As Skye neared the tower, she heard voices: Twilight's and Nightmare's.
She heard Twilight gasp, "But...where's the sixth Element?!"
Nightmare laughed and hissed at Twilight scornfully, "You little foal! Thinking you could defeat me? Now you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night will last forever!"
Skye peeked in through the windows. Nightmare's starry mane was a tornado of the night sky and lightning crackled from it. Shards of stone lay at her hooves. 'No...the Elements.'
Then, she heard voices coming from the staircase behind Twilight. 'They finally came for Twilight.'
Twilight gasped and turning to Nightmare as the others appeared beside her, she said confidently, "You think you can destroy The Elements of Harmony just like that? Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here."
The stone shards began to levitate and glow with different colored auras. Nightmare Moon exclaimed in surprise, "What? No!"
She shot a beam of magic at the six. Their pupils shrank as they realized their mistake of being unprepared for such attacks and they squeezed their eyes shut, awaiting their impending doom. Twilight's horn tried to fire up a barrier, but in her panic and fear, the spell wouldn't activate.
...But the blast never hit them.
"What?! Impossible!" Nightmare screamed. The six mares opened their eyes to see a cloaked figure in front of them, canceling Nightmare's blast with their own.
"Twilight! Go on; finish what you started! I'll hold her off."
The familiar voice made them blink; it was Snow Dusk.
Twilight blinked and nodded determinedly. "Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of...honesty!"
Orange-aura shards surrounded the farm pony.
Twilight continued. "Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of...kindness!"
Pink-aura shards surrounded the shy pegasus.
"Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of...laughter!"
Blue-aura shards surrounded the grinning pink pony.
"Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift represents the spirit of...generosity!"
Purple-aura shards surrounded the unicorn fashionista.
"And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire represents the spirit of...loyalty!"
Red-aura shards surrounded the rainbow-maned pegasus.
"The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us." Twilight said to Nightmare Moon, who had stopped her attack; Skye also paused.
She said disbelievingly, "You still don't have the sixth Element! The spark didn't work!"
Twilight objected, "But it did! A different kind of spark." She turned to her companions. "I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all...are my friends!"
A bright flash of light appeared above Twilight, revealing a stone: the sixth Element. Nightmare Moon covered her eyes from the blinding light with her wing. Skye did the same.
"You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the...the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of...magic!"
The stone shards then did something peculiar. They shifted into necklaces. The stone above Twilight's head turned into a crown. The six were lifted off the ground, and a rainbow beam looped and dove towards Nightmare Moon.
Skye and Nightmare both snapped out of the stupors they had been in. Nightmare tried to fire a beam of magic at the rainbow, but it had no effect. Her pupils shrank as it came down upon her.
"No! Noooo!" Nightmare Moon struggled vainly against the rainbow tornado that surrounded her.
Skye's ears lay flat against her head and her eyes closed tight. She could not bear this.
In a few moments, everything was silent.
Skye opened her eyes slowly. The element bearers were unconscious in a group, and there were two other unconscious beings. One was her mother; the other was, who Skye assumed to be, Princess Luna. She was mildly, if at all, surprised of the separation of the two.
Skye gritted her teeth.
She debated with herself whether or not to destroy the latter. After all, it was her fault that her mother was trapped on the moon for 1000 years. Her fault Skye was an orphan for a millennium. She even didn't blame Celestia for that; Celestia didn't know. But Luna did.
Skye's eyes drifted to her mother. On the more logical hand, she had her mother back now, no longer influenced by the negative emotions of Luna. Then again, her mother had willingly merged with Luna. And merging with Luna didn't change the fact that she was still conscious of her choices. They were only just shared with Luna.
And so, the logic versus emotion battle of choosing raged on; Skye's eyes flickered back and forth between the two unconscious alicorns.
And ultimately, lighting her horn, she made her decision:...She chose neither.
************
"Ugh, my head." Rainbow groaned as she stirred.
"Everypony okay?" Applejack asked.
Rarity exclaimed, "Oh, thank goodness."
Fluttershy complimented, "Why Rarity, it's so lovely."
Rarity hugged her tail. "I know! I'll never part with it again."
Fluttershy clarified. "No. Your necklace. It looks just like your cutie mark."
Rarity noticed it for the first time. She examined it and looked at Fluttershy. "What? Ooh. So does yours."
Fluttershy gasped in awe at hers. Pinkie bounced over. "Look at mine! Look at mine!"
Rainbow looked at hers. "Aw yeah."
Applejack said to Twilight, "Gee, Twilight. I thought you were just spoutin' a lot of hooey, but I reckon we really do represent the elements of friendship."
A voice said, "Indeed you do."
