-A few minutes earlier-

As the ponies watched their human friend leave the room, their minds were racing with questions and fears that they were unsure of how to deal with. What was going on? Why did the hooded ponies kill one of their agents? And the one that was directly at the front of the group’s cloudy minds, what was lurking inside of the station just outside their safe haven?

“What do we do now?” Glitterball asked in an uncertain tone while glancing around at her teammates and the various guards scattered around the room. In response to her question, Fireside turned around to face the majority of the group.

“You heard the man… let’s get this room secured.” Fireside stated confidently while looking around to tally how many guards he had to work with. His confidence all but disappeared once he realized just how many unicorns he had under his command. Counting the princess, Twilight, and Glitterball, there were only a handful of magic users in the entire room.

“*Sigh*… Alright, listen up. We need to get those windows covered right away. I want at least one unicorn to get on those windows and put a magic barrier up. As for the rest of you, go and watch the doors.” Fireside instructed to his band of eagerly listening soldiers. All of the guards offered a quick nod and a salute before rushing off to accomplish their given task.

The others watched as the guards scrambled around the room to find their posts. The brown unicorns all rushed up to a vacant window and lit up their horns to place a force field on them. All of the earth ponies rushed over to a door and stood in front of it to watch over it diligently. By the time all of the ponies had settled, there was one unicorn on every window, and two guards watching each of the three doors out of the room.

Now that all of the entrances to the room were being protected, the ponies felt a little safer and more comfortable. Many of them relaxed their tense nerves and started walking around a bit more, although nobody went anywhere near the doors or windows still.

“Ok, now that we have a temporary safe area we need to think about what we’re going to do.” Fireside stated while turning to face the rest of the group.

“What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously.

“I think he means that we need to find a way past the dark matter trapping us here.” Luna spoke up while taking a look out of one of the far off windows at the pitch blackness outside.

“Yeah… that is a good question. What are we going to do? Tom barely managed to get us out of that cave, and the stuff that attacked us there was scared off by the sun.” Rainbow Dash said in an uneasy tone while glancing over to her two remaining friends. Although their situation was similar to what happened in the cave, the pegasus felt even more concerned now that more people were involved.

“I’m sure we can find a spell to fend it off ourselves… but if we can’t do anything from in here, there is still no need to worry.” Luna said confidently. Everyone looked at her with mild confusion as they wondered how she could have such an unwavering spirit in a situation like this.

“And why is that? I don’t want to be the negative one in the group, but we’re being held against our will in a building by some ponies with the full intention of killing us. That is a pretty good reason to worry in my books.” Glitterball spoke up to voice the group’s concerns.

“My sister said that she was going out to gather supplies. She will be back for us later, and when she sees what is happening, she will get us out of here. And that will only be necessary if we can’t escape by ourselves.” Luna explained with an optimistic smile, hearing that the white alicorn would be returning filled the group with confidence and put their minds at ease.

“That’s great! We might get out of here in time for lunch!” Pinkie Pie cheered excitedly. As the pink mare reveled at the thought of freedom, everyone else in the room smiled at the thought themselves, everyone except for one person that is.

While everyone else was chatting with each other happily, Twilight was sitting off to the side with a downcast look on her face. She was still coping with what had happened just a few minutes ago in the interrogation room.

Despite her best efforts at wiping it off, she still had numerous droplets of Cotton Quill’s blood splattered across her fur coat and hair. Although the blood had cooled by now, the unicorn could still feel the warm sensation of it splashing onto her as it gushed out of the dying pony’s neck.

She had been covered in blood before on numerous occasions, but that blood had been her own up until now. Now she had someone else’s blood covering her, which was an entirely different and more horrific experience, especially considering that she had witnessed the white stallion’s death.

It wasn’t just the blood on her that was bothering the purple mare, it was the mere fact that everything happened so quickly. It was almost a cursory thought for the hooded ponies to murder one of their own, like he didn’t even matter to them as a living creature. Twilight had gotten to know Cotton Quill in their brief conversation far more than his colleagues had gotten to know him in his entire involvement with them. After all that had happened, the thing that was bothering her the most was the fact that Cotton had opened up to her.

