Midnight

Spike awoke on a hard wooden floor, surrounded by piles of books from last night's reorganization. As he rubbed his eyes to rid them of the fuzziness of waking up, he saw Twilight snoring on top of last pile needing to be put away. And now reorganized... thought the baby dragon.

He got up to go make himself breakfast when he heard knocking at the door.

"Oh great, who could that be? Celestia only raised the sun moments ago" groaned Spike. He half walked-half dragged to the door, still feeling the effects of his earlier drowsiness. He opened the door and immediately woke up as it was none other than Princess Celestia. "P-Princess Celestia?! What are you doing here? Has Twilight-" he stopped speaking as he noticed Celestia's eyes showing fear and urgency. "Twilight's r-right over there" he pointed. "Thank you Spike." Even her thank you was concerning, as it did not hold the same warm tone as the princess usually had.

By now, Twilight was waking up and she had hardly a second to open her eyes before seeing her mentor standing almost over her.

"Princess Celestia? What are you doing here? I thought you-" "I'm sorry Twilight, but we do not have much time. I need you to come with me now and we must go find your friends. By now Rainbow Dash has already been filled in, and we must find your other friends." Celestia was speaking sharply and urgently, and Twilight did not dare question the white alicorn any further. "Okay, princess." They sped out the door, leaving Spike alone, confused and having to do all this work alone as usual. I swear, the day I get a break will be the day I'm resting in my grave.

Soon the six ponies were waiting inside the castle, waiting on the return of Luna and Rainbow Dash. Applejack finally broke the short silence. "Now that we're here, princess, do ya mind tellin' us what the hay is goin' on?"

"I will tell you once all of you are here. There is no sense in me repeating myself" responded Celestia. Rarity groaned, but did not dare say anything to the sun princess. "I know you're all very confused and would wish to know now, but once I tell you, you may wish you had never known at all." Fluttershy let out a small whimper at the last few words she spoke.

Twilight was about to console her as Luna flew right in. She wasted no time in explaining. "We must leave now without your dear friend. We are running out of time and she still has to cover three more cities, since she decided to stop for a nap." If Celestia was angry at this, she did not show it.

"Very well. My little ponies, we are heading to the Everfree Forest. I suppose as we fly to the entrance I will explain some things." Pinkie Pie noticed the flaw in that plan. "But Celestia, we can't just fly there, me and Applejack and Rarity don't have wings. Unless you're planning on giving us wings like that one time with Rarity," she gasped at this thought. "OH MY GOD THAT WOULD BE SOOO AMAZING!! We could all be like butterflies and-" "No Pinkie, we're not doing that again." Twilight spoke. "She's right. We will have to carry you, as the train is not open currently. I will take Pinkie Pie, Luna will take Applejack, and Twilight and Fluttershy can take Rarity" ordered Celestia.

"Fiiiiinnne," responded Pinkie sadly, "but when this is over you're totally giving me butterfly wings."

Pinkie's comment seemed to lighten the mood, although it only lasted for a second. And with that, they took off, beating their wings as fast as they could to reach the Everfree Forest in time. Eventually they reached the entrance.

"We must walk from this point forward," said Celestia. "We will not be able to see where we are going."
"Uh, princess? Where exactly are ya takin' us?" questioned Applejack. "The tree of harmony" she replied. "Do we need the elements again? How would we even get them back?" inquired Twilight. "No. And I do believe it is time I began telling you the truth. I don't believe any of you have heard of shadow ponies." Celestia's question was answered with the confused looks of the ponies. "They are black, shadowy-like figures resembling that of an alicorn, and about the size of a regular pony. They all look almost exactly the same, having sharp edges, long ears, and a scar over their blind left eyes. They don't even have any manes or tails." The crew let out a shudder. "The only difference they have from each other is the cutie mark of the pony they generated from, which is located under their right hoof," Celestia continued. "Generated? What do you mean?" as Twilight interrupted her mentor's description. Celestia sighed. "You see, shadow ponies are all inside of us. We all have them. They are released from us once we come into touch with any type of dark or evil magic. Luna for example, has had one."

