Chapter 1: A Party Postponed
Ponyville always seemed to find something to have a party about, at least if Pinkie Pie had anything to do with it. The locals knew that if any sort of event came up, no matter how trivial or obscure, once Pinkie Pie got her hooves on it, it was sure to be plastered on every notice board in town and printed on every two-layer cake. And, in typical Pinkie Pie fashion, these parties had ways of popping up when least expected.
The first poster went up on front door of the Golden Oaks Library, which read: PARTY THIS THURSDAY, 8 P.M. STARCREST RIDGE, EVERYPONY WELCOME! The library wasn’t the most customary location for notices, except for those regarding meetings of the local Book Nook chapter, so word didn’t start traveling until Tuesday afternoon. Gradually, whispers began trickling through the town that Pinkie Pie must have some whopper of a bash coming up. Whispers turned to murmurs, then the murmurs turned to excited chatter.
Most ponies weren’t expecting a party to happen this week, as they typically didn’t. Most of Ponyville didn’t think that an unassuming Thursday in the month of January warranted much celebration. Hearth’s Warming Eve was weeks behind them, and Winter Wrap-Up was still several months off yet. Perhaps a birthday? Pinkie Pie knew everypony’s birthday, so that remained a possibility. But nopony in Ponyville had a birthday coming up Thursday, at least that anypony was aware of. The townsfolk scoured their calendars, but could find no purpose for the impromptu party, and speculation ran wild.
“It could be a surprise party for somepony, and I wouldn’t be surprised in the least.” A group of Ponyville locals had gathered outside the Golden Oaks Library to share their thoughts on the upcoming event, which nopony had the slightest real inkling as to the actual purpose of.
“Well then, it must be somepony out of town, if it’s supposed to be any sort of surprise,” retorted Contrail, a weather pegasus with a keen eye for cumulus patterns, and a keener ear for local gossip. “Word travels fast enough in this town without having it tacked to the library door! Fine way to make a surprise, putting up posters with nothing more than date, time, and location. We know it’s happening, we just don’t have a clue who it’s for.”
“Or what it’s for,” added Mayor Mare.
“Rubber ducks, least that’s what I’ve been seeing,” voiced Razz Matazz, a Sugar Cube Corner regular widely accepted as the resident Pinkie Pie Expert. “I’ve seen them unloaded at the Corner by the cartload! I’ll bet she’s planning to give everypony in town a big ‘ol Rubber Ducky Bath ‘n Bash! ‘Cause after all, who wants to take a lonely bath?” He spread his hooves and eyes wide to give some sense of scale to his claims. The ponies listening in rolled their eyes unanimously. The common belief was that Pinkie Pie’s infectious personality was highly contagious, and you were liable to catch it if you stayed around her for too long. Most wondered if this had already happened to Razz.
“I highly doubt that’s what they’re for, even if they are actually rubber ducks,” interjected a small puce mare named Spring Step. She managed a flower cart just down the road, and was also fairly familiar with Pinkie’s quirks, and that familiarity had bred a staunch skepticism.
“Oh I’ve seen the crates, don’t get me wrong,” tutted Spring. “But they could be just baking supplies for all I know. I’m sure I don’t know what the Cakes would even do with a million rubber ducks.” She paused to give Razz a scowl. “Much more likely to be flour and frosting than bath toys.”
Mayor Mare lowered her glasses quizzically. “Honestly, that much flour and frosting? In bulk like that?”
“Well, why not? Probably need it to keep up with Pinkie Pie’s incessant partying!”
“It’s Gnarlfangs again, right? I knew it,” sighed Razz, taking a prolonged slurp from his raspberry milkshake. Spring Step gave him another scowl. She scowled an awful lot for somepony who managed a flower cart.
“Dratted Gnarlfangs hang out on the edge of the Everfree Forest,” continued Razz. “They must have gotten hungry enough to venture out. Last time they struck they got my favorite powdered wig! Who’d have imagined that rubber ducks would be the Gnarlfangs’ natural predator? At least Pinkie is prepared this time!”
Pinkie was indeed prepared, but not exactly for Gnarlfangs (though by most accounts you couldn’t really tell if she was actually prepared or simply making it up as she went along). That Thursday afternoon, she could be seen out and about the town, with her giddy bounce and signature radiant smile, hunting down party supplies and local confectionaries. When shopkeepers saw Pinkie Pie prancing up the street they laid out their biggest, brightest ribbons, and their plumpest, jolliest balloons, knowing full well what a Pinkie-caliber party entailed. The shopkeepers all smiled and laughed, wishing Pinkie Pie several hearty “Good afternoon’s!” and Pinkie would smile and laugh and “Good afternoon!” right back, for she knew each of the shopkeepers by name.
