//------------------------------// // Chapter 19: Kindness and Magic vs Chaos // Story: The Dark Knight Falls // by TheClownPrinceofCrime //------------------------------// Nightmare Moon and Twilight glared at each other while standing on a large platform while the Mane 4 anxiously beheld them from below. The dark alicorn grinned as she ignited her horn. “Let’s see how the mighty Element of Magic fares against me, the Princess of the Night!” she boasted. “We defeated you before, and we shall defeat you again, Nightmare!” Twilight defied. “The Magic of Friendship never failed us, and it will never fail us so long as we bravely stand up against notorious villains like you!” “Haha! We shall see about that, Twilight Sparkle! Only this time, it will be just you and me—no help, no assistance, no cheating!” Nightmare said, activating her force field from her horn. It surrounded the duo and the platform which prevented Twilight’s friends from reaching her. “No!” Twilight gasped. “You can’t do this! Without my friends, I’ll never be able to defeat you!” “How pathetic! Relying on your worthless friends to have strength instead of building your own...pitiful.” Nightmare taunted. “They are NOT worthless! They are the source of my strength! Without their encouragement, love, and friendship, I wouldn’t be the pony I am now, and I still wouldn’t understand the Magic of Friendship!” Twilight argued, tears forming on her eyes. “ENOUGH!! You have one choice: you either fight me to the death, or your friends...including Fluttershy...all die!” Nightmare angrily threatened. The other hyenas appeared in a white flash and surrounded the Mane Four while licking their chops. The four ponies stuck closer to each other as they fearfully beheld their hungry predators. “Those hyenas look reaaallly hungry!” Pinkie said. “No kidding, Pinkie! We gotta fight!” Rainbow said. “We can’t! There’s too many of them!” Rarity said, backing away from two hyenas. Applejack began to think of something that would give them an advantage. She looked at a ham covered in honey on Nightmare’s dinner table. “Hmm, that’s weird. Who puts honey on a ham? That doesn’t sound like something Nightmare Moon would do.” she reasoned. Then she hatched an idea. “Girls, I’ve got an idea!” Applejack said. Nightmare Moon fired her first beam at Twilight. The latter generated a shield to deflect the blast and fired her shot at her. Nightmare flew to the air before firing more blasts at her; however, Twilight ran in circles to avoid the beams while carefully firing her own. Nightmare effortlessly swatted them off with her glowing horn. She fired a bigger blast toward Twilight which sent her flying to a wall. She crashed against it and fell on the ground. She started to grunt in pain. “Ha-ha! Where is your Magic of Friendship now, foal? It doesn't seem very powerful to me.” Nightmare taunted. Twilight got up on her hooves while defiantly glaring at the evil alicorn. “There is more to the Magic of Friendship than meets the eye. Its truths are of a nature which you refuse to understand unlike how Luna understood them.” Twilight lectured. “DO NOT MENTION HER NAME IN MY PRESENCE!! She’s dead, and so shall all of you!!!” Nightmare screamed before blasting at Twilight. Twilight dodged the blasts until she fired her beam at Nightmare. The latter was hit on the left leg; as she was yelling in pain, Twilight kicked her face so hard the latter flung against the wall. Nightmare saw her mouth bleeding from the hard kick. Then she clenched her bloodied teeth in anger while charging her horn with lethal magic. “You want to play rough, then play rough it IS!!” Nightmare raged. She rammed into Twilight, causing them to tackle each other on the floor for dominance. IN THE HYENA DEN Fluttershy backed up against the wall as a clan of spotted hyenas closed in on her. They evilly cackled while licking their chops at her. “Please...h-have mercy!” she begged. “Awww, how cute! A weak little pegasus helplessly begging for mercy...that makes the meal more delicious!!” a male hyena sadistically stated. “Yeah! Let’s tear apart her! I’ll go for the rib cage!” another male added. “What?! I said I was going for the ribs, not you! Do you have hearing problems?!” a third male argued. “No, no, no, you go for the pelvis. Those ribs belong to me!” a fourth said. All the hyenas then began to argue with each other; some of them even started to physically fight each other. Fluttershy beheld their lack of harmony with teardrops flowing. She hated to see animals fighting each other for whatever reason or excuse they have. She had more fear for the lives of the hyenas than she was for her own life. “This is so terrible! Why do these animals have to be so mean with each other? It’s just like what our friends of Canterlot and Ponyville had done. It’s—it’s causing chaos!!” Fluttershy lamented in thought. Fluttershy stood up and faced the bickering hyenas with a glare. “ENOUGH!!!!” she spoke authoritatively. The hyenas immediately stopped their violent argument and looked at her. “Listen to me, hyenas! I know that you are predators by nature, but there is no excuse for you to be fighting with each other like this, especially hurting innocent creatures!! You should all be caring, thoughtful, respectful, and loving hyenas like family...like friends!” she sternly rebuked. Most of the hyenas were baffled at her display of authority and wisdom. They listened attentively to what she said. “How would you like it if other creatures that are not hyenas surrounded one of your own and threatened to eat him alive? Hmm?” she asked. “We—we wouldn’t like it. That would...r-rip us apart.” one of them admitted. “Exactly. All of you are to treat each other with kindness like family and friends so that you will be stronger together and set an example for your kids.” Fluttershy advised, looking at their whimpering cubs. The hyenas then sympathetically looked at each other before warmly smiling at Fluttershy. “Forgive us, young lady. We are truly sorry for scaring you like that.” the matriarch spoke. “I forgive you all.” Fluttershy smiled. The hyenas then affectionately licked her face and nuzzled her. Suddenly, Fluttershy began to glow brightly. “Wha-What’s happening to me?” she