Tall Tale of Sweet Sauce

by Starscribe


Epilogue

Sweet Sauce was surrounded by the pain he deserved—the pain he had caused with a single, critical choice. But if he didn't overcome his weakness now, he would face his death curled up and helpless. He hadn't fought to invent his own school of nearly zero-energy magic only to face a pronouncement of death and eventual execution without a chance to face his judge.

He struggled to his hooves, then turned towards his adoptive parents. In the judgment of these two mares, his entire future turned. Whatever execution Celestia chose for him after failure this time, he had a feeling it wouldn't give him a chance to escape back to Equestria.

"I-it's okay," he whispered, looking between Vinyl and Octavia. "I don't b-blame you. I would be too scared of me too. You can say it."

He could barely see through vision blurred by many tears. At least when he died just now, it would be here in Equestria. He had spent weeks at home, making new pony friends and discovering what his world had become. Many ponies had died with worse.

He couldn't read the faces of the two ponies here to judge him as they shared one last, painful look. Meanwhile, Luna stared in silence, powerless to do anything to change the outcome. Sweet already knew exactly what she would say if he asked for her help now.

He had begged for this confrontation, when he could've accepted a safe life anywhere else in Equestria. He had forced this moment, so its consequences were his to accept.

"That was really you?" Vinyl finally asked. Her voice shook with emotion, and she propped her glasses up over her face. "Back in time?"

He nodded glumly. "I barely remember being him anymore. It was hard to carry all those memories through my banishment. But my last day in Equestria I'll never forget. I c-caused the death of my own parents. Made my sisters and I orphans. Assassinated the rulers of Equestria."

Octavia cleared her throat. "You didn't seem terribly... pleased with the outcome, in past or present."

Where was she going with this? Every second was a battle to contain his own emotions, one he generally lost. He sniffed, wiping his eyes with one leg again. "I t-tried to give them a gift. Open up the universe to Equestria in ways... we never imagined. I failed."

He raised one hoof, before Celestia could speak. "Y-you don't need to say anything. Their deaths were my fault. It was an accident, but e-entirely preventable. I accept my judgment."

"Princesses." Vinyl Scratch bowed again, low. "I hope this isn't a problem, but..." She shot another glance at Octavia, who nodded. "It doesn't feel like we should be the right ponies to judge. The loss was yours. We can't imagine the pain you're feeling at the loss of your parents. How can we decide a sentence?"

Celestia's expression remained unfalteringly harsh. "Yet, you must. Do not fear reprisal for your choices, my little ponies. You will face none. Your involvement is for my brother's benefit. You represent all the ponies of Equestria. You have seen what my brother is capable of—now you must decide whether he is permitted to dwell among you. As he will be in your home, you two make for the perfect, symbolic judges."

Octavia bowed too, though she didn't hold it for nearly as long. "Then by your leave, Princess Celestia. I think we would like to take Sweet Sauce home now."

The answer was stupefied silence. Of all the ponies in the room, Luna was the first to react, a tiny smirk stretching across her face. "The little ponies of Equestria forgave me my transgressions, sister. Should we be surprised this group you have long cultivated to be so harmonious would extend these virtues towards those who have harmed us as well?"

Celestia wobbled on her hooves, then slumped into a sitting position. Her eyes glazed over, and her perfectly-cultivated mask melted away. She cried, and nopony dared to interrupt her.

Except Sweet Sauce. He kept his head low, which was already easy considering he had such a pathetic scrap of a body anyway. "I know... no apology will ever be enough," he whispered to her. "You don't have to see me again if you don't want to. I won't try to rule. I just don't want to go back to that awful place. I can stay in Ponyville and never come back to Canterlot if you don't want me to."

His older sister finally looked at him. It might've been the first time since his return—or at least the first time she didn't quickly look away again. "I've spent a thousand years teaching my subjects to forgive, Tellus. What kind of Princess would I be if I'm not capable of exemplifying that same virtue?"

She touched him on the head with one hoof, a light, brief pat. Not quite a hug. But he could hardly blame her for not being ready. "Thank you for this lesson, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Melody. It has been... most illuminating."

Sweet Sauce felt something then, a sudden surge of magic flowing over him in an incredible flash. Given the strange path his life had taken, it was one he'd known several times now, almost identical each time.

He dropped to the ground a second later. His eyes stopped glowing, and so did his flank. His cutie mark had returned.

No matter how many times he created a new body, the result was always almost the same. It showed the planet Equus, beginning as a sketchy outline on the left, and filling with color on the right.

Most ponies only experienced this transition once—they didn't know how different their lives would be now that they were properly marked. "Oh," was all he said, grinning weakly. "Guess Harmony remembers who I am, too."

His adopted parents were far less conservative about embracing him, holding him tight.

"How can we argue with such a judgment?" Princess Luna asked. “It seems the verdict was accepted. Welcome home, little brother."


