Epilogue
Epilogue
Two and a half years later-
It was a beautiful fall day in Ponyville. It was cool and crisp outside, with a weak sun shining in the cloudless, cerulean sky. Multitudes of birds were chirping in the air, and the sharp, fresh smell of falling leaves was drifting in from the nearby Everfree. Ponies were moving all about the town by themselves or in groups, talking, working, laughing, going about their various tasks and errands, without nary a care in the world.
I was sitting on a pillow out on the back porch of the house I shared with the girls, a steaming mug of hot cider in my hooves. My attention was on the thin, wispy curls rising from the drink that caressed my face with gentle warmth.
“And that’s pretty much what happened,” I said without looking up. “I spent the next few weeks breaking the curse on everypony that’d been affected, as well as helping out with the cleanup wherever I could. Angie stayed and helped until the portal was closing, but then she went back to Earth to explain what’d happened. You both pretty much know what happened on that side.”
Sitting across from me on a shared pillow were a pair of older unicorns, one male, one female. The stallion had a white coat, green eyes, and a two-toned mane of brown and gray. His expression was stoic as his piercing eyes drilled into me. The mare had a white coat as well, though her eyes were indigo, and her mane was a faded shade of mauve.
Their eye shape, muzzles, and cheekbones all greatly resembled mine, and their expressions were shrewd as they sat in tense silence, digesting everything I’d just said.
When neither of them said anything, I took a sip of cider and continued talking. “We’ve just been rebuilding since then. Everything was damaged in some way, shape, or form, so it’s not like there’s been any shortage of work to do. And that’s not even mentioning all the destruction to--”
“You should’ve come back,” the mare cut in.
Her voice was soft, but it made my skin prickle and drew all my attention. I exhaled out my nose and sighed, finally looking up at her. “I couldn’t, Madre. There was no time.”
My human mother crossed her hooves and looked away, her lips pressed into a thin line. “You were gone for two and a half years, Magellan! Two and a half years! You could have at least even for just a day, just so we could say goodbye!”
I winced. “I know, I’m sorry--”
“We taught you better than to act like that! The last thing we hear from you is a message on your birthday, and then out of the blue, you and your friends just go and vanish off into thin air?!" Mother made a derisive snort. "We didn’t deserve that kind of treatment, and you know it!”
“Rose…” my human father said out the corner of his mouth.
Mother closed her eyes and grit her teeth. “We could’ve helped you. We could’ve helped you work through all of this. Instead you kept us all in the dark, not knowing that what you were going through!”
I shifted uncomfortably on my pillow. “We were scared! We didn’t know what to do!”
“You should’ve turned to your family!” Mother snapped. “You should’ve turned to US!”
“I didn’t think you’d understand!” I protested. “Shmangie knew all about ponies! I felt that she was the best possible choice! What would you guys have done that she didn’t?”
Mother glowered, but didn’t reply. Instead, she turned to Father, who took the hint and spoke up.
“You’re missing the point, Hijo.” He wet his lips and leaned forward, speaking clearly and succinctly. “You purposely kept your Mother and I out of the loop on all of this. Angie came back weeks after this all started with an outrageous story! We didn’t believe it until she showed us that jeweled necklace! And then she tells us that we’re not going to see you again for two and a half years?! You had us all worried sick!”
I felt a hole forming in my gut. I’d known that this was coming for months, but that didn’t make it any easier. “Things just happened so fast,” I said weakly.
Mother’s withering glare bore into me like a drill. “You spent weeks at Angie’s house. Weeks! You had plenty of time.”
I don’t know why I was protesting. Maybe it’s an inherent thing that all children do with their parents. I rankled at the idea of being scolded, and so I tried to defend myself automatically without even thinking.
Fortunately, I was smart enough to recognize that.
I hung my head with drooped ears. “You’re… you’re right. You’re both right. I kept you both ignorant on purpose. I shouldn’t have done that.”
Mother looked down at me and raised her chin. “You didn’t think we’d understand.”
“No, ma’am.”
“And you let your fear control your actions.”
“Very much so,” I mumbled.
“You made us both worry unnecessarily, put your sister in danger, and made things MUCH harder than they needed to be,” Father said.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “I… don’t know what to say.”
Silence. Utter and complete silence. The two of them didn’t say a word, and they seemed perfectly content to let me stew in my own guilt. All I heard was the gentle rising and falling their breathing, and the soft, tinkling sounds of the wind blowing through the neighbor’s windchime.
“Tell me this, Honey,” Mother said quietly. “If something like this were to have happened to us, that your father and I woke up one day and we found bodies changing before our eyes, would you expect us to tell you and Angie about it?”
I bit my lip. “I... don’t know.”
“Yeah, well… join the club,” Father said. His eyes were off in the distance, watching the passersby. “We don’t, either.”
I looked up at him.
“We honestly don’t know how we’d to react to something like that,” Father continued, his expression neutral. “So we don’t know how to feel about your actions. Our anger now is more a natural reaction than anything else, that you were in such trouble, and you didn’t turn to us. You didn’t even give us the chance to help you, Mage. That’s what stings the most.”
Ouch. Leave it to your parents to rub salt in a wound.
“Angie’s already told us about everything that happened,” Mother said in a gentler tone. “And we’ve had time to process it. We’re not going to run you through the wringer too much. All things considered, you did a lot of things pretty well. I just wish that you would’ve trusted us.”
My posture sagged. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. It just kinda… did.”
“And apparently, you and your friends helped saved the day,” Father said, his eyebrows waggling. “Put your fencing skills to use, and got to play hero with some fancy magical doodads? Not bad, Bud.”
My spirits rose a little bit. “Yeah?”
