> Guardians of the Moon
>  by Tachyon Dragon
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> Chapter 1
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	It was almost time. Their mistress had prepared her spell and now all that they had to do was wait. Only a few hours where left before the proper time and Shadow Piercer, as she was known before their thousand year banishment to the moon with their ruler, Nightmare Moon, was getting her last look at the earth from the moon. She was soon joined by her sister Piercing Light. After waiting for a thousand years a few hours more shouldn’t be too hard but the midnight blue half dragon pony with a crescent shaped tail blade was restless.
“Are we going to try to take over again Shadow, I…I don’t want to hurt anypony,” The golden half dragon pony said.
“Our lady has had a thousand years to contemplate her next move, and what makes you think I would know, Light?”
“Well you are her military commander so I thought that you would know what her plans could be.”
“Oh. Ok then. Well I don’t think we will go and try to invade but our lady will want to be treated with respect and then there is the other. I don’t know how her hatred will impact our lady especially if we run into her sister.”
“Oh yeah I forgot about her. Where do you think we will appear sister?”
“Probably near the palace but not in the forest. That is probably where it will be. I just hope we aren’t attacked outright right when we appear but the other princess knows about magic as well as our mistress and has had a thousand years to prepare and she likely knows that we will be able to break free in a few hours but she probably won’t know where we will appear so we could avoid her.” Then realizing the time and making an expression of shock, “I didn’t realize it was this late we should probably go join our mistress in the throne room,” she says while opening her large and powerful wings and took off, flying at an incredible speed.
“Wait, Shadow wait for me,” Light cried out at the shrinking dot that was her older, by only a few minutes as they were twins, sister. She shook her golden dragonlike tail with its pink tinted, heart shaped tail blade in annoyance. Then opening her smaller, but still quite large wings, she took off after her sister knowing full well she couldn’t catch up as she was a slower flyer, but compared to the pegus ponies she was still quite fast.

When Light finally arrived at a room that was occupied by two people and one large rock that resembled a chair. The room had been hollowed out and lights had been put in. During the long flight from where they were before to where they were now Light had thought up some choice words regrading her elder sister’s behavior towards her.
“Why didn’t you wait for me Shadow?” Light whined at her sister as soon as she landed, seemingly taking no note of the other person in the room with Shadow.
“Oh. I didn’t did I. Sorry Light,” she said by way of apology.
“SORRY LIGHT. SORRY. LIGHT. You leave me behind right before we leave, not knowing if I will even make it on time and all that you can say is SORRY LIGHT. Why are you being so mean?” Light screamed as her face contorted into a look of pure anger and hate.
“Sorry, Light but you’re a fast flyer, still slower than me, but faster than most, so you are too fast to not make it here on time, so I wasn’t very worried that you wouldn’t be able to make it on time,” Shadow said trying to explain and looking very sheepish.
“If you two are done arguing we do have some work that still needs to be done here,” said the third pony in the room. She was a pure black alicorn with piercing blue draconic eyes, like the siblings, but with a lighter shade of blue occupying the sclera. She had razor sharp teeth teeth that one would more commonly find in the mouth of a predator and not in a pony’s.
“Oh um, sorry your highness, I didn’t see you there,” Piercing Light said to her and Shadow Piercer’s queen, Nightmare Moon.
“I assumed as much but you shouldn’t let you hatred blind you or else it might just take you over or draw in something else to take you over and that isn’t fun for either party. Do you understand?” she asked in tone one wouldn’t expect from a ruler. It was a warm and kind one that betrayed the true feelings of the one who had taken over the young princess of the night a thousand years ago.
“I understand,” Light said in a humble tone.
“And Shadow, some of the fault lies with you as well,” Nightmare went on to say.
“Me, my lady, but what did I do wrong?” Shadow interrupted her ruler.
“You left your sister and we are almost ready to leave we would either have had to stay and wait for Light, your younger sister, and then miss our one chance to break out, or we would have had to leave without her. Even if you are sure that she could make it on time you still should have stayed with her and made sure. She has the right to be angry with you. But Light, Shadow did try to apologize and you had no right to get that mad at her. Now if we are done with your sibling squabble its time to leave now and I will need your help if we all want to break out.”
