//------------------------------//
// 17 - Epilogue 
// Story: Catalyst 
// by Meep the Changeling 
//------------------------------//

Court Station 38 - Corperate Republic
 
Epoch 19005184284
 
The central judgment chamber of Court Station Thirty Eight was dark and foreboding. Lit only by three small sulphur yellow lamps set into the far wall, their sickly yellow rays serving only to illuminate Madam President as a silhouette, cast some light on the onyx podium behind which she sat, and of course, ensure the hundreds of worlds watching the proceedings could see the accused clearly.

The lights created an atmosphere both cruel and focused. A perfect expression of the corporation's boiling wrath.

In truth, the darkness was unintentional. A minor fault in the station's power grid. But Madam President’s time was limited, and the accused’ punishment was to be dealt out personally. There had been no time to fix the room’s lights, or prep another chamber. The lamps would do.

The accused hung slightly off the floor, suspended by an odd device best thought of as a cage given humanoid form. The cage isolated each limb from the others, even each finger, preventing any movement at all save for the prisoner’s jaw.

Although that component had been removed from the prisoner after he had attempted to bite the ear off a guard.
 
A small light at the back of the room blinked from red to green. The whole of humanity was watching. It was time.

“Gerald Leafson, former Director Green of ARK System Five, you stand here guilty of heinous crimes which not only have damaged this Corporation, but Humanity as a whole,” Madam President spat. “Video, digital, engram, and audio records make your guilt a certainty. Your own memories have clearly shown what you have done. External records all corroborate them. As such, you are not allowed a defense. You know you are guilty.

“Your crimes will be recited for those who have not heard them. Elerium Industries had come into contact with members of an alien species. These intelligent non-humans could not legally be removed from the ARK into which they had accidently arrived. It was within your power to shut down that ARK and reserve it exclusively for the alien’s use as a home, perhaps create an embassy at which the legal conflict regarding their imprisonment could have been resolved. You did not do this.

“Instead, you forced body modification on two of the four total individuals, because your memories indicate issues with the atmosphere for them. There are several formal complaints stating that not only could a simple breath mask have solved this problem, but that the second and third aliens proved they could adapt to the different atmosphere, merely losing a large amount of physical endurance as a result of the different atmospheres. And yet you still radically altered the fourth alien, who was a member of their aristocracy, specifically the heir to their throne.

“Your blatant disregard for alien customs, comfort, and potential suffering of royalty alone would have been justification for a war, but you did not stop there. When the aliens sent a small force of soldiers to retrieve their lost princess, as any government would, despite being able to communicate with the aliens verbally, rather than contact the soldiers and explain the situation to them to aid in their efforts and resolve the conflict, you were readying a strikeforce to kill them should they leave the habitat area of the ARKs in your System.

“Admittedly, their arrival coincided with a Megalodon attack, one could be forgiven for assuming the worst and believing the aliens were working with the pirates, however… During this attack you ordered the shields around Habitat Nine to be lowered, sterilizing it. As you must be aware, the solar radiation levels at ARK station orbits are sufficient to disrupt the functioning of Prisoner Grade Implants. You murdered five hundred prisoners. The ARKs are a reform center, not a death camp.

“You also lost fifteen billion credits worth of assets by failing to properly repel the pirate fleet despite having sufficient forces for the task, all because you kept forces in reserve to deal with the alien commandos who were, according to all available data, waiting at a known location to rendezvous with their princess.

“When they did at last reach their target, and we could have brought a peaceful end to this situation and left a… Damaged but workable reputation with this unknown yet powerful people, you deployed a Wyrm Titan with instructions to kill them all directly into the ARK. That is another billion credits lost as the Titan was destroyed. Much like any chances we may have had at a peaceful second contact with this species in the future. Your actions also resulted in the resignation of a valuable synthetic intelligence on what the data shows to be ethical grounds. Director Red’s talents within the field of synthetic biotechnology will be extremely expensive and time consuming to replicate.

“We may now be at war with a species, one your own research shows to be universally psionic, due entirely to your actions as the Chief Executive Officer of ARK System Five. Your execution and this summary of your crimes will remain public record, and a copy will be sent to the alien homeworld, which you learned how to contact, so they may know your actions do not speak for our species as a whole. Hopefully that will be enough of an olive branch to avoid the deaths of trillions.