He trusted her, not only to be able to keep him safe but to be able to receive his secrets and to be able to listen to him when he felt that no one else could. There was a reason that the unicorn had divulged his knowledge to the purple mare instead of everyone else. He felt like she had connected with him, and that she truly believed that he was good natured at heart, a connection that he had never felt before, and one that should have been a stepping stone towards a better life rather than the end of his life altogether.

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looked over to the gloomy unicorn off to the side and immediately shifted their happy smiles into concerned expressions. They had all but forgotten what she had just been through. They were trying to forget the entire experience themselves, but it never occurred to them that their purple friend was too heavily scarred by the experience to forget about it.

“Are you ok Twilight?” Pinkie asked in a soft tone while sitting down in front of the unicorn to get at eye level. The purple mare looked up at the concerned ponies around her before shifting her eyes away uncomfortably.

“Yeah…” Twilight replied in a dull, almost emotionless tone. It was obvious that she didn’t put any sort of actual meaning into her response.

“Are you sure?” Pinkie asked again with a suspicious inflection in her voice. Twilight looked up again to see her friends with understanding expressions of sympathy on their faces. It was killing her to have to come up with a valid response, but she didn’t want to leave her friends in the dark. They were only doing for her what she would do for them if their roles were flipped after all.

“*Sigh*… No… I guess not.” Twilight muttered in a gloomy tone. The pink mare placed a gentle hoof on her shoulder while offering a sympathetic expression.

“It’s ok to feel the way you do considering what just happened… We’re here for you if you need us.” Pinkie stated in a reassuring manner.

Twilight looked up again and glanced between the two mares. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement with the pink pony’s statement while smiling warmly. Seeing her two friends offering so much compassion to her forced the unicorn to smile briefly before shifting back to a more neutral expression.

“Thanks, guys… it means a lot to know that you’ve got my back… but I think I just need some time to process my emotions right now.” Twilight said with a genuine smile on her face. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash nodded understandingly before letting the unicorn return to her thoughts. They went back to chatting amongst themselves while keeping an eye on their friend whenever they could.

Before the ponies could settle down in their relative safety, they suddenly heard a commotion coming from outside the door off to the side of the room. The two guards backed up and listened closely for any signs of what was coming their way. Just as everyone was getting tensed up, they started to hear the sounds of ponies running and yelling fearfully.

“Let us in!” A muffled voice followed by a swift series of knocks all but eliminated the group’s doubts about what was outside. Without further delay, the two guards opened the doors and a small crowd of frantic civilians rushed into the room.

A few more ponies rushed in along with them, with a couple of individuals lagging behind and desperately trying to catch up. As one last guard pony walked in while breathing heavily, he paused and turned to the two ponies watching the door.

“I’m the last one…*Pant* close it.” He instructed while slowly walking inside. The two guards looked back out into the dark hallway to confirm his statement before closing the door again.

Now that everyone was inside, Twilight and the others looked around to see how many ponies had joined their group. The majority of them were civilians, with only a couple of guards sprinkled in with them. All of them looked pale and terrified as if they had just run away from hell itself.

“Lieutenant, what’s going on out there?” Fireside asked while walking up to the higher ranked guard that came in last. The stallion took a moment to catch his breath before looking up to the curious group looking at him for answers.

“Sir… the entire station has been overrun. We barely got away before they started flooding in.” The guard explained in a frantic tone while still trying to calm himself down.

“Overrun…? By what?” Fireside asked with a confused expression. Before the lieutenant could answer, another noise coming from the door at the far side of the room caught everyone’s attention.

A loud banging rang out as something started pounding on the door that led to the station’s entrance. It sounded far more violent than anything a pony would be capable of. Following the thundering blows to the door, a number of disturbing growls and animalistic bleats made themselves known from the other side.

“What in the name of…?” Fireside stated in shock while still processing what was going on. It didn’t take long to figure out that whatever had overrun the station was trying to break in. “Block that door!” The stallion instructed to the two guards standing by the door. They nodded quickly before turning to put their weight against the door.

