//------------------------------// // Ending 3: Harmony's Chosen Part 3 // Story: Fallen // by Rated Ponystar //------------------------------// It's funny how much Equestria and Earth are similar in many ways, from having similarly themed holidays to cities being identical save for the equine-sounding theme we have. Not to mention how many similar inventions humanity and ponies have developed despite being in separate dimensions. One of those is chess which I am playing right now in a secure meeting room with the former Princess of Equestria and my old friend, Twilight Sparkle. It's been ten years since Twilight has been in this prison, and she's changed a lot. For one thing, she's a lot thinner, and her face finally shows wrinkles after reaching the mid-life stage. Her mane is a bit paler, and she keeps it short regularly instead of long like she used to do.  Moving my knight to take her bishop, the two of us continue to play silently as the sight of us playing this game might make for an exciting photo or painting. I, the new Princess of Equestria, standing tall, bright, and regal with so much to be blessed with. She, the former hero of Equestria, as a shell of her former self who lost everything. Ten years ago, I felt very little pity for Twilight, who had made her bed to lie in with her actions. After numerous visits, with many talks between us over the years, I almost wish she wasn't sentenced to life. Yet, there is nothing that can be done.  "Checkmate," Twilight says with a small smile as she moves her rook. "I win again." "Well, it was a good game," I say while knocking down my king. "Want to play again?" "I think maybe you should head back home, Fluttershy," Twilight says as she picks up the pieces to put them in the game box her parents got her for one of her birthdays when they visited. "But thank you for visiting again." "You're welcome," I reply while glancing at the magic nullifying ring on Twilight's horn. Unless under specific supervision, Twilight is not allowed to use her magic anymore, save for when she's helping the various scientists and mages make the cure for the Conversion Potion. "I heard you had a breakthrough, by the way?"  "Yes, we did." Twilight gives a small smile in my direction. "If things go well, we should have the means to give the newfoals their old personalities again by next year." "Still can't give them back their bodies?" I ask with a sigh. "We've tried everything, Fluttershy. This might be the best we can do for them. As much as we've advanced by combining magic and technology, we lack the enzyme needed to stabilize a cure," Twilight whispers as I can feel her tone's regret and guilt oozing. Something I've grown used to hearing from her ever since I started making visits here five years ago. Twilight closes the box before she pauses and looks at me. "How are the others?" "Pinkie Pie is...doing better," I reply while thinking about the one pony who had lost her mind. For the past few years, Pinkie's psychosis had changed, and now she was living in a pure delusional fantasy where we were still in Equestria, being the best of friends and saving the day. I've seen her once or twice, and she asked me how the kids were doing. I thought she meant my children with Martin, but she meant my kids with Discord. Apparently, in her fantasy, we married and had children. I couldn't bring myself to tell the truth, so I lied and said they were good. I stopped seeing her after that, but I can't help but wonder if living in her makeup world is better for her in the long run. Reality was too hard for Pinkie Pie, and I feared it would only worsen her situation if her fantasy world was broken. "At least she's smiling again." "But it won't be a real smile," Twilight mutters with disappointment, and I can't help but agree. Even if you see a smile on Pinkie's face today, you know it's not the one she used to have. The one that made everyone in Ponyville feel better despite whatever horrible day they were having. But I do not think the old Pinkie Pie is ever coming back. Nor do I think she wants to. "How was Rarity's honeymoon? That was a few months ago, right? Spike told me about the wedding, and he said it went well," Twilight asked with a small smile. "Hawaii was good for her. I think she and Johnny are planning on living there when they get the chance," I reply with a pleased tone. Out of all my friends, Rarity got a better ending after her trial. Rarity had requested that her community service be aimed at helping humans to make up for all the things she had done in the past. Along the way, she ended up befriending many humans who gave her a chance and befriended them despite knowing who she was. One was John Smith, a Mormon missionary helping in the same area as Rarity. Like with Martin and me, John had won over Rarity's heart and helped her be "reborn" as it was by becoming a Mormon. She even moved to Utah and started a new