Though it only lasted an instant, the teleportation jump felt as if it had taken a couple of seconds as everything in Zero’s vision started to distort and shift into a purplish color. With a flash, he and Twilight Sparkle were standing in a much larger room than the one they were just in.

Looming many meters away from them was Nightmare Moon, stating tall on what looked like a pedestal. Behind her was a ginormous, broken window which gave a clear view of the sky cackling with lightning. The pedestal was surrounded by fallen stones, debris, and a few, worn-down support pillars. The black mare laughed as she looked down at something near her hooves, the elements!

“If those elements are strong enough to take her down, then I can’t let that scum use it against this world!” the soldier thought as he raised his gun. Zero knew the chances of winning were slim, but he was a clone trooper; he was either going to win, or die trying. Though before the soldier could fire, Twilight shoved her way past him.

“I have an idea, stay here!” she ordered with a look of determination. With that, she took off right at the onyx equine as her horn started to glow.

“You’re kidding? You’re kidding right?” Nightmare Moon questioned, almost mirroring Zero’s own thoughts.

The trooper still readied his weapon, prepared to use it at a moments notice.

The dark hybrid leaped from her perch and charged towards her pint-sized foe. Right before they made contact, Twilight’s horn let out a burst of light as she warped over to the elements.

“No!” Nightmare huffed before turning towards the little pony, her horn glowing.

Seeing Nightmare Moon use magic was all Zero needed to see to try and put her in the ground. Side-stepping to the left in order to make sure any missed shot didn’t hit Twilight, he unleashed as many bolts as his blaster could fire.

As she was charging, Nightmare’s ears perked as she heard the shots fire off. Immediately she teleported to her side, bolts wizzing by her head and blasting straight through the stone walls.

Zero was about to fire once more but was halted as his body was engulfed in a dark-purple aura.

“Not again!” Zero yelped as he was lifted off the ground and tossed aside, colliding with one of the many fallen pillars. His head whipped back as his spine smashed into the stone, the teeth-gritting impact made the soldier loose his grip on his gun, sending it flying from his hand.

Zero recovered as fast as he could and took a ready position against Nightmare Moon, but the equine had focused her attention on Twilight, shifting into a misty whirlwind before dashing towards the unicorn.

Zero had barely noticed the lavender mare using her magic to harness the elements as he turned around to desperately search for his gun.

“There!” he thought as he found it laying atop some rubble. He was racing to retrieve it before he heard a loud zapping sound, turning his head revealed that Twilight had been launched several meters away from the elements, which were now being loomed over by Nightmare Moon!

“Blast.” Zero muttered.

Picking up his weapon, Zero’s mind began to race for an idea on how to combat his powerful foe. His thoughts were interrupted, however, when he noticed the elements were floating, glowing, bathing the dim room in its pink light.

“No… NO!” Nightmare Moon screeched, her eyes showing a hint of genuine fear.

The elements started emitting electricity, their cackling sounds grew louder and louder until…

They stopped, the elements’ magic faded as the stones fell to the ground.

“This can’t be good…” Zero murmured.

Twilight let out a gasp, “But- where’s the sixth element?!”

Nightmare Moon let out a loud, triumphant laugh as she lifted her body and smashed the elements into minuscule pieces.

Skraig!

“You little foal!” Nightmare Moon spat. “Thinking you could defeat me!”

Twilight shrunk back as the fiend continued, “Now you will never see your precious princess, or your sun! The night, will last, forever!”

Zero watched as Nightmare Moon erupted in triumphant laugh, her mane started to elongate, grow, and swirl around her head as lightning crashed in the sky.

“Wanna bet?!” Zero hollered at the mare before lowering himself down. Nightmare Moon turned her head to look at the soldier as he swiftly picked up a large stone, about the size of his fist, and hurled it at the equine.

In a show of dominance, Nightmare Moon shot a magic beam at the rock with much more force than was necessary, blowing it into a big cloud of dust.

“Was that your best?” the mare wondered to her challenger as she tried to spot him through the debris. Many loud blasts came from his direction, in a split-second the mare, through nothing but instinct, used her magic to create a shied around her upper body, only just deflecting the bolts mere centimeters before they made contact with her head.

Thanks to his helmet, Zero looked through the dust cloud to see that the equine had defended herself, he immediately fired at her legs in an attempt to cripple her.

Gasping, the mare lowered her barrier to her legs, the second she did, Zero shot at her now exposed head. This time, instead of raising the shield, she increased its size to cover her whole body just in time as bolts slammed into the glowing aura.

Enraged, the dark hybrid engulfed the trooper in her purple magic, scrunching his limbs to his sides. She pulled him toward her until he was close enough to reach out and touch.

“You!” she hissed, hostility and recognition gleaming in her eyes!

“Put him down!” said a voice off to the side. It was Twilight, standing as tall as her nerves would let her as her horn glowed.

“I’ll deal with you later!” Nightmare Moon snapped at her as she used her magic to throw the unicorn across the room, forcefully sending her into a pile of rubble, where she now laid unmoving.

“You’re gonna regret that!” Zero groaned, struggling to breathe in his opponent’s grip.