“Our help, but how, and why?” Both sisters said at the same time interrupting Nightmare once again.
“I need you two to give me some of your magic power so that I have enough power to get us all there in one piece.” 
“Of course we will, your highness,” Shadow replied for both her and her sibling.
“It would please me greatly if you would only call me one thing one only requires one title and thank you in advance for the energy that you will give me.” 
“Your welcome but we will keep calling you multiple titles,” Shadow stated calmly.
“Um, if I may, what will we be doing after we escape, and where will we appear. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Light asked her shyness showing even after a thousand years banished to the moon with only Nightmare and her sister for company.
“I will try to see if anyone can separate me from Princess Luna and if I can keep my form after separation and then I will try to help if they will let me, that or I will try to live a peaceful life. As for your other question of where we will appear, I was thinking that we would appear a ways from the old castle but we will land outside the forest under the mountain. Now all that is left is for us to do is to start the spell,” Nightmare replied as she started to power up her horn for the spell.
“Of course your highness,” Shadow said eliciting an eye roll from Nightmare Moon, as she powered up her horn for the power transfer. The color of her magic was the same as her eyes, a dark blue but a lighter one than her coat. 
“Of course my lady,” said Light getting another eye roll from Nightmare Moon as she too powered up her horn. Her magic was silver like her cutie mark, a silver dragon sitting with its tail curled around it.
As the magic traveled up the twins longer than normal horns one could feel the magic in the air. It made all three of the pony’s fur stand on end. At first it seemed like it was doing this for no real reason, that was, until the lightning started crackling all around them. It seemed almost inevitable that one, or more, would get hit and end up seriously injured. They were safe for much longer than anypony had any reason to believe that they could be with all that lightning around them, and it even started to seem like all three of them would make it out unscathed. Then something changed.
As the lightning seemed to start to slow down one errant bolt struck Piercing Light. This was followed quickly by another bolt striking Shadow Piercer and then another bolt hit Nightmare Moon, and then again and again until all the bolts of arcane lightning were finding their way to the three spell casters, but none of them even seemed to notice. At the same time a wind had been building since the beginning of the spell, and by now it was like the three mares were standing in a tornado. Their manes were flying all over and not even Nightmare’s star field of a mane or tail could escape the gale force winds. Even the twin’s muscular draconic tails, though they were covered in fur and not scales, with their different tail blades and tail manes were being moved. It seemed like the magical storm wouldn’t end, not the lightning nor the winds. This continued until a bright flash filled the room when the light that had been slowly building when from bright to blinding in less than a second. When the light died down the three mares were gone, as was the lightning, and the wind slowly died down until all was calm again on the moon.

> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	All was quiet in the peaceful world of Equestria. The birds and other small animals were getting ready to great the summer on this, the longest day of the year. In the small town of Ponyville though all were awake and in the town hall. They were awaiting their princess as that small town that couldn’t have more than a thousand residents was the location for the main celebration. That meant that the princess would be coming to that small country town and raise the sun in front of all the town’s residents. The princess had even sent her personal student to go oversee the preparations. 

The princess, Celestia, had just arrived when she felt a strange wind. She knew that Nightmare Moon, the nightmare or dream demon. They took over ponies and fed on their hate and other negative emotions. They were like changelings but opposite in how they fed and what emotions that they fed on. This one had taken over her younger sister and turned her against the day, against her, and her two servants and she could break out today and they likely already had. That is why, when she felt the strange wind coming from outside town she felt compelled to investigate it herself. She might later come to regret going alone.

As Shadow woke up the harsh light of the appoching dawn seemed to want to burn out her eyes. She and Light have excellent night vision as their reptilian eyes are more light sensitive then the eyes of regular ponies. Everything was sore from her horn to the base of her tail. Even her magic felt stiff somehow.
