Equestria is a land brimming with magic, a land of hope and peace that everypony dreams of.
Here live the horned unicorns, the winged pegasi, and the strong earth ponies.
Canterlot is the capital city of Equestria, nestled on the peak of a high mountain in the heart of the kingdom.
The city is filled with golden spires, ivory towers, and sparkling fountains.
It is home to the royal palace and the princesses.
At the foot of this mountain lies Ponyville, a small town founded by earth ponies.
It is home to all kinds of hardworking, welcoming ponies.
“La la la~ la la la…”
Oh, my goodness, which pony is singing so optimistically this early in the morning?
“It’s me, Pinkie Pie!”
On the streets of Ponyville, a pink pony (goddess) hopped along, humming a little tune she made up herself.
Her name is Pinkie Pie.
She has a pink coat, a magenta mane and tail, and sky blue eyes.
Her mane is naturally frizzy, and her cutie mark is two blue balloons flanking a yellow one.
She is a cheerful, optimistic, and friendly…
earth pony (goddess) who can stay upbeat no matter what.
“Hey, you didn’t even mention that I love parties!”
Oh, sorry, Pinkie Pie.
If I write too much, the readers will think I’m just padding the word count.
Anyway, this optimistic little pony was bouncing happily down the street.
Suddenly, her pink mane stood on end, completely ignoring the laws of physics.
Her pupils shrank to pinpricks, and her right front hoof twitched uncontrollably.
“Ooooh,” she let out a long string of airy gasps, her tail rattling violently like a rattlesnake.
“It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming!”
The ponies around her scattered in fear of Pinkie Pie’s erratic behavior, and she started muttering to herself.
“Full body shivers, twitchy knees, shaky tail…
wow, this ‘Pinkie Sense’ is a zillion times stronger than usual!”
“Looks like I gotta throw an astronomically humongous party to welcome a party guest from another world!”
With that, she grinned widely and bounded off to gather party supplies.
Oh, what a magical little pony.
…
Let’s shift our gaze back to the moon.
“That’s…
Pegasus.”
Standing on a tall lunar rock plateau, Dusk Glow looked at the stars in the sky, radiating light from who knows how many light years away.
He knew a thing or two about astronomy, but after arriving in this world, what shocked him the most was how celestial bodies moved.
There were no so called Kepler’s laws.
According to Nightmare Moon, each constellation actually moved along ancient magical trajectories.
“What an amazing world.
Even giant celestial bodies like the sun and the moon are controlled by Alicorns,” Dusk Glow muttered to himself.
“What?
In your world, the sun and moon aren’t controlled by ponies?”
“Your Majesty, there’s no comparing our two worlds…”
A black figure landed beside Dusk Glow.
It had been about two hours since Nightmare Moon and Dusk Glow had crossed paths.
During these two hours, Dusk Glow was not only adapting to his new pony body, but also learning magic under Nightmare Moon’s guidance.
Learning magic is a thrilling thing, especially for a person, or rather, a pony, like Dusk Glow, who had never encountered magic before.
The unfortunate part, however, was that Dusk Glow didn’t have much magic in him.
In fact, it was pitifully low.
Nightmare Moon even complained that a newborn unicorn foal had more magic than him.
Because of this, Dusk Glow’s magic training often caused his horn to overheat from magical overload, not to mention Nightmare Moon’s training methods were a bit on the brutal side.
Fortunately, Dusk Glow was exceptionally gifted when it came to focus and concentration, and he was a very fast learner.
Within minutes of Nightmare Moon teaching him, he had already mastered a basic spell called “Levitation,” and even learned fine control to move the largest objects with the least amount of magic.
This made Nightmare Moon appreciate his talent, and she was trying to figure out how to increase Dusk Glow’s magical reserves.
Is it because he doesn’t have a cutie mark?
Nightmare Moon wondered.
A white aura of light appeared around Dusk Glow’s horn, and a corresponding white aura appeared around a huge boulder weighing over a hundred pounds in the distance.
Inch by inch, Dusk Glow moved the boulder toward himself.
“Aha,” Dusk Glow broke out in a light sweat.
He was already at his absolute limit.
Nightmare Moon sighed and shook her head, then flapped her wings and flew back into a palace.
Dusk Glow also sighed helplessly, then plopped down on the ground to rest.
This palace was where Nightmare Moon lived, but to Dusk Glow, it felt more like a dungeon.
Not only was it incredibly creepy inside, but Dusk Glow always felt like something sinister was watching him, and he even hallucinated sometimes.
Because of this, even if Nightmare Moon ordered him to, he preferred to stay outside to eat, drink, and relieve himself rather than step hoof inside.
In a secret library within the palace, there were many books that couldn’t even be found in Canterlot’s library, including some forbidden tomes.
After all, this entire castle was once the lunar stronghold of a certain great unicorn.
“The Dark Moon Grimoire, Theory of Harmony Reversal…
My Little Pony Bedtime Stories?!
Why in Equestria is a ridiculous book like this doing here!”
“Star Swirl the Bearded, do you or do you not have a spell to increase magical reserves?!”
Nightmare Moon angrily used magic to throw a book into a pile.
She rarely came here, and even after being locked up here for a thousand years, she wasn’t very familiar with this library.
As Nightmare Moon continued her frantic search, a wisp of black mist suddenly appeared beside her.
The mist gradually grew larger, taking the shape of something resembling an eagle, with a pair of chilling, terrifying red eyes.
“Your Majesty…” the black mist spoke.
“Perhaps you could just use the power of the nightmare to transform him directly.”
“Do you take me for a fool?” Nightmare Moon snapped impatiently.
“I don’t need you to tell me what to do, Nightmare!”
“Hehe…” The black mist known as the “Nightmare” chuckled, then closed the distance with Nightmare Moon and said,
“This is the most direct method.
If the nightmare takes over his body directly, you’ll have a powerful subordinate at your beck and call.”
“But then he wouldn’t be himself anymore.” Nightmare Moon frowned.
“I don’t want to waste that promising stallion.
He has his own thoughts and talents.
Converting him directly would ruin him.”
“Your Majesty, since when did you become so soft hearted?” the Nightmare sneered.
“This is the fastest way to make him stronger.
Once he becomes a powerful nightmare emissary, your plans will go off without a hitch.”
“No, I believe there are other ways.” Nightmare Moon turned and continued searching the bookshelves.
“The fact that he learned levitation so quickly proves he has unlimited potential.”
The Nightmare fell silent.
Nightmare Moon was right; Dusk Glow did have incredible talent, and he was very cautious.
When the stallion first arrived at the moon palace, the Nightmare had tried to approach him a few times, but he had sensed it.
Eventually, he just stayed outside entirely.
As the embodiment of dark dreams, the Nightmare also had its own caution.
After all, a pony appearing on the moon out of the blue required some observation before making a move.
But who would have thought this pony’s magic would be so pitifully low?
Because of this, the Nightmare decided it wanted to take over Dusk Glow’s body.
“Don’t do anything reckless,” Nightmare Moon broke the silence, her imposing gaze piercing the Nightmare like two ice picks.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re plotting.
I have no intention of seeing my subjects’ bodies taken over by a bunch of shadowy blobs.”
Hearing this, the Nightmare dissipated immediately, but it hadn’t given up.
Hehe, Your Majesty, your jealousy and bitterness are what summoned me all those years ago, yet now you stop me from transforming a single pony.
Or perhaps…
is your heart still resisting me?