In a booth near the back of Sugarcube Corner, the Cutie Mark Crusaders sat in rapt attention, their snacks all but forgotten as they listened to the sorcerer before them. Selivar had conjured a small illusion that floated in the air eye level to the fillies, giving visuals to his tale.
“The evil Strahd von Zarovich lay on the ground, broken and bloody, his flesh being eaten away by the radiance of the Sun Sword. He was finished! One more blow would end him! But, noble paladin that he is, Gamliel gave him one final chance to repent from his dark ways and return to the Light. The vampire lord spat in his face!”
Sweetie Belle cringed and clung tighter to Apple Bloom who, much like Scootaloo, was on the edge of her seat, staring in awe at the story unfolding before her eyes.
“And so, Gamliel held the Sun Sword high in the air, and with one final strike—“ all three fillies jumped, Sweetie crying out as the illusion vanished— “the Devil of Barovia lay dead at his feet, and with him, the curse that had befallen the land for so long. We all walked to the balcony to watch as, for the first time in centuries, beams of light fell to the earth. The dismal clouds that had hung over the land for generations finally evaporated, and once more left Barovia bathed in warm, soothing sunlight.”
All three fillies clopped their hooves, cheering and whistling, and Selivar gave a low bow. “Wow,” Scootaloo said. “That all actually happened?”
“Every word,” Selivar said with a wink.
“Awesome!”
“But, Mister Selivar,” Apple Bloom said, “where were you when this all happened?”
Selivar suddenly cleared his throat. “O-oh, well, I’m not a melee fighter, you see, so I was—“
“Laying on the ground in the hallway outside, bleeding profusely.”
Selivar cringed. As the Crusaders giggled, he slowly, glacially turned to face the grinning Ireena. “Yes, thank you... for that, Ireena.” She gave him a wink, then took another bite of cake.
After numerous healing spells, and a few rounds of a foul tasting magic restoring potion courtesy of Zecora, the group had retired to Sugarcube Corner. Princess Luna stayed behind to ensure proper incarceration for the villainous trio, while an entire company of Royal Guards escorted the cursed Bell back to Canterlot, where it could be safely contained. Now in a more relaxed environment, the people and ponies were chatting pleasantly with one another.
“So... you don’t know who your parents were either?” Spike said, looking up at Severax, who sat next to him at the table.
Severax slowly nodded. “All we know is they were part of a barbarian clan that made camp for several days in the valley beneath our abbey. Once they left, Father Rutledge went down to inspect the area and found my egg, viable... yet abandoned.” Severax noticed the boy flinch at that, but he continued his story. “He took me in, made sure I hatched properly, and then raised me as his own. My holy symbol is actually cloth from the blanket he used to swaddle me in,” he said, rubbing at the lovingly tied bundle.
“Sounds like... like a real good guy,” Spike said, though he wasn’t looking at him anymore. Severax followed his gaze, and saw Twilight Sparkle across the way, talking with Ezmerelda and Selivar.
“He was. Taught me to be kind, to love God, love my fellow man, stand up for the downtrodden, and challenge the corrupt.” Severax’s eyes grew a bit heavy, and he gave a sad smile. “We shared no blood, and yet... he was the best father I could have asked for.”
“I hear that,” Spike muttered, then tensed once he realized he said it out loud. Looking back, he saw Severax with a gently questioning gaze, as if he was curious, but didn’t want to push. Spike sighed. “Sometimes I wonder... what my life would have been like if I had been raised by my actual parents, as a proper dragon. Where would I be? Who would I be?”
Severax nodded. “I see. And?”
Spike’s face, which had been tinged with sadness, slowly began to brighten. “I start to think about the ponies who raised me. Twilight, her parents, Princess Celestia. I look at all our friends, at all we’ve accomplished, and...” he shook his head. “I don’t know, I just... can’t imagine being anywhere else.”
Severax let out a single airy chuckle, then reached down to place a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You know, in all my travels, I’ve learned that God very rarely leads you to where you want to be, but almost always to where you need to be.”
Spike seemed to ponder this for a few moments, until he finally looked up at Severax. His sad countenance was gone, and he wore a genuine smile. The two of them just smiled at each other for a few moments, and then Spike leaned forward. “So, the other dragonborn in your village. Do they breath lightning, too?”
“Oh, no. They’re silver-scaled dragonborn.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “They breathe ice.”
“Whoa...”
On the other side of the shop, Gamliel and Arrin were speaking with Princess Celestia. “So, you... you actually control the sun?” Gamliel asked.
“Well, ‘control’ isn’t really the right way to put it,” Celstia said, tapping her chin in thought. “I merely... give the occasional nudge to keep her on track.”
“Her?”
“The sun.”
Gamliel looked like he was trying to catch every fly in the city, his mouth was hanging open so wide. “You mean that... the sun... is female?!”
