//------------------------------// // Line 7 - "And From The Night She Shall Come..." Part 2 // Story: Anthology // by Timeless Lord Slayer //------------------------------// Anger fills the air of the once gentle night. Sorrow is briefly flashed on the moon's surface, as if it were a face capable of expression. A dark cloud swirls overhead in the dimly lit sky. Stars shine and twinkle in tune to an old lullaby, sung with mocking hatred. Six mares stand before an ebony pillar of pain and anguish. A man and a woman step up and stand with them. The fight for light of day ensues. Nightmare Moon cackled once more as she looked down at the ponies beneath her. Qudirk and Abrina both watched as she surveyed and talked to those below her like she had already won. Soon enough three Pegasus Guards rushed her, aiming to arrest her, but they were struck down with magical lightning while the black mare cackled once more. Abrina turned to Qudirk. "Q, we gotta do something!" she whispered to him urgently. He shook his head. "No, we have to let things run their natural course. We should only step in if something that isn't supposed to happen comes to pass," he replied. "But what if she kills all those ponies? Or brings eternal night?!" Abrina pressed. "She won't," was his simple answer. "How do you know that?" Abrina asked, eyes narrowed. "Because I watched the show. The most she'll do is zip out of the building and trail along Twilight and her new friends," Qudirk responded easily. "But-!" Abrina started, but he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Abby, trust me, if anything does happen, we'll step in and stop it. I promise. I won't stand by and let them get hurt, but in this case this all needs to happen. You simply need to trust me," he promised softly, smiling gently at her. Abrina looked into his green eyes, searching for any hint of dishonesty, and finding nothing, slumped a bit. "...Okay, fine." she looked up at him, steel in her cherry red eyes. "But if anything happens to them, I'm telling Celestia it was your fault." Qudirk chuckled. "Wouldn't have it any other way," he replied, patting her shoulder, before looking back to the window to see Nightmare turn into a cloud of sparkling blue mist and zoom out of the town hall, followed by the cyan mare and Twilight. His gaze steeled at this. "Come on, let's follow them," he said, slowly floating up with the help of his enchanted necklace. Abrina nodded and did the same, using her ki to propel herself upwards. The two then tagged along a safe distance behind Twilight and the other mares, keeping a watchful eye out for anything out of the ordinary. After reaching the tree house and watching as the blue mist that was Nightmare Moon zoom off towards the woods, the duo were soon at the Everfree forest themselves, hiding in the trees near the entrance and waiting for Twilight and the five other mares to appear. Soon enough they did, and soon enough they all slowly trotted inside. Abrina and Qudirk followed them from the shadows of the foliage and trees, and just when the girls started to talk, Qudirk and Abrina heard the clopping of hooves behind them. Qudirk whirled around, drawing his blade quickly and pointing it at whoever was behind them, Abrina did much the same. To their surprise, they saw Nightmare Moon there, smirking a fang-filled smirk at them. "So, it seems there are other players in this game..." she started, taking a step forward. "Ones who seem to be eyeing those fools..." She took another step forward, "Are you protecting them? Or do you wish to join me and crush them?" It was a question but at the same time a warning, made all the more obvious by the evil glint in the mare's slitted cyan eyes. Abrina leaned towards Qudirk. "This is bad..." She whispered. He nodded. "We'll need to keep her busy. We can't have her getting to the others," he told her, before looking back to the black alicorn mare. "We're protecting them. And I'd suggest you back off, before you get hurt." He warned. The alicorn let out a chortle. "Oh, such bravado!" Her smirk turned feral. "It's too bad it will all go out the window soon. You could have been the first to join me..." She sighed and shook her head. "Very well. If a fight is what you want, a fight is what you shall have." Her horn lit up a ghostly blue, and a focused beam of magic shot out towards Qudirk. He blocked it with the flat of his blade, sending the blast into a tree and scorching the bark. "Hmm, seems you're a cut above the rest, creature." The alicorn noted, looking briefly to the trunk of the tree. She turned back to the duo. "It's too bad you chose to oppose me. You could have been a great officer in my armies." She shook her head once more, as if shaking the very idea off." Well, enough of that." She regained her smirk. "Let's continue." She zoomed towards Qudirk, aiming to impale him with her horn. "Not today, Moony!" Abrina cried, speeding out to meet the mare and uppercutting her, sending her flying upwards. The mare cried out in pain and stopped herself with her wings, flapping them to stay afloat. Nightmare spat to the side after stopping herself, glaring at Abrina. "How annoying you are." Her horn glowed once more. "Begone, pest!" She shouted, firing a large beam towards Abrina. Abrina deftly dodged it, only to yelp when the beam split into smaller beams, all of them homing in on her. She rolled and dashed between the beams, but