Author's Note: My brain and I need to have a serious talk about this sometime. Let's just move on with the story, shall we? Oh, and heads up, this is the second to last chapter before the finale. Anyways, story time.
Finally things are getting back to normal(eh? See what I did there again?). It's not only good to have my wings back and to have saved Graze, but to also be back with all my friends, especially Dash. And even better, as a reward and bit of an apology to us, Princess Celestia has invited all of us to go have dinner with her in the royal dining hall. Kick bucking flank!
After leaving the castle's medical ward, the princess had started leading us to the dining hall where she said a huge feast would already be there waiting for us. I know I already said this, but I REALLY hope they have chimicherrychongas.
Right now we're all following the princess through the castle halls. Either I'm getting soft, or this place is a lot bigger than I remember, because I'm tired of all this walking.
"Are we there yet?" I ask as if I'm some kind of bored child, which in more than a few ways I am.
"Blue, don't be so rude." Twilight says sternly.
"It's quite all right, Twilight." Celestia says. "As a matter of fact, we’re here." she stops as we come up to a big pair of doors. The guard watching the door use their magic to open them, revealing a room with an extremely long table filled to the edges with food.
All of us give oohs and ahhs at the luxurious site of food after so many of us have gone without eating in days. I look over the spread of food: some sandwiches, hay fries, hayburgers, apple tarts, apple pies, apple dumplings, and...
"YES! CHIMICHERRYCHONGAS!" I shout in excitement, my mouth drooling and my eyes beaming. I rush over to the table and hang over the scrumptious treats. "Oh, daddy missed you!"
Dash facehoofs. "Yep, Blue is definitely back to his old self."
Celestia giggles. "I see he appreciates me asking the chefs to make his favorite food"
"Buck yeah, I do!" I shout, raising a hoof in the air.
"He just gets worked up over them a bit." Rhino says. "Blue, it's just food, no need to go crazy over it."
I look back at him. "Yeah, says the guy who smuggled a jar of strawberry applesauce off the table."
His eyes widen as everypony looks at him. He nervously chuckles before using his magic to pull out the jar. "Sorry, princess."
"That is quite all right, Rhino. All of you may help yourselves. Eat as much as you want."
"Did you say something? I was eating as much as I want." I say, my mouth full and crumbs flying out.
Everypony either rolls their eyes or facehoof themselves on that one. They all come to the table, Celestia sitting at the head of it. Everypony starts digging in, some more hastily than others.
Despite his normally calm and collective demeanor, Rhino goes right to town on the jar of applesauce, not even using a spoon as per usual. Fluttershy is just happily smiling at her coltfriend the entire time, happy to see him home safe and sound. As he finishes, he wraps a hoof around Fluttershy, pulling her into a hug. She takes a cloth and dabs his mouth clean as if he were a child.
Zeph and Octavia haven't stopped looking at each other ever since they first got back together. Guess that's what it's like to be engaged. I really need to get around to doing that sometime.
Ice and Vinyl keep talking about something. I think I can hear something about Ice saying he wants to quit his job at the coffee shop and work as a special effects guy on Vinyl's shows. Vine's not gonna be too happy about having to pay full price for coffee again.
Drax and tells Spitfire a bit of what happened while we were in Tartarus. She listens to the stories in complete awe. She always knew Drax was tough, but this was new even to her.
Vine continues introducing Ciel to both Fleur and Fern. Fern likes it, but Fleur is constantly creeped out over it, but tries to get used to it for her friend and marefriend. It's just water; I don't see the big deal over it.
Glare and Atom do a bit of catching up with each other, being friends in the Guard for a bit. Applejack sits with them as Atom tells the full story about how they got together. Its official, I must be bad at this for having taken as long as I did to get my marefriend. And I feel cheated for having spent so much money on it
Anyway, Orion keeps trying to eat, but Rarity keeps continuously wiping his face of crumbs, making eating a bit difficult for him. What he sees in her, I'll never know.
Graze and Der-I mean, Ditzy each hold each other tightly, it being the first time they've seen each other in over a month. Graze tells her about all the terrible things that happened down there. She comforts him with a hug. Good for him, I'm glad we went through all that to help him out.
Pinkie, well, is being Pinkie. She just eats, laughs, and goes flying around like crazy. Good to see she can have a good time on her own like that.
Dark is eating his food rapidly, as if he hasn’t eaten in days, which honestly he hasn't. Twilight groans. "Dark, can't you at least try to have some manners in front of Princess Celestia?" she asks, very annoyed.
Dark swallows his food. "Hey, give me a break it's been a while since I ate. I'm starving here."
"Dark is right, Twilight. He has been through a lot and deserves this." the princess says.
"See? She's cool with it. Besides, at least I'm not as bad as Blue."
The entire time I've just been eating while Sunny and Dash were sitting beside me. They were upset I was just eating, but they let it slide with how much I've been through.
