Friendship is Magic Redux

by paiohelohelo

Ch. 20- Friendship is Magic, Part 2

Twilight and her friends just stood there, their mouths agape.

“Please, do sit down, we have much to discuss,” The Elements motioned for her to join them at the table. Slowly, Twilight complied, nodding to her friends to do the same; they eventually all sat down with the two Twilights, frowning in absolute confusion.

Twilight was the first to speak up. “What do you mean We?"

The Elements smiled. “Though we appear as one, we actually exist as separate parts, each piece of the greater whole entirely dependent on the others,” she made a point to glance around at everyone at the table as she said this, “six sides of the same interdimensional coin, so to speak.”

Twilight frowned. “If you’re intelligent, if you’re all self- aware, then… you could’ve stopped all of this, couldn’t you?”

The Elements shook their head. “Regardless of what the Equestrians believed, Twilight, we are not omnipotent gods… we simply exist, just as you simply exist, and we may be abused or ignored as anyone else in this universe might be.”

Twilight took in what they said. “Where did you come from?”

“We are the last remnants of an intelligent form of life stemming from another existence, one entirely separate from yours; an ancient universe that has long since faded away into the Great Nothingness,” The Elements explained. “I believe your people have certain theoretical terms that loosely approximate our true nature, terms such as Technological Singularity and Omega Point.”

Twilight shook her head, which was overloading with all the implications of this revelation. “What do you want from us?”

The Elements smiled widely at her. “We have been watching you, Twilight Sparkle, indeed-“ they turned to all of her friends- “-we have been watching all of you. We have observed you disregard your own lives, time and time again, all to protect and nourish others, all to protect and nourish each other. You have all kept your hearts wide open, even in the most dire and inhumane of circumstances, and for that we have come to deeply admire you. As we have said before, we are no gods, and others may choose to ignore our advice and abuse our power… however-“ The Elements looked Twilight very seriously in the eye, “if we choose to do so, we may redirect that power to those who we wish to possess it, those who have proven themselves worthy… those who choose to leave their hearts open, always.”

Twilight looked at all of her friends, and then back at The Elements. “Wait a minute, you want to give us your boundless energy, your ability to rearrange reality itself, all of that jazz… seriously?”

The Elements laughed, but in a kind manner. “Oh, Twilight Sparkle, do you really believe that those are the most important gifts that we can give you? A bag of fancy parlor tricks?” The Elements leaned in and put their hand on top of hers, almost as if Twilight was her own wise, world- weary mentor. “Maybe, Twilight, just maybe, it wasn’t the free energy or the power to change reality that made the Equestrians great… maybe all we really did for them was to teach them, in the beginning, how to open up their hearts, how to dream and to hope, to trust that, if you give yourself over to love and tolerance, entirely, then everything could work out all right in the end. After a very, very long time, however, the Equestrians just stopped listening to us, becoming more and more obsessed with obtaining physical power, with becoming us themselves… when things took a turn for the worst, as such things will naturally happen in all of the universes that have ever sprung into being, they chose instead to shut their hearts up tight, hurrying towards their inevitable ruin.”

Twilight tried to think about that, but her mind suddenly snapped back to the task that the main six had all left unfinished.

As if they had read her mind, The Elements smiled back at her. “Yes, Twilight, we will help you defeat The Alicorn Queen and save Equestria… however, such power doesn’t come easily, I’m afraid. You will now have to carry our collective burden as your share our power. Not parlor tricks, but-“ they turned to address each of the girls in turn- “Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, and-“ The Elements turned back to Twilight, “-Transformation itself. The only real Magic that has ever existed; these will be the most important gifts that we can bestow upon you, augmenting what stores you already have until you may, together, achieve anything that your hearts desire. Then,” the fake Twilight touched her counterpart where her heart was, “The spirits of The Elements of Harmony will be right here. The question is, however… are you ready to accept us?”

Twilight turned to her friends; they looked uncertainly at each other before they all turned to look at her. Somehow, in her heart, Twilight began to understand that, through all of their ordeals together, Rainbow Dash’s off- hand joke had somehow become true- she really had become their leader. They all stared at her, waiting for her to speak.

“You know,” she began to address the entire table thoughtfully, “I never really believed in magic. I always thought that the only way to make it in life was to check my logic, never rely on feeling alone, and to only trust in what I could calculate and then subsequently recalculate… I thought that magic was all just lies, sparks shooting out of a wand, or something like that. But, the exact moment I met all of you…” she started to tear up as she smiled towards all of her friends, “I felt a spark ignite deep within me, a different kind of spark… I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all... are my friends, and… I… I…” she tried to continue, but she found that she couldn’t as she gasped with all the feelings she had for them, all coming up to the surface at once.

