Twilight's the Princess of a kingdom that's been lost for three thousand years.
Luna has magicked a book into Twilight's library. Her and her friends read it to discover that it's in fact a book about a kingdom that's been lost for three thousand years. Cadance then sends a message saying that there's been a disturbance. Coincidence? Highly unlikely.
NOTES 20/01/2017 - Just adding the Mystery tag because I feel like this needs it.
“Yes you are a princess Twilight.” This was all so sudden. There’s no way that Twilight could be a princess. But a princess she was. She had unknowingly gained height so that she was now level with Princess Celestia. Celestia was about to say something else but one of the Royal Guard ponies whispered something in her ear.
“Sorry Twilight, but I have to go.” She left in her chariot, heading back to Canterlot, while Twilight unfurled her new wings. She shook them and pulled them up then back down as hard as she can. Pretty soon she was flying. She flew through the clouds, revelling in this newfound happiness. She bumped into a cyan mare.
“Ow.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. She rubbed her head and looked at Twilight.
“Please watch where you’re going egghead.” She said not unkindly.
“Sorry.” They flew together towards Twilight’s library. The others were waiting for them inside. Twilight folded her wings back and dropped the last few centimetres to the ground.
“Hi girls.”
“Hey Twilight.” They mumbled. They sounded occupied. Twilight and Rainbow walked over to see what had them so occupied. The two mares peered over the others’ shoulders and saw that they were reading a book. A very old book by the looks of it.
“What’s that you’re reading?” Twilight asked.
“It’s a book called The Lost Kingdom.” Applejack replied.
“The Lost Kingdom? I don’t remember that being in the library.”
“Oh it’s not. Princess Luna magicked it from Star Swirl the Bearded’s wing in the Canterlot Archives.” Rarity replied.
“Can we please go back to the start?” Twilight asked. They all groaned but flipped the book back to the start anyway.
“‘The Lost Kingdom-’” Spike read aloud.
“Not that far Spike. But go ahead anyway.”
“I repeat ‘The Lost Kingdom. Once upon a very long time ago, three thousand years in fact, there was once an extraordinary kingdom. This kingdom stretched as far as the eye could see. Its stone buildings were glistening; even the actual castle was glistening with morning dew that for some reason, never quite dried out but this kingdom had a dark secret. A unicorn wanted to take over and keep it all for himself. But the ruler of the kingdom protested against it. There was a fierce battle and the ruler was forced to flee. Eventually the ruler happened upon Equestria, for you see, the Lost Kingdom was somewhere in the north, even further than the Crystal Empire and, deciding to keep her identity hidden, she made a new one for herself. Her new name was Crystal Night. She couldn’t change her cutie mark so she always wore a cloak made of silk the colour deepest purple. Eventually she settled down and she passed this story of how she was defeated to her daughter, from mother to daughter, this was the way. Through the ages this information was lost as the generations kept forgetting bit by bit their true heritage.’” Spike stopped reading and looked over on the next page. There was no writing on this side but there was a drawing of what the Princess looked like. They all gasped.
“She looks just like you Twilight! But how is this possible?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. Twilight was just too shocked to speak. She sat down on her haunches and stared vacantly.
“I think Princes Luna needs to come here.” Spike said. He wrote a message and blew his magic fire on it. A trail of smoke headed to Canterlot.
“There, it’s sent, we just have to wait.” A few minutes later Princess Luna walked through the door.
“You wanted to see me?” Luna asked. Fluttershy wordlessly pointed to the picture.
“Ah. That. You weren’t meant to see that Twilight Sparkle.”
“Why? Why wasn’t I meant to see it?”
“Let me explain. You see, my mother, and Tia’s, told a story to us. That story actually.” She pointed to the book.
“So you’re actually descended from her?” Twilight asked.
“Yes. By this time Tia and I vowed to never have kids-”
“Why didn’t you want kids?”
“We didn’t want kids because that would mean that the child would rule over the Lost Kingdom and we didn’t want that. Well, Tia did more than me, anyway I had a daughter and naturally Celestia would have been jealous but I had to give her up to a family who couldn’t have any foals.” At this her eyes started to brim up with tears.
“Me?” Twilight guessed the truth. Twilight’s mouth fell open. She didn’t look but she could practically hear the others mouths fall open in shock.
“But how? I was born a Unicorn, not an Alicorn. Besides, you were stuck in the moon for a thousand years.”
“That requires another explanation. To answer your first question, I had to hide your wings so that they wouldn’t be suspicious. To answer that last part, you were cared for until you stopped growing, and stopped aging, so they had to give you up to another family. It happened like this until Celestia vanquished me to the moon. Then maybe the family that was caring for you then magicked you to the future for when I had vowed to return. Then you were born an actual Unicorn and your wings were suppressed until now.”
“This is all too much to take in. I have to go think this over.” Twilight walked up the stairs and into her room to sleep on it. Luna watched her daughter go and then she excused herself so that she could fly around for a bit. While she was flying, Luna wept with mixed emotions. Why did she tell Twilight this? Because she needed to know. Thankfully, Celestia doesn’t know. Luna had to go and lie down in her Royal Chambers to think things through.
Twilight woke up after her sleep and she still couldn’t believe that she was Princess Luna’s daughter of all ponies.
“Spike!” She yelled. Spike woke up from his bed and came to her side.
“What is it Twilight? I was having a nice dream about jewels …” His mouth began to water at that.
“Enough of that!” She snapped.
“Jeez. What’s the matter with you?”
“I don’t know. But let’s go see Pinkie.” With Spike grumbling after her, they walked out of the library and towards Sugar Cube Corner.
In Pinkie’s room … Pinkie Pie was crying for some weird reason. That reason, was that she had just read a short story that somepony had sent her. The story was called Cupcakes and she had just read what had happened to Rainbow Dash. She heard the door jangle open and she quickly forgot about Cupcakes.
Back with Twilight … “Pinkie? You in here?” A blue Unicorn walked by.
“What are you shouting about Twilight?” He asked her kindly.
“I wanted to know where Pinkie was.”
