Friendship is Magic Redux

by paiohelohelo

Epilogue- Mornings in Ponyville

Many months later, Luna found herself sitting in her Director’s Office, signing away papers as usual. She sighed, thinking back to all of her glorious sick leave, and how she had been able to laze about in bed for literally the entire day. However, business was business, and an ancient Equestrian city didn’t just run itself… well, not usually…

Luna’s daytime musing was interrupted by a light knock on her door. She frowned; she didn’t even have any meetings with anyone scheduled for now.

“Come in,” she replied, and the door opened to reveal her smiling sister walking in and shutting the door behind her.

“’Tia,” she greeted, “What brings you to Canterlot?”

“Hello, Lulu,” the president greeted cheerfully back as she sat down in the seat in front of Luna’s desk. “I admit that I’m not here for purely personal reasons, however I couldn’t leave without catching up with my favorite little sister, now, could I?”

Luna smiled, shaking her head. “’Tia, I’m your only little sister.”

“That doesn’t mean that you can’t be my favorite,” Celestia leaned forward on the desk and smirked.

Luna just laughed as she put down her pen. She reached into her desk and pulled out a bottle of scotch and two glasses, offering them to Celestia.

“Scotch? Apparently, they found it in Iron Will’s desk…”

Celestia smiled and nodded, and Luna poured out two glasses for them both. Celestia took one and sipped it, immediately making a face afterwards.

“My, that is quite terrible,” she began sticking her tongue out as Luna did the same after her sip.

“Indeed, it is, dear sister. However, it does seem to help a lot with the pain,” Luna patted a spot on her ribs gently. “Speaking of Iron Will, any word on our favorite little general yet?”

Celestia shook her head. “As far as both the Pentagon and The CIA are aware, the rogue American general known as Iron Will has disappeared completely off the face of this planet.”

“It’s a pity that he didn’t join his much more honorable men during the Nightmare Incident… he surely deserved their fate more than any of them ever did,” Luna scoffed quite harshly.

Celestia clucked her tongue at her. “Now, Lulu, must you be so dour all the time? We surely believed that was the case, that is, until we discovered that his body had never turned up in the end… surely he must have realized the sort of consequences that his extremely negligent, dare I say entirely criminal behavior would eventually bring down upon his head afterwards… but did you honestly think that he would run off when The Eye had finally dissipated?”

Luna just shrugged. “To be honest, sis, I never figured him for that much of a coward. In fact, I had honestly thought that the Shadowbolt army had somehow vaporized him before the CIA last tracked his whereabouts to Somalia… I do sincerely hope that Twilight Sparkle’s brother manages to track him down and bring him to justice.”

“Always the prosecutor, Luna,” Celestia unconsciously took another sip of her glass and retched again, frowning.

“Speaking of The Alicorn Eye, how has The UN been treating you lately, dear sister?”

Celestia sighed. “Well, we both knew that The Eye’s dissolution and Equestria’s subsequent reappearance after so many millennia wouldn’t go unnoticed by the entire world for very long. However, I really believe making Dr. Heartstrings a sort of official Equestrian ambassador has smoothed things over with The Security Council somewhat, though, Lord knows, not nearly enough… I guess I should be relieved that they haven’t found out about The Nightmare Incident, at least not yet… only time will tell, I suppose…”

Luna was about to put her scotch to her lips; however, with the extremely unpleasant taste still fresh in her mind, she ultimately decided against it. “Good Lord, I really must buy my own liquor.”

Celestia laughed. “Yes, Lulu, I’m sure that you could spring for something a little more palatable. How is your old injury doing, anyway?”

Luna's countenance soured, the Director of Canterlot as dour as ever. “Getting better with each passing day. I suppose I should just be grateful to be alive… in any case, I really can’t recommend being run through by a sword, sis.”

