//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Guardians of the Moon 
// by Tachyon Dragon 
//------------------------------//

	After hearing all that the mayor, a tan earth pony with a graying mane, decided to take action, “Seize her. She knows where the princess is.” At this the royal guard, pegasus, charged forward in an attempt to attack her. Shadow and Light moved forward and blocked them. Shadow let out a warning blast of blue fire at one and moved to attack the other two. 
This spectacle caused all the ponies gathered to gasp, prompting Shadow to say, “You guys really like to gasp don’t you.” Then she wacked the guards intending to hit them with the flat of the blade so as to not hurt them and it worked for one but the other moved and caught the blade of her tail and it cut through his armor luckily not cutting the pony inside. 
“Oh no. Are you ok? Did it cut you?” this time it was Light who shot Shadow a look, “I mean and stay down,” as they had fallen, the one she shot fire at recoiled and had stopped flapping his wings out of shock and maybe some fear. The one she had hit with the flat of her tail blade had been hit with more force then needed and had been knocked down. While the one she had cut stopped flapping in order to get away from her and if they were at a higher altitude then it likely would have worked, but instead he hit the ground.
“Let’s leave these fools,” Nightmare said.
“Of course,” said Shadow, and as the sisters where already flying Nightmare took off and they all flew out the doors. Princess Celestia followed them and she cast an invisibility spell on them once they were out the doors.
“We should go to the old palace right away,” Celestia said.
“No we should stick around and see if the six you think it could be get together and can find the elements. Plus we should set up tests that they can only get past if they are the elements,” Shadow said.
“Um, who did you think were the elements?” Light asked.
“Well, the only one that I am sure about is my student Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said
“Who was that?” Nightmare asked.
“She is a unicorn who has a purple coat and mane and tail. She was also the one who know who you were,” Celestia answered, she continued saying, “And did you have to be so mean. Also did you seriously injure the guards, if you did, that would go against our agreement.”
“Yes, we had to be that mean, or else no one would attempt to stop us, ruining our plan. As for the guards…,”
“They were attacking. She tried to stop them while causing them the least amount of damage and what happened to the third guard was an accident. She was only going to whack him like she did the other but he moved unexpectedly at the last moment,” Light said interrupting her sister in order to come to her defense.
“I almost ruined the plan by worrying about them and asking if they were ok. Though I don’t think I cut anything on the guard but his armor,” Shadow continued, “Where will they go to,” Shadow was interrupted again by the purple unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, running out of the town hall looking determined and with a destination. “Never mind, I’m going to follow her.” With that she took off following Twilight.

“That is a very large tree,” Shadow said when they arrived at Twilight’s destination.
“It is also the town library,” Celestia informed them. They all gathered around one of the library’s windows to see what would happen. If Twilight could find the other five and if all six of them could find their elements and use them. If they can even find the elements. Then arises the question of if they can find the sixth element.
“What element do you think Twilight Sparkle is?” asked Nightmare Moon.
“I believe she represents the element of magic, so long as she makes some friends,” Celestia replied.
“Wait so the six don’t know each other or about the elements of harmony,” Nightmare said aghast. 
“No, Twilight only came to this town yesterday, but as you can hear,” Twilight was frantically searching for a book on the elements of harmony, “she knows about the elements of harmony’s existence” Celestia informed the trio. Their conversation was interrupted by the rainbow maned pegasus barging into the library.
“What are the elements of harmony? How did you know about Nightmare Moon, are you a spy?” said the pegasus interrogating Twilight. The orange earth pony pulled the rainbow maned pegasus back and away from Twilight by biting her tail.
“She aint no spy, so simmer down, but she does know what’s going on,” the orange pony said with a heavy country accent. Three others then entered the room. One was the pink earth pony with the poufy mane and tail that tried to guess Nightmare’s name. Another was the yellow pegasus that had been near the stage and had been terrified. The last one to enter the room was the white unicorn with the stylized purple mane and tail. All five of the ponies that had just entered the room clustered around Twilight as the orange pony continued saying, “Don’t ya Twilight.”
