Where I’m from, disaster was never too far away.
The smallest magical mishap or a misplaced monster meandering into town was cause for running and screaming until someone ponied up and took care of it – which was almost exclusively the princess…
Heroes used to be the stuff of storybooks and the subject of dusty old tomes buried in some Canterlot library – and almost exclusively the princess…
It never once occurred to me that I’d become a hero. I mean… Why would it? My beginnings weren’t at all that special, and I’ve made so many mistakes on the way that playing the part feels unreal. Think about it; I’m a student at Canterlot High, balancing my school life with my super-hero side job. It’s like something out of a comic book.
And yet I stood there, on the school rooftop, staring up at the craziest thing you could think of. Something that blows Sirens, Shadowbolts and crazy sunset-haired teenagers completely out of the water.
My school’s vice principal, possessed by an evil Equestrian spirit I’ve only read about in a very, very, VERY old book.
Over the last two months, my friends and I had been investigating a series of incidents in Canterlot city. Magical creatures cloaked in shadows were possessing people, turning them into monsters and using them to siphon Equestrian magic from hotspots around the city.
Everytime they emerged, we would step forward and stop them; our own magic growing as time went on.
Until the day Nightmare Moon revealed herself with a warning.
“If you interfere with my plans, then I will destroy you.”
At the time, we didn’t fully realize who she was. To me she was just another Equestrian reject out of an old fable. I couldn’t have been more wrong…
As her attacks continued and we fought back against her servants, she started to learn about our geodes and their powers. We became determined to stop her before she could take them, but it was too late. By the time we discovered who she really was, she was already too strong for us to contain.
She attacked the school and imprisoned Principal Celestia.
At this moment, my friends and I stood there, powered up and ready. Meanwhile she looked down on us from a cloud with her eyes full of cruelty as the moon eclipsed the sun and a shadow covered the world.
She wore an ornate steel-blue metal corset and a long and flowing black dress with the moon and stars embroidered part way down. Her hair was flowing in an aura of stars and her skin was jet black. On her back she sported a pair of dark wings and atop her head was a dark horn and a spiked steel-blue crown with a crescent moon emblem inlaid over a black circle at the center.
Her lips parted as she grinned, revealing her pointed teeth.
“The last time I did this, a certain unicorn runt got the better of me. I will not be foalish enough to fall for yet another trick, so come, heroes. Try as you might, this world is already mine!”
“Not if we have anything to say about it!” Rainbow shouted, garnering affirmations from Pinkie Pie and Applejack.
The school rooftop was spacious, but dominated by a domed sky-light in the middle, with a door around the back and a clock and bell tower on top. The left and right wings of the building were pointed and reduced the space we had to work with.
Vice Principal Luna merely looked upon us like she was mildly amused and only slightly annoyed. She snickered and laid her head back as her horn drew upon a dark energy. The silver patterns on her corset, the moon and stars embroidered on her lower dress and the emblem on her crown began to radiate an ephemeral white light before she unleashed the concentrated stream of dark magic from her horn toward the school.
“Everybody, step back!” Rarity commanded as she came to the head of the group. She put her hands together before opening her arms and erecting a diamond barrier which caught the beam. Vice Principal Luna's attack broke upon the barrier like a wave and forced Rarity to one knee with a yelp.
“She’s… so… strong..! I can’t… hold it… much longer!” Rarity strained, beads of sweat rolling down her face as she shook violently and stood up against the clawing weight of Luna’s power. The diamond shield had started to crack under the pressure of the Vice Principal’s attack, her geode glowed and shuddered just as violently as she did.
Vice Principal Luna kept up her magical assault for a solid minute before it stopped. The barrier shattered, the shards faded away and Rarity powered down, reverting back to her casual clothes as she collapsed but was caught by Rainbow as she fell.
“Is she okay?” Twilight asked as we all came over to check on her.
“I think she’s just knocked out. I’ll take her downstairs. Sunset, you and Twilight better figure this one out quick. I hate to say it, but the vibe I’m getting from Luna feels a lot worse than the vibe I got from both of you during your “evil phase”.”
Food for thought, I looked at our VP who watched us, waiting. “If that’s the case then it shouldn’t be too hard to get through to her.”
“What’s the plan, Sunset?” AJ asked as Rainbow took off with Rarity faster than I could blink.
To be honest, I didn’t have a clue what we were going to do. Sure, we’ve dealt with freaky transformations born from selfish desires and magical mishaps before, but something about this situation felt different – dangerous.
