I. The Tale of the Shadow-Gardener
"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Sweetie Belle nagged Rarity; the two of them slowly trotted through the cool, murky autumn night between the trees of Sweet Apple Acres. The fallen leaves crunched loudly beneath their hooves with each step.
"Of course I'm sure, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity insisted. "Look, over there!" She pointed a hoof into the distance at the inviting orange glow of a small bonfire. Their breaths became visible in the cool night air as they hurried their way over to where Applejack and Apple Bloom sat in wait.
Just as Rarity and Sweetie Belle arrived Rainbow Dash came swooping down with Scootaloo on her back. Landing beside the fire, Scootaloo hopped off of Rainbow Dash's back and the two exchanged a strike of their front hooves together.
"We win!" Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo exclaimed as Rarity and Sweetie Belle arrived shortly after.
"Must you make a competition out of everything?" Rarity rolled her eyes as all six ponies settled down around the fire, paired off by kin.
"Well the reason we brought ya'll out here was Apple Bloom and I got to talkin' and it seems with every pony working two jobs these days the six of us rarely get to go camping anymore." Applejack began to explain.
"So we're camping out in the orchard?" Rainbow Dash crossed her front hooves and pitched her head up. "Lame!"
"Well not quite. I just thought it could be fun if the six of us could get together and tell tales by this here campfire every week." Applejack continued.
"Spooky stories!" Apple Bloom chimed in excitedly.
"Welcome to this first here meetin' of the Sisterhooves Campfire Spooky Story Club!" The other five stared in awe as Applejack cast some powder off of her hoof into the fire, causing it to flare up momentarily.
"I came up with the title!" Apple Bloom boasted.
"Just in case no pony else has a story I came up with just the story to kick things off!" Applejack crept closer to the warm fire.
"Are you sure you don't have one about your mane turning grey?" Sweetie Belle teased, looking over at Rarity. The other four ponies chuckled but Rarity didn't look amused.
"Oh but I do. But it's about so much more than that!" Rarity warned ominously as her horn glowed, illuminating her face, as she leaned away into the darkness.
"Well let's hear it!" Applejack called out excitedly. "I s'pose mine could always wait 'til next week."
"This story is about a misguided filly who didn't understand the importance of beauty." Rarity began to narrate as she glared at Sweetie Belle. "A filly named Sweetie Belle." Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes as Rarity mentioned her name. "The story begins right out here, on a night like this, in this very orchard!" Rarity's horn glowed and she gave out a sinister laugh as the fire momentarily crackled with all different colors- the others stared attentively. "Submitted for the approval of the Sisterhooves Campfire Spooky Story Club I call this story; The Tale of the Shadow-Gardener."
"Wait up every pony!" Sweetie Belle called out as she trotted after Apple Bloom and Scootaloo toward the far end of the orchard. Wildlife called out in the darkness of the night as they reached a log that had fallen, now bridging the gap, across a stream separating the orchard from the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. The others halted as they reached the log allowing Sweetie Belle to catch up.
"Ever since this tree fell I've been seein' a strange light out this way at night." Apple Bloom explained.
"We're on the case!" Scootaloo scampered excitedly across the log and disappeared on the other side where the pale moon light didn't fall.
"But Applejack told us to stay up in your room! We're in so much trouble if she finds we snuck out!" Sweetie Belle protested.
"We'll be safe if we stick together!" Apple Bloom patted her hoof against Sweetie Belle's horn. "Plus you can light the way!"
"I guess." Sweetie Belle sighed and illuminated her horn, following Apple Bloom to join Scootaloo on the other side.
"Hey look!" Scootaloo called their attention. Under the illumination of Sweetie Belle's horn the three could see a path heading deeper into the woods.
The woods around the path became silent as they crept onward. The path was dotted with small, crudely stacked, cairns along it's sides. They came to a stop as they reached a larger cairn in the shape of a pony in the middle of the path. There was a faintly glowing stone at the top, which seemed to be constantly changing colors. There were no trees to be illuminated beyond the cairn but the sound of a mare humming an eerie melody could be heard. The three fillies looked at each other and trembled in fear.
"What is this?" Scootaloo reached for the glowing stone.
"Don't touch that. It could be dangerous!" Apple Bloom snapped as she batted Scootaloo's hoof away.
"H-hello? Is any pony there?" Sweetie Belle trembled. She held her horn closer to the cairn for a better look and accidentally knocked the glowing stone to the ground. The humming stopped as the stone began to emit a dying flicker. "Oops."
