Epilogue
Orion, Bella and Gliese watched in disarray as Antares and Naos ran towards them. Orion looked even more confused than the other two, his whole evening having been turned upside down in the span of a few seconds.
As the two colts approached them, Bella shouted to her brother. “What the heck is going on?!”
“‘o ‘ie! ‘eks go!” replied Antares, clenching the Marblegem tightly in his mouth as he galloped right past them, followed by his impressive pile of looted goods and Naos, who was sweating and huffing like an overweight marathon runner, repeating to himself frantically that he should’ve just stayed in bed from the start.
The two colts ran a little ahead of them without being followed by their three friends, who looked to them first, then to the bakery where a figure had emerged from the front door.
“Thieves! You damn thieves! Don’t ever show your faces here again!” bellowed the baker standing in the doorway and waving her hoof angrily in the air.
“‘eks go!” yelled Antares, and the three other ponies ran along with him and without question, away from town and into the dusk.
After a good 10 minutes of running, they had travelled through the many small alleys of Canterlot, cutting through crowds and eliciting a few surprised grunts of disapproval, before exiting the city through a back passage that Antares knew, which led out of the city through a breach in the great outer wall. They found themselves running through the country outside, stretching out in great grassy hills and slopes.
Eventually Antares stopped running, the others following suit, atop one such hill not far from Canterlot river. Antares took the Marblegem in his hoof and used it to slowly lower all the cake he had taken to the ground. The four other ponies with him were content to simply fall to the ground and huff loudly to catch their breath, except Bella, who stood in front of Antares and glowered at him.
“We got a great view over the river here, Sis. You’re kinda blocking mine.”
“What the hell happened in there, Antares?!” fumed Bella.
“We hit a little snag is all,” he replied casually.
“A snag?”
“Yeah, but it’s all good now, we pulled it off! Hope y’all got a sweet tooth back there!” he said to the others in a chuckle.
“No, Antares, it’s not ‘all good’!” replied Bella. “The baker saw us! We’re criminals now!”
Gliese looked over to them with fear. “We are…?”
“Oh come on! You’re scaring the little one, Bel, it was just a--”
“And just what the buck were you doing there?!” shouted Naos to Gliese, having seemingly regained all his strength in an instant upon remembering the foal was there and now towering over his mortified little brother.
“I… I just…”
“You were spying on us, weren’t you?” growled Naos. “You gonna tell mom, huh? You’re gonna go snivelling to her and make me look like a bastard again?!”
“I brought him here,” said Antares. Naos looked over to him with a piercing glare, but Antares remained unflinching. He looked as serious as he did earlier that day. Naos was at a loss for words and looked as though he was blow a fuse.
“Why?” was the only thing he managed to say. Antares shrugged.
“Thought he’d like a sweetie or two, I dunno.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?! Dammit Antares you promised that--”
“Your brother went though a lot of trouble to do this,” cut in Antares. “He was the only one who stuck his neck out to the baker directly, and he did it all just for you. I’d say some congratulations are in order.”
Naos looked back at Gliese. The foal looked back at him in apprehension.
“I thought you’d be happy,” he said in a small voice. “I thought… if I did this, you wouldn’t think I was useless.”
Naos looked down at his little brother with a new look. He seemed less furious and more intrigued.
“I… I don’t think you’re useless,” he said softly. “But that was dangerous! What were you thinking?”
“You’re just always so mad all the time. I don’t wanna see you mad, because you’re my big brother. I just wanna make you smile.”
Inside, Naos was feeling something unknown tugging at his heart.
“Would somepony please explain to me what’s going on?” asked Orion, still out of breath.
“You are, that’s what!” replied Antares with a broad smile. “The stallion of the hour! Happy birthday Orion!”
Orion wanted to thank him, but instead stared at his beaming friend as though he’d just announced he was pregnant. Bella watched the two of them in apprehension.
“Did you just… rob a bakery?” asked Orion after a few seconds.