“If I still had the Scepter of Harmony…” I started to really wrack my brains. The Scepter of Harmony, an old artifact somehow connected to me and my magic, had vanished during one of our last encounters with the VP in her nightmare state. “We’re going to have to do this the hard way. Pinkie Pie, I’m gonna need you to distract her while Twilight brings the power and I get into her head.”
“That’s all ya got?” Applejack asked. “I don’t think understanding her is going to do much.”
“Maybe not, but if I can find Luna, maybe I can bring her just close enough to the surface to fight off whatever’s got into her head.”
“I’ll go down and stay with Rarity. Show that meanie who’s boss!” Fluttershy gathered up her furry friends and went down stairs as Rainbow dashed back up in a colorful blur.
“Kay, I’m back. Miss anything?” Rainbow asked.
“We’ve got a plan. It might not work, but it’s all we’ve got.” Every part of me was starting to shake. I could feel my determination building, but also falling at the same time. Having the girls with me gives me strength, but at the same time, I was doubting whether or not we’d succeed.
“All set, Sunset!” Pinkie cried and pulled out a cannon stuffed with pop rocks and lollipops.
“Rainbow Dash, work with Pinkie Pie and Applejack and give her trouble while Twilight and I move in! Let’s go Rainbooms!”
“Yeah!”
VP Luna chuckled darkly. “Do you think it’ll be that easy? Oh girls, class is in session. It’s time for you to learn a lesson!” Her horn lit up with its shadowy flare then her hands radiated the same dark energy.
She moved her arms out to the side, turned over her hand and made fists, then turned them over again and opened them, seven black droplets fell from each palm then became enveloped by her dark aura. They grew into shadowy beings before finally taking the form of us, dressed in the same outfits, only darker and with turquoise serpentine eyes.
“Go, my nightingales. Bring me their pendants! Show them the consequences of defiance!”
“Yes, my queen!” they said altogether then turned into wisps of shadow which streaked through the air towards us.
Two of the wisps passed us and smashed through the skylight, while the remaining five took shape on the rooftop. They grinned just as wickedly as Luna and charged at us and just like that, we were fighting our doppelgangers.
Before I knew it, Rainbow and her copy had vanished in a streak of light and dark rainbows. Pinkie and Applejack were caught up fighting theirs while Twilight and I dodged the flurry of attacks that came from our evil counterparts.
“Think they’ll pony up?” Dark-Twi asked.
“If they do, we’ll beat them out of it!” Dark-Sunset replied. The pair of them grinned and held hands as they “ponied” up, wings and horns both appearing in flashes of black light.
“The yellow one would look beautiful in black and blue. Ooo! Let’s not wait a moment more, Sunset, I want her pendant now!” The false Twilight giggled like Pinkie on a sugar high and clenched her free fist, horn igniting darkly.
“Then let’s have some fun!” My copy smirked and ignited her horn as well.
The nightingales came at us on their wings in a blink. I’d just barely moved out of the way when Twilight’s double shattered my pauldron. There was an instant of sharp pain in my shoulder which dulled pretty quickly into discomfort. I followed up quickly with a kick that turned her back into a wisp which zipped about before taking shape again.
“Ooo, that was naughty. You aren’t supposed to fight back, that’s not very friendly!”
“Look who's talking. You broke off a piece of my costume. That’s supposed to be friendly?” These constructs have a warped sense of humor, or a loose grip on the concept of friendship. It’s more like that the Vice Principal – or rather Nightmare Moon, was taunting us.
While I was focused on Twilight’s copy, I remained oblivious to the whereabouts of my copy. Is she taking on Twilight or Pinkie Pie? Can Fluttershy and Rarity handle their copies? Based on the mess up here, I’m assuming the ones that went inside belong to them but Rarity’s out of commission. That hit really took it out of her and Fluttershy… I can only hope she can handle two of them…
“Where are you looking?” I heard my own voice say to me with a playful cadence. To my left came my copy, she fired two bolts from her horn at me which I very narrowly dodged only to get backhanded when she spun to a stop where I stood.
As it turns out my copy’s got one heck of a punch because I hit the roof hard and skidded across it until my head found the skylight. Now my cheek was sore and I had two of them to worry about. They came at me together and quickly at that; I couldn’t even recover before my copy and the fake Twilight were on top of me.
“Take cover!!!” Either Pinkie or her copy shouted from out of nowhere.
