A Different Kind of Paradise

Chapter XVII: Happily Ever After

For the first time since he and his friends arrived in Equestria, Gabe slept in peace.  His dream was tranquil and he felt rested.  Eventually he saw a familiar silhouette standing in front of a bright light.

“I’m proud of you” She started.  “Gabey.”  She gave Gabe a brief kiss and then turned towards the light.

Satisfied, and guiltless after so many years, Gabe smiled and began to open his eyes.  Unsurprisingly, he was in a hospital bed; he looked around and saw Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie.  For some reason pinkie was snuggling a small blue cannon, Nero and Danny.  They were all fast asleep.  Gabe checked for a clock and saw it was five in the morning.  Eventually he got out of bed and began to browse the hallways; luckily for him he found a small balcony and gazed at the moon, reflecting on the last few days.

“I see somepony’s awake.”  Gabe heard a voice say.  He turned around and saw none other than Princess Luna behind him.

“Y-your majesty!”  He stammered, and kneeled in respect.

Luna giggled.  “There’s no need for such formalities.  I should be the one honoring you.  Not many would have the strength to do what you did.”

Gabe chuckled as he nervously rubbed his hooves.  “Justice was easy; my friends gave me the strength I needed.”

Luna returned with her own light chuckle as she advanced towards the ledge and gazed at the moon.  “I didn’t mean confronting that demon, I meant confronting yours.  By facing your sins and the past that lay heavily on your heart, you showed true strength.  Beatrice would be proud.”

This made Gabe jump.  “You know about that?”

“As I said” Luna replied.  “The realm of dreams is my domain.  So I know of your distorted past, and what you truly are.  I must say, I’ve never met a human before, so as you can imagine I have a few questions.”

Danny slowly opened his eyes as he woke up.   He got off of the chair he had fallen asleep on and stretched a little.  “Danny?”  He heard a soft voice ask behind him.

Danny turned around to see Fluttershy was waking up.  After yawning the most adorable yawn ever, she asked Danny,  “I don’t understand, why didn’t you tell me Gabe was the one who hurt you in the first place?  If you did, then maybe…”

Danny sighed; his sympathy had almost cost him his life.  “I just… I didn’t want Gabe to get in trouble.  I mean, your friends have made mistakes in the past, right?”

“They have Danny, but we didn’t do them any favors by letting them hide it.”  Fluttershy responded.

“I’m sorry.”  Was Danny’s immediate response; he didn’t do well when opposed.  “At least now we’re all safe.  But you’re right; because of me so many ponies were hurt.”  Danny’s eyes started to water.  “And I… I had to watch, as Justice….”   Danny started to cry as Fluttershy held him in her hooves.

“We all make mistakes, Danny.  Remind me to tell you about this one incident when I really lost my cool at the worst time possible.”

Danny’s knowledge of the show led him to guess at what she was talking about.  “Um… I don’t think that’ll be necessary.  Your hugs are all I need.”

A short while passed before Nero rolled off of his chair, audibly hitting the floor with a thud and jumping up in shock.  “Whoa!   Where am I?  Where’s Sanctus?  He still has my muffin.”

Danny chuckled before responding, reluctantly breaking Fluttershy’s hug to help Nero up.  “We’re in the hospital.”

“Ugh.”  Twilight groaned, Nero’s clumsy move having woken her up.  “What?  Hospital?  Who’s hurt this time?”

“Oh…  I’m sorry if you don’t remember.”  Fluttershy softly responded to Nero and Twilight’s qualms.  “After that giant dove flew over the city we saw Danny carrying Gabe out of… well… Um… the royal Canterlot ballroom that we destroyed and said that Gabe needed help so we brought him to the hospital.”

“Oh my gosh, that’s right!  Shoot!  How is he?”  Twilight gasped.

Fluttershy and Danny stopped and realized that neither of them had checked on their friend who had just saved their lives.  All four of them turned and saw that Gabe’s bed was empty.  Then they all screamed when they saw that their friend was gone.

“Shhh!”  A passing nurse stuck her head into the room.  After the four calmed down to an extent, she nodded and walked away.

“Where is he?”  Danny whispered, frightened.

“Don’t worry.”  A voice from behind the group answered their question.  “He’s in good hands.”

The group turned and saw Gabe enter the room, with Princess Luna in tow.

“Princess Luna!”  Danny, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Nero gasped and kneeled in respect for the moon princess.

“Princess Luna?!  Gabe?! Pattycake?! Sanctus?!”  Pinkie pie gasped as she leapt from her chair and fired a massive bang of confetti out of her cannon.

“Shhh!”  The nurse stuck her head back in, jumping in shock when seeing the princess and backing away with a flushed red face.

“Sorry.”  Pinkie Pie whispered.  “Oh my gosh, princess, it’s so cool that you dropped by and we’re sorry we didn’t defeat the big wolf-meanie and he…”  She was cut off by Princess Luna’s gesture.

“There is no need for apologies, Ms. Pinkie Pie, but I would like to ask that you, Twilight, and Fluttershy to excuse yourselves so that I may discuss some business with our three recent heroes.”

Princess Luna’s statement caused the group to get worried, but they dared not object to the diarch of their land.  Fluttershy, Twilight, and Pinkie pie made their way out of the room.   Gabe looked confident but Nero was looking right and left and Danny was shaking.

“Luna knows what we are, where we come from.”  Gabe started.

