//------------------------------//
// Epilogue Part 1, Happy Day 
// Story: PONY POV SERIES SEASON 8: FINALE! 
// by Alex Warlorn 
//------------------------------//



(Wind Whistler's Notes): Are you still intent on going through with your plan, Discord?)

This is a special occasion, so I'll give you a straight answer just this once... Yes. I'm not the Discord of the Heart World and I'm never going to be. I have to do this my own way. 

(Wind Whistler's Notes): There are many who will consider this cheating.)

Since when has any Discord in any universe ever played by other people's rules? I knew it would come to this.

(Wind Whistler's Notes): Considering everything that's happened, I find that most improbable.)

Perhaps there were a few things I didn't see coming. Nightmare Nhilis going through her teenage rebellious stage, my brother's essence by some unholy miracle regaining some sense of will, losing Goatcord, Dad's avatar going berserk... hmm, I suppose that is more than just a few.

But I knew that somehow, someway, this would end in the ponies' favor. Nightmare Nhilis wasn't wrong about that. I just wasn't angsting about it. I knew Dissy was going to return the favor... I didn't realize he already had and I just never noticed.

Think of it, my dear! Ponies will be talking about this for ages, or at least our heroes are going to be telling their grandfoals and their grandfoals will be telling their grandfoals about this big banging finale!

(Wind Whistler's Notes): Are you expecting congratulations?)

From you? Hardly. The ponies saved the world, but I got what I wanted. Chalk it up to the Age of Dreams! I, my princess, and the ponies all got what we wanted! 

(Wind Whistler's Notes): And you are still going through with your final step?)

Final step? You make it sound as if I had some kind of plan. I saw an opportunity and I'm taking it! 

(Wind Whistler's Notes): So events come full circle. Your sense of theater betrays you Discord.)

So what? I think it makes for a splendid wrap up. No doubt it's going to make a lot of ponies hopping mad, but I consider that a bonus! Besides, maybe I can pick up where I left off... Let it never be said that Discord doesn't pay his debts.

(Wind Whistler's Notes): So be it. Goodbye, Discord. I'd say 'may you find peace,' but I do not wish ill towards you.)

You always did know me better than I gave you credit for. 

(Wind Whistler's Notes): You were part of our herd. How could I not?)

I suppose... Huh, I could have sworn I felt a hoof on my arm just now. Was that you?

(Wind Whistler's Notes): No...)

I see... Well, then! I suppose all I can say is...goodbye, mother. You really were too good for me.

+++

As the light faded, Twilight Sparkle blinked her eyes, and found herself and her friends gently floating down in bubbles the color of their Elements. For some reason, she didn't feel all that surprised. Maybe she'd just run out of surprise for the day. 

Paxphobia's barrier was gone. The storm was gone. All that surrounded them was beautiful blue sky with a rainbow stretching across it.

Relief washed over Twilight when she saw that her horn was back where it belonged, and each of her friends had their respective body parts restored. None of them appeared to have anything 'extra', and a quick spell confirmed that she herself was not now an Alicorn in disguise. Presumably, the same was true for her friends, aside from Fluttershy. Twilight felt an odd sense of relief at that as well; her day had been harrowing and dramatic enough, and she didn't need another big change. Thankfully, they had burned through everything today had to throw at them, right? Right?

The rest of Twilight's friends came around, and they all smiled at each other. Paxphobia was gone, Nightmare Nhilis was defeated. They'd saved the world... again. 

Twilight Sparkle found herself thinking of one of Lickety Split's stories, how when Tirek was defeated, the ponies he'd captured floated down from the sky, safe and sound. The bubbles faded, but instead of falling, Twilight and her friends continued a gentle feathery decent, like gravity itself was being gentle with them.

Six ponies, Fluttercruel, and Spike softly landed on a beautiful grassy field. Twilight noted it that was the one between Ponyville and Pinkie Pie's Dream Park. Was this where they were before? Or had they teleported when they weren't looking? Did it matter?

Everypony leapt into a group hug, laughing. 

"WE WIN!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"DARN TOOTIN' WE DO!" 

"Take THAT grandpa!"

"You were all beautiful, darlings!"

Uncharacteristically, Pinkie Pie simply gave her friends a warm smile. 

Spike grinned. "I can't wait to see the stained glass window for this one!... Uh, Rarity..."

"Don't worry about it, Spikey-Wikey."

"I'm just so happy that everypony is okay!" exclaimed Fluttershy, not able to stop her wings from fluttering in her good mood.

