//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: The Daughter Doo: Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader // by Ponky //------------------------------// Epilogue Usually Way More Careful “So I found my dad and tried to talk him out of taking over Equestria, but he got mad and used his wind magic to try and hurt my mommy. So then I used my own wind magic to stop him, and even though we accidentally destroyed the palace, everything turned out okay.” Dinky beamed. “And then this appeared on my flank!” She turned to the side and showed off a golden flute with three wavy lines drifting beside it like a gentle breeze. The class Ooo’d and Ahh’d, both at the beautiful Mark as well as the filly’s story. Cheerilee cleared her throat from her desk. “Well, Dinky, that was certainly an… imaginative retelling of how you got your Cutie Mark.” She glanced at a paper on her desk. “In this note from your mother, it says that you ‘played the flute for your grandmother whom you hadn’t seen in years’?” “Oh.” Dinky blushed and smiled. “Yeah! Th-that’s what I meant.” She shot a sideways glance at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Right, girls? You were there, after all!” The fillies’ smiles were all far too big. “Yeeeeaah!” said Scootaloo. “Totally! Old Granny Doo! Hee hee!” Sweetie Belle slapped her own desk. “Darn tootin’!” Apple Bloom’s eye twitched. Cheerilee frowned, but soon shrugged and stood up from her desk. “Well, it’s a wonderful Cutie Mark, regardless. Let’s give Dinky a hoof, everypony!” The students clattered their hooves on their desks while a smiling Dinky took her seat. She winked at the Crusaders, who all waved back as the rest of the day’s lesson began. {-DD-} Many weeks later, at the crack of dawn, Dinky Doo stood on the balcony attached to her small bedroom. Smiling, she closed her eyes. Wiggling her hooves at the ends of outstretched forelegs, Dinky slowly raised them up above her head and watched the Sun break over the horizon, shedding its light on her peaceful hometown. She sighed happily and set her hooves down, resting her head to one side as the glorious orb took its place in the sky. “You raisin’ the Sun now, Little Miss Halficorn?” asked a voice from below. Dinky leaned over the railing of her balcony and smiled at Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle below. “Hi, girls!” she said. “You’re up early.” “Wouldn’t a ‘halficorn’ just be half-unicorn?” Sweetie asked, stroking her chin. “Er… I meant half-alicorn,” said Apple Bloom. “You knew what I meant. Come on.” “Halficorn,” Scootaloo said with a snort. “That’s stupid.” Dinky looked around. When she didn’t see anyone else on the street, she jumped off the balcony and summoned a gust of wind to carry her gently to the ground. “Yeesh!” said Sweetie Belle, holding a hoof over her heart. “That scares me every time!” Dinky giggled. “Sorry. I don’t wanna wake Aunt Daring.” “Daring Do’s in there?” Sweetie asked with sparkling eyes. “Yeah, but… don’t tell my mom.” Dinky laughed again and whispered, “Aunt Daring’s been living here for a whole week, but Mom hasn’t found out yet. Aunt Daring thinks she’ll get mad.” “Baaha!” Scootaloo threw her head back. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Some hero, Rainbow Dash.” She stuck her tongue out at a random cloud in the sky. “Be nice, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said, smacking her friend upside the head. “Ouch! I gotta get a new helmet…” Scootaloo grumbled. “Did you need something?” Dinky asked them. All three of the Crusaders’ expressions fell at once. “Well… we were just thinking…” Scootaloo said. Apple Bloom’s eyes scanned the ground. “We’re really happy for ya, o’ course, Dinky. Looks like things worked great out for ya, all-in-all.” “And we’re super jealous of your Cutie Mark,” Sweetie Belle added frankly. She leaned forward. “Like, super jealous.” Scootaloo harrumphed in agreement. “But… we can’t help but feel like we gotta apologize,” Apple Bloom finally said. “Again?” Dinky laughed. “Girls, you’ve already apologized. A lot.” “I know, but… it was just so stupid!” Apple Bloom flicked at the bow on her head. “What were we thinkin’? We took you halfway around the world and almost got the lot of us killed!” She sighed heavily. “You must think we’re idiots.” “I don’t,” said Dinky, smiling softly. “But I do hope you’re more careful.” “Right,” said Sweetie Belle, pointing at Dinky. “That’s exactly what we mean.” “We wanna show you that we’re usually way more careful than that,” said Scootaloo. “So you actually know what it’s like to be a Cutie Mark Crusader.” “Yeah. It’s not about runnin’ away from bulls and stealin’ horseshoes and sneakin’ through palaces.” Apple Bloom winked. “It’s about finding our Cutie Marks,” Sweetie Belle lamented. “So, in a big way, you’re more of a Cutie Mark Crusader than we’ve ever been.” They sighed in unison. Dinky shuddered with a prolonged giggle. “Don’t be like that, girls! I don’t think you’re dumb, or that the Cutie Mark Crusaders are bad at what they do.” She bowed slightly. “I’m proud that I was an honorary member.” “Oh, why, thank you muchly, your majesty,” Sweetie Belle said in an exaggerated voice, bowing as well. Apple Bloom smiled. “Look, Dinky. We’re just wonderin’, do you wanna go on another adventure with us sometime?” “It’s been weird without you.” Scootaloo scratched her neck. “Like, bizarrely boring.” “We know you got your Cutie Mark already, but… maybe you can help us find ours?” Sweetie blinked rapidly. “‘Cause, I mean, honestly,” Apple Bloom added, “you really are half-alicorn! I-I bet you’ve got all kindsa magic powers you don’t know about yet!” “Maybe our special talent,” said Sweetie Belle with bulging eyes, “is helping young alicorns discover theirs!” “But I’m not an alicorn,” Dinky said, pointing at her lack of wings. Scootaloo blinked. “Well, yeah, but still!” She smiled wide. “It could be fun!” With a lasting smile on her face, Dinky simply nodded. “Of course, everypony. I would love to go on more adventures with you.” “Yay!” the Cutie Mark Crusaders called out. “On one condition!” The Crusaders froze in their various poses of joy. Dinky smirked. “Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom. Scootaloo. I would like to officially induct you into the Doo family as honorary sisters.” She held out her hoof. “What do you say?” The fillies beamed. “Oh, come on, Dinky!” Scootaloo scoffed, brushing her hoof aside. “You know that’s not how we hoofbump!” Dinky laughed and reared up on her hind legs. The others did the same, pulling back their hooves to crack all four together in the middle. At the last moment, Dinky used a burst of wind magic to push the four fillies several feet into the air as they chanted: “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS HONORARY SISTERS! YAY!” Their hooves smacked thunderously, and they landed in fits of laughter and rolled on the grass in front of the Doo household. High above them ― much higher than anypony would think to look ― a meticulously embroidered carpet hovered in midair. Balanced on top of it, leaning over the edge with childlike glee in his peach-colored eyes, a dark grey stallion with a broken horn sighed into the winds. “Eccoli, Zuka,” he said, letting one hoof dangle down to point at the Crusaders. “Look-a how happy they are. Especially la piccola principessa.” The orange chameleon glanced over the edge and found a smile of her own. “Va bene.” Zoccolo sat up and nodded once, stroking the fringe of the carpet. “I suppose, alla fine, we all got what-a we wanted.” He glanced upward. “Eh, Beatrix?” There was no response from the sky. Zoccolo smiled nonetheless. With a final glance at the giggling fillies below, Zoccolo cracked his neck. “Alla prossima, Dinky Doo.” And with that, the carpet took off in a stream of shimmering magic, vanishing over the southern horizon before anypony in Equestria knew it was there.