It was a quiet and peaceful Nightmare Night all of the young foals had gone to bed for the night and starlight glimmer decided to host a sleepover on this night with her friends, Tempest Shadow, Moon Dancer and Trixie. They would all enjoy a nice sleepover at starlight's Castle which previously was Twilight's Castle but now belonged to her since Twilight and Spike moved into the former princesses' Castle. Also because of this there were more bedrooms available for guests so her friends could sleep over. Starlight glimmer had also invited Sunset Shimmer, but Sunset said she couldn't make it.
"I really miss Twilight and Spike it just feels so lonely in this castle without them. Well at least I have a day off after a long week of being the new Headmare." Starlight thought to herself.
Just then there was a weird sound that came from a couple miles away. Starlight looked out one of the castle windows to see what it was and also saw a flashing light coming from the forest nearby. Before she could investigate there was a knock at the door, it was Tempest shadow and Moon Dancer.
"So how is this supposed to work? This is my first sleepover." Said Moon Dancer.
"Do adult ponies even have sleepovers? Also what was that strange buzzing noise? I really hope that you didn't miss it Starlight; it would indicate a lack of vigilance on your part. Maybe me and...?"
"I'm Moon Dancer."
"My name is Tempest Shadow honored to meet you."
Starlight then opened the castle doors to greet her guests.
"And you must be Starlight glimmer, Twilight has told me so much about you in her letters. So tell me, how does it feel to be the new Headmare of the school of friendship?” asked Moon Dancer.
"Not as bad as I thought it would be and Twilight has left me in charge more than once. Anyways let's get inside I have snacks and games and other things set out. We have the entire night to sit around and talk about stallions and stuff, I'm also pretty new to hosting sleepovers.” Starlight said and then chuckled nervously.
"I'll help in any way that I can." Said Tempest Shadow.
"Yeah me too."
Starlight let them in and just as they were about to walk to the library, the man Castle doors sprung open revealing none other than Trixie.
She announced her presence "The great and powerful Trixie has arrived to your sleepover! Let us get ready for a great night of fun and excitement--hi Starlight and friends."
"Trixie, what did I tell you about big and dramatic entrances?"
"I don't need to do them every time I show up at an event, you know I can't help it Starlight. Also you know what they say, you can take the mare out of the ego but you can't take the ego out of the mare."
"I... Honestly don't even know how to respond to that.” Starlight responded.
"I think I understand what she's saying, even though I am reformed now and have accepted friendship into my life, I still like to spar with some other creatures from time to time.” Tempest Shadow added.
"OK then. Let's get inside we have a fun night ahead of us. “Starlight said.
"What kind of games did you have in mind?” asked Moon Dancer.
"Oh you'll love these games. I took some of the current and top selling board games and created a special games selection where you can actually be in the game itself. I designed a special game roulette using several ancient spells that I modified for this night.” Starlight said very enthusiastically.
After several minutes of walking, they finally made it to the library where there was a large game board lying in the middle with several magical orbs spinning around it. There is also a medium sized snack table lined with food that Starlight had prepared earlier.
"And as you can see each orb represents a game world and all I have to do is use my magic and spin the roulette."
"Trixie is intrigued."
"I'll admit at first I thought this sleepover was going to be a little bit slow and dry, but I'm pretty impressed." Tempest commented.
"It looks so cool, Trixie now wants to get down to business."
"Hold on a moment. This all looks very fun but I have a feeling that we should investigate that noise from earlier. Maybe it's just my instincts but it seems like it could some type of threat."
"Yeah, you're right. I mean I've already seen what happens whenever Twilight or her friends put something off or overlook something that seems insignificant but then it turns out to be a big thing. It's just that I really was hoping that we could have a nice uninterrupted sleepover."
"Trixie is coming with you."
"I'm not sure how I feel about a potential adventure but I guess I'll come to.” commented Moon Dancer.
"Trixie will just teleport us there." Trixie said preparing a teleportation spell.
"No wait-" Starlight was about to stop her but it was too late. Trixie just fired off her teleportation spell and then they were suddenly behind some prickly bushes in the middle of a forest.
"Trixie how many times do I have to tell you not to-"
Tempest stopped Starlight from speaking by putting a hoof in her mouth. She then pointed to an eerie red light coming from a mysterious vessel parked just 5 meters from the prickly bushes. The four ponies could hardly see anything, only helped by the eerie red light. They all decided to hide in behind the prickly bushes and after 10 minutes The Vessel opened and out came a completely shadowed, very human-like figure.