Applejack walked around the table to hug her tightly. “I felt that spark too, sugarcube,”

Rarity joined her. “As did I, darling,”

Fluttershy hugged the three of them. “Me too.”

“Yeah, I have to admit, you’re all pretty damn awesome, even in comparison to me,” Rainbow Dash added as she came over.

Pinkie Pie just burst into great, big tears, wailing as she took a napkin off of the table to wipe her eyes; she ran up to hug all of them as tightly as she could.

“I love you, girls,” Twilight declared, sniffling, and turned to her counterpart; the fake Twilight beamed brightly at them all, and her smile seemed to light up the entire room that was rapidly fading out of sight as the girls hugged and laughed with each other.

“Then you are ready,” The Elements nodded to them as everything turned completely white.

************************************************************************************

Nightmare stopped attacking the group of humans that had come to her opponent’s rescue; she watched in uncertainty as they had all closed their eyes and started to float, unaided, into the air. But what about her opponent herself? Nightmare felt an unbearable light start to shine from behind her, and she turned around to find the pesky little Unicorn floating before her, eyes closed; she had suddenly transformed, her battered PALADIN armor changed into a beautiful, traditional Equestrian gown in a deep, royal purple; The Elements of Harmony had disappeared, and the light source was emanating from the Unicorn herself. Nightmare turned back again and watched in disbelief as her companion’s armor became pieces of elegant Equestrian clothing as well, and they began to glow with the respective colors of the lights that had chosen them, slowly floating into the air to join Twilight as she unconsciously faced The Alicorn Queen.

“What?” Nightmare muttered to herself as their bodies began forming some sort of bright, glowing formation before her.

In front of each of the five attacker’s necks, an ornately designed golden necklace appeared, each one denoting the very essence of its bearer in a potent, jeweled symbol. The energy around the main six started to hum louder and louder, and Nightmare watched in horror as a large, golden, bejeweled tiara topped with a six- pointed star appeared on the Unicorn’s head. It was the most beautiful, most terrifying, and very last thing that The Alicorn Queen ever saw.

The five behind the Unicorn suddenly shot out their respective colors of light high up towards the ceiling, and the Unicorn’s own tiara fired a purple light of its own; the lights swirled around each other in a massive double helix before raining down on The Alicorn Queen, a rainbow- colored blast that swirled around her as she kicked her legs and flapped her wings in a vain attempt to escape.

“No… no, this cannot be- how could THEY have been chosen-“ the last of her working circuits tried to process as her body began to disintegrate in the unbearable light. “No, no- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Nightmare screamed out loud as she was obliterated into a black dust, which was itself pulled apart on the subatomic level into nothingness.

Twilight and her friends floated there, all radiantly beautiful with calm looks on their faces and their eyes closed. The enormous amount of light around them seemed to be increasing again. Twilight opened her eyes, finally awakened; time and space twisted to her demands as all of Equestria faded into the brightness.

************************************************************************************

“Cloudbuster One to Town Hall, Cloudbuster One to Town Hall, come in Town Hall, OVER!!!”

“Town Hall to Cloudbuster One, what’s your status, over?”

“I… I don’t know, General… something’s happening to The Alicorn Eye… something BRIGHT, over!"

The female stealth bomber pilot and her co- pilot both started to panic when The Alicorn Eye began to open up, all on its own, glowing with a strange new light that they had never seen before in all of their Eye runs. Suddenly, the Cloudbuster and every other stealth aircraft in the fleet surrounding The Eye watched as it threw itself entirely open, for the first time; it continued to widen until it had completely dissipated, throwing out a massive, multicolored shockwave in the night sky, in all directions. The bomber pilot and her co- pilot threw their heads down, expecting their aircraft to be thrown about like a toy, but the wave merely passed by each and every stealth plane around it without doing any harm, sending a supernatural display of light shuddering towards the stars up above. Breathing hard, the pilot looked down, and gasped in shock at the sight far below her- it was the most glorious thing that she had ever seen in her entire life.

“-I said, come in Cloudbuster One, REPORT! Is there a need to arm and drop your tactical payload?!?! OVER!!!” General Spinelli came crackling back on her emitter console.

The bomber pilot panted and began collecting her wits about her before answering back, shaking her head. “Negative, Town Hall, there’s nothing but… but…” she struggled to describe the phenomenon before her, “…but rainbows, m’am… lots and lots of… rainbows…”

She turned to her co- pilot. "You okay, Flitter?"

