Sil woke with a jump as he heard a loud knocking on the door. Still half asleep, he trudged over to the door of his shop and there in the doorway was a very excited Colgate.
“Hey big bro! You ready to go to the Summer Sun Celebration to watch Celestia raise the sun?!” Sil slowly blinked as Colgate was practically jumping up and down.
“Yeah… you’ve always been a morning person, haven’t you...” Sil said as they started walking toward Ponyville.
“Yup. And especially today since it’s going to be super amazing because I have my big brother here with me!”
“Mhm… hey, do you think you could give me a couple minutes of silence so I can get ready?” Colgate nodded. Sil’s horn began to glow as his mane and tail began to form into his normal spiked style and for added measure he added a cutie mark to him so he wouldn’t stand out as much. Colgate watched the entire thing and when Sil was finally done with his short transformation, she spoke up.
“Huh… a crescent moon. That’s a bit strange. Of all the cutie marks, you choose that one?”
“Yeah. It’s mainly due to a bit of family history that you wouldn’t know about.”
“Silent… what about our family do I not know? And why can’t I know it?”
“You mean dad hasn’t told you?” Colgate shook her head. “Very well. Before 1000 years ago, all of the members of our family were very highly trained in the arts of Illusion Magic. But then, after some events happened, Celestia only allowed one of our family members, the first born Unicorn, to be trained in the art. As an added measure, she restricted it to one every other generation, so it would skip. However, since our grandfather passed away before I was even born, my parents were worried that I would not be able to carry on the tradition. Their worries were quelled shortly after I was born, when I completely disappeared from the hospital bed I was sleeping in. It took them a couple hours to realize that I was just invisible. They named me Silent because they knew I would be the next one. I added on the “Trail” when I graduated from the academy, but then again I believe you already knew that. Before you ask why Celestia restricted us, I will tell you that I will explain that shortly after this Summer Sun Celebration. But then I will probably have to run off.”
“I-I understand.”
Sil looked forward and he could see the Town Hall, already filling up with ponies from all around Equestria. He found it weird that there were a lot of similar looking ponies, but he disregarded it upon the grounds that it was bound to happen with the huge amount of ponies. Very shortly after he and Colgate had gotten into their positions on one of the balconies, Sil heard the sound of birds, followed by the Mayor speaking a couple lines about the Summer Sun Celebration. All of the sudden, Sil felt a darkness about the place, almost as if some untold evil had filled the Town Hall. As soon as the Mayor introduced Princess Celestia, Sil looked to the curtains that had opened, gazing at an empty balcony. He looked from the balcony to the crowd below him, noticing Twilight, who muttered something to herself, almost like she knew what had happened. He also noticed a Pink Earth Pony who was standing next to Twilight and how she was talking rather quickly. He looked back to the stage as the white Unicorn from earlier declared that the Princess was gone, followed by a room-full of ponies gasping and one “ooh, she’s good!” Sil figured that the latter was probably from the pink pony by Twilight, due to some of the nearby ponies staring at her. Sil heard a frightened gasp as suddenly the dark sense got stronger, and when he looked back at the balcony where Celestia should have been standing, he saw a dark blue mist, almost like an aura of magic.
“Well well… the guest of honor has arrived,” Sil said quietly to himself as Colgate stole a glance at him. Sil stared at the mist as it transformed into an evil-looking Alicorn, pitch black and a starry mane, much like what the mist had been earlier. Sil could only recount pictures of this new figure in the books he had been forced to study as a child during the summers between years at the Academy, but he knew that this was none other than Nightmare Moon, the very embodiment of all the jealousy of the younger sister of Celestia. He watched as Nightmare Moon taunted the crowd, saying that it had captured Celestia, asking if anypony knew who it was. He looked down when he heard somepony say “I did. And I know who you are. You’re the mare in the Moon. Nightmare Moon!” He turned to look, and sure enough, there was Twilight, confronting the new Alicorn. Sil turned to walk back down to exit the Town Hall, waiting to follow Twilight, when he felt a hoof on his shoulder.
“You knew. You knew this would happen, and you didn’t tell me. What is she? Who is Nightmare Moon?” His sister, now with a glare intending to burn through Sil’s barriers of confidentiality, stood right in front of Sil as he turned around.
