MLP Movie: Equestria's side of the story

by tzening

Epilogue: Rainbow at the end of the storm

The unthinkable happened. The Storm King has the might of four alicorns at his disposal. The storm he conjured was proof of that. As the ELA breached the courtyard and made it to the palace only to be stopped by the storm wall, Starswirl knew there was only one way a storm of that magnitude can be made.

"I have already seen the constant shifts of day and night even before we entered. I hoped that we would have been able to stop the Storm King before he can actually properly wield their power. It seems that we were too late. Celestia and Luna, I've failed you."

A stallion's groaning was heard nearby. Starlight ran to the source, a not-so-healthy looking Shining Armour.

"Shining Armour!! What happened to you?"

"Got a direct hit by that storm before I could get into teleportation range onto the palace balcony. Sent me flying back into the ground at terminal velocity. I think the impact has made me unable to fight..."

As Meadowbrook saw the injured stallion and began administering treatment, the ELA racked their brains to break through to the palace and face the Storm King. Suddenly, Capper ran up to them.

"Whoa there, heroes!! Before you do anything unnecessary, I am here to inform you that we are going to launch our six stars through the mega party howitzer and they will break right through the storm wall!!"

"Do they have any backup? Where's the cannon? We need to help them now!" Spitfire implored the cat.

"Hold on there, Valkyrie. The howitzer needs time to recharge. Not to mention, it can't fit the size of more than six ladies at once."

"So you are just telling us to just stand here and HOPE THAT JUST THOSE SIX ARE ENOUGH TO STOP A GUY WITH THE MIGHT OF FOUR PRINCESSES WITHOUT THE HELP OF ANY RAINBOW LASERS?! Screw that, I'm using the glider to break through!"

"Don't even try!" Shining Armour yelled to Spitfire. "I tried breaking through the storm when it first popped up. The force alone is enough to destabilise flight control and send me flying back at terminal velocity. The reason the mega party howitzer worked was because it's launching force makes the projectile faster than rainboom speeds."

"So are we just going to sit here and hope that those six will pull through?"

"As much as it pains me to say it, yes. Vision is too obscured to attempt teleportation without risking fusing to something. If there's any set of six that can pull of a miracle, it's Twily and her friends."

Sure enough, while the balcony cannot be seen, sparks that are definitely not part of the lightning are clashing with one another. Shortly after, a very familiar screeching pierced the air and entered the storm.

"We have opened the path for the six of you!! Now it's your turn to save Equestria once more."

---

The brawl ensued went faster then imagined. The storm broke soon after. A ray of light appeared on the eye of the storm and a purple spot was seen floating down to the balcony. Shining Armour wasted no time grabbing a binoculars confirming the fate of his sister.

"Visual confirmation of Princess Twilight. They....they did it!! The Storm King is gone!!" Cheers of victory rang throughout the city as the news spread. All remaining Storm Guard surrendered upon receiving the news.

Unbeknownst to the cheering ponies, the Storm King is still alive, just knocked out of sight by his own tornado. As soon as no one was looking at the balcony, he climbed up the railing in an attempt to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. A massive cry soon rang the air.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" The onlookers soon turned back to the castle balcony where they saw the activation of the Obsidian Orb. Before anyone could react, the Storm King was smashed into pieces upon hitting the ground.

"I know that voice...it's Tempest Shadow!!" Moondancer stated in familiarity of her opponent. "Wait, why is she being saved?"

To the confusion of everyone, a petrified Tempest Shadow was being held aloft over the balcony edge before being safely set at the edge.

"Oh no, don't tell me...she's reformed now, isn't she? This method of pacifying foes will still take some time to get used to..." Starswirl groaned, being all too familiar with the experience. Stygian, viewing the whole situation from afar, couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"Princess Twilight better have a very good reason for saving the enemy commander..." Spitfire quipped.

---

As the ELA entered Canterlot Palace to get some context of what just happened from the other (hopefully) saved Princesses in the past five minutes, they soon noticed that the building itself was being repaired around them, with the magic being spread to the rest of the city erasing any signs that it was a warzone half an hour ago.

"The healing has began..." Stygian said as he watched in awe of the magic at work. Such a power would have been truly invaluable in ancient times. Nobody would ever have to worry abut destroyed lands ever again.

They soon entered to the throne room to a magnificent sight. The Mane Seven are comforting the other released princesses while Tempest and Twilight are in the center of the conduit returning the magic back to Canterlot. The latter soon noticed the ELA and quickly ran forward to stop any misunderstandings from being made.

"Everypon-" Noticing the dragons, changelings and yaks in the room, she quickly rephrased herself. "Everyone, Tempest has understood the power of friendship. You don't have to worry about her anymore. All of us are safe and sound."

Prince Shining Armour was the first to run up and bring both his sister and wife in a group hug.

"I'm so glad the two of you are safe. I spent the last three days worrying over the two of you. When I wasn't there to protect you both at Canterlot thanks to Flurry's flu, I swore to not fail the both of you again. Upon Celestia, Luna and your orders, I mobilised the Crystal Guard."

Knowing about this excessive need to protect in light of his abysmal track record that warranted hundreds of petitions that asked for his removal from military affairs, Cadance and Twilight immediately went to sooth their knight in shining armour.

"You have already proven yourself to be a great father. To be honest, I'm sure if I or anypony else or that matter could had handled an alicorn baby in a magic surge. The fact that the Crystal Empire is still in one piece already proves that you can handle a crisis. Please don't let your failures weigh you down anymore."

