Where am I…? Twilight thought to herself as she tried to determine what direction she was facing. Between the pitch blackness around her, and the roaring wind in her ears, she was experiencing a sort of sensory deprivation that she couldn’t escape from.

The unicorn’s entire body was freezing cold. It wasn’t like she was actually cold. It was more like she couldn’t feel anything. The only thing that even told her what was going on around her was a few scattered feelings of pressure on her numb body that she loosely translated as things touching her.

Suddenly, Twilight felt something grab onto her shoulder. She looked over and barely noticed a pony shaped outline next to her. Judging from what she remembered before the dark matter swallowed her, she figured that the person next to her was Glitterball.

“Glitter…?” Twilight spoke out loud, though the sound was immediately lost in the white noise surrounding her. As she spoke, the purple mare made a frightening discovery.

I can’t breathe…! She became panicked as she clutched her throat. It felt like there was a thick cloud over her mouth that was preventing her from taking in any air. Any effort to take in oxygen was even further hampered by the numbness prevailing in her entire body, making it nearly impossible to fight to breathe.

Glitterball pulled on the purple mare’s shoulder, lifting her off the ground slightly. Twilight figured that she was trying to get them out of the cloud of darkness. Deciding that escaping was her only way of surviving, the unicorn tried her best to get to her feet.

Twilight quickly realized that she was far too weak to get up. Her entire body already felt numb, but now she felt like she was progressively getting weaker.

Oh no, the dark matter must be draining my energy. We have to get out of here! She thought to herself with a sense of urgency taking over her. She turned to her side toward her only companion to see if she could somehow find a way to help her.

Twilight suddenly felt Glitterball letting go of her. She noticed the outline of her friend dropping to the floor. The same feeling of numbness that had already taken her over must have been affecting the white mare as well.

Twilight could feel a nagging tired sensation overwhelming her. She felt a strong urge to close her eyes and rest, but she knew that this would prove to be her end. Despite the knowledge that she had to fight to stay awake, she couldn’t shake the drowsy feeling she had.

Is this it…? Is this how I die? She asked herself in thought. Twilight couldn’t believe that she was going to die like this. She still had so much to do. She couldn’t just die without making sure that the hooded ponies were stopped.

It’s so dark… it’s so cold… I’m scared. Twilight’s mind raced at a million miles an hour, perhaps as a defense mechanism to keep herself awake. Regardless of why she was thinking so frantically, she couldn’t help but think about how dire her situation was.

I… don’t want to… die... The purple mare could feel her body shutting down. Her mind was slowly filling with a haze similar to the one that was enveloping her form. She couldn’t see, but she could feel her eyes closing against her will. Twilight fought to keep them open, but her eyelids kept drifting downwards.

Suddenly, Twilight saw a bright light out of the corner of her eye. The sudden stimulation gave her the energy to open her eyes fully. She watched curiously as the light rapidly washed over her, growing in intensity to the point where she had to shut her eyes to protect them from the light. Thankfully, she no longer felt tired. In fact, the numb feeling in her body was slowly disappearing and being replaced with warmth.

When the unicorn opened her eyes, she saw the light dying down. Much to her surprise, she could also see the sky above her in all of its clear blue glory. She slowly moved her head around until she could see the entire roof.

Twilight noticed Princess Luna and the others huddled into a pile where she had last seen them. They seemed equally surprised to be alive, so they were most likely not the reason why the dark matter was defeated.

As she heard the fluttering of wings, Twilight looked to the side to see a familiar white alicorn flying up to the roof. The sight of the princess landing on the roof and walking up to her was almost too good to be true.

“P… princess?” Twilight spoke weakly. Despite her senses returning to her, her body still felt numb and weak. The alicorn smiled as she saw that her student was still alive. She seemed to be relieved that she made it just in time to save the group of ponies.

“Conserve your energy, my student. Everything is going to be ok… for now, just lie down and rest.” Celestia explained in a comforting tone of voice.

Twilight slowly let a smile creep across her face. She wanted to get up and cheer, or perhaps hug her mentor, but she still felt much too weak. Now that she was safe, she could finally give in to her exhaustion. The unicorn laid her head back and closed her eyes to rest.

“Sister!” Celestia turned around as she heard her sister calling for her. She was greeted with the sight of the blue alicorn rushing over to her along with the remaining members of her group.