There wasn’t any cover to take…
Five shots rang out followed by a rain of Turkish Delight, jelly babies and pop rocks. “Oh Celestia!” I screamed and braced myself as the confectionaries turned into a series of mini explosions that culminated into one big explosion.
It was loud and it shattered the skylight, rocked the building and left sizable cracks in the rooftop.
“Huh… Still structurally stable, nice!” I heard Pinkie say.
“Aww… I wanted the roof to cave in! Then we could have all sorts of cool fights inside the school!” her copy said with a lot less energy than would be expected from Pinkie Pie.
My copy growled then shouted: “Apply your explosions strategically or we’re all going to be punished!”
“Sorry!” Pinkie’s copy giggled.
Given the chance, I got up and shoulder charged into my copy, wincing as another sharp pain ripped through my shoulder. My copy fell into Twilight’s clone, whose horn charged up until I was dodging a concentrated stream of her magic which ripped its way across the already broken building.
Miniature explosions were going off all over the place. Applejack was going at her copy like a boxer, her hands alight with an orange glow as she threw each punch. Whenever she connected, it sent her copy flying toward the edge, only for it to turn into a wisp and reform in front of her again.
All of this chaos going on around me made any attempt to enact my plan almost impossible. My thoughts briefly returned to Fluttershy and Rarity, but then I was beset again on both sides by my copy and Twilight’s flying at me.
“Twilight, I could really use your help right now!”
“If you think she’ll help you, you’ve got another— W-what?” My copy froze midair before she was taken into the sky, wrapped in a magenta aura of magic.
“Kept you waiting, huh?” Twilight said not so confidently with a blush before throwing my copy into the frame of the sky light with a metallic thunk.
“What took you so long?” I asked understandably peeved.
“Your copy pushed me to the edge and left me there. I’m sorry…” Twilight replied.
My copy screamed and glared at Twilight. “You’re going to regret that!” She recomposed herself, powered down and ran at Twilight who nervously put her power of telekinesis to good use.
While I was glad to be done with one problem, I still had another.
Twilight’s copy grabbed me by the arm and twisted it back. “You don’t know it yet, but you’ve already lost. My queen will rule this world forever. Just as soon as she has your pendant, you can relax in a shallow grave!”
“N-no! I won’t let her win!”
Twilight’s copy laughed, spun me around then delivered a firm kick to my stomach that made me wretch. I felt her magic grip me tightly then throw me across the rooftop just as another of Pinkie’s explosions went off.
“Without the Scepter of Harmony, you’re helpless. Not even your friends can help you while we’re having our fun. So give up, hand over the pendants, bow to your queen!” Twilight’s copy flared her inky black wings and cackled.
With nothing to lose, I closed my eyes and thought about my friends, my home, everyone I love here and in Equestria, looking for something to hold onto before breaking into a sprint toward the fake Twilight. The look on her face told me she was excited, like I was headed right where she wanted me, so she flapped her wings and came at me full tilt. Maybe even a little faster than me, but that was fine. All I needed to do was grab her…
Then again, maybe I was just desperate.
She grabbed me by my arms and took me into the sky, spinning like a top before dropping me down on the roof again. I hit it pretty hard and forgot how to breathe for a moment. I was supposed to be taking in air, but instead I was breathing it out, wheezing uncontrollably.
“Sunset!” I heard Twilight call before the faker came down and grabbed a hold of my geode.
“Oh look at you, gasping for air like a fish out of water. You’ll be fine in a couple of minutes, not that I’ll let you get up though. Our queen has something special in mind for these and I’ll be the first one to bring it to her.” Twilight’s copy grinned and cackled and started to pull on the chain that bound the geode to my neck, but she did it slowly; probably to savor my helplessness.
I can’t… move… I can’t breathe! And now I’m going to lose my geode! My mind was racing with thoughts, trying to figure out a way out of this mess but nothing was good enough. I wasn’t even sure if the girls could help me and I could feel the chain breaking as it strained against my neck.
“Hey, faker!” Applejack shouted and distracted the fake Twilight. She looked away from me to the direction of AJ’s voice and let go of the pendant as a look of shock or surprise replaced that bratty grin she was wearing.
The next thing I saw was Twilight’s copy being knocked down by Applejack’s copy, thrown from across the roof turning them both back into wisps which took off into the sky.
Applejack came over and picked me up in time for my breathing to go back to normal. “You alright?”
“I’ll… cough… be okay.”
