Part V
Back at the Canterlot Castle, Empress Adrestia was furious. Her plan for world domination was almost complete, but Twilight was the only pony that was holding her back.
“My plan is almost complete..” Empress Adrestia murmered. She stared off at the glass window and pointed at the picture of Princess Twilight. “But I can’t go on with the plan because of this pony!”
The doors suddenly opened and the guards entered the room with Twilight and her friends.
The guards kneeled down to the Empress. “My Empress. We have captured the pony that you seek.”
“Good! Now we can finally activate the Metus Diamond!”
“Twilight! Whatever you do, don’t give her your element! She’ll use it to release eternal chaos to our home!” Princess Celestia pleaded.
“Princess Celestia! Luna! Are you alright!? Twilight asked. “But what’s this Metus Diamond?”
“You’ll soon find out..” the Empress divulged. “All you have to do is give me your element. We can either do this the hard way or the easy way. Your choice..”
Shining Armor felt a rush of panic and broke away from the guards to help her sister from danger. “Don’t you dare hurt my sister, your monster!”
“Back away you fool!” Empress Adrestia roared, using her magic to aggressively push Shining Armor away. She threw him into Jazz and Princess Cadance, knocking all of them unconscious. The ponies gasped in terror.
“My friends!” Twilight helplessly called out.
“Guards! Lock her other friends up. Don’t give them any chance to stop me! Go!” the Empress commanded.
The guards used their magic to hold Twilight’s friends in captivity. All her friends could do now was to stand there and watch.
The Empress then turned to Twilight. “All you have to do is give me your element..”
Twilight hesitated for a slight moment, almost giving her crown to the Empress. However, at the very last second, she backed away, clutched her crown and placed it on her head. “No.. I can’t and will not! If I give you my element, Equestria won’t stand a chance against you and your empire! Equestria needs my Elements of Harmony to fight against evildoers like you!”
“Very well,” the Empress said. All of a sudden, she blasted a beam of magic at Twilight, using her fear spell. Twilight’s friends hopelessly watched to see what the Empress was doing to their friend.
Twilight was back in the dark room.
“You left me no choice, Twilight!” Empress Adrestia echoed.
“I will not give you my crown!” Twilight argued.
The Empress used her magic to replay the Ponyville anniversary incident in front of Twilight. “Why not!? You were never meant to be a princess! Don’t you remember the failures that you’ve done. Every pony thinks you weren’t cut out for royalty! Perhaps, even your own friends think so as well..” Adrestia mocked.
This time, Twilight knew the Empress was lying. She knew everything now and what really happened at the Ponyville anniversary. She remembered back in the cave, when her friends told her the truth and how they would always stand by her. All her memories with her friends played back in her mind. She even remembered Jazz’s words of wisdom back at Zecora’s hut. She remembered those exact words “Sometimes, looking at the stars and closing your eyes is the best thing you can do. It’s a constant reminder that even though times can be rough, tomorrow is a new day.” Today was a new day for Twilight and it was a day to make things right once and for all. Twilight stood tall against the Empress and closed her eyes.
Back in the real world, the guards were about to snatch the crown from Twilight, as she was busy being distracted by the Empress in their alternative universe. However, as they were about to steal the crown, they were immediately shocked back. The guards wondered what was going on, but then they noticed something was happening to Twilight’s crown. It was glowing. The crown then blasted a force field around Twilight, preventing the guards from getting near her and the crown. The guards tried, in every bit of their power, to get the crown, but the force field prevented them from doing so. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Twilight’s friends all looked in awe as to what was happening. The magic of friendship was protecting her.
In the alternative aniverse, Twilight’s eyes remained closed. The Empress seemed confused as to what she was doing.
Twilight then opened her eyes and spoke. “You’re wrong, Empress Adrestia. It wasn’t me who ruined this party. It was you. I now know that I was always meant to be a princess and I know why I will always beat you. I have a power that you will never know because the lust for power has corrupted you. The magic of friendship is the most powerful magic of all and the magic of friendship is what not only protects Equestria, but me as well!”
