Ch. 29 - Magic
The Monster in the Twilight
Magic
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Rescue Team!”
Five energetic little ponies bounded through the shattered doors, but they promptly flattened to the ground when a blackened form wreathed in green magic flew backwards above them, flashing through the open doorway with a mingled yelp of pain and terror. Apple Bloom was the first pony to spring back up and dart across the floor to where a battered Monster lay in the midst of five large spherical stones.
“Monster! What did she do to you?”
Despite having one eye swollen closed and a trickle of blood dripping down her face, Monster smiled at the little filly. “Loyalty,” she croaked, sweeping away a building tear with one dirty purple hoof.
“How touching,” purred Nightmare Moon, moving close to the little ponies clustered around their wounded friend. Behind them, the shattered remnants of the door pulled themselves together in indigo magic and sealed the portal closed just as flawlessly as it had been before Tallgrass had smashed it open. “If you somehow meant to make these little foals bear the Elements of Harmony, you must have been hopelessly insane.”
“Quick! Scootaloo!” squealed Sweetie Belle while pointing to a symbol on one of the large smooth stones next to Monster. “The book! Get the book!”
“Right!” shouted the little pegasus filly, grabbing The Elements of Harmony - A Reference Guide and flinging it right into Nightmare Moon’s face.
“Generosity,” sighed Monster, trying not to facehoof at Scootaloo’s look of shocked realization.
Nightmare Moon snarled as she shook her horn, the book fluttering helplessly on it for a few moments until it burst into flaming sparks. “Why you little—”
“Smile!”
The shadows of the dark room turned to day, particularly in the area just a few inches in front of Nightmare Moon’s face, where the highest-intensity setting of Featherweight’s camera flash was used to capture the smallest details of her shocked expression.
“Arrrgh!” Nightmare Moon stumbled away, firing a bolt of magic at random that reflected off the floor, wall, and ceiling, before striking her in the flank.
“Laughter,” snickered Monster while the rest of the little ponies laughed.
“We aren’t afraid of you, Nightmare Moon,” declared Sweetie Belle, standing in front of Monster with her head held high. “Well, not a lot. Maybe just a little.”
“Where is your fear?” snarled Nightmare Moon, stalking closer. “Why do you not fear me?”
“We ride in Scootaloo’s wagon! It takes a lot to scare us.”
“Honesty,” said Monster, struggling to get up on her hooves.
Twist looked at her bloody hind leg and gasped. “Thop it you two! Thees hurt! Let me get my bandageth.”
“Kindness,” said Monster with an affectionate nuzzle for the little filly, who had started crying.
Nightmare Moon stumbled back, her eyes wide with fear as her voice rose into a terrified screech. “No! This cannot be! You don’t have the last Element! You’re just a mindless beast from the forest!”
The dark alicorn looked frantically around the room as a low hum began to grow around the stones, suddenly turning to the scarred unicorn and lowering her horn. “Die!”
A blast of ebon power burst from Nightmare Moon’s horn and swept over the six friends, but it burst into scintillating fragments when a sphere of deepest purple surrounded them. Five little popping noises sounded as the stone spheres ruptured, and brilliant motes of dust began to circle the little ponies. Despite her bloody leg, Monster stood proudly in the middle of the swirling stone fragments, her eyes white with power and her horn glowing as bright as the sun. Nightmare Moon stumbled backwards, trying to shade her eyes as the scarred unicorn spoke.
“My name,” she said, lifting her head and horn proudly while rainbow light filled the room, “is Twilight Sparkle. And you will not harm my friends!”
- - ✶ - -
An explosion of indigo and green fire propelled the screaming changeling out of the shattered doorway, his flailing limbs wreathed in green fire as he bounced along the rubble that filled the courtyard until he came to rest inside a smoldering brush pile.
Although she was lagging behind the others, Trixie hastened her gallop when the fragments of the door began to knit themselves together, and ducked when Rainbow Dash zipped out in front above her. By the time the pegasus had reached the doorway, the doors had twisted back into shape just as solidly as before — if the noise Rainbow Dash made when she bounced off them was any indication.
