The Adventures of the Elementals
Chapter 36: The Battle of Ponyville (Part 2)
While the fight began to brew down in Ponyville, Princess Celestia and Luna were in Canterlot Castle explaining the situation to the citizens of the town with as much detail as she possible. Needless to be said, but everypony in that castle were surprised to hear that the six Alamantians were indeed alive and well. Once the news hit their little ears, the Cutie Mark Crusaders all beamed and cheered happy for their friends not being dead and rushed to the window yelling them all good luck and to kick Nightmare Moon's flank.
While most ponies were happy to hear of the turn of events and the shift in the balance of power, there were still of course a few lone ponies that had a little less joy in them. One of those ponies being the princess of the night, who still wanted an explanation from Celestia, apparently knowing the whole time that they weren't deceased. Once the white alicorn finished her speech to her little ponies, Luna pulled her aside and demanded that she spill.
"Luna, please. Now is not the best time. We need to keep these ponies calm." She tried to reason wanting to focus on more pressing matters.
"I believe they have been quelled enough by your words alone, sister." Luna shot back. "Now it is time for you to do the same with me. You knew that they were alive the entire time, didn't you?"
A single nod came from Celestia.
"And the whole thing that happened, all the way back to when you told the Alamantians they had to leave Equestria, it was all a scheme?"
Another nod.
"To what end? What was the purpose? Why have everypony go through so much pain? Your own protégé lashed out at you and shut you out. Why sister? Just...why...and how?"
Celestia sighed expecting this kind of reaction from Luna. She knew her younger sister was happy to see the ponies still alive but she truly despised being deceived in such a large manner. The crowd in the throne room seemed to be under control enough for her to spend some time alone with her sister. She figured now would be as good a time as any to start explaining. She took a deep breath, looked her sister right in the eyes, and began to talk.
"It happened like this."
*Ponyville*
While the truth and details of the plan began to come forth, the group of thirteen ponies stood ready to fight off another hoard of Shadowmares. The mission of these shadows was simple. Stall the elements for long enough to give their master time to completely heal herself. The opposing team's objective: plow through the Shadowmares and get to Nightmare before she finishes the process. It sure wasn't going to be easy but they felt ready and strong enough to do it.
“Cryo, Ty, go for it.” Pyro commanded.
With those words, the two mentioned ponies bolted away from the group and towards the oncoming horde of bad guys.
“I’ve always wanted to try this move out with you!” Cryo said to his sister excited.
As he said that, his two front hooves became covered in snow and he began to stand bipedal, moving his forelegs around charging up his attack. Typhoon rolled her eyes knowing how Cryo can be excited at the wrong times and began to spin in midair, a whirlwind conjuring up around her body. Two seconds later, they launched their combined technique. Typhoon let loose a powerful cyclone directed right for the Shadowmares and Cryo shot a blast of snowy energy right into the cyclone creating a blizzard storm attack.
Snow, ice, and wind pelted the Shadowmares as they came into contact with it, causing a fair amount of the group to vaporize defeated. A group of Shadowbolt fliers flew over the blizzard blast and dive straight for the two Alamantians. Seeing them come made Cryo and Typhoon cease their dual attack and draw their weapons once more. Typhoon flew right for the flying shadows and began to swing her bow with perfect technique as a melee weapon. She was soon joined in the airborne brawl by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Rainbow wasted no time in gritting her teeth and punching the everloving snot out of every Shadowbolt that got near her. Fluttershy was more in favor of dodging every attack thrown at her. Which she was surprisingly good at. The Shadowbolts pretty much were hitting themselves with all the evading she was doing. Cryo was joined on the ground by the rest of his allies and they all jumped head on into the Shadowmares. Weapons were swinging, hooves were being thrown, magic was fired, and it was a brawl on a scale never before imagined.
Terra, while slashing Shadowmares big and small alike with her clawed gauntlets, couldn't help but notice that every spare second Applejack got, she glared at her with her eyes full of ice. Agua and Gem as well were starting to sense a bit of hostility towards them coming from their own partners. Of course they had a reason to be angry. They had gone 8 days thinking that their good friends had died in a very violent way and also uncovered what they thought was their dead bodies. Rainbow even watched as the fake Gem died in her arms. The cyan pegasus was more angry and hurt than thrilled when she saw a standing plasma mover in front of her.
"So what's the plan here?!" Shining Armor shouted as he kept blasting shadow creatures with his magic. "The six of you were in hiding out wherever you were for over a week! You had to have thought of something!"
That question did little to slow down their fighting speed, but it did make the Alamantians a bit nervous with their answer. Why? Because...
"On top of trapping her in this dome, we don't have one!" the ice mover answered bashing his right tonfa atop the head of a Shadowbolt.
The reaction to the answer was of course as expected. Not only did Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity shoot glares to their respective partners, but Twilight, Fluttershy, Shining Armor and Pinkie as well gave annoyed looks to the foreign ponies for the lack of a true strategy.
"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Twilight cried. "Just keep beating these things up?!"
"Until we find some sort of weakness to Nightmare Moon....yeah pretty much!" Agua cried slicing a shadowmare in half with his axe.
Twilight groaned herself frustrated blasted Shadowmares back and forth. 8 days hiding out and they came back with no plan of any kind. Just what the hell were they doing during those 8 days other than the small idea of trapping her with the barrier spell?
"Well y'all better start thinkin' harder! Cause we can't fight ferever!" Applejack shouted.
The country mare then ducked a blast from a nearby airborne shadowbolt and whipped out her lasso. She tossed it perfectly and caught hold of the flier like a fish and swung around in a circle before slamming it down to the ground making it vaporize.
