Paper Pony

by Drag Orion

Rating: everyone
Tags: Spike, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Comedy, Nightmare Moon
Length: 74343

What do you get when you mix the story of Paper Mario and My Little Pony together?

My project for November Writing Month. It mixes the plot of Paper Mario with the return of Nightmare Moon.

Published 2019-12-09 20:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-11-26 17:30:44 UTC

Prologue Part 1 - The Mare in the Moon

It was another calm and pleasant day in the city of Canterlot, the regal capital of the land of Equestria. The Ponies, the colorful inhabitants of this vast city and many others like it across the land were enjoying the early morning with even more excitement than usual.

“Tonight should be quite the elegant gala,” a blue stallion with a cobalt mane and tale told his significant other in an uppercrust tone. He had a horn atop his head, as did his wife, a white mare with a curly red mane and tail. The two were sitting outside a cafe, enjoying a hot cup of tea to start their day as they conversed.

“It certainly should,” she agreed, her horn glowed a pale blue as she levitated her cup to her lips to take a sip and then gently moved it away as she drank it. “The Summer Sun Celebration is one of the biggest events of the year. I can hardly wait to- whoa!”

The mare was interrupted mid sentence as a streak of rainbow shot past their table at such a speed it left their manes a wind blown mess. They also lost their magical hold on their teacups, causing them to spill their contents onto the table. “What in the world was that?” asked the stallion, looking around confused.

“I don’t know,” his wife replied with a fearful look in her eyes as she hugged her husband close. She pointed with her hoof and shouted out, “But it’s coming back!”

The two quickly ducked under their table as the wild rainbow flew straight towards them, only, this time, it came to a halt as it reached their table, revealing itself to be a blue mare with feathered wings. Unlike the two ponies with horns that were Unicorns, she was a winged pony, a Pegasus.

This Pony also had a rainbow of colors on her medium length mane and tail. Her eyes were purple and upon her flank was a special mark, a Cutie Mark, a symbol that all Ponies gain at some point in their lives. Hers was of a storm cloud with a thunderbolt coming out of it. The Pegasus also had a bulky, brown delivery bag full of mail saddled to her side.

“Uh, sorry to disturb you,” she apologized to the two. “But do you think you could give me some directions? I’m a little lost.”

“Clearly,” scoffed the stallion, going from relieved that they were not in danger to annoyed that their morning tea had been interrupted in the blink of an eye. “The proper fly zone is at least twenty meters straight up from here.”

“Hahah, funny,” chuckled the mare before she reached into her bag and pulled out a scroll. “But, actually, I just need to be pointed in the direction of this place.”

“Hmm,” hummed the stallion as he read the address and pointed. “Two blocks down that way and then take a right. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding it from there. Now, please, we’ve had more than enough excitement for one morning.”

“Thanks,” she nodded before getting into a sprinting stance with her head low to the ground and her wings raised. “Come on Rainbow,” she spoke to herself to psyche herself up. “Let’s show them a little dash!” In a flash, she lunged forward as she flapped her wings and shot out of sight with the same amazing speed she showed before. Once more, the couple was caught in the force of her speedy flying and their manes ended up a greater mess than before.

“The nerve of some Ponies,” spoke the white mare as she checked out the mess her mane was left in.

“Indeed,” her husband agreed.

Flying where she was directed to, in record time, the rainbow pony was finally able to find the address she had been searching for and knocked on the door of the home. “Mail’s here!” she called in.

“Coming,” called a voice from the other side of the door. As it opened, a white stallion with a rather strong build stepped out. He was a Unicorn with a long flowing blue mane and tail. His Cutie Mark was of a blue shield with a purple six-point star on it.

“Hey there,” he greeted her with a smile. “I don’t think I’ve seen you delivering the mail before. Are you new?”

“Actually,” she admitted as she handed him a bundle of mail scrolls along with a single magazine. “I’m just helping out while the regular mail pony is out. I think she’s sick or something. I didn’t have anything better to do and I figured I could try to see how fast I could get it all delivered. The only thing about that is I didn’t realize I had to do places outside of Ponyville too. This is my first time in Canterlot so it’s taking me a bit to figure out where everything is.”

“Well, you still managed to get here a lot faster than our regular mail pony,” he complimented her. “Ms. Uh…”

“Dash,” she told him. “The name’s Rainbow Dash, future Wonderbolt.”

“I’m Shining Armor,” he introduced himself. “Captain of the Royal Guard here in Canterlot. So, the Wonderbolts, huh. They’re the best flyers in Equestria, so you gotta be pretty amazing to join them.”

“Amazingly awesome is probably more accurate,” she replied with a confident look on her face and her front hooves crossed. “And yes, I am.”

“Then I guess you’re at the top of the reserves and just waiting for a spot to open up on the team,” Shining Armor assumed.

“Actually,” she confessed, averting her eyes. “I’m not in the reserves just yet… or been accepted to the Wonderbolt Academy to be put in the reserves… or signed up to take the test to get into the academy. But, when I do it’ll be a piece of cake. There isn’t a flyer, pony, griffin, dragon, uh… whatever, that’s faster than me.”

“Well, I’d bet ten bits on that,” he chuckled. “Anyway, I don’t want to keep you from the rest of your deliveries. it was nice meeting you.”

“Same to you,” she nodded. “Oh, and this is just a warmup. After Canterlot I’ve got some mail to deliver in Saddlearabia.”

“Saddlearabia?” replied a shocked Shining Armor. “I guess you’re taking the train to get there. It’d take days to fly.”

“Let’s not forget who you are talking to,” she replied before taking off just as quickly as before.

Shining Armor watched in awe as she zoomed out of sight. “I probably should have bet more bits on her,” he told himself.

“Whoops, this address is this way,” Rainbow Dash said as she zoomed past Shining Armor once again. He just chuckled a bit and retreated back into his home. Getting to his kitchen table, his horn glowed as he levitated the mail to go through it. “Junk… Junk… Bill… Junk… Bill… My magazine subscription to O&O Monthly… Bill…” he mumbled as he placed each letter on the table according to what it was. He kept his magazine levitated, eager to read that as soon as he got the chance. He then looked through the last couple of things, adding a few more to the junk pile before he looked at the last scroll more closely.

“What do we got here,” he smiled as he examined the wax seal on it and saw it was that of a sun. “That’s Princess Celestia’s seal, so this must be our invitations for the Summer Sun Celebration tonight.” Still levitating that scroll and his magazine, Shining Armor made his way out of the kitchen and to the stairs leading up to the second floor. “Hey, Twily, our invites have arrived,” he called up the stairs. He waited for a response, but after a minute there was nothing save for silence. “No answer. Why am I not surprised?”

Shining Armor proceeded up the stairs and made his way to the room at the end of the hall on the left, his sister’s room. On the door was a purple six-point star with the name “Twilight Sparkle” written in pink letters on it. There was also a sign on the door that read, “Reading: Do Not Disturb.”

Doing the brotherly thing, Shining Armor ignored it. Opening the door, he looked inside to see a room a room that would have been perfectly clean save for the copious amounts of books of all kinds from adventure stories to sci-fi and horror and plenty of other genres too. There were also text books for math, science, even ones for different kinds of magic and almost every other subject as well. All those books were stacked on top of one another and crowding almost every inch of the room. They were on almost all the chairs in the room too. They even occupied the bed, and concealed the carpeting on the floor too. The room did possess a bookshelf, but it was already filled up with as many books as it could handle.

The room also had a telescope that was pointing out the window and gazing up at the clear, blue sky. And, hanging from the ceiling was a mobile of the solar system. It was made to scale and even included the moons orbiting the planets. On one desk was several bottles of ink and writing quills all neatly lined up together. Next to them were two neat stacks of scroll paper, one that was all blank and the other covered in tons of notes. On another desk sat the pony that lived in the room. She was a purple Unicorn with a long, dark purple mane and tail that had a pink streak in the middle of both. Her eyes were purple and her Cutie Mark was of the purple six-point star along with six smaller white stars surrounding it. She sat in the only chair that wasn’t being taken up by books and had her nose currently buried in one.

“And in her last moments before she was sealed away,” read Twilight, so immersed in her reading she wasn’t even aware that her brother was standing right behind her. “She vowed with all her hatred, ‘One day I will be free again, even if it should take me a thousand moons!’” Putting the book down, Twilight pondered to herself. “A thousand moons…”

“Hey, Twily,” Shining Armor greeted her, but his sister just got up and grabbed another book.

Quickly, she flipped through the pages, stopping at one, skimming through a few lines and then repeated it. All the while, she kept mumbling to herself, “A thousand moons… A thousand moons…” Finally, her eyes lit up and she had a eureka moment. “Aha! A thousand moons!”

“What’s this about a thousand moons now?” questioned Shining Armor as he used his magic to levitate the book out of Twilight’s hooves. Doing this finally managed to get the mare’s attention.

“Shining Armor,” she said with a look of surprise on her face. “When did you get here?”

“Oh, I’ve been here for days,” he joked. “You’ve got this incredible power to become completely oblivious to everything around you when you immerse yourself in your studies.”

“Hahah, very funny,” she replied, rolling her eyes.

“About two minutes ago,” he told her truthfully. “And I’ve got good news. Our invites to the Summer Sun Celebration just arrived.”

“That’s perfect!” exclaimed Twilight as she took the scroll, broke the seal, and unrolled it. Included in the letter was two golden tickets. Written on the scroll was a message penned by the Princess of the Sun herself, Celestia.

To my most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

I humbly request your presence at this year’s Summer Sun Celebration, both you and your brother. Enclosed are two tickets to allow you both entry. I look forward to seeing you there.
Have a bright and sunny day,
Princess Celestia

“This is better than perfect,” said Twilight after she finished reading the letter. “This is exactly what I needed.”

“I’m glad you are so excited,” commented Shining Armor, happy to see her overjoyed by something that wasn’t leather bound and several hundred pages long. “I knew if no other force in Equestria could get you to take a night off from your studies, an invitation from Princess Celestia could. Now we can go to Summer Sun Celebration and have some fun.”

“Fun?” questioned Twilight.

“Fun,” answered Shining Armor. “Doing something that one finds enjoyable.”

“First off,” countered Twilight. “I know the definition of fun and yours is rather abridged. Secondly, I don’t have time for fun, not when she’ll be returning.”

“Uh, she?” asked Shining Armor as he rubbed his front hoof on his head. “She who?”

“The Mare in the Moon,” answered Twilight. “That ‘she who.’ She vowed to come back even if it would take her a thousand moons and guess when that is?”

“I’m gonna give her the benefit of the doubt and say that’s seven moons from now,” he answered, already certain of when it really was.”

“No,” replied Twilight. “One thousand moons will be tonight!”

“I think you’ve been cooped up in this room a way too long, Twily,” he told her. “It makes you go kinda Twilynannas.”

“I am not going Twilynannas!” snapped Twilight as she levitated the book she had been reading at her desk and floated it over to Shining Armor, showing him the page she had just been reading. “I was just in the middle of re-rereading Stories of the Sun and it says so right here on chapter 23 page 217 that the Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon, vowed to return to seek vengeance on Princess Celestia for sealing her away. She promised to return after a thousand moons and that time is finally upon us.”

“You do know this is just a story,” Shining Armor told her, pushing the book out of his face. “Lots of ponies have written fantasy stories around Princess Celestia doing all sorts of amazing things that she never actually did.”

“But this isn’t just some fantasy book,” Twilight pointed out. “Check out the author’s name.”

“C.L.S. Tia,” read Shining Armor.

“C.L.S. Tia,” repeated Twilight with a giddy grin on her face. “Get it, that’s Princess Celestia’s pen name. This isn’t just some made up stories, this is Princess Twilight’s Autobiography.”

“Okay, let’s just say, there is some truth to these stories and the Mare in the Moon, uh, Nightmare Moon, is going to return tonight,” Shining Armor said. “Is there really any need to worry? I mean, Celestia stopped her from, uh doing whatever she did last time.”

“You didn’t read this book before did you?” Twilight figured.

“I like to read,” Shining Armor retorted as he looked around at all of Twilight’s books. “Just not nearly as much as you do.”

“The abridged version,” she sighed as she summed the story up for him. “Nightmare Moon was the ruler of the night just as Celestia was the ruler of the day. One day, Nightmare Moon grew jealous of Celestia since Ponies would be awake and enjoy the day, while her nights were always slept through. She felt she was being cheated and, as a result, she became consumed with jealousy, turning her into a foul monster and decided to bring eternal night to Equestria so that she could rule alone. Celestia stood against her and they had a fierce battle. The two were evenly matched, but with the use of the six special gems, the Elements of Harmony, Celestia was able to banish Nightmare Moon to the moon and restore balance to day and night. Ever since then, Celestia took charge to rule over Equestria both during the day and at night.” Twilight took a few seconds to catch her breath. “Got all that?”

“Uh… yes,” he nodded, though his tone didn’t sound so certain. “But, would you care to go over that again a little slower.” Sighing, Twilight went over the story with Shining Armor twice more before he really understood it all.

“Ok, I think I got it now,” Shining Armor told his sister. “But if everything you said is true then wouldn’t Celestia just be able to defeat her with the Elements of Harmony just as she did in the past? In which case, there wouldn’t be any danger even if she were to return.”

“I guess,” Twilight replied, unable to argue with that logic.

“Then there’s no need for us to panic,” Shining Armor added. “We can just go to the Summer Sun Celebration and enjoy ourselves. And, whether or not this Nightmare Moon should show up, we know that Celestia can handle her just like before and we can just have a pleasant evening hanging out with friends.”

“Hang out with friends?” asked Twilight, not sounding too keen on the idea.

“Why not?” replied Shining Armor. “That’s the main reason for even having a party in the first place. I’m sure your classmates from magic school were also invited, though they might not recognize you without your face in a book.”

“Hahah, very funny,” Twilight said to her brother as she rolled her eyes, but then smiled knowing he was only poking a little fun at her as well as looking out for her well being, both part of his job description as her big brother. “Okay, you win. I’ll go see Princess Celestia and then hang out with my classmates.”

“Nice try,” he retorted knowing his sister well enough. “Friends first. You can spend plenty of time with Princess Celestia afterwards. Just do this one thing for me, your big brother, best friend, forever.”

“Ok, BBBBF,” she smiled and gave him a hug.

As night drew near, Shining Armor got himself dressed up in his best red suit. Emblazoned upon the left pocket he had his Cutie Mark stitched into it. Using a little magic, he adjusted his silky, white cravat, tightening it comfortably around his neck. With a cloth, he polished the medals on the right side of his coat and then the golden buttons going down the middle of his chest and on the cuffs till they glistened. “I cleanu pretty well, if I do say so myself,” he smirked as he looked at himself in the mirror. Levitating a comb with magic, he gave his mane a final touchup before heading down the hall to Twilight’s room to check on her.

“The party starts in twenty minutes,” he called to her as he gently knocked on her door.

“I know,” she called to him right away. Shining Armor sighed with relief that she hadn’t forgotten the time, and ended up lost once more in her endless research.

When Twilight opened the door, she came out in a shimmery pink dress with a sapphire embedded on a golden brooch clipped to her right shoulder. Her hair possessed a greater sheen than before and any split ends and frazzled hair were gone. There was also a pale blue butterfly hair clip on the right side of her head.

“Dress dry cleaned, stopped over at the Canterlot spa to have my makeup and hair done, return home with dress to put it on and get ready for the party,” she listed. “Check, check, and check.”

“You and your checklists,” he chuckled and turned to head down the stairs. “Well, if we’re all set, let’s get going.”

“One moment,” she said as she used her magic to float over their two tickets from her desk, keeping one for herself and floating the other to her brother. “Tickets… check.”

“Yeah, these would definitely help,” he smiled and then proceeded once more towards the stairs with her following after.

Going outside, they could see a number of other mares and stallions were also dressed for the occasion and also heading for the large castle in the center of the city. The streetlights illuminated the dark city streets and the moon above shone brightly in the sky. Twilight looked up at it, seeing it was full out tonight, as she worrily knew it would be. She also observed the shadows upon it that uncannily resembled a horse’s head and how “Mare in the Moon” was coined.

“The Mare in the Moon,” she thought to herself as she felt some butterflies were also in her stomach and not just the one upon her head. The Mare in the Moon had always been there like one of nature’s wonders. No pony ever gave it much thought just how it got like that, other than it being simply one of nature’s wonders. But after all Twilight had read on story behind it, she couldn’t help but dread that it’s true nature was to soon become common knowledge. As she gazed up at it, she wondered if it was possibly staring back down at her.

“It’s going to be alright,” promised Shining Armor, putting his front right hoof around her shoulders to offer her some comfort.

“Right,” she nodded and kept her eyes forward as they neared the castle and started up the set of stairs to the main gates.

“Tickets,” instructed the royal guards, clad in silver or gold armor. They had their spears in front of the entryway in an ‘X’ shape to bar the way in. The party guests held up their tickets and the guards responded by moving their spears out of their way and letting them through before blocking the way once more for the next group.

“Tickets,” they said again as Shining Armor and Twilight arrived.

“Here they are,” said the Captain of the Guard as he and his sister showed their tickets. “Tough luck getting stuck with guard duty tonight, Spearhead.”

“Tell me about it,” the pony in silver armor sighed and fought back a yawn. “Got another three hours of standing here before my shift ends, but what can ya do? Gotta be at the ready to protect the guests from typical dangers. Dragons, Changelings, giant bugbears, and other stuff like that. Well, enjoy the party.”

“We will,” nodded Shining Armor as they proceeded inside.

“Oh, and don’t forget I’m having that art show next week,” he called to Shining Armor to remind him before returning his focus to his job.

“He’s an artist?” inquired Twilight.

“Well, if being able to put paint to a canvas qualifies you as an artist,” he told her. “Then yes, he’s an artist.”

“An abstract expressionist?” Twilight assumed.

“That and paintings of spears,” he answered. “Lots and lots of spears.”

Shining Armor and Twilight followed the other guests through the castle and into the main banquet hall where a chunk of the city’s populace were currentl occupying. The hall was lavishly decorated with velvet tablecloths upon all the tabletops and long tapestries of the sun and moon hanging upon the wall. There was even a giant ice statue of Celestia standing elegantly in the middle of the room.

The small round tables were set up for Ponies to sit at and converse while the long rectangle ones that were covered with all sorts of festive party foods and drinks for the guests to partake in. Waiters were frequently coming in to replace any of it as soon as a tray or a bowl was emptied.

On the stage a string orchestra was playing some classical music to help set a calm and elegant tone for the evening. They all played in perfect synch with one another, finishing one song and then shortly starting another after only a brief rest. They didn’t even need to communicate which song they were to perform next and just started to play again.

Looking around, there were tons of guests that filled the room. Twilight saw all of her classmates and a number of other familiar faces she recognized when she left the Fortress of Solitude that was her room. However, the Ponies that mostly made up this party were Canterlot’s elites. The two siblings were quick to recognize a number of them from reputation alone, such as Fancy Pants, Prince Blueblood, and Zesty Gourmand.

Fancy Pants, was a white Unicorn with a short blue coiffed mane and a monocle. He was dressed in his regal black suit and was in the middle of regaling a few of his uppercrust associates with a story. As he finished, they let out a slight chuckle as he removed his monocle to wipe it with a monogrammed handkerchief and put it back in place.

“Oh, how very droll,” one remarked to him once he finished.

“Yes, very droll indeed,” the others nodded like a flock of sheep.

“Well, if you thought that was droll,” went on Fancy Pants. “This next story will definitely be most riveting.”

“Please, do tell,” they urged him.

Meanwhile, Prince Blueblood was regaling a number of mares at the party with some banter of his own. He was a white unicorn with princely long golden hair and baby blue eyes. He had on his white suit with a red rose pin upon his pocket.

Compared to Fancy Pant’s brief tellings of rib-tickling events, Prince Blueblood was busy droning on and on in a self-indulgent manner about his favorite subject, himself. The mares listening to him mostly just nodded every once in a while and gave him responses like, “You’re so amazing!” “How can you still be single?” “Is it true that you are Princess Celestia’s nephew?”

The vain prince then followed it up with more of his boasts as he prattled on more about himself. In time, however, a number of the mares grew weary of listening to the airbag with a one track mind go on and on without end. Before long, it became painfully obvious to them all that he showed no interest in any of them beyond being his audience. When they realized that, their interest in him quickly withered away. They started to respond to him differently after that. “Uh… wow… that’s really… something.” “Oh, excuse me. I’m gonna go get some punch.” “Are you absolutely sure you are related to Princess Celestia? Removed perhaps?” Such responses were met no differently from him and the mares that had more than they could take swiftly left his side. He barely even noticed as some other mares promptly took their place, soon to learn what the ones who fled were already aware of.

Zesty Gourmand was a pale purple Unicorn with a pale pink mane with a very slender body and pointy cheekbones. She had on a mauve overcoat covering over a white dress blouse. As one of the largest food critics not only in Canterlot, but all of Eqiestria, she spent her time at the party by eyeing the horderves at the food tables. For most of the more filling items, she offered her typical critiques to the waiter and instructed them to report it to the chef that had prepared what she considered, “this pitiful excuse of edible substance.” For any of the far more fancy and miniscule dishes that appeared more like the crumbs left over from a meal placed atop crackers, she gave them a nibble and merely responded with the word, “acceptable,” and then moved on to try something else.

“Yup, this is definitely a Canterlot party,” commented Shining Armor in a neutral tone after he finished surveying the room.

“It sure is,” agreed Twilight. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a princess to find.”

“After you spend a bit of time with your friends,” reminded Shining Armor, blocking her from running off.

“My friends?” asked Twilight. “Oh, right, my classmates.”

Shining Armor sighed, and knelt down a bit to be eye level with his sister. “Just promise me that you’ll try to make some friends. I don’t mean to be a pain in the flank, but you are so open-minded when it comes to reading about everything under the sun. Maybe you can try to be like a book tonight and open up for some other ponies?”

“How long did it take you to come up with that one?” wondered Twilight.

“I spent a couple thinking it over, earlier today,” he admitted. “But can you promise me this one thing, that you’ll try your best to make a few friends.”

“Of course,” Twilight nodded. “In fact, next time you see me, I’ll have more friends than you can even count on one hand.”

“Twilight,” Shining Armor replied, very well aware of their fingerless situation.

“You know what I mean,” she told him. “I’ll get right on that right away.” Twilight tilted her head, looking past Shining Armor. “Oh, hey, look who’s coming over to see you. It’s Cadence.”

“Nice try,” smirked Shining Armor. “But I’m not falling for that. I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“Hey there, Twilight. Hi, Shining Armor,” an Alicorn, a Pony with both a set of wings and a horn, greeted them. Her long mane and tail curled up at their ends and were a mix of pinks, purples and even a yellow hue. Her eyes were a crystal blue and her Cutie Mark was of a clear blue gemstone heart.

“Nice to see you too, Cadence,” smiled Twilight. “How’s my favorite former foalsitter doing?”

“Doing well,” she replied. “And how is the former foal I loved to sit for the most?”

“I’m doing great,” answered Twilight brightly.

“And, how are you doing this evening, Shining?” Cadence turned to ask him.

“C-C-Candance?!?” he stuttered and blushed. His previously calm demeanor was instantly flustered by this pony’s unexpected arrival. “I’m d-doing swell. I-I didn’t know you were invited to the castle for the party too.”

“It’d be very awkward if I wasn’t, since I live here,” she pointed out.

“Right, right,” he chuckled nervously. “That’s cool. Care for a punch- No! I mean, do you want to punch me. No! That’s not what I meant to say.”

“I’d love a little punch,” she chuckled and gave him a gentle jab at his chin. “Ya big goof.”

“Y-Yeah,” Shining blushed some more. “Let’s go get some.” As he started over to the nearest food table, he turned back to Twilight once more. “Don’t forget your promise now.”

“I won’t,” she called back to him and started heading to where her classmates were sitting at a table, eating some food, talking, and laughing. Seeing them all together, so happy, Twilight couldn’t deny that it did look nice and inviting to her. She almost felt compelled to go over and join them, but as soon as she was certain Shining Armor was too distracted with the Pony he had an all too obvious crush on to pay her any mind, she snuck out of the banquet hall and hurried to the castle’s throne room.

“Sorry, BBBBF,” Twilight apologized. “But I don’t have time for distractions. All of Equestria could be in great peril and the fate of our home and even the whole world does not hinge on me making friends.”

Compared to the combination of the music and Ponies conversing with one another, the rest of the castle was deathly quiet to the point of it being unnerving and a little creepy. As Twilight made her way towards the throne room, she couldn’t help but stare through the windows and gaze up at the Mare in the Moon. Alone in the castle, her sense of foreboding only increased and she could feel her nerves acting up again. Her worries at an all time high, Twilight hastened her walk to a trot as she rushed to the large double doors of Celestia’s throne room. Standing before it, she swallowed hard as she stared at the last thing standing between her and the princess. Gathering her courage, Twilight knocked upon it and waited.

“Hello?” asked a voice from the other side of the door. “Is somepony there?”

“Y-Yes,” Twilight’s voice cracked as she answered. “It’s me, your student, Sparklight Twickle, uh, I mean Twilight Sparkle. I would like to request to be in your presence.”

“Oh, Twilight,” the voice spoke in a delighted tone. “Yes, please, come right in.”

With her magic, Twilight managed to push open the heavy doors with a fair amount of concentration as she closed her eyes and her horn glowed brightly. Once the way was cleared, she took a few breaths and then ventured into the large room.

On the far end of the room was a half dozen steps leading up to a golden throne with a sun tapestry over it. On either side of the throne were fountains filled with crystal clear water. Along the tall walls adjacent to the throne were rows of windows. Some were merely plain glass with a view of the night sky above and a part of the city. The others were made with stained glass art. Most were merely of elegant designs while a few had more story to them. One was of Princess Celestia in battle against a bizarre creature with a long, slender body that appeared to be a mishmash of different animals. In the next stain glass was another picture of the creature, it’s odd body turned gray and a wincing look of defeat in it’s expression, indicating it’s ultimate defeat in its battle against Celestia.

The stain glass after that one was of two Pony silhouettes, a black one against a sun and a white one against the moon done in a manner similar to yin-yang sign. “The battle between Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon,” Twilight concluded based on her research. As her eyes moved on to the next one, she saw it was of Celestia and six gemstones on the bottom half. Celestia was gazing up at her foe, Nightmare Moon as a ray of light from all six gemstones pierced through her body and at the top, her final fate of being sealed away as the Mare in the Moon.

“You hardly need to be so formal to see me,” Celestia told Twilight, once she had taken a few steps into the room. Celestia was a very tall and slender Alicorn with a snow white coat. Her feathered wings and long Unicorn horn were of the same hue. Atop her head she had a golden crown along with a long mane of greens, blues, and pinks that flowed as if it was caught in a perpetual breeze. Her tail was the same way. On her flank she had a Cutie Mark of a golden sun. Celestia was standing by one of the plain windows on the side that best showed the full moon in the night sky.

“It is my great honor to be in your presence, your majesty,” Twilight said as she bowed before the princess.

“I think I have been your teacher long enough that you should feel comfortable enough around me to be… uh, what’s that word that the kid’s use nowadays? Ice, I think? To be ice around me.”

“I think you mean chill,” replied Twilight. “I could be wrong. The only slang I know is what I’ve picked up from my brother. I doubt anyone’s published a book on the subject, but I could check the library on my next visit. Uh, but that’s beside the point, even if you are my teacher, this is not class and you are more than my teacher, you are Princess Celestia, the leader of not just all of Canterlot, but also all of Equestria. And it isn’t just that, you also raise and lower the sun and moon. Every day starts and ends with you. If I were to be informal to you, that would be the same as disrespecting the most important of Ponies.”

“I can assure you,” Celestia told Twilight. “I might be the one that brings the morning and ends the day, but it does not start and end with me any more than it does for anyone else. I may be your princess and also your teacher, but I am also still just a Pony and I hope that you can look past all that to see me as your friend as well.”

“Of course,” nodded Twilight. “And friends help friends when they have problems, right?”

“They do,” agreed Celestia. “So, tell me, what trouble is plaguing my most faithful student? Are you having difficulty understanding some of the material in this week’s chapter of study? I could make some space in my schedule to go over with you again. Or is there a rare book you are having a hard time locating? I could check my collection and let you borrow it.”

“Actually, I’m not the one with the problem,” the purple Unicorn explained, but her eyes did light up at that offer Celestia put on the table. “But I wouldn’t mind taking a peek at your collection of books some time. The Pony with the problem is you and I want to help.”

“What problem is that?” asked Celestia. “I have to handle countless problems every day as princess.”

“This is a very specific problem,” hinted Twilight. “One that’s been coming for a thousand Moons.”

“Oh, that one,” remarked Celestia as she stared up at the moon and the shadow of a mare within it. “That story is so old that few even know of it and I doubt that those that do know it realize it is not merely a work of fiction. As for Nightmare Moon herself, most only know of her as a sort of boogiepony that enjoys turning dreams into nightmares and of the holiday that we celebrate for her, Nightmare Night. All of that has, in truth, just been a facade to conceal the fact that she is not some age old myth, but a real Pony that she very much still exists.”

“Then I was right!” declared Twilight. “The Mare in the Moon is Nightmare Moon and she is real!” Twilight was excited that her suspicions were confirmed, however, that realization also brought back that feeling of dread back to her. “But don’t you know that Nightmare Moon is going to return tonight? You should be getting prepared to face her, assembling your guard and evacuating the civilians. Do you even have the Elements of Harmony ready?”

“Truth be told, I do not know if Nightmare Moon can or will make good on her promise to return on this very night,” Celestia admitted. “This day has been the day I have feared for, for the last thousand moons. It is also the day I have longed for the most, she was, after all, my fellow princess for a time and a Pony I was very close to. It pained me to have to fight her back then and to have to do so again, aches my heart just as bad as it did a thousand Moons ago.”

“But you can still beat her, right?” asked Twilight. “Defeat her and seal her back into the moon?”

Shaking her head, Celestia continued to speak to her student. “I had thought very long about what I would do when this day would come. Should Nightmare Moon return for revenge as she promised then I will fight her. If even after all this time her hatred towards me hasn’t subsided then I will have no choice but to finish what was started so very long ago, this time for good.”

“If that’s what you must do, then all me to bear this burden with you,” offered Twilight. “It isn’t fair for one Pony to tackle such a hardship by themselves.”

“Nightmare Moon is my responsibility alone,” answered Celestia adamantly. “I cannot allow any other Ponies to get involved.” Celestia lowered her head, a look of despair on her face and in her voice. “Tonight, I alone will face Nightmare Moon and one way or another end this tragedy. Twilight, you should hurry over to the party and enjoy yourself. Don’t tell any Pony any of what we have talked about and wait for the sun to rise. By then, it will all be over.”

“Forgive me, princess,” apologized Twilight. “But I won’t do that.” Hearing such a refusal and from Twilight of all Ponies left Celestia speechless as she stared at her, mouth agape. Having Celestia look at her so distraught only aggravated Twilight’s nerves further as she tried to give her an explanation. “Well, as we both agreed, friends help their friends with their problems and if this is your problem then I want to be here to help.”

“I know that,” Celestia retorted. “But it will be dangerous. I cannot ask anyone, especially a friend to help me with something as horrible as this.”

“I’ve taken on every test you have given me from pop all the way to the end of semester exams,” Twilight told her, determined not to be turned away. “I’ve given my all in every last assignment you gave me from levitation to transmogrification and every other aspect of magic you taught us about.” Twilight paused to take a few deep breaths before continuing. “What I’m trying to say is, that when I start a project, I like to see it to the end no matter what.”

“That may all be well and good,” argued Celestia. “But this is hardly like any test you have taken before. It could be multiple choice and all the options could be wrong. Failure could be waiting for you no matter what choices are available.”

“If none of the answers are right, then I’d just have to come up with a new one that is,” countered Twilight. “And if that doesn’t work I’ll figure out a different solution and another and another until I find one that does work. There’s no such thing as a test that can’t be passed, and I won’t give up no matter how hard it might be.”

Hearing such bold words, Celestia smiled a bit and spoke, “Simply amazing.” After that, Celestia proceeded to walk away from the window as she considered everything Twilight had just said. The young, purple pony watched her pace, happy that she didn’t flat out refuse her. Looking once more at Twilight, Celestia saw the combination of the bright-eyed look of determination and sad puppy dog eyes that made it impossible to refuse. “She truly is something special.” With a sigh, Celestia turned to Twilight to give her answer. The young Unicorn braced herself for whatever she decided upon.

“Twilight,” she spoke with a gentle smile upon her face. “I’ve watched you since your earliest days in my school and I even took you under my wing to help teach you what I know. There are a lot of things that I have come to admire about you. You are bright, intelligent, and hard working. However…” Her smile faded as a more serious expression replaced it. “You are still young and I’m afraid what magic you do know will not be sufficient in facing a threat the likes of Nightmare Moon. There is also more you need to learn, things that I’m afraid I am not qualified to teach you. That being said, are you prepared for the most difficult assignment of your life?”

“You’re letting me stay to help?” asked Twilight in amazement.

“This is my decision. I will allow you to watch,” she instructed her. “You will not engage Nightmare Moon save to protect yourself. As for whatever the outcome of tonight might be, it will be up to you and you alone to decide what you want to do next.”

“What I want to do next?” questioned Twilight. “I don’t understand.”

“I will not blame you no matter your decision,” Celestia admitted. “But I do hope that you can succeed where I have failed.”

“Failed?” repeated Twilight, growing more confused as Celestia was making less and less sense to her. However, Celestia didn’t get a chance to elaborate before the sound of a wicked laugh filled the throne room and Twilight’s blood turned cold. The two mares darted their eyes around the throne room, searching for the source of such a villainous cackle, but it felt like it was coming from everywhere. The two then turned their attention to the moon and saw it’s pale, yellow glow without a trace of the horse head shadow upon on it.

“The mare in the moon is gone!” gasped Twilight.

“Oh, Celestia, it has been far too long,” the evil voice spoke once it had finished laughing. Something black creeped through the shadows of the room. “I hope you haven’t gone soft on me in the thousand Moons that we’ve been apart. I certainly don’t recall you allowing children to accompany you into battle or are you willing to stoop so low as to let others fight your behalf now?”

Twilight and Celestia reflexively stood within the light of the moon as if it would offer them some form of protection. They then watched as all that darkness accumulated around Celestia’s throne, some of it spreading onto her tapestry, turning it from a warm-hued displaying a sun to one of cooler tones and a white crescent moon where sun had been. The black ooze covering Celestia’s throne also darkened it too, altering its appearance to take on a crescent moon theme as well. Then, out of the darkness a new Alicorn appeared, this one with a coat and wings as black as night. Her icy blue eyes had slit pupils like that of a lizard’s and she had sharp pointy teeth in her grinning maw. Atop her head she wore a helmet that went from the bridge of her nose around her head and down to the bottom or back of her neck. There was a hold in the helmet over her forehead for her horn to poke through. Her main and tail were like a starry night sky and flowed just as Celestia’s did. Her Cutie Mark was of a crescent moon upon a dark sky.

“Still as callous as ever, Nightmare Moon,” Celestia spoke as she walked towards her. With a wing in front of Twilight, she gestured for her to stay a safe distance back. “Are you ready to finally settle things between us once and for all?”

“In a moment,” she answered as she reclined on her throne. “This is my big return, after all. The occasion calls for a truly grand spectacle to let everyone in Equestria know that there’s going to be some changes and I think I know just what to do.”

Nightmare Moon’s horn started to glow, however, looking around the room Twilight and Celestia didn’t see what the dark Alicorn was using her magic on. However, her true intentions suddenly became more apparent as the castle started to tremble and shake violently. Caught off guard by this, Twilight stumbled to the ground while Celestia barely managed to remain on her feet.

“What do you think you are doing?” shouted the Princess of the Sun at the Princess of the Moon.

Nightmare Moon merely cackled with devious delight as the castle only quaked more violently. “I admit,” commented Nightmare Moon with a smug smirk on her face. “I do like the concept, a castle atop a mountain, so one can gaze down from their vantage point to view their entire country. It’s quite a nice concept, but I think we could do with a fair bit more height!”

Back in the banquet hall, all the guests were quick to panic as castle started to pull away from its foundation. Tables were getting overturned and the large, crystal chandeliers hanging overhead were crashing down to the ground, shattering to pieces. The large ice sculpture of Princess Celestia wobbled about before it finally came down on a group of ponies huddled on the ground in terror. However, a magical aura surrounded them, yanking them out of the way, as the giant ice horse smashed to pieces on the marble floor. As the Ponies turned to look who had saved them, it was Shining Armor breathing a sigh of relief that he got to them in time.

“Everyone remain calm!” shouted Shining Armor at the top of his lungs, managing to distract the partygoers from panicking and turn their attention to him. “Good. Now, we’re going to evacuate the castle at once. Cadence and I will lead you all out. Now, let’s move Ponies!”

Hurrying to the doors to the banquet hall, Shining Armor stopped and turned to search for his sister among all the guests. As he scanned for a purple Unicorn, he couldn’t spot her among her classmates or anywhere else. He then searched for Princess Celestia and noticed that she was absent as well.

“Cadence, can you lead them out?” he asked her.

“What’s wrong?” she questioned him as she started towards the castle entrance.

“Twilight isn’t here and neither is Princess Celestia,” he explained. “I’m afraid they might be somewhere else in the castle.”

“There’s no time,” she warned Shining Armor. “It feels like this whole place is going to crumble apart at any minute. We have to get out of here.”

“But Twilight,” he tried to argue.

“Twilight is likely with Celestia, like you said,” pointed out Cadence. “She couldn’t be in any better hooves. And, even if she isn’t, we both know she’s smart and mature enough to handle herself in a crisis. Right now, you’ve gotta be the captain of the guard and help all the Ponies you can get out of here safely.”

“Urgh, you’re right,” he conceded with a groan and made his way for the long set of stairs leading out of the castle. As he made it outside, he was able to finally see just what was happening to the castle and just stared in bewilderment as the castle was being pulled up and out of Canterlot.

“That castle,” gasped Cadence, seeing the magical aura surrounding the entire structure. “It’s being levitated off the ground, but why? Who could even have the power to do such a thing?”

“Who is doing this hardly matters at the moment,” Shining Armor replied. “Let’s just get everyone out of the castle while it’s still on the ground. I’ll stay up here with the other guards to help with the evacuation at this end. Can you take care of things on the ground?”

“Just leave it to me,” nodded Cadence as she hurried down as with the first group of evacuees. As they went down the staircase cracks started to form in them and all around the base of the castle as it was getting closer to being ripped from the earth. As for what was to happen to the castle once it was fully detached was anyone’s guess and nobody could think of anything good that would come of this.

“Twilight, you better be okay,” Shining Armor thought as his heart pounded frantically in his chest. Spearhead and the other guards on duty were helping him out and doing their best to keep a cool head during all this chaos.

“Okay, every pony,” he instructed to each group of Ponies from atop the stairs. “Everyone quickly, but carefully, make your way down the stairs and then get as far away from here as you can. We don’t have a second to waste. Mares, colts, and fillies first.”

Cadence reached the bottom of the stairs with the first, with the mares who were doing their best to help calm the quivering and crying children. Prince Blueblood hurried himself down among that group as well and while he was hardly a child in age, he was shaking and whimpering like one as he made his way down the steps and then hurried in search of a safe place to hide. Seeing him run off so fearfully to save his own skin, Cadence just rolled her eyes and then looked at all the Ponies as they made their way down the stairs, ensuring they reached the ground safely. For any of the children that had been separated from their parents, she kept them close beside her as she watched the flood of Ponies hurrying down the stairs like a fast flowing, colorful river.

“Okay, now all the stallions can start to go,” instructed Shining Armor as they began to head down the stairs, however as most of the adult male Ponies made it halfway down, the castle finally fully disconnected from the ground and started to rise upward. A few of the evacuees that were unfortunate enough to be near where the staircase split in half fell. Thinking quickly, Shining Armor and his fellow Unicorn guards used their magic to catch those Ponies with their magic, levitating them to the other side of the steps so they could hurry the rest of the way down.

“We’re going to need volunteers,” ordered Shining Armor. “Any Unicorns capable of levitating a stallion a short distance. And any strong Pegasi to help ferry other Ponies across.” Looking around, he observed how quickly the castle was rising as the buildings around them were getting further and further away. “Quickly now!”

With all the guards and volunteers working together, dozens of Ponies were transported over to the ever distancing stairs. As the Ponies tired out from helping others across, the Pegasi stayed on the lower side of the stairs and made their way down while the Unicorns were helped across by another volunteer taking their place.

Before long, only two Ponies remained upon the stairs connected to the castle, Shining Armor and Spearhead. “Okay, it’s your turn now,” Shining told his friend, breathing heavy after exerting so much of his magic.

“But if you levitate me over, how are you going to get across, man?” Spearhead asked, wheezing too.

“Don’t you worry about that,” assured Shining Armor as he focused his magic. His horn flickered a bit before glowing and then an aura of the same color surrounded Spearhead. Gritting his teeth, Shining Armor levitated his fellow guard to safety, the trip a lot longer after the castle had risen to the point that the base of it was over all the roofs of Canterlot and rising up at an increasing rate.

Spearhead remained as still as stone as he was levitated over a very far fall to the ground. Sweat was running down his face and his heart was in his throat as he forced himself to stare anywhere but down. Every once in a while, Shining Armor’s magic started to fade causing him to drop, only for an instant before the magic caught him again. Finally, his hooves touched down on the steps, the journey over, feeling like an eternity, to the terrified Pony, when only a few minutes had actually passed by.

“Now, how are you going to get down?” wondered Spearhead as he finally felt safe enough to take a breath and remove his helmet to wipe the sweat off his face.

“Excuse me,” called Cadence as she hurried up the stairs once all the others had made it safely to the ground. “Where is Shining Armor?”

“He’s still up there,” answered Spearhead looking back up, but the castle was already so far away couldn’t see the stallion’s white hued body. “I have no idea how he plans to get down from there.”

“That idiot,” cried Cadence as she opened up her wingspan and charged up the stairs to take off after him.

“This has to be Nightmare Moon’s doing,” admitted Shining Armor to himself as he tried to recover some of his energy before rushing back into the castle. “I’m supposed to be Captain of the Royal Guard and yet I did nothing even when I was warned about it. Forgive me Twilight. I’m coming for you.”

Taking a few steps back up the stairs to the castle, everything began to tremble again as a loud explosion sounded on the far end of the castle. “What in the world?” wondered Shining Armor, only able to imagine what had been going on while he had been busy with the evacuation. Shining Armor resumed his trek up the stairs with even greater urgency, however, as he did, he spotted some magic atop the castle that began to quickly surround the building in a yellow, spherical shape.

“And now a barrier,” he groaned as he hurried up the stairs in an effort to beat the magic before it blocked his passage back into the castle. In spite of his best efforts, he wasn’t fast enough to outrun it and was left helpless as it cut through the section of stairs he was on. He was helpless to do anything but watch as the barrier cut through the stairs till they were cut in two once more and the half Shining Armor was on fell back to the ground with him along with them. As the captain of the royal guard fell, he was fortunate it wasn’t for long as Cadance had managed to catch up to him just in time to use her own magic to prevent him from plummeting to the ground below.

