Darkness Eternal Descends on Ponyville

As we entered the library, Twilight starts to magic books off the shelf, while Spike attempts to start to stack them. Twilight looks over at spike, and sees that the poor dragon can barely keep his eyes open.

"Oh, you poor thing. You've been up all night. Let's get you put to sleep. you are a BABY drgon after all. you need your sleep. Fawkes, can you stack these books here and start searching for anything that might have info on the Elements of Harmony, while I put Spike here to bed?"

"Yeah, sure thing Twi." I respond, grabbing the books spike has put down and starting to look through the titles. The Art of Invisibility Spells, The Art of the To-do List (of course you would have this.) Slumber 101 - Everthing You Wanted to Know About Slumber Parties but Were Afraid To Ask. (Thats out of place. We'll need it later though.) Astronomers Almanac, a LOT of daring do books...

"Found it!"

I here a shout from a bit further down, just as Twilight is trotting back down the stairs. I look up and Pinkie has pulled a large leatherbound volume with gold trimming on it. I recognize it immediately as "The Elements of Harmony - A Reference Guide"

"Great job Pinkie, but how did you find it so fast?" Twilight asks, trotting over and taking the book with her magic.

"It was under Eeee~" Pinkie says, in a sing songy voice. Of course it was. She did that in the show too...

Twilight opens the book, and starts flipping through the pages. she stops on one that has an illustration of several rocks on a vaguely familiar looking pedestal type thing.

"According to this book, there six elements of harmony, but only five are currently known. Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The last one is unknown. The last known location of these elements was in...The castle of the Two Sisters... Fawkes did you know this would happen?"

"Yeah, I did. That's one of the reasons I jumped in front of you. I was pretty sure she would just say her bit and leave." I respond, putting away the other books we took of the shelves.

"So, then do you know what the last element is, and where to find them?" Twilight asked me, looking directly at me.

"I...I do. But I can't say." I have a twinge of guilt in my heart. I want to help. I really do. I look up at Twilight, whose eyes turn almost dark as I say this.

"What do you mean you can't say? We need this info if we want to defeat Nightmare Moon!" She half yells at me. I recoil away slightly, and shrink down into a chair.

" I know, but I also know how you guys will come to learn this. If I told you, it would make the whole point moot, and you wouldn't be able to help anyways. It's like giving someone the answers to their homework. Sure it helps them now, but then on the test, they flounder, becuase they didn't properly learn the stuff they needed. I'll come along and help, but you guys need to do some things yourself, if you want to be able to take down nightmare moon." When I finish, I look up at the ponies, and see they are all completely lost at the exchange between Twilight and myself.

"Whoa there, Pardner. Slow down a minute. What's all this hooey about knowing stuff. I thought you came from another world?" Applejack was the first to speak. I figured this would happen.

" I did. Look, I really can't go into specifics right now, but lets just say a certain aspect of my world had a way of letting me get information about this world. Problem is, I can't trust it to be 100% accurate going forward. That's the other reason I can't say what's going on. I can't garuntee things havent already changed from what I know."

"Well, I don't know anything about other worlds and junk, but if Twilight says this guy is okay, then he's cool in my books." Rainbow shouts suddenly. "But now we need a plan. Where do we go, and what do we do there?"

"Well, they only thing we can do, is head into the Everfree Forest, and look for the castle. Not only is that where we will find the elements, but It's also where Nightmare Moon was headed. Problem is, she will probably try to stop us from getting there. Expect some sort of resistance on the way." I say, as Twilight nods in agreement.

About twenty minutes later, we find ourselves outside the Everfree forest. I look at the dark gnarled branches that grow from the twisted trunks. Immediately after the entryway, the light from the moon gets much darker. I look at my watch. 7:47 AM. Sun would normally be up by now, given the previous morning. Looks like since Celestia is missing, Nightmare Moon is going to get her night.

"So, no one here has entered the forest before?" Twilight asks, as all the others answer in the negative.

"I uh, live nearby, but it's too scary to go in." Fluttershy says, covering one eye with a wing, as if hiding from the forest.

"Yeah, The clouds move by themselves and stuff , so, I avoid even flying over it." Rainbow Dash says, pointing with a wing to the mass of cloud slow drifting over the forest.

"Clouds move by themselves in my world too...well, the wind moves them. We can't really do anything with them ourselves." I state, waving them off with a shake of my hand. "It's the creatures i'm worried about. Aren't there Timber Wolves and Manticores and such in here?"