“They say this is the most painful way to die. The time dilation makes the instant last for an eternity. It’s a shame you won't be able to send us data from inside. Computer: Execute the prisoner.”

A pair of robotic arms reached down from the ceiling, forcing an oxygen mask and air tank onto the prisoner. The vacuum would not kill him.

The air around the prisoner sparkled and shimmered as a cylindrical forcefield sprang to life around him. The floor opened up, blowing the prisoner out into space. Out into the event horizon of a black hole.

The floor closed. The forcefield dissipated.

“Court is adjourned,” Madam President said as the lights turned off.
 
Sky Trigger - 3rd of Thanksgiving, 17 EoH
 
Cabin 404 - Emerald Hive, USS Pheonix
 
My home came into focus as Chip and I teleported into the entryway. I prefered my house in Ponyville, but at the moment, that was serving as the base of operations for the mages doing the environmental cleanup… And would be the site of the reconstruction efforts starting next month or so. Depending on who won the contract to do the rebuilding.

Still, I liked our cabin. Half sleek and graceful technologically inspired designs with plenty of aesthetic glow strips, half rustic townhouse with a pink motif. A perfect compromise between Pinkie’s tastes and my own. An environment everyone likes is the key to a happy home.

I looked down at Chip as he stood next to me, curiously looking around, foretalons grasped together, clearly trying not to ask me a billion questions about every little thing.

I smiled. “It’s okay Chip. I’ll explain everything to you soon,” I said with a chuckle. “Anywho, this is my home. If you want to stay with my wife and I, this is where you’d be living. What do you think?”

“I like it!” He chirped happily. “It’s got cool machine things and also pretty things. I’d like to see the sky though…”

“Wait, you can’t see me?” I joked.

Chip frowned, then his still unskinned tail flicked up and down. “Heh… Okay that was a little funny,” he admitted.

“Do I hear a squeaky voiced little lizard guy?” Pinkie called from the kitchen, poking her head around the door to look into the living room a moment later. “Hi there! I’m Pinkie Pie, Sky mentioned he’d found a humm… Foster Foal? No no that doesn't work, you’re older than a foal. Meh, you know what I mean! Normally I do a whole welcome party for everyone as soon as they come to town, but I have no idea what you like to eat and I’ve never even met someone like you before.

“I’m making a whole selection of little test cakes so when they’re done you can-”

“Help you frost them?” Chip asked eagerly, hopping from talon to talon slightly. “That would be fun! Mom never let me frost things because she always wanted the recipes to be exactly like they said in the books, and that means we couldn’t ever do anything interesting with anything. Even the little cakes. Blank white frosting looks a lot like a painting that’s not painted yet, you know?”

Pinkie tilted her head while Chip rambled, then grinned at me. “You were totally right, Triggie! He is like the colt we never had,” Pinkie exclaimed. “Come on little guy, I’ll show you how to mix frosting colors and you can do anything you want! Ooooo! IDEA! You can help me plan your Welcome to Temporary Ponyville While the Actual Ponyville is Rebuilt Party!”

Chip blinked and looked up at me. “You think I’m like your hatchling?” He asked.

I paused for a moment and then nodded. “Yes. That’s an expression though. I’m not crazy, well, not like that at least. You like machines the same way I do, and you’re whole family likes food the same way Pinkie does. I imagine that’s what any child the two of us had would be like.”

Chip slumped, his head and tail drooping sadly. “Oh… Can you two not have eggs?”

Pinkie stepped out of the kitchen, sliding a rubber spatula behind one ear as she walked over to Chip. “I’m sure we could have eggs if Sky’s brother Lily helped, but we’re mammals, not reptiles you sillyfilly! We have live babies, not eggs,” Pinkie explained. “And we can. We just haven’t yet. Which is really really weird because we’ve been together for nine years!

“I mean, nine times four hundred is three thousand six hundred, and three thousand six hundred times and average of three per day is-”

I cleared my throat, giving Pinkie the strongest ‘please stop’ look I could muster.