Her co- pilot gasped, but slowly started to nod. "I... I think so... you okay?"

Cloud Chaser nodded as Town Hall seemed to deliberate on what it had just received. “Do you see anything else, Cloudbuster One, anything at all?!”

Even though she was still scared out of her mind, Cloud Chaser allowed herself a small, uncertain smile.

“Affirmative, Town Hall, it’s, well… it’s Canterlot, m’am.”

************************************************************************************

“Mother…” a voice called out into the darkness.

“Twilight?” another seemed to urgently call back.

“Mother…” Twilight began to open her eyes in earnest.

She found herself lying in a brightly lit hospital room, the curtains thrown wide open to let the sunshine in. A plastic tube was stuck in her nose, and a soft beeping sound was emanating from a machine next to her. Twilight blinked a couple of times, allowing her eyes to focus on the image of her mother, wrapped in bandages and her own eyes red and puffy, leaning over her bed and looking at her daughter as she stroked her hair affectionately.

Twilight smiled, allowing herself to take in her mother’s soft touch with complete happiness and relief. She suddenly remembered her very last conscious memories, though, and shot up from her pillow, gasping.

“Oh no- !” she began to panic, “Nightmare- !”

Velvet shushed her daughter and pushed her back down, smiling. “She’s gone, honey, they all are… thanks to you.”

Twilight settled back down, feeling relaxed though still very confused. “Mom, where am I?”

“You’re in Ponyville General Hospital, as they call it,” Velvet replied, still stroking her hair, “Canterlot is a bit of a mess, right now, so they took you all here after it all happened.”

“Mom, what happened?”

Velvet hugged her daughter as she started to tear up, “You did it, kiddo, you did it… you saved Equestria…”

Twilight smiled. “I wasn’t alone…” she abruptly started to panic again. “oh, no, the girls- and Luna- and Spike- !”

“They’re all fine, dear,” Velvet laughed as she had to push her daughter down again. “Once you started to wake up, I sent Spike to get the girls to come see you; unfortunately, the director still needs some more rest, but she’s going to make a full recovery.”

Twilight felt the weight of the entire world fall off of her shoulders; she sighed, now insistent on settling into her not- so- cozy hospital bed. Velvet handed her a coffee cup that she had been drinking from, and Twilight squealed with delight and clapped her hands. As she drank from it, her mother looked at her, and she sighed as well.

“Twilight… after we argued the night before all of this happened, and as I’ve been watching you sleep for a couple of days afterwards, I… I got to thinking... I just wanted to tell you that you were right,” Velvet looked down at her hands. “I never should have left you, your brother and your father to come out here. You know, I always told myself that you were all the most important people to me in the entire world, but thinking back on how much of your lives I missed out on, well… I was more selfish and immature than I had even realized. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I’m sorry, baby, I’m truly, truly sorry for everything I put you through… everything,” she gestured to the hospital room around them.

Twilight’s face was unreadable for a minute; a million different voices in her head were all yelling at her, all demanding their own separate conclusions to this conversation. Eventually, she just smiled at her mother and stroked her gently on the arm.

“You know, a very smart, nice, pretty, and important scientist once said something… now, what was it?” Twilight feigned forgetfulness and slapped her head, “aw, you know how bad I am with quotes… I think it was something like, 'people change', but… then again, I might just be paraphrasing,”

Velvet sniffed, wiping away tears, and smiled as wide as she possibly could. “Oh, you only think I’m pretty ‘cus I look like you,” she shot back.

Twilight shrugged, smiling as widely as she possibly could as well. “I also only think that you’re nice ‘cus you keep bringing me coffee, but… eh, I guess we all take what we can get.”

Velvet happily laughed and tightly hugged her daughter, now feeling closer to her than ever before.

“I love you, sweetheart.”

Twilight smiled, patting her mother on the back. “I love you too, mom.”

“HUUUH!!! SHE’S AWAKE?!?!?” Twilight suddenly heard Pinkie Pie exclaim down the hall before she even saw her.

Twilight and Velvet laughed, shaking their heads.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie walked into Twilight’s room, smiling widely in relief that their friend was ok. Twilight cocked her head upon seeing them and stuck out her arms. Not needing any further invitation, Pinkie Pie jumped onto her bed and hugged her tightly, soon followed by the others. They all laughed and whooped and hollered together, as war heroes are wont to do after having survived so much together.

“TWILIGHT!!!” Pinkie Pie screamed in pure ecstasy.

“Oh, girls!” Twilight laughed, “I’m so glad you’re all ok!!!”