"That we know of. I've even heard tales of river monsters and other phantasmagorial things in here." Applejack states, straining to look deep past the darkness that envelops much of what is inside the forest. Almost on cue, a bestial wail rings out from deep in the forest, a flock of birds fleeing from the branches of the nearby trees.

"Well, Here goes nothing, I guess. Onward?" I ask, looking toward Twilight, who has been awfully quiet this whole time. She looks at me for a second, as if trying to read me, before steeling herself and nodding once, curtly. One by one, we enter the darkness of the forest before us.

Nearly as soon as we pass the first row of trees, the darkness decends on us. While not pitch black, it made it hard to see. With a sudden thought, I started to slap my pockets. Twilight notices the sound and turns around.

"What are you doing, Fawkes? I thought something might have been sneaking up on us." She says, coming closer to where I stand.

"Looking...for...my...AHA!" I say, as I keep searching, until at last, I find a flat rectangular object in my front left pocket. "My phone. I just presumed it never made the jump with me, but when I realized that I was wearing what I had been the day before, and not what I went to sleep in, I realized I must have it with me."

"What's a fone?" Rainbow asked, hovering off the ground, to try and get a better look at it in the darkness.

"It's an electrical device from my world. We can use it to send and receive phone calls; like letters, that are spoken aloud rather than written. Phones these days can even connect to the internet, a global collection of data that anyone with an acceptable device can access; though I doubt I'll have service here. What I wanted it for, was this..."

I push the small button at the base of the front of the device, and the screen flares to life. I start back at my own lock screen. A stylized version of Twilight's cutie mark... better change that later, before anyone sees it. I swipe up from the bottom, bringing up the service panel,and hit the flashlight button. A blinding flash of white appears from the inderside of the device, causing the ponies to turn their respective heads, or shield their eyes. I take a glance at the battery life. 37%. Better make this worth it. I turn off the light again, and stow the phone away in my pocket.

"I don't have much charge left on the phone, and if that runs out, we will have no emergency light." I respond not to anyone in particular, but at the stunned faces of the ponies when i robbed them of their precious light source, leaving the forest around us seeming darker than usual with the sudden absence of it's brilliance. "It's not that dark here yet. but now that I know that's an option, we can save it for when we need it."0

We continue walking, and the forest on one side, clears out to a show a drop of about two to three hundred feet, but the gound slopes off. It's steep not not sheer. There is a fair amount of land between the path and the edge, and the forest stretches out beyond. A cloud moves out from in front of the moon, and we are suddenly swathed in moonlight, as is the forest.

"Hey Y'all look! " AJ shouts, motioning with a hoof to a shadowy shape in the distance. The fog emenating from a crevice that passes in front of the shadow makes it hardto see exact shapes, but a building of some sort is clearly rising above the trees in the distance. "I can see that there castle."

"That's great. Nicely spotted there, Applejack!" Twilight says gleefully.

I suddenly snap my head around, looking towards the forest. I could have swore I saw something dart from the forest out over the cliff. I edge closer, taking a look down the drop, peering over from as far away from the cliff as I can get.

"Careful, Fawkes. Thats's dangerous!" I hear Twilight say, as I peer over the edge.

"I thought...I saw... Never mind. Probably was my mind playing tricks on meeeohWOAH!" My statement is cut off by a sudden shake, as the ground below us seems to shake and wobble.

" What the hay is going on!" Rainbow shouts, as she and Fluttershy take to the air. The ground below me shudders, and a hunk of ground under my left foot rises suddenly, pushing me off balance . With a sudden lurch and a matching shout, I am sent hurdling down the side of the cliff, rolling and tumbling.

I flail about, screaming, trying to get a hold on something, but I am moving too fast. I land hard on a rock jutting about a foot out of the ground, and I give a howl in pain, as my ankle bends sideways with a sickening crack as my momentum throws me headfirst over the rock, and into the air. After another two or three seconds of flight time, I crash hard into the ground, and everything goes black.

BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...

A steady beeping is the first thng I hear when I come too. As I wake up, I hear shuffling around me. I open my eyes, bright light instantly causing me to want to close them again.

" Hey there, Sugarcube. Good to see yer still part of us livin' folk." A voice to my right speaks, as I try to turn and focus on the sound. "Heya Twi, Fawkes here is wakin' up!"

"Hey... not so loud" I manage to get out, as my eyes start to focus on the shapes in front of me. " Aren't hospitals supposed to be quiet?"

"Now, you know i only got one volume setting." Applejack says proudly.

