Equestria Legends Online

by Shadowflame

October 31st (Fighting The Nightmare)

We entered the boss room, weapons drawn and ready, just like all the other battles we had lived through before. The room was darkened with the familiar shadows that obscured what lied ahead of us. I felt my breath come out shallow, a feeling of anxiety in my chest.

This was the last boss we would have to face, before we faced the crazy program who’d trapped us in this game in the first place. I expected it to be harder than anything we’d fought before.

The doors slammed shut with their deafening thud, leaving all thirteen of us in the ominous darkness that I don’t think even Sky’s night vision could pierce. My nerves tensed up slightly, remembering how, even before we could see it, the boss back in Cloudsdale had almost fried us with lightning before the darkness had even been lifted.

Suddenly, pale light filtered through the ceiling, dispersing the blackness, and we found ourselves in a large circular room. Massive columns lined the edges of the chamber, supporting the walls they clung to. But looking around, the room was lit by nothing but a humongous, glass, dome ceiling, with the night sky staring back at us through it. Looking up, we could see the whole night sky, the constellations, and even other things like comets, nebulas that glowed with dazzling colors, and little galaxies in the distance. The only things missing were Earth and the Sun, but anyone who saw the scene wouldn’t have thought of either of those first, due to the splendor of the cosmos.

Suddenly, a regal voice laughed, echoing through the chamber, “It seems you managed to receive my little ‘escapee.' I’m glad your so called bravery didn’t fail before my challenge.”

We all looked forwards towards the end of the room, where a raised platform laid home to a black obsidian throne. Upon the throne sat the black alicorn, dressed in pale blue armor, with an ethereal mane of stars waving through the windless air. She wore a sinister smile of fangs as she looked down at us.

Nightmare Moon laughed again, “So finally we meet. The Elements of Harmony; The protectors and warriors, any of whom would casually throw away their lives if it meant their friends could live on through this ordeal of a world.” The black alicorn sneered, “Your scaly friend already killed himself like a coward, so I wonder who will be next to give themselves up.”

Cross in particular let out a low growl at the back-handed comment towards Cloud, while everyone else kept narrowed eyes on Nightmare.

Nightmare only smirked at Cross’ growl, “Oh, please. As if this isn’t any different than how that pitiful dragon died in Chrysalis’ grungy hole in the ground.” She swept her eyes round about us, “You all came here on your own so quickly, all for the chance that you could save a single friend from Discord’s mind control. For this ‘Cinnamon’ player, you would come face me. I will easily crush you with my power, so how is this any different from little Cloud Burst’s sacrifice?”

“It is different!” Violet stepped forth, “We don’t plan on anyone dying tonight!”

Nightmare’s eyes narrowed, her smirk vanishing, “You are the Element of Spirit, are you not?” She chuckled lightly, her sick smile coming back, “Of course you would stand with optimism in the face of your inevitable destruction.”

Soul glowered at her, “Oh, just shut up and give us the item to save Cinn, like you said you would! We found you before midnight, so we completed the deal.”

Chuckling, Nightmare nodded slowly, “Ah, yes, I had promised to give you as such.” She glanced back at us, “As the Queen of the Night, I may stoop to trickery to fool my enemies and end their lives, but I do not lie outright. You will have your item.” Her horn glowed dark purple, and suddenly a black, crystal rock appeared before us, held in Nightmare’s magic. “Have the afflicted one touch this crystal, and the tattoo on his ear will disappear and free him from Discord’s hold.”

Silently, Siren was the one who stepped forward and grabbed the crystal, putting it in her inventory. While putting away, I saw that it was called a Cleansing Crystal.

Nightmare narrowed her eyes, “Do not forget, reaching me before midnight was only part of the bargain.” A flash of light split the air for a split moment, like miniscule lightning, “Now you must complete the rest of my challenge.”

Another flash, and I tightened my hold on my weapons, readying my magic as well. The clicks of arrows being notched, the hisses of steel against their sheaths and the air, and the hum of unicorn magic from both sides of me indicated the others were doing the same.

Nightmare laughed like a madmare, “Now we will see if you can survive…” Another flash. “… long enough to return to your friend.” Flash. “Now you shall feel the power of the true Princess of the Night!”

