From a void of shadow, Twilight hit side-first into a cold stone floor. Moonlight shafted in through a broken window. Shards of glass still hanging from the twisted metal frame clawed at a turreted spire that rose into the starry night sky. A vaulted ceiling yawned above her, arches pitted with the wear of time. A chilling laugh filled the empty space with echos.
Hearing the sound, Twilight launched into motion. She rolled to her feet and turned, looking for the source of the laughter. Instinctively, she drew Celestial Fury and Solstice from their sheaths. A vast hall surrounded her. Scraps of fabric, curtains and tapestries, hung from the walls. More light from a hole in the crumbling ceiling backlit her, casting a long shadow. At the end of the room, a shape moved in the dark.
A grinning, slit pupiled mare with white fangs stepped into the light. She laughed, deep and chilling. A plate of silver-blue armor with a hole for her long, stiletto horn rested on her forehead. It glowed with a starry blue miasma that merged with a rippling mane torn from the night sky trailing behind her. “I’d like to say this is a surprise,” the mare said. “But it’s not.” As she strode fully into the light, she spread raven-feathered wings from her back.
Alone, Twilight thought, glancing around for her friends. Wherever they had been sent, they’d arrived seperately. She took a step back, and considered the slight weight of Eclipse at her side, the blade partially hidden beneath her cloak. She left it sheathed; she wasn’t confident trying to wield three swords at once. She kept Solstice and Celestial Fury out front, defensively. “Luna?” she said.
“You stand before Nightmare Moon,” the mare said. “Luna is nothing but a memory.” She laughed again. A crescent great scythe enveloped in an aura of magic floated from the shadows behind her. A silver spearpoint gleamed at the base of the stave. She held it with the point forward and down, the blade arching over her back. “A thousand years, and this is the best she could do? She delivers the only thing that could spell my undoing directly to my doorstep on the day of my release.”
So this is why she wanted me to kill her, Twilight thought. Will I have a choice? Her Sequencers in Solstice and her necklace thrummed, ready to be triggered. She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not here for Celestia.”
Nightmare Moon approached, the moonlight glinting off her helmet and a chestplate secured around her neck. Her stature dwarfed Twilight, and she kept her head level, staring down at the smaller pony. “Then why are you here, my little pony? Have you figured it out yet?”
“Figured what out?” Twilight said.
“You have no chance. No hope.” She blinked, and when her eyes open, they glowed with a fierce white light. “I see you. You are shattered, broken, and drained. All the power you could have had is gone, lost. And without it, there is no hope. We’ve lost, Twilight Sparkle. The only difference between me and my sister is I saw that a thousand years ago. It’s a pre-ordained conclusion. An inevitability. Perhaps you understand that you cannot defy your creator.”
“Really?” Twilight scoffed. “Then what is it I’ve been doing?”
“Delaying,” Nightmare Moon said. “But time is not on your side.”
I know Luna is in there somewhere, Twilight thought. I’ve seen her. She relaxed her stance, locking her legs and straightening from her slight crouch. “Maybe it’s not. But we can fight. You can fight.”
The blazing glow faded from Nightmare Moon’s eyes. Slowly, she lowered the spearpoint on the haft on her scythe rest on the floor. “You don’t get it, do you, Twilight Sparkle?”
Twilight smiled. “It turns out, I have figured it out. There’s something we have that Azrael doesn’t understand. I’ve seen it, and every day, I grow to know it better. Together, the power we wield is immense. He didn’t predict what we could achieve through our connections, our friendships. He couldn’t predict our magic.” She lowered her swords and raised a hoof, extending it toward Nightmare Moon. “With this power, we can achieve anything.”
Nightmare Moon stared at her. She smiled, her eyes fixed on Twilight. Slowly, her smile shifted into a sinister grin. “Can you now?” She stalked a step forward, and Twilight cringed back, raising her swords. “Do you know what the Slayer is? It’s something Azrael put there in case Celestia tried to remove His essence from you. You are forever chained, Twilight.” Laughing, she lifted her scythe, the point scraping on the stone. “You speak of the power of friendship, when all I need to do is let out what sleeps within you, and you will turn on them!”
Nightmare Moon lunged, the blade of her scythe singing in the air as she brought it forward. Twilight met it with Celestial Fury. As sparks from the clash flew through the air, she brought a Stoneskin spell to completion. Nine layers of protection enclosed her body. She stepped right, in closer to the point where Celestial Fury’s blade ground against the scythe, and swung left with Solstice.
Contact. Solstice’s edge gouged a thin channel in Nightmare Moon’s breastplate. Feedback from smashing the blade into the impossibly hard substance made her horn sting. Nightmare Moon whirled her scythe’s blade back over her head and down toward Twilight’s other side. Twilight opted to ignore it. She relied on her magical protection while she pushed through the tingling in her mind to cast another spell.
Long before she brought the spell to completion, the scythe’s blade impacted her left side. At first, as expected, she felt nothing, She lunged forward, taking the opening Nightmare Moon left with the attack, and finished her spell: Improved Haste. This time, with Celestial Fury, she swung low, aiming to take Nightmare Moon’s legs out from under her.
Graceful beyond compare, Nightmare Moon danced back, avoiding her strike. As time slowed for Twilight, she watched a grin spread across Nightmare Moon’s features. She still held her scythe pressed to Twilight’s side. In that moment, through her adrenaline and battle-fury, Twilight noticed a numbing cold seeping from the point of contact.
Gasping, Twilight tried to jerk away from it, but with an impossibly quick reaction, Nightmare Moon moved the blade with her. The chill reached her spine. A sensation like a thousand screaming voices exploded from the back of her skull. Every muscle in her body went taught. She collapsed to the ground, writhing. Barely, she kept a hold on her swords with her magic.
Then, everything went silent. A dull soreness permeated her body. Her muscles felt like jelly, thoroughly spent. Shadowy tendrils crept across her mind, making her eyelids heavy and her mind sluggish. Nightmare Moon moved forward and stood over her.
“Shh, Twilight Sparkle. Go to sleep. Sleep is where nightmares reign,” Nightmare Moon whispered, leaning closer, her scythe pressed to Twilight’s chest.
