//------------------------------// // The Third Generation Epilogue // Story: The Third Generation // by Candle Light //------------------------------// The Third Generation Epilogue By Candle Light “Are you sure this is where you want the statue?” Princess Luna asked, hovering the large sculpture in her dark-blue magic field. “I am, darling,” Rainbow Dash replied. “After all, this hill is where we landed when we returned to the village that day. It seems... fitting, somehow.” Luna nodded, and gently put the statue down on the ground. A small crowd, including Twilight, Spike, Applejack and straight-maned Pinkie Pie looked up at it, admiring the fine art courtesy of some of the finest craftsponies in Canterlot. Spike let out a whistle. “So this is Andromeda...” “Down to the last feature,” said Twilight proudly. “I gave them my memories as a point of reference.” “That’s magic for you,” Pinkie Pie chuckled. Rainbow Dash cast an admiring look at the statue, then over New Ponyville that sprawled below. She still couldn’t believe how much it had grown in only three months. The boulders surrounding the fields had taken weeks to get rid of, but after that, it hadn’t been long before Applejack had resumed what she had started the day she had first met the villagers: teaching them how to grow their own crops, and tend to their own food production. More and more settlers had come to join their ranks, and under the careful planning of Twilight Sparkle, shops had been set up, and in only two months, the town had a working economy. By the consent of the villagers, Rainbow Dash included, Wysteria had been elected the mayor of New Ponyville. Rainbow Dash was quite happy to focus on her job as a seamstress, and had gotten quite proficient at working with non-bendable hooves. Under Wysteria’s lead, the village had grown to almost double the size of the town she was used to. And she knew it would grow bigger still. The Capital of Harmony, with its castle that had quickly become one of Equestria’s most famous landmarks, would most likely outgrow the ‘old’, regular Ponyville. Rainbow Dash hoped it wouldn’t grow too big; Wysteria had worked with Celestia to make sure that the ‘original’ part of town would always stay the same, and that the forests surrounding it would never be cut down. Rainbow Dash smiled to herself. Yes, this was definitely the most darling place for the statue. Who better to look over her fair town than the guardian of the Elements herself? For now, their biggest concern was getting ready for the Millennial Celebration. In only two days, Equestria would officially be five thousand years old. The party would reach all over the land, but the main event would take place here, in New Ponyville, the Capital of Harmony. Even if they couldn’t cram all of Equestria in their still relatively small town – not for lack of trying on Pinkie’s part – there was no doubt that it was going to attract the largest crowd. Twilight hovered her clipboard over to her face, and checked off something with a pen. “Pinkie, are you done with the decoration?” “Nah, not yet,” straight-maned Pinkie replied. “My double said she needed more time to set up the cannons, and something about asking her sisters on the rock farm for help. We’ll have it done by tonight, don’t worry.” “Alright. Applejack, how’s food?” “The whole darn family’s workin’ like bees to have enough done by tomorrow night,” Applejack told her. “The pegasi are helpin’ out, making ice cream. Star Catcher says pegasi are crazy ‘bout the stuff.” “Good, everything’s on schedule then,” Twilight said, nodding. “All that’s left is checking if Fluttershy is ready with the bird choir for tomorrow morning.” “Boy howdy, something tells me this is gonna be the biggest party Equestria’s seen yet,” said Applejack, smiling at the statue. “Bigger even than when we defeated Discord.” “Well, we do aim to please,” Pinkie Pie said. Twilight smiled, remembering that day three months ago; it had been a party unlike any other, both Pinkie Pies on top of their game, lasting all night and well into the morning. This time, celebrating the beginning of the sixth millennium, the party ponies were determined to out-do themselves. “Ah don’t wanna ruin the surprise,” Applejack said to Rainbow Dash, grinning, “but trust me when Ah say we got somethin’ special in store!” *** “That’s perfect! Well, maybe not perfect perfect; actually, maybe it needs to be a bit to the right. No, definitely not, a scooch to the right! No, wait—!” “Minty, no offense, but how about you let us handle this,” Sparkle Works told her. Puzzlemint nodded in agreement. “Why don’t you go help Wysteria with the flower arrangement?” “She said she’s got it under control,” Minty told them. “Everypony seems to have something or other to do, so I’m not sure where else to go.” “Done with the mints already?” “Hours ago!” said Minty with pride. “There’s enough for all of Equestria. Well, maybe not all of