tailor business, thanks to him and the Mormon community. She was much happier than I had seen her in years, and we continue to stay in contact. It wasn't like the old days, but seeing each other happy and well was enough for us to slowly rebuild our bond into something better than it had been for the past decade. And I had forgiven her years ago for her comment about Discord. "And still nothing from Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked with a huff. "No, she's not seeing anyone still. Even Scootaloo's given up," I reply with a disappointing sigh. After Rainbow Dash finally finished her time in prison and started doing her community service hours, she became a hermit who pushed everypony away. She let herself get overweight, dirty, and often was seen drinking in bars with a bitter look on her face. Scootaloo was the only one who tried to connect with her over the years, but even she couldn't take Rainbow's sour attitude anymore and just dumped her. I still kept tabs on her just in case she tried to do anything since I knew she was still angry at the new peace, but since practically most of the country had accepted the changes, she kept her opinions to herself.  When she's sober that is. It was a sad sight, seeing Rainbow Dash fall from such grace. However, she could have changed her life at any moment. Instead was too stuck in the past of her glory days. None of her old Wonderbolt comrades were around anymore, as most of them joined Sweetie Drops's Freedom Fighters group that we quickly wiped out two years after it started. Very few ponies wanted to keep fighting with all the revelations that came out, so they were more of an annoyance than anything. I feel that, if they still existed, Rainbow Dash would have joined them if only to go out fighting instead of having to live in a world she hated everything about. There was also no point in talking about Applejack. In her third year in prison, Applejack broke a spoon for her meal and used it to stab herself multiple times in the neck. Nobody mourned for her when she died, and the family she once had wanted nothing to do with her body. Apple Bloom was the only one to see her confirm the body, but all she did was spit at AJ's face and left without saying a word. I had the body cremated and the ashes tossed into a river.  "Well, I guess I better get back to my cell," Twilight says as she puts the game box under her foreleg and smiles at me. "It was great to see you again, Fluttershy. Tell the family I said hi. Oh, and good luck pushing for the bill next week in parliament." "Thank you, Twilight. Good luck with your recent findings," I say back to her before armed guards arrive to escort her back to her cell. I sigh and pull out my cell phone to let Martin know I'll be home soon. While part of me is glad to have spent time with Twilight, I am even happier to leave this prison and return home. Because every time I see Twilight, I see the past that was lost, and my heart still weeps for what we once were. *** Despite living in the palace for over ten years, I'm still finding it hard to believe that I live here now. I don't hate living in it, but I wish for the days when I lived in my warm cottage with all my animal friends on the outskirts of Ponyville. A place of solitude where I had my own little world protecting me from the scary dangers of the outside. Funny enough, I lived right next to the Everfree Forest which meant there was always the risk of trouble coming to me. Canterlot has become quite different with a combination of pony and human architecture, with humans walking among the streets of the great city now an everyday occurrence. Everything has been modernized with new means of power, transportation, business, technology, and more. It's more like seeing the cities of the European nations combined with the old medieval touches of their castles here and there.  The most enormous building is the one I am passing by while on my chariot being carried by two of my royal guards: The Hall of Concordat. After two years of working with various humans and ponies, a new government was finally formed. The Kingdom of Equestria was no longer an absolute monarchy but a constitutional monarchy. I was there to help sign the new constitution that limited the powers the royal family would have going forward, as power would be given to the common people to vote for representatives in Equestria's new parliament system. I still had powers that allowed me to have a certain level of authority, but it was no longer as autocratic as it was during Sunnyvale's reign. It was done to prevent what happened with the alicorns from happening again. At the same time, the parliament system also needed to be limited to what powers it had as well. An equal balance of power between the two sides forced cooperation for both groups to get something done. Thankfully, Spike, my Prime Minister, and I quickly saw eye to