The Phoenix Tear

by CartoonNerd12

Chapter 20

Starlight held her breath for a minute and then released it, giving off a small smile and started acting innocent. "Why, my dear Sunset Shimmer, whatever do you mean?"

Sunset scowled, "You know what I mean! It was you! It was all you!"

"Now, now, Sunset. Let's not jump to any-"

"No! You listen! All my life, you have told me the world is a dark, cruel place, but now I see that the only thing dark and cruel about it is ponies like you!"

Starlight glared and said in a low tone, "Everything I did was to protect you…"

"FROM WHAT?! YOU?! You stole me away from my family!"

"They were thieves!"

"They were sorry! You were the thief!"

"Well, they deserved to suffer as I have…"

"No, no more suffering for any pony!"

She scoffed, "And you think you can stop me?"

"Maybe not alone, but with the help of my friends…" she looked around and on cue, her sisters and friends slowly moved out of their hiding places, which were in the shadows. Twilight came from behind her and stood next to her twin.

Starlight looked scared for a bit before she started glaring again.

"So… the traitors would rather go against their mistress instead of supporting her…" she said with disgust.

The four stared back at her defiantly without showing a trace of fear.

Sugar Belle yelled out, "We gave everything up for you!"

"You promised us a better life when all we got was mistreatment and no appreciation!" proclaimed Party Favor.

"All you wanted us to do was to follow your rules and not do anything else!" accused Night Gilder.

"You never cared about us! You just cared about yourself! Well, no more!" shouted Double Diamond.

"See what the power of friendship does, Starlight?" Sunset spoke again as Starlight looked at her darkly. "When every pony looks out for each other, you'd be surprised how many ponies are willingly to help another pony in trouble… But when you only look out for yourself, no pony will want to return the favor…"

"SHUT UP!" she panted. "I know what you're trying to do… You think you can make me see the error of my ways and repent? Well, I've worked too hard to get where I am and I'm not about to let you tell me different!" Suddenly, she summoned a box in front of her. "Go on! Go back to the palace! See if I care! But how will they accept you without these?" She opened the box, revealing seven glowing pink stones.

"The memory stones!" both Twilight and Sunset gasped.

"I don't know how you could find out about these… but the only way your parents are going to remember they had you is through these stones and I am not in the mood to share them…" she grinned evilly.

"You monster!" shouted Fluttershy and eyed Starlight in fury. "How dare you keep away the one thing I need to remember my little sister?! You give those back to us, right now!" She stomped furiously, causing her sisters to look at her with shock.

Starlight just laughed, "As if!" Suddenly, she shot a bright light from her horn, causing those around her to fall.

Once they regained their ground, they saw the door was wide open and that Starlight was making a getaway with Troubleshoes.

"She's getting away!" Sweetie Belle pointed.

"Oh, no, she's not!" Night Gilder, Rainbow Dash, and Scootaloo declared and zoomed after her while everyone else started running on hoof.

Starlight and Troubleshoes were about to head for the main road. Starlight then heard a whooshing sound and looked up to see three pegasi were gaining on them. She shouted out, "Go faster!"

Troubleshoes was panting, "I'm going as fast as I can!"

"Just move it!" she ordered.

As they were getting closer to the wagon, Night Gilder was telling RD and Scootaloo, "If we can get up front and tell Troubleshoes to stop, we'll have Starlight and the stones!"

Scootaloo proclaimed, "Leave that to me!" As she was flapping her wings more, she was gaining more distance, but her wings were starting to hurt. She called out, "Troubleshoes! Troubleshoes! You have to stop! Stop!" While it seemed Troubleshoes heard her and was slowing down, she wasn't sure because her wings were hurting and she was starting to drop.

"Scoots!" Rainbow yelled and caught her sister just in time. They were forced to land on the ground. Night Gilder joined them as they watched the cart getting further away from them. Dash told Gilder, "Here, take care of Scootaloo. I got a coach to catch!" She took off and flew at the speed of light. She was getting closer to catch the memory-stealer.

Starlight saw this and shouted, "Faster! Faster, you old nag!"

Troubleshoes looked back, feeling offended, "I'm doing the best I can!"

"Troubleshoes!" Rainbow called out. "You can stop! You don't have to listen to her anymore! Scootaloo wanted to let you know that!"

Troubleshoes thought he had heard Scootaloo's voice, but he wasn't sure at first. He looked back to see one of the princesses at their tails and he also saw Scootaloo's bright orange coat in the distance looking weak. He saw the annoyance in Starlight's eyes as Rainbow kept saying, "She's been using you, Troubleshoes! Just like she used Sugar Belle, Party Favor, Night Gilder, Double Diamond, and Sunset Shimmer! All your friends! And you want to help your friends, don't you?!"

