*Ding*
Hearing the small alarm inside my head, I quickly concentrate my magic and close my eyes to use a small connection.
Reopening my eyes, I now see the inside of the library, alongside Button who's asleep, no moms in sight though.
Gaining control of the clone, I leave the room as the purple unicorn bursts through the front door alongside the dragon.
Hiding in the shadows, I simply observe what she'll do.
She seemed to be the scholarly type.
The unicorn comes up to the second floor to put the dragon to a small bed I hadn't noticed.
Spike, I learned, is out like a light while the unicorn rambles to herself while looking through the books in the library.
Rainbow had made it in without much noise, though the stairs are quite a high vantage point.
"How can I stop Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony?" The purple mare keeps talking to herself.
Elements of Harmony?
Haven't heard of it.
Thought I wouldn't be surprised if that white peacock decided that she would hide it because nopony was 'worthy enough'.
"And just what ARE the Elements of Harmony? And how did you know about Nightmare Moon huh? Are you a Spy?" Rainbow suddenly got up in the unicorns' face as she interrogated her.
Before promptly being pulled back by Applejack from her tail.
"Simmer down Sally, she ain't no spy, but you sure know what's going on, don't you Twilight?" she asked with her accent.
Twilight.
That name sounds familiar.
Can't quite place it though.
The three other mares also made it to the party.
I was about to listen to Twilight talk about these artifacts, but I suddenly felt a magic source.
Focusing on the feeling, the magical signature is fairly familiar.
It suddenly flew away, prompting me to quickly trace its direction before cutting my connection with the clone.
Opening my eyes once more, I wake up at the town hall as the guards from before were stirring up.
Marking my destination, I quickly leave the scene.
I don't know what changed that caused Nightmare Moon to be free, but I will make sure she does not gain that freedom this time.
That disaster must not be repeated.
Stopping me on my hooves however, was the woods.
The Everfree forest.
An annoying, but otherwise safe-ish place.
As long as you know what to look out for.
Gaining momentum once again, I run straight into the forest, following the small trace of dark magic.
*Growl*
A pack of Timberwolves.
*Whimper*
A quick glare from an apex drove them away.
The weak should fear the strong, that was the quote right?
A small stop to catch my breath as I take in the sight in front of me.
A lone bridge that carried to a land isolated by a gorge surrounding it.
On the land is an abandoned castle.
Checking my magic reserves, which was filled rather quickly thanks to the magical body training.
Casting a light step spell, I quickly make my way across the bridge and into the castle.
The battle awaits.
*Nightmare Moon POV*
I darkly chuckle at my newfound freedom.
The shadows have been sent to deal with the six fillies after me and those miserable rocks.
The thought of a colt however, swiftly sends her into a fit of anger.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
With a yell, I destroy a few furniture to alleviate my anger.
Oh that damned colt.
How DARE he punch me.
And he thinks he can hide himself with that pitiful disguise spell.
I'll make sure he suffers thoroughly for this.
As the thoughts on how to make the colt suffer as he begs me for mercy, I smile at my imagination and the fact that Luna is no longer here to fight me.
Her struggle was annoying as she fought for control every time I thought of revenge.
Well, she no longer matters, not in her state anyway.
I'm overjoyed with this occasion.
A thousand years alone with that miserable mare can truly test ones patience.
*Bang!*
The doors to the throne room burst open as a familiar colt walks in.
The brat has come here?
By himself no less?
"You've made quite the mistake coming here alone, you naughty child"
"Is fine, you're much weaker that I planned for" he stared at me with eyes of a veteran fighter.
That calm and piercing gaze.
How could it belong to such a young foal?
*3rd POV*
The foal stands there with as much grace as his young body would allow whilst the mare stared right back with equal ferocity.
"I'll admit that you have courage, but it's only your death that it leads you to" the mare spoke as she observed the foal.
Something told her that she shouldn't charge in recklessly.
"You're stronger, I know that" he answered before doing something ridiculous.
A vortex of magic appeared, concentrating all of it towards the young colt.
The foal took it with stride as his eyes shone bright with pure magic flowing out.
As the magic finally stops being sucked in, the foals body had changed.
His mane now flew from a non-existent breeze due to the overabundant magic flowing around his body, looking unrealistic as if a real flame had been lit.