“Well, we’re not the ones who’ve been out for two days straight, sugarcube,” Applejack answered, smiling.

Twilight frowned. “Really?”

“Why yes, darling, we’ve all just been going out of our wits waiting for you to come to,” Rarity explained, fluffing her hair with her hand. “Stress really does a number on your complexion, you know.”

Twilight gasped. “Oh, Rarity- your hair,”

Rarity looked down at her newly regrown, luscious raven tresses, and genuinely smiled in delight. “Oh yes, I know!” she took up a clump of it, rubbed it against her face, and sighed. “I don’t believe I’ll be ever parting with it again, EVER, a- hahahaha- heh…” She stopped admiring herself when she saw the looks on everyone else’s faces. “Ahem- I mean, being superhuman does have its advantages, I suppose…”

Twilight cocked her head. “Superhuman? What do you mean by that?”

Fluttershy rubbed the back of her head. “Um, well, you see-“

“THIS!” Pinkie Pie finished for her as she threw off Twilight’s blanket and began raising her hospital gown up. Twilight gasped; she was about to yell at Pinkie, something about a grievous violation of personal space, when she noticed in shock that the large, gaping slash mark in her abdomen had completely disappeared, leaving only smooth, undisturbed skin. She struggled to find words, but only muttered incomprehensibly for a few seconds.

“Whudda- hud-d-duh- hud-d-duh- huh?!” she elaborated quite eloquently. “Fluttershy, how did you do it?”

Fluttershy blushed and tried, quite unsuccessfully, to hide behind Twilight’s IV drip. “Um, gosh, Twilight, it wasn’t me… b- but, um, I really appreciate that you would think that I was capable of doing that, really…”

“The Elements, hon’,” Applejack explained as well as she could, “We all just sorta woke up n’ we were ok, I guess… ‘cept you’ve been out fer a mighty long time, had us all real worried,” she playfully chucked Twilight on the shoulder.

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash sighed, “we all woke up…in dresses. AND jewelry.”

“Awww, now don’t be so grumpy, dearie,” Rarity began pinching her cheek playfully. “I thought you looked just adowable.”

Rainbow Dash just made a sound akin to a basketball slowly deflating, albeit a slightly pissed off and indignant basketball.

“Hey!” a voice spoke from right outside the door, “I get you guys a couple of sodas and you all leave me to go off by yourselves? Especially lugging this thing around… geez, the things I do for you people-“

Spike walked into the room with one armful of cans and the other in a sling, just in time to see everybody in there turn around to stare at him; Twilight still had her hospital gown lifted up.

Spike immediately dropped all of the sodas and covered his eyes with his good hand, blushing. “Oh God, Twilight- I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Twilight laughed, pulling down her gown. “Spike!”

Spike, still blushing, grinned sheepishly as he walked into the room and hugged her.

“I’m so glad you’re ok, Twilight, you really had me worried there for a bit,” he released his hug.

“Me? What about you?” Twilight stared at his sling. “Didn’t you get shot?”

Spike laughed and rubbed his shoulder. “Heh heh heh, yeah, I did… however, Fluttershy was nice enough to do the surgery to close up the wound herself when she got back, and I actually feel a lot better now,”

Twilight smiled at the Pegasus doctor, who only blushed and muttered something inaudible but surely humbling.

“And besides,” Spike’s mood visibly picked up a great deal, “Rarity promised that she would give me a sponge bath!”

“Now, Spike, I’ve already told you,” Rarity sighed, rolling her eyes. “That was a joke…”

They all laughed together, every one of them except Spike.

“You know, Twi, I was thinking,” Applejack said to her, “About what’cha said when we were all talkin’ to those freaky Elements… and, I know that, during combat, emotions can run high n’ all, but… well, I know that a lot a hooey can start flying around, and-”

Twilight held her hand and smiled. “I meant every word of it, Applejack, every word.”

Applejack’s eyes started to glisten, and she pulled Twilight into a big hug. The others started to jump in on it as Velvet and Spike watched happily from the side; Velvet smiled to see her daughter surrounded by so much love and affection.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you guys actually make me feel gayer,” Rainbow Dash grinned.

“Eeek! I’m so glad we’re all friends!” Fluttershy squealed with delight.

“BFFs forever!” Rarity giggled.

“Awww, I LOVE you guys!” Pinkie Pie shouted happily.

A sudden knock on the open door brought all of their attention elsewhere. Standing at the threshold to Twilight’s room was none other than The President of The United States herself, smiling warmly at them all.

“President Celestia!” Twilight cried out as Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and, for some reason, Pinkie Pie snapped to attention with salutes.