She’d leave the party-preppers’ shops just as she’d entered, with a cheery smile and a lively skip, though several pounds heavier. Colorful confetti-shooters, kazoos, and whiz-poppers bulged from Pinkie’s saddle bag before she finally trotted down to Sugar Cube Corner.
Pinkie Pie spent a good half-hour in Sugar Cube Corner before she finally emerged, her saddle bag overflowing with a wild assortment of candies, cakes, pies, cupcakes, cookies, trifles, truffles, crepes, flans, puddings, with more colors and flavors than Rarity’s wardrobe.
Pinkie moved her stash of sweets to a cart waiting outside, then went back inside the shop for another load. Then a third load, and a fourth. By all regards, the sweets shop was the most successful business in Ponyville, all thanks to Pinkie Pie. Those who’d lived in Ponyville for a while would swear on their great aunts that Pinkie Pie could eat a mountain of chocolate chip cupcakes and still have room for dessert. If you were to ask Pinkie herself about it, she’d ask what had happened to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pinkie’s love of sweets was legendary. When she went for sweets, she took no prisoners.
Her cart was filled to the brim with an impressive variety of decorations and treats, but she had one more stop to make. Her final stop was the library, where she picked up several suspicious looking brown packages. Their shape was long and narrow, but revealed little as to their contents. To the average observer, what they contained was as much a mystery as the purpose of the party.
After making a few shifty glances over her shoulder, Pinkie Pie loaded the packages onto her cart, despite the groaning complaints of the wheels. With her face grinning and her cart bursting, she bounced her way cheerfully up to Starcrest Ridge where the party was to be held.
Nopony much visited Starcrest Ridge during the chilly winter months. It was too high up and too exposed to linger atop without getting a cold shiver before long. It sat just beyond the Ponyville schoolhouse on the outskirts of town, so everypony knew where it was. It was a pleasant place for picnics when the weather was warm, and the view of the night sky was absolutely breathtaking, the best spot in Ponyville for prime stargazing. That was how it earned the name Starcrest Ridge. Pinkie Pie spent the rest of the afternoon at the Ridge. Nopony saw her return for two full hours.
It was about 6 p.m. that evening when Pinkie Pie came catapulting through the door of the Golden Oaks Library with about as much warning as a party cannon barrage. Her chest heaved, and her eyes bulged and darted about the library frantically. Her mane was a frazzled mess of pink that looked like a stick of cotton candy had gotten caught in a hurricane.
“Did I leave it here??” she gasped upon bursting through the door.
Ponyville’s own unicorn librarian, Twilight Sparkle, leapt in surprise when Pinkie erupted through the front door of the library.
“Wha-? Pinkie Pie! You scared the living daylights out of me!” Twilight gasped. It took several moments for her heart to slow to its natural pace once more. Living with Pinkie Pie was akin to sitting on a pan of hot popcorn kernels and waiting as the next one got ready to pop.
Wasting no time, Pinkie began zooming around the library, vaulting over bookshelves and under writing desks in panic. “This is the last place I remember seeing it, the Cheshire colon-thing!” she exclaimed, franticly overturning books and parchments in her search. “Do you remember where I put it, Twilight? The telescope won’t work without it!”
“Oh, you mean the Cheshire collimator!” sighed the unicorn. She rose from her seat and made her way to to the far end of the library, trotting for the door leading down to the basement. “I had Spike polish it up a bit. He’s downstairs, but he should be done by now. I’ll call him.”
No sooner had she spoken did Spike emerge from downstairs with a rag and an odd brass tube in his claws. He noted Pinkie Pie and her impromptu library raid with a raised eyebrow.
“Somepony call for me?” he said.
“Yes, Spike. In fact, Pinkie was just telling me how she needs that collimator now.”
“Well, she didn’t need to overturn the entire shelf of Cooking with Asparagus: a Comprehensive Series, which I just reorganized this morning!” grumbled Spike. “It took me over an hour to get them all together; I couldn’t find volumes four or thirteen until almost eleven o’clock!” He sighed, shaking his head, mourning over his hard work, all for nothing.
From her perch atop the teetering bookshelf, Pinkie grinned sheepishly. “Ah—I’m reeeeely sorry about this, Spike. I’m just so excited about tonight’s bash—which’ll totally blow your mind, by the way—and I just want everything to go perfectly. That what-cha-ma-collimator is the last thing I need to finish up my party preparations right now!”
“Well,” said Twilight. “It should be ready by now. So, how does it look, Spike?”
Glumly, Spike set aside the volume of Cooking with Asparagus that he had begun to pick up. He took the brass tube in his claws and presented it to Pinkie’s eagerly waiting hooves. “Here it is,” he said. “I made sure to touch up both of the openings, and don’t worry, I got that smudge out of the lense, too.”
