The Everfree Forest is overrun with radiation but it has dissipated over the past thousand years. The cause of all this was the Chernobyl explosion.
Chernobyl, Equestria's only known nuclear power plant has just exploded. The ordinary forest that was nearby has been irradiated by radiation and transformed its animals into living nightmares. 1000 years later, Twilight wants to get to the bottom of why the Everfree is the way it is.
*NOTES* - These are the proofreaders and editors that helped me with the story: Macho Madness, Fuzzyfurvert and Corwin Friess - I will change character tags as I post chapters up. These tags are not definite until the final chapter for obvious reasons.
1000 years ago - Day of the Banishment of Nightmare Moon
“Professor, I need to ask you something.” An employee at Chernobyl held a battered clipboard in his hands. The clipboard was shaking violently in his hands so much that it seemed to be in fear of breaking. The clipboard itself was beaten and battered from countless years of use. He was standing in the doorway of the head professor’s office.
The office was bathed in sunlight from a couple of windows on either side of the room. One of the windows looked out over the city of Pripyat and the other, the group of reactors at the far end of the compound. There was a metal ashtray on the desk with a couple of cigar butts resting on there and a third one was sitting in the professor’s mouth. His head was currently bowed, looking at a mess of papers which had complicated equations for nuclear fission. The professor looked up from the mess of papers on his desk and nodded his head once.
Hurriedly walking in, the intern moved around the desk to stand beside the professor.
“Sorry about the intrusion, Professor Dilmore but I needed to speak with you urgently. It’s about Block Four of the reactor site. We were thinking about doing an experiment to try and increase power while remaining energy efficient at the same time.” Daniel Moss said quickly, constantly tapping at the clipboard with his pen.
“Let me see that clipboard.” Professor Dilmore demanded through a mouthful of cigar and held his hand out; the right sleeve falling down slightly. Wordlessly giving the clipboard to him, Daniel tried to keep a smile from forming on his face at the potential of the professor agreeing to the experiment.
Looking over the calculations, Dilmore frowned slightly at them as he found a couple of flaws. Picking up a pen, he quickly grabbed a spare piece of paper from amidst the pile and rewrote everything hurriedly, making sure that they were correct this time.
Daniel bit his bottom lip as he saw the Professor redo the calculations on a separate piece of paper. He wanted to protest and say that it wasn’t necessary but he thought through it and realised that Dilmore may have seen some flaws that Daniel and his team hadn’t seen in the equations.
Nodding to himself and handing the clipboard back with the new page of equations attached, Dilmore felt relief at the sound equations.
“Everything seems to check out now. I don’t see any reason why you can’t go ahead with it.” The professor said with a smile.
Daniel breathed in relief at the go ahead and allowed himself to smile but it almost immediately fell as he thought about what needed to happen in order to see if the experiment worked as promised.
“There’s a few things we need to do in order to make it happen, Professor Dilmore.” Daniel said hesitantly as he walked around the desk to sit down in the seat opposite. Dilmore leaned on his desk and steepled his fingers together, raising an eyebrow at the same time. Taking this as an opportunity to continue, he fidgeted in his seat slightly before doing so.
“One thing that needs to be done is to deliberately take down all security systems so that the experiment can go ahead. This is a problem though because there is no way to stop the experiment once the safety measures are down. We also need to power down the reactor to about twenty-five percent for the experiment to go smoothly. If it drops, we may be able to pick it back up.” Daniel informed the professor, knowing that they were the only concerns.
Dilmore snatched the clipboard out of Daniel’s hands, causing him to jump in surprise. The professor reread his calculations, given the new information. He leaned in so close to the clipboard that it seemed he was giving it a new hole just with his eyes. “Despite this information you’ve just given me, I still want this to go ahead.” Dilmore replied with a nod after his careful scrutinisation and handed back the clipboard. Taking it back, Daniel stood up and shook the professor’s hand.
“Thank you Professor. We won’t let you down.” Daniel said with a smile and turned around, leaving the room.
After Daniel left, Dilmore rubbed his temples, knowing he could have doomed his employees and potentially the entire plant. He had taken his cigar out earlier and put it on the ashtray where the ash had been smouldering. Picking it back up, he studied it and placed it back between his lips.
After leaving the office, Daniel broke into a run and whooped with joy at the go ahead from Professor Dilmore. Ignoring his fellow employees, Daniel Moss ran from Dilmore’s office all the way to Block Four. Ignoring shouts of protest as he barrelled past them, Daniel’s mind was only on one thing; to tell everyone else at Block Four of the situation concerning the experiment.
