I ended up sleeping through the most important conversation of my life.

“Do you understand, Princess?”

I started awake, with a decidedly unprocessed snort. There was a muffled thump as one of my failing hooves struck the pony next to me.

“What? Where? Who? I...” I glanced around the plush carriage. “Oh, right.”

The pony next to me scowled, rubbing his flank just above the cutie-mark. The look lasted just a moment, replaced by a sudden weariness.

“Sorry, Princess Twilight,” he said, hastily. “I didn’t mean to get in your way.”

“I--” I began, but thought better of it. There’s no point arguing with fans when they start getting all deferential. “Dude, chill,” I said, changing tacks. “You guys seem pretty cool, you don’t have to be so formal all time. What’s with this whole ‘Princess’ thing? ”

The stallion blanched. “I... wouldn’t dare, Princess,” he said, with a slight, reverent bow of his head.

For a moment I was tempted to just order him to call me by my name. It was utterly idiotic, as Octavia would say, that ponies insisted on calling me Twilight. They were the fans though, and the ponies writing my pay check. I couldn’t afford to be the mare that turned down a few thousand bucks just because she couldn’t stroke a few egos. There were bills to pay and Tirek’s own mortgage to pay, friendship, magic or otherwise, didn’t put food on the table.

I still would have preferred they call me Vinyl though.

Well, that was what I got for dyeing my coat. Shaking myself, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “Look... sorry, what was your name?”

“Bright Shield,” he said, not meeting my eye. “And can I just say what an honour it is to meet you, your highness.”

Oh, you poor, sad, fanboy. “Right, I see you’ve got the mark to match.” I glanced down at his flank. It was a pretty good effort for a cutie-mark, a buckler surrounded by stars, clearly based off my brother’s when he played Shining Armor.

“Yes, your highness. I’ve born this cutie-mark for four years now, ever since we first received word of your exploits.”

“Okay, ease up on the ‘your highnesses’,” I snapped, holding up a hoof to stifle any protest. “If you’re going to go all the way with this anyway, just call me Twilight.” The ponies shared a worried look. “Don’t make me make a royal order.”

“Of course... Twilight,” Bright said, the word hanging on his tongue as he dodged the honorific.

“Right, right, better.” Urgh, I hate method actors. Sure, it’s all well and good to get in character, but you should at least drop it when the camera’s aren’t rolling. “So, who are you two playing today?” I asked the other two.

“Oh, oh!” The blond maned pegasus nearly bounced out of her seat. “I’m Surprise, I’ll be the element of laughter today.”

I nodded. Well, if they were doing self-inserts as the elements, I had to admire their casting. Turning to the final pony in the carriage I asked. “And you?”

The earth pony bowed. “Solid, your-- Twilight.” Her name fitted her well, she was half again my size and a mottled brown. “I will be loyalty.”

“Cool, so we’re getting a whole gang together. Awesome.” I shook my head. “But, seriously how are we going to do this? I can wing it pretty well, but I do like to have my lines.”

The ponies shared a worried glance. “Did you not hear us, your highness?” Solid began. “I thought--”

I cut her off before they figured out I’d slept through their backstory. “Adlib it is then. Just give me the Cliff Notes on who I’m supposed to be vanquishing, you know, just so we’re absolutely clear, and we’ll be done by the time the bars open.”

That seemed to mollify them a little. “Of course, your-- Twilight,” Solid said, bowing her head in that ever so irritating way. “We, the ponies of New Equestria have suffered generations of strife, hardship, and discord.”

“Discord,” the other two echoed, shuddering.

“However, using your lessons of friendship, we have been able to rebuild.” Her voice swelled with conviction. “We have grown stronger, with friendship in our hearts and with magic as our guide!” She faltered. “But, we haven’t been able to banish all the nightmares from our land. We haven’t been able to banish The Nightmare.”

I blinked. “Nightmare Moon. The Nightmare Moon?”

“Yes, your highness. We thought, with your mastery of the magic of friendship, and your element, that you would have no trouble repeating your feat.”

“Sure, no problem.” There was an audible sigh of relief from the gathered ponies. “I’ll just do the classic, friendship was magic all along and you gals won’t have to worry about old Black Snooty any more.”

