Flash Sentry Chronicles: The Movie

by Banshee531

Chapter 9

All of Canterlot was staring at the Rune Gate, fearing the absolute worst. With the Storm King dead and the Alicorns re-powered, Grubber and the rest of the Storm Guards had surrendered. Turns out, they were much like the ponies and had all been subjugated by the Storm King for years, but as their leader now laid dead, they didn't see much of a reason to keep fighting.

As such, the ponies and their many allies now stared at the Rune Gate, the final enemies on the other side. They had hoped to go through and help, but the machine refused to activate. Script and Twilight had checked the device, and while it was rather crudely built, it was still working perfectly. Whatever the problem was, it was occurring on the other end of the portal.

Everypony who had heard what had happened to Flash and those that went after him were still in pangs of fear, knowing that what was beyond could be far worse than the past few days. But as they stared at the gate, the portal activated on its own. The ponies all leapt back in surprise as the lightning shot out and formed a vortex, which grew larger until it filled the entire metal ring. And when it did, something stepped out of it. Somepony Twilight feared she would never get to see again.

"Flash!" She exclaimed as she ran up and hugged her boyfriend, the pegasi hugging her back as Springer, Heart and the others walked out. Their friends and family rushed over to them, Fluttershy hugging Iron, Lightning putting an arm around Grand, and Jaden, Luna and Trixie hugging Ruby while Skybreaker and Tidal congratulated Cold.

"Springer!" Ace and Mira cried as they ran up to him, leaping into his arms.

"You're okay," he looked ready to cry as he held them tight. "Thank goodness..."

They nodded and continued hugging him while Soul moved over to Heart, only to see his right leg, "Heart! What did you do?!" She grabbed it and looked the burnt limb over, Heart smirking.

"Oh...yeah. Just a little backlash from beating Void and saving the day."

"You beat Void?!" Jaden yelped, getting a nod from the pegasus. Jaden turned to the others and they all nodded too, the colt and those around him all now staring at the fire pony, "How?!"

"Because I'm awesome," Heart quipped before blushing. "Though...I needed the help of my friends. Oh," He turned to Script, "Sorry, I uh...kinda broke your Master Gem. We needed it to beat Void and...yeah."

Script chuckled back while shaking his head, "If it helped beat that monster, then it's fine. I'll just have to make the next one so strong that nothing can break it." Heart nodded back, showing a big grin before staring at the others around him...until his eyes fell on a certain pony.

"TEMPEST!" He pointed at her, Flash, Springer and the others spinning around and quickly getting into a battle stance. But before they could do anything, Twilight leapt in front of them.

"Wait!" She called out, "You don't need to fight her!"

They raised an eyebrow at this, "Why?!" Springer yelled, "She's the one that-"

"Hang on there." Flash chimed in as he flared a wing in front of the jakhowl before smirking at Twilight, "You did it again, didn't you? Found a way to turn an enemy into a friend." Twilight smiled back and nodded, making Flash shake his head, "I can't believe you...you're amazing, you know that?"

"I sure do," she giggled, "But it wasn't just me." She turned to Pinkie and the rest of their friends, including the new ones that they had made during their journey. Flash was surprised to see Capper, the pirates and Skystar were there, but given everything in his life that had happened, he shouldn't have been surprised. "Even after I had forgotten the power of friendship, my friends were able to remind me just how amazing it can be. No matter how bleak the world will get, friends can be made anywhere as long as you're willing to put your trust in others. Even if those others are those that betray you," Capper blushed at this. "Threaten you," Celaeno and her pirates smiled at this. "Or almost drown you," Skystar clapped at this. "Everypony deserves the chance to prove they can be a friend."

"Truer words were never spoken," Flash nodded before turning to Tempest. Looking at her, he still felt anger and mistrust, but knowing Twilight was willing to trust her after everything she had done, he was willing to do the same. "So what now?" He looked around, seeing all his friends and family gathered around them. To his amazement, the city looked like it had never been invaded at all.

Luckily, Pinkie jumped in between everyone, "Isn't is obvious?! We need to celebrate! And there's only one way that can be done!" Flash, Twilight and everypony else smiled, knowing exactly what she was about to say. "PARTY!"

That night...

Darkness filled all of Canterlot, the city experiencing the first night it got to enjoy in several days. The darkness was an almost comforting blanket to the ponies that had barely had a wink of sleep since the invasion. But at the moment, sleep was the last think on anypony's mind.

