The thirteen ponies spent their time talking with one another and asking each other for assistance. Though each of them already knew they were going to be working together it was a further proof of their lesson from before about giving up pride and admitting weakness.

Shadow Blaze stood, saying, “Time is up.”

Each of them turned toward him.

Applejack took her hat and placed it on Apple Bloom’s head. “I’m really glad you came along with me today. This could be our last roundup, sis. Let’s make it a good one!”

“You know it!!” Apple Bloom responded with a determined look.

Scootaloo said to Rainbow Dash, “We still have a lot of flying lessons ahead of us. I know you don’t like to break your word, so we absolutely can’t lose here.”

“Right! I won’t lose now that I have you by my side.”

Scootaloo smiled.

Rarity looked over at Sweetie Belle. “You impressed me so much today, little sister. You awakened our hearts and taught us something we were on the verge of losing. I said that I’d never be sisterless again, so I have to protect you with all I have.”

“Same here!” Sweetie Belle responded. “I promised to protect all of you, and I won’t go back on my word.”

Cadance and Shining Armor shared an embrace, kissing each other.

Twilight stood in front of Celestia and Luna. “I still have too many lessons to learn and lessons to teach to die here. We will win.” The two sisters nodded.

The thirteen of them got into position. They stood side by side in a big line, with a random mixture of a pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony between alicorns. Sweetie Belle was in a group with Fluttershy and Applejack; Scootaloo with Rarity and Pinkie Pie; Apple Bloom with Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash.

Shadow Blaze looked at their line-up. “This is odd. I figured you would want to be with the one’s you’re closest to.”

Twilight smiled. “It doesn’t matter how we’re arranged. Our differences are insignificant so long as our hearts are as one. All of us, despite what our likes and dislikes are, and how much we relate to one another, will always come together for a common cause. How do you think that a single unicorn was able to defeat the Windigo’s? The coming together of the three races created a new magic unlike any the world has seen before and hasn’t been seen since.”

She smiled down at the unicorn filly near her. “Well, except for Sweetie Belle. The light of friendship will always burn in our hearts, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

“We’ll see…” Shadow Blaze’s horn began glowing intensely. “Let’s get this over with. Is your way right, or is mine?”

The horns of the alicorns and unicorns began glowing. All of their bodies began floating, covered by a magical rainbow aura. The bodies of the thirteen moved until they were in shape of a heart, holding onto one another. Each of them only had one goal in mind: the preservation of Equestria. For that, its biggest threat had to be removed. It wasn’t out of hatred or revenge they were fighting for, but for the sake of each other. The glow from them became brighter and brighter.

“The shape of a heart.” Shadow Blaze let out a little chuckle. “You are really determined to keep this charade of symbolism going on until the very end, aren’t you? I’m ready for you.”

The glow and intensity from both groups grew stronger and stronger, becoming nearly blinding to the surrounding area. Both of them shot their blasts towards each other. As they met up there was a mini-explosion that forced dust and air to blow around it. The nexus of the energy streams grew larger and larger in the middle until they could barely see each other.

“What… no… this is impossible…” Shadow Blaze couldn’t believe it. He was using his full power, and their own power was exactly equal to his. “How could you bunch of losers match my power?”

“How many times do we have to tell you?” said Applejack. “The power of friendship will always come through in the end.”

Sweetie Belle spoke up. “You said that all we were adding in exchange for giving up the elements was just a unicorn. But you’re wrong. We also gained a pegasus and an earth pony. We added a full set of pony races to our side.”

“So are you going to take back what you said?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I guess we’re not so weak and helpless after all... when we all work together.”

Shadow Blaze growled in anger. “N-no! I won’t accept this! Don’t act like you’ve won. All it will take is for one of you to relax in the slightest. My power is far greater than yours. You’re weakened. Your bodies will give out before mine.”

Time passed, each of them pushing their every thought and being into maintaining their spells and trying to obtain victory.

“Five minutes. They’ve been opposing me for over five minutes. How?”

Rarity said, “You just don’t get it, do you? This power isn’t born of just us, but of all the ponies we strive to protect.”

