//------------------------------// // Deleted Scene: Ultimate Harmony // Story: The Key to Friendship // by ImperfectXIII //------------------------------// Warning: The following scene contains gratuitous amounts of cheesy, dramatic dialogue and over-the-top action that may induce uncontrollable adrenaline and liquid pride. Please consult a physician before proceeding. –Chapter 11 Deleted Scene– “Ultimate Harmony” Twilight took up her broken Keyblade again. “I don’t need a weapon…! My friends are my power!” A bright glow of fuchsia suddenly enveloped the halved blade in Twilight’s magic grip, and it condensed, rippling from the keychain up. A new shaft and teeth took shape, and the Academia was reformed and repaired to pristine condition before Twilight’s eyes! Even the colors in Twilight’s cutie mark seemed more vivid. “I-Impossible!” cried Nightmare Moon at this sight. “You’ve reopened your door?!” Twilight’s eyes widened a little, and she started to laugh. “I get it… I understand now!” “Excuse me?!” “You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that, Nightmare Moon? Well, you’re wrong! Because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony…” Twilight gestured to her friends. “…are right here!!” Nightmare Moon snorted derisively. “‘Spirits’?! Really now, Twilight Sparkle, what on Earth are you—?! …Hmm?” Her gaze shifted downward when she felt a faint tremble at her hooves. Beneath her, the fragments of the Elements of Harmony began to move, slowly lifting themselves off the ground. “W-What?!?” Across the throne room the stone Elements glided, the shards of each finding a place for itself in the orbit of one of Twilight’s friends. Fluttershy squeaked a bit when her body was wrapped in a light pink glow. Looking ahead, she saw a glow of the same color wrap around Twilight’s body. Twilight continued to hold out the Academia. Reacting to her and Fluttershy’s glow, the Keyblade gleamed and morphed, taking on a new form: tree bark and vines curved around the handle, flower stems formed the blade’s shaft, three large flower bulbs formed its teeth, and at the end of the keychain was a pink bejeweled butterfly. As this phenomenon took effect, Twilight’s cuts and bruises started to vanish; she felt her ‘battle damage’ just melt away. “Fluttershy…” Twilight spoke in almost a whisper. “Her untarnished kindness toward other living things – I feel so…invincible under it!” Nightmare Moon’s eyes narrowed to a squint. “What is this…?” All of a sudden, the wind coiling around Twilight picked up speed, and the pink glow on her body turned bright red, matching Rainbow Dash’s. The Keyblade in her grasp changed a second time: thin blue wings around the handle, a rainbow and white cloud as the shaft, rainbow-colored lightning bolts as the teeth, and a red thunderbolt gem as the keychain. Twilight suddenly felt much lighter, as though she could jump off the ground and fly. She looked back at Rainbow Dash briefly, giving a nod of acknowledgement, before setting her sights on Nightmare Moon again. She pushed off the floor…and rushed in! “!!!” Shocked by this sudden choice to attack, the wicked mare coated her mane in black fire and swiped it at the incoming Twilight like a whip. But the little pony’s sudden burst of speed helped her evade this effortlessly. “What?!” Ducking low with Keyblade ready, Twilight spoke confidently. “Rainbow Dash’s loyalty to her friends – it makes me as quick as the wind!” She propelled upward, pelting Nightmare Moon with a spiraling surge of fierce wind. “Awesome!” Rainbow Dash cheered from the sidelines. “Go, Twilight!” As the alicorn reeled, Twilight hung in the air over her for several seconds. The red glow around her body suddenly turned bright orange, reacting to the glow that built around Applejack, and her Keyblade transformed again: this time, short lengths of rope curved around the blade’s handle, its shaft resembled an apple tree, its teeth were formed from a trio of Red Delicious, and the keychain was an orange apple-shaped gem. “With Applejack’s pure honesty on my side”, Twilight began again, “I feel strong enough to move the earth itself!” Filled with physical strength, she came crashing down, causing a small tremor and jagged towers of rock to strike at Nightmare Moon from beneath. “Argh!” Applejack whistled in support. “That’s showin’ ‘er, Twi!” Nightmare Moon, not to be so easily defeated, was back on her hooves in seconds, eyes flooding with anger. She stamped fiercely at the ground, building her dark powers again and bombarding the six ponies with a flurry of black needles. Twilight’s friends flinched… …opting only to open their eyes when a distinct pop sound hit their ears. Before them, Twilight had erected a massive wall of festively-colored bubbles to absorb the oncoming barrage. Pinkie Pie giggled and hopped at the sight of