Celestia gladly embraced her younger sibling as she crashed into her. The young princess seemed to be relieved now that she wasn’t struggling to keep herself and the others alive. But more than anything, she seemed to be joyful now that her sister was with her.

“I’m so glad to see you. I thought that we were going to die.” Luna stated with tears of joy welling up in her eyes.

“I’m glad that I made it in time… what happened here?” Celestia asked in a concerned tone as she thought back to how she found the station when she returned.

“That pegasus with the shadow and her brother showed up when we were interrogating Cotton Quill. They killed him and summoned that cloud that almost killed us.” Glimmer Shine explained the situation as briefly as he could.

“Good heavens…” Celestia muttered with a shocked expression on her face. She never expected the hooded ponies to go to such violent means, especially against one of their own members. “How many people were hurt in the attack?” She asked hesitantly. She didn’t like discussing casualties, and she didn’t like how often she was doing it in recent days either.

“We’re not certain. We haven’t been able to search the building due to shadow creatures infesting it.” Luna explained with a saddened expression. She wondered what the body count would be once the entire station was swept.

“Shadow creatures…?” Celestia asked in a surprised tone.

“Yeah… apparently whatever spell these guys used to summon the dark matter tampered with it somehow. Almost every shadow creature me and several other slayers have seen flooded in through the windows. I’m fairly certain that most of them are still down there… especially in the basement.” Tom explained while gathering the energy needed to hobble over to the princess.

Celestia sighed in a disheartened manner. She couldn’t believe how much of an upper hand the hooded ponies had gotten on her and Equestria in general. Still, she couldn’t dwell on the losses received due to the attacks. Not yet, not while there was still a job to do.

“Glimmer Shine, call down to Brimstoke and Sunspot. Tell them to gather up a team of guards to go on a search party. I’m going to meet up with them so we can sweep the whole building for survivors and any remaining monsters.” Celestia spoke up with an expression of steely resolve.

“Right away, princess.” Glimmer Shine replied with a brief nod. The alicorn smiled before turning her attention to the others.

“Alright everyone, head downstairs and find a safe place. I think you have all earned a rest… I’ll take care of tying up loose ends.” Celestia said in a reassuring tone. Everyone smiled and breathed a sigh of relief now that they could relax.

While everyone was preparing to relocate to a more comfortable position, Rarity walked over to the two unicorns lying on the floor. Both Glitterball and Twilight were still knocked out from their encounter with the dark matter. Seeing her friend in such a poor state made the white mare frown sadly.

“Oh, Twilight…” Rarity muttered to herself in a disheartened tone. She couldn’t believe how close to death the purple mare had come, or how close to death she had come herself for that matter.

“Hey, why don’t we take them down to the equipment room?” Peppermint suggested while walking beside the white unicorn. Rarity turned her head to see the red haired stallion looking at her with a small smile.

“Of course darling… they need all the rest they can get.” Rarity replied with a nod. She turned her attention to her purple friend and lit up her horn. While Peppermint picked Glitterball up and placed her on his back, the unicorn placed Twilight onto her back gently. The pair joined the others and made their way to the stairway door. They couldn’t wait to get downstairs to see their friends, and more importantly, to get some rest.

Meanwhile, out in the Everfree forest, two pegasi were walking along a path uneasily. They walked in silence while avoiding eye contact with each other. There seemed to be an air of frustration about them from some sort of conflict.

Dust Kicker glanced to his sister. The pale mare was completely ignoring him with an agitated expression on her face. Finally, the stallion shrugged as he became fed up with the silence between him and his sibling.

“Will you stop giving me the silent treatment already?” Dust asked in an annoyed tone. Raincloud briefly glanced at him before turning her nose up and scoffing the pegasus. “Oh come on, Rain… it wasn’t that bad.” He groaned uneasily, eliciting the gray mare to turn to him.

“I could have taken them.” Raincloud stated in annoyance.

“There were royal guards and civilians pouring in from every angle. One pictogram isn’t worth waging war with Ponyville.” Dust Kicker explained in an irritated manner. He knew he was right by forcing his sister to leave. If it were up to her, they would probably already be in jail, or worse.

“It’s the principle of it, Dust. What’s the point of fear mongering if you can’t slaughter a few innocents in broad daylight?” Raincloud replied.

