//------------------------------// // Princess Nightmare Moon // Story: Friends, Forgiveness, and Magic // by Invinsible //------------------------------// Friends, Forgiveness, and Magic Princess Nightmare Moon “Did you enjoy your meal, Celestia?” King Sombra asked as Celestia wiped her mouth with a napkin held in her magic. Once she was finished cleaning the crumbs off her muzzle Celestia smiled at him. “I did enjoy it, thank you for asking. Not quite as entertaining as some of the meals that Discord has served me, but still very enjoyable.” She looked at the people around the table they were all seated at. “I hope you all enjoyed the food that the castle staff prepared for us too?” All around the table there were nods of agreement. Captain Luna sat next to Celestia, with Nightmare Moon and Smog by her side. Prince Shining Armor had just fed a spoonful of ice cream to a very pleased Countess Cadance. Twilight Velvet and Nightlight were giggling as they shared a kiss. A slightly embarrassed Princess Twilight was keeping her eyes glued to her plate so that she wouldn’t have to watch her parents or her brother. Corporal Blueblood was cleaning his hooves with a napkin while the great dragon Spike, in his smaller form, was picking gem fragments out from in between his teeth. Even Garble and Philomena were behaving themselves. “I’m glad you all enjoyed it,” King Sombra said as he raised a glass with his magic. “You know, this is a momentous occasion for all of us. The Crystal Heart Celebration is only a few days away and at long last the full Royal Family has been reunited.” “Indeed,” Spike said as he examined his claws with a rather bored expression. Celestia tilted her head to the side. “I know that Countess Cadance is planning to wed Prince Shining and that we count our dragon friends as members of our Royal Family, but I’m curious as to why Corporal Blueblood is here.” Her eyes widened a little as she quickly added, “However, I am not against Blueblood being here. I didn’t mean to imply-” Blueblood held up his hoof to interrupt her. “It’s okay, Celestia. I take it that you have not heard of my ancestors?” “I don’t believe I have,” Celestia said. “Can’t say I have either,” Garble said. “Then again, I’ve heard enough about snobby noble ponies talking about their old-as-dirt ancestors during royal court.” King Sombra chuckled. “Sorry Garble, I thought I already explained that to you. Or perhaps that was Miss Rarity?” He shook his head. “In any case, the explanation is quite simple. Do you remember Princess Platinum the Third?” Celestia smiled and nodded. “Of course. She was the descendant of Princess Platinum the First. I remember that you two were quite close.” King Sombra nodded and smiled at the memories. “Indeed. We had a few disagreements in our youth, but in time we became good friends. We were such great friends that her parents made me her godfather.” Garble blinked in surprise. “Really? A godfather? You never told me about that.” He considered that for a few seconds before he shrugged. “Huh. You learn something new everyday.” King Sombra nodded. “Indeed. I remember that when her parents told me about their decision, I was so worried that I might make a wrong move and destroy our friendship.” He shuddered a tiny bit. “In fact, it used to be something of a recurring nightmare for me.” He smiled again and said, “But we remained good friends up until the day she moved away from home to start a new life for herself.” “As it turns out, Princess Platinum the Third was my great-grandmother,” Blueblood explained to Celestia and Garble. “What, seriously?” Garble asked. “Wouldn’t that make you a duke or a prince or something?” Blueblood shrugged. “I can’t say for sure. King Sombra and I have never looked too deeply into the rules concerning the subject, and frankly I have no interest in politics. True, the thought of Prince Blueblood is an alluring one, but I am happy to serve Everfree as a member of the Royal Guard.” He glanced at Captain Luna. “Of course, I would be happy to accept any sort of promotion if we are discussing-” “I’ll think about it,” Luna said as she raised her cup to take another drink. Philomena giggled. “No she won’t,” she chirped to herself. “In any case,” King Sombra said, drawing their attention back to him. “I am grateful that you are all here. I must admit that it is wonderful to actually be looking forward to the Crystal Heart Celebration.” “What do you mean?” Princess Twilight asked. She blinked and shook her head a little. “Whoa. Déjà vu,” she muttered to herself. “For our subjects, it has been a celebration of our defeat of the Pink One.” King Sombra sighed. “Then a celebration of my defeat of Daybreaker and then Eternal Twilight. But for me, it was a terrible reminder that I was forced to banish two mares that I care about very much.” Princess Twilight and Celestia both nodded sadly. Garble glanced at the two of them before he said, “Well yeah, but the celebration started first because you beat the Pink Demon and nobody cared about her.” Nightmare frowned at Garble. “You’re lucky she’s not here right now. That wasn’t nice.” Garble winced. “Okay yeah, that wasn’t cool of me. Sorry.” He smiled sheepishly and said, “But you got Sparky and Celestia back now, right?” King Sombra smiled again. “Right. The Celebration has now become a wonderful reminder of your redemption, and your reunion with your family,” he said to both Princess Twilight and Celestia. “And we owe it all to you,” Nightlight said as he and Twilight Velvet raised a glass to Nightmare. “Your actions brought our daughter back to us, and got us out of those cramped crystal sleep thingies.” Luna smiled and nuzzled her daughter. “And it was the actions of you and your friends that reunited me with my sister. I’m so proud of you, my precious Moony.” Nightmare’s smile grew wider, even as she tried to hide her blush. “T-thank you Loony. Thank you everyone.” “Speaking of the celebration, have we decided where we’re going to have it?” Princess Twilight asked. “The Crystal Empire? Canterlot? Peaceville seems like the best choice, except that you held the celebration there last year during my return.” “I believe we decided that the destination will be here in the empire,” King Sombra said. “But Canterlot would make a good location too in the event that something happened here before the celebration.” Spike nodded. “Indeed. Such grand events in our kingdom do tend to attract much insanity. And I do not speak of Discord and his family.” King Sombra chuckled. “In any case, we can discuss preparations for the celebration later.” He stared at Nightmare and mumbled, “Among other things.” Nightmare smiled and stood up from her seat. “Well, it was wonderful to see you all again. We should do this again sometime. But I really should be getting back to Peaceville.” Luna smiled. “Take care Moony. I’ll see you when you’re dream walking tonight.” King Sombra nodded. “Have a safe journey.” Nightmare and Smog closed the door behind them as they left the room. Celestia turned to face King Sombra and asked, “What ‘other things’ did you plan to discuss?” “You heard that, did you?” The king chuckled. “I can’t give that away yet Celestia. It’s a secret.” Princess Twilight giggled and rolled her eyes. “Come on, we can tell her.” “Um, Your Majesties? What is that?” Blueblood asked as he stared in fright at a thorny, black vine that was growing out of the walls. Princess Twilight frowned at the vine as everyone else stared at it. “Hmm…I feel like I’ve seen that before…somewhere in the Equestria forest. But it also looks like it could be-” “Look out!” Spike shouted as the vines suddenly lashed out at them all. Diamond Tiara’s ears twitched as she heard a rooster crow. She groaned and slowly woke up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She climbed out of her luxurious sleeping bag and opened the window to see that morning had arrived. Apple Bloom had invited her and Silver Spoon to a sleepover at Sweet Apple Acres the other night. It looked like Silver had already woken up and wandered off to another part of the Apple’s farm. Her ears twitched again as she heard someone in Apple Bloom’s bathroom. She walked over to the door and knocked on it. “Apple Bloom?” “GAH! Um, don’t come in DT!” Apple Bloom said from behind the door. Diamond’s nose wrinkled in disgust as she walked away. “I wasn’t planning on it. Just try and hurry up so I can wash my mane and tail.” She picked up her diamond tiara from the table in Apple Bloom’s room and put it on. “What? Eh, sure. Sorry DT…it ain’t what ya think!” Diamond frowned at the door as she heard what sounded like several items falling off the bathroom counters. “Everything okay in there?” “Sorry just hold on fer a sec.” Diamond heard the sound of hooves being washed before Apple Bloom opened the door and stepped out. “Bathroom’s all yours.” Diamond raised an eyebrow at Apple Bloom. The rich farm filly wasn’t wearing her favourite gem-encrusted red hair bow. What she was wearing was a pair of red sunglasses. “Um, isn’t it a little early to be wearing sunglasses?” Apple Bloom smiled sheepishly. “What’re ya talking ‘bout? The sun’s bothering mah eyes.” Diamond frowned in suspicion. “Apple Bloom, there are clouds blocking the sun. Even if there weren’t, you’re wearing sunglasses indoors. Ponies don’t normally do that unless they have something to hide.” Apple Bloom gulped and looked away from Diamond. “Ya really wanna know? Fine. The truth is, Ah have a…an eye infection.” Diamond’s eyebrows rose up. “Really?” Apple Bloom chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah. Mah eye looks super gross right now. The doc said Ah have ta wear something to block the light from getting in mah eye.” “Oh. In that case, I’m sorry,” Diamond said, smiling sheepishly. “How long has your eye been hurting?” “It’s cool, it ain’t yer fault. Ah guess something flew in it during the wedding. Maybe?” Apple Bloom shrugged. “It didn’t get so bad ‘till recently.” “Oh. Well I’m sorry from bringing it up. Here, let me get that for you.” Diamond said as she took Apple Bloom’s hair bow from her nightstand and tied it into Apple Bloom’s mane for her. “Thanks,” Apple Bloom said as she touched her bow to make sure it was on right. She waited while Diamond used the bathroom next. Afterwards the two fillies chatted while they had breakfast. For some reason, Big Macintosh wasn’t there but Diamond guessed that he was probably out in the apple fields or something. Diamond smiled as they walked out of the Apple’s farm. All in all, it was a very nice day. So nice, that Diamond decided to give voice to how wonderful she knew the day would be. As the sun’s light reflected off her tiara, Diamond opened her mouth and began to sing: “Morning in Peaceville shimmers Morning in Peaceville shines! And I know for absolute certain That everything is going to be fine!” Apple Bloom froze in her tracks and stared at Diamond, who was cheerfully smiling and skipping ahead of her. The rich farm filly gulped and looked up at the sky. Black clouds hovered over the farm, all of them