His horn had increased in size, an ethereal casing surrounding it which ended in a sharp tip.
His body grew to the size of an adult pony.
His veins could be traced as the orange colored magic ran through it.
Nightmare Moon stood there, staring as the foal in front of her had solved the problem of being weaker simply by becoming stronger.
And it worked.
The magical fluctuations around the colt felt dangerous.
It was as strong as an alicorns if not stronger.
What the tartarus was wrong with this colt, thought Nightmare.
The foal released a weary sigh as he spat blood on the floor.
"10 minutes" the colt spoke.
Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow.
"I'll end it by then"
With that declaration, the colt lowered his head, aiming his horn at the alicorn.
The alicorn took her own fighting stance, lowering her horn to meet the colt.
The colt raised his right hoof before dropping it slightly in front of him, dragging it back to its place, leaving a trail of broken tiles in the floor
The alicorn had a serious expression as she responded in kind.
This was a duel of both life and honor.
She mustn't lose this.
With a silent bang, moving faster than sound itself, the two met in the middle as both their foreheads press together, trying to push the other back.
As the sound caught up, blowing the opponents back, both of their horns glowed with intense magic.
Soon enough, blasts of pure magic were thrown as the two danced through the air, one with wings whilst the other with magic.
With a burst of speed, the colt went on the offensive as he closed the distance and threw a punch.
A shield formed and took the punch, almost breaking it as a hoof from the alicorn came in.
Blocking with his left front leg, the colt drew the other back in for another punch.
The alicorn teleported away with a flash, escaping an unblockable hit.
Not even a second later, she formed an emergency shield which, unfortunately for her, broke.
With a burnt left front hoof, the alicorn fell from the air for a slight bit before spreading her wings once again, gaining altitude for another exchange.
"That damned horn is glowing too bright and too concentrated with magic to detect anything" she complained to herself as she cast a healing spell on her hoof.
"Alright" she said with contempt as her magic concentrated.
Her horn glowed as ethereal swords came into existence, a crystalline scythe formed from the shadows and onto her hooves.
The colt took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and concentrated as he raised his hoof to catch a ball of fire.
Taking shape on its own, it suddenly vanished, leaving a war hammer made out of magma and lava in its place.
The alicorn, with the black crystal scythe.
The glowing colt, with a hammer thrice his previous size.
The ethereal swords flew in with impressive speed as the colt rushed back in, hammer in his magic grip.
With a flick of his head from down to top, he raises the ground, blocking the swords as he jumped in the air and came down whilst his hammer followed his command, shattering the ground and forming a crater.
Nightmare Moon, having teleported away last second, created and launched several more groups of ethereal blades at the resulting dust cloud.
Only for the blades to hit nothing.
She formed a barrier as fast as she could, pouring in large amounts of magic onto it as she turned around with widening eyes.
The colt was in the air, only a step away from her as his eyes glowed with bright magic.
Hammer in the air, coming in sideways.
The hooves holding it glowing with a beaming intensity.
The magic gathered in such a short amount of time had such intensity that even the most magically inept ponies could feel it in such close proximity.
The hammer hits the barrier, completely shattering it within seconds, sending the alicorn flying with her back towards the throne.
Her body limp, yet her eyes clear.
Using more magic, she charges a barrier, changing its structure for a soft landing.
Placing it behind her, she bounces off of it, falling to the floor with a thud.
Alas, she fell to her hooves and stood tall.
The scythe, shattered before even a single use laid in front of her.
Her magic flowing as fast as possible to heal her chest.
A profusely bleeding hole, organs now visible along with shattered bones.
She coughed up blood as her spell disintegrated the burnt parts of her skin and inner flesh.
With plenty of adrenaline to withstand the pain, she stares straight at the colt with a fearsome glare.
She had not been imprisoned to lose.
She had not spent a thousand years, on that miserable rock, just to die here.
She had not starved and been mentally tortured for a thousand years, just to lose to a foal.
The colt stood there, panting as he held his head down, his body glow dimmed down by a noticeable degree.
Resting his front hooves on the hammer handle whilst standing on the hammer head, he raised his head and looked at the alicorn with the gaze he never seemed to lose.
However, with less magic concentrating the area around his body, Nightmare Moon could now detect the fluctuations in his magic.
Even with this small victory, she looked inside herself, frowning at the meager amount of magic left, which although more than the average unicorn, not nearly enough to use in this fight.