"And it's thanks to each and every one of you!" Twilight Sparkle smiled. "We each did our part and supported each other. That's the magic of friendship!" 

The others would probably have a million questions about their miracle: how it happened, why it happened, and who they had to thank, but that could all wait until later. Twilight Sparkle felt her heart leap for joy and she couldn't help herself... she began to sing! 


"When I was young I was too busy to make any friends.
Such silliness did not seem worth the effort it expends.
But my little ponies, you opened up my eyes
And now the truth is crystal clear, as splendid summer skies.
And it's such a wonderful surprise."

"When danger makes me wanna hide, you'll Rainbow Dash to my side,
Kindness is never in short supply, once smitten twice Fluttershy.
For honesty no pony can deny, you are the Applejack of my eye,
A heart that shines so beautiful, a Rarity to come by
And you all make fun and laughter as easy as Pinkie Pie!"

"Our friendship's magic and it's growing all the time.
A new adventure waits for us each day is yours and mine.
We'll make it special every time!"

The ponies fell on their backs, rolling over and over in the grass as they laughed their heads off, a happy blue sky above and their hearts as light as the clouds! After all the ordeals and twists and turns, they'd finally come out of the tunnel to find the light on the other side! 

Fluttershy raised a hoof. "Um, Twilight? I have just one question." Twilight was surprised she only had one. "Do you have any idea what happened to Discord?"

"Oh, don't worry about him!" said Pinkie Diane, sitting up from the grass. "When we plowed through Mr. Evil-Pants, I grabbed him on our way through!" Pinkie Pie rubbed her belly. "He's right here."

Her friends all stared at her.

"You ate him?" Fluttershy asked, recoiling. 

"Huh?! No, silly! I'm pregnant with him!"

"YOU'RE WHAT?!" everypony and dragon shouted. 

"Yeah! He felt really sorry about a lot of the stuff he did, and he wanted a do-over. And I was the only one he trusted to raise him to be nice while still having fun and doing chaos stuff! ... Hey girls, don't give me that look! We all want to help Discord's victims, right? Well, I'm helping one of his victims, himself! He said he really messed up the first time after he was born and he became the spirit of chaos, and he wanted to give the nicer Discord-his-mom-loved-before-that a chance this time."

The girls and Spike all looked at each other. Spike tossed up his claws up, exasperated. "Fine! Let's go with that! Pinkie Pie is pregnant with Discord and is gonna be his new mommy! Why not! No less crazy than anything else today!" 

"... I guess... it's not like we haven't done this kind of thing before," Rainbow Dash pointed out, thinking of Kifuko.

Rarity nodded. "If Sweetie Belle was here darling, she'd say ,Chryssy gave us all the idea of how to beat Discord without making anypony 'never-heard-from-again.'"

"Pinkie Pie, are you sure about this?" asked Twilight, not sure how to feel about her friend being pregnant with their worst enemy. "This is... a big responsibility. Maybe we should have consulted Princess Celestia first." 

Pinkie grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. "Well, it kinda happened in a fraction of a fraction of a second, and Paxphobia was sort of exploding at the time, and I felt everypony deserves a chance to be happy, even Discord! This time he knows that he can have fun without being mean."

"UGH!" Fluttercruel snorted. "You're kidding right?! That's it?! After everything he did? He doesn't get thrown in the dungeon, he doesn't get sent to Tartarus, or turned into a statue again!? He gets to be raised by Pinkie Pie?!"

Pinkie Diane gave Fluttercruel a stern look. "Dissy isn't just getting a new body, Fluttercruel... Discord is getting a new Discord. He... " Pinkie Diane shuddered. "He knew this was gonna mean Discord, the Discord who helped us save Diamond Tiara... was gonna be gone for good. Poof. He doesn't exist anymore. He got reset."

"Well... GOOD RIDDANCE TO THE SCUMBAG!" 

Pinkie sighed. "That's what he said too."

Fluttercruel was struck dumb, any tirade she'd been about to launch vanishing into the ether. 

"I'll be happy to help, Pinkie Pie," Fluttershy offered. Fluttercruel snorted.

"Actually he said that might lead to some weird feelings on his part."

Fluttershy's face fell, but she nodded. "Oh... I understand."

"I'm sure you'll be an excellent mother, Pinkie Pie," Rarity said with a smile. 

"Yeah, well..." Rainbow Dash began awkwardly. "Of all the crazy stuff you've done, Pinkie Pie, this is definitely the craziest!"