When Trixie galloped past the smoke that marked the changeling’s resting point, she spared the time to give him a quick glance, and felt oddly relieved that he was alive and struggling against the thorny branches. It would have taken valuable breath she could not spare to gasp out a quick, “Thank you!” but she grabbed him out of the thorns with her magic anyway to give him a boost. It still slowed her down more, to the point she was the last one to the steps while Rainbow Dash beat futilely against the rebuilt doors.
“Stupid. Doors!” gasped Trixie, heaving for breath at the bottom of the stairs while the rest of the group milled around. “Stand back!” She lowered her horn and fired a blast at the massive doors, a weak popping noise no louder than a firecracker.
“That won’t get us nowhere!” shouted Applejack, turning around to buck viciously at the closed doors, joined by Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.
“I have skill, not power!” snapped Trixie.
“Then save my Flower!” snapped back Zecora, looking a much paler pink while she gasped for air by her side.
“Stop it, you two!” shouted Applejack, hammering her hind hooves into the door again and again with no results. “If that thing feeds on hatred and bickering, the two of you’ll—”
Light flooded out to fill the world, in hues and shades that no mortal light should ever be forced to take. Filtering out of the tall windows and through the cracks in the door, it illuminated the ponies in vibrant detail. Every shade of their coats flared into brilliant color, the cloudy sky above lit with brief chromatic glory as the clouds were blasted away, the ruins blazing with power and light.
And the pink alicorn illusion around Zecora began to dwindle and fade.
“No, don’t go!” screamed the zebra in pure panic as she scrabbled her hooves against the door, only to collapse in tears when the rest of the pink vanished from her body. The suddenly plain-looking zebra remained slumped by the doors, with her tears pouring onto the dusty ground.
“What it is it?” asked Trixie in a panic, dashing up next to her and shoving at the stubborn door.
“My daughter draws her last bits of power, in this, her final hour.”
* * *
The world was Light and Power and Pain.
Twilight Sparkle was frozen in agony, unable to breathe, unable to scream. Power pounded in on her fragile body from all around, even as the Light descended from the ceiling. Agony tore through every nerve as scar tissue hissed and boiled, burned out neurons rejoined, cells long dead sprang back to life.
Too fast!
Obedient to her will, the world slowed. Her hammering heartbeat turned into a constant sledgehammer of pain, screams of panic from her friends dopplering into low rumbles, the five streams of power converging into her being burning beyond anything she had experienced before. Power filled her heart, her soul, every single cell in her body and still more poured in. The Light twisted in her powerful grasp, settling down, getting closer and closer with each moment.
Slower!
Time staggered, stuttering and skipping in excruciating bursts until she focused her mind. The smashing impact of her heart slowed even more until each beat was a slow surge, a gentle wave of Pain. Light still drew near, but the Power rushed into it like lightning into a tall tree. She was a conduit, a moist circuit of delicate flesh and blood between the stroke of lightning and the earth. The Power flowed in and through and out into the Light without touching her flesh. It was pleasure greater than any she had ever experienced, even when she had been driven by her frail flesh to seek companionship. Even the Power she experienced when she touched the sun paled against this.
With this much Power, she could make suns.
Nightmare Moon appeared only as a blur to her perceptions, a dark knot of Magic tied around frail threads, so few as to be nearly nonexistent. With the Power she had now, it would only take a thought, a mere twitch of the mind to tear that evil into pieces so small even it would be unable to reform, but at a loss of the trapped soul.
Bring back my sister, Twilight Sparkle. I know you can.
The memory made Pain wrack her body again, drawing up the hatred and fear she had buried and causing the world to flicker and fade. Something was wrong, something she could not see in the glare of the Light. Her innermost instincts screamed against the idea that the approaching Light showed, that it expected, that it demanded. The Power could be used to cleanse the soul of Nightmare, but it would take every bit of Power she could draw. The five smaller sources of Power sensed their need and grew, bringing the Light to a blinding brilliance that she fought. It was wrong. It was wrong!
Then the Light touched her head, and she understood.
There was no Power in the Elements of Harmony. They drew their Power from their users.
Five little ponies, her friends, twisted in pain while their Elements drew Power from deep within their souls. They were too small to power the Elements, too young, too weak. Luna could be cleansed of her taint and saved, but only at the cost of five precious lives.
No!
She fought with the Light, struggling against it as the Power grew. It fought back, wanting to only be used, not caring what the costs would become. Power expected sacrifice. It existed only to be used, and it drew more Power from her friends every timeless instant she struggled. Soon it would be too late. Her friends would die.