“That was too close,” panted Cadence after flying all the way up there as fast as she could.

“Not close enough,” replied Shining Armor, still upset that he failed to make it into the castle. “We have to get in there!”

“It’s too late,” the pink Alicorn informed him as the entire barrier finished surrounding the entire castle from all sides. We can’t get in there now.”

“We have to try,” Shining Armor told her. “I just know that Twilight and Princess Celestia are still inside. Plus any Pony that wasn’t in the banquet hall while we were evacuating. We still have to rescue them all from Nightmare Moon.”

“Nightmare Moon?” questioned Cadance. “You can’t be serious. That’s just an old Pony’s tale to get little colts and fillies to behave. I’ve used them myself, when I’d foalsit some particularly troublesome kids.”

“Well, Twilight believed she was real and coming back tonight and now I’m certain she has too,” he told Cadence and pointed up at the sky. “Look over there.”

“It can’t be,” gasped Cadence as she looked to where the stallion was pointing and saw that the moon was missing the shadow of a horse’s head upon it. “The Mare in the Moon is gone.”

“Yeah,” he nodded and gazed at Canterlot Castle. “She’s no longer in the moon. Now she’s in there and we have to go in and stop her.”

“Stop her?” questioned Cadence as she focused her magic and fired a few blasts of her power at the barrier to see what should happen. The light blue beams connected, but they merely dissipated on contact and had no effect on it at all. “We can’t even get to her with that powerful barrier she’s put up. And even if we could, do you think we could defeat her if Princess Celestia can’t?”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” he asked her with a sigh, unable to deny their powerlessness.

“Return to Canterlot and try to maintain order,” she answered. “With the whole castle plucked out of the ground and floating into the stratosphere the entire city is probably in a state of panic. After that we can figure out our next move.”

“Fine, let’s do that then,” he responded to Cadence’s suggestion, but couldn’t help looking back at the castle with an anxious expression on his face.

“I know you are worried about Twilight, but we just have to have faith that she’s going to be alright.” Cadence might have said this to comfort Shining Armor, but after everything she had seen and learned on this night, even she yearned for some reassuring that this wasn’t the beginning of the end for Equestria as they knew it.

A short while earlier, back when the castle had first fully broke free of the ground and started to float higher and higher into the sky, Celestia snapped at Nightmare Moon, “Stop this at once! Do you have any idea what you are doing?!?”

“I am merely making my presence known to my subjects,” she answered casually. “The way I see it, you have ruled over this land by yourself for the last millenia and then some. Now it is my turn to rule while you sit back and watch my glorious reign.” Leaning forward, Nightmare Moon smirked at Celestia. “That is, unless you wish to challenge me for the throne all over again. Please say, ‘Yes.’ I’m really looking forward to exacting sweet revenge on you.”

Celestia turned quickly back to Twilight and then back to Nightmare Moon. “I’ll fight you,” the Princess of the Sun told her foe. “But, first, let me bring my student to safety. She has nothing to with this matter between us.”

“Oh, but didn’t you wish for her to watch us?” Nightmare Moon replied as she arose from her throne.

“That was before you uprooted my castle from the ground,” she argued.

“Like I would allow any who are willing to oppose me to escape,” scoffed Nightmare Moon as her entire body changed to pitch black before she turned into a shadow that quickly flew past Celestia and encircled the young Unicorn. As she reformed, she stood before Twilight and looked down at her with a frightening smile. Twilight trembled but did her best to stand her ground.

“Let’s see now,” the dark Alicorn spoke as she brought a hoof to her chin and thought. “I never forget a nightmare. You are… Twilight Sparkle, correct? You have a recurring nightmare of showing up in nothing but your underwear for a test after having spent your time studying the wrong subject. It is a pretty common nightmare to occur for many Ponies during end of semester classes, though I never did understand the underwear part. Most Ponies don’t tend to wear any sort of clothing in the first place.”

“How did you know that?” Twilight asked her, an embarrassed look on her face after her greatest nightmare was exposed.

“It is a part of my job, well, my former job, as Princess of the Night to protect ponies as they slept,” she explained. “However, after my banishment to the moon, I used that power of mine to have a little fun viewing the dreams of Ponies, seeing what makes them happy and finding out what fills them with terror. Oh, what a delight it was twisting the most wonderful of sweet dreams into the more horrid of nightmares and bask in the fright of all those cries and shrieks.”

“Why would you do something so horrible?” cried Twilight.

“Have you ever been imprisoned with your jailer intending to never release you?” questioned Nightmare Moon. “It grows very dull, very fast. There wasn’t much else to do to keep myself busy. I spent the last millenia exploring the dreams of Ponies, but, it was not just for my own amusement. It was also a vital part of my preparation for when I would finally take my rightful place as ruler of Equestria.”

“That’s enough,” Celestia told Nightmare Moon, being careful not to provoke her while she had Twilight in her clutches.

“Typical Celestia,” scoffed Nightmare Moon. “You were never too keen on sharing. First your toys, then Equestria and now your students. It’s really no wonder why things turned out the way they did.” She then turned back to Twilight, snickering with amusement. “Hey, my little Pony, I probably could have escaped my imprisonment moons ago, if I wanted, but do you wanna know why I chose to wait as long as I did?” Without waiting for an answer, Nightmare Moon told her anyway. “Because, I wanted to let Celestia build up her legacy, so that when I did make my return, I could pull out the bottom block and watch with great delight as it all comes crumbling down.”

“That won’t happen,” argued Twilight. “Celestia has devoted her life to making Equestria the wonderful place it is today. There’s no way that you could destroy all that so easily. Even if you were to somehow defeat the princess, that won’t diminish how we feel about her and there’s no way any Pony would ever follow you.”

“If that is your answer then you are just another of the ignorant masses,” Nightmare Moon told her. “None of you are aware of the truth, but I know it. Tell me, do you want to know what kind of Pony your beloved Celestia really is?”

“No!” cried Twilight, quickly focusing her magic to teleport away from Nightmare Moon in a flash of light and reappeared at Celestia’s side. Twilight had planned to reappear on her hooves and facing the dark Alicorn, but instead she ended up on her back and began to scramble back to her feet while the other two just stared at her. “Uh, I’m still practicing my teleportation spell. Anyway, you are just trying to confuse me with your lies, but I will never believe a word you say! No matter what Celestia has done it has only ever been for others.”

“I guess I should expect as much from one of Celestia’s students,” sighed Nightmare Moon. “It’s such a pity that you’ve decided to bet on the wrong horse.”

“I’d say I’m betting on the right one,” countered Twilight. “One that has the Elements of Harmony on her side. She used them to defeat you once and she can use them to stop you again.”

“Is that so?” asked Nightmare Moon in a mocking tone. “Oh, heavens me! Please Celestia, don’t use those accursed elements on me. I’m finally able to breathe some fresh air. You won’t believe how little there is on the moon. Oh, please show me some mercy. Don’t use the Elements of Harmony… that is, if you can even use them anymore.”

“Of course she can,” countered Twilight confidently. “Face it, you were better off staying in the moon instead of coming back just to waste our time.”

“I can’t,” admitted Celestia. “I can’t use the elements anymore.”

“Princess?” questioned Twilight, seeing her lower her head in despair. “What do you mean you can’t?”

“She means that the elements will no longer work for her,” cackled Nightmare Moon. “She betrayed all they represent when she used them to banish me and now they will no longer grant her use of their power and, without them, she has no hope of defeating me.”

“Is this true?” worried Twilight, unaware of this fact and hoping it to just be Nightmare Moon spouting more falsehoods. She turned to Celestia, praying she could easily deny it. “It can’t possibly be true, can it?”

“It is true,” the white Alicorn princess admitted solemnly. “Ever since that day, the Elements of Harmony turned to cold stone and remained like that ever since. Nothing I did would awaken them and so I left them behind in my old castle when I moved into this new one in Canterlot.”

“Hardly surprising behavior coming from you,” commented Nightmare Moon. “If something doesn’t work the way you want it to, you get rid of it. I’d be wary of her if I were you, Twilight. Fall out of her good graces and you could be next.”

“Quiet!” snapped Twilight, more angry than frightened by Nightmare Moon at this point. “Even without the Elements of Harmony, Celestia can still defeat you. She was awaiting this day as long as you have been, just to stop you. You are just another fiend threatening the peace of Equestria, another monster to be destroyed.”

“Really now?” taunted Nightmare Moon as she looked over at Celestia, her head lowered in shame. Rather than being uplifted by Twilight's words of encouragement, she looked even gloomier than ever. “Is that really the mighty sword and shield of Equestria. She looks more like a dull butter knife and a rusty piece of scrap metal to me.”

“Celestia,” asked Twilight, horrified to see such a sullen look upon her face before the battle even began. Whatever fight she had had already been stripped away from her. “What’s wrong?”

“Twilight,” she spoke quietly before raising her head up. “No matter what happens from this point on, please believe in yourself as I believe in you.”

“Princess,” spoke Twilight as she watched her spread her wings and soar up high in the throne room. Her torn glowed a bright pink as she fired a blast of magic down at Nightmare Moon. Quickly, she blocked the attack with a magical barrier and then fired a counter strike back at Celestia. The battle had begun.

Quick to take cover behind a pillar, Twilight watched at the two powerful Alicorns fought, their power on a completely different level from what Twilight had even imagined. The might behind each of their attacks was easily enough to dwarf her own and their reserves of stamina were impressive too as they fired one blast after another without tiring. “This is the power of an Alicorn,” Twilight said to herself as blasts of magic cracked the walls and shattered windows. “And I thought I could be of help?”

The two princesses continued to encircle one another, exchanging blows, defending themselves with barriers and dodging with agility. Every so often, they managed to graze one another, scorching their hair, manes, and the feathers on their wings. Still, in spite of any minor damage they managed inflict on one another, neither had yet to succeed in landing a solid hit yet.

“Had enough yet?” asked Celestia. “Even without the elements you’ve never been able to get the better of me.”

“Which is why I’ve always had to work harder than you to catch up,” Nightmare Moon retorted. “And, finally, today will be the day that I am finally victorious! I will prevail over you!”

“Is that all this is to you?” questioned Celestia. “A game that you want to win? If besting me is all you care about, then you are as much a child as ever.”

“And you are as arrogant as ever,” spat Nightmare Moon. “This is far more than beating you. This is about taking back what you have stolen from me. And if I must defeat you to get it, then that is just the icing on the cake for me.”

Once more, Nightmare Moon attacked Celestia with another burst of her magical power. Focusing her magic, Celestia vanished in a flash of light and reappeared above her foe. Turning up to her, Nightmare Moon didn’t have time to do any more in response. All she was able to do was watch as Celestia’s horn glowed brighter with a warm light washed down over her and engulfed the Alicorn of the night in it, sending her crashing to the floor below.

“She got her!” cheered Twilight, excited to see Celestia come out on top.

Groaning as she tried to get up, NIghtmare Moon was unable to as Celestia dropped down in front of her, her horn aglow and ready to finish her off. “It is over,” Celestia told the fallen Alicorn. “Give up now, Nightmare Moon. This is the end.”

“You know I never will,” she retorted. “We can fight and you can defeat me a thousand times over, but I will never surrender. You can seal me away again and again, but it will only be a matter of time until I return and for our game to start all over again. There will never be an end to it.”

“I am well aware,” Celestia admitted, her horn glowing brighter as she built up the power higher. “But if defeating you and sealing you away is not the correct answer, then I must choose my other option, one that will put an end to this once and for all.”

“You can’t be serious,” remarked Nightmare Moon, trying to remain calm, but she couldn’t cover up the fear in her eyes. “You can’t be seriously considering-”

“I have considered it,” spoke Celestia somberly. “Every day for a thousand moons. If there is no other way to stop you then I must do what is best for Equestria. There is no other option available to me.”

“Then go ahead,” the dark Alicorn dared her. “If you have the guts, put an end to our story once and for all.”

Aiming her horn, Celestia prepared to deliver the final blow and put an end to this nightmare once and for all. Nightmare Moon turned her head and shut her eyes, waiting for it, but after several seconds had passed and nothing, she peeked to see Celestia just standing there.

“If none of the answers are right,” Celestia thought, recalling Twilight’s words from earlier. “Then I’ll just find another one.”

“Is there really another option?” she thought. “Can it really be possible?”

“My, it seems you have gone soft with a thousand years of guilt,” grinned Nightmare Moon. Seeing Celestia’s guard down, she first aimed her horn at her, but then a far crueler inspiration came to her and she turned her aim to Twilight and charged up her magic. “Unfortunately for you, the same cannot be said about me!”

Nightmare Moon fired a blast of magic directly at Twilight. Seeing it coming, Twilight attempted to move out of the way, but her feet refused to budge. “Twilight!” cried Celestia, coming back to her senses just in time to teleport from looming over Nightmare Moon to right beside Twilight. Not wasting a second, she shoved her precious student out of the way, just before the blast of Nightmare Moon’s magic struck. Twilight watched in terror as she heard Celestia screamed out in agony as the dark magic washed over her and was blasted her into the wall at the far end of the room, annihilating a chunk of it in the process.

“Princess Celestia!” cried Twilight as she saw her in a collapsed pile on the floor. Tears ran down her eyes, unable to believe this could have happened, not when she was on the verge of defeating that dark pony. “This cannot be happening. This… this is a nightmare.”

Oh hoh, this is far worse than any mere nightmare,” cackled the dark princess. “This is real! I am finally getting justice and I don’t mind admitting that it tastes very sweet.”

Nightmare Moon approached Celestia and lifted her off the ground with her magic and smirked at her defeated adversary. “Oh, please, don’t tell me that you are down for the count after that little meager display of my strength,” she gloated shamelessly. “I’ve waited far too long for this day to arrive for it to be over so quickly. Come on now, look alive and fight me.”

“Do what you want to me,” Celestia told her. “I am the one you bear a grudge against. But I will not forgive you if you harm my precious student.”

“Like you are in any condition to make threats anymore,” she replied, getting up close to Celestia’s face and teasingly booped her nose with her hoof. “And besides, beating up on a pathetically helpless Pony would even leave a bad taste in my mouth. Furthermore, while I was imprisoned in the moon, I was forced to watch you rule Equestria. I think it is only fair to let you do the same, however, while I won’t cause you any more physical harm, it doesn’t mean I can’t inflict it on an emotional level.”

Turning to Twilight, Nightmare Moon readied her magic in her horn. “No, stop!” cried Celestia, attempting to break free of Nightmare Moon’s magic.

“You had your chance to stop me, but, for some reason, you hesitated,” stated the dark Alicorn as she tightened her hold on Celestia. “Sorry, loser, but I’ve decided on a different playmate!” With another blast of magic, she knocked Celestia away and watched her drop to the floor once more. “Now, Twilight Sparkle, I’m sure Celestia, has taught you at least the basics of magic, correct?”

“Y-Yes,” she nodded, trying to keep a cool head in spite of having the eyes of such a terrifying foe locked onto her.

“Then let’s put those skills of yours to the test, shall we?” she suggested in a tone that wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer. “I know how much you love to dream about taking tests.”

“Provided it was one I correctly studied for,” added Twilight with a nervous chuckle.

“You’d best hope it is,” grinned Nightmare Moon, finding her fear a delightful sight to behold. As much as Twilight tried to be brave, she wished that somepony would come to her rescue. “Because more than an ‘F’ awaits you if don’t pass.”

Taking in a deep breath, Twilight worked to gather all the magic within her, channeling it into her horn and Nightmare Moon did the same. As Twilight’s horn radiated a soft glow, Nightmare Moon’s shined with a much brighter intensity to illuminate the room around her. Before they even began, the young purple pony was well aware that she had no hope to hold her own against such an adversary.

“Now, show me what you are made of, my little Pony,” smirked Nightmare Moon as she rose up onto her hind legs before dropping her front legs to the ground, firing off a blast of dark blue magic at Twilight as she did. In response, Twilight aimed her horn at the huge beam of magic and met it with her own blast of pinkish purple magic. As the two attacks collided, they were both equal in size and in power. However, while it appeared the two were evenly matched, Twilight was clearly giving it her all while Nightmare Moon’s relaxed expression was proof enough that she was hardly even yet.

“Not bad,” admitted Nightmare Moon as their attacks continued to push against one another, the energy they were giving off enough to illuminate the entire throne room. “But any Unicorn could manage this with some hard work and study. If you are truly one of Celestia’s students, then you should at least be able to handle something like this!”

With just a bit more focus, Nightmare Moon unleashed even more magic into her attack, allowing her blast of power to start pushing Twilight’s own power back at her. Groaning a bit, Twilight shut her eyes and focused even harder, managing to draw upon even more of her magic reserves to help match Nightmare Moon’s incredible power and stop her advancement. She was even managing to push Nightmare Moon’s magic back at her. However, doing this proved incredibly taxing to the young Unicorn. Pushing herself this hard was exhausting and the magics he was quickly emptying out while Nightmare Moon continued to remain undaunted by any of this. All Twilight could attempt to do was keep on giving it her all to survive this battle. She didn't have the luxury of being able to do anything less than her all and then some.

“Simply fantastic,” marveled Nightmare Moon, sincere surprise and delight in her voice as she watched Twilight starting to overtake her, but a simply boost to her own magic allowed her to easily hold off Twilight’s best effort. “It’d be a shame to let such power and talent go to waste. How about you join my side? Before long, all of Equestria will be under my rule. Those that come to my side willingly, I will gift them with their greatest dream. What more could any pony ask for?”

“And if I were to refuse?” questioned Twilight, struggling to maintain enough power to counter Nightmare Moon’s, but she couldn’t increase her power any further. In fact, her magic was decreasing at a steady, but noticeable rate.

“I hardly think I need to explain what will happen to you if you do decide to refuse me,” she answered as she matched her magic to remain just slightly stronger than Twilight’s to draw out the battle for as long as possible. “But certainly you are smart enough to realize there is only one way for you to survive. Now, say it. Say that you’ll join me and then I won’t have to destroy you.”

With Nightmare Moon’s magic already close to overtaking Twilight completely, the purple pony tried to draw on even more power than she already possessed. This time, however, it proved to be in vain as even with the small bit more power that she manage to obtain in her losing battle it was still not enough against Nightmare Moon’s unstoppable wrath.

“I… I… I…. stuttered Twilight, struggling to keep focus while she spoke. At first, Nightmare Moon expected this to be her seeing reason and coming over to the winning team, but to her dismay, Twilight remained loyal to Princess Celestia. “I refuse!” she shouted loudly, much to Nightmare Moon’s disappointment.

“Such a waste,” she said sadly before quickly getting over it. “Oh, well. What’s done is done. No use in getting upset about it.”

With no point in prolonging the inevitable, Nightmare Moon released a taste of her true ability for Twilight to compare to her own. In an instance, the magic she was attacking Twilight with grew far larger and stronger than anything the poor Pony could have hoped to fend off. The force of such power alone caused Twilight to slide backwards across the floor and into the wall. Twilight tried to muster up even more magic to fend off Nightmare Moon’s attack, but it was already obvious that she simply didn’t nearly enough power to be a contender.

Tears welling up in Twilight’s eyes, as she felt her demise was at hand, she could only think of Shining Armor in that moment. “Brother!” she cried out as the sorrow ran down her face, moments before she was overwhelmed by the dark Alicorn’s magic. It engulfed her and blasted through the wall behind her, creating a huge hole in it and shaking the whole castle with explosive force. “Save me!”

Nightmare Moon then approached the hole she created and looked out upon the world the castle was now floating over. “I hope everypony enjoyed the light of day today, because it’ll be the last they will ever see of it,” she declared. “Because on this night, the Sun has fallen and the Moon will rise!” Smirking, she was ready to laugh, but then something caught her eye, a pink bubble wafting at the mercy of the breeze not too far away. Peering at it as best she could, Nightmare Moon was shocked to find Twilight Sparkle was contained within it, unconscious and roughed up, but still very much alive.

“Impossible,” thought Nightmare Moon. “She couldn’t have possibly… unless…” Turning to Celestia, the Princess was still on the ground, but she was awake and her horn was glowing with a pink aura, before it faded away.

“So, you regained consciousness and rather than escape yourself or attack me while my back was turned, you chose to try and save your student,” analyzed Nightmare Moon. “A noble effort, but a futile one. I could just shoot her down from here with ease.”

Turning back to the bubble in the sky, Nightmare Moon took aim and charged up a bit of her magic. She needed no more than a little to pop the bubble and send the flightless Pony to her doom. As she waited for the sphere of magic to become steady, she prepared to fire, but found herself unable to.

“What’s going on?” she questioned herself. “Why can’t I attack her? Why can’t I…” On one side of her face, a teardrop ran down her cheek and landed on the floor. Seeing it, Nightmare Moon was quick to dry her eye and shrug it off. “It hardly matters. Let her escape. If she is smart she won’t attempt to get in my way again and, if the lesson didn’t sink in, I can deal with her at my leisure.”

Making her way back to Celestia, her horn glowed a bright yellow as she started casting another spell, this time a barrier. It started at the top of the castle and quickly surrounded it from all ends till any way in or out had become solely at the discretion of Equestria’s new, dark ruler. She then cast a spell upon Celestia’s horn, covering it with a dark aura that sank into it and left with a grayish tint.

“There, a barrier to keep unwanted guests out and a spell to seal away most of your magic,” Nightmare Moon told Celestia. “Just a couple of the spells I’ve been working on in my banishment. Impressed?”

“Hardly,” Celestia answered as she attempted to channel magic to her horn to test the seal and found herself unable to muster more than a fraction of how power into it. “Not when you are using those spells against me.”

“I suppose I can’t argue with you there,” admitted Nightmare Moon in an amused tone.

With a bit more magic, NIghtmare Moon apparated some ponies in dark gray and pale blue coats. The were all dressed in either black or silver armor similar to the design of Celestia’s own royal guard save for the moon crest engraved on the chest plate. There were hornless, wingless Earth Ponies among them, a number of Unicorns, and a group of flight enabled ponies like the Pegasi, but instead of wings like birds, theirs were like bats. They stood at attention, making a line on either side of their ruler as she walked in between them. Turning back to face them, she gave them their orders. “You ten,” she spoke in a commanding voice. “I want you all to split up and search the castle for anyone else still within the castle. If they will not pledge their loyalty to me then find some place to detain them for the time being. As for you two, please escort Princess, oh, I mean ex-Princess Celestia back to her room. Make sure she’s comfortable. She is, after all, a special guest in my castle.”

“No matter what you plan to do,” Celestia told Nightmare Moon as two Unicorn guards escorted Princess Celestia to her room, their horns at the ready in case she attempted anything. “You will be stopped. I can promise you that.”

“Oh, really now?” she asked in an amused tone as she halted her guards to speak with her a little more. She rubbed under Celestia’s chin condescendingly as she smirked. “And who is going to stop me? You? Like I’d ever give you another chance. Your little student, Twilight Sparkle? I greatly doubt that as well. Her magical ability was greater than I expected it to be, but one little pony is hardly anything for me to worry about. Any other threat that might rise up, I’ll crush it immediately as an example of what will happen to those who defy me. After that, it won’t be long before the whole of Equestria has submitted to my rule.”

“You make it sound so easy,” remarked Celestia. “I guess we shall see.”

“What does that mean?” questioned Nightmare Moon. “Tell me!”

“It means absolutely nothing,” answered Celestia with her own smug grin. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a room to be detained in. Gentleponies, if you would be so kind as to escort me as Nightmare Moon has instructed you to do.”

“Urgh!” growled Nightmare Moon in frustration, as she watched the Sun Princess take her leave. When she was alone, Nightmare Moon shouted out her anger. “I hate it when she does that!”

Celestia was brought higher up in the castle to where her bedroom resided in the castle. Once inside, the guards shut the door and stood guard by it on the outside. Finally alone, Celestia made her way to her balcony and gazed out at the barrier that was surrounding the castle. Attempting to focus her magic into her horn, she care barely channel more than enough to create a faint glow. It was far from powerful enough to cause harm to anyone, let alone break through as powerful a barrier as the one that was now caging her. With no means of escape, Celestia turned back to her bed and curled up on top of it.

“I could have stopped her,” thought Celestia as she hugged her pillow tightly to her head. “I could have ended her tyranny before it began. That was the only choice I had. For so many years, that’s what I’ve always believed. But could there really be another option? Twilight, if there is another way, can I put my faith in you to find it?”

Twilight managed to gain a bit of consciousness in the time she was adrift. “Why?” she kept asking herself, far too dazed to think clearly enough to come up with a better answer than that. “Why did things turn out like this?”

Staring up at the sky, she could not turn away from the tiny sphere in the sky that contained Celestia’s castle. She was as far away from the castle now as it was from where it had once made its home in Canterlot. Extending a hoof towards it, she winced, still incredibly sore after that narrow escape.

When it started to appear no more than another twinkling star against the pitch blanknes of the night, Twilight adjusted her gaze downward to get her bearings. She found herself floating down towards a town that, compared to Canterlot, was a lot smaller and more humble in appearance. She spotted a sign upon the entrance that read, “Welcome to Ponyville,” and flew over it.

The bubble containing Twilight continued to travel over the town, narrowly missing crashing into the tops of the houses. Then, a stray breeze grabbed her transportation and sent her on a collision course straight for a large oak tree in the center of the town. Seeing the crash course she was on, Twilight attempted to gather her strength to move the bubble out of the way, however she couldn’t muster up the energy to even overcome the force of the wind. She crashed into the branches of the tree and her bubble burst with a gentle popping sound. No longer contained, the purple pony tumbled through the branches before dropping to the ground with a thud.

Groaning, as her consciousness started to fade again, Twilight stared up at a number of leaves gently rained down upon her. Her ears then caught the sound like someone unlocking a door. Turning her head to the side, she saw the door was in the side of the tree. As the handle turned, someone hurried out towards her. Before Twilight could see them, her vision faded.

“Hello?” called the voice of the one who had come to her aid. “Are you okay? Uh, never mind. Dumb question. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”

After that, Twilight fully lost consciousness again.

Prologue Part 2 - The Dragon in the Library

When consciousness once more returned to Twilight, she opened her eyes, surprised to find herself comfortably tucked into bed. Gazing around the darkness of the room, she still felt groggy. “I’m in my room?” she mumbled to herself. “Then was all that just a bad dream I was having?”

Finding a bit of strength to sit up, Twilight turned to her end table where a candle rested, waiting to be lit. With a bit of magic, she ignited a flame upon it to help her see the room better and immediately she made a startling discovery. “This isn’t my room,” she told herself as she spotted some more candles to light and brighten up the room further.

With enough of the darkness lifted to gain a proper view of her surroundings, Twilight just stared in awe while her muzzle dropped at the discovery of where she was. No matter where she turned her head, to Twilight’s greatest delight, she was surrounded by books, hundreds upon hundreds of the literary treasures squeezed together, cover to cover on tons of bookshelves that reached up to where she was resting upon the second floor of the buildings he was in. Looking down to the lower floor, she could make out several tables covered with a number of books as well. Taking in a deep breath, she inhaled the scent of literature that reminded her of the library back in Canterlot. Unable to fight the urge to crack open a book with so much temptation all around her, Twilight sought out the closest book, one that was resting beside her, on the nightstand beside the bed.

Picking it up, Twilight spotted a bookmark about halfway through it. “Tarzan,” she read the title and smiled, knowing the classic tale very well. “Been a while since I read this one and I haven’t read anything since before the Summer Sun Celebration.” Opening the book up to the first page, Twilight felt her usual giddiness that came whenever she was about to start a book. She was just about to get started reading, but then she remembered the events that led to her ending up here and she placed the book down on her lap.

“What am I doing?” she thought to herself. “Celestia is in trouble. All of Equestria is in trouble. I can’t waste time sitting in bed reading. I have to do something.”

“Hi there,” greeted a voice that caught Twilight’s attention. Turning to look, she expected to see a pony, but, instead, standing before her on two feet with light purple scales over most of his body and pale, yellow ones on his muzzle, chest, and belly. Covering over his chest, belly and legs, he had on a simple, white apron.

The creature also had green, smooth-tipped spikes starting almost a foot tall from the one atop his head and getting smaller with each one that went around to the back of his head, down his neck and back and along the top of his long, lizard tail that ended in a spade-shaped point. He also had two pale green ears on the side of his head the resembled fish fin. Taking all this in, Twilight knew without a doubt that the creature standing before her was, without a doubt, a dragon.

“You can read that book if you’d like,” he told her, seeing her holding Tarzan open to the first page.

“Um, thank you,” replied Twilight, not sure what else to say.

The dragon then lifted up his arms, showing that, in his scaly hands, he was holding a piping hot bowl of soup. “Just make sure you don’t lose my place, okay? Oh, and I made you some soup in care you’re hungry.” Carefully, he placed it down on the table beside the bed.

“Uh, thank you,” replied Twilight again, still attempting to wrap her head around the fact that she was having a conversation with a dragon.

“Let me guess. This is your first time meeting a dragon,” he observed. “Well, it’s also the first time a non-Pegasus Pony has ever crashed into my home.”

“You live here?” asked Twilight curiously. “With all these books?”

“Uh huh,” he nodded. “I guess I’m sort of the Ponyville librarian of the Golden Oaks Library. The name’s Spike, by the way. And you are?”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle,” she introduced herself. “I can’t believe I made it all the way to Ponyville. I was just in Canterlot a short while ago.”

“That is pretty far,” Spike agreed. “You made pretty good time getting here without any wings.”

“I kinda floated down in a bubble,” she admitted managing to joke a bit. “I can’t say I cared much for being at the mercy of the breeze.”

“Maybe next time take the train,” Spike suggested with some light-hearted humor of his own.

Twilight chuckled, feeling a bit more relaxed now. “So, what are you doing in Ponyville being a librarian? Don’t most dragons live overseas in the Dragonlands?”

“They do,” Spike nodded. “But for long as I can remember I’ve lived among Ponies.”

“By yourself? What about your parents?” Twilight questioned her new scaly acquaintance.

“No idea,” he admitted. “I was either lost or abandoned when I was just an egg. I guess some Ponies found me after that and, one way or another, I ended up in the care of Princess Celestia, if you can believe it.”

“You were raised by Princess Celestia?” gasped Twilight with surprise. “She never told me that.”

“You know the princess too?” asked Spike the one surprised for a change.

“Yes, I am one of her students,” Twilight informed him.

“Wait a minute,” pondered Spike, scratching a claw on his chin. “Celestia did tell me about one of her students when I was still living with her. She was a purple pony that really loves books. That wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?”

“It sounds like me,” nodded Twilight. “What else did she say about me?” As she said this, Twilight once more recollected all that had happened prior to her arrival to Ponyville. “Celestia!” Twilight cried, frantically getting out of bed, almost knocking her soup off the table in her haste. Spike was quick to catch it before it became a mess for him to clean up. “Oh, it’s all my fault. If I hadn’t been there, she wouldn’t have had to save me and now Equestria’s doomed.”

“Whoa!” Spike told Twilight, attempting to help her calm down. “What’s your fault and why is Equestria doomed?”

“Because Nightmare Moon has returned,” she explained. “Celestia was going to defeat her… but she lost in order to protect me.” Twilight approached the window and took a look outside to see the night was still there and dawn was nowhere in sight. “And now, it’ll be nighttime eternal.”

“You can’t be serious,” Spike replied, skeptical that such a thing could actually happen. Checking out the alarm clock by the bed, his eyes widened when he saw it was already past eight. “Holy guacamole, it’s this far into the morning and the sun still isn’t up. I guess you are serious.”

“You didn’t notice the sun never came up this?” she questioned the dragon.

“Well, typically the sun is up long before I am,” he admitted. “But after you crashed into my home and woke me up, I put you in my bed to rest while I’ve been keeping an eye on you to make sure you were okay.”

“Oh, sorry about that,” she apologized.

“It’s fine,” he smiled. “Is this what it’s like when friends have sleepovers?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Twilight told the dragon. “I’ve never really had friends, unless you were to count my brother, Cadance and Princess Celestia.”

“That’d be two more friends than I could say I have,” replied Spike. “Besides the princess, I didn’t have anyone else in Canterlot to talk to. Pony parents were too scared to let me near their kids. Apparently, claws to them is like perpetually running around with scissors, so I was never able to make friends on my own. And when I was with Celestia everyone would just think I was just her pet. In the end, I decided to move away to get a fresh start and ended up in Ponyville.”

“How has it been over here?” wondered Twilight.

“It’s been better,” answered Spike as he sat down on the bed and Twilight took a seat beside him. “I mean, at first the Ponies here weren’t sure what to make of a dragon in town, but it’s been almost a year now and most of the Ponies around here have been getting more comfortable with me. Still, other than Princess Celestia, I haven’t been able to open up to anypony else. Actually, I can probably count you now.”

“At least in your case it what was getting in your way of making friends wasn’t yourself,” admitted Twilight with a sigh. “I’ve had plenty of chances to make friends, but I’ve never taken any. No, it’d be more accurate to say that stubbornly refused to even try by keeping myself preoccupied with studying everything I could. I never gave myself any time to get to know anypony, not even my classmates. I guess I always thought that so long as I had my brother, Cadence, and Celestia, there wasn’t a need for anypony else. Now, Celestia is captured and I can only hope my brother and Cadence got out of the castle safely. Still, that leaves me all alone, in a place from from home, and, after all that happened last night, I could really use the comfort of a friend right now.”

“Well, if you got an opening for a friend,” offered Spike scooching closer to hug the purple Pony. “And you don’t mind them being, scaly, spikey and fire breathy, I’d like to apply.”

“Well, I don’t know,” she said in a teasing tone. “I was considering a manticore and a hydra for the position of my friend. Do you have an additional assets that I should take into account?”

“I live in a library,” he reminded her.

“You’re hired!” declared Twilight raising her arms up excitedly. The two then started to snort and snicker before they fell back on the bed and had one of the best laughs either ever remembered having.

Taking a moment to catch their breath after all those chortles, the two looked at one another. “Friends?” asked Spike, offering his claws to Twilight.

“Friends,” nodded Twilight extending her hoof in friendship and they both shook before Twilight pulled him in for a hug. “You know, I’m feeling a lot better now.” Her stomach started to grumble.

“I bet you having some soup will help you feel better too,” added Spike. “After everything you must have gone through, you are probably starving.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, floating the bowl onto her lap and then stirred the soup with the spoon resting in it.

“If it’s gotten too cool, I could warm it up for you,” offered Spike.

“It’s still plenty warm,” she answered him.

“Well, how about I read to you while you eat,” he offered, grabbing Tarzan from the table. “Tarzan, a fantasy story about a baby Pony being raised by dragons and growing up to be their king. It’s kind of like my situation, except reversed and I doubt I’ll grow up to be king of the Ponies.”

“You never know,” chuckled Twilight before she sipped some of her soup. “Mmm, this is good.” She then watched as Spike turned to the first page and pressed a claw the first word to begin reading. “You don’t have to start the whole book over for me,” she told him. “I’ve read the book before, twice, actually.”

“That’s okay,” Spike told her with a smile. “I don’t mind and this way, we can start together, Twilight.”

“Sounds good to me, Spike,” she agreed and smiled back at him.

“The end,” finished Spike, a couple hours later after having read the entire Tarzan book, cover to cover. Twilight had long since finished her soup and just sat quietly as she listened to Spike’s narration.

“Nothing like a good book to invigorate you,” sighed Twilight with delight. “And, I’d say that I’m back to a hundred percent. Now, I can get started.”

“Started on what?” asked Spike as he shut the book and sat it on his lap.

“My mission to rescue Princess Celestia from Nightmare Moon, of course,” she answered.

“Oh, is that all?” he asked nervously. “And, how do you intend to do that?”

“With the same way that Celestia beat Nightmare Moon last time,” she explained. “With the Elements of Harmony. During the battle, Celestia mentioned that they were still in her old castle.”

“I had no idea Celestia even had an old castle,” commented Spike. “So, where is it?”

“Uh… she didn’t say,” admitted Twilight. “But if it was Celestia’s castle then it has to be a building of great historical significance and anything like that has to be written about in a book. Good thing we’ve got a library to search through.” With a blissful smile, Twilight couldn’t help gaze over at all the books they had to go through. “A whole library to research to my heart’s content. Oh, if this wasn’t a matter of national security, this would be the best day of my life.”

“Celestia wasn’t kidding when she said how much you love books,” chuckled Spike. “Well, I know the layout of this place pretty well by now, so I’ll give you a claw in looking. Let me just reshelf Tarzan first.”

Twilight watched as the young, purple dragon held up the book. She expected him to get up and head to the lower floor to return it to its proper place, but instead, she watched in horror as he inhaled and released a breath of green flames upon it. Her eyes bugged out as the pages burn as his dragon fire engulfed it.

“What are you doing?!?” Twilight cried, almost diving onto him to rescue what remained of the classic novel. “That poor, innocent book!”

“Careful!” warned Spike, as he kept the book out of her reach. “You’ll burn yourself.”

“But the book!” she wailed, doing her best to reach for its charred remains.

“It’ll be fine,” he assured her. “Just watch.”

Though hesitant to believe such a thing could be true, she continued to look on as the pages were soon burnt black by the flames and then the cover soon after. Burning even further, soon nothing remained of the book, save for wisps of smoke that started to swirl around them. At first, Twilight still believed that the book was really gone forever, but then she realized that despite its size, no ashes were left behind, just a bunch of smoke that suddenly made its way downstairs, as if moving by wind, despite there being no open windows to allow a breeze. Watching the smoke flow through the library, it found an empty slot on the bookshelf and suddenly burst into flames in reverse, restoring the book to its original form before sliding into place.

“What in Equestria,” she said as she hurried down the stairs to check on the book. Opening it, the whole thing was in just as good condition as before it was burned. “How did you do that?”

“It was a little spell that Princess Celestia tutored me in before I left Canterlot,” he explained. “She taught me it so I could send scrolls directly to her. After a while, I found out I could also use it to even help me reshelve all the books here. I can even store things in smoke and summon them back later.”

Spike demonstrated this by making a fist and thumping his chest, causing him to belch out a flame that formed into a short piece of scroll paper. Twilight looked it over and saw it read “Grocery List” on top and listed a few things like apples, quills, and bubble bath. “This is incredible,” she told him.

“It’s just my shopping list,” replied Spike.

“No, don’t you see,” she told him excitedly. “You can send messages to Princess Celestia. We have a direct line to her, so I can tell her not to fear because I’m going to do all I can to stop Nightmare Moon, save her, and get redeemed for letting her down! Spike, take a letter!”

“Did I just get promoted to delivery dragon?” he asked her as he approached a writing desk and took out some ink bottles and quills.

“How about my Number One Assistant,” she offered him. “And I can promise you that it’ll involve a lot more than just sending letters. We’ve got plenty of books to read through too.”

“I don’t know if I want the job,” he told her, failing to suppress how happy he was to have somepony rely on him like this. “But I’ll give it a try at least.”

“Dear Princess Celestia,” dictated Twilight, pacing back and forth and Spike put her words to ink on some scroll paper.

“Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” finished Twilight about ten minutes later.

“Twiii… light… Sparrr… kle…” repeated Spike slowly as he wrote the last of the letter. Then he added a bit more. “Also, your faithful dragon, Spike the Dragon.” Placing the quill down, he showed the letter to Twilight. “How’s that look?”

Leaning in a bit, she read through the letter and chuckled. After finishing, she looked down at Spike, smiled and rubbed a hoof atop his head, finding his spikes were actually soft and flexible enough to press them flat against his head. “I see you added a few things to the letter yourself,” she commented in an amused tone.

“Uh, heh, yeah,” he blushed, feeling a bit guilty about doing that.

“Question,” Twilight added. “What do you need emeralds for?”

“A snack,” he admitted. “I like how they taste the most out of any gemstones.”

“I wasn’t aware that dragons had such strong teeth to be able to grind up gems, let alone be able to ingest them like food,” she commented, very intrigued by this new trivia. “But that’s one expensive diet.”

“Well, I don’t eat gems very often,” he replied. “Also, if you don’t want my additions, I can rewrite the letter exactly as you intended it to be.”

“Nah, it’s perfect just the way it is and I’d also like to add that you’ve got some nice quillmanship for not being able to write with a horn.”

“Well, I do have these,” replied Spike, showing his pointy digits to Twilight. “I never could figure out how ponies could write down anything that was actually legible without magic or fingers.”

“Not very easily,” admitted Twilight. “Even writing with magic is tough when I’ve gotta write a lot. Well, is the scroll ready to be sent?”

“Let me just put a wax seal on it and then I’ll send it off,” answered Spike as he picked up a pink candle that had been providing them some illumination. He tilted it to carefully drip some of wax onto the scroll paper to keep it from uncurling. While it was still soft enough, Spike took his pointer claw and scratched a simple six-pointed star into it. “And now I send it.” Taking in a deep breath, Spike exhaled more of his green flames, igniting the scroll. In seconds, it was completely consumed by the flames and the gray smoke that was left behind danced around the two of them before it slipped through the front door of the library and headed for its intended destination.”

“How will it know to go to Celestia?” wondered Twilight.

“I just have to know the name and face of the pony to be able to send it to them,” answered Spike. “Or the shelf location, in the case of a book. Distance affects how long it’ll take, but I’d say it should make it to her in a few hours and, provided she is able to write back, it should take that long for a letter to get back to me.”

“So, even if you know my brother’s name,” figured Twilight. “You won’t be able to write to him if you don’t know his face.”

“That’s how it works,” Spike nodded. “Sorry, Twilight.”

“It’s fine,” she assured him. “I would have liked to let him know I’m safe and he doesn’t have to worry about me, but, for now, I’ve got to get to work.” Twilight turned to the dozens of shelves on one corner of the library alone. She had books reflected in her eyes as a purely joyful smile spread across her face. “Time for research, even if we have to go through every one of these books to find out the location of Celestia’s old castle.”

“The section on famous buildings and structures is over here,” Spike pointed out. “If there is anything about a castle that Princess Celestia lived in before her current one, it’d have to be in here. But, I’m a little surprised. She never mentioned it to me.”

“Me neither,” added Twilight. “I wouldn’t have even known if she hadn’t brought it up during the fight. Maybe she didn’t want to bring it up to hide the fact that Nightmare Moon wasn’t just a legend.”

“I can’t believe the princess would keep something like that from everypony,” admitted Spike sadly. “That’s like lying to all of Equestria.”

“Celestia wouldn’t lie,” she said to assure Spike and herself. “If anything, she didn’t want anypony to worry. How freaked out do you think everypony will be if they knew that their dreams could be invaded be an evil Alicorn who could make them experience their worst nightmares?”

“When you put it that way,” gulped Spike nervously. “I might not ever be able to sleep again.”

“Zzzzzzzzz,” snored Spike, after several hours of flipping through books to no avail. He was on the ground, with a book on his face and smoke billowing out of his nostrils as he exhaled. Meanwhile, Twilight was still going at it, flipping through several books at once as she searched for anything in regards to Celestia’s old castle. Her mane had become frazzled and she was grinding her teeth as her patience was running thin. Finally, as she reached the back cover of them all, she couldn’t restrain her frustration.

