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// Moondancer's Party 
// Story: MLP: Technology is Magic 
// by Xarmar13 
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Following Sweetie Belle’s surgery, the days became less eventful as Ponyville gradually got used to the fact that they had a robotic filly living among them.

Sophia was glad that the citizens of Ponyville were more adaptable than other towns and cities in Equestria. She suspected that the threat of the nearby forest had contributed to their need to adapt to protect themselves. Because of that she made sure Tosh and Nova only got involved if things got out of control while the town took measures to protect themselves.

The idea of a zebra like Tosh living among them was starting to grow on the citizens as they learned more about him. They found that he was a spiritualistic zebra who could communicate with ponies beyond the mortal plane. To that end, Tosh ended up making a living as a medium.

Nova, being the soldier that she was, quit her job at the farm and worked as a bodyguard for the mayor who sometimes received visits from belligerent ponies complaining about her policies only for Nova to throw them out of Town Hall on their faces.

Back to Sweetie, there were some obvious issues to overcome for the cyborg filly, such as learning how her body worked and the social aspects of being a machine. Fillies and colts her age were either nervous around her or fascinated by her. There were those who became envious of her newfound popularity, such as a certain pink filly with a pale purple and white mane and tail wearing a small tiara.

There were times when Diamond Tiara made fun of her for being a blank flank and likely to be forever a blank flank. This did leave her sad for a time but Rarity assured her that there will come a time when she will have her cutie mark which she promised would come in a future model upgrade.

It was a year after the operation that Sweetie had her first transfer to a new and upgraded body. Rarity installed receptors throughout Sweetie’s body to send external information to her brain and simulate a pony’s basic senses. It meant that her sister could feel pain, but it also helped her sister to feel like she was still alive.

Over the next few years Rarity had been building new models of Sweetie where she altered the shape somewhat according to where Sweetie should be based on the average filly’s size for her age. She worked with Thanatas to make sure her brain was growing properly and the engineer mare made sure to have larger sizes of Sweetie’s head ready in case the brain became too large for the container. She would save any nuances in the body’s shape for when Sweetie was in her teens.

Life in Ponyville continued.







As the day that Celestia foretold of her sister’s return drew near, Sophia received more letters from the monarch. She could sense the growing anxiety in the letters. The latest one mentioned sending Twilight and Starlight to oversee the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. Apparently while the two were pretty close, Starlight and Twilight’s dragon assistant, Spike, had to work together to make sure the bookworm interacted with more ponies aside from her.

Meanwhile, Twilight was looking over a book of ancient stories and found one about the two sisters. 

Twilight read the text, “Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled the land together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for the kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, fear and paranoia rose among the subjects as the younger sister strengthened the kingdom’s military with her radical ideas. Fearing that she may attempt to overthrow the elder, a group of six ponies infiltrated her tower and harnessed the most powerful magic in all of ponydom: the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, they banished the younger sister permanently in the moon. The elder sister was forced to take on the responsibility for both the sun and moon and harmony had been maintained in Equestria for generations since.”

Twilight looked at the book in confusion, “Huh? That’s strange, shouldn’t those ponies be referred to as heroes if they stopped an attempted coup? Though the tone at the end sounded like the elder sister wasn’t happy about what happened. Then there was mention of the Elements of Harmony. They sound familiar, where have I heard about them before…?”

As the young mare left her spot under a tree she ran down the road toward her tower residence. She was stopped partway when three of her friends from school appeared in her path. One was a cornflower blue mare with a dark blue and gray mane and tail with an hourglass cutie mark, one was a yellow mare with a curly cerulean mane and tail and three cerulean hearts, one more faded than the others, for a cutie mark. The third was a cream colored mare with a curly pink mane and tail with three stars on her flank. They were known as Minuette, Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine respectively.

Twinkleshine greeted their lavender friend, “There you are, Twilight! Moondancer is having a little get-together in the west castle courtyard. Starlight said you’d be there and she brought Spike there as well.”

That halted Twilight in her tracks. When her friend mentioned Starlight and the way she worded it she knew she had to pay attention. Vivid memories were dredged up from the last time she made a liar out of Starlight. She shuddered when she remembered her friend hitting her with a dyslexia spell that made her unable to read anything for a whole day. Since then she vowed to never do anything that would set her off like that again. 

This meant that she had to attend this party no matter what.

“Sure, lead the way,” Twilight responded.

Twilight met up with Moondancer, Starlight and Spike, a baby dragon with purple scales and green underbelly and fins, at the party where the latter was about to present Moondancer, a young mare with a yellowish gray coat and a mane and tail of amaranth with two tones of purple stripes, her presents from him and Twilight. Twilight’s gift was one of Starswirl the Bearded’s manuscripts which the mare adored. Spike gave her a sci-fi novel which didn’t interest her very much though they did make her wonder if there was any truth to them or if they were just made up. Sadly, she had nopony to confirm this with. Starlight’s gift was a copy of Predictions and Prophecies from the castle library.