At this, the five ponies turned to look at Luna, in shock. Luna picked up after Celestia's speech. "'Tis true. However, I believe it died off some hundred years ago, as I had become Nightmare Moon and was banished to a place it could not reach. In a normal occurrence, it may only be destroyed by the pony it came from. If it attacks them and they fail to destroy it... Then they take over the pony they control." Twilight was still confused, even with her being the bookworm of the group. "But what does all this shadow pony stuff have to do with what we are doing now? Is that what we're facing? A pony who has been taken over by a shadow pony?" Celestia shook her head. "Not exactly. We are facing a... rather normal pony. But if we take too long, the shadow pony will corrupt her yet again." "Again?" Pinkie gasped. "What do you mean again?" Luna spoke first. "When I became Nightmare Moon, it was not my shadow pony who transformed me. That would be impossible, since shadow ponies must be created first by dark magic. It was," Luna paused to gather herself before revealing the pony sister's dark secret. "My sister's shadow pony."

The ponies gasped at this. "Wait, you can't mean Celestia has a shadow pony! That's impossible! She's never done anything like that in her life!" All 5 ponies began speaking at once until Celestia quieted them down. "My little ponies, you are right. I do not have a shadow pony. But Luna is right as well."

The information hit Twilight faster than a collision in the sky with Rainbow Dash. "Wait, but... no that, that can't be... there are only two..." The purple alicorn trailed off.

"Celestia and I have a younger sister, and she is the cause of us being here today. She is the reason I turned into Nightmare Moon, because of her and her shadow pony convincing me, aiding me. She has been banished for 5,000 years, and today she shall be released. I am sure you wish to know the cause of her banishment. She was a cruel pony. She tortured many ponies and we believe she may have even murdered 3 or 4. I'll leave out the details. I know she did this because few ponies knew of her existence, of her status as princess of all the wondrous things in the stars and eclipses.

All the ponies were shocked. Rarity even looked like she was about to throw up and even Pinkie Pie looked sad.

"That sounds awful!" Twilight exclaimed. "Why would you ever want to bring her back?"

Celestia gave Twilight the cruelest look anypony had ever seen from their leader. "What do you mean, why!? Do you not think she deserves another chance, like I'd given Luna or Discord? Is she not worthy enough to once again stand by her sister's side? YOU are the type of pony which made her do those things IN THE FIRST PLACE!" Celestia was near screaming at Twilight, who felt smaller than a baby fly. "I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, I, I..." Celestia noticed what she had done and all the ponies around her giving her horrid, scared looks. "Twilight, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to blow up at you. I just want to finally be reunited with all my sisters once and for all." "I forgive you, just, please don't ever do that again."

It was quiet the rest of the way to the tree of harmony, the questions in everypony's minds eating away at their brains.

"Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, glad to see you made it here alright." Celestia greeted.

"Glad to see you too," replied Candence as Shining Armor bowed. "We are both ready."

"Good, it shouldn't be too long now. Just prepare yourselves. We may not even be able to fight her immediately." Celestia was worried. What if she couldn't protect her subjects? No. She would give her life to protect them.

Luna was worried about other things. "Where in Equestria is Rainbow Dash? Surely she should have finished by now, unless she's decided to take another one of those naps." "I suppose we will have to do without her, Luna." Celestia sighed. Twilight gasped, "But Celestia, how are we supposed to defeat her with all of us present?!" "It will not be as simple as you think, my faithful student. We cannot just blast her with a rainbow and make it all go away. I do not know how we will do it, but if we don't, Equestria will fall to everlasting darkness and be consumed in hatred and torture."

"Oh Celestia, it already has. But don't worry, you won't have to worry about this old place anymore once I kill you."