On the spur of the moment, Twilight unleashed a powerful beam of magic that not only freed her from Empress Adrestia’s fear spell, but freed her friends from their captivity. Twilight’s beam of magic also snatched the other elements of harmony from the Metusonians and returned them back to their rightful owners.
“Twilight! You did it! We all knew you could!” Applejack said.
“That was… AWESOME!” Rainbow Dash blurted out.
“That was simply marvelous, Twilight!” Rarity complimented.
The Empress couldn’t believe what she was seeing. No pony had ever broken free from her powerful fear spell. “NO!! How!? How can this be!?”
“It’s over, Empress Adrestia! It’s time to end this!” Princess Twilight exclaimed.
Empress Adrestia felt something boil inside of her. “NO! I’ve come this far, waited this long for this dream to plan out, and I’m not going to let you meddling ponies take it all away from me!”
Empress Adrestia turned to the ponies and began to power up her magic from her horn. Twilight and her friends activated their elements and proceeded to attack the Empress and defend their homeland. All of a sudden, Empress Adrestia fired a strong beam of magic at the ponies, in which the ponies fired the power of the elements right back at the Empress. The two beams of magic aligned in the center. The two beams of magic battled back and forth, but the power of the Elements of Harmony slowly began to overpower Empress Adrestia’s magic. Empress Adrestia began to panic, realizing that she was about to lose everything that she had dreamed of, but suddenly, her magic rapidly began to overpower the Elements of Harmony.
Twilight realized the Elements of Harmony was weakening. “Why are the Elements weakening!?”
“HA! The Elements are still corrupted by my dark magic!” Empress Adrestia hollered out.
At the corner of the room, Jazz regained consciousness and saw his friends battle with the Empress. He noticed that Adrestia’s magic was overpowering his friends so in an act of quick wits, Jazz fired his own beam of magic towards the Empress, combining his magic with the Elements of Harmony. Princess Cadance and Shining Armor also regained consciousness and noticed Jazz helping out their friends by firing magic at the Empress.
“Help us!” Jazz implored.
Realizing their friends need their help, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance fired their own magic at the Empress.
With the help of their friends, the power of the Elements of Harmony raced towards the Empress in full speed.
At the last second before defeat, Empress Adrestia hollered out a desperate “NOOOOOOOO”. As the Elements of Harmony defeated the Empress, the powers of its magic spread throughout Equestria, physically expelling the Metusonians out of Equestria, banishing them for good.
The heroic ponies opened their eyes to see if they had won.
“Is it over?” Princess Twilight asked.
“Yes, Twilight. It’s finally over,” Princess Celestia responded, freed from her captivity. Princess Celestia looked at the Mane Six. “You have saved us all.”
‘Yee haw! We’ve done it every pony!” Applejack cheered, kicking her front hooves up in the air.
The rest of the ponies cheered and congratulated one another. However, they heard a mysterious noise that was coming out of the castle.
“What is that noise?” Rarity asked.
Princess Celestia showed them to the windows. “That, my little ponies, is a sound of an applause.”
As Twilight and her friends looked over the windows, they saw hundreds, if not thousands, of ponies stomping their hooves at the ground. Some ponies whistled while others hollered out the names of the heroic ponies.
Princess Twilight! Princess Twilight!
Applejack! Applejack!
Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!
Rarity! Rarity!
Pinkie Pie! Pinkie Pie!
Fluttershy! Fluttershy!
The round of applause and the repeated roars of their names sounded louder and louder. Rainbow Dash embraced her heroic moment, showing off dance moves in the middle of the air to please the crowd. Fluttershy, on the other hand, cowered behind her friends, not liking the center of attention.
Twilight, however, realized that they wouldn’t have been able to defeat the Metusonians, without the help of Jazz, Shining Armor, and Cadance, who were all left off in the applause.
“Wait, what about Jazz, Cadance, and my brother?” Twilight asked. “They deserve the applause too.”
“It’s fine, Twilight. Embrace this moment. If this isn’t a sign that you were always meant to be a Princess, then I don’t know what is,” Jazz replied back.