“I doubt that Raven Feather would be happy if she found out that we slaughtered much of anything in broad daylight… let alone a few innocents.” Dust Kicker stated while air quoting the gray mare’s words. He had the sneaking suspicion that his sister wouldn’t have stopped anywhere near what most people would call a few. Raincloud rolled her eyes and shrugged in response.

“Yeah, yeah… I know. Why do you think I left?” She asked with a slight smirk. The stallion was surprised to hear that she left of her own accord.

“You left…? I recall having to practically pull you away from that pictogram.” Dust Kicker said while raising an eyebrow at the pale mare. Raincloud laughed heartily at the brown pony’s line of reasoning.

“Oh please, Dust… like you could make me go anywhere I didn’t want to. What are you going to do? Sick your darklings on me? Don’t make me laugh…” Raincloud said with a warm chuckle.

Dust Kicker shook his head and shrugged at the blue pegasus. As much as she annoyed him, he knew she was right. Her shadow would turn any mindless creature he could conjure up into mincemeat, and she didn’t even need extensive knowledge of shadow magic to use it.

Not wanting to elicit any more frustrating conversations with his sister, the brown stallion walked on in silence. He was hoping that they would get to the mansion without anyone else speaking up, and thankfully he was right. The sprawling property was just starting to come into view through a clearing in the trees.

The pair walked up to the iron fence surrounding the property and ducked through a large hole. They quickly made their way past all of the crumbling statues and dead trees to get out of the garden and up to the main house.

Raincloud grabbed ahold of one of the large knockers on the door with her mouth and pulled on it until the door creaked open. She stood in front of her brother and motioned towards the inside while smirking.

“After you.” Raincloud said while bowing her head to the stallion.

“What happened to ladies first?” Dust Kicker asked curiously while stepping inside.

“Age before beauty, dear brother.” Raincloud remarked playfully, eliciting a scornful glare from the older pegasus.

The pale mare shoved her way past a hooded underling that was walking down the main staircase. The nervous pony backed up as far as he could to let the pair pass. If the ponies around the mansion had learned anything during their brief stay, it was to stay out of the way of Raven Feather and her inner circle, especially the more aggressive Raincloud.

Without any further delay, the two made their way through the upstairs hallways until they found themselves in the main library. As expected, they found Raven Feather sitting at the back of the room as she usually did during this time of day. Along with the black earth pony, Grimwood and Shadow Mist were present, sitting at Raven Feather’s side and leaning up against a bookshelf off to the side of the room respectively.

Once she noticed the pair entering the room, Raven Feather smiled and stood up to walk over to them. She seemed to have been incredibly confident in the siblings’ ability to complete the mission that they were given.

“Raincloud, Dust Kicker, it’s good to see that you made it back. I was starting to worry about you for a minute there.” Raven Feather said while greeting the two with a brief hoof shake.

“You know me Raven Feather, I’m all about reliability. Dust here wanted to stay for a while to watch, but I talked him out of it.” Raincloud stated with a smirk while glancing over to her brother. Dust Kicker rolled his eyes and shrugged at the pale mare.

“I assume that Cotton Quill is dead?” Raven Feather asked curiously. It was obvious that the white unicorn was no longer a problem, but she felt it necessary to check.

“Yes… my shadow snuck in and did the job, and then we used the dark matter as a cover to escape. We even drew up a pictogram to gather some extra energy.” Raincloud explained in a prideful manner. She put extra emphasis on the fact that she had taken the initiative to draw a symbol for gathering energy.

Raven Feather smiled joyfully at the news. Not only was Cotton Quill dead, but there was a lot more energy to work with now to make up for his past mistakes. All in all, the day was wrapping up rather nicely for the black mare.

“That’s great! Very well done you two… there’s just one more thing I need to ask.” Raven Feather added in a cursory manner.

“Anything Raven Feather. I made sure to take care of every detail personally.” Raincloud said in a boastful tone while placing a hoof on her chest. She was clearly enjoying her success a lot more than her brother.

“What did Cotton tell them before he died? Did he break under pressure or did he hold up?” Raven Feather asked curiously. The pale mare’s ego immediately deflated as she realized one crucial detail she hadn’t attended to.

“Uh… well umm… you see…” Raincloud muttered while rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. She looked away as she tried to think of a better way to put the news that she was about to dispense.

“We don’t know if Cotton said anything… we didn’t manage to overhear anything before we killed him.” Dust Kicker spoke up in place of his sister. The gray mare glared at him for putting it so bluntly.

