The purple unicorn was in her room, clearly displeased at the noise in her new home. The dragon came in. "Hey Twilight! Pinkie Pie's starting pin the tail on the pony! Wanna play?"
The unicorn retorted, displeased. "NO! All the ponies in this town are crazy! Do you know what time it is!?"
The dragon didn't pick up on her irritation. "It's the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration. Everypony has to stay up, or they'll miss the princess raise the sun! You really should lighten up Twilight. It's a party!"
The purple pony mocked him. Grey spoke to the guardsman. "We're not going to learn anything watching her sulk in her room. I'm going in."
"Are you sure sir?"
"Yes." Grey kicked into the window, breaking it.
The pony screamed "WHAT NOW!?" and then saw him. "Who are you!? What are you!?"
The pony charged a blast of energy on her horn. It seemed to be thaumaturgic. Grey needed to de-escalate the situation. "Calm down. I won't hurt you."
The energy stopped charging, but remained. "Okay, so you won't hurt me. But who are you?"
"I'm Doctor Grey. I'm a human."
"Humans? Lyra always rambled about them in Canterlot. Are you saying they're real?"
"If they weren't, I wouldn't be here in front of you."
The charge on her horn flickered and died. She seemed to be docile now. "Where's your cutie mark?"
"My what?"
"The symbol on your flank that shows your special talent?"
"Um, we have birth marks, but they don't mean anything."
"Where did you come from?"
"I thought I was asking the questions here." The pony seemed embarrassed.
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"I heard you speaking about a legend. Something about a 'Mare in the Moon.' Can you elaborate on that?"
The pony waited about four seconds, and then explained. "In ancient Equestria, the princess of the moon became jealous of ponies adoring the day and sleeping through the night, so she turned into a monster, Nightmare Moon. Her sister used the Elements of Harmony to banish her on the moon."
"Okay, so what's the big deal?"
"It was prophesized that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about everlasting night."
Grey was immediately terrified at that prospect, but his fear was quickly overwhelmed with confusion as to how such a thing could happen. "What the hell? Could she do that? Doesn't the planet rotate?"
"What? No. The princess moves the sun and moon to create day and night." A planet that didn't rotate? But... why? Or better yet, how? How did any of this work?
"And this Nightmare Moon wants to disrupt the cycle?"
"Yes. She will escape on the longest day of the thousandth year."
"Is that today?" The pony paused for a moment.
"Yes." Grey understood the severity of this situation. A permanent night would doom every living thing on the planet. The plants would die, collapsing the food chain. Anything that remained alive would freeze to death. Was this thing thinking straight? Maybe not. Emotions could make people act irrationally.
Have you informed the other princess?"
"Princess Celestia? She said it was an old pony's tale, and told me to come here and make friends. I don't know if I can stop Nightmare Moon on my own. I don't even know much about her."
"My organization is an expert in dealing with the anomalous. I could help gather intel if I didn't look like this."
"I may have a solution to that. This may feel funny at first."
"What are you-" Suddenly, Grey found himself being lifted into the air and surrounded by an unknown energy. His instincts told him he was in trouble, but he felt protected inside the field. It was warm, and safe. Then a blinding light forced him to close his eyes. When he opened them again, he was eye-level with the unicorn. He looked back, and saw his new appearance. He was an earth pony, with a blue mane and white coat. He bore the foundation's logo on his flank.
"You turned me into one of you?"
"For 24 hours, yes. A permanent spell is too tough to cast."
"This will be fine. It will just be hard to adapt to walking on all fours."
The dragon came in. "C'mon, Twilight, it's time to watch the sun rise!" He saw the agent. "Who's this?"
"I'm an old friend of Twilight. We lost touch a while back. Who are you?"
"I'm Spike."
"Doctor Grey. Well, shall we watch the sunrise?"
Twilight led him to town hall. The night sky was clear, and the weather was calm. The guardsman had returned to the base, Grey was on his own. The pink pony he first saw rambled in his face. He caught absolutely none of what she said, and frankly didn't care. In the background, a grey-maned figure spoke. Grey presumed her to be the mayor, but he was too busy looking for security risks to hear her. There seemed to be no threat. Nopony was armed, no suspicious activity, no duffel bags, and there were several white pegasi in armor. He guessed that they were the royal guard. It seemed that the princess was safe. But then. "Twilight, wasn't there an imprint of her on the moon earlier?"
Twilight glanced up at the sky. She was clearly panicking. Then, the mayor exclaimed "Princess Celestia!"
The birds the yellow pegasus was training chirped in a beautiful choir. The white unicorn pulled back the curtains, but the princess was nowhere to be seen. Everypony was clearly concerned for their ruler, except that pink pony, still oblivious to the world around her. "Ooh! Ooh! I love guessing games! Is she hiding?" Grey tried to facepalm, but forgot that he had a hoof.
The white unicorn confirmed their suspicions. "She's gone!" Grey tried to ready his pistol, but only then realized how much easier fingers made life. Then, a cloud of purple smoke grew in mass where Celestia was supposed to be. It changed shape and solidified into an alicorn. She was clad in armor, with slit eyes and jagged teeth. Her mane moved in the same style as the cloud from which she came. Spike fell off Twilight's back, unconscious. The rainbow pegasus, seeming to have more bravery than Grey in that moment, demanded to know where the princess was.
The farm pony held her tail back with her teeth. The monster laughed. "Why? Am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?"
Once again, that freaking pink pony couldn't keep her mouth shut. "Ooh, ooh! More guessing games! Um, Hokey Smokes! How about... Queen Meanie! No! Black Snooty, Black Snooty-" This was the moment that Grey lost all patience with her.
