Attack by Night
Grudgingly, Twilight Sparkle carried herself over to Sugar Cube Corner for Pinkie’s huge “Discord’s Defeated One Year Anniversary” bash. Twilight thought it was just an excuse to throw another party, as a more suitable reason was not at hoof. Celestia’s sun was just past the horizon, and Luna’s moon began inching among the dimly stared canvas. As she approached the sweet looking restaurant, Twilight noted darkness, no lights were on inside. Not sure if anypony was inside, on the tips of her hooves she cracked open the door, peeking into the dark lobby. It certainly smelled like there was a party, as the scent of freshly baked cakes filled the air. She extended her head further to take a closer look when the lights flashed on.
“Surprise!” shouted all of her best friends. Twilight blinked several times, ears flattening. All her friends were gathered around her, surprising her with a party? Eyes darting from pony to pony she asked,
“W-what’s all this for? I thought this was a party to celebrate our achievements.”
Confetti and streamers expanding, Pinkie Pie appeared from nowhere, nose to nose with Twilight.
“This party isn’t to celebrate defeating that meanie Discord, silly…, -although he did deserve it, even if it was hilarious how I turned gray. Gray, of all colors! Just thinking about it makes me laugh.” Pinkie fell on the floor and put her hooves to her stomach laughing hysterically.
“Settle down Pinkie,” interrupted Applejack, as she slowly approached Twilight “What shes tryin’ to say is that this party aint for defeatin’ Discord, but ta celebrate you coming ta Ponyville and gettin’ us all together. It was two years ago today I remember seeing you fer the first time at Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Oh oh oh,” chimed Pinkie, now bouncing up and down, “also, I think this is my best surprise party yet. I surprised you with the party even though you knew you were going to a party because I told you it was a party for stopping Discord last year. Where you surprised? Were you? Were you? Were you? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
“You did all this for me?” stammered Twilight, reading the sign up above.
“Well of course darling.” replied Rarity bouncing her mane on her hoof.
“Yea, without you and that egghead of yours, we all would not have become good friends with everypony here!” added Rainbow Dash casually hovering over Twilight.
Twilight was used to getting parties thrown in her behalf, but often it was for mundane things. This time was different. She scanned the room, her violet eyes focusing on all the effort her friends undoubtedly put into this party. Every surface was covered in sweets, and multiple punch bowls were scattered among them. There was enough food and drink to host a party for all of Ponyville, but this party was definitely special, it was just for the six of them. They began the party, music started, Pinkie proclaimed it was her jam, and they all laughed and had the most fun anypony had in a long time, so much fun, in fact, that not one of them noticed the moon ceased its slow crawl among the stars.
-----#####-----
Twilight Sparkle awoke to a swift pounding and screaming. The lavender unicorn opened her eyes expecting to be blinded by a room bathed in sun, but instead it was still dark. More pounding and Applejack’s southern drawl could be heard pleading for help. Twilight let out a large drawn out sigh, and tiredly looked at the clock,
“Do you have any idea what time it… What the? There;s no way that can be right.” The clock sitting on her night stand read 7:30 A.M.
Twilight popped her head out the window and inspected the sky. The moon was just overhead, lying dormant. The pounding of the door echoed again through her library home, and startled her, she swiftly pulled her head back in bonked herself on the windowsill. The pain in her head was nothing compared to the uncertainty welling in her stomach.
“Ouch! Alright, Alright I’m coming, hold your horses AJ”
Twilight opened the door while rubbing the back of her still slightly tender head. Applejack rushed inside and slammed the door behind her, visibly shaken. Trembling, Applejack looked around the room, checking the kitchen and the bathroom of the small library house. Twilight watched the orange earth pony,
“Applejack, is everything okay, did you lose something?”
“Y-y-you m-m-mean ta say ya don’t know? Why, T-T-Twilight, when ah woke up at sunrise this m-m-morning, there was no sun, and ah went outside ta take a gander, b-b-but there was these things c-c-crawling around, things ah’ve n-n-never seen before.” Twilight stopped her.