“Uh…Shadow, where are you? Did we make it? Are we in Equestria? Why am I so sore?” said Lights voice from somewhere from the right. She sounded groggy like somepony who had just woken up after a long nap.
“Yes we are in Equestria or at least somewhere on the planet that lies below the moon, and so yes we made it. Can’t you tell because of how bright and colorful it is? As for our soreness it probably is some sort of magical backlash from all the energy in the spell we used to escape, our queen is probably much worse off as she was the caster while we just supplied extra energy,” she replied sounding just as tired as her younger twin.
“Our queen? Wait where is she? Shadow can you see her? Is she ok?” Light said with a little panic evident in her voice.
Shadow looked around her eyes finally adjusting to the hash light. They were on a hill overlooking a small town. Above them towered a mountain and you could just barely make out the outline of a town near the top of it. Curious but they still had to find their queen. She was spotted about halfway down the hill and a trail of mated down grass lead to her. It didn’t seem like she was awake yet. 
“Its ok, I found her. She is halfway down the hill,” Light let out a barely audible sigh of relief when she heard that.  Shadow though was preoccupied as she had spotted something. Something that could send them right back to where they were. “Um…sis…we might have a problem and our queen is out cold. I don’t think she will wake up in time to help and even if she does she likely won’t have the power to deal with it. I doubt any of us could use more than the simplest of spells,” Shadow said my fear growing the closer that the alabaster figure got to us, and my fear must have been evident in both my voice and face as Light started to panic too and I was blocking her sight of the white coated figure that was approaching. Her panic only increased when she saw the golden magic aura form around the gold clad figure, and when the figure opened her large white wings I was in a state of shear panic.
As she walked toward the hill where she felt the magic breeze on the outskirts of town she felt uncertain as well as a sense of foreboding. What was going to happen if it was them then would they attempt another takeover, or what if instead of Nightmare it was her younger sister Luna who returned? There were so many things to worry about. So many what ifs. Would she have to fight? She let magic flow into her horn so that she could be prepared. If they fought could she possibly get her sister back? Wait she didn’t have the power anymore to change her back. If they fought she might end up harming her sister instead of helping her. Mabey diplomacy was the answer. She opened her wings as large as they could go in an effort to look more regal and awe inspiring.
When she reached the hill she saw three figures. Two had dark coats one was pure black and the other shades of dark blue. The other figure had a golden coat. The pure black mare was lying still at around halfway down the hill while the other two were at the top. As she neared the dark blue mare helped the golden mare up and after a pause they started to walk down the hill.
“Sister… Light…,” Shadow yell whispered into Lights ear, “We need to get up now,” and then she stood up giving Light full view of the mare approaching. Light, for good reason, started to panic, but she had the presence of mind to do it silently. She seemed to be frozen so Shadow grabbed Lights wing claw with hers and pulled her up off of the soft, wet grass. “Light we have to protect our queen. Remember that is our job. That is one of the reasons why we left the clan. Don’t lose your mind yet we need to get to Nightmare Moon, our queen, and protect her. Stay calm we can do this,” I told Light hoping to calm her down, and it seemed to work at first.
“Um…but…the last time we fought her we were…banished…to the moon. I just…don’t…can’t go back. Please…I don’t want to go back,” Light said on the verge of complete panic and mental breakdown, “And…and what if she wants me to talk!?” by this point Shadow didn’t care and used her wing to grab Lights as she rolled her eyes. Then Shadow started to pull Light down the hill. They stopped right below Nightmare Moon, their queen's, unconscious form.
They met in the middle of the hill. The white alicorn princess stood there looking all regal and the two half dragons looked terrified. Shadow at least tried to look fierce and protective as her wings were spread open as well, but whether to block or to take flight no one could tell. While Light was hiding behind her sister like she could protect her from anything that might happen
“Um, you are Celestia, right?” Shadow asked sounding uncertain as the alicorn's appearance had changed over a thousand years. “And…um…are you going to…attack us?”
“Please don’t send us back to the moon it’s so cold,” Light blurted peeking out from behind her sister for only a moment before darting back to her hiding place. 