A light was now appearing near the castle, illuminated by a young Mystic Flame Dragon. Spike was wearing a pair of shades and holding up a microphone that was connected to the sound system Vinyl Scratch was controlling behind him. A bit of feedback filled the air as he lifted it to his lips and cleared his throat, then took a deep breath. "Fillies and gentlecolts," he called out while leaping into the air. Cheers could already be heard. "Changelings and dragon of all shapes and sizes. Are you ready for a little..." Trumpets filled the air as more lights appeared and completely bathed the catwalk stage. Standing on the edge of the stage was the mare everypony there wanted to see, "Songbird Serenade!"

The ponies all cheered while the non-ponies there watched with great interest. Songbird smiled at the crowd before speaking up. "And now, to celebrate the fact that we're all still here in one piece, give it up for Princess Twilight and her friends!" She pointed at a section of the crowd as spotlights shined down on them.

The heroes in question all smiled as they waved back, hearing somepony call out, "All right! Way to go!" Photo Finish took several pictures of them as Bulk Biceps flexed in celebration.

It was then that Celestia, Luna and Cadance stepped up and bowed to them in thanks, Twilight and Flash both bowing back as the lights went off. A moment later, music began to play as Songbird got into position...and started singing. As the song began, the many ponies began having a good time with one another. Spike leapt down from the stage and ran over to Thorax and Ember, the three smiling at one another as the little drake thanked them for coming when they asked.

"No problem squirt," Ember ruffled his spines. "You know I've always got your back."

"Same here," Thorax added. "This is thanks for everything you guys have done for me, Hiveena and the rest of my kind."

Spike nodded before he realised something, "Where is Hiveena? A fight like this should have been right up her alley." He noticed Thorax blushing, which made him raise an eyebrow. "Thorax?"

"She's...looking after the eggs back home." Spike's eyes went wide at this.

"You don't mean..." Thorax's face grew even redder as he nodded, Ember letting out a laugh as she gave him a friendly punch.

"Good on yah. Can't wait to see what the little grubs look like." Thorax chuckled as Spike leapt onto his back and hugged his neck, congratulating him as well.

At the same time, Rainbow was introducing Soarin to her pirate buddies while Rarity was giving Capper a proper greeting to Lightning, Sweetie and the rest of her closest ponies. "Ooh!" He smiled when Rarity slung a fancy black cloak around him and placed a top hat on his head.

"And perfection!" The unicorn declared, "I hope you'll stick around in Equestria for a little bit. A show-cat like you might be able to make a great life for himself here. So long as you use that silver tongue of yours to sell an actual worthwhile product."

"Yeah," Lightning nodded, "We have enough Flims and Flams in this kingdom."

"You have my word," Capper bowed with a tip of his new hat. "This cat will be nothing but honest...to a certain degree." Rarity rolled her eyes, but smiled all the same.

As this was going on, Pinkie and Skystar were watching as Songbird's backing dancers leapt onto the stage and started to perform alongside her. The princess then spotted something that made her gasp, "Mom!" They all looked up to see Queen Novo and four other hippogriffs.

They all landed as Skystar leapt over to her mother, the pair hugging tightly as Novo smiled at her. "You are so grounded!" She laughed as Skystar's eye went wide, then noticed Twilight walking over with Celestia by her side.

"Your majesty," Twilight bowed her head with a sincere look of shame on her face. "I'm sorry for what I did, I truly am. And I understand if you can't forgive me." She looked up at her with the most apologetic look she could muster. "But please don't take the actions of one desperate pony as proof you shouldn't trust the rest of her kind. I want our kingdoms to get along, if it's possible."

Celestia nodded, "I too would like to extend my own apology. Had I not allowed myself to be captured, I wouldn't have forced my fellow princess to take up such a great task and make her think she would have to do something horrible in order to save us."

Novo glared at them, only to sigh, "So far, you ponies have come into my home uninvited, attempted to steal our most important relic, lead the Storm King's troops to our front door, which could have led then to him finding us, causing my daughter to run away in order to fight in an insane battle that could have gotten her killed or captured and..." Twilight flinched at all this, herself shrinking every second at the lecture, "...freed my subjects from having to hide away from the world." Twilight's eyes went wide at this, now seeing a smile appear on Novo's face. "Thanks to you, the hippogriffs can return to Mountain Aris without needing to fear being captured and conquered."

"So...you're not mad?" She asked, Novo raising an eyebrow.

"I wouldn't go that far. However, I'm willing to put everything that's happened behind us and give you ponies another chance. May our two kingdoms have a long and happy relationship." Twilight smiled brightly at this, ecstatic that her actions hadn't ruined their chance of making many new friends.