“They’ve met before, but I thought you said that Twilight had only just arrived in town, and that she is antisocial,” Shadow said looking at Celestia.
“Yes, I sent Twilight to this town to oversee the preparations for the celebration, so she met some ponies in this town.” After a pause Celestia continued confused. “Wait, I never said that Twilight was antisocial.”
“Not in those words but you did kind of say that. You said that she needed to make friends so one can assume that she doesn’t have many friends were she usually lives. If that is true then one can reasonably assume that she is antisocial,” Shadow said with a look that seemed to be shocked that all that wasn’t more obvious. Celestia just stared at her dumbstruck, while the other two didn’t even seem to be paying any attention to them.
Celestia looked like she was about to respond but was interrupted by Twilight saying, “I read a prediction about Nightmare Moon’s return in a book in Canterlot. It said that the only things that could stop her are something called the elements of harmony but I don’t know more than that. I don’t even know what the elements are or where to find them or even what they do.”
“The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide,” read the pink pony looking at a bookshelf in the library. Twilight ran over and rudely knocked the pink pony out of the way.
“How did you find this I was tearing the library apart looking for this book,” Twilight quietly yelled looking confused.
“It was under “E”,” the pink pony sang while bouncing across the room.
“Oh,” Twilight said looking quite sheepish and embarrassed. She then pulled the book of the shelf using her magic and started to read, “There are six elements of harmony, but only five are known: kindness, laughter, generosity, honesty and loyalty. The sixth though is a complete mystery. It is said that the last known location of the five known elements was the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now the Everfree Forest.” Twilight stopped reading and said, “Ok I need to go to the Everfree Forest.”
“Don’t you mean WE,” said the pink pony.
“No, and while I appreciate the offer, I would rather go alone.
“No way, we can’t let any friend of ours go into that forest to face who knows what alone,” said the orange pony.
“Ya,” said the multi chromatic pegasus, while the others let out murmurs of agreement. 
“Wait what about those two minions that Nightmare Moon had. One of them breathed fire, and they both had blades on their tails. Blades that could cut through the armor on the royal guard. What were they and how are we going to deal with them?”
“I’m sorry, but isn’t our main goal to stop eternal night, and isn’t Nightmare Moon our main concern. Besides I don’t think that they are much of a threat, all they did was taunt the crowd and they only moved into action when the guard moved against them. I don’t think that they will cause us much trouble unless we attempt to attack them first,” the white unicorn said in a tone that was fancier then the others.
“Yes you have a good point, but what they are will make an interesting research project later. So are we ready to go stop Nightmare Moon?” Twilight said getting a round of hearty yas from all but the yellow pegasus who was much quieter than all the others.
“We need to hurry if we want to set tests and get to the castle before them. Now um where is the forest path to the castle?” Shadow said as she started to move away from the library.
“Follow me I know the way,” said Celestia letting her outline show. She was still invisible unless she moved or if the pony knew where to look.

“This is a really scary forest. How could anything be scarier than this?” Light said terrified.
“How the forest looks might actually help us. The element of laughter would help her friends not be as scared. For that test we can put an illusion on a part of the forest to make it darker and scarier. For loyalty’s test we could test her loyalties to her friends. If we break the bridge then have her chose between fixing it and helping her friends, or something that has to do with her honor, maybe regarding her speed, that should test her loyalties,” Shadow said.
“But what makes you think that the element of loyalty is a pegasus?” asked Light.
“Pegasi were always the most willing to fight to protect their friends, plus they were loyal to other fliers, often letting gryphons and smaller dragons stay in their cities, and they were on friendly terms with the clans, most of the time,” Shadow replied.
“So we have tests for loyalty and laughter, but what about kindness, generosity and honesty,” Light asked.
“For kindness we could have the illusion of a creature in the forest attack them and the only way to stop it is to show it kindness. As for the generosity and honesty, I don’t know. For generosity we will have to find a situation. Though I have no idea what we could do for honesty. Mabey you could watch them and see if a situation arises,” Shadow said to Light as Celestia was flying near Nightmare and they seemed to be involved with their own conversation.
“How could I spy on them and not give myself away?” asked Light.
