{"sf1_id":791200,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Equestrian Knights Ch 17. Power of Friendship/Epilogue","author":"BluebloodFan91","words":3835,"posted_at":"2014-12-03T17:57:00.000Z","tags":["Adventure","Applejack","Blueblood","Cadence","Celestia","Changelings","Character Development","Chrysalis","Clean","Dragon","Equine","Fantasy","Flam","Flim","Fluttershy","Friendship is magic","Griffin","Gryphon","Hoops","Horse","Humor","Iron Will","Jetset","King Sombra","Lightning Dust","MLP","Minotaur","My Little Pony","Pegasus","Pinkie Pie","Plot Development","Pony","Prince Blueblood","Princess Celestia","Princess Luna","Princess cadence","Queen chrysalis","Rainbow Dash","Rarity","Shining Armor","Sombra","Spike","Story Progression","Story Series","Suburban Knights","Trixie","Twilight Sparkle","Unicorn","Upper Crust","alicorn","changeling","discord","dumbbell","gilda","luna","parody","score","surprise"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791200-equestrian-knights-ch-17-power-of-friendship-epilogue","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/791200","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=791200\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"\n\nCh 17. Power of Friendship\n\nA black cloud of smoke flew in through the shattered\nwindow into the throne room, and transformed back into King Sombra,\nlanding on the marble floor. He saw Queen Chrysalis, no longer attached\nto her ovipositor, standing there levitating two ponies over her head\nwith her magic, Prince Blueblood, and Lightning Dust.\"My love, are you alright?\" the unicorn king asked the Changeling queen.\"Just\nfine,\" Chrysalis said to him with a grin. \"These two tried to steel the\nelements, but they soon found out I am not to be underestimated.\"Sombra\nbreathed a sigh of relief just as the rest of the Changeling swarm flew\nin through the shattered window, followed shortly by two giant rock\nhands. The hands opened, dropping Trixie, Gilda, Jet Set, Upper Crust,\nDumbbell, Hoops, Score, Flim, Flam, and Iron Will onto the floor in a\nheap.The group grunted as they landed on\nthe hard marble floor. They looked up, as they lay there, at Sombra and\nChrysalis towering over them, and Blueblood and Lightning Dust being\nlevitated in the Changeling Queen's magic. It didn't take a genius to\ntell that they had been unsuccessful.Chrysalis\ndropped Blueblood and Lightning Dust onto the floor over with the\nothers and then levitated the elements off of Lightning Dust back over\nto her side.\"Are you guys okay?\" Hoops asked everyone.\"No,\" grunted Flam as he and the rest of them got to their feet. \"We're all captured again.\"Jet Set looked over at Blueblood and Lightning Dust. \"What happened?\"Lightning Dust and Blueblood looked ashamed. \"It didn't go as planned,\" Lightning Dust muttered.Queen\nChrysalis stepped towards them and spoke. \"Tell me, what exactly did\nyou expect to accomplish by all this? You already found out the elements\nwont work for you, so why try to take them again?\"\"We were going to try and get them to ponies who could use them,\" Iron Will grunted as he rubbed his arm, which he had fallen on and hurt.Chrysalis\nraised her eyebrows. \"That's surprisingly noble of you lot.\" Then she\nlooked at Blueblood. \"Speaking of noble, what are you doing here? I\nthought your friends said that you had ran away?\"Blueblood looked at his comrades as he answered. \"I came back to help them.\"\"Well this day has just been full of surprises,\" said Chrysalis.\"What shall we do with them, love?\" Sombra asked her as he stepped up to her side.Chrysalis\nsighed and let the elements fall to the floor around her hooves. \"Oh,\nlets just kill them and be done with it. I've got to get back to laying\nmy army.\"The twelve group members lying\non the floor gasped. They glanced around for a way to possibly escape,\nbut there were too many Changelings surrounding them throughout the\nthrone room, on the ground and in the air. There was no way out this\ntime. They were going to die.Sombra and Chrysalis's horns began to glow with their magic, readying a killing spell.