Crossed Lines

by Bronyxy

11 Now We Fix Everything

“What shall we do with her, Twilight?” asked Ember staring at the sleek black body laying stunned on the ground in front of them, “I’m guessing you run her through with some kind of magic weapon so she can’t threaten you again?”
“No” replied Twilight, causing Ember to look up at her in surprise, “She doesn’t belong here. She belongs back in her own time.”
“But, that’s so unfair on everypony in her world” protested Rainbow.
“We have to accept that there’s probably an infinite number of universes with an infinite number of Nightmare Moons. We can’t meddle in each one. For all we know, we could be stopping a group of brave friends getting together in spite of their differences to defeat her using the power of friendship.”
“Well, when you put it like that, darling …” said Rarity.
“So, we take her back to the portal then?” asked Fluttershy.
“Yes” agreed Twilight, “Yes we do.”
“I swear, I’ll never understand you ponies” said Ember shaking her head, but not completely able to hide a smile of admiration from her ponyfriends.

A diminutive unicorn guard and his larger earth pony colleague had both developed a twitch as the day had turned to night, and were eager to be relieved of their duty. A scraping sound accompanied by an incessant grumbling drew their attention and they both stared agape along the corridor. What they turned to see was Princess Twilight and Princess Ember leading a very sulky red dragon with a yellow crest and oversized teeth, who in turn was carrying a jet black alicorn across his back.
“Told you this job’s getting too much for me, whispered the earth pony. I swear I saw the tooth fairy half an hour ago and now I’m imagining I can see Nightmare Moon riding on a dragon …”
“Don’t worry” comforted his friend, “It gets to us all eventually.”

“Good evening, Sirs” chirped Twilight, “Would you let us into this room please?”
The unicorn complied while his earth pony colleague stood to attention, eyes on the entourage that seemed to be growing out on the corridor with every passing minute, imagining each one performing different circus acts; juggling, unicycling, tumbling …

The lights in the room flickered into life and Twilight fumbled with the apparatus surrounding the Crystal Mirror, making occasional, ”Ah-ha!” and “Oh-ho!” sounds as she wielded her forehooves with disproportionate dexterity. Finally she stopped and stood back.
“Right, I’ve rigged it to point into Nightmare Moon’s world. “I’ll just make a quick last check, because I really don’t want our friends at Canterlot High suddenly finding this turn up on their doorstep.”
With that, she peered her head into the Crystal Mirror and withdrew it again quickly.

“Yep! All good to go” she said cheerfully, ”Now Garble, would you please return our unwanted guest through the mirror?”
“What?” he sulked, affronted, “You don’t expect me to take orders from a puny pony, do you?”
“I do” commanded Ember, “And if I were you, I’d do it before she wakes up.”
Grumbling, he picked up Nightmare Moon by all four of her hooves and aligned himself carefully on the floor; a little bit to the left, a little bit forward, then when he was satisfied, swung her bodily, pitching her straight through the centre of the mirror.
“Um” said Twilight, “That’s not quite what I had in mind, but I do have to concede it was a good shot.”
“Yeah” he grumbled under his breath, “And you’d better not forget I could do that to any of you ponies.”
“GARBLE!” chastised Ember.

Deftly, Twilight pulled out one solitary resistor from the circuit that drove the Crystal Mirror and turned to give everyone present a wide smile.
“That’s the last we’ll see of that timeline” she cheered triumphantly, “I’ve corrected the paradox that drove the binary transit realignments.”
“The what now?” asked Applejack, scratching her head.
“She means, she’s stopped the portal going anywhere it shouldn’t” chimed Pinkie.
A collective “ohhh” of understanding rose from everyone, as puzzled looks melted into comprehension. All except for Garble, who still just looked lost and wore an expression that said he wouldn’t understand, no matter how much it was explained to him.

“Now what?” asked Fluttershy.
“Now we fix everything” replied Pinkie, bouncing on the spot.
“What was that all about?” asked Twilight, “Is your Pinkie Sense playing up again?”
“Oh nothing” beamed the pink pony cheerfully.
“Just Pinkie being Pinkie” dismissed Applejack with a gentle laugh.

Twilight stood on the castle’s balcony focusing on the silhouettes in the moon, a magenta glow around her horn. Behind her, her friends all stood gathered round wearing their respective Elements, focusing with her.