Pinkie snatched the tube out of Spike’s claws and inspected it with a critically squinting gaze. “Hmmm…” she mused aloud. “Good, good.” She turned the eyepiece over in her hooves a few times just to be sure.
“Seems to be pretty spot-on, or more like spotless-on,” she pronounced at last. “Yep! This’ll be perfect!” She turned for the door without further hesitation. “I’ll get this up to Starcrest Ridge faster than you can say ‘Order doors or hors d'oeuvres!’” With that, she sped out the door like a bolt of pink lightning.
Twilight shook her head and smiled.
“Ah, Pinkie Pie.”
“Order doors or hors d’oeuvres,” mumbled Spike. “Hodor—wait…..hodor dorvs or do vers?” .
“WAIT!” Pinkie burst back into the library, causing Spike to gag on his own tongue. “Come down and see what I’ve set up at the hilltop, Twilight! It’s totally out of this world! Heehee, out of this world, get it?”
Twilight had reserved one of her special eye rolls for just such a comment, adding a little sigh as well. But, even in spite of the sheer corny, Pinkie Pie-ness of the comment, Twilight accepted the invitation to preview the party preparations. After all, the Thousand Wish Comet only came by Equis once every millenium, and the party that Pinkie was preparing for its arrival would certainly be out of this world.
***
The pair of ponies trotted together down the snow-laden streets of Ponyville. The day was brisk, but bright, with a hint of Winter’s bite and a generous dollop of sunshine. It was one of the first sunny days that month, following a week long blizzard courtesy of the weather pegasi. The town was grateful for some sunshine at last, and ponies were out and about in spite of the chill in the air. Twilight and Pinkie passed by a few ponies closing up their shops and stands for the evening. They gave Twilight and Pinkie friendly waves as they passed. The friends cheerily waved back.
A few couples wandered pleasantly through the park with their breath in front of their muzzles and scarves bundled tightly around their necks. It was one of those early-Spring days, those snow-covered, clear-skyed, sunlit Winter days. Those days that feel they have a right to be Spring, but Winter doesn’t get the hint.
But the glorious day didn’t instill foal-like joy into everypony, and in fact Twilight was one such pony without a bright grin on her face. There was an odd feeling, a tingling anticipation fluttering in her stomach for some reason that she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. She trudged down the road with a furrowed brow, trying to make sense of her strange mood.
Pinkie saw that her friend didn’t seem to be enjoying every second of life, and decided to ask about it. “What’s wrong, Twi?” she inquired brightly. “It’s a splendiforous day today, we’ve got a splendiforous party today, but you look like your rump was just bitten by the Gloomy Grumpus! Cheer up!”
“Hmm? What? Oh, I’m fine, Pinkie. Really,” Twilight hummed distantly. Pinkie seemed unconvinced.
“Are you still worried that the comet will break into a zillion gajillion pieces before it gets here?” Confetti exploded from Pinkie’s hooves to emphasize the imminent shattering of the comet. “We may have kept it a secret to keep ponies from getting their hopes up, but it’s still sure to be a lollapalooza of astronomic proportions!”
“Oh, I don’t think I’m worried about that…...well, maybe a little,” added Twilight with a slight chuckle.
Pinkie shrugged. “I mean, even if the Thousand Wish Comet did travel a thousand years and, like, a bajillion miles, just to explode before we or anypony of our generation got a chance to see its super-awesome-amazing-spectacular-shiny-shimmery, splend-tacity, it doesn’t mean that the party will be a complete bust.”
“I guess not,” admitted Twilight, a little belatedly. She had a hard time convincing herself not to worry, however. She’d been keeping her eye on the Thousand Wish Comet for the past year, or at least what remained of the comet. It seemed that its shimmer was dying out and the brilliant crystalline comet was falling to pieces. After all the stories she’d read and the tales Princess Celestia had told her of the comet’s last cycle, of the night sky filled with thousands of glittering shootings stars as if it was raining diamonds, she’d be sorely disappointed if she never got to see it up close.
“At least we’d get a pretty spectacular meteor shower if it did break up,” said Twilight, glancing up at the sky, shielding her eyes from the sun.
“Exactly! There’s really nothing you can do about it either way, so you might as well look at the bright side!” chimed Pinkie cheerily. “But don’t look at it for too long. You could go blind from that!”
At the outskirts of town, Twilight and Pinkie passed the old Ponyville schoolhouse. Countless tiny hoofprints made little trails all over the yard, and trenches in the snow led up to snowponies placed here and yonder. Beyond the school, Twilight could see the top of Starcrest Ridge, outlined by flagpoles and banners, which Pinkie had set up earlier that afternoon.
Pinkie bounced ahead with Twilight lagging behind slightly. The little party pavillion at the top of the hill looked pretty impressive, at least what could be seen of it from the bottom. Strings of lights hung cheerily from tall wooden posts, and flags flapped gallantly in the crisp breeze. Twilight could just barely see the centerpiece hanging above the pavillion; a sparkling crystal meant to model the comet. It all looked quite splendid, and yet some inexplicable nagging worry kept Twilight from appreciating the spectacle.
