A/N: Sorry, I'm not good in writing fight scenes. I'll give my best and I hope I can improve that in the future.

Dream Fight and Departure

Sunset's POV

Arc and I were standing in front of some kind of portal Nightmare Moon created and went through, ahead of us. The two of us eyed it cautiously, feeling the gazes of the other mares on us. Arc changed into his light form, shaking himself a little after it was done.

"You used magic." The two of us turned around. It was Princess Luna who had spoken up.

Don't mess this up. I glared at him, which he noticed from the corner of his eyes. "It's my cutie mark. Comes in handy in situations like this."

"What exactly does it do, apart from obviously changing your appearance? This is most peculiar."

"She talks better than in the show." Arc whispered. To the princess herself he said. "Oh well, for starters my wings are made out of light now. Also my physical attacks get extra light magic damage and I can absorb light to heal myself. The downside is, darkness is double as effective on me right now."

"Mhmm. I still haven't heard your name, young one."

"It's Wing Arc, princess. When you think about, we ponies kind of have a habit of giving each other names that kind of predict our cutie marks."

That's because this stupid universe was made for stupid 5 year old girls. "I think we should go, before she decides to come out, where we can't fight her." I pointed out.

I turned around and Arc copied the gesture. "Good luck, young ones."

"Luck is relative." I hit him over the head, again.

The two of us walked through. It felt a bit like teleportation, when we found ourselves in the empty ballroom of the castle. The thing was this room wasn't destroyed. It looked like we went back in time, before Luna turned first into Nightmare Moon. Said filly was walking down the stairs, eyeing us with excitement.

"We're going to have so much fun." she smiled and kept her eyes on me. I looked back with a straight face. There was no way I was going to be intimidated by a filly, alicorn or not. "Don't worry, little one." I spoke to her softly. "Soon your magic will be mine."

The filly laughed. "Power?" All of the sudden she sounded like an adult. "And what about you? Why are you here, so far away from home?" She turned towards Arc, whose face had been neutral the entire time until now. It suddenly became very relaxed and he shrugged.

"The payment is good. She does dental."

Nightmare laughed. "I'm sure she does. You want my power? Come and get it failed student of Celestia."

Arc and I took this as an indication that the battle officially started. As before he and I flanked the little annoyance from both sides. She was the first one to make a move by flying upwards and her horn glowing up. She shot ball a small and I mean a small darkenergy beam towards Arc, who dodged by taking off into the air. I myself shot a few light balls towards her, but Nightmare dodged them quite easily.

Arc used the momentum and charged at her, hitting her armor. I shot a few short lights at her, but hit Arc in the process, who absorbed the attack. Nightmare herself didn't limit herself to magic, but also charged down at me. I put up a quick shield, but she broke through and hit me in the face, causing me to land on the ground.

I got up immediately afterwards. It didn't hurt that much. Still: Note to self: practice defense magic.

I didn't admit it at that time, but Celestia had been right. I should have learned some of the other "lower" spells as well. I shot a stronger spell at the filly. Ah, having "friendly fire" shut off is awesome. My spell collided with Moon's spell and there was a small explosion in the air.

"Arc now!" I shouted. He charged, but I underestimated our opponent's speed. She was way more experienced in flying. She did the same as last time. She shot a spell at his neck and within seconds he was on the ground.

"Ouch..." he grumbled. He was not unconscious, but wasn't moving much either. I shot another bunch of spells towards her, but she shot back, causing more explosions. Suddenly she jolted up into the air, her horn charging up with energy.

I shot another bunch of all kinds of light spells at her. It connected and I think I saw her flinch a little, but it was not enough. She stopped midway of charging. Before she had the chance to shoot, I teleported away. However I wasn't her target, Arc was.

I looked at the scene with only one eye. The dark energy surrounded him and then some blue/black clouds surrounded his body. Nightmare Moon landed in front of me.

"So much for your friend." she smirked. Was she...panting? Surely casting spells and illusions the entire night took out on a pony. Even though she was an alicorn, she was only a filly and I got my powers restored by Luna earlier.

"I don't need any friends." I smirked myself. "Getting tired? I know you only have" I shot a spell before finishing my sentence. Breaking out of cliché was the best way to deal with them. "Only a part of your true strength." I finished.

My attack had taken her off guard, but she still smiled. "Not bad." While she said this she charged at me, while casting a spell at the same time. I simply teleported away, since both attacks just went straight ahead.

I shot another spell, an ice spell for a change. I planned on freezing her hooves to the ground, but I only hit her ethereal tail. It didn't even freeze. That filly was just so hard to hit with her small size. The two of us charged up our horns, ready to face off in a real duel off strength, when all of the sudden she was hit by something white.