“What exactly have you been doing?” my human mother asked. She looked around at the reconstructed Ponyville. “There’s no way you could have helped out with the construction as a little girl. Obviously it’s been enough for you and your friends to be given your own house.”
“Something similar to what I was doing at my old job,” I replied, leaning back a bit. “Managing others, making sure the construction teams have been collaborating and working with each other, resolving issues, that kind of thing.”
“Hmm.” Mother was squinting, as if she was trying to make sure it was all real. “It’s all still very hard to believe. I never would’ve thought… not even in my wildest dreams…”
I watched her for a moment in silence. Her expression was strange, almost whimsical as she took in the quiet serenity of the town. I couldn’t tell for the life of me what was on her mind, but if I had to take a guess, it didn’t seem like she disapproved.
Father cleared his throat. “So, uh… let’s change gears a bit, here. I assume your sister’s told you that she’s moving here?”
I nodded. “I’ve already spoken with a few ponies. She’ll be staying with me while her place is being built.”
Father fiddled with his hooves. “Well… I know that it’s on kinda short notice, but… you think you can house us, too?”
I raised an eyebrow, letting those words sink into my mind. “Meaning what, exactly?”
“We’ve given it some thought.” He motioned to himself and Mother. “And, well… to be perfectly honest, there’s not a whole lot left for us on Earth if the two of you aren’t there. Your grandparents are gone, your aunt and uncle have their own lives, and most of the people we used to keep touch with have moved away.”
“And I’m not going to only see my children every two and a half years,” Mother said flatly. She looked down at her pony body with a touch of uncertainty, but then, she set her jaw and hardened her eyes. “If the two of you are going to be here, then… there’s nothing for it. We will be, too.”
I sat up straight on my pillow. “Are you guys saying you want to emigrate to Equestria? For real?”
Father’s expression suddenly turned serious. “This isn’t going to be easy on us, Mage. We’ve already gotten our affairs in order, but that doesn’t mean that we’re thrilled about what all this is going to mean. We’re going to need help getting settled, and we were hoping you could give us a leg up.”
I was momentarily at a loss for words. I stared blankly at the two of them, my mouth moving without any sound.
“I can tell that this is a very special place to you,” Mother said. “You look happier than I’ve seen you in years. I imagine that you’ve probably struggled with what to do about this, and while we have, too, Angie wound up being the deciding factor. In the end, we’ve decided that we’d rather be here with the two of you than by ourselves back on Earth.”
“Even if that means we’re all colorful cartoon talking unicorns,” Father added, chuckling.
My throat was going tight. My vision was going watery. My breathing was becoming hitched, and I was completely and utterly speechless. This was a dream come true. I was going to get the best of both worlds. I wouldn’t need to worry about not seeing them so rarely, and with a few simple messages, I could get them situated and set for life.
Sniffling, I got up and went over to the both of them and hugged them, not caring as tears of joy fell from my face.
“I love you,” I murmured softly to both of them. “I love you, I love you, I love you…”
Mother and Father smiled and hugged me back. They were still slightly clumsily with their unfamiliar limbs, but they did well enough with what they had.
Mother leaned down and kissed my cheek. “We know, Sweetie. We know.”
***
“Your family tell you about their little ‘announcement’?” Scootaloo asked me later that day.
I yawned and leisurely stretched my legs. I’d been going through a growth spurt the last month or so, and my balance was all out of whack. “How’d you know about that?”
The two of us were walking down Ponyville’s main street on a grocery errand. The town was even more filled with ponies than normal, and it was quite interesting to see all the new faces. It was pretty obvious to see which ones were new arrivals through the portal, as their movements were jerky and their actions were unsure.
Scootaloo beamed from above me. Her wings had grown about a bit in the last few years, and she could now fly for a few minutes at a time. “Because my parents are coming over with them! I already talked to Dash, and we’re gonna build them a place by the hospital, since Dad hates commuting!”
I widened my eyes. “Really? For real?!”
“I know, right?!” Scootaloo squee’d and raised a happy hoof in the air. “It feels like a dream!”
“Did you cry?” I asked her smirking. “I’ll bet you did. You cried, didn’t you.”
Scootaloo blushed and looked away. “S-shut up! So what if I did?! I wasn’t expecting that!”
“Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” I said casually. “I bawled like a little girl.”
Scootaloo gave me a flat look. “You are a little girl.”
“We both are,” I corrected her with a playful nudge. “That means we’re excused. May as well enjoy it while we can.”
“Ergghhghgh.” Scootaloo ran a hoof down her face. “Stupid female body and its… emotions. Bleh. I hate all this mushy stuff.”
I giggled. “Any news about Apple Bloom and Babs’ family? I haven’t heard anything.”
Scootaloo’s face fell. “Mom told me that they... they’re not coming. At all. Not even to visit.”
I stopped dead. “Seriously?!” I closed my eyes and stamped the ground. “Oh, for Luna’s sake!”
“That’s why Apple Bloom and Babs left early this morning.” Scootaloo landed beside me and folded her wings. “They wanna try talking to them one last time.”
I scoffed and turned my gaze to across the road. “I figured that they’d be stubborn, but this is just freaking pathetic!”
“Hey, you never know,” Scootaloo said with a weak shrug. “They might come around? Maybe see the light?”
“Hmph.” I rolled my eyes and kicked at a pile of dirt. “Well... at least they still have one family that cares about them.”
Scootaloo grunted acknowledgement. “And the better one of the two, if you ask me.”
“Mmm.”
“Shmage! Dylan!”
We both turned. Trotting up to us from the direction of the house was Shmangie, a pair of saddlebags bouncing at her sides. Her coat was immaculately groomed, she was wearing makeup and eyeliner, and her mane and tail were fancily curled.