Shining Armor was doing his best to keep his head at the problem at hand and work alongside his friends to try and formulate a proper plan, but something still ate away at him.
"How did you survive?!" He shouted.
It was obvious that question was directed to the six Alamantians.
"Now is really not the best time for long explanations, Shining Armor!" Pyro answered him.
"Now may be the only time!" The captain yelled once more.
He did have a point. With all the shots flying and attacks being thrown, there was a good chance not all of them would be alive at the end of this to tell them what they did. But of course the attacks would also make it hard to explain. They would have to slow down time in order to give them a suitable explanation.
Swinging his spade around slashing up shadowbeast after shadowbeast, Pyro came up with an idea. Talking would be too much of a time waster, but showing them using one of his sisters could take a lot less time.
"Typhoon! Get over here!" he called.
The mare of wind was busy jamming in arrow into the eye socket of a shadowbeast with the taken shape of an ursa minor. By the time it dissolved, she heard Pyro's voice travel into her ears and took off like a shot with Fluttershy close behind her. The demure mare trailing her partner was having no problem keeping up with the speedy pink pegasus wanting to stay as close to her as she can at all times for safety.
When Typhoon landed, Pyro quickly explained to her a plan and nodded agreeing to it, whatever it was. Fluttershy couldn't make out what they were saying over all the noise. The Shadowmares were beginning to surround them all in a circle as the other five Alamantians stood at the border holding them off. They urged their partners to back up and stand near Typhoon in the center. Shining Armor joined them at the request of the telepath herself since he was the one who asked.
When they were all close enough together, Terra jumped up and slammed both of her front legs to the ground causing the ground to push away all the Shadowmares in the vicinity who couldn't fly thanks to her power.
"NOW TYPHOON!" she shouted.
All at once, Typhoon took a deep breath and pressed a hoof to the side of her head as her mind connected to the six mares and Shining Armor. All seven of them felt as if part of their bodies was falling asleep as they started to lose their vision in a cloud of white. Soon enough it came back to them but they were no longer in the middle of a battlefield. There were inside Carousel Boutique. And in the living room they saw themselves and their partners sitting around and enjoying each other's company. As odd as it was to look at themselves, they were easily able to recognize this. This was the day Celestia came and told them the Alamantians had to leave. Typhoon was transferring her telepathy to replay this day's memories to them from her perspective.
From beside them another image of Typhoon herself appeared next to them to help explain.
"You recognize zis day, non?" She asked looking to them. Seeing them all nod, she continued talking. "Zis ees where everything was set eento motion."
A knock on the door came and the Typhoon from back then got up to answer it to see Celestia there. Now they all remember that the two of them were just standing there looking at each other for some time before Celestia asked be let in.
"Were you two having a staring contest?" Pinkie asked.
"Non, Pinkie." Typhoon answered. "She and I were talking."
Before they knew it, two more voices filled their heads. One of them being the past Typhoon and the other belonging to Princess Celestia.
"Typhoon, I need you to hear me right now. Do not speak, just listen."
It was pretty genius when Twilight thought about it. Using Typhoon's telepathy to have a conversation without anypony else knowing is a golden tactic.
"Um....oui, your highness."
"After having counsel given to me by an old friend of mine, he and I have come up with a plan that may just give Nightmare Moon the sense of security she needs to finally reveal her whole self in physical form. In order for this plan to be successful I need you and your Alamantian siblings to go along with everything I am about to say. Tell only them of this conversation, but do not tell your partners. I hate to deceive them like this, but they must be kept in the dark. Now do you understand?"
They all saw the past image of Typhoon giving the princess a light and barely noticeable nod before she opened the door up all the way to let her come in. After witnessing that, Applejack's anger could only rise. She glared icicles to the mare of wind next to her almost wanting to slug her.
"It goes back that far?!" she demanded. "Y'all lied to us for that long?!"
The others didn't think it was even possible for Applejack to get more angry than she already was at this point. But the next thing Typhoon did proved them wrong.
She shushed Applejack.
She turned to the farmer mare, went "Shhh." and turned back as if she didn't hear a word she said. Fire was now in the already livid Applejack's eyes as she raised a foreleg to clock her right across the jaw. When she felt her hoof being held back, she turned around more than ready to redirect her strike. That feeling immediately died when she saw two deep teal eyes looking into her own with a very stern expression.
As much as she wanted to hit Typhoon, Applejack knew she would get such an earful from Fluttershy that would feel worse than ten strikes if she went through with hitting the pony she considered an adoptive sister. So for her sake, she set herself back down and motioned for Typhoon to keep going.
The scene around them then seemed to dissolve away and rematerialize into something different. The sky was night, all twelve of them were now standing at the bottom of a boarding ramp to a modified airship. They were now re-living the moment the Alamantians boarded the ship and Celestia was giving them a case full of supplies.
"You see what Princess Celestia gave us zere?" Typhoon pointed to the chest.
"Yes." Twilight answered. "She said it was full of supplies to help make your trip easier."
"Een some way, zat wasn't really a lie."
Typhoon made the image blurry to all of them again and it reformed to show all six Alamantians on the airship behind closed doors. As soon as it was latched shut, their faces, most of them feigning sadness and anger, all faded away as they looked to the chest.
"Come on. We don't have much time." Pyro said and used his magic to open the chest.
Inside there were was only one thing. It looked like it was some sort of glass cube. It was glowing a dim yellow as something inside the cube pulsed.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Terra asked.
"It better. If it doesn't we're sunk." Gem answered her.
