//------------------------------//
// Epilogue: Acceptance 
// Story: The Super Awesome Story About Stuff 
// by BlackRoseRaven 
//------------------------------//

Epilogue: Acceptance
~BlackRoseRaven

River Styx opened his eyes and sat up in his cot, rubbing slowly at his throbbing head. He frowned uncertainly, looking slowly back and forth before he muttered: “What the hell.”
He pushed himself out of bed, then allowed his hooves to guide him out of the rickety barracks, shoving his way into the early morning sunlight of Appleloosa. He frowned as he looked slowly back and forth, several soldiers looking nervously at him before one of them saluted awkwardly and said: “Sir, uh... good morning, sir! We have a situation-”
River Styx's eyes flicked towards the soldier... not even a soldier, no. A cadet. They didn't want to waste too many actual soldiers on this little settlement, after all... “What is it?”
The young stallion rose his head a little, taking a breath and trying to make himself look more professional as he began: “There was-”
“A fight at the bar.” Styx said in a dry voice, and the cadet looked surprised before Styx sighed and reached up to rub at his face slowly, answering before the young pony could ask: “Because it's always a fight at the bar, cadet. Fine. I'll be there in a moment.”
The cadet nodded and saluted before rushing off, and Styx watched him leave before he frowned and reached up to rub slowly at his head. But... whatever was bothering him was already fading, he thought. It must have just been a bad dream, and sleeping in had given him a headache. That was all.
He nodded to himself, turning around and heading back into the barracks to get his armor on so he could go back to work. But as he began to slip on his equipment, his genet came hopping up to him, chirping urgently and making Styx grimace a bit before he turned a surly look towards his pet-
His genet thrust something up at him with his little paws, and Styx blinked in surprise as he took the carton of cigarettes from his genet's grasp. It rattled faintly, and the unicorn opened it before he stared down in disbelief at the single cigarette inside.
“Don't disappoint me.” River Styx spun around, just in time to watch a Pegasus calmly stride out of the room.
He leapt to his hooves, jumping after her... but she was gone. All that he had left, was the carton and the single cigarette, his eyes roving down to this for a moment before he closed his eyes and took a slow breath, leaning against the frame of the door as the faintest scent of chocolate reached his nose, tempering him, reminding him... “Balance, Styx. Buck up.”
River Styx rose his head, and then he shrugged before he rose the carton to his muzzle, taking the cigarette into his mouth. Lamp leapt up onto his head and made a disapproving little growl, but Styx only smiled briefly, saying dryly: “No one lives forever. And it's not lit, Lamp.”
River Styx rolled the cigarette slowly between his teeth as Lamp grumbled, but the stallion only smiled briefly, looking silently down the hall for a moment before he shook his head and tucked the carton away beneath his armor.
Sometimes, after all, you had to live for yourself, too.

Marina Wildheart wasn't quite sure where she was when she woke up. But she was... safe, she thought, as the covers fell from around her body. She looked down at the blankets, and she noted a bit of chocolate smeared over them, which made her smile faintly. For her, keeping her form was almost as natural as breathing, so she could sleep without melting into a puddle... but when the nightmares were bad...
“Did you meet my second cousin or something?” asked a curious voice, and Marina blinked in surprise before she smiled almost in relief at the sight of Discord, who had one of his legs pulled up to his chest and was rocking idly on the end of the bed, a smile on his muzzle... but relief, she thought, in his eyes. “It just seems like you must have had an awkward one-night encounter... you know, more awkward than the usual one night-stands... but I guess that isn't something a father should talk about with his daughter unless it starts happening a little too often...”
“I'm glad to see  you, too.” Marina said, and then she picked herself up and almost threw herself towards him, the Draconequus chuckling as he caught her in a fierce embrace, closing his eyes as she held her against the safety of his chest.
For a few moments, there was silence, and then Discord said with surprising softness, as he gently stroked through her mane: “You did have me worried there for a moment. But I have to trust in you to take care of things. And I do, because I trust you, Marina, and I know that one way or the other, you'll pull through... and you did, and you helped as many people along the way like you always do, didn't you?”
“I tried.” Marina said honestly, and Discord smiled at her kindly.
“I doubt you tried. Like I just said, I'm absolutely sure you did. Now, stop fishing for compliments and tell me all about what happened.” Discord said kindly, patting her on the head before sitting her back on the bed and spinning around to assume an exaggerated listening pose.
Marina laughed despite herself, and then she smiled faintly at him before she nodded slowly, lowering her head slightly as she started: “I fell into the world, and there were very stern Draconequus there... and I think that was the biggest clue, right from the start, that it was all a play within a play, within a play...”

