Twilight found herself face to face with her adversary at last. Before her stood a mare nearly twice her size. Her coat was black as a moonless night, nearly blending into the shadows cast by the crumbling walls in the Castle of the Two Sisters. A pair of sharp eyes, more resembling a predator than those of a pony glared at Twilight.
Before Twilight was the mythic Nightmare Moon, a creature once thought to exist only in legends and stories meant to frighten young fillies and colts. Yet here she was standing between Twilight and her one shot at defeating this ancient evil, the Elements of Harmony, a wicked smile on her face reveling a row of unsettlingly sharp teeth.
'What does she eat that requires such sharp teeth?' Twilight pondered for a moment. Even though the question returned no answers in her mind it still caused her to shiver involuntarily. She knew she needed to remain calm, but fear still had an icy grip on her heart which pounded so hard it felt like it was trying to escape from her chest. Her eyes once again wondered past Nightmare Moon, falling upon the Elements of Harmony. She didn't even know how to use them, or if she could for that matter, but in this situation they were her best chance to stop the threat in front of her.
Knowing what she had to do Twilight did her best to ignore her fear as she lowered her head, pawing at the ground aggressively while glaring at Nightmare Moon. First, she had to get the alicorn in front of her away from the Elements, and she had a plan to make it happen. She released a sharp breath as Nightmare Moon merely cackled at her.
"You're kidding! You're kidding, right?" Nightmare Moon managed to say between fits of manic laughter. The laughter soon died off however as she realized Twilight was indeed serious. Seeing this, Nightmare Moon lowered her own head, taking an equally aggressive stance.
Twilight was the first to make a move as she began to gallop towards her foe, her horn beginning to glow as she readied a spell. Nightmare Moon, undaunted by Twilight or her magic, began to gallop towards the young mare. Just before they collided, Twilight activated her spell, teleporting away in a brilliant flash of magic and sparks catching Nightmare Moon off guard and temporarily blinding her. No doubt she had not expected such a young unicorn to know a spell as advanced as teleportation.
Twilight's head spun from the exertion of such an advanced spell, nearly making her feel sick. She quickly steeled her resolve, knowing she only had a few precious moments before Nightmare Moon would descend upon her. As she looked down at the five orbs around her hooves, she still had no idea how to make the Sixth Element appear, though she did have an idea. She quickly accumulated magic in her horn, pulling on all the strength she possibly could before channeling it into the orbs, which began to absorb her magic like a dry sponge would water. Her plan was working!
Nightmare Moon shot into Twilight's view just as the magic in the Elements hit their max, causing the excess magic to spark from one to the next, a stray bolt catching Twilight and flinging her back as it felt like her entire body went numb for a moment. Twilight landed square on her back a few feet away from the Elements as Nightmare Moon looked down in shocked despair.
"No, no!" Nightmare Moon cried out as the magical energies continued to arc around her from one orb to the next. After only a few second however, the magic faded from the orbs. Nightmare Moon's expression changed from one of fear to a mixture of smugness and relief.
"But, where is the Sixth Element?!" Twilight called out in confusion. She remembered the text she had read earlier. 'When the Five are present, a spark will cause the Sixth Element to be reveled.' Was her magic not the spark they needed? Or had time drained them of their power?
Twilight's thoughts were disrupted as Nightmare Moon began to cackle even harder than she had previously. Mid-laugh she reared up, channeling some of her own magic into her fore hooves before slamming them down. Upon impact, the magic she had accumulated was sent out like a shock-wave causing the orbs around her to shatter into hundreds of fragments. It took Twilight a moment to register exactly what her eyes had just seen, and when it finally did it felt like her own heart was shattered. She had failed! The Element of Harmony, her one hope of defeating Nightmare Moon by herself, were gone.
"You little foal! Thinking you could defeat me!" Nightmare Moon gloated. "Now you will never see your Princess or your Sun ever again. The Night, will last forever!" Nightmare Moon all but spat out the word 'Sun' making her intentions clear. It was at this moment that the magnitude of Twilight's failure hit her. It was just her or Celestia she had failed, but all of Equestria.
'If only Princess Celestia was here!' she languished to herself. Just as the hopelessness of the situation was about to crush her, she heard familiar voices coming from behind her. They were the ponies she meet in Ponyville. Why did they continue to follow her? She didn't want them to see the mess she made, how she failed the most important part. Looking at the shards of the orbs scattered around the floor, it suddenly occurred to her. She never would have even made it this far without the help of those very same ponies. Her only failure wasn't letting Nightmare Moon destroy the orbs, it was trying to face Nightmare Moon alone!
