"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled 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 their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies.
"But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon.
"She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon.
"The elder sister took on responsibility...for both sun and moon...and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since."
Laura stands in front of the train station of Ponyville, a scowl on her face. Her faithful dragon, J.P. stands at her side. "Look on the bright side, Laura. The Princess arranged for you to stay in a library. Doesn't that make you happy?" The purple mare's scowl only deepens. She can still remember the letter her Princess had sent her.
My dearest, most faithful graduate Laura,
You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely...but you simply must stop reading those dusty old books! I received your warning of the impending return of Nightmare Moon but, young graduate, there is no need for concern. She will not be returning any time soon. My dear Laura, there is more to a young pony's life than studying, so I'm sending you to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year's location: Ponyville.
And, I have an even more essential task for you to complete: make some friends!
"Yes, yes it does. You know why? Because I'm right!" The unicorn perks up, a fire lit in her eyes. She stops her hoof and glances down at J.P. "I'll check on the preparations as fast as I can, then get to the library to find some proof of Nightmare Moon's return."
"Then... when will you make friends, like the Princess said?" the small grey dragon asks.
"She said to check on preparations," Laura responds. "I am the most successful graduate of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and I'll do my royal duty, but the fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends." The mare and her companion pass a restaurant and a few flower shops as they make their way to the library.
J.P. follows her, huffing as he tries to keep up. "Maybe the ponies in Ponyville have interesting things to talk about. Come on, Laura, just try!"
Laura chuckles at him and lifts him onto her back with magic, giving him a piece of paper. "Summer Sun Celebration official overseer's checklist." He taps the first thing on the list. "Number one, banquet preparations: the Zeta Omega Mu house."
After asking a few of the ponyfolk for directions, she makes her way toward the Zeta fraternity's house. She finds a stallion tending to a few apple trees, bucking at them with his hind legs and collecting the apples into buckets. He is light blue and has question marks for his cutie mark.
Laura sighs and looks at J.P. "Let's get this over with..." She trots over, trying to look as friendly as possible. "Good afternoon. My name is Laura Hollis—"
"Well, hel-lo, hottie," the stallion smiles at her as he walks over, trying to look cocky and just failing miserably. The purple unicorn rolls her eyes. When asked for his name, he responds, "I'm Kirsch." He shakes her hoof quite vigorously, a kind smile on his lips. "We are here, as Zeta's, to make sure all hotties are welcome in Ponyville."
"Could you not?" Laura cringes at the word. "Actually, I—"
"So, pretty girl, what can I do you for?" Kirsch asks.
J.P. snickers from his place on Laura's back. She turns to glare at him before she clears her throat. "Well, I am in fact here to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration." She looks behind him at the apples. "And you're in charge of the food?"
"You know it, bro." His smile is almost blinding. "Would you care to sample some?"
"As long as it doesn't take too long..." she says, almost instantly regretting her decision as she sees him run over to the nearby house and ring the triangle hanging from the front porch.
"Soup's on, everypony!" The mare's eyes widen as a heard of stallions, of all shapes and sizes, come racing in from the fields. "Now, why don't I introduce you to the Zeta bros?"
"Thanks, but I really need to hurry—"
Kirsch completely disregards her as he goes around introducing the stallions to her. "This here's Carmel. The brothers Shamrock, Lucky Clover, Felix, and Pine Breeze. Noteworthy. Mando. Meadow Song, Gingerbread, Emerald Green, Klein, and Danny Swoop." Laura blinks as he takes a deep breath before he continues. "Big McIntosh, Crescent Moon and Braeburn."
J.P. blinks at the amount of stallions and all of the names Kirsch has to remember, before he turns to Laura. "Okay," the mare backs away from the crowd, "well, I can see the food situation is handled, so we'll be on our way."
"Aren't you gonna stay for brunch?" one of the Zeta brothers asks.
