"Lift it up juuuust a little bit! Now a smidge to the right! Good! Now just the teeniest bit downwards, then a fraction to the left..."
Twilight Sparkle peered through a ruler at the banner. It was a great day for her, for it was to be Princess Luna's first official visit to Ponyville since Nightmare Night.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were helping to heft the sign in to place above Town Hall.
However, Twilights emphasis on utter perfection was beginning to get on Rainbow Dash's nerves.
"Is it..." She grunted loudly as her wings strained to correct her flight to Twilights specifications. "Ready yet?"
Twilight took one last look at her ruler, and then nodded happily. "Great job girls!"
Her horn sparkled with purple magic, plucking the banner out of the pegusus' hooves and panning it to the wood.
Fluttershys jaw dropped slightly. "Umm... Twilight? Why didn't you just... I mean I don't want to be rude but... You could have used magic to get it up there, couldn't you? If... If that is if you weren't too tired or worried..."
Twilight blinked a little before blushing slightly. "Sorry, girls. I guess I was just so caught up in organising everyone that I forgot I can help out too."
Rainbow Dash dropped lightly to the ground next to Twilight and patted her on the back. "Don't worry, Twi. If you weren't so good at magic you'd have a cutie mark in being organised."
Dash flared her wings and stretched her body out, cracking the tendons in her neck.
"Did you have a hard night of practice?" Fluttershy asked with concern.
Rainbow had been practicing with Ponyvilles Young Fliers Club to create a formation flying routine to impress the Princess. At first she was against the idea, but when Applejack mentioned that the Wonderbolts are always looking for new choreography, she was gathering recruits faster than you could say "Cumulus".
"Yup!" Dash said proudly. "Those kids learn fast. Especially with an awesome teacher like me."
Fluttershy gave a small huff. No matter how much she loved Rainbow Dash, her boasting could get a little but too much. "Would you like me to give you a massage, Dashie? All the forest animals love my massages."
Rainbow Dash stiffened at the thought, while Twilight covered her mouth with her hoof. Fluttershy's massages were often used to break thick branches from trees and have been likened to "being beaten to within an inch of your life, but using rainbows and smiles instead fists".
Rainbow Dash shook her head nervously. "Uhh, no thanks pal. I think I'll be okay." She stretched and rotated her wings, kicking up a cloud of dust around her. "See? All good! I guess I'll be off then, bye!" She said without pause, clearly eager to get away from Fluttershy's hooves of fury.
As Rainbow Dash flew away from the Hall, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was good to have some normality in her life. No one made a fuss about her being one of the six Elements of Harmony. In fact, a lot of ponies still didn't quite know what happened in the Everfree Forest. All they knew is that Nightmare Moon walked in, and Princess Luna walked out.
Dash flew higher, trying to get a view of all Ponyville. The sky all around the town needed to be clear for their routine, in case a stray cloud obscured her amazing skills from being seen by the Wonderbolts.
Rainbow narrowed her eyes at one such stray cloud, blowing in from the Everfree Forest. It was small, but as dark as the largest storm clouds. Just the thing that could stop her from getting invited to join Equestrias top flying squad.
Tucking her wings in to her body, Dash dived at top speed to the little cloud, intent on kicking it all the way to Appleoosa.
She narrowed her eyes and flipped around in the air so her hoofs were facing it, and with a mighty yell, ploughed into it.
The cloud didn't move.
In fact, it stretched its self out and engulfed Rainbow Dash, sucking her in and closing up around her.
Dash thrashed her hoofs around uselessly, trying in vain to use her Pegasus powers to push the cloud away from her.
It wasn't until she saw tiny pinpricks of light in the darkness that she had any clue of where she was.
But it was when the cloud began to seep in to her mouth and nostrils, clawing its way inside of her that she knew she was in trouble.
It was as cold as the darkest night, chilling Rainbow Dash to the bone as it spread throughout her body. She tried to scream, but merely gurgled as the Darkness took a hold of her.
When it had finished, and every last speck of Darkness was stored inside Rainbow Dash's body, it ordered her to fly to the darkest depths of the Everfree Forest, and began to change her.
Twilight regaled Applejack with the story of how Fluttershy had threatened to give Rainbow Dash a massage as she helped the orange pony clear up the bad apples from the ground.
Sweet Apple Acres was the closest home in Ponyville to the Everfree Forest, and as such was privy to many more unusual visitors than most families would want.