“Are you kidding me?!?” she cried out, stirring Spike from his sleep. “I’ve gone through every single book here and I still can’t find any mention of the castle! This is Celestia we’re talking about. How could something like that not be in a book?”

“I don’t know,” yawned Spike as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. “We’ve been at this all morning…” He looked out the window and saw that it was still pitch black outside with the full moon shining in the sky overhead. “Or all night.”

“It’ll be all night forever if Nightmare Moon isn’t stopped,” Twilight told him. “But we can’t do that without the Elements of Harmony and we can’t find them without finding Celestia’s old castle and we can’t find that if there isn’t a single book that can tell us where that castle is.”

“And there won’t be a book if nopony in all of Equestria even knows that such a place even exists to write about it,” commented Spike, still in a bit of a daze. “Nobody except Celestia. Maybe we should just send her another note asking where it is.”

“That’s it!” realized Twilight. “Celestia would know. Spike, can you do a check on all books by author names?”

“Uh, sure,” he replied. “But, what does that have to do with Celestia. I don’t recall her being an author.”

“Check for any books written by the author ‘C.L.S. Tia,” instructed Twilight as she watched Spike open up a cabinet to check on the library’s available books by authors.

“Seriously?” asked Spike rolling his eyes. “Was she trying not to be subtle or did she think she was being clever?”

“We can ask her that next later,” Twilight said, feeling hopeful that they were finally onto a big break.

“Looks like we do have a few books here written by a ‘C.L.S. Tia,” Spike informed Twilight.

“Any that might be about castles?” she asked hopingly.

“I doesn’t look like it,” he admitted skimming through a bunch of titles. “Well, there is this one, but it’s a children’s book called, “Oh, the Places You Will Trot To.”

“Celestia hid her defeat of Nightmare Moon in a book most ponies would have thought was a work of fiction,” commented Twilight. “So, that might be the case with this one too. Anyway, it’s the first big break we’ve been found, so we have to at least check it out.”

“Fair point,” he agreed and proceeded to where it belonged on the shelf. However, when he got there, the spot it belonged was vacant. “Looks like somepony checked it out.”

“Oh, I hate when the book I want to read is already taken,” pouted Twilight.

“Well, if we just need to borrow it for a minute,” suggested Spike as he opened up another cabinet to look through the list of which ponies checked out which books. “I’m sure the filly or colt who checked it out won’t mind.” Finding the card for the book, Spike looked at who signed it out last. When he did, his eyes narrowed as an expression of annoyance spread across his face as he leered a symbol of a star-tipped wand with some swirls of magic cascading off of it. “Oh, for Scorpan’s sake, why did she of all ponies have to check out this book?”

“You know who has the book?” asked Twilight worried after seeing the look on Spike’s face. “Is she that bad?”

“More obnoxious than bad,” he explained. “Her name is ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie,” or at least that’s how she always refers to herself… signs all her autographs… and even personally added to her Birth Certificate when she was asked if that was her real name. Anyway, she’s a traveling magician that brought her show to Ponyville just a few days ago. Admittedly, her magic act is not too shabby, but did you ever know anypony that loved nothing more than to talk themselves up for half their own show? I’m not a critic, but more substance and less monologuing would be a definite improvement to her act.”

“You can tell her all that when we find her,” Twilight told her scaly assistant. “Do you know which hotel in Ponyville she’s staying at?”

“There’s only one hotel in town,” Spike informed her. “But she’s not staying there. She has a caravan she uses has a home and a stage. If we find it, we’ll find her.”

“Then we just ask to peek at the book and we’ll be well on our way to finding the castle and the Elements of Harmony. Easy peasy.”

“I hope you’re right about this being easy peasy,” commented Spike, having his doubts.

As the duo left the Golden Oaks Library and ventured into the perpetual night, they saw that they weren’t the only Ponies out and about. A number of the townsfolk had found the courage to venture outside in an attempt to figure out just why the sun failed to rise several hours ago. The more fearful and cautious Ponies remained in their homes, gazing out their windows.

“I’ve never seen the whole town so tense,” commented Spike. “But I’ve never seen the afternoon this dark either.”

“It’s not just happening here, Spike,” Twilight reminded him. “Everywhere in Equestria is also experiencing this eternal night. Canterlot is probably in the worst panic of all since the castle was uprooted and floating in the sky. And, by now, they’ve probably learned what happened to Celestia which will make things a million times worse. We have to be extra careful not to let anypony else know or things will only go from cautious fear to chaotic rioting.”

“Hopefully they are still calm enough to talk to us and let us know if they’ve seen Trixie,” replied Spike seeing the Ponies keeping a safe distance from one another.

“One way to find out,” replied Twilight as she saw a nearby Pony just standing around who appeared quite calm compared to all the other ponies looking around so tensely. She had bright pink hair on her body and a long, messy, curly pink mane and tail. Her eyes were blue and her Cutie Mark was of three balloons, two blue and one yellow.

“Hi there,” Twilight approached her as friendly as she could be. “My name is Twilight Sparkle and I-” Before she could utter another word, the pink Pony just gasped and then ran off. “Well, that was… interesting.”

Celestia awoke in her room still hugging her pillow atop her bed. Her injuries from her battle with Nightmare Moon were all almost gone, but the soreness still lingered and made her body ache.

“How long have I been asleep?” she wondered, getting out of bed and looking outside to see the night hadn’t departed. “Surely long enough for the sun to arise, or, rather, when it should have. It seems Nightmare Moon didn’t waste any time in making good on her word to bring about eternal night.” Focusing her magic, Celestia attempting to counter this by raising the sun, however, she discovered she was still unable to use more than a fragment of her total magic. “And Nightmare Moon is still sealing away most of my power. To do all that while levitating this castle and maintaining a barrier around it must be incredibly taxing on her. Even for myself I would be exhausted attempting all that at once.”

“Greetings, my fellow Equestrians,” announced Nightmare Moon from another part of the castle. Despite the distance, her voice still managed to reach all the way to Celstia’s room, loud and clear. “You may not recognize me, but I know you’ve heard of me. It is I, the one who lurks in your dreams as you rest peacefully in your beds, the one who can grant you your greatest dream or deliver upon you your worst nightmare, and the one who is the Queen of the Night. Yes, it is I, the Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon! Now, rejoice for the return of your new, great ruler!”

“If she is feeling the burden of using so much magic at once, she is definitely hiding it well,” noted Celestia as she listened to the dark Alicorn pontificate with such vigor and volume. She then sighed, unable to ignore her ranting. “And she always did love to use her royal voice… at every given opportunity.”

As Celestia listened and waited for Nightmare Moon to finish her speech, she saw a trail of smoke at the door to her balcony. It slipped in through any narrow gaps it could find to make its way inside and over to the tall, white mare sitting upon her bed. It then transformed into green flames that in turn reformed into a rolled up scroll.

“Those flames, this magic,” Celestia realized as she managed to still use her limited magic to levitate something as small and light as that. A calm smile came to her face, happy for something like this to lift her spirits. “It has been quite some time since Spike has written to me.” Turning the scroll to see the wax seal on it, she spotted the six point star mark upon it. “Could it be? Twilight?”

Heart racing, Celestia couldn’t restrain her eagerness to read the letter as she broke the seal and unrolled the scroll. Right away, she saw, “Dear Celestia,” at the top, confirming it was a letter to her and that prompted her to check the bottom to see who sent it. Seeing the name of her faithful student, Twilight Sparkle and the young dragon she helped take care of both there, she found a great comfort in this message before she even read what it said.

“I was so worried,” Celestia teared up. “All I was able to do to keep you safe was to float you away from the castle in a bubble. I had no idea where you were going to end up or if you would be okay. I am relieved that fate has been kind to you this day.” Wiping the emotional relief away from her face, Celestia started to read the letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,

This is your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle writing. First, let me first tell you how very sorry I am. If it wasn’t for me getting in the way, you would have had no trouble dealing with Nightmare Moon and Equestria wouldn’t be in the trouble that it is currently in. I can only hope that when you receive this letter that you are doing as well as you can in whatever situation you might find yourself in.

At the very least, I can put your mind at ease by telling you that I am okay. Thanks to you, I was able to safely escape from Nightmare Moon and have found my way to the small town of Ponyville. By incredible good fortune, I was welcomed into the book-filled tree home of another friend of yours, the baby dragon, Spike. And let me just say that he is growing to be quite a noble and handsome gentledragon. Also, his birthday is coming up and he tells me that he’s out of his favorite gems, emeralds, to snack on.

Anyway, after he helped me to recover my strength, after that ordeal, I recalled what you told me before Nightmare Moon arrived, that no matter what would happen, I would decide what I would do next. Well, I’ve made my decision. I want to fix this problem that I’ve caused. I’m going to seek out the Elements of Harmony and use them to stop Nightmare Moon from taking over Equestria and free you.

I don’t know how successful I will be in locating them, or even if I will be able to use their powers, but that’s what I’ve chosen to do. I will see it through to the end, no matter what it takes. Just, please wish me luck and hope that next time we meet it will be under much more favorable circumstances.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
Also, your faithful dragon,
Spike the Dragon

Celestia took a breath relieved to know Twilight was doing well and she giggled a bit amused by the bits she was certain Spike added in, but she also felt a bit of sadness as she reread the first part again, sensing just how much guilt Twilight must have felt due to her defeat at Nightmare Moon’s hooves. “Twilight,” she sighed. “None of this is your fault. If anything, the one who should be held responsible for Nightmare Moon and all that she has and will do is me. I should also be apologizing for the heavy burden you are prepared to place upon yourself.”

“That pink pony was very odd to just run away from me like that,” commented Twilight as they made their way across town, after finding another Pony who was willing to help point them in the right direction. “But, at least, we were able to find out where Trixie’s caravan is.”

“Yeah,” agreed Spike. “That pink one, Pinkie Pie, can be very… interesting, but she’s typically very friendly and likely to overdosed on sugar. Half the time, you never know what wacky thing she’s gonna do next, though usually it involves throwing a party or being super excited over anything. This is the first time I’ve seen her gasp and run at the sight of somepony.”

“I guess even somepony that’s supposed to be super friendly would be on edge to a stranger when something as ominous as a nighttime sky in the middle of the day is looming overhead,” suggested Twilight. “Well, nothing we can do about that right now. Let’s just go see Trixie so we can see that book.”

As they approached the caravan, they saw a small crowd of ponies had gathered around one side of it where a stage had been set up. Standing atop it was an azure pony with a pale grayish blue mane and tail. She had on a purple, pointed magician’s cap and afixed around her neck, with a blue gemstone stone brooch, was a cape. Both had stars speckled on them as well as tons of silver glitter.

“And now,” she announced to the ponies watching her show as she levitated three large metal rings that were linked together in the air over her head. “The Great and Powerful Trixie gives you the Rings of Inseparability!” Manipulating them with her magic, she attempted to pull them apart, but as one would expect, they couldn’t be removed from one another. “As you can see, the rings are linked together and cannot be pulled apart. It is impossible. However…” With her magic, she brought the rings together into one and then moved them apart again. This time, however, as she did, they were each unattached from one another. “Doing the impossible is what the Great and Powerful Trixie does best!”

The audience clapped their hooves together and gave her a decent-sized cheer for the size of an audience she had. “Thank you! Thank you!” she said giving them a few bows before continuing. “Now, for my next trick…”

“Seems familiar,” pondered Twilight as she rubbed her chin.

“Did you also read, ‘Magical Illusions: How They’re Done,’ too?” asked Spike. “It was neat to see the secrets to how these tricks work, but when you know how it makes stage magicians a lot less impressive to watch. Well, that and the fact that we live in a world where real magic can be performed, including by her. I mean, if she was an Earth Pony or a Pegasus performing these kinds of tricks, I might still be a bit impressed by her delivery and slight of hand.”

“Well, I did read that book too,” admitted Twilight. “But that’s not what I mean. I think I’ve seen Trixie before. I think back in my first year in magic school. She might have been a Pony in my class, but I guess she might have dropped out at some time that year.”

“You don’t remember?” questioned Spike as he turned to watch as Trixie proceeded to reach into her hat and into a cloth bag of the same color so it blended in. This made it appear that she was pulling a white rabbit out of thin air, when in reality it had been hidden in there the whole time.

“Behold! The Great and Powerful Trixie has conjured up a rabbit from out of nowhere!” she boasted. Finally free of its confinement, the rabbit did not look happy to have been cooped up in her hat since before the show had started and was even less amused at being forcibly used in this spectacle. Angrily, it hopped off the stage as soon as the opportunity presented itself, muttering something that just came out as squeaks.

“She’s kind of a hard Pony to forget,” he finished.

“I may have had my nose in a book, studying most of the time,” Twilight admitted. “But I do recall that there was one Pony who was usually very noisy, making it hard not to look over to her. I remember she was always eager to perform spells, however she was a bit too eager to put them to practice without fully learning the mechanics behind them. The end result was typically a big mess and a lecture from the teacher.”

“What happened to her?” asked Spike.

“I don’t remember, but after the first semester I don’t recall being disrupted from my reading anymore,” she answered. “You don’t think Trixie was that Pony, do you?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie now requires a volunteer,” Trixie announced as she looked upon the audience and saw several hooves rise up. Smirking and rubbing her chin, she scanned the audience as she tried to decide who to pick. Looking towards the back, she then spotted Twilight and Spike watching and then narrowed her eyes as she focused her gaze. “Is that really…? Yes, it is! Hey, you in the back!”

“Me?” asked Twilight pointed a hoof at herself.

“Yes, you,” called out Trixie. “The Great and Powerful Trixie requests you upon her stage.”

“I guess she does know you,” commented Spike as the two made their way over. “This might actually make things easier for us to get the book.”

“I suppose,” blushed Twilight, feeling a bit embarrassed to suddenly have everypony staring at her as she made her way around them and then up the stairs to the top of the stage. “H-Hi, Trixie,” she greeted her.

“Twinkle Sprinkle,” Trixie welcomed her back. “It’s been ages. What brings you all the way here from Canterlot? Did you graduate early too?”

“Uh, it’s Twilight Sparkle,” she corrected her. “And it was sort of an unplanned trip down here. As for graduating, early, no I’m still a student, but you didn’t graduate early either. Didn’t you drop out or something?”

“Ohohoh,” she laughed it off. “Hardly. It was nothing like that. My talents were just too big to be contained in a mere classroom so I embarked on a journey of personalized study and practice and here I am today. Jealous?”

“Not really,” Twilight admitted. “But there’s something I need. It’s about that book you checked out from the library.”

“Well, it’ll have to wait till after the show,” she told her. “Right now, I need a pony to assist me in my next trick, sawing a Pony in half. With her magic, she floated over a large box, big enough for a pony to fit their body in, and a hole for their head to poke out through. “Just get in there and relax.” She then whispered into Twilight’s ear. “And unless you want a shorter tail, I’d suggest curling it up.” Lifting up the sharp-toothed saw and a log with magic, she held it out for the audience to see her cut the wood in half to prove that it was very real. “Now who is ready to see a pony split in half by magic!?!”

The crowd cheered with excitement, but Twilight, not so much. All the buried memories she had of this Pony’s escapades at school began to resurface and filled her with worry. She recalled her making simple mistakes like forgetting to keep focusing while she was levitating heavy and fragile objects, causing them to crash to the ground. Twilight then started to recall her far larger blunders like when she turned the classroom hamster into a giant three-headed, fire-breathing monster that went on a rampage throughout the classroom. Twilight still had the notebook one of the heads chewed up while she crawled under her table for cover with the rest of the class.

“We weren’t even studying aniomorphic magic that day,” thought Twilight as she started to sweat. Looking at Trixie levitating a saw, she knew the last thing she wanted was to be put in a box while she pretended to cut her in half.

“Uh, thanks, but no thanks,” declined Twilight. “I like my bottom half where it is connected to my top half.”

“Oh, don’t worry, wink,” replied Trixie as she winked at Twilight as she said the word “wink.” “You’ll be just fine, wink. I’ll sew you up after the show is done, wink.”

“That’s quite alright,” Twilight assured her, all that winking only making her more nervous. “I’m sure there’s another Pony in the audience with a deathwish, uh, I mean, more eager for a chance to be your volunteer.”

“I suppose I could,” she remarked. “And I suppose I don’t have to lend you a hoof with whatever you need either.”

“It’ll be fine, Twilight,” Spike tried to comfort her. “I don’t know what kind of half-baked magic student she was in school, but she, at least, seems to be able to handle fake magic fairly well.”

“Hmm,” grumbled a less than amused Trixie as she overheard that unintentional jab at her abilities. “On second thought, you’ll do.”

“Wait? What?” questioned Spike as he was lifted up with magic and put into the box in Twilight’s place. His head poked out and now he was wearing a nervous look on his face.

“You’re a lot shorter than my regular volunteers,” Trixie realized. “Guess I should cut from a bit higher up.”

“It’ll be okay,” thought Spike as he watched the saw over top of him. Despite knowing the secrets behind the trick, being the one on this side of the box did make it feel a lot more anxiety-inducing. “I’m all scrunched up in this end. The saw won’t even touch me. I’ll be just fine.”

“And now, declared Trixie. “To saw this Pon- uh, dragon in half!”

With her magic, she was set to begin cutting when a loud booming voice from up in the sky ste everyone’s attention. It was an image of Nightmare Moon, that was not just visible to the Ponies in Ponyville, but everyone all across Equestria. “Greetings, my fellow Equestrians,” announced Nightmare Moon transmitting this magically from Canterlot Castle. “You may not recognize me, but I’m certain you’ve heard of me. It is I, the one who lurks in your dreams as you rest peacefully in your beds, the one who can grant you your greatest dream or deliver upon you your worst nightmare, and the one who is the Queen of the Night. Yes, it is I, the Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon! Now, rejoice for the return of your new, great ruler!”

The dark Alicorn captured everyone’s attention, everyone that is, save for Spike who was too busy focused on the saw, being manipulated by magic, as it started to cut through the box much too close to the middle of his chest for him to compress his body and get out of the way. “Uh, you’re cutting too high up,” warned Spike, but his words fell on deaf ears. “Trixie? Um, a little help here, Twilight? Please!”

“Who in Equestria is that?” asked Trixie as she stared in awe at the villainous princess. She then started to pout, growing annoyed at this interruption. “And who does she think she is preempting the performance of the Great and Powerful Trixie’s show?”

“I think you are seriously missing the point,” Twilight replied as she listened along with everypony else to what Nightmare Moon had to say.

“Your beloved Princess Celestia has been bested by me,” Nightmare Moon went on. “Her castle is now under my control and soon shall all of Equestria. But you need not fear me, for I promise to rule strictly, but fairly. Do as I say and you will have nothing to worry about in this moonlit kingdom of mine. In fact, as a show of good will towards you all, I will promise untold riches to any who desire it. Merely go to sleep and I will impart to you the location of a vast wealth of gems ripe for the picking. Pretty good, right? I’m certain Celestia never offered you such generous gifts such as that in all her years as your ruler. Well, that is all I have to say for now. Look forward to more announcements in the future, because I feel quite certain that my rule will be as eternal as the beautiful night overhead.”

As Nightmare Moon faded from the sky, all the Ponies in the area started to gab with one another, concerned at what they had just witnessed. Twilight was silent, but she was the most worried of all. “This is a disaster,” she panicked. “Now all of Equestria knows what happened in Canterlot. If everypony wasn’t freaking out already, they are going to now. And worse, what if Ponies decide to go along with this promise of gemstones she just brought up. She could cause Equestria to be divided right down the middle. Down the middle…” Thinking that, Twilight remembered about the predicament Spike was in before Nightmare Moon’s untimely announcement. “Oh, no, Spike!”

“HELP!!!” wailed the pure and green dragon as the saw was about to reach his body. He flailed about in the box, but it was no good. There was no time for Twilight to help him. As she could do was watch as the saw’s teeth slid back into the box. However, as the saw came at Spike, the blade’s teeth cracked and chipped apart against his tough, scaly hide.

“Spike!” Twilight cried again, quickly helping him out of the box and checked his body, relieved to see that he didn’t have a scratch on him. She then hugged him tight. “I was so scared.”

“Me too,” he breathed a sigh of relief. “I forgot I’ve got thick scales. A cheap saw like that wouldn’t be able to hurt me.”

“Well, you owe me a new saw,” Trixie interrupted their hug as she looked at her damaged magical prop and just tossed it to the side. “But it seems my magic show must be put on hold because destiny is calling and it is telling the Great and Powerful Trixie that she must save Equestria from the threat of Nightmare Moon!”

“Uh, it is?” asked Spike. “Are you sure it wasn’t a wrong number?”

“Who else would destiny call in this hour of need?” she replied proudly. “After all, there is no other Pony in all of Equestria that could hope the challenge such a villain and defeat her. No. Only one as great and powerful as the Great and Powerful Trixie is great and powerful enough for such a great and powerful battle as that.”

“You might want to consider investing in a thesaurus,” suggested Spike. “Also, if anyone is going to defeat Nightmare Moon, it’s going to be Twilight.”

“Is that so,” scoffed Trixie. “Do you really believe that you are more powerful than Nightmare Moon and the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

“No,” confessed Twilight. “I don’t think that anypony, save Princess Celestia is powerful enough to stop Nightmare Moon. However, there is something that I know is powerful enough to stop her, the Elements of Harmony. They are in Celestia’s old castle and if I can get them then I will have the power to put a stop to Nightmare Moon once and for all. That’s why I need the library book you borrowed. With it, I can find out where that castle is.”

“Is that so?” replied Trixie as she retreated into her caravan and soon returned with the book, “Oh, the Places You Will Trot.” “So, this book contains the secret location of magical treasures known as the Elements of Harmony. The fact that it was this book that I chose to prop up my table is further proof that it is my destiny to obtain them and defeat Nightmare Moon.”

“You borrowed a book from the library, because your table legs were uneven?” questioned Spike.

“I was short on bits and borrowing library books is free,” she explained. “Thanks to this book I was able to enjoy a balanced breakfast and now it’ll help me to become the greatest and most powerful hero Equestria has ever known! Even Princess Celestia will have to admit how great and powerful the Great and Powerful Trixie is that she will begin grooming me to one day be an Alicorn Princess too. She will then send me to...”

While Trixie went on monologuing and imagining her defeat of Nightmare Moon, Twilight and Spike huddled together to figure out their next move. “If Trixie’s table damaged that book’s cover,” commented Spike. “She is so fined.”

“I’m disgusted at such flagrant disrespect for library property too,” agreed Twilight. “But we’ve got to get that book from her so we can figure out where the castle is. There’s no way we can let Trixie do this, but how can we convince her?”

“Logic and reason don’t seem to get penetrate that barrier of an ego she has,” figured Spike. “I think you’re going to just have to prove to her that you are greater and more powerful than she is. Either that, or convince her to join you.”

“If that’s what it is going to take,” sighed Twilight. “Then I’ve got no other choice.”

“I’ll be rooting for you, Twilight,” Spike said swinging his arms. “Go out there and kick her flank!”

“I mean I’m going to try and befriend her,” Twilight specified. “And two Ponies are better than one.”

“...and in about six years later, after earning my Alicorn wings, Princess Celestia will finally feel the time is right to stand down from her throne and make the Great and Powerful Trixie the great and powerful new ruler of Equestria,” she continued to drone on.

“Trixie,” spoke Twilight.

“Yes,” spoke Trixie with a look of triumph on her face despite having not yet done anything yet. “How can the Great and Powerful and soon to be ruler of Equestria, in about nine years, help you?”

“It sounds like you’re really eager to go on this mission to save Equestria,” Twilight told her, attempting to tolerate her ego that had only swollen even larger. “Well, so am I, so, I was thinking that, maybe, we could do it… together.”

“I could use a companion,” she contemplated. “Someone to aid me in this most important of quests. Yes, Twilight, I think you have something there.”

“Then we can go on this adventure to save Equestria as friends,” Twilight told her.

“Save Equestria as friends?” questioned Trixie. “I had assumed you wanted to join me to document my great and powerfulness for generations to come. Oh, wait, that was a joke, wasn’t it? I get it. Like the Great and Powerful would need any actual help. Yes, that was quite amusing.”

“I’m being serious, Trixie,” Twilight told her. “I’m going to help save Equestria no matter what.”

“That will be quite difficult if you don’t know where to go,” pointed out Trixie. “I am the one with the book, after all.”

“But, can you even figure out the clue in the book?” pointed out Twilight.

“Certainly, the Great and Powerful Trixie can figure out a simple clue hidden in a children’s storybook,” she replied as she opened it and flipped through the pages. “Oh, the places you will trot… blah blah blah… high and low… near and far… blah blah blah. Uh, no castle anywhere on any of the pages.”

“It might take a little looking around,” commented Twilight. “But it shouldn’t be too hard to find another copy of that book. So, to save time, why don’t we do this. We’ll have a magical duel, right here, right now. If I win, then you give me the book. If you win, then I’ll help you figure out where the castle is.”

“Fine,” she decided, not realizing she was falling for Twilight’s use of misdirection. “But you’d best be prepared for a great and powerful defeat, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Nice going, Twilight,” Spike praised her quietly. “No matter what you do, you’ll win.”

“Yeah,” Twilight nodded. “But if I’m going to defeat Nightmare Moon, I’m going to need to be ready. This duel should be good practice.”

“Ladies, and gentleponies,” announced Trixie to all the Ponies still gathered around the stage. “As you have just heard, the Great and Powerful Trixie was just challenged to a magical duel. Be prepared to witness the most amazing magical feats ever performed by yours truly. The battle will begin in one hour, so tell your friends, tell your family, and tell everyone else as well to come for the show of a lifetime. I guarantee that you will not want to miss this.”

Hearing Trixie’s promise of such a spectacular show, the Ponies were quick to disperse and spread the word for the big battle to come. In a matter of minutes, only Spike, Twilight, and Trixie remained. “Is a bigger crowd really necessary?” asked Twilight.

“The bigger the better,” she retorted with confidence. “All my moments of glory should be accompanied by as many Ponies as possible.”

“But what if you lose?” pointed out Twilight.

“Me lose?” she laughed off the notion. “How utterly absurd. While I might enchant my audience with a few clever tricks and illusions, they will be absolutely astounded when they get the chance to see the true magical capabilities of the Great and Powerful Trixie. After today, all of Ponyville will know who the Pony who they can put their faith in to save Equestria from Nightmare Moon.”

“I hadn’t even considered that,” worried Twilight, not looking at all eager for this now, unlike Trixie.

“Are you okay, Twilight?” asked Spike. “You don’t have stage fright, do you?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” she admitted as she took a seat and took a deep breath. “I’m fine with a crowd, but I don’t want to get everypony’s hopes up and believe that I can, without a doubt, stop Nightmare Moon. If I fail then what hope will they have left?”

“Just relax,” Spike told her. “It won’t be anything like that and anyway, how big of a crowd do you think there will be when half the town is too afraid to even leave their homes?”

Within an hour’s time, every single Pony in Ponyville had gathered around Trixie’s caravan for the magical duel. Not only that, but food vendors had been set up to sell things like hay burgers, carrot dogs, and cotton candy. Some ponies were even giving out commemorative t-shirts for the event. There was even a cheer squad currently performing to help pump up the audience for the personal duel that had quickly evolved into a town-sized spectacle.

Seeing all this, Trixie couldn’t help but beam with delight at the biggest turnout for anything she had ever done before. She had already planned out a victory speech for once she won this challenge, but now she was reworking it to make it even more self-gratifying for her.

Twilight, on the other hoof, was nervously staring at the crowd that was almost maxed out in anticipation for the battle that was mere minutes away. “I thought you said that we did have to worry about a huge turn out,” she whispered to Spike.

“I guess this town’s love of celebrations and events greatly outweighs any fear the townsfolk might feel for Nightmare Moon,” replied Spike as sat beside Twilight with a Team Twi shirt on. “There’s practically a celebration or a party or something about every other day here, if you can believe it.”

“I can’t believe that somepony was able to sew together a whole bunch of commemorative t-shirts this fast,” she commented and looked down at the one Spike was wearing. “They even had one in your size?”

“Well, I do know the Pony who makes them,” blushed Spike as he told this to Twilight as he rubbed the back of his head. “I help her out at her boutique from time to time so she often makes me custom-fitted outfits in return. “She’s just the best.”

“I’ll bet she is, casanova,” chuckled Twilight.

“W-What’s that supposed to mean?!?” cried Spike looking even redder with embarrassment.

“Nothing,” she replied as she playfully teased Spike. This reminded her of how she often did the same with her brother with his own love interest.

“Okay, the hour’s up and looks like the audience is ready for us,” Trixie told Twilight. “It’s time to get started.” Chuckling a bit, Trixie brought out a megaphone. “And with an audience this big, I finally get to put this to use.”

“I’ll be taking that,” said Spike, swiping it from Trixie’s hooves.

“Return the Great and Powerful Trixie’s loud and booming megaphone!” she demanded.

“You’re going to need an impartial third party to be your MC,” pointed out Spike. “And I’ve always wanted to give one of these a try too,” he added more quiet.

“Fine,” Trixie gave in surprisingly easily. “But you better hype me up as well as I know I would.”

“Just leave everything to me,” he assured her. “Just let me do the talking.”

The audience was noisily chatting between one another, wondering which of the two Ponies about to fight would be the victor and whether or not they would truly be able to defeat that frightening Alicorn that they had all seen appear in the sky only a short hour prior. As Spike turned on the megaphone, it screeched loudly, drawing everypony’s attention to the stage and silenced them.

Taking a few small breaths, that were picked up on the megaphone, Spike then cleared his throat a little and gripped the sound amplifier tighter in his claws before he started to speak. “Ladies and gentleponies,” he called out, his voice booming loud enough for every Pony in the area to hear him. “Tonight… uh, today… well, whatever time of the day it is, we have a very special event for you. Two mighty and magical Unicorns are about to put forth their skills in a magical duel, where the winner will go forth to defeat the dreaded Nightmare Moon and rescue our beloved land of Equestria. Which one of these two will prove the more masterful magician?”

Holding the megaphone in his left hand, Spike swung his right hand to his side as he introduced Trixie. “On my right, is a Pony that has boastfully spoken her name so many times already that she hardly needs any introduction at all. She’s a master at the art of sleight of hand and all manner of illusions, though her greatest trick is undoubtedly how she can fit all her ego onto such a small stage. Of course, I’m referring to the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

“From the most dazzling magician to ever grace your town with her presence, to all of Equestria’s savior,” Trixie spoke as egotistical as ever. “How else could one describe the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

“So full of yourself that you could be mistaken for a pinata,” Spike said out of reach of the megaphone as he rolled his eyes. Trixie bowed as the Ponies in the audience cheered for her. Once they quieted down, Spike got ready to introduce Twilight.

“And, in the other corner,” Spike continued as he did a quick spin, to add some flair. “Is the challenger. She hails from the capital city of Equestria, Canterlot and is a top student at Celestia’s School of Magic. And not only that, her hard work and dedication has also made her Princess Celestia’s personal protege. She’s got a love of literature and all things books, but can she put theory to practice? Guess we’ll find out soon enough. Now, I’d like to introduce to Ponyville the one and only Twilight Sparkle!”

“H-Hello, everyone,” Twilight spoke to them, never imagining before today that she’d have ended up in an unusual situation like this. As she waved a bit to the audience, the Ponies erupted in applause for her. She smiled and felt herself become more at ease that they were cheering and chanting her name of booing at her. “I’ll do my best,” she promised them and waved some more before moving to her side of the stage for the battle to begin.

“The rules are simple,” explained Spike. “Both Ponies are allowed to use whatever magical means they wish to battle against the other to knock them off the stage or make them surrender. First to accomplish this will be chosen to embark on this quest to save Equestria. Now, on my count the battle will begin! One! Two! Three! Go!!!”

Spike jumped off the stage as he started the match, allowing the two Ponies to be able to go all out without anyone else getting caught in the crossfire. Without wasting a second, Trixie was quick to grab some smoke bombs hidden under her cape.

Tossing them at Twilight, the fragile spheres burst open and clouds of glittery, blue smoke gushed out all around her, limiting her range of sight. Quickly afterwards, Trixie focused her magic into her horn and fired a pink beam into the smoke where Twilight had been. “Far too easy,” she gloated. “Maybe I should have held back a little so this wouldn’t have ended this easily.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Twilight assured her as the smoke cleared away and Twilight stepped out of it unharmed. “I won’t be defeated by a cheap a move as that.”

“How can you still be standing?” she asked.

“Try again and find out,” Twilight told her. “Don’t worry about using those smoke bombs to distract me. I’ll stand perfectly still.”

“Fine, but only because you insist!” she snapped and unleashed an even stronger blast of magic upon her fellow Unicorn. Twilight stood her ground against it and just as the magic was about to strike, she focused magic into her horn to create a partial barrier in front of her. When Trixie’s magic collided against it, the magic bounced off into sparks that faded like embers from a campfire.

“If this is really the best you can manage,” warned Twilight. “Then you should give up now. I’ve faced off against Nightmare Moon and she is incredibly powerful. At my best, she barely even had to try to overpower me and I’ve been studying under Celestia for years. Do you really think that someone who dropped out in the first semester would have any chance, especially on her own?”

“Silence!” shouted Trixie as she let out the biggest blast of pink magical energy she could at Twilight. In response, Twilight focused her magic more, expanding her shield and strengthening it, to handle the attack. The cluster of Trixie’s magic crashed into it, attempting to break through, however, just as before, it failed to breach Twilight’s defenses.

Then, with a blast of her own power, Twilight attacked through her barrier, at Trixie’s magic, turning it into confetti that rained down around her. The Ponies all watching this applauded for Twilight as she stepped towards Trixie. “You should see by now the difference in our abilities.”

“Then let’s see you get past my defenses,” Trixie dared her as she formed a protective barrier to encircle her entire body. “How about this? I can create a barrier to shield me from every direction. That’s much better than the silly little shield you created.”

“That’s because the bigger the barrier the weaker it is overall,” Twilight explained. “And to maintain it for a long time requires a lot of focus and magic. It also isn’t recommended to put up a barrier before you’ve even been attacked or your opponent could just wait for your magic to become exhausted. Of course, with how thin your barrier is, I probably could break through it easily enough.”

“Oh, is that all?” scoffed Trixie, already straining a bit to maintain her magical barrier while conversing.

“Actually, there is one more thing,” added Twilight.

“Well, please enlighten me,” she told her.

“I don’t have to wait for your barrier to fall or need to break through it to attack you,” she added as she aimed aimed a decent-sized blast of magic from her horn at Trixie. She fired it and while it seemed to simply fly right at her barrier, it suddenly curved down, burning a hole through to the underside of the stage. Trixie watched in awe at this, not noticing as the magic came back up beneath her and connected, sending her skyward and crashing through her own barrier.

The force of the attack, knocked her wizard’s hat off her head and sent her tumbling to the ground. She ended up flat on her back with her hat dropping down over her face as she moaned wearily. That bit of slapstick earned her the laughter of the audience, injuring Trixie’s pride far more than Twilight’s attack harmed her physically.

“This has to be a mistake,” complained Trixie. “That or you are cheating because nopony should be a match for the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

“This is no mistake,” Twilight assured her. “Between the two of us, my magic is stronger. It should be clear to everypony at this point.”

“No!” snapped Trixie. “This is not how things are supposed to happen on my stage! The only one who should be great and powerful is the Great and Powerful Trixie!” With all the magic she could muster, she fired another beam at Twilight.

“This isn’t just another one of your performances,” Twilight lecturer as she fired her own beam or purple magic to meet Trixie’s pink one. The two attacks pushed back and forth at one another both Ponies attempted to overtake one another.

“The fate of Equestria is at stake,” Twilight continued to speak as her magic began to overtake Trixie’s as the blue Unicorn felt herself at her limit. “And if this is the best you can then it’s not enough!”

Trixie cried out as Twilight’s magic pushed Trixie’s all the way back and struck the Pony. “Impossible!” she cried out dramatically. She kept her eyes shut, unwilling to watch her own demise. “Who could have ever imagined in even a hundred thousand years that the Great and Powerful Trixie could be defeated?!?”

As Trixie collapsed to the ground, expecting to hear wails of sorrow at the sight of her defeat, however, the only thing she heard was snickering that quickly erupted into laughter. Hearing such amusement at her expense brought Trixie back to her feet in a rage. “What in Equestria is wrong with you Ponies to laugh at the demise of the Great and Powerful…” The Ponies continued to laugh, angering Trixie to shout even louder at them. “What is so funny?!?”

“Hahah,” laughed Spike along with everyone else in the audience. “Your mustache.”

“My what? My moustache?” questioned Trixie as she narrowed her gaze to her muzzle and saw the large curly mustache over her upper lip in the same shade of white as her mane. Just seeing the ridiculous thing left Trixie speechless and her mouth agape. Witnessing such a reaction, the audience started to crack up anew.

“Sorry,” apologized Twilight, doing her best to restrain snickering. “I didn’t want to hit you with a spell that could harm you, but I may have put a bit too much oomph in it and made you look more ridiculous than I intended.”

“We were having a magical duel and, rather than fight me seriously, you chose to make me a fool and a laughingstock in front of everypony here?” accused Trixie.

“The only thing I want is to find the Elements of Harmony and stop Nightmare Moon,” answered Twilight. “You were the one who had to make this into the biggest spectacle possible. If you want to know who to blame for you any embarrassment you might be feeling, then you should look in a mirror.”

“I’ll look in one when I go to shave off this stupid thing!” snapped Trixie bitterly before tossing the book to Twilight. “And you can have this stupid thing too. I think it’s been made abundantly clear that you are clearly the stronger of the two of us. I’d just be even more foolish if I chose to continue.”

“Then, do you realize now,” Twilight told her. “The difference in power between you and me is how I felt against Nightmare Moon. Without the Elements of Harmony, nopony can stand a chance and even then, that still might not be enough. So, maybe, we can return back to my original offer and go on this adventure together… as friends.”

“As friends,” replied Trixie the look on her face showing signs that she was mulling over the idea and truly considering taking Twilight up on it. However, her meek look quickly turned angry as she considered her wounded pride. “Don’t make me laugh!” she shouted at Twilight, speaking with her full swagger. “The Great and Powerful Trixie does not need to rely on these Elements of Harmony of yours to save Equestria. She doesn’t need friends to do so either, most of all a Unicorn like you, Twilight Sparkle. I’ll defeat Nightmare Moon with my own power, but, before that, I’ll get my revenge and pay you back for the humiliation you’ve caused me this night.”

“Technically, it’s still the middle of the day,” Spike chimed in, attempting to keep some sense of time.

“Whatever,” scoffed Trixie. “Mark my words!”

“But Trixie,” cried Twilight, never intending to upset her into making a vow of vengeance against her. She attempted to apologize, but Trixie was quick to grab another of her smoke bombs and throw it down at her feet, making it burst and conceal her within a cloud of bluish purple.

“You have not seen the last of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” the amateur magician vowed loudly before going completely silent. When the smoke dissipated, Trixie was nowhere in sight.

“In my opinion,” commented Spike as he applauded with the rest of the audience. “That was her best trick all night.”

“Oh, and see that you return that library book for me,” called Trixie, lifting up the trap door in the stage she had escaped to. “The Great and Powerful Trixie cannot afford to pay any late fees.” She then ducked back under the stage and continued to make her escape.

“You were amazing Twilight,” congratulated Spike. “You beat Trixie and finally got the book.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t want things to end this way with Trixie,” she sighed. “I know I have to do whatever it takes to save Equestria from Nightmare Moon, but I had hoped I could have become friends with her as easily as the two of us did.”

“You tried your best and offered her every chance to join you,” Spike told her. “She chose not to accept, so that’s her loss.”

“Still, maybe if I had read some books on friendship, I would have been able to do things better,” she admitted. “I mean, I’ve read a book all on facial hair magic, but I’ve never even cracked one open on making friends.”

“I’m not sure if a book like that exists,” commented Spike. “But, speaking of that mustache spell, do you think you could try that one out on me. Maybe something more manly though.”

“Heheh,” chuckled Twilight, happy to have her dragon buddy around to cheer her up. “Maybe later, Spike.”

“Bravo! Bravo!” applauded a tan Pony with a gray mane and tail as she walked on stage to approach Twilight. She had a pair of gold framed spectacles over her blue eyes and her Cutie Mark was over a scroll tied with a blue ribbon. Around her neck she had a white collar with a green cravat on it. “That was quite the show you all pulled off.”

“Show?” questioned Twilight. “And who are you?”

“Oh, let me introduce myself,” she said, shaking Twilight’s hoof with her own. “My name is Mayor Mare, the mayor of Ponyville and are you really one of Princess Celestia’s students?”

“I am,” nodded Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle, it’s a pleasure.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” smiled Mayor Mare. “I must say, when Trixie came here to perform, I had no idea she planned for such a spectacle as epic as this. I mean darkening the sky might have been a bit much, but that duel and the towering Nightmare Moon in the sky overhead was truly inspired. Will you be continuing the performance tomorrow?”

“You think this was all a performance?” she replied, seeing all the Ponies standing before the stage were cheering for more. “No, this wasn’t.”

“Excuse me?” replied the mayor. “What wasn’t?”

“This,” Twilight explained as she picked up the megaphone and spoke to everypony standing before her. “I know you all came here for a show, but you all must know the truth. The image of the dark Alicorn you saw in the sky, this eternal night and even the duel I just had with Trixie, it was all real. Nightmare Moon has returned after being banished by Celestia a thousand moons ago. She has indeed defeated Princess Celestia and now plans to rule Equestria in a nocturnal state. I just fought against Trixie in order to find the means to defeat Nightmare Moon and now I plan to venture forth to acquire that means, the Elements of Harmony, to put an end to this waking Nightmare that we have been put into.”

“This is all real?” repeated Mayor Mare in disbelief. A worried chatter filled the audience too as they struggled to decide whether or not Twilight was speaking the truth.

“I wish it wasn’t,” sighed Twilight. “But I was there in Canterlot Castle when Nightmare Moon appeared. I saw as she battled against Celestia and defeated her because…” Twilight paused, feeling reluctance to admit it was to protect her that Celestia was defeated. “...because Nightmare Moon proved more powerful than Celestia expected her to be. Now Celestia is captured, but she helped me to escape because she believed I would be able to find the Elements and stop her. That was the mission she entrusted to me and I want you all to know that you need not fear the dark because… Twilight is here!”

With a nervous smile, she awaited a response from the crowd, her heart pounding in her throat as she wondered if they’d cheer her once more or go into a full panic now that she had revealed the truth to them. Slowly, some clapping caught her attention. Turning to it, she saw it was Spike giving her some applause, followed by Mayor Mare. After that, the rest of the Ponies in the audience started to join in a few at a time till the town was once more filled with cheers for Twilight.

“If Princess Celestia has faith in you to save all of Equestria from that villain, then you can count on all of Ponyville to have your back,” promised the mayor. “Anything you need, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Thank you very much, mayor,” Twilight told her with a very relieved look on her face. She held up the book she acquired from Trixie as she continued to speak. “For now, I have everything I need. I am going to head back to the library to look into this clue to see where I need to go to find the Elements. If everyone here can just endure this night for just a little bit longer than I promise you that dawn will not be too far away.”

