Chapter V

“Come on Baelor. We need to keep moving.” Celestia says to me.

“Why don’t you fight your sister for a thousand years straight and see how fast you can walk with only three legs?” I mumble, trying to stay awake. My body’s practically shutting down from how tired I am. I’m pretty sure the threat of being found by Nightmare while unconscious is the only thing keeping me awake by this point.

“If you’ve got energy to snark, you’ve got energy to walk.” She replies with a smirk.

We trudge silently through the castle for a few more minutes. Then I break the silence again.

“Do you mind if I pass out for three weeks after all this is over? Cause I’m pretty sure I’m going to whether I want to or not.” I ask.

Celestia chuckles. “Yes, I’m fine with you sleeping for as long as you need to once this is all over.”

“Thaaaannnkss...” I almost nod off completely at that point. Thankfully, I trip a little and skid my stump of a leg on the ground. And experience all the joys that come with having stone ground into an open wound.

“GAH! DAMNIT! Ow. Okay, that woke me up.” I cry out. Pain never seems to just go away.

Celestia looks at me with concern in her eyes.. “Maybe it would be best to find you someplace for you to rest, and wait this all out. No offense, but I don’t think you’d be much help in the state you’re in.” She says.

I take a moment to think up her suggestion, and honestly, I have to agree with her. I open my mouth to let her know, but something reaches my ear that stops me.

“Did you hear that?” I ask Celestia.

“Yes. It came from up ahead… I can hear Nightmare Moon’s voice and… Twilight?!” She says with alarm. She looks between me and the hallway with indecision.

“Go on ahead. I’ll catch up.” I tell her. Knowing that Nightmare is at the end of the hallway is already charging enough fear and adrenaline through my blood to more than keep me awake.

“But-.”

“Go. Twilight won’t stand a chance against Nightmare if she ticks her off enough. You’re the only one who can stall her long enough.” I tell her with more force.

She looks down the hall again, and then gives me a nod. She slips her wing out from under me and then takes off sprinting down the hallway. She draws a sword that I didn’t even notice she had on her as she runs.

I don’t start walking on my own until after she rounds a corner at the end of the hallway.

Internally, as I limp, I can feel the energy of my fear charging my missing limbs and eye, working to heal them faster. But I can already tell that it’s not going to be enough to regrow them before the fight that’s quickly approaching.

‘Unless the Elements just blast Nightmare before I see her again.’ I think to myself hopefully. After considering that thought for a second, I dismiss it. ‘My presence here has already altered too many things for any kind of quick ending like that to occur.’

Before I know it, I’m rounding the same corner that Celestia passed just a few minutes ago. I’m also glad that the amount of fear coursing through me is enough for me to actually walk instead of the pitiful limping I was doing before. I mean, sure, I still have three legs, but now I actually have the strength to take long steps.

“For you see, Nightmare Moon, the Elements of Harmony… are right HERE!”

‘Why does that voice sound famil- oh yeah. Twilight Sparkle. Been a while since I heard Tara Strong’s voice. Cause’, you know, it’s hard to watch a show when you’re stuck in it before the first season.’ I note internally to myself.

Twilight was just finishing up her monologue while I made that thought. Each of the five elements floating around each of their respective bearers.

“And now you’re the final Element.” Nightmare Moon says, off script. “It seems that you have everything you need to defeat me now.” She notes, oddly calm despite the fact that she just stated.

And that is the exact reason why I bolt out towards Twilight and her friends before anything else can be said. The energy being used to heal me changes course and immediately starts fueling my three legs into overdrive, as well as numbing me to the pain I was previously in. I leap in front of Twilight and the others.

Nightmare Moon lashes her wings forward and an incredibly strong blast of lightning arcs through the air and hits my chest.

Then next thing I know, I’m face-first on the ground, and once again in a crap ton of pain. My legs briefly spasm from lingering traces of electrical current.

I struggle to breath for a few seconds, letting out small little wheezes that taste like charred barbeque, before I notice that everything is coming in as a dull ringing noise.

