We stepped into the castle without a word, though the girls seemed strangely jovial about it all. Rarity was bothered by the 'drab decor', and Fluttershy was obviously unnerved, but she was holding up well considering where she was. I was surprised that she even entered the Everfree to begin with.

"Okay, first things first," I started, walking ahead of them. "We need to find the...uh."

What had rendered me speechless? Oh, I don't know, maybe it was the fact that the Elements of Harmony were sitting on a big fancy stand atop an old plinth, out where anyone could've found them if they ever bothered to come out here?!

I ran my hoof over my face in exasperation. "Oh for fuck's sake Celestia why?"

How had no one ever found these things before? Were adult ponies just that illiterate outside of Canterlot? Or well, that limited in their intellectual diversity? Every library has a reference guide about the Elements of Harmony, I will ask again, how did no one ever find these before now?!

I sighed and shook it off, shaking my head slowly. "Stay focused, don't have time for this..." I mumbled to myself.

I lit my horn and wrapped my magic around each of the Elements, gently carrying them down in front of myself, looking over them carefully. There was an unexpected dimming of power around them as I did so, but since I had no time to examine it properly, I ignored it. From what I'd seen of the reference guides, these had to be it, the odd sensation I got from them was almost exactly how the books described them. However...there were only five of them here. Considering I had no idea what those books meant by a spark, I needed to do some basic experimentation.

"Okay ladies. Elements of Harmony. Dunno what's going to happen, so I need you all to give me some distance," I said, laying down in front of the gathered Elements and scanning over them with my magic. "Don't go too far though. We don't know where Nightmare Moon might be hiding, so make sure you all stay together."

They all gave an affirmative, and soon I found myself alone in the hall. I glanced over the Elements and thought back to what I'd read in the book, the legend written down in it coming back to me.

When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth to be revealed. No indication of whether it would be based on location or anything, or whether the sixth Element was somehow different from the others considering the other five were all sealed in stone...hm. A spark. Perhaps a spark of magic? I could only hope it would work. We needed these things right now, we couldn't afford a delay on using them with Nightmare Moon somewhere nearby!

Unfortunately...she was closer than I thought she was. I felt a gust kick up around me, and all it took was a second of looking away to evaluate my surroundings for her to swoop in with her stupid starry cloud to surround the Elements. I felt magic charging in the air around me, and one glance into the swirling blackness in front of me told me what she was doing.

"Girls!" I shouted out to get their attention, just before I dove into the darkness.

It wasn't like a normal teleportation. There was something almost elegant about it, how it made you linger in that feeling of magical tingle as you transitioned from one place to another. My guess was on it being a more primitive teleportation spell unique to Nightmare Moon's magic, because I'd never read anything about teleportation being utilized in such a strange and inefficient way. Then again, I suppose when you've got the power to move an entire celestial body around the world, efficiency isn't as big of a concern for you as it is for most ponies.

I fell out of the teleportation and flopped onto the ground, knocking the wind out of myself for a moment while that black vortex swished over towards an elevated platform on the other side of the room. Nightmare Moon formed from the blackness, and the Elements appeared around her, dropping to the ground with a noisy, stony clonk.

"Thank you so very much, Twilight Sparkle," she said calmly, running a hoof over one of the stone orbs. "I never would have found them without you."

I pushed myself to my hooves slowly and dusted myself off a bit. "They were sitting out in the open, even a foal could've found them."

"Yes, well, they looked very different back then. For one, they weren't orbs of solid rock. I suppose they disapproved of my sister using them against me," she said, smirking a little. "How unfortunate for her, and for you."

"So you used me to identify them for you first," I muttered, frowning a little. "Then you swiped them."

"Oh I assure you that if I'd had time to research them as you no doubt did, I would have done so myself. Then I could have broken all your legs and retrieved them on my own!" she said with a wide grin, those razor-sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight. "You would never have been able to enter the Everfree for such a fruitless endeavor, if that had been the case."

"You'll forgive me for not being thankful." I said flatly. "In any case, you've got my Elements. Hoof 'em over."

"The mortal dares to tell me what to do?"

"Well, considering you haven't simply obliterated me for my insolence," I said, stretching out the muscles in my neck by twisting my head this way and that. "I have to assume you aren't as powerful as you say you are. At least, not right now."

She huffed in amusement. "And what brought you to that conclusion, smart little pony?"

"You fought Celestia. Even now, I'm sure she's thrashing and fighting against her imprisonment. I'll bet it takes a lot of energy to maintain her banishment..." I said, unable to help a smug smile. "Not like when the seemingly limitless Elements banished you for a thousand years."

You have no idea how satisfying it was to see that cocky, holier-than-thou grin disappear from her muzzle.

"And considering how weakened you must be after banishing your sister," I said, lowering my stance and lighting my horn with magic once more. "I'm fairly sure I can take you. Even if I can't, I'm sure the Magus and the Royal Guard can."

"...Twilight Sparkle," she said quietly, stepping down from the elevated platform, those slitted cat-like eyes glaring at me with an intensity I was all too familiar with. "You are arrogant, and a fool...but I will not deny that you are smart. Do not throw your life away so readily."

"Oh, honey," I said with a widening smile. "You can't intimidate me. Even if you manage to kill me, I'm gonna make sure you burn yourself out in the process. For the glory of Equestria and all that."

"I am warning you, Twilight Sparkle," she half-shouted at me, lowering her stance just as I was, her horn pointing at me. "Kneel."

I eased up a little as a thought struck me. "You've been trying really hard to spare lives. Strange, given your plans."

"Well, a Queen needs her subjects, her servants." she said, rolling her eyes.

I quirked a brow at that. "Aaand what makes you think anyone will serve under you?"

"Oh, that's quite simple," she muttered. "If they do not, they will wish they were dead."

Ooh, such intimidating words! Then again, I was fairly sure she meant all of it.

"What about when we're all dead?" I asked, tilting my head a little. "You'll be all alone. No one to feed you grapes while you lounge on your throne like a beautiful Caligula."

"For a time, yes," she said. "But I have all the time in the universe. Also, I have...other ways to repopulate this world."

"What, you gonna hump the trees until you have a miracle foal or something?"

"Such a sharp and vulgar tongue for a noblemare!" she said, stalking towards me.

"Believe me, plenty of mares and stallions have found great appreciation for it," I teased back, grinning a little. "Judging by the way your tail's flagging, you're curious too."

