"Let's go inside." The twelve ponies all entered the ancient castle, the place wasn't very big since they quickly found what they had been searching for this entire time. The Elements of Harmony were right in front of them, completely made from stone. Sorin felt glad that he managed to help out and Shadike felt good that after this, they could start figuring out how to get home.
"Come on, Twilight. Isn't this what you've been waiting for?" Applejack saw how happy Twilight looked. The four Pegasi carefully brought the Elements of Harmony closer to them, so Twilight could examine further. However Pinkie noticed that there are only five out of the six Elements present.
"So how do we get the last one to appear? Arcane asked, he looked around the room and he couldn't see anything that could give them a hint about what to do.
"The book said when the five are present a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed." The twelve questioned this as Eclipse wondered how is the sixth Element a mystery when the book sort of knew how to make it appear.
"So what do we need to do then? And where's Nightmare Moon?" Sorin then quickly glanced around the room, wondering that if Nightmare Moon was stalking them earlier, then she must be here now.
Twilight then told the group that she had an idea and that they should stand back, she closed her eyes and started to focus a spell. Gale wondered what she was going to do, but Rarity told Gale that they should just let Twilight do her plan since she knew the most about the Elements.
Applejack then told the group to stand back outside and keep an eye out so Twilight could concentrate, but Team Sorin noticed another hallway leading upstairs. Thinking that Nightmare Moon must be around somewhere, they decided to investigate.
"You girls wait outside, we'll see if the rest of the castle is safe." The mares agreed that it was a good idea and said that the boys should be careful just in case, with that the mares went outside and the guys went upstairs, leaving Twilight alone with the Elements.
As Twilight was focusing, she didn't notice the mist of Nightmare Moon quietly gathering around the Elements of Harmony, when Twilight then opened her eyes, she screamed, grabbing the attention of the mares outside as they ran back in, however, Team Sorin was unable to hear them from where they were.
"The Elements!" When the mares ran back in the room where Twilight was, they only saw her for a brief second as she jumped into a blue vortex, which then disappeared, leaving the mares worried for their friend as they ran around searching the room. As they were looking, Rarity looked through the closest window and saw one of the higher towers with the windows flashing. Looking closer, she saw Sorin and his friends near the top of the stairs to the tower and were about to enter the tower to see what was going on. Rarity brought what she saw to the other mares attention, the mares then followed the passage that Sorin's friends went through earlier, hoping to get there quickly.
Meanwhile, the guys were about to investigate one of the towers when all the windows in it started flashing all of a sudden, almost blinding the six. "What the crap is going on in there?!" Arcane was shielding his eyes from the bright lights shining from the tower.
"I don't know, but I don't think it's good... it's gotta be Nightmare Moon. We've got to get inside!" Sorin said, drawing his sword in his mouth and had a look of determination on his face.
"NAH! I thought we'd just stay out here and see what happens! Of course we're going in, stupid!" Eclipse said with a loud sarcastic tone in his voice. Shadike just gave an annoyed look at Eclipse, saying that it was not the time right now for sarcasm.
Inside the tower...
Twilight suddenly appeared in a different room than she was in before, she coughed and looked around before seeing Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony floating around her, chuckling to herself as lightning struck around her. "TWILIGHT!" Twilight turned around as both she and Nightmare Moon saw Team Sorin, all with their weapons drawn. Nightmare Moon looked irritated when she saw Shadike and Eclipse, she recognized them as the ones that almost struck her earlier.
"Hmph...you two. The ones that attempted to face me before." Nightmare Moon looked at the rest of the male group, and then chuckled.
"Hmph...you. The cheating bitch. Ready for another ass-kicking? And what's so funny?" Eclipse looked all confident at first, but seeing her quietly laugh like that, not only made him curious, but also slightly suspicious on what she was laughing about.
"I know what you really are. ALL of you." Nightmare Moon answered, catching the boys by surprise and causing Twilight to look at the six in confusion and suddenly became suspicious of them.
Sorin was about to ask what Nightmare Moon meant, but decided to forget it and focus his attention on battling Nightmare Moon herself. Twilight decided to ask later as she also turned towards Nightmare Moon. They all looked ready to fight, leaving Nightmare Moon with a bored look on her face.
