//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: Project F.R.I.E.N.D.S.H.I.P. 
// by SaltWriter the leviapony 
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Epilogue





Ten years later



  Fillies and colts sat in a small dark room, chatting to themselves about the upcoming presentation. A dragon sat in the back of the room, a stand out from the others. A magical light shined on the wall, and the room grew silent, as sillouettes moved on the glowing background.
  Let me tell you a story. One not so long ago, but as strange and mysterious as legends of old. It all begins in a town off to the deserts of Equestria.
   In that town was a Colt, one who had a mind for tools and moving machines. He lived his life in a clock tower, where he dreamed of ideas no normal foal would ever see. This lead to the Colt moving away from his home to the regal land in the mountains.
   He grew up in solitude, mares and stallions being brought into his home in the mountain to serve him silently. And in his time, during a certain idea with the bug ponies, he encountered a mare. This mare was lead by the sun to deal with the bug horses, and the stallion offered them the chance to work with him, and perform as they pleased for him.
   The mare, seeing this as a way to live happily, brought her and her team to work with him. In secret, they crafted ideas and observed the world of ponies. As they watched a set of ponies, weilding artifacts of magic, began to work around the land healing and reforming evil with friendship.
   This made the stallion curious, and he devoted the work to a alicorn, not of flesh and heart, but of metal and leather. Because of this, he needed a soul of love to power the alicorn. And the mare, with her team, gave themselves for this cause. But it didn't go as planned, for them alone could not power the beast, and so they laid inside dorment and unmoving.
   The stallion, grieved by this setback, worked day and night to be bring the mare back. He went as far as to use cursed magic to extend his youth. From this he gather souls till at last he awoke the metel alicorn, though not as he wanted.
   The alicorn was giving a task, to see the elements of harmony and provoke them, then fight using her magic against their inherit love and friendship. Each pony fell, the violence to the world growing more and more as the stallion became eager for his mission.
   What he didn't count on, was the element of magic, who warned the princess's of his coming doom. They battle from the castle in the mountain to the glowing city, the protection of the ponies versus the magic force of the machine. In a desperate rage, the mechanical alicorn gave one last display of magic, and brought the city in the sky down apon them, killing them all.
   The stallion soon followed, too grieved at the loss of his girl, leaving nothing behind but the ruined remains of the city. Yet in the loss, a group of ponies found his lab, and decided to use it to rebuild the world.
   They build the city you know as eclipsed sparkle over the remains of the once thriving town. And with help from the crystal empire, the ground work for a more advanced lifestyle for ponies soon followed. But where that story leads next, is up to you.

  The colts and fillies filed out of the small theater, talking to themselves about what they saw. Fangorn squeezed out of the narrow opening and smiled at the story. A orange mained unicorn, with a silver stripped mane and tail walked over to meet him. Fangorn patted her on the shoulder and nodded to the theater.
  “Seems ponies are more accepting of your shadow puppets then you thought.” Buttercup turned her head away and wiped a imaginary speck off her shoulder.
  “It took you long enough to come and see it. I know you're busy with the delivery service, but you could have made time to see it sooner.”
  “Things happen, but don't be so down about it. Your success has made others pop up to imitate your style, with less skillfully made puppets of course.” She gave him a sad smile, then turned to head back inside. Fangorn pulled his hand back, and instead walked down the road.
  Rainbow scale lake, made from the remains of rainbow falls, laid out before the dragon. He weaved around the ponies and other creatures as he walked to the cloak tower in the middle of the lake. On the way, he spotted a cloaked unicorn, holding a small gem in her magic and the walking about. With a smile, he made for one of the allys where she was walking and waited.
  Fangorn reached his claws out, grabbing the mare by the mouth and holding her under his arm. The mare struggled, her horn sparking from her panic, till she finally noticed who was holding her. With a sigh, she waited for him to place her back on the ground.
  “You should try and make a better disguise then just an older version of yourself.” Fangorn chuckled, releasing his grip and making her fall to the ground. “I recognized you the moment I saw the mane.”
  “I'm still new to this ok? I at least got the adult form worked out, give some credit for that.” The mare dissolved into a alicorn filly, her pink swirled hair flowed down to her shoulder. She had a crystal saddlebag, along with a dagger strapped to her chest. Fangorn chuckled again and ruffled her mane with his claw.
  “I won't deny that. The last time we met you were bodyless necks and legless color swaps. Guess your time in saddle Arabia did more then give you a tanned skull.” Flurry scoffed, then pulled out a map from her bag. 
  “so you know, you were right about the element of laughter being their. The gem reacted when I got close to the ice cream tornado. I wasn't able to talk to the chaos spawn though, and she ran off before I could do anything.”
  “She seems like one that'll take time. So what brings you to this town in particular? I imagine it's not to recruit me for help again.” Flurry placed the map back into her bag and tapped her saddlebag.
  “Stocking up for a trip. I think the element of loyalty is somewhere in Las pegasus, and I want to find out if my hunch is right.” Fangorn nodded, then bent down to look her in the eyes.
  “If you ever need a rest, you know where my home is. Take care of yourself, this burden is something no pony should have to bare like you have.” She nodded, then lit her horn up. The disguise she had before appeared again, and she walked out of the ally without a word. Fangorn nodded, then flew out to the cloak tower.

  The interior of the cloak tower was abuze with sound. Clicking gears and moving parts gave the air a metallic life. As fangorn walked into the building, a stallion hanging from a platform turned in annoyance to see him. His coat was a rusted brown, specked with oil and grease stains. One of his eyes was a dark blue while the other was a milky blue. He began lowering down to the floor, jumping off before spitting into a jar.
  “Well look who it is, the mail dragon coming to bother me and my daughter at work. Here to pick up your order?” His voice almost sounded as metallic as the brass around him, almost shouting to be heard over it. Fangorn had noticed a new metal teeth in his mouth, but looked up at the clock interior.
  “Yes, I imagine she's finished it to my liking?”
  “More then that. Honestly I've had to pry her away from the stupid box just to get her to work on the tower. Hang on, I'll fetch her for ya.” The stallion went to the wall nearby and pulled on a rope, a whistle breaching the mechanical rhythm. Fangorn watched and smiled as a dark green unicorn jumped and floated on the various gears and belts. She lightly landed on the floor, the stench of grease in her mane and tail.
  “Ohh, hi Mr. Dragon. I'm glad to see you here again. I've got your box right here.”
  “Jade gearworks, how many times have I told you to use the elevator and stairs instead of running on the cloak itself?”
  “Not enough, I guess.” Jade pulled a small item from in her bag and handed it to fangorn. He looked over the small music box in his hand, admiring the metel etched design and polish. He nodded to the door, and Jade walked out with him to the back of the tower. The city noise seemed like quiet compared to the cloak interior, and fangorn wound the box to hear its tune.
  “It was difficult to get the piece you requested. Though I did manage to find and work with pon3 to get the tune down. Her partner helped make sure it sounded correct as well.” Fangorn nodded, humming along to the tune it played. He them closed the box and placed it into his bag.
  “I expect you to be keeping up with your studies Missy. You may be a good tinkerer, but you hardly seem to socialize.”
  “Don't patreonize me scale boy, it's not my fault ponies don't like me. It's their lifestyle, not my habits.” Fangorn rolled his eyes, and dropped some bits into the girls bag. She nodded, then ran back into the tower. Fangorn then turned to the hills, shouldering his bags and sighing.
  “Seems once again you thought ahead. You really were one for almost every detail. I can't promise your original vision, but I hope to help achieve whatever you wanted for us.” With that, he flew off to deliver his rounds, flying off to the new sunrise.