"Then I'll ask you to very quickly find a new one, or leave please. This is a house of medicine, and this...man...needs some rest." An unknown voice cuts in from my right. I swing my head around, and spot a butterscotch coloured pony with a brown mane, and a set of white scrubs on. A cutie mark like an ECG screen is partially visible from underneath it.

"Hey there. I'm Dr. Horse. Can you hear me? Can you understand me?" He says, looking directly at me.

"Yeah, I can hear you." I respond, still not quite up to full speaking capacity.

"Do you know who you are, or where you currently are?" He asks, magicking a flashlight and shining it in my eyes. I wince, and try to cover my eyes, but he stops me with a hoof. "Pupillary reponse is slow, but not odd for someone recovering from a possible concussion. please answer my questions about yourself"

"Oh... sorry. Yeah. My name is S...Fawkes. I'm think...I'm in a hospital?" I add an inflection of a question to that last statement.

"Good. you are in Ponyville Hospital, and your given name matches the one I received from the once who brought you here. They say they are your friends." He motions to Applejack, who is now joined with Pinkie Pie and Twilight, who all look on, worriedly.

"Yeah... They are. Thank you guys." I say, looking at them.

" A few more questions real quick, if you don't mind, Mr. Fawkes." Dr. Horse says.

"Please. Just Fawkes." I try to sit up a bit more, and sharp pain shoots through my left ankle. "AARGH!"

"Please sit still. You seem to have broken your ankle in your fall. I've mended the bones to the best of my ability, and bandaged it, but if you are not careful with it, it can refracture. sometimes even worse. Even magic is not perfect medicine. I can give you some pain killers if you want. Personally I just want to know what the lot of you were doing in the Everfree Forest. I'm guessing it has something to do with that strange mare appearing at the Summer Sun Celebration a week ago."

"Nightmare Moon? Yeah it di... DID YOU SAY A WEEK AGO?" I start, but suddenly shout, as the magnitude of his words wash over me. "It's been a week? What time is it? What happened to Nightmare Moon? Did Celestia come back?

"Fawkes. quiet. You need to rest." Twilight says, coming closer. I shut up immediately. I didn't like the tone in her voice... pity? no... anger? no... disappointment? Guilt?

"We didn't stop Nightmare Moon. She's still out there. At the Castle of the Two Sisters. We were issued an Ultimatum this morning. Every 12 hours we don't show up for her challenge, she vows a pony from Ponyville will never see the light again. Daylight or Moonlight."

"What about the elements. Did you find them? I ask, not quite feeling the full impact of what she was saying. It was like hearing through paper towel rolls. I could hear, but it was as if someone far off was trying to talk to me. We failed? How? Was this my fault? Was it becuase I fell?

"Well. We technically found them, I think, but that doesn't matter now." Twilight says sullenly. I look up at AJ and Pinkie behind them. AJ just stares at the ground, and Pinkie... I've just never seen her without a smile on her face. It looks so surreal to just see her staring at me. Like all the fun had been sucked right out of her soul.

"What do you mean it doesn't matter?" I ask, snapping back to Twilight.

"When we got to the Castle, there was a stone statue with 5 orbs on it. it was the Elements, I think. They turned to stone after a heavy use, according to the texts on the plinth. But then Nightmare moon showed up. We tried to call forth the power of the elements, but without the 6th one, we couldn't do anything. She destroyed them, Fawkes. They are gone. She's won. We fled; what else could we have done? We found you and Fluttershy at the base of the cliff where you fell, and we carried you back to town. It's been night ever since, and no one has seen Princess Celestia at all."

"Wait. Fluttershy was with me?" I ask, scratching my head. "why wasn't she with you?"

"well, after you fell, we tried taking you with us. We ran into a manticore in the forest. We were trying to fight it off, but then Fluttershy pointed out a thorn in it's paw. After we removed it, it was docile again. We then came across a raging stream. We figured it would be best to leave you, as we can't get you across it, so we brought you back to the base of the cliff, as it was in the open, and left Fluttershy to watch you in case any more animals came."

"so she wasn't with you in the castle?" I ask "No wonder the elements didn't work. It needs all 6 of you. Doctor, when can I walk again?"

"Well your foot has been resting for the better half of a week, so you should be able to walk anytime, but there will be pain, and I advise against any running, jumping or strenuous action, and I recommend a crutch to be used. We've had one made in your size and shape, that should work for you."

"Great. Twilight. Get everyone together, and meet me at the entrace to the forest. We are going to go stop that moldy old Mare."