gets too late" she said as she slung her hoof over Twilight's shoulder and started to drag her along only to stop in her tracks. Twilight glanced at Rainbow.
"What's the matter Rainbow?" she asked
"Well... you're not gonna like this but... you kinda smell" thankfully Rainbow was quick on her hooves and dodged the pillow this time around. The pegasus watched the pillow hit the wall and slide down with a poof. Then turned back to Twilight "ha! I saw that-" and was met by another pillow to the face.
"Really Rainbow?" Twilight huffed.
"Well it's true, you were kinda distracted for awhile" Rainbow said, pointing her hoof at the typewriter and thermoses. "Plus you forgot our date, so forgetting a little personal hygiene isn't that far fetched" Rainbow deadpanned making Twilight blush.
"Alright alright, maybe I do smell. Let me just take a quick shower" Twilight scrambled into her bathroom, honestly a little embarrassed. Even though they had been marefriends for awhile and were comfortable around each other, she still was embarrassed about smelling like anything but lavender around her marefriend.
As the shower turned on and filled the bathroom with the noise of water splashing into the tub, Rainbow walked over to the typewriter again and peeked at it.
"How far are you with your novel anyways Twi?" she shouted through the door. After a few seconds of silence she got her answer.
"Roughly 93% finished, I just need to wrap up the ending"
'really.. 93% finished. She is such an egghead sometimes'
"Hey I heard that!" Twilight shouted, shocking Rainbow, who didn't realize she was saying that out loud. Then suddenly Rainbow noticed a pillow being lifted from the ground with a purple aura a few feet away. The pillow quickly flew across the room but missed rainbow by a few feet who had just stood still the entire timel. It hit the wall and slumped down like the last one, narrowly missing her.
"Did it hit you!? I can't see in there!" Twilight shouted from the bathroom causing Rainbow Dash to laugh as well as Twilight.
______________________________________________________________
Later on as the sun was setting, Twilight and Rainbow Dash had found themselves in the park.
"Rainbow, you didn't..." Twilight mumbled as she saw it. It was a nicely setup table with two chairs, plates, a pot, and a lantern on it and it sat directly next to the lake. It was a little dinner by the lake and was 'very romantic' Twilight thought.
"Yep you bet I did!" Rainbow grinned at Twilight as they made their way to the table. "To be fair though I had some help, Applejack actually made the food since I can hardly make a sandwich" Twilight giggled "and Rarity helped with the plates and utensils. She said these were her 'nice' plates" Rainbow stated, as Twilight looked at them. They were white plates with golden trims and blue line design going along the outer rim and Twilight could tell it was very expensive porcelain.
"Well that was nice of her" Twilight stated, and Rainbow nodded as she walked over to the pot.
"Yeah, and i'm sure she would be 'delighted' to see what 'elegant' food was being served on it" she grinned in a sort of sinister way.
Rainbow slowly reached and dramatically pulled the lid off the pot to reveal the sloppy joe meat filling the inside. Twilight snorted and couldn't keep it in. She then began laughing uncontrollably and Rainbow Dash joined in on it.
_________________________________________________________________
As dinner was wrapping up and two ponies were satisfied that they'd had enough they began to start cleaning things up.
After everything was put away, Twilight turned and looked towards the lake. It was late out, and the moon's light was shining perfectly across the water's surface. 'No wonder Luna was upset when no pony would appreciate night times' beauty'
As Twilight watched the lake, she barely recognized the hoof that rested on her shoulder.
"Isn't is beautiful Rainbow?" Twilight asked, as she stared at the lake in awe.
"Yeah, but not as beautiful as you" Rainbow stated causing Twilight to snort, holding a laugh. Rainbow took her hoof away from Twilight's shoulder.
"Really Rainbow, you couldn't be any more cheesy" Twilight smiled as she turned to her marefriend only to find her purple eyes not meeting pink.
She then glanced left, right up and finally down to find Rainbow kneeling down and bowing her head forward. Balancing on her head was a black case right between her ears, and it was propped open revealing an incredible diamond band.
