As the flash faded Shining Armor and his friends slowly rose to their hooves. Nightmare Moon was no more. "We did it, we won." Shining Armor said. He would normally be much more excited, but so much had happened in the blink of an eye, and he was exhausted. So were his friends, but they soon found new energy in their excitement.
"Wooh! That was sweet!" Soarin cheered "Feels almost like one of Spitfire's exercises."
"Why Fancy Pants, I don't believe it!" Thunderlane cried.
"I know." Fancy Pants said "I know they say tails don't just magically grow back, but I think that rainbow beam decided this was an exception. Good thing too, I don't know how I'd explain to my darling Fluer that I cut off my tail."
"Actually I was refering to your necklace. It's really fitting for you element." Thunderlane said "You have a gem."
Fancy Pants gasped as he observed said necklace. A small purple gem hung in the center of it. "You're right." he said "And look at yours. You've got a butterfly." Fancy Pants was right, Thunderlane had a pink butterfly in the center of his necklace.
"A lightning bolt huh? Matches my suit," Soarin said as he observed his necklace. It had a red lightning bolt in the center.
"Hey look at mine!" Braeburn cheered "Now I truly AM the life of the party!". His hecklace had a blue balloon hanging in the center of it.
Big Macintosh quickly noticed that his necklace had an orange apple in the center. Shining Armor's was a little different however, instead of a necklace there was a twinkling tiara with a violet star resting on the top. "Heh, I'll admit when I first met you Shining Armor you seemed like a nice guy." Big Macintosh said "But when you ran off to face Nightmare Moon on your own I thought you were crazy. Perhaps you still are in a way, but I suppose you're crazy in a good way. And I reckon that you're right. We really do represent those elements."
"Indeed you do my faithful subjects." a calm and majestic voice called out.
"Who said that?" Braeburn asked.
"Do not be afraid. I mean you no harm." the voice said, then suddenly in the distance there appeared a shining white ball of light. It drew closer and closer, finally bursting through the window and revealing itself in a flash of light. There stood a white alicorn with a flowing pink, green, and blue mane and tail, as well as purple eyes. Atop her head rested a golden crown with small purple gems carved into it.
Shining Armor recognized the figure at once. "Princess Celestia! I'm so happy to see you!" he said happily, racing forward and embracing the alicorn in a hug.
"It's good to see you as well Shining Armor." Princess Celestia said.
"You don't know how glad I am to see you Princess." Shining Armor said "I thought something awful had happened to you."
"As you can see that is not the case." Princess Celestia said "Nightmare Moon couldn't have hurt me if she tried. I am much stronger now then I was 1,000 years ago."
"So the legends were true." Shining Armor said "But I don't understand. You said you had everything under control. You said there was nothing to worry about."
"Indeed I did." Princess Celestia said "But I never said I didn't believe you. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return the same as you did. And I knew that I would not be able to stop her this time. But I also knew that you could not defeat her unless you allowed true friendship into your heart. For friendship is what gives the Elements of Harmony their power."
"You mean, this was all set up from the beginning?" Shining Armor asked.
"Not exactly." Princess Celestia explained "I knew Nightmare Moon would return, and I knew that you would discover true friendship when I sent you to Ponyville. I did not know how you would discover said friendship, or how Nightmare Moon would attempt to stop you."
"I guess that makes sense." Shining Armor said "But don't ever do something like that again. You had me worried."
"I shall try my best not to make you worry so much about nothing in the future." Princess Celestia said "And I am grateful to you and your friends for what you have done. But for now there is someone who is in need of my help, and if I'm not mistaken she is still in this very room."
Over in the corner were pieces of what appeared to be Nightmare Moon's armor, nestled among their decaying vapor lay a small light blue alicorn, with an even lighter blue mane and tail, and blue eyes. The alicorn gasped as Princess Celestia approached her. "Princess Luna." she said somberly "It has been over 1,000 years since I have seen you like this little sister. The evil that corrupted you is gone, but I can see that your banishment and defeat have left you in this weakened state. Know that you are not alone, I am here for you and always will be." Everyone was speechless. "But," Princess Celestia continued "the time has come for us to finally put aside our differences. These 1,000 years have brought me much sorrow, and I have come to learn that I am nothing without you. We were meant to rule Equestria together Lulu. So what do you say? I have already forgiven you, but can you ever forgive me for being so blind?"
There was a very dramatic silence. No one dared to move or say a word. At last Princess Luna stood up and with tears in her eyes said "Of course I forgive you Tia. And I'm sorry. I missed you so much big sister."
"I've missed you too." Princess Celestia, sheding tears as she hugged her little sister. "A lot has changed, but together we can usher in a new era." Then she turned to Shining Armor and his friends. "I'm thankful to all of you. Without your help this reunion would not be possible."
"It was nothing your majesty." Thunderlane said.
