Epilogue: Unexpected Conclusions
Upon learning the truth of his existence, Rain Flare breaks down and nearly kills them both. He loses the will to live and their shared mind begins to shut down. In a panic, Rain Blade begins to shout at him, arguing that he would not let Flare do this, that he was being selfish and immature. He would not listen until Blade slapped him across the face with a hoof, sending him reeling.
"I'm not going to die just because you lost your perfect little world! I've been dealing with this uncaring reality my entire life and you don't see me giving up! I'm sorry I let myself get captured and got you created, but I will not let you kill us because you can't cope with the real world! You are going to suck it up and deal with it, and together we are going to keep our sanity for as long as we can. They'll never let us back on active duty in this condition, but we are still a member of Luna's Royale Guard, we swore to protect her at any cost, including death. But I'm not ready to die yet and I doubt that would help her at all, so we are going to stay alive and keep it together and do, our, job!"
"How are we supposed to protect her if they won't let us back on active duty?" hopeless tears stream from the false stallion's eyes as he rubs his reddening cheek. "What use is an insane test subject to the Princess of the Moon?"
"Her fondness of us was no delusion of ours, it was merely intensified by the spell. If we die she will be distraught and vulnerable, the Nightmare could take her again."
"She is hundreds of centuries old! One more dead guard she favored will not break her."
"She was all alone on the moon for a thousand years, we were one of the first to accept her and pledge our allegiance as her personal protector. We were there when everypony else was too afraid to approach her."
"It still does not change the fact that I do not belong in this world."
"It is my fault you are here so you can hate me as much as you want, but I will not let you abandon our princess because you can't handle reality."
"Why do you take such blame for my existence? You could not have known this would happen."
"I did not know, but..." Rain Blade sighs heavily and sits on his haunches, his head hanging, "It was my fault we were captured. I... I had been seeing a female changeling in secret. She swore to me that she was different from the rest, that she had broken her connections to the hive. I believed her and we began to meet in secret. She would change into different mares for me, let me live out my fantasies. Eventually I began to fall for her, asking her to be herself when we... Anyways, during one of our meetings a group of warrior changelings jumped us from the forest. At first I thought I had been betrayed, but then I saw they were attacking her as well, calling her a traitor and saying they would make her watch her pet, me, go through the experiments. And then they would lock her up with the rest of the Independents to starve. Apparently some sort of revolution had been going on in the Hive, some of the changelings were becoming more self aware and wanted to leave, to live in peace with the ponies. They brought us back to the hive and did as they had promised. The spell failed catastrophically and nearly killed me, ripping my mind in half and creating you. If I had been left awake my mind would not have been able to handle both of us living in it, so they put me into a coma and fed off of your love."
Rain Flare had sat quietly through his confession, and now speaks up.
"Fine. If I have to live in this cruel reality, then you have to live with your guilt. If you truly trusted this, Independent, then you should have taken her to your Captain and had her explain the revolution. We could have tried to assist them in getting free or even overthrowing the Queen. But instead you let your own desires rule and your decisions and caused my misery, along with hers and the countless who were wounded and died saving our sorry hide," Rain Blade did not reply, knowing Flare was right. "Why don't you wake us up, I'll stay inside and try to keep our head from splitting open."
********
Rain Blade wakes slowly, blinking his eyes. A harsh light shines down upon him as he lays in a hospital bed, instruments beeping and humming as they monitor his vitals. He catches a glimpse of a fleeing tail, most likely a nurse gone to fetch a doctor now that he has awoken. A few minutes later the nurse returns with the doctor. He proceeds to exam Blade for any kind of physical ailments, finding none he begins the questions. How is he feeling, what can he remember, does he know who he is, etcetera. When he finishes the questioning he departs. Blade briefly sees Shining Armor standing outside his door, talking with the doctor. After a moment the captain enters the room and approaches his bed, a smile on his snout, questionably genuine.
"Hey Rain Blade, how are you?"
"Save me the formalities Captain, what do you want to know?"
The smile is replaced by a stern look and the nurse quietly excuses herself, closing the door as she leaves.
"I already know everything. We got the whole story out of your secret lover. I even know that you were dreaming about my sister and her friends, they made her watch your fantasies to torture her. As of now you are on a leave of absence from the guard for medical reasons. The likelihood of you recovering enough for active duty is slim. You are to visit a psychiatrist twice a week at a time of your choosing, the appointments will be covered by the guard as a show of appreciation for your service. It is far more than you deserve for abandoning your post. I tried to keep you out of Ponyville and away from my sister and her friends, but Luna overruled me, she doesn't believe you're a danger to them, but I swear, if I hear of even the slightest incident between you and any of them, you are dead. Do you know that your other self didn't even recognize me? He cut me out of the picture entirely so he could do as he pleased with my little sister without having to worry. The things you made her do... I liked you Rain Blade, I thought we were friends, but you are sick in the head. Enjoy your retirement," The unicorn stalks out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Heaving a sigh, the thestral closes his eyes and tries to get some rest. When he wakes a few hours later, he is not surprised to find Vinyl Scratch sitting next to his bed. The DJ had been one of favorites before he had fallen for the changeling herself. He opens his mouth to apologize to her, but she silences him with a kiss.
Rain Blade is discharged from the hospital later that afternoon and the two make their way to his quarters. Together they pack up his things and bring them to the housing being provided for him by the Guard. All of the expenses being covered by the brothers and sisters he betrayed ways heavily on the stallion. He turns to drink and painkillers, buying them with the salary he no longer works for. Upon discovering that most of the guard does not know of his betrayal, many still considering him a friend and honorary brother, drives him to drink further. He is an angry drunk, but not violent, and as the buzz dies he is simply depressed. His changeling lover is one of the first to become a citizen of Equestria and takes the name of Spring Heart. Princess Luna visits him often in his dreams, though strictly platonically. Her forgiveness of his actions makes him feel worse than if she wore to scorn him, but at the same time he is happy to still be able to talk with the Moon Princess. He visits his psychiatrist every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 A.M to 3 P.M. Through the therapy he and his counterpart become friends, dealing with each other's faults (mostly Flare with Blade's). The transitions remain painful and sporadic though and often make for awkward scenes in public, leading to their further seclusion. Thus begins the rest of their life.