Nightmare Moon chuckled as the group of ponies moved closer. “Do you really believe you can defeat me, Avatar? A few fancy pieces of jewelry aren't enough. Besides, there are only six of you.”
Twilight gave a quick nod. “Yes, these 'fancy pieces of jewelry' are more than enough to crush you,” she said as she stepped forward.
“Mother, give up this madness!” Rarity yelled, shaking her head. “Do you realize what you're doing, how much destruction you're causing? Why? So you can get a bit of glory? Please, just surrender so we can end this. None of us want to hurt you.”
“Be silent, traitor,” the ruler snapped. “I have nothing to discuss with one of your kind. Soon, Discord's power will be in my control and the first thing I will do is eliminate all of you. You're no daughter of mine.” The words were at a normal volume, but they seemed to echo as if she had yelled them.
The princess cringed and lowered her eyes. “M-mother. All I wanted. All I ever wanted was to make you happy.” She dug a hoof into the ground. “The real you. The one who raised me. Not this... cold, calculating, destructive thing you've become. I want my mother back.”
Nightmare Moon merely chuckled. “Really? Is that what you want? I am right here, little daughter. The same as I've always been. Yet you come at me with the help of four lesser ponies, one of them a cripple.” Her eyes narrowed on Rainbow. “A shame I didn't kill you when I had the chance. My poisons should have finished the job.”
Rainbow hmphed. “They might have, but your sister made sure to stop them. She was a far bet--”
“Don't you mention my pathetic sister to me!” Nightmare roared, her eyes narrowing as her voice raised. “It is I who have conquered the world, who will lead our nation to its glorious domination! Not my pathetic sister!”
Rarity growled and stomped a hoof down. “Celestia never wanted to oppose you, mother. She just wanted her good sister back, the one she loved and cared for. The one who would have been a good, kind ruler. Not this... this thing you've become. She would have been a far better ruler than you are now.”
“I AM THE RULER!” Nightmare Moon yelled. She lifted her hoof and the water turned a dark purple. It lanced out at the ponies.
Twilight merely waved a hoof and the water evaporated in a wall of flame. The fires died a second later and she stepped forward. “Enough, Nightmare Moon. This is over now.” Her crown began to glow with all the colors of the rainbow, drawn from the other elements. A moment later she thrust her head forward and a radiating rainbow of magic swirled forward and enveloped the mare.
“NO!” Nightmare Moon screamed, struggling against the magic. “I will not fall! I am the ruler! I am the master! I will not be defeated! NOOOOOOO!”
Twilight didn't stop, her hooves swirling as the magic circled around the mare. Then it was gone. Nightmare Moon was on her knees, her armor scattered on the ground in pieces. Her coat had changed from the black into a indigo. Her mane had grown slightly smaller as well. However, the most stunning change was how much smaller and gentler curved she, herself, had become. Now only slightly larger than Rarity.
The princess gulped and stepped forward. “M-mother?” She took a soft, deep breath. “L-Luna?”
The elder mare groaned. “Don't... don't call me that...”
Rarity stepped forward faster. “M-mother? Is that--”
“Don't call me that! I am Nightmare Moon! Ruler of the Water Nation!” The mare rose to her hooves and gathered the water from the ground, forming poisonous spikes of ice. Before the others could stop her, the poisonous liquid lanced out at her daughter.
Rarity closed her eyes and waited for the painful blow. But it never came. After a few moments she opened her eyes. The ice hovered a few inches in front of her. Luna was staring at her intently, though her whole body was shaking.
“Mother?”
“I... I am Nightmare Moon. I rule this nation, nopony else. S-stay back. I will kill you.”
Rarity slowly stepped forward, towards the ice. They moved aside as she walked, pulling back. She smiled and didn't stop until she was directly in front of her mother. She then lunged forward and hugged her. “O-oh mother... y-you're... you're back.”
“S-stop this! I will end all of you, let me go!” the ruler yelled.
Twilight stared and smiled. Nightmare Moon seemed almost completely different now. While, appearance wise, only a little had technically changed, everything had. Where before her movements and gestures gave off an air of death and destruction, as if she could strike you down in a moment. Now, though? The mare gave off the same feelings as a newborn puppy. Even her voice was filled with emotion and nowhere near as cold and calculating as it had once been. Even when she yelled it seemed softer than a whisper from her old form.
“N-no you won't. I'm your daughter and you're my mother. You'll... never strike at me again. You're free. He has no control over you anymore...”
“Nopony ever did! I am the ruler! Let me go, you foal!”
“Is... is it over then?” Applejack asked softly.
“I... I think so. Now it's just clean up.” Her horn glowed for a moment before she tapped the ground. The dome split down the middle and separated. She let out a shriek and thrust a hoof forward, barely making a wall of stone in time to save Rarity and her mother from the shards of ice.
