//------------------------------//
// The Final Confrontation 
// Story: Strength of the Night 
// by Emerald Aura 
//------------------------------//

Nightmare Moon retreated into the castle. Flashbacks streamed across her mind. So many happy memories of this place…and so many lonely ones. The castle was in ruins, now, barely recognizable. It was sad, really. Once she took over Equestria, she would restore this castle back to its former glory, and it would serve as the capitol of her empire. But more importantly, the Elements of Harmony were here, just where Celestia had left them. The stone orbs were positioned in their astrolabe, waiting and ready for somepony to take them.
Nightmare Moon couldn’t help but feel a twinge of fear upon seeing the Elements again. These Elements had banished her to the moon for a thousand years. Did they still have that kind of power? 
I should just destroy them now, she thought. I can end this. 
No, don’t! Luna thought. 
Nightmare Moon turned her attention inward towards Luna. How dare you defy me?! I’ll destroy you right here, right now! 
Wait! Luna thought, recoiling in fear. She desperately tried to think of a way to stop Nightmare Moon without making it seem like she was trying to stop Nightmare Moon. You have to let Twilight Sparkle try to attune the Sixth Element! If you destroy them now, you’ll never know if Celestia’s student was worthy or not!
I don’t care! I can’t take that risk! I will not be banished to the moon for another thousand years!
Listen, Luna thought desperately. You can still destroy them after Celestia’s student arrives, you just need to prove that she can’t attune the Sixth Element! Imagine if she fails! Celestia will have to live in her banishment with the knowledge that both Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer failed her! That knowledge will crush her! 
Nightmare Moon hesitated. Luna was right. That kind of knowledge would crush Celestia. Fine, she thought. But I will destroy those Elements if it looks like she’s going to attune them, and I’ll kill all six of them afterwards. There will be nothing left of those ponies but piles of dust. 
She could feel a twinge of fear from Luna. But Luna remained silent and retreated back into Nightmare Moon’s subconscious. 
Just in time, too. The six ponies were approaching the castle. Nightmare Moon hid in the shadows and watched. The ponies found the five Elements and laid them out on the ground. 
“There’s only five!” the pink one said. 
“Where’s the sixth?” Rainbow said. 
Twilight Sparkle answered, “The book said, ‘when the five are present, a spark will cause the Sixth Element to be revealed.’” 
“What in the hay is that supposed to mean?” the orange one said. 
“I’m not sure,” Twilight said, “but I have an idea. Stand back. I don’t know what will happen.” Her horn began to glow, and she closed her eyes and concentrated. 
The other ponies stepped back to allow Twilight some space to concentrate. As Twilight’s horn glowed, Nightmare Moon thought, Surely it couldn’t be that simple? A spark of magic? Is the answer that obvious? 
She didn’t think that was the answer. But she was starting to get nervous. She didn’t want to wait and find out, just in case she was wrong. She surged out of the darkness in her incorporeal form. She seized the Elements and swirled them around her in a vortex, keeping them out of Twilight Sparkle’s reach as she prepared to teleport.   
Twilight opened her eyes. “Ah! The Elements!” She dove into Nightmare Moon’s cloud of darkness, and Nightmare Moon teleported her and the Elements deeper into the castle. 
Good, Nightmare Moon thought. Now, I have you alone. You can’t use the Elements without your friends. Now we’ll see if you know the secret of the Sixth Element. 
When she rematerialized, she deposited Twilight on the ground and appeared before her, keeping the Elements close, suspended in the darkness of her tail and mane. Nightmare Moon laughed and flashed a bit of lightning to intimidate the unicorn. 
Twilight hoofed the ground and took a fighting pose. 
Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow. She set the Elements down and said,  “You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?”
But Twilight charged forward, horn glowing. 
With a roll of her eyes, Nightmare Moon charged forward, planning to beat this unicorn with her bare hooves. Fine. If this pony really wants to fight me, I’ll teach her a lesson, and then I’ll find out what I need to know.
But as Twilight came close, she disappeared in a flash of magic, reappearing behind Nightmare Moon. Where the Elements were. 
Nightmare Moon snarled as Twilight’s horn began to glow. I can’t let her activate the Elements. She turned into a puff of smoke and raced towards the Elements, but not before a spark of magic surged from Twilight’s horn and zapped the Elements. Electricity surged between the five Elements, and a magical shockwave sent Twilight flying back as Nightmare Moon appeared next to the Elements. 