‘Ugh… I guess we took each other down again. I’ll just sleep this off until I regain the strength to move.’ I think dumbly, my mind not registering what just happened.

And then it does. ‘She took me down but I didn’t take her down! SHIT!!!’ The amount of fear that one thought inspires in me is unable to be conveyed through words.

Which is basically enough for me to roll over onto my back and groan.

I can’t feel the energy from that fear surging through me, or, at least not in the way that my core does it. It just feels like regular fear spurring me to move, but not empowering me.

It then occurs to me that she hit me in the chest with the lightning.

I struggle with everything I have to just raise my head up enough to try and see if my suspicions are correct, and they are. There is a blackened hole in my chest, and it very obviously got through to my core. Which means no more elemental assistance for a while.

My neck then gives out, and I cough up blood, as well as feel a spurt of more from my new chest hole.

And if that weren’t bad enough, I see Nightmare Moon stalking towards me. Unsurprisingly, she’s grinning at my pain. She moves her lips, but I can’t hear any sound come out. When I don’t respond to her words, her face morphs into one of anger. Instead of trying to speak again though, she just slams her front hooves down into my upturned stomach. Causing another round of coughing up blood. She then proceeds to slam her weight down onto my right foreleg. I cry out in pain, unable to hear it myself.

And then Nightmare Moon is pushed away by a white blur. I let out a whimper as my limb throbs, likely very much broken.

I honestly have nothing left inside me to push me forward anymore. Fear is a powerful tool when one needs to fight or run. But what happens when someone is too physically broken to do either? In nature, this is when a creature just rolls over and accepts their fate, allows the predator to finish them off and become another part in the circle of life. I am essentially at this point right now.

I close my one eye, tears leaking out from level of pain I feel all across my body. I feel my throat make some kind of whimper, but I can’t even hear it through my own ears.

I am helpless.

I am powerless.

I am afraid.

I feel a hoof gently touch my unbroken foreleg. I open my eye and shift a little to see Fluttershy looking down at me with tears in her own eyes. Behind her stands Twilight and the others, all looking at me with either shock or horror, but I have the strange impression that it’s not at me, but more at my state.

Twilight tries to say something to me, but I still can’t hear anything. Fluttershy also says something to me, rubbing my leg comfortingly as she does.

I feel lulled into a sense of peace as they stand near me. And I close my eye and rest.

Twilight freezes when she sees the flash and hears the boom. Before she could summon the power of the sixth element, Nightmare Moon had lashed out, and then there was suddenly a black and yellow dragon right in front of her, being electrocuted. She, very belatedly, scrambles back as his convulsing body thumps to the ground.

For a moment everything is still.

And then Nightmare Moon begins laughing.

“Ah-hahahahahahahahaha! Oh! Baelor! What a surprise! Thank you ever so much for finding me. It would have been an annoyance to track you down.” Nightmare Moon walks towards the downed dragon. Twilight and her friends move further away from the black alicorn, but her focus had shifted from them.

“And you also leapt right into my attack too. That is also a very kind gesture. I thank you.” She continues, coming to stand over him as he stirs and hacks up blood. “It almost makes me wish to make your end quick.” She says to him with a smirk. He only looks up at her, incomprehension in his one eye, the other shut tightly.

Nightmare Moon’s expression shifts to anger. She lifts her front hooves up and slams them into his stomach, making the dragon retch up more blood from both the hole in his chest and his mouth. “But I’m afraid that isn’t an option considering how durable you are. SO I SUPPOSE I WILL JUST HAVE TO MAKE YOU EXPERIENCE ALL THE PAIN YOU DESERVE FOR DESTROYING MY BEAUTIFUL MOON!!!” Nightmare Moon brings her hooves down on one of his legs next. Baelor lets out a heart wrenching cry of pain.

“STOP IT!!!” A voice cries out.

A white blur slams into Nightmare Moon’s side, sending both it and the black alicorn tumbling across the ground. When they stop rolling, Nightmare Moon throws it off and stands to face her new opponent. Twilight blinks when she realizes that the white attacker is her mentor, Princess Celestia.

“Princess?!” Twilight exclaims.