“Hey, hey!” I said, brightening up a bit. “Don’t you look fancy. What’s the occasion?”
Shmangie slowed as she approached us. “I just got a letter. Twilight and I are running up to Canterlot.”
“Canterlot?” I repeated. “All the way up there? What for?”
“Princess Celestia and Luna want to see me,” she said. “They want me to get them up to speed with everything that’s gone on in the human world.”
I frowned. “You already did that with Twilight. Can’t she just relay the information to them?”
Shmangie shrugged. “They want firsthand information, I guess. And hey, it’s not like I mind. I really want to see the place!”
I clicked my teeth. I supposed that Canterlot wasn’t too badly damaged anymore, but still, I wasn’t sure what she was expecting. They were still very much working on repairs up there.
“Hmm. Wonder if they’ve finished with the new castle yet?” Scootaloo wondered aloud.
I snorted. “That won’t be for a while, yet. A few years at least, last I heard.”
Shmangie was undeterred. “Well, either way, it’ll still be fun! I can’t wait to see it!”
“You’ll have to tell us all about it when you get back, then,” I said. “Neither of us have been up there in a while. I wouldn’t mind an update.”
“I can do that,” Shmangie said. She suddenly shivered and danced in place. “Ooooh, this is so exciting! I get to meet the Princesses! Eeeeee!”
I snickered. “I think you’ll like them. Princess Celestia’s really funny, and Princess Luna’s really smart. You’ll enjoy talking to them.”
Shmangie composed herself, then took a deep breath and let it out. “I certainly hope so. Well, I gotta go! I’m meeting Twilight at her castle so she can teleport us! I’ll see you tonight!”
“Bye!” we chorused. We watched her run down the street with a spring in her step.
“It’s almost like she never left,” Scootaloo said watching her leave. “She’s really taken to being a pony, hasn’t she?”
“Almost frighteningly so,” I replied. “Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”
Scootaloo laughed. “Same here. I’m glad that she’s back.”
I paused as a passing thought struck me. “Do you ever miss any of it? Your life back on Earth, I mean. How about being a human? Any of it?”
Scootaloo didn’t respond to that right away. I watched her as she contemplated the question, her wings flicking slightly, eyes moving from side to side. The two of us stood by the side of the road unnoticed, the wind rustling softly with the sound of falling leaves.
“Some of it, I suppose,” Scootaloo said at last. “Certain pieces of technology, a few friends here and there, opposable thumbs… but nothing that I’d be willing to trade for what we’ve gained. This is who we are, Sweetie, this is who we were always meant to be. I don’t wanna ever lose it again.”
I supposed that was fair. I don’t know why I suddenly felt the need to ask that, but it was at least good to get somepony else’s input on it. I hadn’t actually expected Scootaloo to take the question seriously, but I was suddenly glad that she did.
“How about you?” she asked.
I looked up at the sky. “I think I’m the same. It’s different here, yeah, and not all those differences are preferable to what we had on Earth, but when it’s all said and done, this does feel like a better fit. I was a bit lonely before without Mom and Dad here, but if they’re gonna be here now… well, I don’t see any real reason to go back.”
Scootaloo smirked. “Aw, yeah. We be all straight up done with dem humans, dawg! Ponies fo’ life! Straight thuggin’ it up!”
I facehooved with a loud groan. “Even when you’re orange, you’re still white.”
“Ha! You know it.” Scootaloo jumped back into the air. “We gotta have somepony representin’ all the homeslices! Now let’s bounce it to the club! Shizzle!”
My horn flared green. “You’re asking for a zapping, featherhead.”
“...I’ll be good.”
Things were slowly returning to normal. I’d been anxious about my parents coming to visit, but things had seemingly worked out. Families were being reunited, places were being rebuilt, the land was healing, and relations with the humans were going smoothly. It’d been rocky at first, and there’d been days that my friends or life in general had made wanted to pull my mane out, but ultimately, everything had worked out for the best.
And I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.
“Yo! Sweetie!” Scootaloo yelled back at me. “You coming, or what? We gotta get groceries!”
“Yeah!” I ran after her, trying my best not to trip. “Let’s go!”
I smiled as the two of us walked together down the street.
It really was a beautiful day.
The End
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good ending to a good story
You've made something great here. Well done.
ok it took me a bit to dry my eyes but dam this a the absolute best ending for this story.
this is just perfect.
And CyborgSamurai you should really be proud of your achievements in this story for several reasons it is that good and to top it off remember this there are vary few 5s story's that are completed you created a merrical with this story.
Harts Fire will be watching vary close to see what and when you trout out your next story.
Harts Fire
A fitting conclusion.
Although, there's a bit of a plot hole between this story and the original Five Score, where Shining Armor divorces Cadance and marries Rarity because he had no memory of their relationship but had grown affectionate for Rarity, but if Sweetie here restored everypony's memories then that particular plot point would be complicated due to the memories returning.
6167957 I think you should look at the too story's bye TwistedSpectrum as there is a lot more to it then just Shining Armor and Cadance then just not remembering. there is a story that is based on just Cadance also it is vary hard to find but it explains things much better then I ever code.
Hmm? What's that you say? Time for hype?
*puts on his anticipation hat*
6167967 ...That reply has far too many grammatical errors to take seriously.
6167949
He was given a single sentence lasting 100,000,000 years, not 1,000,000 life sentences.
awesome
6168007
Is the same, the years don´t need to be consecutive: D could spend thirty years as a race horse in 1920 America and fifteen as a war horse in Jerusalen Crusades. An so until the total of lives sums the sentence.
Also, maybe I missed it, but what happened with Celestia and Luna?
