Sunshadow

by Content Is Not a Color

First published 8th of September, 2015

Celestia has sent the dark magic homunculus Twilight and royal advisor Sunset Shimmer to oversee the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville. Of course we all know what's going to happen next, but perhaps it won't be quite the same as we recall...

In a time long ago the sun and moon protected the earth, its sky, and the aether entwined with them. Their combined strength could fell any beast that threatened the Land of the Six Blessings, but it would not hold them together. The moon saw that the realm cowered and slept under its watch, not even sparing a glance to the heavens in gratitude for her, but it danced and sang in and of the brilliance of the sun. It would not be long before the moon herself became an evil her sister must destroy, but without the true power of the Six Blessings or the will to exact justice upon her beloved sibling, the sun only managed to merely seal her away.

The Blessings understood the sisters’ plight however, and promised to return when the time was right, turning enemies to allies and channel their strength through her shadow, a spark of darkness, that would use them to judge the moon as it willed.

The sun would lament for a time, but her duty was to the land, so she continued to be glorious and loving, bringing the sealed form of the moon along with her in hopes that the realm would one day see the beauty of the heavens whenever her sister’s night came to pass...

Prelude - Deep Anxiety

Author's Notes:

Hi! If you're just starting this story (or refreshing your memory), first of all welcome (back), and thank you for your readership~ (again).

Second of all, I would actually strongly advise against reading this "prelude" first. It reveals more information than I'm comfortable with, and does not properly set the tone of the story. All this is on account of it being the very kernel of an idea this story burst out of like a piece of popcorn, which is the reason why it's still here. If you're interested in seeing it later, then by all means come back to it. But for the best experience I would skip ahead to the next chapter and start there. And then never read this chapter ever, if I'm being honest, but I can't really stop you.

~N

It was not a pleasant feeling, this pit in her stomach. The mere thought of that… thing she had caged in her personal chambers filled her mind with a deluge of anger and fear for the safety of her subjects, washing away the early morn’s mildly irritating parade of smug nobleponies from Princess Celestia’s mind. It was bad enough that it had apparently existed in Canterlot for some time already in its disguise; she had never forgotten the loathsome scent of the Crystal King, and the abomination reeked of it. But fate would have to make it so powerful that it gave even her pause.

She heard the commotion before her guard came to alert her of it; the creature wasn’t exactly subtle. After a rather beautiful and curious wave of prismatic colors washed over the Canterlot sky, a loud crash like the mountains were doing battle rumbled through the palace, and she needn’t get close to see the imminent danger: a dragon, violet and green, had burst through the roof of the school across the royal plaza. Mercifully it was merely a forced-growth infant with no desire to act out its draconic instinct, but the cause of such a sight was something far more sinister.

A cloud of dark magic, so palpable and dense it had solid form. It seemed wild and masterless, but there was no mistaking the imprint of King Sombra that permeated its very being. It had been shockingly simple and painless to subdue, and its visage stayed her hoof from snuffing it out right there. She reversed its random machinations -- returning a trio of potted darkweeds back into ponies, shifting gravity back to normal for the teachers pinned to the ceiling, and shrinking the infant drake back down to size. That was a curious thing, the poor hatchling. She would have to ask exactly where and how her school had acquired a dragon egg.

But that could wait. The reptile was no danger to anypony as it was now. Celestia stepped back through the doorway to her study, her eyes focused solely on the true threat.

It still held on to most of its previous form, but there was no mistaking it. The unconscious little filly before her was betrayed by a curved horn upon its forehead, blackened like it were singed by flame at the sharply pointed tip. A mane and tail so dark a blue they recalled old memories back to the surface, streaked with a single lane of pink alongside a muted red. Ears that curved like a thestral’s, but were far more sinister-looking without the adorable fluffiness. And the smell! It exuded dark magic, for that’s exactly what it was. A massive cluster of twisted, solid thaumaturgy that couldn’t possibly fit in the veins of even thirty unicorns, and could barely be contained by the Princess’s body herself.

It would seem I underestimated you, Sombra, the white alicorn mused. I certainly wouldn’t have expected you to cast so much magic away, even when your defeat was certain. Though I can’t fathom exactly what this gambit of yours is meant to accomplish, if it was going to so readily reveal itself to me.

The form stirred in its cage, and Celestia readied her horn. This monster was unpredictable, as she had seen in her quick analysis of its properties that it answered to no conjurer. She anticipated an attack, an escape, a possession from beyond dimensions, even.

What she did not expect was a decidedly filly-like yelp of pain, followed by trembling in fear. Her determination faltered to confusion, and instead of obliterating the darkness where it lie, she briefly studied it once more.

She scanned its inky-black essence again as it shivered behind the bars, covering its eyes. More shocking than its lack of a master, this being of magic lacked an ingrained purpose. It was contrary to her knowledge, as the magical constructs Celestia had dealt with in the past had all been crafted with a singular goal encoded into their very body, a directive that they could not disobey or else they would dissipate into nothingness. This one… Either it had existed for so long that its purpose and master had faded from its memory, or it had come into being unbidden by anyone but serendipity. Really, Celestia was merely guessing at this point; there had never been a magical being that had existed for longer than a few years, and the latter theory was simply educated speculation, based on the endless unknowns of magic.

What this did tell the Sovereign Ruler of Equestria however was that no matter the reasoning, the monster before her was essentially a blank slate -- no purpose, and no creator. A part of her screamed to destroy it anyway. It was a possible hoof-hold for Sombra to claw his way back to this plane, whether he was aware of it or not. It was also more dark magic at once than she had ever encountered since his banishment, and that alone made it dangerous. It was also speaking now. What had it said?

“Repeat yourself.”

“It’s so bright this time...”

Celestia couldn’t help but be confused by that remark. “This time?”

“This part is never so shiny. It’s asposed to be dark and scary so I can’t see but now it’s too bright to see!”

“This part of…”

“The dream!”

“...I can assure you that this is no dream.” No matter how much I’d like for this old nightmare to crawl back into the pit I left it in, Celestia silently added.

The thing gasped. “Then that means-- That means my dream came true! You’re here to save me, Princess!” It removed its hooves from its eyes, only to be blinded once more by the light. “Owch…”

Now the Mare of the Sun was truly perplexed. In her struggle to make heads or tails of what the creature was saying she idly noted that her curtains were open wide, likely the reason it had complained about the brightness. With a shift in magic and the lightest flick of her horn she humored it and pulled them all shut; it may reveal its true intention through its gaze. “Perhaps you’ll find it more bearable to open your eyes now,” she stated.

The magic being cautiously squinted open its left eye, followed more readily by the right. Celestia took in their visage with concealed disgust and intrigue. Sclera blacker than the pits of Tartarus, but with lavender eyes that seemed almost luminous. And other than the catlike iris barely visible in the center, one could mistake them for the eyes of one of her little ponies; big and shimmering with wonder and… reverence?

It was then that Celestia caught onto the string of logic the creature had spewed forth from its head, “And what do you think I am here to save you from?”

“The Dark Mare!,” the filly-like creature stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, exactly like a filly would say it. “She wants to take me away from Mom and Dad and Shiny and put me back in the orphanage where she can eat me up! You gotta stop her Princess!”

Compassion struck the white mare, despite herself. It was a sadness of hers that she had bore for centuries that her littlest and most defenseless ponies could be thrown to the timberwolves by frightened parents, and as much as she so dearly wanted to shepherd them all personally to a happier life she had delegated that duty to her subjects. Running a country was a very time-consuming job, even after all these centuries.

Her emotions further clouded her mind with doubt. The more she deigned to learn about this being, the less certain she was of its inherent danger. It claimed to have dreamt of her coming to its rescue -- from the Dark Mare, no less; a part of her mind chuckled sadly at that -- and was regarding her with all the awe that any of her citizens would. As well, it was supposedly an orphaned foal, having been one long enough to know the anguish of perceived unwantedness. And she feared the Dark Mare, despite being pure darkness manifest, all by itself.

In that brief instant, all the doubt was turned to a piercing certainty: this creature was legitimately lost and confused, and truly believed it was a little unicorn girl. Pure dark magic or not, it would not pose an immediate threat to Equestria as it was now… but it needed to be monitored. If not for the safety of the nation, then for its own; any other adept unicorn would not have faltered as she did and stricken the poor thing from existence at any cost… or turned it to their own dark plans. She saw in its eyes no untruth, and its voice spoke with the inimitable honesty of children.

And so, Celestia smiled, and told the first of what would be many lies to the creature: “Oh! Of course, my little pony. That is indeed what I came to do. I simply couldn't rest easy at night knowing one of my subjects were in peril.” She undid the lock upon the cage and levitated the construct -- the filly -- out and onto the nearby lounge.

“Perhaps you could tell me the name of the pretty little filly I just rescued?” the princess inquired with a well-practiced sweetness in her tone. Referring to it -- her -- as “the thing” was a rather rude and impersonal for someone she would be watching for quite some time.

The violet filly-creature blushed at that. “Um, I’m Twilight Sparkle, from House Twilight.”

Princess Celestia now had something of a migraine. It had been almost a millennium since she had been so worried and furious and anxious and good grief some tea would be incredible right now. She had spent a few minutes more with the dark filly -- Twilight Sparkle, she reminded herself -- which further served to fuel her conclusions. The little pony-thing absolutely adored her, and she couldn’t help but find her wide-eyed wonder precious.

But their brief time together was brought short by a realization on the filly’s part: she had been slated to take the qualifying test for enrollment into her School for Gifted Unicorns and began to panic, fearing she had failed horribly by falling asleep during the test. Celestia assured the quivering purple mass that she had not only passed, but had performed so incredibly that she would instead become the princess’s personal student, as she was in fact a very special pony with very remarkable power. An elated celebration and discovery of a cutie mark later, Celestia put an exhausted Twilight to a nap, and set hoof outside of her suite -- with a stressing of the command that no one else was allowed in or out of that door to the guards on the outside.

House Twilight. She recalled their registering for an adoption a year or so ago. They would most certainly need to be scrutinized. Subtly, of course; with the way little Sparkle behaved it was entirely possible that they were just as oblivious to the truth as she was. If nothing else, she was sure they'd like to know that their adoptive foal would now be under her care.

She briefly considered visiting them to deliver the news, but if they were half as wholesome a noble house as she had been informed, then they were likely already demanding an audience in the throne room. She could merely teleport there, but the walk would give her time to formulate the web of lies and half-truths she would have to spin for who knows how long a time. And so the princess traversed the pristine white-gold halls of the castle, for once alone with her thoughts. It was an unexpected but welcome solace. The times she could stride through the castle unburdened by servants or guards could be counted on one hoof -- this one time. It ended all too soon when she strode through the grand doorway, into the airy hall that housed her seat of power.

As expected, there was the head of the house, Twilight Velvet and her husband Night Light, wearing identically worried expressions. They stood alone in the audience chamber, looking so small in contrast to the bustling crowd that had previously packed the immense room like they did every morning. Celestia inwardly sighed with relief that they were concerned for the young one; their adoption didn't appear to be for gaining face with the public. Such genuine kindness was rare in the Canterlot elite. Hopefully she could assuage their concern with pretty words that made her mission appear glamorous.

"Mrs. Velvet and Mr. Light. I'd say this was a nice surprise, but I was certain you would be worried sick over little Twilight Sparkle." The sovereign donned a reassuring smile for the couple.

Though their faces did not lose any lines of worry, their eyes gave away a relief that Celestia usually only saw in the rare commoner who had managed to attend her court: that knowledge that they had not been forgotten about in the endless sea of inquiries. "Please tell us, Princess," Night Light spoke, fatherly concern laden in his voice like lead. "She's not hurt is she?"

"The poor thing is more rattled by the event than anything. She experienced an impressively powerful magical surge, but the filly will be able to trot away from it no worse for wear. You needn't fret any longer."

Both the unicorns released their tension with a shared sigh, yet when they looked back up to Celestia they still appeared apprehensive.

"We--", Velvet began, "we would like to know the results of her exam, if that isn't too much to ask. It meant so much to her to even have a chance of attending your school."

The alicorn regarded they gray-coated mare before her. Already she could tell that they were none the wiser to Twilight's ruse than Twilight herself was. That made the situation both easier and more difficult. All they were was a loving family (how merciful it was that even such a volatile being had been blessed with that, she thought) and the happiness of their chosen daughter was incredibly important to them both; it was written plain upon their faces, almost like some fraternity house prank. She would tell them the truth, then. Not all of it, herself forbid, but enough that they would understand without being horrified.

"Young little Twilight managed to impress me with her raw display of power. Although I don't think the instructors were very amused by the theatrics." Celestia allowed herself a light titter to further reduce the tension that still hung in the air. She now remembered why Equestria was a peaceful nation; she absolutely loathed a day without respite from that. "And most importantly, she managed to hatch the egg as instructed. She exceeded all expectations with that display."

At this, the pair of ponies finally broke through their concern and grinned widely. Velvet in particular seemed to be buzzing with excitement. Like mother, like daughter, it would seem. "Th-that's wonderful news-- incredible news! When will she be enrolled?"

"The problem is, that Twilight may be a touch too powerful for her own good," Celestia responded, to the faltering smiles of her small audience. "I feel that placing her in class with other unicorns would be a grossly irresponsible move. Even if nopony is harmed during that time it would be a great disservice to little Sparkle herself; she has so much magical strength, and to waste it on the regular curriculum would leave her with a well of untapped potential for the rest of her life.

"With that in mind, I have decided that instead, Twilight Sparkle shall be my personal student. Under my tutelage, she will blossom into a remarkable unicorn, and I like to think she'll go on to do some truly amazing things." That last bit was embellishment on the princess's part, as she was unsure she would ever want the filly to even leave the castle.

But her words had the desired effect; the grown ponies before her were now sporting smiles that Celestia was certain would hurt tomorrow morning, and stars seem to spangle their eyes. They were left sputtering half-composed thank-yous and jittering with joy, looking for all the world like overgrown foals. Celestia couldn't help but make a good-natured laugh. Making her subjects so happy warmed her heart like almost nothing before had.

When the unicorns had calmed down they practically begged to see Twilight, but Celestia declined them gently, stating that by tomorrow the filly would be well-rested and ready to interact once more. The princess thanked the Blessings that they seemed to have completely forgotten that Twilight's magic was abnormal in appearance that day. A quick scheduling for visitation plans later, and Twilight Velvet and Night Light were practically prancing out the grand double doors back home. Even with the twinge of guilt she felt at misleading them about Twilight's condition, the Mare of the Sun felt much more at ease about this ordeal than before... which still meant she was extremely anxious and uncertain of what the future would hold now.

She chose once again to walk the distance to her chambers, her mind on the ball of admittedly adorable dark magic within, and a good cup or two of tea. She was certainly going to take her sweet time drinking it, that much was certain.

I suppose the best way to look at this, Princess Celestia pondered, is that life is about to be a little more interesting in this palace.

Which reminds me: what to do about that little dragon...?

1st Verse - Apprehension

The look of utter boredom upon Sunset Shimmer’s face couldn’t have been more glaringly obvious if the sun itself were giving the entire earth the same half-lidded glower. It was the face of one sick with the daily tedium of their life, in a flavor only someone as privileged as the fiery-maned unicorn could muster. There was many a noble housemare in Canterlot who wore a similar mask upon their muzzle day in and day out, but theirs and Sunset’s would never be quite alike.

It was yet another day of lounging in the steward’s seat and enduring the torturous monotony of court for the mare in question. In the early days of her attendance she’d relished the time spent in the grand hall; once upon a time the insatiable nobles looked upon her with wonder, envy, and at times barely concealed anger. ‘She has the prestige of sitting next to Princess Celestia herself!’ ‘What has she done to earn this honor?’ ‘How can a street urchin look so immaculate and shine almost as brightly as the regent to her left?’

The unicorn adored the attention; she had risen from the alleys of Canterlot above all of the snot-nosed foals in frilly clothing and smelly perfume, to where she had always belonged. But her vogue faded eventually, and they began to ignore Sunset’s presence unless she were called on to deal with an issue brought to the throne -- which didn’t happen very often at all. Even her informants became another piece of the background as time passed, as they were supposed to, but they had brought eyes to Sunset back then as well as anything important gleaned from her field agents.

The worst of it all had been when the purple filly first came into the life of the castle. It had taken no time at all for Twilight Sparkle to gain all the adoration of the staff and the ire of the noble houses that Sunset had once been showered with. And Twilight didn’t even want anything to do with the stuffed-shirt ponies that marched in and out of the doorway morning to mid-afternoon! She had simply cowered under Celestia’s wing like a foal the first few times. On her intermittent returns to the court she still hovered at the princess’s side, and continued drawing gazes to her.

Sunset came to understand that Twilight was terrified of the stares they gave her, only braving the court when she felt strong-willed enough, like today (or needed Celestia’s illusory magic to hide her). Her burning hatred for the unicorn eight years her junior had been quelled once Celestia “coerced” the two of them to interact regularly. There was no declining her suggestion of that unless one wanted the dreaded look of maternal admonishment; that look thoroughly cowed Sunset’s pride every time it was used. And so the passive disdain for the Canterlot upper-crust bloomed into an infernal loathing. A hatred for these mere insects that dared to strike fear into Twilight’s heart. It wasn’t at all that Twilight stirred a part of her soul that Sunset had locked away years ago, nope. She was simply exercising her good samaritan muscle for a fellow student. Celestia knows she needed to give it a good workout, lest it shrivel up and fade away…

But even that had blended into and become a part of the doldrums of attending court one day, and Sunset was left with the malaise of the same daily parade of clowns calling themselves elite in a great room that always stunk of the Canterlot zeitgeist, complaining about their minor problems.

Mercifully Celestia called an end to the snooze fest for the day, and she rose in her glory with a smile on her face as if she hadn’t sat bored and dully irritated out of her mind for several hours (and Sunset knew that she had). The two unicorns followed suit, giving out their own formal farewells for the day -- one in near monotone, the other in a nervous rush -- and exited the audience chamber into the depths of the palace.

“Back to the tower with ya then, Twilight?” Sunset regarded her fellow pony with concern so well-hidden that anyone else may have mistaken it for an attempt at good-natured ribbing.

The violet filly had her eyes downcast, clearly recovering from what was for her an ordeal like no other. “...yeah.”

“I am so very proud of you today, my student. You sat tall and strong the whole way through court today!” Celestia did her absolute best to reinforce the quiet unicorn at every acceptable turn. Indeed, this was progress for the neurotic pony beside her to have weathered an onslaught of looks and whispers for so long a time period. “Perhaps you should reward yourself with some fresh air? It’s not at all healthy to stay cooped up in your chambers all the time.”

“I guess so.”

Celestia wouldn’t dare let the muted reply faze her. “I know the sun makes you uncomfortable, so why don’t you take a parasol to shade yourself? You’d be very surprised what an atmosphere like today’s can do for your studying.”

“At the least, you can’t let other ponies scare you into being a shut-in all your life, Twi,” Sunset chimed in, “Compared to what we just had to suffer, everypony outside is nothing! Most of them won’t even give you a second glance if you’re minding your own business.”

Twilight finally raised her head, a contemplative look on her muzzle. “It has been a while since I went out last.”

Inwardly, Celestia sighed. She hasn’t blocked herself off from Sunset, at least. I suppose that’s all I can ask for right now. She watched the little unicorn walk toward her tower anyway, with the spoken goal of gathering some things to properly enjoy the outside. The princess surreptitiously wrote a note to Twilight’s assistant to ensure she didn’t just stay indoors again.

She and Sunset continued on through the halls and stairwells of Canterlot Castle with occasional small-talk peppering the relative silence. Eventually they came to a familiar unmarked door in the far reaches of the west wing. Unguarded, because no other ponies would ever suspect what looked, for all intents and purposes, to be a broom closet.

