Luna had managed to land within the Everfree forest quite quickly, Luna chose the spot well. The old abandoned royal sister's castle. Pinkie had gotten off the lunar princesses back and stood beside her with a worried glace at the burning city of Canterlot. Both stayed quite as they watched with horror as Nightmare destroyed the city, but while they watched they could hear no screams of fear or pain, only the angry and frustrated screams of Nightmare Moon as she destroyed the city.
"It appears Celestia was able to get every pony to evacuate before Nightmare Moon got to the city" Luna spoke breaking the awful silence
"Does that mean every pony is ok" Pinkie asked with a small smile
"I'm afraid so" Luna said her head dropping slightly which made Pinkie's small smile drop into a frown
"What's wrong princess" Pinkie asked putting a hoof on Luna's shoulders
"It's Celestia, I…I can't sense her within Canterlot, I cannot sense her anywhere" Luna said tears starting to form within her eyes "oh sister please be ok, please be ok"
Pinkie did not quite know what to do at that moment, she felt really helpless and she could not think of a way to brighten the mood. Suddenly her knees went limp and Pinkie tipped up face first into the stone floor of the abandoned castle, which grabbed Luna's attention.
"What happened" Luna asked concerned "are you ok Pinkie"
"Yep fine, just my Pinkie sense ah tingling" Pinkie said with a toothy grin "teleport spell sense, and it's a big one"
Luna was confused, she did not know if the pony hit her head hard and lost her mind, but a bright white flash from behind her caught her attention. Turning towards the source Luna, spotted a white injured Alicorn, which made her eyes go wide. "Sister" Luna happily cried running as fast as she could towards her fallen sister "are you ok, I could not sense you with my magic and I feared the worst"
"It's alright, I'm fine" Celestia said struggling to stand, but with the help of her sister and Pinkie she was able to get into a sitting position. "Nightmare Moon is indeed powerful, but the magic she uses is not her own"
"Then does that mean Twilight is… still there" Luna asked her sister worried stumbling over her own words
"I believe so, and during my battle with Nightmare Moon Twilight was able to break though Nightmare Moons possession, but for only few seconds" Celestia explained to her younger sister, which in turn made Luna sigh with relief
"Err excuse me princess but I'm confused, why is that a good thing, and also I thought Nightmare Moon was Princess Luna" Pinkie asked the two princesses. "Is Nightmare Moon apart of Luna or is she a force of evil that possessed Luna.
Luna looked at Celestia and then back at the pink pony. "It's more a little bit of both" Luna answered Pinkies question, while getting more confused looks. "Let's see here, how to explain it" Luna wondered aloud, rubbing her chin with her right hoof. "Ok I've got it, one thousand years ago, I began to get lonely because ponies would always play in Celestia's sun and sleep during my wonderful night"
"Even though I had my daughter Star swirl and my friend Surprise as company, I was still lonely" Luna continued "and I soon began to get jealous of my sister, and that jealousy soon turned into anger and resentment"
"I know this tale, it's the tale of how you became Nightmare Moon and Celestia used the Elements of Harmony to send you to the moon" Pinkie interrupted
"But that is not entirely true" Celestia cut in taking over conversation "when I used the Elements that fateful day a thousand years ago, they did not work… well not fully anyway"
"What do you mean" Pinkie asked
"If I had the full power of the Elements then and there, Nightmare Moon would never have existed" Celestia explained to which got an even more confused Pinkie raising a hoof to ask another question. But before Pinkie could ask Celestia continued. "When I used the Elements that day, something happened, and the birth of Nightmare Moon was done"
"The reason for this is that you cannot remove emotion like hatred and anger from any pony, no matter what you do. So the elements did the next best thing" Luna started to speak "the elements created a new personality, one which it could transfer my feelings of anger and jealousy into. Once there the elements could have destroyed that new personality, removing me of those feelings. But something went wrong, the elements did not have enough power to complete the process, and the new personality was not destroyed nor was it removed"
"So Nightmare Moon is not you, but is a part of you" Pinkie said now understanding, "but then why did the elements did send you to the moon" Pinkie asked princess Luna
"That was not the Elements" Celestia once again cut in "the elements had depleted their power and would not work again. But meanwhile Luna now had two strong personality's fighting for control within her own mind. The two personalities' within Luna's mind where then in conflict with each other; one would force itself in control over the other for a short time, either Luna or the new personality Nightmare Moon." Celestia explained. "So in the short time Luna's personality surfaced we planned on what to do, but as we planned so did Nightmare Moon, and after a while Nightmare Moon's personality seemed to be the dominant personality and took control more and more often"
"So me and my sister decided to do something to halt Nightmare Moon's progress until Celestia could find a solution to my problem" Luna spoke with a sorrowful tone. "We used a spell to trap me and Nightmare Moon, and then I decided to use the moon as the prison"
"The spell was set for a thousand years, and over the thousand years of the imprisonment spell, I was able to discover a way to purge Nightmare Moon from Luna" Celestia said
"Oh so you discovered that Twilight, and I and my friends were the elements of harmony and you sent Twilight to Ponyville to unite the elements of harmony against Nightmare Moon that was you plan wasn't it" Pinkie shouted jumping up and down
"Actually no" Celestia explained making Pinkie drop like a stone while she was half way through a jump in the air. "I sent Twilight to Ponyville to keep her safe, while I was in Canterlot to prepare for Nightmare Moon. What I did not expect was Twilight and her new friends to become the new bearers of the Elements and defeat Nightmare Moon before I could enact my plan to restore Luna"
"Then how is it that Nightmare Moon is still alive when we used the elements on her" Pinkie asked one last question
"Perhaps she knew what the Elements would do to her and she somehow escaped, but how she escaped I have no idea" Celestia pondered "but it may be the reason why she has no true physical form"
"But can we discuss this at another time, Twilight's going to be in more danger the longer Nightmare Moon possesses her" Luna interrupted getting Celestia to get back to their current situation at hoof.
