//------------------------------//
// Epilogue (Optional) 
// Story: Anger from the Shadows 
// by xgenwolf99 
//------------------------------//


 Months later


The Canterlot guards had finished burying the last of the soldiers. The grave for Armis Ignis was in the front row of them. His gravestone was the largest out of the fallen soldiers. A statue to honor him was placed in the Canterlot Gardens. It was of a pony wielding a sword with a fire burning underneath him. Ponyville's reconstruction was led by Princess Twilight. Most of the residential buildings were rebuilt, but the hospital was still underway. 

In the Dragonlands, a grave was marked for the dragons killed by Spiritus. Names had been added as more corpses were returned. The name and trust of dragons had been stained by Spiritus. Ember and her foreign relations officer had been working with the Crystal Empire and Canterlot to control the damages. The Dragon's Vault, their treasury, had been left with barely anything left in it. 

"What do you mean you want to name an academy after him?" Ember's foreign advisor asked. "He killed his own kind and you think he deserves an academy?"

"He was a great warrior and helped me defeat the Lumen Tenebrae, a weapon forged by ponies." Ember said. "If we can train more soldiers like Spiritus, we'd be unstoppable. We need to tap into the magic we have as dragons."

"If we do that, we will be no better than he was. Spiritus was a monster, we shouldn't promote that image at all."

"I don't care, we will honor his final moments. As Dragon Lord, I command you to comply." Ember walked out of the room. "I'm only asking that you name an academy after him, not erect a statue or give him a status as hero."

Spike and Twilight met up with Ember about a month later. They met at Canterlot as Ember was leaving from a meeting with Celestia. The trio sat out in the gardens. Ember set down a satchel.

"So how's the reconstruction going?" Ember asked.

"Almost half of the city is rebuilt." Twilight replied. "It's hard to get rid of the magic he left around."

"Sorry about that, Dragon magic isn't something to mess with. We can get pretty powerful when we need to."

"I've been meaning to ask, how does dragon magic work?"

"It works like your elements but is better." Ember said. "You can use raw emotion to power it up and expel it as long as your feelings are strong. Spiritus used hate to power up originally, but then used love for dragons to get even stronger. The power of love is a great factor dragons can depend on, that's why previous dragons couldn't use it."

"If Spiritus was half dragon like me," Spike said, "then why can't I use my powers?"

"Spiritus was hatched by a pony yes," Ember said, "but he was hatched in a lava pool. Dragons hatched in a draconic setting will absorb the nearby magic. You were hatched by Twilight forcefully, he was hatched by a combination of pony and dragon magic. That's why he has those powers."

"Do you think I'll ever get those powers?" Spike looked at both Ember and Twilight.

"We can't dismiss it just yet." Twilight pat his head. "Ember, do you have the works made by Spiritus's father yet?"

"I have found them." Ember said. "It seems a small clan of dragons was actually friendly with him and shared information about the Dragonlands to him. A journal of his revealed that it would've been published, but as a work of fiction since ponies thought of dragons as unintelligent beings."

"He wouldn't accept that?"

"If his works were seen as fictitious, he would give up on writing since they would be seen as inferior works." Ember pulled out a bunch of notebooks from her satchel. "These are all of his works, nothing edited."

Twilight took the notebooks and headed on a train home to Ponyville. Spike followed behind her. 

"Hey, Spike," Ember said, refraining from making eye contact, "Feel free to come to the Dragonlands anytime."