//------------------------------// // 255. The Kingdom of Friendship - Part 4 // Story: Blaze the Pony Tale // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// They all ran, as fast as their legs could carry them, but right before they entered the Everfree Forest, they caught Tirek's eye, who snarled as he thought, I promised their release, not their lives.... Making their way through the forest, the friends felt the earth beneath them quake and somehow they knew he was coming! "Hurry!" Twilight urged. "On the double, friends, on the double!" Blueblood added. "He's gonna catch up!" worried Thunderlane! "Don't look back, Thunder!" Rainbow Dash snapped! All of a sudden, the area of the forest around them suddenly burned and in moments, it all turned to ash, scarring the forest and leaving them all open for Tirek to see. They all whimpered and gathered together, out of herd instinct as Tirek leered down wickedly. "Time to put you miserable insects out of my misery...!" Tirek thundered as he concentrated his hellish mana to his stump and they watched in abject terror as the mana took form as an arm of fire, crackling with demonic energy! Flexing the claws at the end of his flaming arm of mana, Tirek then looked upon these insignificant foals with the power-crazed madness of bloodlust! He raised that monstrous arm of his, and everypony closed their eyes and held each other, this was it. They were done for! Tirek lunged forward with that flaming arm... Only for a VAST wall of turquoise mana to rise up and stop him. "WHAT?!?!" Everypony looked and were in awe that they had suddenly been saved, but by who? The answer made itself known as a bright yet gentle radiance appeared from high up and came down towards them, the closer it got the dimmer it became, revealing a silhouette, and when it was close enough Twilight wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't heard his voice. But there he was, and everypony gasped as Midnight Blaze now stood before them, smiling with determination burning in his eyes. "Did y'all miss me?" "MIDNIGHT!!!" Twilight lunged forward and tackled him down with a hug before she gave him a fierce yet tender kiss that Rarity went 'oh my' and covered Spike's eyes, much to his chagrin. "YOU!!!!!" They all looked up to see Tirek glaring with seething hate at Midnight, "I WATCHED YOU BURN!!!!!" "You saw what I wanted you to see, Tirek!" Midnight gave the demon centaur a cocky look, "You attack did come close to killing me, I'll tell you that! I was in no condition to keep fighting, but Twilight couldn't fight you and protect me at the same time. So I cast an illusion of myself burning to ashes, so that you would think you'd killed me and the alicorn magic I contained, and I managed to slip into my pocket dimension to recover from my injuries. "I watched everything unfold, how you forced Twilight to give up her magic for our friends, and as much as I wanted to stop her, I trusted her, and stood by as backup incase my friends needed it, and here I am!" Tirek roared with monstrous infuriation as he slammed against Midnight's wall of mana, "GIVE! ME YOUR! MAAAAAAAAGGGGGIIIIICCC!!!!!!!!! "Sorry, Tirek, but we have somewhere to be," Midnight pulled everyone into his protective hold, "but we'll be right with you shortly." And then he teleported them all to the Tree of Harmony, whereupon Twilight smacked Midnight on the back of his head, "YOU JERK!! You stupid- Brave... Oh for Goddess's sakes, you crazy jerk stallion, I love you!" Midnight chuckled and groaned from the bruise he'd be feeling later as he hugged his Twilight closely, and everypony smiled happily for them- "RRRRAAAAAUUUGHGGH!!!!!!" "Tirek now! Chewing out later!" Soarin urged things to move along, "Twilight! The medallion!" "Right... Girls, stand before your keys," Twilight instructed, and the mares all took their positions, their stallions standing at their sides, as Twilight stepped up to the chest. She held up the medallion given to her by Eris out of true and sincere friendship... and the chest reacted! Its magic reached out, taking the medallion as it spun `round and around before it turned into a key resembling Twilight's cutie-mark and inserted itself into its key hole! She'd done it! Their smiles were short-lived as they heard Tirek's enraged stomping, and looking outside they saw him burning more of the Everfree Forest in his mad search for them. It was now or never! "Together! We have to do this together!" The girls each took hold of their keys and then turned, the top of the chest opening, everyone awing as a rainbow shining with gold and silver stars rose up and over to the Tree of Harmony, touching the center, the Element of Magic, and the energies spread along its trunk and branches, touching the rest of the Elements with the power of the Elements the boys had created and placed into the Chest. One bye one, each element in the tree pulsed with power, as did the elements in the chest, and likewise did each of the Harmonic Twelve find themselves within a pillar of light! For a moment, there was only intensity, until they all felt it ignite! All twelve of them seemed to vanish as a starry rainbow rose up with twelve spheres that each brightened to reveal the twelve friends, their manes and tails and even their hooves and the wings of the pegasi and alicorns shined with new colors and symbols relating to their cutie-marks, the guys clad in their Harmonic Armor which gave off a golden silver radiance! Tirek sensed something and looked to see those twelve wretched ponies rise