Celestia put her horn to it, and the illusion fell away to reveal a much more elaborately decorated doorway, gilded with gold and platinum. Atop its threshold was an emblem, the Equestrian coat of arms, with a singular deviation: a crescent moon accompanying Celestia’s cutie mark.

This was the Sanctum that the two mares entered. It had been built nearly a thousand years ago at the heart of Fort Canterlot when it was chosen as the new seat of Equestria. A chamber that seemed to defy the laws of physics, being a massive dome inside a building that didn’t seem to exist from the outside. In reality it was a special pocket in existence Celestia constructed herself, for where the most critical of information to the country’s continued prosperity could be shared in confidence.

“And why couldn’t we just teleport to the door like usual?” Sunset looked to her mentor with a brow raised.

“We can’t just be randomly disappearing for places nopony can find all the time, Sunset,” Celestia responded, a coy smile on her lips. “With how often this room sees use lately, it might start a riot if ponies keep seeing us pop out of existence.”

Sunset nodded in understanding. “If we act like things are normal, they won’t suspect a thing… Right.”

“Yes. The last thing we need right now is the poor things being worried.”

Celestia took her seat at the round and plain wooden table in the center of the room. Anypony could tell it was her seat, as it was the biggest. Sunset took hers by the alicorn’s side. The one with a lavender shield and the one with a crystal heart would remain unoccupied today; this was a meeting for only their ears. Though no words really needed to be said, for they both knew precisely why they were here, and the decision they would arrive at.

“I take from their absence you’re gonna disregard their objections, Celestia?”

The princess in question dropped her mask of serenity to reveal an anxious mare. “I understand fully why they would have a problem with all this. And I couldn’t agree with them more.”

“But you’re going along with the initial plan anyway.”

“Yes, Sunset.”

The unicorn sighed. “I can’t say I like the idea of being on the front line here. The both of us are going to be in grave peril if this is all ends up being true.”

“I know,” Celestia looked away from her most trusted advisor, staring at the table before them. “I wish we had some other recourse.”

“You’re sure you’re remembering their words right?”

“I’ve not forgotten a word. I’d even wrote it down eventually, just in case I did. You’ve seen those documents.”

Sunset snorted. Her hoof tapped at the table as she wrestled with the conundrum before them, trying to think of some way to worm out of it with the fewest losses, but that was the long and short of it; they had no way of knowing anything would even happen at all tomorrow night, but with how the pieces had all fallen, it was most likely that the worst would indeed come to pass. All they could do is prepare the best they were able.

She sighed, defeated by fate, and looked over to the empty chairs across the table “Those two aren’t ever going to let you and me hear the end of it either way, you know.”

Celestia gave a small, sad, but genuine smile. “I would be very disappointed if they had.”

A flicker of green flame snaked out of Celestia’s horn, transmogrifying into a letter. Her smile deepened. “And it would seem that we’ve already stepped off the edge into this quagmire.”

Sunset gave her own, more snide grin. “Well, at least one of us has wings to fly back up there.”

Twilight had known for quite some time that whenever Celestia called her “special”, she really meant “abnormal”, or on occasion, “dangerous”. Normal ponies didn’t have a magical shell that concealed their true form and fell apart when they were distraught. Or curved horns. Or eyes black as coal. And normal unicorns didn’t naturally harness dark magic, either.

All these things were true for Twilight Sparkle. There was no hiding her horn, unless she wanted to terrify everypony whenever she levitated anything. The outer image of a normal pony had a tendency to quite literally fracture whenever she used magic if her horn was also concealed. So they had to settle for leaving it in view; her hair hid the seam in the disguise that way, at least.

Anyone passing Twilight by in the park would see an otherwise unremarkable lavender mare with solid indigo for a neatly-trimmed mane -- there was natural streak of hot pink in it, but it was easier just to hide that along with its blood-red neighbor. She had enough unusualness on her head as it was. A stallion or the odd mare might have noticed how her eyes seem to almost glow in a captivating manner and remarked on her beauty. Frankly, Twilight didn’t want to be much of anything, least of all eye-catching. She was a freak. Probably something even worse, but she hadn’t discovered what and Celestia declined to tell her, so the unicorn settled for freak. She bled black smoke, the sun made her uncomfortable and she turned books into monsters by accident. There was nothing nice about her. And Twilight highly doubted that anypony would find her true self all that attractive.

She may not have known what breed of beast she was, but she was nothing if not determined to find out. So it was that Twilight Sparkle had delved into ancient literature, like the book she had with her on the grassy hillside. Gradually, she had strayed off-course from that initial goal -- that tended to happen when she read volume upon volume of information -- as this particular tome had next to nothing to do with ancient horrors and creatures of the fillies and colts’ nightmares. Instead, it was a compendium of old myths and legends from before the first year After Dawn, when ponies lived far harsher lives and were at the mercy of monsters (like yourself, Twilight idly thought).

She had pored over this old book on-and-off for a few days -- quite the intriguing read, if a bit outlandish most of the time-- and had come to the final entry, the sight of which made her breath hitch in her throat.

It was the specter of her foalhood, haunter of her nightmares. The Mare in the Moon.

“The Dark Mare…” Twilight whispered, fearing to even speak her name.

The book told of her as an alicorn black as night on Hearth’s Warming Eve, with stars in her mane. She seized control of the moon and shrouded the world in unending night for a month, before the White Mare banished her to the moon itself after a battle in the old capital of Equestria. The sun rose again and remained for as long as it could before giving way to a normal night once more -- the first day After Dawn. The various archived tellings conflicted with each other, but the consensus the book gave was that The Dark Mare would break free of her prison one day (A thousand years from the day she was banished seemed to be the popular speculation) to wreak havoc and bring about an eternal night, and there would be nopony who could stop her.

Twilight may not have been a pony, but she had been raised by them. How quick she was to panic spoke to this fact. The rational part of her mind was quickly drowned out by her deep-rooted fears and she slammed the tome shut, starting back for the palace at a brisk trot unmindful of the normally overbearing sunlight.

“Lady Twilight!”

Not if the ponies about her would have their say about it, though.

Twilight slowed and turned to see the mare who had addressed her flanked by two more. She racked racked her brain for a name to put to the face. She had definitely seen this pony more than once before, darn it!

She took a shot in the dark on her hazy memory; “Oh, um, hello there, Twinkleshine…?”

The mare smiled. Success! “Indeed! Moondancer is having a little get-together in the west castle courtyard,” She cocked her head to the side ever so slightly, “Would you care to grace it with your attendance?”

“Sorry girls, I’ve uh… got a lot of studying to finish...eating… in the, oven.” You are a master of this, Twilight. “Um-- thank you for the invitation, though!”

Satisfied with her excuse and impeccable manners, the purple mare continued her walk at a more inconspicuous pace, oblivious to the confused looks she had left behind.

The door to the tower’s library swung open very suddenly, collapsing a precarious tower of books upon Spike’s diminutive form. Unlucky for him, he was a baby dragon, so he wasn’t actually hurt, simply weighed down by the avalanche. This annoyed him immensely.

His annoyance was compounded by the barely constrained franticness of his caretaker’s voice. “Spike! Spi-ike!”

No doubt she had come to cut his break short. Hopefully he could stay hidden in the pile of books and--

“Spike?”

He really was much too nice to be a real drake.

With a groan, he pulled himself from the mess and back into view. Twilight beamed at his reappearance, which lessened the sting of defeat somewhat.

“There you are.” The grin disappeared as quickly as it came. “Quick, I need you to get a quill and some parchment and some ink. We have to--” She raised a hoof to point at his backside. “What's that for?”

Spike regarded the now-punctured present impaled on his tail. “Well, it was a gift for Moondancer, but…”

Now Twilight took her turn to look annoyed. “Oh Spike, you know we don't have time for that sort of thing.”

“What!? But I thought we were on a break!”

“Break-time’s over now, Spike. Do you have the materials ready?”

“Naturally.” The infant dragon had swiftly taken to his appointed task, and gave an exaggerated bow.

“Excellent,” Twilight wasn’t even looking at him at the moment. He quietly sighed as she continued, “We need to warn the Princess about the Mare in the Moon.”

Mare in the Moon? “But that's just an old ponies' tale, Twi--”

Twilight continued to not look at him, instead reading from the book she had with her. “‘The Mare in the Moon, the Dark Mare, a myth from olden pony times. A powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria, defeated by the The White Mare and imprisoned in the moon. Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal!’ Spike! Do you know what this means?”

“...that you fell asleep in the park and had another nightmare?”

To say that the look Twilight gave Spike then was one of dull irritation would be doing her glare injustice. The entire city of Canterlot briefly felt the ire of the unicorn as its essence became, for but a moment, of being unamused, before returning to normal.

The mare chose not to dignify that remark with a response. “Take a note please, to the Princess.”

Quill whetted and hovering above the parchment, Spike did as asked regardless. “Okie dokie.”

“‘My dearest Princess Celestia,’” So Twilight’s dictation began, “‘my continuing studies of the dark and disturbing have led me to discover that we are on the precipice of disaster!’”

“Hold on.”

Twilight looked over to her assistant.

“Preci... preci…”

“Threshold.”

“...Threh…”

It was times like these that Twilight remembered the drake was only ten years old. “Uh, brink?” The scaled youngling looked up at her confusedly. “Ugh, ‘that something really bad is about to happen!

“‘For you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is in fact The Dark Mare, and she's about to return to Equestria, and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true. I await your quick response. Your student, Twilight Sparkle.’”

“Twilight... Sparkle. Got it!”

“Great! Send it.”

“...Now?”

“Of course!”

The little dragon shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno, Twilight, Princess Celestia's a little busy getting ready for the Summer Sun Celebration. And it's like, the day after tomorrow.

Twilight turned to him now, a manic look of worry in her brightly glowing eyes. “That's just it, Spike. The day after tomorrow is the thousandth year of the Summer Sun Celebration! It's imperative that the Princess is told right away!”

Spike gave a blank stare in response.

The look became even more deranged as she stepped closer than was comfortable. “Important!”

“Whoa! Okay, okay!” Spike backed away from the crazed unicorn, and with a great huff, conjured an emerald fire from his bellows. It engulfed the letter in its grasp, sending its ashes on a magic current to the recipient. “There, it's on its way. But I wouldn't hold your breath…”

“Oh, I'm not worried, Spike,” A suddenly calmer Twilight remarked, “The Princess may be many things, but one of them is perceptive of things that would threaten all of Equestria. I have faith that she will see the truth.”

Not two moments passed, and Spike belched out another green flame, this one turning into a letter with the Princess’s royal seal upon its ribbon. He caught it in his claw and unfurled it.

Twilight smirked. “See? I knew she would want to take immediate action.”

Spike cleared his now somewhat itchy throat, and began to read the response aloud: “‘My dearest, most faithful student Twilight. You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely.’”

Despite herself, Twilight blushed at this.

”’But you simply must stop reading those dusty old books!’”

The mare couldn’t say she wasn’t shocked by the declaration.

Undaunted, Spike read the rest of the letter. “‘My dear Twilight, there is more to a young pony's life than studying, and I’d hate to see you waste the rest of your days away in that tower. So I'm sending you and Sunset Shimmer to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year's location: Ponyville. And, I have an even more essential task for you to complete:’

The final sentence of the letter chilled Twilight Sparkle to the bone.

“‘Make some friends!’”

2nd Verse - The Dearly Beloved & Wild Blue

“You okay there, Twilight?”

The false unicorn did what she could to glare at Spike. She thought it was fairly obvious that she was not okay -- in fact she was extremely uncomfortable, and not just with their destination or her given role. It was the forsaken natural elements. They existed merely to make her irritable.

It wasn't that Twilight hated the mere concept of nature and the weather in particular. Every bit of it had its purpose. Some important, some aesthetic, and ponies were entitled to appreciating it all. It was just that no matter the reason, it always had it out for her. The wind buffeting her muzzle at the moment felt like it would gleefully rip her apart, for example. Neither Sunset or Spike seemed nearly as bothered by it, and their pegasi escorts didn't even seem to notice. Perhaps it was simply her biology, then. One more reason to envy everypony.

There was no respite from the wind on the lavender and gold chariot, either. Though it had been thoughtfully commissioned for Twilight's personal use some years ago and had a roof to block the sunny day (and embarrassingly sported her cutie mark, as well) there was no protection from the air currents. Though even if there was, the vehicle wouldn't have seen much use regardless. Twilight made a mental note to see what could be done about remedying the design flaw anyway.

“I'm going to refrain from repeating my opinions on what we have been tasked with doing, and simply state that I hope it's over with as fast as possible.”

Sunset sighed. She'd had to deal with the irritable purple pony since she received Celestia's letter yesterday, and it was trying her patience. “Look, Twi,” Sunset began as she turned to face the hunched-over form of her charge, “Neither of us is particularly jazzed about being saddled with this job, but it's an incredibly important one that needs to be done right. I'll make sure we can reach a happy medium, but it's not going to take only ten minutes to organize the Celebration.”

“I didn't think it would, Sunset. I understand our responsibility, and since there's no turning back, we might as well give this our all. Then we can head to that library Celestia mentioned and search for more information on the Dark Mare prophecy.”

The other unicorn rolled her emerald eyes liberally. “If it'll keep you from complaining every other minute, I'll help you look through more pony-tales. But don't pretend I forgot her directive for you.”

“She said to check on the preparations. I am her student, and I will do my royal duty, but the fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends!”

Sunset gave a significantly more weary sigh before all three passengers' stomachs began to drop. “Well, in any case, we've arrived, so let's get to business.”

Twilight brought her head up to look at the village that was rising up to greet them. Ponyville, it was called. She couldn't help but think on how mundane a moniker that was.

Her research told her that it was a predominantly earth pony settlement established a mere 70 years or so ago, and it certainly looked like it. A far cry from the white-gold majesty of Canterlot (which could be seen proudly and defiantly jutting from the side of Mt. Canterhorn to the northeast) the vale was much more humble in appearance with its thatched-roof houses (a strict trend bucked by what seemed to be, at first glance, a giant cupcake atop an overgrown gingerbread house) and what appeared to be cobblestone roads. That can't be fun to walk on without shoes, Twilight mused. It sat sandwiched by farmland and an incredibly thick forest that seemed to go on eastward forever, and at the moment seemed to be buzzing with activity, which came as little surprise.

Twilight couldn't explain it, but it felt like there was something off about the town they descended into. Whether it was her paranoia about tomorrow, or simply the vibe given off by a town not dominated by unicorns, she would never know for sure.

The chariot's wheels finally became earthbound outside of an immense tree in the heart of Ponyville. As the guards pulling it slowed to a stop, Twilight couldn't help but ask; “This is the library?”

“Apparently.” Sunset stepped off the lavender vehicle with her equally lavender company following suit. The pegasi pulled the chariot closer to the supposed haven of knowledge before unhooking themselves and flying off to their designated posts for the next two days; a pair flying across the grassy square to a large carousel building that was town hall and the other pair taking stand aside the library door that Sunset, Twilight and Spike had briefly entered.

Twilight absorbed the interior like a big purple sponge. Despite the smaller space than her own personal library the tree's first floor was thoroughly packed from floor to ceiling with shelf upon shelf of books. As the trio crossed the main chamber for the far stairwell she immediately grew very fond of the warm atmosphere, and decided that her own library could use some wood furnishing.

“So...” Spike scratched his head with his face face twisted in confusion, “why was the town okay with us hanging out in the library all night? Where's the librarian?”

“According to my information, the library hasn't had a proper caretaker for almost two years.” Sunset alighted the top of the staircase and opened the door before her. “The last librarian passed away, and the mayor has kept it locked until she could find a suitable replacement.”

“Then how do the ponies check out books?”

“Well I can only guess that they would have to talk to the mayor about it and she would retrieve the order. I doubt it happens much; this isn't Canterlot, and no matter how smart these ponies are I highly doubt they're anywhere as well-read as even I am, to say nothing of our purple bookworm here.” She gave Twilight a lopsided grin, who was still enraptured by the magical building they were in. The second floor was a rather spacious study of sorts (that also housed multiple books in the shelves carved into all the walls of the tree), and had a raised platform on the side to the right of the entrance, blessed with a great window that overlooked the town square.

“You guys can go do the stuff and things. I'll just stay here and...” Twilight trailed off, a smile on her face for the first time in several hours.

Sunset finished depositing what she didn't feel like carrying around all day from her saddlebags and levitated Spike onto her back, before literally pushing the absentminded unicorn back out the door. “You're not going to avoid your duty, Twilight Sparkle. You're going to go out there with us, you're going to help with the preparations, and by Celestia's beard, you are going to interact with others!”

Twilight groaned as she was prodded back out the front door of the library. “Fine, whatever.”

“Aww, don't be like that Twilight. Who knows,” Spike said, “maybe the ponies in Ponyville have something interesting to talk about?” He pointed a claw at an approaching mare that seemed to embody all that was and would ever be called the color pink, who stopped before the unusual trio. “C'mon Twilight. Just give it a try!”

Twilight, for her part, attempted to swallow the growing lump in her throat so she could speak. She was never good at this talking to others thing, but there was no getting out of it now. “Um... hello?”

The offensively pink earth pony startled Twilight when she leapt into the air with a long and loud gasp, before seeming to fly off down the street at breakneck speed.

With a blink or two, Twilight recovered. “Well, that was interesting, all right.”

Spike sighed from his butter-colored perch, who threw in her two cents. “I didn't think Ponyville would be that shocked to see unicorns.” She craned her neck to glance at the dragon on her back. “...Or maybe it was just you.” The drake merely huffed and crossed his arms in retort.

Twilight was presently regretting not leaving all of her reference books back at the library.

The first item of importance on their given list of preparations to check was banquet preparations, handled by a mare with the unsavory name Applejack, who managed most of the farmland they had seen in their flight over the village. What mare names their foal after a liquor, Twilight had asked, to which she had been told by Sunset, “It'd probably be best if you didn't bring that up in her presence. Her parents died close to a decade ago, but it might still be a touchy subject.” Twilight idly wondered how her one-time substitute teacher would know this, but concluded that she likely retained quite a bit of unwanted useless information from her informant network, and that was some of it. Her mind was more occupied by the aching in her heart that the knowledge had given her, and she was vehemently trying to stomp out of existence. She knew what this was: sympathy. She hated feeling things about ponies. She had a small group of exceptions to this rule, but Twilight adamantly refused to become weighed down by any sort of attachment to the rest. She wasn't one herself, no matter what her appearance may lead others to believe, so she wouldn't fraternize with them under any circumstance. Except the one I'm currently in, she reminded herself.

The mare let out a frustrated groan. How long is this walk??? Wouldn't it have been more efficient to build the farmhouse closer to town? What pinhead horse wants to walk over a mile through the countryside to buy groceries!? Ugh, what even do they grow here? She looked about at the apple trees lining the dirt road they had been on for the last twenty minutes. Besides those.

“Shake a leg, Twi!”

Twilight snapped her head back forward to find she had fallen quite a ways behind the other two on the path in her pondering. To her relief, they were standing underneath an off-white archway that denoted the entrance to the farm's homestead. Fittingly enough, it was adorned with the image of three red apples. She sped up to a gallop, eager to close the distance and get the task at hand out of the way. When she reached the arch the purple unicorn was visibly out of breath, hating her saddlebags and the sun overhead and her stuffy stupid pony disguise that had absolutely no aeration.

“You know, exercise helps with that.” Sunset remarked.

In between her panting, Twilight snipped back. “Don't you dare start; I stretch every morning.”

“That's not aerobics, Twilight. I meant real actual exercise where you physically exert yourself.”

“Can we just get this over with, please?”

Sunset let out a short nasal sigh. “Yes, we can. In fact,” she turned from Twilight to the sound of another approaching, galloping pony, “I think we're going to be done with this faster than I expected.”

