//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Braggart's Bane // by Valorousspectre //------------------------------// Epilogue. Entry.. I’m not sure. The date is the eighteenth or something. I’m surprised to still be alive. Alive and the first awake... We’re just now waiting on my Trixie to awaken... please don’t die on me Trix. ~*~ It had taken all of about two minutes after Applebloom heard that despairing wail to get her sister, and all of three minutes more for Applejack to haul Trixie and her companion inside and call for Redheart. Unfortunately, the nurse couldn’t pick the pair up in a storm, so they had to keep the pair as warm as possible for almost two hours before the staff from the hospital could arrive. Thankfully, the pair were breathing again by this time, although shallowly. It didn’t take long to get them to the emergency ward in Ponyville hospital and the two were put in the care of Redheart, who didn’t let in any visitors until such time as she thought they were stable. This took almost another three hours, and even then it was only Ro-siing who was stable. This is when he came to and realised he was in a hospital bed, after freaking out that is and having it explained to him. He was next to Trixies’ bed and for that he was grateful. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep once more. He woke up to the laboured breathing of the powder blue Trixie half on him, half on his bed. His eyes widened. It was dark. “Trixie?” he whispered, concerned. Trixie let out a small, pained giggle. “Hey there... Trixie wanted to see your face one last time.” “W...What are you talking about? They’re helping you, you should be in bed!” Trixie shook her head. Her vitals, according to the monitors, were fading. “No... I’m right where I want to be... With you.” Her hooves were on his chest, her head resting on his breastbone. She was smiling. “Now Trixie... don’t you dare leave me here alone!” His voice rose in volume and started to sound concerned, bordering on hysterical. Oh please... Not like this! Trixie raised an eyebrow and once again tried to giggle, only succeeding in a slight coughing fit, making her vital sign waver crazily. The steady beeping of the heart monitor had slowed considerably. “And.. who are you to order The Great and Powerful Trixie around..?” “The one who loves her.” Trixie paused for a moment and the heart monitor registered her heart literally skipping a beat, slow though they were. “You... love Trixie..?” Ro-siing nodded and gently caressed her silvery mane. “Yes... I do. And I don’t want to lose you.” Trixie smiled sadly, unable to move due to an extreme fatigue that had permeated her body since she’d forced herself from her bed onto his. “You’ll never lose me Ro... I’ll always be with you in spirit... but Trixie cannot hold on for much longer... she feels so cold and everything is so dark...” Ro-siing gulped, horrified at the prospect of losing her and looked around desperately, noting the red button next to his bed with white writing on it. ‘PUSH FOR NURSE’ Perfect. He quickly pushed the button and looked back to Trixie before gently wrapping her in his blanket. The air conditioned room wasn’t exactly cold, but the warmer Trixie was, the better Ro-siing felt. “Now don’t speak like that Trix... We’re both going to get out of this, then we can get another caravan, like the one you lost and we can travel Equestria all over again. We can put on more shows...” He searched his mind desperately for another thing to give her reason. “Oh, and I haven’t shown you the song yet. It’s been finished I just... I haven’t found the right time to play it to you.” Trixies’ smile, which had faded, returned with little warmth. There was the clatter of hooves in the hallway. “Trixie shall hear it as he watches over you from wherever she ends up.” Redheart bustled into the room and looked at the powder blue mares’ vitals and started to fret incessantly before rushing back out again. Ro-siing felt a stab of terror at her actions and shook his head at Trixie. “No, you’ll hear it with me, when I play it for you in the moonlight by the light of the moon and a single candle after we’ve eaten. I swear, I won’t let you die Trixie! Even if it means giving my life for yours.” Seven ponies walked into the hospital as Trixie let out one last breath and smiled. “I will see it... in my dreams...” With the last of her strength, the one and only Great and Powerful Trixie pulled herself up and kissed her travelling partner faintly, whispering out at last. "I... love you.. too..." ~*~ Ro-siing and the seven other ponies in the room looked in shock at the lifeless body of The Great and Powerful Trixie before the distraught stallion burst into tears and looked accusingly at them. “Do something! Make her better, please!” A Cyan Pegasus mare snorted. “She’s dead, what more can we do?” The ferocious look from Ro-siing quickly got the mare ushered out of the room and swiftly booted from the premises as a lavender unicorn mare stepped forward. Twilight Sparkle... “Hi.. um.. My name is-“ “Twilight. Twilight Sparkle, Dammit I know who you are! Would you please just help me!?” He was clinging tightly to Trixies’ lifeless body, sitting up in his bed as he shifted his grip slightly and started cradling her. Twilight frowned. “Right... um... I’m sorry, I’m not a medical pony I-“ “please...?” A white unicorn with rather overbearingly style hair looked at Twilight, followed by the other ponies in the room bar from Redheart, who was checking the mares’ vitals. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what I can do!” Redheart got out a pair of defibrillators. “Girls, she’s not completely dead yet, her brain is still functioning. I need to get her heart pumping again, but I’m afraid her body doesn’t have the energy to sustain it anymore.” Ro-siings’ expression went from one of despair, to determination. “Then I’ll give her mine.” “And exchange one life for another? Don’t be ridiculous. You’re still recovering!” His horn had already started to glow. “My life is nothing to hers. She’s the world to me, I won’t let her die!” Twilight smiled sadly and stepped forward. “Then count me in as well. Rarity?” The white unicorn mare sighed theatrically and stepped forward as well. “If needs must, but I want an apology when she wakes up!” Ro-siing smiled sadly. He knew the mare was only half meaning that. He wiped a fresh set of tears from his eyes as three strands of magical energy flowed from the unicorns into Trixie and Redheart stepped forward. “Clear!” ~*~ Final entry. Spring. The season of love is here, and so am I. Here on Sweet Apple Acres on a hill overlooking a lake. It’s evening, the moon is high and I’m writing this by the light of a single candle. I have decided to stay for a while, as has my love, Trixie. Yes, Trixie survived. I cannot express my joy at this. Twilight Sparkle, Rarity and I had enough energy to keep her going until we got her fed, and her body started recreating its’ own energy. Ufortunately, Trixie lost her journal in the snows, and it still hasn’t been found. It’s a shame, she promised to let me read all of it, and I would have promised the same, if she hadn’t been reading them as I wrote them the entire time. Yeah, I knew about it. So what? Where’s the point in writing a book if it’s never read? I have my guitar here, a lovely dinner for Trixie and myself with help from the finest cooks in Ponyville, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Bonbon, and as promised, I plan to play my song after the meal and we can sleep out in the moonlight once more, the spare blanket I brought will help keep us warm and we can make our relationship official, acknowledging one another as partners. Here’s to hoping this partnership lasts a lifetime. Ro-siing.