The entire room was instantly blinded by intense moonlight. I had to close my eyes to keep from seeing stars (… literally, hehe). It only lasted for a brief moment, and when I opened my eyes again, I found that the room had changed completely. We were standing in a completely circular room, lined with stone pillars along its walls. The raised platform and Nightmare’s throne were gone altogether, and said alicorn stood in its place, covered in even more armor across her body than before.

Nightmare glowered at us through the openings in her helmet as she drew two swords from her back with her magic, holding them in front of her in preparation to attack. They were pitch black, but intricately designed, extending out further than most swords I’ve seen before. What was more unsettling was the fact that she still had four other swords just like the two she held, all strapped to her back. I became wary of the suspicion that she’d use all six of her swords all at once in this battle.

The battle had begun.

“Now!” I shouted, “Hit her with everything we’ve got! Don’t even let her strike back!”

Instantly, our whole group fanned out around either side of Nightmare, rushing her from both sides, both on the ground and from the air.

But as we closed in, Nightmare screamed at us, “Fools! Do not think defeating me shall be so easy!” Her ethereal mane suddenly convulsed and warped, like a stormcloud above her. Thunder boomed as lightning streaked from her mane, wildly striking in every direction.

The quicker players instantly reacted by dodging, but a few of us were hit by stray bolts. I winced a bit as I felt the lightning strike my armor, causing me to stumble back slightly. Looking up at my health bar, I felt a pang of surprise to see that the lightning had dealt more damage than any regular strike. I had expected Nightmare to be stronger than the other bosses we had fought, and this just made it all the more clearer that we needed to either tread lightly or end this quickly.

Swift, who had avoided the lightning strikes, was back in Nightmare’s face in an instant, hoof-claws raised with a battle cry. The screech of steel against steel rang out as Nightmare caught the strikes with both of her swords, but Swift locked his claws against them, pushing with his weight down on top of them.

“Comet!” He shouted. Not a second later, a single knife flew out from behind Swift’s shoulder, stabbing right into the side of Nightmare’s face. The black alicorn howled in pain as Comet flew over Swift, two knives in hoof, aiming right for Nightmare’s throat, with another strike from Swift following right behind.

Nightmare quickly recovered before they could strike, and with a flick of both of her swords, both pegasi were swatted aside by both blades like flies, landing hard against the walls of the room.

Instantly, Sky took advantage of Nightmare’s opening in her attack and came flying in, both of his swords slicing into Nightmare’s side. But despite the speed of his swords, Nightmare barely flinched as she swung both of her swords just as quickly as Sky in retaliation. The two of them exchanged blows one on one for a brief moment, but by then, the rest of us had regrouped from Nightmare’s lightning attack.

We all converged on her, with swords, knives, hammers, arrows, magic, and the rest of the works. It became painfully obvious that outnumbering her 13 to 1 would be too overwhelming for her. Yet despite all of us ganging up on the ‘Queen of the Night,’ we barely put a dent into her health.

Nightmare, knowing she was being quickly overwhelmed, quickly took to the air, flying just above us. But before any of our winged players could fly up after her, Nightmare let out a scream of anger, her horn blazing with violet aura.

“Watch out!” Sharky shouted, just in time as a massive wave of darkness unleashed itself from Nightmare’s horn. Instantly, Sharky’s horn lit with sky blue hue, and before the spell could strike the whole of our group, an ice barrier formed over our heads, like a mini-dome.

Nightmare’s massive spell barraged Sharky’s ice shield harder and harder, pressing so strongly against it that the ice was beginning to break, but fortunately not, as Nightmare’s spell faded.

Not waiting another instant, Sharky leaped upwards, breaking through his own barrier as he leapt towards Nightmare. Ice quickly formed around his forehooves in midair, and Nightmare let out a gasp of pain as the former admin struck her with an uppercut from his newly formed ice gauntlets.

With a flick of her swords, Nightmare struck towards Sharky, only for the blue unicorn to deflect the blow with the arms of his guantlets, the momentum flinging him away through the air.

“Neon!” I shouted, lighting my own horn, “Light her up!”

The two of us focused our magic, my horn glowing bright red, while Neon’s glowed a fiery green. Our spells released, and two torrents of fire roared up towards Nightmare. The black alicorn was consumed by the flames, but to my immense surprise, Nightmare simply cast off the fire, shrugging it off as if it hadn’t even happened.

I grimaced, “Crap, I think that just pissed her off.”

