Cadance Does A Die Hard

Cadance blinked the stars out of her eyes and sucked in a breath. She may have been told at one point that she didn't technically need to breath, but she wasn't really willing to test that theory.

Oh, and Nightmare Moon was in front of her.

She looked just as surprised to be there as Cadance was to be directly in front of her. Separated by nothing but a long table. The split second it took Cadance to recover from reality shifting was all it took for Nightmare Moon to grin a wide toothy smile that could have put any shark to shame. "OooohhooOOO~ Well, now...," She leaned over the table to leer at Cadance, "This is fascinating."

"Uh- Luna?"

Nightmare Moon tossed her head back and laughed a villainous laugh. At the tail end, she tossed her head and threw the table into the wall with a flick of telekinesis. "I was going to antagonize Twilight when she came through, but me and Luna both know we won't be getting that scroll." She idly trotted forwards, growled from somewhere under her chest and then said, "Killing you seems like a fair alternative."

Cadance twirled out of her seat as a twisting ball of stars and black speared the chair she was sitting in to the wall.

YIKES

Cadance flew for the door, only to be blocked by Nightmare materializing in front of her. "Where do yo-OOMPH"

Nightmare Moon counted on being intimidating and definitely wasn't expecting Cadance to turn her dash for the door into a flying, rotating kick into her barrel. A sword of midnight black metal materialized and swiped down as Cadance kicked off and pulled her body into the most ball shaped she could, fired a blast of magic into the stone, and exited cannon ball style.

A fresh gust of wind graced her features as she uncurled and took flight. She looked up to see the state of the moon then spun her gaze around as Nightmare blasted a bigger hole through the wall and exited with more villainous leering.

"You'll pay for that."

Cadance took wing. "We can talk about this Luna!"

"I AM NIGHTMARE MOON!"

Oops! I made it worse!

The midnight monster launched herself into the air fast enough to leave a streak of magic behind her. The sword swung down and Cadance responded with a shield that shattered after deflecting the blow. She spun, diving down towards the ground and spotted Twilight and Spike running across a bridge towards the castle.

Already running on empty, Cadance was struck with inspiration for a hilarious course of action. The wind on her back signaled for another dodge, and Cadance barely ducked passed the sword, the hoof, and the blast of magic that followed in tandem with one another. Twisting in the air with triplicate flaps of her wings spinning her this way and that, Cadance was functioning more off of feel than actually knowing where she was.

WEEEEE-

She was having fun.

After buffeting Nightmare Moon in the face with her wings, Cadance love-ported over to Twilight.

"Waa!" Twilight jumped

"Twilight!" Cadance smiled

"Cadance?!" Spike shouted

"Sword me!" Cadance hopped forwards with her hoof and wings outstretched.

"What?"

Cadance internally snapshotted Twilight's face. "No time! I need a sword, can you conjure one?"

"Uh-UH." Twilight tried, and half a blade, mostly just the blade part without a hilt appeared in a flash.

"Thank you!" Cadance caught it in her telekinesis, jumped forwards and swallowed Twilight into a hug. "Love you!"

Nightmare roared somewhere behind them.

"That's my cue!" Cadance jumped away and launched herself into the air, briefly calling back, "Good luck saving the world!"

Using the shard of metal, Cadance wrapped it in the Love she felt for Twilight, the humour she found in that moment, and a comical level of determination and the spark of creativity. The metal length turned an exciting shade of pink and white in time for both her and Nightmare to clash in the sky. Pink and white met blue and black, and there was an ear splitting shockwave of force among the twisting sound of metal on metal.

OH. YEAH!

Cadance hit her second wind. Reached forwards with her spare hoof, and booped Nightmare. She turned into a cloud of smoke and tried to strangle Cadance, who swung the single sided blade around herself and then followed by twisting herself, making a tiny tornado of metal and kicking hooves.

Nightmare reformed, a snarl of irritation already plastered over her face as she dove in. "Gah! Hold still!"

Joy filled her.

Finally, a real challenge.