“You can count on us to do our best,” assured Mayor Mare with a nod. “We’ll even send word across Equestria to let every Pony know that in our greatest time of need, a hero has appeared to save us all, Twilight Sparkle.”

“G-Great,” Twilight told her with an awkward smile as she lifted Spike onto her back with a levitation spell. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’d best get going. So much to do and so little time.”

Hurrying off, Twilight Sparkle dashed back to the Golden Oaks Library. She had to endure the continued cheering of the crowd as she left, their hopes of a brighter tomorrow resting solely in her hooves now. She didn’t stop running till they got back inside the library. Twilight then shut the door behind them as she sat down and started to hyperventilate from all that accumulating stress in her system.

“Wow, I’ve heard of putting your hoof in your mouth,” commented Spike. “But you put your whole leg in with that one, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t want to,” worried Twilight. “But I couldn’t just let the whole town think this was all some elaborate show. I couldn’t lie to them about that.” Tearing up a bit, she continued to talk more somberly. “But I could about how Princess Celestia was defeated to protect me and that she chose me to save all of Equestria.”

“But isn’t that why she you?” pointed out Spike. “You are her greatest student after all.”

“Maybe, but if I can’t then my interference with her fight could be what brings an end to Equestria as we know it,” sniffled Twilight. ”There might not be anything I could do to stop Nightmare Moon and I’vejust set everypony up for even greater disappointment. So, tell me, Spike, what am I supposed to do now?”

The small dragon was silent for a moment, just as unsure as she was about any of this. Eventually, he looked up at her with a calm smile on his face as he spoke in earnest to her. “I don’t know if this helps,” Spike he conceded, taking a seat beside her. “But, when I decided to leave Canterlot, Celestia said that whatever I wanted to do, it would be my choice and mine alone. If I wanted to, I could have stayed with her in the castle, safe and protected, with all the gemstones I could eat. Heh, I could have been like Tarzan, except instead of being king of the Dragonlands I’d have been king in a castle.”

“But you didn’t choose that,” Twilight reminded Spike. “You chose to leave and come here.”

“I did,” he nodded. “I could have stayed in the back in Canterlot and nothing would have changed, but, in truth, I didn’t want that. There was something I was missing and though I didn’t know exactly what it was, I knew that if I wasn’t getting it over there then I had to search for it elsewhere. True, I gave up a lot to come here and things haven’t always been easy, but if I hadn’t left Canterlot, we might have never met one another and I probably would have ended up being trapped in the castle after Nightmare Moon took over.”

“Sitting here, beside you now,” Spike continued, hugging Twilight’s side. “I am certain that I made the right choice.”

“Well, I’m certainly glad you made this choice too,” she smiled, glad she had a scaly shoulder to lean on in times like these.

“What I’m trying to say is,” he added. “Maybe it doesn’t matter what Celestia wants you to do or even expects of you. Didn’t you do all this because it’s what you decided on? Because you wanted to do what you believed was best for Equestria?”

“Yeah,” nodded Twilight. “It is. That’s all I’ve been trying to do since this all began. I can’t say everything I’ve done has been the right choice, but it’s what I believed in and I’m not the type of Pony that likes to leave a job unfinished. So, enough tears and self-doubt. I’ve got a clue to figure out.” Opening up the book, Twilight started to look through the pages for whatever clue Celestia had hidden within it.

“And I’ll be rooting for ya,” smiled Spike.

“By my side, I hope,” she told him, petting his spikes flat against his head.

“I’m coming too?” asked Spike a bit surprised.m

“It’s what I’d like,” she explained. “Where would I be without my Number One Assistant? But that’s entirely up to you to decide if you want to come.”

“Of course I’m coming,” answered Spike. “So long as we’re friends, I’ll always be there when you need me.”

“Glad to hear that,” Twilight beamed with joy. “And, while we’re searching for the clue…” Twilight’s horn glowed slightly and Spike felt a tingle below his snout before a suave, black mustache sprouted upon it magically.

With a couple claws, Spike ran them across one side of his stache. “Sweeeeet,” he said in a delighted voice.

“I’m really glad I bothered to learn that spell after all,” chuckled Twilight as she continued her research.

Prologue Part 3 - The Muffin Queen

“I miss it already,” sighed Spike as he rubbed below his snout, the space bare once again. He had with him a blue backpack that was half filled with scrolls, quills, and bottles of ink and the other half empty for anything he or Twilight might pick acquire on their journey after exiting the Golden Oak Library.

“Sorry Spike,” Twilight told him as she made her way out of Ponyville with the dragon riding on her back. “But we’re on a serious mission now. We don’t have time for silly distractions.”

“I know,” he answered her. “Still, I can’t believe Celestia’s old castle was this close to Ponyville.”

“If we figured out the clue correctly,” Twilight added. “But, at least, it sounds promising. The book features a castle tucked far away in a dark and scary forest.”

“And that’s when I told you there’s supposed to be an old castle in the Everfree Forest, on the outskirts of town,” recalled Spike. “And I’d hate to imagine a forest that’s even spookier than this one in all of Equestria. Still, I don’t know for sure if there really is a castle there or not. It could just be an old Pony’s tale like the headless horse or Nightmare Moon, though I suppose she’s not a tall tale anymore.” Pondering over this, Spike hugged Twilight’s neck nervously. “Y-You don’t think the headless horse could be real too?”

Sighing a little, Twilight shook her head. “I highly doubt the headless horse is real, Spike. How could any creature survive without their head?”she pointed out. “And even if they somehow could, how would they be able to do anything when the only sense available to them is touch? In a story they might be scary, but think how silly they’d look stumbling around.”

“Heheh, I guess that would be funny to see,” chuckled Spike, his worries quickly forgotten.”

“Anyway, that’s not what we need to focus on. We need to see if this rumored castle really exists,” Twilight told him, sounding a bit excited and added some spring to her trot. “And if it is, just think. An ancient Pony Castle, the very one Princess Celestia used to live in, that would have to be an archeologist’s dream to explore. Imagine all the ancient treasures that could be housed in there like tapestries, jewels, and tons of other priceless artifacts from days long gone. Imagine seeing the place where the princess lived in her youth, untouched by Pony hands for ages. Oh, and most of all, just think of what the castle library must be like.”

“Figures you’d be dorking out over the library,” joked Spike. “But let’s not forget we still have to get through the forest to reach it and that place is no picnic. It is incredibly dangerous with ferocious cragodiles, packs of howling timber wolves, all kinds of Pony-eating plants, and who knows what else. No sane Pony would ever dare set hoof in that place.”

“Sane or not, we’ve got no choice but to go,” Twilight reminded Spike. “That’s where the Elements of Harmony are hidden. As for the dangers, I shouldn’t have any trouble dealing with them thanks to my magic. All we’ve got to do is keep our eyes open for any dangers and we should be able to make it to the castle without too much trouble.”

“You make it sound so easy,” worried Spike. “But if we’re not careful we’ll meet our untimely end before our adventure has even begun.”

“That’s certainly gonna happen with thinking like that,” commented Twilight, turning to Spike. “Think you can try to be a bit more positive?”

“That is a bit hard to do,” admitted Spike, giving his belly a rub as it gurgled. “Particularly when I’m hungry.”

“I thought you had like four hay burgers while waiting for me and Trixie to have our magic duel,” she reminded Spike. “I can’t imagine you still being hungry after all that.”

“Actually, I only had three,” he confessed to Twilight and second, my internal clock is so messed up from this darkness that I don’t know if it should be breakfast, lunch, dinner, or time for one of my late night snacks. All I know for certain is that my belly’s hungry for food.”

“Did you pack anything to eat?” wondered Twilight.

“No,” Spike admitted. “But on our way to the Everfree Forest, we can make a pitstop at the farm over there called ‘Sweet Apple Acres.’ The Apple family lives there and they’re more than happy to welcome in travelers. I could definitely get a bite to eat while we’re there.”

“We could hardly be considered travelers after walking for not even ten minutes,” commented Twilight.

“By the time we reach the river and cross over the bridge we’ll have traveled for ten minutes,” pointed out Spike before he looked ahead of them and gently tugged on Twilight’s mane. “Whoa! Hold up a minute.”

“Why?” she asked scanning the area. “What do you see?”

“An answer to my prayers,” he replied as he hopped off her back and hurried further down the path they were on, straight to something they were heading towards.

“What is it?” wondered Twilight as she approached, a few steps behind Spike. “When she got close enough to see, she raised an eyebrow in confusion at the brown, sweet-smelling object before them. “Muffins? Why are there a whole bunch of muffins just left here like this?”

“Who cares?” questioned Spike. “They are ours now.”

“They have to belong to somepony,” Twilight informed Spike. “And they’ve been laying on the ground for who knows how long. They’re probably just trash now.”

“One Pony’s trash can be this dragon’s treasure,” he salivated hungrily. Seeing no way to convince the hungry dragon not to eat them, Twilight just rolled her eyes and waited.

Picking one up from the pile, Spike licked his chops and then opened his maw to gobble it up. However, he immediately stopped and stared at the confection when he suddenly noticed that it was staring back at him. “What the?” pondered Spike as he looked closer at the odd confection.

“Don’t eat me!” the muffin suddenly cried, freaking Spike out.

“Wargh!” the dragon screamed, tossing the muffin away and stumbled backwards, falling onto his back, but still attempted to retreat.

“What’s wrong?” called Twilight, seeing his unexpected freakout.

“That muffin was alive!” he told her, fearfully, much to her belief, however, as the muffin fell back onto the rest of them, they all came to life, sprouting little feet as they scampered around frantically.

“Don’t eat us!” they all cried, further scaring Spike and even Twilight too as they kept their distance from them. The muffins then turned and retreated down the path and away from Twilight and Spike, soon vanishing from sight.

“That… was… freaky,” panted Spike as he hugged Twilight’s leg tightly. “And I think I lost my appetite.” His stomach grumbled. “Uh, never mind that last part, but that was still weird.”

“Enchanting muffins to come alive certainly isn’t commonplace magic,” answered Twilight as she pondered this.”

“You think Nightmare Moon could be behind it?” suggested Spike.

“I doubt it,” figured Twilight. “She can’t know where I am and even if she did, would she seriously send muffsassins or whatever those things are to stop me? They just freaked out and ran away.”

“Yeah, in the direction we were going,” gulped Spike.

“Well, if we do run into any more, we’ll be ready for them,” Twilight told Spike. “After all, how bad can some baked goods be?”

Celestia didn’t have much else to do while trapped in her own room, save rereading the letter Twilight had written her and hope she was still doing alright. Every so often, she listened at her door, to check if the guards were still at their post and to make certain nopony was going to suddenly barge in and catch her with the letter.

“Stand aside,” ordered Nightmare Moon in her loud, commanding voice from the other side of Celestia’s door. With such generous forewarning of her arrival, the sun princess was able to quickly stash away the letter under her bed and quickly situate herself to appear as if she had been resting on her side with her pillow wrapped around the back of her head the entire time.

“Arise, Celestia,” announced Nightmare Moon as she entered. “I bring great new!”

“That you changed your mind and decided to go back to living on the moon?” she asked.

“Oh, did you think I meant good news for you?” she asked smugly. “Sorry, none of that today. I’ve made my first announcement as the new ruler of Equestria, just a little earlier.”

“I know. I could hear it from here,” she replied, stretching and sitting atop her bed. “You woke me up when I was attempting to get some rest.”

“Oh, sorry,” Nightmare Moon apologized before realizing what she said. “Wait! I do not need to apologize to you for anything. If nothing else, you should be the one begging me for forgiveness!”

“Like it would even make a difference at this point,” scoffed Celestia.

“Very true,” Nightmare Moon agreed, taking a seat beside Celestia. With the white Alicorn’s magic suppressed, she was free to be as relaxed around her prisoner as she wanted. “And all that is a thousand moons in the past. Nothing can stop what has already been set in motion.”

“Tell me,” continued Celestia, turning to the black Alicorn. “Do you honestly think the Ponies of this land will willingly follow you?”

“They followed you,” countered Nightmare Moon, grinning as she enjoyed fighting Celestria, this time in a battle of wits. “And for a lot less than the promise of a fortune in gems.”

“Bribery will only get you so far,” stated Celestia.

“Maybe not as far and lies and deceit,” she admitted. “But in time they will come to understand that my rule will be absolute, but also fair. So long as they follow behind me and don’t stand in my way, they shall have no fear of being trampled under hoof. It’s as simple as that.”

“You make it sound as if you’ve already won and you’re just waiting for everypony to just fall in line,” commented Celestia. “But you aren’t the ruler of anypony just yet.”

“I admit, there are a few loose ends to tie up,” acknowledged the moon princess. “But I’ll have them tied up very soon. After that, nothing will be able to stop me.”

“Your majesty,” spoke one of the Pony guards at the door. “I have an urgent message for you.”

“Please come in at once,” Celestia and Nightmare Moon spoke in unison.

“Hey, I’m the one in charge now,” snapped Nightmare Moon.

“Oh, force of habit, I suppose,” Celestia admitted with a chuckle.

Nightmare Moon muttered some words and then called for her guard to enter once more. He came into Celestia’s room, levitating a crystal ball in front of him. “What is it that you have come to report?”

“One of your Dreamers on the ground has contacted you,” he explained, handing off possession of the orb to Nightmare Moon.

“Dreamers?” questioned Celestia.

“My loyal followers,” Nightmare Moon explained. “Ponies I’ve visited in dreams in the recent months before my return. I struck a deal with them for whatever their greatest dream was in exchange for swearing their loyalty to me. Once they awakened they have no memory of the agreement, but become my sleeper agents, waiting for when I need them. In this way, I’ve built up a following without anyone the wiser. Now, all over Equestria, I have a number of agents in every city and town to act as my eyes and ears. And, when other Ponies see what could await them for joining my side, they will wholeheartedly jump at the chance to.”

“Your majesty,” reminded the guard. “The transmission.”

“Oh, right,” remembered the dark Alicorn as she cast a spell on the crystal ball, changing it from reflecting a distorted image of the room to displaying a large pair of derpy, yellow eyes. Seeing such a thing, caught Nightmare Moon off guard and almost made her drop the orb.

“Princess Nightmare,” the Pony belonging to those eyes called to her. “Princess, I’ve got something to report. Are you there?”

“Y-Yes, I am,” Nightmare Moon answered her. “You don’t have the press your face against your crystal ball. Take a few steps back.”

“Sorry, about that,” she apologized and did so, revealing the rest of her body. She was a gray-haired Pegasus with a simple blonde mane and tail. She had a regal red robe with white trim draped over her back and a golden crown atop her head that was a giant muffin affixed to it. All around her she had tons of sentient muffins, including two that were sitting on her shoulders, one flavored with cherries and the other blueberry. “Is that better?”

“Much better, Muffin Queen,” replied Nightmare Moon.

“Uh…” stared Princess Celestia, struggling to find the words to say. “Muffin Queen?”

“This was her dream,” whispered Nightmare Moon to Celestia. “And she was more of a guinea pig I awakened early to make sure my magic worked as I intended it to.”

“Ah, I see,” nodded Celestia.

“Ahem,” Nightmare Moon cleared her throat before returning her focus to her Dreamer. “You said you have something to report?”

“What?” she asked scratching her head as she thought for a moment. “Oh, right. Yeah. Some giant, purple dragon tried to eat some of my muffin subjects.”

“A giant, purple dragon,” replied Nightmare Moon looking concerned. “I certainly can’t have such a beast threatening my kingdom after I just claimed ownership of it. I’ll handle the creature right away.”

“What’s that?” asked the Muffin Queen as one of her muffins spoke to her. “Uh huh… Oh, okay.” She then turned back to the orb to speak to Nightmare Moon again. “It seems that the dragon was giant because my muffins are so small. They think he was around three feet tall, but he was definitely purple. Purple with green spikes.”

“Spike,” thought Celestia upon hearing such a description.

“Sounds like a young welp of a dragon,” replied Nightmare Moon. “Such a creature shouldn’t pose any trouble to you, but I doubt it would be on its own. They didn’t see any other dragons along with it, did they?”

Celestia tensed up, certain that Twilight was with her draconic ward and feared what Nightmare Moon would do if she became aware of this fact. “No,” the Muffin Queen answered her. “There were no other dragons with him.” Celestia let out a silent sigh of relief. “However, there was a purple Unicorn with him.” Celestia bit her lip in worry.

“A purple… Unicorn?” questioned Nightmare Moon, leaning closer to her crystal ball.

“Um, now you’re getting too close,” commented the Muffin Queen as she saw the dark Alicorn’s pointy teeth and slit pupils up close on the orb.

“Tell me about this Unicorn,” Nightmare Moon demanded to know. “Where is she now?”

“She was down the road from my tower,” she answered. “My muffins said she was heading this way too.”

“Hold on for one minute,” Nightmare Moon instructed her and cast another spell upon the orb, changing what it showed to an overhead view of Equestria. From so far away, it was hard to make out much of anything beyond the general layout of the land. Nightmare Moon then used her magic to zoom in closer, concentrating it upon the area the Muffin Queen’s tower was located. “Let’s see now. She was stationed just outside of a small town, uh, Ponyville. Now, if they were headed down the path towards her then they should be close by. Finding the tower, Nightmare Moon followed the dirt road between it and the town till she spotted somepony heading towards it. Just as the Muffin Queen had said, it was a small purple dragon and a Unicorn. “Aha! Found them!” Zooming in further, she saw Twilight Sparkle and Spike the Dragon headed for the Muffin Queen’s tower. “Well, well, well, what do we have here? This is that student of yours you helped to escape earlier, isn’t it Celestia?”

“Yes,” admitted Celestia, seeing no point in denying the obvious. “What of it? She’s already proven to be no match for you.”

“I know that, but still, you saved her and a short while later she’s headed straight for the Everfree Forest where our old castle resides. That’s no mere coincidence. Without a doubt, she is after the Elements of Harmony. Well, she can try all she wants, but she will never find them.” With a smirk, she chuckled. “But seeing her try would prove most entertaining.”

“Entertaining?” questioned Celestia. “What are you planning now?”

Ignoring Princess Celestia, Nightmare Moon returned to her conversation with the Muffin Queen. “Those two are indeed headed straight for your tower,” Nightmare Moon informed her minion. “When they arrive, you are to defeat and capture them for me. It’s time for you to prove yourself, Queen of Muffins. I trust you will not disappoint me.”

“Okey dokey lokey,” she replied with a derpy smile. “You can count on me, Princess Nightmare.”

The transmission came to an end and Nightmare Moon grinned at Celestia. “Well, it seems that you’ll get to see your protege beaten yet again,” she cackled. “Won’t that be thrilling to see and by muffins no less.”

“I wouldn’t count Twilight out yet,” countered Celestia. “Twilight is far more capable than you give her credit for. What’s more, she is not daunted by challenges. They only make her that much more determined.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see now, won’t we,” stated Nightmare Moon as she got up to leave the room.

“Where are you going now?” wondered Celestia. “I can hardly watch a good brawl without a snack. Some popcorn would be good right about now.” She proceeded to leave, but stopped and turned back to Celestia. “Uh, this place is a lot bigger than our old haunt. How do I get to the-”

“The kitchen is on the lower floor second room on the right,” Celestia told her. “Oh, and can you grab me a slice of cake while you’re down there? The red velvet one, though, not the one with strawberries on top. I prefer to enjoy that sort of cake when I want to be in a relaxed mood.”

“Ok,” she nodded. “Be right back.” Reaching the door, she stopped and turned back to Celestia. “Wait, you are my prisoner. I’m not going to bring you cake.”

“Then I’m not going to tell you where the popcorn is,” smirked Celestia. “I’m sure you can figure which cabinet it’s in in time to make it back here to see how Twilight will fare against your Queen of Muffins, at least by the time the battle is wrapping up.”

“Fine, I’ll get your cake,” grumbled NIghtmare Moon. “Now, divulge the whereabouts of the popcorn!”

“It should be in one of the cabinets over the sink,” she told her. “Now remember, the red velvet cake.”

“I know, I know,” Nightmare Moon grumbled as she took her leave.

Once she was gone, Celestia wasted no time in hurrying over to her desk, taking out some scroll paper, ink and a quill. The princess hurried to write a letter and roll it up. Then, with a bit of magic, she ignited it into pink flames and watched the embers vanish into smoke that flew away just the same as Spike’s burned letters.

“Please let that reach Twilight in time,” prayed Celestia. “And please let her find the power within herself to be able to combat this Queen of Muffins.”

“That’s strange,” commented Spike as he looked at the raging river that cut off their access to Sweet Apple Acres and the Everfree Forest. “This river was never this wild or large. Even I could have waded across it.”

“What about that?” questioned Twilight as she pointed at the large stone tower that bridged both sides of land over the water. It looked to be at least three stories tall and had a muffin emblem carved into the front door.

“That was supposed to be the bridge where we could cross,” he answered. “I have no idea why there’s a tower here now, though that muffin symbol on the door does make me worry, considering what we saw before.”

“It’ll be fine,” Twilight told Spike. “Let’s just knock on the door and explain that we need to get across. I’m sure whoever is in there will grant us safe passage through.”

Walking to the entrance to the tower, Twilight knocked on the door and called to whoever resided inside. “Hello?” she spoke. “Is anyone in here?”

“Just a minute,” came a voice from inside that soon unlocked the door. “Hello, I’m the Muffin Queen. How can I help you?”

“Huh?” mumbled Twilight, momentarily distracted by the Pegasus’s odd, royal getup, but she quickly recovered. “Oh, yes. The two of us just need to get to the other side of this river, so I was hoping you’d let us cross from here.”

“Okey dokey lokey,” she answered with a nod. Twilight took a step forward, but some murmuring on the other side of the door caught the Muffin Queen’s attention and she turned to listen. “What’s that? Oh, this is the one we’re supposed to capture?” She turned back to Twilight. “Sorry, to ask you this, but can you let us hold you against you will?”

“Does she even realize the contradiction in such a request?” wondered Spike to himself.

“Uh… no,” answered Twilight very slowly to allow her some time to cautiously back away.

“Guess we gotta do this the hard way then,” the Muffin Queen figured before raising her voice as she pointed at Twilight. “Muffins! Attack!”

“Yeargh!” the little confections screamed as they pushed open the door and pursued Twilight who quickly turned and ran.

“Spike! Run!” cried Twilight as she reached him and the two tried to flee, however, they were soon met by another horde of muffins that had been hiding in the nearby bushes and trees. They surrounded the dragon and the Pony and slowly started to move in closer.

“You know,” commented Spike as he watched the muffins approach them, snarling and prepared to take a bite out of them with their nonexistent teeth. “I thought if we’d meet an untimely end, it would have been to some ferocious beast in the Everfree Forest, not on the way to it and not by muffins of all things.”

“We can’t let this be the end,” Twilight replied. “We’re outnumbered, but we’ve got size and strength on our side. We’ll turn our defense into offense and take them down as they attack us.”

“Got that from a book too?” wondered Spike.

“Yes, but we can discuss that later,” Twilight told him as the first of the muffins started their assault. Quickly, Twilight shot small bursts of magic at them, blasting the treats to pieces. Spike slashed at them with his claws, batting them away and breaking them apart just as easily. With almost no trouble at all, they managed to beat off the first wave.

“Hey, this is actually pretty easy,” admitted the dragon, getting ready for more with increased confidence.

“No, my muffins,” cried the Muffin Queen as she saw the carnage of them being broken into crumbs. “How could you do this to them?”

“You were the one who sent them to attack us,” retorted Spike.

“I’m just doing what Princess Nightmare said for me to do,” she explained. “If I don’t do this she might make me not the Muffin Queen anymore and then I’ll have to go back to my regular old job at the post office.”

“The post office?” questioned Twilight as she looked more closely at the Muffin Queen. “Wait a minute, you’re our regular mail Pony.”

“Oh, yeah,” Spike realized after Twilight pointed it out. “You went missing a few days ago. So, you were here the whole time, being the Muffin Queen?”

“Uh huh,” she nodded. “And Princess Nightmare said I can be the Muffin Queen so long as I do what she wants when she needs me.”

“Look, uh,” Twilight tried to say to her, but was drawing a blank on her real name. She turned to Spike, hoping he would know.

“Her name is, uh, Derpy Whooves,” he managed to recall.

“Yes, Derpy,” Twilight continued. “I know that you feel indebted to Nightmare Moon, but you have to let us through so that we can stop her. The fate of Equestria is in the balance.”

“Well, I’d really like to help you,” Derpy replied as she looked down at her cherry and blueberry muffins. “But I really do like being the Muffin Queen. So, sorry about this.” Turning back to her tower, she called to it. “Come on out everyone else!”

“Reinforcements?” worried Twilight after her attempts to reason with Derpy failed.

“If it’s reinforcements, how many more muffins can she even have?” pointed out Spike, before the front door burst open with a flood of muffins coming out. They split up to avoid plowing into their queen as they made their way towards Spike and Twilight.

“Me and my big mouth,” gulped Spike as the countless confections joined with the others already attacking the duo and washed over them like an ocean wave. The two attempted to struggle their way to the surface, but the muffins just swarmed them more, burying the two in their golden brown hides. As their strength exhausted from trying to get free, the mound of muffins eventually became still, with Twilight and Spike trapped within its center.

“Yay!” cheered Derpy with a big smile on her face. “I win! I win!”

“Hahahah!” laughed Nightmare Moon, spilling some popcorn from her bucket as she watched with villainous glee as Twilight struggled against that army of muffins till at last she was lost within them. “What a victory and what a way to go, drowning in muffins.” She then turned to Celestia, with a big smirk on her face. “So, tell me, how does it feel that your precious student has been bested by a bunch of baked bads?”

“I prefer to give my final evaluation for once something is truly over,” retorted Celestia as she levitated her fork to break off a piece of her cake and bring it to her mouth to eat.

“You think it’s not over yet?” questioned Nightmare Moon as she used her magic to send a single piece of popcorn into the air and catch it in her mouth. “Even when we were kids, you never knew when to give up.”

“And I also never lost,” pointed out Celestia. “In particular, never to you.”

“Urgh!” growled Nightmare Moon, those words only serving to agitate her further. “Well, that was all in the past. If you haven’t already forgotten, in our last confrontation, it was I who emerged victorious.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Princess Celestia acknowledged. “I’ll admit I lost, but I wouldn’t say you’ve won either.”

“Don’t you dare try to cheapen what I’ve yearned for these last thousand moons!” she snapped. “I won and that’s all there is to it!”

“If that were true,” Celestia pointed out. “Then why even bother to have your Dreamer confront Twilight to capture her? If she were not a threat to you then you wouldn’t even need to bother with her at all.”

“I’ll admit,” Nightmare Moon confessed, scowling and narrowing her eyes at her fellow princess. “I was intrigued that she was still making an effort to stop me even after witnessing my insurmountable power. However, whether or not she could have posed a threat to me is now a moot point. She’s been defeated and, this time, you can’t help her get away.”

“I win! I win!” the Muffin Queen continued to cheer happily alongside her cherry and blueberry muffins while the rest of her army remained piled on top of Twilight and Spike. However, what she couldn’t see, thanks to the coverage the baked goods provided was the bubble of magic that Twilight managed to put up to separate the two of them from the muffins. The few that managed to slip in while she formed it were quickly reduced to crumb by the dragon who was developing a strong distaste for them.

“Once we get out of this mess, I never want to see another muffin again for as long as I live,” stated Spike as he brushed the crumbs off his claws. He then turned to Twilight who was squished uncomfortably close to Spike within their protective bubble. “Twilight, I’m glad you thought of putting up this barrier to keep these muffins from swarming us, but do you think you can make it a little bigger. I’ve practically got my feet in my mouth.”

“Sorry, Spike,” she apologized, curled up as compact as she could get her body. “But the bigger the barrier, the more magic I use and until we figure out a way to defeat these muffins I have to use what I have sparingly.”

“Well, if Derpy is the one leading them, then don’t we just need to defeat her to put an end to this?” Spike suggested.

“We don’t know that for certain,” replied Twilight, rubbing her chin. “And I don’t want to hurt her. She’s just a pawn of Nightmare Moon and doesn’t realize what she’s doing.”

“Maybe we could just defeat all these muffins,” Spike offered a second idea. “If she has no muffins to lead then can win that way.”

“That would work, but if we exhaust ourselves before then we’d be completely helpless,” analyzed Twilight. “And, for all we know, there could still be more muffins still inside her tower.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” worried Spike as he looked at all the muffins pressed against Twilight’s barrier, attempting to get in. Fortunately, they couldn’t do more than wait for Twilight’s magic to run out.

“I don’t know,” sighed Twilight. “There are too many unknowns to this problem. We need more data before we can act.”

“Yeah, but how exactly can we get any in here- ugh!” Spike replied, before he covered his mouth as his stomach rumbled.

“Spike!” worried Twilight, expanding the size of her barrier to give them more room, worried that her friend was getting sick. “You aren’t claustrophobic, are you?”

“No,” he groaned with his claws covering over his muzzle as his cheeks bulged. “But you might wanna put up a barrier between us now.”

Listening to Spike’s warning, Twilight put up a barrier to divide them and watched behind the safety of it as he belched out green flames. “Uh, was that indigestion or something?” she asked.

“Nope,” Spike answered as he presented her with a rolled up scroll. “I just got a message from Princess Celestia. She wrote back to us.”

“A letter from the princess!” gasped Twilight, undoing the shield between them to read it. “Even while a prisoner in her own castle, she’s doing whatever she can to help us.”

“I hope you’re right,” replied Spike. “What’s it say?”

To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

First, let me tell you how relieved I am to know that you have escaped safely from the castle. Second, please do not blame yourself for what has happened. My hesitation was my fault and mine alone. Nightmare Moon was supposed to be my burden to bear, but now I am in no state to be able to handle her. I can only hope that you and the rest of Equestria can forgive me for my failure in protecting you all.

I have no right to ask you to put yourself in harm’s way to retrieve the Elements of Harmony, but if that is what you’ve truly decided to do on your own, I can only wish you the best of luck and offer you what information I can gather and pass on to you underneath Nightmare Moon’s nose. I’ve managed to learn that she has amassed a number of Equestria’s citizens as her loyal followers by granting them their greatest dreams in return. She calls them Dreamers and by the time you receive this letter you should be in the midst of battle with one. Unfortunately, I was unable to learn how to break whatever kind of spell she has enchanted them with, but I know there must be a way and I know you can find it. When you put your mind to it, there isn’t an answer to a problem that you are unable to find.

Now, go forth Twilight. Find the answers that only you can.

Princess Celestia

“That was a nice letter and all,” commented Spike, looking a bit sad. “But she didn’t even mention anything about me in the letter.”

“Oh, there’s a bit more down here,” noticed Twilight as she unrolled the scroll some more.

P.S.

Spike, I am glad that you are doing well and hope we can meet again once this whole ordeal is resolved. Till then, please lend Twilight your strength. I’m certain she will need all the friends she can get on this journey.

As for your birthday, I think you will be pleased with what I’ve prepared for you. I’d tell you more, but I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.

“Now I’m extra excited for my birthday,” smiled Spike as he licked his chops. “And that’s one more reason we’ve got to get out of this mess. So, Twilight, did that help you out at all?”

“Hmm,” she pondered as she closed her eyes to think, factoring in this new information with what she already knew. After a few minutes, she opened up her eyes and looked at Spike. “There might be a way, but this is only a theory. These Dreamers are dreaming.”

“That is the insight that you were able to come up with after reading Celestia’s letter?” he asked her. “I mean that’s pretty much what she said. Nightmare Moon gained their loyalty by giving them their greatest dream.”

“Exactly,” she continued. “So, all we’ve got to do is wake them up. If we can do that then whatever magic Nightmare Moon has on them should be broken too. Spike, if you can lure the muffins away, I should be able to awaken her. Maybe try the whole dragon kidnapping royalty routine.”

“Just for the record, it’s cliches like that that give dragons a bad name,” Spike told her. “Secondly, I see myself as more of a heroic and brave knight than some evil fiend. But, if that’s what it’ll take to get us out of this mess, I’ll do it.”

“Glad you’re on board,” she told Spike as she put him into a magical bubble within the one they were already in.

“Uh, what’s this for?” he asked, watching as her horn glowed, the point aimed directly at him.

“Getting you out of here,” she explained. “Good luck.”

Twilight blasted the magically protected dragon, breaking a hole in the bubble they were in and launching him, bubble and all out of the muffin mound. Gravity pulled it back to the ground and, after bouncing a few times and then rolling to a stop, it popped to let him out. With Spike freed, Twilight was quick to restore her own barrier and stomp on any muffins that managed to slip inside of it.

“That was certainly some ride,” groaned Spike as he woozily got up. Derpy and her two henchmuffins beside her saw his escape and turned to converse with one another.

“Dragon escaped,” the blueberry muffin told the Muffin Queen.

“Should we go after him?” the cherry one asked next.

“Um, we were only supposed to capture the purple Pony, so I don’t think we have to,” she pondered.

“Okay, Spike,” thought the dragon as he approached Derpy. “You’ve just got to convince her you’re a ferocious dragon and make her send her muffin army on you. No pressure.” Looking behind him, he could see just the massive pile of muffins that’d come after him and swallowed hard. “Okay, having all that chase after me and the fate of Equestria hanging in the balance, maybe a little pressure.” Standing in front of Derpy, she and her muffin minions just stared at him, wondering what he planned to do. Drawing up his courage, he held his arms up, claws out and planned to let out the fiercest roar he could manage. “Ra-awr…” His voice crack. It didn’t sound threatening in the least.

“Ah!” freaked out the Queen of Muffins. “Dragon attack!”

“Dragon attack!” the blueberry muffin cried out.

“Protect the queen!” the cherry one ordered, causing all the muffins still swarming Twilight to follow their newest orders and go after the not so ferocious dragon attacking the Muffin Queen.

“Uh, good, it worked,” smiled Spike, surprised that his lackluster performance actually succeeded. However, seeing the muffin swarm charging at him, the blueberry and cherry flavored ones leading the pack, started to make him regret it. “Crud! It worked!”

Spike ran with all the might his short legs could waddle to save his scaly hide. He also kept in mind to lead them as far away from the two Ponies to allow Twilight time to fulfill her part of the plan.

As Twilight had hoped, every last muffin had left the mound, freeing her to drop her barrier and confront the unguarded Queen. “Good job, Spike,” spoke Twilight quietly. “Just leave the rest to me.”

Approaching Derpy once more, she called out to her. “Okay, Derpy, it’s time to wake up!”

“But the sun is not up yet,” she pointed out.

“And it never will again if Nightmare Moon has her way,” explained Twilight. “Equestria will be in an eternal state of darkness. Did you really agree to be a part of this just so you can be the Queen of Muffins?”

“I didn’t know about any of this,” she admitted. “When Princess Nightmare said she could make me a Queen of Muffins for real she said she’d only want a favor or two back in return.”

“And what were these favors she asked of you?” Twilight questioned her.

“Just to guard this tower and report anyone attempting to cross to the other side. Oh, and she also wanted me to capture you. That one is new.”

“Do you want to do any of that?” continued Twilight walking towards her. “To dream of being a Queen when you are only really being a puppet in Nightmare Moon’s plans? Would you be happy just living here by yourself with nothing but muffins to keep you company?”

“When you put it like that,” Derpy pondered as considered her position. “It is pretty boring here and being Muffin Queen isn’t nearly as fun as I thought it’d be. I can’t even eat muffins now. I know they are just enchanted to be alive, but I just can’t bring myself to, not when they are looking at me.”

“Yeah,” nodded Twilight. “Spike ran into the same problem when we met a bunch of your muffins earlier.”

“Hey!” shouted Spike, struggling against the swarm of muffins that finally caught up with him. “Get off me you stupid baked bads. Don’t make me smoosh- ow!” He pulled one off of his tail. “You don’t even have teeth. How can you even bite me?” The muffin didn’t answer him with words, just a raspberry to his face, getting him more annoyed. “That’s it! I don’t care if you’re magically enchanted to be alive or whatever. You all just earned a trip into my belly.” Opening his maw, he chomped on the muffin while he grabbed another with his free hand. “Mmm, pretty tasty actually.”

“But I think he’s just gotten over it,” she added, watching Spike in the distance keeping the swarm of muffins preoccupied.

“So, what now?” asked Derpy.

“I’m not entirely sure how this Dreamer magic works,” admitted Twilight as she pondered it some more. “I technically didn’t defeat you, just convinced you to stop, but I guess you could probably just call off your muffins, let us through your tower and then head back to town and your regular life. Simple as that.”

“Okey dokey lokey,” Derpy agreed, removing her crown.

“Nokey dokey lokey!” snapped Nightmare Moon as her enraged visage appeared in the sky overhead. “You were given an order to defeat and capture Twilight Sparkle, my Muffin Queen. You can’t just give up on doing that.”

“Why not?” she asked, looking up at the giant illusion of Nightmare Moon’s head.

“Why not?” she repeated, growing more agitated by this betrayal. “Because… because…” Nightmare Moon attempted to come up with a convincing reason, but she was struggling to think of something. “B-Because that’s the agreement we made. I give you what you want and you obey my orders.”

“Well, if I give it back to you, then I shouldn’t have to listen to you anymore,” Derpy countered with a smile on her face.

“That sounds fair to me,” commented Twilight, finding a guilty pleasure is seeing Nightmare Moon so flummoxed from her back and forth with Derpy.

“You keep out of this!” hissed Nightmare Moon to Twilight before attempting to force the nicest face she could make to Derpy to get her to reconsider. “My, dear Muffin Queen. Perhaps you don’t fully grasp the situation that’s RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE!” Her attempt to keep a cool head failed. “The Pony I want you to capture is right there! Do this for me and you can have whatever you desire, no strings attached!”

“No thank you,” she replied, such a happy rejection causing Nightmare Moon’s eye to twitch before she got her illusionary face right up against Derpy’s.

“WHAT?!?” she raged.

“You’re too close again,” Derpy told her, taking a few steps back, away from her.

“I was going to give you whatever you could ever want and you just turned my offer down?” she questioned her.

“Yup,” Derpy nodded. “Sorry to disappoint you Princess Nightmare.”

“It’s Nightmare Moon!” she corrected her.

“Just give it a rest,” Twilight Sparkle told her. “She won’t be bought by anything you’re selling anymore, so just give up.”

“Very well then,” the dark Alicorn conceded. Her horn glowed and then in a poof of magic, Derpy’s crown and robe vanished. The tower that connected both ends of the the river went away, returning the bridge to how it normally was. As for the river itself, both ends came closer together, making it more narrow while the water also became shallow and its flow was reduced to a crawl, returning it to being no more than a gentle stream.

At the same time, the muffins Spike was still in the middle of battling stopped moving and returned back to being lifeless confections. Digging himself out of the pile of them, Spike rubbed his bulging gut as moans leaked out of his crumb-covered muzzle. “I never want to eat another muffin for as long as I live,” he groaned and let out a fiery belch.

“Congratulations, Twilight Sparkle,” spoke Nightmare Moon. “You’ve managed to overcome one of my Dreamers with barely more than some words and compassion. That was quite impressive, actually. I find it hard to believe that you of all Ponies are one of Celestia’s greatest students.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked Nightmare Moon sternly.

“Simply that Celestia would not have acted in such a manner when she could much more efficiently remove the problem with far less effort,” she answered Twilight’s inquiry.

“That’s a lie!” Twilight argued with the illusion of Nightmare Moon in the sky. “Celestia is a kind and benevolent ruler. She wouldn’t harm a fly.”

“No, Celestia is the liar,” countered Nightmare Moon. “I have been nothing but honest from the moment I’ve returned to Equestria. This just goes to show how little you know about us and how much Celestia has worked to keep such information hidden from the world.”

“If Celestia is hiding secrets,” spoke Twilight. “Then tell me what they are.”

“It’d be a waste of my breath to do that,” she scoffed. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I did tell you. Instead, I’m going to allow you to continue on with this futile quest of yours a little longer. I’ll even give you a little word of warning. The Dreamer you just bested was nothing more than practice before I activated all the others. Compared to the Muffin Queen, they will be far stronger. You won’t be able to simply talk them into surrendering. No, with them, you will have to fight your hardest-”

“Just to survive,” assumed Twilight.

“But you will still lose,” corrected Nightmare Moon. “Even so, please try your best. It will be very entertaining to watch you struggle and I am eager to see the look of despair wash over you precious Celestia’s face when you fail. Once that happens, then my reign over this land will finally, truly begin. Until then, enjoy the nightlife!”

Opening her maw, Nightmare Moon dove down at Twilight to swallow her up. The young, purple Pony braced herself by reflex, but the illusion of Nightmare Moon merely dissipated into magical spoke that slowly faded away. Twilight was completely unharmed, but Nightmare’s Moon’s words continued to linger on her mind.

“Wow, she sure knows how to make an exit,” commented Derpy watching the last bits of smoke vanish.

“Yeah,” agreed Twilight. “Unfortunately, she’ll be back. Derpy, do you think you can get back to town on your own?”

“Sure, no problem,” she nodded and flapped her wings to fly back the way Twilight had come from. Twilight then made her way over to her traveling companion, Spike.

“Ugh,” the purple dragon continued to groan, resting atop the once more inanimate muffins and comforting his stuffed gut. “I take it you won.”

“Piece of cake,” Twilight told him. Hearing her mention food caused Spike to moan even louder as he rubbed his belly in an effort to soothe it. “Uh, poor choice of words?”

“You think?” he replied as she very gently lifted him onto her back.

“Sorry,” she apologized. “You just take it easy and let me do the leg work. We’ll take a pitstop at the apple farm and then we can start heading into the Everfree Forest from there.”

“Uh huh,” nodded Spike. “And Nightmare Moon, said we’d be facing even greater dangers ahead?”

“Yeah,” answered Twilight as she made her way over the bridge, finally getting them across the river. “A lot tougher than Derpy and her muffins.”

“So long as I don’t have to go through that again,” he answered. “You can count on me.” Quickly turning his head, Spike unleashed another belch, spewing green flames into the air.

“Your student is quite impressive,” admitted Nightmare Moon, to Celestia once she had finished speaking to Twilight through that illusion of herself. “But if that’s the best she can do, she will not stand a chance against who I have in mind to challenge her next.”

“And who would that be?” questioned Celestia, placing her now empty plate down upon her bed.

“I could tell you, but it’d be far more fun to show you,” she explained as she suddenly shouted with her royal voice, speaking a command that could be heard throughout the entire castle. “SHADOWBOLTS! ASSEMBLE BEFORE ME AT ONCE!!!”

Back down in the banquet hall, a number of creatures were sitting around, enjoying the remains of the Summer Sun Celebration gala. Sitting at one of the tables was a group of four Pegasi. They were all dressed in matching, full body, purple uniforms that were black halfway up their four hooves. From their heads and on the center of their chest was black also done in the shape of a lightning bolt. Dividing the black and purple were lightning bolt lines of yellow. Over their eyes, they wore purple framed, yellow-tinted goggles, angled at the top like angry eyes to add to their intimidating appearance.

