Authors note: Sorry for taking so long between chapters here. There one has actually been "written" for months, but i wasn't happy with some parts, and was honestly lazy, when it came to re-writing it, as well as suffering from a lack of creativity needed to complete the sections i wasn't happy with. There will be a closer chapter that finishes the Summer Sun Celebration, but will segue into the next section, which will be original content, not enspired by any episode, but instead on things happened in this fic. I also have some ideas for new fics, or stories that I might be working on too. Thank you for everyone who reads my work, I hope it's entertaining. I'd love to hear what people think, so please leave a comment, offering constructive critisim, or general comments. Please try to refrain from hateful comments. They don't help anyone
Twilight in the Darkness - Pt 2
My stomach turned as the foul stench of the Timberwolves filled the air. It was a mix of composting leaves and rotten carrion. Keeping my weight off my injured ankle, I gripped my crutch carefully, as we all stood back to back, eyeing the incoming predators.
I noticed a few eyeing me up directly, I guess they noticed that I'm injured, thus easy prey. One leaps at me, and I ready my crutch.
"Whoa, there, ya ornery piece of shrubbery!" I hear a shout from my left, as a pair of orange hooves and legs from flying into view, impacting the side of the timberwolf, and causing its head to shatter, the rest of the body crumbling without it, mere moments later.
"Thanks, AJ!" I shout, as another Timberwolf lunges at the group, I swing my crutch into the side of its face, causing some of the pieces to go flying, but it looks at me and snarls. I swing again, bringing the top end of the crutch down like a hammer, knocking the remains of the head clean off it, which I then give a hearty boot back towards the trees.
"Not bad yourself, considerin' those injuries you got" Applejack comments, and she and Rainbow take turns kicking at another timberwolf attacking from their side. A sudden explosion of sound and confetti draws our attention behind us, where 3 Timberwolves are reduced to a pile of sticks by Pinkie's party cannon.
"Heeheehee, I guess my party cannon..." She pauses to put on a pair of sunglasses, "BLEW THEIR MINDS!" She crosses her front legs in front of her as she stands on her hind, and trie to look cool. The group groans collectively, while I hide a snort of laughter.
"Uh, guys, sorry to ruin the moment, but the Timberwolves aren't done for yet!" rainbow shouts, from slightly above the party. we turn to the first few we broke and see the remains pulling themselves together, surrounded by some sort of green magic.
"Uh, right, Maybe I shoulda mentioned this, but Timberwolves, uh...regenerate," Aj says from behind the group. "As long as the parts can reach each other, they can just put themselves back together. I could string a few of them up with my here lasso, but that wouldn't stop them all."
"Ooh, Applejack, you DO come up with a good idea now and then. I think I can help." Rarity cuts in with excitement in her voice "This is Rarity's time to shine! I will have to borrow that lasso of yours, darling, and I'm afraid you won't be getting it back in good condition, but I think I can put a stop to this."
"My Lasso? No way, No how! I need this lasso for helpin' my duties on the farm. My trusty lasso has never let me down!" Applejack retorts with a bit of indignation in her voice.
"Darling, trust me on this. It's the only way to stop these...things from repairing themselves with their vulgar magic." Rarity says, putting on her pout face
"Fine, but you better be gettin' me a new one once we get back to town." Applejack reluctantly hands her precious lasso to Rarity, who takes it with her magic. A flash of light, and it's reduced down to fibres and she starts recombining it into small, but tough strings. A newly reformed timberwolf jumps in from the side, but a blast of magic from Twilight sends it smashing against a tree and shattering.
"Done! I'd have really liked to make it look a little more appealing, but..."
"How it looks don't matter Rarity, just save us, would you!" Applejack shouts, as she bucks another timberwolf.
"Ugh! Fine! But there's nothing wrong with putting a little flair into a something you've made." Rarity starts magicking the strings she formed around larger parts of the wolves and stringing them up to tree branches around the clearing. Twilight notices and starts to help. A few of the parts recombine, but nothing big enough to really move on their own.
"Well done Rarity! that should prevent them from repairing themselves for a bit. I'm impressed" Twilight comments. "Now, come on, we're almost at the castle of the two sisters."
"One moment, if you please. There's still something I have to do."