She seemed confused at first. What, did she not notice the way she was raising her tail? Kind of a strange thing to not notice. Then again, if I'd known then what I do now, it would've made perfect sense to me. At the time, I expected better self-control from a Princess, but then again....

She turned her head to one side with a snap and looked back at her tail, a small frustrated growl easily heard in the echoing emptiness of what was a large hall all around us. She forced her tail back down and sneered at me, her horn lighting up with a dark almost pitch-black aura.

Guess I needed to push her buttons a bit more. "I mean, a thousand years on the moon is a long time to go without some companionship! Wouldn't surprise me if you were more soaked than the rocks you fucked yourself with-"

"SILENCE!!!"

I almost didn't see the blast of magic coming. It was unrefined, outdated in its design, but there was no denying the power behind it. Guess I threw her off more than I thought.

I rolled off to my right and fired a bright flash of magic at her in the shape of a ball. I clenched my eyes shut just before the ball of magic exploded in a burst of blinding light, and the howling scream she let off echoed through the chamber.

"No need to be so aggressive about your desires, Princess!" I taunted, dodging to the right once more as she blindly fired a magic missile in my direction. "I'm more than willing to satisfy you! You just have to bring Celestia back and surrender!"

"How are you doing that?!" she asked, her eyes clenched shut and blinking rapidly while her tail swished this way and that in base excitement.

"Doing what, your majesty~?" I asked, grinning a little. "I'm just talking about getting so deep into you that you scream my name for all of Equestria to hear. Nothing more. Nothing but words and the flapping of my dextrous, experienced tongue that's had many a mare writhing upon my bed...!"

I had to hold back my laughter as her hindlegs trembled and her haunches visibly tensed and quivered, a light wet sound barely audible as she groaned and lowered her head a little. It struck me as strange that she didn't get what I was doing. It was so blatantly obvious that she was pent up beyond what might be considered psychologically healthy, how could she not get it?

"You think you can toy with me, little pony?" she muttered, the frustration in her voice all too evident. "Blind me and taunt me with salacious, false words...."

I quirked a brow as she jumped back and her horn flared to life even more than it already was, that familiar billowing starry smoke swelling out from her mane and tail, slowly pouring over the room. I rapidly retreated towards the large doorway in the back, while the billowing cloud began to rise up, engulfing the entire room in darkness.

Behind me, I could hear hoofsteps over the sound of magic being cast in front of me. Fearing a blast of magic to come at me out of nowhere, I erected a barrier to cover the area in front of myself.

"This way!" I called out down the staircase behind me, focusing on the room in front of me as the billowing smoke began to clear.

All around me...constructs. Arcane constructs, of all three pony races. Pegasi fluttered in the air in a small swarm, several unicorns formed a line in front of Nightmare Moon, and between me and them, a large number of earth pony constructs.

While this only further proved my theory about her current weakness, that was a lot of constructs. Far more than I could deal with, even if I did use my magic to the fullest. This was an old decrepit castle; using an explosive blast could bring the roof caving in around me, as well as those that came with me. Anything above the fourth tier of offensive spells was right out not just because the risk of my surroundings crushing me to death afterwards, but also because they all took some prep time. A significant amount in some cases, not to mention some actually required special ingredients.

"Not so willing to run your mouth now, are you Twilight Sparkle?!" I heard Nightmare shout across the room at me.

"Nah, not really!" I shouted back at her. "I bought myself enough time!"

I could hear them calling out to me, and it seemed Nightmare Moon could as well, probably through her constructs. The earth pony ones lunged at my barrier, battering and beating at it to try and bring it down, but they were flimsy at best compared to the raw strength of a true earth pony. I bolstered my shield and turned to face all of them, layering a veil of silence over the inside of the shield to give us some privacy. If she could hear us through her constructs, I needed to cut them off.

They were all at the top of the steps mere seconds after I turned around to greet them. Rarity and Fluttershy were having trouble catching their breaths, but the other three seemed just fine. Good to know. They were beginning to bombard me with questions, but they went silent at the sight just behind me.

"Wow, that's...that's a lotta meanies," Pinkie said, her voice sounding oddly serious, for her anyways. "Good thing we got here when we did."

"Unfortunately," I said loudly to grab their attention. "We don't have too much time to talk, I'm wasting magic just holding them back. Who here is willing to fight?"

Needless to say, they hesitated. Well, except for Rainbow Dash, but she's a crazy bitch like that, and she said she had my back, so I guess I shouldn't have expected any less. If anything, I was surprised by Fluttershy's willingness to fight. Still, I wasn't going to turn her down!

"I need us to cut a line through this crowd so I can get a clear shot on Nightmare Moon. She's controlling all of these constructs, but they're far weaker than they look, and they certainly aren't alive," I explained, my horn glowing brighter while I looked between them. "Each of you, present your dominant forehoof. I'm going to give you something you can use to cut through the magic sustaining their physical forms."

I already had a good enough weapon, and sustaining these weapons for them would be vaguely taxing on me, but as long as we got through this crowd as quickly as possible, it was worth it. The spell was called Arcane Sword, and it was designed specifically to brute-force your way through physical manifestations of magic. Got a rune you want to ruin? Cut through it with the Arcane Sword. Got a construct whose leylines you want to shatter? Arcane Sword.

I lowered my horn to their presented hooves and weaved my magic around them, leaving each of them with a purple-colored glowing blade attached to their forelegs. I could feel the pull on my magic as I stepped back, motioning to the crowd behind me.

"This weapon will cut through them like butter. On top of that, you cannot hurt each other with it, so don't be afraid to swing if one of them is attacking your partner," I said, raising a hoof to smack it over the end of Applejack's blade. It passed right through. "At most, it'll cause a tingle."

They all gave me a quick nod. Good, at least they were paying attention, and they were quick-minded enough to keep up with what I was saying. It would've been annoying if I had to slow down for them.

"Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, I want you both to take to the air and bring those flying constructs down where I can pick them off with my magic. Keep them busy, and only fight them off if you have to. They have no sense of self-preservation, and they'll gladly tackle you out of the sky just to injure you," I explained, looking to Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity. "Rarity and Applejack, you're a team. Watch each other's back, that's standard guard practice. These things start to overwhelm your partner, you back off and help them out, no exceptions. Pinkie, you're with me. Same rules apply, that goes for you and Fluttershy too, Rainbow!"