All six of them took off a bit of their mane and then placed it atop the cube. The cube upon being touched by the hairs began to react. They all sank into the cube's surface as if they were absorbed. Once they were gone, it grew brighter in its glow and floated out of its place in the chest. With multiple colors radiating out of it like a rainbow, the cube then fired six individual beams to the ground at six different points around it. From the ground up, the beams seemed to be constructing something. As they got further away from the ground the six mares and Shining Armor saw that the cube's magic was forming six bodies. When the process was complete, six perfect visual representations of the Alamantians stood before the real ones, all of them wearing deadpan looks with their eyes only halfway open.
Cryo walked over and waved a hoof in front of his own clone's face to try and spur a reaction. Nothing happened. The clone just stood there, unable to sense anything around us.
"Well....they look exactly like us." The stallion of ice commented.
"And that's all they need to do." Agua added. "Now hurry up. We only have seconds."
The three unicorns all came together and used their magic together in one conjoined spell to form a portal in front of them. A round gateway appeared rimmed with brilliant gold, cyan, and brown colored magic. The ship began to rock. Nightmare was about to launch her attack on the ship. One at a time, all six of them jumped through the portal and it closed behind them, leaving the six clones of themselves behind to take the hit.
"The bodies we found.....they weren't you?" Shining Armor asked still not fully believing it.
Typhoon shook her head.
"Ze cube zat ze princess gave us was a very powerful spell. Zey were just clones. Zey looked like us but zey had no mind or souls of zeir own."
As tactically brilliant as it was, it still didn't sit right with the others.
"You created copies of yourself....just so you could kill them?" Twilight muttered.
"Eet wasn't ideal."
"NONE of this was ideal!" Rainbow yelled at the pegasus. "You could have let us in on this! You could have told us everything!"
A heavy sigh was released from Typhoon's mental projection of herself. She looked at the ponies she called her friends with nothing but regret on her face.
"Eef you had known we weren't truly dead, Nightmare Moon would have been able to find out through your behavior. When somepony close to you dies, eet's easy to tell whether your feelings of grief are genuine or fake. I'm sorry. I truly am sorry for all ze pain zat my siblings and I made you go through. But we had no other plan. Eef zere was another, believe me we would have gone weeth eet."
Those words did little to nothing to soothe them all of their mixed feelings towards her and the others. Applejack was still fuming, steam could almost be seen exiting her ears. She swore as soon as this was over she was going to bop every single one of them upside the head and then some for what they had to go through.
"Wait so.....after you escaped the ship, where did you go? Where were you hiding?" Shining Armor asked.
That was a fair question. One more time, the scene around them began to blur and warp into something else. They were now standing in a familiar spot within the Everfree Forest. In front of them they now saw the hut belonging to their friend Zecora.
"Ze night before we left while Applejack was sleeping, Terra snuck out of Sweet Apple Acres underground and filled her aunt een on what was happening. Once we were zere, all we could do was lay low and train ourselves for what was coming."
This was all Shining Armor needed to hear. Like everypony else, he was hurt, betrayed, and angered by their lie. The only difference was he could understand a bit why they felt they needed to do it. The only way Nightmare Moon would reveal herself was if she thought she had an easy shot at victory. With the Alamantians believed to be truly dead by everypony around them, even their most cherished loved ones, what better opportunity than that? The Elements of Harmony wouldn't be at full capacity, and their powerful friends wouldn't be present. Being the captain of the guard, he could understand how a strategy like that would work, but he was still completely off put by their lie.
"If that's all you have for us to see, let's return to the fight." He requested.
The others agreed with him and Typhoon complied. She briefly warned them to be ready for a bit of lightheadedness when they come back to reality then their vision went white.
One by one, all eight of them came opened up their eyes and looked around seeing the others struggling to keep the Shadowmares at bay while Typhoon mentally explained their survival. When their vision stopped being blurry, they wasted no time in re-joining their friends in the fight for their town.
Rainbow Dash's mind however wasn't focused on fighting right now. She wanted an explanation not from Typhoon, but rather her own partner. After quickly spotting her, she flew up behind her and snatched her away from the ground and flew off to a nearby rooftop landing on it and setting her down. Gem turned around about ready to slash her swords thinking it was another Shadowbolt that caught her. When she saw who it really was and the look she was sporting on her face, Gem shrank down like a scared little filly.
"R-rainbow.....now isn't the best time." She muttered hoping to avoid this.
She should have known better that Rainbow Dash does not back down so easily. The glare that met with her own eyes actually made her step back a bit afraid of what might come. Knowing this would take a few minutes, a brown glowing force field was constructed around them by the use of her magic.
"Like Shining Armor said before, now may be the only time. So you tell me right now, Gem. Why? How could you do this to me? To all of us! I thought you were my friend! I thought you were supposed to represent loyalty alongside me! But this?! What you did without letting any of us in on it?! I held you when you died, Gem!"
The pegasus didn't notice from the heat of her anger, but tears were once again leaking down her face. Gem's own eyes began to water as the tirade went on.
"I cradled that fake you and felt it take its last breath thinking that I had just lost someone I cared about! Do you have any idea how much that screwed me up?! How it screwed all of us up?! None of us wanted to go outside let alone do anything else! Twilight completely rejected the princess from her life, Pinkie's mane did that weird deflating thing it does, Applejack refused to feel anything at all for a while, Rarity cried every time she saw a drop of water, and Fluttershy had to be pushed out of the house by her animal friends for air, and ME! I cried for you, Gem! I cried myself to sleep for 7 nights!
