The Curse of the Night

"Princess!" Twilight yelled. "I received your letter and came as quick as I could."

After Celestia's student had become a princess, there had been little to no chaos in Equestria. Twilight had remained in Ponyville with her friends and had studied hard, researching all sorts of magic to increase her magical ability. However, when Princess Celestia had sent the alicorn an urgent message, Twilight wasn't given much information of the urgent event, but she could tell it wasn't going to be one of Pinkie Pie's surprise parties like she had hoped.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Twilight." Celestia said. "Equestria is in danger."

"What's going on?" the purple alicorn questioned.

Princess Luna flew into the throne room. "A dark magic has wreaked havoc upon Equestria."

"What kind of dark magic?" Twilight asked.

Princess Luna looked uneasy. "The-the same magic that turned me into the Mare in the Moon."

"Unfortunately,"  the Princess of the Sun started. "When you and your friends banished Nightmare Moon and freed my sister, some of the magic remained. It grew and is spreading across Equestria as we speak, infecting many ponies in the way it infected Luna. If it reaches my sister, Luna will turn back into Nightmare Moon and lead the cursed ponies into a war against their own kind."

Twilight remained silent. She wasn't sure whether to act afraid or courageous. For she had never encountered something as dangerous as this.

"You and your friends must take the Elements of Harmony and defeat this evil magic." Princess Luna instructed.

"But how?" Twilight asked. "How am I supposed to do that? If it's infected so many ponies, then how are we going to defeat it? Battle each and every cursed pony?"

The sister princesses exchanged looks. "That's just it, Twilight. We're not entirely sure." Princess Celestia informed her former student. "We believe the source is deep in the Everfree Forest."

****

"Come on, everypony!" Twilight barged into the party room.

Pinkie Pie had planned a party for her and her friends (including Spike) at Sugar Cube  Corner. Twilight had hated missing it, but the Princess's request was far too important.

"Now hold up, sugar cube," Applejack said. "Where y'all goin' in such a hurry?"

"Yeah!" Pinkie grinned. "Is there another party somewhere? 'Cause I looooooove parties! Take it away, Gummy!" the pink mare said, pointing her hoof to her pet alligator.

"I say, darling," Rarity spoke up. "Where are you headed in such attire? You should least look presentable when going out into public."

"Will everypony just stop with the questions and let me explain?!" Twilight yelled.

Her friends nodded. So Twilight explained the whole story about her discussion with the princesses and how an evil curse was causing tyranny all over Equestria.

"Oh my." whispered Flutter Shy.

Rainbow Dash laughed. "What? An evil curse? Sounds cool!"

"I dunno, Rainbow," Applejack said. "Just because we've been in the Everfree Forest before doesn't make it any less dangerous than before."

"Girls!" Twilight shouts. "It doesn't matter if the Everfree Forest is dangerous or not! Of course the forest is dangerous, but we don't have a choice! The fate of Equestria lies in our hooves. *sigh* Again."

There was a brief moment of silence between the six ponies and the small dragon.

"Twilight's right." Pinkie Pie spoke up. "We need to stop Equestria from-" *twi-twi-TWITCH* "OPENING DOOR, EVERYPONY! BEWARE OF OPENING DOOR!" Pinkie yelled.

Pinkie was right, of course. The door to the bakery slammed open, then walked in Lyra, her eyes glowing purple.

"Elements of Harmony...." the unicorn mumbled. "Must destroy.... MUST DESTROY THE ELEMENTS!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!"

Lyra stomped her hooves on the floor and the vibrations knocked the mane six ponies off their hooves and Spike off his scaly feet. The unicorn cast a spell of dark magic and Twilight intercepted it with her own magic. The evil magic was to strong, and blasted the purple princess backwards. The blast would've blew Twilight to pieces if she hadn't been a princess with such skill in magic.

"Twilight!" the mare's friends shrieked.

Lyra laughed evilly.

"Lyra! Stop!" yelled a mare dashing in the streets.

Bonbon ran up to the teal colored mare, shocked at what her best friend did, she struggled to hold back ant tears. When Lyra turned around to look at Bonbon, her gaze sent something into Bonbon's mind. The mare's eyes glowed purple, just like Lyra's.