Unfortunately, I was right. She turned her focus towards us with a feral snarl, looking peeved towards me and Neon. But even though she was bombarded with arrows, magic, and pegasi, Nightmare barely flinched as her eyes stopped on Neon. It was only for a split second, but I swore I saw something flash across Nightmare’s expression. It was barely a smirk, as if someone had found what they were looking for out of sheer luck.

But that only lasted for a moment as a bright flash of red appeared over Nightmare’s head where Cross teleported. Falling downwards onto the alicorn, Cross raised his hammer, enveloping it in blazing magic, “Smack Down!”

As soon as Cross’ hammer connected with Nightmare’s skull, the alicorn’s body shot downwards out of the sheer force of the blow. She fell straight down towards the ground, wings flailing and unable to catch her.

Down below, Dylan and Violet stood waiting, hefting both staff and hammer respectively as Nightmare’s body neared them. And before Nightmare hit the ground, both of them struck.

“Titan Arm!”

“Zues’ Warhammer!”

At the same time, both of their weapons collided with Nightmare’s body, flinging her like a massive, black projectile towards the far wall. Nightmare roared in pain as her back crashed into a pillar at the edge of the room.

But before her body could drop to the ground as gravity pulled on her, Eclipse shouted to Siren, knocking three arrows into his bow at once, “Pin her up!”

Siren already had a multibolt- a crossbow bolt that split into several smaller arrows in midair- locked into her crossbow, and both she and Eclipse let their arrows fly. Every last one of the projectiles pierced Nightmare’s limp figure, stabbing through her limbs and into the pilar behind her, effectively holding her in place.

Without missing a beat, Soul and Sky, the two dual blade warriors of the group, were right in front of Nightmare. Both unicorns held their swords in their magic, pointed right towards the black alicorn.

Soul smirked out of the corner of his eye towards Sky, “Don’t be cuttin’ me by accident, k?”

Sky simply smirked, before letting out a guttural scream as he sent his swords flying, Soul’s swords joining into the fray right behind them. Their four swords quickly went to town on Nightmare’s figure, slashing at her with the speed of a hurricane, and the ferocity of a wild tiger. After all of those combos put together, Nightmare was riddled with scars of red code, which was matched by the red forming in her eyes.

“ARGH! Enough!” Suddenly, an explosion of magic burst from Nightmare’s horn, sending both Sky’s and Soul’s swords flying away from their previous task of hacking away at the black alicorn. Not only that, but the explosion reduced the arrows pinning her to the wall to nothing but bits of code that dissolved in midair, leaving Nightmare to drop back down on the floor on all fours.

Soul and Sky grimaced as they realized their swords had been knocked out of range of them to pick up, leaving them completely exposed. Nightmare just stared at them with a steely glare, “You shall pay for your treachery!”

Nightmare’s magic wrapped around all of the swords strapped to her back, pulling at their hilts and drawing them with an ominous hiss of steel. They were just like her swords from before, but now she held a total of six of them in her grasp

Soul’s eyes widened, “Get back!”

”Moonight Circle!” Suddenly, Nightmare’s swords moved quicker than the eye could see, spinning in a ring. Before Soul or Sky could react, Nightmare dashed towards him, and the ring of swords followed just behind.

“Gah!” Soul screamed as the sound of steel tearing through his body erupted with red scars of code. The force of the impact sent the unicorn sprawling to the edge of the room, collapsed to the ground as his health dropped down to the red.

Sky, on the other hoof, had just barely managed to evaporate into his cloud form, avoiding Nightmare’s attack which had been aimed for both him and Soul. Sky’s black cloud quickly zipped away to retrieve his swords.

Nightmare glowered at the rest of us in the chamber, completely ignoring the groaning Soul on the ground. The rest of us readied ourselves, though we were completely caught off guard by the sheer power behind Nightmare’s attacks. Never in the last two months have I seen any of my group be brought down to the red zone with a single hit.

Looking at the black alicorn’s health bar, I grimaced as I held my sword even tighter. Even after all that damage we had dealt, Nightmare hadn’t even dropped down that much. She still maybe had more than a three-fourths her max health.

Nightmare’s eyes swept across our party, but soon her eyes rested on Violet and Dylan in particular. A tiny, cruel smile graced her mouth, “That hammer and staff…” Her smile vanished, replaced by a look of rage, “They hurt!”

As quick as a hawk, Nightmare flew towards the two ponies she had targeted, all six swords raised to strike.

