--Chapter 5--
Back Where the Journey Started
After letting Revan regain his strength, the group of ponies, human and dog continued their journey. They all agreed that this forest is not the place for asking questions, so the most of the walk was spend I silence.
The resin Twilight had put on his leg was working great. After about 10 minutes he barely could feel anything. It felt strange for him to know that the bandage he wore was made by spiders though. Maybe spiders in this world are sapient too? I mean, I already saw talking ponies and that giant serpent thing, so that seems logical… kinda…
After about half an hour -thankfully without any incidents- they reached the cliff that laid before the castle. The corpses of the wolf he took down earlier still laid near the edge of the forest.
When the human looked at the cliff, he began to wonder what happened to the bridge, but soon he remembered that the second wolf that attacked him and Mischief fell down along with the bridge. That might be a bit of a problem.
Before he could speak up, Twilight noticed the castle and said. “There it is, the ruin that holds The Elements of Harmony. We made it!” With that said happily and rushed straight in the direction of the castle, not noticing the cliff in front of her.
“Twilight, wait!” Screams Revan in attempt to stop her. Twilight didn’t hear that or didn’t care. In both cases, it wasn’t about to end well.
Both Revan and Rainbow Dash rush towards the careless unicorn. “We're almost there- Whoa!” Twilight fell from the cliff.
Luckily for her, Revan was already there to catch her rear hoof, though he only barely managed to do this in time. “What is it with me having to save you from death today?” He says, before pulling the scared mare up. Rainbow Dash helped by pulling Twilight’s tail. Doesn’t that hurt?
While they were pulling Twilight up, Revan noticed something he didn’t pay any attention before. And that something was Twilight’s ‘female attributes’. His face immediately turned deep red and then he realizes something that made him blush even more. Oh fuck… they are all naked! For over half an hour I’ve been walking with 6 naked girls around the forest! ...I wonder how many guys can say they did that…
After that thought he looked away and bit his lip. As soon as Twilight was put back on the ground she noticed Revan’s red face. “Why is your face so red?” Perhaps he’s ill? That wound he got might got infected before I’ve put that resin on his leg... “Please tell me you didn’t get sick?” She asked worriedly.
“N-no, it’s just that… eee… Y-you know what, I’ll tell you later.” He answered. “Anyway, Rainbow could you, fix that bridge so we can pass?”
On the other hoof, he may just be embarrassed. But what could possibly embarrassed him? She decided to leave that question for latter, now they had other things to worry about.
Rainbow didn’t bother to speak up, she just saluted and flew foreword to get the bridge working again. Soon she was standing on the other side of the cliff with two ropes in her mouth, now she just had to tied them up to the nearby poles and she‘ll be done.
From the other side of the bridge, rest of the group observed Rainbow fixing the bridge for them. When she was about to finish with the second pole, the group of three ponies in dark flight suits made their way to her. “Rainbow, behind you!” Revan screamed.
Immediately Pegasus turned around to meet the mysterious ponies. They could see their rainbow haired companion talking with the ponies but neither couldn’t hear them and the fog was slowly getting thicker.
Twilight tried to use her magic to overhear the conversation, but her spell got blocked by another. And she immediately recognized it as black magic. And even worse, that 3 ponies were the center of it.
She gasped in realization. “Rainbow! Don’t listen to them!”
As soon as she said that, one of the dark ponies looked at her with an angry look and thickened the fog with magic. Now they could nether hear, nor see anything.
“Do you know who that was?” Asked Rarity.
“No, but I suspect it was Nightmare Moon trying to stop us from getting to the castle. Those ponies are made of black magic.”
“So basically she’s there along with an overpowered psychopath?” Revan asked rhetorically. “Just great. Fluttershy do you think you can get there and help her?” He didn’t receive the answer.
“Fluttershy?” He looked at her and saw that she was staring at the cliff, shaking like she had just spend an hour in the freezer.
As soon as he saw it, Revan made his way to her. “Hey! Earth to Fluttershy, wake up!” he shook her, but she kept staring blindly at the cliff. Seeing that this won’t work, he rose his hand and slapped her back into the reality.
“Wha- what was that for?” She asked with slightly raised voice (No one heard the difference).
“For staring at the cliff like at the corpse. Now tell me, can you go there and help Rainbow?” He answers.
“O-oh, y-you see…I’m kinda… afraid of heights …”
“You’re afraid of heights?” She weakly nods in response. “Przecież jesteś pegazem, potrafisz-((But you’re the pegasus, you can-))” Their little talk was interrupted by Rainbow flying out of the fog with the wide smile on her face. All eyes instantly turned to her (she didn’t mind at all).
