All was quiet in the peaceful world of Equestria. The birds and other small animals were getting ready to great the summer on this, the longest day of the year. In the small town of Ponyville though all were awake and in the town hall. They were awaiting their princess as that small town that couldn’t have more than a thousand residents was the location for the main celebration. That meant that the princess would be coming to that small country town and raise the sun in front of all the town’s residents. The princess had even sent her personal student to go oversee the preparations.
The princess, Celestia, had just arrived when she felt a strange wind. She knew that Nightmare Moon, the nightmare or dream demon. They took over ponies and fed on their hate and other negative emotions. They were like changelings but opposite in how they fed and what emotions that they fed on. This one had taken over her younger sister and turned her against the day, against her, and her two servants and she could break out today and they likely already had. That is why, when she felt the strange wind coming from outside town she felt compelled to investigate it herself. She might later come to regret going alone.
As Shadow woke up the harsh light of the appoching dawn seemed to want to burn out her eyes. She and Light have excellent night vision as their reptilian eyes are more light sensitive then the eyes of regular ponies. Everything was sore from her horn to the base of her tail. Even her magic felt stiff somehow.
“Uh…Shadow, where are you? Did we make it? Are we in Equestria? Why am I so sore?” said Lights voice from somewhere from the right. She sounded groggy like somepony who had just woken up after a long nap.
“Yes we are in Equestria or at least somewhere on the planet that lies below the moon, and so yes we made it. Can’t you tell because of how bright and colorful it is? As for our soreness it probably is some sort of magical backlash from all the energy in the spell we used to escape, our queen is probably much worse off as she was the caster while we just supplied extra energy,” she replied sounding just as tired as her younger twin.
“Our queen? Wait where is she? Shadow can you see her? Is she ok?” Light said with a little panic evident in her voice.
Shadow looked around her eyes finally adjusting to the hash light. They were on a hill overlooking a small town. Above them towered a mountain and you could just barely make out the outline of a town near the top of it. Curious but they still had to find their queen. She was spotted about halfway down the hill and a trail of mated down grass lead to her. It didn’t seem like she was awake yet.
“Its ok, I found her. She is halfway down the hill,” Light let out a barely audible sigh of relief when she heard that. Shadow though was preoccupied as she had spotted something. Something that could send them right back to where they were. “Um…sis…we might have a problem and our queen is out cold. I don’t think she will wake up in time to help and even if she does she likely won’t have the power to deal with it. I doubt any of us could use more than the simplest of spells,” Shadow said my fear growing the closer that the alabaster figure got to us, and my fear must have been evident in both my voice and face as Light started to panic too and I was blocking her sight of the white coated figure that was approaching. Her panic only increased when she saw the golden magic aura form around the gold clad figure, and when the figure opened her large white wings I was in a state of shear panic.
As she walked toward the hill where she felt the magic breeze on the outskirts of town she felt uncertain as well as a sense of foreboding. What was going to happen if it was them then would they attempt another takeover, or what if instead of Nightmare it was her younger sister Luna who returned? There were so many things to worry about. So many what ifs. Would she have to fight? She let magic flow into her horn so that she could be prepared. If they fought could she possibly get her sister back? Wait she didn’t have the power anymore to change her back. If they fought she might end up harming her sister instead of helping her. Mabey diplomacy was the answer. She opened her wings as large as they could go in an effort to look more regal and awe inspiring.
When she reached the hill she saw three figures. Two had dark coats one was pure black and the other shades of dark blue. The other figure had a golden coat. The pure black mare was lying still at around halfway down the hill while the other two were at the top. As she neared the dark blue mare helped the golden mare up and after a pause they started to walk down the hill.
“Sister… Light…,” Shadow yell whispered into Lights ear, “We need to get up now,” and then she stood up giving Light full view of the mare approaching. Light, for good reason, started to panic, but she had the presence of mind to do it silently. She seemed to be frozen so Shadow grabbed Lights wing claw with hers and pulled her up off of the soft, wet grass. “Light we have to protect our queen. Remember that is our job. That is one of the reasons why we left the clan. Don’t lose your mind yet we need to get to Nightmare Moon, our queen, and protect her. Stay calm we can do this,” I told Light hoping to calm her down, and it seemed to work at first.
