Josh walked between Celestia and Luna. The teenager turned his head to face the princess of the sun, then to the moon goddess. He then turned to face the rest of the group.

The pro skater spoke, "You all taught me something important. You taught me I needed to have faith. When I survived the meteors, I was just going to spend however long I had wandering around the streets of my city. When you came, I realized I at least needed to try to fix this."

Josh paused and took a deep breath.

"Thank you. Thank you all."

He gestured for the eight to follow him into the ruins. "Come on, everyone. Let's do this," he concluded. They walked into a dark, eerie hallway. As expected, green changeling goo coated the walls and ceiling.

There was a lot of tension in the gang, though none of it between each other. No, it was all directed toward Queen Chrysalis. Everyone hated the changeling leader with a burning passion, especially Celestia. Even the normally bubbly and happy Pinkie Pie was angry at her.

The dark hallway finally ended, but what the group saw was no better. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of changelings stood before them like a poison tidal wave, all of them ready to crash on the group. Above the army was Queen Chrysalis, who stood atop the Colosseum, glaring down at the nine.

"So, you decided to try to defeat me," she called. "Very foolish. Then again, what else would I expect from a bunch of lowly ponies and their human friend?"

Celestia retorted, "Listen, Chrysalis, we're kind enough to be giving you one final chance. Return the universe to the way it was right now, or we will attack." A long silence followed, both sides glaring at each other.

Suddenly, a loud wail broke the stalemate. The bloodcurdling noise came from Josh's guitar, which unleashed a sonic wave that killed about six changelings.

"ATTACK!" bellowed an enraged Chrysalis. The army of the shadowy creatures swarmed towards the group. Applejack and Pinkie charged forward and began to fight the changelings one on one. Celestia and Rainbow Dash flew up, Luna and Twilight began charging their magic, and Rarity set up a magic barrier to protect her and Fluttershy.

This left Josh, who began to play the song War Ensemble. As he did, a blood red beam shot from his guitar's headstock straight at Chrysalis. The changeling queen evaded the attack and fired her own, neon green aura. The counterattack forcefully struck the skater, blowing him into a wall. His guitar landed fifty feet from him, but he made no move to get it. Then again, he really couldn't after the blow he had suffered.

Celestia and Dash took on flying changelings. At first, they were doing well, knocking all the hole-filled beasts to their deaths. Soon, however, the army's sheer size took over, and the alicorn and pegasus were soon defeated. Celestia landed next to her little sister, who was filled with enough rage already. Seeing her sister in such an injured state, and knowing her worst enemy was behind it, pushed her over the edge. The moon pony's eyes shone white as she unleashed an overcharge of magic at Chrysalis.

The queen was alerted by the forceful aura sent in her direction. She created a protection spell over her army, stronger than any of the sort ever performed before. The magic overcharge launched directly at the group.

It connected.

The nine did all they could to stop the overcharged magic, but nothing worked. They were all forced back into the wall. The only one who didn't feel the full effect of the attack was Josh, who attemped to get up. Ultimately, though, the skater collapsed to his knees.

They lost.

Queen Chrysalis let loose a maniacal laugh. "I told you!" she gloated. "I told you, Celestia! By feeding off all the love in the universe, me and my army are unstoppable!" She looked down at the group as her army cornered them.

The gang felt a range of emotions - from sadness, to guilt, to just straight anger. Josh, especially. He had felt so confident in his success, and where did that lead? Failure.

The changeling queen began to speak again. "You have two choices. One, I imprison all of you forever and make my changelings the new master race. Two, I bring back humanity... and I make them all my slaves. Those are your only options. Choose."

No one could accept either. Sure, the second choice sounded better, but that meant they had to put their loved ones into a horrible dictatorship akin to Nazi Germany. For eternity. Definitely a worse fate than death.

Josh wasn't going to take it. He used all his strength to pull himself to his feet, charging towards his guitar. A swarm of changelings trailed him, but his spirit was stronger. He made it to his guitar and began to play Fury of the Storm, hoping that something - anything - would go right. He desperately sung the lyrics.

"We are riding for the battlefield in force tonight,
fury of the darkest evil cry for war.
Far beyond the boundaries of hell and starlight,
on the road to lands unknown forever more."

The skateboarder continued to perform the song, completely oblivious to the fact the changelings were creeping up on him. Chrysalis smirked, happy the teenager was about to be killed.

How wrong she was.

The body of the guitar began to glow red, slowly going up to the headstock. Eventually, the drums, bass, rhythm guitar, and keyboards joined in. Confused, Josh turned his head towards the group. Six of his new friends were playing the song along with him, changed to human forms by Celestia - AJ and Pinkie on rhythm guitar, Twilight on drums, Dash and Rarity on bass, and Fluttershy on keyboards. They had all been healed by the power of Josh's guitar. Similar to said guitar, all of their instruments had an aura, as well. It took the skater a few seconds, but he realized what the aura meant.