"Sheesh, bossy..." I heard Rainbow mutter.

"I'm not fucking around here! We're outnumbered, and I don't care if those things are flimsy compared to us, they could still swarm us with sheer numbers if we're not careful! Stay close to each other, and don't stray from the plan," I stated firmly, patting one of my pistols with a hoof. "The moment I break her concentration, this whole crowd's gonna become a whole lot of nothing."

I raised up onto my hindlegs and reached for the lock on the hoofblade I'd borrowed. It wouldn't be as efficient as using an Arcane Sword myself, but a Royal Guard's weapon always had a certain uniqueness to it. I'd failed to check to see what kind of advanced smithing Freewind had gotten done for his hoofblade, but now that I looked at it...I was pleasantly surprised to find a silver sheen to the edge.

Silver was an excellent conduit for magic, and if treated just the right way and laced through steel during the smelting process, it became a great way to store a magical charge for hours at a time. Nowhere near as good or as versatile as gold, but for the purposes of the Royal Guard it was an excellent cheaper option. I'm guessing Freewind worked with a lot of unicorns to have had such a thing done to his hoofblade. No complaints here!

I poured my magic into the blade. The silver sheen reacted with a brief shimmer before a quickly weaved array turned the magic into exactly what I wanted it to be: fire. I gave it a few swings to be sure, then I looked to the others once more.

"These things are flimsy, but they outnumber us. When you swing, swing in hard, sweeping arcs. As long as you can cut the flow of magic in them, they will dissipate of their own accord," I explained quickly, turning to face the horde that was pushing and banging at my barrier with an annoying level of insistence. "Above all else, stay very close to me. Are you all ready?"

"Uh, sugarcube, ya sure we don't have time ta just sit down an' talk about this...?"

"I'm very sure. Now," I said, pouring more magic into my horn and raising up my right foreleg, the one my hoofblade was attached to. "I'm about to drop the barrier. Ten seconds."

I counted down slowly, listening for any kind of hesitation from them, but aside from some obvious nervousness, none of them faltered. I expected at least a whimper from Fluttershy, but she was staying very close to Rainbow Dash, so perhaps she was stronger than I gave her credit for.

The moment the countdown reached two, I poured magic into my barrier and pushed it outward, sending the bunched-up constructs flying back, giving us plenty of space to move. I lunged forward, my hoofblade crossed over my chest.

"NOW! On me!"

Some might question why I didn't use my guns. I'm sure they were questioning it too. The simple answer is, constructs are destroyed when their leylines are broken, and in constructs, the leylines act as a thin skeletal structure. Unless I have perfect aim, chances are, I'm going to miss a decent amount of shots, and I only have so many bullets.

The force of my shield had knocked a great number of them onto their backs and off of their hooves, and we all took the opportunity to start cutting a line forward. Her unicorn constructs fired a volley of magic into the air, arcing over the other constructs and flying right for us. I reached for them with my magic and yanked them out of the flimsy, unfocused grasp of our assailants and slammed them straight down, small bursts of magic lighting up the room and sending numerous constructs flying ahead of us.

The resounding electric pop of magical circuits being forcibly severed began to sound off all around me, and as my blade cut and burned through them, I could see the others haphazardly swinging their weapons through them as well. Applejack and Rainbow Dash swung with confidence, the fizzling crackle of the magic easily heard as their weapons cut through the air.

Rarity was perhaps the most surprising. She showed a level of competence with her blade that suggested some kind of experience. Instead of following my instructions, she fought as if she were wielding a rapier, jabbing and making quick twists of her hoof that she used to cut and slice into them. I think just how easily the blade cut through them actually surprised her. She actually started to swing with a bit more of an arc after the first few.

Pinkie Pie seemed to be taking my lessons to heart, though her method of fighting was...unique, to say the least. Cartwheels, darting around, jumping on the constructs that got close to us, just to name a few of her zany antics...even I had a hard time keeping up with her! There was a calculating comprehension of the situation though, and with how unpredictable her actions were, I suppose there was something ingenious about what she was doing. She didn't even hesitate to swing her weapon clean through me.

Fluttershy was, by far, the one I was worried about the most. That mare didn't seem to have a single violent bone in her body, with how hesitant she was to swing her sword at all. She had no combat experience, and no real mentality for combat to begin with. She was and still is the type that would be better off staying far away from conflict, but then again, she also chose to wade into this with us. I don't know if that makes her brave, stubborn, or foolish.

Either way, Rainbow was doing a good job keeping Fluttershy safe, so I kept my focus on cutting down whatever got in front of me. While the hoofblade I was using lacked the clean cutting power of the Arcane Sword, the addition of fire and a little muscle still let me cut through the constructs well enough that I wasn't wearing myself out. I would've been better off with a mace or some kind of weighted blunt instrument of equal effectiveness, but the fire burned through their 'skin' and helped to degrade the leylines inside their bodies well enough for my purposes.

Destroying all of them wasn't the goal, thankfully. Otherwise, I would've burned through my magic far too fast, especially since I could see her making more as we cut them down. We were making progress slowly but surely, and when we got close enough to the unicorns, they launched balls of magic directly at us. I suppose she figured the constructs behind us were now expendable, since we got that far.

I put up a barrier and launched an explosive fireball directly at the center of their line, sending the constructs flying and buying myself a clear shot. The other constructs were already moving to block our way while Nightmare Moon just sat there on the elevated platform, her eyes closed in concentration. Time to disrupt that.

I quickly used my magic to sheathe my hoofblade and reached for one of the pistols I'd brought with me, lining up my shot before I even pulled it out of the holster. I couldn't risk aiming for more vital organs, but she was seated at a slight angle facing towards my left.

The moment I had the pistol leveled at her right foreleg, I took my shot.

The sudden shriek of pain she let out was followed by a resounding collapse all around us. I could hear every single construct around us falling to the ground, disoriented and completely inert, with some of them fading away entirely. The pegasi constructs were falling out of the air and breaking themselves on the stone floor, and the remaining unicorn constructs were actually exploding their own heads due to losing control of themselves in the middle of casting magic.

Nightmare Moon's eyes shot wide open when the bullet hit and embedded itself in her knee. I guess my sessions spent picking apart Pin Point's mind and taking what I wanted from him paid off. I took a second shot just above her knee the moment she tried to get a look at the wound, and she shouted in alarm and pain once more as another bullet impacted her raised foreleg.

