//------------------------------//
// 20 - Epilogue 
// Story: Golden Prose 
// by Field 
//------------------------------//



In the dead of night she came to him


I’d lost her. Somewhere in the white light I’d lost Princess Luna. It seemed impossible but Bookmark was gone too. One moment he was there on my back, the next he was gone. There was nothing out there in the expanse of white that would help me find them.

There was only the voice.


With darkness in her eyes


It sounded so far away, but as I wandered I found that it did get louder.  I closed my eyes and tried to hone in on the source. If there was somepony else here I had to find them.


Wearing her armor dark
Sweet words as her disguise


Somepony was singing. The words sounded experimental, as if she was unsure of herself, but there was a lyrical tune about them. I broke into a full gallop in the direction I believed they came from.


He took her in without a word
For the goddess to appease


They sounded so close now. I stopped running to catch my bearings but the sensation of movement never ceased. Outside of my closed eyes the world around me seemed to be moving. I was being pulled somewhere.


And vowed them both to silence
Deep beneath the trees




I tried to open my eyes but my eyelids felt heavy. My limbs were responsive, though vaguely numb and similarly heavy. I could tell I was in a bed. The sheets were crisp and clean feeling but the pillows under my head were terribly uncomfortable.

After what seemed like an eternity of futile attempts my eyes opened, giving me a blurry view of the room around me. The walls were off-white and everything smelled sterile, like alcohol and disinfectants. Nothing moved except for the vague outline of a pony in an armchair beside my bed.

Vinyl Scratch.

The sunglasses gave it away before anything else. As my vision cleared I could see she was scribbling absentmindedly on a tablet of paper levitating in front of her, humming a tune that I couldn’t place. Maybe she had been the one I’d heard singing?

I opened my mouth to speak but the only sound that came out was too raspy and ragged to be understood. My mouth and throat were so dry it hurt.

The sound startled the DJ and the tablet fell from her magical grip. In an instant she was out of the chair and leaning over me in the bed.

“You’re awake!”

I opened my mouth to try speaking again but thought the better of it. Mercifully the DJ recovered from her surprise quickly enough to figure out my problem. She levitated a Styrofoam cup of ice chips from the bedside table and held it close enough to my lips that I could help myself.

The ice felt like heaven on my tongue. I closed my eyes and savored the sensation as the melt water brought my mouth back to life. When it was gone I was fairly certain I could speak again.

“Thanks Doctor DJ, your bedside manner is impeccable.” I managed to choke out.

“Four days in a coma and that’s the best you can come up with?” The mare teased back, leaning over and hugging me gently.

“Four days?” I found enough control of my limbs again to hug the DJ back. “It didn’t seem like that long… I don’t… I don’t know what happened.”

The DJ scooted her chair as close to my bedside as possible and flopped back in it, leaning forward to rest her head on her forehooves propped on the edge of the bed.

“Well damn.” She muttered. “I was really hoping you could fill me in. I’ve only gotten bits and pieces I managed to eavesdrop from the guards.”

“Guards?”

“Yes, guards.” Vinyl cocked her head to the side and gestured towards the door. “You and the colt have had two solar guards posted outside your rooms ever since that detachment of lunar guards found you both unconscious on the edge of the forest and brought you in.

I pursed my lips in thought for a moment. Things were starting to make more sense to me, but I wasn’t going to let her know that.

“Wait, if we’ve been here under guard this whole time how did you get in?”

The unicorn smiled conspiratorially and leaned to whisper in my ear.

“Since you just moved to the area none of the hospital staff know you. When I heard you’d been found I snuck in and altered some things in your patient file.” Her tone turned mock-saucy. “According to their records I’m your spouse and simply cannot be denied access to you…”

I broke into a short fit of laughter followed by an exasperated sigh. Really I shouldn’t have expected anything less from her.

