“Is she seriously going to fight him alone?” Tirek asked unpuzzled.
“From the looks of it, she is.” Cozy answered, unpuzzled as well.
“She´d better know what she´s doing. Cause if she loses, our plans go unfold!” Chrysalis exclaimed upset.
“What plans are you three talking about?” Starswirl, Stygian and the pillars glared at them suspiciously. Scorpan simply crossed his arms.
“For Twilight´s coronation of course! We´re planning to do a huge party for her!” Cozy lied.
The ponies and gargoyle raised their eyebrows.
“You´d better stay quiet.” Tirek put his hand on her shoulder.
“Shh! They´re going to start fighting.” Zecora shushed them.
The first one to fire was Grogar. He threw various magic rays and fire at Twilight. Though she knew that eventually she was going to beat him, it wasn´t as easy as she expected it to be. This time Grogar was full of rage, not thinking his actions through and letting his impulses dictate him instead. As a result, he attacked her nonstop and the poor Twilight had to react in the moment immediately all the time.
In the meantime, every creature observed anxiously the battle. Just like Spike, Twilight´s friends didn´t want her to fight that monster alone, so if they could help anyway, they would. They just had to wait for the right moment.
Twilight´s main strategy was to tire him until he fell, so she only had to fire back few times. After some time, Twilight saw the perfect chance to attack. She started flying around him in circles until she confused him. When she did, she zapped at his chest. Grogar yelled in pain.
“Rick´em rack´em purple coat! Free us from the evil goat!” Pinkie, Cheese, Party Flavour and Discord cheered Twiligh with their cheerleader outfits on.
The others cheered as well.
“Nice rhyme.” Punja muttered.
Zecora raised an eyebrow playfully.
Grogar turned around and blew fire at every creature. Luckily, they scattered soon enough before it reached them. As a response, Twilight blew magic at his head.
“Hey! This is between you and me! Leave my friends out of this!” she commanded.
Taking advantage of the fact that Grogar wasn´t looking, Discord took a small flag out and started moving it vaguely.
“Grogar, Grogar, he´s our ram, if he can´t do it, GREAT!”
Grogar kept throwing all the magic and fire he could at Twilight, and the alicorn maintained her strategy. This was the tensest moment in every creature´s life. Their destiny was at stake. They would be free and in harmony if Twilight won but if Grogar won, they would be enslaved and tortured forever. And what´s worse, they couldn´t know for certain who was going to win, as they seemed to be in the same level and equally as masterful in their attack and defence.
Time and time passed, and yet, the winner wasn´t still clear. Both Grogar and Twilight were exhausted, panting heavily, sweating. The two of them were about to fall. One more zap, and there would be a winner. However, they weren´t going to let the loser be them. So, they took some time to think.
As they were frowning at each other, Twilight took a quick glance of Grogar. She noticed his legs were trembling from the exhaustion. It was then when she knew what she had to do. When Grogar expected it the least, she flew between his legs and zapped them from behind, causing Grogar to fall.
Though Twilight had managed to make him fall, neither she nor them trusted Grogar´s immobile posture and closed eyes. Knowing him, he could be pretending.
“What do we do?” Silverstream asked the main 6.
They looked at each other, unsure of what to do as a next step. Twilight took a small step forward. Her friends gasped quietly and shook her heads at her, making Twilight think better. If he was pretending, that´s what he´d want her to do: come close to him so he could grab her and kill her immediately. However, she couldn´t stay there forever, especially after being so exhausted. So, she decided to fly far away from him to her friends. She looked back to Spike and nodded at him. The dragon understood the message and so, he opened his wings.
However, suddenly, just when Twilight was going to fly, Grogar opened his eyes, grabbed her with one claw and paralyzed with magic. Every creature gasped and without thinking it twice, they ran for battle. Unfortunately, Grogar trapped them all in a magical field. They helplessly tried to destroy it or held it in disbelief, others just watched in panic. Then, Grogar turned his head to Twilight and chuckled evilly and victoriously, knowing that this time there was no escape for her.
“It´s over princess. I win.” he told her.
But he didn´t count on one thing: Spike.
At the same moment Grogar opened his eyes, Spike hid behind the rock once again. He watched in horror that Twilight was going to be killed once again. However, he had an idea when he saw the bell. Yes, he couldn´t destroy it but it was made from metal. And metal burns a creature if given enough heat. Grogar may have the form of a dragon but he knew that he wasn´t immune to fire. So, he frowned and flew as fast as he could to Grogar and Twilight. He took a deep breath and blew fire to the bell. As he expected, it burnt Grogar´s chest slightly, making him both release Twilight and undo the magical field to contain every creature. They quickly surrounded Grogar. He frowned at Spike.
“THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” he yelled at him.
He rang his bell and took a deep breath to blow fire at him just as he did before. Twilight gasped horrified.
“Spike!”
The alicorn flew to her brother just when Grogar released his magic and fire. They held each other tightly and closed their eyes. When the magic and fire reached them, there was a huge blast of light that lasted for some time, so no creature knew for certain what had happened.
Every creature´s faces were full of horror. Some even started to cry, thinking that they had lost forever. Grogar, on the other hoof, was smiling with lots of satisfaction.
“Checkmate.” he whispered.
But Grogar would soon realize that he spoke too soon, as when the light disappeared, he saw Twilight and Spike embracing each other, protected by an aura of magic. Now, their emotions were reversed. Every creature yelled and cheered in joy, and Grogar looked at them astonished.
Twilight´s ear twitched when she heard the yells. She opened one eye slightly and then widened her eyes and smiled when she realized that she and Spike were alive. The little dragon was still panting heavily in her chest.
“Spike, look!”
He looked at her face and quickly undid the hug. Along Twilight, he smiled at every creature.
Grogar hyperventilated heavily, seeing that he couldn´t kill Twilight nor Spike. But then he realized that he could still kill the other creatures. So, he went on to target them instead, but Twilight and Spike stood between them and covered them every time they could. For the first time, Twilight was feeling safe from Grogar, and had no more fear. The aura surrounding her and Spike was much stronger than Grogar will ever be.
Then, suddenly, Discord´s body started shaking. Fluttershy noticed that, so she put her hoof on her shoulder.
“What is it Discord? Is something wrong?”
“On the contrary, it is good! Very good.”
From what the professor told them, the young six knew Discord was able to detect changes on magic. They look at each other.
“It´s back!” they exclaimed in chorus.
Twilight overheard their conversation. She knew who they were talking about. The Tree was regaining its strength, which meant that Gusty was coming back! Maybe it was because she and Spike combined their love energy. It was then when it clicked for her.
“That´s it! I know how to defeat him!” she told Spike.
They quickly flew to the girls.
“We need to hold our hooves! I think the aura will get stronger if you join us.” she explained quickly.
They quickly nodded and grabbed their hooves together. Twilight looked at every creature.
“You too guys.”
The pillars and Young Six understood the task. The rest didn´t do anything, but they realized that Twilight was also talking about them, since she was still looking at them with a smile.
“Wait. You want us to hold our hooves too?” Sunburst asked surprised.
Twilight nodded.
“And claws?” Ember added. The griffons, hippogriffs looked at their claws.
Twilight nodded once again.
“Do paws count?” Capper asked.
Twilight nodded again.
“Yaks and changeling and zebra hooves too?” Prince Rutheford asked while raising Thorax´s and Zecora´s hooves.
“It´s clear that the answer is valid to every creature.” Trixie to him.
This caught every creature by surprise.
“But Twilight, unlike any of you, we have no connection to the Tree of Harmony!” Starlight said nervously. “I don´t think we´ll be of much help.”
“Yes you will. You´ll understand later. But for now hold your hooves, wings, claws, or paws.”
Though unsure, they did as they were told.
“One last question.” Cozy intervened. “Are me and my fam-” she rectified when she noticed Chrysalis and Tirek glaring at her. “legion when you said every creature?”
“Yes.”
The three villains blinked. Tirek left out a raspberry from holding his laugh.
“Yeah, good luck! We haven´t got a single drop of the `magic of friendship´ in our veins!” he crossed his arms annoyed.
“Then why are you three together?”
They looked at each other.
“If you want to defeat him, it is the only way.”
“Fine.” Chrysalis accepted begrudgingly. “But this doesn´t mean we´re friends, understood?” she said while giving her hooves to the others.
When they did, they all elevated from the ground. This time, Twilight was the one smiling in victory and Grogar the one in terror.
“You might have terrified, separated, and hurt us endless times. But we came back up again. Because we have a stronger power. A power that has united kingdoms,” she looked at the dragons, yaks, hippgriffs, griffons and changelings. “healed hearts,” she looked at Luna, Discord, Sunset, Trixie, Starlight and Stygian. “fix broken relationships,” Luna and Celestia shared glances, and so did Starlight and Sunburst, the pillars, Stygian and Scorpan. “saved the day countless times,” Twilight looked at Spike and her friends. Shining Armour, Cadence and Flurry Heart observed her with great pride, which made Twilight smiled in return. “and created new families too!” she raised an eyebrow at the villains.
“Noooo!” the three denied in chorus.
