Twilight opened the door to her room, finding a pile of letters next to her bed. “What happened now?” She asked annoyed before finding Spike laying on the floor.

“The princess...has been sending these...since I came back upstairs,” he said before belching out another scroll. “Make it stop!”

Twilight took one of the scrolls in her magic. “These are all the letters I've written to Celestia since I've lived in Ponyville. But why would she send them back?” The unicorn was about to throw them away, but she got a feeling, maybe nostalgia, that made her want to read them.
"Real friends don't care what your cover is. Friendship is a wondrous and powerful thing. And like the path cut through the orchard, there will always be a way through. The best thing to do is stay true to yourself. Everypony has a special magical connection with her friends. Maybe even before she's met them."
Twilight gasped as her colors returned to normal, and her frown turned into a beaming smile.
“Spike! Spike, it's all so clear! Can't you see? Discord's trying to distract us from what's important. He knows how powerful our friendships are, and he's trying to keep us from seeing it. Do you remember what I said the first day we arrived in Ponyville? I told you that the future of Equestria didn't rest on me making friends. But the opposite is true! The friendships I've made since I've been here are what saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon. And now they need to save it from Discord! I've got to fight for my friendships. For them. For me. For Equestria!” She exclaimed as an unknown wind made her mane flow.

Suddenly, a tremor shook the library, and Twilight saw a bright red light in the horizon. “What was that?” She wondered, and then, she remembered.

“You wanted to be the hero of Equestria? Here’s your chance. Go defeat Discord by yourself.”

“Oh no.” Twilight ran up to the window, seeing more explosions of bright red flames in the distance. “No no no no, what did I do? How could I send her alone?!” She asked in a panic, but before she could start freaking out, she remembered the letters, and her worry turned into determination. “Sunset’s strong, more so if she managed to use the elements somehow.” She turned to Spike. “Send a message to Celestia and tell her that Sunset’s fighting Discord with the Elements of Harmony.”

“Are you sure?” Spike asked before barfing another letter. “Wasn’t she the enemy last night?”

“Luna and Celestia are the only ones that defeated Discord before, but Luna already tried to kill Sunset. Celestia is our best chance.”

Spike nodded. “I will send it. what are you going to do?”

“I need to get my friends back,” Twilight said before running out the door.

Sunset stared at the Lord of Chaos, trying to figure out a plan. “I’m protected from his magic affecting my body directly.” She fired a beam of fire straight at him, but Discord teleported behind her before hitting her with the giant toy mallet, sending her skyward.
“He can still hurt me physically.” Sunset thought before trying to summon her wings, but the armor made it impossible for the spell to take effect. “This armor is imperfect.” Using a quick series of teleports, she made her way back to the ground, where Discord was already going for another hit. A quick shield spell blocked the attack, and Sunset summoned a magical chain to pin his arms, but the draconequus slipped through it like he was made of gel.
“A moldable body, trapping will be difficult.” Sunset buried her horn in the ground, and the earth around Discord glowed red before a pillar of fire emerged, burning half of his coat.
The draconequus dusted the ash away, showing no damage on his body. “Fire works, but he heals very quickly. I need to do more damage.” Before the unicorn could make her next attack, Discord threw his mallet at her.
Sunset blasted the toy apart, but the draconequus had taken the chance to get closer, attacking her with two oversized boxing gloves. She got hit by the first punch, making a ‘boing’ sound as it impacted, and teleported away from the second, but then the glove extended and hit her anyways, launching her a few meters away.
The unicorn dug her hooves on the ground and fired a larger beam of fire at the Lord of chaos, but Discord snapped his fingers, summoning a mirror-shield, and used it to reflect the attack back at his opponent, who didn’t had to dodge since she was immune to fire. Sunset ran at him and threw herself below his feet, sliding on the ground with her horn scraping a line along it.
Discord was a bit confused at her actions, until the unicorn put her hoof above the end of the line, making it glow red ominously. The Lord of chaos placed the shield between him and the ground right before a large wall of red fire shot out of the earth, looking like the blade of a sword. The shield managed to absorb the fire, but when Discord thought it was over, Sunset appeared behind him and blasted his back with as much power as she could.
The attack sent him back into the burnt dirt, making a draconequus-shaped hole in the ground. “I can take him by surprise if I plan ahead.” Sunset thought as she saw the Lord of chaos get out of the crater, his burned back healing almost instantly. “I need to trap him somehow.”
The unicorn fell from the sky, teleporting back to the ground before she landed.

Discord used this time to apply sunscreen on his entire body. “I appreciate all the fire, but I think I’m quite tan already.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow with a smile. “Are you implying I can’t burn you anymore?”

