//------------------------------//
// Saving the Sun (Part 2) 
// Story: Starlight Glimmer and Friends:  Adventures in Equestria (Season 1) 
// by StormLuna 
//------------------------------//

All the preparations were complete and we were ready.  All they had to do now was wait for the right time.  While everypony thought that this would be a regular summer sun celebration, Starlight began to become more and more paranoid about what might happen.  Finally fatigue would win over and she would fall asleep.





A Nightmarish Arrival

Several hours passed when ponies began to gather in the town hall, trying hard not to wake Starlight and her friends but eventually Applejack would wake one of them up, "Lemon Hearts, get up.  It won't be long until the princess raises the sun."

Lemon Hearts wiped the sleep from her eyes and saw that her friends were still asleep.  She began to shake them, waking them one at a time.  While most of them were thankful that she woke them up, one would not be.  Starlight growled, "Lemon Hearts, do you know what time it is?  I'm trying to......"  She then realized where she was and what was going on.  She continued, "Sorry about my reaction Lemon Hearts, I'm just still tired."

Starlight stood up and saw that many, many ponies had gathered for the event and immediately she began to become nervous.  She shrank into herself a bit and sighed, "I-I never expected so many ponies to be here."

Rainbow Dash, who was standing nearby interrupted, "Well of course there's going to be a lot of ponies here!  It is the Summer Sun Celebration after all."

Moondancer could tell that Rainbow's tone of voice was not sitting well with Starlight, "Rainbow, large crowds and confined spaces make her nervous so just quiet down."

Rainbow grunted and headed the other way.  Soon they saw Fluttershy off to their left with her birds.  As if on cue they began to sing and the mayor walked out to the front to speak.  The mayor walked out and said, "Fillies and gentlecolts, as mayor of Ponyville it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!"

While most ponies were cheering, Starlight couldn't help but look out the window and notice four stars move behind the moon and the silhouette of the Mare in the Moon disappear.  It was at this moment that she realized that her worst fears were going to come true, that this would not be a simple trip and that she likely would not just be returning home without her and her friends having to deal with something unpleasant. 

Once the ponies stopped cheering the mayor continued, "In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year! And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria......Princess Celestia!"

When everypony saw that Celestia was not standing behind the curtain, they all gasped in shock, except for one.  Starlight grunted in frustration until she saw a purple mist appearing up on the balcony.  She sighed, "Could it be, could this be the Mare in the Moon returning?"

When Nightmare Moon materialized it caused the ponies to gasp in shock further while Starlight stood there irritated at the Alicorn in front of them.  While she knew that she had ill intentions and was the reason for her being inconvenienced, rather than fearing her, she felt a sense of disgust as she knew that this pony was likely what had been causing her to think that this would be no short trip.

Very soon Nightmare Moon began,  "Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your precious, little sun-loving faces." 

Rainbow asked, "What did you do with our Princess?" 

Applejack could sense that Rainbow was going to cause more problems than anything else, "Whoa there, Nelly..."

*Nightmare chuckled, "Why, am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?" 

Minuette replied, "Black Beauty, Black Beauty!"

Starlight could only put her hoof over her forehead in frustration when she heard this.  Nightmare Moon continued, "Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years? Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?"

Finally Starlight had had it with this scenario.  While she didn't know as much about the situation as she would like, had done some studying regarding Celestia having to banish Nightmare Moon.  She replied, "I have and I know who you are."

Nightmare Moon asked, "Then I suppose you know who I am?"

Starlight replied, "You're the Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon."

Nightmare continued, "And I suppose you know why I am here?"

Starlight could sense the sarcasm coming from the black Alicorn and was not thrilled with it.  Without even thinking she snapped, "Yeah, you came to inconvenience my friends and I."  She even went as far as to fire energy at Nightmare but missed.

Nightmare knew that the energy of a lone unicorn would do no harm to her so rather than retaliating she transformed into her purple mist form and headed out the door.  Starlight's friends rushed to her to see what all that was about.  Minuette asked, "Starlight, how did you know that was the Mare in the Moon?  I thought she was just an old mare's tale!"

Moondancer added, "And why did you fire energy at her?  You do know she could have fired back and hurt you, right?"

Starlight grunted, "I know, I know.  Now we need to figure out how to handle this.  It was just today that I was studying the Elements of Harmony and how those are what Celestia used to defeat Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago."

