Personal report, June 21st [REDACTED] local time.
Filed under: Operation Revisionist History.
After successfully travelling back in time roughly a hundred years and arriving safely and structurally sound near the outskirts of Ponyville, I have waited for what I have come to refer to as Event One, better known as “that one Summer Sun Celebration wherein Princess Luna returned from her exile and got the Nightmare purged clean out”, which was to occur the day after.
A slight hitch regarding Pinkamena Diane Pie aside, things went smoothly. I think that hitch was directly caused by Jennie taunting destiny, which really is not that odd when you consider the Pie Family.
In any case, Jennie and I attended the SSC, hiding in the crowd near the edges, and I have found several slight differences in what is written and what was actually said. These include but are not limited to the following:
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen your [precious little] sun-loving faces!”
“Does my crown no longer count [now that I’ve been imprisoned for] a thousand years?”
And “From this [moment] forth, the night [will] last forever!”
I have attached a full transcript of the event with annotations.
We trailed the Element Bearers-to-Be into the Everfree Forest, from a safe distance, and pretty much confirmed the common idea that the Nightmare seemed to set up challenges specifically tailored towards a given Element. Unfortunately, Queen Luna refuses to confirm or discuss this theory to this day. I cannot find myself to disagree, all things considered. What the deal even is with our royal highnesses and being all coy and secretive about their past, I will never understand.
At the critical moment, I measured the amount of magical energy in the area. During the purge, this measurement reached up to more than 2000 T. It must be sheer practice on the Sisters’ part, but not even raising and lowering the Sun and Moon takes that much energy! I very nearly revealed our presence in my surprise, but thankfully there was enough noise to drown out our exclamations.
What scares me more than seeing the Nightmare up close, though, is that shortly after her return, as everypony left the old castle ruins, Princess Celestia looked right at us and surreptitiously winked. I wonder what that means exactly, and most of the answers I have come up with… frighten me, to be entirely honest. Does she know who I am? Was it Jennie’s resemblance (at that distance) to Pinkie that tipped her off?
The party later that day was a blast, though. Really helped me get my mind off of how ominous that mare can be. Funny too – at one point it almost looked as if Princess Luna was going to eat the lei she had received.
Now all we need to do is decide if what happened the next day is worth sticking around for. Personally, I feel there is not. Grandmother Twilight told me once that it would not be until a week or so later that she received her invitation to the Grand Galloping Gala, and to stick around in the past for a whole week at minimum just to see everypony fight over that damned ticket… It would probably be best for now to return to Canterlot, process and publish our findings, maybe see if I can have a private audience with Queen Celestia. She probably would remember if she really had spotted us.
Yours truly,
Pyrrhic Victory.