“Thank you, Princess Twilight,” Solid said. “It is--”

There was a sudden thump on the wall of the carriage, and we jolted to a stop.

“Ah, we’ve arrived.” Solid beamed. “If you’d just like to follow us, Twilight, Canterlot awaits.”

Bright Shield untangled himself from his seat and, with a flourish, swung open the carriage door.

A wall of sound greeted us. I pulled off my glasses and stuck my head out of the door, staring in disbelief. Thousands of ponies were cheering, howling or screaming with excitement in the largest courtyard I’d ever seen. A spark of magic closed my dropped jaw and I shook myself, ducking back into the carriage.

“You didn’t tell me we were starting already!” I snapped, pulling a compact mirror out of my side-pouch. My costume was a mess, the purple wig slightly skewed, the paint on my horn wearing at the base and the false wings clasped at my side looked as ridiculous as ever. Hopefully nopony was expecting any wire work, because they wouldn’t last more than a couple stunts. Levitating the element of magic tiara to my head I shook myself, dashed a little stage make-up onto my face to hide the bags under my eyes, and dropped into Twilight’s character.

After playing a role for a few years, it starts to become second nature. Twilight was like an old friend, you just had to smile and wave, say the right nerdy things at the right nerdy time, and the fans would eat out of your hoof. With the neurotic alicorn personality riding my hindbrain I stepped out into the sunlight, waving to the crowd. A set of stallions in golden armour took up position beside the carriage and kept the crowd at a respectable distance. They all had cutie-marks, in fact, the entire crowd as far as I could see had the strange pictures on their flanks.

Cutie-marks tended to freak me out, before Friendship is Magic hit the air they’d been a footnote in history, a mythical thing from an age of magic. Now, everywhere I went ponies had these weird tattoos, ones that required fans to show me their butts to get a proper look at. Let me assure you that was only sexy the first dozen times it happens.

There was no time to worry about flank tattoos, though, we were already moving. The guards, and my entourage, formed a living wall between myself and the crowd, who dropped into deep bows as we past. I found a blush rising to my cheeks that was not part of the act. Lost gods they were good actors for a bunch of fannish extras. Excitement upon meeting a star wasn’t unusual, but the ponies surrounding me were bordering worship. That was just creepy.

I kept my eyes straight ahead, fixed on the architecture. It didn’t help much, Ponyville had always been more plywood façades than an actual town, and Canterlot was a model we added in post production. Standing in the square, on the set, with the flagstones ringing beneath my hooves, I could almost believe I was there, in Canterlot. The towers seemed to stretch up into the sky and the mountain breeze played along my coat. If Celestia hadn’t just been an animatronic with an illusionary mane, I might have expected her to step out of the palace and great us herself.

With unease dancing across my spine we finally made it to the door. The golden portal swung open before us, and we swept into the marble halls, the roar of the crowd falling suddenly silent behind us.

“This is tartarus’ own set-up you got here,” I hissed to the closest pony, Bright Shield.

He shot me a confused look. “We modelled it to be as close to the Canterlot of your world as possible.”

I fought down the urge to roll my eyes, having already broken character enough. If we had had this much money to throw around on the show, I wouldn’t be living con to con on autograph money.

“Whatever, where to now?”

Bright’s eyes darkened. “The Nightmare awaits in the diplomat's hall.”

“What?” I did a double take. “We’re skipping straight to the finale? Okay, whatever floats your boat.”

The trio of ponies looked at me askance, and I bit the inside of my cheek. Clearly they still wanted Twilight the Princess and not Vinyl the actor. I couldn’t help it, though, my sense of unease was growing with every step. It was all just too much, too many ponies, too much dedication to their characters, too much money on display. Octavia always said that we had the only fans crazy enough to start a cult. I had the feeling that I was walking towards a stone altar with Twilight’s cutie-mark carved into it. It was not a comforting thought.

“We have arrived,” Solid said, pausing before yet another set of grand doors. “Prepare yourself. The Nightmare came to us with honeyed words, but we stand against her, we will stand with you.”

The doors swung open without a whisper and, holding myself like a queen, I strode into the room.

