Several weeks had passed since Grogar was defeated. Although Twilight decreed that the coronation should not be celebrated in Canterlot, she decided to wait for some time before celebrating it. Every creature was exhausted and had some wounds to heal, both physical and emotional.
But now, the right time had come. Twilight looked at her reflection on the mirror. She was wearing the gorgeous dress Rarity made for her, her mane picked up in a ponytail, ready to be crowned as ruler of Equestria. Who would have thought, after the whole ordeal they went through. But if facing Grogar brought something good, was that it gave her confidence. For the first time in forever, she was not doubting about her aptitude for a leader. She was fairly confident that she would be able to rule Equestria without any problem.
She took a deep breath and sighed with a smile on her face. Her ears perked up when she heard some knocks on the door.
“Come in!” Twilight said.
Twilight´s friends and Spike opened the door. They all wore their best garments.
“Heeey!” they exclaimed excitedly in chorus.
“How is our favourite princess doing?” Rainbow nudged her.
“I´m a bit tense but… pretty calm too.” she explained.
“Well, in case you´re not feeling good, I brought my relaxing apple juice. It helps me relax.” Applejack winked.
“Thank you, A.J.” Twilight picked up the bottle.
“What are you doing?! Don´t you see that you could ruin the dress?!” Rarity interfered between the two mares. “Talking about the dress, what do you think about it?” Rarity asked Twilight. “Is it perfect? Are you sure the cape isn´t too long?”
Twilight chuckled.
“It´s perfect, Rare.”
“And even if it was, that´s why I´m here. To hold it!” Spike lifted Twilight´s cape.
“I thought you were in charge of the fireworks.” Rainbow raised her eyebrow confused. “You know, conducting the dragons.”
“I am! But I can conduct them from up here.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes playfully. Rarity wiped the sweat from her forehead.
“See? I told you she would love it.” Fluttershy laid her hoof on her shoulder. “But you haven´t seen anything yet…” she raised her eyebrow playfully.
“Really?” Twilight followed Fluttershy´s game.
“Really.” Fluttershy giggled mischievously before replying.
“Ooooo! I´m so excited!” Pinkie Pie jumped excitedly. “We have many surprises in store for you! You won´t be disappointed!”
“I´m sure I won´t be.” Twilight said in reply.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Twilight breathed in and out.
“Well. The time has come.”
“The time has come…” Rarity calmly repeated at first. Then, she gasped in realization. “The time has come! What are we doing? Let´s go! Let´s go! To your posts.”
The five mares rushed out the door, bumping against Celestia and Luna, which caused them to the ground on their backs. They gasped.
“Oh dear, we´re so sorry!” Fluttershy apologized while she and her friends helped them to get on four legs.
Celestia and Luna giggled.
“That´s alright, just be a little more careful.” Celestia reassured them.
The five mares smiled and rushed out. Celestia and Luna walked to Twilight and Spike.
“Who would have thought? Your friends being more anxious about the coronation than you are!” Luna exclaimed.
“Well… I´m still feeling butterflies in my stomach…” Twilight looked away while smiling nervously.
“On everypony´s defence, I´m just going to say that this is a pretty big change for all of us.” Spike raised his finger.
“Yeah…” Luna agreed with a somewhat saddened tone.
Twilight noticed the change in the two alicorns´ moods.
“Are you ok?” she asked worried.
“Yes, it´s just…” Celestia sniffed. “After all these years we´ve spent together, teaching and guiding you, and seeing how much you´ve grown from when we first met.” she shed some tears. “It feels so gratifying to see you wearing such a pretty dress prepared for your coronation.”
“And it is more than we expected, especially after we almost lost you…” Luna added.
Twilight´s eyes filled with tears as she smiled sweetly at them.
“Hey… It´s ok.” she hugged them both.
The two sisters returned the hug.
“May I join?” Spike asked smiling.
The two sisters nodded. Spike embraced their legs.
“We´re sorry for making such a fuss…” Celestia apologized.