Ambient magic is out of the question with its ridiculously low concentration.
The improved concentration in the room could only serve as a higher quality training room.
As her wounds healed, she looked at the colt, who had finished used healing magic.
"Likely to heal broken bones from that ridiculous attack" she thought to herself.
"Who the tartarus even are you? Why the FUCK are you in my way?" she yelled with frustration at the annoying situation.
Close combat isn't an option, seeing as she's more of a caster than a fighter.
That monstrous foal has immense strength, too much for her to handle in melee.
"Somepony to make sure you don't cause more pain to others" he stepped down from his hammer, flipping it with his hind legs, landing the handle in the grip of his right hoof.
With a click of her tongue, she summoned one more ethereal sword, looking much more solid.
Grabbing with her hoof, she prepares herself for the upcoming exchange.
Keeping herself higher, she charges in with intense speed in the air.
The colt responds with a swing of his hammer from the side.
The alicorn quickly ducks the attack, swings her sword sideways for the colt to let go of the hammer and duck under it.
The colt spun on his front hooves, delivering a buck.
The alicorn dodges to the side and bring her sword in the air to chop his legs off.
He rotates on his one hoof in an instant, dodging the attack, jumping from his lowered hooves, he punches the alicorn with magic concentrating on his hoof, albeit much weaker than before, resulting in his body glowing dimmer once more.
Whilst she's recovering from the strike, the colt rushes to his hammer.
Grabbing it, he rushes back to the mare to deliver the final hit.
Raising it high, he stands on his back hooves, brings it down with both his front hooves, ready to end her life.
Alas, with a stroke of bad luck.
The floor broke from the previous exchanges.
His attack slowed ever so slightly.
It was all the mare needed to recover and squeezing out more magic, she delivered a simple yet effective attack.
Launching herself towards the colts side, she swings her sword sideways.
The colt barely moves out of the way, causing him to get sliced open, rather than dissecting him halfway.
The mare stood behind him, flicking her sword to clean the blood before releasing a relieved sigh.
However, when she heard nothing for just one second, she used what pitiful amount of magic she had to form a barrier.
A loud thud, caused her much fear as she anxiously glanced back.
Blood red eyes, glaring with great intensity and bloodlust.
His wound spilling out large amounts of orange blood onto the floor, melting it before cooling.
A sharp shard of the broken tile in his tightly clenched jaw.
She gulped as she took a step back, a fearful response.
Holding a fighting stance, she stood there, waiting for his next move.
But nothing.
Nightmare Moon finally realized.
The colt was knocked out.
Releasing her barrier, the body fell to the floor limply with a thud.
His magical glow had disappeared.
"heh" she giggled.
With each second, her giggling increased, turning into chuckles.
Those chuckles finally turned to a bellowing laughter, fully declaring her the winner.
She fell to the floor with a resounding thud, finally calming down.
First, she calmly collected the ambience magic, turning it into her own.
Without it, she could barely sense even the simplest of spells.
Then her calm was interrupted as she saw lights flashing through a window.
"Those wretched sun lovers found the Elements" she grumbled to herself.
Releasing her wings, she flew towards the window towards the tower next to the throne room.
She flew into the window, but it didn't shatter.
It held strong with a glow.
A magical glow.
She looked at the colt with a deep scowl.
He still angered her, even after his defeat.
Focusing her magic, she quickly broke the spell surrounding the throne room before rushing towards the tower.
The colts horn however, lit up with his orange glow.
His wound, healed up as his body shrank back to its original size.
Using the remaining refined magic in his body, his wound healed up quickly.
His veins however, would need rest to heal.
"Damn it, taking in that much magic was too much on this body" he spoke with gritted teeth.
With a scowl, he endured the pain as he stood up to leave.
"Ten more seconds and I would've died"
He limped as he tried to move.
His entire body screamed in pain as his blood had been burning while travelling throughout his veins, mimicking the feeling of hot lava going through his body.
"Fuck" he silently cursed.
"Grit through it like a stallion asshole" he reprimanded himself as he pushed his body to go faster.
Falling in through the roof in favor of saving her magic reservoir, Nightmare Moon lands right in front of Twilight.
She takes a defensive stance as soon as she lands.
Just in case this one was feisty as well.
Blaze, against the searing pain, finally reached the other tower.