“You could be invisible.”
“Oh and do you have enough power to do that because I certainly don’t.”
“I was thinking we could ask Celestia.”
Shadow started to fall back in order to ask but was brought to a halt when she heard a roar. Light heard it as well judging by her reaction, but Nightmare Moon and Celestia didn’t.
“Why are you stopped?” asked Celestia as she and Nightmare neared the sisters.
“Th…there was a…a r…roar,” stammered Light stammering and visibly shaking. She was also trying to hide behind Shadow.
“We didn’t hear anything,” said Celestia.
“They are half dragon so they have beter hearing than most ponies, us included,” said Nightmare breaking her long silence. Then another roar was heard, and this one was heard by the princesses.
“Ok this time I heard it,” said Nightmare, “Um what was it?” 
All three turned to Celestia who said, “I don’t know and I’m not very eager to find out.”
“Sadly it looks as if we are about to find out,” said Shadow as yet another roar was heard again this time though it was much closer. All four of them got into a fighting position as another roar, even closer this time, was heard.
They were flying in a circle so as to watch out for each other and so they could be prepared no matter what direction it would come from. Then a bear with insect wings and striped fur burst out of the trees. As soon as it saw the ponies it charged them. They were now flying in a line as they all understood that it would bad if it got behind them.
Shadow and Celestia both put up high level shielding spells to stop the monsters charge. Light shot off a ball of bright light into its face to blind it. While that disoriented it, it didn’t stop it. Shadow let loose a long stream of her dark blue fire while it was disoriented. Celestia and Nightmare shot bolts of magic at it. One was golden the other a light blue. The bolts did very little but they did make the monster swerve and that caused the fire blast to miss. It hit the cliff behind the monster. Light had prepared a small ball of fire and had been keeping it in reserve. When the monster dodged she shot her small ball of fire. It hit the monster and that, for some reason that nopony was going to question, caused the monster to flee.
“Well that happened. Now what was that and will it attack the others. Light you really should keep an eye out for them. Celestia could you turn her invisible so that they can’t see her but she can watch them,” Shadow said.
“Yes I can turn her invisible but I don’t think that the monster that just attacked us will attack them,” Celestia said.
“Thank you,” Shadow said. She then pulled Light aside and said, “Don’t interfere with them too much, you will be an observer unless a monster, a real monster, attacks them and they can’t handle it alone.” Then when they returned to the group she said, “Can you cast the spell now?”
“Of course,” Celestia said. Then Light was enveloped by a bright light. When the light died down Light was gone.
“It worked. Now Light you need to go and find them and stay with them. When they get to the castle you can leave them and come find us so we have the spell removed,” Shadow said, “Now come on we need to get to the castle and place our illusions.”

The rest of the flight was mostly uneventful. There were no monster attacks after the first one. All that happened was that they flew the path and placed their illusions, first the monster, a manticore. Then they placed an illusion on the trees in one section of forest that made them scarier than usual. Well, there was one encounter with a sea serpent but they sped past him before anything could happen but Shadow’s tail blade cut off half of his mustache. They didn’t have to break the bridge as time had done it for them.
“We’re here, so where are the elements?” asked Shadow.
“They are in the main room but we should leave them alone,” said Celestia.
“Ok, so now all we have to do is wait. We shouldn’t go anywhere in case we miss them,” said Shadow. She sat down on a soft patch of grass, and was almost immediately overwhelmed by her weariness. After a bit she stopped fighting it and was soon asleep. Her last sight before sleep overtook her was Nightmare Moon and Celestia talking. She wasn’t able to ponder what they were talking about for long before she fell asleep.

“There here,” said a soft voice that was timid yet hurried. It was whispered at a volume that only just barely woke her from her nap. 
“Huh, what, who, just let me sleep,” said Shadow groggily just wanting to resume her nap.
“Shadow, wake up they are almost here they passed almost all of the all the tests so the only one left is loyalty. We need to hurry they will be at the bridge soon,” said the voice. It was still soft but now it was louder and more determined to rip her from the peaceful embrace of slumber. She also felt a soft nudge.