“No, no!” Nightmare Moon cried as the Elements glowed with magic. She can’t have activated them. It’s impossible! 
A moment later, the magic sparking between the Elements went out. Nightmare Moon let out an internal sigh of relief. 
Twilight gasped. “But where’s the Sixth Element?”
Nightmare Moon let out a laugh. That was actually her plan. Celestia’s trusted student thought that could activate the Elements. I’ve seen what I needed to see. She failed. She couldn’t activate the Elements. Celestia’s student is a failure, and Celestia is a failure. There is no need to keep playing this game any longer. Nightmare Moon stomped the ground and let out a surge of magic. The stone Elements shattered beneath her power, breaking into a thousand tiny pieces. It was over. The Elements were gone. 
Both Luna and Twilight Sparkle looked on in horror. That was it. All hope was gone. The Elements were destroyed. Nightmare Moon was now unstoppable. Luna had failed. As she always did.
At this moment, Nightmare Moon caught a glimpse into Luna’s mind and saw what her plan had been. 
“You little foal!” Nightmare Moon cried, addressing both Luna and Twilight Sparkle. “Thinking you could defeat me! Now, you will never see your princess, or your sun. The night will last FOREVER!” She laughed, a pure laugh of delight, drunk on power and the image of her impending unstoppable reign. She had defeated Celestia once and for all. She would take a moment to bask in her victory before destroying Twilight Sparkle first, then Luna. 
But then she heard Twilight gasp. Twilight was no longer facing Nightmare Moon. She was facing the entrance. Nightmare Moon could hear the voices of the other five ponies coming through the door. 
Twilight turned to face Nightmare Moon. But rather than horror or dismay, Twilight’s eyes were lit by a spark of hope and determination. 
“You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that?” Twilight asked. “Well you’re wrong, because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here!” She gestured to her friends, who had just come through the door. 
At first, Nightmare Moon was tempted to laugh. Couldn’t this pony see that this was over? But then, the crystalline shards of the Elements began to levitate into the air. “What?” Nightmare Moon cried, a surge of fear going down her spine. No, no, this can’t be!
“Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt,” Twilight said, “represents the spirit of Honesty!” A flurry of glowing crystalline shards surged towards the orange pony, orbiting around her. 
Luna watched with a weird sort of thrill. The Elements were still powered! And Twilight Sparkle had figured it out. Could this really be it? Could she really access the Magic of Friendship and banish Nightmare Moon?
“Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of Kindness!” A flurry of crystals circled the yellow pony. “Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of Laughter!” Nightmare Moon watched on in horror as Twilight Sparkle put it together one by one. “Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of Generosity!” They were doing it. Celestia had been right all along; they were worthy to wield the Elements. “And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart’s desire, represents the spirit of Loyalty!” The cloud of levitating crystalline shards was now totally gone, each Element rotating around its corresponding wielder. “The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us!” Twilight said triumphantly.
This isn’t over yet. Nightmare Moon had one final hope, and Luna had one final fear. “You still don’t have the Sixth Element!” Nightmare Moon hissed. “The spark didn’t work!” 
“But it did!” Twilight Sparkle said confidently. A shiver went down Nightmare Moon’s spine. “A different kind of spark…” Twilight Sparkle turned away from Nightmare Moon and towards her pony friends. “I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me, when I realized that you are all my friends!” Twilight Sparkle turned back towards Nightmare Moon. With a flash of magic, a final stone orb appeared in the air above Twilight Sparkle’s head and descended towards her. 
Nightmare Moon’s heart raced. She did it. She attuned the Sixth Element. But it wasn’t over yet. The Twilight couldn’t use the Element if she was dead. While Twilight was busy monologuing, Nightmare Moon could send a bolt of magic right through her smug little face and reduce her to a pile of dust. Nightmare Moon moved to strike. 
But she was paralyzed. She was no longer fully in control. What is happening?! She screamed internally in a panic. 
It’s over! Luna responded. You’ve lost! 
NO! Nightmare Moon wrestled for control over her own body. For a moment, Luna and Nightmare Moon were locked in a stalemate. She was stronger than Luna! Luna was weak! She could take control back from that pathetic weakling! Right?
