//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Over the Edge and Over Again // by Perpetual Motion //------------------------------// Over the Edge and Over Again Epilogue Sunset Shimmer huffed as she closed yet another webpage. She rubbed at her heavy eyes until she finally gave into temptation and let her face fall deep into the warm embrace of her pillow. Minutes passed in beautiful darkness before she pulled herself back to task. Tilting her head back towards the screen, she clicked through her laptop until she found herself back at her favoured search engine. Easing out another breath, she began typing anew. After almost four hours of pointless research, the words felt almost automatic to her fingers. Captain Hector Barbossa “Stupid pirates,” she mumbled. Her neck twisted uncomfortably as she sat herself upright. Just to her right, a little out of her reach, was a small table. Atop that table was a framed photograph. It was of her friends, all gathered together around her. Princess Twilight was positively beaming, front and centre. Smiling, Sunset took a fresh breath in. “Right, that’s it; one more time.” She sat up straight and cracked her knuckles into one another. “If this comes up cold he definitely didn’t exist here.” She hit enter. ☠ “Josiah.” It had taken quite a while for the name to crop up. Celestia had been surprised when it was first dropped into casual conversation, falling into the murky darkness again moments later. Even in the months after, it had taken time to cement inside his mind. But after years of help and hardship, they had rediscovered his name. Josiah. He may have been the Moonlight’s Torment once, but that was a long time ago. Celestia once again knocked at his door. Much like any other in the more secure parts of the castle, it was decorated it radiant gold and white. Unlike most others, barnacles had begun to take hold over the handle and seaweed throughout the growing cracks in the wood. An after effect of Davy Jones’ influence, Celestia mused. They would need to look into maintaining it. At least so it did not spread beyond the door to his room. Which did eventually open. It revealed a damp space. Polished in places and rotted in others. A pristine bed, changed daily sat amongst a green floor originally fitted with a purple carpet. Weeds spread over the surface, clinging to the damp that permeated the fabric. Hardy clothes in various states of disrepair and a window that overlooked the Royal Gardens. After so many years a prisoner aboard and ghoulish ship and so many more living in the wilds of Equestria like a wild animal, a room to his tastes and needs was the very least she would have ever offered him. “You all in?” he asked, his voice scratching and dry. “Oh, definitely!” Celestia replied. “There are so few who play games with me, these days. If you’ll have me?” Issues still arose. Panic attacks. Disorders and syndromes compacted into one mind that Celestia would not have wished separately upon one hundred. Josiah was a broken soul, drowned in hate and agony. Hopefully with some heart and a little warmth, she could help to make his life a worthwhile one. His fish-like features had not settled in the years gone by, but not had he grown more into them. Even his blackest eye, that of a terrifying angler fish, seemed to sparkle when he got his way. Or when he gets a worthwhile gambling and drinking partner. “’Course,” he replied. He fully opened the door, revealing Luna to already be sat at warped table, cups in front of her and a very disappointed look on her face. “You provide the best bets.” ☠ “More tea?” Discord asked. “Of course!” Fluttershy lifted her teacup forward, letting the tea rise from below before settling into the very top of her cup. The hot aroma of orange taffy and butterscotch spread though her nostril before she brought the cup back took a gentle sip. “Mmm,” she sighed. Glorious. “Can you guess the flavour?” Well, it wasn’t orange taffy and butterscotch, but she would have surely been disappointed if it was. It tasted like… something you don’t taste. A feeling. Or a concept. “Is it… a feeling?” “Nope.” “It could be shape flavoured.” “Closer! But no.” Hmm. Sip. Oh! “It’s a colour!” Discord’s grin split his face clean in pi. “Yes!” Another sip and she knew instantly. “Blue flavour. I never tasted the colour blue before.” “I wanted to give you something different. Plenty of ponies can offer you a tea that tastes like a flavour. But I can give you a tea that tastes like a colour.” “And it’s not even blueberry or blue paint flavour.” “I know!” Fluttershy let out another sigh and leaned back into Discord’s couch. She so enjoyed their weekly