//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: Magic of the Heart 
// by Pegasus Rescue Brigade 
//------------------------------//

Once, there was an old, old, old wraith.

Well, not just a wraith.  She was a bit more than that.  But it hardly mattered.

The old, old more-than-a-wraith had just finished telling an old, old story to her young unicorn student.  Satisfied that the tale was complete, she leaned back in her rocking chair, resting her forehooves on her lap and placing her now-empty teacup back on its coaster on the end table.

It took a while for her student, little Photon Flash, to find his voice.  Dinky couldn't help but chuckle slightly, watching him struggle to process everything he'd been told.

"So..." he said finally.  "So all that really happened?  You're actually a being of dark magic, and you've been living here for thousands of years?"

"Well, not right here in this building," Dinky clarified, gesturing to her old-fashioned home, "but here in Equestria, yes.  You'll find mention of me if you dig deep enough into records of the past, but most ponies haven't heard of me these days.  After all, the events I just described are quite literally ancient history.  And those who do know the tale certainly haven't made the connection that the odd old magic tutor living in town is the same Dinky Doo from the distant past; nopony, not even I, knew how long I'd be around, so most ponies assume I'm long gone, like all those I grew up with.  Every now and then I tell somepony like you the story, but word never gets far; it's been so long since a wraith has posed a threat to Equestria that my true nature is practically meaningless now, which is nice."

"I guess Scorpio really was right about that then, huh?" Photon asked.  "And all those ponies in your story... your mom and stepdad, your coltfriend, all your classmates and friends—"

"—Have been gone for a very, very long time, yes," Dinky finished calmly.

Photon looked slightly ashamed.  "Maybe that's a sore topic," he mumbled, ducking so his bright white mane hid his eyes.  "Sorry, Ms. Doo."

"Oh hush, dear," Dinky replied.  "They lived rich, wonderful lives; I'm happy to reminisce."

"They did?" Photon asked.  "What happened to them after your story ended?"

Dinky tapped a hoof to her chin in thought.  "Well, Equestria Speedy Shipping Services grew and thrived, just as Dr. Candyfloss had predicted.  Clarity, unsurprisingly, had a bit of a knack not just for analyzing clients, but for analyzing potential employees.  She hired several more matchmakers, making sure each shipper had their own unique personality and talents.  Once Clarity got the hang of matching them up with the ponies calling in for shipping requests, the company's reputation was quickly restored.  My mother and stepfather spent the rest of their careers there, and mom used to tell me in her later years that giving that company a chance was one of the best decisions she ever made."

Photon looked pleased.  "What about Honeydew?  And Scuffle?" he asked.

"Lifesight was only the beginning of the contributions Honeydew made to magical biology," Dinky laughed.  "She's regarded as a pillar of her discipline.  My name may not come up much unless you go searching for it, but hers still appears in every Magical Biology textbook, as you'll soon see when you begin your study at the academy."

"So, her blindness didn't slow her down?" the colt asked.

"Between Lifesight, that enchanted cane of hers, and of course, Scuffle's assistance, Honeydew lived a mercifully normal life," Dinky assured him.  "The two of them were eventually wed, perhaps ten years or so after our graduation, and had two beautiful foals.  I still remember the little ones calling me 'Aunt Dinky'... even when they were old and grey, and I had hardly aged at all."

Photon took a moment to think about that.  Dinky could see her student was weighing options in his mind.

"Ms. Doo, I know it's impolite to ask, but considering your special situation... how old are you, really?" he asked finally.

Dinky laughed.  "How terribly straightforward of you, Photon," she chided, grinning as the colt looked away shiftily.  "I won't give you an exact number, but I will say this.  I believe I stopped aging normally a few months after graduation, probably around my nineteenth birthday, give or take a month or two.  A hundred years later, Princess Twilight asked me to receive a physical exam, with a doctor who was unaware of who and what I was, to make sure his judgement wasn't biased.  After a thorough examination of my anatomy... his best estimate is that I was a mare of twenty-one.  While one hundred years passed for everypony else, my body aged but two."