“Dust! What the hell man? You’re supposed to have my back here.” Raincloud whispered angrily to him while giving him a not so gentle shove with her elbow.

“So what you’re telling me is that we have no idea if the princess knows where we are or not…?” Raven Feather asked with a slight hint of agitation in her voice.

“Umm… well… *Sigh* No Raven Feather, we don’t.” Raincloud lowered her head in defeat as she found no other way to recap the scenario.

“Ugh… it’s just one thing after another this week. Was I cruel to puppies in a previous life? Well… more so than I have been in this life.” Raven Feather said while shifting her eyes to the side pensively.

“Sorry, Raven Feather… there wasn’t much we could do. I wanted to take him out as fast as I could, so I didn’t think to listen in on him.” Raincloud said with a noticeable hint of humility in her voice. She didn’t like disappointing the black mare. After all, aside from her brother, Raven Feather was pretty much the only family she had.

The hooded workers around the room were surprised to hear the pale mare owning up to her mistake. Usually, she didn’t show any hint of remorse for any action she took, no matter how small. The ponies had to glance in her general direction every once in a while for fear that she might see them looking at her with judging eyes.

“Don’t worry, Raincloud. I’m not upset at you… I don’t care if he is dead, I can still direct my anger at Cotton Quill.” Raven Feather said while raising her voice slightly. She took a moment to check her temper before continuing. “Anyway… the fact still remains that you completed your mission without a hitch.” She added in a reassuring tone.

“But we still have a major problem on our hooves.” Dust Kicker stated to remind the group of their situation.

“I know…” Raven Feather shrugged while looking down in thought. Now that their base of operations was possibly compromised, the group needed to take preemptive action to make sure that they weren’t caught off guard.

“Gather everyone up and tell them to gather their things and all of the vital research. We’re packing up and moving out.” Raven Feather instructed in a disheartened yet serious tone. Everyone widened their eyes in shock at what their leader just said.

“What?! Are you serious?!” Raincloud asked in disbelief.

“I’m very serious Raincloud… The royal guard could beat down our door by tomorrow. We need to make sure that we aren’t here when that happens.” Raven Feather replied.

“But… what do we do? It’s not like we can just start over and gather more energy. And all of the equipment and spells we need to maintain the supply we have would take months to make somewhere else… and-” Raincloud spoke up in a concerned tone until she was interrupted by Raven Feather.

“And if we don’t maintain our supply within a few days then we will be starting from scratch. I know, Raincloud… I’m well aware of how all of this works.” The black mare droned in an agitated manner. She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes to reflect on her frustrating situation.

“We’re going to have to improvise somehow… I’ll think of something. Just get everything ready to move.” Raven Feather added in a disheartened tone. All of the stress was starting to get to her as she hung her head sadly.

“Sorry, Raven Feather… We’ll get right on it.” Raincloud said while shrugging in defeat. The green eyed pony was having a bad enough day without her arguing to make things worse. The pale pegasus turned to her brother before glancing around at the numerous ponies listening and watching from around the room.

“You heard the lady, everyone get off your tails and get moving! We need to get a lot of research packed up by tomorrow!” Raincloud instructed in a commanding tone. All of the hooded ponies around the room jumped in their seats before scrambling to do as they were told. They all rushed out of the room and went to start the process of compiling all of the important supplies around the mansion.

Raincloud and Dust Kicker quickly joined the crowd of ponies leaving the room. They knew that they would have to organize the many ponies lest they run around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off.

Raven Feather started to walk towards the door. She had much to do in a short amount of time, so the sooner she started working the better. Grimwood glanced to Shadow Mist as the black mare walked away. He knew that he should at least make another attempt at letting his sister see things his way.

“Hey, Raven Feather…” The pale colt spoke up while trotting alongside the older mare. Raven Feather turned to her brother and sighed before putting on a small smile. She didn’t want to ignore her brother, but she had a lot on her mind.

“What is it Grim?” Raven Feather asked while trying to muster enough energy to sound interested in what the young pony had to say.

“I think I found something you should see about the eternal night. I was looking over some of the older texts and cross referencing them with-” Grimwood explained while holding up one of the books he had been using for reference. Raven Feather suddenly put her hoof up to interrupt the pale colt.

“Grim… I’ve told you to stop reading the older works. You know that they are completely falsified by my research.” Raven Feather stated while making every effort to not sound harsh.

