Knights of Harmony

Lightning Dash was looking right at Nightmare Moon’s face. So was Shadow Blaze. Both stallions were prepared to face their biggest challenge yet and there was only a minor pressure of the world coming to an end if they failed. A walk in the park.

“You sent your friends away and say you can take me down?” Nightmare Moon asked. “That’s a joke right?”

“Less than a meter,” Shadow Blaze said. “That’s how long you can stretch your Time Dilatation spell. Even with only two to focus, that limit doesn’t stretch too far from it.”

“And we didn’t send them away so you couldn’t attack them. We sent they away so we wouldn’t hurt them,” Lightning Dash finished.

“What?”

Shadow Blaze led the charge this time, his four hooves ablaze with fire as he jumped to strike Nightmare Moon’s chest. The alicorn tried to avoid and counterattack, only to feel a sudden pain on her right side and being thrown away across the room. Once she got her bearings together, she looked at where she was and another wave of pain hit her hard, along with an explosion sound and a cloud of dust.

What really happened was that the timing between Shadow Blaze and Lightning Dash was so perfect that the earth pony attracted the alicorn’s attention and focused her spell, allowing Lightning Dash to use one of his own abilities and tackle Nightmare Moon’s side full force with his body propelled even faster with his flight and lightning magic. The impact sent the alicorn flying, but it was predictable and, with his momentum cut by the impact, Lightning Dash flapped his wings and span sideways, grabbing Shadow Blaze’s hoof and sending him towards their enemy, the earth pony’s strength, the pressure of the attack and his innate fire magic causing the explosion, which also made the earth stallion be propelled backwards towards his partner. Lightning Dash then jumped to his right side as Shadow Blaze did the same to his left side, they being at least three meters far away from the other.

Nightmare Moon got up, as expected, and looked at them furiously. However, The Knights of Harmony’s hopes were higher once more: the right side of Nightmare Moon’s armor laid in shatters at the floor. “How are you doing this! There’s no way you’re using telepathy and your friend with geomancy is knocked out to send your thoughts to each other!”

“We’re not about to tell you our secrets any more than you’re willing to tell yours,” Shadow Blaze said.

“Whatever. I just have to destroy you!” Focusing her magic, Nightmare Moon created a vortex just above her, which opened up to the space. From the vortex, plenty of small stars began to fly against them. Although this spell was fast and highly unpredictable, Shadow Blaze and Lightning Dash seemed to be locating patterns to avoid putting themselves in the line of danger from another star. Behind them, the wall was being punctured with small holes as if hit by plenty of small stones. In the end, Lightning Dash made a lunge forward against Nightmare Moon. The evil alicorn looked at Shadow Blaze instead, knowing that they would be baiting her once more.

Then Lightning Dash gave her plenty of strong and extremely fast lightning-like punches on her left side. They weren’t strong enough to sent her flying, but the damage along with the electricity on the attacks got her stunned enough to stop her spell, allowing Shadow Blaze come hot and punch right on her face with a blazing hoof. Sent backwards again, the alicorn opened her wings wide and flapped them, flying away from the duo, the chest plate of her armor and the helmet completely shattered by the impacts.

Looking furiously at the duo in front of her, Nightmare Moon bared her fangs. “Fine! No more games!”

Both Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze smiled and nodded, “About time!”

The three of them dashed forwards, ready to clash in the middle of the way… only for Lighting Dash and Shadow Blaze feel a strong hoof punching right on their bellies. Sent backwards a few steps, they then saw that Nightmare Moon was still advancing and connected first at Lightning Dash, one of her hind legs hitting his face, in a long arc and hitting Shadow Blaze’s face barely two seconds later, the strong kicks sending them flying against the wall. Then, she landed on all fours, kicking strongly with her hind legs and opening her wings to dash forward against them once more.

