Golden Oaks
“The library! Of course! Why didn’t I think of it before?”
Standing besides Sunny, Zipp grinned once more. “I know right? If you're looking for information, you gotta come to Golden Oaks. Now come on.” She gave Sunny’s flank a slight nudge with her own before trotting up to the door, Sunny eagerly following behind.
*tap tap tap* Zipp rapped her hoof against the door three times before stepping back and waiting for a response. However, none came. Zipp turned to Sunny, who simply shrugged. She tried again *tap tap tap* still nothing.
Sunny tilted her head. “Do you think she didn't hear us, or...?”
Her words were cut off by the slow creak of the door opening, and an old unicorn mare emerged. “Come in, come in.” She said before disappearing back into the darkness.
Sunny turned to Zipp. “Should we...?”
Zipp nodded. “It's okay. Elder Flower can be... odd sometimes, but she's totally harmless. Come on, let's go.” She walked through the doorway, Sunny nervously trailing behind.
To Sunny’s surprise, the inside of the library was pitch black. Even as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could only see the faint outlines of the bookshelves. “Um, Elder Flower?” she asked.
“Yes, dearie?”
“Why are all the lights off?”
Elder flower gave a short chuckle. “Why for the party, course!”
“What party?”
“The 'Welcome to Ponyville party' for the new pony!”
“...Elder Flower?”
“Yes?”
“There aren't any new ponies coming to Ponyville today.”
“Really? Huh, I must've mixed up my stories again. Oh well!” She lit up her horn, and all the lights turned on, revealing the rows and rows of books stacked up high. “There we go! I hope you ponies find what you're looking for! I suggest checking under 'E'.” With that said, she trotted off to the upstairs, humming a little ditty as she did so.
Sunny tilted her head once more. “What was...?”
“No clue.” Zipp replied. “But under 'E' is probably where we'd find stuff on the Elements of Harmony, so maybe we should check there first?”
Sunny nodded. “Good idea. You do that. I'll try to learn more about Nightmare Moon. Maybe I can learn more about this prophecy. Sound good?” She raised her hoof up for Zipp to bump.
“Sounds good.” Zipp replied, reciprocating the gesture, before spreading her wings and flying toward the 'E' section. “Good luck!”
Sunny nodded before turning towards the shelves. “Okay Sunny. All you have to do is find information on Nightmare Moon. Easy-peasy. I mean, there's an entire holiday dedicated to her! How hard could it be?”
As it turns out, very hard.
Sunny had looked everywhere: Old history books, books on myths and legends, even Foal's Nightmare Night stories, but they all basically said the same thing; Younger sister gets jealous of older sister, tries to plunge Equestria into eternal night, gets banished to the moon. (The foal's stories also had some passages about how foals had to give up some of their candy in order to avoid getting eaten. Sunny figured that she could discount those parts.)
Okay, so there's nothing here, so think! What did Dad tell you about Nightmare Moon?
Think Sunny, think! Think back... to all those years ago...
“Sunny, it's bedtime! Are you ready for your nightly story?”
A young Sunny, only a few moons old, hopped up and down on her bed as her dad came to tuck her in. “Yes! I'm ready! I'm ready!”
Argyle laughed. “Alright, alright. Settle down now.” he said, seating himself beside Sunny's bed. “Now what story would you like to hear today? Do you want me to tell you the legend of Nightmare Moon again?”
Sunny shook her head. “Nuh-uh.”
“Oh, really?” Argyle replied, raising an eyebrow as he did so. “Why's that? I thought that one was your favorite.”
“It is, it is! But I was doing some thinking.” Sunny reached out to grab a folded piece of paper on her bedside table, which she handed to her dad.
He unfolded it to reveal a drawing depicting an alicorn mare with long pink hair running alongside a pitch black alicorn. Both ponies had wide smiles on their faces, and it was clear that they were both enjoying themselves. “What’s this, Sunny?”
“It’s the Princess!” She chirped. “And Nightmare Moon! They used to be sisters and rule together, right? What was it like back then?”
Argyle grinned. “Good question, Sunny! I admire your curiosity.” He walked over to the bookcase and pulled out a book with a worn leather cover and crinkled yellow pages. “Unfortunately, there aren't many surviving stories from that time period, but one of the ones we do have talks about their battle against a God named Discord.”