“AJ, calm down, I can barely understand you through that stutter.” Twilight approached one of her bookshelves, “Now are you sure these things are not just friendly visitors; I don’t know, maybe just like Zecora?” She scanned the titles, trying to find a record on occasions that called for day or night to last longer than it should. Applejack looked to the floor, took a big breath, and continued,
“T-Twilight, ah think maybe Nightmare Moon may be back, and this time, she brought help. These creatures were letting out some sparkly dust or something, and they were all spaced out, all over Ponyville too. Ah saw them on my way over here.”
“Well I know that’s impossible,” replied Twilight, never tearing her violet gaze from the shelves, “I know for a fact that the elements of harmony cured Princess Luna for good, she can’t return to a state like that. Ah here it is. See I can find a book without help!” Twilight began to read the book aloud,
“It is not completely unheard of for a princess to briefly stop the day or night cycle. For instance, Princess Celestia or Luna may choose to keep their respective celestial figures in the sky for more time than is necessary in order to fulfill specific circumstances. A specific example of this can be seen eight thousand years ago, when Princess Luna opted to prolong the night in order to help Princess Celestia. Princess Celestia’s powers were suppressed and she was mysteriously left in a weakened state. – Oh my, this can’t be good – Luna had…”
“Twiliiiiight!” A high pitched squeaky voice erupted from the upper window, its owner smashed right into a shelf, dislodging all the books that it contained. After picking herself back up, Rainbow Dash turned to face the two occupants of the room. Rainbow moved across the room, kicking books out of her way. “Twilight, Nightmare Moon is back! We have to go stop her. It’s supposed to be day time now!”
Twilight looked from the shelf, to the ground where all her books were now resting. Her reference book lost among them. Twilight then focused on Rainbow,
“Rainbow, just what do you think you’re doing, I have told you countless time, Nightmare Moon can’t come back, it’s impossible.”
“B-b-but look outside!” Twilight ignored her friend’s plea and began hovering books in search for her lost tome.
“Rainbow, just calm down, I was in the middle of getting to the bottom of this – “
“Twilight!” Spike interrupted waddling down the stair.
“Uhg, what is it NOW?” Twilight launched a book across the room nearly missing Rainbow Dash’s face, and shot a look at Spike. The little dragon took a step back, not at Twilights outburst, but at the mess in front of him that he knew he had to clean later. He held up the letter in his hand,
“This was just sent, Twi, but not from Princess Celestia.” Twilight grabbed the letter with her magic and began to unravel it. As she read through the letter, her eyes widened, and she looked over to the curiously confused Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
“Just as I suspected, Princess Luna needs our help. Rainbow Dash, go get the rest of the girls, and meet us back here at the library.” Rainbow Dash sat up, and saluted to her purple comrade, and took off, zoomig out the window. Twilight Sparkle was determined to do what she could to aid the Princess, as she convinced herself that there was actually no way for Nightmare Moon to return. Twilight took one last look at the pile of books, biting her lip, she would be ready for the worst just in case. Spike already began organizing the books strewn all over the library floor, and Twilight was grateful for this, but there was no time to further consult books.
“Spike, the girls and I are going to Canterlot for a little while, look after the library for me while I’m gone” Spike looked up and made a salute of his own,
“You’ve got it sister.” He turned around and continued to clean the mess.
Twilight went outside the library, and right next to the bushes that line the entrance to her door she saw the invader for herself. It resembled that of a small black insect normally found in the dirt, but this creature was half the size of Twilight. It had beady little eyes and six legs on each side of its body. Twilight was hesitant to take a closer look, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she leaned in close to better inspect the bug. From up close, the bug appeared just as a common beetle would, with segmented body parts and antenna. What caught the unicorn’s attention was the fact that the beetle was paying no regard to twilight. The beetle did not flinch in her presence, or acknowledge anything around it. It began to exert a purplish fume that sparkled, much like the signs of a unicorn’s magic manipulating an object, and it let out a horrible stench that smelled like the combination of compost and strong cinnamon. Twilight backed up and put her hoof to her nose,
“Pew, this creature must be what Applejack was referring to.”