rumbling with thunder. Apple Bloom gulped again and ran after Diamond. “Uh, DT? Can Ah talk to ya fer a minute?” “Of course AB!” Diamond said with a smile as they made their way into town. “Good morning Mayor Derpy!” she called as they passed by Derpy, who was frowning in confusion at her wings. “There’s the mayor en route to her office There’s Silver Tiara selling some quills!” As Diamond kept singing, Apple Bloom frowned at Silver Spoon’s mom. “Since when does she sell quills?” “Our Peaceville is so gentle and still Can things ever go wrong? I don’t think that they will.” Apple Bloom jumped as the thunderclouds overhead rumbled even more. “Diamond, quit tempting fate!” “Morning in Peaceville shimmers Morning in Peaceville shines And I know for absolute certain That everything is going to be-” To Apple Bloom’s relief, Diamond stopped singing as water suddenly poured down on her head. “Hey! Who did that?” Diamond frowned as she saw a pegasus pushing around some clouds. “Rainbow Dash, if that’s you up there you’d better apologize to me right now! I mean it, I’ll get my dad and then he…he’ll…” Diamond trailed off as the pegasus flew closer to her and Apple Bloom. “Sorry kid. The weather’s acting weird,” Fluttershy said to them. Apple Bloom blinked in confusion. “Fluttershy? Why are ya moving the clouds around?” Fluttershy frowned at them. “Fluttershy? Who’s that?” Diamond blinked in shock. “What?” She stared at the mare before she giggled. “Oh, I get it. Gilda or Discord must have finally convinced you to do a prank with them.” Fluttershy scowled. “Are you laughing at me?” She flew in close to Diamond’s face and jabbed a hoof at her. “I’ll have you court-martialed for insubordination, Private!” Apple Bloom pushed Fluttershy away from a startled Diamond. “Fluttershy! What’s gotten into ya?!” Fluttershy blinked as the anger drained out of her. “Oh dear. Oh my goodness. I…” She frowned and scratched her head in confusion. “What was doing?” “Um, are you okay?” Diamond asked. Fluttershy stared at the two fillies as her eyes lost their focus. “Muffins!” she shouted with a goofy grin. She patted Diamond on the head, licked Apple Bloom’s check, and flew off. “…What?” Apple Bloom asked. “Okay, something’s wrong with Fluttershy,” Diamond concluded. “We need to let someone know that she’s lost her mind.” She pulled on Apple Bloom’s hoof and approached Mayor Derpy. It looked like the mayor had tripped over a large black root, and was having trouble getting back up. “Mayor Derpy? Something’s wrong with Fluttershy. I think we need to get her to a hospital.” Derpy wasn’t paying attention to them though. “Whoa! Dude, what are these things?” she asked as she poked at her own wings. “Um, miss mayor?” Apple Bloom said. Derpy turned her head away from her wings and looked at them. “Oh, hi guys! Dash, sprint, der, horn, crown, muff, Rainbow, apple day?” “…What?” Apple Bloom and Diamond both asked. Derpy giggled. “Word, power, Dinky Tiara, space oranges! Well, good hello!” she said as she flapped her wings and flew away. “Oh joy, the mayor’s lost her mind too,” Diamond said sarcastically. “Looks like she ain’t the only one,” Apple Bloom said. All around them the citizens of Peaceville were acting weird. Changeling were arguing with unicorns about the best recipes for burnt milk, pegasus ponies were rolling around in the grass and chirping like birds, and earth ponies were shouting about their dragonfly wings malfunctioning. The two fillies also noticed that several large black weeds were growing out of the ground. “May we ask why thy weeds doth bother us so on this day and forsooth?” Lyra asked as she passed by them. “Me yonder thought that thou vile blacks plants had returned from thee shadows from where ye once came.” She then grabbed at a thorny vine with her teeth and began tying it into a bow. “What the heck is wrong with everyone?! What are we going to do?!” Diamond cried, trying and failing to not panic. “Calm down,” Apple Bloom ordered. “Miss Moon and the Elements ought to be able ta fix this mess. We’ll just go talk to them and then everything will be right as rain.” “Speaking of rain, why are Snips and Snails levitating clouds?” Diamond asked as she spotted the two colts among the crowd of confused ponies. Before Apple Bloom could reply, Silver Spoon rushed past them toward her mom. “Sorry Diamond Bloom! Sorry Apple Tiara!” Diamond gasped and chased after her best friend. “Silver? Oh no, don’t tell me you’re crazy too!” “Mom! I got the diamonds just like you asked,” Silver said as she opened up the bag she was carrying. A pile of grapes and buttons spilled out of it. “Good work Golden Fork,” Silver Tiara said. “Now then, all that’s left to complete the ritual is a blue buffalo.” Silver smiled and saluted her mom. “Don’t worry daddy, I’ll grab Chrysalis right away!” But before Silver could run off, Diamond tackled her to the ground and shook her. “Silver! Snap out of it!” Silver blinked as she stared up at Diamond. “Diamond? What are we doing on the ground?” Diamond’s eyes widened. “Wait, that actually worked? Silver, you’re alright!” She helped Silver stand back up and gave her a hug. “Um, yeah. Thanks Diamond.” Silver smiled and stepped out of the hug. “I’m feeling a lot better. Hey, do you know why I was acting so shape, darling, butter squash?” Diamond’s smile rapidly faded. “What?” Silver squinted at the sky. “Arr, shiver me timbers. Them be some fine looking gold-boxes.” She smirked confidently. “Pardon me ladies, I do require to show my glasses.” Diamond’s eyes began to water as Silver began to wander around aimlessly. “Silver…” Apple Bloom placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Come on Diamond. If we can find the Elements, maybe we can still help her.” Diamond sighed and nodded. “You’re right, we need to rescue them. Let’s hurry up and get to the bottom of this.” Diamond and Apple Bloom hurried to Peaceville’s library and knocked on the front door. “Nightmare Moon? Are you in there? We need your help!” Diamond cried. “Please don’t be crazy!” The two of them stepped back as Sunset Shimmer opened the door. “Um, hey guys,” she said with a weary smile. “Sunset? What are you doing here?” Diamond asked. Sunset smiled at the two of them. “Hi Sunset! I’m glad you’re here. I was up late studying last night and I noticed some interesting new quirks from my telescope. Come in!” Diamond and Apple Bloom cautiously walked into the library to find the walls covered in graphs, charts, and maps of the stars. “Carry the ten, negative azimuth on the moon…” Sunset muttered to herself as she jotted down notes. “Okay, that’s fine. Sunset is still smart even if she’s confused right now. Maybe she can help us,” Diamond said. “Miss Sunset, something is making the people in town go crazy. Do you know if there’s anything we do to cure them?” “Sure! I’d be happy to help you,” Sunset said with a smile. “But first, I want you to help me. See, I finally figured out how to bring eternal night!” “…What?” Apple Bloom asked. “I had an epiphany my friends! So you see, hard work doesn’t work, and homework is half as pointless as pointed work, and I can’t predict the past!” Sunset said with a smile. “The answer: monitor everything! Then the moon will block the sun and I can read books all night long with no interruptions!” Diamond stared at her. “…But your name is Sunset Shimmer! You have sun in your name! Why would you want eternal night?” Sunset frowned at them in confusion. “My name is Sunset? But…” She bit her lip and began pacing around the library. “Oh no…am I doing this wrong? Are people going to hate me?” She sniffled as tears started spilling out of her eyes. “I want them to love me…” Diamond and Apple Bloom exchanged glanced before they both placed comforting hooves on Sunset. “It’s okay Sunset. We’ll help you get better,” Apple Bloom said. Sunset stared at her before she smiled again. “Well hot dog! Thanks fer yer help AB! Ah mighty darn appreciate it! Yeehaw!” Sunset stood back up and began searching for a book. “Ah just need to find that book and Ah’ll be back to kicking bananas off the blue dress!” Apple Bloom frowned. “Okay just ‘cause you’re confused that doesn’t make it okay fer you ta make fun of mah accent.” Something came flying in through the window, startling all of them. “Oh dear! I broke the glass, oh no, oh no!” Gilda cried as she got back up and began sweeping the floor with her tail. “Gilda? Um, do we want to know what’s wrong with you?” Diamond asked cautiously. “Oh my goodness!” Gilda cried as she grabbed Diamond and pulled her into a hug. “Don’t worry Angel bunny, I’ll fix you up right away.” “Fix me up? I’m not the one with a screw loose!” Diamond growled as she shoved Gilda away from her. Gilda sighed and stared at the floor in sadness. “Okay Angel. You’re a grown jackalope, you can fish all you like.” Her smile returned as she picked up a book from one of the shelves and kissed it. “Seriously! What in the hay happened to y’all?” Apple Bloom asked as she stared at Sunset and Gilda. “What caused this?” Gilda didn’t seem to be paying attention to them as she stroked the book in her grasp. Then out of nowhere, she started to sing, “These animals don’t listen. No, not one little bit. They run amuck and flap about and throw their potted plants and…” Gilda growled as her song fell flat. “No, no, no! That can’t be right!” She threw the book against the wall and began pacing across the library. “That was supposed to be a…or was it a…come on Gilda! It’s one or the other!” Diamond nudged Apple Bloom as Gilda stared muttering to herself. “Are you seeing this?” “Seeing what? All Ah’m seeing is folks acting nuttier than a squirrel’s favourite sandwich!” Apple Bloom shouted in frustration. “No, look at her. She’s not speaking nonsense and she’s not acting like someone else. Those narrowed eyes, the growling, the wing and tail movements, that’s what Gilda’s like when she’s mad,” Diamond said. Apple Bloom’s frown faded away as she stared at Gilda. “Really?” “Well, that’s what it looks like to me. But can you see it? She’s acting like herself now!” Gilda smiled and snapped her talons. “Wait, that’s it!” She giggled and bowed to Sunset. “Konnichiwa Shimmer-sama! Arigato for the invitation!” Diamond frowned. “And now she’s back to acting crazy.” “But she WAS normal fer a spell there. What was she doing?” Apple Bloom said. “Hmm…it sounded like she was arguing with herself. Like she couldn’t make a decision about something,” Diamond said. “But how is that supposed ta help us?” Apple Bloom groaned and scratched her head. “Ugh, we need help.” The two of them both jumped as they heard a whinny. They turned around to see Polaris flying straight towards them. The young Windigo landed on the ground in front of them whinnied in panic. “Whoa, whoa! Easy does it, little critter!” Apple Bloom said as she nervously took a few steps away from the Windigo. “Polaris? What’s wrong, boy?” Diamond asked. Polaris whinnied loudly and flew off in another direction. “I think he wants us to follow him.” “Um…yeah. Okay,” Apple Bloom mumbled. Diamond raised an eyebrow