A white alicorn with a long flowing pastel rainbow mane and sun cutie mark was walking along a snow covered field. Her name was Princess Celestia of Equestria, Bringer of the Sun, Sister of Luna, and a bunch of other titles she let fall into disuse. Princess Celestia could tell the snow wasn’t pegasus-made by the way it crunched. In fact it was reminiscent of the snow of the windigos. Now there was an age she didn’t want to think about. Needless to say, that age was more terrible and war-torn than the traditional hearth's warming play made it out to be. Scattered around the field were trees devoid of life. Other than Celestia’s hoof steps the air was deathly quiet, not an animal, nor even a breeze. And it was cold, way below freezing cold. The only thing around that didn’t speak of death was the night sky. Luna’s moon was full and her stars were bright.
Suddenly a laugh Celestia hadn’t heard in a thousand years rang out over the field and, despite only having heard it once before, she would never forget this laugh. It was the laugh of the monster that had taken her sister away from her, the laugh of Nightmare Moon.
“Mwahahaha~ Celestia, do you like my night? Beautiful, isn’t it? Too bad you and I are the only ones left to appreciate it,” said Nightmare’s voice from everywhere at once.
Celestia raised her head and faced the night. “Sister, stop! Even now it is not too late to turn from this path.”
“Stop? When I have everything I always wanted. Everything that lives has no choice but to enjoy my night! Mwahaha~”
------
Princess Celestia shot up in bed, sweating. She looked out her window at the moon, where the symbol of the mare in the moon, a darkness in the shape of a pony head, was still there. I can’t let that happen! I hope all I have done to help Twilight on her quest is enough. Sister, why didn’t I see… why didn’t I see what was happening to you?
------
Meanwhile Twilight was setting a lab in the basement of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, blissfully unaware of the threat in the coming days. Celestia’s latest letter was still in her mail box back at the dorms.
------
In a room in Ponyville Hospital three ponies slept. The eldest was an earth pony mare, while the younger two were a unicorn stallion and a pegasus mare. All three ponies had the same snow white coat. The younger twos’ manes and tails were both a soft yellow, while the older mare’s mane and tail was a mix of a cheerful yellow and a perky orange. The Earth pony’s cutie mark was of a cheerleading pom-pom while her two younger siblings shared the same cutie mark of a broken heart held together with a Band-Aid.
The twins rubbed their heads and opened their grass green eyes. “Ugh, what hit me?” said the twins with such perfect sync that it sounded like one pony talking out of two mouths. The twins stared at their hooves. “Am I?” They looked down their flanks.
The young pegasus jumped out of bed and started prancing while saying, “I’m a pony!” over and over again until something else seeped in. “Wait a second, my voice. Am I a mare?” The young pegasus ran to the nearest reflective surface and looked at herself. “Yahoo. I’m a mare!” She then repeated her earlier prancing, this time saying “I’m a mare!” over and over again until: “Wait a second, why am I dreaming about being a pony mare? I should be a stallion.” The Pegasus looked at her brother/male self.
The twins stared at each other. “Ok, apparently I’m a unicorn stallion, and a pegasus mare. Weirdest dream ever,” said the pegasus mare and the unicorn stallion together. “But still My Little Pony dream!”
Just then the earth pony mare started stirring. She sat up and started rubbing her forehead. “Ugh, who spiked the punch? Wait a second, I wasn’t at a party last night.”
The twins rushed over. “Brenda is that you?” said the pegasus and unicorn simultaneously.
The earth pony mare named Brenda opened her Harlequin green eyes and stared at the two ponies in front of her. “John, is that you? And who’s the filly?”
The pegasus bopped Brenda on the head. “I’m a mare thank you very much. And for your information I’m John’s female half. Wait, what?” The pegasus blinked. “Uh, Whatever, I will just run with it. If this dream says I’m a female pony named Charity and one and the same as my brother John, so be it. I have more important things to do than trying to figure out this bit of dream logic.”
Brenda blinked and looked over at the unicorn stallion named John. “Um, John, am I going crazy or are we ponies?”
“Yep,” said John.
“Oh. Wait, was that yes to crazy or ponies?”
“Ponies. Just run with it. It could be fun while it lasts. So anyways, I think I’m going to visit Rainbow Dash and Charity’s going to visit Twilight. What do you want to do?”