Weakly, Twilight Sparkle lashed out with Celestial Fury. The blade nicked Nightmare Moon’s cheek, drawing dark blood. Hissing, Nightmare Moon jerked back, and for an instant, the scythe pulled away from Twilight’s chest. A golden aura spread from the cut, encasing Nightmare Moon a moment later.
Sucking in breath, Twilight hooked Solstice under the scythe’s blade and tore it from Nightmare Moon’s grasp. The heavy weapon slid across the floor until it lodged against a fallen piece of masonry. Sensation and strength returned to her limbs. She clambered to her feet and drew Celestial Fury back for a final blow.
Twilight stared into Nightmare Moon’s wide eyes, the Alicorn’s face still trapped in an expression of shock and surprise. Twilight hesitated. I have to kill her, she thought. I’m not strong enough to save her. A plan crystallized, an alternative. But we can fight! We can win! I just can’t save her on my own. As the golden aura holding Nightmare Moon began to crumble, she focused on a point through the broken ceiling and beyond a hole in the wall of a tower. With that point fixed in her mind, Twilight cast Dimension Door. I need to make time.
As Twilight brought her spell to completion, the scythe slid across the floor toward Nightmare Moon, recaptured in the aura of her magic. The hold trapping her body failed. She bared her fangs and brought the blade of her scythe toward Twilight, but a moment before the weapon reached her, Nightmare Moon, her scythe, and the ancient hall around her, vanished when Twilight teleported away.
Twilight snapped into existence. She landed lightly in a crouch, finding a surprisingly solid floor beneath her hooves. She turned and looked out through the crumbling gap in the wall she’d teleported through. The room at the top of the tower overlooked the remains of a ruined palace. Far beneath her, through the hole in the ceiling of the building, moonlight glinted off of Nightmare Moon’s scythe.
All around the tower, atop a hill surrounded by a thick forest, the husks of grand structures rose from deep green undergrowth like bones covered in moss. Twilight recognized the trees and the feeling of unease that came with them. The Everfree Forest extended beneath her into the distant night. A glowing white disk in the sky caught her attention, and she looked up.
For the first time in a thousand years, a full moon, restored, hung over the horizon, but a small crescent, the fragment that had risen into the sky for a thousand nights before, was brighter than the rest. Twilight shivered; that crescent had brought her comfort on many a dark night. Now, though whole, it seemed consumed by something sinister.
No time to dwell, she thought as she turned from the vista. Or speculate, she thought, looking down. Is the Cavern of the Moon, Luna’s prison, directly beneath the Everfree? With her levitation, she swept dust from the floor, shaping it into a pony. From a pouch at her side, she added a trace amount of diamond dust. Focus, she thought, selecting a spell she’d prepared on the hours long walk to where she had been teleported to the surface. Sooner or later, Nightmare Moon would figure out where she went.
She cast the spell. Her Mark blazed on the flank of the form in dust, flaring to life like a lit match. The shape of a pony became a mirror upon which Twilight Sparkle reflected her soul. A moment later, she met eyes with herself.
Wordlessly, Twilight passed her Simulacrum her swords. No explanation was required; she knew the plan. She’d conceived it. However, Twilight kept Eclipse sheathed at her side.
A wave of lightheadedness washed over Twilight, and she collapsed onto her haunches. The magnitude of the spell drained her. While she recovered, her Simulacrum cast its own spell, Improved Haste. It was in almost every respect her duplicate, and it retained every spell she had prepared the moment she cast the spell.
Her Simulacrum stepped past her to the opening in the wall and looked down.
With a deep breath, Twilight stood. Three more spells, she thought. First, she cast Non-detection. Then, she closed her eyes and cast Truesight; she’d need it to accurately perceive her surroundings in the dark without giving herself away by lighting her horn.
Twilight opened her eyes. She saw herself, a lavender glow consumed by an empty void in her chest, but she could tell what she saw lacked substance and depth, like a reflection in a mirror. “She’s coming,” her Simulacrum said.
Twilight nodded and cast her final spell, Improved Invisibility. As she winked out of sight, she heard wingbeats behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she headed for the spiral staircase that lead down the tower. Her Simulacrum backed away from the opening to stand in the center of the room, brandishing Celestial Fury and Solstice.
With a rush of air, a being torn from the night sky flowed through the hole in the wall: Nightmare Moon. Her core was a silver pinprick of light, but a void of darkness and suffering surrounded it. She braked sharply, her wings a span of shadow that scraped the walls, and touched down.
“Why!” Nightmare Moon roared. “You won!” She leveled the spearpoint of her weapon at the Twilight in front of her. “This only ends with one of us dead!” She looked around the room; searching with eyes aglow with white light, but her gaze passed over Twilight. “I cannot be fooled by this reflection! Show yourself!”
Twilight ran down the spiral staircase. Metal clashed behind her. “But it can slow you down!” her own voice shouted.
Deep in the bowels of the palace, Twilight trotted down a corridor. Inky pools of darkness sucked at her hooves. All around her specters clung to the walls. She held Eclipse before her, and the shades retreated from it. They could perceive nothing but the blade.
In the shades, Twilight witnessed the truth. By looking at them, and seeing their very essence, she understood them. She saw the same void of despair she’d seen consuming Luna, Nightmare Moon, in the room at the top of the tower. She’d mistaken the Nightmares that plagued the Cavern’s inhabitants as creatures of fear. What could be more terrifying than a hopeless world? Their gaze immobilized because they sapped the will. They fed on thoughts and hopes and dreams and left behind nothing.
In the shadows on the walls, Twilight saw Luna’s nightmare. In the nightmare, an incomprehensible being held the threads of destiny in an unbreakable vice. Choice was an illusion, because the end result was always the same eternal servitude. Her resistance was pointless, hopeless.
Twilight shuddered. My friends are here, somewhere, she thought. Trapped. She drew in a deep breath and looked closer at the world around her. She’d seen the ley lines connecting her and her friends before. She focused on each of them in turn. The moment Fluttershy had been there to pull her from a nightmare. Rainbow Dash, diving after her from the center of a rainbow shockwave. Rarity, freeing her from the suppressor that threatened to extinguish her. Applejack, trusting the strength of her plan against a dragon. And Pinkie Pie, unwavering, always there to lift her from the darkness.