“But Raven Feather, I-” Grimwood tried to speak up when he was interrupted yet again by his sister. The black mare raised her voice slightly, eliciting the young pony to fall silent.

“Grimwood, please don’t do this now. I’ve tried to be nice about humoring your theories, but I have too much to deal with right now. Just let me worry about the eternal night right now, ok?” Raven Feather asked while continuing to walk forward dismissively.

“But… but-” Grimwood tried to get the black mare’s attention, but she ignored him and walked out of the room. “But it’s important… *Sigh*” Now that his effort was shot down yet again, the pale colt turned his attention to the one person that followed his beliefs.

Shadow Mist walked up to the young pony with a sympathetic expression. Even though the colt seemed to be unaffected by being brushed off by his sister, he still felt bad for him.

“See what I mean? She just won’t listen to me.” Grimwood explained while shaking his head slowly in disappointment.

“Well to be fair, you are trying to get her to believe in something that flies in the face of years of hard studying… I mean come on, do you even remember how often she was in here reading books when we first found this place?” Shadow Mist stated lightheartedly.

“Yeah… and people think I’m not very sociable. She barely came out to eat some days.” The pale colt said while thinking back to how much research his sister put into finding out about the eternal night. He wondered how she could be so wrong about it after so much hard work.

“So… you want to share with the class and tell me the rest of your plan? Because right now it looks like you just sent everyone into a blind frenzy.” Shadow Mist asked curiously. He wasn’t sure of the merit of the colt’s plan. From the outside looking in, it seemed like he was working against his sister rather than for her.

“That’s why I set up Cotton in the first place,” Grimwood stated with a slight hint of pride in his usual dull tone. “Now that Raven Feather is being forced to pack up and move, her best option will be to perform the ritual early. Once that happens, we can step in and show her that we’re the ones who really know how to start the eternal night.” He fiddled his hooves together eagerly, all the while only managing a small smirk on his otherwise blank face.

“You mean that you wanted Cotton to tell them how to find us?” Shadow Mist asked in a surprised tone. He was more intrigued and confused by the startling plan than shocked.

“More or less… I suppose there is the chance that he didn’t say anything. If he did, the princess will most likely bring the elements with her when she comes for us as a safety precaution. Then you can collect the rest of the samples we need from each of them. If Cotton didn’t squeal, however, we will just need to collect the samples by going to them. Either way, Raven Feather should push for us to perform the ritual within the next few days.” Grimwood explained his plan in depth to the eagerly listening stallion. Shadow Mist was impressed by how much thought he had put into this.

“Wow… That is actually really well thought out. The mansion will be empty by the time they get around to raiding us, so I will just have to sneak up on them and collect the rest of their blood while they search the place.” Shadow Mist said in an intrigued tone.

“Precisely… now then, you should probably get going. Raven Feather will be expecting you to help with packing everything up. And you will also need to prepare our own research for travel by tomorrow as well.” Grimwood said while motioning over to the door. Shadow Mist nodded while getting up and walking out of the library. The pale colt smirked slightly as he watched the stallion leave. Soon enough, his sister would praise him for saving the plan that she was too stubborn to realize that she was driving into the ground.

Twilight opened her eyes slowly. She felt incredibly tired. So much so that she could barely lift her head or move her body. Deciding that getting up so quickly was a bad idea, the unicorn first focused on opening her eyes all of the way.

Blurry images and sounds started coming into focus. Before long, the colorful shapes and muffled voices around her she recognized to be ponies. She quickly noticed the sight of her friends sitting a short distance away chatting amongst themselves. Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and even Applejack were huddled together with concerned expressions on their faces. They seemed to have been watching the purple mare for a while as she slept.

Hearing the slight groaning coming from the unicorn, Pinkie Pie turned her attention back to her unconscious friend and gasped in surprise.

“Look girls, she’s waking up!” Pinkie exclaimed in excitement. The others turned their heads forward to see Twilight trying to push herself off of the floor.

Twilight slowly managed to get herself to a seated position while her friends gathered around her with cheerful smiles. She quickly realized that she was wearing a fuzzy gray blanket. She also realized that she was incredibly cold still from her previous encounter with the dark matter. Before, she had been too numbed out to notice, but now it felt like she had taken a bath in ice water.

