Next Chapter up.
My little Pony Friendship is Magic doesn't belong to me.
R&R please.
...
and when you find mistakes and want to tell me, please be gentle!
A pained gasp tore itself from Twilight's throat when one of the many spheres, Skull shot around aimlessly, hit her and made her crash against a wall. Swiftly she got up again and scanned her surroundings. Half of the royal guard, as well as quite a number of her Unicorns had retreated already, being to injured or exhausted to fight. She watched how a yellow Unicorn-mare with bright blonde mane and three orange-red leaves as cutie-mark helped Justice out of the battle.
Her name was Grace and she was one of the care-takers of the tribe. Her duties were taking care of young fillies and colts, their mothers and the eldest. They were very caring. Growling Twilight looked deep inside of her and cursed mentally. She couldn't even help. Her powers were to weakened by now. She had to wait and watch, until she found a way to regain her power from Nightmare Moon.
"Twi!", hissed a voice.
Twilight glanced left and found Rainbow Dash giving her a questioning glare. Skilfully Twilight ran on and reached the Pegasus without getting hit again.
"What is it?"
"Why aren't you helping?", asked Dash, her pink eyes flashing nervously.
Twilight sighed and muttered back: "At the moment my powers are barely bigger than Rarity's Dash. I…I simply cannot risk to be completely defenceless when the time comes."
"What time?"
Twilight held her gaze and answered: "The time to take my powers back from Nightmare Moon."
Dash's eyes widened shortly, then she asked: "Do you need me to distract her?"
"Not yet", answered Twilight. "There are too many fights at the moment."
"So your tribe is just trying to weaken her?"
Twilight nodded and explained: "That's why so many retreated so soon, though they all are in better shape than most of the retreating royal guard."
Understanding flashed over Dash's features, then she offered: "I'm still gonna distract her when you need me too. I can get enough speed from the Element of Loyalty."
"So you can use them by yourself by now?", asked Twilight surprised. She'd truly hoped they would find out, yet didn't really dare to believe it.
"Partly", answered Dash with a shrug. "I just found out when we opened this Portal in the old castle to get you."
"I see", muttered Twilight and gazed around. It hurt her deeply to watch how so many Unicorns she knew and cared for battled against an enemy that used her own power against them. Shaking her head she shook the thoughts off and to distract herself from pondering if this plan would really work, she asked: "What's in the bag?"
Dash shifted nervously with her wings at the question. She gazed at Twilight nervously. Twilight looked back confused, but understood once Dash answered her. "Your crown." Of course. Twilight herself had doubts if the Elements of Harmony would even work fully. The friendship she'd once had with the other five ponies had taken many hits and though Dash trusted her completely, she wasn't so sure about the others. At least AJ or Rarity would scream at her, she just knew it.
Suddenly Dash nudged her and she looked at the azure Pegasus.
"Yes?"
"I think you need to do something quick. Don't know how, but almost no one of the royal guard is still fighting and Princess Celestia is losing against Wish, thought Skull is beaten."
Swiftly Twilight surveyed the situation and realised Dash was right. Skull, though he struggled, was chained to the ground by Dream's, Spirit's and Moral's Magic, while Faith and Hope raced around to help injured ponies. Princess Celestia's horn and Wish's collided again and again and thought the sun-princess' magic was stronger than Wish's, the red unicorn had more experience in fighting with this kind of blade. More than half of Twilight's own fighters had retreated and only a few members of the royal guard, including her brother, still fought.
"It's time", muttered Twilight and walked forward.
She had the feeling this fight would, though she didn't want it to, reveal who she was to everypony.
It was time.
Time to face her past.
A past she had problems to remember.
Rainbow Dash nervously watched how her friend walked through the battling ponies. It seemed impossible, but not one attack hit. It was as if the magic was dodging her, to not be in the way. Dash knew, she just knew, that Twilight would win the fight, yet she feared that it would come at the cost of the lavender Unicorn revealing who she was. And she had the feeling Twilight feared this too. What happened next, surprised Rainbow Dash though.
