"What are we gonna do now?" Shady asked.
"Sorry, guys," Gusty said, sheepishly. "I didn't mean to . . ."
"It's not your fault, Gusty," Peter said. "You didn't know you'd spread the fire."
"But the problem is figurin' out where the ponies are gonna go," Mike said.
The sorceress laughed. She loved to cause misery among people. And furthermore, she had Mike right in her sights.
"I have you now, Nesmith," she said, pointing her finger to the ball. "Just try to get out of this one!"
The sorceress sent her beam into the air. Mike had no clue what was coming.
"Ow!" he shouted, and he began to rub the side of his neck. "Somethin' bit me on the neck!"
"Probably a mosquito," Moon Dancer replied.
Mike moved his hand. On the right side was a small black star, and it looked like it had been burned into his skin.
"I didn't know you had a birthmark, Michael," Peter said.
"I don't," Mike said, trying to get a view of the star. "I think Moon Dancer's right. Must be a mosquito bite."
"Weirdest looking mosquito bite I've ever seen," Apple Jack replied.
"Well, we can't argue about it now," Micky said. "Where are the Little Ponies gonna go now that the Estate's burned down?"
No one had an answer to that. Not at that time anyway. The sorceress laughed as she watched what was going on in her crystal. She already got her revenge, so now it was time to plunge the world in eternal darkness. Then she looked up the spell in her spell book. She wasn't pleased after she did.
"Drat," she said. "I'm going to need the Rainbow of Darkness. But that was destroyed when those meddlesome ponies destroyed Tirac. No matter. I can always bring him back."
The sorceress walked over to her crystal and waved her hands around it. There, she got a vision of Tirac, the evil Minotaur who needed four ponies to pull his chariot of darkness. She raised her hands and there was a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning. In the blink of an eye, in the sorceress' throne room was Tirac, with his Rainbow of Darkness.
"Ah, Tirac, my old friend," she said.
"It has been awhile, my dear Enchantra," Tirac said. "It's good to be back at Midnight Castle."
"The place certainly went to seed since you left. No matter. I've fixed it up. Anyway, I brought you back for a purpose."
"And what purpose is that?"
"I want to plunge the world in eternal darkness. And I need your Rainbow of Darkness to do it. This will put an end to those Little Ponies' fun forever. However, I'll handle everything. You don't need your chariot."
"That was destroyed anyway. No matter. I'll gladly plunge the world into darkness."
"Good. We have to use certain procedures, or else the spell won't work right."
Enchantra stepped into the light, to reveal herself as a very beautiful young sorceress (even though she was nearly three thousand years old), with long black hair and dark eyes, and the same star shaped mark on her forehead that was on Mike's neck. She wore a long dark dress, but no jewelry that supplied her power. It didn't matter. She had plenty to spare. And with Tirac's Rainbow of Darkness, she couldn't go wrong. The first step of Eternal Darkness was to unleash the Rainbow of Darkness onto the crystal ball.
"This will only cause the sun to go out," Enchantra said. "We'll worry about the rest later."
"Excellent," Tirac replied. He opened his pouch and the Rainbow of Darkness flew out into the crystal, blocking the sun over Ponyland.
"The first step is complete," Enchantra laughed. "Let's see them try to overcome this!"
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