Chapters It was the 1000th anniversary of the Summer Sun Celebration, and Ponyville – the lucky town selected by Princess Celestia herself to host the millennial celebration – had pulled out all the stops. If the garish but charmingly enthusiastic hoof-painted murals and colorful streamers put up by Cheerilee’s 2nd year class clashed a bit with the classical music tinkling from Heartstrings’ lyre, or if the pre-dawn starlight twinkling through the windows was occasionally obscured by high, wispy clouds missed by Ponyville’s famously lackadaisical weather squad, it was more than made up for by the cheerful anticipation of the colorful crowd of ponies packed into the town hall to await Celestia’s arrival.
A fanfare quieted the crowd, as the mayor began to speak. “Fillies and gentlecolts! As the mayor of Ponyville it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration! In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year! And now it is my great pleasure to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and moon each day, the great, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria --”
“Princess Celestia,” said a quiet voice backstage, as the swirling blue mists emerged from the room’s shadows to congeal into a towering mare of darkness. “I’m afraid this year’s celebration will have to be cancelled.”
The princess of the sun looked up from the couch where she’d been waiting, tears in her eyes.
Nightmare Moon laughed bitterly. “It’s too late to beg for mercy, Celestia. 1000 years must have seemed like forever when you banished me so long ago. You never expected to see me again, did you?”
Celestia met her gaze. “How could you hold on to your anger for 1000 years? All you had to do to end it early was to calm down and forgive me, Luna.”
“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” snarled the black-coated alicorn as her ghostly mane and tail swirled into an angry tornado above her. “I am Luna no more!”
Celestia’s horn began to glow. “Then I have no choice,” she said.
Nightmare Moon recoiled as she recognized the spell of Banishment. “N- no! Not that spell –“ she cried, diverting what might have been a fatal attack into a desperate defense. “That won’t work! You can’t hope to pierce my defenses without the Elements of Harmony!”
“The spell will work,” Celestia said calmly, as her horn flashed brighter, washing the room in blinding light. When Nightmare Moon uncurled from her defensive posture, Celestia was nowhere to be found.
“You banished yourself?” she said, laughing. “A wise choice! But I will never forgive you, Celestia. Enjoy 1000 years of solitude!”
Oh, yeah. This was the stuff. The speed, the adrenaline, the wind in her mane – Rainbow Dash had never felt such freedom in her life, and she liked it!
Until that jerk she was racing against cut a corner and slammed into her, knocking her off course. “Later Rainbow Crash!” he said, mocking her as she spun out of control.
She was able to recover, no problem, but she’d lost most of her momentum and he was way, way ahead of her. Worse, the course was coming into some tight turns, so even if she managed to catch up she’d just end up face planting into the ground.
Well, she’d burn that bridge when she came to it. The little blue filly set her gaze on her target, thrust her hoof out in front of her to split the air, and dove towards the next waypoint for all she was worth. Basketball butt slowed down for the corner, letting her return the favor and knock him aside, going faster than she’d ever flown – faster than she’d ever seen anypony fly. Way, way too fast to stop in time.
‘Fly faster,’ the wind seemed to whisper in her ears, ‘You’re unstoppable!’
The ground begged to differ, and for once she decided to listen to reason.
She was still desperately backpedaling her wings to try to slow down when she hit, bouncing and rolling across a grassy field until with a *splash* she landed in a shallow, muddy lake. “Ooooogh,” she said, pulling herself up and groaning, and looking in dismay at her waterlogged, mud-covered wings – even if she could ignore the dizziness and the soreness in every joint, it’d take, like, a million years of preening before she was flying anywhere fast.
The orange and brown pegasi she’d been racing against perched on a ring of cloud-stuff – the checkpoint that marked one end of the trail of destruction she’d plowed across the field – and laughed and laughed, then took off for the finish line without her. “See ya Rainbow CRASH!”
“Oh no, oh no! Are you okay?” asked a quiet voice.
Rainbow looked over in alarm – then relaxed when she recognized the yellow and pink Pegasus she’d supposedly been racing for. “Oh, it’s you. Sorry, Fluttershy. I guess I’m as big a loser as you are.” Something bugged her, though. “How’d you get down here so fast, anyway?”
“Um…” Fluttershy said, looking down and pawing at the ground with a forehoof. “I fell. When the race started, you kind of, um, knocked me off the cloud.”
“What?!” Rainbow said, eyes wide. “I didn’t see you fall! I would have gone back and caught you!”
“Oh, I know,” Fluttershy said, smiling. “You were busy with the race and everything. It’s okay, some butterflies saved me.”
She fluttered off the ground, and hovered over to help Rainbow out of the muddy bank and onto dry land.
Rainbow Dash shook her muddy wings, flapped them a few times to try to shake them clean, then tottered dizzily and collapsed onto her stomach. “I don’t feel so good,” she said, trying to force her eyes to focus.
“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said, lying down next to her and draping a wing over her back. Rainbow figured she must have been hallucinating, since she could have sworn that a squirrel and a songbird ran up to perch on Fluttershy’s back as she settled to the ground. “You just get some rest, and I’ll watch over you.” She gave the cutest little smile. “Let me be your butterfly.”
Of course that had been exactly the wrong advice to give somepony with a concussion, but Rainbow pulled through anyway, and Fluttershy even got her cutie mark out of it. Rainbow kind of got hers out of it too – a month later, when she and her new friend Gilda pranked the buck out of that basketball butt and the other bullies with a stolen storm cloud. It was *worth* getting kicked out of flight school just to see the look on his face.
…and that was all well and good, but why was she thinking about it *now*? Rainbow Dash tried to focus on the present. Crowd of terrified ponies, check. Evil Black Pony of Darkness gloating on the balcony, check. Fluttershy standing over her protectively after Rainbow got her flank handed to her trying to beat the location of the Princess out of this obviously evil interloper – yeah, okay. That was probably why her life was flashing before her eyes.
Was she a bad pony for being glad to see that the Royal Guard hadn’t fared any better, and now lay twitching near the edges of the room?
“Why, am I not royal enough for you?” said the night-dark alicorn, gloating at her victory. “Don’t you know who I am?” A terrified silence met her question. “Does my crown no longer count now that I’ve been imprisoned in the moon for 1000 years? Did you not recall the legends? Did you not see the signs?”
No pony responded.
“I am Nightmare Moon, you sun-loving foals!” That was a name everypony recognized, and screams of terror and dismay washed through the crowd. “And from this moment forth –“
Her monologue was interrupted as a pair of unicorn colts stumbled out of the crowd into the gradually widening open space below the balcony, carrying a tray full of sugary snacks between them. The taller, orange-colored one tripped, and the cupcakes and peppermint sticks scattered across the floor. The shorter, blue one prostrated himself before the queen of the night. “Oh, your worshipfulness! Please don’t gobble us up! Take this offering and be satisfied!”
“Candy…” said the orange one, gobbling up one of the offered cupcakes to demonstrate what one did with food. “It’s good.”
Nightmare Moon’s misty tail drifted down from the balcony and wrapped itself around one of the cupcakes, bringing it up to her mouth. “A good start, my loyal subjects, but it will take more than sweets to repay the injustice done to me these past 1000 years. Remember this day, my little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night shall last – FOREVER!”
“A rock? That is my destiny? What is your problem, horn? I followed you all the way out here for a *rock*?” Rarity glowered at the rock, but its stony face withstood her most powerful glare without even a crack in its façade. She gave a little whine of frustration, and shouted, “Dumb rock!”
She somehow made it back to Ponyville in time to see the play. Everypony said the costumes she’d made were ‘nice’, but she could tell polite disinterest as well as the next pony. “I guess I wasn’t cut out to be a fashionista,” she said to her mother, who did her best to cheer her up with some burnt toast and a sugary smile.
“It’s okay, dear. I’m sure you’ll find your special talent soon enough.”
Her father had a thoughtful look.“You know, if your destiny is a rock, maybe you could try apprenticing at the old rock farm on the edge of town.” He flexed a forehoof to show off his muscles, such as they were. “Back when I was on the team, Coach had us all do a stint there as part of our strength training – they’re always looking for help.”
Rarity didn’t like the sound of that. “I don’t want muscles! I want to be *fabulous*!”
“And I didn’t want to get tied down with an old ball and chain – until I met your mother. The moment I saw her, I knew that she was my destiny.” Her parents looked at each other with a horrifying degree of affection. “If you try to fight your destiny, you’ll never find what’ll really makes you happy.”
So she went to the farm, to find true happiness. Instead, she found a grey field worked by grey ponies under a grey, overcast sky. There was no talking, there was no smiling, there were only rocks. Rocks, and dirt, and dust, that worked their way into her coat and mane until she was just as grey as the others, drudging drearily from day to day of endless, pointless labor, rotating the rocks slowly from the center of the farm to the edge, where they were smashed into gravel.
The only bright spot in this dreary, grey existence was the filly Rarity bunked with at night: the vibrantly pink, perplexing Pinkamena. Rarity would watch Pinkie work in the fields alongside her and the rest of Pinkie’s family – she could hardly be missed, as the only real color for miles around – and she never seemed to do anything special, but somehow, at the day’s end, Pinkie’s rocks would be sorted carefully into piles by color. Or arranged into smiley faces, or pictures of birds and flowers, or in one case a huge maze covering the whole of the eastern field, even the parts she hadn’t laid a hoof on that day.
“That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie,” was one sister’s disinterested response.
“How do you *do* that?” Rarity asked Pinkamena one night, as they crawled into bed at the end of the day.
“Do what, Rarity?” Pinkamena replied quietly, feigning innocence.
“That thing, with the rocks, and the maze –“ Rarity pressed. “I rolled half those rocks myself!”
“Maybe if you rolled *all* your rocks, you wouldn’t have to wonder,” Pinkie said.
Rarity was quiet for a few seconds – it was true, she wasn’t strong enough to move the really big ones. But neither was Pinkamena! “Now you’re just teasing me. That isn’t very nice.”
