Why do you try to fight the inevitable, This is what your rule will bring
You have failed.
Celestia sprung out of her bed, her large wings carrying her close to the celing. She looked wildly around her room breathing heavily. Seeing that there was no real threat she sighed and landed back on her bed .
Another nightmare. she thought, sighing in relief.
She looked at the clock above her massive door. It was only half an hour untill she had to raise the sun, so going back to sleep would be pointless. She slid off her bed and began walking toward the balcony connected to her room. Using her magic, she parted the curtains and stepped onto it. She sighed again, finaly beginning to relax when a large, dark blue monster dropped right in front of her, screeching in her face.
Celestia shrieked, once again jumping into the air, and began to ready a spell should it attack again.
But her fear began to die when she heard laughing. She looked down and saw her sister Luna, colapsed on the ground in a fit of laughter.
"I did not think that would work so well." Luna said still laughing. Celestia was not amused.
"Is there a reason you were trying to scare me?" She asked as she landed back on the balcony.
"I would say succeeded." Luna said with a smug grin. "But yes there is, I believe you know what tommorow night is?" She said standing up.
"Nightmare Night." Celestia stated a little annoyed at how giddy her sister was getting.
"Correct, and since the children of Ponyvile wanted me to come back this year, I've been practicing." Luna chuckled. "If I can scare you, a few colts and fillies should be easy."
"You didn't scare me you just startled me!" Celestia snapped. She imediately realized this. "I'm sorry."
"Sister, is there something wrong?" Luna asked, noticing Celestia's unusual behaviour.
"I-it's nothing." She lied. Luna imediately gave her a look that said "I'm not buying it."
"I know you better than that sister, and I can tell when you have somthing troubling you." Luna said. "You know you can trust me." Celestia's wings and head drooped in defeat.
"It's just a nightmare Luna, I was just a little jumpy from it." Celestia sighed.
"A nightmare?" She asked, "About what?" Seeing the sad look on Celestia's face killed her giddy mood.
"Me?" Luna asked. Celestia sighed, then nodded.
"You know it's over right?" Luna asked. "You dont have to worry anymore."
"I know that." Celestia replied, "but I still don't know why, why did you do what you did?" Luna let the question hang there, and after the long moment she finaly broke the silence.
"I don't wish to talk about it." Luna said. "I'm going to get some rest, I believe it's time for you to raise the sun.
"You're turning in early?" Her sister asked, wondering what excuse her sister would come up the get out of the conversation.
"Yes, I want to wake when Twilight Sparkle and her friends arrive." With that she took off toward her room.
Oh, right I forgot they were coming today. She thought. Luna had invited them to discuss Nightmare Night.
Celestia couldn't help but feel conflicted over this. Nightmare Night was the night Luna fell into anger, dispair, and envy, and everypony turned it into a holiday. While this baffled her she couldn't help but be happy that it had helped Ponyville accept her.
As she began to focus her energy into raising the sun her thoughts turned to the object of her concern. She had been plagued by nightmares for a week now, every night the same as this one, and every night the same nightmare. It always started out the same, and no matter what she tried to do the result was always the same.
She had finished raising the sun and looked out over all she could see of Equestria when she began to recall her dream.
She was standing on the balcony she was now. The night was almost over and she was getting ready to raise the sun. But for some reason she couldn't. The moon wasn't moving, and she began to cry out for here sister, but Luna was nowhere to be found. It wasn't long before she heard dark, maniacal, laughter. Black Clouds began to cover the sky, and Luna began to desend from them. Only, she wasn't Luna.
"Oh, look how the mighty have fallen." Nightmare Moon said. "What's the matter, can't raise the sun?" She laughed.
"Luna why are you doing this?" Celestia cried. "There are ponies who respect you and love you. Why do you want to throw that away?
The dark alicorn laughed. "You think I want that? I dont care about any of that. What I'm here for, is revenge." She said.
"Revenge?" Celestia asked. "I only did what I had to, to protect Equestria, I'm sorry I had to seal you on the moon." Nightmare Moon laughed again.
"I could care less about that." She chuckled. "I want revenge for everything you've done to me for the past 3000 years!"
"What have I done to you for 3000 years?" Celestia asked, obviously confused.
"For 3000 years you have separated me from my subjects." Nightmare Moon said sinisterly. "You have kept me from painting the night in my glory, ponies have always feared the night yet you atempt to change that. But no more for now you will be sepated from your beloved ponies you shall no longer have the privlige of the sun."
