Songs of Innocence

Chapter 78: Wild Hunt

Fluttershy's cottage, many moons later

"It feels like everything changed while Sun was gone in the human world. As she began to question Death Drive's love for her, her mind wandered to thoughts that made her question things even more. Her life was perfect... so why did she feel so... troubled? Well, it was all internal. But back in Ponyville - the external, you could say - things were shaken as violently as an earthquake. In fact, that's the perfect way of describing it. A storm of darkness had descended on our quiet little town."

Canterlot Castle, many moons ago

Having heard Sun's recollection of her experience, Twilight looked at her with an empathetic frown, disheartened by the... unexpected consequences of Sun's encounter with the Dazzlings. "Oh, Sun... I know Death Drive really loves you. I saw it in the way she was with you - she's genuinely in love with you... Also, uhm... How'd the friendship mission go, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I came to a pretty good decision, in my opinion..." Sun said, putting aside her newfound feelings of doubt to answer the question. "...I'm just going to tell Fantaga that her sisters would only want to see her again to use her... I-I still can't believe I heard them say that."

Twilight didn't say anything for a brief moment, and Sun waited for her as the alicorn thought of something to say. "Tell you what," she said, "why don't I teleport you home? That way, I can say hi to my- Er, our friends, since I've been wanting to do that for a while now."

"Sounds good." Sun nodded.

Twilight closed her eyes as horn flickered with her signature raspberry hue of aura... and nothing happened. "Did something happen?" she asked, noticing something was off, even with her eyes closed. She answered her own question when she opened them to see that they were in the same place, having not moved an inch. 

She immediately used her magic again, and realized with surprise that it was quite difficult to successfully cast the teleportation spell. So, she tried harder, and it failed to move them. Then, she tried even harder, and... it actually worked this time. The two were enveloped in a bright light, and they finally found themselves somewhere else.

But where they were wasn't Ponyville. It wasn't exactly far away from the town - they were actually just a stone's throw away from it - but Twilight became bothered by the difficulty she suddenly had using the teleportation spell. It was frustrating, it was like she was learning it for the first time again!

"Uh, why's the sky... black? It's barely noon." Sun said, nervously staring upwards at an unnaturally dark sky.

Twilight gasped, "What...?! What is this?!"

Suddenly, an animalistic screech's echoes reached them, causing the mares to physically take a step or two backwards in surprise. Whatever that sound was... it wasn't good. They just knew it. They both silently agreed that the best thing to do was to try to forget about it and go back to Ponyville to make sure everything was okay.

But when they laid their eyes on the town, they saw something that made their jaws drop. The sight was like a swarm of bees... if the bees were the size of an entire stallion, and they were demons. Sun knew well the creatures that were ravaging the undeserving residents of the town. They were Nightgaunts, the loyal - or perhaps simply mindless - servitors of the Children of Noctperan. It was a cult of fanatic ponies who dedicated themselves to their so-called prophet, a wise and ancient insect of startling physical size, whispered by some to be distantly related to the changelings, as well as Sun's own demon, Volax.

The Nightgaunts were created through animating the statues of the cult's temple, but the way they moved was just as lively as a creature like Sun or, say, Aello, considering the Nightgaunts' humanoid forms, vaguely reminiscent of an uninspired image of a winged devil. Their skin was of brimstone chiseled in a fashion that would trick a dumber creature into thinking the night-things' skin was of a burnt oak tree. Their faces had no features, and it was probably a good thing. One could only imagine the sick, twisted cackles that they would gleefully taunt their victims with, if they were to have a mouth. Instead of an eerie laughter, what they used to torment the ponies of the town was objectively worse... The Nightgaunt species' signature weapon was the iron trident melted into their right arm. It was an unexplained deformity that they fought with to the best of their ability. They were savages understood and misunderstood by no creature.