“Twilight, definitely Twilight. I could use some grounding right now, even if it’s a scholarly grounding.”
The siblings left the hospital together, to the utter terror of the nurse that entered the room ten minutes later.
------
Charity and Brenda entered the Golden Oak Library to find a sky blue unicorn mare with black glasses instead of the purple alicorn they were expecting. The unicorn had a short brown mane and gray eyes. Her cutie mark was of an open book, which was fitting because that was just what she had in front of her.
“Um, excuse me, but is Twilight Sparkle around?” asked Charity.
“Twilight isn’t here at the moment. In fact I’m waiting for her to come home right now.” The unicorn looked up at Charity. “Wait a second, who are you? I don’t recognize you.”
“Um, Charity Pope and this is my sister Brenda.”
“I’m Sophia Homes. Charity? Interesting. And what would you say if I asked you how many fingers the average human has?”
“Ten, why?”
“And what channel is My Little Pony on?”
“The Hub, again why?”
“You’re a human from earth aren’t you?”
“Uh, ya, that’s one way of putting it.” Charity shook hooves with Sophia. (Don’t ask Charity how, but she did.)
“So is Spike here?”
“No, and I wouldn’t expect him back tonight.”
“Why, what is he doing?”
“No idea, but his bed is nowhere to be seen. So--”
“You live up to your name, don’t ya?”
“Which one? Sophia which means wisdom in Greek or Holmes as in Schlock Holmes?”
“Both, I guess. So do you want to go visit Pinkie Pie?”
“Na, I’d rather stay here and keep trying to prove that Star Swirl the Bearded isn’t Discord.”
“Ugh. Why are you even trying to disprove that theory? It’s obvious that they never were intended to be the same person. I mean. Star Swirl is a minor background character from the pre-classical era, and Discord is a chaos spirit that terrorizes ponies. The only thing they share in common is not understanding friendship.”
“Yes, but apparently Star Swirl created both amniomorphic and omnimorphic spells. Which leads to the question of why Twilight thought spells for correcting birth defects in utero were more important than shape changing spells.”
“Fine, I will leave you to your research project. I’m going to have fun with Pinkie. Brenda, are you coming?”
“No, I think I will stay here and see if they have any joke books.”
“Sure. That makes sense. Reading a book, instead of going to see the living embodiment of laugher. Suit yourself.” Charity walked out the door and started heading toward Sugar Cube Corner.
------
Meanwhile John was trying to find Rainbow Dash’s cloud home when somepony crashed into him.
John looked up into the sky blue eyes of the mare that just crashed into him. Her coat was fawn brown. Her coffee brown mane was styled into a low pony tail.
“Sis, are you alrigh—Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to peek on you and your boyfriend,” cried a young female voice.
The mare on top of John blushed, turned her head around and said, “Faith! He’s not my boyfriend. We’ve just met for heaven’s sake!”
“Does that mean we can get back to looking for Rainbow Dash?”
“Ya. Just a second.” The mare lifted herself five feet into the air and hung there using her wings as the muscles in her barrel rippled with each wing beat. John could now see that the mare’s cutie mark was of a basketball. Her body was lean and streamlined, reminding John of a cheetah. The mare turned towards John and said, “I’m Alex Martinez. Sorry about crashing into you. I’m still getting used to these babies. Wait a second, why am I above you?” Alex looked back at her wings. “Oh, come on! Now I can fly, where were you like ten seconds ago when I crashed into the cute boy!” Alex blushed. “Um, I mean… Wait a second why am I blushing? He’s a horse!”
“He’s not a horse! He’s a pony!” said Faith. Now that John wasn’t pinned to the ground he could see that the voice was coming from a little pegasus filly maybe Scootaloo’s age. Her mahogany brown mane and tail were almost identical in cut to Rainbow Dash’s. She had the same fawn brown coat and sky blue eyes as her older sister.
“Same diff. He’s still not human.”
“Actually I was until last night.” John rolled over and got back onto his hooves. “I’m John Pope. And I’m also looking for Rainbow Dash.”
“You are! Where is she? Where is she?” said Faith.
“I said I was looking. I haven’t found her yet. Have you asked somepony?”