Pinkie giggled. “Tell me more about Canterlot,” she asked, always a surefire way to change the subject. Rarity knew it was a dodge, but how could she resist? It was *Canterlot*!
“You’re falling asleep again, Rarity,” Pinkie said, waking her from her daydream. Rarity blinked the sleep out of her eyes, and her horn glowed as she levitated the teacup up to her mouth. “You looked like you were having a nice dream. Was I in it? Was I?”
“Part of it,” Rarity said. “I was just thinking about the old days, back when we used to rotate all the rocks, even though most of them weren’t good for anything but gravel.” Nowadays, with Rarity’s gem-finding spell, they could tell which rocks were budding geodes and not waste so much time on the duds. To say it had improved the family’s fortunes was the understatement of the millennium; it had brought them out of poverty into something resembling the fabulous life that Rarity had always wanted. “You used to make strange patterns in the fields – I never found out how you did that.”
Pinkie Pie chuckled. “Oh! I remember that,” she said. “That was one of my best pranks. The exploding-balloon prank was more fun at the time, but I was grounded for *weeks*.” With a broken leg, she didn’t need to add, since Rarity had been the one to pull her slightly singed tail out of line of fire while it was still attached to her body. “I never got in trouble for moving rocks around.”
“Hmm,” Rarity said, taking another sip of tea. “So however *did* you manage it?”
“Oh, I could tell you that, but I think there’s a better question you should be asking,” Pinkamena said, glancing at the window.
“Oh?” Rarity didn’t even try to resist. If there was anything Pinkie was good at, it was changing the subject.
Pinkie stood up and looked out at the night sky. “Why isn’t the sun up? Dawn was ten minutes ago.”
“WELL,” Rarity said, a bit of disgust entering her voice, “it probably has something to do with them holding the official celebration in…” she gave an exaggerated shudder, “Ponyville. How many years in a row have they been late with Spring?”
“I’m sorry for wasting your time.”
Twilight Sparkle tried to put up a brave front as she turned her back on her dreams and left the examination room, but when one of the professors stopped to talk with her parents and officially give them the verdict, her legs folded under her and tears welled from her eyes.
“So… did she pass?” Twilight’s mother asked, with a cheery optimism that even the little filly could tell was faked.
“Her excellent scores on the written exam, as well as the wide range of… creative incantations she attempted during the practical exam tell us that your daughter has a fine mind, and a true gift for focused study,” the unicorn began. Twilight looked up, with a flicker of hope. “What she does not have, however, is the special spark that we’re looking for – this isn’t a school for gifted *ponies*, it’s a school for gifted *unicorns*, specifically for unicorns whose special talent is magic. And I’m sorry to say, your daughter is not one.”
“So… did she pass?” Twilight’s mother asked again, less cheerfully.
“No,” the professor replied, bluntly. “This school is not for her. This is not the first time we’ve seen a young filly like your daughter, however, and we do have several recommendations for other schools that might better fit her talents…”
Which is how she ended up in a boarding school in Manehattan. Her parents were desperate to cheer her up, and she was too apathetic to object when they had her take the entrance exam, which she could have aced in her sleep. Perhaps she had; she couldn’t remember much about it.
By the time it sunk in that she was going to be separated from her parents and moved to a new city, it was too late to back out. “You’ll love it there, Twilight,” her father said, as he helped her load her bags onto the train – she was such a failure as a unicorn, she didn’t even have enough magic to carry them herself. “They have the largest library in Manehattan.”
“Everypony there is as smart as you are,” her mother added. “I’m sure you’ll make lots of friends!”
Neither half of that statement turned out to be true, but Twilight knew her mother well enough not to be too disappointed at that. The school wasn’t awful. The courses were far more challenging – and therefore interesting – than she’d had before, and instead of being bullied into breaking the rules and doing the slower students’ homework, she was encouraged by the teachers to help them learn.
Best of all, all three of her roommates were socialites there on their families’ money, and she generally had her room to herself. When they decided to bring the party home with them, she could hide out in a secluded corner of the garden. It was an easy place to be alone.
If it wasn’t for Applejack.
“Ah, it sure is nice to get away from the city noise, don’t you think?” she said one day, planting herself right next to Twilight’s favorite reading spot. “How do you think they get it so quiet here?”
Twilight pretended not to be intimidated by the sudden appearance of a rather athletic earth pony, and didn’t look up from her book as she answered, “Acoustics.” She wasn’t still reading, though, even if her eyes were locked rigidly on the page. When, after a few seconds, Applejack was still there, she added, “The walls deflect the sound of the city away from the school grounds, and the leaves of the plants help absorb the noise.”
“That sounds like some rather fancy magic,” Applejack said. “It’s like the rest of the school – everything’s so… fancy.”
“Uh huh,” Twilight said, trying to focus on her book. It wasn’t working.
But Applejack kept on talking. “I expected you to be fancy too, when I heard you were from Canterlot. I thought everypony in Canterlot was as proper as milk in tea.”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said, closing her eyes and holding her book up like a shield. “Please don’t hit me!”
“I’m not going to hit you, sweetie,” Applejack said. “I just want to ask you a question. Do you know what a rooster is?”
Twilight lowered the book just enough to stare at the earth pony in confusion. “A male chicken?”
Applejack smiled back at her. “Cock-a-doodle-doo!”
A gentle hoof shook her awake. “Cock-a-doodle-doo, sweetie. We’re almost there.”
Twilight Sparkle lifted her head from the seat, and levitated a brush out of her bag to start straightening her mane, despite the lack of a mirror in the carriage. There wasn’t any light, either, so it hardly mattered. She held up a watch and peered at the face in the faint glow of her horn… and either she’d slept for eleven hours during a four hour trip, or it was the middle of the afternoon.
It had been six days – or six intervals that would have been days – since the onset of eternal night, and as their carriage rumbled through Ponyville’s square, it was obvious that the ponies here hadn’t quite come to terms with eternal night. One market stall was open, selling candles, and the streets were almost deserted, with lights on in maybe half the buildings. The town hall was not one of them, but that was their destination.
Twilight followed Miss Apple out of the carriage as she approached the door, and slammed her hoof into it loudly until a bleary-eyed old gray mare in bedclothes answered the door. “Do you know what time it is?” the mayor asked.
“1:23 in the afternoon,” Twilight answered stiffly, holding up her watch.
“We’re here to see Nightmare Moon,” Miss Apple said. “Where is she?”
“Nightmare Moon is not receiving visitors,” the mayor replied, and tried to slam the door in their faces, but Applejack’s hoof was faster, and she shouldered her way into the doorway.
“My name’s Applejack. I run Apples and Oranges – you might have heard of us?” Miss Apple said as she forced the mayor back. “We didn’t come all this way to be turned away by a two-bit lackey.”
“Please, maam” Twilight said, trying to back up her boss’ bluster with something a bit easier to swallow. “This is a matter of life and death.”
“Well, she isn’t here!” the mayor said, putting her hooves down and refusing to give any more ground, even as Applejack invaded her personal space. “Nightmare Moon was sick of the endless parade of ponies pleading for her to raise the sun, so she retreated to her lair in the Everfree Forest.”
“Her ‘lair’?” Applejack asked.
Twilight gave a nervous laugh. “You make it sound like some crumbling, monster-filled ruin.”
“According to the Shadowbolts, she drove out the monsters when she moved in,” the mayor replied. “If you make it to the old ruin, you should be safe enough. From everything but *her*.”
“Just tell us how to get there,” Applejack said.
“Well, at least the path is well-marked,” Twilight Sparkle said, as they reached the edge of the Everfree Forest. They hadn’t been able to find anypony else willing to accompany them into the forest, so Miss Apple was pulling the wagon with their tribute to the new queen, and the materials for Twilight’s presentation. Twilight’s contribution was to hold up a half dozen candles so they could find their way safely along the dark roads without tripping over anything, but it looked like it wouldn’t be necessary, since somepony had embedded a series of glowing gems in the trees to either side of the path.
She leaned close to read the sign under the first light. “Oh, it’s an advertisement. ‘Rarity’s Rare Earths’.”
Applejack let out a heavy sigh. “Rarity’s here, then.”
“Looks like it,” Twilight said, heading down the path. She snuffed the candles and put them back in her bag, in case they needed them later. “What is it with you two, anyway? They’re not competition – we’re in a completely different industry.”
“It’s not a business matter,” Applejack said. “You never had to go to one of her parties.”
“New money?” Twilight said, with a smirk that she was sure Miss Apple couldn’t see.
“I’m new money,” Applejack replied. “The Oranges are new money. Rarity is… something else.”
With the path marked, the Everfree Forest hardly lived up to its reputation. They ran into a few monsters – a manticore, a river serpent, and a strange pony-like creature that Twilight recognized as a zebra – but nothing they couldn’t buy off with a pastry from their wagon. It was a long walk, though, lit by dozens, hundreds of gems.
“It was really nice of her to put so many gems out,” Twilight remarked, impressed. “This must have cost a fortune!”
“Showoff,” was Applejack’s surly response. “She probably thought it was the ‘noble’ thing to do.”
“Well,” Twilight said, “It kind of was.”
“She probably pulled all these gems out of the ground with that dowsing spell she’s so proud of,” Applejack said. “It didn’t cost her one bit.”
Twilight was going to explain about opportunity costs, but was saved by the end of the trail – at a rickety rope bridge, that looked like it was as likely to hold up under their wagon as the ruin on the far side was to spontaneously grow wings and fly off to invade Cloudsdale. It was also about a foot and a half too narrow.
They stared at the bridge. “Saddlebags from here, I guess,” Applejack said, unhitching herself from the wagon.
“At least it isn’t a very long walk,” Twilight said, as her boss loaded her up with books and charts. “I can see the ruins just on the other side.” She staggered as a second set of saddlebags dropped onto her haunches. “Oof!” Her horn glowed as she levitated them up off her back. “I’ll, heh heh, I’ll just carry the rest.”