Bursting in through the door to the break room at Block Four, Daniel bent over as he wheezed from non-stop running. The break room looked like it had seen better days. There were ashtrays filled with cigarette butts, the tables were relatively clean with only a few grease spots here and there. There were a couple of leather couches on either side of the room with a window on the wall opposite the door overlooking the nearby reactor of Block Three. The employees lounging about during their break looked at him in surprise. When he finally stopped his wheezing, he took out some Ventolin and drew in a few puffs. Placing the medication back in his pocket, Daniel beamed at his fellow workers.
“Good news everyone! Professor Dilmore approves of the experiment!” Daniel said in excitement. The entire room burst into cheers. Daniel laughed to himself and walked further into the room, heading over to the watercooler. Filling up a plastic cup, he drank some of the water and sat down at a nearby table. The underside of it felt sticky with years worth of gum so he rarely ever touched the underside of the table. He looked down at the revised calculations and furrowed his brow.
“Hey, Daniel. Did the professor really approve of it?” Alex asked with a smirk. Alex was about six foot two and looked like a stick.
Daniel sighed and looked up from his perusing of Dilmore’s calculations. “Yes, Alex. The professor really did approve of it. We’ll perform it tonight while everyone else is sleeping. That way, no one can distract us while we work on the experiment.” Daniel told Alex pointedly and went back to the calculations.
Alex tapped his hand against the tabletop as he got up and walked over to Daniel’s side.
“If you’re so sure about this, then I’ll tell everyone else.” Alex whispered and patted Daniel on the back as he told everyone else in the break room about Daniel’s plan for that night.
Later that night …
Daniel walked into the main control room of Block Four. With Professor Dilmore’s calculations on his trusty clipboard, he walked over to the main bank of controls and plugged in the calculations. “This goes there, that goes here, turn this valve a few degrees to the right and … twist the valve a few more degrees … we’re good.” Daniel muttered to himself as he pored over the calculations while he performed the necessary work.
Throughout the day after talking to everyone in the break room, Daniel did nothing but study Dilmore’s calculations. Even if he had memorised them, he wanted the calculations by his side in case he forgot about them during the experiment.
Clapping his hands loudly, the sound echoed around the room, gathering everyone’s attention. “Listen up everyone! Tonight, we make history! If everything goes according to plan, the reactor will give out even more power than before while staying energy-efficient. If it goes wrong … well … I don’t want to even think about that.” He rubbed his eyes from lack of sleep in preparation for the graveyard shift and continued.
“Molly, get the core reactor down to twenty-five percent power. It needs to be at that level so that we can safely work with the reactor core.” Daniel spoke in a commanding voice as he pointed at her. She nodded and powered the reactor down to the specified number. “Alex, I want you to turn off the safety measures. The reactor won’t let us work with it if we have them on. Jacob, I want you to-” Daniel was interrupted by loud sirens. The entire control room was bathed in red as emergency power automatically switched on.
Oh please don’t let this be the reactor going below twenty-five percent! Daniel thought as he ran towards Molly’s station. Everyone was standing stock-still and it seemed like Daniel was the only one doing anything. Looking at the screens, to his horror he found that the core reactor had fallen below one percent, let alone twenty-five. “Molly! Slowly increase power! We can’t let this fall any further!” Daniel ordered her and he ran over to Alex’s station to see if the safety measurements were on or not. Taking a quick puff from his Ventolin, Daniel found that the were in fact off. Banging his fist against the control panel, he knew that he couldn’t stop the experiment once the safety measurements were off.
Molly screamed as she felt sparks fly off of her control panel from an unexpected power surge. To her horror, she saw that the emergency shutdown had failed and that it hadn’t stopped a chain reaction from occurring.
“EVERYONE! GET OUT NOW!” Molly shouted at the top of her lungs as she fled for the door. The other employees in the main control room rushed for the door as well but were all immediately incinerated as the reactor exploded.
Radiation, unseen by the naked eye, seeped throughout the Castle of the Two Sisters and surrounding forest. The nearby power plant of Cherneighbyl, the only one of its kind in Equestria, has just had its reactor blown sky high. The initial explosion took out the workers that were experimenting with the self-fuelling system. It was a test of a self-fuelling system designed with the intention of being more energy efficient has gone wrong, with most of the plant’s employees fleeing for their lives into the nearby forest, hoping to get away from the radiation that was quickly travelling through the air.
