Epilogue: "Dark Days Ahead"
EPILOGUE
CANTERLOT
After Nightfall
Somewhere in the mezzanine layers of the heart of Equestria, under the happy denizens asleep in their beds, under the royal security patrols, there were other ponies who took advantage of the secrecy the cover of night afforded those who wished their plots to remain in the dark.
Somewhere under the city, a long cobblestone passageway lit only by torch sconces was occupied by two figures in concealing dark robes. They strode purposefully as they passed ancient portraits of past Canterlot nobles and depictions of city sections as they had been throughout the centuries. Though black cloaks masked their faces, from each of them a unicorn horn stuck through a diamond-shaped aperture in the hood. One colored white, the other blue.
“Are we too late?” The white one asked.
“Shouldn’t be, night’s only begun.” Blue replied.
The hallway came to an end at a set of heavy wooden double doors, banded with iron and signs of great age. They stopped just short of the threshold, turned to each other with a nod, then used their magic to open the doors before them.
The chamber within was filled with finery of all type, centered by a long table at which many hooded unicorn sat.
“Who makes sure that bits are round?
Who keeps the Diamond Dogs underground?
We do, we do!
Who keeps the Zebras off the maps?
Who keeps the Bat Ponies under wraps?
We do, we do!
Who holds back the electric cart?
Who made Songbird Serenade, a star?
We do, we do!
Who made the Wonderbolts suits skintight?
Who rigs every Nightmare night?
Weeee do… we dooooooo!”
As the song came to an end, over a dozen unicorns male and female, raised their tankards in toast, before tossing back the frothy contents and slamming them down on the table. Their cloaks were all standard, black velvet with gold trimming and piping around the horn aperture. Around them, décor that spanned more than a thousand years adorned the chamber and ceiling; paintings, suits of armor, statues, all of exquisite make, all featuring or designed for unicorns.
Seated at the head of the table, a stallion stood and raised a white hoof. Behind him was a tapestry of a group of several unicorns gathered in a circle upon a hill, above them in the blue sky, the shining sun. “Brothers! Sisters! Unicorns! Children of true nobility, welcome to this hallowed chamber, this sacred association, to meet in fellowship in this great cause.” He spoke in a refined voice, earning the introduction a round of supporting hoof-raps from the table.
“As we all know, our alliance with Chrysalis did not go as planned.” This statement was met with a much mixed reaction; some grumbled, others laughed.
“And good riddance to that creature!” One mare called out, standing to address the others. “We should never have struck a bargain with her in the first place.” A few of the members clopped on the table, others remained silent. “We should not always consider the enemy of our enemy our friend.”
The stallion at the head of the table held up a quieting hoof. “It is easy in retrospect to condemn the Chrysalis plan, Worthy, and things having gone rather pear-shaped, I think we would all prefer to move on.”
Murmurs of agreement.
“To that end, I believe Crusade has some news for us.”
A white stallion rose from his seat. “Word in the palace, is that Celestia stormed out of the library this morning in a very emotional state. I think we can assume she found the letter.”
“Yes.” Came another from his seat. “From what I hear, she sequestered herself in her chambers until Luna came to pry her out.”
“This should go a long way towards getting her where we need her to be for our great undertaking.” A mare, with an elegantly feminine leg and coy voice threw in. “When the times comes, she’ll be so paranoid and fearful, she’ll be scared of her own shadow.”
“An unfortunate measure, but a necessary one, Grace.” Nodding with contrite acceptance, the leader hummed. “But nonetheless our enterprise requires great sacrifice, the likes of which our tribe has not had to endure for more than a thousand years. If we are to restore things to the way they should be, then we must be willing to take the hard measures.”
“Couldn’t agree more.” All eyes shifted to the opposite end of the chamber, where yet one more disguised stallion stood. His fur was a steel blue, but his cloak was a silken black, with a crescent moon brooch around his neck. “Now that we have dispensed with changeling distractions, we can focus our attention and resources on something more… promising.” He said with a smirk.
His voice was as smooth as polished ice, with a serpentine confidence. Approaching the end of the table, he raised a salutary hoof to his colleagues. “Legacy, assembled members of the project, I come bearing good news.”
“Then let us hear it, Apostle.” Legacy enjoined from the opposite end. “As you know, there was some serious doubt as to the feasibility of your proposal.”
Apostle bowed his head deferentially. “I know I am not of the same noble Canterlot stock as you all, but, I believe my contribution and fidelity to the cause is as sincere as any among you. To that end my friends, let you doubt no more.”