“OH! Um, sorry Triggie,” she apologised with a giggle. “We have tried a lot, and nothing is medically wrong or anything. We just haven't gotten lucky yet, so if you want you could be our little dino-colt! Or big dino colt. How old are you? Are you a grown up? You’re child sized for a pony…”

“We live until we’re killed by something. I lost count,” Chip admitted. “But I can call you mom and dad if it makes you happy and means I can bake and make things!”

I smiled happily and gave Chip’s head feathers a tousle. “Then get on in there and help mom bake for your party,” I said before trotting over to Pinkie and giving her a kiss on the lips. “Sorry Ponk, but I need to be there when Twilight gets to Canterlot. As soon as I’ve given Tia my report I’ll be back here and we can snuggle up… After getting Chip set up in one of the spare rooms.”

Pinkie nodded once, ears drooping a little as she returned my kiss. “That’s okay. I know…” She paused trailing off before gasping. “Oh my gosh! I totally didn’t- Twilight’s back! Chip, you’re going to take a break so you can meet all of mom’s friends and we will all go say hi to Twilight together then come back here and do the baking!”

I laughed and nodded. “Get the girls together an-” I pushed myself, smirking as I got a devious idea. “She has no idea that Rarity is alive! HA! I didn’t even think about this before now. Get Rarity last! I need to talk to her.

“I’ll get my holo-costume bracelet out and see if Rarity is willing to use it to look like a ghost, or a robot replica or something just to mess with- No, no that would be too mean. Just meet up with us in the Palace.

“Actually, on second thought, I’ll have to get that bracelet anyways. Nyota will cause political issues if the nobility don’t think she’s a normal zebra… I’ll have to talk to her about getting a better quadruped disguise.”

Pinkie tilted her head to the left. “Who? And why would that be bad?”

“Oh, Twilight’s dating a zebra from that parallel Seven mentioned, where ponies are bipeds. She’s cute I guess. Didn’t get to talk to her, she passed out,” I informed.
 
Pinkie’s eyes bugged out of her head, “T-twilight’s dating a mare!?”

I nodded. “Yep. Rainbow is going to be so mad…”

Pinkie groaned. “Ugh… She and AJ get so irritating when Dash brings up the herd thing. Oh well, at least listening to friends argue is better than one of us being lost in a scary place full of monsters.”

I felt something tug on my wingtip, and looked down to find Chip gently pulling on my primary feather to get my attention.

“Will I cause problems?” Chip asked worriedly.

I frowned, thinking for a while. “Not here… But if you want to leave the hive… It might be best to disguise you as a dragon. Ponies are fairly comfortable around dragons. But you look more… Predatory than they do.”

Chip nodded. “Okay. But no wings! They’d look bad on me.”

I nodded twice. “No problem. I’ll get things sorted and be right back. You two get to know one another,” I said turning around and raising my watch to teleport to my workshop for the brief detour.

I paused, frowning. A question burning at the back of my mind demanded attention.

Pressing a button on my watch to activate the interface I began to queue up the teleport and asked. “Hey, SAI? What are the odds of a nineteen percent chance event failing to happen ten thousand and eight hundred times in a row?”

“About one in three point three five times ten to the nine hundred and eighty ninth power,” my AI assistant answered.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s about the ballpark I was thinking of,” I said, nodding to myself. “See you in a bit, son! You two, hon.”
 
Lyra Heartstrings - 3rd of Thanksgiving, 17 EoH
 
Cabin 2238 - Emerald Hive, USS Pheonix
 
I flopped down on my bed with a sigh, staring up at the bare metal ceiling.

“Well, that was fun,” I said half to myself and half to Derpy who had decided to accompany me to my cabin.

Turned out all she needed was a shot of Epinephrine and some metoprolol to undo the damage caused by the cocktail of expired med’s she’d been given. Nurse Tilk had cleared her to leave the Med Bay and well… She’d sort of just followed me back to my cabin.

“Really?” Derpy asked, raising an eyebrow. “You seemed pretty miserable for most of it.”