Twilight heard hoof steps behind her, and she turned around relieved to see all her friends. Fluttershy was cowering behind Rainbow Dash, her mane acting as a pink curtain, a cyan eye peeking through at the creatures occupying Ponyville. Rarity was eyeing one of the creatures with obvious unease. She was leaning the opposite direction of the nearest beetle with her foreleg in the air nearly brushing against Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie was hopping in place, asking a bug what its name was. Applejack opened the door, and staggered outside to be with her friends while being cautious of the foreign creatures. Rarity frowned and looked to Twilight,
“Twilight, what are these nasty little things all over Ponyville?”
“Honestly, I am not entirely sure” Twilight shot look to Rainbow, who just shrugged, “but we need to see the Princesses right away.” All the ponies nodded with determination save for Pinkie who was still hopping up and down next to the motionless bug. Twilight just rolled her eyes at the sight of her pink friend.
“Alright girls, are you ready to go?” There was a chorus of yeses and cheers, and Rainbow Dash blurted out,
“Exactly how in the hay are we supposed to get there so quickly?” she stomped down a hoof while asking. Twilight smiled,
“Easy, I teleport us” The reception of this idea with her friends was unanimously negative, as can be told by the questionable looks and frowns, Applejack was wide eyed at the mention of such method of transport.
“Heh heh” Twilight nervously giggled to reassure herself after seeing the looks on their faces, “don’t worry, this is magic kindergarten stuff.” Before anypony could object to the lavender mare’s plan, she quickly cast the group teleport spell.
-----#####-----
Twilight Sparkle and her friends all appeared in the Canterlot gardens. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the whole area, and the loud snap of Twilights spell startled all the birds in nearby trees to fly away from their resting place of the night. Fluttershy looked around the garden after regaining her stability, and let out a soft sigh. Twilight ignored it, and began walking towards Canterlot Castle’s entrance. Applejack stepped in front of Twilight,
“What the hay were you thinkin’? Ah know yer powerful n’all, but ya could have given us a warnin’, the idea of teleporting just don’t sit well with me’” Applejack said, nostrils flaring. Twilight’s expression softened,
“Applejack, I knew you and the other girls would rather not have done that, but we simply do not have time, Equestria is in danger.” Applejack closed her eyes, and simply sighed, and nodded then backed out of Twilights way, and began following her. The six of them reached the Canterlot main entrance hall. The moon light was shining through the stained glass window overlooking the whole room, dark reds yellows and greens glowed ever so slightly on the castle’s floor. Princess Luna was pacing back and forth at the top of the stairs; she abruptly stopped and looked out the window towards Ponyville. Twilight swiftly moved towards Luna,
“Princess Luna! Strange creatures are appearing all over Ponyville, and your letter left so many unanswered ques- “
Luna closed her eyes and raised a single hoof to Twilight, signaling her to stop. Twilight felt this all seemed familiar. Luna opened her eyes and looked at Twilight, and Twilight saw just how tired Luna looked, heavy bags hanging under her eyes.
“Follow me, quickly.”
Twilight did as she was told, and motioned to her friends to follow. As they traversed the long corridors of Canterlot Castle, she caught up to Luna. Luna noticed the purple mare’s proximity, and she let out a slight sigh,
“Twilight Sparkle, Celestia is ill, I know why, but she needs help.”
Not sure if this was an elaborate trap to remove the elements of harmony for good for free reign over Equestria, Twilight just blinked, and absently followed Luna. One look at Celestia proved that Nightmare Moon was not the problem here. Upon entering Celestia’s personal chambers, the ponies were met with a dark room, lit by small candles surrounding the sick princess. The room smelled of assorted berries and sweet fragrances, Twilight recognized as the alicorn’s natural scent mixed with the aroma of the candles surrounding her.
Celestia was lying on her bed, drenched in sweat; her breathing appeared to be slow and manual. Her naturally flowing mane was completely missing, replaced with a normal pink mane, and her body was much smaller than Twilight remembered, Celestia was only slightly taller than Twilight in this state. The unicorn raced to her mentor’s side, and slightly nudged her to wake her up, unsure if this was even the same pony. Celestia cracked her eyes open, revealing the same purple irises that definitely belonged to the princess. Twilight has seen those eyes countless times in her youth, and instantly recognized her mentor. She reached her hooves around and gave her a big hug.