“Aw, what a shame. I was hoping I could end this in one swift attack,” a cloaked pony said. The hood was lowered, revealing her blue coat and white and blue striped mane. Her eyes glowed purple and around her neck was an amulet with a red gem, with a red and black unicorn head and wings sticking out.
Pinkie gasped. “I-it was you! You were the one messing with everything! You're why I couldn't keep peeping ahead!”
“Trixie... how?” Twilight asked, staring at the mare.
“Oh, it wasn't easy,” the unicorn said with a chuckle. “Discord had to pull quite a few strings for me to get this and... mess with your little story. But, then again, nothing worth doing in this world is easy. Did you enjoy my alterations?” Her eyes glowed an even darker purple as her cloak was torn from her back. Dark purple wings had formed on her back, giving her the appearance of an alicorn. They were transparent and made of pure magic.
Twilight took a step back. “Y-you're... you...”
“Of course. You didn't think it would be so easy, did you?” Trixie motioned back towards the inside of the building. Dozens of unicorns had formed three circles around each other. In the center a large block of stone was resting, covered in purple ruins. “Defeating Nightmare Moon was just the beginning.”
“W-what are you speaking of?” Luna asked indignantly. “You are one of my soldiers, how dare you--”
“I haven't been one of your soldiers in a long time,” Trixie said with another chuckle before narrowing her eyes on the alicorn. “You've lost, Twilight. I hold the alicorn amulet. You can't hope to defeat me.”
Twilight blinked and then chuckled. “Really? You think the alicorn amulet can stop us? I mean... well, it's supposedly nice and all, but all it would do is give me the power to fight with a lot of extra power. I have that from the elements. What could it have possibly done?”
The blue mare's grin just got wider as she turned to Fluttershy. “It might have made it so one pony didn't have to give up her powers to save your life.”
The pegasus cringed and Twilight gasped. “H-how did you know about that?”
Pinkie shrieked. “Y-you! You were the one ruining everything! I knew something was wrong, I knew it!”
“Indeed,” Trixie said with another laugh. “Oh ho ho ho ho! You really shouldn't have kept peeping ahead. You gave him ideas.”
The pink mare gasped, her eyes going wide. “W-what? How... how do you know about any of that?”
“Isn't it obvious, little pony?” Trixie asked with the most malevolent of grins. “I died. I now know everything. Or, well, most of everything. Honestly, I can't follow it all too well, he said it had something to do with... lateral thinking? Outer thinking? It matters not. Now I am in control! Ah hah hah hah hah!”
“Why do you keep changing your laugh?” Rainbow asked with annoyance.
“Because I've been running around and having to hide who I am for so long you don't even know! Now that I finally get a chance to be out and about I will find the best laugh imaginable for my new position! Eee hee hee hee! Ugh, no.”
“New position? And what exactly is that supposed to be?” Twilight asked, stomping her hooves.
“Why, is it not obvious? As the pony to release Discord from his prison, I will become the ruler of the world! Oh hoh hoh hoh! Oh, I like that one.”
“Release? Well, I think you're forgetting one thing,” the alicorn said with a grin as her element began to glow.
“Oh? And what, pray tell, is that?” Trixie asked, moving a hoof up to her mouth as if to stifle a yawn.
Twilight aimed a hoof at her as her horn glowed purple. “We still have the elements!” Rarity was teleported besides her friends and the five necklaces shot out beams of light, enveloping the alicorn's crown. The beam then focused and shot at the blue unicorn.
“I didn't forget,” Trixie said as the beam flew at her. Her amulet glowed a dark red. Rarity let out a scream as her element cracked, black mist oozing out and enveloping the beam. It tinted it darker as it struck Trixie. She quickly turned to the left and the beam shot past her, striking the stone in the middle of the circle. For a moment there was silence, then a dark, green light shot up from the stone into the sky. The blue mare gasped for air, but soon burst into laughter. “It... it worked! Hah! I knew it would work!”
Twilight stared for a few moments before turning back to Rarity. “A-are you okay? What happened-- Rarity! Y-your element!”
The princess was on her knees, her element completely black. Cracks had formed all along it. She slowly got to her hooves and looked down. “I-I don't know. How... what happened?”
Trixie laughed even louder. “Cower before my awesome might! Oh hoh hoh hoh! Yes, perfect laugh.” She snorted and waved a hoof. “To think, Discord wanted me to do this annoying ritual myself. Far easier just to make the lot of you finish it for me.”
Twilight blinked, then looked up. The green glow was gone, the world was dark once again. She looked from left to right, before turning to the stone pillar. The runes were gone. A grin slowly formed on her lips. “You failed, Trixie. Whatever you did destroyed Discord. He's gone. His power is gone.” She stepped forward. “We won.”