Discord put on his sunglasses and crossed his arms. “You’re free to try.”

Sunset’s smile turned into a cocky grin. “Stay still then.” She moved her hoof in a circle, forming a halo of white-hot fire in the air before throwing it in an arc at the lord of chaos.

Discord stayed perfectly still as the flaming disc got closer to his head, and right before it hit him, he stretched his neck, and the halo shaved off his goatee.

Sunset laughed. “Only I get to decide what I can or can’t burn.”

Discord grumbled as he pulled on what hair he had left on his chin, stretching it into a new goatee. “You’re getting a bit too overconfident.”

Sunset moved her hooves quickly, forming more halos of fire. “Just tell me if you get bored.”

Discord grinned. “I think I’m warming up to you. Let’s get more chaotic.”

Thorax entered Fluttershy’s cottage with a slam of the door, and found his mother sitting on a chair, waiting impatiently for him.
“I’m guessing the current chaos made you miss our appointment,” the queen said with a hint of annoyance.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Thorax said sarcastically. “You must have been waiting a long time, but your royal behind is quite experienced with sitting uselessly while we do all the legwork for you, so you probably didn’t notice.”

Chrysalis raised an unamused eyebrow. “Since you’re still in disguise, I assume you managed to keep your cover.”

Thorax started to fly around his mother, talking to her in a condescending tone. “Of course, I did, even if you just threw the responsibly at me in a haphazardly put together plan. Luckily we are not so useless as you.” He hit the queen’s nose with a flick of his tail, but Chrysalis didn’t flinch.

“That’s quite impressive,” she said standing up. “Such a shame.”

Thorax was suddenly trapped in a green magical aura and flung against the wall. “Oh, did I hit a nerve?” he asked defiantly, but the queen didn’t look angry. Just disappointed.
“What are you–” Thorax felt an invisible force take hold of his legs, spreading them apart and starting to pull with a bit of force.
“You think I’m afraid of–” Thorax’s mouth was forced shut by Chrysalis magic, who walked up to him, looking at his eyes with uninterested disappointment.
The tug on Thorax’s legs increased, and the changeling started to realize his mother wasn’t trying to intimidate him, she just looked at him without emotion as his limbs were about to be torn off his body. He tried to say something, but the magic holding her mouth shut was starting to push his head against the wall, threatening to crush it against it.
His defiance and cruelty were quickly replaced by panic and fear, and his colors returned as his disguise disappeared. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” He screamed, and Chrysalis let go of him, letting him breathe.

“Glad we could resolve that little issue,” His mother said with a smile.

“You weren’t going to kill me?” Thorax asked as he slowly stood back up, still shaken by what he thought was his execution.

“Of course not, you’ve proven to be my most valuable infiltrator,” Chrysalis said with genuine pride.

Thorax couldn’t believe her words. “Really?”

“You replaced a very important pony without any preparation, and even under the influence of the Lord of Chaos you kept your cover. Many if not all other changelings would’ve failed this task, but you didn’t.” Chrysalis put a hoof over Thorax’s shoulders, an extremely unusual form of affection by the queen. “Once we take over Equestria, I will be sure to reward you appropriately for your efforts. I’m sure ruling over a small tranquil village like this one would be something that you would enjoy.”

Thorax’s brain was still trying to catch up to what was happening, his stutter being proof of that. “I-I-I don’t k-know what to say.”

“Don’t worry, you’ve time to decide, but until then, you’ve to keep doing a good job.” Chrysalis kindly patted him on the head, which made him question if what was happening was real. “I left the report on the bed. I will come back once everything’s resolved.” With that, the changeling queen transformed into a small bird and flew out of a nearby window just seconds before the front door was kicked open by Twilight and some of her friends.

“Fluttershy? Are you here?” The unicorn shouted, and Thorax immediately changed his form.

“I’m here!” He shouted, making his presence known.

Twilight looked at him, noticing that he wasn’t grey. “Did you break out of Discord’s corruption? How?”

Thorax mind raced for a convincing answer. “When I saw that my animal friends had left the house just like I left you behind, I started missing all of you. I felt so lonely that I didn’t want to be rude anymore. Next thing I knew, my colors had come back.”

Twilight seemed to doubt him for a moment, but an explosion in the distance pressured her to move on. “We don’t have time; Sunset needs our help.”

