(Rookie POV)

Waking up in a dream is an odd experience. It’s like waking up in a blizzard while somehow staying cozy and warm. The location of my waking dream was in the Resistance base, but the place was seemingly shut down and a few plants had started to overtake sections of the base.

In the center of the room was a plant that stood out from the rest. It was a blue flower that was in full bloom in the moonlight shining into the room from the fractured ceiling. I took a moment to carefully clip the flower and put it into a discarded vase. Upon doing so, the flower bloom glowed a light blue color and Princess Luna appeared.

“I take it you were successful in acquiring the second Chaos Emerald?” She asked.

“Yep, and I think I might have found a slight pattern, but until the third Emerald, it’s just a coincidence.” I said, booting up the main computer screen, images of Mint Berry, Desire, and their respective Emeralds showed up on screen. “Mint Berry was overcome with a gluttonous hunger that I managed to put on a slight leash, while Desire confused lust with love after Discord took advantage of her heartbroken state.”

“How are those a correlation?” Luna asked, looking between the various pictures.

“Back where I come from, Gluttony and Lust are two of seven ‘Deadly Sins’.” I explained. “They’re not literally deadly, but it’s just what they’re called. The other sins are Greed, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, and Pride.”

“So when going for the next Emerald, we should keep our minds open to what they are doing and find out how to undo the damage Discord does to their minds.” She commented.

“Right...and I find it odd that when I undo the damage to their minds, it seems more like I’m putting their carnal desires on a leash, rather than snapping them out of it completely.” I commented.

“The mind is a fragile thing.” Luna said. “It’s very rare for a mind to instantly recover from addictions or trauma. So, in a way, you are undoing the damage, but only to the point where they can be comfortable and can work things out one way or another.”

“That’s good to know.” I closed down the computer and turned to Luna. “So, what’s the ‘damage report’ for this coma moment?”

Luna smiled and was about to answer, but she suddenly gasped and began to shout in pain. I was about to run to her and try to help, but she grabbed me in her magic. “Carter, I’m imprinting my magic signature into your mind! I’m being kidnapped by Discord as we speak! Track me and save my mind! I can feel the power he’s-” She then vanished, leaving me with a magic signature etched into my brain and blacking out in the dream.

I then woke up in a cold sweat. I instantly got up and started tinkering with my scanner so it could track magic energy and signatures of such. Using the information I was given, and looking between my scanner and map, Luna was taken to...

(Desire POV)

“THE EVERFREE FOREST!!!” I bellowed as I constantly reread the note Rookie left for both me and Feather Bangs to find. “Is he out of his mind!?”

Umm...getting ahead of myself for a moment….*ahem* When I woke up that morning, I took some time to go through my head a little to think about what Rookie said about lust and love. It only took me a few seconds to realize that he pretty much had me figured out. I was so desperate for love after my breakup with my ex-fiance, that Discord got me to lash out and grab any stallion I could see in attempts at love. Those were acts of lust, not love. If anyone showed a form of love, it was him. He was blunt and willing to go against me to help me in his own way.

I had then gone from my bedroom to the now much cleaner living room to talk to him, but all I could find was Feather Bangs still asleep on one of the couches I had and a note on the couch that Rookie was set on. I won’t go into details, but the note had him apologizing for suddenly vanishing and that he had to save Princess Luna from whatever Discord had planned for her.

He, unfortunately, had placed the location that he had to head to save Luna. My bellow woke up Feather Bangs and before he could get properly oriented after that jumpscare, I picked him up in my magic and bolted for the Outer City train station...but it was too little, too late. The train was gone and so was my chance to pour my heart out to him.

“He left.” I said, my eyes tearing up. “I know he had to do something that was important, but I just…” I collapsed onto the platform and just began sobbing. I felt heartbreak again, but it was less so.

I felt the ground shake a bit, but at first I thought it felt like that because I was upset. It wasn’t until Feather said something that I came to my senses. “That is one big mare.” He said in shock. His words caught me off guard so much that I had to get up and look where he was looking, only to see what he saw: One big mare somehow lumbering in from the countryside wearing a unique harness that had a much smaller, but still big mare in it.

“I hate to sound like I know everything, but her appearance here just as Rookie leaves is almost too coincidental to be one.” Feather commented as the giant approached them. I simply nodded.

(Rookie POV)

A short trip and a nap was enough to allow me to get to Ponyville quickly. I had very little, but oddly a lot, of trouble walking through the town to get to the Everfree. Between Pinkie Pie being...her, and Twilight attempting to drag me to the library to ‘interrogate’ me for all the knowledge she thirsted for…...yeah, you kinda get how I would have taken almost an hour just to get to the forest’s edge.