"Ah can't say Ah don't agree with Rainbow Dash... but if anypony can steer Discord right from the crib... Ah'll take my bets that ya can be the one, Pinkie Pie."

"Thanks AJ!" Pinkie Diane gave her a happy hug. 

A few seconds later, Pinkie's stomach gurgled loudly. Everypony tensed.

"Oh! Excuse me for just one teeny tiny second!" said Pinkie Diane, her smile never wavering for an instant. At Pinkie speed, she zipped away from her friends and sat down happily on all fours. Then she opened her mouth wide and let out the longest, loudest bleach they'd ever heard, putting even Applejack and Spike to shame! 

And out of Pinkie Pie's mouth came a cloud of angry red smoke! It formed into the vague shape of a draconequus, more muscular and with different parts than Discord. 

Before Rainbow Dash could shout 'Oh come on, not again!', a little portal opened up, and a child draconequus with feminine poise popped out, holding a black spear that was obviously too big for her. She breathed in deep, sucking up all the red smoke like a vacuum cleaner. Then she gave Rarity a sassy grin and a victory gesture, and jumped back into the portal, which quickly closed behind her.

Rainbow Dash was still trying to pick her jaw up off the ground. "Okay, what the Tartarus just happened, and do I care?"

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Don't worry, it won't be a problem.)

+++

"Aw, but I wanted to fight the stupid filly and stab big brother!" whined little Rancor, stamping her foot. "Why wouldn't you let me!"

An earth pony stallion shook his head at her. He was green-eyed and yellowish-gray coated, with a moderate and grayish gamboge mane. His cutie mark was a stick in the mud. "Because, missy, Rota Fortuna saw that you'd let your recklessness and thrill seeking get the better of you! You would have left yourself open, and the twin might of Discordance and Nightmare Nhilis would have crushed you."

"But..."

"She also saw that if I'd told you, you would have rushed into battle even more recklessly. I'm not having my baby girl get humiliated in her debut appearance!" 

"You should have let her," said 'Maud Pie,' somehow sounding stern with seemingly no inflection in her voice. "It would have been a good learning experience." 

"Moooom!" protested Rancor. 

"Things were drawn out enough in that mess," said the stallion crossly. "Now hold still, dear, while mommy extracts your brother's essence from you." His expression softened into a fatherly grin. "Look, I have the bandage and lollypop right here!" he said, holding up a green candy and a giant cross band-aid. "Now you just need to gamble on Wishes And Miracles ascending in this timeline, and you'll get a brother your own age to play with."

"Whatever!" pouted Rancor. "I wish you'd at least let me get Melody's autograph!"

"No. Their lives are complicated enough without all of them knowing about their former ones." 

"... Fear... Fear... Fear... Fear... Fear... Fear..."

Behind the stallion was a ghostly image, more like a line drawing than something physical and transparent, like a red sketch on reality. It was serpentine, with countless limbs and horns and ever changing eyes, mighty and frightening. At least it would have been if it wasn't also as small to a breezie as a breezie was to an earth pony, and wasn't locked tight in a tiny cage that the stallion lifted up with his tail. "And as for you... "

"I did what you created me to do!" it said, in a voice like a fly buzzing.

The stallion scowled. "I made you to carry out my will. Did you heed me when I commanded you to stop?"

"I did it for love!"

"Does She look like she loved it?" said the stallion, briefly glancing at 'Maud Pie' and then back to his creation. 

"I just wanted to be free!"

"Free to do what? Destroy more?" 

"I did it to protect the universe!"

"When did zebras, dragons, and griffons endanger reality, that you should destroy them as well?"

"Everything connected to the ponies has to be wiped out! None can be allowed to pick up where they left off!"

"And now I know how the Alicorns felt." The stallion facehoofed, then looked at his creation... disappointed. "Celly's avatar saved the world of her own free will when she became her own entity. My Beautiful Void's avatar is a wonderful sister who enriched the lives of her mortal family when she became an Incarnation... You?" He leveled a hoof at the cage. "You never grew beyond your days as my sword in the war! You did the OPPOSITE! You became a shallow, one-note caricature! You had your chance to become something more than just my hand when you gained your own will, and instead you became less. It's time to come home."

The gates of Tartarus that were himself opened, and the little red sketch in the cage was pulled inside, screaming and writhing as it returned from whence it came.

+++

Someplace Else

"Hi, Wind Whistler! What kept you?" 

"Greeting, Sundance. I delayed my arrival to recruit a pony who understands Dissy better than I. She should do an adequate job of raising Dissy in Shady's absence."

