//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Equestria Grads // by Toon4Thought //------------------------------// Back in Equestria, grouped near the busily whirring portal, stood Princess Twilight Sparkle and her five best friends, wearing their special Elements of Harmony necklaces. The purple alicorn was very relieved to hear from her journal that Sunset Shimmer reconciled with her own friends, and indeed showed heavy interest in her proposal that, after some preliminary checks, she was eager to give a shot. “Thanks very much for gathering my friends and the elements, Starlight,” she said to the remaining unicorn standing in the library. Starlight smiled, never hesitant to accept appreciation from her mentor. “So, tell me again what we’re supposed to do?” said a slightly confused Applejack. “Oh, that’s easy!” Pinkie Pie said, as her friends' eyes started to roll. They all knew Pinkie was about to show off her scarily photographic memory. “We’re going to use the power of the Elements of Harmony to recognize the imbalance of magic in their world, and our two-legged counterparts are going to use the power of their magical geodes to neutralize the magic, thus allowing it to successfully come back into this world where it originally came from and allowing us to keep the portal open on its original cycle from before all this ever happened!” After a slight pause in some blinking, with most of the crowd trying to process the bottom line, Rainbow Dash of all ponies finally broke the silence. “So, we just have to point the rays from these,” pointing a hoof at her necklace, “to the portal until all their magic is gone?” “Yeah, pretty much,” Twilight quickly responded, making sure Pinkie didn’t ramble on again. “Well, how will we know when they’re using their geodes?” Rarity asked, always eager to see design flaws in anything. “Not to mention when the work is done,” Fluttershy added on. “Oh,” said Princess Twilight, stressing as she tried to think of the answer. A nudge on the shoulder from a supportive Starlight Glimmer was enough to bring her back to reality. “Well, the portal’s swirls are going to react to the flow of magic going through.” She pointed her hoof toward the vortex, which was fluttering a wide variety of vibrant colors. “It brightens upon impact, and once everything is normalized…” “If it’s normalized…” she thought to herself in concern. “…It will turn back into its normal purple.” Another pause followed. “Well, it makes about as much sense as anything else,” Rainbow shrugged. “So, shall we let them know we’re ready?” asked Rarity. “Yep,” said Princess Twilight, preparing to write her reply in her journal to Sunset. “We just have to confirm they’re ready to activate their geodes, and…” Suddenly, upon uttering a certain word, she remembered something she recalled in her studies. When she was analyzing the portal’s magic, and when she was looking at the power of the geodes months ago. Processing the mathematics, she came to an unnerving realization, which she frivolously scribbled in the journal, and worriedly placed it back on the shelf. “…What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked with sympathy. Twilight sighed and explained, “I found out their world may not be safe if we go through with this plan..." *** Magic was quickly spreading all across the human world, with ferocious, untamed magical creatures sprouting out every so often as well as scattered wisps taking control of certain properties or items and turning against their users. But none were nearly as messed up nor in as dangerous a state as Canterlot City. Throughout the city, there was nothing but pure chaos, the likes of which no person has previously seen. Chunks of the ground were completely off-level with one another, sometimes breaking into floating islands. A number of magic-contaminated objects were wreaking further havoc and damage. Small ripples into Equestria were no more than 20 feet apart from each other, filling the walls, grass, and even partway into the air. This allowed many a pony to get good glimpses of this mysterious world, without knowing what it was or why they were seeing it. However, none of the citizens were within sight, as indeed none of them were outside. They all evacuated inside their houses or wherever they happened to be in at the time everything truly became out of control. Granted, they weren’t completely safe as many of them had at least one contaminated object to worry about, and the power being knocked out didn’t help matters. But this was a situation where it felt like you truly needed to be within walls to remain in one piece. The only seven girls that were brave enough to endure the uninviting outdoors were the seven teens standing in front of Canterlot High. Sunset Shimmer had just described her plan to her friends. “Hmm, that honestly sounds like a pretty good idea,” Applejack nodded in approval. “Yes, let’s do it!” said Rainbow, pumping her fists. “Abso-doot-lutely!” Pinkie concurred. Sunset, happy to see her friends’ approval and proud of herself in general, opened the journal to properly coordinate with Princess Twilight, who had already given her full approval… only for Sunset to receive another message as it appeared. Sunset Shimmer was halfway through reading it when her eyes widened and she carefully began to analyze every single word that surfaced, making sure she wasn't misinterpreting anything. Finally, she read the last part