Applejack looked at her magic warily. “Don’t drop them,” she said, loading the rest of their supplies onto her own back.
“I’m fine! Levitation is… fine,” Twilight Sparkle said, snatching a third set for herself to demonstrate. “Besides, that bridge looks pretty rickety, it’s better not to have all the weight resting on our hooves. Do you think we should go over one at a time?”
Miss Apple snorted. “From the looks of it, it’s been here for a thousand years. If the bridge didn’t collapse under the weight of Rarity’s ego, I don’t see how a couple hundred pounds of ponies are going to take it down.”
They went across one at a time anyway, Twilight first since she was lighter. She had a bit of a scare near the middle when her hoof slipped out from under her on one of the wet wooden boards, but although the bridge wobbled and swayed alarmingly, freezing in terror let it stabilize enough for her continue. She let out a little gasp of relief as she trotted up onto solid ground, and gently set down the bags she’d been levitating, which were starting to wear on her horn a bit.
Just then, there was a loud crash, a flash of light, and a sharp pain in her back, and her vision whited out.
It was a school field trip – not the first, and not the most interesting, at least to young Twilight Sparkle. The factory was *crowded*, and *loud*, and hardly anything was labeled. The tour guide was trying to explain what was going on, but even with him shouting at the top of his lungs, Twilight couldn’t make out a word of what he was saying from the back of the pack of students, many of whom were taller and all of whom were far more enthusiastic. It didn’t help that they hadn’t had a safety helmet for unicorns in her size, and the one she was wearing almost swallowed her entire head.
Honestly, she wished she’d brought a book.
“I can’t hold it! It’s too heavy!” said somepony behind her, and the fear in their voice made Twilight turn and look, to see a unicorn struggling to hold back a wobbling, glowing column of glass and metal which was tilting alarmingly right… towards… her…
“Run! RUN!” screamed an earth pony around a rope held in his teeth, as his hooves slipped along the catwalk. It was useless, though – the factory was too loud, and the only pony paying attention was Twilight, and she was glued to the ground as her doom came tumbling towards her, spraying lightning as it shattered into a million shards of glass.
Twilight’s horn seemed to activate of its own volition, forming a bubble to stop the deadly rain, inches from her face – but it didn’t stop there. Stray bolts of magic shot out at random, turning the falling unicorn into a pigeon, lifting the earth pony on the crumbling catwalk into midair, blowing a hole in the roof of the building – and more that Twilight didn’t even see as her vision whited out. She struggled to end the chaos, but she couldn’t even feel the floor under her hooves, until Applejack…
Somepony gently placed their hooves on her shoulders, and a soft voice said, “Shhh… it’s okay.”
Twilight’s vision cleared, resolving into a Shadowbolt hovering before her. “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” the black-uniformed Pegasus said, her words and demeanor clashing with her terrifying outfit. Then again, her long pink mane didn’t really match it that well either.
“Twilight!” came a voice behind her, as Applejack raced across the bridge.
“I’m okay,” Twilight said, glancing back at Applejack. “I’m okay. Just – what hit me?”
“BWA HA HA HA HA!” came a raucous laugh from above. Another Shadowbolt, this one with an equally incongruous rainbow mane, peered down over the edge of a tiny thundercloud. “You should have seen the look on your face!”
“Mystery solved,” Twilight growled, jerking her saddlebags back up off the ground.
“You sure you’re okay, sweetie?” Applejack asked, looking her over. “You looked like you were about to –“
“I’m FINE,” Twilight snapped a little louder than she’d intended. She gave a contrite cringe as Applejack flinched. “I’m – I’m sorry, Miss Apple. I was just startled, but everything’s under control.”
She settled the second set of saddlebags onto her back, though, covering her cutie mark. Every time she thought she’d finally come to terms with her ‘special talent’, something had to happen to remind her of the day she’d gotten the cursed thing.
“Aren’t you a little colorful for a Shadowbolt?” Twilight Sparkle asked Rainbow Dash, as the two Shadowbolts on duty led them towards the ‘castle’. “The Shadowbolts who visited Manehattan to give the Queen’s ultimatum were all blue and gray.”
“That’s because I’m *captain* of the Shadowbolts,” Rainbow Dash replied. “After I fought her to a standstill at the Summer Sun Celebration, the Queen wanted to make sure I was on her side, and offered me the job on the spot. She wanted me to dye my mane, but I was like, as if!”
“So you’re the reason we’re stuck with eternal night?” Applejack asked, narrowing her eyes.
Rainbow fluttered higher, surprised at the sudden hostility. “No – it’s not like that at all! Celestia was already long gone by the time Nightmare Moon took over. She fled Equestria and took most of her guards with her, because she was too ashamed to talk to the sister that she’d betrayed 1000 years ago. If it wasn’t for Nightmare Moon we wouldn’t have *anypony* in charge.”
“But it’s her choice not to raise the sun,” Twilight Sparkle said, looking up at the bright full moon that illuminated the castle, which was free of the normal Everfree tree cover. “Princess Celestia controlled the sun *and* the moon, so it stands to reason that if Nightmare Moon took control, she could raise the sun if she wanted.”
“Whatever,” Rainbow said, flopping onto her stormcloud and pushing it slowly along with lazy flaps of her wings. “All I know is that now I get to prank whoever I want, whenever I want, and nobody gets to complain.”
Twilight could tell that Applejack was fuming, so she turned to the other Shadowbolt, with the pink mane. “What about you? You seem far too nice to be a servant of a wicked mare of darkness.”
“Oh! I wouldn’t say she’s wicked, really,” Fluttershy said, looking down at her hooves. “I know she’s loud and scary, but she really just wants ponies to appreciate her beautiful night. And I couldn’t let Rainbow Dash go off on her own, I need to take care of her or she’ll get into *so* much trouble.”
“Fluttershy…” Rainbow Dash said, embarrassed.
“Besides,” Fluttershy said, softly, “being in this uniform makes me feel so assertive.” She smiled the cutest little smile, which somehow made Twilight’s heart sink into the pit of her stomach.
“What about you?” Rainbow Dash said, peering down over the edge of her cloud to glower accusingly at Twilight Sparkle. “Why are *you* here? What’s in those bags? What were you about to do back at the bridge before Fluttershy stopped you? Are you an assassin?”
“No!” Twilight said, eyes wide. “We’re just here to give the Queen a presentation about the state of Equestria. There’s a crisis brewing that she might not be aware of, and we want to make sure she considers all the consequences of her actions.”
“You’re going to ask her to raise the sun,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Not… technically,” Twilight said.
Rainbow gave her a look. “Don’t ask her to raise the sun. Don’t even *mention* the sun. Trust me on this one.”
“We’re also bringing her a tribute, of course,” Applejack said. “We wouldn’t think to take up her valuable time without offering her something in return.”
“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash said, unenthusiastically. “Let me guess. Candy?”
“There’s a bit of candy, but it’s mostly baked goods. Pies, tarts, turnovers, jams, jellies, donuts, fruit loafs and cupcakes,” Applejack said, proudly. “The best Apples and Oranges has to offer.”
“Doesn’t she like sweets?” Twilight asked nervously.
“Oh, she likes them,” Dash said. “I don’t think she knows just why everypony’s been bringing them, though. They didn’t have Nightmare Night the last time she was in Equestria.”
“At least they’re not in costumes like the last two,” Fluttershy said.
“Put that on the list of things not to talk about, okay?” Rainbow said, cringing at the thought. “Ixnay on the Ightmarenay Ightnay. I don’t know how she’s going to react and I really don’t want to be in the blast radius.”
“Any other rules we should know about?” Applejack asked.
“Be polite?” Fluttershy suggested.
“Don’t yell at her,” Rainbow Dash said. “And don’t try and attack her unless you like getting struck by lightning. And you!” she added suddenly, pointing at Twilight. “No exploding!”
“What?” Twilight squeaked, chilled to the bone.
“I saw your cutie mark before you covered it up. Your special talent is exploding, isn’t it!”
“It’s just a random star pattern,” Twilight said, repeating the mantra she’d been telling herself since she was young. “My family’s from Canterlot. Most of the unicorns there don’t have cutie marks that mean anything.”
“Her special talent’s mathematics,” Applejack said. “She’s my accountant.”
“Okay,” Rainbow Dash said, suspiciously. “You can go in. But I’ve got my eye on you.”
“Hey, Queenie!” shouted Rainbow Dash as the four of them entered the throne room. “More visitors.”
A flutter of black bats, disturbed by the noise, swirled around Applejack and Twilight Sparkle as they stood in the half-collapsed archway at one end of the crumbling throne room. The ceiling was basically gone, leaving the room open to the sky, the walls were covered in blackened and ruined murals, and the floor was covered with cracked grey tile whose pattern had faded from 1000 years of exposure to the elements. Nightmare Moon herself perched on the twisted, melted remains of some sort of multi-armed pedestal or fountain, reformed into something that could pass for a throne. In front of her, on the floor, was a small pile of candy and other sweets. She looked bored.
So did the pink pony dressed as a judge, who was chewing on her gavel and occasionally giving a puff of breath to brush the dangling curls of her powdered wig out of her eyes. On the other side of the dark queen was a unicorn spangled with so many jewels that she looked like a cloud of disembodied sparkles, who was the only animated thing in the room, as she turned her head towards the new arrivals.
Rarity saw Applejack, and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t suppose you can come back in a few hours? The Queen and I were in the middle of discussing the renovations.”
“We’re not going anywhere until we’ve had our say,” Applejack replied, lowering her head and raising one hoof, as if she was about to charge.
“You can go on discussing the renovations while they talk, Rarity” Pinkie said. “I don’t think Nightmare Moon’s been listening.”