“Does something seem strange to you, Pinkie?” asked Twilight after catching up with the anxiously bouncing Pinkie Pie. “Before you ask, no, it isn’t about your party preparations; they all look wonderful from here. I just have this really strange feeling right now, like I left a page dog-eared in one of my favorite books.”
“I’m sure it’ll pass,” piped Pinkie. “If ya think about it long enough, funny feelings are pretty funny after all. Just look at me and my Pinkie Sense!”
“Yeah,” mused Twilight curiously. “What about your Pinkie Sense? Have you felt anything, y’know...strange today?”
Pinkie scratched her chin for a moment, a gesture she only made if she was doing some serious thinking. She put her hoof up, her mouth making a movement as though about to say something. She paused, then sat down to scratch her chin some more. Her brow even furrowed, and some head-scratching was thrown in as well. Obviously this was the deepest thinking she had done all day. She made a long, pensive hum.
“Hmmmmmmmmmmmm……….”
“Anything?”
“Wait! Hmmmmmmm…….Nope!”
“Really?” said Twilight with raised eyebrows. “Not a single thing, twitchy, achy, pinchy, or otherwise?”
“Nope, I got nothing, but I could think some more about it, if you’d like.”
“Thanks, but I trust your word,” Twilight sighed. She peered back up at the hilltop to where the crystal centerpiece hung like a giant snowflake, glistening in the sunlight. “Maybe it’s just me.”
“Teehee! Maybe you’re getting your own Pinkie Sense!” giggled Pinkie. “How cool would that be? We’d have to come up with a cool name for it! How about this: Sparkle Sight! Oo-oo, here’s a better one: Twilepathy!”
It was a good thing that Twilight had saved most of her eye-rolls for today. Pinkie Pie hadn’t shown any signs of restraining her antics.
They reached the top of Starcrest Ridge, where Twilight had to stop and take a moment to catch her breath. Pinkie, on the other hoof, had no shortage of giddy bounces, and thus bounced her way to where the telescope sat at the opposite end of the pavillion, toting the final piece of the telescope in her tail. She slid the eyepiece into its socket and gave it a soft twist. A satisfying *click* came from the tube as it locked snugly into place.
“Like a glove!” declared Pinkie proudly.
Twilight was still breathing heavily, but her breaths were now in amazement rather than in post-hillclimb gasps. The pavillion was laid out in the shape of a five-pointed star, with a flagpole at each tip and lights strung in-between. Tables were set on the edges of the domed hill beneath the strings of lights, where Pinkie had laid out a banquet of truly astronomic proportions.
The tables were overflowing with star-shaped cookies, silver-frosted cupcakes, and remarkably still-steaming cups of hot chocolate and cider, piping hot and ready for tonight. The crystal comet model was suspended by ropes above the center of the pavillion, where it shone and sparkled in the bright sunlight. But Twilight hardly noticed the comet model at first, for what lay below it truly stole the spotlight.
Below the comet sat another model, also in clear crystal, but this one modeled the entire solar system. Seven pristine globes were oriented around an eighth massive globe, of course meant to be the sun. The globes were suspended in their proper orbits by crystal struts which jutted from the sides of the sun, cleverly-placed and skillfully crafted in a way that they could hardly be seen. Each globe was almost perfectly clear, and would have been, if the light was not warped around their shape. The light from the sun played off of each globe and cascaded into the globe next to it, somehow becoming more refined with each globe it passed through. When the light finally reached the sun-sphere, it formed bizarre patterns and beautiful colors in the core of the sun-sphere.
Twilight was at a loss for words. The spark of brilliance contained in that sun-sphere stole the words from her mouth. It seemed more appropriate for the light to be inside that sun-sphere than it did coming from the actual sun.
“Pinkie…...I…..”
“LOVE IT???” Pinkie clapped her hooves together gleefully. It was her personal mission was to make each party more dazzling than the last. Each party she threw seemed impossible to top, yet somehow she managed to make them all a spectacle the likes of which nopony had never seen. “She’s really outdone herself on this one!” was a common phrase to hear. This time, to Twilight, the word “outdone” seemed like an understatement.
“It’s…..amazing, Pinkie!” gasped Twilight at length. “Just out-of-this-world amazing! Wherever did you get this beautiful model?”
“Sshh!” hushed Pinkie. “A good party pony never reveals her secrets.”
“What? Oh, okay then, Miss Magnificent Party Magician, you don’t have to tell me,” chuckled Twilight.
“Don’t push me, Twilight! I said I’ll never tell!”