at her. “Sorry. Ah know the feller means well, but he gives me the chills. Nothing against him, Ah just get nervous ‘round Windigos. Never mind.” She shook her head and chased after him, with Diamond following right behind her. Polaris led them all the way to the Chaos Corner. Diamond went up to knock on the door, but Discord flung the door open, picked the two of them up, and hurried them inside. “Hi girls! It’s getting crazy out there, am I right? Here, lemme lock the door real quick.” “Discord?” Diamond sighed in relief. “Well, it’s nice to know that you’re still normal.” She paused as she watched him tie giant shoelaces overtop his front door. “Well, normal for you.” “Diamond Tiara? Apple Bloom?” They both turned around to see Nightmare Moon walking down the stairs towards them. “Oh, thank the night. It’s nice to see that I’m not the only pony who hasn’t gone insane.” Discord smiled at the three ponies and said, “I’ll let you get them up to speed, Nightie. But before I leave, do you two know where our friends might be?” “We saw Gilda and Sunset in the library,” Diamond told him. “Good enough. Wish me luck, ladies!” he cheered before he disappeared with a flash of light. “Miss Moon, do ya have any idea what’s going on here?” Apple Bloom asked. Nightmare sighed. “I’m afraid I don’t know much more than you do about the situation. After my meeting with King Sombra and Princess Twilight, I was on my way home when weird magical weeds suddenly attacked the Crystal Empire, causing everyone to act crazy! The weeds tried to attack me too but I managed to avoid them by using my cloud form.” Nightmare briefly turned her body into magical mist to demonstrate before she transformed back. “It’s probably how Polaris avoided the weeds too; him being a winter spirit and all.” Apple Bloom glanced out a window and frowned at the growing black vines. “Hold on, them weeds are the things making folks act goofy?” “As strange as it may sound, yes. I was able to avoid touching the vines but unfortunately Smog, King Sombra, and Princess Twilight weren’t so lucky,” Nightmare said. She sighed and stared at the ceiling as they heard three people jumping up and down on the second floor. “Right now they think they’re performing some kind of play. Pirate Ballerina Tap Dancers the Muscial.” “Do you have any idea how we can get them better?” Diamond asked as she stared out the window. “I think I just saw my dad square-dancing with your brother, Apple Bloom.” “Hey, come on y’all,” Apple Bloom said as she placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. She smiled at Nightmare. “The Elements have handled worse than this. Just grab them necklaces, grab yer friends, and blast these weeds!” Nightmare gave them a weak chuckle. “Thanks, but I’m worried that it might not be so simple. For one thing, while Discord and I have escaped the curse, our friends haven’t. How can I convince them to help me use the Elements when they’re getting northwest confused with pumpkin candy or something equally ridiculous? The other problem is that there are several of these vines popping up. If we want to get rid of these vines, we have to get to the root of the problem.” Nightmare suddenly giggled. “I said root of the problem. And we’re fighting plants.” The air was filled with laughter as Discord reappeared. “Ho, ho! It’s nice to know that my friends can make a bad pun out of a bad situation.” “I learned from the best,” Nightmare said to him with a proud smile. Discord placed his paw and claw over his heart. “Awww! Come here, best buddy!” He flew over to Nightmare and gave her a big hug. Nightmare blushed and returned the hug. “Okay, that’s enough. Now about our friends?” Discord pulled away from the hug and snapped his fingers. “Right here!” With a flash of light the other Element bearers and the box containing the Elements themselves appeared in the room. With another snap of his fingers, the Elements attached themselves to their appropriate bearers. Trixie was the first one to speak up. “Nightie?” She rushed forward and hugged Nightmare. “Y-you think I’m entertaining, r-right?” Before Nightmare could respond, Trixie let go and started pacing around the Chaos Corner. “No, no, it’ll be okay! You’re a good student – no, comedian! Have to make everyone happy, can’t let them down, don’t make them mad!” She cringed away from invisible demons and tucked herself into a ball. “Oh Celestia, they’re everywhere!” “Come on now, keep it together,” Sunset mumbled as she shivered with fear. “It’s fine, you’re fine, j-just serve her tea and it’ll be fine. C-can I have tea? Is tea real? Is anything real?!” she cried. “I-I thought I was at the school? How’d I get here? Where is here? Why is everyone always mad at me, why are you looking at me like, I can’t help it!” Gilda cried as she hid herself behind her wings. “You love me, right?!” Chrysalis cried as she grabbed onto Nightmare’s hooves. “You love me Night? Please help me! I’m not crazy, I have to be perfect! My family already hates me, I-I can’t let anyone down again!” “Yikes! What in the heck’s wrong with y’all?” Apple Bloom asked. “Okay, everyone stop crying and calm down!” Nightmare ordered. Sunset, Trixie, Chrysalis, and Gilda all whimpered at her voice and lowered their heads to the floor. “Oh…oh, I’m sorry everyone. I didn’t mean to yell.” Nightmare sighed. “I just…I don’t know how to save you.” “You know what we could do,” Discord said, drawing their attention. “Why don’t we ask our friend Zecora if she knows anything?” “Miss Zecora? You think she can help us?” Diamond asked. Discord stared out the window. “Well, she’s running towards my house so she’s obviously here for some reason. I’ll let her in.” He snapped his fingers and caused the shoelace lock over his door to disappear. Soon, Zecora burst through the front door of the Chaos Corner and gasped, panting for breath. “You alright there Miss Zecora?” Apple Bloom asked as she and Diamond edged closer to their teacher. Zecora sighed. “From my home, I’ve had to flee. The forest has grown too wild, even for…for…” She frowned in concentration as she went cross-eyed. “Ugh, it’s on the tip of my tongue! Was it…orange?” “Oh no, don’t tell me you’re crazy too!” Diamond cried. Zecora shook her head. “Right now, my head is as clear as it’s going to get. Yes, I’ve been affected by the wild vines’ curse and it has been scrambling my senses all day. Right now I can’t remember how to rhyme but fortunately that’s the only thing wrong with me.” “Really? That’s great news!” Nightmare grinned. “You can tell us what the vines are doing to your thoughts!” Zecora weakly smiled and nodded. “That’s what I came here to do.” She winced as she heard a crash outside. “Oh, but first I should let her inside.” She walked over to the door and opened it. “Celestia? Or was it Sunshine? Whomever you believe yourself to be, please come inside.” Everyone else in the room gasped as Celestia bounced inside. She looked like her normal self in every way except for the fact that she had turned herself into a filly. She stared at Nightmare and smiled widely. “Moony!” She ran over to her niece and hugged her. “I wuv you!” Discord’s eyes widened. “Oh my…” “Aunt Celestia? I don’t understand, I thought the vines could only affect a person’s thoughts. Can they mess around with our magic too?!” Nightmare said. Celestia giggled as she bounced away from Nightmare, only to trip over her own hooves. She giggled again and rolled onto her back, her wings splayed out. She grinned up at them and asked, “Can I have belly wubs?” “Oh my…um…I’m just gonna…I’ll make sure she stays out of trouble,” Discord said to Nightmare as he levitated Celestia over to him. Celestia frowned a little and stretched her hooves out to Nightmare. “Moony.” “Don’t worry, Moony isn’t going anywhere,” Discord said as he tickled her under her chin. Celestia giggled. “Your beard is funny!” “Awww! Can we keep her like this?” Discord asked Nightmare with big, puppy-dog eyes. Nightmare glared at him. “Discord, this is serious! From the looks of things, our friends have lost all hope! We need to restore their minds.” Diamond stared at the alicorn filly playing with Discord’s ears. “Hey, if Celestia is here then where’s-” Before she could finish her question, Captain Luna burst through the doors, her eyes wide with terror. “Celestia! Celestia, there you are!” Luna sighed in relief as she levitated the giggling Celestia over to her. “Loony!” the alicorn filly giggled. “Hush now child. Mommy will keep you safe,” Luna promised Celestia as she nuzzled her. “Oh no…” Nightmare said as she stared at her mom. “Loony, please don’t tell me that you’re-” “Night-sparkle?” Luna cried. She rushed towards Nightmare and wrapped her in a hug. “Please don’t leave me! Don’t let them take you away!” “Mom. Mom! It’s going to be okay,” Nightmare assured her as she patted her mom on the shoulder. Luna twitched as her gaze started darting wildly all over the place. “M-Moon, thrice jungle rock because star reflect pink squeaky! Tornado flash ricotta with goodbye hello!” “It’s okay mom, it’s okay,” Nightmare said even as her voice dripped with concern. “Take it easy.” After she levitated her mom and her aunt to a marshmallow bed that Discord conjured up and placed them under a sleep spell. She then turned to Zecora, her eyes blazing with determination. “Zecora, tell me what you know. Now.” “The reason our minds are so muddled is because of what the vines plant inside our heads. Doubt,” Zecora said. “The magic spreads into our minds and makes us doubt everything that we know. ‘Am I sure I’m doing this right?’ ‘Am I really a good athlete?’ ‘Does my audience really think I’m great?’ ‘Do I know what my name is?’ ‘Do I know how to speak?’ ‘Do I really know anything at all?! Or am I just a fool?’” Zecora stared down at Nightmare’s friends as they hugged themselves on the floor and babbled nonsense. “They doubt everything and everyone around them. They doubt their very nature. You need to find a way to remove that doubt.” “They doubt their very nature?” Diamond said. “What does that mean?” “It means that they can’t remember who they are. They can’t remember their personalities, their true selves,” Nightmare explained sadly. Suddenly, her eyes widened. Something sparked in her eyes as she got an idea. “They don’t remember who they are, but I do. I know how much we mean to each other. You’re my friends. My family. I know you better than the stars in the sky!” They heard a series of bumps as Smog came stumbling down the stairs. The young dragon groaned as he recovered from his fall. “Nightie? Chocolate cabbage ice moose red books? Fire tail claw eye…I…good…assist…” Nightmare smiled as she gently picked up the dragon in her magic and levitated him close to her. “Yes Smog. You’re a great assistant. You’re my number one assistant, my friend, and my brother. Sure, one of these days you might outgrow our humble library to turn into a great dragon. But I’ll always be proud of you because you’re MY great dragon.” Smog stared at Nightmare as the confusion melted off his face. His eyes began to glow red as he smiled at her. “Aw, thanks Nightie. Huh, that’s funny. I’m…I’m feeling a lot better now…” Discord’s eyes widened. “It’s working! Ooh! Let me do one!” he said as he joyfully grabbed the nearest friend. “Chrysalis! I know that things may often be scary for you. Believe me my dear, I know what’s like for others to treat you unfairly just because you’re different. And I know that some idiots may think that you are heartless just because you need to feed on love. But I can tell you now, you are the nicest and bravest little shy girl I have ever known. You inspire us with the love you have in your heart.” Chrysalis stared at him as her eyes began to glow green. “Oh…wow. T-thank you Discord. That…really means a lot to me…” “Hey, I wanna help!” Smog said. He hurried to Gilda’s side and helped her up. “Gilda. You’re a really cool gal. You’re our best flier, our Shadowbolt fan girl, our too-cool-for-school daredevil! You like doing stunts with Rainbow, like hanging out with us, and sometimes you just like relaxing with the latest Bravely Blue book. You’re the first to sign up for whenever Discord’s got a fun prank and you’re the first one launching herself at our enemies. You’re awesome, and that’s all I really need to say.” Gilda’s eyes glowed with bright bursts of lightning. “Wow…y-you’re pretty awesome yourself Smog…” “Trixie!” Discord sang. “You’re amazing, my dear! Sure, you may be the biggest attention stealing horse I’ve ever known. But you brag, boast, and perform your magic in a way that helps us ALL to shine brighter, not just yourself. You love your friends just as much as you love your fireworks. You’re a mad genius and we love you for that, oh Great and Powerful Trixie.” Trixie’s eyes glowed blue. “Oh…wow. I…I mean, Trixie is deeply moved by the kind words of her friends…” “We’re on a roll now,” Nightmare said with glee. “Sunset Shimmer. Even though you’re a crystal farmer, you still surprise me with your intellect, your cool head, and your refreshing sarcasm. You can be the voice of common sense whenever something ridiculous is happening, but you’re always there to help us through the insanity. When I’m not around, I know I can always count on you to take charge of these lunatics. You’re a great friend Sunny.” Sunset’s eyes glowed a dark orange. “Wow…I’m…I’m speechless. You…you’re a true, true friend Nightmare Moon…” Nightmare smiled at her friends as they broke free of the curse. She then turned to her mom and her aunt. “Mom. Loony. There’s so much I can say about you. You raised me, you inspire me, and you respect me. You were the first friend I ever had, way before I met Smog or my Peaceville friends. I love you so much.” Nightmare smiled and softly sang their song: “Sun shines and Moon gleams. Owls awake! Clap your hooves And give your wings a little shake!” As Nightmare finished singing, Luna’s eyes glowed with light. “Moony…I…I feel the same way about you. Oh Moony, I love you so much.” Once Luna’s mind was restored her eyes fell on her sister, still held in her telekinesis. “Celestia, dearest sister, loving aunt, and our once beloved princess. I know that your return has been rough. And if you don’t mind me saying, I think you’re pushing yourself too hard. From Twilight Night, to Discord and Sombra, to the teaching the Shadowbolts and to Hearth’s Warming Eve you have taken on so much responsibility.” Celestia giggled. “Santa Hooves!” “Yes sister. I’m sure he was the one who left me such a thoughtful present,” Luna said sarcastically. She chuckled and said, “Celestia, one of the hardest things in life is knowing that you can’t please everyone. True, there may be fools who dislike for no good reason. But your family and friends are the people who should matter most to you. You’ve been getting involved with so many people, trying to get them to love you just as much as you love everyone. But Celestia, we already love you. We love you so much.” Celestia’s eyes glowed with light. She smiled and floated away from Luna before her whole body glowed, her magic transforming herself back to full size. “Thank you so much my dearest sister, my precious niece. Thank you all, my friends.” Zecora smiled. “Looks like that’s everyone!” “What? What about you Miss Zecora? What about all the folks outside?” Diamond said. Zecora sighed and gave them a sad smile. “I consider myself your friend too, but I know that you don’t know much about me. It’s my own fault, being the mysterious little zebra that I am. You won’t be able to restore my mind the same way, and I know that you won’t be able to restore everyone else. If we want Peaceville to recover from this curse, we need to get to the root of the problem.” Nightmare nodded. “That’s what I said! And now that my friends are back, we just need to know where to aim the Elements.” Discord snapped his fingers and conjured up a bottle. Zecora smiled at the familiar potion held in his claw. “Your friend already has the right idea. Everyone, you remember my vision potion. Simply break off a thorn from one of those vines and stir it into the potion. Then you’ll be able to discover where these vile plants come from.” “Thanks for all your help Zecora,” Smog said as Discord stretched his arms outside to steal one of the thorns. Zecora smiled. “It was my pleasure to help you. Now then, while I go upstairs perhaps you could return the favor by getting rid of these weeds quickly? I feel as if their influence is about to jumble up my words even mango…uh oh.” “Don’t worry Zecora, we’ll break the curse soon enough,” Nightmare said as Discord gave her the potion. “Okay everyone, here we go.” She focused her magic on the potion and soon a vision began to swirl out of the vial and fill the room. The Elements and their friends found themselves inside the castle of the Royal Family. But unlike the crumbling ruins where they had discovered the Elements, this castle was brand new. Sitting at the head of a large table in the middle of the room was a younger Captain Luna and a younger Sombra. “Huh, that’s odd. She should be here by now,” he said. “I’m sure that Princess Sparkle will be here soon. You know how much she likes holing up in her library,” the younger Luna said. “What did you want to tell me, Prince Sombra?” Prince Sombra smiled and raised a glass. “I have called you here to celebrate this momentous occasion. Today we have finished constructing the last part of the castle of the Royal Family. We have finally finished our new home!” Younger Luna smiled and raised her glass too. “That IS good news! I can finally get settled into my new room.” Prince Sombra nodded. “I hope everything in there is to your liking.” As the two friends talked, the doors flung open as a pegasus guard flew into the room and bowed before them. “Prince Sombra! Princess Luna!” “Call me Luna. I’m not a princess anymore, my little pony,” Younger Luna told the guard with a frown. “What’s the problem?” “It’s Princess Sparkle! She demands to see Prince Sombra in the throne room,” the guard said. “I’d suggest you hurry, Your Majesty. She’s seems furious about something!” Prince Sombra frowned in concern. “Very well, I’ll go see what’s troubling her.” Prince Sombra left the table and walked down the hall until he had reached a large throne room. On the right side, there stood a throne made entirely out of dark crystals. On the left side, there stood a dark purple throne with a big starburst symbol in the center of it. It was from behind this throne that a very angry looking Princess Sparkle stepped out from. “Princess Sparkle?” Prince Sombra said as he walked closer to her. “Is everything-” “Not another step!” Princess Sparkle shouted. She scowled at Sombra as dark magic crackled around her horn. Prince Sombra blinked in shock. “Sparkle? What’s wrong?” He frowned in concern as the dark magical aura around her grew. “Why are you using dark magic? I told you that you must practice caution when using it!” “ENOUGH!” Princess Sparkle shouted. “I won’t hear another word from your lying mouth! I won’t spend another minute sulking in the shadows, wishing desperately for a friend who can understand me while all these idiotic ponies worship you just for creating a bunch of dumb rocks! I won’t stand for the insults, the accusations, and the lies that everyone hurls at me! I’m done taking orders from morons who can’t even appreciate a good book!” Prince Sombra backed away from the furious princess. “Sparkle, what’s gotten into you?!” Princess Sparkle just scowled even more. “Daybreaker was right about you. Celestia should be in charge, not you Sombra. But since you banished her from our kingdom, another will have to take her place. Surrender your crown, you cowardly little colt!” She rose up and slammed her hooves into the ground, creating cracks all over the floor. “There can only be one pony on the throne! And that pony will be ME!” With a flash of magic, the wall behind Princess Sparkle exploded. The princess hovered in midair as the moon rose up to block the sun. “Do you like it?” the princess said with an evil giggle. “I call it a solar eclipse. Day and night combined together to create perfect…twilight.” Prince Sombra and all the people watching the vision gasped at the display of power. Dozens of books came flying into the room, the magical winds blowing the books open and flipping to pages containing powerful spells. Beams of magic burst from the pages of the book and blasted Princess Sparkle, filling her with power. As more magic poured into her, the princess was enshrouded in a sphere of magic. The sphere of magic spun round and round, growing bigger with every second. Then two large dark purple wings unfolded from within and flared out. And out from the sphere from magic, Eternal Twilight appeared. Prince Sombra backed away in fear as Eternal Twilight glared down at him, her power causing lightning to crackle along her mane. “S…Sparkle?” “DIE!” Eternal Twilight screamed as she fired a powerful beam of magic at him. Prince Sombra quickly turned into his shadow form and dodged out of the way. Eternal Twilight’s beam kept going though, tearing huge chunks out of the floor, walls, and ceiling. Diamond gulped. “I don’t want to be here anymore!” “C-Calm down, DT. I-It ain’t real,” Apple Bloom said, even as she shuddered with fear. Prince Sombra transformed back into his normal form as soon as there was a break in Eternal Twilight’s attacks. “Princess Sparkle, please listen to reason! Think of your duties, think of your friends and family! Luna and I already lost Celestia, don’t do this to us now!” Eternal Twilight sneered at him as she flapped her wings and flew down to his level. “Princess Sparkle? I am Eternal Twilight. In case you didn’t notice, I have no friends. Nopony wanted to be friends with me. And as for my duties, I have only one royal duty now…TO DESTROY YOU!” She fired an even bigger magical blast at Prince Sombra. He quickly transformed back into a shadow and flew out the hole in the ceiling. Nightmare shuddered as they watched the vision. “I…I don’t feel so good…” “I too feel quite alarmed,” Celestia said quietly. “I’m seeing