40 Years

by bookhorse125

Chapter 11 - Admiral Producer

It only took five more hours for all assigned groups to return to Canterlot with all shattered pieces of the Bell. They were all weary and exhausted and Twilight instructed them to retire to their chambers until it was time to reassemble the Bell using the Spell of Relic Constitution that was used on the Crystal Heart not too long ago.

When the next morning arrived and the Sun rose high into the sky, the ponies all met in the throne room, where Twilight was about to give instructions on what was to be done. Sunny was fangirling like mad over the idea of actually getting to see her idol perform this spell, and she begged the Princess of Friendship to let her help out.

Twilight reluctantly agreed, but only on the condition that the earth pony followed all instructions to a tea as anything could happen if the spell was to go wrong. There was no time for doubts, only action. If they pulled this off right, then they could restore the Bell and use it to defeat Grogar once and for all.

As the ponies all stood together in a massive crowd, Twilight faced them all and laid out the ground rules for how this spell was going to work. Her face was one of determination and confidence. Despite the looming threat of the ram on the horizon, she knew that they could do anything as a team. It didn’t matter how different they all were or what world they had come from. They were all in this together and had formed bonds unmatched by even the strongest of evil.

This mission had proved that.

“Alright,” Twilight spoke. “I have all the pieces of Grogar’s Bell right here. We’re going to reassemble it together. You may not be all unicorns, but there is one thing that unites you in magic. Your cutie marks. As I lead with the spell, you will all summon your innermost magic and charge it at the pieces.”

“Will it work?” Toola Roola asked from the back. “I didn’t even know my cutie mark contains magic.”

“Well it does,” answered Twilight firmly. “That magic comes from your inner being, part of the spectra that makes up who you are. All you have to do is think about what you are most passionate about for your cutie mark to glow.”

“Feel the magic flowing through you,” Sunny added. She was standing next to Hitch in the front of the line. “It’s easy, trust me.” She stepped towards the front and stopped right next to the purple alicorn, staring at her nervously. “Are we ready to start?”

Twilight nodded. “We are. Make sure to get into your Alicorn form. We’re going to start in a few seconds.”

Sunny nodded back and thought of how happy everypony would be once they returned home successfully to their timeline, which filled her entire being with warmth as she loved helping others. Her forehead and back began to glow, morphing into translucent yellow wings and horn.

“Everypony, get in rows of five.” Twilight ordered them. The other ponies did as they were told and separated into single-file groups as she faced the middle of the crowd. “Sunburst, the book, please.”

Sunburst passed her the spellbook using his magic. She caught it and motioned for him to walk up to the right of her as she needed his help as well. He did so, and she took a few deep breaths to calm her nervousness.

Everypony stood with trepidation and nervousness, for it was now or never. If this spell failed to work, then nothing would. Time was not on their side and they had to do this before Grogar found out about it. Twilight knew that if Grogar attacked again before they were ready, then they would be unprepared to deal with him.

Twilight levitated the pieces up into the air using her magic. “Prepare yourselves, everypony. Once we do this, there’s a good chance that Grogar will sense it and come for it.”

“But surely he would be preoccupied trying to find the other version of the Bell, right?” Sunny asked her.

“I wouldn’t be too sure.”

Sunny gulped with fear at that. Her mind raced as she realized just what she was getting herself into. It was an honor to stand alongside her idol, but at what cost would her wildest dream be?

Twilight turned towards her. “Sunny, I’m going to initiate the countdown. 5…”

Sunny nodded. “5.”

“This is a bad idea,” Sunburst warned, turning towards Clementine.

“We know it is. Keep going!” Twilight insisted.

“4…”

“4.”

“We need to abort now!” Sunburst shouted angrily.

“JUST DO IT!!” Twilight shot back with equal manner of anger in her voice. In her mind, they had gone too far to back out now.

“3…”

“3.”

“2…”

“2.”

“1…”

“1.”

Suddenly, Twilight’s eyes went wide and she clutched her temples, dark thoughts filling her mind. All at once, she was assaulted with a vision.
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First, she saw the entirety of Canterlot blow up in a massive burst of flames, burying everything within a thousand mile radius under a mountain of ash and smoke.

As the dust settled, she heard the sound of footsteps. A blue ram with red eyes and a greying mane and tail walked slowly towards the wreckage, a look of pure anger on his face.

He stopped at the explosion, sniffing around. Twilight felt her heart beat faster and faster. Yet, even when he was looking directly at her, he didn’t seem to notice her.

The scene abruptly shifted to a funeral and a flaming casket being burned. The deceased occupant was none other than Fluttershy. Around her was a crowd of ponies, all with their heads down. They all had shackles on their hooves like slaves, every one of them gathered in a circle around the funeral pyre.