But Luna didn’t back down. This was it. No more hiding in the shadows. She didn’t care what Nightmare Moon did to her afterwards. She would not let Nightmare Moon kill Twilight Sparkle in cold blood. 
“You see, Nightmare Moon,” Twilight said as Nightmare Moon was paralyzed in her internal battle with Luna, “when those Elements are ignited by the spark that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the Sixth Element: the Element of Magic!”
As Nightmare Moon watched in horror, the Elements reformed, changing their appearance to match their new wielders’ cutie marks, taking the shapes of pieces of jewelry. The six ponies levitated into the air and began to glow with intense power. An all-too-familiar beam of rainbow energy rushed out of the ponies, hovering in the air for a moment before turning downwards—straight towards Nightmare Moon. 
“Nooooo!” Nightmare Moon screamed. Not again! As the beam of rainbow energy struck Nightmare Moon, time seemed to slow. She felt the Elements of Harmony touching her mind, almost like a sentient consciousness brushing up against hers. Its light shined into the deepest corners of her being, exposing her naked self to its power. 
As the rainbow energy swirled around Nightmare Moon in a vortex, the energy itself hesitated for a moment. Luna felt something look at her. Not physically, but a vast force seemed to notice her. For centuries, she had been hidden and sequestered deep within the darkness of Nightmare Moon’s mind. Now, she was exposed and in the light. Something spoke to her. A rush of information. Not words, but pure knowledge coming into her being. And in a moment, she understood. 
It didn’t have to be this way. 
She didn’t have to go back to the moon. 
The Elements of Harmony dealt with threats in whatever way worked best. Their purpose was to protect Equestria, and they did so in whatever way made the most sense. They could banish threats to the moon or to Tartarus. Or they could freeze them in stone. They could even outright destroy threats that were evil enough. 
But they could also bring her back. 
They could destroy Nightmare Moon and bring back Luna. If Luna chose it. 
You can’t get rid of me! Nightmare Moon thought. Without me, you are nothing! Without me, you are weak. Before you had me, you were but Celestia’s shadow, forever living unnoticed, outshone by her greatness! Before you had me, you were undeserving of the love, the praise, the admiration you desired! You were ugly, pathetic, whiny, worthless! You are weak, Luna, and you always will be! 
In that moment, Luna heard the voice of a memory. Celestia’s voice, of all ponies. ‘You are stronger than me,’ Celestia had said. ‘You always have been. But a pony’s magic isn’t what makes her strong. Her heart is what makes her strong. What makes you strong, Luna. You’ll remember that, before the end.’
You’re wrong, Nightmare Moon, Luna thought. I am not weak. You are weak. You are nothing but a facade. A mask. A veil. You were a crutch, Nightmare Moon. I created you, because I thought I needed you. And you lied to me, telling me that I was weak so that I wouldn’t cast you aside. But I don’t need you anymore. I am not weak. 
I. Am. STRONG.
I’m ready to come back. Elements of Harmony, I choose to be me. 
“NOOOOOO!!!” Nightmare Moon screamed. The rainbow energy swirling around her closed in. The light drove Nightmare Moon out, and Luna filled the space that was left inside her own mind. For the first time in a thousand years, it was just her. The darkness was still there, in her mind, but it was formless, nameless, and weak. She felt the imposing armor around her disintegrate, she felt her teeth turn back to normal, she felt her body shrink, she felt her mane and tail take physical form. When the rainbow energy disappeared, the facade was gone. 
Luna gasped her first breath of air in centuries. Then she collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Vast amounts of magical power had surged through her, leaving her weak and sore. Her head was pounding, and her vision was foggy. Through ringing ears, she heard the six ponies talking, doubtlessly celebrating their victory and Nightmare Moon’s defeat. 
Luna tried in vain to get her bearings. She had forgotten what it felt like to be. The ground beneath her cheek was so real. The stone was cold. Was stone always this cold? She couldn’t remember. 
Light gradually started to fill her vision. It took her a moment to realize what was happening. Light was coming in through a castle window. Yellow, warm light. Sunlight. The sun was rising. 
A surge of panic filled Luna. Celestia. Celestia is coming back. 