Dawn walked slowly up to Nightmare, who stood her ground with her fists up in a defensive stance. They both measured each other, considering the reach of their respective weapons and how they could be used against them. Meanwhile, the rainbow aurora fired another beam of harmonic-magic directed at Dawn, who with a flap of her wing, speeded towards Nightmare.
The winged serpent moved her tail like a spear, the sharp blade flying directly towards where Dawn’s heart would be, but the demon parried the frontal attack and riposted with a slash at the base of the tail’s blade, cutting it off the rest.
Nightmare whipped her tail against Dawn’s legs, making her spin in the air, but the demon was accustomed to having no sense of direction when she flew in the mindscape, so she recovered easily and finally reached her opponent’s torso.
Dawn quickly made a slash towards Nightmare’s right wing, right below where the gauntlet in her hand ended, but the winged serpent blocked the attack with that same arm and launched her other fist into a punch directed at the demon’s face.
Dawn ducked her head and tried to sever the arm when it flew over her, but she was suddenly hit on the back by Nightmare’s tail, taking away her balance and leaving her open to an uppercut. The impact of the spiked gauntlet made Dawn’s head explode in flames, sending the demon flying, but the body spun in the air and landed on its feet before rolling away from another rainbow-colored beam.

“You realize it’s pointless to damage each other, right?” Nightmare said as the tip of her tail grew back from the blue mist coming out of the wound. “We will just keep regenerating any wounds we have.”

Red fire sprouted out of Dawn’s neck, quickly forming a new head for the demon. “If that were the case–” she said while cracking her neck. “You wouldn’t have freaked out so much when I hurt you before. So, there must be a limit. There is a way for me to kill you.”

Nightmare moved to the side, dodging a rainbow beam directed towards her and pointed at the sky. “That’s our death. If one of those attacks hits it will completely destroy us. But, if you hand me control of Sunset’s mind, I can force them into our command, and with both of us free and with the elements, we will be unstoppable.”

Dawn laughed. “And I should believe that you would just share that kind of power?”

“It’s the best for us both. I will admit that I screwed up when I ignored your warnings about the seals.” Nightmare dodged another beam. “But this is the best chance to get what we want; me as queen, and Celestia buried for good.”

Dawn’s form became blurred, and suddenly, she was right in front of Nightmare her blades slashing the lower half of her torso, splitting her in two.

“I–”

Dawn jumped and kicked Nightmare’s jaw, knocking her head back.

“–Don’t–”

The winged serpent tried to attack with her fists, but with a powerful flap of her wings, Dawn headbutted Nightmare’s chest, sending her to the floor.

“–need–”

Dawn threw her blades against her opponent’s arms, pinning them to the weakened barrier.

“–you!” The demon screamed before plunging both arms inside her opponent’s chest.

Nightmare growled in both pain and fury as her opponent dug around inside her chest. “Come on! Isn’t there a heart or a core or something I can pull out to make you shut up?” Dawn asked, only finding more blue mist inside the serpent.
Nightmare tore her arms out of the blades and tried to crush her opponent with her hands, but the demon immediately jumped away from her grasp, doing a spin before opening her palms, and her two swords flew back to her hands. Nightmare jumped away from another rainbow-beam as her body slowly regenerated.

“Don’t worry, I will find a way to kill you eventually,” Dawn taunted.

“I already know how,” Nightmare growled before punching the barrier, breaking a big piece off. She then grabbed it like if it was a boomerang and threw it at Dawn.

The demon, unimpressed, swung one of her swords and cut the projectile in half with ease. “If you think I will let that magic hurt me again, you’re severely mistaken.”

“I wasn’t referring to that,” Nightmare said with a grin before putting both of her palms together. Blue mist started to come out of her body, and it slowly took the form of a shadowy batpony, but with sharper and longer teeth, wild hair, and savage eyes.
Then another batpony was formed. Then another. And another. And another. In just a few seconds, Nightmare was surrounded by a small army of her own creation.

“I see. So, that’s where batponies came from,” Dawn said before her irises turned red, and a small sun appeared in front of her.

Nightmare gave a signal, and the batponies flew to attack Dawn, but before they could reach her, the demon cut the sun with her sword so it absorbed its flames, making it glow menacingly before waving it in the air, launching a powerful wave of fire that decimated the army in an instant, but before she could act cocky, more shadow soldiers appeared, spawning infinitely around Nightmare, and then the winged serpent also went on the offensive as the aurora continued its endless attack on them.

“Are you ready to give up?” Discord asked, eating some chips while Sunset slowly stood up.

“He’s getting better at fighting.” The unicorn thought while she took some time to recover. “I don’t know how much I can keep this up.” She tried to fire a blast of flames, but Discord snapped his fingers and a pie hit her in the face, ruining her concentration.
Sunset cleaned herself just in time to see a jack-in-the-box sitting on the ground with its crane spinning rapidly, and she quickly put up a shield before a giant clown with boxing gloves appeared out of the box and unleashed a barrage of punches against Sunset.
The unicorn teleported up to the Lord of Chaos to attack him, but when she got close, she realized it was a badly made doll of Discord that immediately exploded, covering Sunset in thin red dust, which gave her a severe itch all over her body. Sunset started scratching her body, rubbing her back against the dirt to try and alleviate the irritation in her coat.