I stop eating as I look at him. "What? I'm hungry, and these things are darn good."
"Then try getting more in you then on you." Sunny teases.
"Seriously. You look more red and brown than blue now." Dash says.
"Well, excuuuse me, princess."
"What did I say?" Celestia says.
I facehoof. "Ugh, never mind."
Everypony laughs at the princess' obliviousness to the reference as we go about finishing up our dinner. To be honest, it was nice. No explosions or arguing, just friends and couples hanging out. This is what I was waiting to get home to.
Though I hate how Dash made me shower before going to bed. Hasn't she ever heard the term 'down and dirty'?
The next day(haven't seen this transition in a while)
Ah, last night was awesome. Zeph couldn't seem to get Octavia to bed fast enough. I'm not surprised by him. I'm pretty sure all of us have felt the same after what we went through.
Anyway, today's the day we're heading back to Ponyville. No real reason for us to stick around here anymore. Besides, I'm worried about Lyall and I'm sure Rhino and Fluttershy are worried about their pets too. I've heard of how "good" Spike is at taking care of animals.
Everypony wakes up in their rooms from Celestia's sun cracking through their windows. Nothing special really happens as everypony comes out into the hallways.
Real interesting stuff right here people. Aren't you just bursting with excitement?
We share our good mornings before we decide to meet the princess. You know how people saying yawning is contagious? I think they were on to something, because when Zeph let out a yawn everypony started yawning. We could've made a choir.
Moving right along, we make our way through the castle, Twilight of course taking the lead. We head to the throne room and are met with Princess Celestia. She doesn't look a bit tired. How can she look so rested right now?
"Good morning, everypony." she says. We all just do tired grumbles in response. "Well, I assume you all came here because you wish to go back to Ponyville."
"That's right, princess." Twilight says.
"Very well. Allow me to escort you to some chariots I have waiting out in front of the castle."
"Wait, can't you just use your magic to teleport us there?" I ask.
"Um, I think that would be a waste of power for something like this." she answers.
Sure...
Ignoring that lame excuse, we follow the princess outside to where two chariots with some guards sit there waiting for us. Well, at least we don't need to spend more money on a train ride.
"Here we are everypony" the princess says as she stops walking. "These are the chariots that will be taking you home. Again, thank you so much for everything you've done."
"Wait, what about us?" Atom asks for him and Glare.
Her expression drops a bit. "I am sorry to say that you two will have to stay here in Canterlot. I am sorry, Atom and Glare. You may say your good byes if you wish."
Atom turn to Applejack, both frowning. "Applejack-"
"Shh, it's all right, Atom." Applejack cuts off. "Ah know you've got yer Royal Guard duties. Don't worry, ah'll wait for ya as long as it takes. Ah'm the Element of Honesty, so ya can take my word on that" she says reassuringly.
Atom doesn't say a word as the two give one last kiss. "Thank you, Applejack. I promise to come get you as soon as I can."
Now it's Glare's turn "Thank you guys so much for everything you've done. If it wasn't for you, I'd still be one of Grim's puppets, so thanks."
We all give our good byes to them before heading into the chariots. The chariots then take off with us inside, leaving the others behind.
It's hard, but I know we'll see them again.
The flight back to Ponyville is pretty uneventful aside from some idle chitchat between everypony. With the guards flying rather than us, we at least don't need to worry about another huge race breaking out and nearly killing everyone.
The chariots land in the center of Ponyville a few hours later, of course with the guards being robots and not saying anything about it.
I'm the first to stop off the chariot I was in. I'm excited to get home to Lyall, so I almost speed to the door. "I hope Lyall's doing fine."
Dash steps out behind me. "I'm sure he's fine, Blue. Why don't you just-"
I cut her off by giving her a kiss before turning around and flying off. "Sorry, Dash, but I need to see Lyall. See you later."
Dash stands there in a stupor for a moment before smiling. "Glad to have you back, Blue."
Celestia wasn't lying when she said these wings would make me fly faster, because I'm speeding through Ponyville. I speed down to my house and quickly grab the key to open the door but drop it. "Oh, come on!" I quickly bend over and pick it up before putting it in the lock and opening the door.
As the door opens, I am immediately met with a very happy lupis minor who jumps up and starts licking me. I bend down to meet him as I pet him "Aw, I missed you too, buddy. Glad to see you're doing fine."
Lyall stops his smiling as he notices my new wings. He gives me a "What happened to you?" look.
"Oh, these? Well, it's a really long and crazy story. But I'm not focused on that right now."
He gives me a look saying "Oh?".
"Yep, I've only got one thing on my mind right now: no matter what, next time I plan to finish my business with the Everfree Forest."
And this time I mean it.
Author's Note: Prepare yourselves, everyone. The next chapter is the big finale I've been working up to for all these months. Shit WILL go down next chapter.