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// Prologue 
// Story: What Comes After 
// by dracone 
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		Lovestruck stood before the throne of Princess Cadance, why the alicorn ruler of the Crystal Empire wanted to see her was a mystery to the light pink mare. Lovestruck was a unicorn mare with a very light pink coat that could confused for white, in fact the father of her foal had made that very mistake when he told her how he would describe her, her dark pink mane and tail could easily be mistaken for that of another pink mare in Ponyville, and her cutie mark showed just how dedicated to romance she was. Her cutie mark was a dark pink bow with an arrow that had a heart shaped head notched in it with three smaller hearts near the the bow (one near the grip and two by the drawstring). 
Lovestruck was nervous, she had left her daughter with Valiant Heart in the royal nursery and was worried why the Princess had insisted she be alone for this meeting with her. She didn't mind Valiant Heart, on numerous occasions he had taken the time to foalsit for Lovestruck while she attended to urgent matters at the Princess's behest. Before she had lived in the Cyrstal Empire Lovestruck had lived in Ponville and made it her mission to use her magic to make sure couples had a truly authentic loving Hearts and Hooves day every year, but in the Crystal Empire she had the prestigious duty of being the Hoof of the Princess and the Princess's proxy in times of urgency, on some occasions she had even been asked to act as a stand-in for the royal couple while they attended to other other matters. Love didn't hate her job, she actually found it enjoyable at times, but she also missed her activities of going around Ponyville or one of the major cities of Equestria to help make sure the love stayed alive. 
Those activities became something of a series of fond memories when she met her special stallion and had a foal with him, to her knowledge only one other pony was only half crystal pony and she had only heard about the crystal mare that had the filly. Her husband had been a crystal pegasus in Princess Cadance's royal guard, but as comes with all guard ponies he fell victim to an accident. When he had awoken he couldn't remember everything for as far back a whole year before he met Lovestruck properly, and by that time she had been carrying their foal for a good seven months. No matter what the healers in and outside the Crystal Empire did they couldn't restore his memory, and every attempt to do so when it came to Lovestruck caused his memory to reset to how it was after the accident. They had asked Princess Twilight to look into situation, she did remarkably well considering the tendencies she had during her own pregnancy at the time. What she had discovered related to several other crystal ponies as well, King Sombra had cursed the lines of thirteen crystal pony families to always forget everything involving the ponies they had the greatest love for if they ever suffered an immensely powerful traumatic event, which unfortunately for Lovestruck the love of her life did hence why his memory kept resetting back to how it was before the two had gotten to know each other properly.
She was sure this meeting had something to do with her should-have-been husband, but was entirely sure. "Ah, you're early," said Cadance as she trotted in behind Lovestruck and trotted with the regalness that Love had come to know about the Princess of Love. "You are no doubt wondering why you are here," Lovestruck gave an affirming nod, "well since every attempt to bring the father of your daugher back to you has proved to be... ineffective, and everytime your daughter told her father she was we had to start all over again," Lovestruck started crying silently, Cadance knew this would be painful and had resolved to do all this without sneaking things around Lovestruck, the two had become fast friends due to the similarities in their magics and natures, "I have decided your time as the 'Hoof of the Princess' shall end as of this coming sundown as you and your filly will be returning to Ponyville. I am sorry, but all the pain you have had to endure is just too much for everypony that knows you, and your husband is one of our best when we aren't expending our resources to bring him back up to speed on current events. As we agreed with you the knowledge of who your daughter's father is kept from him on grounds that the knowledge could to dangerous for him."
"We know all this already Cadance," said Lovestruck with sorrow seeping through her loving toned voice, "you could move us anywhere, so, why Ponyville?"
"A number of reasons," said Cadance, "the two biggest being that my sister-in-law resides in Ponyville with her family and I want you to try becoming good friends with her, the second reason is I think that Ponyville is just the kind of setting you need to finally calm your aching heart. I do not wish to forget your love, I just want you to find a way to come to terms with this tragedy in your life and I believe Ponyville is one of the best places for you to do that. I have always a believed that a love that is true and begets something as wonderful as the gifts we have will always find a way to overcome hardships, and have yet to encounter anything to contradict that. So I urge you to not lose faith in the love you shared with everypony in your life."
"I understand your majesty," said Lovestruck with a hopeful voice, "my greatest wishes right now are for Sky Emerald to no longer be afflicted by his curse and for my daughter to know her father."
"Both are good wishes," said Cadance with a smile, "and I hope that one day they can be answered in the way you hope.
“It's been so long since I was in Ponyville,” said Lovestruck with a bit of nostalgia, “I think Sweetheart Tale will do well there,” she gave a soft smile and said, “will your colt come to visit us?”
“Of course,” said Cadance, “he has somepony that he says might be very special to him in Ponyville,” she gave a smile that said she knew that it could be more than that.
“Mom,” came the worried voice Valiant Heart, “Story's disappeared again, I can't find her anywhe... there you are, what do think were... where did you get those?” What sounded like a Valiant Heart hitting the ground hard followed shortly after that.
The two mare rushed out of the Crystal Throne Room to where the colt and young filly were. When they found the two on the walkway that lead to the royal gardens it was hard not to laugh, they couldn't hold it in for more than five seconds before bursting into laughter at the sight. Valiant Heart was on walkway like he had just been hit with a paralysis spell while a bright green unicorn filly with a dark pink mane and tail was holding a collection of steamy romance novels in her pinkish violet magic and jumping about trying to get them out of the air. After watching the scene for about a minute Cadance undid the paralysis spell on Valiant while Lovestruck took the books from her daughter, Lovestruck's dark pink aura caused her daughter to giggle.