“Uh, she’s-”
“Right here!” A bubbly voice said. It sounded overly joyful but a bouncing pink pony bounced in.
“Are you okay Pinkie?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Uh, nothing. Have you baked any cupcakes yet?” She directed the question to Mr. Cake but she heard sobbing behind her. Amazingly, the sobbing came from Pinkie.
“Pinkie you okay?” Twilight asked concernedly. Pinkie gave a little sniff and went back upstairs.
“What’s the matter with her?”
“Nothing, but anyway, yes we have just baked a few cupcakes and would you care to buy some?” He seemed to want to change the subject a bit too quickly.
Later … At Twilight’s library Spike belched and a trail of green magical smoke came out of his mouth. A scroll appeared. Twilight caught it with her magic and started to read.
Dear Twilight Sparkle, A disturbance has happened at the Crystal Empire and I want you and your friends to come and see if you can sort it out. Cadence
“Cadence sent me a message? About a disturbance? I’d better round up the others.” Twilight sped out and got all her friends to meet back at the library. They all walked in with the exception of Pinkie. She bounced her way in.
“Why have you asked us to meet here Twi?” Rainbow asked. Twilight read the message she got from Cadence and waited to see what their reactions were. They all had the same expression: blank. Pinkie was crying though.
“Pinkie will you quit blubbering?! This is serious!” Rainbow squealed. But that just made Pinkie cry harder.
“Anyway, we all have to be on the next train to the Crystal Empire. Who’s up for a road trip?” Twilight asked the group at large. At the train station, they were greeted by a surprise. Princess Luna was there.
“What are you doing here?”
“Do I have to have a reason to come see my daughter?” Luna asked. Twilight looked sceptic. She’ll never get used to being Luna’s daughter.
“Doesn’t matter. Anyway, Princess Cadence sent me a message about a disturbance at the Crystal Empire. I suppose she sent you one as well?” Twilight nodded. They all boarded the train and waited for the Crystal Empire station to come.
An hour later … It started to snow outside. This was a sign that they were nearing the Crystal Empire. Cadence was anxiously waiting for them at the station.
“What’s wrong Cadence?” Twilight asked her sister-in-law.
“Something’s happening, it’s a bit hard to explain. Just follow me.” They all followed Cadence to the top of the Crystal Tower.
“Look.” She pointed her hoof. There was something in the distance.
“Do you have a telescope?” Twilight asked Cadence. She handed Twilight a telescope and held it up to her eye. Now that it’s closer, she could see something rising up out of the mist. It looked like … it couldn’t be. She handed the telescope to Applejack.
“Please tell me you’re seeing what I’m seeing.” She pleaded with Applejack.
“Ah don’t believe what ah’m seeing.”Applejack let the others have a look in the telescope.
“Cadence, is this true?” Rarity asked. Cadence could only nod. Twilight still couldn’t believe that there were stone towers rising out of the distant mist.
Twilight trudged through the mist. She flew here with her mum after seeing the stone castles rise out of the mist. She could feel something hard and stony beneath her hooves but there was basically no visibility at all. Luna tried to cast a spell that would lessen the mist but it was no use.
“Doesn’t work. This mist must drain the powers of any Unicorn that walks through here.” Luna commented. Twilight didn’t reply because she was thinking of what Cadence said when they were about to fly off.
‘I’ve sent a few Unicorns into the mist to see the cause of all this but they were never heard from again.’ Cadence told Twilight and Luna. ‘It sounds discouraging, but we’ll look anyway.’ Luna responded. ‘I can see you’ve made up your mind about this. I can’t stop you. I just want to wish you good luck.’
“Twilight look out!” Luna yelled. Twilight was so deep in her thoughts that she didn’t see the cliff she was about to topple over. The mist wasn’t helping anything.
“Thanks.” The mist cleared a bit and they could see a huge city made out of stone. There was something off about this place though. Twilight couldn’t put her hoof on it but there was something different about this place, something unearthly.
“Do you feel something weird about this place?” Twilight asked her mum. She nodded. She had a look of horror on her face.
“Mum?” Twilight waved her hoof in front of Luna’s face. Luna didn’t respond.
“Mum!?” Twilight was starting to panic. She followed Luna’s line of sight and saw nothing. What was Luna seeing then? She left her horrified mum at the cliff top and flew down to the ground. As she walked around she saw skeletons of buildings. She thought she could find some help here but it looked like it wasn’t to be.
Luna stood stock-still, almost as if she had seen a ghost. She couldn’t respond to anything, not even her daughter waving a hoof in front of her face. Just ahead of her she could see something horrid, something evil. It looked like, no it couldn’t be. But it was. She was seeing something that had haunted her very nightmares. She slowly looked over the flowing celestial blue hair that was dotted with tiny sparkles, the midnight blue armor and the crazy eyes. It was Nightmare Moon.
“Why are you here?” Nightmare Moon asked, almost coyly.
“Why am I here? Why are you here?” Luna pointed her hoof accusingly at Nightmare Moon.
“I am here because I don’t want anypony to come and take away my kingdom.” She answered simply.
“Your kingdom!? Don’t you mean Twilight’s?”
“You mean that miserable foal you cast off as soon as you could? BAH!” She spat at Luna’s hooves. At this point Luna tried to extend a shaking wing to protect Twilight but her wings were locked in place.
“Why can’t I move my wings?”
“I didn’t cast any spell on you, if that’s what you mean. No, your wings are simply locked by your own confusion and fear. Fear that I would take control again!” Luna tried to cower but her legs wouldn’t obey her. She started to hyperventilate but Twilight unfortunately noticed this and tried to calm her mum down. It didn’t work. Nightmare Moon rushed at her but stopped mere inches from Luna’s muzzle
“Do you want me to hurt your pathetic little foal?” Nightmare Moon asked quietly. The words sounded more menacing under the quiet tone that Nightmare Moon employed. She disappeared, leaving her words to hang over Luna’s head, like a thundercloud waiting to pour down with hail and rain.
“This is bad, this is bad thisisbad thisisbad thisisbad thisisbad thisisbad thisisbad.” Twilight started to hyperventilate as well under all the stress of trying to bring her mum back.