\"Well, guys, it was nice knowing you all,\" said Score.The\nfeeling was mutual between them as they all responded to him with nods,\nand a few \"Same here\"'s. They all closed their eyes and braced\nthemselves for what they knew was about to come.But much to their surprise, it never came.\"WHAT!?\" they heard Chrysalis shout in confused shock.The\ngroup all peeked their eyes open a crack to see why they hadn't been\nkilled yet, and could see a bright white light. They opened their eyes\nthe rest of the way, and saw that the bright light was coming from the\nsix Elements of Harmony down at Chrysalis's hooves.\"What's going on?\" Upper Crust asked, raising her hoof to shield her eyes from the bright light.Everyone\nstared in awe as the six elements then floated up into the air, and\nhovered over above where the twelve adventurers were standing.\"HOW CAN THIS BE?!\" Sombra exclaimed.\"IMPOSSIBLE!\" Chrysalis shouted.The\nelements flashed another blinding burst of light, and then suddenly\ntransformed back into their original sphere forms. Blueblood and the\nothers suddenly felt a wave of energy flow into them. Their eyes began\nglowing with the same white light that the elements were giving off.\nThey didn't know how or why, but they realized that the elements, for\nsome reason, were obeying them now. They began to float up off the floor\ninto the air, with the elements hovering in a circle around them. In\nthat moment, it hit them that they now had the power they needed to\ndefeat the Changelings and Sombra. They all turned their heads to glare\ndown at the two evil monsters standing below them.\"NO!\"\nshouted Chrysalis, realizing the deep trouble she was in. She turned\nand shoved a dumbfounded Sombra beside her with her body, knocking him\nto the floor. \"OUT OF MY WAY!\" she screamed as she flared her wings and\nbegan flying up towards the shattered window in an attempt to escape.But the ten ponies, griffon, and minotaur had no intention of allowing that.\"TASTE THE RAINBOW, MOTHER BUCKERS!\" they all shouted in unison.In\nthat instant, a circular blast of all the colors of the rainbow shot\nout from the elements in every direction, sending all the Changelings,\nSombra, and Chrysalis all hurtling backwards. Chrysalis was knocked out\nof the air by the blast and sent plummeting into a wall face first.The\nrainbow wave passed through the castle walls, shattering the rest of\nthrone room's windows as it did so, and kept going outside the castle,\nstriking Sombra's three giant rock creatures, which then instantly\ncrumbled and collapsed into piles of rubble.Back\ninside the castle, the rainbow light from the elements flooded all\nthroughout the throne room. One by one, every one of the Changelings let\nout blood curdling screeches as the harmony blasts hit them, causing\ntheir bodies to shrivel up and crumble into little piles of dust on the\nfloor.Sombra screamed in agony as he felt\nhis entire body being turned to stone by the rainbow light hitting him.\nHis screaming only ended when his head completely turned to stone along\nwith the rest of his body, leaving only a statue of him where he had\nbeen standing.And Chrysalis shrieked as\nthe rainbow light swirled around her, her body drying up and shriveling\ninto a brittle shell. Finally, her legs gave out from under her and she\ncollapsed to the marble floor, her body shattering into dust upon\nimpact.The rainbow light from the element\ncontinued to flow out over all of Equestria, lighting up the night like\nthe day, and destroying all of Chrysalis's and Sombra's monsters, and\nfreeing everypony who had been captured by them.Finally,\nback in the throne room, once all else in the world had been set right,\nthe elements set to work fixing the one last thing that needed fixed.