“Thank you kindly,” Applejack said, deciding to take that as permission, since while Nightmare Moon had moved her head enough to meet their gaze with her creepy, crystalline eyes, she still hadn’t deigned to speak. “First, let me present your majesty with a gift,” she said as she trotted forwards. Twilight followed close behind, and floated a pie out of the earth pony’s saddlebags and up to the Queen, who grabbed it with her ‘mane’ and gave a sniff.
Apparently she liked what she smelled, because she devoured the pie in record time. By that time, Applejack had set out a few more treats in a line in front of her, and kept adding to the spread as the Queen sampled her offerings.
“Do you like them?” Applejack asked, as she was on her third tart.
“They’re… adequate,” Nightmare Moon replied, brushing a few crumbs off her chin.
“I should hope so,” Applejack said. “We take apples and carrots from Apple Family farms in Ponyville and Fillydelphia, oranges and bananas from the Orange Estates in the Marribean Isles, and fresh fruits, milk, eggs and grains from family farms all across Equestria, and combine them all in our central bakery in Manehattan into the best dang food in the world.”
“That’s actually their company motto. It’s on all their packaging” Pinkie Pie said. “So it *must* be true, or else we could prosecute them for false advertising.” She held up her gavel, and looked up at the Queen expectantly.
“That won’t be necessary,” Nightmare Moon said.
“Then you like them,” Applejack prompted.
The queen nodded curtly. “Yes, my little baker, I find your pastries quite adequate, even for a pony of my status. That was not meant as a criticism.”
“Then eat up,” Applejack said, happily. It didn’t take long for Nightmare Moon to finish off the rest. “I’m glad you liked them, your majesty,” Applejack said, then suddenly stomped on the ground with a loud ‘crack!’. “Because they were your LAST.”
Nightmare Moon reared back, her mane swirling into a tornado as her eyes flared wide with madness. “How do you intend to stop me, foal?”
Rainbow Dash flew down to interpose herself between Applejack and the Queen, and after a few seconds Fluttershy followed her, although the pink-maned pony looked more terrified than resolute. Applejack allowed herself to be herded back towards the door by the Shadowbolts. “I’ll let Twilight explain,” she said.
Twilight Sparkle forced herself to remain calm as the Queen turned her piercing gaze upon her. She was ready – she’d practiced this presentation half a dozen times back in Manehattan, and had had plenty of time to set up the easel with her charts and diagrams while Nightmare Moon was eating. But as she stared into the angry blue eyes of the Nightmare, so unlike a pony’s, it occurred to her that Equestria’s new leader might be truly mad, in which case she was wasting her time trying to make her see reason.
Then again, maybe she wasn’t. Twilight forced herself to smile, and flipped from the cover sheet to the first of her diagrams, that showed a simplified flow-chart of Apples and Oranges’ supply lines. “As Applejack said, our company uses *fresh* ingredients, which naturally limits our ability to maintain a reserve of raw materials in case of a supply-chain incident. Certain staples can be preserved through magical and nonmagical means without compromising quality, but the core of our business consists of fresh fruits and vegetables…”
Once she’d started, it all just flowed. Twilight didn’t even need to glance at her notes as she moved easily from point to point – from Apples and Oranges’ supply problem, coming at the worst possible time as they’d been preparing to step up production to deal with the sudden spike in demand for comfort food as ponies tried to cope with the uncertainty of a new ruler. The replies they’d gotten from the farmers, when they set out to find the source of the delay. Twilight’s own research into plant growth and life cycle, confirming the blight as a global problem when she looked for signs of the same problem the farmers were experiencing in decorative and wild growth.
“What it all comes down to, your majesty, is that the plants of Equestria are not equipped to deal with the onset of eternal night. The gradual drop in temperature, combined with the sudden change in light levels, is killing them all. If things continue as they are, there will never be another harvest, and as we’ve already exhausted our supply of raw materials, and have no way to acquire more fresh produce since it *doesn’t exist*, our factory is shut down. You can’t have another pie because it doesn’t exist.”
Nightmare Moon stared at her, the only motion the slow swirling of her mane and tail. Twilight gave a wider grin, as she waited for a reaction.
Rarity broke the silence with a peal of laughter. “I should have known – the only thing that would get Applejack to take a break from her obsessive bit-collecting is the prospect of going bankrupt.”
Applejack whinnied, and stomped at the ground. “Some of us don’t have the luxury of waving our horns around and conjuring up bits from the ground. Some of us have to *build* our business instead of deciding how much of our capital we’re planning to throw away this month, pretending we’re princesses.”
“If you wanted bits from the ground, you should have stayed on the farm, silly,” Pinkie Pie said. “That’s how farms work!”
“Actually,” Twilight said, “most farms in Equestria barely break even –“ she stopped, and shook her head to clear it. “And this is completely missing the point!”
“The point that you want the Queen to raise the sun,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes. “Just like everypony else in Equestria.”
“The point is that the only reason everypony in Equestria isn’t running around in a mad panic is that they don’t understand how *bad* this is!” Twilight replied to the pegasus. She turned on Rarity. “Bankrupt? Really? That’s what you think this is about? The abrupt end of farming as a food source and you think we’re worried that we’re going to go *bankrupt*?” She turned back to Nightmare Moon. “Maybe you have a plan. Maybe you’re planning to fly overhead and rain down cotton candy, or magically make the plants grow by moonlight. Maybe you don’t have to raise the sun. But you need to do *something*!”
Twilight suddenly realized that Nightmare Moon was still staring at her, with an unreadable expression in her horrible dragon eyes. Her challenging posture melted, and her eyes went wide as she squeaked, “Please?” don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me! Please don’t kill me!
Nightmare Moon took a deep breath, and stood up straighter. “No,” she said, the word seeming to echo off the open sky above her. She turned her head to look at Applejack. “Your pies will be missed.”
“That won’t be the only thing,” Applejack said, darkly. “The food we’ve stored will run out in a matter of months, and ask your Shadowbolts how hard the pegasi are already having to work to hold back the cold. Before a year is past you’ll be alone in a snow-covered wasteland.” She glanced at Rarity and added, “But maybe you’ll have a gem-encrusted palace to rule from.”
“Maybe she *likes* it lonely and cold,” Pinkie Pie suggested. “I mean, she’s from the moon.”
“Be quiet, all of you!” Nightmare Moon snarled, spreading her wings and rising into the air. If her previous proclamation had seemed unnaturally loud, what followed made it sound like a whisper. “Every word that squirms from your sun-loving faces disgusts me! *This* is what I’m meant to rule? A bunch of squabbling foals who expect me to wait on their every need? A thousand years of sunlight was a *crutch*, that Celestia provided so that you’d stay her adoring and loving subjects! Well, the sun is *gone*, and you little ponies had best find some way to live with the eternal night, or I will replace you with creatures that can!”
“Bats?” Pinkie Pie suggested, tilting her head. “No, wait, bats eat fruit. Or is that only fruit bats?”
“GET OUT!” Nightmare Moon bellowed, and dissolved into a tornado of blue mist that swirled around the throne room, sweeping up everypony in a dizzying whirlwind and dumping them roughly in a pile outside the ruined castle.
The doors slammed shut.
The six ponies untangled themselves, and sat around in a loose circle in front of the castle gates, licking their wounds.
Pinkie Pie had lost her wig and gavel, and her robe was torn and tangled around her feet. She squirmed and kicked to get it off, and said, “That was fun! Let’s do it again!”
Fluttershy glanced back at the doors, then drooped until her muzzle pointed at the ground. “Poor Nightmare Moon. She’s probably crying in there, all alone…”
“Yeeeeaah,” Rainbow Dash said, sarcastically. She brushed herself off and hovered up into the air. “More likely she’s storming around, thinking up ways to punish the next pony she sees.”
“Oh, can anyone guess?” Pinkie Pie asked. “She’s… eating candy! Am I right? Did I win?”
Applejack looked up at Rainbow. “You could check. It’s not like the room had a ceiling. Or walls, really.”
Rainbow stared at her. “Flying into line of sight of an angry, lightning-shooting queen of darkness does not sound like a really awesome plan.“
“We can’t just sit here until we starve,” Twilight said, getting to her feet and striking a confident pose. “It’s time for plan B!”
Twilight started pulling random items out of her saddlebags, searching for something. “I wrote up a bunch of alternate plans, in case getting her to listen to reason didn’t work,” she said, finally stopping as she found a small notebook. “Here it is! Plan B… grovel.”
Applejack snorted. “I think Rarity had that covered.”
Rarity sighed. “And it would have worked, eventually. Everypony knows that anypony would do a favor for a friend that they’d never do for a stranger, no matter how loud. But no, you had to stomp in like a buffalo and ruin everything!”
“Plan C,” Twilight said loudly, cutting Applejack off before she could retort. “Take Nightmare Moon on a tour of Equestria, so that she can see all the ponies she’ll be hurting if she keeps this up.”
“She already took a tour,” Rainbow Dash said. “You know those Shadowbolts she sent around to every city and town? Part of her tail.”
Applejack laughed. “So you’re not even a real Shadowbolt?”
“I’m the *only* real Shadowbolt!” Rainbow Dash snapped back. “I mean, me and Fluttershy.” She looked over at Fluttershy, who was still staring longingly at the castle. “Okay, yeah, just me.”
Twilight flipped to the next page. “Plan D: Convince Nightmare Moon to help by… oh my,” she said, blushing a bit. Applejack got up and looked over Twilight’s shoulder at her notes, but the notebook slammed shut before she could see what had left the purple unicorn so flustered.
“It’s no use,” Twilight said. “All these plans assumed we’d still have access to the Queen. I’m sorry, Miss Apple. If she won’t even listen to us, well – I just don’t know.”
“If she won’t listen to us,” Applejack said, “then we’ll *make* her listen to us.”
“Oh yeah?” Rainbow Dash said, zooming over to get in Applejack’s face. “You and what army?”
“Girls!” Rarity said, in an authoritative voice. “Calm down. You’re all looking at this in the wrong way.” Everypony looked at her, waiting for her to explain. “Nightmare Moon isn’t refusing to listen to us – she’s sent us away to carry out her will. We have permission – no, we have a *Royal Charter* -- to find a way to replace the sun!”