She walks over to some vines hanging from a tree, and magicks them off the branches. They wriggle and attempt to break free, but can't. There is another bright flash, and the vines are reduced down to plant fibres, and begin to intertwine themselves. I watch as rarity works, the grace she uses to weave the delicate fibres into a something new, it's just astounding.
"Here you go, Applejack. I know it doesn't seem like much, but this lasso is much stronger than one made of simple rope. Sorry I had to use your other one." Rarity says as she hands the twitchy pile of vine rope to AJ.
"Thanks, I guess? It seems kind of alive though..." She responds, noticing it attempting to reach out for her. She stows it away under her hat, "I'm sure all it needs is a good bit of trainin' up, and I'll probably be able to do more with it than I'd ever been able to do with a regular one. Thanks, Rarity."
"I'm sure all your friends here would be happy to help you with that, once we get out of here," I say, motion to the rest of the party. Everyone nods and speaks to their agreement. "But as Twilight says, we have to move on here. These bonds won't last forever, so we gotta move before they break free and finish reforming.
We move on, and in only mere minutes, reach the large trench across from which the castle is clearly visible, even through the fog emanating from the crevice. I pull rainbow aside for a moment.
"Rainbow, We need you to fly over and tie the bridge back up, but this close to the castle, there may be interference from Nightmare Moon. If you see anyone there, no matter who they claim to be, it's probably an illusion from nightmare moon. Just ignore it and tie up the bridge, so we can join you." I say, looking her dead in the eye.
"Psh, as if I'd fall for a little illusion, Fawkes! Just who do you think I am? See ya on the flip side!" She shouts as she flies across the gap. We see the bridge tighten, and a shape comes back through the mist. "There. All done. You guys can cross now!"
Fluttershy and Twilight start to cross the bridge, and I noticed that something was odd about Rainbow, as she hovered over the bridge.
"Wait, guys. Look at Rainbow's Cutie Mark." I say, pointing up at the cyan pony above the bridge. Her Cutie mark, a rainbow coloured lightning bolt coming from a cloud, normally points the tip of the bolt towards the rear of her body, but this time, it points toward her inner thigh. "
"Well, aren't YOU observant. Can't expect me to get everything right so fast, can you?" 'Rainbow Dash' says. "Fine then! Let's see where unneeded observations get you!"
The imposter lets out a bellowing wail, as the bridge below begins to shudder.
"Watch out!" I shout as the bridge begins to fall away. Fluttershy takes to the air and quickly makes it back the short distance she had covered on the bridge, but Twilight, who had been more than halfway across, begins to fall, as the bridge gives out midway through, and swings toward the opposite cliff, a bright purple light the last thing we see, as the bridge fades into the fog, and a loud crash echoes back to our side of the gorge.
"TWILIGHT!" The ponies around me shout as they stare into the gorge, looking for any sign of their friend. I, however, turn my attention to the impostor Rainbow Dash.
"All right, Who are you? I ask, glaring at the imposter. "Since you clearly aren't rainbow Dash!"
"You're right, I'm not. I'm actually..." The imposter starts, before being cut off.
"WOBNIAR! Rainbow's evil twin sister, that nopony knows about!" Pinkie Pie interjects.
"NO!" Everyone else shouts in unison.
"No. I'm a shade created by Nightmare Moon to put a stop to this little adventure." The copy resumes. " And I'm going to start with whatever you are!"
'Rainbow Dash' charges straight at me, hooves outstretched, as I dive out of the way, landing hard on my bad leg. Pain shoots through my ankle, as I roll over to see my assailant coming back for another dive. I sit up and hold my crutch in a batting position. A battle cry ringing out from the fog catches both of our attention.
"RAAAAAAAAAAGH" A cyan blur impacts the Fake from over the gorge, screaming as it does. "Take this you mangy fake! How dare you take my awesome face and make me look bad!"
Rainbow Dash crashes to the ground and begins to wrestle with her doppelganger. The two identical ponies holding each other down.
"Fawkes! Hurry, hit her while I got her pinned!" One of them shouts at me.
"NO! Hit HER while I have her pinned!" The other retaliates.
I look at the cutie marks. Both are identical. Damn it. She must have fixed it while we were distracted. I get up, and raise the crutch above my head, as I approach.
"Rainbow, what's the first thing that happened when we met?"
"I crashed into Twilight and got her muddy" Both Rainbows say in unison.
I sigh audibly. Why couldn't this just be easy... Wait. The copy probably had a way of extracting memories from the real one, but probably only did recent ones, due to time. That gave me an idea.