The fillies all took a step back and their hearts surged with dread as a brilliant light illuminated from deep within the clearing and started slowly coming towards them. As the light drew closer they could see that it wasn't a clearing; but the trees were black and featureless like shadows as the light passed behind them. Drawing closer yet, the light was coming from the horn of a unicorn mare, equally dark and featureless; other than her smokey grey mane and her head was of the same light emanating from her horn. Shadows crept across the ground and circled around the fillies.
"We're sorry miss. It was an accident!" Apple Bloom pleaded, stepping forward to protect the group.
"It took me thousands of years to gather all of that beauty." The mare spoke with an ominous calmness and matter-of-fact as she stepped out of the shadows and started eyeing the three fillies over, stopping at Sweetie Belle. "But your mane is perfect. Just one lock of it can keep the stone from dying-out." She explained as the light became sharp as a razor and reached toward Sweetie Belle.
All three fillies were frozen with terror until the silence was broken by the nearby howl of timberwolves. As the mare looked toward the direction of the sound the creep of shadows barring the fillies path crept back towards her.
"Run!" Sweetie Belle screamed as she turned and began running. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo followed. The mare began to pursue them with her shadowy creep in tow. Sweetie Belle was the first to scramble across the log. She stopped and looked back when the other two didn't follow. The mare stood at the other end, the pony shaped cairn now sat just on the other side of the log and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were stuck, motionless, on top of the creep of shadows. The colorful stone on top of the cairn flickered one last breath of light and then went dim.
"Fools! Now I will have to start over." The mare's voice now boomed with anger.
The color from Apple Bloom and Scootaloo slowly faded until they were black and featureless like a shadow. Sweetie Belle's heart pounded as she ran back towards the farm house where Applejack waited outside.
"I thought ah told ya fillies not to go playin' in the orchard at night!" Applejack lectured. She waited for the other two to come running behind her. She noted the dread on Sweetie Belle's face as the other two failed to follow. "Where are the others?" She asked in a panic. Sweetie Belle was now catatonic.
It took a while for Applejack to get an explanation out of Sweetie Belle. By the time Applejack gathered the rest of the Mane 6 and Spike to form a search party the sun began to peak over the horizon. Sweetie Belle lead every pony to the log bridge at the edge of the orchard.
"Well, where is it?" Rainbow Dash demanded as she fluttered over the log. Absent from the other side were the stone cairns and the path.
"What are you playin' at Sweetie Belle? Ma' Sister's missin' and I don't see no shadow mare, or rocks, or a path." Applejack was equally upset.
"You believe me, don't you, Rarity?" Sweetie Belle begged. Rarity simply looked down and sighed in response.
"I've never heard of magic like this." Twilight looked over at Sweetie Belle, watching her face droop in disappointment. "But I'll head to Canterlot, there might be something in the archives about this." She offered.
"I'll get our things ready!" Spike exclaimed.
"No Spike, we can use an extra pair of wings for the search." Twilight explained.
"Got it!" Spike showed off his wings proudly.
The search was as exhausting as it was fruitless. After hours of searching the sky turned orange with the approach of sunset and every pony retreated back to the farm house. Applejack and Rainbow Dash could no longer hide their skepticism of Sweetie Belle's tale.
"Can I retrace my steps one last time?" Sweetie Belle begged.
"Darling, It's getting late out." Rarity protested.
"I'll go with you!" Spike eagerly volunteered.
"Outta' the question!" Applejack shouted. "It's timberwolf season, it ain't safe out there at night!"
"Why don't you come too, Fluttershy?" Spike nudged at Fluttershy with his claw as she cowered at the suggestion. "You could use your stare if we encounter any timberwolves."
"Well I can't leave Sweetie Belle on her own!" Rarity stepped up.
"Well I'm staying right here with Applejack until Twilight gets back from Canterlot!" Rainbow Dash scowled at the group that had assembled.
Sweetie Belle, Fluttershy, Rarity and Spike all headed back to the fallen log. With a flutter of his wings Spike swiftly landed on the other side of the stream. The sun was quickly racing below the Horizon.
"So this is where the pile of stones was?" Spike inquired.
"Right where you're standing now!" Sweetie Belle shouted across the stream.
"Then why's it over here?" Fluttershy asked meekly. As the last light of day faded the cairn was now on the Sweet Apple Acres side of the log.
"Spike!" Rarity gasped, staring across the stream. Spike was now trapped, motionless, atop a consuming blackness on the other side. Rarity ran toward the log but quickly halted as the shadowy mare emerged from the cairn and began humming her eerie melody.
"Rarity, no!" Sweetie Belle called out as she rushed over. Fluttershy backed away, cowering.
Rarity burst toward the shadowy mare as she reached Spike but became frozen as she stepped onto the shadowy creep surrounding the scene.
