Hello everyone! Gold here with another chapter of Darkened Dawn! It has been far too long for a new chapter so I'm not gonna go over reviews today, and we can just get to it. Sorry if you had questions, but I want to get this to you guys, so here we go!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except Gold, the Eon, the plot, etc. All OCs belong to their respectful owners.

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Gold the Fox presents...

Eon Chronicles

Darkened Dawn

Chapter 23: Tick Tock

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Aura was in the cave that Applejack told him to go down for an Eon Shard. Aura could tell it was a trap and was prepared to fight or dodge anything that came his way. The cave wasn't dark, but was lightly illuminated by small crystal structures jutting out of the cave in no particular pattern. No weird electronic or mechanical devices could be seen anywhere in the cave. Not even a simple cave collapse trap that would keep Aura in there for a while. It was very peculiar. Aura did sense some dark aura in the Applejack that he talked to, but so far everything was fine. Even the surroundings in the cave could fit the description of where an Eon Shard would be. Maybe, Aura's sense of aura was being weird or something. Yeah, that surely must be it, Aura thought. That is what he was thinking until he hit a wall in front of him. It was a giant rock wall, which ended the cave. Nothing special. No special holder for an Eon Shard, no trap, no anything, just a solid wall.

"Ooooookay then...rock wall." Aura said out loud, no one else to hear him.

He looked around for something. By this point, Aura was kinda hoping for a trap of some sort, just to liven up the walk he took down there and give the trip some kind of meaning. But alas, this was not the case.

"Damn it, and it took hours and hours to...wait...hours." Aura said, realizing something with time.

The cave was a waste of time. And it wasn't cause evil Applejack didn't put anything in there, or forgot. It was a waste of time. That's what was intended.

"Shit..."

---

Let's fast forward a while from the end of last chapter. It was Blade and Ensis's turn to watch over the ponies in the basement last time we saw. We are going to fast forward about twelve hours. During this time period, we had two changes in who was watching the ponies. We had Blade and Ensis, and they had no problems with the ponies whatsoever. By the end of their shift, it was late, almost midnight. Sadly, after Blade and Ensis, it was time for Gold and Glimpse to watch. They swapped places, also saying their good nights and started the shift. The shift for Gold and Glimpse was going to be longer since people were going to sleep a little over the six hour time-frame, so Gold and Glimpse had a shift close to nine hours long. During their shift, they took turns staying awake and going to sleep for a couple of hours, to ensure nothing was going to happen at night. And nothing did. It was perfectly normal. Nothing attacked. Nothing moved. Nothing out of the ordinary. Little did they know, the 'Evil' Mane 6 had a meeting that night to move their plans ahead for their master. It was time. Let us now go to the exact minute that Gold and Glimpse had finished their shift.

Gold was sleeping on one of Tails's comfy couches in the living room, while Glimpse was reading a newspaper on the other chair. All was quiet until an alarm clock they had set up was beeping and shaking like mad. Glimpse took his eyes from the paper to look at the clock and then at Gold, who was ignoring the alarm and still snoozing. After five minutes of the alarm playing and Gold not waking up, Glimpse closed his paper and stood up. With a sigh, Glimpse grabbed one of Gold's feet and pulled him off of the couch, waking Gold up startled. Gold groaned as he was violently awoken by being tossed to the ground and turned himself around to look up at Glimpse.

"Wake up, shift is over." Glimpse said, walking back to his paper.

"You could have woke me up...oh I don't know...NORMALLY?" Gold yelled, slightly aggravated.

"The loudest alarm in the world rang for five minutes straight with the vibration setting on high, and you slept through it."

"A nice, 'Gold wake up now' would have worked." Gold said, getting up and throwing the blanket he used onto Tails's couch.

"I could have hit you with a Chaos whatever to wake you up." Glimpse said, with a smirk.

Gold paused before talking, "Actually, throwing me off the couch to wake me up is perfect."

"That's what I thought." Glimpse said, satisfied he got away with that.

"So shift is over...finally!"

"Yes, it is, now I believe it is Unknown and his family's turn."