Five lines grew in the darkness, radiating out from Twilight’s chest like the spokes on a wheel. She felt something swell inside of her, and the five threads pulled on her. Fluttershy’s pulled the strongest, and she followed it through the shadows. After squeezing through a half-collapsed doorway, she found Fluttershy in the corner of a small room.
Shades clung to Fluttershy, their tendrils of despair flickering across her body like a black flame. The soft yellow light that normally shone from Fluttershy’s soul drowned in an oppressive greyness. She hung her head low, her body curled in the corner. Angel curled between her hooves, almost drowned out by the darkness.
“Fluttershy?” Twilight said softly. Fluttershy’s head lifted a fraction.
“Twilight?” Fluttershy whispered, her voice little more than a weak breath. Her head tracked Eclipse as it floated across the room.
Twilight stepped closer. “I’m here, Fluttershy.” She reached out and touched a hoof to Fluttershy’s shoulder. “You just can’t see me.”
Fluttershy shivered beneath Twilight’s touch. “I’m so alone...” she whispered. “All I’ve ever tried to do is help, and I’ve been cast out from my home. I chose to follow my friends, and I’ve done by trying to protect them is help them hurt and kill.” She hung her head. “I’m sorry Twilight. I’m worthless. I can’t save you. Just leave me here.”
Twilight shook her head. “No, Fluttershy. You have saved me. And you’ll keep saving me. But right now, I’m going to save you.”
“Why Twilight? Why struggle? It’s pointless. You show a pony kindness, and they turn around and stab you in the back. You’d know this better than anypony.” She took a breath. “I should have told you to kill Trixie, when you asked me what we should do,” Fluttershy murmured.
“Maybe,” Twilight said. “But forgiveness, mercy, isn’t about them. It’s about you. It’s easy to forget that.” She paused a moment, considering. “Kindness is caring, and empathizing, and acting, if only to ease a bit of pain, no matter who it is we help, because everypony, every being, lives as part of a greater whole, and each act ripples across countless lives and countless stories.”
Fluttershy shook her head. “You don’t see. You don’t feel what I feel. You don’t understand how pointless life is. Your hidden from them,” she said, flicking her muzzled toward the shades, “but if they could see you, you’d see what I see.”
I understand, Twilight thought. Five threads, five ponies, five virtues, and somehow, I’m connected to all of them. She smiled. “Your right, Fluttershy. And I’m not going to let you face this alone. Nopony should have to stand alone.”
For a moment, Twilight hesitated, preparing to drop her invisibility. What do I believe in? She took a deep breath. Here goes. Magic of friendship in three, two, one...
Twilight chose to become visible. Almost immediately, the shades clustered around Fluttershy turned toward her. She was surrounded. She closed her eyes, let the tip of Eclipse drop downward, and held tight to the five threads.
Twilight felt the shades touching her. The Nightmares surged around her. Why me? she thought. Why do I have to bear this burden? Why not just give in? They should serve me! Am I not power? Am I not destined to hold them all in my hooves? Even Trixie trying to rip my essence away left me with the Slayer. All I have to do is let it go, and I could consume Nightmare Moon. I could walk away from this place with my head held high, crush Trixie, and reclaim what is mine. She looked at Fluttershy. Their lives are transient, insignificant, and flicker in the dark. So what if they would die?
Twilight wrapped a hoof around Fluttershy. “I would never hurt my friends!” she shouted at the shades. “I am the pony that gets to stand up and say life does matter. We are the ponies that get to forge our own purpose. And I will not stop caring, and I will not let my friend suffer alone!”
Light bled from Twilight and Fluttershy. A prismatic nova exploded from them, purging the shades. For a moment, rainbow light painted the walls of the room. Twilight blinked, a rainbow aura lingering in her Truesight.
Fluttershy gasped. She shifted, and Twilight helped her to her feet. She buried her face in Twilight’s shoulder. “I’m sorry! I don’t know how I could think like that! It was so dark.”
Twilight nuzzled Fluttershy’s mane. “I know Fluttershy. It’s okay.” She focused on the threads binding her to her friends. Rainbow Dash pulled strongest. “Now, will you help me save Rainbow Dash?”
Fluttershy nodded.
The path to Rainbow Dash took them to the surface, to a small courtyard dominated by a large crumbling fountain. Together with Fluttershy, Twilight stepped through a doorway into the courtyard, her hooves padding on a mat of lichen and moss. She held Eclipse at the ready. Just beyond an aura of Harmony that radiated from them, the Nightmare lurked. Her Truesight had faded away, and she relied on the faint nimbus of rainbow light that surrounded them.
“Rainbow Dash should be here,” Twilight whispered. The thread binding them pulsed with energy. Even without seeing the threads with Truesight, she could sense them.
From around the edge of a fixture sculpted in the shape of a fish, Rainbow Dash strode into view. She wore the Wonderbolts’ fabric uniform, but where the Wonderbolts wore blue and gold Rainbow Dash wore black and violet. She grinned. “Twilight, and Fluttershy!”
“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight said. “Are you alright?”
Rainbow leaned against the sculpture. “Better than ever.”
Twilight raised a brow at Rainbow Dash. Because they are the Elements, the Nightmare must affect them all differently, she thought.
“Are you sure?” Fluttershy said. She raised a hoof to point at the specters that lingered around Rainbow Dash, their shadowy tendrils surrounding her like a net of brambles. “Because those things twist you up inside.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I dunno. I do see things differently now. I’m thinking I’ll go it alone.”
Fluttershy frowned, her ears going back. “You’re going to leave me? But we’re friends.”
Rainbow shook her head. “We were friends.” She spread her wings, the cold steel of Commander Hurricane’s wingblades catching the moonlight. “I can’t have you slowing me down any longer.” She pointed at Twilight. “And I can’t have her drowning me in her shadow.”
Twilight blinked. “What’re you talking about?”
