Nightmare Moon has arrived- but nopony saw it coming until it was too late. How will Twilight protect Equestria from eternal night without her friends?
When Twilight boards the train to Ponyville for the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration, she expects nothing unusual- just some noise and some comfortable reading time. Only, she becomes convinced of Nightmare Moon on the morning of- only to realize it's too late. Now, without any friends, she must locate the Elements of Harmony and use them against the Nightmare- but is that even possible?
“... But if it’s a regular celebration, they won’t have any books! I wonder if they have a library…”
“Twilight!”
“... but they probably wouldn’t be open anyways- I mean, it is the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration. What kinda name is Ponyville, anyways?”
“Twilight!” Spike finally manages to garnish Twilight’s attention, waving Equestria: A History in front of her nose.
“What Spike?” Twilight catches the book, reviewing the pages he had it open at. “The mare in the moon?”
“Yes! The prophecy says-”
Twilight cuts him off. “Yes, yes, the prophecy says Nightmare Moon comes back on the longest night of the thousandth year, I know. Fun fact, it’s just a little fillies tale- she’s not real!” She sets the book aside, not glancing at the cover, to focus on her assistant. “My parents are going to give me serious trouble if I don’t go to the celebration tonight! Seriously, I need to do some quick research- first, does Ponyville have a library?”
Spike hangs his head, claws drooping disappointedly. “You told me about Ponyville’s Golden Oak Library yesterday.”
“It does? Good. Then, what kind of selection does it have?”
“It’s not as big as we are here- but how are we supposed to find out without visiting?”
This gives Twilight pause. “Good point. We’re gonna have to bring plenty of books, then. We’ll have to be sure to cover the time before and after the ceremony, not just the train rides. To the packing!”
Spike sighs, stuffing Equestria: A History into the saddlebag first. Nothing like a good history book to keep Twilight occupied for a few hours. A sideways glance towards the bookshelf, and another book, so far untouched, catches his attention. Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. He pulls it off the shelf, flips a couple pages, and sticks it in the saddlebag. Hours four through six of the eight hour ride to Ponyville covered. Probably. Twilight has distracted herself with reading another book- so he goes to browse through the shelves once again, hunting for something distracting.
Spike yawns widely. As it turned out, those two books had covered the entire journey to Ponyville, and roughly three hours before they went to bed, to sleep until the celebration came a little closer. He should have thought to bring a quill, ink, and parchment; almost as soon as she got up, Twilight had a revelation- she does that, from time to time- and wanted to send a letter to Princess Celestia. Apparently, all of the sudden, Nightmare Moon is real, and she’s afraid they’ve missed all of the signs. Unfortunately, after fully half an hour of scrambling, they can’t find any paper- and the hotel staff has already left for the celebration, so they can’t ask them for some.
Finally, Twilight drags Spike to the event, chewing on her… Well, it’s not her hooves; rather, it’s a layer of magic over them, generated by her own horn. A trick she’d been taught somewhat early on, to make her nervous habit less harmful. In the meantime, she’s praying they haven’t missed an opportunity and doomed Equestria to eternal night.
If nothing else, Twilight decides, the decorations are beautiful. And the music- whoever taught those birds to sing should have a medal! … Maybe it’s the pegasus conducting them…? Finally, when the curtains are drawn… Celestia is missing. Twilight spares another glance out the window at the moon- nothing changed, right?
Wrong. The dark spots have disappeared… Nightmare Moon has escaped. She gazes back up towards the balcony, watching the proceedings, praying for her mentor, praying for the sun to rise.
That had been absolutely terrifying. Nopony had seemed to know about Nightmare Moon, so she had taken it upon herself to protect them from her ire. She’d announced her knowledge at the mare, and told Nightmare Moon about it. Nightmare had been bored, and mildly irritated, but her reward had been the understanding- even thankful- glances she’d gotten from the surrounding ponies. This way, it’ll be easier for them to avoid her ire. Nightmare had eventually departed- and as soon as she had, Twilight had taken off at a gallop. She’d even left Spike behind- but it’s not like he’ll be able to help her. She gallops for the woods- thank Celestia the celebration is being held so close to the Elements’ last known location!