Celestia nodded, but paused. “Well, I mean not technically. But that’s how she’s always referred to herself.”
An audible vibration shook the table. Gamliel leaned forward. “You...y-you talk to—”
“Down boy,” Arrin said, pushing Gamliel back down by the shoulder.
Ezmerelda sighed, sitting at a table so she could be eye level with Twilight. The two had spent the last twenty minutes trading knowledge of arcane spells, but even after Selivar had joined five minutes ago, they still had no solution to the most pertinent problem. “So... we’re really stuck here for the foreseeable future?”
Twilight solemnly nodded. “I’m so sorry. I can alter the magic in the mirror portal to attune it to your world... but it’s going to take some time.”
“Between now and then...” Selivar said, slumped in his chair.
“Well... that fucking sucks.”
Twilight giggled at the crass remark. “Are you sure you don’t know any spells that could take you back? You all seem like such adept magic users.”
“Heh, spasibo,” Selivar said, doing his best to hide his slight blush, and utterly failing due to his incredibly pale skin. “A-Anyway, Severax says he knows of a spell called Plane Shift that could do it, but it requires a specific type of metal rod that needs to be specifically attuned to the target plane. And in order to attune it, you have to be on that plane.”
“That’s... that’s utter bullshit,” Ezmerelda blurted out. When Selivar and Twilight both chuckled, she pressed on. “I mean, come on! You have to be on the plane in order to get what you need to travel to that plane?! Who the fuck writes these rules?!” The three broke down in a fit of laughter, earning them odd looks from the others around the shop.
Suddenly, Twilight gasped. “Oh! Oh, Twilight you nincompoop!” She face-hoofed, then looked up in the air. “Discord?!”
A bright flash, and Discord appeared... on the other side of the room, wearing thick foam pads and holding a chair and a whip, both pointed towards Twilight. “Yes, my dear?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Look, can you help them get back home? You travel across planes all the time, right?”
“Indeed I do,” he said, popping into existence beside them. “By myself. But with seven mortal beings in tow? Well, that depends. Tell me tovarisch, how would you like to reappear in your world? Original recipe or extra crispy?”
A slightly confused and more than slightly annoyed Selivar sighed. “So, that’s a no.”
“I’m very sorry,” Twilight said. “I wish I could be of more help.”
“No, no,” Selivar said, waving his hand in the air. “You’re doing your best. What I really want to know is how we got here in the first place? How in the nine hells did a simple Teleport spell zap us to an entirely different dimension?!”
“That was my doing, actually.”
Every conversation in the room ground to a halt. The new voice was powerful and clear, seeming to come from all directions. They all whirled around to find the newcomer. Standing in the corner was an unassuming looking man wearing a long red cloak. The hood over his head obscured his eyes, but his mouth was plainly visible, currently pulled into a smile somewhere between friendly and unnerving.
Gamliel and Severax stood up, Gamliel’s hand going to the hilt of his blade. “Who are you?”
The man sighed. “I know it’s cliche to say ‘I go by many names,’ but...” He shrugged.
“Then perhaps you should pick one and answer him?” Selivar said, scowling.
“Oh, come on, Selivar!” The man threw up his hands in mock frustration. “No witty banter? No pithy comebacks? No puns?! Just straight to business? You’re no fun anymore.”
“It’s been a long day,” he hissed.
“Oh, fine, fine. I am...” he tapped his chin in thought for several seconds, before snapping his fingers. “I am the winding path upon which you tread. I am the infinite sea of possibility. I am the parchment your life is written on. I am—”
“Deems, baby!” Discord lunged forward and scooped the man up in a huge bear hug, twirling him around several times. Strangely, the hood on his head never even fluttered. “It’s so good to see you. It’s been so long! Have you lost weight?”
The man shrugged the grabby draconequus off, taking a moment to straighten his cloak, then flashed a very tight-lipped smile. “Hello, Discord. Keeping your nose clean?”
“But of course!” he said, removing a large fake nose covered in mud. He then made several quick loops around the man. “But how have you been? Goodness you’re pale! I keep telling you, you need to take a break from pulling the strings on mortal lives and get out there! See the multiverse, get some sun! It’s done wonders for me!” He threw his arms open as acrid smoke rose from his charbroiled body.
“Oh,” Arrin said, standing and taking a few steps towards the man. “Oh, I see what’s going on here. So you’re like, what... fate? The force that’s been controlling us from the beginning?”
“Oh, no, no, no!” He approached Arrin, apparently indifferent to the somewhat dangerous look on the elf’s face. “I only got involved in your lives when you first arrived in Barovia! And after you killed Strahd, I moved on to... eh, other projects, we’ll say. Besides, it’s like I said, I was just the road! You were the ones holding the reigns of the cart.”