Sunny's ears perked up. “The spirit of chaos and disharmony, right? I saw his statue when our class went on the Canterlot field trip!”
Argyle nodded. “The very same. He had thrown Equestria into disarray with his cruel pranks. Blueberries grew to the size of houses, bears chirped instead of roared, and cotton candy clouds rained chocolate milk!”
Sunny giggled. “Chocolate milk rain? That sounds funny!”
Argyle shook his head, a grave expression on his face. “Oh, but it wasn't. Without proper water, crops couldn't grow properly, and ponies didn't have anything to eat. Because you see, Discord didn't think about others. He only cared about what he found funny. And unfortunately, that usually came at the cost of other ponies suffering.”
“Oh.” Sunny's ears drooped. “That's not very nice.”
“No, it wasn't. Thankfully, the Sun Princess and the Moon Princess arrived and defeated him with the power of the Elements of Harmony.”
Sunny gasped. “The very same Elements that the Princess used to defeat Nightmare Moon?”
“The very same. Using their power, they were able to turn him into a stone statue; the very same statue that you and your friends saw on your field trip.”
Sunny cocked her head. “But I thought the Elements only banished people to the moon?”
Argyle chuckled. “Apparently, they can do more than that. But with Discord defeated, ponykind was once again free to live in peace and harmony, ruled by the two princesses.”
Sunny shut her eyes, imagining the scene. “That sounds amazing. But wait, how did the Moon Princess use the elements? I thought she was a bad pony.”
“She wasn't always bad though. She used to be as kind and benevolent as her sister.”
“Then why'd she turn bad?”
“Jealousy can be a very powerful thing. Sometimes it can make monsters out of the best of us.” He planted a kiss onto Sunny's forehead. “Tell you what, Sunny-bunny. Tomorrow we can try and learn more about her. Does that sound good?”
“Yeah!”
“Alright, it's a plan. Goodnight, Sunny.”
“Night, Dad...”
Unfortunately, that research hadn't borne much fruit. Sure they learned the Moon Princess' name (Luna), and a few small details (Very loud, a bit of a prankster, said to walk through dreams), but nothing big. So another dead end.
“Hey, Sunny!”
She looked up to see Zipp flying down towards her, book in hoof. “Hi Zipp.”
“Looks like you've got quite the pile over here.” Zipp said, landing beside her. “Found anything yet?”
Sunny sighed. “Nothing that I didn't already know. What about you?”
Zipp grinned. “Well lucky for you I was able to find this!” She placed the book she was holding on the table.
“Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. That's perfect! What does it say?”
Zipp cleared her throat. “A-hem. 'There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters, located in what is now the Everfree Forest.”
The Everfree Forest. Sunny felt a shiver go up her spine just hearing the name. The most dangerous part of Ponyville, where nature ran wild without pony interference. Ponyville citizens were forbidden inside its borders without special permission from Hitch, not that anypony really wanted to go inside in the first place.
“What's with these element names?” Zipp mused. “All these pictures depicted them as stones, but these names are all virtues. So say, if you're using the Element of Honesty, does it make you honest or do you need to be honest to use it?”
“I'm guessing the latter option.” Sunny shrugged once more. “So what else is in there?”
Zipp scanned the book. “There's some history of their previous uses, speculation on their origins, history of their uses... Not much else, though.”
Sunny sighed again. “Well, I suppose it's better than nothing.” She stood up. “Come on, we'd better start looking someplace else.”
Zipp nodded. “Okay. Hey Elder Flower?”
“Yes, dearies?” The reply came from behind them, startling the two ponies.
“You weren't— How did you—” Zipp quickly shook her head. “Never mind. I'm not even going to bother to try and solve that. Can we check out these books?”
“That depends. Do ya have your library card on ya?”
Zipp smirked, pulling out a small card. “You know I never leave home without it.”
“Great! Then come me with to the checkout corner. But before you do, the Tree wanted me to give you two a message.”
Sunny and Zipp exchanged confused looks. “Uh...” Zipp finally said. “The tree? Like the library?”
Elder Flower shook her head. “Not this tree, sillies! The other one! In the forest!”
