

Twilight Sparkle realised that the spark mentioned in the tales about the elements wasn't magic, but friendship.

She finally faced the group head on at the castle, there she tried to steal the Elements of Harmony away and even smashed their physical, stone forms. Her traps included collapsing a cliffside road, setting an aggrivated Manticore on the group, upsetting a river serpent by removing its moustache, trying to frighten the group with intimidating and scary images on trees and finally she tried to tempt Rainbow Dash to join her and become captain of the Shadowbolts. She followed the Mane 6 and set obstacles and traps for them in a bid to make them give up on their quest. She spied Twilight Sparkle and her future friends discussing the Elements of Harmony and using them against her. She took Celestia's place at the summer sun celebration in Ponyville and announced her plan to bring about an endless night, kidnapping Celestia in the process. Nightmare Moon returned to Equestria as was prophecised in an ancient book of lore. The holiday Nightmare Night sprung up during the period between ancient and pre-war Equestria: where Nightmare Moon descends upon Equestria to look for undisguised fillies and colts to eat, and must be appeased by being offered candy in return for not eating them. Nightmare Moon was finally defeated and banished to the moon, by Celestia whilst using the Elements of Harmony. The rise of Nightmare Moon saw the collapse of ancient zebra civilization, the everlasting night eventually lead to the ancient zebra nation's collapse, which created paranoia and superstitious beliefs that persisted even 1200 years later into present day, post-apocalyptic Equestria. Luna used the meteor to forge herself a set of Star metal armor before she declared war upon her sister, Celestia and donned the name, Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon arose long ago, after a meteor crashed outside the palace of the two alicorn sisters in Everfree Forest.