“This should help you with the itch,” Discord said before snapping his fingers, and a gigantic cube of water appeared above of the unicorn before falling on top of her without spilling, trapping her underwater.

Sunset immediately started panicking, feeling the weight of the water crushing her body, trying to fill her lungs so she could die once again. She tried to swim up, but the water around her moved to keep her down, pushing her to the bottom. Her mind flashed back to the gorge, to the river, to the mountain. Her lungs started to burn, she felt the armor weighting her down, crushing her, she couldn’t form a plan, she was losing strength.

“This is it? I’m dying again?” Sunset thought, slowly losing the will to fight. “Nightmare Moon, the Ursa Major, Luna, they all defeated me without much effort. What made me think that I could win?” Her body slowly became still, and she started to sink further in the water. “I should’ve just run away. Like I always do.” Sunset closed her eyes, accepting her fate once again.

Then a voice resonated in her head. “Still, you shouldn’t escape your problems, you should fight them head on!”

“Rainbow?” Sunset asked, remembering the pegasus that had helped her overcome her fears. She shook her head. “I can’t panic by this again.” she told herself, using her magic to move the water away, giving her space to breathe. “I can’t lose this time. Everypony is counting on me. I won’t lose.”

Discord was about to snap the water away, but suddenly his large pool started to move like a hurricane, and at the center stood Sunset, staring at him in defiance. Before the Lord of Chaos could do anything, the mass of water flew against him, forcing him to teleport away, but the water followed him like a serpent, trying to swallow him into its depts.
Discord snapped his fingers, turning the water into ice to stop it, but it suddenly exploded, sending frozen shards in his direction. He used his shield to absorb the spikes and launched them at Sunset, but the unicorn suddenly sunk into the earth.
“uh! Are we playing whack-a-mole?” Discord asked with a smile, summoning another toy mallet, but instead of Sunset’s head, a stone fist came out of the ground and punched him in the face, making him see stars. He shook his head and grabbed the stars to then chuck them at the ground before making them explode like actual mini stars, destroying a large portion of the battlefield, but when the dust settled, there was no sign of the unicorn.
A second set of eyes appeared on Discords back, allowing him to see Sunset sneaking up on him, and with a snap of his fingers, the mare was surrounded by air conditioners that blasted cold at her, trying to freezer her in place, but Sunset caused an electrical discharge that made them explode. Discord summoned a bunch of bubblegum and started chewing them while rising his mirror shield.
Sunset teleported behind him, then at his right side, then left, and continued to do it at increasing speeds, until she left afterimages of herself all around the draconequus, trying to catch him by surprise. Discord continued chewing, sprouting three more heads to cover his back and sides, but the attack ended up coming from below, a freezing ray that froze the arm that held the mirror. However, before Sunset could follow her attack, the draconequus pulled the gum out of his mouth and stretched it like a whip, catching the unicorn to then start spinning her like a yoyo.
Sunset tried to freeze the gum, but Discord chucked her against the ground, making her bounce before throwing the rest of the gum over her, gluing her to the flat charred rock the battleground had become. The unicorn looked up at her opponent, and a wide pillar of rock shot out towards him.
Discord dodged the attack, but another pillar of rock sprouted from it, hitting him in the side of one of the heads. More protrusions started to come out, seeking to beat the draconequus into submission, but Discord kept dodging with elegance until he finally had enough, and threw a small bomb against the base of the first pillar, making it slowly fall on the still trapped Sunset.

“Timber!” The Lord of chaos shouted before the unicorn was buried in rocks.

“Luna!” Celestia screamed, looking for her sister until she finally found her in one of the hallways of the castle, staring at the stained glass depicting her defeat as Nightmare Moon. “Twilight needs our help.”

The princess of the moon turned to her and raised an eyebrow. “Did you lose confidence in your student?”

“Don’t start with that. You saw them being corrupted by Discord’s magic,” Celestia said a bit angrily.

“Yes, but we can’t help them. As far as we know, only the magic of friendship can overcome Discord’s powers.”

“That’s why I sent her all the letters she wrote to me.”

Luna looked surprised. “That’s a good idea. I see the curse hasn’t completely clouded your mind,” she said with a smile.

“We still need to do more,” Celestia said almost desperately.