“...Twi…light...” Celestia began with a whisper, “Luna needs… your help” and with that her head flopped back down to the pillow, but a soft smile remained as she rested.
“W-what happened to her?” Twilight was choking back tears, misty eyes fixed on the shell that was her mentor.
“When alicorns such as Celestia and I enter a weakened state, we are reduced to what you see before you. If you recall, when you broke the chains of Nightmare Moon from my soul, I appeared smaller than I am now with a blue mane. Now that I have regained my powers, I have regained my stature and ever flowing hair.” Luna peered down at Twilight and back to her friends who were still in the doorway, “Do not worry Twilight Sparkle, with you and your friends, we shall overcome this travesty, and restore harmony to Equestria”
Luna began to explain to the young ponies about these strange creatures that invaded all of Equestria. Eight thousand years ago, the very same creatures first invaded Equestria, and they emitted a very specific aura that crippled Celestias power, and dragged her to the very edge of life and death. Somehow these creatures remained undetected and slowly gathered information, and tuned their magical abilities to naturally cripple those of Celestia. As for why these creatures had the desire to kill Celestia is beyond even the Goddess herself, the fact remains they are back, even after Luna banished them ever so long ago.
Twilight and her friends sat there, unsure how to process the information just explained. On her haunches, she was finally able to put the pieces together. Luna took to watching the horizon just outside the window.
“Twilight Sparkle, you and the elements of honesty and loyalty, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, need to accompany me to the source of this plague. Whilst the elements of laughter, generosity, and kindess, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy must stay and look after Celestia.”
Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all nodded in unison, Dash then zipped to the the side of the night princess, while the other two trotted close behind. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie all looked to Celestia, and scampered over to the bedside of the Sun Princess. Luna took a step towards Celestia and got the attention of the three ponies helping her,
“Please, you three elements are perfect, help Celestia remain in high spirits with laughter, treat her and make her comfortable with kindness, and be generous, do as she asks and get anything she needs. It is imperative she does not lose hope.” Looking back towards the cyan, orange and lavender ponies, “as for you three, we will confront the enemy, and banish it from Equestria for good this time, with brute force and magic.”
All six of the elements of harmony understood their responsibilities, and said their farewells. Luna and her three companions then disappeared in a flash, out of Canterlot castle.
-----#####-----
Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Luna all materialized outside a dark forest. Even with the full moon, vision beyond a few meters of the forest was near impossible. Without a doubt, this was the Everfree Forest, Twilight could easily recognize it from countless trips to see Zecora. The forest has an uncanny ability to be incredibly frightening at night, and many strange noises can be heard from the depths of the shadows. Without even entering the forest, the four ponies could hear just how alive and dangerous the forest really was.
“The Everfree Forest? That’s pretty close ta Ponyville, are you sure that the source of these things is so close? Why don’t ya just move all of us right to it?” Asked Applejack.
Twilight quickly responded, “Teleporting more than one pony into a cluttered area is very dangerous for every pony involved, so teleporting into a forest is just simply out of the question”
“Yes, very good Twilight Sparkle that is correct, and as for the sources location, it is without a doubt in the Everfree Forest.” Luna replied, smiling at the farm pony.
“Well, what are we waiting for, Princess Celestia is in trouble, we gotta help her!” cried Rainbow.
“Indeed, let us go.” Luna agreed.
They entered the dark forest, and Luna illuminated the area with her horn. Inside the forest was even scarier than when they were there trying to find the Elements of Harmony. The forest smelled of damp dirt and leaves, a real earthy aroma. As they travelled deeper into the forest, a familiar scent entered Twilight nose, nasty smelling compost combined with a strong smell of a cinnamon like spice, but this time with the addition of the smell of rotting fish, a strange combination to smell anywhere. Puzzled about the new scents, Twilight took a closer look around her surroundings, and Luna suddenly stopped.
“They are watching us.” Luna whispered as she spontaneously increased the power of her light source, expanding the view of their surroundings. In the instant the light expanded, Twilight saw that they were surrounded completely by bugs just lying in the shadows, as they quickly scurried to the darkness, no doubt just out of sight again. Twilight asked,
“What should we do?”