many of them were still after her. "Abrina! Block with your sword!" Qudirk cried, in an intense duel with Nightmare Moon, who had summoned a blade to use against him. "Wh-!" Abrina dodged another beam, only for it to circle around and try to hit her again. "Why?!" she managed to say. "Just do it!" he urged her, parrying blow after blow from the Nightmare, gritting his teeth from each heavy blow. Abrina swiftly moved her blade in front of her like Qudirk had taught her to all those years ago, closed her eyes, whispered a prayer, and then tried to block the beams coming at her. She felt the impact of the beams against her blade, felt the heat of the magical energy, but nothing afterwards. Opening her eyes, she saw her blade now glowing a faint, luminescent blue. "Whoa..." she breathed, staring at the blade in amazement. "Abrina!" came Qudirk's call, snapping her back into reality. "I'm coming!" she replied, rushing over to help. Nightmare Moon growled when Abrina came close, swiftly turning into mist and reappearing a few hundred feet away to avoid the swipe of both the Majin's blade and Qudirk's. She was shaking with anger. "You insolent, scum-sucking beasts...!" She summoned an array of sleek black lances. "Die, you fools!" She then launched them. Qudirk and Abrina rolled to opposite sides and ran around the clearing as the lances continued to come at them. "Die! Die die die!" Qudirk grunted as a few lances managed to nick him and give him shallow cuts, but he pressed on, continuing to run and dodge to the best of his ability. Qudirk then rolled through a volley of lances, Abrina simply knocking them all aside with waves of ki, before the two rushed the dark mare, Abrina lashing out with a high kick to the chest to knock her back, and Qudirk uppercutting her with the pommel of his blade. Nightmare stumbled back, now sporting a bleeding lip. "Grrr..." she growled, before her eyes widened slightly and she looked to something in the distance. Her growl then returned with full force, and she turned back to her opponents. "This isn't over, you wretches! I'll be back to carve your hides into rugs!" With that, she disappeared in a flash of light with a pop. Qudirk panted lightly as he stabbed his blade into the earth, leaning on it a bit and reaching a hand to one of his cuts. He winced, but recovered quite quickly. "At least they aren't fatal..." He muttered, before looking to Abrina. "Come on. We need to find Twilight and the others, make certain that they are safe." Abrina frowned. "Are you gonna be okay?" she asked worriedly. He nodded, waving off her concerns. "I'm fine, just some shallow cuts here and there. I'm just glad those lances weren't poisoned." She frowned more, but slowly nodded. "Alright, if you're sure." "I am," he said, standing up fully and pulling his blade free before sheathing it expertly. "Come, we have to hurry." He then lifted into the air once more and flew off. Abrina followed after him. They flew for a few dozen minutes before the man pointed to a ruin in the midst of the forest. "There, that castle!" he said, yelling over the din of the wind. Abrina nodded and the two sped up, reaching the castle in just a scarce few minutes. They found a hole in the ceiling where bright lights continued to flash, from purple to blue, and Qudirk stared at the opening for a time, thinking. 'This Nightmare Moon is stronger than the one they portrayed in the show... I can't allow her to run free, I need to stop her here, or else many more than just the new Elements will be hurt.' He thought. He looked to Abrina. "Are you ready?" He asked her. She nodded. He looked back to the hole, a frown briefly flashing on his face before his mouth went back to being a thin line. "...Then let's go." Abrina nodded again. They descended into the hole, landing on the tiled floors of a throne room, right between Twilight, her friends, and Nightmare Moon. "Mr. Q, Ms. Nicole?!" came Twilight's cry of shock. "Who?" the Elements echoed, confused. "You two..." Nightmare growled. She pawed the ground with a blue shod hoof, her horn glowing dangerously. "You pests just keep coming back up like bugs!" She growled louder, before snorting. "Well, no matter. I won't be stopped! The world will be bathed in my beautiful night! Take this!" She fired beams of concussive magic one after another at Qudirk and Abrina, the two managing to block them all, the mares behind them only watching in shock and awe. Qudirk looked back to them after batting an errant beam into the wall. "Hurry! Use the Elements!" he swatted another beam away. "We can't hold her off forever!" Abrina told them, grunting and knocking beam after beam aside. "R-right!" Twilight said with an affirmative nod, before turning to her friends. "Come on girls!" They all nodded and soon enough started to glow as they focused on the feelings within themselves. Nightmare noticed this, and roared. "No! I will not be imprisoned again!" She summoned a lance and fired it at the girls. Qudirk's eyes widened at this, seeing it headed for Twilight. "No!" he shouted, jumping in front of it. He knocked it aside with his blade, but as he did, Nightmare disappeared. "Wha-!?" he started, before he felt something impale his side and lift him up. "Gu-hack!" He coughed up blood, looking down to find Nightmare with her horn in his side, smiling devilishly at him. "Q!" Abrina cried in alarm. She rushed over and kicked