"SURPRISE!" Arc announced, standing in front of me in his light form, looking as healthy as ever. "How...?"

"I changed into darkness, when no one was looking. Still couldn't move for 1 or 2 minutes." He explained and then copied the two of us into charging against the recovering alicorn. She rolled away, her armor making some loud noise.

She shot kind of a small red laser towards Arc, but missed due to bad aiming, after rolling. "Okay, THAT you clearly copied from my memories." Arc accused, though it was anyone's guess what he meant with that.

I shot a few fireballs at the filly, while Arc took off into the air. Nightmare Moon did the same and shot dark energy after him. She was clearly the better flier.

Arc changed into his dark form and let himself getting hit by a few spells. However, instead of changing targets, Nightmare Moon shot artificial electricity at him, causing him to scream up and fall to the ground.

I shot some lightning myself, but only one hit and it was the helmet. It must be a magic helmet, since the electricity still didn't connect with the rest of her body. Growling I tried to aim my next spells at her exposed body parts, but again our spells collided. Was she toying with me?

Arc used the chance to fly around the spells. He changed into wind and made a quick dash at Nightmare Moon. The filly flew a bit away, but caught herself mid-air. I shot another bunch of light spells at her and they all connected. But again it was the stupid armor that took the hit. I definitely aimed for the exposed parts, I was sure. I mean, I was able to hit her tail!

I was getting tired myself and for Arc changing back into light would take a lot of his stamina and make him useless. Nightmare Moon also was way too smart to use darkness on him, when he was in his dark form. Tartarus, her next attack was a strong light spell, surprising the both of us. I teleported to the end of the room as the light star exploded in the middle.

Arc got hit, letting out a short scream. "Damn it, it burns!" He growled and changed into fire. "That's it. You're finished."

I wholeheartedly agreed. Time to come up with the big guns. Arc charged at our opponent and got shot by a dark spell, causing him to fly straight back from where he came from. It gave me enough time to cast my ice spell, which covered Nightmare Moon in a block of ice, before I let it implode.

Why did I do that? First a being like Nightmare Moon, even a weakened one, is capable of escaping such a prison in a matter of moments. Second, the ice shards managed to hurt her.

On another note, she was pissed off by now. She flew up and charged in a matter of seconds. I still had to recover from my spell and Arc was too much of a chicken to charge. Nightmare shot and blasted the ground, drawing a black line. I ran as fast as my hooves could take me away from that beam, while Arc took off into the air.

At some point she charged again for a second and this time her beam followed Arc in the air. The glasses didn't shatter, for some reason. Most likely Nightmare didn't bother with too many details into keeping that illusion up. Arc managed to land without a scratch.

Nightmare stopped in her attack and landed softly on the ground, panting heavily. Seeing my chance I shot a large fire spell at her, making her scream for the short time the fire lasted around her. Arc hesitated a second before charging himself and giving that mare a good one two combination with his hooves.

All of us were now exhausted, not from the fight, but from the entire night.

Time to put this to an end. I thought, but Nightmare Moon had other plans. It all of the sudden became dark and before we knew the landscape had changed. I was human again all of the sudden and so was Arc. Looking around we seemed to be in some kind of town outskirt.

A bus just happened to arrive and a single man stepped out of the bus, holding a paper in his hand. He looked furious and walked towards our direction or rather towards Arc's direction. Strange seeing his fists on fire.

"Oh, THAT day." Arc said rolling his eyes. He took in a deep breath and let out a deep sigh.

"What is this?" The man spoke up, holding the paper. Instead of answering Arc kicked the man where it hurts him the most. I am no expert, since I'm a girl, but doesn't men don't have something they call "man pride"?

Hit next kicked the crouching man's face. "For the last time. It's none of your business." Arc spoke up and kicked the man one last time, before he disappeared in a dark cloud, leaving the paper. Curiously I picked it up.

"A police report?" I spoke aloud.

The scenery changed and the paper disappeared from my hand. When the lights were turned on again, we were in Celestia's throne room. Celestia and Twilight were looking down at us, smirking. And we were ponies again.

"What are you doing here?" Celestia spoke to me, disgusted? "I don't need you anymore." She said dismissingly. "I have already found a proper and more talented replacement."

"What?" I growled.

"Don't let it get to you." Arc advised.

That's right Sunset. This is just an illusion. You know Celestia. She's too much of a softy.

"Look at her, so much talent, so much more grace than you'll ever have."

"You clearly haven't seen 'Lesson Zero', have you Nightmare Moon?" Arc asked in a deadpan matter. "Do you honestly think you can ever have the power you want so much? You're just a spoiled child, who wants everything giving to her. You're too scared to even face me."

