//------------------------------//
// Epilogue: Worlds After Transcendence 
// Story: The Apocalypse Ponies: Origins 
// by PlagenShiki 
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Death:

After Grell perished at the hands of King LeMoon the Moon Kingdom began to sell the cure to The Plague that Grell found at an outrageous price. Only the richest of the nobility could afford the cure and it wasn’t long before the common folk grew disgruntled. The commoners rallied behind a rising political figure, Countess Waning. Having taken over for her father after his passing, she began to work to improve conditions for her citizens and when that proved fruitful, she began to spread her influence and aid others.

Eventually, other counts and countesses began to rally behind her in her methods and she earned support. Once she learned of the cure that the King possessed, and the way he was using it, she expressed her disapproval. When her complaints fell on deaf ears, she demanded he stop or she would make him. She was deeply suspicious about his claim about finding the cure himself and deeply felt that her old friend Grell played a part in it.

However, she had no proof of this and Grell was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she worked to build pressure against the King. When uniting various members of the nobility behind her failed, Waning decided that a change must be made. She rallied her forces and marched upon the nobles opposed to her and that supported the King. She demanded surrender, but if that failed she conquered them using her armies. Some joined her, while others were blinded by their greed for false loyalties to the King.

When she inevitably marched into the capital city, the King surrendered. However, Queen Waning, as her forces had begun to call her, was faced with a tough decision. Kill the old king, or let him go and be forced with possible rebellion. After much deliberation she ordered a public execution of the former King.

Upon his execution, she gave a speech. One that denounced tyranny and vowed that she would do all she could to help her people, including distributing the cure to The Plague. She soon after began to tour her kingdom and lend advice on how each count and countess could improve the lives of their citizens and ensuring that her citizens were not being mistreated. She quickly became known as a kind ruler, but one that wasn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty or dealing out justice.

With Queen Waning leading her people, The Moon Kingdom was brought into a new era of prosperity.

War:

When Death intervened in the beheading of Crimson, the legend of Death was renewed. A Pale black horse that came for you when you died. However, when the General witnessed this he denied it ever happened. He ordered his troops to never speak of the matter again, threatening punishment for any who did. Many of the officers who had helped Crimson were punished accordingly regardless. As such, the force the General had was reduced by the incident.

However, on the precipice of a large operation, the General had no choice but to push on. In what was to be the final, crushing victory against the Unicorn Menace, the tables were turned. With the low morale and fewer troops than they expected to have, the Scarlet Empire army was defeated while only inflicting minor damage to the enemy. Many of the Scarlet Empire troops fled the battle field when they realized the outcome, however many were killed.

Some veterans of the battle claim to have seen a black figure flying over the battlefield as the fighting raged on and ponies on both sides died. Among the dead was the General himself, and it is said the same black figure seen flying over the battle was also seen standing by the General’s corpse. However, most couldn’t recall if they had actually seen this figure, or if they had just been imagining things while under the stress of battle.

After the battle had been lost, the Scarlet Empire never launched another attack against the Magical Symposium and instead focused on other fronts. By this point in time however, a great deal of conflict in the world was beginning to fade and some could see peace on the horizon once again.

Famine:

After the death of Flora the city of Cirro continues on as though nothing had happened. However, Flora’s family which had turned her in in hopes of food were left with only sadness and anger at the mayor. The mayor had lied to them, taking their daughter but not granting them the food he promised. Before they even discovered the mayor’s treachery, however, they quickly began to regret their decision.

Flora had been their daughter, and was only trying to look after her family and other ponies who couldn’t feed themselves. They remembered the words of their daughter’s friend Glint as he was executed and began to see the truth in them. What Glint, their daughter, and her friends had been doing was good. It wasn’t them that should have been punished. While they had to dedicate more time to taking after their remaining two children, they began to get more politically active.

The talked to ponies in the neighborhood to begin with, spreading out from there. They rallied their fellow citizens against the mayor and what they called, “a serious injustice and misuse of power.” Support grew slowly at first, but after a few months they grew to a sizable number. After some time, the mayor had ordered they stop their protesting so that peace would be maintained, and used the city guard to enforce this by breaking up their meetings.

As this went on, it wasn’t long before the citizens had had enough. Soon, they revolted against the city guard, the rich, and the mayor. Much blood was spilt during this revolt and when the dust finally settled, many lay dead on both sides. The citizens had taken control of the city and elected a new mayor to the city.

A side effect of this revolt was that due to the amount of dead, food was more readily available since there were fewer mouths to feed. While rations still needed to be enforced, they were able to feed the entire population properly without running out. They managed to hold out and survive until one day when relief came from the Moon Kingdom.

Pestilence:

Following Feld’s death, the doctor began to get sicker and sicker. Without a cure for The Plague, he was unable to prevent its spread. It began slowly, as one Changeling entered to check on him. After that, The Plague began to pick up speed and began infecting Changeling and Pony alike. The army the doctor bragged to Feld about dwindled to almost nothing as almost all of them died from The Plague. However, Queen Lavari managed to escape with a few of her Changelings who were unaffiliated by The Plague.

The ponies, however, were not as lucky. Without a doctor and with no communication with the outside world they had no hope of survival and they died off one by one. The Society of Slumber’s member called Hem got infected first, out of the three remaining members. He shut himself in his room and refused to let them see him, not wanting to infect them as well.

Seeing every around them becoming sick and dying, Lucky and Aurora could only think of one thing: Survival. Aurora gathered food and water from her job and Lucky gathered as many other supplies and he could. Together, the shut themselves away in the SoS hideout. They stayed locked away in there for weeks, all the while hearing the groaning and screams of the citizens in the town above them.

Aurora’s normally happy and bubbly personality was lost and she became serious and fearful. Lucky attempted to hold things together, however there was only so much he could do. Eventually, the town above them became quiet for a period of a few days. After they thought it was safe to leave, Lucky and Aurora left the hideout and ventured back into the town.

They discovered the grisly sight of the town and that the entire population had died, except for them. However, as they looked around they saw weird black creatures littering the streets. Of all the ponies they had known, only their classmates remained. Their parents, teachers, and other adults were nowhere to be found.

However, none of the adult’s possessions had been taken. They took a last look around for any other survivors and gathered as many supplies as they could. Once they determined the town was void of life and they had all they could carry, they went to the town’s entrance. As they went to leave, they both created torches and threw them onto nearby houses, before turning and leaving the city behind them.
As they walked away from the city, it began to burn. Flames engulfed the buildings, plants, and corpses equally. The fires continued to burn until the cavern was nothing but a charred black cave. Any trace of the town or The Plague had been destroyed in the fire.