“Sunny. Sunny. Sunny! Are you in there?”
Sunny cracked her bleary eyes open. Her muscles ached from sleeping on the ground, and she let out a small groan as someone pushed her bedroom door open.
“Ugh. There you are, Sunny. I’ve been looking for you all morning.” A familiar male voice rang in her ears. “Don’t tell me you stayed up all night reading again. I told you that being up so late was bad for you. And you shouldn’t leave all your books strewn about the floor like this!”
Sunny lifted her head off the ground. “Hitch…?”
The yellow stallion continued his rant as he returned various books to their proper shelves and papers to their desks. “Yes, it’s me. You have got to start taking better care of yourself. Have you even had breakfast yet?"
Sunny's stomach growled. She shook her head. "No..."
Hitch gave Sunny a pointed look. "Listen Sunny. I understand that you really love this stuff. But you have a responsibility to yourself to get enough rest. And it's not even just about you this time! Everypony in Ponyville is counting on you for refreshments for the celebration tonight.”
"Celebration...?" Sunny rubbed her eyes, trying to process what her foalhood friend was saying. "What celebrat—" She cut herself off as her mind finally caught up with her.
The Summer Sun Celebration.
Nightmare Moon.
The elements!
“Hitch!” Sunny jumped up suddenly, scattering papers across the floor as she did. “I need to tell you something! You see, I was reading—”
“—I know that. And as I’ve been saying, you need to stop doing that. I can’t keep coming around reminding you to take care of yourself.”
“But I found something really important—“
“—And I’m really busy today, too. I still need to have Zipp clear the clouds, check Izzy’s decorations, make sure Pipp’s ready to sing tonight. And that’s not even including—”
“—But everyone in Ponyville could be in danger, Hitch!”
At the sound of the ‘D’ word, Hitch stopped in his tracks and swiveled around to face Sunny. “Danger?” He asked in his ‘sheriff voice’. “What kind of danger are we talking about? Stampeding cattle? Parasprites? Sleeping Dragon?”
“No, it’s Nightmare Moon!”
“Nightmare—” Hitch’s serious face shifted into one of incredulity. “Nightmare Moon? From that old bedtime story?”
Sunny nodded. “Yes, but she’s not just a bedtime story! She’s real, and she’s going to return tonight.”
Hitch remained blank-faced. “Nightmare Moon. From the foal’s bedtime story. Is going to come here tonight.”
Sunny nodded again. “Yes. Now I’ve been doing some research, and the only things that can defeat her are these artifacts called the Elements of Harmony. Now, I couldn’t find much information on them, but—”
“Sunny.”
Hitch put his hoof on Sunny’s shoulder. “Listen to me. You’re one of my best friends. We’ve known each other since we were foals. So listen to me when I tell you I say this with your best interests in mind. I think all these books are starting to get to you.”
Sunny glared at him, shoving his foot off. “What? No! This is serious! If you look at the story of the Mare in the Moon—”
“—Which is also just a legend.” Hitch interrupted “And besides, if there was really some scary immortal alicorn who wanted to plunge Equestria into eternal night, don’t you think the Princess would warn us?”
Sunny couldn’t come up with an answer to that, and simply cast her gaze on the floor.
He sighed. “Listen, I’m not sure what sort of bad dreams you had last night, but like I said, I have a lot to supervise before the celebration tonight. Are you going to be okay? Because if you need to take a day to rest, I can always get somepony else to cover refreshments.”
“But I’m not just—” Sunny paused as she carefully considered Hitch’s words. A small smile began to spread across her face. “Actually, Hitch, you know what? I think I will need somepony to cover for me.” She let out an exaggerated yawn. “I did stay up really late last night, and I want to make sure I’m rested up for the party tonight. So if it’s not too much trouble…”
Hitch smiled. “Of course not. Anything for a friend!” He turned around to walk out the bedroom door. “I’ll get right to it, so get some sleep, okay? I’ll see you tonight.”
“Bye, Hitch!” Sunny said, as he walked out the door. As soon as it was shut, she turned back to her desk.
“Well Hitch,” Sunny said with a smile. “If you won’t believe me, maybe there’s somepony out there who will.”
The small town of Ponyville was buzzing with excitement. All around, ponies were cleaning, decorating, and generally doing their part to make sure that the festivities were the absolute best that they could possibly be. It seemed like there was no way that anything could go wrong.