“Celestia.” Nightmare Moon snarls.

“Just stop this, Nightmare Moon. Your fight is with me. Leave all of them out of this.” Celestia says, a sword in her magical grasp.

Nightmare flares her wings out. “Very well. Have at thee!” Faster than Twilight can see, Nightmare Moon slams her hooves against the sword that Celestia blocks her with, and then kicks the white mare across the room and through the wall. And then their battle commences outside the castle.

“Twilight.” Rainbow Dash says, grabbing Twilight’s attention.

Twilight looks at the rainbow-maned pegasus, but she’s looking at something else. Twilight follows her line of sight to the downed dragon a little bit away from them.

“She… she hit him with a lot stronger lightning than she hit me with.” Rainbow tells Twilight while staring on the almost still form of the dragon. “He saved you.” She says with a subdued tone.

Twilight turns to stare at the dragon herself, remembering the brightness of the flash and the thrum of power she felt almost hit her. ‘That dragon… he… saved my life?’ She asks herself.

It takes her a moment to imagine his form on the ground replaced by hers, and she covers her mouth with her hoof when she finally registers the enormity of his action.

“Oh my… oh my gosh.” Twilight trembles in fear from the realization of how close a call it was. ‘I… I almost died. With no warning.’

Twilight hears a sniff from next to her, and she turns to see Fluttershy walking up to the dragon, tears leaking out of her eyes. Twilight gets to her hooves to follow a little behind her.

As Twilight gets closer the dragon, she can hear him gurgling out choked breaths, blood leaking out of the edges of his mouth. Twilight stops at the smell of burned flesh, almost gagging at the odor. But Fluttershy just moves closer and sits down next to him, and places a hoof on one of his forelegs. One of his eyes opens and he slowly turns to stare at her. His gaze moves over the rest of her friends, and then stops on her.

Twilight stares into his slitted amber eye, the eye of her savior, and she realizes, that she feels just as strongly about him as she does her other friends, despite never speaking to him before. And she also thinks that it would hurt as much inside her if this happened to any of the others.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” Twilight tells him. She doesn’t feel like it’s enough to express how she feels.

He uncomprehendingly stares at her, before he looks back over to Fluttershy. She rubs his foreleg comfortingly. “Shhh, shhh. It’s alright. We’re not going to let anything else happen to you. You can rest now.” Fluttershy tells him softly.

Very slowly, his eye closes, his breath slows, and his head quietly drops down to the side.

Twilight gasps, but then sighs in relief when she sees that he’s still breathing, albeit weakly.

“Twilight? What should we do?” Rainbow asks her.

“Don’t we still need that sixth element that you were talkin’ about before things got crazy?” Applejack adds.

“How can you two be focusing on things like that when this brave soul just got so gravely hurt just now?” Rarity asks.

“Cause it’s still not over yet. We need to finish this before we can focus on grieving, Rarity. Twilight we still need to find that sixth element before Nightmare Moon hurts somepony else.” Applejack tells her.

Twilight stays silent for a moment. “We already have it, Applejack. I have it.” Twilight says.

“What do you mean, darling?” Rarity asks, confused.

Twilight looks up at the five mares around her. “The sixth element will present itself when a spark ignites between the other five. I thought it meant a literal spark of magic. But I understood what it really meant when I heard all of you coming to find me after my spell misfired and teleported me right to the room Nightmare Moon was in.” Twilight smiles at all of them. “It ignited a spark within myself when I realized how much I cared about you all. When I realized you were all my friends.”

Twilight’s smile lessens. “And now I feel that I want to share this feeling with others. That I want to make more friends in the future, and become even closer to all of you and every other future friend as well.” Twilight sadly looks back at the injured dragon . “I don’t know exactly what I thought this quest for the Elements of Harmony would have been like before. What it would mean.” Twilight pauses. “But now I know that this is what we have to do… no matter what.” Twilight says with finality.

And then a warm light blazes into existence above Twilight’s head. The warmth encompasses Twilight all around her and her friends, and a warmer feeling builds up inside her, and a light weight deposits itself atop her head.