Rainbow Dash stamped on a patch of moss. “You know!” She gestured at her uniform. “I’m the fastest wingblade out of Cloudsdale, the fastest wingblade in Equestria! Everypony should know my name! And all I’ve been doing, all I’ve done, is fight what Twilight Sparkle wants to fight, and kill what Twilight Sparkle wants to kill! Twilight the Dragonslayer. Twilight the Baroness. Twilight the Shadowspawn! What am I?”
Twilight approached Rainbow Dash, the aura of Harmony trailing with her. It touched the shades, but they lingered around Rainbow Dash, not retreating. “You’re my friend, Rainbow,” Twilight said.
Rainbow Dash snorted. “You know that’s not worth a wisp of vapor, Twilight. Can you honestly say that I’m important, that I matter, when I’m standing next to you? Can you honestly say that you need me, with all of your magic, and all of your freakish strength? What is one little cloud next to a thunderstorm?” She shook her head. “What’s the point of loyalty when nopony notices what you do for them? What you sacrifice?”
Twilight fixed her gaze on Rainbow’s eyes. “I need you Rainbow Dash. I need you because I know you’ll have my back. I know you’ll be there to catch me when I fall. We need you. We can’t do this without you.” She smiled. “But right now, you need us.” She stepped forward, still a good ten paces away, and with lightning swiftness, lanced one of the shades with the point of Eclipse.
In response, the shades pulled away from Rainbow Dash and rushed toward her. She estimated there were six of them, more than she could keep at bay. She stepped back and flicked the point of Eclipse into another.
“Twilight!” Fluttershy shouted.
Rainbow launched into motion. Lunging, she slashed through the shades with her wingblades. Rainbow light exploded from her wings and smashed into the shades, leaving them clouds of fading black dust. She touched down in front of Twilight, panting. The colors of her Wonderbolt uniform faded back to normal. She grinned. “We need each other.”
Twilight wrapped her hooves around Rainbow’s neck, hugging her tight. A moment later, Fluttershy joined them. “We do,” she said.
Rainbow Dash nuzzled Twilight’s mane. “Somewhere in my mind, I knew you’d come for me.”
Twilight pulled free of the embrace. She tested the threads. Rarity’s pulsed strongest. “And now, we need to be there for Rarity.”
Twilight trotted briskly down an overgrown path. Vines and moss dwelled in the cracks between the fragmented pieces of regular, square slabs of stone beneath her hooves. Fluttershy walked to her left, and Rainbow to her right. The rainbow aura that bled off of them kept the shadows at bay. Ahead of them, a short walk from the fountain, a domed structure rose from the brambles and bushes.
“So, um, we’re glowing. And somehow it’s keeping these monsters away,” Fluttershy said. “And that about sums up what happened since Twilight found me.”
“Hey, it’s better than where we were,” Rainbow Dash said. “Though, I gotta admit, it’s pretty weird. Twilight, what do you think?”
“Did you ever wonder why everything happens around us?” Twilight said.
Twilight slowed as she reached the structure’s doorway. A faint trickle of water dripped off the stone lip of the doorway and pooled in a muddy patch. She eased back some leafy stalks to fully reveal the opening. Inside, deep shadows filled marble basins. A thin layer of water pooled on the floor. Vines and roots hung from the ceiling.
“What, you mean besides you being crazy important and us being crazy awesome?” Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight led with the point of Eclipse as she entered the building, following the tug of the thread. “And why am I so important?”
“Um, you’re a super-powerful magic unicorn Shadowspawn?”
Ahead of Twilight, Rarity’s white coat stood out against the grey stone and deep shadows, barely visible through the vegetation. “And less than a week on the road, I run into four of you,” Twilight murmured. “The fifth was near me all along.” She pushed roots aside with Eclipse’s blade and advanced toward Rarity.
“What’re you getting at, Twi...” Rainbow Dash said, falling silent as she noticed Rarity.
“Rarity?” Fluttershy whispered. “What do we do?”
Twilight neared Rarity, her hooves splashing in the thin layer of water on the floor. Rarity sat on the edge of one of the basins and gazed into it with a blank stare. Shades reached up from within, leaching at her.
“This place was beautiful once,” Rarity said.
Twilight started, tensing.
Rarity slowly looked up, her gaze following a vine climbing the wall. “A bathhouse, full of happy ponies. Marble tubs. Golden faucets.” She turned to look at Twilight. “It’s all gone. Where is the beauty in the world now?”
“They’re just things, Rarity,” Twilight said. “They don’t matter.”
“What about the things that do? The lives? I’ve seen so many hungry faces, Twilight. Some of greed, some of yearning. We all want. Freedom, food and safety, family. Some of us can be satisfied with enough, but for some of us, there is never enough.” Rarity looked down at the water. “I’m one of the ponies that can’t be satisfied.”
“But you’ve done so much,” Fluttershy said.
“For everypony,” Rainbow Dash added.
Rarity shook her head. “I want to shine. How is that right, when others starve? How many diamonds in the rough never had the chance? I have robbed, I have stolen, I have killed to get what I want. I am ugly inside, and I will never change that.”
“You’re beautiful, Rarity,” Fluttershy said. “The past isn’t all that you are.”
Rarity clenched her eyes shut tight. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “You’re wrong!”
Twilight stepped toward Rarity, reaching out a forehoof. “She’s right. We are the ponies with the strength to forge the future, for all of us. You believe yourself ugly? You have looked at me, and what lies inside, and you have forgiven me for what I am. Forgive yourself.” The Nightmare shades bled off of Rarity and attached to Twilight’s hoof. “Stand with me. We can make a world where everyone has a chance to shine. We have that power. Will you hope with us, Rarity?”
Rarity opened her eyes and looked up at Twilight, her ears perking. She reached out and took Twilight’s hoof. “I will.”
A pulse of rainbow light rolled out from where they touched. For a flash, caught in an afterimage in Twilight’s eyes, the marble basins were polished white and filled with steaming water and smiling ponies, cleansing the grime from their coats, and Rarity sat with them. Laughter lingered in her ears as the image faded.
Rarity climbed to her feet and smiled. The shades dragging her down had vanished. “Twilight, how can I ever thank you?”
Twilight hooked a foreleg around Rarity’s neck and pulled her close. “You’ve already done everything I could ask. You’re my friend.”