The Applejack and Twilight Sparkle wisps circled Nightmare Moon who watched our battle glaringly. She was joined by a third wisp which giggled much like Pinkie, then by three more which circled her just as well.
“Looks like Fluttershy and Rarity did fine without us,” AJ said.
“You holding up okay, Twilight?” I asked as she dropped to her knees.
Twilight didn’t answer me, she was counting the wisps that surrounded Nightmare Moon, mouthing each number between breaths like she had to be sure. “One’s missing.”
“Rainbow’s got it covered. She’s a showboat, but she’ll handle it,” Applejack piped up. “Right now we need to consider how the hay we’re going to get Sunset to Luna without those things and that witch stopping us.”
“I’ve got an idea!” Pinkie shouted from the bell tower.
The next thing I saw was the barrel of her party cannon as it rolled into view from the tower's window, just before it fired its payload of explosive candy towards the evil sorceress.
The wisps spun about, joined together and flew head on toward Pinkie’s flying heart attack. It hit the wisps and they slowed its approach until the ball of candy and the wisps exploded just centimeters away from their maker, creating a cloud of sweet smelling smoke.
“Now’s your chance! Go get that bad princessipal!”.
That’ll work, I thought to myself. “Applejack, throw me!”
Applejack looked a little surprised but took a deep breath. “Alright, but if you break somethin’, just remember it ain’t my fault!” She scooped me up, wound her arm back until it radiated orange light then chucked me full force towards Nightmare Moon with enough speed to make Rainbow’s jaw drop.
Once I hit the smoke cloud, I started to worry whether she would be on the other side or not. If she wasn’t then this entire plan could backfire, but if she was then there was a chance… Unless… Unless she knows it’ll fail…
Nightmare Moon came into view just as that one terrible thought crossed my mind. Her arms outstretched like she was waiting for me, that horrible glint in her eyes and that smile of hers made my heart stop. She caught me and held me tightly, and just like that – I was in her head.
“I have such sights to show you~” she whispered as the world disappeared in front of my eyes.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
When I opened my eyes, I was standing in a beautiful void of stars and nebulas.
Wherever I looked there was a distant galaxy or an aurora. It was beautiful, so beautiful that my fears had disappeared and for a moment I felt at ease. I turned as I made my way through the cosmic space like walking across an invisible floor. I was used to weird mindscapes, but this was something else.
Suddenly it occurred to me… There were no memories… There was nothing flowing, no images or voice, just silence save for my footsteps and the sound of my breathing.
“What’s… going on?” Dread started to take a hold of me. This had never happened before with anyone. I’d been interrupted before and booted out, but that was always in the middle of a viewing.
No, this time was much too different.
One by one the stars began to flicker and vanish until they were going dark in clusters. More and more and more until the cosmic void went dark, save for one light source which glowed brightly from behind.
When I turned toward the source I saw it was the moon, bearing the mark of the mare.
“Our story starts as it always does, with resentment.” Nightmare Moon’s voice echoed in my head almost painfully like it was splitting.
“Poor Luna… Forever trapped in Celestia’s shadow, whether it’s in this world or in Equestria. You know something about that, don’t you, Sunset?”
“What do you mean? What could you know about me?” The pain came in waves, I held my head tightly and groaned.
“This power of yours is quite fascinating, but all too easy to counter. Your memories are spread wider than a canyon. There's no secret you can hide from me~” She chuckled to herself. It seemed kind of suppressed and contemplative.
Wait a minute… Is she looking through my memories?
“It seems we aren't so different after all. Like me; you sought to take power with power and coveted the same love and adoration as I did.”
“No, you’re wrong! I’m nothing like you! I could never be as monstrous or as heartless as you are!” The void shuddered and the pain in my head became worse.
“The only real difference between you and I is that I’m not a hypocrite~”
The vast expanse of space at my feet became a mirror with my reflection looking back at me, only it didn’t quite feel like my reflection – rather another person. Her image changed, flipping through my different phases of life since I came to this world. I felt myself become overwhelmed with emotion.
“What are you...?” It didn’t take long for me to realize just what she was doing. Once I knew, I was mortified.
Finally my reflection’s hair became fiery, sclera black and skin red. There was a fiery tail, long ears and jagged red and black wings. It was me the night of the fall formal, with Twilight’s crown sitting on my head. My reflection laughed and bared her fangs in an equally as wicked smile as Nightmare Moon’s.
