Chapter 2 The Pink Side of the Moon

Twilight did not manage to get rid of Fluttershy by the time she reached the Ponyville Library. To make matters worse the pink pony from earlier, who introduced herself as Pinkie Pie, had thrown a ‘'Welcome to Ponyville” party in the main room of the library. After mistaking hot sauce for a drink Twilight retired to bed early, her attempts to research were thwarted.

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All too soon it seemed for Pinkie that the night was over and it was time to head to the town hall to see Princess Celestia raise the sun for the Longest Day. As she pronked to the town hall (after cleaning up, let no pony say that Pinkie wasn't a responsible party pony) she saw Twilight Sparkle drag herself in the same direction, worried expression on her face. Pinkie didn't like this, but there wasn't anything she could do about it, maybe seeing Celestia would cheer her up.

“Hey, Mr. Narrator?” Pinkie asked suddenly.

Yes?

“I know that something is going to happen and I also know that Twilight isn't happy right now. And you know me, I like to make ponies smile. Is there anything I could do to make her smile? I know that this is your story, but she is really sad right now.”

Well you see Pinkie, she is worried because she thinks that something bad is going to happen and she wanted to do research to stop it, however, before she could she got told to oversee the preparations for this festival. What you can do for her is be supportive and be a friend. She is going to need a lot of friends soon, especially one that can make her smile.

"Aren't you worried that you are going to upset your plans for writing this story?”

No, I'm not. I knew you would be a wild card when I started. So go be you, don't worry about me, I know how to IMPROVISE!

“Oke dokie lokie!” Piniky gave a mid air salute and continued on to pronk to the town hall. She was on a mission from… well not God, the writer I suppose. Yeah I knew what I was getting into with Pinkie.

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Everything was going wonderfully. The pre prepped food was ready and already being enjoyed. The oil and stoves were heating up for the next batch of goods. All the Apples were taking a quick break from cooking and manning the stands to attend the Sunrise Ceremony. Seeing Celestia was an important thing and Applejack was not going to miss this one bit.

She found herself in the middle of the room shoved by the crowd. Someone jostled her and she slammed into a hard surface.

“Ow!” Applejack exclaimed, turning to see what she had been shoved into. Nothing important, she hoped. It was just Rainbow Dash. “Goodness girl, you sure are bony ain't ya?”

“What?” came the response. “Oh, hey AJ. I gotta say, those apple fritters are almost as awesome as I am. A little dense though, I don't think I can take off if I eat too many of those.”

Applejack’s only response was to cast a sideways glance at Rainbow Dash. There was something not quite right about that pegasus, Applejack thought. She couldn't prove anything of course, but there was always this feeling in the back of her mind. Whatever, I should just focus on the event. It's what I came here for.

She saw Rarity walk up on the stage to get ready to open the curtain to reveal Celestia once Mayor Mare's speech was done. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Twilight Sparkle looking very anxious about something. Something was wrong.

“And without further ado, I present to you… Princess Celestia!" Behind the podium Mayor Mare swept her hoof in a gesture at the curtain as the choir of birds played. Rarity pulled the ropes to open the curtain to reveal an empty stage.

Murmurs of ‘huh?’ and ‘where's the Princess’ swept the crowd. Among them Applejack heard a singular ‘Oh no.’

“She's not there!” Rarity called out as she trotted back out from behind the stage. “She's gone!”

The murmurs changed to shock, and then fear as somepony pointed upwards and cried out, “What's that?” A deep blue mist swirled in through the open skylights before landing on the raised stage and condensing into a tall figure. AJ's breath hitched momentarily when the figure appeared, but relaxed slightly, this wasn't her. This figure was black, and tall, as tall as Celestia, and was an alicorn just like her, having both large wings and a tall horn carved with a spiral. That is where the similarities ended. The mystery mare, AJ assumed it was a mare, had blue, slitted eyes, pointed fangs, the wings were sharp curves and her mane and tail were blue ethereal mists that floated about her. The mare also wore blue armor, the same color as her mane.

“Who are you and where is the Princess?” Mayor Mare yelled at the alicorn. Rainbow Dash leaped into flight to attack this mystery pony, but Applejack managed to grab her tail before she could get too far.

“Woah Nelly, settle down RD!” she tried to yell, but it came out as mumbles. I wish I had fancy telepathy magics to talk to ponies or something in times like these.