“Pinkie, it’s fine. I don’t need to know—”
“Oh, alright, but only because you insisted!” Pinkie threw her hooves in the air as though she’d discovered an orange in a slice of lemon cake. “Sometimes you can be so nosey, Twilight! Now, I don’t like to toot my own flugelhorn—well, actually I do—I’ll tell you exactly where that sculpture came from: I made the sculpture myself.” Pinkie put a proud hoof over her chest and Twilight’s jaw dropped.
“Yep, made that bad-boy with nothing but my sweat, saliva, and rock candy. Lots of rock candy,” said Pinkie. She turned and noticed Twilight was still dumbstruck. “Uh, Twilight? You should close your mouth before your head is mistaken for a birdhouse…”
Twilight did not close her mouth. She had just realized what had been nagging at the back of her mind. It had just become clear when she saw the sunlight glittering in the crystal model. She snapped up and seized Pinkie suddenly by the shoulders.
“Pinkie, do you remember what time it was when you first came up here?”
“Sure! It was around four o’clock, I think.”
“And you found me at the library at six, right?”
Pinkie looked confused, even a bit uncomfortable. “Umm, yeah. Twilight, is something wrong?”
“Do the shadows look any different to you than they did two hours ago?”
“What?”
”Has the sun moved??”
Pinkie looked around the little pavillion and shrugged. “I dunno.”
A bewildered Pinkie Pie was left alone on the top of Starcrest Ridge as Twilight frantically charged back down into town. Her hooves tore up mud and slush as she flew down the hill with the fury of a winter windstorm.
When she approached the schoolhouse she slowed her pace somewhat, mentally noting the length of the shadows spreading from it. She bit her lip.
How long…..? What time….? Ugh, think!
She trotted up to the next nearest building, Carousel Boutique, noting the shadows trailing from the building with panicked fervor.
Think, Twilight, think! Do those shadows look any different than two hours ago? Has the sun moved since then?
She gazed around the peaceful town of Ponyville, at the closed shops, and the ponies who were still out enjoying the brisk and bright afternoon.
Think, Twilight, think!
“Hey, Twilight! What happened up there?” Pinkie Pie came bouncing up beside Twilight with a puzzled look on her face.
“Pinkie, I can’t tell if the sun has stopped moving or not!” said Twilight. “And I don’t remember if these shadows look any different than how they looked two hours ago! I only looked out the window once, maybe twice…...urgh! I can’t tell!” She anxiously wrung her tail between her hooves.
Pinkie attended Twilight worriedly. Her friend didn’t usually get like this unless something serious was happening. She held her confused look a moment longer. Suddenly her eyes lit up.
“Hey! You just need to know what time the shadows are saying? Then why don’t you just go to the park and check out the sund—”
Twilight sped off before Pinkie had a chance to finish her sentence.
***
The park was in a gorgeous state, sparkling white with snow and strutting about in its Early-Winter Best. There was fresh, pristine white snow on the ground and glistening icicles hanging from the limbs of trees. A few icicles hung from the frozen fountain in the center of the park as well, giving the park a lovely winter-esque centerpiece. The park looked like the perfect place to take a romantic walk, like something right out a Hearth’s Warming Eve carol.
But a winter wonderland walk was the last thing on Twilight’s mind as she ran down the icy trails. She passed by glittering, frost-covered statues and white, snow-clad trees without a single thought to how lovely they may have looked. She eyed the shadows cast by each statue and tree suspiciously, as though they were plotting some mischief against her. She only cared about one shadow in particular: the one coming from the sundial next to the pond in the center of the park. Hastily, she weaved through the snowy trails and icy pathways that wound through the trees. She slipped on the ice and tripped over a snow-covered root, but didn’t let that slow her down.
Twilight broke out into a clearing at the south shore of the little park pond. The sundial stood out on a small stone dais, quite simply against the white background of the frozen pond. Twilight prayed a silent little prayer to herself that, when she arrived, she would not see what she feared to see. But, as she quickly scanned the sundial, her worst fears were confirmed.
“Four-thirty. The sundial says four-thirty!” she moaned. “The sun hasn’t moved for two whole hours!”
Hardly a second more passed, and she was charging back to the library for all she was worth. Her chest heaved and her teeth chattered from the biting cold. Icy air gnawed at her cheeks as she ran, the wind tossing her mane into a frenzy. There was still some snow in her mane from when she had tripped. Her limbs were frozen and sore, but that didn’t make the least bit of difference. The sun had not moved. Not at all! What could that possibly mean?
Her first thought was that it meant the Thousand Year Comet would never make it past Equis; it would completely dissolve into the sun before she ever got to see it. She wouldn’t even get a spectacular meteor shower. Her second thought was a bit more serious: If the sun was not moving, it meant that Princess Celestia was not able to move it, and something terrible must have happened to her. Either that, or somepony else was now holding the sun in place. This third thought sent a shiver down Twilight’s spine. She arrived at the edge of the park in a frantic haze, brushing past Pinkie Pie, who had decided to wait until Twilight had returned.
