The captain of the royal guard began to order his soldiers, “Guards will guard the mane 5 and the perimeter of the palace. The Pegasi Guards will be at the top of the tower, fighting in groups. As we have discovered, it takes an average of three Pegasi to take down one griffin. Two, if there’s an unicorn helping by slowing them down with magic. I will try to make a protective shield so none of us will die. Flash and Crystal will help me.” The two experienced guards nodded, although Crystal was worried about the fact that he wasn’t an unicorn.

Twilight felt wobbly and dizzy in the head, even more so than usual. This was rather unusual and she opened her eyes carefully. She saw the other 4 behind her, looking frazzled. Princess Celestia opened the door and walked in. She helped the Elements stand up.

The princess sighed, “Hi everypony. What do you remember?”

Twilight racked her brains, trying to recall something, “I think that... Wait, that’s strange. I can’t remember anything that happened before the tree. But how are we-huh?”

Princess Celestia secretly smiled to herself, “Ah, that’s no matter. Anyways, I uncovered a secret village with a few ponies to help us. It’s a village where all the cutie marks are equal signs and the two leaders are the ones with their cutie marks. Anyways, they are more than happy to help us and I will introduce you to the leaders.” Princess Celestia knew that she had drafted them but it’s better than giving a long explanation. Rainbow and Starlight entered the room while the sun princess left the room.

Starlight looked at the other ponies before looking at Rainbow. It was obvious that those two were friends of some sort. Twilight broke her heart while looking at them, knowing that it could’ve been her standing by Rainbow’s side.

Rainbow sighed, “Okay, that’s Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack.

Starlight nodded, “My name is Starlight.”

Twilight forced a small smile, “It’s nice to meet you, Starlight.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “I would thank you for acknowledging my existence but it seems like I don’t have the pleasure anymore.” Twilight blinked, shocked that Rainbow actually knew a word that was long, started with the letter ‘a’ and that the word wasn’t ‘awesome’.

Twilight sighed before turning to Starlight, “I’m sorry about Rainbow here, but she’s just really full of herself.”

Starlight looked at her, angry, “Rainbow is one of my best friends and Celestia says that you are her friends.” The newly raised all looked at her with shock, when Starlight didn’t call her a princess.

Rarity put up a hoof, “Darling, surely you know that friends shouldn’t hold grudges for a simple little thing. Right?”

“I meant that refusing to greet somepony means that you don’t like that pony, or you don’t know that pony.”

Pinkie squealed, “My name is Pinkie Pie and I have to welcome you to Canterlot along with Rainbow’s party and I wanted to say hi to you Rainbow but I let Twilight say things first since we all look at her as a leader but I can talk about your party that I will throw for you now anyways do you like the color pink or blue but you don’t need to answer that now signs we will have plenty of time to think after the war when we will all be celebrating.” Twilight wasn’t going even question Pinkie about how she said that’s in one breath.

Starlight, meanwhile, was a little taken aback, “Anyways, we are here to discuss...”

Twilight blinked, realizing the princess’ plan “I think that the princess wants us to talk about how to unite the elements and become allies with the griffins again.”

Rainbow crossed her hooves, “I think that I made it clear that-“

A voice shouted, “The griffins are heading this way! Everypony, scatter and attack with your groups.” The door was knocked backwards by a claw but it quickly disappeared as another pony hit the griffin in the head. The griffin reared back before beating their brown wings and making a few of them crash into the wall and faint. Then, the griffins proceeded to stab their claws into their flesh.

Twilight looked up, “Brother? What’s are you do-“ Crash! A white pony with a blue mane crashed into the wall. When the griffin headed for the pony, Twilight pointed her horn at the griffin, creating a wall of air. While she was distracted, another griffin hit Twilight and she crashed into her friends. The griffins headed towards them while Twilight and her friends huddles together in fear. Meanwhile, Rainbow and Starlight looked at each other.

Twilight called out, “Help!”

Rainbow asked Starlight, “Do you think-“

Starlight sighed, “We’ll talk after.” They nodded before standing in front of their friends.

The griffin laughed, “Rainbow, you won’t seriously still go with them, would you? Come to the winning side.”

Rainbow sneered, “So you could kill me when the griffins win? No thanks.”

Gilda chuckled, “How would you stop me? With the ‘Friendship of Magic’ with your non-friends?”

Starlight hit a magical beam at Gilda, forcing her to become paralyzed for 5 minutes, “Fortunately, she does have a friend here who won’t cower and back up to the wall in fear.” Gilda struggled in her binds, not being able to move at all. After the 5 minutes, Gilda swooped down to try to hit them but was held back by a wall of air. Rainbow didn’t even seem to be moving her wings so Twilight and the others (besides Starlight), didn’t know who was doing it.

Gilda struggled against it, “What the... How?” Starlight began to hit Gilda with random burst of magic to try and knock her out, although it didn’t work. She finally settled for the paralysis spell, although it wouldn’t last for too long. Fortunately, Rainbow hit Gilda with lightning without moving too much and she’s was knocked out.

Twilight finally stood up, “How-How did the lightning occur?”

The door opened and the princess walked in, “The fight is over. Some of the ponies are dead but all the griffins escaped once I showed up. Congratulations, Twilight, for knocking out the griffin. You did do it, right? I am very proud of you.”

Twilight smiled, “Yes, I did it without too much help, Princess.”

“Good job. Next time, Starlight, Rainbow, try and help your new friends. Follow me.” She led the ponies out of the door with a small smile on her face.

Author's Note

I based this off of when Princess Celestia still complemented Twilight a lot after the Crystal Empire, even though it was Spike. Also, Celestia always seems to be congratulating Twilight, in my opinion.