I'm trudging through the forest, forcing one hoof in front of the other. After I threw my new best friend Twilight's welcome party, and the disastrous Summer Sun Celebration, and the hours and hours of research, I was exhausted even before the forest's trials began. Now, I barely have the energy to fear the unnatural darkness as it blots out the moonlight.
"I think I stepped in something," comes Applejack's voice.
Fluttershy screams.
"It's just mud," says Applejack, and then she sees the face.
It looms out of the dimness, horrible and misshapen. Shrieks fill the air, then the sound of galloping hooves.
"Wait!" says Twilight. "Wait, don't go!"
I shiver but stand fast as my friends' hoofbeats recede. I poke the face with a tentative hoof. "It's... wood?"
"Let me see." Twilight's horn lights up, revealing the face as nothing more than a gnarled tree trunk and my own imagination. I can't help giggling at the absurdity.
"It's not funny!" snaps Twilight. "The others ran away and now we're all alone!"
"Not alone," comes a voice, and the night itself steps into the hornlight.
Twilight leaps into a defensive stance. "Nightmare Moon!"
"Thou art not far wrong," says the pony. "We have come to aid thee."
"Stay back!" says Twilight. "You'll never... uhhh." She slumps to the dirt.
I rush to her side. She's breathing. "What did you do?"
"She sleeps," says the pony. "As thou dost. Wake up, my little pony."
And then Mr. Cake is shaking me and there's sunlight coming in my bedroom window. "Rise and shine! Today's a big day!"
"But," I say, "The moon and the night and the Nightmare Moon!"
He gives me one of those Mr. Cake looks. "Did you have a bad dream?"
I'm walking through town and everything is normal. It must have been a dream after all. And then I see her.
She notices me staring. "Um. Hello?"
This can't be happening. Should I tell her? She'll never believe me. I gasp, and run away.
"Some mysterious objects called the Elements of Harmony are the only thing that can stop her," says Twilight, "but I don't know what they are, where to find them—I don't even know what they do!"
I go straight to the one book that helped, last time. "The Elements of Harmony," I read, "A Reference Guide!"
Twilight darts over. "How did you find that?"
"It's just mud," says Applejack, and then she sees the face.
My friends are screaming, but this time I know what to do.