Chapters The return of Nightmare Twilight
Once upon a time in the magical land of Equastria…
There were two regal siblings who ruled together and created harmony for all the land…
To do this the elder used his unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn…
The younger, brought out the moon to begin the night.
Thus the two siblings maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects. But, as time went on the younger sibling became resentful, the ponies relished and played in the day her brother brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sibling tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the younger one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness, Nightmare Twilight! She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal twilight! Reluctantly, the elder sibling harnessed the most powerful magic known to pony-kind, the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the elements of harmony he defeated his younger sister and banished her permanently to the moon. The elder sibling took up responsibility for both sun and moon…
And harmony has been maintained for generations since.
On a grassy field on the outskirts of Cantorlot a pearly white unicorn, her cotton candy pink mane cut ruler straight, lay comfortably on the soft grass. As she finished reading she brought a hoof to her chin.
“Yadda yadda yadda theme song”
Walking down the pristine streets of Cantorlot, Sunlight Shimmer, hoofs clip-clopping on a cleanly paved path, walked briskly to her book filled haven, when her walk was interrupted by three excited mares.
The middle mare grinned cheerily before saying “Moon Dancer is having a little get together in the castle courtyard!” At this she flicked her similar pink mane with a hoof “You wanna come?”
The three leaned in expectantly so much that Sunlight half expected them to topple right over.
And then she was off in a blur of pink and white leaving the disappointed mares in her dust.
Galloping at much faster speeds then before to escape the horror of social interaction Sunlight spoke to herself.
As she ran she failed to notice (or simply ignored) a friendly wave from her fellow student, Lyra, whose happy grin turned into a frown when the white mare's lavender eyes didn’t even look her way.
After running up several flights of stairs she at last arrived at her destination and flung open the doorway causing an unsuspecting reptile to go flying.
“Phila! PHIILA!”
“Ah, there you are”
“Could you please get me a copy of "Predictions and Prophecies.”
Looking over at her disgruntled dragon companion Sunlight asked, looking at the gift that Phila somehow got stuck on her tail. “What’s that thing for?"
The dragon, noticing that her gift was now a crumpled and speared mess, pulled it off her tail, yanking extra hard to get it unstuck from the red spikes that ran all the way down her spine.
“Well it was gift for Moon Dancer but-”
As soon as he said it the smashed remains of a teddy bear came falling out a large tail-shaped hole at the bottom of the destroyed gift.
“Oh Phila, you know we don’t have time for that sort of thing"
At that she began throwing books aside, with seemingly little to no care for their safety as they came tumbling to the ground.
“But we’re on a break!” protested the young dragon.
Ignoring the annoyed dragon Sunlight lifted her head and began concentrating on her spell. In seconds books began flying off the shelves in her golden magic and presented their titles to her searching eyes.
Her patience worn thin by all the wrong books she yelled for her scaly assistant.
“Its here!” she shouted triumphantly from the top of the library’s ladder
“Elements, elements, e, e,e ahha!”
Another search completed she began to read aloud.
“Elements of harmony, see Mare on the Moon?”
Phila, climbing up the library ladder with a pile of books precariously balanced in her claws, looked down at Sunlight.
“Take a note please “she says, straightening her tail which Phila uses like a mini, hairy diving board.” To the Prince.”
Once the dragon had a quill and parchment Sunlight began dictating, speaking in a formal tone as the little dragon wrote all she said.
“Threshold”
“Threee-“
“Uh, brink?”
“Ugh, that something really bad is going to happen!”
The dragon wrote down the much easier explanaition, glad that her unicorn friend had at least a few small words in her vocabulary.
“For you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is in fact Nightmare Twilight and she’s about to return to Equastria and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true!
Looking out the library's vast windows, her thoughts became full of horrible images of what would happen if that great, big sun in the sky disappeared forever.
“Sun-light-Shim-er, Got it”
“Great, send it.”
“now?”
“Of course!”
Phila, less than convinced of the letter's importance, shrugged her shoulders.
“Uh, I don’t know Sunlight, Prince Shining is a little busy the with Summer sun celebration and it’s like the day after tomorrow!”
Sunlight turned around around, surprised by the dragon's negative response.
The dragon, once again confused by her friend's vocabulary, started writing down the foreign word trying to figure out how to even say it.
Sunlight, Fed up with Phila’s lack of understanding, merely yelled ”IMPORTANT” so loud in her ear that the poor dragon went toppling into a bookcase.
