Contest of Champions

by thatguyvex

Epilogue: No Such Thing as Endings

Epilogue: No Such Thing as Endings

Trixie awoke to the sweet smells of breakfast. Or supper. It was somewhat difficult to tell until she sufficiently got her wits together to throw off the covers of the bed she found herself in and actually sat up. It was her room among the shared quarters she and her friends had been given at the monastery. Moving to the window, she poked her head outside to feel a stiff morning breeze complemented by a sun sitting somewhere between the seven or eight o’clock range. Which meant it had been just about a full day of sleep for her. Not terribly surprising, given how utterly she’d drained herself, both physically and magically.

Trixie took a moment to just sit there on her haunches and let the strong winds coming in from the ocean cool her off and stir her mane. She felt every single ache on her body, and her left foreleg in particular throbbed with a steady heartbeat of pain that she knew would be months in the healing. Her leg was covered in a clean set of bandages, and given that she could put at least a little weight on it she wouldn’t have been shocked to learn some magic must have gone into helping the healing process along. Still, she’d best get used to hobbling about on three legs for a bit, given magic would only do so much to help with her recovery, and she didn’t want to make things worse.

Her eyes trailed across the island from this high vantage point of the window. The Contest grounds remained, still and silent now. The festival area that was not far from there was almost as quiet, but Trixie did spot various creatures moving about there, although it didn’t look like the previous crowds of guests but rather individuals from either the Order of Legends or the various delegations that were working on taking things down.

Guess that means the Contest of Champions has been put off or canceled entirely, Trixie thought, not entirely bothered by the fact. A prideful part of her had still wanted to finish things properly with Dao Ming in the Contest of Magic, and even if she and the gals didn’t win the whole shebang, Trixie at least wanted to see where they ended up placing.

But she could rather easily understand that given what had happened the other day that no one was in the mood to just go back to competing like it was nothing. It wasn’t exactly every day a bunch of crazy creatures tried to hijack an ancient flying death fortress from under the snouts of the majority of the world’s national leaders. Trixie could already imagine the way this story would spread all over every land, the rumor mill aggrandizing like mad. There would probably be dozens of variations of the tale by the years end, and Trixie both somewhat looked forward to and equally dreaded doing rumor control while still gladly accepting the accolades.

Her musings halted when she saw a golden glint in the air, and her face immediately went sour.

“How in the buck...?” she whispered, seeing Corona’s golden ark hanging in the sky. Hadn’t that stupid, gaudy thing been destroyed?

But of course it was Coronoa, here. The mad alicorn could probably reforge a dozen golden arks if she wanted, or had at least a few in some spare pocket. Trixie rubbed her forehead to forestall a headache, then looked about for her hat. To her surprise she found not just her hat, but her magician’s cape as well! Both hung from the posts of her bed, and she went up to them both and ran a fond hoof over the garments before putting them on. She knew her cape had been shredded during the fight with Tomoko, but she supposed if Corona could rebuild her ark in a day, then Luna could easily remake a cape. Or Cadenza, perhaps? One of the alicorns, probably.

“A champion must look her best, after all,” Trixie said, trying not to wince from the pain in her leg as she checked herself in the mirror briefly before heading out the door and into the hallway that would then lead into the main room of the shared quarters. This was where all the delicious smells were wafting in from, and Trixie was made quite aware of how hungry she was by a deep gurgle from her stomach.

“Hey! You’re awake!” cried Ditzy with a swift grin lighting up her grey features. She was sitting on the couch facing the hall that Trixie trotted out of, and waved with a merry wing while using her hooves to stuff her face with what appeared to be a set of fresh baked muffins taken from a tray of assorted sweets. Other foods ranging from bowls of salad, stout sandwiches, chips and nuts, along with no shortage of drinks, were piled up on the main table between chairs and couches within the living quarters.

All of Trixie’s friends were there, in various stages of ravenous eating. Upon Ditzy’s exclamation they all looked Trixie’s way, Cheerilee first besides Ditzy to speak after downing a deep quaff of what smelled like fruit punch.

“The sleeping beauty herself stirs! We were wondering how long you’d be out. Pay up Raindrops.”

“I’ll do it when we get home,” Raindrops said, waving off Cheerilee’s snicker as the pegasus rose from her seat and went to meet Trixie. Careful eyes roved over Trixie, leading to equal parts vaguely uncomfortable self awareness and a weird bit of pleasant warmth as Raindrops appeared to make sure Trixie was intact with no bits missing. “You look alright. You feeling alright?”

“About as alright as I can after I nearly died several times and was stabbed through the leg, but otherwise fairly chipper, if starving,” Trixie replied, making her way to the table and finding an empty chair to snuggle herself into before serving herself up a generous plate of breakfast. “Just how long was I in dreamland?”

“Long enough to cost me a few bits, but that hardly matters, I’m just glad to see you up,” Raindrops said, and across from her Lyra gave off a light chuckle.

“We’ve all been checking up on you, but I think Raindrops has done it the most. At any rate, you pretty much slept through all of yesterday after we got out of Rengoku. Luna said it was a combination of blood loss and draining your magic to the breaking point.”

Trixie lifted an apple to her mouth and bit into it with great relish, chewing it down and then rapidly devouring the rest of it before considering Lyra’s words. “I suppose I can add this to the growing list of reasons to continue developing my skills. I’d prefer not to have to make every misadventure such a close call with the grave. I’ve a great deal of growing old I mean to accomplish.”

“To life goals!” Carrot Top cheered, raising a glass, to which Trixie gladly did the same, the others joining in swiftly. The mares continued to share a meal and conversation, mostly bringing Trixie up to speed on the state of affairs on the island now that the excitement of Rengoku was over and done with.

The Contest was suspended, if not officially ended quite yet. The monks of the Order were scrambling to work out affairs with their now very much former Abbess, who was being kept under very close guard in her quarters. The other two prisoners, Nuru and Tomoko, were under similar heavy guard and from what Trixie’s friends had been able to glean from talk and rumor heard over the past day, the fates of those two would indeed be conducted by their individual nation’s laws and customs. What that might entail remained unknown, and Trixie’s interest in the matter was fairly small save for a consideration of how Dao Ming might be feeling at that moment.

“So are we just waiting to hear whether or not the Contest is called or if we’re finishing up?” she asked, and Carrot Top was first to answer.

“I talked about that with Frederick before we all went to bed last night. Seems the Order as a whole feels it’s up to us champions to decide what we want to do, and nocreature wanted to make any decisions until we’d had a sleep on it and not to mention had you awake.”

“Why me?” Trixie asked, and Cheerilee snickered, elbowing her lightly.

“You even have to ask? You’re the mare of the hour! Well, I mean we all are, but Dao Ming has been singing your praises up and down the halls all yesterday. Thought that kirin was going to bash in the door just to plant herself next to your bed until you awoke, if Princess Luna didn’t chase her out so you could rest. By now the tale has spread from champion to champion, not to mention most of the island, that you’re the one who led the charge into Rengoku. And to hear Dao Ming tell it, she’d never have beaten Tomoko if not for you. So we’re all big damn heroes, but you’re sort of sitting at the top of the praise pile. Hence why all the champions agreed we’d make no decisions about the Contest until you were up on your hooves and feeling better.”

Trixie was trying very hard, and failing, to keep an exceedingly pleased smile off of her face as she finished off a sandwich. She rather squirmed happily in her sweat, tail near to wagging, ears perked high under her hat, and she let out a perky neigh. “Oh, praising me are they? I’ll, um... have to humbly remind everypony that it was a group effort, but I’ll not say no to some proper adoration for my role in things. Heheheh.”

“Trixie, if you let that head get much larger, your hat will pop off,” Raindrops reminded her, and Trixie gave a loud cough and composed herself.

“No worries! No worries! I’m not about to become insufferable just because of a little, or a lot, of fame! I learned my lesson on that count! Still, it’s nice to know everycreature decided to wait for me before making any big decisions. Hm, I wonder if we should continue the Contest?”

“Honestly a part of me really just... kind of wants to go home now,” Ditzy said, shoulders and wings sagging slightly, “I mean I know everycreature came here for a contest and show, and for some champions to be crowned winners, but...”

“I get what you mean,” Lyra said, lazing back on her side of one of the couches, “Be weird to just get back to it after all of that crazy fortress business. And I am soooo ready for sleeping in my own bed, with my own Bon Bon.”

“Yeah, I don’t see a lot of reason not to just postpone this and do the Contest again another year when we don’t have a bunch of wackos mucking things up,” said Raindrops, “Who really cares who wins in the end, anyway?”

“I do, a bit,” said Trixie, mumbling, but she couldn’t deny her friends all had a point. It still left a bit of a bad taste in her mouth. Carrot Top leaned forward and then hopped off her couch, shaking her tail out with a stretch.

“How about we see what the others think first? Now that you’re awake, we can head on downstairs to the main hall. Most of the champions agreed to meet up there, and far as I know Princess Luna wanted to be told the moment you were awake, anyway. Setting aside time for you to eat and get cleaned up, of course.”

“That sounds fine to me. Where is the Princess, anyway?” asked Trixie, to which her friends all took on slightly nervous looks.

“Having a chat with her sister,” answered Cheerilee.

----------

Even the golden deck of the magnificent, and freshly rebuilt, ark of Celestia seemed to quake a little under the combined presence of three alicorns.

From the doorway into the below chambers, Celestia’s servants were rather wisely keeping their distance from the “discussion”, which was much closer to an “argument”. Smoke quailed a bit with her head partially hidden behind one of Terrorwing’s protective wings, the dour and broad griffin making no hint his was actively shielding the young unicorn as he watched proceedings with a grim expression. Across the doorway, head poked out from the other side, Kindle watched with a perturbed scowl.

“This would be the perfect chance to cast down the pretender Queens,” Kindle said, and Terrowing scoffed.

“Be my guest. I’ll get a box for your ashes.”

“Please, Kindle, just stay calm,” begged Smoke, “L-let Celestia handle this.”

Not that any of them had much choice, and indeed it was a tad hard for them to hear themselves over the growing shouting match between Celestia and Luna, while Cadendza stood nearby with such a glower that it largely spoiled her otherwise feminine charms.

“You must beyond mad, Luna! You keep accusing me of insanity yet here you are defending the lives of such utter cretins! Each and every single one of them deserve nothing more than the swiftest and brutal of punishments for their transgressions, and to suggest they be allowed their lives is pure idiocy!”

Celestia was so bathed in flame it was hard to even see her white fur or ivory wings beneath the curling tongues of wrathful fire. Luna stood within that unbridled heat without flinching or showing a hint of discomfort, only a steadfast determination to face her sister’s fury with her own unflagging resolve. Her words were spoken in the same percussive volume as Celestia’s, but less the explosion of a thunderous rage and more the pointed lances of hardened determination.

“Even if these were citizens of Equestria, which I remind you that they are not, it is not, and never has been, our way to deal out death upon those who commit wrong. The Equestrian path is ever that of correction and reformation first, incarceration second, and death as an absolute last resort when no other means of halting another’s evil is possible. Nuru sought to cure his son in law of a deathly illness, while Tomoko’s ultimate goal was to heal a similarly ill land. Such motivations cannot be treated as rank evil, and it is likely they’ll face harsher judgments in their own lands than I would choose to deal out to them. As for Serene, she was misguided, but also desired to do some measure of good with Rengoku’s destruction, even if she failed to understand the price would be too high. I have spoken with the Order and she will be stripped of title and kept under permanent house arrest on this island, never to leave it again until her natural dying day. You will be satisfied with this, sister.”