6168119
The curse doesn't cause time travel. Even if it allows for non consecutive lifetimes, they would all be in the future.
6167981 I think what they're trying to say is that there's another Five Score Spinoff out there that centers around what happens to Cadance, and that it "supposedly" explains the motivations behind why She and Shining aren't getting back together. I THINK it's This Story that they're talking about (I could be wrong), But I have neither read it, and likely won't because I personally don't consider any incomplete Five Score fic other than Last Crusade to be canon if it hasn't updated in over a year. If it updates and looks like the author is going to stick with it through to the end, I'll give it a read, but until then I have my own headcanon for what happens to the three MIA Princesses.
Edit: Just noticed that this story is back in the Featured Bin on the homepage...
6167957
I assumed that they didn't want to get their memories back, just to avoid the confusion.
Nothing explicitly says as such, but it was my assumption nonetheless.
The 5 scoreverse is weird, I prefer the Chessgameverse.................
So that's what happened midway into Spectrum's second epilogue.
A few of the human families migrated into Equestria.
Wow.
PS: Gangstaloo is second best Scootaloo
PPS: Looks like I have a few ideas for mine now.
After reading through the Optimal-verse, this line made me involuntarily shiver in horror.
"everything is going to be just fine."
Then, BAM! puberty again! Mwahahahahahahaha!
And that concludes the final Four Score fic I've been following. Or at least the last one that's been updating. Most of them just seemed to sputter and die. Luckily this one didn't, and it was a fun one to follow!
My 25th birthday is coming up in a few months. Unlikely as it is, I'll be checking for mysterious butt-tattoos. (For some reason I just can't bring myself to say cutie.... ugh, can't do it. ....cutiemark. THERE.)
6168153
Yes, it very much involved time travel.
6168266 Actually, in the canon of the original Five Score, there was none of this "restore memories" thing. Twisted had intended for... well let me just quote him.
He never intended for this quick method to exist, and when Last Crusade came in with the Sweetie option, it kind of forced his hand and made him briefly address it. I like this story, but I really dislike that aspect of it. Having the quick memory restoration there feels like a copout. The point of the original was that the ponies aren't who there were, either the original pony version or the human version. They have to come to terms with themselves. That they might never get their old memories back. That they're not who they were and they're now a new person, an amalgam of the two, even with them eventually gradually getting their old pony memories back. But instead, to suddenly just... flip them back on ruins that hard earned character growth. Like, instead of working and earning those memories back, there's a magic ON switch they can just flip and make everything better. Ugh. It's cheap.
It also necessitated finding a reason Sweetie couldn't use it earlier. This was handled by having Discord threaten her. But the point is that it's a problem when you make your characters too powerful. You have to find reasons that they can't actually use their power, which, to me, is just bad story telling. You end up with contrivances that just get in the way of the story. It's why Goku was always late to the fight. If he was there on time, then no one else has any conflict because Goku always wins. So he was always off picking up his drycleaning or what the fuck ever it was he had to do and always showed up after a couple friends died and Krillin got slapped around a little. Or my other favorite example. On Heroes, Hiro could control space and time at his whim, but he kept having ridiculous reasons why he couldn't. You have a hero that can solve any problem BEFORE it happens. Then you won't have problems and therefore no story. So they threw a rival time traveler against him to take his girlfriend hostage so he wouldn't try to stop the bad guys. Or they gave him a brain tumor that messed with his control (that later mysteriously disappeared). Or my favorite: they stuck him back in feudal Japan and just said, "He can't make his powers work" with no explanation. The point is, if you make a character too powerful that they'd solve the problems too easily, you can't let them actually do it. So you have to find reasons why they can't, and that usually ends up being stupid. So why make a character powerful at all if they can't use it? Especially when it not only doesn't add to character development, but actually hinders growth?
Also, as an aside from that note. This may just be me, but it felt like the CMC were overly powerful and everything they did was an attempt to surpass the Mane 8 and one up them in their own story. Like, the Mane 8 use the Rainboom to send the signal to everyone so they can try to find their way to the farm. Oh, but the CMC were tracking them with satelites. Or after Discord was rendered mortal (by the CMC), the Mane 8 fought him to the death in mortal combat with all the stakes on the line. And finally Dash was the big damn hero and struck the killing blow. But hey, it turns out it wasn't really their victory at all because the CMC were the ones beating his true power on the astral plane. I understand how a writer needs to make their characters the center of their story. But sometimes you need to know when to play second fiddle to someone else. Especially when your story and its characters are actually secondary to someone else's.
But back to Sweetie's memory power and limitting her by Discord threatening her. Him doing so also confirmed that the actual Discord was in contact with her in the human world. So he could actually communicate with cursed ponies in the human world at any time. Like, any of them? What? That's crazy overpowered as well, and actually opens up some plotholes. It could have been just an echo of him left over as part of the curse. That's how I view the Discord events in Five Score stories. It's like a little bit of left over AI recorded into the curse, or what have you, but not the actual guy. But in Last Crusade, when they fought him, he confirmed he talked to her. Which means he was monitoring her. So why didn't he know what she was up to later when they were returning? Why didn't he know what ANYONE was doing? Since he obviously could have had tabs on EVERYONE? That's a big can of worms.
Also, the thing with letting all these humans just waltz on through to Equestria. Didn't they set up a super secure facility around the portal to keep it safe and help ponie come through? I didn't think they were in the business of letting dozens of humans just come on through. But maybe that was just my interpretation of the end of Five Score?