Celestia turned serious for a moment. “I still can’t believe that she did that to you… I mean, our very own ancestor…”

“Oh, I’m sure that she would’ve been much kinder and gentler to me had she not been suffering from The Pony Plague… or turned into an automaton, for that matter… it’s kind of ironic, really, every time I watch Dr. Heartstrings’ emitter records of the younger, unravaged princess that she was, I can’t help but get a distinct chill down my spine… I mean, I look just like her, ‘Tia…”

Celestia patted her hand. “But you’re not her, dear sister, and you are most certainly not Nightmare…”

Luna smiled, grateful for her sister’s words. “Well, you certainly wouldn’t know it from all my grumbling, overworked peons,” she joked.

Celestia gave a gentle smile, but otherwise looked troubled. “Speaking of Alicorns, Lulu… Twilight Sparkle’s blood work finally came back.”

Luna raised a brow as she settled back into her chair. “Oh?”

“She’s most definitely a Unicorn, however… the tests came back positive for certain recessive Alicorn genes… more than that, she seems to be showing some sort of mutation on her Pony markers, as do some of her friends,”

Luna nodded. “Well, that would all certainly explain her tremendous skill in wielding a horn,”

Celestia seemed to grow even more serious. “I think she’s the one, Lulu, I think Twilight can do it.”

Luna frowned at her sister. “She’s still got a long way to prove that’s she capable, or even willing, to finish Starswirl the Bearded’s final work.”

“I agree, but think about it,” Celestia leaned across the desk and looked her sister in the eye. “The very last fragments of Equestrian evolutionary knowledge, the very methods leading to the three Pony tribes, and even to the Alicorns themselves…”

“Such knowledge may have been lost for a reason, ‘Tia,” Luna answered back grimly. “However, I do see potential in Twilight Sparkle… after all, The Elements of Harmony are the most important part of the entire evolutionary process…”

“The Elements…” Celestia heavily sighed. “I wonder if Twilight Sparkle and her friends are even aware of the fact that they have now become The Elements of Harmony themselves... that they together now stand as the most powerful living beings in the entire world, if not the entire universe.”

“…You could just tell them,” Luna simply suggested.

Celestia shook her head. “No, Lulu, not yet. They’re not ready for that now. I want to give them time to bond with each other, to settle into a comfortable, happy, normal existence. Being a Bearer of an Element of Harmony is a heavy burden, indeed… they shouldn’t have to find out just how heavy that burden is, not just yet.”

Luna sighed. “Oh, ‘Tia, must you always feel the need to protect everybody, everywhere?”

Celestia started to smile. “Well, if I wasn’t so inclined, my dear sister, then I wouldn’t be a very good president, now, would I?”

Luna laughed at that as Celestia checked her watch.

“I do apologize, Lulu, but I really must get on with business,” she explained, “I’m supposed to inspect the new safety protocols in place for all Level 1 Equestrian artifacts… I’ve got to be at the ancient Equestrian outpost by tomorrow to make sure that the exact same protocols are applied to the Draconequus statue there, as well.”

Luna nodded as she stood up to see her sister out. “I do hope you can meet me for dinner tonight before you leave,”

To Luna’s great surprise, her older sister tightly embraced her; she held her for a very long time before letting her go.

“Um, ‘Tia?” she asked.

“It’s good to have you back, Lulu,” was all that the President of the United States replied.

Luna smiled. “It’s good to be back, sis.”

She suddenly thought about her warm, cozy bed, and the levels upon levels of comforters…

Well… sort of.

Twilight Sparkle awoke with a yawn, stretching her arms high over her head. She got out of bed and started to comb her hair at the little wooden dresser in her makeshift room. Twilight looked at herself in the mirror; the same old eyes from her father, the same straight and lustrous hair from her mother. Twilight smiled at her little highlights running through her mom’s hair; she sort of liked them, and was glad that she had decided to keep them.