Despite being one of the most well-read ponies in Celestia's school, even Moondancer wasn't overly familiar with them.  She asked, "So what are the elements of harmony anyway?"

Starlight replied, "They are what Celestia used to defeat Nightmare Moon so long ago."  While Starlight had learned quite a bit about them while she was Twilight's student, even she never learned where they were when Twilight and her friends transformed her back into Luna.  She continued, "Unfortunately, I have no idea where they are.  Luckily this town has a library that may provide us with some answers."  She headed towards the exit and finished, "Come on, let's go." 

They all rushed to the library, Starlight unlocked the door and they headed in.  While they all knew that Ponyville was a small town and probably wouldn't have a large library, none of them expected it to be so small.  Starlight sighed, "Well, let's get looking.  It probably won't take us long and we likely won't find anything but it is worth a shot, right?"

They all began searching through the books and it would not take long for somepony to find something.  Minuette grabbed a book and said, "I think I found something!" 

She took the book to Starlight and she began to read through it.  Most of the information in the book she already knew but would be pleasantly surprised once she got to the back.  She said, "Ladies, I have some good news, this book tells where the last known location of the Elements were.  They were last known to be in Celestia and Luna's old castle in the Everfree Forest." 

Six of them were very happy over this while one was a bit unnerved, Spike.  Spike asked, "The Everfree Forest?  It looks kind of scary."

Starlight sighed, "Oh it will be fine but perhaps you should stay here"  Twilight had told Starlight about how they faced off against Nightmare Moon and that Spike stayed in the library so she decided that she would do the same "because we may run into something in there that will require magic to deal with."

Spike breathed a sigh of relief but did have his concerns about them going into the forest.  He said, "You six be careful.  I've always heard the Everfree is kind of dangerous."

Most of them just took him as being overly paranoid but Moondancer was appreciative of his concern, "Oh we will Spike."  She looked at her friends and continued, "Well let's get going."

They headed out of the library and into the forest.  While five of them had no clue what was going to happen, Starlight figured that if things went the way they did with Twilight, that they may be a challenge but she knew she had one advantage.  She was already friends with these five and given that Twilight had told her about their journey, she knew what to expect.  She did know one thing though, that she simply couldn't tell her friends that she knew in advance what was going to happen so she would just have to go with the flow as good as she could.

At first it seemed like a peaceful walk through the forest until they reached a clearing where the path ended with a cliff.  Lemon Hearts threw her hooves up in the air and said, "Now what?"

Just as she said this a purple mist flew out of the rocks, causing there to be a landslide.  This sent most of the ponies into a panic, Moondancer being in the worst of a panic given that she had fallen to where she was hanging off a cliff.  Lemon Hearts was quick to rush to her aid and grabbed her by the hooves. 

Moondancer, who was just about to slip asked, "Lemon Hearts, what am I going to do?  I think I'm going to slip."

Lemon Hearts looked behind Moondancer and saw Starlight self-levitating, ready to catch her.  Lemon Hearts replied, "Let go and everything will be fine."

Moondancer snapped, "Are you nuts?  If I let go I'll wind up going splat!"

Lemon Hearts replied, "Trust me, I'm being honest.  Just let go and everything will be fine."

Moondancer knew of Lemon Hearts' honest nature so she let go.  While she thought she would certainly plummet to either her death or at least a ton of injuries, she was caught by Starlight who levitated the two down.

When they got to the ground Moondancer hugged her and said, "Thank you Starlight!  You saved me!"

Starlight replied, "Don't worry about it Moondancer."  She looked at all her friends and continued, "Well let's get going, shall we?"

Starlight knew it was Nightmare that had caused that but wasn't about to say anything.  She thought to herself, "That's it?  That's all you've got?"

As they headed through the forest they next encountered a Chimera, a three headed beast that would have absolutely no problems turning them into its next meal.  Starlight thought to herself, "What the hay?  Twilight never told me about this thing." 

The six began to huddle together wondering what to do in this situation.  Starlight knew that her and Moondancer would have no problems getting past this thing but seeing how unnerved their friends were by it, they had their concerns.  Before they knew it the creature had pounced on them.  Luckily they were able to teleport out of its hold but that wouldn't stop the beast.  In a state of panic Lyra began to run around in circles until one pony would come to her rescue, Twinkleshine. 

