//------------------------------// // The Elements (Part Two) // Story: The Secret Cult of Nightmare Moon // by SunnyCharm //------------------------------// "Where are the others?" Twilight asked, as she, Shining, and Nightblade raced down the tunnel. The thestral had followed, not long after Rainbow Dash, apparently wanting the faster flier to get there first. "Dad stayed behind to protect the tunnels, and Harvest Moon is in town today. Those are the only two who could help us in combat." Nightblade explained. "Right, so it's just the three of us, not counting Rainbow." The purple unicorn muttered. "Hey! I can still fight!" The blue pegasus shouted. "I can't let my friends down!" Twilight thought for a moment about who else could help. Then, she closed her eyes and focused. In a burst of magic, Trixie appeared, looking thoroughly ticked. "We have need of your pyrotechnics." Twilight explained quickly, as they headed down the halls. "What about Noteworthy? Aren't most changelings useful in combat?" "Not this one. Note's a hive communications expert." Shining explained. Moondancer, who had tagged along, found herself gasping at the mention of changelings, a creature which, until now, had only existed in mythology for her. "Pony feathers!" Twilight cursed, and they sped through the halls of the castle, picking up friends as they went. "Don't count me out, Twilight! I'm coming too!" Starlight exclaimed. "And I, darling! It's the least I could do!" Rarity added. "I'm rested and recovered now, so don't forget me, y'all!" Applejack exclaimed, as they passed her in the foyer, and she joined the band of friends. "I'm not letting you go alone, Twilight!" Twinkleshine exclaimed, and gave her friend an affectionate nuzzle. The group of ponies skidded outside, just in time to see their enemy come crashing through the trees. The monster approached, viciously roaring, as the friends prepared to attack. Moondancer kept herself and Spike under a protective shield spell. "Here, Starlight!" Rarity exclaimed, and tossed the other unicorn her diamond necklace. "Really, Rarity? With this?" Starlight asked, appearing to know what the fashionista was asking of her. With a nod from the ivory mare, Starlight split the necklace into four parts with her magic, and sharpened each large diamond into a real blade. She melted down the gold into small handles, and tossed two of the new knives to Rarity, who dove into the fray. "Hey, doofus! Over here!" Twinkleshine shouted, using her telekinesis to hurl a rock at the invading monster, to distract it, while Starlight and Rarity tried to get close enough to throw their diamond knives. Nightblade and Rainbow Dash used their pegasus magic to gather storm clouds, and summon down lightning onto their foe, while Shining Armor cast shields to protect his teammates from the vicious attacks. Meanwhile, Applejack darted beneath the monster, and bucked one of it's hind legs with a crack. "Wow! They all make a great team, like the Power Ponies!" Spike exclaimed from atop Moondancer's back. The young mage couldn't deny the fact... "Take that, invader!" Trixie shouted, hurling a smoke bomb at the manticore's eyes. Blinded, the beast turned to stampede in a random direction - right towards Moondancer! "Oh no! My shield isn't strong enough to withstand that kind of force!" The unicorn thought with despair. "I'm sorry Spike!" The killing blow never came, however, because Shining Armor threw himself in front of the stranger, shielding her with his aura, even though his horn sparked with the force of impact. "W-why!?" Moondancer stuttered, and the older unicorn turned to grimace in her direction. "You might be a no-good solar agent, but I can't just let you get squished." The guard pony explained. "I'd never forgive myself." Up until now, Twilight had been running damage control, corralling the monster away from the castle - but everyone was starting to run low on steam. Starlight and Rarity had used their knives (now stuck in the monster's coarse hide), and were fighting with magical beams. Even for such a powerful mage as Starlight though, they barely did any damage. "Twilight!" Nightblade called out, still flying circles around the manticore, trying to avoid it's stinging tail. "We need your combat magic! Without Fluttershy, we can't drive it away!" "No!" Twilight called in reply, more to herself than the bat pony. Fluttershy would be heartbroken if they maimed or killed this monster, and that's what would happen if she used her combat magic now. "C'mon, Twi! Ya' know he's telling the truth!" Applejack added. While everyone knew her as the honest apple, Nightblade had gotten a reputation around the colony as being a pony who always sought out the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it might be. Trixie started gearing up for an aura blast, and Twilight begrudgingly did the same. She aimed for the monster's forehead, while her friends held him off. 3... 2... 