“I’ll tell you what we’ll do; we’ll squash all those worthless bugs.” Dash flew in a random direction towards the shadow, but was ultimately stopped. Applejack had grabbed ahold of the rainbow tail,
“Whoa there, don’t just bolt of on us now” Applejack said through a mouthful of tail.
“Yes,” Luna took a breath, “We must stick together at all times, and we must keep going”
An hour passed and the four ponies were still walking. The forest was getting ever darker, and the sensation of being watched and icy chills of the night had a firm grip on Twilight. Her friends did not look too well either, Applejack was shaking uncontrollably, as she tried her hardest not to let her teeth clatter. Rainbow dash looked even colder, her frail wings shivering in the extended nights chill. The awful smells never let up as the ventured wither, but thankfully, they didn’t seem to get worse. A subtle clicking could be heard in the distance, and Applejack tapped the princess.
“Umm, Princess, what is that sound”
“We’ve become a threat; prepare to defend your selves.” Luna looked absolutely serious, and widened her stance.
Twilight turned around also widening her stance, and began priming her magic, ready to go. She was scanning the shadows when she heard a scream of terror from behind that sounded like Luna. She turned around again and was shocked. Luna was completely covered in the bugs. Applejack and Rainbow Dash swooped into action, knocking bugs off of the Princess, and Twilight used magic to launch three to four bugs off at a time. For every bug removed by the three ponies, another just took its place. Twilight tried her best to move more, but no matter how many she removed, another just took its spot. Applejack and Rainbow let out grunts of wasted effort as they scooped off the bugs. Nothing was working, the Princess was being crushed under the weight, and she let out a soft cry. At that moment, Luna’s power surged. A light that was much brighter than the horn ever produced shot out of the cracks from the bugs covering her. All the bugs then vaporized under the power of the Goddess. As Twilight’s eyes readjusted to the darkness, she saw Luna standing there, unharmed. The bug’s assault had ceased as well. Rainbow Dash took to the air and began flexing,
“Good job Princess, you really messed those bugs up, and good thing I was here to help.”
Twilight rolled her eyes at Rainbows brash remark.
“Rainbow Dash – “
“Muah ha ha hah” a strange deep voice’s laugh echoed throught the forest. This voice was nothing Twilight has ever heard before; it had a sort of artificial sound.
“Calculating odds you will be able to resist this attack, 1.6%. We thank you Luna for showing us your unique magical powers. We should be able to suppress it much like we do with your sister.”
“Show yourself; come out coward,” Rainbow Dash demanded, “I’ll take you on with one hoof tied behind my back.” She was hopping around on two hooves, poking the air with her fore hooves.
More of the bugs circled around the princess began releasing a new aura, instead of the fumes being purple, they were green. Twilight was searching for the artificial voice when she heard the scream of the princess once again, she turned to look, and saw the Princess was lying on her belly, legs spread in all directions. Luna’s eyes were shut tight, her legs shaking, attempting to get off the wet cold forest floor, but the strange aura proved too much, and she collapsed. Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow all ran to Luna’s side, and tried to help the alicorn to her hooves, but she was out cold.
-----#####-----
Celestia awoke in her bed, dripping in perspiration, even with her powers weakened, she stills has a hoof to the magical pulse of their world. There’s no way she could miss it, her sister has suffered the same fate as her. Her eyes began to tear up when she thought about Luna in the forest under the same conditions as her. Only one thought was in Celestia’s mind ‘how could it have come to this?’.
“Fluttershy, darling, the princess is awake!” Rarity practically whispered, “Oh Princess Celestia, is there anything I can get you?”
“Is sh-she… crying? Oh whats the matter Princess? Is everything okay?” It was Fluttershy’s soothing voice. Somehow, her voice was so comforting to Celestia, she began to rethink the situation.
“She isn’t saying anything, oh oh oh, I wonder if she wants a party right here and now! I can get my party cannon. I can also just blow up some balloons.” Pinkie Pie was exploding with energy, Celestia wasn’t sure if the party pony realized the gravity of this situation, or was she really that good at putting on a happy face?