“How do I get her to respond? That won’t work … neither would that …” While Twilight carried on with her incoherent ramblings, she felt a wing brush her flank. She stiffened and looked over.
“Mum?” Luna nodded and at that Twilight hugged her fiercely.
“It’s okay Twilight,” Luna said with a slight giggle.
“What happened?” The lavender mare asked after she pulled away. Luna quickly looked around but didn’t look directly at her.
“What happened?” Twilight asked in a much quieter tone, but no less forceful.
“Uh, I would rather tell you when we’re back with the others.” Luna smiled a plastic smile and held it until Twilight nodded slightly. Twilight wasn’t okay with it but she supposed it would have to do.
“Want to walk through the town? I know there aren’t any ponies there but it’s worth a look anyway.” Twilight nodded and they walked into the middle of the kingdom.
With the others …
“There hasn’t been any news of Twilight or Luna since we lost contact with them five days ago.” Cadence was telling Celestia.
“Hmm, this most worrisome indeed.” Celestia was worried about her most faithful student and her sister as well. This is exactly what happened after Cadence sent the other Unicorns in there. Apparently it only affects Unicorns but what about the other pony races? Celestia put this question to the young Princess and Cadence’s face lit up.
“Why not?” Cadence called for Twilight’s other friends to follow her while excusing herself from the room. They all met up in the observatory.
“I’ve got a task for Rainbow Dash. I want her to go into the mist and try to find Twilight and Princess Luna. How about it Dash?” Rainbow looked over and saw Pinkie blubbering away like an idiot.
“Uh, would it be okay if Pinkie came with me?” Rainbow gestured over to the blubbering pink mare and waited for Cadence’s answer. Cadence narrowed her eyes and said,
“That will be okay.” She said it loud enough for Pinkie to hear. Her face immediately took on a huge smile and her hair went all poofy again. Before Pinkie came over Cadence told her that she wanted to talk to Rainbow alone. Pinkie’s hair went straight again. Cadence led Dash over to where they wouldn’t be heard by any of the other ponies in the room.
“What did you want to talk to me about Princess?”
“Shh. Not so loud.” Cadence hurriedly shushed the mare and began to talk to her hurriedly.
“I know that you and Pinkie have to get going but I wanted to talk about you and Pinkie.”
“Uh … what about us?” Dash nervously said.
“About your feelings for her.”
“Oh, right. Heheh. That. What about them.”
“I can tell that you love her and that you want to be together and I understand that,” She raised a hoof to stop Dash’s questions, “you and Pinkie mean well to each other. I just want you two to be careful. Can you promise me that?” Cadence sounded like an over-protective mother and less like a Princess. She silently nodded and they walked back to the group. Pinkie saw them coming back and ran over to hug Dash tightly.
“Pinkie … can’t … breathe.” Pinkie hurriedly let go.
“I’m so super-duper sorry. Lets’ go!” Pinkie grabbed Rainbow’s hoof and took off for the mist faster than you can blink an eye.
“Wow.” Cadence was stunned by Pinkie’s over-abundance of energy.
“Ooh! This is so exciting! Are you excited? I’m excited.” Pinkie said as she bounced circles around Rainbow. She didn’t know how Pinkie could have all this energy when she was crying only a few seconds ago. Rainbow was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice that Pinkie had stopped talking.
“Pinkie? Pinkie where are you?” She yelled into the mist. She tried to fly but her wings were plastered to her sides. ‘Huh? What’s goung on? Why can’t I fly?” She thought to herself. She was still trying to see through the dense mist but Pinkie was nowhere in sight. “PINKIE?!” She yelled into the mist. There was no answer. ‘Where could that bubbly mare go?” She thought to herself. She’s been doing a lot of thinking lately, thinking about stuff, especially about a certain pink mare. “No.” She slapped herself.
With Pinkie … Pinkie heard Dash call out her name but Dash was nowhere to be found. She was jumping around Dash when she jumped into a hole. She slid down the dirty hole until she came out the other end into a large-sprawling city. A really old city. ‘Wow. How is this city so old? I know! It’s got a time-distorting sort of thing on it. How is this possible …” Pinkie just continued thinking, trying not to let her thoughts wander to a certain book about a certain something she did to a certain cyan, rainbow-maned pony.
But she didn’t really do that, did she? ‘I couldn’t have done those things. I would’ve known about it, wouldn’t I?’ She kept thinking to herself when she bumped into a wall. ‘Ouch.’ She rubbed her now throbbing nose and took better care to watch where she was going. She took stock of her surroundings and saw that she was inside a house. Made out of stone. ‘Well duh this would be made out of stone. We’re in a whole city made of stone, silly.’ She chuckled at herself and kept walking.
With Rainbow … ‘Where could that mare have gotten to?’ She thought to herself. Again. She was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice she how she fell into a hole. A she slid out the other side, she slid straight into a stone wall, nearly blacking out in the process.
‘Ouch.’ It happened to be the exact same wall that Pinkie banged into. But Rainbow didn’t know that. Rainbow got up and tried to flap her wings again. It didn’t work as they were still glued to her sides. ‘Damn. Why won’t these things work?’ She trotted in what was hopefully a direction that didn’t have any walls in it. That is, until she bumped into a mare with a sparkly flowing mane that managed to defy gravity and had a crazy look in her eyes.
“Sorry, I didn’-” She stopped speaking as she realised who the mare was. Nightmare Moon. She squealed and ran in the other direction. Nightmare Moon cackled and flew after her. The cyan mar had no hope of escaping.
“Psst! Dash, in here!” Somepony whispered as Dash shot around the slightly deteriorating doorframe.
“Phew! That was close! Thank-” Rainbow’s spine stiffened as she recognised the voice. “Nononononononono.” She screamed again and ran out of the building, straight into the hoofs of Nightmare Moon. “Oof.” Dash collapsed in Nightmare’s hoofs.
“Thanks for your help Discord.” Discord cackled as he tipped an imaginary hat to her and slowly faded from sight. “That wasn’t nearly as fun as chasing that stupid pink mare.” She cackled quietly and flew to the dungeons underneath Time Castle. She locked Dash in one of the cells that just so happened to be right between Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle.