“Ya, but we keep getting directed to an earth pony that’s strangely into fashion.”
“An earth pony?”
“Ya, she’s scary.”
John and the Martinez siblings continued their search together.
------
While John was searching for Rainbow Dash with the Martinez siblings, Charity decided to get something to eat before continuing on to Sugar Cube Corner. However, she soon realized she didn’t have any bits.
Where do ponies keep their money? thought Charity. I mean it’s not like they have pockets. Wait a second Fluttershy kept money in her saddle bags. Ok, that’s informative but I still don’t have any money.
Suddenly an orange appeared in front of Charity’s face.
Charity grabbed the orange with her right wing and looked around for the pony that gave it to her. She found a white unicorn mare standing to her left.
The mare had a midnight black mane that she kept back with a yellow headband. Her eyes were a very dark brown. Charity had thought they were black until the light caught them just right, and they had a vaguely Asian slant. The mare’s cutie mark was of a white triangle over the outline of another triangle and three black circles.
“Hi, there. Did you give this to me?” Charity held the orange forward.
The unicorn nodded shyly.
“Well, thank you. What is your name?”
The mare mumbled something very softly.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t catch that. Come on, don’t be shy. I mean, I doubt your name is sillier then Rainbow Dash or Twilight Sparkle.”
“I’m Megumi Nakamura.” Megumi said, just barely audible.
“Well, Megumi, I’m Charity Pope.”
Just then Megumi’s stomach rumbled.
“You’re hungry, too. Wait, did you give me your lunch?”
Megumi blushed. “Kinda.”
“Here.” Charity offered the orange. “I can’t take this.”
“No, no, that’s ok. I want you to have it. I’m not that hungry.”
“No, No. I couldn’t.”
“No, you should take it.”
“You’re not going to take it back, are ya?” said Charity.
Megumi shook her head.
Charity peeled the orange and split it in half. “Here, you take half.”
“That’s alright.”
“I insist. It’s the least I can do after you were so generous.” Charity lifted one of Megumi's hooves and put half the orange in it.
Megumi lifted her share of the orange with her magic. She peeled off a slice and put it in her mouth.
“So, Megumi, I’m going to Sugar Cube Corner to see Pinkie Pie. Do you want to come along?”
Megumi shook her head.
“Why not?”
Megumi swallowed the orange slice and said “I’m not any good at parties.”
“What makes you—Oh, you’re from the human world and are afraid that Pinkie Pie will throw you a welcoming party.”
Megumi nods.
“Ok, I guess I will see you around.” Charity continued her journey to Sugar Cube Corner.
------
Ten minutes later Charity entered Sugar Cube Corner to find Mrs. Cake behind the counter.
“Hi, Mrs. Cake. Is Pinkie Pie around?”
“Who’s Pinkie Pie?”
“You know, Pinkie Pie. She’s a pink mare about this tall, likes to party, she lives with you and Mr. Cake.”
“I’m sorry. But only me and my husband live here.”
“What do you mean only you and your husband live here!? What about Pinkie Pie or your twins!?”
“How Did You Know I Was Pregnant With Twins!? We Haven’t Told Nopony Yet!”
“You’re pregnant right now!? Wait that means— Quick, when is the summer sun celebration?”
“Um, It’s tonight, but--?”
“TONIGHT! NIGHTMARE MOON IS RETURNING TONIGHT AND PINKIE IS AWOL! Quick, is there a shop called Carousel Boutique run by a unicorn named Rarity? Do you know a pegasus named Rainbow Dash? Or one named Fluttershy? Or an earth pony named Applejack? Did a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle arrive today?”
Mrs. Cake quickly answered the crazed mare in her shop. “Um, no, no, no, yes and, no.”
“You know Applejack? Where is she!?”
“You’d have to ask her family.”
“Where’s Sweet Apple Acres?”
“Um, it’s off Sabino Road, east of town.”
“Thanksforallyourhelpbye.” Charity turned and galloped toward Sweet Apple Acres.
------
Charity ran into Sweet Apple Acres and grabbed a little yellow filly named Appleboom. “Appleboom, Where’s your sister? Nightmare Moon is coming tonight and we need her to power the Elements of Harmony!”
“Elements of what now? And Nightmare Night isn’t for another couple of months. And what the hay does any of that have to do with Applejack?”