\nOne last rainbow blast from the elements began to swirl around the\ncrystal statues of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Twilight Sparkle,\nRarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Cadence,\nCaptain Shining Armor, and Spike. The black crystal statues began to\ncrack all over, and in a few seconds, shattered into a million pieces,\nrevealing the royals, the element bearers, and the baby dragon, all\nalive and back to their normal selves, but with utterly confused looks\non their faces. It didn't take them long, however, to notice the group\nof twelve individuals floating in the middle of the room, wielding the\nElements of Harmony.The enemy defeated,\nBlueblood and the others descended back down to the floor. Once their\nhooves made contact with the ground, their eyes stopped glowing as the\npower of the Elements of Harmony left them. The elements then\ntransformed back into their necklace and crown forms, and fell down to\nthe floor besides the twelve adventurers with a small clatter.They\neach gave a sigh of relief. It was finally over. Everything was finally\nset right. Then they looked over at the royals and the element bearers,\nwho were staring at them all with their mouths agape.Hoops raised a hoof and gave them a small awkward wave. \"Hi,\" he said, somewhat sheepishly.\"WHAT\nTHE HECK IS GOING ON HERE!\" Princess Celestia shouted, the first to\nbreak out of their stupor. She looked in horror at the shattered\nwindows, and piles of gray dust all over the floor. \"WHAT HAPPENED TO MY\nTHRONE ROOM!\"\"You mean OUR throne room, right sis?\" asked Luna.\"Quiet, Luna! This isn't about you!\" Celestia snapped without looking at her.Luna grumbled in irritation.\"Wait,\nit's starting to come back to me,\" said Twilight as she rubbed her\nforehead. \"I remember we were attacked by Queen Chrysalis and King\nSombra... and then I blacked out.\"\"Yeah, me too,\" said Shining Armor. The others all nodded in agreement.\"Don't worry. We took care of it,\" said Lightning Dust, pointing at the statue of Sombra and the piles of dust on the floor.They found themselves being stared at by wide, disbelieving eyes again.\"YOU GUYS DEFEATED THEM!?\" shouted Rainbow Dash. \"YOU!?\"\"Yeah! We did!\" said Dumbbell.\"I don't believe it,\" said Rarity, shaking her head in disbelief.\"Me neither!\" said Applejack.\"But they were using the elements!\" said Cadence. \"We all saw them using them just now!\"\"But\nhow is that possible?\" exclaimed Twilight. She turned back to the\ntwelve individuals standing in the middle of the room. \"How were any of\nyou able to use the Elements of Harmony?\"They all looked at each other and shrugged. \"To be honest, we don't know,\" said Trixie.\"Yeah, they didn't work before when we tried them,\" said Hoops.\"Perhaps I can explain!\"Their was a flash of white light as suddenly Discord appeared in their midst. \"Hello again,\" he said with a wave to them all.Everyone turned to face the Draconaquis.\"Discord!\" exclaimed Lightning Dust. \"We didn't think we'd see you again.\"\"In fact, some of us HOPED we'd never see you again,\" added Jet Set.\"Well, you can't keep a good eternal lord of chaos down, can you?\" said Discord with a smirk.\"Well\nthanks for nothing,\" said Blueblood, a scowl now on his face. \"Do you\nhave any idea what we went through to save the day, even though you\ncould have just snapped your fingers and fixed everything in an\ninstant?\"Discord put his hands on his\nhips in annoyance. \"I told you, there are rules I have to follow!\nBesides, I'll have you know that I DID help out a bit. I went and found\nsomething I that I believe belongs to you. Tell me, do you know who this\nis?\" He stepped to the side, revealing a pony dressed in a white hooded\nrobe behind him. The pony pulled off the hood, revealing a woozy\nlooking white pegasus, who they all recognized at once.\"SURPRISE!\"\nBlueblood shouted as he ran over to her and pulled her into an embrace.\n\"Surprise, are you okay? I'm so sorry for what happened to you! The\nChangelings didn't hurt you, did they?\" Blueblood released Surprise from\nhis embrace to face her. She just looked back at Blueblood in\nconfusion.\"Um... who are you?\" she asked.Blueblood's ears fell. \"Surprise, don't you know me?\"Just\nthen, Discord spoke. \"Yeah, she seems to have a bit of amnesia,\" he\nexplained. \"But don't worry, I'm sure the magic of friendship will help\nher to remember in no time.