“Well I can tell you are proud of yourself, and I’m flattered to be Mr. Vinyl Scratch as far as the hospital is concerned. Unfortunately things have changed and I don’t think you’re going to get the interview you want out of this. I-“

My self-righteous rant was cut short by a light slap to my forehead. I narrowed my eyes at her, my jaw slightly agape at the idea that she’d dare strike someone in a hospital bed.

“You tremendous ass, I was actually worried about you, not my radio career.” She spat, sounding genuinely hurt for a change. 

With a smug look on my face I gently put one of her hooves between mine and tapped it gently. 

“Don’t worry; your secret is safe with me.”


Over the next hour Vinyl Scratch filled me in on the details that she knew. I was far less generous in my retelling of what had happened to me. Some part of me was afraid that if I revealed the details I would undo everything.

As she had previously mentioned a detachment of lunar guards on “routine patrol” near the edge of the Everfree Forest had found two victims of an apparent lightning strike from the massive storm several days earlier. The cover story had been that a portion of the Ponyville Police Department had been caught in the lightning storm while searching for the victims and were unfortunately killed by freak lightning strikes. The solar guards posted outside my room were under the impression that they were there to keep the press away.

During the time of my hospitalization the DJ had observed a peculiar change in the hospital staff. When I was first admitted many of my caretakers recognized me and were quite verbose with disparaging remarks to my unconscious form. As the days went on, however, their opinions seemed to soften for some reason. They began to treat me with the same pity and compassion they would an injured stranger.

Vinyl had been baffled by the change. I had not been conscious to win them over, so there seemed to be no reason for it. I knew the explanation why, but I wasn’t ready to share with her yet.

But how did she remember?

By all rights she should have been affected by the changes just as much as the doctors and nurses. She wouldn’t have remembered Hayseed Swamp, and she shouldn’t have known me from the chaos in Ponyville. Yet she did.

I trusted that Golden Prose had kept her word and not thrown any strange little curveballs into her rewrite, so I could only speculate why. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the DJ had directly encountered the dark creatures of the Everfree. The forest’s power seemed to taint those who even remotely crossed its path.


Eventually night began to fall once more and Vinyl Scratch excused herself to fetch us both some coffee. I took her absence as an opportunity for self-examination. On shaky legs I eased myself out of bed and into my private bathroom. Mercifully the doctors seemed to have managed to extract the remaining crystal shards from my hoof.

The gunshot wound on my jaw had been cleaned and dressed, as well as all the other various nicks and cuts across my body.  In reality other than a slightly charred smell in my mane there really seemed to be no residual damage from the lightning strike.

I spent longer than I probably should have with my hoof on my chest where the alicorn had run me through. There was not a single mark remaining to show where it had happened, but I could never forget it. The more I thought about it I could almost relive the sensation.

I was so inwardly focused I didn’t notice the DJ’s return until she crept up behind me and put a hoof on my shoulder.

“Hey, you alright?”

I jumped slightly and whirled around to meet her. Her sunglasses were propped up, giving me a clear view of the concern in her eyes.

“Yeah… yeah I’m okay. Just a little lost in thought.”

The mare must have sensed that it wasn’t a subject to be pried at and simply ushered me out of the bathroom. Two cups of hospital coffee waited for us on the bedside table, but something else caught my attention. Sitting on another chair beside a small cabinet on the far wall was a black bag.

I trotted over to the bag and peered inside. There was another smaller sealed bag inside. It contained something I hadn’t expected to see again. My vest.

“I would have thought they’d throw this out when they triaged me at the hospital.” I mused out loud, pulling the tattered vest out of the bags. Somehow the blood stains were minimal despite the gaping hole in the back. Upon noticing the bloody article of clothing Vinyl Scratch stifled a gasp and trotted up behind me once more.

“Mossy… what the hell happened to you…”

Instead of turning to look at the mare I stayed focused on the vest, picking through the pockets until I found what I was looking for. It was a little charred on one edge, but the photograph still brought a smile to my face as I plucked it out of the chest pocket.

“Vinyl, that’s a story for another day, I think.”