"Let's get outta here!" yelled Spike.

"We must get to the Elements of Harmony if we're going to get rid of this madness!" Rarity shouted.

"Looks like somepony finally got the message!" Applejack yelled, then helped Twilight to her hooves. The six mares and Spike ran out the bakery, avoiding Lyra and Bonbon.

They rushed to the library, where Flutter Shy and Dash grabbed the Elements of Harmony, and then bolted into the Everfree Forest.

****

"C'mon Twilight. Get up." Dash complained.

The princess rubbed her forehead. "Ugh. This doesn't seem like such a good  idea anymore."

"Aww! Come on, Twilight! You can't give up now!" Pinkie Pie encouraged.

"Alright." Twilight retorted. "But I swear, I won't be able to take anymore chaos after this."

"Tell that to Discord." Rainbow Dash commented.

The ponies put their Elemental jewelry on and headed for the ancient ruins of the previous Equestrian castle, where they had discovered the Element in the first place.

Spike decided to stay on the outside of the ancient palace to 'watch for any danger' as he had claimed. The young dragon was simply too afraid to enter the creepy ruins.

As Twilight and her five friends walked through the corridor, the evil laughter of Nightmare Moon filled the hallway.

"We're too late." Twilight mumbled. "Princess Luna has already been transformed. She'll command the cursed ponies to  attack."

"No we ain't too late. Look!" Applejack pointed to the end of the long hallway. There was Princess Luna, trapped inside an orb of purple energy. She howled in pain as she struggled to break free. The dark magic would soon engulf her soul, take over her body, and destroy not only Equestria, but the rest of the real Princess of the Moon as well.

The six ponies take formation. The purple alicorn creates a small magical orb which got bigger as it circled around her. Her friends created their own orb using the Elements. They rose off the floor, rainbows and sparks of energy encircled them. With Twilight's conducting, the mares charged the blasts of energy towards Princess Luna/Nightmare Moon which caused the dark energy to implode, with Luna still captured in the orb.

After the implosion, Luna lay motionless upon the altar, were the thrones used to stand. Luna's body was burned and blood was gushing out of her mouth uncontrollably. Sparks flew off of her horn.

"Princess Luna!" Twilight called.

The mares dashed to the Princess's side. As if on queue, Princess Celestia flew in from damaged roof of the ancient palace.

"I-I'm so sorry." Twilight mumbled, her eyes filled with tears.

"Don't be. She'll be fine."

"How can you tell, Princess?" FlutterShy asked.

Celestia just smiled. "My little ponies, you are the heroes once again. We owe you much."

And with that, light surrounded the sister princesses and they teleported to back to Canterlot.

****

After the tragic event that has caused many ponies to go insane and Princess Luna to almost self-destruct, the ponies and the young dragon returned to their homes in Ponyville. All of them were very worried about the state the Princess of the Moon was in. Luna has almost died from that dark energy, and according to Celestia, her sister was still in a coma. It wasn't until Princess Celestia had begged Twilight to heal her sister, that something actually worked.

Twilight wasn't the best at healing, which had caused Celestia to beg her to try something for she could not. Even Zacora had tried healing the Moon Princess, but with no success. The zebra had tried every spell in the book, but nothing cured the princess.

When Twilight and her friends arrived at the royal palace in Canterlot, the guards escorted them to Luna's chambers. The ponies put on their Elements and used it's magic to heal the princess.

Twilight created an orb, similar to the one she had created in the ruins of Equestria. The other ponies added their magic to Twilight's and they formed a lightning bolt, which struck Princess Luna on her unicorn horn. The Moon Princess's eyes flew open.

"Ugh." she moaned. "What-what just happened?"

"You're alive!" Celestia shouted with glee.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" Luna asked.

The ponies exchanged looks.

"Do you remember anything about last week?" Rainbow Dash asked, remember the traumatizing event that had happened the week before.

"No. Not really." the princess replied.

So the six ponies, Spike, and Princess Celestia explained what had happened, and everypony was happy that her royal highness, Luna, princess of Equestria, was well and alive.