Twilight was in the middle, tears streaming down her face as she stared at her dead friend, completely helpless to do anything against the old ram that was approaching the funeral site.

The scene shifted again to a fight in the Hollow Shades. Rainbow Dash was fighting the ram from earlier in hoof-to hoof combat. With a yell, the ram viciously stabbed her through the heart. As the blue pegasus fell to the floor bleeding, the scene shifted again.

This time, it was in the ruins of the Crystal Brighthouse. The Unity Crystals were on the floor, shattered into a million pieces. Sunny was holding the burnt, dead body of Hitch. She was crying, tears of anger and pain streaming down her face as the ram slowly approached her.

He placed a gentle hoof around the earth pony, the sobs turning into subdued breaths as a look of anger overcame her.

The scene shifted one last time to Sunny hovering above the ruins of Maretime Bay in her alicorn form, with an army of hellhounds and other demonic creatures, holding the severed head of Zipp Storm, her eyes now a pupiless red.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Twilight gasped as the vision abruptly ended, the thoughts still coursing through her head like a river flowing through a creek. She took a few shaky breaths to calm herself as she attempted to process what she had just seen.

“Twilight?” She heard Sunny ask from where she was. It was clear that the younger pony was waiting for the signal to go. No way were they going to proceed with it now.

The alicorn shook her head. “No…”

Unfortunately, Sunny seemed to take it as an affirmative, repeating it as “go.” Starlight and the unicorns reacted in an instant, their horns lighting up one by one with arcane magic and shooting blasts at the assembled pieces.

Twilight sighed and shot a blast of her own into the magic bubble. Sunny did the same, followed by Sunburst. The pieces shook and trembled under the combined power of the unicorns, slowly moving closer and closer together.

That was when the rest of the ponies’ cutie marks activated and magic shot out of them and at the pieces of the Bell, causing the magic bubble to grow bigger and bigger. The room was lit up by the colors of the rainbow, beams of all colors imaginable illuminating it and the surrounding area.

Sunny and Twilight’s foreheads were sweating as they gritted their teeth, struggling to maintain control on the spell. The pieces shook and shook with greater intensity until there was a blinding flash of light and all three of them fell back on their haunches.

The Bell’s remains were pulsating with a blinding, pulsating white light as they slowly pieced themselves back together one by one, reassembling themselves. Twilight covered her eyes as the light got brighter and brighter as they crackled with electricity and power from all of the ponies present.

Sunny’s mouth opened in shock upon seeing this. As the Bell finished reassembling itself, it shook once more before the light dimmed and it fell to the ground with Sunburst managing to catch it in time.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then, the ponies began to hear a loud vibration sound and the sound of a mysterious voice coming from the Bell saying:

“The future has taken root in the present.”

“GET DOWN!!!” Sunny screamed, her eyes going wide.

Before they could all blink, a blast of rainbow magic shot upwards, breaking right through the ceiling. They all looked up at the destroyed ceiling, all knowing the deed had been done.

Outside, everypony could see what was going on. As the citizens talked amongst themselves worriedly, the shockwaves from the explosion cascaded throughout the land in every direction, the sound of the crackling magic being carried along with it.

The shockwaves reached a cave in the EverFree Forest, with none other than Grogar himself picking up on it. He smiled sinisterly as he realized what had just happened. Those foolish ponies had restored his Bell, and he was coming back for it.

“So begins the end…” he stated, grinning from ear to ear.

Author's Note:

Well, I finally did it. I would like to sincerely apologize for having you and everyone else wait so long for my chapter, but life ended up getting in the way. Plus, I got my video to worry about and the ever-changing release dates for this bad boy. But it’s finally here and you might have noticed some references to Zack Snyder’s Justice League thrown in there. It’s my favorite movie of all time, so I couldn’t resist upping the stakes by teasing a “Knightmare” future where Grogar rampages throughout the multiverse and turns Sunny evil.

Yeah, evil Sunny seems to be something I’m doing a lot now, huh? Well, I had to resurrect Zack’s Justice League sequel plans somehow. Whether or not you (referring to bookhorse125) take these ideas up for a potential future sequel is up to you, but I’m just laying the groundwork here in case this interests you in any way. Again, sorry I took so long on this. I promise I won’t take this long again. I’ll have more time once my video is posted.

Thanks for having me on again!

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Special thanks to Admiral Producer for writing this chapter! And special thanks to you, the reader, for having superb patience. I really appreciate you working with me here! Enjoy this chapter!

Comments

[Admiral Producer]

Hey there! Could you make a quick grammatical fix for me? I accidentally put ‘Clementine’ instead of Sunny in one area because some of the description here came from a work print of another story and I thought I edited everything, but apparently not. Thanks!

[Forcalor]

Plot thickens!