Right Beside You

by Godslittleprincess

Bonus Chapter: Unbreakable

Three days after the incident with Dark Reverb/the Pony of Shadows, Flash, Twilight, Sunset, and the rest of the former Rainbooms waited by the horse statue in front of Canterlot High. After a while, the surface of the statue rippled, and out stepped two individuals. One was an old man with a thick, white beard and long, unkempt hair wearing a trench coat, an azure baseball cap with the bill facing backwards, and a pair of shutter glasses decorated with a palm tree and a red parrot. He was accompanied by a young woman who looked exactly like Twilight except with her hair down. Also, unlike Twilight, this girl was wearing a crop top layered over a yellow, long-sleeved button down, sweatpants, sunglasses with orange frames and bright blue mirror lenses, and a wide-brimmed, camo-colored hat with a rose and two feathers attached.

“Princess Twilight,” Sunset greeted pulling the young woman into a hug. “It’s so good to see you, and you must be Starswirl the Bearded. I am deeply honored to make your acquaintance.”

Sunset turned to the old man and bowed at the waist.

“It’s great to see you too, Sunset,” Princess Twilight replied, “but as you know, Starswirl and I didn’t come here for a social visit.”

“Right,” Sunset agreed before turning to Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, do you have the—?”

Before Sunset could finish, Pinkie Pie answered her by pulling a massive jellybean jar from who knows where. The jar was roughly as big as her torso and filled with a black cloud with glowing eyes. Starswirl peered intently into the jar and nodded. The cloud stared back and narrowed its eyes.

“It’s the darkness that once plagued Stygian alright. No mistake about it,” he stated. “Ms. Shimmer, do you mind leading us where this fiend emerged?”

“Of course,” Sunset agreed, “but it’s a bit of a walk. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.”

However, before anyone could take off for the park, Rarity asked Princess Twilight, “Twilight, dear, could you perhaps explain the purpose behind your and Mr. The Bearded’s, err, colorful ensembles?”

“Oh,” the otherworldly royal replied, “you see, since Starswirl and I both have or, in Starswirl’s case, had counterparts on this side of the portal, we threw together these disguises using my world’s Rarity’s old things to help us look less conspicuous. Can you believe she was just going to throw these perfectly wearable clothes away?”

“You don’t say,” Rarity giggled nervously, hiding her grimace behind a forced smile.

“Gee, I wonder why,” Rainbow Dash sarcastically muttered to Applejack.

Applejack muttered back, “If they’re trying to look less conspicuous, it sure don’t look like it’s workin’.”

---

As the group made their way to the park, Princess Twilight decided to hang back and talk with Flash.

“So,” Princess Twilight began awkwardly, “Sunset wrote to me about what happened a few nights ago. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Flash replied. “Thanks to her,” he gestured to his Twilight, “and my brother and Micro Chips and everyone else.”

“You’re really lucky you have people who care about you enough to go as far as they did to help you,” Princess Twilight noted before continuing, “You know, the whole getting possessed by an ancient Equestrian evil isn’t the only thing Sunset wrote to me about.”

“I figured.”

“She told me that you’re about to get married to a certain very lucky girl.”

Flash smiled at that before replying, “I sure am.” Then, he frowned ever so slightly. “You’re not upset about that, are you? I know we kind of had a thing back in the day that we never really properly took care of.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” the princess replied with a shrug. “I’m happy for the two of you. I really am. I’m just sorry that I never bothered to tell you in pony, err, person that we just weren’t going to work out. I mean, I know I was busy with other things, but I really should have made time for it.”

“You’re forgiven,” Flash sincerely said. “So, what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Do you have anybody special waiting for you back home? Well, outside from your friends and family, of course.”

“Like a special somepo—, uh, somebody?” asked Princess Twilight before shaking her head. “As nice as that would be, I’m afraid the answer is no. Unlike you, I’m afraid the only thing I’m married to is my job.”

“Oh, well, I’m sure you’ll get the chance to find somebody someday. Anybody would be really lucky to have you in his life.”

“Why, thank you.”

---

Once everybody reached the park, Sunset led everyone to the hole in the wooded area.

“Here it is,” she declared before pointing a short distance away, “and there’s the plaque it was capped with.”

Starswirl carefully studied both the hole and the plaque that once capped it. He dropped a rock into the hole and shortly after was answered with a splashing sound.

“Sounds like this used to be an old well or something,” Princess Twilight observed before taking a look down the hole, “and it looks like a long way down too.”

“Indeed,” Starswirl agreed, “Now, did anybody bring a rope and climbing equipment?’

“I did,” cried Pinkie Pie. She unzipped her backpack, crawled in so that only everything below her knees was still visible, and rummaged around for a little bit before emerging with an armload of climbing equipment. “I’m so glad I remembered to bring my backpack today. Otherwise, we would have been out of luck.”

Starswirl just stared at Pinkie dumbfoundedly with his mouth agape. He looked at Sunset as if he wanted to say something, but he seemed to be at a complete lost for words.

“Yeah, it’s best not to ask,” Sunset deadpanned.

---

A few minutes later, the gang was lowering Starswirl and Princess Twilight down into the well with a long rope. The two of them lit their descent with flashlights while Princess Twilight had the jar containing the Pony of Shadows tied to her back.

Meanwhile, above ground, the Twilight who wasn’t a magic pony princess was sharing a bit of information with everyone.

“So, I’ve been doing my research, and I found this interesting local legend that I think might be connected to this place,” she began. “It’s called ‘The Legend of the Well of Shade.’”

