Friendship is Eternal

by Alchemystudent

Graduation

Chapter 15: Graduation

“RARITY, WHAT THE BUCK ARE YOU DOING,” Applejack yelled as the white lightning flowed through the room once Rarity placed her hoof onto the stone.

“You heard him,” Rarity said as the lightning began to strike everywhere within the room, occasionally striking her white body, “It, AHHH, requires a, AH AHHH, sacrifice from a pony,” the white unicorn lets loose some more painful yelps as the lightning hits her body, “and I have been running on borrowed time anyway, right? A sacrifice for a sacrifice, that should be enough shouldn’t it? Tell,” a few more lightning bolts erupt from the stone to hit the walls and the stone, “Sweetie Bell, that I am sorry that I broke my word. That…I won’t be able to make that dress with her like I promised or see her get her cutie mark.”

As Rarity began to feel the effects of the stone effect her, slowly draining her life away, she began to feel something else-the pain lessening. Turning her head to the side, she saw a cyan hoof touching the stone next to her, “R…Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?”

A pained expression came over Dash’s face as she could feel the stone began to affect her, blue lightning erupting from the stone, “What’s it look like? I’m standing with you and stopping you from doing something stupid! We…We came into this place together and I’ll be DAMNED if we aren’t all going to leave together.”

“B…But DASH!”

An orange hoof is placed next to Rainbow Dash’s, letting forth several orange lightning bolts from the stone, “Look sugarcube, there is gonna be a mighty disappointed filly back in Ponyville that’ll be heartbroken to see you not coming home. I sure as heck ain’t gonna be the pony that’ll break her heart and you aren’t going to break your promise to her. You are also going to make all that work Twilight did to save you worthless!”

“Applejack, I.”

A yellow hoof lightly touches the stone on the other side of Rarity, making yellow lightning join the other bolts that had been surging forth from the stone, “ I don’t think Twilight would feel right, knowing that you had to sacrifice your life in order to bring her home. She would want all of us to be alive.”

“But, its three whole years off of your life!”

“So?” Pinkie Pie said, skipping up to the stone and placing her hoof onto the stone alongside Fluttershy, bringing forth crackling pink lightning from the stone, “We’ll just put three extra years into each one that we’re alive for to make up for it,” she then turned to her friends, her smile never fading as two marks appeared on the blank circles on the stone: a blue balloon and a yellow butterfly, “Besides, living three less years is better than an entire lifetime without you guys around to enjoy it.”

Though each pony was in pain, and they could feel the lightning taking their life away, they smiled and nodded in agreement. Rarity looked at each one of her friends, tears coming to her eyes as she realized that they were right, they would always give their lives for one another, “ You guys,” she wiped the tears from her face, “Are the best friends anypony could ask for. Alright, LETS BRING TWILIGHT HOME,” turning to the stone, she pushed her hoof onto the stone just a little bit more as the others followed suit. The energy continued to flow through the stone, multicolored streaks of lightning surging from the stone as it struck everything that was within the room. Every time that a bolt would strike the walls or pillars it would cause them to crack, every time that it struck one of the mares it would cause them to get more and more determined to hold onto the stone and make sure it worked. Slowly, from within the stone, a bright light began to shine from within and soon enveloped the room and everypony within.
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Ed watched as Twilight began to walk around the stone, clapping her hands and fixing the circles, “What do you mean, ‘you can do this without a sacrifice?”

“Well, I may know only a bit about of alchemy from the short time I have spent here, but I do know a lot more about magic,” Twilight then smirked as she walked up to the stone, clapping her hands once more, “ See, I took the time to study these runes and I saw that it was an equation, one that uses alchemic energy as an alternate source of power to supplant the mana when its drained and helping to keep the user from suffering from mana burnout. At the same time, the magic part of the equation helps to keep the alchemy steady throughout the spell. Like two brothers supporting each other through the tough times.”

Shaking his head, Ed looked up at Twilight, “ Twilight, magic isn’t real, and even if it wasn’t, I heard that Truth took…”

“I figured it out, Ed. So technically, I would just alchemical energy to use…technically. But, I just remembered something important from my studies. A loophole that Truth may have forgotten; transmutation is just another school of magic. If he really took away all of my magic, then I would never have been able to use alchemy in the first place. So,” Twilight then placed her hands onto the stone, causing bright violet lightning to flow through the stone, “ I still have access to my mana pools and should be able to use both alchemy and magic at the same time and make this stone work!”

“But what if you fail?” Al asked, worriedly.

“Then, I’ll use up more of my life or die trying. Either way, the portal between worlds will close and everybody will be safe. I won’t fail,” Twilight grunted with pain as she felt the lightning strike her again and again, “Guys, thank you for everything. No matter what happens next, I’ll never forget you,” a smile comes across her face as she tightens up her grip on the stone. Then, she could hear the sound of clapping hands and alchemical reactions occurring, “What?”

“Look, I may not believe in all of this magic and fantasy, but I do know how to make sure that the alchemical reaction stays stable,” Ed said as he held his hands firmly onto the ground.

“Just considered this our little way to make sure that you get home safely,” Al said, a smile on his face.