“Well, what do you suggest? Our magic can’t defeat Discord. We may be able to create a distraction for them, but–”

Suddenly, a scroll appeared in front of Celestia in a green flame, and the princess opened it in an instant. Her face turned to horror as she read the words. “No no no no no she’s–”

“SHE’S ALIVE?!” Luna screamed in the Royal Canterlot voice, reading the letter from behind Celestia. The blue alicorn gritted her teeth and summoned her war hammer, preparing to teleport to Ponyville.

“Wait Lulu, she’s trying to help us,” Celestia begged, interfering with her sister’s spell.

“Even if that was her intention, we can’t risk having another Nightmare running around with a powerful vessel, more so if she has the Elements!”

“Shouldn’t they purify Sunset like they did with you?” Celestia questioned.

“If they were wielded by Twilight and her friends, yes, but Sunset doesn’t know anything about friendship!” Luna rebutted.

“She may have learned; how could she wield the Elements by herself if she didn’t?”

“Even if that was the case, can you even imagine what kind of catastrophic event it would be if Sunset’s Nightmare managed to possess Discord? We can’t take that chance.”

“Sunshine would never do something like that!” Celestia screamed, just then realizing what she just said.

Luna looked at her sister with wide eyes, slowly filling with fury. “You–! You turned her into–!” the blue alicorn swung her war hammer towards Celestia’s head in a fit of rage, but the white alicorn quickly grabbed it by the handle and redirected it, making it burrow into the floor. Luna then felt something pull at her legs, and she was suddenly surrounded by golden chains that pinned her in place, completely immobilizing her. “What in Tartarus are you doing?”

“I won’t let you kill her again,” Celestia said before trying to teleport to Ponyville, but restraining her sister had drained her of most of her magic. “Fine, I will fly then.”
The white alicorn blasted the stained glass and spread her wings.

“You’re going to regret this!” Luna shouted on the floor, watching her leave.

“I already am,” Celestia thought before flapping her wings, flying as fast as she could towards Ponyville.

Luna growled like a hellhound as she fought against the chains, her anger towards her sister powering something inside her. She felt the wound below her chest piece burn intensely. For just a few seconds, her coat turned black, her eyes became bat-like, and one of the golden chains shattered.

A fiery explosion obliterated the small army of shadow-batponies, leaving the charred body of Nightmare alone to defend herself against Dawn’s next attack. The demon landed in front of the serpent, trying to stab the eyes of her opponent with her swords, but Nightmare pushed them away before throwing a punch towards her chest, fracturing her entire ribcage.
Dawn gritted her teeth and flapped her wings, going airborne before delivering a powerful kick to the serpent’s eye, piercing its membrane. Nightmare screamed and backed away before sending her tail against the demon.
Dawn prepared herself to block the attack, but the tail changed direction and slashed at her right leg, severing it from the rest of the body, making dodging the next rainbow-blast coming from the sky more difficult, leaving her open to another attack from Nightmare. Dawn took a deep breath and launched fire out of her mouth, blinding the serpent while her leg regenerated.
Nightmare growled and moved to tear Dawn in half with her maw, but the demon slashed the tendons of her mouth, leaving her jaw loose and unable to bite. This didn’t stop the serpent, who moved her teeth over her opponent’s shoulder like a saw before punching her on the side, sending her flying.
Dawn landed as best she could, her leg finishing growing back, and let out a frustrated scream before her eyes shined red. Several small sun’s started appearing around Nightmare before detonating, destroying the entire area of the barrier around her.
Dawn took a moment to rest and gather her strength, but it was short-lived. The winged serpent came out of the flames, her body showing large patches of blue mist as she regenerated her wounds at a rapid pace, and tried to get a cut at Dawn’s legs again with her tail, but the demon lifted her legs before stamping on the blade, pinning the serpent’s appendage under her boots.
Dawn then tried to slash at Nightmare’s neck, but she managed to block it with her gauntlet before grabbing the handle of the blade and tear it off her hand along with some of the fingers. The demon growled and jumped away, waiting for her hand to heal so she could continue the fight.
Suddenly, two batponies smashed into Dawn from behind, digging their sharp fangs into her shoulders and holding her in place. The demon’s eyes glowed and red fire covered her body, destroying the shadows, but then Nightmare closed in and grabbed both of her arms before tearing them off, throwing them far away from her.
Before Dawn could do anything to defend herself, the serpent’s tail chopped both of her legs off, and when she fell on the barrier, Nightmare took off one of her gauntlets and plunged her hand inside her chest.