Before pegasus could say anything Twilight run to her. “Rainbow! Are you alright? What happened in there?”
“Eh, nothing much. I just never leave my friends hanging.” Rainbow replied.
The moment Rainbow called her ’friend’, Twilight felt the same thing she felt before. First when she decided to trust Applejack (even though the farm pony could just tell her she’d be caught), than when Fluttershy teamed the manticore, when Pinkie Pie sang her song, when Rarity calmed that serpent and when Revan saved them from the timberwolves.
She wasn’t sure what that feeling was, but it was strangely comforting. I-is this what friendship feels like? If it is than…I-I want more of it… But should I? Well princess Celestia did tell me to find some friends, so maybe I could… NO! I can’t think like that. It is just a test. Princess wants to check if I take my studies seriously. It can’t be anything else… Right?
Not wasting any time all ponies walked on the other side. Revan wanted to insist that they walk one by one, but after seeing that bridge had no problems holding 5 ponies (Rainbow flew above them) at the same time, he decided to not wait and went along with them.
Soon they were standing in front of the entrance. “Well, we’re here. Anyone knows how those elements look?” Asked Revan.
“They should be on something that looks like a big stone fountain, but considering the size of this castle it might take a while to find it. I suggest we split in groups to cover more ground. If one group finds anything-“
“Actually, that fountain is right behind that gate.”
“Really?” He nods. “Well, that makes it much easier. Let’s go.” She used her magic to open the door and they all walked in. “Wooah.” Twilight commented the architectural structure and relatively good state the castle was in; after not being visited by anypony for almost one thousand years she expected to see a complete ruin.
“Come on, Twilight. Isn't this what ya've been waitin’ for?” Said Applejack.
“Hm, I’ve been wondering that that thing is. Can’t say I’ve expected it to be some magical artifacts.” Commented Revan.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash brought down each of 5 stone orbs down and place it on the ground. “Careful, careful!” Said Twilight, nervous about accidently damaging the Elements.
“One, two, three, four... There's only five!” Screamed Pinkie.
“Where's the sixth?” Said Rainbow.
*SIGH*”So I guess we’re going to search that castle anyways. I’ll go with Mischief and-”
“I don’t think it’s hidden in that castle, Revan. The book said ‘when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed.’”
“What in the hay is that supposed to mean?” Asked Applejack.
“I'm not sure, but I have an idea. Stand back. I don't know what will happen.”
“Come on now, y'all. She needs to concentrate.” All ponies went back to the entrance.
“Actually Applejack, I’d rather to stay here. That Nightmare Moon might want to try something again, and I’d rather be here to help.” Said Revan.
“All right, we’ll be waiting outside.”
Without wasting any time, Twilight channeled magic through her horn, at first she bonded all elements together and then released wave of raw magical energy. She had hoped that ‘spark’ mentioned in the book was just some sort of magic and she just had to figure out what kind of magic it was. With her first attempt filed, she decided to try using some diagnostic spells.
Like most of unicorns, Twilight had a specific branch of magic she was extremely good at. In her case it were diagnostic and scanning spells. Of course she was proficient with nearly all types of magic -she studied under the princess after all- but even as a filly she could perform diagnostic spells that would put to shame most of adult ponies.
And after years of studying with the princess she was capable of breaking the armored window by pinpointing the weakest spots and than putting a pressure on them with magic.
There was one time when she was ordered to make a quality check of all armored windows in the castle. It ended with every single window in the castle being replaced and half of castle’s cleaning crew with cuts on their hooves due to collecting parts of thousands of broken windows.
Celestia was laughing her ass off.
While Twilight was trying to figure out how to make sixth element appear, Revan was watching her like he was at the magic show. In fact being able to watch her perform some magic was another reason why he decided to stay. For those ponies it might have been something they see every day, but for him it was nothing short of amazing.
Mischief also seemed to be just as interested in magic like Revan was, if not even more. At some point he decided that it would be a good idea to smell her horn and then lick it. The unicorn immediately lost concentration and jumped away.
“Mischief! What is it with you today? Zazwyczaj się tak nie zachowujesz ((You normally don’t act like this)).” Revan attached the leash he took off before he jumped to the river when they heard the screams of ponies. He then looked at Twilight who was staring at them; her face was red as tomato. “Are you okay? And why are you blushing?”
“Y-Y-Yes, I’m o-okay. And…uh… I’ll t-tell you later.”Revan had a pretty good idea as to what had Mischief did, and if he was right than it would be better to not press the issue any further. He decided to just keep watching Twilight… and keep Mischief away from her, because the moment she resumed working on the elements he tried to get to her again.
