Twilight had been expecting the same endless void that she had thought she had escaped minutes ago as she was pulled through to the other side. However, where she and the other girls were now was not the same place as before. “What the-ahhh!”
Wherever they were now, they were now falling into what seemed to be another endless void, this one not as pleasant looking. The screaming between the girls only lasted for a few moments after they realized they weren’t hitting solid ground. “Is this…the dimension you guys were talking about?” Human Twilight asked.
“It sure didn’t look anything like this,” Applejack said. “I wonder what’s changed…”
“Well, something brought us back in, and I have a feeling I know what,” Princess Twilight replied. She then looked to Nightmare. “Can you get us out of here?”
“Normally I could,” Nightmare answered. “But something…whatever is here has a much stronger presence and it’s overcoming my attempts to open a portal.”
“What if we combined our magic?” Sunset suggested.
“Even if we did, I’m not sure if it would be enough,” Nightmare sighed. “I think we all know there’s really only one way out of here…”
“Speaking of which, I think we found our culprit,” Rainbow said, pointing below them. Their nemesis, the Cyberdemon, was slowly approaching them.
“What the…what the hell is a cyberdemon doing here!?” Sunset exclaimed.
“We can all thank Rainbow Dash for that,” Applejack said.
“Hey, if worse comes to worse, I couldn’t ask for a better way to die,” Rainbow said proudly. “But uh…I should probably point out this guy still has short and long-range weaponry and…he’s kinda hard to kill…”
“Except he’s never dealt with Equestrian magic,” Nightmare pointed out.
“Okay, this is too much!” Starlight suddenly burst out. “I’m glad we’re all capable of using magic here but I can’t!”
“Yes you can,” Princess Twilight said, putting a reassuring hand on her former student. “Just believe-”
“In the magic of friendship?” Starlight asked.
“Er…yes…” Twilight looked slightly embarrassed. Starlight sighed as she closed her eyes. Suddenly her body started to glow as her ears turned into pony ears and a tail formed behind her. “Okay…this is kinda weird…”
“Trust me, it is the first time,” Sunset said. “Probably good timing as well.”
It wasn’t long before they were face to face with the demon itself. It suddenly roared at them in rage. “Um…perhaps we can just talk this out?” Fluttershy asked.
“Oh yeah!? You don’t scare us! We’re ready to take you down you son of a bitch!” Rainbow yelled.
“Or maybe not…”
“Ooh! Is it time to pony up!?” Pinkie asked.
“Pony up?” Starlight had a deadpan look on her face.
“Just go with it dear,” Rarity said.
“I’m with Rainbow on this one,” Sunset said. “Let’s defeat this thing and get back home! Luna’s waiting for us after all…”
The rest of the girls ponied up, taking their alternate forms from before. “Oh, you guys have a new wardrobe!” Princess Twilight said. “Our Rarity would love to see pictures of your clothes!”
“Later Twilight!” Sunset said urgently.
“Right, sorry…so how do we defeat this thing?” Twilight asked.
“I’d say we blast the hell out of it with magic,” Nightmare said. She suddenly deadpanned as Pinkie started giggling at the choice of words used.
“I can go with that,” Rainbow said. “Come and get us!”
Despite their numbers, the creature’s brute strength and firepower were enough to even the odds. However, due to its large size, it wasn’t very fast which gave the Rainbooms and Co. a slight advantage. The Equestrian girls used their magic while the Rainbooms used their own powers to do damage. Rainbow was able to run circles around the beast, punching and kicking as much as she could while Applejack, with her raw strength, went for the creature’s legs, hoping to slow him down even more. Fluttershy’s power (up until now the girls weren’t quite sure what Fluttershy could other than talk to animals) suddenly became clear as large birds of prey – eagles, hawks, vultures and ospreys – appeared almost out of nowhere and they attacked the beast, pecking at its eyes and supposed weak points.
The Cyberdemon however wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing. It then fired its rocket launcher, the rocket suddenly bursting into smaller pieces to rain down on them. Luckily Rarity reacted in time and created a large shield that was able to block the bombardment.
“Ugh, we’re going to run out of energy before we’re even close to killing this thing,” Nightmare said through gritted teeth. She then looked to the three Equestrians “Alright, I have an idea, but I’m going to need the help of you three. Instead of using singular spells, we’re going to make one large spell, and not even this guy will be able to withstand it.”
“What do we need to do?” Princess Twilight asked.
“Concentrate your magic and send it straight at me.” She supposed the looks of confusion and concern was understandable. “Don’t worry, it’s not going to be like last time. I’m just going to amplify the magic combined tenfold. And then you, other Sparkle, you and your friends hit that thing with everything you got with your Elements.”
“Geodes actually but close enough,” Sunset said.
“I understand,” Human Twilight said. “We’ll keep him busy in the meantime.”
Nightmare looked towards Twilight and couldn’t help but smile at her former foe’s look of concern. “Don’t act like you never wanted to do this to me.”
“Before yes, but now…”
“If you don’t do it, we’re all as good as dead. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not letting you die yet, Princess.”
Twilight smirked slightly. “If you say so. Alright girls, hit her with every bit of magic you got.”
Sunset and Starlight didn’t hesitate as they closed their eyes and brought their hands out, the magic suddenly shooting out and enveloping around Nightmare. Twilight then joined the fray, contributing her power as well. Admittedly, Nightmare was partially right: she did take some pleasure having to blast Nightmare with magic, though she hoped it wasn’t causing her, or her host, any pain.