Twilight rolled her eyes playfully. Then, she kept on with her speech.
“And you know why? Because friendship is magic!”
Before igniting her horn, she put her hoof on her chest.
“We´ve got you Gusty.” she muttered.
As soon as she lighted her horn, every creature´s eyes, including hers went white. Well, maybe except the villains´.
“Why aren´t our eyes glowing?” Cozy wondered aloud.
Tirek and Chrysalis narrowed their eyes and raised their eyebrows dryly.
“Yeah, I guess you´re right.” She agreed.
Then, from Twilight´s horn appeared a rainbow. Grogar covered himself with his arms and wings to protect himself all he could from the blow he was about to receive. But surprisingly, the rainbow wasn´t aimed towards him. It went backwards instead.
Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy widened their eyes.
“YOU MISSED! HOW COULD YOU MISS IT? HE WAS THREE HOOVES IN FRONT OF YOU!” Chrysalis yelled frustrated.
But they would soon understand where the rainbow went when they saw a rainbow boom far away. Then, there appeared a rainbowy wind blowing through the clouds, making the windigos disappear and letting the sun shine once again. Grogar widened his eyes and opened his mouth in shock, knowing what this event meant.
“Oh, the tree of harmony. That makes sense.” Chrysalis rectified.
“Are you sure it´s the tree?” Cozy said as he pointed.
They gasped when they saw that the wind wasn´t caused by the Tree of Harmony. But by a sparkly white unicorn mare with a flowing mane running through the clouds happily and confidently.
“What the…” Tirek said but shock didn´t let him speak.
When she was near enough, the mare jumped and floated in front of Grogar.
“Impossible! I- I- I made you vanish forever!” he exclaimed confused, scared and furious.
“I told you Grogar. No matter what you make me go through, I always come back. Because I am harmony.”
Grogar hyperventilated.
“And once again, I say checkmate.”
By combining every creature´s power she created a huge gust of wind combined with a rainbow and directed towards Grogar.
“NOOOOO!” Grogar yelled as Gusty´s magic hit him.
Afterwards, there was a boom that expanded throughout all Equestria, clearing the snow and clouds. Ponies all around sighed in relief and started cheering.
Slowly, every creature landed on the ground. They rubbed their heads or helped each other get up from the ground.
The mane 6 were the last to land. They opened their eyes, which filled with tears when they saw the green grass, and a blue sky once again. Then, they shared a glance and hugged each other.
“Wow… That was intense!” Gabby exclaimed. “Let´s do it again!” she took Terramar´s claw.
“I´d prefer not to… But….” he sighed satisfied. “Glad everything is over. Right guys?”
However, none of his friends did not respond. In fact, every creature was focused on another thing. Silverstream and Smolder´s jaws hung open. There she was, the legendary Gusty the Great.
The spirit took a relaxed breath before turning around and smiled at Twilight. Then, Twilight went on to hug her.
“You came back!” she exclaimed.
“No, you made me come back.” Gusty clarified. “Thanks to all of you, I came back.” she looked at every creature. “I might have disappeared for a while, but your faith and friendship was stronger than Grogar´s hatred and terror, which allowed harmony win once again.”
Applejack gasped in realization.
“Wait, if you disappeared, that means….”
“You´re the Tree of Harmony!” Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike and Fluttershy said in chorus.
Gusty nodded.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute. What?” Gallus asked confused.
“We thought that you had Twilight Sparkle´s form.” Sandbar said.
“No, this is my real form.”
“So you´re like a changeling?” Ocellus asked excited.
“Kind of.” Gusty tilted her head as she smiled.
“Then why tree not showed us real form?” Yona asked. “Tree not trusted us?”
“No no! Of course I trusted you. But I had my reasons. One, if I showed myself like this, you wouldn´t have recognized me, so I took the form of somepony close to you.”
“That makes a lot of sense…” Smolder muttered.
“And two, I knew that Grogar would find out about me eventually. And he did… In fact, if I disappeared, it was because he came to visit the Tree, we fought and casted a spell on me so I would disappear. But I´m afraid his plan backfired.” Gusty raised an eyebrow while smirking with Twilight.
Starswirl walked to Twilight´s side. He stared at Gusty with shock. He approached her, sat down and took his hat off,
“Gusty…”
“Starswirl…”
They both hugged each other. The stallion shed some tears.
“You left so soon…” he sniffed.
Gusty´s eyes got watery.
“I know… But I´ve been with you from the moment you and your friends planted that seed. I wasn´t done protecting you, you know?”
Starswirl chuckled slightly.
“Neither being by your daughters´ side, I see.” he made way for Gusty to see Celestia and Luna.
