Six

Golden Oaks Library may as well have been playing host to a funeral in that hour. In many ways, that was exactly what it was.

The mood in the room was morose at best. No one was at fault for this, though. No one except Nightmare Moon. It had been a mere few hours since the fated events had transpired. Dawn had not even broken yet, though the sun was beginning to creep its way up over the horizon.

Twilight stared out the front window of the library. It was her work, her home, her life. Her breathing was imperceptible as she gazed out forlornly in the direction they had been charging in just a few hours previously.

So much had changed in such a small span of time.

Her friends around her were completely silent, which is how she preferred it just then. She could almost sense that they knew that, even though she had left that particular sentiment unspoken. They were in tune with her, potentially now more than ever, now that they had all gone through such a trying and traumatic experience.

None of them had come out of it the same.

She wondered how Celestia and Luna were taking this. Luna, she assumed, would probably be hit the harder of the two by the events that had just taken place. She had been the initial vessel for Nightmare Moon, after all; the evil spirit had chosen her, and Celestia had been forced to banish her own sister to the moon for 1000 years.

Twilight knew something about the verdict, though, something that nopony else had knowledge of. Celestia had entrusted her with this, swearing Twilight to a royal Vow of Secrecy, due to this being immensely private information regarding the Equestrian royalty. The fact that she had been given 1000 years' banishment from Equestria was not a number chosen at random. The prophecy that Twilight had seen, the one concerning the stars aiding in Nightmare Moon's escape, was not made until nearly 600 years later, by one Starswirl the Bearded, who apparently at that time was the only pony other than Celestia who knew about the verdict and what it meant.

Celestia's predecessor had dealt with Nightmare Moon before, and the spirit had been sealed away for only 500 years that time. She had thought that 500 years would have been enough to starve the spirit to death, but that had obviously not been the case. With Celestia's decision, she had come to the conclusion that maybe if the time of imprisonment were doubled, it would be enough to finally drive Nightmare past her breaking points and into the realm of the faded-away.

It was a noble effort, but obviously as well for naught. Nightmare had come back, more vicious and vengeant than ever, and only the combined powers of the Elements had been enough to drive Nightmare out of Luna's body. Their intent had been to finally finish Nightmare off, naturally, but as both Celestia and Celestia's predecessor had discovered so long ago... Nightmare Moon could not be killed. She could be defeated, yes, though not without an arduous fight. But to be killed?

If there was a way, it had yet to be found.

Twilight sighed softly as her mind took her in a different direction of reverie. The Elements of Harmony. Powers beyond imagining. Formerly wielded by Celestia and Luna themselves, they had been passed down into the hooves of Twilight and her friends during Nightmare Moon's first release. They had used them wisely, both in that event and in times of national crisis since then.

She remembered the surge that had gone through her body the first time the Elements were activated. It was like nothing she had ever experienced before. She didn't have much time to think about it as it was happening, mostly due to an impending death staring her and her friends directly in their eyes were they to fail, but in the days following the defeat of Nightmare Moon, as she was settling into her new life as a citizen of Ponyville, on direct mission from Princess Celestia herself to make friends in the small town and study friendship as both an art and as a science... She found herself considering the possibilties more and more.

What were the Elements in their nature? Did they by themselves hold power, or was the power given to them by the bearers? And if they held no power on their own, then why were they noteworthy enough to be given space in that book? The bearers were truly honored and noble, to be sure, but what were their parts in all of this? Were they merely pawns in a game far older and more complex than any of them could ever imagine?

Or did they, by wielding the Elements, become the game's master and not just its playing pieces?

It was at that point that she could no longer deny the thing that she had been trying to push back into the deepest, darkest recesses of her memories, and she could feel the tears welling up once more. Her eyes already stung horribly, from the eternity it seemed that she had already been weeping over the loss she had endured. And now, it was all happening again. She had hoped that she would have no more tears to cry, but it had been a foolish thing to ask, she was now seeing.

