Derpy Hooves trotted uneasily through Canterlot, her derped eyes scanning the land around her warily. The dark sky and full moon casting darker shadows among the nearly abandoned capital city made it look like the scene of something awful.
And something awful had happened there. It had been a year since Nightmare Moon had returned on the longest day of the thousandth year after the stars aided in her escape from the moon, and she had defeated Celestia, banishing her elder sister to the moon. And now everypony knew that Celestia and Nightmare Moon were related, and they had all heard about how Celestia had mistreated Nightmare Moon when she was Luna. Some ponies even began to believe that Nightmare Moon was right to seek revenge, and pledged themselves to her. They called themselves the Night Guard.
Nightmare Moon had taken the Elements of Harmony after the sixth Element had been revealed, but before they could be used against her. She cast the six ponies who had been trying to defeat her to the moon to hang out with Celestia. She kept the Elements locked away in the castle, which had and was still undergoing some major renovations to accommodate the new ruler of Equestria. Ponies fled Canterlot, wanting to stay as far away from the cruel pony as possible.
After moving to Canterlot with her friends to keep an eye on Nightmare Moon, Derpy had grown wary of Nightmare Moon, just like every sensible pony. She found work as a mail pony, and as she was able to deliver things to the palace, she could get past the Night Guard and into the castle, where she could snoop around or let her friends in to snoop around. She sometimes held back mail from the palace for days until she had so much that no one pony could carry it all at once, so she would employ Doctor Whooves to help her, as he was just an earth pony with no immediate alarming traits, and it made it seem more plausible.
Nightmare Moon had taken all the unicorns in the city into her school of magic, just like Celestia’s old one, but this one taught them dark magic and made them loyal to one pony and one pony only: her. Derpy’s friends Lyra Heartstrings and Vinyl Scratch were forced to enroll, and they quickly rose the ranks, only pretending to be everything Nightmare Moon might want in a unicorn apprentice.
Bon Bon and Octavia, Derpy’s two earth pony friends besides Doctor Whooves, were also able to find jobs that got them inside the castle. Bon Bon worked in the kitchens and volunteered to take the food around the palace to the ponies they were meant to go to. Octavia was one of Nightmare Moon’s favorite musicians, at Octavia’s expense. She was forced to play songs that she didn’t like at all, or that she felt needed a few changes, but Nightmare Moon wouldn’t allow it. Octavia became boring and forgettable when she was in the ruler of Equestria’s presence, and as such, heard a lot of private conversations that none of her friends managed to hear.
They were trying to find out as much as they could about Nightmare Moon, such as how to stop her, or what her weaknesses were. Derpy knew that there had to be some ponies that hated her tyrannical rule as much as they did, and wanted to put a stop to it. But so far, no luck.
Derpy reached the palace and stopped before the Night Guard. Three of them were positioned outside the gate, and all three of them were bat ponies.
Nightmare Moon’s original guard on the moon had been composed of bat ponies, and her new guard wanted to fit in. So Nightmare Moon had cast a magic spell to turn everypony in her guard into a bat pony. So now you couldn’t tell if the bat pony in front of you had always been a bat pony or if it was something new.
“State your name and business,” the bat pony in the middle growled.
“Derpy Hooves,” she said. “I’ve got a couple letters and a package for our wonderful ruler Nightmare Moon.” She tried hard to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, but a little must have slipped through, because the bat pony who had spoken to her narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
“Show me these letters,” he demanded, and Derpy shrugged, handing him the stuff she was supposed to deliver. He turned the letters over and squinted at the return address.
“I suppose these are fine,” he grumbled. “I would open them, but Her Highness doesn’t like her privacy being disturbed.” He turned his attention to the package and shook it experimentally. He pulled out a small device that Derpy knew was a magic detector. The bat pony waved the magic detector over the box, and the little screen on it glowed red with a BZZ. He sighed and put it away.
“Alright, you’re clear to go. Just make it quick. Don’t do any funny business while you’re in there.” He didn’t look happy about it, but he stepped aside and allowed Derpy to pass.
“Oh, and I usually fly out, just to let you know,” Derpy said. “It just makes it easier to get to my next job. Would you like a muffin?” She reached under her wing and pulled out a freshly baked muffin. The bat pony rolled his eyes and muttered, “Just get on with it.” Derpy shrugged.
“Suit yourself.” She tossed the muffin into her mouth and proceeded into the castle, where she immediately began snooping around, finding the darkest passages and crawling along quietly, pressing up against the wall and flapping her wings to rise into the air whenever she heard somepony coming. But she eventually found what she was looking for.