out loud. “…The magical forces may prove too much for the geodes to properly carry. They definitely could push it back with enough effort, but after just one attempt… they will be overloaded and destroyed in the process.” She was stunned, not really knowing how to respond. So were her friends. “…So, if this fails,” Fluttershy said, gulping, “we won’t be able to fight the magic!” “And if my calculations are correct,” Sci-Twi added on, recalling her own observations, “the sole imbalance will make it impossible for the portal closing to remove all traces.” Sunset Shimmer went back to looking as stressed as she did in the castle courtroom. “Are you gals sure this is a risk worth taking?” said Applejack strictly, gesturing commandingly with her hand. “After all, all this could do is possibly doom our world.” “Well… I suppose that’ll still mean there will be significantly less going on,” Rarity surmised, “And there won’t be any more coming in.” “But it’s still more magic to worry about than we may have to!” Applejack complained, “Aren’t ya’ll worried about that spreadin’?” “Yeah, I’m having second thoughts myself…” Fluttershy whimpered as she saw all the chaos breaking out in the horizon. “C’mon, girls!” said a courageous Rainbow Dash. “As much as I love being a hero with our geode powers, even I know we’ve defeated worse with just singing, trust, and encouragement!” “Don’t forget that one time we had to rely on Starlight Glimmer,” said Pinkie. “…Yeah, not one of our… awesome moments,” said the young athlete, sheepishly folding an arm behind her head. “Still, Rainbow does – surprisingly enough – have a point,” said Rarity, stepping toward Applejack, “We don’t need our geodes to counter the magic we have.” “The magic of friendship is more powerful than any malicious and evil force!” Pinkie Pie added on, squeezing herself between Rarity and Rainbow Dash and hugging them with one arm each. They couldn’t help but smile at the friendly gesture and message. Sunset sniffed and fought tears, but this time it was not because she was stressed or crestfallen. Instead, she was happy. Happy that her friends were not afraid of what scenario they might have to face, and that they reminded her that she really was more capable than she thought, magic or no magic. “So, what’s the plan?” said Twilight, the instant Sunset started to ease up. “We are going to give Sunset’s plan a shot,” Applejack declared. “Either we keep the two worlds in harmony, or we will fail trying.” “We’re really going through with that?” Sunset asked with her head up, wiping some leftover tears. “Of course!” said her confident farmer friend. “It’s the least we can do after leaving you behind like that. Besides, like Rarity said… what’s a little magical energy when we have our friendship?” Sunset was especially pleased to win over the most skeptical of the group, and enthusiastically wrote down her consent into her journal. About a minute passed, her friends all standing in a line, preparing for the all-or-nothing moment. “Alright, go!” Sunset went, joining her friends in the middle of the line. The girls all willed the geodes into activation, and all began to work as a vacuum, sucking excess magic away from the city and transporting it back through the portal. Already, things were beginning to look more, for lack of a better term, normal. While most of the action was clearly occurring out of their line of sight, Sunset could see in the horizon less magical wisps freely moving around, and even the area around them was starting to drift down. *** “It’s working!” said Princess Twilight happily, as the Elements of Harmony worked their magic through the portal, in a sense serving as the output of the vacuum the geodes were starting up. She could see many wisps of magic traveling through the mirror and appropriately dissolve upon entry into the magic-filled world.  This went on for a couple minutes before her friends started to fatigue. “Whew, this sure is taking a lot of me,” said Applejack as she beat the sweat off her head with a hoof. “We need to keep it up!” Princess Twilight insisted, straining as her own Element of Magic fueled the power across the five necklaces. “For how long though?” Rainbow grunted. “Even someone as awesome as I has her limits…” “However long it takes to get all the magic out…” said Twilight, starting to struggle. “Well, I can’t hold onto this much longer!” Pinkie Pie shouted, her hooves sliding underneath her. “I sure hope they can hold on too…” *** By this point, the statue and the school were back at ground level. It looked as though there wasn’t much left to filter out… however, progress seemed to stall. They could see that, despite their efforts, the magic was still leaking out because of the remaining crack. On top of that, the vacuum had to search further and further to find the remaining scraps. “Sunset,” said Twilight, straining just as much as her alicorn counterpart, “We can’t keep up!” “No… no,” Sunset panted, obviously in denial, “We must keep it up!” “Face it, darling,” Rarity sighed, “our efforts are proving to be all in vain.” “Well, at least you can’t say we didn’t try,” Applejack shrugged, hoping to reassure Sunset. But she was still struggling to accept the reality that was unfolding in front of her. The remaining magic would remain in the human world, and she would be forced to permanently leave one side of her life forever... She was a fool for thinking she could have it both ways... She