Chapter 14: THE END HAS TOO MANY FEELS! *chugs a whole keg*

The spell triggered in a dark flash of pure shadow, once faded revealing the nude form of a now anthropomorphic Celestia, the regalia somehow complementing her nudity in a way… though I was far too scared to actually get aroused.

“...Orgran…” Celestia spoke coldly, yet her aura burned in fury. “Why do you have dark magic in your home…?”
“ISWEARIDIDN’TMAKEITITOOKITFROMAGROUPOFCARIBOUWHO-”
“What?” the simple question was so devoid of emotion, it triggered some sort of primal fear.
“...I w-w-was liberating a v-v-village from…” I finished.

Celestia turned to me, her pupils like pin pricks, bloodshot with actual fire, and said 4 words.
“Can. You. Reverse. It?”
I was stock still, and before you say I shouldn’t be scared, let me clarify some things.

A: Mylinian Dwarves have had to stare down creatures before, it has become a hard-wired fear of being in a situation where you have to stare down something you can’t kill.
B: This is an alicorn, a legendary creature with the capacity to move celestial bodies, of course you wouldn’t want to get on their bad side even if you could take them on.
And C: You have never seen Celestia this mad, she was seething, blood vessels threatening to pop at the slightest twitch, this is the kind of rage you encounter before waking up in a desolate landscape and shaking hands with a skeleton in a robe.

So you can clearly understand my position when I had to squeak out a “n-no.” of terror.

...two things told me I should start running.
1: she had actually gone Daybreaker from pure rage alone, most likely blaming me for her situation.
2: the magic of Equestria decided to be a wise-ass and start playing an all too familiar jingle.

Naturally I did what any smart Dwarf would do.

{POV CHANGE: TWILIGHT}

I had begun trying to find a friendship problem, ANY friendship problem.
“I’m almost out of time! I need to-”
I hear a scream, and it sounded like only one pony I know that could have such a scream, so I bolted, my mind focused on helping my friend, bursting out the door I called out.
“DON’T WORRY RARITY! I’M ON MY WAY!”
“FORGET ABOUT RARITY! HELP ME!”
“BE SILENT AND FACE OUR DIVINE JUDGEMENT, CUR!”
I look and find Orgran to be the actual source of the screaming, being chased by… Celestia!?
She looks different. I thought. How did she manage such a transformation? Maybe I can study the effects and-

*FWOOM*

I yelp in surprise at how my mentor was trying to burn the terrified Dwarf. She’s going to kill him!

{POV CHANGE: ORGRAN}

I found myself backed into a corner, Daybreaker floating towards me intimidatingly, her fangs bared like a predator looking at its newest meal. “Say farewell you pathetic wretch.” she spoke as she charged her horn, and I flinch away as I close my eyes and prepared to be toast.

…

…

…

Huh?
I open my eyes and look to see Twilight in front of me, a magic shield she had manifested scorched black.
“Move aside, Twilight, this is between me and him.”
Twilight shook a little at the princess’ glare before looking at me and steeling herself.

“No.”
“You dare disobey me!? I-”
“I’m not disobeying you! You taught me to learn the magic of friendship, and I know more than enough to say you and Orgran are friends!”
“He is the reason I am stuck like this!”
“No he isn’t! He would never want to cause any harm to you! Think about it! He destroyed an entire mountain! If he could do that, and wanted you harm, do you really think he would be cowering behind me?”

I spoke up. “I’m humble enough to admit that this is indeed cowering-”
“SILENCE!” my flinch and little whimper of fear seemed to surprise her, and I could see something new in her eyes as she floated to the ground and looked at me.

Regret.

Eventually she spoke up. “I… I am sorry Orgran, I do not know what came over me, I should never have overreacted like that.” Daybreaker’s form faded from her, returning to the gentle face of Celestia, a single tear in her eye. “I shall take my leave and figure out this new change on my own, I won’t cause any more trouble for you.”

She turned to leave but was stuck, I had used some earth magic to grip her to the ground by the ankles, then I pulled her over to me and into a hug. “I forgive you.” it was three simple words, but they were enough to bring the once stoic Diarch to tears, holding me close as she sobbed in both shame of how she acted, and relief that she hadn’t lost me as a friend.

We finally broke off before it became awkward and she flew back to Canterlot, then I hear Twilight mutter something about a ‘friendship report’ and I reacted by shouting. “No! Bad Twilight!” and hitting her with a convenient newspaper.
“Ow!” she winced at the light tap. “But-”
“No buts! You shouldn’t be so panicky about this.”
“Huh?”
“Celestia sent you here to learn the magic of friendship, not like a school project, but as a journey of discovery, the friendship reports you make aren’t supposed to be on a set time-limit, think, how would Celestia benefit from taking you from your friends when she wanted you to make friends in the first place?” she was dumbstruck. “Exactly, just do the friendship reports when you can… oh and also maybe have your friends try their hand at writing some, make it a group thing!”

After shaking her head clear of her stupor, she smiled and nodded at the idea. “But I’m still gonna write this down, it’s a very important friendship lesson…”
“Actually… could I write this one?” her smile got even wider as she handed me a scroll and quill, and with a smile back I began to write.

Dear Princess Celestia.

Today I learned that true friendship is not only sticking by someone, but being there for them even if it’s scary. Standing up for another ~~person~~ pony is not the easiest thing, but friendship is about doing so despite how hard it may be.

I also learned that sometimes friends can hurt each other by accident or mistake, and that it’s also very hard to fix these mistakes and lose a friend forever. I wasn’t just scared about death or being hurt when that accident happened to my friend, but more importantly I was scared that even after all of it she would hate me forever. But thankfully I learned that sometimes, fighting to keep your dearest friends can be so much more worth it in the end.

Your Dearest Friend.
Orgran the Red.

I let Twilight spell-check it before she rolled it up, and she seemed to have gotten teary-eyed at the letter’s contents, scooping me up in a hug which I returned.

Yep… friends are awesome...