So, hi, it’s Luna. So, I was asked to tell you about what happened on Equestria while he was... Um, dead. Sorry, I really prefer not to talk about this whole particular battle. Well, just after being shot, he did live for a second before being entirely dead. I screamed, obviously. No one close to me was ever killed while I stood worthlessly to the side before. Once he fell, Nightmare Moon lowered the shield, and I ran forward. I don’t know what the six did, but they were a bit more cautious, I’m sure.
I knelt down beside him and magically supported his head. He didn’t have a lot of strength left, but he looked at me and smiled, of all things. Then he whispered, “Don’t worry, I’ll figure something out. Get them the hell out of here.” Then his head drooped to the side and he died. I heard his death rattle, and I almost lost it right there. He just couldn’t be dead. He survived the Elements of Harmony after all, right. This wasn’t happening.
Twilight Sparkle was the one to snap me out of it. “Princess!!” I barely heard her through my own thoughts. I looked up in time to see Nightmare Moon rising from the little bit of smoke left from his magical pulse. She realized that she had won, and she began to laugh. She laughed loud and long. While she laughed, Twilight Sparkle approached me. “Princess, we have to go! Until we find some way to aim at her easily without blasting someone again, we have to take his gift to us. We need to make it to safety.”
I finally pulled my head back to the fight. “Yes. We should go.” I stood and looked around. There was a battered chariot turned over on the other side of the courtyard. “Quickly, transport the others to that chariot and turn it upright. Have RainbowDash get ready to pull it. I will be over in a minute to help.” While Twilight moved the others to the chariot, I turned back to the body in my hooves. This wasn’t right. He shouldn’t be left here. But we couldn’t pull around a dead body, especially one that big. All I could do was close his eyes for him and wish his spirit well in its travels.
While Nightmare Moon was busy gloating, I ran to the chariot where the others were waiting. I took my place next to RainbowDash, and we took off. As we flew, RainbowDash turned to me and asked, “Hey, so where are we going, anyways? Shouldn’t you have some bright idea as to how we can beat her? I mean, you were Nightmare Moon once, right?”
“Rainbow!” AJ yelled from her seat. “That’s not a good thing to ask! Ya’ll gotta think of how she’s feelin’ right now! She just lost somepony real close tah her!”
“It’s all right, AppleJack, keeper of honesty. It is a valid question. And the truth is I do not know where we cango. Nightmare Moon will be able to follow us most anywhere we go. The safest place would be… The Crystal Caverns!”
Rarity looked at me like I lost my mind. “You mean that horrid place where Twilight and Princess Cadence were incarcerated by that dreadful Queen Chrysalis at the wedding?! But it sounded so tacky! Isn’t there someplace a little more fashionable that we could hide? *gasp* Perhaps the spa!” she squealed, clapping her hooves together.
“Aww, but Rarity,” Pinkie piped up. “Think about all of the shiny, super-splendiferous gems that would probably be down there! I bet you could find lots and lots of sparkly gems, jewels and rocks to use on all your fancy clothes!”
“This will not be a gem-hunt!” I yelled back. How could the pink one be so energetic and happy at this time? “We will be going there to hide and develop a plan as to how we will overcome Nightmare Moon without putting anypony else in any kind of danger!”
“Umm, sorry, but isn’t Nightmare Moon a kind of danger anyways? I mean, everything she does is pretty dangerous. Maybe we can talk to her and ask her not to make night last forever? I mean, if it’s all right with you. It might not be a good idea…”
Ah, the Element of Kindness. Yes, it made sense she wanted to just talk. She would never really be able to fight. Of course after this, I don’t think I would be much of an eager warrior either.
“No, Fluttershy, Keeper of Kindness, we may not simply talk Nightmare Moon out of killing the seven of us and eternally shrouding the land in eternal night. “
“Oh. Um, sorry…” That pony also had the ability to make one feel tremendously guilty for no reason at all.
“It is fine; we just need to get to the outer entrance of the caves. It should be right… There! Quickly RainbowDash, keeper of the Element of Loyalty, follow my lead!”
“You got it! And you only have to call me RainbowDash.”