Judging by how surprised she was, she either expected me to use magic, or she didn't know what a gun was. Maybe both. Either way, she reacted fast enough to throw up a barrier in front of herself. That didn't really concern me though. What I was focused on was the two wounds in her foreleg. I needed to be at least reasonably sure of an alicorn's regenerative properties before I got any more lethal with my attacks on her.

I did take note of the nature of her barrier though. Her knowledge of magic was primitive compared to mine if her barrier was anything to go by. Modern barriers had various designs, ranging from bouncing physical objects off of them to having an oscillating property that caused projectiles to be redirected around it instead of deflecting off of it. Hers was the most standard of barriers, all-purpose and very inefficient at conserving one's mana. Not to mention...very brittle, in comparison to a modern mage's standards.

She stumbled and winced a little as she lifted her leg a bit further to examine the wounds, and just as I suspected, they were already beginning to close up. That matched what I'd seen with Celestia once. Nothing particularly extreme, but the reason I suspected regenerative qualities in the first place was because Celestia accidentally cut herself with a knife during one of our late-night cake raids. It was pretty deep and I was kinda worried, 'cuz it was the first time I'd ever even heard of her being able to be hurt, let alone seeing it, but aside from wincing a little, she just left it alone. Next thing I know, like ten seconds later, she's rinsing the blood out of her fur in one of the sinks and the cut's completely gone.

I questioned her about it of course, since I didn't see any magic coming from her horn that could've possibly patched it up, somehow. There are no spells that can induce such rapid regeneration without risking complications like cancer or harmful growths in the body of the one under said spell. Trust me, the medical field spent thousands of years trying to find that kind of miracle magic, but to no avail...aside from the zebras, and even their method comes with extreme complications, as far as I know. Doesn't make their miracle potion any less desirable, but their entire race is very against sharing their alchemy secrets.

What I didn't question her about however, was her sister. Not that that's surprising, since at the time I didn't know that she even had one. Obviously, I didn't bother to ask if her sister had the same regenerative properties as she did. What I did know, however, was that that regeneration was a conscious effort, and I could only imagine how that could drastically alter one's perception of the severity of injuries. Just imagine getting the bottom of your hoof sliced open and instead of screaming in panic, you just stare at it like 'oh, ow, that really hurts but it's no big deal', and then a little later you patch it up as if it never happened, like flexing a muscle.

I was sure there was more to it, but she was reluctant to talk about it. Not that I blame her, I doubt I'd want a lot of ponies to know that my body can perform miracles of biology that most can only dream of and put in their fantasy books either. Kinda like how I wanted no one to know the kind of magic I was capable of.

Standing up on my hindlegs, I pulled out my second pistol with my other hoof and emptied both of them on her. I flipped the chambers open and ejected the casings, then used my magic to rapidly snap six more bullets into each of them. Her shield held up against eight of those bullets, but the last two found purchase in her wither and the right side of her chest. I saw blood sputter from her muzzle as she cried out, then choked on a rush of blood surging out of her perforated lung.

Yet, just like the wounds on her foreleg, they both began to close up. It only took around nine seconds for the wounds to completely disappear, and her briefly troubled breathing became normal once again. Hiding behind her renewed barrier, she reached up to wipe the blood from her muzzle, though some of it still clung to the fur around her lips.

"That's a nifty trick you've got!" I called out to her.

"Those are some interesting toys you have," I heard her say through one of the constructs to my left. "Ultimately useless, but interesting."

I immediately turned to aim one of my pistols at the construct's head, pulling the trigger and making his cranium explode into a burst of smoky magic. I took the chance to briefly look back at the girls to be sure they were alright, and with all of the constructs either completely disoriented or completely inactive on the floor, they didn't even have to fight anymore. They were just mopping up the mess at this point.

My attention shifted back to Nightmare Moon immediately. I couldn't afford to let my guard down, and even now, after taking four shots, she didn't seem to be even remotely fazed by any of this. Well, until she stood up and tried to step down on her right foreleg. She attempted to hide it, but I saw her wince. My bet was that one of those two bullets wound up embedded somewhere that made it painful if not very difficult to walk on that leg. I was aiming for her knee, after all.

"Yeah you say that, but you're the one that's putting on a tough act, Princess."

"Says the cripple relying on weapons to fight a Goddess rather than her own power," she said dismissively. "You're a child playing at being a hero. Like a filly tying a wooden blade to their foreleg with a section of rope and pretending they're a guard worthy of protecting royalty!"

"Perhaps," I said, flipping the chamber on the gun in my left hoof open to remove the single spent shell casing, sliding a bullet in to replace it. "But then again, I was holding back. I needed to confirm a few things before I went all-out on you. For example, how likely would it be for you to survive a gunshot? Survey now says, very likely! Now all I need to do is get one of them between your eyes."

"Oh yes, the measured words and mind games. You truly are my sister's pupil. I will enjoy twisting you to my whims, little pony," she said, a soft sigh escaping her. "But for now, I tire of entertaining your delusions of superiority. Put down your weapons and surrender to me."

"Eeehh, no. I'm pretty sure I've got a Model 29 here that wants to get intimately familiar with the internal contents of your cranium."

I lowered down to all fours once more and used my magic to hold my pistols instead, my revolver still firmly secured in the holster at my hip. I didn't know if she was aware of it or not just yet, but it was going to be my final big surprise for her. Following the next one anyways.

It started out as a thrum of magic that made the air tingle around me. I dug deep, like the day I took the exam to join Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and pulled that massive reserve of magical power to the surface. I felt it rush through me like fire in my veins, and for a brief moment I thought I would lose control. I focused on my breathing and contained it long enough to adjust to the sudden rush of mana, and ever-so-slowly, I felt things coming back into focus around me.

Pinkie and the others were at my sides, but I pushed them back with my magic, slowly shaking my head. "You all need to stay out of this," I said quietly, looking around at the five of them. "For now."

"Indeed."

Nightmare Moon seemed surprised by the sudden rush of mana that had practically charged the air with magic, but it definitely didn't intimidate her. Instead, her horn lit, and her eyes clenched along with her teeth. I watched as four holes were ripped into her skin as she pulled the fragmented bullets out of her body and tossed them aside, the wounds slowly closing up shortly after. She barely even cringed at the pain.