"Sorry, but we have an awful lot to do..." the mare takes another step back, giving the stallions an uncomfortable smile. The Zetas groan and even J.P. looks at her with his little dragon eyes and she has to give in. "...fine." All the guys cheer and stomp their hooves. Kirsch leads her to the nearby table where all different types of foods are laid out.
"Food's all taken care of," J.P. pats his tummy as he reads the next item on the list. "Next is weather."
"Ugh... I ate too much pie..." Laura grumbles.
J.P. looks up at the sky, one hand blocking the light from his eyes. "Hmm, there's supposed to be a Pegasus pony named Danny clearing the clouds."
"Look out below!" a large shadow begins to get bigger and bigger as it zooms toward the pair. Laura squeaks, backing up and falling on her rump, making J.P. tumble off of her back. "Uh, sorry about that." The purple unicorn blinks up at the pegasus with wide eyes. The mare has light red fur and a cluster of paw prints for her cutie mark. The one thing Laura can note about her is that she's extremely tall… almost as tall as Celestia herself.
"Let me guess. You're Danny Lawrence." Laura stands up with the help of the other mare and stands up, shaking herself off. She lifts J.P. back onto her back, giving him the list.
"Yep!" Danny nods, flashing her a confident smile. "Leader of the Summer Society. What'd'ya need?"
"I'm Laura Hollis, and the Princess sent me to check on the weather."
"Nice to meet you, Laura," she looks up at the clouds. "I'll get the girls right on the task."
"Thanks." Laura sighs, shoulders dropping in relief. "I've gotta get going. So much to do."
"In Ponyville?" Danny snorts. "You're a laugh, Laura Hollis." She punches Laura on the shoulder with a hoof. "I can't wait to hang out some more."
"Wow, she's amazing!" the dragon's eyes are wide as they watch Danny shoot off into the clouds, busting clouds a few at a time with just her speed alone.
Laura chuckles, shaking her head. "Okay, decorations." She trots over to the center of town. Inside town hall, Laura looks around to see a white unicorn with curly hair. She has a cross with hearts for a cutie mark. "Yes, the decor is coming along nicely," she nods at the banners hanging around the hall. "This ought'a be quick. I'll be at the library in no time."
"Oh!" the pony finally notices her and walks over with a smile. "How lovely. Have you come to help with the decorations?"
"Um, no." Laura bites her lip. "I'm just here to check on them." Looking around, she nods. "They seem to be coming along beautifully." She holds out a hoof. "My name's Laura Hollis."
"What a lovely name," the white unicorn smiles. "My name is Lola Perry, but everyone just calls me Perry." She uses her magic, which is a strong orange color, to lift up the last of the banners. "And… there… that's the last of them. Do you need anything else?"
"No, I think you've got this under control." She starts to head for the door. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome, Laura," Perry waves a hoof. "Now, I've got a lot of cleaning to do." The pony continues the mumbles to herself as the duo make their way outside.
"What's next on the list?" Laura asks when they get outside.
J.P. clears his throat. "Oh, uh, entertainment! It's the last one!" Laura sighs in relief.
Laura makes her way down the path toward the house at the edge of the woods. "Hello!" she calls out, yelping when she hears an explosion in response. "Hello! Are you okay?"
A brown head pokes up from somewhere beyond the house. "Hey!" they wave a hoof for her to come over, which she does hesitantly. "You're just in time. I'm testing out the latest in my new line of fireworks."
"Um, are you sure it's safe?"
"No, but it's gonna be awesome!"
"Uh, I think maybe we should come back some other time," J.P. pipes up, cling to Laura's mane.
The pony's eyes widen. "Whoa! A real dragon! That's so cool!" They get right up in the dragon's face, which makes him squeak in surprise.
"I'm Laura Hollis." Laura directs the conversation back toward the reason she's even there. "What's your name?"