“Rainbow!” the southern accent chided from the back.
We banked sharply downwards, and soon found ourselves at the entrance to the Caves. “Quickly! Everyone inside!” I yelled. There wasn’t much time before Nightmare Moon would come after us, and from here we could make our way up into the castle and create a plan. “Run deeper into the caves until you find a sheltered area, but be careful! There are steep drop-offs along the path!”
As we ran, I began to over think again. What were we doing? We couldn’t really slow down Nightmare Moon by running into these tunnels. We were just trying to prolong the inevitable. If on the off chance we did make it to my chambers, the protective spells that had been placed there would only last for a short time. And even if we could last for a while, none of us had any idea how to stop Nightmare Moon. She was just fog right now. The only way we beat the spawns was… Gods, we were in trouble.
We found an open area and took a break. RainbowDash, ever the ‘intense’ one, didn’t sit down, but flew in circles overhead, apparently trying to keep watch, for all the good it would do. “Ok, girls. We need to try and make it to my chambers. The room is protected by multiple spells, and should be able to keep us safe for a time. From there we will be able to rest longer and figure out what to do. We need a way to successfully target Nightmare Moon without putting anyone else in peril.” I choked a bit on those last words. All of us were in peril right now.
“Ooh! Maybe we can distract her with a party! I can use my party cannon and have a party ready in a jiffy! And we can have cake and balloons and ooh!! Streamers! Lots of streamers!” Pinkie Pie cried.
“Yes, well, I don’t think Nightmare Moon will be swayed by a party, no matter how fantastic the party… Wait, you actually have a party cannon?”
“Uhh, Princess, that ain’t something you want to-” AppleJack started, but it was too late.
“I never leave home without my party cannon!” Pinkie Pie gasped. “Why, if I did that, then I might not be prepared to make a super duper fun party right on the spot, and that means that I might miss out on a great time to throw a party, and there are lots of times when it would be great to throw a party, which means lots of opportunities to miss throwing a party if I didn’t have my party cannon!”
She stopped for a second to take a breath, and I used the time to start talking again. “Yes, Pinkie Pie, but the fact that it is a party cannon is what is of interest to me. We may be able to use it to not distract Nightmare Moon with pretty streamers, but ensnare her. The one thing we would have to do is place a temporary enchantment on it so that the streamers that are magically able to contain her. It is a complicated spell, but if it is cast on the entire cannon, everything inside should be affected by it. May I see it for a moment?”
“Well, of course you can! But be careful, this is actually backup cannon. My usual one is being painted. This one should be good to go, but it’s my backup because it jams sometimes. Don’t worry, it works like a charm nine tenths of the time, and the other time it just works like an old charm because usually those old charms aren’t in as good of condition and take an extra second to work, but the tenth tenth happened last time!”
Rather than spending time on trying to figure out what she just said, I called Twilight Sparkle to my side and we began to perform the spell. I could have done it myself, but in such an extreme situation it is better to be better prepared to wish you had thought further ahead.
In a few minutes, the cannon was glowing brightly with the power of residual magic. Some part of me doubted the cannon itself after Pinkie Pie’s confusing explanation of it being the backup, but it was our best chance. Now we just had to get it to my chambers to try and fire on Nightmare Moon in relative safety. “How do you move it from place to place?” I asked the energetic pony.
“Well, it’s simple!” she said with a bounce. “See, I just take it in both my front hooves, move it behind me, and it inexplicably disappears into some sort of pocket dimension until I need it again! Then I just reach behind me with both hooves again and it reappears!!” She finished with a demonstration, which didn’t help at all. The important thing was it was easy enough to move. “All right then,” I said, turning to the others. “We need to take it to my chambers and prepare for our attack. Just in case, try to find the most reflective, flattest sheet of rock. Make it as big as you can while still useable as a shield. If you find two, go ahead and bring both. Given the reflective properties of the gems and stone down here, we may be able to not just protect ourselves, but reflect Nightmare Moon‘s own spells back at her.”
It took longer than I would have liked, but we soon had two “shields”, one so excellently proportioned you would have thought that it was specially crafted, and the other less excellent but acceptable. The good one was given to Pinkie Pie to hold, while I carried the other as I led the way.