An alicorn awaited me. She stood at least two heads above me, with an ethereal mane as blank as the void blowing in the non-existent breeze. Her coat was dark, so dark it seemed to swallow all light and her eyes were shards of cold topaz that regarded me with barely constrained malice. It was by far and away the best illusion I had ever seen, and I’d worked with some of the best illusionist in the industry.

“So at last, the final element reveals herself,” the alicorn, The Nightmare, intoned. Her voice seemed to wrap around my heart, freezing and chilling and I stopped dead in my tracks. “Good. I tire of this farce.”

She sat at the end of a long table, flanked by twisted ponies with batlike wings and vicious fangs. At the other end, two ponies were perched on their chairs, sweating bullets, a butter yellow earth pony stallion and a painfully pink pegasus.

“Princess, thank Harmony you arrived,” the stallion said, rising. “My name is Lemon Drizzle and this is Firefly. We await your command.”

Right. Showtime.

Drawing myself up to my full height I continued my royal strut into the room. “Hello, Nightmare. If I’m boring you, feel free to leave whenever you like.”

A smirk spread across Nightmare’s face. “Neigh, I’m beginning to like this land. It has a certain sweetness to it that will rot well beneath the eternal ice.”

“I won’t let that happen.” I reached the table, on it sat five necklaces and five familiar jewels. Even they seemed too real, having the shine of real gold, rather than the cheap costume jewellery we used on the show. Something was niggling at the back of my mind. Something about the whole situation seemed horribly wrong, but I couldn’t put my hoof on what. “Not while I can stop you.”

“Can you, Twilight Sparkle, can you really?” Nightmare glowered. “I see you. Beneath all that bluster you are afraid. I will offer you the same deal that I’ve offered these simpletons. Give me the Elements and you an escape with your lives.”

I grinned. Well, how could I or Twilight Sparkle resist such a straight line? Now to hope the illusionist was on the ball. “Well then.” I channelled as much magic as I could muster into the fake gem on my tiara. It began to glow like a spot lamp. “Take them, if you can!”

There was a flare as I pushed the gem as bright as it could go. The Nightmare skittered back, covering her eyes with a leg, but little more happened. The light faded away, leaving everypony staring at me.

“Okay, see here is why we need to rehearse things,” I said, rolling my eyes. I rubbed my eyes, it was way too early in the morning to be dealing with amateurs. “See, that’s when--”

The wave of force smashed into me like an anvil. Splintered wood filled the air around me as the blast of telekinetic force smashed the table apart. I was picked up and hurled through the air, flying twenty feet before I hit the wall with a bang. Stars danced before my eyes and my head lolled as I tried to sort up from down. The magic seemed to swell around me, pinning me to the wall and crushing my lungs as I fought to draw breath.

“Is that it?” The Nightmare boomed, stalking through the wreckage of the table. Splinters hung in the air around her, frozen in time. “Is that all you can muster, oh Princess of Magic, a bold word and a bright flash? Pitiful.”

There were no cameras. It was a stupid thing to realise, while pinned by an incomprehensibly powerful spell, while facing down a demi-god in pony form, but that final worry revealed itself them. There were no cameras. No pony was filming. This was real.

Lost gods, this was real.

“Speak, Princess!” Nightmare boomed, the pressure redoubling, and I screamed in pain. “Did you think me no threat?” She lifted me off the wall and slammed me back down. “Not worthy of your time?” Another brutal slam. I wailed, my horn sputtering as I tried to do something, anything to free myself. “A mere figment to banish without--” she paused, holding me in mid air. Her gaze was fixed on something on the floor and I followed it down. Below me was the shattered remains of my element. The gem, costume glass really, had shattered and the cheap metal had bent under the impact.

“A fake?”

Solid roared as she hurled herself at the alicorn. A blow to the horn stilled all magic for a moment, and I dropped unceremoniously to the floor.

“Run, Twilight. I’ve got this--argh!” Solid screamed as The Nightmare picked her up like a doll.

I didn’t pause. Adrenaline drowning out a dozen screaming pains I leapt back to my hooves and accelerated away. An all out brawl raged around me. A nightmare pony screamed a battle cry as he charged me, only to be intercepted by a ballistic Surprise. Mustering as much force as I could I heaved the door open ahead of me and burst into the corridor.

And didn’t stop.