"We have to go!" Sweetie Belle pushed her front hoof against Fluttershy's side to get her attention.
With the cairn now on the Sweet Apple Acres side of the stream the moonlight no longer reached the ground, bathing the orchard in pitch darkness. Sweetie Belle and Fluttershy scrambled from tree-to-tree but had lost all sense of direction. Sweetie Belle's horn could only illuminate so far and it just acted as a beacon for the shadowy mare.
"Stay close to me!" Sweetie Belle whispered to Fluttershy.
"Okay." Fluttershy acknowledged in a trembling voice, letting out a gasp when Sweetie Belle's horn stopped glowing.
The duo crept as quietly as they could toward the distant lights of the farm house. The shadowy mare wandered about, humming her eerie tune. Just the same as her pony victims she would now absorb the light from each of the trees she passed by, leaving a shadowy facsimile in their place. They tried to keep ahead of the light cast by the shadowy mare's horn but she too slowly made her way toward the farm house.
The mare halted her advance as the sound of timberwolves yipping and howling in the distance started to draw nearer. Fluttershy and Sweetie Belle peaked out from behind a tree to watch as a pack of timberwolves converged on the shadowy mare. The mare seemed afraid of them as she assumed a defensive posture as they surrounded her, remaining outside the shadowy creep that followed in her wake. One-by-one, though, she was able to lure them into the shadows where they became frozen still. She began to drain the light out of one of them.
"Leave them alone!" Fluttershy shouted defensively as she jumped out from behind the tree.
"Fluttershy, no!" Sweetie Belle cried.
"Save yourself!" Fluttershy ordered.
Sweetie Belle took off running toward the farm house, looking back only to see Fluttershy replaced by a shadow.
"Where's the others!?" Rainbow Dash demanded as Sweetie Belle came running up.
"Not them too!" Applejack yelled.
"I figured it out. She comes at night!" Sweetie Belle cried.
"I don't think so." Rainbow Dash objected as she and Applejack grabbed Sweetie Belle and dragged her over to the barn.
"Darn strange coincidence. Two attacks and you are the only survivor of both." Applejack lectured as she shoved Sweetie Belle into the barn; she and Rainbow Dash barred the door.
"Why won't you believe me? She's coming this way." Sweetie Belle's muffled pleas sounded from behind the door.
"How do we know you're really Sweetie Belle?" Applejack quizzed.
"What's that?" Sweetie Belle heard Rainbow Dash whispering loudly to Applejack from outside the barn.
The shadowy mare's eerie melody began to fill the night air. Sweetie Belle hunkered down behind a bail of hay as the confrontation between Applejack, Rainbow Dash and the shadowy mare sounded out; they fought with determination but it wasn't long until the only noise that remained was the humming of the eerie melody. Sweetie Belle pressed her hooves over her eyes as she heard the shadowy mare wander about, searching all over the farm for her, but exhaustion soon took it's toll.
"Sweetie Belle? Applejack? Rarity?" Twilight's voice woke Sweetie Belle up. She could see rays of daylight coming in between the gaps in the walls of the barn.
"I'm in here!" Sweetie Belle called out and with a surge of magic Twilight came bursting through the barn door.
"You're alright!" Twilight shouted with relief, the two ran up to each other and met with a hug.
"She took every pony else." Sweetie Belle cried.
"I found something in the archives. That mare is the Shadow-Gardener. Over a thousand years ago she used to be a regular pony like you or I." Twilight began to explain.
"What happened to her?"
"She was part of one of two rival families of noble unicorns. One day, by chance, she met a handsome stallion from the rival family and they both fell instantly in love with each other and they decided they would secretly wed; but their families found out a month before the day of their wedding and this only deepened the feud and a war now seemed inevitable. The mare and the stallion proposed to their families that if they could both prove their love was both powerful and true that they should allow the wedding to go forward and bring peace between both families; and their families agreed.
The mare was a renowned gardener so she used her magic to transfer all of her beauty into a single seed and released it into the wind; that it should grow into the most beautiful flower wherever it landed. The stallion was a renowned adventurer so he proposed that he would follow the winds and bring the flower back to his bride-to-be by the day of the wedding.
Days passed; and then weeks. The mare waited anxiously and became stricken with grief when the day of the wedding came with no word from her husband-to-be. Not only was her love gone but so, too, was her beauty and she refused to be seen in the day time. Her grief soon became a curse and she began to drain the beauty and the light from everything around her, leaving a pall of shadows in her wake, as she searched the lands for her flower and her husband-to-be. Starswirl the Bearded cornered her in the Everfree Forest and used his magic to seal her in the cairn. You must have broken the seal when you disturbed it."