Before Celestia could question the dark pony the world around them changed. She looked out to see Equestria in turmoil. All plant life had died, ponies running for their lives, entire towns and cities in ruin. The sky was dark, not from clouds but the lack of stars, and the moon was turned a crimson red bathing Equestria in an unatural light. Celestia imediately began to use her magic to fix the nightmare her land had become but her magic was useless. Nightmare Moon laughed.
"Why do you try to fight the inevitable, This is what your rule will bring."
"You have failed."
--
The sun rose, its warm rays of light shining down on the land below. One beam burst through a window, landing on a certain lavander unicorn mare. At this moment that mare's alarm clock began to ring, signaling the start of her day. Twilight Sparkle sleeply rose from her bed, habitaully fixing it the moment she was up, and stepped up to the mirror to comb her mane. Once she finished, she levitated the checklist on her dresser up to her eyes.
"Alright, time to check off my morning checklist." She thought, grabbing a nearby pen.
"Wake up." Check.
"Turn off alarm clock." Check.
"Get out of bed." Check.
"Make bed." Check.
"Comb mane." Check.
"Check checklist." Check.
"Wake Spike." No check. Easly remedied.
"Spike!" She called, turning her attention toward the little purple dragon. Spike mumbled something incoherent. Twilight sighed, and walked over to his bed.
"Spike, its time to get up!" She said nudging him. The little dragon groaned.
"It's too early." He complained.
"Come on Spike, we have a busy schedule today." Twilight said nudging him again.
"Well why do we have to start so early?" Spike asked.
"You know the saying," Twilight chuckled, "The early bird gets the worm."
"Well, I'm not a bird and I don't eat worms." Spike huffed, wrapping himself tighter in his blanket.
Twilight sighed and wrapped the blanket in her magic, pulling it higher into the air, causing Spike to float out of his basket. Twilight giggled, and the little dragon fell out of the blanket, but his claws were still griping it. Spike's eyes opened with that and he looked down at Twilight, still hanging from the blanket. He attempted to pull it back to the ground, to no avail.
"Twilight is this really ness-." Spike began but stopped when he saw the mischievous grin on her face. "What are you do-AAAAAHHHHH!" He cried as the blanket began flying around the room at high speed, with him along with it.
"Put me down!" He yelled. The unicorn ignored him and continued to whip the blanket around the room. Spike, seeing only one other option, let go of the blanket, his momentum flinging him face first into the wall.
"You ready to get up now?" Twilight asked laughing.
"That wasn't funny." Spike growled slowly standing up.
"It's your own fault, I told you to get up and you didn't listen. Now get ready, we're going to go run some errands and check up on my friends." She said grabbing another checklist. "First on the list Carousel Boutique."
"You know it doesn't open for another two hours, right?" Spike asked.
"Okay, we'll go to Sugercube Corner first then." She said ajusting her list.
"There aren't any stores that open this early Twilight." Spike stated.
"Okay, then let's check on Rainbow Dash." Twilight said ajusting her list again.
"Do you really think she's up by now?" Spike asked. "Besides don't you have something else to do before you leave?"
"Huh? Like what?" She asked looking over both her checklists.
"You know, like breakfast." Spike said. As if on que Twilight's stomach growled.
"Oh, right." She said sheepishly.
"I'll go get something ready, why don't you read a book or something." Spike said, heading toward the kitchen.
"What would I do without him?" Twilight thought. "Well I guess I can put 'Get ready for trip to Canterlot' first then."
With that she grabbed her saddle bags and began floating books from various sections toward her, looking over each one before putting it in her bags. While all the books were from different genres they all had one thing in common. Nightmare Night.
For the past week Twilight had been studying the subject vigorously. It had started when she was organizing her library, and she had come across a book titled The Origins of Nightmare Night. Seeing how she had not read it before and how Nightmare Night was coming up, she decided to look through it, and came across something that confused her.
After that Twilight devoted most of her time to finding other books concerning the subject. So far she had found thirty-two books, one dozen scrolls, and fifty-five refences from other various sources. But despite her efforts she had hit a dead end and had one last option left, and the trip to Canterlot was the perfect time.
