With our magic combined...
Upon entering the ruined castle, Twilight and her companions found themselves in a large audience hall leading up to a broken throne. Before the steps leading up however, there was a large dais that held several stone spheres on each of its branching arcs.
"Hey, is that what we've been looking for?" Twinkleshine asked, pointing to the platform in front.
"The Elements of Harmony," Twilight marveled in awe. "We've found them."
"I got 'em!" Lyra's magic hands reached up a plucked them from their branches one by one.
"Four...five..." Lemon Hearts counted out loud each one Lyra set down in front of them. "Um...didn't that book say there were six?"
"When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed," Moondancer read from the reference guide she had kept with her.
"Alrighty then! One spark, coming up!" Minuette spoke with gusto as she grabbed the nearest one. "Uhhh...what did the book mean by spark?"
"I'm not sure, but I have an idea." Twilight said. She arranged the five stones in an even circle before readying her horn. "Stand back. I don't know what will happen."
As Twilight closed her eyes and began to concentrate, a starry midnight mist slithered in from the corner of the room through one of the broken windows, its presence to each of their backs as it crept closer. It was just within striking distance, ready to pounce, when Nectar happened to turn around at that very moment.
"Look out!" she screeched, eyes bugging out in alarm.
Her warning came just in time as the unicorns all jumped away at the alerted danger that had thrown all aspects of stealth out the window. But the ponies weren't its intended target. With a whipping wind behind it, the luminescent smoke encircled the five stones sitting on the floor and engulfed them in a whirlwind of power.
"The Elements!" Twilight realized with a start. Her body moved on nearly pure instinct, and she lunged into the tornado after them.
"Twilight!" With the exact same mindset, her five friends all jumped in after her.
With an intensifying roar, the wind carried them all up. And before anyone could even think of what would happen next, the mini maelstrom vanished, taking its contents with it, leaving only a lone, bewildered changeling remaining in the room.
Materializing into thin air, the six unicorns landed in an unorganized heap on top of one another.
Coughing up the unsettled dust, Twilight was the first to gather her bearings, and quickly gasped as she did. They were clearly still in the castle, most likely in one of the nearby mage towers from the looks of the chamber's design. But what she was more focused on were the five stones that had landed out of reach on the far side of the room, and the dark alicorn that stood directly between them.
Nightmare Moon laughed wickedly as the unicorns all huddled up against each other.
"An amusing display you lot have put on thus far," she gloated. "But I'm afraid this farce is at its end. Did any of you really think you were one step ahead of me this entire time? This is my castle. My domain! Your so supposed hope was always within my grasp." She then turned her cheek. "And now that the reality of this situation has had time to sink into your skulls, I benevolently offer you all, my subjects, one last chance at mercy. Kneel before me and swear your fealty. Do this, and I shall overlook this sorry attempt at rebellion."
Twilight's friends shared glances at each other out of the corners of their eyes, then all hunched down in a charging position with grim determination.
Nightmare Moon frowned in annoyance as one of them pawed the floor. "You're kidding. You're kidding, right?"
Minuette's cheek touched Twilight's as a whisper left the very edge of her closed mouth. "Go for the Elements, we'll hold her down."
"What?" Twilight hissed back. But her blue friend just screamed out the craziest and loudest battle cry as she spirited forward, the others right behind.
Lightning flashed as Nightmare Moon jumped down from the dais to meet her foes in combat. Her eyes remained on their glowing horns as they both fast approached, not their saddlebags. Which is probably why Lemon Hearts was able to catch her off guard with a flung apple danish as she suddenly halted bucked her backside up like a catapult.
"Direct hit!" she cheered.
The black alicorn had just wiped the cream out of her eyes when a large green fist socked her right in the snout, actually sending her back a few feet.
"That first one's for Bonnie!" Lyra proclaimed. "Now put 'em up, you big palooka!"
Her magic boxing stance was broken through quite easily however, as her opponent just glared at her, and then a second later two shadowy gloves ten times the size of her own sent both her and Lemon Hearts leaving a rather lasting physical impression on the wall.