The frightened expression on Twilight's face changed to a smile as she finally realized what she needed to do, what only she could do. As each of the five ponies gathered behind her, she remembered the important part each and every one of them played in getting this far, and she felt a renewed sense of determination.
"You think you could destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that?" Twilight asked, her voice full of confidence. Nightmare Moon seemed taken aback by the sudden shift in her behavior as she eyed the unicorn cautiously.
"Well you're wrong, because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here!" Twilight exclaimed as the fractured shards of the orbs laying around Nightmare Moon began to glow various colors shortly before beginning to levitate. As Twilight reminisced about the night to Nightmare Moon, the Elements flew to their hosts, orbiting their bodies and lifting them off the ground, shrouding them in a brilliant light, one by one. No sooner had Twilight finished than the Sixth Element appeared before her, taking the shape of a crown with a jewel matching her Cutie Mark. Meanwhile, the remaining five Elements took the shape of necklaces, each with a jewel shape and color unique to the pony who wielded it, each reflecting their Cutie Marks as well.
Nightmare Moon attempted to take an aggressive stance but it was too late. With all six Elements finally reveled, their powers activated, shooting out a strong magical energy that took the appearance of a rainbow which quickly enveloped Nightmare Moon who cried out in defiance and anger.
The next thing Twilight knew, she was staring up at the ceiling of the castle, once again at the mercy of gravity. Lifting her head, Twilight quickly peered towards where Nightmare Moon had been standing however, instead of a wicket mare of the night, there now was a single pony, her coat a medium blue and starry mane now an even lighter shade of blue, more resembling a cloudless sky. Two main characteristics remained however, this pony had both a unicorn's horn and the wings of a pegasus.
Twilight scrambled back to her hooves, and the sounds of scuffling and hooves on stone told her her new friends were doing the same. The alicorn in front of the six seemed to recoil instead of also standing, her eyes seeming to cloud over with tears though they refused to flow openly. For a moment, Twilight was taken aback, and confused, though after a moment she could feel her sore body relax.
Five voices called out in concern as Twilight began to walk casually forward towards the mare still laying on the ground. As she neared, Twilight noticed fragments of Nightmare Moon's armor strewn about, smoking as if they had recently been on fire. Furthermore, the once sharp teeth of Nightmare Moon had reverted to the blunt flat teeth Twilight was accustomed to seeing, and the predatorial eyes were once more rounded, and glazed over with tears. The mare once again flinched as if she was going to be struck as Twilight held out a gentle hoof to her, giving her a kind, warm smile.
"Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle" she said, introducing herself as if this was an entirely new pony, which from her perspective it was. All of the previous hostility was gone, replaced by anxiety and fear. The mare looked up at here, finally speaking for the first time since her apparent transformation.
"What are you doing? Why are you being so nice to me after I tried to hurt you and your friends?" she asked in a timed tone that was only matched by Fluttershy's own. Twilight gave her an even warmer smile at this, answering her question simply, and with conviction.
"The pony that tried to hurt me and my new friends was Nightmare Moon, and I don't see her around right now. I only see you." The pony in front of her seem confused for a moment, taking a few second to process what she had just heard. Suddenly, the tears she seemed to be so desperately holding back burst forth, streaming down her face and staining her fur, causing Twilight to panic. Had she said something wrong? Oh, if only she had a book on how to interact with a pony who had just tried to hurt her friends and take over Equestria! But surely she would never find such a book for such a rare occasion.
Twilight's thoughts were once again cut short as the pony in front of her finally moved, lurching forward past Twilight's extended hoof and burying her face in Twilight's chest as the tears continued. "I'm so sorry!" she apologized between sobs. She froze for a moment, but then moved her still outstretched hoof to gently stroke the mares back, hoping to console her.
"It's okay, I..." Twilight paused for a moment as she turned her head, looking at her five new friends behind her, each one wearing their own somber smile. "We forgive you."
Author's Note
I know this prologue is basically just the ending of Season 1 Episode 2, but I did my best to not plagiarize, and it does still play an important part in setting up an important difference for the story and the following ones, but showing the story up to this point was exactly the same. Many of you may remember that Celestia showed up to console her younger sister, and to congratulate Twilight on defeating Nightmare Moon... But not here. Why is that, I wonder? The real story begin from this point on.
I can promise you future chapters and stories will be vastly different from the show, this is just a set up to show how one "small" difference can affect an entire life, or even six.