"SHUT UP! CAN'T YOU SEE YOU'RE PISSING HER OFF!?" The creature seemed to take no notice of this, simply continuing her monologue.
"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?"
Twilight spoke up. "I did. And I know who you are. You're the Mare in the Moon. Nightmare Moon!" Everypony immediately entered a state of panic. Nightmare Moon seemed pleased that Twilight was aware of the emergency.
"Well well well. Somepony who remembers me. Then you also know why I'm here."
"You're here to... to..." Twilight couldn't get the words out.
Nightmare Moon addressed the crowd. "Remember this day little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!" Nightmare Moon gave a sinister laugh, and lightning strikes came from no discernible origin.
The mayor ordered the guards. "Seize her! Only she knows where the princess is!" The guards took flight and charged at Nightmare. She did not seem intimidated in the slightest.
"Stand back you foals!" The lightning came down on the guards, before Nightmare transformed into that cloud of mist again, and fled. The farm pony lost her grip on the tail of the rainbow pegasus and she tried to pursue the cloud.
Grey spoke to Twilight. "We need to get back to the library!" He tried to grab his radio, but couldn't get a grip without fingers. "Oh for Celestia's sake. Twilight, grab my radio and hold down the button on the side." She did. "All personnel, I am issuing a Code Red directive, effective immediately!" Grey's team responded accordingly.
Spike tried to stay awake, but failed. "We've gotta stop Nightmare!" Twilight tucked him in.
"You've been up all night Spike. You are a baby dragon after all." Twilight rushed downstairs. Grey was tearing books off the shelves. "Anything?"
"No."
"How can we stop Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony?"
The rainbow pegasus was suddenly in front of her face. "And just what are the Elements of Harmony? And how did you know about Nightmare Moon, huh? Are you a spy?" The farm pony tugged on her tail again. Grey began to wonder if it was a habit.
"Simmer down, Sally. She ain't no spy. But she sure knows what's going on, don't ya Twilight?"
Grey spoke for her. "We're not sure how much of the picture we have, but earlier tonight, we were alerted to Nightmare Moon's imminent return. Well, I was. Twilight worked it out while she was still in Canterlot. The princess dismissed it as an old pony's tale, told her to prepare the celebration, make some friends, and now, we're here."
"So how do ya plan to stop her?"
"The book which brought her to our attention mentioned several objects called the Elements of Harmony. According to the book, they're the most powerful magic known to ponydom. They were used to contain her a millennium ago. If they held her for that long, they're out best chance. We need to locate them and use them to neutralize her. Just one problem. We have exactly zero leads. We're looking for some books on the matter, but-"
The pink pony rudely interrupted. "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide."
Twilight seemed shocked. "How did you find that!?"
The pink one spoke in a sing-song, almost cheeky voice. "It was under E!"
"Oh."
Twilight passed the book to Grey, who began to read over it. "There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known. Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The 6th is a complete mystery. It is said that the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now The Everfree Forest." Everyone seemed scared by that name. "What?" The farm pony gave clarification.
"It ain't natural. Folks say it don't work the same as Equestria."
"And what does that mean?"
The rainbow pegasus spoke. "Nopony knows. You know why?" The farm pony told her to quit it. She took no notice. "Cause everypony who's ever come in has never come out!"
"Is that supposed to scare me? Because you're doing a terrible job of it. Twilight, where's this forest?" She inspected the map.
"Just south of this town."
"That's where my team set up base. I can guide you all to the site."
"Well, let's go."
They had been walking for just under 5 minutes, during which Grey learned the names of the ponies, and the base came into vision.
"They won't take kindly to my new appearance. Can you dispel the transformation Twilight?"
"Of course."
Those waves of energy surrounded Grey again, and he was filled with that feeling of safety. Then came the light, and before he knew it, he was back on two legs. "Finally. That feels so much more natural." The ponies followed Grey through the front gate. There were several buildings. Multiple vehicles and other humans ran around. Fluttershy was clearly nervous. "It's okay Fluttershy. Everyone is highly trained."
Doctor Bright exited the command building. "Sir, are you aware that there are anomalies behind you?"
"Yes Bright. I am. We need their assistance to contain a far more dangerous anomaly. I want you to get them geared up."
"Sir, all our gear is modelled for bipeds. We have nothing outfitted for quadrupeds."
"Well make something then. They can't go in empty-hooved."
"Yes sir. Please follow me everyone."
"Everypony."
"What?"
"Use the term everypony."
"Oh, okay. Please follow me everypony."
Grey immediately went to his office, and knew that standard protocol was to put up an emergency notice on the network. He needed to alert Foundation command. There was no discernible way back to their reality from this one, but it was protocol to alert the O4 Command of any containment breach. There wasn't much time. Plants may already be withering. Thankfully the solar lamps kept SCP-JOKE specimens in perfect condition. Grey began to type.
Emergency Notice.
LRC (Lockdown Response Code) 16/A/Superblue-Red.
Site: Dimensional Area 16
Priority: Alpha. (Immediate Response.)
Code: Superblue-Red. (A sentient LSA (Large Scale Aggressor) at or above human intelligence and capable of movement has breached containment.)
Protocol: N/A, follow orders from security.
Suitable MTFs: Epsilon-11 (Nine Tailed Fox), Nu-7 (Hammer Down), Eta-5 (Jaeger Bombers), Gamma-5 (Red Herrings).
Active ARIs: ARI-500 (Closing Time.)
Detailed Description: A hostile alicorn creature known as Nightmare Moon has breached containment after ~1000 years. Princess Celestia, a high ranking alicorn, is M.I.A. 6 ponies have been conscripted to assist in containment of the anomaly. Objective is to retrieve a set of anomalous objects collectively known as the Elements of Harmony to restore containment.
End Report.