We're on the home stretch; just a couple more chapters left for this Book.
PLEASE SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR MOST DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE & CHARACTER PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Outside Ponyville – 7:15 PM
Two Days After Previous Chapter
It started with Shion and Ahsoka; they had been on sunset patrol near the Everfree Forest when they both sensed a strange but powerful darkness within the forest, slowly making its way out. They took position just outside the forest, waiting, and as whatever-it-was got closer to the forest edge, they sensed that it was larger and more malignant than initially assumed. In response, they contacted the others, requesting assistance. So it was that they were joined by the rest of Gamma Team, as well as the six Element-Bearers, Trixie, and Spike. Everyone nervously awaited whatever was coming out, eyes fixed on the tree-line and searching for anything out of the ordinary.
Finally, something emerged: a shadowy tendril of black and dark-purple energy, about the size of a pony.
"…That's it?" Rainbow Dash said. "Laaaame! I was expecting something big and mind-bendingly terrifying!"
And then the dark miasma began to pour out from several spots, coalescing into a rapidly-growing mass that was already the size of five ponies put together and growing by the second.
"You were sayin', RD?" Applejack deadpanned.
The mass of darkness ceased growing when it was around the size of a small house. Then, it began to slowly take form, changing from an amorphous mass to a quadrupedal shape. Twilight, meanwhile, finally remembered where she'd felt this energy signature before.
"Oh no…" she murmured. "Girls! I recognize this thing's energy! We've fought it before!"
"Uh, I think we would've remembered fighting something like this" Dash said.
"It was part of something else" Twilight replied. "This thing… It has the same energy signature as Nightmare Moon!"
Everyone gasped.
"But how can that be?" Applejack said. "We blasted her with the Elements of Harmony! We purified Princess Luna already!"
"The darkness must've been cast out, exorcised, rather than destroyed" Twilight replied. "Now it's back… and I think it's angry."
The darkness took the shape of a 10-foot-tall alicorn, a featureless figure of shifting dark-purple and black, with glowing red eyes. The thing's eyes pulsed, and a dimension-shift barrier rapidly expanded outward, encompassing everything within 200 meters, including the group.
"Damn it!" Teana shouted. "We've been Shifted! Alright, girls! Change form and get ready! This thing wants a fight, and it's gonna be a big one!"
The girls of Gamma assumed their real forms, readying weapons and energies. Trixie, still magic-less, used her recent training from the off-worlders and channeled her chakra; it wasn't much yet, since she was still new to it, but she would not just stand by and watch helplessly for this. The Element-Bearers readied themselves as well, while Spike tried to look brave.
The Nightmare made the first move, firing a burst of Darkness at Twilight. Teana intercepted, casting a bright orange Shield spell that blocked the attack; she then countered, weaving hand-seals and launching a Katon: Gōkakyū at the evil specter. The fireball crashed against the semi-solid dark entity, only for the being to shrug off the hit, looking none the worse for wear. Then, it fired a wide burst of dark bolts.
"Scatter!" Teana ordered.
Everyone moved, narrowly avoiding the barrage. Marie brought Charon up in Light Beam configuration and fired a few shots. The Nightmare was struck by the shots dead-on, and though they didn't seem to hurt it they did catch its attention. A growl seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, and the dark being fired a man-sized blast of dark fire at Marie. Charon reacted quickly, auto-casting a Flash Move to relocate Marie out of the blast's path and to safety. Twilight fired several bolts of magic at the Nightmare, only for them to break against it harmlessly, not even leaving a scorch mark. Ahsoka's Raijū Bashiri no Jutsu had the same (lack of) effect, doing little more than irritating the entity. Rainbow Dash tried tackling it, but it shifted into smoke and curled to the side, dodging the attack and then re-solidifying to fire a dark burst at her; Shion managed to pull her out of the way.
Rarity conjured several sharp stones, which were then laced with Lightning-type chakra from Trixie and then telekinetically 'fired' at Nightmare. The dark being brought its large ethereal wings forward, folding them in front of its head as a shield that blocked and withstood the barrage. It then flapped its wings forward, launching a wave of razor-sharp 'feathers' at Rarity and Trixie. Twilight quickly teleported her two fellow unicorns out of the way, then returned fire with a pair of Fire-Disks that 'shattered' against the Nightmare's wings, leaving naught but surface scorch-marks.
