//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: The Ultimate Evil 
// by Strawberry Sunrise 
//------------------------------//


THREE MONTHS LATER


Things were slowly getting back to normal in Ponyville. The buildings which Squidward had destroyed were being rebuilt, and a census of the town had shown that only five ponies were missing in the end. For much of the town, it was lucky that DJ-P0N-3 had been having a free concert on the other side of Ponyville at the time. Some of the rest had been evacuated with the help of Sunset Shimmer, who had arrived in Ponyville just before Squidward’s first dab – Twilight’s hornwriting had been unusually messy in her last message and she had decided to come back and check if everything was alright. (The mirror to the human world was currently at the Ponyville schoolhouse on the edge of town in order to facilitate an easy exchange program between the worlds, so she had seen the first dab from a distance.) A memorial statue and plaque had been built to remember the five ponies who had perished in Squidward’s wake.

Sunset Shimmer, Twilight, and Spike were working overtime to try to find a way to end the threat of the dab forever, but in the meantime, only one pony was dabbing: Celestia. She had been dabbing for three months straight. Twilight had realized that since the dab pulled power from Celestia, that meant that if Celestia did it herself, she would be pulling on her own power – thus holding it close and effectively shielding it from being taken by anypony else. (Since the dab worked in this reverse way for her, the energy was not channeled into destruction and thus she at least seemingly could not be corrupted.) The instant Celestia had dabbed three months ago, both Squidward's and Luna’s dabs had ceased to have effect.

Squidward, for his part, had been taken to Tartarus and was under close watch. He tirelessly kept on dabbing over and over again, his eyes still red, but nothing ever happened. His voice was now that of a mere mortal, still a nasal tone but with no power behind it. Unable to get him to say anything other than “DAB,” attempts to discover where he had come from or where he had learned to dab were fruitless.

Luna had continued to flicker back and forth between herself and Nightmare Moon for several minutes after ceasing her own dab before settling on her normal form. Good had prevailed. She was now helping the others to research possible solutions for the dabbing problem whenever she had a break from her royal duties.

Thus far, no permanent solution had been found. The idea of taking Celestia to the human world in the meantime so that her power could not be sapped was briefly considered, but quickly abandoned since somepony would still need her power to raise the Sun in her absence, thus defeating the purpose. (Not to mention that if she kept her power and went to the human world, the ubiquity of dabbing there would increase the danger exponentially if things still worked the way they did in Equestria.) Twilight had asked Discord for help, sure that he could do something, only to have him claim that he couldn’t. She suspected that he might just think Celestia dabbing forever would be funny, but had no way to prove it. A plan was currently being researched which would involve a team of mirror pool clones of Celestia each dabbing in shifts, but it had not yet been confirmed to work.

For now, Celestia was stuck. Up on her hind legs, her forelegs raised and her mouth pursed in frustration, she continued to dab.


THREE MONTHS LATER


And dab.

“We’re still trying!” Twilight assured her. “I know we’ll figure something out!”


THREE YEARS LATER


And dab.

“I’m sorry, sister,” Luna said, a tear running down her cheek.


THREE CENTURIES LATER


And


DAB.



The End