“WHERE IS APPLEJACK!?”
“Ahem. Miss--” said a dirty lawn green mare with a southern twang, but different twang than Applejack and Applebloom, if Charity had to guess she was from the Deep South. The mare had a rusty red mane, which she wore in a short loose pony tail. Her eyes were denim blue. The mare’s cutie mark was of a plow, the plow wasn’t brand new but it was clean and well cared for.
“Pope, Charity Pope.”
“Libby Gardener. As I was sayin’, could you put Appleboom down? We have a lot of work to do and—WAIT DID YOU SAY NIGHTMARE MOON!? This Is That Summer Sun Celebration!?”
“Yes, and none of the main six are here! We have to find them so they can use the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon!”
“No, that will take too long. Now where are we going to find six to--? Wait, how many human turned ponies, includin’ yourself do you know of?”
“Eight. There’s you, me, my brother John, my sister Brenda, Sophia, Alex, her little sister Faith, and Megumi. Why?”
“So six mares, a stallion and a filly. I wonder why he’s a stallion instead of a dragon.”
“Why would he be a— Oh no. No way. We’re not—“
“We are.”
“No we’re not.”
Suddenly a sharp whistle came from the filly still in Charity’s hooves. “What the hay are you two talkin’ about?”
Libby and Charity looked at each other. Libby said, “Short version. Nightmare Moon is real, and she’s comin’ back tonight. We are goin’ to use an ancient artifact called the Elements of Harmony to defeat her.”
“No, we are not.” Charity interjected.
“Or at least we will once we get on the same page. Which is more important? Defeatin’ Nightmare Moon or followin’ the plot of a little girl’s TV show?”
“Stopping Nightmare Moon, but—“
“But nothin’! These here plants will die without enough sunlight.”
“Fine, but after we defeat Nightmare Moon we’re looking for the main six.”
“Deal.”
“Oh, good you have a plan. Can You Put Me Down Now!” said Applebloom.
“Oh sorry.” Charity set Applebloom down on the ground.
Applebloom galloped away.
Charity and Libby headed into town.
------
Charity and Libby arrived at the Golden Oak Library just before nightfall. As they entered Charity said, “Sophia. Nightmare Moon is returning tonight and none of the main six are here. Do you know where the book on the Elements of Harmony is?”
Sophia lifted up one of the books in front on her. “It’s right here. But I have already drawn us a map, found a couple maps of the Everfree Forest, found a bestiary and found a Survival guide, so we don’t need it anymore.”
“You already know--?”
“That Nightmare Moon is returning. Yes, but the fact that Twilight Sparkle and the others aren’t around is new, but it does explain why Pinkie Pie isn’t setting up a party in here.”
Just then John, Alex and Megumi entered the library.
Alex started counting the ponies in the library “—six and seven. Alright, everyone’s here. Let’s go get these elements of something and kick this Nightmare Loon’s butt.”
“That’s Nightmare Moon, and we have until dawn before she even shows up. We can afford to plan a little,” said Libby.
“This is a little kids’ show, right? We can handle anything this never free forest throws at us,” said Alex.
“That’s Everfree Forest, and no, we can’t. That is unless you know how to handle a bear bigger than a house, a chicken snake hybrid that can turn us to stone with a glance and regeneratin’ wolves made out of wood,” said Libby.
“Wolves made out of wood, seriously?” asked Alex.
“Yes and they are much more dangerous than they sound,” replied Libby.
“Ok, Ok. I get it; we need to do a little planning beforehand,” said Alex.
------
One hour later.
“Ok is everyone clear on the plan?” asked Sophia.
“Ya, me and Charity grab the elements off the pedestal and drop them down to you guys and we each carry one of them back to Ponyville and then we prepare to face Nightmare Moon. And if we get separated on the way back we meet up here,” said Alex.
“You forgot the second backup plan. If for some reason the elements get destroyed we split up and gather the six,” said Libby.
“Ya, ya. I go to that city in the cloud something dale and start looking for Rainbow Dash.”
“That’s Cloudsdale. And I’m surprised you nailed Rainbow Dash’s name.”
“My sister is her biggest fan. It’s Rainbow Dash this and Rainbow Dash that every day. I couldn’t forget her name if I tried.”
