The Dark Hour
"Gosh-darn it to heck. She was right."
Applejack kicked the drywall with her back left hoof. The orange earth pony grunted under her breath in frustration, as she looked at the Tokyoats night sky from the window. The moon was not only full, but much larger than what it was a scant few minutes ago- and did she mention that the sky was green?
"Pinkie was right. The moon is awfully scary tonight. Whatever's comin'... is gonna be one heck of a doozy."
A second kick to the drywall followed, this one harder than the last, forming a small crack in the wallpaper. The recoil knocked Applejack's stetson hat off of her head and onto the ground.
"Applejack, darling, I wish you would stop your worrying."
As if in response to the two loud banging noises produced by Applejack's kicking, a white unicorn with delicately-maintained purple curls entered the Umatodai dormitory lobby, as well. She lowered her head to pick up her friend's hat, and put it back on her head, taking care to position it perfectly.
"Rarity, Ah'm only worryin' because Ah have a really good reason to worry."
"What 'good reason'? Was it what Pinkie Pie said?"
"You heard her. 'Something really big is goin' to happen when the moon goes all funny-like!'" Applejack said, trying to do her best Pinkie Pie impression. "Or, y'know. Somethin' to that effect. And you know Pinkie has a sixth sense for these things!"
"It certainly defies comprehension, yes, but really, it's nothing to be worried about."
Applejack gave a sigh of discontentment.
"You take one look at that sky up there and tell me nothing's wrong. One."
Applejack pointed her hoof at the eerie full moon.
The celestial body was far more menacing than Luna's- none of the usual craters or rock formations were visible. It was as if the entire landscape had changed, if that made any sense. Its usual gentle glow was now an unsettling, pale radiance.
These changes, coupled with what Pinkie had mentioned earlier, were why Applejack was extremely wary. She somehow felt responsible for the lives of her fellow ponies, and she had to be ready for anything that might threaten them. And if the Pinkie Sense was right, there was something. Something big.
As Applejack pondered, Rarity, meanwhile, squinted her eyes. She tilted her head as if trying to locate just what it was that had her companion so bothered.
"Well, it's certainly unusual, but I don't think it's any cause for concern. The Dark Hour isn't exactly new to us, after all. It's been happening every night. And even if there is something, getting all 'worked up', as it were, isn't going to help matters any."
"...yer right, I... s'pose. I guess I should stay calm. Thanks, Rar'."
Rarity nodded, and smiled.
"And besides. We've fought 'them' before, have we not? It's not as if the full moon is going to change that fact in any way."
"...h-hello? Is… is anypony there?"
The sudden shift to darkness had startled Twilight to the point where she had difficulty keeping her balance. She nearly tripped as she took her first few steps out of the train.
All of the lights had... died—Twilight gulped as the word crossed her mind— at once. They didn't dim like the lights back at the airport did. These lights just... went off, along with all the other pieces of electronic equipment in the station. The turnstiles, the billboards, everything- it was as if the electricity supply was cut in a single instant. Even the things that were supposed to be able to function during a blackout were all powered down.
However, it wasn't just the lack of power that unsettled her. It was as if the air about her surroundings had suddenly changed in the blink of an eye. The cool, Tokyoats breeze that she had so enjoyed upon her arrival in Nippony was gone, replaced with an unsettling... an unsettling...
"Argh!"
Twilight struggled to come up with a word to describe just what the air felt like. It was neither hot nor cold- there was no wind, and yet she didn't feel like sweating. The silence didn't help the atmosphere any, either. It wasn't the kind of quiet that she was used to in the library.
If she had to describe it, it was that everything felt... still. Completely unmoving. As if...
"If I didn't know better, I'd say that time suddenly stopped, or something!" Twilight laughed nervously, trying to ignore a less-than-sensible thought that had just occurred to her. Looking at the large analog clock, however, it immediately became obvious to her that the thought wasn't as ridiculous as she thought it was.
And what were those odd boxes in the distance? They were large enough to fit a fully-grown pony inside of them, and the crosses on the lids could only indicate...
"...those can't be coffins... can they?"
"Ooh! Ooh! I feel something!"
Pinkie Pie suddenly burst into the room. Rarity gave a high-pitched shriek- the suddenness of Pinkie's arrival had caused her to suddenly fall to the carpeted floor.
"What in blazes... Pinkamena Diane Pie! Don't go and just barge in like a stark-raving madpony, for Celestia's sake! At least have the courtesy to knock, or something!"
"Now look who's gone and gotten themselves all 'worked up.' Eheheh."
Applejack giggled at the joke she had just made, to Rarity's bemusement.
Pinkie would have laughed too—of the ponies in the dormitory, she was the most fond of jokes and laughter—but didn't so much as react to Applejack's comment, maintaining a look of utter bewilderment on her face.
"Another pony is, that's what's in blazes! But not literally! Or at least, I hope a fire-breathing Dragon-Shadow or something didn't get to her and put her in blazes!"
Rarity raised an eyebrow as she picked herself up off the ground. Something in what Pinkie had just said got her attention.
"...wait a minute, what was that about a—"
Pinkie interrupted, misinterpreting what the white unicorn was about to say.
"A fire-breathing Dragon-Shadow? I know there might not be one, I mean, I've never even seen one before, but Shadows can shoot fire or something, plus they look like all sorts of things, so maybe a dragon-shaped fire-magic thing isn't so far off—"
"Not that! You said something about there being 'another pony', didn't you?"
Rarity snapped at Pinkie. This was something she definitely needed to hear, and enduring more of Pinkie's nonsense—prophetic as it may occasionally be—was only going to make things more difficult than necessary, and if she was right, it was going to only endanger the life of whoever was out there.
The pink earth pony quickly nodded her head in assent.
"Applejack, do you think she means that there's another one of us with the 'potential'?"
"...I hope that pony knows what they're doin', whoever it is. I'm goin' to have myself a look-see. Where d'you figure this pony's hidin'?"
Pinkie closed her eyes to focus. Her nose began to twitch ever so slightly.
"Umatodai station! Umatodai station! And you'd better hurry, because that doozy I told you about earlier is—"
Applejack didn't bother listening to the rest of Pinkie's warning, quickly running outside the dormitory building with only her lasso and a small pouch at her side. She knew very well what the pink pony was going to say. She could only hope that it was something she could handle.
