"That's the last one, be very careful." Celestia instructed the guard ponies who were carrying away the stone statue of Twilight. It was placed in a room that looked more like a cave. Twilight and Celestia were standing there watching the pegasi and unicorn guards lock up a huge vault door made of solid steel with a bronze coating. The vault door made hissing sounds when closed then gear noises could be heard interlocking with each other. "That should hold them." Celestia said turning to go back in the elevator.

Twilight followed her mentor in, and the doors closed. The elevator was moving at a fairly fast pace towards the surface. It was an awkward silence, but Celestia broke it. "Twilight," Twilight looked up. "What did your disharmonic element mean when she said you were keeping secrets from me?" Celestia raised an eyebrow.

"Well..." Twilight shifted her eyes then looked up at her mentor. "I heard about the Elements of Disharmony in an old historical book I found. I wanted my friends to come along with me in search to find them. We did, and well, you know the rest." Twilight bit her lip nervously.

"I didn't want you to know because you'd probably send some guards with me to haul the disharmonic elements away before I could satisfy my curiosity by knowing they were taken care of personally." Twilight said sweating.

"Yes I probably would have. How did things turn out doing things your way?" Celestia asked rhetorically.

Twilight just looked away without saying a word. *ding* The elevator buzzed and the doors opened up. Celestia and Twilight stepped out and walked down a small hallway to where her friends were standing. Applejack had some bandages around her waist, Rainbow had her left wing bandaged as well. Pinkie was holding an ice pack up to her forehead and Rarity was wearing a fashionista hat covering her bald head. Fluttershy just had a couple band-aids on, but wasn't too hurt.

"Well, Equestria has a lot of work to do." Celestia said. "Canterlot is basically rubble and Ponyville is no better." They all walked out onto the balcony to look at the destroyed cities. However, the warm bright sun was welcoming and felt good. For that reason their spirits weren't too far down in the dumps. At least they defeated the Elements of Disharmony. Luna walked up some stairs and behind her following was a large group of guard ponies without their armor. They were the most loyal to the princesses and got locked up in the dungeon. They all just continued on towards the kitchen, no doubt they were hungry.

A guard pony unicorn trotted up the stairs and past the six of them before he stopped and ran backwards to see them. He feircely yelled at them and lifted them all up with his magic. "YOU! You're the ones that tied me up and left me in the desert!" Twilight and her friends chuckled nervously. "Is this funny to you?"

"Well he probably was going to arrest you and throw you in the dungeon, I know the story so I don't blame you."

Celestia glared at him. "Yes, following orders from some pony else! I have plans for the guards who weren't loyal to the real princesses, and sided with an evil one."

"Anyways, Luna and I will be back shortly. We don't normally do this, but this is a situation where we really have no choice." The six of them leaned forward in anticipation. "We are personally going to each neighboring city to explain to the ponies what really happened, and not to fear or be angry with you." Celestia unfolded her wings but turned her head to face them before she left. "Congratulations girls. You are no longer known as criminals. Enjoy life!" She then took off to the air. Luna ran up from behind and flew over the six of them in a different direction. They watched as the princesses flew away.

"Now... You know what? We deserve a little rest. At least until the princesses come back later." Twilight grinned.

The sun was setting when Celestia and Luna got back to the castle. They haven't slept in a long time and were very tired. Just as they were walking into the castle, Twilight and the rest were heading out. Spike was on Twilight's back again, but she didn't care. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight ran up to her mentor. "Thanks. For everything."

"Have a great rest of the day Twilight. We have set up a personal carriage to take you and your friends back home." Celestia then walked in the castle and Twilight looked back at her friends. Just then a carriage pulled up, like Celestia said.

It was night by the time Twilight opened the door to her tree house. She turned on the lights and evaluated the place. It was a total disaster. Books were scattered everywhere and many of Twilight's possessions were broken. Her chemistry set to her telescopes to her windows were smashed apart. Spike sighed and began picking books up off the ground.

