Final Stage: Bloodlines

“What a horrible night to have a curse.”

The cream-coated, brown-maned stallion muttered those words as he stood near the peak of the castle he had all but conquered not too long ago. His blue tunic was torn in several areas, his headband threatening to fly where the wind took it, but neither of those things mattered to him. The only thing that did was the morning star he carried with him in his ascent of the castle.

It was the Vampire Killer, augmented with Nightmare-defeating magic as a parting gift from the immobilized Elements of Harmony themselves. It was now the Night Killer, destined to bring an end to the revitalized Nightmare Moon and her eternal night.

He turned to face the last set of stairs before his confrontation with Nightmare Moon herself. The final journey that had come to be known as…

-Final Stage: Bloodlines-

The stallion rushed up the stairs, his Night Killer whip safely tucked away in his saddlebag. One peculiar brick at the top of the stairs caught his eye, so he quickly brought his whip out and swung it with his mouth, striking the weak brick and revealing a switch. Whipping the switch, he saw a second staircase descend from the ceiling to reveal a secret passage.

Various pots and candles lined the floor of the upper room, each of which he brought down with incredible vengeance to reveal a massive supply of hearts. There were a few other items such as a magic rod and a strange, small portrait of Nightmare Moon, all of which were useless to him. He jumped down the stairs, turning in the direction of the evil mare’s chamber. He whipped the last few candles in the way for extra hearts, grinning when he saw a few extra lining the menace’s personal room.

He slid into the chamber, pushing his back hooves to propel him forward into the candle at the far end of the room to reveal a flask of holy water, blessed by Princess Celestia herself. Faust only knows why Nightmare Moon left this around (and in her own room, no less), but the stallion wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity like this.

He trotted to the middle of the room and faced the grinning Nightmare Moon, preparing to deliver the lines he was waiting to speak all night as she sipped her (stolen) apple cider.

“Die, monster! You don’t belong in this world!” The stallion declared, a hoof pointed at her.

“It was not by MY hoof that I’m once again given flesh. I was called her by…LUNA, to give ME tribute!” Nightmare Moon replied.

“Tribute!?” The stallion retorted. “You stole Luna’s SOUL and made her your slave!” He added, having scrunched his hoof at the word tribute and toss it away as if to squander her use of the word.

“Perhaps the same could be said of all her little ponies…” Nightmare Moon (rather weakly) shot back.

“Your words are as empty as your soul! Ponykind ill need a savior such as you!” The stallion told her off.

“WHAT IS A PONY!?” Nightmare Moon shouted, throwing her glass of cider to the floor, smashing it into pieces. Applejack wasn’t going to like that. “A miserable little pile of friendship! But enough talk, HAVE AT YOU!” She said, teleporting out of sight while her trick sported a vertical pillar of light.

Her re-appearance, heavily telegraphed by said pillar of light, revealed a trio of fireballs hastily approaching the stallion, who merely whipped the fire into non-existence by swinging the whip around his body. She then followed up with a set of meteors, which the stallion ducked under and back-flipped over.

The stallion charged up to her next pillar of light, striking where her head suddenly appeared.

The evil mare barely flinched despite being struck in the head, merely throwing her fireballs once more while her opponent barely dodged this time around. She had thought to wear him down with simple attacks, to the point where he would grow over-confident in his skills. Unfortunately for her, that time never came. She continued to be whipped in the head, growing fairly annoyed at the colt that dared to stand against her and her night.

“Play time’s over! Give me POWER!” Nightmare Moon shouted, her body becoming engulfed in complete darkness. Her dark magic allowed her to grow three times her size, transforming her into…

What could be described as a female Sombra with Nightmare Moon’s head?

The odd-looking dark beast roared as it shot immense fireballs at the stallion, too big to whip away this time. He backflipped a few times, gathering the hearts he collected in his hand. With one loud shout, his bottle of holy water was engulfed in green flames.

“HYDRO STORM!”

A torrential downpour of acid rain came down upon Nightmare Moon’s new form, damaging the Sombra-like armor, but seeming relatively harmless to the rest of her. “You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?” She merely said, as the remaining hearts gathered around the stallion.

