"Now where have I heard that before?" I asked, trying to distract her.
"What, are you trying to be brave?" she asked, a bemused expression on her face.
"Nick, Pinkie, stand back. Here goes everything!" I shouted. I prepared my secret spell, my horn glowing purple then white, the ball of magic growing larger and larger.
"What? What are you trying to do?" Nightmare asked. Her expression changed as I did my spell.
"SHIMMER!!" I shouted. My body seemed to take on a shimmering appearance, going all wavy. Shimmering balls and rays of light appeared in the sky. Shimmering high-pitched metallic tones vaguely sounding like very high pitched tubular bells started sounding. As my body shimmered, two copies of me stepped to my left, and two more to my right.
"What is this?" Nightmare shouted. She fired a blast of magic energy at my shimmering body. The blast passed through harmlessly. "Wait, what?" she exclaimed, and flew to attack me. She passed through my body as it continued to shimmer.
"SHIMMER!!" I shouted, and four more copies of me emerged from my body. I did this three more times, until there were 20 copies of me in the vicinity.
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" she shouted.
"Okay, girls, separate her and subdue the Nightmare!" I shouted. Six of me surrounded Nightmare. Each cast magic at her, and she was able to send them scattering. She was proving to be a hoof-full. All 20 of me surrounded her now, and I joined in for good measure. We pounded her mercilessly with our magic, quickly subduing her. Eight of me used special magic I was unaware of to separate Nightmare from Princess Luna. Four of me stomped on Nightmare's horn, breaking it off.
"NO! NOT MY HORN!" she shrieked.
"Twilight, what's going on here?" Luna asked. "Where did all of you come from?"
"Okay, girls, can you reach Celestia?" I asked. "Luna, we're here to help."
"I can see that, Twilight," she said, a wry smile coming to her face.
"Mike, we have found Princess Celestia. She is in the sun, and we are attempting to return her here," one of my copies stated flatly.
"What do you plan on doing with Nightmare?" I asked Luna.
"I haven't decided yet," she said. "If you can bring my sister back, she can deal with her."
"Twiley, that's the cutest thing I've ever seen!" Pinkie exclaimed excitedly.
"Michael, darling, you simply must teach me that spell! Imagine how much I'll be able to get done with extras of myself!"
"I will tell you once we can get Princess Celestia returned."
"Hey, Mike, can your extra copies of you separate me from Rarity?" Nick asked. That was the question I was looking for.
"Hey, girls, come here for a minute. Not all of you, I need some of you to keep Nightmare subdued until Princess Celestia gets back. I need some of you to separate the male human in Rarity's body from herself."
"Gotcha, Mike," one of my copies said. Five of me used their magic, and separated Nick from Rarity.
"Wow, thanks! I was really starting to worry about that! Wait, I don't have any clothes! It's freakin' COLD out here!"
"Wait, what?" Princess Luna asked, quite surprised. Nightmare saw this display and gasped.
"What -- what -- is that!" Pinkie said. She had never seen a human before, at least, not in this universe.
"Pinkie, meet Nick. Nick is a human, and considering how cold it is, he needs something to keep warm, else he might succumb to hypothermia."
"Mike, we are returning Princess Celestia -- she should be here momentarily. The sun will be restored when she arrives in about 3 ... 2 ... 1 ..."
Indeed, the sun had returned to the sky. With the broad daylight illuminating everything, the sorry state of how badly everything had suffered under constant night-time was starkly illustrated.
"You are to be commended for returning me without the use of the Elements, Twilight Sparkle -- wait, how many of you are there?"
"Princess Celestia, I have called forth 20 copies of myself from alternate universes to assist me in subduing Nightmare Moon, separating Princess Luna from her grasp, and separating my friend Nick from his imprisonment inside Rarity's body. My human name is Michael Walker, and I woke up as Twilight Sparkle earlier today."
"You are a human?" she asked incredulously.
"You see Nick here?" I pointed a hoof in his direction. He shivered from the cold, but the sun's warmth was starting to drive away the chill. "He is a human, and not too much different from my human appearance."
"What spell did you cast to summon all these extra copies of yourself here?"
"I call it 'Shimmer'."
"How does it work?"
"Do you understand the concept of alternate universes existing on parallel planes, and that there are an infinite number of these alternate universes? I created a rift in the electro-magnetic spectrum, which opened a portal to all these universes, then summoned as many of myself as needed to do the job I requested. In this case, I figured 20 was what I needed."
"How do you send them back?"
"I cast 'unshimmer'. But before I do that, I need to be returned to my human form, and returned to my home in my world."
"Mike, if you do that, you won't be able to cast unshimmer!" Nick said.
"Oh, yeah, forgot about that. I have to be in Twilight's body to cast unshimmer, but that leaves another conundrum."
"My shop is in ruins!" Rarity exclaimed with anguish. "I don't even know where my little sister is, either!"
"Princess Celestia, what do you intend to do with Nightmare?" I asked. I turned to look in her direction as she was still under a submission hold by four of my copies.