"What do we do, any pony got a plan" Pinkie asked
"I have a plan but it's risky" Celestia told the two
"What the plan, princess" Pinkie asked with curiosity
"Well we cannot simply use the elements because Twilight is the element of magic, so we cannot purge nightmare moon the same way we did with Luna, however when Twilight broke control over nightmare moon that tells us that Twilight is still there and a separate entity. All we need to do is destroy nightmare moon without harming Twilight"
"And how do we do that sister, Nightmare Moon will not make it easy"
"we need" Celestia said grabbing a book from her mane with magic "to enter her mind, route out nightmare moon in her metal form and destroy her from within, this will allow our dear Twilight to retake her mind"
"Wait if we can do this with Twilight then why couldn't we do it on Luna when she was nightmare moon" Pinkie pointed out
"because you and the other Elements stopped Nightmare Moon before I could, But the enacting of this plan requires Nightmare Moon to be asleep, this will be the most difficult part of the plan as Nightmare Moon is currently using Twilight's magic, and she won't be willing to fall asleep for us " Celestia said worried
"Then how can we do it then" Luna asked
"I have an idea" Pinkie said getting the attention of both princesses "see this custard pie" Pinkie said pulling a custard pie, sleeping pills and a small wooden miniature catapult as if from nowhere "we use these sleeping pills, put them in the pie's and then use this catapult to lunch them at her"
Luna and Celestia just shared a look with each other before Celestia spoke with a smile "that… is so crazy it might just work"
"What" Luna spoke wondering the sanity of her sister and Pinkie "Nightmare moon is no foal once we start hitting her with these pies she will try and prevent us from continuing, plus it would be easier with a sleeping spell"
"No Luna it would take too much time to cast and Nightmare Moon will most likely escape before we finish the spell. which is why we must do everything in our power to assist Pinkie" Celestia said before looking at the pink pony "you must know Pinkie it will be very difficult to get nightmare to fall asleep, it will take multiple sleeping pies to the face to even slow her down"
"I understand princess which is why I took a class in miniature catapult pie throwing a couple of years ago" Pinkie smiled while explaining to the princesses to which they only returned a strange look "what… you never know when an evil entity is going to possess one of your friends, and you will have to defeat it by catapulting pies at its face"
"You Pinkie are so… random" Luna said shaking her head while her sister just smiled "just like Surprise"
"I know granny pie always said I was like Surprise, I think it runs in the family"
"But what about after we put Nightmare to sleep" Luna spoke up once more "what do we do then"
"We use the mind walking spell, it will allow us to enter Twilight's mind, but it will take one of us to cast it, so we must decide which one of us goes into Twilight's mind to fight Nightmare Moon"
"Me and Luna are both going" Pinkie shouted with determination
"Very well then, now that's decided we must now prepare for our trap for Nightmare Moon"
After preparations were complete to enact the putting Nightmare Moon to sleep with custard pies plan, Pinkie and Luna hid in a nearby bush while Celestia was standing in the open ruins of the castle. It was all planned out, Celestia would lure Nightmare Moon to her and then Luna would jump out and ambush her. Once Luna and Celestia confront Nightmare Moon and distract her long enough, it was up to Pinkie to fire the prepared custard pies at Nightmare Moon, hopefully bringing her down into dream land. Pinkie was extremely nervous everything was riding on her to knock Nightmare Moon out, but she would not give up, never. The princesses were counting on her and she would not fail them, to prepare for this mission Pinkie started to meditate. "Be one… with the pie" Pinkie silently said to herself "be one… with the catapult". Meanwhile Luna was sitting next to the Pony rolling her eyes at Pinkie's randomness; but she did not interrupt her as Luna knew Pinkie would need every advantage she got even if it was from silliness.
