We stand together

Bowdler summoned his swords and battle armour, he would need them more than ever now. He stared at Nightmare Moon who had just summoned her own armour, which didn’t really fit over the form of Twilight.

‘You fight with swords?’ she said in mock disappointment, ‘Fine, I’ll get my own’. A long, black greatsword appeared out of thin air and hovered next to her.

Bowdler flicked his blades impatiently.

‘Ladies first’ he spat.

She snorted and charged at him, her sword poised to strike. He raised his own blades at the last second an parried expertly. He span around to get a stab in at her but, expecting to see the full alicorn Nightmare Moon charging back at him, he saw only Twilight, the pony he loved.

This put him off. He couldn’t bear to hurt her while she looked like this. As if she’d read his mind, Nightmare Moon smirked.

‘Aw,’ she mocked, ‘Does widdle Bowdler not wanna hurt his marefriend?’ she swung her sword at him again, but he blocked it, ‘Give in Bowdler, you can’t win.’

He threw one of his swords at her and looked away, not even trying to hit her. She caught it with magic.

‘Bad move, mastermind’. She propelled the sword back at him like a bullet, but he caught it with ease.

‘You forget I’m an Alicorn too Nightmare’

‘Don’t call me that! I am Nightmare Moon!’ She threw a ball of magic lightning at him, which he struck with one of his swords.

‘Elementium blades I see.’ she said, looking at his swords, ‘impressive.’

She ran forward for another stab with her sword. Bowdler deflected it, but only just. It left a graze on his face which burnt like fire. He recoiled with the pain and immediately she was on top of him.

‘It doesn’t have to be like this you know,’ she whispered softly to him, holding him down with her blade and magic, ‘You could join me! We could rule together, you and I. King and Queen of the night in the world after the invasion.’

‘I’ll never join you! Never!’

‘Think about it Bowdler...’

Suddenly, it all seemed to make sense to him. He felt a burning hatred towards his friends. Why weren’t they helping him? Why did Princess Celestia even send him out here to do this? Why couldn’t she come herself? She and Luna were doing a horrible job of running Equestria in this crisis, He and Nightmare Mo- What?

He suddenly realised what he was thinking. The blue haze that had formed around him retreated back up to Nightmare Moon, who was now stood back, grinning. The grin quickly faded.

‘That’s impossible! Nopony can resist me!’

‘Yeah well I’m not just anypony am I?’ said Bowdler as he got to his hooves again, ‘I’m Bowdler.’

He charged at her and finally perked up the courage to get a slice in at her head. She wasn’t ready for it. She only just managed to get out of the way in time. If it wasn’t for her helmet he’d have probably taken her horn off. He flicked his swords and ran at her again.

But then, she spoke. It wasn’t the voice of Nightmare Moon any more. She was Twilight Sparkle, with her own body, her own voice, but somepony else’s eyes.

‘Why would you do that to me?’ she asked, ‘why would you hurt me?’.

Bowdler lost concentration and dropped his blades. “Twilight” smirked, which made him realise that it wasn’t Twilight at all. He steeled himself and picked up his blades.

The smirk disappeared off of her face, ‘Bowdler?’. He swung his swords down and sliced the tendons in her front legs. She screamed in agony.

‘What have you done!’ she wailed, back to her own voice, ‘Now that the aliens have smelt blood they’ll come after us!’

‘Correction’ he replied, ‘They’ll come after you. Dasher? Bluewing?’ He looked over at the two ponies.

‘Crap’. Their pupils had just faded away, leaving only the whites of their eyes. Nightmare Moon’s voice echoed from the the two of them.

‘If I die, we all die’. Dasher and Bluewing drew their weapons.

‘For Celestia’s sake Nightmare, I thought the queen of darkness would be at least a bit more cunning.’ he quickly shot two bolts of stun magic at his friends. Not being all-powerful alicorns, it knocked them straight out. He ran over to them and caught them, then began to picture the throne room of Canterlot in his mind. ‘Later!’ he shouted, just before he disappeared.

~

Bowdler, Bluewing and Dasher landed in a heap on the cold, marble floor of the Canterlot throne room. This scared Princess Celestia quite a bit.