Starlight thought to herself, "A human? Here? How? Wouldn't the mirror or whatever entrance change him or her to look like a pony or some other Equestrian creature?"
All four of them stared at this shadow as it walked around and took in its surroundings.
"Starlight what should we do?"
"I'm not sure Trixie, but we need a plan."
They all put their heads together and decided to just see what they were dealing with. Trixie decided to put some light on the subject with a light spell and if she would have known what she'd see afterwards, she would have stopped herself from doing it immediately. The Vessel was revealed to be a mysterious ship that pretty much blended in with the night sky apart from the red light and the shadowed figure was definitely not human, it looked bizarre. The "human" was a blue mass of tentacles that took a humanoid form and stance. It was wearing a grey vest, four tentacle eye stocks where the head would be. The creature slowly advanced towards the light that Trixie's horn was making.
After a moment of hesitation Starlight asked the creature who it was and what it was doing here. The creature took a moment to adjust to the new light and then spoke, its words sounding like loud whispers. To the four ponies listening, even Tempest Shadow, the words made them feel like there was ice cold water and bubbling lava running down their backs at the same time.
"My business is not with you creatures. You already made a big mistake in shining a light on me it's not good if I'm discovered early on; though it’s not like you could do anything about it anyway."
"Do anything about what?" Starlight asked.
"I can't tell you that."
"If whatever you plan to do will endanger some creature's life then it is my business."
"If you really want to know I will tell you...but after I tell you, you REALLY won't like what will come next."
"Try me." Starlight felt like she regretted saying that.
"I'm here to take all of a pony's magic and make sure that said creature never makes to the throne and becomes this world's ruler. After which she’ll be my new suit."
"Princess Twilight?"
"So she already made it, which will just complicate things; with my first problem being...you!"
The mass of tentacles broke its humanoid form and slithered towards the four ponies.
Starlight then teleported all of them back to the castle. The creature stopped and then reformed back into the shape that took earlier.
It then said "So she's a magic user...I see..I have just the thing for that."
The creature then walked back to the vessel that it took here to get something. It was a bow that looked very advanced but also simple. It also was not very big about a third of the creature's three meter height. The creature just gone now of its vessel when there were two ponies, a pegasus and unicorn, standing not too far away and from the looks of their armor they were part of Luna's Night Patrol.
The unicorn said, "Identify yourself, who are you?"
"You!"
The creature broke form again and lunged at the unicorn. The unicorn tried to put up a shield but the creature broke through it effortlessly. The creature entered the unicorn's mouth, the mass of tentacles that was it's body sliding down the unicorn's throat; soon the mass had disappeared into the unicorn, somehow able to fit itself into the pony without looking giving the pony any deformities.
The pegasus then said trembling, "Umm...Mid Tier? I think I should go get help."
"No." the creature said using the unicorn's voice.
Tentacles then shot out of the unicorn's body, rapping around the pegasus's body and pulling the pegasus towards what used to be his friend and fellow guard.
Meanwhile at Starlight's Castle, the four ponies were trying to figure what to do about the creature and it's plans for Twilight.
"Why did you just teleport us back? Was it really a better idea than letting that thing run around?" asked Tempest Shadow.
"I reacted, I didn't know what else to do and Trixie..." Starlight paused and continued "you didn't do anything wrong, just warn me the next time before you cast a light spell like that."
"It wanted take all of Twilight's magic and make her it's new suit. What did it mean by 'new suit'?" asked Moon Dancer.
"I hope that we don't find out." Starlight said fearful.
"We just have to figure where Trixie teleported us to before, teleport back there and trap that creature." Starlight said with more confidence than she actually had.
Unfortunately for Starlight, finding that creature was going to be harder than she thought, the place from before where's Starlight saw that light was now completely dark and she could not pinpoint the location in her mind where the ship was from before. As for the creature, it could now just walk about without drawing any suspicion thanks to it's "new suit."
To be continued...
When In Trouble, Call (Too Loudly) Upon A (Former) Princess
"I could not find anything about what this creature is in the library." said Starlight
“So how in Equestria are we supposed to catch that creature now?” asked Moon Dancer.