"But now here you are alive and well and I SHOULD be happy to see that you're alright! I want to be! I really do! But I can't! All I feel is just a huge ball of anger wadding up inside because of what you did and I feel like there's nothing that can make it go away! All because you didn't want to let us in on this!"
That last bit was the sentence that finally got a reaction out of Gem. Rainbow, now panting a bit from her tirade, watched her young partner look gaze into her eyes, her own beginning to fill with a mixture of hurt, and anger.
"You think I didn't want to tell you?!" Gem cried back. "Rainbow I wanted so badly to tell you. I BEGGED with Princess Celestia to at least tell one other pony about this. And I wanted that other pony to be you! But....she just wouldn't have it. She told us that the circle had to remain as small as possible. And that your genuine reactions to our fake deaths would convince Nightmare that we were truly gone."
"That doesn't excuse anything!" The pegasus interrupted.
"I know it doesn't. I'm not trying to excuse myself. I know my actions were despicable, Rainbow Dash. Every step I took towards the ship knowing what was about to happen, I wanted so badly to just spill and tell you everything......but.....as horrible and twisted as Celestia's plan was.....I can't deny that it had benefit. We drew Nightmare out. We have a chance to beat her. And now we can do it without any civilian casualties."
Rainbow Dash perked her head up a bit. What was Gem getting at?
"If I hadn't gone along with the plan....none of us would be safe. I will forever feel horrible for what I did to you and the others Rainbow but I had no choice. It was either refuse and put everypony else at risk, or lie the most horrible of lies and give us, the only ponies who can stop her, a chance to do it with nopony else in the crossfire. I chose what I believed to be the lesser of two evils."
Rainbow still wanted to be mad at Gem but she couldn't be. Not at full capacity anyway.
Gem may not have been at her most loyal towards Rainbow Dash, but she was being loyal to everypony else. She was thinking of everypony in Equestria's safety instead of the feelings of just one pony. Loyalty isn't bound to just a small circle of friends you trust. It can go so far beyond that. Making the choice to not risk the lives of everypony else when it could be unnecessary. It's true and obvious to everypony that the lie they told was incredibly hurtful, but now Rainbow had a much more clear picture of why she did it. Gem was still loyal to her. She was loyal to all of Equestria. Why else would she do it?
"I....I understand if you want me to leave if we win.....I guess some things aren't easily-GAH!"
Gem's sentence was cut off once she felt the full force of Rainbow Dash hugging her in a tight embrace she didn't even think the pegasus was capable of doing.
"R-rainbow....what?"
"I should have done this back before we started this fight like Twilight did with Pyro." The pegasus began. "Part of me is still mad and that part is gonna be there for a while. But....I guess I realize now how much it must have hurt YOU to do what you did...and I get why you did it too....I'm just sorry it took me til now to realize it.....You must have been really stuck to make a decision like that."
Now Gem found her hooves slowly making their way around Rainbow's back, stopping right below her wings.
"I WAS stuck.....but it doesn't change the fact that I chose."
"You're right. It doesn't. But the choice was made and there's nothing anypony can do about it. It's in the past. Can you just promise me that next time I'll be given more a heads up?"
Gem couldn't believe it. Even after all she did, all she put her through, Rainbow Dash was...forgiving her? She couldn't stop asking herself, why?
"I promise you.....I will never do anything like this to anypony ever again.....I care about you way too much to even think about it."
Rainbow Dash then tightened her grip ever so lightly around the pony she was now more than glad to once again call her partner. She had gotten her wish. She was still angry but she was now happy at the same time just to be with Gem again, the one pony she said was cooler than she was.
"Welcome home, Gem." the pegasus muttered.
That was it. That was the plasma mare's breaking point. Her eyes closed as she sank her head into Rainbow's chest, beginning to sob out of happiness at the true reunion with her partner. Not even the shattering of her force field was enough to make the two of them part their embrace. And as the Shadowmares began to close the gap on them, neither they, nor the two ponies took notice that their cutie marks were beginning to glow.
*Canterlot*
"You mean to tell me the bodies that were recovered from the crash site were merely imperfect copies of them?"
Luna had just sat through an explanation of her own without visual aids from her older sister. Her reaction to knowing the truth was no different to those of the mares of harmony. Surprise, hurt, anger, and betrayal all brewed together in her head. She had always believed that that Celestia was a living embodiment of the traits that were the elements of harmony together. She had to be in order for them to all work for her. But this giant deception, it had to violate at least three of them. Honesty, loyalty, and kindness.
"Was there really no other way? Surely there had to be."
"A plan was in formation but we were forced to make improvisations. The result was the events that played out." Celestia replied to her sister as she looked out the window seeing Ponyville in the distance. "I know what my actions have brought against me. Twilight is furious with me, and she will quite possibly be even more so once this is all over with."
"To be fair she deserves to be. The one mare she trusted like an adoptive mother made her believe a group of new friends were violently killed."
Luna was easily able to take notice of the small flinch her sister gave at the comment. The pony of the sun knew what she was getting into when she agreed to this. She just didn't take fully into account the amount of effort she would have to use in order to attain forgiveness, if not from Twilight than at least one of her other friends.
"Sister I did not mean to be so harsh." Luna said softly.
"No no. You have every right to be as harsh as you please." The princess replied. "Twilight Sparkle and her friends were not the only ones I deceived. You were just as much lied to by me as they were."
"There will indeed be a sore spot for a while because of that lie. But for the most part, it is overlooked knowing that they are still with us." Luna smirked. "I had fun teaching my student."
"It was quite amusing to hear of your lessons with him." Celestia actually managed to let out a single giggle before returning her attention back down to Ponyville. "Don't worry. You will be able to teach him more."
