//------------------------------// // Chapter 69: The Rainbow Magic of Friendship // Story: Children of Harmony // by Pinkie Pie Sweets //------------------------------// Sakura opens her eyes to see hasn't been blasted by the magic. Sakura looks around to see Ace, Eden, Baked Apple, Ruby, and Raspberry are fine, but still blind and have their eyes closed. Sakura looks around to notices that Starlight is nowhere to be found. She then sees Alan and the others with shocked expression. She then turns behind her and gasp in shock. Sakura sees Starlight has been strike by Naga's magic and has a bad mark on her chest, and looks unconscious. "Starlight!" Sakura exclaims. Sakura runs to Starlight's stilled body, and look to see a terrible mark on her chest, and a bad bump on her head. Sakura frantically moves Starlight as she shouts, "Starlight! Starlight, wake up! Please! Say something!" Sakura begins to hear Starlight groan, and slowly opens her eyes until they are half open. "S-sak-ura," That is all Starlight can say. Sakura take Starlight in her arms, and brushes her mane with her hand. On the verge of crying, Sakura says, "You saved us our lives. You saved… my life." "I… I wanted to do something… to repay to you… for the kindness you gave me," Starlight slowly talks. Sakura begin to slowly shed tears, and give Starlight a hug of gratitude. Then she notices something on her neck. A stick that looks like three fourth of a rectangle, and has a tip like it was a rode or something, and it's on a piece of rope around her neck. "What's that?" Sakura asks. Starlight shows Sakura the necklace, "It's… it's what left of the staff of sameness that I made up to take the ponies cutie mark. I kept it to remind myself of the bad things that I did. I thought we needed to be the same in order to have friendship, but you… you taught me that I don't need to be the same. And… you also taught me to try giving friendship another chance…" "But… I think now it will be the symbol of the friendship you gave to me despite the bad things that I've done," Starlight adds. Starlight manages to use her magic to take the necklace off of her neck, and puts it on Sakura. Starlight slowly closes her eyes, as she says, "I'm… I'm glad that you became my friend." Starlight closes her eyes, and ends up falling in a sleep that will be almost impossible to wake from. Sakura begins to cry as she hugs Starlight, and what she has done for her. Starlight has sacrifice her life for Sakura's. Naga smirks to see the event, and says, "Now that she is out of the way, I can get rid of you." Naga then raises his scepter to cast his evil spell on Sakura. One that will be impossible for anyone to avoid. Just then, the piece of the staff shimmer in a rainbow shine. Then begins to glow in a shimmering rainbow that surrounds the area. Everyone gasp to see the colors that surrounds the area. Just then, the chest that the Tree of Harmony has given to her has appear in front of Sakura. Then, Ace's medal from the Equestrian 500, the pin Pen Pal given to Baked Apple, Ruby's spool of rainbow thread, the horn Practical Jokes gives to Raspberry, and the tiara Eden receives from the young queen. All them them begin to shimmer and glow. One by one, the items, including the staff Starlight gives to Sakura begin to float to the chest. Then one by one, the items touch the keyhole and transform into keys that matches their cutie marks. Sakura who is still holding Starlight is astonished to see the item turning into keys that goes with the chest. Ace and the other ponies walk to the chest to see what is happening. "Wowie! What just happened?" Raspberry asks. "I have no idea, but it seems that the items we received has a connection to the chest," Sakura answers in shock. Just then, thunder clashes and Sakura turns to see Naga powering up his magic. Sakura looks at the chest with the keys on the keyholes. Suddenly, Sakura feels a strange spark within her, and a sparkling spark appears in her eyes. Sakura knows just what to do. Sakura gets up, and walks to Alan. Sakura presents Starlight to Alan, and says, "Alan, I need you to take care of Starlight. What my friends and I going to do might help us defeat Naga." "What are you going to do?" Alan asks. "I think the answer is in the chest, but I need you to get Starlight and the others to safety," Sakura answers. Alan nods his head in reply, "Alright." Alan takes Starlight in his arms, and help take the others to safety. Sakura walks towards her friend who are circle around the