“I believe Luna mentioned something about a royal night patrol and while she's not a princess anymore, she's still managing them until she can find a captain. We could just have Trixie fall asleep and have her contact Luna in the dream world.” said Starlight.
“You think that you would have had a captain already.” Tempest said with look of disappointment. She continued asking “Also, how do you know that she will show up? She has many ponies and other creatures to help in the dream world.”
“Why does it have to be me?” asked Trixie.
“Because no one can attract an audience like you can and we need to get Luna quickly before that creature finds someone else and does whatever it plans to do to Twilight to them.” said Starlight
Starlight then prepared to cast a sleep spell on Trixie.
“I'm not sure this is such a good idea can't someone else--” said Trixie
*ZAP*
*Trixie is out like a light*
“Now all we have to do is wait until Trixie can get in contact with Luna in the dream world.” said Starlight
Meanwhile in the dream world. Trixie is in front of a large audience about to perform her final trick for magic show.
She says, "And now for my final trick, I will shake the very fibers of this realm with music."
Then suddenly out of nowhere she is holding an electric guitar, a microphone and next to her are some loud speakers attached to a sound system with the ability to crank the volume to up to 11, which she does.
"Watch and be AMAAAAAAZED!" Trixie yells into the microphone while playing her electric guitar.
The entire realm that she's in shakes violently as the dream audience is blown away. Suddenly a black portal opens on stage where Trixie is and everything else disappears. Luna walks through the portal and everything is now quiet.
"What is meaning of this?!? Are you trying to make me deaf with that horrible noise?!?" Luna says absolutely peeved.
"Oh sorry about that I wasn't sure how else to contact you through the dream world." Trixie said apologetically
"You could have just had a nightmare and waited for me to respond, or sent a letter or you know ANYTHING other than what you just did!!" Luna shouted.
"Starlight wants you to meet her back in the real world, it's an emergency."
“Ok.” Luna says rubbing her head.
Later back in the real world after the ringing in Luna's ears had subsided, she appeared in the castle library where Starlight in the hours were. Starlight explained the situation to Luna, the creature and its plans with Princess Twilight and thought that maybe her patrol would have seen something.
"I see...some monstrosity is after Twilight...and you want to see if my patrol have seen anything, correct?" Luna said gathering her thoughts.
"Yes I really apologize for contacting you like this but we didn't know what else to do there's a monster on the loose and we... I had lost its location." Starlight said ashamed.
"You should not be too hard on yourself, any pony would have done similar had they seen something like that." Luna reassured Starlight.
Tempest Shadow raised an eyebrow. Luna noticed and sighed. She corrected herself, "almost any pony."
"All right then, I will take you all to a base that's near Ponyville, there are eight ponies that patrol this time of night that work there. They should have seen something." Luna
After preparations were made, Luna opened up gateway to the base and they all walked through to the base, arriving in the front desk. The batpony at the desk proudly greeting Luna.
"Luna I never expected that you'd be here are right now, I would have prepared a welcoming party. Is this surprise inspection?" asked the batpony.
"No this is an emergency I need you all present." Luna said. She continued pointing to Starlight, "This is Starlight, Trixie, Tempest Shadow and..."
"Moon Dancer."
"They had seen some sort of creature that claimed to be after Twilight and had ill intentions."
"Oh my, this is serious. Oh, where are my manners I should introduce myself and the seven here. My name Shallow Night (unicorn), I handle the front desk as you can see, that is Pen Mare who handles accounting and taxes, you know the fun stuff. The two batponies near the weapons and armor closest are Jasmine and Shores, they handle patrolling second and equipment first. The two pegasus ponies over there, Windy Travels and Day light handle filing reports and are third to patrolling. Lastly there is Mid Tier and Cloud Nine, who are our main patrol ponies. Mid Tier is a skilled unicorn in defense and Cloud Nine deals with quick offense and also a Wonderbolt. As you can see they are on break." Shallow Night said with some nervousness.
"Luna, I think that we should go ask Mid Tier and Cloud Nine first." said Starlight.
Mid Tier and Cloud Nine were over in the break room drinking coffee, when Luna, Starlight, Moon Dancer, Tempest and Trixie approached them.
As they were approached, both Mid Tier and Cloud Nine look up to see Princess Luna and greet her accordingly, surprised that she's here.
"Hello Princess Luna it's an honor to have you here. You just caught us after our Patrol, how are you?" said Mid Tier.
