//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: The Elements of Randomness // by Razor Blade the Unicron //------------------------------// Amethyst gently touched down on the ground, taking in a deep breath of relief. Just a moment after that, somepony small crashed into the side of her face with minimal momentum. "Amy, you're okay!" cried Twirly, happy to be reunited with the unicorn. "I was so worried about you!" "I was even more worried about you!" said Amethyst, gleeful to see that the breezie was okay. "Did you get hurt at all?" "Just a singed tail from that other unicorn's magic." She flicked her tail forward to show a small black spot at the end. "I just remembered how you deal with magic when it's on the fritz and used my hooves in place of magic!" Amethyst grinned. "You clever little breezie." But then her face fell. "Is Twilight okay?" She got her response when the unicorn, now back in her gold armor, peeked in from the other room. She looked very tired, but happy none the less. Amethyst hurried over to her. "Are you alright?" "Now that Nightmare's control is gone," Twilight replied. "The Elements really were the only thing needed to stop her." Amethyst grinned. "I wouldn't say that it was just the Elements." Her gaze shifted towards her five friends, who were now all wearing silver necklaces with gemstones on them. After a closer looked, the gems were in the shape of their cutie marks, and in the colors that the Element shards had been glowing. Amethyst's eyes flicked down to see that she wasn't wearing a necklace, but, as she looked up, a silver tiara with a gemstone that resembled her cutie mark. "Zey are beautiful!" said Lotus, admiring her necklace. "I guess we really are the Elements of Harmony!" said Flitter. "Indeed you are." Everypony looked up for who had said that, just as the sun rose in the sky. A ball of light descended from the sky, and landed at one of the numerous holes in the wall. Princess Celestia appeared from the light, and everypony automatically bowed, except for Twilight, who quickly ran up to her. "Princess Celestia!" she said with relief. "Are you okay?" The Princess smiled. "Do not worry, my soldier. I am unharmed." Her gaze fell on the six other ponies (and one breezie). "And I can see that Equestria now has other ponies to treat as saviors." Her gaze fell specifically on Amethyst, as she walked up to her. "You must be the unicorn Luna was speaking about. Did she hurt you at all?" "N-no." Amethyst felt very anxious speaking to the Princess. "She didn't manage to hurt any of us." Except maybe emotionally. Her sister flashed into her mind. Celestia smiled with relief. "I, as well as the rest of Equestria, thank you for stopping Nightmare Moon. The power of friendship is strong." She turned towards where Nightmare had been standing. "Now just one must remember that." She walked over to where a smaller purple alicorn was lying on the ground, the shattered remains of a blue helmet surrounding her. The tips of her blue mane were wet with tears, as well as her aquamarine eyes. As soon as Celestia spoke, she looked up fearfully. "Princess Luna, it has been a thousand years." She sat down next to her. "Please, let us put our differences aside little sister. We can rule together once again." "Tia..." Luna trailed off, more tears falling. "I forgive you, Luna. And I just want my sister back." She looked up at Celestia, and then grabbed her in a hug. "I missed you so much, big sister!" She started crying even harder. "I missed you so much..." The nine ponies and one breezie stepped out of the Everfree Forest, to be greeted by a cheering crowd from Ponyville. Luna shyed away from the happy ponies by hiding behind Celestia, who pulled the younger alicorn beside her with her wing. Though it was clear enough that Luna was the one they had all been in fear of just earlier that day, the joy of the crowd was not lowered. As they walked away from the forest, three distinct voices came out from the crowd. "Fleetfoot!" "Flitter!" "Lotus!" Spitfire, Cloudchaser, and Aloe ran up to the various ponies they had called in a mixture of panic and excitement. Amethyst, Saffron, and Limestone stepped away to give the sibling and teammates some space, in time for the other four Wonderbolts to fly over to Fleetfoot. The Summer Sun Celebration resumed, or, more accurately, began surprisingly quickly considering what had occurred, but the six new friends didn't particularly mind. Considering what they had just went through, the seemingly endless happiness was really making them feel better. They all kept their Elements on, as there was currently no secure place to put them. Amethyst was talking with Rainbow Dash about what had happened with Nightmare, as she knew most of what had occurred until her mind control was cancelled by the alicorn. "Mare, I wish that I could've seen Nightmare get her flank whooped by a magical rainbow lazer!" said Rainbow. "That sounds like it was awesome!" "More relieving, I'd say," replied Amethyst. "Just being in Everfree was bad enough, but having to face Nightmare head-on was terrifying!" "You've got guts, Sparkler. I don't think I would've even stepped into that forest, let alone fight an alicorn!" Amethyst smiled at hearing Rainbow call her Sparkler instead of Sparky. She was going to reply to the pegasus when a sudden explosion of pink onto the nearby Limestone caught her off guard. "Key!" cried an excited pink Earth pony with a poofy mane. "You're okay!" "Nice to see you too, Pinkie," said Limestone, trying to break away from the mare's tight hug. "My Pinkie Sense was telling me that a family member was in danger, so I zipped off to the rock farm to make sure that everypony was okay, and they were so I came to Ponyville to make sure that you were okay, and I'm glad that you are, and- ooh! You have a silver necklace, and the gem looks like your cutie mark! Where did you get it?" Both Amethyst and Rainbow stared in shock at the energetic pink pony as the words seemed to flow endlessly out of her mouth. Limestone put a hoof over her muzzle before she could ask any more questions, and finally broke away from the hug. "Slow down, Pinkie," she said. "I'll tell you happened if you just give a moment to speak, okay?" She recieved a nod. "Good. Now don't start asking me more questions once I take my hoof away." Another nod, and