"It would be a shame to murder potential slaves to serve me in the coming years," I heard her mutter, her eyes wandering down to the stone orbs that laid at her hooves. "Now, before these decide to become a problem..."

I saw her raise up onto her hindlegs, her forelegs brought together in an obvious stomping form. I wasn't entirely sure what she was planning to do, but given those five orbs were very close to her, I could only assume she intended to destroy them, one at a time if need be. As far as I knew, if even one of them was missing or destroyed or whatever, none of them would work.

I immediately moved my revolver forward and fired until the bullets ran out, then alternated firing my pistols while reloading my revolver. It had the desired effect, and she faltered as high-velocity projectiles slammed into her barrier hard enough to make her head spin. I'd been on the receiving end of that sort of thing before, it was what led to me researching more effective methods of defending myself against bullets. You know, aside from ducking behind cover, something I significantly lacked near where I was standing.

There were many forms of combat that I found myself talented in. Hoof-to-hoof combat, ground-to-air combat...but many guards knew that along with my unnatural magical strength, I was a very creative mage. Aside from using my pistols and relying on my repertoire of offensive and defensive spells, I often found plenty of things in my environment to put to use.

At that moment, my thoughts returned to the potential frailty of the structure above our heads, and the embedded pillars in the walls. They looked loose enough....

I reached up to the ceiling and caressed the stones. The structure was sound enough, but I had been right; a single concussive impact in the room could've brought all of it crumbling down on top of us. That wasn't a guarantee, but it was a significant enough risk that I was glad I'd made the safer call.

Let it be known that I am not afraid to fight dirty, or primitively. That includes throwing stones, or in this case, thousand-year-old bricks.

I poured my magic over the ceiling and pulled down hard, and a resounding cracking sound from the ceiling heralded moonlight pouring into the spacious room. Cradling the falling debris in my magic, I felt my horn reaching the output of a double corona to bear the immense weight I was holding up in the air. I brought the bricks close together and formed several lines with them, sending them directly at Nightmare Moon, attacking her from the sides and directly at her front.

I think she was surprised by the sudden level of resistance I was putting up. Then again I'd kept exactly what I was capable of hidden from her all the way to this castle, so perhaps it just shocked her to see me treating her as a genuine threat. She certainly wasn't treating me like one at the time.

Her third barrier seemed far more sturdy than her previous two. I guess she was more afraid of big, thick chunks of processed rock than little metal projectiles. Either way, I needed to get her off that pedestal and away from those Elements long enough to grab them, but she looked like she was fully intent on staying right where she was. I holstered my guns and readied myself for what I had in mind.

I reached for one of the stone pillars next and pulled as hard as I could without risking all of the numerous bricks I had floating around me like a makeshift shield. The resounding crackle of stone slowly giving way filled the room, and I quickly threw all of the bricks at her at once. A massive cloud of stone rocketed towards her, and her barrier easily absorbed the impacts, many of them crumbling to dust from the sheer force I'd put behind them. The wall behind her caved thanks to the projectiles as well, kicking up even more dust as it fell away.

Perfect.

Without missing a beat, I pulled the pillar down and struggled to hold the massive weight in my magic as it toppled over, but once I had it horizontal to the ground, I heaved it back and swung it around, aiming directly for where Nightmare Moon was standing. There was a brief moment of bellowing impact against her barrier, followed by an almost glass-like shattering that gave way to a garbled, crushed scream.

I continued to swing the pillar around like a bat until I saw Nightmare Moon go flying off to my left, sailing through the air in a smashed mess out of the crumbled opening in the wall. Once I saw that, I tossed the pillar aside with a heavy, loud thud while reaching out for the Elements and pulling them over to us.

I glanced back at those five mares as they gathered around behind me, looking at the Elements with some alarm. A quick inspection showed that they were all fine, for the time being, and the constructs were completely gone. I looked up at the opening in the wall to see if she was back yet, then refocused myself on the Elements, trying to recall what I'd read.

A spark will cause the sixth Element to appear. That was what some of the books I'd read said about the Elements during my research. What did that mean? I didn't really have enough time to think about it at the moment, and all the time I'd spent thinking about it while doing my research hadn't gotten me any closer to a legitimate answer, so what chance did I have right now? Why would anyone write something so vague in a research book?!

Truth be told, I was panicking just a little bit. Her ability to regenerate, while anticipated, made this situation infinitely worse. Unless her getting whacked by that stone pillar somehow made it possible for Celestia to break free from her imprisonment, I didn't have any other way to really stop Nightmare Moon besides putting the Elements of Harmony to use against her.

Unable to think of any other ideas, I began to focus my eyes on the Elements in front of me more, slowly sifting through the layers of magic until I found a small, almost inconsequential hole in each of them, shining brighter than the rainbow-like array that surrounded each of them. Yet, despite how subdued that array looked...there was an undeniable glow of power inside of it. I just couldn't make it out clearly enough.

Suddenly, trying to use these things scared me. That kind of power coursing through me from all of these at once...that was a terrifying thought. Would it cause a cascade failure in my body? That's the stuff of nightmares for most unicorns.

"Get back! I don't know what's going to happen!" I shouted back at the others.

To their credit, the situation seemed to get serious enough that they'd continued to do as I told them. I at least expected Rainbow Dash to charge in like an idiot by now to help me out. Maybe it was the flurry of stones and a giant pillar smashing Nightmare Moon like a mallet to a watermelon that convinced her to stay away.

With some distance between myself and them, I reached out with my magic and began to carefully push energy into those openings in the arrays. It was actually difficult to mold to exactly how I needed my magic to be, though in hindsight that should've been setting off alarms in my head.

Moments later the array gave out under the touch of my magic, and before I had a chance to react to it, all five of the Elements merged a burst of magic together and shot it straight into my chest hard enough to send me flying back, skidding across the floor.

The impact and skidding didn't hurt nearly as much as I would've expected, and I managed to avoid hitting the back of my head, much to my very, very brief delight. What I was more concerned about was the strange sensation of writhing magic in my chest. A single moment of panic enveloped me as the mental image of my body mutating into a mass of putrid flesh and bone hit me, but as I quickly confirmed, the amount of magic that was wriggling about in my torso was nowhere near the levels needed for a true cascade failure. If anything, it felt strangely alive...very unnatural.