Twilight opened her bedroom window and was greeted by another bright and sunny Ponyville morning. God, she really did love living in a tree; she didn’t know why, exactly; it was just kind of comforting, in its own way. Twilight smiled, realizing that the fact that there was an enormous library downstairs probably helped to influence her opinion so.

Suddenly, Twilight started to think about a certain saying that Pinkie Pie was oft to repeat, something about "opening your heart up and letting out a song"…

“Morning in Ponyville shimmers,” Twilight unexpectedly began to sing out loud, making up her own words as she went along,
“Morning in Ponyville shi- i- iiiiiines,
And I know for absolute certaaaiiin,
That everything is certainly fiiiiiine…”

Twilight stopped, chuckling and shaking her head. Sure, she had a much nicer singing voice than she would have even cared to admit to anyone, but it still didn’t feel right for a person to suddenly go bursting into song in real life; perhaps she just needed a little more practice.

Twilight walked downstairs after a quick shower and finishing getting ready. It was truly amazing; the entire oak tree had been carved out in a matter of months, leaving her with a truly beautiful combination of a loft and the town’s sole library. Twilight smiled as she walked down an elaborate, albeit slightly unsafe, wooden staircase.

“Spike,” she called out, “Spiiiike…”

Spike suddenly appeared from behind a corner, a few books ready to be shelved in his hands. “Hey, Twilight, morning,”

Twilight put her hands on her hips and pretended to be annoyed with her close friend and #1 assistant. “Awww, Spike, I was really hoping that you would’ve gotten breakfast started already…” she jokingly huffed and turned her head to the side, even as she was smiling, “…or is that something you only do now for your girlfriend?”

“Girlfriend, right,” Spike sighed as he pulled a cup of steaming hot coffee, seemingly out of nowhere, and handed it to his boss/best friend/sister figure. “You know, Twilight, sometimes your boundless amounts of sarcasm can really hurt.”

Twilight sipped her coffee happily in one hand and tousled Spike’s green hair with the other. “Aw, Spike, I’m sorry… you know, its not like Rarity’s dating anyone else… perhaps she’s just, you know, intimidated by the very thought of going out with you…”

Spike knew that she was simply exercising that boundless sarcasm of hers again, but he smiled at her anyways. “Thanks, Twilight.”

“So, what’s on the list for today?” she asked him, already having finished her entire cup of coffee by then. “Eternal vigilance is the price of a spotless, efficient library, you know.”

Spike clapped his hands together as he remembered something. “Oh! Pinkie Pie wanted us to come over as soon as you got ready, she said that she would even have breakfast there for us… she say’s its ready,”

Twilight laughed, shaking her head. “Well, finally. I mean, I know she put a lot of hard work into it, but it’s been months…”

“Yeah, but now she wants us to come see it for ourselves,” Spike began motioning for Twilight to step outside with him, grinning, “If you’re ready, then let’s go!”

Twilight walked along the quaint, picturesque streets of New Ponyville with Spike tagging along beside her, excited to see Pinkie’s new project in all of its completed glory. Twilight smiled as she gazed upon the beautiful, cottage- like structures that adorned the partially paved streets; it was truly amazing that, as soon as The Eye was gone forever and Equestria had once again taken up its rightful place in the physical world, the entire settlement outside of Canterlot had decided to up and move to a much sunnier and open location, starting over again entirely. Sure, the hastily built structures were all made of wood, straw and other natural materials, but Twilight thought that it had a certain old- world charm to it all; besides, Pinkie Pie had ensured the entire town that her new Firefighter Pinkiebots would handle any problems arising from the extremely combustible building material. Twilight couldn’t have been happier living anywhere else in the world, especially now that she and her friends had applied themselves to their second jobs, helping to develop a real sense of community in Ponyville. Twilight smiled brightly and waved to a lot of passerbys, including a certain blond IT technician whom she could never quite get the name of; the technician happily waved back, even as she stumbled backwards over a box and tumbled into an archaeologist that Twilight had met a few times before, a man whose British accent she had always thought sounded quite lovely.