"Yes, We just happened to be in the right place at the right time." Big Macintosh said.
"If you're going to thank anyone you should thank Shining Armor." Soarin chimed in.
"Indeed, without him none of this would've happened." Fancy Pants said.
"Aw shucks, I'm sure anyone in my situation would've done the same." Shining Armor said with a shrug.
Braeburn said nothing. He simply started to shed tears.
"What's got you acting all mushy?" Soarin asked.
"It's just so happy." Braeburn said "These tears are tears of joy." He promptly wiped them away with a hoofkerchief. "Hey! You know what this calls for?!" he asked.
"What?" everyone else asked.
It's party time next chapter I feel.
The fuck is Luna ?
3545961 all is forgiven
3547892 Guess you've forgotten how she looked in the pilot. Lauren Faust's explanation for Luna's new design in Season 2 and beyond was that Luna had regained some of her powers by that point. In a sense when we saw her in Season 1 she was in a weakened state.
Overall, I think this story has a good concept behind it. Interesting choice of characters, but there was very little done to differentiate them from their canon counterparts. For me, they felt more like gender-swaps of the regular Mane6 than developed characters in their own right, even in scenes where the canon 6 are standing right next to them. So, yeah, ambitious idea, but the execution didn't feel like it lived up to that ambition.
3548362 Well I have plans to make this into a series in 2014 with episodes being modfied or even skipped based on the different behaviors of the new cast.
My only problem with this, it that you had the Elements keeps their original designs.
Shining=Blue/Purple Shield
Big Mac=Green Apple
Thunderlane=Storm Cloud with Lightning Bolt
Braeburn=Red Apple
Fancy Pants=Gold Crown
Soarin=Lighting Bolt going through a cloud.
OK, I can see why you did, with two pairs of the CMs being similar.
8395540
Yes & maybe more masculine elements
A crown instead of a tiara & maybe wrist bands, although these days guys wearing necklaces aren't as gay as they were when I was a kid
Wow so now they have the necklace and the crown and princess luna is free from the nightmare now its time for the celebration you could give them a different mark of there necklace that just my thoughts on that
Okay, so each of the elements in canon match the wielder’s cutie mark. In this, the elements represent the canon mane six, yet are given to the stallion six?
I feel like this could be a subtle demonstration of creativity, by changing the colours and shapes of the gems.
I feel like Shining’s, utmost foremost mostmost, doesn’t have to change, seeing as his cutie mark has the pink star that Twilight’s has, it doesn’t need to change.
Fancy’s on the other hand—his cutie mark is a triad of crowns, Rarity’s is a triad of diamonds. Purple was chosen for her because it was her most characterising visual feature (mane and tail). Fancy’s is blue.
Big Mac and Braeburn, and Thunderlane and Soarin is where it gets tricky.
I can’t remember if I’ve said this before, but they’re too similar to be main characters together. Especially in a show who’s primary cast are all different as to appeal to different members of the audience (the Applejack problem aside, of course).
The only two really afflicted by this in canon are Appledash and Rainbow Jack, and even then they’re distinguishable enough from one another in the way they act (element swapping aside), and if that’s doing to partake here with Big Mac and Soarin, especially with the competing against one another trope, I just don’t see it being reasonable, especially given their canon docile-ness.
Big Mac and Shining Armor on the other hand …
(Yet again, I gave my AU’s Element of Generosity to Zephyr Breeze, so…)
If you were to base their elements off of their cutie marks like in canon, the two pegasi would receive lightning bolts and the two earth ponies would receive apples.
Though, even though the concept is lacking, I do like the pink butterfly for Thunderlane, because not only does it go with his colour scheme nicely, but I can imagine him whining about it in the future.
The red for Soarin doesn’t really blend all that nicely, though. Neither does the orange for Big Mac. Maybe swap them? Give Soarin a yellow gem, perhaps? After all AJ, who’s orange bodied, got the orange element.
Overall, despite the fact that single episodes are cut up into a bajillion itty-bitty chapters instead of put into one big chapter, it’s an okay read, and I understand that the book is finished, and changes most probably aren’t going to be made, ergo my “complaints” I guess you could call them are probably falling on deaf ears… blind eyes? Eh, whatever you call it.
And I also understand that this fic came out in 2013? 2012? I can imagine that if it came out later, say in the airtime of season five or six, I can easily imagine the choice of stallions would be much more broad and well-defined (*cough, cough* Cheese Sandwich and Sunburst *cough, cough*—hoo, that was weird—I just got the whole of Froggy Bottom Bog in my throat), and Thunderlane would probably have ended up swapped with Lightning Dust or something, instead of Fluttershy.
I also feel like the villains should have been switched up, as well as side characters. A full fledged AU, as it was. Like Nightmare Moon and Celestia? An overcooked swap, but still appreciated in its own right, like asparagus.