Five days ago… Twilight and Princess Luna walked into the abandoned city. Luna was still scared and shocked as to how Nightmare Moon, her alter ego gone rogue, was here. Twilight and her friends banished that side of her forever. Or so she thought.
“There’s nopony here except for…” Twilight’s voice trailed off as her pupils turned to pinpricks. The only reason why they would do that would be if she was scared, seriously scared. Luna looked behind her but there wasn’t anything there. ‘Oh great. Now it’s her turn.’ Luna patiently waited to see if Twilight would ever come out of it. From what Twilight told her mum, Luna was like this for about an hour, maybe two.
‘NO! How can they be here? One was supposedly turned to good, thanks to Fluttershy, but the other was practically vaporised!’
“Surprised little foal?” The star-speckled mane spoke to Twilight. Twilight knew that Nightmare Moon and Discord were in front of her but she refused to believe it.
“I’d say she is. She looks like she’s seen a ghost.” Discord cackled after he joked.
“Don’t tease her she’s scared enough as it is.”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not even here. I’ve got a question to ask. Nightmare Moon,” Nightmare Moon looked at Twilight quizzically. ‘What is this ignorant foal doing?’ She thought to herself.
“How. Are. You. Even. Here?” Twilight punctuated each word with an accusatory jab at Discord.
“Me? You think I had something to with it? All this?” Discord feigned shock but laughed it off with a manic smile.
“Foal, you couldn’t possibly comprehend what I’ve done here.” She spread her hoofs out, as if she was gesturing to everything around them.
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
“I don’t care about some silly question. All that I care about is you becoming my prisoner.” Nightmare Moon began to stalk towards Twilight. ‘What did she just say?’ Twilight was still in shock when Nightmare Moon said that she didn’t care about the question Twilight put to her. She didn’t react when Nightmare Moon lunged for her but Luna, sensing something was amiss, intervened. She grappled with her evil counterpart and managed to hoof her in the face. Twice. But then Nightmare Moon got the upper-hoof and turned the tables against Luna. Twilight and Discord just stood by and watched.
“Why are you working with Nightmare? I thought you were ‘reformed’?” Twilight casually asked Discord.
“Yes, about that, I may have lied …” Discord trailed off.
“WHAT!?” Twilight was positively furious at Discord. He let Fluttershy and the rest of Twilight’s friends believe that he had been reformed.
“You … you …” She let out a horrified scream and started to pummel Discord. At that Nightmare Moon and Luna stopped their fight and watched Discord try to unsuccessfully stop Twilight punching him. Discord looked over at Nightmare Moon pleadingly, thinking that she would help him. Nightmare just glared at him and let Twilight have her fun. After what seemed like hours, Twilight finally relented and stepped off of the battered Draconequus. Twilight was still seething with fury at what Discord had done but she was also furious at herself, for what she did to Discord. She looked around and only saw Luna. There was no sign of Nightmare Moon.
“Where’s Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asked her mum. Luna looked to her left and realised that Nightmare Moon was no longer there. She looked at where Discord used to be.
“Forget Nightmare Moon, what about Discord?” Luna pointed to where Discord used to be. Twilight gasped when she didn’t see him but she supposed that she shouldn’t be surprised. This was exactly the sort of thing that Discord would try. She walked over to her mum and let Luna hug her with one of her azure wings. They walked off from the battlefield and tried to get the thoughts of Nightmare Moon and Discord out of their minds. No such luck. Luna suddenly grabbed her head and moaned.
“Mum?” Twilight quickly ran to her mother’s side and tried to console her.
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Luna screamed.
“Nope, sorry. I rather like it in here.” Discord cackled madly.
“Noooooo” Luna moaned into the ground as by this time, she had fallen to the ground.
“Oh hey, there’s room here for all three of us.” Nightmare decided to join the party in Luna’s mind.
“Now what? What shall I do?” Twilight just rambled meaningless things under her breath as she began to pace around Luna.
“Not you too.” Luna moaned as her head was filled with both of Nightmare Moon’s and Discord’s voices. Luna could feel Nightmare Moon start to push Discord out of her head and decided to take over Luna’s personality. Again. Much like how she did before her banishment to the moon. She could feel her sense of sanity slipping away.
“Not again …”
“What do you mean by ‘not again’?” Twilight asked her. But then she remembered that Luna couldn’t possibly hear her.
“NOOOOOO!” Luna’s scream turned into a growl as Nightmare Moon finally took over her personality.
“Ah. It feels good to be back.” Nightmare Moon had her black armor on. Twilight turned around and ran, hoping that she’ll be able to get out of the mist and to the Crystal Empire.
“Where are you going little foal?” Nightmare Moon taunted her and gave chase. A hole out of nowhere opened up in front of her. Twilight didn’t even have to scream before she fell into the darkness. She could feel herself sliding until she heard a clang. Then she fell unconscious.
“Ugh. My head.” Rainbow Dash clutched her head. While she was doing that, she surveyed her surroundings and saw that she was in a dungeon. “Hello?” She called out.
“Dashie?”
“Pinkie!? You’re here as well?”
“It would seem that way.” Pinkie sounded extremely depressed.
“Ouch. What did I bang into?” Twilight spoke up and moaned.
“TWILIGHT!?” Rainbow Dash yelled.
“Why so surprised?” Twilight chuckled a bit.
“How long have I been here?”
“Dunno. Princess Cadance and Princess Celestia are extremely worried about you. We lost contact with you and Princess Luna about five days ago but now I’m not so sure.”
“FIVE …” Twilight’s yell trailed off as she thought about it and what it would mean for Equestria now that Nightmare Moon was back. For good.
“Twilight, you okay?” Pinkie asked Twilight. She didn’t sound like her usual bubbly self.
“Yeah Pinkie.”
“I know what we need!” Pinkie immediately said. Rainbow Dash gave a start and wondered how … don’t bother, she thought to herself.
“PARTY CANNON!” She pulled it out of nowhere and a loud explosion was heard. It was accompanied by confetti and streamers. Dash looked to her right and saw that Pinkie’s Party Cannon didn’t work.