"You are so sure?" the night princess asked. "This fight could very well kill them."
"They may despise me right now. But I have faith in all of them." Celestia said back. "All of them are powerful. Together they could be unstoppable, granted they are able to access their hidden power."
Their gaze remained out the window staring down to the valley, the protection field Celestia put up glowing bright enough to see from Canterlot. They could now only imagine what was going on inside of it.
"Hopefully they do." Luna said.
*Ponyville*
"Gah! How many of these things are there?!" Agua shouted.
It seemed that no matter how many of them the ponies destroyed, they just kept coming. No end of them seemed to be anywhere in sight. Nightmare Moon was still locked away in her healing process so she couldn't make more. But still the amount she left them with seemed infinite. And they could only do so many attacks on so many Shadowmares.
"Just keep beatin' em! They can't keep comin' ferever!" Applejack yelled back.
With her rope, she lassoed one Shadowbolt nearby and swung it down making it impact with a pack of two oncoming unicorn Shadowmares. Another unicorn was about to strike her from behind but it was beheaded from a slash made by Terra and her clawed gauntlets. Before it fully vaporized, the mare of earth spun and gave it a fast kick to the head, causing the head alone to fly off the body and into the face of a Shadowmare that was about to attack Fluttershy. With a motion of her front legs, the claws from Terra's gauntlets detached and flew off, three at a time, into the heads of six more oncoming enemies, causing them to vaporize. She then used her metal moving to call the claws back to her and re-attach at her gauntlets, extended and ready to strike once more.
It did very little to make a dent in the mass of enemies approaching. Elements were being thrown all around, arrows being fired, magic being shot, and blades slashing left and right, they were dropping fast, but not fast enough. All at once a huge wave began to charge for all of them. They all stopped in their tracks however when a series of lightning bolts fell from the sky seemingly blocking their path. More and more rained down hitting nothing but the ground creating a wall of lightning between the good guys and the storm of fake shadow ponies. Twilight looked up thinking Rainbow Dash got her hooves on some storm clouds to use as weapons. There were clouds, but Rainbow wasn't up there pounding them. Then she looked at the lightning itself when she finally caught onto something: The lightning was purple.
The only thing that could make that certain phenomenon, was a plasma mover. She and the others turned back once more expecting to see Gem utilizing her power. What they saw instead was not only Gem conjuring the lightning, but Rainbow Dash too, had her hooves to the air, the clouds above her crackling with plasma. Cryo, Pinkie, Typhoon, and Fluttershy all smiled a bit when they saw that, like their own previous experiences, Rainbow Dash and Gem were glowing in their eyes and their cutie marks, and the element of loyalty necklace around Rainbow’s neck also had a familiar shine.
The true power of loyalty and plasma was being unleashed.
Walking together to the front of the group, the storm clouds followed above them. The Shadowmares cared not for the sight in front of them. They had no minds of their own to know what fear was. The fact that there were two glowing mares in front of them harnessing the power of a god made no difference to them. All they knew was they had to kill them.
"TEAR THEM DOWN, YOU TWO!" Agua shouted.
"ZAP EM GOOD!" Pinkie Pie followed.
They didn't need to be told twice or once for that matter. The Shadowmares made the first move and started to charge at the two supercharged mares ready to kill. Rainbow was the one who made the next move. She threw her forelegs down summoning the power hiding within those storm clouds to come down. Purple bolts of plasma hailed down like rain itself pelting the dark creatures instantaneously destroying them like they were nothing but bugs. While Rainbow had the front wave occupied, Gem took it upon herself to clear the back. She rushed forward and dove, her element surrounding her entire body as a construct of a very familiar train engine car formed and started to pummel through the massive pack at full speed. When she reached the back of the wave and came into the clear, the construct around her fade and she landed back on her hooves. Eyes still glowing fiercely, she raises her hooves to the sky and two more bolts of plasma came to her hooves forming another plasma construct. Pinkie Pie took joy in seeing that her influence has gotten to Gem somewhat, for the constructs that she created with her charged power, were a pair of giant cannons in the shape of her familiar party cannon.
Both cannons floated above Gem's head and spread out to the side as the rear pack of Shadowmares started to advance on her. The barrels of the cannons began to glow and mere seconds later, two powerful focused beams of plasma shot out of them and began to mow down the Shadowmares as they came closer. Not a single one was able to break past the beams. As the group began to rapidly thin, Gem and Rainbow decided it was time to bring this to an end. The party cannon constructs faded away and the young unicorn raised her hooves up to the sky commanding more plasma to come down from the storm clouds and funnel into her hooves. Rainbow Dash did the same thing, no longer using her newfound power to create a lightning storm. Two thick bolts of plasma struck her hooves and stayed connected allowing her to draw more power in. The two partners then stopped charging at the time and began to focus their charged energy between their hooves. Each of them created a large purple orb the size of a bowling ball. After expanding a few more inches in diameter, they both unleashed their attack. Two gigantic beams of plasma fired from both sides and slammed into each other, creating two walls of energy that no Shadowmare was capable of escaping before they collided.
As the beams died down, area between Gem and Rainbow could be clearly seen as devoid of anything created by dark energy. The others just kept staring at the two of them awestruck at the amazing power they just threw out. As Gem rejoined Rainbow Dash, the two of them closed their eyes and began to fall over, exhausted. They were caught by Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy who were both familiar with the tired feeling these two were going through.
“Easy, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy advised with her soft voice.
“Just relax there, Gem. It takes a lot out of you we know.” Pinkie said as she helped Gem lay down.
As the two partners of loyalty and plasma lied down on the ground to take a breather, Rainbow’s necklace began to glow again and Gem’ chest began to shine with the outline of the symbol of plasma.
