“Mm… Ugh… Ah! Nightmare Moon! W-We’ve gotta…stop… Huh?”
Twilight awoke with a start, damp with sweat, her foalhood nightmares of the evil ‘Mare in the Moon’ having returned with a vengeance. Expecting to wake up in the town hall where she’d blacked out in the first place, she instead found herself in a soft bed back in her Ponyville home – the library. She was covered up to her barrel by a blanket of silk. ‘How did I get here?’ Twilight wondered, before quickly reasoning that she was carried here after her collapse on the pavilion floor. Whoever did that, she would be sure to thank at her earliest convenience.
She looked out the window to her right; the first thing to grace her violet eyes was the light of the featureless moon. Twilight couldn’t help but think it was rather beautiful without those black craters lining its surface.
But then she remembered what the moon’s unblemished surface meant, and her bout of reverie passed.
Twilight pushed the covers off of her and got to her hooves. This was absolutely no time to be sleeping or daydreaming. She moved for the stairs before the sound of muffled voices hit her ears, and she quickened her gait a little. The voices came in clearer the closer she got to the bottom of the stairwell.
“…I mean it, Rainbow. When Twilight wakes up, no hoof pointing.”
Twilight immediately recognized the first voice as that of her brother Shining Armor…
“Okay, okay! Jeez!”
…and the second as that of her new ‘friend’ Rainbow Dash. Twilight groaned at the prospect of having to deal with her (and those other oddball mares) again today. She moved into the light of the main room. Anticipating the presence of six other ponies in the room, she found only Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.
The three looked over when they heard someone descending from upstairs and saw Twilight standing there. “Twily!” Shining Armor greeted her as he trotted over to her, nearly staggering as he did so.
Twilight met him partway and caught him, allowing him to lean on her for support. “Careful.”
He smiled sheepishly. “Heh. Thanks.”
Standing this close to her brother, Twilight took note of his body and the many bandages that wrapped it. “Wow…” she gaped. “Nightmare Moon sure gave you a beating, huh?”
Shining Armor chuckled softly. “Yeah. Not as easy as taking down a Nightfoal, it turns out.”
“So who…?”
“Fluttershy,” Shining Armor replied in explaining the bandages. He motioned toward the timid Pegasus in the corner. “Her first aid skills are really something.”
Fluttershy hid her deep blush behind her pink mane. “Oh. I-It was nothing. Really.”
“What about Ponyville?” Twilight then asked. “The Heartless?”
“The royal guards are taking care of the Heartless right now. It’s not as bad out there as you might think.”
“And these two?” the unicorn continued, gesturing toward the two Pegasi in the room.
“I asked them to help me bring you to bed. I wasn’t in any shape to carry you myself.” Shining Armor walked over to playfully punch Rainbow Dash in the shoulder. “Besides, I had to keep an eye on this one and make sure she didn’t harass you with questions about being a spy when you finally woke up.” He shot her a reproachful eye.
Rainbow Dash quickly put her defenses up. “I said I was sorry!”
“Um…”
The two winged mares glanced ahead to see Twilight awkwardly rubbing her foreleg.
“…Thanks for…carrying me here and…patching my brother up.”
Rainbow grinned widely and gave a nonchalant ‘no prob’, while Fluttershy gave a sincere smile that sought no self-gratification.
Twilight couldn’t help but ask. “So if you two are here, where are the others?”
“Applejack and Rarity went to walk their little sisters home,” Fluttershy answered. “The poor things. They were so scared after Nightmare Moon left, they clung to their sisters’ legs and wouldn’t let go.”
“And Pinkie Pie…” Rainbow Dash continued before trailing off. She looked as though she were about to burst out laughing. “…Well, you have to see it to believe it.”
Twilight tilted her head, confused by the rainbow-maned pony’s vague words, and was about to inquire further…when she suddenly heard a melodious sound coming from outside. Her ears perked up. “Is that…singing?” she asked to nopony in particular.
“Like Rainbow said,” Shining Armor began again with a sigh, “it has to be seen to be believed.”
My Little Pony: The Key to Friendship
~ Chapter 7: Hand in Hand ~
Nothing prepared Twilight for what she saw outside her front door. At first, she thought it a hallucination, or perhaps she’d never awoken after passing out in the town hall and was now dreaming. She slapped herself to make certain. Nope. Not a dream. But there was no logical explanation for what she was witnessing.