Nero gave out a sigh of relief, but Danny was stricken with shock and began to sway.  “Does that mean… Does that mean we have to go back?”

Luna smirked and let out a sigh.  “No worries Daniel, even if we wanted to send you back we couldn’t; Gabriel here destroyed the only convenient way to return you to your native world to stop Justice.  I mean my sister and I could always pool our magic and open a small gate.”

Danny went from frightened, to relieved, and back to frightened.

“But then again, that is a lot of work, and you three aren’t causing too much trouble.”  She gave another smirk and rustled Danny’s mane.

“Aren’t causing trouble?”  Nero laughed.  “We released a murderous demon, destroyed a historical landmark, and half of Canterlot.  How is that not too much trouble?”

As soon as Nero stopped giving Princess Luna reasons to have them committed Danny and Gabe teamed up to slam a nearby trash can over Nero’s head.

This caused Luna to chuckle.  “You three have nothing to worry about.  There have been many far worse incidents in our fair country.   I’ll make arrangements for the nine of you to return to Ponyville.”

“Thank you your majesty.”  Gabe spoke up, taking a knee, soon followed by Danny and Nero.

Luna nodded in response before walking out.

After Luna made her way out Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie entered the room; followed by Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity.  “Howdy Gabe!”  Applejack said hello.  “Sorry we missed y’all wakin’ up, but we’ve been helpin’ round the city.  Feeling better now?”

Gabe looked to Danny, and nodded to Applejack.  “Better than you know.”

Twilight Giggled in response.  “That’s certainly good to hear.”  She paused as a pause crossed her mind.  “Hey Gabe, and you two for that matter.”

“Yeah?”  Gabe replied, shortly followed in kind by Danny and Nero.

“Well” Twilight started.  “When I first moved to Ponyville I didn’t have many friends, but over time I learned the means by which to open my heart and accept others; Princess Celestia asked that I send back reports of what I learned.”

“And you want us to spell out a little of what we’ve learned about friendship?”  Nero finished for Twilight.

“I guess if you were so inclined.”  She smugly smiled.  “It would certainly be a way to pass the time as we make our way out of the hospital to say the least.”

“I’ll go first!”  Danny jumped ahead.

“Ooh!  Ooh!”  Pinkie pie interrupted him.  “First let me get a quill and paper.”  She swung open a painting on the wall and grabbed a quill feather and scroll of paper from a hidden compartment; she gave them to a surprised Twilight and turned to Danny.  “Alright, go ahead.”

“Um…  Dear Princess Celestia,  today I learned that you can’t run away from your problems, and you can’t face them, not alone at least.  You need the help of your friends to bring you out of the darkness and give you the strength to leave it behind.”

Gabe was next.  “Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that you can’t change the past; but you shouldn’t want to, the things you’ve done don’t always define who or what you are but they can help make you into a greater pony for the future.”

Danny smiled, not from Gabe’s message, but from the fact that Gabe referred himself as a “pony.”

The group had made its way out of the hospital and as they made their way through the wrecked Canterlot Square the sun began to rise.

“Do I get a letter?”  Nero stepped forward.

Twilight was surprised by this request, but she wasn’t sure why, and she certainly wasn’t close minded to somepony else’s ideas.  (Not anymore at least.)  “Alright, why not?  Shoot.”

“Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that often in life you’ll have to step up to the plate to do something against all odds.  But this doesn’t mean it has to be a bad thing; whether it’s leaving what you know behind for something new.”  He looked to Gabe.  “Letting go of your past.”  He turned to Danny.  “Or having to take a stand.   The road is never easy, but it doesn’t have to be, we decide how we go and where.  And right now” he put his hoof out.  “I say we go home.”

“Our new home.”  Danny put his hoof on Nero’s.

“Our real home.”  Gabe joined.

At that moment Danny’s horn began to glow and spark.   “You know what?”  He rhetorically asked.  “This makes me think of a song.”

“Here we go again.”  Twilight rolled her eyes.

Once again Grant’s horn flashed and the group found themselves on the roof of their train, the wind blowing their manes and tails as rock music played.    Things seemed to slow around Danny as he started singing.  The other ponies sometimes repeating a line, as if on cue.

Songs of pain and soothing lullabies

Songs of happiness and some that make us cry

One song we share

The cross we all bear

One that segregates

One that unifies

All we wonder

No one ever denies

If once given life we must die

So bow down with me

Where summer fades into fall

And leave your hatchets of hate

Bow down with me

And sing the saddest of all

The song we all serenade

The more we know

The less we understand

Life... eternity

The savagery of man

We want it all

Aimed at the fall

What is destiny within the masterplan

All we wonder

No one ever denies

If once given life we must die

So bow down with me

Where summer fades into fall

And leave your hatchets of hate

Bow down with me

And sing the saddest of all

The song we all serenade

Hold on now

Don't leave don't let it go

Dance away the waltz of life

Right or wrong

The seed we never sow

That's our loss

Our sacrifice

The area around the group seemed to slow down as white pedals fell all around; Danny took a white flower out of nowhere and threw it into the air.

What does the winter bring

If not yet another spring?

Bow down with me

Where summer fades into fall

And leave your hatchets of hate

Bow down with me

And sing the saddest of all

The song we all serenade.

As the song wound into its last instrumental stretch the train reached the station and the ponies got off.  The final notes struck as they all made their way into the town where they lived, glad to be home.