A Hollow Mask - The Perfect Disguise?

"Are you sure?" Twilight whispered.

"It's very distinct; if she's been away for a thousand years and thinks that eternal night is a good idea, she might just be too insane for me to read properly, but in this case that turns into an advantage." Forest was glad that Twilight had been too distracted to see when the Manticore gave her ample space to walk...

She knew it must be that, on an instinctual level, animals could tell what she was without the protective coat of 'appeasing' magic of the changelings. Maybe it was a combination, for changelings leaned more towards being a predator species than ponies, and being infected with Blacklight certainly didn't lower her place in the food chain. She was slowly restoring her reserves, though, and that problem shouldn't come up again for a while. Hmm... better pay close attention to that and build up stamina and reserves; a normal changeling would be in deep trouble in her position, and she didn't fancy feeling tired every time she wanted to use magic.

Things suddenly got very, very dark.

"I didn't mean that literally." Rarity said, continuing a conversation Forest wasn't privy to.

"That ancient ruin could be right in front of our faces and we wouldn't even know it." Twilight complained, but Forest's vision on poor light was better than theirs.

What happened next took her a few seconds to process. There were screams, and the sudden fright made her toss a viral sonar pulse in case she had missed something... but other than the huddling mares, neither her thermal vision nor the pulse revealed anything worthy of note. The light was more adequate now, and she cancelled the thermal... and then felt a wave of fear trying to push its way into her mind.

The trees had grotesque faces now, and were projecting an aura of fear to those who looked at them directly. Her enhanced vision had pierced the illusion, and now that it was inactive it tried to creep its way into her brain.

Trying to use magic wouldn't work well with her diminished reserves, and in any case, the highest level illusion-related spell she had was a mid-strength invisibility. She would be invisible while still, and at most an indistinct blur while moving - it could help against low level illusions, but this one was strong and already active.

She would have made herself a lifetime supply of toothpicks, but Pinkie... Pinkie was singing, and no matter how hard Forest tried to shut it out, she couldn't help but feel the corners of her mouth turn up.

'Ugh! Stupid infectious feelings! Stupid music from out of nowhere! What the hell?!' Now she understood the disparity of Nightmare Moon's actions and feelings a little bit better.

Her face was smiling on its own, and inside, she was berating herself for it; not as hard as she was for Pinkie's song actually working! Emotion-based magic could be overcome with will alone, and countering its effects with a cheery song was, loathe to admit it as she did, pure genius.

She found out that her help didn't seem to be needed for the trek. Other than noticing a depressed dandy of a serpent (he might just be metro, she thought), her contribution was limited to agreeing with Rarity - it endeared the guy to her, though. Arguing about the importance of appearance and its role on self-esteem and public image had even the demure Fluttershy nodding in agreement.

She took a piece of the discarded scale, hiding it in a pocket for later consumption - no sense in letting good matter go to waste after all.

She let them cross first, so that they wouldn't see her shifting back into a pegasus to lighten her body with their passive magic. She was far from full and as such still heavier than Applejack, but the serpent, face down in the river like that, wouldn't be able to tell he had a supposedly fit unicorn actress stomping harder than an earth pony farmer. She only changed back once safe at the other side and out of view, bringing up the rear.

Then came another revelation.

Rarity's tail was now so short, it didn't hide anything. Not truly a problem, but it appears that changelings make no distinctions, for her depleted magic system ached... according to the memories, it meant that a quick source of energy had been recognized. Lust and need was an easy route to take, but there were lectures about not being too dependent on a single pony, since feelings going one-way only would likely harm the victim.

Physically, there was little problem; Forest's control of her body was just as good as it had always been, and with the changeling's abilities, she could cry, blush, pale or sweat on demand and with any level of intensity desired... magically was a different story. Both magic and training said 'if you are running low, use lust' and gave a 'helpful' list of signs to recognize a... receptive target.

Signs which Rarity had inadvertently triggered. Sudden tail cut, the way she made it sway... now, Forest knew on an intellectual level that none of that was meant like that - heck, with the amount of care she puts on her tail, chances are that she's just getting used to its new length. The main issue was the way she moved her hips.

Still, it was nothing more than a tickle on her senses, a little pull on her eyes that made her glance towards Rarity a little. Big deal, she just had to walk closer to the front and get out of the line of sight. This type of instinctual magical feedback was nothing compared to the emotional feedback.

A minor problem would be that Rarity caught her peeking, most likely she had felt watched. Minor embarrassment but a little bit of pride? Shoot.

Forest picked up the pace, inwardly dreading what sort of thoughts Rarity would have.

"So... darling..." She began, whispering so that the others, engaged in their own conversations, would not listen in.

"Yes, Rarity?" She was calm and composed, her smirk that spoke of dignified self-control ever-present on her muzzle.

Inwardly, she just wanted to get it over with.

"Are you...?"

Da-dang this pony and her politeness. If she was going to tip-toe around the issue, she would have to be decisive enough for the both of them.

"Either, doesn't matter to me." A tiny half-truth was the perfect misdirection, with a modest blush to complete the effect. She'd rather avoid the topic, though.

"Ah..." Rarity blushed, and Forest had to suppress her responses.

Other than Twilight nearly falling off another cliff, there was little incident - it seemed all wild animals had fled the path.

'If I were to guess, they were able to feel Nightmare passing by and they ran for the hills.' After all, animals don't mess with things that are scarier than them.

Rainbow Dash faced a trio of fragments of Nightmare Moon, but, just as before, there was not much conviction on her side. Dash was too emotionally involved with the group to listen to them; when the fog cut off sight, Forest found out that it also blocked thermal signatures on top of sound. She stared impassively at the fog, mentally wondering if Nightmare Moon had any space in her rage-addled mind to realize how cliché her 'Tempting Offer' was - 'us or them'? Was she even paying attention to the group? Then again, something inside her didn't seem to want to win.