“Look out!” I screamed, diving myself in between Nightmare and them, my sword and shield raised to intercept the blow. As soon as our swords clashed, it felt more akin to me trying to stop a small truck in its tracks. If it weren’t for me being an alicorn, I would have been thrown backwards like a ragdoll.

I strained to hold against the force of all six swords, feeling the ground slip beneath my hooves as I was pushed backwards. I looked up, only to see Nightmare scowl at me, “Stay out of my way, pesky fake of royalty!”

“Hey, I earned these wings my- AAGH!” I cried in pain, glancing down towards my foreleg to find a sword impaled through it.

“You are no match for me!” I heard Nightmare shout, but in a blink of an eye, she was gone. My eyes widened as I heard her step behind me in one swift movement, and quicker than she did, her swords travelled as well.

I screamed as my body erupted in gashes of red code, across my side, my legs, and through my wings. Before I could do anything else, I felt Nightmare’s back hooves kick me away, sending me tumbling to the corner of the room.

My head hit one of the pillars, and I was sent into a daze. My vision blurred, and everything else just sounded like muffled… were those screams?! I tried so hard to lift my head and see what was happening, but my body hurt too much to respond. Out of the corner of my eye, I could faintly see my health bar… or what was left of it.

I gasped in shock as I realized, just from that encounter with Nightmare alone, I had been brought down to the red zone… too close to being all the way empty. I guessed if I took another hit, I’d be killed for sure. I hadn’t realized Nightmare would be this powerful, considering the past boss battles we’d been up against.

But how was she so strong? She was too quick for me to even react! If she kept this up, then no one else would even stand a chance. I needed to get back up, heal, and help them defend against her. I just had to, otherwise all of us were going to die! I wasn’t going to lose another friend here! Not now when we’re so close to the end!

Finally, my vision began to clear, and from my place on the floor, I glanced up to see where the battle was at now. I almost felt my heart stop at what I saw.

Nightmare had torn through us like a machete through paper. Most of the group had been tossed aside like me, bodies riddled with red scars and tight grimaces over their faces from the pain of the alicorn’s six swords. And not a single one of us had even been spared to the yellow zone. Everyone thrown to the ground had been brought down within an inch of their lives.

Only three of the group still stood in the green: Sharky, Sky, and Neon. Nightmare slowly stepped towards them, like a predator readying itself to pounce. Not a moment later, she flew through the air right towards them.

Sharky stomped his front hooves down, flaring his horn with ice to create a thick wall of ice between them and Nightmare. The black alicorn’s swords bounced off of the wall of ice, but Nightmare didn’t stop, as she began hacking through Sharky’s barrier. Thankfully, for the moment, that left her occupied.

My head still tingled from the pain, but I craned my neck up desperately to do a head count. I needed to know if anyone had died from Nightmare’s attacks. I felt a twinge of phantom pain through my neck, causing me to grimace, “Gah! Stupid. Hacked. Weapons.” As I looked, I counted ten of us on the ground; ten health bars in the red, along with three in the green. No one had died… yet. But at the sight of the others struggling to get back up with no success, we wouldn’t be able to defend ourselves when Nightmare decided to finish us off.

I strained to move my hooves under me and try to push myself back up, but my legs wouldn’t work correctly. I tried to use my wings to give me a little leverage, but as I did, I felt myself topple to the side as only one wing flapped in the air. Looking towards my back, I grimaced as I found that my other wing had been completely sliced off.

CRASH!

I jerked my head back towards, only to see that Nightmare had broken through Sharky’s barrier resulting in a spectacular explosion of ice, and by the looks of his, Sky’s, and Neon’s faces, they hadn’t been able to come up with a plan of how to deal with the boss in front of them.

Out of haste, Skarky quickly conjured another ice wall, before quickly adding more walls to box Nightmare in. He whipped his head back towards Sky and Neon, horn burning brightly as he concentrated on keeping his walls solid around Nightmare, “Go heal the others! I’ve got her!”

Without a response, Neon and Sky took off to the rest of our fallen group, leafing through their inventories for health potions.

Meanwhile, Nightmare just glared at Sharky through her ice box, “Hm, so it seems an admin has survived Discord’s purge after all. And to my surprise, it’s none other than the admin who programmed that buffoon of a draconequus.” Nightmare laughed, “I shall take pleasure in this.”

Suddenly, in a flash, I watched as Nightmare disappeared from the ice box, only to reappear behind Sharky.