After that, the warmth fades a bit, but Twilight can still feel it hovering inside her, just within hoofs reach. She looks around to her friends and sees them all glowing with a light that gives her the same feeling of warmth.

“Hey! Look!” Pinkie says happily while pointing at the dragon.

Twilight follows Pinkie’s hoof and stares at the dragon in confusion, not understanding what she wants them to see. Then her heart jumps. ‘His wounds. They’re… healing.’ Twilight realizes. The glow of the Elements are surrounding him a little, and she can see the blackened skin around the hole in his chest slowly growing healthier looking.

“Let’s help him out some more. C’mon, these things might help him faster if we get closer.” Rainbow tells them. Twilight and the others nod in agreement, then take positions around him. And sure enough, the Element’s power seems to heal him even faster. His weak breathing starts to grow more slow and steady.

‘Yes! It’s working! Don’t worry. You’re going to be okay.’ Twilight thinks, hoping to project her relief and support to the unconscious dragon.

Suddenly, part of the ceiling gets punched through across the room as Celestia is blasted through, her sword blocking a magic beam from Nightmare Moon as she falls. Nightmare keeps pushing her down until Celestia hits the ground, knocking her sword out of her grasp from the impact. Nightmare sends down one last blast of magic at Celestia to finish her off, but Celestia manages to roll so that it hits the stone floor instead. The blast still sends the white alicorn careening into a wall, but at least she didn’t get blown to pieces. Twilight watches her mentor struggle to stand up after the heavy damage she suffered, while Nightmare lands several hoof-lengths away.

The black mare then seems to take notice of Twilight and her friends and their new glowing state, but more than anything, Twilight sees her eyes focus directly onto the dragon that they’re healing.

“NO! Get away from him! He needs to DIE!” She roars furiously at them.

Strangely enough though, Twilight doesn’t feel afraid of her, not anymore. All she feels is defiance of the one who wishes to hurt the one she and her friends are healing. Twilight turns towards Nightmare Moon and steps protectively in front of the dragon, glaring defiantly at the dark alicorn. Her friends all step to stand in front of him as well, just as determined to keep him safe.

“Get out of my way.” Nightmare commands.

“You’re not getting past us.” Twilight tells her.

Nightmare Moon’s face twists even further into anger and she pushes power into her horn. Twilight in response, reaches for the power she can feel within herself and grabs it, her friends do the same. The power builds up to a climax until it explodes out of all of them and weaves together to form a six-colored rainbow that collides with Nightmare Moon’s power. There is no power struggle, the rainbow pushes right past the mare’s magic like it isn’t even there, and then swirls around her in a tornado of color and light, Nightmare Moon screaming in rage.

The swirling lights accelerate and then burst out to envelope the entirety of the castle, and Twilight feels herself fall unconscious, unable to contain her smile.

‘We did it.’ She thinks with tired joy.

‘She did it.’ Celestia thinks with pride and relief. Twilight unlocked the full power of the Elements.

Celestia looks up from under her wing, which she used to shield her eyes when she saw what was coming, and looks over to where her student and her friends are lying on the ground, unconscious. They are quickly stirring and coming too, so Celestia walks over to them and gives her student a warm hug once she sits up.

“Wha-Princess? What-?”

“Well done, my faithful student. I am so proud of you.” Celestia tells her, pulling away to stand up.

Twilight blushes in embarrassment, while her friends all bow down in front of Celestia. “Rise, my little ponies. This is your victory today, not mine.” Celestia tells them with a smile.

“*GASP* Hey! Mister Dragon is okay again!” Pinkie exclaims from the back of the group.

Everypony turns to look. Celestia smiles in relief upon seeing the sleeping form of her old friend, completely healed by the Elements. ‘Rest well Bael. You’ve more than earned that three week’s rest that you requested.’

“Oh my, that is certainly a relief. It would have been terrible if he didn’t make it after saving Twilight like he did.” Rarity says.

“No kidding. That guy’s all kinds of awesome for taking that hit. Not as awesome as me, but still pretty awesome.” Rainbow says with a smirk.

