The four ponies, and Spike, were on their way to Cloudsdale. Irresponsibly, they had left Ponyville as soon as they could, Twilight providing minimal assistance to the townsponies and leaving it completely defenceless as she went on another one of her adventures, searching for her friends. She emphasized how important it was to act quickly.
“Who knows what kind of damage that thing we saw could do if we don’t stop it?” Twilight ranted as they neared their destination. “It just showed up out of nowhere and nearly destroyed Ponyville! I don’t know if it’s gonna get even stronger or something, but we really need to figure out what’s going on.”
“Yeah, but how is visiting Cloudsdale gonna help us out?” Matt asked. “Isn’t that where the weather factory is?”
“Yes, Matt,” Twilight replied, “The weatherponies can probably tell us about the weather when we get there, but more importantly we need to find Rainbow Dash. She said she needed to be in Cloudsdale because of the weather.”
The climate had gotten particularly out of hoof over the roads leading between cities, which so close to Hearth’s Warming were devoid of ponies since they had already made their way to family for the holiday. Huge swaths of dark clouds were thick in the sky, and wind blew constantly around the travellers.
Eventually, the ponies arrived at the floating city of Cloudsdale, which they knew when they saw the pegasi poking down through the clouds beneath the city. It could only be practically inhabited by pegasi since it was mostly built of clouds that only they could walk on. Twilight had enchanted her friends to let them walk on the clouds, and retrieved a visitor’s balloon to take them up.
In the city of Cloudsdale itself, above the clouds to try to avoid the harsh weather below, the pegasi were in relatively high spirits. Even at their elevation, winds gusted into the city, but it didn’t stop them from enjoying their cloudy Hearth’s Warming.
In the weather factory, however, pegasi were hard at work managing the roiling sea of stormclouds that coated the skies beneath them. It was a complete mystery to them where they had come from. It was apparent they were magically created because of how wild they were acting, as wild as clouds can act. Half of the time was spent just dealing with the cloud cover over cities, while the other half was dedicated to wiping the clouds out of the sky.
Twilight took off as soon as the balloon landed in the clouds, over to the weather factory to find Rainbow Dash. Matt, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Spike were left to wait for Twilight to return. Matt and Applejack started kissing, which made Fluttershy and Spike only a little uncomfortable.
After about half an hour, Twilight returned with Rainbow Dash in tow. They both seemed exhausted, breathing hard They all loaded into the balloon as it began its trip to the ground.
“Took a while,” Applejack said.
“Yeah, yeah, we’re in a rush,” Twilight replied in a flustered tone. Her face seemed to redden, and she quickly looked down at a small stack of papers she had acquired from Cloudsdale. “Those weatherponies just said the clouds are moving in from the north. These are some of the results they have from testing these clouds.”
Using her magic, Twilight set the balloon on a course for their next destination. According to Twilight, it would only take a few hours to get there, where they would find Pinkie Pie, if she didn’t just appear behind them.
The balloon sank below the clouds, buffeted by wind. Twilight had to use magic to keep it steady in the air. Even beautifully sunny and extremely expensive San Foal-se was not spared from the poor weather. Coming in directly over the exact coordinates Pinkie Pie had given before taking off days before, the ponies in the balloon looked over the edge of the basket and saw a normal house, a plain old home. Given it was rather nice, since it’s San Foal-se, it was more like a modest house.
Gently landing in the street, Twilight and the gang climbed out of the balloon and onto solid ground. Just as they did, the door flung open and Pinkie Pie waved at her friends, yelling, “Hey, there you guys are! I was just about to leave Mrs. Faust here!”
A completely exhausted beige unicorn with a red mane stepped outside after Pinkie Pie, clearly dealing with the pink party pony for days. She walked up to meet Twilight. “She just wouldn’t leave me alone,” she said in a hushed voice as Pinkie rushed around to meet her friends. “She was trying to kiss me so much. I couldn’t sleep at night because she was trying to get into my room through the door, the window…”
Twilight chuckled, smiling to the worn-out mare. “Yeah, she can be a lot. She ran off days ago, has she been here that long? Why did Pinkie come to you?”