“You were actually really close to figuring it out,” the serpent said with a delighted grin. “You even said it yourself; All magic can be countered. Dispelled. Modified. Learned. And in this case, corrupted.” Dawn looked at her chest and saw a dark-blue tint slowly expanding around the hand that pierced it. “Soon we will become one, and while it will be annoying having you running around in my head, all your powers will be mine.” Dawn tried to accelerate her regeneration, but it seemed to have been stopped by the corruption. She looked up, hoping that the magic of the elements could at least take both of them down, but the aurora in the sky had banished, leaving only the red sun roofing the mindscape. “There’s no help coming for you.”

Discord slowly descended from the sky, looking at the pillar of solid rock that had buried his opponent. It had been almost a full minute and the mare hadn’t shown signs of trying to get out. “Did I overdo it a bit?” He pondered floating a bit closer, raising his shield just in case the unicorn was preparing a surprise attack.
Suddenly, the pillar started to crack, dark violet flames coming out of the fissures as the rock fell apart. “I… What?” Discord mumbled as the flames melted the rock, opening the way for a figure that doubled his size to stand up.

The creature barely had a defined shape, but it only accentuated how terrifyingly imposing it was to the Lord of Chaos. He could see sharp red fangs completely exposed in a mouth without lips, and its eyes were two red suns shinning beneath the dark violet flames that made its entire figure, looking down on him with palpable anger.

“I… I guess we’re not playing anymore?” Discord asked, putting up his mirror-shield to defend himself. The creature suddenly lunged at him, it’s fangs stretching to try and tear at his body.
The Lord of Chaos had barely a second to teleport away, and then he noticed his shield was gone. Looking back at the creature, he spotted it trapped it it’s jaws before it swallowed it.
“it doesn’t matter, I’ve more and better,” Discord said before snapping his fingers, but nothing happened. “What?” He looked at his paw as he did it again, and noticed a crimson spark breaking the spell as he casted it. “That’s just cheating,” he said unamused.

The creature growled, sliding across the ground towards him, its body taking a more defined form as the seconds passed, so when it finally stood right in front of Discord, the draconequus could see the faint outline of a scaly winged demon with sharp claws looking down at him.
The creature lifted its arm, ready to attack him, but then a voice called their attention.

“I can’t believe he got all of us!” Rainbow exclaimed as she pulled the rope attached to Twilight’s balloon, carrying her friends over to where the fight was occurring.

“It won’t happen again. We’re all aware of it now,” Twilight said while scanning the horizon. They had seen the rock pillar fall, but no more sounds had come since then. “I hope we aren’t too late.”
When they got close enough to see the two fighters, Rainbow suddenly stopped, causing the balloon to crash into her and spilling its passengers on the ground. Twilight quickly stood up and ran forward, but also stopped when she saw Discord staring defiantly at the large flaming demon that was about to attack him.

“Sunset?” The demon stopped and slowly turned towards the unicorn, its fiery eyes seemingly recognizing her. “I…” Twilight tried to say more, but no words came out of her mouth. Her legs were shaking, and she couldn’t stop looking at the flaming eyes of the demon. She was terrified.
The fire creature moved its arm up, making her panic. “Is she reaching out for me? Is she gonna attack me? Can she even recognize me?” Twilight wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn’t stop looking at the demon, hoping to see even a sliver of Sunset in its eyes.

Half of Dawn’s body had already been taken over by Nightmare’s magic, and the red demon was running out of options, so when it simply stood still and looked at the sky, the winged serpent got suspicions. “What are you planning? I won’t believe that you just gave up.”

“Shut up.” Dawn’s eyes glowed red. “I’m concentrating.”

Nightmare looked up, and her pupils shrank when she noticed that the large red sun in the sky of the mindscape was expanding at an alarming rate. “Are you insane?!”

“A bit.”

The chest of the demon started to glow red, making it look down right before it started expanding. Discord snapped his fingers with both hands, and a large magically reinforced steel vault surrounded the creature just seconds before it exploded, bending the metal outwards like a balloon as the increase in temperature heated it until it started to melt. The Lord of Chaos slowly floated over to the center of the event, and saw Sunset, back in unicorn form and with her armor, laying on the ground right before the molten steel buried her.
Discord let out a sigh of relief. “Well, that was interesting, but not my brand of fun.” He then finally noticed the six mares that had recently arrived, looking at their shocked and distraught faces. “Oh, sorry, was she a friend of yours?”

Twilight looked at him and growled like a wolf. “What did you do to her?!”

“Me? She was the one that attacked me while I was just causing a little chaos. I’m the victim here,” He said as a halo and wings appeared on his body.

“You will be in a minute,” Rainbow declared, preparing to fight along with her friends, even Fluttershy looked a bit aggressive towards the draconequus.

Discord rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on, I just fought that thing. Can’t we settle this with a bake-off or something?”

