The Ballad of Royal Blue

by PonyWithAPen

Paulie's folly

Chrysalis felt the force of a powerful blast of confetti. Pinkie’s aim was spot-on, as usual. Pinkie swung her cannon as needed as she fired round after round of party favors into the crowd. Sure, they didn’t actually hurt, but they were prone to stun if you weren’t expecting them. Twilight used her magic to carry the box toward her.

“It’s time, ponies. It’s time.” She opened the box and assigned each element to its designated bearer. Twilight cast a shield around her friends, so the changelings could not interrupt this very important process. She deactivated it once each mare had experienced her element power-up. When Queen Chrysalis saw her foes wearing the elements, she was understandably perturbed.

“What?? The Elements of Harmony? Where did they come from? We searched through every corner of the castle in Canterlot! If we couldn’t find them, how did you find them?” Twilight grinned.
“Let’s just say it was a very ‘Royal’ affair.” In that moment, Chrysalis realized that she was screwed.

Back atop the canyon, Paulie held Royal, waiting for his answer. Finally, Royal began speaking.

“I’ll tell you exactly why your plan will fail.” Paulie grinned again.

“Oh, I cannot wait to hear this!”

“So, you ransacked Canterlot Castle, right?” Paulie nodded.

“Yes, we most certainly did. Those royals don’t go free unless I say so! The only thing I couldn’t understand is why we couldn’t recover the Elements of Harmony! Celestia must have hidden them in such a place unknown to anyone but her…but that’s okay! As long as those ponies don’t have them, Chrysalis and I have won!”

“Uh, yeah…about that…”

No sooner had Royal utterered those words, then a rainbow burst through the top of the cave where the battle still took place. Paulie had his back turned, but Royal could see it.

“So, any last words before I throw your pathetic carcass into the abyss?”

“Yeah. Look behind you.” Royal said, smiling. Paulie turned himself around and nearly turned white at what he saw. The rainbow burst through another section of the cave and then it vanished. Paulie, foreigner as he was to the land of Equestria, still understood what that rainbow could do.

“T-that w-was t-the Rainbow…of…Light! But how?” Royal cleared his throat in an over-the-top way.

“You want answers, bird? I’ll give you answers. Before you invaded the castle, I was there. Celestia knew something was up because she’d been getting reports of strange happenings in Ponyville, like the time you tried to ambush me. So, she invited me to the castle under the guise of ‘wanting to talk.’ While I was there, she trusted me with the Elements of Harmony. I went back home and despite your best efforts, reunited with my friends and came here to deliver the elements.”

With each sentence Royal spoke, Paulie slipped further and further off the rails of sanity.

“So you see, if you would have killed me when you had me captured, my friends never would have recovered the Elements of Harmony and you would be well on your way to becoming the King of Equestria right now. But you didn’t. That is why your plan is going to fail.” Royal finished, with a great big smirk on his face. Paulie was past the verge of being simply angry now.

“Kill you…kill…you…kill you!” Paulie yelled, barely coherently. He lifted Royal high above his own head and brought him down, twisting the young pegasus’s wings with all of his strength, causing them to break, violently. Royal screamed in pain. This was even worse than the shock waves he’d been forced to endure earlier.

Back inside the cave, Chrysalis and her army had vanished due to the rainbow. Twilight and the others were busy wrapping everything up. Pinkie, who had summoned the best of her ability to join in the final stages of the battle, still had to be carried on Rainbow’s back. She was a little woozy.

“Well girls, another job well done. Let’s track down Royal and get back to Ponyville with the good news!” Twilight said. As if on cue, Royal’s screams of pain entered the cave. Fluttershy grew very scared.

“That sounds like Royal! Oh my…” the timid mare said, not wanting to imagine the pain he was in.

The group exited the cave in a hurry. It was raining. With her extraordinary vision, Rainbow found Paulie and Royal hovering high above the canyon.

“Up there!” She signaled to the rest of the girls.

