The final challenge

by Dianabel

Chapter 27: Reunion at Canterlot

Hidden in a corner, Double Diamond and Saffron Massala patrolled the zone, watching if somepony was approaching. Meanwhile, Moondancer and Meghan talked to Pinkie Pie, Cheese Sandwich, Sassy Saddles, Party Flavour, Sky Stinger and Chancellor Neighsay.

“Ok. You all remember what the plan was, right?” Meghan asked them.

Everypony nodded their heads.

“We´re going to make a quick revise to make sure there are no questions.” Moondancer suggested.

“You mean us repeating the plan?” Sassy Saddles asked.

“For example.” replied Meghan.

“Fair enough.” Neighsay agreed. He cleared his throat. “First of all-”

“No, no, we know you understood it, Neighsay. I´m saying for those three specifically.”

Moondancer looked at Pinkie, Cheese and Party Flavour, who were distracted on inflating and doing different shapes with balloons.

“Hey! Just because we´re doing balloons doesn´t mean that we´re not taking this seriously or that we don´t know our job!” Party Flavour said in defence.

“Specially me! I am the one who wants to kick Grogar out of the throne the most, remember? For all he made me, and my friends go through!” Pinkie stomped her hoof against the ground.

“We´re just preparing for battle.” Cheese Sandwich added before taking air in to inflate a balloon.

Moondancer blinked.

“With balloons.”

“Sometimes, the most valuable tools are found in the least expected places.”

Seeing that Moondancer wasn´t convinced on their plan, Meghan put her hoof on her shoulder.

“Just let them do their thing. Don´t try to make sense of them because it´s impossible.” she advised her.

Saffron Massala shushed them. Double Diamond waved his hoof up and down.

“Something´s coming!” Saffron warned.

“Pony or monster?” Sky Stinger asked.

“From the looks of it, it looks like a pony. Not one! Three actually!” Double Diamond answered while taking a better look of the horizon.

“Are they wearing armour?” Meghan asked.

“Yes!” Saffron replied.

“Oh boy, this is going to hurt, since they are workmates. But hey!” Meghan shrugged. “They must be brainwashed like almost everypony, so there´s nothing to lose.”

The ponies prepared to fight as the mysterious guard came closer.

“On the count to three.” Moondancer indicated.

“One.” Neighsay counted.

“THREE!” Party Flavour yelled as he rushed out the corner, Cheese Sandwich following behind and yelling as loudly.

Moondancer massaged her temples while everypony, except Pinkie, shared confused looks.

“I guess we have to follow them.” Saffron Massala said.

Meghan sighed.

“Yup.”

Everypony ran. Sassy Saddles stopped when she noticed that Pinkie Pie was still.

“Aren´t you coming?” she asked.

“Of course! But now it´s not my moment.” Pinkie replied cheerfully.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, in every story, when the main character is thought to be dead, they have to make an epic comeback, and for that, it has to be a surprise! I mean, for twelve chapters, everypony has been thinking that I´m dead! Well, except the audience. Still, I can´t show up just like that!”

Sassy Saddles stared at her.

“Rarity´s friend is weirder than I thought.” she thought to herself. “Right…” Sassy Saddles looked away. “Well, we´ll wait for you there. Just don´t take too much time to… make your comeback.”

“Sure thing!” Pinkie waved her hoof at Sassy, who continued running to catch up with the group.

The guards were walking with their heads down. They were at conflict on what was the right thing to do. She and her friends wanted to rally everypony to join unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies against Grogar, but she and her friends got almost eaten by Grogar´s monsters. If they acted, they would risk their own lives but if they didn´t do anything, everypony would suffer for the rest of their lives! What to do?

Their thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of hoof steps and yells. They widened their eyes when they saw ponies coming towards them.

“What on earth?” the female asked to herself.

“Looks like there´s already a revolution.” the male guard said gladly. “But it seems they want to attack us.” his smile wiped off.

“Wait. Isn´t one of those ponies Meghan?” the other male guard asked.

His workmates were about to answer but they were interrupted when the same ponies that were coming surrounded them. And as they expected, they were ready to attack them. They hugged each other scared.

“It´s alright, it´s alright. Valkyrie, Trébol, Bolt Noir, we´ve come to help you.” Meghan explained.

