//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Lady of Love // by FireOfTheNorth //------------------------------// Epilogue “ … and that is the tale of the Lady mi Amore Cadenza, sorceress protégé of Celestia, the last mi Amore, and heir to Cant’r Laht,” Lilian concluded his story, strumming his lute one last time. The night had dragged on as he told his tale, but his audience had been too enraptured to notice (other than the younger foals, who had nodded off not from disinterest, but from tiredness). Through it, Lilian had managed to get his hooves on some stew to fortify himself for the journey. He suspected, given his audience’s responses, that he would have food for the rest of the journey to the Dominions of Cant’r Laht so long as he supplied them with more stories. All in all, it had been a successful night for the troubadour. “Surely her story doesn’t end there,” one of the mares in the crowd asked, “What else ‘as she done? Where is she now?” “Well, that’s as far as the story goes for now, since she hasn’t been in Equestria for the past thirteen years,” Lilian said dramatically, “When Celestia signed a treaty with Ingrirtireth of Tyrannus to secure peace with the dragons, she agreed to a hostage exchange. Ingrirtireth sent Celestia the egg which later hatched into his son, Spike, who accompanies Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s current apprentice and the leader of the Brave Companions. Celestia sent Cadence to Tyrannus and she’s been there ever since with no word back. Maybe someday she’ll return to Equestria, but that remains to be seen.” *** Cadence took a deep breath before trying her spell again. The crystals on the wall rearranged themselves into a model of Cant’r Laht. As she pressed the enchantment, it grew more and more detailed. Just as it was reaching the point where outlines of individual crystal ponies could be seen on the streets, the spell collapsed and the crystals became an amorphous chunk again. Cadence sighed and looked at the failure in disappointment. It had been years since Celestia had confided in her that she’d reached the limits of her magical potential, so soon after becoming an alicorn, but still she wanted to try to do more complex magic. It wasn’t like there was much else to do here. The thirteen-year anniversary of her trip to Tyrannus had come and gone, and she was still a hostage of Ingrirtireth to secure peace with Equestria. She wasn’t treated like a prisoner, except for the fact that she wasn’t allowed to leave Tyrannus and was only allowed to leave Ingrirtireth’s lair with his permission. Otherwise, she was able to explore the mountain more or less at liberty, though dragons tended to grumble if she got too close to their hoards. She’d tried to learn about the dragons, but she’d reached the limit of what they were willing to tell her years ago. She was in the process of learning their language still, but it was nearly impossible for her to pull it off, since large portions of it were impossible with a pony’s mouth structure and vocal cords and without the ability to expel smoke, fire, and noxious fumes. Now, she spent most of her time in her chambers trying out new spells. Her home here was a large complex of chambers that had been carved out of the rock, probably through magical means. There were other such complexes for ponies near hers, but they were all abandoned. Normally, there would be no places for ponies in a dragon’s lair other than slave pits, but Ingritireth was different from the other dragonlords. It wasn’t that he respected ponies more than other dragons (if anything it was the opposite), but he’d recognized long ago that tribute from the “lesser races” was valuable, and they were more likely to give better tribute and rebel less if they were given reasonable accommodations when visiting. That was what these chambers had originally been built for, but nopony came to the dragonlord’s lair to pay tribute anymore, so Cadence was given a set to stay in so that she couldn’t complain, while the rest were left empty. That was why it puzzled the sorceress so much when she heard a knock on her door. Dragons didn’t knock, they just walked in without asking. She expelled her remaining magic reserves transforming the crystalline mess into something presentable before trotting over to the door. When she opened it, there was a zebra standing outside who looked a bit surprised that Cadence had answered. “Hello. Who might you be?” Cadence asked when the zebra remained silent. “Oh, Low Equestrian,” the zebra replied, surprising Cadence with her near-perfect pronunciation, “I am Rezor’ah-Urillay mol’Registav. As daughter to Padishah Ulm the Great Light, I was sent here as a hostage. I had no idea anyone else was here.” “I am the Lady mi Amore Cadenza. Cadence will do fine, though. I am heir to Celestia, and am also a hostage,” Cadence said, “Please, come in, Rezor.” She was interested to hear what this zebra had to say. Cadence rarely received news here and she had no idea that the Zebrikaanian Empire had a new Padishah. She wanted to hear all about it, and also to connect with someone who wasn’t a dragon. Rezor took a seat on one of the cushions Cadence had managed to convince the dragons to bring her, since everything here was made of stone and quite a pain. Cadence offered her guest some tea, which she politely declined, before taking a seat across from her. “I’ve never met an alicorn before,” Rezor commented once they were situated, “It must be such a story.” “Oh, I suppose so,” Cadence said, just so happy to have someone to talk to, “Would you like to hear it?” “I would like that very much,” Rezor said, and Cadence didn’t notice her guest’s eyes briefly shift from brown to green and the slight sound of insect wings fluttering.