\"\"Discord says you all risked your lives to save the world!\" said Surprise. \"Why would you do that? Its... not logical.\"\"Because, Surprise,\" began Hoops, \"the needs of the plot outweigh the needs of the logic. Hey, I AM good at this!\"\"Come on, Surprise, try to remember,\" said Blueblood.Surprise scratched her head in thought. \"Remember... remember...\" Then she looked at Blueblood and smiled. \"Nightshade!\" she said.Blueblood frowned at her in confusion.\"Your name is Nightshade, from the G1 series!\" continued Surprise.Discord laughed. \"Close enough,\" he said with a shrug.After a few seconds, Blueblood also shrugged and simply patted Surprise on her shoulder, welcoming her back.\"But\nI still don't understand,\" Trixie suddenly spoke up. \"Why did the\nElements of Harmony work for us this time, and not before?\"Discord\nsmiled. \"Simple. Because you were all only fighting for your own\nselfish reasons before, and you all weren't truly united by friendship.\nBut once you started fighting for the right reasons, and embraced each\nother's friendship, only then did the Elements of Harmony allow you to\nwield them. After all, the elements choose their bearers, not the other\nway around.\"\"Oh brother,\" groaned Gilda. \"I think I'm gonna barf.\"\"So are you saying that... these guys aren't meanies anymore?\" asked Pinkie Pie.\"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that,\" said Discord with a snicker.Princess\nCelestia then began to speak. \"But I do believe they have all learned a\nvaluable lesson or two,\" the royal alicorn said as she looked down at\nthe twelve new heroes with a warm smile. \"I am very proud of all of you,\nespecially you, nephew. You've all managed to rise above yourselves and\nbecome something greater than any of you thought you could. I believe\nwe and all of Equestria owe you our thanks.\"All of them, especially Trixie, felt ecstatic that they were receiving praise from the ruler of Equestria.\"Guys, do you realize what this means?\" said Dumbbell suddenly. \"We're heroes!\"They\nrealized he was right, and they all felt like they were going to\nexplode with joy and pride at that moment. They all cheered, high fiving\neach other and patting each other on the backs.Blueblood then turned back to Celestia. \"Auntie?\" he asked.Celestia looked down at him. \"Yes, Nephew?\"\"Does this mean I'm no longer cut off from the family fortune?\"Celestia's\nsmile faltered a bit and she gave him an inquisitive look. \"We'll see,\nnephew,\" she responded, \"after you've proven to me just how much you've\nlearned.\"\"Well I think he's learned a\nlot... your majesty,\" said Lightning Dust to Celestia, quickly bowing her\nhead when she remembered who she was talking to.Blueblood looked back at Lightning Dust. \"Thank you,\" he said appreciatively.\"Don't mention it,\" she said.Suddenly, there was a flash of pink as Pinkie Pie zoomed over and grabbed Gilda in a tight hug.\"YAY!\" squealed Pinkie Pie. \"THIS MEANS WE CAN ALL BE FRIENDS NOW!\"\"Oh\ngosh, no!\" groaned Gilda, pushing back against the pink pony with all\nher strength until she finally managed to pry her off of her, pushing\nher away.Pinkie Pie then simply began\nhoping up and down around the room. \"You know what this calls for? A\nPARTY! But not just any party! A BIG, STUPENDUS, SPECTACULAR,\nSUPER-DOOPER, FRIENDSHIP PARTY!\"Pinkie\nPie was so busy hopping and talking that she didn't notice the group of\nnew heroes along with Surprise begin walking towards the double doors at\nthe back to the room.\"Hey, where are you all going?!\" asked Twilight when she spotted them walking away.They\nstopped and looked back at the purple mare. \"Look, if you guys are\ngonna start one of your lame friendship speeches, or sing a song about\nthat crap, we're out of here!\" said Gilda. \"Lets go, guys.\" And with\nthat, they walked out through the double doors, out of the throne room.Twilight\nand her friends watched them all leave with blank expressions on their\nfaces. They looked up at Princess Celestia, who looked back down at them\nand shrugged.