Kill me, Twilight Sparkle. Save thy friends.
No.
The spell-fed knot of Power in the alicorn twisted in her vision, feeding on the hatred and fears inside its host body. It was created from hatred and anger incarnate, living on the dark emotions and wanting only destruction. The Light clung tightly to her head now, pressing down as if to say it would not yield until this fragment of Disharmony was gone, even if it meant the death of her friends. She could feel the first faltering of energy from her friends, a green twitch in the network of Power that engulfed her in agonizing potential.
There was no time left.
Twilight Sparkle faced the Light, drawing on her every fragment of will. The roar of power from the other Elements stopped, then ran backwards when she poured power back into their faltering bodies. With a tiny flicker of movement, her body appeared next to the Nightmare, she shoved the unconscious bodies of her friends backwards to be out of danger, and the threads of power from the other Elements were severed. The Light guttered when it ceased to draw Power from the little ponies, leaving far too little Power to destroy the Nightmare and her host body.
Twilight did not care. She had made a different choice.
Power flared again in the Light, driven by Twilight when she poured her own Magic into the ancient device. Rage and fear powered the sphere of energy that snapped into existence around the two combatants, silver and invulnerable as the panicked Nightmare rapidly found out. She flung herself against the inner surface of their prison while Twilight glowed like the sun, forming a second smaller sphere in the center. Slowly and steadily, the center sphere grew in size and brilliance while pulling at the forms of the two trapped ponies.
“No!” screamed Nightmare Moon. “What are you doing?”
She is creating a place where hatred and fear can not exist.
“You will die with us!” snarled the dark alicorn, unleashing a blast of power against Twilight that curved even as she fired and vanished into the growing center sphere without a sound.
She knows.
With a wordless growl, the dark alicorn lunged at Twilight before being caught in the same powerful grip. Although she struggled against its power, the portions of her body closest to the center faded and streamed away as they fell, carrying any last word with them until nothing was left. The center sphere continued to expand in an inexorable fashion, soon to be as large as the outer sphere, even while Twilight began to fade also.
All of her Anger had long since been poured into the Light crowning her head, as had every scrap of Fear and Shame, and Worry. Now as the last bits of her soul streamed into the Light, her memories of home and the terrible falling sun in the sky vanished first, then her friends, and finally the memories of a black and white striped mare pulling her burned body out from under a bush.
“Goodbye, mom.”
As the last bits of her mind flowed through the Element of Magic, Twilight could only see the Light.
And it was good.
* * *
When the adult ponies broke into the room, there was no sign of Nightmare Moon or Monster, just five unconscious children around a golden diadem that sat alone on the floor.
And a huge ball of incandescent light suspended motionless in the middle of the room.
Shrinking.
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There
iswas fanart for this chapter, from Dessert711 at Deviantart but it seems to be gone now. Oh, well.and a reminder. There is a Happy ending to this story.
When I looked at the fanart I was reminded of that scene from Aladdin; where Jafar got sucked into the lamp.
Well this isn't looking good...
And it certainly is a different take on the Elements of Harmony.
The sad tag could spell the end of our addled heroine... but something tells me that the magical howitzer isn't quite finished yet...
At least I hope not... a freed Luna would be rather upset at that prospect.
NICE! each chapter draws us to want that next chapter, which unfortuantly just gets us that much closer to the end of this story
oh well, cant have everything so I'll just settle for the next chapter
Noooooooo
Monster!
Years of playing videogames has left me with finger strength to rival Hercules... And yet, this cliffhanger might be the death of me.
*fistpump* Ahh hell yeah!
Oh crap, so Twilight and the CMC++ are too young and undeveloped (magic-wise) to power the Elements without invoking self-sacrifice. That ain't good.
Here's hoping Trixie and the M5 can serve as a second string to the bow and save the day.
Tragically beautiful... Twilight's sacrifice is.
..... Good thing I know how the story ends
, and NNNnnOOOoooo... not telling! 
So dead then?
Oh well... you will be remembered... maybe.
2834007
With that in mind, I withhold any and all reactions until after the next chapter is posted. Until then, let me just say kudos for doing something with the Elements other than the Rainbow Beam of Fix Everything™.