eye with each other to avoid any severe problems. I am curious if it will work forever or if it will have problems down the road, but things are going as smoothly as possible so far. The economy has been picking up, ponies are slowly recovering from the terrors of the war, and most of those threatening the peace has been taken care of to the point that we face very little threat save from some die-hard radical occasionally. Most of all, I feel a sense of peace and accomplishment for all my work. Using my powers, I've been able to heal most of the world's lands from the scars of the war so that new life can be rebuilt in its wake. It helped bridge the trust between humanity and my ponies so that past grievance could be set aside. It will still take a generation or two before full trust is given, but despite the slow start, it is a good start. One that I will probably spend hundreds of years working on until I can finally rest. But I've prepared myself for such a fate. Landing on the palace's balcony, I get out of my ride, and I am instantly nearly tackled by two flying figures who wrap their hooves around me and shout, "Welcome home, Mama!" Whatever negative feelings I was having are instantly washed away as I hug my two precious children, Apollo and Artemis. Perhaps the biggest shock of my life was when Martin and I discovered I was pregnant. For the entire time, Equestria has been on Earth, no foals were ever conceived between humans and ponies because we were thought to be too biologically different to breed children. However, be it because of my new alicorn biology or a blessing from the Elements of Harmony themselves, I was now the proud mother of two alicorn foals.  Apollo was the oldest by two minutes as he looked at me with his bright blue eyes that held the passion of adventure inside of them. His coat was pure yellow, and his downward mane was white as snow with a few streaks of pink. He wore a red and golden royal jacket for his status as a prince, golden hoove regalia, and a small red crown on his head. It was hard to believe that Apollo was my child, considering he was always energetic and wanted to explore and fly around doing exciting things. Yet there was no pony the animals loved more than him, and he loved to chase them around while feeding them as he sang songs with his incredible voice.  Artemis, his twin, was dark blue in her coat with pure red eyes that were shy yet held deep intelligence. Her mane was light brown, like her father's, and she had more of his facial features than Apollo while also being closer to her father while Apollo was closer to me. Yet Artemis inherited my shy nature while being just as bookwormish as Twilight. She even dreamed of being a healer one day like Martin and me. Artemis wore a similar outfit as her brother, only it was blue with silver, and her long mane was held by a silver diamond-encrusted bow that made it loop around while a blue crown sat on her head. Thankfully, Artemis wasn't as shy as I was and had many human and pony friends that made her a natural leader, even if she didn't like being in the spotlight like her brother.  The two of them were still young, so they didn't have their cutie marks yet, not that it didn't stop them from trying to find it "CMC" style. A headache of its own that I blame the originals for based on the number of times they babysat them growing up. Regardless, I love my children to death and kiss them both on the cheek. "I wasn't gone for long, little ones." "Yeah, but you promised we'd go to the park with Papa when you got back," Apollo points out as he flaps his wings with eagerness. "It's been days since we've done a family activity! So can we go?!" "We got all the toys and food ready and even picked the guards to come with us!" Artemis replies before rubbing her hooves together. "I mean, if you need to shower or something first, that's fine too." "But I thought you wanted to go now?" Apollo huffs. "Well, yeah, but I want Mama to be comfortable as well," Artemis argues. Giggling, I put my hooves on both of their heads and ruffle them a bit. "I'm perfectly ready to go to the park. Let's find your father and go out as promised." "Yes! Bet you I can find him first!" Apollo shouts as he flies off without warning. "Wait up, bro!" Artemis shouts before focusing her magic and teleporting in a blink. Shaking my head in amusement, I look outside to where my kingdom lays before me as the sun shines upon us all. It's hard to believe that the world used to be full of war and hatred, but now there is a bright future for all of us, including the children born into this world, without knowing the horrors of war. I vowed to see such a time as the Conversion War never happen again.  Once, we were a nation that had fallen into darkness. Now we are a nation rising to a new hope. I flap my wings and give chase to my children with a big smile on my face. And the joy in my heart.