Pinkie Pie looked around for her gavel, but had to settle for jumping up and down. “You’re right! That’s what she said! ‘Find a way to live with the eternal night.’”
“I… don’t think that’s what she meant,” Rainbow Dash said.
“But we *have* to, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, softly.
Rainbow Dash sighed and shrugged. “If you say so…”
“Just think,” Rarity said, her enthusiasm undaunted, “Once we replace the sun and save the harvest, we’ll be the Most Important Ponies in all of Equestria!”
Applejack looked interested. “And if we’re the ones responsible for Equestria’s entire food supply, we could name our own price.”
Rarity frowned. “From those who can pay, perhaps.”
Applejack scowled. “Of course. I’m not going to let anypony starve. The rest can work off their debt.”
The two proud business ponies stared at each other. “It’s settled, then,” Rarity said. “Partners.” She spit on her hoof, and held it out towards Applejack.
Applejack rolled her eyes, but spit on her hoof and slammed it into Rarity’s. “Partners.”
“Give me a few minutes and I can draw up a preliminary contract,” Twilight said, searching frantically through her saddlebags for a quill and ink.
They reconvened at Pinkie’s rock farm, which wasn’t too far from Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle and Applejack were the last to arrive, since they’d stopped at the Ponyville library to check out every relevant book they could find. Cheerilee had been happy to help them sort through the collection, and while it wasn’t the largest library they’d ever seen, their lack of specificity meant they still ended up with a huge pile of hundreds of books on plants, light, weather, and magic. It was a good thing they’d brought the wagon.
They saw Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flying back and forth overhead with their own wagons as they made their way to the farm, and when they arrived saw that the pegasi had accumulated a huge pile of junk in front of the manor. “What in Celestia’s name?” Applejack wondered.
“Supplies!” Pinkie said, jumping out from behind the pile.
“Donations from the ponies nearby,” Rarity explained. “I told them that it was premature, but Rainbow Dash is so impatient! When you didn’t arrive with us, she dragged Fluttershy off to see what they could scavenge.”
“No pony can say no to a Shadowbolt!” Rainbow Dash said, screeching to a halt above the pile, and dumping a load of quill pens and a single smallish sofa onto the heap. The sofa started an avalanche, the entire pile settling into a new configuration. Twilight winced at the sound of glass breaking.
“More like, no pony can say no to free trash pickup,” Applejack said.
“Hey, all I know is we’re in a hurry to invent some replacement sun, right?” Rainbow Dash said. “So I figured, inventors make magic stuff out of junk, so bam. Junk. Now get to inventing.”
“I’m not an inventor,” Applejack said. “I hire inventors, after they invent something worth buying.”
“I… dabbled a bit with it,” Twilight Sparkle said, “although I was mostly working out theoretical magical enchantments. That’s less dependent on junk and more dependent on transcendental mathematics.” She smiled at Rainbow. “The quills might help.”
“Oh dear, you’re one of those enchanters?” Rarity said, disapprovingly. “Really, my dear – enchanting is much easier if you just let yourself *feel* the magic flowing through your horn…”
“Oh, I’m not actually an enchanter,” Twilight said. “I’m terrible at casting anything beyond simple levitation. Working out the formulas is a hobby of mine, though. It’s very relaxing as a mental exercise.”
“I’m an inventor!” Pinkie Pie said. “I don’t start with *junk*, though.” She looked at the pile appraisingly.
“Do you start with books?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking at the contents of Applejack’s cart.
“Nope!” Pinkie Pie said. “That’s two guesses!”
“So what’s with the books?” Rainbow asked.
“Background material,” Twilight Sparkle said, proudly. “If we split them up and look for anything relevant, we can probably work through them all in a few days.”
“Right. No,” Rainbow said, swooping over to grab Twilight under her shoulders. “How about this. I take Miss Bookworm here way up into the sky, and she can explode into a new sun.”
“Explode?” Pinkie Pie asked, instantly distracted from the pile of ‘supplies’, her eyes wide.
Rainbow Dash nodded. “It’s her special talent – just look at her cutie mark!”
“It’s just a random star pattern!” Twilight said, squirming in the pegasus’ surprisingly firm grip. “Every pony in Canterlot has a cutie mark like this!”
Pinkie Pie ignored her. “Oh, that’s so great! My special talent is exploding too!”
Everypony looked at her. Applejack eyed her flank. “How is three balloons a cutie mark for ‘exploding’?”
Pinkie grinned, and bounced towards her. “Balloons POP!”
“I… guess that makes sense,” Twilight said, trying to subtly disengage herself while Rainbow Dash was busy staring at the frighteningly enthusiastic pink pony.
“And if you fill them with a mixture of two parts hydrogen, one part chlorine, they pop *really loud*,” Pinkie Pie said. “Old family recipe. Everypony knows about hydrogen, but it’s the chlorine that gives it a kick.”
Rainbow Dash set Twilight down, and landed near Pinkie. “Are they still lighter than air?” she asked. “Because, if we could make a whole bunch of them, and send Twilight up with those, we’d get a *double* explosion. That’s *sure* to make a new sun.”
“No,” Applejack said. “No one’s exploding.”
“Oh come on!” Rainbow complained, waving her arms, “We have *two* ponies here that randomly have special talents for exploding? That can’t be a coincidence. It’s destiny.”
“We also have two unicorns who’ve dabbled in enchantment,” Rarity said, standing next to Twilight. “I’d prefer to have pony sacrifice be our last resort.”
“Still, no,” Applejack said. “No pony is sacrificing anypony, especially not Miss Sparkle. If you’re so keen to sacrifice somepony, Rainbow, you can sacrifice yourself. We could probably do just fine without you.”
“Um, duh. I don’t explode,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes.
Applejack nodded, and turned her back. “So another way that you’re useless. What a surprise.”
“Hey! Say that to my face!” Rainbow shouted, charging straight at the orange earth pony, only to take a buck to the face. “Ow!” she said, picking herself up off the ground, “It is *on*.”
“RAINBOW DANGER DASH!” came a loud angry voice from overhead. Every pony looked up to see Fluttershy glaring down at the other Shadowbolt, arms folded in front of her chest. “Are you starting fights again?”
“Ugh, Fluttershy!” Rainbow said, “I’m supposed to fight. We’re Shadowbolts! Elite Pegasus guards! Fighting is what we do!”
“Maybe that’s part of it, but we don’t fight our friends,” Fluttershy said, softly but firmly, staring Rainbow Dash in the eye. Rainbow tried to look away, but couldn’t break her gaze. “Now you apologize to Miss Apple, and I don’t want to see you starting any more fights!”
“Yes, MOM,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. She mumbled something incomprehensible in Applejack’s general direction.
“I didn’t hear that,” Applejack said. “Care to repeat that?”
“It’s not my fault if you’re deaf,” Rainbow Dash replied. She flew over to look down at the huge pile of books. “Are you really going to read all those?”
“I think that’s a good place to start,” Twilight Sparkle said. Her horn glowed as the cart full of books levitated up into the air and sorted itself into categories. “Rarity and I can take the books on enchanting, Pinkie Pie can read up on non-magical optics, and, well, explosives I suppose.” As she assigned reading, the books in question flew over to the ponies named. “Applejack – you said you were interested in the plant growth spells?”
“It seems like the most direct solution,” Applejack said, with a nod. A small stack of books landed in front of her.
“What about bioluminescent animals?” Fluttershy asked, quietly. “I, um, I brought some fireflies.”
“Put them over by the frogs,” Pinkie Pie said, poking at one of her books with a hoof.
Fluttershy frowned, and looked down. “That might not be such a good idea. Frogs and flies don’t really get along very well.”
“And Rainbow,” Twilight said loudly, to be heard over the side conversation, “you can read up on weather control.”
Rainbow Dash swatted the book that flew at her out of the way, and said, “Like I said, you eggheads can waste time with your books, but I’ve got better things to do. If you want to know about weather, I’ve got some friends in Cloudsdale that work in the weather factory. We can get it straight from the horse’s mouth.”
Twilight blinked. “That’s actually a good idea,” she said. “I guess you aren’t so useless after all!”
“Don’t you start!” Rainbow said, adding “Catch you later, dweebs!” as she darted off into the night.
The freckled orange mare and the large red stallion stared at each other, silently, at the gate to Sweet Apple Acres. Behind Applejack, and her cart full of gems, were the other members of her partnership, most of whom were looking worried and/or confused, although Pinkie Pie was making faces. Behind the stallion were a small yellow filly and an old green mare, whose stoic expressions were so far proving invulnerable to the pink pony’s assault.
Twilight Sparkle decided to make her own attempt. “Is that you, little Applebloom?” she asked. “You’re so much bigger than the last time I saw you!”
“I reckon that’s because you an’ ‘Miss Apple’ never come to the family reunions, ‘less they’re in Manehattan,” Applebloom replied.
“Is Mister Macintosh going to let us in?” Twilight asked. “We’re not going to hurt you or the farm, I promise.”
“Ayup,” the staillion said, speaking at last. “You’re not going to hurt us, because you’re not setting one hoof on my farm.”
“After all the bits I’ve loaned you over the years, it’s basically my farm by this point,” Applejack said, not breaking her stare. “Don’t make me regret leaving you in charge, Big Mac. I don’t like playing hard-ball with family.”
“What do you know about family?” Applebloom said. “You ran off an abandoned us ‘fore I was even born.”
“Wait just a Moon-damned minute! The Oranges are my family just as much as the Apples,” Applejack replied, lowering her head.
“Please don’t fight,” squeaked Fluttershy. “We can find another farm, right? Right?”
“Applejack,” Rarity said, “please. There’s no need to push the issue. I know you wanted to help them out because you feel a responsibility to your family, but if they don’t want to have their orchard bearing fruit again, we can pick some other farm to put back in business first.”