She pauses along the path. It’s fully three hours after she left- but she hasn’t seen anything yet. As a matter of fact, her only clue to her location is the navigation spell she cast when she first entered the forest. The map it projects on the inside of her brain informs her she’s exactly eight miles in, though she’s run a full ten miles’ distance; her path is not quite direct. If she remembers her maps correctly, that means she’s got…
Eighty-nine more miles to go. As the crow flies. She lets out a heavy sigh, reducing her pace down to a walk. She glances back, wishing she’d thought to prepare before she came- up to and including verifying exactly how far and preparing adequately for that. It might even have been advisable for her to drag somepony along with her- though she doesn’t know who she’d bring. A few Royal Guards? Even if she’d asked, they wouldn’t have come- rather, they would have stopped her, for her own safety.
Pah! Like she needs them worrying over her! She can keep herself safe, even in here! As a matter of fact, her little navigation spell- something she’d come up with on her own- is a perfect example of that! Most ponies would get lost- but with this spell, not only can she trace her path flawlessly, but they lay of the land is recorded as well. Anything she sees or hears is processed and possibly recorded into it. Right now, that means everything; this way, if, say, a bridge collapses behind her, it’ll be a piece o’ cake to route around it on the way back. If she gets caught in an avalanche-
Wait! Why is the pathway collapsing out from under her, looking to fall off that there cliff? She turns to gallop back the way she’d come, but it’s too late. She does manage to hit the less-moving stone underneath, though, long before the pathway slides off the edge and plummets to the ground. She scrabbles for grip, slowing herself down- and finally draws to a stop. Unfortunately, she’s not in the best position to have finally stopped, now hanging onto the cliffside by only her forehooves. A quick glance shows the rockslide has stabilized- and she’s not sliding further off. She glances down and to both sides, before holding her position on this rockside while she analyzes the localized map her spell built for her with those tiny glances.
So, while scanning this map… Had she turned right a half mile ago, then followed the valley… The rocks would have fallen on her head instead of out from under her. Also, it would seem the path she’d been on before is a dead end. Distance to the valley floor… Way to far to drop safely. Though there’s a few roots sticking out of the sheared soil; she uses her magic to slice one off, piercing the ground in front of her with it. Finally, she uses it to help her climb back up onto the slope. Only one way to go now- back a half-mile, and down. She shears off a second root, using the two to aid in her climb back up to the ruined pathway. She doublechecks that her original course was, in fact, a dead-end before heading back the way she came.
Something like an hour later, she passes the fallen debris from that rockslide again, and shudders at what would have happened if she were at the bottom. She watches the high cliffs, just in case it tries to happen again, as she passes. Her mapping spell has now proven its worth- but she hasn’t turned it off yet. As a matter of fact, it’ll keep running until she turns it off, whenever she leaves this infernal forest, Elements of Harmony in hoof!
She marches… settles down. She’s been first trotting, then walking, for far too long. Her legs are worn out, and she needs to rest. Fortunately, she’s found a particularly dense patch of the woods; closing off the gaps to make a quick shelter takes only a simple spell. Here, she rests.
For hours she rests. Until her muscles are restored. She’ll have to forage for food sometime- but she’s made it this far, she feels certain she can make it the rest.
She rises swiftly, shatters her shelter, and marches on. Food will be easy- she can think of a few different spells she can use to tell what’s safe to eat and what’s not. Besides, she’d eaten a decent meal before the celebration; she’s not quite hungry just yet. Either that or she’s not noticing it again.
She enters a small valley. The cliffs on either side are wide; she’ll have to detour at least a half a mile to the side to be able to climb them, and it doesn’t look like a long valley. She decides to keep an eye on the rock above as she passes through, in case of a rockslide like earlier, and canters forwards.
Only- what was that roar? Something is in the mist, directly ahead, in the middle of the canyon. She squints her eyes, casting a gentle dispersion spell on the mist.
It’s a Manticore, and it’s charging towards her. She readies her shield spell, and perhaps an attack; mostly, she plans to dodge it and slip past.
Wait! Why is it limping in its advance? Every time that paw comes down, it’s flinching and raising it back up, interrupting its gallop. She’s still a good five bounds away from it- so she casts a quick scanning spell, focusing on that paw.
A… something. The visual she gets back is of a thorn, though it’s much too large to be a natural thorn- and the thaumic signature is something very different. She directs her attack spell at this, even as she dodges the creature’s final bound and darts back the way it had come, glancing behind to make sure she doesn’t need a shield. She also glances upwards as she passes through the short valley; no rocks fall. Once she gets around a bend and into the woods once again, she slows to a walk and dodges behind a tree. Here, she listens for the manticore’s approach. Nothing. She glances back around the tree. Nothing her map hadn’t already recorded.
She nods to herself, emerging from behind the tree, and continues on her journey. She’s halfway there.
Trees. That’s her next opponent? Really?