"Ding...ding..." she muttered with a punch drunk slur.
"Can somepony please stop spinning the room around?" her tag team partner asked in a mirrored fashion.
Nightmare Moon chuckled to herself right before her tail shot straight up from a static bolt that pinned itself right in the cutie mark.
"Zapped ya again!" Twinkleshine taunted from behind. Nightmare Moon turned around to fire a spell of her own when Minuette landed right on her back, one front hoof wrapped around the neck, the other pressing smack dab on her horn. Her hind legs also pressed into the sides, pinning the wings.
"Always wanted to try my hoof at a rodeo at least once!"
She yipped and yahooed as her ride twisted and turned, trying to throw her off. All the while Twinkleshine aimed more magic bolts at the larger of the two.
After a few moments though, their foe was through with the horseplay. With a snarl and a growl, her entire body dissipated into her formless mist. Minuette, with nothing solid to grapple anymore, fell right through, as did Twinkleshine's zaps. The mist then swirled around and grabbed them both by the barrels before flinging them right into the loser corner, hard.
She barely had time to smirk in victory when she jerked her head to the side to avoid the swing of a blade.
Moondancer stood before the upstart tyrant, having taken an actual sword that decorated a nearby coat of arms in her magical grip. With the step of a fencer, she moved forward with another thrust.
Almost instinctively, Nightmare Moon summoned the other crossed sword from the wall mount and parried. Moonlight through the shattered stain glass drew their shadows long as they inched across the room, their dueling blades ringing with the thunder.
With the twenty-seventh clash, Moondancer had Nightmare Moon backed against the wall. But as Moondancer knocked her opponent's weapon out of her grasp, her adversary just grinned smugly. For despite having nine volumes worth of fencing techniques in her eidetic memory, the trivia smart unicorn had one lesson in weapon mastery not found in any book that was about to be taught to her quite thoroughly.
Never bring a sword to a magic fight.
With an almighty blast of her horn, Nightmare Moon sent Moondancer bowling down the floor for a strike against her dispatched comrades. Nightmare Moon began to laugh again, but stopped to narrow her eyes as she counted the pins.
Where was that sixth one?
Her eyes wandered back to where she had first stood in realization, and there she saw the lavender unicorn hunched over the stones with her horn glowing furiously.
"Errrn...just one spark. Come on, come on."
With the fury of a tempest, Nightmare Moon warped her way in and kicked Twilight aside as a surge of electricity spurted from her horn.
"Aah!" Twilight skidded across the floor in pain. The stones around Nightmare Moon meanwhile, began to glow in power from Twilight's spell.
"No, no!" Nightmare Moon gasped in horror.
Twilight looked up from where she lay with a grin, but the grin soon faded as the Elements did too.
"But...but...I made the spark," she gasped. "Where's the sixth Element?!"
Nightmare Moon looked warily at the inert spheres before her, but her confidence was soon renewed as she concluded that whatever the unicorn had tried to do, it failed.
"You little foal!" she laughed. "Did you really think it would be as simple as that? Regardless, I've toyed with you for far too long. With this, I END IT!"
Raising her hooves, she stomped on each one of the stones, shattering them to pieces. Twilight could only stare in disbelief as she watched the shards clatter in a heap before her hooves.
Nightmare Moon continued to laugh as Twilight couldn't even reach a hoof out to the broken pieces. "And thus, the last of my sister's legacy crumbles before you! As do your hopes of ever seeing her again!"
That snapped Twilight out of it. "S-sister?"
Nightmare Moon stopped her triumphant laugh to look at the defeated unicorn incredulously. "Seriously? You, who read the legends, who connected the events, didn't even know?"
Twilight just fumbled with her words, unable to fully comprehend the ramifications of this revelation. "You're...Princess Celestia's...sister?"
Nightmare Moon slowly walked down from her platform as she began to monologue.
"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. One sister controlled the sun, the other sister controlled the moon. Who else did you think the stories were talking about?"