The sapphire mare groaned loudly as she picked herself up, before she scowled moodily around the campfire. Her sharp, blade-like hooves dug against the ground as her mane burned and twisted around her, before her eyes locked on the shape of the large black stallion nearby, asking loudly: “Art thou still sleeping? Shall I leave thee to thy napping?”
A silver claw picked up a rock and flung it at her head, but Luna deflected this with a flick of her bright blue, shimmering horn. Then the stallion rose himself slowly up, gauntlets flexing against the ground before he smiled briefly as he rose his head slightly, showing off the platinum collar around his neck... and Luna sighed in relief as she reached up to touch the collar of ivy around her own neck, stroking slowly over the black pearl in its silver clutch.
Then they both looked off towards the third shape, and they smiled at the purple mare as she reached up to touch her own collar. She smiled back at them, with eyes that had seen the darkness, and seen through the darkness, as she said quietly: “They'll be coming for us.”
“Aye, let them come!” Luna grinned widely, and Twilight sighed in exasperation as the bulky stallion picked himself up, as the mare, the Valkyrie, posed sharply, showing off her powerful, scarred body. “Here in the real world, it will take more than a misfit god to make us bow!”
Scrivener Blooms responded by yawning at her, and Twilight rolled her eyes in amusement as Luna glared balefully at the stallion before she tackled him, knocking him flat. Twilight watched the two of them wrestle for a moment, and then she turned her eyes towards the sky.
After a few moments, Luna and Scrivener both looked up at her from the ground, and Twilight said softly: “I hope that wherever he is, he's okay.”
“Thou cannot save everyone, Twilight. That is a sad, hard truth thou must learn, with thy destiny as great as it is.” Luna said gently, and Twilight smiled faintly as she nodded slowly, looking up at the sky.
“But I think you did help convince him to let go, for better or worse. And that might be even more important.” Scrivener said quietly as he sat up, absently pushing Luna off his face. “And maybe...”
“Do you think that will happen to me one day?” Twilight asked, and Scrivener and Luna both traded looks before they gave her matching, amused smiles, and the violet mare chuckled quietly as she murmured: “You're right. I'll always have you two, huh?”
“For better or worse.” Scrivener remarked, and then he winced when Luna slapped the back of his head with a huff and a grin.
And Twilight Sparkle smiled, before she took a slow breath and rose her head high, knowing that she would never become so lost as the sad and lonely Narrator had become, as long as she had the ponies she loved beside her.

Karl blinked blearily, then he rose his head curiously. He was in a hospital bed. Was this a new play?
But no one had given him a script. The Director and the Critic had just left in all of a tizzy and then the world had turned black and then... he didn't really remember. It was fuzzy. It hurt.
He rubbed slowly at his head, then blinked as a loud crash drew his attention, turning and staring at the nurse gaping at him. He looked back at her, and she took another step towards him, mouthing wordlessly before she spun around and shouted: “Doctor! Doctor Cross!”
“Excuse me?” Karl asked meekly, but he was far too quiet to be noticed by the nurse, who ran out... but a moment later, a doctor came charging in, eager to run a battery of tests on the stallion who had been declared braindead two months ago.
Karl went along with every poke and prod, waiting for someone to tell him this was a joke, or he was the patient in the medical drama – but how was he supposed to act without direction! – or at least a hint that he was supposed to improv. But all the questions the asked him were about him, and when his wife came in, it crumbled all his hopes that he had escaped his dreary, monotonous life.
Of course, apparently it had taken his wife roughly a week to move on from boring old Karl to some new stallion, and when the hospital couldn't figure out what had happened to him – and further discovered that he probably couldn't pay any of his bills – they declared him healthy and kicked him out on the street.
Oh, he had had everything! He had been the most important actor in all of Equestria! Well, sort of: it had been a funny sort of Equestria, and those Draconequus hadn't always been nice to him, but he had been the best damn actor they had ever seen, and they had been happy to let him continue to live in the play. The play had been safe, though, he had known that on instinct. He didn't know what happened to any of the other ponies, but he assumed they stupidly went back to their dreary and boring lives...
But as Karl wandered down a lonely street full of miserable ponies, he saw it. He saw the thing that the great play he'd been pulled into had prepared him for. He saw what those blessed Draconequus had led him to discover was his true calling, his true special talent.
He rushed with all haste, even though he was disheveled and tired and had been living off the grass he could graze for free for weeks now. And as if it was his fate, he found a director – the Director! – standing in the lobby, arguing with some other pony... about a position that needed to be filled.
Meek little Karl stumbled and stuttered and begged and whimpered until they decided to give him a chance to show what he could do.
But it was Karla who took the stage with a roar beneath the blazing bright lights of the theater, and it was Karla who shouted the lines and demanded the audience clap and cheer her. And clap, and cheer her on, they did.
And thus a star was born.




“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” - C. S. Lewis.




~Fin