//------------------------------// // Afterword: Sisterhood // Story: Circle of the Moon // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// "You never told me you would be involved in the play!" "What, and spoil the surprise? Besides it was a very last minute thing Aunt Celly asked of me..." "You're still a mare of many surprises, you know that?" "I'll take that as a compliment, Lieutenant Captain." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Several subordinate Royal Guards chuckle as Princess Cadance, still dressed up in her depowered Luna costume, kisses Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor on the cheek. Shining, who was technically still on-duty escorting Princess Luna, flushes a deep red, but is saved from further awkwardness by the approach of the batpony Lieutenant Vesper, jubilant but tired by the efforts of him and his subordinates putting on the play. "My congratulations on a job well done, Lieutenant. Remind me to tell the Captain to add 'acting talent' to the personnel file of you and your subordinates." Shining says to Vesper with a big smile. "If it's all the same to you sir, I'd rather..." Vesper begins to awkwardly reply, looking down as he seems to be uninterested in what Shining has proposed. "Oh don't be so modest, Lieutenant." Cadance states as a kind of gentle nudge. "Equestria doesn't know enough about you and your kind, this at least will help change that." "Well, since you put it that way, Your Highness..." Vesper replies with a bit of a blush. "There? See, we'll get these batponies integrated into society sooner rather than later!" Cadance exclaims to Shining Armor. "Something tells me it's not going to be that easy..." Shining Armor replies with a nervous look aside. "You worry too much, Shining dear. Have a little faith. After all, we have your younger sister to thank for this." Cadance points out with a smile. "That's true. And speaking of sisters..." Shining Armor says, looking over at Vesper as he speaks. "Well, sir, you should be able to hear for yourself." Vesper replies with a toothy smile, pointing toward a wall where bumping and thumping sounds could be heard from the other side. Shining Armor and Cadance exchange looks for a moment, then walk over to the wall and turn sideways facing each other so that they each could put an ear up to the wall - all the better to hear what was going on on the other side. And what was going on the other side was glorious indeed. Luna's previous emotions at the surprise of Celestia and the bat ponies had bubbled up into a new fountain of appreciation about the reunion after the exile, and the rumpus on the other side reflected this: tumbling and bumping noises, mixed with mirthful laughs coming from both Celestia and Luna. Both Shining and Cadance briefly paused to savor those sounds of sisters - immortal alicorns though they may be - playing like young fillies. "Totally worth it?" Shining asks in a stage whisper to Cadance, unable to keep the smile off his face. "Totally worth it." Cadance replies the same way with a nod, also unable to stop smiling. The sounds on the other side of the wall were the clearest sign yet of the relative success of the rehabilitation effort, and although Luna would continue to need friendship and support to prevent backsliding the events marked a tentative victory over all those that had sought to send Luna back into the darkness... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE INSIDE THE MOUNTAINS OF CANTERLOT... Agent Snake in the Grass smoulders in his mountainside refuge, cut off from but vaguely aware of what was going on in the batpony settlement due to the short physical separation between his secret complex and the batpony's caves. The success of the batponies supported by Celestia meant his dream of sending Luna directly back into the darkness was now effectively dead, so there was now nothing to lose by turning his entire organization toward dealing destruction and death. To that end, he began writing a new coded message, addressed to all Agents of Chaos: "To All Agents - We cannot hope now to plunge Luna back into the darkness, so we must instead be the fires of chaos. We must be prepared to sacrifice everything, up to our own lives, to set Canterlot aflame for the resurrection of the chaotic one. On the day of the whirlwind, we must torture as the chaotic one would, offering our own blood and the blood of innocents as sacrifices! If it means the return of the chaotic one, then we will have won even if we die in the process. - Agent Snake in the Grass"