"Rainbow, This might be hard to understand, but I need you to answer truthfully and quickly. Whose life did you save, when you first got your cutie mark?"
"I don't know how you know that, but it was Fluttershy..." one of the Rainbow's answer.
I swing my crutch down on the silent Rainbow, and she dissipates into blue smoke and fades away.
"But, Fawkes, how did you know that?" Rainbow asks, looking at me curiously"
"That's something we can discuss later. I promised I'd tell you guys everything after this was all over right? But we have to focus now.
"Right. But now we need to fix the bridge again..." Rainbow mentions, motioning out towards the again collapsed bridge.
As she spoke, the bridge begins to glow purple and levitate, joining back together and mending itself.
"Okay guys, we can cross now. did you take care of the double?" A voice rings out through the fog, as a shape approaches us until Twilight is visible through the fog.
"Are you really Twilight?" I ask. "What happened to you when Spike first hatched?"
"I...got my cutie mark, and acceptance into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns... but how could you know that?" Twilight asks me, head cocked slightly to the side.
"It's really her guys," I reassure everyone. "I'll tell you how I knew later. We have a job to do here."
So, what happened, Twilight?" I ask as we cross the bridge.
"When the bridge collapsed, I teleported to this side. I figured Rainbow must have been attacked over here, and I found her unconscious on the ground. I roused her, and she just took off through the fog."
"Yeah, as I started to tie the bridge, I heard a voice. I turned around to see myself, and I got clonked on the head. After that, As soon as I woke up, I charged the Not Me and, well, Fawkes and I took her down."
As we make it across the bridge, and down the path a short way, the castle looms before us, its door wide open, as if beckoning us in. I tell the others to be careful, and we step into the ruins of the castle.
"Glad you could make it, Better late than never. AHAHAHAHAHAHA" A voice rings out from the back of the Ruins.
"Nightmare Moon!" Twilight shouts from the front of the pack. "We're here to stop you!"
"Oh, really. Finally plucked up the courage to come and challenge me? Nightmare Moon asks, haughtily, "And here I figured you'd turned tail and ran."
"As if we were the one ones who were scared. I'm not the one who caused the cliff to collapse, delaying us in the first place, nor did I create the shade of Rainbow Dash. The only one here that's afraid here, is you." I say, looking the evil mare right in the eyes. She stands on a raised platform near the end of the room, so I need to glance up slightly to match her eyes, despite our near even heights.
"Uhm, I'm a little scared..." Fluttershy chirps in from behind me. Rolling my eyes, I pull my phone out of my pocket and hold it behind me, so the others can see. On it is a small text document, illustrating my plan to distract Nightmare Moon long enough for Twilight to figure out what to do."
"Scared? of a puny human and his 6 pony friends? HA! You don't even have the elements. I DESTROYED THEM. ALL IS LOST FOR YOU!" Nightmare shouts and then fires a beam of magic directly down the center of the room. We all scatter, Rainbow and AJ going left, while I and Twilight head right, Rarity and Fluttershy stay to the rear for support and cheering.
I duck behind a small wall circling where the plinth where the Element stones were and waited for the signal. Suddenly music started blaring from the other side of the room, causing Nightmare Moon to look in the direction. I took that opportunity to strike, running in, and delivering a hefty blow to the left side of Nightmare Moon's face.
"AAAAARGH, WHY YOU LITTLE..." She screams as she turns toward me, but I've already ducked under her body and thrust my fist right into where her kidney should be. She howls in pain, and swing back around towards me. This time, her aim is true, and I take a magical blast to the chest. It's like getting hit with a wrecking ball. My breath is forced out of me, while I'm thrown off my feet, and smack hard into the ground. It takes all my effort to keep my head up and not get brained on the ground.
"Nice try, but not good enough. It will be fun killing you, after what you just did." Nightmare says to me, as she turns around. I raise my head to see her approaching over me, her horn glowing with a deadly light as she prepares to finish me off.
WHAP! A small rectangular object collides with the side of her head. She looks at the object that hit her, a small black object, lit up on one side, still blaring music from before. Rainbow had thrown my phone at her. She rears up and stomps down on it, reducing it to fragments, before turning back, spell still ready, to see I was no longer there.
