//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: The Princess and the Usurper 
// by Beanzoboy 
//------------------------------//


Chapter One


On this beautiful spring day, the ponies were picnicking in a field just outside of the White Tail Woods at Pinkie Pie's request. Rainbow Dash already cleared away all the rain clouds, and she wanted to relax for a while. Pinkie decided that it would be shameful to waste such a wonderful day doing anything other than spending time with the wonderful friends she has. The others couldn't agree more, so they all sat around on their picnic blanket as they talked about what kind of activities they wanted to do before they started eating.
“Oh, I know!”, Pinkie Pie exclaimed while jumping around excitedly. “We could always play pin the tail on the pony! That's my favorite game!”
“I don't know, Pinkie.” Rainbow Dash sighed, “That's not really a game meant for picnics like this. That's a game meant for indoor parties. Since we're outside today, we could always have a race or play tag. Those are more my speed, and we've got plenty of room to run around without breaking anything.”
“Count me out,” Rarity replied. “I'm not going to spend the rest of my day playing tag in a forest. I might get dirty.” She shudders, “You girls have fun.”
“Actually, playin' tag wouldn't be a bad idea,” Applejack stated as she removed her hat and set it on the blanket, “but we'd have to make some rules. First of all, no flyin'. That does include you, Rainbow.” Applejack said with a grin as she watched Rainbow Dash roll her eyes. “Second, no magic, either. We should play like regular ponies to prevent somepony from havin' an unfair advantage over the others. Third, no taggin' the pony who tagged you. That will give everypony a chance to rest after taggin' the next pony.”
“Alright, but one more thing.” Twilight said as they all stood up to get ready to play. “I'm it!” she laughed as she jumped at Pinkie Pie and tagged her with her hoof before Pinkie even knew they had started playing.
“Curse you, Twilight!” Pinkie laughed as the others spread out and ran away from her while laughing. Pinkie ran off as fast as she could, chasing Applejack around the trees. Pinkie was slowly catching up to Applejack, who had slowed her own speed to give Pinkie Pie a chance to catch her, but she slipped as she tried to turn too sharply and slid into a bush.
Applejack laughed as she kept running, but after a few minutes of swerving between and around trees, she stopped to catch her breath. She hid behind a tree so Pinkie wouldn't see her if she'd been able to follow Applejack after her wipe out. Applejack thought Pinkie would never be able to catch up to her so fast, and therefor jumped in surprise when Pinkie popped out of a bush and tagged her on her flank yelling, “Tag, you're it!” and giggling as she hopped away singing.
“How in Equestria'd she do that?” Applejack wondered, staring after Pinkie. As she watched Pinkie, she noticed Fluttershy sneaking around a few trees from the corner of her eye. She grinned as she walked slowly toward her, crouched down to make her less visible. She moved slowly and carefully to avoid breaking branches or twigs, or startling any animals that happened to be nearby.
As she approached, she noticed that Rainbow Dash was a few feet away from Fluttershy, and that they were walking together, talking softly while looking around for the current pony who would be trying to catch them. Applejack wasn't sure if they knew she'd been tagged or not, but she decided to play it safe and keep her presence unknown until the last possible second. 
As she made her way closer, she slowed her breathing to lessen the noise she made, and crouched lower. As she got to be around fifteen feet off, her tail accidentally got snagged on a branch from a bush, and as she pulled her tail away, she ruffled the leaves on the bush quietly. She dropped down and stopped moving as she watched Rainbow Dash turn her head slowly and look behind her. Rainbow didn't stop and she didn't start running, so Applejack couldn't be sure if she'd been noticed or not. She watched Rainbow turn her head back around and whisper to Fluttershy who only nodded slightly. The two kept moving so Applejack slowly got up and followed them again.
As she got closer to the other ponies again, she noticed that they started picking up their pace. She'd been discovered. She ran toward them as quickly as she could, but when she did they started running too. Applejack was fast enough to tag Fluttershy on her flank. She said, “Tag, you're it, Fluttershy,” and just smiled as she walked back toward the picnic area.
Fluttershy sighed, but was determined to catch Rainbow Dash and galloped after her at full speed. She started gaining ground on Rainbow. She pushed herself faster than she'd ever thought she could go. Excitement and happiness fueled her sudden burst of energy. She got closer and closer. She laughed as she tagged Rainbow's flank from behind.
“Dang it, Fluttershy, you got me!” Rainbow said with a laugh. “You must have been hauling tail to catch me like that! I'm surprised that you were so quick. I honestly wasn't expecting that. I'm so proud of you.” Rainbow hugged her friend. “Now I've got to go get somepony else. Go back to the picnic site and I'll be back after I catch somepony. I'm thinking it's Twilight's turn.”
Fluttershy smiled, realizing that she had caught up to one of the fastest ponies in Equestria. Confidence spread throughout her body. She felt amazing. A bright smile lighting up her face, Fluttershy walked to the picnic.
Rainbow Dash ran off toward the picnic area. As she cleared the trees, she saw Twilight on the other side watching the other ponies come back from their turns. “Fluttershy's it!” Rainbow yelled as she ran toward Twilight. She picked up her speed, and as she got closer to Twilight she said, “Just kidding, I am!” and reached out to tag Twilight, but she suddenly disappeared. “What in the name of Celestia?” Rainbow slid to a halt. She looked around and saw Twilight laughing and running toward the treeline. “Hey! We agreed no magic!” Rainbow yelled to her, but just laughed as she ran at her full speed to catch Twilight. As Rainbow closed in on Twilight, the purple mare swerved around between the trees.