"I'm LaFontaine." The pony shakes her hoof so hard that it wobbles when they let go. "So, let's get these on you two." They hand Laura a pair of safety glasses and J.P. gets a small pair as well. Their blue eyes are wide as they turn back toward something that looks like a cannon. "Fire!" Pulling a string with her hoof, a cylindrical object is launched into the sky. Laura backs up as the thing explodes, making a shower of blue sparks fall to the ground and stay there for a second before going out. The dark orange pony chuckles. "Wow. It actually worked." They turn to Laura. "You must be some kind of good luck charm, Hollis. Maybe if you stick around, my experiments will actually work."
Laura is about to respond when a white streak passes her and bowls LaFontaine over. "Are you hurt? Did any of the sparks touch you?" She turns to see Laura and flushes. The purple mare smiles as she realizes that it's the white unicorn from her last stop. Perry, she remembers.
"I'm fine, Per," the brown pony shrugs her off with a small chuckle. "It actually went will this time."
"Well, um, it looks like you're all good here, so I guess everything's in order." She smiles. "Keep up the good work!"
Laura trots back into town, J.P. smiling on her back. Suddenly, his stomach growls. "Um, do you think maybe we could get some food?"
"Sure," Laura nods. "I've heard great things about the Sugarcube Corner."
"Yeah, sweets!" J.P. throws a fist into the air.
"But not too many," Laura warns him. "You know what happens when either of us have too many sweets."
"Yeah, yeah," the baby dragon waves her off as they enter the bakery. "Ooooh, look, cupcakes!" He jumps off of her back and runs over to the display case.
"Hi," she walks over to the counter, where a dark grey pony has their back turned to the front of the store. "Do you have any hot chocolate?"
The pony spins around and Laura freezes. The mare in front of her is a light grey color with black hair, red streaks running through it. Her wings don't look like normal wings; they look almost like bat wings. Her eyes are a dark amber and her ears end in a point, not the soft curve of most ponies. "Hey, cutie." Her voice is husky and it makes the purple unicorn shiver. She notices that the mare's teeth are pointy as well.
"Um, so, h-hot c-chocolate?"
"Sure," the pony accepts her bits and hands over a cup. "Machine's right over there."
"Oh, there's also enough to pay for J.P.'s cupcake." She motions with her nose over to the dragon still drooling over the cupcakes.
"Got it." She turns around and goes back to what she was doing before. "So, are you new in town, creampuff?"
"Yeah," Laura brings the cup to her mouth, the hot liquid almost burning her throat. "Just in town for the celebration." She brings over the list, even as some of her magic keeps her cup aloft. "Actually, the bakery is in charge of some of the sweets. Are those all ready?"
"Sure, cupcake."
"You know, my name is Laura. Not cutie, or sweetie, or cupcake, or creampuff… or any other edible treat you might sell."
"I'm Carmilla. I just moved in. Got a job here, but I live at the edge of the woods."
"Well, it was nice meeting you, Carmilla." She turns just as J.P. swipes a red cupcake off of the display rack and shoves it into his mouth. "But we've really got to be going. So much research to do."
"You know, I could help," the other mare rasps as she comes around the side of the counter. "I'm great with research."
"Thanks for the offer, but I'm also a little tired," Laura backs up toward the door, lifting J.P. onto her back and handing him the list to check off the last item.
"Suite yourself," the grey mare shrugs and turns back to the counter. "See you 'round, cutie."
They enter the library and turn on the lights. "I have to convince the Princess that Nightmare Moon is coming, and we're running out of time!" She puts her hot chocolate on the counter in the center of the room and smiles, taking a deep breath. "I just need to be alone so I can study without a bunch of crazy ponies trying to make friends all the time." She flushes when she remembers their last stop. Carmilla, she thinks with a smile on her face before she shakes her head and turns back to her books.
"But, isn't that one of the reasons why the Princess sent you here?" J.P. asks. "You know, to make friends?"