“Okay okay” he yelled back (not even half as loud as Sunlight) before taking a deep breath and exhaling a burst of red flame which seemed to have burned up the letter and ruining any chances of it getting anywhere until it turned in to a sparkly cloud of yellow smoke which exited through a small, circular window.
“But I wouldn’t hold your breath” Phila said tauntingly.
“Oh I’m not worried Phila” she replied, a smug look on her face” The Prince trusts me completely and through all the years he’s been my mentor he’s never once doubted me.”
The orange dragon crossed her arms, a snide remark on her tongue when it was halted by a belch and a cloud of yellow smoke bursting from her mouth which then materialized as a scroll with the signature royal seal.
“I know he would want to take immediate action.”
The dragon then scooped up the scroll with her claws, careful not to rip it, cleared her throat and began reading in what she thought was a very strong and masculine voice.
“My dearest most faithful student Sunlight Shimmer
*dun,dun,dun^
Author's Note
Don't worry the story will get a lot more interesting from here but I just wanted readers to get the general idea of what's going on in this alternate universe.
The return of Nightmare Twilight
“My dear student Sunlight, there is more to a young pony’s life then reading. So I’m trusting you to supervise the preparations for this year’s Summer Sun Celebration in this year’s location, Ponyville. But I have an even more important task for you to complete, make some friends!”
“Summer Sun Celebration official overseer’s checklist--Number one: banquet preparations, Sweet Apple Acres.”
The return of Nightmare Twilight
“Food’s all taken care of. Next is weather.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
“Decorations… beautiful.”
The return of Nightmare Twilight
‘Good afternoon.’
Having escaped the clutches of the crazy Cantorlot hating unicorn, Sunlight made her way to the peaceful looking park on the edge of town.
The return of Nightmare Twilight
After twenty minutes of walking Sunlight, Phila, and a cello case dragging Octavia at last reach their destination. The library was, indeed, unusual. A giant oak tree with circular windows flickering with soft candle light, and a balcony obviously meant for stargazing.
“ Phew that was--“
Several hours later and Sunlight lay wide awake. The minutes were ticking away until the Summer Sun Celebration and she still had no idea what the Elements of Harmony were.
The Ponyville town hall was filled to the brim, as ponies of varying color and species clammered for a position closest to the stage. Fleur’s decorations looked just as beautiful in the moonlight and quite a large group of pegasi hovered close to the hanging tapestries to get a closer look. On several just as lovely decorated tables sat the Apple family’s banquet, with all the treats that Sunlight had gorged all those hours ago. As the last stragglers made their way inside, including Sunlight, Ms. Cheerilee, and Phila, a very familiar yellow stallion simply popped up in front of Sunlight with a smile almost as big as Cheerilee’s.
The return of Nightmare Twilight
“Remain calm everypony, there must be a reasonable explanation.’
“We gotta stop Nightmare!” Phila mumbles before dropping off to sleep, a beige blanket laid carefully over her sleeping form.
*CRASH*
The return of Nightmare Twilight
At the edge of the Everfree, four ponies stand trembling in fear as the sky stands in stagnant twilight. The sounds of nature were quieted by the Everfree’s sinister presence. After several moments, the silence was broken by a collective cry.
The morbid procession walked silently through the woods. Conversation was non-existent and a mere rustle of the bushes would nearly send the group cantering right back out of the forest.
It took her a moment, but Sunlight oriented herself enough to take a few wobbly steps. She was plunged into a thick darkness and, like a thick woolen blanket, a layer of magic was somehow blocking her from seeing a thing.
The motley crew found itself walking once more through the dismal forest under a purple twilight sky. But, unlike before, their fears had been left behind. After all, how could you be afraid of a few spooky plants when you had just faced a dragon? Above their heads Lightning Dust adamantly retold the story of their brush with a fiery death as if it had happened weeks ago and to a completely different group of ponies.
The return of Nightmare Twilight
The band of ponies continued walking. Their hooves were sore and bruises from their fall into the dragon’s cave throbbed from the constant movement. Sunlight nursed a cut on her cheek with a minor healing spell and lagged behind the others. Caught up in her medicinal magic she walked right into the back side of Braeburn who was in the exact position. Looking down the line she saw that everypony sandwiched together while Fleur stood like a stubborn mule. With a grunt a few shoves and whole lot of blushing the group untangled themselves.
After a quarter mile of walking they at last reached the stone bridge. It was ancient with vines curling through the cracked railing and dirt and mud covering almost every inch in varying degrees of thickness.
“How did you know?” Sunlight asked Octavia as they continued to walk.