"Okay, so you aged two years each century, so given how old you look now, you must be..."

Photon trailed off as he did some mental math.  After a few seconds, his eyes widened.

"Wow.  Wow."

Dinky's eyes sparkled with mirth.  "Yes, dear.  Wow."

"Even if the ponies you grew up with are long gone, you must've had descendants though, right?" Photon inquired.  "Foals?  Grandfoals?  Great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfoals?"

"Weren't you paying attention when I talked about the bodies of wraiths?" Dinky chided, waggling a forehoof at the colt.  "Pip and I spent our lives together... or, more accurately, his life, and a terribly small sliver of mine, but we had no foals.  My unicorn body is just a facsimile.  It's not capable of reproduction.  Which is just as well, let's be honest; can you imagine if creatures as bloodthirsty and cunning as wraiths could reproduce?  Equestria would've been overrun by their forces long before I became one myself."

The old mare noticed her student looking increasingly upset.  "Oh, don't fret, Photon," she soothed.  "It's not as if I've lived an empty life in the intervening millennia.  I've had scores of adventures and met new friends.  In the centuries after my childhood companions and family departed, I spent time traveling the world, learning more about magic and about Equestria than anypony with a unicorn's lifespan could ever hope to.  After a millennium or so, Princess Twilight actually approached me in hopes that I'd be willing to become the Professor of Enchantments at Celestia's Academy, a position I happily held for... oh, 1400 years, give or take a few decades.  Even after I finally began to grow old and keeping that schedule became a hassle, the interest in teaching never quite left; if it had, I daresay I wouldn't be privately tutoring youngsters like you."

"I wanna hear about all that, too!" Photon declared, leaping up.  "And you can't stop with just you!  What about everypony else?  Dean Sparkler?  Tango Trot?  Inkwell?"

"Goodness, Photon, I think I've spent quite enough time telling stories already," Dinky replied, tiredly leaning back in her rocker again.  "Look, the sun's going down.  We've spent the whole day doing this.  I have enough tales to fill your entire lifetime, but old Ms. Doo needs a break."

"Aw," Photon Flash grumbled, moping.

"Besides, the only reason I told you that particular tale was because you asked me a very specific question," Dinky pointed out, smiling slightly.  "Do you know now, dear, what the most powerful type of magic really is?"

The colt's look of disappointment was quickly replaced with one of eagerness.  "If everything in that story is true, Ms. Doo, then the hearts of ponies hold the potential for more magic than even the most amazing unicorn spells," he answered.

"Very good," the elderly mare replied.  "That's your magic lesson for the day.  Pack your things, you'd best get home for dinner."

As the colt scrambled to pack his books and clean up the remains of his afternoon snack, Dinky was suddenly struck with the sense that she and Photon were no longer alone.  A moment later, she noticed a faint, almost imperceptible flicker of movement off to her left.  Turning her head, she calmly watched a faint outline of a pony begin to appear.  A ghostly figure slowly came into view, right there in her parlor.

Normally, some sort of vague apparition appearing in one's home would probably spark some degree of alarm.  And for Dinky, it had... when it had first appeared, easily fifty years ago now.  But having seen it hundreds of times since, it didn't stir up much of a reaction anymore.

The spectral image of a pony had no color, no texture, and no face.  It was no more than a faint disruption in the air, just barely taking the shape of a strong-looking stallion.  Photon Flash, as evidenced by the lack of change in his behavior, was unable to see or otherwise sense the newcomer.

Losing herself in memories for a moment, Dinky recalled the day, a few decades back, when the pale shadow of a pony had first shown itself.  It wasn't a fearful, haunting presence, that much she was certain of.  The reason she had acted so startled when it first appeared back then was because of who it resembled.

