Chapter 7: Gentle Sunlight

Here we are, the grand finale! Thank you so much for everyone who has stuck with me from the very beginning or has just discovered my story and has been eagerly continuing reading it.

Enjoy the chapter!

The sky had shifted from an almost white to the deepest indigo, speckled with the most twinkling and glittering stars. The once burning sun that blinded all the ponies vision had now dimmed and had gone to rest below the horizon. The darkness of night was a most welcome sight to see, yet what it lacked was the gentle glow of the moon to provide the final bit of comfort to the starry sky.

In the midst of the castle still crackling with the energy that had once blinded all those who been watching, six ponies lay groaning and slowly picking themselves up off aching muscles and sore heads.

"Oh, my head," one pegasus with a mane with the full color spectrum on it groaned.

"Everypony okay," asked an orange earth pony as she looked around for injuries.

"Oh thank goodness," came a voice from behind her. The ivory unicorn stood up, posing in front of the dandelion pegasus.

"Why Rarity, it's lovely," she said in a soft voice as she looked over her.

"I know, I'll never part with it again," she said as she flicked her newly-grown tail around before brushing it up to her face.

"No, your necklace. It looks just like your cutie mark," she pointed out, causing the unicorn's sapphire eyes to stare down at the gold necklace around her neck. A large, violet diamond reflected the star;light outside. The unicorn stared at it, taking a quickly glance at her three diamond cutie mark before smiling and staring back up at her.

"So does yours," she replied. Turquoise eyes looked down at her chest and as gasp escaped her throat as a necklace with the same gold band, but with a pink, butterfly-shaped gemstone glittered up at her.

"Look at mine, look at mine," said the energetic pink pony as she bounced over to the orange one with an orange, apple-shaped stone. The curly-haired, party-planner's had blue, balloon-shaped gem in hers.

"Aw yeah," said the daredevil, rainbow-maned pegasus, eagerly sticking out her chest to show off the red, lightning bolt crystal.

On the last pony, the purple unicorn, her chest lacked any adornments, but the crown on her head made up for it. It was a simply, gold headband that had several, oval-shaped blue gems on it. In the center and above the smaller jewels and supported by curled, strands of writing was a magenta, six-pointed star. Her eyes were focused on the beautiful head accessory before training on the pony with the cowboy had beside her.

"Gee Twilight, I thought you were just spouttin' a lot of hooey, but I reckon we really do represent the Elements of Friendship," she said.

"Indeed you do," came an unknown, angelic sounding voice. A flash of light streamed from a window in the wall. Through the night sky, a glowing, ivory orb started rising over the mountains in the distance. The stars seemed to push away from the ascending sphere, returning to their place as the moon set itself up higher in the sky before setting itself in its proper place.

Another glow appeared from it, growing closer to the castle before it came inside before the window. The light suddenly shifted from pale white to a rich, indigo blue before it faded and a figure appeared in the light's spot.

A royal blue alicorn stood proudly before the ponies with her wings fully outstretched hovering just below the moon outside, as if they were holding it up and not her magic. Her teal eyes looked softly before the six. Her mane and tail were a starry night sky that twinkled and flowed out behind her. A black crown adorned her head while a black peytral and black hoofshoes were worn elsewhere. Her cutie mark was a white crescent set in a black background, the same design as on her necklace.

Five of the ponies bowed down before the majestic alicorn, but the unicorn smiled eagerly at her.

"Princess Luna," she said as she came close and leaned into her mentor's tall form. The princess returned the embrace and wrapped one of her feathered, long wings over her student's body in a friendly, comforting way.

"Twilight Sparkle. My most faithful student. I knew you could do it," she said. Her voice was elegant and was filled with pride for her student. Twilight looked up in confusion before backing away from the hug.

"But you told me it was all just an old pony tale," she asked, searching her mentor's eyes for the answer.

"I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more. I saw the signs of Solar Flare's return, and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her. But you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart," she explained. The unicorn nodded in understanding before looking back at the five others, smiling at them.

"Now if only another will as well," she said, turning her direction to the side where the smoking remains of Solar Flare lay and among the shards of her dissolving armor lay an unconscious, white alicorn that was noticeably smaller then the princess and had a pink mane and tail that rested in long locks down to her shoulders. A full sun with several curved rays adorned her flank and her regalia matched Princess Luna's, yet was gold and the jewel was substituted by a design of her sun cutie mark.

"Princess Celestia," the princess called, and the alicorn stirred awake with a startled and fearful gasp. Her eyes opened, revealing a pair of magenta eyes like Solar Flare, but without the lighter pink eye whites. Instead of a slit in each one, a circular pupil was there and it shrank as she heard and saw the princess approach her. She made it onto her stomach and lifted her head up.

"It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this," Luna continued as she came close. Her knees bent and she laid down next to the flinching princess. "Time to put our differences behind us. We we're meant to rule together, big sister." Several voices of surprise escaped from behind her, but the princess kept continuing uninterrupted.

"Will you accept my friendship?" A wing extended out to her, an invitation for the other to join hers with it. The other ponies stared between the two, waiting anticipatingly to see what would happen. The white equine dipped her head down for a moment, before it flipped back up to the taller pony.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so so sorry! I missed you so much, little sister," the alicorn suddenly said. She quickly stood up and leaned into her sister's chest as tears flowed down her smiling face.

"I missed you too," Luna said as she returned the embrace with joyous tears dripping down her cheeks. Her wings wrapped around her sibling's body, deepening the comforting embrace. For the first time in a thousand years, they were reunited.

The kingdoms all over Equestria were shocked to receive news of the second princess and unknown older sister of their well-known Princess Celestia, but they eagerly joined in the celebration of her return. In the town of Ponyville, an entire party was being held in her honor by the esteemed pink, party-planning pony.

The party was being held under the brilliantly lit night sky, courtesy of the princess of the night. The aurora borealis lit up the night as well, cutting through the blackness of space like an evening rainbow. The ponies cheered and celebrated under lantern light, grateful to have the peace of night back once more. The town was appropriated decorated with streamers and balloons whole confetti fell down on the princess Luna went to talk with her protege, princess Celestia attempted to talk with some of the ponies. To her astonishment, a pair of pegasai fillies flew up and arranged a wreath of white and red roses around her neck. She looked in shock at the surprise floral arrangement, turning back to his sister, who just sent a wink her way. Celestia smiled, taking upon the sight before her. Though this town had not existed back then, she could tell it was a thriving and beautiful place to live already.

She imagined it must look very beautiful in the dawn as well.

The night would have to exist for another day and a half or so, to give time for things to rest from the damage the sun's blaze had done and her powers were still weak so Luna would be still bringing out the sun until she regained her strength again, but she felt she could wait awhile.

After all, even though she was not Luna's student like Twilight Sparkle was, she still had much to learn about friendship and such. And she would start by learning the art of thankfulness and patience first.

I figure even though Celestia is still older than Luna, when the Elements stripped all her dark magic away from her, they also stripped most of her magic, leaving her in this less powerful form, hence the mane change and height difference.

Sorry if the ending isn't the best, they're always so hard for me, plus I had to improvise since there really wasn't much interaction with the two during the ending celebration. Anyways, thank you all who have sticked with me until the very end and have partook in reading my work, it really means a lot to me. Please leave a review telling me how I did overall and please feel free to check out some of my other stories. Sincerely, v.t.7