Celestia looked shocked, but at Light’s statement or action they couldn’t tell. Shadow was shocked as well and turned around to look at her cowering sister. She though was shocked because Light had spoken, sure they already knew Celestia, but still, her sister was so shy that even after a thousand years with her, she still had difficulty speaking to Nightmare Moon.
“Yes I am Celestia and unless you give me reason to or attack me first I won’t attack you,” after hearing that the elder sister relaxed a little, “So little one I won’t send you back to the moon,” Celestia said in a warm and tender, almost motherly tone. “So why don’t we all sit down so we are more comfortable for the talk we will have.”
“Um ok sure,” Shadow said while sitting down, still with herself between the two alicorns. Light silently sat down still trying to hide behind her elder sister.
“Oh my aching, wait, Shadow, Light, where are you are you ok!?” at the sound of the new voice all three of the just seated figures jumped up. Light and Shadow ran over to the owner of the voice, Nightmare Moon. Celestia though just stared at the three mares with an unreadable expression. 
Light ran over prepping both a medical diagnostic spell and a mana recharge spell and Shadow ran over prepping a high level shielding spell and a low level sun shield at the same time and she cast them both around Nightmare Moon at the same time her sister cast her healing magic on Nightmare.
“You can open your eyes now with no pain. I cast a sun shield on them so you can see through the harsh light,” Shadow said, radiating calm even though just a moment ago she had been terrified and unsure.
“Nightmare Moon, what are your plans now that you have returned?” asked Celestia after she had walked closer to Nightmare Moon. When it became clear that her queen was in no imminent danger Shadow let go of her shielding spell.
“Well I want to be separated from Luna if I can, and if it is at all possible I would like my own body, one that I don’t have to take from another pony, and if I can then I will try to live out my life in peace. If I can’t or if I don’t survive being separated from Luna then can you ensure that Shadow and Light get peaceful new lives and a new start. That or they can rejoin their mother and her clan if you can find them. I assure you that I have no plans to throw the world into eternal night nor do I want to take over Equestria,” Nightmare Moon said while trying to stand up. Shadow tried to help her but Nightmare wouldn’t let her. 
They waited until Nightmare was standing. She was as tall as Celestia and Shadow was just a little shorter than them, Light was the shortest but still a good ear taller than a tall stallion. “Well that gives me a bit of relief that you aren’t here to take over, but, and I am so very sorry about this, I no longer am connected to the elements so I can’t separate you and Luna. I am afraid that there is nothing I can do to help you or to get my sister back,” Celestia said sadly to a very crestfallen Nightmare.
“If you aren’t connected to the elements anymore then what about the new bearers. Surely they could and would help,” Shadow said reigniting the hope in Nightmare and the guilt in Celestia.
“There are no new bearers and there haven’t been any since I lost my connection to them,” Celestia said sadly but with a little more hope she said, “But I have reason to believe that all six of the new bearers could be in this town,” and with a little sadness she continued to say, “But they likely have only just met and need to connect to each other and their element. They also need to find the elements. They are still in the old castle that I shared with my sister before you took her over.”
After hearing all that no one spoke for a long time. Shadow was the first to speak. “What if we pretend to attack and thus prompt the six that you believe to be the next bearers to find their elements. Nothing causes ponies to connect faster than conflict. We wouldn’t hurt them but we will oppose them and get them to use the elements on Nightmare Moon. You would need to cooperate and help us though. If you could come with us invisibly and pretend to be missing it would be very helpful and if you feel that we are going to hurt your ponies then you can stop helping us and do what you want.”
Everyone was stunned. Shadow had a plan already and it was a good plan at that. “Well that seems…agreeable, it would help all of us and it might even work. What do you think Celestia? Does that work for you?” Nightmare asked hoping that she would agree to help them.
“Yes, but how will you threaten them without injuring any of the ponies of this town?”
