//------------------------------//
// Chapter 50 
// Story: Besides the Will of Evil 
// by Jetfire2012 
//------------------------------//

		The celebration carried on for hours upon hours.  After all, millions upon millions of the ponies of Equestria, along with those of Gildedale, along with the deerfolk and the griffins and the pronghorns, wanted to cavort and play, to celebrate the defeat of the greatest evil all of them had ever known.  Grilling competitions were engaged.  Magic target practice pitted antlers against horns.  Races tore the newly-regrown green fields up.  Talk and laughter, food and drink, went flowing.  Even Celestia and Luna and the Deer Elders joined in.  Nordeshang carried a hundred pony foals upon his back.  Celestia and Luna had a limbo-off.  Falalauria told everyone their lucky number.  The pronghorns filled the air with lightning fireworks.  Joy and laughter were a constant thing, and seemed that they would never end.
However, over time, everypony noticed that those who should have been the center of attention were nowhere to be found.  The call was taken up, from pony down to pony, from deer to griffin, asking where the Bearers of the Elements had gone.  The answer which eventually came back was: they are gone for now, but not forever, and they are at peace.  This was satisfying for most of the folk.
The true answer had more detail.  Far across the fields, though still close to the party in its hugeness, there was Ponyville.  It too had been restored, perfectly redone down to the last straw out of place upon the beautifully thatched rooftops.  Off the center of the town, in a quiet corner, there was the great oak tree with lovely windows popping to and fro out of its trunk, with balconies that hung off of its upper heights, with the telescope and weather vane that marked it as a place of dwelling, with the sign of books that marked it as a place of study.  Yes, this was the Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville's library and the dwelling place of its librarian.
Within it, the air was soft and gentle.  It was perfect, even.  Spike came toddling from the kitchen, a pitcher filled with yellow liquid in his hand.  “Lemonade's done!”
“Yay!” cried out six voices.
“Oh, Spike dear, I'll get that,” said Rarity.  Her horn glowed blue.  Seven glasses drifted from the kitchen.  The pitcher floated out of Spike's hand.  The lemonade went circling in looping yellow arcs that finally deposited it in the seven glasses, which were also filled with ice cubes.
These floated down to Spike, and then to Applejack, and Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, and Rarity herself, and Rainbow Dash, and lastly- but not least- Twilight Sparkle.  She took hold of hers with her own magic, and smiled.  “Nice control, Rarity.”
“Well, what can I say?  I've gotten a bit of a power boost,” said Rarity.  She rolled onto her back, where she lay upon the beautiful deep purple cushion; all of them were laying on the cushion scattered all throughout the library's main room.  Rarity leaned back- tink!  The motion of her head was halted.  She glanced up, and she frowned.  Her horn- her new horn, her longer and much sharper horn- was pressed against the floor, preventing her from leaning back her head as she had wanted.  She frowned.  “Hmph.  That is going to take some getting used to.”
“Tell me about it,” said Dash.  She opened wide her newer, larger wings.  “But it's great!  I can't wait to see how fast I can go with these babies!”
“Now I can go flying with you, Dashie!” Pinkie cheered, fluttering her own pink wings.
“You bet, Pinkie!  I'll show you all my tricks, and we can have contests and everything!”  Dash arched her eyebrows.  “How 'bout it, Twilight?  Wanna join in?”
Twilight made a face.  “I don't think I'm much for acrobatics.”
“Um, actually, I might like to join,” said Fluttershy.
“You?  You, Fluttershy, you want to do tricks?” asked Applejack.
“Well, you know... it might be fun.  I'll at least give it a try.”
“Heh, never thought I'd see the day,” said Applejack.  She pushed her hat back, and she rubbed her horn nub.  “Figure this thing'll start comin' in even more soon.”
“My offer to teach you magic still stands, Applejack,” said Twilight.
“And I'll take you up on that offer, Twilight.”  Applejack settled more deeply in her cushion.  “I'll have plenty o' time, now that things are back to normal.”
There was a pause, a skipped beat.  Then- then the whole room burst out laughing.  All the six of them erupted with guffaws and chuckles, filling every corner of the library with laughs.  “Oh, who are we kidding?” said Fluttershy, the first to stop.  “Things are never going to be normal again.”
“To be honest, my life ain't been normal since I met you five,” said Applejack.
“At least before we could pretend,” said Dash.  She rolled onto her back and stretched her leg out.  “Now we have all this power...”
“And we're going to keep getting more powerful, more and more and more,” said Twilight.  A shadow crossed her face.  “If one of us lets it go to our head, there's no telling how bad we could be!  We could be as bad as Elbert!”