\"I guess some things never\nchange,\" Celestia said with a small smile. Twilight and her friends all\nnodded up at the Princess and then giggled amongst themselves in\nagreement.\"Oh well, I suppose we should figure out what to do with Sombra's statue,\" said Celestia.\"Well\njust put it out in the garden where I used to be,\" said Discord,\n\"completely out in the open where absolutely anyone could walk up to it,\ninstead of locking it up somewhere safe and secure, which would be the\nsmart and obvious thing to do.\"Celestia glared at Discord. \"You're mocking me, aren't you?\"Discord laughed. \"Well, I can't help it, my dear. You just make it so easy.\"\"HA!\" laughed Luna, pointing a hoof at her sister......................................................\"So what should we do now?\" asked Flim as they were walking down the corridor of the castle towards the exit.\"Well, I think we should celebrate our victory,\" said Lightning Dust. \"After all, we did just save the world.\"\"Well, our house isn't to far away,\" said Jet Set. \"And we have an open bar in our basement.\"They all stopped walking and looked at each other with smiles.\"You all thinking what I'm thinking?\" said Gilda.\"BIG, LOW-BUDGET, VICTORY COKE PARTY!\" declared Blueblood.They\nall cheered in agreement and then rushed down the corridor out of the\ncastle, and then headed to Jet Set and Upper Crust's house......................................................A\nhalf hour later, they were all down in Jet Set and Upper Crust's\nbasement, which was actually quite nicely decorated into a social area\nwith chairs, couches, fancy pillows, a small, simple chandelier, a few\nplants, and of course, an open bar. Music was blaring, and they were all\ngathered around in a circle, holding their drinks.\"Here's to our victory,\" said Blueblood as he held up his glass with his magic.\"And to our friendship,\" added Surprise beside him, holding up her mug with her hoof.\"... Yes. And to our friendship,\" said Blueblood with a slight roll of his eyes.They\nall clinked their glasses together and took a drink. Gilda and Iron\nWill downed their big mugs in one go and quickly hurried to go refill\nthem.\"It's just too bad we didn't get the goblet though,\" said Flam after they had finished their toast.\"Eh, we probably would have just ended up fighting over it anyway,\" said Score.\"You're probably right,\" said Flam.\"And plus, who would really want to live forever anyway?\" said Hoops. \"I bet life would get pretty boring after a while.\"\"Speak for yourself,\" said Lightning Dust.Just then Surprise pointed at her with her hoof. \"Your name's... Firefly!? Am I right?\"\"Keep guessing,\" said Lightning Dust, walking off to refill her glass along with Gilda and Iron Will.As\nthe party went on, some of them went to go dance or just hang and chat.\nGilda, Iron Will, and Lightning Dust were starting a drinking game, Jet\nSet and Upper Crust were making out on the couch, Surprise and Hoops\nseemed to be hitting it off on the dance floor, and Blueblood and Trixie\nwere off to the side talking to each other near a potted plant in a\ncorner.\"I really like that plant in the corner,\" said Blueblood to Trixie.\"Yeah, it really ties the room together,\" she said in agreement. \"So how does it feel to be a hero now?\"Blueblood thought for a moment. \"Pretty good,\" he said. \"Yourself?\"\"Same here.\"\"You all did very well in the end,\" said an unknown voice behind them.Blueblood\nand Trixie looked behind them and gasped when they saw the ghostly\nimage of Starswirl the bearded standing in a corner of the room in the\nshadows.\"I knew you had it in you,\" the ghost spoke again.\"Starswirl the bearded!\" Trixie gasped. \"But... you're dead!\"\"Indeed I am,\" he said, gesturing to his transparent ghost form.\"We're sorry,\" said Blueblood sadly.\"Don't\nbe,\" said Starswirl. \"I should have been dead centuries ago. All things\nhave their time in this world, and when their time is over, they must\nmove on to make way for new things. Even the Princesses of the day and\nthe night, ancient though they may be, cannot live forever.