“Oh shall I!? Perhaps my satisfaction will be better had by ending this farce myself and delivering the judgment that you clearly no longer have the will or clarity of thought to enact!”

The air between the two alicorn sisters grew ever more dense with scorching heat and the bristling boil of a storm ready to burst.

It was Cadenza who pricked the bubble of fury by approaching with wings spread and landing a hoof solidly upon the space of the deck right between the pair. It was not thunderous, but somehow pointedly loud enough to draw the eyes of Luna and Celestia both, and Cadenza met those gazes with her own mustered wall of calm and reason.

“Will you taint the victory won by mortal hooves this day by stripping it of that victory’s meaning?” she asked Celestia, “The reason all gathered upon this island was for a celebration of unity of purpose between vastly different cultures and species. To understand what draws us together while embracing that which makes us different. This too, with the ways in which those who have committed wrong are to be dealt with. It is not in the spirit of this place, or the momentous challenges our champions have risen to overcome, to take away the right for each nation to see to its own, within their own laws and customs. Or do you intend to spread Equestria’s dominion to every corner of the world, in the event you retake your throne? Is the world itself to bow to Celestia and Celestia alone?”

There was nearly an audible crack from the way Celestia’s jaw clenched, and curls of steam rose from her nostrils. Yet just enough light fell from her eyes that the pupils could now be seen, drilling hard into Cadenza with equal amounts surprise and careful measure. “You, like my sister, still think me a mad tyrant. I am not.” A pause, a shiver over her ivory features, voice lowering, “I am not. I merely see what the too young, or too kind, or too... mortal cannot. But you are... right. Conflict taints what was done this day.”

That cloud of doubt melted soon enough as Celestia spread her own wings into a fire-bloomed halo, voice rising, “So be it! I shall take my leave. Know this, before we part. Cadenza, you are too young to bear the burden you do, and I shall find a means to put you to the test.”

Luna opened her mouth to say something, perhaps more swiftly and sharply, and with more concern than may have seemed normal to Celestia had she not been too focused on her own words to see it as she cut Luna off. “And you, Luna, I need not hear any more! The time of our reckoning is drawing close. Too long have I had to watch you and your chosen Element Bearers barely scrap out victories against threats against Equestria, only avoiding disaster by inches. Equestria cannot survive like this, and requires its true ruler upon its throne, to look after, guard, and control our little ponies before another catastrophe befalls them!”

Luna’s lips pressed into a dark line as hard as any blade, and she said simply, “Come and try us at your leisure, sister. I can only promise you that one way or another, this matter between us will end.”

There was pain in her words, but the strength of resolution as well. The Princess of the Moon was ready to face whatever finality arrived when the fated hour arrived, when her sister came with all of her minions and power to be pitted against Luna and all she could muster in Equestria’s defense. A part of Luna still fervently hoped to somehow break through that wall of unquenchable flame in her sister’s heart, for she saw the glimmers of the good mare who once ruled with benevolence and wisdom peeking out from behind that shroud of fire.

If only... if only...

Without another word spoken, Luna turned and spread midnight wings to take flight. Cadenza hesitated only a moment longer before casting one last look at Celestia, and followed Luna into the sky, leaving a blazing Corona to stand upon her golden ark like a lonely bonfire.

----------

With the business of food done with, Trixie and her friends started making their way downstairs through the monastery corridors, heading for the main hall. Not long ago they had seen out of their room window that Corona’s ark had taken a sudden and swift course away from the island, and there was some talk as to just what had gone down between Princess Luna and her sister.

“Well, nothing exploded, so I think we can assume that at least for now Queen Flamesalot is going to go sulk in whatever hideout she’s carved out for herself and get back to plotting how to take over Equestria,” Cheerilee said, “My bits are on her next scheme involving flaming, sentient donuts.”

“Why donuts?” asked Ditzy, and Cheerilee shrugged.

“Because I’m still hungry, and I’m an optimist.”

“Would flaming donuts even taste good?” wondered Lyra, sounding serious as she genuinely seemed to ponder the question, “Hmm, melted icing, maybe if they weren’t charred by just a tad extra browned? Might be tasty.”

“They’re already fried by default. Not sure frying them more would add anything,” Raindrops said, then Carrot Top laughed suddenly.

“Well there’s a restaurant in Hoofington that I hear will fry anything you want them to. Like, literally anything. We ought to try it sometime.”

Trixie let the pleasant banter of her friends wash over her like a soothing balm. After the last few days she’d had, it was nice to just let something completely mundane and silly be the focus of attention for a change. She was starting to think a genuine vacation was in order. A real one, with zero interruptions, accidents, mysteries, battles, explosions, assassination attempts, or contests. Just somewhere pleasant, quiet, and filled with enough overpriced food and drink to stuff a small army.

“You look happy,” Raindrops said, having come up to trot next to Trixie.

“I certainly am. You know I like winning, and Contest aside, this day feels very much like a win. And the only thing better than winning, is celebrating it by treating oneself. After a victory this stunning, I think we’re all due for some extra special treatment, and I think I can probably convince Luna to put it on some sort of ‘Hero Expense Budget’.”

“Does the Night Court even have something like that?” Raindrops asked, and Trixie shrugged.

“If it doesn’t, it needs to. The amount of heroics we get up to has to be paid for by somepony! Including vacation benefits!”

“Not sure that’s how it works, but hey, I’m not the Representative around here,” the pegasus said, smiling at Trixie as if she knew full well that if such a budget didn’t exist, Trixie would probably start proposing legislation for it.

Upon their arrival into the now familiar warmth of the monastery’s main hall, light from morning spilling in past the line of pillars lined across the entryway, Trixie and her companions were struck face first by a wall of cheers. Even Trixie, quite accustomed to applause, was still taken aback.

The hall was packed with the remaining champions of the gathered nations, be they equine, cervid, griffin, kirin, or otherwise. The feasting tables were lined with those stomping talons or hooves in raucous greeting to the six mares descending the stairs from the back of the chamber, many raising frothing mugs in salute and toast. From the crowd emerged several robed members of the Order of Legends, all with humbled looks on their faces as their lead, a middle aged goat, bowed low to Trixie and her friends. He spoke as the cheering slowly quieted, “It is good to see you awake after your ordeal, Dame Lulamoon. You and your companion champions both.”

“Glad to be awake. Also to be near deafened by such a hearty welcome,” Trixie said, and from the nearest table, the humongous and heavily bandaged form of Wodan bellowed and laugh and slammed a hoof onto his table, nearly breaking the unfortunate piece of furniture.

“Bah, we could have made it louder, but some folk seemed to think we ought to show a little restraint! As if Wodan knows what that silly word even means.”

Next to Wodan, the level faced Sigurd grunted, “It doesn’t do to burst to ear drums of the mares of the hour. Yet one and all, it was decided you would be greeted thusly.”

“Can’t say I’m complaining,” said Lyra, trotting forward while taking in the sight of the crowded chamber, “After a day like yesterday some serious revelry is exactly what’s in order. Bon Bon, you out here hun?”

“Gimme a sec!” Bon Bon had to extract herself from among the crowd, having been swishing around a mug herself until her Lyra arrived. The pair came up and quickly nuzzled each other, Bon Bon hugging Lyra tight.

Bon Bon was hardly the only one besides the champions in attendance, a small blur of motion and energy bursting outward from the sidelines and tackling Ditzy hard, “Hey mama! We’ve set up a big party for you and your friends.”

“Aww, my sweet muffin, your hugs are all the party I need, but I’m happy to see everycreature together and in such a good mood,” Ditzy said, throwing a wing around her tiny daughter. As the crowds started to mingle once more, Raindrops’ family also emerged, parents and brother both swiftly surrounding their daughter.

“C’mon mom, dad, you guys checked me over yesterday. Still got all my pieces intact,” Raindrops complained half heartedly, while Snips just smiled at his sister with a unruffled calm.

“Everypony says you were really awesome sis. You helped the zebra beat an even stronger zebra. Was it fun?”

“Eeeeh, on a scale of one to ten on the ‘fun’ scale, we’re talking more a ‘terrifying’ than anything else, but don’t worry, your big sis is made of tough stuff.”

“Heheh, I know,” Snips said, a pool of relaxation next to the still worried tempests of his parents.

Despite having just ate, there was still plenty of room for snacks and some extra drink in the six mares, and there was no air of urgency so Trixie and her friend found themselves able to find plenty of spots to sit and relax for a moment. Cheerilee soon found herself flanked by two familiar minotaurs, although not entirely the pairing she’d expected.

“So, uh, you’re Greysight, right?” she asked the somewhat enigmatic female minotaur bearing her staff of gears, who shared a look with Iron Will, the minotaur who’d sat on Cheerilee’s other side.

“I am,” Greysight said, “Our opportunities to speak have been few these past eventful days. I’m here on behalf of Steel Cage.”

“Where’s the lug head? He pulled his weight yesterday, an I’m over our spat, personally,” Cheerilee said, and Iron Will cleared his throat, adopting that tight shouldered body language she knew how to read as a minotaur’s embarrassment, like they were trying to shoulder all of their emotions at once.

“Left with the other two the other day,” Iron Will said, snorting not in a derisive manner, but in a minotaur sign of consternation, “Never seen him so out of sorts. Told him he ought to stick around, have a few drinks with you, talk it out. Told me that you and him did all the talking you needed to in the ring, and now that the crisis is done, he had no reason to,” he began to air quote, adopting Steel Cage’s vocal grunts, “Let the pony make me feel even more weird feelings. She won, I lost, I’m minotaur enough to admit it, so I’m going home.”

At Cheerilee’s look, Iron Will coughed, “He might have said a bit more than that, but that was the gist of it. Think you made a serious impression on him.”

“It will take Steel Cage some time to sort out his feelings. For males like him, it always does,” Greysight said, her thick lips curling into a soft smile, “I merely wished to thank you, Cheerilee, for having the strength to knock a few bolts loose in his head that may have been screwed too tightly.”

“Water under the bridge, as we Equestrians say,” Cheerilee said, then paused, hoof going to her chin, “At least I think that’s an Equestrian saying. Or did we get it from Cavalia? They’ve got plenty of rivers and bridges.”

Greysight gave off a silent shake that may have been a laugh and she rose to an impressive height, “I must go find a companion of mine. Enjoy your hard earned victory.”

“No problem,” Cheeirlee waved as the female mintoaur breezed away, took a drink from a mug somepony had put in front of her, then paused and glanced at Iron Will, “Wait, does she mean victory as in us taking down Rengoku, or something else?”

Iron Will just flashed her a very mischievous grin, winking and saying nothing.

Meanwhile Carrot Top had wandered towards the cervids, giving Wodan and Sigurd nods of greeting. Before she could even ask, Wodan used a massive hoof to clap her on the shoulder and all but send her bouncing towards an empty space further down the table, where Frederick sat with two tall mugs of ale at hoof, one of which he pushed towards her. Carrot Top took it with a nod of thanks and drank deep, wiping her mouth off and taking a moment to glance about to ensure no other creature was too close to her and Frederick.

“So, um... looks like everything will be winding down soon,” she said, “You Elkhiem folk must have a long journey back home ahead of you.”

Others might have had trouble reading Frederick’s still features, but she knew him well enough by now to practically feel the reluctance warring with his desire to keep a light mood as he drank from his own mug before answering, “Wyverns will make the journey far more brief than what most returning to their homes will undergo. Yes, I suspect it will only be a few days before I walk within the vast roots and boughs of Yggdrasil once more. My parents will be thrilled to hear Wodan’s tales of battle, but Andrea’s fate will darken many hearts in the longhalls of Elkheim. As for myself, it will be back to a routine of princely duties, few of which will be even remotely as memorable as what I’ve done here.”