Among the Shadow Bolts there were two mares and two stallions. They all had wild blue manes and tails. Their hair was a paler blue hue as were their wings. While their Cutie Marks couldn’t be seen due to their body suits, on their flanks could be seen a winged skull, the symbol of the aerial group.

“Sounds like the boss is calling us,” one of the stallions stated as he finished gulping down some punch.

“Guess that party’s over,” one of the mares replied. “Oh, well. Not like there was much for us to do after Nightmare Moon had all the fun herself.”

“But it sounds like she’s got a new job for us,” the other stallion commented with a smirk. He wiped away some cookie crumbs from his muzzle as they got into a diamond formation and stood perfectly still. “That should be fun.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” the taller of the stallions standing in back asked. “Our master calls.”

“We’re finally part of a flying squad,” the mares in the center left position reminded him. “We can’t simply be the best fliers. We’ve also got to be the best team. Not just for ourselves, but for her too.”

“I know,” he nodded. “Which is also why we should be hurrying to her.”

“And needless talking isn’t making us waste even more time?” the male in the center right position pointed out.

“Shadowbolts!” announced the mare standing in the front, getting them to all become silent and focused in an instant. “Wings out!” In unison, they all opened their wings. “Get set!” They all got into a crouching position as they prepared for the final singal. “Take flight!”

Together, the four dark Pegasi leapt up as their wings flapped, allowing them to take off quickly from the ground. The foursome then started circling around the banquet hall as they picked up more speed with each flap of their wings. As they flew, they left behind a tail of black clouds that created a swirling pattern around the upper half of the hall.

The other dreamers still enjoying the party watched their routine finish up as they all moved to the room, impressing everyone that they managed to fly so fast while remaining in such a tight formation. From there, the group dove straight down to pick up as much speed as possible. It looked like the group was going fast to avoid a crash landing as they neared the floor, but, at the very last second they pulled up into a simultaneous loop-de-loop that filled the room with applause.

“We’re so awesome, the rear Shadowbolt told the group that was all big smirks for pulling off that little performance with complete ease.

“Of course we are,” the lead mare stated as they flew out of the banquet hall and then out a window to reach Nightmare Moon from outside the castle. “It’s our dream come true.”

“They should be here any moment now,” stated the Alicorn of the night as she counted the seconds. “Three… two… one…” Before she could complete her countdown, all four flew through the window of Celestia’s balcony and landed, still staying in their proper formation. Nightmare Moon beamed with pride at the speed and style of her personal flying team. “Excellent work, my little Ponies.”

“Shadow Bolt, Firestorm reporting for duty,” the lead mare greeted her master.

“Shadow Bolt, Nightshroud is here,” said the stallion in the rear position.

“Shadow Bolt, Gale Force, at your service,” she bowed before Nightmare Moon.

“Shadow Bolt, Sunny Day is also present,” the second stallion introduced himself, getting an awkward look from the others. “Uh, I’m still trying to come up with a scarier-sounding name.”

“Uh, well, behold, Celestia, my special flying unit, the Shadow Bolts!” she gloated at the Princess of the Sun.

“Am I supposed to be impressed?” questioned Celestia. “All this seems to be is an edgier version of my own flying team, the Wonderbolts. You really haven’t changed at all. You’ve always gotta have everything that I do.”

“That’s not true!” she argued with Celestia. “I, uh, I don’t have my own magical protege like you do.”

“Knowing you,” she scoffed and rolled her eyes. “It’s only a matter of time.”

“Well, my flying team will make quick work of your protege,” she assured her. Turning to the Shadow Bolts, she gave them their instructions. “Shadow Bolts, I have an important assignment for you all.” With her magic, she created an image of Twilight Sparkle. “Your task is to find and capture this Pony, Twilight Sparkle and bring her here to me. You may use whatever means you want, but I expect her brought before me begging for mercy. Make her regret ever attempting to stand in my way.”

“You can count on us,” Firestorm vowed.

“Excellent,” grinned Nightmare Moon sinisterly as she tapped her front hooves together. “She is currently en route to the Everfree Forest to reach Celestia and my old castle. If she thinks that I would allow her to so easily obtain the Elements of Harmony than she’s even more of a fool than I thought.” She and the Shadowbolts cackled as she said that. When they calmed down, she continued to instruct them. “I don’t care where you decide to confront her, but I will be watching and expect this battle to be an entertaining one, do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,” they all saluted their Princess. Then, flying in unison once more, they took out through Celestia’s balcony. As they flew towards the barrier, Nightmare Moon opened a gap in it to allow them passage through it. From there, they headed straight for the Everfree Forest.

“Before this night is over,” cackled Nightmare Moon. “Twilight Sparkle will meet her end!”

“Easy for you to say when you are making it an eternal night,” scoffed Celestia, to Nightmare Moon’s chagrin.

“Why must you always put a damper on my celebration?” pouted Nightmare Moon.

Chapter 1 Part 1 - Trouble at the Apple Farm

“There it is,” Spike told Twilight as he pointed ahead of them. “There’s Sweet Apple Acres.”

Twilight gazed ahead and gawked at the sheer size of the place. Under the light of the full moon there were apple orchards as far as the eye could see and she felt certain the same would be true in broad daylight. Following the dirty path and soon an accompanying wooden fence that indicated where the boundaries of Sweet Apple Acres, they made their way towards the opened, arched gate and made their way in. Going straight towards the heart of the farm, there stood a big, red barn. Next to it rested a humble, two-story home that appeared quite small when compared to how massive the farm was.

As the two drew closer they saw that behind the two buildings were some fields that were filled with rows of carrots, lettuce, and other crops. Even further back were some small animal pens, fenced in with chicken wire. There were animals like chickens, pigs, and sheep residing in them, all looking umblamably anxious while the dark sky didn’t reflect the actual time of day.

“Wow, this is the biggest farm I’ve even seen,” commented Twilight as she marveled at the place. “Actually, it’s the only farm I’ve ever seen, outside of pictures in books, but it’s still huge.”

“That’s what I thought when I first saw this place,” replied Spike. “And it’s all owned and run by the Apple Family.”

“The Apples must have one huge family if they take care of this whole farm by themselves,” said Twilight as she looked back at their home. “But can they all even fit in that small house or do most of them live in town.

“While the Apples do have family all over Equestria,” the purple dragon explained. “But this farm is just run by four.”

“Four?” she questioned in disbelief. “Even with magic, how can four Ponies possibly care for a place this huge?”

“Well, they are all Earth Ponies,” Spike told Twilight, surprising her further. “But, apparently they do handle all the labor on this farm on their own with nothing more than hard work and dedication. Personally, if I even looked at a list of what they have to do here every day, I think I’d change careers.”

“Just wait till I get a chance to make you a list of To Dos,” smirked Twilight with a little chuckle. “I may not have a farm, but I’m no stranger to a good work ethic and determination and I’d expect the same from my Number One Assistant.”

“Yeah,” nodded Spike, a bit worried where this conversation was headed. “I’d say I got a fairly strong work ethic, myself.”

“That’s good,” she smiled. “Then soon as we finish up this business with Nightmare Moon and I get back to my studies, I can assign you a few tasks to help me out. If your work ethic is as strong as you make it sound, a simple list of a hundred or so To Dos shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

“Uh, heh,” Spike gave a nervous chuckle after hearing that. “You’re just messing with me, aren’t you?” Twilight just kept smirking as she remained silent. “You are messing? Twilight?”

“You won’t get away with this ya varmints!” shouted a voice from somewhere in the orchard. “Give that back this instant!”

“Sounds like someponies in trouble,” said Twilight, her grin turning to a look of concern as she galloped towards where the voice was coming from. Spike held on tight, as she bobbed and weaved around the countless trees. He was just glad that their worrying talk had come to an end, but, at the same time, he still never did get a straight answer from that purple Unicorn.

Venturing deep into the orchard, it grew darker as the treetops added shade on top of the darkness of night. Twilight used her horn, illuminating it to light their way forward. Overhead, they could see the shadowy figures of dozens of bats swooping around overhead, going from tree to tree. Some were in the middle of biting into apples, sucking the juices out of them till they looked like oversized raisins. They then left that dried out husk of an apple hanging on the tree. After that, they spat out the seeds they had unintentionally sucked out with the juices and then went in search of another red delicious to eat.

The deeper the two traveled into the orchard, the more numerous the bats seemed to get, but the voice of the Pony also got louder too. Finally, Twilight and Spike stopped as an orange-haired Pony came into view. She had a long, blonde mane and tail, both wrapped ina ponytail. She had green eyes and some freckles on her cheeks. Her Cutie Mark was of three red apples.

By her side she had a small white dog with brown patches all over her body that was barking and running beside her. “I’m gonna tan your hides if you don’t give it back fore I count ta three, ya hear?” she shouted again. “One… two… Hey! Don’t you fly away from me!”

The mare angrily chased after one of the many bats flying around. This one in particular was soaring around while it had a brown, five gallon hat clenched tightly in its maw as if it was playing a game of keep away with it. When the bat landed on an apple tree to rest its wings, the Pony stood with her back to it and bucked the trunk with her hind legs, in an attempt to knock the winged mammal from it. Unfortunately, only apples fell from while the bat just took to the air to flee once more. The Pony, gritted her teeth and snorted before, once more, giving chase and yelling.

“Come on, sis,” cried another Pony. This one was a pale yellow filly with a long, red mane and tail. She had a big pink bow in her mane. Her flank was bare, showing she had yet to gain her Cutie Mark. “You’re never gonna git yer hat back by threatening it.”

“Eyup,” agreed a large, red stallion with a short length, orange mane and tail, green eyes, and freckles on his cheeks. The stallion had a large, green apple half for his Cutie Mark. Around his neck he wore a heavy-looking harness, lugging it around like it weighed nothing.

“Well, ifn you got any better ideas, I’d love to hear em,” she shouted. “But I gotta git my hat back no matter what.”

Chasing after the bat once more, she stopped in her tracks when she saw a very unusual sight. The bat was flapping its wings in midair, but it wasn’t going anywhere. The orange pony along with the small yellow and big red one stared in awe at such a sight. “What in tarnation is going on?”

“I hope I’m not intruding,” apologized Twilight, her horn glowing brighter as she used her magic to grab hold of the bat and prevent it from escaping. She then lowered it closer to the ground.

“As far as I’m concerned,” smiled the Pony as she reclaimed her hat and placed it upon her head. “For helping me reclaim this precious keepsake of mine, you are welcome around here anytime. The name’s Applejack, by the way. This here is my big brother, Big Mcintosh and my lil sis, Apple Bloom.”

The dog beside Applejack rushed towards Twilight, barking happily and gave Twilight a few sniffs pressing her wet nose against her. She then stood up against Twilight a few licks while Spike patted her on the head. “Heheh, and that friendly critter is our dog, Winona,” Applejack added.

“Wow, I knew Unicorns could use a lot of amazing magic, but that was awesome!” exclaimed Apple Bloom. “You froze that bat in place.”

“Eyup,” nodded Big Mac in agreement.

“Well, technically,” blushed Twilight at the praise. I didn’t freeze the bat in place. All I did was use a basic levitation spell, only instead of using it for its usual purpose of moving an object, I kept it stationary. That’s why it could flap its wings as much as it wanted, but it couldn’t change its positioning.”

“That’s amazing,” Apple Bloom stated once more before turning to Spike. “What did she do?”

“She froze the bat in place,” Spike simplified, getting an eye roll from Twilight.

“Well, whatever she did,” commented Applejack with a smile. “I’m sure glad she did it. So, tell me, stranger, what brings you to these parts?”

“We’re just stopping by on your way to the Everfree Forest,” Twilight explained. “My name is Twilight Sparkle and I believe you already know Spike.”

“Course we do,” replied Applejack. “The little fella the lives in the library back in town.”

“And now I’m Twilight’s Number One Assistant and help her save Equestria from Nightmare Moon,” he exclaimed proudly.

“Nightmare Moon?” replied Applejack. “You mean that cackling banshee that was in the sky earlier and making all that fuss about taking over and making it night forever?”

“Yeah,” answered Twilight with a nod. “We’re on our way to the Everfree Forest to gain the means to stop her.”

“Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say that I hope you beat her in a hurry,” stated Applejack. She looked up at the night sky and saw a bunch more bats fly around overhead. Remaining on guard after all the trouble one gave her in retrieving her hat, she held a hoof over it to ensure it remained on her head. “It’s barely been a day, but already this nocturnal nightmare’s been a heap of trouble for both us and this farm, ain’t that right, Big Mac?”

“Eyup,” he nodded.

“My big brother isn’t the most talkative of Ponies,” Apple Bloom explained.

“I can see that,” Twilight said with a smile. “And I can only imagine how much trouble this whole situation must be for you. It’ll be impossible to work a farm this large in the dark, not to mention all your apple trees and crops will suffer without sunlight to perform photosynthesis.”

“No doubt about that,” agreed Applejack. “But the most dire issue we’re facing at the moment is all these daggum fruit bats flying around and drinking every apple dry they can sink their fangs into.”

“But didn’t you have to deal with them even before all this started?” questioned Spike.

“Yeah, but being nocturnal critters they’d be asleep in the day, while we worked,” Applejack explained. “Now that it’s gonna be night all the time they’re constantly awake, snacking on apples as we’re bucking on them from trees. We normally avoid the trees they sleep in so as not to disturb them, but we can barely see a thing in this dark to work, let alone avoid them. What’s worse is that them being awake when they’re supposed to be getting their shuteye seems to be mixing them up and making them more ornery than a dog in a cat show.”

“We had sort of an unspoken agreement with them,” added Apple Bloom. “They get the orchard at night and we during the day, but now we’re practically on the verge of a feud with em and with it being the lot of us vs all of them, I don’t like our odds.”

“Spike did mention that this whole farm was run by only a few Earth Ponies,” stated Twilight as she looked from large Big Mac to medium Applejack and, finally, to little Apple Bloom. “But just you three run this whole huge place?”

“We also have Granny Smith,” continued Apple Bloom. “But this whole “night time, all the time thing” is messing with her even more than the bats. When we told her it was time to get up, she stubbornly kept on saying, ‘If the Sun ain’t up then neither am I.’”

“I can’t imagine how much work you have to put into managing a place this big with just all of you, especially without any magic,” added Twilight as she looked around and could only imagine how far the orchard ran in whatever direction she gazed at. A fruit bat then swooped in front of her face, almost scaring her to fall backward and onto Spike who was still seated on her and holding on tight to avoid falling off just now. “And especially when you have these bats to deal with on top of your work.”

“It ain’t always easy, but we manage to get by,” Applejack said. “Of course, it helps when we don’t have any added obstacles to deal with and this eternal night is about as insurmountable as an obstacle can get. I hope ya can git whatever it is you need to fix this mess as quickly as you can cause I don’t know how well or long we’ll be able to manage the farm in its present condition. The endless night is bad enough, but these fruit bats are just gonna be a constant hindrance and it hasn’t even been a full day yet.”

“You couldn’t do what you did to the bat that took Applejack’s hat and do that to the rest of them, could you, Twilight?” asked Apple Bloom as she looked at her brother like they were having a silent conversation with one another. “Big Mac was thinking if we could round them up, we might be able to cage them in the barn till this whole mess can get sorted out.”

“I wish it were that simple,” replied Twilight. “But I don’t even think Celestia could manage something like that. It’s hard enough to levitate an idle object, but to grab something moving, especially airborne is a lot more difficult. I doubt I could hold more than a dozen at once and probably not be able to hold them still for very long.”

“Oh, well, it was at least worth asking,” replied Apple Bloom, a bit disappointed.

“But I’m sure there must be a way to round up all these bats,” Twilight continued and started to think, giving her chin a rub as she looked around the farm.

“Twilight,” reminded Spike. “I can tell you want to help them. I do too, but wouldn’t our efforts be better spent stopping Nightmare Moon? If we do that then their problem will be solved as a result, as will everyone else’s.”

“I know that,” explained Twilight. “But this is just one leg of our journey and we have no idea how long it’ll take to complete it all. In the time it could take us, who knows how much damage this eternal night could cause. If we could even help mitigate it a little, I’d like to at least try.”

“That’s mighty generous of you,” Applejack told Twilight. “But this is our problem to deal with. We’ll figure out some way to put a stop to these varmints and, if we can’t, we’ll still find a way to get by.”

“I just know there has to be a way to stop them in their tracks without harming them,” said Twilight.

“Well, eating all those muffins earlier stopped me in my tracks,” joked Spike as he rubbed his gut. “I’m still too stuffed to move around too much.”

“Hmm,” pondered Twilight as she looked around at the bats greedily draining the juice out of more apples. “That might actually be a good idea. They’re already eating plenty of apples. If we just wait till they eat too much-”

“Nope,” Bic Mac shook his head, saying only a single word, but saying more through his subtle body language.

“I’m afraid Big Mac is right,” Applejack spoke for him. “These bats will eat all the apples they want, but I doubt more than a few would go so far as to eat till they were too heavy for their wings to lift them into the air. They’d just finish the apple they were on and fly deeper into the orchard to settle their stomachs.”

“I see,” sighed Twilight as she tried to think of something else.

“It was a good idea,” Applejack assured her. “But it’d take bigger and juicier apples than what we got on the farm and we ain’t called Sweet Apple Acres for having anything less than the best apples in all of Equestria.”

“So, we’d need to tempt them with even bigger apples, eh,” pondered Twilight. “Okay, if that’s what it’ll take then that’s what we’ll give them.”

“You know where there are bigger and better apples than what we’ve got here?” questioned Applejack with a look of skepticism on her face.

“Oh, I don’t,” admitted Twilight, but maybe with a growth spell, we might be able to make your apples big enough to stop these bats.”

“Can you really do that, Twilight?” asked Spike.

“I did take some classes in Floromancy,” she explained. “But that involved mixing potions to promote growth and I doubt we’d be able to find the ingredients or a place to mix them out here. The next best thing would be to try magic that could yield a similar result.”

“Here, let’s give it a try,” Apple Bloom said eagerly as she picked up an apple and placed it on the ground in between them all.

“Well, here goes nothing,” breathed Twilight as her horn glowed and a similar aura appeared on the apple. They all watched in intrigue as the fruit wobbled a bit before it swelled a bit bigger in size. “How’s that?”

“I think it’s a little bigger,” commented Apple Bloom as she leaned in closer to get a better look.

“It’d have to be a lot bigger than that if we’re going to have any hope of luring the bats into our trap,” stated Applejack.

“I’ll try to make it bigger, but growth magic is tricky,” lectured Twilight. “This is typically as big as I can make something.” Closing her eyes, Twilight attempted channeled her magic into the apple once more and just like before it started to increase in size, getting bigger at a quicker rate than before. In no time at all, the apple was nearing two feet in diameter.

“Maybe later you can make me a bit taller too,” commented Spike, impressed with the results as were the others. However, as the apple grew larger still, it started to tremble and swell like a balloon being inflated, losing its normal shape and becoming perfectly round.

“What in tarn-” Applejack began to say as she watched the apple expand to critical mass and then burst, sending bits and pieces of itself all over the place, including onto all five of them. After the mess was already made, Applejack finished speaking. “-nation.”

“What happened?” questioned Apple Bloom looking sadly at the remains of their hope to round up the fruit bats. “Why did the apple explode?”

Opening her eyes, Twilight sighed at her failure. “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I had it going well for a while, but growth spells are really tough. You have to make the entire object grow evenly and you have to keep adding in more magic as it gets larger. If you don’t, then the whole thing just explodes from the inside out. As you can see here, the end results of messing up are quite messy indeed.”

“Never mind,” shuddered Spike at the thought of that happening to him. “I’ll just wait to grow up the normal way.”

“Oh, applesauce,” faux swore Applejack. “For a minute, I thought we had the answer.”

“Could you give it another try?” Apple Bloom suggested to Twilight. “That was a real good first try and you might be able to get it right with a bit more practice.”

“I might,” she nodded. “But that spell took a lot of magic just to do that one apple. Even if I managed to figure it out, and that’s a big if, I’d be too exhausted to grow any more apples for the plan.”

“You tried your hardest to help us out,” smiled Applejack. “We couldn’t ask for more, especially from a Pony we just met. Still, it would have been nice if it had worked.”

“We might have had a chance if we could make a growth potion,” Twilight replied. “Then you could grow all the giant apples you’d need and if brewed properly you wouldn’t have to worry about what happened with this apple.”

“If all we need is a potion,” spoke Apple Bloom. “Then, why don’t we just-”

“Nope!” interrupted Big Mac before his youngest sister could finish speaking.

“But why not?” complained Apple Bloom, looking up at her brother. “She could help.”

“Big Mac is right,” added Applejack. “That’d be much too dangerous.”

“What would be too dangerous?” asked Twilight, wanting some context to their sibling discussion.

“There is a really great potion brewer who lives nearby,” answered Apple Bloom. “I bet she could whip up the potion we need easily.”

“I don’t doubt she could,” Applejack chimed in. “But she lives in the Everfree Forest and that place is about as dangerous as any place could be. The fruit bats are a minor annoyance compared to the monsters living there.”

“But Twilight is gonna go through there,” Apple Bloom reminded them.

“And Twilight probably has some of the fancy Unicorn magic ready to lead her down the safest route to her destination and some magic bubble to keep her from any harm,” her sister added as a counter.

“Actually,” Twilight admitted. “I don’t have any spell of the sort that can help me avoid danger. And, while I can create shields, there’s no way I can keep one up the entire way through the forest. Spike and I are just going to have to hoof it through just like anypony else.”

“Oh, well, I hope I don’t offend, but are you plumb loco?!?” exclaimed Applejack. “The Everfree Forest ain’t some place you can just take a leisurely stroll through. It’s crawling with all sorts of creatures that wouldn’t give a second thought to snacking on any Pony foolish enough to venture into their domain.”

“Uh, do they feel the same about small, but, nonetheless, fierce dragons?” wondered Spike.

“If she’d be the main course,” Big Mac told Spike, speaking the most he had since he and Twilight had arrived. “You’d be dessert. That or maybe an appetizer. Depends on who they decide to eat first.” Hearing that, Spike swallowed hard.

“Dangerous or not, my goal lies in that forest,” replied Twilight, remaining adamant about venturing in. “If I don’t then there may be no hope at all for defeating Nightmare Moon or restoring the light of day.”

“And nothing I say is gonna change yer mind,” Applejack figured.

“I appreciate your concern, but we’ll be just fine,” she assured her then turned to Spike for added confirmation.

“Do you think the monsters in the forest will choose to eat you first or me?” asked Spike, his mind still wrapped around what Big Mac just said. “What? I just wanna know if I’m going to be an appetizer or dessert. You know, if worse comes to worse, but we’ll be fine. If anything comes our way I’ll send them packing with a lil dragon fire.”

“Stubborn as a mule,” sighed Applejack, smiling. “Well, far be it from me to get in your way when you’re this determined. Good luck out there the two of you.”

“Thanks, Applejack,” Twilight told her as Spike climbed onto her back once more. “And don’t worry. I don’t have any doubt in my mind that we will succeed.”

The three siblings watched as their two new friends made their way out of the orchard and back on the path towards the Everfree Forest. With a heavy sigh, Applejack turned to her siblings. “Well, let’s head back to the barn. We’ve got a heap of work still to do on top of trying to figure out what we’re gonna do about these fruit bats.”

“If you wanna go with them you’d best hurry before they reach the forest,” said Big Mac, looking at her with a knowing look.

“What are you going on about?” she asked her brother.

“Come on now, AJ, I’ve known you your whole life,” he went on. “And when you want to help somepony you’d charge through a herd of stampeding buffalo if you had to. Why’s this time any different?”

“Well, for one thing,” she answered him. “The farm’s in a pretty big crisis and I can’t just go running off when y’all need me.”

“Apple Bloom and I can pull a little more weight around here and with our problem also being an Equestria-wide one, I get the feeling there will be a holdup on things for a while.”

“And if you are going into the Everfree Forest,” added Apple Bloom. “Then you could visit the potion brewer and come back with the growth potion for our bat problem too.”

“That I could,” Applejack admitted. “And I’d only be gone a day at most helping them get whatever it is they need in the woods.” Applejack smiled and gave her big brother a hug. She followed that up by rubbing her sister on her head. “Alright then. I’ll go and be back in a jiffy.”

“If you run into trouble, you show them why you don’t mess with apples,” Apple Bloom stated cheerfully.

“Heheh, I will,” chuckled Applejack as she trotted after Spike and Twilight.

“Well, here we are,” announced Twilight as she and Spike reached the edge of the forest. “The Everfree Forest.” It was thick with trees and bushes all around, save for a single opening between a pair of dead trees that stood, with their branches out, as if warning all not to foolishly enter into it. The effect was even more apparent with how the moonlit pathway they had been walking on turned completely pitch black right past them.

“This place looks even creepier than it normally does,” commented Spike, feeling a chill run down his spine.

“Some more lighting should help with that,” Twilight said as she focused and caused her horn to glow brighter till she shined like a purple star in the night. “How’s that?”

“Better,” nodded Spike as he hopped off her back and looked through his backpack. “And I’d bet I’d feel even better with two lights.”

“How would you feel about three?” asked Applejack, her sudden appearance scaring Spike into jumping up in fright and dropping some of the supplies from his backpack in the process. “Oops. Sorry.”

“Applejack, what are you doing here?” questioned Twilight.

“I wanted to come and help you two,” she answered. “And Big Mac helped talk me into doing more than wanting to. Also, I can try and get that growth potion you were talking about, for the farm.”

“He did?” replied Spike, scratching his head, surprised that a Pony as soft spoken as him could talk any Pony into anything.

“Big Mac is typically a Pony of few words, but when he needs to say something he will say it,” Applejack explained as Spike placed two candles onto a candlestick each. Then puckering his lips he blew some tiny flames to light them, keeping one for himself and handing Applejack the second.

“Well, we’re happy to have you on board,” stated Twilight. “I don’t suppose you know where exactly the castle is, do you?”

“To be perfectly honest,” admitted Applejack. “I didn’t even know a castle existed in this place till ya just said there was. But, going as far as I’ve been willing to go, I’ve never seen hide nor hair of one.”

“I’m certain that it must be here,” stated Twilight as she moved a bit quicker, determined to find it.

“Whoa, slow down there,” Applejack warned her new friend. “The last thing you wanna do is get too hasty. One misstep could be fatal in these woods.”

“Sorry, but being surrounded by all this darkness is making me a bit anxious.”

“It’s fine, but watch your step. If memory serves we should be coming up to some marshes and the last thing you want is to get your hooves stuck in that muddy ground.”

Peering a bit ahead, Twilight saw the swampy ground just as Applejack warned. “You weren’t kidding,” stated Twilight. “A Pony could probably get stuck but good if they blindly walked into it.”

“Stuck till a hungry cragodile found them,” Applejack corrected her. “Now, we’d best go around it to be safe.” Following Applejack’s guidance, the trio started to make their way the best they could around the marshes. However, they came to an impasse as the murky blocked their way forward and thick forest blocked their way from the sides.

“What do we do now?” asked Spike approaching the edge of the water with his candle held out in front of him.” I don’t see any cragodiles. Do we try to cross quickly?”

“Not a chance,” answered Applejack. “These scaly beasties are really good at blending in with their environs. I wouldn’t doubt that a couple are within a few meters of us right now, chomping at the bit for something tasty to snack on. The best we can do is see if there’s a fallen tree nearby we can use to make a bridge across.”

“Actually,” commented Twilight as she peered into the murkiness. “I can see a large rock we can hop across from.”

Getting close as she could to the rock, Twilight performed a short leap to it, safely landing atop of it. “Dagnabit, Twi!” warned Applejack, not expecting her to act so quickly. “I told you not to be so rash.”

“It’s fine,” Twilight assured her as she stomped a little on the rock. “See. It’s nice and solid.”

“Uh, Twilight,” gulped Applejack as she watched the rock start to rise up out of the water, revealing itself to be more than a mere stepping stone. It was actually a cragodile, and one not the least bit happy to have someone standing on its back, let along stomping. It rocked it’s body back and forth, attempting to knock Twilight off of it. In a panic, Twilight jumped, managing to reach the other side of the marsh, tumbling on the ground in the process. As she tried to pick herself up, the stone-like reptilian creature was in hot pursuit of her, already getting out of the water. Turning to it, Twilight saw it open it’s large maw to bite down on her, but before it could snap at her, a rope lassoed around it’s upper jaw to keep it from shutting.

“Hang on Twilight!” called Applejack as she pulled with all her might on the rope to hold back the cragodile. Spike was helping too, holding on tightly with his little claws. This allowed for Twilight to get back up and put some distance from the dangerous predator, however, it’s powerful jaw muscles managed to win out in the end as it snapped its mouth closed, yanking Applejack and Spike across the marsh, and sending them flying right into Twilight, knocking her back to the ground.

“Ugh, are you okay, Twilight?” groaned Spike, sandwiched in between the two ponies.

“Yeah, but we better get up and out of this marsh quickly,” she told him.

“No fooling,” agreed Applejack. “Let’s vamoose.” Getting up to help the others do the same, Applejack suddenly realized her mane was uncovered. “My hat! Where’d it go?” Looking around frantically, she spotted it in the direct path of the pursuing reptile and about to be trampled. “Oh, no you don’t! Stay away from that hat!”

“Applejack!” cried Twilight. “Just forget it. That hat isn’t worth getting killed over.”

“No can do,” she replied stubbornly. “I can’t let go of this hat ever.”

Rushing to its rescue, Applejack grabbed her hat and then the farmer horse attempted to quickly turn and beat a hasty retreat from the gator. However, the wet ground made such a maneuver result in her slipping and flopping down onto the ground. Looking up, she saw the cragodile was right on top of her, ready to trysnqcking on her instead. Biting her lip, Applejack could only watch as it was ready to chomp. Fortunately, Twilight was quick with her magic as she used it to pull Applejack back towards her and away from the cragodile, though it was far from giving up and raced after her.

“Get ready, Spike,” instructed Twilight. “When the cragodile gets in range, give it all you got.”

“All I got?” he sweated.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I can’t levitate Applejack and attack at the same time. “It’s gotta be you.”

“S-Sure, no problem,” he worried. “Some dragon flames, coming right up.”

Taking in as deep a breath as he could, Spike stoked the furnace in his belly. Meanwhile, Twilight managed to catch Applejack as she flung her back over. Though she was now safe, the cragodile was stammering over to them, more determined than ever to make them into a meal.

“Give it to him now!” cried Twilight helping get Applejack out of the way.

“Here goes nothing!” shouted Spike, drawing on all his courage to stand up to this beast. As he went to exhale, the massive reptile roared fiercely, scaring away all of Spike’s bravery. In reaction to this, Spike clammed up, shutting his maw, preventing the flames from escaping.

Spike just stood there, knees shaking and cheeks bulging with flames waiting to be released. With the cragodile bearing down on him now, Twilight and Applejack had to move to save him. Grabbing his gut, they both gave it a squeeze, helping force more air and flames up his throat till the pressure building up in his maw grew too great to be contained and he had no choice but to open wide and unleash a blast of flame at the looming lizard. The beast roared fiercely at being blocked yet again, but this time it seemed to have finally given up on its prey and retreated back into the marsh.

“That was a close one,” panted Twilight as she picked Spike onto her back and they ventured a safe distance away from the marshy ground.

“Cause you had to act so rashly,” stated Applejack. “That darn thing would have had you for dinner if I didn’t save you.”

“You acted just as rash going after that hat of yours,” pointed out Twilight. “Is it worth risking your life over?”

“Course it is,” she nodded. “It’s my precious keepsake after all. Sure, I could replace the hat, but never the meaning and memories it represents.”

“I remember you mentioned that before,” recalled Twilight. “It’s a keepsake from who?”

“My parents, of course,” she explained. “We lost them quite a while ago, back when Apple Bloom was still a foal. This hat was my father’s and the parting gift he gave me back then. I promised to always keep it with me and I intend to follow through on that.”

“I’m sorry,” apologized Twilight. “I didn’t know.”

“Course not,” Applejack replied. “We just met after all, but the important thing is I’ve got my hat and none of us are in the belly of that beast. Let’s just keep going. We’ve still got plenty more ground to cover, I reckon.”

“Man, if that was too much for you,” spoke a voice in the darkness. “Then capturing you will be a piece of cake.”

“What about the other two?” asked another. “Think we’ll get a bonus for bringing them all back with us?”

“She didn’t say, but it couldn’t hurt to try,” a third one commented.

“Who in tarnation is out there?” Applejack demanded to know.

“It’s got to be more of Nightmare Moon’s minions, her Dreamers,” answered Twilight as she stood back to back with Spike and Applejack to expand their field of view all around them. Twilight expanded her light to help them see better, but their foes remained out of range of sight.

“Like this place isn’t dangerous enough?” groaned Spike.

“Yes, this place is dangerous,” agreed one of the Shadow Bolts as they flew over the trio’s head faster than they could react. “And it’s completely foolish for you three to think you can make it to the castle.”

“Heh, not to mention a complete waste of time,” another said, swooping down in front of Spike and then flying over him, terrifying the little dragon into curling up fearfully. “Do you seriously think anything you do will be able to stop Nightmare Moon?”

“Do you three think you can be happy just being Nightmare Moon’s puppets?” questioned Twilight.

“First off, there’s four of us,” she retorted. “Secondly, if we can finally get to be Wonderbolts, or, even better, Shadow Bolts, being loyal to our princess of the night is the least we can do.”

“Ok, so there’s four of them,” analyzed Twilight. “Undoubtedly Pegasi. Also, they appear to have no trouble maneuvering in the dark when we can’t see our muzzles in front of our faces without maintaining a light source. We don’t stand a chance in these conditions.”

“So, just come quietly and we won’t have to rough you up,” one of them threatened.

“If you think we’ll just give ourselves up to you,” snapped Applejack. “Then you all are dumber than a sack of taters. You’d best go right on back to that princess of yours and tell her to give us back our sun this instant, if she knows what’s good for her.”

“Don’t provoke them,” Twilight told Applejack. “We’re outnumbered and outmatched like this. We’ve got to retreat, but that’s easier said than done if they can see us clear as day.”

“Then what the hay are we gonna do?” questioned Applejack.

“Give up,” answered one of the stallion Shadow Bolts as he swiped Applejack’s hat right off her head. “You’ll have to if you wanna get your precious hat back.”

“Give that back!” snapped Applejack, quickly running after him.

“They’re baiting you!” cried Twilight, swapping from illumination magic to levitation to grab Applejack and restrain her. She managed to halt her in her tracks just as a couple of the Shadow Bolts attempted to rush her from the side. They missed her just barely and then vanished back into the darkness.

“Oh, so close!” they said as they flew back up and circled the trio overhead.

“Let go of me, Twilight,” demanded Applejack. “I have to get my hat back!”

“You won’t get it charging blindly into the darkness like that,” she replied. “We have to stick together. If we fall apart now, we won’t stand a chance.”

“I think it’s a little late for that,” cackled another of the Shadow Bolts as they grabbed Twilight from behind and carried her off the ground.

“T-Twilight!” cried Spike, getting up as he saw her get taken up into the darkness.

“Spike,” called out Twilight, struggling to get free, but a couple of the other Shadow Bolts joined in to help restrain her.

“We got her, so let’s get going,” one of them told the others.

“No, no, no,” worried Spike, running through the darkness, hoping he was running towards them. In his haste, he bumped into something and fell backwards. Looking up, he saw a pair of frightful, yellow eyes gaze down at him. He would have been petrified with fear if he wasn’t so agitated by yet another danger appearing in their way. “Oh, come on! What now?”

“Fiends, begone! Begone, I say. Or face the might of the light of day!” spoke a voice with a unique accent in her dialogue.

“That voice,” commented Applejack. “That’s gotta be her.”

The creature belonging to that pair of eyes grabbed something on her person, revealing a bottle containing something that lit up the whole area around them. With this newly acquired illumination, Spike was able to see the creature he had bumped into was a Pony unlike any he had ever seen before. She was white all over with black stripes even on her long mane and tail that were uniformly cut. She had several golden rings around her neck and on her front right leg and she had large gold earrings on both of her ears. Without the dark to hide her, the Pony’s eyes were not glowing yellow, but a royal blue hue instead. Her mane was done in a mohawk style and her Cutie Mark was of a spiral surrounded by arrows that all pointed outward from it.

Throwing the bottle to the ground, it shattered and the light inside escaped, expanding and brightening the whole area so unbelievably vibrant that everyone had to cover their eyes against it. “Too bright!” cried the Shadow Bolts, barely managing to remain airborne, and hold ontoTwilight and Applejack’s hat.”

“It is her,” realized Applejack, struggling to see as her eyes slowly adjusted.

“Ugh, she wasn’t kidding about the light of day,” groaned Spike, struggling to see too. He then felt himself lifted up by the mysterious Pony and placed upon her back.

“Such tricks will buy us only a short reprieve,” she rhymed some more as she helped carry Spike to safety. “For now, we must use this chance to leave.”

“But they still have Twilight,” Spike called out. “We have to save her.”

“Don’t worry, I got her,” Applejack assured him as she started to swing her lasso, aiming it at her Unicorn friend to pull her from their foes’ grip. However, as she was ready to toss it, she saw the Shadow Bolt with her hat in his clutches.

“Come on,” he told the others as his vision was starting to adjust. “Let’s forget the extras. We got the one Nightmare Moon wants. Time to get out of here.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” agreed Firestorm as all four started to take their leave with their ill-gotten gains. However, before they were able to get too far, Applejack managed to skillfully snag the three Shadow Bolts with her lasso and with a firm yank, pried them away from Twilight. The flightless Pony dropped to the ground, a bit sore from the fall, but otherwise unharmed.

“Come on, Twilight,” Applejack told her, helping her to her feet as she helped lead her to where the mysterious Pony and Spike had gone off to. “Let’s get out of here.”

“But what about your hat?” asked Twilight.

“I’ll get it back later,” she sighed sadly.

“Ugh! We had her!” snapped the Fire Storm angrily. “But somepony else just had to get in our way.”

“Well, let’s just go after them again,” suggested Sunny Day.

“Negative,” decided Firestorm. “We don’t know what that other Pony could be capable of and we lost our element of surprise. For now, we’ll fall back and go with plan B and wait for them at the castle.”

“Fine with me,” smirked Gale Force. “It just means we get to have some more fun on this job.”

“Let’s get going then,” Nightshroud told the others, placing Applejack’s hat on his head. “I can’t wait to see the look on their faces for what we’ve got in store for them.”

“Alright, Shadow Bolts,” instructed Firestorm. “Let’s fly!”

The four dark Pegasi took off through the forest, heading straight for Celestia’s old castle. The area they left behind started to fade back into darkness, doing so just as the pink Pony, Twilight briefly met in town approached. Looking around, she then continued her way through the Everfree Forest.

Following their striped savior further into the Everfree Forest, Twilight and her friends were soon led to a large tree that had been hollowed out into a house. All around it, there were a myriad of colorful plants she had growing all around her home, surrounding it on all sides. “Please friends, come on in. You’ll be safe inside,” she told Twilight and the others. “The scent of my garden makes predator’s access denied.”

“Uh, what’d she say?” asked Twilight as they watched their step to avoid stepping on any of Zecora’s flowers.

“I think she’s talking about all these plants,” answered Applejack. “There’s wolfsbane over there. Timberwolves can’t stand the smell of it and those green, stringy plants discourage cragodiles. I’d say she has a plant to ward off just about every dangerous creature that dwells in these woods.”

“I’d imagined she’d have to in order to live here,” replied Twilight. “That’s actually very impressive to be able to use the forest to keep you safe from it.”

“Safe from the creatures that dwell here, at least. These plants won’t keep away those Shadow Dolts or whatever they called themselves,” Applejack stated with some venom on her tongue.

“If they haven’t caught up with us already,” assumed Twilight. “Then there’s a good chance they retreated to somewhere. I doubt they’d go all that way back to Nightmare Moon after almost succeeding in capturing me. More likely, they hurried over to our destination to try and ambush us again.”

“If they are, then I’ll look forward to seeing them again,” she stated with a thirst for vengeance in her stern glare.

“Applejack,” Twilight started to say with concern on her voice, but she was interrupted by a fiery sneeze from Spike.

“She sure is prepared,” sniffled Spike, his eyes red and puffy. “There’s even got a few dragon sneeze trees around.”

“My apologies that my precautions trouble you so,” she said, offering Spike a handkerchief to cover his mouth with. “In the future, I’ll have to make sure that those trees go.”

“Ok, but I should be fine once we get inside,” Spike told her as he blew his nose on the handkerchief, torching it with his flames and turning it to ash. “Uh, my bad.”

“It’s alright,” she told Spike as they entered her home. “There’s no need to fret. I have plenty more where that came from, you can bet.”

Looking around the inside, the tree had a cozy feel to it, though it also was unlike any place Twilight had laid eyes on before. It was filled with all kinds of unique decor like a number of tribal masks made of wood that was carved into bizarre faces and colored with paint and feathers. In the center of the room was a large, black cauldron filled almost to the brim with a glowing and warm green, bubbling liquid.

Dozens of shelves were carved into the walls of the tree, holding all sorts of jars, pots, and bottles, all containing different types of ingredients. They varied from colorful liquids, types of powders, or parts or plants or animals that ranged from intriguing to gross and even to so unsettling that Spike, and Applejack did their best to avoid giving them another look. Twilight, on the other hand, was beaming with delight at all of this. She got up close to check everything out with a look of delight on her face. Even the sight of a huge, old toenail floating in a preserving fluid did nothing to damper her raised spirits.

“Even Celestia’s school doesn’t have a stock of ingredients as varied as this,” commented Twilight, taking a few peek in the jars to examine the contents. “You could probably brew any potion you could ever possibly need with all this stuff at your disposal.”

“It’s only natural she would,” Applejack told her. “She’s the potion brewer my lil sis mentioned earlier. Twilight, let me introduce you to the Zebra, Zecora. Zecora, this is the Unicorn, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Don’t forget me,” added the purple dragon. “I’m Spike.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Zecora,” Twilight greeted her with a smile. “And thanks for coming to our aid.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” Zecora replied. “I’m glad I could thwart that attack. If there’s anything else you need, know that I’ve got your back.”

“Wow, we’ve only just met,” commented Twilight. “You hardly know anything about me and you’re going out of your way this much to help.”

“Dark times have fallen upon this land we all live,” she explained. “And I can tell you are someone of my support I should give.”

“Besides being a wiz with potions,” translated Applejack. “Zecora does dabble a bit in fortune telling. She probably knew we’d be coming into the Everfree Forest long before we even knew we had to.”

“It is true I foresaw your arrival,” admitted Zecora as she picked up a jar containing the same glowing substance from before. “I also saw my part to play in your survival.”

“In that case,” wondered Spike. “Can you tell us if we’ll really succeed in stopping Nightmare Moon and saving Equestria?”

“Of course we will,” Twilight assured her Number One Assistant. “Without a doubt…” Despite saying this, she didn’t sound as confident as she wished she was. “But, I’ve always been curious about the precognitive abilities of fortune telling, so a small fortune couldn’t hurt.”

