Author's Note: Hell yeah! Done with all those fight scenes! Yes! Sorry, but I just had to celebrate(and my brain won't let me go a chapter without an author's note). Now, on with the story!
Princess Celestia sits in her throne, still contemplating over sending us into Tartarus to get Graze out. Even though she didn't have much other choice, her guilt has been getting deeper and deeper over the past few days about sending us down there alone. She has also been worrying that we've been gone for so long already and won't return.
'Was I truly right in asking that of them and just letting them go in like that?' she thinks to herself. 'This is my entire fault. I should have kept better watch over what was happening with my guards and Tartarus. I feel just awful for being so weak as to have to sink down to asking them. I pray that they are all safe.' she hangs her head down in both shame and sadness.
Suddenly, Celestia senses a large amount of energy go off in the distance. She raises her head as she looks out a window to see smoke coming off from far away.
"Can it be?" she asks herself. "The smoke is coming right by where the gates of Tartarus are. It must be them. I need to get the girls here, no time to send for all of them."
She immediately starts building up a large amount of magic in her horn. After a few quick seconds, a bright flash goes throughout the room as all of the girls, as well as Atom, appear in front of her.
"Hey, what gives?" Dash says, looking around.
"Woah, that was so cool! Can we do it again?!" Pinkie asks excitedly.
Everypony stops as they hear some strange smooching noises. They look over, slightly grossed out, to see Applejack and Atom making out.
"Hoowee, Atom." Applejack says through hot breaths.
"Oh, Applejack." Atom says.
The two suddenly stop as they see everypony in the room looking at them. They quickly let go of each other. "Uh, howdy, everypony. We were just, um..." Applejack looks down at the ground. "Oh, ah got nothin'."
"Okay then..." Twilight says, breaking the silence. She looks up at the princess. "What's all this about, princess?"
"I'm glad you asked, Twilight. I felt a great energy near the gates of Tartarus."
"What?! So, Blue and the others are all back?!" Dash asks excitedly.
"I do believe so, but I am worried something happened to cause the explosion that went off. We need to get over there as quickly as possible."
Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's just go fly the chariots over there and-"
Dash is cut off as the princess' horn starts glowing. "That will not be necessary, Rainbow Dash."
Celestia's horn starts glowing even brighter as a light starts to encompass all of the ponies, minus the guards, in the room.
Back over by the gates
Well, I may be in a huge amount of pain and lying on the ground, but at least we beat Cerberus. Now the only thing left to do is get Graze and I some help and we can head home. I know I make this sound really casual, but I'm honestly over all this.
Glare flies down from above and lands next to Vine. He looks at her, angry. "What?" Vine asks.
"Did you seriously call that move "Solar Beam"?"
"Look, just because you have a move with the same name doesn't make it yours. It was a beam of energy powered by light. What else was I supposed to call it?"
"Well, anything besides one of my moves."
I cough a bit, getting their attention. "We're stuck lying on the ground, in pain, and you guys are arguing over a stupid name move?"
"Seriously, I feel like I'm gonna cough up a lung." Graze says.
"Right, sorry." they say.
"Here, Blue. I got ya." Drax says from behind me. Get those dirty thoughts out of your minds. Drax carefully picks me up and sets me down on his back.
"You too, Graze." Rhino says as he does the same with Graze again.
The others walk up to join us. "So... now what are we gonna do?" Ice asks.
"I've got a better question. Why didn't those guys try to help us?" Orion says, pointing out to where the guards are. They look worried for a moment.
"Yeah, that is a good question." Zephyr says. He looks over at them. "Cowards! You're no royal guards!"
They all just look down in shame.
"And these guys are the ones whose job it is to protect Equestria?" Dark rhetorically asks.
"Well, nothing we can do now. Guess we should just start making our way back to Canterlot." Glare says.
We agree to the idea as we're about to take off flying. But as we do, a bright light goes off, stopping us in our tracks. The light fades to reveal none other than Princess Celestia with all of the girls and a black stallion. Did we miss something while we were gone?
"You couldn't have done that the first time we came here?" Fern asks the princess.