The two alicorns were covering their mouths. Their eyes were full of tears.
“Mother…” Celestia whispered.
Gusty ran towards them and hugged each other strongly.
“I thought I´d never get to hug you again…” Gusty said in tears.
The two sisters sniffed.
“We never thought you abandoned us. We never doubted you for any moment.” Luna added.
“I know Lulu.” Gusty dried her tears. “And I never stopped loving you, even though you turned into Nightmare Moon, if you had ever thought that. You have a great heart and are loved and amazing. Never forget that.” Gusty caressed Luna´s cheek. Luna took her hoof and pressed against her cheek as she sniffed smiling.”
“And this was never your fault either Tia. You´ve always been a good sister and a good daughter too. I´m so proud of you, I´ve always been, even if I couldn´t tell you.”
Celestia sniffed.
“Thank you, mom.”
Despite she was hugging her daughters, she knew that a child of hers was missing. She looked behind and found Discord, hiding behind Fluttershy, Cadence, Shining Armour and Flurry Heart. He looked ashamed and sad.
“Come on, Dizzy.” Fluttershy said.
“Don´t you see she wants to hug her child?” Cadence looked at Gusty.
Gusty smiled sweetly at Discord. The draconequus looked away unsure.
“She still loves you, I can tell that.” Shining reassured him.
“I´ll come with you if that makes you more comfortable.” Fluttershy held his hoof.
Discord nodded. He took a deep breath and started walking towards Gusty, Celestia and Luna. When he reached them, he cleared his throat.
“I… Um…”
But he didn´t need to say any words, for Gusty hugged him tightly. Discord started crying and sobbing hard as he hugged her in return. Gusty was also crying.
“I´m so sorry for having forgotten you and having turned evil.”
Gusty sniffed while she shook her head.
“No need to. That monster has harmed you so much to the point of making you think that nopony would ever love you. But he was wrong. Like I said to Luna, you are worthy of love.” she smiled at him. “I never stopped thinking about you and I always dreamed of hugging and playing with you in the afterlife.”
Discord smiled while drying his tears. Then, the whole family hugged together.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy walked to her friends and like Twilight watched the scene in tears, l. The rest of the mane 6 and Spike were mouth agape.
“You two knew this?” Pinkie asked them.
The two mares nodded.
“So that makes Discord Celestia´s and Luna´s brother!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Hard to believe, but yes.” Applejack replied.
“Good thing they´re retiring, I would have never been able to stand him as a prince!” Rainbow Dash commented.
She quickly rectified her comment when she saw Fluttershy throwing a death stare to her.
“But he´s a great friend.”
Fluttershy smiled.
Twilight walked towards Gusty. Once she arrived, she was about to bow down but Gusty stopped her.
“No.” she was the one to bow down instead. “You have saved us all.”
Twilight widened her eyes in surprise. Her friends and family were the next to bow down, followed by the princesses and Discord. Then, all her allies. She looked around surprised and humbled. It felt so weird, but she would have to get used to it. She was going to be Equestria´s next ruler after all!
However, Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy didn´t bother to bow.
“Yeah. Not happening.” Cozy shook her head.
“We might have worked together, but we´re not bowing down to you.” Tirek added while holding his head high.
Twilight sighed slightly frustrated. However, they would soon change their minds when Gusty threw a death glare at them. Although they were technically defeated by her power, it was nothing compared to what she did with Grogar. Like Grogar, she could kill them right in the spot. They gulped and started sweating.
“On second thought, it might not be so bad.” Chrysalis smiled nervously.
Gusty raised her eyebrow and smiled satisfied.
Suddenly, they heard some groans. They turned their heads only to see Grogar laying on the ground, opening his eyes, coughing, and struggling to move. His collar´s bells were all over the place and wasn´t hanging from his neck. But that wasn´t the most shocking part. The Bewitching Bell, the object he boasted about being indestructible, was broken in various pieces!
“So the bell was indestructible, huh?” Twilight asked him cockily.
When Grogar saw the bell, he gasped. He took the pieces with his hooves while hyperventilated.
“But how…” he muttered in shock, in the brink of tears.
His ears perked up when he heard Gusty´s hoofsteps. He frowned when she saw her in front of him.
“Looks like the roles have reversed once again, hm?”
Despite the state he was in, he tried to ignite his horns and blast Gusty once again. But nothing happened.
“What have you done to me?!” he asked in a mixture of panic and anger.
“I took away your magic.”
Grogar sighed. He closed his eyes.
“I have said it before, but I´ll repeat it. I understand you had a difficult past. I also did! And so did many creatures. But you also had a choice. Had you stayed in the path of good, none of this would have happened. Instead, now you must face the consequences of your actions.”