The three were treated to the sight of an orange pony in an overly-large brown hat hurtling toward a lone tree in the homestead clearing and pivoting to a stop on her forelegs, her back pair raised. They bucked out and impacted against the unfortunate bark with a loud crack, and the tree relinquished every apple on its branches to gravity, falling neatly in baskets placed underneath. The mare looked upon her work with pride, one foreleg crossed over the other.

Twilight was impressed (and slightly intimidated) by the display of brute force and its underlying finesse. She found herself being pushed once again from behind, and quickly turned to throw Sunset's hooves off of her.

“Go on, girl. You can do this.” Sunset gave Twilight a reassuring smile.

Twilight grunted her disapproval at the insinuation, but obliged. This wasn't idle chatter, this was business. She could do business. So she approached the lithe earth pony, now busy gathering up the baskets of apples in a physics-defying stack.

Twilight extended her hoof as she began, “Good morning, miss. My name is Twilight Sparkle--”

The unicorn didn't get to finish her greeting before her world began to violently quake. The farmpony had taken the purple hoof in both of hers and was vigorously shaking Twilight's entire body up and down.

“Well howdy-do, Miss Twilight! Pleasure makin' yer acquaintance. Ah'm Applejack, and lemme be the first t' welcome you t' Sweet Apple Acres!”

As Applejack released Twilight back to the merciful earth, Twilight found both her hoof and her head hurt.

“So who ya got here with ya, ma'am?” The earth pony gestured to Sunset and Spike, who were stifling giggles at the exchange.

“urrg” was all Twilight could manage.

Sunset stepped forward. “Allow me. We're here to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. I am Sunset Shimmer, this is our assistant Spike.” she brought a hoof to her chest and tossed her head back slightly to indicate the purple drake, who waved a claw in greeting. “It's my understanding that you're in charge of the food?”

Applejack emitted a low whistle. “Well, a coupla busy, important mares, eh? Well we here ain't really ones to stand on ceremony fer royal ponies, but you can rest easy knowin' that yer friends of the Apple family for as long as yer in our humble town.”

“We're not very fond of such pomp and circumstance in this undertaking ourselves, so don't worry about it.”

The farmpony chuckled. “I like y'all already. Well, since yer here about th' caterin', Ah could bore ya with a whole buncha big fancy words about who's handlin' what and all the things we put in all the dishes, but Ah think it'd be a better use of yer time t' learn first-hoof.” She trotted over to a nearby picnic table and picked up a metal triangle that had rested on its surface, ringing it with the same passion and conviction she had shaken the other unicorn's hoof with.

“Soup's on, everypony!”

The earth rumbled beneath Twilight's hooves for real this time, and a veritable stampede of earth ponies of all colors swarmed into the area from the surrounding orchards, inside the red barn and the farmhouse itself. She had to sit down from the influx of mares and stallions and will herself not to have a panic attack.

Sunset looked over to her with concern before they were swept into the friendly too-tight embrace of Applejack. “Now why don't Ah interduce y'all to the Apple family?” Sunset's eyes widened from dread.

“Oh, uh, that's really not necessary--”

The unicorns and dragon were brought to multiple smaller groups of ponies in quick succession as Applejack rattled off names (all of which pertained to apples) and pointed to their owners. At some point Twilight had an entire apple stuffed into her muzzle, much to her horror. The orange mare got through quite a large number of family members before stopping for a deep breath.

“And this here's mah immediate family, Big McIntosh,”

A bulky red stallion sporting a yoke gave an aloof but friendly head nod.

“Applebloom,”

A bright yellow filly with a massive bow tied in her red mane jumped up and down in excitement. “Howdy there!”

“And Granny Smith!” Applejack pointed at last to an elderly green mare wrinkled by time currently dozing in an awkwardly-shaped rocking chair. “Up an' at 'em Granny, we got guests!”

The old pony jolted awake with a snort. “Wuh? Soup's on? Ah'm comin', Ah'm comin'...” she gradually fell back asleep as she mumbled her response.

“Granny's gettin' on in years. She might be a bit tough to get along with but trust me when I say that she likes you three already.”

Sunset was currently resisting having her bones crushed by the earth pony's grip. “We're very honored.”

“Why, Ah'd say they all consider you a part of th' family already!” Applejack gave the unicorns as wholesome a grin as had ever been managed as she finally released them from the vice that was her hold.

Twilight spat out the offending fruit still in her mouth. “Okay! Well, I can see the food situation is in very good hooves, so we'll just be on our way!”

“Twilight.” Sunset gave her a stern look, but she wouldn't have any of it. She wanted away from these rude ponies who shoved their hooves in other ponies' mouths and threatened to compromise your physical autonomy with their every move. It was a miracle her shell was still intact.

“Aren't ya gonna stay fer brunch?”

Twilight looked to the source of the tiny query, and found the filly named Applebloom was looking up to her now with eyes as big as dinner plates, disappointment written all over her diminutive muzzle. Twilight's irritatingly stubborn heart melted, and defied her own declaration, daring to overtake her reasoning. Stupid ponies...

“Twilight does have a point,” Sunset began, “we have quite a bit more to do today to make sure the Celebration goes well tomorrow--”

“...fine.”

Sunset looked to Twilight in surprise. “Huh?”

“We'll sample some of the food! No -- we're gonna eat the heck out of it! Gimme some of the pie, please!”

“Ugh... I ate waaaaaay too much pie...”

The two mares plus a baby dragon had managed to escape the onslaught of food, but not without incident. The Apples had insisted they sample every dish, to which Spike happily obliged, Twilight felt it would be rude to refuse, and Sunset was unable to get a word in edge-wise. The trio were thoroughly stuffed now, and were trudging back to the town proper.

Twilight had suffered the most. The unicorn never ate much -- she'd never felt the need to – and whatever she did eat just tasted as bland as the last thing she put in her mouth. Before she found out that she wasn't actually a pony, she thought everyone else was delusional when they remarked on the taste of something. Presently there must have been over two kilograms of apple and apple-related confections settling in her gut, and she hated it. Curse her manners. Curse her failure to become detached. Curse her knowledge of pony anatomy. Curse her own anatomy being strikingly similar in almost every way.

She opened her mouth to speak and inadvertently belched out the beginning of her sentence, garnering snickers from Spike. Blushing, she tried again, “So, what torture are we up for next, Sunset?”

Sunset, to her credit, ignored Twilight's faux pas and her remark, as well as the chuckling drake on her back. “The next thing on the list is the weather. A pony named Ditzy Doo and her team are supposed to be clearing all the clouds over Ponyville right about now.”

All three of them stopped and looked to the very much cloud-filled sky. It was still a relatively clear day, but the Celebration called for the sun to be alone in the sky tomorrow, which meant absolutely no clouds of any sort, and any cloud homes needed to be moved out of Ponyville's airspace until the Celebration had ended.

“Well,” Twilight's gaze returned to Sunset and Spike, “They're not doing a very good job now, are they?”

“Nope.” Sunset started for the town hall. “Well, it still isn't even noon, so they'll probably have enough time to fix that if we--”

The unicorn was stopped by a loud thud behind her. She reflexively spun around before Spike could finish shouting Twilight's name and charged her horn.

The purple mare had been pinned in a mud puddle by a blue pony that quickly found themselves flying off of the mare in a telekinetic toss. Sunset rushed to Twilight's side and pulled her out of the mess.

“Twilight, are you alright!?”

“I don't think so...” Twilight woozily replied as she swayed a bit on her hooves. She wasn't sure what had happened, but she could deduce from the fuzzy vision, the two Sunsets in front of her (each with their own dragon, how cool is that) and the particularly irritated spot on her now-aching back, she had been hit with something, and it had broken through her shell. That's not good, she thought. I should ask where Celestia is so she can fix it. “Hey, uhhh... do wonna you Sunsets know where the Princess is? I broke myself again, I think.”

“Twilight, just sit down for a minute, okay?” Sunset gently coerced the delirious purple mare to do as asked. “We'll fix you in a little bit.” She pivoted again to where she had thrown the offending pony, her face alight with fury, unmindful of the baby dragon she flung off her back in the process, or his dull groan of pain.

The cyan mare in question had leathery wings, and was propped up against a house with her back legs in the air. “Um--”

“YOU.” Sunset Shimmer's horn began to glow again, this time becoming wrapped in flames. “Pretty gutsy of a bat-pony to attack in broad daylight.”

“Whoa whoa, hold up a minute--” The cat-eyed perpetrator scrambled back to her hooves, only to be greeted by the uncomfortable heat of Sunset's horn mere inches from her muzzle. She backed up into a sitting position, forehooves in the air.

“But are you aware that the mare you just assaulted is the personal student of Princess Celestia AND one of the royal overseers of the Summer Sun Celebration!?”

The bat-pony's eyes went very wide then. “oh jeez-- W-wait, you got it all wrong, ma'am! It was a total accident!”

“And you expect me to believe you?”, Sunset challenged.

A frantic nod was the blue mare's response. Sunset scoffed.

“You have ten seconds to explain yourself, then.”

“'Kay.” The mare took a deep breath to calm herself a bit. “I fell off my napping cloud.”

“...what”

“Total, honest truth, I swear on my apple allowance! I was resting up on my cloud up there,” she pointed a forehoof to a cloud that was indeed directly overhead where Twilight currently sat recovering, “and I'm a restless sleeper so I probably rolled right off and I am totally sorry about hurting her please Idonwannagetthrownintothesundon'ttelltheprincessi'mhereplease!”

Sunset narrowed her eyes into a piercing glare. “That sounds like an awfully contrived coincidence.”

Twilight had regained herself by now, and was anxiously watching the interrogation. “Sunset...”

“Yeah, if it wasn't the truth I would think it was horseapples too, but I swear I'm not lying!”

The fiery unicorn's horn flared even brighter. “Let's say I don't believe you! Let's say I think that you're a lying filthy bat-pony who's been tailing us and waiting for a chance to strike at the Princess where it hurts her the most! Let's say you're an impatient and stupid bat-pony who couldn't wait until we would be separated, and your bloodsucking fetish got the better of you!”

“Sunset--”

She stepped closer. “You are so very screwed since the Princess isn't here right now. All she would have done is thrown you in the dungeon to rot for the rest of your pathetic life. Maybe if she was feeling particularly merciful, she'd execute you on the spot!”

“Sunset--”

“But you had the misfortune of attacking Twilight in my presence instead. You will die today, bat-pony, but it will not be quick, nor will it be painless!!”

“SUNSET SHIMMER!”

Sunset paused at Twilight's voice and looked back at her muddy form.

“I believe her.”

“Wh-- But Twilig--”

“And I forgive her!”

Sunset's spell dimmed somewhat as she turned away from her quarry. “Twilight, you can't be serious.”

Spike chimed in from his seat on the ground, “Actually, I believe her too. I even saw her fall.”

The princess's advisor stood outmatched by the situation. In the face of all that she knew about the mare behind her, she had no choice but to trust Twilight's word and Spike's testimony. After a moment, the flame on her horn dissipated, and she remarked to the blue pony, “You're lucky she's too nice to hate you.”

The leather-winged pony visibly deflated, relieved, before standing up and puffing out her chest with a smirk on her lips. “Heh, luck's got nothin' to do with how much ponies love me.”

Sunset gave the mare a dully annoyed look. “...I'm half-inclined to punch you anyway.”

“Betcha I punch harder.”

“No way in Tartarus, bloodsucker!”

“You're mom's a bloodsucker!”

“Joke's on you, my mother's dead!”

“Well that blows hard!”

“You're darn right it does!”

“Sorry for your loss!”

“Thanks!” And Sunset walked away from the pony, feeling like she totally won that argument. She went to inspect the damage she had done to Twilight and frowned. “Her garish head must have hit you pretty hard; there's an open fissure on your back. Ugh, there's probably mud in the impact wound now...”

The bat-pony winced at that. “You want I should help?”

“You've done quite enough, now get out of--” Sunset was pushed aside by the cyan pony.

“Lemme clean ya up. 's the least I can do.”

Before Twilight could potentially object the pony darted off, returning with a small raincloud. She positioned it over the muddy unicorn and stomped as much rain as she could out of the gray fluff, drenching Twilight in shivering cold water as it washed away the filth. With a kick, the now-empty cloud disappeared, and the rainbow-maned pony began to fly around her at an intense speed in a tight circle, creating a whirlwind. For the second time in five minutes the false unicorn was made very woozy, no thanks to the cackling wind spinning her about. But as she came to a stop and inspected herself, Twilight was delighted to find that all the mud was gone.

“Thank you, miss, uh...”

The pony did a backflip and alighted on the ground, clearly enjoying the praise. “The name's Rainbow Dash, Guardian of Ponyville, Future Wonderbolt, and the Fastest Flier in All of Equestria!”

“Well, Rainbow Dash, thank you for the um, impromptu shower. I do appreciate it.” Twilight repeated her gratitude, and then was stricken by an epiphany. “GASP! You're a thestral!”

Rainbow looked pleasantly surprised. “Wow, you're the first pony in a real long time to actually call me that. Most of them just settle for being racists.” She stole a sidelong glance at Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight took in the pony before her (who began to pose at the attention) with wide and sparkling eyes. She'd read about the thestral tribe several times before in her research, but she never even dreamed of seeing one in the flesh! And it was all there, clear as crystal; the dragon-like wings, the catlike eyes, the fangs for chewing meat... But that raised a rather poignant question.

“Why aren't you with the others?”

The grin on Rainbow's face disappeared for the briefest of moments before it returned in full force. “Let's just say I was too awesome for them to handle and they were too lame for my style.”

Twilight came uncomfortably close to the prismatically-maned thestral. “I have SO MANY QUESTIONS.”

“Uh, cool... I guess I can answer some of them for ya.” Rainbow backed up to get some breathing room. “I gotta get back to my nap soon, tho; can't train when you're tired, y'know.”

“Training for what?”, Twilight asked.

Somehow, Rainbow's grin became even toothier. She shot up into the air and landed on a cloud. “The Wonderbolts!”, she exclaimed. “They're gonna perform at the Celebration tomorrow, and I'm gonna show 'em my stuff!”

“I don't know if they'd accept thestrals...”

“Psh. Even if they don't, they'll have to make an exception for the best flier Equestria's ever seen!”

Sunset had frankly had enough of the brash blustering and boasting from the blue batmare, and wanted to get back to business. “I got next question. You wouldn't by any chance happen to know Ditzy Doo, Rainbow Dash? Because her weather team is supposed to be clearing the skies right about now and we couldn't help but notice that there's clouds all over.”

At this, Rainbow facehooved. “Ugh, they put Ditzy in charge of the weather today? Nothin' against her, but she's such a massive screw-up I dunno how the mayor could have picked her.”

Sunset pondered that information for a moment. “Well then, I'll bring this up with the mayor when we meet with her. C'mon, Twilight.” She turned once more for the town hall.

“No waitwaitwaitwait!”

Sunset sighed, and did yet another 180. I swear I'm gonna become one of those fancy new gramophone machines at this rate. “What?”

Rainbow Dash's eyes darted back and forth for a second. “Uhhm... I'm her weather team!”

“You.”

“Yep! Totally!”

“...I get the distinct impression you're lying to me again. And this time I think I'm right.”

“Nuh-uh! Applejack'd kill me if I lied to you!” Not that she's gonna find out, Rainbow thought.

“So instead of doing your job, you've been dozing off and literally drooling on your work. And you're the only other pony taking care of the weather?”

“Yup!” Rainbow absentmindedly wiped at her mouth.

Sunset stared, clearly not amused by the thestral above her. “Then I guess I'll just tell the mayor you've been slacking off.”

The cyan pony scoffed. “Whatev's. I can clear the sky in ten seconds flat.”

“There is literally no way you could possibly do that. Even if you started right now, it would take you until well past sundown to clear the entire sky by yourself--”

Rainbow was suddenly in Sunset's face, and a timer was being placed in her hooves. “Hold this.”

The blue pony started the timer, and immediately disappeared from Sunset's vision. She jumped back in surprise, instinctively grabbing the timer with her magic.

Shelooked up to the sky and stared in awe as clouds on one side of Ponyville's airspace would be kicked out of existence, almost instantly followed by clouds on the other side. It all happened so fast that it looked for all the world that a beam of rainbow was bouncing off the fluffy things like a life-size pinball machine. In no time at all, the sky was cleared of everything that could possibly obstruct the sun, and Rainbow Dash touched down before her with a hoof stopping the timer.

“Ten...”

Seconds...

“Flat.”

Sunset had to admit, she was extremely impressed.

Rainbow trotted over to an equally amazed Twilight, chuckling all the way. "Hey, uh, what was your name?"

"Huh?" Twilight shook her head out of the awed daze she was in. "Oh, um, I'm Twilight Sparkle."

Rainbow's smug grin became more genuine. "You're alright, Twilight Sparkle. If you're not busy bein' too cool for all us little ponies tomorrow, it'd be awesome to hang out some more."

"Yuh?"

The thestral began snickering again, "Yeah, totally! Nice mane-do, by the way. See ya later!"

With that, Rainbow Dash bolted off into the sky.

Twilight stared at where the pony was a second ago, dimly aware that Spike had been laughing like a madpony for the past few minutes for some reason.

"...Buh?"

Author's Notes:

Rainbow Dash is probably my favorite to write.

-N

3rd Verse - Shaded Truths

“I can't believe it.”

“What?”

“You actually did it.”

Twilight was very rapidly becoming fed up with being the last to figure this out. “Did what!?”

Spike bounced on his new, much less Sunset-colored perch on Twilight's back. He'd been placed there when it was discovered he could conceal the break in her shell. “Equestria to Twilight! Were you even with us a few minutes ago?”

“YES, Spike! I am fairly certain I've been here the entire morning!”

Sunset, despite their recent dealings with ponies, was in an extremely good mood. “Isn't it obvious, girl? You've actually made a friend!”

Urk.

“No, I did not! That was nothing more than manners and academic curiosity – I mean, who wouldn't be ecstatic to see a real-life thestral who is more than eager to talk about themselves?”

“Sounded to us more like you were making a connection.” Sunset grinned knowingly.

Twilight growled. “No friend-making has occurred today yet, Sunset. I have done as you oh so nicely asked and already interacted far more than I would like.” She glanced around to make sure nopony else was looking, and then adjusted her saddlebags with her magic. “The important thing is that it's only just now noon, and we've already crossed off two points on the list. I'd like to keep this momentum up, so can we please drop the silly making friends nonsense because it isn't happening and move on!?”

The other unicorn's muzzle twisted in a smirk. “Alright, we'll accept your denial for now, Twi.” Twilight groaned loudly at this. “In any case, you are absolutely right. We've been blowing through these far faster than I had expected.” Sunset perused the list she levitated to her face. “Well! Town hall decorations are next.” She lowered the scroll to reveal a sheepish grin. “Heh, maybe it would have been best to actually look at this in full before shoving you out the door...”

Twilight's irritation magnified to astronomical levels upon hearing this. “UGH!! How much stupid walking around could we have avoided if you did that???” As they entered the square once more, the mare split away from Sunset. “I'm going to drop off my bags in the library and be right back.”

Sunset sat on the green lawn, before realizing that was what everypony else was doing and searched for a chair to use instead. While looking, she appraised the quaint square.

Yep, she thought, definitely a commoner village. The most obvious denoting of this was the fact that almost everypony walked around with no clothes on. It was lightly awkward to see everyone outside in the nude, but Sunset wasn't one to judge, since she did so herself. She saw that the golden dais had finally arrived from Canterlot and was in the process of being set up. Tomorrow morning, the princess would stand tall, regal and radiant upon it, and she would raise the sun of the new year, and she and Twilight would stand by her side.

Hopefully...