Nightmare Moon was in a chamber where she kept her most valuable things. Derpy peeked through the crack in the doorway, grateful for her derped eyes, as they really helped in times like this. She saw Nightmare Moon staring at six gems, all unique shapes. One was a six pointed star, one a butterfly, one a balloon, another an apple, another a diamond, and still another a lightning bolt. Nightmare Moon pulled them all out of a chest and set them on the floor in front of her. However, the star, the largest of the six, started to glow pink, and it rose up off the ground and flew towards the doorway, gently knocking against the door as if it wanted to get to the other side. Derpy let out a small noise of panic and hurriedly backed away into the shadows, ducking inside a supply closet. She saw the pink glow fade from the room across the hall, and Nightmare Moon peeked out into the hallway, the star gem firmly held in her hoof.
“Night Guard!” she snapped, using her magic to bring the other five gems and the chest to her. She dropped all six gems inside and closed the chest with a snap just as two bat ponies rounded the corner. “Take this into the Everfree Forest and hide it in the castle ruins across the river. Don’t ask questions, just do as you’re told!”
The two bat ponies nodded, took the chest, and hurried away. Nightmare Moon glared after them and stormed off. Derpy waited until her breathing had calmed down before following. That was the closest she had ever come to being discovered. Somehow, someway, that magical gem had reacted to her, had wanted her. But that wasn’t the biggest shock.
When the pink gem had begun to glow, where the rays of magical pink light fell upon Nightmare Moon, Derpy thought she didn’t see the tyrannical ruler she had come to associate with that pony.
Instead, she saw somepony else. Somepony that Nightmare Moon might have been, and possibly could be again.
Derpy finished the rest of her mail route in a daze. She finally reached her own house that she shared with her friends and slipped inside as quietly as possible. Doctor Whooves was asleep on the couch, an open tub of ice cream melting on the floor with a spoon lying beside it, the radio playing a news broadcast about some big magical discovery. Derpy smiled. She picked up the tub of ice cream and the spoon, taking them into the kitchen, dropping the spoon in the sink and the ice cream tub back in the freezer. She cleaned up the spilled ice cream as quietly as she could before retreating to the stairwell. If she listened, she could hear the faint sound of a cello and knew that her other friends would be home as well.
The house had two bedrooms: one for the girls, and one for the only stallion in the house. It was just as well. Nopony wanted to share a room with the Doctor in case one of his crazy science experiments went crazily wrong and blew up half said pony’s belongings, and all the projects he was tinkering with cluttered the room so much that there was hardly any room for one bed, let alone two or more.
Derpy glanced inside the room as she passed it. Like always, the door was slightly ajar, with the Doctor’s most recent project sitting in the middle of the room with a bunch of tools surrounding it. She knew the Doctor missed his laboratory in Ponyville, but he had given it all up to move to Canterlot with his friends. Derpy felt a pang of guilt and turned away before her eyes started to water. Her friends had given up so much to move to Canterlot with her, and she couldn’t help but feel responsible.
Her other four friends, all mares, were in their room. Vinyl Scratch and Octavia were working on a new song (once the whole Nightmare Moon thing was over they wanted to start a band of some sort), and Lyra and Bon Bon were talking quietly together. They were scared. Everypony was scared.
“Hey,” Bon Bon said, looking up. “Did you see anything?”
Derpy remembered what had happened at Nightmare Moon’s palace and shook her head, still freaked out by the whole thing. “Nothing out of the ordinary,” she said shakily. Lyra tilted her head at her.
“Are you sure?” she asked, leaping gracefully off her bed and trotting over to Derpy. “Because you look like something spooked you out.”
“Well, I did see Nightmare Moon try to do something with these six gems,” Derpy said slowly. “It probably didn’t work, because she put them in a chest and had her Night Guard take them into the castle ruins in the forest or something. I’m not sure.” She avoided Lyra’s gaze. The green unicorn had a way to tell if somepony was lying just by looking at them.
“Six gems?” Doctor Whooves asked from the doorway. He must have just woken up, because there was an imprint of the texture of the couch on his cheek, and he blinked the sleep wearily from his eyes. “Were they all different shapes?”
Derpy tilted her head at him. How did he know? “Yes,” she said. “One was a star, one was a butterfly, one was a balloon, one was a diamond, one was an apple, and one was a lightning bolt. Nightmare Moon must have been trying to do something with them, but it didn’t work. Now the gems are in the old castle ruins in the Everfree Forest.”