it…but I’m having a difficult time believing that Princess Twilight could be capable of such destruction…” “You can’t escape me!” Eternal Twilight roared as she flapped her wings and chased after him. She fired dozens of hexes, curses, beams, and blasts at Sombra’s shadow. She telekinetically ripped chunks out of the castle and threw them at him. She levitated statues and broken glass from the windows and flung them at him too. As Nightmare and her friends watched the vision, they shuddered at the sight of how violent Eternal Twilight could be. “Hey, remember when Eternity used to be a joke to us? What happened?” Discord asked. “Y-yeah! Y’all beat her like three times! Did her hundred year banishment mellow her out or what?” Apple Bloom asked, her voice shaking with fear. “I think that’s only because we could beat her with the Elements. Without them, it’s clear just how dangerous Eternal Twilight is. She’s a monster,” Nightmare muttered. In the vision, Prince Sombra’s shadow found Younger Luna and reformed before her. “Prince Sombra! Are we under attack? What’s happening out there?!” Luna cried. “It’s Princess Sparkle! She’s gone completely insane! She’s transformed into an alicorn called Eternal Twilight and she’s destroying everything!” Prince Sombra cried. Younger Luna’s eyes widened in fear. “Stars above. How can we stop her?” “We need the Elements. With them, hopefully we can remove the corruption from Sparkle,” Prince Sombra said. “That didn’t work for my sister! How will they work now?!” Younger Luna cried. “They will work,” Prince Sombra growled. “Get everyone else to safety. I’ll-” But before the prince could finish his sentence, something teleported behind him with a flash of light and interrupted him. His eyes widened as he looked down to see a magical purple sword stuck in his chest. He quickly transformed back into a shadow and flew off in another direction. Younger Luna gasped at Eternal Twilight as she examined her sword. “Oh dear, my aim is just terrible. I was aiming for his skull.” Present Luna shuddered. “Those eyes still haunt me to this day.” Younger Luna’s horn glowed as she glared at Eternal Twilight. “Princess Sparkle, don’t make me fight you. Not after my sister. Please, I beg of you.” Eternal Twilight just growled and blasted her into a wall. “Get out of my way!” She hurled several stun spells at Younger Luna until the other alicorn was knocked unconscious. Eternal Twilight then flew over the castle. “Show yourself coward!” She growled as her eyes glowed with furious power. “I’ll find you. I’ll find you even if I have to burn down this entire forest to do it!” A growing fireball appeared over Eternal Twilight’s head, demonstrating exactly how serious her threat was. “You want me Eternal Twilight? Here I am!” Prince Sombra shouted. Eternal Twilight grinned as the prince flew up into the air to meet her. His body was being levitated by the power of the Elements, in their past form as six spheres of magic. “Please save her,” he whispered to the Elements. “You dare try to wield my Elements against me? When I’m done with you, there’ll be nothing left!” Eternal Twilight roared in fury and launched a massive beam of magic at Sombra. In return, Prince Sombra harnessed the power of the Elements and fired a huge beam of magic at Eternal Twilight. The two beams collided, with Twilight’s beam of power holding up considerably well. But the Elements soon overpowered Eternal Twilight and in an explosion of light and darkness she was gone. Younger Luna watched Prince Sombra float back down to the ground. The Elements fell out of his magical grip and clattered to the ground, losing their colours as they touched down. “Prince Sombra? W-where is she?” “She’s…gone…” Prince Sombra said. The two of them were silent for several seconds. Then Prince Sombra glared down at the Elements, fury, sorrow, and dark magic blazing in his eyes. He fired a blast of magic at the spheres, scattering them across the ground. “Worthless ROCKS! This is the LAST time you fail me!” Younger Luna stepped away from him in shock. “S-Sombra?” Prince Sombra gathered up the Elements in his magic and stormed off. “Come, Luna. We’re going to lock these failures in a box and then we’re going to sleep this night off like a bad dream.” “Sombra! How can you say that?!” Younger Luna cried. “You gave your word that you would follow my orders, Luna. Unless you are ready to take your crown back,” Prince Sombra said as he tried to dry his eyes. Younger Luna sighed. “After tonight I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready.” The vision ended after that. The Elements and their friends looked at each other in confusion and a bit of leftover nervousness. “Well…it’s going to be a long night of bad dream busting for you and Loony, Nightie,” Discord said. Diamond shuddered. “Y-yeah. That was really scary.” Chrysalis stepped closer to her and Apple Bloom and wrapped the two scared fillies in a gentle hug. “To think that my past actions could have led to such heartache,” Celestia whispered. “Hey. None of that,” Nightmare gently ordered her friends and family. “It’s in the past. Celestia, you and Princess Twilight are both free from the dark forces that corrupted you. What matters now is how to save Everfree from the force that’s currently corrupting it. The potion didn’t say anything about these plants.” “Maybe…y’all need ta take another sip?” Apple Bloom suggested. Sunset sighed and shrugged. “Might as well.” She focused her magic on the potion next and soon another vision took form. Discord took one look at the vision and smiled. “I like the look of this one already!” The rest of them stared at the village around them. Several objects floating by looked like they could belong in the Chaos Corner. There were six major landmarks in the town. A giant floating library, a humongous thundercloud that spat out rainbow-coloured lightning bolts, a castle made of precious gemstones, a large tree with numerous animal carvings drawn into its bark, a field of huge apple trees, and a gigantic pink birthday cake with a throne on top of it. “Trixie remembers this! Isn’t this what Trixie and her friends saw in the vision we had before fighting Pinkie?” Trixie said. Sunset examined their surroundings. “It’s not exactly the same, but then again Discord and Pinkie both like to mess around with a town’s architecture.” “Except that these six landmarks she’s built have been here for a while. I can tell,” Discord said. “Hey guys, look who’s here!” Smog said as he pointed at a group of ponies plus one dragon. It was Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Sombra, Sparkle, Star Swirl, and baby Spike. “The original wielders.” Present Celestia and Luna both nodded. “This must be when we turned the Trickster to stone,” Luna said. As the past Element bearers climbed up the pink cake’s staircase, they heard someone singing quietly: “It’s just no good anymore since you went away Now I spend my time just making memories of yesterday One is the loneliest number…” As they reached the top of the cake, they saw who was singing. Pinkie Pie was sitting on her throne, turned away from the original bearers. Her hair was straight instead of poofy, her mane hanging limply and obscuring part of her face. She was staring down at a bag of seeds in her lap. She took out a seed from the bag and twisted it into the shape of a pony. “Yes, one is the loneliest number to…to…” Pinkie shut her eyes tight and tossed the bag of seeds away. “Why is this happening to me? W-why couldn’t I make any friends?” She held her hooves up to her eyes and cried into them. Sparkle winced as she heard Pinkie’s sobbing. “Um, are you sure about this? She doesn’t look evil. Just really sad.” “Don’t let her get to you Sparkle!” Spike said. “She’s trying to trick us!” “I must agree with Spike,” Princess Celestia said. “This earth pony wields dangerous magic. She banished the citizens of this town from their homes. She must be stopped.” Pinkie’s ears twitched as she heard them talking, but she didn’t bother turning around. “Go away Madame le Flour. You’re n-not real.” Princess Luna frowned. “I assure you, we are quite real. Turn around and face us.” Pinkie sighed and turned her throne around to face them. Her eyes widened in surprise once she saw them. “Huh? W-who are you?” Star Swirl smiled and stepped forward. “Hello there! You must be Pinkamania Disaster Pie.” Pinkie flinched. “Um, I like Pinkie Pie better.” “Okie-dokie Miss Pie! I’m Star Swirl and these are my friends. Say hello everyone.” Sombra frowned. “Star Swirl, what are you doing?” “Oh come on guys! I’m just being polite!” Star Swirl said. “Don’t mind him, Miss Pie. Sombra can still be a bit of a grump sometimes. Now go on, everyone!” Princess Celestia sighed. “Very well. I am Princess Celestia.” Princess Luna sighed. “Greetings Pink One. You may call me Princess Luna.” Spike glanced at the alicorn sisters and shrugged. “I’m Spike the dragon. I’m going to be awesome one day!” he announced proudly. Pinkie blinked. “Celestia…Luna…Spike…” “Oh, um…my name is Sparkle, daughter of Twilight Velvet and Nightlight,” Sparkle said. Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Sparkle…hold on,” she said before she floated over them and began mumbling to herself. “Sunlight, moonlight, moon-night, nightlight, velvet, midnight, twilight…” Pinkie spun back around to face them and flew right into Sparkle’s face. “Twilight Sparkle?” Sparkle jumped away from the sudden intrusion of her personal space. “Um, what?” A wide grin stretched across Pinkie’s face. “Twilight Sparkle…” Her straight mane and tail became poofy again as she giggled. “Wowie! I thought you guys were just hallucinations at first! But somepony finally accepted one of my party invitations! Ooh, ooh, what do you guys want to play?” She snapped her fingers and conjured up several board games. “We can play Wings N’ Tails, Pop Step, or OOH! We can play Pin the tail on the Pony!” She snapped her fingers and switched Celestia and Luna’s tails, Star Swirl and Spike’s tails, and her own tail with Sparkle’s. Star Swirl glanced behind him and wagged his dragon tail. “Neat!” “Hey! Give me my tail back!” Sparkle demanded. “Aw, don’t you like my tail?” Pinkie giggled and batted at her own tail attached to Sparkle’s body. “It’s poofy! I know I like your tail!” Pinkie held her purple and pink tail and brushed it with a giggle. “Stop that! It’s creepy!” Sparkle cried. “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry!” Pinkie snapped her fingers and switched everyone’s tails back. “I forgot to offer you snacks! Do you guys like cakes, pies, cupcakes, cup pies?” She snapped her fingers and conjured up dozens of snacks. “Oh! I got these too!” She levitated the bag of seeds back over. “I’ve got plant seeds here! I know some ponies like to eat sunflower seeds except these aren’t sunflower seeds. Close enough though!” Sombra frowned at the suspicious seeds. “What are they?” Pinkie giggled. “I call them the Seeds of Doubt. They’re supposed to make me doubt whatever stupidly crazy plan I’m currently having!” Everyone