up, shining with cosmic color, and he snarled as he threw flames out of his fiery arm at them, only for the flames to be extinguished, along with his arm, revealing his charred stump! "How is this possible?! You have no magic!!" "You're wrong, Tirek! I may have given you my alicorn magic, but we carry within us the most powerful magic of all!" Beams of magic shot out from the radiance surrounding the twelve friends, each a different color, and made contact with Tirek as they all came together, forming a rainbow alive with stars, and Tirek screamed in horror as he felt all of his power! All of his magic! It was taken away, causing him to shrivel up as he then found himself back in his cell in the pits of Tartarus, and he cried out in anguish, "NOOOOOOOOO....!!!" Back in Equestria, the Twelve Friends felt all of Equestria's magic between them and knew what they had to do, as the radiant circle that contained them exploded, the twelve of them zooming out to all corners of Equestria, bringing the magic with them! They made sure the magic was brought back to everypony, every earth pony, every unicorn, every pegasus, every stallion, mare, and foal. The unicorns lit up their horns, the pegasi took to the skies, and the earth ponies happily stampeded across the earth. Even in Tartarus, Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Sombra felt their magic come back, and the chains holding them disintegrate as they were freed! They left Tartarus, but Celestia paused to look back at Tirek, who returned her gaze with one of unforgiving hate. A part of her pitied him, for his rage against ponies was not without just cause. But he had brought this upon himself now just as he did then, over a thousand years ago. She turned away and joined her husband outside of Tartarus, back in the sunshine. Back in the cave, the Twelve Friends found themselves again standing before the Tree of Harmony, the magic they'd just unlocked shining above them all like a sun all its own but then it appeared to retreat back into the chest. For then... the tree released another rainbow, taking the chest with it as it went up and out the cave ceiling and the rainbow arched over, coming down at the edge of Ponyville, in a place between the town and the Everfree. Like a seed, the chest was planted into that spot... and from that spot did grow a vast and beautiful tree of crystalline wood, with towers, a balcony, windows, and a door in the base of the trunk. It was a castle! The Twelve were teleported to it, and as they gazed up in awe, they felt the magic that had empowered them fade away, its purpose fulfilled. But the guys' armor remained. "Goddess of All, do you all see what I see?!" Rarity broke the silence as they all marveled at the crystalline piece of nature and regality before them. "It's... a castle!" Midnight removed his helmet to have a better look, the other stallions doing the same, as he felt Twilight push up against him while keeping her eyes up at the castle. "But... whose is it?" she asked. "I believe, this castle belongs to the both of you, Princess Twilight and Prince Midnight." They all turned and smiled to see the rest of the alicorns, joined by Spike, and... who was that hiding behind Celestia's tail? "You're alright!" Twilight hurried over to give Celestia a hug, the others coming over but Fluttershy noticed a little someone hiding behind Celestia's tail, and a warm feeling she could not recognize made itself known in her heart. "Congratulations, Twilight, and Midnight, and all of you!" Celestia smiled at each of them in turn, when she noticed Fluttershy nervously raising her hoof. "Um, pardon me, Your Highness? If... you don't mind my asking," she pointed to the princess's tail, "Who's that right there?" Celestia smiled and looked down at the little one hiding, "It's alright! These are our friends, don't be shy." Then, a little paw slowly pulled Celestia's tail out of the way... to reveal a tiny little creature, just a little shorter than Spike, with a colt's face, a kitty-like right paw, a birdy-like left claw, the legs of a goat and lizard, one wing feathered, the other bat-like, and a dragonish tail, and two tiny stubby horns above his scared little eyes. It didn't take a genius for the friends to figure out who this was as they all gaped in disbelief at what- Or rather who they were seeing! "H-hello... everyone," the little one shyly waved his tiny paw, "Um, I'm... Discord." Everypony looked to Celestia for an explanation and she shrugged, "When we arrived, we saw him lying on the ground, tired and scared. I asked him if he wanted to come with me and see all of you." Fluttershy very slowly stepped forward and crouched down onto her belly to be eye-level with the tiny draconequus, who looked at her with eyes full of curiosity and... maybe a glimmer of recognition? "Discord, my name is Fluttershy. Do you... know me?" she asked gently. "I... I don't know!" Discord nervously walked up to Fluttershy, looking at her with wide eyes, "But... I feel like I do." That was good enough for her, and Fluttershy held out her forelegs, inviting little Discord into a hug, and something in Discord felt a burst of joy, and he smiled as he accepted, hopping into Fluttershy's embrace. "Forgive me for interupting, Fluttershy," Celestia spoke up, "but let's all have a look at this new castle." "Alright, Discord, would you like a ride on my back?" Fluttershy offered, and Discord smiled as he climbed up, Fluttershy standing as they all entered the castle. The interior was beautiful and strange, appearing