It was always going to be an election laden with shocks and surprises, twists and turns.
But the scale of victory enjoyed by the SNP as it cruised towards a first majority Scottish Government stopped the nation in its tracks.
What emerged amid the first flushes of dawn wasn’t just a protest vote against the Lib Dems nor a bloody nose for Scottish Labour after their faltering campaign.
It was a rout, pure and simple.
And one which could leave the face of politics in Scotland changed forever.
The electorate, many of whom will have stayed up late to see the first results roll in, didn’t have long to wait for the first clues of a truly historic night in store.
Friday was only few hours old when it became clear that the SNP were on course for a spectacular victory.
The difference in this election was where.
Not just around the fringes as previously bit firmly ensconced in the traditional Labour heartlands which were once a rock solid sea of red.
North, south, east and west there was no respite as seat after seat fell.
Some early hope was delivered for Labour soon after midnight when it drew first blood as James Kelly held Rutherglen.
He won narrowly with 1779 votes, despite an 8.9% swing in support to the Nats.
They also went on to wrench Eastwood from the Conservatives.
But the party was left stunned and shaken when first Andy Kerr, the former education minister under Jack McConnell’s Labour administration and hotly tipped by some as a potential leadership rival to Iain Gray, was ousted.
His sensational defeat to the SNP’s Linda Fabiani just after 1am, a berth he had held for 12 years, served notice that no seat in Scotland was safe as the Nationalists celebrated an increase of 10.3% to its vote.
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Mr Kerr warned his party would have to "deal with this terrible situation we find ourselves in".
At the count in Lasswade, Labour party members were already looking glum faced, with one saying: "It’s not looking good for us."
And so it was to prove.
Tom McCabe, another former Labour minister, was toppled by the SNP’s Christina McKelvie in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.
As the result was declared just after 1.30am, it revealed Ms McKelvie had taken 48.1% of the vote – a staggering 17.7% increase on her party’s 2007 result.
Fellow Labour heavyweight Frank McAveety was dumped from his Shettleston stronghold.
Labour's old guard was being ravaged, many without so much as the hope of a place on the Regional Lists to fall back on.
The SNP leadership were careful this early on to keep themselves in check, Alex Salmond and deputy Nicola Sturgeon describing the early gains as nothing more than "encouraging".
Former leader John Swinney was more forthright, declaring them "stunning", as the party grew in confidence with each passing moment.
It was not even 2am yet.
Even this early word was emerging of something quite sensational on the cards in to come later Edinburgh.
But first it was another former Labour stronghold, Clydesdale, which would provide the next big shock.
Aileen Campbell, former convener of the SNP Youth Wing, took a huge 49.9% of the vote to wrest the seat from Labour’s Karen Gillon.
As news filtered out, there was reports of Labour heads shaking dejectedly at counts around the country as they realised the party's number was up.
Ken McIntosh stopped some of the Labour rot, gaining Eastwood from Conservative candidate Jackson Carlaw.
And former welder Michael McMahon forged some good news for Labour when he managed to hold Uddingston and Bellshill by just three per cent from the SNP’s Richard Lyle.
Dundee City East was retained by the Nats who delivered another stunning blow to Labour at 3am when Alex Neil took more than half the vote to win the once rock solid red support of Airdrie & Shotts from Karen Whitefield.
Nicola Sturgeon celebrated a clear victory in Glasgow Southside, with a majority of more than 4000 allowing her to concede at last that it was shaping up to be a "very, very good night" for her party.
Those words were prophetic as John Mason announced on Facebook he had taken Glasgow Shettleston for the Nats from Labour, duly confirmed soon after by the Returning Officer.
Labour leader Iain Gray was quick to point the finger of blame of his party’s discomfort at the collapse of the Lib Dem vote which crumbled as their supporters deserted them for the SNP.
Yet he was lucky to survive himself.
His nerves were shredding in East Lothian as the vote went to a recount, the Labour leader told at 3.30am he had one by just a handful of votes.