“No!!” I screamed. “I… I know who I am! I’m not that girl anymore, I’ve changed! I’m me!” Through the pain, I tried to fight her, but by Celestia, it was agonizing. It’s like every time I pushed back, she would just step around me.
“We're not playing one of your little games, Sunset Shimmer. We're playing one of mine and you're losing.”
The pain in my head started to go away. I could feel her stepping out of my memories, but still she blocked me from entering hers. “Vice Principal, where are you?! Luna?!”
My voice echoed distantly. This is a mindscape, I thought to myself. Her memories are here, I just have to find them. I closed my eyes for just a second then felt myself falling.
“Waagh!” The moon became distant as I fell, and the wall around me became a collage of scenes from all across Luna’s life. There were just too many to look at and I was falling too fast.
Then the memories changed, now I was seeing my life, my mistakes and experiences all playing on a thousand screens around me. But only one in particular caught my eye; Midnight Sparkle turning to remark on the power of magic.
“I know all about you now, and all about that other Twilight and her equally dark past. Midnight Sparkle, was it? Oh, the things I can discover and the puzzles I can solve by sifting through your memories.
Finally I reached the bottom and got dropped on my back with all the grace of Bulk’s singing. The “ground” was damp, and I felt like I’d just gone walking through a sprinkler and fallen into a wet patch. What was even happening anymore? I closed my eyes again to focus, to break out of this nightmare realm, but nothing happened, like I couldn’t do anything.
Why couldn’t I do anything?!
“Somepony help me!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs into the infinite darkness that surrounded me. I must’ve sat there for over a minute, hearing the echo of my cry fade out into the silence. This wasn’t the time to be sitting around though.
“Luna!” Getting back on my feet never felt so tough but once I did; the space changed again.
It startled me at first, like taking a long walk before walking into a sign post or a wall because you blinked at the wrong time. Now the mindscape was a white walled Canterlot tower room with bookshelves on either side and a single window at the end where vice principal Luna sat in her office chair.
“Vice principal… Luna..?” How could I be sure anymore? Ever since I touched her, Nightmare Moon had turned my power against me, taunted me and worn me down to the bone. If I was being honest, I was running out of idioms to describe just how beaten I felt.
Every book shelf I passed and every step I seemed to take only lengthened the distance between Luna and I, so I started running and running and running, olympic sprinting, galloping, anything! Anything to close the gap but she only got further and further away…
Or rather – I wasn’t moving at all.
“You came here to find the cause of Luna’s depression,” Nightmare Moon’s voice froze me in my tracks. “To try and heal a decade of insecurities and emotional strife. If only it was that easy.”
The room started to get smaller until I was standing in front of her. Luna looked at me with the same cruel eyes and those pointed teeth grinning at me from behind a familiar face. She rose to her feet, then an iridescent black and purple sphere formed around her.
When she emerged, Luna was gone and standing before me was Nightmare Moon.
“In the realm of dreams and the mind, I am supreme. You are but a pretender. Your power is flawed in the face of mine.” Her horn glowed and I was lifted off the ground, her magical grip tightening around me.
“You foal… If you had bent to me, I would have spared you and your friends, but for your defiance, I shall erase you from the minds of everybody who has ever heard your name. It’s like I said, you’re playing my game and you’ve lost.”
The whole dreamscape collapsed.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
“Sunset! Sunset, wake up! Please!”
Twi…light? My head pounded like Pinkie’s drums after a jam session, and my ears rang as if Rainbow pulled the guitar jack out of the speaker too early.
All together, I felt like garbage.
“Oh, you’re finally awake?” Nightmare Moon said as she held me, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Pain became secondary once my self awareness returned. My first instinct was to get away but she clutched my pendant in her hand, broke the chain and let me fall. I was depowered in an instant.
“No! No!” I shouted and reached for Nightmare Moon as I tried to grab a hold of anything but there was nothing and she got further and further away so quickly.
“Sunset!!” I heard Twilight call before she leapt over the edge of the roof and dove for me followed closely by two new nightingale wisps.
As she fell, a pair of wings and a horn manifested on her. She beat those wings as hard as she could and took my hand just inches from the ground, but at the same time, I felt a wet and excruciating pop in my shoulder.
“Arrgh! Oooh!”
“Are you okay?” Twilight asked as she lowered us both to the ground.
“No! I think… I think my arm’s broken…” It hung limply at my side. Where is the adrenaline? Isn’t that supposed to kick in at times like this? The pain came from right around my shoulder in waves. It hung forward a little more than I thought it should have. I was shaking.