set her head down, about to accept defeat, when she found herself focusing on her roaring geode - the Geode of Empathy. It symbolized her care for everyone she knew, and how everyone cared for her. She thought about the girls standing beside her: Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle. She thought about the memories she had with them, both as a group and individually. She thought about how they've made the last couple years the greatest in her life, and how she has managed to get along with virtually everyone else in the school as well as discover several new, exciting hobbies along the way. Then her mind turned to Princess Celestia, all the great magic she was able to learn under her tutelage, and how - even after her seemingly unforgivable betrayal - she was willing to let her continue as if nothing happened. She thought about Starlight Glimmer, who she made great friends with almost immediately and found they were relate to each other more than she could imagine. And finally, she thought about Princess Twilight, and how the then-new alicorn allowed her to start her life anew and discover the magic of friendship for herself. The magic of friendship... Suddenly, a few roaring voices ran inside her head. “You’re the only pony who has love spreading across two dimensions,” went Princess Twilight. “Sometimes the answer is closer than you may think,” went Princess Luna. “No distance will ever take you away from our hearts!” went Pinkie Pie. She again stared at the geode, thinking as hard as she could. Sure, she knew what it meant in terms of her power for reading minds, but maybe its connections to the magic of friendship meant more than just being part of the team... Maybe it also stood for her relationship between the two worlds... Maybe... Not wasting another second and with a determined look, she fiercely pulled her geode, ripping it off the necklace. It stopped contributing to the rainbow blast while the others continued roaring with power. “Sunset, what are you doing?” Twilight asked, horribly confused. Sunset didn’t respond. Instead, she threw her geode into the big ray of light. But instead of passing through it, it stayed inside and appeared to absorb the power. Sunset didn’t know exactly what was about to happen, but she knew that it was going to be something truly magical and powerful. When the lone geode entered the swirling mass of lights between the two worlds, it stopped and hovered in place for a bit. It shook, first slowly before it grew more and more intense, until finally it broke open and unleashed a huge array of pure light in all directions. But instead of continuing to spread, it stopped at the openings at both sides of the portal. Instead of halting the magic coming into both sides, it absorbed and pulled it together, causing a special combined magic that sensed the imbalance of both worlds, and automatically detected the remaining magic left inside the world it didn’t belong in. It fueled off Sunset's empathy for both worlds and the citizens within them, as well as her desires for the magic to be neutralized the way it should be, and before long, exactly that was so and a huge blinding flash of light caused everything broken or cracked by the magic to be restored. After that came complete silence. The remaining five geodes shattered into pieces that were nothing more than scraps on the ground near their feet. The girls, including Sunset Shimmer, were in complete disbelief over what had just happened. “...How did you know that would happen?” Rarity gasped. “Uh...” Sunset stammered, “I honestly really didn’t. I just remembered my geode was all about empathy, and after all you’ve said how strong our friendship is and how much you care for me… I realized that the magic of friendship was powerful enough to set everything right.” All of a sudden, a bunch of people rushed out of the school and other places where they were evacuating. Classmates, faculty, and neighbors alike saw the seven heroes standing between Canterlot High and the no longer cracked marble. And, after a minute of processing, they rushed over to the seven girls and let out all sorts of joyous noise. “Three cheers for the Equestria Girls!” Scootaloo said, pumping her fists in the air. All the hoorays and yeahs were unlike anything the group have received, both from their previous magical encounters and their band gigs. Sure, people appreciated what they did before, but this felt different. They felt like truer heroes than ever before. Sunset was most overwhelmed by the attention, but relished it just the same. But over time, it turned into questions - mostly directed toward Sunset - like “Is that really a magical world of ponies?”, “What was it like for you over there?”, and “Did you have trouble having hands and feet?” She took a deep breath, and calmly answered as many of the kids’ questions as she comfortable could. It was odd to see someone outside her own contacts know about the magical world, but she supposed it was only inevitable at this point. And with the two worlds coexisting for good, maybe some things should change to keep them more united. The cheers were so loud, they were able to be heard on the other side of the portal, in Princess Twilight’s library. Sure enough, the vortex was its old deep purple, and most of the ponies were truly relieved to see the mission had been accomplished. “I’m so proud of you, Sunset Shimmer,” said Princess Twilight out loud.