The alicorn laughed, the sound somehow echoing in the hall despite the many decorations. “Has it been so long that the day loving little ponies have forgotten my face? Have I been gone so long that my rightful place has been forgotten by everyone but the stars?” Applejack considered herself to be brave, but brave did not mean that she was foolish. A shiver ran down her back at the words, this was bad.

“I know who you are,” a voice called out.

All eyes in the hall turned toward Twilight Sparkle. She took a step forward as the ponies surrounding her moved away from her. No pony wanted to be in the splash zone should this alicorn suddenly attack this foolish unicorn.

“Then say it,” came the response. “Tell my little ponies who I am.”

“You are Nightmare Moon, the alicorn that was banished to the moon for a thousand years for wanting to bring eternal night!” Twilight looked a little apprehensive at the last bit.

Instead of blasting her, Nightmare Moon laughed. “It seems I was right, only the stars remembered me. And now I have come to finish the job. Your precious princess is locked away and now,” she took a breath, “THE NIGHT SHALL LAST FOREVER!” Many ponies collapsed covering their ears, and the closest to the stage were blown back a few hooflengths. Rainbow was knocked out of the air and on to Applejack.

Mayor Mare was the first to react. “Guards! Restrain her! She knows where the Princess is!” The hidden guards that Applejack hadn't seen leaped into action. The pegasus guards taking flight were hit by a beam of magic that sent them flying into the unicorns that were about to cast stun spells. The earth pony guards were picked up and tossed through the building's walls with magic.

“Get off RD! You're heavier than Big Mac! What have you been eating?” Applejack shoved Rainbow Dash off of herself. Rainbow took this moment to take to the air and charge at Nightmare Moon.

Nightmare Moon regarded the charging pegasus before slapping her aside with a shield. “You will always remember this night as the night you almost caught Nightmare Moon… wait no. You remember this night as the last night you ever had, for it shall last forever!” She whirled into mist once more and spiraled out of the window, Rainbow Dash somehow in hot pursuit.

Applejack glanced around at the ruined town hall, one of the spells had hit a lantern and started a fire that several ponies were trying to put out. A few guards were getting up, but AJ could tell from this distance that several had legs sticking at unnatural angles and one had their head backwards. Twilight Sparkle was nowhere to be seen.

Pinkie pronked by with an unusually serious look on her face. “Grab Rarity and head back to the library, I'm going to fetch Fluttershy and meet you there.”

AJ had no reason to wonder why, but if Pinkie was this serious about something it was no laughing matter. She had to get to the library.

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Rarity blinked and opened her eyes, what happened? Oh yes, she had fainted when that beastly Nightmare Moon had shouted like that. Why was she now in the Ponyville Library of all places? And what was that awful thumping?

“I told you already, I'm not a spy!” That was the voice of the inspector, Rarity hadn't managed to get her name. She looked up from where she had been laid by somepony. The purple unicorn was over by a bookshelf trying to find something. Rainbow Dash was trapped in a floating deep pink forcefield that she was throwing herself against trying to reach the unicorn.

“Oh yeah? Well you were acting shifty before the celebration and it's pretty convenient that you knew who Nightmare Moon was,” Rainbow retorted.

“Because I came across a prophecy foretelling her return. Now I'm trying to find a way to defeat her,” replied the unicorn.

“Calm down RD,” Applejack called out from where she had been standing beside Rarity. “She's telling the truth, Twilight is not our enemy.”

Had Applejack moved her? Rarity shuddered at the thought of unwashed farm hooves touching her.

The library's doors slammed open and Pinkie Pie trotted in leading Fluttershy. “Oh good Rainbow, you're here!” Her smile still in place despite the literally dark state that the country was in. “How can I help, Twilight?”

“What?” Twilight seemed taken aback by the offer of help. “Well, when I read about the first defeat of Nightmare Moon, the book made mention that Celestia used something called the Elements of Harmony.” At this point Rainbow Dash had stopped throwing herself at the walls of her bubble prison and was sitting with a thoughtful look on her face. Rarity wished she had a camera to get a permanent record of this rare event.

“Why am I here?” Rarity asked, sitting up on the couch she had been placed on. “For that matter, why did you bring Fluttershy? I doubt either of us would be helpful in defeating a mad alicorn of myth.”

“I don't know,” Pinkie responded, “Pinkie sense™ I guess. Anyways, Twilight, is this the book you are looking for?” She reached up and grabbed a thick book off of one of the shelves.

“The Elements of Harmony; by B. Lightning." Twilight read the cover before turning to Pinkie, “where did you find this?”

“It was under ‘E’ for Element! I saw it when I was cleaning up the afterparty you didn't go to.” The last little bit was underlined by a pouty lip.

