Predictions & Prophecies

by Kinrah

Epilogue

“Nice place you got here, ‘Starshine’.” Reeds let her eyes wander around the library while she sipped her coffee. “Never met anypony who lived in a tree before.”

It was surprising how things had quickly settled back into the normal routine after a couple of days. Now it was the following Tuesday, three days after the Lifebearer’s Vault, Princess Celestia had gotten Wind Chime to reverse her decision on the Ponyville weather patrol, no more freak storm disappearances, no more vague predictions of the future, and Twilight had already dealt with a Ponyville Weird Thing involving Apple Bloom and the Cutie Pox. Exactly the sort of normal she’d become accustomed to. Princess Celestia had been and gone to the library, too; though Twilight hadn’t had a chance to go through those loose pages, she was informed that they were for the most part harmless.

She had remembered Reeds Melody’s address from the letter she’d told the Iris to tell Reeds to send, and had simply invited her to tea, as had been the, er, ‘arrangement’ back in 990. Taking precautions, though, she prepared by going out to the store and buying some instant coffee, for which her guest was grateful.

“How long did you know?” Twilight prodded, drinking from her own tea. “It can’t have been that hard to work it out.”

“I saw you around the castle afterwards and figured you had an older sister or something.” Reeds set her cup down and stretched her wings. “Then the Iris started talking to me, you showed up in the hospital, and I put two and two together. Was I a good actor?”

“You fooled me.” And she’d done it all without directly lying to them. Anthem’s influence strikes again. “How did you fool the doctors?”

Reeds blinked at her, then realization dawned. “Oh. No, that was unintentional. Genuinely couldn’t sleep. Wasn’t a coffee overdose either,” she picked her cup up again just to gesture with it. “Hadn’t had any for days before you showed up.”

Then… “It wasn’t the Iris?”

“Don’t think so. I tried asking it but it just kept saying ‘they’re not supposed to do that’ over and over again.”

Twilight’s brow furrowed. “What did it mean by they?”

Reeds glugged some more coffee. “Just before the whole not sleeping thing, I was helping with a weather thing west of Manehattan, things went south and I crashed into a forest, swallowed some berries or something. Best I can work out it was something about them. Actually that was pretty much its reaction to anything I asked it about. Coffee, poison joke, chang—”

Wait… she couldn’t be… no! “Were they little round maroon berries in clusters of three or four?”

“Yeah! Those’re the ones!”

But… no… augh. Twilight slammed her face down onto the table. Of course Reeds would manage to crash into the energy-boosting snoozeberries that weren’t supposed to exist. Why not?! “And you didn’t mention this to the doctors?” she mumbled flatly, still face-down.

“Well, no. They had some too and were giving them to me to try and help me sleep so I figured it wasn’t relevant.”

When she next saw her, Twilight was going to give Nurse Redheart a hug, she decided.

Upon discovering that future-telling magic had been involved, Reeds had been suitably impressed. Then she had been a bit less impressed when Twilight refused to demonstrate the spell for her. No, she actually couldn’t cast the spell now. No more time travel, no more prophecies, no more stress about the future or the past. Just two new friends having a drink. Nothing wrong with that.

“It’s still weird, though.” Reeds lifted the cup again and was a little disappointed to find it empty. “That until now the first time I met you was the last time you met me.”

Yeah, it was weird. Twilight had thought that about meeting the construct of Anthem, too. Twilight’s first, Anthem’s last (technically, if you didn’t count getting glared at for thinking of lying). First and last, at the same time.

Something in her thought journal went ‘ping’.

The First and Last. That had been the title of Stalleonardo’s supposedly most famous painting which she’d never heard of. Loaded phrase, then. But… ‘seek the first and last, in the last and first’… His last note, and the book that had sent her to Ponyville in the first place…

With a funny look on her face, Twilight got up and navigated to where she’d shelved Predictions and Prophecies, now placed next to the workbook, which as she’d vowed to do was now bound to the library. Dinky’s art envelopes had been returned to the foal, she didn’t know if Dinky planned to do anything with them, it wasn’t right to throw away things like that, but the book still had everything in it like it was supposed to, including her own prophecies, she’d discovered.