“Y-yes, I imagine it’s going to be hard to top an adventure like taking on a giant flying magical doom fortress,” Carrot Top quipped, and Frederick turned to look at her dead on, a melancholic smile on his charming lips.

“I was thinking not of the battle, but of those I’ve met. Especially you, Dame Carrot Top.”

Suddenly the room was significantly warmer and Carrot Top hid her burning face behind her ale mug, drinking deep. Sadly, she still felt the blazing rush in her face and he was still looking at her by the time she reached the bottom of the mug and there was little else to hide behind. Wiping her mouth, she finally managed to say, “I’m... not likely to forget you anytime soon either, Frederick. I mean, heh, if you ever happen to be wandering by Ponyville sometime down the road...”

She was doing her best to not let the pain of this parting enter her voice. She didn’t want it to be any harder for him than it had to be. Or for herself. An elk hoof touched hers, and she looked at his limb wrapped gently around her own. She heard his voice, strong and warm, and struggling to subdue it’s melancholy to put forth the envigored tone of a friend parting only for a time.

“You can rest assured Ponyville will be a top priority of mine if ever I can manage to escape my royal obligations for any reasonably lengthy vacation. As I just said, wyvern travel is fast, so Equestria is not so far a jaunt for me. And of course, know that Elkheim’s borders will always be open to you, it’s every hall knowing to give all honors and luxuries to Dame Carrot Top and her friends. If you find yourself under the eternal shade of Yggdrasil, I’ll be there personally to greet you as a treasured guest of the royal family...” his smile turned into a suggestive smirk and he winked, “And I can assure you the beds are both quite comfortable and durable.”

She snorted out a loving laugh and bumped his side with her flank, “Easy there, Prince, what would your parents say?”

“Knowing mother, she’d check your teeth, make sure you were in good health, and throw both of us onto my bed with explicit instructions to not come out until morning. Father is a bit more polite and well behaved than that, but I suspect he’d find you as charming as I do. It may be uncommon for a cervid royal to have a paramour outside of Elkheim, but it’s not unheard of...but...”

“But it’s no real relationship. Not like I want, and not truly, I think, like you want,” Carrot Top said, the blunt truth there and plain. “I have a farm and a home, and a life with friends I love dearly, in Ponyville. You have a life, a family, friends, and a duty waiting for you back in Elkheim. There’s no real room in either of our lives to fit the other, not in any serious way. I mean, eventually those parents of yours are going to expect a royal heir, and being a pony mare, I can’t exactly deliver on that front. And even if I could... I can’t just abandon my life in Ponyville to go live as some oddball elk royal. I like you, Frederick, a lot. I might even...love...”

“You don’t have to say the words, Carrot Top. I know,” Frederick said, finishing off his own ale and not even hesitating to grab another for both himself and her from nearby, “I feel the same. I’ve had flings before. This isn’t that. The way I feel about you is much more than simple fun between the sheets. And you’re right, our lives don’t fit together. Not like that. Eventually I’ll need to marry some doe and make sure the royal line keeps going. If I’m lucky I might even love her, whoever she turns out to be. But you’re... always going to be the first I fell in love with, and I... I think I’m strong enough now to live with that and still move on. So, to us, and to the future, and may we both find our happiness somewhere along the way and meet again to share it with one another, even if only briefly.”

Carrot Top raised her mug to meet his, not othering to wipe away the tear that fell from one of her eyes, “I’ll drink to that.”

----------

The celebration of feasting was ongoing, and while Trixie certainly did mingle, she was particularly curious to find Dao Ming, whom she hadn’t seen wandering around anywhere. A few inquiries with the monks quickly told her that that the kirin entourage was almost one and all within their personal chambers, tending to the recovering of the Empress. Even moreso than Trixie, the Empress Fu Ling was wounded and exhausted from the ordeal of the ritual that had been enacted upon her, draining life force to give Tomoko the means to control Rengoku.

While the Empress’ life was in no danger, there was still a great deal of recovery to do and it was in question whether or not she’d ever recover in full.

Trixie decided that Dao Ming probably needed her personal time with her mother then, and she could catch up with the kirin later. This did leave her drifting a little, at least until she spotted a particular griffin flagging her down from near the main hall’s exit to the outside, between the tall stone pillars that led to the steps away from the monastery. Trixie approached, winding through the crowd until it thinned out at the stairs, “Gwendolyn, I’m almost shocked to see you’re still here. I thought you’d leave as soon as things wrapped up, get to your Red Shields.”

Gwendolyn Var Bastion certainly looked dressed for travel, with a fresh cloak, leather armor, and her sword belted at her flanks. Golden eyes regarded Trixie with respect and more than a little anxiousness, “I’ll be departing in a few hours. Cadenza has informed me that King Gruber’s ship has met with an unfortunately timed ‘inspection’ at a Cavallian port, delaying his journey back to Grandis. This bought me time to make sure everything was well enough here, and soon as Cadenza finishes tending to her male, she’s agreed to also teleport me to a port further along the north coast so I can take a ship and beat Gruber back to the Griffin Kingdoms.”

“Her male? Oh, you mean that guard captain. How is Shining Armor?” Trixie asked, not out of too much real concern, although she supposed she didn’t wish him any ill will. He’d taken quite the wound and did his part in aiding in the crisis. Trixie didn’t know what to make of the affection apparent between him and Cavallia’s ruler, but that wasn’t really her concern.

Gwendolyn shrugged, “Alive, due to the alicorn’s tender care. Hmph, I sometimes wonder where we griffins would be if we had rulers of such power among us... but I suppose all things considered, it’s for the best. Griffinkind doesn’t do well when too much power is centralized.”

“A thing to keep in mind, considering where you’re going,” Trixie reminded her, and Gwendolyn flinched, beak grinding slightly.

“As if I don’t know that. Skies above, at least you get to go home and put this Contest business behind you. I’ve got a war to stop, and I don’t even know if I can. Or if I do, what happens after? If those idiots try to make me into some kind of Queen, I swear...”

“It’ll be a briar patch and a half to waltz through, no denying that,” Trixie admitted, “I have barely touched griffin politics but can tell that your people are driven by passion and honor above pretty much anything else. You’ve gained a lot of reputation here, and you’re going to both very popular and very focused on in your land’s politics from now on. Nothing for it but to make the best of things while you’ve got the crowd on your side.”

“This isn’t a stage performance, it’s the lives, liberty, and future prosperity of every single griffin in the Kingdoms on the line,” Gwendolyn said, suddenly very much looking her age, and making Trixie realize that between the two of them, Trixie was the elder by a few years. “If I screw anything up, the blood of thousands...”

“If there’s anything I think you proved this past week, it’s that you can take the pressure. More than that, you know your people better than any griffin I’ve met, which may not sound like it’s saying much, but my point is I think you can trust your instincts. You know what you want, the Griffin Kingdoms whole and safe. It’s just a matter of finding the path to that. Do it as a commander of the Red Shields, or do it as Queen of Grandis if that’s what it comes to, just don’t lose sight of what who you are and what you want in the process.”

Gwendolyn considered Trixie, this mare whom at first glance would seem frail and perhaps a tad pompous, and whom Gwendolyn had now come to see the insight and claws beneath the soft exterior. The Night Court was going to have it’s hooves full with this one, Gwendolyn suspected. “You know, you’ve got a point. Come what may, I’ll always have by troops at my back, and a storm in front of me to fly through. I don’t mean to become a Queen, but it’s clear the Griffin Kingdoms needs someone to act as a... balancer. A group that owes no allegiance to any specific Kingdom, but to the prosperity of all, and can take to task those who’d destabilize the Kingdoms as a whole. Perhaps... it’s time for the Red Shields to evolve into something new.”

Noting the way in which quite a few of the other griffin champions still partying and feasting would give looks of deep respect towards her and Gwendolyn’s direction, more than a few saluting the young griffiness, Trixie gave a sly smile, “Considering your popularity, I think you’ll have your fair share of new recruits, and enough clout to make that happen. Just remember that Equestria is always interested in friendly relations and new trade agreements.”

“Eh, I’ll leave that stuff to the more stuffy politicians. I’m still a military gal,” Gwendolyn laughed, and with a note of seriousness looked at Trixie’s wounded leg, “How’s the leg by the way? Wounds like that don’t heal up fast or easy.”

“Eeegh, it’s going to ache and smart for awhile yet. Probably shouldn’t get up to too much for the next few weeks, but I’ll live,” Trixie said, “All things considered, I’ll take it over being dead.”

“Yeah, heard that fight with the kirin royal was pretty intense. Grimwald gave me and your friends a rough time, but sounds like you and Dao Ming had it worse,” Gwendolyn said, frowning, “Hope the best for Dao Ming. Taking on your own blood isn’t pleasant, and can’t imagine there’s any good fate left for that one once they get back to Shouma. That mother of hers better have some damn respect for Dao Ming now, that’s for sure.”

“Agreed,” Trixie said, sharing Gwendolyn’s worry for Dao Ming’s present emotional state. And the fate of the defeated did hang in Trixie’s mind, and as coincidence would have it, Ditzy came by at that moment with Sigurd in tow. Dinky was riding on Sigurd’s back, and the dour water deer seemed a few shades less grim with the smiling foal using his head as something to lean on.

“Hi guys!” Ditzy said, “Enjoying the fresh air?”

“Mostly,” Gwendolyn replied, “Was just chatting with Trixie about home and what plans I might have. That, and wondering what’ll become of some of our beaten foes.”

Sigurd grunted, “It is a shame Andrea and Grimwald fled.”

“Not shocking, from where I’m sitting,” Gwendolyn said with a shrug of her wings, and a helpless shake of her head, “Grim is tougher to grasp than a shadow in a deep fog. I don’t think I ever really understood him, and he’ll only pop up again when he wants someone to see him. Can’t imagine that skald of yours is going to find him fantastic company.”

“I don’t know,” said Ditzy, “I want to believe Grimwald is, well, a bit less crazy than he puts on. I mean, there are plenty of times he could have killed me if he really wanted to, but didn’t. And he could have let Andrea die, and he didn’t.”

“I think you give him too much credit, Dame Doo, but I respect your ever undiminished optimism,” Sigurd replied, and Ditzy smiled at him and gave him a quick hug, to which he grunted almost as if the gesture was scalding, “What was that for?”

“Thank you, Sigurd. You really looked out for me. Your shield, it kept me safe during that fight. Even Grimwald’s dagger couldn’t get through it to me.”

“Mmph, that was why I forged it. It is good that it served you well. I hope you never have need of it again, but if you do, know that I never craft anything that does not last. The soul of an Elkheim smith is engrave in that shield, so may it serve you and your family for as many generations as is needed.”

“Ooh, does that mean I get the neat shield when I grow up?” asked Dinky, to which Ditzy laughed, perhaps a tad nervously, and patted her daughter on the head.

“We’ll see, muffin, but momma really hopes with all her heart that you only ever have to look at it hanging on the wall over our fireplace.”

“Nah, that’d be boring. I want to smack bad guys in the face with it like you did!”

Ditzy hung her head with a sigh, while Sigurd craned his head to look back at the exuberant foal. “A enflamed spirit will carry you far, young one, but always know that it is a parent’s duty to ever be concerned for their child. Never make your mother worry for you without just cause. If you choose the path of the warrior, take it with respect, and only when needed.”