“Huh? What’s happening now?” Shining Armor asked being completely unfamiliar with this.
Twilight mentally smacked herself for forgetting to lay one crucial detail down for her brother. But now was as good a time as any to just….drop it.
“Yeah. Um…Shining Armor? There’s something I may have let slip my mind.”
Before she could even finish, the two glowing symbols shout out of their respective chests and twirled around in the air before colliding with each other. Just like it did with Pinkie and Cryo after the blizzard, a shape formed from the light. The shape of an alicorn. The figure touched the ground with all four hooves. The light faded and her form could be fully seen. If it weren’t for her glowing purple mane waving, they all would have thought they were looking at Nightmare Moon. Her coat was just as black the dark alicorns. The inner feathers of her gorgeous wings had purple gemstones adorned upon them. The regalia she wore upon her hooves, chest, and head were brilliant silver with more amethyst gemstones embedded into them. Her bright purple eyes shone like jewels themselves.
As soon as Gem saw who it was, she immediately stood back up and bowed down to her, followed by her five siblings, then the elements of harmony, and then finally Shining Armor after Twilight nudged him.
“My lady, Cybelle.” Gem muttered.
The goddess of plasma herself was among them thanks to the newfound connection between harmony and nature. Shining Armor, not being aware of who she really was, stopped bowing and looked up to this new alicorn he had never laid eyes on before.
“Okay….who are you? Where did you come from? What’s going on here?” He asked not really caring if it was Cybelle who answered or not.
“At ease, Captain Shining Armor.” Cybelle spoke, in a firm yet gentle voice. “I am no threat to you.”
“Well then what the hay is going on? Why were Rainbow Dash and Gem just glowing?” he asked again.
Twilight groaned. She might as well just get it out of the way.
“Well you see, Shining Armor, myself, my friends, all twelve of us are….well….we um…”
She knew she was on a time crunch, but yet she still had trouble letting the words come out of her mouth.
“You’re what?” Shining was getting impatient.
“The twelve of us are each one half of the reincarnation of six ancient elemental gods from thousands of years ago.” Agua spoke, he himself too getting impatient very fast. “Gem and Rainbow make up both halves of Lady Cybelle here.”
The water mover gestured to Cybelle who then nodded confirming Agua’s words to be nothing but the unvarnished truth. Shining Armor couldn’t believe. He just looked around at each pony around him now only wondering what sort of power they had flowing through their veins. Then he came around to his little sister once again. Twilight Sparkle, his little Twiley, was reincarnated from an ancient god?
“Perhaps now is not the best time for this conversation.” Cybelle said. “All of you have come so far and you are now so near Nightmare Moon’s defeat. And now half of you have unlocked your hidden power.”
“Yes yes they unlocked it but how do they make it come at will?” Rarity asked desperate to know.
Twilight felt the same way.
“She has a point, Lady Cybelle. In a battle like this, having every possible advantage at our disposal would be a huge help to us.”
“Plus it was fun being all glowy! I wanna do it again!” Pinkie jumped.
Cybelle took a giggle herself at seeing Pinkie’s antics.
“Skaldi was right. You are quite peppy.” She said.
Their conversation was interrupted when a bright line shone not too far away from them. It took them only a second to figure out what it was, and every single pony there, minus Cybelle, mentally slapped themselves for forgetting one crucial detail. Nightmare Moon was healing, she was vulnerable, and they had completely put that aside to chat with Cybelle, who was beginning to fade away.
“H-hey! Wait!” Rainbow Dash cried. “Don’t go! Stay and help us!”
The goddess of plasma only looked at her multi colored reincarnation with a look of sorrow.
“I’m afraid I do not have the energy to do that, Rainbow Dash. This battle is to be yours and yours alone. Be strong and do not give up.”
“Really?! That’s all ya got fer us?!” Applejack shouted not very satisfied.
Cybelle never answered her. Her entire form faded away and soon everypony was distracted by a familiar sound. The sound of hooves trampling.
“Oh….you have…” Shining Armor started
“…got to be….” Rarity added.
“…fucking….” Agua went next.
“…kiddin’ me.” Applejack was the one to finish it off.
All of them were thinking the same thing as yet another stampede of Shadowmares came charging around the corner right towards them. They had officially been sent back to square one.
"What do we do now?" Fluttershy fearfully asked.
Thinking fast was all everypony was doing. More Shadowmares were gonna keep coming at them so long as Nightmare was able to create them. For that problem only one solution could be seen. The crescent end of Pyro's spade ignited in flames and blasted a couple of fireballs at the heads of two oncoming Shadowmares before he turned and shouted to his team.
“The rest of you stay here and keep the Shadowmares busy as best you can. Twilight, you're with me. We're gonna take care of Nightmare.”
“What?!” Twilight didn’t like the idea of leaving her friends and older brother. “But Pyro-“
“Twilight, trust me.”
He had a look in his eye. A look that Twilight easily read as “I know what I’m doing.” The mare of magic, being desperate for any sort of plan, decided to take it.
“Let’s go then.”
Pyro took his spade into his magical grip and ran in Nightmare’s direction on all four hooves with his partner next to him.
“Wait! The two of you can't face her alone!” Shining Armor shouted.
“We have to try, Shining Armor!" Twilight cried back as the two unicorns turned a corner.
She and her partner turned a corner and got out of their sight while everyone kept on screaming for them to come back. Before they could chase after them, the new Shadowmares closed the gap and it was back to the brawl.