Whether it was a Manticore looking for an old friend or a Timber Wolf with termites, the Apple family would point them to Fluttershy and continue with their harvest.
"Well tha's all mighty fine an' all Twi, but what about helping with the rest of the preparations?"
Twilight waved her hoof dismissively. "She's the element of Loyalty, Applejack. I don't think she's going to shirk her responsibilities just because Fluttershy gave her a little scare."
Applejack nodded in agreement and hefted a large barrel of rotten apples on to Big Macintosh's back. "There ya go, big brother. Take 'em all down to the slop yards."
Big Mac nodded and trotted off.
Applejack wiped the sweat from her brow and glanced over at the Everfree Forest, just in time to see a large, dark snake twisting its way toward them. Almost seven meters long, and half a meter wide, it writhed with sickening grass through the trees. Where its body coiled across the ground, the grass beneath it withered and died.
Without warning, Applejack bucked Twilight out of the way - who had been inspecting an apple for worms - and then dived out of the way of the creature herself.
As it coiled past them, she could smell the acrid stench of decay it left in its wake.
"Now hang on jus' a second! Where the hay do yo think you're -" Applejack followed the snakes path with her eyes until she came upon...
"Mah house... Applebloom! Granny Smith! Get out of there!"
She barely has time to yell her warning before three more snakes burst from the ground just a few meters away from them, showering the little ponies in debris.
"Applejack, run!" Twilight called out to her friend, already having turned tail to escape the beasts.
She looked back to find Applejack was most definitely running, but towards the house instead of away from it. "Ahm not leaving mah sister and Granny to get eaten by those.... Those Things!"
Twilight paused for a moment, chewing on her lip in worry before making her decision. "Applejack, I'm really sorry for this..." She muttered.
She took a deep breath, clenched her eyes shut and began to cast a spell.
Purple light lanced outward from her horn, shining brightly amid the dark trees. It arced away from her and coiled around several big apple trees nearby and hefted them from the ground, ripping and tearing at their roots.
She stripped the leaves and branches from them, before flinging them down atop the snakes, pinning them to the ground.
Twilight used her magic to lift them all up together and began to weave the snakes around the trees, creating a giant, writhing crochet blanket.
Then with one last blast of magic, she flung the entire package back deep inside the Everfree Forest, hopeful that whatever she just bested didn't feel like coming back.
Applejack ignored the fight and barrelled straight in to the farmhouse to find Granny Smith asleep in her chair, and Applebloom holding a frying pan in her mouth, prepared to beat back the invaders.
Twilight was on the ground resting when Applejack returned to her. Using magic of that calibre often drained her, and that spell was no exception.
"Applejack..." She panted, sweat still beading her forehead. "What... What were those things?"
Applejack just shook her head. Nothing that terrifying had ever come out of the Forest.
As her eyes scanned the tree line, she thought she caught a glimpse of a midnight shadow flitting through the trees.
But when she blinked again, it was gone.
"C'mon, Twi. Maybe we can ask the Princess for help."
Spike took a gulp of air and exhaled a plume of emerald green flame, engulfing the scroll and sending it soaring through the air to Princess Celestia.
"How long should it take fer the Princess to reply, Spike?" Applejack looked at the baby dragon with uncertainty. The thought of losing Granny and her sister was still fresh in her mind, and gave her shivers when she dwelled too long on it.
The dragon shrugged, his eyes locked on the window that the trail of smoke spiralled out from. Sometimes the Princesses letters were instant, other times they took a few minutes.
For a situation like this though, he didn't think she would wait too long.
It wasn't just Sweet Apple Acres that was attacked by the creatures, it was anywhere in Ponyville that was near to the forest.
The worst hit location was the school, where there was thankfully no pony there on a Saturday.
Across the room from them, Twilight was throwing books around, trying to find anything in her extensive library that had anything to do with giant, pestilence carrying snakes.
Never before had she heard of anything like these. She had just picked up a book on Magical Herpetology, when a bright flash, followed by a heavy thud, echoed from her bedroom upstairs.
Every pony froze, uncertain of what could have made the ruckus.
Just as Applejack was about to step up to check, a waterfall of books and scrolls poured down the stairs, collecting the startled pony and flinging her back down again.
"SORRY! WE ARE MOST - ahem, we are most sorry. Sorry."