Unhindered by the recent explosion, moonlight filtered through the clouds to shine on the Castle of the Two Sisters, where Princess Luna has just confronted Princess Celestia. The room where the confrontation was taking place was the main hall in which people from all over Equestria would come in and ask either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna for help with various tasks. There were two thrones at one end, a gilded throne the colour of a brilliant sunset on the left and a throne as black as night with splotches of white on the back of it on the right. Tapestries depicting the battle with Discord, among others, adorned the walls. Behind the thrones were stairs leading to a podium of sorts if either of the sisters wished to address a large crowd inside the hall.
“Sister, you know it is my right to have people play under my moon. What right do you have to make them sleep at night, shirking the moon’s light?” Princes Luna asked angrily, resting a hand against the banister of the stairs. She looked down at her sister with a glaring stare.
Princess Celestia looked up at Luna and tried to reason with her.
“Yes. You do have a right for people to play under the moon’s light. But it is not your moon. It is everyone’s moon. It’s easier for the people to see during the day time and then sleep during the night because they are tired from their day’s work.”
Luna’s grip tightened on the banister. She took a step down and raised a hand to her chest. “Not my moon? How can it not be my moon? When mother passed away, the both of us had a decision to make. Which dominion would we rule over? Night, or day? You chose day. The sun is then rightfully yours because you rule under it. I chose night. The moon is then rightfully mine because that is what I rule under.”
“That may be so but-” Celestia was interrupted as she felt her skin heating up drastically. Through the windows, Celestia saw minor fires through the tree trunks. From other places in the castle, some windows could be heard shattering due to the extreme heat from the surrounding fires.
Their bodies absorbed radiation that was beyond what they could handle, causing both of them to cry out. The radiation had a drastic effect on both of their bodies and genetic make-up. Shifting bones and skin could be heard throughout the entire castle as their bodies changed shape. Tearing new holes into the backs of their shirts, white and midnight blue wings sprouted out of Celestia’s and Luna’s backs respectively. Fur grew out of their skin, starting with their hands and finishing at the bottom of their feet and hairlines at roughly the same time. Bony, ridged horns spiraled out of their foreheads with tiny rivers of blood flowing down their faces from the horns’ formation. The final bit of the transformation had their feet fused into hooves.
As even more radiation spread out and blanketed the entire forest, with the castle stuck in the middle, Princess Luna went through even more of a change. She screamed in pain as she felt her teeth grow sharper and her nails become claws. Her eyes were forced open as radiation infused something magical into her DNA, something frightening. Luna’s eyes glowed white as her wings flared out. Cracks appeared behind her and up the wall as she stepped backwards. As she stepped, an incredibly loud explosion rang out as a piece of the wall behind her broke off into millions of tiny pieces.
The radiation still traveling through the air from the power plant explosion changed Luna even further as her body absorbed even more radiation. Her hair began to flow of its own accord and the pupils of her eyes turned into slits, resembling more of a lizard’s eyes rather than a pair of human eyes.
Luna dropped to the floor after the unexpected transformation took place. Not caring for how much pain she was in, Celestia dragged herself to Luna using the banister as a support. “Luna?” Celestia asked her sister as she got to the top of the stairs.
There was a stirring as Luna wordlessly brought herself to her knees. Turning her head to Celestia, Luna had her eyes closed. They snapped open, showing off a brilliant white light as uncontrollable power surged through her.
“I have power now.” Luna said simply and as she lowered her head, so did the sun. Luna raised her head back up. “I have the power to plunge this world into eternal darkness. And it will STAY that way.” Luna threatened as she stood up fully, leaning on the podium in front of her.
Gasping in pain, Celestia rose as well, hanging on to the banister. “Sister, you don’t know what you’re doing! If Equestria is plunged into eternal darkness, then the people’s crops would stop growing. People would starve!” Celestia shouted at her sister.
“Would they? That seems a minor setback in the grand scheme of things.” Luna replied flippantly.
Celestia’s hand flew out to the side as Luna was talking and a magical yellow bolt of pure heat flew out of her hand, striking the wall beside her. She shook her hand in pain as her newly-formed horn brimmed with magical energy as a few more bolts fired off striking the walls, floor and roof.
“Hmph.” Luna grunted and leaned away, turning around to rest her back against the podium. She looked at Celestia with amusement, her eyes having gone back to their normal turquoise colour . “I’ll figure something out for that. I just want people to play under my moon and enjoy it.” Luna said and her amused face turned into one of anger. She slammed her fist against the podium, causing midnight blue energy to flow through the cracks she had made.
Celestia, having made sure she stopped waving her hand, held it against her chest and stared at Luna.
“Luna, listen to me. This is not you. This isn’t even me! Something changed us and you are not acting like yourself!” Celestia said desperately; trying to bring Luna back to her senses.