“Um…but…the last time we fought her we were…banished…to the moon. I just…don’t…can’t go back. Please…I don’t want to go back,” Light said on the verge of complete panic and mental breakdown, “And…and what if she wants me to talk!?” by this point Shadow didn’t care and used her wing to grab Lights as she rolled her eyes. Then Shadow started to pull Light down the hill. They stopped right below Nightmare Moon, their queen's, unconscious form.
They met in the middle of the hill. The white alicorn princess stood there looking all regal and the two half dragons looked terrified. Shadow at least tried to look fierce and protective as her wings were spread open as well, but whether to block or to take flight no one could tell. While Light was hiding behind her sister like she could protect her from anything that might happen
“Um, you are Celestia, right?” Shadow asked sounding uncertain as the alicorn's appearance had changed over a thousand years. “And…um…are you going to…attack us?”
“Please don’t send us back to the moon it’s so cold,” Light blurted peeking out from behind her sister for only a moment before darting back to her hiding place.
Celestia looked shocked, but at Light’s statement or action they couldn’t tell. Shadow was shocked as well and turned around to look at her cowering sister. She though was shocked because Light had spoken, sure they already knew Celestia, but still, her sister was so shy that even after a thousand years with her, she still had difficulty speaking to Nightmare Moon.
“Yes I am Celestia and unless you give me reason to or attack me first I won’t attack you,” after hearing that the elder sister relaxed a little, “So little one I won’t send you back to the moon,” Celestia said in a warm and tender, almost motherly tone. “So why don’t we all sit down so we are more comfortable for the talk we will have.”
“Um ok sure,” Shadow said while sitting down, still with herself between the two alicorns. Light silently sat down still trying to hide behind her elder sister.
“Oh my aching, wait, Shadow, Light, where are you are you ok!?” at the sound of the new voice all three of the just seated figures jumped up. Light and Shadow ran over to the owner of the voice, Nightmare Moon. Celestia though just stared at the three mares with an unreadable expression.
Light ran over prepping both a medical diagnostic spell and a mana recharge spell and Shadow ran over prepping a high level shielding spell and a low level sun shield at the same time and she cast them both around Nightmare Moon at the same time her sister cast her healing magic on Nightmare.
“You can open your eyes now with no pain. I cast a sun shield on them so you can see through the harsh light,” Shadow said, radiating calm even though just a moment ago she had been terrified and unsure.
“Nightmare Moon, what are your plans now that you have returned?” asked Celestia after she had walked closer to Nightmare Moon. When it became clear that her queen was in no imminent danger Shadow let go of her shielding spell.
“Well I want to be separated from Luna if I can, and if it is at all possible I would like my own body, one that I don’t have to take from another pony, and if I can then I will try to live out my life in peace. If I can’t or if I don’t survive being separated from Luna then can you ensure that Shadow and Light get peaceful new lives and a new start. That or they can rejoin their mother and her clan if you can find them. I assure you that I have no plans to throw the world into eternal night nor do I want to take over Equestria,” Nightmare Moon said while trying to stand up. Shadow tried to help her but Nightmare wouldn’t let her.
They waited until Nightmare was standing. She was as tall as Celestia and Shadow was just a little shorter than them, Light was the shortest but still a good ear taller than a tall stallion. “Well that gives me a bit of relief that you aren’t here to take over, but, and I am so very sorry about this, I no longer am connected to the elements so I can’t separate you and Luna. I am afraid that there is nothing I can do to help you or to get my sister back,” Celestia said sadly to a very crestfallen Nightmare.
“If you aren’t connected to the elements anymore then what about the new bearers. Surely they could and would help,” Shadow said reigniting the hope in Nightmare and the guilt in Celestia.
“There are no new bearers and there haven’t been any since I lost my connection to them,” Celestia said sadly but with a little more hope she said, “But I have reason to believe that all six of the new bearers could be in this town,” and with a little sadness she continued to say, “But they likely have only just met and need to connect to each other and their element. They also need to find the elements. They are still in the old castle that I shared with my sister before you took her over.”
After hearing all that no one spoke for a long time. Shadow was the first to speak. “What if we pretend to attack and thus prompt the six that you believe to be the next bearers to find their elements. Nothing causes ponies to connect faster than conflict. We wouldn’t hurt them but we will oppose them and get them to use the elements on Nightmare Moon. You would need to cooperate and help us though. If you could come with us invisibly and pretend to be missing it would be very helpful and if you feel that we are going to hurt your ponies then you can stop helping us and do what you want.”
