Silence. There was darkness, and now there was silence. The cheering cultists had knocked down the torches on their way across the field, after which they were quickly extinguished. The fire on stage was only smouldering embers that showed the outlines of the ponies gathered here. I looked at Julian’s slightly glowing diamond in his wings, but this was no more than a slight glow. No one around us said anything, everyone staring tensely into the darkness around us to detect any movement. Then it happened. First it was only two glowing red balls, then four, then sixteen, then too many to count.

"Light! We need light!" I heard Armor shout, and I needed a few seconds to put my thoughts in order. I looked around to try and make him out, but it was too dark to definitively do so. Suddenly some flashes of light appeared, triggered by the weapon of the soldiers as they shot at something in the dark.

"They're everywhere!" It was the young voice of Alf, and more shots immediately echoed around the stadium. They struck the wall of red eyes, but none of them even blinked. The red saliva ran from some of their mouths, revealing their grins.

"Ahhh!!!" I looked behind me where the shots came from and saw how this very same red mist poured over a human shape, which collapsed in the same moment.

"Damn! Alf!" Mac also began to open fire, and flashes of light again briefly lit up the surroundings.

"If someone could put on a light!" Fish also started to load a magazine as the shades swirled virtually everywhere. Pill! Lee! Fire now!" It took a few seconds before more gunfire could be heard.

"Pill? Pill!" I looked at the faint outline of Lee as he turned to his comrade, but he only had the red eyes of a shade.

"Light, we need light, damn it!" My eyes darted back to the Armor, who had probably maintained the shields to prevent any shades from going for the jugular. I started to go through the runes in my mind, and a single beam came out of my horn a few seconds later, but it was enough to us to give a general overview. Someone landed on my back, and I looked up to see a dark claw above my head before it dissipated. Armor had thrown me to the ground and had counterattacked with some magic beams at our opponent. A magical vacuum appeared for a few seconds before it contracted and tore into everything it touched.

"We need more light, quickly!" He raised himself on his hooves again, as I realized his weight was no longer on my back. I did as I was told, and a second light source emerged and began to cross the field, eventually gaining some altitude. A large part of the field was illuminated and again gave a better perspective on what was happening here. On stage, Julian was keeping the attackers at bay with the diamond he held in his wings. It sparked at the shade but only made it cringe slightly. Twilight, Trixie, and Rarity were behind Luna, who probably still had my brother on her back, with one of her magical blades dividing the approaching shades. When the weapon struck them, they disappeared as if they had been touched by sunlight. "We need to get to the others." Armor resisted the shades with one of his shields and fired back at them.

"Nightmare is here..." I said to myself and began to search for her. It was that creature who was responsible for all the suffering here, for the deaths of my mother, my grandmother, along with billions of other people, and the injury to my two brothers. "Nightmare, come out!" A laugh was heard, and all the shades paused their attacks.

"Look at who actually still dwells among the living. I thought you were already mine." It was again just like a whisper, but I heard her as clearly as though she stood right next to me.

"I would rather destroy my soul than to let it be used as a monster! Now show yourself, you coward!" I did not care that I was exhausted to the point where two small lights posed a challenge. I did not care that hundreds of shades had surrounded us and had already caught two of us.

"I’m afraid that’s not possible, seeing as I’m at the other end of this miserable planet. The moon gives me a pleasant view of what’s happening." I looked up at the dark star in the sky, and it was now almost as if Nightmare’s aura radiated like a spotlight from it. But what had brought her to control the moon in the first place? The sun would weaken her, and it would be in the sky in a few hours. Of course! It was not strong enough to move the moon, so it was satisfied with the next best thing. In the dimension where the planet Albion was, the universe functioned differently and the night could oust the day, but the planets here were fixed objects. The moon already moved around the earth, but the earth itself was moving around the sun and not vice versa. It's easier to change the direction of an already moving object than getting it to move in the first place. The only thing left was the reason.

"Why the moon, Nightmare? Got moon envy from Luna? Or are you too weak to move around a sun? Even my mother can do that!" For a few seconds there was silence, which meant that I had somehow hit a nerve.