Lightning Dash jumped to his left side and Shadow Blaze jumped to the right, trying to be apart, but Nightmare Moon all but materialized in front of Shadow Blaze, punching on his chest and sending him towards Lightning Dash. Both stallions hit strongly against the wall their armors almost completely shattered now, only the boots and some parts of the torso were on. They looked at Nightmare Moon, trying to understand what was happening when she just vanished…

Only to reappear a little later in front of them, moving in slow motion, much to her own surprise even. Not missing the chance, Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze attacked together and, with the last of their strength, they attacked from both sides, causing a huge fire and lightning explosion that shattered what was left from both Nightmare Moon and their own armors, and causing the two stallions to be shot back towards the wall on their backs.

They struggled to get on their hooves, trembling and shaking, before looking at their opponent. Nightmare Moon was laying down, also badly damaged, however, her horn glowed and slowly the cuts and damages on her body were healed much to Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze’s despair. She then summoned a different armor, one that was made of, probably, the same metal of the Nightmare Soldiers’ armors.

“You… I’LL KILL YOU!” her horn charged heavily and pointed at Lightning Dash first. Suddenly, before she could shot, she felt an immense surge of power. It was a teleportation spell. A short time later, she felt another one that made her look away. “Seems like your friends are trying to distract me…”

“No, Nightmare Moon…” Shadow Blaze chuckled. “I can… feel them…, they’re half… the way to… Ponyville. That must be… the ones that… will defeat you.”

“What?”

“Celestia was… gathering… ponies able to… use the… Elements of Harmony… to defeat you…. They must be… trying to find… the Elements… right now…”

Nightmare Moon’s eyes widened in fear. Not even thinking straight, she focused her magic and teleported at the spot the last teleportation spell was directed at, or so they thought. Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze, then, collapsed.

“BLAZE!” a young voice called and rushed towards the earth pony stallion. Dusk Shield has been watching the whole fight from the outside and now rushed in. “Blaze… are you alright?”

“I’ll… live… Thank you… Dusk…”

“It was… you, right?” Lightning Dash asked with a smile. “Nightmare Moon… was using a… time constriction spell… on herself… in the end…. You used a… time dilatation… spell on her… right?”

Dusk Shield blushed and nodded. Then, before anything else was said, saw a huge flash of light coming from the windows. Not knowing what has happened, Dusk Shield put herself in defensive mode, summoning her own Harmony Armor, before they could finally see that, although it was still night, the sun was raising. Then there was a bang of teleportation and Celestia appeared along with all of their friends.

Celestia smiled and nodded. “You two have done well, Shadow Blaze and Lightning Dash,” she said. “I’ll leave you there for now, but I’ll be back soon. I have someone that I want you to talk with.” Then, with another bang, Celestia disappeared.

Ice Sapphire trotted towards Lightning Dash, looking him all over, “Dash… are you alright?” Without even waiting, she began to cast a healing spell on him, while Shining Armor did the same to Shadow Blaze.

Somewhat revitalized, Lightning Dash smiled at her, “Don’t worry. As said Shadow Blaze, I’ll leave.”

“And what about her?” Golden Breeze asked, pointing to Dusk Shield.

The young filly felt a cold shiver run down her spine. Then Lightning Dash shook his head, “She’s a vital part of defeating Nightmare Moon. Without her, we would probably be dead. I believe that she’ll be a fine Knight of Harmony if so she wishes.”

“ME?” Dusk Shield asked not hiding her surprise. “But I’m… way too young to be a guard!”

“Not a problem, you won’t be joining the guards,” Ice Sapphire smiled. “The Knights of Harmony are a separated force. We fight in the backstage, protecting Equestria from those dangers ponies don’t even know to exist. Words of Celestia: we are to be the heroes, the villains or even the monsters in order to protect Equestria from harm…” As she said the word ‘monster’, she gave an almost unnoticeable pause. Those that noticed, decided not to talk about it.”

“Those were not words of Celestia,” a new voice called from a different room. They all turned to the voice and were surprised to see a much smaller alicorn, pale blue in color with soft curled blue hair and a crescent moon as a cute mark inside a black cloud. They all entered in defensive instance as they noticed who she was. However, the alicorn just shook her head. “Those were Ours. We do not blame you for your reactions. Indeed, We caused a great deal of pain for you all. However, We came to thank you for your efforts. It was thanks to your determination that Miss Sparkle could have the time to find and discover the truth of the Elements of Harmony and free Us from the terror of the Nightmare.”