"Divine Buster!"
A large beam of red-orange magical energy crashed into Nightmare, pushing it back. When the blast faded, the dark entity let out an otherworldly hiss and focused its attention on Teana, who was hovering a few meters off the ground about 200 feet away. Deeming her a significant threat, it charged, flying through the air like a wraith. Teana fired a wave of Fire-type Sagitta Magica, but the Nightmare charged right through them, paying them little heed as it rushed toward her. She shot upwards into the air, the Nightmare in hot pursuit. It fired a blast of Darkness as powerful as her earlier Divine Buster up at her, and she narrowly avoided being struck by it. The dark entity continued to close in on her, ignoring the blasts of chakra and magic that she threw at it as they broke against it.
The two exchanged fire in the skies above everyone's heads, neither one landing any major blows on the other. Finally, the Nightmare pulled a feint, allowing it to slam into Teana with a devastating blow. She managed to cast a Shield spell at the last second, but the transfer of momentum still sent her hurtling down toward the ground at an angle. She halted her descent mere feet from impacting the ground… and then looked up and saw a rather large wave of Darkness energy racing toward her, with no time to evade. There was a flash of red from her eyes a split-second before it hit, the cloud of dust & smoke the blast kicked up obscuring Teana from the others' view.
After several seconds, a red-orange glow was visible from within the cloud. The dust was blown away by a gust of wind, revealing Teana to be within her Stage-1 Susanō… but something was different: her skeletal spectral defender looked ever-so-slightly bulkier, and more importantly it now had four arms instead of two. The group looked closer at Teana, and felt shock as they beheld her eyes, her Mangekyō Sharingan's three concentric rings now surrounded by a black octagon… just like Tiida's had been in the 'flashback footage' of his fight against Pain.
"That bit from the footage on their last world…" Twilight said. "When Kakashi showed Teana a video will from her brother, and then the perspective cut away before we could see it… And the fact that the shinobi found and raided Madara's old base, which would've held the extracted eyes of all the dead Uchiha that Obito and Madara had raided the bodies of… including Tiida's…"
"She's had it this whole time since after the shinobi rejoined the coalition, since shortly before she even came to Equestria" Fluttershy continued. "She just hasn't had the chance to use it until now. Her brother's eyes… the Eternal Mangekyō…"
"So this is what you've been hiding" Ahsoka said, a grin forming on her face. "You've been holding out on us, Boss."
Marie whistled not-so-innocently.
"…You knew?" Kaede asked.
"She asked me to keep it a secret," Marie replied, "to not spoil the surprise."
Teana glared up at the confused Nightmare with her hybrid eyes. She could feel that the chakra drain of Susanō was significantly lessened from what it was before acquiring the EMS, and she knew from what Kakashi had told her that the same would be true of her other MS techniques. After a few seconds, she willed her Susanō to advance to Stage 2. Now, its upper right hand held a shining sword, while its lower right arm bore the crossbow that her brother's guardian-entity had once wielded, a large chakra-arrow loaded and ready. She had the left arms bring the spike-edged shield they carried to bear, blocking another man-sized blast of dark fire from the Nightmare. Then, she pointed the chakra crossbow at the dark entity, and let an arrow fly.
The high-speed chakra projectile streaked up through the air, exploding upon impact with the Nightmare. The semi-corporeal beast roared in anger as the powerful energy-based attack caused it pain and harm. It then countered with a massive wave of Fire/Darkness bolts. Teana disengaged her Susanō to allow easier movement, and then flew out of the way, casting Tsukuyomi. In its current host-less state, the Nightmare wasn't intelligent enough to be affected by the genjutsu's full effect, but it was enough to stun and badly disorient the entity, allowing Teana to zoom upward toward it, readying a single Susanō arm for a wicked punch. Upon reaching it, she flash-stepped behind it and punched it down.