Sunset tore her gaze away from the familiar dais and returned to watching the unfamiliar earth ponies and pegasi flitting about their home. If she were being completely honest with herself, the fire-haired unicorn liked these ponies. There was no pretense or elitism to be found in this village – hay, they even seemed to accept the bat-pony-- thestral, she reminded herself. It's not gonna to do you any good to speak of these ponies like that. If the unicorns of Canterlot were leeches and mosquitoes, these were the helpful little ants and ladybugs of Equestria, contributing positively to the infrastructure and beauty of the country with none of the icky creepiness of real bugs. For the life of her, Sunset could not see what Celestia saw in Canterlot's citizens, but if it were more these ponies she referred to when addressing her subjects, then she understood.

“So, are we actually gonna go inside or what?”

Sunset jolted out of a thoughtful reverie she hadn't realized she fell into at Spike's voice. “Oh, you're back. Uh, yeah. Where'd you get the umbrella?”

Twilight was now being shaded by an ornate violet parasol in the grasp of Spike's claw. “I had packed it but forgot to get it out. Not that I'll need it if we're going inside.” She turned her gaze to the great beige carousel building, which Sunset appraised as well.

“Well, at least you have one,” Sunset rose from her seat on the ground. I could swear I stood up... “Gives you one less thing to complain about today.”

Twilight thought the interior looked magnificent.

Most years the Celebration was held in Canterlot, whose streets were usually decked with banners singing the sun's praises year-round, so the additions for the event went mostly unnoticed. Now, however, against the humbleness of Ponyville, they showed their true selves, and they were absolutely beautiful. There were even flags depicting the moon hanging from the left balcony! She was certain she'd never seen those. Or maybe they just hadn't stood out before.

“Beautiful..”

“I have to agree Spike, this all looks amazing!” Twilight was very pleased that the drake had developed a sense of taste for décor recently; she didn't really have the time to look into beautifying the tower and it would help immensely if Spike were to take an interest in--

“Whuh?” The scaly rider shook his head as if to clear away a drowsy haze. “No, not the stuff, her!”

Spike pointed a claw to the center stage of the hall, where an alabaster unicorn with a luxuriantly curled mane of indigo stood with her tail to the trio. She appeared to be giving the decorations a critical eye, a hoof to her mouth in thought.

Twilight could feel Spike fidgeting on her back. “How're my spines? Are they straight? Are my teeth white enough?”

Sunset giggled at the little dragon. “You look fine, loverboy. I don't think it's you who has anything to worry about.”

Spike cracked up again at that, and Twilight had the distinct feeling it was her that they were talking about. “I'm not sure what's so funny, but I think if you just stay put, Spike, no one's going to notice.”

The giggling from the baby dragon evolved into full-blown laughter.

The white unicorn tied a pair of great sparkling red ribbons around the brass support poles flanking the stage and began to turn toward the door. “Hmm, yes. Sparkle always does the trick. Would have deduced that a bit faster had that commotion outside not bled in here. What is that laughing about anyway--” She froze at the sight of her audience, and Twilight gasped.

Her horn was split open. It was split in four and sitting on her forehead in pieces. And her eyes! They were a bloody crimson! Pupils that should have belonged on an amphibian shrank in horror, and the unicorn's mutilated horn opened further to reveal another red eye, this one catlike in appearance.

Twilight shrieked. The white mare shrieked as well. Sunset pulled her ears flat to her skull in response.

“My goodness, dear!!,” The mutilated unicorn recovered her voice first, “what happened to your coiffure!?”

Twilight looked at her mane for the first time since this morning. It was a frizzy gnarled mess, sitting atop her head in a disarrayed afro. Her shock was briefly replaced with annoyance. “Oh, so that's what all the laughing was about. Thanks a lot, guys.” Spike oddly said nothing. Sunset took a moment to stifle a laugh.

“Oh dear.” The pale-coated mare stood up on her back legs effecting as if she were about to faint. “Here I am standing utterly indecent, thinking I have the blessing of privacy to arrange the décor, and a fashion disaster walks in to see me in all my shame. It would seem a discussion with the mayor about the meaning and importance of privacy needs to happen before we work together again...”

“Oh yeah, I meant to ask about that; what happened to your horn!!? What is that thing!?”

“...I suppose an explanation is in order. Just a moment, please!” The mare returned to all fours, and from the eye where her horn should be wept a red mist, enveloping her utterly for a brief moment. When it cleared, the mare stood with her horn together in perfect, unbroken beauty, and her terrifying eyes replaced with mesmerizing deep blue pools, sparkling and wide like any other pony's.

Both Twilight and Spike were dumbfounded.

“But first! We shall all steal away for my boutique! Your hair is absolutely dreadful, darling, and I simply cannot allow you to strut about with it in that state any longer.” With that, she leapt off the stage, landing daintily, and strode out at a brisk trot.

Twilight numbly followed the mare out of town hall with a whispered “Okay.” Sunset brought up the rear as they left the building.

“Oh my, the two of you are from Canterlot?”

The one thing keeping Twilight Sparkle's patience from running out at this point was the promise of an explanation from this mare – Rarity, she called herself. A walk down Ponyville's Stirrup Street had led the unicorns into a much more extravagant carousel building, which the pony called her home and place of business. To Twilight's dismay, the actual explaining had not occurred first thing, merely basic pleasantries uttered as Rarity fussed over Twilight's mess of a mane for what felt like hours. And the various outfits she was stuffed into had been just unnecessary.

She had attempted to plead with Sunset and Spike to save her, but the other unicorn seemed to be thoroughly enjoying watching her be tortured in such a way from the luxury of the lounge area, and Spike's silence was explained by his being utterly enraptured by the fashionista mare.

I swear, Celestia is watching this from somewhere, somehow, downright snickering into her hoof over what she's putting me through... The purple mare was mercifully spared questions about her wound, even though Rarity had to have seen it in the process of dressing up Twilight like a living doll.

“Oh, I am so envious!” That's right, the melodramatic mare was going on about something. “The glamour, the sophistication! I've always dreamed of living there!”

Canterlot. Right. “Well, uh, it's not quite as amazing as it may seem...”

“Ohoho, I can imagine, darling. Who knows what sort of scandalous and sordid affairs go on behind closed doors high atop Canterhorn in that magnificent marble piece of paradise? Why, you might, of course!” A dainty smile danced on Rarity's lips, only thinly veiling her intense hunger for gossip.

Twilight did her absolute best to pretend her temper wasn't being tested and put on her biggest grin. “I think the more interesting story to share might be yours.” Please for the love of the heavens.

“Ah, yes. I did say I would explain myself, hadn't I?” The fashionista's cheery mood drained as she examined the rib-crushing corset she had tied Twilight into. “Emerald? What was I thinking...? Perhaps ruby would be a better fit...”

Rarity's blue eyes returned to the false unicorn's face, or rather, her mane, which was back to the way Twilight preferred it. “Well your hair looks nowhere near as hideous – quite pleasing in its simplicity, actually, excellent choice – so I have gotten what I desired from our transaction.”

The white mare spun away and rose up on two legs, casting her mane back as her horn split open again. Twilight couldn't help but be unnerved by the sight as the red mist pouring from her head enveloped Rarity once more. It lingered for but a breath, before falling away to reveal the changed mare.

Up close, it was obvious that her three eyes were not the only alien thing about this form Rarity had; her ears had been replaced with great white horns. Underneath them, on the sides of her head were new orifices that Twilight could only guess were ears, though she'd never seen any like them before. On her left foreleg was an unsightly brand resembling a pair of horns on a bull-ring, and her actual tail was much longer than any pony Twilight had read about, with only a small tuft of coiled hair on the end.

“Well... this is moi. What you are looking at is the raw, unfiltered, true Rarity.” She remained on her back legs as she looked away in shame. “There are only four other ponies who have had the misfortune of seeing me like this. Look! Look upon me!” As Rarity gesticulated theatrically a teapot boiled from the kitchen adjacent to the foyer. “Actually no! Don't look at me; I'm hideous! Let me get that...”

Rarity walked to prepare the tea for her guests as Twilight finally felt permitted to sit down, taking her seat next to Sunset in the lounge area.

The white mare returned with the tea a short moment later, four cups being grasped by teal magic, a black cloud, a claw, and a red mist. Rarity took a sip from hers, and let it calm her nerves for a time before she began once more.

“I'm sure it is obvious to you all that I am not a normal pony.”

“You look stunning...” The young drake finally managed.

“Oh! My, you are far too kind, little one.” A blush formed on the fashionista's pale muzzle. “Well, I suppose I am very fetching for a demon, but only magic can truly salvage... this.” She gestured to herself with a wave of her forehoof.

Twilight's eyes sparkled once again with wide-eyed wonder. “A demon?”

“Yes, indeed; straight from the darkest bowels of Tartarus, I have risen and managed to walk verdant and gorgeous Equestria – uninvited, of course. I sincerely doubt that the princess would take kindly to the knowledge you'll be taking to her tomorrow that I live amongst her subjects...”

Sunset spoke up for the first time since their arrival, “I wouldn't fret so much. She already knows.”

“What!?”

“What!?” Twilight jerked her head to her companion. “What do you mean, 'she already knows'???”

Sunset drank some of her tea, and cleared her throat. “Princess Celestia has been aware of your presence since you started making a name for yourself in Ponyville. I am not only her advisor, but also manager of her network of domestic informants, who knew about you the second you set hoof in this town.”

Rarity gasped at that.

“And just when were you planning on telling me Ponyville had real live mythical creatures in it, Sunset?”

A half-lidded glance was thrown Twilight's way. “Never. You didn't need to know.”

The violet unicorn fumed. “You're starting to sound an awful lot like Celestia.”

“Twilight, think about it: until today, you've never once left High Canterlot in your entire life, and you had no plans of doing so. You legitimately had no reason to know about Rarity or Rainbow Dash.”

“But I would have come here willingly had I known there were paranormal ponies to study!” Twilight's forehooves flailed about in the air.

Rarity sat a bit taken aback by the outburst. “Er, darling, perhaps you should have some of your tea? It really helps the nerves, you know.”

Twilight was suddenly very much invading the demon pony's personal space, her increasingly manic mind grasping onto a question very important to her. “I need to know how you disguise yourself so easily!”

“Um--” Rarity did her best to gently push the unicorn away to a more polite distance. “I suppose it is quite the simple trick once you get to know it, but I'll say no more! I made a promise!”

“A promise to who?!?”

“And the stipulations of said promise extend to not divulging whom I had learned it from.” She turned her nose up in the air, before peeking one red eye at Sunset. “Though I suppose you are already aware of them, as well.”

Sunset nodded. Twilight, for her part, drooped and moped back over to the other unicorn.

“Oh well,” Rarity rose from her seat and walked to a nearby desk, her mist taking hold of a quill and parchment. “I guess it was wonderful while it lasted, but tomorrow the town shall be razed to the ground for harboring us as it has for all these years. If you'll do me one favor, please don't hurt the ponies; they have been nothing but gracious and kind, and they deserve better than to be thrown under the wagon with us.”

Sunset's eyes widened in realization. “Oh, no no no no no! I guess it wasn't clear enough – Celestia is very much at peace with your residence here! In fact the Summer Sun Celebration is meant to put Ponyville at ease about its unusual citizens.”

Rarity turned from the desk with a look of shock dominating her face. “Truly!?”

“I don't claim to know the princess's reasoning, but she told me that if they have a cutie mark, then they are as pony as anypony, and they will always be welcome.” She looked to Rarity's flank. “And that certainly looks like a cutie mark to me.”

The demon mare regarded her posterior as if seeing it for the first time. Indeed, each flank was emblazoned with a trio of sparkling blue diamonds, a symbol of her special talent for locating and using precious stones. She breathed a sigh of relief as tears began to form in her eyes.

“I... I'm at a loss for words... And all this time I was so terrified that she would bring her wrath upon this beautiful little town if word of my true self were to get away from me.”

Twilight watched Rarity with her blasted heart aching once again. She was feeling things again, and she didn't like it. Her body was nearly compelled to move before Sunset and Spike did what these sensations demanded she do. They walked to the white pony to offer their withers (or in Spike's case, shoulder) to cry on.

Sunset's hoof placed itself on Rarity's back (which also sported the same ugly brand as her foreleg Twilight noted) as she sat next to her. “I can only imagine the weight that's just been lifted from you.”

Rarity remained mostly composed, even as tears began to roll down her face. Her muzzle curved into a small smile as she sniffled. “I can finally put away that silly fear of mine... I can't go back there. I could never accept such a stubbornly disgusting and dreadful land as Tartarus after Equestria.” She looked to Sunset. “And now I know that I don't have to. I... I don't know how I could ever thank you for telling me this incredible news.”

“Well, I would say you could do so by making the town hall look immaculate for the Celebration, but you've already done that.” Sunset said with a half-smile.

The demon tittered at the unicorn's flattery. “Oh, please, it simply wouldn't do to put anything less than my all into helping make this Celebration the most magnifique the princess had ever laid eyes on. I would wager that I have managed to do just that.” Her tears dried as Rarity's face became one of satisfaction. Her eyes looked toward the baby dragon by her side. “And you! Such a little charmer, you are! Spike, was it? Even in my doom and gloom your kind words kept me from breaking down utterly, which frankly would have been embarrassing. Oh, aren't you just the cutest widdle dragon?”

Spike's face flushed so heavily that it could be seen through his scales. “I-i'm not cute! Dragons aren't supposed to be cute! Just you wait; I'll become a big and scary and handsome one day, and then what'll you say to that?”

Rarity chuckled once more at the youngling's histrionics. “I would probably say that you are indeed a fearsome and gorgeous sight to behold. And I do hope that I'll live to see you that way. But could you do me just one little thing?” Her eyes fluttered as the sweetest of smiles graced her muzzle, and Spike may as well have melted into a puddle on the carpet for how thoroughly his determination quailed in the face of his nascent crush.

“Anything for you, Miss Rarity...” The drake looked upon her dreamily.

“Don't be so eager to grow up, Spikey-wikey. You've been blessed with a pair of wonderful friends in these mares, and I'm sure they have so very much they would love to share with you in their lifetimes.” She squeezed his face, soft and squishy despite its scaly exterior. “And besides, you are just too adorable to grow up yet!”

Spike was too addled by his fluttering heart to protest. “Yes, ma'am...”

Author's Notes:

For some context, this and the next chapter were meant to be one big thing just like the previous one, introducing both Rarity and Fluttershy, but for the sake of being on time I cut it in half and posted them separately. Something like this would happen one more time, but unlike here, it took me an embarrassingly long time to finish the "second half".

-N

4th Verse - Peaceful Hearts

Twilight barely remembered departing from Rarity's boutique, and was trudging along behind Sunset now on automatic, lost in her thoughts.

A thestral and a demon living in an Equestrian village, she wondered, and if I'm insinuating correctly, there are even more than just the two... Years, she said... All these monsters right under our noses the whole time... And she was so terrified of the thought of ever leaving... “Rrrgh!” Curse this stupid empathy nonsense! How do ponies live with this menace?

“You know, you were extremely rude back there.”

“Huh?” The purple unicorn looked to her companion and found herself walking directly into her. An untangling of a pony pile later, Sunset huffed as she dusted herself off.

“Ugh. Are you even awake right now, Twi?”

“Yes! Sorry, sorry!” The purple mare held her head low to the ground, fully prepared for her coming admonishment. Spike nearly slid down her back, but he managed to keep his balance.

“I honestly can't believe how you've acted today. With the thestral I excused it because she wasn't exactly a bastion of etiquette herself, and you know, it really looked like you two were hitting it off.”

“We weren't becoming friends--”

“But that... That was the other reason I hadn't told you about them! You would have approached this task with entirely the wrong mindset and ended up ruining everything we've been working so hard for!”

Twilight continued to wilt. The purple dragon on her back wisely chose to keep silent.

“I am amazed at how generous that pony was to you with how you disrespected her like that.” The elder unicorn's hoof met with her face as she sighed heavily. “We asked you to do one thing, Twilight. Make some friends! I know you're not the most social pony out there but it's not pulling teeth!” Sunset turned back around to face their eventual destination.

Twilight mentally chided herself for forgetting her manners so easily. The Twilights had raised her better than that! Even if these were exactly what had fascinated her the last few years and had been the focus of her research, and learning about their first-hoof experience would be incredible -- ooh it gets me all gooey inside just thinking about it! -- she had been exceedingly rude to both Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Inexcusably so.

“Now,” The false pony looked up at the sound of Sunset's voice, “I may end up regretting this, but the last item on our list of things to check is the musical arrangements. Spoiler alert: I know that the mare in charge of this is not a normal pony either, and I have to stress how extremely important it is you do not approach her at all like you have the other two. Can you find your manners before we go meet with her?”

Twilight nodded vigorously. “Yes ma'am! I swear I will be nothing but polite from here on!”

Sunset knew Twilight's word to be good, so she did not press the issue further. “Excellent. Now it shouldn't be too... far...” her ears twitched at the sound of birds singing... in key? “You hear that?”

“Yeah...” The three started swiveling their heads and ears in every direction to locate the source of the odd sound, but it seemed to bounce off of every building.

“I think...” Sunset looked toward a crowd of ponies huddled around a bush who seemed to be watching something on the other side. Obviously... “We are about to find the mare in question.”

Twilight couldn't fully contain her glee as she let out an elated squeak in anticipation. But she quickly stopped herself and put on her serious face. She made a promise. Contrary to what her prodding Rarity may have made others think, she respected those deeply, and she would not break this one. She started after the other mare, who had already begun worming her way through the cluster of ponies.

Deep breath, Twilight. You can handle a group of ponies. “Excuse me. Pardon me. Whoops! Uh, sorry. Could you step aside please, sir?”

“Eeyup.”

“Thank you.” The unicorn and youngling drake stepped past the oddly familiar red stallion (must have seen him earlier today somewhere...) to finally rejoin with Sunset, who was waiting patiently for her what had turned out to be a park. Her head turned back forward, and Twilight followed her gaze to the source of the unusual bird choir.

As it happens, it was an actual bird choir. Avian creatures of all shapes and sizes were sitting on a petrified tree, singing together in organized harmony, as opposed to the mildly annoying randomness she normally heard from their sort. And directing them was a pale yellow pegasus with a pink mane and a plain blue cloche hat.

“Is that her?” Twilight asked.

“Yep,” Sunset stretched her legs. “Can't recall her name, but I definitely remember her face from the color photos in my folder back home-- uh Twilight?”

The younger mare started toward the pegasus once she had noticed a lull in the singing. “I'll handle this.”

“Twi--”

“I won't screw this up; I promised. Hold this.” She levitated Spike off of her back – who giggled at the sparks of dark magic tickling his scales – And trotted confidently up to the tree.

“...well, if you think you might be sick, Mr. Bluejay, then, um, perhaps you should sit this out, maybe...” The lone bluejay chirped, “Oh no! I don't think you wouldn't be able to do it; you have a wonderful voice! I just don't want you to hurt yourself...”

The bird appeared to be ashamed, and it descended to the grass.

“Oh, thank you for thinking of your health, Mr. Bluejay~. I promise I'll make it up to you as best I can.” The pegasus raised her head back to the rest of the feathered chorus. “Alright everyone, from the top. Now, follow me please. A-one, a-two, a-one two three--”

“Hello!”

Every living thing in Twilight's vision jumped at her greeting, most especially the pony, who darted into a nearby bush. The birds all flew off as well.

Sunset and Spike both facehooved. “Well, at least she tried...”

Twilight inwardly panicked. This had already gone terribly and she hadn't even said two words! Oh, What are you supposed to do in this sort of situation??? Apologize? Is it apologize-- Yes! That's right!

“Oh my, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to frighten your birds!” The pegasus poked her head out of her protective foliage. “I-I'm just here to check up on the music, and it is sounding beautiful.”

The timid mare crawled out of the bush, but she failed to meet Twilight's too-wide grin, looking at the incredibly interesting ground instead. They stood there in awkward silence for longer than the unicorn felt was necessary.

Uh, Uhmm, what do I say? Twilight looked briefly back to Sunset, hoping if she thought hard enough she would come save her from this. Tell her your name! I mean, it's only polite! Gotta stay polite, Twilight!