Twilights ears pricked up and a smile broadened across her face. Only one pony in all of Equestria still used the Royal Canterlot Voice. "Princess Luna!" She cried, running over to the stairs to find the regal mare trotting down as daintily as she could, given her less than subtle entrance.
"Twilight Sparkle! Good! We are glad to see you are prepared!" Luna lifted up the pile of scrolls and books from on top of Applejack with her magic and set them down on a nearby table. "Contained within these tomes is everything you will need to know about what you have faced, and are yet to face."
Twilight bought the topmost scroll up to her face and began to read. Applejack stood behind her, still a little unsteady on her feet after her fall.
"Six-hundred and ten AB, thirty third day of the... Luna, is this some kind of diary? What dates are these, I've never come across them before..."
Luna's head bowed and her glittering mane cast a soft shadow over her face. "It is indeed a diary, my dear Twilight. AB denotes how many years After Banishment."
Twilight cocked her head at the Princess, having not quite grasped the meaning of her words.
"For you see, Miss Sparkle, days and months in Equestria are slightly different to days and months..."
Twilight's eyes widened with understanding. "... On the moon."
Within the darkest recesses of her own mind, Rainbow Dash struggled against her bonds.
She could see everything that happened to the school and Sweet Apple Acres as if she was watching it from the back row of a theatre, and the whole event was merely a stage play.
The only thing she could feel as real were the coils of Darkness pinning her to herself, and the maddening whispers that blew like an icy gale around her.
Rainbow Dash was powerless as she watched the Darkness wear her body like a second skin, changing and transforming it in to a dark mockery of its former self.
Gone was her rainbow mane, replaced instead with dark purple flames that licked down her back to her tail.
Her coat had turned as black as the midnight sky, with specks of white spiralling around in it, giving the impression her whole body was merely a hole in the world, through which one could see the very heart of the universe.
But her wings, her wings were what caused Rainbow Dash the most pain. They arced over her back, greater in length than her own body, with the same shape as a bats. Each wing was tipped with a wicked claw bearing a serrated edge.
She had become what had infected Princess Luna, a terrible Night Mare.
And all she could do, was watch.
Applejack cradled her head in her hooves as she tried to read yet another scroll. Never before had she done so much reading, especially when the words were in such a fancy language.
A quick glance over at Twilight though, confirmed that her friend was relishing the chance to read through books so old and so unheard of, that it was possible she was the only person aside from Princess Luna to read them in over a thousand years.
As the two read, Luna explained about the Darkness. "Whether it is truly of this world, I do not know. It feeds off of the negative and destructive energies of ponies, using our misery to make its self stronger.
Once it has gained enough energy, it will either take on a form of its own, or enslave a pony to do its bidding. It will then twist the pony in to an evil creation, almost unrecognisable from who he or she was before. It is then, that the Darkness will attempt to make as many more ponies as possible miserable, so that it might live forever."
Twilight looked up from her twenty-third scroll. "So without a host, this Darkness is untouchable?"
Luna nodded. "It is as smoke in the wind, intangible unless it wills itself to take solid form."
Twilight put down the scroll and nodded assertively. "Easy then. We gather up the Elements again and banish it before it can cause any more mischief. Come on, AJ!"
Before the two could run put the door, Luna jumped in front of them, her expression dire. "You don't understand! If the Darkness has the power to attack Ponyville, then it has already found a host!"
Twilight Sparkle skidded to a halt, Applejack colliding in to her from behind. "Then, why don't we just fight the host as well? The Elements worked against you after all."
Applejack chuckled and began to walk past Twilight and the Princess."C'mon, Twi. Let's grab the girls and get this hoo-hah dealt with."
Luna's hoof slammed down on the floor, cracking the polished wood beneath its force. Her mane flared above her head as Luna glared at the ponies. "You do not listen, foals!" She bellowed. "I have seen its host and know it's name, the Elements will be all but useless!"
Twilight cowered beneath Luna's rage. "Then for Equestria's sake, Luna, tell us who it is!"
The starry mane drooped again, returning to its flowing self while Luna repaired the cracked floor. "It is the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash."
The ground shook as the giant snake reared it's head, it's slit-like mouth splitting open to reveal rows of jagged teeth. The earth beside it cracked open as another three snakes burst forth, roaring and shaking off clumps of dirt.
Ponies fled before them as the beasts tore through Ponyville, their pestilence-laced bodies coiling and writhing through the streets.