“You’re here to help the trees?” croaked the old green mare, shuffling painfully to Big Mac’s side.
“Yes,” Applejack said. “Save the trees, save the farm. Maybe even save the world.”
“Granny?” Big Macintosh said, looking confused as the old green mare started hitting him with her walker.
“Get out of their way, you damn foal!” Granny croaked. “If Applejack says she’s here to help the trees, then we’re not gonna stop ‘er. You know she couldn’t tell a lie to save her life.”
Once through the gate, they got to work unloading the gems in the front yard. “Okay,” Applejack said. “Twilight, you and Rarity get the gem array all hooked up and ready for activation. Fluttershy and Pinkie, go survey the orchards so we know just how large an area we need to cover. I’m going to go inside and catch up with my family, and explain the new pricing structure we worked out.”
“It always comes down to bits with you, doesn’t it,” Big Mac said.
Applejack ignored him. “Rainbow – for Nightmare’s sake, where’s Rainbow?”
“Um, she said she was going to check the clouds to make sure they weren’t too low,” Fluttershy said.
“Hmph,” Applejack grunted. “Well, as long as she’s back in time for the big reveal. This was all her idea, after all.”
“Oh man,” Rainbow Dash said, giggling to herself as she joined the others in the lounge, except for Twilight and Rarity who she’d left in the study to try to make sense of her latest ‘advice’. “This is great. Those eggheads are going to be in there for *hours*.”
“So you *don’t* actually know how to make real sunlight?” Applejack said, repeating Rainbow’s claim as she’d led the unicorns off.
Rainbow Dash gave her a look. “Everypony knows *that*. You make a light, that’s as bright as the sun. Easy peasy. I told them that for it to work properly, it had to be in the form of a rainbow.”
Fluttershy’s eyes went wide.
“Oh! Like a prism!” Pinkie Pie said. “Only in reverse! That’s really smart, Rainbow Dash!”
Rainbow blinked. “Well, duh. Of course it was smart, it was my idea. That’s not the funny part, though. I told them that to make a *real* rainbow, they needed to include all eight colors.” She sniggered to herself.
Applejack frowned. “Red Orange Yellow, Green Blue Purple. I guess you might count Indigo and… what?”
“Pink?” Pinkie pie suggested.
“It’d *hardly* be a good prank if I told them to make colors that *actually exist*,” Rainbow Dash said. “Like I said, they’ll be in there for *hours* before they figure that out. “
The door burst open, and Twilight Sparkle ran through excitedly, two enchanted gems floating over her head. “We did it!”
Rainbow Dash whirled around, then squinted at the gems. “I don’t think you did it right. Those are black and white.”
“Well, they’re not turned on,” Twilight said. “We had to extrapolate from your laymare’s explanation, and Rarity was *sure* you were just putting us on, but I did the math and it totally supported your claims! So I worked out a pattern, and – let me just show you.”
Twilight’s horn glowed brighter for a second as she triggered the spell Rarity had placed in the gem, and the white opal started to glow faintly pink. Pinkie Pie smirked at Rainbow.
“Um…” Rainbow said.
“This one’s super-red,” Twilight said. “It turns out it’s not a color you can see – the pink’s just a side effect – but tell me what you *feel*.”
Applejack closed her eyes, then opened them wide as she realized, “I feel warm!”
“Yes!” Twilight said triumphantly. “Super-red is the color that makes sunlight warm! Can you imagine if we’d left that out?”
“So what does the black one do?” Rainbow Dash asked, curious and a little scared.
“Oh, the extra-purple?” Twilight said, with a wide grin. “You’re going to love this one.” The black gem lit up with a faint indigo, and everything in the room started to *glow*.
While everypony was gawking at the strange black light, Fluttershy tapped on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, and led her out into the hallway.
“Wow, I can’t believe they actually did it,” Rainbow Dash said, impressed. “That was some totally awesome magic, though – I don’t even care if it ruined my joke.”
“I can’t believe you!” Fluttershy said in a quiet, but assertive whisper. “Telling them to make a rainbow?”
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash said.
“Nightmare Moon *hates* rainbows!” Fluttershy reminded her.
Rainbow Dash grimaced. She’d known Fluttershy would catch onto that part, so she had an explanation ready, but this was the part where she had to lie to her friend. “Nah, she’s over that. I’m the official representative of all rainbows, and I’m on *her* side now. Besides, what choice do we have? If we actually put little suns up everywhere she’d freak.”
Fluttershy still looked worried.
“Trust me,” Rainbow Dash said, patting the other pegasus on the back. “She’ll love this.”
“I guess as long as we don’t hit her in the face,” Fluttershy said, still looking worried.
On the far side of Sweet Apple Acres, a squadron of Shadowbolts flew in formation, Rainbow Dash in the lead. After a few passes over the dark hills, they settled into one particular tree, and – save for Rainbow – reformed into Nightmare Moon.
“This is it, your majesty,” Rainbow Dash said. “The very best spot in the whole orchard to watch us test our prototype without being seen.”
“And the others don’t know I’m here?” Nightmare Moon said. “You cannot lie to me, Rainbow.”
“They don’t know,” Rainbow Dash said. “They think this is just a test before they go public, but I figured you deserved to see it before any pony else, since we’ve been doing this all in your name.”
“And I’ll be able to see it from all the way out here,” she said, skeptically. “This is quite a distance from the farmhouse.”
“We’re working on a *big* scale, your majesty,” Rainbow Dash said. “Trust me, you’ve got a front-row seat.”
“And… check!” Twilight said triumphantly. “That’s the last of the connections on my checklist, and they all check out. We’re ready for ignition!”
Rarity smiled weakly – she’d been the one casting and recasting the weak but complicated test spell over and over and over again as they pieced together the matrix of enchanted gemstones, like the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle. “That’s good to hear, Twilight. Give me a few minutes to catch my breath, and I’ll… oh…” she collapsed into the dirt, closing her eyes as a cloud of dust rose around her.
Twilight smiled, looking fondly at the grey and purple unicorn sprawled out at the base of the crystal pyramid that now towered as high as the farmhouse. “I guess we’d better add ‘wait for Rarity’s magic to recharge’ to the list.”
“Or you could ignite them, dear,” Rarity said. “I haven’t seen you using your magic much, but I have seen you activate the gemstones. Besides, you’re the pony who worked out how to get so many separate enchantments to merge together into a seamless whole – the honor of seeing the first one light should be yours.”
“Eh heh,” Twilight said. “That’s okay. I know how much it means to you to be the one to do this. Besides,” she added, before Rarity could object more. “I’m not really a *magic* unicorn. Every time I try to cast a real spell, I just kind of freeze up. Or… worse.”
“Explode?” Pinkie Pie suggested. She and Fluttershy had come back with the orchard measurements half an hour ago, but Fluttershy was off looking for Rainbow Dash.
“No,” Twilight said, a bit too quickly.
“Reeeeeally?” Pinkie Pie asked, sidling up to Twilight and fluttering her eyelids.
“Well,” Applejack said from the porch, “what do we have here, Miss Sparkle?”
Twilight squeaked and leaped away from Pinkie Pie, standing at attention. “Nothing!”
“You know how I feel about consorting with the enemy,” Applejack said, frowning.
Twilight babbled, “I wasn’t consorting! I don’t even know how to be a consort. I mean, I sort of know the basics, but I’m not the conning sort!”
“And she’s certainly no pro,” Pinkie Pie said. “Are you done being a talky talky mctalkerson?”
“Ayup,” said Big Macintosh, standing beside his sister. “We came to an arrangement. I can’t say I’m happy with it, but she made me an offer I can’t refuse.”
Twilight looked shocked, then narrowed her eyes and stared at Applejack. “Oh, she did, did she.”
It was Applejack’s turn to look nervous.
“Does this offer involve him paying the rates we agreed on?” Twilight asked.
“It involves him paying rates,” Applejack said. “That we agreed on. Me and him.” She grabbed the contract out of her saddlebag, and Twilight levitated it over and looked at the details. They weren’t good. “Come on, Sweetie. You know I don’t like playing hardball with family.”
“I’m not sure this would even qualify as whiffle ball,” Twilight said, trying not to do the math for how long it would take to pay back the partnership’s investment in materials and labor under these terms. Maybe if she assumed a *negative* interest rate… still, Applejack had come through on the important point: Big Mac’s signature was there on the liability waiver. “But we’ve already got everything set up, and I’m pretty sure Rarity would gouge out my eyes with her horn if we told her to start taking it apart. If nothing else it’ll be good advertising.” Big Macintosh was looking *awfully* smug, so she added, “Assuming we don’t blow up the farm or something,” rolling her eyes at the notion of consuming the orchard in a fiery explosion.
Big Mac frowned. “You said this thing was safe.”
“It’s safe!” Twilight said. “I mean, as safe as something like it can be. It needs to project enough energy to replace the sun over your entire orchard, which means a pretty huge vortex of magic channeled through all the crystals. But everything’s designed to shoot the magic up into the sky – we might blow up the moon, but we probably won’t hurt the farm. Unless my math was *really* off.”
“Besides,” Pinkie Pie said, “if it starts going all haywire, you can always just kick it until it stops moving. That what you apple-buckers are best at, isn’t it?”
Rarity opened one eye to see Big Macintosh nod, and say, “Ayup.”
She pulled herself to her feet. “Mister Macintosh. I just spent the last hundred million years piecing together this monstrosity, and the hundred million years before that enchanting the gems for it.” She started walking towards the porch, one step at a time. “I’ll spend the next hundred million years dreaming about gems, which normally I wouldn’t mind, except that thanks to Miss Sparkle, the gems in my dreams are now linked by directed graphs and annotated with differential equations.” She stopped at the base of the porch, looking up at the massive stallion with eyes that could shatter diamonds, and hissed, “If you lay one hoof on my *masterpiece*, I will spend the next hundred million years making you regret it.”