“There’s no way they can fight Nightmare Moon on their own and win! We all need to do it together!” Rarity cried
“We all need to BEAT her together!” Typhoon shouted as she shot a huge burst of air at some more Shadowmares. “I do not think zey eentend to defeat her just yet."
"She's right." Shining Armor now caught on. "They're gonna buy us some time to get rid of these things!"
"Then it will just be her." Rainbow had the idea. "Then let's keep the pressure on em'!"
As the fight in the center of the town began to intensify once more, Twilight and Pyro ran through down the streets of the town getting closer to where they left Nightmare Moon.
"Please tell me you jumped into THIS situation with some sort of plan." Twilight said.
As Pyro slowed down to a trot, he looked to his partner and spoke.
"This is just a guess, but I think the spell Nightmare casts to create the Shadowmares takes quite a bit of concentration. If you and I can keep her occupied long enough for the others to tear the rest down, all which will be left is Nightmare herself."
"And then it will be all twelve of us against her. She won't have a chance."
"That's the idea."
It may not have been much, but it was the most solid plan he or she could think of. The prophecy stated that all twelve elements had to join together to beat her. If two of them could buy time for the other ten to join them, then it would be worth the struggle.
“You fought her before. Is she tough?” Pyro asked.
“Well she’s…”
Twilight was going to answer but then she remembered something. The last time she fought Nightmare Moon, nothing really dramatic happened. At least in the terms of a battle. They only charged at each other once and that was pretty much it. Then her friends came in and the harmony blast expelled her from Princess Luna. So she gave him the only answer she could.
“I honestly don’t know. I’ve never been in a physical brawl with her before. This is gonna be something totally new.”
“Oh that’s just great.” Pyro groaned. “If I knew what kind of fighting style she used that would’ve helped.”
“Maybe but there’s just something else we need to know, Pyro.”
“Huh? What?”
“Luna said it herself. Nightmare Moon is an entity all on her own, but she can’t take on a physical form without a willing host. So if it isn’t Princess Luna this time then who is under the helmet?”
Pyro hadn’t even considered that for a second. He was so bent on just defeating Nightmare he didn’t give a single thought as to who she had possessed this time around. Underneath that black shell there was a pony in there. But who could it have been? There were only a hoof-full ponies in the world with enough power to rival that of her previous host.
“I don’t know how we can figure that out.” He admitted. “Perhaps once the elements merge, the shell will be broken and we’ll see.”
Again, it wasn’t much. However, seeing as how they weren’t in any sort of position to stop and think for a long period of time, making up theories as they went along was the best alternative.
“You ready?”
Twilight looked to his partner than forward to where they left Nightmare Moon, who was no longer there. She couldn’t be that far away though. With a determined nod, she answered.
“Let’s do it.”
The stallion of fire nodded back and both of them proceeded to walk out into the open. They only waited for a moment before Pyro raised his voice and shouted.
“Nightmare Moon! We are here! Alone! We call on you to face us!”
They had to wait a few more seconds, but sure enough his call was answered. Hearing the voice from not too far away, she flew over and landed a few building lengths away from them, cracking the ground around her. With a sick smirk, she pointed it at the two ponies challenging her.
“You are bold. I’ll give the two of you that. But you have been quite the annoyance along with your band of siblings. Not to mention you’re foolish in challenging me alone. I’m sure your brothers and sisters would agree with me.”
“Ones' actions do not define foolishness.” Pyro said back. “Rather it is the intentions behind those actions in which the true fool is revealed.”
"Spoken like a true old geezer." She laughed. "Just like your precious master."
"If you've done something with him, you better-!"
"Oh shut up." Nightmare cut Twilight off. "If I had found him before you had a chance to, I would have just killed him and already bragged about it."
Both unicorns growled at her wanting to advance and get this started before more damage could be done to the town. Pyro reached for his spade while Twilight began to charge a spell.
"At least I'm able to make do with the thousands that have been lost in Alamante."
Both of them ceased their actions as soon as they heard that sentence come out.
“I’m sorry….what?” Twilight had no other words.
Pyro couldn’t talk at all. Nightmare however, had a lot to say.
“You heard me. You think the Alamantians started that war on their own? They had help. From me.” She said with a proud smirk.
She was lying. She had to be. There was no other explanation. It was just some ploy to get into their heads to get them off their guards.
“There’s no way you could have brought the war in Alamante. When it started, you were still serving your one thousand year imprisonment with Princess Luna on the moon.” Twilight stated.
“Oh right. That.” Nightmare waved her hoof as if it didn't mean anything... “Allow me to clarify something. Its true Celestia banished me in that boring rock for a thousand years. But she didn’t however manage to get ALL of me.”
Now this was the part that caught Twilight’s full attention.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Pyro growled.
Nightmare went into explanatory mode. Seeing as how she was about to kill the two of them, she may as well indulge them, for what good it would do them.
“Do you really think I was foolish enough to not foresee Celestia coming for me with the Elements of Harmony? After Luna and I merged a millennium ago, I knew it was only a matter of time before she tried to attack me to get her precious sister back. So I took precautions.”
Both partners of magic and fire kept quiet letting Nightmare go on, wanting to hear every bit of what she had to say.
“I separated a small portion of my life force from my body and preserved it in the night sky using my dark magic. That small part stayed here on the planet while I was banished to the moon. For a thousand years that portion of me floated around the planet with the moon searching for a suitable new host. One more powerful than Luna could ever be.”
“So you knew Twilight and her friends would defeat you when you came back. Looks like somepony has a confidence problem.”
“Oh believe me, boy. I didn’t ever expect that nerd you call a partner to make friends on her own. That was merely a fluke.”
