//------------------------------// // ii. The End [Epilogue 2] // Story: Longest Night, Longest Day // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// Celebrating would come later. For now, hours later as the moon left its high position in the sky and began a gradual, measured, and above all else proper descent towards the horizon, all Ponyville could do was focus on the return of their loved ones. Most of Ponyville, anyway. Trixie nodded her head slightly. “It’s actually in better condition than I thought it would be,” she remarked as she picked her way through her living room, careful not to step on broken glass or splintered wood. The hole Raindrops had made in her window, remained, of course, but it had been added to a dozen times over by ponies that looked like they had been literally tearing up the floorboards looking for Trixie. Luna moved with somewhat less caution, a scowl on her features as she surveyed the damage, deepening when she saw that the storybook mural on the wall that had contained the legend of Celestia’s fall and Corona’s rise has been left largely untouched. “This…” Luna said, “this is unacceptable. Whatever their imagined issue with you, this house is…” she paused as her gaze centered on a hole in the ceiling of the room, “was property of the Crown.” Trixie looked to Luna. “It’s just a house,” Trixie remarked. She forced herself to be cheerful. “They were angry and scared. And taking that out on wood and plaster is better than taking it out on each other, right?” Trixie paused a moment as she thought. “Or me.” Luna’s scowl persisted for several long minutes. Her gaze had drifted back to the mural once more, and she had stepped up to it, looking into the painted eyes of Corona. The wall stared back emotionlessly. “You’re right,” Luna admitted with a sigh. Trixie watched Luna closely. Finally, she asked the question that had to be asked. “Are you alright?” “Of course I’m not!” Luna snapped. The unicorn didn’t budge at the burst of emotion, nor the glare that followed, albeit only for a few moments before Luna reigned herself in, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “Every history text talks about Cel - about Corona and the revolution against her and my brave and noble sacrifice by sending her into the sun. But everypony seems to of selectively forgotten what happened next. Everypony but me, and I am trying very, very hard to stop myself from having a relapse. I was as bad as Corona.” Trixie blinked at that. “I really don’t think that’s possible,” she said. Luna glared at her again. “I was worse,” the princess insisted. “Corona was a tyrant. I was absent and utterly useless at affairs of state because I spent the better part of twelve years in a drunken stupor, trying to block out what I had done, what Corona had forced me to do. I would let days pass without raising the sun, and would set it early as the mood struck me, and probably only raised it at all because barley and grapes need sunlight. I would arrange the stars however I wished. I would descend upon a settlement and make the inhabitants wait on my every wish and amuse myself by manipulating their lives and dolling out favor and misfortune as I desired. I did anything, anything, to make myself forget, and ponies everywhere suffered for it.” Luna snorted as she looked away from Trixie. Trixie considered. For whatever reason, she wasn’t actually very surprised by Luna’s admission. “Did you hurt anypony?” she asked. “Countless thousands.” “I mean in a permanent way. An unforgiveable way, rather than just you being a big, drunk jerk wandering the countryside.” Luna stifled a burst of laughter at that. Trixie’s statement made Luna sound like she had been a sorority head leading a hazing ritual more than anything. “I have not forgiven myself,” Luna stated. “Princess…” The alicorn shook her head. “No. I was capricious and melancholy, not a monster. But I was essentially a little Discord. A storm of chaos followed me wherever I went.” Trixie had made her way to an overturned bookcase. It had been full of a fairly generic collection of books, mostly the classics like Foalnapped and The History of the Decline and Fall of the Griffon Empire. Trixie had added only a single book to the collection since moving in, and breathed out a sigh of relief as she found her copy of Don Rocinante unharmed. “What snapped you out of it?” “A family of dragons decided that Equestria was weak and ripe for pillaging. I happened to be nearby as they crossed the border and…convinced them that they were mistaken. But after that I realized what I’d been doing. That I was letting my pain and suffering become the pain and suffering of others.” “But you did realize,” Trixie noted. “Corona didn’t…she still hasn’t. That makes you better. And you’re right, everypony seems to of forgotten that bit of history. It must not of been as bad as you make it out to be.” That didn’t seem to improved Luna’s mood. She breathed in deeply, and let her breath out slowly. “Celest…Corona…will be weak for a long time,” Luna stated. “She will recover the depth of her magical reserves in just a few days, but the power will take longer…perhaps five or six months. But she will not be quiet in that time.” The alicorn ruffled her wings a few times as she thought, then looked back to Trixie. “We should return to Canterlot.” Trixie blinked a few times at that. “We?” she asked. Luna grinned slightly. It was forced, but only because Luna still didn’t seem to be much in the mood – the intent behind it was genuine enough. “Trixie, you saved Equestria, saved the lives of some five dozen captives Corona had taken. Surely you don’t think that I’m still angry with you.” She looked away. “I…I was lying when I said I didn’t banish you here. I