Sweet Sauce dressed for school the same way ponies usually did—he tossed on his saddlebags with the day's books, and hurried downstairs. His mom Vinyl was off on another concert tour that night, but fortunately his other one Octavia was there. She already had a plate of hot waffles waiting for him downstairs, along with a local syrup that his old world had no name for.

"You haven't forgotten anything, have you?" Octavia asked. She peeked through his saddlebags, albeit only for a few seconds. Long enough to look satisfied. "Good. No more leaving your textbooks at home just because you know what's in them."

Sweet finished his breakfast, then hopped out of the chair. "My memory on some of these subjects is... faulty," he admitted. "This new way of teaching math confounds me. It's stranger than runecraft."

Octavia slipped a tightly-wrapped bundle into the other side of his saddlebags. Lunch, probably. "I have no doubt you'll excel in time, Sweet. You know Vinyl won't allow your attendance at next week's concert if you don't pass your exams."

"I will!" He bounced his way over to the door, just out of reach. "I'm getting my homework done! I spent my first few weeks barely paying attention. Now that I know I'm staying here, I treat class differently. You'll see!"

He hurried out the door—partly to avoid any additional lecture, but also because he knew when his friends would be passing the house.

Escorting him to school was a relic of the past, now that he made no attempt to sneak away from school. Now that he had nowhere to run to, there was no reason to supervise him.

Besides, there were plenty of good reasons to make it to class. At least two.

Sweet crossed Ponyville with little fanfare. A few of the locals waved to him—a harpist sitting strangely in the park, one of the apple farmers on his way to market with a cart. None of these ponies knew his old name. None of them knew his ancient achievements, or the breadth of his ambition. None of them knew the world his magic would've created.

None of them knew the guilt he carried, that the ponies who should've been there to help rule Equestria, and protect it through its greatest hardships, weren't alive to do it. Tellus Mergen was gone now, and might be gone forever.

But Sweet Sauce, at least, was welcome to stay.

"Hey Sweet!" Dinky joined him from another intersection, trotting along to keep up with him. "I practiced that thing you taught me! I think I can almost do it!"

She stopped walking, tossing a little red ball out from her saddlebags. It bounced a few times, before her magic struck it—and it transformed into a cupcake, covered in gray and yellow icing.

It smacked to the ground a second later, splattering the floor with sugar and bits of crushed cake. "Well I... probably should've kept levitating it."

A pigeon fluttered down from overhead and started pecking at the ruined cupcake. A few others joined it seconds later. "Maybe," Sweet agreed. "Birds seem to like it."

They continued together for a short distance, walking through a perfect Ponyville morning. The weather team had organized exactly enough clouds to keep things from getting too hot, without making the morning look gloomy.

Shame the world he'd been banished to never figured out weather planning. He wouldn't be returning to offer them lessons in the subject.

"If you went back a month and told me I'd be doing transfiguration, I never would've believed you!" Dinky continued. "Why don't any of the books teach the way you do? It makes so much more sense when you explain it!"

Sweet shrugged, keeping his face as neutral as possible. He couldn't help grinning with pride as he heard it. This was a satisfaction his old life had given him only rarely. Few ponies were illustrious enough to train with such an important Alicorn, and those who were refused his reckless style.

Now he didn't have that problem. "Most of those old textbooks were written to the old style—Confoundurism. They want you to struggle, because they think figuring things out on your own robs you of the moral improvement that comes from the search for truth."

He rolled his eyes as he said it. "Most of those crusty old unicorns didn't know what they were talking about either, by the way. Nopony could tell them they were wrong, because their books weren't supposed to make sense. It's a great little grift."

Another set of hoofsteps heralded the approach of another little pony. Pipsqueak was now a little shorter than Sweet, and still lacked a cutie mark of his own. But so did Dinky.

"Morning!" He slid to a stop in the gravel. His mane looked wild, and there was still a pencil tucked behind one ear.

"You didn't do your homework last night?" Sweet guessed.

Pipsqueak grunted, the closest thing to an admission he was going to get. "What do you care? You're an Alicorn, aren't you?"

Sweet shrugged. "I'm... not sure. I think I might be, one day. I wasn't brave enough to ask them about that part. What does that have to do with your math homework?"

Pipsqueak blushed. "It's hard!"

"So study with us!" Dinky insisted. "If Sweet can help me with magic, he can help you with numbers. Right?"

"Right," he agreed. "Mostly. I don't remember everything. But three heads are better than one. We can figure it out together. Then you don't have to rush in the morning to put fake answers down before class."

They walked to the schoolhouse, speaking about nothing. Sweet Sauce could enjoy every empty word of it. He had no more secret plots, no more need to hide away bits for train tickets.

In time he would be older, and he would have to decide whether or not to embrace his old ambition. But at least for now, he let thoughts of the future fade from his mind. What little filly or colt in Ponyville already had their life planned out?

Tellus was banished to the mists of history. Sweet would have to decide whether to bring him back, one day. But today, he could focus on his friends.