The blow sent the Nightmare hurtling down into the ground, a plume of dust and dirt being kicked up by the hard landing. Teana descended, setting down around 20 meters from the 'landing' zone and staring into the settling dust. The Nightmare growled as it stood up, looking worse for wear, parts of its body wavering slightly as if trying to hold itself together. Teana simply smirked, and then formed all four Susanō arms without forming the rest of the entity. She held her right hand out, and the four spectral hands began shaping and spinning chakra. Soon, a bell-like screech was audible as a familiar four-pointed spinning chakra construct formed.
"A Rasenshuriken?" Shion said. "But that's a melee attack for her, and for some reason I don't think the Nightmare will let her get close with that thing in her hand."
When the Rasenshuriken was complete, the four spectral arms dissipated, and then Teana's right arm glowed with red magical energy. Twilight gasped as she recognized unicorn-style telekinesis; Teana had learned how to use it while in her human form? The energy enveloped the rotating chakra weapon, giving it a reddish outline. Then, Teana cocked her arm back, and threw. Propelled by her throw and 'held' by telekinetic magic, Teana's Rasenshuriken could only be thrown about 35 meters before she lost her hold on it and it dissipated. But her target was 15 meters within that range.
The spinning disk of violent Wind-type chakra crossed the distance very quickly, leaving the surprised Nightmare no time to dodge before it hit. It was propelled backward a couple dozen feet as the attack began to grind into it, and then the technique 'detonated'. The Nightmare was promptly trapped in the center of a massive spinning dome of Wind chakra, billions of microscopic chakra-blades cutting into it. A powerful wind was kicked up by the dome of swirling bluish light as it gouged a deep hole in the ground, the whirring, 'roaring' sound of the technique filling the air.
When the technique finally wore off, the dome dissolved away to reveal a black and purple mist floating where the center had been. The mist converged, reforming into the Nightmare. It looked none the worse for wear, and it looked angry.
"Oh, that's just not cool" Teana remarked. "So how do we kill it?"
"Maybe something that does Holy-type magic would do the trick" Sarah replied. "Like a Keyblade, or the Elements of Harmony."
"Of which we have neither at the moment" Shion said.
Suddenly, Spike coughed up a scroll. He unrolled it and began to read aloud. "'Twilight Sparkle, we have become aware of the situation you are in. I am bringing the Elements of Harmony as quickly as I can; you must hold out until I arrive with them. Signed, Princess Celestia'. So we just gotta hold the line 'til she gets here."
"Let's hope we can" Trixie replied.
"We've fought worse enemies before" Teana said. "Pain, Kadak, and the Lifemaker were stronger and smarter than this thing."
"Yeah, but at least they had bodies that we could damage" Shion replied.
The Nightmare conjured and launched a barrage of flame-wreathed Darkness bolts. Everyone scattered to avoid them, Twilight casting a Shield spell to protect Fluttershy and Mai who hadn't been fast enough. Shion and Kaede each fired a Katon: Gōkakyū at the daemonic entity, which shielded itself with its huge black wings, blocking the fireballs. Mai fired a Lightning-type Sagitta Magica strike, the electrified bolts hitting and stunning Nightmare long enough for Teana to hit it with Phantom Fist, the magic-supercharged punch sending Nightmare flying. The dark being soon regained control and countered with a slicing wave of Darkness energy; a precisely-placed Fūton: Shinkūha from Sarah cancelled it out, and was followed by a double Shinkūgyoku from her and Teana, the Wind-chakra bullets battering the Nightmare, pushing it back.
The Nightmare let out a deep growl as it launched another flechette storm of razor-sharp 'feathers', aimed at Trixie and Ahsoka. Ahsoka focused the Force within herself, and just before the projectiles could hit she released a Force Repulse, the all-directions shockwave blasting away the feather-knives. The Nightmare then rushed at Ahsoka, only to be intercepted by Shion – now in her 1-Tailed Form – and slammed by a large chakra claw that sent it hurtling in the opposite direction. It slammed into a large tree, dispersing into mist on impact. After several seconds, it reformed again, still looking mostly unharmed. It tried to charge again, only to stop to avoid slamming into a wall of white fire that suddenly sprang up from the ground in its path. A flash of golden light amongst the group signaled Celestia's arrival.