Celestia brushed the crazy pony’s actions aside and began to recap her thoughts, she was sick, her sister just fell to the same attack that is crippling herself, and her star pupil is… her star pupil is. Where is Twilight? Here she is calling another pony crazy, when she can’t even remember her own thoughts. All the voices started to blend together in her mind, the dark room was starting to grow infinitely darker, and she was losing all recognition of her being. She is out of commission, the magic repression field is too much this time, and they adapted to take down her own sister, she could feel it. There was no hope for Equestria, no hope, and no point. So dark.
“I sure hope Luna, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash get back from the forest soon.”
“Oh that would be nice, and then we can throw an awesomely spectacular party”
“I just hope they aren’t hurt at all, that would be horrible”
“I’m sure…”
Celestia concentrated for a moment, what did the first one just say? Twilight is with Luna. Enlightenment hit Celestia like a freight train. She realized there was still hope, there was a point to remain conscience, Twilight, her star pupil was with Luna. While Pinkie Pie was singing a random song next to Celestia, the Sun Goddess whispered to nopony in general,
“Twilight will make everything right…I hope…”
-----#####-----
Luna was lying in a pile a leaves completely unconscious. Her purple and blue mane that usually flows in the wind was stagnate, and her crown fell off her head and laid just a meter away from her. She was surrounded by three very confused and frightened ponies.
“Time to deal with the mortals we suppose. A unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony. How cute.” It’s electronic voice was booming through their heads.
A buildup of magic started to form near the far side of the clearing that were standing in. The yellow magic aura was very large, and it was building with great speed. Twilight recognized the aura as battle magic, and began casting a spell of her own. The yellow spell then separated into three separate bolts, and shot towards the three ponies at a high velocity. Twilight reached out with her magic, and produced a purple shield that encased the three of them. The force of all three bolts hitting her magical shield caused the lavender unicorn to violently recoil, sending her straight back into a tree. She fell to the ground and lay motionless.
“Twilight!” both mares shouted in unison.
“WHERE ARE YOU? COME OUT NOW!” Rainbow Dash demanded furiously.
“Why, our little ponies, we have been in front of you this whole time. We have taken the liberty of altering your vision to see what we will you to.” The monotone electronic voice continued, “That unicorn was much too easy, time to take care of you two.”
At that moment, large mounds in the soil began to raise, the earth shook with them. When these grainy mounds reached about a pony height tall, the bugs began pouring out of them and crawled toward Applejack and Rainbow. The two ponies backed away from the mounds and wound up side to side, creating as much space between them and the attackers as they could.
“Well sugarcube, ah reckon it’s time to show these bugs what years of apple buckin’ can get ya” Said Applejack.
“Yea, let’s see if these little things withstand a sonic rainboom.” Rainbow Dash flew to the heavens and began a steep nosedive towards Applejack who was already rotating in one spot and belting bug after bug straight in the head region. Once Applejack kicked them, they would shatter into pieces and the pieces would spark and let out dark smoke.
The cyan pegasus was accelerating at such speeds, a white cloud began to form around her, she was approaching the sound barrier, as well as the ground. Rainbow Dash clamped her eyes shut, and gritted her teeth. When she opened her eyes again, she was meters away from Applejack, and as she passed the orange pony, she broke the barrier and the sonic rainboom exploded in all directions consequently taking all the beetles with it. Rainbow also took a hold of AJ as she passed by, and safely took her to the skies away from the destruction of the rainboom. Luna and Twilight were just far enough away from the blast in order to remain unharmed by its power.
When the cyan pony landed, they were alone again in the clearing.
“How amusing, but utterly pointless.” the voice echoed.
Four more mounds began to rise, surrounding the two ponies just watched while panting.
“AJ, I don’t have another in me, I can’t…” Rainbow look crushed.
“Don’t worry sugarcube, we did all that we could.” Applejack fell to her haunches.
The mounds began to peek, and a few bugs filtered out when they became incased with pink magic. The mounds ceased to produce bugs, and then they crushed back to the ground. AJ and RD began to crush the straggling bugs with the energy they had left, and they turned around to see a bruised Twilight standing triumphantly. The voiced boomed from nowhere,
“Impressive, unicorn, you learned from your master. Targeting and collapsing our tunnels as opposed to eradicating us with your magic. Well, we suppose it is time to reevaluate you little unicorn. Ah yes, quite the magical talent right here. Nothing we can’t squash. Without your magic signature, we won’t be able to suppress your magic, but there are other ways to suppress your will. Yes that will entertain us.”