stared at Pinkie. “What? I’m a lonely eccentric mare without a friend who’ll play the straight mare.” She beamed at Sparkle before she giggled nervously and threw the bag away. “I’m sorry, that was silly. I’m silly. I’m seriously doubting my doubt seed idea.” She giggled again. Sombra frowned. “Enough games. Playtime’s over for you, Trickster.” He held up the Element of Nobility in his magical grip while the other ponies held up their Elements in their magic and Spike held his Element of Zeal in his claws. “Ooh! What are those?!” Pinkie asked. “The Elements of Redemption, Forgiveness, and Harmony. With their magic, we shall remove the corruption in your heart,” Princess Luna said. “The Elements?” Pinkie titled her head to the side and giggled. “Those won’t work on me, silly! I’m not evil, I just got a teeny bit upset when everyone was being mean to me. But now you’ll be my friends! We’ll be friends forever, because you’ll never have to leave me! Ever!” Discord sighed. “Poor girl. Pinkie means well but she tries way too hard. I can get away with it but that’s only because you guys can put up with me.” Pinkie’s giggling faded away once she noticed that the Elements were glowing. “W-wait! What’s going on? T-they’re not supposed to be doing that.” The Elements glowed even brighter. Pinkie’s poofy hair went limp again as she backed away. “Wait! Can’t we talk about this?” Power spiraled from the Elements in an explosion of light. When the light faded, Pinkie had been turned to stone. “Yikes. Poor Pinkie,” Apple Bloom whispered. Sparkle stared at the statue in shock. “What? That’s not supposed to happen! They were supposed to help her!” “Now hold on. I’m sure the Elements wouldn’t do this unless it was necessary,” Sombra said. “Um…maybe it’s part of the healing process?” “Yeah. Maybe she’ll break out in a few days…or not,” Spike muttered. Princess Celestia sighed. “That is unfortunate. Very well. The least we can do is take her statue back with us and keep a close watch on her. I’ll have the castle staff place her in the garden outside my tower.” “But sister, are you sure you wish to have such a powerful creature sleeping outside your bedroom?” Princess Luna asked. “Luna, she is but a statue now. What’s the worst she can do?” Princess Celestia said. The vision shifted once more. An even younger and very angry Sombra stormed his way through an unfamiliar forest. “So Celestia thinks she can just toss me aside?! Ooh, dark magic is just SO dangerous. Ponies might get hurt!” he said, trying to mimic Celestia’s voice. His horn flashed with dark magic and burned a hole into a nearby rock. “That cake-obsessed, paranoid nag!” Celestia stared in shock at the past Sombra. “Goodness. I don’t remember him ever acting like that.” “After everything I’ve done for her! And she just ignores my work! Sure, I might have made a small mistake with the last experiment. I was a little overconfident, I’ll admit. But it would have been easily corrected! There was nothing wrong with the crystals. But no, instead she goes straight to paranoia, and whose fault is that? The girl. Celestia sides with Sparkle over me, just because the filly genius looks cute.” Sombra scowled as he fired another blast. The dark magic flowing from his horn and his eyes grew. “I will not be insulted like this anymore! I’ll show them the power I have discovered. The power that comes from dark magic and…crystalssss.” He fired another blast of magic that struck a rock wall. Surprisingly, the wall crumbled away and behind that wall was a long underground hall. Curious, Sombra walked deeper inside until he arrived in a large crystal cave. Crystals of all shapes, sizes, and colours were dotted all over the cave with several crystal statues in the shape of different creatures such as dragons, a griffon, a draconequus, and over ten pony statues. In the middle of the cave was a beautiful pool with six spheres swimming in a circle. At the bottom of the pool was an image of a small starburst surrounded by a big crescent moon, both of which covered a sun. As Sombra drew closer, the pool glowed. Curious, Sombra reached out and touched the water with his hoof…and the pool responded. Sombra stared in awe as the spheres flew up into the air and spun in a circle. Everything in the cave glowed as Sombra smiled hungrily. “Amazing…incredible! Magic! Power! Such powerful crystalssss!” He reached out for the spheres. “More power than I could ever-” Whatever Sombra was going to say next was cut off as the spheres fired an explosive beam of colourful magic straight downwards. The power of the Elements exploded right in his face. Gilda winced. “Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.” The others nodded in agreement. As the lights faded in the cave, Sombra groaned and very slowly stood back up. “Ow…what was that?” He blinked and looked down at his hooves where the spheres had landed. He backed away from the spheres. “Power…too much power. Far too much for just one stallion…” He hesitated before he grabbed the spheres with his magic. “These…I need to show these to the princesses…” “Hello? Anyone down there? Olly olly oxen free!” “Star Swirl?” Sombra blinked in surprise as the other stallions strolled into the cave. “What are you doing here?” Star Swirl grinned. “I placed a spell on the wall to let me know if the Cave of Forgiveness had been disturbed. About time someone found the Elements!” Sombra frowned in confusion. “Elements? Cave of Forgiveness?” His ears twitched as her heard something whispering. He looked at the spheres and blinked in surprise as very faint voices whispered from them. “That’s what future me told me.” Star Swirl hummed in thought. “He had a long beard. Or I guess I will have a long beard. Do you think that would look good on me? I’ll ask him later. Or I’ll ask me later?” Star Swirl shook his head and chuckled. “Anyway, gather up those spheres. I’ll take us back. Oh, one more thing! You’re not still mad at Sparkle, are you?” “Sparkle? Oh please, I’m not angry with her. Compared to these Elements, my problem with her is nothing but a trivial matter. I can’t even remember what I was angry about.” Sombra’s ears folded down in shame. “Now that I think about it…perhaps I was too harsh with her…” “Cool! Right then, let’s get going.” Star Swirl smiled. “You know, this cave really looks beautiful on the inside. Shame that the crystals stop plants from growing in here. Then again, if some plants did grow in here they might really mess up the cave’s magic.” The vision ended after that. “You know, I coulda sworn that old Star Swirl winked at me during that last bit,” Discord commented. “How do ya know he was winking at you? Everyone knows that Star Swirl was crazy,” Gilda said. “A crazy genius. Kinda like a lot of people I know,” Sunset said with a roll of her eyes. “Boy howdy. Those visions were one heck of a wild ride,” Apple Bloom said. “Yeah. It’s easy to forget that Princess Twilight was once like that,” Nightmare said. “And how lonely Pinkie was,” Discord said. “And Sombra. I mean, I know he tells people that he used to have a dark past, but he was pretty scary in the first part of that last vision,” Sunset said. “Well now we know these events to be true. Just as we also know who is behind these chaotic vines,” Celestia said confidently. “You’re right! Remember those seeds? Pinkie planted what she called the Seeds of Doubt over a hundred years ago. Those must have grown into the plants!” Discord exclaimed. “That…sounds about right. But then, why did it take this long for the vines to grow?” Sunset said. “Star Swirl said that this Cave of Forgiveness had crystals that stopped most plants from growing within the cave. But that if something plantlike did grow in there, it could mess with the cave’s magic. Trixie would guess that Pinkie’s chaotic vines were aiming for the cave and that it has taken exactly this long for the plants to reach the cave and steal it’s magic!” Trixie exclaimed. “Makes sense. A lot of stuff we fight used to be a threat over a hundred years ago before they fell asleep or something, only to reawaken around this time,” Gilda said. “Then resolving this problem should be easy. We shall summon the Pink One here and order her to clean up her mess,” Celestia said. “You’ve got the right idea Aunt Celestia. But we need to do this carefully, if you guys get my meaning,” Nightmare said. Her friends smiled and nodded. “Uh…Ah don’t get it,” Apple Bloom said. Diamond chuckled. “Oh come on, AB. It’s obvious.” Her smile grew sneaky to match the ones the Element bearers were wearing. “The best way to get what you want is to ask nicely.” Discord created a bubble of energy with a snap of his fingers to stop the vines from attacking them and then they all walked outside. Once they had reached the middle of town Nightmare spoke up. “Hey Pinkie! Can we talk to you for a bit? I bet you’re excited for the Crystal Heart Celebration! I know it’s going to be a really big party!” With a flash of light Pinkie Pie appeared before them. Although it looked like she was preoccupied at the moment. “Little Gummy! You’re the one! You make bubble time tons of fun! My little Gummy, I’m super fond of you!” “Um…” Smog stared at Pinkie as she hugged her pet alligator while she sang in a bathtub full of pink bubbles. “Is this a bad time?” Pinkie looked up at them all and gasped. “Hey!” She snapped her fingers and vanished Gummy and the bathtub before she wrapped herself up with a pink towel. “Doesn’t anyone knock anymore?!” “Why do you care? We don’t normally wear clothes,” Sunset said with a raised eyebrow. “But bubble time is private time!” Pinkie whined. Smog groaned. “Okay, we’re sorry. We didn’t know we were interrupting your bubble bath. Sorry.” Pinkie giggled. “Aw, that’s okay. I forgive you.” She giggled as she vanished her towel and floated into the air. “Anyway, hi everybody! Are you excited about the celebration, ‘cause I’m excited and-” “Of course, Pinkie Pie. We’re all excited for the celebration tomorrow. But I’m afraid that the celebration might be cancelled unless these vines are dealt with,” Discord said as he floated up to her. He gently grabbed her chin with his talons and titled her head so that she could get a good look at the growing thorny vines. “As you can see, there are chaotic plants growing all over Peaceville.” Chrysalis buzzed her wings and flew up beside Pinkie too. “He’s right. What’s more is that these vines can corrupt a pony’s mind and make them doubt all sorts of things. The people here are going mad. It’s really no fun for anyone.” “Now, we just used one of Miss Zecora’s potions to see where these vines came from. It turns out that you planted these vines over a hundred years ago. But the vision told us that you did it by accident, at a time when you were a little lonely and angry at people,” Sunset said as she gave Pinkie a friendly smile. “It’s not your fault.” Nightmare flapped her wings and flew up to look Pinkie in the eye. “But now, you’re not lonely anymore. You’re reformed now; you have us. And we know that you wouldn’t do anything so evil and so not fun. So