Nightmares partially see though wings flapped as she hit the old stone floor. She hit the floor with a mighty thud, as her black eyes scanned the area for her old foe. Once spotting Celestia, who was currently sitting opposite her, watching Nightmares every step as she walked closer.
Celestia sorrowfully watched as Nightmare moved towards her. She was able to see that Twilight's fur had grown much darker, from when she faced Nightmare Moon only hours ago. All the purple had faded from Twilights body, if it was not for Twilight's mane style and fading cutie mark then Celestia have thought that Nightmare Moon's host was some pony else, but Celestia's heart broke knowing Twilight was slowly turning into a monster… a monster that she created.
"So you have finally decided to face me, we were getting bored of waiting" Nightmare Moon laughed at Celestia. "You can show yourself Lulu, I know your there I can feel your power from all the way in Canterlot… well what's left of Canterlot anyway"
Luna slowly stepped out from behind the leafy bush, making sure that Pinkie was still hidden from Nightmare's vision and power. "We are both going to fight you Nightmare" Luna spoke standing besides Celestia, who had stood up to prepare her fight with Nightmare.
"But what about your special Twilight, you willingly want to hurt her too get to me" Nightmare asked with a smirk
"We will do what we must to protect her from you" Luna countered
"We shall see" Nightmare shouted lunching two bolts of lightning at the two alicorn princesses
Celestia was quick to block Nightmare's attack, while Luna fired a blot of magic back, to which Nightmare only moved to the left and let the Luna's blot of magic to hit the tree which was behind her. "You're going to have to do better than that to stop us" Nightmare laughed, preparing to unleash more powerful magic upon the two sisters, but was stopped by a very loud yell and scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHH" Pinkie screamed to no pony in particular gaining an odd look from both Celestia and Luna and even Nightmare Moon. Pinkie then slammed her hoof on a small red button, which made the catapult fling the custard filled pie though the air. No pony could have avoided the pie as it sailed across the ruin, as every pony in the ruin watching was too confused and shocked to do anything about it. 'SPLAT'.
The custard pie hit Nightmare Moon square in the face. Nightmare could only growl at such disrespect. Using her magic to remove the shattered pie's remains off her face, she was able to see who dared throw food at her in the middle of combat. Once she saw the pink pony behind the bush Nightmare was about to use her magic to destroy her, but before she could even move one step further Pinkie lunched another two custard pie's from the mini catapult, blinding Nightmare Moon again.
Nightmare's frustration grew past its breaking point, as she used her magic to teleport behind the pink pony. Nightmare was about to hit Pinkie with her hoof into next week when a blot of magic from both Celestia and Luna, hit Nightmare straight in the ribs knocking her back, which allowed Pinkie enough time to lunch one last custard pie. Once Nightmare removed the last pie from her face her eyes were struggling to keep open, she was also struggling to remain upright. "You…will not…win" Nightmare struggled to get out of Twilights mouth, "we will defeat you, I will destroy…you" Nightmare said before collapsing onto the stone floor.
"We did it, we did it" Pinkie jumped for joy as Twilight's fur began to turn back to its original purple colour. "What now" she asked sitting down next to the sleeping Twilight.
"Now we use the dream walking incantation to purge Nightmare from Twilight's mind" Celestia said moving with her sister to Twilight and Pinkie. "The easy part is over, now the hard part begins"
"You know I thought Nightmare would have put up more of a fight" Luna spoke moving next to Pinkie
"perhaps it was the surprise and confusion from Pinkie here, that was able to catch Nightmare Moon off guard" Celestia said, making Pinkie blush "but once I send you both into Twilight's mind Nightmare will immediately know what you're planning, and would try anything to prevent you from destroying her, so you must both move fast and not stop your mission until Nightmare is destroyed… are you both ready" Celestia asked Pinkie and her sister, to which they both nodded their heads with determination. "Very well, good luck"
"One question, how long is this spell going to last sister" Luna asked Celestia
"Either until, Nightmare Moon is defeated or you are overpowered by Nightmare's influence over Twilights mind" Celestia answered before starting the spell
"Don't worry Luna we won't fail, the good ponies always win" Pinkie said getting a small smile from Luna
"thank you Pinkie, without you I would not be able to do this, thank you, you truly are a great friend" Luna said giving Pinkie a soft hug, before Celestia was finished and a white light washed over them both.