"I'm fine but more importantly I need to ask you something. Starlight and her friends saw a monster and we were wondering if you two saw something like that during your Patrol this night?” Luna asked seriously.
"Whatever it was, we didn't see anything like that." Cloud Nine
"It was a huge mass of tentacles three meters tall and it had a very look human at the shadows, as Starlight put it." Moon Dancer said and continued "Hey Starlight, what is a human and how do know what one looks like?"
"That's not important right now. Are you sure that you didn't see anything?" Luna said keeping things from diverting.
"Nope and Shallow Night would have known about it as well. We always report our findings to her." Mid Tier said professionally.
Luna then noticed something and asked, "Cloud Nine, where is your patrol helmet?"
"Even if it helped me see in the dark, it was kind of cumbersome." Cloud Nine said, getting little defensive.
"You never complained about it before. You liked how light it was for armor and said it looks cool." Shallow Night noted.
"I changed my mind. Besides, if it is really that much of problem, I can just go and get it after my break." Cloud Nine said.
"Which will only be ten minutes from now, unfortunately." Mid Tier murmured eyeing the clock.
"So, you didn't see anything?" Luna asked.
"Nope." Mid Tier
"Sorry, Luna. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary." said Cloud Nine hiding some annoyance.
Then both Cloud Nine and Mid Tier went back drinking their coffee made specifically for long nights like these. Then Luna, Starlight and her friends went to talk in private in another room, the recently vacant office of Shallow Night.
"I did not sense anything wrong with them other than some defensiveness and a missing patrol helmet, but they seem to be telling the truth. Whatever you met in the forest must have gone right past Patrol." Luna said
"Maybe we should go home now. I really don't want to search for a monster at night." Moon Dancer
"Trixie was not convinced. Maybe they know something and don't want to tell us because they would get in trouble, not just with Luna." Trixie said dramatically.
"I can see Cloud Nine's point about the helmet. I wouldn't want to be walking around all day with armor on, heavy or light." said Starlight.
"It's really not that bad. Looking back on past dreams that I've explored, some pegasi can be very fickle about what they wear, like Rainbow Dash." said Luna.
"They seem like they didn't want to talk to us as well." Tempest pointed out.
"You're thinking of accusing them of conspiring to cover something up?" asked Moon Dancer.
"I think that Cloud Nine losing his patrol helmet was particularly suspicious. While I may not be too familiar with the Wonderbolts. I can still say that as someone who's headed a military faction, you typically don't lose parts of your uniform like that. It would have taken something more extreme for someone to just drop their helmet like that and go off." said Tempest.
Starlight then pondered it for a moment and said, "I just thought about something. It looked really human whenever I saw it from the shadows. Maybe it actually was and then took off its disguise. Maybe this creature is like a Changeling and can look like other creatures?"
"Or maybe your eyes were just playing tricks on you?" Moon Dancer
"Or we can just test the first hypothesis. We are trying to figure whether or not they have anything to do with a creature threatening another’s life; the life of our friend no less. Whoever wants to go home can go home, as for me I'm going to go see Mid Tier and Cloud Nine and see what they know." declared Tempest.
"But we don't know if they know anything and the mistakes can all just be coincidental things that they happened to do. For example, losing a patrol helmet just happens sometimes. It may not happen often, but still does to normal ponies and other creatures. I need more evidence." said Moon Dancer wanting to go about this situation slower.
"Then I'll go get you some." Tempest said as she left the discussion and went over to the break room, where mid-tier and Cloud Nine were getting up to leave. Trixie decided to come along with her. Trixie had an idea.
Mid Tier and Cloud Nine were about to leave for another patrol around Ponyville. They had just left the break room when Tempest stopped giving them a serious look.
“From my count, you have more than four minutes left in your break, where are you off to so soon? I have a few questions to ask you.” asked Tempest.
"I decided to come with you and thought of something special to help figure-" Trixie said suddenly stopping as Shallow Night walked past her. The office was suddenly quiet and her hoof steps echoed loudly.
Suddenly Shallow Night came by levitating some papers in front of her. She then bumped into Tempest almost dropping her papers. She then apologized and she, “I am so sorry, I just need to get these reports that filing cabinet near the break room and I can finally get to MY break.”