Nightmare, meanwhile, wasn’t feeling any pain at all. In fact, she hadn’t felt this good in a thousand years. “Now we’re talking,” she said. She was now at Nightmare Moon levels, maybe even greater. She opened her eyes, glowing bright white as she stared the beast from Hell down. “Honestly, a little while ago I’d be happy that you were so willing to kill everyone, but now you’re just a major annoyance. You’ll be seeing your friends again soon enough!” The power that suddenly rushed out of her was something Twilight hadn’t experienced since her fight with Tirek, and she was well aware of the damage it could do.
Much to her surprise, the blast had definitely done its work, leaving a gaping hole in the demon’s chest, and yet it wasn’t quite ready to depart from this realm. “Now girls!” Human Twilight yelled.
The six girls combined their magic, causing a large and quite familiar rainbow aura to surround the beast. The demon let out a single roar before it was enveloped in and shattered into thousands of little bits of light.
“Wooo nelly, now that’s what Ah’m talking about!” Applejack cheered.
“Aw yeah! We showed that guy who’s boss!” Rainbow said.
As the girls celebrated, Twilight looked over and saw that Nightmare was teetering in place before she went and caught her before she fell down. “Are you alright?” she asked.
“That…took more out of me than I imagined,” Nightmare chuckled slightly. “I’ll be okay but…I do not think I can hold onto this form much longer…and I rather her not be able to recall any of this…if she was able to see it.”
“Don’t worry, we got this,” Sunset said as her geode started to glow. The others began to glow as well as beams of light shot out of them, forming what appeared to be a portal back to their world. “Wait…could we have done that the entire time?” Pinkie asked.
“Let’s…just say our efforts weren’t in vain and leave it at that,” Fluttershy suggested.
Luna was soon relieved when she saw another portal had formed and this time it wasn’t hell-bent on sucking her in, even more so when she saw the other girls. However, her look of joy fell when she saw Nightmare was being held up by Twilight and Starlight. “What happened?” she asked.
“She pretty much used all the magic she had inside of her,” Sunset said. “She’ll be okay right?”
Luna could sense Nightmare’s stamina was waning. “She has to rid herself of this host, but if she stays out for too long in her current state she…”
Nightmare suddenly smiled. “So…after all this time and we’re finally reuniting?”
“I told you already that you’re a part of me, even if you consider yourself your own separate person,” Luna said. “But if you don’t release yourself now the girl will…”
“I know,” Nightmare said. “Out of everyone, she never deserved any of this…” She closed her eyes and suddenly, Nightmare’s true form (Sunset had seen plenty of movies that depicted how ghosts would look and this form wasn’t far off) separated from Juniper’s body. The girl returned to her original form, her glasses gone and her hair all over the place but otherwise still breathing.
Nightmare looked to Luna and the latter nodded. Nightmare then went forward and seemed to blend into Luna’s shadow.
Juniper slowly opened her eyes and groaned, noticing quickly she was being held up by two girls she didn’t recognize. “What…what happened?” she asked. “I remember I was in the storage room at the theater and after that…”
“Honestly sugarcube, you wouldn’t believe a word we said even if we told ya,” Applejack said, causing everyone else to start laughing.
After Juniper got her bearings and telling herself that ultimately she must’ve inhaled something in the storage room and passed out, she decided the best thing to do was to go home, not quite aware that she had been fired and probably wouldn’t be able to get a job at any of the other nearby theaters. As for the other girls, they could only look at the damage that had taken place.
“I uh…admit I may have gone a little overboard,” Princess Twilight said sheepishly.
Luna started laughing. “This is nothing compared to the damage I’ve caused in the past.” Her words suddenly made her frown as old memories came back to her. “Again, my past comes back to haunt me. Why do I feel like this cycle will never end?”
“Don’t say that,” Starlight said. “I mean, I can’t necessarily say I know what you’ve gone through even though I’ve done my share of bad things, but didn’t this end on a good note for once?”
“Hmm…I suppose it did,” Luna said. “I think this is me ultimately confronting my past and finally reaching a resolution. In a way, Nightmare is a lost soul and she’s not sure where to go at this point so…I hope I can help her along the way.”
“I have faith that you will,” Twilight said.
“So…perhaps we should return then?” Luna asked. “I don’t wish to keep my sister waiting any longer than necessary.”
“Oh…I guess you’re right,” Starlight said, suddenly looking disappointed.
Sunset and Twilight exchanged looks. “Starlight…if I didn’t know better, I’d say you look disappointed in leaving,” Twilight said, keeping her face neutral.
“Oh um…well I mean…this place is different…a lot different than anything I’ve ever seen and well…”
“You want to stay?” Sunset asked.
“Well…” Starlight looked to her former teacher expectantly.
Twilight feigned a dramatic sigh. “Well I suppose since you’re already here I guess it couldn’t-”
She was suddenly interrupted as the girl hugged her tightly. “Thank you, thank you!” she said. She then paused for a moment. “Actually…it probably wouldn’t hurt to get some things back in Equestria…”
Sunset chuckled. “Well don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere anytime soon…hopefully I’m right about that.”
Twilight then looked to her other friends, including her counterpart. “Sorry I had to get you guys dragged into this…especially you Twilight.”
“What are you kidding?” Human Twilight asked gleefully. “This was amazing! I actually used time magic and-!”
“Wait what!?”
“Yeah, I kind of used a spell and ended up going back in time about…107 times.”
“H-How-!?” Twilight looked as if she were about to faint.
“Oh I looked it up in the restricted section of the castle. Starlight did tell me I could take a look around the castle.”
Starlight was suddenly moving a lot closer to Luna. Twilight meanwhile looked like she was going to have an aneurysm. “Um…why do I have a bad feeling this isn’t going to end very well?” Fluttershy asked.
“Well, look at this way Fluttershy,” Rarity said. “I’m sure my magic could cancel out the Royal Canterlot Voice, as she called it.”
“STARLIGHT!”