"Man that took some major nerves to pull that off Fawkes, but it was AWESOME!" Rainbow says as she pulls me to safely back behind the small wall. Twilight, who had been carefully observing the scene sees the worried faces of all the ponies around her, as a spark of intuition spreads through her mind. These ponies. are all here, fighting tooth and hoof, for her, and this weird being they have just barely met.
She thinks back to the adventures they have had over the last attempt to reach the castle and now.
"I get it! Nightmare Moon, you said you destroyed the elements, but you were wrong. The elements cannot be destroyed. They are embodied by ponies who exhibit qualities they represent. Like Pinkie, who regardless of the mood, keeps a smile and a laugh about, ready to keep out spirits up. She represents the Element of Laughter!"
As she said this, Pinkie bounds to her feet, as a glow of light around her neck marks the materialization of the element necklace.
"Rainbow Dash, who has shown unwavering steadfastness, to her town, and to her friends, no matter how much the situation would normally call for the opposite, represents the Element of Loyalty!"
Another Necklace appears as Rainbow flies above the group, coming to settle down beside Pinkie and Twilight.
"Applejack, who remained level-headed and spoke her mind about the current events, even if it was something that could cast doubt on another, she did it to keep her family and friends safe. She represents the Element of Honesty!"
"YEEHAW!" Applejack shouts, as she jumps from behind the short wall, and lands with her friends, ready to pounce if needed."
"Rarity, who was willing to give whatever was needed, no matter the cost to someone in need, and was replaced whatever she took, with something even greater, when it would save her friends, She represents the Element of Generosity!"
Rarity walks proudly out to join her friends, her necklace gleaming like an amethyst jewel. She stands ready to fight, horn at the ready.
"Fluttershy, despite wanting to protect her animals, and flee with her life, was willing to stay and protect her friend, when we had to leave him unconscious, due to the landslide YOU caused. Such an act warranted only by one who represents the Element of Kindness!"
Fluttershy timidly floats over to her friends, and after looking at them, stops hiding behind her wings, and lowers into a combat stance, eyes full of determination.
"As for myself, I represent the last Element, something I'd have never figured out if it wasn't for my friend Fawkes, who looked out for me and my friends and encouraged us to work things out on our own. I learned that Friendship is the most powerful magic of all, and that is the last element. The Element of Magic!"
As she says this, the Tiara of Magic appears on her head, and with a poof, I am magicked from behind the wall where Rainbow left me, and into the middle of the group of ponies.
"AND WE WON'T LET YOU HURT OUR FRIEND ANYMORE!" Twilight shouts, as all the ponies start to glow, and levitate. Bright rainbow lights connect the six of them, as they rise high into the air. A bright flash of light and the rainbow energy is hurled at Nightmare Moon, who attempts to back away,
"NOOOO! THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING! I WAS TO BRING NIIIGHT ETERNAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL!"
Nightmare Moon gives a long echoing scream, as the rainbows envelop her, crashing in on her in one final tidal wave of light. I raise my hand to shield my eyes from its magnificence, and then it's gone, my eyes, attempting to adjust to the sudden darkness that replaced the brilliance from before.
"Did it work?" Rainbow Dash asks as she moves in from the back of the pack, as a shadow begins to move slightly.
"Ladies, may I introduce you," I say, as I approach the mare beginning to rise from the spot where Nightmare Moon last was, "To the princess of the moon, and Celestia's Younger sister, Princess Lun..."
"LUNA! Luna, oh my heavens, is it really you?" A voice rings in from a window above high above. Princess Celestia flies down to ground level, and offers a wing to the blue mare, and gets a good look at her.
"Luna! It is you. Oh, my sister, my precious sister! I have missed you so! I had regretted that day since it happened, but you have returned to me, after one thousand years, you returned to me!"
Celestia breaks down into tears, as she hugs her sister, while the rest of us, just look on incredulously.
"Elder sister. I'm...so sorry. I was so envious of your beautiful day, and all that envy and hate, it just built up and made me into someone I wasn't. I'm sorry for worrying you." Luna says tearfully to her sister.
"Oh, my Little Luna. It is I who is sorry. I was the one who pushed you that far. I am the one who could not save you in the end. Now, let us head back to Ponyville. We have much to discuss, and a celebration to perform."
Celestia looks at us, as she and her sister start to walk toward the exit of the ruins. I motion to the rest, and we all follow them out of the castle.