Anyway, as soon as I got to the forest’s edge, I switched my scanner to the ‘radar’ function, I then traveled through the forest with amazingly little problem. No Manticores, Timberwolves, or any wild beasts were in the area. “If this were a chapter in a book, I’d say the author is starting to become lazy.” I mumbled to myself as I arrived at the rope bridge just outside the Everfree Castle.

Crossing the bridge and entering the castle, I came across Luna in the middle of the entrance hall attempting to mold something out of clay. She noticed me walking in and gave me a quick nod before turning back to her project. This set off a few red flags in my mind and I approached slowly.

“Are you okay, Luna?” I asked her. “You aren’t acting like yourself...then again, I don’t even know how you act in general.”

“Understandable in many ways.” She said, her mane and body slightly changing them to wave harder and be darker, respectfully. “A similar case for Discord. He brought Nightmare Moon out from the depths of my mind and soul, but he didn’t anticipate her year-long isolation there to be worse than the thousand years I spent with her, thus facilitating a means for her to decide to be reformed.”

“That is oddly convenient.” I commented, taking a seat on a loose stone near the clay. “So, what’s the clay for?”

“A technique of Necromancy so ancient it’s been forgotten by almost everyone, including Celestia.” She answered.

“Including your sister?” I asked in confusion.

“She and I endured a different set of thousand years.” She said, her clay molding seeming to start shaping into an alicorn of similar size and stature as herself while she spoke. “While I was able to spend time with Nightmare and keep our “stores of knowledge” intact, Tia was running a country...and I think she has lost her touch at combat and has gotten a bit…”

“Lazy? Compulsive? Plush in the Tush?” I suggested.

“All three, and I won’t blame her for such.” She agreed. “She spent over a thousand years racked with the guilt of banishing me, just as I had to spend over a thousand years on the Moon. Of the two of us, she deserves some cake for a break.”

“Right...anyway, jumping back on topic, this Clay Necromancy...I’m going to assume what you’re gonna do, so correct me if I’m wrong.” I spoke. “You are making a body for you to transfer the mind and soul(?) of Nightmare Moon into.”

“Pretty spot on.” Luna complimented, flashing me a brief reptile eye and fanged smirk. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d guess you were a necromancer in your past life.”

“No, just a lot of games with too much lore.” I answered.

“Okay.” She acknowledged. “The Emerald is inside the clay, it’ll serve as an artificial heart for a time.”

I nodded in understanding while Luna prepared to cast a spell over the clay. I then remembered. “By the way, did my deadly sins link actually ring true?” I asked.

Luna paused in her spell. “Yes. Discord pulled out my Nightmare and attempted to sway us both to give in to our envy.” She answered. She then wasted no time and cast her spell.

When the clay was hit, it rippled like water as its surface turned to flesh and started growing hair/fur. Eventually, the rippling stopped and the figure opened her eyes, looking to Luna with a smile. “Thank you, Sister. You have my gratitude and I’m in debt to you.”

“The only debt you have to pay won’t be to me...or anyone.” Luna said. “Dedicate yourself to living a full and happy life, within the bounds of the law, and the debt will be considered paid.” The figure teared up and quickly hugged her, sobbing out her thanks. “Go forth, Nightshade, and be free of our envy. I must return to Canterlot to speak with Celestia on this matter, both your new life, and what Discord is doing.” Luna then vanished in a flash of bright blue light.

The newly named Nightshade turned to me with a small smile. “So, what now?”

I shrugged. “Well, three Emeralds in three days is a fair amount of work, and for the third one, I didn’t even have to use it.” I recounted. “So, I’m in the mood for some relaxation. Maybe we can visit a spa. What do you think?”

“Sounds...nice?” She partially asked and said. “I never experienced a spa.”

“Neither have I, but there’s a first for everything,” I said in a chipper voice and led her out of the castle ruins towards Ponyville.

(Third POV)

Meanwhile, just on the outskirts of the town’s, a quartet of ponies was just barely arriving. Said arrival was practically announced to the whole town by means of the biggest of the four, who was ‘carrying’ the other three.

The announcement, however, was pretty much ignored by most of the townsfolk as there were a good amount of problems happening simultaneously to their arrival. Spike, through the power of a Chaos Emerald and the corruption of Discord, he had given in to his greed and went through a growth spurt that practically turned him into a kaiju. Meanwhile, in the middle of one of the streets, despite the kaiju dragon rampaging around and through the town, a brawl was happening between three people. Rainbow Dash, her former ‘friend’, Gilda, and a random drunken Earth pony were all practically just a tangle of limbs in a dust cloud.

Needless to say, the three newcomers to Ponyville and one resident could only take in the chaos the town seemed to naturally ooze out of its streets.