Sharky gasped as he felt and heard the cold steel of one of Nightmare’s swords stab through his back. His eyes were wide as he turned his head towards the black alicorn, jaw dropped open in bewilderment, “H-how did you do that…” He shook his head, screaming in rage, “That tactic was never in your battle code, and I specifically made sure no one could change that! Not even Discord!”

Nightmare simply smirked as she stabbed another sword through Sharky’s side, “I’m sorry to disappoint you, ‘dear creator’, but if you haven’t noticed, Discord gave each of us intelligence much like his. Chrysalis, Sombra, and myself all rose above the state of a simple bot you wanted to keep us as. I’m no longer a pawn to be used by either you or Discord.” Nightmare went to town with her swords as she ripped through his body like a chainsaw, Sharky screaming in pain with each new blow, unable to even concentrate on the simplest of spells to protect him with.

Sharky collapsed to the floor, health meter in the red. Just like the others, Nightmare took her swords and ignored the fallen admin, turning towards the only ones left standing.

But as she turned, she was instantly met with pain as a pure black sword stabbed into her side out of nowhere. Nightmare roared out of pain, glancing towards the offending object just in time to see it slice out of her back and diffuse into a flying cloud of black smoke: it had been Sky.

Sky’s swift, intangible form swooped around Nightmare, quickly flying in for another strike. He knew strikes like these weren’t as powerful as his usual, physical attacks, but right now he was merely buying time; distracting Nightmare from Neon, who was busy healing the others. That was the most important task right now.

As Sky reformed into a black sword, he stabbed through Nightmare again, before withdrawing into smoke again. Nightmare, spotting the little black cloud, growled with rage, “You shan’t make a mockery of me!”

The black alicorn’s horn glowed purple, and suddenly Sky’s cloud form vanished, leaving him suspended in midair in Nightmare’s magic. Sky’s eyes were wide, but he wore a grim look, shouting in surprise as Nightmare pulled the blue unicorn towards her at rapid speed.

All six of Nightmare’s swords were raised and waiting, pointing straight at the oncoming unicorn in her grasp. With a sickening stab, Sky’s body was pulled into the sword points all at once, so hard that the ends of them came poking out of his back. Sky screamed as the pain of six different blades spearheaded their way through his chest.

Nightmare screamed at Sky over his cries, “You are a fool, Midnight5ky, Demon of Willpower! You thought you could defeat me with the power of darkness? The power of mine own domain!?”

Sky suddenly found himself dislodged from Nightmare’s swords and thrown to the ground. Grimacing in pain, Sky knew that, had this been real life, he would have already been coughing up blood. But having been stabbed by Nightmare’s weapons still made it feel like he was. He looked to see his health in the red now.

In an attempt to get away, Sky tried to focus his form into a dark cloud, but the pain only hazed his thoughts, and it became impossible to correctly concentrate. But Sky realized that even if he could Nightmare would catch him again anyways, just like last time. He strained his eyes upwards, breathing with ragged breaths, at the black alicorn standing above him.

Nightmare glowered down at him, sword points down towards him, “For this outrage, you shall be the first to die!” Her swords shot downwards, whistling like arrows as they dropped down towards Sky’s neck.

Sky felt himself hold his breath, desperately trying to move, but all too late.

“SKY!”

“NO!”

The sound of the swords piercing the ground came with a dull thud, and everything was silent.

(A/N: We recommend that you mute the music from this point on, to better reading experience)

No one even screamed out after that instant, as the silence seemed to evaporate the whole heat of the battle out of the air.

But to his surprise, no pain came to Sky. The blue unicorn looked up to see Nightmare’s swords had been diverted from their intended course, moved off to either of Sky’s sides, and held in place as they stuck up from the ground by long tendrils of green fire. The fire was wrapped around each sword hilt, like burning whips, all coming from the same point: the tip of a gray horn standing nearby.

Neon ran forward to stand between Nightmare and Sky, her horn lit and blazing with neon green fire as she kept Nightmare’s swords in place on the ground. She stared sternly at Nightmare, but she barely even glowered, “You won’t hurt Sky; not as long as I’m still here to protect him.”

Nightmare growled under breath, her horn glowing as she retrieved her swords. Neon grimaced as she tried to keep her hold on the six blades, but to no avail. Nightmare glared down at the unicorn standing before her, “Move aside so I may kill this filthy imitation, unless you’d rather die first.”