“And it’s my hope to make a world where it never will be needed,” Ditzy swore, a strength in her voice that would likely make even a dragon balk at staring her down, “That much I promise you, Dinky.”

Dinky tilted her head with the innocent thoughts of the still very young, “Okay, but just remember, I wanna protect you too, momma. And be strong and amazing like you, too. I mean, one day you’ll be old, and it’ll be my turn to keep everyone safe, especially you.”

“True, but only when I get really old, okay?”

“Okay!”

Gwendolyn coughed with distinct awkwardness, whispering to Trixie, “How in flying feathers do you manage to not die from sweetness overload with those two around?”

“Ponies are very well adapted to high sugar intake. Why do you think half of our diet is exclusively sweets?” Trixie replied, to which Gwendolyn gave her an scrutinizing look as if unable to decide if Trixie was exaggerating or not.

----------

It was strange. Raindrops felt Tendaji and Aisha’s presence before she saw them emerge from the crowd. Raindrops had already eaten and drank her fill, so she’d mostly just been pleasantly enjoying the atmosphere within the hall, watching her family eat and chat, noting Trixie wander off to talk with Gwendolyn, or Cheerilee having her pow wow with the minotaurs. She saw Carrot Top having what looked like a serious conversation with the Elkheim prince, and Raindrops’ heart went out to both of them. Lyra was with Bon Bon, nuzzling in between calls for Lyra to play a tune or two, which she did with her lyre freshly recovered, courtesy of Luna and an efficient spell for locating objects.

All was winding down, ending well by all accounts, but Raindrops felt in something deeper than her bones that this was a time for her and her friends to tie up loose ends. So was it prediction or something more than left no surprise in her at all to see the male and female zebra appear before her.

“I’ll be right back, this won’t take long,” she told her parents and brother, who saw who had arrived and were taken a little off guard.

“Okay honey,” said Shutterbug, “Um, have a nice talk?”

“See you soon, sis,” Snips said, and waved at Tendaji and Aisha, “Hi nice zebras. Want to see this cool guy I found crawling under the table?” Snips had made a new friend in the form of some manner of stick bug that had wandered under the table, and he held it up with a content grin.

Aisha smiled at him, bowing her head, “Another time, young pony. We’ve only a few things to speak with your sister about. I promise to return her to your side shortly.”

Raindrops nodded and got up from the table to follow them. They led her to a side hallway, away from the noise, just enough for some privacy. Raindrops watched the pair and noted both had what seemed like a small ocean of tension drained from them, yet in it’s wake was as much exhaustion as relief. Tendaji looked to his wife, and she raised a hoof to caress his neck for a moment of reassurance before turning to Raindrops and bowing once more.

“I wanted to give you my personal thanks for helping my husband stop my father’s foolish actions. He was convinced of his Path, but alas, it seems even the eldest of us can become blind to where we are walking.”

“I did what needed doing,” Raindrops stated, but her voice softened a bit, and she looked at Aisha with solemn understanding, “I wish it hadn’t been necessary. I don’t know how I’d feel if one of my parents tried to pull something like that. I’m sorry for what you’ve had to go through.”

Aisha’s eyes misted over, but she kept her calm focus, “I’ve vented my... thoughts on the matter to my father already. He knows my displeasure. His actions will be judged by a council of elders from my tribe. Knowing the laws of my land as I do, I know the likely outcome for him will be either confinement or banishment. Lifelong, in either case. It is no small thing, but I and Tendaji will endure, for our Paths remain for us to walk.”

“Right. So, Tendaji, this disease of yours, do you think you can really cure it with this Path and understanding maisha more?” Raindrops asked, “I mean, I only saw that stuff through you guys a little, but I felt like... I don’t know. The things Nuru could do were crazy. He was strong. We only beat him through a good bit of luck and taking advantage of him not going all out. If a master like him couldn’t cure what ails you...”

“I know,” Tendaji said simply, voice carrying a long held weight, made strong but equal resolution that would not break, “I must somehow surmount the pinnacle Nuru reached, and perfect myself beyond that. Only then might I cure my body and... live a life with my wife as I have always wished. Raindrops of Equestria, you have my truest gratitude. You have helped me walk my Path. I can only help in doing so, you have found clarity in your own.”

At that she could only close her eyes for a moment of quiet calm within herself, recalling the sense of inner peace that had gradually come to take root in her heart after fully confronting herself in her clash with Tendaji during the Contest of Strength. Again, almost barely at the edge of her perception, she thought she could feel a spark of sensation that let her feel Tendaji and Aisha’s presence... plus another? It faded quickly, and she set it aside, thinking it was all likely just her mind playing tricks on her. While she felt stronger, that was a whole separate matter from using that crazy maisha stuff the zebras were capable of.

Opening her eyes, she gave Tendaji a friendly smile, “I don’t know about clarity, but I feel like the ground beneath my hooves is more steady than before, the road ahead just a bit more sure than it was before I came here. And I know I owe a part of that to you. For what it’s worth, I forgive you for your part in what happened in Oaton. I also hope, eventually, you find what you’re looking for on that Path of yours, Tendaji.”

In a rare moment of emotion, the zebra returned her smile and bowed his head low, almost to the floor, “Then walk strong and proud, Raindrops of Equestria. Paths willing, ours will cross again, on some distant road.”

“I’ll look forward to it. Anyway, I’d better go make sure none of my friends are getting up to too much trouble. If I don’t see either of you before we head back home, well... take care,” Raindrops waved, and turned to fly away, never one much for long or overly sentimental goodbyes.

Tendaji and Aisha watched her leave, and the pair waited a few seconds after Raindrops was out of sight before turning around to face down the corridor, where there was a turn down another hallway. Aisha flicked her tail and called out, “Are you intending to remain hidden there forever, Zecora?”

A moment later there was a jingle of rings as Zercora emerged from the turn in the hall, approaching the other zebras with a bit of a limp. Even with Celestia’s great healing magic, her leg injury was not entirely gone.

“I thought it best to give the pegasus some to leave, for my goodwill is something she would not believe. I know it has been long since we last talked at length my friend, so I thought it best to see you before I departed in the end.”

Tendaji glanced at his wife and wisely kept his peace, knowing it was best to allow her this moment to speak her mind. Aisha’s expression was still as a winter pond, but that tail flick continued nonetheless. She approached Zecora, and with a faint quiver in her lip just shook her head and threw a hoof around the surprised Zecora.

“Still with the rhyming! You’ve not been a shaman for many years, Z. For once, can’t we talk as friends, especially considering we’re not likely to see each other again after this?”

Zecora wore an uncomfortable wince, slowly and hesitantly returning Aisha’s hug, but soon stepping back, keeping the other zebra at hoove’s length. With a struggle on her lips she managed to say, “To keep to the old speech is a form of armor for me. Something that keeps my mind focused upon the Path that I see. Our friendship of old I still hold as a treasure most great, but it is best we not rekindle it lest you share in my fate.”

Aisha sucked in a breath and let out a withering ninny, “Yes, you’re blasted pony Queen! I don’t know whether to admire your willfulness or curse your ego, even to this day! You walked out on us, just like that, Zecora! I know we all must follow our own Paths, but one of the first lessons we learned as shamans was to not allow ego and desire to cloud our sight. To believe that your Path merges with the return of Equestria’s deposed alicorn monarch, to have the audacity to think it is your role to help guide her Path? Even the most learned of our Elders saw no signs! But no, proud Zecora would not relent, would not bend. She told off all of the Elders and walked right out the Lodge to pursue her destined Path, for her visions couldn’t possibly be wrong or influenced by her desire to do something great and powerful. Nevermind all of the family and friends she left behind in the process...”

Zecora was silent for a moment in the face of Aisha’s outburst, then her eyes went downcast, “I know I caused heartache most grave. Yet even so, it is the future that I look to save. My vision was not something for the Elders to deny, and to ignore it would be to tell my own soul a lie. My Path is one of fire and pain... but at the end of it there is so much more of worth to gain. For the Queen of Fire and Fury needs a steady guide at her side, otherwise she will fall once more into the depths of madness and pride. I do not know if in redemption or disgrace my Path will end, but from its course I shall never bend.”

Aisha shuddered slightly, wiped her face with a hoof, and looked at Zecora with a tired and knowing grin, “You’re as stubborn as I’ve always known you to be. I should have known there was no talking you out of this. I felt like I had a million more things to say to you, and an endless amount of reproaches... but I just can’t gainsay you, Zecora. I couldn’t when we were foals, I couldn’t when we studied together as apprentices, and I can’t now. You just always do your own thing.”

Zecora said nothing, but gave an apologetic look with a shrug that jangled her neck rings. Aisha let out a helpless laugh and said, “Then there’s nothing left to say. Your Queen left not too long ago, didn’t she? How were you planning to get back to wherever it is you and her are holed up?”

A mysterious half smile touched Zecora’s face, “To that query it is best that I do not say. Celestia is an alicorn, so rest assured she provides a way. I asked her that I remain for a brief time, and she had no cause to deny this request of mine. Fare you well, Aisha and Tendaji, whom I hope to one day again see...”

She paused, frowning... rubbing her chin in thought, then abruptly a pink whirlwind appeared from the hallway’s opposite end. Pinkie Pie threw her hooves up in the air like she was letting out party poppers and declared, “But you must leave quickly for you have to pee!”

Three sets of zebra eyes stared at Pinkie Pie, who grinned as if she’d just given them all a great gift. From further down the hall, a haughty voice was calling out, “Pinkie!? Oh Moon preserve me where did that tornado of a mare go? Pinkie Pie my sugary sweet bombshell, wherever did you get off to!?”

Pinkie blinked and spun around, “Oh, that’s Bluey! Heheh, he really doesn’t get how hide and seek works at all! Anyway, bye zebras! Have a fantastic day!”

The pink menace vanished in the same flash of speed with which she appeared, and Zecora frowned at the mare shaped cloud of dust Pinkie left behind. Eventually she sighed. “Perhaps rhyming is overrated anyway.”

----------

“She is awake.”

Those words gave Dao Ming very little comfort, but she gripped the storm within her heart and held fast to her will to form a bulwark against all she was feeling. The news was delivered by one of the Jade Guard, who entered the quarters of the Empress only after a thorough inspection by the numerous other guards watching outside. The living chamber was occupied only by Dao Ming, Lo Shang, and Xhua, all of whom had been quietly waiting for word of when the Empress would be awake. Recovering from the ritual that had been inflicted upon her was a matter of some question, even with the assistance of the finest magical and medical experts available among the Order and the Shouma entourage.

Dao Ming had never doubted her mother would recover enough to awaken, but it was a delicate matter of how permanent the overall damage was. She nodded to the guard and said, “Is she able to receive us?”

“She called specifically for the three of you to be brought in as soon as she opened her eyes,” the guard replied, and Lo Shang nearly jumped out of the cushioned seat he’d been fidgeting on.

“Then let us not waste a moment!”

“Indeed,” said Xhua, who had been all but standing like a statue near the drinking cabinet, barely touching a cup of sake she had poured for herself an hour ago, “Lead us to her.”

The guard bowed and motioned for them to follow him. The hall was all but packed with guards, all vigilant as hawks as the three children of the Empress were led down past several doors until reaching the large double doors that led into Fu Ling’s bedchambers. Even the humble stone walls of the monastery seemed opulent when covered in Shouma silks of gold and emerald, and the bedchamber was no less lavish, but somehow the sight of the Empress, pale, sweat covered, and barely holding herself up in a sitting position in her vast bed of silks made everything seem darker to Dao Ming’s eyes.

