Together with the explosion, Twilight’s scream alerted the others. Shedding all princess demeanor, she sped off after her friend. The ponies turned and ran toward the hill following in Twilight’s wake with a lumbering pack of Grundles plugging along behind.
Tears whipped from Twilight’s face as she tore through the air. Flying right into the thick of the battle, she bore little thought for her own safety. “Rainbow! What do you think you’re doing?” The small speck of blue sprinkled with a dash of color sat glued to the forward battlement, crouching under the massive creature hovering above. A tidal wave of sludge threatened to crash down on them at any moment.
“It’s not too late. We have to help!” Rainbow Dash grunted as she tossed a softball-sized rock over the fortification wall, a large part of which had already been destroyed. The gaping hole in the wall offered no reassurance that the battle was going well. The rock flew across the battlement and made a plopping noise as it struck its intended target. The solid sheet of purple-black goo gathered mass and rose high above the wall only a few yards from the shrine.
Just inside the stone ring, the pony knights rushed toward the statue bases. King Brightwing took up position in the center of the structure and began reciting his intricate spell.
“Rainbow, we have to go! It’s not safe here! Come on!” Twilight flattened herself against the battlement and begged Dash to move.
“You go, Twilight. You have to warn the Princess. I’m staying here to help them fight.” She tossed another rock over the wall.
“Rainbow Dash! A few rocks isn’t going to stop that thing! We have to get out of here now!” Twilight tugged at Rainbow’s shoulder, but succeeded in pulling her only a few feet back. She gave up pulling and flew around to push.
Through the crack in the wall, Twilight caught sight of another volley. “Incoming!” She shoved Dash away just as a spout of purple ooze shot through the hole toward them. The goo splattered on the column behind, quickly dissolving the stone as it dripped down its length.
Twilight charged her horn and spun around to deliver a blast of Alicorn magic directly at the creature. The beam stretched out from her horn and connected with another volley of goo heading straight for her. The projectiles cancelled each other out.
Rainbow Dash glanced over at the column, now half eaten through by the acidic ooze. “Maybe you were right, Twilight.” She grabbed a hold of Twilight as the panic sunk in. “Maybe this was a bad idea. Help!” She yelled in terror as the attack continued, purple goo flying everywhere.
Twilight rolled down the line; Rainbow Dash held on as tight as she could. Across the lip of the battlement, her Alicorn magic laid out covering fire, deflecting the attacks meant for her friends. The monster wasn’t letting up. Rainbow clung to her back, still unsure of which direction to fly. All around, the sky filled with purple projectiles whizzing through the air.
Twilight wrung away from Rainbow’s grasp, allowing both more freedom of movement. “Pull it together Dash—we have get out of here!” Still firing her horn blasts at the oncoming barrage, she surveyed a path of retreat. “Follow me! To the left!”
Rainbow obeyed and dove to her left. Twilight led the retreat, shooting down stray missiles as they went. Banking at the edge of the structure, she turned toward the village side of the hill and kicked into overdrive. Applejack and the rest were just cresting the hill on the far side.
Twilight screamed, “Everypony back!” With Rainbow at her side, she shot past her friends and came around for another pass. The ponies retreated far enough back down the hillside that they could just make out the ring of stone from the top of the shrine in the distance. Twilight took up a holding position just above the others as she looked back toward the shrine and the continuing battle engaging King Brightwing and his knights.
The spell was almost complete. Twilight could tell they were close by the ball of light that was beginning to grow around the King. The knights had taken up their positions on each pedestal and were busy parrying the blows being delivered by the Smooze. The creature loomed over the shrine dwarfing the structure with its height and breadth. The ever-growing mass blocked the light of the late afternoon sun casting a dark shadow on the ponies below. A veritable rain of purple and black glop fell down upon the shrine. And then, the unthinkable: the spell collapsed.
King Brightwing took a direct hit. He fell to the ground as the knights rallied to his side. There was little they could do—the Smooze overtook the entire structure and brought the ring of stone crashing down upon them all.
“No!” Twilight cried out in a wail of despair.
“What happened, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked. “Are they alright?”
Rarity poked her side. “Fluttershy, dear, you do know you could fly up there and take a look for yourself, do you not?” She pointed to her own obvious lack of flying equipment and continued, “As you can see, some of us don’t have that option.”
Applejack called up to Twilight. “What do you see, Twi?”
Twilight shouted back down. “It’s the King…. I… I don’t know what just happened. It doesn’t look good. The whole shrine—the spell—everything just collapsed.”
Rainbow Dash flew in circles chewing on her partially worn golden horseshoes. “What do we do? What do we do? Twilight, we’ve got to help them!”