Trixie blinked a few times and looked back to the circle of ponies. They were laying on the ground, unconscious. “Err... get up? Summon Discord? Oh... that's not good.”
“I don't know what you did, Trixie. Frankly I don't understand how you even survived any of this. But you've lost. Discord is--”
“Eh heh heh heh heh heh.” Lightning crackled in the sky overhead as clouds swirled in a massive circle.
Twilight took a step back. “W-what? What's that?”
“Ah hah hah hah hah!” The stone exploded, clouding the room in a thick layer of dust and hiding the source of the laughter from view.
“N-no, impossible. You can't, we... we...” Twilight's ears lowered as she stared into the dust. “We... we...”
They'd failed.
didn't see that coming. I just thought you were gonna add on even more chapters
You know, I really hate to say this buuuuuuttttt.....Called it!
So like a bait and switch boss, the battle with "Nightmare Moon" was surprisingly low key. Though, considering the source material (the pony source), this actually makes sense. As it was the journey to reach Nightmare Moon, and not the actual alicorn who provided the greatest challenge.
Actually, the echo in NM's voice seemed to indicate just how hollow Luna was truly being as a force of evil. That big D had to really amplify what she was doing as evil rather than truly draw true evil from under her. And Rarity also called her out yet again. Pointing at her flimsy motives, and finally admitting that she wanted her approval, but now finally knows that this approval is to the real her, not this evil version. Not to mention RD rubbing in her face that Celestia saved her.
But with one rainbow Gatling gun, just like that, the eternal night queen was done. Actually though, what you've done is also played reference to luna being the younger sister, but also created a plausible reason for this: her development was frozen when she took on discord's essence, meaning she's now the younger and smaller unicorn before them. And even though it was a purge, that doesn't mean decades of this thinking could be erased. Luna tried to be just as she was, but her heart wasn't in it any longer, and so little rarity, after finally seeing her mom for what she really was and going on a quest to free her from evil, finally was able to hold her close knowing she really does love her again.
And then, the chessmaster finally tipped his hand, and played his aces. Several from each book, all coming together for his triumph. Pinkie in particular was shocked. Gasping that this was the reason why she couldn't really see what was happening in the future of their story. Though, I am quite curious to see how Discord managed to get himself a general, and give her the alicorn amulet when she had no previous knowledge otherwise. Now, you could say that he snapped his fingers so that her sudden stop didn't kill her, but that still doesn't explain away her escape, her getting to the amulet first, her reincorporating herself into Nightmare Moon's court or anything like that despite being a supposedly dead general from an internal story perspective. Also, purple eyes. This means that it's not discord's direct corruption since his influence is green, or it could mean that she's willingly embraced the darkness, hence the different eye color. Although, the wings are definitely different.
Pinkie though was beside herself with anger , outraged that Trixie kept messing with the story. And that she inspired big D to make the changes as he went along as well. And as a Canon Foreigner, this means Trixie can know the regular flow without worrying about self corrections. I think it has to do with....thinking outside the box, or creative thinking? Although, trixie, I'd go with Ah Ha Ha. It's a classic evil laugh after all.
There was a tremendous trick, then there was a tremendous pause, where for a moment they thought it'd failed, no matter what tricks trixie pulled. But then they heard HIS laugh, and the true enemy, the bigger bad, the epic final boss stretched his talons, and Discord walks the physical realm once more.
I have to say though, what discord did was actually pretty brilliant. Using small steps nobody would notice or even care as much about in the bigger picture to plant his seeds, roll his dice, and gradually prepare the world for his victory. Let us count the ways he tipped his hand to get free.
Pegasus: This was discord's hybernation phase. As we the readers got to know just how powerful Discord was and his role in the history, we didn't expect that much from him, since as our substitute "vaatu", we thought it wasn't his time yet to appear in this universe. However, at the very end of the story, he made his first move. Got General Trixie on his side by saving her from death. Teasing us readers that the characters will never know what he's done.
Earth Pony: This was discord's "motion prep" phase. Where he was catalyzing elements to prepare for his endgame. With trixie as his minion (hey! Well you are!), he had her steal the alicorn amulet, keeping twilight from a power boost, while also leading her to meet the earthbender of the team. Since she gained an element of harmony, none of team avatar harmony decided to pay any mind to the amulet after that, not realizing it was now in the hands of the master planner. Discord waited a while after this, but when Twilight put generosity into Spike, he used the bandit's theft of Spike to plant his next nest pony. He had trixie recover Spike from the pirates, and then using the alicorn amulet, corrupted the element inside spike where it was vulnerable. Put darkness in its center for later use. Then Trixie dropped Spike off at the palace, counting on Rarity recognizing him for his phase 3.
