Celestia slowly walked closer to the unicorn currently looking down at her with disdain, her mind racing to think what words she could say to try and fix things between them, what punishment Sunset could offer for her to atone for her mistakes, what she could offer so Sunset could be happy. But when she finally stood right in front of the pony she had hurt the most in all her life, she decided to do something new.
Celestia sat down, and listened to her pupil.

Noticing the alicorns decision to remain silent, Sunset spoke. “You took everything from me, then offered me all I always wanted, took it away again, and at the end gave me what I ‘deserved’.”

Celestia nodded. “Yes.”

“Wrong,” Sunset growled. “I asked you to take away my magic. Told you that I didn’t want to move the sun anymore. But you left me with no choice in the matter. You deleted me and molded a new version of myself, one more convenient for you.”

Celestia looked at her pupil in the eyes. “That was never my intention. I took away what made you Sunshine, and is something I will regret for the rest of my days, but you Sunset, grew from it and became your own pony. You have your own ambitions and dreams and I want you to achieve them.”

Sunset’s frown deepened. “You’re bribing me so I forgive you for your mistakes.”

Celestia lowered her head. “I was before. I thought that making you happy would somehow make things right. A foolish idea like the one that started all of this.” She looked at her pupil in the eyes once more. “But now that you know everything, I know that I don’t deserve your forgiveness.”

“You still–”

“I’m not victimizing myself,” Celestia interrupted. “I’m acknowledging the fact that I can’t just escape this with good intentions. I can’t make excuses for myself. I can’t just let everypony else heal you while I just feel miserable.”

Sunset cocked her head ever so slightly. “Then what are you going to do? Sit and cry?”

Celestia allowed herself a miniscule smile. “I’m going to do what I wanted to do from the start but failed to achieve. I want to make you happy Sunset.”

“And what about the others?” Sunset asked, the question slicing at Celestia’s heart with a freezing cold blade. “What are you going to do with the others that you damaged in your efforts to ‘make me happy’?” Celestia didn’t find the words to utter a response.
“You did nothing to help Luna better her image to the public before she had to take control of the kingdom, you manipulated Twilight and her friends almost as much as you did with me, you lied to your little ponies, convinced countless unicorns that they were special enough to be admitted into your school, mind-controlled an entire town, left a mother without her daughter and husband. Do they not matter? Do they not deserve an apology? Are their hopes and dreams expendable compared to mine?”

Celestia lowered her head, staring at her own hooves. “I never really thought about it. I guess I preferred to concentrate on you and ignore the rest of my many problems.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Surprisingly honest of you.”

“I think I’ve lied enough for a lifetime.” Celestia took a deep breath and looked at her pupil once more. “I don’t know how to even begin to mend those wounds, if that is even possible.”

Sunset looked disappointed in her mentor. “You know pretty well how. Tell Twilight the truth and clear her path to do what she wants with her friends. Give Luna the love that you didn’t give her before and support her instead of letting her fall more and more into despair. Admit the truth about the school and who you really are. Face the punishment you deserve for your crimes.”

Celestia nodded, knowing how extremely difficult any of those tasks were going to be, but it was her own fault she had to do any of them. “And what about you?”

Sunset let out a snort. “Still trying to salvage our relationship?”

“I’m asking you sincerely,” Celestia said in a calm voice. “A lot of things changed in too little time. I want to know in what direction you want to go now.”

For the first time since the conversation started, Sunset seemed out of words, and she lowered her gaze. “I don’t know.” Her voice wavered. “As I said, the dreams of being a princess and raising the sun weren’t mine, they were Sunshine’s, and even she didn’t want magic at the end, nor this stupid thing.” Sunset took the crown off her head at threw it against the wall, bending the metal on impact. “I feel like I lack a purpose to keep going.”

Celestia wanted so desperately to hug her, to give her comfort, but she lost that right a long time ago. But she still could offer advice.
“You still have Twilight.” Sunset looked up at her, no more anger in her eyes. “She and her friends have helped you more in these past months than I could in all these years and the ones to come. I believe that if you want to seek a purpose in this world, you can start searching with them.”

Sunset thought about it for a few very long seconds, and let out a long sigh. “I guess I can–”

“Tia!” Luna shouted, shaking her sister to get her attention and look her way.