To be sure, her relationship with Rainbow Dash had not started off easily-  not that any of her friendships with the citizens of Ponyville had gone off to a smooth start, really. Twilight had found her brash and annoying at first, a braggadocio of the highest caliber. What had really started her change of view, though, was the night that Nightmare Moon had come to tempt them all individually- much like, in a book that Twilight had read a very long time previous, a snake had tempted the first beings to ever inhabit the land that was now called Equestria.

Rainbow Dash had irrevocably redeemed herself in Twilight's eyes that night, choosing to be loyal to her friends instead of falling for the faux promises of power that the Shadowbolts had presented to her. (Rainbow had told her all about the Shadowbolts and their offer to her, as Twilight and the others were unable to see Rainbow at that time due to the fog that Nightmare Moon had conjured around the end of the bridge to cut them off from each other.)

There was a reason why Rainbow was chosen to become the Element of Loyalty, and ever since then Twilight had found their friendship becoming deeper and deeper with each passing day, week, month. They would often have sleepovers- as disastrous as Twilight's first one with Rarity and Applejack had went- where they would talk the whole night through about Daring Do, presenting theories that they had and speculating about what grand adventure the pegasus would go on next. If it happened to fall on the release of Yearling's newest Daring Do novella- and let's face it, it always did “happen to fall on” those days, though only because they planned these particular events months in advance around the book's release- they would also take turns reading passages from the book in various alternatingly funny and serious voices, until they had read the entire book all the way through aloud. It was a grand time for both of them.

Twilight even used to joke that A.K. Yearling must have known Rainbow in a previous life, because Daring Do seemed to be practically entirely based off Rainbow herself. Her headlong stubborn streak, athletic prowess... The two even shared basically every physical characteristic, apart from mane and coat color, of course. Rainbow tried to deny it at first, but in the end even she had to admit the similarities were startlingly uncanny.

As similar as Rainbow had seemed to Daring Do, there was one thing that now separated them permanently. Daring Do always lived on to see another adventure and to save the day again... but for Rainbow, there would be no more saving the day.

Twilight breathed in slightly through her nose. She could almost swear that she still smelled the aroma of burning flesh that had wafted through the air as the blaze consumed Rainbow right in front of them. It would be a scent that would be burned in her memory for the rest of her life.

She walked away from the window, glancing up at all of the books that lined her bookshelves on the bottom floor. They were all perfectly arranged, naturally, by subject, author, and year of release. Twilight had spent so much time obsessively taking care of her book collection; it had always been her pride and joy. Knowledge and the pursuit of it was what she had been born to do; friendship had just added on even more happiness to the abundant amount that was already present.

Now, as she gazed absentmindedly- the “thousand-yard stare,” as somepony had referred to it as once- at the vast wealth of knowledge that was stored before her, she wondered if it even mattered anymore. None of the knowledge she had accumulated since being taken on as Celestia's student had been able to help her stop Nightmare Moon from murdering one of her very best friends. What little she had been able to study about the Changeling race after the attack on Canterlot did nothing for her, either. Nor did the revelations that Cadance had made about herself and her relationship with the Queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis.

In the end, her life's work hadn't aided her at all, and the realization of this seemed like a prison that not even the stars' alignment could save her from.

Twilight was so deep into her own mind, that she barely heard a soft voice from behind her. “...to the sunrise?”

She turned to see Fluttershy walking up to where she was. She sniffled a bit. “I'm sorry, Fluttershy, I was so lost in reverie... What did you say?”

“I asked what happened to the sunrise. It isn't there anymore...”

Twilight, a bit alarmed, turned towards the window. Sure enough, the night sky had completely returned. Not even the smallest bit of sunrise could be seen. She cut short a gasp.

“Is Celestia ok?” she moaned, pacing anew in front of the window. “Why did she stop the sunrise early? Maybe Nightmare Moon got to her...”

“How could Nightmare stop the sun?” Fluttershy asked as Twilight continued to pace. “She's the night. She doesn't have power over the sun like Celestia does.”

“There's one of a few things she could do,” Twilight said hastily as she walked a worn loop into the carpet. “Nightmare could have incapacitated her and Luna. It may just be one of Nightmare's spells making it so that we can't see the sunrise even though it's actually still happening. Or maybe she's using her magic to obscure the skies completely... It could be one of any number of things. We have no idea how strong she's grown since we defeated her.”