He began to walk a slow circuit around the room, making invisible eye contact with every party member. “Every decision you made over those weeks, for good or ill, were yours and yours alone. The people you let die—” He looked to Gamliel, who cringed slightly— “the lives you saved—” Severax tensed and growled as the man faced his way— “the people you have become—” He nodded to Ireena, but she actually smiled— “every action you took was yours to take, or not. You are entirely responsible for the current state of your lives.
“My only interventions came through the choices offered. I set the paths, you chose which to take. All I did was,” he turned towards Celestia, and despite his eyes being hidden he appeared to wink, “give the occasional nudge to keep you on track.” Celestia flashed a surprisingly knowing smile, and lightly inclined her head.
The room went eerily silent for a few long moments as everyone tried to process this information. The peace was broken when Gamliel strode purposefully towards the man, his heavy boot falls deafening in the quiet room. He came to a stop right in front of the cloaked man. Despite the stark difference in both height and build, the man never even flinched. A heavy tension filled the shop as everyone waited to see what the paladin would do. Finally, he did the one thing that no one expected from him.
He bowed his head in respect. “Thank you.”
After a beat, Arrin took it upon himself to give voice to what everyone was thinking. “Say what now?”
“I am redeemed in the eyes of the Morning Lord,” Gamliel said, still looking down at the man. “I have found a worthy and noble purpose to dedicate my life to. And...” he turned to scan his eyes across the other party members, “I’ve met the best friends I’ve ever had.” He once more faced the man. “None of that would have happened if I hadn’t come to Barovia. So, as I said, thank you.”
Only several scant moments later, Severax sighed. “I guess I should thank you, as well. Admittedly, I’d been rather lost and adrift for years before our... adventures,” he said with a chuckle. “And now, I have the two things I never dared dream I would have. A family... and a home.”
Across the way, Selivar maintained his scowl, though a half smirk graced his lips. “I suppose I should be grateful for the opportunity to restore Argynvost.”
“Ha!” Ezmerelda beamed at the man. “My life has become infinitely more interesting ever since I met these pricks!”
Ireena stood from her seat. “If it hadn’t been for them, I’d likely be dead. Or undead!” She looked at the rest of the party with a warm, loving gaze. “You guys... saved my life. Heh, lives, even! And even if we don’t see each other all that much anymore, you’re my best friends. My family.” She strode up to the cloaked man and stuck out her hand. “So yes, thank you.”
The man shook her hand, then everyone in the shop turned to Arrin. He still stood alone, scowling. As he felt the eyes upon him, he slumped his shoulders and sighed. “Okay, but did there have to be so many fucking spiders?!”
A round of hearty laughter spread through the group, save for one. Twilight was pondering something that this whole conversation had brought back to the forefront of her mind. Setting her shoulders, she walked up to the cloaked man. “Excuse me, sir? You said that you were the one who pulled them here?” The man nodded. “Okay, but... why?”
The man chuckled. “Well, I knew the Three Stooges were coming for you. And while I know you would have defeated them eventually, it would have been a costly battle. Plus,” he gestured to the new comers, “I had grown rather fond of those chuckleheads, and thought it would be fun to see them in action again.
“But more than that, I knew that they missed it. They’d never admit it, and they are all very content with their lives as they are now, but deep down, a small part of them longed for the days when the six of them were trekking across Barovia, fighting evil and saving lives together. And so, I killed two birds with one stone and, ‘got the band back together,’ as it were. You know...” He knelt down and placed a gentle hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “One last hurrah.”
Twilight let out a tiny gasp, and then chuckled. “I think I understand.”
“Of course you do,” he said, once more winking without his eyes. “You’re brilliant.”
As Twilight blushed, the man stood up and clapped his hands together. “Well, not that this hasn’t just been oodles of fun, but I really should get these miscreants back where they belong.” He turned to face the party. “Unless, of course, you’d like to stay a bit longer?”
“Oh-ho-ho, no,” Arrin said. “After all this shit, I’m gonna need you to teleport me somewhere I can get a stiff drink.”
“Don’t you think you’ve had enough for one day?” Ireena deadpanned.
“What do you...” His train of thought derailed as every person, pony, dragon, and everything in between glared at him. “Oh, Oh, yeah, right. Fair point.”
“Yes, and I suppose I should be getting back soon,” Severax said. “Sigrid will have my head if I don’t return when I said I would.”
“Wait, Sigrid?” Arrin scratched his head. “Dude, she’s the chief, not your mom! What’s she gonna do, kick you...” His keen elven eyes just barely picked up the faintest blush on Severax’s golden scales, and his eyes went wide. “Wait, you... you’re not...”
Severax drew himself up, straightening his shoulders under the accusing glare. “I’ll have you know that I am a very pious man!”
“... that wasn’t a denial.”