“Luna? Who’s she? I am not her.” Luna cackled and stepped forward. She turned and slowly walked down the other set of stairs, still unused to her feet being stumps. She winced with each step but her face held a grim determination. Celestia followed her with her eyes until she had to turn her own body.
“I am not Luna anymore. I am Nightmare Moon!” Luna announced grandly and her horn lit up. Azure bolts shot out of her hands and penetrated through the roof. Feeling giddy with how much power she had, Luna stared down her sister and lowered her left hand. Making the shape of a gun with her fingers, Luna shot a bolt of azure magic at Celestia.
Celestia painfully dived out of the incoming bolt and heard it explode against the banister, causing it to crumble into dust. Gasping for breath, Celestia stood up slowly and looked at the destruction Luna was causing.
Luna found to her dismay that she could not yet control her immense power surge. She was firing bolts off left and right, not caring for how much damage she caused, only letting the excess power shoot off until she felt she could have control again. Bracing herself against the wall, Celestia moved down the steps and moved her hair out of her eyes.
Feeling that she had some control over her horn, she lit it up and gasped from the exertion. Rubbing her hands together, Celestia formed her hands into a triangle. Blowing into the gap she had made, a triangular-shaped bolt of yellow heat flew towards Luna.
Not expecting her weak sister to retaliate, Luna was lifted off her feet from the blast and flung to the other side, hitting the wall and falling to the floor, her body crumpling. Celestia lowered her hands and moved slowly to where her sister lay.
“I’m sorry sister. I had to do it. This was the only way to stop you.” Celestia dropped to her knees next to Luna. Celestia, finally closing her eyes against the pain, felt something wrap around her throat. Her eyes flew open. Looking down, she sees the rage in Luna’s eyes as she tried to squeeze the life out of her.
Gritting her sharp teeth, Luna looked at Celestia’s pained face and the destruction of the room. “You … don’t know anything … about … me.” Luna said in an angered voice. She was angry at the way her big sister had stood up to her and angry at the fact that she was crumpled against the wall. Getting her hooves under her, Nightmare Moon used the wall at her back for support and slid up it, dragging Celestia to her feet as she did. “Haven’t you realised it yet? You can’t stop me!” Nightmare yelled, squeezing Celestia’s throat even more.
Celestia clawed at Luna’s surprisingly strong hand. “Luna…” Celestia tried to breathe but her grip was too strong. Struggling to get breath, Celestia lit her horn up and fired off a beam of golden heat at Luna’s eyes. Hissing in pain, Luna dropped Celestia and rubbed her eyes. Celestia on the other hand, stumbled away and clutched her throat, rubbing it.
Celestia coughed and looked over to where they stored the Elements of Harmony. One of Luna’s bolts had struck the wall and part of the room containing the Elements was exposed. Knowing that there wasn't another choice, Celestia quickly raced over to the secret room and punched in the correct keycode. The door opened and sliding out of the wall were five different coloured gems with the sixth hidden away in stone.
Celestia shed a few tears as she looked over to her sister, seeing that Luna was still rubbing her eyes. Grabbing the red, orange, pink, blue and green gems, she held them in her hands and quickly raised them up to the small spherical chamber housing the sixth, purple gem. The sphere reacted to the proximity of the other gems and opened up to reveal the sixth Element of Harmony.
Having rubbed the pain out of her eyes, Nightmare Moon snarled in hatred and anger and looked around for Celestia. Locating her where the Elements of Harmony were being kept, Nightmare Moon snarled and sped towards Celestia. She skidded to a stop though as she realised that Celestia held all six gems out in front of her. “What are you doing with those?” Nightmare Moon asked, her voice wavering a tiny bit.
“I’m sorry sister. It’s the only way to get you to stop.” Celestia whispered and closed her eyes tightly, willing the gems to create a rainbow of power. She held her hands out in front of her and pointed all six gems to her power-hungry sister. They all shone with a dazzling light and shot forth a spectrum of colours at Luna.
Quickly figuring out what Celestia was doing, Nightmare Moon lit up her horn and clapped her hands together, shooting off a powerful beam of azure energy. Nightmare Moon’s azure beam collided with Celestia’s rainbow beam. It seemed that Nightmare Moon was winning as her beam slowly pushed Celestia’s back. But the Elements of Harmony proved too powerful for Nightmare Moon’s dark magic. The force of the rainbow beam pushed Nightmare Moon back a few feet until it overtook her azure one and engulfed her.
