The Nightmare

by Cirrus Sky

Chapter 18

It was dark and smoky , wherever Twilight had been taken. She made the mistake of gasping from the shock and began a coughing fit. “Where?” She managed to squeak out.

“A nice secluded spot where I can take you as a new host.” Nightmare Flare whispered through the thick air. The smoke was cast aside by the Queen’s magical power and she stood before Twilight in all her blazing glory.

“Not gonna let you...” Twilight sputtered out as she used her magic to jump away from the monster and run. Her boots gained purchase on the soft, centuries dry sand and she was soon running as best she could manage. Running for her life, to escape a death, again.

The only real problem was that Twilight had no idea where she was, or how exactly to escape.

-*-

Rainbow flew through the passageways and wider areas seeking out her... searching for Twilight. The others hurried to keep up as the sky-woman gave no quarter to web or timber blockades. “Landsakes, she can fly.” Jack panted as they paused at a crossroads.

“I know right? But we are looking for Twilight, so I guess she’d be in as much a hurry as you were catching up to Rarity.” Pinkie replied. The Corporal was looking from one passage to the other with Rainbow, the flier too concerned to chatter.

“I can smell smoke.” Mēi pointed down a tunnel, the slightest hint of the scent of burning came carried on the air.

“And where there is smoke there is fire.” Rarity cast a light spell into the dark passageway, there were no sagging stone blocks or other signs of structural danger.

“And where there’s fire we’ll find Flare.” Rainbow growled, rushing off down the newly lit passage. The others followed behind again, preparing themselves for what they might find.

-*-

Twilight stumbled and fell to the floor, she was lost and alone and afraid. She took a moment to catch her breath but instead felt a blast of heat. Nightmare Flare had found her again. The Queen had been close at her heels after every “jump”. It was too unfamiliar and dark for the mage to move much further.

She stood slowly, the sound of sand fusing to glass indicated that Nightmare Flare had caught her. Twilight took stock of her location. A sealed room, the only entry a doorway that orange magic was closing tight or a teleport she had no energy to perform.

The burning queen advanced, grinning in triumph as Twilight staggered back, cornered and alone.

“Who will stop me now little librarian?” Queen Flare goaded, wrapping the struggling girl in her magical grip. “My sister with her minimal power and weak sentimentality? Or her daughter with the oh so threatening power of love? Hmm?” She advanced on the struggling mage. “Your brother with his little shield spell?”

“Maybe.” Twilight managed to say through the constricting magic that squeezed and immobilised.

“Oh, unlikely... Once you are my new host they will be too cowed to stop me.” She grinned and her red eyes shone.

“My friends will stop you!” Twilight shouted in defiance.

Then, it struck her. Friends. Her Friends.

As if on cue there was the sound of feet pounding on stone and the crumbling wooden door burst apart under two strong earthborn feet. “Sorry Sugar cube, we had a mite bit o’ trouble figuring where Queenie took you.”Jack said casually as she shook the remains of the door from her boot, Pinkie was merrily marching towards them with scraps of wood trailing in her wake.

“Get your magic funky ju-ju off of Twilight.” Rainbow said, levelling her shotgun at the woman.

“I’d highly advise doing as she said, darling.” Rarity said, ice and steel in her voice and a revolver in her hand. “I was most unimpressed with your intrusion last night and as Jack will tell you, I will return the favour directly.”

“Please let our friend go? I mean, if you could?” Mēi said from the rear of the group.

“You cannot be serious?” Flare said, incredulous. “You’re actually serious aren’t you?” She started to laugh, a trio of gunshots sounded out but she barely acknowledged the payloads as they melted in her shield. She doubled over with laughter in time for Pinkie to fly overhead, her jump not connecting. “You have no power over me children.” She shouted, straightening up to look at each of them.

“That’s where you are wrong.” Twilight said, she finally recalled a counter-spell and dropped the bindings that held her in place.

“So you escaped, that won’t help you, your precious elements are dust!”

“Oh no, those stones were nothing. They weren’t the Elements of Harmony.” Twilight motioned her friends forward and helped Pinkie up off the floor. Soon all five of her new friends were around her. “The Elements are not an artefact, a thing to hold in your hand. They are a concept, a philosophy... A way of life.” Twilight smiled brightly, “I realised it when I knew without a doubt that my friends would be here to help me. To defeat you.”