Even without a tinge of color in its fur, and without an expression for her to examine, she recognized the stallion's frame.  The wide shoulders, the angled snout, the short tail... she'd known, immediately, that if she could see the pony's hide that was so frustratingly hidden from view, she would recognize its colors and patterns.  Its eyes, had it had them, would've been soft and welcoming, and the smile atop that strong jaw, enough to melt her heart.

Over the first few months of the specter's appearances, Dinky had tried everything to establish communication with it.  Every manner of spell she'd learned over the centuries was employed from enchantments that would allow the user to see the unseen, to life spells that might allow her to tap into it as she might with any other living thing.

Nothing had ever worked.

The ghostly stallion's many appearances were always the same.  It would fade slowly into view at the edges of her vision.  After standing, still and unthreatening, for some time, it would slowly reach out a forehoof, with the underside facing up, as if coaxing Dinky to take it in her own.  Each time, Dinky had attempted to do as it wanted.  Each time, her hoof passed right through.

And then, slowly, the visitor would leave, as silently and calmly as it had come.  Sometimes, it would be gone for months.  Other times, it would be back again the next day.  No matter what, its routine when it arrived was always the same.

And so it had been for fifty years.

Exhausted though she was from her long day of storytelling, Dinky wore a gentle hint of a smile, watching the apparition take a single, measured step closer and, as always, reach out to her.  It waited, motionless, for her response.  Raising a withered old forehoof, the old wraith reached out to grab hold.

Whoosh.

Completing the usual cycle, Dinky watched her hoof move through the outline of the one extended toward her, without any resistance.  There was nothing there but air.

Was there truly a stallion in the room with her at all?  Had any of its appearances these last fifty years been real?  Or was her aged mind and her tired old eyes simply seeing what she wanted to see?

Dinky didn't know.  She didn't care, really.  The visits, whether they were real or not, were always welcome.

"Ms. Doo?"

The voice snapped Dinky out of her reverie.  She turned toward the sound, remembering that young Photon Flash was still standing in her parlor.  She looked to her left again a second later, but whatever had been there, be it a spirit or simply a figment of her imagination, was gone.

"...Yes, dear?" she asked finally, returning her outstretched forehoof to her lap.

Photon pawed at the floor uncertainly.  "Well, in a few weeks, I'll be off to the Academy..." he said slowly.  "Obviously I'll learn lots of magic there, but you kind of got me thinking... there were ponies in your story whose hearts weren't nearly as strong and bright as yours.  What if... what if it turns out the magic of my heart isn't as powerful as some of the other students?  Will I be destined to be a weaker mage?  Or worse, if too many ponies are weak-hearted... could Animosity someday return?"

Dinky sat quietly for a long moment.  Finally, with a grunt, and a creak of old bones, she forced herself to her hooves and slowly ambled over to her worried young student.

"I'm assuming you're talking about ponies like Cosmic Glow and Bright Spark," she said as she came to stand next to him.  "There was weakness in those ponies' hearts, yes.  But they became that way because they didn't understand the value of the power the heart really has.  They ignored, even shunned, that magic.  Neglected, it grew faint.  But a smart, sociable young colt like you knows better than to make that mistake, I'm sure.  Practice it, through trust, goodwill, and friendship.  Hone your skills as you would with any other spell, and you'll find your heart can be just as full of magic as those in the story I told you."

"Even as strong as yours?" Photon asked in disbelief, placing a forehoof on his chest as if in awe of his own heart.  "Strong enough to hold off anything, even dark magic?"

"Absolutely," Dinky reassured.  "A few hundred years ago, I had a student even younger than you, who used to fret about the very same thing.  I had a little rhyme of sorts that used to make her feel much better; you might even call it a lullaby of the heart."

Dinky paused, clearing her throat.  Much to Photon's surprise, his elderly teacher began to sing in a soothing, gentle voice.