---

Canterlot was a war zone. The castle was overrun with The Nightmare’s twisted ponies and I could do little more than run and hide.

Actually, scratch that, hide was all I did. After too much panicked galloping I found myself in the hall of heroes, cowering behind a marble column. Stained glass windows of my friends and our fictional victories stared down at me, judging me, but I tried my best to ignore them.

“Urgh!” I banged my head on the nearest column. “Don’t look at me like that. How was I supposed to know it was real?”

I was such an idiot. I should have known something was off when they turned up in a period carriage, rather than a limo. I should have been suspicious of how they never broke character. I definitely shouldn’t have tried to attack a god with a flashlight.

“Argh!” I slammed my hooves down. This wasn’t supposed to happen! There weren’t any angry gods in the real world. Magic, the powerful magic like we had in the show, had vanished into myth millennia ago. All we had left was crazy stories and make believe TV shows, like Friendship is Magic.

“Okay, Vinyl,” I said, beginning to pace. “You can get out of this. Just retrace your steps and you’ll find the way home. Of course, you were out drinking too late last night, so slept through the whole journey here! Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t get out of this nightmare.”

The grand doors opened with a bang and I threw myself back behind the pillar.

“It came from over here!” I heard Surprise yell. Before I could blink, my world was suddenly full of pegasus. “There you are!” she exclaimed. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Hooves on stone echoed through the hall, as the rest of the Element Bearers hurried to my side. I cast around for somewhere to run, but they stood between me and the only door.

“She’s hurt,” the yellow stallion exclaimed, hurrying to my side. With gentle hooves, and ignoring my own protests, he guided me to the ground and began to wrap bandages around my various cuts and scrapes

“Princess, I am sorry,” Solid began, dropping into a deep bow before me, the rest followed suit. “We have failed you.”

“What?” I said, completely lost.

“We have seen you win against far greater odds, Twilight Sparkle, the fault clearly lies with us. We failed. You must--”

“What!” Even after seeing me smashed against a wall, they still thought I was Twilight. “Are you insane?” I exclaimed. “What fight were you watching? There’s nothing I can do to stop that!”

They looked at me aghast. “But, you are Twilight Sparkle,” Solid insisted. “You have triumphed over the Nightmare before.”

“No. No I am not!” I shot back, ripping the wig off my head to reveal my own close cropped blue mane. “I’m an actor. It was make believe.”

Jaws dropped. “I... I don’t understand,” Solid began, faltering. “Then where's the real Twilight?”

“She doesn’t exist.” I pushed Lemon away and struggled to my hooves. “She never existed. All that bull about magic and friendship, it’s all just old myths wrapped up in cute twenty minute episodes.”

“But...” Surprise stuttered. “We saw Ponyville, the Elements, Canterlot. You defeated Nightmare Moon.”

I dropped my head into my hooves. “No. It’s all entertainment. Illusions and special effects. Ponyville was made of plywood and cheap paint. Our Elements were made of coloured glass.”

“You performed great feats of magic,” Bright Shield added, looking as if somepony had punched him between the eyes.

“That was a whole team of illusionists from behind the camera.” I shook my head. “Nopony can do that kind of magic. I’m in the top two thirds of all unicorns and that just means I can lift a bag of flower!”

“What about the friendship?” Firefly said, her voice a mere whisper.

I hung my head. “Fake. I haven’t got on with the rest of the cast in years.”

Solid opened her mouth to speak when a sudden chill washed over us. Laugher echoed through the halls. Cold, bitter, mocking laughter. The sun streaming through the stained glass faded away, leaving us in deep shadow and a shudder ran down my spine.

“Show yourself!” Solid roared, rearing up, her eyes wild as she cast around the room for something to kick.

“Oh, I don’t think we need to worry about hiding from you, worms.” The Nightmare stepped from the patch of the deepest shadow, or perhaps she was always the shadow. Her gaze fixed mine and I stood, frozen in fear. “And we are well past the time you could run. Isn’t that right, Twilight Sparkle.” There was a flash of magic and the wig was back on my head. “Or was it Vinyl Scratch?”