“HYDRO STORM!”

With the second shout came another downpour of acid rain, damaging the armor even further. Even with Nightmare Moon’s immense magical prowess, the rain managed to keep her immobilized for the time being. “Enough of this foalishness! Now we-“

“HYDRO STORM!”

“AHHHHHHHHH!”

“HYDRO STORM!”

“Can we-“

“HYDRO STORM!”

“Are you quite-“

“HYDRO STORM!”

“Are you REALLY going to spam that same move over and over-“

“HYDRO STORM!”

“DAMMIT, YOU CHILDISH COLT, HOW MANY HEARTS DO YOU HAVE!?”

“AHHHHHHHHH!”

“ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO BE A CHEAP-FLANK AND-“

“HYDRO STORM!”

“ENOUGH!”

With one swift buck to the face, Nightmare Moon knocked the stallion across the room into the wall, leaving quite the indent. She noticed that her Sombra-like armor had vanished entirely due to that bloody maneuver, but that was of no matter to her.

“Finally…I thought that would NEVER end.” Nightmare Moon groaned. “But, I’ll tell you what WON’T end…MY BEAUTIFUL NIGHT!” She laughed manically as her enemy slowly rose to his hooves, trembling from the incredibly damage he had just taken.

“Whip Memory, NO!” A female voice cried from outside the room.

“What the-who’s this filly?” Nightmare Moon questioned.

“Gather your strength!” The peach-coated, blonde-maned filly with a blue bow and pink dress told the stallion as her horn lit up with a white aura.

Neon outlines of the six Elements of Harmony surrounded Whip Memory, gathering upon his whip. It began to shine in a perpetual rainbow, along with his strength restored to his maximum.

“Your light show doesn’t impress me, whip-wielder! The night is still young and you will never get to see it!” Nightmare Moon replied as she fired beams of pure darkness at him.

Whip Memory grinned as the beams harmlessly bounced off him, destroying parts of the walls upon reflection.

“What!? No, this cannot be! AHHHHHHH!” Nightmare Moon shouted as the rainbow whip was hurtling towards her…only to stop inches from her face, the spiked ball at the end hanging there, seeming to defy gravity. “Hah! You missed!”

“Did I?” Whip asked as a large amount of magical energy gathered on the spiked ball. The filly that had given him his strength back stood beside him, using the last of her magic to hold the whip steady in the air.

“Nooooo! NOOOOOOO!” Nightmare Moon screamed as the ball of energy released the rainbow magic that had gathered around it, engulfing Nightmare Moon in a rainbow tornado that carried her outside. She had disappeared entirely soon afterwards…the fight was over.

However, the room and the castle around the two ponies started to crumble, leaving the two scrambling for a quick way out.

“Wait, Whip! Let me teleport us!” The filly told him.

“Alright. I’m counting on you, Mareia!” Whip replied as a white glow surrounded them both. Suddenly, the view changed to a Cliffside far outside the castle. Nightmare Moon’s castle, built on top of the abandoned palace of the royal sisters on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, started falling into the ocean below.

“It’s over…you did it, Whip.” Mareia told him with a cheerful smile.

“WE did it, Mareia. I couldn’t have done it without you.” Whip replied.

“Aww…” Mareia blushed a little. “You’re an awesome future brother-in-law.”

“About that…is she…”

“Oh, don’t worry about Annette, she’s fine! I teleported her out once you saved her!” Mareia told him.

Whip breathed a sigh of relief. Before he could reply, the Elements trotted up to him, with varying amounts of concern on their faces.

“Whip Memory…Mareia…thank you for defeating Nightmare Moon in our place.” Twilight Sparkle spoke.

“Ah’m sorry we couldn’t help y’all kick her flank again.” Applejack apologized.

“Yeah, it was WAY past uncool to be down and out for the big fight!” Rainbow Dash groaned.

“Oh, your coats are positively filthy! I’ll gladly treat you two to a spa visit when we return to Ponyville!” Rarity offered.