1... "Wait!" Fluttershy called out, right before Twilight fired off her beam. "We're back!" Pinkie exclaimed, right behind her. She was dragging along a cart. "Lookie what I brought!" Just in the nick of time, Fluttershy flew up into the air, and locked eyes with the beast, putting it into her stare. Twilight teleported over to Pinkie, and glanced inside the cart. It was... "The elements of harmony!" Twilight exclaimed, and as she spoke, the stone orbs broke apart, and in a flash of magic, six ponies rose off the ground, surrounded by white light. "Honesty!" Applejack announced, instinctively knowing the name of the necklace that settled around her throat. She had lied so terribly about the true nature of the colony, because lying simply wasn't in her nature. "Kindness!" Fluttershy smiled, but in the magic, her stare was broken, and the manticore began to stir from its hypnosis. She couldn't stand to see even the scariest creature come to harm. "Loyalty!" Rainbow Dash shouted. She was too loyal to let her friends fight alone, even though she was battered and exhausted from her breakneck warning flight, and all the supply-runs she'd made today. "Laughter!" Pinkie added, recalling all the parties, and smiles brought to the faces of her friends. "Generosity!" Rarity finished the chain, right as the manticore finally awoke, and turned back to the ponies, fully enraged. She was always willing to give of her time and resources, including the lovely necklace she'd wanted to wear for her date with Shining Armor. "It's not enough!" Twilight cried out, knowing she was missing something. Suddenly, when she thought about her friends, vulnerable and discouraged, she felt a spark within her. "Friendship!" Twilight cried out, and a sixth necklace materialized around her purple throat. That magical event set off a shockwave, and five more ponies flew into the air. Twilight knew what was happening, as it happened, even though she had never read about it, or heard about it before. Harmony itself was speaking through her. "Temperance, known by ponies now, as Patience!" Twilight called out, as Twinkleshine glowed, and a horn-guard made of gold formed around her horn. "Candor! A thirst for the Truth, even when Honesty is hard to bear!" The unicorn explained, as Nightblade gained two gilded wing-blades, And like Twinkleshine's horn-guard each were set with his cutie mark. "Through Generosity, grows Faith, belief in the goodness of ponies!" Sparkle announced, as Starlight Glimmer gained a horn-guard like Twinkleshine had, with her own bejeweled cutie mark. "Through Laughter, grows Confidence!" Was Trixie's explanation, and for some reason unknown to them all, Trixie didn't get new armor or jewelry. Instead, she got a golden circlet that fit around her wizard hat, with a wand-shaped charm on the side. "Honor! The loyalty to one's moral code!" Twilight finished, as her own brother floated into the air, and received a helmet, with his cutie mark embossed on either side. With the last element given, Twilight gained a second piece, this time, a gold tiara. It was the element of magic. Together, the eleven ponies shot a beam of light at the manticore, who disappeared without a trace, as the friends slowly hovered back to the ground. "W-we, um, we didn't kill him, did we?" Fluttershy asked in a wavering voice, as Moondancer simply watched in awe. "No. We only sent him to the other side of the forest, far away from here." Twilight replied. "I can still see the teleport residue..." "Moondancer!" Spike exclaimed. "Aren't those the artifacts you're looking for!? The elements of harmony?" "Spike, you're right!" The scholar exclaimed, then paused as she realized the implications. "The elements of harmony... The one set of relics that can banish Nightmare Moon..." "Are in the grasp of Nightmare Moon's minions..." Spike finished with a gulp, and promptly plopped to the ground, as the unicorn he was riding on, had fainted. * * * Moondancer awoke in a strange place, and instantly knew she was dreaming, because her surroundings were pitch black, but she could clearly see in front of her. And the creature in front of Moondancer was an alicorn, black as night, with a mane like blue stardust. "N-nightmare Moon?" The unicorn stuttered, praying this was just a dream, and not a magical nightmare from the queen of bad dreams. "So help me, Solar Agent. If you have harmed my student and my followers, I will make this a dream from which you never awake..." The dark alicorn spoke, eerily calm. "U-um, no, your N-nightly-ness." Moondancer stuttered. "T-they actually saved my life, just a moment ago." "Oh?" The nightmare asked, seemingly unfazed. "W-with the elements of harmony. All.." The scholar paused to count in her head. "All twelve of them." At this, the strange alicorn whipped her head around, facing the newcomer with those dangerous-looking slitted eyes. "What do you know about the elements? Last I heard, there were only six." The alicorn haughtily asked, convinced that the unicorn was lying. "There were twice that number, honestly!" Moondancer whimpered, covering her head with her hooves. When she looked up again, after the alicorn went silent, Nightmare Moon was gone. "H-hello...?" The unicorn called out, quietly. "I have just checked with my apprentice, and it appears you speak the truth, Celestial spy." Nightmare noted, reappearing behind the