“Luna? What’s happening?” Celestia asked her sister before turning her vision back to Sunset, but she was gone. “Where is she? Did she teleport away?” she asked desperately, looking around for a glimpse of orange fur or red and gold hair.

Her sister looked at her confused. “Tia, Sunset’s dead. You’ve been talking to an empty throne since I came looking for you.”

The sentence shattered Celestia’s heart. “No, that can’t be true, she was here!”

Luna looked down towards her sister’s neck. “Tia, why hasn’t your scar healed yet?”

“My…” Celestia did her best to look down at her long neck, noticing that the wound still remained despite that her magic should’ve healed it by now.

Luna lit her horn and a blue aura surrounded the wound, doing an examination. Her expression turned somber. “I see, you’re still cursed.”

Celestia shook her head. “What? No. Pinkie Pie helped me break it at the Gala.”

Luna looked at her sister, and the white alicorn noticed a hidden anger in her eyes she hadn’t seen since her transformation into Nightmare Moon. “She probably placed two curses on you simultaneously, but she couldn’t have done it alone.” For the first time in over a thousand years, Celestia felt scared of her sister. “She had her own Nightmare, didn’t she?”

Celestia took a step back. “We can’t be sure it was the same thing.” Luna said nothing, just turned around went to the door. “Lulu I know she only had hatred for me, she wasn’t like yours.”

Luna stopped. “You have no idea what something like Nightmare is.” She turned her head just enough so she could see her sister from the corner of her eye. “They are spirits created by the most intense emotions in either a being with powerful magic, or a large group of creatures dealing with an intense experience, like the Wendigos from before the founding of Equestria. These spirits get one purpose when they are born, and they follow it relentlessly until they die, or they achieve it. They are, by nature, evil. Whatever you created and let fester inside Sunset would’ve been the end of us all if I didn’t kill her.”

Celestia shook her head. “Luna you saw it in Ponyville. Sunset managed to control the solar magic; she used it to protect the town.”

“And yet, she cursed you and tried to destroy everything around her. That was her purpose, to destroy you and everything you created. And that included Twilight. That was the reason she burned her in the mountain, and why some of her last words were of hatred towards her.”

Celestia was taken aback. “She still hated Twilight?”

Luna growled and shook her head. “You’re beyond salvation sister.” She finally turned around to face her. “I’m making it official. You’re no longer a monarch of Equestria.”

Celestia’s eyes widened. “What? You can’t–”

“You’re cursed, probably with insanity, have hidden things from everypony including me, and are clearly unfit to rule. I’m tired of trying to clean the mess you’ve been smearing all over the kingdom during all these years.” Luna’s gaze was brimming with anger.

“Luna, you’re right in that I can’t rule in my current state, but you need me at your side.” Celestia said in a begging tone. “I can’t help you get the ponies opinion if–”

“That wouldn’t have been necessary if you haven’t convinced everypony that I was an old mare’s tale! That the only thing that they knew about Nightmare Moon was that she ate ponies and demanded candy!” Luna’s face was turning red with anger. “I betrayed you because I felt like everypony was ignoring me, so you deleted me from the history books! All the fights and sacrifices I endured for the good of the kingdom during its more dire times gone in a thousand years of secrecy. How can we expect for them to trust me when the only thing they’ve know about me for the past millennia was the worst version of myself?”

“I– I can still help you,” Celestia said with pain in her voice.

“I’ve seen enough of you ‘help’ with Sunset. I want you to know that the only reason I’m not throwing you in the dungeons is because that would only make things worse for me,” Luna turned around and walked up to the door. “Now, if you excuse me, I’ve to find out who stole the Elements of Harmony.”

Celestia fell to her knees as her sister slammed the door shut, tears running down her face as she sobbed. For a moment, she wanted to go back to not being able to feel anything.

“This is the best soap opera I’ve ever seen. But it makes me feel like I’ve missed a lot of fun things recently.”

Celestia turned her head back to the throne, and saw a familiar draconequus eating popcorn. The alicorn frowned. “Discord.”

“The one and only.” The lord of chaos snapped his fingers and a napkin appeared beside Celestia. “Dry those tears Celly, they don’t look good on you. Maybe if I make them a dark shade of purple,” the draconequus wondered as he scratched his chin.

Celestia looked at the napkin with disdain. “Is it full of spiders?”