“Hey, Twilight, what did the sundial—Hey! Wait for me!”
Twilight burst through the library door, panting and shivering. She scanned the library for Spike. He was nowhere in sight. She tried calling for him, but no sound came from her mouth besides wheezes. Luckily, Spike didn’t need to be called. He trotted casually up from the basement and gasped upon seeing Twilight.
“Holy Moley, Twi! What happened? I thought you guys were just going for a walk up to Starcrest Ridge, not a sprint across Ponyville!”
“Spike!” gasped Twilight. “Need you…...take letter…...sun!” She collapsed in a fatigued heap on the floor.
Spike wasted no time, and quickly rushed to the kitchen. He reemerged, a dry towel and a tray of cider in his claws, and found Twilight attempting to rise to her hooves.
“Whoa, you’re not going anywhere like this! Here, drink up,” he said, propping her head up as he offered the cider. “The letter can wait until you’re thawed out.”
Pinkie Pie came bounding into the library. “Twilight, I—gee whiz! You really booked it here, didn’t you? Haha, see? Twilight……booked.....get it?”
Nopony laughed. Dejectedly, Pinkie Pie trotted over to the fireplace and sat down to warm her hooves.
Shakily, Twilight rose to her hooves, some of the color having returned to her cheeks.
“No!” protested Spike. “You need to rest to get your strength back!” He pushed up a chair to Twilight, which she gratefully sank down into.
“Spike, you must get a letter out to the Princess at once,” she said, still shivering slightly. She bundled the towel tightly around her quivering limbs and hunted for a nearby strip of parchment. “This can’t wait, in fact, it may already be too late! Equestria may be in grave danger even as we speak!”
Spike’s eyes widened. “Danger! What kind of grave danger, Twi? I-I’m not ready for any kind of danger, grave or otherwise!”
“Then we must get that letter sent right away,” replied Twilight. She went to the window and peered out at the sun, still hanging much too high in the sky. The day looked so bright and cheery outside, hardly like anything unusual or menacing could be hovering over it. “I’ve got to make sure that Princess Celestia is alright, and help her, if I must,” she said.
Spike put up his claws in confusion. “Hold on, back up. Just what is this danger anyway? It’s not a false alarm, is it? I don’t think you’re tardy on another assignment.”
Twilight shot him a glare.
“No, Spike, this is completely serious. Don’t you see it? Haven’t you noticed how bright it is outside?” She gestured out the window.
“Looks like a nice day,” Spike shrugged.
“Exactly! Too nice! Spike, the sun shouldn’t be this high in the sky this late in the day! I even checked the sundial in the park to confirm my suspicions. The sun hasn’t moved an inch in two whole hours!”
At this news, Spike nearly tripped over his own feet. “What! No way! Really?” he gasped. He dashed to the window to peer up at the sun. He squinted, placing his claws above his eyes. “And you’re absolutely sure it hasn’t moved?”
“Well, at least sometime between now and four-thirty. I can’t really tell if it started moving earlier, or even if it’s moving now.”
“Hmph!” humphed Pinkie from her spot on the rug. She hadn’t spoken in some time, but she couldn’t stay put any longer. She leapt from her seat in front of the fire, and excused herself from the library in a bouncing huff. Twilight and Spike exchanged confused glances.
“What’s she doing?” said Spike, scratching his head.
“Being Pinkie Pie,” replied Twilight simply. “C’mon, we need to get a letter out. Have you got your quill and parchment, Spike?”
“A faithful dragon assistant is never without them!” said Spike, quill and parchment already in-claw. “What should it say?”
Twilight cleared her throat in her typical letter-dictation fashion. “Ahem: Urgent, to Princess Cel-”
Suddenly, Spike gagged. His cheeks bulged out, and a fiery burp erupted from his mouth. A letter materialized in a flash of green sparks before his face.
“Ugh, talk about timing!” he moaned, wiping his lips.
Twilight snatched the letter out of the air, noting with some relief the golden seal of Princess Celestia on the front.
If the Princess is sending letters out, then at least she’s alright, she thought, unfurling the letter before her face.
“Whatsit say, Twi?” asked Spike eagerly.
Twilight’s eyes trailed back and forth down the letter. She gasped and bit her lip. Each line she read furrowed her brow slightly further. At the end of the letter, she shook her head.
“What is it?” asked Spike with his claws between his teeth. “What does the letter say, Twi? Is the Princess okay? Has Equestria been taken over or something?”
“The Princess seems okay, but the rest of Equestria may not be,” said Twilight, biting her lower lip even more fervently. “The sun is locked in the sky. Princess Celestia doesn’t seem to have any power over it. She can still send her influence to it, but it is not strong enough to overpower whatever force is currently holding it there. She doesn’t yet understand why or how this has happened, but she has some theories.”