Her teeth gleamed in the half-light, as she strode across the room towards me. “I must congratulate you, though, Twilight. I always find that crushing spirits takes so much longer than crushing bodies, but you have done wonderfully on my behalf. When I first heard of this insane dream, this call from another dimension to stand with friendship against me, it seemed my plans for this world would be slowed somewhat.” A loop of black magic materialised around my neck and she yanked me across the floor. “It was a pitiful thing, that hope. Still, I applaud your ability to crush it.”

I choked, my horn flickering as I tried to fight against the magic. It was like trying to blow out a hurricane. “Now, any last requests before I kill you?”

“Don’t?” I suggested, trying to smile.

“Cute. Tell me, Twilight, are those wings real?”

My face fell.

“I thought as much.”

The whip of magic lashed out, dragging me up, into the air and hurling me towards a window. Stunt training saved me, I hurled a bolt of force at the glass, curling myself into a ball as the window exploded into a thousand pieces. Shards of glass bit into my coat as I crashed through the shattered portal, but they were shallow, and nowhere near as dangerous as the thousand foot drop below.

I screamed, the wind whipping around me as I fell, tumbling. My fake wings pulled at my barrel, feathers streaming away as the costume disintegrated, but it didn’t slow my fall. I flailed, desperately trying to think of something, anything, I could do to save my life.

“Hold still!” the words were almost lost to the roar of air. I froze, just as a pair of pink hooves wrapped around my barrel and Firefly flared her wings wide.

We almost didn’t make it. The foothills of the Canterlot mountain loomed out of the darkness even as we decelerated. A hundred feet away, fifty, ten. We hit the sod at a gallop and, after just a few paces, tripped over each others hooves and dug a furrow as we skidded to a stop.

I lay there for a long moment, staring at the sky. I’m sure it was day last I looked “I think I need recasting,” I said at last.

Firefly picked herself up, the pink pony pulling grass out of her coat. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Sorry.” I closed my eyes. “I’m a little out of my element.”

“Yeah, I got that.” Firefly held out a hoof and lifted me off the grass. “It wasn’t another lie, was it? You’re not Twilight.”

I hung my head. “Sorry.”

Firefly rubbed her eyes. “Argh, stop saying that. Look, is there anything you can do? There’s gotta be some proper heroes on your world. Maybe the real Element of Magic. There must be something!”

“Sorry,” I said, whimpering.

“Please, anything,” she begged. “A scrap of lore. A forgotten artefact. A myth. Anything!”

I couldn’t meet her eyes. There was nothing to suggest. The only magic left at home was the magic of cinema. Somehow I doubted that would work against an angry god. “Maybe some other land can help you.”

“Damn it!” Firefly slammed her hooves against the ground. “There are no other lands, The Nightmare has destroyed everything! It was only seeing visions from your world... your fantasy--” she snarled the word “--that we were even able to create the Elements. They work though, we could never complete them. We never had magic.”

“I’m not Twilight Sparkle,” I said, hanging my head. “There’s nothing I can do.”

She took a deep breath. “No. No there isn’t.” Firefly’s wings drooped, as if the weight of the world was on them. “I need to get back to the fight maybe...” She glanced up at Canterlot, but didn’t bother to complete the sentence. There wasn’t much room for maybes when you were trying to stop a god. She shook herself. “Look, if you follow the slope down you’ll find a road. Follow it to the west for about a mile and you’ll find the stone circle where we summoned you. The spell should still be able to take you home.”

“Really?” I couldn’t keep the excitement out of my voice. “I can go home?”

Firefly rolled her eyes. “Yeah... no point getting yourself killed here. Just go.”

I was a dozen yards away before she’d even finished speaking. The flash of excitement, however, vanished the moment I looked over my shoulder. There were tears in the pegasus’ eyes, far above our heads the golden city was burning, but she spread her wings anyway, to rejoin the fray.

“Wait!”

Firefly froze, and shot me a curious look.

“Don’t go back there,” I said, hurriedly. “You can’t save them. Come with me.”

“I know,” she said, glancing up at Canterlot. “There’s nowhere left to run to. Everypony left in the world is up there. Nopony is running away from this one.”

A great boom rent the air. Far above my head one of the marble towers exploded, showering the mountainside with burning masonry. They were going to die, all of them. I didn’t have a script to tell me how I was supposed to save the day. I didn’t have an artefact from a bygone age to help me. My magic was just a gnat's sting against The Nightmare.