"Quickly, girls!" she said, producing an ornate box. "Take the Elements!"
As soon as the girls rushed over and grabbed them, however, Nightmare roared, and in response a horde of shadowy creatures sprang up from the ground.
"I think it knows what we're up to" Pinka said through Pinkie.
"We'll hold these bastards off while you girls charge up your 'Rainbow Beam of Death' thing" Teana said, as she and the girls of Gamma Team got ready.
The small army of Nightmare's familiars charged, and the seven girls of Gamma rushed in to fight them. Sarah's gravity hammer sent a six-footer flying, and Ahsoka's lightsabers carved through several more. Nightmare itself flew over the battlefield and toward the six Element-Bearers, only for Celestia to meet it head on, the two trading blasts of Light and Darkness. The sextet grouped together, focusing their energies, and the Elements of Harmony began to glow with power. They slowly floated off the ground, eyes closed in concentration and serenity. Nightmare noticed, and its familiars began to charge at the girls en masse. However, Teana appeared in their path, weaving hand-seals and combining Fire chakra with Kamui to create a spiraling vortex of flame:
"Katon: Bakufū Ranbu!"
The whirling flames decimated the enemy, roasting the vast majority of the charging dark creatures. The minority who survived still attempted to charge, only to be crushed and flung away by the Tailed-Beast chakra claws of Shion and Mai. The Nightmare, realizing that it was in trouble, got away from Celestia and began charging up a massive amount of Darkness power. Nightmare fired its attack first, a massive beam of black and purple energy. The girls' eyes opened, shining white, and a rainbow-colored beam of magic shot out from them. The two attacks met, pushing against each other; Nightmare's attack had already reached about two-thirds of the way to the girls, who had to strain to slowly push it back to the midpoint. At the same time, a new batch of Nightmare's familiars came up from the earth and shadows, attacking Celestia and Gamma Team to prevent them from interfering.
The ground beneath the beam shoving match cracked and buckled, and lightning-like discharges of energy crackled through the air. The girls strained and struggled as their attack was slowly pushed back. The Nightmare was overpowering them. Suddenly, a blast of dark-blue energy came curving in, smashing into the Nightmare's back, stunning and weakening it and allowing the girls to push their attack a little past the halfway point.
"Your long history of corruption ends here, foul daemon!" Princess Luna shouted at the Nightmare. "You shall not claim another sapient being again!"
She fired several more blasts, each one giving the girls the chance to push their own attack a little closer. Finally, a stronger attack came flying in, Teana having gotten enough room to form a Stage-1 Susanō and throw a Yasaka no Magatama at Nightmare from behind. The attack exploded against Nightmare's back, harming and stunning it. The girls, sensing their chance, gave the Harmony Elements one more push, and this time it completely overwhelmed the Nightmare's attack and head-on with full force.
The rainbow-colored wave of Holy-type energy engulfed the Nightmare. An impossible sound echoed through the battlefield, the dark familiars vanishing into nothingness as their progenitor was consumed and utterly obliterated. A seven-hued explosion of light blasted the darkness away for good, dispelling the Dimension-Shift Barrier that surrounded the battlefield and allowing the sunlight to shine through once again. The girls slowly lowered to the ground, the glow of their Elements and their eyes fading. They stood, panting for breath, tired from the exertion of the struggle. The others walked up to them.
"Well, that was fun" Teana said.
"I'd say this calls for a party" Pinkie said, sounding a little tired. "Once we've got the energy to hold one again, that is."
"And we have to leave in a few days," Shion said, "so it could also be our going-away party."
Twilight looked up at them. "Wait, you have to leave soon?"
"Yeah" Teana replied. "We've got to attend our coalition's meeting with that other coalition – the one that Agent C.T. and her boyfriend are part of. We'll try to maintain contact with you guys, though, and our coalition will be maintaining a presence on this planet."
"I'll get to work on the party once we've gotten back to town and got our strength back" Pinkie said. "We'll throw it tomorrow."