Equestria, that would just be silly.” Minty laughed to herself. “But enough to go around! Y’know, maybe I’ll help the Breezies put up the the balloons!” “They would like that, no kidding,” Puzzlemint agreed. “I’m sure they need some help with the streamers as well. I heard Zipzee was having trouble placing those.” “Then the Breezies it is!” said Minty happily. “Catch you later!” Minty still wasn’t used to seeing so many ponies around town, but she definitely didn’t mind it. So many new faces – many of them colts – meant so many new friends. Everypony was helping out with the preparation, putting up all sorts of decoration – most of them rainbow-themed – as well as magical items that would illuminate the town when the celebration began. Just thinking about it made her giddy. The Breezies – who had grown in number since they were freed from the dream world – were fluttering about the castle in the town’s center. Though it wasn’t one of those magic and really old castles made of crystal, it still had a special place in her heart. Dream or not, she had so many precious memories from this place – tarnished only slightly by the argument between Sweet Berry and Razzaroo, but those were hard times – and even though she had her own rather large chamber in the Crystal Rainbow Castle, she still found herself returning to this one more frequently. “Zipzee!” she called out, and the yellow pixie pony turned around, smiling as Minty approached. “Need some help?” “Do I? Tralala says we should put red streamers with green streamers, but that just doesn’t sit right with me, so then Tiddlywink said, ‘what about pink streamers?’, and I told her it blends too much with the castle, and—” And so, for the next hour or so, Minty helped the Breezies with their decorating, taking their time to get it perfect. It was nice, having only the placement of balloons and streamers to worry about. It seemed like such a long time ago now that they were racing across all of Equestria in order to prevent its destruction. Had she really almost starved to death? Had they actually beat Discord after he had imprisoned them a second time? It was almost scary how quickly Minty had adapted to her ‘normal’ lifestyle. Quicker, perhaps, than most of her friends. “There,” said Minty, admiring her work. “Now that’s perfect. Ooor maybe just a smidge to the—” “Minty!” “I mean uh, yeah, it’s perfect.” “Perfect indeed.” Minty turned around to see Kenbroth looking at the castle. “Hi, Kenbroth!” one of the Breezies said. “Are you here to light the torches? Are you done with firework preparation? Is there anything we can do to help?” Kenbroth laughed. “No, my tiny friends, everything is coming along nicely. I came here for Minty, actually. Because I sure hope she hasn’t forgotten our special surprise for our big number. You promised you’d help, remember?” “Did I?” Minty thought for a moment. “Ohh, I did.” Minty laughed. “Oh, yeah, this is gonna be good!” *** Kimono stood on top of the highest tower of the Crystal Rainbow Castle, looking over her town, considerably bigger than she once knew. Princess Celestia was setting the sun over the mountains, dying the landscape in an orange glow. Kimono could hear the bustling of ponies still working to finish preparations for the Millennial Celebration. She felt a sense of pride in her chest; her town, once only a collection of houses by the mountainside, was beginning to form into a city in its own right. The Capital of Harmony. It had a nice ring to it. She heard a fluttering from the side, and turned around just as Star Catcher landed on the platform. “Done for the day?” asked Kimono. “Some of the ponies are still at it, but they should be done shortly,” her friend replied. “Turns out, building a sky high tower of ice cream was a lot harder in real life than in the dream world.” Kimono chuckled. “Good thing we have magic at our disposal.” “Yes, and Celestia’s knowledge of pegasus magic helps too,” said Star Catcher. The pegasus joined Kimono at her side, and gazed over the twilit New Ponyville. They stood there for a moment, enjoying each other’s company, until Star Catcher broke the silence. “Life is strange, you know. We’ve been so busy lately, we forget to take a step back and realize just how strange it is that we ended up like this.” “I have thought about it every day since Discord disappeared,” Kimono told her. “In a way, we have him to thank for all of this. If he hadn’t done what he did to us, we would have lived out our lives in the last millennium. We would never have met the Princesses, or Twilight and her friends...” “I wouldn’t have minded that life, I think” Star Catcher shared. “No responsibilities, just living quietly in our village...” “I will miss that quiet,” said Kimono. “But I don’t mind our town changing. We need change, and we need to learn to adapt. Under the circumstances, I’d say these last few months has gone rather well.” “Well, minus a villain or two,” Star Catcher