“Horseapples”
That was the only thing running through Sunset’s head as she ran to the Library. For the first time in a long time, she felt humbled. Now was the time to regroup and see how to fix this mess.
Sunset had gotten to the Library and put Spike to bed.
“It’s better he doesn’t have to deal with this,” Sunset commented to herself
Sunset ransacked the library looking for books that were about the Elements of Harmony. But those efforts were to no avail.
“How does this Library not have anything about The Elements of Harmony!” Sunset exclaimed in anguish.
“And Just what ARE the Elements of Harmony” Rainbow dash asked, Suddenly flying into the Library and butting heads with Sunset. “ and how did YOU know about Nightmare Moon, huh, Are you a spy?”
Sunset lowered her eyelids, “Really? That’s the conclusion you jump to?”
“ Well, Even if you aren’t a spy, you know something, don’t you , Sunset” Applejack said, while entering with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.
Sunset closed her eyes and let out a sigh, “I read a prophecy about Nightmare moon, and the only things at this point to stop her are the elements of harmony.”
Applejack gestured her hoof in a circular motion, “And,”
“That’s it, there’s literally no information I can find about them!”
“‘The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide’” Pinkie read off on of the book still on the shelf.
Sunset butted Pinkie away, “How did you find that?”
Pinkie Bounced along the Library and sang, “It was under E!”
“Of course,” Sunset snarked as she took the book off of the shelf and Read. “There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. It’s said that the Five Elements now lie in the ruins of The Castle of The Two Pony Sisters, located in what is now known as…”
“... The Everfree Forest,” The six ponies intoned, now at the entrance of the forest. They were all entranced in it’s mysterious beauty.
“Whee! Let’s Go!”
Well almost all of them, Pinkie was raring to go into the dangerous uncharted woodland.
“Ha ha, No.” Sunset said evenly, “This is my Mission, and I work alone,”
“Yeah, nothing doing sugarcube, we’re not letting a friend of ours put herself in danger. Like it or not, We’re sticking to you like Caramel on a Candy apple,”
Pinkie Pie walked past Sunset, “Especially, if there are candy Apples in there, Those things are good”
“It’s your funerals I guess,” She Muttered as she walked into the forest.
“So, I’m guessing none of you have ever been here before,” Sunset said, as the group was walking into the forest.
“Oh, Heavens no, Just look at this place, it’s horrible” Rarity responded.
“It ain’t natural,” Applejack added, “Folks say it don’t work the same as The rest of Equestria,”
“How so,” Sunset inquired.
“ No pony knows,” Rainbow Dash answered in a spooky voice.
Sunset Rolled her eyes, “What are you, five? No pony’s afraid of your ‘spooky’ vocie, Well maybe except Butterflies over there,”
“Aww, don’t be a buzzkill, Sunset , I did hear that ponies don’t come out of this forest though,” Rainbow said, in a casual tone.
Suddenly the cliff they were all standing on, broke and they were sliding down the mountain. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew out of the way and grabbed the the non Pegasus ponies sans Sunset and Applejack. Applejack grabbed on to a twig while Sunset was holding on for dear life on the edge of the rock face.
Seeing this, Applejack let go of the twig to slide down and grab Sunset.
“Applejack, Pull me up!” Sunset shrieked.
“I can’t, There ain’t enough leverage here,” Applejack struggled
“Well what do I do?”
Apple jack thought hard about this and saw something, She then simply told Sunset, “Let Go…”
Sunset paused for a moment and said , “This is because I was ogling your brother, isn’t it?”
“This ain’t about Big Macintosh, let go, and you’ll be fine,”
Sunset let out a sigh, and let go. She was falling to her certain doom, until Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy caught her with Fluttershy fumbling a bit. Applejack bounded down the Cliff.
Sunset went up to Applejack, “So, What I said about your Brother... “
“Don’t think nothin of it, he’s a big colt, can make his own decisions. Besides, I kinda like it when another mare shows interest, puts a stop to all them rumors”
“That’s … candid of you.”