Neon didn’t even flinch, keeping her narrowed gaze on Nightmare, “I won’t move, especially when my friend’s life is threatened.”

Nightmare hissed, “So be it. Enjoy your gra-AGH!”

Soul ran up beside Neon, holding one sword while his other had plunged itself into Nightmare’s side. His magic jerked his other weapon back to him as he narrowed his eyes at the black alicorn, “Hey, ‘black snooty’, she says no killing any of our friends, and the same goes for me!”

Nightmare’s eyes widened slightly, before growling as she realized that in the background of her fighting, Neon had begun healing the others, and they in turn were beginning to pop the others back up. Now eight out of the thirteen of us were back on our hooves. While Neon and Soul stood before Nightmare, four more ran up with their weapons to join them. They were Lexus, Siren, Cross, and Eclipse. In the background Violet and Comet rushed around to the other downed players with health potions in hoof.

Nightmare growled in anger at the six ponies before her, “You think this will help you to defeat me?! Just because your comrades are now able to fight again until I cut them back down, you think you can prevail?!”

Lexus’ reply held no hostility, but only blunt truth, “Yes.”

“We’ll always be able to stop and help anyone else up if you hurt them.” Siren chimed in.

Cross smirked, “We’ve got everyone else back in town cheering us on to take you down. No need to disappoint them, right?”

Eclipse nodded with determination, “That, and we came here to save both Cinn and Aurora’s friends.”

“And there’s no way we’d leave ‘em hangin’!” Soul narrowed his eyes, holding his swords up before him, “After all, if they endured this hellhole like us too, it’s safe to say they’re friends of mine too.”

At the sound of their words, to everyone’s surprise, Nightmare’s expression became neutral, not angered, but not sinister. She just stared at the six ponies before her, “I do not understand this foolishness of yours. You merely say al of this… because of your friends?”

Neon nodded, “Exactly. As long as I have my friends with me, there’s no way we can lose.”

The moment the words left her mouth, an incredible thing happened, one I don’t think any of us saw coming yet.

The necklaces around the necks of Lexus, Siren, Cross, Eclipse, and Soul, suddenly began glowing brightly in their own colors, illuminating the rest of their bodies with its ethereal light.

Nightmare’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks, her face turning to a snarl as realization dawned on her, “These elements..! Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty-“ Her gaze turned towards Neon, “How are they activating?! You do not possess the Element of Magic yet!”

As the element bearers before Nightmare glanced at themselves in awe, wondering how this was happening, suddenly a bright light appeared in the air above their heads; a sight that all of us had seen before.

Neon gasped as she looked up at the shimmering light, which was descending down towards her, “The Element of Magic!”

“NO!” Out of desperation, Nightmare flung all of her swords towards the six ponies before her, in an effort to slaughter them before they could unleash the power of the elements. But as soon as the six deadly blades came close, they suddenly shattered under the overpowering energy of the Elements of Harmony. Nightmare suddenly found herself unarmed before her enemy.

The bright light of the final element descended down over Neon’s head, before taking place just behind her horn and her ears. In a flash, the light remained, but the Element of Magic made itself visible, a golden tiara, fitted with a large magenta gem shaped like Neon’s cutie mark, a blazing fireball.

”I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!” Nightmare roared, her horn lit like a raging inferno as she unleashed all of her magical power into a single blast, aiming it right for the Elements of Harmony. Such a spell would leave her drained and in no shape for a proper battle, but it was a better fate than having the Elements be used on her.

But just like the swords, the spell vanished as it reached the light of the Elements, as if it had evaporated like water into the air. Slowly, the six glowing ponies were lifted up into the air, the light of the Elements growing brighter and brighter. Each of them closed their eyes as they felt the Elements’ power surge through them, building up in power until it finally reached the breaking point and unleashed.

The six lights from the elements exploded out as a vibrant rainbow of color shot from the group, breaking through the domed, glass ceiling of the chamber, before arching downwards towards its target, an alicorn mare looking on in abject horror at her demise.

”NOOOOOO!”

Nightmare Moon wailed to the heavens as she was consumed by the vicious rainbow of light, fighting in vain to not fall prey to this dreaded power. Her cries became muffled, until they were no longer existent beneath the vortex of color.