“In one thousand years time, I will return. On the shortest night of the longest day, that is when I return and will bring Eternal Night to Equestria!” Nightmare Moon vowed before she was pulled away from the floor and shot up through the roof, breaking it in the process. The rainbow energy beam carried her towards the moon.
Finally letting herself relax, Celestia laid down, the gems rolled out of her hands, their glow dimming and winking out completely in a matter of few seconds. Pieces of the roof fell around Celestia as the rainbow blast's effects began to dissipate.
"My subjects. What would they think about me? Of the transformation that I have gone through and for what I've done to my sister? They'll probably think the worst but now that Luna has moved the sun with some sort of magic, I have to take it upon myself to shoulder the burdens that my sister has left behind. It may take a while but hopefully, the people of Equestria can forget about this ordeal or at least pass it down as legend." Celestia reasoned with herself as she then wept openly for what she had done to her sister.
Holding a pile of books under one arm and carrying a cup of coffee in the opposite hand, Twilight Sparkle was running to her tower on the castle grounds. Being careful not to spill any coffee on her dress, she skirted a few people milling about the courtyard and rushed to her destination.
Getting to the doors, she calmed herself and pushed them open with her back. Edging across the wood, she took a sip of coffee and moved a bit quicker. She pushed herself off the door and moved away before it shut. Twilight clenched her teeth and cringed when she heard it slam loudly.
“I really need to get that fixed,” Twilight said through gritted teeth. She moved up the marble staircase, depositing the books back in their rightful place. Standing up from the bottom shelf, Twilight turned and wondered where Spike disappeared to. He probably went to Moondancer’s party. Looks like I’ll have to find the book on my own.
Twilight picked up the lukewarm cup of coffee off the floor and downed the rest of it in one gulp. She then put the styrofoam cup in the nearby bin, and moved to the middle of the room, and slowly turning in a circle, she looked at the polished wooden bookshelves and the leathered spines of the books. Spotting the correct shelf, she stopped spinning and carefully picked up a book.
“Dictionary of Everything? No,” Twilight muttered to herself and placed the book back. She picked out a couple of other books and scanned their titles. Seeing that they weren’t what she was looking for, Twilight moved on to a different shelf and tried there. Finally, after turning over nearly half the library, Twilight found the book she was looking for near the back of her gigantic library room.
“A History of Equestria: 6th Edition. I wonder why this wasn’t near the front,” Twilight wondered out loud. She moved back to the front of the history books section, carefully stepping over the books Spike was going to put back for her. Placing the book on one of the reading stands at the front, Twilight rapidly flipped through the pages till she found the correct one. She tapped her finger against the page and proceeded to take a notepad out of her jeans pocket and a pencil out of the bun in her hair, causing it to come undone and flow down to her waist.
“Elements of Harmony, see Mare in the Moon. Okaay, that’s odd.” Twilight flipped to the Mare in the Moon entry and quickly scanned the passage. She took notes down and once done, looked over them. “On the longest day of the thousandth year — isn’t that when the Summer Sun Celebration is? I have to tell Princess Celestia!” Twilight panicked and went to get Spike but remembered that he was most likely at Moondancer’s. “I don’t have time for this!” Twilight shouted in a huff and ran to the door.
When she reached to open it, the door moved forward on its own and banged into her face. Grasping her nose in pain, Twilight glared at the person who had opened the offending door and found to her delight that it was Spike.
Given how messy his green hair was, he didn't really care for his appearance that day, and his unzipped purple hoody and a lime green t-shirt underneath only supported that notion. His runners were a light purple with mint-green stripes running along the sides. Spike’s mouth hung open and he quickly went to Twilight’s side to see if he had hurt her in some way.
“You okay, Twilight? I’m sorry, I didn’t expect to see you there!” Spike shouted in a brief panic.
“Spike? I thought you went to Moondancer’s party,” Twilight asked nasally. She wondered if the door had broken her nose slightly.
“I didn’t even know that you were back yet. I went to go, but then remembered that I forgot the present I was meant to give her. You going somewhere?” Spike asked as he stepped through the door.
“Ugh! We don’t have time, Spike! We have to get these notes to Princess Celestia right away!” Twilight brandished the notes in front of Spike’s face, but Spike pushed the arm out of the way.
“So that’s where you’re going. Want me to come along?”
“Yes, of course I do. I just have to get these notes to the Princess immediately!” Twilight said hurriedly and without waiting for a reply, raced out the open door towards Celestia’s castle.
Spike sighed and ran at full speed after her, but even that was not enough to catch up to the racing teenager.