Which was precisely why it was so surprising to see a certain orange earth pony mare skating through the streets, megaphone in hoof.
“Attention everypony! Nightmare Moon is coming! We need to prepare!"
Sunny rolled through the streets, determined to reach as many ponies as possible. So Hitch didn't believe her. Fine. She'd just find somepony else who would. Ponyville was full of other ponies; surely one of them would have to listen to her.
"Nightmare Moon is coming everypony! we need to— Ooof!"
At that moment, Sunny ran straight into a makeshift wooden stage. "Ugh..."
"Sunny?"
Sunny looked up to see the face of a familiar pink pegasus. "Pipp!" She said, jumping to her feet.
"Oh, hey Sunny!" She replied, swooping down to face her. "How are you doing? Do you like the stage? I made it myself."
"Um, Yeah. It's very nice, but—"
"So, what's all this Nightmare Moon stuff about? Is it some sort of Nightmare Night promotion? 'cause I love your Bloody Orange smoothie as much as the next pony, but I think you might've mixed up your holidays?"
Sunny shook her head. "No! She's real, Pipp!"
"Who's real?"
"Nightmare Moon!"
Pipp gave Sunny a blank look before she burst out into laughter. "That's a good one, Sunny!"
Sunny growled and stamped her hoof on the ground. "I'm not joking, Pipp! This is serious! Nightmare Moon is coming, and we need to find the Elements of Harmony to defeat her, and—"
"Sunny Starscout!"
Oh no.
Sunny turned around to see the town mayor, Phyllis, storming angrily towards her. “Oh hey,” she said wearing a sheepish expression. “What brings you here?”
Phyllis snorted. “What brings me here? What brings me here? I’m here because somepony’s trying to incite a panic in this town with her wild stories about an old mare’s tale! Do you know how many parents have come to me complaining of their foals crying because they’re scared that Nightmare Moon is coming to gobble them up?”
Sunny folded her ears back. “I’m sorry. But I’m not trying to scare anypony, honest! You see, I was looking through my dad’s old books, and—”
“Bup, bup, bup! I don’t want to hear it. I’m under enough pressure as it is trying to make sure that everything goes perfectly, and the last thing I need is you messing things up with your usual antics.”
“But—”
“—No buts! If this keeps up, I’ll have to have you banned from this year’s Summer Sun Celebration!”
“What? Mator Cloverleaf, you can’t do that!” Pipp said, suddenly flying forward. “Sunny didn’t mean any harm!”
Phyllis scoffed. “She never does. And yet somehow it keeps happening.”
“Come on. Cut her some slack. I’m sure she’ll tone it down with the whole ‘Nightmare Moon’ stuff, right Sunny?”
Sunny nodded vigorously. “Right! Of course I will!”
Phyllis glared at Sunny before turning back to Pipp. “Fine,” she said with a sigh. “But I’d better not hear of any more incidents, or else.” And then with another a scoff and a flick of her tail, she turned around and walked off, leaving the two mares by themselves once more.
Sunny heaved a sigh of relief and turned to face Pipp. “Thanks for sticking up for me there. I’m glad she likes you.”
“Pshhh, it’s no problem!” Pipp said with a grin. “Although you might wanna tone the publicity stunt down a tad. Wouldn’t want to scare anymore foals.”
Sunny growled and stamped her hoof. “Argh, Pipp! this isn’t a publicity stunt! This is real! Nightmare Moon really is coming, and we need to prepare!”
“Prepare by doing what, exactly? How are we supposed to go up against her?”
“Um— Well—” Sunny stammered. “We could— Or maybe—”
Pipp drapped a fluffy wing over her back. “Just relax, Sunny! I’m sure even if Nightmare Moon was coming, Princess Celestia would’ve told us!”
Right. Hitch had said that too, and it was the one piece of the puzzle that didn’t quite fit. If Nightmare Moon was coming, why wasn’t the Princess doing anything about it? There was no way she could just not know, right? She was Princess Celestia, for goodness’ sake!
Sunny looked down. “I guess that makes sense…”
Pipp beamed. “Right? There’s no need to worry! So just relax, do your ‘Sunny Thang’, and whatever you do, don’t forget to come see me perform tonight!~”
Sunny forced a small smile. “Yeah… I’ll do that.”
