Second Chances

So much had happened in the day since Twilight had woken up in Canterlot. Countless meeting, interrogations and trials had worn what little stamina she had recovered after the fight in Ponyville. The Nox had declared open war on Equuis and all four Princesses were pushed to their breaking point, trying to mobilize the Equestrian defences. It didn't help that nopony could be truly trusted. Many off the attackers were average citizen of Equestria, coming from all backgrounds and ages. Celestia had finaly sent Twilight back to Ponyville after finding her passed out on Luna's bed, stacks of arrest warrants spread around the purple alicorn.

Twilight was now in the basement of the library with Darkened Sky and the rest of her closest friends. Darkened Sky had requested their presence, rufusing to start before the last everypony arrived. Twilight was sitting with him on a three-pony couch, the others sat at a table, enjoying a light lunch. "Sky, who are we waiting for?" Twilight was getting impatient, exhaustion dragging at her bones. She wanted nothing more than to go to bed and sleep in her fiancée's embrace.

"We are waiting for Derpy Hooves." Darkened Sky checked the clock hanging near the stairs. "She should be here any minute."

Rainbow Dash choked on her mouthful of hayfries, and spitting out the remainder of her lunch. "What? Why does she need to be here? I thought this was some sort of top-secret meeting, since Lunar Guards teleported us here." She pushed the rest of her meal away and glared at Darkened Sky. "You know how Derpy is, she can't keep a secret and always get hur—in people's way. There is no way on Equuis I'm would ever let you use her in any of your plans. She's the only...pony that gets into more trouble than all three CMC's combined!"

Darkened Sky let Rainbow Dash finish her rant. "I think you will be surprised what she can do, Dash. She has been working as my bodyguard for years—" Darkened Sky was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass.

Spike opened the basement door. "Twilight! Derpy is here. Should I send her down?"

"Yes, Spike, send her down. And go to the window store, they should have a replacement window," Twilight called back up the stairs.

Derpy trotted downstairs, eyes shifting constantly. "Lord Sky, so sorry I'm late. I had a situation to deal with. Twilight, I can pay for the window. I needed to make it seem like I arrived here accidentally."

"It's no problem, Lieutenant. And please call me Sky, this is an unofficial meeting." Darkened Sky motioned for the grey mare to sit beside him. "Now that you are all here, there are two things I need to discuss today. The first, well, I am ill. I have maybe six days before I die." All five ponies at the table had started talking. Darkened Sky had to shout to be heard over them. "Please let me finish. There is a way to prolong that time, but it's very risky. There is a spell that can remove the Nox from my mind temporally, and separate it into five shards.

"To prevent the shards from returning to my mind, they need to be carried by beings that can cancel out their magic. The Nox exists for one purpose, to destroy Harmony. The Nox literally represent Disharmony, and as such, can be suppressed temporally by the power of Harmony."

All five ponies at the table stared blankly at him. Applejack scratched her muzzle and looked at Twilight. "What in tarnation did he jus say?"

Twilight glanced over at her lover. He had his head in his hooves, muttering something under his breath. She looked back to her friends. "I think he means that as the physical embodiments of the Elements of Harmony, your innate powers will cancel out the magic destroying his mind. Like when we turned Trixie to stone, the power came from within you five."

Pinkie Pie started bouncing in her chair. "Oh! What your saying is that we are like barrels of cider. When you want some cider, you go and pour some from the barrel. When you want some rainbow Harmony power, you pour it out of us! We're walking barrels of magic, and Darkie is going to teach us how to use it. Then we go to the cave and fight this weird monster with sorta copies of ourselves and eat cake—Spike has desert!" Pinkie tackled the young dragon and shoved her head into the pail of chocomint ice cream.

Everypony in the room, except for Darkened Sky, stared at the pink mare. Twilight closed her eyes and sighed. "You got part of it right, all of you have magic in you, magic that I can use to power spells. Since that magic is Harmonic in nature, it will protect Sky for at least a month. As for teaching you to use that power, I'm afraid that impossible. Only an alicorn or the Element of magic can control it."

"Now that we that cleared up." Darkened Sky raised his head and looked each of his friends in the eye. Pinkie Pie had even stopped eating to listen to him "You don't have to agree to the spell, but I would be eternally grateful if you did. I would never ask you to do something like this unless there was no other way."

Applejack was the first to speak up. "Are ya sure there' no chance of us bein' affected by them shards? A don't want no repeat of that amulet thing Trixie had."

Twilight checked a page in her notepad. "With my calculations, there is almost no chance of it interacting with your mind."

Rarity slowly nodded. "Well, as long as it's safe, of course I will help you you. We would all be happy to, right girls?" The other members of the table nodded.

"Great. I need everybody to be quiet while I cast the spell. I don't even want to imagine what would happen if I got distracted." Twilight open her eyes, which were now glowing white. Her horn lit up and a beam of magic hit Darkened Sky. A think, black mist started pouring out of his eyes and mouth. An other beam of magic hit the mist, splitting it into five. Slowly the magic forced the black blobs into shapes. With a final flash of light, five necklaces dropped to the floor. They looked almost identical to the original Elements of Harmony, other than the gems being black. "The only ponies who will be able to see them once you put them on, are the Princesses and us."

Twilight levitated the newly created items over to the table. Her five friend put them on hesitantly, relaxing only after a minute of nothing happening. Darkened Sky picked himself up off the floor panting. "It worked, thank you so much. Now we can move on to my second item of importance. You know that unicorn magic can be externalized in the form of spells, right? There is a way for pegasus and earth ponies to do the same thing, albeit on a smaller scale. I am going to teach you all how to externalize magic without a horn."

Twilight and the other Bearers stared at him, mouths open in shock. After a few minutes of silence, Rainbow Dash jumped up. "This is going to be awesome!"