“That's why there's six of us!” said Pinkie brightly.  “If one or even more than one of us goes rotten, the others will just reel them back in!”
“Things got pretty bad at one point this time,” said Dash.  “I mean, from what I've heard, it was pretty much down to Applejack, who wasn't even in Equestria, and Fluttershy.”
“Yes, Fluttershy, dear, from the snippets I've heard, I'm so wondrously proud of you!” said Rarity.  “I mean, it hasn't been much, but from what I can tell, it seems as though, for a while, you were the only one who still believed.  You kept the faith.  You will have to tell me all about what you went through.”
“Oh, well, Pinkie knows as much as I do,” said Fluttershy.  “She was there with me, even if she was sick.  Speaking of, Pinkie, what was that like?”
“Oh, it was awful!  It was gross and icky and yucky!” said Pinkie.  “But I guess I'd better tell all about it, just so history remembers!”
“Hold on,” said Twilight.  “History... history...” she rubbed her hoof against her chin.  “Oh!”  The other five and Spike looked at her.  “Well, that's what we need to do!  We need to record everything that happened!  We have to write everything down!”
“I suppose that is a priority,” said Rarity.  “For posterity, of course.”
“Sure,” said Dash.  “We gotta make sure everyone knows how big and bad Elbert was, and how much more awesome we were when we defeated him!”
“Dash and I were mostly aware and conscious when we were Elbert's servants, so we know a great deal of what he was up to,” said Rarity.  “That should be helpful.”
“I'll tell what happened with me on my journey,” said Applejack, “and Spike can help, too!”
“Yeah!  I'll definitely help!” said Spike.
“I'll tell everything that happened with me by my own lonesome,” said Pinkie.  Plus, I can help everypony else remember, by looking into their minds!
“Oh, yes, well, I can help that way, too,” said Rarity, who blinked her blue and star-filled eyes.  “My Long Sight can peer across all time and space, to see anything that any of us may miss in the telling of the tale.”
“We should ask Trixie about her side of the story, too,” said Dash.  “She was there for a lot of the beginning, it seems like.”
“And of course we'll ask Celestia and Luna,” said Twilight.  “We'll ask the Deer Elders, and all the Royal Guard, and Shiny and Cadence, and everypony!”
Spike groaned.  “This is sounding like it's gonna be a really, really long story.”
“Oh, it will,” said Twilight.  She pulled Spike to her, and she hugged him tightly.  “Don't worry, though, Spike.  It's going to take a long time to gather all the information, and to arrange it in a neat and orderly fashion.  We won't wear your claws out with writing, I promise.”
“We shall be happy to lend our penmanship as well,” said Rarity.  “We'll help you best we can, Spike, dearest.”
“Oh, well, that's great!” said Spike, smiling cheerily.
“Right now, though, let's at least start,” said Twilight.  Her horn flashed purple.  A massive roll of parchment appeared in the middle of the air, along with ink and quill.  All three of them floated down to Spike.
He grabbed the parchment, and he grabbed the quill.  He dipped the quill in ink, and then he set its tip to paper.  “So... how do you want to start?”
The six exchanged sharp glances.  “We gotta find a good startin' place,” said Applejack.
“What about starting with your trip to Gildedale, Applejack?” asked Fluttershy.
“That's too far back,” said Pinkie Pie.  “We should only focus on Elbert and all the stuff that happened with him!”
“I concur with Pinkie,” said Rarity.  “Let us tell as tight and orderly a story as we can.  We should begin with when we first heard of that awful brute.”
“You heard about him first, right, Twilight?” said Rainbow Dash.  “Let's start with what you were doing when you did!”
“Hmm... yeah, yes, that seems like the best course of action,” said Twilight Sparkle, nodding as she smiled at her best friends in the world.  “So it all started when Spike and I were in Canterlot, and Princess Celestia was trying to teach me how to fly...”
Twilight carried on into her tale.  The other five contributed as best they could.  Spike wrote fast and neat.  His spelling was impeccable, his punctuation first-rate.  He did not leave a single word or detail out.  So the six ponies and one dragon began to mighty task of setting down their long and awesome tale.
Outside the library, unseen by all within, a figure peered into the window.  Discord smiled as he watched the ponies and the dragon start their grand recounting.  He couldn't wait to read it.  He smiled again, and nodded.  Then he turned aside.  “Well?” he said, to no one in particular.  “What do you think?  Good story, huh?”


THE END