The Party continued walking through the forest. Rainbow dash bragging about what had happened a few minutes ago, as Sunset had pointed out.
A manticore showed up out of nowhere and attacked the ponies. Rarity kicked the manticore , angering it and making it roar in her face messing up her hair. Applejack decided to ride the manticore as if it were a rodeo until she got bucked off. Rainbow got smacked by the beast before she did anything. Sunset set her horn aglow,signs of fire starting.
“WAIT!” Fluttershy yelled, finally after trying to get their attention during that fight,
“Sunset, Put your horn out, You could really hurt Somepony,” The Light-yellow pegasus scolded.
Fluttershy walked up to the manticore, and started talking to it softly. The manticore showed Fluttershy it’s paw with a thorn sticking out of it. Fluttershy cooed as she took the thorn out. The manticore roared in pain, picked Fluttershy up… and licked her.
With the apparent danger passed, the rest of the party walked past. The manticore put Fluttershy down.
“Did you even know about the Thorn?” Sunset asked
“No, Some of us need to be shown a little kindness” Fluttershy answered as she went to join the rest of the group.
“What if there was no thorn! What’s the plan then!” Sunset called after her.
The six ponies continued their journey.
Rarity shuddered, “My Eye need a rest from all this Muck.”
Though, not without complaining. Fortunately for Rarity, they entered a thick part of the forest, where even the moon didn’t shine.
“Well I didn’t mean that literally,”
The party soon began to murmur in confusion.
“Oh wait, I just stepped in something,” Applejack announced.
“Thanks for sharing that,” Sunset snarked.
Fluttershy screamed.
“Oh relax,” Applejack said, “It’s only mud.”
“We hope” Sunset jabbed.
No sooner had that conversation happened, They realized what Fluttershy was screaming about. All of the Trees in the forest gained monstrous faces and were surrounding the six ponies. They were all paralyzed with fear, well, except for a certain pink pony who was laughing up a storm.
“Great, The Pink one’s lost it,” Sunset said, “Why am I not surprised,”
“It’s not like that at all, Sunny, watch” Pinkie replied, getting ready to burst into song
“When I was a little filly and the sun was going down…”
“Yep, Lost it, She’s singing” Sunset confirmed for herself
“The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown…”
“No, Dear, That’s just how she is” Rarity Stated.
“I'd hide under my pillow
From what I thought I saw
But Granny Pie said that wasn't the way
To deal with fears at all”
“Then what is?” Rainbow asked
“She said, "Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall
Learn to face your fears
You'll see that they can't hurt you
Just laugh to make them disappear."
Ha! Ha! Ha!”
And as if by magic the ghost tree transformed back into a normal, less creepy tree. Caueing the ponies to gasp
“So, giggle at the ghostly
Guffaw at the grossly
Crack up at the creepy
Whoop it up with the weepy
Chortle at the kooky
Snortle at the spooky
And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna... hahahaha... heh...
Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuugh!”
As she sang she pushed the rest of the ponies in front of the ghost trees and they laughed, even Sunset. They all got out of the thicket, laughing until reached a raging river.
The ponies heard weeping upstream. They followed the blubbering to find a long Sea Serpent wailing.
“Okay, There’s a Sea Serpent crying, Why?” Sunset said, her eyelids lowering to a halfwaypoint.
“ Oh , Hi, ponies, did my crying disturb you?” The Sea Serpent said flamboyantly.
“ Well it’s disturbing the river,” Sunset commented
“Oh, I’m Terribly Sorry, it’s just, a few minutes ago a wird little black cloud came by and cut off my Moustace!”
“Really didn’t ask for your life story,”
The Serpent ignored Sunset, “Now look at me! I’m a mess!” he cried falling back into the water.
“Really?” Rainbow said
“That’s what all the fuss is about?” Applejack reasoned
“Why of course it is! How can you guys be so insensitive!”Rarity butted in, “Just look at him, such lovely luminescent scales!”