“And just what will you do?!” the pony challenged as she slammed Zero into the ground. “Are you going to attack me again with your pathetic wand?”

The mare released Zero, letting him climb to stand on one knee.

“In all my years,” the equine began, “I have never seen anyone of your kind before!”

“Well, I’m from out of town.” Zero bluntly joked.

“And yet,” Nightmare Moon replied,” you decided to assault me with your powerless wand and worthless armor! Now tell me, just what inspired you to risk yourself by challenging me! Alone much less! How foolish.”

“What’s really foolish,” Zero retorted, “was assuming I did come here alone.”

The mare eyed the trooper suspiciously, unsure of what he meant.

“Now boys!” Zero yelled as he looked over at the window.

Nightmare Moon whipped her head around, ready to face any opponent.

With his foe distracted, Zero instantly raised his gun and fired at the hybrid’s head. Without any time to create a barrier, the mare ducked, though not quick enough as the bolt drilled into her horn, causing a tiny fracture to form.

The mare’s eyes were now almost bloodshot with rage as she yelled in pain. Zero fired again but a dark-purple aura surrounded his gun, aiming it upwards. The blast rocketed through the fine, chiseled roof, spraying dust down as the sound of the shot rang throughout the room an into the night sky.

Nightmare Moon tore the weapon from Zero’s hands. “I’ve had just about enough of this!” she grunted through grit teeth. She eyed the blaster, like she was trying to do something to it but nothing happened. In fact, the aura around the weapon faded as Zero watched it fall to the ground beside the dark equine.

“What? How!?” she stuttered as she looked up at her horn. Zero followed her gaze to find sparks were flying out of it, but they weren’t affecting anything.

Nightmare Moon turned to screech at the soldier “What did you d-“ she started before Zero interrupted her with a forceful punch in the teeth. The blow made her turn her head to her right and was then promptly met with a powerful left hook.

Realizing she was going to have fight, Nightmare Moon swung her head low, trying to slash at Zero with her horn which he effortlessly evaded. She tried it again, though this time when she swung, Zero ducked, his opponent’s horn zipping just over his head.

Right as the pony’s horn passed, Zero reached to grab for it. The strength of the mare’s strike lifted him from his feet, Zero used the momentum to pull himself up onto the back of Nightmare Moon’s neck.

She looked like she had barely processed what had happened before Zero immediately began to send a barrage of strikes into Nightmare Moon’s right eye, throwing all his body weight into every punch.

The mare shook her head violently in an attempt to throw the trooper off. She managed to make him loose his balance, causing him to swing down. Now he was dangling just below hear head, still holding onto her neck.

Zero used his core strength to pull himself closer to the equine before beginning to repeatedly knee her in her throat.

Nightmare Moon didn’t even cough as she managed to throw Zero away from her, sending him tumbling into a pile of stony debris.

The soldier clambered to his feet as his enemy started to taunt him. “You’ll have to do better than that if you think your going to-“

Zero didn’t let her finish as he grabbed a long, broken-off piece of a pillar and took a swing at the dark pony. The mare dodged his initial strike , but thanks to his training, Zero didn’t over-extend his swing and was able to recover quickly enough to smash the other side of the chunk on Nightmare Moon’s armored head.

The hit didn’t faze her at all as she slammed her cranium into the clone, causing him to fall backwards. Rolling with the momentum, Zero jumped back to his feet, grabbing two rocks about the size of his hand in the process. He threw the one in his left hand at the pony’s right side, causing her to weave to her left, exactly where Zero wanted her to move as he swung his other hand from behind his side in a large, quick motion, smashing the stone against his opponent’s jaw with all his might.

With a grunt Nightmare Moon raised her fore-hooves before slamming them down in an attempt to crush Zero. The trooper rolled out of the way and towards his foe’s side.

The equine bumped her body into the soldier, shoving him away from her before turning to buck him.

Zero weaved backwards, though not far enough away as Nightmare Moon landed just enough of her kick to send the soldier flying into the fractured wall behind him.

He let out a scream of pain as one of the wall’s pieces punctured into an unarmored portion of his shoulder. Zero could feel that the rock had lodged somewhere near his shoulder blade. To make matters worse, the pain reliever had finally worn off, his spine and hand erupted in pain, every movement the soldier made was pure agony as he felt his body-glove grow wet with his own blood.

“Zero!” Twilight Sparkle blurted.

The trooper turned his head to face the lavender unicorn, she looked woozy, appearing to have a mild concussion.

Nightmare Moon cast a glance at Zero. Coming to the assumption that he was not going to move, she began to make her way over to Twilight.

“Not on my watch.” Zero muttered as he painfully reached into his belt for his last reliever. He let out a loud, half-grunt, half-yell as the injection caused another eruption pain before it started to numb his body.

Zero didn’t wait for his pain to fully dull before he pulled himself from the stone, feeling a big sting along with a ton of tingling in his nerves as the stone ripped out of him as he moved forward.

The noise alerted Nightmare Moon, who turned to face the white-clad warrior.

Eyeing his blaster on the floor, Zero picked himself up and hobbled over to his weapon, but Nightmare Moon beat him there, kicking the weapon away before she swung her head at the trooper.