"Well what can we do?" Sweetie Belle looked down and sighed.
"I can re-cast the containment spell but we have to somehow convince her to give back the ponies she has taken."
Twilight Sparkle and Sweetie Belle found the cairn, now outside the barn. They reassembled it on the other side of the stream and waited for the sun to go down again. As the Shadow-Gardener emerged Twilight quickly froze her in place with a blast of magic.
"Fools!" She hissed as she attempted to writhe free from the spell.
"We want our friends back!" Twilight demanded.
"Their beauty is mine now. Their light is mine." The Shadow-Gardener began to cast a counter-spell against Twilight's magic and the two struggled.
"Wait! You said you wanted a lock of my mane. You can have it all. Give me my friends back and I'll give you everything!" Sweetie Belle pleaded.
"Everything?" the Shadow-Gardener asked.
"Yes, please just give us every pony back!"
Electricity crackled as the Shadow-Gardener dispersed into a tempest. The missing ponies all appeared on the other side of the fallen log. The pall of shadows blocking the moonlight retreated back into the cairn. Twilight Sparkle quickly cast the containment spell. Twilight Sparkle and Sweetie Belle turned around and looked at the others as they came running up.
"I'm sorry we didn't believe you, sugar cube." Applejack apologized.
"Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo cried out together as they ran up and hugged Sweetie Belle.
"It's strange. You offered her your mane and she didn't take it." Twilight Sparkle noted as she eyed Sweetie Belle over.
"Perhaps she was just moved by her generosity, darling." Rarity suggested.
"Perhaps." Twilight Sparkle raised her hoof to her chin in contemplation. "I made a few changes to Starswirl's containment spell so I don't think she'll be bothering anypony again for a long time." She boasted.
"Sweetie Belle headed back across the fallen log with the others. As she went along she hummed an eerie tune." Rarity narrated. "But her shadow did not follow. It simply retreated back into the cairn. It wasn't Sweetie Belle going back with the others because she offered the Shadow-Gardener everything and everything is what she took. Sweetie Belle could only watch in terror from inside the cairn but Twilight's spell was too powerful. She was now doomed to wander the Everfree Forest for eternity. The end."
"Well that's just silly!" Sweetie Belle protested. "Of course I'm still me."
"How do we know for sure?" Rarity laughed maniacally, leaning back into the darkness of the night with her horn illuminating her face.
"Wait, I don't get it!" Scootaloo interjected. "Is the lesson of the story supposed to be that generosity is bad?"
"Not every story has to have a lesson!" Apple Bloom piped in.
"Not bad for something you clearly made up as you were going along." Rainbow Dash teased.
"Well it's sure gettin' late." Applejack said as she kicked some dirt onto the fire, extinguishing it.
"Wait, shouldn't we sing campfire songs now?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"What's the matter, ya too scared to sleep?" Applejack chuckled.
"Of course I'm not scared. But maybe the others are." Sweetie Belle crossed her front hooves and huffed. The others laughed.
II. The Secret of Nighthoof Manor
The night was still and the light and shape of the moon smudged as it pierced through the translucent veil of the overcast skies. Applejack stood up tall ready to open the meeting. The others kindly bid their attention (except for Rainbow Dash who seemed fidgety and eager).
"Welcome to the second meeting of the Sisterhooves Campfire Spooky Story Club". Applejack began. "Now that ya'll're settled down I can't wait to finally tell my story."
"I bet it's boring!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Let me tell you mine instead!"
"Tell ya what, sugar-cube. If it means you're takin' this here tradition seriously you can go right ahead!" Applejack belted back smugly as the others stared on; entertained by the two grown mares bickering like foals.
Rainbow Dash produced a small stack of papers marked with crude hoof writing and cleared her throat. "Submitted for the approval of the S-C-S-S-C." As Rainbow Dash abbreviated- Applejack rolled her eyes. "I call this story; Rainbow Dash and the Secret of Nighthoof Manor!"
"That sounds more like some kind of Daring Do title." Applejack complained as Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes back.
Rainbow Dash flew along side Sunburst as he trotted through the streets of the Crystal Empire towards the train station. It was mid afternoon and the sun beat down with its full fury.
"You know at first I thought being teamed up with a total egghead for a friendship quest was going to be totally boring but we were totally awesome!" Rainbow Dash beamed.
"Thanks I'll, uh, take that as a compliment I guess." Sunburst shrugged.
"Hey, Rainbow Dash!" a familiar voice called from the distance. Zephyr Breeze quickly trotted into view, dressed in attire more befitting of a business pony. "Are you here for my grand opening?"