“Think about it for a second, Shadow Blaze,” said Pinkie Pie. “Why are you struggling against us right now?”

“What?” he responded, sounding confused.

Raising her voice she said, “I said, WHY ARE YOU STRUGGLING?”

Fluttershy spoke up now, her voice calm as she voiced the simple truth. “Your power and our power are equal. If one of us relaxes we’ll lose. But why struggle at all? Just think about how different things would be in this situation… if you only had even a single friend by your side to help you out.”

Their side of the power ball advanced a bit toward him. “S-shut up! I don’t need anyone else.”

“Aqua Sapphire was as strong as you. Think about how much easier it would have been to beat us… if just one pony was by your side. That’s the beauty of friendship. When things go wrong, and you fall, there is always someone there to help lift you up. If the power you have isn’t enough, you can always find someone else to help out, just like Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom did. On the other hoof…what do you have at the end of the day?”

“N-no! No! Stop it! Shut up!” Shadow Blaze actually sounded afraid as the power ball continued advancing toward him. “I’m… losing… ground!”

“If you had only walked down the path of helping others for the right reasons… then you would still have your friend right by your side.”

Shadow Blaze was feeling a bit of terror, an emotion he hadn’t experienced since that first big battle all those eons ago. ‘I’m going to… lose? Me? Could it really be possible? Was I… wrong… this whole time?’ As doubt assaulted him the ball of power came at him faster. ‘Aqua Sapphire…’ For a moment he saw her in his thoughts, the smile she used to give only to him when she would look after him. ‘I’m… sorry…’

His power broke completely as he ceased resisting altogether as he was consumed by the magical energy.

The power of the thirteen slowly faded as they landed back on the ground. Each of them glanced at the other happily, then as one collapsed onto the ground.

“Man… I’m… exhausted,” panted Rainbow Dash.

“I can’t… move a… muscle,” said Fluttershy.

“We cannot remember the last time we have felt so weary,” added in Luna.

“But we won,” said Celestia.

“And Equestria is safe once again,” said Twilight.

All of them were at the point of nodding off, utterly drained from the battle.

Their relief was short lived. A group of timberwolves had come to investigate. They began letting out howls.

Twilight aimed her horn, but when she concentrated she couldn’t feel any magic inside her at all. She was too worn out. The others had the same issue.

As the timberwolves approached they each made an attempt to rise or use magic but were unsuccessful.

Rainbow Dash gave a humorless laugh, a strange smile on her face from the ridiculousness of it all. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. We defeat the most powerful being in the world… and then get killed by these small timers?”

There was a sudden brilliant flash of light erupting from the Tree of Harmony. The timberwolves howled in displeasure before suddenly leaving the area. The light left the confines of the tree, approaching the area where were all laying. It enveloped all of them in its glow.

Each of them suddenly felt reinvigorated, full of energy and healed of their wounds as if they hadn’t battled at all. They got up on their hooves, marveling at the phenomenon.

The light retreated a short distance from them before fading away, leaving a being in its wake.

None of them had to ask who the being was. Twilight bowed in respect. “Aqua Sapphire,” she said in reverence. “Thank you for this gift.”

Aqua Sapphire, like Shadow Blaze, appeared not to be a full pony. She was a deep crystalline blue, almost without substance as she looked like she was made of water. Her body flowed like a current of water. When she spoke her voice was calm and placid like a deep lake. “Nay, child. It is I who owe a debt to you.” She bowed down in return.

When she returned to her normal position she said, “You defied all odds and completely surprised me in your victory. I was afraid you weren’t going to succeed. I wasn’t able to assume my true form and battle him when he escaped. He used his power to keep me confined. And then once he removed the elements my power fell still further. It took everything I had to keep his power from spreading outside the forest.

“I have acted as the guardian of this forest for a long time, attempting to keep him confined so he wouldn’t be able to ruin the world as he tried to before.”

Tears began running down her face, and her body began flowing faster, like a rough wave crashing up against the shore. “Even though it was necessary I was really and truly hoping that one day he would see the folly of his actions. That was why I sealed him away.