The sun rose above the horizon and a great, pure white alicorn appeared before them. Everypony except Twilight bowed. She gasped, "Princess Celestia!"
She cantered over to her mentor and they shared a friendly nuzzle.
"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I knew you could do it." Celestia said.
Twilight said confusedly, "But...you told me it was all an old pony's tale."
"I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart. Now if only another will as well. Princess Luna!"
Everypony's attention was brought to that of a light blue alicorn on the other side of the room. The alicorn in question gasped, terrified, as Celestia walked over to her. The light-blue armor of Nightmare Moon lay shattered and destroyed near her.
"It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister."
They all asked disbelievingly at the same time, "Sister?"
Princess Celestia payed them no mind and continued on. "Will you accept my friendship?"
Everypony leaned forward, silently encouraging Luna to accept. Pinkie leaned so much that she fell over.
Princess Luna looked down for a moment and then embraced her sister. "I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!"
Princess Celestia cried. She said through tears, "I've missed you, too."
Everypony smiled, and some even had tears in their eyes, but Pinkie took the cake. Pinkie sniffed and sobbed a well of tears. Then she perked up almost immediately and said excitingly, "Hey, you know what this calls for? A par-"
"If I may interrupt Miss Pie," Celestia said.
"Aw, I was gonna do a scene change." Pinkie pouted. Everypony blinked in confusion, but Celestia resumed.
"It seems we are not the only ones here." Princess Celestia pointed a hoof towards an unconscious figure.
The six bearers blinked. "Snow Dusk?"
************
Skye blinked open her eyes to realize that she wasn't in the Castle of the Two Sisters anymore. She was lying on a bed, and the walls were wooden. Animals scurried around, and the room was not very capacious.
She put a hoof to her head as she sat up. 'Oh, my head...Serves me right for casting that consciousness transfer spell right after counter-blowing an alicorn attack. What is this place?'
"Oh, you're awake."
Skye looked up to see Fluttershy standing in the doorway, not meeting her gaze.
"We were all so worried about you. Thank you, um, for helping us back there. Um, would you like anything right now?"
Skye responded curtly, "You're welcome. And thank you for your help and concern, but I'm fine. I should be heading back home right now."
"Oh, are you sure? We were um, hoping you'd stay longer so that we could all thank you properly."
"We?" Skye raised an eyebrow.
Fluttershy nodded, her eyes still angled at the floor. "Oh yes. The others and even Princess Celestia wanted to thank you for helping us. But the Princess went back to Canterlot already, so it's just the six of us."
Skye waved a hoof dismissively as she got off the bed. "It was really nothing. So, are we going to go and say 'hello' to everypony else or what?"
"Um, well, they said to meet at the library when you woke up, so we can go now...um, if you want."
Skye shrugged. "Sure."
"Oh, okay then." Fluttershy trotted downstairs.
Skye blinked, quite aware that Fluttershy did not meet her gaze even once. 'Weird. No wonder she's the shy one.'
************
Confetti. Lots and lots of confetti.
Skye blew a piece away from her hair as she leaned against the staircase and watched the others 'partying'.
Two hours. She had been here for two hours. To be fair though, the first hour was used up by Twilight to make a formal 'thank-you' speech. The other thank-you's were quicker, though Skye noticed that Rainbow was a bit hesitant. 'Probably still doesn't completely trust me. Element of Loyalty alright.'
She was snapped out of her thoughts when Pinkie jumped up in her face. "Come on, Snowy! Stop being a wallflower and have some fun!"
Skye scrunched up her muzzle. "Snowy?"
"Yeah, because Snow just sounds too boring, and Dusk sounds too serious, and Snow Dusk is a mouthful so...Snowy!"
Skye raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh. And I should be heading back home by now."
And then she realized that everypony was staring at her.
"Aww, you're leaving already?" Pinkie pulled a sad face.
"Yes." Skye said curtly.
Applejack smiled. "Well, 'fore ya' go, remember to come back, ya' hear? We'll spread good word to the town 'bout 'cha."
"We will?" Rainbow asked.
Applejack glared at her.
Rainbow chuckled nervously. "Oh right, we are."
"Uh-huh. Sure." Skye's eyes started to emit blue mist as she prepared to teleport. "And I have a quick question before I leave: Was there anypony else?"
They all blinked. Twilight coughed. "Um, what exactly do you mean?"
Skye rolled her eyes and sighed. "I mean, in the ruins, when you woke up. Was there anypony else besides Princess Luna, you all, and me?"
They all shook their heads simultaneously. "Uh uh."
"Well then, I bid you adieu." Skye said, the magical energy around her growing stronger.
Twilight then did a double take and blinked. "Wait a minute, how'd you-"
But Skye was already gone.
"-know about Princess Luna." Twilight finished blandly with a sigh.