“Twilight! Slow down!” Spike shouted running after her. He looked down to catch his breath, and when he looked up, he saw purple and pink hair whip past the castle doors. The least she could have done was wait up for me. Spike almost tripped on a rock in his path; he stumbled but recovered in time to quickly run up the stairs without falling flat on his face.
Breathing in slowly, he opened the heavy wooden doors of the castle. Come on Twilight. Please tell me you’re— of course. Spike interrupted himself by seeing her slip past some velvet ropes and a couple of guards; straight into the throne room where Princess Celestia was most likely holding a court with her subjects. A queue extended from the throne room and partway into the hall itself.
Face-palming, Spike sighed and walked straight past the queue to the velvet ropes. He slipped past the guards the same way Twilight did much to the disdain from the queue. Inside, he saw that he was correct about a whole crowd of people being addressed by Princess Celestia.
Spike moved to where Twilight was and saw her hopping slightly from foot to foot. “Twilight? Everything okay? You seem a bit anxious,” Spike whispered, concerned.
“Of course I’m anxious! I didn’t expect Princess Celestia to be holding court right this second! I thought she would be here all alone and that I’d have a bit of time to talk with her about this,” Twilight whispered back, nervously flicking through her notebook at random intervals.
“Where are your glasses?” Spike asked, quickly noticing that she wasn’t wearing them. Twilight reached to the top of her head in response and placed them on her face. She smiled and went back to impatiently waiting for Princess Celestia’s court to finish.
After about ten minutes of constant shuffling, Twilight saw Princess Celestia motion for a ten minute break.
“This is our chance Spike!” Twilight squeaked excitedly and immediately rushed to the princess’s side, leaving Spike to get through the crowd on his own.
She really needs to cut down on that coffee, Spike grumbled.
Once Twilight reached the princess’s side, Twilight hurriedly bowed. Looking back up, she saw that Princess Celestia was wearing a white robe with gold trim along with a light grey dress underneath it..
“Princess Celestia, I’m sorry to bother you but I need to speak with you about something,” Twilight said tentatively.
Celestia laid a hand on Twilight’s shoulder and smiled softly. “It’s alright, Twilight. Come with me to my chambers. It will be more private there than out here,” Celestia said and without another word, she got up and began to escort Twilight to her private chambers. “What is it you wanted to talk to me about?” Celestia asked as they walked.
Twilight fidgeted with her notes and smiled nervously. “Well, you see, it’s about the Summer Sun Celebration that’s happening tomorrow. I think something terrible is going to happen and I’ve got no idea if we can stop it or if it will come true or -” Twilight ceased her talking as she saw that Princess Celestia was in deep thought. “Princess Celestia?” she asked.
Celestia looked at her pupil with a blank stare before coming back to her senses. “‘Something terrible will happen tomorrow’? I think I know what you are saying. Do not worry about it Twilight Sparkle. If something does come to pass, I will handle it,” Celestia said reassuringly, feeling her wings twitch slightly under her robe.
Before Twilight could respond, Princess Celestia opened her chamber door and invited Twilight and Spike inside. The princess’s chamber was spacious and curved rather than a traditional four-sided room. Spanning a rather large portion of the wall was a window that overlooked Canterlot and beyond. Sitting in the middle of the room was a bed with a curved foot, that covered a sizeable part of the floor. The bedsheets were cloud white with the pillow cases being a light grey. It was here that Princess Celestia invited them to sit.
“Now. Can you repeat what you were trying to tell me earlier?” Celestia asked Twilight. Twilight responded with a nod.
“Tomorrow is the Summer Sun Celebration, right? Then that must mean that tomorrow is the longest day of the year. And it’s been, what, about a thousand years since the banishment of Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asked, not entirely sure about the exact date of when the first Summer Sun Celebration had started.
Celestia gave a small flinch at the mention of the banishment. She sighed, and nodded in confirmation of her student’s knowledge. She remembered the date perfectly, since she had started to move both the sun and moon on her own.
“Yes, Twilight. It has been that long since the Celebration had started. Where are you going with all this? That Nightmare Moon is going to come back and bring Eternal Night? You know that’s just an old wives’ tale,” Princess Celestia said with a fake-cheerful air. Twilight didn’t seem to notice it though.
“I know that but what would happen if it was true?” Twilight whined.
“If it was, then I would do everything to stop it. However, you should stop reading those books and make some friends. This is why I am going to send you to Ponyville to look over the preparations for the festivities tomorrow,” Celestia said with finality. She stood up and retrieved a rather small scrolled up bit of paper off her bedside table. “I was meant to send this to you earlier, but I got held up. This is the list of what you need to do. Take it, and try to make some friends while you do so. I’ve arranged for you to live at the local library and taken the liberty to arrange transport as well.” Celestia handed Twilight the scroll. Twilight took it and unfurled it with Spike reading over her shoulder.