“Oh. Bummer.” Pinkie didn’t say anything else after her failed attempt at escaping the jail cell.
“Anyway … how did you get here Pinkie? At first I thought it was just me.”
“Oh that. Well you see … I was bouncing along, being my sort of happy-go-lucky self when I accidentally bounced into a hole that appeared out of nowhere.”
“That’s what happened to me.” Twilight said.
“Not me. I got caught by,” She shuddered, “Nightmare Moon.”
“So she was real! I thought she was just a figment of my imagination.” Rainbow had her mouth opened and she shook her head.
“Yeah, go on.”
“Anyway I slid down the hole and I banged into a wall. The wall was in a stone house. But then I walked around the city for a few hours. After that, Nightmare Moon came and bonked me on the head. I think I saw Discord as well. After that I woke up and started to you guys. Now we’re all caught up!” Pinkie was unbelievable. Rainbow and Twilight recounted their stories and in the middle of all the talking. They didn’t notice yet another one of their friends being dragged in, it was a Stetson-wearing cowpony.
About five hours ago …
“It’s now been ten days since we lost contact with both groups of ponies. I’m afraid that they’re lost forever.”
“No! Don’t say that! Ah know they’re still alive. Ah know it …” The farm pony broke down while Rarity tried to comfort her. “Why did you say that?” Fluttershy looked like she was on the verge of tears as well. Cadance looked at the distressed ponies around her and ran out the door. Shining Armor went to go comfort his wife.
“Ah don’t care what she says. Ah’m going after them!” With that she headed off to the mist. Rarity didn’t even try to stop her because she knew how stubborn the Apple family was. When Applejack got inside the mist she couldn’t see a thing. ‘Consarn it! Ah can’t see a bloomin’ thing in all this mist.’ When the mist parted for a few minutes she could see a weird looking statue. It had a goat’s leg, a dragon’s leg, a lion’s paw and a few other odds and ends. She would know that statue anywhere. But why was the statue here? She slowly walked up to it and saw that it was just a statue.
“BOO!” Applejack screamed and ran in a completely direction to the one she had been heading in. Discord chuckled and chased after her. Eventually she could feel cobblestones under her feet, much like in Canterlot, but she couldn’t see anything thanks to the shifting mist.
“Ouch.” She rubbed her head and tried to feel in front of her. She didn’t feel anything so what had she run into? She looked around and still couldn’t see a thing. ‘Consarn it!’ A pony was walking towards her. “Luna?” She squinted so that she could try and see the mystery pony better but it was no use. When the pony came into view, however, it looked like she was in pain.
“Applejack … run …” Then Nightmare Moon took over once again and ran straight for the stunned mare. ‘How sweet, this pony still thinks I’m Luna.’
“Hello ignorant foal.” She quietly taunted Applejack and, realising what her situation was, started to run. It was too late though. Applejack ran straight into a waiting wall that wasn’t connected to anything. “Thanks again Discord.”
“No problem.” He then vanished and went somewhere. Nightmare Moon then picked up Applejack, put the unconscious mare on her back, and headed for Time Castle, which was now her home. She flung Applejack unceremoniously into a cell in the dungeon and proceeded to head to the newly-refurbished throne room. It was cozy. Not as majestic as the one in Canterlot but it will do. Nightmare Moon was still waiting for the day when she could take over Canterlot and bring eternal night. She trotted to the padded throne and sat down.
“How are things with the prisoners?” Discord asked.
“They’re fine.”
“Really, you don’t sound all that fine to me.”
“I SAID THEY’RE FINE!” She used the Royal Canterlot Voice on Discord but it just made him cackle.
“Oh, I know how to push all your buttons, don’t I?” Nightmare Moon didn’t say anything.
Back in the dungeon …
“Mah head.” Applejack clutched her head and she took stock of her surroundings. Directly in front of her was an empty cell. On the right was another empty cell. To the left of it, though, she saw
“Rainbow?” Applejack couldn’t believe it.
“AJ?” The raspy voice of Rainbow was like a sweet melody to her ears.
“Ah’m glad ya safe, have ya heard anything from Twi and Pinkie?”
“Yeah, they’re right next to me. OI! WAKE UP!” She yelled loud enough to wake the dead.
“Huh? Who that?” Pinkie mumbled. She couldn’t see Twi but she could hear her yawn.
“What is it Rainbow?”
“Listen to this.”
“Ah’m glad ya all right.” Applejack said.
“APPLEJACK!” They both yelled excitedly.
“How did you get here?” Rainbow asked. So Applejack told the tale of how she eventually got into the cell she was currently in now. She didn’t say anything about Luna though. She didn’t know why but Twilight began to cry.
“Twi, you okay?” Applejack asked.
“No. I’m not alright. I saw Nightmare physically take over my mother, how do you think I feel?” She just bawled her eyes out.
“Oh yeah, I tried to blast myself out with my Party Cannon but it didn’t work.” Pinkie randomly said.
A sound of clanging could be heard throughout the whole area of the dungeons. The source of that? Applejack trying to buck her way out of her jail cell.
“Why … aren’t … these … dern … things … breaking … apart?” She huffed between each swing of her hind legs.
“Applejack.” Twilight quietly said Applejack’s name and was unsuccessful.
“Applejack.” She tried again. Louder this time.
“APPLEJACK!” No use. She couldn’t be heard over the racket that her legs were making against the bars. A loud explosion could be heard and a tremor could be felt.
“What in the hay was that?” Applejack asked.
“Whoops. My Party Cannon accidentally exploded. Again.”
“Ugh. Pinkie. Let me ask you something.” Dash asked her pink friend.
“What is it Dashie?”
“A few hours ago. I think. Anyway, earlier, you were crying. Twilight told me that she heard you crying all the way back in Sugar Cube Corner and I just have to ask. Why?”
“Oh. Uh, you see … who wants to play a game?” Pinkie changed the subject way too quickly.