Nightmare off of her friend, causing the mare to fly into a wall bodily and Qudrik to fall to the ground with a faint thud. Twilight saw this, her own eyes widening in horror. "No!!" she yelled, tears starting to form in her eyes. Eyes that soon hardened with rage as the magic of the Elements swirled around her and her friends. "You... You monster!" she roared, before the Elements powered up fully and they lifted into the air, and soon the orbs of stone turned into jeweled necklaces and clasped themselves around their respective bearer's necks, Twilight gaining a crown instead as her eyes glowed white. Soon after, a beam of prismatic magic ripped through the air and rocketed towards the groaning and prone form of Nightmare Moon, who opened her eyes just int time to see the light envelop her. "No! No no no no no!" The magic surrounded her, swallowing her in a storm of rainbows. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" she wailed. Soon, the magic faded, and all that remained was a blue alicorn mare. But the others did not worry about her, instead rushing over to Qudirk, who was bleeding profusely as Abrina cradled him. "Hold on, Q! Just hold on!" "Mr. Q!!" Twilight exclaimed. She stopped in front of the gasping man, tears flowing down her face. "H-hold on, I'll heal you!" Her horn glowed, and she tried to heal his wound. Thankfully, it worked, and the man started to breath easier as the wound closed up. "Oh thank God..." Abrina breathed, hugging him tightly. The man looked around with a soft, yet tired smile as Twilight joined in on the hug. "I was so worried..." she said, sobbing into his back. He let out a low chuckle, wincing slightly at the action, but he answered nonetheless. "Well, I'm fine now, young one," he said softly, rubbing her back. He looked to one of the stained glass windows, where the light of day was starting to rapidly grow and shine through. He patted Twilight's back. "Help me up, please. I'd like to see your teacher while on my feet, not on my rear." Abrina and Twilight let out brief giggles before carefully helping him up. He rubbed the spot where he had been pierced and grunted. "Mm, that'll be sore for a some time, I imagine..." He shook his head. "Mr. Q, you said the Princess was going to be here, but I don't see her," Twilight said, looking around for her teacher. Qudirk chuckled, pointing to the growing light outside the ruined castle's windows. "She's on her way, young Sparkle," he said, smiling as they all turned to the bright light that erupted in the room, growing quickly into the shape of Celestia. As that was happening, all the Element Bearers bowed. Celestia smiled as she looked at her subjects, while Twilight rushed over to her mentor. "Princess! I'm so glad you're okay!" "Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student," Celestia said with motherly warmth as she embraced the purple mare. After they separated, Celestia kept her smile as she looked down at Twilight. "I knew you could do it." "But you told me it was all an old pony tale," Twilight pointed out, confusion written on her face. Celestia's smile grew. "I told you you needed to make some friends, nothing more," she replied. "I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return, and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her. But you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart." "Something we've both been telling her over the years," came Qudirk's remark as he approached Celestia. "Indeed-" Celestia started, before her eyes widened as she saw the blood on her friends shirt. "-Qudirk, what happened to you?!" "Hm? Oh, nothing much, I was just impaled a little on Nightmare's horn. Your student healed me quite well, so I'm fine," he replied with an easy smile. Abrina slapped him upside the head. "Don't downplay it. The tough guy act won't work with us," she said sternly. Qudirk simply let out a short laugh. "Well, it was worth a shot," he said with a grin. Celestia frowned and sighed, hoof meeting her head. "We're going to talk about this later," she told him, shooting him a look. He shrugged. "As you wish. But should our attention not be on the younger alicorn in the room?" he said, gesturing to the blue alicorn mare lying on the floor among broken and smoking pieces of Nightmare's armor. Celestia frowned and trotted over to her. "Princess Luna." The now named Luna opened her eyes with a start as Celestia continued. "It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this." She lay herself down in front of the blue mare. "Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister." "Sister?!" whisper yelled the Elements, while Qudirk simply smiled as he looked on. Celestia continued. "Will you accept my friendship?" she asked, standing up. Luna stared into her sister's eyes for a short time, before closing them in what seemed to be conflicting emotions. Then, she opened them and rushed to her sister, embracing her as tears streamed down her face. "I'm so sorry!" she cried in a smooth yet archaic voice. "I missed you so much, big sister." Celestia let her own tears fall as she responded and returned the embrace, "I've missed you too." Qudirk smiled as he watched on, as did Abrina and the others. The following days would be hard for the returned Princess of the Night, but, at the same time, they would be some of the happiest in her life. And much was still in store for them all. Much indeed.