"Twilight, breakfast!" Spike called. Twilght walked into the kitchen to see two rather large stacks of pancakes. She could easly guess which one was hers due to one sparkling with gemstones. She brought a sheet of paper and a pen with her to the table. Twilight had barely sat down when Spike began to devour his food.
"What are you doing Twilight?" Spike asked noticing the paper.
"I'm writing a letter to the princess." She replied.
Dear Princess Celestia,
As you are aware, my friends and I are coming to Canterlot today at Princess Luna's request. Whlie I am there, I need to discuss somthing with you. Normaly I would ask you in a letter like this but due to all the research I've been doing and the notes that I have, I feel it would be better if I speak with you about this in person. I thought it best if you knew this ahead of time in case you were busy.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight rolled the letter up and handed it to Spike, and with a blast of green flame, it was gone.
"What was that about?" Spike asked.
"I just need to let the princess know about something." Twilight replied. So far her 'project' was still a secret. "Anyway, let me finish my food and then we should leave."
--
The trip to Carousel Boutique was uneventful. The usualy cheery town seemed extremely empty. It almost looked like it did when everypony was afraid of Zecora, the rhyming zebra that lived in the Everfree Forest.
"Where is everypony?"Twilight thought. "This is usualy when the day when the decorating starts."
Twilight continued walking, lost in thought when her assistant nudged her.
"I think I know where everypony is." He said. Twilight looked at him quizzically and he pointed toward their destination. A massive line of ponies stood in front of the boutique. The store was still closed, but for reasons unknown to them at least half of Ponyville was standing in front of the door.
"So much for quick visit." Twilight thought getting into the back of the line. Thankfully, the line moved fairly fast and within fifteen minutes they reached the door, the last customer exiting the building leaving behind a distraught white unicorn.
"Hello, and how may I help you?" Rarity asked, almost roboticly, upon hearing another pony enter, her back turned. When she turned her blue eyes seemed to brighten.
"Oh, Twilight!" She excaimed. "It's good to see you. I assume you're here to pick up your costume."
"That," Twilight answered. "And to make sure you didn't forget about our invitation."
"Oh heavens no, even with all this buisness there is no way I would forget something like that, after all its not every day you get personaly invite to Canterlot by royalty." Rarity said her eyes shining.
"So, what's with all the buisness today?" Spike asked. Rarity's cheery mood faded.
"Well, when I agreed to make Twilight's costume, a certain somepony, I won't point hooves-," Rarity broke into a coughing fit, though they thought they heard her say Rainbow Dash in the middle of it. "-excuse me, found out and begged me to make her's as well, I agreed, and that pony saw it fit to tell the entirety of Ponyville I was making Nightmare Night costumes. Soon everypony was at my door asking for one, and I couldn't turn down so many customers. So I was forced to make so many disgraceful outfits.
"I have never made so many crimes against fashion in my entire life." She ranted, Twilight and Spike cringing. "Each design worse than the worse than the last, it's like everypony lost their minds. At least your costume has some class Twilight." Rarity said. "Even if it looks like it belongs to the court jester." She pulled out a red rimmed beret and a red and green striped suit with frilled cuffs.
"Court jester?!" Twilight cried in shock. "This is the authentic clothing of Pantaro De Hoovesen!"
"Oh really? I had no idea." Rarity said, hoping to avoid one of Twilight's history lectures, to no avail.
"I would figure you of all ponies would know this, he designed and wore this and several other pieces of clothing."
"Must not have been a very creative pony." Rairty thought, zoning out most of Twilight's lecture.
"He also painted the 'Pony Lisa' and several other famous paintings." Twilight continued, bringing Rarity back to the present.
"Did you say, the 'Pony Lisa'?" She asked, recieving a nod from Twilight.
"Are you saying the creator of that marvelous piece of work wore THAT?!" Rarity cried obviously shocked.
"Yes, but you have to remember fashion was different back then. Anyway, thank you for making this, I need to get going, come on Spike." Twilight said walking out the door.
--
Now that everypony was done waiting in line, Ponyville was as lively as ever preparing for tommorow night.
"Next on the list is Suger Cube Corner, then find Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash." Twilight said as the pair strolled down the road. As she said this she heard a faint cry, that began to grow louder.
"Incoming!" Somepony yelled.
Twilight barely got out of the way before a certain rainbow pegusus crashed into a nearby bush. Twilight imediately rushed over to it as Rainbow Dash crawled out.
