//------------------------------//
// Epilogue (or, what Pinkie and Twilight did) 
// Story: Of Earth Ponies and Their Magicks 
// by bahatumay 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight couldn't take it anymore. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her.

Again.

And even though something whispered that she would regret this, she decided to go ahead and do it anyway. Steeling herself, she walked into Sugarcube Corner.

Pinkie looked up at the jingling of the bells, and brightened. “Hiya, Twilight!” Pinkie greeted her friend.

“Hi, Pinkie. I have a question.”

“And I have an answer! Maybe.”

Twilight took a deep breath. “So, Pinkie... Let's say—hypothetically, of course—that you let the chaos go. Just for, oh, I don't know, five minutes. What would happen?”

Pinkie smiled, her grin stretching across her whole face. She knew an invitation when she heard one. “Let's go up to my room, and let me show you. Come on, Gummy!”

In Pinkie's room, Twilight quickly set up protective wards around the door and window to try and contain it; whatever it was. Pinkie walked up to the window and licked the air experimentally. “Ooh, yes, that will convert quite nicely.”

“What do you mean?”

Pinkie's response was flashing a sly smile and raising her back right hoof slowly yet with effort, as if trying to pull it out of quicksand. It got all the way up to the level of her cutie mark before she stomped.







Five minutes later, Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's private student, the embodiment of the Element of Magic, the most powerful mare in Ponyville and arguably the most powerful mare to come out of Canterlot, the unicorn who studied and understood—and enjoyed explaining—theoretical magic that assumed such blatant violations of basic theory that most considered it a useless pastime, stumbled out of Pinkie Pie's room, completely dazed and mind completely blown.

Pinkie Pie stood, smiling as she normally did, as she watched Twilight stumble down the stairs. She heard strange sounds coming from the purple mare. “But the bunnies... and the marshmallows... but my wards... rainbows... mice... the soap... but the jelly beans... and the... and the... but the marshmallows!”

Pinkie Pie giggled. “Gummy, have I mentioned that I love being me?”

Gummy, no worse for the wear of having just been a bipedal alligator the size of a manticore, blinked twice. Pinkie assumed that meant 'yes'.

From her place behind the counter, Mrs. Cake looked up and smiled at Twilight. “Twilight, dearie. How are you?”

“The marshmallows!” Twilight shrieked. And with that, she stumbled out of Sugarcube Corner.

Mrs. Cake hesitated, chewing on her lower lip thoughtfully before turning to Pinkie Pie and saying, “Pinkie? Do I want to ask?”

Pinkie smiled widely. “Nope, probably not!”

Mrs. Cake nodded and returned to her baking. “I didn't think so.”










Pinkie Pie nodded. “And that's the story.”

Discord chuckled as he literally drank the cup of tea he held. “That's quite the story, miss Pinkie Pie.”

“Yep! And every word's true.”

“Even the rap battle part?”

Pinkie grinned as she picked up a cookie. “Almost every word.”

Discord nodded. “Very well. I suppose that makes sense. Still, I don't think Screwball really deserves being in stone, do you?”

“Nope! That's why I petition for her release almost every day. Sometimes twice a day.”

“And do you think she'd be ready to adjust to this new world?”

“You adjusted, and she loves you,” Pinkie pointed out. “I think with a little friendship and cupcakes, she'll be a perfect new friend.”

Discord smiled. “I certainly hope so,” he said.

After the picnic, when Pinkie Pie was packing up all the things, he brought a paw up and gently stroked Screwball's stone mane.

“Yes,” he repeated, one corner of his mouth turning up in a twisted smile. “I certainly hope so.”