"We're trying to catch a train, Zephyr!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as he approached. "Grand opening?"
"A buddy from the mane styling academy and I have gone into business together. We've set up shop right here in the Crystal Empire!" He boasted proudly.
"You? In business? Now this I've got to see!" Rainbow Dash mocked.
"Don't we have a train to catch?" Sunburst piped in.
"I'm sure if we miss the last train Cadence and Shining Armor will let us crash at the palace. After all, it is us!" Rainbow Dash assured. The duo began to follow Zephyr Breeze as he trotted proudly down a road that passed by an open field.
"Wait." Zephyr halted and then produced a crystal rose and offered it up to Rainbow Dash with a bow and a wink of the eye. "I got you this rare crystal rose as a token of my affection."
"Rare? This is the Crystal Empire. Every rose is made of crystal!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
Zephyr eyed the open field beside the road and then quickly ran out to the field and back. "Not this one!" He offered out a scintillating crystal orb with an organic, opalescent, orchid encased inside. The colors were constantly shifting and vivid beyond description. The three stared at it, in awe of its unimaginable beauty.
"Actually that's more of an orchid than a rose." Sunburst corrected.
"I-" Rainbow Dash stuttered. "I've never seen anything so-"
"Beautiful?" Zephyr interrupted.
"I was going to say awesome." Rainbow Dash snapped back. "But yeah." Her voice calmed as she became mesmerized by the beauty of the orchid.
"I wonder how this got here." Zephyr pondered.
"It looks like some sort of magical artifact. We better be care-" Sunbursts warning was cut short as tendrils of light quickly reached out from the orb and grasped the trio; followed by a flood of disorienting bright white light.
As the light faded the three ponies found themselves on the ground as though they had just awaken from a dream.
"Is everypony okay?" Rainbow Dash rubbed her head.
"This place looks different." Zephyr looked around. The architecture looked much older and a large manor house now stood gated off in the empty field where he had found the orchid.
"It looks like..." Sunburst raised a hoof and fussed with his beard in contemplation. He looked around and observed a melancholy hustle and bustle on the surrounding streets. At every corner there were multiple guards in dark metallic armor with glowing green visors. There were no visitors among the scene, only crystal ponies. "This looks like the Crystal Empire under King Sombras reign." He explained.
"Are you telling me that thing sent us back in time?" Rainbow Dash complained.
"No. Look at the sky." Sunburst cocked his head up toward the sky which formed a shimmering crystal hemisphere around the landscape. "I think we're inside the artifact."
"I thought this place was, like, all doom and gloom under King Sombra." Zephyr Breeze looked around noting that many ponies just seemed to be going about their daily business.
"Even an evil empire needs its bakeries and blacksmiths and schools to function." Sunburst explained. "Reading about all of this is one thing but to actually see it like this." Sunbursts eyes widened with intrigue.
"Okay, egghead. But how do we get out of here?" Rainbow Dash interrupted.
"Bright Mane!" A voice called out as the gates to the manor house opened up. A tall, charcoal colored, stallion wearing a regal cape approached along with two guards. "I thought I told you never to come around here again!" They quickly surrounded Zephyr Breeze.
"I think you have me confused for somepony else." Zephyr trembled.
"Oh, there's no mistake, Bright Mane! Take him to the dungeon!" The guards grabbed Zephyr and dragged him off into the manor and then the taller stallion turned to Rainbow Dash and Sunburst. "I expect you two to get back to work now." He said ominously before he returned to the manor.
"I think we're caught inside a historical reenactment from the Crystal Empire." Sunburst pondered quietly to Rainbow Dash. "That stallion is General Nighthoof; one of King Sombras most feared generals. And if Zephyr is Bright Mane then you must be Pleasant Sky which makes me your brother- Starry Sky."
"I'm going to need more than that." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
"Well over a thousand years ago the feared General Nighthoof fell in love with Pleasant Sky, the sister of his archivist Starry Sky. But Pleasant Sky was in love with Bright Mane, a farm pony from out in the countryside. Jealous, General Nighthoof imprisoned Bright Mane. The last that was ever heard of Pleasant Sky and Starry Sky was that they went on a mission to break Bright Mane out of prison." Sunburst explained.
"So we bust in there, save Zephyr and then we get out of here?" Rainbow Dash smirked. "Too easy."
"That place is a literal fortress, Rainbow Dash. We have to be careful." Sunburst warned.
"Hey. Check it out." Rainbow Dash plucked the orchid up off the ground. It was still the same image of beauty as it was before but it was not encased in crystal. "I bet this is important."