With a deafening crash, the door flew open and flung the two full grown stallions backwards with ease. All at once, the feral noises grew louder as everyone got a good and terrifying look at what had just barged its way inside.

A veritable army of black shapes and red blurs was standing at the door and slowly walking inside. As the ponies glanced around at the horrific creatures, they started to identify several different types of red-eyed monsters as they tried to get in.

The two guard ponies scrambled to get up and flee, but just before one of them could, a black shape leapt out from the crowd of monsters and landed on top of his body. The terrified stallion looked up to see a medium sized creature on top of him that resembled a monkey. It had a chimp shaped body, but the similarities to an actual chimp abruptly ended there.

The creature had a mouth full of sharpened teeth complete with two longer fangs on the top and bottom rows. It had patches of thick blackened fur across its body, with shifting shadowy skin underneath. Its hands didn’t seem to serve any other function than to cut things, consisting of only a small sickle-shaped edge that was dangerously sharp. And to top off its horrific appearance, it also had the same glowing red eye slits that all of the other monsters had, but in greater number. The glowing lights were scattered all over its body at odd intervals and angles.

“AHH!” The pinned guard screamed in terror as the creature on top of him prepared to strike him with its blade like extremities. The beast let out a screech that drowned out the stallion’s outcry as it raised its arm above its head.

While everyone else recoiled in shock and terror, Brimstoke and his teammates leapt into action and reached for their weapons. Glitterball and Sunspot readied their strobes first and stepped forward while firing at the creatures trying to get in.

As the bolts of light slammed into the monster on top of the guard, it screeched again and flew backwards with black smoke pouring off of its body. Spotting a chance to escape, the stallion quickly got up and rushed to the side to get away from the beasts.

Meanwhile, the members of Spirit were charging forward in a desperate counter attack to push back the horde of shadow creatures. Brimstoke and the others frantically blasted at each of the advancing monsters until they fell back in line with the receding crowd. Soon enough, the horde was backing up so far that they went straight out of the room.

“Glitter, seal the door!” Brimstoke instructed while rushing up to the door to better fend off the approaching creatures.

“On it!” Glitterball replied while ducking to the side and reaching into her vest to prepare a physical barrier. While the remaining four ponies kept firing out of the door, the unicorn frantically scribbled on a slip of paper and placed it on the outside of the door. After a few more tense moments of preparing the second piece of paper, the charm was finally complete.

“I got it, get back!” Glitterball stated while slapping the last piece of paper on the inside of the door. Brimstoke and the others backed up and continued firing while Glitterball closed the door. After it was closed, a wave of energy pulsed around the door and the writing on the piece of paper glowed red.

A solid thump rang out as the creatures on the other side tried ramming into the door. Despite the jarring sound of their constant assault, the door remained steadfast as the charm protected it against the monsters banging into it. The group of ponies breathed a collective sigh of relief as they stepped away from the door and walked back over to the other side of the room.

“Good work everyone.” Luna said while offering a relieved expression to the team of ponies. She was glad that nobody got hurt during the brief break in. The alicorn was just about to rush forward to assist in the counter attack herself before Brimstoke and his team leapt into the fray.

“Good enough I suppose… We just put a Band-Aid on a more serious problem. That barrier isn’t going to last forever, and we can’t strengthen it without putting charms on the rest of the doors. We need to find a way out of here before any more of those things try breaking in.” Brimstoke explained uneasily while glancing behind him at the still rattling door.

“No need to worry about that. My sister will be here soon enough. And if she can’t do anything, I have a solution in mind as well.” Luna said in a reassuring tone while looking around at some of the more nervous ponies in the room.

“What is your idea… out of curiosity?” Twilight spoke up from beside the group. Everyone turned to look at the purple mare as she stood up and walked over to them. She might have still been emotionally affected by her traumatic experience, but she seemed well adjusted enough to function.

“After what happened in the cave with all of you, I tried coming up with a few spells to better prepare us for anything the hooded ponies might throw at us. I didn’t have anything else to work off of back then, so I started with thinking of a dark matter repellent.” Luna explained with a confident smile. Hearing that the alicorn had a possible way to save them made everyone in the room brighten up a little bit.