I broke into a gallop. Charging up the hill, towards the burning city.

“Wait, where are you going?” Firefly demanded, taking to the air to keep up with me. “The portal’s the other way.”

“I know. I’m coming with you!” Keep up!”

---

The battle for Canterlot was not fairing well when we arrived. It seemed in their hurry to recreate the grand castle, the locals had neglected a few features most castles favoured. Little things like defensive walls, towers and murder holes. I wished our writers had grounded their damn fantasy castle in a little more reality. I also wished they hadn’t put it on top of a lost-gods forsaken mountain.

I was gasping for breath when we reached the outskirts of the castle.

“Come on!” Firefly barked, flitting back and forth above my head. “Get the lead out of your saddlebags.”

“Actor,” I gasped, collapsing onto the lawn. “Not adventurer.”

“Urgh, do you actually have a plan?” The pegasus dropped to the ground next to me.

“Not as such,” I muttered. “I was hoping something would have come to me by now.”

Firefly groaned, rolling her eyes at me. “We’re going to die.”

A bitter laugh escaped me. “Heh, well Twilight would say a, ‘pony should never give up hope’.”

“What about Vinyl?”

I groaned, and got back onto my hooves. “She’s going along with Twilight for now. Though, I should probably ask, do you have a plan?” Another explosion rocked the ground beneath us, and another tower fell with a deafening crash.

Firefly laughed. “Hah, you were the one running ahead. I thought you had a plan.”

“Well, if things are anything like on the show, I was going to run around until we find the Element of magic somewhere.” I shrugged. “It generally only shows up at the last few minutes. Maybe hit up a library, that always worked for Twilight.”

A strangled scream rent the air, followed by another muffled boom. “Well we do not have time for libraries” Firefly snapped, breaking into a canter. “We’ve got to get in there!”

“Wait up.” I struggled to get my hooves into gear, galloping to keep up. The surrounding buildings us were burning, casting the street into harsh light and deep shadow. I kept my eyes fixed on Firefly’s tail, struggling to keep up as the far younger and more athletic mare in view. Between the smoke and the noise and the distant screams of battle, it wasn’t a surprise I missed the ambush.

Two of the batwinged ponies leapt from the shadow of a fallen bridge. Firefly went down, but took one with her, and the pair skidded across the road, biting and kicking. The second nightmare pony took to the sky, angling to bring his bladed forehooves into play, but he didn’t seem to notice my yell of alarm. Putting my head down I kindled my horn and wrenched a half brick from the floor.

Fun fact. I never had a stunt double for Twilight Sparkle, I had a flight double, an illusion team and three make-up artists, but I did all my own tricks. The half brick soared through the air, slamming into the airborne pony and he staggered in the sky, dropping to near ground level. I spun on my fore hooves, bunching up my back legs and hit him with a savage buck. Bones snapped, and the pony screamed, hitting the ground with a bang. There was another crack Firefly head butted her opponent, before leaping up and stamping on his barrel.

“Urgh, I hate these things,” she growled, shaking the dust out of her coat. She suddenly saw the second pony at my hooves. “Huh, I thought you said you didn’t have any magic?”

I shot her a flat look, hefting my brick. “You’d be amazed how many magical techniques are just about hitting things with fancy rocks. Now, shall we?”

We set off at a gallop through Canterlot, following the distant sounds of battle. Though dark shapes filtered through the sky above our heads, no more ponies swept out of the shadows to attack us. Soon the polished marble of Canterlot castle’s halls was beneath our hooves and we raced down the battle scarred corridors.

“There, up ahead!” Firefly roared. “The grand hall.”

Of course, a small horde of the nightmare ponies stood between us and the barricaded hall. Firefly took to the air, screaming a battle cry and nightmare ponies wheeled around as the one mare flanking attack bore down on them. She was surprisingly effective, bowling ponies down left right and centre. I grabbed another rock off the floor and hurled it into the crush. A pony went down, and, throwing common sense to the wind, charged into the mob.