"To the moon with her," she said, waving a hoof, banishing her almost effortlessly.
"NOOOO!" she wailed as she was banished.
"Would you care to tell me about your human world? And how it was that you were transformed into ponies?"
"Discord had something to do with that, Princess, and this is where it gets troublesome. I enlisted the assistance of another Princess Celestia and the Elements to banish Discord from our world, but the extra copy of Rarity interfered with the Harmonic Magic, causing him to be expelled from our world, to parts unknown. I don't know where he may have ended up."
"This is deeply troubling news, Twilight," she said. I chuckled. "This is no laughing matter!"
"Begging your pardon, Princess, but my human name is Michael -- it just seems amusing ... oh forget it. Call me whatever you wish, Your Majesty."
"If what you say is true, then there may be two copies of Discord in a single universe," Celestia pondered.
"The other Princess said that the outcome was generally a positive one, however, I believe she may have been considering the fact that in Equestria in that universe, Discord was still a statue, and even if he had not been properly banished from our world, at least he's gone, hopefully not to return."
"Michael, since Nightmare Moon has been sent back to the moon, perhaps you may cast your 'unshimmer' spell now."
"Certainly, your Majesty. UNSHIMMER!" I shouted, my horn glowing white again, my body shimmering again, and the extra copies of myself jumping into my shimmering body, disappearing as they did so. I shouted "UNSHIMMER!" a few more times, recalling the last of my duplicates.
"Michael, darling, that was simply awesome!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Rarity, do you wish to remain in this universe? I believe that you, Pinkie, and the two Princesses are the only ponies left in this world."
"I don't know, darling -- if we are the only ponies -- how will we get things done?"
"Rarity, I fear this world may be a total loss, and that is a great tragedy."
"Well, you're still a pony, so technically ..." Nick began.
"I am a human inside a pony's body, Nick, but I intend to be transformed back into a human. I still have a job to go back to and can't exactly do it whilst in Twilight's body."
"But you can do telekinesis and teleportation, along with all kinds of other magic!"
"True that -- and to be honest, I have enjoyed being Twilight -- it's been lots of fun, except for that party --"
"What party?" Pinkie exclaimed excitedly. "You were at one of my parties? Really? How was it?"
I heaved a very heavy sigh. "Pinkie, I must admit that I have never been one for parties. I was miserable."
"But -- but -- " I put a hoof to her muzzle.
"Quiet, you. I know where you're going with this line of questioning, and I'd rather not break your heart again. Let's just say that it's going to take some time before I am ready to start attending parties, and since we're the only ones here..."
"We could throw a party right here!" Pinkie cried.
"Well, maybe not right here," I said, looking around at the deserted city of Cloudsdale. The silence was deafening.
"Let's return to the castle," Princess Celestia offered. With that, we were teleported to the throne room. We were shocked to see all the damage that had been done to the castle. Shards of broken glass that were once the gorgeous stained glass windows littered the room. Torn banners and tapestries, defaced and defiled -- even the thrones the Princesses would sit upon were damaged beyond repair. I checked Celestia's expression to register a great deal of shock.
She opened her mouth a few times, no words coming out. It took a few minutes for her to regain her composure.
"Michael, I'm afraid this may be a total loss. Did you travel through Ponyville?"
"Yes, Princess. It looked the same as Cloudsdale -- no ponies alive -- Pinkie was barely alive when I found her, and I think she was the last one standing."
Princess Celestia shook her head in sadness. "All my little ponies -- dead -- because of Nightmare Moon's ego!" she sobbed openly, the tears flowing down her cheeks. I approached her, attempting to comfort her.
"Your Majesty, they may be dead in this universe, but there are other universes out there where they are very much alive, along with you and your sister. I don't know what advice to give you in regard to trying to rebuild this world's pony population, but if it's a total loss, the only suggestion I have is to try to go to another universe. Other than that, I don't know."
"Is it safe for us in your world?" Celestia asked innocently.
"My world is populated by seven billion humans -- some of whom are greedy, selfish, violent -- I fear you would not be safe in my world, Princess. There are some who might know of you, and wish to do you harm. One other thing -- if you were to venture to another universe, I don't know how you'd react to seeing a double of yourself, or for your sister to meet a double of herself, not to mention the extra Pinkie Pie and Rarity."
"Mike, can I get back to my world, already? I'm feeling really self-conscious here without any clothes!"
"I could make you some clothes, Nick, darling," Rarity offered.
"I saw your shop, Rarity! There's nothing useful left in there!"
"Oh, Nick, dear, must you remind me? I forgot you were in there as well!"
"Your Majesty, the other Princess entertained the idea of creating a body for Nick and transferring his psyche into it," I stated. I watched as Celestia's face dropped.
"My counterpart was ... contemplating ... THAT?" she shuddered.
"I didn't know how else to separate Nick from Rarity. I was quite surprised to see my duplicates pull that off as easily as they did. That solves THAT problem, at least..."
"Michael, I am going to have to take some time to process all this information I have received. I request you spend the night here in the castle before I allow you to return to your world."