“The sudden stop must’ve dislocated your arm, I’m so sorry…”
“D-don’t apologize…” I said as two wisps took shape just a few feet away from us. They looked a lot like Trixie and Adagio. “You should deal with them first. I can’t do anything without my arm or my geode.”
The wisps approached, their hands aglow with our Vice Principal’s power. By the way they approached, I could tell they were going for Twilight. She got up and stood between me and the wisps but she looked scared.
“Shaking like a leaf? Come here, let me soothe you with a song,” the Adagio said with a pie eating grin.
“Girls, why is Not-Adagio looking at me funny?!” Pinkie shouted from the rooftop with a rare hint of horror in her voice.
“The great and powerful Wispy will make you relinquish your jewelry!”
“Over my pink cupcakes!” Two cupcakes, cherry topped with white frosting and sprinkles, hit the nightingales in the head and exploded. Gone as soon as they appeared...
Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy came outside soon after, all three skidding to a stop by my side.
“Are you girls okay?” I asked.
“Tired, but no more worse for wear than you,” AJ replied.
Fluttershy took a knee by my side and placed her hands over my shoulder “Now just hold still, this might sting a little.” Her hands started to glow a verdant green and pretty soon my arm painfully cricked back into place and started working again.
“Are you sure, Fluttershy? You know you can only use your healing powers once a day.”
Fluttershy nodded with a smile. “Going to a hospital is out of the question right now and if we don’t mend it immediately, it could get worse. The last thing any of us want is for you to be hurt.”
Her words garnered a soft but appreciative smile from me.
“Always the kindest, Fluttershy.” AJ gently slugged Fluttershy’s arm then turned her gaze to Nightmare Moon.
We all did, just as she came to rest on the ground with her horn aglow.
“No more games and no more waiting. It’s high time that you foals fall and give me your power!” She raised her hands then sent forth an onslaught of black lightning towards us.
Like before, Rarity put up her shields but this time she was overcome by the spell’s lashing tendrils and her geode was taken in Nightmare’s dark aura. She depowered in an instant and fell to her knees as lightning lashed at her.
“Rarity! Why you no good, consarned yellow bellied snake!” Applejack kicked herself off the ground and leapt towards the waiting sorceress with hands aglow and her arm wound back. Her fist flew forward, but it stopped inches away from Nightmare’s face.
The pair stared into each other’s eyes for a short time, Applejack fighting against her telekinetic grasp, until she just barely managed to graze Nightmare’s cheek. In one smooth motion, Nightmare Moon grabbed Applejack’s geode and ripped it from her neck as she stepped around her then launched her back toward us.
“I’ve got her!” Fluttershy shouted and moved to catch Applejack, joined by a group of birds too small to stop what might have been the equivalent of a car flying towards her on a highway.
The birds were scattered and Fluttershy was knocked down and her geode taken in Nightmare Moon’s dark glow.
“Four down,” Nightmare Moon sang and chuckled gleefully. She flapped her wings hard and flew towards Twilight faster than any of us could react.
As she reached for Twilight’s pendent, time seemed to slow down. We were watching as our former vice principal's hand came closer and closer. The look in her eyes was wild, but then they became confused. She was frozen in Twilight’s magical aura.
“What is this?! You! You lavender welp! Release me at once!”
“Alright, since you asked nicely.” The aura from around Twilight’s horn sparkled and pulsed. She winced and threw Nightmare Moon across the school yard where she struck the base of the old wondercolt statue.
The impact cracked the marble and left a sizable divot where the portal used to be. Nightmare Moon slumped against the impact crater unconsciously. Twilight’s magical hold was released, and she fell to her knees as she powered down and held onto her head.
“Your power can be really scary sometimes, Twilight,” I said with a relieved snicker.
“It comes in handy.”
Pinkie Pie came running out of the building, followed by Bulk and Flash and Nurse Redheart. Pinkie came over to us as the others tended to Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy.
“Bad news girls, I’ve run out of cake and Rainbow Dash is missing.”
“Wait, she didn’t come back? The last time I saw Rainbow was when she ran off with that copy. I hope she’s all right.”
“More than alright!” Rainbow’s familiar voice came in on a rainbow blur. She did two laps around the statue and zig zagged over to Applejack. “Applejack…”
AJ groaned and opened her eyes. “Don’t you look at me like that, ain’t the first time I’ve been in over my head.”