chest. Sakura informs her friends, "Together. I think we need to open it together." Each of the six friends go to the key that has their mark, they put their hoof/hand on the key, and turn it. Finally the chest is open showing of a bright white glow. Sakura and her friends are at awed. Soon a bright rainbow of red, orange, blue, pink, purple, and magenta fly out of the chest, and heading to the Everfree Forest. In the cave where the Tree of Harmony is, and the elements continue to stand in place. Suddenly, the rainbow light hit the Element of Magic. Soon magical stream of rainbow light travels across the branches connecting to the other elements. Soon, all the elements begin to glow and shine. Finally, Sakura and her friends are being surrounded by their special color. Ace with red, Baked Apple with orange, Eden is pink, Raspberry is blue, Ruby is purple, and finally Sakura is magenta. Suddenly a blast of light swirl the six friends, and pull them into the chest. Soon they all begin to transform. Baked Apple transform and his hair has orange and green highlights on the mane and tail, and flows like the waves. He also has variety of colors of apple with cinnamon sticks on his hooves. And his hat becomes bigger, and has a red apple on top. Aerial Ace's mane and tail becomes big and red streaks are added with his blue highlights. His goggles also becomes large, and shimmer with rainbows His hooves are covered in sparrows, and his wings are rainbow colors. Dragon Ruby, fur begins to sparkle like dragon scales, and her mane and tail become sparkling and large with purple highlights. Her hooves are covered in red heart gems on it. Apple Eden also end up with large flowing braids with pink and yellow highlights, and her bandana shimmers on her head. She wings has pink. She gains zap apples and bluejays on her hooves. Raspberry's hair becomes big and puffy than before, and has blue and light yellow highlights, and gains a funny hat. His hooves are covered in confetti and party horn patterns. Finally, Sakura's hair becomes longer than before, and gain yellow and light pink highlights in her hair. Her wings also gain yellow and purple on them. Then then Sakura also appears with an elegant light kimono, with a pink ribbon, and white cloth on the inside. Sakura is looks beautiful, just like a princess. Alan and the others are surprised to see the power Sakura and her friends are possessing, including Naga. Angry and gritting his teeth, Naga uses his scepter to put an end to the girls, but has no effect. "How is this possible?! I took most of your magic?!" Naga furiously demands. "You're wrong Naga. You may have taken most of my magic, but I carried within me the most powerful magic of all," Sakura declares. Soon a magical magenta light hit Naga, soon a beam of red, orange, pink, purple, and blue also strike the serpent. Soon the magic of friendship is shooting at Naga with full force. Naga screams in agony as he feels his powers fading. His scepter shatters into pieces, and he grows weaker and weaker. In no time, Naga find himself place in a cage, and has chains on his arms and neck. The location is far from here, and has black rocks around the area. That place is tartarus. Still under the special magic, Sakura and her friends, spread it all over Equestria. Doing so help free the many ponies who has been under Naga's spell, even those at his castle. Knowing they are finally free, they cheer for joy, and begin to leave the castle. No time at all, the princesses, the king, and queen are free from the spell too, and their magic has return. Sakura then flies down to where Alan and the others are, to see Starlight still unconscious. She then uses her magic to heal Starlight, and know she will awaken soon. Out of nowhere, Sakura, and her Ponyville friends find themselves at the Tree of Harmony. The six friends are happy to have save everypony from Naga's wrath. Just then, the elements begin to glow, and the rainbow color shots take to the ski. The chest travels along the rainbow until it reaches a field just outside of Ponyville. Once the chest reach underground, a strong light burst out, and a magical building begins to rise from the ground. Once outside, the building reveals to be a japanese style castle that is made of crystals. The castle is about the size of the Canterlot castle. The buildings is purple, light purple, pink, yellow, blue, and white. There are also a few flags with cherry blossoms on it, two small balconies and a large balcony, and a purple wall