He dodged to his side which the mare had unfortunately predicted as she turned her whole body with her momentum, slamming her flank into the soldier and sending him crashing to the ground.

The dark hybrid let at a bout a laughter as she started to try and smash the soldier, Zero rolled to his sides, barely avoiding each blow from the powerful mare. Each stomp made Zero feel like it shook the ground around him.

“Leave-him-alone!” Twilight demanded. Her face showed both fear and determination as she started to stumble her way over to the conflict, her horn beginning to glow a faint pink.

Nightmare Moon stopped for a moment, whipping her head around to look at the unicorn. Zero tried to escape his unfortunate position but as he got up, his enemy turned back to face him and forcefully placed her fore hoof on Zero’s hurt shoulder.

An enormous tingling sensation erupted throughout the soldier’s side, his nerves carried the jolt all the way down to his hand which jerked into an awkward position.

“Stay. Put!” the mare growled before she started to march her way to Twilight.

“There’s nothing I can do to hurt her,” Zero thought, “and if I don’t stop her now, everyone on this planet will die…”

Seeing no option left, the soldier reached to his utility belt, he didn’t reach for the thermal detonator, he needed something stronger, something attached to the very back of his belt that was only to be used if he was unable to fight and was completely overrun.

“This is what I was born for…” Zero assured himself with a whisper as he reached for the cylindrical device.

Gripping the suicide detonator in his fist, Zero crept up behind Nightmare Moon. Twilight glanced over at him as he made his way the black mare, giving the trooper away. Nightmare Moon tried to whip around but it was too late. Zero jumped onto her using all his limbs to cling to her neck and upper body.

The soldier started the detonator’s countdown as the sinister equine tried to throw him off.

“Twilight! Look away!” Zero ordered.

“Why!?” she demanded, scared of the tone of his voice. She started stumble her way closer.

“Get back!” he bellowed, holding on to his foe with all he had, “Turn, your head, away!”

Nightmare Moon seemed deeply concerned with Zero’s demeanor, the fear gave her all the strength she needed to finally toss the trooper away.

Zero lost his grip on the bomb as he fell, the soldier scrambled to his feet as he listened for its quickening beeps, getting closer to the final countdown. He found the detonator just a meter away from himself, the quick high-pitched beeps alerted him that time was up.

Zero kicked the bomb over to Nightmare Moon who let out a gasp before he dove as far away as he could behind a fallen pillar.

Quicker than an instant, a flash of blue erupted from the casing with a metallic hum then was pulled back into the grenade for the smallest of moments before a blinding explosion brightened the entirety of the room followed by a deafening, ear-ringing, vibrating, ‘boom’.

The explosion decimated the pillar Zero was behind and launched the trooper at the wall behind him, slamming him into its stone plane with great force.

Shakily, the soldier picked himself up and looked over at Nightmare Moon. Zero’s heart fell to his stomach as he saw she standing there, unscathed, surrounded by a transparent, dark-purple bubble, her horn again glowing in that sinister aura.

Twilight, who was outside the implosion radius, let out a tiny gasp, sounding as if she were still shocked from what she had witnessed.

Nightmare Moon looked the slightest bit shaken as she observed the scene. The bomb had completely eradicated everything in a three and a half meter radius and did unnerving damage to the surrounding area. Bye the look on her face, Zero guessed the detonator would’ve have affected her after-all.

Zero looked to his surroundings to try and find anything he could use to fight, he came up empty, just staring at a blood-lusting Nightmare Moon.

Guess I got this to work just in time!” she half-laughed half-snarled, as she looked up at her still barely cracked horn. She lifted Zero with her magic and slammed him into the floor, sending a jolt throughout his body.

“Vermin!”

The mare threw Zero over her head and smashed him into the floor again, through his numbness, Zero could feel something in his body move in an way it wasn’t supposed to, and his hand again screwed up in an awkward position.

“Stop!” Twilight yelled.

“Weakling!”

Nightmare Moon quickly and ferociously dragged the clone across the jagged floor near the explosion site before throwing him into a wall.

“Scum!”

“Let him go!” Twilight wailed, “i-it was my idea in the first place to-“

“I’ll see to you in a moment!” Nightmare Moon hissed, using her regained magic to throw a large stone at the unicorn, the force of it sent her crashing to the ground.

The dark mare then lifted Zero over to herself, her victim’s limbs were dangling from his barely conscious body.

“Heed my words you mongrel! You could have just left, lived your life, but you simply had to intervene, didn’t you?! Now if you are lucky I just might keep you living as a trophy!” The mare growled.

Zero turned to look her in the eye before replying in a soft, shaky, raspy voice,

“What’s wrong? Mad you just got your tail handed to you by a ‘weakling’?”

Nightmare Moon’s eyes dilated, “So be it.” she murmured before she sent Zero through the broken window. Lightning light up the sky and thunder roared through the ruins, the last thing Zero heard was Twilight’s scream…

“No!”

Author's Note

Legend says that the last thoughts going through Zero’s mind before he was sent through the window was…

“Just, like, the simulations!”

As always, feel free to leave any feedback if you wish :D