Epilogue
Deep beneath the surface, hidden away in the sprawling caverns connected to a great basin of magical might, sat the aged living corpse of a draconequus. She sighed contentedly and crossed her legs before leaning back in her throne. “And that, my children, is my story. Forgive me for taking so long. Over the centuries I'd nearly forgotten just how much there was that could be told.”
Around her sat dozens and dozens of ponies of all kinds. Stallions, mares and foals. Among the crevices near the ceiling even a few griffons roosted. Every possible emotion imaginable was visible on at least one of their faces. Some ponies were tearing up. Most of the foals simply stared in awe and wonder. At least one couple were holding each other.
“I know this can be a lot to take in. Believe me... I understand.”
Silence fell across the morose crowd. The awkwardness lingered for some time before one of the foals near the front, a pegasus colt named Crosswind, spoke up. “What happened next? Did you go back to Blackfeather and help them too?”
The draconequus shook her head sadly. “Blackfeather Roost, as I was to later learn was its name, was abandoned soon after my attack. I never did learn why exactly. The damage I did couldn't have been that severe, but I suppose the griffons thought it wasn't worth rebuilding after trade dried up. They took their survivors with them.
“As for what happened next, well, look around you.” She waved a skeletal hand over her assembled family. “For days I tried to decide on what to do with Lilac, Rose and Cinny. None had any surviving family, and after what I did the ponies began to pull out of the region. Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months and years. In time... I found more and more outcast, abandoned or forgotten ponies and griffons. Even a few zebras. After centuries, we now number in the thousands throughout our lands.”
Next to him, a gray unicorn filly named Dusty Tome raised a hoof. “Um, mom? Why did people call you Cantrip back then?”
The draconequus nodded slowly, in thought. “Yes... that is a detail I didn't get to. As I said, to me, Cantrip died three hundred ninety eight years ago.” She pointed off down a side passage. “Just through there. After what I did, I no longer wanted to be remembered at all. When it became apparent that I would live on for some time and have children to care for, I took on a new name.” In a skeletal hand she took up a ragged old spell book. “I spent some time trying to think of something appropriate. I found it in Bone Chips' spell book. Entropy. A word he used often in his writings and so fitting. It means several things. Disorder, for one, but it can also mean to decay. Just like I did.”
A griffon above her asked, “But, didn't he take his book back?”
Entropy grinned. “Oh, he did. Years later I tracked him and his cohorts down. They never hurt anyone else after that.”
“Did you find your babies?” a young pony called to her, lost among the crowd.
“No...” Entropy dropped the book back into its pile. “I never found out what happened to them. They weren't with the pony necromancers, nor were they in the cave when I awoke.”
Silence reigned again before a mare asked, “What about Zeal and Revelry? Did you ever talk to them again?”
“I... did. Much later. The rifts between us never healed, although the spell I cast on them did its job. They should have both aged and passed on centuries ago by now, but they still live, last I saw them.” Entropy looked aside. “Zeal goes by the name Mayhem now, and has a lot of the surviving draconequuses from around the world living with him. Together they enslave and kill as many ponies and griffons as they can. He simply doesn't understand...
“As for Revelry, well... I don't know for sure what happened to her. She parted ways with Zeal and slowly lost her grip on reality. She now calls herself Anarchy. I haven't seen her in two hundred years, so I don't know where she is now or what she's doing. If she still lives.”
A dull yellow stallion sat up. “Is he the reason the other ponies hate us so much?”
“Partly... but children, remember that I have never been and never will be accepted by them. They hate you because of me, and because you love me instead of them.” Entropy shifted in her chair, cracking joints. “When I saved you all and changed you to what you are now, they envied you because of it. They know you have something they never can.”
“What's that?" Crosswind asked.
“It's that unconditional love. They know that no matter what happens, that you'll never turn on each other. You'll never stab each other in the back, or abandon your family. You'll always stand together, through good and bad.” Her tone turned sad again as she added, “For as long as ponies and griffons and everything else have existed, they've never been able to do that. I gave you that gift.”
Dusty Tome scooted forward and hugged Entropy's skeletal leg. “We'd never do anything bad like that!”
She smiled and stroked the filly's mane. “Yes, yes, I know. And I would never turn on any of you.”
Before she could say anything more, a dry and ethereal voice called out to her from the side passage. “Mother? There is an important matter we should discuss soon.”
“Excuse me, children. I'll be back in a moment.” She rose and stepped into the tunnel, where she found the skeleton of a pony wearing heavy blackened steel armor waiting on her. Serrated Blade, one of her oldest sons that she had preserved into undeath like herself. The piercing blue glow of phantom flames in his eye sockets flared and turned toward her. “What is it?”
He made a small bow at the neck and said, “Pardon the interruption, but something has come up that needs your attention.” He stepped back and beckoned for her to follow.
“Yes, go on. What is it?”
“I was just told by somepony that we have some 'intruders' in the plains to the south. A couple of days ago, a group of ten ponies with several wagons set up there and have a large camp. From the looks of things, they intend to stay for a while.”
