Tales of Midnight: The Colony

by NA_SolarEclipse

Epilogue: The Selfish

After the burning of the Colony, life went on. In scale few lives were changed, but those that were changed couldn’t ever return to the way things were.

The Colony was left a pile of spent ashes with nothing but the burnt corpses of its deceased inhabitants buried amongst the destruction. While it was occasionally picked over by local zebra tribes, it was widely considered to be a cursed place to walk. Life, as if in fear of another blaze, simply didn’t return to the ashes.

While the ponies who died in the Colony were never remembered, they were never really forgotten. The ashes of the Colony remained an ever present reminder that when turned against her own kind, the Shadow-Walker would not hesitate to spread her ruin.

Princess Platinum was hardly even notified of the fate of the Colony. Its fate was left, as it always had been, out of the hooves of those that didn’t care. While it had initially been successful in its mission to remove criminals without killing them, no pony else was ever sentenced to the desolate settlement of criminals that only promised to kill whoever found its shores.

It hardly mattered to Princess Platinum though. She was far too caught up in her own agenda.

Clover the Clever, feeling much remorse after tricking Midnight Star into being brought to justice, always swayed a hearing’s verdict away from the Colony. She didn’t want to feel anymore guilt sending ponies to die by nature rather than by execution. She had bigger problems to deal with.

She had to find out why the weather was getting colder and colder each passing month, even though it was scheduled to be getting warmer. While she suspected the Pegasus, she never spoke up when she attended meetings between Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane, and Canceler Puddinghead.

Eventually the cold weather came to a freezing point, but that is another story entirely.

The Gold family, with its last hope of achieving the throne presumed dead, fell into obscurity. As the months went on, less and less ponies of its bloodline claimed to so proudly have Gold in their blood. As a last ditch attempt at the throne, several of the final members of the family attempted to murder the Princess in clear daylight. They were promptly executed on the spot, not even given trial for their crime.

Sunset Gale, the wrongly condemned painter, ran from the Colony and Midnight star. With time, he eventually found himself facing the Caesar of the zebras. He had begged for safe haven among the striped ones, he was given a much different fate entirely.

The Caesar found much humor in the yellow winged pony, and put him in the coliseum to see how long he would amuse the crowd and himself. He was sorrowfully disappointed.

Graham, savior of ponies and zebra alike, continued his journey throughout the zebra lands. While the tribes and factions that he helped always held the upmost respect for the traveling earth pony, it was not his teachings that they remembered.

While Graham regretted their false reverence, he never stopped his journey. If he had to trek across the entire continent spreading his teachings and spirituality to find a tribe willing to accept a higher power other than their own, he would. He found that his religion was harder to spread with no book containing the word, but didn’t regret his decision to leave it with the one the zebra called Shadow-Walker.

Warner, the cursed sailor with regrets, found that his life did not end. He was filled with sadness when he realized that he would continue his existence, never to move on from it. Over the course of his existence, he found himself forgetting about his adventures more and more.

With his boat, the Silver Sapphire, wrecked on a rocky shore he had to build a new one. However without the journals from his past, he eventually forgot who he was. His mind simply melded with his regrets and formed a murky mess of thoughts that the sailor found himself mulling over at night. While he always regretted his past, he never remembered any pony but Carlotta.

Rumors spoke of an empty sailor, always looking back to find nothing. They spoke of a pirate that had no remorse, always looking forward to find fortune. They spoke of a husband at sea, who could never look anywhere but where he was. Warner was all of these, he just could never remember which he was. Time played a cruel trick on the cursed pony, and he could never forgive it.

Sharpe found Midnight’s lifeless body the next morning and mourned for her, burying her in the ashes he knew she regretted. While he stayed by her grave for a time, he knew he had to move on. Midnight was gone, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He searched for a time, and eventually was reunited with the mysterious Graham in his crusade of Harmony. Regretting his failure with Midnight, he swore to protect the priest for the rest of his days. When nature became rampant or a tribe rejected Graham and his Harmony, Sharpe was there to protect him. They trekked across the zebra lands for many years, causing the tribes and organized legion to eventually regard the duo with respect.

Midnight Star, criminal, monster, Shadow-Walker, became nothing but a myth and a story. Zebras would tell stories of the cursed unicorn for years, always regarding the name with respect so as to not anger her vengeful spirit. Her name meant fear and regret to the tribes and legion. Not even the Caesar of the legion would speak her name without reason.

Her body lay in the shallow grave under the burnt remains of the Colony, a fitting destination for the selfish mare. Even when every pony she considered a friend pleaded that she choose life, she chose death. She was too selfish to face the consequences for her actions, and chose to end it all.

In her last moments, Midnight thought of those she felt were close to her. She thought and regretted until she chose to give up her life. Though she left her friends wanting her to live, she left them with drastically changed views.

Just as she wanted, life went on without her. Ponies were killed, lies were believed, and legends were forgotten.

Author's Note:

For those who want a dark ending, here you go!
although, it could be happy in a way.