"I needed to conserve energy. This time was an emergency." she explains.
"GUYS!" we all shout.
Both groups rush forwards to each other in a frenzy of hugs, kisses, glad you're okays, and welcome backs. Me and Dash, Zeph and Octavia, Ice and Vinyl, Vine and Fleur, Drax and Spitfire, Rhino and Fluttershy, Orion and Rarity, and Dark and Twilight were all reunited once more. And we of course didn't leave Graze, Pinkie, Fern, or Sunny out.
"Glare, I am very glad to see you. I had honestly believed you died in there." Celestia says.
"You kidding, princess? Like I'm gonna go and die from someplace like that."
"Good going, buddy. Knew you'd be all right." Atom says, punching him the shoulder.
"Thanks, Atom. So, who's the mare?"
Atom wraps a hoof around Applejack. "This is my new marefriend, Applejack."
"What?!" those of us who just got back say.
Applejack looks at us, a bit of a blush on her face. "Yep, it's all true. While ya'll were gone ah met Atom here and we just hit off like peas and carrots."
Atom steps forward. "Hey, guys. It's great to finally meet all of you. My name's Atomic Vortex, but you can call me Atom. I'm a member of the Royal Guard."
New name and career now stored into memory banks.
Vine's face lights up as she remembers something. "Oh, and speaking of new friends, check out what I brought back." out from behind her pops Ciel.
Fleur rears back. "What is it?"
"It's an ooze, and my new pet, Ciel."
"Are you sure? I don't really think I want an "ooze" as a pet."
"Aw, come on, Fleur. I think it's pretty cool." Fern says as she pets it a bit.
The ooze comes up to Fleur and smiles. It starts to rub against her leg. "Well, I do suppose it is rather cute."
As we watch the touching scene, Dash takes a look at me and gasps. "Blue! Oh my Celestia! What happened to your wings?!"
The others also start catching my lack of my old avian appendages.
I breathe heavily before I answer. "It happened when fighting Grim Blade. That was one of the greatest pains I have ever felt."
"Blue, that's just awful!" Sunny says. "I hate to see my friend and flying teacher so hurt."
"I know, but don't worry about me. I'm not the worst one off here."
"How can you possibly say that?! You lost your wings!" Dash says, nearly crying.
"Because Graze is dying."
"What did you just say?!" Princess Celestia hastily asks.
"It's true, princess. Graze is dying." Vine says. "Grim infected Graze with a Venerian Curse."
"A Venerian Curse?! Oh, heavens above, we need to get him back to Canterlot immediately. Everypony, get close to me."
Everypony does as their told as we all start to surround the princess. She starts charging her horn. Before we go, she looks back at the guards. "And I want a long talk with all of you about doing your duties later."
"Yes, your majesty." they all say shamefully.
I can't believe Zeph, Atom, and Glare were apart of these yahoos.
Celestia's horn flashes as we are all wisped away to the castle throne room. My eyes spin around upon arrival "I don't think I like teleporting."
"You get used to it after a while." Rhino says.
"Glare, Atom." the princess says.
They both snap to attention. "Yes, princess?"
"I need you two to take Blue Breeze and Razor Graze down to the medical center. I need to go fetch something."
"As you wish, princess."
It's like having the world's most obedient dogs.
"You guys follow us." Glare says to the group. We start following the two ponies through the castle chambers, doing it rather quickly for obvious reasons.
With us doing our part, Celestia uses her teleporting magic once again to teleport herself into the bedroom of Princess Luna(about time she showed up), who is sleeping soundly as she usually does during the day.
Celestia walks over to the bed and nudges her sister. "Luna. Luna, please wake up. This is very important."
The night princess mumbles a bit before waking up. "Tia? Is it my turn to watch the city already?"
"No, Luna, this is something much bigger."
"Well, what is it?"
"We have a pony infected with the Venerian Curse."
Luna is suddenly wide awake as she hears that. "The Venerian Curse?! You mean-"
"Yes, Luna, the ponies have returned, but one of them was infected by the deadly illness. By my guess, he only has a few more hours. You know what we must do."