Twilight sat there, seemingly dumbfounded. The more she looked back on it the more it made sense. Heck, this castle was called the castle of the royal pony sisters. Still, that left one thing that didn't make sense at all.
"Why then?" she asked. "Why would you do all this? Taking the sun away, imprisoning Princess Celestia...why would you betray your own sister?"
Nightmare Moon looked down at Twilight with scrutiny. "Of course she wouldn't tell you," she continued. "She moves the heavenly bodies for you, and rules this land fairly and justly for each and every pony. That's all she needs you to know, because that's all she ever cares about anymore!"
She looked out through the large open window behind her, up to the starry night sky. "Alicorns aren't born you know, they're made. The details of how are not relevant to my point, but what you should know is that there was a time before Celestia and I were rulers, a time before we took charge of the sun and moon. It was just her and me. Young foal, you at least know why Celestia banished me and took away my control of the night?"
"Because you refused to lower the moon out of jealousy for your sister's day," Twilight answered automatically. "The ponies worked and played through the day and slept through the night, making you feel they didn't appreciate it as much."
"But do you know wanting my little ponies' adoration and respect was only half the reason behind my actions? Do you know what it was my sister said to me, word for word, when she confronted me here all those years ago?"
Twilight's silence said it all for her.
'What will our ponies do without my sun?'
She whirled about, her glare more piercing than ever. "THAT was her argument. How important her sun was to the ponies, how important it was to her! She cared more about that yellow ball of light than she did me!!"
The floor cracked as she stomped her hoof down in front of Twilight. "I betrayed her...because she betrayed me first! She stopped loving me because something more important came into her life. There was never time anymore to be with sister dearest or admire anything she does because now she needs to take care of her ponies who frolic under her sun all the time. Let the little sister just play with her moon all by herself, she's not as precious to her anymore.
"I don't want the night to last forever just so the ponies can finally learn to love it as much as I do. I want them to hate the day just as much! I want the moon in the sky for all time so that I and no one else can ever see that accursed sun ever again! That sun which stole my sister, my only friend, away from me!"
She then stepped back, holding her head up high. "But I've digressed more than enough for your sake. You stand before me now as an enemy of the nation, guilty for treason and attempted assault on royalty. Your sentence? Execution! Do you recant?"
"Never." Twilight looked to the alicorn, her expression more empathetic than defiant. "And you're wrong. Princess Celestia would never stop loving her sister. She'd never stop loving you."
Nightmare Moon scowled. "Let it be noted then that heresy is added to your list of crimes. Pity, a unicorn of your caliber would have gone a long way in my court had you been willing to pay penance. Farewell."
A crimson bolt of lightning erupted from her horn. But a wall of five different auras raised itself in front of Twilight, shattering upon impact, but managing to divert the divine wrath enough into a nearby column that disintegrated upon impact.
Minuette, Lyra, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and Moondancer all raced up to her. Their horns were all smoking and their coats were matted with sweat.
"Ha...haaa...whew! Don't think we can do that again," Lemon Hearts panted.
"Girls? What do you think you're doing?! Get out of here!" Twilight exclaimed.
Lyra just rubbed charred tip of her horn clean, wincing a bit at the pain of its overuse. "Yeah, we all know that's not happening Sparks."
"Don't you get it? It's over! The Elements are gone. I've...I've failed. And now Nightmare Moon's going to destroy us all! You have to run!"
Twilight felt Moondancer's hoof on her shoulder. "And just how far do you think we'd get, running from her? At least this way, we all go together."
"But-but-"
Twinkleshine zipped her buddy's lips. "Hey, it was fun while it lasted Twilight. And nopony's blaming you for this."
Twilight could feel her eyes watering as they all hugged around her. "N-no...you all...*hic* girls..."
As Twilight buried her muzzle in the embrace, Minuette strained her head up over the crowd to yell at their judge, jury, and executor. "You hear that Nighty? You wanna off her, you're going to have to smite us all at once!"
Nightmare Moon just shrugged with a sadistic smile. "Very well. Saves me the effort of hunting you all down then."