“Go away let me sleep,” Shadow said still very groggy from her nap.
“WAKE UP,” screamed the voice and then it let out an ear splitting loud roar. The owner of the voice also kicked her really hard then continued, still screaming, saying, “We need to go NOW.”
That finally kicked her out of the soft embrace of sleep. “Wait what, they’re here. We need to go now.” She said this as she hastily took off and started flying as fast as she could towards the bridge. Then she stopped. She then waited for the others to catch up before she got too far. 
“Thank you for waiting for us Shadow,” said Light.
“Well in order for the plan to work we need both of us at the same time,” Shadow replied.
“Really that’s your… well whatever, let’s go,” said Light as she rolled her eyes. Then took off, seemingly racing her sister to the bridge’s location.

They arrived right as Twilight almost walked off the cliff seemingly thinking that the bridge was still intact.
“Why do you keep almost falling of cliffs today?” asked the rainbow maned pegasus as she bit her tail and pulled her back from the cliff’s edge.
“Now what?” asked the white unicorn.
“Duh,” said the rainbow maned pegasus as she flapped the tips of her wings. Then she took off and dived into the gorge.
“Yeah,” said the pink pony realizing that they could fix the bridge.
“We need to hurry there’s no telling what lies ahead. Plus we can’t let Nightmare Moon get the elements so we need to get there first,” said Twilight Sparkle.
“Ya, but first we need to cross this bridge but in order to do that it first needs to be fixed,” said the orange earth pony.

Meanwhile on the other side of the ravine Shadow and Light had landed and were planning.
“So what did you learn about this pegasus? Can we test her loyalty by taunting her speed or is she more interested in knowledge? Has she passed any of the other tests?” Shadow whispered to Light.
“They call her Rainbow and she is very fast, but if she is proud of her speed I wouldn’t know. She hasn’t passed any of the other tests and I think that taunting her speed would be enough,” Light whispered back.
“Thanks for the info. So we challenge her to a race with the condition that the race is right now and she can’t fix the bridge,” Shadow whispered. Then loudly she said, “Well then, what are we waiting for.” 
By this point Rainbow had retied one side of the bridge, but when she heard Shadow yell she turned around and saw them. The two dragonish walked up to Rainbow. Shadow leaned down, as she was taller than Rainbow. Then she said, “Are you fast?” It was a simple question with a simple answer as well, but Rainbow was stunned into silence. 
“Well, are you?” asked Light.
“Huh, um ya of course I’m fast I’m Rainbow Dash. I’m so fast it’s awesome,” said Rainbow.
“Oh really, are you faster than us? We used to be two of the fastest flyers of all those who lived in or around our clan,” Shadow said. She continued to say, “We raced dragons and draconequus and some pegasi. Oh I know,” an evil gleam entered her eyes, “Race us, right now. Then we will know who is truly faster.”
“All right, but let me tie off the bridge first,” Rainbow said.
“No,” said Shadow as she raised to her full height a bolt of lightning flashed behind her, making her look menacing. “You will either race now or never.”
Rainbow cast a look at the bridge then she turned and looked at Light and Shadow. She opened her mouth to speak, “Now,” she said, “now I fix the bridge so that we can get the elements of harmony and defeat you and Nightmare Moon and put a stop to this night.” She tied the bridge then flew back to her friends clearing the mist on the bridge.
“Fine,” said Shadow then she and Light turned and walked away disappearing into the mist. They quickly flew back to where the others were waiting, and all four flew into the ruined old castle. They entered from a broken section of roof. They stayed hidden in the shadows while the six ponies entered.

“Wow, Twilight are those the Elements of Harmony,” asked the orange earth pony. She was talking about the five round stones that where on the pedestal in front of them.
“Yes, I do believe they are. I can’t believe we finally found them,” Twilight said in reply. Hearing that Rainbow and the other pegasus flew to each of the spheres and grabbed one. They then carried them down one by one placing them in front of Twilight. “Carefully these are our best bet if we want to stop Nightmare Moon and her two guards,” Twilight said as the orbs were placed in front of her.