“It´s just this is all so bittersweet.” Luna justified herself and her sister.
“Very understandable.” Twilight said. “Besides, we still have some minutes before the ceremony begins. See?” she pointed at a clock.
Spike bit his lip nervously.
“Uuuh… That clock is behind ten minutes.”
Twilight gasped.
“Oh no! I´d better get going!”
“Whoah whoah! Wait. You don´t want to trip over your dress, do you?” Spike stopped her by holding her dress´s cape.
Twilight giggled nervously.
“Of course.”
The three alicorns and dragon walked to the balcony´s door. Before opening it, Twilight stopped for a moment. She could feel her heartbeat elevating and the butterflies in her stomach got stronger. However, her companions gave her reassuring smiles, and the two alicorn sister´s held her wings.
“Ready?” Luna asked her.
Twilight took a deep breath in and sighed before nodding her head with a confident smile. Then, Celestia and Luna opened the gates.
Twilight walked to the balcony after Celestia and Luna. She could hear trumpets playing and birds singing. There was not a single murmur, just the silence of thousands of creatures waiting to see a new ruler come out. When she was out in the balcony, every creature cheered her.
She took a glance around. It had been a great idea to do the ceremony at her Ponyville´s castle. Not only was did it bring Twilight great memories, but many life-changing events for many creatures had happened here too. For example, the Young Six´s friendship was born here. So, it was pure symbolism.
She smiled as she saw every creature. She waved at Pinkie, Rarity, Rainbow and Applejack, who were sitting together on one of the many tables that were set up around Twilight´s castle. Fluttershy was near them, directing the singing of the birds. When she finished, she joined them.
However, she was so happy that she didn´t realize that she had stepped over the skirt of her dress, making her trip in front of every creature. Celestia, Luna and Spike widened their eyes. The music stopped playing abruptly. Some creatures bit their lips, others massaged their temples.
“We´re off to a good start…” Discord whispered to Twilight´s family.
To lessen the tension of the situation, Celestia started speaking once Luna and Spike had helped Twilight to get up.
“Creatures of all kind. We all gather here to witness one of the most important events in Equestria´s history. Nine years ago, I sent my dearest student to Ponyville so she could make friends to learn how valuable friendship is.”
“What none of us knew however, was that this mare along her friends would change Equestria forever.” Luna continued. “Over and over again, she and her friends have taught us to remain together, to have hope, to forgive, to be open to new possibilities…”
“And those lessons became more important than ever when Grogar attacked us. He almost took her away from us, but thanks to her lessons we were able to rise up and defeat Equestria´s greatest evil.”
“And today, after we healed from our wounds, the true ruler will be crowned.”
Celestia and Luna took off their crowns and combined them into one, which became Twilight´s new crown. Slowly, they laid it on her head.
Despite Twilight´s trip, everything was going well. That was, until Pinkie took a bottle of cider.
“Long live Princess Twilight!” she exclaimed at the top of her lungs as she shook the bottle.
Applejack gasped horrified.
“Pinkie no! The cider is filled with-”
But before she could finish her phrase, the bottle´s cap darted out. It went towards Twilight, who covered her wings as soon as she noticed the cap, but for her fortune, it didn´t hit her. Instead, it bounced off the crown and hit Smolder´s belly. Accidentally, the young dragon spit fire, lighting the fireworks in the process, which radiated in colors very near the princesses and Spike.
Every creature was shocked and nervous about how the coronation was going, specially the mane 6. Pinkie covered her mouth and laughed nervously while giving Applejack an apologetic smile.
“Ooops….”
“It´s a miracle none of those fireworks hit Twilight.” Rarity commented.
Rainbow gasped.
“Oh no.”
“What is it Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked concerned.
“I told the wonderbolts that just when the fireworks finished-”
Rainbow couldn´t finish her sentence, as the wonderbolts were already flying towards the balcony.
“That it was their sign…” Applejack ended her sentence.
“Yup.”