said. The hyenas began to fade away to nothingness. Her bright light illuminated the whole den until the darkness was shut out. She was then taken away from the den. IN THE THRONE ROOM “That was a great idea, Applejack! You sure fed those hyenas with a...weird meal combination.” Rainbow complemented as she looked at them feasting on the honey-covered ham. “I agree with Rainbow Dash. Why would Nightmare Moon put honey on a ham? That’s quite disgusting if you ask me.” Rarity concurred. Pinkie watched Twilight and Nightmare still fiercely battling each other on the platform. She noticed the platform looked similar to a wrestling match platform. “Annndddd Moony is fighting Twilight on a wrestling match platform. Never thought she would summon something like that.” she added. “Yeah, Pinkie, that is also...very strange.” Applejack agreed. “Unless...” She saw herself suddenly glowing—from her cutie mark all the way to her hat. “Hey! What’s goin’ on?!” she said. “I don’t know! I’m glowing too!” Rainbow replied. “Sweet Celestia! I think...I think we are...” Rarity said, the realization reaching her. “IT’S THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!!” Pinkie finished. Her element appeared around her neck; likewise with Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. Fluttershy appeared in a white flash and rejoined her friends. She too had her element around her neck. The Mane Five hovered in the air while the magical brightness lightened the room. Nightmare punched Twilight three times on the cheeks, kicked her stomach twice, head-butted her, and body-slammed her four times on the floor. “You’re a pathetic weakling, Twilight Sparkle!! YOU. (punch) ARE. (punch) NOTHING!! (uppercut)” she vehemently assaulted. Twilight landed hard on the ground. She barely moved due to her severe injures. She weakly opened her eyes and saw Nightmare Moon smiling wickedly at her. She could only tilt her head up to see what her winning opponent would do next. “It appears that chaos will triumph after all. Think of all the failures you wrought in your pathetic life that not only destroyed you but also your friends. Not even the Batman will save you, Twilight.” Nightmare condescended. She ignited her horn for a final blow. “Fear not, foal. I’ll take good care of your friends...especially Fluttershy.” “No...” Twilight weakly protested. “Why Fluttershy? What does she have that Nightmare Moon sees?” she wondered. Just as the alicorn raised her horn to kill Twilight, the rainbow beams penetrated through the force field and levitated Twilight in the air. “What?! What’s the meaning of this?!” Nightmare shrieked. Twilight’s wounds were miraculously healed by the rainbow magic. Twilight then saw her friends being covered by the Magic of Friendship. Seeing her best friends united once more, she bravely faced Nightmare. “You may strike us down, and we may fall. But once we’re united in friendship, no evil force can separate us or destroy us; for we carry the most powerful magic of all...the Magic of Friendship!!” Twilight declared. “NOOO!!!” Nightmare cried. Twilight then shot a fully powered beam of magic at her. She was immensely struck by the blast and flung against the wall. The force field dissipated after she crashed on it. Twilight drew near to see what was become of her. But when the smoke cleared, Twilight gasped in shock. The defeated figure was no longer Nightmare Moon...it was Discord. “Discord?! That was you?!” Twilight asked. Her friends, except Applejack, were also shocked as they realized too late that Discord was Nightmare Moon. “Yep! I definitely saw that coming!” Applejack said, smirking. “Hmm, I guess that explains the ham and wrestler situation.” Rarity shrugged. Discord stood up with full rage and vengeance in his blood-thirsty eyes. “I HAVE HAD WITH YOU PONIES!!! YOU ARE ALL MINE!!” he angrily bellowed. He raised his paw and claw hands with chaos magic and shot his lethal beam at Twilight. “Girls, now!!” Twilight ordered. She dodged the blast and flew down to reunite with her friends. Her element crown appeared on her head before they once again shined brightly to Discord’s pure terror. “No! No!! Stop! Can we just talk this over?!” he pleaded. Fluttershy then fiercely glared at him before whispering her idea to her friends. They looked uncertain at first until they immediately agreed and turned back to Doscord. He, however, overheard her idea and shook in total fear. “Fluttershy, PLEASE!! Don’t! Aren’t we the best of friends? You know, best buddies? Right?” he smiled sheepishly. Still, neither she nor the others said a word to him except dark glares. He then sweated nervously. “You cannot do this to me! Please! I beg of you! I won’t spread chaos again, I promise!” Discord begged. Without hesitation, they emitted a rainbow wave directly at Discord. He screamed in agonizing pain as his flesh was once again turned back to stone. But it did not stop there. His stone form then slowly peeled off which revealed his skeleton; all of his chaos magic disappeared, never more to exist. His remaining flesh was devoured by the hyenas before they faded away. All that remained of Discord were his separated body parts...until they disappeared as well. The Mane Six escaped the mirror dimension before it exploded. They settled back on the thundercloud while still having somber looks. “Fluttershy, are you okay? Do you feel better now?” Twilight asked, being concerned. Fluttershy was silent for a few seconds before shaking her head. “I’m quite surprised you had that unorthodox idea in your head. Luna told us to destroy him...but not like that. Why did you suggest that? Was it...revenge for what he did?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy gave no answer; she only looked down on the ground, sobbing. “(Sigh) I’m sorry, Fluttershy. At least, he’s gone forever. We now have to deal with—huh?” Twilight noticed Batman, the princesses, Shining Armor, and Spike were absent. She also noticed a second mirror floating to their right. A dreadful thought came to her. “Are you girls thinking what I’m thinking?” Twilight asked. “Mmm-Hmmm!” they, except Fluttershy, replied. “If Bruce fails whatever The Joker has for him, Equestria is doomed.” Twilight shuddered.