Twilight stood in awe as she looked at the band, every single centimeter of it was pure perfection.
"Twilight Sparkle" Rainbow said as she rose back up to her hooves and took the case in her own hooves.
"I would like to spend the rest of my life with you if you'll have me, will you marry me?" she asked as she slid the band onto Twilight's outstretched hoof. Twilight brought her banded hoof up to her eyes to examine it. Her mouth wiggled a bit and her eyes glistened as tears began to form.
"Yes Rainbow! Yes, I want to spend every last one of my living, breathing seconds with you!" she shouted while lunging forward to bring Rainbow Dash into a hug. Rainbow happily accepted as well as the deep kiss on her lips that followed. Reluctantly Rainbow Dash pulled away after a few seconds, still holding onto Twilight. The two simply looked at each other, eyes fully focused on the other. This lasted for a few seconds before a distraction caught them both by surprise, the lantern's light on the table went out all of a sudden.
"Whoa what was that?" Rainbow asked, as Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, that was sort of strange" she stated.
The two of them then turned towards the path leading back to Ponyville, where they were at in the park was at a high incline so they could see all of Ponyville from where they stood. As they looked towards town, slowly each of the lights in the distance went out one by one. It spread from the area closest to them, all the way to the other edge of town plunging it all into darkness.
They were getting closer to town as they walked. The two ponies were just starting to reach the outskirts when one of them asked a question.
"Do you think it could have been just a power outage?" Rainbow asked.
"I doubt it, even if it was I feel like someponies would still have light from fire like lanterns or torches. It shouldn't be entirely dark" Twilight replied.
"Yeah well- oh hey look we're right here by Fluttershy's house" Rainbow stopped in her tracks and put her leg across Twilight's chest to stop her.
"right over there" she pointed her hoof left at Fluttershy's cottage, off to the side of the path.
"EEEEEEEE!!!" suddenly a loud ear piercing scream sounded from the cottage causing Rainbow and Twilight to grimace towards each other before quickly bolting towards the home. Rainbow lifted off the ground, and dashed ahead making it to the cottage in seconds. She busted the front door open and scanned the room, but it was hard considering there was no light.
She trotted over to the couch to find the shy pegasus curled up under it, eyes closed and shivering.
"Fluttershy it's me, Rainbow Dash" she said, while tapping her lightly. Fluttershy's eyes shot open to look at her friend, she then began crawling out from the couch.
Right as she started to get out, Twilight came bolting in the front door.As Fluttershy reached her feet, Twilight casted an illumination spell to see what was goes on. Fluttershy then shrieked like before when her eyes came to face Rainbow.
"Fluttershy what's wrong?" she quickly asked only to receive a hoof pointed her way. Rainbow quickly looked around, and spun on her hooves to find a shadow shaped pony standing behind her with an axe.
Rainbow lurched back in fear, and fell over the couch while doing so. Twilight ran up closer causing the shadow pony to slowly burn away into ashes, which then also disintegrated . Twilight stopped for a second, bewildered, but then quickly realized what had just happened. Twilight's thoughts were then pulled towards Rainbow's health as she heard an audible groan from behind the couch. Her and Fluttershy rounded on the couch to find Rainbow on the floor, rubbing her head in circle motions.
"Rainbow are you alright?" Twilight asked, as she lifted her up to at least sit.
"Yeah i'm fine, I just hit my head pretty hard there" Rainbow stated which then received an audible gasp from their shy friend.
"Rainbow you're bleeding!" she stated. Fluttershy pointed towards the left side of Rainbow's head and then to the slight blood stain on her coffee table.
"What!?" Twilight gently took Rainbow's head and turned it towards her to see the damage. It wasn't TOO bad, but it was still a pretty nasty wound.
"Celestia Rainbow! you might have a concussion" Twilight fussed while Rainbow waved her hoof. "No i'm fine Twi" she said as she rose to her hooves, causing her to swivel back and forth and tumble back. Fluttershy quickly jumped behind Rainbow Dash to catch her from under her legs, and slowly lowered her back down.
"Oh my, I don't think we should take this lightly Rainbow. This wound isn't very good" Fluttershy said with worry filling her voice.