Reeds hovered over her shoulder. “Something up?”

“I don’t know…” Very cautiously, Twilight opened the book up to the first page, one she normally never bothered with. In most books it was blank, or had a dedication that tended not to be very relevant. And she gasped.

Written very neatly across the page was the phrase ‘If you alone can keep your head whilst others around are losing theirs, you really need to lighten up.’

Oh boy. Twilight was sure she’d at least glanced over this page before; how could she not have recognized a Pinkie Pieism? That didn’t bode well for the last page…

The last page was blank.

That was a letdown.

Except, if she looked closely, there was something that wasn’t supposed to be there in the binding on the inside of the back cover… Augh. There was something in there and the only way to get it out was going to be to vandalize the book, wasn’t it. No, wait, she could reconstitute it! She had a spell for that!

“Uh oh, I saw that face in Canterlot,” Reeds commented. “Should I be standing back?”

“No…” Twilight muttered absent-mindedly, using her magic to slice the binding open. You wouldn’t notice it if you weren’t looking for it, but there was a small card pressed between the inside of the binding and the back cover. A message from Stalleonardo; what else could it be? Who else could hide a message she’d been given hints at to find, especially in a three-hundred-ish years old book?

Carefully, she extracted the card, which was covered with small, very delicate writing.

Twilight Sparkle,
By the time you find this, the adventure in which you met me will be over. It is very important that you know this: No matter what I may have said to you in our final encounter, I do not hold you to blame. Rather, I can only blame myself. Casting such a spell was incredibly foolish, and I paid the price for it. Addiction is a powerful thing, and without Prophetia, I am nothing now. I do not know what road will lead me to the two of us in a burning theater, but I am absolutely certain about one thing: the future is safe in your hooves. Your friendship can do anything, and your next stories will be even greater.

I hope Princess Celestia can forgive me for my machinations. I had her perform a number of seemingly strange actions in the course of setting up our encounter, ultimately to reach this point where you read this card. I also hope her sister forgives my alterations to her telescope.

I must also ask for your forgiveness. Through fate and magic, we each drew each other into this tale, but yours, I think was the harder path. I drove you to worry repeatedly through my own actions, and for that, I am truly sorry.

On June 3rd, go for a walk in the morning.
Sweeping Stroke

On the back of this card I have drawn a sketch of my most recent work, The First And Last

Reflexively, Twilight turned the card over.

The book hit the floor with a thud, pages flicking open until they landed on the pages for the Elements of Harmony. Moments later, the card settled on them, the magical grip that had been holding it lost.

The six ponies were posing, as though standing for a portrait. Though they were much younger, it wasn’t difficult to recognize Princesses Celestia and Luna, nor the distinctive hat and bells of a very disgruntled Star Swirl the Bearded. On the far left was clearly Anthem, her wing hugging the stallion next to her close, his own wings and horn clearly visible. Far right, another alicorn, her mane cut short, eyes closed.

One unicorn. Five alicorns.

What.

…

In Canterlot Castle, a Princess beholds a portrait, a reproduction of one that was lost centuries previously. It was the first time they were painted together.

It was the last time.

In Ponyville Hospital, a pegasus meets with a nurse. The nurse is checking up on her. They met when the pegasus was admitted to Canterlot General eleven years ago after being resuscitated. The pegasus’s daughter draws in the waiting room.

She draws a crystal castle shaped like a tree.

In Hoofington, a unicorn looks over the page she copied. Thanks to a spell, she knows where to start looking. Around her neck, a magical crystal with no magic waits patiently.

She will have her revenge.

At her home, another pegasus finishes writing about her latest adventure, and as per family tradition, she ties it into a scroll and throws it into a pool of rainbow outside. She doesn’t know why.

She tried looking for the scrolls to get rid of them, once. They were all gone.

And elsewhere, across the seas, over the hills and far away, a griffon snaps his claws…

And fire blossoms in his palm.