“W-w-where a-am I?” Twilight asked through chattering teeth while holding the blanket close to her body.

“You’re in the equipment room darling. They moved all of the injured ponies in here so they could take care of them better.” Rarity explained while placing a reassuring hoof on the freezing mare’s shoulder. Twilight’s body was so cold that she could feel it through the blanket. It wasn’t much of a surprise that she would be cold once she woke up. Her skin had been turning a bluish shade of purple ever since they had moved her.

“Oh…” Twilight muttered in between fits of shivering. She didn’t feel like talking, but she wanted to respond to her friends in even the smallest way.

“From what Ah hear, you best be countin’ your lucky stars Twilight. You almost didn’t make it offa’ that roof.” Applejack said in a concerned tone. She was glad that none of her friends had gotten hurt in her absence.

“According to Tom, the only reason you did survive was because Glitterball rushed in after you. Apparently, the dark matter had to spread its effort between draining the energy out of the two of you.” Rarity explained in a troubled tone.

Twilight suddenly became alarmed at the mention of the white unicorn that had saved her. From what she remembered, she had taken most of the dark matter’s draining capabilities due to her standing up and trying to pull the purple mare out.

“W-where’s Glitter? Is she ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking around the room fearfully.

“Relax Twilight. She’s in the other room. She’s still knocked out, but according to Peppermint she will be fine.” Rainbow Dash said in a comforting tone while reaching forward and gently pushing the sickly unicorn back to a seated position.

“I want to s-see her.” Twilight stated while trying to get up, only to be met by Applejack and Rainbow Dash holding her down.

“Now hold on a second sugarcube. You need to stay here and rest until the others get back and give you the ok to leave.” Applejack said in a lovingly firm tone. Twilight glanced at the farm pony and tried to put on her best pleading expression. Judging from the serious look that Applejack was giving her, the unicorn realized that she would probably tie her down to rest if the need arose.

“*Sigh* Fine… wait, what do you mean when the others get back?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are taking Tom and the others on a sweep through the building. They’re making sure that no more of those horrible monsters are here.” Fluttershy explained nervously. The mere thought of the terrifying beasts she encountered sent a cold chill up her spine that made her shiver with equal intensity to the purple unicorn.

“And how long have they been gone?” Twilight asked while glancing up at the clock on the wall to find out what time it was.

“Around an hour or so… they said they only had to clear out the basement the last time they checked in.” Rainbow Dash replied.

“So… I guess that means we wait?” Twilight droned in an annoyed tone. She wanted to at least get up and move around, but she couldn’t until Peppermint cleared her as healthy.

“Yep… but don’t worry, I know some great games we can play to pass the time! We could play I spy, or charades, or twenty questions, or twenty-one questions!” Pinkie Pie listed off all of the games she had in mind in a frantic and energetic tone, all the while getting progressively more excited.

“I don’t know Pinkie… I’m not sure if I-” Twilight started to protest until she noticed the pink mare pouting sadly.

“Come on… pleeaaase?” Pinkie asked with as wide of a pleading smile as she could manage.

Twilight felt slightly bad for the pink mare. She must have felt horrible knowing that her friends were subjected to so many terrifying situations. And now she was trying to help in the only way she knew how, by having fun.

“Well… alright, I suppose a few games couldn’t h-” The purple mare started to agree until she was interrupted again by another energetic outburst from the party pony.

“Yaaaaay! We’re going to have so much fun! What game do you want to play first? Who wants to go first? Come on, anyone?” Pinkie asked while glancing around at her small group of friends. Everyone smiled awkwardly and glanced between themselves to see who would volunteer first.

Five games of I spy, two games of charades, three games of twenty questions, and one game of twenty-one questions later, the ponies finally heard the sound of the door opening. They looked over to see Princess Celestia walking in with Glimmer Shine, Tom, and Peppermint.

“Twilight! It’s good to see you’re awake.” Celestia said with a cheerful smile while walking up to the purple unicorn.

“Thanks, princess. I feel much better now.” Twilight stated while taking note of her diminished feeling of coldness and her energy returning to her.

“You look much better as well. You were almost as blue as Rainbow Dash when we first brought you down here.” Celestia said with a lighthearted tone.

“How did the search through the station go? Are the monsters gone?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Yep, we took care of all of the stragglers.” Tom explained with a slight smirk. The ponies were excited to hear that their ordeal was finally over.

