Nightmare Moon strode confidently into the dimly-lit hall.
Scarlet glanced quickly over at Tank, keeping her voice low. “Are we prepared for this?”
“Of course we are,” Tank muttered sardonically. “Let’s see: no weapons, no armor, no extraction plan, no radio to call for backup, nontrivial chance of death… Yeah, I’d say we’re peachy!”
Nightmare Moon flashed them a sharp-toothed grin. “Well, well… you managed to worm your way out of all the traps I set for you! I’m almost impressed… and on top of that, you went and found the Elements of Harmony for me! Now that I wield the one weapon powerful enough to defeat me, I will be unstoppable!”
Tank quirked an eyebrow, staring at Nightmare Moon quizzically. "So you just couldn't figure out how to press a switch then?"
Ignoring Tank’s comment, Twilight took a careful step forward. “Not so fast, Nightmare Moon! We’re the ones with the Elements, and we’re going to use them to stop you!”
“Oh, is that so?” Nightmare Moon raised a hoof to her face in mock contemplation. “Pray, tell me how you plan on doing that, hmm?”
“Ha! All we have to do is, uh… wait…” Twilight’s eyes went wide again as her momentary confidence made way for panic.
Scarlet turned quickly to Twilight. “Is something the matter?”
Twilight’s gaze sank to the floor. “I… don’t actually know how to use the Elements of Harmony. The book just talked about the Elements themselves, not how to wield them.”
“Oh.” Tank blinked. “So are we just dead then, or what?”
Scarlet shot him a disapproving glare.
Twilight turned back toward the Elements. “If I had more time, there might still be a way to draw out their power…”
Scarlet gave her a confident smirk. “Then let us buy you as much as we can.”
Twilight blinked. “Huh?”
Scarlet looked over at Nightmare Moon, who seemed content to watch their exchange with a bemused sneer.
Twilight gasped, covering her mouth with a hoof as the realization hit her. “Wait… no, you can’t! I don’t know how long it’ll take. By the time I’m ready, you two might be…” She trailed off, unable to finish the thought.
Scarlet shook her head. “I see no feasible alternative. Are you certain you can do this?”
Twilight hesitated, looking back over her shoulder at the Elements again. “I think…” She took a deep breath, then looked Scarlet square in the eye. “…no, I can do this. I’ve been studying magic since I was a filly; I know there’s a way, and I’ll find it.”
“Then go. We will do what we can.” Scarlet glanced at Tank, who nodded. The two then turned their full attention on Nightmare Moon as Twilight dashed past them toward the Elements.
Nightmare Moon gave a hearty chuckle, her voice booming in the enclosed hall. “You really don’t know how far out of your depth you are, do you? I am queen of the eternal night! You two are insects before me, and I’ll see you crushed like one unless you beg for mercy right here and now!”
Tank rolled his eyes, waving a hoof dismissively. “Whatever, lady. You need a minute to pick that scenery out of your teeth before we start this thing?”
“So be it!”
In an instant, Nightmare Moon lowered her head, her horn taking on a glow as a stream of white needles shot from it, aimed directly at the pair of ponies before her.
“Scatter!” yelled Scarlet as she and Tank darted in opposite directions.
Tank took off like a bullet, momentarily surprised by his own agility. His momentum carried him in a circle behind Nightmare Moon, toward whom he barreled at top speed… but before he could connect, his target spread her wings and took to the air, leaving Tank skidding across the stone floor as he scrambled to come to a stop.
“Pathetic worms!” Nightmare Moon crowed. “Your foolish belligerence will - augh!”
A gust of frigid air full of sparkling blue snowflakes courtesy of Scarlet blew past Nightmare Moon. In seconds, her wings seemed to grow heavy as ice crystals gathered upon them, and though she flapped them furiously, she found herself quickly losing altitude. Focused on her plight, she failed to notice a certain green pony speeding toward her once more as Tank’s shoulder collided with her flank, knocking her to the ground.
“Ha!” Tank sneered gleefully. “Sorry, you were saying?”
Still sprawled out on the floor, Nightmare Moon shot them a furious look. Her horn glowed a sinister purple as rings of dark energy shot from it in a beam that swept quickly across the room, knocking Scarlet and Tank over in the process.
A bead of sweat rolled down Twilight’s cheek, all the concentration she could muster focused on coaxing the Elements of Harmony into action, but thus far they seemed intent on stubbornly ignoring her. “Please…” she whispered, the light enveloping her horn growing ever brighter as her efforts compounded. “Please help us… My friends - no, our whole world is in danger… come on…!”
Once again upright, Nightmare Moon glowered at the pair as they too climbed to their feet. “Contemptible vermin… how dare you,” she spat. The purple surrounded her horn once again, this time quickly forming a ball of darkness that launched itself toward them.
“Hold fast,” Scarlet whispered to Tank, her own horn taking on a pink glow as a shield of light rose between the pair and their foe just in time to catch the shadowy orb, which dissolved into a cloud of mist on impact. Hardly a second later, however, the sound of breaking glass rang out as Nightmare Moon’s hoof came down on the shield, shattering it before them. Reflexively, the two once again scattered, circling around behind the enemy.
“Oh no you don’t!” A lavender glow overtook Nightmare Moon’s horn as a shower of tiny spiky objects poured forth from it, scattering across the floor in front of Scarlet and Tank and leaving droplets of a suspicious purple substance in the process. The two immediately halted in their tracks, quickly whirling back around to face Nightmare Moon, already bearing down on them.
“I got it!”
Twilight, beaming as the five Elements of Harmony before her shone in response to her magic, turned to face Nightmare Moon. “Your time is up! I have the power of the Elements right here in my hooves!”
Nightmare Moon did not so much as flinch. Instead, she continued glaring at Scarlet and Tank, her angry snarl curling once again into a sneer.