Antares looked at his stash, then back to him. “I suppose I did,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Orion nodded slowly. “You’re insane,” he said. He then cracked a small, sly smile. “You’re absolutely nuts.”
“Which is why you can’t get enough of me,” replied Antares.
Orion looked around at the other ponies. “So wait, you all helped with this?”
“It was Antares’s idea,” said Bella, stepping towards him. “I guess it was his twisted idea of something fun to do for a friend’s birthday.”
“Yeah well there’s that,” said Antares. “And also… you’ve been acting kinda strange lately. I thought you might have had something on your mind, so i thought I’d pull you out of your own big head.”
Bella stepped in closer to Orion, who felt a bit awkward being at such an almost intimate distance from her. “Is this true?” she asked with concern.
Orion looked at them both in discomfort before sighing.
“It’s just this place, I guess. I mean, thinking of the world in which I was born. Just makes me think about my dad, and what it would have been like if things had been just a little… just a little different -- you guys know how it is.”
He sat down on the hill and began to look down at the river below, catching its flow in his mind.
“Makes you think… I could have been born and lived at any other point in time, even in the distant past or future. But out of all the odds, it was here, and now. I can dream all I want, and yet I can’t begin to imagine just how different life can truly be. We come and go, and everyone we meet has also just arrived or is leaving forever. Pony… Changeling… Every path converges in one central point we can’t put on a map. I mean, for us that point is war, but when you think that this world has seen it all… It’s crazy.”
Bella and Antares looked at each other. There was something in both their looks that could not be put into words, but could be understood from one to the other. Her brother’s grin was still there, although smaller now. She had a small tear in her eye. She sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder.
“Yeah,” she said. “We know.”
Orion smiled softly. “Thanks for caring, but I’m alright, really. I go to church for this sort of thing.”
Bella raised her head and looked at him in surprise. “You go to church?”
“Yeah, sometimes I’ll go there and pray to forget about things.”
“Bro, that’s gay as hell,” said Antares. Bella shot him a furious glance, but both he and Orion chuckled.
“I like to think that it’s beautiful, really… I mean, here we are, all at more or less the same level, going through life together. If you guys weren’t here, neither would I. And my dad would probably still be alive. That’s just how the universe rolls.”
The three of them were silent for a while. Night had fallen on the hills.
Bella watched the stream downhill silently, wondering about those that had come and gone. She thought of Lady Gemmaline and how she had compared her to her mother. She wondered if the old mare had had the same thoughts as Orion, at that time.
Antares sat down next to his friend and his sister and looked at the river, wondering if he was staring at the same point as Orion.
“You know I’m not brainy enough to think all that stuff,” he said. “But... I get it. I guess as long as we have each other… It’s all good.”
Behind them, Naos and his brother were listening at them intently. They then turned turned to each other.
“I won’t tell mom,” said Gliese. “I promise.”
Naos looked back at him in confusion. He felt terribly ashamed of himself. For a moment Gliese was afraid he might just turn around and leave without a word.
“Tell her what you want,” said Naos. “I don’t care. I’m who I am, and she has me whether she likes it or not. And I got you.”
He put a hoof on his little brother’s head and ruffled his mane. “And I like that,” he added.
The young colt beamed at his now smiling brother. “Want a cupcake?”
“Sure,” said Naos.
“They got this one, it’s got Everfree forest blueberries! They’re your favorite!”
Naos looked at him in surprise. “How d’you know that?”
“I dunno, I just know,” he said shrugging. Naos grinned and had to admit Orion did make a lot of sense.
They each got a cake from the pile and went to sit down next to their three friends.
“You guys want some?” asked Gliese.
“Sure, I’ll have one," said Antares. He then turned to face Orion, having suddenly thought of something. “Oh hey, I wanted to ask you--”
“It’s cinnamon,” said Orion. “I hate cinnamon.”
Antares winced and turned to back to the river. “Damn. I thought I knew you just now, but turns out I don’t know shit.”
Orion smiled.
It had been a good birthday.
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