He wanted to refute Gusty´s words but had nothing to say.
“What are you going to do now?”
“Don´t ask me. Ask them.”
Gusty made way for Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy. In a matter of seconds, their frowns turned into terrifying smirks.
“What was it that he said before to us when he trapped us?” Chrysalis asked cockily.
“I don´t remember.” Tirek continued. Maybe something about… Sentencing us to death?”
Grogar´s face filled with horror when he heard those words.
“Yeah…” Cozy agreed before laughing evilly.
Chrysalis and Tirek ignited her horns whereas Cozy grabbed a big stone she found. The three villains wore evil smirks as they got nearer Grogar. The ram weakly crept backwards.
“No, p-please.U-Understand, h-have mercy,” he yelped when he reached a stone. “No no no!”
Afterwards, the last thing every creature heard of Grogar was him begging mercy. They all covered their eyes. When they opened, neither Grogar nor the villains were there.
“Where did those three go?” Applejack asked concerned.
“I don´t know.” Twilight replied.
“Wherever they might have gone to, they won´t bother us ever again.” Gusty said calmly. “Because if they do,” she stomped her hoof against the other. “They´ll have to deal with me.”
They smiled sweetly at her. Gusty looked at the distance.
“I must go now. The tree can´t spend too much time without me.”
Twilight nodded. Before Gusty did anything, Celestia, Luna and Discord grabbed her hoof.
“Will we ever see you again?” Celestia asked her.
Gusty nodded.
“We will. I promise.”
Before going, she kissed the three of them in the forehead.
“Take care of each other, ok?”
The three nodded. Gusty smiled.
“So long my children.”
“So long mom.” Luna said in return.
“We love you.” Discord added.
“I know.” Gusty replied.
Gusty ignited her horn. She conjured up some winds that made her vanish slowly.
“Thank you.” Twilight told her as Gusty vanished.
The mare nodded her head and smiled at her. She closed her eyes before vanishing completely.
Once she disappeared, every creature looked at Twilight. Suddenly a hole appeared on the ground. Then three Diamond Dogs poked their heads out.
“Are we late? Did we miss something?” Rover asked.
Every creature tilted their heads.
“Quite plenty, honey.” Steven Magnet replied.
Twilight, Spike and her friends looked at each other.
“So, what do we do now?” Rarity asked her.
Twilight put her hoof on her chin as she smiled.
“Who asked for a double ration of donuts?” Donut Joe asked as he raised a plate full of donuts.
“Ooh! That´s mine! That´s mine!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly.
She jumped from her seat and pranced happily to Joe. The stressed stallion cleaned his sweat.
“Take it easy Joe. Even though you have more clients than usual, think that you´ll have a great tip!”
Apparently, Twilight invited every creature that participated in the fight against Grogar to have some donuts and hot chocolate. That was the least she could do after all their help!
With one hop, Pinkie returned to her seat.
“I´m telling you Pinkie. Having four rations of donuts will be bad for your tummy.” Rarity insisted.
“But I´m so hungry!”
With just one bite, Pinkie ate all the donuts Joe had served her.
“Tell me about that.” Rainbow stretched her wings. “This has let me all stiff!”
“Well if you´re too tired of flying, you can stay in the farm for the night.” Applejack put her hoof on her shoulder smirking.
Rainbow smirked in return. Meanwhile, Fluttershy finished drinking her cup of hot chocolate. She sighed.
“So warm. I almost forget what the heat was!”
“Yeah. And I almost forgot what being safe was like!” Spike added. “I hope to never go through that again.”
“Me too.”
They laughed together.
Twilight smiled tenderly. Seeing her friends at the same table they went after the gala disaster gala brought her so many memories. It was a bittersweet. She and her friends will not be able to do this as often once she gets crowned as a princess. But if their last battle taught her something, is that nothing, absolutely nothing will separate each other. So, she knew everything was going to be fine. There were still letters and potions with which you could talk to your friends in long distances after all! And she was sure that she´ll have time to see her friends too.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Celestia, Luna and Discord.
“Hey! How are my sweetest ponies?” he asked as he brushed his face against Fluttershy´s face, making her laugh.
“I know that you´re having a break and everything but we need to talk to you about something important.” Luna said to Twilight.
“Let me guess. The coronation.”
“Yes.” Celestia nodded. “When do you want to do it? I´m saying this because depending on the date, we might not be able to do it, as the castle has to be rebuilt.”
Twilight took some time to think before answering. She smirked when she had an idea.
“I have a date in mind. But it doesn´t have to be in Canterlot…”