And with Celestia and Luna being back ruling the land from Canterlot. Uh, I guess I just didn't think that's how it was going to shake out, but I suppose there's not really any problem. I just thought one of the things to take away from the end of the original was that it was a new beginning for Equestria, and though things - the land and its inhabitants - were very different now, they were going to work out alright and there was hope. Not that everything was returning to the status quo. I mean, I guess Cel and Luna taking back up the reigns isn't bad. It just feels like the memory restoration: trying to move backward to the past before Discord, rather than moving forward to the future.
This all sounds very critical, and I guess it is. I like the story. I really do. It's well written and it's considered the secondary 5S/4 story for a reason. It's the only other one that's considered hard canon. I just wish that it didn't go out of its way to deviate from that canon in a couple critical ways.
6168307
Because the Chessverse is less weird than Five Score. Right.
The Chess Game of the Gods has a satyr who's the son of Lady Luck, a dragon blood-addicted griffin
pirateprivateer, an intelligent-mute-magical diamond dog, an illusionist cat (as in Felis catus), a shade that sees the world through a video game HUD, a draconequus who is also an alicorn (occasionally both at the same time), a freaking khajiit, and a rationalist cow who can emulate godlike powers with the use of chained time travel spells to get information and/or assistance from the future. And those are just from the handful of stories I've read. There are currently 70 stories in the group.6168981 not going to address most of this because you make some good points, bit I will add my own thoughts/corrections to the last two points
First, they aren't letting humans through the portal all willy nilly, even here. It's stated in the second Epilogue for the main story that immediate family are one of the few exceptions to the restrictions, and it's only said here that Sweetie's parents are moving along with Scoot's adoptive family. Immediate family. Babs' and Appleblooms folks, however have deigned not to move, and from the impression I'm getting are of the mindset of disownment or similar unless they can be convinced otherwise.
As for things returning to the status quo; give it some time man. It's only been two and a half years since they began rebuilding. I'm amazed and impressed they've made the progress they have, going from virtually no infrastructure to a stable agrarian society. I've played Banished on Steam, and I see this as a similar situation to a " Medium Difficulty New Game" scenario, EG: limited tools and seeds, no livestock and an extremely short lived supply of food, only instead of about fifteen people they've got several thousand. The Magic of the Three Tribes can do a Lot, and probably served as a major factor, but I'm still amazed they made it through the first six months without everyone starving to death.
Edit: because my tablet's a laggy b
ch and posted instead of moving the cursor...
Oh well, it's finally over. Nice story, nice ending, good job!
Watch for power creep in the next one, though, you are of those vulnerable to it.
6168981 Even if there is some time travel component in the curse, unless we assume that every single horse since the beginning of the domestic horsekind is actually Discord, he still have A LOT of time left on his sentence.
Thanks for writing out that list of concerns. It matches mine so well, that I don't have to write those myself now.
6169168 Add "can eat grass" to that starting conditions, and that'll explain how nopony starved.
6169442 True, they can eat grass. Only problem is that at the start most of Equestria is an (Post)apocalyptic, bone-strewed wasteland that hasn't seen a real day/night cycle since Discord took over with the most benign form of precipitation likely being chocolate milk. This means that the ecosystems are most likely be all KINDS of out of wack (even without more dirrect intervention from Discord, which I wouldn't discount) and unlikely to support much of any life until the Earth Ponies and Pegasi are able to start setting it back in order. Even if the Unicorns are able to find the right spells to help out they've got their work cut our for them.
The most reliable form of food production for the first while would likely be foraging what they can from the Everfree, and while they Might be able to scrape buy until the first crops come in that has its own risks. After that first harvest, though, they have more of a fighting chance, especially if they forgo normal seasonal change and keep things at a nice mild Spring/Fall climate with plenty of controlled rainfall/irrigation to help the ecosystem get back on its feat.
This isn't to mention the need for shelter and general protection from the elements, supplying the tools and hardware such as nails and such they'll need to rebuild and replacing the tools that wear out, Etc... Even if they have designated "Zones" where the Pegasi don't implement weather programs for rain and such there are still other things to worry about, or if a storm they're using to irrigate the fields gets out of hand and enters these prepared Zones anyway. Even building over what's left of Ponyville will take a Lot of work, because many of the buildings that weren't torn down to build the fortifications for the battle will likely need to be written off as "Condemned" anyway, possibly including Carousel Boutique, and need to be rebuilt from the ground up anyways...
Building/Rebuilding a society form the ground up with almost nothing to start with is a Lot of work, and ever since I started getting ideas for my own Five Score Spinoff I've been trying to figure out all of what would need to be done to get everything running again.
6169168 Yeah, I suppose you're right about it just being family. I guess I just made assumptions from this line:
My bad.
And as for the status quo, I don't want it to return. I envisioned the ending to be a brand new world built full of hope from the ashes of the old. Not a return to the old world.
6169537 Well, since Everfree is not really affected, and it has all the kinds of edible plants in there (Zap Apples came from it, for example), I think they can find more than enough greenery to not get too hungry. And even if that's not the case, how much time it takes for a simple grass to grow without any help from earth ponies? It takes days in spring, and it's a normal food for a pony. As for tools, they do have a ready answer to most of their immediate tool needs as 1/3 of their population can do telekinesis, some - pretty strong one, too. That's more than enough to start - even if they didn't had preserved ruins of their entire civilisation handy, collected in a small area by Discord.
6168422
Hehe. Glad someone got the reference.
My brain went into all kinds of weird places for a moment there. Good thing this isn't the Optimalverse... right?
6169076 your logic will not sway me!
6169551 And I'm not saying it will Stay that way, but change takes time, especially for Equestria Pre-Betrayal. It's only been two and a half years of them putting their society back together and IMHO Status Quo is More than a reasonable Short Term goal. Give it till the five year Epilogue at the end of the main story and the times the portal opens to follow to start seeing some real changes, as most of those first changes are likely going to be with the help of the Human intervention given Equestria's currently limited resources.