Moondancer raised an eyebrow when she noticed a bookmark in the book which she opened to that page which mentioned the Mare in the Moon. “Why was this old mare’s tale marked?” Moondancer asked.

“I suspect that it might not be just a tale,” Starlight responded. “I overheard a conversation Celestia had a few years ago about a sister she had but the records do not show her anywhere. When I read the Tale of the Two Sisters it described the elder sister as having the power to move the sun and then the moon at the end of the tale, just like Celestia.”

“So you think that Celestia might have a younger sister who was banished to the moon by a group of ponies?”

“Actually, I just read that tale myself,” Twilight said. “I was on my way to my tower to look for a book like the one in your hooves. Though I was more curious about the Elements of Harmony.”

Moondancer looked at the marked page and read what it said about the Mare in the Moon. “It says that she was a powerful pony who once co-ruled Equestria with Princess Celestia and wanted to bring about a renaissance period for ponykind. However, paranoia and fear gripped the hearts of their subjects and they accused her of attempting to overthrow her sister to rule Equestria solely so they had a group of ponies use the Elements of Harmony to banish her in the moon. It also says that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape and she will return to seek vengeance against the descendents of the ponies who wronged her.”

“We need to warn the Princess!” Twilight loudly stated. “Spike, take a letter.” The dragon pulled out a sheet of paper and a ready quill from his backpack that he often carried around whenever Twilight was out and about. Once ready, Twilight began to voice the contents of her letter, “My dearest teacher, my continuing studies of pony magic have led me to discover that we are on the precipice of disaster!”

“Preci…preci…” Spike tried to figure out the word but he had no idea what half the words Twilight said meant.

Starlight rolled her eyes, “We need to work on your vocabulary, Spike. Though I still wish we could have him attend school, even if it wouldn’t be in Canterlot.” Of course, she knew that the schools of Canterlot would have rejected him outright because he was a dragon. In fact, most schools in Equestria would have either rejected him or accepted him while subjecting him to toxic conditions. She blamed such unfair treatment on the outdated rules and guidelines written by the Equestrian Education Association. Because of this, she and Twilight were forced to homeschool him.

After finding a synonym for ‘precipice’, Twilight continued with the letter, “For you see, I suspect that the Mare in the Moon might be your younger sister who will soon return to seek vengeance upon us all. Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true. I await your quick response. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

Once the dictation was complete, the lavender mare had him send it to Celestia. After doing so, Spike voiced his doubts, “I dunno Twilight, Princess Celestia will be pretty busy with the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration and it’s, like, the day after tomorrow.”

“That’s just it, Spike. The day after tomorrow is the thousandth year of the Summer Sun Celebration! It’s imperative that the Princess is told right away!”

“Impera…”

Twilight sighed, “Important. Other than this whole business of Princess Celestia’s sister, I really wish something could be done about the E.E.A.”

A few moments later, Spike had a familiar sensation in his belly that told him that he was about to belch up a letter from the Princess. It was never a pleasant sensation but he lived with it. He caught the resulting scroll and unrolled it, reading the contents, “My dearest, most faithful student Twilight. You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely.” Twilight nodded proudly... “...but you simply must stop reading those dusty old books.” The mare’s expression quickly turned to shock. “I am glad that Starlight is around to make sure you don’t stay cooped up in your room and has helped you make some friends here, but I think it is time for you to make more friends from different walks of life than your own. This is why I am sending you and Starlight to Ponyville to supervise the preparations for this year’s Summer Sun Celebration. While you are there, I have one more essential task for you: make some friends from among the locals.”

Twilight was completely shocked that her claims had been outright dismissed by the teacher she had placed all of her faith in and she had no idea what to think right now. She already had friends in Moondancer, Starlight, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine and Lyra Heartstrings, why would she need more? Sure, they were all unicorns and the Princess probably wanted her to befriend some earth ponies and pegasi too, but why would she need to do so?

While Twilight was having her issues, Starlight had a feeling that this was all part of Celestia’s plan. If she hadn’t been privy to that meeting between the Princess and that strange blue rabbit she might have been thinking the same thing as her friend. There was no way Celestia would dismiss the thought of her sister’s return so this had to be her setting whatever plan she had in mind in motion. She could only hope that they could emerge from the next couple of days unscathed.

Twilight, Starlight and Spike stayed at Moondancer’s party for a half hour longer before they were picked up by the guards to escort them to a chariot that would carry the three to the small town.