Yet as plainly exhausted as Fu Ling was, she smoothed out her black mane of hair and forced herself straighter by pure force of will as her eyes locked upon Dao Ming, although they sparked a moment for Xhua and Lo Shang as they approached the bed. The Empress’ voice was brittle, yet still sharp, like a chipped sword. “Guards, leave us. I will speak with my children alone.”

The bulkiest of the Jade Guard who were watching over the Empress only gave the smallest moment of hesitation before obeying the order and leaving, closing the doors behind them in a jangle of armor. Dao Ming looked around, and found that the Empress was still not without protection. Kenkuro melted from the shadows, perching on a stood next to the Empress’ bed, the Blade of Heaven kept firm at his side. Fu Ling looked to him, and chuckled under her breath, “You know I could order you out, too.”

“But you know I would not obey, Fu Ling, so let’s just focus on what matters now,” Kenkuro replied, which caused Xhua’s eyes to twitch.

“That is disrespectful even for the Blade of Heaven, to speak to the Empress so.”

“It is his right,” Fu Ling said with a whip crack in her tone that caused Xhua to blink, and Dao Ming to frown in brief bafflement, while Lo Shang tilted his head.

“Empress, I’m just glad to see you well, and... and I have to apologize,” Lo Shang said, shame in is voice, “I should have realized something was wrong with Tomoko. I failed to confirm her identity when I searched the forest near Rengoku, and when she spoke to me at the Contest of Strength I didn’t see through her motivations.”

“Enough, Lo Shang,” Fu Ling said, look to him with a rather uncharacteristic look of forgiveness, “If you were a match for Tomoko’s wit, I doubt she’d have approached you as she did. She had a task for you, did she not?”

“Yes she... wanted me to protect Dao Ming, no matter what happened. I thought it a strange request at the time, for I see it as my duty to protect all of my family, but she was so adamant... I just thought she was being a concerned sister.”

Dao Ming had not heard this, and looked to Lo Shang as the unease and tension inside her rose with a clenching heat in her chest, “I too wish I could have foreseen our sister’s intentions. That she would go so far, and for my sake...”

“Your sake,” Xhua shook her head with a slight flare of her nostrils, “As if she could have deposed our mother as Empress and just installed you, just like that!”

“With the power of Rengoku, it would not have been impossible,” Kenkuro reminded them, and he gave a sad shake of his charcoal head, beak clicking, “Yet it seems that was not her goal. Her intention was Rengoku’s destruction, and with it, in theory, the Dark Lands. It was her assumption that Fu Ling would be forced to abdicate the throne on her own to Dao Ming, in due time.”

“A foolish notion in and of itself,” Xhua stated, but then Fu Ling threw a shock of cold, metaphorical water on all of them a bare second later.

“Perhaps not so foolish.”

“...Mother?” Dao Ming blurted, while Xhua stared with wide eyes, and Lo Shang grunted.

“What do you mean?” Lo Shang said, looking back and forth between the Empress and Dao Ming like a suddenly lost puppy.

Fu Ling tried to get out of bed on her own, but stumbled, and Kenkuro was there to hold her in a flicker of motion. She grimaced, but nodded in thanks to him as she leaned on the tengu, walked forward a few steps to face the three young kirin in front of her with as deathly solemn a look as Dao Ming had ever seen her mother wear.

“For many years, I have held myself to the image in my mind of the ideal Empress. Strong and unbending. Proud and... harsh. Shouma is a land that needs a ruler who has the strength of mind and will to control the feuds of the nobility, and guide the desires of the commoners towards the greater good of the Empire. To sit the throne is to take on the heaviest of burdens, and I believed only absolute perfection could be tolerable in an heir. Thus, I adopted most of you for your talents, and sought to hone them remorselessly.”

Her eyes seemed to be struggling to maintain her own pride, like a leaking dam losing water through a thousand small cracks. The dam’s cracks grew even wider as she looked at Dao Ming, “And even when the spirits blessed me with a child of my own flesh and blood at long last, I thought it was only right to treat her the same as those I adopted. To expect nothing less than perfection. To push her into every trial. To demand her to rise to every challenge. I did this, believing that deep down, it was being done out of both love and necessity.”

The Empress went silent, then, her lips shaking as if struggling to pull forth the next words. Understandable, perhaps, for she had almost never been forced to speak them.

“I was wrong. My actions have not been for the betterment of Shouma or my children. They were simply acts of pride. For how could I ever accept a child of mine who was not perfect? This blindness has nearly cost our homeland, and many lands beyond, greatly. Had Tomoko succeeded, the consequences could have been tragic. I cannot pretend as if my own choices did not play the largest role in Tomoko’s actions. Traitor or not, she has laid bare my mistakes. Now that I am awake, I have a duty to begin correcting those mistakes.”

It took her some effort to raise her hoof, but Fu Ling fought through the strain to place it on Dao Ming’s shoulder, and Dao Ming felt frozen by it’s presence almost as much as the look in her mother’s eyes. She’d never seen anything like the blazing mixture of shame, anguish, love, and pride all burning at once in the way her mother looked at her.

“As of now, I name you heir to the Imperial Throne, Dao Ming. I will stand down as reigning Empress one year from now, to give you time to be fully prepared for the responsibility, and for me to set certain affairs in order, but soon Shouma will have a new Empress, and it shall be you.”

“Wait, I... what? But mother, you can’t-”

“I can and I am,” Fu Ling said, a wisp of a smile turning the corners of her mouth, “You are more ready than I ever could have imagined in my narrow minded view. I should have done this long ago, before it ever got to this point. Shouma does not need a prideful, blind nag who can’t see the value in her own children. Our Empire will fare well with you on the throne.”

Sharp eyes cut towards the still shocked silent Xhua and Lo Shang, “And she will need able advisors and protectors to help her in this task. Can I still count on the two of you?”

“I...I...” Xhua babbled for an instant before gritting her jaw tightly and clearly struggled to swallow her wounded pride, “I shall do what is best for the Empire, of course.”

Lo Shang was far more confident, even relieved in his response as he touched a hoof over his chest and bowed, “My loyalties are never in question. I will protect and serve Dao Ming as Empress with all of the fervor within my heart.”

Despite his words, Dao Ming sensed a heaviness in his eyes, and a tinge of sorrow in his voice, and knew very likely what troubled him, for he had been even closer to Tomoko than she had been. While still struggling under the monumental weight of the responsibility that had just been thrust upon her, she sucked in a calming breath, her nerves somewhat aided by a reassuring and encouraging nod of pride from Kenkuro.

“Mother, if I am to succeed you as Empress, I must know what your intentions are for Tomoko.”

Raw pain shot through Fu Ling’s eyes, and Shouma’s still present, if now temporary Empress pressed her lips together so tightly it was a wonder her jaw did not break. “For a crime such as treason, very few punishments exist outside of execution, the method of which has ever been up to the Imperial Throne to decide.”

Lo Shang made a low grunt in his throat, although he spoke no words and did well to keep his face neutral despite the pained twitch in his eyes. Dao Ming took a deep breath, “As one who is to be Empress, and as the one who faced her directly and halted her plans, perhaps it would best fall to me to arbitrate her punishment?”

Fu Ling gave her daughter a shrewd look, slowly nodding at the strength in Dao Ming’s voice, “Indeed. I doubt few lords in the Imperial court could deny you the right, and any that tried would risk a great loss of honor if they could not prove any meaningful reason to prevent the heir to the Imperial Throne and Champion of Shouma from administering whatever punishment she thought fit. I do warn you, daughter, that it must still be a fitting punishment, whatever plans dance in your head right now.”

To this Dao Ming only gave a wane smile, “Do not fear, mother. I believe I have an idea that will serve the interests of both justice and the needs of the Empire.”

“Then that is all I can ask of you,” Fu Ling said, settling back in her bed with a faint and rare groan, “Although some further rest would be... nice.”

“Yes,” said Kenkuro, “I think it is best our Empress be allowed some time to recover more, before our departure tomorrow. Besides, do you not still have to be present when the good news is given to our Equestrian friends concerning the Contest of Champions?”

Dao Ming blinked, “Oh... I’d nearly forgotten that. I bet the others are still waiting on me. I’ll go at once.” She gave off a rapid fire set of bows, “Mother, Xhua, Lo Shang, be well.”

After she hurriedly excused herself from the chambers, Fu Ling, still laying flat on her back, turned her head towards Kenkuro with one of her thin black eyebrows rising, “Should I even inquire what that was about?”

Kenkuro’s beak curled in a small, dry smile, “Well, before all the craziness there was a Contest that still needed settling...”

----------

All things considered, Trixie didn’t think she could physically eat another bite or take another drink. She didn’t consider herself a slouch at parties, and she could socially mingle with the best of them, but her leg still burned with a low-key ache and a part of her was tempted to slip away back to her room to sleep away the rest of the day.

However that soon became impossible for Princess Luna entered the main hall alongside Princess Cadenza, both alicorns drawing the full attention of the attending champions. Considering both Princesses made right for the table Trixie was sharing with her friends, it was rather clear from the meaningful look Luna especially was giving them that Trixie’s window for slipping out had closed. Oh well, at least it looked like the two alicorns were in relatively good spirits, so it didn’t look like any fresh crisis was about to drop on them.

“Ah, I see my champions have been thoroughly availing themselves of the Order’s continued hospitality and enjoying the company of their fellow champions,” Luna said, wearing that oh so not-so hidden coy twinkle and half smile that Trixie knew meant the alicorn wasn’t just pleased, but had some secret she was looking forward to springing. Beside her, Cadenza wore a rather similar expression, one so similar in fact that it made Trixie almost do a double take between the younger alicorn and Luna. Sometimes those two shared just enough to seem... well, whatever, wasn’t Trixie’s business.

“Yes, now that everypony and everycreature is hopefully quite well rested,” Cadenza said, raising her voice so it easily pitched across the cavernous hall, to which many champions who’d still been busy chatting fell quiet to listen, “It would seem that due to the rather unfortunate events of yesterday, we all still have a Contest of Champions that remains quite unresolved! While Princess Luna and I both certainly extend our heartful thanks and praises to all of you brave souls who saved this island, and indeed the wider world from great peril, I must ask... are any of you content to simply leave the very Contest you came here for without a proper conclusion?”

Surprising none present, Wodan was first to respond, a huge hoof slamming the table the mighty moose sat at hard enough to put a hole in it as he bellowed, “NAY! Would be a shame beyond shames to not finish a proper competition between such great champions as are gathered here! My Elkheim blood boils as the notion of not honoring the true champions of this Contest!”

Sigurd, his shadowed features creasing in a uncomfortable but genuine smile, raised a tankard, “So speaks the densest moose in the realms! But he speaks true! Let the Contest be decided!”

Be the cervid, griffin, pony, zebra, minotaur, or any other species, hooves, talons, and hands alike pounded tables or raised foaming mugs as voices rang out the same cry, “Let the Contest be decided!”

Waiting just long enough for the shouting to die down just a shave, Trixie decided it was best to play along, although she wasn’t completely certain where the Princesses were going with this. Hopping up on the long table so she could be better seen, Trixie suppressed a grunt of pain as her injured leg let her know in sharp, certain terms that it wasn’t fond of her jumping around. Sucking in a breath past that pain, Trixie waved her good hoof and spoke in her crisp, clear stage voice. “Good creatures, champions and friends, it certainly sounds like from your raucous cries that everycreature present wants to finish what we all began. Can’t say that I don’t feel similarly. Trixie Lulamoon has never been one to leave a competition half finished.”