I shook my head. “Yeah, I had a few problems with repressing monstrous urges. I’m a vampire. Keeping my old personality and mentality intact takes a bit of effort around blood. I don’t like losing control. I almost did, that got to me.

“But aside from that, I had fun. I like danger. I like doing important things. I like adventure. We had an adventure. And some REALLY good Shwarma. I hope Chip knows how to cook that. I’m not even that big of a meat fan, but that stuff was tasty.”

Derpy nodded understandingly, and pulled a chair over to my bedside with a hoof to sit down. “That makes sense… I imagine it was nice to get away from your… Um, personal problem. Right?”

I nodded. “Yeah. That too… That’s why I’m sad we’re back so soon. At least blowing that super-dragon up was satisfying. It had the nightmare's eyes,” I grumbled.

“Reminded me of a Deathclaw, personally,” Derpy mused. “Their eyes I mean. Well, the non-sapient ones at least.”

“Is that a creature from wherever you got that bomb launcher from?” I asked, levering myself up on one foreleg to get a better look at Derpy while we talked.

Derpy blinked as I moved then giggled. “Did you practice that?”

I frowned. “Um, no? Why do you ask?”

“Because that’s a very human pose. They sleep lying on their back or side, not curled up like ponies do,” she informed with a little grin. “I um… I’ve got a LOT of experience watching sleeping humans. I lived in a human populated universe before I made it here. I did late night guard duty a lot.

“That’s the one I went to. I got the weapon and medical care from an old special somepony. She’d roll over just like that.”


I beat the jealous outburst forming in the back of my mind down with a hammer.

“Soooo…. Hands can do everything you’d think they can, right?” I asked hopefully.

Derpy giggled. “More! I um, I’d rather not go into details though. That’s a little impolite,” she tapped a hoof to her chin for a moment then nodded. “You did ask if I’d take you on an adventure… And I will. But would you like to meet some nice humans? Nora will want to know I’m okay and despite the caffeine overdose today, I still love my favorite drink in the multiverse and need to pick up another case.

“You could tag along. Nora would love to meet another pony. She’s the you of humans. A bit off her nut due to some freezer burn but still very nice. Especially for a raider boss.”

I raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Raider? She’s a bandit gang leader?”

“Nah, Raider’s just a term there meaning ‘organized gang that is generally hostile’. Her gang is more of a standing army and government now. I helped her take over an old, pre-war theme park and we spent years turning savages and psychos into a proper army of civilized people, conquered the local area because the factions fighting over it were all idiots, and she’s been slowly improving the region ever since then.

“The proper title would be ‘warlord’ or ‘king’, but since almost no one in that world has any education anymore… Raider Boss is all she’s known by.”

I hummed. “Well, she did give me pants,” I mused. “I could use a new friend. You said she’s me, I guess that means she really likes ponies. I should bring her uh, I don’t know… A saddle or something?”

“So you’ll go with me then?” Derpy asked happily, beaming me a smile. “I- I’m trying to prevent you from becoming that lonely vampire in an isolated Crypt. Like you asked me to.”

“I’ll go,” I promised, sitting up. “But there’s no need to worry about that anymore. I’ve got a plan.”

“What's your plan?” Derpy asked curiously, reaching into her saddlebags for one of her books.

“Are we going now?” I asked with a frown.

“Mhm, we’ll only be gone for a couple hours,” she explained.

I nodded. “Okay. That’s cool,” I said before standing up and stretching slightly. “Anyways, I got a hold of that book on dream magic and nightmares. I can’t read it very well, but I DO have a translation spell that works okay. Ish.

“I could read enough to learn that Nightmares’ magic fundamentally alters reality itself to make the impossible nightmare scenario they embody actually happen. There’s nothing normal means can do to get Bonbon back.

“But their power doesn't last forever. No nightmare can change the universe forever. Just for a pony’s lifetime. About three hundred years. A lifetime from now the spell will break and she’ll love me again.

“I’m going to find a way to speed up that timetable. I’m going to become an archeologist and scour the world for any scraps of lore on Dream Magic remaining in the world and when I find them, I’ll find a way to break that spell. It could take decades, maybe a century, but that’s better than three centuries. And I’ve got all the time in the world to fix this.”

