The Princess that Equestria Never Had

by rillegas08

A Big Step Forward

Each pony brought an orb toward Twilight and stood behind it. Twilight reorganized them, placing the proper Element in front of her friends.

"These are the Elements of Harmony. They're not very impressive now, but trust me, this is only one form. When all six are used together, they'll turn into jeweled necklaces for you."

"I only see five," said Rarity.

"You're right. When your Elements are ignited by the spark that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth Element: the Element of Magic. That will turn into a jeweled crown for me. Each jewel will resemble your cutie mark. Speaking of which..." Twilight turned her head and looked at her cutie mark; there was now only one small star remaining. Replicating King Sombra's dark magic had taken a lot out of her. She guessed she had fewer than twelve hours before she had to return to her own world or to take the potion Zecora had given her.

All the ponies concentrated on their Elements, and Rainbow Dash was the first to look up. "Nothing's happening!"

"Now, Rainbow Dash, something's bound to happen," replied Applejack "Twilight says it will, and I have no reason to doubt her."

Rainbow Dash nodded, and immediately Applejack's Element started hovering above the ground, glowing orange. Rainbow Dash's Element also hovered and started glowing red. "What the hay?"

"That's it, you two!" exclaimed Twilight. "Keep going!"

"I dunno what I did."

"I think you demonstrated honesty, the Element you represent, by trusting I was telling the truth. You each need to believe that you are your Element. Fluttershy, you're the Element of kindness, as shown by how well you treat your animal friends. Pinkie Pie, you're the Element of laughter, throwing parties and making sure all your friends are having fun. Rarity, you're the Element of generosity, offering to make dresses and outfits for your friends at little to no cost. And Rainbow Dash, you're the Element of Loyalty, which I think you demonstrated by standing by your friends when others might doubt."

The ponies all smiled and thought on what Twilight said, finding it all to be true. One by one, each element started hovering and glowing: pink for Fluttershy, light blue for Pinkie Pie, and purple for Rarity.

Lavender smoke seeped quickly through the crevasses and materialized into Nightmare Moon, standing between the ponies and the door. "NO! I BROKE THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!"

Twilight turned toward the nightmarish foe, smirking. Each Element started rotating, increasing in speed around their necks. "The Elements of Harmony can't be destroyed so easily, Nightmare Moon. These stone orbs are just one of many containers. They have stronger containers tonight: my friends!" As she spoke, the sixth Element, a stone orb with a six-pointed star, came in through the opening at the top of the barn and hovered over Twilight's head for only a second before it and the other Elements wrapped around each pony's neck - or rested on her head, in Twilight's case - shone brightly with a pure white light. Each pony was lifted off the ground in a circle. Just like how they defeated Nightmare Moon in her world, Twilight had her eyes closed as the magic of friendship swirled around them. A swirled rainbow of color shone from the six ponies, toward Nightmare Moon, and wrapped around her. Nightmare Moon kicked and reared back at the magic, protesting loudly, somewhat afraid of the magic she'd experienced once over a thousand years before. The rainbow wrapped around her in a whirlwind, and Twilight opened her eyes, shining bright with magic.

Twilight suspected that her friends would faint from the sheer amount of power, like they had in her world when they defeated Nightmare Moon the first time. Twilight, however, had grown in endurance in the past few years (teleportation, for example, was easy now compared to the first time she tried it) and found she was able to watch what happened. Soon after the whirlwind wrapped around Nightmare Moon, it tossed out her armor and dissipated, leaving Princess Luna lying unconscious on the barn floor. Twilight plodded over to the princess and looked over her weakened form.

How sad. An alicorn overcome with jealousy, imprisoned in solitary confinement in a cold place, transformed into such a horrible being, then reduced to a helpless figure. Whatever Nightmare Moon was, it must have fed off her negative emotions at first, then sapped what energy it could from its host as it became the dominant personality.

Morning light shone through the windows of the barn, and Twilight smiled. Princess Celestia had returned with the sun, and sure enough appeared through the door of the barn not long after.

"Welcome back to Equestria, Princess Celestia." Twilight started toward the Princess, then remembered that this Celestia wasn't the same Celestia she knew, and wouldn't know her as her faithful student. Twilight bowed to the ground.

"Thank you," the princess replied, and moved toward Twilight and her sister. "You defeated Nightmare Moon?"

"Yes, but not by myself. I had help from my friends."

"You may rise," she said, and Twilight stood back up. "What is your name? I know all the ponies in Equestria, but you I've never seen before."