“Won’t be the last either. You just sit back, we’ll take it from here.” As confident as always, but right now we kind of needed that. She joined back up with us, earning a relieved glance from each of us that was well deserved. “Sorry I took so long. My copy was a bit of a sore loser, but I showed her.”
“Never had a doubt in our mind.” I really wasn’t looking forward to this next part… My body was aching. Fluttershy’s healing power had mended my arm, but that was about all it did. Standing up felt so much worse, but even that wasn’t as bad as the realization that I was quite literally powerless.
“You want to fill me in on what happened? I thought we were going to help Luna fight her off!” Rainbow looked at me, eyebrow cocked and waiting for an explanation.
“After you sped off, Applejack threw me—
“Like a javelin!” Pinkie interrupted.
“Like a javelin~ toward her, except she was waiting for it. When I got inside of her head, she turned my power against me. It was like she could control the mindscape. Now I’m thinking that maybe her mind was just eclipsing Luna’s, acting like an airlock or something. It didn’t feel right at all.”
“Sunset, you should get clear and let us handle this,” Twilight said with a look that screamed 'get out of here.'
“But Twilight—”
“You’re not strong enough. Even my magic is almost completely drained…”
“Now’s not the time to start doubting ourselves. Together, we’ve got the strongest magic of all. And it’s your magic most of all.” Taking Twilight’s hands I said to her: “Friendship.”
The ground started to crack and the aura of the eclipse turned crimson. Nightmare Moon rose and her eye twitched. Her crown was broken and her hair was messy enough to put Rarity in the ER. She clenched her fists and screamed.
“I have entertained you children for quite long enough! I will have your pendants and I will have them now!”
The wind picked up to a gale, blowing leaves and dust about. She took two steps forward then charged on her wings, becoming a starry blue formless mist which Rainbow quickly side-stepped. The wisp separated into three copies of Rainbow Dash which coordinated with each other to give the real Rainbow a run for her money.
“Don’t just stand there, Pinkie, help her!” Twilight followed after them with Pinkie only just trailing right behind.
“On my way!!”
The pair approached as fast as they could. Twilight took a breath and used her power to slow all but one of them down, the third moved too quick for her magic to take hold. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie used her hair as a spring to get some air, giggling and snorting all the while as she came back down on top of a second fake. She grabbed it by the face and started steering it to-and-fro until the copy was face down in the dirt.
The third one stopped and looked back towards its “siblings”.
“Hey, I’m over here!” Rainbow shouted and charged toward the wisp. It looked at her then turned back into that blue vapor and wrapped itself around her face. “Wha– Hey! I can’t see!”
The copies all turned back into mist and joined up with the other. Nightmare Moon manifested from them and clutched Rainbow’s geode. “Leaving school grounds? That's detention!” She took Rainbow’s geode and tripped her over, then turned on Pinkie and pulled her closer with a magical grip.
“Uhh, Twilight, help!” Pinkie tried everything, from pulling on grass to using her own feet to resist but it was no good.
“Pinkie, take my hand!” Twilight reached for Pinkie and Pinkie reached back.
“Why only her hand? How about the rest of her?” An insidious grin formed on Nightmare Moon’s face as she pushed Pinkie into Twilight with a magical pulse, knocking both of them to the ground.
Pinkie was the first to hit the grass, while Twilight rolled across the path toward me. I caught her in time to watch Nightmare Moon rip the geode from around Pinkie’s neck and throw her and Rainbow towards us.
“And then there was one. I suppose congratulations are in order, you Rainbooms certainly gave it your all, but in the end, your feeble resistance has been crushed. Now I’ll have the pleasure of taking your pendants and ruling over this world as its queen!”
Nightmare Moon cackled loudly as the moon returned to its calming blue shade, but calming was the least it was doing. That moon was suddenly a symbol of defeat.
“Sunset… I’m sorry…” Twilight sobbed.
“What are you apologizing for?” I asked.
“We had each other, we did everything we could but it wasn’t enough… I wasn’t enough! The magic of friendship has helped us so many times before but now..? It’s like she said… I’m hopeless… I’m a monster like her just waiting to come out…. Just beneath the surface…”
What… did she..? “What are you talking about? What happened while I was in her mind?”