"Yeah well no wound is good Fluttershy" Rainbow grumbled.
Rainbow rubbed her head and turned towards Twilight.
"and what the hay was that anyways. Some crazy axe wielding shadow pony!?" Rainbow yelled causing her to give herself a headache, making her rub her head some more.
"I'm not Applejack but honestly, yes. It was similar to the ones in my novel, they were affected by the light from my horn as well" Twilight stated with a joyful tone, and slight smile. This of course was received with Rainbow's glare and Fluttershy's bewildered expression.
"Sorry, sorry. I know this is serious, but it's part of my novel. It's sort of like when you got to live out the real adventure with Daring Doo" Twilight said while looking at Rainbow.
"Yeah well, that was at least an adventure. This is like a horror movie"
"Twilight, are you saying that you wrote and novel, and the things you wrote about are coming true?" Fluttershy asked, with a perplexing look on her face.
"Pretty much, and if that is the case then we need to get back to Ponyville, fast. If this really is like my novel then there is more of them, and without any lights Ponyville isn't safe" Twilight grimaced as Rainbow and Fluttershy both shared nervous glances themselves.
____________________________________________________________
Upon reaching Ponyville the three ponies found themselves walking down an empty road. The whole town was darker than any of them had ever seen it. Almost no signs of life really, that is until they saw a light coming closer from around the corner, down the road a bit. Quickly Rainbow slinked off to a nearby alley, and had Fluttershy and Twilight follow. The three of them then peeked out from the alley, one head looking over the other like a sort of cartoon as they nervously waited.
As they watched the light turn around the corner, they're anxious faces turned to ones of relief at their discovery.
It was Spike and Rarity wandering down the road with a lantern, the two of them were looking around in all directions, searching for something.
With joy the three ponies turned the corner to face the dragon and unicorn on the road. Atfirst the two jumped back only to then sigh in relief as they recognized who it was approaching.
"Oh thank goodness it's you Twilight dear" Rarity stated, meanwhile Spike had ran forward and tackled hugged Twilight.
"Thank celestia you're here, Twilight. I had no idea what was going on, shadow ponies were attacking the castle, and then Rarity came busting in to help and-" Spike was practically hyperventilating. Twilight simply hugged him back stroked the back of his head.
"It's alright Spike, everything is going to be alright. Rarity, where is everyone?" Twilight asked, looking from her assistant to the unicorn.
"I'm not quite sure. Most ponies seem to have disappeared. Spike, Applejack, Granny Smith, Big Mac, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie and myself have been safe at Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie Pie is there trying to blow up her balloon to transport us all out of here. Myself as well as Spike, who kindly volunteered, came back to town shortly to see if there was anyone we can evacuate" Rarity explained.
"So just about everyponys missing!?" Rainbow shouted, followed by shush from Twilight.
"Did you manage to send a letter to Celestia?" Twilight asked, looking at Spike.
"No we haven't had much time to, plus we haven't come across any kinda parchment for it" Spike stated sadly, causing the other ponies to frown as well.
"Girls, I have a bad feeling about this" Fluttershy said, she was practically shaking. "Maybe we should go to Sweet Apple Acres, is it safe there?" Fluttershy sent this question in Rarity's direction.
"Yes my dear, we have plenty of light sources arranged there to ward off any of these horrid ghouls" Rarity said while walking over to put a hoof on the scared pegasus' shoulder, which Fluttershy returned with a kind smile. The short and sweet moment was interrupted when suddenly, several shadow ponies began emerging from alley ways, front inside shops, and even from inside of some dumpsters.
"Everypony move now, to Sweet Apple Acres" Rainbow shouted as she took to the air. Everypony began to bolt down the road dodging and weaving shadow ponies grabbing towards them. As they ran Twilight looked up at the flying Rainbow Dash, and that's when an idea appeared in her mind.