The other ponies of the group gathered around the beige mare, listening to what she was saying.
Faust sighed. “Oh, Pinkie came here to tell me that you were coming, that you were going to ask about a purple creature, and that she had to get her ‘Cameo Party’ ready, whatever that means.”
Pinkie set off a party cannon, the confetti quickly blowing away in the wind as she served cake to everypony. “Yay!” she repeated as she gave out each plate.
Twilight set her cake down, asking, “Wait, do you know something about a ‘purple creature?’”
“Yes, I do,” Faust said. “It’s a magical being that despises the Hearth’s Warming season, and wants to revert it back to autumn, when Nightmare Night comes around.” Looking to the unseasonably dry grass in the yard, Faust continued, “In fact, his ideal Nightmare Night takes it further than just a spooky night of fun. He wants to live most of the year that way, and will do anything to have it. Apparently, it lives in the most terrifying part of Equestria, the heart of the Everfree Forest, or so I’ve heard.”
Twilight nodded, listening intently.
“How does he do it?” Matt asked. “Does he use magic to change things?”
Faust sighed and turned to Matt. “Yes, in fact, he does use magic. He absorbs power from terrified ponies to become stronger and spread his influence as far as possible.”
Everypony nodded, as if it made perfect sense.
Deciding to finally leave the poor mare alone, Twilight said, “Well, thank you so much for your time, Mrs. Faust. You’ve been very helpful.” She backed up, and the rest of the ponies loaded into the balloon again.
“Okay, thank you for knowing about exactly what we wanted to know, somehow!” Rainbow Dash called out to Faust as they all climbed into the balloon.
Faust waved at them as they took off. "Thanks for coming by!" she shouted to them. Under her breath, she added, "Please never come back..."
"Okie dokie loki!" Pinkie shouted back in reply.
Julius pulled himself off the couch he had become stuck to, after enduring days of nonstop mental meddling by the creature in his head. He stood up and stretched, which he usually forgot to do after something like that.
He wanted a sandwich. He really did want a sandwich, but he wasn’t done with his task yet. He still had to wait for the final steps of his plan to begin. He couldn’t waste any time, because any moment could bring the power he sought to kick off his plot.
“I think that went pretty well,” Ding Dong said, coming back in the room through the reflection’s door. He yawned, since he hadn’t stopped to rest since he’d started. Not for anything at all. “I hope you’re happy now.”
“Absolutely, Ding Dong. Thank you for your service,” Julian said, starting to the door outside. “But I still have something to do, so let me focus.”
Stepping outside, small purple ball of fur centered himself in the wide room, open to the landscape beyond. Carved from the crystal mountain, the large round room focused on the point where Julius now stood, and waited.
His mind was unlocked. It now held no limit to the depths of spooky Nightmare power he could hold. He waited for the final phase of his plan to take effect. Taking position, he sat in the very center of the room, and waited…
Twilight flew from the balloon over Canterlot, coming down to meet the Royal Guards and let them land the balloon in the royal castle’s dedicated balloon-landing zone. Offloading the rest of the ponies, they made their way inside the castle, rushing to the ballroom being used to rehearse and store props for the royal Hearth’s Warming Eve Pageant in a few short days. Rarity would be there, working tirelessly to ensure the play went perfectly, especially because the princesses themselves would be in attendance.
Twilight and the rest encountered some guards in the halls, who they asked where the ballroom was. They found the entrance and went inside.
Rarity was busy touching up some costumes, pulling racks of them around to assess what she needed to do. She was so focused she didn’t notice her close friends until they were nearly in front of her.
“Oh, dear!” she exclaimed when she realized who was waiting for her. “Twilight, Matt, everypony, what are you doing here? Has something happened?”