“Well…we, um…well you see, we, um drained most of our magic getting here so we, um can’t use very much magic, um really only illusions and telekinesis and, um my sister's and my fire, but only in really small amounts and it, um wouldn’t be hot enough to burn or even injure so we um, can’t hurt anypony,” Light said quietly while still hiding behind her sister.
“Well in that case I shall go along with your plan and if we want to do it we need to leave,” Celestia said as a bright glow from her horn enveloped them all in a golden sphere of light.

When the sphere of light was gone, they were in a new location. They had been teleported to the town hall of the small town that they were in. They arrived just in time to hear the mayor start her speech. This gave them time for Celestia to cast an invisibility spell on herself giving the three their first sight of modern magic. The teleportation spell was too fast for them to see any difference in the magic of the present from the magic of the past. They also had enough time to learn what they were called now. Half dragon ponies were called Dragonish and Nightmare Moon was called the mare in the moon. They also learned that the last known dragon clan had disappeared around five hundred years ago and the dragonish disappeared three hundred years before them. The twin dragonish were shocked by both of these as they came from a dragon clan that had more than ten other dragonish. They had a hard time believing either of these things.
They had an invisibility spell quickly cast on them when the guards came storming by looking for their princess. The mayor’s speech had ended and the princess was supposed to come out at that point. After the search had been conducted they, still invisible, walked out on to the stage. 
“She’s gone,” a white unicorn with a curled purple mane.
Nightmare let her ethereal mane billow around their feet. This let her mane become visible. They heard the ponies below, as the stage was on an indoor balcony, start to gasp in shock as they saw the mane. Celestia let the invisibility spell on them drop, letting all the ponies see them. Celestia, though, was still invisible.
“What did you do with the princess,” a light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail yelled and tried to take off in order to attack her but an orange earth pony with a yellow mane and tail held her back.
“Act maniacal,” Shadow whispered to Nightmare, “And you look confident,” she said to Light.
“Ok,” Nightmare whispered back. Then she let out an evil laugh, “Why do I no longer count as a princess, do I no longer have a crown that counts,” she said loudly while trying to look evil. “Do you even know or care who I am.” This she said more seriously.
“OOH I love guessing games, Black Smoky, Queen Meany, um,” said a pink earth pony with one of the puffiest manes they had ever seen, and it was pink as well. That was all she was able to say before the orange earth pony stuffed a cupcake in her mouth. The pink pony tried to speak afterwards but only murmurs came out.
“Does my title no longer count after being imprisoned for a thousand years,” Nightmare continued heedless of the interruption. She had turned towards a soft yellow pegasus with a long pink mane and tail. She turned away terrified.“Did no one take notice of the signs of our impending escape,” she said turning to the white unicorn on stage with them. She used her ethereal mane to flick the unicorn on the nose.
“I did,” said a lavender unicorn with a mane and tail that was predominantly purple but with a stripe of pink and dark purple running through it, “And I know who you are. You’re the mare in the moon, Nightmare Moon.”
“Oh the little unicorn remembers you, she must think that she’s so smart, but does she know who or what we are,” said Shadow loudly, mocking the purple unicorn and drawing attention to her sister and herself. As she said this she opened her wings in order to make herself look scarier. She smiled showing off her fangs and after a little nudging Light did the same. This elicited another gasp from all the ponies gathered. Shadow then raised her tail and let the light in the room glint of its blade. Light moved her tail but she didn’t bring it to the crowd’s attention as her sister did.
Light, with more nudging said, “If she knows who you are then she likely knows why we’re here,” with a bit more nudging she continued her sister’s original taunt, “even if the little unicorn doesn’t know who or what we are.”
Every eye in the room turned to the purple unicorn. “You’re here to…to…”
Nightmare let out another evil laugh. “Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last, because from this point on night will last forever,” after she said that all three of them burst out laughing evilly. Nightmare had her mane spiraled up and had the illusion of lightning crackling out of it.

> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	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.