"Oh, hi Twilight," She said, strangly cheerful for somepony who just crashed. "How are you doing."
"I should be the one asking you that." Twilight said, but Rainbow just laughed.
"Come on Twi' you know I can handle worse than that." She said cockily.
"Well be careful today," Twilight sighed. "You dont want to go to Canterlot with a broken wing do you?"
"Don't worry about me I'm fine, watch." Rainbow Dash jumped into the sky and did a few laps in the air around Twilight, performing a few tricks to boot. Twillight wasn't very satisfied.
"Fine, but try not to crash again." She said walking away.
"Where are you going?" Rainbow asked.
"We're heading to Suger Cube Corner." Spike repiled.
"Mind if I tag along?" Rainbow asked.
"Not at all." Twilight said happily.
--
SugerCube Corner, and the area around it, was packed with ponies.
"Probably here to buy sweets." Twilight thought as she and Spike began to push through the crowd. Rainbow Dash took to the air, avoiding the hassle. After a few minutes of pushing, shoving, and other annoyances, they finaly reached the door, where Rainbow Dash was waiting for them.
"What took you so long?" She asked, barely able to resist chuckling. All she recived was a glare.
Stepping inside the shop, they saw it was almost as crowed as outside. The Cakes and Pinkie Pie were seemingly running in every direction at once to keep up with all the ponies, though Pinkie seemed to have a easier time. Surpisingly enough, she found time to head over to her friends.
Hi Twilight, hi Dashie, hi Spike." She said in her usual cheery tone.
"YourheretobuycandyrightImeanthatswhateveryponyelseisheredoingbecausecouldyouimanginewhatitwouldbelikeiftheydidn'twantcandyaNightmareNightwithoutcandythatwouldbehoribleunbeliveiableorasRaritywouldputit THE WORST POSSIBLE THING!?! The only thing Twilight caught was her talking about Rarity and the disturbingly good impression and something about candy.
"Actualy, I'm here t-"
"Oh you don't need to remind me about Luna's invtation silly filly." Pinkie said bouncing happily. "I've been thinking about it all day, well almost all day, some of it was spent thinking about my flying cupcake dream last night, and some was about SugerCube Corner and how busy I am speaking of which I need to get back to work." She pulled out a large bag. "Here's your candy and Applejack and Fluttershy are right outside. Bye Twilight, bye Dashie, bye Spike."
With that Pinkie bounced off, leaving a couple of bewildered ponies and dragon.
"Don't try to figure out what just happened Twilight, you'll be driven to insanity." She thought to herself as she made her way to the door.
Stepping outside Twilight saw that Pinkie was right. Right on the edge of the crowd was Applejack with her brother, each pulling a large cart full of apples, and Fluttershy at a food stall, most likely storing up for her usual mini exile when Nightmare Night started. Unfortunately the crowd was once again an obstacle.
Considering her two options, either wait all day for the crowd to disperse, or push her way through it, she decided on the latter, and began to move through the sea of ponies. She heard Rainbow Dash yell something but there was to much chatter to hear it. Twilight saw her fly overhead, with Spike on her back. She growled in frustration.
After what seemed like forever, Twilight finaly reached the edge of the crowd, where her friends stood waiting for her, Spike and Rainbow Dash munching on some apples.
"I was going to offer to fly you over but you took off before I could." Rainbow Dash said, grabbing another apple.
"Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked concerned.
"Yeah, I'm alright, in fact I was looking for you two." Twilight said, a little out off breath.
"Yea' we know sugercube." Applejack said. "Spike told us." She motioned to the little dragon sitting on one of the apple carts.
"It ain't anything fancy is it?" She asked. Twilight shook her head.
"Then ah'm as ready as ah'll ever be." Applejack said.
"Um, Twilight can I ask you something..if that's okay." Fluttershy said meekly.
"Sure, what is it?" She asked.
"Our carriage doesn't arrive 'till 4:00 right?" Twilight nodded.
"Then why, it's not that I mind or anything, but why are you asking us to get ready if that's not for seven more hours?" Fluttershy asked shying away like she'd done something wrong.
"Oh um, well I guess I'm just a little antsy about it." Twilight said sheepishly. "Well I would love to stay and chat, but I have a few more errands to run, so I'll see you girls at 4, come on Spike." She added before trotting off, the little dragon quickly falling into step behind her.