“No, Twilight’s right. We would’ve never been able to stop the Empress without your help!” Rainbow Dash added.
“Yeah, we still would’ve been stuck in that yucky disgusting cave!” Rarity continued.
“Really, ponies. It’s no bother,” Jazz exclaimed.
“No. Your friends are right, Jazz. You deserve the recognition as much as your friends. Your quick actions when you knew your friends needed the extra help in defeating the Empress.. It’s examples like that that made me know I chose the right pony for the job,” Princess Celestia explained.
“I- I don’t understand, Princess. Out of any other pony, why did you choose me?” Jazz inquired.
“Because Jazz.. I see something in you. You don’t give up. I know you’ve been chasing your dream of becoming a professional musician. No matter how many times other ponies bring you down, you keep going. You’ve shown me that it doesn’t matter how you go down, no matter how grim anything may seem, the only thing that matters is how you climb right back up. I also understand you’re trying to find your own place in Equestria,” Princess Celestia answered, pointing Jazz toward Twilight and her friends. “Well, maybe if you look right in front of you, I think you’ve already found a home.”
“In Ponyville.. with my friends..” Jazz emphasized.
“You have a lot of potential, Jazz. Just like how Twilight has learned so much about friendship through her time in Ponyville, I think you can learn as much too,” Princess Celestia added.
“You should, Jazz! You’ll have a grand time in Ponyville!” Rarity said.
“Ya’ll can have all the apple pies in the world!” Applejack chuckled.
“I want some pie right now..” Pinkie Pie acknowledged.
“Don’t ya worry Pinkie. There’ll be plenty of pies to go around!” Applejack said.
Pinkie Pie leaped up in the air. “Yippee!”
“Anyways.. Jazz.. Ponyville is a place where every pony cares about each other because we are all friends. Ponyville would be a great home for you!” Twilight reminded.
Twilight and her friends all awaited for their friend to make a decision.
“All this time, through my time as a travelling musician, I’ve only cared about one thing only and that thing was my dream. I didn’t have any friends and I didn’t have any pony. For most of my life, I’ve always had to do things on my own, but now I do realize something. That, there is something else I do care about other than music. It’s my friends. The new friends that I’ve made in Ponyville. I want to stay in Ponyville. I want to stay with my friends even if it means I have to ,” Jazz responded back.
“Well, if there’s one thing you should know about Ponyville, it’s that we all give our new guests a big, welcoming hug!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
The ponies gave their friend a gigantic hug, almost suffocating Jazz in the process.
“That reminds me, Twilight. How is your Ponyville anniversary coming along?” Princess Celestia asked.
“We were done planning out the party, but then the Metusonians ruined it all. I’m afraid Ponyville won’t get that special anniversary after all..” Twilight revealed.
“Well, who says it’s too late? The day is still new. I think we have time to throw an even better party!” Jazz suggested.
Twilight smiled. “Today is a new day.”
“Come on, every pony! Let’s go throw that party!” Pinkie Pie shouted.
Back in Ponyville, a second party was thrown. Every pony danced, cheered, and hung out with each pony. Rainbow Dash rushed to her friends, who were hanging out at Twilight’s house.
“Hey, what are you ponies doing inside? You’re gonna miss the fireworks!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Oh, I don’t wanna miss this with my new friend!” Spike said. “Let’s go Jazz!”
The ponies and Spike headed outside to watch the fireworks light the night sky.
“Wow, that sure looks amazing, ya’ll,” Applejack said.
“Right! This pie really is amazing!” Pinkie Pie replied back, too busy eating pies to pay attention to the fireworks.
“Oh Pinkie..” Twilight giggled.
“I think I am really going to like it here in Ponyville,” Jazz acknowledged.
“You’re going to love it here in Ponyville, Jazz!” Rarity replied back.
The ponies laughed and talked as the fireworks filled the night sky. They were having a great time hanging out with each other, thankful that the Metusonian nightmare had come to an end. Today was a good day; after all, today was a new day.