At the same time, Heart and Soul were at the back of the crowd with First and Heather. "Hold still," Soul told her brother as Heather was wrapping a bandage around his burnt leg. Soul and First both using their healing magic on the leg, but what had happened would take a long time to fully heal.

"You are beyond lucky no serious damage was done," First commented, "I cannot even be certain whether or not you will completely heal. Even if Soul were to use her healing magic on you every day, you may still have some lasting damage."

"That's okay," Heart replied, "All the best heroes have scars to show off how awesome they are-Ow!" He moaned as Heather tightened the bandage as hard as it would go, the colt grimacing as the two healers finished casting the healing magic upon him.

"Either way, do not use your fire magic." Heart looked up at First in absolute shock. "You may be fireproof, but that might not equate to this injury. If you set yourself ablaze before you can properly heal, you may end up doing damage to your nerves and muscles. Best to be on the side of caution."

"But-"

"No Heart." Heather chimed in, "These bandages are hard to do. I doubt anypony, including you, will want to keep replacing them every time you flame on."

"Fine..." Heart sighed. "But I better get some mad street cred from all of this! The pony that defeated Void and saved Equestria...I think that's a pretty cool thing to put in a few history books!" The others rolled their eyes as Songbird's song began to grow more flamboyant. The pegasus mare continued singing as she leapt straight up, spinning around before diving down and gliding over the crowd. She stopped right in front of Twilight, the two mares smiling at each other. Songbird then flew past her, Twilight following and turning one eighty towards the back of the courtyard. And there, standing at the edge of the area where the ship had first landed, was Tempest.

The broken horned unicorn was staring at the ponies, changelings, dragons and many more that had helped fight against her, all enjoying themselves. She then turned to walk away, Twilight taking to the air and flying over the crowd. She spotted Flash, who was sitting on one of the columns watching the performance. He noticed her and smiled, his eyes following her as she glided down to Tempest.

Tempest noticed her landing and looked out over the edge of the mountain, staring up at the beautiful night sky. "Well, that's one thing that never changes around here. The party."

"Well..." Twilight bit her lip before saying, "I hope you'll stay." Tempest's eyes went wide at hearing this, "More friends are definitely merrier."

Tempest let out a sigh. "But, um...my horn." Tempest looked ready to start crying, but Twilight's words caught her before she could start.

"You know, your horn is pretty powerful." She blinked at the alicorn, Twilight shining a big smile, "Just like the pony it belongs to." Tempest took those words to heart, staring upward at her head before a smile slowly formed on her lips.

"I did tell you I wanted to show everypony in Equestria what I could do, right?" She slowly walked away as her horn began to spark, now surrounded by electricity that exploded from the horn and shot into the sky.

Everypony who heard this looked away from the performance, the knights, dragons and a few changelings all ready to fight. But then the lightning exploded to form a massive sphere of electricity, whizzing and popping like a giant firework. Several other bolts of differently colored lightning then flew off and exploded, filling the sky with a beautiful array of colors. Tempest and Twilight smiled as everypony began cheering, the pair nodding before heading back into the crowd. As they did this, Pinkie's head popped up over the others, staring at the fireworks, then turned to the mare responsible.

"Nice touch Tempest!" Wild and Skystar both nodded in agreement, as the unicorn blushed.

"Actually, that's not my real name." This got all her new friends' attention, Pinkie leaping over the crowd in intrigue.

"Oooh!" She cheered, bouncing on the spot. "What is it?!" She held her ear to the mare, who looked around embarrassed before whispering into it.

"It's Fizzlepop Berrytwist." Pinkie pulled back and gasped, her eyes going wide as stars appeared within them. She then leapt up and hugged the unicorn.

"Okay! That is the most awesome name EVER!" The others nodded with laughter as they turned back to watch the rest of the performance. Songbird landed back on the stage and kept singing, right as Rainbow took to the air and gave everyone an outstanding performance by flying and leaving a rainbow streak behind her. Skystar flew up and tried to follow, but just couldn't keep up with the fastest pegasus alive. As they did this, Bulk Biceps was working security and were met by the Storm Guards that had previously been their captors. The giant apes clearly wanted to party, holding up cake and presents they had somehow acquired to try and bribe their way in.

As it turned out, they didn't need to bribe anypony, and were let in without a worry to enjoy the festivities. Those festivities included the bouncy castle that had somehow survived this whole event, where Derpy, Rarity, a Storm Guard, Flash, Twilight and even Tempest enjoyed themselves.