“Unless you´re trying to hurt ponies that aren´t unicorns.” Neighsay accused them.

“Actually…” Valkyrie was going to explain but she was interrupted.

“Because if you are, we won´t let you!” Sassy Saddles ignited her horn.

“Yeah! These earth ponies are as valuable as we unicorns are!” Saffron Massala stomped her hoof against the ground.

“Of course, but-” Trébol attempted to explain himself, but just like his workmate, it was in vain.

“Right now, what we need to do is stick together.” Party Flavour stated.

“No matter what kind of ponies we are.” Double Diamond added while holding hooves with Party Falvour.

“Of course but let us explain ourselves. Please.” Bolt Noir said upset.

“You want to explain the reason why you hate non-unicorns?” Cheese asked in an accusing tone.

“No!”

“Then what do you want to explain exactly?”

“I-”

“You´d better not be lying. I have these special swords!” Cheese took out the balloon he, Party Flavour and Pinkie Pie were creating before. “They are the most dangerous weapons you´ll ever encountered!”

Bolt Noir scoffed.

“They´re, they´re just balloons! Wait. You´re not planning on counterattacking Grogar with those, right?”

“Darn right we are!”

The guards looked at each other.

“We´re doomed, aren´t we?” Valkyrie asked.

“Definitely.” Trébol agreed while nodding his head.

“You are if you´re against us.” a high-pitched female voice said confidently.

The guards raised their eyebrows in a mixture of curiosity and confusion.

“Because we are the revolution.” Pinkie said as she showed herself.

They gasped in surprise. Pinkie gave a huge jump and landed in front of them. She held her balloon sword in pride.

“That´s right. I´m alive mother-”

Cheese covered her mouth.

“No, no. Not in front of the kids.”

“Oh right.” Pinkie massaged her forehead. “I got so excited by my own epic showdown that I forgot that this story´s for kids too.”

“That´s true. But I was referring to the foals that are staring at us through the window.” Cheese pointed at the building behind them.

Everypony turned around and noticed the foals. Their eyes were full of tears, but they weren´t tears of sadness nor fear. They seemed to be tears of hope.

The foals turned their heads back.

“Mom! Dad! Pinkie Pie´s alive!”

The foals´ parents approached the window. They had the same reaction as their children. They even left the house to check on Pinkie. And they weren´t the only ones to do so. Their neighbours heard their screams, and so, they also got out, despite the great danger that going outside brought.

The ponies surrounded Pinkie. They were crying of joy.

“It´s a miracle!”

“There´s still some hope for us.”

Pinkie smiled sweetly at everypony.

“Oh. Seeing you caring so much about me despite not being a unicorn also brings me hope.”

“Why wouldn´t we? You saved Equestria a dozen times!”

“Finally. Somepony with common sense.” Moondancer muttered relieved.

“How did you survive?” a curious neighbour asked.

“They say you were tied to die in the bitter cold!” another neighbour added.

“Yes. But… These three amazing ponies saved me!” Pinkie explained as she hugged Moondancer, Meghan and Cheese Sandwich.

Double Diamond noticed the guards crying in joy as well.

“So… I guess you´re not against us.” he said to them.

“Of course not!” Trébol replied.

“We want the three species at peace like before.” Valkyrie explained.

“We tried to come up with a plan to get everypony together, but Grogar discovered us and nearly had us devoured by his monsters.” Bolt Noir added.

“Why didn´t you say so?” Party Flavour asked.

“We tried to! But you were interrupting us with accusations over, and over and over again.”

The ponies looked away in shame.

“Sorry.” Neighsay apologized. “I guess we assumed that we were the only ones who still cared about harmony, give that Meghan wasn´t able to reunite all of you.”

“You did?” Valkyrie asked Meghan.

“Yup. Everypony I found basically told me to go away. Wish I could have found you instead!”

The guards rolled their eyes playfully.

“Can we help on anything?” the neighbours asked Pinkie.

“Of course! Any help is accepted.” she accepted with a smile.

“You could rally up other ponies to create a distraction!” Saffron suggested. “That would make the entrance in the castle much easier.”

The neighbours agreed.