“Follow me, quickly then.” Sil started to trot. He heard lightning and figured the commotion would be enough for nopony to think about a side conversation. “Yes, I knew this would happen. Celestia wanted this stuff to be kept as legends or old mare’s tales, yet she tasked our family with the keeping of the secrets of what happened. If you’ve ever read the stories, then you’d know that this Nightmare Moon is Celestia’s sister, Luna. Only Luna got jealous because everypony only ever paid attention to Celestia’s days. Eventually, the jealousy overtook her and she became the monster called Nightmare Moon, threatening to keep Equestria in eternal darkness of night. Celestia defeated her and banished her to the moon, for 1000 years. However, it is, well was, said that ‘on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape.’ This is the longest day of the thousandth year. Nightmare Moon is back, and now it’s up to somepony to stop her. I’ve been tasked with following that somepony to make sure they’re safe. Now, I’m sorry, that’s all I can tell you now. I’ve got to go.” And with that, Sil turned invisible and teleported to where he knew Twilight would go, leaving Colgate stomping in frustration at the front doors of Town Hall.
Sil appeared just outside of the library, where he saw Twilight run in through the doors. A couple minutes passed before Rainbow Dash flew up to the library and barged through the doors, then a couple seconds later Applejack, that Pink pony, the White Unicorn, and finally the Yellow Pegasus walked in. It wasn’t long before Sil felt that same evil presence that he had felt in Town Hall, and sure enough, when he looked up, he saw the Blue Mist. It stayed for a couple of seconds before darting off into the night. Sil tracked it and saw that it flew straight to the Everfree Forest.
“Of course… it would be the Everfree forest.” Sil thought, “The Castle of the Eclipse is there, remember? The original castle of Celestia and Luna, where they defeated Discord and where Celestia banished Nightmare Moon.”
Sil heard the door open then shut as the six ponies dashed off to the Everfree Forest. Sil had to run to keep up, and luckily he could match his hoofsteps with one of the six ponies, masking his sound. Soon they got to the edge of the forest and stopped. Sil could hear Twilight say that she should do this on her own, and then he heard Applejack argue.
“No can do, sugarcube. We sure ain’t lettin’ any friend of ours go into that creepy place alone. We’re sticking to you like caramel on a candy apple,” Applejack said as she began to trot into the forest, followed by the affirming mhm’s of the rest of the ponies. Twilight sighed and followed them into the dark forest.
“Sure… stick to her like caramel on a candy apple, as you leave her behind…” Sil thought as he rolled his eyes and followed the band of ponies.
Sil was so busy trying to silently creep along behind Twilight and her companions to hear anything they were saying. He had to stop, however, when he felt the Mist coming back. Soon, he heard a rumbling noise and ran out into the open to watch as the non-pegasi tumbled down, their ground having just pulled out from beneath them. Sil had to act fast. He saw that the white unicorn and the pink pony had already been saved, so he tried to make the grass a little bit more resistant around Twilight. It worked, if just a little, as she stopped accelerating and was able to cling to the edge of a cliff. He saw Applejack let go of the branch she had bitten down on to help Twilight out. She was just barely hanging on when Sil saw the two Pegasi descend to catch Twilight. He saw Twilight shrieking at Applejack before she let go, letting the Pegasi catch her and bring her down to safety. Sil slid down to the cliff as he saw Applejack descend using a few outcroppings to jump on. Sil followed as soon as Applejack had joined up with the rest of the group.
“Twilight is slowly learning to trust other ponies. Good thing she had Applejack to help her out. She’s one of the most honest ponies I know,” Sil thought as he followed the group. A couple minutes passed before Sil saw a shadow up ahead. He thought the silhouette looked familiar from somewhere, but he couldn’t place his hoof on it until it roared.
“Great… a manticore. This one isn’t too big though, I hope they can handle it… I should get closer, just in case.”
Sil watched as each pony tried their hoof in defeating the manticore. Only when five of them charged at the same time did the sixth one, the yellow Pegasus, jump in front of her companions to stop the charge. Sil could hardly believe his eyes when he watched what unfolded next. The Pegasus walked calmly up to the beast, nuzzled him, and looked at his paw, which Sil noticed had a huge thorn embedded in the pad. He cringed as the beast roared when the yellow Pegasus removed the thorn, and held his mouth open in disbelief when it picked her up and started to lick her. The other five walked past as the beast continued to thank the yellow Pegasus. Sil followed closely behind, being careful to stay downwind of the Manticore. It may have let the others pass without a problem, but chances are it wouldn’t take kindly to somepony sneaking up on it. As Sil passed it, he noticed that the thorn turned into the Blue Mist and followed the ponies.
“I can’t believe it… is she really… no, no she can’t be,” Sil thought as he caught up to the slightly closer band of ponies.
Soon, they came into a darker portion of the forest, and Sil felt the evil Mist creep up on them. Soon, he could see the trees form faces and he knew that the Mist was using a certain type of advanced illusion magic. He looked to the Six Mares, and he saw the Pink one laughing and making funny faces at the tree. Then, the unbelievable happened.