“Unless you're losing at a game of Poneopoly, in which case I recall you suddenly had to leave my house mid-game because of ‘Night Court’ responsibilities that you conveniently remembered just as I was about to win,” snarked Cheerilee with a good natured wink, to which Trixie made a dramatic motion to take off her hat and place it over her chest.

“I haven’t the foggiest clue what you mean, Cheerilee. I am a paragon of sportsponyship.”

A chorus of chuckles washed over the room, and Trixie placed her hat back on her head, looking to Princess Luna and Cadenza, “Of course finishing the Contest might be a bit problematic what we some of us still recovering from battling our way into a magical flying fortress just yesterday, and I was to understand many of the island’s visitors and delegations were departing tomorrow?”

“Ah, good, I made it in time.”

Trixie turned to see that Dao Ming had entered the chamber, in something of a rush, and while still as composed as ever, Trixie could still tell by the faint twitch in the kirin’s tail that quite a bit was on Dao Ming’s mind. Understandable, all things considered. Trixie could only wonder at what Dao Ming must have needed to talk about with her family, and couldn’t imagine the difficulties in working out how to handle the resolution to Tomoko’s actions. Still, Trixie was surprised a little at how warm her heart felt upon seeing the kirin. When they’d first met Trixie had found Dao Ming to be a most vexing and arrogant rival. While the rivalry remained, it had transmuted into one of mutual respect and even friendship, and Trixie was a tad shocked to realize that she was going to miss Dao Ming a little, when the kirin returned to her homeland.

“Dao Ming, glad to see you,” Trixie said with genuine sincerity, offering the approaching kirin a respectful nod, “I would have sought you out earlier, but I understand you were busy with what imagine is some complicated personal affairs.”

A spark of knowing crossed Dao Ming’s eyes as she breathed out a light laugh, “You could say that. Less complicated than I feared, yet more weighty than I could have imagined. I’ll tell you later. Right now there’s something that must be settled, no? Who among us is the victor of the Contest of Magic, and in turn, the Contest of Champions itself?”

“Look, even if I kinda get the desire to settle things between rivals, can we maybe just take a break? Still half dead from all the major league heroics yesterday,” said Lyra, leaning a bit into Bon Bon, who sat at the table next to her, “And in serious need of quality time with my Bon Bon.”

“Aww, I’ve got the best mare in Equestria, don’t I?” said Bon Bon, snout gently pressing on Lyra’s neck in a happy nuzzle.

Dao Ming, cheeks a tad red, coughed politely and bowed her head to the pair, “Indeed. I wouldn’t wish to interrupt any of these well deserved festivities. In fact I doubt any champion here has a mind to demand a resumption of the Contest, especially after all that was discussed prior to the arrival of you Equestrian champions to this very hall today.”

“Discussed?” Trixie asked, silver eyebrow shooting up. She caught the two Princesses’ well informed smirks and understood that quite a bit must have gone on before she’d woken up from her exhaustion and injury induced nap. She also noted that the vast majority of the other champions in the room all happened to be sharing a varied round of conspiratorial winks, half grins, and pleased murmurs among themselves. Even the ordinarily withdrawn and composed monks of the Order appeared to be trying to look innocent and were failing at it as many bore happy smiles.

“Perhaps Princess Luna would like the honor?” Dao Ming suggested, but the alicorn shook her head and made an ‘after you’ gesture with a hoof towards the kirin royal.

“It was you who spearheaded the notion, and garnered such favor for the idea among all present. The honor is yours, Lady Dao Ming.”

“Aye!” shouted Wodan, pounding a foaming mug on the table, “Get to it, you fancy eastern lass! No need to be formal with it, we all agreed and are eager to see their reactions!”

“As you would have it, then,” Dao Ming replied, then gave Trixie and her friends each a look in turn, “It seems I then have the honor of informing you all, Dames Trixie Lulamoon, Raindrops, Ditzy Doo, Lyra Heartstrings, Carrot Top, and Cheerilee... that you are the victors of the Contest of Champions. Congratulations.”

“Huh?” Trixie said, half opening her mouth to protest, then half closing it as she considered that she wasn’t adverse to winning by default, but...

“Whoa now, uh, how was that decided?” asked Raindrops, essentially voicing the question Trixie had nearly asked herself.

“Yeah, I mean, that’s nice and all to say, but wasn’t there still one Contest left to be decided?” Ditzy said, rubbing her head in confusion.

Before more questions could be asked, Dao Ming held up a hoof to forestall them, “If I may? You are right that the Contest of Magic had not yet taken place when sadly my kin, Tomoko, the now former Abbess Serene, and their co-conspirators enacted their plan to steal away with Rengoku. I need not remind everycreature here that had they succeeded, the likelihood of a great calamity befalling not only my homeland of Shouma but of many lands beyond was quite high. It is no exaggeration to say that the bravery of the champions gathered here was proven and the title ‘champion’ earned anew for all present due to the swift actions taken to end the crisis.”

Her eyes fixated upon Trixie, and the kirin bowed her head low, “For what you have done to save so many of my people from such a disaster, I, and the Imperial Family, owe you an eternal debt not so easily repaid. Know that you will always be welcome on Shouma’s shores, should you find yourself in either need or desire to travel to our lands. You will be received as the champions you are.”

Trixie tried very hard to be magnanimous and not grin too widely at the simple pleasure of such praise, especially coming from a mare who a week ago had a very different opinion on Trixie and her friends. Dao Ming must have known what was going through Trixie’s mind, for there was the tiniest hint of apology in her smile as she raised her head back up and continued, “Now, to answer the question of your victory, it is quite simple. The Contest of Magic was intended to determine which champions bore the strongest magic from their homelands. It was decided that there was no need to make use of the originally planed version of that Contest, for the truth of the matter was made clear in Rengoku itself.”

Trixie shared a look with her fellow mares, most of whom looked a tad baffled themselves, “I... don’t quite follow?” Trixie said, and Dao Ming gave a small bell of a chuckle.

“Remind me, my fellow champions who charged Rengoku’s mighty defenses, who was it that led that charge?”

“I remember it vividly,” said Sigurd suddenly and with a loud, clear ring to his otherwise dire tone, “Monsters spawned from the fortress’ depths, magical lances of destruction piercing all around us as we flew forth in wyvern borne longships. Surely we would have perished ‘ere we even made a landing upon the fortress if not for the powerful magic cast by the Dame Lulamoon, which confounded the beasts and guarded us until we got close.”

Trixie felt like she ought to have pointed out that Shining Armor did as much or more in that regard, but she was glad her Pandemonium spell was getting some recognition. She’d worked hard on developing it, after all, even if it’s intended use had been as an anti-Corona deterrent.

“And once inside, how is it that we defeated the potent foes arrayed against us?” Dao Ming continued to ask the crowd, and Frederick rose to his hooves, raising a mug of ale high.

“With six extraordinary ponies binding us together to face the dangers! Andrea was a skald and master of runes whom I’d have fallen against in mere moments if not for the undeniable courage of Dame Carrot Top and the bardic prowess of Dame Heartstrings. Music woven into battle with such skill I have never seen!”

From her place observing the party from one of the pillars at the entrance, Gwendolyn chimed in loudly, “For all my skill I’m not sure I’d have been able to take down Grimwald on my own. But I had two skilled ponies watching my back in Dame Ditzy and Dame Cheerilee. When it comes down to it, it was Ditzy herself who didn’t just beat Grim in the fight, I think she beat his philosophy in a way that may well have left a change in the bird brain. If that’s not magic, I don’t know what its.”

“And I,” said Tendaji, simply seeming to appear amid the crowd as if he’d been there all along, drawing a bit of a surprised start from Raindrops, “Know for a certainty that I would have been defeated by my stepfather, Nuru, were I to have faced him alone. It was only due to Raindrops’ strength, ingenuity, and tenacity that together we triumphed over a master such as Nuru.”

Dao Ming, hearing all of this, nodded in agreement and suddenly leaped up onto a table to be seen by all, her voice echoing off the vast hall’s stone walls, “And I too have a similar tale to tell! At the very apex of Rengoku, in its beating heart where its dark throne lay, my sister Tomoko had control of the entire fortress. There, I and Dame Lulamoon confronted her and did battle... much like our ancestors battled the Warlord so long ago. Much magic was cast back and forth in that most dangerous of duels. While it was my summoning of Raijin that struck the final blow, it was only made possible by the clever illusions cast by Trixie herself, who sacrificed her safety to buy me the moment of distraction I required. The scar on her leg is a badge of honorable proof of her courageous willingness to face harm to purchase victory.”

Dao Ming paused for a moment, taking a deep breath before continuing, “But it is not simply her skill in magic that I cede the Contest of Magic to Trixie Lulamoon and her comrades. It is because I saw in action the strongest of magics. Not the powers of Rengoku, nor the mighty summoning of spirits. Not the mystic unarmed arts of the zebra or the runic skills of the cervid. It is a much more primal magic, one that all of us are capable of using, but it seems the Equestrians are uncommonly talented at. They have this entire Contest not only demonstrated why they themselves deserve to be called champions, but how each of us can better ourselves and one another via this most simple yet powerful magic...”

She looked to Trixie and her friends, “Friendship.”

Trixie couldn’t help herself, laughing a little at the corniness of it all, but knowing full well how true it was, too, “Dao Ming, that was unbelievably sappy, even by Equestrian standards.”

Dao Ming’s face colored a bit, “W-well it did seem appropriate, and it is what you Equestrians are always babbling on about and I just thought-”

Trixie leaped up onto the table with Dao Ming and gave the sputtering kirin the biggest hug she could possibly manage. Amid the sudden roar of cheers and happy jibes from the numerous champions in attendance, Trixie whispered to Dao Ming, “It was beautiful, Dao Ming. And if you ever find yourself dropping by Ponyville sometime, I’ll put on some tea for you. Don’t have any Shouma style, but I’ll order some, just in case.”

Dao Ming’s voice hitched slightly, then almost as if the gesture was unfamiliar, yet somehow eager for it, Dao Ming hugged Trixie back, “I would like that.”

----------

While the monastery of the Order was not equipped to be a prison, that meant little when there was an alicorn or two around. Luna had placed freshly carved enchantments upon a cleared out set of storerooms which now served as makeshift, but quite formidable cells for Serene and her co-conspirators. Tomoko and Nuru were in their own separate rooms, to be taken away by their respective countries in due course. At that moment Luna was aware that Nuru was being visited by those he’d once called companions, Kenkuro and Greysight. What the three were discussing she did not know, but suspected it was something akin to what she was doing now herself; seeking insight.

“I am of a mind that the Order itself is best suited to decide what should be done with you,” Luna told Serene. The old mare had been sitting in the same nearly statue still position on her bed since Luna arrived in the makeshift cell. Luna had long centuries to learn how to read others, and saw in Serene only a slack surrender to fate.

“What becomes of me matters very little, now,” Serene replied, eyes not challenging, nor rancorous at her plan’s defeat. “Knowing the Order as I do, they will select a new Abbot or Abbess without difficulty. If left to their own devices to decide my fate, I suspect I shall remain a closely watched prisoner, until my dying day. Given my age, that shouldn’t be far off.”

“That too was my assessment,” Luna replied with a cool edge to her voice, “An ignoble end to such a long career.”

A tiny fraction of a dark humor passed Serene’s face for a bare second before fading, “I will not waste words going over my justifications once more, Princess Luna. I regret that my goals ultimately failed. It grieves me to know that Rengoku remains, and shall likely continue to entrap the spirits inside it for centuries more before a ‘safe’ means of its disposal can be uncovered. I was willing to give my life, such as it is, to see that abomination destroyed.”