"You're kidding. You're kidding, right?" Nightmare Moon thought that they couldn't be so stupid to attack her in a frontal assault, nevertheless, the seven charged towards Nightmare Moon, with Twilight leading the charge, as Nightmare Moon charged back towards them, which was just what the team was hoping for. They were about to collide with each other when Twilight used her magic to teleport behind Nightmare Moon, leaving the dark pony slightly off guard as Sorin's team started to attack her, planning to buy enough time by distracting Nightmare Moon so that Twilight could activate the Elements of Harmony. However, Twilight was struggling to focus because of the sounds of the fighting behind her and the power of the teleport also made her a little tired since she wasn't used to it.
Sorin, Shadike and Eclipse were each trying to attack Nightmare Moon's barrier that she formed up close and personal as best as they could, only making her more angry as she simply blasted them away with her magic, knocking them off their balance, but still able to fight, Nova quickly tried to heal them with his medical magic. Nightmare Moon noticed this and tried to attack Nova, but however was stopped by Gale shooting an arrow from his bow, this managed to pierce through the barrier and wound her slightly, but not very much. "You little pest!" She blasted a lightning bolt towards Gale, but Shadike grabbed Gale and flew him out of the way.
"Eclipse! With me, now's our chance!" Sorin shouted for Eclipse's attention, Eclipse only had to look at Sorin to realize that he wanted the two of them to swarm Nightmare Moon at the same time, with a smirk on his face, Eclipse nodded at Sorin.
"Got it!" Eclipse held his katana in his mouth as he and Sorin ran towards Nightmare Moon now that part of her barrier was broken through, they were attempting to double team her, hoping to go for a fatal strike as they both did a loud battle cry. Unfortunately, Nightmare Moon saw what Twilight was doing and changed into her mist form, avoiding Sorin and Eclipse's duo attack and flew straight towards the Elements.
"Shit! She's going to get them!" Arcane tried to blast some magic spheres at the mist but they just missed as Nightmare Moon kept zooming towards the Elements of Harmony.
Before Nightmare Moon could stop Twilight however, Twilight's magic from her horn suddenly sparked, sending Twilight flying backwards, falling onto the floor, Arcane went and helped her up, the seven then heard Nightmare shouting in fear. "No! No!" The group looked in front of them and saw Nightmare Moon panicking and the Elements of Harmony shining with light, Twilight smirked confidently as she was sure she had activated them.
However, the Elements suddenly stopped shining as Twilight gasped and the boys cursed under their breath, they was sure that it would have worked! "But...where's the sixth Element?!" Twilight asked in fear, Nightmare Moon had started laughing and smashed the Elements of Harmony, destroying their only chance of defeating her. Nightmare Moon summoned down lightning bolts, which all hit Team Sorin, injuring them as they were struggling to get back up. Twilight just stood there paralyzed in fear.
"Fucking hell, that hurt...!" Shadike weakly said, one of his wings was slightly hit by one of the bolts, preventing him from flying as fast as he was able to. Nova was also struggling to focus his healing spells because of the voltage from the bolts flowing through him, limiting his movement at the moment.
"You little foals! Thinking you could defeat me?! Now you will never see your princess or your sun! The night will last FOREVER!" Nightmare Moon was laughing loudly as dark clouds starting gathering above her. Twilight looked down at the ground, thinking that they had lost, however....
"Twilight! Don't worry! We'll be there!" Twilight's ears shot up when she heard her friends voices, the boys had now regained enough strength in their bodies and started to get back up. Eclipse quietly laughed to himself.
"About damn time they got here."
Twilight's eyes widened as she heard her friends' voices. She had finally realized it. "You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that?" Nightmare Moon looked confused at what she said, as did Shadike, Gale and Arcane. The three other members of Team Sorin smirked as they had a feeling what was going to happen.
"Well, you're wrong! Because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right HERE!" Stood around Twilight was Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Dash and Fluttershy, the boys decided to stand back and see what would happen. The broken Elements started to levitate on their own, leaving Nightmare Moon confused at what was going on. Twilight then explained what she had realized.
"Applejack, who reassured me and Sorin when we were in doubt, represents the spirit of HONESTY!" Some of the shards floated around Applejack.
"What the HELL is up with that FACE?! Nova seemed creeped out by the weird grin that Applejack was giving, each Element's shards then started floating around the other mares one at a time as Twilight continued.
"Fluttershy, who tamed the wild manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of KINDNESS!"
"Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of LAUGHTER!"
"Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of GENEROSITY!"
"And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends, even for her heart's desire, represents the spirit of LOYALTY! The spirits of these ponies has got us through every challenge you threw at us!"
"You still don't have the sixth Element! The spark didn't work!" The boys looked at Twilight, wondering what she was going to say about this, since Nightmare Moon did have a point.