The wonderbolts did their stuntss but since the fireworks didn´t end, they had lots of trouble. One wonderbolt flew away from the fireworks and by doing so, it surprised Celestia and Luna, which caused them to drop the crown outside the balcony. Twilight jumped to get the crown on her head. Unfortunately, she jumped further than she should have, so she fell off the balcony. Every creature gasped in shock.
“She fell!” a pony exclaimed.
The crowd started to murmur. However, as soon as Twilight flew to the balcony, every creature started cheering and applauding.
“Long live princess Twilight!” Applejack raised her glass.
“Hail Twilight!” every creature followed her gesture.
Pinkie caught her canon and blew out confetti. Meanwhile, Twilight fixed her crown. Celestia and Luna hugged her once she was done.
“Congratulations.” Luna said in happy tears.
“Will I be able to ask you for help?” Twilight asked.
“Yes.” Celestia replied.
“And visit you?”
The two alicorns laughed.
After the banquet, it was present time. Every creature elaborated gifts for Equestria´s new ruler. For example, the changelings gave her the statue they had been making for so much time. After them, there came Starlight, Trixie, Sunburst and every student of the School of Friendship, along the CMC, Terramar, Gabby and Punja.
“As every creature, the three villains caught us by surprise while preparing our gifts.” Sunburst started explaining.
“And many of us had to start all over again!” Trixie continued. “Some were destroyed but others wanted to make a few changes…” she glanced slyly at the Young Six, the CMC, Gabby and Terramar.
“But we were all able to finish them!” the two unicorns said in chorus as they showed every student´s gift.
“Oh, they´re so beautiful! Thank you so much.” Twilight said as a sign of gratitude.
The group of friends high fived energetically. Having to remake the picture to add Grogar´s defeat and Gusty was a great idea.
“And that´s not everything!” Starlight took a mysterious book with her magic.
“What is it?” Twilight asked as she held it.
“Open it!” Starlight encouraged her.
Twilight opened the book. She gave out a small gasp and laughed.
“Oh! It´s a book with all our memories! Like the diary!”
“It was mine and Spike´s idea. You should also thank your friends, since they helped us to decide which memories to put.”
Her friends smiled at her. She was going to thank them, but she remembered something important.
“Oh! That reminds me.” she raised her eyebrow playfully at Spike, who tilted his head in curiosity.
She took her glass and hit it with a spoon to get every creature´s attention.
“Creatures of all kind. First of all, I want to thank all of you, not only for coming to my coronation but also for having helped me in my battle against Grogar. Without you, we wouldn´t be celebrating this.”
Every creature smiled at her.
“And neither I would be giving this gift to the creature I love the most.” Twilight handled a box to Spike.
“For me?” Spike asked.
Twilight nodded.
“Alright, let´s see what´s inside.” he said before opening the box.
He was confused when he saw a medal. He took it and read what it said.
“Royal advisor?”
“My first action as ruler of Equestria will be to assign Spike as my Royal Advisor.”
She put the medal on his neck.
“But Twilight… There are no Royal Advisors…”
“I know, but I can change that.”
Spike chuckled. Twilight held his claw.
“Spike. From the moment I hatched you, you´ve loved me, supported me and stayed by my side in the most difficult times, no matter if it was dangerous to you. You helped me see the light when I couldn´t. You´ve been not only a great assistant, you´ve been a great brother to me. Without you, I wouldn´t be here today. And to thank you, I assign you as my Royal Advisor in the same day of my coronation.”
Spike´s eyes filled with tears and hugged Twilight. Every creature left out an `aaw´, and like Spike, some had tears in his eyes, for example, Discord. However, he stopped when Fluttershy surrounded him with her wing. Then, the two rubbed their cheeks together.
Their hug was interrupted by Pinkie´s excitement.
“OOOOH! THE MOMENT´S FINALLY COME!”
“What moment?”
The girls and Spike shared mischievous smiles.
“The time to give you your gift.” Rarity explained.
Twilight blinked stunned.