“And I’m goin’ to Appleloosa to retrieve Applejack.”
“I go to Cloudsdale and look for Fluttershy,” said Charity.
“I go to Canterlot and find Twilight Sparkle,” added Sophia.
Brenda jumped in, “And I Pinkie Promise to find the Pinkie Diane Pie. No matter if I have to go the ends of Equestria. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. But seriously she’s probably still on her family’s rock farm.”
“And I stay around here and look for Rarity or her family, ” whispered Megumi.
“And I stay here and keep Nightmare Moon occupied,” finished John.
Alex headed for the door. “Alright. Let’s go girls.”
“Hey!” said John.
“Oops, I forgot you were, you know.”
“That wasn’t what you said when you literally ran into me this morning.”
Alex blushed. “That was an accident!”
“John, save the flirting until after we’ve defeated Nightmare Moon,” said Brenda.
“We aren’t flirting! He’s a horse, for heaven’s sake!” said Alex.
“So are you,” said Libby.
“Alex, it’s not surprising that you’re attracted to John. After all Twilight Sparkle was attracted to human Flash Sentry when she was in the human world,” said Sophia.
“But I thought that was non-canonical and anyways Spike likes Rarity. So assuming he isn’t an oddball, Equestrians are attracted to anything sentient, so it’s not surprising that Twilight was attracted to Flash even if he was a little oddly shaped from her point of view,” said Charity.
“Can we stop discussing the love lives of ponies and defeat this nightmare goon person already!” said Alex.
The little ponies exited the library and headed toward the Everfree Forest.
------
Just as the gang was about to enter the everfree forest—
Charity stopped and listened. “Wait, everybody. I think there’s an animal trapped in that bush.”
“You’re stopped our Equestria saving adventure, to free an animal from a bush?” asked Alex.
“Yes. Just because we’re trying to saving Equestria doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help a poor little animal in trouble.” Charity walked over to the crying bush and moved the thorny branches with her wing.
A small white rabbit scampered out and away without as much as a thank you.
“See. That didn’t take much time and now the poor little guy is safe and sound.”
Alex rolled her eyes.
------
The rest of trip to the ruin that held the elements was uneventful until they ran into a downed rope bridge over a chasm of undetermined depth.
“Ok, I guess me and Alex are up.” Charity took off and did a couple loop-de-loops, a barrel roll, and flew inverted for ten feet before crashing face first into a tree--which would have been fine if she meant to do any of that. “Hee, Hee, guess I should have practiced beforehand. Alex, would you go tie off the bridge while I get the hang of flying?”
“Fine.” Alex took off and flew down and grabbed the untied end of the rope bridge. She landed on the other side of the chasm. She had started tying off the bridge when she heard footsteps behind her. Alex turned around and came face to face with a midnight blue pony a little bigger than her with a unicorn horn and wings. The winged unicorn’s mane and tail looked exactly like the night sky in fact if the sky had been behind her instead of a ruin, Alex might have had a hard time telling she even had a mane. At the point where her neck met the rest of her body she wore a black hole breast plate with a stylized crescent moon.
One of her friends screamed something, but Alex couldn’t understand.
“Greetings, we are Princess Luna of Equestria, Regent of the Moon, Guardian of Dreams, Day’s End and the rightful Ruler of the Night.”
“Um, Hi your Highness. Are you here to help us defeat this Nightmare Goon person?”
Alex thought she saw Luna’s eyebrow twitch for a second, but it was gone so quickly she couldn’t be sure. “Actually no, we cameth here to offer thou a way back to the land of thy birth.”
“Huh?”
“We know thou come from a far off land--the like of which isn’t to be found in all of Equestria. We offer thou and thy kin transport across the dimensional barriers between here and thy sires.”
“Cool, just let me finish tying off this bridge and make sure the others don’t need me then—“
“Thou misunderstandeth, Thou must come with us right now. The dimensional barriers are already closing. Thou hasn’t time for tying of bridge knots.”
Alex looked at her friends and said “I’m sorry—“
Luna’s lips started to curl upwards.
Alex turned toward Luna. “—I can’t take you up on your offer.”
Luna frowned. “Is the securing of a bridge more important than seeing thy sires!?”