With a crackle and cackle, the victorious villain sent another salvo of god-tier destruction beaming straight at the group, who all shut their eyes and braced for the end.
But it never came. With a blinding light, the six mares opened their eyes to find themselves wrapped in another aura of protection, this one coming from the broken shards of the Elements of Harmony that now orbited around them.
"W-what?!" Nightmare Moon fired an even stronger blast, but it dissipated as it touched the barrier. "What is this?!"
"The Elements of Harmony...they're protecting us!" Moondancer realized.
"But that's impossible!" Nightmare Moon cried. "I just destroyed them! They shouldn't have any power left!"
Twilight looked all around the fragments encircling her circle of friends. Suddenly she let out a tiny gasp and a glimmer in her eyes appeared as an epiphany surged into her mind.
"Did you really think it would be as simple as that?" Twilight said back with a smile. "You didn't destroy the Elements of Harmony. That's because they're more than just stones, they're the embodiment of all goodness and virtue that exists in the hearts and spirits of all ponies." She gave a grand gesture to her friends around her. "Ponies like these!"
"Lyra Heartstrings, who didn't abandon us just to save herself in the face of her own fears and temptations, represents the spirit of...loyalty!"
"Lemon Hearts, who showed mercy to an enemy and in turn gained an invaluable comrade, represents the spirit of...kindness!"
"Twinkleshine, who selflessly gave up something treasured to her for the sake of another, represents the spirit of...generosity!"
"Minuette, who dispelled a trap of hatred and malice with nothing but her own cheerful nature, represents the spirit of...laughter!"
"And Moondancer, who had the courage to face her doubts and even renew faiths afterward, both mine and hers, represents the spirit of...honesty!"
With each of her friends she listed off, parts of the fragments began to break off and form tighter rings around the individual mares.
"The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us."
"But that still makes no sense! The Elements of Harmony only work when they're all together!" Nightmare Moon tried to reason. "The sixth one is still missing. Your spark didn't work!"
"Not my first one, no," Twilight agreed, turning back to her friends. "But when you all stood by me in the certainty of doom, I felt another spark, a much different one. I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all...are my friends!"
Then, as if on cue, a blinding light shone above them, and a sixth sphere suddenly materialized and slowly floated down towards Twilight.
"You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the...the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element. An element with magic so strong, it transcends all others, even those of an alicorn."
The six of them began to float as the Elements coalesced upon their bodies. And the dark alicorn took a step back in fear as Twilight continued.
"And Nightmare Moon, I now know you have a heart too. A heart that has long since lost that very spark that unites the Elements of Harmony together. Which is why what happens next is going to be good for all of us, you most of all."
"No! Stay back! I won't be imprisoned again!" Nightmare Moon screamed in terror.
"And you won't. When Princess Celestia used them against you last time, she didn't understand the real reason behind your torment, why you lost your spark. But now that it's clear to us, we can give that spark back. This time, the magic of the Elements of Harmony aren't going to hurt you, but heal you."
Everyone's pupils disappeared in a glistening glow as a ribbon of rainbow light erupted from all their chests where the Elements conglomerated.
"Because friendship is magic!"
Nightmare Moon cried out in anguish as the rainbow shot forth and enveloped her in a swirl of color. Her cries however, faded quickly upon the ears of the six unicorns as their senses seemed to leave them as the light coming from them only continued to intensify.
All soon faded to white.
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Awesome.
I bet Celestia is privately going to despair a bit, because:
1: having every member of the Elements be a unicorn that lives in canterlot is not going to help with racial politics with the pegasi and earth ponies.
2: Celestia cannot send Twilight off to be more independent and learn not to rely on the Princess in another town, since the Bearers all live in canterlot.
~ Twilight Sparkle ~
~ She's our hero ~
~ Gonna bring the meanies down to zero ~
I like the twisted perspective of NMM; it rectifies supposed stupidity of global genocide with an upset mentality that naturally tunnel visions the subject towards satisfaction of the percieved upset as first priority.
I really hoped the unicorn six were a red herring the entire time.
