//------------------------------// // Twelve years later // Story: Planet of the ponies // by Weeeman //------------------------------// Epilogue: Twelve years later... Michael woke up to the sound of breaking glass. His instincts kicked in and he rose from his bed, ready to protect himself. He found a gray coated, blonde, cross-eyed pegasus mare lying on the ground, her saddlebags spilling letters. “Derpy! It’s the third time this month you break one of our windows!” The mare didn’t react to the reprimand, she just took a the letters, gave one to him and left. He opened it and quickly read it. He muttered something and left his room. Then he remembered he was naked, so he came back to dress himself. “Mike, is everything alright?” a female voice asked from behind his door. “Just Derpy breaking a window, mom!” The female sighed, “I’ll bring a broom for the shards.” Michael finished dressing up and left his room. He went downstairs to the kitchen and made himself breakfast. He was about to finish when his mother arrived. “What did Derpy bring this time?” she asked. He turned back and looked at her mother, Rebecca. She was the first daughter of Lyra and Robert, a ten years old woman which looked like she was between 20 and 25, according to Robert. She had black, curly hair and dark brown skin, which contrasted with all the other humans, as well as as two months pregnant belly. Michael himself had, according to Robert again, Asian genetic parents. He was the first male human born in thousands of years, he was five years old, but his body and mind were at the level of a sixteen years old normal human. “Well, I asked you a question,” Rebecca said. “Sorry. She brought a card from Princess Celestia, Discord passed away last night. She wants us to go to Canterlot today.” “Oh,” she stood in the same spot for a few seconds, “go and make sure that Robert and Lyra know about this. I will wake up your sisters.” Robert and Lyra lived in the next house down the road, so he only had to take a few steps before knocking on their door. “It’s open! Come in!” shouted Robert. Mike did as he was told and looked for his grandparents. He found Lyra breastfeeding her last daughter. It was the tenth one, and they had decided that there wouldn’t be an eleventh. Robert and Lyra were a strange couple, which had had children before marrying, and had married before realizing their love for each other. Mike wondered how they had managed to endure everything, taking into account that they hadn’t been genetically designed to have an unbreakable will and capacity of self-sacrifice for the greater good like he and his sisters and aunts had. “Hi, Mike. I guess you came because of Discord.” “Yep.” “We will leave in the afternoon train. Go and tell your mother.” “Sure thing, granny,” he added just before he left the house. Her right eye twitched, “Stop calling me that, I’m not even forty!” A few hours later all the humans on Equestria were traveling to Canterlot, a family which already had fifteen members, accompanied by eight ponies and a child dragon. Those ponies were, of course, the six Elements of Harmony and the spouses of two of them. On the way there, the rest of the passengers had looked at them with curiosity and awe, as the humans had become famous over the years. A few of them even went as far as to ask for an autograph from Robert or Lyra. “We have saved the world at least eight times already,” Twilight muttered after Lyra signed the third autograph, “and you are the ones who have fans?” Robert laughed, “I remember it was you who asked Celestia to keep your heroics deeds in private precisely to avoid this.” Robert was always in a good mood when he traveled by train, since his contributions to the sector had increased both the speed and efficiency of Equestrian trains, and he had made a fortune in the process. However, this time the reason of their travel darkened his mood. Discord (he had refused to reveal his human name) had lived in Canterlot all those years, writing everything he thought humans would need to know in the future while he waited for his inevitable death. He had known that fifteen years was the most he could have expect of his decrepit body, so he had tried to finish everything before that. Celestia had found in his old arch enemy a valuable source of information about magics so powerful or dark that she had never dared to study, as well as a master of trolling who would always come up with a plan to annoy the nobility. She had even declared that Discord had been punished by the Elements by turning him into a mortal being for his previous crimes, but he had been granted liberty during his last days for his heroic salvation of humankind. Robert wondered how she would feel about Discord’s death. Since she had tried to kill them, all those years ago, both he and Lyra still loathed the Sun princess, but he already missed the old ex draconequus himself, eccentric as he had been. The few times he had been convinced to visit Ponyville (which was now called Humanville by some ponies), he had managed to cause such chaos that some ponies who remembered his first visit thought he would make the houses float in the air or the clouds rain chocolate milk. “I’m going to miss him,” he stated. “Me too,” replied Lyra, “he helped me so much when I had the ‘change of mind’. I will always be grateful for that.” The ‘change of mind’ started as a chronic headache a few months after Rebecca was born, which evolved into fits and changes of personality and attitude. Sometimes Lyra would find himself trying to graze near her house, not remembering how she got there. Discord had gone to Ponyville as soon as he had known. He had told them that she suffered a disease caused by her pony memories and instincts conflicting with her human brain, and he helped her to endure the two months it lasted, teaching her the techniques that had helped him when he suffered it after he became a draconequus (how he became one was another thing he never told anyone). Twilight changed the subject, “I hope he finished the Tartarus compendium. We had such a hard time beating Tirek because we didn’t know what to do against him.” “Yeah, how could we know that hitting him with a rocket launcher would only make him stronger?” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. They kept on talking until they arrived in Canterlot that evening. There they just went with the flow of formalities, customs and etiquette. Lyra and Robert were on their room relaxing on the bed when Princess Luna barged in unannounced, as she usually did. “Good evening!” she exclaimed, “Discord wrote in his will that you should have this,” she levitated a package towards the couple. “What is it?” asked Lyra. “I don’t know, I have to rise the Moon, bye!” she teleported away. The couple looked at eachother, then at the package. Robert shrugged and opened it. He found a stack of written papers, as well as a note on top of them, which Robert read aloud. “Robert and Lyra, If you are reading this I’m dead, if I am not dead... Well, whatever. These documents contain information you must know if you ever decide to go against the princesses, or create your own nation. Since I became human again I lost my powers, but I conserved the ability to feel the balance of chaos and harmony. This balance has been slowly reaching equilibrium over the years, the proof of it being that in the last ten years only Tirek has attacked Equestria, but that may change in the future. That is why you will find here how I became a draconequus, just in case you ever need to acquire such power in order to protect humanity and Equestria. Due to this, it is imperative that nobody except for you and your successors as leaders of humanity reads these documents ever. If you find yourselves unable to keep this in secrecy, I command you to burn it all. I want to tell you that I am proud of you two, and I know the future of our race is in good hands. Goodbye, Discord.” “Wow,” said Lyra. “Wow indeed.” “What are we going to do with this?” “I think I will take them home and read everything. Then we will decide what to do with them.” “No, no freaking way. Last time I let you read something about magic you didn’t summon an eldritch abomination in our basement just because you couldn’t find a griffin feather. I will take them home, make a quick read to see what’s it’s all about and hid them in our safe, just in case we ever need them.” “Alright...” he stared at the wall for a few seconds, “you know what? I think we could contact a toy making firm to sell Action Men, the foals love playing with griffins and dragons so why not?” Lyra rolled her eyes, “just forget about humanity, potential fortunes and last wills for a moment and kiss me, silly human.” The end.