"I do not need any sun to achieve that what I want!" That meant the moon was only one option. "The night will be as endless here as I want it. There is no escape." I realized what she meant. A solar eclipse could control it. Indirect sunlight could not hurt the shades, the moon being the best example of that. In that way, there would always be a certain area in darkness where the moon would be between the sun and Earth, bringing about night. There would not be eternal global night, but it had the next best thing.

"Sorry to say that nothing will help you against us. Celestia entrusted me with her magic and I can produce sunlight wherever I want. We will kill you." Laughter was heard. Apparently she really enjoyed these little talks. She was almost following the villain’s cliché to the letter, as she had given enough time for Luna to pass my brother to Twilight and Trixie.

"That is why my subjects will soon take care of you, and you shall soon belong to me." This abruptly signalled another wave of attacks by the shades, but this time we were prepared. One of my lights hovered over to Armor, who no longer used his shields to defend but also to attack. Luna left the three unicorns and pegasus alone on stage and waded into a number of the shades. Armor and I went, step by step, further and further into the direction of the others, because we had to stay together and reach the exit.

"Fish, come on!" Armor yelled backwards as soon as my light was out of range. I also looked at them briefly and saw that they were just two. Mac and him stood back to back and fought back with everything they had, but more and more came from behind the stands

"Get out of here! This is our fight!" he called back and threw his gun in the face of the shade and pulled out his pistol from his belt. Several bullets punctured through the shade before it began to reform. "This is the point where our cooperation ends."

"Show the beast how humans take revenge." Mac reached at his throat and took something Fish passed him. He weighed the articles briefly in his hand before he threw them in our direction. The two objects glinted in the light of my short spell before they landed a few feet in front of me in the grass. I enclosed them with my magic and made the two dog tags come to me. When I looked up, I could no longer see the two soldiers because they were completely surrounded by the dark creatures. Individual shots were heard, then the guns were silenced.

"Light, we need to leave." I pulled the two tags after me when I caught up to Armor and finally put them in my saddlebag. "Do you still have power for a few attacks?" he asked as he pushed more enemies into the radius of my light with his shield, which caused them to fizzle.

"I have problems maintaining the light.” We were already halfway across the stage, where Luna still flitted back and forth to try and cover all sides. Two daggers whirled through the air, slicing through one shade after the next.

"Twilight! Do something!" Armor shouted to his sister, who clung to Rarity and vice versa. The call took her out of her shaky demeanour, horn directed forward and all four firmly on the ground. Though still slightly trembling slightly, she began to help Luna as they began firing at the approaching shades, also with only mediocre success.

"We'll never make it to the exit!" I yelled at him and swung the remaining light like one would when faced with wild animals, but the fear of the beings faded just like my light itself. "Soon we wouldn’t even have to worry about that..." I added with some anxiety. A shade surged forward, as my light was now apparently weak enough, but when I held the ball in front of me, it began to dissolve anyway.

"...Celestia!" I heard call Rainbow, wherever she was. Then I also noticed that Hawk was out of sight, or rather her flame. By if on cue, a new wave of flames came down from the heavens and lit the grass around us, so its flames separated us from the shades. "The Celestia is right here!" At the repeated shout, my eyes darted upwards again, and I saw them. In the distance, like a single star, a shining ship quickly came in our direction.

"Okay everypony, get ready to head out," said Armor and broke into a gallop towards the stage. I quickly followed him, striking a couple of shades within the fire and then climbed with a quick jump to the others. Luna landed at the same time next to me and was also visibly out of breath.

"Shining Armor, where are the humans who were with you?" was her first question when she lowered the blade.

"They did not make it. There was a crazy bunch of humans that surprised us, and we were not prepared..." Luna nodded and pushed a shade off the stage as it was about to attack Twilight, who was preoccupied with dealing with one of her own.

"Do not come near me, you... thing!" I turned and saw one of the shades tried to grab Rarity from under the stage. Trixie responded as I did, and my light raced in the direction of a hole in the wooden floor. Thus, the ground was now illuminated under the stage, and I heard multiple enemies fizzle.

"That was just..." Julian muttered, balancing the diamond, which was as weak as my light, on his wing.