“I'm Twilight Sparkle.” Silence.

Oooh, this is bad, really bad! If I don't fix this then the birds won't sing at the Celebration and it'll all be ruined and Celestia will banish me or throw me in a dungeon or throw me in a dungeon in the place she banished me to and the Dark Mare will return and everything will be chaos and suffering and it'll be all. My. Fault! “...What's your name?”

The pegasus began to cower as she realized she had to respond. “Um-- I'm Fluttershy...”

She answered! Yes! You can do this, girl! Twilight leaned in closer. “I'm sorry, what was that?”

“Um... my name is fluttershy...”

The unicorn leaned in even more. “Diiiiidn't quite catch that.”

All Twilight got from the mare this time was a high-pitched whimper as she hid her face.

Twilight's eyes flitted about as she struggled to pretend nothing was wrong. No, nothing at all was going to explode or become eternal night here! She caught sight of the tree's branches, where the birds were sitting once more. Oh, thank the heavens. “Well, um, it looks like your birds are back! So I guess everything's in order. Er, keep up the good work!”

The pegasus continued whimpering even as Twilight turned to leave. She returned to Sunset and Spike, who met her halfway. “Well, that was easy.”

“A baby dragon!”

Before she could make a 180 to inspect the source of the shout, Twilight found herself flung into the air from behind. She landed in a flowerbed, mercifully saving her from head trauma this time, but a quick inspection of her side revealed that her shell had fractured further. Perfect.

“Oh, I've never seen a baby dragon before!” The false unicorn looked to see that her assailant was in fact the pegasus, currently excitedly examining Spike from every angle. He's sooooo cute!”

“Well, well, well!” The drakeling had a smug look on his face as he looked back at Twilight, who had gotten up and returned to the group.

Sunset snorted. “A few minutes ago you didn't want to be cute.”

“That was different!”

“Psst! Sunset!” Twilight gestured to the cracks along her right side frantically.

Oh, horsefeathers. “C'mere and stand close to me. I'll block it from view.”

“Oh my, he talks~! I didn't know dragons could talk!” The hat-bearing mare ignored the unicorns. That's just so incredibly wonderful-- I just don't even know what to say!”

Sunset loudly cleared her throat. “Well, in that case, we'd better be going! You can have that back.” She levitated Spike back onto Twilight.

The pegasus mare flew in front of them. “Wait, wait! What's his name?”

The dragon, clearly enjoying the attention, responded for them. “I'm Spike!”

“Hi Spike! I'm Fluttershy.” Fluttershy touched down on Twilight's left to speak with the hatchling, a spring in her step and an infectious smile on her muzzle. Twilight could swear she heard a faint buzzing for some reason. “Oh wow, a talking dragon! What do dragons talk about?”

“Well, what do ya wanna know?”, Spike countered.

“Absolutely everything~.”

Sunset groaned.

“Well,” the scaly child began as the pegasus fell a step behind to more comfortably look at him, “I started out as a cute little purple egg...”

While Spike and Fluttershy spoke animatedly about the young drake's life Twilight and Sunset walked on with rapt attention and apparent boredom, respectively. The purple mare leaned over to whisper in the other unicorn's ear, her eyes looking back surreptitiously to the buttery-colored pegasus.

“Sunset, what is she?”

Though she was relieved that Twilight hadn't scared the pony off this time, Sunset couldn't help but feel the prospect of all the mythozoology they had encountered was going to derail her charge utterly. Nonetheless, she whispered back; “Apparently she's a changeling.”

Twilight's eyes began to glow brightly as a grin wide as an ocean cracked upon her face with a gasp.

“But she's been observed doing things that require higher thought processes that a normal changeling isn't supposed to have, so the princess thinks she might be some kind of changeling leader.”

Twilight's smile somehow became even wider as she gasped again in delight. “Does that mean--?”

“No, Ponyville is not secretly a changeling hive. We checked. So apparently she's alone; no comrades and no thralls of any sort. And her disguise isn't even anypony who had lived here before, either, so she must have replaced the pegasus elsewhere and never needed a new form.”

“Oooh-- we gotta let this go on; she might tell her story to Spike!”

“Honestly, at this point?” Sunset turned her head to Twilight in full. “We've done everything we need to for the preparations, and I'd like to just unwind for a bit at the library.”

Twilight instinctively began to protest before she remembered the library was by far her favorite place to be in this town as of yet, and after all, she still had work to do. She was torn. Help save Equestria from certain doom... Learn about a changeling in pony... She took a note from the filly from that morning and weaponized her puppy-dog eyes. “Can we walk there slowly?”

Sunset's will crumpled like a wadded up paper. “...Whatever, fine.”

“...and that's the story of my whole entire life! Well, up until today. Do you wanna hear about today?“

The leisurely stroll back to the tree library had taken until the beginning of sundown, and Spike's tale-spinning (which he smartly excluded certain sensitive information from) had lasted the entire way. Even Twilight's enthusiasm had waned utterly. Please say no...

Fluttershy, however, had listened to the dragon the whole time with eyes wide as dinner plates. “Oh yes, please!”

Sunset had had enough. They were at the door now, so this was where it ended. “Oh wow, how did we get here so fast!?”

Twilight also feigned surprise. “Oh! We are here! How about that? This is where we're staying while in Ponyville, and my poor baby dragon needs his sleep.”

Spike looked back at the unicorn, mildly annoyed at the notion. “No I don't-- whoa!” Suddenly he was on the ground, grumbling under his breath. “You wanna talk about rude...”

“Aww, wook at that. He's so sweepy he can't keep his widdle bawance!” Twilight looked up to the pegasus, praying she would buy it.

She did. In fact, she swooped down and took Spike in her forehooves and led the way inside. “Oh, you poor thing. We simply must get you to best right away.”

Sunset caught the changeling-pegasus in her magic before she could go too far in and separated the drake from her embrace. “And we will get right on that! Good night, Miss! We'll see you at dawn!” The yellow mare was levitated out the door and said door was slammed shut, leaving the trio in darkness.

“Finally!” Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. The day was finally over, and she hadn't made any dumb friends! Victory!

“Seriously, Spike,” Sunset fumbled around for the light switch on the wall with her magic. “We had spent long enough at the unicorn's place just watching her play dress-up with Twilight. I'm tired, I'm sure she's tired too, and we have to catch some early z's so we'll be awake for the ceremony.”

“And I need to get back to my research! We're running low on time, and I haven't even gotten started!” Twilight's glowing eyes started searching the wall for the switch as well. “Where is it...?”

As if in response, the lights came on, revealing that the three were not alone. The entire first floor of the library was full of ponies, each with a smile on their faces.

The silence was all too brief before they all shouted at the top of their lungs:

“SURPRIIIIISE!!”

Author's Notes:

Here I am saying I need more time to finish Fluttershy's introduction, and I end up basically copy-pasting the transcript of the show anyway... Honestly though, I couldn't find anything I really wanted to actually change about the scene, save for her talk with the bird.

Also, I haven't actualy mentioned this here, but I have been drawing the mane six as I publish these chapters. Fluttershy can be found here, and the rest should all be on the first page of the gallery. Only one left, and she's coming next week!

Spike will get his time to shine later, I promise.

-N

5th Verse - What A Surprise!?

“So are you a super secret monster pony too?”

Twilight sat as still as she could on the bed. How had it spiraled out of control like this? Go to Ponyville, oversee preparations, hole up in the library and search for a way to stop the Dark Mare, avoid interaction with anypony not important. Come sunrise, she would think of something and then Celestia would see her folly and defeat the Mare in the Moon -- for good this time. It was a simple plan she'd had, and her best plans were simple. It was foolproof.

The problem with foolproof plans was that one spent so much brainpower making sure the common pony couldn't ruin it that it was easy to forget that your associate was a veritable genius who actively worked to undermine your efforts. Even then, there was no accounting for the madness that was this pink... thing, in the room with them.

“No.” Sunset didn't look at the pony literally breathing down her neck, instead continuing to slave over the spell she would need to cast on Twilight.

“Well that's okay! I mean, cupcakes wouldn't be all that special if there weren't muffins! And I know for a fact that muffins can get really tasty! See, because cupcakes might have that tasty frosting on top with sprinkles to make 'em look extra pretty but they usually don't have stuff like blueberry in them like muffins-- ooh, but I did bake a batch of blueberry cupcakes once and those were extra tasty! So maybe you both got blueberries in you and that would super duper awesome!”

Her name was Pinkie Pie. She was talkative, excitable, so pink that it had to be illegal, a scientific impossibility that caused other scientific impossibilities, and she was now privy to Twilight's secret.

It had been her that had organized the surprise party presently ongoing in the library. About the time her obnoxiously colored head popped into view with a belated “Surpriiiise!,” of her own, Twilight had given up. She was defeated. Equestria was going to be plunged into nighttime eternal because she hadn't had the time to look up what she needed to and make the princess see the truth. It was over, and they were doomed, so there was nothing for it but to drown her sorrows in... whatever was being served here. Hopefully something very strong. Then she would notice it, at least.

Pinkie had accompanied her the entire way to the table where all the food and drink was, rambling on about something about knowing everypony in Ponyville and how she was excited or whatever. In hindsight it would have paid to not have tuned out the finer details of the world just yet. Twilight had thought the liquid she poured into the glass was oddly colored, but she didn't care anymore. Something about making friends from Pinkie Pie, (why is everypony so obsessed with interpersonal relationships today?, she wondered) and then it hit her.

The burning in her mouth. This was no juice, and certainly not alcohol.

“Hot sauce... huh. Didn't know you liked it intense, Twilight.” Spike said.

Her mouth and throat were on fire. Her eyes were watering and most distressingly, she could feel her disguise faltering on its already shaky legs. A fragment fell from her face, and she immediately darted at speeds she hadn't thought she was capable of for the second floor and slammed the door shut behind her. She was certain she had left a trail of of pieces behind her like breadcrumbs... but it really didn't matter anymore, now did it?

She sat there, leaning against the door as the vengeful spiciness faded and her shell fell away in piece by piece, catching her breath. A part of her felt like crying, another wanted to scream. But really she felt more numb than anything. Maybe it was the hot sauce.

Why did she even care so much, she asked herself? She wasn't a pony. She didn't need the sun to live. She liked the night sky better anyway! Would eternal night really be so bad? Certainly not for her.

After a time, Twilight had stood and walked to the vanity that was set up by the small staircase, the last of her pony form shedding from her back. She looked at the creature staring back at her in the mirror, her glowing, violet eyes surrounded by darkness.

Well, she supposed referring to her disguise as a pony form was somewhat of a misnomer, since she looked an awful lot like one anyway. Four legs, two eyes, floppy ears, a tail – even a cutie mark on both flanks. The pink and white stars still stirred happiness in her heart, even if only faintly at the moment. Her special talent was magic, and nothing would compare to the joy she felt that day in Celestia's chambers when her rump was spangled with them. Of course, that moment was more than somewhat diminished when she discovered it was dark magic she was proficient with, but the fact that she had a cutie mark at all had fueled her hopes that maybe, just maybe, she could be normal regardless. For a time, anyway. Eventually Twilight had come to the decision that it would be better for everypony if she just kept to herself. Which she would have done anyway; other ponies always had made her anxious for some reason.

What am I, even? What manner of beast is so like these equine people, and yet so much more terrifying? Who would be so cruel as to allow for something like me to exist?

Why would they leave me to live with them?

A knock at the door had shaken Twilight from the thoughts that had played through her head countless times before, still with no answers.

“Twi, it's us.” Sunset's voice muffled its way through the wood, and the handle was quickly enveloped in a black cloud. It swung ajar enough for the unicorn to enter with Spike in tow, and quickly shut and locked itself.

“Sunset--”

“Don't worry about it, girl. That's my job right now.” Out of her saddlebags came a rolled scroll bearing the seal of confidentiality, which – being the mistress of Equestria's confidential information – Sunset broke without a thought. “Celestia gave me the spell for fixing your disguise, just in case something like this happened. I got you covered.”

Twilight felt some of her glumness dissipate on the wind of Sunset's assurance. Her anger toward the unicorn for getting in the way of her plans remained, but she was certain the mare had never intended to facilitate Twilight's illusion being literally shattered, and this was apology enough to her that she would accept it. The smallest of smiles graced her muzzle. "Thanks, Sunset."

The oddly warm moment ended abruptly when the sound of a door bursting open filled the suite. The source was betrayed by their ears as none other than Pinkie Pie herself. She had popped in somehow from the washroom despite having been downstairs, and laid her odd spiraling pupils on the true form of the false unicorn. The first thing out of her mouth in response wasn't a scream, or 'you're a monster!,'; nothing so simple to wrap one's head around. “Neat!,” she had said.

“Earth mare!” Sunset took the pink abomination in a tight stranglehold with her magic and yanked her close. “Explain yourself!”

“Well she ran up here awfully fast and my first thought was 'well she probably just has to use the little fillies room' but then you and this super-cool awesome dragon here went up the stairs all stiff and worried and it hit me! She must not be feeling okay! And then I got super worried because she might have been sick or something and that's no bueno, so I scrunched up into the air vent and slithered like a snake all the way up here but I ended up in the bathroom so I came through the door after I checked that nopony was hiding there and then I saw her like this and I was all like 'neat!,' and then you grabbed me and told me to explain myself so I did!”

Sunset was sure she had crushed the pony's windpipe so that she would need Sunset's permission to speak, so the unicorn was currently sitting with her mouth agape.

“Hold on a second,” Twilight brought a hoof to her muzzle in thought as she scrutinized Pinkie with narrowed eyes. “I've seen you before...”

The exuberant mare blew a raspberry. “Well, duh, silly! I surprised you three downstairs like five minutes ago!”

“No, before that!” Twilight proceeded to rack her brain for the point of reference she had for the pink mare, as the pony in question was relinquished to the floor again. Somehow her neck was perfectly functional despite the vice-grip of Sunset's telekinesis contorting it into a bent shape.

It hit the false pony. “You're the pony who I tried to talk to first thing! You ran off without a word!”

Pinkie giggled and snorted at the violet mare's behavior. “Gosh, girl; you must have your head in the clouds more than Rainbow Dash! Ooh wait! Do they taste like cotton candy?”

Twilight's expression would go on to become the dictionary definition of dumbfounded. She stared in disbelief. This mare was somehow real, actually sitting in front of her with her pink coat and pinker mane and her neck snapped in four different places, asking about the taste of clouds like they were sitting out and having lunch.

Forget figuring out what I am! “What are you???”

“I already told you! But since you're so adorably fuzzily scary looking in the best way, I guess I can spell it out for you nice and slowly.” The mare took a deep breath that somehow straightened her neck back out, but her impossible antics didn't stop there. Her hoof! Little protrusions emerged from it as the frog distended, and in entirely the wrong direction, until the pink pony's right foreleg was topped off with what could only be a minotaur hand. She snapped her newfound fingers and a chalkboard popped into existence behind her, sticks of chalk moving on their own to illustrate her tale:

“A-hem! I'm Pinkie Pie, and I have no idea what I am except a pony who likes to put a smile on everypony's face! I go with earth pony though, because I can buck a mean applebuck. Just ask Applejack!” She pointed to the charmingly crude drawing of herself on the board with her grotesque and alien and wrong index finger. “I was asleep for a really long time, I don't know how long, but I woke up one day suddenly, and I didn't know who I was! But what I DID know was that there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky, and I'd never seen something so amazing and fantastic!” Outlines of a rainbow were drawn above the crude Pinkie, bridging a gap between two triangles that Twilight had to guess were mountains. She was holding onto these small and mundane details, for fear she would go mad in the mutant pony's presence otherwise.

The chalkboard was wiped clean by an animate eraser and its green expanse was replaced with Pinkie giving cake and presents to various other ponies surrounding her. “Ever since then, I just had to share that feeling with everyone! It'd be awfully selfish of me to keep that happiness to myself, and once I got a taste of what ponies look like when they're happy, I knew what I was going to do! And so did my cutie mark!” The board was cleared again, and the chalk drew a trio of balloons with their strings spiraling together. Indeed, this was what was emblazoned on either side of the pink pony's rear. An embarrassingly eye-catching group of islands in blue and yellow on a pink sea. It certainly didn't help matters that it was being shaken in Twilight's face.

A snort of stifled giggles came from the false unicorn's right, and she found the sanity to glare at Sunset again.

“I'd swear the sun was right here in this room with how bright your face is, Twilight.” The unicorn's muzzle scrunched up, doing its absolute best to contain the cascade of laughter that threatened to drown them all.

“Pinkie!” Twilight shoved the flank away from her personal space. “Tha-- that's extremely lewd! Why would you do that!?”

“I just wanted to make sure you saw my cutie mark, Twilight.” And her face bore the most innocent of smiles as the chalkboard and its accompaniment vanished at another snap of pink fingers.

The purple mare's eye twitched. Her voice next came with unnerving calmness, “I think I need to lie down for a minute.”

Sunset, who had managed to defeat her incoming laughing fit, nodded at this. “That's actually a good idea. I need you to be still while I cast this.” She turned her attention to the intruding logical fallacy machine that called itself a pony. “As for you...”

“Hi there!”

“You'll not breathe a word about what you saw of Twilight to anyone, or you'll regret it.” Her horn lit up in flames to punctuate her threat.

“Oooh, cool beans!” Pinkie Pie marveled at the fire for a moment before donning an uncharacteristically serious face. “I Pinkie Promise to not tell anypony that Twilight is a super secret monster pony! Cross my heart,” her alien hand crossed over her chest, “hope to fly,” she flapped her forelegs, “stick a cupcake in my eye!” Her hand slapped loudly against her eye. The pony cracked a smile again. “You can't break those!”

Put off by the display, Sunset managed a “yeah, sure, whatever” before turning to rejoin her charge, who had scaled the steps up the landing where a bed lay at the top. No sooner had she reached it that the pink mare was in her bubble. “So, are you a super secret monster pony, too?”

“No.” Sunset pointedly continued to examine the spell scroll she had with her.

“Well that's okay! I mean, cupcakes wouldn't be all that special if there weren't muffins! And I know for a fact that muffins can be really tasty! See, because cupcakes might have that tasty frosting on top with sprinkles to make 'em look extra pretty but they usually don't have stuff like blueberry in them like muffins-- ooh, but I did bake a batch of blueberry cupcakes once and those were extra tasty! So maybe you both got blueberries in you and that would super duper awesome!”

“Fascinating, now please leave. I need total concentration for this.”

“Okie-doki-loki!” With that, Pinkie Pie backflipped off and to the floor, landing with a bounce.

Spike, who had watched the entire thing with equal parts wonder and horror, finally found his voice. “...So, can I go down and join the party?”

Twilight opened her mouth to deny the baby dragon his request but Pinkie zipped into the whole of his vision. “Of course! You just gotta come down and play games with me! Nopony around here has any claws so I have to do all the normal stuff most of the time.”

“Knock yourself out, Spike.” Sunset waved her hoof to shoo them away. “Nothing interesting's gonna happen up here for a while.”

“Sweet!”

“Sweet!”

The door was heard opening as the two shuffled out of the room. Sunset quickly re-closed and locked the door behind them.

“Remember how I said our first encounter with her was interesting?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah?”

“That was like food compared to what just happened.”

“Yep.”

With the manifestation of insanity gone from the suite, the violet pony-creature found she was rid of her previous penitence to fate. Somehow, Pinkie Pie had taken all the doom and gloom in her mind and thrown it away.

Unfortunately that only brought back to mind how she was utterly unprepared for the Dark Mare's return, and the fact that the sun had now completely set and the moon taken its place in the sky made those fears more urgent.

“Ponyfeathers.”

Twilight swiveled her head in Sunset's direction. “What's wrong?”

“The spell calls for dark magic. Not much of it, but...” The unicorn shook her head. “How can the princess handle that stuff...?”

Twilight's pointed ears reflexively lowered.