She rolls her eyes at the scary faces somepony carved into them. Is somepony really trying to scare her with trees?
She walks on. The faces get “scarier”.
She almost laughs at it. Somepony- or, something- really is trying to scare her with trees. No- she actually laughs at it. Why would the image of a carved tree scare her-!
She yelps, jumping a full foot into the air when one of the “scary” faces disappears in a flash of light… in response to her laugh. So, she steps closer to another tree, and tries again.
“Ha. Ha-Aaah!” It vanished too.
She looks around. Somepony is trying to scare her with silly laugh-triggered disappearing toothed faces carved into trees… It’s so ludicrous she can’t help but start laughing again- and this time, the disappearing faces only serve to boost her laughter, rather than frighten her. Shortly, every tree in sight is normal. She trots forwards- and finds that the rest of them seem to be normal as well… Darn, she was looking forward to laughing at these trees for the rest of the trip. She trots on.
She’s starting to get hungry now. But she’s come three quarters of the way already. She can hold out until she finds the Elements- then satiate her hunger. Her journey has been fairly direct- but she’s not entirely certain when she’ll run into the river.
Speaking of the river, she realizes she’s found it, as she rounds this tree. The river is raging; she won’t be able to safely cross it. Unless… She pauses at the riverbank, staring blankly at the rapids while she processes her surroundings, captured by another quick glance around and recorded by her map spell. She sever that tree at the base, sharpen the tip and pierce it into the riverbank… Those trees over there would do the same, for the other three posts… These two trees could form the rails, this tree’s branches could become the planking… The bridge comes together in her mind’s eye. It’d take some effort to build, not to mention a little bit of time, but she could do it… Wait. Is that crying she hears?
“... just horrid!”
Her head snaps up, searching for the source- and she realizes there’s a sea serpent complaining about… something. There, she realizes, is the cause of the rapids… And, possibly, willing assistance across the river. She trots towards… Him? Her? She’s not sure. “Hello?”
“... Now I- AAgh! Oh, sorry! I’m just looking absolutely terrible right now!”
She blinks. Looks? Ought to be pretty easy… Unless he wants something more permanent. But she can manage some of those, too. “What happened?” she asks.
“Oh, I was just minding my own business here a minute ago when this wisp of purple smoke came along and tore off half of my beautiful mustache!” He points at the severed side of his strange mustache.
True to his words, she can see it’s been cropped much shorter than the other side- and not very cleanly. Mane growth? That’s easy! Trimming it to match the other side might be harder- but it’ll still be easy, even without shears of any kind. “Ahh… I could help with that, actually.”
“... absolutely- wait, what?”
“I can help with that. I know a spell for mane growth; localizing it to the damaged mustache will be a piece o’ cake. Trimming it to match the existing side will be the hard part- but even that will be easy.”
The rapids die down somewhat. “Really? Oh, thank you!”
“You’re welcome. You will have to hold still for it to work, though.”
Shortly, the right side of the serpent’s moustache matches the left once again, and the rapids die away completely.
“Oh, thank you soooo much! I’m Steven Magnet, by the way- what’s your name?”
She bows her head slightly towards him. “Twilight Sparkle, at your service.”
For this, she earns jovial laughter. “So, what brings you to these parts? It’s not often I see a pony this deep in the woods.”
At this, Twilight smiles. “I’m journeying to the Castle of the Two Sisters, actually, to recover the Elements of Harmony.”
“Oh? Then you’ll be headed across my river, right?”
“Uh, yes, right.”
“Allow me, then.” He then makes a bridge out of his body, gesturing for her to cross. Which she does.
“Thank you,” she tells him, once she hits dry land on the other side.
“Oh, no problem. Oh- if you head about a half-mile thataway, you’ll find the path to the Castle.” He indicates a direction, roughly forty-five degrees off from her original heading.
She looks that way, her map spell cataloging the approximate location he’s indicating for her. “Thank you,” she informs him again.
“You’re welcome- and safe travels!” He waves, and disappears back into the river.
She travels on.
The pathway turns out to be exactly five elevenths of a mile away, on that heading. Close enough; she turns to follow it to the castle.
Her stomach has been growling for some fifteen minutes by the time she finally sets her eyes on her destination: The Castle of the Two Sisters, and the current resting place of the Elements of Harmony. Princess Celestia had used them to great effect so long ago- but is it possible she could do the same? Her Princess is an Alicorn- and she’s only a unicorn. Does she possess the power to control the Elements of Harmony- or even to activate them? Regardless, she gallops forwards.