“You´ve mentioned before that Grogar threatened you. If you don´t feel comfortable coming, it´s ok.” Sassy Saddles reassured the guards. “Taking care of ponies who are helpless is also an important task.”

“Thanks for your concern ma´am, but with more ponies by our side, we´ll feel safer.” Trébol replied.

Sassy Saddles nodded her head.

“Now that we´re ready.” Pinkie recharged her party cannon. “Let´s get this party started.” she said with a great and confident smile.

---

Grogar´s monsters were sleeping all around Canterlot. Cerberus´ ear twitched when he heard a weird sound, maybe even magical. He opened his eyes and looked around, to check if there were any intruders. The only things he saw were three barrels. At first, he was estranged, as he didn´t remember those barrels being there before, but he quickly returned to his sleep.

From the barrel, Discord poked his head out. He bit his lip once he had finished checking the scenery.

“Are we in Canterlot?” Shining Armor asked from another barrel.

“Yes.”

“Away from Grogar?” Cadence asked from that same barrel.

“Yes.”

Flurry babbled in an enquiring tone.

“Yes Flurry, I´m telling the truth.”

“You certainly are, but from your tone, we can tell that something´s not ok.” Fluttershy told Discord “What is it?”

“Check for yourselves.” he told everypony.

Fluttershy, who was in the same barrel as Discord, raised her head a little. Shining Armor, and Cadence, who was holding Flurry, did the same. Their ears dropped.

“Yeah… Maybe this wasn´t the most accepted place to appear in.” Shining shook his head.

“Well, it´s either that or being zapped immediately by Grogar without a chance to fight back.” Discord clapped back.

“Yeah, you´re right.” Shining Armor agreed.

“We might be surrounded by dangerous monsters and prefer to have appeared in another place in Canterlot. But they´re asleep.” Fluttershy pointed at the monsters. “As long as we don´t disturb their sleep, they won´t attack us.”

“I guess you, Discord and I could fly.” Cadence suggested. She turned to Shining. “I´m afraid you can´t do a teleporting spell, that would wake the monsters up. So I guess you´ll just have to be careful with how loud your hoofsteps are.”

“Don´t worry.” Shining reassured Cadence. “At the training academy, I was the best at surprise attacks! And that was because my hoofsteps were inaudible.”

However, Flurry came up with an easier idea. She ignited her horn and held Shining with her magic. Although her idea was brilliant, its performance wasn´t that great. Flurry had problems to maintain her horn ignited, which caused Shining to almost fall many times. Nonetheless Cadence caught her message and held Shining herself.

“Let me do this to me. Next time you´ll do it, once this is all over of course.” Cadence promised Flurry.

Flurry smiled.

“Now honey, fly with your mom and stay as quiet as possible.” Shining instructed his daughter. “Is that understood?”

Flurry nodded. Shining and Cadence turned to Fluttershy and Discord, waiting for them.

“You guys go ahead. We´ll catch up with you.” Fluttershy said as she and Discord got out of the barrel.

The family nodded and began to cross the streets full of monsters. Meanwhile, Fluttershy and Discord approached another barrel.

“It´s ok. You can come out.” Fluttershy said.

The animals climbed or stretched their bodies to see their surroundings. They quickly curled their bodies when they saw the monsters around. Angel was about to screech, but Discord covered his mouth before doing so and shushed him. Angel threw him a death stare.

“Don´t you think of biting him or kick his paw mister!” Fluttershy scolded Angel quietly.

Angel pointed at the monsters.

“I know, I know. We´re surrounded by dangerous creatures. But understand that they´re dangerous because Grogar´s controlling them. Besides, right now they´re sleeping, which means they´re not a threat by now. But you´ll have to be very careful and do the least noise possible.” she explained to her animals.

The animals nodded after gulping. Angel pointed at Discord.

“Discord, you can uncover his mouth.”

Discord obeyed. He threw Angel a `I´m watching you´ gesture. The bunny sticked his tongue out in response.

“You ready?” Fluttershy asked.

The animals nodded. They got out the barrels easily in a jump or creeping around it. Harry the bear and Gina the giraffe, however got more problems though. Discord took Gina out with his magic and placed her next to the other animals gently. Then, he helped Fluttershy to take Harry out, by holding his other foreleg.

