"And I think it's time for you to disappear again!" Twilight shouts back, horn sparking with a blinding light, the space around her bending, "And I'll be sure to send you packing this time..."
With a crack, Applejack, Applebloom and Twilight were gone, the air itself warping like a mirage. Nightmare's grin didn't vanish with this, however; teleportation was easy to track, and the mare's goal was obvious. It was strange, however; why would Twilight consider the Elements of any use? Nightmare was still there, right?
Oh well, this made the hunt all the more fun. First, the Element Bearers, and then Celestia, and finally, the whole country... Nightmare chuckled to herself as a splintering crack resounded from upstairs, followed by the quick sprinting hooves of a heavy pony. Big Mac leapt from the second floor and cleared the steps, slamming onto the floor.
"Moon."
"Pony."
The two glared at each other, frozen for a few moments, before all Tartarus broke loose in the Apple family's house.
Wind burst through the library as Twilight and her group exploded into being in the middle of the lobby, Twilight jumping to action. "Spike! Get down here! Now!"
"C-Comi-Woah!" Spike shouted back as he tripped on the steps, falling down them in a rolling ball. He stopped, eyes spinning, at the bottom and covered his mouth; Twilight considered for a moment the likelihood of a purple dragon's scales turning green, but shoved the scientific study aside. "Wh...w-what's going on, Twilight? I thought you- oh, hey Applejack. And Applebloom. Are you planning another sleepover, Twi'?"
"Now's not the time for any planning, I need to send a letter to the Princess! Nightmare Moon's back!"
"You're kidding me!" Spike shouted, jumping to his feet. Nightmare Moon? Wait, the Princess-freak who wanted to bring eternal night!?
"I'm not kidding, now get the parchment and quill and get ready for a letter. Applejack, I want you to start looking through the books! You're looking for a specific tome, 'Elements In Harmony'! Applebloom, help her!"
Everypony set about their tasks with a quick nod while Twilight retreated to her thoughts, calculating plans against Nightmare. That fight two years ago, back when she first came to Ponyville... it was brutal. Though she and her friends won in the end, it was by sheer luck that Nightmare became overconfident and took the spell full force. This time around, she'd be ready, maybe even hunting down the rest of the Bearers right now!
"Ah got it!" Applejack shouted, sliding to a stop in front of Twilight. She dropped the book at Twilight's hooves, the cover bearing the familiar insignia of the Elements.
"Good!" Twilight flipped the cover, revealing a scroll.
"What's that?" Applejack poked the scroll and furrowed her brow. An old scroll? It was covered in weird writing. Spike came up to Twilight's side as Applebloom rejoined the group.
"Letter at the ready! Speak away, Twilight!" Spike stood like a proud soldier of the Royal Guard.
"Alright, write as I speak."
'Celestia, we have a problem. Nightmare Moon's returned, and we don't have a lot of time. I'm sending Applejack and Spike ahead to Canterlot, then going to gather the rest of my friends. Please have the Elements ready before I get there. Twilight Sparkle.'
"Send it," Twilight near-hissed as she grabbed the scroll in her magic and focused on it. Spike simply nodded and blew the scroll away with his fire, the sigils and symbols lighting up in a rainbow of colors. A ring of light expanded on the ground below AJ, Applebloom and Spike, blowing the two ponies' cloaks up into the air. The sound of a lightning bolt crashing down echoed through Ponyville as AJ and her entourage were flung through space towards Canterlot.
"One down, four to go," Twilight nodded before charging out her door, leaving the open book on the ground. The scroll, now blank, lay singed at the book's edge. She nearly tore the door off its hinges as she slammed it shut behind her, looking up at the sky; it was already turning to night. She sprinted off down the street towards Sugarcube Corner; if anypony could get Fluttershy and Rarity together faster than Twilight, it'd be Pinkie. Ponies all around Twilight stared upwards, watching the sun rapidly fall towards the horizon, a full moon rising even more quickly over Canterlot.
"What's going on? Is the Princess calling an early end to the day?" Lyra spoke from her bench, staring upwards with her hooves on her knees.
"This isn't like her... and why are the Sun and Moon moving so quickly?" Bon replied, getting up and staring as well.
At least ponies were noticing something was wrong, and the sooner Twilight could get the Elements mobilized, the better! She doubled her pace towards the bakery, kicking up dust as she tore down the road.
"Hoyyy... so boring around here!" Pinkie sighed, leaning against the counter in the customer area. Usually Dashie would come by and do pranks, or she'd be having another party, but no ideas came to her head. It was weird; for the past day or so, she'd thought of nothing that could make a pony laugh. Jokes fell flat, parties felt forced, and pranks seemed more mean than funny... maybe she was losing her edge?
The door suddenly exploding certainly set her off though!
"Ah!!" Pinkie shrieked, ducking into the kitchen. She came out two seconds later with a pot on her head and a pan in her mouth; if anypony tried to take the shop, she'd go down fighting to defend it! Why was Twilight trying a hostile takeover of Sugarcube Corner though?
