//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Halcyon Hearts // by TheMyth //------------------------------// “And now... your end is near... Soon you’ll face the final curtain... And as you die... I’ll make it clear... I loved your pain, that much is certain...” “Shut up in there!” A guard yelled, banding against his cell door belonging to a stallion who was arrested for being an accomplice to Bloodwing. The said stallion, Black, would not stop singing and laughing madly as he bounced off the walls without a care in the world. “Sweet Celestia, I thought I’d never want a pony to go back to being suicidal!” Black grinned. “Don’t like my singing, huh? Peh, everypony’s a critic,” he sighed. “I think I’ll take your ears first, since you're obviously not using them.” The guard refused to dignify that with a response. He remembered the day when a switch seemed to be thrown in his brain. Suddenly, he went from moping in his cell, having to be force fed and only getting up when he thought he could get a spear to impale himself upon to grinning and laughing wildly, constantly telling the guards exactly how he would kill them and their families, and in general acting like a pony who had lost his mind. “I’ve lived a life of crime, killed stallions at every roadway. And more, much more than this... I killed them... my way!” The guard soon felt a spit ball against his neck. His eyes burned in rage as she clenched his teeth and turned around to face Black was grinning. “Look you, either shut your bucking mouth, or I swear I’ll take my sword and turn you into a gel...” The last half of that word was cut off by the guard losing consciousness, what tends to happen when a club has been stuck on one’s head. The other guard fared no better, and was knocked out almost as quickly. There was silence for a moment. “Aww... where’d the pretty music go?” Black asked, sounding like a disappointed foal. At that point, the door opened, and a pony stepped in. At least, Black assumed it was a pony. He was covered by a cloak, so no features could be seen. He was quadrupedal. “Black, I assume?” Black’s ears perked. “Am I? I think I am...” “Are you that far gone? I was hoping you’d be of some use to me.” “What do you need from me, huh?” Black asked curiously, smiling broadly with his eyes darting from one corner to the other. The pony in the cloak stepped forward and used to unshackle Black from his bindings using magic. When Black was finally free, he dropped to the ground with a thud before getting up to face the pony. “Thanks alot! I’ll be going no-” The pony suddenly spread wings out of his cloak, stopping Black in his tracks. From the darkness of where the hood was hiding his face, white eyes presented themselves to the dark earth pony. “I think you owe me, since I freed thee?” Black groaned and rolled his eyes. “Sure okay, what you want huh?! Me to kill somepony? I have a lot on my death list at the moment.” “I want you to help me… rectify Equestria.” “Huh?” Black cocked his eyebrow at the unknown pony. “Let us not discuss this here, too many ears.” He began to walk out before stopping. “Almost forgot.” He turned back to Black, using his magic to form an aura around Black that seemed be absorbed into his body. Before Black could react, he fell to the ground groaning in pain. His forehead and back started bleeding as new appendages sprouted out of him. His legs were in considerable pain and he was close to screaming. The pain stopped and he breathed normally again, standing up to view his new body. Black was back in his alicorn form. “That form is needed for what I plan,” the pony explained, seeing Black exit the cell. Black starting chuckling bowing his head with his eyes closed, before laughing madly at the gift he received. His laughing stopped when he heard a groan below him and he saw the guards waking up. They did not get to face him, however, as he stomped on their chests. They died almost instantly. “That was not needed!” the pony told him sternly, with Black glaring back at him. “Well excuuuuuse me!” Black sneered at him. “I can kill whoever I-” “Not when you are in a contract with me, you won’t!” The pony slapped Black hard, sending him to the ground. “You may use lethal force, however, if ponies get in the way.” Black looked up from the ground before getting up. “What about the princess and her dogs?!” The pony looked down to the floor sighing before answering. “If it comes to it, it can’t be helped.” “Yes!” Black smiled smugly. “By the way, who the buck are you?!” The pony removed the cloak and relieved what was under it. “You!” Black responded in shock and surprise. “But you’re dead!” “Death cannot stop a promise, and a promise is what I shall fulfill.” The pony said, placing the hood back. “Now come, we have work to do…"