“We're still going to be able to defeat her though... right?” Applejack had come over to them as well. “I mean, we did it last time. Can't we do it again?”

Twilight shook her head slowly. “I believe there is a way that we can defeat Nightmare Moon, but it is going to have to be done without the Elements. Without Rainbow Dash here to fill the Element of Loyalty, we can't use the Elements like we did last time to defeat her. My heart just can't accept that the Elements is literally the only way that has ever existed to defeat Nightmare Moon.”

Just then, Twilight heard a tell-tale belch come from the other room, followed by a sickly groan. “She has to wake me up like that, doesn't she...? Couldn't she just have waited until I was actually awake...” In spite of herself, Twilight giggled a bit, then muffled a horrified gasp at what she felt just then.

“This isn't good...” Twilight murmured. “I can't actually be getting used to this depression... There's no way. Why is smiling and laughing becoming such a foreign feeling to me?” Before anyone could pick up the thread, Spike walked in, rubbing his stomach.

“Next time you talk to Princess Celestia,” Spike groaned, “let her know to maybe be a little less forceful when she sends her letters. I don't know what it is, but this one really messed my stomach up...” He belched again, but this time there was no letter that came out. It was just gas, Twilight guessed, left-over from the initial letter.

Twilight took the letter from Spike and unraveled it. She read it for a moment, and her brow furrowed. Then, she rolled it back up. “Send a letter back,” she told Spike, with mixed determination and confusion. “Let Celestia know that we will all be at the Royal Castle within the next hour. And ask her to convey my apologies to her guests for the delay. We are all the way in Ponvyille, after all.” Spike nodded and went off to find a quill and ink.

Twilight turned to the others. “Princess Celestia has extremely important guests waiting for us at the Castle. She didn't say who they were, only that they are apparently beings of immense power have come to visit her, and apparently they are not happy at all to hear of Nightmare Moon's return.”

“Hear of it?” Rarity asked. “It just happened a few hours ago! Surely word of it couldn't have traveled so far in such a short amount of time...”

“Not by itself, no,” Twilight admitted. “But if someone- not naming any names- were to have gone about to spread the word herself, doing it deliberately... It's not very far-fetched to think that somehow the word could have gotten to these beings in a short amount of time... Whoever they are.”

Just then, the door opened. Twilight turned to close the door, thinking the wind might have blown it open. She stopped suddenly, her jaw almost coming unhinged from the force by which it dropped. Standing in the doorway, was none other than Adriu himself, member of the Changeling Court and right-hand Changeling to Chrysalis himself.

Rarity stepped up. “I destroyed you once, and I can surely do it again!”

Adriu smirked. “Quite obviously, you did not 'destroy me,' as you just so eloquently put it. Otherwise, I would not be standing here in front of you. And if I may be honest, I am glad that your kill-spell did not work. Though I am not surprised it did not. You are an Element of Harmony, are you not? Though you may know of darker magicks, the fact that you cannot put your heart and soul into them to make them work properly tells more good about you than bad.”

Twilight filed this away in her “ask Rarity about this later” section of her brain.

“So then why did you come here?” Twilight asked, stepping in between Adriu and Rarity, just in case Rarity were to still want to off the Changeling.

“I am here to end things,” Adriu stated simply. “There was a plan in motion before Nightmare Moon ever came back. A plan to rescue and to protect. This plan is hereby over. By the stating of these words, I fulfill my final promise.”

He closed his eyes and recited a short phrase in the ancient Changeling tongue. “D'sa athu, m'sa chronne.” A soft blue glow enveloped him as his chitinous skin began to flake away from his body, revealing patches of blue fur underneath. Twilight was stunned.

In a moment's time, the spell had finished, and who they thought was Adriu was no longer standing before them. Instead, they saw before them that their fallen friend was now not so fallen anymore, and they all let out gasps of shock and awe.

Rainbow smirked at their reactions. “I told you this was all part of the plan.”