The Serpent gave a nod, “I know,”
“And your expertly coiffed mane”
“ Oh I know! I know”
“And your fabulous manicure”
The Serpent gave a sigh, “It’s so True!”
“All ruined without your beautiful mustache!” Rarity concluded
The Serpent wailed, “Oh, it’s true, I’m Hideous”
“I feel like I’m a bizzaro world” Sunset commented.
“I cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected” Rarity stated before taking one of the serpents scales and Cutting her tail off. She levitated the severed tail and attached it to the Serpent’s mustache.
The Serpent squealed with joy, “Oh ho! My Mustache! Oh how wonderful”
“You gave your tail to a flamboyant sea serpent,” Sunset mused.
“Yes, dear, a small price to pay for happiness, I assure you.” Rarity said.
“Yeah, sure, Whatever you say. At least we can cross now”
As Sunset tried to walk across the river, she was lifted by the serpent’s tail.
“Allow me,” The serpent offered, making a bridge with his body. All six of the ponies walked along him, no problem.
After these trials, The ponies felt a great relief when they saw the ruins. there was only one problem: The bridge was out.
Rainbow Dash volunteered to retie the bridge. Just as she flew to the other side, she heard a voice call out to her.
“ Who’s there?” Rainbow called,
The voice called out to her again.
“ I ain’t scared of you!” Rainbow Challenged
“We’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the best flier in Equestria”
“Who?”
On the other side of the bridge, Sunset felt the urge to facehoof.
“Why you of course.” the voice said.
Rainbow postured herself, “Oh yeah, of course. Hey you wouldn’t mind telling The Wonderbolts that right? I’ve been trying to join them for years.”
“No, Rainbow Dash, we would like you to join us, the Shadowbolts.” The Voice revealed itself to belong to a ligh blue mare wearing a skin tight black and purple suit, a skull with wings adonring the flank. She was Flanked by two black stallions in the same suit.
“We are the the greatest team in the everfree forest, and soon all of Equestria,” the mare said, “But first, we need a captain.”
Rainbow’s eyes shined at the proposition.
“The Most magnificent, swiftest, bravest flier in all the land” The Shadowbolt leader continued to flatter, Rainbow affirming each trait.
“Yes it’s all true” Rainbow boasted.
“We need…” The leader leaned to whisper into Rainbow’s ear, “You.”
Rainbow Dash jumped for joy, “Sign me up!”
She then went over to bridge, “But first, I gotta tie this bridge.”
“No!,” The Leader shouted, “It’s either them, or us”
Rainbow was unsure of what to do, She looked over to the other side of the bridge.
“Did you forget how to tie a rope? Get moving Rainbow!” Sunset called.
“Don’t be mean, Sunny,” Pinkie said
Sunset called again, “Okay yeah, that was uncalled for, but seriously, we need to get moving.”
Rainbow was at a loss at what to do, She lifted her head up and said, “You,”
The lead Shadowbolt grinned.
“Thank you, for the offer I mean, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to say no,”
Rainbow then tied the bridge a returned to her cheering friends.
“So you decided not to take the obvious trap.” Sunset said to Dash as they were crossing the bridge.
“I told you, I’d never leave my friends hanging.” Dash responded.
They Finally got to the castle, and right in the center was a pedestal holding the elements. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy brought the elements down.
Pinkie counted them out , “There are only five!”
“Well yeah, The sixth is a complete mystery, Remember? The Book said that when the five are present, a spark of magic will cause the sixth to appear.”
“ What in the hay is that supposed to mean?” Applejack asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but I think it means I have to zap them,” Sunset answered as she started her horn, “Stand back if you don’t want to get burned.”
“Come on, yall” Applejack beckoned her friends, “She needs to concentrate.”
As the band of ponies exited the castle, a sparkling cloud of black smoke approached Sunset. It surrounded the Elements and created a tornado, surprising Sunset. The Tornado held the elements, and was about to disappear. In a split second, Sunset jumped into the tornado.
