//------------------------------// // The Final Chapter // Story: Beyond My Grave: Night Terrors // by AnnEldest //------------------------------// Epilogue Somewhere in an unknown place in the sky, stood a snake-like East Asian dragon with four legs that was gold and white. He looked down at the world below him with a smile. His work here was done. It was time to move on. Wake up Luna! Wake up!! It was late in the dead of night. Everything was quiet and peaceful in the mountains. Despite the chaos and troubles that happened daily all over in this world, this was the one place that remained peaceful. No creature was for sure on why that was. It just was untouched. The bull-like creature that so many have come to know as Shader flew down with two henchmen behind him. One was a diamond dog. The other was a Sarimanok, a female Draconequus. The sarimanok walked up to Shader. “They’re late.” “Fear not Eris, my dear. Sabrina will show up. She always does,” Shader spoke calmly. This time it was the diamond dog who spoke up. “You know what they will do, Master. We will be sent back many years of progress.“ Shader chuckled. “There wasn’t much progress we had done, to begin with, Canight. Trust me after tonight, things will be different. I have a plan.” Canight rolled his eyes and stepped back. As if on cue, another set of creatures step down. This time stood a dark purple dragon satyr hybrid with dragon-like wings and an ocean blue slightly mixed in with red hippogriff. Shader smiled. “As I stated before, she always comes.” Canight only growled at the sight of them. “My Lovely beautiful Sabrina, where has your husband wandered off to now?” Shader sarcastically remarked. “Ollie couldn’t attend tonight,” she replied. “The next time you encounter my brother please inform him I wish to not be interrupted while I work,” he spoke with slyness in his weird blended double voices; light and soft, almost like a whisper and the other were deep and loud. “The thing is that he told us to tell you just that, Shader,” the hippogriff said. “He can come here and tell my master that himself,” Canight growl. “He’s right, Sabrina. You can’t keep fixing my brother’s mistakes.“ “What you call his mistakes is what I call his greatest achievements. Face it, he has done far more than what you will ever do,” Sabrina defended. “What you call his accomplishments is what will be his downfall,” Eris said. Sabrina smiled brightly at her. “Haven’t you already met yours? It appears to me that you have.” “Enough! All of you!” The hippogriff stepped in. He stepped in between the two and stared at Shader and Sabrina. “We all agreed that this discussion was necessary. So let’s just focus on that.” “Oh look at Cyrus always wanting to be our little peacemaker,” Canight mocked him. “Yes, for it is far better than war.” “Fine,” he said in defeat. Cyrus made it clear that they needed to make it quick. They didn’t have much time left. “Very well then. What do you have in mind?” Shader asked. “My brother and I appearance in Luna’s dream seemed to have caused some mishaps here in the Nethers. I think we all can agree that it is wise to not cause any chaos down here.” “The answer is obvious, Shader. You and my husband can’t persuade to Luna personally anymore. You have to let her choose her own,” Sabrina said. He growled which causes very ground to shake. “You know he can’t stop doing that. You two have the advantage on Luna,” Eris retorted. “This isn’t about being fair! It’s about making sure nothing bad happens that could potentially cost too much collateral damage that we might not be able to fix!” Cyrus yelled out to them. “But the Legend stated and by Ollie’s own words that she must prove her worth first. And she has done nothing but causes evil,” Canight pointed out to them. Sabrina walked angrily up to Canight’s face. “You seem to have forgotten what evil truly is.” Canight lifted his paw and aimed right at her. Black smoke started to come out of it as his eyes became red. Sabrina took a few steps back. “Oh darling. It seems that you have. But I can remind you quite easily.” “Canight enough. Let me handle this,” Shader said. “I will leave her alone on one condition.” He walked up to Sabrina who was much smaller than him. He was twice her size. “You must put the curse on her. After falling to Nightmare Moon, she already has proven to be a failure. In order to prove she’s worthy of that power, she has to overcome it.” Cyrus was immediately shaken by his enemy’s offer. “Sabrina you mustn’t. You can’t do that,” he protested against it. “Done,” she spoke without hesitation whatsoever. “What?!” Cyrus yelled. “If you and my husband leave Luna alone, the curse will be placed upon her. It will not affect her moral body but when her power starts getting activated, she will feel like she has been throwing in the depths of the underworld.” Shader clapped his hands and approval and joy. “Good. That is what I like to hear,” he cheered. “I will only agree to this if you let the girl go through. You don’t have any rights to hold her,” Sabrina added in. Shader simply just laughed at this request. A huge gust of wind could be heard as it passed by them. His lamp began to light up and a small white orb could be seen leaving it. It flew by them all for a moment before shooting up in the air and disappearing. “Consider it done, my dear. If I’m not allowed to mess with Luna, the girl has no use for me to have anymore.” “Where did she go?” Sabrina asked. “Where they’ll be able to find her,” he answered as his lamb began to dim back down to its original darkness. “Now it's your turn.” Sabrina’s claw lit up as she aimed at a random direction. In seconds, a big bright golden orb shot out and flew across the horizon. “There. It has been done. Now we all must return before we are seen,” Sabrina stated as she was already ready to fly off. Shader turned away from her and began to walk off. “Come along, Eris and Canight. We have work to do since the rules have changed now.” “Shader!” She called out to him. Shader stopped in place and turned around. “You fed her lies but she will not believe them.” He chuckled. “No but her friends will and they will break her because of it.” “Luna is getting stronger every day; physically and emotionally. You won’t be able to trick her again.” “No but maybe SHE will. Every day must come to its end.” Then they all disappeared in the void that was the Nethers. Cyrus walked up to Sabrina and put a claw on her shoulder. “We must leave now. We have to inform Ollie of what happened here.” He spread his wings as he was getting ready to take off. “Of course.” “Do you have hope that she will turn out like Selena?” Cyrus asked. There was a bit of doubt in his voice. “No,” she smiled. “I have hope that she will turn out even better.” They both flew into the air and went into a void that was up in the sky. All they could do was wait and see the outcome of their decision from tonight's agreement. I woke up with a gasp as I jolted up from the bed. I wasn’t afraid. I was more shocked. Tiberius jumped onto the bed and clawed up to me. He wanted to make sure that I was okay. I petted him to assure him that nothing was wrong. “Bad dream?” I saw my father standing by my bed. He stared at me with the same childish smirk. I was beginning to wonder if I was too lenient on him. “No. Just strange ones that don’t make sense,” I said. “That was my second guess,” he joked. I laughed a little. I got out of my bed and headed to my window. “Ready to deal with Celestia today?” He asked sarcastically. “Not really.” I used my magic to open the window. It was time to lower the moon to help my sister bring forth the day. A day that I was not looking forward to. There was no doubt that Celestia was planning on coming into my room and demanding answers. I didn’t want to fight with her but that was most likely going to happen. I had to prepare myself for that. I lit up my horn and began lowering the moon. It was when the moon was halfway down when a thought came to mind. Who’s Ollie? To be continued...