“Great! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some practice to get back to.” And with that said, Pipp spread out her wings and flew back onto the stage.
Sunny, on the other hand, was left to wander the streets on Ponyville, looking at everypony excitedly setting up for the Celebration. A dark pit formed in her stomach as she watched them. Didn’t they know how much danger they were all in?
Maybe Pipp and Hitch are right, though. Maybe I am worrying over nothing.
“Psst!”
Sunny looked up. Where did that come from? She looked around, but the streets seemed mostly deserted. So where did…
“Over here!”
Sunny scanned the area around her. There were a few bushes and some ponies who were preoccupied with the planning, but not much—
One of the bushes moved.
Normally, Sunny would’ve blamed the wind, but the skies were completely clear. So without many other options, she slowly and carefully approached the bush. “Hello?”
“Hey.”
A head popped out of the bushes, and Sunny jumped back slightly. The voice gave a chuckle, and to her surprise, Sunny recognized it.
“Zipp?”
“That’s me.” The sleek white pegasus climbed out of bushes, deftly shaking off the leaves that clung to her wings and fur as she did so.
Sunny tilted her head. “What were you doing in the bushes? Aren’t you supposed to be clearing the clouds?”
“I needed to make sure nopony heard us. Plus, I finished with the clouds a while ago.” She leaned into Sunny’s ear and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I wanted to hear your theory on Nightmare Moon.”
“You do?” Sunny squealed, earning her an annoyed look from Zipp.
She felt her face heat up. “Sorry,” she whispered. “You do?”
Zipp nodded. “I’m curious.” She pulled out her notebook. “You said something about these Elements of Armory?”
“Harmony. But yeah!” She pulled her Dad’s book out of her saddlebag. “According to the legend, that’s what Princess Celestia used to defeat her last time. But I’m not sure where they are. Or what they are, really.” She beamed. “Either way, it’s so nice to finally have somepony who believes me!”
“Well…”
Sunny looked up. Zipp’s face was scrunched up into an unreadble expression. “Zipp?”
Zipp pawed her hoof at the ground. “It’s just… it would be weird if there was this huge looming threat and Princess Celestia didn’t tell us, y’know?”
Sunny felt her heart sink. “Right…”
“I’m not saying that you’re definitely wrong. But I am a little skeptical, just to be clear.”
“Oh.” That made sense, at least. And help was better than no help, regardless of the reasoning. “So what do we do now?”
Zipp grinned. “What we do now is launch an investigation. And lucky for you I know just where to start.”
Really looking forward to seeing where this goes!
11727216
I’m glad to hear that! And thanks for the favorite!
The better question is where the hell are the proper G4 Elements of Harmony? They're a pony short here. Unless someone doubles up.
So this is an alternate universe where the G5 Mane Five exist, instead of the original Mane Six?
There's just one problem, there's only five ponies compared to the six artifacts!?
11727237
You’ll have to wait and see for those answers~
I bet the unseen sixth member is Misty Brightdawn
11727239
That’s what I was going to say.
If the Main 6 and Mane 5 swapped places.
Then what is Pipp and Zipp's mother then? She can't be a queen as Celestia is the ruler.
And yeah, 6 Elements but 1 pony short.
Gotta say, I really look forward for future chapters. When I heard that G5 was going to be a sequel to G4, this is close to what I'd imagine it to be. Nice!
11727349
It happens to the best of us. But don't worry, I like what I'm seeing so far. Obviously there have been a few rewrites of the FiM premiere on this site, but combining it with G5 is a unique idea. Also you seem to be doing a good job of making sure that the Mane 5 are there own characters despite the fact that their roles have changed.
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Thanks. I’m glad to hear that. I really wanted this to feel like a true ‘what-if’ scenario, not just the first two episodes with the names changed around. I’m glad to see that I’ve suceeded on that front!
Part of me wishes you'd left it set in Maretime Bay even, if just for the full G5 effect, but nonetheless, this certainly seems like it'll be an interesting take on an old favorite.
11727257
I hope so! Misty's probably one of the best things to have come out of G5 so far.
11727519
Unfortunately, that won’t be the case for this story, as it was mostly plotted out before Misty was a primary cast member.
That being said, I do have a few ideas for this AU-verse, and if I choose to continue it, she will be appear. She’s one of my favorite characters too.
(Also, dammit, I wish I’d been that creative with setting. Why didn’t I think of that?)