"Pinkie! I need you to do something for me!" Twilight panted, leaning against the threshold of the doorway. "I need you... to go get Fluttershy and Rarity! Now!"
"Why? Are we having a sleepover? Oh! Maybe that's what I needed, a sleepover!! I'll get the decor-"
"No! NIghtmare Moon's back, and we're on the clock! Just go, I'll explain once we're all in Canterlot!" Twilight raced away before Pinkie could utter another word, but she understood her objective.
"Nightmare Moon, huh? Not really a good way to spend a Friday, but okie dokie lokie!" Sugarcube Corner's cashier had never seen a faster-moving pony than Pinkie at that moment; the air ignited for a moment as she tore out of the lobby and raced down the road. First up, Rarity! Oh, there she is now! "Rarity!"
"Oh dear," Rarity muttered as she turned, mud being thrown up as Pinkie skidded to a halt. She shielded herself as best she could, but one thing was for certain; another visit to the spa was an absolute necessity. Note to self, move spa visit with Fluttershy up two days. "Pinkie, you do know it's rather rude to splatter dirt and mud over a lady!"
"Sorry Rarity but we've got a problem Twilight just knocked down the door to Sugarcube Corner and she was panting and sweaty like after the Running of the Leaves but twice as bad anyway Nightmare Moon's back and she wants us to get Fluttershy and go to Canterlot!" Pinkie took a deep breath, "Right now!!!"
"Wait, Nightmare Moon? Are you certain it wasn't just Princess Luna? It is Nightmare Night in a few days-"
"Twilight's never wrong, Rarity! C'mon!" Pinkie took off before a coherent response could even be calculated in Rarity's brain. She simply sighed and took off down the road after her friend; so much for a relaxing night in bed!
"Where's Rainbow?!" Twilight muttered to herself as she looked up; the full moon had assumed dominence over the skies, and wasn't moving. A thin ray of sunlight could be seen connecting it to Canterlot; Princess Celestia was trying to move it, probably. Things just kept getting worse and worse... "Rainbow?! Where are you!?"
No response, though she was probably sleeping in her house anyway. Ohhh, why did teleportation have to require repeat visits to wherever you were going?! Twilight would have to look into making teleportation and spatial movement easier after this whole ordeal was finished; yet another item on the To-Do list, following 'solve Aura Theory' and 'Write Friendship Report'!
Ponyville tore past Twilight at a surprising speed as she sprinted down street after street, a bright flash coming from Sweet Apple Acres catching her eye; Big Mac and Granny Smith got away! Nightmare Moon was after the Elements and their bearers anyway, they should be safe as long as they don't pick a fight! And if they did... no, no, Granny Smith's smarter than that. She'd get Big Mac to run! She had to!
"Rainbow!" C'mon, at least be awake, you lazy mare!
The cloud house-, er, 'castle' as Rainbow liked to call it, finally came into view. Lightning jumped away from the black thunderhead walls as a pegasus dressed up as something stood on top of it. She cackled maniacally.
"Fear the Shadowbolts, ponies!" The pegasus shouted, obviously having a good time with making lightning arc off the clouds.
"Rainbow! Get down here!" Twilight shouted as loud as she could, the boom of thunder near matching her volume. Well, there was another way to get her down, but it wreaked havoc on her throat... her horn lit up, an aura surrounding her windpipe.
Ponyville suddenly quaked with another kind of thunder; Twilight's voice as she shouted to the heavens. "RAINBOW! GET YOUR FLANK DOWN HERE NOW!!!" The shout was followed by a heavy cough as her horn's light died out. The pegasus on top of the cloud castle immediately leapt off her perch and shot down towards the ground, landing with a thud. She jumped into a strict salute.
"You called? Er, shouted ma'am?" The Shadowbolt-dressed Rainbow stood at attention.
"Yes, yes I did," Twilight coughed again, swallowing some saliva; using the Royal Canterlot Voice just isn't a skill meant for unicorns, but it sure was useful! "Long story short since we're running out of time, Nightmare Moon's returned."
"And we're off to kick flank, right?" Rainbow smirked; the response, though like her, was surprising.
"Exactly... you are Rainbow Dash, right?"
"The one and only fastest flyer in Equestria. I don't need to tell you that, obviously. Where're we headed?" Rainbow stood up and flared her wings, flapping them a few times.
"We're headed to Canterlot. Spike and Applejack are already there, and Pinkie's getting Rarity and Fluttershy. Think you can get there before us?"
"I could get there before AJ," Rainbow blasted off into the air before Twilight could speak; at least she was on the ball!
"Time to go find Pinkie..."
"And then the moon came up when I met Rarity and we both ran here to get you so we could all go to Canterlot to fight the big mean witch!" Pinkie took another deep breath, Fluttershy's wind-swept mane a note of how loudly Pinkie was speaking.
