"Avada Kedavra!"
Snape's wand shook as a green spark shot off from its tip and flew right towards Cadence's still trembling body, and three more beams were fired off, aimed so that by using his spell, Snape's death was guaranteed. He accepted it all and time literally slowed down to a glacial crawl. He saw his killing curse flying, knowing that it would land its mark.
He also observed the spells that were cast upon him, and saw that his heart, stomach, and kidneys would all be decimated by the blasts. He was going to die again. The only mystery was why time had slowed down so far, and why the Princesses seemed to be frozen along with it. His answer came when an unsettling and familiar voice broke the silence.
"Ho! You got yourself into quite the bind, didn't you?"
Discord popped into existence with a flash, and stood beside Snape, who was now at liberty to move as he pleased and interact with his partner in crime.
"What are you doing?" Snape demanded with quiet rage.
"I just wanted to say goodbye to my good pal Snape before he took his everlasting dirt nap...I mean, what are the chances of coming back again, am I right?"
"Our deal is done, you have no business with me anymore. I've left you Equestria on a silver plater, undo what you have done. I will die today, you will not change that."
"So you are willing and ready to go out with a bang? If you want, I could turn their magic blasts into snakes. Just offering!"
Snape said nothing in reply, but watched the spells fly like cold molasses, creeping along, bound by time's whims until they struck their target. He could almost see himself in the green blaze that was the killing curse. It was all too unnatural, to watch as his spell slide glacially towards someone he would call friend. But it had to be done. There was no other way.
"Well, I'll certainly miss my misbehaving benefactor. It's been an honor Snapey!" Discord jeered and held out his hand for Snape to shake, but the wizard refused the offer coldly.
"Fine, be that way!" Discord feigned insult, "Seriously though....these ponies were just given to me. It's like I don't deserve all the fun I'll have for the next eternity or so."
"Do what you will, everybody's time comes in the end."
"Not for me! I rule even time itself, thanks to you!" Discord cackled; Snape allowed himself a small smile at the arrogance bleeding from Discord's ego.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to get on with this now," Snape replied.
"And people say I'm a spoilsport, wow. Well, if you insist, when my magic leaves this balcony, you'll revert to your original place. You'll die when I unfreeze time, and that'll be that. Sure you don't want me to teleport you somewhere, maybe keep up the game between us? It'd be a lot of fun to pull at your strings..."
"All I want you to do...is make sure I die today."
"Hmmm...well, just remember, you did ask for this one."
Discord snapped his fingers and Snape was instantly taken back to his place, and he saw his spell hit Cadence and throw her backwards, breaking down the balcony doors as she flew into the hall. He, however, was riddled with pain as the three blasts struck him, Twilight's shredding through his kidneys and pushing him back, Luna's rip into his stomach and make him hunch over slightly and drop his wand, and finally, Celestia's blast that went through his heart, and plunged him over the edge.
Unlike Dumbledore, Snape began to fall as he was still in the closing seconds of dying, and it was the most painful experience of his life, by far. Thankfully, it did not last very long, and as he heard the blurred and vague cries from the balcony and the clamoring chatter of the changelings who scattered from his path and watched him fall, he began to lose sense of the pain. Pain was not a pleasant experience, but it was the best tool for answering the question of whether or not one was alive. By the time Snape was halfway down the long fall from the balcony, he felt no more pain.
Severus Snape hit the ground front first, and his face landed in the mud, which was soon tainted by the blood that spilled from his wounds. The hollow, human shell that was his body had at last given in to the abuse it had taken since he arrived, and he was beyond any saving. His life in Equestria was over, that was more than certain. His second life ended no better than his first.
"Avada Kedavra!"
A green spell was flung like a shooting star out of Snape's wand and, despite the efforts of Cadence to avoid it, it struck her and she was thrown back in agony. The other Princesses, having fired their own spells at Snape and killed him, wasted no time in rushing to their fourth, who was laying still as death; After an eternal second, Cadence opened her dazed eyes as though she was waking up from a deep dream.