tea parties at her cottage. It was strange to think that only a short while ago the situation had been very different. Violent and not very nice at all. Before she could even stop herself, she remembered all the fear and hurt, everything that occurred over those nasty few days. “I’m sorry.” “Why are you sorry?” Fluttershy asked, perhaps a bit too quickly. “I’m not an idiot, you know. I can see it in your eyes.” Discord sat within his flowerpot, waving at the memories flashing through her mind. “So… I’m sorry. For getting you involved in everything.” “We’ve spoken about this,” Fluttershy said, her relaxation bubbling into something as blue as her tea tasted. “Tirek tricked you. He… he tricked all of us. It wasn’t just your fault.” “I was the one that sided with him.” “And I’m the one he tricked into releasing your powers. Behind everypony’s back. He manipulated a lot ponies and… a lot of us made mistakes.” She couldn’t deny that. Tirek had told her how cruel the others were being, how unfair it was to keep something as important as magic from Discord for years after they were taken. She believed him. She stole the nine pieces of eight. She freed Discord… then he turned his back on her just like she had done to her friends. Fluttershy knew how he felt in the days after, because she felt the same when he friends confronted her. It was too early, too dangerous. Especially with Tirek on the loose. She thought she was being kind. She learnt that day that being kind was not always the best option. Sometimes you have to get mean or end up hurting them even more. “We’re both moving forward. The girls forgive me. And we all forgive you. What matters now is the new memories we make, not the old ones we bear.” Discord thought over this. Literally; he floated above her head, drifting on a cloud crafted from her own imagination. Until he came to a conclusion. “In that case, how about we go to shake the ice-cream tree and see what flavours we get today? It was smelling rather melancholic this morning, but it was a nice shade of silver the last time I checked so there should be some nice sour flavours and sprinkles in there.” Fluttershy beamed. “I would be delighted.” ☠ “Seein’ as we’re here, mate…” Barbossa let out a long, dreary sigh. “Right. O’ course.” He knew. He just knew. “The ponies?” Jack smiled gleefully. “The ponies.” With a palm tree at his back, rope around his stomach, wrists tightly bound and not nearly enough alcohol in his leg for the occasion… Barbossa relented. Fine. “Sure. Ask whatever ye wish. I know ye’ve been waitin’.” Like a child being given that one piece of confection they had been waiting all week for, Jack rubbed his hands together. Or, he would have, had they not been as equally bound in rope as Barbossa’s own. “I have been led to believe that there was a pink one.” “Aye. Right shame ye missed her. Everyone else saw her.” Jack’s face fell, like it always did. This game had been fun for as long as it had lasted. A sight to behold; a talking horse, right from the pages of myth and legend. And the mighty Captain Jack Sparrow was the only blaggard who hadn’t seen it. “I know they were real,” Jack defended. “Misters Pintel and Ragetti were rather illustrative on the subject. Details upon details, names and hobbies. They said one had a very nice hat. Marty said he kicked a dragon in the eye.” “Did they?” Shame. “There are too many witnesses.” “Yet ye still trust me over them.” “I trust Gibbs and you over a bunch of drunken pirates.” “Such a pity that he did not see much te trust ye with.” “And I’ve seen that grubby little bit of cloth you wear.” Ah, bugger. “What?” “Just once or twice,” Jack smugly replied. “You tie it face down but every now you forget. There are little patches on it. One has a horse on it.” Technically two had horses, Barbossa wished to point out. But it had become worn in recent years and the patches were not sticking like they used to. He supposed only the bare essentials would remain before long. “Plus, Ragetti said you were there for a week.” “Not possible. We were only in the Locker for two hours. Not a lot of time to fit seven days into such a short span, is there?” “So did Pintel. And Tia Dalma.” That blasted witch. Even after their deal was good and done, she still held a palm over him. “Come on, Hector. Tell me. We’re best friends.” “I don’t remember agreein’ te that.” “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Blackbeard seems on track to killing us both once he gets what he wants. On that note, I’d rather not die without knowing about all this business with the talking horses.” Jack was right on thing; Blackbeard was a dangerous foe. A stain on the