“Now. If you feel scared by the monsters, look at me and you´ll feel calm. Now start walking quietly.”

“Imagine a predator approaching its prey!” Discord said as an example.

However, the only thing he got was scaring the herbivores, specially the smaller ones.

“Ok. Maybe that wasn´t the best example for all of you.” Discord stroke his beard.

“What he means is to imitate their movements.” Fluttershy explained.

The carnivores did a demonstration to the herbivores. The animals understood and were relieved. They started crawling slowly.

“That´s it. Keep going.” Fluttershy encouraged them quietly as she waved her hooves at them.

Seeing that Fluttershy was flying backwards, Discord kept his look forwards to guide Fluttershy, telling her to move right or left to avoid bumping against a monster. Soon, they caught up with Cadence, Shining Armor, and Flurry.

After a while, they finally passed by every monster. They sighed in relief.

“That was easier than I expected.” Shining Armor said.

Everypony shushed him.

“Oh. Sorry.” he apologized with a nervous smile.

“We might not have more monsters ahead of us, but we´re still near them.” Fluttershy pointed out. “Keep being quiet.”

And just at that moment, they heard a crowd. With each second that passed, it got louder.

“What is going on?” Cadence asked.

Discord flew to a roof. He took out his binoculars to get a better view. What he saw took him by surprise.

“Huh! Looks like somepony got ahead of us.” he commented.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy flew by his side.

“Look.” he handed her the binoculars.

Fluttershy took the binoculars. Apparently, there was a crowd of ponies marching all around. They seemed to plan on rioting.

“Grogar, get off the throne! Get off the throne!” the ponies yelled.

This made her a bit scared. What were they doing? They could lose their lives! She knows Grogar would have no mercy when she saw not only unicorns. But after watching the scene with more detail, she realized that not only ponies were in the crowd. Pegasi and earth ponies were there as well! And they were holding hooves. It showed her that ponies still cared about each other. All they fought for wasn´t lost. This gave her lots of hope.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Cadence joined them.

“What did you see?” she asked Fluttershy and Discord.

“There are ponies about to riot!” Discord explained.

“What?”

Fluttershy nodded. She gave Cadence the binoculars. The alicorn gasped.

“It´s true! That´s something good.”

The three friends reunited with Shining Armor, Flurry, and the animals.

“So?” Shining Armor asked.

“There are ponies rebelling. We saw unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies together! They are letting their differences aside and joining together like before.” Cadence asked excited.

“That´s great!”

However, his face changed from excitedness to fear in just the blink of an eye.

“Uh oh.”

“Don´t worry, they are far away, I don´t think they´ll wake them up.” Cadence reassured him.

“But were they holding casseroles?”

“What?” Discord asked.

“Were they holding pans?”

“Um… We don´t know, we just gave a general glance.” Fluttershy said nervously.

“Then hope they don´t, otherwise we´re doomed.” Shining said while looking at Grogar´s monsters.

“You´re scared that ponies hitting casseroles will wake them up? They´re far away! I don´t think casseroles are that loud.”

Unfortunately, they were. So loud that they had to cover their ears. And naturally, the monsters woke up. Without thinking, Discord snapped his fingers to put them to sleep again. He swept the sweat of his forehead and huffed when he made sure the spell had worked.

“That was close.” he muttered under his breath.

Angel pulled his tail.

“What?”

The bunny pointed at one manticore that was still awake. Luckily, it was on its back, meaning that it wasn´t aware of their presence.

“Ok, same tactic as before.” Fluttershy whispered loud enough for every creature to hear.

The animals nodded and crawled like before. Cadence took Shining and flew to Fluttershy´s, Flurry´s, and Discord´s side.

The manticore might not have noticed Fluttershy and the rest, but it did spot somepony else. Its ear twitched of when he heard a high-pitched female voice.

“GROGAR YOU´RE GOING DOOOOOOOWN!” Pinkie shouted to the four winds as she ran.

Everypony, except for Cheese Sandwich and Party Flavour shushed her.

“Sorry. I just can´t wait to make the murderer of my friends pay!” Pinkie apologized upset.

“Are you sure that it´s a good idea to wait for the riot to occur?” Neighsay asked Pinkie concerned. “We might have it more difficult to access to the castle.”