Twilight flew down to join the rest of her friends. “All right, everypony. Here’s the plan!” Twilight stomped her hoof to the ground. “We have one shot at this and we’ve got to make it count. We have to use our Rainbow Powers to try and stop that thing. If we don’t do it now, we probably won’t get another chance. It’s now or never, girls! Hooves in!” She thrust out her front leg and the rest closed into formation. The girls formed a circle once again and one by one put a hoof to the middle.
The familiar magic sprang to life as the ponies’ rainbow-fied markings burst from their coats, manes, and tails. A small rainbow formed in the center and zipped around them furiously as the entire group of ponies floated off the ground. They gained some air and began to drift towards the beast and the now goop covered ruins of the shrine. A few stunned Grundles drew back in surprise.
The rainbow energy crackled around Twilight as she lined up her shot. “Here we go!” She raised her horn and released the blast. Colored bands arched under and over before collapsing straight down the middle making a direct shot at the Smooze. The monster shuddered with the impact from the blast tearing into the blackest parts of its core.
The rainbow light ray faltered and then dissipated completely. The six ponies floated back down to the ground. Having traveled half the distance to the shrine, they stared up at the towering view of the wall of purple sludge that stood before them.
The Smooze bubbled and churned. It lurched to the left and then back to the right—the small pony shrine below sat smashed and broken, a scene of complete disarray. The pony guards strewn about the ground struggled to move with little hope of recovery. King Brightwing lay just to the left of the center area, completely covered in purple sludge and utterly motionless.
The beast let out a terrifying roar.
What could only be described as a mouth opened wide in the near-facing side of the gelatinous glob. It coughed, and a small bit of brightly colored phlegm spewed forth from the opening. The tiny rainbow flopped onto the ground and faded away in the dirt. Twilight watched in amazement as the creature seemed entirely unfazed by their rainbow attack.
Applejack joined her in staring, dumbfounded. “Well, I certainly didn’t expect that to happen.”
Rainbow Dash landed. “Right there with you, pal. That thing just chewed up our rainbow and spit it out like an old piece of gum.”
Pinkie Pie, true to form, gave her assessment. “At least it was rainbow gum. I love rainbow flavor.”
“Pinkie, this is no time to be thinking about gum!” Twilight scolded once again. “We need to think of a new plan, and fast! Fall back!” The Smooze paused its advance, but didn’t seem like it would stay that way for long. The girls made their retreat and once again found themselves right back where they started—albeit still rocking their rainbow-fied looks.
Twilight looked around at her friends. “Does anypony have any other ideas?”
“I-I-I don’t know, Twilight,” Fluttershy stuttered, “but our friends might have some.”
Rarity pointed back up the hill. “I don’t know what they think they’re doing, but it probably won’t end well.” The girls turned and watched as the simple Grundle army charged up the hill. Rocks from slings, pitchforks and rakes, everything they had to give flew toward the beast.
From the tree line, another rumble approached. The Star Spider Queen and her brood burst from the forest and began to scale the north slope. Webbing flew through the air as they pressed their attack on the creature. The Queen yelled out to the ponies. “Forward all! Keep up the attack!”
Applejack resolved, “There’s no turnin’ back now. We gotta go help our friends!” She held and waited for acknowledgement. “Twilight, you with us here?”
Twilight, still trying to come up with a scenario that didn’t end in their deaths, turned around and faced the ruins. “I don’t know, girls… I just wish Princess Celestia were here. She would know what to do.”
As if by just speaking her name, Celestia’s voice rang out on the breeze. It was soon joined by the voice of Luna, and then by a third, somewhat familiar voice. Twilight’s ears stood up as she recognized all three voices assaulting her thoughts. The Princesses, together with Queen Una, the Tree of Harmony, chanted a soothing melody. Words repeated in sequence, over and over as Twilight soaked it all in. Trust in your friends and create new magic together.
Twilight shouted back to the group. “New magic!” The rest of her companions stared back in wonder, perhaps thinking their fearless leader had finally knocked her last screw of sanity loose. They stood in silence, waiting to hear what was coming next. Twilight shook her head and came around. “Girls, I have a plan! We need to use our Rainbow Power!”
“But Twilight,” Rarity replied, “we already tried that and it didn’t work.”
“Yeah, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash chimed in, “we gave that thing everything we had and it spit it right back in our face.”
Twilight’s smile grew, the plan materializing in her head. The ponies could see that something had clicked. Either this was going to be another crazy suggestion or something really amazing was about to happen.
Twilight calmly stated, “No girls, I mean, we need to use our Rainbow Power!” Her friends stared back, with only Applejack daring to ask the obvious question.
“All right, you’ve gotta start talking straight with us. What exactly do you mean by our Rainbow Power?”