And when Songbird finished singing, it was time for the karaoke contest, where Grubber, Mira, Sweetie Belle and others showed off their singing talents. Spike had been caught trying to gnaw on Celaeno's crystal peg-leg, while her crew enjoyed getting their pictures taken with some head cutouts.

Trixie and Starlight got a bunch more fireworks and attached them to the top of a large cake Pinkie had made, the fireworks shooting up and exploding into the shapes of the cutie marks of the heroes that had saved Equestria. At the same time, Capper was leading the Storm Guards as they performed a hilarious cancan, Pinkie also joining in along with a strange creature wearing a crown and royal attire. Fluttershy then began her bird orchestra, with Angel Bunny acting as security while the pirates enjoyed themselves at Applejack's cider stand.

Several younger ponies then enjoyed a pinata game, using a pinata that had been made to resemble the Storm King's face. When Tempest took her turn, she had trouble finding it, only to throw the blindfold off and blast the head open with her horn, the younger ponies all cheering at the candy.

It was during this time that a flash of light appeared on the outskirts of the crowd, that light taking shape before fading to reveal a draconequus wearing a hawaiian shirt and carrying a pair of suitcases. "I'm back!" He cheered, only to raise his sunglasses at the party, "Did I miss something? Like a full movie or something?" His friends all glared at him, making him flinch, "What?"

After a few more moments of glaring, the ponies all started laughing and decided to simply focus on the celebration. It was here that the party really got started, Vinyl Scratch taking over with the dance floor being cleared. There, ponies began taking turns showing off their moves. First was Queen Novo, then Rainbow, Soarin, Applejack and Rogue dancing together, followed by Tempest, who seemed rather embarrassed, but did her best and got a trio of tens from the judges. Skystar, Capper and Gummy all had high praise, while Ruby, Cold and Tidal went out onto the dance floor and danced in a rather coordinated display. Pinkie, Wild, Fluttershy and Iron were next, the two excitable ponies jumping around the place while the other two simply swayed back and forth. Grubber and Springer were after that, the pair both doing the moon walk with varying degrees of skill. Flash and Twilight came after this, dancing together with Twilight showing off her unusual dance skill. The party went on for a good while, but eventually began to die down as Spike took the dance floor.

Flash and Twilight were standing side by side, staring up at the beautiful night sky as they leaned against the banister that kept them from falling over the edge of the cliff. "Well, this festival sure didn't go as planned," Flash joked as Twilight placed her head on his shoulder.

"Honestly, when does this stuff ever go the way we want it?" Flash laughed back, nodding in agreement as they spotted a shooting star. "Do you think Void is really gone?" She asked, Flash sighing at the question as she added, "We thought he was gone the last time you beat him. What if he comes back again?"

"Honestly, I don't know. Springer couldn't sense any trace of him after Heart blasted him away, but you're right that this isn't the first time he's escaped death by the skin of his teeth."

"So..."

"So all we can do is be ready for when he shows up again," Flash responded, "And if he does appear again, we'll take him down the same way we did this time. By working together." They glanced back at the party, the many guests beginning to head on home or to their hotels, the excitement of this whole event finally becoming too much. The dragons and changelings were being shown places they could rest before returning home while the Storm Guards were busy doing janitorial work to make up for almost destroying everything the pony's cared about. "Equestria's stronger than ever. Every time something's tried to take us down, we've come out more powerful and more united."

Twilight nodded back, "Hopefully nothing will be able to stand against us now. But if it tries..." They pulled apart and stared into one another's eyes, "We'll take it on together." The pair then kissed, that action washing away all the stress and exhaustion that they had been suffering through over the last few days. They might have had a tough road getting to this point, but it was well worth it. Everything was perfect.

Several days had passed since the defeat of the Storm King. In that time, the dragons and changelings had returned to their lands. The Storm Guards had also left, wanting to find their own place in the world now that they didn't have to worry about the Storm King.

Flash, Twilight and their friends had remained in Canterlot to properly explain everything that had happened. Starlight and those who hadn't been on the adventure had returned to Ponyville, which luckily hadn't been attacked or received any lasting damage from the invasion. And once the explanations had been completed and properly catalogued for future historic significance, the heroes got to return home. Cadance headed off with Ruby and Jaden back to the Crystal Empire, having received several messages from a concerned Shining about her sudden lack of communication. He had been quite horrified to discover his home had been invaded while he had been looking after a sick Flurry Heart.