"You would be correct. Let's go." Gold said, and ran out the door with Glimpse right behind him.

---

At Sonic's house...

Sonic awoke from a night of doing nothing besides contemplating about Rainbow and what he said and did. He still could give zero bucks about Gold. The scar with Gold ran deep in him now than it ever did before. Was it going to heal? Who knows. Nonetheless, Sonic was thinking about his Dashie and if he should say sorry. Was she going to forgive him? Probably not. But Sonic just wanted her to know he was sorry, just have her think about his apology, and maybe she could forgive. Well, luckily, Rainbow just happened to walk in. She left the door open, some of the sunlight spilling into the house as she walked in slowly.

"Rainbow!" Sonic called from the kitchen, making himself something to eat.

"What do you want!" She declared hostilely.

"I want to tell you that I'm..." he didn't get to complete his sentence.

"You want to say sorry? Well. Apology...denied."

As the words hit Sonic like a ton of bricks, something else hit him like a ton of bricks. Rainbow without warning flew at him in a rainbow blur, hitting him square in the chest with her head, causing Sonic fall on his back and hit his head hard on the marble floors he owned in his kitchen. He was sent into a daze, vision blurring a bit from his head being hit on the ground so hard. He looked and saw Rainbow standing on top of him, hoof poised to finish him.

"Rainbow...your hair...why is it..."

He could say no more as she brought her hoof down on his head, putting him in an unconscious state.

---

Back at Gold's house...

Gold and Glimpse had already went to Unknown's place to get them on their six hour shift and were now entering the house.

"I hope they check on the ponies right away, like we asked." Gold said.

"Unknown and his kids are responsible to watch them. Nothing bad happened last night, don't see why something would happen now." Glimpse said.

"Well speaking of ponies, I'm gonna try to coax Twilight out again." Gold said, walking into his hallway.

"Don't lose your temper."

"What is that supposed to mean!" Gold said in a defensive tone.

"Every time you tried before, I could tell you were getting kinda aggravated." Glimpse pointed out.

It was true. When they weren't on their shift, Gold would be trying to get Twilight out of his room to enjoy herself almost every ten minutes. You could say Gold was getting slight frustrated and desperate.

"I don't lose my temper." Gold said.

"Right...coughjealousyrampagecough." Glimpse said with fake coughs accompanying with him.

"That was a one-time thing!" Gold declared in the hallway.

"Riiiiiiight!" Glimpse semi-yelled down the hallway, chuckling a bit afterward.

Gold was at his own door and knocked lightly on it.

"Hey Twi, you awake?"

No answer.

"Twi, I know you are doing something in there, I can hear things."

No answer.

"Twilight, please open the door."

No, WAIT! Oh wait, sorry, no answer.

"Twilight, you know I love you, but this is my room, open the door."

Silence.

"Please."

Nothing.

"Now."

"Gold, calm." Glimpse said, hearing a change in Gold's tone.

"She isn't answering. Twi, is something wrong?"

Silence for a second, but then there was an answer.

"Oh, I'm perfectly fine." somepony said within the room.

"Thank Eon, a voice! Now open the door please." Gold practically begged.

The room went back to dead silence.

"Twilight, open this door."

"Gold..."

"Twilight, I said open this door!"

"Gold, calm yourself..."

"Alright, I'm DONE!"

Gold kicked the door open with one kick and it slammed open, the door a bit damaged from the force of the kick Gold gave. He was finally back in his own room. But, no one and no pony was there. Not a single trace of anypony living in there.

"Really, you had to kick the door down!" Glimpse yelled a bit, walking down the hallway now.

"But she...she..." Gold said, at a loss of words.

"She what?" Glimpse said and then took a peek inside to see no Twilight Sparkle anywhere. "Oh..."

"Where did she...is she that mad at me..." Gold muttered slightly.

"Wait, what is that?" Glimpse said, pointing at the bed.

Hovering over the bed was single sphere of magic, the colors black and red swirling inside of it. Just one orb of it, swirling, giving them both a dreadful feeling.

"Seems like some magic of sorts." Glimpse pointed out.