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/383/733/d66.jpg
After all is said and done, how will Celestia react to Twilight's (assumed) death?
I'm too blown away to spew out one of my rambling gushing walls of text. Brilliant work.
A shrinking sphere of light..?
MONSTERCORN!
*wipes eyes* What? I'm not crying it's just Twilight dying...
Technically the sphere could spit out Twilight and Luna leaving the Nightmare imprisoned. Though in a sense I think she is creating the Element of Magic. Unlike the canon version, this set of bearers only had one pony strong enough to feed off of in the creation of the Element of Magic. Thus she shoved her friends out of the way and funneled everything she had into the forming Element of Magic and technically tethered NMM to herself and funneled their entire essences into the Element of Magic.
The happy ending, could technically be that in 10 years or so the 5 friends may be able to put on their respective elements and trigger the Element of Magic to release Twilight/Monster and Luna, now un-NMMed from the Element of Magic.
Wonderful word weaving.
And yes, did shed a manly tear
“My name,” she said, lifting her head and horn proudly as rainbow light filled the room, “is Twilight Sparkle.
was I the only one to have a Princess Bride flashback.
You know, even though you said there WOULD be a happy ending to this story, I could easily forgive you for lying to us here and NOT giving us a happy ending. Possibly a bittersweet one where Twilight still dies, but she died knowing who she was and protecting the ones she loved from both Nightmare Moon and the life-draining power of the Elements of Harmony. You did pretty much establish that Monster!Twilight is literally too powerful to live in this universe and unless she is killed off or drained from all of this power exhaustion, she'd possibly be considered by everyone else that's NOT a princess, Shining Armor, Zecora, or her parents in this universe as a legitimate threat. Considering she nearly killed an entire race single-hoofedly just to save her friends and foster mother, that's quite the possibility.
Sure, said ending would almost certainly kill Luna (we really don't know the full extent of how immortal the alicorns are) and Celestia would probably end up cursing Twilight's grave in anger and depression for once and for all taking her sister away from her (even if it was for the greater good), but not everyone can HAVE a happy ending in a story if you think about it hard enough.
Yes, i do believe it takes quite alot to ride on scoots wagon XD
2836394 well it IS incomplete so you never know....
I'm hoping Trixie gets a chance at being the hero.
She's progressed so far in this story, and I really like the way you portray her.
2837088 She gets what's coming to her. A little less than she expects, though.
2836808 There's not enough bourbon in the world to get Trixie on that wagon.
2836394 Would I lie to you? Death is only the beginning of the journey....
2835116 That sphere is invulnerable. Nothing of this earth can penetrate it, and it's slowly evaporating as the unstable spell decays. In about ten minutes, it will be gone, and so will everything trapped inside. Forever.
2834465 Trixie: "We are gathered here to pay tribute to a fine mare, who died to save us all. Twilight Sprinkle--" "Sparkle!" "Oh yes. Sparkle Sprinkle was a good mare, a loving daughter....
2834315 With the power trapped inside her, she can make whole universes. But only on a short-term basis.
2834478 "Whoops, sorry Princess Celestia. It seems we had the Elements of Harmony set to Vaporize, not Clean and Scrub. Gosh, if somepony had given us a readable manual for this thing before we started, we might have been able to avoid this little problem. Oh, well. I understand you have a vacancy for an alicorn to raise the Moon now. As I have extensive experience with the shine of the moon, I would like to submit my application right now. All I need is some wings on my flank, and I'm certain you can provide them when I start this evening."
2837435
I automatically jumped to the "she's screwed" conclusion.
The way you word it, makes me think something unfortunate is going to happen.
I'm assuming that this is Trixie speaking....
2837435 There's not enough cider in the world to make AJ do likewise
Fluttershy better give Zecora a hug
Well, I guess it is nice to see that someone remembers that the Mane 6 was KO'ed after the first time they used the Elements...
Well, technically, it's the middle.
2836291
Nope, I did to.
2834007
Methinks you incorrectly credited the art. FC00 is what it says when you're just looking at the image, it's not the artist's name.
2839936 Oh fudge. I think it's from Dessert711 on Fimfiction.net (checks) Yep, I'll update my comment. Thanks!
And if anybody else wants to create some fanart, I'd be tickled pink.