She paused for a spell to let out an uneasy sigh.
“Princess Luna is missing,” she continued at length. “She was seen last night by some of the castle guards, rushing about on some sort of unknown nightly errand. She hasn’t been seen since, and that has raised many questions for Princess Celestia. Celestia fears for her sister. She fears the worst may have happened.” She trailed off into silence.
Spike reached up for the letter and began reading it for himself. He gasped at the words exactly as Twilight had, and his face turned a pale purple.
“She thinks….” his voiced dropped down to a barely audible whisper. “She thinks…..Nightmare Moon??” He spoke the name as though he were uttering some terrible secret, and with a grimace on his face as though he had just swallowed something sour.
“It seems absurd, after all the good we’ve seen from Princess Luna,” said Twilight, shaking her head. “What Celestia says here in the letter…..I-I just didn’t think this could happen again.”
“But, even if it is, y’know….Nightmare Moon,” hissed Spike, “why would she lock the sun in the sky? That just doesn’t sound like her. I mean, I thought she wanted eternal night, not eternal day.”
“I don’t know, Spike, I just don’t know,” repeated Twilight. “Nopony knows what is really going on here, not even Princess Celestia. But she worries that the disappearance of Luna around the same time as this sun-locking phenomena might be more than just a coincidence. All we have are a few hard facts, and a few shaky theories which vaguely fit those facts, and that’s all we can work with until more is known about the situation.”
“You said a few theories,” said Spike. “If it’s not Nightmare Moon, then who, or what could be doing this?”
“You didn’t read the rest of the letter, Spike,” replied Twilight. “If Nightmare Moon hasn’t taken control of the sun, then something else has, something we don’t know about. Something with incredible power and unknown intent, and it’s possible that this power has done something with Princess Luna.” She glanced out the window, biting her cheek at the sight of the stagnant sun. “The implications surrounding this are enormous, Spike, which is why Celestia has requested—”
“—That you and your friends bring the Elements of Harmony to Canterlot,” finished Spike, reading the last line of the letter. He looked up at Twilight, jaw agape. “She thinks you might need to use the Elements? How much danger could Equestria be in?”
“I hope we find out soon,” said Twilight. “Equestria cannot bask in eternal day any more than it can survive in eternal night. We’d best get ready to leave. The sooner we can get the Canterlot, the sooner we can get to the bottom of this.”
She glanced around the library with a hint of anxiety. “Where did I leave the Elements, Spike?”
“Where you always do,” he replied. He went to a large oaken trunk sitting beside Twilight’s writing desk and retrieved a small chest from within.
Twilight gave him a nod of thanks. “Got the Elements? Fantastic. Now, off to find out where Pinkie Pie has gone, and to hunt down the rest of my friends.” At that very moment, as if on cue, Pinkie Pie came bounding through the door. Twilight stumbled back for the second time that day due to Pinkie Pie surprises.
“No problemo!” cheered Pinkie. “Looky who’s on top of things!” She opened the front door wide, revealing Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy close behind. “I caught wind of where this was going from the moment you said ‘Equestria in grave danger.’ Sun caught in a pickle? Princess Luna on the loose? Sounds like a job for the Elements of Harmony!” Twilight’s friends all carried baffled expressions on their faces as they trailed into the library.
“What the hay is goin’ on, Twi?”
“What’s going on indeed! I was right in the midst of a very rejuvenating facial treatment!”
“Oh dear, grave danger? What kind of danger is it?”
“Whatever it is, I’m sure we can take care of it, Twilight! Just point us to whose tail we gotta kick!”
“Now girls, let’s give Twilight a chance to explain, so one question at a time!” said Pinkie. Then, turning to address Twilight, Pinkie began firing off her own slough of questions. “So, Twilight, what do we need to do? How long do we have to prepare? Should I pack snacks?”
Twilight grinned and shook her head. She had to stop herself from asking the age-old question: “Pinkie Pie, how did you know?” Most of the time, she and her friends always considered themselves the ones to keep Pinkie in line, but when it came right down to it, the opposite was nearly always the case.
“I don’t have time to explain everything right now,” she said. “I’ll tell you what I know: Princess Celestia needs our help to track down Princess Luna, and find out what is keeping the sun stuck in the sky.”
The four mares exchanged uncertain glances.
“The sun is stuck?”
“Princess Luna? Missing?”
“Right,” said Twilight hastily. She then related to them her tale of how she had arrived at Starcrest Ridge with Pinkie Pie, and discovered the truth about the sun at the sundial.