"Rainbow Dash! Grab Rarity, you need to carry her, I'll carry Spike. Fluttershy up in the air, they can't get us from up in the air!" Twilight shouted, as Rainbow Dash saluted and took a quick nose dive to snatch Rarity. Fluttershy fluttered her wings a few times before she could get off the ground but she succeeded, and Twilight grabbed Spike's neck with her teeth, like a lion holding their cub, and hoisted him onto her back. She then also took off from the ground to meet the other ponies that were airborne. Twilight looked down to see the shadow ponies stumbling around and tossing some of their weapons up in the air in an attempt to hit one of them, none of them being able to throw high enough thankfully.
Twilight sighed, letting out a tense breathe she didn't know she was holding and looked over to the other ponies flying beside her.
"Good thinking Twi!" Rainbow shouted, followed by a wink causing Twilight to blush a bit.
"Alright so were flying North now... so I think Sweet Apple Acres should be over there, to the North-west" Rainbow said, nodding her head in the direction she instructed. The ponies flew for a couple of minutes filled with tense silence until everyones attention was brought to a loud gasp coming from under Rainbow.
"Twilight! Is that a wedding band you're wearing?" Rarity asked excitedly, while also lifting her hooves over her mouth like a little school filly. Twilight looked down at her wedding band, almost completely forgetting that she was officially engaged. 'that's one good thing about today I guess' Twilight thought.
"Well don't spare us the details darling, what handsome stallion did you get married to?" Rarity asked looking at Twilight. Twilight would be lying if she said the glistening look in Rarity's eyes didn't creep her out.
*ahem*
"She's engaged to a mare not a stallion, and that mare is me" Rainbow said, or well... boasted more like it based on the smug face Twilight was looking at.
"Oh darling that's wonderful, tell me, did you propose?" Rarity asking receiving a nod from the pegasus holding her.
"aww, that's sweet Rainbow" Fluttershy said, flying just behind Rainbow.
"It's simply adorable darling, so romantic!" the unicorn gushed, causing the pegasus holding her to blush fiercely.
"It wasn't adorable it was awesome"
"Nah, it seems pretty cute to me" Spike replied, holding a sinister grin. Honestly the word 'cute' being used to described Rainbow Dash perplexed him, but he knew it ticked her off so he went along with it.
"I concur, it's very cute" Rarity continued, causing Rainbow to blush even more, and glare at Spike.
"No it wasn't, awesome yes, radical even yep, cute absolutely not" Rainbow muttered.
"I think it's sweet" Fluttershy said, causing Rainbow to spin her head around like in the exorcist to give her shy friend a glare as well, causing her to squeak and mutter "sorry.... but it is sorta cute" she mumbled, causing Rarity, Spike, and even Twilight to laugh.
"It's not cute" Rainbow fumed.
"Hey, if I didn't think you were cute, we probably wouldn't be engaged right now" Twilight said in-between her laughs. As everyone started to calm down Rarity decided to point out the face that Rainbow didn't argue when Twilight called her cute, causing Rainbow to blush once again. Thankfully though they were almost at Sweet Apple Acres, and could see it from where they were at. The whole farm was lit up with what looked like a lot of construction lights, and some torches set up. The place looked like some kinda military base from above, though while everyone was sidetracked with looking at the farm, almost nopony noticed the swarm coming for them.
Twilight heard their screeching and snapped forward to face them, she quickly lit her horn in a light spell causing a hole to form in the 'wall' of bats. She and the others found themselves flying through it, almost like a cave, with bats surrounding them on all ends, but not getting closer because of the light. As they passed through, Twilight's spell started to weaken, it was hard holding them all off. Right as they were about to finish passing through her horn gave out and the bats began closing in.
Rainbow Dash pushed forward with her speed and escaped out with Rarity, meanwhile Twilight, Spike and Fluttershy got caught up in it before exiting and the bats swarmed them. Bats kept bumping and biting them causing them to get overwhelmed. The two of them couldn't keep flapping their wings and ended up falling. They fell right out from under the swarm of bats, but being average flyers, Twilight and Fluttershy couldn't catch themselves. They flailed their arms and legs and flapped their wings desperately to right themselves but it just wasn't happening.
The two ponies and Spike fell fast, being under complete control by gravity.