“Yes. Yes, it is. See there’s this Nightmare goon person and –“
“Enough! If thou desire to secure a bridge more than seeing thy sires. Fine! But know this, thou wilt be trapped here until thy grave!” Luna then melted into her mane and flew off.
Alex finished tying the bridge to its anchor points and walked back across the bridge, testing it along the way.
Charity rushed forward and hugged Alex when she came back into view. “Alex, are you ok? She didn’t hurt you, did she?”
“Who? Luna? She might’ve not been happy I wasn’t taking her offer, but she never laid a hand on me.”
“Alex, that wasn’t Luna. Well, I guess it was technically, but, never mind. That was Nightmare Moon!”
“That was Nightmare Moon!? That explains why she didn’t want me to secure the bridge.”
“Wait, she didn’t …? I guess we’ve found our element of loyalty.”
The seven friends entered the castle and found a pedestal with five stones.
“There they are girls! The Elements of Harmony.” Sophia waved her hoof at the pedestal with the stones.
“Those stone things? How come there’s only five? I thought you said there were six.” said Alex.
“Oh, ya. I can’t believe we forgot that part. Alex, the sixth appears when the spark of friendship happens in the presence of the other five. Ok girls, let’s get this over with, so we can find the main six,” said Charity.
Suddenly an alicorn mare with a coat of the blackest night dropped in front of the Elements of Harmony. Her horn was longer than the average pony’s head and sharp as a tack. She wore a helmet with holes for her ears and horn. Her cutie mark was of the moon in the night sky. The alicorn’s mane and tail looked like two pieces of the night sky that had been bound to the alicorn’s head and dock. Charity recognized her right away as Nightmare Moon, the demon mare of the night.
“Nightmare Moon!” cried John, Charity, Brenda, Sophia, Libby, Megumi together.
“What are you doing here!? We left Ponyville just after sundown. You weren’t even free yet,” said John.
“You can thank that little foal that told me that some fashionista and her friends were going to banish me. AGAIN! No matter. That stain on everything pony is no danger to me anymore.”
“If You Hurt My Sister, I’ll—“ said Alex.
“I didn’t lay a hoof on the foal, the fashionista however, well, she’s, she’s…” Nightmare Moon broke down into laugher, not evil laugher, more like the laugher that happens after a funny joke.
Sophia started sneaking behind Nightmare Moon while she was distracted.
“You find that funny!” cried Brenda.
“Thou wouldst too, if thou sawst what I sawest.”
“Thou? What did the pony say when it had a sore throat?”
“Huh?” said everypony.
“I apologize, I am a little horse!” said Brenda.
John sweatdropped. “Sis, I don’t think this is the time for jokes.”
“No this is the perfect time for jokes. You heard her. She started talking in the royal canterlot voice. Only Luna did that. I think if we can fill her with love and light then we can defeat Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony or main six.”
“ENOUGH! WE ARE NOT AMUSED!” said Nightmare Moon.
“What are we, British royalty?” said Brenda.
“Thy pathetic anecdotes were stale even before we were banished, and will not keep us from taking thy life! But we aren’t without mercy. Run now, my little ponies, and thy lives may yet be spared.”
“NO! We will not let you win!” John lowered his head and start pawing the ground, preparing to charge.
Nightmare Moon blinked. “Thou art kidding. Thou art kidding, right?”
John charged Nightmare Moon, but Nightmare Moon knocked him to the side with her mane.
“Thy attempts to hurt me are truly pathetic. Wait, where is the blue horned one?” Nightmare Moon turned around to see a blue magic glow around the Elements of Harmony. “No, no!” Nightmare Moon rushed toward the Elements, but she knocked one of the Elements onto the floor where it shattered. Everypony (including Nightmare Moon) stared at the shattered element. Nightmare Moon took a close look at another of the elements. “Wait a second. These aren’t the Elements. They were gems of the highest quality. These are but mere rocks.”
“I thought you said those were the Elements of Harmony!” said Alex.
“I thought they were,” Charity answered, sweat dropping.
“So what do we do now?” asked Alex.
Charity stood up straighter. “I think it’s time for plan B. RUN!”
Charity and her friends scattered, but they found themselves blocked by the appearance of a star-filled wall.
