//------------------------------// // Epilogue 2 // Story: Sunset Reset // by LordBrony2040 //------------------------------// Strong Withers sat the desk in his home’s office as he took a swig of burning cider, letting the feeling of it ‘brand’ his throat on the way down. Although it had taken the better part of the day and night to get back to his estate, staying in Canterlot with his son out of jail was simply too risky. The boy had been caught trying to sneak out of the house. When asked what in Tartarus he was doing, the idiot had actually confessed to wanting to go to that juvenile social outing so that he could ‘teach that idiot Shining Armor and those stupid princesses a lesson about messing with him’. So Strong Withers had promptly knocked the boy out and demanded the lot of them leave for their home back in Fillydelphia. The cost of the express airship had been astronomical, but nothing he couldn’t get the his personal expense fund to cover. Now, all Strong Withers wanted to do was sleep. But with his wife at home with him, he couldn’t even do that! Just looking at her made him remember how she had failed when it came to their son. His so-called ultimate legacy. More like, her ultimate failure. His own mother was right, he should have never hooked up with the second-born daughter. While the mare’s own father had loaned him the funds Strong Withers needed for his campaign, the mare that had come with the bargain was little more than a pit for bits to fall down now that he had his own sources of revenue. So, he sat, and drank. In a room so dark he couldn’t see ten feet beyond his own desk. And thought about the latest problem he had to deal with. Princess Celestia had told him that his son would be sent back to prison if he didn’t provide her with information on ponies plotting against her daughter, which he had been one of shortly before their plan did little more than put them into Celestia’s crosshairs. Even though the big white pony wasn’t a member of the government at the moment, he knew Celestia would be back. “It must be hard for you,” a deep mare’s voice said. “All your life, you’ve worked yourself up from nothing to become what you are, and now it’s all come crashing down. Your wife is less than useless, your son a criminal, and any hope of a legacy you hoped to create politically was ruined the day you decided to try and oust Sunset Shimmer from power.” Strong Withers looked up from his drink and searched around for the source of the voice. “Who’s there? How did you get in here?” “Oh, my poor little pony, it is you who trespasses,” the mare continued as she stepped out of the darkness, making Strong Withers seize up. “You dozed off over your desk, coming into my domain.” The alicorn that appeared in front of him was as tall as Celestia, with a coat just as black as the darkness behind her. A dark blue helmet adored her head, and an ethereal trail of blue energy followed behind her as she trotted forward. “As for my identity. I am the true Princess of Equestria,” she announced before leaned down to look Strong Withers muzzle to muzzle. “And I have a task for you.”