much larger on the inside than it did on the outside. Stainedglass windows ran along the hallways sporting soft green glass with designs to make them look like trees, pillars set between each window to hold up the ceilings, from which hanged glowing crystals providing a soft yet perfect amount of light, and as they all walked along the carpeted hallway, Celestia spoke to Twilight and Midnight. "You have been wondering, Twilight, what you are meant to do as a princess. Do you know now?" Twilight and Midnight shared a smile as they both understood, for this was not only Twilight's role but his too, as Twilight stated, "As a Princess and a Prince, I believe we have the power to spread the Magic of Friendship across Equestria!" "And to defend the Harmony of ponies everywhere," Midnight added, "that is the role we are meant to have in our world. It is the role we choose to have!" He then led Twilight over to their friends, "But you and I didn't defeat Tirek on our own!" "It took all of us to unlock the chest!" Twilight agreed as they all came together in a hug, and Sombra opened some nearby doors. "Then it is needless to say, that the two of you are not meant to take up this task on your own," he waved to the room beyond the doors and the twelve friends, and Spike all gasped and awed as Sombra declared, "Midnight Blaze, Twilight Sparkle, you are now Prince and Princess of Friendship and Harmony!" The room was a large chamber resembling a meeting hall, with thirteen thrones of crystal, each but the smaller one baring the cutie-mark of the pony it belonged to. The small throne set by Twilight's throne obviously was meant for Spike! They were set around a mural on the floor which glorified the cutie-marks of Twilight and Midnight in a figure-eight form, and as everypony settled into their throne they looked around at each other, full of pride and joy. "But what is the Prince and Princes of Friendship without their friends?" Celestia added as the Twelve Ponies and Spike gathered in the middle, when Twilight noticed little Discord hanging back, and she smiled. Discord felt magic raise him up but smiled as he was brought over to the circle of friends to be a part of their hug- "Hold on a second! Don't I get a throne?" he ruined the moment with a quivering lip, only for Fluttershy to pull him into another hug. "I don't think you're quite old enough yet," she teased, causing Discord to grumble something about Spike being old enough but he smiled anyway. That day, in celebration of the victory of the Prince and Princess of Friendship along with their Friends, Ponyville partied hard, courtesy of their resident party ponies who pulled out all the stocks and spared no balloon, streamer, gag, confetti, they made a bash that would be spoken of for generations!! As the ponies of Ponyville and many more gathered before the new Castle of Friendship, a tune began as the Harmonic Twelve stood ready and Twilight took the lead. You can do it solo... But then you'd be all by yourself! (Midnight and Twilight shared a loving nuzzle when Pinkie popped up) So it'd be more fun to share this song with everyone else! (Pinkie Pie happily danced with Cheese as they swung around glowsticks and party streamers) Together we will soar across the sky and beyond! (Soarin and Thunderlane did a quick aerial performance ever everypony's heads) So tune up your voice! (Applejack twanged on her father's guitar only for a Rainboom to interrupt as Rainbow raised a bass guitar high above...) STAND UP AND SING ALONG...!!!! (...and brought it down in technicolor blast of AWESOMENESS) All different voices, our melody's ringing (The Harmonic Twelve held stood hoof in hoof...) We're livin' in harmony! Yeah, we're livin' in harmony!! (... except for Midngiht and Twilight who both stood in front of their friends and raised their hooves to the crowd, inviting them to join in) Our song is much stronger with every soul singin'! (The crowd happily added their voices, creating a greater harmony!) We're livin' in harmony...! (And though their voices were many, their hearts beat as one!) The Crusaders all happily ran to their big brothers and sisters to give them the biggest hugs and say they were so proud to be their little brothers and sisters. Twilight and Midnight invited all of Ponyville to their castle to enjoy the party, and even Celestia, Sombra, Luna, Cadance, and Shining Armor stayed to join in, and Ponyville saw all seven of the Alicorn Princes and Princesses cut loose on the dance floor. Fluttershy and Celestia had a quick word to decide what to do about little Discord and they both agreed that he would stay with Celestia in Canterlot to learn to control his magic and behave, but Fluttershy would be his foal-sitter, which she was all too happy to accept, especially since Celestia would be quite busy in the coming weeks. So Discord would be spending a lot of time in Ponyville with them. Shining Armor pulled Midnight into a brotherly noogie and declared he was gonna throw him a bachelor party and Midnight asked him to be his best stallion for his and Twilight's wedding, which he was happy to accept, just as Cadance was honored to be appointed Twilight's mare of honor. At the end of it all, victorious friends gathered around and had their picture taken as another special memento of how far they'd come, and looking at it, they all smiled, knowing that despite all they'd done and been through this was just another beginning, with a promise of so much to look forward to, and a vow to make Equestria an even better place.