//------------------------------//
// Interlude - Recap 
// Story: Waking Night 
// by CrowMagnon 
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Once upon a time, a shadowy demon named Eclipse possessed Princess Luna. Princess Celestia attempted to use the Elements of Harmony to free her sister from its grip, but she was tricked by Eclipse's appeals to her protective nature and her heart faltered. As a result, the Elements were rendered inert and Eclipse escaped. After a long struggle, Eclipse was cornered and imprisoned in the moon's shadow, but Princess Luna remained trapped in an eternal slumber.

One thousand years later, and Equestria is preparing to celebrate Waking Night, a holiday honoring their sleeping princess of the night. In Canterlot and the nearby town of Ponyville, six very different ponies each have their own plans for the holiday.

Lt. Twilight Sparkle of the Royal Guard, attempting to avoid an awkward social gathering, goes to ask her brother Shining Armor to be allowed to work during the holiday. Once there, she finds her Shining in a heated argument with her best friend, Celestia's personal student Trixie Lulamoon. Trixie tries to assure her that it was nothing and that Twlight should simply spend Waking Night celebrating. Later, while considering it, she spots a cloaked figure sneaking about.

Self-help guru Fluttershy, alongside her husband, the minotaur Iron Will, have converted the royal hedge maze into an epic haunted labyrinth. While going about her business, she sees Lt. Sparkle standing at the edge of a cliff. Mistaking her observation of the cloaked figure down below for an intent to commit suicide, she tackles Lt. Sparkle. Things go a bit awry, and they end up tumbling into the maze instead. Inside, they witness a meeting between two cloaked ponies, and an exchange that leads to one of them giving Moonshadow's Fang--a magical dagger created to kill Celestia--to the other. Twilight ends up recognizing the one receiving the dagger as her friend Trixie, so she tells Fluttershy not to say anything while she investigates on her own.

Applejack, a rising star in the financial sector, finally has the chance to see her family after spending years away building her business. When she finds out that her assistant booked her to accompany a member of the royal family to the biggest party of the night, however, she feels trapped by the inability to refuse somepony so influential. She is forced to inform her family back in Ponyville that she won't be able to make it for the holiday.

Rarity, a young unicorn with dreams of running her own rock farm, finds herself denied a loan which would grant her a start. Anguished and frustrated, when she hears that Applejack, the owner of the bank, is going to be attending a soiree at the capital instead of visiting her family as she had promised, Rarity made it her mission to go to Canterlot and give Applejack a piece of her mind.

Pinkamena, a barrista and part-time poet at the Bean There, Done That coffee house, attempts to share her latest work with the patrons. Instead of the poem she had written, however, Pinkamena finds herself being pulled into a trance state in which she had a vision of a world frozen in time. The only moving inhabitant of this stasis is a strange creature wreathed in shadow which tells her to 'find the princess before what might be becomes what is'. The next day, she and Rarity get on the same train to Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash, apprentice to the zebra shaman Zecora, and an infamous prankster with a bad reputation in Ponyville, plots to plant a Poison Joke pumpkin bomb in the headquarters of Luna's Rangers. When her teacher finds out, she is chastised and instructed to meditate. During meditation, Zecora suffers a seizure at the same time that Pinkamena has her 'episode', leaving the shaman in a comatose state.

While all of this is going on, the vampony pegasus known as Lady Moonshadow, alongside her companions Blue Rose and Mesmer Eyes, plots against Equestria. Her scheme is to manipulate a partially-vampirized and brainwashed Sunset Shimmer, former student of Celestia, to fulfill the conditions required to bring Eclipse back.

As the evening of Waking Night approaches, Twilight tracks Trixie down to an abandoned theater. She confronts her friend, who doesn't deny that she intends to use the dagger, but insists that it is her destiny. The two face off, ready to fight.

Soon afterward, a pony dressed as the pop-culture heroine Mare-Do-Well races through the streets of Canterlot toward the palace. As Moonshadow's plan is set into motion, Sunset's spell takes control of the moon and forces it to move in front of the sun, casting its shadow over all Equestria. Mare-Do-Well fights her way through Celestia's bodyguard detail and plunges Moonshadow's Fang right into her heart, then escapes.

Moonshadow's army of vamponies attack Canterlot as the sun's rays are blocked by the moon. Taking advantage of the panic, they strike to the very heart of the capital while Eclipse itself descends. In accordance to their deal, Eclipse attempts to possess the mortally wounded Celestia. While it succeeds in taking her body, though, Eclipse flies into a rage upon discovering that Celestia herself, her soul and magic, are completely absent.

Panic spreads throughout Canterlot. Pinkamena and Rarity, who had wandered around the city in search of Applejack, find her at the train station while they are trying to escape. There, they find her attempting to bribe one of the conductors, but instead of doing so in order to save herself, she was instead ensuring that the trains not leave until they were full to capacity.

Meanwhile, as Moonshadow's vampony forces swarm the capital, Fluttershy tries to hide some foals inside the maze, only to find herself stalked by Blue Rose, who attacks with vampiric plants growing out of her own body. Iron Will and a grief-stricken Twilight Sparkle show up to fight the vampony off, but they are no match for Blue Rose's vines. In the middle of the fight, Moonshadow's Fang falls out of Twilight's possession, and Fluttershy instinctively uses it to attack Blue Rose. Upon piercing the vampony's chest, it releases a surge of solar magic that puts an end to her threat. In the aftermath, Twilight is sorely drained of blood and Iron Will has a broken leg. Twilight insists that she needs to get out of the city, and Fluttershy offers to fly her to the train station. Iron Will, unable to go with them, privately asks Twilight to ensure that Fluttershy gets away as well.

Together, Twilight and Fluttershy make their way through the chaos toward the station. Meanwhile, Blue Rose's corpse is presented to Moonshadow. As the solar energy just barely missed her heart, Moonshadow uses her own blood to resurrect Blue Rose and find out what happened. Realizing that Celestia's essence must be in the Fang, Eclipse orders Moonshadow to retrieve it.

A squad of vamponies spot Lt. Sparkle and Fluttershy, and very nearly capture them. However, they are saved at the last moment by Rainbow Dash, who had been in Canterlot for her own purposes. Rainbow Dash helps them get onto the last train just as it is leaving the station, and together they flee toward Ponyville. In the middle of the escape, though, Rainbow sees Fluttershy drop Moonshadow's Fang and picks it up herself, then hides from the others as she vows to make Fluttershy suffer.