“Spare me; can we just skip to the part where I crush you like I crushed those stones?” Flare rounded on them but her magical strike rebounded from some invisible force. She looked at the group in shock.

“Honesty.” Twilight said an odd resonance in her voice. She touched Jack’s arm. “So honest, we could trust you even when we were competing for the same goal.” Jack looked surprised as Twilight moved away; a glow and warmth were suffusing her body.

“Kindness.” The mage took Mēi’s hand. “Worried for strangers, strangers who were making your task difficult and endangering your people. So kind as to run into a dangerous situation to help another.” Mēi smiled timidly at the complements; the power Twilight’s touch left caused her wings to manifest behind her.

“Laughter.” Twilight gave Pinkie a playful tap, “Always so cheerful, keeping our spirits up and jumping in with some funny thing when our outlook was bleak.”

“Yeppers.” Pinkie giggled, the power tickled.

“Generosity.” Twilight laid her hand on Rarity’s shoulder. “I lost everything when our boat sank and Rarity gave me some of her own clothes without me even having to ask. She didn’t even know us then, anyone else would have left me to buy at the village, especially as we were both searching for the same place.” Rarity smiled at the librarian, she could see the power leaking from the girl and feel it as her own magic took in the new.

“Loyalty.” Twilight managed to stop herself throwing her arms around Rainbow, she merely leaned against the gunner a moment, drawing strength as much as sharing the power. “Rainbow rescued me on the boat, defended us from cultists, saved me from what was left of her comrades; she fought off a thug and monsters... Flew the desert to rescue me...” She halted and blushed. “Loyal to a fault.” Rainbow was grinning fit to burst, the magic came into her and she brought out her wings in a display of possession and aggression, circling one around Twilight while the other flared out.

“How very sweet...” The Queen began, “But you are missing-“

“The last Element.” Twilight cut her off, her voice had taken on an echoing quality and as she stepped from Rainbow’s protective wing she floated above the ground. Her eyes began to glow.

“The last element is Magic. With all these friends there is nothing I can feel but Magic, Nightmare Flare. They lend their strengths to me as I them.” Streamers of coloured power began to fly from the five, coalescing around the levitating mage. “Friendship is Magic, a Magic we will use to defeat you.”

Five bursts of magical energy glowed at the five young women’s necks, each felt a weight around them as jewellery manifested. They found themselves lending their magic and power to Twilight, the streamers expanded and wrapped around her as a circlet appeared on her head.

A rainbow of magical power rushed from them and embraced Queen Nightmare Flare. “No! No... Off, off me! I am Queen Nightmare Fla-...” She was wrapped in a tornado of light, the rage and hate filled voice cut off.

-*-

Cadence sat between Luna and Shining, all three emotionally spent and physically worn out. They had been working for hours, first to try and remove the nightmare’s influence from an innocent then later to rescue their loved one. They had fought shadows and watched helpless as Twilight was taken. “I hope the girls found her.” Shining managed to say, a catch in his voice.

“They must have, else the nightmare...” Luna trailed off, she could not bear to speak of the monster taking the mage-girl’s life and body.

“Twilight’s strong, she can hold out until help arrives.”Cadence said for the fifth time since the librarian had disappeared with Nightmare Flare. She held tight to Shining, who gripped her hand. Luna leaned against her daughter, there was little she could say as comfort.

Then, a rumbling came from beneath them. The loose rubble and deposited sand began to jump and dance. The group looked around in confusion and a blinding light began to leak through every crack and stone line in the ruin.

“Mother?” Cadence shielded her eyes, holding her hand up against the bright glaring light.

“The Elements of Harmony...” Luna whispered. Even as the light became sun-bright she stood, Cadence took her hand but instead of holding the princess back, she was led towards the passages. Shining went after them, holding an arm over his head and trying to keep track of the pair.

“Please... Return her to me.” Luna breathed.

-*-

The scream of the Nightmare seemed to dissipate, blown away with the wind generated by the great magical force. Even when the women had completed their contribution to the process and returned to their feet the rainbow of magical light continued to blaze in a vortex.