The light grew brighter and brighter. Sunlight coalesced in the room. Through blurry vision, Luna made out the figure of Celestia appearing before the six ponies. She looked as regal as ever, perfect white wings spread in a powerful pose, perfect mane and tail flowing and shimmering in a breeze that didn’t exist. In that moment, it crossed Luna’s mind how pathetic and weak she looked. She felt tiny, an exhausted, broken figure huddled on the ground, surrounded by the smoldering pieces of her once imposing armor. She must have looked ridiculous. Vulnerable. Scared. And weak. So very weak. 
A tear formed in Luna’s eye. I beat Nightmare Moon. But I still lost to Celestia. She beat me. Defeated me. 
Celestia seemed to be addressing the six ponies. Perhaps she hadn’t noticed Luna yet? Luna felt the sudden need to escape, to flee, to hide. She couldn’t face her sister now. She had just banished Celestia to the sun and attempted to usurp her kingdom. Nopony would ever know that she had chosen to come back, that she had chosen to fight Nightmare Moon, that she had chosen to give the bearers trials that had helped them access the powers of their Elements. Celestia’s judgement would be swift and cruel. Banishment? Imprisonment? Death? 
Luna struggled to stand. But the magic from the Elements had weakened her and exhausted her. She could do nothing more than lay there, helpless and pathetic. 
“Princess Luna,” a voice said imperiously. Her voice.
Luna gasped in terror and looked up. Celestia’s tall, commanding figure was walking towards her. Luna could do nothing but watch as Celestia towered over her.
“It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this,” Celestia said. But then, her manner changed. Her wings went down, and she knelt down on the ground next to Luna. Celestia looked Luna in the eyes. Her gaze softened, replacing the imperious, harsh gaze that she had had a moment ago. “Time to put our differences behind us,” Celestia said softly. “We were meant to rule together, little sister. Will you accept my friendship?” It came out more as a plea than anything else. 
In that moment, Luna saw Celestia. Truly saw her. She saw that Celestia was not a tyrant, or a jerk, or even a princess or a ruler. She had been all of those things, at some point in the past. But that wasn’t who Celestia truly was. Deep down, Celestia was just a pony. A pony who was trying her best to do what was right. A pony who made mistakes sometimes, and a pony who sometimes could be a bit arrogant or a bit insensitive. But deep down, Luna knew that all that Celestia wanted was for the ponies under her protection to be happy. Even Luna. 
“I’m so sorry!” Luna said, tears flowing down her cheeks. She unsteadily stood and embraced Celestia. “I missed you so much, big sister.” Moon above, had she always been so short? 
“I missed you too,” Celestia said, her voice cracking with emotion. 
The pink pony started crying as well, apparently touched by the tenderness of the scene. After a few moments, Luna and Celestia let go of their embrace. “Hey, you know what this calls for?” the pink pony said. “A party!”
The other ponies let out a cheer of approval. Celestia nodded and said, “Twilight Sparkle, why don’t you take your friends back to Ponyville and inform Mayor Mare of the situation? We’ll be right behind you.” 
Twilight Sparkle bowed deeply. “Of course, Celestia.” The ponies exited, leaving Celestia and Luna alone in the empty castle room. 
“How do you feel, Sister?” Celestia said. 
“How am I supposed to answer that?” Luna said, her head still reeling. “Happy, sad, free, defeated, thankful, embarrassed, indebted, overwhelmed. Would you like an itemized list?”
Celestia laughed. “You haven’t lost your dramatic flair, I see! Would you like a moment to sort through your thoughts?” 
Luna nodded. “Yes, that would be nice. I may actually need a very long moment. I have a lot to think about and work through.” 
“Of course,” Celestia said. “I won’t expect you to resume your royal duties until you feel fit to do so. You can take as much time as you need to adjust back to normal life. I’ll give you a moment to yourself.” She began to walk towards the exit. 
“Just one thing,” Luna said.
Celestia stopped. “Yes?”
Luna swallowed. Did she even want to ask this? She was scared of what the answer might be. But it was too late to back out now. “Did you know?” Her voice came out as barely a whisper. “Did you know that the Elements would bring me back, or were you planning on banishing me again?”
Celestia sighed. “I didn’t know, but I hoped. I knew that the Elements could bring you back. But only if you chose to come back.” 
She knew, then. Celestia at least, if nopony else, knew what Luna had done. Luna nodded. “Thank you,” she whispered.