“I can do this. Thanks for the talk Princess. Come on Spike,” Twilight said with a relieved mind and lead Spike out the door. She put the scroll into her jeans pocket and quickly looked at herself in a mirror on the wall. As she fixed up her hair to get it back to normal from its dishevelled state, Twilight decided that her wearing dark blue jeans with an equally dark purple, short-sleeved shirt with a bright pink star in the middle was good enough for the people of Ponyville. After fixing up her waist-length hair, she looked down at Spike and sighed.
“What’s the matter Twilight? We’re going to a place outside of Canterlot! Isn’t it great!?” Spike asked excitedly, holding his hands up in the air.
“Yeah, it is. But why does the Princess think I need to make friends while supervising the festivities? I’ve only got one good friend and that’s enough for me,” Twilight said in a huff.
“Who’s the friend? Oh right! Me!” Spike said after seeing a glare from Twilight.
“Come on. We may as well get this over with. I can research the Mare in the Moon further at the library in Ponyville,” Twilight said and managed a small smile before returning to the glare. She walked quickly out of the castle with Spike at her heels.
Seeing that there were a couple of guards stationed at the airfield, Twilight reckoned that was how she was getting to Ponyville. The guards wore grey, streamlined plate armor with slits for their eyes and mouths. In their hands, they held assault rifles. As Twilight and Spike approached, both guards stood at attention and saluted them.
“Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s personal pupil?” one of them asked although it was hard to tell which because the armor bars her view of their mouths. Twilight nodded. “Spike, assistant to Twilight Sparkle?” they asked again. Spike nodded fearfully. “We have been asked to escort you to the Princess’s personal aircraft. Please, this way.” The guard that spoke moved away from the gate and lead Twilight and Spike to the aeroplane.
It was the only plane on the runway, which seemed to extend to the end of the cliff face. The plane was sleek and narrow. It seemed to be designed for speed. As they walked closer, Twilight and Spike noticed that the nose appeared to be facing downwards instead of at a straight angle parallel with the plane. On the side facing them was a single word. ‘Concorde’. It looked like it wasn’t associated with any airline company working in Equestria.
“This is what we’re going to Ponyville in? It looks like that there isn’t a runway at Ponyville that could slow this down enough without crashing!” Twilight exclaimed, looking at the sheer length of the runway just for take-off. The guard didn’t answer and merely escorted them to the steps that would lead them inside. He stood to the side and watched Twilight and Spike walk in.
Once he was sure they were safely in, he ran to the front and waved at the pilot, signalling that it was all clear to go. While the engines started up, the guard quickly ran to the minimum safety distance and watched it take off. The Concorde quickly gained speed and when its nose lifted, the plane did as well. When it rolled off the edge of the cliff, the plane immediately took off rather than falling to an impending crash. The plane climbed higher and higher until all that could be heard was a faint sonic boom as it sped towards its destination.
When the plane touched down and coasted to a stop, both Twilight and Spike blinked at how fast they got to the town.
“We’re here already? It hasn’t even been half an hour!” Twilight exclaimed as she gazed in awe at the town.
“Well, there was that sonic boom. Maybe that had something to do with it?” Spike asked, getting up out of his seat and stretching.
“Probably.” Twilight mumbled and sighed. She couldn’t believe the Princess told her to make friends. She was perfectly fine with just Spike. She didn’t need any other friends. “May as well get this over with.” Twilight said. She got up and followed Spike out the plane.
When they walked off the runway and into the town proper, a girl with pink, poofy hair walked by. It looked like she was wearing a light pink T-shirt with a light yellow skirt that had an imprint of different coloured balloons on it.
Spike, seeing an opportunity for Twilight to make a friend, grinned and tapped repeatedly on Twilight’s elbow. “Twilight, see that girl? She seems about your age. Why don’t you say hi?” Spike asked, gesturing to the pink-haired girl.
Twilight gulped and nervously looked at her. “You sure Spike?” She asked hesitantly. With an encouraging nod, Twilight cleared her throat. She walked quickly to catch up with her. “Hi. My name is Twilight Sparkle. What’s yours?” Twilight asked once she was in ear shot.
The girl stopped walking and turned around to look at Twilight. When she opened her mouth to say something else, the girl gasped and ran off to who knows where.