‘Oh god! What the Christ!?’ she yelled when they materialised out of nowhere, but then she recognised them, ‘You three! Did you complete your quest?’. Bowdler stood up, Dasher and Bluewing were still unconscious,

‘Princess, I bring dire news’. She raised her eyebrows. ‘An ancient enemy has returned, one Nightmare Moon’. The Princess laughed out loud.

‘Oh Bowdler,’ she chuckled, ‘That’s a good one, we all know Nightmare Moon can’t exist without a host body, she’s not that powerful’

‘But she can and she is!’ he replied, exhausted after the fight with Nightmare Moon and the effort of non visual teleportation, ‘Nightmare Moon has returned and I think she’s working with the aliens’

‘I doubt that’ coughed Dasher, who had just regained consciousness, ‘Remember what she said? The creatures would get us all, not just us’

‘You saw whatever hallucination came over Bowdler too, Dasher? I thought you’d have the strong will to brush off alien gases’ She was obviously trying hiding her fears now.

‘It was no hallucination, Princess. Nightmare Moon has risen once more.’

‘Wrong again Bowdler, you cut her tendons and left her for the aliens’

‘Are you implying that she can’t still turn into that blue cloud thing and get away?’

‘Oh... right...’

By now Bluewing had started to get to his hooves shakily, using his wings for balance. The Princess looked solemn,

‘If what you say is really the truth, then we have more things to worry about than the aliens... The dragons we sent after Bek’kiliip and the cultists of nightmare dropped out of contact just a few minutes ago, over Bloodstone falls. If Nightmare Moon really has returned, then Bek’kiliip and the cultists may be meeting her there.’

The three ponies looked down, they knew what was coming.

‘I’m going to send the three of you out to Bloodstone falls with some of my most trusted ponies, you will find the dragon and the cultists and do whatever it takes to stop them.’

‘Who are these ‘most trusted ponies’?’ asked Dasher, sounding slightly hurt.

‘Oh you’ll see. I’ll get in touch with them and tell you to meet them at the statue of Discord later today.’

They nodded and filed out of the room.

~

‘So you’re an Alicorn then, are you?’ asked Dasher suddenly as he, Bluewing and Bowdler were walking down to the palace gardens.

He nodded and moved back his hair to reveal the remnants of his horn.

‘You could have told us sooner you know? It’d have been useful on the way to the dragon hold,’ he shrugged, ‘I always wondered how you held your swords’

Bowdler swept his hair back over his horn, it was still something he was uncomfortable about sharing with the world, although his friends had seemed to take it pretty well. They turned to go into the statue garden and saw the statue of Discord.

‘This bastard took a lot of beating, according to the Princess’ said Bluewing, kicking the statue.

‘Doesn’t look too hard’ said Bowdler, shrugging. Dasher flew up and tapped the chest of the statue with his hoof. It chipped slightly.

‘Crap!’ he yelled and flew back down to the ground, ‘Act casual’. He looked away from the statue and whistled. The sound of hooves came from around the corner.

‘This’ll probably be Celestia’s ‘most trusted’ coming’ muttered Dasher, he would have gone on but he saw who it was who came around the corner.

‘Well howdy you three!’ said Applejack as she, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie pie and Rainbow dash came into view, ‘I hadn’t bet on seeing y’all here.’

‘Are you here for-’ began Bowdler, but Applejack interrupted,

‘Yeah, we’re here to come to Bloodstone with ya’. He looked over and saw Dasher and Bluewing. They had frozen, motionless and their wings had unfolded. He raised an eyebrow,

‘Guys?’

‘Wurp?’ asked Bluewing dumbly.

‘Guys, snap out of it!’ he yelled. Dasher shook his head furiously and stood at attention.

‘Right then everypony, to Bloodstone!’ he shouted and jumped into the air.

‘Dasher?’ sighed Rarity and looked over at her back. There was a distinct lack of wings.

‘Ah,’ he said, landing, ‘right...’

‘Oh this is so exciting!’ squealed Pinkie Pie, ‘I get to go on adventure with all-’ she stopped and looked down, ‘Well... most of my friends...’

Bowdler put his hoof on her neck, ‘Don’t worry Pinkie,’ he assured her, ‘I’m working on it’.

She smiled and began to bounce around again.

‘Are we going to go get all our stuff then?’ whispered Fluttershy, sounding just as timid as the first time they’d met.

‘Sure, why not?’. The eight ponies walked out of the gardens and back towards ponyville.