Then, hardly two seconds later, an immense pain struck her and she began sobbing uncontrollably as she grasped her stomach, crying in both pain and regret. By now, even Celestia was weeping, but none so hard or so wretchedly as Cadence, who began shouting in despair and maybe even delusion. Twilight stepped away at the horror, knowing full well that Snape had not been aiming to kill Cadence, but her child.
"No, no, no! NO! My BABY!!"
Celestia and Luna were by her side, comforting her through the pain as Cadence felt the foal inside burn. Twilight was nauseous, and her head was beginning to spin at the escalation of the day. She moved away to avoid puking, or worse, and found herself looking down over the balcony. She watched Snape's pitiful corpse, still and silent on the ground, broken and emptying of life. In one sense, it was serene and regal, a poetic demise, and yet in another, Snape almost looked victorious in the dirt, triumphant even in his destruction.
Amid screams of horror and deep, deep pain from Cadence, Twilight found herself whispering to the body below, "What happened to you....Snape....why did you do this?"
She continued to look down at Snape, for she could not stomach being near Cadence right now. Death was never easy or fun, but to see a child without sins or joys die was twice as unpleasant. Twilight did her best to blot out the noise and emotion reverberating through the castle and into the air around them, and she was too late in receiving the warning.
"Twilight!" Luna called from doorway, still holding Cadence's hoof in her own, "Watch out!"
Twilight looked at Luna with confusion, but realized that Snape's wand was vibrating and although she tried to be rid of it, the wand fired off a golden spark at Twilight, moving as fast as the bolt that killed Cadence's child, and Twilight was hit in the forehead by Snape's final spell. Her eyes glowed with the golden light and her body levitated off the floor, but in seconds, she was on the ground, much like Cadence.
Twilight awoke in a very dark place. It was cold and unwelcoming, sapping the warmth from her body; she could see nothing, but heard faint cries, blurred through time and space, but barely audible to her ears, which could hear nothing else. She had no idea of whom the voices belonged, or even if these voices were real, but she listened, because was there was nothing else she could do.
"Doesn't your dad like magic?"
"Severus....please."
"You coward! Fight back!"
"You've been a good and faithful servant, Severus..."
"Or maybe he's been sacked-I mean, nobody likes him!"
"'Course Dumbledore trusts you, he's a trusting man isn't he..."
"I agree...with Severus."
"...believes in second chances. But me..."
"Tell them how you looked him in the eye..."
"Severus Snape was indeed a Death Eater..."
"We are, Sev."
"...A man who trusted you! And killed him!"
"...I believe there are spots that don't come off Snape..."
"Severus, you agreed. Nothing more to discuss."
"Don't say a word against my father!"
"...turned spy for us at great personal risk!"
"...but only I can live forever!"
"Slipped out? It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends...you've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."
And all at once the voices were silenced, the echoes had faded away into true nothingness. Twilight was left in that abysmal plane, nothing to see, not even her own self, nothing to hear, not even her own heartbeat. She suddenly felt a very powerful urge to ball out crying again, but it seemed she had no tears to shed. The feeling of wanting to feel something, and yet being chronically numb all at once was too much for her to bear, but she was helpless to stop or start anything. All she could do was endure it, but for how long before she broke was a measure of thought that scared her. It seemed that time had faded from this realm, and though in some ways she felt that she had only been here a minute, her heart told her that she had been here for well over 1,000 years. She was utterly distraught until a voice broke the everlasting pain of silence.
"Ms. Sparkle," Snape greeted from behind.
All at once she could feel again, she was free to move and feel and think of better things. The relief of being whole and complete again was more than enough to make her glad to see Snape, if only for a fraction of a second. She spun around with awe, but it quickly turned to hatred upon recalling what he had done before she took part in his murder. She felt her magic muster in her horn, but in a second, it was gone, as unfathomable as the still forgotten voices from before.
"You have no magic here."
"Where am I?" Twilight questioned hotly.