And when it was finally over, the rainbow depicting harmony gave one last burst outwards, before disappearing in a flash. The six elements of harmony that caused it were slowly lifted back down to the ground, wide grins on their faces as a familiar window appeared in the middle of the room.

Congratulations! You have defeated Nightmare Moon!

By this time, I was already back on my hooves, and just like the rest of our group, I wasted no time in running up to congratulate the six who had taken Nightmare down.

Lexus gave Neon a nuzzle as he held her close, “Wow, the Element of Magic, huh?”

Neon giggled, “Yeah, it’s a bit of a surprise.”

Off to the side, Sky muttered, “Not really. Neon was the only unicorn left in our group who didn’t have an element, excluding Sharky of course…” His eyes widened, “Hold on a sec,” Sky glanced towards Sharky, “You weren’t part of our team before Discord’s rule change, so it shouldn’t have been possible for you to fight in the boss battle! How do you explain that?!”

Sharky tapped a hoof to his chin, “Hm… you’re right. I didn’t exactly think about it, since we were kind of on a time restriction to find Nightmare.” He shrugged, “You got me, but I think she might be able to explain.” He pointed a hoof towards where Nightmare had been before.

But to the others’ surprise, Nightmare hadn’t vanished like the other bosses, but had been replaced… by-

Princess Luna groaned as her prone figure on the ground slowly lifted her head, wincing at a small bit of pain, “What- what hast happened?” Her eyes blinked open, and she looked down at herself, a look of surprise on her face, “We-… We are back?”

We all made our way towards Luna, curious looks on our faces. Neon approached her, “Um, hiya?”

Luna blinked in surprise, “Thou art… Thou art the Elements of Harmony! Thou hast restored us.” She stood back up, a smile on her face, “Well, not completely, but at least We are back in control of ourselves.”

“From Nightmare, Princess Luna?” Soul asked.

Luna nodded, “Yes, but We are not truly Princess Luna.” She frowned bemusedly, “We were actually a player like thyself, but Discord transformed us like this, so that he could have final boss to protect his last element.” She cleared her throat, “Our name is Midnight Dream, but thou canst call us Midnight.”

“Oh, hey! We have a ‘Midnight’ too.” Swift laughed, “Midnight5ky, meet MidnightDream. Now kiss!”

“No thanks, shipper.” Sky deadpanned, shifting closer to Siren at his side.

“Um, quick question though.” Cross wondered, “Why do you use the royal ‘We’ and everything?”

“Comes with the transformation into Luna.” She replied, bluntly. She didn’t seem to like it very much.

Sharky approached Lu- er, I mean, Midnight. The cerulean unicorn asked, “So you were being controlled by Nightmare this whole time?”

“For a few months, yes, ever since Discord made his announcement for a rule change. We were able to see everything from Nightmare’s eyes as We were trapped inside her.”

Sharky tapped his chin for a moment, “So then you’d know the answer to my question, right? I was never part of the Elements of Harmony before Discord’s announcement, so I shouldn’t have been able to participate in this battle against Nightmare. Why was I able to?”

Midnight paused for a moment, before replying, “Nightmare says it’s because after Discord took Canterlot, he threw those rules down the drain. He probably figured Thou would assume they were still in effect when thou finally came and found Us. Which means thou could have brought all of the game into this fight with you.”

“Frickin’ troll.” Violet muttered, “But did you say… Nightmare said that?”

Midnight nodded, “Yes, it seems after We regained control, Nightmare is trapped inside us, much like the way We were trapped within her.”

Sharky sighed, “Well, Discord throwing out the rules definitely sounds like him.”

Midnight paused again, “Nightmare doesn’t hold back how much she hates Discord.” She rolled her eyes, “In fact, it’s part of the reason why she only dropped all of thee down to the red zone of thine health bars, rather than actually killing thee off one by one in the battle.”

“How come?” Siren wondered.

Another pause from Midnight, most likely her talking to Nightmare in her head, “Nightmare says she was going to make thee surrender to her will and become her slaves. She was only interested in having control over the Elements of Harmony, and ergo, its bearers, so she could unleash their power upon Discord and take his throne from him.”

“So Nightmare was against Discord this whole time?” Lexus asked.

Midnight nodded, “More or less. We assume that is the case, considering our time we have spent with Nightmare.”

Neon frowned as another thought entered her mind, “But if you were guarding the Element of Magic, how was I able to get it and use it before we defeated you?”