“And where dost thou think thou art going, my little ponies?” said Nightmare Moon. As the six turned back they could see that the wall was Nightmare Moon’s tail.
“Well, we were—Wait a second, I know where the Elements are!” said Charity.
“Tell us where they are and we may yet spare thy life.”
“They are right here in front of you. We are the Elements of Harmony!” Suddenly the remaining rocks shattered. Glowing shards floated among the ponies.
“What?”
“Brenda, who tried to defeat a villain with a laugh, represents the spirit of laugher!”
The shards nearest Brenda converged on her and formed a necklace in the shape of a blue pom-pom.
“Alex, who stuck with us despite being offered a way home, represents the spirit of loyalty!”
A set of shards converged on Alex and formed a red basketball necklace.
“Megumi, who gave her lunch away even though she was in pain herself, represents the spirit of generosity!”
The shards converged on Megumi and formed a violet necklace in the shape of a v.
“Libby, who always told the truth even when it wasn’t what I wanted to hear, represents the spirit of honesty!”
The shards nearest Libby converged on her and formed an orange plow set in a necklace.
“And um, shoot. We don’t have an element of kindness.”
Everypony else facehooved. “Yes we do!” said Brenda. “Charity, who stopped to save a sociopathic bunny, represents the spirit of kindness!”
Charity blushed. “Oh, right.”
A set of shards converged on Charity and formed a pink necklace in the shape of a heart.
“And finally, Sophia, whose careful planning eased a dangerous journey, represents the spirit of magic!” said Charity.
A crown with a purple six-pointed star materialized and settled itself on top of Sophia’s head. As soon as it had settled in place, it and the other Elements started glowing and a rainbow stretched itself between the Elements before heading toward Nightmare Moon.
“Nooo! Nooo! My Night! My Beautiful Night!”
The rainbow hit Nightmare Moon and everypony was blinded for a second.
“Ugh, My head,” said Alex.
“Everypony ok?” asked Brenda.
“You do realize you just did the same two lines as the show after Nightmare Moon was defeated, right?” said Libby.
“Of course, why did you think I said that after she said Rainbow Dash’s line?”
“We’ve defeated Nightmare Loon, so now what?”
“We find the real six. We’re just temps. Wait a second. Brenda, why is your necklace of a pom-pom? It should be of a balloon.” Charity look around at the other necklaces and then at her own. “No, No! This is all wrong.” Charity pointed at Libby. “Yours should be an apple, not a plow.” Charity pointed at Megumi. “Yours should be a diamond, not a v.” Charity pointed at Alex. “Yours should be a lightning bolt, not a basketball. And mine should be a butterfly, not a heart! The only one that’s right is Sophia’s crown, and the element of magic has always been like that!”
“Calm down, my little pony.” A ball of bright light rose like the sun over the horizon and landed in the room. After the light dissipated, everypony could see Princess Celestia standing there. “Now, what’s got you in such a tizzy, little one?”
“I’msorrywewereonly—“
“Slow down, please. I can’t understand you when speak at such a quick pace.”
“We were only supposed to be temps, but now the Elements of Harmony are in the shape of our cutie marks and—“
“Whoa, who said anything about temps? The spell I used was to gather six heroes that could do what I could not do a thousand years ago.”
“Ya, those were supposed to be—Wait a second, spell? What spell?”
“That would be the spell I used to summon you to Ponyville when the scrying spell failed to find suitable ponies already living there.”
“Wait? Scrying spell? You set Twilight Sparkle up! You selected five suitable ponies to lead the preparations for the summer sun celebration! So she and they could become friends and wield the Elements of Harmony and defeat Nightmare Moon!”
Princess Celestia blinked, genuinely confused by Charity’s comments. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. I didn’t select you to do anything, let alone force you to be friends with Twilight. You five did that on your own. Wait, where is Twilight?”
“Not here,” said Sophia as she stepped forward. “Princess Celestia, I’m afraid we have a major problem on our hooves. Twilight isn’t the only pony that should have been here but isn’t. In fact, none of us are the ponies that were supposed to be here are here right now. I believe something or someone has altered the timeline.”
“I see. I expect you seven to come to Canterlot with me and my sister. Speaking of my sister…” Celestia stepped toward a blue mare with a light blue mane. “Princess Luna!”