“You found a spell that will work on dark matter?” Glitterball chimed in curiously at the prospect of such a spell existing.

“Well, not exactly... I had to get a bit creative.” Luna said while trying to think of a way to explain her idea in further detail. “I took an existing spell that can be used to combat negative energies and I amplified its power tenfold. It should work, but… it has a few drawbacks.” She trailed her eyes off apprehensively. The manner in which the alicorn said that made everyone uneasy again.

“Drawbacks…? Like what?” Twilight asked nervously. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what kinks her only escape plan had.

“It takes a long time to amplify the spell’s existing power… so it will need a lot of charging. And it needs to be cast from out in the open… where the dark matter is.” Luna explained in a disheartened manner. The more she thought about it, the more she doubted her plan and her ability to lead her companions to safety.

“Well, it’s better than what we have at the moment… which is nothing.” Fireside spoke up in a reassuring tone. The amount of confidence in his voice and expression told that he absolutely believed in the princess. The blue alicorn was surprised to see someone still had confidence in her.

“Alright… if we’re going to do this, there are some things we need to take into consideration.” Luna said in a more serious manner while looking around at the ponies in the room. “We’re going to need a safe place to put everyone who will not be involved in our little escape attempt… It will be dangerous anyway, and on the off chance we fail I don’t want all of us to go down with the ship so to speak.” She explained uneasily. The mere thought of them failing and the grim consequences implied therein gave the princess a knot in her stomach.

“We might want to better prepare ourselves as well. If the dark matter here is at all similar to the stuff we found in the cave, it will be spawning more of those shadow creatures.” Twilight interjected her thoughts on the matter. She was terrified when a few darklings came for her in the caves, so she couldn’t imagine what having the creatures she just saw moments ago coming after her would be like.

“Aha!” Fireside exclaimed in sudden revelation. “We can go to the equipment room! It has weapons we can use, and it’s easily securable.” He stated eagerly.

“Well, that’s one thing out of the way… now we just need to find a way to hold off the dark matter while we prepare the spell.” Luna shrugged uneasily as she thought about the monumental obstacle that the dark matter posed in and of itself.

“We could have Tom hold it off like he did in the cave…” Rainbow Dash suggested while thinking back to her experience in the cave.

“I’m not sure if that would be a good idea… I don’t want him to put too much strain on himself. He was exhausted after fighting the dark matter in the cave, and this stuff is even stronger.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. She knew that the human would doubtlessly volunteer for the task. She wasn’t sure if humans were usually so reckless, or if it was due to him being a slayer, but the boy was terribly inconsiderate of his own wellbeing.

“I’m afraid that we might not have a choice in the matter… but I will try to think of another solution.” Luna said in a reassuring tone while offering a supportive hoof on the shoulder to the concerned unicorn. She didn’t like putting her friends into such harmful positions either, but desperate times did call for desperate measures after all.

“In the meantime, we need to head down to this equipment room to prepare ourselves. I suggest that we take a group down there beforehand so that we know it is safe, and then we can come back for the others.” The princess stated while looking around at the various ponies in the room with her.

“Well if that’s the plan, then we need to keep some of us here to protect the room while the others are gone.” Brimstoke suggested while glancing to the civilians in the room. They would doubtlessly panic if the situation went bad, so they would have to be watched over by someone capable.

“Sargent…” Luna spoke up in a serious tone. Fireside looked over to the princess and waited for her to address him again.

“I need you to send one of your men with us while we make our way to the equipment room. We will leave two of Brimstoke’s team members here with you to help you defend the area.” Luna instructed. Fireside looked around to see which one of his men would be qualified to lead the princess and the others around the station.

“Lieutenant, I need you to lead the princess down to the equipment room. Can you do that?” Fireside asked the high ranked guard that had entered the room with the civilian ponies before the creatures attacked.

“Umm… y-yes sir!” The lieutenant hesitated for a moment before offering a salute and as confident of an answer as he could give.