she released Pinkie's mouth from her hold. "You have such a way of getting that mare to calm down," said a white unicorn with a spiky blue mane, violet glasses, and blue headphones, walking up to Limestone. "Hello, Vinyl," said Limestone. "Did my sister drag you along with her?" "Nah, I wanted to come with. Anyways, Stone, what'cha been up to?" "As I was about to tell Pinkie..." she started explaining what had happened, while Amethyst and Rainbow finally turned their attention away. "She's sisters with DJ Pon-3's assistant?!?" said Rainbow in surprise. "Learn something new everyday, I suppose," said Amethyst, feeling a sudden tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Luna, who looked very nervous. "Um... May I speak with you, Unity?" she asked. Amethyst glanced over at Rainbow, who was still staring in shock, and nodded. "Sure thing, Princess. Is something wrong?" "I came to apologize to you for what I did," she said, nervously poking her hoof at the ground. "I know that I easily could have hurt you, or even worse, so I wanted to say that I am deeply sorry. And you don't have to forgive me for as long as you would like. I just wanted you to know that I am truly sorry." Amethyst paused to think. Could she forgive the alicorn? "Thank you for the apology, Princess. But I'm afraid that I can not forgive you right now. I'm sure that I will be able to some day, just not at the moment." The alicorn nodded. "Of course. I understand why you feel that way." She looked over at Rainbow. "I have a few more ponies to apologize to right now." Amethyst headed off to get something to eat while Luna apologized to Rainbow, who was likely to forgive her. She felt a bit guilty for not forgiving Luna, but she just couldn't face doing it at the moment. After all, she had tried to hurt her, both physically and emotionally. She kidnapped Twirly to try and taunt her and break her spirits. Amethyst couldn't forgive her yet. She found Twirly gleefully munching on the rice that Saffron had made, taking large bites of the grains. The breezie smiled when she saw Amethyst, and quickly finished off what she was holding. "Heh, Ahmy!" she said before swallowing. "Is something wrong?" Amethyst had started to think about her sister. Sure, she had Twirly there to be relieved that she was okay and vice-versa, but she still wished that she was there. "I was just thinking about my sister," she confessed. "But you don't need to worry about that." She smiled. "After all, we still have a celebration to enjoy." "Make sure jat you don't poke out anypony's eye with your tiara!" she teased. She rolled her eyes. "Oh, ha ha, Twirly. Maybe I will just to spite you." "Like you would ever do jat!" "You know me all too well." Meanwhile, Princess Celestia sought to speak with Twilight, which was rather easy considering that the unicorn was standing off to the side of everypony else. "Twilight, may I speak with you?" she asked. "Of course, Princess," said Twilight. "Thank you." She paused a moment. "Oh, Twilight, can you forgive me?" She was confused. "For what?" "For not telling you about Nightmare Moon's return. I knew perfectly well that my sister was returning today, but I wanted you to figure it out on your own." "But why?" She sighed. "Because I was afraid that as soon as you knew about the Elements of Harmony, you would have gone straight for them. I was hoping that you would run into at least one other pony along the way who would have gone with you. But if had told you that the Elements needed to be activated with a spark of friendship, I would have just been pressuring you into making friends based on the fact that you needed them." Twilight smiled at the Princess's concern for her. "You're not at fault for not telling me, Princess Celestia. I understand why you couldn't." "I just never imagined that Nightmare would have used mind control on you." She smiled at the fact that Twilight was okay. "You know, Twilight, I've always considered you to be my student. And I've always that thought that you should have been accepted into my school." Twilight's eyes glimmered with surprise. "R-really?" "Really." Twilight smiled, happy to hear what the Princess had told her. "I think that I'll go talk with somepony. It is rather lonely just standing here." The unicorn walked off, leaving Celestia feeling even happier than she. The Wonderbolts were overjoyed that their teammate was safe, but also extremely proud of her. "Fleetfoot, we outta start callin' you the number one Wonderbolt!" cheered Misty Fly. "Aw, come on!" said Fleetfoot. "Just because I helped stop Nightmare Moon doesn't make me the best 'bolt!" "What, are you next going to say that performing a Sonic Rainboom isn't legendary?" teased Spitfire. A small distance away, Rainbow's ears perked up. Fleetfoot smiled at her teammates, and then looked up at the sky. There was so much open space. Her smile changed into a grin. Enough space for her cloud house so she could be near her friends. After all, it wasn't like anypony was stopping her from moving. "Hey, guys, I've got something that I might need your help with in the future..." she started. Back over with Limestone, Pinkie, and Vinyl, she had finished telling the two what had happened. And though they were shocked by the story, what she told them next was even more surprising. "I've decided to stay in Ponyville," she declared. "What?!?" cried out Pinkie. "But I thought you loved the rock farm!" "I do, but I don't have a reason to stay. Ma and Pa don't need me to run the place. And Marble has her Chosen One to help her out. I have my first real friends here, and I want to be able to hang out with them and such." She smiled. "Besides, it will be good to expand the business. I can have a small rock farm here. I think that I heard about a waterfall cave that's open to buy." "That's so amazing!" cheered Pinkie. "We should have our next sister get-together here! Can we bring our Chosen Ones?" "Of cour- Wait a minute. Pinkie do have a Chosen One?!?" She laughed nervously. "Uh, maybe..." "And you haven't told me?!?" "I told you that you should have told her, babe!" said Vinyl, grabbing Pinkie's hoof. "Move it before she starts yelling!" The two bolted, with Limestone dashing after them. "Pinkamina Diane Pie and Vinyl Record Scratch you to get back here this instant and tell me when you went to the Choosing Stone!"