Nightmares and Harmony

by Starpony999

The Elements!

They all galloped at high speeds to the castle. In the first room they entered, there was a intricately carved pattern on the floor. Ms. Pie noticed it and began to trace her hoof across the nearest line. Rainbow came sliding to a behind her, trying not to knock in the the unicorn. Everypony else followed suit, but none of them stopped in time to avoid sliding into Rainbow Zap. Meanwhile, Dawn's hoof stopped briefly over a circle near the center of the room and both her hoof and ground beneath it sank slightly into the floor. The room began to shake violently as the floor opened up and gave way beneath them. The ponies stepped backwards as quickly as they could to avoid falling through the gap or getting hit by the statue that was rising from beneath. Dawn did a double check. Was there really it something rising up from beneath the surface? There was, and it was a tall pillar with stone arms breaching out from it. At the end of each extension there was a stone orb, and etched into each orb was the shape of a diamond.

"One, two, three, four,...". Twilight counted, pointing with her hoof so she wouldn't loose track. "There's only five."

"Well isn't that just marvelous." Rarity deadpanned, scratching at the ground.

"Five, five, five... Didn't the book say something about that?" Pinkamenia mused, rubbing her hoof under her chin as she sat on the floor.

"When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed." The purple pegasus recited from memory.

"Told ya. Egghead." Rainbow commented, only loud enough for her pink neighbor to hear.

Dawn dismissed the comment and levitated the five stones to the ground. She lowered her self so that her horn would be close to the elements and parallel to the ground. She began to charge her horn with magic in hopes of creating the necessary spark.

"Come on now, y'all. She needs to concentrate." AJ began to place her other friends in a defensive positions around their friend to stop anything from disturbing Pinkie, even themselves. They mostly faced outwards, towards the windows, expecting Nightmare Moon, or yet another obstacle, to come at them from outside.

What the defending ponies failed to notice was the sparkling blue magic that swirled around the elements, faster and faster. It picked up speeds until the elements themselves were picked up in the swift magic. At first, Dawn thought she finally had gotten them to work, but then she realized it was a darker blue than her personal magic. The dark magic was at a full whirlwind now. Sensing that it was about to zap, the pink pony jumped into the wind that did whirl.

It had all disappeared--magic, elements, and pony--by the time the other five managed to turn around. Fleur immediately activated her horn to trace the magic, as that was the only explanation for such a quiet and quick disappearance. All the non-unicorns were confused when a green light began to outline the shape of a tornado where their friend had been. The shape then condensed to a ball of brightly condensed light about the same size as the missing stone orbs. The ball then began to move quickly out of the room leaving behind a thin trail of light which attached itself to Fleur's horn.

After a few moments of the group standing in awe at the remaining unicorn's use of magic, said mare retorted, "Well are you just going to stand there? Follow that orb!"

And follow it they did. The trail led them out of their current room, into the old gardens behind the castle, around the side, and to the tallest tower in the vicinity.

"What if she's not up there? We should split up to find her faster!" Rainbow exclaimed anxiously. She never had been one to trust magic, after all it was one of the many reasons her and her sister had thought up about why she was left on the doorstep. Why should she trust it now, when it was likely a life or death situation?

"But what if she is?" AJ countered. "Rainbow, we all want to find her as much as you do. Have a little faith in Fleur. Besides, Dawn could be in some kind of trouble and need all of us to help. If we split up, we won't be able to help her as well as we could." Her sister always knew what to say to get her to think straight, but that didn't keep Rainbow from being anxiously jumpy.

"I'm sorry Fleur," the cyan mare apologized. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that what if, what if whatever took her is misleading us?" She sighed. "But AJ's right. We're better help as a group."

They were at the base of the tower now, searching for a door.

"Don't be frowny Zappy!" Twilight exclaimed, apparently looking for a pegasus door as she was feeling the stone a full pony's height above the ground. Aaaaaand she was doing it standing on her hind legs. "We can call her name just in case!" And with that, the purple pegasus began to call out a hoof full of different nicknames she had already come up with in the short day(and night) she had known the unicorn.

"Pinkie!"

"Dawn!" Fleur joined in.

"Dahling!" Rarity called.

"Sugarcube!" AJ added.

"Dawn!" Rainbow yelled.

"Key Lime Pie!"

Everypony promptly turned to look at Twilight, who was looking at the stone. Why in Equestria would the pegasus call their missing friend that? Slowly, the stone the lavender pony had been staring at began to move to reveal a passage way. Although four mouths were hung open in shock, the only sound that could be heard was the crunching of stone against stone while the door was revealed from top down.

Fleur was the first to find her voice. "Twilight dear, how did you do that?"