Having the Elements block Nightmare Moon's attack even before they were ready to fire was a nice touch; cannon NMM always seemed a bit dumb to not try to interrupt the activation phase.
Roll credits
Elements of Brainwashing.
6721157
Opinions...
1. Agree.
2. Well, Lyra is a Ponyville pony, so they'll surely stay. Come on, think about it, they're now a friendship group of 11! Heck, maybe the Mane Five (and BonBon) will cause them to stay!
And derp.
6721295 depends on the head cannon you use, but the Writters cannon has disproved the brainwashing theory when they introduced the Nightmare Rarity comic.
If you ignore the comics the show leaves the particulars of Nightmare Moon up to interpretation, which is where we get all the interesting interpretations on Luna's motives and level of violence (LOVE if you will) before she was banished.
But yeah normal cannon states the Nightmare is a moon spirit that offers a deal when you're at your lowest to help you. Then takes control of you mostly trapping you in your own mind. So the Elements purify the spirit from you rather than brainwash you.
6721157
1) True, that isn't going to be great for the PR department and it kind of excludes them from being the leads in the Hearth's Warming play.
2) Well Celestia can't use Twilight's desire to be with her friends as the reason, though Lyra does live there (I think, that or she was just visiting). Celestia might try using the angle of getting to know her new friends better as an excuse but they are really more acquaintances than friends. Also, Twilight doesn't really need to live in another town to learn to become independent. Though I imagine the Castle of Friendship popping up in Canterlot could be problematic do to there being less of an area for it to be located in. If Twilight does remain in Canterlot I wonder how that will impact the Changeling invasion? What about Discord? Or Tirek?
It has been a long time since I watched Captain Planet...I feel old...
Edit: I can't wait for the next chapter, it should prove very entertaining.
Yay!
This is a good chapter with some improvements over the original episode.
The protection from the elements during Twilight's speech was nice just as the fight with Nightmare Moon.
Love this chapter. Well done.:D
Fire the rainbow beam!
Looking forward to Celestia's "Well that wasn't quite according to plan" reaction.
Then they all return to Canterlot and stay there, except for Lyra who makes trips out to the countryside to visit Bon Bon every so often.
If Celestia's gambit was to actually have Twilight make friends with the canon Elements, well her plan only succeeded in the part where Luna was purified
This is awesome!
Is it bad that I feel bad for Nightmare Moon?
6723204 Not at all, most people do.
I'm sorry, but I got to get this out of my system: TASTE THE RAINBOW, MOTHER
ER!!! (yes, I DID just us a Fluttercensor: don't judge me!!)
side note: I MAY have posted a comment like this earlier, but ended up deleting it by accident: sorry, though I hope you're happy I put it back up again...
LOVE IT!!
6721157
...and one of the reason I still don't like that Hasbro made Twilight to an alicorn is that the balan of sieces broke between the holder of the elements.
I really liked that it used to be 3 unicorn, 3 pegasus and 3 earth ponies.
6721620
And don't forget Twilight only became a princess in first place thanks to the spell in Starswirl the Bearbed' jornal. What does it mean in a world where all the elemento bearers are students of magic? True, Twilight and Moondancer are the more academical ones, but still.
It's nice now, accept for the fact they original bearer roles were stolen by the canterlot unicorns, still not a fan of that, would have liked to a see a "gotta share gotta care" story instead with all 12 going down on Luna.
But I foresee great struggle in the future, on that note 'this will end in tears'.
6767203
I agree, plus Alicorn Twilight is weaker then Unicorn Twilight in my books. Plus that stupid immortality thing.
Even if she doesnt outlive her friends. Jackasses decide to write a story of her outliving her friends.
I honestly like this introduction to the element bearers better then the show's.
Thats where you're wrong!
You see
In all my travels i have seen one common thing throughout the timelines
The sixth element Chooses its Pony
It doesn't matter who it chooses as it always is the same
Whether it be a timeline surronded by Fallout
Or one where You are the One Ruling the sun and moon
The Sixth Element always chooses the same pony
its always the one SURROUNDED BY HER NEWFOUND FRIENDS!