"I was a terrible ruler. I had so many opportunities to kill him and save him from going down a darker path that way, but I could not bring myself to. Even despite all the evil acts he committed… I never stopped thinking of him as a friend.

“I tried to turn my eyes away from the truth. I tried to blame it on the defeat of the evil creature that almost destroyed the world. I thought its evil will had just transferred to another pony, or he had been possessed. I couldn't accept the truth for a long time. When I ran out of excuses and finally saw the truth…I still could not bring myself to deal the final blow. So I took the coward’s way out. I sealed him away along with myself, hoping that one day he would realize what he was doing was wrong, but it wasn’t successful.

“In the end… I finally figured out what he was really and truly trying to do.”

“And what was that?” asked Celestia.

“He was trying to change a lie into the truth and a truth into a lie, so he could get away from himself.”

“What do you mean?” asked Cadance.

“In the battle two of our dear friends sacrificed themselves to save him. He lived, but he was racked with guilt. He felt that everything was his fault. He thought that he should have been stronger.

"Even after achieving revenge all he was left with was a sense of emptiness and guilt. He felt he was going to break under his feelings. His plan of forcing everyone to become strong was nothing more than a displacement of responsibility. If he could prove that everyone could become almost infinitely stronger, but by themselves with no help from anyone, then he would prove that friendship and relying on others was a joke, and that only by relying on oneself could one succeed. That, in turn, would change the circumstances regarding their deaths. It would absolve him of all responsibility. They would be the fools that had been too worried about caring for others.”

Rainbow Dash looked furious. “You don’t have to be the element of loyalty to feel rage at that. So his friends threw their lives down for him, and then he wanted to spit on their memory by making it out to be all their fault? Some gratitude.”

“I don’t deny you your feelings, Rainbow Dash, as your fury is righteously placed, but you cannot fully understand the pain of having someone die for you. I don’t fully understand it either. He was drowning under his feelings of guilt and shame, and he couldn’t be convinced that we simply hadn’t had enough power at the time. I was unable to help him as his friend. In fact, listening to him today I saw that I only made his feelings stronger. I was too worried about other ponies getting caught in the crossfire, and thus I always fought him alone. I helped prove, in his mind, that his philosophy was correct.”

She looked out upon the thirteen ponies. “You have shown me your courage and power. You succeeded where I failed because you weren’t afraid to work together to win, and thus you helped disprove his theory, to the point where he had to accept the truth.” Looking up to the sky she continued, “In time, without his dark essence pervading this place, the Everfree Forest will return to normal, and thus lose its corruption of the creatures within and its self-manipulation of weather.

“I feel so weak. I wanted so bad for him to rejoin the side of right. But I guess that’s over now. He was irredeemable.”

“That is incorrect,” said Celestia.

Aqua Sapphire looked down at the princess. “Why do you believe so?”

“Simply because he lost. Our powers were perfectly equal. Accounting for only raw power, we were at a draw. What settled this contest was getting to him emotionally. We shook him up with our words, to the point that he stopped resisting altogether at the end. Even if it was only for a moment in time, I am certain that just before he was destroyed he realized how much evil he had been responsible for, and that he had been incorrect in his actions.”

“I suppose you’re right. The purpose of the Tree of Harmony was to keep him safely constrained, and to leave behind a portion of my power in case of an emergency. It has served its purpose. I have grown tired of living in a tree.”

“Then don’t!” said Scootaloo excitedly. “You’re free now.”

She smiled down at the filly for a moment, but it quickly faded. “Life without my friends holds no meaning to me, especially after such a long time of living in pain. Forgive me my final act of selfishness. Before I go I will at least try to repay some of my debt to you.” She raised her hoof and pointed. “You. The unicorn child.”

“Um, yes?” Sweetie Belle responded.

“Please come forward.” Sweetie Belle walked forward until she was almost right in front of her. “It was your inspirational words that helped rouse everyone else to continue fighting, and thus ultimately the victory of this day rests squarely on your shoulders. As a reward for your victory, I shall grant you one wish.”