The mystical golden glow quickly spread across the entirety of the Everfree Forest and Ponyville, turning what was once a beautiful night into what seemed like a form of eclipse. No matter how beautiful it may have looked, you knew what it was, and you knew the danger it would soon bring.

That glow was nothing more than the opening of another portal to the dream world, created by none other than Null. It was something that needed to be stopped, and that was exactly what you intended to do.

The six of you soon reached the fabled Castle of the Two Sisters, which was overcome almost entirely by the golden glow. The centre of which shone bright in the night, emanating from the middle of the overgrown ruins.

"Everypony okay?" you asked, looking at each of your friends. Surprisingly, Pinkie Pie seemed the most tired out.

The walk to the old castle was significantly shorter than the one back to Ponyville, but it still seemed to have taken a toll on you since you had ran half of the distance.

"We'll manage, but we all know what that beacon means, right?" Applejack said, panting slightly as she stared at the yellow aura the was spread across the sky.

You nodded your head, but Rainbow Dash was the one to answer her, "Yeah, it means somepony's gonna get their butt kicked!"

"But not us, right?" Fluttershy replied, shaking slightly.

"No, Fluttershy," Rarity replied, comforting her. She looked across the old wooden bridge that connected the Everfree Forest to the ancient castle, a slight hint of anger hidden in her expression, "Although I do have a pretty good idea as to who will be getting their butt kicked!"

Each and every one of you stared across the bridge at the glowing ruins, both anger, courage and determination growing within all of you.

"Well, are we ready?" you asked, now hovering above the ground alongside Rainbow Dash.

"You bet!" Pinkie exclaimed. It almost surprised you to see the fire that had ignited inside of her eyes too, as it was a rare sight to see Pinkie angry at somepony.

You took in a single deep breath. The moment you had been preparing for for so long was finally arriving.

"Then let's go stop this once and for all." you said, a courageous smile on your face.

After successfully saving Manehatten and escaping that tree creature with your life, you truly felt over the moon. You felt hope; hopeful that this battle would end today, before it became a full on war. Hopefully with the six of you together, you could achieve that.

In fact, you were all so determined to end it right there, that it never once occurred to any you that you were lacking one of the elements of harmony. Ever since you left for Manehatten, you hadn't seen Twilight, or Spike for that matter, once. It would've worried you, if you weren't so dead set on defeating Null right now.

Each of your friends crossed the bridge hurriedly, including Fluttershy despite the fact that she had wings. Actually taking advantage of your Pegasus features, both you and Rainbow Dash simply flew over the small ravine in an attempt to reach the castle sooner.

Surely enough, the two of you were the first to reach the front door, but neither of you felt like knocking.

Crash!

It seemed like, for once, Rainbow's old nickname 'Rainbow Crash' actually made sense.

"Null! I think me and you are long overdue a little talk!" she exclaimed angrily as she flew straight into the old throne room. Much like you expected, Null himself stood at the foot of the throne, an intense yellow glow burning behind him.

The shadow pony turned around, a smirk on his face, "Ah, it's you. Much like I... wait."

Quicker than the smug smirk appeared on his face, it twisted back into a frown as confusion and anger overcame him, "How did you get out! You were supposed to get trapped in the dream world along with the rest of that city"

"Well unfortunately for you, we stopped the city from vanishing before it could happen." you said, a hint of cockiness in your voice.

Null growled softly, giving you an intense stare, "Like many of your life choices, that will be one you soon regret."

"Yeah, yeah! We've heard it all before!" Pinkie called, strolling into the throne room with the rest of your friends following. It seemed like many of them were still on edge about the place, as the last time they had been there was when Nightmare Moon first attacked.

The only one who didn't seem unsettled was Rainbow Dash, probably because all she was seeing was the colour red.

"Now before we kick your butt," Rainbow began. Too your surprise, Null didn't interrupt her and simply stood, listening intently, "You better tell us how to bring Princess Luna back."

Seemingly dodging Rainbow's question Null gave a dark laugh, before taking a few steps to the side. Now that there was no longer another pony in the way, the six of you got a good look at the source of the golden beacon, and the burning yellow glow that had engulfed the sky.

"This right here is my magnum opus," he announced, pointing at the portal before you.

The six of you stared down at the portal confused. Whilst it emitted a pretty fierce glow, the portal itself was... quite disappointing honestly.

"Is that all?" Applejack asked, unfazed.

Null gave yet another smirk, and suddenly the once small portal transformed, growing up to a dozen times it's size. By now, the dream portal covered the entire back wall of the castle. Not only that, but this portal lacked slots for the crystals.
To put it simply, there was no way to close this portal.

"This beautiful portal is what I needed your magic for, Storm! Without you and your element, none of this would be possible!" Null explained. You gritted your teeth and growled; something which you never though you would do, "With a portal of this size, the entirety of Ponyville, no, Equestria will become nothing more than a mere dream."

"Hey, dumbass!" Rainbow called angrily, "You gonna tell us how to get Luna back? If we're gonna die anyway, at least tell us that!"