“Oh, you remember that one?” Discord said before taking the napkin and twisting it so the spiders came out and fell inside a glass. “Don’t worry, I’ve a lot of new material I want to try.” Discord stirred the spiders inside the glass with his finger till they turned into chocolate milk.

“I guess stealing the Elements is just your warmup.”

Discord raised an eyebrow as he drank the glass in his paw. “They would be problematic down the line.” With a snap of his fingers, the Elements appeared in front of him. “What should I do with them to have some fun?”
Celestia lurched forward, trying to snatch them out of his grasp, but she was still suffering from exhaustion and ended up falling face first on the floor.

Discord pulled out a sign with a six written on it. “Come on Celly, I know there is a trollific sense of humor under all that cake,” he said while poking at her midsection with a claw.

“You'll never get away with this,” Celestia mumbled from the floor, too weak to stand back up.

Discord rolled his eyes. “How about this.” He snapped his fingers and Celestia was now on a massage table. “I will break your little curse in exchange of us having a bit of fun at the expense of your sister,” he offered as he gave Celestia a massage.

“What part of your stoned brain makes you think I would enjoy causing chaos with you?” Celestia asked, trying her best to not enjoy his paws on her back.

“You seem desperate enough to try. Your sister turned into a demon for much less than this.” Discord stretched the alicorn like she was piece of gum, hearing her bones pop loudly before letting her go back to her original form.

Celestia managed to teleport away from his grasp, feeling weirdly rejuvenated. “Spare me your mind games. I’ve deal with enough today.”

“Mind games?” Discord wondered as he folded the table into a small suitcase. “Yes! A fun little game, with a nice riddle to test the mind.”

“What are you–” Celestia tried to ask, but Discord disappeared in a flash of light.

Sunset threw a fireball at another cloud of cotton candy, making it disappear with a sizzle. “Where are they coming from?” She wondered aloud while trying to clean chocolate milk off her coat.
Sunset turned around, watching as Philomena took shelter from the clouds inside the cave, clearly not wanting to get drenched like her. “Can you help me investigate?”
The bird gave her a nod, and Sunset put her horn against her head while keeping her right eye closed. After casting the spell, Sunset opened her right eye and closed the left, seeing everything from the perspective of the phoenix’s eyes. “Keep your distance, I will teleport to you if somepony needs help.”
Philomena nodded and extended her wings, flying off towards the castle, looking at the chaos and weirdness going on.
The stained-glass windows had been given life, pegasi guards were having difficulties flying due to apparently having their sense of direction reversed, and the wild animals in the garden had been given weird physical features, like longer legs, extra arms, or tiny wings that somehow allowed them to fly. But another thing that the phoenix found in the gardens was Twilight and her friends about to enter the now seemingly infinite hedge maze.

“I can’t believe it. We just got the Elements and they are immediately stolen from us!” Rainbow exclaimed with exasperation.

“Keep your voice down Rainbow,” Applejack chastised her.

“We actually got kind of lucky. Luna definitely won’t suspect that we did it now, and if we do things right, we may convince her to let us keep the Elements after all of this is over.” Twilight said before looking at the entrance of the maze. “To retrieve your missing Elements just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the elements back where you began. That’s where he claims he hid them.”

“Uh, darling, we may have a problem.” Rarity pointed to a small sign near the entrance, right next to a big metal bowl.

“No flying, and no magic. Leave wings and horns here.” It said in bold letters.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “How exactly are we going to do that without a hacksaw?”

“Why do they call it a hacksaw? It doesn't hack...” Pinkie wondered as she munched on one of the clouds of cotton candy she had managed to capture.

“Allow me to help,” a voice said before a snap of fingers was heard.
With a small flash of light, Rainbows wings and Rarity’s and Twilight’s horns banished. An instant later and with a discreet small green flame, Fluttershy’s wings were gone too.

“Discord!” Sunset exclaimed as the draconequus made its gran appearance. “This is bad.”

“How many things are you going to take from us?” Twilight asked the Lord of chaos with a frown.

The draconequus faked being offended. “Oh, I’m just borrowing them for our little game. This is just the first rule so we can all have our fun.”

“And what other rule is there?” Rainbow asked.

“The second rule is everypony has to play or the game is over, and I win,” Discord explained. “Now go on, let’s start right away.”