"A temporary pocket of space and time. To simplify things, I suppose I should rather say, you are in my consciousness. I had this spell worked out because there is something I must give you."
"You're dead..."
"Yes. I don't know how much time we've got here, but I must give you this. It will change your world all for the worst if you do not accept it."
"You've already changed my world for the worst today," Twilight countered as she looked right through him with anger, "Keep everything to your rotten self. I'll never forgive you for what you've done today. Never."
Snape seemed unaffected, which enraged Twilight all the more, and caused her to try and force out any spell, anything at all, but the effort alone nearly subdued her. Free to cry once again, Twilight did so.
"Don't you feel any remorse? Any guilt at all? Are you such a heartless monster!?"
"...."
"How could I have ever wanted to be your friend!?"
"Perhaps a dead man feels no pity," Snape suggested as casually as if they were playing chess.
"You killed something with nothing but innocence! Even a dead man that's done what you have should feel something!"
"It wasn't the first time I did something in that vein."
Twilight looked him in the eyes for a few more seconds, and turned her head in disgust. Then, she turned her back to him and laid down, unable to escape his presence any more than that. He remained facing her, and went on with what he had to say. Time with her was not unlimited after all.
"No doubt you heard the fragments of my past, things that have been said to me in another life. You chose to trust me, up until now. Though what you have seen certainly paints me to be the villain, perhaps you might trust me a little more than that, given what we've already been through."
"I guess my trust in you was misplaced, no matter how true it once was, huh?" Twilight sighed.
"You know, it's also true that one cannot trust themselves alone with everything. The trick...is to find a balance. You've trusted me enough to go this far. It would be a shame for you to stop here, so close to the end."
"We're past the end. The changelings won, we were tricked into defeat, all because of you."
"I disagree. Hope and faith have served you well before, have they not? Trust can be healed."
Twilight did not stir, but he knew she was thinking it all over, running through every encounter they had with one another, examining everything he ever said to her and her friends and all that he did, things that helped her, and things which hurt her. He decided that since he went through the trouble of setting this up, he might as well do his best to persuade her; if she refused, then she was forsaking much more than herself alone.
"I can only explain myself if you give me the chance, and you cannot accept what I offer you unless you take it willingly. At least be rational enough to listen to what I have to say."
"Okay....so then tell me, why did you kill Cadence's baby?" Twilight asked, begrudgingly, and for a split second, Harry Potter himself was asking Snape 'why'. He shook it off quickly, and answered her question.
"That will be revealed to you in greater detail when this is done, but I will say that my coming to this land was far from unintentional. I was sent here with a purpose, and by sacrificing the child, I fulfilled that purpose."
"Can you be less cryptic for once! I'm only asking for a decent explanation for the regicide you committed!"
"After Chrysalis killed Malum with a long distance spell, I realized that she was initiating the endgame. By taking his power, she was in position to kill a Princess and conquer Equestria forever. I have had to do many things to make sure that you and the other rulers were kept safe, and if I told you every detail about that, you'd likely not accept what I'm offering to give you."
"So I have to trust you that killing a baby saved Equestria?"
"No. Sacrificing the child saved Princess Celestia, not Equestria."
"Just tell me the truth of it. I only want the truth. I want you to tell me exactly why you did the things you did. I actually did feel like there was some sort of bond between my friends and I and you. It wasn't friendship like the kind between the six of us, but it was a bond of some kind, wasn't it? Tell me you were close enough to us to reveal the truth to me."
"If you only accept what I offer, you will learn all of that and more."
"Are you afraid? Is that why you won't tell me?"
Snape took a second to pause and waited for Twilight to stand up again and face him. When she had done so, he looked her in the eye and told her the most sincere thing he had ever told a pony before.
"I detest friendship in the way you cherish it. I have for a long time, and so I refuse to be someone you call friend, as you do with the other Element bearers. My friends are not like your friends, my friends are dead, and so am I. As I said before, I live in darkness, and you do not. We cannot be friends, I will not accept such a thing. I never lost respect for you, nor did I take your words lightly, and though I will always be your fellow and peer, I will never be your friend, Twilight Sparkle. If that upsets you, so be it.