When we look past our differences
and join our hearts as one,
united in the destiny
the threads of fate have spun,
then the greatest looming darkness
shall so swiftly then depart,
for there is no magic greater
than the Magic of the Heart.

In every age in history
it's true that tensions rise
'til all the world is rocked with war
and lightning splits the skies.
But through all the rage and chaos
that could ever come to be,
the heart's prevailing magic
shines on in you and me.

And when the dust has settled,
soon, society repents,
yet in centuries still coming
it will repeat these events.
But do not fear now, young one,
for the magic lives in you.
It can never be extinguished
'til the march of time is through.

So remember when you lay your head
to begin your rest each night
that although our world's imperfect,
you must not ever lose sight
of the bonds with all your loved ones,
for within them is the start
of the next great glorious triumph
of the Magic of the Heart.

For there is no magic greater
than the Magic of the Heart.


Photon was silent.  Dinky assumed he was coming to understand the meaning of her words as she slowly eased herself back into her rocking chair.

"When that young student went to the Academy, her heart shone just as brilliantly as the ponies I once attended it with," Dinky affirmed.  "As will yours, Photon Flash, if you remember what I've told you here today.  So don't be afraid; I'm confident that if Animosity ever does return, ponies like you will be there to drive her back again."

"Understood, Ms. Doo!" the colt promised, stuffing the last of his magic books back into his bags.  "I promise, I'll always remember the importance of the Magic of the Heart!"

"Then I think your upcoming Academy days will be joyful indeed," Dinky said with a final nod.  "I'll see you in a few days for your... for your next..."

She trailed off.  A strange sensation, incredibly familiar though she hadn't felt it in thousands of years, suddenly commanded her full attention, subtle and simple though it was.  A gentle, radiating warmth seemed to be growing against her chest, and spreading through her whole body.  She reached for its source with a slightly shaking forehoof.

And clasped a half-moon, diamond pendant.

Pulse quickening, Dinky glanced to her left.  Once again, a silent outline of a stallion stood vigil.  Oh so slowly, it reached out with one of its front hooves, the ghostly appendage waiting for her to try to grasp it.

"Something wrong, Ms. Doo?" Photon asked, slinging his saddlebags over his back.

"N-no," Dinky replied quickly.  "I'm just... tired.  That story of mine was terribly long.  I think... it's time for me to rest."

The colt pulled open the front door.  "Alrighty.  See you, Ms. Doo!"

"Farewell, Photon Flash."

With a gentle click, the front door shut, leaving Dinky sitting in silence, the room now faintly lit only by the light of the setting sun.

Dinky gripped the pendant still more tightly, making sure her mind wasn't simply deceiving her.  It was definitely warm: a comforting, familiar warmth that she hadn't realized until now how dearly she had missed.  It even glowed faintly, but how was that possible?  It's match was around the neck of an earth pony skeleton deep beneath the earth.

Quivering, the old mare turned again to the apparition.  It hadn't budged a single inch; it still stood perfectly still, inviting her to reach for its hoof.  There was no sense of urgency, no pressure for her to do as it wanted.

She did so anyway.

Keeping one hoof tightly around her pendant, Dinky reached out with the other.  She paused, her foreleg and the one of her visitor only inches apart.

Closing her eyes, Dinky closed the distance between them.

Tap.

It was an unremarkable sound.  A tiny bump of hoof on hoof.  A sound heard millions of times a day, by ponies all around Equestria.  In the darkening parlor, it reverberated like the most dramatic beat of a bass drum.

Then the second hoof gripped Dinky's own, and a male voice, absolutely unmistakable with its distinctive Trottingham accent, rang out, obliterating the silence.

"Everypony!  Come here, quickly!  I've got her!  I've got her!"