The still fighting tribe-members froze when they saw their leader approaching, then ceased their attacks until they stopped. Nightmare Moon, as well as everyone else, watched interested how slowly, one by one, the Unicorns backed off, while their leader got closer. After a while, Twilight stopped walked and took position a few feet in front of the dark Alicorn. No one moved, even Celestia and Wish had stopped their fighting to watch.
Suddenly a dark beam emerged from Nightmare Moon's horn and shot at Twilight. The unicorn moved faster than Dahs had ever seen her moving and dodged the beam while answering with one of her own. It was pathetic against to what Dash knew Twilight could do, but she knew as well how weakened her friend truly was. Nightmare Moon dodged too, to get hit with a second beam. Though the purple beam was pretty weak, Nightmare Moon still had to back off and pain flickered in her eyes.
"How?", hollered the evil creature.
Twilight laughed and Dash frowned at the sickly sweet sound. It didn't sound like the Twi she knew at all. "You're relying too much on the power you stole from me", explained Twilight, keeping this strange tone in her voice. Even some of Twilight's own fighters seemed frightened at how she sounded. "That means, no matter how weak my attempts to attack you are, they'll do more damage than I could do to you when I still had half of my power and you none."
At these words Dash believed to see fear flashing over Nightmare Moon's features, before she scornfully answered: "Then I conclude I can cause the same to you."
Twilight's voice returned to normal with her next answer: "Indeed you can."
Dash heard surprised gasps from the Equestrian ponies, yet saw more relieved faces with the tribe ponies. They were simply just glad that Twilight talked normally again.
"So what?", spat Nightmare Moon laughing. "You are weakened beyond my imagination. You cannot win."
"You shouldn't underestimate me", argued Twilight and took a step closer. "You did before, yet you were beaten."
Rainbow Dash swallowed a gasp. Twilight was referring to the first adventure she, Dash herself and the other four had had.
"What do you mean?", asked the Alicorn with narrowed eyes.
"I'm saying, you are blind to the obvious. Though you didn't realise it, the time you used me to regain life wasn't our first meeting. This first meeting was the reason I knew you would attack Equestria first. You saw the Elements of Harmony as your greatest enemies, yet also thought that without the sixth element, they wouldn't be able to do anything."
"They are not", raged Nightmare Moon and Dash almost laughed now. Twilight, the egg-head she'd known so long, was causing Nightmare Moon to feel fear.
"But they are. Those five are the reason Hope and Spirit managed to get me out of your world. They opened the portal with the help of their Elements. Have you really thought that they would never find a way to trigger the Elements' powers by themselves?" Not being able to hold it back, Dash grinned brightly. Though the others didn't know it, Twilight showed just about how much faith she had into them.
Suddenly an explosion happened.
Everyone gasped at the might it had had. Smoke covered the area where Twilight had been standing. "Destiny", yowled many Unicorns and it took all she had from Dash to not yowl out Twilight's name. Slowly but steady the smoke faded away and everyone gasped. Nightmare Moon burst out in laughter. In front of them, all that showed that Twilight had been here once, lay the remains of her black coat. The tribe-ponies stared in shook, then all shook their heads as if they were sure that this was just a trick their leader had pulled up. In utter shock Rainbow Dash stared at the coat, then sunk her head and allowed the tears to come, followed by many others.
"What are you crying about?"
Everyone's head snapped up and Nightmare Moon froze.
"Twilight", whispered Rainbow Dash and gazed around.
Then she found her. The unicorn stood atop the roof, effectively hiding her fur-colour in the shadows. A slight chuckle came from her and she asked: "You didn't really think you could get rid of me this easily, or did you Nightmare Moon." With that she stepped to the corner of the roof, glaring down at the Alicorn with her uncovered eye. Everyone around Dash who knew Twilight was frozen in shock. The lavender unicorn not once pulled her burning gaze away from Nightmare Moon, however her ears turned right when one voice rose over the murmurs that had started and turned into disbelieving shouts.
The voice was Shining Armour's.
"Twilight!"