//------------------------------//
// Epilog 
// Story: Insurgence 
// by Rose Quill 
//------------------------------//

I woke up to see Twilight sitting on the edge of the bed, hair a mess and staring at the wall. I got a trickle of distress and anxiety from the bond.

"Everything ok, Sunshine?" I asked.

She glanced back at me, a weak smile on her face.

"Go back to sleep, honey," she said. "Just still trying to sort myself out from the other me. There are still a few memories of hers in my head that haven't faded yet, and it's confusing." 

I grinned slightly and sat up, pulling my wife into my arms. "It's ok to be confused. I spent the last few days having to relearn a lot of things before the fog lifted from my head. The Dazzlings didn't have it much better, either. We were pretty lucky, to tell the truth."

She sank into my embrace, her worry still sifting through the bond. "It was so horrible, not knowing who I was," she whispered. "It was like Princess Twilight and I were fighting over the same body, the constant concern for you switching out for worrying about Fluttershy and memories that I wasn't sure which one of us they belonged to flickering past."

"It's pretty much over now," I whispered as I stroked her hair. "Starlight's going to come by tomorrow and try to erase the last of the conjunction aftereffects, so we should know who we are then. Besides, if it weren't for our bond, we'd be like the others, still forgetting which version of us we are. I was out at the farm yesterday and Rainbow actually came close to eating a daisy sandwich." I shook my head. 

She didn't respond, but I knew she was still awake.

"That's not all that's bothering you, is it?" I asked.

"Not really," she said. "I mean, we were lucky. In the end, we didn't really do much because of how confused we were about who we were. Even when Twilight and I sorted out which of us were which and helped the rest of us gain a semblance of self, we were still only minor players."

"We can't save the world every couple months, Twilight," I said, a teasing tone slipping into my voice as I rubbed her back, feeling the scar from a rogue bolt of magic. "It's hard on us, and it doesn't pay the bills."

She giggled a little before turning serious and looking at me. "It does seem like an oddly regular occurance," she said. "Which is what worries me. So far, every good thing in my life has been balanced by something equally as bad. I got into Crystal Prep, but excelled so much I was more or less ostracized by everyone there. I met you and the girls at the Games and subsequently tried to rip my way into Equestria."

"And all of which brought you and I together," I said, taking her face into my hands. "Sure, there have been some stumbling blocks along the way, but they made us stronger and better for it. And through everything, we've got our friends and each other to keep us company and help us with any problem, both here and in Equestria."

She sighed. "I know," came her quiet voice. "But I can't help but wonder what will happen now that we're married? Or when we decide to have kids?"

"I'm pretty sure the worst thing about us having kids is the having kids part," I said with a sigh. "I mean, do you know how expensive IVF is?  Not to mention the uncertainty of the gestation period, or complications."

"I know," Twilight said with a nod. "And even with the two-ova method having gained significant..." She sat up and speared me with a look. "You looked up the price of IVF?" she asked, an amazed look on her face. "Why?"

I grinned sheepishly. "Well," I started quietly. "We did kind of puzzle about that not long after we moved in here, and the idea just kind of got stuck in the back of my head. I've had more than a few dreams of playing with a little one, especially after seeing how well River and Azure get on, or how precocious Flurry Heart is." I rubbed her back as she leaned back into me. "I love the thought of you teaching them to read or us visiting Equestria on vacation."

She reached up and laid a finger across my lips.

"Have I told you today how much I love you?" she asked, silent joy and releif now flowing in the bond under the love.

"Yes, but you can always lay it on thicker," I smiled.





"Let me get this straight," Indigo said. "This is permanent?"

Starlight pinched the bridge of her nose again. "As near as I can tell, yes." She waved a hand at me. "Sunset, you explain, you've got more experience in this."

I stepped forwards. "It seems that during the event, we couldn't access the magic of our Elements, for what ever reason. Maybe it was the distress of having two different souls in one body, but our magic was severely hampered, no matter how hard we tried to draw on it.

"But the connection to the Tree of Harmony was still there, so it just created relief valves," I said, looking at each of them. "Little failsafe measures so that the magic still had a way out so as not to form a mana torrent and torch the town. Each of you embodies a value similar to each of us, and therefore you gained an Element similar to temporarily take up the strain."

"So how does that explain this?" Indigo asked, an ear flicking in annoyance.

"Well," I said. "After we all connected with our Elements, we could tap them to pony up."

I looked up at the hovering girl. "I guess now you all can too."

Lemon Zest sighed. "Just tell me how to land without falling on my face."

I smiled.

"I brought someone a little better than I for that," I said, giving a whistle.

A blue blur shot up, revealing Rainbow as she hovered eye level with Indigo and Lemon.

"Sup," she said.

I couldn't help but grin at the groan.





"So," I asked. "Do you think you're up to it?"

Sunshine pushed her glasses up and stepped forward.

"We still have a few days left in our honeymoon," she said as she lit her horn. "I think we can at least get a good head start on this."

Books started to drift down from the crystal shelves, all stacking up on the table we stood by at in the azure glow of my wife's magic. She pulled the first book over and set it before her, opening to the first page.

I glanced at her and then kissed her on the cheek before stepping out for a moment. Outside were Starlight and the Princess of Friendship.

"Started pretty quickly," I said. "Looks like we got some heavy teaching to do in the next couple of days."

Starlight shrugged. "I doubt she'll try to read every book on spellcraft in four day," she said. "That's a little much."

Twilight and I gave her blank looks.

"Right," she giggled, rubbing the back of her head. "Forgot who I was talking about."