Rarity and Fluttershy were right there helping me back to my hooves, and I quickly moved towards the Elements once more. I had to have done something wrong, I just needed more time to look at them to decipher what was really going on with those arrays! I was so dead-set on it, I almost didn't notice a certain tacky cloud of starry smoke charging directly for me.

It was only my quick reflexes that saved me from probably getting my head knocked clean off. She seemed to rise up partially out of the smoke, a forehoof swinging directly for my chin in an upward mark. I leaned back while pushing myself back up onto my hindlegs, the powerful vacuum of air following her swing almost feeling like a stinging sensation in and of itself. It only took me a second afterwards, but I teleported back away from her a few feet and lowered back down onto all fours again, ready to make a move if she came for me.

She didn't. Instead, while I was teleporting, she re-materialized completely within the circle we had both previously set the Elements out in, the left side of her face looking grotesquely smashed in. Teeth were missing and still falling out of her muzzle, only to hit the floor and crumble to dust before our eyes. Guess that pillar did quite a number on her, but she recovered so fast from it...!

New teeth rapidly replaced the ones that were pushed out by them as they grew in, and her jaw and skull quickly fully reformed themselves until she was back to her normal self. Her helmet was missing of course, likely crushed to the point of uselessness by the aforementioned blunt object I'd used on her.

If I'm being totally honest here? Nightmare Moon was sexy, and if she weren't my enemy, I'd have probably been asking her out for a few drinks and a nice dinner before taking her back to my place.

She became decidedly less sexy and more terrifying when she rose up onto her hindlegs and slammed her body weight down onto her forehooves, causing a magical shockwave that rocked the room and focused into the Elements, causing them to shatter before my very eyes. I felt my blood run cold as our one form of defense against her fell to pieces under the raw might she held within her hooves.

"Tell me, Twilight Sparkle," she muttered, smiling ever-so-slightly at me. "You are the student of my dear sister. Her protege. So I have a very important question for you," she said, the sickly-sweet tone of her voice pulling at the growing dread I felt inside. "Based on what you've discovered about me here tonight, what can you deduce regarding your chances of victory against me?"

Have you ever had a moment, a truly terrifying moment, when you realize that you done fucked up really bad? I've not experienced it much in my life, I tend to be meticulous when I plan things out, but considering the circumstances...yeah. Yeah, this was a 'oh sweet Celestia I have so fucked up' situation.

"What is the problem, little mare? Can't deal with the conclusion you're reaching?" Nightmare stated mockingly, those sharp teeth of hers on full display as she cracked a wide grin at us. "Is it perhaps the fact that nothing you could possibly do now could ever stop me?"

"I-I thought you were just being cocky...putting on a front!" I muttered, stepping back while keeping my horn lit.

"Mm, you were half-right. It is more accurate to say that I was acting. All I needed to do was lure you to the resting place of the Elements," she said, taking a step towards us. "Just had to wait for you to pull them off of their ancient, magical stand...."

"We did the work for you just by removing them! You couldn't have moved them without us!"

"Yes, my sister seems to have enhanced her knowledge of wards in the thousand years I've been away," she muttered with a clear hint of irritation. "My magic slid right off, and they wouldn't budge when I attempted to remove them with my hooves."

"They were our only chance, because you-"

"Because I can outlast every single thing you could possibly throw at me, correct," she said, laughing quietly at me. "Hm-hmm, I came back desiring entertainment, and you presented it to me while giving me an easy solution to my one immense problem!" she said, slowly bowing her head to me, never turning her eyes away from my own. "Thank you so very much, foolish little pony."

I stumbled back just a bit and immediately reached for my guns again, pulling all three of them out and unloading on her. She recoiled and screamed until one of my revolver's bullets hit her in the head, popping out the back of her skull and sending brain matter spraying out. She didn't even try to defend herself. She didn't need to.

Her body crumpled to the floor the moment I ventilated her head, all three guns being popped open so I could rapidly reload them. I had plenty of ammo left for each, but...well, I knew it wouldn't last forever, unlike her.

Already, the wounds I'd inflicted on her were beginning to close. Even her broken horn, snapped apart from my rain of bullets, quickly mended and even regrew itself before our eyes! The bits of her that splattered on the floor, including her blood, decayed rapidly into nothing but dust.

"You all need to leave. Now," I stated as firmly as I could, but even I couldn't hide the quiver in my voice. "Before she pulls herself back together!"

I hadn't been paying much attention to them since I began fighting Nightmare Moon, but once I turned to actually talk to all of them...well. They seemed horrified. I couldn't blame them. Seeing someone's head practically explode from a bullet to the face isn't the kind of image many can say they've seen in their lifetime. At least, not the vast majority.

Of course it might have had something to do with Nightmare Moon being unkillable no matter what I do to her as well, but hey. No big deal, right?

"What?! B-b-but why?!" Fluttershy stuttered.

"Because," I growled out through gritted teeth. "There's nothing any of you can do here and I think you'd all rather be running for your lives than fighting for them!"

"And leave you here?!" I heard Rainbow shout as she took to the air. "Fat chance!"

I wanted to argue with them, but I was too busy keeping my focus on the body standing up in front of me. That horn was fully formed, and while she didn't seem to have full control over her body just yet, her head was still kinda...a little open in the front and back I think, her magic seemed to be plenty within her grasp.

I could see it before I felt it, and I think Rarity saw it too, untrained as she was. She wasn't exactly trying to hide it from us. She was reaching out to me, going straight for the guns held in my magic. If I hadn't seen it coming, she would've snatched them away without a struggle.

Oh, how I fought to keep them under my control.

You have to understand that clashing magic isn't all about pouring more power into the spell, be it your innate telekinesis or something more complex that's maintained by an array. While using telekinesis may lack the necessity of an array, it's about as natural to us unicorns as a griffon reaching out to pick a bit up off the ground, our ability to use it is still dependent on our ability to maintain a balance between focus and pouring our reserves of magic into the spell. Too much power, you lose control. Too little, and the spell will just fall apart.

It's the kind of thing you need to work at, which is exactly why I wasn't raining lightning bolts all over that sumbitch while we retreated. She had thousands of years of training and practice over me. The best I've got is...what, less than ten years having mock-magic duels with the Royal Guards? I had the power to match her, maybe even outstrip her own at the time. I did not have the kind of focus she had.