“The Princess just sent me a letter, confirming this,” she continued. “And now we know that Princess Luna is also missing amidst all this strangeness, and her disappearance could possibly explain why the sun is frozen in space. If we can find Luna, then it’s possible that we will also discover whatever power is overcoming Celestia’s. It’s not a lot to go from, but it’s all we have so far.” Twilight paused to let the gravity of the situation slowly sink in. Her friends sat silently for a moment, quietly digesting all they had just learned.
“How could something overpower Princess Celestia’s influence over the sun?” asked Fluttershy worriedly.
“I’m not sure,” replied Twilight.
“Who or what else even has the power to control the sun and moon?”
Twilight shook her head. “We still don’t have all the answers to these questions, but I do know that there are many strange powers in this world that we don’t understand fully. Ponies posses untold potential within themselves to do unimaginable things. Just look at what Friendship and Love have done for us.”
Her friends all nodded and murmured in understanding.
“And those are barely scratching the surface of known powers. For every light there is dark, for every push, a pull, and for every good, an evil. Whatever is powerful enough to wrest control of the sun from Celestia likely doesn’t have the best intentions, and we can’t simply wait for it to show itself. We’ve already seen too much of what it can do, if left unguarded.”
Rarity tapped a hoof to her chin. “But what kind of good power would want to steal control of the sun? For that matter, what kind of malicious power would want control of the sun, and why?”
“We need to answer that, before it’s too late,” replied Twilight with a sigh. “And don’t forget that it has happened before, more than a thousand years ago, when Nightmare Moon tried to cover the land in eternal night. And, as Princess Luna is missing—”
“Hold up a sec,” halted Applejack. “Celestia doesn’t think that Luna could have—I mean...could she really turn back into Nightmare Moon?”
“We can only hope she hasn’t,” said Twilight.
The six friends shuffled uncomfortably where they sat. Another span of seconds was passed in grim silence. The day that had started out looking so nice began to look grim and foreboding. Finally, Twilight decided that enough words had gone unspoken. She rose to her hooves and cleared her throat.
“Ahem, no time to sit around, girls! Every second we wait is a second longer that some unknown power is holding one of the most significant forces in Equestria hostage. We’ve got a job to do!” She stamped her hoof to ensure she had her friends’ attention. “Equestria needs our help, so let’s be off at once! To the train station!”
Her friends nodded firm assent. They all trotted briskly out of the library. The sun glared down on them from its frozen position in the sky, some unknown malice behind its shining face.
They arrived at the train station and quickly purchased tickets for the next express for Canterlot. As they boarded their train, Pinkie Pie took one final look back toward Ponyville, glumly thinking of all her party preparations sitting in the cold snow atop Starcrest Ridge. She sighed. Postponing parties was never fun for her.
Later that day, several confused ponies arrived at Starcrest Ridge to find a magnificent party laid out and no hostess to greet them. It was completely baffling, but ponies figured that it was just another one of Pinkie’s infamous gags. And, although nopony had any guesses as to what the party could be about, they all agreed that the cookies and cider were delicious.
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...Hmm.
5156475 not good?
Everything after this is in italics.
5156599 thanks i will fix
5156481 I just think its...odd. So far we haven't seen Eragon yet, nor his companion, not to mention this new player in the field of controlling the sun..,.So far no judgement yet, but some skepticism of how things will turn out.
UPDATE HAS OCCURRED
PLEASE STAND BY
READER IS UNABLE TO PROCESS BRAND NEW PLOT
HOLY FUCK YOU UPDATED
Not sure how I feel about it as it's a good opener but, don't see any connection to eragon at all.
5156877
5156968
5157182
yes a new plot we think is better.
as for not yet seeing eragon and saphira, well we want to set up the bad guy and establish what is going on...
they will come in on chapter 2.... ch 3 and 4 will be with the ponies... we will soon have them both in the same chapters
as for the connection, well we have not actually wrote that part yet... i will say that we are well underway into ch 4 but do not want to post the new chapters till we are sure we have everything we wish to cover in each chapter...
5157421 Good plan.
Hodor indeed Spike, Hodor indeed.
Wait Spike the dragon just quoted a man of the North, Hodor.
*Puts on tinfoil hat* Yes more evidence for R+L=J!
It lives! So glad to see this story updating, I've been wanting a good eragon crossover fic for ages and this one certainly portrayed him and Sapphire well in the new prologue. Hopefully all of these problems are behind you both now and you can slave away over your computers for us greedy fans
5160232 hmmmm..... just for that i am going to charge you and you alone 1 bit a word....
lol
5162893
It might have been to early to say it lives. I hope it does though, or I might have to write a Eragon crossover myself!
5250007 well i say go for it but i does indeed live.... we have 2 chapters and starting on a third but will not be posting any of them till we are finished...
5250907
. But its good to know "i does indeed live".
Maybe one day. But I just started my first fic. I am already getting 1 in everyday I don't need anything eles to do