She took a slow, shallow breath, bending under unseen weight until she looked straight at Luna and let all that weight fall off of her, looking once more like an exceedingly tired old mare, “It is no longer my fight to fight. It is now for those younger to take up the burden. I have heard the spirit of the Warlord herself aided in your champion’s victory?”

Luna nodded, although a part of her was a tad disturbed by the account of events that Trixie and Dao Ming had given. She’d known that Rengoku held a number of spirits under its sway, but not that Ying Shen remained so consciously aware within the fortress, nor able to control some of its systems still. But the fact that the Warlord had helped those who’d come to stop Tomoko was encouraging.

“It is true, by all accounts,” she told Serne, “I can only hope that one day we do find a way to end the cursed fortress for good, without running the risk of causing catastrophic harm to the world.”

“Ah, ‘one day’, such a comforting yet frustrating phrase,” Serene sighed, “One that I, in my old age, grew to be quite tired of hearing. I pray Ying Shen finds some peace, as she shall have to wait for that ‘one day’ to arrive before rest is granted to her. So, Princess Luna, have you learned what you came to learn from this old mare?”

“I believe so,” Luna said, “Your actions have cost you the freedom you may have enjoyed in your twilight years, and I see no further good that could come from harsher punishment. I shall leave the Order with my recommendation that you remain under imprisonment here, but not under any more stringent conditions than necessary. You will not hold any position within the Order, nor be allowed to leave this island. I will be stationing a pair of my Night Guard to observe you, just on the off chance you get any ideas, but otherwise I am content for you to spend your last days in quiet contemplation.”

Serene absorbed that with the same tired acceptance she’d held since the end of her plot. “Then all that is left is for me to wish you and yours luck in what’s to come. My part is done, but you still have no shortage of challenges ahead of you.” She paused, and a hint of genuine wonderment came over her as the old mare in front of Luna, for a moment, sounded much more like a small, uneasy foal, “Tell me, how do you do it? Keep going, looking for the ‘one day’ that never seems to come?”

For a long moment Luna considered, but her answer was ultimately a simple one.

“I don’t think anycreature can keep going forever. We all stumble and fall, eventually. I certainly have, many times over the course of my long life. There is no special trick that gets me back on my hooves, or helps me walk onward through each day. Instead it’s a matter of choice. I decide with each sunrise to believe that today can be better than yesterday.”

“Ah...” Serene gave a wane smile, “Who could have guessed Equestria's Princess of the Night was such a stubborn, hardcore idealist at heart? I suppose I just didn’t have the strength to make the same choice. Now, all I want to do is... rest.”

“You’ll have time for that, if nothing else,” Luna said, giving Serene one last nod before turning to exit the makeshift prison chamber, leaving the former Abbess of the Order of Legends to her own thoughts.

----------

“You planning on speaking to us anytime soon or do me and Greysigh have to continue to stare at you, you daft old zebra?” Kenkuro perched on one leg in the corner of the small room where Nuru sat with shackles on his legs. The zebra was still in a calm sitting pose with his hind legs crossed, eyes closed as if in meditation. Or asleep.

Next to the door, Greysight heaved her heavy chest and tapped her clockwork staff with one, gong-like tone, “Nuru, you at least owe us acknowledgment. We remain your friends, as dubious as that may sound after you deceived us.”

Nuru opened one eye at her, “I offered no deception. I merely did not share all of my mind’s thoughts.”

“Word games like that might suffice for the tribe elders of your homeland, but we traveled with you too long for that to fly,” Kenkuro stated firmly, blowing a long whistle of disapproval from his beak, hopping a tad closer, “So much could have been avoided if you’d simply told us what you knew! Do you think we would have judged you!? For wishing to save your son-in-law from disease? To give your daughter happiness?”

Nuru’s second eye opened and he looked to Kenkuro, voice drained of emotion save a long held tiredness, “I did not tell you both for I knew your friendship with me would have tainted your Paths. You would have been torn between duty and a desire to aid me, or seek some other Path to walk the line between deception and friendship. I knew from the start I had to walk my Path alone, and whether to risk the plan falling apart or my friends being foolish enough to try and help me, neither was worth changing course. I accepted what would happen if I failed, including incurring the justified anger of you both and an end to our friendship. For that, if nothing else, I am sorry.”

“Ugh, your stubbornness was always as deep as tree roots, but this still defies reason,” Kenkuro said, the feathers on the back of his head rising and falling with his breaths, “I suppose it’s pointless to tell you how stupid it was to do what you did? That the boy wouldn’t have ever accepted the cure you offered?”

“I knew he would not,” Nuru said, his voice briefly trailing off as he looked down, a brief sliver of a twitch at the corner of his lips, “In some small manner I am... proud he refuted me so completely.”

Greysight’s eyes narrowed, and the tall minotaur leaned down over him, one hand on her hip, “You suspected you were going to lose, didn’t you?”

“Your predictions are rarely wrong, Greysight. While the fog of your vision did not show you the face of the threat, it never showed that disaster would befall us,” Nuru replied, “I believed it was very likely Serene’s plan would ultimately fail. But Tendaji... I sensed his own Path was intertwined with mine and that of the pegasus Raindrops. I knew from the start that we would fight. I did not know the outcome, but knew that if they did defeat me that it would only strengthen the boy. Push him further along the way of mastery that could very well surpass me.”

Nuru didn’t laugh, but there was a small exhale of breath, a form of letting go, “My fate was irrelevant. Only his and my daughter’s happiness mattered. One way or another, my Path would end and theirs would continue.”

Kenkuro ruffled himself, running a wing over his beak, “Paths. If you wanted to push the boy I think a simple sparring match would have sufficed, but perhaps that’s just me. Still doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have told us. But I can see you’re content with this and berating you might make me feel better but it accomplishes little. Any idea what will become of you upon returning to your tribe?”

“By zebra law my greatest crime would be attempting to control the Path of my son-in-law. We care little for the opinions and relations with other nations, so my role in the incident is not the infraction of importance, but my assault upon one of our own.” Nuru tilted his head ever so slightly, “Tendaji will be within his right to demand exile, death, or imprisonment. Whatever he chooses, I will accept.”

“Given his disposition I don’t imagine him demanding much, let alone death,” Greysight said, “But I also don’t imagine you’ll have any freedom from henceforth, whatever the result. We may well never see each other again.”

“I know.”

Kenkuro growled, “You could at least make it obvious that it bothers you, stubborn fool.”

Nuru nodded once, “It will be strange to miss your constant squawking.”

He looked to Greysight, “If nothing else, I am glad you two came. I can say farewell properly. This is not how I wished our friendship would end, but I will still remember our time together fondly.”

With a soft grunt, Greysight kneeled, and placed a big meaty hand on the zebra’s withers, “Even if your Path is so short that ours does not cross again, I’ll still miss you.” She followed this up with a light bonk of her staff upon his head, “But that is still for being stupid and not telling us what you should have. Take care, Nuru.”

Kenkuro huffed out a long sigh and crossed his wings, “I’d like to toss out some wisdom from Tien Zhu, but no quotes come to mind. So I’ll just say that I’ll miss you too, you damned stubborn idiot. I hope your son and daughter manage to surpass every expectation you ever had of them.”

To those words, Nuru slackened what tension was left in him and said, “As do I.”

----------

It was a windy mid-morning that saw Trixie and her fellow victorious champions waiting upon the docks of Heroes’ Rest. The ship that had brought them to the Isle of the Fallen had already been boarded by Princess Luna, Raindrops’ family, and a number of other Equestrian dignitaries, but Trixie and her friends had opted to relax a bit on the docks until their ship got the all clear to depart. Given the small nature of the harbor, ships needed to leave one or two at a time to prevent collisions. Other vessels had been departing slowly, one after another, bringing away the many travelers and entourages that had come to the island in the first place to view the Contest of Champions. Despite the crisis of the previous day, spirits had been high among many of those who had traveled far to witness the various nations’ champions in action. After all, what greater proof of their valor and ability could there have been than for them to rise up against the very same threat that had led to the creation of the Contest in the first place? Rengoku’s silence as it lay at rest once more upon the island’s northern forest was testament to the strength of this age’s champions, no less than those who had come before.

On top of that, despite the Contest’s interruption, the winners had been called, their names engraved upon the great tablets within the Order of Legend’s main hall for all to see. While some small part of Trixie still was a tad wistful for a proper one on one between her and Dao Ming to settle things, she couldn’t fault the kirin’s logic nor the other champions’ reasoning for ceding the victory to her and her friends. One could hardly say they hadn’t put in the work, after all.

“Think the thing I’m looking forward to most when we get back home is cooking from my own produce,” Carrot Top said, back hoof tapping rapidly, “I know my farm will be alright, but I know my fields are missing my personal touch. This week has been a bit too much eating out.”

“I’ll bet,” said Cheerilee with an eyebrow waggle, and nodding towards the beach where the wyverns of the cervids were getting ready to lift off the now loaded longboats, “Surprised you didn’t spend last night with the Prince.”

Carrot Top’s ears perked, a bit of red at their tips as the mare cleared her throat and lightly flicked her tail at Cheerilee, “Oh hush up, you. We parted on good terms, and making more tearful goodbyes wasn’t what either of us wanted.”

She did glance towards the scene, however, when the fierce cry of many wyverns filled the air and the great winged beasts took to the sky, bearing forth longboats packed with cervids. While making out individual details at a distance was next to impossible, Carrot Top thought she caught a brief look at a certain elk Prince standing beside a towering moose and a dour, grim water deer, all three looking ahead rather than behind. Even so, Wodan’s voice carried long, like a peal of thunder.

“Fare thee all well, champions of all lands, and especially of our pony neighbors! May the gentle shade of Yggdrasil one day find you all, so that we may meet again and revel with great gusto!”

Raindrops shook her head, “Whew, the lungs on that one...”

“Heheh, I hope we get to meet them again someday,” Ditzy said, hoof patting Dinky as the filly anxiously bounced on her hooves.

“How much longer until we get on the boat?” Dinky asked, and Ditzy smiled patiently.

“Soon, muffin. Too many ships leaving at once causes accidents, just like how momma has to be careful when flying when there’s lots of other pegasi in the air, too. Our turn is coming.”

Trixie did see that a number of Equestria’s visiting members of the Night Court were boarding the ship, indicating that it probably wouldn’t be much longer before it was their turn to hed out. Vicerine Pussiance, along with Duchest Fragrant Posey and Baron Mounty Max were all heading up vesse’s gangplank. By all accounts each of them had helped keep the civilians calm during Rengoku’s rise yesterday, even Pussiance, whom Trixie’s opinion of was not particularly high. Still, nice to know the Night Court could handle themselves in a crisis. Hmm, but wasn’t that Blueblood fellow supposed to be around here, somewhere as well?

“Oh for moon’s sake, we’ve nearly missed the boat, Pinkie! Did we truly need to make a final run past the bakery?”

“For another chance at these absolutely delish triple raspberry fudge scones from Zaldia? How could we not, Bluey!? It’d be a crime to not get a bag or four to tide us over on the long trip back.”

Seeing Blueblood carrying several bags worth of baked goods for the energetic ball of pink at his side was an odd sight indeed, and Trixie could only scratch her brainpan in wonderment at that truly bizarre pairing. What was truly weird was that for all his complaining, Blueblood looked almost as if he had some pep in his step and even had a tiny smile of endearment on his face as he lifted one of the aforementioned scones from the bag and floated it over to the exuberant Pinkie, who squealed happily as she munched on it from his telekinetic field.