Zecora chuckled a bit, seeing the curious look on her guests’ faces. “Then gaze into my cauldron and into the bubbling green,” instructed the potion brewer, as she grabbed a pouch from her table and some scissors and tweezers. “And prepare to see what is yet to have been.”

Twilight and Applejack looked into the cauldron while Spike climbed atop Twilight so that he was high enough to see as well. However, all they could see in the big, black pot was the liquid within it bubbling. As Zecora approached, she snipped a bit of hair from Applejack and Twilight’s manes and plucked a loose scale from Spike’s shoulder.

“Ouch,” groaned Spike, rubbing at the descaled spot.

“What was that for?” asked Twilight as she examined her mane where the few hairs were cut off.

“A bit from those whose journey I need,” answered Zecora. “Now watch closely to see where your destiny shall lead.”

Dropping the clippings of hair and the dragon scale into the pot, they all sank into the murky liquid. The zebra then opened her pouch and poured some of its powdery contents into her cauldron, causing steam to burst out in a dramatic fashion. Twilight and Applejack took a few steps back from shock, while Spike hugged the former to keep from falling off.

As the steam faded, they then reapproached the pot to gaze into it and see if anything had changed. This time, they could see the powder was swirling around on the surface of the no longer bubble liquid. At first, the powder moved around in a seemingly random manner, but then it started to combine together, merging into shapes to form an image. Right away, they saw a moon and a sun with the former growing larger until it consumed the later into itself.

“When the balance of Sun and Moon tilts to the night,” interpreted Zecora while the trio continued to watch.

Next, six circles appeared. They started out apart in different spots in the cauldron. Slowly, all six started to converge in the center of the liquid. When they came together, they took on a new form, a six-pointed star just like the one that was upon Twilight’s flank. “Six will combine to bring the twilight.” After that, the image of an Alicorn appeared, before the star, but before Zecora was able to interpret anything, the powder dissolved and sank in the cauldron.

“Now that is a sight so very rare,” commented Zecora. “Yours is a fate that must remain unaware.”

“Unaware?” asked Twilight. “What does that mean?”

“To tell you right now would be to change the flow,” answered Zecora as she took a ladle and stirred it clockwise, making the liquid move that way too. She then started to stir counterclockwise to reverse it into flowing the other way. “And warp the way your story should go. Forge your own path forward and take great heed. Neither success or failure can be guaranteed.”

“That’s it?” questioned Spike as he scratched his scaly head. “Our future is that we don’t have one?”

“Not the most reassuring thing to be told,” admitted Applejack.

“Well, from what I’ve read, most Pony experts question if fortune telling is real or not,” Twilight informed them. “In most cases it is merely a con to swindle gullible Ponies out of their bits, but some manage to be surprisingly accurate. However, in those cases, it’s very debatable whether they were faked, self-fulfilled prophecies, a coincidence, or the real deal.”

“And before I forget, this potion is for you,” Zecora said, offering a bottle to Applejack. She then gave a trollish grin to Twilight. “It is what you came for, a special growing brew.”

“Wow, with all that’s been going on, it completely slipped my mind that I came to see if you could whip me up a growth potion,” Applejack admitted. “I’m much obliged.”

“You were saying, Twi,” Spike inquired to Twilight.

“Of course there are some cases that simply can’t be explained,” she confessed, feeling a little embarrassed.

“Just a drop or two and any object will grow ten times its size,” instructed Zecora. “This may prove more useful than you even realize.”

“If it can help with our bat problem then it’ll be plenty useful,” Applejack stated. “I’ll put it to use right away, just as soon as we get done with our business in this forest and I kick the flank of the scoundrel that swiped my hat. I don’t suppose you know how close the castle is from here?”

“Head just a little further north to reach your destination,” she replied to Applejack’s curiosity. “And I’d suggest you go now, to avoid procrastination.”

“Good, we’re almost there,” Twilight breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that. “Okay, everypony, let’s get going.”

“Thanks again for everything, Zecora,” Applejack told her once more.

“Yeah, thanks,” nodded Twilight. “Oh, and would it be okay if I write to you if I have any questions about potion making?”

“I’d be happy to help you if it’s knowledge you need,” she replied with a small chuckle. “But answering while rhyming is difficult indeed.”

“Does she seriously have to even write in rhymes?” whispered Spike as they left Zecora’s cottage.

“I don’t know if she even has to rhyme at all,” admitted Applejack. “She’s the only Zebra I’ve even met so I don’t even know if it’s a Zebra thing or just her thing.”

“Whatever the case, we can move on thanks to her,” stated Twilight. “Now let’s get to the castle. We’ve got the Elements of Harmony to find.”

“And I’ve got my hat to reclaim,” added Applejack.

“And I’ve got, uh,” Spike said, trying to include a goal for himself. “Well, I guess I can find out if thousand year old gems go stale or mature in flavor with age.”

Chapter 1 Part 2 - The Castle of the Sun and Moon

Following Zecora’s directions, Twilight, Applejack, and Spike made their way through the Everfree Forest until they came upon a long, rickety, old bridge, held together with worn and frayed ropes. A number of the wooden boards were broken and rotted and several were missing entirely, however, there were still enough for them to cross to the other side.

“Zecora did say north from her cottage,” recalled Spike as the trio looked at the huge drop they’d take if they fell from the bridge. “Do you think she meant to go across here too?”

“Looks that way,” answered Applejack as she pointed across the bridge to where the moonlight shined down over the forest treetops. Though it was very faint in the perpetual midnight hours, they could just make out the outline of a large structure. Without even knowing for certain what it was, none of them had any doubt that it was the very place they had sought out. Unfortunately, the perilous trek across the bridge put a damper on any desire to celebrate their destination was finally in sight, at least for two of them.

“Celestia’s old castle,” spoke Twilight, so mesmerized by the sight of it she absentmindedly took a step onto the bridge, causing the weak first board to snap in two and make her drop.

“Twilight!” cried Spike, seeing the purple Unicorn fall to her doom, but Applejack was quick to bite onto her tail and tug her back to safety just in time. Twilight panted for breath, her life flashing before her eyes. Spike hugged her, relieved that she was okay.

“That was… too close,” Twilight wheezed and trembled.

“Well, if it wasn’t obvious enough, this bridge is on its last legs,” stated Applejack. She surveyed the area around to see if there was any other way they could take. To her dismay, besides the bridge only a very scenic trek back through the forest remained their only alternative. “And it doesn’t look like there’s any other means of getting across without taking a very long detour around.”

“It’ll add hours on to our journey to get to the castle if we don’t use the bridge,” calculated Twilight. “And the longer we are in this forest the more likely we are to run into more dangers and, not counting the Shadow Bolts, we’ve been lucky to only encounter a single cragodile.”

“Very lucky,” gulped Spike as the howl of timberwolves carried to their ears from not too far away. “Best to not push it any more than we have.”

“Good thing I know just what we need to get us all across this bridge safely,” stated AJ, much to her companions’ relief.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” Spike repeated as he hugged Applejack’s front left hoove after hearing that. The orange Earth Pony blushed a bit embarrassed at being thanked over and over. Twilight chuckled as she watched, though she knew she was just as grateful that Applejack was there to help them.

“So, how can we cross this bridge in the shape it is in?” wondered Twilight as she gave it another lookover and didn’t trust to tae so much as a single step onto it.

“It’s simple really,” explained Applejack. “We just need to tie the ends of a new rope to both ends of the bridge. We can then hold onto that for extra support as we got across.”

“Makes sense,” commented Spike, though he still scratched at the top of his scaley head. “But how are we supposed to get a rope to the other side in the first place?”

“If it were a shorter distance,” explained Applejack. “We’d tie a rock to one end and toss it across in an effort to snag it on something. However, for a case like this, where it’s too far to throw, we’d need a volunteer to go across and secure the rope.”

“Okay,” the small dragon nodded. “And who would be crazy enough to volunteer?” Spike’s question was answered instantly as the two Ponies looked at him. “M-M-Me?”

“Sorry Spike,” Twilight told him. “But Applejack’s plan does make sense and part of why it does is if you’re the one to go.”

“Twilight’s right,” Applejack added. “This bridge probably can’t support either of us the way it is, but you should be light enough to make it to the other side.”

“And I can use my magic to help levitate you a little to help you out and catch you if you should fall,” said Twilight hoping to ease away his fears. “I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you. You are my Number One Assistant and my number one friend after all.”

Taking a few breaths, Spike built up his courage and stood up straighter. “Okay!” he declared, attempting to appear fearless, but he was still trembling slightly. “I’ll do it.”

“Then here ya go, Spike,” Applejack instructed the baby dragon, wrapping it around his waist.

“Where do you even keep all that rope?” Spike asked her with a raised eyebrow.

“A seasoned rodeo Pony is always ready with rope,” she answered without actually answering him and then went on to further instruct her scaly friend. “Along with Twilight’s magic, this will be a lifeline for you. Even so, take each step with the utmost caution and, whatever you do, don’t look down. You got all that?”

“Y-Y-Yeah,” the nervous, purple dragon answered before turning to face the bridge and saw the big challenge before him. Checking the rope around him, he tugged on it to make certain it was securely bound to him. Twilight then focused her magic on him, enveloping his body with her magical aura, making his body feel light as a feather. A couple more big breaths and then Spike stepped over the board that Twilight broke and onto the next one that was still in good enough condition to stand on and placed his foot upon it. Holding tightly to the old ropes of the bridge, Spike slowly took another step forward, leaving solid ground completely.

Letting go of the railing of the bridge with one hand, Spike wiped the sweat from his forehead and took some breaths before readying himself to take his second step. The wooden boards creaked under his weight and bent a little, but they were still strong enough to support him. “Two steps down,” thought Spike as he forced his gaze to remain forward. “Only about a hundred more to go.”

Step after step, Spike continued to the other end of the bridge. His body quickly became soaked in sweat as the tension raised his already high body temperature to the boiling point. Fortunately, by the time he made it more than halfway across without any incidents, Spike had gained enough confidence in their setup that his body’s trembling stopped and his breathing returned to normal. His pace had also increased, helping him to cross the broken bridge much faster than the first half. Before Spike even realized it, he had made it all the way to the other side and his feet once more met solid ground.

“I- I did it,” he spoke softly at first, but as the realization of his success sunk in, he threw up his arms excitedly. “Oh, yeah! I did it! Whoo!”

“Great job, Spike,” Applejack called to him. “Now, tie that rope to something good and tight so we can get across.”

“I’m on it,” he called back, feeling anything after that trek across that flimsy bridge was just a walk in the park. Taking the rope to a nearby tree, Spike tied it to the thick trunk and gave it a few tugs to ensure his knot wouldn’t come undone. When he felt satisfied with his work, Spike waved to his friends. “All set on this side!”

“Then just sit tight and we’ll be over there quicker than a hog racing to eat its early morning slop,” Applejack called back and then turned to Twilight. “Okay, your turn to cross, Twi. Just hold on to the rope tightly as you cross and whatever you do, don’t let go, unless you want to end up a pancake.”

“Scientifically speaking,” Twilight told her. “The end result of one falling at terminal velocity won’t result in one’s body compressing into a perfectly flat shape. It’s actually a much more unsightly end result.”

“And does that make crossing any less nerve wracking for you?” asked Applejack.

“Hold on tight so I don’t fall and become a pancake,” Twilight replied as she hugged the rope tightly and started her way across.

The trek to the other side was even more perilous for Twilight with her greater weight coupled with her unable to use her skill with magic not yet at the level of self levitation with movement. The wooden boards creaked loudly as she crossed, some unable to handle the weight of a young adult Pony, and snapped in two. Hanging tightly to the rope, Twilight avoided falling and then carefully reached for another board to continue on.

When Twilight made it across, she was gasping and sweating as she felt her heart pounding in her chest. “You did it, Twilight!” Spike told her. “Great job.”

“Heheh, not bad for a Pony that spent so much time just reading books, right?” she chuckled nervously, still shocked that she actually did that.

“I just hope there will be enough boards left for when we have to go back,” he commented, seeing the wider gaps they’d have to cross after Twilight took her turn.

“I didn’t consider that we’d have to go back too,” worried Twilight, not eager to go through that again.

“We might have to do what Applejack’s doing,” said Spike as he looked back down the bridge.

“What Applejack’s doings?” she repeated and turned to watch, seeing Applejack hanging upside down as she made her way over. In the short time they were talking, she was already halfway across and showing no sign of hesitating as she finished making her way across in record time.

“That was amazing, Applejack,” Spike told her once she reached the other side.

“It tweren’t nothing,” she replied. “Been ages since I had to crawl across on a rope so I’m glad I wasn’t too rusty. Anyway, now that we’ve made it across, the castle isn’t much further now and the sooner we get there the sooner I can get my hat back.”

Making their way forward, the trio, at long last, arrived at Celestia’s old castle or, at least, what remained of it. Hundreds of years of being left to the elements allowed for nature to take over. Vines clung over the outer walls, covering the dark gray stone in green. The gate was rusted brown and one side had broken off the hinges and dropped to the ground, allowing them free passage through it.

Walking through the courtyard to the stoop leading into the castle, they took in the scnery around them that no Pony had laid eyes upon in centuries. There were hedges that appeared to have once been trimmed into decorative shapes, but time and lack of care had allowed them to grow into an overgrown mess that distorted their original forms from what they once were. The hedges and vines, however, were not the only plants that had gone wild without a gardener to reign them in. Weeds had sprouted through the cobblestone walkway and even on the stone stoop, filling them both with cracks that caused them to get chipped all over.

The castle itself was in just as horrid shape as the courtyard. Whole sections had decayed from countless seasons facing the elements till weakening them till they finally crumbled into ruins. As for the places that were still mostly intact, cobwebs hung from the ceilings and the walls as spiders and other insects took up residence inside. There were also nests built in any nooks and crannies that birds could take up residence in and bats swooped around, enjoying the eternal night just as much as the ones back at Sweet Apple Acres.

“This is incredible,” Twilight said, her heart racing with excitement. Her previous scare from crossing the bridge to get here was already forgotten and seeing all this instantly made the journey completely worth it. She stared at the wrecked remains of the forest-ravaged location like it was still brand new and was not at all the dreary, rundown place it had become. “Have you ever laid eyes upon a place like this?”

“Does Ponyville dump count?” snarked Spike as he took another look around, but couldn’t see this place with rose-tinted glasses like Twilight could.

“Don’t you understand?” she asked him. “This is really Celestia’s old castle, her old home. Just think about it. Can you believe she started out in such a humble dwelling such as this?”

“Uh, can a castle really be considered ‘humble?’” questioned Applejack. “I mean, maybe compared to her new one, but I bet this one was mighty impressive in its heyday.”

“Oh, now I really wish I brought my camera,” Twilight geeked out. “This is better than having access to ten libraries at the same time. Oh, and the library! I hope it managed to weather through the centuries better than the rest of the castle! Spike, how are you at sketching?”

“For having nopony with digits to teach me how to use them to write or draw,” he answered. “More than decent, I’d say.”

“Do you think you can make a rough sketch of the front of the castle,” she instructed him. “We’ve gotta reserve this moment for posterity!”

“Your Number One Assistant is on the job,” he told her with a salute. Taking a few steps back to get as much of the front of the castle into his field of view, Spike then sat down and unrolled a piece of scroll paper onto a clipboard and started to scratch out a rough sketch with a quill.

“Uh, Equestria to Twilight,” Applejack tried to get her attention, but she was far too preoccupied fangirling over the castle to pay attention to anything else. Spike was busy too, trying his hardest to draw the old castle to the best of his abilities, pausing to look up from his work and then dipping his quill into a bottle of ink to start sketching some more.

“Looks like those two will be a while,” she figured as she rubbed her hatless head. “Well, it might be better this way. Those two will be safer out here and I can go on ahead and take care of those rapscallions myself and get my hat back.” As her two friends continued to be distracted by the ruins, Applejack quietly made her way inside the castle, on her own.

“Annnnnd… done!” announced Spike as he finished his sketch and signed his name in the bottom corner of his work.

“Let’s take a look,” Twilight said as she hurried over to see. With only amateur drawing abilities and an ink quill available to him, Spike’s sketch was hardly able to capture as much as Twilight had hoped for, but she smiled, satisfied with what he did with the time he had to work on it and what little he had available to him. “Very nicely done, Number One Assistant.”

“All in a day's work,” he stated proudly crossing his arms. His smile then quickly went away as a swarm of bats suddenly flew out from the front entrance of Celestia’s castle, startling them both. “It’s hard to believe that Celestia used to live in a place like this, the way it is now,” the purple dragon commented. “This place feels a lot more like a mausoleum compared to the back castle in Canterlot, even though it’s currently in the sky.”

“It’s probably been centuries since anypony tended to this place,” replied Twilight. “It’s hard to believe any Pony ever used to live here. Even if Celestia did decide to build a new castle in Canterlot, why would she simply abandon this castle and allow it to fall into ruin. It should have remained a national landmark to be preserved forever. However, from what we know, she didn’t just leave this place, but she even went so far as to hide its existence from the world. The question is, why.”

“She did leave the Elements of Harmony here,” Spike brought up. “Maybe she wanted to make sure they wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

“That is one possibility,” considered Twilight as she approached a plaque covered in vines. “But if their safety was a factor, at all, it would have made more sense to take them with her to Canterlot. No. There has to be more to the mystery than just that.”

Twilight tugged away the plantlife covering the plaque to see what was hidden beneath it. Around the border were images of the sun and moo. Inside the border was an inscription. “The Castle of the Sun and Moon. There is no end to day or night. The Sun will always follow the Moon and the Moon will always chase after the Sun. The cycle is eternal, their fate forever linked.”

“Or maybe Celestia wanted to forget,” Twilight continued after reading those words. “Forget the pain caused by Nightmare Moon when she betrayed her. It was hard for Celestia to go against Nightmare Moon when she returned. I can only imagine how heartbreaking it had to be when Celestia had no choice but to banish her to the moon. In a way, this place might have ended up becoming a mausoleum to their friendship.”

“It must have been very tragic,” added Spike looking at the disheveled mess once more. “Two that were once the best of friends, as close as family suddenly turning on one another.”

“It was Nightmare Moon who was the one turned against Celestia,” Twilight reminded him. “But, I’m sure, a part of her still must have cared for Celestia too. I bet the two must have been very close like my brother, Shining Armor, and myself or you with your siblings, Applejack.” Applejack didn’t answer. Twilight looked around. “Applejack? Where did she go?”

“She was with us when we arrived, a minute ago,” Spike replied and then gazed down the dark hallway in the castle. “You don’t think that she went ahead without us, do you?”

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” answered Twilight. “That hat was incredibly important to her. She’d probably even take on Nightmare Moon if she had to to get it back.”

“But if the Shadow Bolts are really in there lying in wait, they probably have some kind of traps waiting for us inside,” worried Spike. “Applejack could be in danger already.”

“Then let’s not waste any more time and find her,” Twilight told him and the two hurried inside.

“Applejack!” Spike and Twilight called out as they raced through the castle in search of their friend. “Applejack, it’s us! Where did you go?”

As they ran down the hall they saw tapestries of the Sun and Moon lining the walls along with aged suits of armor, some still standing in only slightly rusted condition and others on the floor in a heap. They also saw more damage to the castle, though it was clear by the magical scorch marks that this was the collateral damage left behind by Celestia and Nightmare Moon’s long ago battle.

Paying the scenery very little mind, Spike and Twilight continued to call out for Applejack, worried the first might have just befallen her.

“Sounds like our guests are here,” commented Nightshroud as Twilight and Spike’s voices reached them further in the castle.

“They couldn’t have given us more warning if they pressed the doorbell,” joked Gale Force.

“But this old castle doesn’t even have a doorbell,” pointed out Sunny Day.

“That was a joke,” Gale told Sunny.

“Come on Ponies,” Firestorm told her fellow Shadow Bolts. “It’s time for the welcoming party to greet our guests.”

“Heheh, I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces,” cackled Nightshroud. “It’ll definitely be a hoot. They’ll wish they turned tail when they still had the chance.”

“I just hope they don’t just run away in fright from what we’ve got in store for them,” added Gale.

“By the time they realize anything, there will be no escape for them,” claimed Nightshroud as he adjusted Applejack’s hat a little on his head. “And this time we don’t have to worry about them receiving some unexpected help, not like it’ll make any difference this time, even if they did.”

“Indeed,” nodded Firestorm before giving the order. “Let’s give Nightmare Moon a call on the viewing orb. I’m certain she’ll want to see our moment of triumph first hand.” The four Pegasis gathered around an orb just like the one Derpy had and spoke Nightmare Moon’s name into it.

“Nightmare Moon,” sounded the orb on the Dark Alicorn’s side, prompting her to quickly answer it.

“Hello, this is Nightmare Moon,” she answered it and watched as the villainous Pegasi team appeared on it. “Ah, the Shadow Bolts. I trust you bring me good news on your end. Has Twilight Sparkle already been defeated?”

“Not quite,” Firestorm answered her. “She’s managed to make it to the castle, but we’re prepared for her. We’re going to use that thing you told us about the last time we were here.”

“Oh, are you now?” she replied with a dark grin. “Celestia’s little defense system, used against her own student. Yes, I quite like the idea. You may proceed, but let me just remind you that I won’t tolerate failure, especially after all I’ve given you.”

“You can count on us,” Firestorm assured her, not sounding fearful at the implications of her words, but actually more motivated instead. “Just sit back and enjoy the show. The Shadow Bolts promise nothing but the best for their Princess of the Night.”

“I’m delighted to hear that,” grinned Nightmare Moon as she used her magic upon the orb and different rooms flickered on it from within the old castle. “Let’s see now. Where are you, Twilight Sparkle?” The orb continued to flicker until finally, Twilight appeared on the screen alongside Spike, the two wandering through the castle, completely unaware that they were being spied upon.

“Applejack! Applejack!” Twilight and Spike kept on calling out to her over and over again. The two poked their heads into every room they passed, hoping to find her in one of them. Finally, they peeked into a study and discovered Applejack was looking around before turning to leave.

“Not here either,” she mumbled to herself as she headed back to the hall, only for her two friends to burst in excited to see her.

“There you are,” panted Spike as he sprinted over with Twilight right beside him.

“Twilight? Spike?” Applejack said as she trotted towards them as well.

“Why did you run ahead of us?” asked Twilight. “It is dangerous to go alone.”

“I am plenty capable of taking care of myself,” she assured them. “But it might be better if you two wait outside while I take care of the Shadow Bolts. Just as soon as I can figure out where they hold themselves up in here.”

“But we’re already outnumbered four to three,” Twilight explained.

“Maybe, but from what I’ve seen from the two of you as we went through the Everfree Forest,” she explained. “You are both capable and have your strengths, but fighting isn’t one of them. You could end up being more of a liability than anything if this is the first real brawl you’ve been in.”

“We won’t be,” promised Twilight. “I admit I’m new to using my magic in a fight, but I’m not going to get caught off guard by them again. And I don’t mean to sound disrespectful to you, but do you honestly think you can beat all four of them on your own? Aside from numbers, they can fly, giving them a huge advantage over you and who knows what else they could have in store for us.”

“Precisely why it’d be more than a little foolish for us all to go so they could wrangle us all up at once,” she argued. “And if their past attempt didn’t make it clear enough, they’re only after you, Twilight,” Applejack reminded her. “That means we gotta keep you safe above all else.”

“Nightmare Moon challenged me to come here to retrieve the Elements,” argued Twilight. “I can’t let her think I’m too frightened to go up against whatever she plans to throw at me. Princess Celestia’s put all her faith in me and I can’t let her down.”

“Not to mention all of Equestria,” Spike chimed in and quickly regretted doing so as the flames of the argument between the two was only getting more heated.

“And if anything should happen to you,” countered Applejack as she butted heads with Twilight. “What do you spose will happen to Equestria? It’ll fall apart knowing both Celestia and the Pony she pinned all her hopes have been defeated. Then Nightmare Moon will win for sure.”

“She’ll win if I don’t do anything,” snapped Twilight.

“Why do you have to be so stubborn!” they shouted at one another in unison. “Can’t you see I want to help you?!?”

“Help me?” asked Applejack. “I’m the one who came here to give you a hoof.”

“I know,” Twilight told her. “And I’m really grateful for that, but it’s also because of me that so much trouble has started. Celestia was defeated by Nightmare Moon because she protected me and you were forced to give up your hat to ensure I was rescued. I can’t just stand by and let others do my fighting for me when I owe them so much. And it’s not just for the sake of others that I have to fight. I need to get stronger so that I can fix everything. If I’m going to save Equestria, I need to find the power needed to do so.”

“Twilight,” replied Applejack. “If you feel guilty about my hat, you shouldn’t be. Yeah, I am sore it got taken away, but you shouldn’t blame yourself for that. You helped me get it back before and you are on this mission to help not only me, but all of Equestria. That you were willing to go through the Everfree Forest and cross some rickety, old bridge shows you are plenty strong already and very courageous.”

“Then let’s put all this bickering behind us,” Twilight said. “Whatever the Shadow Bolts have in store for us, we’ll work together to defeat them.”

Just as the two Ponies had finally started their reconciliation, they were interrupted by the blaring of a pipe organ from somewhere deep within the castle. It wasn’t clear what kind of song was being played on it, but in such a creepy environment, it sounded bone-chilling. “That didn’t sound good,” worried Spike as his teeth chattered and he hugged his arms around his body. “And I don’t mean in an off-key kinda way. Is this the Shadow Bolts’ doing?”

“Who else could it be?” replied Applejack as she and Twilight got on guard for whatever was to accompany the eerie music. “And they were already pretty underhanded before so why not now as well?”

“But what could they be planning?” pondered Twilight, putting her analytical skills to use. “If they are just playing this music to distract us then they should have made their move to attack us right away. At this point it is useless as a distraction and they’ll be down one Pony short if one is sitting down playing a pipe organ.”

“They could have more allies,” suggested Applejack.

“But that doesn’t make this music playing any more advantageous to them at this point,” Twilight stated again.

“Hey,” Spike chimed in. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” asked Twilight, perking up her ears. “Something other than that lousy music-playing?”

“I’m not sure, but I think it’s footsteps,” he answered. “Heavy, metal ones.”

“Yeah, I hear it now too,” Applejack said. “And there’s no doubt that it’s heading straight for us.”

“I can hear it now, as well,” worried Twilight, a look of dread on her face as well as on others too. “It definitely sounds like a lot more than four Ponies.”

“Just how many allies do you think they have?” sweated Spike, the sound of clanking footsteps getting louder and more numerous by the second.

“No idea, but definitely a lot,” answered Applejack. “We better get out of here before they reach us or we could get swarmed like a pile of birdseed in a henhouse.”

Not wasting any time, Twilight, Spike, and Applejack left the study, wary of the approaching danger. “Do we get out of here or press on?” wondered Spike as they listened to the hoofsteps that seemed to be coming from both ends of the hall.

“No doubt the way out will be blocked,” figured Twilight. “And forward will be guarded well too. “We’re in for a fight regardless of our choice, so we might as well press on and go on the offensive. That’s our best option now.”

“Then let’s go,” added Applejack as she took the lead and Twilight followed right behind with Spike on her back. “No matter what we’re up against, we’ll charge right through them!”

“For Equestria and Princess Celestia!” cheered Twilight, attempting to not think about what they might be coming up against.

“We’re so doomed,” sighed Spike, holding tightly to Twilight’s neck as she galloped forward. “But whatever. Onward Twilight!”

Rushing forward, the trio felt ready to face whatever foes got in their way. Turning a corner in the hall, they finally got their answer as a number of Ponies clad in armor that covered over every inch of their bodies. Slowly, they made their way towards them.

“That explains why their footsteps were so noisy,” commented Twilight. “They were all wearing that old armor, but why? It’s a lot more protective than the armor the Ponies in Canterlot wear, but it’s so heavy and clunky to move around in that it’s completely impractical to use.”

“That makes it all the better for us then,” declared Applejack. “We can just charge on through!”

Despite saying they would both charge through, Applejack was the one who plowed into the armored Ponies, knocking them all down domino style while Twilight followed behind, carefully stepping around them till they were past them all. They stopped and looked back, surprised more that they made it past them so easily. “If this was their big plan to capture us,” said Spike, scratching his head. Hopping off Twilight, he approached the armored Ponies, though he remained cautious as he stared down at them. “Maybe we don’t have anything to worry about after all.”

“Be careful, Spike,” warned Twilight. “This was easy. Too easy. Something is wrong. I think we’re overlooking something important.”

“Does that even matter at this point?” asked Spike as he turned back to Twilight. While his back was turned the armored Ponies started to rise back up again. “They’re beaten. Let’s get going. We’ve got Elements to find.”

“Spike!” cried Twilight. “Get back here, fast!”

“What? Why?” he questioned her as he turned his head to see the Ponies approaching them again. Crying out, he hurried to hide behind Twilight. “Oh, that’s why.”

“Want some more?” snorted Applejack as moved in front of Twilight and Spike. “Take another step closer and I’ll buck you and that tin can suit all the way across Equestria!” Even after being warned, the Ponies didn’t falter.

“Okay!” announced Applejack. “You asked for it!” Turning around, she showed off the powerful back legs that fell a million apples from trees. She aimed to buck him back at the other Ponies, but she bucked too high and knocked his helmet off and his head too. When she saw what she had done, she just stared, mouth agape. “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean t- WARGH!” In mid apology the beheaded Pony’s body continued to walk towards her, completely unaffected by the loss of its head. “What in tarnation?”

“What in Equestria is going on?!?” cried Spike, hugging Twilight’s leg tightly, frightened by this latest development. “How is that Pony moving without a head on his shoulders?”

“I think I know,” answered Twilight, concern in her tone, as she focused her magic to levitate the armored Pony without a head and with one big burst of magic pulled the armor apart at the joints. When she did so, the three of them discovered that there was no Pony inside of it. “I figured as much.”

“There’s nopony in there,” gasped Applejack, glad she hadn’t kicked their head off, but this new revelation presented new problems for them to deal with. Then does that mean…”

“Yes,” nodded Twilight. “They’re all empty, meaning that all these suits of armor have been enchanted to come to life. It’s just like how Derpy brought all those Muffins to life back on the bridge and had them attack us.”

“Living muffins?” questioned Applejack raising an eyebrow. “You were attacked by living muffins?”

“It’s just as weird as it sounds,” confirmed Spike.

“And this is even worse than that,” Twilight informed them. “The muffins were more bothersome than dangerous. However, none of the Shadow Bolts should be able to do this. Even enhanced by Nightmare Moon, none of them were given magical abilities and even then, there is no way they could animate objects this large without years of training.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that they are,” Spike pointed out as they slowly retreated back as the suits of armor started to approach them.

“The only thing I can think of is that it has something to do with the organ music playing,” contemplated Twilight as she rubbed her chin. “They didn’t start moving till after it started to play and if that’s the case then it must have been enchanted to manipulate the suits of armor. In which case, this could very well be a security system Celestia created to protect her old castle.” As Twilight said all this, her tone shifted once more from dread to admiration. “Oh, this is truly amazing. Celestia was able to use magic to set all this up and allow it to be used by anypony, even those unable to use it themselves. It’s also incredible that an enchantment she set up ages ago is still fully functional. This is just more proof of what an amazing Pony Celestia is! I have to ask her how she managed to do such magic in my next letter to her. What books she read and what spells she combined. Oh, I just can’t wait to find out.”

“Is now really the time to be getting excited over this?” Spike asked Twilight, hoping to pull her back to the situation at hand.

“Sorry about that,” she apologized.

“I don’t really know all the details about how the organ is related to these things,” admitted Applejack as she looked at the one they reduced to pieces on the ground. “But, at least it was easy enough to defeat one of them. If we take them apart they won’t pose us any danger.”

“Are you sure about that?” cried Spike as he pointed at the downed suit of armor. Twilight and Applejack turned to look and watched as it reassembled, helmet and all till it was good as new. It then rejoined the others in going after them.

“I’m sure you both probably figured this out by now,” added Twilight. “But so long as the enchantment isn’t broken, the objects affected by it will not tire from whatever task they are driven to perform. That they can even put themselves back together is even more proof as to how amazing the enchantment is.”

“Any idea how we can stop something so ‘amazing?’” questioned Spike, hoping that was a part of Twilight’s lecture.

“Inflicting enough damage to actually break it would normally do the trick,” she answered. “However, metal is a ton harder to break than baked goods and considering Celestia is the one who created it, even that might not work. Our only choice might be to stop the Pony playing the organ.”

“Then let’s ignore these things and go after the organ,” instructed Applejack. “That’s probably where all our other objectives are anyway, the Elements and my hat.”

“Heheh, did you hear that?” laughed Gale Force as she watched Twilight and her friends through the crystal ball. “They still intend to find the Elements. Either they are incredibly brave or unbelievably stupid.”

“Hard to tell,” snickered Nightshroud. “Perhaps giving them a bigger challenge will help us decide which it is.”

“Indeed,” agreed Firestorm. “Start playing for real. Let’s show them what these enchanted suits of armor can really do.”

“Coming right up,” Sunny Day replied as he continued to play away on the pipe organ with his hooves. He began hitting the keys faster and more energetically than before and the music blared out louder than ever. “Hey, if this is supposed to be a team effort, why am I the only one doing something?”

“Uh, because out of all of us, you know how to play the piano,” lied Gale Force, well away that musical talent had nothing to do with it.

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” he admitted happily. “You know, this is the first time I’ve ever been glad my mom had me take piano lessons.”

“You better make sure to send her a Thank You card when this is over,” Gale told him, stifling a snicker at his gullibility.

“They got a taste,” said Firestorm as she watched Twilight and others still oblivious to the real danger they were about to face. “Time for the meal.”

“The music changed,” cried Spike as they hurried through the old castle. “That’s bad, right?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight answered. “My hypothesis is that the pipe organ is what controls the suits of armor. We still don’t know if that’s true or if how it’s played affects them in any way. Without any substantial evidence it’s only a conjecture.”

“Well, that conjecture of yours seems to be spot on,” Applejack told her as she looked back and saw the previously slow-moving hollow ponies of steel were now galloping after them and closing the distance between them.

“This is incredible!” exclaimed Twilight. “The enchantment used on those soldiers is even more intricate than I could have imagined. It’s absolutely genius!”

“Now really isn’t the time to be impressed by that sort of thing!” Spike reminded her. “If they were just playing around with us before, I think they’re being serious now.”

“We just have to find the organ controlling them and we’ll be fine,” stated Twilight as she pushed her body as hard as she could to run even faster, but all the time she spent with her nose in books didn’t do her any favors in terms of running stamina. Slowly she started falling behind Applejack who slowed herself down to avoid leaving her new friend in the dust, but it also allowed their pursuers to close the gap between them even faster. “If we can just outrun them a little longer then I’m sure we’ll find it.”

“That might not be an option anymore,” warned Applejack as their way forward became blocked by more of their tin can foes. Looking back, the ones chasing them were only getting closer too. “At this rate we’’ll get surrounded.”

“Quick! Up there,” instructed Twilight, turning to lead Applejack upa staircase to the upper level of the old castle, bu that didn’t discourage the suits of armor from continuing to pursue.

“That was fast thinking,” commented Applejack, looking back to see the tireless armor hot on their heels. With a quick buck she managed to knock a few back down to the ground floor, but more just took their place and kept up the chase.

“Yeah,” added Spike as he looked up the stairs to see more animated armor ready to intercept them. “But any ideas what we’re going to do about them?”

“I’m already on it,” answered Twilight as her horn glowed brightly with magic. As they neared the top of the stairs she unleashed all the power she had built up in it and blasted the suits of armor against the wall, making them crumble into a pile of themselves and allowed them to reach the top.

“Nice one,” praised Spike as they reached the second floor, still being chased from behind. “You took them all out with one blast.”

“Yeah,” she wheezed, growing fatigued from running away. “But something like that uses up more magic than I care to expend at once, especially in a situation like this.” Looking back, already they were putting themselves back together. A few of them ended up reassembling with parts from one another, though that didn’t appear to adversely affect them at all as they ran after them as relentlessly as ever. “And it’s also a lot of magic to use up just to delay them a little.”

“Smashing them doesn’t work and magic doesn’t work either,” cried Spike. “And my flames, well, I don’t think we want burning hot suits of armor chasing after us will just make things even worse for us, if that’s even possible.”

“Well, hot enough temperatures could cause them to melt and that should stop them beyond recovery,” explained Twilight. “But I doubt your body has the lung capacity to take out more than two or three if you tried.”

“Then there really is nothing we can do,” Spike took from what Twilight just said.

We’ll figure something out,” panted Twilight, her gallop quickly dropping to a trot. “We just have to keep moving.”

“Not if you’re moving at a snail’s crawl,” stated Applejack as she opened a nearby door and checked the inside to make certain it was void of any suits of armor. “Let’s barricade ourselves in here. It’s not much of an improvement, but it’ll at least give us a chance to catch our breath.”

With no time to debate it, Twilight hurried into the room and Applejack quickly closed the door behind her and held it shut. As the suits of armor pounded away at the door, Spike hopped off of Twilight and started pushing tables, chairs, and any other heavy objects he could carry and used them to help brace the door. Meanwhile, Twilight sat down, exhaustion hitting her now that she was no longer running.

While Spike and Applejack barricaded the door, she looked around the room, finding it looked to be as grand as the rest of the castle once was, but now it was merely a musty and abandoned shadow of itself. In the corner of the room was a moldy, old bed and nearby was a dresser covered in a thick layer of dust. “Is this somepony’s bedroom?” wondered Twilight as her breathing started to drop from rasping back to normal. “Maybe Celestia’s old room?”

“Ugh!” groaned Spike as he added his weight to blocking the door as well, but more and more suits of armor gathered at the door as they attempted to force it open. “This is still not enough! We need more!”

“I’m on it,” replied Applejack as she hurried to the dresser and started to push it towards the door. As she did, one of the drawers slipped out and landed on the ground, breaking into pieces. She ignored it and kept pushing the dresser to the door, leaning it against it to further defend their position.

As Twilight looked at the broken drawer, she noticed a piece of paper that was in it. Growing curious, she picked it up and blew the dust off of it, discovering it was a scribbly drawing of two Alicorns surrounded by a heart. It only took her a second to recognize the white pony with a mane and tail pinks, greens, and blues as Celestia. Looking at the second Pony colored in dark blue, she recognized this as Nightmare Moon. “Celestia really did care for her,” thought Twilight, tearing up. “Why did Nightmare Moon have to betray her?”

“Is everything alright?” Spike asked as he and Applejack kept their backs against the blocked door to help reinforce it. With the addition of the dresser it appeared to be keeping their pursuers at bay, for the time being.

“I’m fine,” she nodded, quickly composing herself. “Now we have to figure out how we’re going to get out of this mess.”

“Well, we’re trapped in this room and the only way out is through a ton of unfriendly metal,” analyzed Spike.

“And there hasn’t been any sign of those varmints the entire time we’ve been here,” commented Applejack as she listened to the pipe organ music and could still faintly hear it being played. “Do you think they know what’s been happening to us or what?”

“They probably have some means of spying on us,” figured Twilight. “They probably have a viewing orb or something like the guards have in Canterlot castle to keep watch. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are somewhere laughing their heads off at us.”

“Well, if’n you are watching,” snorted Applejack as she shouted and scanned the room. “Maybe you can hear us too. If you can then listen well. We will get out of this mess and defeat you lot. I promise you all that and that goes double for the polecat who stole my hat. I’m going to take care of you personally and take back my hat. That is the honest truth!”

“Finders keepers,” taunted Nightshroud, amused at Applejack’s growing frustration.

“Come on now,” Firestorm instructed Sunny Day. “Play harder. Break through that door already.”

“I’m trying,” he answered. “My hooves are getting tired. I’ve never played a concert this long before. I’ve never actually played a concert before ever, but still.”

“We’ve almost got them,” Gale Force told him. “Just break through that door and that’ll be it. Come on now. This is the big finale!”

“Alright,” he breathed, raising hooves up high before dropping them down hard on the keys to make the music blare louder than ever. “Here I go!”

“Is taunting them really the smartest thing to do right now?” asked Spike as the music started to get louder again and the suits of armor rammed at the door hard enough to send the two of them flying forward as the door started to splinter. “Ugh… Just saying. I don’t think it’s helping our situation any.”

“Looks like this is it,” breathed Applejack as they watched their barricade and forced open more and more each time the door got rammed. “Time for our last stand.”

The door finally gave in and collapsed as the steel soldiers charged in. Quick to react, Applejack turned and started to buck away as many as she could as they poured in. However, as much as she tried there were still far too many for her two hind legs to kick. The greater bulk of them made it past her and made their way towards Twilight and Spike.

“Were you sure that my flames could melt them?” asked Spike as the first of many approached them.

“If you can get your flame hot enough and keep it going long enough,” she answered.

“Well, here goes nothing,” nodded Spike as he took in the biggest breath he could muster and exhaled the strongest flames he could. Embers of green burst out between his lips, illuminating the room in a green glow. The suit of armor approaching them got bathed in emerald fire that quickly turned its silver body into a burning bright orange. It attempted to keep moving forward, soon the metal started to melt, causing it to collapse.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Twilight told her dragon friend as his face was turning a darker shade or purple than usual. “You’ve melted it more than enough.”

Spike let his flames slowly diminish till it was out completely and he started to gasp for air. As the suit of armor’s body slowly cooled and hardened, it tried to get back up again, but it’s warped body and joints fused together made it for it to move. Before it could get itself upright again it collapsed to the ground again.

“One down,” wheezed Spike as he turned to Twilight, not paying attention as another suit of armor came upon him. Acting quickly, Twilight fired a black of magic knocking it back. “Thanks, Twi,” he told her, breathing now with relief as well as to reinflate his lungs.

“Don’t thank me yet,” she told him. “There’s too many of these things for the three of us to fight.” She turned her head to the back of the room, but there was nothing but a solid wall there. Looking forward again, there were too many suits of armor in their way to force their way through. “And now we’ve got nowhere left to go.”

“Then what do we do?” cried Spike as the two of them backed away and Applejack quickly retreated to join them.

“I… don’t know,” she admitted. “I knew there would be a lot of them, but there are enough suits of armor here to quell a small invasion. Celestia truly is amazing if she did such a thing all by herself. Now, for it to be used against us, there’s just no way we can stop it. Nightmare Moon wasn’t kidding. When she said there was no way we could win and at best we’d only be delaying the inevitable, she meant it.”

“We can’t give up now,” Applejack told her as they were quickly running out of anywhere to retreat too. “We’ll have to force our way through if need be.”

“Against all these?” cried Spike.

“It’s either that or wait till we have nowhere left to run,” said Applejack, giving him their only alternative.

“I think that ship’s already set sail,” replied Spike as he felt the wall against his back.

“It might just be delaying the inevitable,” stated Twilight as she gathered up all the magic she could muster into her horn. “But I’d rather go down fighting.”

“That’s the spirit!” declared Applejack, readying herself for better or worse. “For Equestria!”

“For Equestria!” Spike and Twilight shouted after her and tried one last time to fight back.