He managed a punch of the air, but there was no real celebration, only relief etched on his face while all around the political corpses of his former Labour colleagues were piling up.
Falkirk East, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, went to the SNP like more around them.
Duncan McNeil held Greenock and Inverclyde for Labour, Elaine Smith doing the same in Coatbridge and Chryston.
In a rare slice of cheer for the Lib Dems at 3.42am when leader Tavish Scott was returned handsomely to Shetland Islands with 47.5% of the 9391 vote.
So too his colleague Liam McArthur in Orkney Islands, an 860 majority over the SNP’s Donna Heddle.
However their votes were evaporating all over the country.
By 4.15am the SNP leader Alex Salmond was safely home and dry, with muted promises of a referendum on independence, his trademark laugh and jiggle slowly emerging more and more with every interview and with every new seat captured.
He said: "Some 70 years and more later the SNP can finally say that we have lived up to that accolade as the national party of Scotland."
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In Galloway and Dumfries West, a hold for the Conservatives through Alex Fergusson, along with John Lamont for the Tories who retained Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire.
But it was in Edinburgh, always a thorn in the SNP side, that some of the most significant changes would take place - the nationalists missing out on a clean sweep by just a few hundred votes.
Not even long standing candidates like the former Scottish Tory party leader David McLetchie were immune.
His Pentlands seat was cut from under him by the SNP’s Gordon MacDonald, his only hopes of clinging on being via the Regional List which eventually saw him through.
Edinburgh Western was next to go Nat, with Colin Keir taking 35.8% of the vote as the SNP headed towards five out of six seats in the Scottish capital.
Jim Eadie took Edinburgh Southern from the LibDems with Kenny MacAskill retaining Edinburgh Eastern with a 2233 majority.
Marco Biagi then secured Edinburgh Central for the SNP from the Lib Dems by only 237 votes.
But it was not quite a clean sweep, Labour veteran Malcolm Chisolm holding off the strongest of challenges from Shirley Ann Somerville by just 595.
His face told its own picture.
The smile writ large across Roseanna Cunningham’s, meanwhile, told quite another as she held Perthshire South and Kinross-shire for the SNP with more than half the vote quite another.
With his party leader watching on and to rapturous applause, the SNP's Kevin Stewart secured Aberdeen Central just before 7am, declaring: "It looks like we're going to have a clean sweep here in the north of Scotland."
Little over a quarter of an hour later, Maureen Watt kept the SNP charge going by taking Aberdeen South and North Kincardine with 11,947 votes compared to just 5624 for Labour.
Dennis Robertson's win for the Nats in Aberdeenshire West from Liberal Democrat Mike Rumbles, meantime, will make him the first ever blind MSP when he takes his seat at Holyrood
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The Lib Dems' were pushed into third place in the redrawn seat, which was once held comfortably by former party leader Nicol Stephen.
Aberdeen Donside was retained by Brian Adam for the SNP by 7.30am, with a 7175 majority, as the SNP celebrations among their supporters were getting into full swing.
The Nats also took Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Colin Beattie defeating Labour's Bernard Harkins by almost 3000 votes.
While just before 9am Christine Grahame held Midlothian South from the Lib Dems with a majority of 4924.
Kenny MacAskill, grinning broadly, summed up the mood of his party as it cruised towards what was to become the most spectacular night in its history, saying: "It is time for Scotland to take responsibility and become a nation once again."
As the counting continued into the new day, the thoughts of many were turning to the Regional List, but even that proved anything but plain sailing.
Midlothian revealed that some 200 votes had been misplaced, forcing the delaration for Lothian to be postponed until 3.30pm.
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By 9am, the results had most pundits predicting that the SNP was inching ever closer to achieving the previously unthinkable success of an outright majority of seats.
And as Scotland awoke, the news only seemed to get better for the SNP.