They ignored house and tree alike, ploughing through them with abandon. Plants withered and wood rotted as they passed. Not a single glance was given to the creatures scurrying beneath them. Each of them had a single-minded focus on a single point in Ponyville.
The Library.
Twilight gasped, her hoof flying to her mouth. She tried to blink away the shock, tried to make sense of what she was hearing. "Rainbow Dash? Are you sure?"
Luna nodded, her eyes focused intently. "I am positive. When the Darkness has touched ones heart, there is a piece of it that stays there forever." She raised her hoof and a small sliver of Darkness coiled out of it, twisting along her leg before she recalled it. "And with it comes a glimmer of insight to the things mind."
Applejack eyed the Princess warily, unsure of what their place in this was. "Then what's it doing now? How can we stop it?"
Luna's eyes drooped slightly as she searched for the Darkness. She frowned and her eyes snapped open. "It's here."
She flung the little ponies back in to a bookshelf as the wall beside them crashed inwards with an ear-splitting screech. Luna wrapped herself and the girls in a bubble of protective moonlight as the snake thrashed around inside the Library, before it dove back underground.
"Stay where you are!" Luna called out to the pair, the dust settling around them. "She knows where we are now, there is no use running." She locked eyes with Twilight. "Just remember all you read, so that you might aid me when the time comes."
Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but instead screamed as another snake blew forth from the ground, aimed directly at them.
Before its gnashing jaws could lock around their necks, it disintegrated in to shining white specks of light, that fell to the floor with the sound of breaking glass.
Behind it stood Luna, her horn glowing with a fierce whiteness.
Two more snakes coiled softly through the opening, atop one rode Rainbow Dash, her twisted form cackling with glee. "Ah, Princess Luna! My dear old friend!" Her voice grated like steel on rocks, hardly Dash's any more. It instead had a darker, ageless tinge wrapped through it.
Luna stood her ground, and shot a bolt of moonlight at the Darkness.
Shadows whipped around Rainbow Dash, as fluid as water and sharp as steel to deflect the bolt with practiced ease.
"My dear, we spent a century on that rock together, and this is how you welcome me?" Rainbow Dash's mouth twisted in to a cruel smile. "I suppose I shall extend my welcome as well." A length of darkness whipped from Rainbow Dash's back and struck Luna's side, it's bulk sending her flying through the wall and out in to the street.
Luna got to her hoofs just as another thick length of darkness reared above her, prepared to come crashing down.
With the darkness only a few feet away, Luna thrust her head up and ripped up the earth beneath her in to a protective shield of solid rock.
The coil slammed in to the rock, cracking it slightly. Before it could withdraw for another attack the shield split in to quarters and clenched the coil between them.
Rainbow Dash leapt in to the air and recoiled the darkness, sending herself flying toward it. She cackled malevolently and forced her hoofs outward, sending spikes rippling out through the thick coil of darkness toward Luna.
The Princess stood her ground, and as the spikes neared her, she withdrew the earthen shield.
With nothing propelling her but her own mass, Rainbow Dash slammed directly in to the ground, her mental grip on the darkness shattered and it whipped back in to her.
Before she could get back to her feet, the ground she stood on broke away from the rest and flew directly in the air.
Luna glared at Rainbow Dash, as she flipped the entire chunk of rock upside down, then with a brief pause, sent it hurtling back to earth with Rainbow Dash beneath it.
The chunk landed with a loud fwump, a cloud of dust spreading out from its impact crater.
Luna stepped toward it, horn raised and ready to fire.
Then her world was torn apart as hundreds of tendrils crashed through the ground beneath her, sending her spiralling through the air and bouncing between them as if she were a ball between trees.
Then as she fell, each and every tendril coiled in amongst themselves to drive her down faster. "Not such a fancy trick now, is it Princess?" Rainbow Dash whispered in her ear as the ground hurtled up to meet her.
Luna screamed as she opened a trench beneath her, hoping to give herself some time to think. But stretched along the length of the crevice was a solid sheet of darkness.
Luna gasped softly before she was crunched into the sheet, the force of the tendrils driving her harder and harder in to it's impenetrable surface.
Each and every ounce of her magic was focused on up keeping the shield that stopped her from becoming a pile of goo, but with each second her concentration was faltering. If she didn't think of something soon, she would be crushed.