I nodded to myself adamantly. There was no use being sad over this. Twilight had been right. This was nature, we were food, and that was a monster.

I would kill that monster. And also-

“Now let's go meet your ex, Derps!” I said with a grin. “It will be nice to meet a human who isn’t in the middle of being a total assclown.”

Derpy snickered. “That’s pretty easy. She’s a hoof girl, not a butt girl,” Derpy said with a blush.

…

I liked my hooves played with...

It was too bad I wasn’t feeling up to romance right now. Or if Bonbon and I were still together. We’d always wanted to start a small herd together, so threesomes were common with us. That had been her fantasy, a house full of loving mares to glomp her when she came home from work.

I liked the idea too, mostly because the theoretical cuddle piles would be aweso-

Nope. Don’t think about sad things.

Let’s have a little fun, get completely back into my old frame of mind, and then start tracking down the lore needed to slay my personal monster.

It didn’t stand a chance against Lyra Heartstrings.
 
Twilight Sparkle - 3rd of Thanksgiving, 17 EoH
 
Canterlot Palace, Canterlot Reconstruction Zone - Equestria

I teleported Sky, Nyota, and I to Celestia’s throne room. It felt good to have full access to my magic again.

It felt bad to see I’d been gone for most of a year.

It felt bad to see just how badly Canterlot had been devastated by the war.

It still looked like a battleground, even with the construction scaffolds set up and the obvious piles of construction supplies, and the lack of rubble on the floor. You could still tell that serious damage had taken place.

I could only assume that Celestia had been slowly repairing things to ensure the economy took as small a hit as possible. I imagine that insurance companies had been crying so much over the last few months.

I looked around the throne room, taking everything in while also searching for Celestia. Shouldn’t she have been here? Sky had radioed ahead for her to meet us here.

On a more positive note, the stained glass window commemorating my friends defeat of Nightmare Moon was intact. I smiled. One Day, with a little work, everything could be just the way it was before. Perhaps I-

The throne room was bathed in a bright flash of gold light as something tackled me to the ground in a massive hug.

“Twilight! Oh thank all of the fates, gods, and goodness itself!” Celestia said as she attempted to crush my spine.

“Ackthph!” I managed to protest.

“Can ye not brake my mare’s spine?” Nyota asked politely, the rather unflattering holographic zebra disguise she wore not quite matching the facial expressions I knew she would normally make.

She needed something better asap.

Celestia blinked twice and let go of me. “Um, I do suppose that was a slightly harder hug than-” she trailed off blinking twice. “Twilight, are you dating her?”

I nodded slowly, coughing as my lungs reinflated. “Yes. I am. That’s Nyota, she’s nice. I’m glad to see you again too. Please hug less hard if you want to keep hugging,” I asked with a feeble grin.

Celestia gave me another brief hug before letting go again. “I apologize for that… It’s been a very hard year for me. I- I needed a lot of help and with you back, as soon as you’re comfortable we can begin the serious repairs and changes that Equestria needs to move forwards.”

I frowned as I realized just how much Celestia would have had to do without me. My duties as the Princess of Friendship was to perform any major peacekeeping operations so Celestia could manage the bureaucracy. It was about balancing workloads. Somepony had to take up my slack… And Luna would have been busy hunting down any stray Tartarian creatures and Demons…

“Oh wow… I didn’t even think about that,” I said sympathetically. “I don’t need any downtime. I’ll get right to work as soon as my friends know I’m alright. What are the major problems?”

Celestia shook her head. “No. Absolutely not. You’re taking at least a week of vacation. You need that at least for psychological health and… Well, Jade learned something about you while you were gone. Do you recall our conversation about your adoption?”

I nodded, then grinned as I realized I was about to blow Celestia’ mind. “Yes. I do. And I met them, they had been banished to the same world by Dawn previously. Oh, and I brought my parents back with me too. They're in the Emerald’s hospital right now, there was an… Incident with a very large dragon that apparently belched chemical weapons AND fire.

“But-”

“Excuse me,” Celestia said in the least formal tone of voice I had ever heard her use before. “Are you saying that you located Starswirl the Bearded, as well a Clover, who should be dead but are not, and they are here, alive, but not well?”

