//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Chimes In the Dark // by Faindragon //------------------------------// Chimes In the Dark - Epilogue NOTE: Grammar not corrected Celestia rose from the cushion she had laid on the entire night. After years of preparations had it finally been done; Four Star was no foal, still she had been tricked into playing as Celestia had wanted. Four Star had taught it had been her own idea, how wrong she had been. Celestia had herself placed the idea inside her mind, had made her do this part. She would have done it herself had she been able to, but these bonds had to be cut by another power, wielded by another pony. No, this plan was much older than Four Star ever would suspect. It was twenty years ago since Celestia had started to see the sign of her growing tiredness; twenty years since she had realized what it was that would have to be done. She had started simply. Planting the six elements of harmony had been an easy task. He had never doubted that the elements would find each other; it was its nature to work towards harmony between them. Of course would the elements shape those six ponies life, which she had no doubt about and that had been proven to her more than once since, they had for instance gotten their cutie mark at nearly exactly the same time. She had at the same time made sure that Notharam would be given the name he had gotten. Seeing Notharam again had been as seeing an old friend. She had chosen two from each of the pony races, one from each race had gotten her own element and the other had gotten the element that had previously been wielded by Luna. The earth ponies had gotten Honesty from Luna and Laughter from herself. Luna had always been telling the truth, it was just she that had ignored it. New tears joined the others on her cheek at the memory of her sister, the memories of her ignoring the words she had said. Then it was the pegasis, loyalty after herself and kindness after Luna. Her sister had always been kind over the souls she had protected, taken care of her sisters children during the night, protecting them. And last it had been the unicorns which had been given the elements of generosity and magic. Generosity from her sister, who gave all to the ponies she protected, gave all to the souls in her service. And the magic had come from herself, given down to the unicorn who would later turn out to be her student. To make sure that Notharam had ended up in the army hadn't been hard, not since he made friends with both Thunder and Four Star. Both had parents in the army and it hadn't been hard to make sure that the child’s would follow their parents. The next plan had taken a little longer to do, re write and plant out the prophecy about the return of Nightmare Moon. It had been simple to send the squad to the north, and the other pony, one of the bearer of one of the elements, had 'happen' to find the book containing the prophecy that very morning. That one prophecy that she had received so many years ago, in that corrupted city. Now it was only one part left in all of this. The bearer of the now cleansed elements would have to defeat her sister. But she believed in her student and the other bearers. The only thing needed for now would be for them to become friends, make the last connection between the Elements. The elements would draw towards each others, so that would not be a hindrance either. Celestia wiped the tears from her cheeks. She would have to find a way to repay them all, or at least their families. The sacrifices families would be repaid, even though they would never get to know what really had killed their loved ones. They would never know that their loved ones had died to protect all of Equestria. She would also have to find a way to repay Four Star, this had really been a nightmare for her. But Four Stars nightmare was over, she could move on; even if the memories would haunt her for the rest of her life. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^- It had been a horrible night, this night before the summer sun celebration. Heartmane stood at one of the hospitals beds, looking at the clock on the wall. “Time of death: ten minutes over four. Cause of death: The body shut down after a coma. Name of patient: Notharam, last name nonexistent.” Heartmane sighed. This had been the second pony today that had died of the same cause; the other had been a filly mere hours ago. They had both be found at the same time, not very far from each other, in or close to the heart of Ponyville. And the strange things hadn’t ended there. The little filly’s name had been Zinky, no parents had been found. Information had been collected and after an hour had he gotten the information that had shocked him. The little filly had been daughter to Notharam. But he couldn’t do anything about that; they were both dead and he had other patients to take care of this night before the summer sun celebration. He could hear the party from the library all the way here; it was another of THAT ponies parties. Well, at least nopony had been hurt so far, or they hadn’t come here anyway. He had hoped for a calm night; and so far it had only been the two incidents with the coma patients. He firmly pushed the thoughts away, it was nothing he could do to them more than contact the families. He entered his office, a warm place illuminated by a simple lamp in the ceiling. Then he saw something that had not been there before; a scroll lay on his desk. He gently opened the scroll. The first thing he noticed was the royal seal in the corner of the parchment. ‘Dear Heartmane, colonel doctor of Ponyville Hospital, it is in my interest that the two ponies, Zinky and Notharam, that died after a coma tonight get sent to the city of Canterlot for interment. I trust that you will not speak with anypony about this request, nor ask me why. The reasons are mine and mine alone. What I can say to still your curiosity is that those two have served Equestria in a way that nopony will be able to do again.’ Heartmane read the scroll once more, shaking his head when he came to the last line. The scroll was signed by Celestia and it hadn’t been the first time he had gotten one of these. All of the patients from the last months that had died during a coma, around fifteen with the ones tonight, had been erased from the hospitals record and sent to the castle for ‘interment’. He wouldn’t ask any questions, it was not his job to ask questions. The two dead ponies would be sent to Canterlot in secret, nopony would get to know a thing. He sighed again. He had hoped that this night would have been easy, he had been wrong. And the sun had not even been raised yet. This day had already been long. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ The sun would soon rise again, the night did never last forever, nor did the day. Equestria would soon find harmony again.