//------------------------------// // Friendship is Magic - Part 2 // Story: Guardian of the Princesses // by Darth Annihilator //------------------------------// Previously on Guardian of the Princesses: ""Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about everlasting night." I hope the Princess was right... I hope it really is just an old ponytale..." "Princess Celestia!" she finished as the fanfare concluded and Rarity pulled the curtains apart revealing… empty space much to everyone's confusion… Navy blue smoke speckled with silver shapes that looked suspiciously familiar to stars filled the balcony where the Solar Princess was supposed to be standing before parting like a cloud to reveal a midnight black alicorn clad in navy blue battle armour with the smoke as her mane. "Oh, my beloved subjects." Nightmare Moon began, looking down on the ponies assembled "It's been so long since I've seen your precious little sun-loving faces." "Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!" Nightmare said before laughing maniacal laugh worth of Maleficent and her smoke-like mane formed a tornado above her, which caused a pseudo thunderstorm above her as the ponies quivered in fear… After the failed attempt to apprehend Nightmare Moon, Twilight immediately bolted for the library, intent on finding something to reveal precisely what the Elements of Harmony are and what they could do. After putting Spike to bed, she immediately began ripping books off of their shelves, flipping through them before dropping them all over the place. "Elements, Elements, Elements…" She muttered as she searched "Well this is just perfect, I'm in a tree full of knowledge and none of it appears to be remotely useful in the current situation. You'd think a library would have some form of information on the Elements of Harmony…" Suddenly a cyan hoof slammed itself down onto the book she was reading. Twilight turned to see Rainbow Dash glaring at her with narrowed eyes. "And what precisely are the Elements of Harmony? And how did you know who that creep was? Are you a spy?" she questioned before Applejack grabbed her tail and dragged her away from Twilight. "Now simmer down Sally" she said as she released Rainbow "Ah don't think she's a spy, but Ah do think she knows what's goin' on" Twilight sighed and sat down as the other five mares she had met that day drew in closer. "To make a long story short, Nightmare Moon wishes to plunge Equestria into a state of eternal night time, the legends say that Princess Celestia used a set of magical artifacts called the Elements of Harmony to seal her in the moon and now I want to use the Elements to defeat Nightmare Moon, however I have no idea what they are, what they do or even where they are…" "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide" interrupted Pinkie Pie, immediately Twilight jumped over to Pinkie and grabbed the book. "Where did you find this?" she asked. "It was under "E"" sang Pinkie. "Oh" replied Twilight sheepishly as she flicked through the book "it says here that there are six Elements, of which only five are known: Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, Kindness and Honesty; It also says that the last known location of the Elements was the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters in the Everfree Forest" "Well then" announced Rainbow "We'd best get moving, but first things first: we need to find Winter and get him to come with us" "Not that I mind the company of Mr Shield" Rarity began "but why do you want to find him when we could potentially be using that time to find the Elements instead?" "Because Winter knows the Everfree Forest better than anyone here" Rainbow answered "Besides, if I know Winter, he'll already be preparing to search for a means to deal with Nightmare Moon." "Alright, we'll go to Winter Shield's house first, if he isn't in, we'll head for the Everfree Forest without him and find our own way from there" Twilight decided, taking the role of leader of the group. After the group had recruited Winter, they began their journey to find the Elements of Harmony. "So how come the Everfree Forest is such an unknown variable anyway?" Twilight asked as they walked. "Twi, ya gotta understand that the place just ain't natural; somethin' about it just rubs ponyfolk the wrong way" Applejack answered. "Yeah, it just doesn't act like the rest of Equestria, and besides, anypony that has gone in…" Rainbow added, moving towards Twilight in a manner similar to a predator intimidating its prey "has never come out…" "Dash, that's enough of your scaremongering" Winter interjected, scowling at Rainbow "other than the fact that your information was obviously false as it's common knowledge that I regularly go in here to gather resources for my fireworks, we need to be focused on finding the Elements and finding a way of restoring daytime to Equestria" "So Winter, if you come in here regularly, how come you don't appear to know where we're going?" Twilight asked. "That's because the forest