"Oh I care. I just think I should help from time to time. But for now, let's get a proper nights sleep at home." Twilight said with the same exuberance.

"All your stuff is broken too Twilight." Spike said poking at a test tube which instantly cracked and shattered. He immediately brought his claw down and hoped Twilight didn't see. "You have nothing left Twi."

Twilight walked over and gave her number one assistant a hug. "I have you Spike. You're my family, and that's all I'll ever need to be happy. I love you Spike."

Spike embraced the hug and eventually they broke apart. "I can't believe I thought your evil self was really you." Spike said twisting a foot on the floor.

Twilight just smiled and walked upstairs. "Come on Spike, let's get some sleep."

"You're talkin' my kind of language!" Spike said and eagerly hopped up the stairs and jumped into his warm cozy bed. Twilight did the same in hers.

"Sweetie Belle! I'm home!" Rarity called out. She looked around and surveyed the damage in her boutique. The place was destroyed like Twilight's but seemed cleaner. "Not too bad I guess." Rarity said to herself and walked up the stairs. "Sweetie Belle!" She called back out.

"I'm sorry I ate a few of your apples! I'm so so sorry!" Sweetie Belle trembled in a corner with her eyes closed tight turned away from Rarity.

"Why would I-... Oh." Rarity just had a thought. "Sweetie, let me tell you a story." Rarity told her sister the entire story of what happened to them. It took a good half an hour to explain the whole situation to her, and Sweetie started looking like her normal self again.

"That makes sense, I guess?" Sweetie said sounding a little confused. "Well in that case, you should come look in here." Sweetie walked into the next room and pointed over to five full chests of Baby Blue Sapphires.

Rarity's eyes glistened as she saw the high quantity of rare sapphires. She walked over and grinned at the sight. "Baby Blue Sapphires! OOooOO!!!!" She squealed in delight. "Hmm, maybe evil Rarity was onto something?" Rarity said.

"I'm just joking of course!" Rarity turned around and hugged her sister. When she did this, her hat fell off her head and Sweetie pulled back and saw Rarity's mane was cut short.

Sweetie fell backwards on her back and started laughing like crazy. Rarity just closed her eyes halfway and sighed.

Applejack got out of the carriage and saw Sweet Apple Acres. She was finally home. It didn't look bad like Ponyville, the place was actually all in one piece and seemed like normal. Applejack walked up to door and pushed it open while tapping lightly. "Uh heh, knock knock." She said and stepped inside.

"Applejack!" Applebloom surprised her sister and gave her a big hug. "You are Applejack right?"

Big Mac walked downstairs when he heard Applebloom. His ribs were bandaged up but he seemed happy to see her.

Granny Smith wobbled into the lobby, "Applejack. Oh we heard everything that happened! The Princess told us the whole story."

"It's mighty nice tah see every one of ya'll." She tipped her hat to them. "Say, what happened to you Big Mac?" Applebloom just pointed at her sisters hooves then at Big Macs ribs. "Oh um, heh, sorry partner."

Rainbow flew up to her cloud home which was untouched. She went into her bed and fell asleep fast. She knew the mayor would have been told about her recent attitude, so she'd go talk to her in the morning. Nothing much else happened.

Pinkie walked into the Sugar Cube Corner. "Did I do something bad here?" She asked when Mrs. Cake walked out from behind a wall. She gave Pinkie a smile, which made her feel happier.

"You didn't do anything bad here, but 'you' did." Mrs. Cake made quotes with her hooves and chuckled a bit. Mrs. Cake opened the door to behind the counter and motioned to Pinkie that she was welcome to come back.

Pinkie perked right up and rushed in wasting no time to bake. "I haven't baked anything in a very long time! It was super-dooper-no-funner-bummer!" She said bouncing around. Mr. Cake opened a door and walked into the shop area.

"Ah Pinkie! I knew that voice sounded familiar!" He said and rubbed Pinkie on the top of the head. "We had go out and grab more ear medicine for little Pound Cake."