terrified mare. "Tell me, Moondancer - are you grateful to my subjects for saving you?" The alicorn asked, surprisingly kind, as compared to before. "Yes! They saved me, and my little brother, Spike! If not for them, we would have been squashed by a manticore!" Moondancer exclaimed. "They're the kindest, smartest, most helpful ponies I've ever met, and it's hard to reconcile that with the thought that they're working for... well..." "Me?" Nightmare Moon asked, in a voice devoid of emotion. "Do you know whyI chose this form, little pony?" "B-because you w-were jealous?" Moondancer offered. "... It still amazes me to this day, that my sister has not told the true story." The dark alicorn shook her head, before turning to Moondancer, who was still reeling over the fact that this was Celestia's sister! "Celestia once supported broad and cruel laws restricting citizenship to ponies, and she never spoke up when my thestrals were martyred, or when the ponies who loved my night (scientists and innovators, all of them) were driven into hiding. She told me then, that she didn't want to upset our subjects by finally granting equal rights to the 'scary' bat ponies or 'Lunatics' who 'went mad' from being out at night." "So, I told Celestia that if she wanted to reject the creatures of the night, she would have to reject me, as well. And I took the form I wear to this day. With fangs like changelings and dragons, with eyes that see in the dark, like bat ponies. I am not possessed by darkness, for I am the darkness." Luna finished her story. "So tell me, Solar Agent... are you truly afraid of me? Of... us?" * * * Moondancer awoke, and immediately looked around for Spike. She soon found him, on his back, looking sick. "Oh no! Spike! What did they do to you!?" She exclaimed, rushing over to her surrogate brother. "Nothing-" Spike paused, to let out a belch. "I just ate too much." "Oh! Oh, thank goodness..." Moondancer sank to the floor in relief. "Dude, there's a unicorn here who can make gems out of base elements." Spike mused dreamily. "I had so many rubies, I think I'm gonna hurl!" While her dragon waxed poetic about the gems he ate and the 'gorgeous Angel Rarity' he'd seen, Moondancer contemplated what to think about Nightmare Moon. She and Spike were in a comfortable bedroom, not a prison cell, and that said something. Her baby dragon had been fed (too much, probably), and instead of torturing her in an endless Nightmare, the black alicorn and the scholarly mare had a calm discussion. It seemed like everything she'd ever been told about Nightmare Moon and Lunatic Cults were wrong... Rising from the bed, Moondancer trotted to the door, and pulled it open with her magic. It was unlocked. Outside, in the hallway, was the orange earth pony from the farm. "Howdy there. Good to see you're awake." Applejack grinned. "Um... hello?" Moondancer offered trying to look innocent, as if she hadn't just been caught trying to escape. "I reckon you got questions." Applejack deduced. "And I reckon I got answers." * * * With Moondancer and Spike taken care of, everyone mostly went back to what they were doing before the scare. Fluttershy went back to the farm to help Big Macintosh, and Rarity returned to her workshop, to continue working on her enchanted accessories. These hoof-bands were meant to be worn by the colony members as long distance communication devices. They would also have built-in gravity localizers and location spells for travel across the moon's surface. At the touch of a gem, the hoof-band would also use the moon's ambient magic, to create a bubble of air around the pony. Of course, it was only Rarity's job to make the things fashionable. Twilight would have to make the enchantments - the white unicorn just had to take two similarly sized gems, and incorporate them into a hoofband. Easier said than done. Rarity sighed, having reached a roadblock, and turned to Shining Armor. He had been keeping her company as he read a book about military strategy. "Darling, can we talk for a moment?" Rarity asked, sitting on the cushion beside him. "Of course. What's on your mind?" Shining Armor replied, setting down his book. "Does it feel like we're putting too much stock in this... Moon idea? After all, we have the elements of harmony, plus... A few, and Celestia doesn't even have her apprentice. Shouldn't we have the upper-hoof?" "Well, I guess the simple answer is that the Princess can't predict everything. If Celestia tries to send soldiers here while Luna is still in negotiations, we'll need to either prepare for siege, or use the teleport circle to move the castle moon-side." The stallion explained his thoughts. "Secondly, Princess Luna is counting on the hope that Celestia wants to avoid an all-out war. Even though our princess has the elements, Celestia has the numbers. If any of us soldiers make a mistake on the battlefield, we might simply be overwhelmed by her soldiers. From what Twilight's told me, we aren't even sure the elements work like that, as weapons of war. There's no precedent for it." "I see..." Rarity murmured to herself, thinking it over. "And if we could use the elements for war, it would