The męlée was a whirlwind of teeth and hooves, failing wings and--

A hoof caught me in the head and I went down like a sack of potatoes. The world swam, faces blurring as I tried to scrabble to my hooves. It felt like somepony had put the castle at sea, the floor rocked back and forth. Somepony clipped my flank and I went tumbling, desperately trying to keep my breakfast down. The words, “protect the princess!” echoed through the brawl. I had no idea where the princess was though, so couldn’t help.

Suddenly the space around me cleared. Magic wreathed me, lifting my limp form into the air and I found myself whisked over the barricades and into the hall.

“Out of the way, give her room!” A mass of yellow swam into view and something foul smelling was forced under my nose. I tried to push it away, but couldn’t seem to sort out where my forehooves were, and the stomach turning potion poured down my throat, burning as it went.

“Gargh!” I exclaimed, sitting bolt upright, gagging. “What the buck was that?”

“A healing potion,” Lemon said, a faint smile on his muzzle. “Good to see you back, Princess.”

I was laid out in a crowd of ponies. There were no smiling faces any more, the ponies looked haggard and worn, many were nursing wounds or wrapped in bandages, those with armour looked particularly battered. Still, they had hope, a light that seemed to brighten as my gaze passed over them.

“I’m no princess,” I murmured.

“But it is good to see you back.”

“Lemon!” Bright Shield’s angry yell cut through the crowd, followed by the stallion himself. “Why are you wasting our supplies on her?” Angry whispers surrounded him, but he paid no heed. From over by the main doors, the sounds of combat intensified.

Lemon sighed. “Because she was hurt.”

“There’s enough honest ponies here who are hurt,” Bright growled. “Why waste resources on this lier?”

“Because she was hurt.”

I pulled myself back onto my hooves, stretching out as a thousand little aches and pains assaulted me. “Look. I know I’m not the pony you wanted to see, but I’m still here to help.”

“And what, exactly, do you intend to do?” Bright demanded, looming over me. “Did you perhaps find a lost Element while you were gone?”

“No more than you found a sense of humour,” I shot back, matching his glare.

“Hey!” The rattle of hooves announced Solid galloping to my rescue. “Ease off Bright,” the big earth pony boomed. “We’ve got a Nightmare to fight, not each other.” She turned to me. “Though, you know, if you were going to reveal it was all a grand bluff, now would be the time.”

Another explosion rocked the room, so close dust rained down from the ceiling.

“They’re breaking through!” A desperate cry came from the barricades.

“There’s just me,” I said, sighing. “I’ll stand by you, though.”

“It would be an honour.” Solid assured me and Lemon nodded in agreement. Bright rolled his eyes.

“I guess it can’t hurt.”

The room shook, the candles in the chandeliers flicking and dying, plunging the room into darkness broken only by weak horn lights.

“Girls, get back here!” Solid roared. From the running battle two pegasi broke off and fought against the flow of ponies struggling to reinforce the doors to reach us.

“It’s time,” she continued, nodding at Bright. One by one, the Elements of Harmony were lifted from Bright’s saddlebag. Loyalty found its way around Solid’s neck. Kindness was Lemon’s. Surprise had Laughter. Bright took Honesty himself and a battered looking Firefly took Generosity.

A wave of magic shattered the makeshift barrier, hurling ponies across the room. Auras flared and pegasi danced in the air as they caught as many as they could, but too many ponies hit the ground with meaty thuds and didn’t rise. The Nightmare strode through the hole, flanked by her batwinged attendants and, as one the Element bearers charged.

Magic swelled around them, their Elements blazing as they galloped towards the dark god. I found myself screaming as I ran, just a half pace behind them, followed by every other pony in the room. This was it, the last stand. The moment when Magic unveiled itself, or left us to die. I poured mana into my horn, lifting an ugly splinter of wood alongside me. Shields blossomed into existence and bolts of pure magic screamed downrange. Pegasi took to the sky, lifting heavy weights or wielding vicious swords. Earth ponies just put down their heads and charged, with a sense of inevitability that suggested they would run through walls if they had too. The noise was immense, hooves thundering, ponies screaming, spells singing.

We may as well have attacked a mountain for all the effect we had. Spells vanished before they could strike, pegasi were hurled from the sky and the earth ponies slammed into invisible walls going crashing to the ground. I hurled my makeshift spear, which vanished into a cloud of sawdust before it went a single yard.

“ENOUGH!”