"They left the gate open for us." Sunburst pointed out.
"Well we do work here." The two began walking toward the gate.
"Out of my way, Peasants." A dark, sinister voice boomed. It was King Sombra. He trotted along through the gates with a dozen guards at his sides and moved to catch up to General Nighthoof and the two began talking.
"I want to listen in!" Rainbow Dash whispered loudly to Sunburst.
"I don't think that's such a good-" Before Sunburst could finish his lecture Rainbow Dash quietly swooped over and hid near the scene.
"When I'd received word that you had captured Princess Luna I didn't believe a general of your competence could pull off such a feat." King Sombra chided. "I half expect to go down there and find you have the wrong mare."
"I can assure you, my liege, that I speak the truth." Nighthoof insisted.
"Well then place the manor on high alert and double the guards. Do you honestly think Celestia will sit idle with her dear sister in our dungeon?" King Sombra huffed as the two entered through the front door of the manor.
"They have Princess Luna!" Rainbow Dash trembled as Sunburst caught up.
"That's what I tried to warn you about." Sunburst lectured. "This place is going to be crawling with Nightguard; the elite royal guards of the Crystal Empire. The moment we start acting suspicious they will be on to us."
The two quickly followed through the front door of the manor. It was very dark inside and many guards patrolled the halls, the glowing green light of their visors stood out through the darkness. Sounds, like an incomprehensible whisper, filled the halls along with the clatter of armor.
"Which way do we go?" Rainbow Dash whispered.
"Nighthoof Manor isn't standing anymore. So nopony knows the actual floor plan." Sunburst whispered back.
"What happen-" Before Rainbow Dash could finish her query the manor shook and debris fell from the roof as a loud explosion sounded. Guards quickly clattered off through the halls leaving it quiet and dark.
"Oh, no. This must be the night the manor was razed!" Sunburst sighed. "We have to hurry!"
Explosions sounded and the manor shook intermittently as the duo searched through the nearly abandoned hallways until they saw a distant stairway with two guards posted.
"Wait!" Sunburst whispered loudly and pulled Rainbow Dash behind a structural column and out of sight of two mobile guards that passed by.
"I have an idea." Rainbow Dash whispered. She quickly swooped between the two mobile guards and pushed them into a nearby archway. Sunburst scampered in after them and after some commotion the duo emerged dressed in their armor. The view through the visors of the armor illuminated the halls with an eerie green tint.
"I hope this works." Sunburst said as they carried on and approached the guards at the stairway and motioned toward the stairs. They walked by without incident and descended the spiraling stairway.
A small prison block waited at the bottom of the stairs. King Sombra stood, alone, at the first cell. Princess Luna was inside.
"I didn't order any guards." King Sombra snarled as he looked the duo over.
"Oh, uh. General Nighthoof felt it would be wise to give you additional security because of the attack." Sunburst bluffed.
"Just stay out of my way." Sombra snapped and returned to the bars of Princess Lunas cell. "My dear Princess Luna." He spoke soft and ominously.
"Glad you're here. So that you can disappear into the rubble of this mad house when my sister tears it to the ground!" Princess Luna snapped. She fired a blast from her horn but the bars of the prison cell absorbed the magic.
"Aren't you the passionate one." Sombra snickered malevolently. "I don't blame you, Princess. Every pony revels in the day but, you, you are a bringer of night; like myself."
"I'm nothing like you!"
"Aren't you, though?" Sombra moved closer to the bars. "In Canterlot you will always be less than your sister. You will always be number two. At my side; we could rule together! You could be my queen and together we would rule with equal might!"
"That's not true. My Sister loves me. She respects me!" Princess Luna hung her head.
"Every pony sleeps through the night while you toil away, unappreciated. When I am king of all Equestria the night will reign forever across the land. Your hard work will mean something to all. Return to Celestia and I promise you will spend a thousand years in bonds." Sombra flashed a sinister smile.
"He's right, Sister." Celestias voice spoke. Princess Celestia charged down the stairs and with a single blast from her horn King Sombra vanished.
"Sister!" Luna cried out.
"I should leave you in that cell. I feel the same darkness in your heart that was in his. Your envy becomes more obvious with each passing day. You are a threat to the stability of our kingdom; of my kingdom." Celestia chided.
"I somehow don't think that's actually Princess Celestia." Rainbow Dash whispered to Sunburst, who nodded in agreement.
"Let's find Zephyr while they are distracted." Sunburst urged.
The duo slowly crept on down the hall and found Zephyr pacing around in a cell near the end. General Nighthoof stood outside the cell. They could still hear the false visage of Princess Celestia panning a tearful Princess Luna at the other end of the hall.