That being said, what she was doing was introducing her own magic to the hold over my guns. That caused an imbalance that instantly made it way harder for me to keep hold of them. I tried to pull them away from her grip, and she pulled back, pouring more magic into it. Our horns grew brighter and brighter during the ensuing struggle, until I reached a double-corona around my horn. She only seemed slightly bothered, and that was probably from my persistence, not because I was causing her any kind of magical strain.

I am a strong unicorn though, innately so. There is very little I can't manage with enough perseverence and practice, be it coming up with new spells and variants of old spells, or wrestling an ancient Goddess's magic with my own. I kept up with her just barely, and I perhaps would've been able to hold it together long enough to pull the triggers if it weren't for the fact that my guns weren't designed to survive that kind of magical pressure.

Funny thing about magic...pour too much of it into one location, and funky shit starts to happen in the effected area. Tomatoes turning into tomato-flavored grapefruits, frogs turning into oranges, you get the idea. This particular scenario was causing immense pressure to crush my guns from all sides, making the metal dent and then warp and twist until my guns began to resemble pretzels instead of tools of long-range destruction. The wood rapidly splintered in the grips before shattering completely, being crushed into the busted-up metal grooves.

I briefly wondered if that was her intent when she first reached for them.

When the pressure began to warp the chambers, the hammer of my revolver snapped forward and caused a bullet to fire off. My concentration was broken as the bent and gnarled barrel left nowhere for the bullet to go, causing the gun to backfire and burst open in a small blast of shrapnel that I felt whiz through the fur on the left side of my neck. Just an inch closer and I'd probably be dead from having hot metal embedded in my jugular.

My reaction was slow as she glanced at the mangled weapons before tossing them aside. Your head tends to be a little fuzzy and your thoughts a little slower once you're done with a big clash like that. I'd never wrestled magic with someone of that caliber before. It was intimidating, yet exciting!

She stepped towards me, and I quickly pulled together an array around my horn. I poured my magic through it, and a thick cone of flame consumed her completely. I couldn't see her through the fire until she moved, darting off to my left, the burnt fur on the front of her body already regrowing the moment she got away from the flames.

She had raised up, a foreleg pulled back, prepared to knock me clean off my hooves. I barely had time to undo the array I'd weaved around my horn in time to throw up a makeshift barrier. It was a basic defense at best, and I already knew what it felt like to have an earth pony bashing at my shields. Needless to say, I knew immediately that this was going to hurt.

I could have teleported. It crossed my mind for the briefest of instants. But if I'd teleported, I would've left them all there, next to her, defenseless. My family's bloodline tends to have a strong innate skill with shields, thus we tend to lean towards relying on them. That was probably a good thing in this situation, for their sakes.

The moment her hoof slammed down on my barrier, I screamed and my vision went white. It felt like that impact had reverberated through my entire body, rattling my bones and making me feel faint. I didn't know what was happening in that moment. The world was muffled, indecipherable and my thoughts were a jumbled mess. I'd experienced the pain of overwhelming backlash through training with the guard, and the only way to recover from it faster was to focus on your breathing and take deep, steadying breaths.

"..Dr-p...sh-ld...re."

You know it's one thing to be so rattled and fucked up that you can't hear what anyone's saying...but you know you got wrecked if you're only picking up bits and pieces. Straight-up punch-drunk, and I technically didn't actually get punched! Seriously, my head took the brunt of what that night had to offer, and not in a good way.

Against all odds, some part of me had managed to keep my barrier up, but there were cracks on it where her hoof was still pressing against it. Worse yet, even as I tried to push back, she didn't so much as budge. There was something off about the touch of her hoof. I know that earth ponies are strong, but that hit was...wow. Excessive would be a good word for it.

"I believe I gave you an order, Twilight Sparkle," I barely heard her say. "Drop. Your. Shield."

Each word was punctuated by what looked like a gentle pat over my shield with the flat of her hoof, but I could feel the difference. There was magical pressure behind her mere touch, and with her just tapping at my shield, I could feel the pressure pushing me back.

I quickly constructed a secondary array to layer over my shield, the surface of it distorting Nightmare Moon's image as it began to oscillate and attempt to push her hoof away in a fairly violent matter. To her credit, she was only marginally surprised by the change, and it didn't impede her hardly at all.

If you're not actually hurt in a way that would impede you, adrenaline's really good at getting your head back in the game. In this instance, she actually made me fear for my life. Not a whole lot of ponies can say they've managed to make me feel that way. I take great solace in my ability to out-think the average street punk or hired Mafia goon. It is only when I've had to rely on my reflexes and my quick thinking that I've ever been legitimately afraid.

Nightmare Moon had me numbered from step one. She outmaneuvered me. I had nothing else to fall back on but my magic and my wits. You're damn right I was scared enough to have adrenaline flooding my veins.

I felt my hooves begin to skid against the floor as she began to push more insistently against my barrier, the oscillations doing nothing to push her hoof away, the scrape of magic against her armor-clad hooves sending sparks this way and that. She pushed, and I skidded back further. The girls jolted to keep pace with me as Nightmare Moon continued to push us back, further and further towards the other side of the room.

I was doing my best to try and plant my hooves more firmly, but that's kinda difficult to do on solid stone. Plus, having a bum hindleg makes it hard to stand your ground, for obvious reasons. I felt that strange, foreign magic stir in my chest again, a warming sensation that gave me a whole 'nother thing to worry about. Just what was that?! It felt so weird.

I remember thinking at that moment that if those mares hadn't been there with me, I could've drawn this out much longer. I could've put up a proper fight, led Nightmare Moon on a merry chase straight towards the Royal Guards that I assumed were approaching the old castle right that moment. If they weren't there, they'd be safe.

"Aw, dangit...c'mon, Rainbow! We gotta help 'er!"

I felt weight press against my right side, then on my left. Two forelegs looped over my withers, and helped push me forward. I felt our pace slow just a little, but the pressure on my horn increased. I had to pour more magic into the barrier to keep it functional, but even then, she was twisting her hoof and pushing harder on it. Tiny hairline cracks were forming that I scrambled to close up before they became a problem.

I didn't clearly hear what Fluttershy and Rarity said to each other, but soon they were crowding around my flanks, bracing me with their hooves and slowing us down even more. Pinkie was the last one, coming up directly behind me and putting all her weight against my backside, pinning my tail between her and my butt and bringing us to a complete halt.