“They actually think they can fight their way through that?” laughed Gale Force as she and the others watched the trio’s final moments. The trio fought desperately, but they couldn’t push back the encroaching force or even get them to stop moving. When one was beaten another instantly took its place and kept on the move. Smaller and smaller the gap between them and the suits of armor became. To fight their way past them would have been the same as attempting to dig throughs till steel with their bare hooves and claws. “Good luck with that.”

“So long as we keep pumping out this music there is no stopping us,” added Nightshroud as he drank up the look of despair the trio was attempting to hide behind clenched jaws and angry eyes. “But it’ll be fun to see them try.”

“Anyone wanna take over?” asked Sunny Day. “My arms are getting tired and I’d like to watch our enemies for a little while.”

“Uh, sorry didn’t quite get that,” Firestorm replied as she and the others ignored him and kept on watching Twilight and co.’s demise.

“Ow,” groaned Twilight, rubbing her head after firing off a dozen more blasts of magic in rapid succession. “My horn feels like it’s going to overheat.”

“I am my limit too,” wheezed Spike, running short on breath again after managing to melt a couple more suits of armor together. He fell onto his butt, mouth dry and his embers escaping his maw as he exhaled. “My pilot light is about to go out.”

“Just leave it to me,” said Applejack, gathering her strength for another powerful kick to send back a handful of the suits of armor, but even she was showing signs of growing tired from just holding the line. After this attack, her legs quivered like jelly, barely allowing her to remain standing.

“We’re all at our limits,” Twilight told Applejack. “There’s nothing more we can do.”

Too tired to do more than slump against the wall, the trio was only able to watch as the clunking suits of armor closed in around them. All they could see was their cold steel as they prepared to apprehend them. It was then that the wall behind them started to slide open and reveal a hidden passage.

“Oh, great,” groaned Spike as they looked into the new dark corridor, not sure what else to expect next. “Aren’t we already outnumbered bad enough?”

“But there’s no need for them to send in more,” commented Applejack. “Why would they-”

“SURPRISE!” exclaimed the pink, curly-haired Pony as she blasted a ton of confetti out of a small blue cannon she had with her, covering Spike, Twilight, Applejack with the tiny bits of colored paper.

“Huh?” questioned the trio at this very unexpected development.

“Huh?” wondered the Shadow Bolts, not expecting this to happen either. They all stared at the new Pony through their orb, including Sunny Day who paused from his playing.

“Where did she come from?” Nightshroud asked.

“Where in tarnation did you come from Pinkie Pie?” asked Applejack.

“Well, it all started a long, long time ago, on a cold Winter’s night on the rock farm. My mother was in a great deal of pain and I was charging through-”

“Whoa, now! Hold your horses,” Applejack interrupted her. “I meant how did you get here, in this wall?”

“Oh, that,” she smiled and giggled brightly. “Back in Ponyville, I was just enjoying the day, even though it was night when this purple Pony over here came over and introduced herself to me and I was all, ‘Wowie zowie! There’s a new Pony in town! I have to go throw her a welcome party. So I ran off to get ready, but by the time I got back she had already left, so I went looking for her. I ran into Derpy who said she went to Sweet Apple Acres and then I ran into Big Mac who just said ‘yup,’ but then Apple Bloom told me she went into the Everfree Forest and and you went after her. From there, I kept on searching and searching till I ended up finding this castle and went looking around. Then, I pulled on a level and suddenly there you all were so I shouted surprise and fired my confetti cannon. After that, you asked me how I got here so I-”

“That’s enough of an explanation,” Applejack said as she covered Pinkie’s mouth, though she kept on going for a bit more anyway. “But we’re really grateful you showed up when you did. Now we can get out of here.”

“Get out of here?” replied Pinkie sadly. “But what about Twilight’s party? I got a cake ready and everything. You can even invite all your scary looking metal friends to join us.”

“Hey, did anypony else notice that the suits of armor stopped moving?” asked Spike, alerting the others to this fact and they saw it was true.

“Yeah, and the music stopped playing too,” realized Twilight.

“I think we weren’t the only ones caught off guard by Pinkie’s sudden and random appearance,” commented Applejack. “In which case, we should probably get out of here while we can.”

“You idiot!” cried Firestorm and she and other Shadow Bolts hurried to the pipe organ to play it again. “We almost had them, why did you stop playing?”

“I-I-I got distracted,” he admitted, looking over the keys in confusion. “Uh, I forgot my place. Where did I leave off playing?”

“That doesn’t matter!” cried Gale Force as the three of them pounded on the keys to get the suits of armor moving again. Turning to the crystal ball, they watched as their enchanted force started to move, only to crash into the wall as Twilight and the others shut the passage behind them and made their escape.

“They managed to get away,” groaned Nightshroud. “We were so close too!”

“We have to find them again,” ordered Firestorm. “Look for them on the crystal ball.”

“Let’s see,” mumbled Gale as she moved her hooves over it to change the image from one room to another, however, no matter how many times she did this, Twilight and the others didn’t appear. “No good. They are somewhere that wasn’t set up to be viewable from here.”

“This is just perfect,” grumbled Firestorm. “We can’t send the those tin toys after them if we don’t know where exactly they are. What a dumb limitation for enchanted suits of armor.”

“As dumb as needing to play a pipe organ to make them move?” asked Nightshroud.

“It’s up there,” she admitted and sighed now that they were back to square one again in capturing Twilight.

“Do you think Nightmare Moon will be upset with us?” asked Sunny Day.

“Upset?” asked the Dark Alicorn as her image now appeared upon the viewing orb and Gale Force stumbled back in fright. Her voice was calm, yet threatening at the same time as she looked at the trembling faces of her subordinates. “Why would I be upset when you were mere moments away from defeating them, only for them to slip through your hooves?!?”

“That wasn’t our fault,” Sunny Day replied. “How were we supposed to know they were going to be saved two times in a row?”

“Two times?” she questioned him. “You already tried and failed to capture Twilight and her friends once before?”

“It was all luck on her part,” Gale Force assured her. “But she’s gotta be out of it by now. When we unleash plan C on her there is no way that she will get away.”

“See to it that she doesn’t,” Nightmare Moon told them. “Remember, I granted you all your greatest dream and I can just as easily take all that away. Never forget that.”

“W-We won’t forget,” stuttered Firestorm nervously. “And we won’t let you down. You made us into Wonderbolts, but even better. We’re the Shadow Bolts, your Shadow Bolts. We can’t possibly fail our princess.”

“We shall certainly see now, won’t we,” Nightmare Moon replied before the orb went dark as she ended the call. Firestorm looked at the rest of her team, all of them looking equally fearful of what further failure meant.

“Why did you have to mention that we failed once before?” Nightshroud questioned Sunny Day. “Now Nightmare Moon might take away everything she’s given to us.”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Sunny Day replied. “This might just be her way of motivating us to do our best. Anyway, if we succeed then we’ve got nothing to worry about. Let’s just do plan C and take care of them. By the way, what is plan C?”

“We don’t have a plan C,” admitted Gale Force. “I just made that up to convince Nightmare Moon not to give up on us. None of us expected them to escape from an inescapable force of animated suits of armor!”

“It’ll be fine,” Firestorm assured them. “Things might have gotten a bit out of hoof, but that doesn’t change the fact that they have to be worn out. Even if they weren’t, there’s no way they could hope to stand a chance against us.”

“Yeah,” agreed Nightshroud. “Let’s just capture them and be done with this. Then we won’t have to worry about losing anything. We’ll be known as the greatest fliers in all of Equestria, just like we always wanted to be.”

With them currently out of danger, the group took the time to recover their strength before making their next move. As they did, they filled Pinkie Pie in on everything that had happened from Nightmare Moon’s return to their own arrival at the castle. The whole time she listened, that happy-go-lucky smile never left her face.

“Well, what do you think?” asked Twilight once she finished explaining their situation.

“I think this is the best hiding in a castle’s spooky catacombs party ever!” exclaimed Pinkie as she and the others sat in the dark passageway and ate the Twilight’s head shaped cake she had brought with her. Twilight was still amazed she had managed to make a cake in her likeness in such a short amount of time and so accurately to her likeness since they only briefly met.

“You’ve had others parties like this?” asked Spike before eating another piece of the tasty vanilla with strawberry frosting goodness.

“No, and that’s why this one’s the best one ever,” she told him with her overly bubbly attitude.

“This certainly is the best one of those parties in my book too,” stated Applejack. “We’d have been goners if you hadn’t shown up when you did. Now, we’re still not out of the woods, but at least it looks like we’ve got a bit of time to rest and recover before we go and search for those varmints.”

“Yeah, but we still need a plan,” Twilight replied as she tried to think in between eating some of her mane in cake form. “We’re still outnumbered four to three. At the very least, it seems like those suits of armor can’t get to us here so we might be able to avoid running into them again if we avoid the main parts of the castle.”

“Sounds good to me,” smiled Applejack. “I’ll take four to three against a hundred to three any day.”

“What about Pinkie Pie?” asked Spike.

“Yeah, what about Pinkie Pie?” asked Pinkie as well.

“That’s up to you, Pinkie,” Twilight told her. “We’ll be facing plenty of danger, so if you want to back out and go back to Ponyville then now’s your chance. If you help us out anymore than you have, I can’t guarantee that you won’t be in any danger.”

“No can do,” Pinkie answered, shaking her head. “What kind of friend would I be to go home and let you go off, on a journey of growth and discovery, to save the world from eternal night caused by an evil Alicorn princess, without me?”

“Uh,” Twilight said, not sure how to answer that.

“Exactly!” Pinkie went on. “I have no idea either, but it’s definitely not the kind of friend I am.” Picking up the remaining half of Twilight’s cake, she stuffed it into her maw and swallowed it whole. “Now, what’s the party plan for how we beat those meanies?”

“I’m still trying to figure that out,” answered Twilight. “We don’t have much to work with, I’ve got my magic, Spike has his flames, and Applejack is strong and has her ropes. Pinkie, what do you have?”

“Well I did bring a cake,” she told Twilight. “Oh, but we already ate it. Um, let’s see. What else… What else? Does the Smile Song count?”

“And that can help us out, how?” questioned Twilight.

“It can make us feel better,” she admitted. “But I guess it wouldn’t be helpful in this particular situation.”

“How about that?” asked Spike pointing at Pinkie’s party cannon. “I’d say a cannon would be very helpful.”

“It would,” nodded Applejack before she pulled the string in the back and fired out some confetti. “If it actually had some real ammo to put in it.”

“Anything else, Pinkie?” Spike asked her.

“Uhhhhhh…” pondered Pinkie for a few seconds. Her curly mane deflated a bit and her tone turned sadder. “Nope. That’s all. Sorry, if I can’t be more helpful.”

“Actually,” smiled Twilight. “This cannon might be just what we need and all it’ll take is a little teamwork.”

“Really?” asked Pinkie, perking up instantly. “That’s so super fantastic amazing!”

“Oh, trust me,” smiled Twilight. “It will be.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a plan,” replied an excited Applejack, grinning at the sight of Twilight’s smile and looked eager to get some much needed payback on the Shadow Bolts. Spike and Pinkie also had hopeful expressions on as they were eager to see what kind of plan Twilight had come up with.

“Okay, listen up,” she told them. “First we’re going to have to…”

Chapter 1 Part 3 - Battle Against the Shadow Bolts

“Say, Twilight Sparkle, last hope of Equestria and greatest threat to Nightmare Moon’s reign of eternal night,” spoke Spike in a loud enough voice that practically anyone in the castle could hear him pontificating. The two of them had managed to maneuver through the castle’s catacombs till they found a way out and then made their way to the building’s old throne room. There they saw two wrecked seats on the far side of the wall with a long pair of tapestries hanging over them, one representing the sun and the other the moon. “It has been a while since we’ve seen any sign of the Shadow Bolts. Do you think they realized they were no match for us and flew the coop?”

“I doubt that,” answered Twilight, speaking just as obnoxiously loud as Spike was. “Chickens don’t fly. They probably ran off with their tails tucked between their legs. This just goes to show that a pitiful fiend like Nightmare Moon would have equally shameful henchmen like these at her beck and call.”

“Who are you calling chicken?” snapped Firestorm as she and the rest of her team emerged from a secret passage behind the thrones and flew high above the Unicorn and Dragon.

“Would you have preferred it if we called you turkeys?” asked Spike. “Or maybe dodos?”

“I don’t even know what a dodo is,” admitted Sunny Day. “But if it is another flightless bird then no way are we that. We’re at least ducks!”

“You’re not helping us,” Gale Force told Sunny Day before she looked down at Spike and Twilight. “So, where are your other friends, that orange Pony you were with and that pink one that just showed up and ruined our wonderful scheme. Also, where is that black and white one from earlier who ruined our other wonderful scheme?”

“Zecora didn’t come with us,” answered Twilight. “And they aren’t here. They already went back to Ponyville. It’s just the two of us now.”

“I bet they did,” Firestorm scoffed at Twilight. “They are probably hiding around here somewhere just waiting to ambush us.”

“N-No they aren’t!” answered Spike, hesitating a bit in his answer and only making them more suspicious.

“Yeah, right,” stated Nightshroud. “They are definitely nearby. You aren’t fooling us.”

“Maybe,” Twilight confessed. “But Nightmare Moon is fooling you too. How can all fall for her deceit? Can’t you see that she’s just using you to get what she wants and all for what? So you can all be discount Wonderbolts?”

“She’s not using us!” argued Nightshroud angrily. “It’s a quid pro quo. She gets what she wants, to be the new ruler of Equestria, and, in return, she has made us even better than the Wonderbolts. Now we are the best fliers in all of Equestria. Nopony can match our aerial prowess nor any other creature for that matter.”

“Better?” repeated Spike skeptically. “I sincerely doubt that.”

“What did you say you overgrown lizard?” growled Nightshroud.

“All I’m saying is that you didn’t prove yourselves through hard work to earn your positions. They were offered and you four were probably the only ones dumb enough to accept them.”

“What do you know about us?” cried Sunny Day. “We were good fliers, but never the best no matter how hard we tried. As much as we wanted to be Wonderbolts it was obvious that we’d never make the cut. The only way we could ever be Wonderbolts was in our dreams and that’s why Nightmare Moon picked us. We dreamed to be great fliers more than anypony else and she decided to turn our dreams into reality.”

“It sounds more like she saw four Ponies she could take advantage of,” countered Spike.

“Spike is right,” agreed Twilight. “There are plenty of ponies that have the same dream of being great fliers too. She didn’t see your passion to be the best. All Nightmare Moon cared about was the self doubt and envy you were all filled with. She took advantage of that to manipulate you into joining her and once you are no longer useful to her, she’ll discard you without even a second thought.”

“No,” retorted Firestorm. “That’s not who Nightmare Moon is at all. She understands us and how we felt to want something, but never unable to obtain it. She said that’s how it was between her and Celestia. They were both supposed to rule together and yet Celestia wanted to rule by herself.”

“That is all a lie!” snapped Twilight. “Celestia wasn’t the one who started all this. Nightmare Moon was jealous of Celestia and wanted to take Equestria all for herself.”

“And this jealousy wasn’t caused because Celestia wanted Equestria all for herself as well?” Firestorm countered. “And you think we’re delusional? What do you really know about Celestia? What do you really know?”

“More than you, obviously,” she spoke with confidence in her voice. “Celestia has dedicated her life to making Equestria a better place for everypony, including all of you. How could you so easily betray her like this?”

“Don’t waste your breath on them, Twilight,” Spike told her as he started walking forward. “They’ve already made up their minds, so there’s no sense in trying to talk any sense into them. Let’s just get the Elements and go. They’re down that hidden passage you four just came from, right?”

“Yeah, they are,” admitted Gale Force, flying down to block Spike. “But we’re not letting you two anywhere near them.”

“That’s one,” thought Twilight, remaining silent as she waited.

“Like you guys can really stop us,” scoffed Spike, attempting to walk around her, but Firestorm flew down to block him again.

“We already beat you before,” she pointed out. “We can easily do that again.”

“That’s two,” sweated Twilight trying to discreetly focus her magic without any of them noticing. “Come on Spike, you’re halfway there.”

“Yeah, when it was pitch black out and we could barely see more than two feet in front of our noses,” countered Spike as he looked up at the holes in the ceiling that allowed the moonlight to leak into the room. “But now, we can see just fine. So, why don’t you pretty peacocks just get out of our way before we decide to get tough.” Spike flexed his muscles to add weight to his words, but his small stature and meager physique didn’t scare any of them at all.

“Stop calling us flightless birds,” snapped an agitated Sunny Day.

“Ostrich. Penguin. Kiwi,” listed Spike, attempting to remain confident and smug, but his heart was up in his throat as he was drawing all their scorn his way.

“You’re just trying to get under my skin,” fumed Sunny Day as he flew down beside Firestorm and Gale Force, surrounding Spike on all sides. “And it’s working!”

“Three down and one more to go,” thought Twilight, trying to stay calm while Spike drew all their attention towards him. “We’ve almost got them right where we want them.”

“First, we have to lure the Shadow Bolts as close as we can to the ground and as close together as possible,” Twilight told the others as they listened to her plan. “If we can do that, then I can use my levitation magic on them all at once and trap them in place.”

“Kinda like what you did with that fruit bat back on my farm,” recalled Applejack.

“They’re a lot bigger and stronger than fruit bats,” added Twilight. “But if we can get them close enough to the ground, I should be able to take hold of them all at once.”

“And how are we going to do that?” asked Spike. “I can’t see them sitting still for you to use your magic on them. Why would they even give us a chance to do anything?”

“Because while you and I go out there to confront them, Applejack and Pinkie will stay behind, ready to ambush them. At least, that’s what we’re going to make them believe and because of that, they’ll keep their distance to avoid falling for our trap.”

“So, you’re going to make them think to think so they don’t think the things you don’t want them to think,” replied Pinkie.

“Uh, yeah, exactly right,” answered Twilight, not entirely sure what Pinkie just said. “And once we’ve done that, we’ll move onto the next phase of our plan, baiting them in close. That’s where you come in Spike.”

“I’ve got to bait them?” he asked, idea that he was involved with bait not appealing to him in the least.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “It’ll be your job to heckle them to the ground. You’re pretty quick with the snarky comments when you want to be.”

“I’d say it’s one of my best features,” he admitted with a smile, enjoying his ego getting stroked.

“This will give you a chance to prove it too,” Twilight told him. “It’ll be your job to draw their aggro and lure them as close as you can to the ground.”

“Draw their what now?” questioned Applejack, scratching her head.

“She wants Spike to draw them in afros,” explained Pinkie Pie with a giggle. “Now I can’t wait to get things started.

“Actually, it’s one of those words my brother uses when he’s playing an O & O campaign with his friends,” she explained. “Basically it’s when someone lures enemies to go after them so the rest of the team can wipe them out while they’re distracted.”

“I’ve been meaning to get into O & O myself,” admitted Spike. “I’ve been reading through the books and have even made my own character, so I’m fairly familiar with aggro tactics. Also, remind me when all this is over to see if I can join in on one of your brother’s campaigns in the future. I’ve been looking for others to play the game with.”

“I’ll make a mental note of it,” smiled Twilight, seeing the same dorky expression her brother would get when he’d get together with his friends for a night filled with dice, charts, and plenty of imagination. “Anyway,” she went on. “Can I count on you to pull it off?”

Spike answered with a confident nod. “Don’t you worry, Lady Twi,” Spike spoke in a bolder voice. “The great wizard, Garbunkle, shall complete this quest for you.”

Applejack tried to stifle a snicker while Pinkie Pie stared, starry-eyed with amazement. Twilight continued to smile, feeling nostalgic for when her brother got into character the same way. “Okay, Garbunkle,” she added. “Just remember that this isn’t a tabletop simulation, but the real deal. There is no saving throws, Uno Reverse Cards, or however those games work to pull you out of danger if things take a turn for the worse.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” worried Spike as his voice returned to normal. He was sweating bullets at the thought of attracting all their ire on purpose. “I don’t think I like this plan anymore.”

“Don’t worry, Spike,” Twilight assured him. “Once you lure them all down to you, I’ll use my magic to trap them in place before they won’t lay a single hoof on that scaly head of yours.”

“So, you feel like opening that big mouth of yours anymore, dragon?” asked Firestorm as she and the other two glared at Spike, just waiting to see if he had the nerve to insult them further.

“Uh, well,” mumbled Spike, struggling to come up with some more snark under so much pressure. “Yeah, I’ve got plenty more, but why don’t you get your other friend down here so I can tell you all at once.”

“You hear that, Nightshroud,” Sunny Day called up to him. “Come on down here so we can hear what this gecko has to say about us.”

“Yeah, not gonna fall for it,” Nightshroud stated as he looked to Twilight, seeing right through what was going on. “Nice try, but I see what you are doing.”

“Uh, I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” lied Spike looking even more nervous now that he was onto them.

“You think I wouldn’t recognize someone drawing aggro when I see it,” he pointed out.

“Heheh, I guess you play Ogres and Oubliettes too,” gulped Spike.

“My party meets up once a week to continue our campaign,” Nightshroud answered. “Are you a player as well?”

“Just starting and I’m hoping to get a game of it going if we somehow make it out of this mess,” Spike told him.

“I have my doubts that you will,” he replied to Spike. “Get him!”

Spike cried out and braced himself for the three Pegasi surrounding him about to attack. Without a moment’s hesitation, however, Twilight unleashed the magic she had been preparing and caught the three Shadow Bolts, trapping them in place and fulfilling her promise to keep Spike protected. Peeking out between his claws, Spike saw his would-be attackers immobilized within a purple aura. The Shadow Bolts struggled to move, but the magic held them tightly in place.

“What gives?” shouted Firestorm, shouting up to Nightshroud. “We can’t move.”

“But I still can,” he told them, demonstrating as he waved his front hooves up and down. “And I doubt she can trap me with her magic while she’s already holding all of you, so just wait a moment and I’ll free you from her magic.”

“Twilight!” called Spike, attempting to squeeze his body through the wall the trio of restrained Ponies created around him. “He’s coming to get you!”

“I know,” she called back to him. Gritting her teeth, she struggled to keep the three Ponies trapped with her magic. “But it’s taking all my focus just to hold those three still. If I even try to move, my focus could slip and they could escape.”

“So much for your little plan,” laughed Nightshroud. “It was, admittedly, clever, but you left too much to chance.”

Nightshroud swooped down at Twilight, curious to see how she would respond. “What’s it gonna be?” he asked her. “Are you going to stand there like a sitting duck or will you move and release your spell? Those are your only choices, but either way, you both lose!”

“I choose the third option!” she replied, confidently. “I’m going to trust in my friends!”

“Your friends?” he questioned her as he flew towards her, moving too fast to stop now.

“That was our cue, Pinkie,” Applejack said to Pinkie Pie after she overheard Spike calling out to Twilight. She was squeezed into Pinkie’s party cannon that was now large enough for a full grown Pony to fit in. “Is the cannon aimed correctly?”

“And ready to be fired!” she added excitedly. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun. It’s just like watching a pony getting shot out of a cannon at the circus.”

“Well, if I can pull off this crazy of a stunt,” replied Applejack. “Then I’m gonna see to making this a new rodeo event. Now, launch me!”

“Launching!” she announced and pulled the cord on the cannon, blasting Applejack out of it and down the passage towards where Twilight was standing.

As Applejack flew forward, she got out her rope and began twirling the lasso in the air. “Yeeeehaw!” she shouted finding this whole experience as exciting as it was crazy.

“Not to put a downer on your plan, Twi,” Applejack chimed in after they finished up Spike and Twilight’s roles in it. “But do you really think you’ll be able to fool all the Shadow Bolts into coming down close enough for you to use your magic on them? Do you think they’d all be careless enough to make such a big mistake?”

“To be perfectly honest,” she admitted. “The best case scenario would be if they all fell for it. The worst case would be if only one fell for it since I’d be stuck in place holding them still while the other three are free. If none of them fall for it, I’d at least still be free to help out. In my opinion, however, I believe we will end up somewhere in the middle and be able to trap two or even three of them. If we can accomplish that much, it’ll be a huge help in reducing their numbers.”

“But what about the ones still free?” asked Spike. “How are we going to take care of them?”

“Applejack and Pinkie will be the ones to take care of them,” Twilight continued to talk them through their battle plan. “You’ll be lying in wait till I’ve used my magic to trap as many of the Shadow Bolts as I can. If you hear us shouting like we’re in trouble, then that means we weren’t able to catch them all and you will have to hurry in to protect me from whoever is still free.

“That sounds all well and good, but how am I supposed to get there that quick to defend you?” wondered Applejack. “As fast as I might be, I’d never be able say out of sight one minute and then leg it over to you the next.”

“Which is why you won’t be running to my rescue,” explained Twilight. “Rather, you’ll be flying through the air with Pinkie’s help.”

“I don’t know where this is going, but I don’t think I’m going to like it,” Applejack admitted.

“You’ll be fine,” she assured Applejack. “Pinkie is just going to fire you out of her cannon and over to me in three seconds flat. After that, you’ll do whatever it’ll take to protect me from the Shadow Bolts.”

“And how in tarnation am I supposed to fit in Pinkie’s cannon?” the apple farmer Pony questioned Twilight and then looked down at Pinkie’s cannon. It was easily far too small for a Pony half her size to fit in it.

“That’s where the potion that Zecora gave us comes in,” Twilight told her.

“The growth potion?” asked Applejack, thinking for a moment. “Oh, yeah. She did say it’d work on anything.” Taking the potion out, Applejack sparingly dripped a few drops of the liquid onto the cannon. Before their eyes, it quickly grew in size.

“Oooooh!” gasped Pinkie in delight at her bigger party cannon. “This will be even more fun at parties, now.”

“I wouldn’t doubt that,” chuckled Applejack as she carefully dripped some more of the potion onto the cannon till it grew to a size she could fit into. “Okay, let’s see how she fits.” Climbing into the weapon of war back hooves first, Applejack managed to slip her whole body into it. “It’s a perfect fit.”

“Good,” Twilight told her. “And if and when you need to make your move, you’ll be in that cannon ready to fly in to protect me from being attacked. We’ll get you two in position before we do our part and then we’ll take the Shadow Bolts down with this two fold plan. So, what do you think?”

“I think you’re crazy,” Applejack answered honestly. “Do you honestly believe that I will be able to do anything while flying through the air like that?”

“But you managed to lasso a pig while you were riding a bucking bull five times your size in ten seconds flat at your last rodeo,” Pinkie Pie chimed in. “Remember, I baked the cake for the party afterwards.”

“Well, yeah, I did do that,” admitted Applejack. “That was one heck of a ride and I bucked the old record right out of the stadium.”

“And I bet a wild bull is a lot more difficult than simply flying through the air in a straight line,” added Pinkie Pie. Applejack had no retort for this.

“And I must be crazy to go along with you,” thought Applejack as she soared straight into the throne room and right over Twilight’s head.

Nightshroud saw her coming and desperately tried to adjust his trajectory and get out of the way. By a narrow margin, he managed to avoid colliding with Applejack and let her fly harmlessly by. “Ha! You missed!” he shouted with panicked relief. “You’re going to get smashed into the wall now!”

“Not if you don’t want to get smashed yourself,” warned Applejack, her lasso still held in her arms and muzzle on one end while the other trailed behind her. It snagged Nightshroud on his hind legs and yanked him right along with Applejack into the wall.

In a frenzy, he tried to break, grabbing air with his wings to help slow them down. It wasn’t enough to bring them to a full stop before they hit the wall, but it did slow them enough to make the impact soft enough for Applejack to take with her hind legs and leap back at Nightshroud. In a midair, she hogtied the Shadow Bolt in a flash and then they both landed safely on the ground panting hard after that extreme few seconds.

“Y-Y-You’re insane,” Nightshroud trembled as he squirmed on the ground against the rope that was tightly tying his hooves together.

“You want to see insane?” she asked him. “Then try stealing my hat. Oh, wait, you did.” Grabbing her precious keepsake from atop Nightshroud’s head, Applejack placed it on her own, returning it to where it rightfully belonged.

“Twilight,” Applejack said as she approached her. “Promise me that if I ever agree to do anything that crazy ever again, please hit me.”

“I promise,” Twilight replied to her, both smiling, happy that their plan worked out.

“It’s my turn! It’s my turn!” chanted Pinkie as she bounded over to them with her cannon in tow.

“Here comes another crazy one,” groaned Nightshroud as she kept chanting “It’s my turn!” and pranced around the room. “Your turn? You’re going to shoot yourself out of that cannon now?”

“No, not that,” she answered him. “Well, maybe later since that looked like a lot of fun. Now it’s time for my part of the plan.” With the bottle of growth potion in her hooves, Pinkie poured some more onto her cannon, making it big enough to fit four Ponies into it. Seeing this, the Shadow Bolts didn’t need an explanation for what was about to happen next.

After binding up the other three Shadow Bolts in rope and squeezing them into the cannon alongside Nightshroud, Twilight was finally able to release her magical hold on them, much to both sides' relief. “So, what now?” asked Firestorm. “Are you just going to blast us out of this cannon?”

“That depends,” replied Twilight. “Depends on whether or not you will cooperate and tell us what we want to know.”

“We aren’t going to tell any of you anything,” Gale Force replied. “Do what you want to us, but we won’t betray our princess.”

“Yeah!” exclaimed Sunny Day fidgeting around wildly in the cannon. “Tell them nothing by your name and favorite cereal! Sunny Day! Honey Bunches of Oats!”

“They seem like they are going to be a tough bunch of nuts to crack,” admitted Twilight.

“What should we do with them?” Spike asked her.

“We’ll let them stew in the cannon for a while longer,” she decided. “We still have to retrieve the Elements of Harmony.”

“Heheheh,” snickered the Shadow Bolts after hearing Twilight say that.

“What’s so funny?” Twilight asked them.

“You’ll see soon enough,” Nightshroud told her, the amused look on all their faces making Twilight worried.

“Don’t let them get to you, Twi,” Applejack told her. “They know they’re beat so they’re just messing with us. Let’s go grab the Elements and see if we can’t wipe those smiles off their faces when we get back.”

“You’re right, Applejack,” she agreed then turned to Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, if they try anything funny, pull the chord and blast them out of the cannon.”

“You got it,” Pinkie told Twilight as she Applejack, and Spike headed to the hidden passage behind the thrones.

“Are you that it’s a good idea to have Pinkie in charge of watching them?” Spike asked Twilight. “If she fires them out of the cannon then we lose our prisoners and don’t we still need them to tell us all they can about Nightmare Moon and her plans?”

“I just said all that so the Shadow Bolts won’t try to escape while we’re getting the Elements,” she explained. “I can assure you, they won’t be going any-” KABOOM!!! The cannon went off and rocketed the four Shadow Bolts out a hole in the roof and across the night sky. “-where…”

Twilight, Spike, and Applejack raced back over to Pinkie and stared up into the sky, but all they could see was the glowing moon against the darkness. “Pinkie!” cried Twilight. “Why did you fire them out of the cannon?”

“You said to do that if any of them tried anything funny,” she replied.

“Yeah, and,” nodded Twilight wanting more details.

“That one named Sunny Day made a face like this,” she continued and stuck her tongue out and made fish lips. Seeing that, Spike couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s what I thought,” she went on. “And since Twilight said to send them flying if they did anything funny that’s what I did do.”

“Well, there goes any hope of getting the lowdown on Nightmare Moon,” commented Applejack. “I’d reckon they were blasted halfway across Equestria.”

“What’s done is done,” sighed Twilight taking a breath. “At least they’re out of our manes now and we’ve still got the Elements of Harmony. As long as we have them, we’ll be fine.”

Now with Pinkie Pie joining them the group once more made their way down the passageway hidden behind the two, old thrones. Once they reached the room at the other end, they discovered the pipe organ that the Shadow Bolts had been playing, along with a viewing orb. However, what they were most interested in was the large stone chest in the middle of the room.

“This has to be it,” Twilight said as she and the others approached it. Together, with all their combined strength, they slid the lid off and gazed down at the treasures they had come to acquire, but the light of hope quickly faded from their eyes and their eager smiles were swapped for jaw dropping disbelief. The box that they believed held the solution to their Nightmare Moon problem was empty, save for a layer of dust covering the box’s insides.

“It’s empty?” asked Spike. “We came all this way and there’s nothing here?”

“No, this can’t be,” worried Twilight. “The Elements should have been here. I’m positive of it.”

“Maybe the Shadow Bolts took them before we got here,” suggested Applejack. “That must be why they were snickering before.”

“And now they’re gone and we have no idea where to look for them,” added Spike. “We’re right back to where we started. No clues and no idea what to do now.”

“Why don’t we ask Nightmare Moon where the Elements are?” suggested Pinkie.

“Why would Nightmare Moon tell us where the Elements are?” asked Twilight, raising an eyebrow. “How would we even be able to contact her?”

“We don’t have to contact her,” Pinkie Pie explained. “She’s right there in that orb thingy.”

“Orb thingy?” repeated Twilight as she looked over at the crystal ball and saw Nightmare Moon’s image was in it. “Nightmare Moon!”

“Hahahah!” she cackled villainously, sending Spike to nervously hide behind Twilight as they cautiously approached the magic sphere. “I must say, I’m impressed, Twilight Sparkle. You’ve done exceptionally well. I never would have imagined that you’d make it this far. In fact, you’d already be in possession of the Elements of Harmony if I didn't have the forethought to hide them from the very beginning.”

“From the beginning?” replied Twilight. “You mean before you even faced off against Celestia? You had already hidden away all the Elements?”

“After waiting a thousand years for my return,” Nightmare Moon spoke. “Why would I not take every possible precaution to ensure my victory? I sent the Shadow Bolts here to bring me the six elements and, after that, I entrusted them to some of my more special Dreamers.”

“More special than the ones we’ve already met?” asked Spike.

“Much more,” Nightmare Moon promised them. “They are my six Nightmares and if you wish to have any hope in stopping me then you are going to have to defeat them all. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. You still don’t have the foggiest idea where to search for them.”

“We were hoping that you might be kind enough to tell us,” Pinkie explained.

“Oh, sure, I’d be happy to reveal to you all my greatest secrets on how to defeat me,” Nightmare Moon spoke with sarcasm.

“Okey dokey lokey,” smiled Pinkie. “Does anypony have a pen and paper? We should probably write this stuff down.”

“There is no way in Tartarus I would reveal to you the location of the Elements of Harmony!” snapped Nightmare Moon. “You can go ahead and search every nook and cranny in Equestria for the next one thousand moons and you’ll still not find them. Not that you’d even be a match for the creatures I have guarding them.”

“That’s what you said when I came all the way here and that didn’t happen,” countered Twilight.

“In no small part thanks to the help those other Ponies were able to provide you with,” pointed out Nightmare Moon.

“Ahem,” Spike spoke up. “And dragon.”

“Whatever,” she replied uncaringly. “I can assure you it’ll take more than a handful of Ponies to take on the fiends I have that are just waiting for someone to make an attempt at the Elements they are guarding. But, by all means, go ahead and try to do the impossible. I look forward to seeing how well you will do. Will you manage to surprise me some more and acquire two or three or them or will you struggle to even get your hooves on one. It doesn’t matter how far you get if you can’t obtain them all, but I will enjoy watching you fumble about as you try. Gwahahahahahah!!!” Nightmare Moon unleashed a bone chilling laugh as she laid out her challenge to Twilight and the others. Her laughter went on for several seconds before she groaned a bit and rubbed her head achingly.

“Oh, ow,” she grumbled. “I think I over laughed.” Nightmare Moon stared at the group of four that were gazing back at her, their expressions, not the fearful ones she had hoped to see from her taunting, not after that last moment of awkwardness. “Uh, well, savor this victory while you can. “I’ve got much more important matters to attend to. I hope you all have a pleasant eternal night now.”

“After all this,” sighed Twilight sadly, once Nightmare Moon was off the orb. “After making our way through that forest, defeating the Shadow Bolts and everything else we did, it didn’t amount to anything at all. The Elements are scattered across Equestria and we don’t have any idea where to even start looking.”

“You can’t give up now, Twilight,” Applejack said, putting a hoof over her shoulder. “Don’t forget Zecora’s prophecy. She said so much herself that you’d find them. Maybe we can go back and see if she can look into where the Elements are.”

“That’d at least be worth a shot,” admitted Twilight, her spirits getting lifted by this possibility for new hope. “Let’s go ask her. Oh, but first, Spike, let’s send Celestia a letter to keep her updated on what’s going on.”

“Just leave it to your Number One Assistant,” Spike told her as he got quill and paper in claw. “Ready when you are.”

“Ahem,” Twilight cleared her throat before beginning to dictate her letter. “Dear Princess Celestia…”

“Dear Princess Celestia,” read the Princess of the Sun once Twilight’s letter reached her.

This is your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, once more, writing to you. And her trusty, Number One Assistant, Spike too. We hope you are doing well. Prisoner or not, Nightmare Moon better have the decency to be hospitable to you.

Anyway, I wanted to give you an update on what’s happened since I last wrote. First off, I’ve begun my quest to obtain the six Elements of Harmony. With a little work and research, we found out the whereabouts of your old castle where they were kept and made our way over. We faced some tough enemies that Nightmare Moon set against us, but, together, we managed to make it through, in no small part thanks to some friends I’ve made along the way.

Currently, Spike and I are traveling with two of them now, Applejack and Pinkie Pie. If not for them, I would never have managed to overcome Nightmare Moon’s Shadow Bolts and you’d probably be hearing from me as a prisoner alongside you rather than this letter sent via dragon flame.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t think the fate of Equestria was going to rely on me making friends, but I would have never made it as far as I did if not for them. They have strengths and qualities about them that I don’t and even when I’m feeling down I can get back up because they are there to lend me a hoof or a claw. If… no, when I rescue you, I’d love for you to meet them.

“Twilight,” smiled Celestia warmly as she stopped reading for a moment to dry her eyes. “I have always hoped that you would make some friends one day. I wish it had been under less world-ending circumstances, but I’m happy for you nonetheless. From how you write about them, I don’t have any doubt that you have made some very good ones.” Wiping away her overflow of emotion once more, Princess Celestia went back to reading the rest of the letter.

While the good news is that we managed to reach your castle and defeat the Shadow Bolts who were supposedly protecting the Elements from us, we found out the terrible truth. Before we even began, we were too late. Nightmare Moon already had the Shadow Bolts retrieve the Elements for her and she has scattered them all across Equestria.

On top of that, each one is guarded by creatures she believes that I stand no chance of defeating even if I can manage to figure out where to go. That may be what she thinks, but I plan to get stronger alongside all the others to make sure that we won’t lose. After the battles I’ve already faced, I plan on working to improve my magic to prepare for whatever might come our way, no matter what it is.

However, even if I can manage to get stronger, that will not help us if we cannot discover the location of the Elements of Harmony. We are going to try to learn their locations on our end, but I was hoping to ask if you could help us too. If you could possibly know where Nightmare Moon might hide something as important as the Elements of Harmony, it could be a huge clue to us. Even if you don’t, I look forward to hearing from you again soon. Please continue to take care of yourself as well as have faith in me. I promise you that I won’t stop until Nightmare Moon is gone for good.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

“I should have known Nightmare Moon would have done something like that,” admitted Celestia as she reclined back onto her bed and looked up at the ceiling to ponder. “But as for where she would hide them, I could only guess. Even when we were kids she was good at hiding things and when it was something of mine it was quite irritating. I had to sneak a peek at her diary in order to find out where she put it.”

As Celestia said this, her eyes widened and she sat up. “She could still be using it,” she realized and hurried over to a portrait picture of a Pony General’s profile. Looking behind the frame was a hidden switch. Pulling on it, caused the wall beside the painting to silently slide open and reveal a passage hidden behind it.

“I do so love castles with hidden passages and tons of surprising mechanisms built into them,” she thought to herself as she ventured down the hidden corridor as the wall closed behind her. “Especially now that I finally have a chance to use them for something other than sneaking down to the kitchen for a late night snack.”

The secret passage was very long and had concealed entryways into all the rooms on the wing of the castle Celestia was currently on. As the Alicorn quietly opened each one, she peeked out to ensure it was empty before she ventured into the room to look around.

“Not in here,” she’d say after quietly searching beneath the pillows of the bed in each room she infiltrated. Then, as Celestia had nearly arrived at the last few rooms she could access from this wing of the castle, she ventured into the final room and once more and lifted up the pillow. This time, however, she discovered more than the bed sheet underneath. Along with it was a book carefully tucked away for safekeeping. The book was bound in black leather and had a white crescent moon symbol emblazoned on the cover. It also had a strap on it that was connected to a lock to ensure it couldn’t be opened without a key.

“Yes,” Celestia silently celebrated her discovery. “This is it. It’s been forever since I laid eyes on this, but there’s no doubt that this is definitely her top secret diary.”

Reaching into her mane, Celestia uncovered a bobby pin that was hidden beneath her mix of colorful, wavy hues. With what little magic she was still to draw upon, Celestia removed the hair accessory from her mane and maneuvered it to the keyhole of the lock of the diary as she worked to pick it.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had to do this,” she mumbled to herself as she worked to trick the lock open. “But I shooould be able tooooo…”

“Click!”

Celestia unlocked the diary.

“Got it!” she announced almost too
loudly, but quieted herself and waited to see if anyone heard her. When she didn’t hear any approaching hoofsteps, the alicorn princess opened the book to a random page and read it.

Dear Diary,

Today was not a fun day. Celestia decided to use magic to create a security system for our castle. She enchanted all the suits of armor to come to life when playing a pipe organ. How dumb is that? It’s such a ludicrous method to defend our home. When she went to test it, she decided to use me as her guinea pig and had them follow after me in the castle endlessly. Even when I blasted those stupid tin cans to pieces they simply rebuilt themselves and continued after me.

It took me forever to maneuver my way around them to reach Celestia and make her stop playing that infernal instrument. With that done, I was finally able to catch my breath. Meanwhile Celestia simply smiled amusedly and commented that our security system was working well, though a few more suits of armor wouldn’t hurt. I’ll admit that did get a chuckle out of me, but I was still very annoyed that she did that.

I’ll have to think of some way to get back at her. I’m thinking of perhaps sneakily moving the moon in front of the sun to block it out. Ha! I can’t wait till I pull that prank on her and then we’ll see who the funny one is.

“Yes and that was so funny,” Celestia rolled her eyes and started to flip further ahead in the diary. Eventually she reached a section that simply read, “Trapped in Moon. Plotting my revenge,” over and over again for every day. Celestia kept on flipping through chunks of the diary as she attempted to get past Nightmare Moon’s thousand moons of banishment and closer to the present. Finally, she arrived on the day prior.

Dear Diary,

Today’s forecast, cold with a great chance for revenge! Hahahah! Yes today has been a most splendiferous one indeed! As I vowed on that day, so many moons ago I have made my return from my banishment and have wasted no time in doing what I sought out to do so very long ago. I confronted Celestia and challenged her to our long-anticipated rematch and in spectacular fashion I WAS VICTORIOUS!!!