After a minute of struggling with a dog Revan had enough and tied up the leash to one of pillars in the chamber. “Have you figured something out?” He asked.
“I think I have an idea, wait a second.” She began channeling magic again and concentrated on the elements. This time her plan was to use elements as lenses and push the raw magic through them. She hoped that connecting the concentrated magic will reveal the sixth element.
Suddenly the cloud of dark-blue smoke appeared around the elements and began to levitate them. Immediately Mischief began barking like he had gone insane. At first Revan thought it was part of whatever Twilight was doing, but after seeing her terrified expression he quickly corrected his thoughts.
“The Elements!” Twilight screamed and jumped straight into the cloud of smoke.
“Twilight, wait!” Revan attempted to stop her by catching her tail, but Twilight’s momentum pushed him into the cloud as well.
Once he fell inside the cloud Revan didn’t feel the ground where it supposed to be, in fact he felt as if he was falling underground. Soon, he felt as if gravity around him was being revised, followed by landing on something hard.
For a few seconds his head felt dizzy, and he had problems with standing up. Once he was somewhat alright he noticed Twilight coughing out some dust. When she had managed to clear her throat she looked ahead and gasped in fear.
Revan turned his glaze and looked ahead along with her. What he saw both surprised and scared him. He saw a pitch black pony about his size, laughing maniacally. Based on how her laugh sounded he deduced it was a female. Her mane looked like a night sky transformed into a mist. Her head and chest were covered in an armor, though it didn’t seamed that it gave her much protection. And was likely only meant as a ceremonial thing.
The human also noticed the elements of harmony floating around her.
He quickly realized that this was this Nightmare Moon, Twilight had been talking about. When both him and Twilight got over their shock, they took a fighting stance.
“You're kidding. You're kidding, right?” Nightmare Moon said and took a fighting stance herself. She was trying to sound confidant, but on the inside she was more than nervous. After all she was facing the creature that took down a large pack of magically enhanced timberwolves, and a unicorn who had enough power to break through Azular Shield with her magic, even if she wasn’t able to severely damage any of the wolves, braking through that shield was impressive feat on its own.
For the moment they eyed each other. “I’ll keep her busy, you go for those elements.” Revan whispered to Twilight. She would want to argue –he was injured after all- but at the moment that was the best thing they could do.
With that said they both charged at Nightmare.
Applejack closed the gate behind her, leaving Twilight and Revan alone. “So what do ya all think about this Revan fella?” She said as she turned to her friends.
Not surprisingly, Pinkie Pie was the first one to answer. “Oh, I think his fun. I mean do you remember that joke he told us? That one about this kid bringing his grandpa’s breathing apparatus to school and he couldn’t object because he couldn’t breathe without that thing? That was hilarious!”
“Yes Pinkie, it was funny the first time we heard that, please don’t repeat that over and over again each time you’ll have an occasion.” Said Rainbow Dash, making Pinkie release a sad ‘ooooh…’”And as to what I think about him, hmmm… I’m not really sure. I mean, he doesn’t look all that strong and I’m not sure how fast he is, but on the other hoof, the way he handled those timberwolves was totally awesome!”
“Ah think he’s stronger than he looks. When I lifted that knife of his I felt like I was lifting a bucket half-filled with apples.” Applejack came closer to the group and stood beside Rainbow. “And he’s carrying that thing all the time with no problem whatsoever. I’ve even saw him joggling with it at some point.”
“A strong gentlecolt with decent fashion sense. Heh, maybe I’ll ask him out some day.”
“Eh, don’t tell me ya’re ok with that interspecies stuff Rares…” Applejack said while facehoofing. “There is so many things wrong with that stuff that I don’t even want to begin. And what do ya mean he has a ‘decent fashion sense’? He didn’t said anything about fashion as far as I remember.”
“Why, of course I’m okay with interspecies relationships Applejack. Who do you take me for?” Huffed Rarity. “Besides, if it would happened –which I certainly don’t wish for- that we won’t be able to find a way to bring him back to his world and he would be forced to stay here, I don’t honestly see any other form of relationship that would be available for him.”
“Unless he’s asexual, which is rather unlikely considering how much he was staring at Twilight’s butt when we were passing the bridge” Bluntly said Pinkie Pie. Suddenly she was surrounded with swarm of confused ponies (It was relatively small swarm). “What? You mean you didn’t noticed that? Here, I’ve made a picture.”
She pulled a photo out of her mane and showed it to the other mares. On the picture all ponies could see Revan staring at Twilight’s butt, with wide eyes. He was more red than tomato.