“You guys... thank you,” Her eyes narrowing to the stone, she kept her focus on activating the stone. As the stone began to flow with purple energy, a red lightning bolt appeared in one of the empty circles next to the blue diamond while an orange apple appeared in the other circle, “And goodbye,” as she said these words, the room was covered in a blinding light.
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Twilight opened her eyes slowly to find herself back in the white void, her arm outstretched in front of her. As she looked at the tips of her fingers, she noticed that at the end of each one was a different colored hoof; orange, blue, white, yellow, and pink. Looking up from her fingers, she saw that each hoof was connected to each of her friends who were silently saying the words, “Come back home.” Softly, she closed her eyes and smiled.

When she opened her eyes once more, she found herself in another empty void with the only visible objects being a large stone door and a white unicorn with no visible characteristics, “Welcome back, Twilight. I would have made tea, but I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.”

“Hello, Truth,” Twilight said, a bit of venom from her voice.

“Ooooh, testy aren’t we? And here I was about to congratulate you for making it this far.”

Twilight frowned,” I have to make a sacrifice, don’t I?”

Truth shook its head,” Now what will that do? You’ve already passed!”

Twilight raised a confused eyebrow.

“Yes, I wanted you to be there for a little while longer, but due to certain interventions, you’ve already figured out the secret of alchemy and magic.”

Twilight blinked,” Alchemy and magic are connected! Sure, they seem to abide by different laws, but they both can’t exist without something to give them substance! Magic needs something scientific like nature to tap into, while Alchemy needs a bit of magic, as much as Ed would like to deny it, to transmute matter! Alchemy needs Magic, Magic needs Alchemy; you sent me there to learn that!”

“That’s right, Twilight Sparkle!” Truth grinned,” You won the Grand Prize: A trip back home! Your friends are waiting.” it stomped its hoof and the door opened.

Twilight turned around and began to walk through the door, feeling her body change slowly. She began to get onto all fours as her arms changed into hooves and a tail began to appear out of her rump, “ Just one last question Truth,” Twilight asked, feeling her ‘additions’ disappear, “ If I hadn’t sacrificed those three years for her, how long would I have lived?”

“Oh, you would’ve died at the very young age of 100, now you will die at 97 as the first of your friends to die.”

“I see,” Twilight smiled as she felt her suit now change to a light violet fur, and a horn slowly popping out of her head,” You know what Truth, Ed’s right. You can be such a jerk some days, and I hope to never come here again,” She finished, turning her head back and walking through the gate, now a small unicorn pony.

“We’ll see, my little pony, we’ll see,” Truth then waved a hoof farewell, “tata Twily, tata!”
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Ed and Al watched as the alchemist disappeared in a blinding flash of light. Walking up to the pedestal, they found in her place a sapphire and ruby stone sitting on top of the pedestal. The stone was in the shape of two hands, grasping each other in brotherhood and friendship while along its base were a series of runes linking six circles, each with a symbol inscribed within: A purple starburst, a red lightning bolt, a yellow butterfly, a blue diamond, an orange apple, and a green balloon. Walking up to the stone, Ed picked it up and looked it over, “Do you think she was telling the truth, brother” Al asked as he looked at the stone with Ed, watching it shine, “That she was an unicorn and was from a dimension with all of those magical creatures?”

“I don’t know Al, the scientist in me is saying no and that all this stone did was teleport her back home. The other part, the one that remembers that weird creature back in port city, is saying yes. The better question is, Al,” Ed looked at the stone in his hand, smirking, “What are we going to do with this?”
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Twilight opened her eyes slowly, looking about the rubble and the ruined castle that she was now in. Looking head of her, just a few feet away, were five mares who were also slowly getting up themselves. After they shook themselves off from the power of the spell they looked at Twilight as she got up and shouted, “TWILIGHT!!!”

Looking at the five friends, her smile brightened as she recognized each one before her. Then her eyes caught sight of a white unicorn with a dark purple mane standing before her, tearfully smiling, “Oh, my goddess,” Twilight said, her hoof to her mouth, “RARITY, YOU’RE ALIVE,” running quickly she tackled the young mare to the ground, hugging her close, “Oh thank Celestia it worked it really worked.” Twilight said through tears of joy, not even bothering to stop.

“Oh Twilight, I am so-” Rarity was about to apologize when Twilight stopped her with a hoof.

“I would do it again in a heartbeat, for any one of you,” Twilight said, smiling as the rest came together.

“Next time you do something like this, warn us first. Then we could be with you when you go,” Dash said, joining in the hug.

“We all missed ya, sugarcube,” Applejack said as she hugged Twilight.

“Oh, Twilight, welcome home,” Fluttershy said, draping her hooves with everypony else.

“PONY HUG PILE,” Pinkie Pie leaped into the group of hugging ponies, giving her own hug with them.

Twilight had so much she wanted to say about her adventure, the things she did, but for right at that moment, she just wanted to bathe in the warmth of friends and the safety of home.

To be concluded in epilogue...

Author's Note:

Thanks to Zoltanthemage for the edits and changing of certain scenes.

This chapter went through some interesting edits. First, I was going to have them fight a G1 villian and then have the Elric brothers pop up to help with Celestia and Shinign popping up at the end when everything is over. Then is was just a fight with a G1 villian with the Elric brothers popping in to help. (This is why Rainbow Dash mentioned Applejack had the Elements with her in ch.7. it was foreshadowing) then I began to think if the fight was really necessary at this point. So after thinking about it, I had decided that it wasnt, that the emoition of Twilight coming home was good with out the end fight. I guess thats just another hint I have grown.