Twilight sighed and walked to the entrance. “Come on girls, keep together and stay on guard. We can do this.”

Everypony agreed and entered the maze, but then Discord cleared his throat. “Oh, I almost forgot. You will start separated from each other.” With another snap of his fingers, hedges sprang out of the ground between the ponies, keeping them separated.

Everypony started to complain and try to make a hole through the walls with no success, until Twilight shouted. “Stay calm, girls! Everypony head to the middle as fast as you can, and we'll regroup there!”

“Roger that!” Rainbow said, and everypony started to move.

Philomena was about to fly over the maze, but a claw caught her by the tail. “And what do we have here?” Discord asked as he looked at the mystical bird.
The phoenix tried to break free, but the draconequus had a good grip on her.
“I think you would look better with a–” Suddenly, a small ball of fire hit Discord right on the side of his head, freeing Philomena who immediately flew away.

“What was that?” Discord wondered as he brushed his burnt coat.

Back on the mountain, Sunset closed her right eye and looked at the castle. Her body tensed and she gritted her teeth, not liking what she was about to say. “I will need Celestia’s help.”

Thorax was walking through the long corridors of the maze thinking to himself. “Why did this had to happen just after I took her place? What am I going to do if they try and use the elements? Am I going to be turn to stone along with the lord of chaos?”
Suddenly, three butterflies flew in front of him, looking similar to Discord’s face. “What is–”

“Fluttershy, looks like you've been left behind by your so-called friends, huh?” the draconequus-looking butterfly said with a sly smile.

“Oh, no. I'm certain they're doing their best to find me,” Thorax responded nervously, not wanting to be discovered.

The butterfly raised an eyebrow but then continued. “Well, it must be so upsetting to know how weak and helpless they think you are.”

“Not at all. I am weak and helpless, and I appreciate their understanding.” Thorax felt dumb after saying that, but he hadn’t received Fluttershy’s profile yet, so he had little to work with.

“Yes... Well, surely it burns you up... I mean, that they're always pointing out your flaws, right?” the butterfly asked, clearly losing patience.

“Not really. In fact, I think I'm awfully lucky to have friends who want me to be the best I can be,” Thorax said feigning confidence. “That’s what friendship is about, right?”

Suddenly the butterflies turned into Discord in a flash of light. “Oh, for goodness sake! You've been kind for far too long, my dear.” The draconequus put the tip of his claw on Thorax’s head, making colored circles appear over his eyes while his body turned gray, taking control of his mind. “Time to be cruel. Arrivederci!” Discord said before disappearing.

Celestia was walking in circles in her office, thinking about what to do. “Luna pushed me away, Twilight doesn’t seem to trust me, Discord is back and has the Elements, and Sunset–”

Suddenly, in a small explosion of flames, Sunset appeared in front of her, still keeping one eye closed. “Celestia, you need to tell me–”

The alicorn grabbed her face with her hooves. “Are you real? This is not in my head?” she asked with desperation.

“What are you–” Sunset smacked her hooves away. “We don’t have time for this. We need to help Twilight. You defeated Discord before, right? Does he have any other weaknesses? Can he cheat death like Luna?”

Celestia used all her willpower to not just hug her pupil and stayed focused on the problem. “I doubt he can be killed unless you find a way to take his powers away, but he can be hurt. The Elements are the only thing strong enough to seal him in stone.”

Sunset took note in her mind. “How did he escape then? If he could break the seal once, maybe he will do it again.”

“Twilight and her friends should power the elements enough to make it more permanent, but I’m sure he has some plan to prevent that.”

“What can we do to help them?”

Celestia let out a sad sigh. “I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do. Even if we fought him together, he can just take away our magic with a snap of his fingers. Luna and I defeated him because he got too confident.”

Sunset bit her lip, trying to come up with some plan to help, but was getting nothing. “So what, we have to just trust that Twilight will win at the end? Stay back and do nothing?”

“It’s the lesson I tried to teach you, but it also frustrates me that I can’t protect my student,” Celestia admitted.

Sunset took a deep breath. “I will keep an eye on her and see if I can somehow help.” She was about to teleport away, but Celestia grabbed her hoof.

“Wait, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Sunset growled. “Can’t it wait?”

Celestia tightened her grip. “I may not get the chance to say it again.”