somehow changes its layout with a rare few landmarks maintaining their positions, so you have to be careful as you may end up walking into a swamp, Hydra's den, Cockatrice's lair or some other hazard if you take the same route twice" replied Winter. Unbeknownst to the group, as they were talking, blue smoke was seeping into the cracks in the rock below their feet, slowly weakening it as the ponies walked. "Great, so how are we going to find a safe, ARGH!" Twilight began before being cut off as the land below them shattered and they began to slide towards a sudden drop. Rainbow and Fluttershy immediately flew into action, quickly catching Rarity and Pinkie and lowering them to safety, Applejack caught Twilight just as she fell off the edge and Winter slid towards the edge before jumping and falling when he suddenly shot his wings out causing his cloak to spread out as if it had caught the air and slowed his descent (A/N: Similar to how Batman controls his falls and negates any fall damage in the Batman Arkham games) and in so doing, hid his wings from the others, he turned to see Twilight hanging on and Applejack struggling to hold her grip on her. "APPLEJACK!" Twilight cried in panic "WHAT DO I DO?" Applejack looked around for any options before forming an idea. "Let go" she answered. "WHAT?! ARE YOU CRAZY?!" "Twilight, listen to me. What Ah'm sayin' to ya is the honest truth: let go and you'll be fine." After thinking it over, Twilight released her hold on the edge and on Applejack and began to fall but before she fell too far, Winter's horn glowed ice blue and a slide made of ice suddenly formed beneath her, breaking her fall as she slid down it. At the end of the slide, Twilight was launched upwards slightly by an upwards curve in the ice, using her momentum to her advantage, Twilight flipped in mid-air and landed on all four hooves. "I never had ya figured for an athlete Twi" said Rainbow, impressed by Twilight's display of acrobatics. "When Princess Celestia noticed that I spent a lot of time indoors reading, she made me take up a hobby to keep myself in shape. I chose gymnastics and later acrobatics as I appeared to be good at it according to Spits" Twilight answered. "Spits?" Rainbow asked. "A Pegasus I knew back in Canterlot, she took the acrobatics class to improve her performance in the air" "Hate to break up the reminiscing" Winter interrupted "But we still need to get to that castle before anything else happens." "Right" said Twilight, walking deeper into the forest. As they walked, Rainbow was regaling Twilight with the story of how she was rescued from the edge of the cliff, Winter was checking his surroundings for any threats, Fluttershy was glancing around nervously with Applejack reassuring her and Rarity was discussing with Pinkie the potential of making an edible line of dresses when a loud roar came from the clearing ahead and an ominous looking shadow rose into view and made its way towards them, eventually revealing itself to be an angry Manticore. "A MANTICORE?!" shouted Winter "What's a Manticore doing here? It should be on the other side of the forest!" "I thought you said this forest changes its layout, so how can you say where this Manticore should be?" Twilight asked. "By looking at the earth around us, it is too wet for the Manticore to move without slipping or sinking, also it's far too rocky for a Manticore as well; an ideal environment for it would be…" "STOP GETTING DISTRACTED AND FOCUS ON THE MATTER AT HAND WINTER!" bellowed Rainbow. While they had been talking, Rarity had charged the Manticore and kicked it in the face before getting her hair messed up by its roar and retreating to sort it out, Apple jack had then somehow gotten onto its back and ridden it like one of those bucking bull rides that you go on at fairs, carnivals and rodeos before being sent flying from its back. "All yours partner" she said as she flew passed Rainbow before getting caught by Winter; Rainbow took off, flying in circles around the Manticore in an attempt to confuse it, which appeared to be working until it lashed out with its tail and sent her rolling along the ground towards the others. This appeared to be the last straw as Twilight and the other girls grouped together and charged until Fluttershy jumped in front of them, yelling at them to wait, before she removed a massive thorn from its paw (Winter wondered how they didn't notice it before, the size of it wouldn't have allowed it to remain unseen during the fight). "Eugh" My eyes need a rest from all of this icky muck" complained Rarity as they continued their journey before the moon disappeared behind some clouds, plunging them all into darkness "Well, I didn't mean that literally…" "We can't see a thing, we could be walking right past the castle now and none of us would know it" Twilight said. "Winter, don't you have some flares or something in that pack of yours?" Rainbow asked but no reply came "Great, now we've lost Winter…" "Ah think Ah stepped in something'" Applejack chimed in