In a very different circumstance, I would've loved to have mares crowding on me like this. That foreign magic inside me wriggled around more, and I felt warm. So very warm.

Us Apples, we pride ourselves on our family and our honesty.

Sometimes all it takes is a little kindness, Twilight.

I didn't know where these memories were coming from. They made no logical sense. I had no time to think about these things, but they were coming back to me like pieces of a puzzle perfectly fitting together in my mind.

-it usually happens because I always want to make ponies smile-

Why shouldn't I have been generous?

Rainbow Dash doesn't leave her friends hangin'!

Looking back on it, I really have to wonder if the Elements of Harmony just mind-controlled me to smack me upside the head and go 'duh, dumbass'. That foreign magic inside me spread through my whole body like some kind of weird arcane parasite. It was a pleasant heat that made me feel as if I were wrapped in a blanket...which was slightly accurate. More of a blanket of body heat.

It couldn't have been a coincidence. I mean I don't believe in destiny or anything, but they were all here, together, representing each of the Elements of Harmony, save for the hidden one. At least, their personalities seemed to represent them almost perfectly.

They had come out here to help me. Protect me, even. If I were being honest with myself, I probably wouldn't have made it here on my own. In doing so, they'd bared themselves to me through trials and tribulations, and I guess...huh.

Can't say I've ever had such pure, genuine friends before. They actually gave a shit about me.

I pushed as hard as I could with my magic, and to my surprise, Nightmare Moon stumbled back. She looked alarmed by something. It wasn't until she lunged forward and swung with far more gusto than she had previously that I knew something had changed in that moment. She saw something I didn't.

When her hoof came down on my shield, I felt that strange something. Specifically, I felt like I could take a hundred of those without batting an eye! More than that, there was an odd, rainbow-like sheen to my shield...I wasn't sure what to make of it until I started becoming more aware of that warmth congregating in my horn.

Something was there, and it was waiting for me to use it.

The fact that I had no idea what to do with this foreign magic gathering in my horn was inconsequential. Something about it was primal, basic, and all too willing to go along with my intent. I poured it into a simple array and fired a beam of raw magic at Nightmare Moon, through my barrier.

The instant it hit, she was sent sprawling back, and her voice distorted with a kind of duality to it that made her sound like two ponies at once. The power behind it was mystifying to me. How could there be that much power sustaining itself in such a basic array?

It felt like my magic. It functioned just the same, but there was something inherently different about it. It was too familiar to me. I found myself wondering if it was always there...then I looked up at my horn.

From the tip of my horn, five differently-colored strands reached out to those five mares surrounding me, and it only took a split-second for me to understand.

"We're the Elements of Harmony."

I didn't realize I'd blurted it out until they all looked over at me, then down to their chests, where those strands of light were leading to. All at once, the broken stone shards of what we thought were the Elements previously pulled themselves together, and emitted different lights, the same colors of the strands connecting me to the others.

They weren't rocks anymore. They were jewels. Large, beautiful, pulsating gems of power that rocketed towards us and clean through my shield, as if I'd designed it just to let them past. They crashed into each of the mares from various angles, and those strands connecting us grew brighter and brighter, and I felt so warm all over that I almost wanted to giggle despite our situation.

I had no idea what was going on anymore. I saw them all get lifted into the air, the raw magical power pouring into the room feeling like the most comforting bliss I'd ever experienced...which was probably true. I felt myself leaving the ground as well, and yet, I also felt completely safe in that moment. Things seemed like they were out of my control, and I didn't care.

I could feel all of them, and they could all feel me. I don't know how else to describe it. For a brief instant, I understood them. I understood their naive desire to follow me and protect me, despite how much stronger I am than each of them combined.

That's what friends do. They care.

Words weren't necessary in that moment. We gazed down upon Nightmare Moon as one, and the raw fear I saw in her eyes in that instant...somehow, it felt heartbreaking. Then she fired upon us, her magic smashing into an unseen shield guarding all of us. I didn't know what it was coming from, but it wasn't coming from my horn. It was coming from inside of us.

"NO!!" I heard her scream at us, that strange dichotomy to her voice lingering. "Not again! Never again!!"

Blast after blast of magic came at us, but they all harmlessly dissipated against that invisible shield. I should have been alarmed by how hard she was trying to hit us, but I just felt...relaxed. Like I knew everything was going to be okay. Perhaps that was their influence? I couldn't tell you.

There was panic in her eyes as that strange magic encompassing us gathered around us. Nothing she was doing was stopping us. Her eyes went wide and she turned to run, but it was too late. She was a threat. Dangerous to everyone around her. We had no choice but to stop her.

The massive rainbow that swirled around us, then lashed out straight at her, struck like a snake. She had only made it a few steps before she was consumed, screaming in fear as a tornado of color wrapped around her.

Then I felt her. We all did.

She was desperate to never go back. I was drawn to my thoughts before her appearance. I couldn't imagine being isolated from everyone, everything, in the silent vacuum of space for over a thousand years. A normal pony would've gone mad. We're social creatures, just the same as the other sapient races of the world. We need others involved in our lives. Our mental health depends on it.

They reached out to help her. I hesitated. I can be merciful if I so choose, but I have my limits. She tried to kill us. I tried to understand them, and I felt their kindness, their generosity. They wanted to help her. Not help her take over Equestria of course, but they wanted to help her without sending her back. They reached out to me for guidance. I had no idea how to solve that kind of conundrum.

The Elements knew, however. They reached out to Nightmare Moon independent of us, and...well, I don't know how else to describe what happened next. It was like it...tore her in two. That was all I could make of it. Next thing I knew it was over, and the magic faded as quickly as it came. We all floated back down to the floor, and I collapsed.

Things were fuzzy for a few minutes, but when I got my head on straight, they were crowded around me, and a small mare, barely smaller than a teenage filly, laid on the floor, unconscious.

...And there was Celestia, standing between us and her.

Author's Notes:

Whew! Finally almost done with this arc!

I've actually been looking forward to finishing this arc because I've been chomping at the bit to get to writing the stuff that happens next. Specifically, Mafia stuff.

Music that I listened to this chapter? Two different ones, for the most part!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-s4vRyzEfc

Aaand also...this one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m4mXxb-q1Q