“Simple. Up until now, we’ve been using the Rainbow Power from the Tree of Harmony: the same magic that failed to stop the Smooze over two thousand years ago. What we haven’t tried is the Rainbow Power that comes from within each of us! The Elements of Harmony!” Twilight pulled a hoof to her chest and tapped the area near her heart.
“And how exactly is that different?” Applejack was still confused.
“Easy. The Light that resides in each of us comes from the friendship we each have for one another. It’s the same thing that drew us together in the first place when we were able to unite the Elements of Harmony without even having the gemstones around our necks. The Magic of Friendship is inside of each of us! We just need to let our light shine!”
Fluttershy stood up as tall as she could and spread out her wings. “So how do we bring out the light inside us, Twilight? Tell us what we need to do.”
Twilight drew closer. “It’s easy, Fluttershy. I just needed a little reminder was all. Princess Celestia gave us the key a long time ago. Do you recall what she told us right after I became an Alicorn? The key to creating new magic…”
With a good deal of urgency in her voice, Applejack spoke up again. “Okay, Twilight, enough beatin’ around the bush. That monster isn’t goin’ to just sit there and wait for us all day. Go ahead and tell us.” The Grundles had run out of ammo and were in full retreat down the slope. The Star Spider flank drew back as well with the resurgence of the beast.
Twilight gazed around at all her friends—each of them waiting not-so-patiently to hear what she had to say. “We figured it out a long time ago—it’s the magic that brought us together. It’s the same magic that made me an Alicorn Princess. It’s new magic that’s crafted by all of us each and every day. It’s the Magic of Friendship!”
“So how are we supposed to tap into that?” Rainbow Dash glanced nervously over her shoulder.
Twilight straightened up. “We need to dig deep and really show this Smooze what our friendship truly means. Celestia and Luna—even Queen Una, King Brightwing and all his friends too—all of them are counting on us. We need to draw on the Charity, Compassion, Devotion, Integrity, Optimism, and Leadership of true friends! We need to focus on our light within and make a stand, just like the King and his friends did for us. Just like the Grundles and the Star Spiders too. The Magic of our Friendship is stronger than any monster!”
“We can do it!” Pinkie Pie jumped in the air.
“For our friends!” Rarity tossed her mane and twirled her tail.
“We can’t give up!” Applejack threw up her hat, spun around, and let it fall back on her head.
“Yay!” Fluttershy shouted in the loudest voice she could muster.
Rainbow Dash did a double flip in the air. “This is going to be so awesome!”
“Together with the Rainbow of Light and the Elements of Harmony that live in each of us, let’s see what kind of new magic our friendship can muster to defeat the Smooze. Let’s do this for Brightwing and his friends, and for everyone else that’s counting on us as well. Hooves together, girls!”
For a third time that afternoon, the ponies formed a circle as each of them cast in a hoof, calling upon the Magic of Friendship as Celestia explained following Twilight’s ascension:
The Integrity of Applejack who stood firm against the lies of the world.
The Optimism of Pinkie Pie who looked to the bright side of facing down a ferocious yeti.
The Compassion of Fluttershy in sharing with those in need.
The Charity of Rarity in giving of herself to clothe an entire village.
The Devotion of Rainbow Dash in supporting her friends to the very end.
The Leadership of a Princess in standing up for what’s right and refusing to let it be destroyed.
The Rainbow Power from the Tree of Harmony, already present in their current forms, joined with the magic that radiated from the core of each pony. The tiny rainbow once again sprang to life, this time joined by the cutie mark emblems of all six mares. Each pony poured the essence of themselves into the soul of the spell.
The orb of energy surrounding them grew bigger and brighter than ever before. Twilight guided the crackling ball of light into the air. As she moved them forward, the ponies continued to concentrate on one another and what their friendship truly meant. She maneuvered the group into position, the purple beast straight ahead and closing fast. Steadying herself at last, she drew up and cast her spell drawing on the new magic of friendship she paralleled from Starswirl’s unfinished spell:
“With all of us together
Friendship lights our way.
Let past and present tether
As darkness becomes day!”
A blazing beam of white light shot out from the group of ponies and struck the beast dead center mass. The Smooze recoiled with the impact. Its roar was quickly silenced as the beam of white-hot light tore into it and passed straight through to the other side. It continued on toward the shrine and engulfed the entire hilltop. The creature and all its ooze melted away under the onslaught.
The energy surrounding Twilight and her friends shone with the brightness of a hundred suns. Their friendship glow filled the entire valley from the mountains to the east all the way to the ocean at the west. Not a single spot of darkness escaped the light drawing back as a rainbow streaked across the sky.
Twilight struggled to carefully settle the group down and collapsed as the magic faded around her.