mean killing a lot of ponies who happened to fight for the other side." "Right. Although war is awful, I like to think it's permissible for righteous causes. For example, Rarity, I don't think you had any friends who were persecuted in the last Lunar Purge, but mom and Dad ended up right in the middle of it." "Really? I didn't think those happened any more in modern society!" The mare exclaimed, both curious and horrified. "Well it was on the heels of a really bad fire, so everypony wanted something to blame." Shining explained. "My parents have night-time cutie marks and names, which aren't very uncommon among certain groups of unicorns. That said, my mother was a magical researcher, and dad was an astronomer, both distrusted jobs, and one of which required being out at night." "Whatever did they do? I know your parents must have lived, because I've met them - but how did they escape?" Rarity asked, eyes wide in curiosity. "Well, as it turns out, my parents had lots of friends in Canterlot, trusted friends, who helped dispel the rumors and who stood up for them in their time of need. It also didn't hurt that mom was once in Celestia's school, and knew the Princess personally." Shining Armor explained. "The ironic thing was, mom and dad weren't Luna's followers yet. It turns out, the ponies who stood up for my parents were Harvest Moon and Starbright. The very same ponies who live here in the colony." "Oh my! How whimsical!" Rarity mused. "Saved from imminent death by friends with secret affiliations... It's just like a suspense novel!" "But, say..." The ivory mare paused. "Isn't Starbright also an astronomer? And Harvest Moon is hardly free of suspicion." "That's the irony of it," Shining chuckled. "At the time, she was still called Autumn Harvest, her birth name. Starbright may be an astronomer, but he has a white coat and purple mane, with two yellow diamonds as a cutie mark. He's basically looks exactly like a member of the Canterlot elite." "And in their frenzy for revenge, the crowd blew right past the actual Lunar devotees..." Rarity giggled. "After that, dad was sceptical. Even thought he and Starbright were old pals, he sort of half-suspected them of being the culprits for a little while, at least until the true cause of the fire was discovered: faulty wiring. Mom, on the other hand, jumped right in. She became a Lunar Cultist out of spite." "Your mother is truly a character..." Rarity laughed with abandon, and Shining knew she meant it in the best way possible. She only laughed like that when something had warmed her heart. "So anyway, what I'm saying is this: I would hate for it to go to war, but I know ponies died that night, and my parents barely escaped the violence. I would go to war, if it kept innocent ponies from suffering the same fate." "Right. And if Celestia won't let Luna retake her throne as an equal, we'll have to regroup until we have the supplies, technology, and soldiers to go to war. That'swhy we really need the moon!" Rarity grinned, having figured out the puzzle. "Exactly." Shining smirked. "Under the pretense of creating her own nation, we'll be able to easily take down Celestia's armies. She won't know what hit her." * * * "You don't strike me as a Lunar cultist." Moondancer explained. "You didn't back at the farm, and you don't now." "In the beginning, I wasn't actually on board with all this." Applejack explained. "When this other princess showed up, promising me things Celestia couldn't give, I didn't trust her." "See," Applejack continued, "All my life, my family's fought tooth and hoof for what we got, because the fools up in Canterlot who buy our produce think they don't need to pay earth ponies a good price for their goods." "I reckon Princess Luna was the first pony to ever pay a fair price for our apples and grain instead of just takin' it, or haggling so much we didn't get a fair bargain. See, Celestia takes a real laissez faire attitude towards the market. There ain't no laws sayin' that a pony deserves a fair price. The only thing fair about this system is the fact that it's fair game." Applejack noticed Moondancer staring with an exasperated deadpan. "What? You don't believe it?" The farmpony asked. "Oh no, I know all about Canterlot politics," Moondancer replied. "I'm just surprised you know what laissez faire means." "See! This right here is what I'm talkin' about!" Applejack threw her hooves up in frustration. "I'm from a different geological region, I ain't an idiot! When I was searching for my cutie mark, I got a degree from business school!" "Okay, okay, I apologize for thinking less of you." Moondancer admitted. "I have to confess, I'm sort of surprised. In common mythology, we were often told that Lunatics were all unicorns, and that they were crazy scientists and mad inventors. All of you break the mold in some way." "Oh no, we got plenty of crazy scientists here. They're just crazy in the right ways. They dream up things ya' might say could never exist, and then they make it happen." "Make it happen..." Moondancer murmured to herself. Then her eyes lit up. Then she pounced on Applejack with a crazed smile. "I wanna be a double agent!"