surrounding the castle. Sakura and her friends are suddenly teleported to the castle. Soon, they all change back to their original forms. They are astonished, and shocked to see the special structure in front of them. "Sweet Celestia! Are you all seeing what I am seeing?!" Ruby exclaim, looking astonished. "But who castle is it?" Sakura questions. "I don't know," Eden replies. Just then, they hear a familiar grown female's accent, "Look, there they are!" Sakura and the others turn to see where the voice is coming form. The five see both of their parents, and siblings walking towards them. Sakura smiles to see her mother and brothers and sister are with them. Sakura happily cheers, "Mom!" Sakura begins to run towards her pony mother. Twilight eyes sparkles, "Sakura!" The mother and the daughter run to each other, until they manage to give each other a big hug. Ame and Yuki are happy to see their sister, and give her a hug as well. Soon Ace and the others run to their family, and they are glad to see each other. "Oh, thank goodness you are all okay," Fluttershy says hugging Eden. "You kids scared the cutie marks off of us," Apple says. "We're sorry, but we had to," Baked Apple replies. "Try not to scare us like that," Rarity says, patting Ruby on the head. Sakura continues to hug her mother, and says, "I really miss you." "We miss you too," Twilight says. Then Sakura says, "But mom, my friends and I defeated Naga. We have nothing to fear anymore. We defeated him with the magic of friendship." "That's great," Twilight says looking so proud. She then asks, "But who does the castle belongs to?" "I don't know," Sakura says. Then Ame asks, "How were you able to defeat that snake?" "Well, Starlight let herself get hit to save me, and gave me a stick that was part of a staff. Just then, the chest appear in front of me along with the items my friends received, then all six of then turned into keys," Sakura firstly explains. Then Raspberry says, "Yeah. We turned the keys, and rainbow comes out of it. And then we were transformed with bright colors. And then we use magic beams to blast Naga and it destroy his scepter. You should has seen it. That was AWESOME!" "I do am going to miss how my mane sparkles. But I have to admit, Sakura was astonishing in that kimono," Ruby says. Eden nods her head, "I agree. You look just like a princess." "That's because she is a princess," A calm voice says. They all turn to see the royal family along with Cadence. They also see Alan with his friends, and Starlight is better, but still sleeping. Hearing what the princess says, make the everyone look speechless. Raspberry shouts, "Hold on a second!" Raspberry grabs a glass of water, and drinks the whole thing. Then spits the water out. Stunned, Sakura speaks up, "A… a princess?" Princess Celestia puts her hoof on Sakura's shoulder to calm her down. "Since you've come to Equestria, you've displayed the charity, compassion, devotion, integrity, optimism, and of course, the leadership of a true princess," Princess Celestia explains. "But… does that mean I won't be your student anymore," Sakura worriedly says. "Not in the same way. I'll be there to help with your studies and guide you, but we are all your students as well," Princess Celestia says. In not time everyone including the royals begin to bow to her. Sakura looks at the castle, and asks, "But who does this castle belong to?" "I believe the castle is your Sakura," Queen Angel Wing answers. Everyone gasp in reply, then they all turn to the castle. Still shocked, Sakura manages to say, "You mean… this castle… belongs to me." "Yes. You truly earned it," King Moon Sword says. Sakura is still shocked, and yet amazed to hear and see that the beautiful japanese style castle belongs to her, and now she is a princess. All of this is starting to get a little bit overwhelming for her. Just then, Sakura hears moaning sounds, and turn to see Starlight starting to open her eyes. Sakura runs over as she worriedly shouts, "Starlight!" After reaching Starlight who is still in Alan's arms, Sakura worriedly asks, "Starlight, are you okay? Say something!" Starlight begins to open her eyes, and mumbles, "Sakura… is that you?" "Yes. I'm so glad that you're okay," Sakura says, taking Starlight from Alan's arms and gives her a hug. Alan smiles to see Sakura's friend is alright. He then wraps his arm around Sakura and gives her a hug. Everyone can't help, but smile to see joy is shining around here. And show that friendship and love will always prevail.