Twilight looked at me with tears in her eyes filled with a familiar fear that made my heart sink. “She got inside my head shortly after you went into hers… Sunset… What if I am just like her? A monster waiting to be set free…”
Those doubts, that fear… It’s like that awful pit in the back of my mind that never goes away no matter how much I try to fill it. It’s always there behind every good memory saying: ”Do I deserve this? Aren’t I a monster?”
Twilight had beaten that demon before at Camp Everfree. But now it was back, brought to the surface again by our former VP…
“You know…” I got down on my knees and took her hands. “Sometimes… I worry that I’ll become a power hungry devil woman again. Or that I’ll ruin the one really good thing I ever got. Some nights I wake up reliving my freak out at the Fall Formal… and it’s hard but… I have all of you to help me through those tough times.”
In Twilight’s eyes, I could see a glimmer of hope. Truthfully, we weren’t united tonight. Rarity got knocked out early and we’ve been pretty scattered just trying to deal with this crisis, when we should’ve stood together as one like we always had.
“We love you, Twilight. We’ll always be by your side when you need us and I’ll say it as many times as you need to hear it.”
“S-Sunset… I… You’re right…” Twilight took a deep breath and adjusted her glasses. “You’re right!”
She stood up and helped me to my feet, then faced Nightmare Moon who moved across the ground like a ghost.
“So you’ve found your spark, but without your magic it is useless. There are no elements of harmony, no rainbows of light, super powered musical numbers and no hope for you.” She held up everyone’s geodes in her hand, including mine.
“That may be. But as long as I have my friends with me, you’ll never defeat us!”
“Enough! Your incessant mewling is exasperating. I’ll make sure you sleep forever!”
Nightmare Moon’s horn began to crackle with black lightning and pulsate with the dark glow of her power. I took Twilight’s hand and gripped it tightly, expecting to be burned to a crisp or banished to the shadow realm — or something like that. Then over to the right I spied something gleaming, and coming towards us quickly.
“Spike?” I whispered almost in disbelief and sure enough it was Spike, running as fast as his legs could carry him with the Scepter of Harmony in his mouth.
“Spike!” Twilight called, turning Nightmare Moon’s attention to him as he ran. He gave her a wide berth as he circled towards us.
“Sunset, take it!” he said with his mouth full. He leapt into the air and threw his head in our direction, letting the scepter go at the height of his jump.
The scepter flew across the yard – surprising as it was made of metal and gemstones – and into my hand. As I gripped it tightly, I could feel Equestrian magic surge throughout my body. My ears and ponytail appeared soon after.
“Where did you find it?”
“In a garden near that fancy restaurant by the clock tower. For a big blue scepter, it sure wasn’t easy to find. I hope I made it in time.” His ears were perked up and his tail wagged.
“You came as quickly as you could, Spike.” Twilight gave him a smile then focused back on Nightmare Moon.
That evil sorceress glared and sneered at us. “You have the scepter. So what? You’ve failed to stop me with it before, how can you be certain it’ll work this time?”
Yeah… that was the question now. “How could we be certain?” To be honest, we couldn’t. Everybody else was out of commission, with only Twilight and myself standing between her and ultimate power. Like always, I was looking for an answer that was right in front of me, so I passed the scepter to a very surprised Twilight.
“But Sunset, this is—”
“In the right hands.” I smiled at her. “You’ve got the power to finish this, Twilight. We believe in you.”
She looked at the scepter, then at me as I closed her hand around the handle. I gave her the most honest look I could ever give to somebody, and it’s true – I believe in her without a shadow of a doubt.
“You’re right. I’ll try.” She gave a smile back to me then turned around to face our foe who powered up her horn once more.
“Together?” Twilight asked.
“Together,” I replied and took a hold of the scepter just below her hand. She ponied up and pointed it towards the Vice Principal.
Where I’m from, disaster was never too far away.
The smallest magical mishap or a misplaced monster meandering into town was cause for running and screaming until someone ponied up and took care of it – exclusively the princess…
Heroes used to be the stuff of storybooks and the subject of dusty old tomes buried in some Canterlot library – and almost exclusively the princess.
It never once occurred to me that I’d become a hero. Balancing my school life with the occasional super-heroic outing used to be so simple, but if anything tonight has shown me: It really isn’t.
Things can spiral well out of anyone's control as quickly as rain falls and suddenly it gets complicated. Sometimes that’s okay, but other times it can be overwhelming. But I’ve got friends who can help me along the way.
And they’ll always be nearby when I need them most. I guess in that way, they’re my heroes.
I hope I can be a hero for them too.