"We'd better explain to the others what all the fireworks were about, first" Sarah said. "Some of them had to have sensed or detected what happened here."
-SCENE BREAK-
Next Day – 1:15 PM
Sugarcube Corner
The semi-private party was in full swing. In attendance were the Mane Six, Spike, Trixie, the Crusaders, Diamond & Silver, Gamma & Theta Teams (Sigma Team was stuck with patrol duty), Golden Tiara, Firefly, Trixie's family, and even Shining Armor & Cadence. Refreshments and stories were in plentiful supply, conversations (and gossip) flowing. Courtesy of the off-worlders, a big-screen plasma TV was set up on one of the walls, hooked to a game console. A Rock Band session was currently underway; Pinkie Pie was on drums, Erika was on guitar (as usual for her, she was playing on Expert and was hitting every note), Golden was on bass, and Marie was the singer:
"I tip my hat to the new constitution, take a bow for the new revolution, smile and grin at the change all around…"
"…And so the doctor puts the banana in, and then waits, holding the hammer at the ready. After a few seconds, a little head pokes out and says 'Hey! Where's my cookie?' WHAM!"
Rainbow Dash burst out laughing at the punchline to Teana's somewhat-raunchy joke. Fluttershy had a light blush on her cheeks, but she too was hiding soft giggles behind her hoof.
"Jeez, how many dirty jokes do you humans have?" Applejack said, a grin on her face.
"Too many to ever count" Sarah replied. "I got one for ya…"
"I'm not saying you can't pull off some good simultaneous precision spell-casting, Twilight," Rarity said, presently in the middle of a "raw power vs. fine control" debate with her friend, "but some unicorns can make their magic dance."
"There are a few ponies who've seen me in action, Rarity" Twilight replied. "They seemed impressed."
"Yes, but I've actually seen you dance, Twilight. …No comment."
Twilight smirked. "Okay, then. How about a little contest?"
"I wonder who the other coalition will have." Shion said. "So far, we know they have an ex-Freelancer, an ODST, and at least two Jedi."
"One of whom I fought alongside a few times during the Clone Wars" Ahsoka replied. "I liked Master Kota. It'll be good to see him again. I wonder if he remembers me?"
Shion chuckled. "No-one could forget you, Ahsoka. You leave lasting impressions."
"…Is that supposed to be a compliment or not?"
"That depends on how you wish to take it."
A couple minutes later, Twilight and Rarity's little competition had drawn an audience. They were controlling multiple small rubber balls, making them fly around in complicated patterns and motions. One of the pair would make a move, and the other would then have to repeat it, before then switching roles. So far, both had yet to make any mistakes, though Twilight visibly had to put more effort into it as the tricks grew increasingly complicated. She'd never been particularly good at finesse and fine control, having had to train extensively for years to get to where she was now; in contrast, Rarity, though not possessing as much raw power as Twilight, had a natural gift for subtle yet complex manipulation of multiple objects at once. The 'quiet' part of the Rock Band song, a single minutes-long keyboard/organ section, was playing in the background.
Rarity focused on her six rubber spheres, splitting them into two trios, where each one had two orbiting a third, and both orbiting sets also flew in a figure-eight pattern, the orbiting spheres of one central ball passing within the orbit paths of the other's without making contact. She turned to Twilight and smirked. Twilight gulped nervously, but then started working. She got the orbits going, and then began the figure-eight motions, tuning out the kicking up of drums in the background. The two orbiting groups became closer and closer, and she was just about to perform the first inter-orbit crossing…
"YYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!-!-!-!"
Marie's rather loud and enthusiastic resuming of the song's vocals startled Twilight, who squeaked and jumped up, her rubber balls bouncing off each other and flying every which way. Rarity let out a "Wahahaa~!" of triumph and started bowing to her applauding crowd. Twilight scowled, but then found herself grinning as she joined in the applause.
"Meet the new boss! Same as the old boss!"
Things would take a new direction in a couple days for a lot of them. But for now, their only concern was having fun.
-CHAPTER END-
Next Time: The last chapter of Book 15.