“But I thought this was my final gift.” she said while looking at Starlight´s book.
“Hm hm. The surprises haven´t ended yet.” Fluttershy held her hoof and walked her out of the table.
“Wait. It´s not here?”
“Nope. We need to walk.” Rainbow explained.
“But what about the ceremony?”
“They agreed to give us a moment to spend together so we gave you our final gift.” Applejack explained.
Twilight looked at every creature worried but seeing them smiling reassured that she could leave.
“Alright, show me what you´ve got.”
After walking for some time, they stopped at a spot. There seemed to be a building covered in a huge blanket.
“We don´t know if you noticed this blanket in the distance.” Rarity told her.
“Actually, not. I was so busy helping to rebuild Canterlot´s castle and with the coronation that I didn´t notice.”
“Do you recognize the place we´re in?” Applejack asked.
“Well, we are where the Go-” Twilight stopped speaking from the shock. She covered her mouth while sobbing. “Wait, you didn´t…”
Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack nodded at Fluttershy, Spike and Rainbow. The three flew to get the blanket off the mysterious building. What Twilight saw, left her in tears. The Golden Oak Library, where everything began and had their best moments together, and thought to have lost forever, was rebuilt! Not only that, it was bigger and had more space! And some new additions too.
“Welcome to the new Golden Oak´s Library!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
Twilight covered her mouth while tears of joy were running down her face.
“Knowing that you would leave Ponyville, we wanted to give you the best gift ever made!” Rarity exclaimed. “So, I contacted with Equestria´s best architects to rebuild the library! I helped to design the building.”
“As you can see, eveything´s as it was before!” Rainbow exclaimed happily. “But 20 per cent cooler!”
“We added some new things! We added crystals that resemble the Tree of Harmony´s to build symbols of all our adventures.” Fluttershy pointed at the hanging crystals resembling pictures. “This one for example symbolizes when we first met! And this one is when we defeated Grogar! Ironically, it was the most difficult one to make.” Fluttershy landed on the ground. “It was my idea.” she took the hair off her face. “At first, the architects wanted to do stained glasses, but I thought that was too cliché, so we did this instead! Because you´re the most original pony we know, every new little thing had to be as original.”
Twilight sniffed. Her ears perked up when she heard some knocks on one of the windows.
“Oh! There´s someone who´s been dying to see you.” Spike said while flying to the window.
When he opened, Owlowiscious opened his wings while smiling.
“Who!”
Twilight gasped.
“Owlowiscious!” she ran to him while the owl flied to herand hugged him. “Oh! I´m so happy to see you!”
Then, she looked at the library. They did all of this for her? Despite how close they were, it still felt like she didn´t deserve this.
“I-I don´t what to say.” she sobbed. “I´m so grateful for this! I don´t know how to thank you.”
She hugged all of them.
“Oh, you don´t have to.” Applejack. “We want your days before going to Canterlot to be the best. That´s the least thing we can do before you go.” Applejack sighed sadly while looking at the library. “It will be a bit empty after you go however.”
At that moment, Twilight had an idea.
“I think I know what my next act as new ruler of Equestria will be.”
“Really? Spit it out!” Rainbow told her.
“I decreet that at least once a month we reunite at my Ponyville´s castle. It will be the place of our Friendship meetings. And then, we´ll come to the library to read stories and sleep here.”
Everypony cheered.
“Oh yeah!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Am I invited?” Spike asked playfully.
Twilight chuckled.
“Of course you are.”
Spike laughed and hugged Twilight.
“GROUP HUG!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
The group hugged each other. All of them were crying of joy. They´d never imagined themselves spending another moment at the very place where everything started.
“What are we waiting for? Let´s go inside there are lots of new books!” Applejack told her.
Twilight gasped excitedly. They all laughed as they entered the library.
The sun was starting to set, and it was starting to get windy. But it wasn´t a cold wind. It was a warm and friendly, not to mention that the leaves it carried were multicoloured like the rainbow. A gust of wind blew while the friends entered to the library.