“Oh! Rainbow, he’s not the only one to get healed. You’re wings look better too.” Fluttershy comments.

Rainbow whips her head around to look at her wings and gives a whoop of joy and leaps up and starts hovering in place.

“*gasp* My beautiful tail is back as well. Oh I’ll never part with it again.” Rarity says happily while flaunting her restored tail.

“Wait, what happened to Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asks Celestia.

Celestia keeps her face in check, but her heart jumps in anticipation as she turns her head around to look at the last place Nightmare Moon was standing.

Nightmare Moon’s armor lays shattered and strewn across the floor. And in the center of the remains lies the still form of a smaller blue alicorn.

Celestia walks over to stand over the mare, casting a spell to check her vitals as she does so. Celestia lets out a small sigh of relief when she finds that she’s only sleeping, like Baelor.

“She’s still alive? But I thought…” Twilight says with worry.

“You don’t have to worry Twilight. The Elements cleansed her of the dark influence that had taken over her. My sister just needs to rest and recuperate from the millennia of fighting Baelor on the moon.” Celestia tells her student gently.

“SISTER?!” Twilight and the other five mares behind her exclaim in surprise.

Celestia chuckles. “Yes. This is my younger sister, Princess Luna. She moved the moon before I had to banish her with the Elements. And Baelor is an old friend of both of ours that gave me the chance to use them on her a thousand years ago when she first transformed into Nightmare Moon. Unfortunately, it left him in the way of the Element’s blast as well, and he was banished to the moon alongside her.” Celestia explains to them.

Celestia looks out the hole in the wall of the castle. “Now, I believe it is meant to be daytime by this point in time. So what do you all say to me raising the sun and then we can enjoy the Summer Sun Celebration?” She says to the six mares.

Twilight giggles. “I think that sounds like a great idea Princess.” She answers.

“WOO HOO! PARTY TIME!!!” Pinkie shouts energetically, popping up from Celestia’s mane.

Twilight looks horrified at Pinkie’s antics, but Celestia doesn’t even flinch. She’s already read up on all of the Element Bearers and their little quirks, Pinkie’s ability to break the laws of physics included.

“Excellent.” Celestia simply says. She turns and picks up Luna in her magic, and then gently places her onto her back. She then walks over to Baelor and picks him up in her magic aura and walks, bearing the weight of her two closest companions. The six Element Bearers following her. Celestia absentmindedly grabs her sword off the ground and sheaths it.

“And Twilight, would it be any trouble for me to leave Baelor and Luna in your library to rest some more?” Celestia asks her student.

Twilight looks up at her mentor. “Of course not Princess. They look like they need all the rest they can get.” She answers with a smile.

“Thank you.” Celestia says. And with a small flair of additional magic, Celestia pulls the sun up from the horizon to begin the new day.

Author's Notes:

Another day, another chapter.

"Don't act like this was done all in one day right after the last one. This one probably got done over the course of two weeks because you couldn't move your lazy ass away from your PS4 long enough to get it all down."

Okay, one, this was done for a long time, it was just copying and pasting it to FimFiction that took a while to do because of the PS4. And two, that was pretty snarky for you Aevum. Isn't Ictus usually the one to make a comment like that.

"What Ictus does, and what I do are completely different. Whenever he says something along those lines, you can practically hear the troll face he has. When I do it, I always have my serious/irritated face on. Ictus is sarcastic for the laughs. I'm sarcastic because I'm riled up because we haven't heard anything from neither Ictus nor Pinkie for two chapters. I am incredibly worried now. The least you can do is be considerate of my state of heightened irritation."

So, you're worried.

"YES, I am ing worried! Why aren't you?!"

...With how much you're swearing, I think this is the point where Ictus would say you have your mother's mouth and nack for cursing.

"... I feel like that should rile me up, but for some reason it calmed me down."

Maybe you're just missing Ictus's sarcasm.

"Oh god, I hope not. I will say that I would feel better knowing where he and Pinkie are than all this ambiguity."

Maybe they'll reveal themselves next chapter. It's as good a point as any considering this is the last chapter of the intro arch.

"Yeah, maybe."