pointed out. “The people of Equestria weren’t kidding when they told us how much peril it goes through. There was the return of the ancient sea pony king...” “And the whole ordeal with Sombra and the crystal ponies. That was a close one.” “And Tirek, but thankfully, Twilight dealt with him before it could get out of hoof.” “And each time, the people of Equestria showed us that they were willing to stand tall against anything that would threaten it.” The two of them chuckled in unison. There really wasn’t anything Equestria could throw at them that they couldn’t handle. “I still don’t know that we’re worthy,” Kimono told Star Catcher. “Of being the new Bearers, I mean. It’s not like our village is the shining example of ponies living in harmony; we disagree and quarrel sometimes, just like all ponies do.” “I think that’s enough,” said Star Catcher simply. “We’re just ponies. Ponies who, despite being under the paws of the god of chaos, were able to reclaim our lives and find our way back to harmony.” Kimono smiled. “I suppose no one can ask more of anypony.” *** The very second the sun set the next night, the party cannons that Pinkie Pie had installed throughout the village exploded at once, marking the beginning of the celebration. Lights were cast onto the streets by magic orbs placed all around, and music began playing in huge speakers by New Ponyville’s largest stage. The party was on, and all of both Ponyvilles – as well as a huge chunk of the population from Canterlot – were packed on the streets, where those who didn’t care for dancing were playing games among the stands, or trying out new delicacies by chefs from all over Equestria. The poofy-maned Pinkie Pie hopped from place to place, checking to see if everypony was having a good time. And from what she could see, they were having the time of their lives. An excellent start to what would sure to go down in history as the Biggest Party Ever, period. Satisfied that everything was running as it should, Pinkie Pie started making her way to the place where she’d promised to meet her friends. The new millennium would start in about an hour, and she would not miss spending it in the company of the best ponies in the world. She bounced through the crowd; the hill where Andromeda’s statue was looking over the city was crowded with ponies who would rather have this moment romantic and quiet, save for children running up and down the slope. It took Pinkie barely any time at all to reach the top, where a whole group of ponies were gathered by the statue. Twilight and her friends, their New Ponyville counterparts, Kenbroth, the Princesses, Wysteria, Razzarroo, Sweet Berry and Cheerilee; Trixie was there too, sitting by little Rarity. Twilight waved. “We saved you a spot!” “Thank you!” she said, jumping straight into the open space between her counterpart and Fluttershy. “Pinkie Pie reporting all clear!” “You’ve done a darling job, darlings,” earth-pony Rainbow Dash complimented them both. “And you put it together in just two days! You two are miracle workers!” “Yeah, we’re getting good at it now,” straight-maned Pinkie Pie said with a small laugh. “It’s like we can read each other’s thoughts.” “It’s the Party Senses,” poofy-maned Pinkie told her. “It’s like Pinkie Senses, only for parties!” “Right,” said pegasus Rainbow Dash, and left it at that. “So, now that we’re entering a new millennium, how about we make some New Year’s resolutions?” “You do realize it’s not actually New Year’s, right?” Twilight commented. “Not according to the official calender that we’ve been using ever since Equestria was founded.” “Details schmetails! Equestria’s turning five thousand! Me, I promise I’ll be the greatest Wonderbolt the group has ever seen!” The others smiled; only two months before, she had been admitted to the Wonderbolt Academy, and was well on her way of becoming a full-fledged member. “And I promise,” Twilight said, “that I’ll finally reach a breakthrough on my Echo studies this year.” “I’m sure you will,” said Celestia, nodding encouragingly. “We’re so close.” “What’s your resolution, Princess?” asked Rainbow Dash. Celestia thought on it for a moment. “Alright, then. I vow to keep Harmony safe, and to never let it disappear from Equestria. And to keep watching over my people, until the day I am gone.” “You go, Princess!” said Rainbow Dash. Then, in turn, she pointed to Fluttershy and Applejack. “And I guess you two are gonna promise to take care of even more animals, and you to make your farm bigger.” Applejack laughed. “You know us too well, Rainbow.” “What about you, Trix?” little Rarity asked the light-blue magician. She wasn’t wearing her hat as much these days, and today was no exception. “Do you have anything special for the new year?” “Becoming more great and powerful?” suggested Fluttershy. The group laughed. “Well, ye of little faith,” Trixie replied, but unlike before, there was no spite in her voice. “Since you asked, I