"I'm in agreement with Cadance, BBBFF. I found out about the combat situation from your reply. You truly are Equestria's Captain of the Guard. What you did is truly remarkable. Equestria would have suffered that same fate as Canterlot if it wasn't for you, the Wonderbolts, the Pillars and all of our other friends."

Celestia soon added in her bit in response.

"Everyone, I couldn't have been more proud to call you all my friends. All parties involved will be rewarded accordingly. My faithful student, now you see that as the Princess of Friendship, you already have all the magic you need. I couldn't be more proud as a teacher."

Starswirl soon decided to chime in his bit on hearing the last few words.

"Sadly, as your teacher, I couldn't be more disappointed. Please tell me the two of you valiantly fought to the bitter end instead of getting captured in less than an hour. Be honest with me, how long did the two of you last? Twilight never specified how long it took to get you two captured."

The royal sisters started shifting their eyes around in embarrassment. Luna decided to answer.

"Well...it was chaotic. We may have fought valiantly for-oh who am I kidding." The sisters deflated like they just got poor marks for an abysmal performance, which given the context of the situation might as well be the case. "We got captured in less than a minute."

The old wizard soon sighed in resignation. "Way to crush an old stallion's hopes." Starswirl soon changed his tune. "However, the enemy armies have surrendered and the land is safe and repaired. You can add "Having a successful student" to your credit. We can worry about the future later, for now let's celebrate to heal the spirits of the populace." Twilight was on it the moment she heard those words.

"Pinkie, you might want start to expand your guest list. We have a whole lot more of them now."

"Okie, dokie, lokie. By the way, what should we do about Tempest?"

The assembled cast soon turned their heads to the elephant in the room.

Tempest soon sat on her hunches, knowing her fate is very well in their hooves now.

A portal opened up in the castle throne room. Discord soon came through.

"You have no idea how long it takes to clean up darkness residue from my house. Sorry if I'm late. Did I miss anything?"

The Royal Guard soon wasted no time blasting their query to the sprit of chaos.

"What's the big idea taking ALL of us away from Canterlot?"

"If we were there in the first place, this whole occupation wouldn't have even happened!!"

Discord only has this to say to the Guards.

"Then answer me this honestly, if you all were at the Friendship Festival when it was attacked, how long would you have truly fared? Around a few minutes maybe? Why do you think I wanted to help you get your mojo back? You all successfully lead a resistance instead of being a stepping stone for the enemy, thank you very much. Besides, not even I would know this would happen. I mean, multiple big villains in the same day? That's just bad luck, even for Equestria."

The Royal Guard have no answer to that.

In the mix of all this, somewhere out there, a mail mare angrily wrote a letter of resignation on reaching her home, ready to be given to her superiors on the next day.

---

Later in the evening
After Songbird Serenade's performance

"It's Fizzlepop Berrytwist." Tempest whispered her original name to Pinkie's ear.

"Best name ever!!"

"I'm more surprised by my sentencing. Why was I not thrown to jail? I know Equestria has always been forgiving but this is ridiculous for them."

Twilight soon answered her query.

"I know by any logical sense, you should have been imprisoned, banished or imprisoned to the place you are banished to. But seeing my actions throughout the past few days, I was reminded that while it seems logical on paper, it wouldn't magically undo the actions that happened. All it would do is that it will drag everyone down to self-loathing and the imprisoned will have a bleak future. Nobody wins. I can see what you are getting at: If actions have no consequences, than every villain in Equestria might start getting the bright idea to commit harm then get reformed by the Princess of Friendship, ending up in a better state than before. You already have been given your choices of parole: Act as a messenger to spread the word of the Storm King's defeat throughout Equestria, be my new student or given your combat prowess, enlist in the army. All three choices will act as your parole. I rather have a powerful friend by my side rather than a villain drowning in self-loathing and hatred. That's why I bet everything on making you see another better way. Besides, now it truly is a Friendship Festival."

Twilight saw the attendance in the now appropriately named Friendship Festival. The past, present and future generations of all shapes and sizes celebrating together. Various races competing not on how much military might they have, but how much cider can they down in one sitting without collapsing. The interactions of various cultures that didn't start wars, but show what each culture is capable of in the arts. It resembles the Convocation of Creatures that she read about during her princess training but on a smaller scale.

Meanwhile, the Crystal royal couple is celebrating with their now-better baby. The Wonderbolts are giving the greatest performance of their lives. The Pillars of Equestria are celebrating another hard-won victory, while a certain blue Dragon Lord is asking the armoured Pegasus about something regarding her father. Time Turner and Derpy are watching the fireworks together. Said fireworks, at least the supplementary ones are being provided by Starlight and Trixie. The CMC are off trying to recruit other races to their ranks to no avail. In a hospital nearby, Flash Sentry is resting, while a gift basket from Twilight herself was placed on his table.

"Besides, your song about opening up my eyes and seeing all these races work together to save Equestria just gave me an idea..."

Author's Note:

AND DONE!! Thanks for reading!!

Comments

[Ri2]

Hooray! The end!

I'm with Starswirl. We're ALL disappointed (but unsurprised) at how easily the princesses were beaten.

[PonyMTG]

All it would do is that it will drag everyone down to self-loathing and the imprisoned will have a bleak future. Nobody wins.

This fact needs to be put strait to anyone who says Starlight needs to be punished.