"There's an answer for everything! Even a dessert loving, locked door in need of a password!" The crazy mare then disappeared into the tunnel, and continued to call several other names. "Pinkie! Pinkam! Meana! Minie! PinkiMini! Pinkimiki! Dawn Pie! Sugar coated strudel!"

The other mares shook their heads and followed the pegasus. Why were they still be surprised? Following the crazy mare, the other four called out for Dawn.

Their yelling increased as did their pace when they herd a maniacal laugh and felt the ground shake beneath their hooves. The sound of something breaking echoed in their ears, urging them on even faster.

At the top of the tower, Dawn, who was about to loose hope, heard their cries, and something clicked. The spark, it wasn't magical in the ordinary way. It was something else.

"You think you destroyed the elements?" Dawn laughed, causing the night-time tyrant to take a defensive stance in confusion. "The Spirits of the Elements are right here."

In a blast of dazzling television magic, all six mares were shown in front of Nightmare to be strong, confident, and together. It almost reminded her of the picture of her and her sister, thousands of years ago. Almost. The nightmare within her swatted the image away, back into the abyss from which it had come.

The broken crystals at the alicorn's feet began to rise up, each piece illuminating a different color.

"Fleur, for speaking the truth in the face of danger and not backing down, represents the Element of Honesty!" Shards covered in the pink hue zoom to the named unicorn and float around her.

"Rarity, who saw past her own problems and helped somepony in need, represents the Element of Kindness!" Crystals surrounded in alternately light blue and deep purple magic floated to the earth pony.

"Twilight, who turned our frowns upside down when faced with an illogical problem, represents the Element of Laughter!" Indigo shards flew over to the injured pegasus, who bounced and squealed in joy.

"Rainbow Zap, who gave the best of the best when she could've given her worst, or nothing at all, represents the Element of Generosity!" A rainbow of shards dashed to the earth pony, with a larger amount of them being blue than the other colors.

"Apple Jet, who, when faced with making a choice between her friend and her lasso, chose her friend, represents the Element of Loyalty!"

The nightmare within the night mare shook. Desperately looking for a chance at salvation, she noticed something. "You are still missing the sixth element!" The next part was spoken somewhat victoriously. "The spark didn't work!" She stomped her hoof in triumph.

"On the contrary." Dawn smiled her trademark mischievous grin. "The spark did work. But it was a different kind of spark." The pink pony turned to her friends, seemingly oblivious to target her back made. "When I heard you guys calling my many, many names." She looked directly at Twilight on the second many. The purple pony only smiled wider in response. "I realized something. I realized I had made friends with you, and vice versa, even if it's only been a day." Dawn gave them a wide smile. "And tha---" The unicorn didn't get to finish her "little speech" for a lightning bolt was shot right at her back.

Author's Note:

And you thought this was going to be the last chatper!

Haha, it could've been with the next chapter acting as an epilogue if I had rearranged the layout, but I'm a sucker for cliffhangers.

I wasn't lying though, I said one more chapter before the finale. Here's that last chapter before the finale! I promise, with the exception of a potential epilogue dedicated to one of my readers, next Saturday you'll get the last chapter. Just in time for Thanksgiving for all you Americans out there!

Comments

[Comickook]

All I can say is WOW! Excellent job on this latest (aka second-to-last [okay, MAYBE third-to-last]) chapter. Again, the exchanges, characterizations and finale set-up are all well done in all the right places. I particularly liked all the nicknames Twi was using , the little bit of added background info for this universe's Rainbow AND the apparent desperation on Nightmare Moon's part at the VERY end . I mean, I have a pretty good hunch things will turn out all right in the end (I seriously doubt THAT's much of a spoiler), but I AM curious to see HOW.

I'll very certainly be looking forward to the last chapter (not counting the possible epilogue), but will also be very willing to be patient.

[DJ-PWN3]

That end. All I can think of is The Incredibles. "You got me monologuing!"

[raven618]

Oi! You interrupted the monologue!
Who does that!?

[HeartfireFirebrand]

"Key Lime Pie!"

Everypony promptly turned to look at Twilight, who was looking at the stone. Why in Equestria would the pegasus call their missing friend that? Slowly, the stone the lavender pony had been staring at began to move to reveal a passage way. Although four mouths were hung open in shock, the only sound that could be heard was the crunching of stone against stone while the door was revealed from top down.

Fleur was the first to find her voice. "Twilight dear, how did you do that?"

"There's an answer for everything! Even a dessert loving, locked door in need of a password!" The crazy mare then disappeared into the tunnel, and continued to call several other names. "Pinkie! Pinkam! Meana! Minie! PinkiMini! Pinkimiki! Dawn Pie! Sugar coated strudel!"

LOL!