I have lived in things you cannot ponder, I have endured pains you cannot imagine, and as much of a 'bad person' as I may be...I am who I am, and I will not change that for anyone. Everything I have done, good or bad, has been for a reason, and this act of murder was no different. Accept that, and what I offer you as a gift, or do not...and I shall let you go, free to hate me for the rest of your life."
Twilight drank in his words and spent a long while pondering them. He remained quiet and allowed her the time to think, it was only fair. In truth, his last act in Equestria may have been seen as worse than anything he did in his previous life. Of course he would never regret anything as much as sealing Lily's fate by revealing what he knew to Voldemort, but she had no knowledge of any of that. She didn't need it. She didn't even need to know that all Snape had done was for the very chance of redeeming some small semblance of what he once had with Lily. All Twilight needed to know was that she was being offered a great chance.
"Snape...." Twilight at last muttered, "I want you to know that before I say anything else, you have wounded us all greatly, and whether or not that means anything to you, your actions will not be easily forgiven. But I am willing to hear you out. Give me what you wanted to."
Snape nodded and a golden light once again filled Twilight's eyes and spoke to her soul. Immediately, she saw the things Snape had seen, read the thoughts he had, realized what everything he had done in Equestria meant.
He locked away all things relating to Hogwarts, his life as a teacher, a Death Eater, and a spy, but everything after his arrival in Equestria was opened to her, and she saw his deceptions and lies, and all the good they were intended to do. She saw Snape better for who he was, and what he was trying to do in her world. She understood now the danger that Celestia was in when he arrived on the balcony, she now saw what would have befallen if Snape had not done what he had done.
And the more she learned, the more Snape's image faded. For every detail she learned of how and why he acted as he did, another shade of light entered the plane and brought her closer to home. By understanding what he had done and accepting his gift, she ended their meeting. The last thing she could recall Snape doing before he was as forgotten as his unknown past was glance back at Twilight; he gave her the closest thing to his friendship that she would ever attain: his acceptance and acknowledgement with a nod of respect and parting.
And Snape was gone, leaving behind only what Twilight needed to know to save herself and all of Equestria.
Twilight awoke to the sobs of Cadence and worried calls of Celestia and Luna. Her head was spinning, but she felt rejuvenated at the same time. She picked herself up off the floor and immediately looked down over the balcony rail. Confirming his death and knowing his sacrifice, Twilight turned away from Snape's corpse below and back to the other Princesses.
"What happened?" Celestia asked with great concern.
"It's okay," Twilight replied, still a little shaken, "It'll all be okay now."
"What do you mean? This is the end for us..." Luna pointed out to the changelings, who were hovering all around, each one staring at the Princesses with dead cold eyes. Twilight, however, smiled. She looked out, and just beyond the wall of changelings, down at the entrance of Canterlot, she spotted her friends, running to the city as Snape had instructed them to do before he left to deal with Chrysalis.
Her smile widened when another cry of agony arose, but this was not from Cadence, but rather from Queen Chrysalis, who revealed herself on the roof above them, and fell to the balcony in paralysis. The other Princesses gasped in shock, having no idea that she had cloaked herself and snuck up on them, but Twilight leaned down confidently, and spoke to the pained Queen.
"Tell them what you've done. Tell Cadence why her child will never grow up."
Chrysalis, looking larger and more intimidating than she had at the wedding in the past, had also grown a larger confidence and sense of self-assurance. She managed to laugh a little at the demand, and replied with heavy breaths, "Severus Snape has already killed me....you can do nothing more."
"If you don't tell them, then I can. I've learned everything, and I know exactly what you did wrong."
Chrysalis' expression contorted to surprised bitterness, but she relented and revealed her grand plan to the still awestruck Princesses, "It was an ingenious scheme....to use my own enhanced powers and combine them with the basis of Severus Snape's magic to possess Cadence from the foal within her. In control of her body...I could've killed you all without suspicion, ended the Equestrian monarchy once and for all, and overrun this wretched nation with the might of the Changeling Dominion!"