I nodded. “That’s exactly right.”

Sky cleared his throat. “Their advanced age is the only reason they are still under medical care. Tilk is an excellent doctor, she’ll have them up by nightfall,” he promised.

Celestia held a hoof to her lips containing a small delighted squeal. “I- Oh Twilight, you have no-” She cleared her throat doing her best to compose herself. “Twilight, few ponies know my personal history for the early parts of my youth but-”

I nodded twice. “Yes, but I do! You and Luna are the descendants of the ancient Equestrian Kings, but were illegitimate children and thus raised in a distant village from the capital by Starsw-” I paused, eyes widening as I realized what I’d just said aloud finally clicking. “Oh, my, YOU! We’re sisters!”

AAAAA! THAT SCRAPBOOK WAS EVEN WORSE NOW!

Celestia nodded. “Yes. Please excuse the hug. I… I had lost my friend, my student, my comrade, and another- I- Oh sweet goodness gracious I can see my father again for the first time in five hundred years! And my mother for the first time in several thousand! W-wait but the radiation poisoning, how did she-”

“That book used to send them there is a really terrible portal. It probably striped the energy from her since it wasn't a body part,” Nyota said with a smile. “Um, this is a really touching moment… But I don’t think I’m quite well yet. Sky, can ye take me back to the med bay please? Stuff looks like it’s changing size or sort of waving…”

I frowned quickly raced over to Nye to give her a tight hug. “Tilk said that’s just a side effect of the immune booster on Zebras, remember? Just sit down for a bit, it will pass.”

Nye nodded and sat down. I turned back to Celestia and cleared my throat. “S-so um, before we go visit Star, and get Luna so she won't miss out, and before I reunite with everypony… I do want to know what the problems facing Equestria right now are. At least the big one. You know me, Celestia. I enjoy solving problems. I promise I’ll take a week off but I want to think and plan during it. Okay?”

Celestia nodded once then frowned. “Wait… You’re taller, and acting far more mature. How long was it for you?”

“Sixteen days,” I replied with a feeble grin. “I um, I did a thing with my magic and this happened. Surprised you didn’t comment on my mane being like yours now.”

Sky and Celestia frowned in unison. “Uh, it’s a normal mane,” Sky pointed out.

“The glow went away after you took off the tiara,” Nye said, sounding just a little shaky. “How did you not notice?”

It had? I grabbed a lock of my mane and pulled at it to check. “... Awww… Dang it. I probably didn’t notice because of the skyscraper sized dragon chasing us,” I remarked.

Celestia chuckled. “You two make a cute couple… I want to hear the entire story as soon as we have time. You- You feel for her in just sixteen days, she has to have done something special,” she mused with a nod. “As for Equestria, our greatest problem is the Elements… The Era of Harmony is over.”

I froze, ears twitching in confusion.

“But- But I got Megan! We can fix them!” I protested. “How can it be the end of an age? The war isn’t a major enough event to change the Era!”

Celestia cleared her throat. “Megan gets physically ill when she uses her power because doing so actually kills her a bit each time. Every spell she uses reduces her lifespan. She doesn't have enough years left to restore the Elements to working order. And even if she did, I could not ask her to give them up. Lily is working to help her live a full life, but there’s no guarantee with Dream Magic. It’s… Insidious. There are good reasons it’s banned and the tomes detailing it destroyed.

“As such, the Elements will remain as they are. Their active use is impossible. But their passive effects remain intact. Your friends are still boosted by their power. They still have eternal youth, enhanced attributes, and so on. The Elements still can project their wards and make danger less likely to happen in the immediate area around the Tree of Harmony. But they will never again be able to save our Kingdom from direct harm through their activation.”

“Oh… I… I see,” I said, sitting down as I took all of that in. ‘We’ll need another trump card for catastrophes. That’s… That’s a tall order. I’ll work on it.”

Celestia nodded. “We will also need to restructure our government to compensate, and give the military more funding. I- I managed to keep things working just fine through the Solar Era on my own, but my policies for the last thousand years assumed the Elements would be useable one day again, and forevermore after. We will need better protection nationwide. The loss of our ‘super weapon’ will invite trouble once the fact is common knowledge.