+++

= 'Wonderful Victory' - Lunar 2 Complete: Eternal Blue =

Fluttercruel, still in her separate manifestation, looked herself over.

"Is something wrong?" asked Fluttershy.

"Dad's gone for good," said Fluttercruel thoughtfully. "The dad I was the Cruelty of, anyway. I'm still here, which means..." She gave them a small smile. "It looks like I really am separate from him now. If I was just his Cruelty, I'd disappear with him."

Her mother put a hoof around her, drawing her into a hug. "You're right, dear. Isn't it wonderful?"

"Yes. Yes it is!"

Rarity and Pinkie Pie looked to each other. They didn't have to say anything, they merely shared a smile, knowing they were now closer in some ways than ever before.

"Okay, so let's count 'em up for this year," said Rainbow Dash, counting items off on her primary feathers. "We kicked Discord's flank, saved Fluttershy from herself, Applejack did some weird Truth thing, we kicked a whole lot of Changeling flank and reformed them too, we beat Discord AGAIN, then saved Diamond from herself while she was a supercharged Nightmare, and just in case all that wasn't quite awesome enough, we blew a crazy piece of Discord's dad to Kingdom Come."

Applejack and Twilight decided not to bring up the times they'd saved the world that most of them didn't even remember.

"Time to celebrate?" suggested Pinkie Diane. She gasped. "Omigosh, now I have to plan my own foal shower too!"

"Time for a well deserved rest," said Rarity.

Fluttershy nodded. "Mmm hmm!"

"Anypony thinking what I'm thinking?" Rainbow asked.

"...That Ah hope another bad guy doesn't show up for at least a year?" asked Applejack.

Rainbow grinned. "Aw, yeah!"

"In all honesty," said Fluttershy. "I think the thing that matters most to me about the past year was getting Fluttercruel." Her daughter blushed.

"For me it was saving Trixie and helping her become a better pony," said Twilight. "And helping with Cadence and BBBFF's REAL wedding."

"Seein' Apple Bloom with her Cutie Mark ranks high on mah end," replied Applejack, with a proud smile.

"Same with Scoot's Cutie Mark," said Rainbow replied, grinning. 'And bringing her in in the first place.'

"And Sweetie Belle's," added Rarity. Her expression turned a little somber. "And let's not forget about saving Diamond. Both times."

"Building my friendship park is high on my list," was Pinkie Pie's answer. "Ooh, and reuniting Cranky with his lost love!"

"Who cares about mushy stuff like that?" said Fluttercruel. "I fought my way out of nothingness to save mom from herself AND blew up evil grandpa!"

"What about meeting Coffee Swirl?" Fluttershy asked.

Fluttercruel blushed. "... That too."

"Joining the Crusaders and becoming Silver Spoon's friend is definitely in my top ten," said Spike. "And yeah, I'm with Fluttercruel. Blowing up Paxphobia was bucking awesome!" He kicked back, claws clasped behind his head. "I'm probably gonna get my mouth scrubbed out for that, but eh, it was worth it."

Twilight hugged Spike. 

The eight laid on their backs, looking up at the sky as they waited for the world to find them again...

"Speaking of soap," mused Twilight, smiling, "I found out the soap box curse was because my ancestor stood up to Discord and beat him to save somepony." 

"I merged my split personalities back together," said Pinkie Pie. 

"Oh! So did I," Fluttershy replied. "I had to learn that anger wasn't something to push aside and ignore, like I'd been doing for too long..."

"Ah found out that even if Ah'd stayed in Manehatten, Ah'd still be meh, and takin' the truth too seriously can be bad," said AJ, smiling along with her friends.

"I finally made up with Derpy over a big screw up I made years ago," said Rainbow, grinning from ear to ear. 'And I became friends with Spitfire!' 

"I grew closer to my darling little sister," said Rarity. Even she was grinning like a foal in a candy store today.

Spike chuckled. "Well, I learned my that ancestors are part of a long line of guardians of Equestria, dating back eons!"

"...I was born," said Fluttercruel bluntly, before the group broke out laughing, herself included. "Alright alright... I became a good pony... draconequus... thing. I was born rotten, but thanks to mom I didn't stay that way."

"...We've grown a lot, haven't we?" Twilight asked, the group collectively nodding.

And with that... they rested a while, talking about the growth and change this last insane year had brought with it, letting themselves just be ponies and not world-saving heroes, for a few minutes at least. It was a beautiful day.