//------------------------------//
// Epilogue: Our Own Decisions 
// Story: Tales of Eden 
// by BlackRoseRaven 
//------------------------------//

Epilogue: Our Own Decisions
~BlackRoseRaven

“You're just a pathetic little runt!” hissed the monster as it charged at him, the centaur's legs pounding the pavement, his head lowered and massive arms flexed as he prepared another devastating spell. “How can a tiny little newt hope to fight me?”
Spike smiled slightly, flexing his claws as he stood in front of the burning library, tilting his head back almost mockingly as he answered in spite of the bruises over his body: “Yeah, being a big boy like you sure makes a huge difference...”
Spike sharply traced a series of runes through the air in front of himself, claws moving in a blur before he leaned forwards and breathed a wave of green flame through the amplifying ring he had traced, and a tornado of green fire erupted out of the ring, hammering across the centaur and knocking him staggering with a gasp of surprise.
“Except with magic, that just makes you a bigger target!” Spike stomped on the circle he'd prepared beforehand for this exact moment, and the centaur howled as the earth beneath him exploded upwards, jaws of rock nearly swallowing him whole. The centaur clawed furiously at the jagged rocks on either side of him as he struggled to resist being pulled into the pit, before he snarled in fury when Spike leapt onto his face with a grin, before screaming in pain when the little dragon gritted his teeth as he pumped a blast of magical essence through the centaur, isolating the different magical essences he'd stolen-
The beast suddenly lurched backwards, seizing Spike as he fell backwards into the pit, and the two vanished into the earth, swallowed up by darkness and crumbling earth. For a few moments, there was silence, a few fearful ponies anxiously sticking their heads out of hiding before there was a tremendous boom, and the earth quaked...
And a moment later, Spike reappeared with a wheeze in a burst of green fire, shaking himself briskly out he muttered: “Well. That could have gone better.”
He looked down at the orb of multicolored light in his hand, and then he smiled as he straightened and shook it firmly, the spiritual essence unraveling and spiraling into the air to return to its owners. He sighed as he rubbed his claws together, then turned towards the burning library, studying it mildly for a few moments before he shouted: “Hey, can I get a weather team over here to take care of this? Kind of exhausted.”
“Spike defeated Tirek!” shouted a voice, and the dragon winced as ponies surrounded him on all sides, cheering, shouting, yelling-
“Guys! Fire!” Spike shouted, pointing at the library, and several pegasi hurriedly took to the skies, blurting apologies as the dragon sighed and rubbed at his face, adding dryly: “That's like the third time I've beaten Tirek, too.”
He sat back on his rump, letting out another wheeze. At least he'd dropped the centaur somewhere... well, somewhere far below. He'd probably show up again in a few months, but...
Well, it had gotten busy all of a sudden. Chrysalis and Sombra were both back, and as energy returned to the world, it seemed like the bad was coming back along with the good. But Spike was ready for it. Or at least more ready than these ponies, who were now all sitting around him, staring at him for orders or something.
He sighed, but smiled in spite of himself. Well, they were good ponies. He just had a new appreciation for what Twilight must have gone through...
He looked up towards the sky, wondering how she was doing.
But no matter where she was, well. He knew she was okay.