I hit the deck, just in time for a wall of force to explode out from Nightmare Moon. Ponies screamed as they were picked up and thrown through the air like rag dolls, more just fell as their legs were swept out from under them. Only the Elements stayed on their hooves, roaring at they closed the final few yards, their Elements blazing.

It was barely a fight. In less than ten seconds every one of them was scattered by the dark alicorn. Surprise held on the longest, literally sinking her teeth into Nightmare’s ethereal mane before being tossed away like a discarded can.

“I am tired of this resistance.” She spat the word. “Can you muster no better? Can you...” Her eyes caught might. “Oh... well look who it is.”

A loop of magic reached around my neck and dragged me to her, lifting me up by the throat. As I spluttered and fought for breath she grinned.

“I do believe I killed you, Twilight Sparkle. Why are you still here?”

“Because,” I said, choking. “It was the right thing to do.”

The Nightmare put her head back and laughed. “That is just so trite.” Her grin widened, revealing vicious fangs. “You really think you can play the hero here? You, the fake--” she ripped the wig from my head. “--the deceiver--” the wings were next. They fell apart in mid air. “--the charlatan.” In a puff of magic, the dye vanished from my coat, leaving me my usual pearly white. “You are nothing more than a fake.”

Magic surged around me and I was tossed away. Surprise caught me, depositing me on my hooves in front of the Elements, who were struggling back up.

I sighed, hanging my head. “Yeah. I’m just a fake.” I looked around the hall, at the broken stonework and the broken ponies. All this was my fault. They’d wanted Twilight Sparkle, not some actress peddling fake dreams.

“Please, Princess,” I heard a pony say. I didn’t know the mare’s name, voice was reedy and week, her leg obviously broken. “Save us.”

I turned to face The Nightmare, and fixed her right in the eye, channelling as much of Twilight’s spirit as I could muster. Ponies often asked me what I admired most about Twilight. It was never the magic, though that surprised a lot of ponies, it was that she never gave up. “I’m not Twilight Sparkle. I’m not some all powerful mage and have no great destiny. But the funny thing is, that’s just a matter of perspective. I’m still standing here. And there five ponies standing with me. There’s a whole room full of the most magical ponies I’ve ever met ready to see you fall. I may be a fake princess, but they believe in me, and I know something you don’t!”

She cocked an eyebrow at me. “And what is that?”

A smile spread across my muzzle. “We not missing Magic.” I swept a hoof across the gathered mass of ponies. Ponies holding up their friends. Ponies bandaging wounds. Ponies standing together against the darkness. Ponies standing beside me. “Friendship is Magic, and I see so many friends here you can’t hope to defeat them all.”

A bolt of black lightning leapt from her horn and screamed through the air before me. A white shield sprang into being before us as Bright Shield took the blow.

“You will die!” Nightmare screamed, leaping into the air as thunder boomed. “I am your Nightmares made flesh!”

“And I’m Vinyl Scratch!” I roared back. Bright’s Shield’s magic failed but I stepped forwards as more black fire rained down, catching the spell and the shield went a violent blue. Just how I managed it I don’t know. Power was pouring through me, from every desperate pony in the room. The Element’s were blazing, brighter than ever before and I set my hooves firmly on the ground. “I bear the Element of Magic.”

A shock wave of pure white power slammed into me, and I staggered as it swirled around me. The familiar weight of a tiara settled on my head, Magic made solid. Electricity hummed through my bones and I lifted off the floor, my fellow bearers hovering alongside me.

“No. No!” The Nightmare boomed.

I opened my eyes, my vision washed out from the sheer amount of power I was channeling. “Oh yes!” I cheered. “Eat rainbow, bitch!”

The Elements flared, a wash of prismatic light streamed from us, striking the Nightmare right in the chest. She screamed in rage and fear, her boding burning in the light of Harmony.

“I. Will. Not. Di--” Her final scream vanished, fading away to nothingness and, in an instant, the light of the Elements vanished.

We dropped to the floor. Sunlight streamed through the shattered windows, and the sound of fleeing bat ponies filled the air. For a moment, nopony spoke, nopony said a word, they just stared at me open mouthed.

“Well,” I said at last. “Still want Twilight Sparkle, or was that good enough?”

The room erupted into cheers.