2837435
Hee hee hee... i've seen that last scenario done amazingly well. ^_^
Now as to whether this ends happy or sad, since it's ending 15 chapters late, any ending is a happy ending.
2837435
That's pretty hilarious.
I'm assuming Twilight Sparkle isn't technically all that powerful in some sense. She has significant raw ability and she's been harboring a pretty good chunk of power drawn from the sun and other ponies. Presumably, she's been expending that energy for some time now. I'm guessing what makes her dangerous is the potential release of that excess energy, directed into whatever spell suits, whenever she gets emotionally distraught somehow. Not sure why she'd have to die, unless she's already expended most of that. Frankly, she probably could have just borrowed the sun from Celestia to supply any additional energy required. I'm guessing there some kind of reason she decided to seal the two of them up somewhere, mabye because you need the EoH and not just raw power to actually do the required things.
One assumes that stabilizing that spell would be useful. I hope that's an actual spell or spell "concept" and not just some strange application of Power.
I'm hoping this doesn't end with Twilight's death or a massive cliffhanger, but...
2834821
Ya know? That'd be pretty epic.
Also if Luna and Monster were merged to form a new, complete soul, as Luna is pretty severely damaged by Nightmare Moon, and Twilight has been damaged since her entrance exam.
Gotta admit. I have no idea what just happened and another read-through didn't help.
Maybe I'm having an off-day, but explanation please?
I swear my eye is twitching from the MASSIVE cliffhanger in front of me
This is why you stay away from whatever has been targeted by the Orbital Friendship Cannon...
DON'T STAND TOO CLOSE NEXT TIME, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT TWILIGHT!?
Most stories end with massive tragedy, meant to represent some major moral point through blunt storytelling.
This is not one of those stories.
What is next on this road of tregedy? Hopefully redemption and renewal.
good, very good. I do wonder what's going to happen now.
Again things are happening in ways that they weren't meant to be. The mane 6 were destined to wield the elements and they were old enough and strong enough to bare the strain. These kids are not powerful enough to wield that kind of power. They were never meant to be.
Fan art link is broken
5157940 No idea where it went. I'm more than happy to welcome anybody who wants to volunteer any of their artistic skills to the project.
The Changeling has left the building! And no one cared, or even noticed
Looks like The Elements of Harmony (A Reference Guide) defeated Nightmare Moon!
Hah! Blunt
I bet Scootaloo will completely fail to get this and will in fact somehow take it as a compliment
Woot! Still, kind of missing her revelation of the agony-magic vs smooth-magic, though. That would've been a perfect Spark.
Rainbow Dash seems to crash into absolutely everything in this story
Ah well. She can take it
Light isn't mortal, silly. And rainbows are natural enough a phenomenon
(Though, the light could be Octarine-coloured, I guess.)
...oh. Right. The whole "damaged" thing. How easy it is to forget that Twilight completely failed, crashed and burned the last time she used her power in this way
Here's hoping the Elements of Harmony can somehow fix that
Waitwaitwait... the agony is forced healing? I guess this is somewhat similar to the anti-hangover spell Trixie endured earlier, in some twisted way
Ohey. she managed that time magic after all?
Eh? This seems completely contradictory...
...oh. Crap. That's a serious unforeseen consequence of substituting the Bearers with foals
Let's hope Twi herself is powerful enough to compensate, somehow?
This seems strange, though, seeing as the used power is the Power of Friendship
She's... extracting the Nightmare's fear-power and using it up in a spell?
Yup! It absorbs Nightmare's power!
Now, let's see what will appear from it...
This chapter was a thrill ride, wow!
Well. That happened. On the one hand, I'm pleased that Twilight has a way to destroy Nightmare without killing the foals. That's the one thing that kept me from being frustrated by her decision, as for a moment I was starting to think she was about to take the 'I'll give up Equestria to save my friends' route, which is stupidity incarnate.
This is much better.
Only now I must wonder how the heck she and Luna will be saved. I know she does, 'cause there's a sequel, but still...
Well, did she survive?
5805152 dude, there's a sequel.
Anyway, I find the concept of the elements very interesting in this story.
Instead of being God tier themselves, they transform the users power.
If Best Pony Woona dies here. I will break things.
I will break things, and be very sad.
There is a space missing.
8513796 Not any more. :)
I regret nothing.