They were activating the Elements of Harmony!

Now worrying, Chrysalis ordered her troops to attack the seven. Just as the changeling army closed in, the seven instruments' auras joined together and shot a pure white beam into the sky that pierced the heavens. While the solo echoed through Rome, the clouds began to clear, liberating the blue sky. The wreckage began to fix itself, and eventually, people were brought back to life. Chrysalis was in horror.

The city's people, remembering what had happened, ran towards the Colosseum. When they saw the group fighting - and beating - Chrysalis, they began to celebrate, cheering and headbanging. Josh sang the final chorus with the rest of the group;

"Into the fires of forever,
we will fly through the heavens!
With the power of the universe,
we stand strong together!
Into the fires of forever,
we will fly through the heavens!
With the power of the universe,
we stand strong together!
Through the forces of power,
it will soon reach the hour!
For victory we ride, fury of the storm!
For victory we ride, FURY OF THE STORM!"

The song ended with a forceful dun dun dun DUUUN! The white pillar of energy fired towards Queen Chrysalis, annihilating her army and sending her flying out of the galaxy. The crowd cheered and clapped for the group. Josh was lost in the limelight for a moment, but when he remembered what had happened, he ran to his new friends and hugged them.

"WE DID IT!!!" he cheered. "WE FUCKING DID IT!!!"

The nine celebrated amongst themselves for a little bit, then turned to face the Roman citizens. They waved to the crowd, and Josh raised his guitar and formed a devil horn gesture.

Crisis... reverted.

The very next day, there was a ceremony at the United Nations in New York City, Josh's home, to honor the nine. The skateboarder was wearing the most formal thing he could find - a Jets polo and khakis. He was walking around the building's lobby, thinking of the group's victory in Rome.

"Josh! JOOOSH!" He heard a teenager's voice.

Josh turned around to see - guess who? - Tim Carpenter. His friend ran up to him and offered a brohoof. The pro skater accepted it. "Guess you were right, huh?" remarked Josh.

Tim chuckled. "Guess so."

"Yo, Tim, sorry I didn't believe you."

Tim shrugged it off. "Hey, don't beat yourself up over it. Nobody does." While they talked, Twilight walked over in her human form with Spike walking next to her, also a human. You would have never guessed the guy had been mangled. Twilight seemed much happier, as well. Enthusiastic.

Josh introduced, "Hey, guys. This is my friend Tim Carpenter."

"Nice to meet you, Tim," said Twilight.

Their conversation was interrupted by Princess Celestia. "Josh, Twilight, Spike. We're up," informed the sun goddess. Josh's eyes met Twilight's, and they both smiled at each other.

"Let's go," insisted the guitar player. The three walked out the doors into the brisk Manhattan air. Thousands of New Yorkers made up the crowd. Josh recognized a few of them. The mob of people applauded. Some cheered. Spike gleefully waved to the crowd, getting a small chuckle out of Twilight.

The pro skater turned his head to see the other six. All of them were in their human forms. The United States delegate took the microphone.

He began, speaking in a slight Oregonian accent, "We are gathered here today to honor nine heroes who put themselves in the face of danger, and at the same time re-opening our connection with the country of Equestria. They saved our home world from certain destruction, as well as many others. The nine heroes were led by New York's own Josh Larson. Here he is." The delegate finished his speech and handed the microphone over to Josh.

You know how most people have a fear of public speaking? Josh didn't. "I now realize, after going through this expierence, how little time we have in this world and how quickly it can all be taken away. As a civilization, we've accomplished great things, but we also have a history of hate and war. Thanks to my new friends..." Josh glanced at the gang and smiled. "...I now hope that we, the human race, can learn from this and use our technology and knowledge for not great, but amazing things. I also hope we can do this all together. We only have one chance in this world... so let's make it count."

The crowd roared with applause, even larger than in Rome. Josh walked over to his friends.

"You know, I think that, since we're apparently all awesome at playing music, we should form some kind of supergroup," suggested the pro skater. Everyone looked at each other.

"Great idea, sugarcube," concluded AJ.

Fluttershy asked, "What should we call it, though?"

Josh thought about the name for a bit. "How about... The Legacy Armada?"

"Awesome!" agreed Dash. "That sounds epic!"

The nine turned back towards the crowd. Josh felt accomplished - and for good reason. He had just saved the entire universe from destruction. Of course, he hadn't done it alone. He did it all with the magic of friendship.

Long live the Armada.

THE END

Author's Note

Dun dun dun DUUUN! And so ends Element Seven. If you wanna see the wacky antics the Armada gets up to after forming, don't fret! Josh and company will be in more stories, so keep an eye out!

War Ensemble:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2e47wBWTV8

Fury of the Storm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i7qZxICwgQ

Thanks for reading!

-Jimmy-