Chapter Text
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, things were not well. This was bizarre because Equestria has just regained the Pillars, powerful ponies of old who had reappeared thanks to a spell cast by Princess Twilight Sparkle. The Pony of Shadows had been reformed and saved by the Pillars, as well as Twilight and her friends. This event should have been momentous enough to hold everyone over until Twilight’s Friendship Festival, which was still several moons away, but there was another perilous adventure that happened before the festival. This is the first time that adventure has ever been recorded.
As mentioned before, things were not going well in Equestria. As a matter of fact, things were going horribly wrong. And the ponies were starting to notice.
Applejack was up at the crack of dawn, as usual, and was about to start bucking apples.
“Yee-haw! Let’s get this day started,” she exclaimed.
She bucked the first apple tree of the day. Normally, red and green apples would fall into the barrels. Apples went in alright, but they were all purple and black!
Applejack sniffed the apples. They smelled rotten. When she looked upwards, she realized the entire orchard now contained only purple and black apples.
“What in the hayseed is goin’ on here?!”
Pinkie Pie was also up early at Sugar Cube Corner, preparing a cake for a party. It’s a very special day after all, anytime there is a party. She was humming a sweet tune as she mixed in the ingredients perfectly. Then, she put the cake in the oven. After that, Pinkie Pie started working on the cupcakes for the last day of school. She had a lot of projects all going on at once.
The oven dinged. Her cake was done. However, as soon as she took it out, she gasped.
“No!” she screamed dramatically.
The cake was flat. Pinkie Pie had never made a flat cake in her life!
Fluttershy was very concerned. All the animals seemed to be very sick. The squirrels wouldn’t eat their nuts. The birds wouldn’t fly. Nothing was as it should be. Her sanctuary was overflowing with ill animals, and nothing she was doing was making them any better.
“What in Equestria is going on,” she wondered quietly to herself.
Rarity walked quietly through the caves just outside Ponyville. She was looking for a special gem for her new gown. As she walked, she adjusted her helmet out of her line of sight. No, it wasn’t the helmet. Nor was it her eyes playing tricks on her. There were no gems left in the cave. They were all gone.
“Ah,” she shrieked.
Rainbow Dash flew through the sky, trying to clear the clouds to make way for a sunny day. But, when she tried to kick the clouds, they wouldn’t disappear. Rainbow kept trying, yet she could not clear the clouds. She looked around to see if other Pegasi were having similar issues. Sure enough, no one was able to clear the skies. There were grunts of frustration and confusion as the clouds stubbornly remained.
“What is happening here?” questioned Rainbow Dash.
Princess Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer were also noticing some strange changes. They were stargazing on the roof of Twilight’s castle and noticed that the stars were disappearing. Some stars had also moved from their established positions.
“What could cause this,” asked Starlight. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”
“No, I haven’t. I don’t know what could cause this. Let’s send a letter to Celestia. Maybe she’ll know what’s going on.”
Starlight nodded in agreement.
“Spike!” called Twilight.
The dragon came running up right away.
“What’s up?”
“We need you to take a letter for Princess Celestia,” answered Twilight.
“Okay,” said Spike as he quickly produced parchment and a quill. “Ready!”
Before Twilight could start dictating, there was a loud bang as the doors to her castle burst open. There were cries for Twilight as her friends raced into the castle. Twilight looked between Starlight and Spike before all three left the roof in search of Twilight’s friends. It didn’t take long to find them since they were basically running all around the foyer. Once Twilight appeared at the top of the stairs, her friends all hurried up to see her.
“The cakes are all flat!” cried Pinkie as she wept.
“Rotten apples!” exclaimed Applejack as she produced a basket of black and purple apples and shoved them in front of Twilight.
“The gems are gone! My gown will be a disaster!”
“The clouds won’t go away. They’re moving on their own!”
“The animals are all sick. Nothing I do is helping!”
“Woah, woah,” said Twilight. “Everyone, please calm down and tell me, one at a time, what’s going on.”
So, one at a time, the ponies told their tales of woe. When they were done, everyone was silent for a moment. Starlight was the first to speak.
“We noticed something wrong too. The stars have either disappeared or moved. We were about to write a letter to Princess Celestia. Why don’t we include your observations too?”
Everyone agreed that this was a terrific idea. Twilight told Spike what to put into the letter. He scribbled furiously as he described the strange occurrences. Then, he sent the letter using his fire breath. Within seconds, Spike burped out another scroll.
“Wow, that was fast,” commented Pinkie.
Twilight quickly opened the scroll. Celestia’s response was only four words, but it made Twilight’s chest tighten. She read the response to the group.
“Come to Canterlot… now!”