Though Rainbow Dash was faster than Twilight, repeatedly changing directions limited how much speed she could safely use in the thick forest.
“Come on, Rainbow! I thought you were faster than that!” Twilight laughed, changing directions once more.
“Don't worry, Twi, I'll get you soon enough!” Rainbow ran to the right, watching Twilight jump between trees through the corner of her eye. She slowed her steps and hid behind a thick tree and watched through some bushes as Twilight slowed down to look for her. Rainbow grinned at the confused look on Twilight's face, and watched as the purple mare slowly made her way toward the field, still keeping her eyes open for her friend.
Twilight approached cautiously, her nerves starting to fray as the suspense gnawed away at her. Closer. Closer. Without warning Rainbow Dash jumped over the bush and nearly tackled Twilight. “Got you, Twi,” she said, grinning.
Twilight sighed in defeat. “Yeah, you got me, Rainbow.” The two laughed as they walked out toward the picnic. The others sat on the blanket, eating the treats Pinkie Pie and Applejack had brought, along with the food everypony else had brought with them. Stomachs growling, Rainbow and Twilight made their way to the blanket and sat down for lunch.
The others were busy making themselves sandwiches out of the various flowers and vegetables the group had brought, while Pinkie Pie was setting out plates of cookies and cupcakes. “You girls are already done?” Rainbow sighed as she sat down to eat. “Man, that was such a short game.”
“Some of us have been working all morning, Rainbow.” Rarity took a bite of her sandwich. She swallowed the bite before continuing, “I've been working all morning on a new series of dresses. They've turned out marvelous, but I had to skip breakfast this morning because I had so many ideas to try. I am absolutely famished.”
“Yeah, I've been doing my chores all morning, too,” Applejack said. “And who in tarnation do you think baked these apple fritters and apple tarts?” A sly smile spread on her face. “By the way, Rainbow. If I tagged Fluttershy, and you tagged Twilight soon after, I guess that means Fluttershy caught you.” She grinned at the blue pegasus. “You're not getting slower on me, are ya?”
Rainbow Dash blushed. “Well of course I went slow so she could catch me. It wouldn't be any fun trying to run away from her because she's so slow.” Fluttershy sighed and put her head down dejectedly. 
“Rainbow, that was uncalled for! Apologize to Fluttershy.” Rarity reprimanded her with a frown. Rainbow Dash looked over to see Fluttershy hanging her head.
“I'm sorry, Fluttershy. I didn't mean it like that. I didn't slow down too much, so you really pushed yourself to catch me. I was being honest when you tagged me earlier.”
Fluttershy looked up and smiled gently. “Thank you, Rainbow. That means a lot to me.” Rainbow smiled back to her, and continued eating.
They spent a few more minutes talking about their mornings before the sky started darkening. “What in Equestria? Is there a cloud I missed somewhere?” Rainbow looked at the sky, but found no cloud in sight. “It's not that late, is it?”
“Not really,” Twilight replied. “It's about two in the afternoon. Why do you ask? Did you forget about some clouds that were supposed to be out today? Is that why it's so dark?”
“No, I didn't forget any clouds. The sun's gone.”
The others gasped and looked up to see that Rainbow was telling the truth. The sun had vanished. In its place was the full moon, bright and shining as it normally was. Twilight's mind reeled, trying to wrap itself around this new occurrence. As they watched, the moon's light changed. In a matter of moments, the normal white light that colored the moon darkened to a deep crimson color. The color of blood.
“Uh oh.” Twilight said softly. “I don't know what's going on right now,” she told the others, “but it looks like Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had another argument about who should rule Equestria. We need to get to Canterlot as fast as we can to try to diffuse the situation. Come on, girls, we've got to hurry before things get out of hoof.”
They all packed up the rest of their food quickly and ran hurriedly back to town by the crimson light of the moon. As they got back to town, they noticed that other ponies stood outside staring at the moon and talking about what they thought had happened. The others went around town calming the townsponies down to prevent any panicking while Twilight and Rarity went to the library to get the elements of harmony.
While at the library, Twilight dictated a letter for Spike to send to Princess Celestia. She hoped she would write back saying that it was just a misunderstanding. Fear gripped her heart as myriad of thoughts ran amok in her brain. They finished gathering supplies, but a response letter never arrived. Spike decided to go with them in case one arrived while they were en-route to Canterlot.
As they grouped back up outside the town hall, Twilight gave each pony their element of harmony. They clipped them on and a sudden cold wind blew through, making them all shudder for a moment. The moment passed as quickly as it had arrived.
“That was weird,” Rainbow said, looking at the others.
“That was probably because the sun disappeared so suddenly,” Twilight replied. “It isn't there to heat the air anymore, so instead of being a warm wind, it's a cold wind. Nothing to worry about.”
The mayor approached from inside the town hall, faint signs of worry on her face. “Twilight Sparkle, do you have any idea what's going on right now? Why did the sun vanish? Why is the moon out so early? Why did its light turn red?” The mayor tried to maintain her composure for the benefit of those ponies who might start to panic if they saw their mayor looking worried or concerned.
“I don't know right now, Miss Mayor,” Twilight replied, “but we were just going to go to Canterlot to find out what's wrong. We'll be back as soon as we can to let you know what we find out. In the meantime, it will probably be better if you let the townsponies know that we are going to Canterlot. Try to keep them calm and reassure them.”
“I'll do that, then.” The mayor smiled softly. She knew that Twilight would certainly get to the bottom of this strange occurrence. The mayor wished them luck and waved at them as they hurried to the train station to catch a train for Canterlot.