//------------------------------//
// Chapter 30 - Epilogue 
// Story: A Bhaalspawn in Equestria 
// by Thadius0 
//------------------------------//

"You know," I said while stirring my tea, "If you had told me even as far back as one year ago that I would be having tea with the embodiment of Chaos and the Guard Captain, I would have asked you what you were on and if I could have some."

Indeed, outside my home slash hideout, at a lawn table that had suddenly appeared with incredibly comfy chairs, Discord sat opposite me, while Shining Armor eyed both of us warily.  Discord had provided most of the setting, while I provided the location.

"Indeed," Discord had said, "If you had told me something similar when I broke out, that I would be taking tea with the Guard-Captain and he who once gave me chills, I would have called you off your rocker."

Shining smiled at that and snarked.  "You calling someone crazy?  Aren't you the definition?"

Discord grimaced, drank from his cup, and waggled a talon at Shining.  "Please.  I may enjoy a good bit of fun every now and then, but that Slayer creature..."

I grimaced as well, then drank my tea.  Strawberry, this time.  Interesting.  Then again, when Discord provided, few things weren't.  "Distilled Murder.  An aspect of Destruction.  This world is just bursting with the opposite, so even the most unbalanced blanch at the idea of even the slightest hint of it.  Sombra and Nightmare Moon being apt examples."

The others nodded, and I turned to more fully look at Discord.  "Hmm...by the way, did you ever check out that glade I told you about?  I would like some answers, finally."

Discord nodded and snapped his lion's paw, causing a small image to appear over the table.  As he began narrating, it changed to reflect his words.

"While I don't know how you got here from your end, on ours, it was a simple magical scan that showed me the situation.  A rare one, at that.  Some remnants from Celly and Lulu's fight with me, along with some from Cell's fight with her sister's darker half.  Combined with an astral alignment that happens in that forest once every hundred years or so, it was more than enough to open a portal...or pull a being from where it did not belong to here."

I sighed at that.  "The only thing I can tell you is that on my end, I was playing the game from which Marketh came.  And since my world doesn't have magic, I can't tell you if there was anything I did to bring it on.  I doubt it, though.  More likely than not, something in Marketh's world triggered it."

Shining and Discord nodded, and Shining took a sip of tea before humming.  "By the way, what happened with your apprentices?"

I waved a hand.  "The dogs and Gilda went back, they've learned more than enough to be able to teach it to others.  Whispered, I have no idea.  Lost track of him after Sombra."

Shining filled in at that.  "From what I hear, after he warned us about you, he went back to a Thestral colony, to share the tricks you taught him about existing in daylight to those that want to try.  At least, that's what he said he was going to do.  Beyond that, no clue.  He might yet return."

I shrugged and drank from my tea again before making a face.  Lemon.  Really sour lemon.  "Well I'm glad he's doing well."

Discord waved his paw in a so-so fashion.  "From what I heard whispered through the batpony grapevine, his family made a practice of tracking you and the crime wave you propagated, in hopes that bringing you in would earn them all some good grace with sunbutt.  So while he is being looked down slightly for colluding with you, the tricks of the trade are getting some of them noticed when they apply to the Night Guard...along with helping them coexist with the day-timers."

Shining took a sip of his tea and grimaced.  "Licorice.  Bleh.  Anyways, how about you?  How're you holding up without a guild of scoundrels or the powers of Marketh?"

I shrugged.  "I still have the memories of everything he did.  I don't think I'll ever be able to replicate even half of them, but time and effort should see me through the basic techniques.  They're academic memory, not muscle memory."

At that, I snapped my fingers and drew up the Bag of Holding from under the table.  I rummaged for a bit before drawing out a stout, brown box with a hinged, latched lid.  I set it down in front of Shining with a slight 'thud'.  He looked at it, then at me, with a raised eyebrow.

"That," I said, tapping it, "contains all my notes and journals and the like from my time here.  A good portion at the start are disorganized, but it's nothing a certain lavender librarian won't be able to figure out."

Shining's eyes widened, but eventually he smiled and put a hoof on it.  "A thousand years of notes from a perspective not a pony.  I'm certain she'll love it."

Discord actually smiled and folded his hands together.  "A mighty gift indeed.  What next, you pull out Angel from that hat of yours?"

I shuddered at the thought.  "Perish the thought.  I've had the displeasure of meeting that little hellion.  He's just lucky I lack my skills or a decent hasenpfeffer recipe at the time.  I'd not put him near anything of mine if you paid me.  Speaking of..."

I held the bag upside down and over the nearby ground.  Shaking brought out a flood of Bits which I stopped halfway through.  Needed some to live on, after all, but I didn't need them all.  Not with my job as a security consultant for local and sometimes abroad businesses and banks.  Giving some back would be seen as a good gesture.

"Think you could get these back to where they're needed?"

Discord put his eyeballs back in his head, they'd boggled out during the flood of gold.  He shook his head a few times, focused, and snapped.  The gold slowly faded out, bit by bit.  I then remembered one last thing, reached in, and pulled out a small violet bag with golden drawstrings.  I thumped it down in front of Discord, and the table vibrated slightly.

"And this," I said while gesturing at it, "Is my Gem Bag, filled with what gems remain from my adventures.  I don't need them nearly as much anymore, nor do I have dogs to feed, so I'd ask of you to dispose of it.  Either Spike or Rarity would make good candidates, considering its storage capabilities and what already lies within."

Discord hefted it and grunted.  "Surprising amount of weight for a little bag."

I nodded and drew the Bag of Holding's drawstrings closed.  "Considering the amount of jewels in there, I'm not surprised."

Discord drank from his teacup and placed it back on the saucer, which shifted from the alabaster it had been to a rich, verdant green.  "Giving away your possessions?  You're not thinking of dying, are you?"

I shook my head.  "Eventually, yes.  Without that little divine spark within me, I'll start aging again.  But not anytime soon.  This is just to smooth over relations between myself and ponykind.  If I'm to be trapped here, let it be on good terms."

Shining nodded, and the two of us set our teacups down.  With a snap, the table and tea set were sent back from wherever Discord had conjured them from.  Another moment for us to stand up and stretch saw the chairs on the same path.  I shook Discord's paw, then turned to Shining and shook his hoof.  "A pleasure, gentlemen.  We'll have to do this again next week.  Maybe with cards?"

Discord's eyes widened as his eyebrows climbed.  "Oooh, there's an idea!  We could make this a regular thing.  Poker with the boys!"

Shining raised one eyebrow at my suggestion.  "And why would you want to see me again?  Discord, I can understand, the both of you are suited to each other now.  But me?  We're on the opposite side of the fence!"

I smiled at him.  "A popular opinion of those in power in my homeland is to surround yourself with an equal measure of those that don't agree with you along with those that do.  That way, if you run a plan by them, you get a thorough dissection of it and find all the flaws and perks.  If you go too far either way, one will tell you that it'll never work while the other will tell you it always will.  And half the time, they're wrong.  Keeping me close will let you find out where the flaws are in your guarding."

Shining nodded at my logic.  "Fair enough."

Discord popped on his way, probably on to Twilight's library.  Shining walked off, probably to the train station.  After a minute of the area outside my house being clear, I heard the distinctive sound of wingbeats.  Featherless wingbeats.

"They gone?"

I nodded without looking around.  A moment passed, and I felt a distinctive hoof on my hip.  "Well, time to get back to training."

I sighed at the thought of more training.  "I'll be surprised if I come anywhere close to where I used to be.  Any improvement is good, Whispered."

"Yeah, but I want to see you able to beat me."

I rolled my eyes.  "Oh, how the mighty have fallen, for the student to become the master."