“One, two, three, four, five…. Wait five, but aren’t there supposed to be six?” asked the pink pony after all the stones had been removed from the pedestal and placed on the ground.
“The book said that when all five are present a spark will reveal the sixth element,” Twilight said as she sat down in front of the elements.
“And what the hay does that mean,” asked the orange pony.
“I have a theory but I don’t know exactly what will happen so you all might want to stand back,” Twilight said as she powered up her horn causing a light purple glow to encase her horn.
“Come on ya’ll she needs to concentrate,” said the orange earth pony as she lead the others out of the room. At this Nightmare Moon, along with Shadow and Light moved out of hiding. Celestia followed behind them. Shadow flew next to her so that she could talk and plan.
“She doesn’t have the spark or the sixth element, could you teleport us to a different room so we can test her as well and we might help her find the spark as well,” Shadow asked in a whispered voice.
“I can but why can’t you do that here?” Celestia asked whispering as well.
“We can’t have the others bursting in just yet,” Shadow replied still whispering.
“Alright I can,” Celestia whispered as she renewed her invisibility spell then she prepared the teleportation spell.
“Thanks,” said Shadow as she sped up to where Nightmare Moon was. “Remember to act maniacal and condescending, you are playing the role of an invader,” she turned to Light and continued, “And you need to seem more confident.”
“I’ll try, but we need to get her attention first,” Light said timidly. Nightmare then grabbed the elements with her telekinesis and she started to spin them.
Noticing this Twilight screamed then yelled, “The elements!” Then the light of Celestia’s teleportation spell enveloped them all, but not before they heard the ones that went outside yell something indistinct.
When the light faded they were in another room, an old tower by the looks of it. Twilight was disoriented when they first arrived but she got over it quickly. She saw that she was in another location and at the end of the room was Nightmare Moon with Shadow and Light standing by her sides. Twilight gasped when she saw her. She had the elements as well. She was holding them in a telekinetic grip. When she saw this Twilight gasped again. Then a determined look crossed her face. She lowered her head and pawed the ground preparing to charge.
“You’re not serious are you? You’re kidding right,” asked Nightmare Moon. Twilight didn’t respond. She instead charged up her horn and started to run towards them.
“Huh, looks like she was serious,” said Shadow as she and Light prepared to charge as well. They did run a little distance before Nightmare stopped them.
“I can handle this,” she said as she charged past the twins. She ran to meet Twilight but right before the collided Twilight activated her spell, a teleportation spell. She teleported to the elements and held them in her magic.
“A spark, just one spark,” she said. Shadow and Light knocked her back but Twilight’s magic had done something to the elements. Lightning was flashing between all the elements. In her scramble to get out of the elements Light stepped on one and shattered it. Shadow, at the same time, wacked another element with her tail blade. The element shattered as well.
“HA HA HA HA HA,” said Nightmare behind Twilight having walked up while the others were distracted. “Now you can’t defeat me the elements are broken. Thus any hope of defeating me and ending my night is now gone.”
Twilight looked downtrodden, until she heard her friends coming to her aid. She gasped realizing something. “Do you think that that could destroy the Elements of Harmony? Well you’re wrong, because their spirits are right here,” she said indicating her friends who had just come in. The elements started to glow and float moving toward Twilight and her friends.
“What?” asked Nightmare Moon shocked at the elements.
“Applejack,” she said indicating the orange earth pony, “Who reassured me, represents Honesty.” The element floated around her. “Fluttershy,” indicating the yellow pegasus, “who tamed a wild monster represents, Kindness.” Another element started to float around her. “Pinky Pie,” gesturing to the pink earth pony, “Who banished fear represents, Laughter.” Like the others her element started floating around her. “Rarity,” indicating the white unicorn, “Who calmed the serpent represents, Generosity.” Her element started floating around her. “Rainbow Dash, who didn’t abandon her friends represents, Loyalty.” Her element floated around her. “These five ponies and their spirits got us through every challenge along the way.”
“But what about the sixth?” asked Nightmare Moon. “There was no spark.”