Oh, you should have seen her twist in the wind as she fell before my awesome might. This was a moment well worth waiting for and it was the sweetest revenge I could have ever hoped for. I was even fortunate enough to crush Celestia’s precious student right in front of her. Celestia did put a damper on that part, however, helping her to escape, but that hardly matters, not when Equestria is finally mine to rule and my rule shall be GLORIOUS!!! Hahahah!!!

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed defeating me,” snorted Celestia as she read those words not meant for another Pony’s eyes. “But I didn’t ‘twist in the wind’ and I’d hardly consider how you won to be done in ‘spectacular fashion.’” Celestia rolled her eyes and then flipped to the next page.

Dear Diary,

It seems that Celestia’s little student, Twilight Sparkle, has decided to try and defy me even after the brutal defeat I gave her in the castle. She goes on and on about how great Celestia is and what a monster I am. She hardly knows the first thing about me or Celestia beyond the propaganda that Ms. Cake-loving Perfect Sun Butt has been spewing about me.

Ugh!

“Look at me! I’m Celestia. Praise me as I raise the sun. Sundials are way better than fireworks and what’s so great about romantic moonlit walks under the stars when you can have a blast on a sunny beach getting burnt red as a tomato and blah blah blah!”

“I do not talk like that,” huffed Celestia. “And sundials are a very practical thing that can be used every day to tell the time. Fireworks are fun, but who wants to constantly hear explosions in the middle of the night when they are trying to sleep?”

Anyway, little Ms. Bookhorse is planning on making her way to our old castle. I’ve sent the Shadow Bolts to try and capture her. I’d put their odds at almost guaranteed victory, but even if they somehow screw this up I have nothing to worry about. The Elements of Harmony are safely hidden throughout Equestria and there is no way she’ll be able to find them. I have one hidden and guarded all the way in the tomb of the pharaoh, King Trotandcanter. It’s hidden within the vast desert of Saddle Arabia. There is no way in Tartarus that anypony would even think to search for something that has been lost for even longer than I’ve been banished to the Moon for. The Element is safe in there, no question about that.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Celestia said after finishing that page and turning it to see that the next one was blank. “Looks like that’s as far as she wrote so far, but now I know where one is hidden. I will have to send Twilight a message with this information as soon as possible.”

“Step aside,” ordered Nightmare Moon to one of her guards. Her voice was coming from outside the door that Celestia was in. “I wish to enter my room.”

“As you wish, my princess,” the guard told her with a bow.

“I can’t let her find me,” worried Celestia as she shut Nightmare Moon’s diary and attempted to lock it, her nerves making her struggle with it. As she heard the knob on the door turn, her heart sank.

“Your majesty,” called another guard as he galloped over to the dark Alicorn. “The Shadow Bolts have returned.”

“That was fast,” surmised Nightmare Moon as she turned away from the door as she opened it. “They must have ridden that cannon blast all the way back here.”

“They rode the cannon blast?” asked the guard, raising an eyebrow.

“Nevermind,” she told him. “I’ll deal with them later. Just tell them that I may consider some leniency for their failure due to their unwavering devotion.”

“As you wish,” he saluted to her. “And we are all fully devoted to you as well, princess.”

“Thank you,” she smiled. “It is loyalty like that that will secure your future in my rule. Keep up the good work and spread the word to your fellow soldiers too.”

“Delighted too,” he answered before taking his leave.

Entering her room, Nightmare Moon paused and scanned the room around her. “Was someone in here?” she pondered to herself, but couldn’t see anything to indicate anything had been touched since she last visited it. Approaching her bed, she lifted her pillow and found her diary, just as she had left it. Groaning a bit, she rubbed her head as it throbbed.

“Maybe I’m just tired,” she said to herself and looked upon her bed. It looked wonderfully inviting to her. Nightmare Moon felt tempted to climb into bed and get some rest, but she shrugged it off and stretched. “No. I can rest in a little bit. First, I think I’ll pay Celestia a little visit. I can deal with the Shadow Bolts later.”

“That was very lucky,” thought Celestia after hastily making her way back through the secret catacombs to return to her room. Peering into it to make certain it was empty, she entered back into it and started to scratch out a letter to Twilight. “It seems that fate does not simply wish for Nightmare Moon to have her way after all.”

Celestia was halfway through her letter when she was paused, hearing the all too familiar voice of Nightmare Moon at her door. “Stand aside,” she told the guard, just as she did with the one before. “I wish to visit with Celestia.”

“As you command,” he answered, stepping aside for Nightmare Moon to enter into the Alicorn of the Day’s room.

“Greetings, Celestia, I have returned,” spoke the Alicorn of the Night as she approached Celestia after she had quickly hidden her note and relaxed casually upon her bed.

“It’s a shame you didn’t send me word in advance,” Celestia spoke coyly. “I’d have prepared some hot water for us to enjoy some tea. You do know how much I enjoy these little visits of yours.”

“Very cute,” replied Nightmare Moon, slightly amused at Celestia’s demeanor. “Enjoying my hospitality?”

“As much as I am trying to enjoy my staycation from being a princess,” she answered. “It is quite boring to be cooped up in this room all day… oh, sorry, I mean all night and the view from my balcony is very drab too. That barrier ruins the view and even if it wasn’t there, I would hardly be able to gaze at the scenery while all of Equestria is plunged in eternal night.”

“Sorry, but that is something that you’ll have to get used to,” Nightmare Moon told Celestia. “And I wouldn’t count on you leaving this room any time soon either.”

“Uh huh,” replied Celestia, hiding a smirk. “So, how has Twilight been doing? I’m sure you’ve been keeping tabs on her. Has she made it to our old castle yet?”

“Hmm…” pondered Nightmare Moon. “Did she? Did she reach the castle or did she stumble into a pack of timberwolves? Perhaps she attempted to cross a marsh full of cragodiles or she could have ended up face-to-face with a hungry hydra.”

“You know you can’t lie to me. She made it to our old castle,” Celestia said again, not falling for Nightmare Moon’s lies, but being careful with how she spoke to not let on that she had means of gathering outside information.

“Ugh, yes,” admitted NIghtmare Moon with an annoyed groan. “Oh, but she still had to contend with my squadron of Shadow Bolts and-”

“She defeated them,” Celestia finished her fellow princess’s sentence for her.

“Just barely!” added Nightmare Moon angrily. “However-”

“She didn’t get the Elements of Harmony because you took them from the castle long before she arrived,” Celestia cut her off again to her increased chagrin. Celestia looked at Nightmare Moon, restrained rage in her eyes. “Well, I could guess all that, but I have no idea where you might have hidden them.”

“Are you sure you can’t figure that out yourself, Ms. Smartypants?” snapped Nightmare Moon.

“Even if I can’t, I have confidence that Twilight will and that she will be more than a match for whatever you might put up against her,” Celestia countered. “And once she has all the Elements, Twilight will put a stop to you.”

“You can have all the faith in the world for her,” countered Nightmare Moon, rubbing her head as it started to ache. “But she will not succeed and I will not be stopped. My night will last… ugh… forev...er…” Groaning, Nightmare Moon started to stumble around. The room started to spin before her eyes and then she collapsed onto the floor.

“Are- Are you alright?” asked Celestia, shocked to see Nightmare Moon faint so suddenly. Hurrying to her side, she felt her forehead and her horn. “Oh, dear, you’re burning up! I shouldn’t be surprised. You were overexerting yourself, levitating this castle, casting the barrier around it, and creating this perpetual night, on top of any other magic you’ve cast. That’s too much for anypony to take on, even an Alicorn.”

Nightmare Moon groaned, regaining consciousness and lifted up her head to look at Celestia. “You fool,” she moaned. “This may have been your chance to stop me and yet you come to my aid like we aren’t enemies.”

“Just forget about that, for now,” begged Celestia. “Release some of your magic, please.”

“And what, let this castle plumet out of the sky?” she scoffed.

“No,” Celestia shook her head. “You know the one you should stop, now do it before you suffer any worse and your magic starts to fail anyway.”

“N-N-Never,” stuttered Nightmare Moon stubbornly. “My night shall go on forev-”

“Please! I’m begging you,” cried Celestia. “Please… Luna…”

Hearing that name, Nightmare Moon stared up at Celestia, tears running down the white Alicorn’s face. “...Fine,” she conceded, her horn glowing and then fading again. “You can have your precious day back… for now.” Staring out the window, Nightmare Moon expected the sky to brighten with the return of day, but the darkness remained. “Why is it still dark out? I undid my magic.”

“Of course it’s still dark, silly,” giggled Celestia. “It’s late into the night by now. The sun isn’t set to rise for a few more hours.”

“Ugh,” grumbled Nightmare Moon as she got back to her feet again. “Don’t start going all sappy on me. I may have been too hasty in moving so far ahead in my plans before I was truly ready. I’ll hold off on it for now, until then.”

“And what do you have planned, Luna?” asked Celestia.

“Do not call me that!” hissed the dark Alicorn. “I am Nightmare Moon now. That weak Pony no longer exists.” Turning away, she made for the door. “I am done speaking with you for now. I am going to get some rest. Enjoy your sunlight, for however long it will remain.” Opening the door and shutting it behind her, Nightmare Moon left.

“That’s not true,” sighed Celestia as she remained seated on the ground. “For just a brief moment, I saw her, my precious Luna.” Smiling a little, Celestia wiped her face dry and then returned to her letter to Twilight. She added a bit more to it and then, with a bit of magic, she sent it off.

Author's Note

End of Chapter!

And that is everything that I wrote for November writing month 2019.

Chapter 2 Part 1 - To the First Element

“Carefully… Slowly…” Twilight Sparkle coached herself as she levitated a fruit bat through the air. The winged mammal was in a stuffed daze after it had greedily gorged itself on a bright red, delicious apple that had been enlarged several times its original size thanks to Zecora’s growth potion. Unable to resist such a treat, the bat bit down on the fruit and sucked out all its fluids till it bore a closer resemblance to a giant prune than an apple. With the bat safely sedated, Twilight was able to lift the bat into a cage set up in the Apple Family barn with complete ease and do the same with plenty of others that were also lured into their trap.

Working together with Spike, Applejack, Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Pinkie Pie, they were able to tempt and trick all the fruit bats in this manner and finally round them up in the farm’s barn. As Applejack placed the last apple juice-filled bat into the cage that had been set up, her older brother closed the door to it and locked it. As the group gazed upon all their hard work, they beamed with pride at their accomplishment.

“Well, we might not have gotten the Elements of Harmony,” commented Applejack. “But at least our bat problem is finally solved.”

“Yeah,” sighed Twilight as she took a seat in a pile of hay, eager to finally get a little rest after all that had happened between entering the Everfree forest to reach the Castle of Sun and Moon and then making their way back out, on top of everything else that happened prior. “At least this whole dangerous ordeal of ours wasn’t completely pointless.”

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” Applejack apologized. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know and you have no reason to apologize to me,” Twilight assured her. “It was my fault for thinking that Nightmare Moon would have been careless enough to let the only objects capable of stopping her remain in one location and unguarded from anyone seeking to stop her.”

“You can’t blame yourself,” Spike encouraged Twilight. “Nopony else would have even figured out where the Elements were originally hidden in the first place. And, sure, we’re back to square one with stopping Nightmare Moon, but look at all the friends you’ve made who want to help you, yours truly included, of course. On top of that, we got to kick the butts of Nightmare Moon’s henchponies and prove to her that we won’t be so easy to defeat. I’d say that’s still a big win for us.”

“Too bad she still got the last laugh,” retorted Twilight. “Nightmare Moon’s hidden the Elements all around Equestria and guarded them with creatures stronger than any of the ones we faced and they weren’t so easy for us to beat either. We only got through that with some careful planning, teamwork, and a great deal of lust. Whatever minions of Nightmare Moon has waiting for us next, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to figure out a means to overcome them and if we aren’t strong enough to face them, then all the luck in the world won’t save us either. And all of that’s only after we determine where in all of Equestria the Elements are hidden.”

“That certainly does sound like finding a needle in a haystack on top of wrestling a berserking bull to the ground,” stated Applejack with some cowpoke slang. “But we’ll figure out something.”

“It’s too bad that Zecora couldn’t help us out again,” Spike said as he recalled their quick reunion with their black and white-striped friend on their way back to the orchard. “It was exactly what we got last time.”

“I reckon that means our future’s still on course,” hypothesized Applejack. “And that’s a good thing… I think.”

“I’m sure it was, but what about the fortune Zecora gave me?” questioned Pinkie Pie. “To beware of fall? We just had the Summer Sun Celebration, we’re still a long ways away from Autumn.”

“I don’t think that was the kind of fall she meant,” commented Applejack. “Anyway, we still haven’t heard back from Princess Celestia yet. Maybe she’ll be able to find us a lead to go on.”

“That’s all we can hope for, right now,” replied Twilight as Spike climbed into a pile of hay beside her. “But I doubt Nightmare Moon would be careless enough to just leave that sort of info lying around where the princess can find it.”

“Well, while we don’t lack direction,” yawned Spike as he stretched and curled up in his pile of hay. “We might as well take the time to get some sleep. One good thing about this perpetual night…” Spike’s words trailed out as he unleashed another yawn. “It’s nice and dark everywhere, so it’s always the perfect time to get some shut eye and, after all we’ve been through, this baby dragon needs his naptime. Just wake me when the sun comes up.”

Chuckling as he closed his eyes, Spike slowly started to drift off to sleep. As he did, the sky outside started to get brighter, bit by bit. Conversely, the blackness overhead faded into a gentle blue and the stars dotting the sky vanished while dozens of big, fluffy clouds took their place. Finally, in the distance, the sun itself started to appear over the horizon and bring natural light back to Equestria.

“The sun’s up!” announced Pinkie Pie loudly, making Spike jump up in fright and, fortunately, land right back into his hay pile. “Wakey wakey, pies and cakey!”

“Ugh, already?” grumbled the Spike, rubbing his weary eyes after getting all of ten seconds of rest. “Isn’t the sun supposed to have been taken hostage by Nightmare Moon? Did it escape and, if so, why now of all times?”

“That is strange,” noted Twilight as she got up to look outside. Using some magic, she shaped it into a compass and a pocket watch, checking what both indicated before turning back to inform the others. “The sun is coming up right on schedule.”

“So much for eternal night,” huffed Applejack. “We had all of one day without sunlight. One dagburn day!”

“Uh, shouldn’t we be happy that the sun is back?” asked Applebloom as she looked as her sister grumpily snorted.

“I know and I am,” replied Applejack. “But that means we just went through all the trouble of wrangling all these varmints because of the perpetual darkness and now, five minutes later, we can let them go.”

“Nope,” Big Mac shook his head as he checked out the cage full of bats. With full bellies and the sun out, none of them looked in to be in any condition to take flight.

“Well, I reckon, we don’t know for certain if day and night truly are back to normal,” figured Applejack. “So, for now, Big Mac, Applebloom, let them get some shut eye and, when it gets dark, you can turn them loose.”

“What about you, sis?” wondered her little sister. “Are you really going off with Twilight on an adventure?”

“I sure am, sugarcube,” nodded Applejack. “As much as I hate having to be away from Sweet Apple Acres for more than a spell, the fate of Equestria is in the balance and I’ve got a role to play in saving it. Of course, I’ll stop by to help out here every chance I get to be back here, but, while I’m away, I have every confidence that the two of you and granny will be able to take care of things.”

“You can count on us,” smiled Applebloom, motivated by her sister’s words. “We’ll keep Sweet Apple Acres in tip top shape so you can focus fully on wherever you need to be going and doing whatever you need to do.”

“Yup,” nodded Big Mac, agreeing with his sister.

“Now we just need to know where to go and what to do,” stated Pinkie. “Then we can get this party train rolling again.”

“I just wish Celestia would respond to the letter we sent her,” sighed Twilight as she gazed at the sun in the distance, most of its roundness over the trees now. “Just so we can know whether or not she has any advice for what we should do next. And, hopefully, she also can tell us why Nightmare Moon’s eternal night has already come to an end. I mean, for all we know, the princess might have managed to defeat her on her own already and restored peace to Equestria, meaning everything we’ve been doing has just been a colossal waste of time and all my efforts at the start of this whole mess just got in the way of her saving the day sooner. And, if that’s the case, why won’t she just send a letter already telling me that?”

“Twilight,” yawned Spike, facing away from the barn entrance as he tried to get some sleep. “I’ve probably known the princess about as long as you and I think we both know that she’d never think nor say anything like that. Till we hear from her, we should just try and get some rest and recover our strength for when we do know what we need to do.”

“Spike’s right, Twi,” Applejack added. “If nothing else, you’ve definitely made Princess Celestia proud. I sure know I am mighty proud to have you for a friend.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie chimed in. “And thanks to you I get to be part of this super fun saving Equestria party.”

“You know this isn’t exactly the fun kind of party,” commented Twilight.

“Oh, I know,” she giggled with her usual bubbly demeanor. “But, when we do save Equestria, then I can throw a party for all of us to celebrate and it’s going to be the best party ever!”

“I know I can’t wait for a Pinkie Pie party like that,” exclaimed Applebloom. “So, I hope you all save Equestria real quick so we can get to the celebration.”

“We’ll do our best to save Equestria as quickly as possible,” chuckled Twilight, feeling better thanks to everyone’s reassurances. “And, thanks everypony. All this not knowing what we need to do next was stressing me out, but now, I feel a whole lot better. And, I think Spike’s got the right idea. We’ve got some down time, so we should use it to rest and prepare for when we do know what to do.”

“Taking naps during my downtime is my specialty, after all,” stated Spike in a bragging tone. “Now, till we get word from the princess, I’m going to make like those fruit bats and sleep till the sun goes down.” He let out a yawn, so very close to falling asleep. “And maybe till the sun comes up again… Hurk!” Spike’s cheeks bulged as his eyes bugged out. Quickly, he sat up, alarming the others at the face he was making.

“Spike, are you okay?” asked Twilight before she realized what this meant. “Wait, did we get a response from the princess?”

“Why now? Did she have to send it when I was this close to falling asleep?” he mumbled through sealed lips before he finally let out a fiery belch. Then, out of the smoke of his green flames, a scroll materialized, sealed with Celestia’s mark.

“Sorry about that, Spike,” Twilight apologized in the princess’s stead. “But, you can take your nap now.”

“After waiting all this time for it to arrive,” he said before taking a deep breath. “I wanna hear what it says too.” Bringing his hand to his eye, he gave it a rub and did this best to shrug off his weariness for a bit longer.

“Okay, everypony, listen up,” announced Twilight. “Here’s what it says.”

To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle and all her friends,

First, let me say, I am very proud of you Twilight. Not just for all you are doing for the sake of Equestria, but that, for your own sake, you have made such strides in making friends. That they are all willing to do all they can to help you in your quest, I look forward to the day that I will be able to meet them and thank them for all they are doing.

As for the issue of the missing Elements of Harmony, I won’t deny that I did have a suspicion that Nightmare Moon might decide to pull such an underhanded trick and hide them, but, the blame that she was even able to do that at all rests solely with me. I knew the power of the Elements was no longer something I could use and decided to face off against her with solely my own strength. Truly, with all I have errored, she could not have asked for better accomplice to her return.

But, for all the mistakes that I have made, I will continue to do all that I can to assist you in your journey. Already, I have done a little detective work and have managed to learn the location of one of the Elements of Harmony. The first one is located in the far off area of Saddle Arabia. She has hidden it within the ancient tomb of the pharaoh, King Trotandcanter. I’m sure that I don’t need to tell you that that tomb has been lost for ages and finding it will be your greatest challenge yet. Even so, I have faith in all of you that you will continue to overcome the odds and do the impossible. Meanwhile, I’ll do all I can to discern where all the other Elements are hidden and continue to keep you up to date whenever I have the chance.

Lastly, as I’m sure you’re probably all aware of this by now that the sun has risen and put an end to Nightmare Moon’s night. As you already know, from the previous part of my letter, Nightmare Moon is far from defeated. She merely does not possess the magical power necessary to maintain her eternal night for very long, not while she is stretching her magical abilities so thin as it is.

Despite accepting her limitations at the moment, she is still dead set on her ultimate goal. How she plans to achieve it, I haven’t the faintest idea, but, before she can, she must be stopped. Twilight, only you and your friends are able to do this. You must recover the Elements of Harmony and stop Nightmare Moon before her dream becomes our nightmare.

Eternally grateful,

Princess Celestia

“Oh my goodness,” gasped Applebloom as Twilight finished reading the letter. “You get to go all the way to Saddle Arabia?”

“It sure looks that way,” nodded Applejack.

“Just one question,” Applebloom continued. “Where is Saddle Arabia?”

“They didn’t cover that place in geography class?” questioned Twilight. “When I was your age I had already memorized every major city in Equestria and those of its sister nations like this one.”

“I get the feeling that you might be in the vast minority that respect,” commented Applejack as she scratched her head. “I can’t say that I know exactly where Saddle Arabia is either, off the top of my head. Care to enlighten us, Twi?”

“It’s far,” she started out with. “Very, very far to the east. We’ll even have to go over a mountain and cross a desert to even reach the nearest town there. If we’re going to leave for it, we’ll need transportation.”

“Well, the fastest means we’ve got to go to and from anywhere in town,” Applejack informed her. “That’d be by train. At the very least, it should serve as our starting point.”

“Then we’ll head back into town, get prepared, and then head to the station,” Twilight instructed the group before turning to Spike who was already fast asleep, curled up on his pile of hay. “But, first, let’s just rest a while. I’m sure Spike isn’t the only one who could use some.”

“Normally, I’m the last person you’d see sawing logs after the rooster’s cock-a-doodle-doo,” commented Applejack as she found a spot on the pile to rest her eyes on. “But, in this case, I’ll make an exception. I just hope hay isn’t too uncomfortable for you, Twi.” Twilight didn’t respond. “Twilight?” Turning to look, Applejack and the others saw Twilight was out cold now too and snoring loudly alongside Spike.

“I guess getting that letter from the princess was enough to calm her down so she could relax,” chuckled Applebloom.

“Yep,” agreed Big Mac as he turned to his orange-haired sister. “And you best get some sleep too, AJ. You’ve got a long journey ahead of you and this trip to Saddle Arabia is just the first stop and who knows where else you’ll be going afterwards.”

“It’s sure quite an ordeal for a simple farm pony to be a part of,” she chuckled, pushing her hat over her face as she settled down for a snooze.

“It’s huge for anypony to be a part of,” replied Big Mac to AJ who had already started to drift off to sleep. “Come on, Applebloom. Let’s leave them be so they can get some well-deserved shuteye.”

“What about you, Pinkie Pie?” asked the littlest pony there as she and her much larger brother started to leave the barn. “Aren’t you going to sleep too?”

“Are you kidding?” she replied full of delight. “There’s no better way to sleep than with a slumber party. Yippee!” Bounding onto an unoccupied pile of hay, the pink pony belly flopped onto it and instantly fell asleep with the others. Apple Bloom and Big Mac just started at Pinkie Pie for a moment before deciding to simply be amused by her antics rather than dumbfounded. Quietly taking their leave, the duo went off to tend to their chores.

A few hours later, all rested, refreshed, and ready to get going, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, and Pinkie brushed the hay off their bodies and stretched away any lingering traces of sleep. Once they were all more awake than asleep, they headed out of the barn. “Everyone have enough time to rest?” Twilight asked the group.

“I could always go for more sleep,” replied Spike as he climbed onto Twilight’s back. “But, yeah, I’m fine.”

“I’m well rested too,” answered Applejack as she carefully opened the door to the barn, but looked back to see the fruit bats were still sound asleep. But we better let the bats snooze till nightfall. We’ve already seen how ornery they get when their sleep schedule is disturbed.”

“Me three!” cheered Pinkie Pie, causing the others to shush her loudness and get her to speak more quietly. “So, let’s keep this party going.”

“Then it’s time to head into town and gather supplies for our trip,” stated Twilight. “Considering how far we’ll have to go, packing food is a must and we’ll need water too and anything else that could help us climb a mountain and cross a desert.”

“Climb a… cross a…” repeated a shocked Spike. “Uh, where are we going?” The others looked at him with a raised eyebrow that he had to ask. Blushingly, Spike continued. “I, uh, kinda dozed off halfway through Celestia’s letter.”

“We’re going to Saddle Arabia to find the lost tomb of Pharaoh Trotandcanter,” explained Twilight.

“Oh, is that all,” he replied upon hearing of their destination. “Think I might need that extra sleep after all.”

“Well, if it’s food we need,” stated Applejack as she gazed at all her many apple trees, the bright redness of the fruit much easier to see and marvel at in full daylight. “Then we don’t have to look any further than Sweet Apple Acres for the best apples in Equestria. “I’ll buck us a bushell while we’re still here.”

“She was seen headed this way,” exclaimed a very boastful voice that was coming from not too far away. “Now, tell me where she is at once.”

“Sounds like the farms got another visitor,” commented Applejack. “A very loud one this time.”

“That voice,” recalled Twilight, rubbing her temple as she felt a bit of a headache coming on. “Don’t tell me it’s her.”

“Okay, I won’t,” replied Spike, both knowing what little good that did them. “But, do you think she’s here for round two?”

“Only one way to find out,” sighed Twilight, figuring it was better to handle this quickly so they could move on.

“Who is it?” questioned Applejack. “Another one of Nightmare Moon’s henchponies?”

“Worse,” answered Twilight as they soon came upon a blue mare who was attempting to shake down information from Big Mac and Applebloom. “It’s the Great and Powerful Trixie.”

“That showboating entertainer?” replied Applejack. “What’s she got to do with all this?”

“Nothing really,” admitted Spike. “She’s more of a subplot at best and a tedious sidequest at worst.”

“Ooh, the B plot of the story,” stated Pinkie Pie, breaking the fourth wall.

“Don’t run away from me!” demanded Trixie, tugging on Big Mac’s tail to hold him back, but her efforts didn’t even serve to slow him down at he trotted at a normal pace while dragging her along. “I demand that you tell me where Twilight Sparkle is, this instant!”

“Nope,” he refused and kept moving along.

“Well, why not?!?” she shouted with growing frustration.

“Nope,” he answered her again, his brief, one-word answers annoying her just as much as the gruffness in his tone showed he was equally fed up with her.

“Is that all you can say?!?” she questioned him next.

“Big Mac can say plenty more than that,” Applebloom answered for him. “But my big brother doesn’t like saying more than he needs to, especially to someone coming onto our farm just to cause a frackas and I feel the same way.”

“I don’t mean to cause a frackas… whatever that is,” Trixie replied. “But I must find Twilight Sparkle who is standing in the way of me fulfilling my destiny of defeating Nightmare Moon. Now, I know she made her way over here in search of those Element thingies, so tell me where she is and they are. It is for the good of Equestria after all.”

“Anyone else feel like Equestria is better off with the Elements not in her position?” asked Applejack.

“Does that question even need asking?” Spike answered back, staring dully at Trixie’s continued failures to pry any info from Big Mac and Applebloom.

“She’s far too inexperienced to handle their power,” stated Twilight from a more analytical point of view.

“If today was Opposite Day,” Pinkie Pie answered last. “But, that’s not for another forty-seven days, so no way, at least for forty-six more days.”

“Well, it’s not like the Elements are even here,” commented Spike. “We could just, you know, ignore her.”

“But we can’t just leave her to bother my brother and lil sis,” replied Applejack. “She’s way more of a pest than the fruit bats ever were.”

“I don’t doubt that,” nodded Twilight as she was struck with inspiration. “But maybe we can use that.”

“Don’t you understand?” cried Trixie. “If you do not tell the Great and Powerful Trixie what she needs to know then Nightmare Moon will make good on her promise of an eternal night.”

“But the eternal night’s already ended,” Applebloom pointed out. “Or have you not noticed the sun in the sky for the last few hours?”

“See!” declared Trixie, her voice full of triumph. “Already the Great and Powerful Trixie’s efforts are working. If Trixie just keeps doing… whatever great and powerful thing she’s been doing then Equestria will have nothing to worry about.”

“It wasn’t because of anyone’s efforts that the night came to an end,” explained Twilight as she and the others approached Trixie. “Nightmare Moon merely didn’t have the power to maintain it for very long. However, that doesn’t mean she won’t find a way to make it a reality or that she can be easily defeated.”

“Twilight Sparkle!” declared Trixie as she saw her rival approach her. “After all this time we come face-to-face once more.”

“It hasn’t even been a full day since the last time we met,” Spike pointed out.

“And that is much too long for the Great and Powerful Trixie to bear the humiliation of our duel. Now we shall have our rematch and the winner will get the Elements of Harmony.”

“I hate to break it to ya,” Applejack told Trixie. “But, fighting us is pointless. It won’t accomplish anything since we don-”

Twilight was quick to put a hoof to Applejack’s mouth to keep her from saying anything unnecessary. “We don’t stand a chance against the Great and Powerful Trixie,” Twilight lied. “Just by looking at you, I can tell that you’ve grown much, much stronger than I could ever hope to be.”

“Well,” she bragged as she pulled a book out of the satchel on her side. “I did stop by the library in town again to do a little reading on magic. I’ve only skimmed through the first chapter, but surely that was more than enough to close that tiny gap in our abilities.”

“Tiny gap?” scoffed Spike. “It was more like a ravine separating the two of you.”

“Now, Spike, Trixie is clearly more powerful than all of us put together,” fibbed Twilight. “In fact, with the Elements we’ve stashed away in the barn, for safekeeping, she could easily take on Nightmare Moon, right now. Oopsies. Did I let that slip out?”

“So, they’re in the barn,” Trixe stated as she turned to the structure a short walk away. “Step aside so that Trixie might finally get what’s coming to her.”

“Whatever you say,” giggled Pinkie, well aware of what Twilight was setting Trixie up for. Fortunately, the boastful, blue pony didn’t pay her snickers any mind as she made her way over to the large, red structure in the distance.

“Well, you probably don’t need that book anymore,” Twilight called to Trixie before she got too far away. “Since you’ll be so much greater and more powerful with the Elements. Plus, I doubt you’ll have space for both with what limited inventory space you probably have.”

“Hmm… You do have a point,” she considered as she looked at the book. “And I’ve probably already absorbed all the knowledge I need from this piece of literature.” With a careless smirk on her face, Trixie tossed the book aside.

“Hey! That’s a First Edition!” cried Spike, seeing more of her disregard for library etiquette. Desperately, the purple dragon leapt off Twilight’s back to grab the leatherbound piece of literature before it got dirtied on the ground. He managed to catch the book in his claws, but found himself not dropping to the ground. Looking up at the book, it was surrounded by Twilight’s aura as she caught it with her magic as well and levitated both it and her friend back over to her. “Remind me to not just revoke her library card the next chance I get, but also to shred it and eat it too.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Twilight replied, helping Spike onto her back and then did a quick skim through the book. “Oh, yes, Trixie picked out a good one. I should be able to improve my magical ability with this and I’ll have the whole train ride over to Saddle Arabia to study it cover to cover. I was planning on looking for something like this before we went to the station so, thanks to Trixie, this saves us a bit of time.”

“That’s good to hear,” commented Applejack as she bucked at a nearby apple tree, causing a couple dozen apples to fall to the ground. She then proceeded to gather them up and put away into her satchel. “Let me just gather up some apples and then we can skedaddle before Trixie finds out what’s really in the barn.”

“Oh, this is gonna be good,” snickered Applebloom, watching Trixie from a distance and saw that she had nearly reached the barn. Big Mac nodded with a “Yup” as he eagerly awaited her comeuppance.

“We should probably get going,” suggested Applejack. “Before Trixie discovers what’s really in the barn and chases after us like a jackrabbit with its tail on fire.”

“Oh, but I wanna see,” complained Pinkie, certain it was going to be hilarious to watch Trixie’s reaction.

“Looks like she’s already there,” giggled Applebloom as she and Big Mac continued to gaze into the distance, eager to see too.

“Yup,” Big Mac chuckled, a calm smile on his face.

“Okay, Elements!” declared Trixie loudly and theatrically as she reached the barn and opened it with magic. “Show me what you’ve got!”

Looking inside the barn, Trixie had no idea what the Elements even looked like, but she was certain that they’d be obvious at a glance. However, all she saw was piles of hay, some farm equipment and a cluster of bats in a large, opened cage that were agitated that someone brought in the sunlight along with some over-the-top bellowing and disturbed their rest. They fled from their opened cage, right out through the barn doors and right at Trixie who turned and fled. Running through the orchard, the bats continued to chase after her, the sunlight, currently, a secondary bother to them compared to the boastful Pony who had disturbed them.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is not amused!” she shouted out as her wizarding hat was snatched away by one of the bats and she was now the one chasing after them. “And you have not heard the last of the Great and Powerful Trixie either, Twilight Sparkle! I’ll be back!”

“Hopefully not too soon,” commented Spike as his group went to take their leave. “Though I won’t deny that if nothing else, she’s certainly entertaining in her own way.”

“Let’s just hope that if and when she does show up again,” added Twilight. “It won’t be at a more inopportune moment. With all the dangers we’re likely to face going forward, the last thing we need is her interference on top of all that.”

“If need be,” offered Applejack, pulling out a length of rope as she continued to speak. “I can hogtie her the next time she shows herself.”

“Oh, I wanna see that!” Pinkie exclaimed, giggling at the thought. “Now I can’t wait for the next time she shows up out of the blue.”

“See you all later,” Applebloom waved to her big sister and all her friends. “I can’t wait to hear all about your adventures when you get home. Bet it’ll be super exciting.”

“Yup,” nodded Big Mac in agreement and joined his youngest sister in waving goodbye to Twilight’s party.

“I doubt you’ll have anything to worry about there, sugarcube,” Applejack called back. “If there was this much danger just going to find out there weren’t any Elements to be found, I can only imagine what’ll be in store for us at a place where one actually is.”

“Is that really something to be so happy about?” questioned Twilight as they made their way out of Sweet Apple Acres and were on the road back to Ponyville.

“From a safety perspective, probably not,” answered Spike. “But we’re a party of four now so that means we’ve all got three friends to watch our flank for us. And, who knows, maybe we’ll find more friends to help us along the way.”

“The bigger the party the better,” cheered Pinkie, excited to add more friends to the group.

Returning to Ponyville and walking through the streets, Twilight was quickly greeted by a number of the residents there while many more cheered and applauded her name in the distance. “I could get used to being a hero if we’re going to get this kind of a warm welcome whenever we come into town,” smiled Spike as he waved to his adoring public.

“We’re glad that you have made it back to us safe and sounds,” Mayor Mare told Twilight as she made her way through her adoring public to reach the pony herself. “All of Ponyville and Equestria, for that matter, are truly in your debt for dispatching Nightmare Moon. I must confess that even I had my doubts, but you persevered and you won, putting an end to the night and returning out sunshine to us and in practically no time at all.”

“But we haven’t done anything yet,” Twilight confessed and tried to explain to the Ponies gathered around them. “Our efforts to find the Elements have only just begun. The only reason for the return of the day is due to Nightmare Moon’s lack of power to create her eternal night. We don’t know how long that will remain true, but we will do all we can to put a stop to her before that can happen. We got all this info from Princess Celestia herself who is thankfully still okay, but is only able to pass on what she learns to help us move forward. Right now, we have our next destination set, so till we can complete our journey, can we trust in all of you to continue to have faith in us?”

“Of course,” agreed Mayor Mare, speaking for the whole of the town. “And whatever you might need, all of Ponyville is open to you.”

“Thanks mighty kind of y’all,” Applejack told the town. “We very much appreciate it and will do our best not to disappoint.”

“And get ready for the biggest saved Equestria party ever!” announced Pinkie, getting everyone around them just as ecstatic as Applebloom had been to hear this. “Once we’ve saved Equestria, of course.”

“And if you are considering making statues of us in our honor,” commented Spike, drooling at the thought. “Might I suggest using emeralds for mine. They are my favorite, after all.”

“Let’s just try to stay focused on saving Equestria before discussing what happens after,” suggested Twilight as they waved their goodbyes to everyone and went on their way. And if they made a statue of you out of emeralds, wouldn’t you just eat it?”

“What better way to fulfill my dream of eating my weight in emeralds,” thought Spike as he imagined it. “Of course, if they decide to scale it up some, I wouldn’t complain about that.”

As the group of four went throughout the town, they did what they could to help spread what new info they could about the return of the Sun, Princess Celestia’s current condition and that of Nightmare Moon. All the while they did this, they gathered food, water, and anything else they believed would help them on their journey. Once they all felt prepared, they headed for the station to get tickets for the train.

“How can I help you folks today?” asked the stallion tending to the ticket booth.

“We need four tickets for the next train to Saddle Arabia,” Twilight told him as she took out what bits she still had on hoof. “How much will that be?”

“Four to Saddle Arabia,” he replied, checking out the list of prices. “That’ll be five bits each.”

“Here you go,” replied Twilight as she counted out the twenty bits they needed and sighed that they just had enough after all their spending. The group then watched as the officer plucked four tickets from a wheel of them and offered the tiny slips of paper to Twilight.

“And here you go,” he said, tipping his hat to her. Hope you don’t mind me being nosey, but any particular reason you are going all the way over there, especially with all the craziness going on as of late?”

“We can’t go into much detail, but the short version is that if we don’t go there, then there’s going to be a lot more craziness to come.”

“Can’t say I understand, but I’ll wish you all the best,” he waved bye to Twilight and the others. “You’ll be boarding on train number three which will be departing in about ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes,” whistled Applejack after hearing that. “If we were even a bit later we might’ve missed it.”

“Oh, excuse me,” a female donkey said as she approached Twilight and her friends. She had a brown coat and a mane of darker brown, curly hair. She had light blue eyes and with matching earrings in her long ears. “Could you spare me a moment of your time?”

“Hey, Matilda,” greeted Pinkie Pie. “How are you doing?”

“I’m doing fine, Pinkie,” she replied with a look that did look happy, though there was a touch of worry there too. “Well, sort of, anyway, which is why I was hoping you all could do me a favor, if you all weren’t too busy.”

“We are a mite busy,” Applejack acknowledged. “But we’ll at least hear you out and see if we can help.”

“I don’t normally make it a habit of eavesdropping,” she started out saying. “And I apologize for doing it, but I needed to find someone who was going to Saddle Arabia. You see, my fiance, Cranky, he took off for that very same place last week and I haven’t gotten so much as a letter from him since he left and, with everything going on now, I’m just really worried for him. So, if you happen to find him while you’re out there, could you please tell him to come home, if not for my sake then at least for his own.”

“Okay dokey lokey,” replied Pinkie Pie as she accepted her request as easily as that. “You have my certified Pinkie Pie promise that you can count on us! We’ll find that Cranky Doodle Donkey if it’s the last thing we do!”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” Spike remarked to Pinkie’s needlessly ominous words.

“Anything you can tell us as to why he went all the way out there?” questioned Applejack.

“I don’t know why he just decided to go,” the lady donkey admitted. “Cranky, despite being, well, cranky, was always an adventurer at heart. He’s traveled all over Equestria and done so many amazing things that I can barely believe half the stories he’s told me. When he came to Ponyville to finally settle down, he said his days of questing were behind him, but suddenly he decided to take off for Saddle Arabia and nothing I said could convince him not to go. When I asked to accompany him instead, he was adamant against that too, saying it would be much too dangerous for me which has only added to my worry for his safety. In the end, all I could do was see him off and wait for him to return. Now, with the return of Nightmare Moon, I cannot help but feel like something terrible might happen to him, if it hasn’t already. He’s hardly the youthful donkey he used to be, after all.”

“He’s really, really bald,” Pinkie whispered to Twilight in a still very audible voice.

“We have plenty to do in Saddle Arabia ourselves,” Twilight told Matilda. “But if we happen to run into him we’ll try to do what we can to convince him to go back home to you.”

“Oh, you all are so wonderful,” Matilda thanked them all. “I don’t know how I could ever repay you.”

“We’re friends,” smiled Pinkie as she and the others began to board the train. “That’s what friends are for, after all. Also, happy birthday next month. I can’t wait for you to see the surprise I’ve got prepared for you.”

“I’ll look forward to that too,” she smiled and waved goodbye to them as they vanished onto the train and searched for a place to sit down.

“This car should do,” commented Applejack as they found a mostly empty one. “We’ve got pretty much the whole place to ourselves in here.” Grabbing a booth of seats, they sat down with Pinkie Pie and Applejack on one side and Spike and Twilight on the other. “Nothing left for us to do but enjoy the ride till we get there.” Opening her satchel, Applejack then pulled out a few apples and offered the fruit to the others. “Anyone care for a snack? I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I’m hungrier than a hog right before chow time.”

“I got some goodies too,” offered Pinkie Pie, showing a bunch of cookies, muffins, and other confections she brought along for the trip.

“Thanks,” smiled Twilight as the group grabbed what they wanted to eat and worked to sate their hunger. “I bought some food for the trip too, but it might not be a good idea to eat it all before we even get off the train. I also brought a few books and puzzle books to go through to help us pass the time.”

“And I grabbed some of my favorite comics fir the trip too,” added Spike. “You can read them, if you want. Uh, just try not to fold the corners, please.”

Looking through everything Twilight and Spike brought on the train, Applejack settled on a word jumble while Pinkie Pie took one of Spike’s comics. Spike also took one of his comics too while Twilight was already chomping at the bit to read up more on magic from the book she procured Trixie, however, before she cracked it open to the first page, she took out some scroll paper and a quill.

“Hey, Spike, do you think you can send off a couple letters for me?”

“Sure,” he nodded. “Guess you want to send another letter off to Celestia so she knows we’re on our way to Saddle Arabia?”

“Of course,” she nodded. “But I was also hoping that you could also try to send one off to my brother as well.”

“But I’ve never met him before,” Spike reminded her. “Even if you tell me his name, I don’t exactly know what he looks like.”

“I thought about that,” she replied with a confident look on her face. “And figured that even if you haven’t met him that maybe a picture would work too.”

“I’ve never sent a letter with just a drawing of a face in mind,” admitted Spike. “So it’s at least worth a try.”

“Then let’s give it a go. I made this after the idea came to mind,” said Twilight as she showed him the picture. “Not too shabby if I say so myself.” As Spike eyed her drawing of her brother, Spike had to restrain his laughter, but even then, he couldn’t help but bust a gut. The sight of Twilight’s artistic vision of her sibling appeared absolutely absurd with an enormous muzzle against a far too small body disproportionate eyes, and a number of things he could barely tell what they were supposed to be.

“That’s your brother?” he snickered.

“Y-Yes?” she replied suddenly not so certain if she should admit that. “Why?”

“Either you’ve got all the looks in the family or he’s got all the artistic talent,” he told her.

“I’ll admit I’m no DaWhinny, but it isn’t that bad,” she tried to defend her drawing skills, but a couple more snickers from Applejack and Pinkie Pie as they peeked at the picture only confirmed her lack of them. Sighing, Twilight decided not to push the matter or her any further and cut to the chase. “Do you think that it is good enough for you to sent a letter to my brother?”

“No harm in trying at least,” said Spike as he took quill and parchment in hand and got ready to write. “Just tell me what to say.”

“Then let’s begin,” Twilight said as she paused to think for a moment and then started to dictate her letter while Spike wrote. “Dear Shining Armor. This is your sister and do I have a lot to tell you.”