Everyone was stunned. Shadow had a plan already and it was a good plan at that. “Well that seems…agreeable, it would help all of us and it might even work. What do you think Celestia? Does that work for you?” Nightmare asked hoping that she would agree to help them.
“Yes, but how will you threaten them without injuring any of the ponies of this town?”
“Well…we, um…well you see, we, um drained most of our magic getting here so we, um can’t use very much magic, um really only illusions and telekinesis and, um my sister's and my fire, but only in really small amounts and it, um wouldn’t be hot enough to burn or even injure so we um, can’t hurt anypony,” Light said quietly while still hiding behind her sister.
“Well in that case I shall go along with your plan and if we want to do it we need to leave,” Celestia said as a bright glow from her horn enveloped them all in a golden sphere of light.
When the sphere of light was gone, they were in a new location. They had been teleported to the town hall of the small town that they were in. They arrived just in time to hear the mayor start her speech. This gave them time for Celestia to cast an invisibility spell on herself giving the three their first sight of modern magic. The teleportation spell was too fast for them to see any difference in the magic of the present from the magic of the past. They also had enough time to learn what they were called now. Half dragon ponies were called Dragonish and Nightmare Moon was called the mare in the moon. They also learned that the last known dragon clan had disappeared around five hundred years ago and the dragonish disappeared three hundred years before them. The twin dragonish were shocked by both of these as they came from a dragon clan that had more than ten other dragonish. They had a hard time believing either of these things.
They had an invisibility spell quickly cast on them when the guards came storming by looking for their princess. The mayor’s speech had ended and the princess was supposed to come out at that point. After the search had been conducted they, still invisible, walked out on to the stage.
“She’s gone,” a white unicorn with a curled purple mane.
Nightmare let her ethereal mane billow around their feet. This let her mane become visible. They heard the ponies below, as the stage was on an indoor balcony, start to gasp in shock as they saw the mane. Celestia let the invisibility spell on them drop, letting all the ponies see them. Celestia, though, was still invisible.
“What did you do with the princess,” a light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail yelled and tried to take off in order to attack her but an orange earth pony with a yellow mane and tail held her back.
“Act maniacal,” Shadow whispered to Nightmare, “And you look confident,” she said to Light.
“Ok,” Nightmare whispered back. Then she let out an evil laugh, “Why do I no longer count as a princess, do I no longer have a crown that counts,” she said loudly while trying to look evil. “Do you even know or care who I am.” This she said more seriously.
“OOH I love guessing games, Black Smoky, Queen Meany, um,” said a pink earth pony with one of the puffiest manes they had ever seen, and it was pink as well. That was all she was able to say before the orange earth pony stuffed a cupcake in her mouth. The pink pony tried to speak afterwards but only murmurs came out.
“Does my title no longer count after being imprisoned for a thousand years,” Nightmare continued heedless of the interruption. She had turned towards a soft yellow pegasus with a long pink mane and tail. She turned away terrified.“Did no one take notice of the signs of our impending escape,” she said turning to the white unicorn on stage with them. She used her ethereal mane to flick the unicorn on the nose.
“I did,” said a lavender unicorn with a mane and tail that was predominantly purple but with a stripe of pink and dark purple running through it, “And I know who you are. You’re the mare in the moon, Nightmare Moon.”
“Oh the little unicorn remembers you, she must think that she’s so smart, but does she know who or what we are,” said Shadow loudly, mocking the purple unicorn and drawing attention to her sister and herself. As she said this she opened her wings in order to make herself look scarier. She smiled showing off her fangs and after a little nudging Light did the same. This elicited another gasp from all the ponies gathered. Shadow then raised her tail and let the light in the room glint of its blade. Light moved her tail but she didn’t bring it to the crowd’s attention as her sister did.
Light, with more nudging said, “If she knows who you are then she likely knows why we’re here,” with a bit more nudging she continued her sister’s original taunt, “even if the little unicorn doesn’t know who or what we are.”
Every eye in the room turned to the purple unicorn. “You’re here to…to…”
Nightmare let out another evil laugh. “Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last, because from this point on night will last forever,” after she said that all three of them burst out laughing evilly. Nightmare had her mane spiraled up and had the illusion of lightning crackling out of it.