“Pinkie,”
“OH MAKE IT STOP!” She wailed and waved her arms around. “I got a story in the mail and I began to read it. It was called Cupcakes and I thought it was a cookbook so I opened it up and started to read it. But as I got further and further in it, I just couldn’t stop reading it! It turns out that the main character has a huge resemblance to me. Except, she has straight hair and she’s insane. She also has Pinkamena for her name. It tells all about her first kill and how yadadada. Anyway, her first kill was…” At this she began to tear up. A loud crash could be heard. Rainbow looked over and saw that Applejack was free.
“How did that happen?” Applejack was confused.
“What do you mean? Didn’t you just buck it into oblivion?” Rainbow asked her friend. She just shook her head.
“Ah don’t know what went wrong.” Applejack replied.
“I’m going to see if I can get out of here and try to find some help.” Applejack said. ‘I know exactly where to go for that.’
“Have fun with that Applejack. Pinkie, you were saying how this was encased in some kind of time-distorting bubble?” Twilight asked the pink mare.
“Yeah, I thought about it but there didn’t seem to be a bubble around here. Just mist.” Pinkie answered the unicorn.
“Wait, I’m confused. What is a time-distorting bubble?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“A time-distorting bubble is a powerful spell that traps whoever is within it in a separate time. For everyone and everything outside the bubble though, time continues on as normal.” Twilight answered Rainbow Dash.
“Ah’ll try and bring back some help. And Ah just know who to get.” Applejack told them.
“Who?” Pinkie asked.
“Ya’ll see.” She tipped her Stetson to them and raced off. When Applejack climbed up the stairs, she could feel another tremor shake the earth. ‘Okay. Now ah know that wasn’t some minor earthquake. It’s a big one.’
With Nightmare Moon …
Nightmare Moon could feel a slight tremor wake her up from her slumber.
“DISCOOOORD!” Nightmare yelled at the top of her voice.
“You rang?” He asked.
“This is no time for jokes. Did you or did you not cause the earth to tremor?”
“No. This had nothing to do with me. It was your stupid time-distortion bubble spell thingy. If you had only-” Nightmare put one of her hooves up to stop him from speaking further. She was afraid that this would happen. It had taken her one thousand years to perfect the spell. When she finally did she was supposedly vanquished from her current host body. When that happened, she decided to flee and not reconnect with the body she had shared for a thousand on that desolate wasteland they call a moon. She eventually happened upon this delightful little kingdom. It had long been abandoned but it could be repopulated if she so chose. She could repopulate it with the help of the Changelings but ever since Chrysalis got vaporised but that miserable foal she had to change her plans. But then all her planning and years of work came to a grinding halt when Twilight and her mother’s ‘physical’ body came into the mist. She had planned it all so carefully. There was no bubble. The only bubble was the mist. The mist was the key to everything. The mist was the time-distortion spell but how could it be making tremors? Oh right … she cast the mist into the ground as well in order to encase the whole city. Discord started to snap his fingers and make random things appear and disappear.
“What are you doing?”
“Amusing myself.” Nightmare Moon left him to create his organised chaos and went to see what was wrong with the spell.
With Applejack … She could hear her hooves clatter against cobblestone as she raced for the Crystal Empire. If it wasn’t for this mist, she wouldn’t even be here. But she has to get out of the mist just so she could help. She could some whooshing behind her. She turned her neck just to have a quick peek, turned it back to the front so fast she almost got whiplash, and sped up. Applejack couldn’t keep this speed up any longer though. As she heard Nightmare Moon get nearer, she ducked and Nightmare sailed right over her head.
“Huh?” Applejack waited for Nightmare to turn around but she didn’t she kept on going. She thought nothing of it and continued onwards to the Crystal Empire. At the edge of the mist she took a deep breath of fresh air and headed straight for the Crystal Tower. At the top, she went to greet all of her remaining friends but they weren’t there. None of them were. She saw a guard nearby and asked him where Cadance was.
“Uh, Princess Cadance? She’s in her room.” The guard replied to Applejack’s question. Applejack headed for Cadance and Shining Armor’s room. When there she knocked on the door and heard Cadance say come in. When Applejack walked in there was a gasp.
“Applejack?” Cadance asked.
“Yes Cadance. Is something wrong?” Applejack asked the slightly shocked mare.
“We thought you were dead.” It was Applejack’s turn to gasp.
“What do you mean?”
“We haven’t heard from you or the others for five years.”
With Twilight and the others …
“I’m curious now. How does the time-distortion spell work?” Rainbow asked.
“Well, that kind of spell would take years to perfect, even for me, but whenever you encase something inside one of the bubbles, time flows differently. Let’s take our situation for example. When you and Pinkie found me, five days had already passed but we were in there for only five hours before you found us.”
“Huh? So you’re saying that for every hour we’ve spent in here, a day has gone by in the real world?” Pinkie asked.
“I think so. I would say that we’ve been here for about three days already.”
“Yeah, but didn’t you feel the tremors?” Dash asked.
“I did. But that’s because the … spell … is … breaking …” Twilight’s eyes widened as she thought about the different consequences that could occur if a time-distortion spell of this size started to break apart. ‘Oh this can’t end well.’ She thought with a slight cringe.
Nightmare Moon hurriedly flew to see why the spell was breaking apart. If it breaks apart, then the real world time would catch up with the city, the bubble would shrink and causing anything within the bubble to be trapped, just to get crushed into oblivion by the rapidly shrinking bubble. Why did Nightmare do this? She wanted to have a kingdom of her very own, away from the almighty Celestia.
It worked, for about fifteen years according to the outside world, but it felt like she had been there for only two. Oh well, if the bubble breaks, then the Elements of Harmony currently in her possession would be killed along with Princess Luna. But then Nightmare Moon wouldn't exist if Luna died. Nightmare thought about all this as she tried to strengthen the barrier but it was just too huge. She hated to admit it but she needed help from the Element of Magic.
With Applejack …
"Five years?" Applejack asked the young Alicorn Princess.
"Yes. It has been five years since you, Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash and Aunty Luna have been in the bubble."
"But, we were there for only three days."
"I know that this must be hard to comprehend but maybe you should see your friends back in Ponyville? I'm sure that would help." Cadence soothingly said.