Severax blinked, then looked up to the sky. “Huh. No, I suppose it wasn’t.” As he walked past Arrin, the very extreme corner of his mouth lifted just a hair.
Arrin let out an exasperated sigh and rubbed the back of his head. “Fucking hound derg.”
Twilight and her friends approached the party. “Well,” Twilight said, “I suppose this is goodbye.”
“For now, at least,” Selivar said. He chuckled at Twilight’s confusion. “Well, I mean if I can figure out how to safely travel here without getting Arrin stone drunk—”
“Yo!”
“—I would very much like to return sometime. I would love to do further study on your schools of magic.”
Twilight beamed. “Well, the Canterlot Royal Archives are open to you whenever you may return.”
“I second that!” Applejack said, doffing her hat and holding it to her chest. “If y’all ever find yourselves ‘round these parts again, the doors of Sweet Apple Acres are open twenty-four seven!”
Gamliel laughed heartily, scanning his eyes across the strange ponies who had impressed him so. “You are all kind, radiant souls, and fierce warriors. Hold tight to that, and the Morning Lord will always watch over you.” He looked to where Fluttershy was still playing with Lancelot. “Miss Fluttershy, I’m going to need that back.”
Fluttershy flushed hot, and scratched behind the dog’s ear. “Now, you be sure to take good care of them, alright? They seem like they need a little unconditional love.” Lancelot barked happily and gave one final lick to her face before bounding over to take his place at Gamliel’s side.
“So,” Pinkie said in a very business-like tone of voice, “you have to soften the butter before you add it to the batter, and do not forget the sour cream! That is the key secret ingredient to make red velvet into red silk!”
Ireena knelt beside her, frantically scribbling on a scroll. “Soften... butter... sour... cream, got it!” She tucked the scroll into her side pack, then looked back to Pinkie with sad eyes. “I’m going to miss you.”
Pinkie’s eyes watered to an almost comical degree, then she lunged forward, enveloping Ireena in a bone-crushing hug, which the woman gladly reciprocated. “Aww, I’m going to miss you, tooOOooOOooOOooOO—”
“Ireena.”
The woman reluctantly pulled away from the cotton candy hug and turned to look at Ezmerelda, who glanced back with an expectant, borderline impatient gaze. Ireena rolled her eyes and turned back to Pinkie. “Ugh. Sorry, mom says I have to go.”
Pinkie giggled uncontrollably as Ireena took her place next to Ezmerelda. They stood there for a few seconds before Ezmerelda leaned over to Ireena’s ear. “So...” she whispered, “I’m mommy now, am I?”
Ireena’s face immediately flushed deep crimson, and she sputtered several times. “There are children present,” she hissed.
Severax chuckled at these antics, then faced back to the ponies. He held his arms out and bowed his head, as if giving a benediction. “May the Tides favor your every journey.”
The last member of the group still among the ponies, Arrin awkwardly walked backwards towards his friends. “Uh, I’m no good with speeches. You all... stay awesome.”
“Heh, it’s impossible for me not to,” boasted Rainbow Dash.
Arrin raised a finger in the air, jabbing it in her direction several times. “Still can’t decide if I like you or think you’re a bitch.”
Rainbow smirked and arched an eyebrow. “Why can’t it be both?”
“Aaaaand, there it is.”
Finally, the entire party stood in a semi-circle around the cloaked man. He gave them all a nod, then turned to face the ponies. “Well, it’s been real, it’s been fun, but... oh, who the hell am I kidding? It’s been real fun!” He lifted his hand into the air, preparing to snap his fingers, but paused. The man turned towards Celestia. “Oh, and Tia?” He flashed what may have been a flirtatious smirk. “Same time, same place?”
Princess Celestia tittered, and gave her own borderline saucy smile. “But of course.”
“Wait,” Selivar said. “What was—”
And then they were gone.
A comfortable silence descended upon the group. They were all trying to process the events of the day, the implications of everything that they had learned, and what, if anything, it meant for their future. Twilight tensed when she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She turned to see Rarity smiling gently at her. “Twilight? Are you alright?”
Twilight’s brow furrowed as she truly thought about the situation. The fierce battle. Her upcoming coronation. The road ahead. Finally, she smiled. “Yeah, Rarity. I think... I think I really am. I get it—”
“Alright, alright! Enough of this sappy crap,” Rainbow Dash said, flying dangerously close to Applejack. “I believe somepony promised me cider!”
Applejack groaned and stared at the pegasus. “Filly, you got a one-track mind!”
“Yeah, but it’s an awesome track!”
As Applejack and Rainbow Dash bickered, much like they had been doing for all the years she had known them, Twilight let out an amused sigh and followed them out the door. She didn’t know for absolute certain, but she had a pretty good feeling that everything was going to be just fine.