"Unfortunately for you," Twilight added, "Snape didn't die off so easily as you thought, and he managed to defeat you by ending the source of your possession over Cadence. By killing her child, Snape also killed you."
Cadence, still crying, but now surprised and confused beyond words, sat silently as the truth of the situation was revealed to her. Celestia and Luna were just as confused, and the Princess of the Sun in particular seemed to wonder if these things could be the truth. Had she judged Snape too hastily...on almost everything?
"That's true....and he defeated us in doing so.....I underestimated Snape....but the changeling armies cannot be quelled so easily, despite what you may do to my drones. We will endure as we always have. Even with my death, you have not won!"
At that instant, the drones took their last command from the Queen and fled in a shambles. The Princesses all stared out in wonder, and Chrysalis' weak laughter persisted until she too gave in to the curse Snape had given her. She went silent and began losing air, and finally, the late Queen of the Changelings shriveled up and faded away into dust. She was gone, with any hope and luck, she was gone forever. The Princesses turned their attention to the castle hall as a new voice spoke up.
"Snape....killed Queen Chrysalis...by killing our baby?" Shining Armor asked, limping towards his fallen wife with tears in his eyes.
"I'm afraid so," Twilight lamented as she ran to her brother to help him over, "but there was no other way. Because of the medicine, the potion he made to protect Cadence from mental attacks, Snape could not do it any other way. The side effects made it so that he couldn't force Chrysalis out with any mental magic. If it had gone on any longer, Chrysalis would've killed the rest of us in Cadence's body."
"And how can you know these things?" Celestia inquired.
"Snape's wand. That blast that triggered when I got close, it put me into contact with....his spirit, or something close to it. But I spoke to him, and he told me everything. He gave me the parting gift of knowing what he knew. He was never out to get any of us, Princess Celestia, he was here to protect all of us," Twilight explained, a hopeful twinkle shining in her eyes.
Deciding not to speak, Celestia looked down and pondered what her student had told her, as did Luna, and Cadence and Shining Armor. Twilight herself wiped the tear that was forming in her eye at the thought of what had to have been done, but also knew that Snape was not the villain they thought him to be. She decided that final judgement on the strange wizard would have to wait. There was still yet more to be done.
They all looked up to the sky as yet another evil presence filled the air.
"I'm sorry..." Discord's sinister voice bellowed in the wind, "is this not a good time?"
"Discord....no. It isn't possible..." Celestia muttered in shock as the draconequus formed atop the balcony's railing, standing far above where Snape's corpse was lying in the bloody mud. He was laughing heartily, threatening to fall over the edge, but when he finally did 'lose his balance', he started rolling in the air.
"I'm afraid it is, Celestia! And this time, you'll all be the ones encased in stone! In fact, I think I'll keep you all arranged like this, utterly defeated at the moment of my triumph for all eternity. How does that sound?"
"Like it's not going to happen!" Twilight shouted defiantly, flying at Discord and teleporting them both to the ground below.
They reappeared at the castle's entrance, where Twilight's friends had just run to. Discord feigned shock and humiliation.
"Oh dear! You've got me cornered! This is it for me!"
"Discord!?" Pinkie exclaimed, scurrying up in the air like a surprised cat jumping out of a nap.
"Did we...miss something?" Rainbow questioned as she and Twilight's other friends stared in disbelief of Discord's return.
"I'll explain after we defeat him!" Twilight answered, lighting her horn with magic.
"Wrong!" Discord bellowed as he snapped his fingers and flipped the ponies upside up, hanging from their legs in the air, "Learned that one from our mutual friend down there!"
Twilight's friends, having just realized Snape was lying utterly dead near them, all went silent, looking on in sadness and fear. Twilight, working the hardest to break free from Discord's imitation levicorpus spell, switched focus to consoling her friends and blocking Discord's psychological warfare.
"Is Snape...?" Fluttershy questioned in trembling fear.