Half laughing, half crying, Rarity returned the embrace, then pulled away and wiped her eyes with a foreleg. “What happened? How did you save me?”
Twilight grinned. “You saved yourself. All I did was remind you of what you already knew: Generosity.” With that, Twilight turned and walked between Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, headed for the door. She followed the tug of the next thread, Applejack. “Come on.”
Rainbow Dash rubbed her forehead. “How is that an answer?”
As Twilight stepped through the doorway, golden light flashed beyond the structures of the ancient palace, turning the sky bright for an instant. Her Simraculum had released the Sunlight stored in Celestial Fury’s blade. It was the signal; she’d bought all the time she could, and Nightmare Moon was on her way.
Two more, Twilight thought. “Come on, we have to hurry.” She broke into a gallop, narrowly dodging undergrowth, and careful to avoid outrunning her friends so far that she left the rainbow aura. Her Haste spell had faded some time ago, and she felt painfully slow.
Rainbow Dash caught up to her easily in a rush of wind. She touched down beside Twilight and matched her pace. “How did you save me?”
“I showed you Loyalty,” Twilight said between breaths. “And I showed Fluttershy Kindness.” The path cut through a low wall. She turned sharply, following the wall. “It’s what you are, and maybe saving me is what showed you all the way.” Ahead, a building with a sharply peaked roof towered over them. They neared the door. Wide open, it led into the darkness beyond.
Rarity, her hooves hitting the dirt a few paces behind Twilight, said, “What’re you talking about?”
Twilight slowed, pulling to a stop. Applejack was near. She peered into the undergrowth and the wall of darkness beyond their aura. “Long before we ever saw each other, we were connected. I’m the keystone, I brought you together.”
“By what?” Rarity said.
“Magic,” Twilight said.
A ruby red glint caught the rainbow light. From behind a wall of dark leaves, Applejack stepped forward, head down, and stopped at the edge of the light. Shadows trailed from her like knotted ropes. She lifted her head and fixed her gaze on Twilight, her green eyes just visible beneath the brim of her stetson. Rainbow light played on the scales of her armor.
“Whatever it is, it brought us together to give us the chance to stop you,” Applejack said. She loosed Truthseeker so that it hung loose beneath her tail.
Twilight froze. She stared at the dangling twin points. There was nothing she could do to stop Truthseeker. It could pass clean through her Stoneskin. It could follow her through a teleport. It could find her if she were invisible. It was too fast, too strong to block. Her mouth went dry. She was vulnerable. Mortal.
Rainbow Dash stepped between her and Applejack. “You're not thinking straight, AJ.”
“Am I?” Applejack said. “You’ve seen what she can be! There’s a good pony there, but does one life justify the risk?! What if killing her is the only way to save Equestria? What if she is a monster!”
Fluttershy shook her head. “She’s not a monster,” she said. “And that’s not how it works, Applejack. If you kill her, her essence just goes back to the Abyss,”
“Trixie has it now anyway,” Rarity said.
“According to her!” Applejack snapped. “Everything we know about what she is has been relayed through her! The truth is, we don’t know! We don’t know what will happen if we keep on this path! We don’t know what she will become!”
With her magic, Twilight pushed Rainbow Dash aside. She stepped forward. “You’re right,” Twilight said. “We don’t know.”
“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash yelled, pushing back against the force of her magic. She beat her wings against the air, but Twilight held her at bay, if only barely.
“Maybe I am a monster,” Twilight said. “Maybe killing me will stop Azrael. We’ve made a lot of assumptions. What if I’m not that important? I believe in the five of you. I brought you together, I revealed your power. Maybe this is the end of my journey. You can save Pinkie, and you can stop Nightmare Moon.” She held her head high and met Applejack’s gaze. “But the truth is, we don’t know. We can’t see beyond the horizon. All we can do is what we think is right. And I think the right thing to do is to trust you, Applejack. I trust you and your judgement more than I trust my own.”
Applejack stared at her, hesitating.
“Twilight, this is crazy!” Fluttershy said, moving in from the side opposite Rainbow. Twilight caught her and held her at bay.
Applejack’s expression softened. She wrapped her chain tight around her tail. “You’re right, Twilight.” She took a step forward into the the ring of rainbow light. The shades clinging to her retreated, pushed back. Their tendrils stretched as Applejack walked forward, then snapped and vanished. “Of course you’re right.”
Tears sprang to Applejack’s eyes. “I trust you, Twilight. Always have.” She wrapped her forelegs around Twilight’s neck. “You’re my friend. I’m sorry.”
Twilight felt the next thread. It led through the open doors and into the building. One more, she thought. She squeezed Applejack’s hard armor, then pulled away. “Then let’s do this, together.”
“That was way too risky, Twi!” Rainbow Dash muttered.
Twilight smiled. “No it wasn’t, not really.”
Applejack turned slowly, looking at the rainbow aura. She glanced at Rarity. “What’s going on?”
Rarity shrugged. “Don’t look at me.”
Twilight headed for the door, striding toward the shadows beyond. “We’ve got a corrupted Goddess trying to kill us who’ll show up any second now, you five are the Elements of Harmony, and we need to pull Pinkie out of the Nightmare so that we can save Luna.” She blinked. “Wow, when I say it out loud it seems kinda crazy.”
“Elements of Harmony?” Applejack said. “What in Equestria are you talking about?”
“Five virtues,” Twilight said. “Generosity, Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Loyalty. It was Celestia’s plan. I met you, and you chained the Specter in my mind. She turned Azrael against Himself, and now you’re going to save her sister.”
Applejack shook her head. “How can we be the Elements of Harmony? They’re artifacts.”
“They were artifacts,” Twilight said. “They were broken, and then reborn.” She reached a set of steps leading up to the double doors and trotted up them. The rainbow aura pushed back the shadows inside the door, the edge a perfect circle.
Applejack raised a brow. “If we’re the elements, then why are the rainbows coming from you?”
“What?” Twilight said as she stepped through the door. Inside, an oval shaped chamber surrounded her. Moonlight shafted through crags in the ceiling. Vines climbed the metal frames of empty windows.
In the center of the room, a monument holding five stone orbs stood, each with a symbol etched onto the surface. Pinkie Pie sat in front of the monument. Shadows surrounded her. Tall specters clung to her. Her pink hair hung straight in front of her eyes. “Pinkie?” Twilight said.