because you’re such a good friend, if you could do us a favor and get rid of these vines and their corruptive influence then we would really appreciate it.” “And then the celebration can start! Think of all the parties we can have once these weeds are removed!” Trixie said cheerfully. “So what do you say?” Pinkie titled her head in thought. “Gosh. When you put it like that…of course I’ll help you!” she giggled. “And the answer to your problems is super simple too! Come on everybody!” She snapped her fingers and the Elements, plus Celestia and Luna were levitated into a pink bubble. Before Pinkie could snap her fingers again, she glanced behind her. “Hey Diamond Tiara! Hey Apple Bloom! …Nice sunglasses! Can I try them on?” Apple Bloom froze in fear. “Nope! S-sorry. Doc says Ah have ta wear them. Eye infection, really gross. Ah take these glasses off and just, it’ll be really nasty. So uh, please don’t touch them…please.” Pinkie stared at Apple Bloom and slowly smiled. “Okie-dokie-lokie.” She then giggled, turned around to face the others, and snapped her fingers again. While Apple Bloom and Diamond stayed behind, the rest of them were teleported right inside the Cave of Forgiveness. Nightmare stared at the cave as they were released from the bubble. The Cave of Forgiveness was just as beautiful as it was in the vision. Except that the Vines of Doubt had ensnared dozens of crystals in the cave, while the water in the pool looked like it was polluted. “Yikes. The weeds really wrecked this place,” Gilda said as she flew over and examined the statues. She yelped and dodged out of the way as one of the vines tried to grab her. “Indeed. Pinkie Pie, could you please remove these vines now?” Celestia asked politely. Pinkie giggled. “Oh you don’t need me for that! You get can rid of these things yourselves! Just put your Elements back in the pool and their magic will get rid of my prickly plants.” “Oh. Okay then.” Sunset took off her Element of Knowledge and examined it. “So we put the Elements in, wait for them to work, and take them back out?” “What? Oh no, no, no. You have to leave them in,” Pinkie said with a smile. Sunset frowned at her suspiciously. “For how long?” “Oh you know…couple of weeks maybe? A year? Forever?” Pinkie shrugged. “I dunno. Eh, it’s probably nothing you need to worry about.” Sunset immediately put her Element back on. “Yeah, no thanks. We’re not doing that.” Gilda touched down beside her. “What she said.” “Yes, that would be quite foolish of us. Pinkie my dear, I’m sure you can get rid of your own plants,” Discord said with an encouraging smile. Pinkie’s smile faded and she shook her head. “What? Oh no, no, I can’t get rid of them. It has to be you.” Chrysalis frowned. “Why is that?” “Well, um…” Pinkie’s eyes darted around the cave nervously before she smiled. “OH! The mystery fun box!” Luna raised an eyebrow. “The what?” Pinkie grinned and nodded energetically. “Yeah, yeah! If you put the Elements in the pool, they’ll get rid of the plants and the pool will freeze solid! Then an ice pedestal thingy will form on it or somewhere in the cave and then there will be a box! A chest with six locks that will need to be opened with six keys. Keys that you will discover when you learn an important lesson about friendship. When you use these six keys to unlock the fun box, you’ll get a SUPER powerful new rainbow magic thingy! A magic rainbow that’s even more powerful than the Elements!” “Hm. While the thought of something more powerful than the Elements is tempting…I’ll have to say no,” Sunset said. Pinkie’s smile fell. “What? Why not?” “The Elements are powerful enough to get the job done. If we freeze them in that pool, we might lose them forever on the small chance that we’ll be able to unlock this mystery fun box,” Nightmare said. “If it even exists,” Gilda muttered. “Hey! You think I’m lying!” Pinkie cried as she pointed at Gilda. “What? No,” Discord assured her. “No, why would we think that? It’s just, do you even know where we can find these keys?” “Um…I think so?” Pinkie said as she scratched her head nervously. “You think, or you know? For that matter, how do you even know about the mystery fun box?” Trixie asked. “Um…” “Mom, Aunt Celestia, you both knew Star Swirl the Bearded pretty well. Did he ever mention anything like this?” Nightmare asked. Luna shook her head. “He told us of the Cave of Forgiveness.” “But he never mentioned a mystery chest containing a greater power,” Celestia said. “What? Oh come on guys! Just put them in the pool and the vines will be gone. Don’t you trust me?” Pinkie cried. “We do trust you. But we still need the Elements to protect Everfree from any future threats. And when I say that I don’t mean you, my dear,” Discord said. He crossed his arms. “Although, I’m starting to suspect that you just don’t want these vines gone.” Pinkie fidgeted nervously. “What? Well…well it’s not like my plants are hurting anyone, right?” Gilda growled. “Were you not paying attention? These vines are making everyone go crazy! I can’t even remember what I was doing for…” Her eyes widened as she recalled something. “Oh darn! I forgot about Dash!” Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Dashie?” Chrysalis gasped. “That’s right. I haven’t seen Rainbow Dash, Rarity, or Fluttershy all day. They could be in serious trouble!” “Stay here. I’ll go check,” Discord said before he teleported away. Seconds later, he reappeared with three mares and one filly. “Sorry, Fluttershy wouldn’t let go of Scootaloo.” The first one they noticed was Rainbow Dash, wearing a fancy blue hat, an orange scarf, and a pink dress. She giggled and said, “Don’t I look simply fabulous like this darling?” Rarity frantically nodded her head. “Y-yes Princess Rainbow Dash. I-I promise I’ll fix this.” She ran her hooves over Rainbow’s long dress. “A-always check and recheck. Check, and recheck, and recheck…recheck…” Fluttershy stared at Rainbow and screamed. “Evil stylish dress monster! It’s evil!” She threw Scootaloo at Rainbow. “Get them Miss Elizabeth!” Scootaloo just stared blankly at them, making sad little cluck noises. She looked down and pecked at the ground before she looked back up, her eyes filled with tears. “Am…is I a good chicken?” Celestia, Luna, and the Elements all stared at the confused ponies before they glared at Pinkie. “Fix this,” Gilda growled. “This…this wasn’t supposed to happen. I…I never wanted to hurt anybody…” Pinkie whispered. “Pinkie Pie. Please help us,” Nightmare pleaded. Pinkie stared at them for several seconds before she sighed. “Okie-dokie-lokie.” She floated over to the polluted pool and clapped her hooves together. A wave of magic spiraled out from her, removing the vines and their taint as the magic flowed. Nightmare smiled as the wave of magic washed over them, leaving a faint tickling sensation. She smiled even wider as the magic washed over Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Scootaloo. The four ponies blinked as the doubt was erased from their minds, leaving only regular confusion behind. “W-what are we doing here? Oh Scootaloo! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to treat you like a chicken. Oh, I feel awful now,” Fluttershy cried. Scootaloo weakly smiled. “Hey, it’s okay. Just promise me you won’t ever do it again.” She frowned as she added, “EVER.” “What the heck am I wearing?!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Hey! You guys are alright!” Gilda cheered as she flew over to Rainbow’s side. “You call this alright? Get this junk of me!” Rainbow growled as she ripped the pink dress off. “Oh do be careful with that!” Rarity protested. She cringed as the pink dress was torn apart. “Oh…oh fine. But leave the hat and scarf. Please? They at least look good on you.” Rainbow frowned and flew over to the now clean pool. She examined her reflection and hummed. “Huh…not bad. But I’m still not wearing it.” She took off the hat and scarf and gave them to Rarity. “You keep them, fashion’s more your thing.” “Oh thank you Rainbow! But perhaps you could wear them when the weather gets too cold?” Rarity suggested. Rainbow thought about it for a second and shrugged. “Only if it gets cold. But sure, they’re not the worst clothes I’ve been forced to wear.” A bright light filled the cave and they turned around to see that King Sombra and Princess Twilight had teleported into the cave too. “Your Majesties! You’re alright!” Nightmare cheered as they all rushed over to them. King Sombra smiled proudly as he hugged Nightmare. “You’ve done it once again my friends. I’m proud of you all.” “And they did it without giving up the Elements!” Pinkie announced. “Really? Huh, that’s…surprising,” Princess Twilight said. “You know, it’s not too late!” Pinkie pointed out with a hopeful smile. “Just put them in the pool and BAM! Magic mystery fun box! Super fun adventure for six friends! Super magic power better than the Elements!” “Thanks but no thanks Pinkie,” Smog said. “OH COME ON!” Pinkie whined. “You guys deserve a magic mystery fun box! …You deserve something at least!” King Sombra stared at Nightmare thoughtfully. “You know, you might be right Pink One. Perhaps they do deserve something…” Blueblood stared at Luna in shock. “I’m sorry Captain Luna, could you repeat that?” Luna smirked. “From what I’ve heard, during the Grand Galloping Gala you claimed that you were a Colonel instead of a Corporal.” Blueblood’s eyes widened. “I assure you-” “Relax Blueblood. I understand what you were doing and why you did it. I only brought that up as a starting point.” She shook her head and smiled again. “My point is, you’re getting what you wanted. Soon people shall address you as Colonel Blueblood.” Blueblood’s eyes widened. “But…but I haven’t done anything special to deserve this promotion!” “Blueblood, you have carried out all my orders to the best of your ability. Even if my daughter and her friends were the ones fighting threats to our empire, you and my guards have still done everything that you could to help. You’re not the only one getting a promotion but you’re still getting one.” Blueblood slowly smiled and saluted her. “Thank you Captain Luna for this great honour!” Luna smiled. “You’re welcome Colonel. But I’m afraid you won’t be calling me Captain anymore.” “What? Why’s that?” Blueblood asked. Luna simply smiled and walked away. She calmly strolled down the hallway until she reached her destination. She saluted to the guards standing by the door and went inside. The Elements, Princess Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Diamond, and Apple Bloom greeted her. “Hey mom. Back already?” Nightmare said. While the other people in the room talked, Diamond worked carefully to smooth out any wrinkles in her pink and purple dress. “How do I look? Is my tiara on right? Oh no, it’s not going to give them the wrong idea, is it?” Apple Bloom groaned. “Ya look fine.” The rich farm filly was dressed in a simple red dress, plus her hair bow and sunglasses. “Fine? I need to look perfect!” Diamond cried. “We’re about to meet royalty!” Apple Bloom titled her head towards Princess