"I keep telling you, you have the wrong pony!" Zephyr shouted insistently.
"I grow weary of your games, Bright Mane!" Nighthoof shouted angrily. "I told you to stay away from her!" The manor began to shake as another salvo of bombardments sounded.
Down the hall the visage of Princess Celestia slowly morphed back into King Sombras form again. "Think about my offer princess. I have some other matters to attend to. Sombra trotted rapidly down the hall to meet up to the scene with the others.
"Fool! While you are busy wasting time on personal matters we are being surrounded by the full might of Princess Celestias forces!" Sombra shouted as dark energy arced through the air around him. Sombra looked over Rainbow Dash and Sunburst. "You've also failed to notice the rats in our midst." With a stroke of his hoof their helmets came flying off.
"You traitors!" Nighthoof shouted.
"Rainbow Dash! Am I glad to see you!" Zephyr called out.
"Put these rats away and then help me fortify the front lines!" King Sombra huffed before storming off up the stairs.
"Guards!" Nighthoof called out. The two guards from the top of the stairs marched down into the prison.
"It pains me to have to imprison you like this." Nighthoof said woefully to Rainbow Dash as the Guards walked her and Sunburst into the cell and then locked them in. "You could have been the mare of this fine manor; the most esteemed in the empire." Nighthoof made his way up the stairs and out of the prison.
"Why does he keep calling me Bright Mane?" Zephyr asked.
"That orchid you found. It's some kind of magical artifact that has inserted us in to some kind of historical scene. I think we have to finish acting it out in order to be released." Sunburst explained.
A loud explosion sounded and the manor shook violently. The cell had a barred window that looked out along the ground. "And we better figure it out fast!" Rainbow Dash urged, looking through the window at the scene outside. Canterlots forces were built up along the perimeter of the manors grounds. The Canterlot forces quickly made ground in the ferocious battle.
"Sister..." Princess Luna called out meekly from down the hall. She lay weak and tired in her prison cell.
"Well what do you know about this story?" Rainbow Dash urged Sunburst. "Because it looks like we have about five minutes before they level this place."
"I recognize the historical events but the mentions of the Sky siblings and Bright Mane are very minimal. Just that they helped Princess Luna escape during the bombardment." Sunburst explained.
"So it's an action story." Rainbow Dash cheered excitedly before another salvo of bombardments shook the manor again, bursting her bubble.
"Hey, you kept it!" Zephyr called out excitedly pointing a hoof toward Rainbow Dash, who had the orchid tied into her mane.
Rainbow Dash pulled the beautiful orchid out of her mane and held it out. Even the guards stared in awe at it until another powerful blast caved in a nearby section of the stone ceiling. "This is definitely important. This whole thing is what brought us here." Rainbow Dash pondered.
"Maybe it's not an action story after all." Sunburst suggested. "Maybe it's-"
"A love story?" Zephyr winked excitedly and gave Rainbow Dash a nudge. Rainbow Dash cringed.
"Exactly!" Sunburst confirmed. "Something about the romance between Pleasant Sky and Bright Mane must have aided in the escape."
"Hey guards!" Rainbow Dash called out. "I have an idea." She whispered to the others as the guards approached. "Go fetch Nighthoof. Tell him I've realized how much brighter my future is with him and I want to talk to him."
"I'll watch them. You go get Nighthoof." One of the guards ordered and then stood patiently while he waited for the other to disappear up the stairs. "I hope you three have a really good plan." The guard said and as he opened the cell up and Rainbow Dash and Zephyr looked confused at him.
"Of course!" Sunburst whispered to the others. "He must be a member of the secret resistance."
"Well what have we here!" Nighthoof scowled as he came down the stairs to witness the scene. "The treachery around here knows no bounds!" He unlocked Princess Lunas cell. Princess Luna meagerly pulled herself to her hooves and limped toward the scene and fired a shadowy blast from her horn at the group, freezing them in their place.
"Princess Luna, what are you doing!?" The resistance member demanded.
"King Sombra is right. My future in Celestias Equestria is in bonds." She sighed.
"With Princess Luna on our side Celestias forces are doomed to fall, here, tonight." Nighthoof laughed.
"Queen Luna, you mean." Luna sighed.
"You don't have to do this!" Rainbow Dash called out.
"My sisters is the kingdom of light and I am a pony of darkness just like Sombra. I will never have a place in her Equestria." Luna hung her head. Rainbow Dash looked at the orchid and then back at Zephyr. The orchid reacted to the containment beam, dispelling it.
"Perhaps love was never in the cards for us!" Nighthoof scowled as he marched angrily towards Rainbow Dash.