Pinkie turned toward her, her hair falling aside to reveal one eye. “Why didn’t you save me?”
Twilight took a step forward, swallowing. “I did.”
“Not soon enough!” Pinkie shouted, rising to her feet. “I can grin, and I can smile, but I’ve seen evil! I’m a killer! I’m just like you now!”
Twilight paused for a moment. She stared at Pinkie, foreleg cocked. “You, just like me?” She laughed. “Really? There’s so much joy in you. Where I fell, you overcame. You’re the best of us, Pinkie.”
Pinkie fell back onto her haunches, her eyes watering. Twilight advanced. The shadows retreated, pushed back by the rainbow light. “Friends forever?” Twilight said.
Pinkie giggled, blinking back tears. She raised her hoof. “Through eternity.”
Twilight tapped her forehoof to Pinkie’s. “Somehow, I knew you’d be the easiest.”
A laugh filled the chamber, black and cruel. From a swirling miasma of shadow, Nightmare Moon stepped forward, her scythe agleam. Celestial Fury and Solstice floated beside her, suspended in her levitation. “Touching, but meaningless.” She grinned.
Chain links clicked as Applejack loosed her chain. “Wait,” Twilight said. “We can save her.”
“Give up, Sparkle!” Nightmare Moon shouted. “If this was her plan, she sent you to your doom!” She laughed, white teeth flashing. She held Celestial Fury in front of her, sideways so that she could see her reflection in the blade. “It’s been awhile since I held this sword.”
“Alright, Twilight, what’s the plan?” Applejack murmured out of the side of her mouth.
“You know she can hear you right?” Rarity said in a hushed whisper.
Nightmare Moon flicked Celestial Fury, the blade singing through the air. “Really, it’s incredible.” She chuckled. “You are a challenge, Twilight Sparkle, truly.” She flared her wings open, and the shadows deepened. “But you stand before a god!”
“I was bein’ quiet,” Applejack muttered.
“Relative to a thunderstorm, maybe,” Rarity whispered.
“How do we save her, Twilight,” Fluttershy said softly.
Twilight bit the inside of her cheek. “You need to, erm, element her.”
“And how do we do that?” Rainbow Dash said.
“I’m a bit behind,” Pinkie said, “But, seriously, Twilight? Element her? You’re not very good at jokes.”
“Wow,” Nightmare Moon said, striding forward. She glanced at the rainbow aura. “I see you’ve made some progress, but that was your plan? Did you ever stop to wonder why Azrael waited a thousand years?” She fixed Twilight with her slit-pupiled gaze. “He waited for you.”
Twilight swallowed. “Why?”
“There are six Elements of Harmony, Twilight Sparkle, not five. One to focus the rest. The five in isolation are nothing.” She turned, presenting her side, and circled the pedestal in the center of the room. “The Virtues only mean something with a spark to ignite them. They need Magic to bring them together.” She smirked. “Have you figured it out yet?”
Twilight backpedaled, shaking her head. “It can’t be me! I can’t be an element of Harmony! I’m... I’m a monster! I’m not like them!” She swung her hoof toward her friends in a sweeping gesture. “I’m not a better pony!”
“Exactly.” Nightmare Moon grinned. “It’s Azrael’s way. He took his enemy’s greatest asset, the one thing that could destroy him, and controlled it. In the moment of his defeat, he poured his essence into the Element of Magic. It was the Element I carried, and it’s the Element connected to all life.” She floated the five stone orbs off the monument, pulling them close until they swirled around her. “When they were first formed, the Elements were gemstones, objects, expressions of magical energy to be wielded by worthy ponies. Though these champions can fall, Harmony cannot die. Though it would take a thousand years, it would be reborn in life, and through that rebirth, Azrael saw the path to certain victory.”
Nightmare Moon’s levitation field pulsed, and the stone orbs shattered, their fragments cascading to the floor. “He tried to capture them all, spreading himself through the web of life, seeking power. He got two. Magic, and Laughter. But it was enough. He broke the Elements. He won. This flashpoint, this day a thousand years later, is nothing but an echo of a battle long concluded.”
Twilight fell back onto her haunches. She let Eclipse’s point drop. “I’m broken.”
Applejack rested a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Aw hell, Twilight, no you’re not,”
“You’re the strongest pony I know,” Fluttershy said.
“If anypony can beat this, it’s you,” Rarity said.
Pinkie Pie flicked her muzzle toward Nightmare Moon. “You’re going to listen to her?”
“She’s just like we were when you found us,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Enough!” Nightmare Moon cried. Moonlight flashed, and she was in front of Twilight, her scythe cleaving through the air. It connected, shattering a layer of stoneskin. She pressed it into Twilight’s side.
Thruthseeker cracked. Nightmare Moon stopped it dead with Celestial Fury, wedging the blade between the twin spikes. A moment later, she deflected a crystalline arrow from Rarity’s bow with Solstice. Rainbow Dash whirled at her side, gusts of wind trailing off her wingblades. She pulled the Scythe away from Twilight and swung it at Rainbow. Sparks flew when it met the wingblades.
Shuddering from the cold touch of the Nightmare’s weapon, Twilight stumbled away. Pinkie stepped between her and Nightmare Moon. She drove a hoof into the center of Nightmare Moon’s breastplate.
For a moment, Nightmare Moon froze. Another arrow hit its mark, and dug into her side. She staggered back. A sweeping, black miasma bled off her horn, directed at Pinkie. In a blur, Pinkie darted to the side, and the miasma flowed past her. It connected with Rainbow Dash, sending her flying. Next, it reached Twilight. In an eyeblink, the wave of force threw her back. She flew, another layer of her Stoneskin shattering when her back hit the wall.
Rarity crumpled next to her, coughing. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Angel thundered forward, his body enhanced by layers of dark green vines. Nightmare Moon launched a black ray from her horn at the elemental beast. The vines stripped away, as if blown off in a gust of wind, and a small white bunny sprawled to the floor.
I need time, Twilight thought, rising to her hooves. I need to figure this out.