And screeches to a halt. Her nagivation spell had thrown a danger warning at her, dead ahead. Something she’d added to it hardly an hour ago, so she wouldn’t miss anything dangerous, even if she gets distracted. Like now, apparently. She casts her eyes about, searching for the danger; the warning had gone away as soon as she stopped. Funny, it’s not supposed to until she’s out of… Oh.
Crossing a fallen bridge could be dangerous, she considers.
She walks up to it again, looking down the crevasse. Fog… Lots of it. Lucky to be her, she can’t see the bottom- nor, when she looks to the sides, the ends. Navigating around it is not going to be an option, it would seem. So, she starts to consider how she might cross the gap… Wait. The dangling ropes are far longer than it would seem they need to be- like the bridge was simply untied at the other end… Pfft! It’d be harder if her end had been undone; the dangling end of the bridge would then have been lost in fog. Admittedly, though, it would have been easier to ensure a tight knot that way.
But that’s not the way things are, and it takes only a couple light spells to accomplish her goal. The first clears the fog to the other side, granting her a clear view of the posts. The second ‘hardens’ panes in the fog, converting the mist into a transparent mirror, giving her a clear view of the far side of the posts. The third spell lifts the bridge up and ties it in place.
She gives a snort and begins trotting across the bridge. Her spell’s new danger-detector holds its peace until she’s about halfway across. At this point, the ropes suddenly come undone… On both sides of the bridge at once. The bridge falls out from under her- and, with no solid ground to anchor herself on, her attempt to operate immediate repairs fails.
No, wait. Not because she had no solid ground; even with no solid anchor for levitating against gravity, she caught the ropes fast enough and should have been able to push them out and down relative to herself enough to keep the bridge up long enough for repairs. Only, even as she’d started doing that, the entire bridge had simply melted away.
Unfortunately, self-levitation is one thing she hasn’t managed yet. Not over distances over a meter or so- and she’s at least six from the nearer cliffside.
Not that this seems to be posing a problem. She’s floating in the air, drifting slowly downwards- though she’s fairly certain it’s not her doing. Maybe the mist? Is it some hallucinogen…? A momentary spell confirms the negative- and that it’s not what’s holding her up, either. So, her next spell is a far heavier version of her dispersion spell, blasting the fog away from her in a shockwave of clarity.
She can see the valley floor. It’s not far, in absolute terms- though it’s still a deadly drop. She also catches a glimpse of what’s holding her up.
Right at the base of her neck, on her spine, a glow is visible. A magic aura… A light blue magic aura. Unfamiliar.
Oh, but alarm bells on her navigation spell go absolutely nuts when she feels an antimagic curse settle on her. At least that kind of curse requires a positional anchor; get far enough from the anchor point and it breaks. Lingering spells- like her nav spell- are not effected; she simply can’t activate, change, or deactivate it until she breaks the curse. Even as she stares down at the now-visible black alicorn waiting for her at the bottom of the valley, she prays internally that she doesn’t cast any weakness curses on her. Those curses don’t need positional anchors, are generally very difficult to impossible to break, and can last for years before they wear off.
Her sense of defeat grows worse as the Nightmare casts a second curse on her… And a third. Yep, that one was a weakness curse. Funny, though- that one felt more benevolent than not, but she has no clue as to its purpose.
Finally, the curses are done- and she allows herself to collapse limply to the ground when the Nightmare’s levitation finally puts her down.
Nightmare Moon scoffs as she drops her prisoner on the ground. She’d expected the mare to put up a fight; however, she seems to have simply given up. She’d showed far too much resourcefulness to just quit like this, even after falling victim to her particularly devious bridge trap. The unicorn’s solution to her landslide had given her the idea.
“Stand and fight!” she demands. She’d already layered on enough curses to ensure her own victory- and to ensure the following punishment for trying to hunt down the Elements is quite severe.
Her response is a whimper.
She lets out a severe but inaudible sigh, and draws in another breath. “Thou camest to FIGHT us, didst thou not?”
Another whimper. “I’ve already lost.” It’s barely audible.
Nightmare Moon lets out another sigh, this one quite deep but still inaudible, and resigns herself to victory. She’d been looking forward to playing with this one. Whatever- punishment starts early, she supposes. She levitates the unicorn into the cave she’d scouted earlier, barring the entrance with a long-lasting barrier spell.
Finally, as she flies away, she shakes her head and lets out the first audible sigh. If nothing else, at least Ponyville is cooperating with her. Those ‘nobles’ in Canterlot, though- they need a good stamping. Thus, her grin developing once again, she sets a course.