Twilight turned to glare at Spike but found him looking at a girl with a slender white dress that hugged her figure. When Twilight squinted a bit to get the glare out of her eyes, she saw that she had purple wavy hair and that she was trying to pin up some sort of banner on the side of a building.
Twilight pulled out the scroll that Princess Celestia gave her out of her pocket and unfurled it. Raising her eyebrow, she found a small note scrawled at the bottom of the page. It looked like it was from the Princess.
‘Twilight, my most faithful student, if you feel like it, you can go ahead and oversee these functions in any particular order that takes your fancy. Your teacher, Princess Celestia.’
Twilight thought about the note. There wasn’t any harm in tackling the orders in whichever way she pleased. Seeing that the first order of business was decorations, she figured that she may as well get it over with. She sighed when she realised that Spike was already walking towards the girl in the white dress.
‘Right. May as well get this over with.’ Twilight thought and walked after Spike. She smiled nervously as she drew nearer. “Hello. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m here to oversee the festivities and to make sure everything is working out smoothly. I assume you’re the decorator?” Twilight said curiously, looking at the girl pointedly.
The purple-haired girl looked over to Twilight and slowly climbed down the ladder. She smoothed out her dress once she reached the bottom and smiled.
“Yes, that I am, darling. My name is Rarity and oh? Who’s this?” Rarity questioned when she noticed a boy in a purple hood standing next to Twilight.
.
Twilight blinked and looked down next to her at Spike. “This? Oh. This is Spike. He’s my … friend.” Twilight said hesitantly, unsure whether to tell Rarity he was her adopted brother or not.
“Uh huh. As you can see,” Rarity didn’t sound entirely convinced by Twilight’s description of Spike but she waved her arm towards the decorations on the outside of the town hall anyway. “The decorations are up and spread out nicely.” Rarity said primly and beckoned Twilight to follow her inside the hall.
Before doing so, Twilight looked at the decorations and was glad to see that they went well with what she had in mind for the celebration. Feeling pleased, she followed Rarity into the hall to see it even more grandly decorated. There were pleasant hues of orange and yellow ribbons hung about the exposed rafters. Looking towards the many windows, Twilight found subtle various shades of white in the many curtains. Unfurling the scroll, she ticked off decorations and looked around for Spike so that they can head to the next item on the list. Seeing he was near Rarity, she walked over to them and smiled.
“The decorations look lovely Rarity. I’m sure the Princess will be pleased with them. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to check how the food is coming along.” Twilight said, not wanting to stay any longer than she had to. Rarity turned around from where she was fixing up a tapestry to see Twilight inching back slowly to the door.
"Leaving so soon? It would have been nice to chat to someone while I worked but I understand you have to check on the other things going on for the celebration. Don't let me stand in your way then." Rarity sighed and turned back only to spin around and smile at her. "It was nice meeting you. We should meet again sometime." She added and continued fixing up the tapestry only to have it rip slightly. "Oh shoot." Rarity muttered. She pulled out a thread and needle from her sewing kit and began to repair the tapestry.
"Yeah, sorry. Thanks for understanding." Twilight said and smiled when Rarity mentioned it was nice meeting her. "It was nice meeting you too." Twilight said back and closed the door behind her, making sure that Spike was following. "What did you think of the decorations Spike?" Twilight asked her assistant only to find him still having a lovey-dovey look on his face. "Spike?" Twilight repeated, waving a hand in front of his face. She saw Spike shake his head and look up at her.
"Wha-what? You need something Twilight?" Spike asked confusedly. He saw Twilight sigh and look at him carefully.
“I asked what you thought about the decorations but clearly you were too busy making googly eyes at Rarity.” Twilight said. She saw him scratch his head in embarrassment and all she could do was sigh. “What am I going to do with you? At any rate, the decorations check out. The next thing to see is food. Any idea where that would be?” Twilight asked him.
“When you were talking to that pink-haired girl, I overheard a couple of people saying that the food was being prepared by the Apple family so, I’m guessing it’s at a farm.” Spike replied, pleased with his answer. Twilight looked at him quizzically for a moment before heading in the direction of the local farm.
“How did you come to the conclusion it was a farm? It could be a bakery for all we know.” Twilight said, thinking he was probably jumping to the wrong conclusion.
“Well, before we met up with … the decorator,” Spike said hesitantly, not wanting to mention Rarity’s name in case he fell into a love stupor again, “the same people also said that it was made by a LOT of family members and that the family had a farm nearby?” Spike asked, unsure if he was making it up on the spot or not. Twilight gave a small frown but went with the conclusion anyway.
“Okay, let’s just hope that you heard about the right place.” Twilight said and quickened her pace.