Time slowed down. Angles etched themselves into her head. Cadance knew enough about physics to know the theory of blade work, applying it in practice? This was her first go.

Two blades met in the air before the Alicorns did. Two swipes happened in the interval as Cadance pirouetted in the air and caught the back end of Nightmare's tail in her aura before twisting, blocking another swipe of the black sword, lunged, feinted, dove, block, flap, buffet, spin, block into a sliding stab, turn, adjust momentum, drop-duck-slide-slash along a wind current, until the air become a maelstrom of magic and dance that Cadance owned.

Two slashes that Nightmare had to block, and suddenly she was on the backhoof.

"Come on then!" Cadance yelled, rising the emotions in her head and driving her to another height of speed and viciousness. Twisting the air currents with her wings to send Nightmare flapping off balance, using magic shields to block Cadance's swipes and beams, ducking and rolling as Cadance tried kicking, biting, and punching in every order and configuration she could think of while she turned the environment into a hazard.

Meanwhile, Cadance rode the sky like a beast of burden. She was barely flapping to stay aloft, spinning in the air off wind currents she had started creating on instinct, constantly orientating herself to face Nightmare Moon. Cadance laughed, slowly turning it into her most evil laugh possible, Nightmare Moon got the look of realization that she was way out of her depth.

Unfortunately, Luna, and by proxy, Nightmare, had a far deeper wellspring of magic to pull from.

"ENOUGH." Nightmare's horn lit a blinding deep blue that swallowed Cadance's vision. Gravity itself inverted, and Cadance flew backwards on the wave of force, twisting in the air to try and regain momentum. Nightmare blasted a tripart attack into Cadance made of fire, ice, and lightning. Cadance rose a shield as she orientated herself, untethered the matrix, and love-ported herself behind Nightmare.

Nightmare, still trying to collapse Cadance's shield, didn't notice.

Cadance tapped her on the shoulder.

Oh, so that's what that feels like.

Cadance stabbed Nightmare in the shoulder. Nightmare yelled in pain, then ripped the blade from her shoulder with her hoof and tossed it away. Starry smoke wept from the wound and the Nightmare doused her horn.

A silent moment passed between the two airborne Alicorns. Cadance was trying to quietly breath through her nose, attempting to not give away how her body was screaming for her to heave as much air as possible. Her horn burned from the rapid fire telekinesis, only slightly abated by the cool wind of the air they were flying in.

"You're a better combatant than Luna thought." Nightmare begrudgingly admitted.

Cadance, now wordless from the lack of air, was also very aware of how little she could do now.

Is my vision blurring?

"Thanks." Cadance responded loud enough for Nightmare to hear her over th- oh yeah, he vision was definitely getting blurry. Taking that as a cue for her body's screaming, Cadance turned her hover into a falling glide for the ground. Nightmare followed and they both landed in short order.

Seeing as that Nightmare was done trying to hurt her, Cadance collapsed onto her side in victory.

Nightmare looked completely unamused with the situation.

Cadance started to breathlessly chuckle.

Nightmare stared, confused, and slightly concerned.

"So, how were the last two loops for you?" Cadance tried conversationally.

Nightmare deadpanned, "I've been trapped in the moon. Again."

"Oh. Well, here's hoping for something better next loop."

Nightmare took a tentative step closer. "You have no idea what I am, do you?"

Cadance... obviously did not, but she also didn't care. Not because she didn't 'care-' care, but because it didn't matter. "You're you, aren't you?"

Nightmare furrowed her brow. "Yes. You could say that, despite the idiocy of it."

Cadance shrugged from her spot on the ground and dismissively waved her wing. "Honestly? That's good enough for me. Hello Nightmare, I'm Cadance."

"You're..." She frowned, "You're completely insane."

Cadance laughed, it hurt, of course. Except the irony was too funny to pass up. Time travel, who knew it could be this much fun. Speaking of, Cadance felt reality twist over itself. She laughed even as her existence was wrenched out of causality and very gently pushed through a cheese grater into Somewhere Else.