"But it did, a different kind of spark! I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear your voices, to see you and how much I cared about you all." Twilight said this as she also looked at Sorin and his friends. "And how much you all wanted to protect me..." Sorin and Eclipse just smiled and stayed quiet.
"The spark ignited inside me, when I realized that you all are my friends!" As soon as Twilight said this, a bright light appeared above the team, revealing the sixth Element, Nightmare Moon was shocked and was completely lost on how this could be.
"You see Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the...spark that resides in the hearts of us all, it creates the sixth Element, the Element of Magic!" The shards formed into necklaces on each mare as they all started floating in the air, Nightmare Moon and the boys then saw the Elements beginning to charge with power. Nightmare Moon, out of desperation, flew at the six mares, hoping to stop whatever they were doing.
"Ooh, no you DON'T!" Eclipse saw what Nightmare Moon was about to do and leaped at her, tackling her over. The boys now stood in between Nightmare Moon and the Mane 6, making Nightmare Moon furious. Sorin then shouted to his team.
"Alright guys! We protect the girls, buy them time! Let's DO THIS!" Twilight opened her eyes while the elements were charging and smiled at her new friends all working together. The boys all nodded at each other and fought Nightmare Moon. Since Nightmare Moon was panicked, she couldn't think straight and it was six against one, so she could not focus as the six boys easily overpowered her with a constant assault until the charge was finally complete and Twilight shouted for Team Sorin to move out of the way, which they did. With a scream from Nightmare Moon, all of the energy within the Elements blasted towards her in a powerful rainbow display, finally defeating Nightmare Moon.
The Mares then collapsed in exhaustion. The boys quickly ran to them to make sure they were alright, with Sorin checking on Twilight.
"Twi? Twi! Are you okay?!" Sorin asked with worry in his eyes.
"Did...we win?" Twilight asked in response, Sorin smiled and nodded as Twilight and the rest of the mares stood up, they then felt a warm feeling surround them, looking through the window, they saw the sunrise for a brand new day, a sunrise that they brought back together. A bright flash then happened, as a tall divine looking pony with fur white as snow appeared before the twelve, a pony that Twilight recognized as her mentor, Princess Celestia. The boys figured that this must be the ACTUAL princess of the land. The mares of the team bowed before Celestia as the boys just stood there, causing Rarity to grumble under her breath at their rudeness. Eclipse quietly whispered to Nova.
"Hey Nova, look. Look at the princess! She has a sun-butt!" Eclipse pointed out as he resisted to laugh, Nova looked at where he was pointing and saw that the princess indeed had a sun mark on her flank, now that Nova thought of it, he saw marks on all the ponies in the room except the guys.
"Uh Eclipse? You DO know all the girls have marks?" Nova whispered.
"Of course, I just didn't ask about it. Neither did the others. We knew the first time we saw them." Eclipse answered.
"Which means you looked at mare's asses?" Nova joked.
"Not in THAT way, ya sicko." Arcane cut in, looking annoyed, making Nova chuckle a little. Gale didn't really understand what the big deal was.
"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student." Twilight ran to Celestia and gave her a hug when she said that, Sorin looked surprised since he or his friends had no idea that Twilight was the student of a princess. "I knew you could do it." Hearing this, Twilight looked lost about what Celestia meant.
"But, you told me it was just an old pony tale..." Celestia just gave a slight chuckle as she explained what she meant.
"I told you that you needed to make some friends. Nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moons return and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to beat her. But you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart. Now if only another will as well...." Twilight and the others were wondering what she meant until they looked at Nightmare Moon, who now looked different.
"Princess Luna." The pony gasped and stared at Celestia, Celestia stepped towards the defeated princess. "It has been a thousand years since I saw you like this, time to put our differences behind us, we were meant to rule together, little sister."
"Sister?" The Mane 6 were surprised at what they heard, the boys being more curious than surprised.
"Will you accept my friendship?" Celestia asked this to Luna as the Mane 6 stood there waiting for her answer. Luna quickly apologized and hugged her big sister as both of them cried. Both of them saying how they missed each other. To Twilight and Sorin's group, this felt heartwarming seeing two siblings reunite like this, Shadike patted Sorin on the back and smirked at him, with Sorin smiling back at his big brother. But then, something sprung in Twilight's mind, she stepped towards Princess Luna.
"E...Excuse me, Princess Luna. I have a question." Luna looked at Twilight, wondering what she was going to ask, the boys, mares and Celestia also listening.
"What did you mean with what you said as Nightmare Moon about Sorin's group? About knowing what they really were?" The boys hid it well, but they were getting worried. They didn't want to bring attention with them really being human. Surprisingly though, Luna looked like she had no idea.