“Don’t you say a word against Twilight.” Pyro sounded angry. "She beat you once before with just five friends at her side. Now she has twice as much and then some."
Twilight was about to tell Pyro to dial back on his praise, but Nightmare spoke yet again before she had a chance to.
"It matters not how many friends you or her have. I’ll destroy you all either way. And then I shall take my forces to your homeland to take the next step in my conquest of this world.”
“But why?” Pyro demanded. “What do you have against Alamante?”
"Oh nothing. Alamante has done absolutely nothing to me. Your home just happens to possess something I strongly desire. Conquering Equestria is merely a stepping stone to acquiring it."
"And that is?"
Nightmare was genuinely surprised by his question. Did he, an Alamantian, really not know what she was talking about?
“Do you have any idea what kind of power lies within the soil of your home country? That meteor that hit the ground a millennia ago and gave your ancestors their powers enriched the entire country’s land with an energy source more powerful than anything ever imaginable. Even the Elements of Harmony themselves are simple flashlight batteries when compared to it. It lies at the very place where the meteor crashed into the ground. For a thousand years I have pondered ways on how to get my hooves on it when I escaped from the moon. With magic like that, I will be invincible.”
Pyro did know what she was talking about halfway through her talk. When Alamante was first officially founded, the crater site where the meteor had impacted was covered with a brilliant temple designed and built by the geo tribe. The temple is at the very center of the country bearing the name, "Chushin Yoso", meaning "Central Element" in the Alamantian tongue. He always was curious if the structure was hiding something away inside. Now it looks like he just got his suspicions confirmed.
“Why not just try and take it yourself?” Twilight asked curious.
“Oh I’m sure you would just love that.” Nightmare spat. “As powerful as I am, I would not stand a chance against the entire country of Alamante with their freakish abilities over the elements. So then I finally thought of a brilliant plan. Why fight them all…when I can make them fight each other? All I needed to do was just put enough of my influence into the ears of the tribal chiefs. Whisper a few words into their dreams. Make them all believe that they were superior enough to rule the entire country on their own. One element to rule the rest."
The stallion froze. He had heard those words before. Years ago when the war was on the brink of starting. All the tribes' chiefs were shouting the phrase to civilians saying that it was for the best that the country have a more central ruler, and that their element should be the one sitting on the throne. It was scary to see as a child but he had hoped that they would see they were wrong. His hopes were soon dashed when the declaration of all out war between all six tribes was heard throughout the land.
“The only reason they believe they should be fighting is because I convinced them to. How easy it was molding their brains into that of killers."
Her words were meant to get to him. They did their job well. Pyro strained himself to remember his training and keep himself calm. Though at this particular point it was becoming harder to do that.
“It WAS you. You’re the reason so many ponies, so many of my own friends, have perished in this war. Terra’s brother, Cryo’s father….my mother.”
A tear threatened to escape his eye but he held it back.
"Awww. Did somepony kill your precious mommy? Well tough luck, ember. If it makes you feel any better you'll be reunited with her real soon."
She knew he was levelheaded. Twilight really did. But even she knew that everypony had a limit to how much they could take on a certain thing. That twitch she just saw from the corner her partner's mouth got her thinking that he was nearing the edge of his. After one more twitch, the fire mover closed his eyes, and took a long sigh before opening them up, locked in a narrow gaze at the dark alicorn.
“I have no doubt in my mind that there will come a day when I leave this life." He said. “But as long as I still stand here breathing, I’ll do my best to keep Equestria, and the rest of the world, safe from psychos like you. I think I’m gonna start by tearing off your head.”
He had enough with the banter. Eager to defeat the dark alicorn, Pyro stood bipedal and gripped his weapon once more, both the sun and crescent moon ends of it lighting up in flames through his channeled power. Twilight remained on all fours and leaned into a ready position with her horn lit up and ready to cast. Intimidation came not to Nightmare but rather a few laughs.
“You two really think you have a chance against me?” she cockily said. “The Elements of Harmony did nothing to me! Not even both the royal princesses could touch me with their combined power! What could possibly make you believe the two of YOU can?!”
“Call it a hunch." Twilight growled back. "We may not have completely destroyed you the first time around but this time we make sure you NEVER come back."
"You fools! You may not be the same mare you were back when we had our first encounter but I too am not the same pony from then! I am stronger than ever before! And yet here you stand ready to throw your own lives in a pointless fight against me!”
The two didn’t back down. Their eyesight just locked with each other’s. Nightmare had a point. This fight could kill them and everypony else they love along with them. But they already knew that going in. Determined to put her in her place and defeat her for the last time, they nodded confidently to each other and stared the dark alicorn down again. Gripping his weapon tighter, Pyro spoke.
“If laying down our own lives means the people of Equestria will be safe from harm, then you bet we’re willing to do it! Now put em’ up! Or are you too scared to fight us hoof to hoof?”
It was almost too rich for Nightmare she had to hold back her laughter. These two, this little insignificant stallion of the Ember tribe, and the shut away bookworm were challenging her. What chance did they have? They hadn't even unlocked the power of Agni. Yet here they were challenging her like they had even the slightest chance at victory. Still though, with all the world conquering she had on her schedule, what better way to get warmed up for it than to spar with and kill both halves of a god's reincarnation?
With a dark glow of her horn and a spell radiating out of it, Nightmare stood bipedal the same way Pyro did and held out her left foreleg. A weapon's hilt materialized in her grasp and then the weapon itself formed. A dark purplish black broadsword shining with a sickly bright purple aura formed from the bottom of the blade to an upward curved tip.
“Come and meet your end, disciples of Agni."