“What? That's not how the Dewey Decihoove system works! Who's the librarian here anyway?”

“Nopony at the moment,” Applejack spoke up. “They got fired. But what about those elements? I have a feeling that those might be our only shot at success at the moment”

Twilight opened the book and started skimming through the introduction. Completely forgetting about Rainbow Dash, she dispelled the forcefield holding Rainbow Dash who promptly fell to the floor. Rarity got up and wandered over to the group to look at the book.

“It says here that there are six elements of harmony, but the author lists only five of them; honesty, laughter, kindness, generosity and loyalty,” Twilight read to the group. “However, it does say that the sixth will appear when united by a spark.”

“Is that a picture of them?” Rarity pointed at a picture of Princess Celestia with five gems floating around her. “If we get close I can find them. I developed a gem locating spell when I was a little filly.”

Twilight turned the page. “And here it says that after the banishment of her sister, the elements stopped responding to Princess Celestia. Later they were hidden in the Castle of the Two Sisters, which is now located in the Forever Free Forest,” Twilight looked up at the sound of a couple gasps. “What?”

“That forest ‘tain't natural,” Applejack explained. “The plants grow wild and clouds form and move by themselves.”

“Yeah, we spend more time keeping wild weather from escaping the Everfree than we do maintaining the weather from Cloudsdale,” Rainbow Dash added.

Fluttershy spoke up, “It's Pan, the Steward of the Wild. It's a holy area to him, the last truly Wild spot anywhere in the Realm.” She shrank in a little on herself at the looks from the others. “I'm one of his devotees,” she practically whispered.

“And we have our guide!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing around the group. “We have a full adventuring party! Let's get going!”

“We?” Twilight questioned. “I'm going by myself, I might take Fluttershy if she knows the way. I would take Spike, but he's still asleep.”

“As if!” Rainbow Dash interjected. “You're about to embark on a dangerous journey through the wildest place in Equestria and face down an alicorn, you need help.”

“I don't know how you plan on finding and wielding the Elements, but I don't think you will be able to do it by yourself. Celestia herself was only able to wield all of them only once,” Rarity pointed out. Twilight will need all the help she can get, I might be able to provide some assistance.

Twilight sighed in defeat,“Ok, Fluttershy, can you lead the way?”

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As the group approached the edge of the Everfree Twilight took stock of the situation. I'm about to enter a spooky forest with five complete strangers at night, and we are going to try and find a mythical weapon to defeat an evil alicorn. All on the word of one source material that we couldn't even fact check. This is madness!

“No, silly!” Pinkie bounced beside her. “This is Equestria!”

“Did I say that outloud?” Twilight asked.

“It was sort of a mutter, but I'm great at interpretation,” Pinkie responded, “especially when it leads into jokes!”

“This way,” Fluttershy called from up ahead beside a small wood and stone pedestal.

As dark as it had been outside at least it had the moon and stars to provide light. Inside the forest there was no light, the tall trees with looming branches blocked the dim light. Twilight and Rarity had resorted to lighting their horns with a simple light spell to cast some light. Applejack had shown forethought and had grabbed a lantern before they left the library as well as a length of rope.

Twilight had known that the forest had hills and gullies, but the trees and distance had hidden how steep the hills could be. After a little bit of walking the group found the trail winding up the side of a cliff that took them out over the top of the trees.

“Over there,” Applejack called out, pointing into the distance. “Is that it? it looks like it’s on the other side of this here valley from us.”

Twilight turned off the light from her horn hoping to see if she could peer into the moonlight mist. After half a minute of squinting Twilight decided that she needed better lighting. “There’s something there, but I can't make out what it is. Stand back everypony I'm going to shoot a flare spell in that direction to see if I can light it up. But it might attract Nightmare Moon.”

Twilight lowered her head with her eyes closed and horn starting to spark as she charged it. She technically didn't know any flare spells, as those were mainly used by sailors and explorers, but she did know a few sunlight and firework spells, the difficulty was tying a bright enough sunlight spell to a just powerful enough propulsion matrix from a firework spell. Not too difficult for Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia and member of the Solar Sisters.

The spell shot from her horn across the valley. As it approached the half way point the spell’s second stage fired it into an arc and triggered the sunlight spell. It flew in a slow trajectory over the derelict ruins of a castle that was built into the base of the opposite ridge. The sunlight spell also lights up half the valley before winking out into nothing.

“Well,” Rarity spoke up, “We know where it is, now we just have to get to it from here.”

