The New Guardians
Hitch gently pulled Izzy back from the edge of the cliff, and Zipp was finally hauled up, collapsing with her family into a hug. Everypony was staring at the place where Sunny Starscout had once stood in shock, not caring that unicorns and pegasi and earth ponies were standing shoulder-to-shoulder.
“She’s gone,” Izzy whispered, tears welling up in her eyes and splashing on the ground. “She’s gone and we couldn’t even do what she wanted us to do.”
“It’s okay,” Hitch said awkwardly, patting the unicorn on the back. “If she were here, she would tell us that we don’t need her to make her dream a reality. She would tell us that we’ve had it in us all along.”
“I can’t believe it,” Zipp muttered, she and Pipp coming up next to the unicorn and earth pony. “After all we did - or, I think we did-” She winced, and rubbed her forehead with her hoof. “After everything that Sunny did to bring back magic, to just get us to work together… did any of it really matter?” She sat down with a defeated sigh, and Pipp put her wing around her. “Magic’s gone, and we almost all killed each other.”
“I’m not giving up,” Pipp said defiantly, looking around at the others as if daring them to contradict her. “And Sunny wouldn’t, either.”
Her words had an inspiring effect on the assembled tribes. Earth ponies took off their anti-mind-reading hats, pegasi set down their tennis balls, and unicorns stopped pointing their horns at other ponies’ faces.
“Maybe we really can be united again,” Hitch murmured, seeing the effect Sunny’s legacy had on the ponies.
“I just wish Sunny was around to see it,” Izzy said mournfully.
It was Sprout who noticed the golden glow coming from the canyon first. “What’s that?” he asked nervously, pointing to it as everypony turned to see what he was talking about. An idea popped into Hitch’s head, and he grinned.
A gold blurr shot out of the canyon and hovered above the ponies, her wings and horn glowing brighter than ever in the light of the setting sun. Everypony gasped, and then a resounding cheer rose up, ponies screaming and stomping their hooves and making Sprout have a splitting headache. Sunny soared down, skimming above them until she came down to land next to her friends. Hitch was grinning like a dofus, Izzy was crying, Zipp was trying not to cry, and Pipp had a look of absolute awe on her face.
“Oh, I just fell off a cliff, no big deal, what’s up with you?” Sunny teased. She opened her wings, and her friends poured in for a hug.
For a moment, they were just themselves, five ponies from three different tribes, hugging, and Sunny loved it. She wished that they could stay like this forever, and not have to worry about magic or harmony or discord or anything. But of course they couldn’t.
“This really is getting tiring,” a familiar voice said. It belonged to a unicorn with a frosty blue coat and white mane, and at his side was a purple pegasus. In his hoof was a very annoying green stone, which had resumed its sinister green glow. “Please, let’s just erase this whole incident, and we can go back to our peaceful lives.”
“Peaceful lives seem to involve a lot of going to war,” Sunny snapped, pulling away from her friends and, wings spread and head lifted authoritatively, approaching Permafrost and Sour Lavender. Permafrost blanched.
“I-I swear, I had no idea what Candy Floss’ true intentions were,” he protested. “I thought he wanted what we all want - a peaceful, safe Equestria.”
“Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t really seem like what you’re going for here.” Sunny glared at him as her friends surrounded her. “Because I think that a peaceful Equestria is an Equestria where we can all get along and not go to war with each other. I think a safe Equestria is an Equestria where we can lean on other’s strengths to counter our weaknesses. I think a happy Equestria is an Equestria where unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi can be friends, and not have to live in fear of one another based on petty lies that you came up with.”
“That’s what we think, too,” came a voice, this from a green unicorn filly, flanked by a pink earth pony filly and sunny pegasus foal. They had pushed through the crowd and were now facing the frosty unicorn defiantly.
“Jinx Evergreen, what are you doing?” a unicorn called out, who must have been her father.
“Get back here, Rose Blossom!” an earth pony mare called out.
“Lofty Skies, you are most definitely grounded!” two pegasi yelped in unison.
“We’re not afraid of you,” Rose Blossom told Permafrost and Sour Lavender calmly.
“Because we’ve got friends,” Lofty Skies finished, spreading her wings and wrapping her two friends into a hug.