Sunset landed in another tower, There she saw, Nightmare Moon holding the Elements in her ethereal mane. Sunset did the most logical thing she thought of at that point, and pawed at the ground, ready to charge.
“You’re kidding right?” Nightmare Moon deadpanned.
“Maybe it was me who lost her mind first, but it’s worth a try,” Sunset responded as she charged her horn.
The Two ponies charged each other. When they were about to meet, Sunset teleported. Nightmare Moon looked back and saw Sunset trying to charge the Elements. Nightmare moon teleported to her but it seemed to late.
The Elements were charged and magic was emanating from them. Nightmare moon panicked and as suddenly they started, They went dead. Nightmare moon laughed maniacally.
“Well that plan failed,” Sunset said
“You foal,” Nightmare Gloated, “You really thought you could defeat me? Now you’ll never see your Sun or your princess, and the night. Will last. Forever!”
Nighmare laughed, but under that laughter, she heard the voices of her friends. She felt something inside herself, it was something she dreaded.
“Oh, Sunbutt, damn it all. Really? This is what it amounts to?” Sunset complained
“What are you talking about?” Nighmare question and the flaming headed pony’s rambling.
“The rocks mean nothing, unless they’re charged with the spirits of the Elements, Which are right here!” Sunset explained indicating her friends as she would now be forced to call them.
“Applejack: Telling me the truth about the rumors surrounding her family, represents the Spirit of Honesty!”
“Um, Sunset, I’m not too sure that’s what you wanna go with” Applejack commented but nonetheless she was surrounded by the Element crystals
“Fluttershy,” Sunset Continued, “Tamed the manticore with her compassion represents the Spirit of Kindness”
The crystals surrounded the pink maned pegasus.
“Pinkie Pie: Who giggled at the face of danger, while I thought she was insane, represents the Spirit of Laughter!”
The Crystals followed suit.
“Rarity, Who gave her tail to a really flamboyant sea serpent, represents the Spirit of Generosity.”
The crystals continued to answer Sunset’s call.
“And Rainbow dash, who didn’t abandon her friends for her own desires, represents the Element of Loyalty”
The crystals surrounded Dash. As Nightmare Moon looked in horror.
“You still don’t have the Sixth Element, The spark didn’t work” Nightmare Moon all but pleaded.
“See that’s the topper, there was a different type of spark,” Sunset turned to her friends, “It was something ignited in me when I heard all of you, the overwhelming happiness when I heard your voices. As much as I loathe to admit it, You guys are my friends,”
Sunset turned to the dark alicorn, “When these five elements meet that spark, and trust me when I say, that this is the only silver lining, they create the Element of Magic”
As Sunset said, a stone ball appeared inscribed in it was a six pointed star. all of the crystals glowed bright, and formed necklaces with jewels in the shape of their cutie marks. Sunset got a crown with a jewel on top of it in the shape of her Cutie Mark. The Elements all produced a huge rainbow that shot down at Nightmare Moon.
The Light died down. The force from the Rainbow of Friendship had rendered all six ponies unconscious. They all woke up and took inventory on themselves.
“Is everypony okay?” Applejack asked.
“Oh thank goodness!” Rarity shouted in joyin awe that her tail had regrown.
“Oh, Rarity, It’s Lovely” Fluttershy complimented.
“Oh yes, I’ll never part with it again!” Rarity declared while swinging her new appenged around.
“Okay, We get, You have a new tail, you have to present yourself to us,” Sunset shouted.
“I was actually talking about your necklace, it looks like your cutie mark.” Fluttershy clarified
“So does yours” Rarity pointed out.
“Look at mine, Look at mine!” Pinkie Chirped bouncing up and down.
The ponies went around admiring their new jewelry.
“Gee, Sunset, I thought you were speaking a load of hooey, but I reckon, We really do represent the elements of friendship” Applejack stated.
“Great to know you have faith in my magical skills there, Applebutt” Sunset muttered.