I've also said before that I have my own Headcanon for what happened to the three MIA Princesses and in it they don't want to stay at Status Quo either.
6169563
Everfree: That's why I said they could forage from it, but there are still the other, more wild, dangers in the Everfree to deal with that would make things difficult. The various mythical creatures such as Hydras and Timberwolves, for one and the Plundervine was hardly the Only dangerous plant (Not insurmountable, but definitely problematic).
Grass: That's assuming that there's enough moisture and/or nutrients Left in the soil for anything to immediately grow at all or that enough dormant grass seeds survived to this point to sprout. Grass may only take a few days to fill in after a hard winter, but where I live the ground usually doesn't "green up" until after at Least the first rains of spring come along.
Tools: Unicorn Magic will definitely be a major factor and will limit the need for Heavy Lift equipment, but The Earth and Pegasus Ponies don't have that advantage, and that's still several thousand ponies to equip. The tools left in the ruins of Ponyville are another story; Save for a few that were of exceptional quality (or enchanted) pre-banishment most of the tools will be heavily time-worn from exposure and lack of maintenance over the last twenty five years (most of the weapons scavenged for the battle were rusty or broken). They'll be usable, but Many will likely wear out completely before the next time the portal opens given the heavy use they'll be needed for, and they have limited means to replace them to begin with. Now, find a few Ponies who have some blacksmithing skills (Either as their Special Talent or a Hobby they picked up on Earth) and build a forge for them to rework the tools that brake, and the problems more or less solved, but that will still need to be one of the first things that they set up if only to get ahead of the game.
SQUEEEEEEEE!
EPICNESS! 
I may like this story better that the main one
6170193
Well, if they face either to die from hunger or to forage the Everfree, I think they might be able to find the way. Especially considering that those ponies are way more agressive and combat-ready than the original population, they were humans for 25 years, after all.
The trick with the grass after the winter (at least, in moderate climates), is not that the soil don't have enough water before the good rain, it's the opposite - by the time rain hits, enough of the water from the thawing is evaporated away or went deeper into the soil so the grass don't need to swim in order to grow.
As for the tools - many tasks of pegasi and earth ponies don't even require tools. Pegasi have their tools literally floating in the sky. They need only their magic to control the weather. Earth ponies too, you don't need to till soil to plant grass, and they need only their hooves to do the magic (and if they were not complete idiots, at least one smuggled some seeds through the portal, they had two days to plan this). That leaves unicorns, naturally incapable of those tasks, on duties that need fine control or specialised tool. Remember how Rarity, whose talent is definitely not carpentry or blacksmithing, and lacking any tool besides her horn, fixed stuff with her magic? She got her memory back, she can do that again.
So while I don't see their situation as easy or pleasant, it's most certainly not that bad.
6167957 I assume Sweetie gave everyone the option of getting their memories back, but some didn't take it. Part of the problem is that the show sets certain expectations for characters. When everypony saw the rainboom and went to the farm, they looked to Twilight and her friends for guidance, even though they were just as clueless as the others. In Shining's case, the memories would just over complicate his love life.
This chapter also brought to light that every pony in Equestria had a bit of Chaos magic in them in the aftermath of Tirek's rampage. I propose that the chaos magic is what allowed Sweetie to restore memories. What if that ability went away soon after the battle due to Discord's banishment. Just a headcanon thought.
6168153 Reread Chapter 26 of the original story. Here's the relevant part.
6168981
The epilogue to Five Score takes place 5 years after the battle, whereas here, it's only 2 1/2. It's possible that the facility hasn't been funded yet. I believe it was stated that goods from Equestria funded the facility, which wouldn't have been available in the aftermath of the battle. My headcanon is that the Ponies that decided to stay on the Human side of the portal explained the situation to the mayor of Dubuque (The town where the portal is), and got permission to set up a makeshift headquarters when the portal opened next. By this time, Equestria is at least in a manageable state and can let go of a few resources. Keep in mind that this is a place where gemstones are common enough to eat. What Spike eats in a week could fund the facility, staffing, bribes to silence the press, and drinks for the entire town. Cheers!
6170825
Actually, in the original FS Big Mac went to stay on Earth with quite significant amount of gems they found in the castle. The portal facility was funded from those. Equestria is capable of letting go of any amount of gems at that stage, it's not like gemstones are good for paving roads or building barns.
6170920 Guess I forgot that bit.
I've wanted someone to write a story about somepony who didn't make it to the portal in time, and was stuck as a pony on earth for 2 1/2 years. I imagine Big Mac would convert the farm into a refugee camp and use the gems to fund it, while also acting as a Human representative for the stranded ponies. Meanwhile, there would be police reports, conspiracy theories, and investigations into all the missing people.
Another thing that would be interesting is the ponies that never met Twilight before, and therefore, didn't end up in the show. Whereas background characters and speaking roles at least have a model on what they used to act like, these non-existent characters wouldn't even know their former names.
6170789
In a moderate climate, Maybe. Where I live the end of winter is more a matter of the Snow all melts before the ground thaws and all that water runs off into the ditches and streams leaving everything in a state of semi-drout until the first rainfall. Equestria is in a similar state with it likely not having had any Real rain since Discord took over, not to mention removing all the Poisons in the ground from everything that Has fallen out of the sky, because Chocolate Milk and Cream Soda, though tasty in their own right, are less than ideal fertilizers...