“A tree in the forest wants to give us a message?” Zipp asked flatly.
“Sure as sugar, sweetie!”
“And that message is...?”
“That you need to know that her spirit lives on in you. Also, that it's important to recycle. Now let's check out those books!”
“Well that was... interesting.” Sunny said as soon as they were out of the library. “I mean, what do you think that cryptic message was? 'The tree's spirit lives on in us'? Elder Flower said that she wasn't talking about the library tree, but I'm not sure what other tree she could be talking about. What do you think, Zipp?”
No answer. Sunny turned to see the pegasus trailing slightly behind her, face buried in Elements of Harmony reference guide. “Zipp? Zipp! Zipp!”
“Sorry! Sorry.” Zipp said, putting the book away. “It's just, I feel like even with all our research I feel like we're still no closer to figuring things out. I almost wish there was a way we could just ask the Princess ourselves so we could—”
Zipp was cut off by a purple unicorn running full-speed into her. Plates, paintbrushes, and books went flying to the air before landing on the ground in a book-plate-paintbrush-pony pile.
“Ugh...” Zipp groaned. “What was that?”
A giggle. “Sorry!” A familiar high pitched voice said from beneath the pile.
“Izzy?” Zipp replied.
The unicorn sat up. “That's my name! Don't wear it out.”
Sunny trotted over to the two mares, reaching out to help Zipp up. “Are you guys okay? That looked really rough.”
“I'm fine.” Zipp replied.
“Me too!” Izzy chirped. “Sorry about crashing into you! I just got the best idea for some amazing plate decorations for the celebration tonight, and I had to get some new supplies ASAP!” She lit up her horn, levitating all the fallen objects. “Ooh,” she said, eyes falling on the book. “What's this about?”
“It's a book all about the Elements of Harmony.” Zipp said, taking the book back into her hooves. “Me and Sunny were just doing some research on them before you came along.”
“What a coincidence! I just heard the Princess say something about Elements of Harmony earlier!” Izzy giggled to herself. “Well, I gotta get back to work! Crafting waits for nopony! See ya!” She said, before trotting off at a much more leisurely pace.
“Bye Izzy!” Sunny called back as she and Zipp both waved goodbye. The two turned around and continued their own walk in the opposite direction before the full force of Izzy's words hit them.
“Wait, what?!”
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99.999% sure a certain tree means Twilight. Elder already took her position in Golden Oaks, and Pinkie's job of throwing a party for each new pony in town.
Again, an excellent job on the dialogue, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Definitely liked Sunny and Zipp's interactions with Elder Flower (definitely a good mix of humorous and informative). And Elder Flower's nods to both Twilight AND Pinkie from the canon G4 were appreciated as well. Sunny's flashback concerning her father was another beautifully bittersweet bit (as well as including foreshadowing for Discord later on). At least Sunny and Zipp have SLIGHTLY more information than Twilight did in canon at this point AND already found the reference guide. Also liked the interaction with Izzy.
Most assuredly looking forward to more of this.
Calling it now, Elder Flower was referring to the spirit of Twilight Sparkle.
Nice fake out with Elder Flower acting like Pinkie.
Or was she? After all, this IS the same mare who (in canon) referred to the Canterlot wedding and accompanying changeling invasion in detail as if she was there.
Dang it, that Tree's absolutely right, it IS important to recycle!
11733269
Yeah, as if she were there. Even though she mentioned enough "greats" before Aunt Moondancer to indicate that it would have still been a century (at minimum) before she was even born (especially since Moondancer's sister, if I remember correctly, was younger than Moondancer). Though, to be fair, Elder Flower's family might have kept records good enough that, combined with hearing that story who knows how many times from her parents or grandparents, she might very well HAVE eventually thought she was there.
Yeah, she is a bit on the dotty side, so her stories should be taken with a grain of salt. But, hey, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
For example, as you pointed out, it IS important to recycle.
And, before I forget, Happy Halloween/Nightmare Night in advance.
Elder Flower as the librarian does make some sense. Also it seems that she gets messages from the Tree of Harmony.
11733055
. . .Or the Tree of Harmony. It's spirit loves to manifest itself in the form of sparkly Twilight.