Feather Bangs seemed the most put off from this. “I don’t want to sound mean, but is this common?” He asked. “Because I would have thought I would have seen most of this in the various newspapers across the nation while on tour.”

“It’s a local thing.” Redbow said, as she pulled out a notepad and began jotting down something. “It’s become so commonplace here since the Elements of Harmony were found that the government decided to simply make a simple ‘insurance’ for the town, levied from the town’s taxes after collection. Part of said ‘insurance’ is that most news of the crazy things that happen here doesn’t spread far, depending on the crazy news.”

“Like news of six non-military types going to handle a dragon and nearly dying in the process?” Desire said, getting the rest of the group to look at her in confusion. “I was dating a Royal Guard at the time that took place. He and a good amount of the Guard didn’t really like that.”

“Well, yeah. Compare that to Nightmare Moon’s return and freedom of Princess Luna, and you can spot the differences.” Redbow said.

“One was a more need-to-know basis event, while the other one was meant to be common knowledge.” Mint Berry said. “I both like and hate this. It makes it sound like a conspiracy theory concocted to hide clues of humans.” [On the other side of town, a mint unicorn sneezed, much to the annoyance of her Earth pony girlfriend.]

“It’s meant more as protection for the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony when they are dealing with more small scale threats to Equestria.” Redbow said. “Although, Celestia did give the few local newspapers a sizable amount of funding to at least allow news to keep flowing into Ponyville and for the general history of this place to be recorded.”

“I hope you aren’t gonna be getting into trouble for the few days you were away.” Mint commented, while barely managing to scratch her head with her hoof.

Redbow looked towards where the Trot Street Journal building would be and saw smoke coming from that direction. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.” She said with some regret in her voice.

In their conversation, the group somehow didn’t see Greedy Spike ‘sneak up’ on them. Before any of them knew it, Mint Berry was picked up by him. “Big Ball! Spike Want!” He said as he lifted her towards his junk horde.

Mint, however, wasn’t having it and immediately shot a bolt of magic at his eye, causing him to drop his horde, destroying a building (and not killing anyone, thankfully) in the process. “You want Big Ball, you have to do more than pick her up!” She taunted, which caught his attention.

He brought her closer to better examine her. “Big Ball Living! Big Ball Thief! Spike Wants Thief To Leave!” He then ‘gently’ tossed her towards the edge of the Everfree Forest...right on top of Rookie.

The toss and landing didn’t hurt Mint, but the same couldn’t be said for the Mobian she landed on. He struggled for a few seconds, which alerted her to his distress. As quickly as she could, and with Nightshade’s help, she moved off of him. “I’m so sorry! I was thrown against my will!”

Rookie raised his hand up, cutting her off. “I’m not blaming the throw on you.” He said, his voice muffled by the dirt his head was partially planted into. “But I will say this: next time you get into a situation that causes you to fall from a great height-” He pulled his head out of the ground. “-at least give a warning. Please?”

Mint nodded rapidly before she looked over to Nightshade. “Who is this?” She asked.

“My name is Nightshade.” Nightshade answered, bowing a bit. “I once was an envious part of Luna’s mind, but I’m now my own self, free of her mind and her free of me.” Feather Bangs, Desire, and Redbow arrived as she said that.

“Wait, you’re Nightmare Moon!?” Desire asked in shock, getting herself and Feather to back away in shock and fear. The action got a depressed look from Nightshade, and the two received a harsh glare from Redbow.

“While that is technically true, she has established that she isn’t the mare she once was, ie. ruled by envy.” The chubby pegasus explained. She then flew down to the dark alicorn and gave her a hug. “Sorry about them. Don’t know much about them, but you can count me as a friend.”

“Just like that?” Nightshade asked in shock and slight confusion.

“Well, there are a few requirements, but we can discuss those later.” Redbow commented. “Currently, Ponyville is going through a bit of a-” Greed Spike roared from the town, briefly interrupting her. “-issue.”

“Seems to be a bit early for him to be going through greed growth.” Rookie commented, getting odd looks from everyone gathered. “I’ll explain when we get the three Chaos Emeralds that are in Ponyville.”

“Speaking of Chaos Emeralds, here.” Redbow removed a bag from her side and handed him the Chaos Emeralds in them. “I think you’ll have more use of these than we will.”

Rookie took them and placed them in his hammerspace. “That’s three, four left. Let’s see the dragon problem and find the other Emeralds.” He said and began leading the group out of the Everfree and towards the town.

Author's Note

I just recently learned about Grammarly. It'll save me a few headaches and moments of rage...and might improve the general quality of these chapters, even with this COVID-19 quarantine driving me up the wall.