Sour Lavender, perhaps seeing that things were going sour, growled, grabbed the memory stone from Permafrost, and aimed it right at Sunny and her friends. A blast of green light shot towards the five ponies, and this time, nopony stepped in between them. Zipp, Pipp, Izzy, and Hitch all braced themselves for the worst, but Sunny calmly closed her eyes, knowing what would happen.
The impact never came. Only this time, it was because of a magical shield, composed of a glowing rainbow light, surrounding the five ponies. Above each of their heads was a single gemstone, rotating slowly on an axis, glowing brighter than the memory stone. Hitch had a greenish teal color, Izzy a deep blue, Pipp a bright turquoise, and Zipp a shade of shocking hot pink. Floating above Sunny’s head was a large five pointed star, a gorgeous shade of lavender. Ropes of light suddenly connected the gems, and the star shot a concentrated beam straight at the memory stone, which cracked and shattered in an explosion of green light. Glowing ribbons flew to Haven, Sprout, Phyllis, Alphabittle, Hitch, Izzy, Zipp, Pipp, and a few other unicorns and earth ponies and pegasi in the crowd.
There was an explosion of white light, and when it cleared, Sunny and her friends were lying on the ground, but there was something… different about them. Each of them was wearing a golden necklace with a jewel set in it, matching each of their cutie marks. But Sunny was adorned with a shining crown atop her head with the glimmering lavender star in the middle.
“Ugh…” Zipp muttered, rubbing her head as she got to her feet.
“What happened?” Izzy asked, shaking her head and looking around with a confused look on her face.
“I’m not completely sure,” Sunny admitted. “I have an idea, but it’ll need evidence… and you know what that means?”
Hitch groaned. “Not another road trip, I don’t think my hooves could walk another step-” He froze. “Woah. Sunny. Nice bling.”
The mare blushed, the light of her golden horn making the star glitter and sparkle. “I was just going to say the same thing to you guys. I’m not sure what these are, but I think we’ll find out soon.”
“I love them,” Pipp helpfully supplied, admiring her music note shaped gem, the bright turquoise color contrasting against her pink coat.
Zipp rolled her eyes, saying, “Of course you do.” She looked at Sunny, with her glowing horn and wings, and stopped, a thought having struck her. “Wait. If magic disappeared… then how come Sunny was able to do… whatever that is?”
“I think it’s because not all magic was lost,” Sunny explained, remembering her conversation with the Spirit of Harmony. “Just physical magic, like what makes you fly and use your horn and all that. But the most important magic will always remain, if we choose to find it: the magic of friendship. And I feel like I’m supposed to represent that. Friendship and unity between the three tribes. A symbol that, no matter how broken the world is, we always have the power to fix it.”
She didn’t mean to turn it into an emotional speech, but she saw other ponies creeping in closer to listen. She saw Jinx Evergreen, Lofty Skies, and Rose Blossom beaming and hugging, despite their parents’ efforts to pull them apart and ground them for life.
“Thank you, Sunny,” Haven whispered, hugging her two daughters. “You never gave up hope that things could get better, and you have saved us all yet again from going down a path much worse than this one.” She smiled wryly. “I only wish I could have been more like you when I was younger.”
“We all make mistakes,” Alphabittle said sheepishly, helping to brush off a dazed earth pony. “The important thing is that we learn from those mistakes, so we don’t make them again.”
“So… it’s not too late to fix everything?” Sprout asked hopefully, standing next to his mother, who was fussing over him obsessively. He huffed and pushed her away, holding her at an arm’s length away from him.
“It is never too late,” Sunny said. “I refuse to accept that it ever will be.”
“But what about magic?” Jinx Evergreen asked, wriggling out of her father’s crushing hug. “How can we get magic back?”
“Magic doesn’t matter,” Izzy said, voicing Sunny’s inner thoughts. The unicorn nudged Sunny playfully. “As long as we’re together, we don’t need magic. Because we have friendship.”
“Yes, but can we at least try to get magic back, please?” Zipp asked, flapping her wings experimentally. “It was really nice to have it back… even if it was just for a while.”