At first, you couldn't tell how that was supposed to help you. If you were going to lose anyway, he had no reason to tell you anything. But somehow it worked nonetheless.

"You can't," Null said, the smile unfading from his face, his golden yellow eyes piercing you, "Well, you can, but I'm afraid one of you will have to take her place..."

"Now what do you mean by that?" Rarity asked, concerned.

"I mean that one of you will have to sacrifice yourself to bring back your 'princess'", Null mocked, seeing an opportunity to taunt you, "Not that it matters. Pretty soon, there won't be anypony left to sacrifice anyway."

For a moment, you and the evil unicorn before you locked eyes. Your rage-filled eyes of hatred pierced his, but his stare back was lacking the rage.
All that he felt towards you was hatred, and the desire to kill you. You were simply an obstacle in his plan.

"Alright, I've had enough!" Rainbow cried as she darted towards Null. You wanted to stop her, but before you could even process her action, she had already slammed a hoof directly into Null's face.
Zooming past him, she flew high into the sky. It was lucky that the castle seemed to be lacking a roof.

Each of the four ponies behind you let out a gasp as Null recovered from the hit, his eyes glowing a little bit brighter, "You shouldn't have done that."

Without warning, a golden ray of electrified light shot out from the unicorn's horn, heading directly towards Rainbow.

"Rainbow!" you called, flying up to her as fast as you could. Moments before the potentially fatal attack hit her, you launched into her, knocking her down to the ground. The two of you made impact with the ground outside of the castle, tumbling and rolling along the dark green grass and barely avoiding falling into one of the many ravines that surrounded it.

You were about to ask her if she was okay, but before a single word could leave your mouth, a large explosion came from the castle. Now looking towards it, Null had exploded a large hole in the side of the throne room, giving him a direct line of sight towards you and Rainbow.

"Putting your life on the line for one of your friends?" he said, his horn beginning to glow once again, "Respectable, but it won't make any difference!"

Rainbow attempted to fly, but Null's overpowering magic held her in place. You attempted to pull her into the air, but you too couldn't use your wings. You closed your eyes, anticipating the painful blow that would be delivered as soon as the beam hit you, but...

It never came.

Opening your eyes, a large, transparent, blue wall shielded you from the attack, and besides you stood Rarity.

"If you want to kill these two, then you'll have to kill me aswell!" she said fiercely, standing her ground next to you and Rainbow. Somehow you didn't see Applejack and Pinkie Pie walking up besides you, but they also seemed to have their own things to say.

"If you wanna rule Equestria..." Applejack began.

"Then you're gonna have to go through us!" Pinkie added, completing Applejack's sentence.

Flying down from above, Fluttershy had also decided to chip in, and it felt like all of her nervousness and shyness had dissapeared, "And that's not gonna be easy..."

Both you and Rainbow Dash climbed up from the ground, still a little staggered from that fall. It didn't bother you though, not when you had friends like these by your side. Null stared at you, and then at your friends, the amused smile wiped from his face.
Now instead of a proud smirk, there appeared to be one of intrigue. Almost like he was thinking of something.

A few moments passed with not a word spoken. All that you could feel was the slight breeze flowing through your mane and the bitter nighttime cold of the Everfree Forest, until...

"Okay, then!" Null said, the smile returning to his face.

Rainbow Dash's eyes filled with shock as a huge ball of magic energy hurtled towards you, surely strong enough to knock all of you out of the fight if it were to hit. Your wings fanned out, but before you took flight you pushed Pinkie to the side to allow her to escape the blast.
You, Rainbow and Fluttershy eached dodged the attack by quickly flying above it, but unfortunately Applejack and Rarity didn't seem to be so lucky.

The two of them flew through the air, both hitting the castle wall and falling to the ground.

"Rarity! Applejack!" each of you called, quickly running over to the two injured ponies.

The orange Earth pony let out a cough, lifting herself up with a single hoof. A few bruises covered her, but other than that she seemed relatively fine. "Ah'm fine, everypony."

"Yes, so am I! It's going to take more than that to make me give up!" Rarity added, climbing to her hoofs.

Null let out a menacing laugh, his horn glowing once again, "Are you sure about that?"

Not allowing either of the injured ponies time to recover, another blast of magic energy collided with them. Rarity and Applejack fell to the ground once again, this time unresponsive.

"You see? I'm simply too powerful for you now!" Null laughed, egotistically.

"No, no, no!" Fluttershy gasped, rushing back to the two ponies. She placed an ear up to each of their chests, listening for a sign of life, "Th-they've still got a heart beat."

The once cheerful Pinkie Pie looked down at Applejack with sadness, her fluffy mane beginning to deflate. It took a lot to upset her, but this was enough.

"Pinkie, are you-" you began, walking over to the pink ponies side.

"That's it!" Rainbow Dash cried, fuelled by both adrenaline and rage. Once again, she shot into the air, but this time it was different. This time, she was flying at such a speed that her signature rainbow contrail was being left behind her.
Even Null looked at least a little bit scared.

You didn't want to stop her. Whatever she was going to do to Null, he deserved, "If you hurt my friends, I'll hurt you twice as badly!"