Celestia and Luna remained in Canterlot and planned to begin proper talks with Novo about the hippogriffs joining the C.D.P.A, which would likely need to have another letter added to it when that was done. This left Twilight, Flash and their friends to return home, the group using the Rune Gate to shorten the journey's time. When they arrived, they were greeted to the sight of Starlight, Iron, Grand, Lightning and Wild all standing inside the Rune Gate room. "We're home!" Pinkie cheered, leaping over and jumping onto Wild's back.

Before anypony could say anything else, Starlight walked up to Twilight. "Something's happened," she told her. "You should come see this."

This made her raise an eyebrow, Twilight asking, "What's wrong?"

Starlight gestured for them to follow, leading the group through the castle until they reached the map room, "Prepare yourselves." She pushed the doors opened and they all went wide-eyed, now seeing the map, which many of the ponies practically knew by heart, was now different. It had expanded, not in the sense that the table itself had grown. The map had shrunken down and now filled the center of the crystal table, the remaining outer sections being filled with new environments.

"This happened while we were gone?" Twilight asked as they surrounded the table, Starlight nodding.

"This is what happens when you ignore the updates to something for so long and finally do it. When it's over, you find yourself looking at an entirely different piece of tech." Flash chimed in, the others rolling their eyes at this, wishing he didn't use jargon from the other world.

"Wow!" Applejack pointed at a section of the outer map they did recognize, "Those are all the places we went when we left to save Equestria!"

"Ugh!" Rarity grimaced at the sight, "There's that horrid town where we were almost sold!" Lightning frowned at hearing that, not liking the idea of his girlfriend locked in a cage like some kind of circus animal.

"The pirates!" They heard Rainbow call out, the group now seeing a familiar airship floating above the table. "They were pretty awesome!" She looked up before blushing, "Uh, once they decided not to throw us overboard."

They all laughed as Pinkie spotted another section of the map. "And Mount Aris! Ooh, Starlight!" She leapt onto the table and ran over to the unicorn, grabbing her by the cheeks. "Did you know we made seashell necklaces for aaaaaa..." She had to inhale halfway through this work, "...aaaaall the seaponies?!"

Starlight and those who hadn't been present during this event looked absolutely dazed by all this information. They had been told about the adventure, but actually hearing about it was another story. "I...You..." She turned to Twilight, "Really?" The princess nodded, "What about that unicorn? The one who attacked Canterlot?"

"Tempest?"

"Fizzlepop," Flash corrected, the princess rolling her eyes.

"I invited her to come to Ponyville, but she wanted to spread the word of the Storm King's defeat and share what she learned about friendship."

Grand sighed at this. "Hopefully she won't find herself running into any more trouble and get involved with ponies that want to cause problems for us and Equestria."

"You really think that could happen?" Heart asked.

"No way," Twilight shook her head. "Tempest-"

"Fizzlepop."

Twilight growled at him, "She...might have gone off the right track before, but she's learned the true meaning of friendship along with all the other ponies that we met during our adventure."

Starlight smiled at this as Applejack began walking around the map. "Y'all think that's why the map grew?" She asked, stopping in front of Fluttershy. "Friendship quests beyond Equestria?"

"I hope not," the animal lover gulped, "I've had quite enough life-threatening adventures, thank you very much."

As she said that, Pinkie suddenly summoned a builder's belt and hardhat. She pulled out a tape measure to determine the space between the map and the room's wall. "How many friendship quests do you think we need to go on before we have to expand the throne room?" Twilight let this statement sink in and turned back to the map, thinking about all the places with creatures of all shapes and sizes. Ones like the dark market and even Mount Aris, that didn't even know or believe in the power of friendship. As the Princess of Friendship, it was her duty to help spread this amazing thing as far and wide as she could. But there was one small problem.

"We can't do it all alone."

"Sure we can!" Pinkie told her before taking out a jackhammer. "We just need to knock this wall down, get some paint-"

"No," Twilight shook her head. "I mean, the world is filled with so many different creatures who know nothing about friendship. We need help if we're gonna teach them all about friendship. Lots of help."

"Perhaps," Rarity added, "But where does one go to learn about friendship?" The others nodded, waiting for Twilight to give them her answer. And when she did, it was a statement that would once again change Equestria forever.

"Here!" She pointed at a section of the map, everypony taking a closer look. "They can all go here!" At first, they thought she was pointing at Canterlot, only to see it was actually Ponyville. "Because we're gonna open a school!"