"Give me that," Rarity said, and it flew over to her in the next moment before she splintered it into many pieces. "Nopony interferes with a lady!" she exclaimed at a level that would rival Rainbow Dash, and began to fire the shards across the field. They appeared transparent as they reached the shades, but as they struck, they left cannonball-sized holes in them.

"Wow ..." was all Julian said as Trixie and him hoofed over their almost exhausted diamonds to Rarity. She did not look at them as she also crushed these and fired the small splinters across the field.

"This will show you for scaring me like that!" she declared as the last salvo was fired, and we now had much fewer opponents heading towards us.

"Give all your diamonds to Rarity," Armor said to us, and now Twilight and her brother threw theirs to her. She examined the two just before a diabolical grin broadly spread ​​across her face.

"Party BOMB!!!" suddenly echoed from the sky above us, and I could not believe my eyes. Shining brightly, halfway down to the ground was Pinkie Pie. The Celestia hovered above about her. What she sat on was something I could not precisely tell, but what I did recognize was the gun belt that was filled with charged diamonds. She was wearing a sort of helmet on her head, and darted straight toward the ground in the middle of the stadium.

"Pinkie!" I watched as Rainbow and Hawk rushed to her, but she was already too far down. Suddenly there was a loud bang, and now it was also clear on what Pinkie had sat on: her cannon. More diamonds flew out of the tube and soared into the air. As their momentum faltered, they began to fall to the earth as Pinkie did, but parachutes had been attached to them, ensuring that the loss of speed was reduced. In Pinkie’s case, a parachute flew out of her cannon, which slowed her descent as well. Meanwhile, the diamonds began to show their effects, as the new light sources ensured that the field was now relatively cleared of the shades. Some were still visible in the stands, but they were far away.

"That was great!" Pinkie shouted as she sat on the grass and hopped over to us with her cannon in tow.

"Pinkie darling, that was incredible!" Rarity let the shards fall to the ground and hurried to meet her friend. Twilight was right on her heels and Trixie huddled together with my brother and I in her magic aura.

"We need to get out of here. He has a fever and is getting weaker." I nodded to Trixie and stood at the edge of the stage.

“I hate to break up the reunion and all, but we need to get Nils out of here." I pointed to Trixie, who made him slowly float off the stage. Now Rainbow and Hawk also came to us and landed next to Pinkie. "And here we already have two pegasi that can do the job.”

"What?" Rainbow asked in surprise as she looked at me, then on Trixie and my brother. "Ow... He looks ill." She flew over to Trixie and tried to get Nils on her back, but he was just too big. "Will you help me, Hawk?" She did not say anything, but spat out a small flame ball on the grass and then began to lift my brother in the air with Rainbow. Hawk held his arms with her hooves while Rainbow took over his feet.

"Be careful with him!" I called out as they took the first two feet off the ground and flew up to the ship. It slowly came down, and I could see Cadance steering it by the lantern. She waved frantically down to us at the bottom. The pegasi and the Celestia met halfway while the others were deep in conversation.

"...And then we saw Hawk’s flames and I said we should help better, but Fluttershy said we should wait because we had gotten instructions and…" She paused and took a deep breath. "Then my Pinkie Sense struck and told me that the moon had been taken hostage. You know, a twitch in my right hoof, a tingling in my kidney, and an itch in the nose," Pinkie stated, after which her two friends hugged her. "Hey! This is the first time that I got to say something without one of you interrupting me!" She grinned even wider and returned the hug.

“Pinkie, if you ever save us from so many shades, you can talk as much as you want,” Twilight replied and squeezed her harder.

"So! Fluttershy is treating the patient on deck since he does not fit below," Rainbow announced their return. "Who else wants to fly on the Pegasus Express?" she asked, looking at the gathered ponies. I hoped she would overlook me for now, as I knew that a horror flight awaited me, but I was too exhausted to speak again at this point in any case. Of more importance now was to find out where Nightmare was staying and how she controlled the moon, along with how to end this usurpation. Too bad that I did not get any information from her.

Author's Notes:

Translated and edited by JBL