> Chapter Four
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It had been a quiet few weeks after the summer sun celebration. Shadow Shielder was lying on a cloud overlooking Ponyville. Both she and her sister had found jobs. Light was working at the veterinary hospital, as well as working part time at the local doctor’s office and hospital. She was one of the best healers Shadow had known so this was perfect for her. Shadow was working at a local café. She had always loved to cook and she might have followed that as a career if that event hadn’t happened. As they now both had jobs they had started looking for their own place to live. She couldn’t in good conscience keep imposing upon Twilight to both teach her and provide her with a place to stay. She assumed her sister felt the same about her host, Fluttershy. She, though, could at least help provide care for the animals.
Today was her day off of work at the café. She had found a way to integrate her combat specialialized magic, as well as her natural abilities that came from being half dragon, into cooking. She was relaxing on the cloud because she lacked anything else to do. She wasn’t familiar enough with the forms of entertainment in this time, and she had never had the best understanding of the culture of regular ponies, both a thousand years ago and now. Partially because she and her sister had grown up with dragons and a group of ponies that had fled their land long before even her mother, who was a dragon, was hatched. 
It didn’t help that very few ponies in town trusted her. She was the mastermind behind their supposed invasion after all. It didn’t help that she was half dragon either. Her sister was more trusted, but she was to kind to hurt anything. She was a healer also so she already had a little status from that. So Shadow sat on the cloud watching.
She saw a lot of pegusi flying back and forth all at different speeds going in all different directions. Among them she saw a streak of rainbow. It belonged to Rainbow Dash who was the most distrustful of Shadow, if not the most vocal. If she was honest it was insane to let her live in this small town. She had formulated a plan in order to take over, and it shouldn’t matter how many alicorns come to your defense for it being a fake plan. Whoever does that should be put in prison, banned, or at the very least given a guard not be allowed to go free. Shadow rested her head upon the cloud and closed her eyes with the intent to take a nap. She wanted a quick nap as she had nothing beter to do. That and she liked naps.
“Hay.”… “Hay.”… “I know your awake so don’t ignore me,” a loud voice yelled in Shadow’s face. Shadow decided to ignore the loud annoying voice and continued to pursue her nap. “DON’T IGNORE ME!! It’s time to settle the issue and the question of who is faster,” the voice yelled.
Who is this loud person who wants to race me? Shadow opened one eye in order to see who was talking to her. There was a blue face right there.
“Yah, who, no what, no why, no,” she stammered as she jumped backwards off the cloud and stared to fly in order to stay aloft. “You scared me. Why were you that close? What do you want, and have you heard of personal space?” she said as she settled back into the cloud.
“I wanted to make sure you were awake before our race,” Rainbow said as she shrugged like it was no big deal and started flying. “Come on lets race. You said you were fast so prove it.”
“No,” said Shadow, “I won’t race you. I wanted to relax and take a nap on my day off, so I won’t race you.”
“What, why not? Oh, are you scared you will lose, are you a big scaredy cat, are you, huh, Shadow,” taunted Rainbow Dash.
“You won’t leave me alone until I agree to race you will you?” asked Shadow turning to face Rainbow.
“Nope,” Rainbow said while grinning.
“Fine. Where will we race, and when will it start?” Shadow said her head drooping in resignation.
“Why can’t we race here?” asked Rainbow tilting her head to one side.
“That is or was how races for honor, as well as for fun sometimes, were held a thousand years ago. Have the practices and customs changed that much over time that races no longer require an audience to attend in order to both witness and testify for the results. What about the judge who would be the unbiased third party in order to make sure both parties follow the rules. How much have the times changed I wonder?” Shadow asked Rainbow standing up and pacing on her cloud as she explained.
“Fine, fine, whatever, we will follow those old rules that you are used to but please stop pacing your making me dizzy. Don’t worry I will find an audience and judge and we will race at…” she paused for a few moments to think. “Oh I don’t know yet. I’ll find you and tell you later once I have everything in order. When you lose you’ll only have yourself to blame once the entire town hears about it.”
As she said that she had already started to fly away, only leaving her rainbow trail in her wake. Shadow shrugged and laying her head down on the cloud she took the nap she had originally wanted.