Twilight hurtled out of the library, Applejack close on her tail as the tree began to tip precariously to one side, the support that it's trunk once offered now shattered.
She ran full pelt at the undulating mass of darkness and let loose a few blasts of magic from her horn, intent on distraction more than damage.
Sure enough, a few of the tendrils broke off and lashed out at her. Twilight leapt over them effortlessly, then fired again.
Most of Rainbow Dash's concentration would be focused on the Princess, if Twilight could distract her enough for Luna to gain some sort of advantage, then they might have a chance.
She twisted around another lazily placed coil, then jumped on top of it and began to run along it's length, directly toward the centre.
Taking aim as carefully as she could, Twilight let loose a heavy volley of magic directly in to the mass of coils.
Within seconds a dozen of them peeled away and began to converge on her.
It was at that point that Twilight, with all her wisdom and knowledge, began to suspect that this had been a very, very bad idea.
She was struck heavily in the chest by the first coil, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to be flung backwards.
The second and third coils lashed at her sides, shaking her around and sending her vision in to a cloud of white stars,
The fourth coil slammed in to her back and thrust her down to the ground, before a fifth one collided with her face and sent her flying away on to the very top of the library, narrowly avoiding her telescope.
But her plan had worked.
While the Darkness was fighting off Twilight, Luna managed to create an arcing blade of moonlight that sliced through several of the thick ropes and allowed her to burst free from their bonds, launching herself in to the air and attaching several such bright blades to her legs.
The coils of darkness wound in on themselves, growing smaller until they revealed Rainbow Dash. "Very well then." She hissed, taking a step towards Luna. "Lets see how much I taught you, Nightmare Moon."
Rainbow launched herself in to the air directly at Luna, who twisted herself around to kick at Rainbow Dash with her hind legs. Rainbow swerved out of the way, only too late seeing that Applejack had been hiding behind the earth that Luna had raised, now ready to add her own powerful legs to the attack.
Rainbow Dash collided in to Applejacks hooves with a crunch, the force pushing Applejack forward. Her front legs left ruts in the ground, yet the strong work horse didn't falter for a second.
"Twilights body may have been made fer book reading, but mine was made for face breaking! Yeee, haw!" She kicked her legs out and sent the dazed Rainbow soaring through the air, until he collided with a wall of rock that Luna had called forth from below. The rock cracked as Rainbow smacked in to it, her already sore body now sporting numerous broken bones.
As she fell back to earth, Luna looked up at Twilight, who had begun to recover her senses but was still stuck on the roof of her library. "The telescope, Miss Sparkle, now!"
Twilight barely heard Luna's demand, instead trying to help her brain remember how to stand.
What good would a telescope do her? Thought Twilight. It's not like she can go star gazing now.
'No, but she can focus the stars powers through it in to herself and attempt to banish the Darkness!' Screamed a voice inside her head.
She ran to the telescope and kicked it hard, swinging it around so that it's fat end pointed up at the sky, with it's lens aimed directly at Luna.
Then all of Equestria seemed to explode.
It sounded as if the world was breaking and tearing its self apart, so loud that Twilight could almost see the sound pouring forth. The purest, brightest and most dazzling light ever witnessed burst out from all over Luna's body, surrounding the entire countryside in its power, before being focused at Rainbow Dash's plummeting form.
Beneath its raw power, the Darkness screamed as it was torn away, whipped in to a frenzy and split in to smaller, and smaller pieces, before being born away on the sound of its own tortured screams.
The sound receded and the light dimmed, leaving Luna standing there as majestically as ever.
A bubble of earth that was shielding Applejack slid open, allowing the pony to crawl out.
Twilight surveyed the damage wrought by their battle, the jagged tear in the ground and the nearly toppled library.
Then allowed herself to slip in to unconsciousness.
When her lavender eyes next opened, she was in the hospital, Princess Celestia standing at the foot of her bed.
"Did we win?" She asked weakly.
Celestia nodded at her student. "You did admirably, Twilight Sparkle. Now rest, you've been through a lot."
Before she fell back asleep, Twilight looked across to the bed next to her.
Beneath crisp white sheets lay Rainbow Dash, her mane and coat returned to their natural colours, but with one new addition.
Beside the myriad of colours that made up Dash's mane, was a new streak of hair beginning to sprout.
It was short now, and may always remain that way. But what drew Twilights eye was that it was the deepest, purest black she had ever seen.