"Discord didn't kill Snape!" Twilight called back.
"Who did!?" Applejack asked.
Twilight's face went red, Discord's smile had never been so wide, for never had a more perfect opportunity presented itself to him. He laughed maniacally as Twilight failed to give an answer, prompting him to step up and reveal the horrid truth to them.
"Why she did of course! Her and the other Princesses killed Snape in. cold. blood."
"WHAT!?" Rainbow screamed, accompanied by Discord's dark laughter.
"Twilight...HOW COULD YOU!?" Rarity called, backed up by the others as the ensnaring grip around them grew stronger.
"I...I'm sorry...we didn't know. We didn't know the truth!" Twilight pleaded in shame.
"Oh, don't paint yourself so modestly," Discord chuckled, "you and the other two Princesses aimed to take him out for good, and you did it too! Congratulations, he's gone."
"But we had no idea of what was really going on! You all have to believe me," She urged her friends, "I believe in Severus Snape now, and I believe that he would have us defeat Discord! You've got to back me up!"
The other ponies looked uncertain, trying to decide if they actually knew the pony with them, or if this Twilight was not the same Twilight they knew as their close friend. The lavender Princess shut her eyes and focused, trying to figure a way out of Discord's trap, but without her friends it was hopeless, none of them could even feel their legs anymore. They had to use the Elements, but with Discord having brought Disharmony upon them, that was impossible.
"Trust...." Twilight quoted in a faint attempt to win back her friends, "can always be misplaced, no matter how genuine it is...but it can be healed too! You have to trust that I have a good answer to your questions, I'm still your friend, I'm still your Twilight, even if things look bad. You can't believe Discord! You know how he lies!"
"...Yes, except you admitted it...you killed Snape. You killed Snape," Rarity replied, making Twilight gasp in despair. Her pleading was not enough.
"But...but...." Twilight stuttered, losing her hope.
"How can we trust you ever again?" Applejack asked.
Twilight gnashed her teeth together, knowing they were perfectly right as guilt welled up inside her.
"I suppose you can't...but you have to ask one question: would you rather have Discord win? If you don't trust me, he'll take over all of Equestria again, and there won't be any stopping him!"
Having taken that point into consideration, the others looked at each other, silently discussing their course of action. It was a dilemma beyond any they had yet faced, and Discord was not squandering the opportunity to play with the town, making it rain cupcakes, juggling buildings, and creating havoc where he could, all on top of having his chaotic monsters run rampant through the city, destroying it where the changelings had failed.
"Please..." Twilight begged in a whisper. She closed her eyes and thought up to Cadence, Luna, Celestia, and Shining, up on the balcony, each one drained and weakened and helpless. It was all riding on her. Her and her friends, but she couldn't be sure if they would accept that label anymore. Maybe despite Snape's efforts, there was no saving Equestria. Had he truly died in vain?
"Twilight..." Pinkie spoke with a very small smile, waking Twilight from her thoughts, "let's take him down again."
An immense smile lit up Twilight's face, and the Princess lit her horn again as a white glow grew around all six of them. Their trap was broken, and they were lifted down onto the ground, but Discord had taken notice. He drew closer to recapture them, but a blast of the Elements of Harmony pushed him back, and for a moment, he seemed to be buckling under the pressure, close to defeat again.
But as the Elemental blast wore off, Discord laughed at his triumph, disheartening the now confused ponies. Twilight squinted and knew it was now or never. She powered up a golden spell and shared it with her friends, and as the gold and white magic mixed together, Discord struck, snapping his fingers.
They all immediately found themselves in stone, true to Discord's words, their faces frozen with disbelief and fear, but Twilight, though half trapped in the rock, was resisting rather well.
"How is this possible?" Discord asked her snapping his fingers again and again to turn her completely to stone, but she continued to resist well.
"Because your power....is not greater....than the one who gave it to you!"
The stone entrapping Twilight's body shattered, and she flew up to face down Discord, who was now the one in shock. Twilight's horn lit up with a golden flare and her friends were freed.