Twilight. “Um, we kinda already have. Besides, the king won’t care none whether ya look perfect or not.” “How can you be so calm about this?” Diamond pointed at her tiara. “This thing is really expensive but it’s cheap plastic compared to the crown he wears!” “What does that have to do with anything?” Apple Bloom asked. “I don’t know!” Diamond cried. “Is everything okay in here?” Celestia asked as she and King Sombra entered the room. “Eep!” Diamond quickly turned around and gave the king a bow and a stunning smile. “Celestia! King Sombra! It’s an honour to meet you!” “There’s no need for that Miss Tiara,” King Sombra said. “If what Nightmare Moon tells me is true, you and Miss Apple Bloom assisted the Elements in saving Everfree from the Pink One’s chaotic plants.” Apple Bloom blushed. “Well, we didn’t help that much.” “Please ignore my friend, Your Majesty. She’s not feeling well. You’re right, we were a huge help to them,” Diamond said with a big smile. King Sombra chuckled. “Of course. Which is why we are rewarding the two of you for your help. Now I hope you two enjoyed the last night’s pre-Crystal Heart Celebration party.” Diamond and Apple Bloom nodded. “Good. After the celebration, return to your rooms. I’ve left a small gift for the two of you before you return home to Peaceville. Now then, go join the crowd outside. The celebration will begin soon.” Diamond grinned and bowed before him. “Our sincere gratitude, Your Majesty!” After the two fillies left to go join the crowd outside the castle, Nightmare turned to Celestia. “So what were you talking to King Sombra about?” “Oh.” Celestia blushed. “Oh my. Forgive me, but I’m still feeling a little overwhelmed.” “Oh. Why is that, sister?” Luna asked with a playful smile. “Sombra…Sombra proposed to me,” Celestia said. The other girls in the room gasped, Smog’s jaw dropped, and a baseball bat appeared in Discord’s claw. “I’m sorry, he did what?” “Discord! Put that away!” Chrysalis cried. “Oh, very well.” The baseball bat disappeared while Discord gave King Sombra a smile that looked a little too polite. “Oh this is wonderful news! Tell me you said yes, tell me you said yes!” Rarity squeed. Celestia sighed. “King Sombra and I have a long history together. However, I do not know if I am ready yet for such a big change.” “Awww!” Chrysalis stared down at the floor in sadness. “I’m never going to get my royal wedding.” Celestia smiled and stepped forward to give Chrysalis a quick hug. “I’m sorry to disappoint you.” She stepped away again and sighed. “I also do not know if I am ready for people to call me Queen Celestia again.” King Sombra chuckled. “Perhaps a duchess title could work as a smaller step to start on? Really, the titles don’t matter that much. What do you think Luna?” “You could always refer to us as Princess Luna and Princess Celestia,” Luna chuckled. King Sombra grimaced. “Do you remember when I said I used to disagree with Princess Platinum? Even though she was a real princess, she still went through a princess phase in her youth. One day she invited several of her friends over and…” He shuddered. “To this day, the thought of multiple princesses makes me sick. It’s why Cadance was made a Countess, and it’s why I would prefer to only have two princesses now.” Nightmare stared at them. “Wait…two? What are you saying?” King Sombra smiled at her. “Project Zero was not your best idea but you made a good point when you told us why you made those plans. Your mother and aunt were the rightful rulers of this land before they gave up the crown. Daybreaker is behind us now, and the three of you have served this country very well. Follow us.” Nightmare gasped as Princess Twilight’s horn flashed brightly. She found herself inside the Cave of Forgiveness along with Twilight Sparkle, Sombra, Celestia, and Luna. For some reason, the cave’s ceiling was under a powerful enchantment. Hundreds of shining stars could be seen on the ceiling as the cave’s magic made it look like the night sky. “What? What’s going on?” King Sombra smiled at her. And for the first time that she could remember, he started to sing: “You’ve come such a long, long way.” Luna smiled and began to sing too: “And we’ve watched you from that very first day. To see how you might grow To see what you might do To see what you’ve been through And all the ways you've made me proud of you.” Nightmare smiled as her eyes filled with tears of joy. “Moony…” Princess Twilight and Celestia sang too: “It’s time now for a new change to come You’ve grown up and your new life has begun.” The four of them sang together as they circled Nightmare: “To go where you will go To see what you will see To find what you will be.” And lastly, Luna sang alone as she levitated the Element of Power towards her daughter: “For it’s time for you to reclaim your destiny.” Trixie grumbled. “Now why did they just disappear like that? Here we all are waiting for the sun to rise, except now the royals go off to host some secret party without Trixie!” Gilda frowned. “Yeah what’s up with that?” Discord chuckled. “I know what it is! And I’m not telling!” he sang. “Aw, come on! Give us a hint or something!” Rainbow pleaded. “Quiet! They’re starting!” Sunset said. The Elements and their friends were waiting among a crowd of people outside of the Crystal Empire. A stage had been built to hold three statues of the sun, the moon, and a starburst. The Crystal Heart was on a pedestal raised above the three statues. The crowd slowly quieted down as King Sombra and Princess Twilight walked out onto the stage. “Citizens of Everfree! For many years, I raised and lowered the sun and moon. A year ago during the last Crystal Heart Celebration, it was with great joy that I relinquished this duty to my old friend Princess Twilight,” King Sombra announced. “For an entire year she performed this duty wonderfully just as she did when Princess Luna gave it to her over a hundred years ago. Tonight someone else shall lower the moon and raise the sun. For today, we have another occasion that needs to be celebrated.” Princess Twilight smiled. “It is with great honour that I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, grant royal power to the alicorns Celestia and Luna.” Celestia and Luna walked out onto the stage next and bowed before her. “I hereby name you Duchess Celestia and Duchess Luna. You may now rise.” The two sisters rose up and smiled at the crowd. Duchess Luna said, “Citizens of the Crystal Empire. For a while now, you have wondered what shall become of our friends in Canterlot. Who shall rule them? Well, we are proud to announce that my sister and I shall govern the people of Canterlot, for now.” Duchess Celestia spoke next. “While we work towards rebuilding Canterlot’s future, we’ll still be here to help and guide the people of the Crystal Empire.” She smiled wider and said, “While your king and princess have generously granted these titles, we are also here to celebrate someone who has received an ever greater honour.” “CITIZENS OF EVERFREE!” Duchess Luna announced in her booming Voice. “I GIVE YOU…PRINCESS NIGHTMARE MOON!” Nightmare’s friends stared in awe as Nightmare walked out onto the stage. She was wearing her armor plus the dress she had worn at the Gala. On top of her head sat the Element of Power. With her unfurled wings and all these put together, Nightmare looked like the princess that she was always destined to be. Princess Nightmare Moon smiled at the whole crowd. She looked to her friends and shouted, “Come on up guys! I wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for you!” Her horn flashed and teleported the other bearers plus Smog onto the stage with her. “These people who stand with me have all defended Everfree with their lives! They have been my allies, my teachers, and my friends! As an alicorn, I’m the only one getting crowned a princess today but my friends deserve their time to shine too so let’s give them a round of applause!” The crowd cheered as the Elements all smiled and took a bow. Princess Nightmare then flew up as her horn glowed. The stars above them began to dance about and shine brightly as the sun rose up to meet the moon. As the sky danced above them, Nightmare sang proudly: “Life in Everfree shimmers Life in Everfree shines! And I know for absolute certain That everything is going to be fine!” The crowd cheered wildly as the moon was lowered and the sun rose higher. And as night turned to day, Princess Nightmare found herself grinning with pure joy. She had her family, she had her friends, and she had the power of an alicorn princess. Everything she had ever wanted finally belonged to her. Diamond grinned at Princess Nightmare. “Oh my gosh! You just know that the Element bearers won’t be leaving Peaceville. Which means we’ll get to live right next door to a princess! This is amazing!” Apple Bloom grunted as she shielded her eyes from the sun. “Yeah…great.” Diamond hummed thoughtfully. “There’s only one thing I don’t get. Why didn’t those doubt vines mess with our heads? Nightmare used her magical mist form to avoid them. Discord’s chaotic mind resisted them. What protected you and me?” Apple Bloom grunted. “Ah don’t know…Ah…” She yelped as she felt a sharp stab of pain in her eye. “Excuse me Diamond, Ah…Ah need some air…” “Huh? But we’re outside!” Diamond said as Apple Bloom ran away from the crowd. Apple Bloom didn’t stop running until she was far away from the celebration. She had reached a peaceful lake just outside of the Crystal Empire. It didn’t look like anyone else was there. She edged closer to the pool’s waters and hesitantly lowered her sunglasses. “Please be better…” “Is everything alright darling?” “Eep!” Apple Bloom put her sunglasses back on and turned around. “Ah’m fine ma’am! Ah just…” Apple Bloom stared at the mare in front of her. The famous Applejewel stood there, dressed in a blue dress with a red ribbon and a fancy blue hat. The sun reflected off the gold mask that Applejewel wore. Apple Bloom’s eyes widened. “Apple-” Applejewel raised an eyebrow as Apple Bloom suddenly clapped her hoof over her own mouth. Lowering her hoof, Apple Bloom sheepishly chuckled and said, “Ah mean uh, Miss Applejewel. What a surprise…” Applejewel chuckled. “You don’t need to call me that anymore. Don’t you recognize me?” “N-no,” Apple Bloom lied. “There’s no more need for that Apple Bloom. I’ve come to take the pain away.” Applejewel neatly removed her dress and her hat. She then walked closer to Apple Bloom, who backed away in response. Apple Bloom eyes darted all over the place. There was no escape. “Come now Apple Bloom. It’s time to take the mask off.” “Hey!” Apple Bloom cried as Applejewel snatched her sunglasses off. She quickly shielded her eyes. “Don’t look!” “I’m sorry Apple Bloom, but we have to.” Apple Bloom opened her eyes and stared at Applejewel as she removed her famous gold mask. Apple Bloom took one look at Applejewel’s face and screamed in pure horror. “AAAHHH! Evil! EVIL!” Applejewel smiled. “Oh, it’s not that bad, sugarcube. Come on Apple Bloom. It’s time to look the truth in the eye.”