"Um...N-Nightmare Moon's b-b-b-back?" She shook; oh dear, that mean alicorn's back?!
"Yes, dear, and as the Element Bearers, we've got to go fight her, right?" Rarity brushed some mud off her coat, grimacing as it just smeared further.
"B-B-But I can't f-f-fight her," Fluttershy backed away into her cottage, shivering in fright enough to make her erect wings vibrate.
"Of course you can! We all can! And if we aren't all there, then Moon wins! We need to stand up for Equestria, like everypony else!" Pinkie saluted the air, brow furrowed in a determined stare. Rarity watched Pinkie stare into space for a few moments before turning back to Fluttershy.
"Listen to me, dear, you are an absolutely necessary piece of this puzzle! Nopony else can be the Element of Kindness' bearer, after all!"
"S-S-Spike was made the Element of L-Loyalty's bearer...j-just pick somepony for me..."
"If we don't leave now, Twilight's going to be fighting Nightmare Moon on her own!"
"I can't...s-she's scary..."
"Scarier than a dragon? Hardly, and you faced one down and made it cry! Come, dear, you're far more brave than this!" Rarity stamped her hoof; three years of knowing this mare, and she still couldn't stare down her own shadow! Something had to be done about that... perhaps after the spa trip?
"Much scarier," Fluttershy quirked her mouth up at the corner, "She's much scarier than a dragon!"
"Oh come on, Fluttershy! All we have to do is go to Canterlot, put on the necklaces, and let Twilight cast her spell and beat Nightmare Moon again!" Pinkie grinned; every situation seemed so simple to her.
"I was terri-"
"Please, Fluttershy! You need to stand up! You've done it before, all you have to do is do it again!" Rarity broke in, panic on her face.
"Well...um..."
"We're all in danger if you don't do this, Fluttershy! And I don't like danger! It's not fun! Unless it's controlled danger, like sky diving or hang gliding or zip lining or whatever crazy stunt the Crusaders like to pull off!" Pinkie bounced in, staring at Fluttershy's face from an inch away.
"W-Well...ok...f-for my friends, I'll stand up against the big, mean, killer, merciless alicorn..."
"That's the spirit!" Pinkie jumped over Fluttershy and started pushing her out, soon going into a full sprint with Fluttershy's hooves digging into the ground. "Wow, this is great! I should do this with Rainbow sometime!"
Fluttershy simply squeaked as her flank was picked up and thrown over Pinkie's head, putting her on the pink mare's back. The two sprinted off towards the town, leaving Rarity with a perplexed look on her face. She soon joined in the mad dash to the town, where a lavender mare was waiting. She saw a flare go up from the town square, and soon after a trail of rainbow launched up from one of the streets, making a beeline for Canterlot; that's all six of them!
"Alright, Twilight, the design was simple. All you needed was the teleportation algorithm, followed by an expansion figure... sigma to the eigth, twenty two degrees..." Twilight mumbled to herself as she drew on the ground with a piece of chalk; thank goodness the town square had a flooring of stone put in. She quickly etched out an arcane circle into the ground, a mass of figures all pointing in the direction of Canterlot. "That should be good for three passengers and the caster. Now I just need to take my spot and start fueling it."
She stepped into the edge of the circle, sitting down in a small indentation among the multitude of sigils and runes. She closed her eyes and began funneling raw magic into her horn as something reached out from two triangles to her side. The mist gripped her horn and began siphoning energy into the circle, and the symbols began to glow, one after another. An interesting spell, mass teleportation; it needed a grounding 'anchor' and pure magic power to be pumped into it, locking the caster in place. Not just that, but it needed such a huge mass of it, that it often left the unicorn unconscious, some even needing to be hospitalized.
So long as she got her tiara though, that magic could be quickly replaced. All she needed was to prep-
"Twilight!" Oh good, they're here. That shout from Pinkie could be heard anywhere.
"Get in the circle, and sit in those indentations with your cutie marks!" Twilight shouted, eyes open and glowing white. The three ponies ran around Twilight and assumed their places at the other three compass points of the circle, Twilight acting as the North pointer towards Canterlot. "All of you ready? I'm putting as much magic into this as I can, so it might sting!"
"Ready!" Pinkie bounced, gleefully anticipating their coming trip through space-time.
"R-Ready," Fluttershy found her eyes locked on the glowing circle around her, worrying if it might explode.
"Ready, dear," Rarity simply moved her muddied mane out of her eyes, thoughts aimed towards helping the Guard fix up Canterlot after Nightmare's beaten; call her overconfident, but it didn't take much to beat Nightmare last time.
"Alright, here we go!" Twilight let one last massive surge of power strike the circle, the light becoming exponentially brighter than before. The whole of Ponyville was granted quite the show at that moment; a solar flare in the middle of their town, or at least one that was just as bright. Within an instant, Twilight and her friends were gone, leaving behind a smoldering ashpile of chalk and scrolls.