The blue mare gasped and hid her face behind her hooves.
“It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. It is time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister. Will you accept my friendship?”
Princess Luna peeked out from behind her hooves. Luna stood up, nuzzled Celestia, and said. “I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!”
“No, it is I who is sorry. I should’ve seen you were in pain sooner.” The two sisters cried together.
Charity, John, Libby, Sophia and Megumi looked expectantly at Brenda.
“What?” said Brenda.
“Aren’t you going to do Pinkie’s line?” asked Charity and John.
“A little late for it now, but I will see if I can reorganize the celebration already set up in Ponyville into a welcome back party.”
------
Just as the nine ponies entered Ponyville a scream rang out. “MY HAIR!”
“We think we owe the fashionista we shaved while the nightmare an apology,” said Luna.
“MY CLOTHES!”
“A couple apologies.”
“WHY AM I HANGING FROM THE CEILING!?”
“A lot of apologizing.”
“Um, Luna, why did you shave Rainbow Dash?” asked Alex.
“Um, that’s not—“ said Libby.
“Earth Pony Rainbow Dash. Anyways why did you shave her?”
“How else were we to tie her to the ceiling?” said Luna.
“I don’t know, normal rope?”
Luna blushed. “Oh. Yes that would have worked better.”
“Wait, wait. Why did you tie G3 Rainbow Dash to the ceiling?” asked John.
“Well we were Nightmare Moon at the time and we thought it would keep her occupied while we secured the elements.”
“But why did you think—let me guess. A little brown filly said Rainbow Dash and her friends would defeat you.”
Luna nodded.
“She was talking about a Pegasus called Rainbow Dash, not the earth pony G3 version.”
“But she said that the earth pony was—the filly lied to me didn’t she?”
“Yep.”
Suddenly a high pitched filly voice said “There you three are!” The voice was coming from a tan filly wearing a nurse’s cap. “Do you know how worried we’ve been? The hospital has a check out pro-pro- method for a reason!”
“You forgot to check out of the hospital?” asked Libby.
The Popes rubbed their heads sheepishly.
------
An hour later John and Charity were waiting in one of the exam rooms for ‘a very important pony’, when Princess Celestia came in led by Doctor Horse, an amber stallion with an electrocardiograph as a cutie mark. “This is the alicorn we told you about. Or at least they were an alicorn before they separated.”
“Separated?” said John, Charity and Celestia together, although Celestia was little out of sync with the other two.
“Yes, we were treating him for severe trauma--including but not limited to a cracked horn, a fractured wing and numerous bruises and lacerations--when he reacted badly to one of the healing magics we were using and started crashing. Uh, that’s what we call it when a pony’s heart stops doing its job bad enough the pony will die without immediate help. We did standard defibrillation, when there was a flash of light, and suddenly we had two patients and one of them was a mare.”
“Wait, Wait. I was an alicorn? Why was I an alicorn?” said John and Charity in unison.
“Because that is what you entered Equestria as,” said Celestia.
“THAT’S IT!? That’s the best you can come up with!? Facing Nightmare Moon. Fine. Leading the main six back to their destiny. I don’t like it but I will do it. But me being an alicorn! Not going to happen! Not without a very good explanation! So subconscious either come up with one or retcon it away!” said the Popes simultaneously.
“Now Mr. Pope, calm down,” said Doctor Horse.
“Not until this travesty of everything my little pony is gone!”
“John, Charity, calm down. This isn’t a dream or a hallucination or whatever you think it is. I and Equestria are very real. You will get your answers in time but I don’t have them at the moment,” said Princess Celestia.
“How do I know that anything you say is true? I could be just dreaming that answer,” said John.
“Because if you were dreaming and knew you were dreaming, you would have complete control of the dream and could do anything you liked. Like making it night. Can you make it night?”
John focused on moving the sun but nothing happened. “No. Wait, that means I charged Nightmare Moon. The real Nightmare Moon! I could’ve died!”
Princess Celestia put her wing around John. “Shh. Shh. It’s ok. You’re ok.”
“But I could have…”
“Yes, you could have. But you didn’t. You’re just suffering some post combat jitters. It happens to everypony the first time they see action. Why don’t you take a nap on the way to Canterlot? It will help you feel better.”
“Ok.”