Twinkleshine began to talk to the creature and there was something about her voice that calmed it down and luckily for all of them, she was able to convince it to go and eat some plants.  Starlight cast her gaze at Twinkleshine and asked, "How did you do that?  How did you convince that thing to eat plants?"

Twinkleshine replied, "You know, I'm not really sure.  I just suggested it and it went and ate them." 

Starlight said, "Well however you did it, you just saved us all."

Lemon Hearts asked, "Well since we got past that thing, shall we continue?"

Starlight replied, "Yeah.  Come on ladies, let's get going."

As they continued their way through the forest they couldn't help but notice that it was getting darker.  Minuette looked around and saw that the sky was pitch dark.  She commented, "I know this forest was already dark but now I can't even tell if my eyes....."

Her statement was interrupted when a nasty thunderstorm began.  Most of them were in a panic knowing that you're not supposed to be around trees in a thunderstorm.  Starlight yelled, "Ladies, we've got to find a cave or something!  We can't just be under these trees with this lightning."

They began to search in earnest for a cave and in about a half an hour, they were finally able to find one.  Once they got inside they were sopping wet and freezing cold.  They couldn't see anything at first until they lit up their horns to create some light.  What they would see would be almost as frightening as the lightning.  It appeared as though the rocks had scary faces on them.  This terrified some of them but Minuette seemed to find it funny. 

She began laughing at them and making her own silly faces back at them.  All of them knew that some dark force was behind it and worried that Minuette's behavior may cause it to retaliate.  Starlight yelled, "Minuette, stop it!  You don't know what these things are capable of!"

Minuette laughed, "Come on now, they're just faces!  Whenever I see something like this, I just laugh and suddenly it isn't scary anymore!"

While it didn't seem to make much sense to them nor did they find this funny, they tried her laughing technique and much to their surprise, the frowny faces disappeared and they saw a purple mist exit the cave.   Starlight said, "Well shall we see if the rain has let up?"

They headed to the exit of the cave and much to their delight, just as quickly as the storm moved in, the storm moved out and they continued their journey to find the elements. 

The next obstacle they would come across was a river with dangerous rapids.  When they saw this Lyra said, "How are we going to cross this?"

For Starlight this was a no brainer and she quickly teleported across the river but for the others, it wouldn't be so easy.  Soon they heard the yells of something.  They headed towards the direction of the yells and discovered a river monster creating all the rapids.  Starlight thought that it may be a threat to her friends and teleported back across  When it appeared that the river monster meant no harm Starlight asked, "Excuse me, why are you crying."

The creature pointed at his mustache and cried, "Because I was just sitting here when this cloud of purple smoke flew by and tore half of my mustache off!"

Starlight asked, "Seriously?  You're crying over that?"

Before he could reply Lyra interrupted, "Of course he is."  She turned to Starlight and asked, "Wouldn't you be upset if something just ripped half your tail off?"

Starlight replied, "Well, yeah."

Before anypony could say anything Lyra walked to the creature and bit one of his scales off, prompting to scream out, "Ouch!  What did you do that for?"

Being the generous pony she was, Lyra took the scale and cut a majority of her tail off before fusing it into the side of the creature's face that lost its mustache.  When he saw this he exclaimed, "Woo-hoo!  My mustache, how wonderful!"

Lyra replied, "You look absolutely amazing!"

Minuette saw her severed tail and said, "Lyra, your tail!"

Lyra replied, "It's just a tail.  I wanted to help our friend here out and besides, it will grow back."

Suddenly the river was calm and with there being no dangers, Starlight again teleported across while the others found some stones to use to cross.

After another hour of walking they finally saw what they were looking for, Celestia and Luna's old castle.  They would not be the only ones there though.  They were met by an old unicorn.  Many of them thought that this pony was likely just out for a walk but one thought otherwise, Moondancer.  When she first approached him and said hello, he replied, "I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the smartest unicorn in all of Equestria."

Moondancer asked, "Who, me?"

The unicorn replied, "Yes, you."  He looked over towards her friends and continued, "I know about your situation Moondancer.  I know you're the oldest in your group but I know you'll never be Celestia's protege" he then pointed directly at Starlight and continued, "because of her."