Sunset looked to her. “Think you could spare a teeny bit of yours?”

“Oh! Um, of course.” A blush colored Twilight's muzzle for the second time that evening.

“'Kay, just give me a second to prepare...” The unicorn closed her eyes and took a few deep, slow breaths. She leaned her head toward Twilight's. “Ready.”

The purple pony hesitated for but an instant before bringing her curved horn to Sunset's spiraling one, and they touched. Both mares briefly shivered at the sensation. Twilight willed her magic forth from the ley lines of her body, up through her brain, into and through her blackened conduit, as it billowed forth in a dark cloud. Violet electricity arced between the two horns as the dark magic reached out to corrupt all that existed. That was something Twilight had wished she could fully control.

Sunset's own horn sparked to life to absorb the malignant mana. Almost immediately she could feel it clawing at her mind as it attempted to break through her mental barrier, and it continued to grow stronger until the unicorn was visibly fighting the darkness off from her soul.

Twilight immediately interrupted the flow. “Sunset!”

“Gods above, Twi. I only needed a little bit of the stuff.” She grunted in pain as the magic tried to leak out of her head, struggling to contain it. “I got it, though. Just sit back and -- urgh! -- relax.”

The mare did as told, but her eyes never left the unicorn. Even as she conjured up the framework Sunset was beginning to sweat attempting to resist the dark power now coating her horn. The setup was slow-going as she wrangled the magic to bend to her will, but her face eventually became one of complete concentration, and Twilight felt her own magic dancing across her body. Only then did she begin to relax.

Her eyes returned to the window, where the moon was now high in the sky. There, on its pale surface, was the Mare in the Moon. What appeared to be a cluster of dark patches in the shape of a pony head, looking down upon Equestria in its silent vigil, like always. That was her. That was the Dark Mare, glaring at her prize like a hungry wolf, impatiently awaiting her moment.

I can't allow myself to be defeated so easily, she chastised herself. Even if you refuse to associate with the rest of ponykind, you still have ones you do care about. They need the sun to grow their food, to be healthy, to be happy! And they deserve to be happy, don't they? And that is why you have to stop her!

But how?

Twilight felt her pony disguise slowly coalescing around her. She heard Sunset's grunt of effort at keeping the magic under control. She entertained, not for the first time, that she might have been wrong.

I hope Princess Celestia was right. I hope it really is just another ponytale...

Celestia hated it when she was right sometimes.

She stood on the top balcony of Ponyville's town hall and looked upon the moon. She had risen it, and then experimentally tried to move it to a different spot, but it refused to budge from its place in the sky. In her peripheral vision she could see the four cardinal stars beginning to move toward it. To release their mistress.

It was happening tonight.

She heaved a sigh that was equal parts relief and resignation. “At long last, it'll finally be over. One way or another...”

Her weary rosy eyes fell from the celestial body to the tree across the way. In there, Twilight and Sunset were having a gay old time (she hoped) with the townsponies. It was in their hooves now.

She whispered one final apology their way, and she disappeared in a gentle flash of light, never to be seen again until the dawn that she was uncertain would ever come.

Author's Notes:

Pinkie Pie; higher-res illustration

EDIT: Pinkie's chalkboard story~

Spicy isn't a flavor, for the record. It's a different sort of sensation that for the purposes of this story Twilight is capable of feeling. Along with the negative effects of alcohol, in large quantities. Don't really care if that makes sense scientifically; magic.

There was some significant problems with formatting when I first posted it, and it was embarrassing enough that I actually felt it needed another editing pass. And then another, because the image got broke. After this chapter, I will be far more careful with my editing.

6th Verse - Sinister Sundown

You are a creature of the night.

“What?”

Hmm... You are new. Perhaps you came to be in my absence.

“Where am I!?”

I believe it is I who should be asking you that question, beast. Yours is an impressive power, I can already tell, and it will be mine.

“!”

Oh? Is that recognition I taste? Ohohohoho, none of these little ponies I have visited have known my magnificence this night. Not until you. You are very intriguing indeed.

“You're--”

Oh, you need not speak my name, night beast; t'would be vain of me to allow you to when we are alone together. Neigh, when I reveal myself to all my lucid subjects, you may enlighten them with my title, since they seem to have chosen to forget their true ruler during my detention. Now, as delicious as this first meeting has been, I must release you from your slumber so that you may witness my glory alongside them, for the time has come at long last. We shall see each other again soon... Twilight Sparkle.

It would have been a cold sweat that Twilight started awake into if it weren't for her disguise. Instinctively, she looked to her side and saw that Sunset was asleep beside her. Her horn was marred with scorch marks from dark magic, but her rest seemed peaceful. Her eyes then turned to the window on her left, where the moon still hung in the night sky, the Mare in the Moon still silent on its face.

That can't be right... Twilight searched the dark room for a clock, or any sort of timekeeping device. Most ponies couldn't see too well in this dim lighting, but if there was one thing about her nature that she was grateful for, it was her night vision... which revealed that the clock upon the wall was not wound. She groaned in frustration. It would seem nothing was going to cooperate with her until they left Ponyville. Her glowing gaze returned to the unicorn slumbering next to her. “Sunset,” she said with a nudge to the mare's barrel.

The sleeping pony moaned her displeasure at being disturbed, but remained unmoving. Twilight sighed. “Sunset, you need to wake up. It's nearly sunrise.”

“mmmMh Clover no, you can't take their bits, we'll earn 'em ourselves...” She shifted closer to Twilight, leaning into her.

“Sunset!” The false unicorn wasn't very patient after the previous day, so she resorted to shouting rather quickly. It had the desired effect, as Sunset jerked awake at her name.

“Ugh, what the hay...?” She held a hoof to her forehead and looked around at the unfamiliar library. “Twilight? What's goin' on?”

Twilight spared a chuckle at the mare's disoriented state, despite her worries. “We're still in Ponyville, Sunset. I guess we dozed off after a while.”

“Ponyville?” The unicorn's bleary eyes narrowed in concentration, then widened in recognition. “Oh, horseapples! What time is it? Where's Spike?” She went to get up but winced in pain. “Why do I feel like my head's being hit by a hammer?” She looked back to the purple mare, who was decidedly not sinister-looking at the moment. “Oh yeah...” She shifted – slowly this time – to better examine her work. “Hmm...”

The lightly embarrassed Twilight Sparkle was once more concealed by the visage of a unicorn, and if it weren't for her horn, the illusion was flawless. Normal white eyes, no scruffy unruly fur, no black hooves... Sunset Shimmer nodded at her accomplishment, until her eyes were drawn to Twilight's mane. “Aren't those highlights normally hidden?”

Twilight's own eyes widened at that. “Oh! Yeah, I just do that myself.” A black cloud emanated from her horn and traveled along her mane, seeming to erase the pink and red that raced along it, leaving behind more indigo. It leapt from the end of her hair to her tail to do the same there, quietly fading from existence when its work was complete.

“Not gonna lie,” Sunset began as she rose to her hooves, mindful of her splitting headache, “part of me is extremely jealous that you can just make that stuff do what you want like it's nothing.”

The false pony's ears fell at the reminder of the nature of her power.

“C'mon now, Twi, that was praise! You saw how tough it was for me to control it earlier, and you hardly even need to think about it. That's impressive!” Her face was contorted in faintly exasperated concern at her charge's lack of self-esteem. “It even went right back to you without a fuss when I was finished! You got that magic eating right out of your hoof somehow girl, and any mage worth their weight in salt would give a foreleg to know how to do that.“

It wasn't that Twilight didn't recognize what the unicorn was doing, and she really did try to be flattered. She opened her mouth to say something, but a knock at the door brought the world around them back into focus. Teal magic unlocked it. “Come in!”

The door opened to reveal Spike with a lampshade on his head. “Oh great, you're both awake! Come on, it's time to watch the sunrise!”

He stood stoically, as he always did when he was on the job. Goodness, he was gorgeous to look at. He wasn't wearing his real armor, but ceremonial vestments that made him look even more magnificent than normal. His blue eyes staring unblinkingly down at the gradually growing crowd of ponies who filtered into the town hall, not with disdain, but concern. Nopony else would notice, but Cadence knew how to read Shining Armor's most subtle changes in expression like an open book. It came with being his special somepony and The Princess of Love. He was scanning them for a purple coat and dark blue mane. She knew how worried he was, as she could relate; Twilight was like a little sister to her, and the only pony that could outmatch her fears for her would be her actual brother, the white-coated stallion next to her.

Cadence gave the mass below another quick sweep with her eyes, and found that Twilight hadn't arrived yet. She figured that Shiny would soon turn his attention to the door so he wouldn't miss her, and thus changed her focus to studying the colorful crowd of earth ponies and pegasi. There was the orange one with the silly and cute hat hovering near the food. She cursed herself for forgetting the poor mare's name, but didn't dwell on it before looking for the others. She saw by the stage the quiet “pegasus” pony and her adorable choir of birds, and smiled. What she had read about Fluttershy had easily drowned her apprehension at the mare's true identity, and her gentle hoof would have made her the pink alicorn's favorite of the ponies if it weren't for Rarity. The two of them had held a riveting conversation about the virtues and sufferings of romance and some Canterlot gossip for the last few hours to kill time waiting for auntie Celestia. Cadence wondered if it would be too much trouble to have the demon pony become her personal designer or not. A conversation to be had with Celestia another time, when she wasn't utterly furious with the regent.

Instead of continuing to scan the audience, the alicorn turned her gaze to the lofty shadows of the ceiling. It didn't take long to spot the fabulously colored thestral that was hiding in the rafters. Now she was easy to remember; Rainbow Dash couldn't even be subtle in her own name. Her rose-colored eyes met Cadence's, and the alicorn smirked knowingly, winking at her. The thestral's wings flared and shuffled in discomfort at her being discovered, but she remained where she lay, going back to looking hungrily at the food table.

That was four accounted for, but the enigmatic fifth mare couldn't be seen in the cluster of ponies downstairs. That wasn't congruent with what Cadence had learned about Pinkie Pie (another really unambiguous name, she mused), so she had to wonder what could possibly be keeping her from the gathering. After all, it's the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration! Cadence wasn't sure what to think of the the pink pony otherwise without meeting her, but she didn't take her for a mare that would miss an event like this.

“Are you watching for her?” The hunk of a stallion to her left spoke to her for the first time in several minutes.

Cadence turned her head to him with a playful grin. “Shiny-hiney, you're doing a good enough job for the both of us already. I mean, goodness, you'd think she was your sister or something.”

He blushed at the embarrassing pet name, but to his credit, that was the only sign her teasing had worked. “I'm just really worried, Cadence,” he resumed staring intently at the door as he spoke. “The princess deliberately goes behind our backs and sends her here even when we insist on her staying in Canterlot, and now she won't even speak to us and no one has seen Twilight, Sunset or Spike all evening.”

Cadence draped a violet-tipped wing over the captain of the guard. “I know. It's eating me up too, and trust me when I say I am going to have some choice words with Celestia when sunrise is over. But Twily's got you nearly falling apart over her right now, so I'm confident she'll come out of this okay.” She returned to scanning the crowd and her eyes quickly went alight with glee at the sight of three little fillies sitting together at a table near the first-floor stage. “Oooh Shiny, look at them! They're so cute together!”

He chanced a brief glance at where his marefriend was not-so-subtly pointing with her long foreleg. “Yeah, uh, kinda cool how they're a unicorn, a pegasus and an earth pony all together, heh.” His mask of professionalism was betrayed by a nervous twitch in his cheek. Cadence knew exactly what was going through his head, because he knew exactly what she was implying. And as eager as she was about the concept, she also understood Shining wasn't quite ready for the commitment, so she never pressed the matter. She would wait patiently for their marriage, as she had promised. Those plans were taking awfully long to set in stone though, even for such a high-profile wedding in such a busy city. Ten months wasn't too ridiculous, but it was certainly close.

“There she is!” Shining Armor startled Cadence with his barely restrained outburst. He really was as worried as she thought.

The pink alicorn looked to the doors, and indeed, there was Twilight and Sunset, with Spike on-board... and Pinkie Pie, it looked like. How about that? “Since when did they know her, though?”

“Probably got introduced to her the same way we did,” Shining smiled at her as he thought about the scenario, “There's still some confetti in your mane by the way, honey.”

Perhaps saying she hadn't met the mare was a lie; technically yes, they had met her when they finally shook the guards and sat down for a bit in a lovely confectionery called Sugarcube Corner. She rolled out a literal welcome wagon that played music, shot out confetti and baked cakes for the two of them. So Cadence had met the other, smaller, more pink pony, but she didn't really know the mare.

Cadence ran a hoof through her mane – gently; let's not ruin the styling now. If that morning was anything to go by though, then Pinkie Pie was a very friendly individual, and her being in Twilight's presence without any real reason could only mean one thing. “Shining Armor, do you think--?”

“That they're friends?” The guardstallion finished her sentence. He eyed the bouncing pony with a gaze that could pierce through metal it was so scrutinizing. “I dunno... She struck me as somepony who would get in your face if she wanted to and never leave.” He shrugged. “Then again, none of us can exactly say we know what Twily looks for in friends, so maybe?” His ears perked up at the sound of someone snickering, as did Cadence's. They both looked to the ceiling to find the thestral was laughing into her hoof like a madmare, staring down at the false unicorn as she led the way into the crowd. “What's so funny to her?”

The double doors to town hall stood open for Twilight, Sunset and Spike to enter once more, and awaiting them now inside was almost the entire population of the village clustered together on the ground floor. Royal guards now ringed the interior of the building and stood flanking the balconies above, save for the leftmost one, where Twilight spotted her brother and Princess Cadence looking upon her. A smile and wave, and she got the same in return from both.

“Aw man, you missed the best part though, Twilight! Me and Pinkie were playing bulls-eye with cupcakes and one of the ponies volunteered to be the target for a little bit!” Spike had been animatedly re-enacting his antics with the pink mare on her back since they had left the library. “I got two right in their mouth, but Pinkie got five. She's good.”

The pony in question had not left the purple mare alone since she emerged from the room, either. She bounced alongside her as they walked into the crowd. “Gosh, it's so rare that I get to play with someone else who can overhoof stuff! I've tried throwing overhoof with an actual hoof; it doesn't work out very well, so I usually don't ask anypony to play those games.”

“Interesting, yeah.” Twilight couldn't care less. “Sunset, why can't we just go in the back and wait there for the ceremony?”

Sunset's face turned to one of faint guilt for but a moment before she responded, “Because until your presence is absolutely required, the princess doesn't want you to waste a single opportunity to mingle.”

Twilight caught the unicorn's expression, but thought nothing of it, instead turning her head back forward. “Of course. Because I haven't suffered enough today— yaagh!!”

“Twilight!?” Sunset's horn flared with magic.

“A spider! There's a spider right in my face getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!”

What looked to be a large hairy spider was now hanging before the false unicorn. A mad high-pitched cackling could be heard echoing through the hall as she scrambled to cower on the floor.

"...Twilight, it's not real." Spike had regained his balance on her back and stood to inspect the arachnid.

"Huh?"

The purple mare uncovered her eyes to look at the eight-legged horror. Indeed, on closer inspection the sewing seams could be seen under the false hair. Glassy red beads stared blankly into nothing, and the legs hung limp from the body. In her peripheral vision Twilight saw a cyan blur descend from the ceiling, and she redirected her eyes to see none other than the thestral pony Rainbow Dash, guffawing as she hovered to the floor.

"Aw man, that was priceless!" The rainbow-maned mare struggled to keep her laughter under control as she ambled to the group. "'Sup, purple? I thought you'd be hangin' out with the princess by now."

That's what I thought too. "Did you just... prank me?" Twilight rose, incredulous.

"Hay yeah! Were you scared?" Rainbow's pearly white incisors gleamed in her self-assured grin, already certain of the answer.

Twilight started to deny that proclamation but was cut off by Pinkie Pie. "You totally got her good, Dashie! She was all like 'WAAH!!', and then she curled up into a ball on the floor and everything! Nopony pranks 'em like you do, Rainbow Dash."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm awesome." The thestral drank in the praise with a satisfied smugness.

"Rainbow Miriam Dash!"

All the bravado (and color) drained from her face at the sound of her full name, however. There was only one pony who would use that weapon. "Uh, hey Applejack! What's goin' on?" She turned to the approaching farmpony, who trotted over from the catering table with heavy hooves and a frown.

"Are y'all antagonizing our guests?"

Nervousness oozed from the cyan pony like a bad odor. "Um... maybe?"

"Don't you smart-mouth me, lady! Ain't nothin' nice about treatin' somepony you never met like that! I thought you knew that already."

"But I was--"

"I ain't hearin' no back-talk outta you about this, and you can see five apples taken out of yer allowance this month!"

"No way!!"

"Yes way! Now go on over and help serve ponies." Applejack pointed a hoof back to the table, which Rainbow trudged toward with her ears hung low. The earth pony looked back to Twilight and company with an appeasing grin on her face. "Sorry 'bout that. That there was Rainbow Dash. She doesn't normally behave like that with strangers."

"We've met." Sunset deadpanned, her half-lidded glare squarely on the thestral, now halfheartedly passing out food.

"Well, ain't that somethin' else! I can't rightly recall another time a visitor could say that about her." Her muzzle curved down into a frown. "What'd she do?"

"She fell on me." Twilight chirped up. Applejack's face went pale. "But it was an accident, so I forgave her." She leaned to Sunset's ear and whispered,"that's what I was supposed to tell her right?"

"I can think of a lot of worse things to say, I guess..." The unicorn responded.

"Like what?" Pinkie squeezed her head between theirs.

Sunset fumed. "Like the thestral is somehow less irritating than a certain earth pony who insists on being in my presence!"

The pink mare giggled. "You're right, that is a lot worse!"

One could swear steam was whistling out from Sunset Shimmer's ears, but the sound of songbirds singing fanfare in harmony interrupted all chatter before the conversation could continue. All eyes on the ground floor looked to the center stage, where a beige mare with a mane grayed with age stood. As silence fell, she cleared her throat and began to speak:

"Fillies and gentlecolts! As mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!" Thunderous stomping applause and cheers filled the building.

"So that's the mayor. Wonder where she's been all day?" Spike pondered out loud.

The older pony resumed her speech, "In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the first and longest day of the year! And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria..."

All eyes now rose to the veiled central balcony, where the unicorn guards' light spells pointed. The curtains behind it were pulled back by the demon mare Rarity.

"Princess Celestia!"

The birds began their fanfare once more, but instead of excitement in the air, a collective gasp of shock came forth from the audience.

The balcony was empty.

Cadence was very angry now.

She didn't show that to the ponies down below, of course. "Everypony remain calm. Auntie Celestia might have dozed off, is all. We'll go check on her." She turned away and motioned for Shining to follow.

Once they were out of earshot, she dropped the false serenity, and her face contorted into rage. "So help me, Celestia, if you are actually going through with this, I'll...!"

Shining armor was no less angry. "I'm not going to condone what you're about to say, but I probably won't be around to stop you from acting on it."

"Trust me, sweetie, I would not want to be around me when I have an earful for a pony either." They stomped down the corridor to the most ornate door in the building. What they found behind it would determine whether being mad was all they needed to be. Magenta magic enveloped the entire door, and it took all of the captain of the guard's restraint to not rip the whole thing off of its hinges as he pushed it open. Nopony put his little sister in danger, not even his ruler.

He entered first, and a quick scan of the office revealed what they had dreaded:

Princess Celestia was nowhere to be seen.

"Horseapples." He slammed the door shut as he exited, and barked at the guards in the hallway. "Search the entire town! The princess must be found immediately!"

"This can't be good."

"Ooh, ooh! Maybe she's playing hide-n-seek!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Twilight took note of the guards beginning to move to the exit. Her eyes darted all around the hall, looking for... something! She didn't know what. But her increasingly nervous gaze locked onto her brother and her former foalsitter emerging from the central balcony.

