The ponies ran left to right with panic written all over their faces. No pony saw Twilight. Or the Umbrums that came with her.
“Your highness, look,” said one of the Umbrums, pointing one of her hoofs at the night sky.
In the sky was Nightmare Moon. Flying around Ponyville.
Immediately, Twilight flew up to greet her mother. As she got closer, something didn’t look right.
Twilight then stretched her hoofs to hug her. But as she did, Nightmare Moon flew through her like she wasn’t there. Twilight flew back around, right next to Nightmare Moon. Using her horn, she did a magical scan.
After the scan was completed,she glided down to the Umbrums. When she touched down, Nightcrawler asked, “So, is that her?”
Twilight replied with, “No, it’s not Nightmare Moon. It’s a magical projection of her. She must be somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else. Why have a magical projection of herself?”
Shrugging her shoulders, Twilight said, “I don’t know. Maybe to cause panic? If so, it’s working. All the ponies in Ponyville are running around in town acting like their heads are cut off and screaming at the tops of their lungs. Seriously, does anypony just stop and look?"
They all watched the ponies run around. Twilight began to see a pattern, for there were seven groups of screaming ponies running around the fountain, two groups at a time. When one group ran out, another group screamed in.
Then it hit her.
She walked towards the fountain, lit up her horn, and went through the cloaked barrier to get inside the fountain. There was princess Celestia in the fountain. But she was covered in a black tar substance.
Celestia looked up and saw Twilight. Her eyes widened as she whispered,. “Twilight, is that you? Or is it really Nightmare Moon?”
Twilight gave off an angry look and said, "You’re the last pony I wanted to see. But I guess we have to talk sooner or later, so let’s talk.”
“I’m just saying that if Hard Stone has more armor, then we will not have to worry about timberwolves and crocodile,” said Rainbow Dash, as she hovered above the group.
“I think you’re just jealous that I got the armor and you didn’t,” replied Applejack.
“What?! I’m not!” replied Rainbow Dash.
“Are too” Said Applejack.
“Enough!” Using her magic, Sunset grabbed Rainbow and Applejack’s voices in her aura. Two balls of light appeared; one light blue and the other light orange.
When Rainbow and Applejack looked at Sunset, she said, “Applejack, ever since you told us about the magical armor, you and Rainbow just won't drop it. If it’s not too much to ask, stop! Stop talking about her armor, because it’s getting old. And it’s driving me crazy.”
Then, her aura faded away and the two balls of light went back to Rainbow and Applejack. They walked the rest of the way in silence.
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie said, “Oh, look! There it is!” She pointed at a ruin of a castle.
Rainbow Dash said, “Look, about the whole argument, I just want you to know that I will always be loyal to my friends. And I’m sorry.”
With a grin on her face, Sunset replied, “What was that? I couldn’t hear that last bit.”
“I said I’m sorry about me judging you instead of getting to know you!”
Rainbow suddenly realized she had shouted her apology. She flew up to the front of the group to keep herself from being too embarrassed.
The group saw a ruined archway and they stopped.
“How are we going to get past this?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“Duh.” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings to point out the most obvious answer.
“Oh, silly me.”
As Rainbow Dash flew over the deep abyss, Sunset said, “Rainbow, I see a mechanism that should raise the bridge. See if you can find a lever to raise it.”
When Rainbow landed on the other side, she looked left, then right, and eventually, she found a lever. It looked rusty but seemed like it would still work.
As she was about to pull the lever, she heard her name being called out.
A raspy voice said, “Rainbow Dash.”
“Who’s there? Show yourself!” said Rainbow, feeling the need to fight some pony.
“Oh, we don’t want to fight you. We just want you to have this,” said the mysterious voice.
Suddenly, an object zoomed past Rainbow and hit the tree nearby. Rainbow got a good look at the object. It was a dagger. The blade was as white as a cloud, and the hilt had rainbow coloring. There were several red and blue gems on it. The strangest thing about the dagger was that it was humming quietly, and a soft, warm feeling came over Rainbow which made her think of her home in the clouds.
Then Rainbow heard Sunset yell, “Rainbow Dash, can you hear me!?”