“Hello, everyone,” she greeted as she entered the room, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if I might have a word with Twilight, alone,”

Twilight’s new best friends all gave each other one last, big hug before they left her to talk with Celestia.

“I love you, dear,” Velvet hugged her daughter tightly as well, “I’ll see you soon.”

“Love you, mom,” Twilight replied before she left the room with the others.

“Good to have you back, Twi, I mean it,” Spike hugged her, too. “I’ll, uh, go get you another cup of coffee,”

“Thank you, #1 assistant!" Twilight chuckled as she waved goodbye and he left as well, closing the door behind him.

Celestia smiled as she watched them all go; when she and Twilight were alone, she sat down on the bed next to her.

“How are you feeling, my dear?” she inquired with genuine worry.

“Oh, you know, same old, same old,” Twilight joked, making Celestia smile. “How’s Luna doing, President Celestia?”

“Oh, she’s definitely been better, but she’ll be fine; after all, she really does love sleeping in during the day… She sends you her regards as well as, in her own words, her ‘sincerest thanks’,”

Twilight grinned, relieved; Celestia just patted her hand gently.

“Twilight Sparkle, my dearest, most faithful student,” she beamed at her. “You really are quite a remarkable person, aren’t you?”

Twilight blushed, combing back her bangs with one hand. “Oh, Madam President, gosh… I really wasn’t alone out there,”

Celestia turned her head towards the door, smiling. “Yes, I see that you’ve made some very good friends as a result of your adventure. Why, I can’t remember you ever being this social during Philosophy class,” her grin turned into a playful smirk. “In fact, I seem to recall that there was this one boy who you just seemed to absolutely hate… oh, what was his name…”

“Dillon,” Twilight blushed, thinking back on the many years that she spent dating him afterwards. “Yeah, we just… never seemed to really get along, in retrospect,”

Celestia nodded. “Well, it seems as if you’ve finally found people who really care for and trust in you, my dear… such friendships really are very difficult to come by,”

Twilight nodded back. “Indeed they are, Madam President. I’m just so lucky to have had them out there with me. You know, I’ve really learned so much from them…”

“Oh?” Celestia raised a brow. “Would you care to give me a ‘friendship report’, then, so to speak?”

Twilight giggled. “Well… my friends have taught me that there’s a lot more to life than just what’s in front of our eyes. Sometimes we can’t see or feel these amazing things that are happening right in front of us, maybe just a little out of reach… we need the people that we love, people who really know who we are, on the inside, to show them to us. If we don’t have that sort of love around us, well, then we’re really not living, to be honest. We’re just like…” Twilight thought about her words for a minute. “…cold machines going through life without ever feeling it. And once we find the kinds of people who allow us to open up our hearts, really wide open, then I guess we kind of become different people ourselves, rediscovering who we are when we’re forced to do new and scary things to protect the love that we’ve found, and, you know, rise up to the challenge… and… and… that’s kind of why I’ve decided to stay here in Equestria and take up your job offer, Madam President.”

Celestia beamed at her faithful student again, her eyes glistening. She shook her head with emotion, and then hugged Twilight tightly.

“Oh, I'm so proud of you, Twilight Sparkle, and I'm very impressed with your friends, as well. It sounds like you're all learning so much from each other.”

“Well,” Twilight replied, “you know how much I love to learn.”

Celestia stroked her arm and laughed merrily. “I’ll let you rest now, my faithful student. We have much more to discuss, surely, but that will all come in time.”

Twilight smiled at her, before hugging her favorite teacher one last time. “Thank you, President Celestia, for everything.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “And what have I given you, exactly, my dear?”

“The chance to meet so many wonderful, amazing people,” Twilight thought back to all of her new friends, “and a reminder of who I really am.”

“Twilight Sparkle, all I did was remind you that you couldn’t help but ace all of your classes, nothing more,” Celestia smiled.

Twilight just smiled back at her, mouthing the words “thank you”.

Celestia got up to leave; right before she walked out the door, however, she turned around, smirking again at Twilight.

“You know, I would be very happy if you kept in touch with me, Twilight; perhaps if you ever get the chance to write another ‘friendship report’, you might think about sending me a copy.”

Twilight laughed heartily. “If I ever do, Madam President, I’ll get my personal assistant right on it.”

Celestia chuckled. “Goodbye, my faithful student. Please get well soon,”

Twilight smiled at her favorite teacher. “Goodbye, President Celestia.”

Celestia left the room and Twilight sighed, settling back into her pillows. She really wished Spike would get back with her coffee soon; surprisingly, however, she wished even more that she would soon be seeing her friends again.