Normal pony would ask how in the Tartarus did she get the camera to make the picture, or more importantly, how did she managed to even make that photo. If the angle the photo was taken is anything to go by, Pinkie had to levitate above the canyon.
But ever since Pinkie has come to the town, ‘normal’ is no longer word that describes ponies from Ponyville, so instead they all laughed (except Fluttershy who choose to blush). Rarity left out a lady like laugh, while Applejack And Rainbow Dash started to roll on the ground, unable to control themselves. Seeing their reaction, Pinkie laughed as well.
“Oh boy, this is going to be such a great blackmail material! Pinkie, hide that and save for later.” Said Rainbow after managing to somewhat get herself under control.
“Anyway,” Applejack left out a small chuckle. ”Fluttershy, what do ya think of him? You haven’t said the word.”
“Um, w-well, I think he’s alright. I mean those small eyes of his are just SO cute. And if it wasn’t for him those timberwolves would tear us apart.”
“I actually thought you’d be mad at him for killing those wolves, with you loving animals so much.” Said Rarity.
“Even I know that there are animals that can’t be helped.” She said while shamefully looking at the ground. Unlike most ponies thought, Fluttershy had put down more than a few animals. Whether would it be a bird injured too much to heal him, or an aggressive dog.
“And besides, timberwolves aren’t really animals. I’ve read that-“
*Pff*”Reading is for eggheads” Guess who said that.
“-that they are actually souls that can’t make it to the other side; sometimes because something is holding them here and other times because of being exposed to the dark magic. Furthermore when the timberwolf kills somepony, that pony becomes the timberwolf as well. By killing them, Revan actually helped them to join their loved ones. And considering the size of that pack, some of those wolves could have been way over a thousand years old. Timberwolves are rather rare creatures, and when one wolf meets some group, it just joins.
It also happens that when a particularly evil soul becomes the timberwolf, after dying it can use bodies of nearby timberwolves to create a bigger version of itself. In times shortly after the Great Migration of Tribes, there was a special branch of guard force that was trained for the purpose of hunting and killing timberwolves, but as far as I know, it doesn’t exist anymore.”
There was a moment of silence. “Wow, didn’t know you were such an expert on timberwolves.” Applejack commented the yellow pegasus’s knowledge.
She blushed at the complement. “W-well I just… I mean… t-thank you…”
Before any of them could speak again, their conversation was cut off by the loud barking coming from the castle. “What the hay is going on there.” Applejack approached the doors; rest of ponies following behind her.
Suddenly, they heard Twilight scream. “The Elements!”. Applejack rushed to the doors and pushed them. Before she managed to open them she heard Revan’s voice. “Twilight, wait!”. When the door were opened all that they could see was Revan falling into the cloud of smoke.
They all gasped. Mischief was tied up to the column and was trying to bite off the leash.
After a moment of panic –typical for ponies- Rarity noticed lights coming from the other side of the castle. “Look!”
“Come on! We need to get to them!” Applejack rushed to the hallway.
And stopped immediately. “Um… Ah don’t know how to navigate around here…”
“Maybe Mischief can help us.” Fluttershy pointed at the dog who was still desperately trying to get the leash off.
Rest of the group nodded in agreement.
The shy Pegasus approached the dog. Mischief was still trying to break the leash with his teeth, giving Fluttershy a perfect view of them. Compared to those of the dogs she saw, Mischief’s were much larger and sharper. There also was much more of them. Overall the only animal in her cottage who could compete with Mischief in terms of teeth, was Harry the Bear.
When the dog noticed her, he stopped in his efforts and tried to get her to release him. She tried to untie the leash from the column, but it was clearly not made for hooves. After a bit of struggling she managed to get it open and Mischief immediately rushed to the point where he last saw Revan.
The ponies observed as Mischief circled around the middle of the chamber with his head down. It didn’t take him long to sense something and he quickly run towards the hallway. Ponies had run after him.
Nightmare Moon charged at the unicorn and human with her horn pointed at them. Twilight was running in front of Revan; her horn also pointed at her opponent but charged with magic. Right before they made a contact, Twilight teleported herself behind Nightmare Moon and continued to look for a way to summon the 6th element.
The sudden flash of light blinded, Nightmare forcing her to slow down and close her eyes. Right after Twilight teleported, Revan jumped and kicked the alicorn with both legs straight in the head. His heavy boots made the impact even more powerful.
Nightmare was pushed back, but remained on her hooves. Alicorns possessed magic of all types of ponies, which includes unicorns’ mana manipulation, pegasis’ mass lowering abilities, earth ponies’ strength, and other perks and skills that all types of ponies have. One of which is Earth ponies’ ability to redirect force of an impact into the ground. The ability that Nightmare was using now.