"Oh, nothing." He said and grabbed her in a headlock and gave her a noogie. "Welcome back kiddo!" Pinkie was laughing uncontrollably at the attention she was receiving. Everything was turning back to normal.

She walked to one of the empty tables in the room and noticed a plate with a few carrots on it. She slowly picked up one of the carrots and took a bite as quick as she could. "Hmm, not bad."

Fluttershy burst through the door of her cottage in a panic hoping her animal friends were alright. "Is everyone okay?! What happened?! Is something the matter?!" She stood in the middle of the room hyperventilating.

All her animal friends inside were fine. They looked at her in a quizzical manner before continuing on with their normal routine.

"Oh Angel Bunny, is everything alright?" She asked bringing her head down to his level. The Rabbit just turned away, folded his arms and closed his eyes.

Fluttershy looked over him and saw old disgusting rotting vegetables that they were living on. "Oh dear. Let me make you something fresh!"

Angel Bunny turned around to face Fluttershy and smiled a bit. Fluttershy was making a nice salad for him and was talking while doing it. "Sorry I've been gone for so long. Something bad came up, but you probably heard all the ruckus outside before.

When Fluttershy was finished she had a memory. She was going to buy a Junior Speedsters Flight Camp cup. "Well, some things are more important than glass mugs." She said happily and pet Angel. She was just relieved to know her animal friends were alright and that she could tend to them again.

The next morning was another sunny one. Twilight and Spike woke up to the sound of machinery. They looked outside and saw ponies cleaning up debris and fixing houses and businesses that were partially damaged from the chaos the Elements of Disharmony caused. The roads were being cleared and even some market venders were back in business selling food for bits.

Twilight and Spike dragged themselves out of bed downstairs and started cleaning up the books. Twilight was placing the books in the shelves with her magic that returned while defeating their clones. She was so relieved her magical abilities were back. In fact, she felt her magic was even more powerful than it already was. Spike was placing the books in the shelves by hand and was dozing off while doing it.

After all the books were cleaned up, Twilight grabbed a broom and pan to sweep up broken glass on the floor caused by her chemistry set and windows. After a couple hours the place was cleaned up, but some possessions were still broken. Twilight wasn't worried about those, she grabbed Spike by the arm and rubbed her head against his.

"Okay okay Twilight I get it! You're happy!" Spike said sounding like he didn't want the warm fuzzy feeling.

Twilight let him go and chuckled to herself. "Sorry Spike!" She grinned and levitated a scroll and parchment over to Spike.

Twilight just giggled to herself and looked at Spike, "Guess we'll have to bend the rules for this one." She smiled and cleared her throat.

Applejack was bucking trees, teaching her young sister how to do it properly. Applebloom hit the tree with all her force and one apple fell down and conked her on the head. She was a bit dizzy, but picked it up and showed her sister that she finally did it. Applejack congratulated her and they were both proud.

"sometimes friendship has it's rocky moments where you might fight or argue, that's normal, but at the end of the day, your friendship is still intact. The magic of friendship binds you together, and a small tussle doesn't break it apart."

Rainbow Dash took the bandage off her wing and started punching holes in the clouds and kicking them apart, to keep the sky clear. She was doing flips and zig-zags, keeping her job exciting. Rainbow was having a blast flying around. It was nice to be able to do that without worrying if some pony else spotted her. Being free is a key component for a Pegasus. Mayer Mare was looking up at Rainbow Dash, she was grateful to have such a devoted member of the weather team.

"When you're stuck between a hard place and rock, you can always count on true friends to support you. Never give up."

Pinkie was behind the counter at Sugar Cube Corner happily dishing out sweets and selling cakes. She was a hard worker, and sales were through the roof. Between customers, Pinkie would run upstairs and decorate her room with streamers and balloons, preparing for a party she was about to throw.

"Trusting your friends, and them trusting you is a special feeling. True friends understand the pressures and are respectful of your problems and may even help out with them."

Twilight was remembering back when they were walking through the Everfree Forest together. They were trusting Twilight, and even with the dangers they had to go through, they continued on until they reached their destination.