Shadow Blaze looked at her and tried, not keeping his hopes too high, “Mother Luna?”

A faint smile parted Luna’s lips. “That is a title We are not worth anymore, along with the title of princess,” she said.

Lightning Dash eased then, and nodded, they all slowly breaking their defensive instance. “So you’re reformed? For real?”

Luna only nodded. “Although, it came with a cost. We are too weak for now to use any spells, even telekinesis. We are waiting for the return of Tia so We can go home… wherever that is now. This castle is hardly livable as it is and We doubt that it shall be rebuilt.”

“Mother!” Dusk Shield rushed and hugged Luna, much to the alicorn’s surprise. Luna looked down at her and smiled, hugging her back.

“We told you, We are not worth the title of ‘mother’ anymore. Not after what we did.”

“We don’t care about what you think,” Shadow Blaze smiled and approached her as well. “We are, and will forever be, your Children of the Night.”

Luna looked at them, admiration in her eyes, as her smile grew wider. She opened her forelegs more and Shadow Blaze joined Dusk Shield in an awkward hug, since Luna was about the same size as he was right now. The other could see a small tear slowly leaving the side of Luna’s eyes as she hugged them strongly, yet caringly. Lightning Dash smiled along with the others and nodded softly.

After a while, and drying her eyes, Luna parted the hug and looked at Lightning Dash. “Celestia choose you as team leader, We guess. However, Celestia have no say over you anymore, or over the other pegasus as well.” That caused all of them to widen their eyes. Then Luna continued, “We are the Amazon of Harmony from the pegasi tribe. From now on, after I recover my powers, I’ll be teaching you the techniques that I never taught Celestia. Also, to relieve the burden on her, and keep the tradition of every Master having three Apprentices, we shall also take one of the earth ponies too.”

“But what about me?” Dusk Shield asked.

Luna smiled and kissed her forehead. “You’re assuming I’ll take Shadow Blaze as well. His talent is fire, much better at the control of Celestia than my own. No, I’ll be taking on the big mare over there.”

Scarlet Boulder smiled and nodded. “Will be my honor, Princess Luna.”

There was another bang and a flash of teleport as Celestia returned to her sister. Noticing that Luna was hugging both Shadow Blaze and Dusk Shield, Celestia raised an eyebrow. “I take it you noticed Luna was reformed?”

“Yes. It was quite easy to notice, actually,” Lightning Dash smiled.

“After all, the children always recognize their mother,” Shadow Blaze said.

Celestia just smiled and nodded. “I had a few things to take care off so I couldn’t return immediately. I hope you’re alright, all of you?”

“Probably some severe internal injuries and need for therapy in the future years, but we’ll live. That’s what we’re here for, anyway,” Lightning Dash said with a smile. Then he felt Ice Sapphire poking his side with quite a bit of strength, causing him to shudder on a particularly tender spot.

Luna, though, seemed to understand what happened and just giggled softly. Shadow Blaze, in other hand, noticed he hadn’t known that his partner would say that…

“Dash…”

“Yeah… I noticed it too…” Lightning Dash only nodded.

“What?” Luna asked curiously.

“They were both ‘cursed’ by Cadance with a spell that caused them to feel each other’s emotions,” Celestia explained.

Luna’s eyes widened at that, “That was how you could counterattack Our time dilatation spell!”

“How so?” Dusk Shield asked.

“They had learned to use that link as a weapon during the battle. As We attacked, they would ‘feel’ how the other reacted and did exactly that in a fraction of a second.”

All other Knights there looked at them surprised. “Is that true?”

Luna finally released Shadow Blaze and Dusk Shield, the earth pony walked towards Lightning Dash and hoof-bumped. Celestia just smiled.

“Well, we shall return to Canterlot right now. Are you ready?” As if on cue, three chariots entered through one of the holes opened during the fight, “Let’s get in and go home.”

“Any chance that we can see the girls before we leave?” Lightning Dash asked.

“Sorry, but no,” Celestia answered, “We have to go immediately.”

The knights and Dusk Shield looked between themselves. They knew this was the price they had do pay.