“I don’t think so.”
As a brown glow enveloped her horn and a toothy grin spread across her face, the entire castle began to quake violently, throwing everyone off balance and causing chunks of the ceiling to give way and plummet to the floor, crashing noisily. For several seconds, it seemed as though the whole ruin would collapse around them, but the quake soon ended as abruptly as it began.
As the dust settled, Scarlet quickly picked herself up off the floor and looked to her companion, who had not yet gotten to his feet. Ready to dash to his side, she hesitated as she spied the scattered spikes onto which he had fallen.
“Ow…” With a grunt of pain, Tank struggled for a moment to stand, but managed only to make it halfway, propping himself up on his forelegs as tiny purple spikes stuck into his side. “I think… these things are poisoned…”
Before she could ponder her next course of action, however, Scarlet’s train of thought was interrupted by a scream from the other side of the hall.
“NO!”
Where the monument to the Elements had stood only moments before, there was now a pile of rubble from the ceiling… surrounded by the shattered remains of five brilliant gemstones.
Tears welled in Twilight’s eyes as she sat on her haunches, shaking her head in disbelief. “No… no no no no, this can’t be happening…” Once again summoning the magic she had just used to draw forth the power of the Elements, Twilight’s horn gave a furious light… but it drew no response. “I was so close…”
“HAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!” Nightmare Moon’s uproarious laughter echoed in the dark hall. “It would have been nice to command the Elements myself, but that is of no consequence! With their destruction, I am unstoppable!” She grinned her toothy grin once again as she watched Scarlet help Tank climb gingerly to his feet. “I’m feeling particularly charitable today, worms. I’ll offer you one last chance - if you beg for mercy now, I just might spare your lives.”
Twilight marched slowly to Scarlet’s side, her head hung low in defeat. “I guess we have no choice now,” she muttered. “She’s right… with the Elements gone, there’s no way we can beat her.”
“No,” declared Scarlet.
Twilight blinked. “Huh?”
Holding Tank’s foreleg over her shoulders to keep him supported, Scarlet shook her head. “So long as we still draw breath, this fight is not over. There is always another way.”
“But…” Twilight stared incredulously at Scarlet, too confused to rebut. The next thing she knew, however, the sound of several sets of hooves came thundering down the stairs. In seconds, six familiar ponies burst from the doorway and fixed their attention on Nightmare Moon. Waterwing however, spotting the injured Tank, shifted gears and quickly flew to his side, taking Scarlet’s place in holding him upright.
In spite of his heavy breathing, Tank chuckled to himself. “Heh… took you long enough…”
“Hold it right there!” Rainbow Dash seemed to have found her second wind. “If you want to hurt our friends, you’ll have to go through us first!”
Rarity brushed her hair away from her face before giving Nightmare Moon a furious glare. “Get away from them, you brute! You’re a scoundrel of the worst sort!”
Pinkie Pie stomped her hoof angrily. “Yeah! What they said, you meanie!”
A smile slowly returned to Twilight’s face, the gloom in her heart soon replaced with joy at the sight of her friends. As if by magic, she realized she’d known the answer from the beginning; it had traveled with her the whole way through the forest, after all.
“You missed something, Nightmare Moon. The Elements of Harmony can’t truly be destroyed so long as they live on in our hearts, and we have all five accounted for right here.”
Nightmare Moon recoiled, looking strangely apprehensive. “W-What rubbish is this?”
Twilight beamed as she rattled off her explanation. “Applejack reassuring me that my friends would protect me… Fluttershy gently calming the angry manticore… Pinkie Pie laughing in the face of darkness… Rarity selflessly offering her tail to the serpent… and Rainbow Dash putting her friends before her aspirations. Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, and Loyalty.” As she spoke, five golden necklaces appeared on the collars of each of the aforementioned companions, set with shining gemstones in brilliant shades of orange, pink, sky blue, purple, and red in sequence.
“Hey, cool!” Pinkie poked at hers with her hoof.
“What.” Nightmare Moon stared blankly.
“But,” Twilight continued, “there’s still a missing piece. One more element that ties the rest together, just as it binds us all: the element of friendship itself, better known by a different name… because, as we all know…” She allowed herself a particularly satisfied smirk. “Friendship… is Magic.”
A golden tiara materialized atop Twilight’s head, sporting a magenta gemstone in the shape of a six-pointed star.
Tank rolled his eyes. “I know this is like… us about to win and all, but… that speech was so cheesy… we could melt it and hold a fondue party.”
“Oh!” Struck by a sudden thought, Twilight turned toward Scarlet and her companions. “As for you three… we would never have gotten this far without your help either. Tank Buster standing up to danger and fear as the rest of us cowered helplessly… Waterwing flying to Rainbow’s aid when she needed it most… and Scarlet Starbeam stopping me from giving in to despair not once, but twice. I can see the same light of harmony in your hearts as theirs, and I have no doubt you three represent new Elements we’ve never even seen before.” With that, three more golden necklaces appeared adorning the three companions, their empty settings awaiting discovery of the Elements that belonged there.
Waterwing blinked, glancing curiously back and forth between her necklace and the ones worn by her comrades.
“But that’s a mystery for another day,” declared Twilight. “First, we’ve got a score to settle.”
Nightmare Moon stared at the ponies before her incredulously. “But that’s… I don’t… you can’t just…” Try as she might, incoherent sputtering was all she could manage.
The five original Elements began glowing brightly, each shining beams of colored light that converged on the Element of Magic, combining into a single beam of brilliant rainbow aimed directly at Nightmare Moon.
“NOOOOOOOO!” Nightmare Moon flailed helplessly as the magic of the Elements lifted her into the air and enveloped her, and soon the rest of the hall, in a brilliant flash of light.