The stairs were the most annoying.
Pushing one of the doors open slightly, he takes in a sight he deemed as utter bullshit.
Six ponies were giving off ridiculous amounts of energy as they were being floated by pure magic itself.
He watched with a slack jaw as Twilight preached about some kind of friendship, ultimately launching a rainbow colored beam which completely eradicated Nightmare Moon.
"What the fuck did I work so hard for?" he asked himself as he fell to the floor in exhaustion.
There was a blinding light which caused Blaze to close his eyes.
When he opened them once again, he found the six mares on the ground.
A blue alicorn with a lighter shade of blue mane with the moon as her cutie mark, was in the spot where Nightmare Moon was.
"What the fuck kind of foal tale am I in?" he asked himself with annoyance as he tried to slowly take in magic as to not interrupt the healing process of his veins.
Leaning on the now closed doors, he silently rested as he watched the events unfold in front of his eyes.
Pinkie Pie had given me a cupcake from somewhere as she stood with the rest, completely failing to mention my existence.
Celestia came in at some point.
"I swear, she used some zebra magic or something because you don't just come in from the fucking sun without activating any kind of magic around you" he grumbled to himself as he munched on the cupcake.
The six ponies also had trinkets for some reason.
Twilight is silently decided as the leader because she has a crown rather than a necklace.
Blaze didn't seem to care much about Twilight being Celestia's student, but he did call bullshit when Celestia said that she knew Twilight would defeat Nightmare Moon.
With a weary sigh, he reprimands himself.
"Okay, I'm still ticked off from the fight, just gotta calm down" he whispered to himself.
"It has been a thousand years since I've last seen you like this" Celestia said as she laid on her hooves in front of the blue alicorn, who was shaking with fear.
"It's her sister" Blaze thought to himself.
"Time to put our differences behind us, we were meant to rule together, little sister" she finished with a somber tone.
"Sister?" the six mares said in shock.
"Called it" Blaze smirked slightly.
"Will you accept my friendship?" Celestia asked as she raised herself.
The others were staring with hopeful eyes, with Pinkie almost ruining the mood by falling.
The blue alicorn cried as she leapt up and hugged Celestia whilst asking for forgiveness.
Blaze would've smiled at the wholesome scene, had he not been suffering ridiculous pain throughout it.
With a horrified gasp, the blue alicorn suddenly released the hug.
"THE COLT!" she screamed.
"What colt, sister?" Celestia asked with confusion.
"This colt" Blaze said lazily as he just laid there.
"Hi Blaze!" Pinkie greeted with a cheerie tone.
All eyes were now on Calming Blaze as he met them with an annoyed look.
"I bought some time" he said with a shrug.
"You are, uninjured" the blue alicorn said with slight confusion and relief.
"Pretty much, just melted veins is all" he said with a joking tone.
"Blaze? What're you doing here?" Rainbow asked as she flew towards him.
"I would like to know the answer to this as well, what is a little colt like you doing here?" Celestia asked with a gentle smile and that regal aura that smoehow intimidates and calms you down.
"Stop that, that royal thing you do just annoys me" Blaze said as he just stared at Celestia with an unimpressed stare.
She blushed a bit in response and cleared her throat first.
"Apologies, I have not realized I do that"
"Is fine"
An awkward silence descends as Blaze internally kicks himself for ending the conversation like that.
"So, Moon Princess, what's your name" he asked, trying to break through the awkwardness.
"I am Luna and" she stood with a shamed look. "I apologize for the injuries I have caused you"
"I'm fine" he answered with a wave of his hoof. "I would've won that fight if the floor didn't collapse though"
Celestia stood there with a proud smile for some reason.
"Truly" she admitted with a nod. "Are you truly alright though, you had suffered extensive injuries" she asked with a concerned look.
Blaze contemplated for a few seconds before saying the truth.
"My veins are burned from boiling my blood" he said with a calm smile.
"Oh dear" the yellow pegasus adopted a concerned face.
The white unicorn dramatically collapsed onto a fancy couch that came from nowhere.
"Bit of rest and I'll be fine" Blaze said in a reassuring tone.
Luna nodded, but was still concerned.
"Hey, you know what this calls for?" Pinkie suddenly said. "A PARTY!"
"Can anypony carry me?" Blaze asked with a resigned tone.