“You shouldn’t have spoken to me so rudely, Blue Boy! Now rot in your fiery grave!” The griffon threw Royal directly downward toward the lava. Rainbow saw him fall.

“No!” She quickly hefted Pinkie onto Applejack’s back and took off, trying to catch her little brother. However, in her hastiness, she didn’t account for the fact that she and the girls had fought a very tiring battle, and she lost most of her energy before she reached the top of the canyon. She crashed into the side and rolled back down. She landed, with a forlorn look on her face.

“No…I…couldn’t save him…”

Applejack and the rest of the group comforted each other. They had lost a brave friend. Meanwhile, Royal stared up at Paulie as everything seemed to slow down. He could see images of his friends and the wonderful times he’d had flashing before his eyes.

I guess this is really it. I have no regrets. I lived a good life. I played my part in this battle. Chrysalis is gone, and Paulie can’t possibly rule the world by himself. He’s an idiot.

I changed my mind…I have one regret. I won’t be able to watch Scootaloo grow up. Goodbye, kiddo…

Royal passed out from the pain of his broken wings, hoping the lava wouldn’t wake him.

Paulie, who had long since escaped the realm of sanity, started cackling as he realized what he’d done.

“Yes! Yes! Finally, I have ridden myself of that blasted stallion! Who needs Chrysalis? I sure don’t need her! I don’t need anyone! I’ll gather my own army and take over this rotten land myself! And there won’t be a damn thing anyone will be able to do to stop me!”

Except for a massive lightning bolt that just so happened to come crashing down upon him, killing him instantly with impossible voltage. Paulie’s body plummeted unceremoniously into the lava below. Rainbow watched him fall, as the others didn’t have the stomach to do so.

Good riddance.

The battle was finally over.

Equestria was safe.

As they turned to leave, Pinkie noticed someone among them was missing.

“Hey! Where’d Gilda go?” Rainbow sighed.

“Probably back home…she did her part. Perhaps one day we can truly be friends again.” There was a brief pause. Finally, Twilight broke the silence.

“We should find a place to rest. Tomorrow, we need to visit Canterlot and make sure everypony’s okay.” Twilight led the group away from the scene, bearing a heavy heart over what had happened to Royal. The victory was indeed bittersweet.

The image kept playing through his mind. His wings were broken, and he was a beaten stallion plummeting to his doom. Yet, he never hit the lava. A mysterious savior swooped in to save him at the last possible second. However, since he had passed out, he never knew this had happened. Thus, when Royal Blue opened his eyes, he was as surprised as anyone that he still lived. He tried to move his wings, but he had no luck.

Still broken…I guess that means this isn’t a dream. I’m still alive! Ha! Bite me, Paulie!

Still, Royal wondered how he possibly could have survived that ordeal.

I guess I’m back at the hospital in Ponyville…Nurse Redheart will probably come into my room any moment now.

A nurse came into the room, but it was not Nurse Redheart. In fact, it wasn’t a pony at all. Royal’s nurse was a griffon. This confused him.

“Nurse…can I ask you a question?” he wondered.

“Sure.” The nurse said, smiling.

“Where am I? How did I get here? Last I remember, I was falling to my hot, boiling death,” he said, weakly. The door opened. Gilda entered the room and approached him.

“Hey there, Royal. I see you finally woke up. Good, you’re not as soft as I thought.” Though she’d thrown a couple snarky remarks his way, her face showed she was genuinely relieved.

Later that day, the Mane Six entered Canterlot. Everything seemed normal, and now they just had to check up on the royal family. Upon entering the castle, there was no evidence of foul play, much to Twilight’s relief.

“Hmm…everything looks okay. That castle guard told me my brother was resting with Cadance. But I need to speak with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!” Twilight entered the next room with her friends following close behind, only to find her mentor sitting on her throne, as usual. Celestia beamed when she saw her student. She stood up from her throne and the two of them shared a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re okay! Royal told me everything!” Celestia smiled.