\"\"Oh,\" was all Blueblood and Trixie could say to the ghost.Starswirl\ncontinued. \"With Sombra at last defeated, my greatest failure has\nfinally been corrected, and I can at last rest in peace, but your\nstories have just begun, so make them good ones while you can.\"Blueblood and Trixie both nodded to him.\"Well... goodbye,\" he said. And with that, Starswirl began to fade away.\"Wait, Starswirl!\" said Blueblood. \"What is the afterlife like?\"Starswirl smiled. \"Oh, if I were to tell you that, it would spoil the surprise,\" he said as he finally faded into nothing.Blueblood and Trixie looked at each other.\"Well that was certainly weird,\" said Blueblood.\"After all we've been through, I don't even know what weird is anymore,\" said Trixie.Suddenly some slower music came on. Blueblood looked at Trixie with a smile.\"Would you care to dance?\" he asked her, holding out his hoof to her.Trixie\nthought for a second, and then she smiled and shrugged. \"What the\nheck.\" She downed the rest of her drink and she and Blueblood walked\nover to the dance floor.They all partied\nthe entire rest of the night. They had set out on their adventure\nlooking for treasure, and in the end, they did find treasure. It just\nwasn't the treasure they had been expecting. The treasure they found...\nwas friendship. And even though none of them knew it then, their lives\nwere going to be a lot better from then on.\nEpilogue\n\nThey found Starswirl's body in the Everfree Forest\nand brought it back to Canterlot to give him a proper funeral. Over half\nof Equestria was there to say goodbye to one of the greatest sorcerers\nin history. It was a very beautiful funeral.They\ncremated his body and then the princesses placed his ashes into a\ngolden urn, and then used their magic to launch the urn into outer\nspace, all while Pinkie Pie played Amazing Grace on the bagpipes.The\nnext day, Prince Blueblood, Trixie, Gilda, Lightning Dust, Dumbbell,\nHoops, Score, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Flim, Flam, and Iron Will were each\ngiven metals of valor for saving the world in a ceremony just like the\none where the mane six had been awarded for saving the world from\nDiscord. Standing up in front of all those ponies as the princesses\nplaced their metals around their necks was the greatest moment of their\nlives... so far.Celestia granted Blueblood\nhis birthright back on the soul condition that he begin writing and\nsending her his own friendship reports like Twilight Sparkle had to, so\nas to ensure he was truly learning to better himself.Trixie,\nas a favor, was given the chance to be tutored in magic under Princess\nLuna. When offered the opportunity, Trixie squealed in glee and promised\nshe would do anything for the princess if it meant learning advanced\nmagic. Also, she and Blueblood eventually started dating.After\nhearing that she had helped save the world, Lightning Dust was allowed a\nsecond chance in the Wonderbolt academy, but Spitfire told her she\nwould have to start from the very bottom, and they would be keeping a\nclose eye on her. Lightning accepted the offer, and, deciding they\nwanted to do something with their lives, Gilda, Dumbbell, Hoops, and\nScore also signed up for the Wonderbolt academy.Flim\nand Flam decided that they should stop trying to take other ponies'\nhard earned apple orchards and decided to buckle down and work hard to\ngrow their own. It took them years and a lot of honest hard work, but\neventually it all paid off and they became successful apple cider\nbrewers.Jet Set and Upper Crust went back\nto their normal lives and improve their social relations, remembering\nto speak their own opinions instead of just agreeing with whatever the\npopular ponies said. They soon found that a lot of ponies began liking\nthem better because of it.Iron Will is still teaching ponies to stand up for themselves.The End","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791196-equestrian-knights-ch-16-the-last-stand.json"}