Her expression darkened. “Is that so? It's been decades since anyone has been so bold.” She flared her wings and snorted. “Thank you for telling me. I think I'll go have a look myself tonight.”
Serrated Blade bowed again and ducked away into the shadows, and Entropy made her way to the surface. Once there, she turned to look off to the south where she pictured the sight of ponies chopping down trees and cutting them into planks. They couldn't have done much in two days, but she knew from experience it didn't take long for them to get a surprising amount put together. Images of an incinerated pony town whose name she either never learned or forgot hundreds of years ago returned to her.
No. Not this time. She sneered and flared her wings. History was not going to repeat itself.
She would keep her family safe without hurting them. They would not hurt her family... whether by joining them or otherwise. But first, she was going to go take a look at these brazen intruders. They must be very interesting indeed to come so far into known 'discordant pony' territory willingly.
With a beat of her wings, she lifted into the air and soared off to the south. She might not even have to lift a finger. It was usually easy enough to scare the occasional visitor away. After all, there were a few benefits to being an undead monster from ages long forgotten...
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- Bateman66 · 17k words · 20 5 · 1.1k views
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i believe there is enough potential for a sequel. you can send cantrip to equestria and have her meet discord. the discord from the show...
your choice of course
4015406
It's certainly an interesting idea, but for the foreseeable future I don't think I'll have the time or energy to write anything else directly related to this story. There's still Duskfields like I linked in the epilogue and comments here if you're interested in the 'canonical' sequel to it. However, having said that, here's something to think on...
Spoilers for anyone who hasn't read the story!
In my mind, since this was technically an alternative universe, Antic was Discord. Through the various events of the story, the surviving siblings all turned out to become extremely powerful draconequuses with various levels of sanity and hatred for the ponies. That was largely because of spur of the moment decisions while writing Duskfields that I had to live up to, but I kind of managed to make it work out in the story.
Anyway, Antic was killed early on in the story, but had he survived and one of the others died in his place (particularly Revelry), he would likely have gone on to slowly lose his mind and become a trickster with a very strange relationship with the ponies. He obviously wanted to be friends with them early on, and that could become twisted into what we see in Discord. He was good with illusion magic, so using it to change his appearance to have chimeric body parts isn't out of the question. In Duskfields, Entropy (Cantrip) used illusion magic to make herself appear larger and more intimidating to the ponies in a similar vein.
So in short... it's not something I think I'll ever explore, but it's something to think about!
4025983
like i said. your choice.
but i must say... if you immagined antic as discord... why'd he have to die first? do you have something against discord?
4026491
Heh, nope, it was again all related to the fact that this was a prequel to Duskfields. In Duskfields I kicked around several concepts for the draconequus that the PCs would face and ended up on using a draconequus lich. That became Entropy and the discarded ideas became her siblings, and I arbitrarily decided one was dead because I thought that was more interesting.
Anyway, when it came time to write this I fleshed out the siblings a lot more, including the dead one. That was when I got the idea that Antic might have been Discord. The idea being that since it was an alternate universe where Discord and the other canon characters didn't exist (this was largely because Dwarf Fortress can't really emulate the cartoon canon), it begged the question of where those canon characters were. Discord didn't exist, but why not? Well, if Cantrip and her siblings became powerful draconequuses, it would make some sense that Discord might have been related to her otherwise. Antic was dead, and Discord didn't exist. It just simplified things.
Remember though that this isn't canon and isn't really canon even to the story. It was just a thing I kicked around as a joke idea.
And Discord is one of my favorite characters. He inspired the whole story indirectly after all.
.....Holy fucking asscrackers.
4038568
I'll take that as a good thing since you faved the story.
4041627 I've shared this with as many people as possible so far. This is CRIMINALLY underappreciated.
4041646
Thanks! Not going to lie, that made my day. It made those last few chapters that took so much forced effort to work on totally worth it. A labor of love and all of that, but still...
4041672 I know what you mean. I'm gonna see if I can convince rainbowbob to feature this on his blog, get it seen by a few thousand more.
Wonderful story, excellent writing. The ending is very touching and fitting; a clan of multiple species living in harmony rising from the ashes of all that hatred? Delightful.
Celestia must be green with envy, given that her ponies are xenophobic to the point of being scared out of their wits by something as simple as a zebra.
And yes, this damn well does deserve more attention.
4056348
Thanks! I'm glad to hear someone else was satisfied with the ending. Again, hearing that makes it completely worth the effort.
All hail Lich Queen Entropy!
Well, this ending certainly took a turn. Not in a bad way, just a surprising one. I enjoyed it!
I also take back what I said about her aligning with the bat ponies. Subterranean real estate is something the light-sensitive creatures would fiercely defend, and they'd see Entropy's undead kingdom as a threat and rival.
11801124
A wise assessment. Entropy was mostly content to sit in her newly carved out space to make a safe haven for herself and her subjects, but peace couldn't last in a world like this. She had twisted but good intentions by that point, and it could never end well if she came into conflict with outsiders.
And I'm glad you read the story, bumpy as it is.