“Where -is- she?” Spike paced back and forth to the side of the podium, stroking his chin in worry. “She should be back by now!”
The mayor watched the baby dragon a moment before glancing out across the gathering of tired ponies, their coats and eyes dull. They'd been waiting for a while now, and were far too exhausted to even bother kicking up a fuss.
“Do you think, possibly... something has happened to her?” The mayor asked gently.
Spike spun around, flinging his hands around helplessly. “I don't know! Zecora's potion only lasted for 15 minutes, and it's been more than that!” His shoulders slumped. “Way more than that.”
Dark clouds appeared out of seemingly nowhere, Night Mare Moon appeared in a flash on the stage. Everypony gasped in unison as the alicorn looked down at them for a moment, she cast a spell; dark swirls emanating from her horn. There was a flash of light, and on the ground in front of the stage sat Twilight Sparkle and friends in their frozen positions.
“Twilight!” Spike cried out, rushing over to her and grabbing her, shaking the unicorn's leg frantically. “Twilight!?”
“Your efforts are fruitless, little dragon.” Night Mare Moon chuckled, watching Spike break into tears. “They can see, and hear; but they cannot meddle.”
“Turn them back!” Spike growled at her, his claws balled into fists. “Now!”
“Or what?” The alicorn lowered her head down towards the dragon. “You will attack your new Princess?”
The young dragon made a string of unintelligible, angry sounds before he stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well. As our new Princess, you should know that soon you won't have any subjects to bully.” He huffed.
“You think you can run away from -me-?” The mare snorted a laugh.
“It's not that we'll be running.” The little dragon huffed. “We'll all be too tired to do anything except sleep, and we probably even die!”
Night Mare Moon laughed again. “Believe what you want, little dragon.” She cast her gaze across the cowering crowd. “Subjects!” She called loudly. “Tomorrow is not a new day, tomorrow is a new night and I will watch over you all. Forever!”
Dark clouds swirled around the alicorn, spiralling upwards and dispersing. She was gone.
Panic broke out, ponies bolted madly about; pushing and shoving each other as they ran to the safety of their homes. Doors and windows were slammed shut, leaving Spike alone with the statue of his 6 friends.
He padded over to Twilight and hugged her, his face pressing against her stone figure. “Twi.” He whimpered, tears rolling down his cheeks and dropping onto the statue. “Please don't be a statue any more.”
There was no response from the statue, no matter how long Spike stood there. After a long time, he pulled himself away from the statues and made his way though the dark, empty streets back to the library. He kicked the door behind him with a sigh, staring at the books strewn across the floor.
“I should clean this up.” He spoke to no-one in particular, starting to sort through the books. His movements were stiff, robotic as he busied himself.
What could he do? After all, he was just a baby dragon! Celestia was missing, and his 6 friends were now glorified garden ornaments. Not to mention that Equestria would never see the sun rise ever again. He sighed and shoved a book angrily into it's place, damning Night Mare Moon under his breath.
Then, it hit him.
“It's gotta work!” He dropped the book in his hand, snatched up a parchment and quill before dashing out the door.
~~
Sleepy pegasus-messengers lifted into the dark sky a few hours later, their wings beating slowly as they headed off across the land in different directions. Night Mare Moon watched from her stolen castle, wondering what exactly her subjects were trying to do now. She paced back and forth in a main hall, deciding there was no danger. If the Elements of Harmony, as well as her own sister were powerless against her; nopony else had a ghost of a chance.
The next few days were quiet, and the dark alicorn grew somewhat comfortable in her castle. She failed to see the ponies trickling into Ponyville. The messenger-ponies as well as dozens of unicorns from all over the land. They massed inside the town hall, hidden away from the prying eyes of Night Mare Moon's guards or even the pony herself.
The unicorns from Ponyville would join the visitors for several hours at a time, and nopony was even mentioning what was going on.
On the fifth day at what used to be dusk, the doors opened and the unicorns filed out; joined by the rest of the town. They made their way silently to the town square, forming a circle around the 6 stone ponies.
Spike and the Mayor stood at the podium, the baby dragon held a yellow flag in one hand. “Okay, everypony!” He shouted. “On the count of three, all the unicorns know what to do! Everypony else, keep watch and don't let them be stopped!” He lowered the flag. “Go!”
The unicorns all began to concentrate, channelling as much power as they could muster. Pegasus' hovered in the air nearby, keeping watch on the skies as the earth ponies did the same job on the ground. It wasn't long before every unicorn's horn glowed with power, some brighter than others. Beams of light flashed into the centre of the circle, the myriad of colours illuminating the stone ponies in the centre before it shot upwards into the sky and towards the moon.
“Keep going everypony! You're doing great!” The Mayor called, shielding her eyes from the brightness.
The light stretched into the sky as the unicorns used all their energy to push it to the moon. Spike was wringing his claws nervously, his eyes moving from the group of ponies to the moon and back again.
“Come oooooon, come oooooooooooon!” He tapped his right foot nervously, biting his cheek now.
A multifaceted glow began to surround the moon, the beam wavering as those unicorns who were less talented began to run out of energy. Sweat rolled down their foreheads, down their withers and flanks as they struggled to keep going. Spike and the Mayor urged them on, all the other ponies' attention now on the bright beam of light shooting at the moon.
“What -are- you doing?!” Night Mare Moon's voice boomed suddenly, her tell-tale star-filled clouds descending on the gathered ponies.
“Keep going! Don't let her distract you!” Spike cried, waving his little flag madly to and fro.
The moon began to glow and pulse ever so slightly, the alicorn was too busy watching the grouped unicorns than the sky. “Stop that!” She yelled, her ears flattening against her head as she stomped a foot on the ground beneath her feet. Magic built from her horn and smashed into the beam of colours made by the other ponies and resulted in a large explosion of colour and brightness.
Everypony was knocked to the ground, Night Mare Moon included. Spike scrambled back to his feet and rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear them as everypony else got back to their feet.
“Ahah! Hahaahahaha!” Night Mare Moon laughed as she stood up, tossing her head back and laughing more. “You foals! Did you think your... pathetic magic would bring her back?!”
Spike stepped forwards, calm and collected. “Together, we didn't quite have enough magic; but with your help...”
“You'll not get my help!” The alicorn spun around to face the baby dragon, a vindictive smirk on her face.
The dragon simply giggled and pointed at the centre of the unicorn circle.
As the dark pony turned back to face what Spike was looking back, she was hit with a bright single beam of light. The power was intense, and soon; Night Mare Moon was gone. Banished once again.
In her stead, beside the stone ponies stood Princess Celestia; triumphant. Spike hopped down from the podium and approached her, bowing down on one knee; everypony else following suit. The Princess flew into the air, another burst of magic leaving her horn.
As she lowered herself back to the ground, the horizon began to lighten as the sun began to rise once again and turned her attention to the group of frozen ponies beside her. She touched her horn to Twilight's and closed her eyes. Her magic spread throughout the group, causing the stone to crumble away from them; leaving them once again able to move.
The six ponies shook themselves off before pouncing on Spike. “Spike!” Twilight exclaimed. “You're a genius!”
He managed to crawl out of the group hug. “Can we just... go to sleep now? “ He wavered on his feet. “Please?”
Twilight smiled brightly and nodded. “Yes, Spike. We can all go to sleep now.”
~The End.