“That’s great! Now we can get back to… oh yeah,” Rainbow Dash frowned sadly as she remembered what the group had been doing before the attack. “I forgot that they killed that Cotton guy before all of this started.” The cyan pegasus droned in a defeated tone. With their prisoner dead, they were essentially back at square one with the investigation.

Everyone shared in Rainbow Dash’s sadness. All of the sacrifices that had been made up to this point were for naught if they didn’t catch the ones responsible.

“That reminds me… Cotton told us where their hideout is before he died. I think I still remember how to get there.” Glimmer Shine spoke up in an excited tone.

“You can tell us how to find their base?” Celestia asked curiously, to which the yellow stallion nodded in response.

“Yeah… I think he said that it was out in the Everfree Forest.” Glimmer Shine explained with an intrigued expression.

“This is wonderful news. I will tell Luna so we can prepare a team to go down there and end this once and for all.” Celestia said in a relieved tone. She turned around and started to walk towards the door.

“Princess…” Twilight spoke up to get the alicorn’s attention. Celestia turned around and looked at her student curiously.

“What is it Twilight?” Celestia asked with genuine intrigue in her voice.

“Do you know what the eternal night is?” Twilight asked curiously. Her question caught the princess off guard.

“The eternal night… what do you mean?” Celestia said with a confused expression.

“Cotton said that his leader was trying to invoke the eternal night, and that they were trying to kill us because the elements of harmony were the only things that could stop it. He referred to it like it was a specific thing… like, not just making the night last forever like what Nightmare Moon tried to do.” Twilight explained while trying to think about what Cotton Quill could have meant.

“I’ve never heard of anything specifically known as the eternal night… but from the sound of it, it isn’t anything good.” Celestia stated while pondering on the matter further.

Suddenly, Tom’s face paled as he dawned on something. The ponies looked at him curiously as they wondered what he had thought of.

“Tom…? Are you ok? Do you know something about the eternal night?” Twilight asked hesitantly. It took a lot to make the human even flinch from fright or dread, so she didn’t like the fact that he looked like he had just seen a ghost.

“The eternal night…? As in, the… eternal night?” Tom asked in a shocked tone.

“Umm… yeah, I guess. We don’t know anything about it, so we aren’t sure what he was referring to.” Twilight replied with an uneasy expression. The human’s reaction was starting to scare her slightly. “What is the eternal night?” The unicorn asked in a pleading tone. She couldn’t take any more of the suspense in the air.

“The eternal night is a very old legend… even for my standards. It was around long before the first slayer even came into existence. The legend says if someone were to find a way to invoke the eternal night that the sun would be blotted out of the sky and every evil creature that exists would be free to walk the earth. The only way to stop it once it starts would be to harness the raw elements of good in the world.” Tom explained the legend as closely as he could remember. The more he spoke, the more terrified the ponies became. The thoughts running through their heads made them huddle together and shiver with fright.

“T-that sounds awful.” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully. The mere thought of such a terrifying event happening was enough to make her weak in the knees.

“Every evil creature that exists… you mean, even the ones from your time?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. If the few monsters that the hooded ponies had summoned to Equestria filled her with terror, she didn’t want to know what a world full of monsters would be like.

“Yes… that’s what the legend says. But in the end, it’s only supposed to be a legend. Nothing is supposed to be able to tip the balance of the world like that, for good or evil. Everything is supposed to exist in relatively equal balance… that’s why slayers were made in the first place.” Tom explained uneasily. He didn’t want to believe that something like the eternal night could exist.

“Well, if these hooded ponies are trying to invoke the eternal night, we need to stop them, even if it is only a legend,” Celestia stated with a determined expression. “A threat to the world that large can’t be taken lightly… I need to go discuss this with my sister.” She said before turning and walking to the door.

“But… what about us? The legend says that only the raw elements of good in the world can stop the eternal night. That must be referring to the elements of harmony. We need to go with you when you head to their base. It might be the only way we can prevent them from finishing their work!” Twilight reasoned anxiously.

“I am aware of the risks Twilight… I will consider letting you go along, but for now, I just need to think things through with Luna.” Celestia explained while turning her head to face the group.

Without another word, the alicorn walked to the door and exited the room. Twilight shared a concerned glance with her friends. They had no idea that the hooded ponies had something so catastrophic in store for Equestria. All they could do now was sit and reflect on their grim thoughts.