them. “Ooh! Balloons! I love balloons!” Meanwhile, Twilight’s Keyblade and the glow around her had changed again. Her aura was light blue, and her weapon’s shape consisted of various sweets that made up its hand guard and blade: licorice whips, candied apples, scoops of ice cream, gumdrops, teeth of waffle cones, and a pink balloon-shaped jewel as the keychain. “Pinkie Pie – her ability to laugh in the face of danger…helped me banish my own fears and laugh too!” The wall of balloons burst into tiny motes of light that converged at the tip of Twilight’s blade, and her aura changed color again – to that of a deep purple. Once again, her Keyblade changed in appearance: gems and woven fabric lined it from end to end, and the keychain was a small purple diamond. Rarity’s azure eyes twinkled at the blade’s splendor. “Oh! Magnificent!” “And Rarity’s generous spirit…” spoke Twilight still, “…makes all of Equestria shine!” The convergence of light at the Keyblade’s tip exploded, and a cluster of energy bullets rained down upon Nightmare Moon. The onslaught pushed the black alicorn back a few feet, but she refused to go down. She stomped a hoof and snarled. “A meaningless effort, foal! The sixth Element of Harmony still eludes you! The spark didn’t work!” “But it did,” Twilight retorted. “A different kind of spark. ‘A spark between the other five ignites the magic within.’ Not within the Elements…but within me.” She turned around to face the others, eyes welling with emotion. “When I heard you just now, calling my name… When I realized just how much you all meant to me… That’s when I felt it, when I understood, when I knew, that you’re all…my friends!” There was a brilliant flash of white light over Twilight’s head then. To Twilight and her friends, the light was gentle and uplifting. To Nightmare Moon, it was hot, angry, and hostile. Within the awesome light appeared another stone sphere. It bore the same six-pronged star symbol as Twilight’s cutie mark. “And when those Elements,” Twilight resumed as she looked up toward the orb, “are ignited by the spark that resides within the hearts of us all, it awakens the sixth Element: the Element…of Magic!” Around the bodies of Twilight’s friends did their respective Element fragments whirl and flash, before they fused somewhere in the center, taking the form of beautiful, golden necklaces. Each necklace bore a different-colored jewel in the shape of its wearer’s cutie mark. Each pony experienced a sudden influx of magical energy that filled them with warmth. “Oooooh… Tingly…” Pinkie Pie remarked. In the case of Twilight, the Element of Magic seemed to shed its outer shell of stone, revealing a golden tiara adorned with a six-pointed, rose-colored star. The color vanished from Twilight’s eyes, leaving only a white luminescence that saw all and knew all. In the wake of this immense power, Twilight’s Keyblade transformed a final time: a long, lavender sword wrapped in a filigree of gold and white. The same six-pointed star atop Twilight’s tiara made the blade’s teeth and its keychain charm. Twilight’s Keyblade at its most powerful, awakened by the Elements of Harmony: the Harmonia. Nightmare Moon recoiled as she saw Twilight and her friends lift off of the ground. “T-This… This cannot be! I’ve never felt such power come from the Elements! Not even when they were wielded against me a thousand years ago! What ungodly magic is this?!?” “This, Nightmare Moon…” Twilight’s voice echoed, “…is the magic of friendship.” The force that built within her and her friends swelled and overflowed. It poured all of itself into the Harmonia, which Twilight now pointed at the throne room ceiling. From the tip of the blade, a rainbow-colored beam of light shot forth. It spiraled several feet up before arcing down upon the alicorn. “NO!!!” But Nightmare Moon would not go quietly. Focusing every shred of her power to her horn, she let loose a furious blast of dark energy that met the ponies’ beam of multihued light in the middle. The clash of magics rang across the chamber with a crackle and hum. “My power is absolute!” the black mare roared in defiance. “I am without equal! I am darkness itself!!!” And in her moment of madness, of desperation…Nightmare Moon heard a voice. The voice of one she’d long since kept suppressed. …There can be no darkness…without light. “No…! NO!” The prismatic beam soon won out, overpowering Nightmare Moon’s magic and wrapping around her form. The intense energies assaulted her, tore at her, broke her down at the molecular level. Her flesh felt like it was on fire. One last bloodcurdling scream escaped her throat before she was forever silenced. A dazzling radiance overtook the old castle throne room, and all Twilight could see was white… …until the Elements exhausted her magic, and her vision was taken by a consciousness-stealing black.