“Okay!” Twilight said, with forced cheer. “Obviously Rarity is *raring to go*. Let’s light this candle and get out of here before somepony does something she’ll regret.”
There was the sound of flapping wings, followed by a little clink, and everyone looked over to see Rainbow Dash perched on top of the crystal pyramid, with Fluttershy hovering at her side. “Did I miss anything?” Rainbow asked.
“I mean,” she added, when she noticed everyone staring at her in horror, “obviously I didn’t miss the main event, since this pyramid here,” she tapped it with a hoof, “is just sitting there and *not* glowing all the colors of the rainbow.
There was a faint, shimmering glow from deep in the pyramid, barely brighter than the glow around Rarity’s horn, and then both guttered out. Rarity collapsed into the dirt, again. “It’s like trying to lift a mountain,” Rarity complained. “Even if I were fully rested, this might be beyond me.”
Twilight looked really nervous. Applejack glanced at her, and said, “We’ve got other unicorns we can call on. It’s a few hours to Manehattan, and a few hours to find them, and a few hours back.”
“Ponyville’s a lot closer than that,” Pinkie said. “They’ve got dozens of unicorns there! Maybe some of them are even awake, and know how to cast spells at crystals.”
“I don’t see why we’re all dancing around the issue,” Rainbow Dash said, hovering around Twilight Sparkle in a lazy circle. “Why are we talking about spending hours or days scouring the land for unicorns when we’ve got a perfectly good unicorn right here.” She tapped Twilight’s horn.
“I’m terrible with magic,” Twilight said, then sighed and added, resigned, “but I do know how to activate the spells, so I guess I can try…” She walked over to stand next to Rarity, and pointed her horn at the pyramid, then had a thought. “You might all want to get behind something.”
“In case you explooode?” Pinkie Pie asked, grinning, then took cover behind a barrel. Fluttershy squeaked and vanished behind a haystack. Rainbow Dash shot off, coming back with a small, dark tuft of cloud to use as a makeshift bunker, hovering right over Twilight’s shoulders.
“Standing back might help too,” Twilight said, looking up at the cloud, almost close enough to touch. Fluttershy squeaked again, and took cover behind a different haystack, over next to the barn, a hundred feet away.
“Nah,” Rainbow said, “If you’re going to explode, I want a good seat.”
Applejack walked over to stand next to Twilight, and put a hoof on her shoulder. “You’re not going to explode, sweetie.”
“Really?” Rarity croaked, settling into a sitting position at the base of the stairs. “That’s excellent, since I don’t think I shall be moving from this spot for a few hours.”
Twilight sighed, and lowered her head and cast the smallest, gentlest version of the spell to activate the gems. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. “Sorry. Failed. Next? No one? We’d better –“
“You can do better than that,” Applejack said, staring at her.
“But Miss Apple!” Twilight whined.
“Okay, bored now,” Rainbow Dash said, glancing nervously at the far end of the orchard where Nightmare Moon was, hopefully, still waiting. “Get *on* with it already!”
Twilight gritted her teeth, and tried to pour as much energy as she could into the pyramid. Her horn sparked a few times, and fizzled, just like it had every time she’d tried to cast something important, with everyone counting on her. She was back in the examination room, about to be sent back to magic kindergarten…
“You call that magic?” Rainbow Dash asked, mocking. “Stop playing around!” She kicked her cloud to send a little lightning bolt to zap Twilight in the butt.
Nightmare Moon was left sitting in the apple tree far longer than she’d anticipated, but she was far from bored. Boring was sitting alone, in her castle in the Everfree Forest, having driven away the last ponies who’d been willing to risk her temper. Showing up in town and watching the ponies scatter in terror before her had been amusing for a while, but honestly if you’ve seen one panic you’ve seen them all. Here, at least, she could cast a distance-vision spell and watch the ‘royal research team’ she’d apparently formed work to assemble a crystal structure of great complexity and unknown purpose.
When they started on the second layer of gems, it was obvious that Rainbow Dash had not been exaggerating when she’d said they were working on a massive scale. What were they trying to do, raise the sun? They would fail, of course, with Nightmare Moon’s grip on the moon as firm as ever, but the notion that -- *finally* -- some ponies were thinking to rebel against her filled her with anticipation. Perhaps she wouldn’t destroy them right away. Perhaps she would allow them – well, *some* of them – to escape and try again. Just to be sporting.
When they started on the third layer of gems, and she realized they were probably constructing a full pyramid, she started to get a little bored. The assembly was so slow… and when they finally finished, the grey unicorn started casting a tiny spell, over and over, almost as if she was – oh no. They weren’t. They couldn’t! They were. They were double checking all the connections. She would be here for hours.
By the time Rarity made her failed attempt to activate the pyramid, she was asleep.
The first thing she saw, when the distant sound of thunder startled her awake, was the pyramid lit up with rainbow light, being charged by a white-eyed unicorn in some sort of trance, surrounded by other ponies suspended in midair. The second thing she saw was a massive rainbow, shooting across the farm, hitting her right in the face.
So the first thing she *did* was leap across the orchard, screaming in anger and terror, and smash into the pyramid with all four hooves.
The world exploded.
Nightmare Moon awoke in a dusty, grey crater, and for an instant was certain that she’d been too late – that the Elements of Harmony had banished her to the moon again. But no, the moon was up there in the sky, shining down on her through the tattered remains of the cloud cover, burned away by the rainbow and the explosion.
Two flaps of her wings lifted her above the crater walls, to see the scene spread out below her. The trees were on fire. The house was on fire. The barn was on fire. The grass was no long on fire, because it had burned away instantly. The gems from the pyramid were shattered into glittering heaps of diamond dust, spread out in a starbust pattern from the edges of the crater, with a battered but unharmed pony at the end of each trail.
“You’ve failed!” she proclaimed triumphantly. “The Elements of Harmony had no effect! The night still endures!”
The ponies below began to stir. Applejack looked up at her with bleary eyes. “The what?”
“Ha! Feign ignorance if you like, baker,” Nightmare Moon taunted her. “I know you were the ringleader – what lies did you tell them to convince them your plan had any hope of success?”
“This is okay, this is okay,” Twilight said, looking around at the ruins. “Yes, Nightmare Moon kind of went crazy and smashed our rainbow projector, but this was all just a misunderstanding. We needed to build a couple thousand of them anyway, to illuminate all the farms…”
Nightmare Moon looked at the pathetic purple unicorn, her mane frazzled, her tail frazzled, her expression… somehow also frazzled. “You naïve tool, is that what your precious Miss Apple wanted you to think? Was she planning to use you as her patsy?”
“I want to be the patsy!” Pinkie Pie said, giggling. Her normally straight mane was tangled into a mass of curls. She gave a small bounce in place, sending glittery dust into the air around her. “Oooh… shiny…”
“I doubt you wanted anything more than a laugh,” Nightmare Moon said dismissively. “And what a joke it would have been – the great Queen defeated by her own cast-offs.”
Rarity looked like she was about to cry. “You – you –“ she stammered. “Those were all my gems. ALL OF THEM! And so much work, and effort – all wasted!”
Nightmare Moon felt no pity. “If you didn’t want to see your gems shattered, you shouldn’t have built them into a weapon against me!”
“So, uh,” Rainbow Dash said, floating up to be level with the angry Nightmare. “You didn’t like my joke, then?”
“I thought you were my friend!” Nightmare Moon cried.
“What’s a little rainbow to the face between friends?” the rainbow-maned Shadowbolt asked. “It’s what I was put on Equestria to do – and you have to admit this was a lot better than my pathetic performance at the Summer Sun Celebration.”
“I have to admit NOTHING!” Nightmare Moon bellowed, and lightning shot down from the sky, knocking Rainbow Dash out of the air. She turned to the last pony, “Fluttershy, how could you let her – you’re not Fluttershy.”
Big Macintosh looked up at her, and said, “Nope.”
“What did I ever do to you, to make you join these traitors?” Nightmare Moon asked him.
Applejack answered. “Aside from banishing our princess, taking away the sun so the harvest was ruined, blowing up his farm, and wrongfully accusing him of treason?”
“He wasn’t with us,” Rainbow said, from the ground, somehow still conscious. Maybe she was building up an immunity to lightning strikes. Not enough of one to actually move, but talking was an improvement over last time. “He was just standing too close when Twilight exploded.”
“Fine then, let no pony say that their Queen is not merciful,” Nightmare Moon proclaimed. “He may go. As may you all, except for you –“ she lifted Applejack up into the air with a tentacle of blue mist, “and you.” Rainbow Dash joined her. “I’m going to have *fun* with you two. You’re going to be an example to strike terror into the hearts of ponies for a thousand years to come! The mere mention of your names will send foals crying and shivering underneath their covers!” She cackled magnificently, accented with lightning and a swarm of bats. “The rest of you should run, before you see something that you can never unsee.”
“No,” Twilight Sparkle said. “I’m not letting you take them! I was the one who organized every pony, designed the projector, and even activated the enchantment! If you’re going to insist on punishing somepony for your own stupid paranoia then it should be me. Let Applejack go!”
“No, sweetie,” Applejack said. “You have to live. You’re the one who can save Equestria – you and Rarity. I didn’t do anything this whole time except get in your way, and pull the wagon.”
Pinkie Pie giggled.
“If you have to take out your anger on anypony, it should be me,” Rarity said. “You’ve destroyed my masterpiece, you may as well take my life as well and complete my utter ruin. You witch!”
Pinkie Pie snickered.
“What’s so funny?” Twilight asked.
“You’re all talking like you can swap places like this is some sort of magic moon goddess version of red rover,” Pinkie Pie said. “If you really think she has to punish somepony, shouldn’t you be screaming and running by now?”
“You’re not screaming or running,” Twilight pointed out.
“She promised us things we can never unsee, Twilight. NEVER UNSEE!” Pinkie Pie’s eyes went wide. “And now I’m way too curious to run, although I might scream once she starts. No promises.”