"SHUT UP!" I shouted and shot a spell at her. It didn't do anything on her. Twilight laughed like a maniac. "Wow. Now I know why you were so glad that you have been gotten rid of her. She NEVER would have been able to do what I did."

"Going crazy over a doll? Not giving your assistant the respect he deserves? Going crazy over the simplest of things?" Again Arc was asking those things in a deadpan matter.

Celestia approached me, looking down at me mockingly. "Why don't you go back to your high school and play the high and mighty princess? The princess who has nothing."

"I said SHUT UP!" I blindly charged at her, trying to pierce her with my horn, but was stopped by some kind of shield.

"You're weak Sunset Shimmer. Weak and useless. I don't need you anymore."

"Tch, like I need you." I retorted. Celestia smiled. "I can literally hear you crying. Why else would you cry yourself into sleep every night or-"

A hoof connected with her snout. Arc looked at me, disappointed. "You know, you really are weak if you can't see through that illusion." He smirked. "It is kind of obvious, Sunny." He was a frozen block afterwards. He may have been fire, but his weakness was water, not ice. The ice melted and he changed into water quickly.

I didn't really notice any of this, my focus turned to Twilight, sitting high and mighty on the throne. "You think you're something better? Well I at least am nopony's pet. Oh and Nightmare? Celestia has ruby eyes, not completely red ones."

I looked directly into her eyes. "I know you're not the real Celestia. You're just a weak filly, who's about to get taught a lesson." I smirked. Time to end this charade for real. I channeled all my remaining magic into that one spell. "Did you know that Celestia copied this one spell I invented from me?"

My magic surrounds me and slowly takes on form on my back. It also changes color. Instead of my green, blue magic aura, it becomes orange. Phoenix colored wings appeared on my back.

"What the hell?!" Arc exclaimed.

With one strong flap I took off into the air. Nightmare Moon quickly dropped all illusions and prepared for a counterattack, only to get kicked by Arc.

Any more moment, was another one too late. I had fully charged my magic and headed down like a kamikaze towards Nightmare Moon, a trail of magic following me. I didn't particular used that move often, because it always backfired on me. The shockwave that came after impact sent me flying and luckily crashing into Wing Arc.

Another thing that backfired on me was after every time use that spell, I can't move for several minutes up to hours.

"Holy, freaking shit hell, out of Tom Clancy's ass, that was awesome." Arc exclaimed, throwing me off from him. "Ow..."

"Ooops, sorry. Hey, you alright?" he asked.

XIII

Arc's POV

Man, when you have opponents specialized on long ranged magic then you suck as a up and close fighter. I barely had any chances of hitting her and HOLY HELL WE'RE ALIVE!

We were still in the dream realm, though. Sunset didn't look like she was going to move anytime soon. Looking around I found the portal was back. At the place Nightmare Moon had been, were some shattered fragments of her armor.

"The armor..." Sunset breathed. "Bring...here..." she mumbled. I looked down at her and nodded. The fragments were pretty big, so it was no problem. Well almost, my legs started feeling really sore. The lack of sleep was worse enough, but include everything I went through. The adrenaline was just leaving my body, causing more and more parts of my body starting to ache.

By the time I was done, I was lying in front of Sunset, the shards between us.

"And now?" I asked. Sunset smirked evilly. Everyone could see the greet on her face. Normally I wouldn't even consider hanging out with her type. She was a school bully and I got bullied in the past. Not extremely, but enough to make me hate bullies.

As I said "normally" I wouldn't hang out with her kind.

Sunset's horn started to glow and so did the shards. Only the shards were glowing midnight blue. It was like the episode where Tirek absorbed the magic from the ponies or the one Chrysalis absorbed love from Shining Armor. By the way, love the idea of Cadance being a changeling from the very beginning. Someone please start writing a fic now. I can't since I have no PC in this world.

I kind of expected Sunset's eyes to turn blue or to become Nightmare Sunset or something. But, she was the same as always, only that she had gotten a little power boost from absorbing the magic, allowing her to stand. The armor turned into dust.

I slowly got up. "And now?" I asked.

"We're done here. And congratulations. You have proven not to be useless to your future princess."

...

"I'm not going to bow." She just hit me. By now it was an overused running gag.

XIII

It was a few minutes before sunrise, as we came back to reality. Everypony surrounded us, looking at us concerned.

"Are you alright?" Princess Luna asked.

"Tired as fuck." I replied.

"Alright, only a few scratches." Sunset said.

"What? Only a few scratches?! You fought Nightmare bucking Moon and only a few scratches?!" Rainbow said shocked.