Sunset looked at the alicorn’s desperate eyes for a moment and canceled the spell. “You have a minute.”

“I admit I foolishly tried to somehow make everything right with good intentions, that I victimized myself and left it for others to help heal you while also ignoring everypony I’ve hurt over the years beside you.”

Sunset shook her head. “That doesn’t make everything right.”

“I know, but I want to work into mending those wounds, to help everypony I’ve hurt, not because of guilt, but because they deserve better than what I gave them.” Celestia took a small pause to let her words sink in before continuing. “And I want to make you happy.”

Sunset growled. “You’ve tried that enough already. You only managed to hurt me more each time.”

Celestia winced at her venomous words but kept holding on. “Do you know what direction you want to take after all of this?”

“Yes,” Sunset immediately responded to Celestia’s surprise. “I want things to go back to how they were. To live in Ponyville with Twilight and her friends, to finally be able to call Moon Dancer and Fare and Gilda my friends without feeling like it’s a lie.” Sunset yanked her hoof away from the alicorn’s grasp. “I don’t need you to tell me if that’s what you were going for.”

To Sunset’s surprise, Celestia smiled. “Is it wrong to feel proud that I didn’t had to?”

Having being thrown off, the unicorn had to collet her thoughts for a moment and started to consider her words without the despise she felt for her mentor. “What… what do you want from me?” she finally asked. “I won’t be your daughter, nor your pupil. I don’t even want to see you. If you really aren’t doing this to make yourself feel better, what are you getting out of it?”

“I don’t need to get something out of it,” Celestia responded. “I just want you to be happy. Both of you.”

“What do you mean both–” Suddenly, Sunset opened her right eye. “Twilight and the others came out of the maze. Rainbow is missing, and everypony but Twilight looks a bit gray. Wait, why is Rarity carrying a boulder with her?”

“Oh no,” Celestia exclaimed with dread. “Discord is corrupting them. They won’t be able to use the Elements while they are like this.”

“How can we cleanse them?” Sunset asked.

Celestia shook her head. “I don’t know, only the power of friendship is supposed to be strong enough to break Discord’s magic.”

Sunset growled with frustration. “Can we stop relying on a mystical force that’s as powerful as it’s vague on its instructions? Can’t we just blast things into submission like mages did in the old days?”

“Yes, I also miss things being that easy,” Celestia admitted with a sigh. “But there is no such option with Discord. It’s the Elements or nothing.”

Sunset sighed dejectedly. “I will– Oh you son of–”

“What happened?”

“Luna teleported Twilight and the others to Ponyville,” Sunset looked at her old mentor, still processing all that she told her. “I will fly there and see if I can help.” She prepared the teleportation spell and took one last look at the alicorn. “I… believe you. About what you said before. You better do it right this time.” And with that, she disappeared.

“I will,” Celestia said, and then focused on what she could do to help Twilight. “Discord knows what each of her friends represent. To make the Elements reject them, he would need to make them unworthy of their power.” Suddenly, she had an idea. “Where did I left those letters?”
She turned around to search her office and saw a small filly with gold and red hair looking at her with a bunch of scrolls in her mouth.
Celestia knew she was hallucinating, but the curse forced her brain to believe that it was real.
“Sunset… give me those scrolls.”

“Uh af o ach meh irst!” the filly said with her mouth full of paper and ran between the alicorn’s legs while giggling.

“Sunset come back here!” Celestia shouted before going after her as the filly teleported around to keep distance so they could play a bit more.

In a flash of light, Discord appeared on the outskirts of Ponyville.
“So, this is the famous town,” he said before rubbing his hands together. “Let’s see what changes I can make.” He was about to snap his fingers when he noticed a bright light in the sky. “What’s that?” He wondered right before a blast of fire pushed him away from Ponyville, burying him into the ground.
Discord pulled his head out of the burnt dirt and looked at the sky again, noticing that a huge flaming seal of protection was floating over the town. “That was very rude.” He said as he got out of the ground.
The solar spell activated once more, and a large orange bubble of fire surrounded the Ponyville, trying to keep the inhabitants safe from the Lord of Chaos.
“Was that always there?” Discord wondered before he heard a laugh.

“You should see your face, hahahaha,” Fluttershy said pointing at him.