might as well confirm that with a yes, I aim to become the Greatest and Most Powerful. How, you may ask?” She stood up, and without warning, walked over to Princess Luna... then sank to her knees. “Princess Luna, I would be honored if you would see it fit to take me on as your apprentice.” The ensuing silence was punctuated by the sound of partying ponies in the background. Every jaw in the group dropped, all eyes staring at Trixie and Luna, the latter who looked as though she had just been asked to do a dance on her hind legs. The Princess regarded Trixie for a moment, and the air became thick with anticipation. But to everypony’s immense surprised, Luna burst out laughing. “How amusing!” she said. “You have the nerve to ask a Princess directly to be your mentor. Never have I met a pony with such disregard for propriety!” Trixie said nothing, gazing back at the Princess with a neutral expression. “I admire your courage.” The Princess stood... and then, she put a hoof on Trixie’s shoulder. “Very well. I shall teach you. It gives me an opportunity as well, for I have long entertained the idea of starting a school such as the one my sister runs.” Trixie beamed with her whole face. “Thank you, Princess Luna! I will not let you down! To be honest, I had intended to ask you long ago, but I thought this seemed like the perfect opportunity.” “Oooh, so this is what you meant when you said you had ‘business’ left at Canterlot,” pegasus Rainbow Dash said. “Y’know, right before we ran into all that stuff with Andromeda? I never remembered to ask, and it’s been bothering me ever since.” “Yes, well, the opportunity never seemed right,” Trixie said as she walked back to little Rarity, who congratulated her whole-heartedly with a hug. Pinkie Pie felt all warm inside watching those two; they really had become the best of friends, and Pinkie was proud of her part in it, as dubious as it had seemed at first. “I get to come visit, don’t I?” little Rarity said to Trixie. Trixie gave her a friendly nudge. “You’d better.” *** For the next hour, the twelve of them just sat, talked, ate, and listened to the music playing all over town. Earth-pony Rainbow Dash was happy for the moment of peace to spend with her friends. These past few days had been nothing but running from one place to another, helping the Pinkie Pies put everything together. She didn’t envy Wysteria’s position, having to oversee all the economics and make all the decisions around town, but Rainbow Dash had nonetheless taken time to help her out any way she could. As rewarding as it was at the end of the day, right now, she wanted only the company of her friends, and nothing more. The music began to quiet down. Everypony knew what that meant. “It’s time,” Princess Celestia said, the excitement apparent in her voice. Rainbow Dash’s heart pounded like a drum; the show they were about to see, Twilight had alluded to for weeks, and Rainbow Dash had a good guess of what it might be. The countdown began. Ponies from all over New Ponyville – and, she was sure, all over Equestria – rang out in unison. “Ten!” “Nine!” “Eight!” “Seven!” Rainbow Dash glanced to the side, and saw the smiles on her friends’ faces. They were looking forward to this as much as she was. “Six.” “Five!” “Four!” In the corner of her eye, the cerulean pony saw another group of ponies standing beside their group. She noticed with half a mind their peculiar costumes, covered with scales that made them look closer to dragons – or lizards – than ponies, jewels on their flanks. Definitely some of the most creative costumes she had seen yet. “Three” “Two!” Rainbow Dash tensed. “One!” And then it happened. Fireworks exploded in the black night sky, but not just any old fireworks. These were powered by the magic of harmony, and with each blast, Rainbow Dash felt the Elements resonate in her very being. Though they weren’t quite as radiant as a Sonic Rainboom, together – hundreds of them blowing up at once – the sight filled her heart with what felt, in that moment, like eternal happiness. Not for the first time, she imagined that she could disappear right then and there and be perfectly happy with her life. The cheering and whooping rang across town, and seemed to go on for ages. It wasn’t long until the music started again, and the party resumed with double the fervor. Rainbow Dash slumped down to the ground again, exhausted from the excitement. The ponies in costumes, she noticed, were gone. “May this year be a good one!” Applejack said, raising her mug of apple cider in a toast. The ponies around her raised theirs as well, touching them together, then tipping them back to drink deeply of Sweet Apple Acres’ finest. “Give it all you got, Equestria!” Minty called into the sky. “We’re ready for anything!” “That we are, darlings!” Rainbow Dash agreed. “Everything is coming up rainbows! Rainbows, darlings, rainbows!” Special thanks to EquesTRON for helping out with the editing.