"Princess Celestia isn't where she said she'd be, everypony, but there's probably a reasonable explanation for this," Shining Armor explained to the ponies.

Pinkie Pie popped up behind them both, startling the pair. "Oh, I love guessing games! Wait, don't tell me!" Her hoof morphed into a hand once more as she scratched at her chin, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Hmmm... You're the new princess!" She pointed her finger at Shining.

"Amusing, but that title falls to me."

The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It laughed as the room darkened until it was nearly pitch-black, and a luminescent blue smoke began to emerge from the floor. The floorboards cracked and warped, raising and reforming into a dais of sorts, upon which the glittering mass of blue coalesced. Ponies gasped and shrieked in horror as they watched it morph and change. Most of it became solid black. Wings emerged from the back of the emerging pony, as a great spiraling black horn burst from the head. Cyan armor graced its long hooves and covered its chest, on which the breastplate sported a crescent moon scored with a scar of dark magic. And on the head opened a bright blue reptilian eye, itself scarred.

Twilight looked on in horror. It was her. The Mare in the Moon.

"The Dark Mare...!"

She stood tall, relishing in her freedom, her wild mane and tail of stars undulating in magical currents. She opened her eyes again to look upon the quivering ponies.

"Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been far too long since I've seen you precious little, sun-loving faces."

Author's Notes:

Here's Black Snooty.

This is it. This was where what I now call the great hiatus happened. An shameful six months of nothing, only broken when I sat down and wrote the next chapter (which you can safely skip) in like two hours.

-N

*may not actually show up at the same time next week.

A Fool Moon

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The black alicorn's villainous glee froze the ponies for what felt like months. Literally. Twilight would later go on record as saying she felt as though the moments when she first appeared and when someone next spoke happened in entirely different seasons, and if they were to exit the town hall they would find the leaves had long since turned red, and needed rattled from the trees. That the air would have gone cold, Cloudsdale's pegasi would have dumped snow upon them all, and they were in fact trapped inside by six hooves of fallen frost. An entire half a year of ponies waiting with bated breath -- likely dread -- to see what would happen next. It had perhaps felt to be so long that a new alicorn had been born unto the world, and it had obnoxiously large eyes and mammoth wings. But that would just be silly. Almost as silly as a mirror portal that lead to an alternate universe where everypony was the same except they were hairless magic-inert monkeys attending a high school, all drawn up entirely to sell more toys.

Of course it hadn't actually been that long, but the Dark Mare seemed to bask in the fear of the congregated ponies for an unusually long time. Perhaps she couldn't really be blamed; it had been a thousand years. Then again she was a mythical evil from ancient times that had attempted to bring ruin to Equestria, and should not be given such kindness.

To the surprise of everyone, the first to move would be Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie Pie's Patented Delayed Self-defense Pocket Cake Toss Attack yAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

The freak mare rapidly pulled and threw a veritable rainbow of cakes of all shapes, sizes, flavors and intended occasions out of her mane and in the general direction of the alicorn. Wedding cakes, birthday cakes, carrot cakes, "You've Beaten Cancer Like It Was a Punching Bag and You Were An Angsty Griffon Teenager" cakes -- if it could be conceived, it was thrown at impossible speeds. They would all miss, instead finding purchase on Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, several hooves higher up and away. The lovebirds were splattered with frosting and their dress clothes utterly ruined. In Twilight's private opinion, coating Shining's garish red coat in a coating of tasty coat... coat... made this action a net justice.

Unfortunately, not only did this assault completely miss its mark, had it actually hit its intended target, it would have done absolutely nothing. Eventually, the pink mare ran out of spongey confections to misuse, and the noticeably unamused alicorn stood tall and frightening, emanating violent disapproval. And the Dark Mare did the same, simply with less cake on her face.

"...Are you finished?"

Pinkie nodded in response. "Yeah. It wouldn't be funny to keep going."

"I concur."

Shining Armor's voice drifted down from the balcony. "So do I!!"

"In that case, perhaps we can get right to business." Sunset stepped forward with her head held high, looking the Dark Mare directly in her eyes. Challenging her. Defying her.

"Erwait hold on."

Sunset stopped, confused.

The alicorn pulled a packet of oddly modern paper out of the ether. "I forgot my line."

"What!?"

"I am under pressure, I'm sorry! It's like I have been anticipating this moment for a millennium!"

Sunset became angry now, "And you didn't rehearse!?"

"Well I thought after year 419 I had it down! You know, that it would be muscle memory by then? I think it's a reasonable thing to assume!" The black mare put her crescent moon-shaped reading glasses on and flipped through the incredible technicolor packet of big words, contrived events and overly cutesy dialogue until she found the scene, and studied it hard for a few minutes. Sunset sighed and impatiently tapped her hoof, and the aura of terror that had once permeated the hall had diluted to confusion.

Pinkie Pie leaned over to whisper in Twilight's ear. "The paper is all sorts of different colors because a new color page means they changed the script there today."

Twilight snapped her head to look at the pink offense. Who wore yet another toothy grin as she continued:

"The joke is this story sucks."

The false pony facehooved. Spike chuckled a bit in comprehension.

Pinkie then adopted a thoughtful look. "Or maybe there weren't enough commas..."

Deciding to ignore the random mare and simply pretend what was happening right now made sense, Twilight returned her focus to her substitute mentor and the not-so-frightening-in-the-flesh creature of her nightmares.

She's kinda hot actually, an errant voice in her head commented, unbidden.

Hmmmmmnot quite as good looking as Celestia, she responded.

Well at least the Dark Mare is more honest.

I suppose that's true...

And frankly, a mane and tail made out of constellations is a lot cooler than that pastel rainbow crap.

Well that depends on who you ask.

And who am I asking?

Yourself, I guess.

So... yes?

Yeah-- wait why am I even thinking about this??? Twilight shook her head and tuned back into current events, where the objectively attractive Dark Mare was apparently in the middle of an evil monologue.

"...to the stars above! Nightmare Moon, blasting off at the speed of light! Bow down to me now, or prepare to fight!!"

Sunset was now checking the script herself. "Yep, girl, that's right." She zapped the offending document with a fire spell and tossed the burning pulp behind her. "Would have been better if you had remembered it, but great delivery nonetheless."

"Well, as a good interdimensional friend would say, 'maximum effort~!'"

Sunset shrugged in response, before returning to her former pose. "Cute name, Dark Mare. But cuteness won't help you now."

"I WOULD LIKE TO STOP EVERYTHING RIGHT THIS SECOND," All eyes turned upward to Cadence, who finally found her voice in all the seething rage, "AND DEMAND A CHANGE OF CLOTHES AND A BATH BEFORE WE CONTINUE, PLEASE!!"

"Hush up dramacorn, this is serious business." Sunset coiled up, ready to pounce.

Dramacorn affixed her furious gaze on the fiery-maned mare. "FIRST OF ALL, I AM PRETTY SURE ME BEING PELTED WITH A MILLION CAKES WAS NOT IN THE SCRIPT. SECOND OF ALL, IN THE LAST TWELVE-HUNDRED OR SO WORDS I DON'T THINK ANY ONE OF YOU HAS BEEN SERIOUS ONCE!! SO I HEREBY DECREE WE ARE TAKING A TWENTY-MINUTE PEE BREAK, BECAUSE CONTINUING WITHOUT MAKEUP OR PRODUCT, AND EVEN NO CLOTHES WOULD BE FAR BETTER THAN STANDING HERE -- WHERE THERE IS A DRAFT, FOR SOME REASON BY THE WAY-- IN COLD DRYING CAKE ICING, WITH A BRIDAL FIGURE DANGLING FROM MY HORN!!"

A random stallion in the crowd of background ponies raised his hoof, "I'd actually like ten more minutes to make it a full lunch break as well, if it means anything."

"IT DOESN'T."

"Okay, princess."

The Dark Mare had her neck craned to look at the other alicorn. She turned back to face the crowd of ponies obviously important to the plot and facially shrugged. "I am not going to argue. I would like to rewrite the scene from the top when everyone is here again, honestly. I don't know if this is going to work as is."

Sunset sighed and relaxed herself from being battle-ready. "Okay guys, break-time," she shouted. "We'll reconvene in twenty minutes, and if you're not here in twenty-five..." her muzzle stretched into a smirk.

"You're fired."

The unusually threatening pun was not lost on any of the ponies present, who rather hurriedly scattered to do some quick business. Rainbow Dash zipped toward the catering tables to chomp down as much apple pie as she could, before being chased off with a comically large broom by Applejack.

Twilight however, stood still, stunned by the inane events. Even Spike had vacated his place on her back to go flirt with Rarity.

"How you doin', Smokey?"

Twilight snapped from the stupefied reverie to see that Sunset had walked back to her side. The purple pony looked at her, positively perplexed. "Wh-- what even??? What just happened??? Is this some sort of pony thing that I was just never clued in on??? What script?????? Why did she call herself Nightmare Moon?????????????????????"

"Yeah, I don't get why that name's in there either." Sunset grabbed a new copy of the script and tore out the offending pages. Scratching out the words and turning over the paper, she began to pen a new progression of events. "Fun fact -- an older version of the story called her Black Snooty. Fun to say, but not a name to be feared, as I'm sure you'll agree."

Twilight simply sputtered in response.

"Oh, and this is just an April Fools thing. Don't ask me what that is, but apparently once we restart the scene in the next chapter, none of this will be canon, and nopony will ever remember it."

Cannons? "I am still extremely confused."

"Sometimes you just gotta roll with it."

"That is not something you'd normally say."

"For the sake of humour I can act as out-of-character as I want."

"Well this isn't funny!"

"No it's not. I'm honestly looking forward to forgetting all of this."

Twilight opened her mouth to continue fisking apart the last few minutes, but she was quite tired already, and so resolved to say nothing more on the matter. Apparently everypony agreed to play a big prank on her while at the party.

Instead, the false unicorn hung her head in resignation and trudged over to the catering tables, resting her head on the cool surface. She eyed a few flowers in front of her face and lazily licked them into her mouth. That's supposed to be healthy for a pony, right? She sighed.

This is utterly asinine.

Spike shuffled back across the room, his romantic advances rejected rather pointedly. The morose drakeling hopped up into a chair that was far too uncomfortable for a pony and rested an elbow on the adjacent table. He was not alone at the seating.

"Very meta." The draconequus swirled his wine glass filled with liquid plastic around with a gentle shake of his claw.

Spike scoffed. "You're one to talk; you probably set all this up."

"Ha! Please -- this is far too themed for my tastes. I prefer my randomness to have no underlying logic." Discord poured the wine glass into his antler, leaving the pants formerly contained within (for they were always pants) suspended in midair, neatly folded.

"I guess that explains why you're here in the first place though." The whelp looked to his patchwork companion. "You're not even scheduled to show up until Sunset Shimmer's story is--"

"Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah, no spoilers, Spikey-wikey." The spirit of chaos then snorted. "We don't even know if the author will have the patience to get that far yet. I mean, look at the state of the tale we're in! Half-finished since October 15th, 2015? Now that's negligent." Discord brought his paw up to his forehead, feigning melodramatic resignation. "I suspect he's abandoned us all for a shiny new idea."

"Eh. I have faith in the guy."

Discord literally deflated into his chair. "We'll see."

The two sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching ponies trot past and shout at each other, moving props around the room. None seemed to notice or care that Discord was there, which didn't bother the normally egotistical chimera.

It was several minutes before Spike piped up once more. "D'you think I'll ever get even one serious date with Rarity?"

Discord gave a wry smile, "Please, my friend. There are countless universes in existence where the two of you have loved and lost, or are even happily married already."

"And an equal amount where I struck out." The baby dragon dug his claw into the table and began carving out a crude picture of the mare in question.

"Well, then it's a solid 50/50 chance! You can't even pray for odds like that."

"Iunno. I'm no gambling man."

"I am. And I'm telling you that if it's what you want in your heart, then it's worth it to pursue even if you don't get it. You'll inevitably learn something about yourself along the way, and you'll probably stumble into something you never knew you'd be happy with."

"This is shockingly philanthropic for you."

"I can be supportive when I feel like it." Discord apparated a trucker hat into existence with a snap of his fingers and put it on backwards as he stood up. "Honestly, you're my favorite character in the show aside from dear Fluttershy and it's a crime you don't get more attention."

"Wait, what?"

Discord yawned and stretched, his bones emitting the sound of metal bending. "Well, Spokes, it's been real, but we have four minutes until everything gets back on track and I have to stand in place for the next who knows how long. Take my advice to heart, if you would. Oh and, give my regards to Pinkie Pie; she's probably my finest work, if I were to toot my own horn."

"Uh..."

The draconequus poofed away in a cloud of Poofs, leaving Spike alone at the table. Sunset walked by and shouted at the drake to get back in the saddle, and so he did, returning to his still confused purple mobile throne as ponies returned to their places. Cadence and Shining Armor reappeared at the balcony looking unusually refreshed with dopey smiles on their faces, and Rainbow Dash was sporting some very obvious makeup to conceal a new broomstick-related bruise she technically wasn't supposed to have.

As the Dark Mare and Sunset returned to where they were nearly twenty minutes ago, Spike couldn't help but think one thing as the events were cast into the non-canon void within a non-canon void:

Well, that was an irritatingly self-indulgent waste of time.

Author's Notes:

For those of you coming to this story just now, as you can probably tell this was a joke chapter. It existed mostly to poke fun at myself, as is no doubt apparent. I left it in for the sake of humor, and well... for something I came up with on the spot it's not the worst thing I could have done.

Most of this shenaniganery will cease with the next part of the tale.

-N

7th Verse - Night of Fate

Freedom.

How wondrous! At long last, she could breathe in the air of the world, feel the warmth of its atmosphere, reach out and touch the magical currents that permeated Equestria. Losing her physical form and all its power had been the most frightening of sensations, but now she had it back. She looked upon her ponies and relished in their reverent terror. Her black heart sang at the sight of one of her beloved thestrals, even if she was staring her down with a fury that, despite its greatness, was dwarfed by her own.

Yes, she thought, giddy. Soon all will be right with the world.

Her mane entangled a foolish stallion who had leapt at her from behind and she laughed at the tingling sensation of his spells hitting her neck; all that power channeled into striking her down, and the most he could do was tickle her. My my, such forwardness! That loathsome Celestia must be desperate for lovers if he lacks the etiquette to at least ask me to dinner first. ...Though, to be serious, unicorns have gotten stronger in my absence, it seems.

She brought the trapped stallion around to look him in his blue eyes. Imprisoned in the immaculate, inescapable web of her mane, and still he glared at her, gaze burning with defiance. Didn't he know her grip was iron? That his magic would do nothing to her? He must have been an important pony, for a few were shouting his name.

“Shining Armor!!”

That voice... The Dark Mare followed her ears with her eyes to the crowd, seeing a familiar horrified violet mare. Strange, she tastes the same, and yet...

She looked upon the false unicorn as old memories came flooding back. The resemblance was too uncanny, too perfect to be coincidence. Suddenly the unique blend of darkness she had felt in her made sense; she had tasted them. How perplexing and vexing, indeed. The old world still clung to the new, this she was already aware of, but the little beast was one claw she had not anticipated.

Though she thought she would be angry, the Dark Mare's lips parted to bare her teeth in a wide grin. I'll have my vengeance on more than one mare tonight. How blessed my return must be! She eyed the trapped stallion again and tittered; a a sound dripping with black ichor. “Am I not royal enough for you, my dashing knight? Or perhaps you do not know my name?” She ignored a heckling pink pony shouting nonsense from the crowd and continued, addressing the full throng of ponies now. “Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a millennium? Has your filthy sun princess's prophecy not reached your ears? Did you not see the signs?”

“I did.”

The purple pony spoke again, and this time she could hear her in that voice. It had to be some kind of divine joke, an attempt to stop her reign. One that would fail, of course. No god could stand against her. She had proven so already.

“And I know exactly who you are.” The familiar mare stepped forth, apprehensive, but certain. “You're the Mare in the Moon: The Dark Mare!”

Another wave of déjà vu struck the black alicorn like fierce waters on the shore. Her deviant grin grew wider as she saw the beginnings of her retribution practically laid out for her. How grand this night shall be!

“Oh you precious foal, I already knew that you would recall me. But, perhaps you are the only one, so please do inform my subjects of their fate.”

All eyes turned to the false pony in anticipation. Fear made itself at home on her face before she could respond, and her voice strained higher as she tried. “Y-you're here to-- to...”

The Dark Mare decided that she would relent now. This may not have been revenge enough, but she had all the time in the world to satisfy her vendetta.

“Yes. Remember this day, ponies, for it shall be your last! From this moment forth, the night, shall last forever!!”

Exercising her flair for theatrics she had her magic strike lightning, laughing as she drank in their fear, their subservience to her. The stallion rattled off some drivel about how she would never get away with it, which only made her laugh harder. Silently though she thanked him; after a thousand years of tormenting unbeing and solitude, she had needed such levity sorely.

What he said next did surprise her a bit. “Guards! Seize her! She'll know where the princess is!”

So he was important. A high-ranking official of the guard? It explained his brashness. But despite the fear emanating from the armor-clad mares and stallions in the building they obeyed his command. Perhaps she had not properly displayed her power to them. No matter. She had long ached for battle anyway.

The pegasi charged first, her thestral following suit with impressive speed. She scoffed, and effortlessly knocked them all aside with her wings, their great power kicking up intense wind and sending them all careening to – and through – the walls. Admirably undaunted, the earth ponies quickly followed suit, sword-bits in maw. Their blades shattered against her coat harmlessly, and their own charging impacted against her like she were the earth itself, leaving them sprawled on the floor dazed, and her unmoving. The alicorn yawned mockingly. Lances sheathed in magic stabbed and sliced impotently at her ethereal mane and tail as it nullified the unicorns' telekinesis which held them, the polearms clattering against the warped dais as they fell and the ponies who held them stricken with blinding headaches. The more hardy ones recovered quickly and went to resume their fruitless attack, but she brandished the stallion in her tail's grip as a meat shield and immediately they stalled. The pony in question attempted to summon barrier spells, of all things, but he found doing so was impossible in the Dark Mare's grasp. Perhaps he is trying to use them to push my tail away so he can escape?, She mused. It mattered not. Nothing would save him regardless.

Before long, it became clear to the guardsponies that they could do nothing to her, and their short assault ceased, the terror in the room now palpable and plain on every face. She thought the pathetic display over before she heard a shriek from behind.

“A banshee? In the middle of a villa--” The Dark Mare was cut off as she turned her head directly into a blinding stream of raw mana.

Fury had bubbled in Cadence's heart from the moment Shining Armor had been ensnared, and when the guardsponies had failed, it had been too much. She had a hit list now, and this Black Snooty pony was on the top of it. She'd get her grimy, slimy hooves off of her fiancé, one way or another! So it was she summoned forth her considerable magical power and let it burst forth from the tip of her horn in a bright singing beam, aimed directly at the dark alicorn's head. Pouring everything she could into the display, the spell burned the very air in its path and a left a hole in the floor where it overflowed past the other alicorn. But Cadence was by far the weaker royal equine, and she felt her body lose its strength as the last of her mana stole away her energy with it, her legs becoming wobbly and her horn burning in immense pain, and the ray petered out as she collapsed on the balcony, spent. The light thinned and faded away, the scent of burning still lingering in the air.

Standing as she had before, unmarred, was the black alicorn, albeit with a look of mild surprise.

“Hm. That happened.” The Dark Mare brought a hoof up to her jaw, which tingled along with the rest of the left side of her head. That hadn't been very pleasant an experience, being prickled by such weak alicorn magic, but she was in no true pain. More jarring was the fact that there was another alicorn. But the already immense cloud of fear in the room had increased exponentially after that particular show, filling her with even more strength and mirth. She began to cackle again.