“Go ahead and try, because with my friends we can overcome anything.” Twilight replied standing in a wide stance.
“With pleasure.” The voice laughed another wicked laugh.
At that moment, both Rainbow Dash and Applejack were surrounded by a yellow magical aura and began to lift into the air. Both ponies let out horrible scream of pain, wiggling their hooves in vain.
“Twilight – help – it’s crushing – us” Applejack let out in between short gasps of air.
“My wings!” Rainbow cried.
The unicorn began to think, her brain put into overdrive. She did not know much battle magic, but there is one spell she read about back in Canterlot, a spell only the best battle magi were able to pull off. It was a spell that shot searing energy in all directions, and she thought to give it a try. Twilight’s horn began to glow, and it then shot out purple and pink energy beams all around her, searing the trees and bushes just past the clearing. When the spell dissipated, she looked to the sky where her friends were still encased in yellow magic, and yelling in agony. It was no good.
Twilight powered her most powerful spell, the failsafe spell; perhaps it would allow her to see the object causing her friends to hurt so badly. She decided to put extra power into it just to be safe even if she had little energy left to spare. Twilight took an even wider stance than previously, and began casting. Her horn started to glow, and the glowing intensified as she channeled. The spell buildup was pushing Twilight back, and she dug her hooves into the damp soil to anchor herself. The magic intensifying around her horn shot out in all directions, and the whole area was bathed in pink magical aura for a few seconds. After her eyes readjusted from the sudden flash of intense light, she rescanned the scene. Her friends were still floating and screaming, and she still couldn’t see what was causing it.
“Ha ha hah, we can feel your depression, your sadness, your helplessness, it fuels us.” The voice was beginning to sound like it was happy. “It is time to finish the job, and increase the pressure on your friends.”
“No.” was all Twilight could say as she watched her friends suffer, she got the ground and covered her eyes with her hooves, exhausting every spell she knew that could possibly do any good in a scenario like this.
Rainbow Dash was shrieking in pain, and Applejack was screaming for relief. The audible sound of bones cracking penetrated the air, even over the screaming. Twilight felt something inside of her trigger, something she hasn’t felt for a very long time. Twilight got up; a nonexistent breeze was causing her mane and tail to flow through the air. Her eyes turned to a scalding white and a purple aura encased her.
“You will cease this at once.” Twilight commanded, not yelling, but her voice was louder than it previously ever has been.
“What’s this, it seems you are growing in power rapidly, we are uneasy about this” said the voice.
“Good” Twilight mouth curled unto a smile as the aura expanded and lit the forest as if the sun had appeared. “Now I can see you.”
The entity in question was a tower in the middle of the clearing, the tower was a rusty brownish red, with glowing green stripes running up and down its body, and about two pony heights tall. It had strange markings on it that would never be read or understood. Twilight was rising in the air now, eyes still glowing white, and one by one, the spirits of the Elements of Harmony joined her in her ascension. Transparent figures of her friends joined her, one by one. First Pinkie Pie, laughing as always. Next appeared Rarity, with Fluttershy right behind her.
“What is this? Our calculations show that this has a 99.98% of being impossible” Twilight ignored the robots voice.
The last to join the group were the spirits of Rainbow Dash and Applejack. They appeared with a smile on their faces and gave each other a quick hoof bump. All five spirits began circle around Twilight as she closed her eyes, faster and faster, moving closer and closer to her, until all six where one. A magnificent rainbow then shot out of Twilights horn, as she opened he eyes to look for her target. The rainbow arced in the air, and smashed right down in the tower and the two ponies it was crushing at such a high power, the entire ground shook with its impact.
When the smoke cleared, Twilight picked herself up from the ground now covered in rubble. She looked upon the crater she created, and ran down to the cyan and orange spots right in the center of it, fearing the worst. She found her two friends there unconscious, so she levitated them up to a grassy area. Rainbow Dash awoke shortly afterwards, and Twilight instantly gave her a hug.