“Don’t worry! She knows a secret entrance to the castle!” Cheese said confidently.

Everypony widened their eyes.

“You do?” Sassy Saddles asked Pinkie.

“She´s Pinkie Pie! Of course she must know a secret entrance!”

Pinkie looked from side to side.

“You do, right?”

“Uh… No. But that would be awesome!” she replied.

“In that case, forget what I just said.” Cheese told everypony.

“So you expect us to go through ponies and changelings or monsters fighting for their lives with no problem.” Moondancer said sarcastically to Pinkie.

“I mean… It will be difficult to go through, yes, but it´s the only way we go unnoticed.” Pinkie Pie said in defense. “That, or we could dig on the ground, I mean Fluttershy managed to get into the castle like that!”

“Maybe that would be more practical.” Double Diamond commented.

“We´ll know what´s best once we get there.” Saffron Massala said.

“Exactly, but for now, let´s focus on getting to the castle!” Pinkie agreed.

Unfortunately, the same manticore that Fluttershy and her team encountered blocked their way. Pinkie Pie yelled louder than before. It was so loud that even Fluttershy, Discord, Cadence, Shining Armor, Flurry Heart and the animals heard it.

Their eyes perked up. Their mouths hung open from the shock of hearing Pinkie´s voice. Flurry babbled and looked for Pinkie.

“Did you hear that or am I imagining things?” Fluttershy asked everypony.

“No, no. We also have.” Shining Armor answered.

“Could Pinkie Pie be alive?” Cadence wondered.

“That´s impossible! I witnessed her death.” Discord replied. His tone was cynical, yet hopeful. However, he knew it would be better not to assume things to avoid heartbreaks. “It must be a pony that sounds similar to her.

Flurry stubbornly shook her head.

“But it could be her!” Fluttershy replicated. “She´s in danger, I just know it, otherwise she wouldn´t have screamed like that!”

Fluttershy ran towards where she heard the scream, Flurry flew by her side.

“Fluttershy, wait!” Discord yelled as he, Shining and Cadence ran after her.

However, Pinkie´s yell wasn´t one of terror like Fluttershy thought. It was a yell of frustration.

“SERIOUSLY?! A MANTICORE?! A MANTICORE APPEARS AS AN OBSTACLE TO GET TO THAT GOAT?!” she took her canon. “Back off!”

The manticore roared at her. Everypony took a step backwards. Well, everypony except Cheese Sandwich, who was cheering at Pinkie for her bravery.

“You go girl!”

“Pinkie let´s run. Now.” Moondancer insisted.

“Not until I fire off my canon.” Pinkie refused.

“Pinkie. I understand you´re angry. But think about this. Please.” Meghan begged her

“That canon won´t do anything to the creature!” Neighsay insisted.

“You could get hurt!” Saffron said worried.

Despite their warnings, Pinkie stood there.

“Pinkie don´t.” Sassy Saddles ordered.

However, Pinkie fired confetti at manticore, making it close its eyes.

“Now we run!” Pinkie Pie darted off.

The other ponies followed behind, trying to run as fast as possible.

“Oh… So you fired off just to earn us time. Clever…” Double Diamond told Pinkie.

“See?” Party Flavour nudged Double Diamond. “I told you she had a reason to do that.”

“Guys, don´t lose your focus on running. You could crash against something!” Sky Stinger told them.

Since she turned her head back to talk to her friends, she was the one who ended up crashing against something. And that something was a wall. Party Flavour and Double Diamond went to aid her. The other ponies stopped running abruptly and gasped when they saw the wall.

“Oh no…” Meghan muttered nervously.

They turned around. They were cornered by the manticore. They hugged each other terrified by the manticore´s roar. They closed their eyes, expecting to be eaten by the manticore. Miraculously, they weren´t. When they opened their eyes, they saw Fluttershy, Discord, Cadence, Shining Armor, Flurry Heart and various animals defending them. Pinkie´s eyes filled with tears when she saw Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy?” she asked, almost choking from the emotion.

Fluttershy turned her head to Pinkie. She sobbed.

“Hi Pinkie.” she muttered.

She would have hugged Pinkie at that moment, but there was a manticore she had to deal with first. Discord snapped his fingers and put the manticore inside a cage. Fluttershy turned to him.