Nightmare Moon smiled cruelly. “Oh, there will be screaming. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!” More lightning crashed as she laughed. That was an easy spell, but one of her favorites.
“Stop it!” came a soft voice from behind her. “Please?” Fluttershy added, as she was grabbed by a strand of the nightmare’s tail and dragged over to float next to Rainbow and Applejack.
“Ah, my wayward Shadowbolt. Here I thought you’d done the smart thing and run away,” the mare of darkness said mockingly.
“Oh, I couldn’t run away,” Fluttershy said. “The barn was full of cows and pigs and they were so scared they were going to stampede and I had to calm them down, and get them outside because the roof was burning and the whole barn was full of hay. And then I saw that Applebloom and Granny Smith were trapped on the top floor of the farmhouse with the stairs on fire and I had to help them down so they wouldn’t get hurt! And Applebloom was crying and crying because there was a big explosion and her brother had been out front right where he might have gotten caught on it, so I rushed here right away because all my friends were here too.
“But it’s okay, because it looks like everybody’s doing okay,” Fluttershy said, “except you.”
“Except me?” Nightmare Moon asked, rearing back defensively. “Is that supposed to be a threat? I’m doing just fine. I’m in control here!”
“No,” Fluttershy said, “You’re not in control. You’re completely out of control and it’s gone on long enough!”
Nightmare Moon tried to protest, but she couldn’t say anything. She couldn’t even look away from Fluttershy’s angry eyes, which seemed to bore into her soul.
“Ever since you came back from the moon you’ve been nothing but a bully!” Fluttershy said. “Everypony’s been trying so hard to be nice to you but you don’t even care. You threaten them and declare yourself Queen but when anypony asks you to act like a Queen you complain that it’s too much work!”
“But dealing with petitioners is so annoying,” Nightmare Moon complained.
“Well, it’s part of being the leader!” Fluttershy insisted. “And now after we worked so hard to try to make a way to grow food with a rainbow, you won’t even let us. Do you know why we built this rainbow machine? Do you?”
“To… replace the sun?” Nightmare Moon squeaked.
“That’s right. To replace the sun so that you could have your eternal night. But it’s too late for that now,” Fluttershy said. “It’s getting colder and colder and the plants are getting sicker and sicker and everypony’s running out of food, and I think you know what you need to do. Isn’t that right?”
Nightmare Moon tried to drag her gaze away from Fluttershy’s stare, or to deny that what she was saying was true, but all she could say was, “Bring back the sun?”
“That’s right!” Fluttershy said, shifting position to put her forehooves on her hips. “You’re going to bring back the sun, and you’re going to do it right now!”
The moon fell out of the sky like its string had been cut, and a glow formed on the horizon.
Nightmare Moon looked a little smaller in the sunlight, not that it was able to touch her directly. Her star-studded mist of a mane and tail glowed within the pool of shadow surrounding her crumpled form, as she lay at the base of the crater, not moving except to breathe.
The others – aside from Big Mac, who’d headed off to reassure Applebloom, and check up on Granny Smith – whispered to each other from the crater’s edge. Before long, though, the conversation died down, and they ran off to frolic in the sunlight. For a second it looked like Rainbow Dash was going to invite Nightmare Moon to come along, but Fluttershy said something to her and they both flew off without a word. Still, it was enough to make the nightmare smile.
She closed her eyes for a while, opening them only when the sun’s warmth washed across her wings, to see Celestia standing next to her. “I take it I’m forgiven,” the radiant alicorn said.
“For what?” Nightmare Moon asked. “You were right all along.”
“Your friends said that it was the little yellow pegasus who talked you down,” Celestia said.
“Fluttershy? Yes, she was the spark.” Nightmare Moon admitted.
Celestia frowned. “Then the elements were involved?”
“Metaphorically, but that is always how they’ve been at their most powerful.” The black alicorn sighed, and folded her wings in against her body. “When I declared myself ruler of Equestria, the ponies here treated me with more kindness and generosity than I realized, or deserved. I was confused by their offerings, and infuriated that petitioners brought nothing but the same request – that the sun be raised – over and over and over. I thought they were defying me, when in reality it was simply the only request important enough for them to risk offending me.
“And then, when I fled to the Everfree Forest, thinking to be alone, some ponies – these six – were not content to let me be. They laughed in the face of my threats, and told me the truth even though it was not what I wanted to hear. They pushed themselves to the brink of exhaustion and despair in my service – in the service of my dream.
“And I misinterpreted it all as treason. I was about to destroy them, when Fluttershy’s stare forced me to realize the truth – that they’d been loyal all along. That they were only trying to be my friends.”
“A valuable lesson,” Princess Celestia said.
“It had better be,” Nightmare Moon replied. “Equestria suffered enough for it.”
“Friendship is sometimes hard, Luna, but always worth the price,” Celestia said gently.
Nightmare Moon squeezed her eyes shut at the mention of that name. “Don’t call me that. I don’t deserve it.”
Celestia was taken aback. “You really want everypony to keep calling you ‘Nightmare Moon’?”
The nightmare nodded. “It will serve as a reminder, perhaps as a form of penance. And besides,” she added, with a smile, “for some reason it makes everypony bring me candy.”
The angry mare of darkness towered over Rainbow Dash, her syrupy, seductive voice tinged with frustration. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”
“Stay back!” squeaked a tiny voice. Looking down, Rainbow saw Fluttershy’s yellow wings spread out in a futile attempt to shield her battered body from the vortex of stars and darkness that filled the now-empty room. Everypony else had fled.
“I have no wish to harm you, but I cannot allow such defiance to go unpunished. Get out of my way!”
Fluttershy cringed, but her wings stayed spread, and she didn’t move.
“The rainbow one *kicked* me. No pony should have been able to hit me!”
“I won’t let you take her away from me!” Fluttershy said, her wings quivering. Rainbow Dash tried to tell her to run, but she couldn’t speak.
“Then you shall share her fate!” proclaimed Nightmare Moon, and the night swirled, and took them both.
That fate was apparently to be imprisoned in a cage of enchanted ice at the top of a snowy mountain. Not for the first time, or even the twentieth, Fluttershy nursed Rainbow Dash back to health. From time to time, Nightmare Moon would swoop down upon them to shout about the world below, and rant about how it was ‘ruined’. Her old castle, in shambles. New techniques, customs, and terminology that were alien to her. The ‘blighted abomination’ that was the city of Manehattan.
The last straw was when she found out that Celestia had been steadily delegating more and more of her authority to ministers, nobles, and business ponies of all kinds. “She passed a law that stated that the Alicorn in charge of Equestria had to raise the sun every day,” Nightmare Moon fumed. “The representative from Canterlot told me that they were *suing* me! I knew she was a tyrant, and a coward, but her pettiness is what always infuriated me the most!”
“Tyrant?” Fluttershy asked, confused.
“Coward?” Rainbow asked. “Are you nuts? Celestia isn’t afraid of anything!” She threw herself at the bars, but didn’t have enough room to get up any sort of speed, and the enchanted ice seemed completely invulnerable in any case. “If she was here she’d fight to protect us from bullies like you. What did you do with our princess!”
Nightmare Moon laughed. “Is that how you think of her? You foals are so easy to fool. Celestia was afraid of everything – even her own shadow.” She whispered the last bit, fading to a black silhouette against the stars, with glowing blue eyes. “I did *nothing* to her. When she saw that I’d returned, she fled as far and as fast as she could manage.”
“She’ll be back!” Rainbow said, defiantly.
“No, she won’t,” Nightmare Moon said confidently, prowling around the cage. “Do you know why she ran? Do you know why she’s afraid to face me? It’s because she’d have to face the shame of having her thousand years of lies unmasked! To confess to betraying her own sister, and condemning her to a thousand lonely years of silence!”
“She had a sister?” Fluttershy asked, eyes wide.
“To admit that she’d erased me from the very histories, so that no pony would think to ask what had become of me!” Nightmare Moon wailed.
“You’re her sister?” Fluttershy asked, eyes going wider.
The Queen of Darkness stomped around angrily, trampling the snowcover beneath her metal-shod hooves. “And she blackened my name, so that when I finally return, after a thousand years, what do I find but an insulting reminder of her greatest betrayal, kicking me in the face!”
Rainbow Dash fell back into a sitting position on the hard icy floor of the cage. “No way,” she said.
“Yes,” Nightmare Moon said, settling into a calmer pose. She turned to look at Rainbow, and added, “Way,” after a few seconds, in case it was important.
“I’m – I’m –“ Rainbow Dash stammered. “I’m so sorry!”
“You’re a *joke*, little Rainbow,” Nightmare Moon said, calmly, but viciously. “Like the law against eternal night. Celestia planted you there, as a prank – a rainbow to the face.”
Rainbow Dash shot out of the damp, clinging clouds into the clear night sky, and let the memories wash away like the lingering tufts of vapor. She stared at the bright, empty moon, then started looking around to orient herself towards Cloudsdale and the Weather Factory.
And all those self-righteous, super-judgmental pegasi she’d grown up with, who’d kicked her to the curb just because she didn’t like following rules or showing up to work on time. This was going to suck.
“Oh, what’s the point? Nightmare Moon said it, I’m a joke. She doesn’t need me anymore,” Rainbow Dash said. She picked a random direction, and headed off for the middle of anywhere but here. “And neither does Fluttershy.”
That lasted for about ten minutes, before Rainbow Dash got bored. Imagining her new life in anywhere but here kept coming back around to the lack of sunlight, heat, food, friends, and Fluttershy.
“No!” Rainbow said, stopping in midair. “To hay with that! So what if I’m a joke? I *like* jokes. Jokes are funny. HA HA HA HA HA!” Lightning crackled from the clouds beneath her. “I’ve been going about this all wrong, trying to ‘help’. I didn’t get my cutie mark for helping, that’s for sure.”
The best part was that she didn’t even have to talk to those losers in Cloudsdale. All they’d know is how to help.