sea and all that he touched with his presence. A vile plague that Barbossa wished gone. “It was a land of whimsy, Jack.” In that case, why not? At least he still had two legs in Equestria. “They call it, Equestria. A place so fuelled by magic that the inhabitants who live there control the sun and stars with a mere thought. Where jewels grow from the ground like flowers and the weather is set to a schedule of mortal design. Rain where it is needed and sun where it is sought. A paradise by any name.” “And they’re all ponies?” “Yes. Yes they’re bloody ponies.” “For a paradise you don’t sound so happy about being there.” “More happened than I have time te say. Not all of it kind.” “Might be worth heading back, then. Getting some of that loot. Seeing some old friends, eh?” Ah, of course. That explained it all. Jack had heard all the stories he needed to hear. He wasn’t interested in Barbossa’s. He just wanted a route to some easy gold and jewels. “I’m afraid I shan’t be goin’ back, Jack,” he said and saw an instant reaction in Jack. Where he had defensive before, Jack now deflated, leaning back against the tree. “Besides, I doubt they’d let you in.” “And why’s that?” Barbossa pursed his lips. “There’s a magic te friendship. One they hold quite highly and ye usin’ me te get some easy gold? Well, that’s not very magical now, is it?” ☠ The castle was quiet, as was normal for that time of night. As much as Princess Twilight Sparkle enjoyed having ponies visit her castle library to further anything remotely related to the pursuit of knowledge, that point in the day where the murmur of noise reduced to a still silence was a beautiful one. Because that meant it was time to go to her chambers are start doing some more work of her own! Well… perhaps work was a strong word. Staring at the coin she had crafted, a fine gold bit with the skull of a pony on it, Twilight concentrated as she weaved her desired spell between the metal. Mild ‘pops’ sounded as excess magic escape from between the atoms of the gold, dissipating into the air yet more power was forced back into. A few more seconds- A final chime. A noise run out from the coin and settled as Twilight put it down onto her desk. “Okay. Thirty-eighth times a charm!” Calming her breath and taking a deep breath, Twilight picked up the coin with her hoof. A wave of energy came over as that ‘chime’ came from the coin once more, vibrating the air as if it was spinning at impossible speeds on an invisible axis. She looked it her mirror. She was not a skeleton. “Drat.” Her coat had the texture of a slightly dry orange and, indeed, she could see the innards of an orange inside her mouth, but she was not a spooky, scary skeleton. It appeared dead fruit was not going to make her spooky either. Heaving out a deep sigh, Twilight placed the coin back on her desk. She would remove the spell later. It would not do well to have another ‘incident’ where a charmed coin got into a certain dragon’s food supply and left him looking like a draconic hoofball for several days. Still, she would make her coin eventually. She would make the rest of her body invisible eventually. Pinkie had been requesting such a coin for Nightmare Night for the last year or so and Twilight finally had the time to work on a side project. For fun, as well as the value of learning how to make only your bones visible. Looking back at the coin once more, she shifted to look at the photo on the desk. A copy, of course. The original had sadly perished along with most of her belongings when the Tirek torched her library to smithereens. “Heh, copy.” Captain Hector Barbossa looked out at her, caught in a moment that could never be replicated. She had thought about him over the years, wondering. All the questions she could, should and would’ve asked had she the chance. Maybe even the chance to follow after him for a visit or two. Maybe even find a reference to him at Canterlot High School. She was sure the humans there were different, but it never hurt to check. Did the perceived time difference still occur when he left Davy Jones’ Locker? Did the difference remain after the portal was closed? How much time had passed for him compared to her? Would she be long since dead to him, or the other way around? If he died, would he be back in the Locker? Some other after life? So many variables… In the end, she supposed it didn’t matter. No matter what happened, in his world or theirs, they would always be friends. Friendly. They would always be friendly. Giving the picture a nod and a quick salute, Twilight smiled. Suddenly, she remembered one of the songs he had written down for her. Yo ho Yo ho A pirate's life for me.