Moondancer became a bit flustered.  She never really thought about that before given her close friendship with Starlight.  She replied, "Well I might someday."

The unicorn laughed, "Come on Moondancer, you know Celestia will never take in a second protege.  You know that Celestia loves Starlight like she is her own daughter."  He got a more serious look on his face and continued, "But if you come with me, I'll make you my protege and together, we can rule all of Equestria!"

Moondancer was unsure about this but she did want to know one thing.  She asked, "Who are you anyway and why do you want me as your protege?"

The unicorn replied, "I am Starswirl the Second.  I want you as my protege because you are a genius and like I said, together we could overthrow Celestia and rule together."

Before he could say anything further Starlight yelled, "Moondancer, don't listen to him.  He isn't Starswirl the Second!  He is...."

Before she could finish her statement the unicorn cast a sound bubble around them and asked, "Well, what will it be?  Will you come with me and we can rule Equestria or will you always be playing second fiddle to Starlight?"

Moondancer fired energy skywards to break the bubble.  She replied, "While I appreciate the offer, I must respectfully decline your offer."

The unicorn became angry and transformed into a purple mist.  Starlight ran to her and said, "I knew you wouldn't go off with him."

Moondancer replied, "Well Starlight, all six of us have been friends for over a decade and I'd never betray my friends."

Her friends nodded, crossed a bridge and were right in front of the old castle.  Starlight said, "Alright ladies, let's go in, find the Elements, defeat Nightmare Moon and get home."

Moondancer asked, "But Starlight, how do you know that we will confront her in here?  Do you know something that the rest of us don't?"

Starlight replied, "Haven't you guys seen all the strange things we've encountered.  The purple mist with the cliff, the chimera, the frown face rocks, the river monster with the torn mustache and the old unicorn?  I'm certain Nightmare Moon is following us and will strike in that castle."

Lemon Hearts commented, "Well that would make sense." 

When they headed into the castle they immediately saw a stand with five stones sitting on it but on the top, was a larger sixth stone.  Starlight said, "Well I think we found them."  She looked at them and saw markings on them, ones that resembled their cutie marks.  She continued, "Alright ladies, you need to levitate the one with your mark down to yourself."

They all did as instructed and they looked at them with curiosity.  Minuette asked, "So now what?"

Starlight replied, "I think we're going to have to pump our energy into them to get them to take on their gem form."

The six began to pump their energy into the stones but would be interrupted when a purple mist flew in and not only broke their holds on the stones, but threw them up against the walls.  Five of them were terrified when they saw Nightmare Moon laughing before them but one was angry, Starlight.

Nightmare Moon saw Starlight and her scowl and laughed, "Well, well, well, so I see my sister's protege and her group of friends have come to try and defeat me."

Starlight was not enthused that she would know who they were.  She asked, "How do you know who we are?"

Nightmare Moon laughed, "Being imprisoned on the moon does not mean that I can't monitor or hear everything that is going on."

Starlight looked around at her friends, gave them a quick nod, turned back to Nightmare Moon and replied, "Well that is rather interesting.  Tell me, how can you hear what's happening when sound can't travel through space?"

Nightmare Moon was not amused by her question.  She laughed, "When you have powerful magic like me, anything is possible." 

One thing Nightmare Moon did not notice is that once they resumed their conversation that Starlight's friends had began to pump energy into their stones again.  Starlight saw this out of the corner of her eyes and quickly began to pump energy into her stone while Nightmare was laughing.  

Finally the six pumped enough energy into their stones that they took the form of gems in gold necklaces, except for Starlight's which took its form in a crown.  Nightmare saw them begin to self levitate and when she saw the Elements take on their form, she began screaming, "Nooooooo!"

Once all six Elements had powered up entirely, Starlight and her friends' eyes began to glow white and from the Elements shot a rainbow, engulfing the screaming Nightmare Moon.  Soon the rainbow dissipated and Starlight and her friends found themselves laying on the castle floor, ok but a bit disoriented.

As they got themselves up to their hooves the sun began to rise and with it appeared Princess Celestia.  Starlight ran up to her and the first thing she said was, "Princess Celestia, I'm so glad you're ok.  We were so worried about you!"

The first thing Celestia did was chuckle, "Starlight, how many times have I told you that you don't have to address me that way!"