Suddenly, Gold's old clock that ticks with a loud tick every second got a small aura of red surrounding it and started working again, ticking loudly.

"Wait, that clock never worked..." Gold said, looking at the peculiar clock.

Tick.

"That clock wasn't working before?" Glimpse said, perplexed.

"Never did..."

Tock.

"It has that aura around it..." Glimpse said.

Gold looked back at the sphere of magic, and saw some red lightning forming inside of it, getting more violent as the clock ticked.

Tick.

"Glimpse, that sphere...and the clock..."

"Wait about it..."

Gold thought very quickly in his mind the connection between them.

"Glimpse...run."

"What?"

"RUN!"

Tock.

Glimpse started running toward the front door with Gold right behind him. Glimpse, with accidental instinct, closed the front door when he ran out, accidentally leaving Gold in.

Tick.

As Gold's ears were filled with a destructive sound of things being blown up and incinerated, he jumped out of a side window, landing on his front lawn as his house imploded behind him from the magical bomb that was planted in his house. As the bomb imploded the house on itself, pieces of everything in the house were being sucked in by the magical orb that now multiplied in size. The house was almost completely gone when the small orb exploded this time, sending shards of anything that was in the house outward, some shards of glass and sharp pieces of lumber being some examples of the shrapnel. Gold and Glimpse were both laying on the ground to avoid anything, Gold putting small shields above them both. The shrapnel stopped raining down and being flung around, the damage was done. When Gold heard the destruction was over, he put down the shields and breathed heavily while staring at the ground in shock. He felt a foot tap his side lightly and looked up to see Aura, outstretching his hand. Gold gladly took the hand and got up and looked at Glimpse, who was now standing up.

"Thanks for closing the door, wouldn't want to waste the air conditioning." Gold said angrily and sarcastically.

"Sorry, didn't mean to."

"So, what in the aura just happened." Aura asked, looking at the destruction.

"I think we just found out why Twilight was blocking herself out."

"Well Twilight wasn't, something that wasn't Twilight did." Gold clarified.

"I'm guessing you two were tricked." Aura assumed and the other two nodded. "So did I, got sent into a dead end cave by fake AJ."

"So that's where you were." Glimpse said.

"Yeah, she knew I could sense their evil, so they had to make me stall by taking hours to search a dead end cave."

"That sounds like something out of a video game I play..." Gold referenced.

"That's beside the point, we need to get everyone to know." Glimpse said, getting back on track.

"Right." Aura said, and him and Glimpse zoomed off.

Before Gold also took off, he looked back at the destruction that was once his house that he inherited from his father. A single tear fell and Gold clenched his fists before zooming off.

---

Moment earlier at Tails's house...

"So, we are just checking up on them?" Xavier asked in the elevator as him, his twin sister and his father were in the elevator, going to check on the ponies as soon as they got to the house.

"Yeah. Might wake Pinkie up for a party, getting boring around here." Unknown said, a little too giddy about a party from Pinkie.

"I don't know Dad, they may be still sleeping..." Nia said.

"Well then, we wake them up!" Unknown said with a tone of 'duh' in his voice.

The elevator stopped and opened. The same four ponies from the other day were still sleeping.

"Alright cool, they are safe and sleeping, let's go." Xavier said, pointing backward with his thumb toward the elevator.

"No, no, we need a party!" Unknown said, rushing to the sleeping Pinkie at an unnatural speed. "Pinkie, wake up! It's party time!"

Pinkie stayed asleep. Well to Unknown's knowledge she was still sleeping.

"I didn't know Pinkie was a heavy sleeper." Unknown called back to his kids, who were slowly walking to him. "Come on Pinkie, wake up!"

"Dad, you sure she is sleeping?" Xavier said cautiously.

"Well duh! What else would she be? Come on Pinkie!" Unknown said, shaking the pink pony a bit.

"Dad..."

"Yes, Nia? What is it, you got a good idea how to wake her up?"

"Dad...check under her eyelids..." Nia suggested, getting slightly tensed up.