“Are you sure it will work?” she asked nervously.

“Honestly, I have no idea. But it doesn´t hurt to try.” he shrugged.

Cadence, her family and the animals encouraged her with gestures. Fluttershy gulped and frowned with determination. She faced the manticore.

“You mister! What were you doing?!” she asked angrily.

The manticore growled at her. Fluttershy did the stare.

“This is nothing like you! You might be scary but you´re also friendly creatures. So stop acting mean and threatening ponies!”

The manticore stopped growling. It widened their eyes and walked behind to get away from Fluttershy scared. It was then when she realized something. That manticore was the same she encountered when she faced Nightmare Moon! Her heart broke a little.

“Oh don´t worry.” she opened the cage flew towards the manticore. I know it´s not your fault. Grogar´s just messed with your mind. But like I helped you before, I´ll help you again.” Fluttershy stroked her head against the manticore´s paw, which surprised it. “See? It´s ok.”

Fluttershy caused a magical reaction on the maticore, since it started being surrounded by magic. After a flash, the manticore´s eyes weren´t shining anymore. Rather, they were normal. Everypony was shocked. Fluttershy had undone the spell!

The manticore looked at Fluttershy and hugged her. She started licking her mane.

“You sweet little baby.” she laughed. “You remember me now, do you?” she turned to Discord. “You can undo the cage, Discord.”

Like everypony else´s his mouth hung wide open. He snapped his fingers and the opened his mouth with his paw.

“What a mare!” he exclaimed in admiration.

Pinkie jumped to hug Fluttershy, throwing her to the ground.

“Oh my! Oh my! You´re alive. I thought you were dead.” Pinkie Pie said to Fluttershy in tears.

“No, we thought you were dead!” Fluttershy said, also crying. “Discord said he witnessed your death.”

She turned around to see Discord. She gasped.

“Discord!” She hugged him tightly. “Are you alright? Did Grogar do something to you?” she said worried.

“I´m fine don´t worry. I´m glad to see you´re alive.” Discord returned the hug.

“Us too.” Cadence said.

“You´re alright too!” Pinkie hugged the entire family. Flurry held on her face, putting her hooves on her eyes. Although it hurt, she still kept on smiling.

Meanwhile, the other ponies stared in shock.

“It´s the Royal Crystal Family!” Neighsay exclaimed surprised. “Your majesties.” he bowed down.

Immediately after, everypony bowed.

“Oh, it´s not necessary really.” Cadence said.

“I guess this is your team, right?” Shining said to Pinkie.

Pinkie nodded her head energetically.

“Like Discord saw, I was tied up like a scarecrow to die in the cold. But thanks to these three.” she hugged Moondancer, Meghan and Cheese Sandwich. “I´m alive. What about you, Flutters?”

“Well… I was the only one he didn´t want to execute.”

“What?!”

“What you heard. He wanted to keep me alive as means to control Discord. And maybe for something else…” Fluttershy whimpered.

“But she managed to throw him to the ground with just stones!” Discord put his arm around Fluttershy. “And she´s afraid of the stare too.”

“Talking about that, your stare is impressive!” Meghan told Fluttershy. A”pplejack told me about that before but I never thought it was that powerful.”

“I didn´t expect it to work, to tell you the truth. But I don´t think it was my stare what turned it to his natural state. It was my affection.”

Fluttershy´s words reminded Pinkie of her last memory before losing her conscience. She remembered that Grogar had corrupted Celestia. And when she said her name, she seemed confused. It was then when she realized something.

“That´s it! Hurry! We must help somepony else.” Pinkie rushed out.

“What? But who?” Fluttershy asked.

“I´ll explain along the way. Come on!”

Author's Note:

Guys. I realized it´s been one year when my government warned us about the entrance in the alert state. And two days later, the quarantine would begin. Jesuschrist

Comments

[ChubbyNia]

10721292
Yup!

[SuperPinkBrony12]

You keep calling Party Favor Party Flavor. Was that an oversight?

[Dianabel]

10721531
Yup.

[Dianabel]

10721293
Ok

[MatTheBook]

“That´s right. I´m alive mother-”

How dare you make her nearly say something like that.

10722328