“Awwww, dammit,” she suddenly heard a certain Pegasus in front of her exclaim, “Dammit, they’re doing it ALL WRONG-“

Twilight chuckled. “Good morning, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow Dash turned from looking angrily at the sky to Twilight and immediately broke out into a huge smile. “Hey Twilight, just watching some of my weather teams bringing in a shower over Sweet Apple Acres,” she gestured to Applejack, who was standing right next to her. “And making a friggin’ mess of it all without yours truly,”

Twilight glanced up in awe as what looked like Shadowbolt fighter planes, redesigned to be more gently curving and painted in bright colors, soared overhead to corral some clouds in between their formation.

“Now, I told you, Rainbow Dash, we gotta git ta Pinkie’s place, she wants ta show us that there new project of hers,” Applejack tried to prod the distracted Pegasus along. “Yer weather teams’ll be jus’ fine without ya,”

“Morning, Applejack,” Twilight turned to greet her other friend warmly. “How’s Sweet Apple Acres doing?”

“Why, jus’ fine Twilight, thanks fer asking,” Applejack gave a little tip of the Stetson that she had become used to wearing recently. “It’s not quite the same as the original, I’m guessin’ ‘cus there’s only one Smith workin’ there, but some of the scientists from the Hydroponics Division have been mighty helpful in increasing our crop yields a great deal,”

“Psst,” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “I still can’t believe you couldn’t come up with a better name for that place,”

“Hey,” Applejack huffed. “What’s wrong wit another Sweet Apple Acres? Well, shoot, I happen ta think the same name jus’ gives the place the same good luck,”

“Ha ha ha, you would think that, wouldn’t you, Forrest Gump?”

“Well, y’all can kiss mah ass, Skittles… I mean, figuratively speakin’,”

“Girls,” Twilight chuckled, “I think we should all go see if maybe Rarity’s at Carousel Boutique,”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash burst out laughing, slapping each other on the back. Twilight just shook her head and led them and Spike towards the elaborately constructed, tent- like structure that was Carousel Boutique, located just across the street.

They entered the dress shop to find a very amusing scene playing out in front of their eyes; Fluttershy was decked out in an extremely fancy, if not a little ostentatious, ball gown, being slowly backed into a corner by a very crazed looking Rarity. The both of them were obviously too distracted to hear either the bell at the door or their footsteps in entering the shop.

Fluttershy looked extremely uncomfortable. “Please stop asking me this, I...”

“Well, just tell me what you really think,” Rarity had a certain gleam in her eye that Twilight had only witnessed while watching some of the gorier parts of Planet Earth.

“No, that's okay...” Fluttershy’s eyes began darting back and forth in searching for an escape route.

“Tell me.”

“No... it's fine...”

“Tell me!”

Fluttershy began to visibly break out in sweat. “I... like it...”

“Tell me, tell me, tellmetellmetellme!”

“All right!” Fluttershy snapped as gently as she could. “Since you really wanna know...”

She sucked in a huge lungful of air, preparing to finally unload her honest opinion on the predator/fashion designer stalking her. Suddenly, Twilight cleared her throat and both of them turned towards the small group.

“Wow,” Rainbow Dash sniggered with Applejack.

“Hello, girls,” Twilight greeted them warmly, “I hope we’re not interrupting.”

“Twilight, thank good- I mean, um, hello,” Fluttershy let out her breath of air.

“Why, hello, darlings,” Rarity cleared her throat as well and patted down her maniacally frizzy hair. “I just finished Fluttershy’s dress for the lovely gala event in Canterlot that President Everstar was kind enough to invite us to. I’ll be expecting you all here for a proper fitting once I’m done with all of your dresses, as well,”

The other girls all shot glances at each other.

What can I, ahem, do for all of you?” Rarity smiled.