“Uh! Can we? I’m sure I can beat him,” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly.

Twilight actually took time to considered it before responding. “It would be preferable, but after the maze, I’m sure he would just cheat his way to victory.”

“For goodness sake, this generation must be the most boring ever,” Discord pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance before looking down on the mares. “Fine, hard way it is again.”

“You’re not laying a paw on them,” a stern voice announced.

Discord smiled. “Tia! I’m so happy to see you,” He said as the alicorn landed between him and the six mares.

Nightmare slowly opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings. She was laying on a new floor in the mindscape, the golden barrier been destroyed by the detonation of the red sun.
All the scrolls and papers with Sunset’s thoughts and memories were floating in the air, moving in an organized manner instead of just laying on the floor like before. Looking down at her body, she noticed that it had been almost completely destroyed, save for one arm, half of her ribcage and most of her head and neck. She then heard steps coming towards her, and when she turned to her right, she saw Dawn, her body completely regenerated, smiling with her two swords in hand.

“Thanks for telling me how to kill you, I couldn’t have done it without you,” the demon said with a mocking grin. Nightmare used a bit of the strength she had left to raise her arm and flip her off. “You learned from me too! Bahahaha.”

As the demon laughed at her, Nightmare smiled, and slowly pointed at the sky. Dawn noticed this, and when she looked up, she realized that the rainbow aurora had appeared again, and it was about to fire a beam directly at her. She tried to move away, but a dozen shadow-batponies jumped on her, biting into her body and keeping her in place long enough for the Harmonic magic to hit her.
Dawn let out a howl of pain as the magical rainbow started to tear at her body, and it was Nightmare’s time to laugh at her misfortune.

Suddenly, the entire mindscape stated to shake, and the aurora and its beam seem to lose a lot of strength.

“What is happening?” Nightmare shouted as her body slowly recovered.

“Where is Sunset?” Celestia asked Twilight over her shoulder as she stared defiantly at Discord.

Rainbow was about to give her a piece of her mind, but Twilight stopped her before responding. “She’s buried under the metal. She also has the Elements.” She then added in a whisper so Discord couldn’t hear them. “If you can distract him, we may be able to get her out of there and use the Elements.”

Celestia nodded, giving her full attention to the Lord of Chaos. “Your massage did wonders for me; I don’t suppose you can give me another one?”

Discord laughed. “I could, but I don’t give those for free. I made you an offer the last time, remember?”

“I do, and Lulu just threatened to hit me with her hammer, so a little payback would be nice,” Celestia said, trying to look a bit more relaxed and playful.

“Surely, but first let me send the children to bed,” Discord said looking at the six mares that were trying to sneak past him. He lifted his claw, and Celestia put up a shield to try and protect them from his magic, but before he could snap his fingers, a ball of molten metal hit his hand before cooling down, keeping his fingers in place.
Discord looked back to where Sunset had fallen unconscious, and saw the mare standing, eyes closed, horn glowing red, and with all the gems of the Elements of Harmony glowing brightly.
He tried to snap the fingers of his other hand but found out that it had also being immobilized by the steel.

Sunset lifted her head, and the metal around her glowed with the same bright white light of the elements before flying towards Discord, spinning around his body in a small tornado that got smaller and smaller until, with a blinding flash of light, it disappeared, leaving behind a metal statue of the Lord of Chaos, his pose revealing that his last moments before imprisonment were used to try and give one final snap of his fingers.

Celestia immediately ran up to Sunset, wanting to hug her, but was stopped dead in her tracks when she heard a loud crack.

“No!” Nightmare screamed at the top of her non-existent lungs, looking at Dawn’s body.
The demon wasn’t destroyed by the magic of Harmony, apparently being too weakened to do so, and instead it had trapped Dawn inside a large piece of crystal, stuck in a pose of pain and defiance.

This would normally be a win for Nightmare, were it not for the fact that Dawn had fused herself with Sunset’s mind and soul.

Celestia looked in horror as a large fracture appeared along the Element of Magic, but it was only the start. The rest of the gems and even the armor Sunset was wearing started to break, until they finally shattered into pieces.

Celestia and the six mares still trapped in the alicorn’s shield looked in horror at the remains of the Elements of Harmony, their magic quickly fading away until they were nothing more than colorful rocks.
Right after that, Sunset opened her eyes, showing that they were completely black, save for the cyan iris staring directly at Celestia.

The alicorn immediately enchanted her shield so the mares inside it couldn’t see nor hear what was happening, and timidly asked. “Sunset?”

“She’s okay,” Dawn responded in a tired voice. “She needs a bit of sleep after all this.”