Discord grumbled and dusted the ash off himself. “Don’t think this little trick will be enough to stop me.” He snapped his fingers, and the seal in the sky shattered, making the bubble disappear. “Soon I will turn this town in the chaos capital of the world and– Why is she hogtied?”

Twilight looked at Rainbow laying on top of the huge rock Rarity called Tom, struggling to break free of the ropes Luna had tied her with. “Princess Luna has far less patience than me. But the important part is that we are all together, and we have everything we need.” She declared, revealing the Elements of Harmony.

Discord sighed in defeat. “Oh, you've clearly out-dueled me, and now it's time to meet my fate. I'm prepared to be defeated now, ladies. Fire when ready,” He said putting on sunglasses and making a bullseye appear on his body.

Twilight quickly placed the Elements on each of her friends. “Formation, now!” she exclaimed, and then grumbled as her friends unenthusiastically complied. “All right, let's get this over with.”

Twilight activated her element making it glow as the wind picked up. She slowly started floating her eyes glowing with a bright white light. The element of magic shined brighter, as the rest of Twilight’s friends, including the hogtied Rainbow, started to float in the air. One by one, each of the Elements started to shine, but when it came to Fluttershy’s turn, the magic faded from the artifacts and they all fell to the ground.

“What's going on?” Twilight wondered as she looked at her crown.

“Mine's workin'. There must be somethin' wrong with yours,” Applejack accused, pointing at Twilight.

“I HATE the Elements of Harmony!” Pinkie exclaimed while Rainbow finally managed to free herself and escaped at top speed, leaving her necklace behind.

“Hmph! Garbage,” Fluttershy said before throwing hers away.

“Bravo, ponies, bravo!” Discord said, clapping his hands which made random noises instead of clap. “Harmony in Equestria is officially dead. Discord rules, Celestia drools,” he added poking Twilight’s nose, making her growl before he banished in a flash of light.

“It's your fault it didn't work,” Pinkie shouted to the air.

“Who are you talking to?” Twilight asked.

“Any of you! ALL OF YOU! I'm outta here!” Pinkie declared, throwing her Element away.

“I better go, too. I've got new better friends waiting for me at the farm,” Applejack said before also taking off her necklace.

“Yeah! I'm sick of you losers,” Fluttershy said before flying away, and Rarity started to push Tom towards her house, leaving her Element behind.

Twilight took all the artifacts in her magic, but then just let them fall as she exclaimed in frustration. “FINE! Leave! See if I care! I don't need you guys either! With friends like you, who needs...enemies...?” She asked sadly, and as her body turned gray, she shed a single tear that fell into the ground, forming a broken heart.
“Twilight!” somepony shouted, calling her attention, and when she looked up, she saw Sunset flying overhead before landing in front of her.
“You’re back. Hurray.” Twilight deadpanned.

Sunset looked at her colors and grimaced. “He got you too. Listen, you and your friends are being corrupted by Discord’s magic, we need to–”

“Stop it Sunset,” Twilight interrupted. “Friendship didn’t work, I’m done here.”

The purple unicorn turned to leave, but Sunset caught her in her magic. “You can’t let Discord get away with this. You and your friends are the only ones who can–”

“You know what? Here!” Twilight lifted the Elements and threw them in Sunset’s face, breaking her concentration on her magic. “You wanted to be the hero of Equestria? Here’s your chance. Go defeat Discord by yourself and show how useless friendship is compared to your magical prowess. Maybe you will grow those wings you always wanted. Just try not to burn Ponyville again in the process.”

With that, Twilight left, leaving behind a shocked, horrified Sunset. “She– she didn’t mean that. Her mind is corrupted by chaos.”

“It still hurt you.”

“The idea was in her mind, Discord’s magic just brought it to the surface little sun.”

Sunset looked down at the elements, lifting the crown that represented magic, remembering the vision the mirror showed her.

“Little sun. Put that thing down,” Nightmare warned.

Sunset hovered the crown over her head, the rest of the elements floating around her.

“She’s going to put it down alright.”

“Don’t you dare!” Nightmare screamed.

“This should be interesting”

“This is a bad idea,” Sunset said before letting the crown fall on her head.