Applejack just nodded and walked out of Cadence's lavish room. She wandered around the Crystal Empire, seeing if anything was different. It doesn't look like anything has changed. The crystal ponies still looked shiny and delicate, the stores still had the same wares. She bought a few gifts for her friends back in Ponyville as well for her family and headed for the train to Ponyville.
In Ponyville …
Applejack hopped off the train and headed for Twilight's library. It seemed the safest place to be at the moment. She knocked on the door and a green and purple dragon opened the door.
"Applejack?" Applejack quickly invited herself in and sat on one of the couches in the living room. It didn't look different. The shelves were all around the house, filled with books, still kept neat and tidy thanks to Spike. "Applejack? What are you doing here? I thought you were dead." Spike nervously looked at Applejack as she held her head and stared into the grains of the wooden floor beneath her hooves.
"Guess what Spike? Ah'm not." She said sadly. "Is Rarity and Fluttershy still in Ponyville?"
"Yeah, why?" Spike asked curiously.
"Don't tell them Ah'm here yet. Okay Sugarcube?" She seemed distant but Spike just shrugged it off and looked for a piece of parchment and quill. She didn't say anything about not telling the Princess.
Dear Princess Celestia…
In the dungeons of Time Castle …
"Twilight? Oh Twilight?" Pinkie tried to bring Twilight back to reality while Rainbow looked for a way out of the dungeons. In the recent tremor all the bars were shaken out of their grooves, allowing Pinkie and Rainbow to try and bring Twilight back. They didn't know that she was stuck inside her head, thinking about the consequences of a time-distortion bubble this size. As far as she has read, and she's read a lot of books on spells, she's only come across this spell once. It was in The Lost Kingdom …
After everypony had left to get ready for the Crystal Empire, she had looked through the book, from start to finish. On the last page, however, there was a note. It looked like it was done recently. The note stated that something had happened to the Lost Kingdom. It was under a powerful time-distortion bubble spell. The spell was so huge, that it encompasses the whole of the kingdom. If this spell were to start breaking down, it would have extremely disastrous side-effects. The side-effects included are:
1. The slow but swift deterioration of the spell would cause the bubble to rapidly shrink, causing everyone caught inside it to be trapped.
2. If they're trapped, there is no hope of escape. The bubble will eventually close in on itself, causing everything inside it to be crushed into oblivion.
3. A final note, it can cause-
There was more but it seemed that the note was torn off at the bottom, probably the pony who put it there in the first place. There was a knock and as Twilight opened it, she was instantly pulled out of the library and hurried over to the train station.
She eventually resurfaced from her introspection and saw Pinkie hurriedly shaking her shoulders. It was making Twilight's head jiggle about and she felt it was in danger of snapping off totally.
"… GO!" It sounded like Dash was calling from a distant place.
"Wha …" Twilight was still in a daze.
"… WE HAVE TO GO!" Rainbow Dash was shouting in her ear. Pinkie was having none of this, so she quickly grabbed Twilight, stuffed her into Pinkie's Party Cannon and shot her out of the barrel, accompanied with streamers and confetti, and straight into Nightmare Moon. There were a couple of resounding booms and two ponies quickly followed after her.
For once Pinkie wasn't screaming with delight or joy. In fact she wasn't screaming at all. She was snoring! Rainbow quickly hugged Pinkie mid-flight and crashed into Nightmare Moon. She hugged them for a brief few seconds and then threw Pinkie and Dash back into the dungeon. She carried Twilight to the barrier and instantly fixed her.
"What do you want with me?" Twilight asked fearfully.
"I want you to help me strengthen the barrier!" Nightmare shouted so that she could be heard over the increasingly high-pitched wind.
"Why?" Twilight was starting to shout too. She looked around and saw that the city was starting to crumble. "What about my friends?"
"Forget them." Nightmare responded to the bookworm's question.
"Get them for me or I won't help."
"Then die!" The way she said it was forceful and cruel.
With Spike and Applejack …
A knock sounded on the door of the library.
"I'll get it." Spike answered the door and who would stand in the door. By the way Spike started to do his weird flying thing Applejack knew it was Rarity.
"Hello Spike. I was wondering if I could borrow a book? I need it to help me learn a few-" She stopped talking as she noticed Applejack on her way in.
"Applejack? Darling, I thought you were dead."
"Yeah, apparently everyone's thinking that these days. It's not like Ah wasn't DEAD or anything." When Applejack shouted the word 'dead' Rarity cringed slightly.
"But, wait, let me-"
"Explain? Why would ya need ta explain anything? Ah can see it clearly mahself."
"As I was saying, Fluttershy and I waited for two years for you girls to come back. Two years. Do you know how hard it's been? Know how hard it's been for your family? They were crying for a whole week straight. The apples didn't get bucked so they had to hire help to do it for them. You missed Applebloom getting her cutie mark. Everyone's moved on." Rarity silently left after that while Applejack just had a shocked look on her face. She forgot her book on new sewing methods.
"Ah missed all that?"
"I didn't want to tell you until I thought you were ready but, yeah." Spike sadly said.
He tried to get Applejack to go to Sweet Apple Acres but it was no use. She wouldn't budge. Spike sent a letter to Applejack's family, to say that he needed to tell them something. Applejack went missing a few hours later, saying that she had to go and look at a watch shop. Doctor Whooves was minding his own business when the bell rang at the front of his store. He sat up behind his desk and greeted the orange mare before him.
"Good afternoon, how may I help you?" He greeted her.
"Ah'm doing fine Doc. Listen, ever heard of a time-distortion spell before?"
"Yes. I actually read about it in one of Twilight's books. I believe it was called he Lost Kingdom?" Applejack gasped.
"How do ya know 'bout that book?"
"It came in the mail for me yesterday."
"Anyway, did it say anything about causing tremors and whatnot?"