A moderately-sized group of ponies was parading through Ponyville with a spring in their step and smiles on their faces. At the head of the parade was a bouncy Pinkie Pie, who led them in jaunty song.
Smile, darn ya, smile!
You know this whole world is a great world after all
Smile, darn ya, smile!
And right away, watch lady luck pay you a call
Things are never black as they are painted
Time for you and joy to get acquainted
Make life worthwhile
Come on and smile, darn ya, smile!
Twilight’s mouth hung open. Nightmare Moon was free, Princess Celestia was gone, and the Heartless were running rampant… And yet Pinkie Pie was leading a parade through Ponyville as though she hadn’t a care in the world. Perhaps she truly didn’t. Twilight slapped herself a second time before turning to the smirking Rainbow Dash. “Okay, seriously! Does she do stuff like this all the time?!” she cried with a slight crack in her voice.
“All. The. Time,” the Pegasus replied. “Leave it to Pinkie Pie to throw a parade in the middle of a crisis.”
“But…why?!”
Rainbow shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Twilight turned back around to bear witness to (and maybe try to make sense of) more of the insanity Pinkie Pie was orchestrating…
…and came face-to-face with the pink mare herself. “Hi, Twilight!”
“Aah!”
“Feeling better now?”
“Pinkie, what… How…” The unicorn struggled to find the right words, which she found herself doing every time she interacted with the hyperactive Earth pony. “W-What is all this?!” she eventually articulated.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m throwing a parade for everyone in Ponyville!”
“Considering everything that’s happened, do you really think now’s the time?”
“Now’s the perfect time, Twilight! I love making everyone around me smile, and do you know what the best time is to make someone smile? When they’re sad! And since almost everyone in Ponyville is sad right now, I have my work cut out for me. Hee-hee!”
Twilight was about to question the crazed pony’s thought processes when she caught sight of a Heartless appearing at Pinkie’s backside. “Pinkie, watch out!”
Pinkie spun to her rear and faced the Heartless unicorn that had popped out of the ground. “Ooh! Hello! Want a cupcake?”
Before the black creature could make Pinkie’s heart its own, Twilight lunged at it with Keyblade in mouth and cleaved it in two.
Pinkie sighed. “I guess Heartless don’t like cupcakes either…” she lamented before downing the pastry in her hoof in one bite. “Maybe I’ll try muffins next.”
Twilight found herself unconsciously drowning out Pinkie’s nonsensical chatter as she regarded the Academia floating before her. It still had cracks along its handle and shaft from when it took on the force of Nightmare Moon’s own Keyblade earlier; the fractures weren’t mending on their own. Would it inevitably shatter completely? Twilight once thought the Keyblade indestructible. But then she also once thought that Princess Celestia was the only Keyblade wielder in Equestria.
Princess Celestia…
The Academia fell from Twilight’s magical grip and clattered to the soft, pebbly ground at her hooves. Twilight fell too, to her haunches, and hung her head low.
“Twilight?” asked Shining Armor behind her.
“The princess is gone, Shining,” she started in a melancholy whisper. “Spike’s gone. Nightmare Moon’s free to terrorize Equestria. And on top of everything, there’s this.” She pointed to her cracked weapon. “It’s…hopeless.”
“Stop it, Twilight. You know what that kind of thinking will lead to.”
“Can you blame me? You said so yourself: she’s too powerful. She even took down Princess Celestia!” Her eyes started to water. “I’m never gonna see her or Spike again!”
Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Shining Armor were stricken silent by Twilight’s show of emotion and indeed could hardly blame her for it. While she, like all of Equestria, had lost her princess, she’d also lost a teacher and close friend, not to mention another who’s been like a little brother to her since she was young.
“Awww, it’ll be okay, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie offered to the sniffling unicorn as she nuzzled her cheek a little. “…Hey! I know what’ll cheer you up!”
Twilight dried her eyes with a foreleg and looked up at Pinkie as she momentarily turned away. One could only guess as to what she was up to now.