“I’m sorry. Did you just say, ‘the Well of Shade’?” Princess Twilight called up from the well.

“Yeah, there’s an old legend that there once was a well in this area but that it apparently got sealed off and covered up because demons were supposedly coming out of it. Think this might be the well from the legend?”

“If it is,” Sunset replied, “that means what happened three days ago wasn’t the first time that something bad escaped from Limbo into this world.”

“Oh my,” shuddered Fluttershy, “you don’t think whatever escaped all those years ago could still be around, do you?”

“Not sure but I certainly hope not,” Sunset replied before calling down the well. “Uh, Mr. Starswirl, sir, if something were to have used this well to escape Limbo into this world previously, hypothetically speaking, what would happen to it?”

“I’m sorry to say that I don’t know, Ms. Shimmer,” Starswirl replied. “The nature of the connection between this world and Equestria has yet to be fully understood. All that is known is that whatever passes from Equestria into this world changes in some way. Take magic, for example. Passing from Equestria into this world either changes the magic’s potency or alters its effects altogether. However, it does seem that potions and magical artifacts have some degree of immunity to those changes. Depending on what exactly came out of this well previously, it’s possible that the being or beings could have been unable to adapt to the difference in magical energy between this world and Equestria and simply died off with time.”

“I normally don’t like the idea of things dying off, but if something scary really did come out of this well, I sure hope he’s right about that,” Fluttershy whimpered.

The sound of two loud splashes came from the well followed by Princess Twilight announcing, “We’ve reached the bottom.”

Even though the flashlights allowed everyone waiting above ground to see Princess Twilight and Starswirl, they were so far down that anything below their foreheads couldn’t be clearly seen. The princess and the sorcerer pointed their lights straight down towards the water, which only reached their ankles.

“Starswirl, remind me exactly what we’re looking for,” requested Princess Twilight as she studied the water.

“Anything that looks like an opening,” Starswirl replied. “Try looking for a crack or a glow or both.”

“You mean like that.” The princess pointed to something just under the water. It was a glowing, hair-thin fissure that nearly spanned the whole diameter of the well.

Starwirl nodded while Princess Twilight scratched the top of her head.

“Umm, how are we going to get this whole jar through that small crack?” asked Princess Twilight.

“Leave that to me,” Starswirl replied. “Just place the jar over the crack.”

Princess Twilight did as she was told. “Okay, now what?”

“Now, we return to the surface.”

Although Princess Twilight was still thoroughly confused by Starswirl’s instructions, she signaled Applejack and Rainbow Dash to begin pulling them up as they scaled the walls of the well. Once the two of them reached the top, Starswirl pulled a bottle filled with a bright aquamarine liquid out of his trench coat.

“Stand back, everyone,” Starswirl warned before throwing the bottle down the well. The sound of breaking glass was heard, and suddenly, a great, sucking wind came from the well.

“Whoa!” cried Rainbow Dash as she held on to the nearest tree. Everybody else did the same as they all, except for Starswirl, stared at the well in apprehension.

“Ms. Sparkle,” Starswirl addressed non-princess Twilight as he pulled out another bottled from his coat, this one filled with a magenta liquid, “get ready to replace that plaque on my signal.”

Twilight nodded as she used her telekinesis to hold up the stone plaque. Flash held on to her as the well continued to suck in anything that wasn’t practically nailed down, mostly litter and any loose leaves.

Starswirl tossed the potion into the well and cried, “Now!”

Twilight telekinetically slammed the plaque over the hole. A pink light shot out from the well as the ground shook. When the light and the shaking both died down, everyone saw that the plaque had been sealed on to the well.

“What in tarnation was all that?” Applejack cried.

“It’s very simple, Ms. Apple,” Starswirl explained. “The first potion was used to force the jar containing the Pony of Shadows back into Limbo while making sure that nothing else came out. Of course, if any of us had been careless, any one of us could have been pulled into Limbo also. The second potion sealed both openings to make sure that nothing comes out of Limbo through this well again.”

“Oh, thank heavens!” Rarity exclaimed in relief.

“Yes, well, now that Her Highness and I have done what we came to do, I believe it’s best that we make ourselves scarce.”

“Oh, of course,” Princess Twilight agreed before turning to Sunset, the Rainbooms, and Flash. “It really was good seeing all of you again, even you, Flash, but I’m afraid I may not return for a while if ever. You see, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna retired recently, and well, I have more responsibilities to Equestria now.”

“We understand,” Sunset assured her before pulling her into a hug. Everybody except Flash and Starswirl joined in to give the princess their heartfelt goodbyes and well wishes. After breaking the group hug with her friends, Princess Twilight turned to Flash and opened her arms to him clearly inviting him for a goodbye hug as well.

Flash turned to his fiancée with a questioning look. Twilight smiled and nodded in understanding and approval. Flash shrugged in acceptance and gave Princess Twilight a brief yet friendly hug. After they parted, everyone made their way back to the horse statue portal and said their final goodbyes as Princess Twilight and Starswirl returned home.

Author's Note:

The chapter title is a reference to this song:

So, there's one loose end taken care of. On top of that, yay, Flash and Princess Twilight finally get a proper resolution. Yeah, in hindsight, that conversation should have happened earlier, but it didn't.

Comments

[SuperSonicHeroes]

Well, glad they finally took care of The Pony of Shadows, and Flash and Princess Twilight managed to resolve everything between them.

[Ro994]

Thanks for the closure on both lose ends
I'm hoping Twilight will still keep in touch with Sunset and her human friends, even if she'll be busier than ever now.