Unicorn: Discord's serpent and the stone phase. With Spike in Rarity's possession, the element of generosity called out to her to take on her destiny. But during the hand off, instead of feeling good, Twilight and team mentioned they got a funny, bad feeling from rarity taking back her element. It did lift Discord's corruption from her, but the inside of it was still corrupted. This was his seed egg for later. But since big D is a draconequi of many plans, the element was more a contingency, as he used his evil powers to control Sweetie, Luna and Sombra to kill team avatar harmony however they could. Yet this was all a mere direct approach used to incorporate his mole into the group. He used Trixie to stall Rarity for a few hours during the assault, ensuring they couldn't "end the story" too quickly, and then when she became friends with them, that meant the elements, the 1 thing that can defeat or imprison or release him were now tuned to do just that. Operation Skyfall also was a way to soften up the avatar as a last direct assault to try and stop her the "old fashioned way", while also weakening her spirit.
However, here at the end, Big D and Trixie decided to finally play out their hand, and using the corruption in rarity's purple diamond to darken the normal blast, meaning that it was now perfect to use as both corrupting the elements, and as the key to get him out. (though not his original intent interestingly. Why would he want Trixie to release him? Easier and simpler? Immunity to the elements that way?)
Well, it doesn't matter now. Discord's played his hand out, and guess what? It's a full house with aces. Looks like scenario 4 played out. GAME OVER!.....( HOLD IT!!!!!!! Who did this? Was it.....the author? How could you do this to us Mr. Author? This story's supposed to be over!!!!!!!!!) I'm sorry pinkie, but Avatar The Last Airbender is over. (NO! NONONONONO! I will not let this end this way! We can end this story just like how we ended discord back in season 2. The easy part is what's over. Now comes the part where the author stretches his chops with totally original material to the Avatar world using our pony stories. So don't you say this is over, or FACE THE WRATH OF PINKIE PIE!!!)
Ok, Ok pinkie calm down. You're right. It isn't over. We still have 1 more book to go after all. Book 4: Alicorn or Chaos or something like that. Now I suspect that team avatar harmony's going to go down for a few chapters, and the minors are going to band together to help save the world, with Celestia, the cutie mark crusaders, Spike, Angel, Octavia, Vinyl, Fancy Pants, Photo, Caliburn, Sapphire, The Flim Flams (because there's no business to be had at the end of the world), Blueblood, Coco, Grimset, Maud, Big Mac, Soarin, Spitfire, Gilda, Lightning, Flash, Cheese Sandwich, and last but not least, Luna all coming together to rescue the elements from their darkness and save the world from discord yet again. But hey, that's just a theory. A Pony Theory.
Way to end on a cliffhanger there pal. BEST! AVATAR! CROSSOVER! EVER!!! I mean it. And with this last book, you really began to expand your writing, and take chances with how you were using everything. From Shy's bending all the way to rainbow's blindness. It's this final part that finally shows that not only were you willing to tweak the formula as you went, but we're in for a truly spectacular ending here at the end of all things on the day of chaos.
You rock man, and I'll see you in book 4, after the end.
Dude I have been fallowing this since chaper 11 of the first book and I have to say it has been one hell of a ride. Can't wait for book4
5521396 Aye. Pissed off Twilight is scary. she's just one step off from crazy Twilight.
5525334 Oh no, what I've got planned would require too many extra chapters to justify slamming it in this book. Mwa ha ha ha.
5525383 Yes. Yes you did. And it has been sooooo hard not to spoil things for you! But yup, the next book is going to be awesoooooome. I have such massive plans! Though, on the other hoof, if Discord wasn't such a jerk I'd be done now and I wouldn't have to worry about a third book or the world being turned to chaos. Discord's a butt.
5526142 Thanks ^^ It's been a lot of fun!
Now, the grand finale is almost on us! I can barely believe I've gotten this far. When I first started this book, it was because I had kind of wanted to do a mlp avatar rp with someone(With Discord pulling the strings to make them think they really were the avatar and such. It was a theme park called Discordialand. Don't judge me.) When I wrote the first chapter, I expected nothing but ridicule and insults due to how bad I was. Instead, I received nothing but encouragement. My friend gave me the push to start, the brony community gave me the power to keep going. Now, this story is onto it's fourth book at over 550k words, who knows what it will be in the end? On top of that I've written so many other fics and even finished a few real books.
When I was younger I dreamed of being a writer, but my own self esteem and lack of support eventually made me give up and choose the path of least resistance. However, thanks to this story and all the support I've been given, it's domino effected into me finding my greatest passion, writing. There is no greater thrill that I get than when I'm writing a story, aside from when people read it. I want to thank everyone who has supported me through all this, be it through likes, favorites, watches or comments. You all have given me the greatest gift a person could receive. The will to pursue my dream and the happiness that comes with doing something I am truly passionate about.
You wouldn't do this to your poor readers, would you?
....
.......
Oh wait, you did...
Woods amazing work , onwards and upwards