“Indeed you do, My little ponies,” a warm motherly voice said.
All six ponies turned around and as the sun came up, Princess Celestia, The Great white Alicorn with an ethereal rainbow mane appeared. All of the ponies in the room bowed.Except for Sunset Shimmer, who raced to Celestia and pointed a hoof at her.
“Ha!” Sunset gloated, “I just saved your flank and all of equestria! I think you owe me an apology,”
Clestia giggled, only her haughty student could get away with talking to her like that.
“Why would I owe you an apology, My Faithful student,” Celestia said, feining innocence, “I knew you could do it.”
“But you-” Sunset Spluttered
“Sunset, how did you defeat Nightmare Moon?”
“I … made friends and used the Elements of Harmony…” Sunset said slowly realizing what her teacher was getting at.
“And what did I tell you to do?”
“ … Make friends…”
Celestia let out another giggle, “I know what I’m doing, my faithful student, I knew this day would come and I knew you alone had the potential to defeat The Nightmare. My only fear was that you wouldn’t find friends in time. For the Elements can only be used when you let true friendship into your heart. Now there is another who must accept friendship, Princess Luna!
There in the corner of the Room, a light blue alicorn mare with an even lighter blue mane was laying on the ground, just waking up. She gasped as she saw the taller Alicorn walk up to her.
“It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this,” Celestia announced, “Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister.”
Everypony sans Sunset gasped, “Sister!?”
“Well yeah,” Sunset said as if it was obvious, “Don’t you guys know the story of- nevermind, I just remembered who I was talking to.”
Celestia gave a quiet glare to her student and turned back to her sister.
“Will you accept my friendship?” She offered.
The six ponies leaned forward in suspense, Pinkie fell over, Sunset facehooved.
Luna looked into her sister’s eyes and bounded up to her and nuzzled her chest,
“I’m so sorry!” The smaller alicorn cried, “I missed you so much sister!”
“I missed you too,” The white Alicorn said.
Seeing the sisters interact like that, stirred something up in her. This was a part of her that had not surfaced since she was a filly. She looked down at the floor guiltily. The other ponies didn’t notice this.
Pinkie Pie started sobbing at the touching scene, then in true Pinkie fashion came up with an idea.
“Oh, you know what this calls for ?” Pinkie asked, “A party!”
And lo, everypony went back to Ponyville, the residents all cheering and celebrating the return of the princesses. They welcomed Luna with open hearts, decorating her with a garland. Sunset, however wasn’t into the party as much.
“Why so glum, my faithful student? Surely you would be basking in the glory of being Equestria’s Savior”
Sunset wasn’t sure how to take that.
“It’s just, I know that after this I have to go back to Canterlot and return to my studies,” Sunset began.
Celestia gave a knowing smile, “Well, yes, Aren’t you looking forward to it,”
“Maybe before, but, before I wrote these ponies off as the biggest idiots in Equestria. Now, I realize, they're my idiots,and I can’t imagine living without them.”
Celestia chuckled at her student’s candidness.
“Spike, Take a letter,” Celestia ordered, “ I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree that the unicorn Sunset Shimmer shall take on a new mission for Equestria. She must continue to study the magic of friendship. She must report to me her findings from her new home in Ponyville.”
All of the ponies cheered at that. The five Spirits of Harmony tackled Sunset in a group hug and they a laughed happily.
“ Thank you, Princess,” Sunsaid said, more polite than anypony’s ever heard her be.
“Congratulations, Sunset,” Celestia giggled, “I know your family would be Proud.”
Sunset bowed her head, knowing full well what The Princess meant by ‘family’.
“Isn't this exciting? Are you excited cause I'm excited I've never been so excited, well, except for the time that I went [gasp] but I mean really-” Pinkie rattled off but Sunset’s hoof cover her mouth.
“I think we are all excited, Pinkie,”
And thus Sunset started her new life in ponyville, with all of the ups and downs forth coming.