only to hear Fluttershy scream "Ease up now, it's just mud" she said before walking into a tree. After being frightened by the apparent faces that the trees made and Pinkie singing a song about laughter, the girls emerged to find Winter sat on the banks of a raging river. "Oh, hello there, I thought I'd lost you in that forest and was just trying to figure out what to do about this" he said, gesturing at the river. "Couldn't you just freeze it?" Rarity asked. "Were it so easy" Winter replied "However the problem is so much the river as, well, THAT" pointing at a crying sea serpent whose thrashing was causing the river's rapid state. "Apparently his moustache was torn off by a "tacky little cloud of purple smoke"" Winter informed them. "Seriously?!" Rainbow moaned. "That's what all this fuss is about?" Applejack added "WHY OF COURSE IT IS!" Rarity barked at the two of them before walking up to the serpent and complementing his various features while Winter gave a lecture to explain why the serpent was so upset: "Sea Serpents are among the proudest creatures on Equestria and they take particular pride in their physical appearance, there is one documented case where a Sea Serpent nearly drowned an entire coast and multiple small islands because one of his scales was out of place. Quite frankly, we are lucky that this one hasn't flooded the entire area we stand in." "What? There's no such incident that I've heard of" Twilight said, somewhat angrily. "Look up the Leviathan Episode which occurred off the coast of the Japonyese Islands during the Lunar Age" Winter replied before they all turned their attention back to Rarity who had declared that she "couldn't let such a crime against fabulousity go uncorrected" and plucked one of the serpent's scales and sliced off her own tail before she attached it to the roots of the torn off piece of moustache which seemed to please the serpent greatly. "Oh Rarity, your beautiful tail… I'm sorry" said Fluttershy. "It's alright darling, short tails are in this season; besides it'll grow back…" Rairity responded with a forced smile. "But so would the moustache" Rainbow whispered to Twilight and Winter as they prepared to cross the river before a tornado of purple smoke formed around Rarity and Fluttershy, immediately Winter jumped towards it shouting their names as he yanked them both out with a telepathic field but in doing so he himself got caught in the tornado, resulting in him vanishing as it died down. "WINTER!" screamed the six mares. When the tornado died down, Winter found himself in the throne room of an ancient castle which looked to be falling apart around him. "No matter what form or name you take, you are still as predictable as always… Dark" came a mocking voice which he knew well. "Nightmare, what an unpleasant surprise. What do you want now?" he replied, turning to face Nightmare who was sat on the throne in all her armored glory. "Oh, just the usual things" Nightmare responded "Eternal night, the love of my subjects, your unwavering loyalty to me and me alone…" "You know I cannot do that, my oath was to Princesses Celestia and Luna and to them alone; I will never betray that oath and I will never betray them" Winter said, casting off his cloak and taking on his true form. "Stand down and release Luna from your control or you will feel the wrath of the Guardian of the Princesses" Dark Saber warned, his horn sparking with blood red lightning. "Do you still not understand Dark? I AM Luna and you WILL obey me be it willing or otherwise..." snapped Nightmare in return before firing a blue beam of energy at Dark which phased right through him. "Your aim is poor" came Dark's voice from behind her as he shot a fireball in her direction, forcing her to erect a shield that was seemingly made of the night sky, Dark shot a continuous barrage of fireballs at Nightmare until she sent out a shockwave of black lightning bolts which took Dark off his hooves. "You could not defeat me one thousand years ago and you SHALL not stop me now!" Nightmare roared before releasing a number of orbs of blue and black energy which she brought together at the tip of her horn in the form of a purple orb which then exploded into a beam of red light headed straight for Dark, Dark slammed his hooves on the floor causing three walls of diamond to emerge from the ground but the beam just punched through them like they weren't there and blasted Dark through the wall. "Ouch, I'll feel that in the morning" muttered Dark as he stood and cast his gaze towards Nightmare who stepped through the hole in the wall and glared at him; he pointed his horn at her and a stream of red tinted air emerged from it, expanding as it went and engulfed Nightmare. Nightmare just laughed until shards of diamond began bombarding her as the air started moving faster, Dark then charged a red cube of light on his horn which then transformed into a red bolt of lightning which struck Nightmare and blasted her through a wall. "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!" bellowed