It was a long walk to where the caverns met up with the castle dungeons, but it was made uneventfully. The caves met up with the castle dungeons in a cell that was specifically never used, in case a dangerous pony were thrown in and happened to stumble upon an escape. I was back to where I started, with the Elements of Harmony in tow ad a plan that was improbable at best. My sister was either dead or banished, the Captain’s whereabouts were unknown, though if Tia had fallen he surely would have given his life before she could, and the man who had in one week become my closest companion was… I still can’t bring myself to say it. I just had to finish this before anypony else could suffer such a fate.
Coming out of the caverns and into the dungeons, we were met with an unexpected yet very welcome surprise. As we began to head towards the door to the rest of the palace, something in one of the cells moved. Nopony had been incarcerated when we were down here last, and Nightmare Moon was hardly one to take prisoners. Levitating the crude shield in front of us, I readied a magical bullet for whatever for we were to face.
Instead of a foe, however, Shining Armor stood from beneath a tattered blanket that camouflaged him within the cell. He shook himself, generating a great cloud of dust, and ran to us. “Princess!” he exclaimed. “Twily!”
Twilight Sparkle ran to him, gladly embracing the familiar face. “Shining Armor! You’re alive! But why are you down here? Where are Celestia and the royal guards? Why were you hiding under a blanket?”
He nuzzled her reassuringly. “Don’t worry; the guard was released until this crisis is over. They couldn’t have hoped to stand against Nightmare Moon anyways. Celestia ordered them and myself away when she went to face Nightmare Moon alone. I wasn’t going to leave the castle, though, so I decided to come down here and wait for you to return. Just before coming down, though, I did see Celestia get banished to the sun. So she is alive, but we must help her soon.”
“Thank you Captain,” I said. “Your loyalty, dutifulness, and bravery is commended and greatly appreciated. Do you know anything else about the situation in the rest of the castle?”
He cocked his head to the side like he was having difficulty remembering anything. “Well, I didn’t leave here much once I got here, but I do know that I haven’t seen Nightmare Moon anywhere inside, even when you all were gone. Speaking of which, where is the other guy? I can’t think of his name… It isn’t said much.”
I didn’t say anything. I just hung my head. Twilight Sparkle was the one to break the news to him. “Shining, he… He died protecting us. He took on Nightmare Moon by himself so that we wouldn’t have to be put at risk. He also allowed the Spawn from Nightmare Moon attach to him so that we could successfully destroy them. The power of the Elements turned him into an alicorn. He…” She couldn’t talk anymore. It was too much for her. She collapsed sobbing into Shining Armor’s mane. That was what really allowed it to sink in for the others. Nobody but Shining Armor was dry eyed. Even RainbowDash was sniffling.
Shining Armor looked steadily at the wall. He had seen others fall, such as in the Changeling Invasion, those rare few who were drained so totally of love that they perished. He appeared as if he were working to maintain his composure though. “Then we have to defeat her. Not just for Canterlot and Equestria. For the traveler from another world who cared, totally and wholly.”
We left the dungeons after that. No one said a word on the way up the stairs of the Night Wing. Words could not help this situation. Despite the sorrow we now carried, we were on guard for any sign of Nightmare Moon. But everything was strangely silent. Everything was greatly different from her last true invasion of Canterlot, when she and I were one. During that time, we rained destruction from the sky without mercy. Everyone knew when Nightmare Moon was there. Why did she hold back now?
When we reached the doors to my hall, they opened noiselessly, the handles glowing with the soft blue aura of my magic. We all went inside and tried to figure out what our defensive plan was going to be. Before we could figure it out, though, the strangest thing happened. Above our heads, floating at a 30 degree angle, a portal formed, much like the portal leading from Earth to Equestria. The greatest visible difference was that rather than being a deep indigo, this one had a strange white glow about it. Suddenly, a hand came down from it and gripped the side, causing everyone to jump. But it was a human hand. I could not believe what I was seeing. The rest of the arm slowly came into view, and all at once the rest fell out of the portal, headfirst onto the bedpost, graceful as ever.