"Darling, give the two some space." Rarity interjected.

"How did you do it?" a voice suddenly called. We all turned to the side to see Nightmare Moon appear, without any more.

"Oh come on! Again?!" I exclaimed.

"Wait." Luna extended her wings. "I'll deal with her."

"How did you break my illusion in less than a minute?" she asked. Oh that...

"Let's just say, I've settled with the past. But thanks for giving me the chance into kicking my dad. I really needed that stress reliever." I grinned. Everyone looked at me. "So, what now?" I asked. Nightmare Moon smiled sadly. "I'm going to be alone again, won't I?"

"Why don't go to Ponyville?" I suggested.

"WHAT?!"

"Are you crazy?!" Sunset of all ponies asked. I gave her a deadpan. "Sunset, I watched THAT show. THAT show. Besides, our Lunatic over here" I pointed at Princess Luna "got a second chance. Discord got one, so why not her too? I mean, what would you do if you were stuck up in a castle for a thousand years? Alone? Heck, everyone would go lunatic. OW!" It wasn't Sunset who hit me.

"So worth it..." I grinned.

XIII

The fillies had been brought back to Ponyville shortly after the fight started. They didn't even know they had been kidnapped. As for the rest of the citizens, they treated me and Sunset as heroes. Sunset totally enjoyed the audience and totally showed off. Luna explained the entire situation to them. She was also the one who teleported us back.

Inside the inn...

"We'll leave you two at rest for now. I am very thankful for what you have done for Ponyville and its citizens.

"Piece of cake." Sunset exaggerated.

I rolled my eyes. "Hey Nights." Yep, Nightmare Moon was with us. Seriously it only takes a little bit of logic to convince Luna into bringing the filly with her. Everyone was weary of her, but I found her pretty cute. Luna was also treating her pretty well. She knew how it was after all, being locked up on the moon for a thousand years. Too bad I wouldn't be able to troll her anymore today or in the near future,

"Yeah, Arc?"

"One on one, next time. Be prep." The filly grinned. "You got it."

Luna gave me a disapproving look. "What? She's over 1000 years old. She's an adult after the law."

I yawned. "Jokes aside, I'm ready to kill, only to get a good nap."

"Ya better do so. I don't wanna have y'all falling over mah cakes later."

"Yay! I can finally throw you two a party!" Pinkie cheered.

"Where's Sunset?" the pink pony asked. I snorted. "Probably upstairs. Oh, one last thing. Pinkie, what would you say, if I tell you I come from the other side of the fourth wall?"

"*GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSP*

THIS IS SO EXCITING!" she shouted.

I sweatdropped. "The next thing you're going to tell me is that you know Lauren Faust personally."

"Okay, I won't."

XIII

3rd person POV

Celestia had just begun breakfast, when her sister finally returned in a flash of blue light. "Luna! Am I relieved." She sighed. "It is good to see you too, dearest sister. However, I did not come alone."

A little filly walked up from behind her. Celestia spit her tea in a comical way, seeing the black, ALICORN filly, with all too familiar cat-like eyes. "Nightmare Moon?!"

"Hey sis." The filly looked to the ground.

"Luna...? What?..." Celestia was at a loss for words. Luna calmly explained as to what the pegasus and unicorn had done. Nightmare Moon described the fight in further detail and also described the power the pegasus possessed. However she kept it a secret that he was a human. He was after all the first friend she made. He understood what she went through and he was ready from the very start to forgive her. Of course he had time to think about her situation way in advance, before he even knew that Equestria was real.

"After they destroyed the armor, the corruption was gone."

"Still, how were they able to win?"

Nightmare Moon spoke up again. "I was weakened from causing all those nightmares." She wasn't exactly proud of it anymore. "I used all the magic I collected in a thousand years and after that, well..."

Celestia walked over to the little filly and nuzzled her gently. "I'm sorry. Speak no more little sister. I promise you are not alone anymore."

It was easy for Celestia to comprehend the situation. The stallion must be one of the few ponies who look behind the facade.

"By the way, I have never heard the name of the unicorn mare. I would like to thank the two personally later."

"You did not?" Luna asked confused, but shrugged it off. "Her name is Sunset Shimmer."

This was the second time Celestia spit her tea. She immediately teleported to Ponyville.

XIII

Arc's POV

I stumbled into our cabin, finding Sunset asleep on the other bed. Bitch mare, didn't let me go to the toilet before we took the train. She was really so paranoid to think Celestia would appear the second she heard about Sunset. Well, maybe she was right.

Arrgh, who cares! I'm tired as a fucking squirrel after a threesome! Brain. Shut down. NOW.