She casually walks over to the filing cabinet and puts away the reports, making sure that everything is organized properly before closing it. She then notices that Mid Tier and Cloud Nine.
“Where are you off to so soon? The schedule says you two still have about eleven minutes left before you are back on duty.” She chuckled to herself, “Usually, you really take advance of the time, Cloud Nine.”
“Don’t you have something better to do than tease me over a minor thing? While you are here, can you help me and Mid Tier escort this…unicorn out of here. We have a job to do and I do not have time to be stuck here answering questions.” Cloud Nine said losing his temper.
“Yeesh, what has you in such a bad mood? You’re usually not like this, you usually like the banter?” Shallow Night said now concerned.
Both Tempest Shadow and Cloud Nine glare at each other, with Mid Tier starting to feel a bit nervous.
"You know maybe we should just answer a few questions to avoid any...altercations." Mid Tier said trying to mitigate the situation.
"Wait, Tempest! Trixie has a solution for this. While I was in the castle library with Starlight learning about more advanced spell casting. I found one that reads a unicorn's magic usage, as in how much magic did they use within a given period of time. Starlight used it on me to know how much I practiced my lessons. I could use it on Mid Tier." Trixie said, thinking it to be a decent enough idea.
Cloud Nine rejected the idea, claiming it would prove nothing. Unicorns, especially enforcers practice magic consistently so Trixie would gain nothing from doing it. More importantly how would the irregular use of magic prove that either he or Mid Tier know anything about said creature or whatever plans it has.
"Maybe Mid Tier used a large teleport spell out of fear or used a lot of magic in dealing with the creature." Trixie said with confidence.
Tempest was about to say something when she noticed that Mid Tier was holding back some nervousness. She then said, "Let's see where this goes, it sounds like a good place to start."
"Umm... I would...but I can't right now. Besides, it's an advanced spell and Trixie might still be learning, so we wouldn't want an accident to happen if she messes it up." Mid Tier said now starting to show how nervous he is.
"Come on, Mid Tier let's get out of here before she does something to us that she will later regret." Cloud Nine said getting behind Mid Tier and pushing him towards the exit.
"Tempest is right, what are you two hiding?" Luna asked sternly.
"I trust you, Trixie, cast the spell on them." said Starlight.
Trixie focused and cast the spell on Mid Tier and nothing happened to him. The only thing is that Trixie's horn briefly glowed red and then returned to normal.
Trixie then said confused, "The spell is saying that you haven't cast anything within the past 24 hours."
"Maybe you cast the spell incorrectly." Mid Tier said now standing still.
Starlight decided to try the spell herself and extended the time out to three days and her horn glowed red too and then returned to normal. No, Trixie did cast the spell correctly and for some reason it was saying that Mid Tier had not cast anything in the past three days or even used any of his magic; not a teleportation spell or even a consistent use of levitation that would register as some magic use. Come to think of it, she had noticed earlier that Mid Tier did not even use his magic to levitate the coffee to his mouth.
Shallow Night then chimed in overhearing the conversation, "But that can't be right, Mid Tier was practicing several spells in front of me yesterday and the day before. What's up? What's going on Mid Tier?"
At this point the interrogation of Mid Tier and Cloud Nine had attracted the attention of the other ponies there. All of them now looking at Mid Tier and Cloud Nine.
"I give up with this facade. You just kept going." Cloud Nine said starting to not sound like himself.
Out of options and with everyone watching them, Mid Tier and Cloud Nine revealed the truth, bluish tentacles sprouting from their bodies accompanied sounds of bones cracking and the sight of blood spilling out of wounds made by the tentacles and their eyes turning completely red.
"Yes, we found it and now we ARE it." Cloud Nine said in a voice very similar to the creature’s.
"You really should have just let the matter go, creatures. Your lives may have been spared or at least you all could keep being yourselves." said Mid Tier in the creature's voice. He then said, "For example, because of you now she won't survive."
What used to be Mid Tier pretended to strike at Trixie, but instead shot tentacles at Shallow Night. Unfortunately, she had fainted after the previous display of horror and was engulfed by tentacles, steam then coming from her body as it is slowly dissolved by acids.
"I didn't think THIS would happen! What do we do!?" Trixie said now visibly horrified.
"Get behind me, all four of you." Luna said preparing her horn. Starlight, Moon Dancer, Trixie and Tempest all got behind Luna as she summoned a large barrier around them.