Producing a rectangular case of carved stone from under his robe, Apostle set it on the table. When the nearest mare tried to touch it, he snatched it back. “I would advise against that.” He warned. “For your own good.”
Apostle continued, gently placing the item back down. “My associates and I have returned from our journey northward. I am happy to report that our quest was successful.”
At this, conversations rippled throughout the members. Apostle remained impassive.
“Are you certain?” Asked a stallion, his voice brimming with self-entitlement. “Are you going to show us what’s in the case or simply expect us to take your word for it?”
Tilting his head, Apostle wordlessly used his magic to open the case, facing its contents towards the others.
Several gasps went up from the members, some of them recoiling so far as to get out of their chairs. After a few moments of trading glances, Apostle closed the box. “Any more skeptics?” He asked. None arose.
“Well…” Legacy gulped. “I suppose this is cause for celebration.” Taking his own tankard, he used his magic to slide it across the table. “Since this is your grand scheme, why don’t you favor us with a toast then?”
Apostle took the drink in his magic and took a thoughtful pause to compose what he wanted to say. He raised his mug and the others did likewise.
“For too long, our tribe has surrendered our rightful place in the world. Given it up for the complacency of an endless status quo. But now… now the time has come for our kind to reclaim what belongs to us, to once again become the masters of our own realm, to fulfill the nobility that is our birthright!”
“Here, here!” Some called out, others rapping their hooves.
“To the restoration of the rightful order!”
“To the restoration!” The members answered.
“To the overthrow of the alicorn’s interminable rule!
To the return of the unicorns to our natural glory!
Towards a new era of prosperity and freedom for all Equestria!”
Apostle paused, raising his mug a little higher, his grin breaking into an unrepentant smile.
“Towards a new Nightmare.”
The Unforgiven saga continues in...
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9962840
Yes and it is a fun song
Really underrated fic. Needs more views.
10468699
Couldn't agree more.
10731326
Your welcome
Well now, that was a bit of a read. I have to say I quite enjoyed it overall. But you seriously need to learn how to split chapters dude. That is probably why your story hasn't received near the traffic it deserves.
10803126
Well, I'm glad you liked it anyway. The chapters gradually got longer over the years and I got better at writing and fleshing out the plot. I did split a few chapters that got too big.
[glances nervously at the 1st chapter of the sequel]
Well, certainly an interesting story to have been buried to deeply. I think one of the major reasons for that is how the story keeps jumping between timelines, which makes the whole feel like I am reading three or four stories stuffed into one. A few flashbacks can make for a good enhancement of a story, but this story was, what, 75% flashback? At a guess, I'd say you wanted to build Aeclypse's character while keeping the mystery up, but to me it kept yanking me out of the story of Twilight, Thule, and the strange stallion that popped up in Ponyville right as a cunning foe re-appears. Not to mention that some of the stories don't exactly feel needed? Aeclypse's adventures with the pirates are a background story that explains how he became immortal, but is that really something that needed so many chapters to expand on? And if it is, could it not have been a side story? Definitely something to consider for the sequel, which at a glance you seem to have given the Tales story. Perhaps consider moving some of the flashbacks to that story? It could help make Path of the Unforgiven a smoother read.
I really enjoyed the royal conflict between the various nations, and the various frictions between them. Though in my -admittedly biased- opinion, it leaned rather heavily in Aeclypse's favour, extolling his virtues while repeatedly cracking down on Celestia, even though from my point of view Celestia was in the right for the most part.
Overall, despite my critiques over the chapters, I did enjoy this story. And the sequel seems to move into one of my favourite kind of MLP stories: political intrigue, so I will definitely be following that.
11247174
Thanks for the read and the thoughtful comments.
Yeah, from my perspective now, PotU is a bit of a mess. What you saw was basically me really learning how to write this story, and where I wanted it to go. As I mentioned, I wrote it over the span of 4-years, in which time I figured out what kind of story Path and the rest of the saga were going to be. I did not start out with a whole lot of direction or ideas, I just wanted to 'go'.
I totally agree the inclusion of a lot of the backstory stuff is disordered and distracts from the present day plot, that stems from, basically, figuring it out as I went, and wanting to get to the explanation of his immortality and motivation against the Changelings before the end of the story. But in order to get to those two things in a way that makes sense, I had to do the work and go through the course of events that led there. Which meant a lot of distracting flashback scenes that, retrospectively, I should have started way before. But as I said, those ideas literally didn't exist in the beginning.
Fortunately, over the years since 2015 I've basically plotted, in good detail, the rest of the saga. So hopefully things go much smoother for me and you lovely readers going forward.
~Again, thank you.