"She's serious about getting caught up on Equestrian magic so we can at least use it to find a baseline on how exactly the magic in our world differs from here. It's the first step to understanding where it comes from and why bringing an Element of Harmony woke it up."

"It will also let us have an amazing study time!" Twilight said, almost hopping from hoof to hoof like a certain pink pony we all knew. "The last one we had was so much fun, and now we're doing one in my area of expertise! There's so much to prepare for, I have to get some flash cards made!"

I slid a wing out and used it to cover my fellow princesses mouth. "How about we just make it to the first study break first?" I asked. "That way you'll know where to start with helping me explain it in normal Equis to her. She didn't get the primer school like we did."

"That brings up an interesting question," Starlight murmured. "We all speak modern Equis here, and it's one of the common international languages. How did Sunshine learn to speak or read it? She wasn't here very long your first visit to have learned it all at that time."

I shrugged. "Same way you were speaking English the entire time you and the rest of the girls were over for graduation, I suppose," I postulated. "The portal already changes our bodies to fit the world, so why not assume it adjusts the way we hear things?"

Twilight's eyes shone suddenly with a renewed light. "We could do research on it!" she breathed.

I rolled my eyes with good-natured humor as Starlight facehooved.

"Forget I mentioned it," she said.





She floated in the dim darkness of the void, rage boiling impotently within her heart. She had long since given up ranting since she was the only one there to hear it. She was also starving.

Then she sensed it, a cold, bitter malevolence floating in the prison of her mind. She sought it out, and came face to face with another Changeling.

No, that wasn't it. She came face to face with herself.

"What do you want?" she asked, turning away.

"To look at how far we've fallen," her double said. "All because you couldn't bear to take the one chance you had to end your people's starvation."

"Friendship and love?" she spat. "That is not the Changeling way. That's the pony way, a weak way."

"And yet," her double asked. "Whose kingdom flourishes while ours began to wither away?" The shade held up a hoof, the holes within growing larger with every passing second. "You know what will happen if we go without feeding long enough, yes?"

Chrysalis bowed her head. "Dust," she whispered bitterly.

It doesn't have to be that way, another voice whispered. The deposed queen looked around, trying to spot the speaker.

Things could still come out your way, it continued. And you could gain the power to crush anypony that got in your way.

"How?" she hissed.

Two green eyes appeared, trails of purple mana drifting away from them, and a throaty, deep laugh followed.





"So she's hallucinating?" I asked as I looked at the still body of the Changeling Queen below, the shimmering of a stasis spell over her body.

Luna nodded. "I can see the dreamscape she is walking in, and she believes she is talking to Sombra." The Alicorn shook her head. "I think her mind may truly be lost, fracturing into delusions and half-believed truths."

Thorax looked at her, a sad look on his face. "I wish there was something we could do to help her rise above it," he whispered. "I mean, she's one of us. We've already helped the hive that was under the Castle of the Two Sisters."

Luna nodded. "To have found a hive under my former home was a shock," she admitted. "I wonder how much they led to the Nightmare possessing me, and how much was my own doing."

I sighed and ruffled my amber wings as I turned to leave. "There are some answers that should never be answered," I said. "Not all answers are harmless." 

"And what will you do," Luna asked. "Now that you have looked upon your enemy in her defeat?"

I sighed.

"Go home," I said. "Kiss my wife, eat some dinner. Study for exams. Start writing a book for my independent study class."

"Those sound like truly taxing ventures," Luna said with a smile.

"What will you write about?" Thorax asked.

"Not sure yet," I said. "I was thinking about this one story about a girl who got in over her head and went down a dark path but was saved by a few special people."

"How does it end?" Luna inquired.

"Don't know yet," I said as we left the prison medical ward. "I'm only 26. Got a lot of years ahead of me, and a lot of living to do.





Sorla walked in and sat down at the table, lifting a quill and setting it to the pages of a leatherbound book. The quill took on a scarlet sheen and she set it to writing.

Nopony should know the things I have unearthed. Inside my mind are the spells that none should have ever written. With each letter I scribe in this journal, they will be erased, bit by bit, leaving me with the memory of having known them, but the runes, circles, incantations, anything that could give rise to them returning will be gone.

For weeks, I suffered for those spells as my mind was viciously ransacked for the information, and as a result, two worlds were nearly destroyed.

I do not know by what right I have been given this second lease on life, nor for seeing my father again, but I thank Harmony for it. Seeing him again, being a family again is a joy I thought I had lost long ago. It almost dulls the pain of the memories.

Almost.

I can tell Father still misses her, and I cannot blame him. When someone leaves a mark on your heart like that, you can never truly forget. Some ponies can love truly only once, they say. I hope that that one chance was not his only one.

For his sake, and the mare he tells me stories of. A mare I never met, the one that bore me into this world.

I close out today with words I have too long gone without speaking:

I love you Mother, and I wish I could have met you.

She shut the journal and set the quill down. She levitated the book over to a bookshelf and slipped it behind some volumes of tax laws that she had slipped into her study for the purpose of hiding the journal. Closing her eyes, she sat and rubbed a spot on her side, feeling the phantom pain of the branding iron, a tear slipping free.

"Milady?" a voice said from behind her. A Crystal pony slipped up to her, green eyes concerned. "Are you alright?"

She nodded. "Quite fine, Serene," she told the nurse. "Just missing someone today."

The nurse nodded. "I see. It was her birthday today, after all."

Sorla turned to the other mare.

"Serene," she said. "Tell me about Mother? It hurts too much for Father to speak of it."

Serene smiled in her namesake. "I'd be delighted to," she said.