“Look upon my magnificence, my little ponies! Your little pink princess could not even harm me! Perhaps now who your true ruler is cannot be questioned!” She allowed herself a few moments more to enjoy the ocean of terror, but it it was time to return to business. “Should you have reason to gain audience with me, you shall find me at the Castle of the Sisters. There is a certain unicorn I'm expecting to see there as well...” Her slitted cold eyes returned to Twilight, ready to seal her fate and cast all the fear upon her. “We have much to discuss.”

And then the yellow unicorn beside the frightened pony burst into flames.

Sunset had seen quite enough. She wreathed herself in fire and leapt at the black alicorn with a battle cry and great prejudice. But where she had expected to strike flesh she instead got smoke, and landed muzzle-first into the warped floor the hateful witch had been standing on. The alicorn was gone, and Shining Armor with her. Snout stinging and the Dark Mare's fading cackle ringing in her ears, she did her best to calm her spell before it got out of control and burnt the building down. She cursed rather audibly.

“Twilight!” She turned to shout at her charge. “I'm gonna go help Lovie! Get back to the library!” Her legs propelled her into darting for the back halls of the building, the crowd giving her a wide berth.

“Sunset, wait!!” Predictably, the false unicorn followed suit with dragon in tow.

This really couldn't have gone much worse. Sunset galloped past multiple cowering ponies that had hidden from the attack, practically leaping up the carpeted stairs to the second floor. I had a plan in my head just in case the lovebirds showed up, and they both go and ruin it with their idiocy! Now what do we have to work with? She tackled through a door and turned at the center set of curtains. Her shoulder would be fine later. The demon mare and the pink irritance were laid down on either side of Cadence's body. Pretty much nothing.

“Is she breathing?”

“Yes.” The eldritch ponies answered in unison.

Teal magic caressed the unconscious alicorn. She floated onto Sunset's back, who strained under the dead weight. She needs to quit with the midnight cake runs, I swear to Celestia. Much to her chagrin, Twilight had caught up. She didn't warn them about how teleporting felt to a first-time passenger. Shows her for being a pain in the butt all day. They winked out of existence.

The sensation was not pleasant. Upon re-entering the physical plane, Twilight barely caught herself from falling over on the wooden floor of the library, her entire body feeling like it was held together by thread like a marionette, revolting against her for daring to do something so awful. If that's what teleporting is like, I don't feel like learning it so much anymore. The blurred world seemed to be spinning. Obviously; I'm discombobulated, she thought. She could make out a yellow blob saying something, but her hearing had been muffled by the sudden lack of noise whatsoever just a moment ago. There was a thump from somewhere, her ears swiveling back and forth to try and locate herself in the library (I assume we're in the library. That would be a safe guess.) Pain engulfed her left side and Twilight was fairly certain she was sprawled out on the ground now. The stinging faded quickly, briefly going numb before returning in full force a few moments later. The resulting adrenaline accelerated her recovery, the library coming back into relative focus, and she heard Sunset shouting at somepony else. Spike was a moaning ball of scales on the floor across the room, so that ruled him out. Was it her she was angry with? No, that wouldn't make sense.

With a wince, Twilight brought her legs under her and rose to a sitting position. Looking to the source of Sunset's voice she was surprised to see five familiar mares staring the both of them down with equal parts indignation and apprehension (and in the case of the yellow one, outright fear). Rainbow Dash, presently struggling to break free of a lasso pulled by Applejack; Pinkie Pie and Rarity, noticeably more calm than the others, and a cowering Fluttershy peeking out from behind the group.

“Rgh! Lemme go, Applejack!! We gotta stop them!” The thestral's wings beat at the air uselessly, throwing up wind in all directions.

Rarity turned her head (but not her eyes) to the flailing pony, “We don't even know for certain what they plan to do, you ruffian! What we require is an explanation.”

“They can explain everything just fine to my hoof! Get this offa me! Why am I going backwards!?”

The farmpony backed to the open door and kicked the doorstop in front of it, tying the rope end to the door handle. “We ain't gonna learn where Princess Celestia is if we knock 'em cold, Rainbow.” She then advanced toward Twilight, who was uneasy at the cold expression on the earth pony's muzzle, to say the least. “Rarity's right. It'd be in y'all's best interest t' start talkin'. Or we c'n let Dash decide the pace of the discourse if ya want.” Applejack's menacing march was halted by Sunset popping into existence before her, quickly resuming yelling.

“We don't have to explain a thing to any of you, mud mare! This is a matter of national security--”

“Alright then.”

Sunset turned on the purple unicorn. “Twilight, no! We have to be smart about this!”

Twilight affixed the unicorn with her own determined expression. “And I am. Recent events have been very stressful and confusing, and these ponies very reasonably want answers. If there's any way we can keep them from interfering, it lies in telling everything.” Her eyes narrowed into a glare. “To all of us.”

Sunset's anger faltered. The other untethered mares began to circle her. Applejack spoke up from behind her. “Even with what that Black Snooty alicorn said ah'm likin' what your friend is spoutin' a hay of a lot better th'n you.”

“I vote for listening to Twilight!” Pinkie raised her hoof.

“As do I.”

“M-me too...”

“It's still clobberin' time!”

Sunset searched desperately for a chance to escape the ponies surrounding her with no collateral damage. Two teleports and a complex fire coat spell had left her drained for mana, and she wasn't quite as strong as the earth pony.

She sighed, relenting. “Fine. We'll spill the beans.”

Applejack relaxed her stance and gave a satisfied grin. “Smart thinkin'. Y'hear that Rainbow?” She turned her head to the hovering thestral, “No fighting!”

Rainbow crossed her forelegs and let herself drop to the ground pouting. “Can I be untied now?”

“Well, I guess I'll do most of the work.”

At Sunset's request, the mares had gone through the library locking and drawing every window closed. Applejack took up guard at the now locked front door. In that time, Spike had mostly recovered from the displacement sickness, as Twilight chose to call it, and Sunset had attempted to rouse the remaining princess, to no avail. The ponies had then gathered in the humble parlor off to the side of the entrance, taking seats on the furniture.

Fluttershy, on the lounge next to Rarity directly left of the unconscious Cadence, wore a face of great concern. “Will she be okay?”

“Heavens willing, she'll be no worse for wear and come to before we're done here.” The lone unicorn took a seat off to the right, though Twilight remained on the ottoman by Cadence's side.

Rainbow Dash sat on the floor across from Sunset, voicing her impatience. “Well that's great and everything, but we gotta actually start first.”

“I think a good place to begin would be with you, darling.” Rarity gestured to Twilight. “If what your rather brutish friend claims is true, then you know all of our secrets.” She focused on the false unicorn's coat. “And yet, you seem to have one of your own that you have failed to indulge us in.”

Twilight noticed for the first time that half of her shell was completely gone, and the other heavily fractured. She instinctively panicked while Sunset spoke.

“Officially, Twilight Sparkle is the personal student of Princess Celestia, and for all intents and purposes, she is.”

Rainbow was rather unsatisfied with the information. “pff, well I knew that already. What about her turning into smoke when I hit her?”

“I what!?”

“I was getting to that! Do you not know any manners?”

“Been tryin'. She's stubborn.” Applejack piped up from her post.

Sunset groaned. “The thing is, the real reason Celestia took her in at first was to keep everypony safe. Whether she knows what Twilight is or not is one of the few things I'm not privy to, but as I think is pretty clear at this point, Smokey here is scary enough just to look at.” She then realized what she said and looked to her charge. “I-I mean--”

“No, I... I understand...” The purple pony-creature stared morosely at the floor.

“Twi, I didn't--”

Rarity and Fluttershy were before the glum plum Twilight in an instant. “Don't you dare listen to her, Twilight, you're gorgeous!”

“And you're not, um, all that scary. Oh, unless you want to be! In which case you are very, very scary and I'm really afraid of you~!”

“You're afraid of her anyway, Shy.”

"Oh." The buttery pony's smile fell. "Rainbow Dash is right, um-- but you do seem nice.”

Twilight smiled, despite herself. Applejack spoke up once more, trying to remain on topic:

“But what makes her so dang dangerous, anyhow?”

“Maybe the fact she kidnapped the princesses...”

Rainbow's words set Twilight aghast. “Wh-- I didn't kidnap them! I would never!!”

“Oh yeah.” The thestral pointed a hoof at Sunset. “She was the one who did it, right?”

The unicorn frowned, “You are easily my least favorite pony right now.”

Rainbow blew a raspberry in response.

Spike chose to chime in from his cozy spot between Cadence and Twilight. “Why would they kidnap the princesses anyway? I mean, one of them's right here.”

“Only because we stopped you guys! I betcha fifty bits that the other one's upstairs!”

Rarity turned to give Rainbow an unamused look. “Rainbow Dash, we were all just up there a few minutes ago and I am fairly certain none of us saw Princess Celestia.”

“I did!”

“That's a painting in the washroom, Pinkie.”

“I know! But I saw her in it so do I win?”

The gathered ponies and dragon shouted a unanimous “NO!”

The pink mare visibly wilted. "Oh."

The other, larger pink mare stirred and moaned her discomfort. All eyes snapped to the irritable waking princess as if guided by magnets.

"I swear, if you don't shut those ponies outside up Shiny I am going to--" Her grogginess was instantly dispelled by panic. "Shining!! Where's--"

"Cadence!"

The alicorn looked to her side to her lavender company. "Twilight, Spike!! Is your brother okay?? Where is he???"

"The Dark Mare has him, Cady," Sunset informed her, "she got away."

"That WITCH--" the princess went to rise, but quickly lost strength in her legs, flopping back down on the ottoman. "...did I at least mess up her face?"

"Not a scratch."

"Horseapples!!" Cadence held onto the anger for a moment, but the realization that she was the most powerful pony present or accounted for quickly hit her. She sighed to release her excess rage. And took a deep breath. And released it again. It wasn't working as well as she had hoped. She resolved to work with it. It was important to be responsible in this situation.

"Okay Sunset, report: what's the current sitch?"

"Well," the unicorn regarded the night's events, "Celestia was right, and the Dark Mare is back. The monarch is MIA and the captain of the guard has been kidnapped." The alicorn's muzzle twitched at that. "The state of the local guard is uncertain; we'll need to go out and get a proper idea of our defenses against any conflict."

As if summoned, a knock came at the front door. "Equestrian Guard! Open the door!" Applejack unlatched the bolt and stepped aside as a pegasus stallion entered the library. He searched the room until his sight fell on Cadence. "Princess!"

"Flash Sentry, do you have news on the state of the village?" Cadence did her best to remain calm.

The citrus-colored pony nodded vigorously, "The townsponies are in a panic. We're trying our best to keep things from getting too crazy, but most of the guard is out of commission right now, and I don't think they'll listen to anyone but you, Your Highness."

The princess sighed. "Thank you, sir. I'm in no condition to move right now, so I need you to act as my messenger. Tell the guard I'm awake and aware of the situation, and let everypony know that you're taking orders from me for the time-being."

"Yes, princess!" With a salute, the armored stallion left the library, the door being locked behind him once more.

"Guess that explains our chances here," Sunset remarked.

"Yep," Cadence acknowledged the gathered mares for the first time, "so what's happening here? And please don't say a brand-new book club."

Pinkie returned to life at this. "We were playing 20 Questions with Sunny."

"I'm apparently getting grilled for information against my wishes."

Cadence nodded sagely. "Getting what you deserve. Where were we with that?"

"Throwin' ponynapping accusations, if'n I recall right."

Sunset became frustrated at the earth pony's statement. "Nopony here has kidnapped anypony!"

"Well duh, you don't kidnap ponies, you kidnap goats!" Pinkie accompanied her own statement with an eye roll.

"No abduction has been visited on anyone by anypony present!"

Rainbow scoffed at Sunset's hysterics. "Sounds exactly like the big words a ponynapper would say."

Before Sunset could cast the fire-breathing spell she was saving specifically for Rainbow Dash a red mist enveloped her muzzle, sealing it shut. She followed the trail of sparkling crimson to Rarity, who had stood from her seat and was quite visibly annoyed, having done the same to the web-winged mare antagonizing the unicorn.

"We are clearly going nowhere with this," she began. "I will not suffer your heckling any further, Rainbow Dash, and I'm quite certain, dearest Sunset Shimmer, that I am not the only one who tires of hearing your shouting. Now then..." The demon mare turned and knelt in deference to Cadence, who wore a grin at the alabaster mare's actions, despite herself, "Your Highness, I humbly request that we hear your word."

The princess bowed her head at this. "Thank you, Lady Rarity. Thou art most gracious~." She failed to suppress a giggle before returning to seriousness as the demon released the bickering ponies. With a deep breath, she spoke:

"Princess Celestia warned Sunset, myself, and Shining Armor of a potential approaching calamity. She spoke of this mare, black as night and brimming with magical prowess that would take control of the heavenly bodies, and she could not truly defeat. And if she were to return, it would be out of her hooves how things happened."

"But how come th' Princess can't beat her?" Applejack stepped from her self-assigned post to truly join the group. "Ain't she s'posed to be the most powerful pony in the world?"

"What I know is that it took all of Celestia's power and then some to seal her away last time, and what she used to help her won't work again." Cadence then frowned. "She didn't tell us why, but that's not the biggest problem I had with what she said. And I think I can assume," she looked pointedly at the fiery-maned unicorn, "that she told you more of her scheming than the two of us. I'm not wrong, am I?"

"She did."

"Ugh. Of course." She facehooved with a heavy sigh. "You can't seriously be going through with all this?"

"Well, it's not like we have very many options! We don't have time to rouse an entire guard and tell them where the old castle is, and that's ignoring the fact that going in that place is dangerous and we could lose a lot of ponies in a group that big. It's just not feasible to coordinate--"

"I get it, Sunny." Cadence's anger began to rise once more. "But forgive me if I have reservations about sending the two of you in that god-forsaken forest by yourself because among other things, that doesn't sound like any better of a plan."

"Wait," Twilight spoke up from her silent absorption of the conversation, "'two of you'? Who else?"

Sunset wore a solemn expression.

"You, Twi."

The violet mare tensed as more questions danced on her tongue. "W-where? And why?"

Sunset sighed, and was silent for a long moment. When she began talking once more, her face wore her guilt fully.

"Look, Twilight. You were right. About everything. Celestia didn't want to worry you with it because she knew you would figure it out eventually anyway. She couldn't stop the Dark Mare because the weapons she used denied her what she wanted."

"How could weapons just--"

"The Six Blessings."

Everyone's eyes turned to Cadence as she explained. "They were the most powerful artifacts in all the world, stronger than Celestia herself. If I'm to believe what she said, exponentially so." She took a moment for this information to sink in before resuming. "She used them to save Equestria from countless threats before, but apparently they had different plans for the Dark Mare than she did, because they're what imprisoned the Dark Mare for the last one thousand years."

"But why can't she just use them again?? If these blessings wanted to seal her away and have the power to do so for so long then why not just have them remake the spell??"

"That's the thing, though, Twi," Sunset readjusted herself in her seat, "They went inert, and even if they didn't they told Sunbutt that they wouldn't be used by her anymore."

Twilight connected the dots in her head. "So we have to find them and figure out how to make them work again."

The mistress of manila nodded. "And the good news is, we already know where they are, and it's not too far."

"And that is..."

"Also the bad news." Sunset lit her horn as she talked. "They're in Equestria's old seat of power, the Castle of the Sisters. Where that witch was headed."

"Which means she knows that they could be a threat..."

"And probably the worst part about it is what we'll have to go through to reach the place." Sunset's magic reached upstairs and found her saddlebags, bringing them down to their owner. They unbuckled and a map wrapped in teal light emerged, unfurling before the unicorn, who passed it to Twilight to read.

It was a map of the area surrounding Ponyville. It had multiple quick strokes and coded jargon that Twilight couldn't make sense of focused on the vale itself, but most of the rest were along a clearly marked path leading into...

"The Everfree Forest?"

A collective gasp caused the mare to jump. The gathered residents quickly voiced their knowledge of the wood.

"Oh, goodness! How dreadful!!"

"That place ain't natural!"

"Nopony who's gone in there's ever come out!"

"I did, but--"

"It's crazy! And I know crazy!"

Twilight rolled her currently mismatched eyes and scoffed. "It's just a bunch of trees."

"No, y'all don't understand! The plants there grow without anypony helping them!"

"A-and the animals care for themselves!" Fluttershy shivered at the thought.

"And the clouds over it move all on their own!" Rainbow Dash gestured wildly to accompany her exclamation. "I'm serious, purple; I used to live in the woods, and they're nothin' compared to the stuff that comes out of the Everfree sometimes!"

"That does sound rather unusual, I suppose... but it can't be anything compared to the Dar--" Twilight froze and her pupils shrunk.

"Twily?" Cadence nudged her ottomate. "Are you alright?"

"I'm just now fully realizing that I've been tasked with facing the monster of my nightmares by the ruler of the country." The purple pony-creature's unmasked eye twitched.

"Oh, sweetie..." With some effort, Cadence was able to shift her body and drape a weak wing over the mare.

Sunset watched the two with concern, but before long moved to stand and gather her bags. "well, we can't afford to waste any more time. The sooner we head out to find these things, the better."

The alicorn shot a glare at the unicorn. "You two are NOT going in there."

"We're going, Lovie. You know we don't have any other choice." Her repacking was stopped by an orange hoof on her foreleg. She tensed for a fight, but when she looked to the offending earth pony she saw no anger.

"Well you ain't goin' in there all by your lonesome. Ah'm comin'."

Sunset knocked the mare's hoof away. "No. It's too dangerous for normal ponies."

The thestral snorted and stretched. "I'm pretty sure not a single mare in this library could be considered 'normal', girl."

"Well, it's not a place for anypony to go in, does that explain it simply enough?"

"Yes. Even so," Rarity joined the three ponies, "the two of you are perhaps the most vulnerable to the horrors of the forest. And you still intend to go in?"

"Yes? I thought this was clear already?"

"Well, you can't do it yourself! What if there's a big rock or something in the way and your magic can't cut it? Betchoo'd regret not having a couple earth ponies with ya then, huh?"

"You ain't an earth pony, sugarcube."

"But I got the muscles!" Pinkie flexed her foreleg as it suddenly bulked up to twice the size, musculature rippling so deeply it could be seen under her fur.

"Point is, it'd be better if you had us along." Rainbow Dash bared her sharp teeth in a grin. "Mostly me, but everypony else would help too." She looked to the still sitting false pegasus. "Right Fluttershy?"

"Oh! Um--" The changeling fidgeted as she stumbled over her words, "I don't k-know... The Everfree Forest is really scary a-a-and I-- I wouldn't be of much use..."

"But you're by far the best with animals of anyone in town, darling! Perhaps you'll be able to keep them from attacking us?"

"Heck, ya might even be able t'get them to help out, too!"

"I'm still not okay with any of this--"

"I don't care how okay with it you are, Sunset." Twilight rose from the ottoman to confront the unicorn, her episode having passed and her face determined. "Because I'm not okay with anything that's happened today, but it apparently wasn't important enough to acknowledge! While I would like to endanger as few individuals as possible, we don't know what's in that forest, and these mares at least have an idea. So if we're going to put our lives on the line just because Celestia said so," she looked to the gathered ponies, invigorated by her purpose, "we're doing it my way. If you want to assist us, you're free to come along."

"But, Twili--"

"No buts! Cadence, could you watch Spike please?" She pointed to the young drakeling, who was now snoring beside the princess. "I know it's a lot to ask, considering, but--"

"Absolutely, Twilight." The mare smiled at the alicorn.

"Thank you. I promise, we'll all make it back, alive, one way or another."

Sunset, finding herself incapable of arguing, peeked around the group of mares at Cadence with a pleading expression. The pink princess simply grinned at her smugly.

Author's Notes:

Cadence did a universe title-drop.

I can't promise a solid date, but I can promise it won't take six months to write this time.

Yes, I did include Flash Sentry specifically to aggravate his silly haters, why do you ask.