“Oh girls, don’t you see? When I was a little filly and the sun was going down,”
“Oh no… She’s singing?!”
Sil watched as the Pink pony walked up to the tree and laughed, defeating the Illusion magic.
“No, that’s impossible… only a really advanced counterspell would have defeated it… or some ancient form of mag… no, no it can’t be, it can’t be can it?” Sil thought as he watched as the rest of the six ponies joined in. Suddenly, before all trees had been defeated, the Blue Mist left the trees and carried on.
“Clever girl…” Sil thought, following the laughing band of ponies as they continued on.
Soon, the group, still laughing, came across a river that was churning like the rapids Sil had only seen up in the Mountains beyond Canterlot. He looked up the river and saw the source, a giant purple Elvslange with half a moustache and the most impressive hairdue he’s ever seen on an Elvslange. As Twilight and company approached the Elvslange, it kept crying, and drenched the company with all the flailing about. After a couple quick words between Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and the Elvslange, the white unicorn approached the large serpent and started to talk to it. After a lot of what Sil assumed to be patronizing on the part of the white unicorn, she did something a bit drastic. Sil watched in amazement as the unicorn grabbed one of the serpent’s scales and cut off her tail. He then watched as she fused it onto the missing half of the Elvslange’s moustache.
“Well that was generous of her…” Sil thought as he watched the company hop across the back of the Elvslange to the other side of the river. Sil quickly teleported into the brush, hoping that the company wouldn’t notice the dark flash as he teleported. “That’s one thing I guess I should be thankful for, a flash of darkness when I teleport as opposed to the normal flash of light.” Sil thought as he followed the company deeper into the forest.
Soon, Twilight and company approached the ruins of the Castle of the Eclipse, where Sil saw that there was a bridge that was out. He watched as Rainbow Dash flew down and carried the other side of the chasm. All of the sudden, fog rose up and Sil saw what he thought was the Mist transform into three pegasi, each sporting an outfit that looked similar to that of the Wonderbolts. He watched the conversation until one of the pegasi turned to Twilight who had just called out Rainbow Dash’s name, and then he lost all sight of the other side of the chasm as the fog thickened and rose. Shortly after, he saw Rainbow Dash fly through the fog and to the other side, having tied the bridge to the other side. The company crossed, and just as Sil was about to follow, the words from Celestia’s letter came back to him.
Whatever you do, do NOT cross the bridge.
“Well then, I guess I’m just going to sit here then,” Sil thought as he sat down near a tree and took off his invisibility spell to wait for events to unfold. “Guess there’s nothing else I can really do…”
Sil waited for what seemed like forever before he saw a flash in the lower part of the castle, followed by a flash in the tower.
“This is the night that the Elements reappear, When one mare overcomes her fear,” a voice said as Sil turned around. Before him was a zebra, decorated in much jewelry.
“What do you know of this?” Sil asked.
“For years I have studied pony lore, for this is the day that made me want to explore,” the zebra said as she looked and smiled at Sil.
“Who are you?”
“My new friend, I am known as Zecora. My residence lies in the forest, with the flora," she said, almost in a tribal rhythm.
“So you live here in the Everfree forest? Why not in Ponyville?”
“Ponies fear my presence, I am afraid. Though once a month I go there to trade. Though mostly my struggles are to no avail; when they see me they run, and let out many a wail.” Zecora looked forward to the Castle.
Sil followed her gaze, and all of the sudden there was a bright light, and Sil could make out a rainbow followed by a distant scream coming from the castle. After a flash of light, it was silent.
“So, it worked then… Nightmare Moon is defeated,” Sil said as Zecora nodded.
“Indeed you are right, young unicorn. The Nightmare is over, now await we the morn,” Zecora said. Almost immediately after, Sil looked to the East as he saw the bright light of the sun peeking up over the mountains. He then saw a bright ball of light fly to the castle.
“Worry not about the princess of the night, for she has been freed, and all is right,” Zecora said as she returned to the forest. Sil watched her leave and then watched as Eight ponies walked out of the castle doors to head back toward Ponyville. Sil smiled as his horn began to glow and teleported back to his shop in Ponyville.
The next day, a huge party was thrown in Ponyville and upon the Royal Fanfare, a chariot came into the center, two Alicorns standing side by side. Standing by Celestia was an Alicorn young in appearance, Blue coat and a light blue mane. Her cutie mark was a black splotch with a crescent moon. Sil looked at the Princess and smiled. She was back.
As the day wore on and the party ended, Sil returned back to his shop, finding a new letter sitting on his workbench.