Starlight replied, "I know, I know."  She then became more curious and continued, "You always told us that the Mare in the Moon was an old mares' tale.  Why would you lie about that?"

Celestia looked to the other side of the room and replied, "Follow me, I have my reasons for that."

The seven headed to the other end of the room where a very disoriented Princess Luna was laying.  Celestia looked down and continued, "My reasoning was that I didn't want anypony knowing I banished my own sister to the moon."

As soon as she said this Princess Luna got herself up on all fours and ran to her sister, "Big Sister, is it really you?"

Celestia wrapped her hoof around her and replied, "I missed you so much little sister."

Luna embraced her sister and said, "I missed you too big sister."

Starlight and her friends were shocked that Nightmare Moon was actually Celestia's sister.  Starlight asked, "Your sister?  Your sister was Nightmare Moon?"

Celestia pointed her hoof towards Luna and replied, "She WAS.  Thanks to the six of you, my sister, Princess Luna, has been freed of her madness."

While most of her friends were still a bit scared of Luna, despite her having been restored, Starlight approached her.  She said, "Princess Luna, I'm Starlight Glimmer, Celestia's protege.  It is nice to meet you."

Luna replied, "It is nice to meet you too Starlight."

Most everypony was relieved that this was all over but one was in a bit of a hurry to get going, Minuette.  She raised her voice and said, "You know what this calls for, A PARTY!"

Everypony gave Minuette a curious look, especially Luna.  Luna asked, "Really, thou wishes to throw a party for us?"

Minuette replied, "Of course!  We'll throw you a I just returned from the moon and I was reunited with my big sister party!"

Luna gave her a look of displeasure.  Starlight saw this and said, "Princess Luna, don't mind her.  She loves parties and is glad that you have returned."

Luna gave her a smile and Celestia said, "Well everypony, shall we get going back to Ponyville so we can get Spike and catch the train back to Canterlot?"

Luna replied, "Yes, we should.  We would find that most pleasant."

Starlight added, "Sounds great.  Besides, all six of us have to get back to our studies."

Celestia replied, "Starlight, actually I have different plans for you six."

Starlight gasped, "What?  What sort of plans?"

Celestia replied, "Well I'm thinking that I will move the six of you to Ponyville in the event that Equestria needs you."

Lemon Hearts was thrilled, "Really?  Maybe I'll be able to spend more time with Applejack!"

Minuette added, "This is a chance for us to make even more friends!"

Twinkleshine continued, "Maybe I can get Fluttershy to be more sociable.  She does seem really kind, shy but kind."

Lyra was a bit more skeptical but accepted it, "Ok, I guess this will be alright."

While those four seemed to be ok with the princess's decision, two were less than thrilled.  Moondancer asked, "Seriously, you want us to stay in Ponyville in the event that 'Equestria needs us?'"

Starlight was more than less than thrilled, she was angry.  She snapped, "What?  You want us staying in Ponyville?"  Her voice became more intense as she continued, "Princess Celestia, you know I respect you more than any other pony but what about our studies, especially mine?  I'm your protege for pony's sake!"

Celestia could understand her protege's anger over her decision.  She replied, "Starlight, you have learned more than any other protege I have ever had.  To be honest, there are even some things that you know that I don't!"  She calmed down, pulled Starlight close and continued, "Starlight, I know you're upset but I think you six have done as much as you can up in Canterlot.  Also, I know how you six are.  You are very close friends but you don't associate with anypony else and I think moving to Ponyville will help you all break out of your shells."

It took more persuading both Moondancer and Starlight but when they finally realized that their other friends were accepting of this, they finally were ok with it.  Moondancer said, "Alright Celestia, you know what is best."

Starlight was still less than thrilled.  She grudgingly replied, "Alright, but I'm only doing this so I can be with my friends."

Lyra asked, "So where are we going to live?  We don't have houses there!"

Celestia replied, "Well there is an empty apartment that should be able to accommodate four of you, maybe Lemon Hearts could see if she could move to Sweet Apple Acres with Applejack and Starlight, since I own the library there, you and Spike will call it home."

The six pretty much knew that what Celestia's plan for them was would come to pass and despite still being against it, Starlight agreed to the plan.  

Since their new destinies had been determined, one pony wanted to get going.  Minuette shouted, "Enough of this now, let's get back to Ponyville, we have a party to throw!"