She rises slowly to her hooves. The moon hasn’t moved all night, but by her best estimation, it has to have been around three days’ time since she was trapped here. The hunger pains are eating at her now- but, even without water, she finds she’s still able to wobble back and forth across the entrance, behind the thaumic barrier. She hasn’t been able to sleep, either; rather, she’s merely spent extended periods lying sleeplessly on the hard rock floor.
During one of her more active periods, she’d realized she can get her horn to glow faintly, even through the restrictive spell. She can’t seem to actually cast any spells or use any real magic, though- only the dim glow. The dim glow which, she’s decided, should be enough to allow exploration deeper into this cave. Hopefully, Nightmare Moon had missed an exit.
Several hours and a hornache later, she rolls onto her back. The dirt here is softer than the rock in the entrance. The cave had turned out to be short, with no forks… And no alternate entrances. She’d tried digging out through the dirt, but had come up against something hard. Headbutting it hadn’t done anything except remind her exactly how painful it is to strike her horn against solid metal.
Exactly what the metal is doing in this cave, she has no idea. She’d been unable to uncover enough of it for any kind of examination or identification; the dirt patch was fairly thin and encased in stone. Her excavation efforts had produced one thing of value, though- she acquired enough loose dirt to make a half-comfortable bed.
Much time has passed. She doesn’t know how much- and has lost count of the number of rest periods she’s had. She hasn’t been able to sleep, and has had no food or water, yet she can still walk around this cave. Rather fortunately, she thinks, the weakness spell is beginning to wear off.
She’d thought she’d seen some motion outside her cave some time ago, but the Nightmare’s barrier had held her captive.
And now, back by her dirt patch, a hole has formed in the wall- a minor collapse. She’s not sure what caused it; it happened while she was having a staring contest with the opposing wall of the canyon. And winning.
She pokes and prods at the tiny little hole. The rock chips away at her touch, wafer thin around the edges. A larger stone dislodges from the edge, rolling down to the ground next to her, opening the hole further. She pokes and prods harder, with all her energy- not that she has much- and shortly has a hole in the wall.
She looks at it, analyzing what information her mapping spell is offering her, aside from its incessant danger alert. It has, of course, recorded what she can see of the tunnel. It seems to be just large enough for her to crawl up, with a slope just shallow enough she can climb it. It’s round, and smooth, like it had been constructed somehow. She does realize she can actually see trees out the other end- it’s an exit.
Her opening is smaller, still. It’s just large enough she should be able to squeeze through… So she gives it a try.
Two hours later, she emerges from the tunnel unhindered, onto the forest floor. A quick glance around shows her the first new information on the forest in a long time… but she can’t see anything familiar.
Good thing her spell doesn’t care if she recognizes any landmarks; she still knows exactly where she is. She’s just over a hill from the path she’d taken to get here in the first place. She turns to start towards that hill.
Then freezes, looking behind that tree. There’s a small hole in the ground here- no more than a couple feet deep… but the bottom is made of metal, gleaming dimly in the moonlight. She spots some fallen trees around the edges- all fallen into the woods, rather than into the hole. A couple of them don’t even have corresponding stumps, as if they’d been moved after they fell. All of them look fresh.
She turns away, moving faster towards that hill. She pushes herself right up to her limit- which, unfortunately, does not include trotting. Once she gets out of range for the antimagic curse, however, she should be able to at least protect herself.
She gets back to the path she’d been walking before. The bridge is still out, completely missing from its post. The fog hasn’t returned, so the Castle of the Two Sisters is clearly visible… and inaccessible. Mindful of the strange crater she’d seen, she quickly proceeds to retrace her prior path through the woods.
The serpent- Steven Magnet, if she recalls correctly- is not present, but neither are the rapids- and the river is shallow enough she can just walk across.
The trees have no scary faces.
No manticore attacks.
No rocks fall.
The end of the forest, some hundred and twenty-one miles down her path, seems to come with startling speed. She didn’t stop to rest or eat even once; with no magic, she hadn’t been willing to chance it. She had taken a drink from that river, though- that in and of itself had been a long-absent luxury.
Now, she finally walks out of the forest. She’s frankly amazed at how uneventful the journey had been.
As she does, she finally feels the antimagic curse go out of range, and collapse. Her map spell’s alarm goes blessedly silent at the same moment.
She very nearly cries out for joy before she sets out for Ponyville. There’s a dragon she needs to check up on… if he’s still here- or even still alive, for that matter.