“The Everfree Forest?” Vinyl Scratch asked in a hushed voice. “I don’t think anypony who goes in there ever comes out.”
“Twilight Sparkle went in,” Octavia argued. “She and her friends went in, and they came out, but then Nightmare Moon caught up with them.”
“So, in other words, nopony who goes in comes out for long.” Vinyl Scratch amended, glaring at her friend.
“Do you think those gems could be used to defeat Nightmare Moon?” Bon Bon asked Lyra, but it was Doctor Whooves who answered.
“We can if they are what I think they are,” he said, hurrying into his room and coming back with a book. He dropped it on the floor, and it opened to a page that must have been the one he wanted to find. The five mares leaned in close, trying to read the tiny print.
“The Elements of Harmony?” Vinyl Scratch asked skeptically, scrutinizing the page. “What are those?”
“Don’t you know how to read?” Lyra said exasperatedly. “Says here that the Elements of Harmony ‘are the only known things in existence with enough power to defeat a magically corrupted pony, such as Nightmare Moon. They originally were used by Cel-’”
“Sh!” Bon Bon hushed as she shoved her hoof into Lyra’s mouth. “You know the name’s taboo!” she scolded after a few moments of hushed silence. “Anypony who says the old ruler of Equestria’s name is considered a rebel and is immediately sent to the moon to hang out with the pony whose name they just said!”
Lyra glared at her, saying, “I knew that,” but Derpy could see the relief in her eyes that her friend had stopped her. She continued reading.
“‘ They were originally used by You-Know-Who, who banished Nightmare Moon to the moon’ - well, isn’t that poetic - ‘before locking them away in what remains of the the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest.’” She looked up. “So, hypothetically, if we found them, then we could use them to defeat Nightmare Moon and bring back Cel - sorry, You-Know-Who.”
“Everfree Forest,” Doctor Whooves mused. “Well, won’t that be exciting.”
“Excitingly dangerous,” Vinyl Scratch said excitedly. “I’m in!”
“Wait, this is too crazy,” Bon Bon insisted. “Nightmare Moon’s been around for nearly a year, and she’s centuries old, although she looks surprisingly good for her age, but that’s beside the point. Nopony can defeat her because anypony who tries gets banished to the moon!”
“But these are the Elements of Harmony,” Vinyl Scratch insisted. “They can defeat Nightmare Moon once and for all! Send her back to the moon where she belongs and bring back our old ruler! This is the chance we’ve all been waiting for - shouldn’t we take it before it leaves, and we wish we did?”
Derpy was quiet, and it didn’t go unnoticed. Doctor Whooves turned to look at her with concern on his face.
“You know something,” he said, studying her derped eyes. “Something you’re not telling us. What is it?”
Derpy blew a frustrated breath, but her heart was warmed every time the Doctor noticed something that her friends missed. She would never admit it, but sometimes, she wondered to herself if she and the Doctor were more than just friends.
“Well, I guess I didn’t tell you the whole story,” she said. “When I saw the gems, it was like one of them sensed me. It glowed and flew over to the door and almost blew my cover. But more than that, I think I saw Nightmare Moon turn into something else, somepony else, maybe the pony she was before she turned evil. Remember the old stories?” One of Nightmare Moon’s first acts as ruler of Equestria was banning any and all retelling of the old stories about Celestia and the Elements of Harmony, but Derpy grew up reading those stories and hearing about the defeat of Nightmare Moon, and Doctor Whooves had managed to smuggle a few of the stories away. “It says that Nightmare Moon used to be You-Know-Who’s younger sister. Maybe we can bring her back!”
“Derpy, sweetheart, that would be wonderful,” Octavia saidi quietly. “But let’s focus on the crisis at hoof. We should at least try to bring her back, I’m not saying we shouldn’t. But maybe, at first, we should focus on getting the Elements and bringing back Celestia?”
There was a collective gasp, and Octavia realised what she had just said. She clamped a hoof over her mouth, but it was too late.
A dark cloud of blue glittering smoke began to gather outside the window, and the six ponies heard something knocking on the door downstairs, none too nicely.
“You know what? Everfree Forest is actually sounding pretty good right now,” Bon Bon said in a small voice.
Derpy nodded. “Let’s go. If we’re going to go down, we’re going down doing something.”
Author's Note
Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!
I didn't know whether to call her Vinyl Scratch or DJ Pon-3, so I just went with the one that was easier to type.