Another hoof slammed into Null's face, knocking him down to the ground. Attempting to retaliate, he fired a magical beam into the air, but she was too fast for him. Effortless dodging his attack, Rainbow flew high up into the sky, before turning around and flying downwards at a high speed.

A familiar vapour cone formed around her, slowly but surely beginning to give way to her extreme speed. Another ray of magical energy fired from Null's horn, but once again it only missed.
You couldn't help but smirk as a look of horror overcame Null as the cyan Pegasus got closer and closer to the ground, until the vapour come finally gave way.

A multicoloured shockwave spread across the sky, giving some life to the sickly yellow glow that coated the entire forest. Shooting downwards faster than ever, Rainbow readied a hoof to deliver one final blow to the evil Unicorn that stood helplessly below her.

But then Null grinned.

With a flash of his horn, Rainbow Dash froze into place, unable to move and mere metres from the ground.

"No! Don't you hurt her!" you cried, beginning to charge towards him aggressively. Both Pinkie and Fluttershy held you back, preventing you from getting any closer, but you refused to stand by and do nothing.

"Storm, you'll just get yourself hurt!" Fluttershy said, holding you back as best as she could.

Struggling against your friend's grasp, you eventually saw only one way to even get a chance to help your marefriend. Your wings began to glow a soft yellow and you closed your eyes, focusing on the flat surface in front of Null.

"Storm! Don't!" Rainbow called, desperately trying to keep you and her friends out of harms way. But it was too late to change your mind now.

In a bright yellow flash, you teleported directly in front of the unicorn, releasing your friends grasp on you. For some reason, using your magic hurt you quite a lot, but it was worth it to keep Rainbow safe.
Appearing below Null, you used the skills that you had picked up at Sweet Apple Acres and delivered a powerful buck to his stomach, causing him to repulse backwards out of pain

You used your magic once again to teleport above the evil pony, and this time it hurt even more. A slight grunt of pain left your mouth as you reappeared above Null, ready to strike. Your hoof came crashing down onto the pony's head, causing him to almost lose balance completely.

As you kept Null distracted, Pinkie Pie snook over to the frozen Rainbow Dash, ready to help her down from her suspended state. Little did either of you realise that Null's magical grip on her was the only thing stopping her from crashing into the ground with the full force of a sonic rainboom.
The more you glows you delivered to Null, and the more you injured him, the less magic that still held Rainbow in place, until...

She was no longer frozen.

Crashing into the ground at an inconceivable speed, the entirety of the Everfree Forest shook. Birds retreated from their nests in the trees, and cracks spread from the crater that had been left behind by the impact.

Realising what had happened, you moved your attention away from Null to look at the aftermath: a simple cloud of dust that blocked both your's and Fluttershy's vision. By the time it had dissapeared, both Rainbow and Pinkie were laying in the center of the crater, covered in bruises.

"No..." was all you could say as you stared down at the two ponies.

Fluttershy, with tears forming in her eyes, cautiously flew down to the center of the crater where the ponies lay.

"Th-they're still b-breathing..." the yellow Pegasus exclaimed, weakly. It was hard to sound even the slightest bit optimistic when you were fighting back tears, after all.

Behind you, the pony who had caused all of this let out a cough, "Do you see now? No matter how much damage you do to me, my determination outshines yours. Any damage you do to me, I will retaliate with double that amount."

As if nothing had even happened, the few bruises that covered Null's body were healed in the aura of a golden flame, healing him back to health.
You couldn't believe what you were seeing. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had all been defeated by this pony.

No... He wasn't a pony.

He was a monster.

A monster that lurks in the deepest corner of your mind, taking advantage of your thoughts and desires and twisting them to be used against you. The type of monster that transforms the things you love into physiological weapons to manipulate you. And most of all, the type of monster that strikes when you are at your most vulnerable, existing as nothing more than a passing thought until the right moment arises.

"There's no point in dragging it on any longer..." Null said with a sigh. That familiar glow radiated from his horn as another beam fired directly towards Fluttershy.

She was too busy taking care of her unconscious friends to notice that in only a moment she would be just like them.

"Fluttershy! Move!" you yelled, flying over to her as quick as you could in order to get her out of harms way, but just like always, you were too late.

The one friend you still had standing fell to the ground alongside her two friends, leaving you alone.

You couldn't find any words to say. Usually you would have said something either insulting or cocky towards Null, but this time... You just couldn't find the words to even begin.
In only a single night, it seemed as if you had lost everything.

"I think it's time we brought this to a close. Wouldn't you agree?" Null mocked, that sickening smirk plastered all over his face once again.

You gave him an empty stare, lacking in any form of emotion. You could feel what was left of your determination fading, and the small part of your element that was resisting give up completely.

All you could see was that horrible yellow glow as you closed your eyes one final time.

The war was over, and you had lost.

Author's Note

So...

Now that I've finished this story I'm gonna be on break for a little while I plan for the next one. I've been writing this for about-
Ha just kidding. This isn't over just yet. I bet I fooled you for a second though, right? No? Ok.