Caithness, Sutherland and Ross was taken by Rob Gibson, Dave Thomson followed suit by triumphing in Skye.
Fergus Ewing rubbed salt in the wounds by increasing his majority as he held onto Inverness and Nairn with 16,870 votes.
By 12.30pm, four of the eight regions having also released their numbers.
With 56 seats already in the bag, the Nationalists were left needing only nine more to establish its first ever majority government.
Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens, on the other hand, were left to simply reflect on just how and where it had gone so horribly wrong.
Admitting defeat, Iain Gray said: "It is now clear that the SNP has won the election, so early this morning I spoke with Alex Salmond to congratulate him on his victory.
"Labour has lost many talented representatives, and it seems very likely that Labour's new and returning MSPs will play their part in the democratic process in the Scottish Parliament from opposition, but will do so with gusto.
"Labour's MSPs will work constructively with the new Scottish Government to create jobs and tackle unemployment wherever we can."
Yet even as Gray lamented the losses, the Steward’s Inquiry into the Scottish Labour humiliation was already under way with former Labour ministers and supporters alike jabbing the finger of blame.
He may have retained his seat, just, but it seemed inevitable he would have to fall on his sword and resign as party leader.
News of a press call to follow in the afternoon only served to confirm that likelihood.
Before a vote was even cast there had been rumour among disaffected Labourites that Andy Kerr was emerging as his apparent.
But with his early defeat and that of others including Frank McAveety, the question being ask was ‘who now?’
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While they pondered, another crushing defeat for Labour, this time in Clydebank where Gil Paterson defeated Des McNulty to become the first non Labour winner for 93 years.
At the Perth counts, meanwhile, the SNP welcomed in more massive majorities, with a jubiliant Roseanna Cunningham describing the victory as a "tectonic shift" for Scotland.
A gain from Labour at Aberdeen Central and then for Colin Beattie in Midlothian North and Musselburgh only serving to illustrate her point further.
Patrick Harvie secured the Greens first success of the night when he was returned by the Glasgow Regional List.
But he was clearly disappointed not to have picked up more votes from traditional Lib Dems voters with only Alison Johnstone from his party to keep him company.
So too George Galloway who didn't even stay for the result on learning he had been overlooked for a seat which were shared between Labour, with three, the SNP on two and a Tory instead.
Among them Humza Yousaf, who earned a special mention in despatches from deputy SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon on Twitter as she proclaimed being "delighted" by his being elected.
In Central the Regional List served the Nats cause more than Labour when they gained three seats each with a single Conservative making up the numbers.
Tory Murdo Fraser was quoted saying that Scotland had been hit by a 'tidal wave' of SNP votes.
Yet his party scored a rare success by holding Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire along with seeing leader Annabel Goldie scrape home via the West of Scotland Regional List.
It was all too much for Gray who called Alex Salmond to concede defeat as rumours of his own imminent resignation continued to grow.
And after a flurry of votes being declared in favour of the Nationalists, a new name to be etched in Scottish political history.
Keith Brown, a former Marine who saw action during the Falklands War, witnessed his own election success in Clackmannanshire and Dunblane clinching an overall majority for the SNP.
There were cheers, there was even tears. Some SNP supporters looked dazed as they tried to drink in the magnitude of what they had managed to acheive.
The blizzard of Regional List results which followed helped, but the result was no longer in any doubt.
The SNP ended their campaign on 69 seats, Labour with 37, the Tories on 15, the Lib Dems with five, Greens on two and Margo MacDonald as the sole independent.
Arriving by helicopter to deliver his victory speech, Alex Salmond confirmed he would seek re-election as First Minister, paying tribute to the nation for giving him the chance to do so.
He extended an olive branch to other parties, saying the SNP had the majority of seats, but no "monopoly on wisdom", and called on them to work with his new Government.
And under an azure blue sky in Edinburgh, his grin growing broader by the second, he added: "Scotland has chosen to believe in itself."
"Team Scotland has won this election."