“Everything is back to normal, thanks to all of you. When you told me about those strange griffon attacks, I knew something was going on. I trusted Royal with the Elements of Harmony and he did not disappoint. Is he here? I’d like to offer my congratulations.” The group hung their heads.

“Princess, I’ve got some bad news for you.” Rainbow said. She struggled to keep her emotions in check.

“Royal’s…dead.”

Meanwhile, the very-much alive Royal was still in a conversation with Gilda, his rescuer.

“Gilda…how were you able to break away from the battle to save me?” Gilda, usually eager to take all the credit in the world, instead deflected it elsewhere.

“You’d really have to thank Pinkie. She’s a lot tougher than any of us thought. She bounced back into battle like a true champion. That gave me my chance.” Royal smiled. After all the time he’d spent protecting her, in the end, she indirectly returned the favor.

Royal had already had an exam and now he and Gilda simply waited on the diagnosis. Finally, the doctor came back into the room.

“So Doc, how long am I going to be here?” The doctor glanced at his results.

“You took quite a beating. You’ll be here for at least a couple weeks, if not more. If it was just the wings, we’d let you go in a few days. But you had shock waves course throughout your body for a prolonged period of time. You need to rest and get everything to go back to normal.” Royal nodded.

“Okay…”

He could live with an extended hospital stay. His only hope was that his friends were doing okay. They had taken just as much of a beating as he had while battling the changelings. He hoped Scootaloo was okay.

Please, Rainbow…just once, tell a little white lie. Don’t crush the kid’s world like that…I’m coming home.

Back in Canterlot, the girls left the castle. They’d all had a good cry with the princess over Royal’s fate.

“That…was a rough visit. Now we head home to tell everyone the news…the good, and the bad.” Twilight said. The girls headed toward the train station.

Octavia sat inside the house she and Vinyl shared. Vinyl had gone out to check on the castle and Tavi was expecting her to return at any moment. She sighed and turned away from the window.

“I sure hope Royal made it in time to help.” Suddenly Vinyl burst in the doorway with all the subtlety of her bass cannon.

“Hey Tavi! Guess what? The guards are back in charge at the castle! I also saw Rainbow Dash and her friends walking around! You know what that means, right? The kid did it!” Vinyl grabbed Tavi and swung her around as she laughed.

“Settle down, Vinyl. Are you sure you saw them?” Vinyl stopped and both of them sat on the sofa.

“Yeah I did, Tavi! But…they all looked so sad.” Vinyl said as her mood took a 180 degree turn.

“Tavi, you don’t think…”

“Did you ask them, Vinyl?” Octavia asked. Vinyl shook her head.

“Well then, it’s wrong to assume such a terrible thing. We’ll know in due time. Keep your chin up.” Octavia smiled and cupped Vinyl’s chin in her hooves, which helped the DJ smile as well.

“By the way, don’t you have a gig tonight?” Vinyl nodded.

“Heck yeah, I do! And tonight’s theme is sweet, sweet victory!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sat and played with Apple Bloom at her house within Sweet Apple Acres. The trio played together under the watchful eye of Granny Smith, who watched and waited for Applejack to return from the battle. All of Ponyville worried for their beloved soldiers. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom for their big sisters, Scootaloo for her surrogate sister and brother, the Cakes for Pinkie, Fluttershy’s pets for her, Spike for Twilight, and everyone for the Mane Six and Royal in general to different degrees. He had won the population back to his side as the changelings proved they had duped the townsfolk. Thankfully, Ponyville’s beloved fighters were returning home on the next train, minus one.

One pony left behind in Ponyville worried about Royal as much as Scootaloo did. Yet, there was pain left in her heart by the things Changeling Royal had done. Derpy needed to see the real Royal again, so he could prove that he wasn’t the bad guy that teased her (nonverbally) about her eyes and mocked her silly nature as simple stupidity.

I’m waiting for you, Captain Royal…