“I can answer that.” Sharky replied, “When this game was created, we were focusing on keeping it very similar to the mechanics from the show itself, and that included the appearance of the Element of Magic itself. Even if it was stolen by Discord, if the five original Elements of Harmony are activated, and have befriended a very possible candidate for the Element of Magic, it will appear to them.”

Sharky chuckled, “Although, I think it’s ironic how we were only able to defeat Nightmare because of a ‘Deus Ex Machina’ moment. It seems that while Discord has changed his own program so he could only be affected by all ten elements together, he neglected Nightmare’s coding, so she could still be defeated by the original six.”

“Whoa, wait.” Dylan exclaimed, “We have all of the Elements now! This was the final boss before Discord.”

“Right.” Eclipse added, “We have them all, and we could very well run after Discord and try to fight him.”

“No, we can’t.” Sky interjected, “Shadow still doesn’t have his element activated. We wouldn’t be able to use all ten elements without his.”

I winced slightly at that. We had all of the elements, but right now only mine was unusable, and therefore, the rest of them were unusable against Discord.

“Yes, that’s true.” Sharky agreed, “But if we were to leave now and try to fight Discord, we could gain the element of surprise against him. There’s no doubt that he will find out that we defeated Nightmare and got the Element of Magic, but if we were to go now, before Discord finds discovers this, it would be the opportune moment to catch him off guard.”

“So how about it?” Lexus asked, looking towards me, “What do we do now, leader?”

I bit back a grimace as thirteen different pairs of eyes all turned towards me. I kept a stoic demeanor as I thought through the decision. We could either return to Ponyville and possibly find a way to activate my Element of Courage, but after months of trying, I wasn’t sure why my element wasn’t activated yet. But on the other hoof, we could focus our efforts to getting up to Canterlot Castle, which was floating in the sky now, all without my element not being active yet. Sure there was a chance it could activate in the heat of the battle… but…

I frowned, my mind made up as I looked towards the rest of our group with a look of determination, “We leave for Canterlot as soon as we prep us and the other cities for battle. Discord’s been alive for too long.”

Author's Note:

Ah, nothing like a nice Deus Ex Machina this far into a series.
Sorry for taking so long on this thing, guys! I've been busy, alright?
But hey, don't worry because I won't put this off any longer! You want to know why?! THE END IS IN SIGHT!

After outlining the following chapters after this, all the way to the end of ELO, I've concluded that we only have five more chapters and an epilogue left before I can mark this glorious piece of work as 'Completed'. Man, I. Am. PSYCHED OUT OF MY MIND!

Anyways, let's see how the product of two years worth of work ties up in the end, shall we? Oh, I cannot express how epic this is going to get!

Thanks so much for reading!
Expect another chapter later, though I can't say when. I just know it will be done either next weekened or the weekend after that!
-Shadowflame

Comments

[Charedfirescale]

Finally, its time for the rising climax to this game of death. Of course I doubt Discord/Digi-cord will go out with out a fight. Wonder what the troll has up his sleeves and who the real puppet master is??

You can't catch a digital shadow
deep into the city grid I go!

[Raybony]

I was about to point out that Cinn was in Sombra's fight, but then I remembered, he wasn't technically in the boss room, well, he was but not when Sombra was present.....now that I think about it, the reason why Sombra didn't show up inside the boss, was because Cinn was present in said boss room and it only started after he left?
I highly doubt that, I'm more certain he would have made some kind of barrier which would have stopped me from entering all together.....why do I feel that waterfall would have turned to ice if I tried to go through it?
You are weird. But if what you say is true, does that mean that the restriction rule never existed?......
And that we could have assisted in those fights with bigger groups?......
Making it much easier....
....to beat them.....
.......
.......
DISCORD!!!
DISCORD!!!

[steastritz]

*closes slowly* good job.

[crystal_chaos]

I... I cannot even put into words how awesome this is. *Puts down Kindle and slowly claps* Now on to Discord!

[Orion Light]

Someone must have played or watched Sword Art Online.

[Shadowflame]

5651424
Yup

[Shadowflame]

5657371
Dude, love your work with "A Three Foal Wish"!

[Stahl]

Do you have to watch Sword Art Online to completely understand this story?

[Shadowflame]

5667238
Not really

[Raybony]

5676130 You mean that your brother's group would hunt every hater down? Or that if you died your brother(s) would hunt every hater?

[bluemoon1996]

5682327

Probibally both ways around honestly