With Celestial Fury, Nightmare Moon wrestled with Applejack for control of Truthseeker. She took wide, sweeping strikes at Pinkie with her scythe. Each time, Pinkie dodged by a hairsbreadth. Fluttershy stood behind a pillar, eyes aglow. Through a gap in the ceiling, a bolt of lightning struck Nightmare Moon in the helm. The metal glowed, but the lighting dissipated, ineffective.
Rainbow Dash, recovered and streaking through the air, dove toward Nightmare Moon’s back. The Alicorn twisted. She thrusted up with the point on the base of her Scythe. It connected, puncturing the magical fabric of the Wonderbolt’s uniform, and the Skymail beneath. It passed out between her wings, the point glinting. Rainbow gasped, impaled.
“Rainbow!” Twilight cried.
Laughing, keeping Pinkie at bay with Solstice, Nightmare Moon swirled her scythe, launching Rainbow off the point and into the monument. Rainbow Dash hit the ground and lay still, her rainbow mane falling over her eyes. With her magic, she yanked the crystalline shaft from Rarity’s bow out of her side. The wound closed over, healing nearly instantly.
No! Twilight thought. I need time! She built a spell on her horn. I’ll make time! She drew on the connections she felt with her friends, like she had when she teleported the Solitare through the iceberg, and many times before that. Strength filled her.
Nightmare Moon moved toward her, spectacularly swift. “No you don’t!” Nightmare Moon yelled. She swept her scythe at Pinkie, forcing her to roll away, then spun Solstice toward Twilight. The spinning blade slashed at Twilight’s Stoneskin as she focused on the spell. Layer after layer bled away. Twilight closed her eyes.
Twilight sensed her last layer fall away. In the same instant, she finished her spell. What began as a Haste spell, she’d fashioned into so much more. Teeth gritted against anticipated pain, she cracked an eye open.
The edge of Solstice floated in the air less than half a hoofspan from her eye. Yelping, she stepped back, but the sound of her own voice failed to reach her ears. Slowly, ever so slowly, Solstice inched through the air. Behind it, Nightmare Moon glared, her fangs bared. PInkie Pie poised behind Nightmare Moon, frozen mid-stride, one hoof barely touching the ground, her mouth open in a silent scream.
“It worked!” Twilight cried. She plucked Solstice away from Nightmare Moon, capturing it in her own levitation. “It actually worked!” She’d practically stopped time. How long will it last? She strode forward and grabbed Celestial Fury, disentangling it from Truthseeker. Her gaze fell on Rainbow Dash.
Please be alive, she thought. She galloped to the monument and slid to a stop by Rainbow’s body. With a hoof, she lifted Rainbow’s mane out of the way. Her eyes were open, her mouth frozen mid gasp, a surge of blood flowing from the hole in her chest, but with time slowed so much, she had no way to tell for certain if Rainbow still lived. When she moved her hoof, Rainbow’s mane floated in the air. She could still feel the thread connecting them. It pulsed with life.
Furrowing her brows, Twilight took a couple steps toward Fluttershy, grabbed her with levitation, and drug her over, and eased her to a stop next to Rainbow Dash. That was it, Twilight realized. What I just did.
She focused on Nightmare Moon. I used the Elements of Harmony to cast that spell. She took a step toward Nightmare Moon. I’ve used them before, but to save her, I need something more. She closed her eyes and breathed deep. I can do this. She opened her eyes.
The Elements set things right, a voice in her mind told her.
She grasped Nightmare Moon’s scythe and impaled the spike at the base into the stone beside her. With Celestial Fury to her right, Solstice to her left, and Eclipse floating above her head, she stood directly behind Nightmare Moon. She focused inward, building the magical energy she felt coursing through the bonds with her friends. She brought all five threads together into one whole. Rainbow light swirled on her horn.
In an eyeblink, time came back. Truthseeker fell. Pinkie slid to a stop beside Twilight. Fluttershy stumbled next to Rainbow Dash. Nightmare Moon whirled to face her, her eyes wide.
“Be free,” Twilight said.
Swirling currents of magic flowed around Twilight Sparkle. The energy slowly lifted her off the floor. Nightmare Moon stared up at her, mouth agape. The rainbow eddies engulfed her friends, drawing them closer and lifting them around her. Fluttershy, eyes glowing brilliantly with green light, touched her hooves to Rainbow Dash as they were lifted, and Rainbow sucked in a gasp of air.
Twilight released the magic. She let it flow, wild and uncontained. Beams of rainbow light coursed from each of her friends and into her. She drew in a breath as they struck her. In that breath, she felt the web of life: countless souls, countless hopes, and countless dreams. Deep inside her, something screamed in a terrible fury. A rainbow wave drowned it.
In the metal plate on Nightmare Moon’s forehead, she glimpsed her reflection. Her eyes blazed with white light. Ethereal lavender wings stretched from her back. A crown with a five-pointed star rested on her head. A ray of rainbow light shot from her horn. It swirled around Nightmare Moon, engulfing her.
Twilight’s vision washed white.
Bright light shone through Twilight’s eyelids. She cracked her eyes open and lifted her head. The dawn's first rays shafted through a broken window. In front of her, in a pool of sunlight, a lanky dark blue Alicorn lay sprawled on her side. Smoking chunks of broken armor surrounded her.
Twilight pushed herself into a sitting position. “Luna?” she said.
Luna’s eyes shot open. Gasping, she lifted her head. She looked at Twilight and smiled. “This isn’t a dream.”
Twilight nodded. “It isn’t.”
“You did it, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight turned. Around Rainbow Dash’s neck hung an amulet set with a red gemstone in the shape of a lightning bolt. A hole in her armor was the only sign of her injury. The flesh beneath was whole, coat and all.
Her friends stood in a line. Each had their own amulet around their necks. They smiled at her.
“It’s really something,” Applejack said.
“For a second there, I thought we’d lost everything,” Rarity said.
Fluttershy nodded. “Rainbow Dash.”
Pinkie grinned. “But you did it, Twilight.”
“I didn’t believe... I didn’t think it was possible,” Luna said. “Even the part of me that was still free.”
Twilight turned back to Luna.
The Alicorn stood. In the flesh, Twilight barely had to look up to meet her eyes. A short mane of blue hair framed her face. “Azrael had sunken himself too deep, I thought.” She looked past Twilight and to her friends. “But you five saved her. You five made this moment reality.”
In a flash of light, as if stepping from the Sun itself, Celestia strode into the chamber, her white wings spread wide. Her ethereal mane and tail trailed behind her. She stopped short, glancing back and forth between Twilight Sparkle and Luna. “Luna,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”
“Really?” Luna grinned. “A thousand years and that’s all you have to say?”
“I’m sorry,” Celestia said. “I should have—”
“Tia,” Luna said, walking up to Celestia. “Shut up.” She threw her forelegs around Celestia’s neck.
Celestia wrapped a long, slender leg around Luna’s body. She folded her wings. “I missed you, so, so very much.”
“The elements set her free,” Twilight said.
Celestia smiled softly at Twilight. Luna pulled away from the embrace and turned to face Twilight. “She’s not the only one they set free,” Celestia said. “You did it, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight glared at Celestia. “I’m still mad at you! All your lies! All your schemes!”
“What should I have done?” Celestia said. “Told you you were the Element of Magic?”
“Yes!” Twilight shouted.
“What if you weren’t?” Celestia said.
Twilight blinked. “What?”
“You weren’t born an Element. None of you were. Touched by the Elements, perhaps. But you became them. I mean, a certain degree of predisposition was involved. Natural tendencies, and in one case, phenomenal magical talent,” Celestia focused on Twilight. “You had to discover the magic for yourself. Azrael was betting he could stop that discovery, and I was betting on you.”
“Nightmare Moon told me the truth!” Twilight cried.
“Did she, or did she just confirm what you’d already figured out, but rejected?” Celestia sighed. “I’m sorry, Twilight. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I could have told you. If you had rejected your role though, long before you'd seen what you'd needed to, you might have aimed to kill my sister instead of free her, believing the task impossible. You wouldn’t have become what you could be. But letting you discover your role for yourself I believed would work, and it did. You have surpassed my wildest hopes, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight raised a brow. “What?”
Luna chuckled. “Feel anything different?” She spread her wings.
Twilight glanced over her shoulder. A pair of lavender wings sat folded on her back. Gasping, she reflexively flexed muscles she’d never had before. Her wings sprang open. She twirled, chasing them for a better look. “How?!”
“The same way Celestia and I became Alicorns, so very long ago,” Luna said. “We emerged from life, infused with its Harmony, normal ponies chosen by our actions and intentions to ascend.”
“I suspect Azrael’s essence held you back, but when you used the elements, it allowed your true self to shine through,” Celestia said.
“Wow,” Twilight said. With some effort, she managed to fold her wings. She smiled at her friends, then turned back to the Sisters. “I don’t deserve this.”
“Neither did we,” Luna said.
“My Sister and I have a lot to catch up on,” Celestia said. “I’ve sent an old friend to help you here. You six need to get to Canterlot as swiftly as possible. Shining Armor and Cadance on their way there, and they will find only danger. Spike will meet you there.” She turned. Her body faded, slowly vanishing. Sunlight passed through her. Beside her, Luna faded as well.
“Wait! Can’t you teleport us there through the Celestial Plane?” Twilight said.
Luna glanced over her shoulder. “Can’t you teleport?” With that, both Alicorns faded into the Sunlight.
Twilight raised her hoof. “I need a gateway— and they’re gone. Great.”
“And we’re stuck in a ruined castle in the middle of the Everfree forest.” Applejack grinned. “So what now, Princess?”
Twilight groaned and pressed a hoof to her forehead. “Don’t call me that.”
“Why not?” Pinkie said. She bounced up, stopping directly in front of Twilight. “You even got a crown!”
Twilight snatched at her head with a hoof. An object fell off. She caught it in her magic. A tiara adorned with an enormous, star-shaped gemstone that perfectly matched her Mark floated in front of her. She furrowed her brows. An empty, magical space yawned within the gemstone. It could store a Contingency or a Sequencer, but far more powerful than any Solstice or her necklace could contain.
Twilight shook her head. “Why couldn’t I just get a nice necklace like the rest of you?” She tucked it into a saddlebag. Fortunately, she still felt the connection to the gemstone.
“Your wings are sweet!” Rainbow Dash said. She leaned in close to Twilight’s side. “Nice, straight primaries. Fantastic span. I can’t wait to teach you to fly!”
“I feel weird,” Twilight said. “This is all so much, so fast.” She touched her chest with a hoof. “I don’t feel any different.” She glanced at her friends. “Shouldn’t I feel more powerful?”
Rarity shrugged. “Maybe? You were kind of powerful to start with.”
Twilight turned. She looked out the window and into the impenetrable green forest. “I guess we sit back and wait for Celestia’s ‘friend’ to show up.”
“Without all the Nightmares,” Fluttershy said, “this place is kind of nice.” She shuddered. “For a creepy old castle.”
Twilight yawned. “You know what? I could really use an eight hour nap.”
“Alicorns need sleep?” Applejack said.
Twilight fell back onto her haunches. “Guess so.” She stared out at the golden disk of the Sun cresting over the treetops. Birdsong filled the air. “I woke up to an angry mob this morning. Or was it last night?” She shrugged. “Now I’ve got wings. Quite a day.”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “I almost died.”
“Good work with that,” Rarity quipped. “You tried rushing a Goddess.”
“Hey, it woulda worked on Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash. “Hey!”
Pinkie shrugged. “She’s got a point.”
“Enough!” Twilight shouted. “I’m going to bed!” Huffing, she stood and walked off to find a nice dark space to lay her bedroll. The thought of the Slayer almost gave her pause, but she didn’t feel the hungry emptiness she’d felt. Whatever the Elements of Harmony had done to her, they’d freed her from the Slayer.
As she lay her head to rest, she wondered, What am I?
I’m a Shadowspawn. I’m an Alicorn. I have walked on the black plain of the Abyss with the Aspect of Chaos and spoken to the Sun while I stood on the sky. In my nightmares, I have seen God. I saved the Moon. I beat the darkness within me and rose into the light of the Elements of Harmony.
I am Magic.