"Yes, sister... But I really hate needles." she says nervously.
"I know, Luna, but this is necessary for the pony to live."
Luna sighs. "Yes, I know."
Princess Celestia summons a pair of syringes and a container. She sticks each of them with a needle, getting a good bit of blood from each of them. Celestia drains both syringes into the container.
"Thank you, Luna. Now rest." Celestia says before leaving with a flash.
"Um... good day to you too, Tia."
Down in the medical ward
The royal medical staff had taken Graze and I from the rest of the group and put us in the critical care. The others were all waiting out in the waiting room, all too worried to say or think about anything other than our safety.
Princess Celestia comes down there with the container full of blood, breaking the room of its silence. "Everypony, I know you must be very worried, but trust in me that I will save your friends."
They all just look back at each other before simply nodding. Celestia heads through the doors and goes to where Graze is. "Graze, how are you feeling?"
"Oh, just fine. I'm slowly dying, but can't complain other than that." he answers sarcastically.
"Don't fret. I have the cure."
"Really? What is it?"
"This." Celestia uses her magic to bring out the container of blood.
"Is that-"
"Blood? Yes, mine and Luna's to be specific."
"I have to drink that stuff?!" Graze shouts in shock.
"If you want to live, yes."
Graze takes the container and looks at it. He gulps. "Well, bottom's up." he starts chugging the red liquid, holding back gags of disgust. He finishes after a minute before taking a deep breath. "Bleck! That was definitely the grossest thing I've ever tasted."
"I know, but I ask that you please hold it down."
"If it's to live, I'll have no arguments."
The princess smiles before turning around and walking up to the bed I'm in. Her expression drops as she sees me. "Blue Breeze, I am incredibly sorry this happened to you. I never meant for anypony to be hurt."
"No, this isn't you fault." I say. "My only regret now is that I'll never be able to fly again."
"Oh?"
I sit up and look at her with wide eyes. "Wait, you mean-"
She nods. "Yes, I can give you new wings. Just hold still a moment please." she brings her vibrantly glowing horn to my head.
I feel a huge amount of magic go through my body as I suddenly feel something at my sides. In mere seconds, a big pair of wings comes ripping through my bandages like paper(maybe that's because they are).
The princess backs off from me and smiles. "There, good as new."
(Image of new wings)
I take a look back at my new wings and get just about the biggest grin I've ever had on my face. "Good as new?! Even better! I've got my wings back! And they're even bigger!"
"That is correct. Instead of pegasus wings, I have given you new griffon wings. These wings should allow you longer reach, faster flying capabilities, and stronger wind powers that require your wings."
Power up! This is so awesome!
Graze and I smile at each other as we get up out of the beds and celebrate with an epic brohoof.
The others remain sitting out in the waiting room nervously. They turn towards the door to see Celestia stepping out. They patiently await to be answered by a smile from the princess as she turns to reveal Graze and I.
The others all beam as they get up and come by to congratulate us and tell us how glad they are that we're okay.
"Those are sick new wings, bro." Dark says.
"Thanks." I say as I flare them.
Dash wraps me in a huge hug, feeling remarkably relieved. "Blue, I'm so glad you're okay!"
I hug her back. "So am I, Dash. It's good to be back."
Suddenly, a familiar grey and blonde mailmare enters the room. We all look at her in surprise. She smiles widely as she sees Graze. "Muffin!"
"Bright Eyes!" Graze says happily.
Derpy runs over and the two hug and kiss.
Okay, I'm officially confused now.
"Wait, I thought you said you had a marefriend named Ditzy. Her name is Derpy." I say.
Graze growls a bit. "I call her Ditzy because I feel that name is demeaning. And I swear, if I ever hear any of you call her that other name, what I did to Grim will look like a vacation." he says coldly.
"Dually noted!"
"I requested some guards to bring Ms. Hooves down here as soon as I had a free chance." Celestia explains. "Now that everything is squared away, I would like to invite you all to dinner in the dining hall."
We all do a group cheer in celebration.
About time we got some food. I'm starving! Oh, I hope there's chimicherrychongas. .