“Whoa easy there Twilight, I am alright” Rainbow broke away from the embrace and flexed her wings. “How the hay did you do that anyways Twi?”
“Ah would like to know that too, sugarcube.” Interjected Applejack from behind. “All ah remember is unimaginable agony, and next thing ah know, ah’m floating in the air around some sort of super Twi.”
“Well you know,” Twilight was blushing as she pushed her hair out of her eyes, “I’m not really sure what happened, it just did.”
At this point, Princess Luna has gotten up from the ground, and placed her crown back onto her head, just behind her horn. She looked at the three friends hugging, then to the crater holding what little remains of the attackers.
“So much for banishment… Cele sure knows how to pick em”
-----#####-----
Luna, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow all returned to Canterlot Castle, all relatively unharmed thanks to the Elements of Harmony, aside from Twilight who still was bearing some nasty bruising from hitting a tree. The sun was now in its proper place for the day, courtesy of Luna, now that the magical hold on it has been destroyed. Luna stopped her three companions at the gate of the castle.
“Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, I just wanted to thank you for all you have ever done for us, and me.”
“Aw shucks Princess, it was nothin’” replied Applejack.
“Yea, no big deal, I would never leave any princess hanging” Added Rainbow Dash.
Twilight just smiled, still worrying about the other princess inside her chambers, unsure if their actions were in time. They continued into the castle and made their way to Celestia’s room. Upon entering the room Twilight felt a wave of ecstasy. Sitting on her bed was a small white alicorn with a pink mane and purple eyes, bathing in the sun that was shining in from the grand window overlooking Equestria. There was another thing that didn’t change about Celestia with this transformation, and that was her smile.
“Princess Celestia, you’re okay!” Twilight was galloping towards her mentor.
“That I am Twilight Sparkle, all thanks to you and your friends. Your friends did an excellent job keeping my spirits up,” She gave the three ponies attending to her an endearing smile, “and they reminded me exactly why I should keep fighting. I am just so glad you were able to help Luna banish this menace once again” Luna snorted at the mentioning of this,
“That is where you are wrong sister, Twilight did not help me banish anything, she did what I could never do, and that was destroying them completely, and in the process, she saved the lives of you and I as well as her two friends accompanying us.” Luna confessed.
“You know, for a moment,” Rarity said while gentle fidgeting with her mane, “I felt like I was with Twilight for that encounter, I had the most dazzling sensation of flying again, this time without those beautiful butterfly wings”
“You know, I did as well.” Added Fluttershy in a whisper.
‘Oh, me too! I was flying around Twilight all fast, woooooooo” Pinkie Pie stated while running around the room.
Celestia looked back to Twilight, raising one eyebrow up she asked,
“Twilight, did you summon the spirits of the elements, and use the elements of harmony to destroy this foul enemy?” Twilight slowly nodded her head. “I am impressed, even to this day, you still manage to pleasantly surprise your teacher. Without your amazing abilities, who knows what may have become of Equestria.”
Rainbow Dash spoke up,
“There is one thing I am wondering, Princess Luna, why is it you remain to be fully powered even after getting hit with the same spell that crippled Princess Celestia?”
“I was only under its influence for a short time, and was able to resist enough of its influence long enough for you six to stop it. As a result, I am for the most part okay, but am still slightly drained from the experience” Replied the Princess of the Night
Twilight noticed the regal adornments sitting on the floor next to the princess, so she asked,
“Princess Celestia?”
“Yes Twilight?”
“When are you going to be fully recovered? I miss your old mane.” Celestia pondered for a moment and smiled,
“Oh I will be good as new probably within a day or so; in the meantime, I’m sure Luna can handle all the royal duties for me.” Luna’s face fell.
“But sister, I’m tired and want to go to bed…”
“Relax sister, I was merely joking” Celestia smiled wide at Luna’s annoyance and she let out a huff.
“Oh Cele,” Luna closed her tired eyes; “some things never change, do they?” And all the ponies in the room began to laugh. Even Luna let out a small chuckle, as she returned to her own room to sleep through the rest of the day.