First, they need to restore the soil to a state where something other than Weeds and hardy shrubs can grow, Then they need to irrigate everything before anything will start to grow. And while there are probably more than a few farmers among the Earth Ponies, besides Applejack and Applebloom, who can get a start on restoring the soil, Rainbow Dash has her work cut out for her educating all the Pegasi who don't remember/don't want Sweetie to unlock their memories in how to control the weather, not to mention that they've got to scout out some reservoirs (natural or otherwise) of untainted fresh water to supply their reserves Ala-Hurricane Fluttershy before they can get to making the rain-clouds to distribute it.
As for tools, you have a point about the Ecosystem restoration efforts. Tools aren't going to be all that necessary there, but they still need to build/rebuild the shelters and infrastructure to support all of that behind the scenes. Seeds are going to be brought over, least of which being the supply that AJ and Big Mac were keeping back at their farm. The ponies of Equestria still only got just under 48 hours to grab whatever they can manage that isn't nailed down and bring it back through the portal, all without overly alarming the local authorities and the US Government, because in its own way, this is an Exodus scenario. The question still remains, however: Will it be enough?
I'm not saying that these challenges are insurmountable, as the various epilogues are testament to that fact. Perhaps I Am overplaying things a little bit (if only because I'm finding this argument/debate enjoyable
), but what I'm also trying to get across is that none of it would have been possible without an absolutely Massive amount of work and cooperation on everyone's part, with everyone pulling together to do what Needs to be done for it to have been possible in the first place.
6170920 Unless you live in the Crystal Empire
6171352
I should point out that the Elements of Harmony can restore much of Discord's workings to their original state; Equestria would still need to rebuild because I doubt very much that the Elements can, say, translocate displaced structures, and they may be unable to fix things that are broken, but not broken because of chaos magic.
Not to mention 25 years worth of decay and no infrastructure either.
But I don't think it would be impossible for them to restore at least part of the area around Ponyville to a semi-pre Discord state so the ponies can survive. The only other complication to this is Angie going back to Earth with her Element, which strikes me as absurd, reckless move.
6168178 It wouldn't apply to this story anyways. It's both marked as a complete and >10,000 words.
6171555 That's assuming that they've recovered enough from being drained for the last twenty five years by both the plundervine and Ungol, plus the power they expended to defeat Discord to make Enough of a difference. They have no idea how long they are going to need to "Rest" for before they fully recover, and winners don't rely on Luck in their plans.
Do you have any idea how much farmland it takes to feed a thousand people? Equestria has Several thousand mouths to feed just among the Ponies. Maybe not Quite five figures (yet!), but enough where getting enough land to feed everyone purely on cultivated food will take a while. And this is assuming that they even can and that the Chaos inflicted by Discord isn't so deep seeded into the land after twenty five years that it can be effectively scrubbed purely with magic, not to mention the Indirect damage caused by his meddling, such as the poisoning of the soil via unnatural precipitation, because while the rain itself was generated by his magic, the aftereffects fall more under the prevue of cause and effect.
As for Angie going back to Earth? Well, I can't entirely disagree, but at the same time it wasn't exactly something she could avoid. Rock and a Hard Place scenario here: On the one hoof, she has an obligation to protect Equestria as the bearer of Generosity, while on the other hand she still needs to inform their parents of what's going on, get her affairs in order, and make everything necessary for her eventual complete emigration to Equestria as smooth as possible so as not to incur yet Another missing persons case, this one involving her and her family...
Maybe she could have intrusted some of this to someone else, but I know that I wouldn't trust most of it to anyone but myself if I were in her place (though I admit to being a bit paranoid). I like to think that it was a calculated risk; Most of the factions that had remained in Equestria were still reeling from the backlash of Discord's reign ending, or in direct alliance with the Ponies (such as the Dragons and Chri(y)s'(alis') Changelings), however tentative those alliances might be. What's more is that the Ponies had just PROVEN that they're willing to put up one Tartarus of a fight for what's theirs, and are determined to keep what they've already taken back, so only the foolish or desperate are likely to try anything.
6171788
Perhaps I misunderstood, I thought the constant attack by the plundervines and the spider limited their ability to locate new bearers, but didn't drain them in the way you're thinking. So much of their energy was going into resisting, they didn't have enough left over to search a wider area.
They do say they need to rest, but I thought that had more to do with what they did; normally they would turn him into stone, which, presumably, isn't as draining, but this time they forced his soul to separate (or something) from his physical form, and that was a more costly move, on their part.
Granted they might need time to recover, but that time might only be measured in hours or even just a few days, rather than, say, years.
6172069 Either of us could be wrong, as the details are sketchy, but here's how I interpreted it: The plundervine constricted the Tree of Harmony's inherent power like it did in the Season Four intro, limiting its ability to draw magic from the land to empower the Elements while Ungol fed directly on the magic of the Elements, draining their power as much as she could manage and hampering their ability to empower the Tree enough to fight off the Plundervine instead of merely keeping it "alive".
A bit of a Catch 22... Elements can help tree if tree helps elements, but Tree can't help elements until elements help tree...
Helping the Neo-Bearers kill both Ungol and the Plundervine likely took most of the energy both the Tree and the Elements had managed to store up, and should they have failed, then the Elements would likely have been drained completely, the Tree of Harmony would have died, and with them the rest of Equestria. It was a Huge risk, but one the Elements were willing to take because the alternative would likely have been the same, only slower. When they went against Discord they were still in this weakened state, but with Ungol and the Plundervine gone they could put what they normally used for fighting them off into the effort along with what was left of their reserve-power into defeating him, giving a false sense of how much power there was left. Separating Discord's Astral form from his physical body took most of what was left and they barely had enough power to shunt them into the Incipisphere (what I'm calling that funky dream-power place) instead of wherever he was intending when Discord tried to banish them again and it was outright stated that they didn't have the power to bring them back to Equestria right away when the CMC first woke up and were joined by Angie and Daring.