Twilight Sparkle was not okay.
She cursed under her breath as she hurried around her room, Gildrynn watching her with amusement before she remarked: “Little Star, settle down.”
“Settle down?” Twilight glared at Gildrynn. “My exam is today! Rex Prox Danzsöngr will be the one overseeing us! I absolutely have to do my very best or-”
“Or what? It's not like you're going to fail, Little Star, you're not an idiot.” Gildrynn huffed and waved a hoof before she suddenly picked up a stress ball from Twilight's desk and flung it at her, and Twilight caught it without a flinch, glowering as the Valkyrie said cheerfully: “See! You were trained by me! You will be fine. Except perhaps for the punching part. You are still not good at the punching part.”
Twilight grumbled, then she stormed across her little bedroom to her closet, yanking it open and tearing out the lightweight armor that had been assigned to her. She clumsily began to put it on, and Gildrynn smiled in amusement before she chided: “Take your time. Take a breath. And put it on right, girl. They'll be checking your equipment. No use for children who can't dress themselves in war.”
Twilight mumbled a little, but slowed down, and Gildrynn looked around the mare's messy bedroom before she walked over and gently plucked a journal out of the organized chaos, idly pulling a piece of paper out of it and thrusting this at Twilight. The unicorn stopped and stared at her notes, and then she snatched them away with a look of embarrassment as the Valkyrie soothed: “Now calm. This is a field test. There are greater consequences than not getting a fair mark on this. You will do fine, but remember what we value most: getting the job done.”
“Faciam quodlibet quod necesse est.” grumbled Twilight, and Gildrynn nodded firmly in agreement before she quickly flitted around Twilight, making the unicorn wheeze as the Valkyrie rapidly adjusted her equipment, quickly and easily stringing the rest of her gear on.
“There.” she said proudly, stepping back as Twilight shifted awkwardly under the simple armor. “You look almost as fine as Lord Moonflower.”
Twilight mumbled something, and then she winced when the Valkyrie slapped her on the shoulder. “You'll be fine, Little Star! Now take your silly notes and go. The Swan will take good care of you, just make sure you listen to her.”
Twilight hesitated, and then she smiled awkwardly as she folded her note up and put it in her satchel, saying finally: “Thank you, for... everything. I'm... I'm looking forwards to uh... working with you. Professionally. As your equal.”
“Oh, you'll never be my equal.” Gildrynn said comfortably, before she rapped on Twilight's helmet, making her wince and glare. “But you'll be a fine Orphan! Now get, go!”
Twilight blushed, then with barely a thought, turned and teleported through reality with ease, reappearing on a massive concrete pad beneath a swirling sky of red and black that whirled eternally above a city of neon lights and steel. She hurried across the pad to join the line of other trainees waiting to file into the Nighthawk, as an ivory mare in white armor prowled along their ranks, studying them intently.
She stopped in front of Twilight, who smiled awkwardly up at the Rex Prox, but Danzsöngr only looked at her for a moment before she grunted and nodded, turning to head back towards the Nighthawk as she shouted: “Alright, everyone's here! Let's get in and get started! This is your first mission, trainees, and I expect this batch to at least survive the superjump!”
Twilight followed the others onboard, quickly taking her place beside a nervous-looking alicorn; not that alicorns were all that unusual in this world, compared to many of the things she had seen, many of the Orphans she had already worked beside.
Danzsöngr leapt in last, slamming the door behind her, and she didn't so much as flinch when the Nighthawk lifted off the helipad to fly into the air, the Rex Prox explaining calmly: “The operation is simple. We will be dropping into a Class B world to deal with a demonic infestation. They appear to be attempting to construct a portal. We will exterminate the demons and destroy the portal. How you perform here determines what assignments you're going to get in the future, so don't let your trainers down, got it?”
The trainees, including Twilight, all saluted, before Danzsöngr ordered: “Get your packs on. We're approaching jump height.”
The trainees bumped into each other awkwardly as they grabbed their flightpacks off the rack above, before they strapped these on. Twilight breathed quickly in and out through her mouth, trying to calm herself down: she knew they were already being judged. Was bumping into Alcatraz going to lose her points? What if there was an equipment malfunction, was she going to lose points if she used magic to save herself, or should she-
“Assemble!” Danzsöngr ordered, and the trainees fell all over themselves to quickly line up at the door in front of the Rex Prox, who muttered: “Horses of Heaven, Thorn. One of these days...”
A beeping filled the air, and Danzsöngr stepped back and yanked the door open, shouting: “Okay, time to jump! Go go go!”
The trainees jumped, one after the other: Twilight gritted her teeth as she leapt into the open air, shooting downwards with eyes wide and terrified. Not of hitting the ground, not of the bright tunnel that ripped open in reality beneath them, but of screwing up, of something going wrong, of-
She hit the portal, felt a shock run through her system, and then shattered out the other side with a gasp of pain before her eyes widened as she saw one of the trainees below was struggling to activate his flight pack. And he was falling fast towards quickly-approaching, unforgiving earth-
Twilight streamlined her body as she sharply traced an arte in front of her, and she made the air shake as she shot like a cannonball at the trainee, slamming into him and spinning rapidly before she focused her magic: first she stopped their spin, and then she slowed their descent, gritting her teeth as she fought both momentum and gravity.
But only seconds later, she touched down with only the slightest impact to the grasses below with a gasp, stallion in her forelegs clinging to her before he gave a shaky smile and blurted: “T-Thank-”
“You didn't use your flight pack.” Danzsöngr said mildly, and Twilight flinched and dropped the trainee, who hit the ground with a grunt of surprise as Twilight fell back on her rump.
She stared at the Rex Prox, who looked mildly back down at her before she reached out and grabbed Twilight. And the unicorn was shocked as, a moment later, she and Danzsöngr were simply back in the Nighthawk circling above Decretum before the Rex Prox ordered: “Do it again.”
Twilight looked at the mare for a moment, trembling, but then she took a breath and nodded before leaping out of the ship, falling towards the still-open portal below.
She hit the rift in reality, shattered through a second time, and this time, she flipped herself quickly around in midair and hit the button to activate the thrusters of her pack; cold air, not hot, ripped across her back as small, stubby wings shot out of the sides of the pack, but she didn't need to steer: she was able to gently hover her way quickly back down to the ground.
And again, she found Danzsöngr waiting for her, the Rex Prox smiling slightly as she nodded once and said: “Good. Do what you have to, and then do it again right. Now let's get moving. I want this to be fast.”
Twilight smiled, blushing a bit as several of the other trainees patted her on the shoulder and smiled at her as they walked by, and then she hurried to catch up to them, notes forgotten in her sidepack.
She didn't have to learn how to do what she had been born to be, after all.




To live without regret,
You must first live without hate in your heart.