Burning Twilight Book 2
Chapter 7: Darkening Skull Rises Again
Scene 1: A Cloudsdale Store
"W-who are you?" Twilight looked fearfully at Darkening Skull.
"Of course you do not know me, young ones. I have been here way long before. Longer before you even took birth. I was just a young filly, with big, red, cheerful eyes and a fresh, furry, black coat. When I grew to the age you are now, currently after Luna got banished, I felt so mad! Why does Princess Celestia always have things under control! She raises the sun, and now raises the moon too after Luna got banished! She just wants to do everything she wants to! That is why we are disgusted by that princess...more like a pest to me. I shook that thought, though. After a few years, I looked at the dawning of the sun. Then I realized I had to take action. It was calling me. And that is how I got my cutie mark of a skull. I sneakily crept past the royal guards in Celestia's kingdom, then eyed her. We fought for a while, then I realized my mistake. I should've prepared. I was flung away, and banished off a cliff! She is so selfish, pah! Luckily, I survived the fall. So, I hid for those centuries that passed. Princess Celestia decided to tell no one that I even fought her, and soon I was lost in history. Celestia still knows though, but keeps it at the back of her mind. So yes, that is my story, young foals, but we have a world named Equestria to rule!" Darkening Skull cackled.
"Aren't you misunderstanding something? The only reason your evil is because of that. Princess Celestia is nice when you get to know her. She just did the right thing to banish Luna, since she was consumed by evil when she felt left out. That was the only solution. Princess Celestia cares for Equestria. Though she banished Luna, she took her responsibility as her own! Isn't that nice?" Fluttershy wondered.
"You are the one mistaken! You must pay! You are offending us well, Fluttershy, but we have consequences!" Luna yelled in her traditional, loud voice, which echoed and bounced off the walls of the store. "You will pay for your insult!"
Nightmare Moon tossed a flash of light to Fluttershy, who screeched, but was deflected by a fire blast as Twilight pointed her horn. Her mane blazed in anger with the fire dancing on it.
"Take care of them later, Luna! You must focus on the topic. Leave these, for they are weaklings for us now. They cannot stop us!" Princess Chrysalis demanded.
"That is Nightmare Moon now to you!" Luna threw her head up.
"Can you stop with that loud voice?" King Sombra looked ticked off.
"Just leave Luna too! She just is so outspoken!" Princess Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "And I like that loud voice!"
The three of them went into an argument about liking Luna's voice and leaving to rule Equestria.
"Stop! You slackers! Are you trying to waste our time?" Darkening Skull sighed. "Did I hire you for nothing? Did you bring me back for this?"
The room became quiet as the argument stopped immediately.
Then, Darkening Skull bashed into the roof, and fluttered away into the sky, and then the three villains followed.
"Get them! Don't let 'em get away!" Twilight hollered to Fluttershy as she followed the villains. Fluttershy nodded and they both went through the hole now in the ceiling.
Scene 2: The Skies of Equestria
"Get back here!" Twilight commanded as they flew after the evildoers with Fluttershy directly behind her.
"Hey, Dark, I see some storm clouds behind us, care to help Equestria and smash them?" Sombra pointed at Twilight and Fluttershy.
"With pleasure!" Darkening Skull laughed as he threw blasts at the two friends.
"Ouch!" one of the blasts hit Twilight, which made her unsteady, and added to her not-so-great flying was a disaster. She did flips through the air and felt like she was going to crash into Equestria's core of this planet.
Luckily, Fluttershy was fast enough to catch Twilight and bring her up again.
"It will take ages to get to Equestria...do you think we should transport to Ponyville? We already sabotaged Cloudsdale, especially with all of those screaming throughout that town, so we better go there." Princess Chrysalis suggested.
"Great idea, since we have to shake them off of our tails..." Luna, now Nightmare Moon, looked back at the two ponies, one alicorn and one pegasus, and hissed. Then, the four villains vanished out of sight.
"Oh no! They have transported away!" Fluttershy exclaimed.
"Don't worry, I think I can do it too. Hold on to me!" Twilight told her.
Fluttershy held on to her back as her horn sparkled in the sunlight. Then, they vanished from the blue skies.
Scene 3: Ponyville
Fluttershy opened her eyes and found herself near Twilight. The villains had spotted them.
"Ugh! They were able to make themselves come here too!" King Sombra pointed out.
"This," said Nightmare Moon, "will be as easy as pie!"
The princess of the moon and darkness forced the moon over the sun, causing the land to suddenly plunge into darkness. The only visible light were the homes of Ponyville and Twilight's fiery mane of fire.
"You'd better end this, or else!" Twilight used her new powers to force the sun back up again. Soon, Luna and Twilight were in a tussle of where the sun and moon went. A wobbly pattern was made in the sky. First, it was the springing of day, and as if you've turned off the lights, it darkened all of the sudden.
Finally, Twilight was able to push the moon back down in succession.
"Impressive...but see if you can get a load of this, worthless young princess!" King Sombra used his dark magic to envelope the sky in darkness. Then, he uprooted a tree with his magic and threw it on some of the residents' homes.
Fluttershy quickly ran to the ponies' rescues, while Twilight stood in pride.
"You think you're so powerful, huh? Well, you've failed in that pretty greatly..." Darkening Skull grinned. Then, with his magic, he surprisingly lowered some wood planks without warning over Twilight. They crashed down around her, but luckily she wasn't hurt.
But the conflict was that she was trapped in the wood planks like a cage. Twilight even tried using her fire powers to get out, but it just made the wood go on fire, so she could not even touch the sides.
"Fluttershy!" Twilight exclaimed. She was still out in the disaster, and surely the villains would come for her next. The alicorn tried to look for her friend through the wood planks, but all she could see was the fire dancing on the planks.
Fluttershy was helping one of the ponies whose home was destroyed, until Princess Chrysalis used a beam on Fluttershy. She was pushed near the wooden plank cage, and felt helpless. She fainted as King Sombra came next to her body.
"Hehe...take them to the place!" Darkening Skull winked.
"Please...this cannot be happening." Twilight muttered to herself. But it was. She looked down helplessly as she watched Darkening Skull and Princess Chrysalis carry the cage and her to this so-called place, with King Sombra and Nightmare Moon carrying Fluttershy.
This couldn't be happening. Friendship had to win. It's the most powerful magic in all of Equestria. It's not supposed to end this way! I thought we could overpower evil! Twilight's vision blurred as tears filled her eyes. As a tear rolled down her cheek, her instincts told her that it had happened.
Evil had won...