"This is my power! How can you use it!?" Discord shouted with concern.
"Because Severus Snape was never on your side," Twilight told him as her eyes glowed once again with the golden light, matching the eyes of the other Element bearers. They surged with that power, and when the Elements of Harmony activated to bolster it, Discord could only cry out the name of the man who betrayed him as he was once again turned to stone and defeated for the third time.
It had now been three months since the changeling attack and Discord's attempt at taking over. Canterlot had been rebuilt, while Ponyville was still in the process. Equestria's sun was bright again, the flowers grew brighter and bolder, and the air was filled with a sweet scent for the first time in a long while. Things were beginning to return to normal.
A memorial had been constructed beside the Castle to remember all those who had fallen in service to Equestria's latest crisis. At the very center was a large statue, one depicting a filly prancing in the sun, and it was engraved with a special description: Princess Skyla: Sacrificial Lamb of Equestria; may she forever rest in peace.
As the afternoon sun began to lower, Celestia found herself unable to look away from the grave marker. Shining Armor and Cadence were by her side, and Luna and Twilight were walking to meet them. They had all worked hard in their own ways to make the city complete again, but every few days, they found the strength to visit her grave.
"Even without knowing her," Shining Armor told his wife, "she's beautiful. We'll see her eventually, and until then, she won't be forgotten. Ever."
"...I know,' Cadence replied, leaning her head on her husband's.
"This is more than a reminder of our loss, it is a marker of our triumph, though it is a bittersweet one," Celestia told the couple with a consoling smile.
"And we cannot forget our controversial benefactor, can we?" Luna asked as she took her place next to them.
"No," Celestia quickly replied, "I was at odds with him much of the time, but Severus Snape has earned my thanks, despite his actions, and my reactions."
"Why did he come here, Twilight, you said he had a mission, to protect us, but...why? What was his reward?" Cadence inquired with longing eyes as the breeze blew through her mane, refreshing her.
"I think you might know...I think he's getting....Lily. That's all I could glean from what he shared. Lily is his reward."
Luna and Cadence smiled at each other, and Shining Armor bowed his head, speaking out grimly, "We never got along, but knowing what I do, I wish I could've started off better with him. Maybe then I could forgive him completely..."
"He acted in a way we were not familiar with, and he earned our scorn for it, but in the end, he acted for good. I cannot hate him for that," Celestia commented as she gently pulled the sun further beyond the horizon.
"He wasn't our friend, but maybe he was our hero instead..." Twilight thought out loud.
Back in Ponyville, as the work for the day ended, Twilight met up with her friends in Sugarcube Corner. They were quietly enjoying a tray of cupcakes and a pitcher of milk, and resting after the day's labor. Luna's moon was now in the sky, and Twilight glanced out the window as her other friends talked. She was content to gaze out at it.
"Twilight? What are you doing?" Pinkie asked, breaking the Princess' concentration and making her realize the others were staring. She smiled back at them and then shifted her attention back to the large marker in the sky.
"I was just thinking," she explained, "tonight reminds me a lot of the night he arrived here in Equestria."
"I wish he was here to help us track down the rest of Discord's monsters. Remember how much he helped us with that first one in the Everfree Forest?" Rainbow mentioned.
"He wasn't exactly the companion we hoped, was he?" Rarity asked, "Still, he did so much for us. I wonder what would've happened if he'd lived."
Twilight frowned and looked down, prompting Rarity to apologize and Applejack to put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
"He was misunderstood. I hope whatever happened to him, he got what he wanted," Twilight said.
"I guess we have to trust that he did..." the farmer pony replied.
"Well, we won't forget him, at least," Fluttershy consoled with her gentle smile.
"No. Nopony will forget what Snape did. The underground chamber beneath the school has been repurposed to serve as his memorial. Magic students from now on will learn from him, even if he can't be here to teach them himself," Twilight explained.
"To Severus Snape!" Applejack shouted as she raised her glass.
"To Severus Snape!" The other called back as the toasted the fallen wizard who saved Equestria.