//------------------------------// // Chapter 37: Endings and Beginnings // Story: The Dusk of Troubled Views // by ScorchingFlamesInc //------------------------------// When Princess Twilight, Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow reentered the room after closing the portal, they noticed something different. They noticed Discord, still mostly frozen, but his arm moving lower and his talons moving away from each other. They could see the tiniest glint of yellow. "I don't like this..." Cozy muttered. And finally, Discord briefly glowed yellow before landing on the floor in front of the Princess and reformed villains. "Discord..." Twilight began. "Wait!" Discord held up his lion paw. "Before you say anything, I don't know what happened. I was ready to send the humans home and transform the non-human back to a human, but then everything went dark!" "Well whatever happened, the humans are now home, but Leo is still trapped here," Twilight said. "However, you seem sincere, and I know that you would never stall. So if you didn't freeze yourself, then what happened?" "There can be only one explanation," Tirek frowned. "Grogar is still out there! When Discord froze and had his paw move, he was glowing yellow. The same yellow that belongs to Grogar!" "Well then we'll be lucky if he doesn't attack my guards," said Twilight, turning to a window. "He'll probably attack. Or if we're lucky, he'll hold off," Cozy proclaimed. "But knowing Grogar, he'll probably take this next plan slow." "Well until then, you three will need to get settled," Princess Twilight suggested. "I believe in a few days, everything will be normal until Grogar attacks again." "Wait," Chrysalis piped. "Before we go... we need to do something." *Castle Hallway* The stone crumbled before Thorax and Scorpan fell out of their stony prison. They looked up, immediatly catching sight of Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow. Next to Cozy stood Princess Twilight Sparkle herself. "Wow," Thorax said, both him and Scorpan shocked at the current appearences of the reformed villains. "Chrysalis... you look... awesome!" "We... actually wanted to make amends before we went home," Chrysalis said. "Thorax... I'm very, very sorry for the way I treated you all back then... and the way I thought of you. But now that I understand friendship, I don't want revenge. I want to learn about your ways." "And I want to apologize to you as well, brother," Tirek admitted. "I thought you were a traitor. But you never betrayed me. You only did what you thought was right. And I wish I could take it all back." Scorpan smiled. "You already have." Tirek smiled and went over to hug his brother. Chrysalis looked at Thorax. All Thorax did in response was invite Chrysalis for a hug. The former queen smiled and accepted. Cozy just stared at her friends as they used hugs to finally make amends. "Family..." the filly muttered in her lips. "Cozy?" Princess Twilight called to gain Cozy's attention. "Are you OK?" "Yeah!" Cozy replied with a false smile before she looked down and folded her ears down. "Just fine..." Twilight looked at the filly with remorse. *Grogar's Lair...* Grogar continued staring at the crystal ball, King Sombra and the Storm King by his side. "You didn't reply to my question earlier!" Sombra snarked. "Why did you freeze Discord and prevent Twilight's spell from turning the transformed human back into a human??" Grogar slammed his hooves on the table. "Do you want an answer?" he bellowed. "FINE! I froze Discord to stall. And I used my complex magic to prevent this 'Leo' from becoming a human again for one reason: I want a challenge. I would have won if it wasn't for him. But because he stalled, those three other pests figured out friendship! It's a relief I escaped at the last second before anything happened. So if Leo was able to outsmart me in his powerless form, let's see how determined he is in his powerful form! We'll let these fools frolic around for a while, but as soon as we reclaim my bell again, we'll show NO mercy!" Grogar laughed evilly. Sombra and the Storm King looked at each other, before joining in. *Twilight's Castle... the next morning* Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow all sat at the table. Cozy no longer had her ribbon in her head. Instead of curls, her mane was now flat and slightly unkempt. "So..." Tirek began. "What do we do now?" "I don't know..." Cozy said. "Once 90% of the population in and out of Equestria return to their homes, we will have to start committing to learning friendship. And help Leo live his new life." "20 years ago, we were vile villains," Chrysalis proclaimed. "We were the ones that brought upon one of the biggest battles in Equestrian history! When we used the Bewitching Bell and brought Equestria to peril all those years ago, the stakes were higher than they've ever been. And now it's 20 years later and Equestria was at high stakes again. But instead of causing it, we stopped it. Equestria was already different after Twilight became the princess of Equestria. But now that we're reformed and Leo is one of us now, it's only another difference between now and long ago. It made marks on history, but who knows what we'll do next?" Indeed, Chrysalis had a point. Their reformation and Leo's transformation made very small marks. But they had no idea of the part they would play in the future. Meanwhile, up in the bedroom where Leo rested, the transformed human finally opened his eyes. He had no idea that he would wake up not as a human... but as a male alicorn. And this was the moment where the next story began. The End (Not)