"Hey! Back off!" Zephyr jumped in between them.
"Luna, get to the battlefield. I will take care of these fools!" Nighthoof ordered. Luna began to walk toward the stairs but stumbled as the manor shook again with another powerful salvo of blasts.
"Luna, wait! Hear me out at least." Rainbow Dash pleaded. "You are your own pony. You don't have to listen to him!"
"Nonsense! You have a real future in the Crystal Empire" Nighthoof protested.
"No. I will listen!" Princess Luna fired a shadowy beam which halted Nighthoofs advance.
"Sure, you and Princess Celestia don't always see eye-to-eye and neither do Zeph- Bright Mane and I. I mean look at him. I live in a huge mansion and he's a simple farm pony. Just trust me when I tell you that I know there's a place for you in Canterlot."
"Y-yeah." Zephyr stuttered as he walked over beside Rainbow Dash.
"But here we are, two ponies in love." She laughed nervously.
"You have to make it more convincing than that." Sunburst whispered to her. "Kiss him or something."
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and then reluctantly embraced Zephyr, giving him a kiss. A tear rolled down Lunas face as she watched the scene unfold. Blinding light began to gush forth in all directions from the orchid as it seemed to react to the kiss, incapacitating General Nighthoof. When the light had subsided the crystal encased orchid fell to the ground where the trio once stood. Princess Luna looked around. It was just she and the guard that belonged to the resistance standing.
"Perhaps I have underestimated the power that is love." Princess Luna sighed as she turned her head back up. "Onward, little one. We have a battle to win, for Canterlot!"
The trio of Sunburst, Rainbow Dash and Zephyr found themselves back outside in the present day Crystal Empire staring at the orchid encased in its crystal globe. It began to hover in place on its own. A mare and two stallions, featureless and bathed in piercing bright light projected from it.
"Thank you for hearing our story." The mare spoke. "It has been over a thousand years since we were forgotten."
"Are you the Sky siblings and Bright Mane?" Sunburst quizzed. The light bathed trio nodded.
"You didn't exactly nail all the lines." The shining image of Starry Sky joked.
"We don't know how the orchid came to be. But its magic allowed us to project ourselves into it in order to help save Princess Luna from King Sombras spell." Pleasant Sky explained.
"And here we remain." Bright Mane looked around at the modern Crystal Empire. "I see that our sacrifice was worthwhile."
"Of course." Sunburst placed his hoof up to his beard in contemplation. "And with the Nightguard defeated the resistance was finally able to rise up and subdue King Sombra and lock his darkness away inside the Crystal Heart."
Rainbow Dash reached out and the projections of the three forgotten historical ponies faded as she took it onto her hoof. "It's just a shame that Princess Luna did eventually let King Sombras words get to her." She sighed.
"Hey Rainbow Dash. I know that you didn't really want to and I'm sorry that you had to-" Zephyr was interrupted.
"Hey. It's okay. Just don't look too much into it." Rainbow Dash scolded. The trio laughed before carrying on to their destination.
"Darling, that was so romantic!" Rarity swooned. "How did you come up with something like that?"
"Yeah, uh, nice story egghead." Applejack chuckled.
"I didn't!" Rainbow Dash snapped insistently as she blushed. "I, uh, found it written down at, uh, Sugar Cube Corner."
"Well if ya' didn't write it then whys it about you?" Applejack mocked.
"And why's it in your hoof writing?" Scootaloo asked as she snatched the note sheets away from Rainbow Dash and carefully examined them.
"Well okay, I actually did write it." Rainbow Dash reluctantly surrendered. The others moved in closer as she continued. "Sunburst and I really did go to the Crystal Empire to solve a friendship problem for Mistmane and to thank us she gave us this." Everyponies face lit up with awe as Rainbow Dash produced an artifact exactly like the one described in her tale. "She says she found it while tending to the crystal gardens. Nothing like it is mentioned in any history book."
"Darling! I've never seen anything so beautiful before!" Rarity swooned.
"Exactly! I just felt inspired by it to write. Well... Sunburst helped me with some of the historical details of course." Rainbow Dash let out an exhausted sigh.
"Hmm." Sweetie Belle pondered as she and Apple Bloom examined the artifact.
"What are ya'll thinkin' here?" Applejack quizzed.
"I'm sure it's nothing." Apple Bloom sighed.
"Now check this out!" Rainbow Dash boasted as she held the artifact toward the fire. The scene dimmed as the fire spiraled through the air and was absorbed by it without a trace.
"Don't ya think ya ought'a be careful with that?" Applejack lectured as the girls all paired off and departed for the night.
