I am Nightmare Moon, Bringer of Eternal Night!
They handled a distressed Sea Serpent, got scared of a couple of trees, helped an injured Manticore and crossed a bridge that was falling apart at that very second. It took them nearly 5 hours but they finally arrived at the ruins of The Castle of The Two Sisters.
Six ponies stand in front of a pile of rubble disguised as a castle.
The six ponies are; Twilight Sparkle, the esteemed student of Princess Celestia; Rarity, a generous posh seamstress; Applejack, an honest local apple farmer; Fluttershy, a kind animal carer; Rainbow Dash, A pride flag a loyal wonderbolts wannabe and Pinkie Pie, a uhh... Pink baker?
"Woowee! This place has seen better days." the ever so orange Applejack broke the silence by noting the obviously decrepit remains of the castle.
"You could say that again." Rainbow Dash replied.
"Woowee! This place has seen better days," repeated Applejack.
"Girls, stop messing around. We need to focus on finding the Elements of Harmony!" Twilight interjected, ruining any fun there was to be had.
They enter the ruins, deciding to split up to search the massive castle for the elements.
Twilight enters a large hallway littered with torches and a large door at the end of it, as she reaches closer to the door she finds a strange statue that depicts an unknown bipedal creature with feathered wings, it was just a bit smaller than her. The reason it got her attention was that despite the castle being well over 1000 years old and in complete shambles, the statue was devoid of any signs of decay and neglect.
"That's weird, it's almost like it was just placed here not too long ago." Twilight thought out loud.
She gets closer to the statue to inspect it and as she is just about to touch it, it starts to shine a bright white. It was so bright that Twilight had to cover her eyes to avoid getting a flashbang.
As she opens her eyes waiting for her eyes to adjust she finds that a new addition was added to the hallway. A tall creature that is reminiscent of the statue but without the wings, the weird thing about it though was its choice of clothing.
It wore nothing except for a loin cloth and a clay pot on its head, it seemed to look down at Twilight despite not having any conceivable way of sight with the pot covering its face.
It bows at Twilight, confusing her even more.
"Oh uh, h-hello." she stuttered. The creature ignoring her awkwardness heads towards the door and pushes it open.
On the other side of the door was a massive room that was in better shape than the rest of the castle, at the other end of the room was a pedestal that held up the Elements, guarding it was a large, imposing and terrifying being. The one and only Nightmare Moon.
"So you have come to take the elements to use them against me?" The alicorns voice oozing with a demented elegance. She turns around to see Twilight and the under-dressed creature.
"Hmm, what's this? You have brought a strange beast with you, do you really think your measly weapons would be enough to take me down?" she sneered.
As if agitated, the pot-headed creature starts running towards the dark alicorn wielding two swords that Twilight failed to notice before.
"Prepare to die where you stand!"
Nightmare Moon charges up and fires a large beam of magical death toward the creature, which it dodges effortlessly. Seeing this the Queen of the Night starts throwing more and more beams that the creature dodges as well, getting closer and closer to Nightmare Moon at rapid speed.
It starts attacking back, swinging its swords making her start dodging herself albeit not as skillfully as her combatant as she gets nicked several times.
"So you actually are a capable warrior! Not that it matters as I will still end your pitiful life!" The taunting does not affect the cloth-clad swordsman as it still continues its tirade of attacks.
They trade attacks while dodging each other on seemingly equal terms.
Twilight notices from the corner of her eye that the 5 ponies she journeyed with entering the room.
"What are you girls doing here?" Twilight asks them.
"We saw crazy flashes of light coming from this room so we came to check it out," answered Rainbow.
"So dear, what is going on in here? What is that thing fighting that horrid Nightmare we saw in town?"
"No clue." was all she could answer.
Nightmare Moon slowly grows more tired and enraged from the creature's unending barrage and constant dodging of her attacks.
"Just sit still you insolent welp!" She flies up away from the ground to catch her breath and to charge up a super-powerful blast of magic.
The creature turns to the 6 ponies that are still by the door and waves at them before quickly dodging out of the blast's way.
"Is it just me or did y'all see that as well right?" All of them are shocked with their jaws slacked, they question how something so bizarreć“ is happening right in front of them.
The creature leaps up and knocks Nightmare Moon to the ground, the impact kicking up dust. The alicorn glares at the creature completely focused on it.
"Hey while she is distracted let's grab the Elements," Twilight whispers as she starts to slowly sneak by the walls of the room.
The rest of the girls follow her in the same fashion and reach the Elements with little to no issues.
They glance over back to Nightmare Moon to find that she is looking worse for wear, her ethereal hair was frazzled and she was covered in sword wounds, blood coating the floor, her regalia nearly falling off from damage, her face showing signs of stress and a hint of fear.
Her opponent doesn't look like they were even touched, they weren't even breaking a sweat. The creature continues to send a flurry of slashes, sending the alicorn fully onto the defence, holding on for dear life.
"H-he might actually kill her if this keeps going," Fluttershy speaks up for the first time in this story, clearly worried about the life of the dark queen.
"We have to do something, any suggestions?" asks Twilight.
"Oo oo! How about we use the Elements!" suggests Pinkie Pie who just like Fluttershy was totally here from the beginning.
"But I don't know how." Twilight slightly stressed from their time limit states.
"Hey, darling. We can figure it out together," reassures Rarity.
Twilight sat in thought for a few seconds then suddenly her eyes go wide as if she finally figured out the answer.
"Yeah, together." as soon as Twilight said those words the Elements started to glow and levitate around the 6 ponies with a slight humming sound.
"Uh, what's happening?" asks Rainbow Dash slightly worried as the humming gets louder.
"Simple..." Twilight says with a smile, the humming getting even louder.
"It's friendship."
As the humming reaches a crescendo a multicoloured light explodes out of the girls. The creature, leaps towards the alicorn to land the killing blow noticing the rainbow beam just a little too late. He couldn't dodge it.
Both the creature and Nightmare Moon ended up getting caught in the unrelenting blast of FRIENDSHIP
A bright light fills the room blinding all that are in it.
Princess Celestia enters the room, greets Twilight and reveals that Nightmare Moon was her sister, you know the whole shebang.
Then Applejack speaks up.
"So uh, what are we gonna do with 'em?" she says as she points to the creature that is now frozen in stone.