"With perseverance, teamwork, respect, co-operation and understanding, you and your friends will have built a solid friendship that cannot be broken apart."

Rarity was playing Dress up with her sister. Scootaloo was there and just stuck her tongue out. It wasn't exactly her idea of fun. She walked into the other room and even she couldn't help but be in awe when she saw an over-the-top dress covered in sapphires.

"When you first sent me down to Ponyville, I had no intentions of making friends. I never had any, nor did I want any. Who would have knew my thought process would quickly change?"

Fluttershy was feeding all her animal friends who were happy and mellow. Fluttershy sat on her couch relaxing, knowing everything was back to normal. She gave a sigh of relief and closed her eyes in contentness.

"I now know there is no limit to how strong friendships can be. They keep growing all the time, nothing will break apart our friendship. With ours being the way it is, we will be best friends until the end. The Elements of Harmony are here to stay. Even though mine is classified as the strongest element of them all, I'd like to think we are all as equally important. No friend is better than another. We all have friendships that treat each other with the same amount of respect. I know that my magic is inspired by friendship, and I know that friendship IS magic... Friendship never fails."

THE END
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Friendship Never Fails
Written by: cyberpeajay

All characters by MLP; FiM
Written over a period of two months, this story took a ton of effort, and I am proud of this work. I never thought I'd finish writing this, but I'm glad I did...
Hope you enjoyed MLP; FiM - Friendship Never Fails!
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Bonus:
--- 1000 Years Later ---

It was dark outside, the moon was full and the fog was thick. "Come on guys, this way!" A small brown unicorn pony called out to her two other friends.

"Yeah, it's the ruins of Canterlot Castle, big whoop." Said an orange pegasus stallion.

"I heard there were once these things called 'Elements of Harmony'. Not sure what they would do, but I'm too curious to find out!" The brown unicorn squealed with excitement.

"Calm down Orra." The navy blue one said. "You can't believe everything you read."

Orra, the brown unicorn looked back behind her to her group. "Oh yeah because a certain pony a thousand years ago would write a letter to a princess they once had and be lying their tail off." The navy blue pony said nothing and just grumbled. After twenty minutes of walking over debris and destroyed castle remains, they came to a small room with bars.

"Some kind of chamber maybe?" The orange stallion said and leaned against the wall. Without knowing it he pressed on some hidden buttons.

The chamber powered up and some lights flickered inside. The three ponies looked at each other before trying to bolt outside, but doors slammed closed locking them in. Orra grabbed the orange pegasus by the wing and got right in his face. "What did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything!" He defended, but a small *ding* sound was made and they all felt themselves moving downwards.

"What's going on?!" The navy blue pony asked. Orra lit up her horn so they could see where they were. After a few minutes of being trapped, the doors opened up with another *ding* sound. This time the doors revealed a dark damp cave they were in. They all slowly walked out and saw treasures and statues on the ground.

A big round door caught the attention of Orra and she ran up to it. She studied it for a bit and then scoffed. "Pfft, such prehistoric mechanisms." She lit her horn up and the whole door fell down in aheap causing a loud thud and making the ground shake momentarily. All three of them slowly walked inside the vault and they saw six grey sculptures standing inside. "Could it be?!" She ran up and saw a label that read:

'ELEMENTS OF HARMONY'

"It is! It's the Elements of Harmony!" She spun around to her friends. "I found them I found them! They are real! HA!" She pointed at her friends who rolled their eyes. "So these are the Elements of Harmony? How so?" She slowly walked over and examined one that had a design of a mare with a stripe down its tale and mane. It was a unicorn and seemed to have an angry expression chiseled into it. As she walked around it, she accidentally bumped her leg on the label which caused dust to fly off it, revealing the full title that read:

'ELEMENTS OF DISHARMONY'

"Maybe you can get them to work if you break it open?" Orra asking no one in particular. She lined up a shot and bucked the statue with all her might. A bright flash exploded out of it...

Friendship Never Fails

by cyberpeajay

Chapter 8: Friendship Never Fails