"No, I'm going to bed," Laura starts for the stairs leading up to the bedroom of the library.
"But it's the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration. Everypony has to stay up, or they'll miss the Princess raise the sun! You really should lighten up, Laura!" He chuckles. "Get it… cause the sun and the…"
Laura groans, shaking her head and going to stand at the window, looking out at the dark sky. The moon looks even more ominous than usual, which makes a shiver race up and down Laura's spine. She uses her magic to bring the book of legends to her, flipping through the pages.
"'Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about everlasting night.'" She sighs. "I hope the Princess was right... I hope it really is just an old ponytale..."
An hour later, Laura starts awake as J.P. jumps on her bed. "C'mon, Laura, it's time to watch the sunrise!" She chuckles and slides out from under the covers, following him as he bounces toward town hall.
"You excited?" Danny, the pegasus from before asks. Towering over Laura, the mare giggles, a smile on her lips. Laura notices Carmilla standing a few feet down, glaring at the other pegasus.
"Yeah." Laura flushes with color as she looks up at the light red pony.
There's fanfare as Mayor Mare gets on stage. "Good evening Ponyville citizens, as mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!" Everypony shouts and stomps their hooves in excitement.
"In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year!" She waves a hoof in the air. "And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria..."
"Ready?" LaFontinae stands beside Perry, the string on the cannon in their mouth.
"...Princess Celestia!" LaFontaine pulls the string and a ton of confetti explode in midair.
"Huh?" Kirsch steps up to stand beside Danny, sharing a confused glance with her, before both turn away. Behind them, ponies chatter nervously.
"This can't be good," the purple unicorn says, hanging her head. Danny gives her a pat on the shoulder.
"Remain calm, everypony," the mayor tries to subdue the scared crowed. "There must be a reasonable explanation!"
Perry had been waiting in the wings to lead the Princess down to toward the crowd after raising the sun. She looks around backstage, where the Princess should have entered first. "She's gone!" she runs out and announces to the audiences.
The ponies gasp, starting to panic. Sparkly purple and blue smoke swirls around the balcony where the Princess was to appear. A dark shape starts to form before, to the horror of the ponies, Nightmare Moon. The ponies gasping.
Laura is shaking as she gasps. "Oh no... Nightmare Moon!" J.P. sighs from beside her.
"Oh, my beloved subjects," the terrifying entity booms. "It's been so long since I've seen your precious, little sun-loving faces."
"What did you do with our Princess?!" Danny screams, launching into the air. Some of her Summer Society sisters also take to the air, ready to launch themselves at the dangerous entity.
Laura watches as Kirsch grabs Danny's tail in his mouth. "Whoa there, bro..." His Zeta brothers follow him and grab the tails of the other floating sisters.
Nightmare Moon chuckle, an ominous sound that makes all the ponies quiver. "Why, am I not royal enough for you?" She stops her hoof on the ground. "Don't you know who I am?" She roars at the crowd, "Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years?" She laughs darkly. "Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?"
Laura steps forward, glaring up at the evil pony. "I did. And I know who you are." She points an accusing hoof. "You're the Mare in the Moon – Nightmare Moon!" The ponies around her gasp.
"Well, well, well," the dark pony booms, "somepony who remembers me. Then you also know why I'm here."
"You're here to... to..." She gulps.
Nightmare Moon can't contain her laughter. "Remember this day, little ponies," she demands, her mane filling the space behind her like a dark night sky. "For it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!" She laughs and her eyes shine a bright white as thunder booms and lighting flashes.
"Well," Laura winces, "this day's gonna suck…"
So, I've had this idea for a while of putting Laura and her friends in different universes. So, this is the MLP version. Don't worry, they'll all conect in the end to the "real world". If you want, you can check my profile, where you'll find a link to all what all of the ponies look like. Thanks for reading. The first two chapters are kinda like the first two episodes of the MLP:FIS, so most of the lines aren't mine. Please review!