A glow appeared around the moon and then a sparkly trail followed a gently arcing trajectory down towards where they stood, waiting. The trail ended in front of them at a point where a soft glow began to form, pulsing as if it were coming to life. With a little more concentration, there was a flash of light and there in front of them stood Princess Luna.
“Twilight Sparkle!” she exclaimed, looking around quickly, “Nightmare Moon …?”
“Is gone” reassured Twilight, “Equestria is safe once more.”
Twilight watched as a tear formed in Luna’s eye and rushed forward to give her a hug.
“I’ve missed you, Luna” she whispered.

Next to come back was Flurry Heart, giggling contentedly, as if oblivious to the role she had innocently played in the near downfall of Equestria. Luna could see she was the only one on the balcony not playing an active role in returning her fellow Princesses, so stood back and nursed the foal until she could be reunited with her mother.

Twilight and her friends focused again, the task seeming to get easier with practice and next another flash announced the arrival of Cadence, looking around anxiously for her foal. Suddenly seeing her, safe in Luna’s embrace, she burst into tears of happiness and took her place at the back alongside the Midnight Princess, who passed her foal to her for the most grateful of reunions.

They all waited, focusing on the last silhouette left on the moon. Eventually it blinked and a shower of magical sparkles transported the Sun Princess back to Equestria.
“Twilight Sparkle” she spoke softly, “You prevailed against Nightmare Moon, and not for the first time.”
“It wasn’t just me, Princess” corrected Twilight, ”I couldn’t have done it without my friends.”
Celestia cast her eyes over the Mane Six, whose Elements were now shutting down one by one, like fireflies. She also noticed Princes Ember and bowed appreciatively, the dragon Princess responding in kind.

“I sense a joint effort here and thank you all” she acknowledged graciously.

“Um, Princess” asked Spike, “I know it’s probably not too important right now, but it’s been a very long night …”
Luna strode forward and stood next to her sister.
”Princess Ember” said Celestia, ”I should like, if you are willing, to show you something that would have been lost to us all were it not for your help.”

Ember moved forward to stand by the two Royal Sisters and watched as Luna pointed her horn up to the moon, a moon now purged of the silhouettes of alicorn heads and laid it to rest below the horizon. Celestia shot Ember a sideways glance, catching her eye and breaking out into a smile before focusing her own energy towards the horizon. The sky started to lighten and she turned to her honoured guest.

“Thank you, Princess Ember.”

“Thank you, Princess Celestia” she replied as the first rays of the morning sun reflected from her startling red eyes and she began to feel warmth on her scales once more.

Comments

[Arzoo]

I feel it's irresponsible to have the crossover tag but not list what the other story it's mixing is in the description.

[RebelNarrator45]

BEST. STORY. EVERRRRRR!

This was magnificently written, my friend!! With just the right amount of suspense!

You have earned yourself a like and...ooh...ten mustaches!

[Bronyxy]

9237154
Wow! Ten moustaches - thanks!

[Mirvra]

9237211
Calling Mlp/Equestria girls a crossover is kind of stretching it.... they're pretty much the same franchise set in the same fictional universe.... <.<

Though honestly your reply is a bit much... You could've just said ''Take another look at the tags'' ... Didn't need to start acting as if Arzoo had dishonored your entire family line or something o.o

Also side note: Not sure that's quite sarcasm.... pretty sure that's just mockery o.o Though I guess I could be wrong~
Are you sure YOU aren't the one needing glasses? =P <---- Example of sarcasm using the irony of your own words against you o.o

But~ As I said I'm not 100% sure... Sarcasm happens to be my weak-point :/ Though it's very fun to use against friends ^^

[Bronyxy]

9237150
9237211
9237279
OK, thanks everyone for your support and comments.
I really appreciate you all taking the trouble to read this story, but I think I would like to bring this particular thread to a close.
I hope you all enjoyed the story, and thanks to all of you for your support.

[Arzoo]

9237211
They literally are in the same setting. There's a magic portal and they can send each other messages. They are humanized characters with the same names and personalities.

Thank you for making it clear to me that the issue is that the crossover tag shouldn't be used rather than there being an omission in the description.

I'll pass on the sass, though.

[RebelNarrator45]

My apologies for the agressive sarcasm. I made a promise to myself when I first started on this site that I wouldn't go crazy with my comments.

I did just what I told myself I wouldn't.

In retrospect, I really need to learn to think twice before I speak...er, type.

[Little_Draco]

My biggest issue of the story was timing, breaking points between human world and Pony world, and the spacing between characters. A lot of it was rushed however I did enjoy the story overall.

[Bronyxy]

9471080
Thank you - glad you enjoyed it.

[Borishmu]

10573091
The only problem I have with this is that I don’t think any of the princesses would be as timid and submissive as they were made out to be when threatened by nightmare moon, it was otherwise very good