//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Painted Horses // by Alaborn //------------------------------// Painted Horses By Alaborn Standard disclaimer: This is a not for profit fan work. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyright Hasbro, Inc. I make no claim to any copyrighted material mentioned herein. Epilogue We only got a few fitful hours of sleep after our late night. Fighting the spirit of chaos doesn’t make it easy to fall asleep afterward. We downed several cups of coffee, and then checked out of our hotel in Ocala. Finally, we were ready to start our vacation. I stretched out in the back seat, and I soon dozed off. I woke up when my phone rang. It was my parents calling. “How’s Tampa?” my mother asked. “Oh, nice,” I lied. “Right now, we’re out looking for someplace nice to eat.” “That’s nice,” she continued. “You’ll never believe what happened last night.” “What?” “A sinkhole opened up in Silver Springs Park! No one knows how bad the damage is, but the park’s closed now. And to think, we were just there yesterday!” “Wow. That’s terrible.” “We just wanted you to let you know that we’re safe, and your grandparents are safe too.” “Okay. Thanks for the call, Mom. I’ll talk to you later.” “Stay safe, dear.” “I will.” I ended the call. “Did you know a sinkhole damaged Silver Springs?” I told Jason. “No, but that’s good to know. A sinkhole. Just a sinkhole.” Twilight Sparkle walked into her throne room, only to find somepony already there. “You said you had important business, Princess?” Discord said. “Yes. And normally, ponies with important business knock first.” Discord stretched across Fluttershy’s throne and kicked his legs. “Oh, come now, Princess. I know you’re not big on formality.” “This is serious, Discord.” The draconequus snapped his talons. He reappeared standing, wearing a severe business suit and horn-rimmed glasses. “Yes. The Board of Directors shares your concern.” “It concerns your corrupted aspect that we defeated three years ago and banished to a magic-free universe. One you’re quite familiar with.” “Ah, yes. The human world. Such chaos, but rarely put towards productive use.” “Your other half hatched a plan to collect the wisps of magic coming from our world. We might never have noticed, except he trapped ponies from our universe as part of his plan,” Twilight Sparkle said. “Fortunately, two humans knowledgeable of the existence of Equestria found evidence of his work, and with the help of some brave agents from our universe, we stopped his plan before he could harm that universe.” “Oh? How did they defeat my aspect?” Discord asked. “A battle of wits? A clever trap?” With no small amount of glee, Twilight Sparkle described exactly what happened to him. Discord’s jaw dropped. He picked it up off the floor and reattached it. “They beat me up? That’s all?” Twilight Sparkle shrugged. “Well, that’s what happens when you define yourself by your magical powers, and all magic is taken from you in a world where passive magic is absent.” “I’ll have you know there’s more to me than my chaos powers,” Discord said. “Like?” “Like... like... my witty repartee! And I’m oozing with charisma!” “You’re oozing with something, all right,” Twilight Sparkle deadpanned. “You wound me so, dear Twilight.” Twilight Sparkle concentrated, and a wooden box appeared. “We recovered this from the human world.” Discord wrinkled his muzzle in disgust. “I’ll have you know that is no longer a part of me.” “And for that, we’re all glad,” she continued. “Normally, we would confine such an undesirable to Tartarus, but we don’t want to risk contact with a certain centaur.” “Oh, I agree entirely.” “So we need your help. How can we lock Malice away where he can do no harm to anypony?” “Anypony? Oh, I think I know just the place.” Malice awoke. This whole being defeated was growing old, but all defeat is temporary to an immortal spirit. He would take his time, as always. His first priority, as always, was to assess the environment. He felt the comfortable chaos magic all around, but he could not draw on it. He felt things, but every sensation was different. He felt... he felt... Felt? Felt. He was made of felt, and cotton stuffing, and button eyes. In the background were flat crayon illustrations, like the work of a young foal. And all around were colorful sock puppets. “Oh, hello. Won’t you be our friend forever and ever?” Malice screamed. It was a good day for us. We enjoyed sunny skies and warm weather, relatively speaking. Rose got to walk in the ocean for the first time. We looked for shells, enjoyed drinks in the evening breeze, and soaked in the hot tub. I saw the way Jason and Rose were looking at each other. “I was thinking of hanging around here for a while, and let you two have the room for a while. Okay?” “Are you sure?” Jason said. “Yes. There’s something I need to do, something these past two days reminded me I’ve neglected. And it’s going to take some time.” “Okay. Take your time,” Rose said with a smile. I wandered to the hotel’s business center. There was something I needed to say. At first, I was going to send myself an e-mail, but it just felt right to write it by hand. After all, once I got home, I couldn’t send it over e-mail. It took some time to get the words right. My paper was covered with scratched-out words and hasty edits. But when I picked it up and read the final product, I smiled. Dear Twilight Sparkle, First, I must apologize. You offered me friendship, but I sealed it away, just like the journal I hid in my closet. You know how I never wanted to travel to Equestria. After my first trip, I tried to put it out of my mind, to pretend it was all a dream. My second trip proved it was real, but I still pretended it wasn’t. Even as Jason told me every week about his life as Stone Arch, I still tried to isolate myself from your world. I threw away a potential wonderful friendship with a smart, witty unicorn mare who shared my love of Harry Potter, just because I thought it shouldn’t be possible to be friends with a unicorn mare. Although, I suppose I have to amend that now, since Jason told me you became an alicorn and a princess. If you’re willing to have me as a friend, after all of this, I would love to write to you. And I do have wonderful news. There’s something new coming out in the Harry Potter universe, written by J. K. Rowling. It’s called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and while I won’t reveal much, I’ll tell you it’s a play. I don’t know when it will play near where I live, but when it does, I’ll be sure to let you know. Your past and hopeful future friend, John Lockhart/Strange Brew