(Before getting into the story)
Another problem is that there are only 5 main ponies in G5 and there are 6 Elements of Harmony
11727497
Well, Sunny couldn't have Spike of course. She's not Princess Celestia's personal student. For all we know, he could still be an egg, or was indeed still hatched by Twilight, and is off wherever she is.
major divergence detected
Now THIS is a story!
Im tracking this
I have wondered what it would be like if the G5 characters were in certain G4 episodes.
This defiantly has my interest.
11727301
Well, to be fair, Haven COULD just be a VERY successful businesswoman who just has "Queen" as an affectionate nickname. But this isn't my story, so it's just a guess.
11727301
As for the one pony short, I can think of three different possibilities:
1. Sprout (a MUCH nicer version than in G5) could end up taking up the sixth Element (this one, admittedly, is the LEAST likely).
2. One of the five ends up claiming TWO of the Elements (again, rather unlikely [though MORE likely than the "Sprout" thing], but if it DOES happen, gaining control of two of the six Elements COULD be the trigger that gives Sunny those hard-light wings and horn [aka her "training wheels Alicorn abilities"])
or 3. Celestia herself ends up becoming the sixth Element Bearer (reclaiming one of her three former Elements - this one is the most likely, but I still acknowledge that I could be wrong). If this DOES happen, then it would provide a good reason for her to get more directly involved in the big adventures as well as put her in a good position to train and advise the other five Bearers.
But, as this is NOT my story, I fully acknowledge that all three of my guesses could be wrong.
Again, you did a really good job on the characters of Hitch, Pipp and Zipp (all three at least TRYING to help Sunny in their own ways [Hitch trying to "reason" with Sunny, Pipp in sticking up for her and Zipp in helping with the investigation]). Definitely looking forward to Izzy's introduction next chapter (as all three of the other main characters have been introduced in this one). I am also glad Phyllis has at least enough Adaptational Nice Guy to actually LIKE Pipp (even if still cross with Sunny, her being respectful to a Pegasus still qualifies as Adaptational Nice Guy in comparison to her G5 counterpart).
And, yeah, as this is, as you already admitted, plotted out BEFORE Misty became part of the main cast, we have to wonder just what we are going to do about that sixth Element.
There are four possibilities I can think of offhand - though I freely acknowledge that all four have the potential to be wrong:
1. Sprout ends up becoming the sixth Element Bearer (extremely unlikely, but not impossible, especially given Phyllis's small degree of aforementioned Adaptational Nice Guy)
2. Zecora ends up claiming the Sixth Element (as the group WOULD need somebody who knows a lot about the Everfree and her talent with potions could definitely come very much in handy). More likely than the first one and the next one, but most assuredly NOT a definite one.
3. One of the Mane Five ends up claiming TWO of the Elements. Again, very unlikely (though SLIGHTLY more likely than Sprout being the Sixth Element Bearer), but if it DOES happen, it WOULD be a good reason for Sunny to gain her "training wheels Alicorn powers" as wielding the power of a second Element might trigger her hard light wings and horn.
and 4. Celestia herself ends up reclaiming one of her three former Elements. This one seems like the most likely of the four possibilities that I can think of but is still only fifty-fifty. However, if it DOES happen, it would be a good reason for Celestia to take a more hooves-on role in the adventures as well as training and advising the other five Bearers.
However, as I am not the one writing this, I, again, fully acknowledge that all four of these could be wrong and profusely apologize for wasting your time.
Anyway, really looking forward to more of this.
11727854
Some really good ideas there. And, yeah, if you can find the time and energy needed to do this (or can find somebody willing to do this) that would be a downright great spin.
11727519
Yeah. But then, if you can find the time and energy to do something similar (or can find somebody who likes the idea enough and DOES have the time and energy to tackle that themselves), it would still be a great spin. Especially if Opaline were imprisoned before she could get ahold of Misty, allowing Misty full freedom to be the sixth Element Bearer.
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Idea 5 is that one of the G4 Mane 6 takes up their Element. Nothing here says they've been removed from existing at all as far as I can see. Just not in the roles FIM gave them in the series premiere.
Going by some of her statements. this isn't the first time Phylis has had to deal with Sunny making a scene. Probably over something she thought was important, but turned out to be nothing in the end.
11728435
Well thought guesses
I liked this story and I'm waiting for the next chapter