"Why, that's a very peculiar way of waking her, but we are the randomest family in the universe, so what the hay!" Unknown said.

Unknown grabbed one of Pinkie's eyelids and looked at her eyes. They were dilated, and Pinkie was still asleep.

"Uh...kids..."

"Yeah?"

"She's un...un...unconscious..."

The bright lights that Tails had installed down there were shut off immediately after that sentence, getting a scream by someone in there.

"Now Xavier, I know you don't have your nightlight, but that isn't any excuse for screaming like a girl..."

"DAD!"

"Right, right, sorry. Must have just blown a fuse." Unknown said, fumbling a bit in the dark.

"It's party time!" somepony said in the dark.

"Oh hey, I think Pinkie is awake!" Unknown said, getting a bit excited.

"Dad, I'm still next to the couch. Pinkie is still here..." Xavier said.

"Then who said..."

Unknown heard the air get sliced with something and sidestepped to the left and heard something hit the wall behind him. Unknown looked to see a knife, stuck in the wall.

"Oh no..."

"Dad?"

"Oh no...oh no...oh no..."

"Dad, what is wrong!"

"Pinkamena..." somepony whispered into Unknown's ear, making him jump forward.

"WHAT WAS THAT!" Xavier asked, he heard the whisper as well.

"IT'S PINKAMENA!" Unknown practically yelled.

"Pinkawhatnow?"

"It's an evil version of Pinkie, that likes to kill things and stab things and take organs and make cupcakes!"

"That's right!" a high-pitched voice said in the room.

Several sounds of knives being thrown and cutting the air could be heard, but the family was dodging them expertly.

"Oh come on, this isn't fair!" the high-pitched voice known as Pinkamena complained.

"Then get better, you crazy pony!" Unknown yelled with some fear and confidence in his voice.

"Okay then! If you want to be my next batch of cupcakes that bad, fine then!"

More knives were thrown at the family from all different angle and sides, almost seemingly impossible.

"Kids, how are you doing?" Unknown called out, but received no answer.

"Aw, a father worrying about their kids, how delicious!" Pinkamena squealed.

"Kids, answer me!" Unknown yelled in the darkness, trying to peer into the darkness to see something.

He did see something. But it wasn't something good. He saw Pinkamena, staring into his soul.

"TIME FOR YOU TO BE A CUPCAKE!" she yelled crazily and threw a barrage of knives at him.

Before Unknown could get hit at all by the knives, he felt a hand grab his hand and he disappeared, the knives hit the back wall with several clangs.

"Aw...I really wanted cupcakes..."

---

Outside...

Unknown materialized into existence outside Tails's house, right between his two kids.

"So, Pinkamena. Crazy freaking pony spawned from the depths of Tartarus." Xavier said, looking at his dad, and Unknown gave a small nod.

"Well, great. Another thing to add to my nightmare list." Gold said.

"Be happy I teleported you out of that hell hole." Glimpse said.

The group was all there, Gold, Glimpse, Aura, Blade, Ensis, Unknown, Xavier, and Nia. They all had found out the fake Mane 6. Suddenly the evil ones in question teleported around them, forming a circle around them. They all had the Elements of Harmony on them, the jewels on them blackened and darkened. Just as suddenly as they came in, a familiar figure teleported, hovering above the group of heroes. Mephiles.

"YOU!" Gold said.

"Oh, can't even say my name. I'm saddened. Well, maybe I'll be better watching you be beaten by your own pony friends!" Mephiles said, and then snapped his fingers.

The evil Mane 6 duplicated themselves, so now there was two of each. And the again, now to four of each. Eight of each. Sixteen of each. Thirty-two of each. And finally, sixty-four of each.

"Oh...shoot..."

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BUM BUM BUM! AGAIN! I had so much fun writing this, especially the Pinkamena part! It's such a fun character to use! Pinkie and her attitude with a murderous streak! AWESOMENESS! A BIG BATTLE NEXT CHAPTER! BE PREPARED! Thank you for reading and reviewing, leave a review if you liked, and as always...

EONNNNNNNN OUUUTTTTTTTTTTTTT!