did. It is an excellent first appointment, in a way, but it is also small and easily forgotten and has little standing in the Night Court. Sending you here was intended as a punishment.” Luna looked back to Trixie. “The Night Court is the strictest meritocracy. You have to climb through its ranks yourself, Trixie, get noticed yourself, collect your own favors and prestation. But there was no need for me to send you here, where you’ll essentially be locked out of the Night Court. I will arrange for a proper appointment elsewhere. A junior advisory position in Manehattan or Neigh Orleans, or a minister to one of the protectorate states like Cavallia or Pferdreich, something where, if you’re clever enough, you could actually get noticed – ” “I was actually hoping I could stay,” Trixie interrupted. Luna looked surprised at Trixie’s desire as the unicorn pressed on. “I mean…I made a horrible first impression on everypony…the residency is a bit of a fixer-upper…Ponyville is kind of the wasteland of Equestria…I’m not sure about the mental stability of some of the ponies here…” she trailed off as she realized that, if she contiued listing all the flaws of Ponyville, the two would be there all night, “…anyway. My friends are here. It’s close to Canterlot so I could even attend the Night Court directly from time to time. And given that I’m your apprentice and I sort of just helped save Equestria, I don’t think being noticed will be a problem.” Luna considered Trixie carefully, before nodding. “Very well,” she said, as she turned around to leave. Trixie followed, both of them exiting through the front door of the residency (the front aperture, at least, the door itself Trixie had not been able to find), out a sense of tradition if not necessity given the numerous other options Ponyville had seen fit to provide Trixie with. “Stay at a hotel for now, I will arrange for the residency’s repairs.” Trixie nodded at that, though a second later she flinched a little. “About that…” she said. “I might have spent my entire stipend when I was trying to…well…spite you.” Luna glanced at Trixie incredulously. “How?” she asked. “Weather-for-hire ponies aren’t cheap, especially when they’re rushed down from Cloudsdale.” “But they ended up being superfluous.” “Their contract specifies ‘no refunds.’” Luna shrugged. “I suppose I could float you some bits,” she remarked as her horn glowed. With a pop, a small cloth bag appeared in front of Trixie, who caught it telekinetically. Trixie was puzzled a moment, before sighing. “It was you. The random pony I stopped on the street and paid thirty bits to find Lyra.” She considered as she remembered Luna’s trick prior to the official beginning of the Longest Night. “One of you, anyway.” “Indeed. I will arrange for more money to be sent to you. But that,” she pointed a hoof at the bag, “is a loan. I expect to be paid back.” Trixie blinked. “Why? You’re the princess! You haven’t paid for anything in centuries! Millennia, even!” Luna offered a grin, a more honest one than any she had been able to produce for some time. “Maybe that’s because as the princess, I never get paid. It was a novel experience, and I had plans for those bits.” “What plans?” Luna didn’t answer as the two reached the residency’s front gate and stepped out into the street. Previously, it having been nighttime for the first time in what Luna had told them was nearly twenty hours of daylight – the longest day in Equestrian history, though far short of Corona’s promised ten days of uninterrupted sunshine – everypony had been asleep or, more likely, lying awake, fearing what Corona was doing to their loved ones. Now, the entire town was up and active in their homes, the sheer elation of having their foals and loved ones returned to them an almost palpable sensation, though that probably wouldn’t persist for long as exhaustion set in and everypony got some much-deserved rest. Luna turned to Trixie as they stopped. “Now then, Trixie,” she said. “You have friends here, and that’s good. But you’ve had those in the past, too, and managed to drive them away. You must try, hard, not to do that again.” “I know,” Trixie said, images of previous friends she’d had in Canterlot drifting by in her mind’s eye. Sea Swirl, Amethyst Star, Chocolate Tail… she nodded, looking up at her hat. The Element of Magic was still there. It was, perhaps, a bit gaudy, and Trixie didn’t think she’d make a habit of wearing it all the time. Probably just for formal occasions and whenever she needed to save the world, the latter of which would hopefully be a rare event. “Friendship is magic and all that.” Luna blinked. “Not the phrasing I would have used…” she admitted, “but completely valid in its own way. But I don’t mean you should keep your friends just to keep the Elements functioning. That would be a hollow, meaningless thing. More than anything else, you should be happy.” Trixie nodded. “I’ll try,” she promised, bowing. “And I’ll see you soon, princess Luna.” The alicorn inclined her head in acknowledgement, then thought better of it and instead came forward and pulled Trixie into a deep embrace. Trixie remained a not particularly touchy-feely pony and flinched, but after a moment returned the show of affection. Eventually, Luna pulled away, and closed her eyes, horn glowing. In a moment, she had become a nebulous, star-studded mass that rose into the night sky, then shot off. Trixie watched Luna disappear, then looked to the bag of bits she held. A thought occurred to her, that hadn’t before, but in hindsight it was one she really should have considered first. “Does Ponyville even have a hotel?” she asked, then paused again. “Would I even be able to check in at this hour? I wonder if Carrot Top has a spare bedroom…”