“Ok good…” Luna said in a pleased tone before turning her attention to Brimstoke and his team. “Brimstoke… I need you and Sunspot to stay here with Sargent Fireside to keep things safe.” She instructed while glancing over to the orange pegasus.

“Aww… but why me?” Sunspot whined in annoyance. She then remembered who she was talking to and stiffened up. “Sorry… I mean, shouldn’t I be with you guys? You need all of the help you can get.” She suggested with a pleading expression. The princess smirked at the anxious pegasus. She could tell that she wanted to make sure that her friends were safe and to make sure that everyone made it out of this situation alive.

“I know… but I also want one of our best people staying behind and watching the others.” Luna said in a complimentary manner. The pegasus couldn’t help but smile at the alicorn’s statement.

“Really…? Umm… thanks.” Sunspot said with a bashful chuckle. She then shrugged as she realized that she would still have to stay behind and watch a room while her friends went out into the fray.

“The rest of you should get ready to come with us. We will be heading out soon.” Luna said while glancing between the three ponies that would be coming with her. Glitterball, Glimmer Shine, and Peppermint all prepared themselves physically and mentally for what they would be facing.

“Umm… Princess?” Twilight spoke up hesitantly while walking up to the alicorn.

“What is it Twilight?” Luna asked in a friendly manner while looking down at the timid unicorn.

“Do you think that I could come with you…? You could use another unicorn with you… and I think it would be better if there were more of us.” Twilight asked coyly. She seemed to be hiding another motive for wanting to go on the dangerous trip.

“We can manage with what we have Twilight… why would you want to endanger yourself like that?” Luna asked in a concerned tone. The unicorn shrugged as she was forced to come up with another reason to join the alicorn’s band of troops.

“*Sigh*… I’m just worried about Rarity and Fluttershy. I was thinking that maybe we could find them on our way to the equipment room, so I wanted to help search.” Twilight explained with worry evident on her face.

“Hmm… they have been missing for quite a while I suppose. I’m sure that Tom has already found them, but I will let you come along if you want.” Luna said with a small smirk. The purple mare smiled upon hearing that she could help in the search for her two friends.

“Thank you, Princess.” Twilight said cheerfully.

“Hey… you can’t just leave us here can you?” Rainbow Dash chimed in from the side. The two looked over to see the cyan pegasus standing next to Pinkie Pie and offering an eager expression.

“If you’re going to look for Rarity and Fluttershy, we want to help.” Rainbow Dash stated while looking to her pink companion for confirmation. Pinkie grinned widely and offered an enthusiastic nod at the proposal.

“Yeah, we need to help. I’m not about to leave my friends to wander around a monster-infested building. They must be scared silly… they need someone to cheer them up when we find them.” Pinkie suggested happily. Luna couldn’t help but admire the strength of the bond that Twilight and her friends shared.

“Alright… but you have to promise me that you’ll be careful and stay close to us.” Luna said in a serious tone while offering a smirk.

“Right.” Rainbow Dash replied with a nod.

“Okie dokie lokie.” Pinkie added while offering a playful salute. Somehow, the pink mare’s goofy expression removed all seriousness from the gesture.

“Alright… head over to Glitterball and the others and grab some strobes. You will need them to protect yourselves.” Luna explained while pointing over to the vested ponies.

With a collective nod, Twilight and her two friends walked over to the rainbow-haired unicorn and her two partners. They were still getting ready themselves, with each pony going over their own equipment over and over with somewhat varying degrees of nervousness plastered on each of their faces.

The three ponies seemed to be too busy to notice the three eager mares standing in front of them patiently, or perhaps they were too preoccupied with their thoughts. Either way, they didn’t look like they were going to snap out of their daze anytime soon.

“Ahem…” Twilight spoke up to get the attention of the three ponies. Glitterball and the others finally looked up and noticed the purple mare and her two friends.

“Oh! Sorry… I guess we were a little spaced out there. What are you guys doing here?” Glitterball asked curiously.

“The princess said that we can go along with you to the equipment room.” Twilight explained while glancing back at her two eager companions. The three vested ponies seemed surprised by her statement.