Nightmare as she re-emerged from the wall, grey light surrounding her horn. "COME TO YOUR SENSES OR BE FORCED TO REALIZE THE TRUTH!" She roared, the grey light becoming more intense. "I will never surrender to an imposter like you Nightmare Moon" Dark retorted, saying Nightmare's name with so much venom you'd think it came from a King Cobra, steeling himself for whatever Nightmare had planned. "Then on your head, be it" whispered Nightmare, firing the grey light at Dark who closed his eyes and knew no more… TIME SKIP Dark awoke to Nightmare's screaming as rainbow light came from another room, quickly donning his cloak and morphing back into Winter he galloped towards the room as fast as his aching body would allow him, hearing the voices of the six mares he had entered the forest with as he approached. "Indeed you do" came a regal voice just as he entered the room to witness the sun rise and a white ball of energy morph into Princess Celestia. "Drama Queen" he muttered, loud enough for all the inhabitants of the room to hear him. "WINTER!" the six mares shouted in unison before running over to him and hugging him. "Darling, are you alright? When that purple tornado abducted you , we feared that would be that last we'd see of you!" asked/said Rarity. "I'm fine, just a little curious as to what the significance of your new jewellery is" Winter replied. "Well, it turns out that we have the super awesome honour of being the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, so… jealous of us?" Rainbow answered with a teasing note at the end. "Nope, because with something like that comes fame, and with fame comes the unavoidable need to deal with the nobles with sticks up their flanks; it's worse than have to attend a party thrown by our Solar Overlord…" replied Winter, grinning as Rainbow's cocky look turned into one of dread. "I'm standing right here Mr Shield" interrupted Princess Celestia "And I'll have you know that my parties are actually quite fun until the nobles arrive" she added, smirking at him before walking over to Twilight who ran up to her and the two embraced each other. "Twilight Sparkle, I knew you could do it." She said to the lavender mare. "But Princess, you told me it was all an old ponytale…" replied Twilight, looking confused as the two parted "I told you to make some friends, nothing more" replied the princess before looking over at the area where Nightmare Moon was last seen; in her place among the scattered armour fragments was a young, midnight blue Alicorn with a light blue mane and a cutie mark in the shape of a crescent moon. "Now if only someone else would accept the magic of friendship into their heart" she said as she approached, looking down upon the mare who looked up at her as she came closer and laid down in front of her. "Princess Luna, do you now accept my friendship? We were meant to rule together, little sister" Celestia said to the now named Luna, Luna looked up tears in her eyes before throwing herself at Celestia and hugging her. "I'm so sorry, big sister; for what I did to you and to Dark" said Luna through her tears as Celestia soothed her while Pinkie had literal waterfalls of tears coming from her eyes as she sobbed into a handkerchief before declaring that a party was necessary. CUT SCENE TO PONYVILLE All of Ponyville appeared to be having fun, even the princesses were getting in on the action (though it was just by having their guards tow them around in their chariot at high speeds like they were in a race), Winter was letting off his fireworks and they were forming some impressive shapes such as Nightmare Moon being blasted by the Elements of Harmony, a Dragon swooping over the town and Princess Celestia raising the sun. Everyone appeared to be in high spirits except Twilight, a fact that Celestia seemed to pick up on. "Why so glum, my most faithful student? Nightmare Moon is defeated and now you can go back to your studies, does this not make you happy?" the Solar Princess asked her student. "Well, that's just it Princess; I finally know how wonderful it is to have friends and now I have to leave them" Twilight replied, looking at all her friends who all look visibly sad at the prospect of seeing her go. "Spike, take a note please" the princess said to the young Dragon, who immediately pulled a role of parchment and a quill out of nowhere. "I, Princess Celestia, Drama Queen and Solar Overlord of Equestria" she began, winking at Winter who had the decency to look embarrassed "do herby decree that the unicorn Twilight Sparkle shall remain in Ponyville to further study the Magic of Friendship and report her findings to me." The Element bearers all embraced each other in a warm hug before looking at Winter who shook his head. "Well, I'm English so we don't hug… but I suppose I can make an exception this time" he said before joining in. Thus the day ended with everypony going home after the Summer Sun Celebration (and Pinkie's extra party) happy and healthy… unless, of course, you were Nightmare Moon.