“Well, I was wondering if you would both like to join us, we’re about to head over to Sugarcube Corner… Pinkie says the project is finally finished,” Twilight explained.

Rarity clapped her hands in glee. “Why, of course, darling! You know, I helped out with some of the designs, oh, I bet it all turned out just splendid!”

“That sounds really nice, Twilight,” Fluttershy added. “We’d love to come.”

After Fluttershy had practically threw her dress away, the five girls and Spike all made their way to the brand new Sugarcube Corner. They stared up at the massive, frosting- covered pink building and its brand new sign, a surprisingly simple wooden one, which read:

“So, Fluttershy, how’s work in the Everfree Rainforest going?” Twilight asked her friend as they stepped into the sweet shop’s foyer.

“Um, it’s been great,” Fluttershy smiled back. “The Manticore pride just had a new litter of cubs, I helped deliver them, and I’ve been slowly communicating more and more with many of the other animals living there…” Fluttershy squealed in happiness. “I also took in a poor, adorable baby bunny… he’s a little fussy, but, awwwww, you should see him when he sleeps, he’s such a little angel…”

Twilight grinned warmly at her. “You know, it’s just amazing how much care and attention you give to all living things,”

Fluttershy blushed at that. “Well, gosh, Twilight… I mean, I’m sure that anybody else with a talent for communicating their inner most thoughts to wild creatures as if they were speaking directly to them would do the exact same thing… I mean, I’m nothing special…”

Twilight giggled, as Fluttershy had not carried a single hint of sarcasm in her voice.

They all walked into the very busy pastry shop/electronics & computer service center and approached the shiny glass counter. A happy looking couple that had previously been working at Old Ponyville’s mess hall was serving customers when they both looked up at the group and smiled.

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Cake,” Twilight greeted them. “Is Pinkie Pie upstairs?”

“Hello, Twilight, why, yes she is,” Mrs. Cake replied warmly. “She says she’s been expecting all of you,”

“Um, Twilight,” Mr. Cake rubbed the back of his head, “do you think you could ask her to bring down some sugar once you get up there? I mean, I really don’t know why she insists on keeping it all in her room…”

Twilight laughed, nodding her head. “I’ll try, Mr. Cake… but you know Pinkie Pie…”

The small group of friends ascended the sweet shop’s stairs and came upon Pinkie’s door. Twilight was about to knock, but Pinkie Pie suddenly opened it, grinning widely and partially covered in some sort of simple syrup.

“Hi, Twilight, hey everybody!!!” she greeted all of her friends happily, twitching a little bit. “I thought I felt you at my door!”

Twilight just shook her head in confusion at the apparent non- sequitur. “Hey Pinkie Pie, you said you wanted to show us your project?”

Pinkie Pie clapped her hands, jumping up and down as if she were in a moon bounce. “Yup, yup, YUP!!! It’s all done now! Come in and see for yourself!!!”

Pinkie Pie led them into her extremely bright, extremely festive, extremely- painful- to- directly- look- at- bedroom. Inside, she had arranged a delicious looking assortment of breakfast foods, all colored very brightly and sitting in front of an enormous flat- screen TV. Pinkie was still jumping up and down as she walked around her room, making it appear as if she were hopping about on an invisible pogo stick.

“Help yourselves, girls- ooh, and Spike too, heeheehee!” Pinkie Pie squealed as the others all sat down before the big TV screen. “We’ve got a full English breakfast, some popcorn, spicy tofu curry, and some things I’ve even invented myself!” she proceeded to lift up a brightly colored chain of sausages- “-these are some of my super- duper delicious toffee sausages! I call ‘em ‘toffages’!!!”

Pinkie Pie bit into the links with gusto, and the others took that as a cue to start helping themselves to the tasty, albeit colorful, looking platter before them.