Celestia let out a sigh of relief, but she knew that things were far from over. “Thank you for helping her.”

“Somepony had to,” the demon responded, and even if it sounded tired, she could feel the rage behind her eyes. “You had thirty years to help her. Now, it’s my turn.”

Celestia’s eyes widened. “Wait–”

“Goodbye,” Dawn said with a grin, and before the alicorn could reach out to her, she teleported away.

“Where did she go?” Celestia asked with desperation right before a heavy blow to the back of her head sent her to the dirt. The shield faded and Twilight and her friends ran up to the downed monarch, but they were stopped by the stern glare of princess Luna.

“Explain, now!” the blue alicorn demanded.

“Sunset saved us all,” Rainbow answered, the only one not intimidated by the princess. “She trapped Discord in metal, now Equestria is safe from eternal chaos.”

“And?” The blue alicorn asked, glaring at the pegasus.

Rainbow glared back at her. “And nothing else.”

Both mares kept looking at each other in a tense staring match, until the soft voice of Fluttershy got their attention.

“Is she okay?” the shy pegasus asked, looking at Celestia still laying on the ground.

Luna looked at her sister with disdain. “Yes, she just needed some discipline.” The alicorn turned around and lifted Celestia’s unconscious body with her magic. “I will make preparations to honor the heroism of you six, who stood up to the villain Discord and saved Equestria from eternal chaos.”

“What?” Applejack exclaimed.

Rainbow flew up to the princess. “I just told you it was Sunset who did it.”

Luna stared down at the six mares, her voice harsh and imposing. “Sunset Shimmer cursed my sister to be delusional and unfit to rule, she attacked the castle, stole the Elements of Harmony and then misused their power to the point of destroying them. She’s not a hero to be celebrated.” Luna raised her hoof and spoke like a judge delivering a sentence. “Sunset Shimmer is officially an enemy of the crown, and she shall be hunted as such.”

Everypony looked at the princess in shock. “You can’t do that!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Sunset didn’t intentionally attack the castle, she didn’t intend to destroy the elements in the fight, and the Elements were stolen by Discord,” Rarity explained, trying to deceive the alicorn, but Luna just looked directly at Twilight.

“My guards reported a pegasus attacking them the night the Elements were stolen, using magical runes to take them out and destroy the barrier I put to protect them, all of this happening hours before Discord’s escape from the garden.” Luna took one step closer to Twilight. “Creating runes of that caliber is not only a complex procedure that must be done by a skilled unicorn mage, it’s not taught even in Celestia’s school, so the only way for a pegasus to acquire such items is to have them made by one of Celestia’s personal students, the only ones that would’ve been taught how to make those type of runes.” Luna took another step closer to Twilight. “But why would a pegasus, who would need to be friends with one of Celestia’s students, want to have the Elements if only you and your friends can use them?” Luna was now staring down at Twilight, who was doing her best to hide the shaking of her legs. “Of course, if such pegasus were to be discovered, they would probably try and use the Element’s as some sort of leverage, maybe asking you six to use your status as heroes of Equestria to avoid severe consequences.” Twilight’s friends were immediately at her side, making sure that she knew they were together in this. “But now that the Elements are destroyed, that leverage would be useless, they would be branded as traitors and sent to Tartarus for destroying both the kingdom’s best form of defense against evil, and Equestria’s oldest sacred relics. So, it must be Sunset. Am I wrong?”

Twilight looked at her friends. She could see the fear in their eyes, but she knew that they would follow her to Tartarus without question. She fought to get them back not even an hour ago after they got corrupted by Discord, it would take something even greater to keep them apart again. “But this… I would be sending them to Tartarus for a plan that I did, that I failed to make perfect so they couldn’t track us. I can’t make them pay for my mistakes.” Twilight closed her eyes. “I’m sorry Sunset, but we can’t help you while trapped in Tartarus.”

“You’re right,” Twilight declared, earning the surprised faces of her friends. “Sunset must’ve taken the Elements.”

“Keep it that way,” were Luna’s last words before disappearing in a flash of magic.

Twilight looked down, sat on the ground, and cried.

A day later, the hunt for Sunset Shimmer officially began with the newspapers taken by Luna printing wanted signs, promising large sums of money for any information that could help with the mare’s arrest, along with warnings in case somepony was brave or stupid enough to try and capture her themselves.

Sunset was looking at one of these signs, her eyes back to normal, but with a voice clear in her head. “We need to dispose of Luna.”

“I can’t defeat her without the Elements.”

“There’s something else we can use.”

Author's Note

Harmony will never forget this.

Achivement Unlocked: New World Order

Next chapter: Chapter 42: The Alicorn Amulet

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