That didn’t made her face hurt less, but allowed her to somewhat prepare herself to counterattack. When Revan got up, Nightmare was already sending a strike in his direction. He barely caught her hoof in hand and sent a headbutt to his opponent.
A mistake on his part, as his head met a diamond hard skull of an alicorn; hurting himself more than her.
Nightmare Moon immediately took use of the advantage and using her other hoof she hit Revan in the chest. The power of strike was enough to send him off of his feet.
Not stopping there the alicorn landed on top of Revan and bombarded him with the rain of powerful hits. He was desperately trying to block her attacks, but they were simply too fast for him catch. He managed to find an opening and pushed his hand between Nightmare ribs, stopping her attack for long enough to let him reach for his knife and stab her leg.
Nightmare screamed in pain and teleported away. She used her magic to ease the pain, full healing would take too much time, and right now she didn’t have any.
The time it took her to get back to fight was enough for Revan to stand up. He spited some blood and took a fighting stance once again; knife held by his right hand in reversed grip.
The odds of this fight weren’t on his side. While Revan spent almost half of his life training martial-arts and was strong for a human, he was facing an opponent with thousands of years of fighting experience, with at least twice more strength than him, diamond hard bones, magic and ability to fly.
The only advantage he had was his knife and his gun(which he forgot to reload after encounter with the wolves in the forest).
Upon another charge, Nightmare aimed for Revan’s head. He dogged the attack only to be forced to block another hoof. The strength of the strike almost made him drop his knife.
After barely blocking few more attacks he realized that his usual defensive tactic will be next to useless in this fight, so he decided to play more offensively. He thrown few strikes, all of which Nightmare blocked with minimal difficulty.
Finally Revan managed to hit her in the chest, quickly adding one in the side of her head. He tried to hit her again but this time was blocked by her hoof while the other hit him in the stomach.
The fight kept up like that for a few minutes. Each time Nightmare would gain the advantage over Revan, he’d manage to save himself with his knife. After all this time he was barely standing, but standing nonetheless.
He wasn’t the only one who was having problems standing. Even though the human didn’t managed to cause much damage to her compared to how much punishment he took, Nightmare was starting to feel exhausted. Even with endurance that would put many unicorns to shame, Revan could easily outlast her.
She knew that she had to find a way to finish this fight fast or he’d be able to finally take advantage of her exhaustion.
They both circled around each other for a bit before returning to the fight. For a brief moment Nightmare’s tiredness had shown itself. Revan instantly took notice of that and used all strength he had to throw a series of hits on his opponent.
Nightmare was forced to teleport away after she felt another stab, this time in her armpit. With another pain reducing spell put on herself, she eyed her enemy.
And then she decided to put everything on one card.
Her plan was risky, if she would made only one mistake or miscalculation she would be left completely exhausted and unable to keep fighting. It was necessary though, she knew that she was more than capable of defeating him the normal way, but it would take her too much time and she had to stop that unicorn from summoning the 6th element.
She closed her eyes and began to channel magic into her horn. Revan decided to attack her and run in her direction. Right before he hit her, she teleported behind him and with both of her rear hooves kicked him I the back.
In the blink of an eye, she teleported again, this time above him and smashed her hooves in the back of his head.
She teleported and hit again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
When she was done she stood few meters away from her enemy. He stood there for a few seconds before falling on his knees.
She charged at him with her horn lowered, just like at the beginning of the fight. She used one of the pegasi's abilities to lower her mass, and Earth ponies' magic to increase the strength of her legs, increasing her speed.
When she run into him, her horn impaled him through the shoulder and send him flying few meters away. Before he could make contact with the ground, she teleported again and kicked him with her rear hooves, sending him flying straight into the nearby pillar; leaving a bloody mark on it.
Nightmare looked at the body of her defeated opponent with satisfaction. His white hair was dyed red by blood and his face was covered in bruises and bleeding from few places. The wound on his shoulder bled profusely and his arm was broken. His uniform was torn in many places and soaked with blood.
She smiled and turned around. She saw the lavender unicorn staring at her fallen companion’s body with a fearful expression on her face.
Not waiting for any second more she teleported behind the unicorn and thrown her away from the elements -sending her right next to Revan- and then smashed them into pieces.
This was it. The moment she was waiting for so long.
Celestia laid defeated and hopeless below the castle in the dungeon. The only power capable of defeating her destroyed. The ‘defenders’ of the land were powerless to stop her. She-
*GRRRRRRR*
-heard a loud growl of one very pissed of dog…