She idly wondered if she should have chosen a pegasus disguise... regardless, as always, she had to stick behind, not trusting the old thing to carry the whole group at once. She refused to cross until the others did.

Bah, it didn't seem like they needed her much anyways. Well, maybe if Nightmare showed up, there would be a need to do something.

Five round stones, strangely lukewarm, sat in the ground, waiting patiently for the spark that Twilight spoke of.

"Hmm... Kindness, laughter... do you think it means emotion-based magic?" Twilight pondered, before turning towards Forest.

'Me? Seriously? Ha!' "Perhaps, do you have something in mind?"

"Help me out over here."

"Come on now, y'all. They need to concentrate." Applejack said, and the others left the room.

"Uh... haven't they heard of the expression 'never split the party'?" Forest said as Twilight began to pour her magic into the stones, waiting for her to do the same.

Nightmare Moon was way too fast. Forest turned to see a tornado of magic sweep up the Elements, startling Twilight.

"Aah!"

"Twilight! Forest!" The other five burst into the chamber only to see both ponies jumping at the swirling magic.

"The Elements!"

And they were gone.

It was not her best idea, jumping into a spell powered by sheer rage... Forest growled as she helped Twilight to her hooves, a touch more roughly than intended, while Nightmare Moon laughed.

Twilight, not to be deterred, pawed at the ground and snorted; this filly had a plan. Forest decided to imitate her, save for the glow of magic on her horn.

"You're kidding. You're kidding, right?" Nightmare deadpanned.

Oh no, it was no joke. Forest had a feral grin on her face, her only genuine, intended smile in the whole trip.

As each side charged, Twilight teleported to the other side of the chamber, over by the Elements. Nightmare Moon was startled and raised her head, allowing Forest to put as much sudden acceleration as she could without tearing up the floor and slam into her target in a classic tackle.

It was not pleasant. Sure, the Nightmare was caught off-guard by a hit that crumpled cars like tin cans, tossing her away, but the mare had enough inner magic to actually take it! Forest thought she had hit something as heavy as herself!

"Just one spark. Come on, come on."

Twilight attempted to wake the Elements, and Forest put as much of her magic as she could, but Nightmare Moon teleported - the force of which threw Twilight away and startled Forest.

Twilight was so lucky, she was further away than Forest.

Nightmare Moon spat on her and, while she reared in surprise, Nightmare took the chance to hit her with her front hoof right in the barrel with a great deal of hate. Even as heavy as she was, Forest was sent sailing to the other side of the chamber, hitting a ruined column and breaking it apart, causing some of the castle to fall on top of her.

"Forest!"

"She hits like a fucking train!" She yelled, shakily getting the stone jabbing her stomach off of her... and she found out she couldn't get up; her body was shaking too much. Her body wasn't responding.

Earth pony magic. Nightmare Moon hit her with earth pony magic.

Her body could take the hits, but her recently-developed, frequently-abused, near-empty magic system couldn't. Her body was trying to respond the way it was used to, but there was more to the attack than just trying to cave her chest in - the magic empowering Nightmare Moon injured hers, and now it was at a loss at how to move now. She couldn't feel her magic, and there was a patch of chest that felt like a changeling's tougher body instead of the pliable coat she made for her pony identity.

And it all happened by accident. Nightmare Moon gave her a high-grade magic injury with a backhand strike.

She felt fear. Genuine fear for her life.

"You little foal! Thinking you could defeat me? Now you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night. Will last. Forever!" She didn't mean her laugh. Even as her hooves impacted the ground, sending a likely magical shock through the floor that broke the stones... inside, she was torn.

Twilight, for a moment, nearly gave up.

But she didn't.

Forest heard... something. Like a jolt of electricity jumping across two wires...

"You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that?" Twilight looked at Forest, who could do little else but shake, both from injury and fear. Twilight gave her a reassuring smile, and was glad she looked physically OK. "Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here."

The others appeared, and things got odd... Forest's body remembered that there was a time she didn't need magic to do anything, and she could stand, albeit trembling while doing so.

The shards of stone began to glow, and the air got strangely warm.

"Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of... Honesty!" In another situation, Forest would have made a snide comment about sounding like a Saturday morning cartoon, but she was much too relieved that Twilight could make the Elements work to do so.

"Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of... Kindness!" Some more fragments flew towards the corresponding pony.

"Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of... Laughter!" If Pinkie helped get rid of Nightmare Moon, Forest swore to Everything that she would do a better effort to actually get along with her, no matter how trying. She'd send souvenirs, help her bake, anything to not see Nightmare Moon again.

"Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift represents the spirit of... Generosity!"

"And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire, represents the spirit of... Loyalty!"

"The spirits of these ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us." Twilight glared at Nightmare.

"You still don't have the sixth Element! The spark didn't work!" For all she looked scared, the feeling of hope came from Nightmare.

"But it did! A different kind of spark." She looked over at her friends, including Forest. "I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all... are my friends! You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the... the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of... Magic!"

Then Forest felt... well, it was many things. Nightmare Moon's emotions were chaotic and confusing.

The light of the Elements... it called out to her. The number of different sources of emotion was ridiculous, and it left her dazed from the overload. The power grew and grew. A rainbow, of all things, came from the six ponies and surrounded Nightmare Moon, while the delicious feeling of love and peace came in waves.

Idly, she wondered if this was the changeling equivalent of the cross between a bugzapper and a nuke. Not that she could outrun a tsunami of magical energy like that one.

The light washed over her, and all she could feel was a bit of pressure and how she appeared to be resting on her side.