“Oh but there was. It was a different kind of spark though. One that ignited inside me I realized it when I heard them. That’s when I realized that they all are my friends.” As Twilight said this a light appeared and with it came the sixth element. It moved right above Twilight. “When those elements are ignited by the spark it awakens the sixth element, Magic.” With that all the elements began to glow most of them became necklaces with a gem in the shape of their owners cutie mark. The element of magic though became a crown. All six ponies were encased in a rainbow of light the rainbow then shot towards Nightmare Moon and then began to encircle her.
She looked at them and smiled, “Thank you,” she said. Then she let out a scream. Twilight opened her eyes revealing them to be pure white. Then light encased them all.

“My head,” said a distorted voice.
“Everypony ok?” asked another voice different from the first.
“My tail,” shrieked a third voice.
“It’s lovely,” said a fourth.
“I know,” said the third.
“No your necklace. It looks like your cutie mark,” said the fourth. The voices where getting easier to tell apart.
“So does yours,” said the third.
“Lookie lookie,” said a fifth.
“Cool,” said the first.
“I thought you makin stuff up, but I guess we do represent the elements,” said the second. 
Shadow opened her eyes and let out a groan grabbing the attention of the others. Before anyone could say anything a bright light filled the room. It was accompanied by a voice.
“Indeed you are,” it said. When the light faded Celestia was standing there visible. Behind her the sun was rising. When they saw the princess all except Twilight bowed.
“Princess Celestia,” Twilight said happily walking towards her.
“Twilight, I knew you could do it,” she said.
“But you said it was just an old story,” Twilight said.
“No, I told you to make some friends. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon’s return as well, but I also saw that you could defeat her but only if you made some friends. Now another needs to as well,” Celestia said. She walked over to where Nightmare Moon was defeated. “Princess Luna it has been a thousand years since we last saw each other. Little sister we were meant to rule together.”
“Little sister?” the six ponies asked.
“It’s time to put our differences behind us. Will you be my friend once more?” Celestia asked. Everyone leaned forward in anticipation.
“Yes I’m so sorry. I’ve missed you so much,” Luna said.
“Uh, my head,” said a voice behind the alicorn sisters. They all turned around and saw something shocking. The voice belonged to Nightmare Moon. She looked different though, her mane was more like a cloud then smoke. Her colors hadn’t changed though nor had her height. Her face was less like Luna’s, and was more like a regular ponies. Her teeth were no longer pointed but her eyes hadn’t changed. Then they saw it or rather they didn’t.
“She has no cutie mark,” said Light who had gotten up and behind them all during the reunions.
“How are you even still around?” Rainbow angrily asked Nightmare Moon.
“That was our plan, to separate Luna and Nightmare Moon without having one of them die,” said Shadow walking slowly towards them. “Celestia was in on it she was the one who supplied most of the magic as we have almost none.” They all turned to Celestia waiting on baited breath for her reply.
“I was near them invisibly the entire time we have had this plan from the very beginning though Nightmare Moon made plans incase things didn’t go as planned though there will have to be repercussions of some sort,” said Celestia.
Nightmare tried, and failed, to stand up. Shadow went over and helped her up. “I am willing to except any punishment but don’t blame Shadow and Light. Please let them have a fresh start in this new time. Also can you please stop calling me Nightmare Moon, my name is Moonlight,” said Moonlight.
“Of course Night...no, Moonlight, as you have requested Shadow Piercer and Piercing Light…”
“Hold on if we are going to get a fresh start I don’t want to still have my hatchling name so instead call me Shadow Shielder,” said Shadow interrupting Celestia.
“Hay me too, call me Golden Light instead,” Light said also interrupting Celestia.
“Alright Shadow Shielder and Golden Light will have a new start in Ponyville. Twilight can you and your friends help them?" asked Celestia.
"Of course we will help, Princess," said Twilight.
"Thank you, and then Moonlight will join me and Luna in Canterlot where she will be made a Princess and help rule Equestria,” Celestia said. Everyone stared at her shocked at what would be happening.
“This calls for a party!” Pinky yelled seemingly oblivious to everyponies’ shock.
Thus they all started the trip back to Ponyville wondering just what the future had in store them.