"No, can't say that it did. Why?" She couldn't believe that was about to say this,
“Well of course it’s real! I was there when it was being built.” “But, that would mean you would be at least three thousand years old.” “But I’m not!” “Yeah, Ah can see that. How?” “Because I’m not three thousand years old. I’m actually, around twelve hundred years. Give or take a few hundred.” “How can you be twelve hundred years old when you don’t look over twenty?” “I’m a Time Lord and before you ask, yes I am an alien and I am able to regenerate. Now, let’s go save your friends. Allons-y!” Applejack just stared after him and headed for the train station. “Uh, the TARDIS is this way.” He pointed with his hoof to an alley behind the shop. “But the train station is this way!” Applejack pointed her hoof in the other direction, towards the train station. “I can see that this is going to be a problem. I’ll have to explain a few things. First off, the TARDIS can move through time and space. Second, it’s much quicker than sitting on a train for three hours.” While he was explaining what the TARDIS did, he subtly led Applejack to a big blue telephone box in the middle of the alleyway. “Uh, what’s that?” Applejack pointed to the box. The Doctor had an offended look on his face. “It’s the TARDIS.” He said simply. He stepped aside and offered Applejack to walk in first. “But won’t we be a bit squished?” “Not in the slightest.” Applejack stepped in then back out again. She repeated this a few more times because she just couldn’t wrap her head around the concept of the TARDIS being bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. The Doctor just chuckled and pushed Applejack the rest of the way in. He closed the door and started to fumble with the switches and levers to get them going. “How is this possible?” “Time Lord science. It’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.” He flipped a final lever and the whole machine rumbled. When it stopped, he said, “Ah, we’re here.”
While all that was going on, Twilight was struggling to maintain the barrier around the city, to stop it from closing in on everything encased inside. Nightmare was trying her best to keep the bubble from collapsing as well. It wasn’t working. It seemed that the more strength they put behind the spell, the quicker the bubble closed. ‘This is not good’ Twilight thought. “NIGHTMARE! THIS DOESN’T LOOK LIKE IT IS WORKING!” “DON’T YOU THINK I ALREADY KNOW THAT!?”
Applejack and the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and looked upon the rapidly enclosing bubble. “NO!” Applejack ran up to the disappearing mist and tried to get through. She couldn’t even put her hoof through. “Ha ha! This is beautiful! Oh, right. Big giant bubble of death.” He looked over at Applejack and stopped gazing at the wondrous time-sphere. He sprinted to Applejack and hurled her back from the bubble. “That’s not going to work. The bubble is far too powerful to be stopped.” “But, can’t we just go back in time? To before all this began?” Applejack desperately asked. “You can’t go into your own personal timestream. If you do that, then you’ve doomed all of reality and time itself.” “That bad?” “Yes. I’m sorry.”
Rainbow Dash groggily looked up from her position on the ground and tried to keep her mane from flowing into her eyes. She looked around and spotted Pinkie Pie lying haphazardly on the ground. She carefully picked her way over to the fallen mare, due to the ever-increasing wind. “Pinkie?”Dash gently nudged Pinkie on the side. Her head rolled towards Dash but her eyes didn’t open. She bent her ear towards Pinkie’s mouth and a faint breath could be felt. She was alive. Just. Rainbow proceeded to carry the mare on top of her back, even though she knew it would be difficult with the increasing speed of the wind.
Twilight tried to pour more of her vast internal power towards the barrier. Even with Nightmare Moon helping she knew it was a lost cause. The onyx mare struggled to give more of her power to the barrier, to keep it strong but it was closing fast. Nightmare reckons that every amount of power they give out, the faster the barrier closes. “TWILIGHT SPARKLE! STOP GIVING IT MAGIC TO FEED ON!” She yelled out to Twilight. She saw Twilight nod and trot toward her. “I couldn’t stop, at least not until a few seconds ago. It was like the barrier just wanted more power, but I wasn’t enough for it.” They both raced to the centre of the city, where they found Rainbow Dash carrying Pinkie Pie on her back. When Rainbow saw Nightmare come towards her, she gently put Pinkie down and struggled towards Nightmare. If she could just get one good punch, then it would be good. Before she made it though, she collapsed. She heard Twilight dimly call out her name before she succumbed to the blackness.
“Applejack, come into the TARDIS. I want to show you something.” The Doctor said softly. Applejack followed him into the blue box. He began to randomly throw levers and push buttons on the console. “What are ya doing Doc?” “You’ll see.” He flipped a final switch and they both hung on as the TARDIS began to rumble and shake. “Done. Walk outside.”
Rainbow Dash woke up from her faint and looked around. The wind was still going at a ferocious speed and the bubble was still closing in. She looked over at Pinkie and leaned over her mouth. She could hear her breathing faintly, if anything, it sounded fainter than before. She looked over at Twilight and Nightmare. “Can’t you do anything to help her?” Rainbow pleaded with her friend. “I’ll see what I can do.” Twilight walked up to Pinkie slowly and felt around with her vast magic to see what the problem was. She located it and tried to fix it best she could. “She’ll suffer from a broken leg but knowing Pinkie, she’ll probably recover faster than the blink of an eye.” Rainbow sighed and grinned.
Applejack walked out of the blue box and glanced left and right. “Ah don’t see anything.” “Damn. Too much mist.” The Doctor walked out after Applejack and grimaced. He could barely see through the mist. “You sure we’re in the right place and time?” “That’s a perfectly good question …” He twirled around and walked back into the TARDIS. He checked the monitor, double-checked and even triple-checked just to make sure that they were in the right time and place. “Applejack, come here.” Applejack walked in and looked at the monitor. It showed a bunch of squiggly lines. “What’s that meant to mean?” She pointed to the squiggly line on the monitor. “That’s a crack. We are in the right place but the … wrong … time … Not again!” He furiously stamped his hooves and ended up stubbing one of his back hooves on the console. “Wrong time!? What time are we supposed to be in!?” “The same time as when we left, that is, when the bubble was shrinking, but it appears that we have gone back in time. Back to when Nightmare Moon covered the entire city in a bubble of magic. “Hang on. Ah haven’t said anything abou’ Nightmare Moon.” “Yes you did.” “No ah didn’t” They went like this for a few more minutes until the Doctor called a tie. “Who cares if you said it or not! We just have to make sure to not be-“ “Who are you pathetic foals?” A booming voice could be heard. “Too late.”