With a determined look in his eyes, he skidded around and turned back to the direction of the manor. Starlight saw this and cried out, "What are you doing?! Go back, you idiot!"

"I ain't no idiot! And you ain't no friend!" he retorted as the manor kept getting closer.

Starlight started to panic and with the box surrounded in her aura, she made a jump and landed in the woods.

"She went in there!" Apple Bloom pointed out.

"There's only one thing to do," said Twilight as she readied herself to cast a teleportation spell.

"Not without me, you are." Sunset wrapped her hoof around her twin.

With a determined nod, Twilight cast the spell and they both teleported right in front of Starlight, who halted when she saw them.

"It's over, Starlight." said Twilight.

"Give it up already." said Sunset.

"Aw, how precious. The twin princesses who look absolutely nothing alike think they can stop me…"

"We don't have to look alike to think alike about what you're doing." pointed Twilight.

"Just give us the stones and we'll leave you alone. Isn't that what you want?"

"No! The stones are mine!"

Sunset frowned, "There's nothing you can use them for. Please, just hand them over and then we can all start over… I forgive you for all those years… No more hatred… Hasn't there been enough of that? You hated my parents so you took me… And I hated you for locking me away… but if we could just forgive, then we can go on to a better life… Forget all that was in the past, please…"

"And be made a fool of?! Never!" Her horn blasted toward Sunset Shimmer, but Twilight pushed her twin away just in time and she received a cut on her right cheek.

"Twilight!" Sunset grabbed hold of her sister and whispered, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she whispered back, "and I have a plan…" She whispered the rest in her twin's ear.

Sunset nodded and turned back to Starlight, "Hey! You hurt my sister!" She started using her own horn to blast away at her. While Starlight was busy dodging the blasts and using her own magic to blast back, she did get Sunset in the cheek just like Twilight. As the conflict went on, Starlight didn't notice Twilight using her magic to summon the box of stones. Before it could reach the princess, Starlight saw it at the last minute and used her aura to get the box back. It was tug-of-war until Sunset started to help Twilight get the box.

Starlight started to lose her grip and fell back, causing to Twilight and Sunset to fall back, too. The box fell with the stones spilling out. Starlight gasped and shouted out, "NOOO!"

The stones broke and the memories inside them flew out, free at last to return to their owners. Three of the memories went towards the manor and straight into the minds of Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack. They were staring at each other until they let out big grins. Meanwhile, the other free memories were flying halfway across Equestria. Two of them went to Crystal Empire, where Princess Luna and her daughter, Princess Cadence, were playing with Skyla. The memories went in them and the mares ended up staring at each other, knowing they had to get back to Canterlot as soon as possible.

And finally, the last two went straight to Canterlot where its King and Queen were doing reports until the memories overcame them and they stared at each other in shock.

"Oh… my…" Celestia was on the verge of tears.

Sombra, too, was on the edge of crying as they quickly left the room.

Twilight asked, "Are you sure?"

Sunset somberly nodded, "She's too dangerous… She won't forgive and she won't repent… It's the only way so ponies don't have to face her cruelty as I have…"

Starlight was escorted back to the manor and the ponies that were once her servants were acting as her jailers. With a nod from the princess's head, they took Starlight inside and quickly came out to barricade the door.

Twilight instructed, "All right, every pony, stand back!" They did so as Twilight cast a spell around the entire manor, the same spell Starlight used on Sunset to lock her in the tower. Once the spell was complete, Twilight mentioned, "When we get back home, we'll have guards posted around the place so they make sure she gets enough to eat."

Sunset hugged her twin, "Thank you… thank you so much…"

"Hey, what are sisters and twins for?"

"So, we ready to go home?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes, let's go home…" Twilight looked at her twin, who gave an unsure look.

"But what if… what if they don't like me?"

Rarity declared, "Darling, they'll adore you! Just like they did back when you were a baby! I should know…" she gave a smirk.

"She's right!" Applejack said.

Fluttershy smiled and nodded her head.

Pinkie pointed, "And we'll be right with you when they see you again. You have nothing to fear!"

Sweetie Belle gestured to herself, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo, "On the day we were to be adopted, we weren't sure either if they would accept us or not. Imagine our surprise that they welcomed us with open arms without question. From that day on, they loved us as if we were their own… which, of course, we were."

That helped ease Sunset and she looked back to her friends, who had to suffer under Starlight Glimmer's hoof, too.

Double Diamond said, "We always knew that there was something special about you. You were a princess before you even knew you were one."

The other three nodded their heads in agreement.

Sunset took a deep breath, "All right, let's go."

Author's Note:

This is it, we're down to the final ending! The last chapter will be posted up very soon.

Comments

[79snowbell]

OMG!!! I really love this chapter! I can't wait for the final chapter!!!

[Godslittleprincess]

And then there were 10.