//------------------------------//
// Epilogue: "Will You Miss Me Celestia? I'll Miss You." 
// Story: A Heart of Stone 
// by BorgiaBrony 
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A Heart of Stone
Epilogue



He woke up in the present, still on the cliffside. The air around him was thick with the darkness of the night sky, despite it being fairly late in the morning. He heard a dim murmur coming from the city below him. He peered over the edge of the cliff to see what was going on. All throughout Canterlot, perhaps throughout all of Equestria, ponies gathered together, huddling close for comfort. Each and everypony was holding a single candle in hoof. The sheer number of them lit the streets of Canterlot in the darkness: Equestrians were grieving for their princess.

As soon as he saw the funeral procession below for what it was, he recoiled slowly. He turned his gaze back to the darkened mass lying on the cold stony floor. He crawled on all fours over to it, took it into his arms, and wept. He wept for his youthful stupidity. He wept for his ancient mistakes. He wept for his now meaningless future. And above all, he wept for her. He wept and wept until he was out of tears to weep.  

Several hours later, when he finally regained something vaguely resembling composure, he gently placed the limp corpse back onto the ground. Her violet eyes were closed now, never again to brighten the day of anypony who saw them. Her mane was now rustled and dull, both far cries from its former flowing glory. Yet her beauty and majesty persisted, even in death. As he continued to hear the chants and cries rising from Canterlot, he knew that he wanted to…needed to give one last tribute to his friend.

He walked over to the edge and snapped his fingers. Almost immediately, the moon set and her sun flew to the center of the sky. He turned his head toward the top half of the mountain. He snapped with his other hand, and the entirety of the peak, right up to a few feet above the cliff he stood upon, burst into a huge cloud of stone dust. When the dust settled, quite the transformation had occurred. Where there had once been moss and twig, there was now hooves and a tail. Where there had once been rock and mud, there was now a mane and a crown. Where there had once been a cold, unforgiving mountain peak, there was now a colossal stone statue of a benevolent, loving alicorn, eternally watching over her subjects.

His attention turned to Celestia’s body. He could not and would not use the chaotic magic that drove them apart to bury her. No. It would be a labor of love. He conjured up a heavy shovel and began digging right there on the cliff. It was hard work. Harder work than anything he had done in a long time. Crutching on magic for so long would do that he guessed. But after a while, he had created a grave of sufficient size.  For lack of a better option, he did have to conjure a coffin, but never before had a more beautiful coffin been made. It was made out of solid and was laden with jewels along each of its sides. Along the cover were images of Celestia’s life. From the days in the garden, to their first battle, to banishing her sister, to challenging the changeling queen, they were all there.  “A fulfilled life,” Discord thought. What did he ever do with his life? Cement himself as a loathed figure in Equestrian history?  Be used as a tyrant’s secret weapon? Alienate one of the only ponies who ever cared for him?

He lowered her into the coffin’s velvety interior before lowering it into the dirt. He slowly refilled the hole as the sun beat down upon his back.  After the mound had been filled, the only thing left missing was a tombstone. He walked over to the stone wall of the mountain and clawed at it with his talons, eventually managing to carve out a headstone sized slab. He took the hunk of rock into his arms, and began carving with his claws. When he stuck the thing into the ground at the head of the grave, it read: 


 Here lies a ruler, a sister, and a dear friend. 
Rest In Peace, Princess Celestia of Equestria.
“Will you miss me Celestia? I’ll miss you.”


When he was finally finished, he sat down, stared at the grave, and waited. He waited for a long time, but nothing happened.  Every fiber in his being wanted him to stay there until the day he died.  The only thing was, he didn’t know if he was so blessed with mortality. And even if he was, all that time in stone interfered with his physical growth and ageing. He was barely a day older than he was when he was first imprisoned. Death, if it was coming for him at all, was still a long way off.

With a heavy heart, he decided that he couldn’t stay in Equestria. Without a purpose, without harmony, without her, life would be unbearable. The books he read growing up had always talked about the mysterious places beyond Equestria.  The areas nothing, pony or otherwise, dared to travel. That’s where he would go to spend the remainder of his days.

As he had done before, he clutched the air near to him, and pulled on it, opening a tear in his reality. On the other side of the portal was a swirling conflagration of purple and green light.  He hadn’t a clue where it would take him exactly, nor did he care.  Maybe there would be nothing else there. Maybe there would be other beings. Maybe they could learn from his mistakes. Maybe they couldn’t.  All he knew was that there was nothing left for him in Equestria.

He stepped into the portal one leg at a time.  He eased the rest of himself into it slowly, and quickly turned around to get one last look at the grave before he closed it up for good. At first he thought his eyes were deceiving him, but he soon realized that he was sure in what he was seeing. Floating behind the tombstone was a mass of swirling white and yellow light. It stayed in place, stagnant, for several seconds, before reaching down to the ground. The ball of light sluggishly rose up from the ground, recreating a ghostly pony piece by piece. When it was over, Celestia’s spirit stood before him.

He stood there, in the space between spaces, dumfounded. They looked at each other for a long time. Then she smiled a smile which said it all. “Thank you, Dizzy. And don’t you worry about me. I’ll be fine. We’ll see each other again someday.” And as quickly as she had appeared, Celestia’s ghost unfurled her wings and flew off into the now setting sun. 


The End