“What did we just do?” Jack said, awe in her voice.

“We are the new Elements of Harmony.” Twilight replied with a slight quirk of her head, there wasa new weight upon it.

“Uh, Twilight, you got a crown.” Pinkie pointed at the librarian. Surprised, the indigo haired girl put a hand to her head and removed a wide gold circlet.

“Magic...” She tapped the purple stone set into the band. “I suppose we need something to channel the power through.”

“I’ll say this; whoever came up with the design had a real sense of style.” Rarity commented, she held up a diamond pendant on a gold chain, her eyes shone with desire for the gleaming gem.

“Neato!” Pinkie’s new necklace sported a blue crystal balloon. “So I’m laughter then Twilight? You said some really nice stuff about us all.”

“It was lovely, what you told her.” Mēi smiled warmly at the others, her pendant lay over her robes, a delicate pink butterfly.

“You really think of us all as friends?”

“Of course I do!” Twilight half shouted. “All of you... Everything I said I meant.”

“Everything?” Rainbow whispered, she had been silently thinking over the past few days events, not taking her eyes off the colourful vortex.

“Everything...” Twilight drew closer to Rainbow, she was about to say more but was interrupted by a second burst of light.
The vortex had split into its component ribbons of colour and swirled away into the now much less oppressive ruin.
A thin, white clad figure lay on the floor. Her simple dress was stained with soot and ash, so was her dusky pink hair.
Everyone halted, unsure of what to do next. The newly dubbed elements crowded closer together and watched the woman.

They started back in surprise when she coughed.

Her gasp of breath set the six moving closer, cautious of the woman now in the place of the Nightmare. She sat up slowly and blinked in the dim light. Her eyes were pink and sparking, disbelief writ clear across her face.

“You freed me.” She sounded amazed and deeply grateful. Any further conversation was cut off with a scream of delight and a midnight blue blur.

“Sister!” Luna was beside the woman in an instant, her arms wrapped around her and she began to sob.

“Hello little sister... It’s been a while.” Tears dripped from her eyes, washing trails into her soot stained face.

“Oh Celestia! I have missed you so much.” Luna clung to her sister. “I’m so glad you’re back.”

Pinkie began to bawl, floods of water springing from her eyes, the other too found tears pricking at their eyes, Rarity and Jack recalling their own younger sisters in the display of affection before them.

“Aunt Celestia?” Cadence echoed the amazed tone as she came through the door with Shining close at her heels.

“Aunt?” The woman looked up from her sister in amazement, Cadence ran to join the pair.

“My Daughter, Cadence.” Luna smiled through the tears flowing from her eyes; she pulled her down to join the embrace.

“Hello my neice.” Celestia smiled and put an arm around Cadence. “It is so wonderful to meet you.”

Shining joined Twilight, he wrapped an arm about her waist and pulled her closer. “All this is giving me a real urge to hug my little sister.” He chuckled.

“Mmm, BBBFF hugs are pretty good.” Twilight returned the gesture as the tension of the past twenty four hours drained from her body. There would be a price to pay for it all soon enough, but for now it was time for reunion and affection.

No one really noticed Rainbow’s withdrawal, as slight as it was. She stood away from the group, from the sight of two sisters reunited after centuries, of introductions for family. Pinkie had stopped crying and was animatedly regaling Mēi with tales of their adventure prior to the tribes woman and the explorers crossing paths. Jack and Rarity were close together, loath to part after their forced separation now that it was safe to indulge in the small intimacy.

“Should we head back to the surface guys?” Rainbow spoke up, she didn’t really want to interrupt but she was itching for the sky now the surge of adrenaline from battle had subsided. “This place is pretty musty.”
It was a joyful group who left the catacombs of the buried palace, a prison no longer.

Comments

[This Account Is Dead]

Ah! We are finally coming to a conclusion. And: YAY! FLUFF!

I suppose you will at least give us an epiloge? This chapter leaves some things unresolved...

[ShadowLDrago]

And Mei is Fluttershy, why the name change though? No one else's name changed?

[ShadowLDrago]

“You cannot be serious?” Flare said, incredulous. “You’re actually serious aren’t you?”

Ah yes, Nightmare Moon's famous "You're kidding" line, but said by Flare and differently, so it works.