“And then we can throw a big party to our heroes and-“ Pinkie Pie gasped. “-and you HAVE to tell us when you’re gonna get married to that Annette mare, I wanna plan the reception and-“

Fluttershy lightly poked Pinkie, which was enough to get her to stop. “Oh and congrats!” Pinkie merely said afterwards with a bright smile.

“Um…w-we’re so glad you were able to help. M-maybe you can…take a few days to rest here in Ponyville? That is…if you don’t mind.” Fluttershy meekly said.

“I’m sure the both of us could use the R&R. Thank you, especially for the power you gave us.” Whip Memory told the six mares.

“But, Whip…there’s still something I have to ask.” Twilight said.

“Then allow me to answer, my student.” A voice said from above them. Princess Celestia descended as each of the ponies bowed to her. “Arise, my little ponies.” She told them.

“Princess Celestia…what about-“

“I believe you need only look to the skies, Twilight.” Celestia told her, as the moon was beginning to lower.

Whip stared at the lowered moon as Celestia’s horn flared. The sun began to rise above the wrecked castle, and with it, a silhouette in front of it.

“Is that…” Twilight trailed off as the silhouette drew closer. “It is! Princess Luna!” She happily shouted as Luna touched down near Celestia, her head hanging down.

“I…suppose I would go on about how sorry I am, but-“

“-You don’t need to, dear sister.” Celestia said, draping a wing around her younger sister. “My little ponies know you aren’t to blame.”

“Thank you, ‘Tia…” Luna said, looking up at her with tears in her eyes.

“Although…there are a few extra ponies that you should thank this time around, Lulu.” Celestia told her.

“I am aware.” Luna replied, turning to Whip Memory and Mareia. “I am eternally grateful of your courage to face the terrors that my other self was responsible for.”

“I was just doing my job, Princess.” Whip sheepishly told her. “Although…except for events like this, I’m unsure if my family’s heritage is of any use to you anymore, with the relative peace that Equestria has experienced in recent years.”

“Do the last three years count as peace?” Rainbow Dash said before being shushed by Applejack.

“If it is your family’s future that thou…er, you are concerned about, then I shall do what I can to preserve your legacy if it is needed again without burdening your family for generations to come.” Luna said, noticing her sister’s slight grin. “Old habits with the old language die hard, I suppose.”

“Thank you, Princess Luna.” Whip Memory said, bowing to her.

“Please, you saved me this night. It is I who should be bowing to you.” Luna insisted.

“So, what was that about a party?” Mareia asked.

“I like the way this filly thinks!” Pinkie chirped.

“I guess we should be celebrating, now should we?” Celestia said to the group. “Let’s be off to Ponyville.”

The group was about to leave when Luna noticed Whip still looked a little awkward.

“Are you alright?” Luna asked.

“I am. It’s just…well, I did have a sort of cheesy line prepared if I beat Nightmare Moon.” Whip Memory.

“Then share it, it may help brighten the mood.” Luna replied.

“Er…I may have forgotten Nightmare Moon wasn’t just some dark beast instead of controlling you, so forgive me if this sounds a tad offensive to you.” Whip said with a nervous hoof behind his head.

“Oh, it’s quite alright. Just say it!” Luna once again insisted.

“Alright…” Whip said, turning towards Celestia’s sun.

“The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night.”

Author's Note:

...Wow, I come back and write a one-shot in the blink of an eye. What a way to spend two hours. XD

And yes, I haven't actually watched Castle-Maneia yet, but I KNEW I had to write something like this the second I saw that title. It may have zilch to do with the episode, but dammit, this needed to be written for that gigantic title nod to the vampire-slaying franchise.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little one-shot and let's keep Season 4 goodness rolling! ...By the way, if that episode's plot does end up having some sort of nod to the series besides just the name, I am going to laugh my flank off.

Edit (12/3/13): Just watched it this morning AND...yeah, there's nothing besides the name and MAYBE the Pony of Shadow being a name reference to Lords of Shadow (which isn't much of a spoiler since it's very quickly mentioned). Oh well. Enjoy the ponyfied Symphony prologue anyway!

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