“Not exactly the most dignified display,” said Puissance under her breath as Pinkie hopped up the gangplank with Blueblood in tow.

Next to her, Fragrant Posey coughed politely, “I do believe they make for an interesting pairing, myself.”

“I’m for anything that might smooth out some of that fellow’s rough edges,” Mounty Max said, then blinked and shook himself, “Of course it’s not really my place to judge, either way.”

“Hmph, well I suppose as long as it means he has something to take up his attention,” Pussiance said quietly and disappeared belowdecks alongside her own small cadre of servants.

Next to leave port was the sharp sailed, narrow vessel that had borne the zebras to the island. Tendaji and Aisha were already upon it, as was Siwatu and his giant scorpion, Sifu. Notably Nuru was not in sight, but from what Trixie had heard from Princess Luna, the elderly zebra was kept tightly bound and watched in the ship’s hold. He would be judged by his peers back in the zebra’s own tribe, and Trixie was content enough to leave her knowledge of the affair at that.

The ironclad ship of the minotaurs belched forth great gouts of steam and followed after the zebra’s swift ship, and Cheerilee sighed a bit, until a deep and gruff voice spoke behind her.

“What are you sighing about, Cheers?”

“Iron Will, you’re still here?” Cheerille spun about, as their friends all looked over to see the well built mountain of masculine bovine grinning down at them as he carried a few big packs over his shoulder, while a team of goats lined up behind him bearing various sized trunks and crates.

“Course I am! You gave Steel Cage enough of a boot to the behind to get him to back off of me going home, so no need for me to hop on that ship.”

“I knew that, but I figured you might have already gotten on another ship,” Cheerilee said, smiling, “Although I am glad to see you one last time.”

“Hardly for the last time, either. I’m getting on your ship,” Iron Will said with a wink.

“Wait what?” Trixie blurted, “You’re coming to Equestria?”

He turned towards her and Trixie felt the sweltering aura of eager energy coming off of the minotaur from his bright, hundred bit grin. “You better belive it, Champ. After you mares won the Contest, merchandise of you lot are gonna sell for a trainload! An absolute trainload! I’ve already got a route planned out from Canterlot to Las Pegasus! A bit of extra work for some new ‘Champion Knight’ dolls, complete with authentic battle damage,” he nodded towards Trixie’s injured leg, “Plus T-shirts, mugs, commemorative plates, I got a whole line planned.”

“And you’re going to do this all without our permission?” asked Lyra pointedly, Bon Bon giving a firm nod next to her mare.

“Yes, it’s unethical to try to make so many bits off of us-” Raindrops began, until Lyra went on.

“I mean, how much royalties are we talking here.”

Raindrops shot a look at Lyra, who just smiled in sheepish fashion, “What? I’m a bard. I get how merchandising works. Ten percent royalties and I say we’re in.”

“Perhaps we should discuss the details after we get home?” Trixie asked, eyeing Iron Will, “Consider it time to refine your business plan while accounting for the fact that some of my friends may wish to keep their personal images off of mugs and commemorative plates.”

Iron Will stared her down, but Trixie, having learned a little minotaur cultural skill from watching Cheerilee, stood her ground and squared her shoulders. After a moment, Iron Will gave her an understanding nod, “I can respect that. I’ll draw up a few different plans on the trip, and forward them to you fine ladies in Ponyville and hold off on doing anything without signed approval. Work for you?”

“Quite,” Trixie replied.

By now the harbor was getting more and more empty of ships, with the last few involving Cavallia’s swift royal vessel, the two Equestrian ships, and the massive, square sailed rig from Shouma. The griffins had long since taken wing on their own for their own long flights back to the Griffin Kingdoms, Gwendolyn having teleported out the other day after the party. Trixie worried what news might eventually filter into Equestria about the situation among their winged northern neighbors. She fully intended to keep a close eye on the papers for any rumblings of war from the Griffin Kingdoms, and silently wished Gwendolyn all the best at quelling the unrest in her homeland.

Finally it looked as if the number of ship left to depart had thinned out, and one of the few left was the Equestrian ship, and the particularly large Shouma vessel that had nearly run them over when they’d first arrived. Trixie recalled the strong, mystical fog that the Shouma ship had traveled out of, and imagined Dao Ming would perform a similar spirit chant to speed herself and her people along across the comparatively much vaster distance to the kirin homeland.

In grand Shouma fashion, the departure of the Empress and her retinue was accompanied by great ceremony and flare. Drum beats rang out as armored kirin and non-kiriin of the Jade Guard formed two neat lines escorting gold and emerald palanquins that bore the members of the Imperial Family. Trixie noticed something odd, however. Where Empress Fu Ling usually took the lead in any procession, she rested on a palanquin that was actually a notable step behind the one that bore Dao Ming. Xhua and Lo Shang followed behind them, in turn followed by a thick wooden cart upon which a tall casket of iron stood. The casket had a forward facing lid, bound by chains and locks. Kenkuro sat at the head of this cart, one wing never far from the Blade of Heaven, but maintaining a jovial air as he saw them and waved with his other wing.

“Two guesses who’s in the box,” Cheerilee said, shuddering a bit, “Not a comfortable way to ride home. You think she’s even alive in there?”

“Um, can we not be morbid in front of my kid, please?” Ditzy asked, giving the casket an uneasy look.

Dao Ming saw them on the docks, and as the Shouma procession approached their own ship, she raised her hoof to signal a halt. Trixie saw her turn and step off her palanquin, and go to her mother. Fu Ling and Dao Ming exchanged a few quiet words, to which Fu Ling, to Trixie’s surprise, gave a different nod to her daughter. Less surprising was the spearing look that the Empress sent towards Trixie and her friends, but Fu Ling only did so for a moment before turning her head away and went about pretending the six Equestrian champions didn’t exist.

The rest of the Shouma delegation waited with the placid patience of those dedicated to waiting upon the Imperial Family as Dao Ming walked along up to the Ponyville mares.

“So, not to pry, but something seems different,” Trixie said at Dao Ming’s approach, to which the kirin brushed her golden locks aside and her face showed a tremor of nerves that were softened by a coy smile.

“It is no secret, and indeed I feel you deserve to know. Mother has made my status as heir official, and more than that, intends to step down as Empress within the year.”

That, admittedly, took Trixie off guard. “Is that normal? Stepping down, rather than...”

“Croaking of old age or assassination?” provided Cheerilee.

“It is uncommon,” Dao Ming admitted, the tension in her eyes belying just how uncommon it was, “But it seems Tomoko’s actions, and my own in response, have given her a new perspective on things. She believes the Empire will be served better with me on the throne. I do not know if I fully share her opinion, but it is not my place to balk at the duty before me.”

“It’s kind of weird,” Raindrops said, eyes turning towards the casket of iron that Kenkuro remained vigilantly near, “Wasn’t that one of the things your sister wanted? You on the throne?”

“It is,” Dao Ming admitted, her voice quieting, eyes flicking for a moment towards the casket as well, “I suspect she calculated for this result. I wonder if she’ll expect what my intentions are for her, once I sit the throne?”

Trixie had a hard time keeping her curiosity in check, and decided to press, “If it isn’t too hard for you to say, what do you intend to do with her?”

Dao Ming’s face went still, but only for a moment before a surprisingly mischievous, if still very small smile touched her face. “I’ll simply say that I don’t intend to see her executed. Nor will I waste her talents languishing in prison. She will not enjoy freedom, nor even normalcy, but I think... I think Tomoko will, perhaps, understand the form of recompense I shall bestow upon her. It will be the last thing I can give her, as her sister.”

There was pain in Dao Ming’s voice, so whatever this “recompense” was going to be, Trixie could tell that Dao Ming didn’t particularly relish it, but whatever it was it was probably better than death. Probably.

“Well,” she said, “This will likely be the only time you ever hear me say this, Dao Ming, but your mother is right. I believe you will make a marvelous Empress, and I look even more forward to the day I get to visit Shouma now.”

“I’ve always wanted to see Lyra in one of those fancy dress robes you folk wear,” Bon Bon said, and Lyra gave her mare a grin.

“Wouldn’t mind seeing you in one, too, love.”

“I can certainly ensure the palace seamstresses are placed at your disposal upon the happy occasion of a visit,” Dao Ming said, and took a step back with a bow, “But I’ve delayed our departure enough. We both have our own nations to attend to now. I’ve a year to learn what I must in full to handle the responsibilities of Empress, and all of you... I wish you good fortune and the blessings of the spirits in your trials to come.”

Dao Ming’s eyes turned fierce as she gave Trixie a serious look, “Do not dare lose to Amaterasu. I’ll accept no mare in this world, even an alicorn, getting the better of you besides myself, Trixie Lulamoon.”

To this, Trixie wore a confident smirk and tipped her magician’s hat to the kirin heiress.

“That goes completely without saying.”

So it was that not long after Trixie and her friends stood on the stern castle of the ship sailing forth from the Isle of the Fallen and the town of Heroes’ Rest. Clear skies and fair winds sped them along swiftly, and next to their ship sailed the vast hull of Shouma’s vessel, bearing upon it Dao Ming clearly visible on the back deck.

The two ships began to slowly pull apart as they sailed around the west side of the island’s cove, and out of the corner of Trixie’s eye she saw the small forest where once, on her first day on the island, she and Dao Ming had come across the grave markers of the champions who had battled Rengoku in the past. Where Dao Ming’s ancestor Sun Ming, and Trixie’s own, Dazzling Flourish, were buried. The thirteen grave stones of metal briefly reflected the sunlight, and there before them Trixie saw a familiar cloaked figure.

For a brief second, the specter of the Warlord, Ying Shen, stood there and watched the champions of this generation sail away. Trixie knew it was impossible to see it at this distance, yet she somehow felt the small nod of gratitude that the Warlord’s spirit gave them before turning and vanishing.

She looked towards Dao Ming, just barely able to see the kirin on the Shouma ship’s stern looking back at her. A silent nod passed between them, acknowledgment of what they’d seen, and a shared relief that while Ying Shen’s spirit remained trapped within the cursed fortress, she was at peace. One day, perhaps Rengoku would be undone in truth, but until that day, the world had worthy champions to safeguard it, and they were sailing home.

----------

Many hundreds of miles away, on the northeastern coast of Cavallia, there was a sandy cape where waves crashed into cliffs drenched in sea spray. A large forest covered the top of the cliffs, stretching back towards the Cavallian countryside, but within this cape the wilderness was thick and stretched for miles. It was here, inside a small clearing just beyond the cliff, that a sulking red deer was pelted with berries from on high by a companion that swooped in from above.

“Eat up, sniffles!” said Grimwald, landing and tossing the remaining berries he’d found to Andrea, while he himself took a wiggling trout he’d caught from a nearby stream and proceeded to plop down next to the red deer as he dug into his catch without bothering with the business of cooking or cleaning.

Andrea glanced at him askance, but quickly munched the berries after giving the a courtesy sniff to see if they looked like the poisonous variety. She figured if Grimwald was going to poison her, however, he’d not bothered with catching her after she’d forced Lyra to drop her from the bottom of Rengoku.

“I have not been ‘sniffling’. I’ve been contemplative.”

Grimwald made a face, “Ew, contemplation. How horrible. No wonder you look so dissatisfied.”

She stared across the clearing towards the cliff edge and the ocean beyond, “Stories deserve reflection, at the end. Even if the ending wasn’t what one hoped for or expected. I forced Lyra to drop me, thinking it’d be a shame for both of us to die for the ballad I tried to forge. