The trio of ponies all stood in battle stance, ready for anything to happen.
Nightmare Moon took a step closer, but stopped.
She looked closer at Applejack, noticing her horn and wings.
“Are you kidding me? You actually DID turn the orange one into an
alicorn? That explains how she survived the energy flow here.”
Twilight looked slightly confused. “You speak as if you knew we did it..
How did you...”
“Oh, OBVIOUSLY I’ve kept you under surveillance ever since you entered
my dark realm. My guards DO keep me informed, and when you crossed
through that moronic enchanted gate, my raven noticed you and flew
here, telling me that three alicorns were on their way.”
“We should’ve known you would be spying on us...” Applejack said,
gritting her teeth.
“But WHY are you doing all this?” Twilight asked.
Nightmare Moon smirked.
“To gain control over Equestria again, of course. I was so close last time.
If it hadn’t been for that pesky white alicorn and those
Elements of Harmony, I would have ruled the lands.”
“But we defeated you when you returned from the moon, using the same
elements against you again!” Twilight said in a raised voice.
“Pfffth, that only released my connection with Luna. And she was my
physical body in the ‘real’ world. You did not defeat me, you simply
sent me back into the dream realm. Back here, to be specific.
But, before you did so, I re-activated the stones which I created a thousand
years ago, before the banishment. We never quite finished them back then.
But when I returned, I added the last few spells to activate the stones.
And then, I made my appearance in the castle, as foretold by that
prophecy. After that, I was going to use the stones to gain further power.
However, I only had time to do the initial activation before you came
with your friends and the Elements awoke again. My plan was to combine
the Elemental stones with MY stones, creating the Nightmare Elements.”
Applejack looked at Luna. “Is this true? Was THAT what you were
planning!?”
Luna sighed, with noticeable regret. “Technically, I was completely
overtaken by Nightmare Moon at the time, so it was completely her idea.
I, however, WAS still fully aware of everything, I was just NOT in control
of my own body anymore. It was as if we shared the body, and she was
the one in control. I was... a passenger in my own body. I could see and
hear everything, but I could do nothing. But yes, she DID plan to create
Nightmare elements, and use them to increase her powers by nearly a
hundred times.”
“I was... until you stopped me, because somehow the elements chose YOU
and your friends instead of ME when you broke them free.
If you had not come and interrupted me, I would have succeeded!”
Nightmare Moon almost growled when she spoke now,
her anger becoming more and more noticeable with each sentence.
“But why are the stones activating now then?” Twilight asked.
“Because she added spells to give them a delayed automatic activation
if anything went wrong. A sort of fail safe. If she was cast back to the
dream realm, the stones would activate themselves after a few years,
to give her enough power to reclaim control over somepony through
their dreams, just like she did with me when she took my body.”
Luna explained.
“Enough talking!” Nightmare growled. “Surrender, or face the
consequences!”
The trio re-assumed their battle stance. Luna and Twilight both charged
their horns, readying them for quicker spells, while Applejack focused
her mind, staring at Nightmare Moon, noticing every movement.
Nightmare Moon laughed, spreading her wings and flying up near
the ceiling. Her horn started glowing in its dark blue aura.
“You think YOU can defeat ME?! And especially HERE, in my own
realm?! What a joke!!”
“We’ll see about that! We’ve won against seemingly impossible odds
before, many times! Including defeating YOU!” Applejack shouted,
with her voice full of confidence. Her confidence also rubbed off on
Twilight and Luna. They had no doubt at all in their minds that they
would win in the end, even if it took a while.
Nightmare Moon charged her horn, blasting a large ball of pure energy
toward them. They all jumped in different directions, dodging the blast.
It made a black mark on the floor, as if the stones had been scorched by
intense flames.
The trio shouted a battle cry and charged, from three directions.
“FOR EQUESTRIAAAA!!!”
* * *
“Really?!” Nightmare almost shouted. “Such lame battlecry! If I wasn’t
so focused on destroying you, I might even have laughed!”
Another blast of energy shot out, grazing Twilights wingtip slightly as
she flew near the ceiling. It was enough to hurt, but not quite enough to lose
control, luckily.
“Ouch!”
“You okay?” Applejack asked.
“Yeah, just a few burnt feathers, no real damage. But those blasts are really
hot, I think it’s some sort of fire spell... Although it doesn’t look like one...”
“It is a form of dark magic, similar to fire
spells. Simply put, it has the same energy as a fire spell, but without the
actual shape of flames.” Luna explained.
Nightmare kept blasting, seemingly half-randomly. Twilight suspected
it was a tactic to make herself less predictable, and thus harder to dodge.
Luckily for Twilight, Luna and Applejack, they were all fast and nimble,
able to dodge the attacks faster than Nightmare could shoot.
“This is easier than I thought it would be.” Twilight mumbled to herself.
“Almost too easy... as if...oh buck... GUYS!”
Luna and Applejack turned their attention to her for a brief second,
but still managed to keep dodging Nightmares attacks.
“This is just a trick! This is not her full power! She’s doing this to tire us!
When we’ve spent our energy, she’ll attack more seriously!”
“I suspected that.” Luna said. “I was going to inform you soon,
when I made sure of it. Nightmares energy... I can see it.
She is not even spending half of it on these blasts. She has some other
spell planned, and I suspect she’s saving her energy for that!”
Applejack made a quick jump, and then used her wings to push off the
ground to make a higher jump, getting her straight above Nightmare.
When she reached peak height, she used the wings again, but this time
she pushed herself down, with all her weight focused.
She stomped Nightmare straight on the head, but all it accomplished
was a small dent in Nightmares helmet. As soon as Applejack took ground,
Nightmare took her chance and blasted her left wing. Applejack cried out in
pain as the blast burned the wing.
“AAAAARGH!!!”
“APPLEJACK!” Twilight burst out, quickly running to her friend and raising
a shield around them. She then cast a freeze spell to extinguish the flames,
and to numb the pain, at least a bit.
“Are you okay?”
“A bit better now, thanks to you... and also, it was just the wing,
not one of my ACTUAL body parts.. That wing was gonna go away
after we leave this realm anyhow. But it DID hurt a lot..
So I would not want to get blasted again. Close quarter attacks seems
to risky, at least as long as she can use her...wait.. That’s IT!”
“What? You have a plan?” Twilight looked at Applejack.
“I think I might, if it’s possible to do what I have in mind.. But you or Luna
has to do it. LUNA. GET OVER HERE!”
Luna moved closer, and she too raised a small barrier between them and
Nightmare, who now took her chance to recharge some of her magic
and plan her own next attack.
“Listen carefully, and then tell me if it can be done...” Applejack started.
“Is there any, ANY, possible way that you could block her magic,
or break her horn off, or something like that? Her main - maybe ONLY -
strength is her magic. Without that, she can’t defeat all three of us.”
“Blocking magic is a very difficult technique. It CAN be done, but not under
these current circumstances, it takes too long and requires calmer conditions.
But that break-the-horn-idea would work. Without the horn, she’d still have
her magic, but she would be unable to focus it into spells.”
“Can one of you shield Twilight and keep the shield moving with her movements, so she can get one of those
fly-kicks in, but aimed at the horn this time?”
“Wait. Do not aim directly at the horn straight on. Look here.” Luna said,
and pointed at Applejacks temporary horn as a reference.
“Here.. just at the base, where the horn and the head meet. And from a angle,
so that you can ‘break it off’ with you hoof, instead of striking on the tip.
That way will be much more efficient, and easier to aim as well.”
“Well, we gotta move fast! Nightmare looks like she’s almost done
recharging, which means any second now there’s gonna be more of those
hot energy blasts!” Twilight said. “Get ready...”
Nightmare once again ignited her horn and started blasting, but this time
it was different. She was shooting different blasts now, several kinds.
Among them were the same dark balls of heat, but now there were
balls of other colours and sizes too. When they hit the ground or the walls,
their various effects showed - Ice, electricity, fire, explosions, binding vines.
Luna raised a small shield in front of Twilight, who leaped into the air.
Like Applejack, she made a diving kick toward Nightmare, But this time
she was ready - almost. She raised a shield herself, but she was a half second
too slow. Twilights kick DID hit, but her aim was thrown off by the
emerging shield. She hit the horn at too much angle, and instead of breaking
off entirely at the base, it became crooked and dented at the middle.
Nightmare screamed, in a mixture of surprise and pain.
“AAAGH! FOOLS! YOU THINK THAT WILL BE ENOUGH?!
ALL YOU HAVE DONE IS MAKE ME ANGRY! YOU WON’T
LIKE ME WHEN I’M ANGRY!”
Despite being crooked, her horn seemed to glow even stronger.
The ceiling filled with thunderclouds, and lightning bolts started
randomly striking all over the room, except where Nightmare stood.
“I have another idea!” Luna said. “I need you two to distract her for a full
minute.. can you do that?”
“Worth a try, whatever your idea is!” Applejack said while dodging the
lightning bolts.
“I agree!” Twilight said, raising a small shield above herself.
“What IS the plan though, out of curiosity?” Applejack asked.
“You’ll see.” Luna said in a somewhat cryptic voice.
In order to distract Nightmare, Twilight started shooting energy blasts
toward her, similar to the ones she herself had used moments ago.
Twilights blasts where smaller, but she was able to shoot relatively many
in each blast, making it like a magic shotgun.
Meanwhile, Applejack ran around and kept dodging Nightmares attack,
taunting her in an effort to draw Nightmares attention to herself.
“That the best you can do, Nighty? Hah! I’ve fought timberwolfs
tougher than you!”
“THOU ARROGANT, WORTHLESS LITTLE INSECT!!
THOU SHALT FEEL OUR WRATH!! THOU SHALT EXPERIENCE PAIN
SO INTENSE THOU SHALT WISH DEATH TO COME AS THY
SAVIOR! BUT NAY, WE SHAN’T LET THEE DIE, WE SHALL KEEP
THEE ALIVE AND CONTINUE THE TORTURE FOR YEARS!!”
“Okay Luna, whatever you’re gonna do, you better get going fast!
She’s reverted back to old speech, and Royal Canterlot Voice,
AND gruesome threats!” Twilight said in a raised voice.
“Almost done! When I tell you to, I need you both to jump AWAY from
Nightmare, and from me. Clear the path between us!”
Both ponies nodded. “Understood!” They both replied.
Lunas horn grew brighter than ever before. “NOOOW!!!”
Applejack and Twilight jumped as far away as they could to either side.
Behind Nightmare, some kind of vortex opened up, and from Lunas
horn a powerful blast pushed Nightmare into the vortex. The room filled
with a blinding light, forcing all ponies to close their eyes for a few whole
seconds before the light faded back to normal in the room.
When they opened their eyes and looked around, they did not see
Nightmare anymore, But Luna was lying on the floor.
“Luna?!” Twilight said in a worried tone.
“Are you alright?” Applejack added.
Luna coughed but remained lying on the floor.
She spoke in a tired, almost exhausted tone.
“I am fine... Those two spells... just drained... a lot of my energies...
both magical and.. non-magical..” She coughed again.
“I ust need... a few minutes... rest.. and then, we’ll... end this...”
“What about Nightmare?” Twilight asked.
“No worries... She is... gone now...” Luna replied.
“I will.. explain soon, when.. I regain.. some strength.”
* * *
Five minutes passed, after which Luna slowly stood up again.
“So, about Nightmare...” Twilight asked.
“The simplest way to explain what I did...
I banished her essence to Tartarus. And before you ask - Yes, I can do that.
It is, as you noticed, a very exhausting spell to cast though,
and used only in the worst cases. Such as Nightmare Moon.
Tartarus has a sort-of prison, where the most dangerous villains are banished.
At least, the immortal ones that cannot be dealt with in.. ‘other ways’.”
“So, she’s gone forever now?” Twilight asked.
“Hopefully. There HAS been escape attempts..But so far, no one has
succeeded in escaping the deepest prison, even if some admittedly
did come close. That is where I sent her. The deepest, most secure level.”
“So what now? We need to do something about that power stone, right?”
Applejack said and pointed toward the dark pillar with the stone still
hovering above it.
“Indeed, but this should be a simple deed now that Nightmare is gone.
Her powers was shielding it, but without her it should be relatively
simply to literally just break the stone.”
“You mean, I can just buck it to pieces?”
“It may take a few bucks, even for you, but yes. That should work.
Also, you need not break the stone itself, but rather that pillar-thing
beneath it. The stone is purely a source of energy, the pillar is what
harnesses the energy and spreads it through the realm.”
“Okay then.” Applejack said, and started bucking the pillar.
A few good strikes later, it cracked. Another few strikes, and it
broke off into small pieces. When it did, the whole realm started
quaking, mildly at first but increasing over time.
“The realm is crumbling without the energy to keep it stable.”
Luna explained. “It is time for us to leave. Hold my wings,
and hold on tight. We’re leaving the Dream Scape.
And just like when we entered, we might not land exactly where we plan..
And for safety reasons, I will put us outside the library rather than in it.”
“Sounds good to me, I’m just happy to get back home!” Applejack said.
“Me too..” Twilight agreed, as they both grabbed Lunas now extended
wings. Her horn glowed, and everything started spinning and turned a
blinding white. A few moments later, They were standing in a pond near the
library.
“Everypony okay?” Luna asked.
“I still have the wings... uh.. wing-and-burned-remains... and the horn.”
Applejack said. “You said once we go home, they’ll go away.”
“I said, once we go home they’ll begin to fade. It still might take an hour or
so until they’re actually gone.”
“Oh well... better late than never I suppose.”
Twilight took a few deep breaths. “Feels good to be back though...
Now, let’s get back to the Golden Oaks and tell the kids we’re back and
everything is fixed now.
“Yeah..” Applejack said.
They all started walking back, and after five minutes they entered the
Golden Oak Library.
“We’re back!” Twilight said as she opened the door.