“Alright Lance,” said Cadance, “tell us what happened just before we got here,” she was lightly giggling between words.
“Vlance fall down,” said Story with a giggle.
The two mares giggled at the nickname Story used for Valiant.
“Well,” said Lance, “I was looking for Story after she managed disappear when I told her we wouldn't be playing hide and seek today, and then she shows up with those adult romance books in her saddle bags, I made a move to gently remove the books from her possession when she had a surge that full incapacitates me and some how made it so the books are floating just out of her reach. It was like that for a few seconds before you both made a go at showing up, sorry I did a bad job auntie Love.”
“You did just fine, Lance,” said Lovestruck, “I just thought she was out of the magical surge stage since the last surge was over five months ago.”
“So,” said Cadance with a smirk, “she's hopeless romantic like her mother?”
“No, she just likes reading different kinds of character interactions,” said Lovestruck, “Sweetheart, you aren't ready for those kinds of books.”
“She's not ready for books at all,” said Lance as he rubbed his legs, “she can barely read anything more than three sentences long.”
“She's five years old, Lance,” said Cadance, “you could barely read that much at her age, although you had stopped having surges at around where she is now. However, your aunt Twilight was so dedicated to learning magic at that age that she became capable of reading some of the more complex tomes after a few months of dedicated study.”
“I doubt Story will be up to Twilight's level of educational advancement, but I suppose she could help with her magic lessons.”
“Why is that?” Inquired Lance, seeing as he hadn't been present when Cadance had made her announcement to Lovestruck.
“Sweetheart and I will be moving to Ponyville tomorrow,” said Lovestruck, “your mother insisted on it.”
“Oh,” said Lance before he ruffled the filly's mane a bit, “I guess I won't be watching this little tyke then, I'll see about visiting you both when I'm in Ponyville.”
“I know, I just hope Sweetheart does well at making friends. I remember when she just met you both, the poor dear was so scared of you she tried to always keep me between the two of you.”
“One she was two years old,” said Valiant Heart, “and two she warmed up to us after a few weeks.”
“Yes well,” said Lovestruck, “I'm worried how she'll take meeting Twilight's family after all this time, the last time I saw Twilight was before Story was even born.”
Sweetheart Tale looked at her mother curiously, but didn't say anything. As much as she would like for her daughter to talk, Lovestruck had only heard her daughter twelve words over the filly's whole life. Those four words being mommy, daddy (which caused her husband to return to his affliction), auntie and Vlance being the most common, basic words like up, fall, down and in were among the words she attached to words associated ponies.

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It hadn't been hard to pack up their belongings that night, the two had very little in the way of personal possessions. Lovestruck looked out the window as she saw the landscape speeding by. After observing the scenery change she turned her attention back to her daughter, Sweetheart was still curled up next to her mother, the filly would tap her mother and point in the general direction of either the dining car or restroom when she wanted to leave their seat, and only if her mother did so with her. Wherever Lovestruck went her daughter followed, other passengers made comments about how cute the filly was, but she always shied away when those ponies drew closer.
The train ride took several hours, it was almost noon when they arrived in Ponyville and the two had caught the first train at just after sunrise. Twilight and her family were there to meet the two, and offered to help move their things into the house Cadance had prepared for them. Sweetheart was doing her best to hide behind her mother during the whole ordeal.
Starburst, the orange coated pegasus filly of Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry, had her large wings tied to her sides with a pink ribbon in addition her mane and tale which were almost identical to her mother's. In a foal carrier on Twilight's chest was the infant foal of the couple, Night Light, the little purple unicorn colt was giggling at the sight of Lovestruck and her daughter.
“Good to see you again Twilight,” said Lovestruck as she gave the purple alicorn a friendly nuzzle, “I would like you to meet my daughter, Sweetheart Tale, she's a little shy,” she gestured to the filly trying to hid behind her, “I know who these ponies are, you sent Cadance pictures with them all accompanying letters, some of which she shared with me.”
“You two have abilities that complement each other, it's no surprise that you would be among her counsel,” said Twilight.
“I was also he proxy, and stand-in when needed,” said Lovestruck in her usual gentle voice.
Night Light waved at the two and Starburst gave the two new ponies a curious look. “So,” said Flash, turning their attention to him, “ready for the start of your new Ponyville life? I know a few things have changed since you were last here.”
“Cadance let me know about all the big changes,” said Lovestruck, “I just want to settle down and see my little filly grow into a good pony.”
“That's all any parent really wants,” said Twilight with a smile, “come on we got everything ready for you, we made sure to do some little touch ups before your arrival.”
“Will Pinkie be throwing one of her infamous surprise parties?”
“Maybe, she's been a little busy with her daughter she was born.”
“How old is she?” Inquired Lovestruck.
“Eight,” said Flash as they gathered up all her luggage and began their trot through Ponyville, and towards her new home, Sweetheart keeping as close to her mother as possible, “Cotton Candy she was born around two years before Star here,” he gestured to the orange filly keeping pace with them, “She's a bundle of energy and her personal tastes are a bit more organized than most foals her age.”
“How old is Sweetheart Tale?” inquired Twilight, “Star's just barely six years now.”
“Sweetheart's five years old, she'll turning six around this time next month.”
“I see,” said Twilight, “well then, let's get you to your new home.”