“Uh… don’t you think that that would be too dangerous?” Glitterball asked while nudging Glimmer Shine for support. She wanted to do anything she could to make the three mares change their mind, even if it meant influencing her partners to back her up.

“Yeah… I mean, you saw those things, didn’t you? There are probably a lot more out there.” Glimmer Shine stated in a semi-confident tone. It wasn’t hard to tell what the two ponies were trying to do.

“I appreciate that you care for us enough to try and talk us out of this, but we’re going. The princess said that you should give us some of your spare strobes… just in case.” Twilight said while glancing between the three vested ponies.

“Uh, let’s see here…” Glitterball muttered while rummaging around through one of her pockets. After coming up empty hooved, the unicorn turned around and forcibly started rifling through one of Glimmer Shine’s pockets.

“Hey, what gives?!” Glimmer Shine exclaimed in surprise. Glitterball finally grabbed the only strobe that the stallion had and pulled it out. She then turned to face Peppermint.

“Here…” Peppermint stated with his spare strobe at the ready. Apparently, he was smart enough to grab it and pull it out before the unicorn invaded his personal bubble.

“Aww… shoot. Looks like we only have two spares to go around.” Glitterball shrugged while glancing over to the other members of her team. They only had their main strobes on hand, and they needed them for themselves.

“I guess we will have to make do with these.” Twilight stated while taking the two vials from the vested unicorn. “Here guys… I think you should take them.” She said while offering the strobes to her two friends. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were hesitant about accepting the weapons from the purple mare.

“I don’t know Twilight… maybe you and Pinkie should take them? I’m sure that I’ll be fine.” Rainbow Dash suggested while holding out her arm for Twilight to take the strobe back.

“Don’t worry guys. I have a way that all of you can protect yourselves effectively.” Glitterball explained with a cheerful smile. The others were confused by the unicorn’s statement. They had no idea what she could have thought of.

“What did you have in mind?” Twilight asked curiously. In response, Glitterball reached into a pocket on her vest and brought out a slip of paper, and a feather quill and ink.

Glitterball scribbled on the piece of paper for a moment before handing it to Twilight. After reading over the symbols on the paper a few times, the purple mare was surprised to see that she could recognize them.

“These are…” Twilight muttered in thought while still trying to decipher the symbols in her head.

“The instructive symbols for a spell.” Glitterball spoke up to complete the unicorn’s sentence. “I have been trying to find a way to use magic more proactively to fight, and I ran across something recently. I found a spell that projects positive energy into a ball and fires it at high speeds. It should work similarly to a strobe, but you can use it anytime.” She explained while pointing at the paper. Twilight lit up her horn and started reading over the spell to familiarize herself with it.

“So… I can use this-” Twilight stated as she caught on to what the white mare’s plan was.

“While Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie can use the strobes. That way everybody gets a weapon to use.” Glitterball explained with a smirk.

“Alright, that sounds like a plan to me.” Twilight said while smiling widely as she finished reading over the spell and going over how to cast it in her head. With all of their equipment ready, the group had nothing more to do than to gather by the door and prepare themselves mentally for what they were about to face.

“Is everyone ready?” The lieutenant asked with mild apprehension as he put a hoof on the door handle and looked back at the group behind him.

Glitterball and her two teammates were mostly confident, although it was easy to see that they were slightly nervous, especially Peppermint. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie were all ready to go with their respective weapons at the ready. At the front of the group, Luna stood with a confident expression.

“We’re as ready as we will ever be.” Luna stated while glancing back at the others behind her. Everyone gave a solemn nod as they readied themselves to exit the safety of the room.

“Ok… everyone stay close and keep your eyes open. The equipment room isn’t that far, but who knows what we might run into out there.” The guard pony said nervously while turning his attention back to the door. With one swift pull, the door swung open, revealing the pitch blackness outside.

Twilight, Glitterball, and Luna lit up their horns while Glimmer Shine and Peppermint turned on their flashlights in preparation. The ponies turned and gave a quick wave to their friends that would be staying behind. They then walked forward into the darkened hallways of the station. Although they couldn’t see any sign of the vicious beasts, they knew that they wouldn’t be alone for very long.