Sunny nodded and smiled. “I don’t know what comes next,” she said, reaching out and pulling her friends in for a hug. “But I do know that, with you guys by my side, I can do anything. So we’re going to get magic back, no matter what.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, her crown and her friends’ necklaces began to glow, brighter and brighter, until the five ponies were completely enveloped in a white shining light that spread across the land. Ponies felt something stirring inside of them, something… magical. Horns lit up, wings began to glow, and magic returned - just a few minutes after disappearing again. The dark clouds that had gathered in the sky were pushed back as colorful lights streamed across the sky.
“Wow!” Izzy exclaimed as the magical light around the five ponies faded.
“I hope that magic isn’t actually that glitchy,” Zipp commented wyrley, glancing down at her necklace. “Because bringing it back time and time again will get very tiring very quickly.”
Sunny laughed. “I think it might be here to stay, Zipp.” As she said it, she felt a feeling of absolute certainty in her heart. There had been something final about magic’s return. “That doesn’t mean we won’t have a few hiccups along the way, though. I think there will be plenty left to figure out, and there will always be adversaries. But this time, we face them together.”
Her friends all nodded and made varying sounds of agreement. Zipp flapped her wings and lifted into the air, a look of peace and contentment on her face. With a whoop, she soared off into the sky, twirling and doing loop-de-loops.
“Wait up, sis!” Pipp cried, zooming after her sister. The two chased each other across the colorful sky, while their mother watched from below.
“Hey, Sprout,” Hitch called, stopping the former deputy in his tracks as he followed his mother to Haven and Alphabittle. “You know… there’s a lot of wreckage down there. I don’t know, maybe some of it will be salvageable. You in?”
The red earth pony looked shocked. “Y-you would trust me for something like that?”
“Ah, well, the original was your machine, wasn’t it?” Hitch said, scanning the cliffside for any potential passage to the canyon floor. “I figure that you might know some things about it that I won’t… Now we just need to get down there…”
“There,” Sprout said, pointing to what looked like the old, crumbling remains of a stone staircase that came to a halt just a few feet from the wreckage of the giant red machine.
Sunny watched the two earth ponies descend into the canyon with a few other pegasi and unicorns behind them and sighed. Izzy gently nudged her.
“Hey, what’s the long face for, Sunny?” she asked. “We did it, didn’t we?”
“Yeah,” Sunny said, turning and giving the Tree of Harmony a long, sad look. “I just wish my dad could have been around to see it.” She sighed and turned to Izzy, a look of seriousness on her face. “Izzy, there’s something I need to tell you. Back… there, I found out that… the pony who was the leader of the Guardians of Harmony, whose cutie mark was on that window in Zephyr Heights?” The purple unicorn nodded. “Well, it turns out that… she’s my ancestor, and I’m her descendant. And… I have to carry on her legacy. But what if it’s too late? Everypony’s forgotten her and all the work she did, after all. Is there really anything left for me to carry on?”
Izzy could see that this had been bugging her friend ever since she’d found it out, and she tried to think of something comforting to say. “Of course there is, Sunny. I think you just said what you needed to do without realizing it. You need to remind us of their legacy, renew their stories and tell them again, so that we don’t forget about them. And, in a way, we never really did. Because I am sure that they were made into legends, and legends never truly die.”
Sunny smiled at her friend. “I hope you’re right.”
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Your title image is great, bookhorse125, I liked it! And your story is amazing, I'm giving you six stars for doing a great job. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Oh wow that was pretty amazing Sunny's friends that they thoughts she was gone from the explosion but thanks for the tree of Harmony saving her whatever left of the magic of it Sunny is okay everybody was pretty happy to see she's okay but it looks like the other two who are responsible of this are not finished yet they really don't know when to quit and they were about to use the memory Stone to erase not just only her friends but this time sunny as well but the magic protected her and her friends from the memory Stone not only that destroying it in the process and it looks like all the memory is coming flooding into every ponies and they are back and it looks like they gained a necklace and a crown and it looks like they finally got the magic back it was a pretty intense just to get here but they finally made it and whatever happens in the future I'm sure they will face it together I guess we'll find out next time
11171294
That is literally where I got the idea for the title of this fanfic... and this whole fanfic, to be honest.
Candy Floss is not going to like this...
Still really sad you didn't give Sprout a chance to become the sixth element.