She messed with her mane and tail a bit and stuck a plunger to her forehead before facing the others again. Except for her lack of wings, Pinkie looked much like a pink, short-legged Nightmare Moon (although how she was able to make her mane almost the same consistency as the real thing was yet another mystery to add to the pile). “Look at me, everypony! I’m mean old ‘Black Snooty’! Gaze upon my spooky mane and tremble at the sound of my big, scary voice! RAWR! I hate the sun!”
The three ponies standing behind Twilight were instantly taken by uproarious laughter, which Pinkie joined in. In the middle, Twilight was dumbstruck by how relaxed she was being over the situation. And yet…still she brought a hoof to her mouth, unable to hold back a snicker. That joke at the evil alicorn’s expense was just too funny. Pretty soon, she too was laughing at the top of her lungs.
Pinkie was beside herself with joy at this sight. “Hee-hee! Made ya laugh!” she singsonged.
Twilight had gotten her laughter under control before long, but didn’t lose her warm smile. Everything about this Pinkie Pie was illogical; she wondered if there were a rhyme or reason to anything she did and how she acted. Then again, she found the pink pony’s desire to make those around her smile and laugh infectious and – dare she say it – somewhat admirable. “…Thanks, Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie’s grin widened. “It’s what I do!”
“Well, ain’t this a fine ‘how-do-you-do’? Turn our backs on Ponyville for one second, and the next, ponies are hoppin’ on the rooftops.”
Twilight and the others looked over to see Applejack and Rarity approaching. Rainbow Dash seized this opportunity to address the group now that it was whole. “Okay! Now that we’re all here, can we finally figure out what we’re gonna do about Nightmare Moon?”
“‘Do’?” Rarity echoed. “Whatever do you mean by ‘do’? In case you’re hard of remembering, she single-hoofedly trounced two experienced bearers and the royal guards. What can we hope to accomplish?”
“Well, we gotta do something! I’m not gonna just sit back and let that ‘moon hag’ turn Equestria into her own Heartless playground!”
“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie chimed in. “And can you imagine? Nighttime forever means no sun! No sun means no warmth! No more afternoon picnics! No more sunbathing! No more swimming in the lake to cool off!”
Fluttershy spoke out then. “And what about the flowers and plants? They’ll all wither.”
“…The Elements…” whispered the purple unicorn in the middle.
“Twilight?”
Saying nothing, she suddenly bolted past Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, into the library. The ponies on her doorstep shared a glance before following her inside. There, they found the main room – relatively spotless moments ago – with dozens of books scattered across the floor. Book after book hovered in front of Twilight’s face for half a second before she tossed it aside like so much refuse. “No… No… No, no, no!” She groaned to the sky.
Applejack navigated through the mess of literature and asked, “What ‘cha lookin’ fer, sugarcube?”
“Information about the Elements of Harmony. My studies into Nightmare Moon’s return told me a little bit about them. They’re mysterious, magical artifacts that sealed her away a thousand years ago. I’ve been trying to dig up all that I could about them – where they are, what they are, what they do – but… ARGH!” Twilight tossed the last book in the pile harshly at the wall. “But I can’t find a single thing about them,” she grumbled, hanging her head again. “…Spike’s so much better at this. He always managed to find the book I needed when I needed it. Never knew how much of a mess I am without him.”
“Oh, that poor little dragon,” Rarity added. “Forced to do that dreadful mare’s bidding against his will, like a common lapdog. Surely there must be a way to save him.”
“Him and the princess,” Rainbow Dash corrected.
“Hey, look!” Pinkie Pie suddenly cried out. Reaching down, she took one of the books lying around into her hooves. “‘The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide’! Is this what you’re looking for?”
Twilight snatched the book away from her with her magic and brought it to her muzzle for a closer look. “How’d I miss this?!”
“Maybe I can be the new Spike! Hmm… I’ll have to learn how to breathe fire though…” Pinkie tapped her chin with a forehoof, no doubt fantasizing about being a flying fire-breathing reptile.
Twilight ignored the manic mare and opened the book. “Let’s see… ‘There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are currently known. These five embody the virtues of harmony and light for which life in Equestria is renowned: kindness, laughter, generosity, honesty, and loyalty. The sixth Element, as well as the virtue or power it represents, are a mystery, believed to appear only when a spark between the other five ignites the magic within.’”
“Sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo,” remarked the always candid Rainbow Dash. “Anything else in there?”
“Not much. Mostly just rumors and speculation about what the Elements really are. ‘Essences of purest light’… ‘Powerful hearts that somehow avoided becoming Heartless’… Pretty interesting stuff, actually.”
“Focus, egghead.”
“Right, sorry.” Twilight flipped past a few more pages before coming to rest on something promising. “…Ah. Here we go. ‘It’s said that the last known location of the Elements of Harmony is the site at which they were last used: the place where Nightmare Moon was finally defeated.’”
“And where might that be?” asked Rarity.
“The ancient castle of the Royal Pony Sisters,” Twilight answered as she closed the book shut. “At the center of the Everfree Forest.”
“The Everfree Forest?!?” a cacophony of voices cried in Twilight’s ears.
Rainbow folded her forelegs as she hovered. “Hmph. Figures the one thing we need to take Nightmare Moon down is in that place.”
Twilight inwardly admitted to having heard stories about the strange woods that lay on the outskirts of Ponyville. Seeing the others’ reactions, it made her shudder a little to learn that some of those stories had a layer of truth to them. “Look, it’ll be fine,” Twilight assured. “I’ll head for the castle to find the Elements and—”
“You? By yerself?” Applejack interjected. “Nothin’ doin’, Twilight. No way we’re lettin’ a friend of ours go into that creepy place on her lonesome. If you’re goin’ in there, we’re comin’ with ya!”
“Absolutely not,” the purple unicorn objected. “It’s way too dangerous. None of you are chosen ones like me and Shining are.”
The cowpony scoffed. “We don’t need no fancy-schmancy key to show them Heartless a thing or two. Ah’ve been protectin’ mah farm just fine for months now without one.”
“But Nightmare Moon—”
“Nightmare Moon can throw whatever she wants at us,” said Rainbow then, “and we’ll still kick her flank straight to Tartarus! Right, Fluttershy?”
The fainthearted Pegasus poked her head out from behind Shining Armor. “Um… I-I’m actually just fine with staying here…if that’s okay…”
Twilight shook her head. “This is ridiculous. This isn’t your fight.”
“‘Course it is,” Applejack stubbornly returned. “It’s all ours. It’s the fight of anypony who’s willin’ to try. And Ah sure as sugar am. Right?”
A general consensus of ‘yups’ and ‘mm-hmm’s’ filled the room, to Twilight’s surprise and frustration. Had two or three of them been Keyblade wielders, she’d have been accepting of the help. But willingness to put themselves in harm’s way, given their lack of fighting experience? She thought it more foalish than noble. But then, this was her first day in Ponyville. The ponies in front of her had lived here their whole lives; they were probably more familiar with the Everfree Forest’s layout than she was. Even still… “…You know I can’t guarantee your safety while we’re in there, right? I don’t know how much more my Keyblade can take before it totally breaks – if it ever does.”
“Like Ah said, we can hold our own just fine.”
Twilight analyzed the five ponies’ faces one by one. Odds were all of them would be staunchly committed to following her into the depths of the Everfree. Even Fluttershy, for all of her reluctance, seemed to slowly come around. She thought on the day she just had, her one-on-one encounters with each of them. Despite their overenthusiasm and her own disposition toward attempts to push them away, they reached out to her openly. The smiles on their faces spoke volumes of the value they held in friendship. Twilight sighed, with an expression that screamed this is an incredibly bad idea. Nevertheless, she then looked ahead to address them. “We should get going right away, before Nightmare Moon catches wind of what we’re up to.”
Her proposal was met by firm, concurring nods.
“Alright then,” Shining Armor entered with as he stepped forward. “Now that that’s settled, I should regroup with my soldiers and join in clearing out the Heartless still in Ponyville. Pinkie Pie’s song may have lifted their spirits for now, and news of what happened to Princess Celestia isn’t exactly public knowledge yet, but word’s starting to get around.” At Twilight’s side, he rested a hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I can handle things here. You go do what you have to.”
“Thanks, Shining.”
With a nod of his own, Shiny was out the front door in a brisk canter.
Twilight watched him depart before regarding Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash once more. There was no turning back now. With a calming breath, she said to them, “Well then…let’s go save Equestria, shall we?”