> A Darkness Falls > by molporgnier > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > New Arrival > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The small town of Ponyville was bustling, many ponies needing to go many places very quickly. One particular purple pony, a Miss Twilight Sparkle, was on her way to the town post office as she was going to send a letter to her parents, not something out of the ordinary but still a task needing to be done. As she walked about the town she greeted everypony with a friendly hello when she noticed a new pony in town; he was standing in the middle of town with a large smile on his face, he was a black colt with maroon red hair and neon red eyes that were wide open, his pupils were almost non-existent they were so constricted. Twilight decided that she might welcome him, the post office wouldn't close for another 5 hours so why not? she thought. As she walked over to him his gaze did not meet her so she tried to get his attention, Twilight-"Hello there, are you new in town?" The colts eyes did not move but his neck muscle flexed and his smile shot into a closed mouth frown. Colt-"why, yes i am..." his eyes shot to twilight and she felt as though his eyes where burning through her skull, "...so what is your name, little mare?" Twilight felt a pang of fear in her but quickly brushed it away, so he's acting a bit strange, but he's not gonna hurt me, i havent done anything to him., Twilight-"my name is Twilight Sparkle, whats yours?" he ground his teeth a bit and Twilight could see all the muscles in his neck contort, "They call me White Moon, so that is what you may call me, little mare." Twilight was confused as to why White Moon was calling her 'little mare' or who 'they' were, but she decided not to take more time as the letters she had still needed mailing, Twilight-"O.K, well I guess I will see you around town then?" White Moons eyes relaxed, though his pupils did not dilate into normality, "oh, I believe we will be seeing more than our fair shares of each other, isn't that right Francis? Well we cant tell her now or she'll run away..." he continued talking and Twilight couldn't see he was talking to, but decided it was probably better not to ask and continued on her way to the post office. ....................... As she entered the small building she noticed that there was a line, lots of ponies seem to be mailing stuff today., as she looked for the back of the line she found her friend applejack was the one at the very back, she took her place in line and decided to ask applejack about White Moon. she poked applejack on her hind to get her attention, as she turned around to see who was getting her attention she was surprised to see twilight there. Applejack-"Oh, hey Twi, what are ya'll doin here?" Twilight-"oh I'm just here to mail my parents a letter, I send them one every week. What are you doing here?" Applejack looked down at a small box by her hooves, Applejack-"ahm just mailing this here box of apple cider to my aunt and uncle in manehatten, they cant get enough of the stuff." they both giggled and Twilight remembered her new acquaintance, Twilight-"oh, yeah, you didnt happen to come across that new colt in town did you?" Applejack gave a confused look which morphed into one of thought finally ending in slight defeat, Applejack-"No ah can't say ah have, why?" Twilight-"well its just, he's kinda, you know, weird. his eyes are all the way open all the time and he kept calling me 'little mare'." Applejack raised her eyebrow, "that is kinda weird, hunh." she shrugged and turned back around to face forward as the line began to move. > Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy was taking her usual walk around Ponyville, it was a daily routine, she greeted the birds that chirped on by, said hello to all the little bunnies that scurried about. nothing out of the ordinary and as she passed by sugar cube corner she closed her eyes and let the sun bake her cheeks a bit, but when she opened her eyes, a certain black colt was staring at her with nervous but bloodshot eyes. "oh hello there... I'm not in your way am I?" his face grew into a grin. "oh, no... Quite the...contrary." he walked around Fluttershy, and she froze, paralyzed with fear, as is natural for her when she meets someone new. "oh...ok." she eeked out as barely a whisper. White Moon was in front of her now and as she lifted her head, his eyes almost touched hers. she jumped back, but when she looked again he was gone. she looked around and he was nowhere to be found. as she galloped into sugar cube corner, Pinkie greeted her, "hey there Fluttershy..." she noticed the panic state of her friend, though it wasn't anything new, "so whats up?" Fluttershy calmed down and gave a concerned face, "you didn't happen to notice a black colt with huge red eyes outside...did you?" Pinkies mind raced with all the things black that she could think of, a colt was not one of them. "nope, Ive seen a million other black things, but no colts" Fluttershy didn't understand how a whole pony could just up and vanish, she decided to ask her other friends. Pinkie watched her obviously distraught friend leave but knew she could help no further. As she walked into the kitchen her mind filled with all the delicious treats she could make and began finding the necessary ingredients. Her confections needed their time to bake, so Pinkie elected to go up stairs and see what Gummy was doing. She burst open the door, "GUMMY!" her eyes opened to find that it was not her toothless alligator that greeted her, but the rear of a black pony, hmm, i don't remember him coming in? The colts large, bloodshot, eyes stared straight through her. "ah, i see you've finally come up to see me Pinkie Pie." She didn't understand how he knew her name, but he didn't seem all that bad, a little twitchy, but not bad. "Hi! you haven't seen Gummy have you?" his stare did not falter and his face didn't move, all the muscles seemed stuck in a devilish smile. Pinkie blinked, and he was there in front of her, "I know your greatest fear, your mind will not survive the night" she blinked again and he was gone, Gummy smacked his lower jaw against the wood door and Pinkie turned around to see the door behind her was closed. > Rainbow Dash and Rarity > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash was gliding effortlessly through the clouds, bursting them into oblivion as her blue body smashed into them. She loved having the wind in her face loved the speed, the adrenaline, of flying as fast as she could. Rainbow flapped her wings and she set down on one of the few remaining clouds in the sky. It was a very large cloud, ‘way too big to have accumulated by itself’, Rainbow thought. As she looked over the whole cloud, a sight stood before her that defied all laws. A black earth pony stood looking back at her. “So little blue bird. You love the clouds hunh?” The colt seemed to be bleeding around his eyes and it took Rainbow Dash a few seconds to process the words as the sight was so odd to her. “Well I am…” He slammed his hoof down with a crash and thunder bolts shocked Dash and his voice seemed to boom around her. “Quiet, whelp!” He started to gallop at her and wings burst forth from his back with sickening cracks and sprays of blood. He came closer and closer at full speed Rainbow didn't understand what was going on and tried to move her hooves but found herself unable, felt that they were too heavy. She looked up and he seemed to collide with her and she felt…nothing. No wind, no pain, Rainbow opened her eyes and there she was, sitting on a much smaller cloud. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rarity zipped about her workshop. Her newest design slowly but surely coming to light. It was a white dress like blouse that ended at the flank, red lace adorned the bottom to keep ones stomach covered. The midline was outlined in stunning blue sapphires extending out to cover the shoulders and flank while the red lace had holes where some gem or other was to be placed. Rarity stood eyeing over her creation and wondering what gemstone might adorn the bottom when the obvious realization hit her mind like a slap to the face. "Rubies!" Rarity rushed over to her large chest of rubies, her mind rushing with thoughts of what next to do with her outfit. Out of reflex she levitated the box open and tried to bring the rubies into view so she could pick the right ones, but her magic picked up nothing. She could feel the nothingness in her magicks grip and she grew slightly ill. "I just filled this thing..." as she checked the box nigh in horror a small gem twinkled in her periphery. "Hunh, I don't ever..." she noticed a large line of rubies leading up stairs and brushed the whole thing off as Sweetie Belle likely messing about in her things, again. Rarity levitated each ruby one by one as she ascended the stair case. The line lead straight into her room and she closed her eyes and called, "Sweetie Belle, you really should..." as her eyes opened her gaze met a startling thing. Her whole room had been swept clean of everything, save a strange symbol made of the gems that took up the majority of the floor. "Well, this is odd. Oh well, I'll have to find out what she did with my things another time, right now I need to create!" she took the whole lot in with her magic and made her way down the stairs, dispensing the majority back into the chest and taking with her as much as she needed. The Creation Room's door was closed, but Rarity thought that Sweetie Belle must have had some crazy idea going on with the Crusaders and pushed the door open without another thought. "Now Sweetie...Belle?" Her Creation Room laid barren, just as her bed room had. Even the window had been replaced with brick and mortar. All was gone save a few candles that burned brightly in the room, illuminating a black colt. "Oh miss Rarity, how could you mistake somepony like me for your dear little sister?" Rarity was taken aback that the colt knew her or her sister as she had never seen him before, she didn't even know any black colts in town. Before she retorted to the statement she posed a question that she had been born from her seeing of his physical appearance "Where are your eyes?" The candles burst forth with flame and the door behind her slammed shut, shoving her into the room. The fire engulfed her, searing every inch of her. She screamed in pain and the colt slowly went over to her and as she tried to run he slammed her onto the wall, restricting her windpipe. "You'll not die until I say you can!" Rarity gasped for air and the room returned to its previous state. Nothing moved, the window had returned, and there were no signs of any of the happenings that had gone on. Sweetie Belle threw open the door. "What's wrong sis!?" She shouted the question as she burst through the door, panting heavily. Rarity coughed and said, "I don't know" > Night > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight Sparkle hung her head in exhaustion. Another day of relentless studying left her physically and mentally drained. She laggedly made her way up what seemed to be mountains rather than stairs, every hoofstep further draining her already dry reserve of energy. The sheets were just extra buffer for the already comfortable mattress. The moment her head hit the duck feather pillow, did she fly into deepest sleep. She stood in a field, the vividness of this resting hallucination startled her; it felt as if she had moved into a different plane of existence. The light of the sun was sickly, giving a pale white tint to everything. Endless seas of green surrounded her, a tiny purple dot; no trees, no bushes, no wind. The calm world had an odd warmth to it. Like she wanted to be here, like she needed to. For hours she wandered, taking in the pure peace of it. No matter how long the stretch of time had been it was all still enamoring. But there is calm before the storm. Twilight felt, emerging within herself, a sort of paranoia. First just a bit of glancing behind her, feeling she wasn't alone. It was only a trick of the eye, But it grew. It grew until she simply ran, and ran until she couldn't run anymore. As the fatigue caught up with her, the tiny mare's body became drenched in sweat. She stood for what seemed like days, until the grass began to move. To engulf her. The sickening light flowing into a malevolent dark. The poor child's eyes opened into a small stone room. Suffocation, violent red lights flashing streaks across her periphery. She used a light spell, only to feel her horn fizzle before even an ounce of light was produced. A small voice whispered in her head. Echoes of a terrible cackle rang through the small room. Her ears stung from the pain. A single light pierced through the veil of dark, illuminating a massive mirror. Twilight did not so much walk, as was translated towards it. In the shining of the flood lights she found sollice, but in the mirror she found a newer horror. First she found the colt she had met earlier that day, his manic, bloodshot eyes now relaxed and calm; his black coat and red mane now a stark white. Then she blinked. A filly Twilight looked back at her with a sort of adventure in her eyes, like the world had discoveries ad infintinium. Then she blinked. Twilight saw no change in the mirror, but felt much more withered, a hoof against her face revealed the wrinkles. She could feel every single groove upon her face, lick against gums that had no more teeth. Then she blinked. And she realized she was alone, she realized she couldn't wake up.