Twilight nodded, saying, “You need to come with us right now. This is too important to talk about right now. Get somepony to tell the princesses
“The princesses? They came and watched some days ago, but I haven’t heard a word of them since yesterday,” Rarity said. “Even with their schedules packed around the holiday, they wouldn’t miss keeping an eye on the most important public event of the season. I have no idea where they could be.”
Twilight stared at her, considering what Rarity meant.
“Why, is something the matter? I must not have heard, I was working so hard on the play…”
“I think we need to find the princesses first,” Twilight said.
Searching the throne room for hints, the ponies looked everywhere they could think. If that little purple furball had tried anything, he probably would have done it in the royal throne room, like most villains tended to, and left some kind of clue behind.
“Hey, uh, you guys, there’s a big hole in the wall right here,” Rainbow Dash called out, pulling aside a tapestry that hung behind the princess’ thrones. It was a steep tunnel leading beneath the castle.
Twilight looked down it, grimacing at the idea that the princesses could be down there. She turned to look at the other ponies, then stepped into the passage. At the bottom was a green glow, and a large cavern.
Twilight entered the cavern ahead of her friends. She peered inside and saw a Changeling hive under construction, holes bored through the walls into the ground, with prey entrapped in cocoons. The two most noticeable, and most prominently displayed, cocoons contained none other than the two princesses of Equestria.
Twilight gasped at the sight. Disregarding the Changeling hive, she was relieved to see the princess were at a minimum possibly alive! She shot into the room towards the pair of sacs, but stopped short at a familiar sight.
Chrysalis. Of course she would be in a Changeling hive, but it still shocked Twilight.
Her friends filed in behind Twilight, into the rather large room with a multitude of branches just from the one room alone.
“Why, hello there, Twilight,” Chrysalis hissed her welcome at the ponies. “I see you’ve found me and my hive, right here in Canterlot.” Her salacious tone rubbed against everypony’s ears. “Make sure to give my Everfree friend a thank you card if you ever see him.”
“Yeah, Chrysalis, I know. Let the princesses go, or I’ll blast you away like I have before.”
“Oh, what a threat from the princess of friendship,” Chrysalis said. She grinned, almost grimaced, and continued, “Can’t you just give poor old Crissy a chance? I didn’t get to reform into a frail little butterfly like all the rest of my children. You just tossed me around without a chance!”
A raspy hiss emanated from the insect queen, echoed by the hive a thousand. She moved towards the two cocoons in the center of the room and stopped behind them.
Twilight aimed her horn at Chrysalis. “This is your only warning, Chrysalis. Give it up now, or nopony from your hive will make it out of here.”
“Oh, I’m being warned, am I?” Queen Chrysalis mocked. “Guess I’ll never learn!”
Her horn glowed an astonishing green in the act of sucking every possible piece of love from the princesses in front of her at a surprising speed, rejuvenating herself quickly enough to magically shield herself from Twilight’s blast. She carried on sucking the love energy from the easy prey, distributing it to her drones, screeching in laughter as she did.
“Run, ponies! We have freed the bane of Equestria, and shall rule in darkness once more! Gloom and grim will cover Equestria!”
As the last tangible part of her love was taken, Princess Luna’s cocoon wilted and burst open around her. Nightmare Moon forcefully emerged from the sac with her own cackle and feverishly began making out with the insect queen, as the terrified ponies galloped from the Canterlot hive and away from an unstoppable force set in motion.
Blasts of both light and darkness, magically created, burst from the highest peak among the others of the Crystal Mountains. The ever-frozen tundra’s landscape was illuminated under the heavy clouds by flashes, and darkened by waves.
In the mountain itself, howls of transformation were leased by the creature up top. The endless potential to absorb what was released across Equestria was finally activated. Julius grew stronger, his innate magical influence distorting the world around him without him even thinking about it. It bent to his will, becoming the terrifying autumnal landscape he wished for, as he gained more and more power from the widespread chaos consuming Equestria.
What Julius gathered, he used to perpetuate the cycle. What was focused on the peak of the crystal mountain, came streaming back, releasing a dismal feeling over the land, returning more and more decaying spirits to the terrified state of Nightmare Night…