“The most direct way would be down the cliff or to fly,” Fluttershy said, “But only two of us can fly and I don't know how we are getting down.”

“That's easy!” Pinkie pie exclaimed, “We're about too. Twilight's spell is about to cause a rockslide!”

“WHAT?” everypony exclaimed.

“How do you know?” Twilight asked, “There was no shock wave from that spell.”

“That's easy, Twilight, I'm an earth pony who grew up on a rock farm. This cliff face has a layer of corrupted magic gems that got overcharged by latent chaos and magic. Bada Bing, Bada, Bo-” the path the ponies were on gave way.

Twilight found herself sliding down the side of a scarp where tons of rock had just been. Huh, she thought, Pinkie was right there is a layer of gems intersecting with this fracture. Her rational self was being thoroughly shaken by her outside self and she was dimly aware she was screaming. What are you doing? We are about to fall off a cliff and you are analyzing statements? Scrabble, recall that teleport spell you learned two years ago , DO SOMETHING OR WE DIE!

A pair of orange hooves grabbed one of Twilight's flailing legs just as she was about to go sailing over the edge. She looked up to see Applejack with her hind legs firmly planted on the scarp while holding onto Twilight. “It's okay, sugarcube, I got you,” Applejack said in a calming tone. “It's going to be alright, just hold on for a tiny bit.” She looked past Twilight, “whew, it's a lot taller than I thought it was.”

A few seconds later the sound of trees snapping and booms of rocks hitting a forest floor reached their ears. Twilight estimated, 8 seconds from start of fall to sound of hitting, if she divided the distance formula by speed of sound in air, moved the variables. “Its about 250 feet,” she whispered.

“I'll take your word for it,” Applejack chuckled. “Now here's the thing, I can't haul you back up, you wouldn't be able to get a grip on this. So I want you to trust me here, in a few seconds, I'm gonna drop you.”

“What?” Twilight practically screeched, “I'll die!”

“Calm down, sugarcube, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are going to catch you,” Applejack spoke in calm tones. “I want you to plant your back hooves against the cliff and push out from it to give them the best possible chance. I am trusting you to be right about the elements of Harmony, and I want you to trust me that I am being honest with you right now.”

Twilight nodded, it made sense, she hadn't heard Rarity or Pinkie scream. They must have been caught and carried down to the bottom already. Applejack had to wait for them to come back. “Ok,” Twilight whispered. She hated the logical part of her brain sometimes, it ignored very life threatening situations. But then again the emotional part never really helped her make smart decisions.

“On three,” Applejack said, looking past Twilight and giving a small nod. “One… Two… Three!” Applejack shoved Twilight’s leg away as Twilight pushed as hard as she could against the cliff face and closed her eyes. For a few brief moments she was floating in mid air, her stomach tightened in preparation for hitting the ground and splattering.

Here lies Twilight the unicorn, she never learned how to fly.

forelegs wrapped around her barrel, under her forelegs. “We got you,” whispered a timid voice.

Twilight opened her eyes to find Fluttershy holding her hoof and a pair of cyan legs supporting her. Applejack was scaling down the sheer cliff face somehow finding hoofholds on the surface, bounding headlong towards the ground. “As if somepony as awesome as me or Fluttershy would drop you,” The slightly raspy voice of Rainbow Dash said from right behind her head.

In moments they were all on the ground catching their breath. “Honestly, that was a dreadful start,” Rarity sighed before adding, “but I don't think it could get much worse than falling off a cliff, it has to get better.”

Author's Note

Character Q&A: (ask any character a question in the coments below and they might respond here.)

Whew, getting into the adventure part. I really want to get through this to where the plot really goes off the rails that the show set. However, this is an important set up and reference for future revelations. Advice I once got, and now will adapt from academic to story, went along the lines of “mentioned once is world building, twice is coincidence, three times and it is important information.” That is highly paraphrased. Also, please forgive excessive geology and rock things, I'm majoring in geology in college and things like a rockfall lend a lot to authorial exposition. And finally a non Deus Ex Machina reason for Pinkie to know things, because she grew up on a rock farm.

So Pinkie's thing is the most like her show self except more. Yes this means that Pinkie and the Narrator (me) will have conversations, and she might even address you the reader, or take inspiration from any character Q&A's (Still no questions, the characters are wondering if you care about them....)

I hope you have enjoyed so far, it should get crazier in the next few chapters. Also the title is inspired by the 4everfreebrony album and song of the same name.
Im going to try and add the cover art now. Cross your toenails.