"I...I don't know...I have no idea. I don't even know any of them..." This confused Twilight as she then turned towards Sorin, she had no reason to not trust them, especially after their help, but she felt like she had to know. Twilight asked Sorin what Nightmare Moon meant with what she said. Shadike, with some quick thinking, made a good lie up.
"Who knows? She was probably just trying to turn us against each other..." Twilight thought about it and thought that it made sense and believed it, Luna also admitted that that's probably what it was, leaving Sorin's team in the clear. Celestia then walked towards Sorin's group.
"I thank you, sirs. For assisting my student and her friends through their endeavors. I shall forever be thankful for all that you've done. But I do not know anything about you six, I understand you are not from this kingdom?" Sorin, after taking a deep breath, replied politely since he was talking to royalty, but he couldn't hide that he was very nervous.
"N...No, we aren't, Your Highness. We come from a different kingdom, we're travelers. We were in Ponyville purely by chance." Sorin answered, Celestia seemed interested that they were there by chance and smiled.
"I do not believe this was mere coincidence...perhaps you were meant to assist Twilight and her friends. But for now we should all return to Ponyville to complete the Summer Sun Celebration." The group all agreed on Celestia's idea. Pinkie Pie suddenly cut in the conversation.
"HEY! You know what this all calls for?" Pinkie asked with a smile on her face. Eclipse instantly knew what she had in mind.
"A party?"
Returning to Ponyville...
"...A PARTY!!!" Ponies were all gathered up for a celebration as the two princesses were pulled on a carriage by royal guards, Spike saw Twilight and quickly gave her a hug. The crowd cheered for the other mares in Twilight's group, but were also curious on who the stallions were. The ponies were also celebrating the return of Princess Luna but Twilight however looked sad. Celestia walked up to her student to ask what was wrong.
"Why so glum, my faithful student? Are you not happy that your quest is complete? And that you can now return to your studies in Canterlot?" Sorin looked worried for Twilight as she looked at the ground and answered her mentor.
"That's just it, just when I learned how wonderful it is to have friends, I have to leave them..." Sorin looked down, feeling sorry for her, since his group would also have to leave, however Celestia smiled as she had a surprise for both Twilight and the boys.
"Spike, take a note please." Spike quickly got a quill and paper, ready to write down the note that Celestia was about to tell him what to write. "I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree that the Unicorn Twilight Sparkle hall take on a new mission for Equestria, she must continue to study the Magic of Friendship, she must report to me her findings from her new home in Ponyville." Twilight smiled as her friends gathered around her.
"Thank you, Princess Celestia! I'll study harder than ever before!" The crowd cheered for Twilight and her friends, the boys also decided to applaud for Twilight, until Celestia once again spoke up, saying that she was not finished. This caught the attention of everyone in town including Twilight.
"Also I, Princess Celestia, decree that Sorin Dragos and his five comrades be honorary inhabitants of Ponyville from now on, to assist in Twilight's studies, as reward for their bravery and selflessness that they used to assist Twilight Sparkle in their quest to save Equestria from eternal night." Sorin didn't know what to say but Eclipse, Nova and Arcane definitely knew what to say.
"SWEET!!!!" The three shouted, the crowd then began cheering for the boys, causing Shadike to do a little smirk, even though Shadike wanted to go home, he DID at least feel satisfied being cheered at like this. Sorin couldn't think of how to thank Celestia, since he was so pleased to feel like a hero. But he finally decided to ask Twilight what he should have asked earlier.
"Uh...Twilight? What ARE those marks?" Sorin asked, Twilight just stared at him for a few moments, thinking he was the biggest idiot in the world since this was completely normal to all ponies, however she still explained that the marks were called Cutie Marks (Shadike groaning at the girly name) and that they symbolizes every pony's destiny, Eclipse was curious about what that exactly meant. But Twilight had one more thing to say to Sorin before they continued with the celebration.
"Sorin, I...just wanted to say thank you, for everything. Being with the rest of the group...it taught me a lot." Twilight looked away from Sorin, causing Spike to chuckle about how Twilight was being nervous when thanking Sorin.
"I don't know why you're thanking ME but you're welcome, I mean it's like I said, no pony should have to do anything alone, right Twilight?" Sorin stood in front of Twilight, stretching out one of his front hooves for a hoof shake. "Guess that means we're still a team, eh? Friends?" Twilight looked at Sorin's hoof and smiled at him, accepting the hoof shake.
"Friends."