//------------------------------// // Epilouge // Story: An Azure Future // by Krass McWriter //------------------------------// An Azure Future: Epilogue One Month After Conversion The mahogany brown pegasus lay in wait for his prey. Any second now, his target would be walking through the door. He swayed his jet black tail to keep time. He had held his position for an hour, just in case. The door flew open and his target presented itself in the form of a deep blue pegasus with a steely grey mane. John lept and tackled Azure. “Gyah!” Azure let out a surprised yelp. John pulled himself off his son, “Told you I’d pay you back for last week.” He smirked. “Geez dad,” Now it was Azure’s turn to pick himself up and dust off. “I guess that’s why you didn’t pick me up?” “Sure as sugar boy-o!” “You are so weird dad. Besides, I didn't even do it, Blazing Star did!” He defended. “Don’t care.” “But-” “Don’t. Care.” Somethings just weren’t fixed through ponification. Azure decided it was high time to change the subject. “Hey Forest wants to go to a movie next Saturday, can I borrow the truck?” John raised an eyebrow. “It drives itself, I don’t see why not... I’m going to have to program you into the AI though.” “That’s alright.” Azure shrugged. “Hey, How about we do today’s lesson in the park?” John suggested. He had been giving Azure the long awaited flying lessons everyday for the last eight days. Ever since he himself had finished his own flying lessons from a local teacher chosen at random, some pegasus called Derpy. To say that the lessons were something special was a whole new category of an understatement. She needed the bits for her daughter though, her mailmare job just didn’t pay enough. Besides it wasn’t like she was a bad teacher, just a little... all over the place. “Sounds good.” Azure agreed. “Hey, you go ahead kiddo. I’ll meet you there.” There was some business John needed to attend to. It still seemed odd to John that he was no longer actually able to properly look down on Azure. “Well, don’t take too long dad.” Azure turned and trotted out, a tinge of concern in his voice. “Don’t worry, it wont be long.” John smiled weakly. “I just... need to say... goodbye to someone...” He was speaking to the now shut door, Azure being long gone. It was no matter. John made his way up the stairs, the clacking of his hooves reminding him of a time not too long ago at all where he could hardly stand. He laughed a little internally at the memory. Into his room. He hardly slept here anymore, most nights spent cuddling with his son. He needed to get to the black box under his bed. His was a task that would have been done long ago, if he didn’t have to relearn his body. Now was as good a time as any. He hoped she’d understand. She needed to... He lowered himself to the ground and began crawling underneath, it was a tight fit, dark and cramped. Finally, after a few moments he reached his goal. A black box he had hidden under there years ago, the silver sharpie inscription was faded but ‘Catherine’ could still be made out. He grasped it in his mouth and reversed his direction. Making it out from underneath the bed, he stood up and removed the lid. There was a jacket on top, her favorite. Green with white trim and a reflective Nike logo across the breast. The jacket she was wearing when they met. He removed it, revealing a collection of photos. Photos... and a small jewelry box. There was a good number of Catherine and John from when they first met. There were some from their later years of course, but her smiles grew so few and far between then. John let a sigh loose. He removed the box and opened it. His mother’s wedding ring glistened brilliantly in the light of the room. Just a week before she left, he had planned on proposing to her. She always seemed so down those days, and John could think of nothing better than proposing to the love of his life to cheer her up, they had been together for four years at that point and it seemed it would last forever. Funny how things turn out sometimes. John shook the memory away and went back to riffling through the precious memories. Finally he came to his favorite photo. It was framed in gold leaf and treated with a special material so it would never fade. At least in his lifetime. It was the last photo taken of Catherine smiling. She so loved the beach, John had bought a home upon that very shore as well as the beach itself as a gift, it was taken the day he gave it to her. She was wearing the Nike jacket, her light brown hair blowing in the breeze. Waves gently crashing on the rocky shoreline. The sunset behind her lending an angelic glow to her features. But of all the things, it was her smile that stood pout the most, brilliant and pure. “Hey Catherine...” John started, his voice heavy. “It’s been what, about nine years since we last spoke?” He gave a weak laugh at his own failed attempt to lighten the mood. “Well, I’ve missed you, but I guess that goes without saying. I’m trying my best to raise Azure like Celestia asked, not that she needed too. He misses you too, you know...” John was choking back his tears as best he could. “Why did you leave Catherine? We were going to get married, and start a family... Well, I guess we already did that last one kind of.” John chuckled weakly and dried his eyes with a fore leg, only for it to become soaked again. “You’d be proud of Azure, he got his cutie mark, ya know! He’s very smart too. He even has a fillyfriend now. You know, she kinda reminds me of you. I’ve even started teaching him how to fly. Kid’s gonna be somepony important.” John smiled with pride for his son. “Now... There’s something sucky I did you should know... They shut down the bureaus and Celestia stopped making potion. Only one group still continued mass production... Well, I made a deal with some bad ponies. I helped them assure mankinds destruction. Yeah, you heard right, there’s no more humans. At least, not that many. “When I was having my conversion dream thingy, Celestia approached me. She KNEW. It was the first time I felt afraid for myself since the night my dad killed himself. She wanted to know why, and I told her, ‘for my son’. She seemed... saddened? Touched? It was hard to tell for sure. But she made me promise something, that I would love and look after our son and to be the best father I could. Heh, easy enough I guess...  She also wanted me to try to find... a mother... for our son. I love you, I always will. But sometimes... Sometimes people need to move on.” John thought a moment, making sure he didn’t forget anything. “I love you Catherine, may we meet in the Celestial Herd.” John planted a kiss on the photo and placed it back in the box with the rest of the contents, this time with the photo on top. He slid it back under the bed for the last time. John looked back at the room before turning off the lights and heading out to the park. ******************************************************************************************************** John touched down in front of his son. “There you are dad, I was beginning to worry!” Azure was tapping his hoof out of impatience. “Well, I’m here now. So are you ready for today’s lesson?” John asked. “Hay yeah!” “Well lets start!” John leapt up and soared thirty feet into air, his son following. “Today we will be going over basic flying maneuvers...” **************************************AUTHOR’S NOTES: That was fun. davidhedrick95: I thought I would be editting the sequel to this story, not this one... But I could still edit it, when I can motiivate myself that is