Rainbow shook her head and said, “Ok, look, I'm a bit busy with the whole Nightmare Moon thing. So, I’ll just need to raise the bridge and then we can-”
“I’m sorry, but you have a choice right now. You either join us and receive the dagger,” said the hooded figure, ”or you can pull the lever and let your friends across. If you choose the latter, we will be gone. Your choice.”
Rainbow replied, “You.”
The hooded figure smiled.
But then Rainbow said, “I mean, thank you for the offer. But I will always be loyal to my friends.” And with that, Rainbow pulled the lever which raised a stone bridge. By the look of it, the bridge was in good enough shape to cross. Rainbow flew back to her friends and said, “See, I’m always loyal to my friends.”
“You are making a big mistake. This offer will not come again,” the hooded pony said. ”But if you want to find our order, just look for the time where all ponies look for it.”
“I’m sorry for doubting you,” Sunset said to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow replied, “You’re not the first to doubt me. I mean, when Fluttershy and I first met, she had doubts about me, but then we got to know each other.”
Fluttershy said in a small voice, “You stood up for me, that’s all.”
“Are you kidding? It took months to get your full trust!” said Rainbow Dash.
“I’m sensing there’s more to this tale than you’re letting on?” said Rarity.
“Look, we should get going,” said Sunset.
When they reached the other sidek, Rainbow noticed the hooded ponies were gone, along with their strange dagger.
hr]
“It is you, Twilight?” asked Celestia.
Twilight didn’t look at Celestia, for her focus was on the black substance that was imprisoning Celestia.
After she poked it and examined it, she tried to grab it with her magic. When she tried to lift it, the magical grip she had disappeared. Then the tar expanded and it tried to grab Twilight herself.
Twilight managed to back away far enough that the tar couldn’t grab her. The tar then went back to imprisoning Celestia.
Twilight looked at Celestia and said, “Tartarus tar.”
The Princess of the Sun replied, “Yes, and it’s getting stronger. Every time I try to get out, it feels like trying to pull away from steel.”
Twilight said, “Tartarus tar basically drains all kinds of magic that touches it. It was designed to imprison one demonic centaur, Lord Tirek. He could absorb any kind of magic except for one. .” Then Twilight thought to herself, “Well played, mother.”
Celestia’s eyes went wide as she realized what kind of magic Twilight was talking about. “You mean that unnatural magic you can do?”
With a look of anger, Twilight glanced at another group of ponies screaming and running and said, “The question you should be asking is simple: why should I free you?”
“Because we’re family,” Celestia answered quickly.
“Family. For the last century, we were anything but family. If I remember correctly, you never had the time to be with us. You just ignored us, and last time I saw you as an aunt was the time you banished my mother to the moon. So, ‘family’ would be the last thing I’d call you.”
Celestia replied, “You’re right, and every time I try to bring it up, it ends up backfiring. I know that not every mistake I’ve made will be forgotten. I suppose I was living in a dream, where everything was right and forgiven.”
Then Celestia saw a small tear running down Twilight’s cheek.
Celestia continued, “That’s you are the perfect Princess of the Stars. What I’m trying to say is, I’m sorry. And if you free me, then I will give you whatever you want. Just tell me what you want.”
Twilight wiped away the tears from her eyes and looked at Celestia. “First, I want to live in the castle that you abandoned.”
“That’s simple enough. But I’m guessing there is more.”
“The second demand I have is that you not hunt down the Umbrums. If you find any of them, tell me,” said Twilight.
Celestia said, “Alright. You should know, I never tried to kill them. But some other ponies might have.”
Then Twilight said, as she changed into Umbrum form, “They will regret doing so.”
She then fired a beam of shadow magic, and the tar started to change color from pitch black to white. Then, all a sudden, the tartarus tar fizzled out of existence.
Celestia started to get up, but her legs felt wobbly. She tried to use her magic, but nothing happened.
Twilight, in her Umbrum form, said in a monsterous voice, “You just stay and recover from the tar. You will be without your magic for several hours.”
Then Twilight went back to pony form. "I hope I don’t see you for some time."
Twilight and her Umbrums began walking towards the castle of the two sisters.