The original shunt was piggy-baciking off of Discord's spell and simply redirecting it, rather than performing the actual trans-dimensional shift, which are canonically rather complex in the Five-Score verse, so unless the Princesses came to take them back to Equestria (which I'm not discounting), then they probably spent a couple hours there just sitting around talking or whatever before the Elements recharged enough to bring them back.
What's more, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually Returned the elements to the Tree of Harmony again, like at the end of the Season 4 Pilot, to help the Tree's recovery along even more, which in turn would have more Long-Term benefits to Equestria's recovery.
Overall I think that the time Artifacts as powerful as The Elements of Harmony would need for a FULL Recharge from such a state, without the aid of the Tree of Harmony, would likely be close to a year. They Might (And I'm really stressing this) be able to purify "Ponyville County" after a week or so, Half of Equestria in about three to four months, but doing either would likely leave them in a nearly drained state again.
That still only takes care of the lingering chaotic magic, and not the more permanent aftereffects generated through cause and effect, such as the effects of Lactic Acid on Soil composition. The way I see it, Discord has essentially "Salted" every field in Equestria and contaminated most of the water-sources. Even if you're able to take away the cause of the problem (the lingering chaos magic) the effects still remain behind.
6171308 There are some of those. Like this or this.
To think of it, in most likely scenario, most of the ponies was late for the portal (unless we assume that the curse dropped off all of them into US, but then we have FS-canon Daring form Australia), and since Discord was free to curse leftover ponies for 25 years, there should be many that shift back for as long as that, the last ones arriving somewhere early summer 2045.
6171352
While they are not ideal fertilizers, they can act as normal ones, and judging from the show, that chocolate milk becomes water if you remove all the chaos magic from it. There are spells for that, canon to FS (Twilight uses those, books are available), so they can restore the land even without the help of the Elements.
That also applies to water sources - they need those not only for the weather, but even to simply survive. And since they've shown no lack of drinking water during the time the portal is open, there must be something available (most likely - that river that crosses Ponyville is still flowing).
I think by that point it's quite clear that the authorities are well aware of what's happening (since they know about ponies, and it's extremely hard to miss mass migration of colorful equines converging on the portal), and decided to let it go. Building crude shelters is not the problem (especially when you know that winter won't come until you order it to, and that the rain is falling only where it's needed), since they can just use the border of Everfree for the materials, like Smith family did when they've first settled there.
).
So yes, you do look at things a bit pessimistic there (and yes, this conversation is quite enjoyable
Well, they are not in the Empire... hmm, now that I think about it, crystal ponies are hardly mentioned here, or in the original FS (or even at all).
A fitting epilogue, just wrapping things up. Good times ahead of our heroes/heroines/whatever, and life getting back to normal.
Epic quest finished, it's time to kick back and relax. At least until the next adventure strikes!
Who knows, it IS Ponyville afterall
Great way to close this story.
Is it just me, or are the CMC, who got their memories back immediately, more in touch with their human selves than the mane 6 in the original story. The Mane 6 seemed to give up being human all together, and only refer to themselves with pony names; whereas the CMC still usually use human names and consider the human part of their life more connected to them.
6173953 It makes sense from some points. Since they have all their memories pretty much from the beginning, they are not feeling much conflict between their human and pony lives. They don't have that question "would the memories returning wipe their human personalities" and others like that looming over them, or, more like already have them answered before they could get really paranoid and counting percents of how much human is left in them.
Mane 6, on the other hand, had to learn it slow, worrying every step on the way. Therefore they are more extreme in their reactions and more prone to "<censored> humanity, my human life is a lie, I'm a full pony now!".
6172981 Crystal Ponies aren't mentioned in the Main fic or here, but I have read at least one other spinoff where they Are mentioned near the beginning. I haven't finished it yet (I'm waiting for it to tag as "Complete") but it's on my personal list of "Potential Candidates" for Canon Five Score-verse (Even if Twisted never approves any stories besides Last Crusade) depending on how close it sticks to canon in the half I haven't read yet...
For those interested, I'm attempting to compile a list of what I consider "Canon" to Five Score-verse, even if it's never considered "official". My C.D.O. about story consistency and Multiverse theory won't let me leave it alone...
My Requirements for what I consider "Canon" to Five-Score:
1) If not tagged as "Complete", then the story Must have updated within the last twelve months. (This discounts most of the "Divided by More" continuum)
2) The Story must adhere to the concepts, plot-divices and events set down through Five Score Divided by Four, within reason and without outright contradicting it.
3) The stories not discounted by rules one and two must not contradict Each-Other, either in sequence of events, or how plot-holes left by Divided By Four are explained.
4) If Crossovers can be worked in without breaking these rules, they can still be considered "Potential", but will be set lower on the priority list for spinoffs centering around the same characters that aren't Crossovers.
So far the only listed Canon-Stories on this list are The M-rated version of the mane fic (I read it before I knew there Was a "Disney" version, and couldn't bring myself past the intro when I tried to read it later on) and Last Crusade, with a few others listed as "Non-Canon but with Canon-Elements" because Twisted used devices from them in the last few chapters of the mane fic. Anything else is either on the "Potential Canon", "Haven't Read Yet" or "Rejected List"
6176272 Oh, Velvet's is as close to canon as it's possible in the published part (and knowing Kitsy, it will remain so to the completion). There's only one thing that may concern some, since the show is canon to FS only up to season 4 finale, and most authors writing right now do use some stuff from the real season 5, not the one implied in FS, and acknowledge RR existence. I don't see that as that big of a deal, but some people may. So you might want to address that in your criteria.