Nightmare watched as the sky beyond the big red sun in Sunset’s mindscape turned into an aurora of rainbow lights.
“So here we are again!” she shouted to the sky. “You may have destroyed most of my power and body before, but now that you don’t have your precious vessels, it will be easy for me to take control over you.”
A bright light started to shine in the aurora, and seconds later a large rainbow beam of harmonic magic was shot down towards Nightmare.
The large winged serpent moved at high speed, getting away of the attack as it hit the barrier. “Your aim hasn’t gotten any better,” Nightmare mocked but she froze when she heard a loud crack behind her.
The barrier trembled as all the fissures that had been made during Dawn’s outburst opened again, until a large part of the barrier finally shattered into pieces. Nightmare saw a tall red figure surrounded by a dark mist emerge from beyond the seal, landing close to the small mind-projection of Sunset.

It had long red hair flowing in a non-existent wind, two of it’s locks floating upwards, resembling horns, a long tail sprouting from the shadows, her eyes were black save for cyan irises like Sunset’s, had long sharp fangs for teeth, and her ears were long and shaped like a bat’s.
“So, this is how you look like sister,” Nightmare said, Dawn ignored her and picked up the small avatar of Sunset’s mind, turning it into a bright orange light before placing it against her naked chest.
As the light entered Dawn’s body, finally reuniting both pieces of Sunset’s soul, golden flames sprout out from the union, traveling along the body before solidifying along the shadows the tall red demon had been wearing, creating a set of armor for her, with a modified version of her cutie mark appearing in the center of the chest piece.
Dawn’s right arm grew back, still having the scar where it had been severed glowing with Celestia’s magic, and the demon immediately summoned her two longswords, two large pieces of concentrated fire turned into solid magical metal, sharp and serrated on the back, with a small blade in the pommel of the handle. Two large batwings sprouted from her back, and Dawn finally looked at the true form of Nightmare Moon.

It was, as she expected, a large winged serpent, much longer and bigger than her, wearing some pieces of armor resembling what she was wearing in her alicorn form.
Her huge maw was filled with sharp teeth, and the tip of her long tail ended in a sharp blade.

“I will make a jacket out of your skin,” Dawn declared, lifting her swords into a fighting stance as red flames appeared at the edges of her eyes.

Nightmare didn’t look the least bit intimidated. She closed her fist, and two large black gauntlets filled with silver spikes appeared around them. “You have no hope of winning.”

As the two entities stared at each other, the rainbow aurora started to charge another beam of harmonic magic, trying to decide which of the evil spirits it should destroy first.

Discord was relaxing in his throne as the world around him fell more and more into chaos, until he heard somepony walking up to him. Lifting his sunglasses, he raised a curious eyebrow at the sight.

It was a gold and red-haired unicorn with rainbow glowing determined eyes, clad in a basic golden armor which had five of the Elements of Harmony embedded into its plates, the sixth and final one, the Element of magic, had been deformed by an intense heat until it resembled a purple sun, and was sitting atop her head in a tiara connected to a half-helmet covering the back of her neck and her cheeks.

When the pony finally stood in front of his throne, Discord couldn’t help but start laughing. “Oh dear, you look ridiculous,” he wiped a tear away. “Were you hoping that wearing that would somehow protect you from me?” He snapped his fingers, but instead of making the armor disappear, the Elements glowed brightly and there was a small discharge of magic as his magic was canceled. “Hm, I wasn’t expecting that.”

Sunset lit her horn, creating a red sun in front of her, and then threw it at the Lord of Chaos.
Discord teleported away before the ball of flames hit the throne and exploded, destroying a large portion of the landscape and leaving just charred dirt in its place.

The draconequus appeared again in front of Sunset with his arms crossed and a vexed expression. “Very well. This is not my kind of game, but it should be fun anyway.”
Discord snapped his fingers, and a giant toy mallet appeared on his paws before he smiled and beckoned Sunset with a finger.

Author's Note

Danger: System Overburdened.

The Elements Compatibility Has Been Compromised.

Consequences Unknown.

Harmony will remember this.

Three Chapters Remaining.

The bets are open! Who will win in this double fight? Pick your champion in the comments below.

I will see you in the next chapter; Chapter 41: Enemy of The Crown

Here's the artwork of all the fighters minus Discord!

Dawn Shimmer: Demon Queen Of Fire And Wrath

Nigthmare Moon: Winged Serpent Of Nightmares And Jealousy

Sunset Shimmer: The Broken Soul