The wall of Dinky's parlor fell away, disintegrating into nothingness.  Beyond it lay a plane Dinky could not hope to describe.  The Realm of Stars that she had once experienced suddenly seemed crushingly finite and mundane by comparison.  Colors that she'd never imagined and shapes she'd never dreamed of stretched onward and outward, perhaps infinitely.  White light shone forth from the expanse and filled her parlor like a floodlight; by all accounts, it should've been blinding, but she found herself able to stare into it without even squinting.

The moment the radiance washed over the ghostly figure still holding tightly to her hoof, it brought with it the rest of his appearance.  His nearly-clear coat was quickly filled with color, shining white with big, irregular patches of brown.  The featureless face now instead had deep brown eyes that shimmered with undying love, and a smile conveying nothing but joy.

"P...Pipsqueak," Dinky managed, though she could scarcely breathe.

"Hold tight now, love," Pip encouraged.  "Don't let go.  Everypony will be here in a jiffy."

It took Dinky a moment to realize that Pip was no longer the grizzled old stallion she'd laid to rest so many years ago.  He looked young and strong and healthy as she could ever remember, not so very different from the memory of him from the story she'd just told her student.  

Before she could speak again, figures of ponies began to appear, silhouettes against the bright light.  Quite a few of them, she realized.  As they drew closer to where she sat and Pipsqueak stood, she began to see their features more clearly.  The first came into view, and she recognized her closest friend.

"Dinky!" Clarity called, and not the slightly senile, half-deaf Clarity that Dinky had parted with, but the brilliant, confident Clarity she'd spent her Academy days with.  "There you are!  It's so good to see you!"

Two more ponies walked up beside Clarity, and once again Dinky knew them before they even fully came into view.  Scuffle came first, strong and vibrant as he was in his prime.  Beside him was Honeydew, as beautiful as ever, especially her eyes, not grey and clouded, but instead the shimmering green that Dinky had longed to see one more time.

"Took your sweet time, didn't ya, Dinks?" Scuffle asked with a smirk.  "It's been uh... how long's it been, Dewey?"

"Since the last time we saw her?" Honeydew replied.  "A bit over four-thousand years."

"Four millennia?" Scuffle laughed.  "Jeez, it doesn't seem more than a decade over three."

Still seated in her rocker, Dinky turned her head to look over Pip's other shoulder, where more familiar faces were waiting.

"You've done a real good job, sis," Sparkler congratulated, looking nothing like the gnarled old dean Dinky had once said goodbye to.  "You sure spent those years well.  Equestria's better off for having had you be a part of it.  You definitely deserve a rest."

Behind Sparkler, the rest of Dinky's family appeared.  Breeze smiled warmly at her, and of course, Ditzy positively beamed at seeing her daughter again, an expression made even sweeter by her even, undamaged eyes.

"We missed you, kiddo," Breeze called.

"That's an understatement," Ditzy chuckled.  "I've been waiting for the day I'd get to see my little muffin again.  Oh, and there's somepony here who's been waiting even longer than me!"

And behind them, at the back of the group, one more pony looked on.  He was a brown unicorn stallion with a bright white mane and some of the most gentle, caring eyes Dinky had ever seen.  Consciously, she didn't recognize this pony, but that didn't seem to matter; through something deeper than memory, something in the very core of her being, she knew him all the same.  Finally shaking off her speechlessness, she formed the word.

"...D...dad?"

The stallion simply nodded.  Looking upon him, Dinky felt her eyes fill with tears.

"I missed you— all of you— so much," she whimpered.  "It's been so many years..."

Pipsqueak, still tightly gripping her hoof, smiled lovingly.  "Then, I suppose you're ready to come with us?" he asked delicately.  "If you do, I can promise you that this time, we won't have to go our separate ways again."

Clarity stepped a bit closer.  "All you have to do is stand up and walk with us," she pointed out, smiling broadly.

With her free hoof, Dinky released the pendant and gripped the arm of her chair, preparing to haul her aching body into a standing position.  The moment she tried, however, she was met with resistance.  Frustrated, she tried again, but the force acting against her only grew stronger, forcing her backside firmly back into the rocking chair.