“But that’s problems for later. And possibly also problems for you, Doctor Trigger. In the meantime, Twilight… There are some ponies who very much want to-”

The throne room doors exploded open as Dash ran into the room, clearly having just run down both the double doors, making a beeline for me and stopping just close enough to give me a quick hug.

“Twi! It’s great to see you alive! Pinkie let us all know, they're all down the hallway. I just had to run ahead and ask um, well… Is Pinkie actually right about you being with another mare now?” Dash asked with a slightly hurt look.

I nodded. “Yes. I am. She’s over there,” I said pointed to Nyota with a hoof.

“Hey,” Nye called waving a hoof to Dash.

“Oh! So like, you’re into stripy girls?” Dash asked awkwardly. “Okay. I guess… I mean, I just thought you were too dense to ever notice… I mean that you were totally straight so I was wasting my- Ugh! You know what I-”

“I was too dense. I honestly never knew. But if I did… Long story short, mind control. I would have been disgusted. I’m sorry things didn’t work out. It’s not personal, it never was. Okay?” I asked hoping that would be enough to soothe her obviously hurt feelings.

Dash nodded firmly. “Yeah. We’re good. If only because my mare got to kill the jerk who did it,” She said with a dark smile. “Sooo like, Celestia sort of mentioned to us while studying the Elements that we’ll live as long as you do since we’re linked to them… Maybe someday?”

I smiled happily. Not at the fact that AJ had apparently killed someone, but at Dash understanding.

“Maybe someday,” I agreed. “So everypony’s in the hallway? I want to-”

Someone tapped my left shoulder with their hoof.

I turned around, and immediately yelped in fright, jumping backwards as I looked into the haunted, translucent eyes of a ghostly Rarity!

“AAAAHHH!” I shrieked. “I- but, g-ghosts don’t exist! YOU'RE IMPOSSIBLE! OH GODS I’M SORRY I COULDN’T SAVE-”

Dash sputtered behind me breaking out into a laughing fit. “Oh my gosh, your face!” She snickered.

I frowned.

Rarity’s ghost laughed as well, reaching down to her left foreleg to gently touch a small bracelet, turning into her normal, not see through, solid, self. “Hehehe, I’m sorry Darling, my friend Righteous thought a little prank would be fun. I do say he was correct! I’m very much alive, Twilight. I can tell you the whole story later over tea after you tell everyone what happened to you these last few months.”

Dash had just been a distraction so she could sneak in! She hadn’t been harboring hurt feelings at all! Pinkie had planned this!

Clever filly...

Sky coughed into his hoof, trying to hold in a laugh.

I spun accusingly to stare at him angrily. “You were in on this, weren't you!?”

Sky shook his head. “Nope! I had the same idea though, but I didn’t go through with it, honest,” He swore.

I turned back to Rarity and gave her an accusatory glare. “It’s only been sixteen days for me! Your death was still fresh in my mind!”

Rarity’s eyes widened, she raced forwards and pulled me into an apologetic hug. “I- didn't know! I’m sorry, can you forgive me, Twilight?”

I smiled and nodded. Of course I could. Ghosts went real. I should have understood it was a joke.

“Of course,” I began. “It was just a jo-”

“Prank’s over, girls! Tackle her!” Pinkie shouted from the hallway.

Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack ran through the open doors, converging around me in what became a massive group hug as Dash and Rarity joined as well, As well as Nye, who Celestia levitated into the group after she said she was too dizzy to stand.

“I love all of you,” I whispered happily just before the hug broke apart.

I was home.

Pinkie blinked twice and looked at me worriedly. “Um, w-well, everypony else is either bi or gay, but I’m totally straight and happily married, so um… S-sorry? I hate breaking sompony’s heart! I’m so sorry!” She apologised, eyes starting to water.

She honestly apologised. She’d seriously thought I meant romantically loved.

The room erupted into laughter, Pinkie joining in as she realized her own mistake.

NOW I was home. And I wouldn’t be leaving it for as long as I could possibly manage.
 

The End