Twilight told the princess her name and how she ended up in this other world: the spell she didn't understand, the accidental wish, her disappearing wings and cutie mark, meeting her friends, the battle with Nightmare Moon that she had just barely escaped, the trip to the castle ruins to gather the Elements, meeting Discord, Zecora's potion, waking up her friends with King Sombra's magic, and finally the defeat of Nightmare Moon. It was quite an adventure, one that could fill ten chapters of a book, she imagined.

"You mentioned Discord. He's actually helping you?"

"Yes, at least he's pretending to. So far he's been more beneficial to me than I to him, since every time I use my magic my cutie mark disappears a little more. See?" Twilight showed Princess Celestia her cutie mark, now with only five white spikes emanating from behind the magenta six-pointed star. "Fifteen minutes ago, there was a sixth white spike, and a small star at the tip of one of the others."

"Where is he now?"

"Right here, Princess Celestia," the chimeric dragon chimed in, popping in from seemingly nowhere. "I chose to hide among the rafters and watch what was going on before I revealed myself. It was a bit of a shame to not get involved, but what a delightful show you girls put on! Oh, and Twilight, I've thought of a way for you to reciprocate my help. Remind me of it later."

The other five ponies awoke at about the same time, and Rainbow Dash, like her counterpart in Twilight's world years before, complained of a headache. Then they all saw Princess Celestia and bowed to the ground.

"Princess Celestia!" cried Rarity. "It's wonderful to see you! I mean, we've seen you every year you've come to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration, but to see you're well after such a long absence... well..."

The princess with the ever-flowing mane smiled and chuckled. "It's wonderful to see you, too, Rarity, and all of you. Your friend Twilight here tells me you defeated Nightmare Moon." They all nodded and agreed.

"It's a bit of a shame, though, that I won't be able to have fun with Nightmare Moon in return for limiting my powers." They all turned to Discord, who they hadn't noticed until now. He introduced himself to them, and Fluttershy was the first to go up and greet him, a smile on her face. He was the first dragon (well, it was close enough) she'd seen up close that wasn't a picture in a book. Twilight introduced Discord to her friends, starting with Fluttershy.

Princess Celestia walked over to her little sister, who was still curled up on the floor, although she'd become conscious again soon after the ponies. "Princess Luna." The younger princess gasped and looked away. Celestia knelt next to her and, with a gentle hoof, lifted her muzzle up a little. "It has been over a thousand years since I've seen you like this: your gentler self. It's past time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister; I watching over Equestria during the day, and you to protect them from bad dreams and other mischief during the night. Will you accept my friendship, little sister?"

Princess Luna's eyes welled with tears, and embraced her sister, more than grateful for her forgiveness. "I'm so sorry, for being jealous and for misunderstanding my purpose! I missed you so much, big sister! It was very lonely up there."

Princess Celestia smiled as tears welled up in her eyes as she returned her little sister's embrace. "I've missed you too."

It was a touching scene, to say the least. Each pony's eyes welled up with tears, even Twilight, even though she'd seen this scene play out almost exactly the same a few years before. Pinkie Pie blew her nose in a handkerchief and started sobbing, buckets of tears pouring comically out her eyes until she had an idea.

"Hey! You know what this calls for?" she started.

"A party," Twilight responded, "but that's going to have to wait. We don't have much time to figure out how to get me back to my own world."

Celestia stood, and Luna stood beside her. "There is a book in the Canterlot library that may help you. What became of Canterlot while we were away?" Discord told them the same story he'd told Twilight not long before. Luna looked aside, ashamed at not protecting Canterlot, but Celestia reminded her that it was Nightmare Moon, not Princess Luna, who chose not to protect Canterlot.

"This is grave news indeed. In order to gain access to the library, we'll need to defeat Queen Chrysalis. Twilight Sparkle," Celestia said, turning toward her, "how did you defeat the Queen of the Changlings in your world?"

"Actually, I never did. It was the combined powers of my brother Shining Armor and the real Princess Cadance. Their combined love was too much for the changlings to handle, and they got pushed far out of Canterlot."

"I haven't heard of Shining Armor nor the princess since the wedding," said Discord. "I couldn't detect their magic soon afterward. I hate to say it, but perhaps the worst happened."

"Then we shall need all the power from the Elements we can gather," proclaimed Celestia.

"That will probably work," replied Twilight. "We never had the chance to gather the Elements before it was too late. We were captured and brought to the throne room, where we saw the rest. But Princess Celestia, the strength of my brother's love that Queen Chrysalis had absorbed made her stronger than even you in my world. I'm worried that both you and the Elements may not be enough."

"It will have to be enough, Twilight. The combined magic of the Elements, our alicorn magic, and Discord's magic is very powerful."

"Me too? After all the chaos I wreaked all those years ago?"

"It's necessary, Discord. We must set those differences aside for a little while. We have very strong foe to confront."