“Man, I can’t wait to see how I turned out,” Spike mumbled through a mouthful of breakfast toffage, “I know I’m only supposed to be a baby dragon, but, man, come on, I bet I still look ferocious! Probably kicking ass and saving all of you damsels in distress with my extremely awesome dragon flames!!!”

Pinkie Pie simply giggled as she took a seat at the table next to Twilight. She activated her EGO and the screen started playing a video that she had uploaded.

“So, I know we already did all the voice acting and stuff, but… this is really an entirely fan made episode of My Little Pony®?” Twilight asked as the beginning started to play.

“You bet!” Pinkie Pie replied proudly. “All computer animated by yours truly and heavily drawing on all of our own life experiences!”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at her. “Seriously?”

“Well, I did have to tone some stuff down, I mean, come on Dashie, it’s a children’s show… for example, I made that mean ol’ Shadowbolt that Rarity decapitated into an effeminate sea serpent with a moustache!”

“And I thought Steven just did an excellent job of it, dear,” Rarity praised the character’s voice actor who happened to work with her in Archaeology.

“You didn’t put this up on YouTube, um, did you?” Fluttershy squeaked nervously, wondering how the world would accept her pony self.

“Well, DUH! OF COURSE!!! President Everstar even said that I could make it public, for plausible deniability or something like that… however, she did tell me that I would have to take it down if Hasbro® told me too…” Pinkie suddenly looked worried. “Gosh, that would be just awful… I mean, we all worked so hard on it and everything, and it’s not like we’re making any money…”

As Twilight finally appeared onscreen, she once again found herself confronted with the uncanny feeling of staring at her doppelgänger, albeit this time in pony form.

Pinkie Pie’s attention suddenly returned to the TV screen and she squealed again in delight. “Alright, get ready, everypony! HERE COMES THE THEME SONG!!!”

They all watched as their characters began to appear onscreen, all at once. As their colorful little equine selves flashed past in a cheery burst of music, the little group began weighing in with their thoughts and opinions:

“…Wow, you guys, I have to admit, I look pretty friggin’ awesome… so colorful, so fast… I’m like some sort of flying, living race car…”

“…OOOH!!! OOOH!!! WHEEERE’S PINKIE PIE?! WHEEERE’S PINKIE PIE?!?! HERE I AM!!!”

“…I have to agree with Rainbow dash, darlings, I look simply fabulous, even for a tiny horse… I must simply get all the stallions…”

“…Hoo- wee, I am strong! I tell ya what, if I could kick like that, boot camp would’ve been a helluva lot easier…”

“...Eeeeek! Look at the cute little bunny!!!”

“…That teleportation thing? Not as easy or as painless as it looks, people…”

“...Awwwww… dammit, why did you have to make me so tiny?!”

The tiny little baby dragon Spike vaporized a letter (which Twilight thought was scientifically ludicrous) and it spiraled high into the air as a cloud of smoke. The correspondence eventually reached a smiling Princess Celestia, Twilight giggling slightly at her candy- like mane, and she opened it, smiling warmly, to find a picture of the six ponies all posing together, smiling happily as the very best of friends in all of Equestria.

“Do you know you're all my very best friiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeends?” Pinkie Pie sang along with the end of the theme song as the title My Little Pony® Friendship is Magic (trademark symbol conspicuously absent) flashed across the screen in all of its pink and purple, girly, girly glory.

The main six all immediately turned to each other; in fact, they had all just sang the ending together, in perfect timing and harmony. The six bestest best friends in all of Equestria began laughing aloud and hugging each other, all immensely grateful to have found one another in the end.

“It’s starting, it’s starting!!!” Pinkie Pie simply went nuts and her mouth just kept on going and going. “Isn't this exciting? Are you excited cause I'm excited I don’t think ANYBODY’S ever been so excited- well, except for the time that I saw Twilight and Spike and they went HUUUUH- but I mean, really-“

Twilight simply laughed. No, it definitely wasn’t going to be just another ordinary life for her, after all.