"I... don't know if I can..." she finally conceded, hanging her head in shame.  "It's... it's the darkness.  It doesn't want to let me go.  It never lets anypony go..."

Despite her despair, none of her many visitors looked concerned.  "That's horseapples and you know it, Dinks," Scuffle snarked.  "Tartarus will freeze over before you let dark magic tell you what to do."

"Ever since you became a wraith, you've been its master, not the other way around," Sparkler reminded her.  "Command it to stand down.  We know you can."

"After all, you've got magic that's stronger than any amount of darkness could ever be," Ditzy chirped, fluttering her wings happily.  

"Not just her," Pip said.  "All of us.  Our hearts together are stronger than anything.  Those bonds haven't weakened, have they Dinky?"

Dinky couldn't help but chuckle.  "No, Pipsqueak.  Not a single bit."

One by one, Dinky's loved ones began to glow so brightly, it seemed to even overshadow the infinite white light behind them.  Dinky felt the pendant grow hotter, glowing against her chest like a beacon.  Her grip tightened around Pip's hoof.

"It's time, Dinky," Pip whispered, leaning closer to the elderly wraith.  "Ready?"

Dinky took one last glance around the room.  To her right, her tidy parlor was just as it had been for many years.  To her left, her loved ones stood at the precipice of infinity, waiting for her.  It really wasn't a hard choice.

"Ready."

Pip pulled her foreleg, and Dinky strained to stand, though the darkness pulled back harder than ever.  Both forces demanded her to stay with them.

But one force was much, much stronger than the other.

Dinky Doo, the wraith, felt her head bow and her chin fall against her chest as she closed her eyes for the last time.

And at the very same instant, Dinky Doo, the unicorn, stumbled free from the rocking chair and collapsed against Pipsqueak's chest, sobbing with unfathomable relief.

Immediately, everypony was upon her.  She was surrounded on all sides with hugs and nuzzles and shouts of joy as her classmates and family all welcomed the pony they had been without for so long.

Dinky Doo, the only Dinky Doo now, slowly stood.  Her cheerful lilac coat, brightly glittering eyes, and golden mane tied into her favorite ponytail showed no sign of age, and certainly no sign of the clawing grip of darkness.

"Dinky, we're so happy for you!" Honeydew squealed.

"Now that you're here, there's no reason to linger," Ditzy pointed out.  "There are hundreds more ponies that are eager to see you; distant family members, former students of yours, long lost friends... the list goes on."

Dinky wiped her eyes, and finally stood without Pipsqueak's aid.  "That sounds perfect," she cooed, staring into the expanse from which her loved ones had come.  "What's waiting for us up ahead, anyway?"

"Can't really put it into words, I'm afraid," Pip said simply.

"But does it matter?" Clarity laughed.  "We're together, all of us!  No matter where we are now, it's right where we need to be!"

Dinky beamed, realizing her friend was right.

In the rocking chair behind her, the remains of a wraith, now just a shell made of darkness, began to destabilize.  Its horn was set ablaze first, and the rest of the creature quickly followed suit, burning furiously with black and purple flames.  Charred bones fell from the chair, turning to ash the moment they struck the floor as the darkness consumed and destroyed what was left of the empty husk of twisted magic.

Dinky never even saw it.  If she had, she wouldn't have cared.  What mattered did not lie behind, but ahead, and even more importantly, all around her.  Without fear or hesitation, she walked side by side with her family, her friends, and her beloved, toward that which lay beyond.  

Joy welled up within her.  She had to set it free, and so she sang, in a voice sweeter and more beautiful than it had been in many, many years.



And even at long journey's end
that magic will abound,
as all life's shackles fall away,
and loved ones gather 'round.
So from now until eternity,
I know we will never part.
All our spirits joined forever...

...by the Magic of the Heart!





THE END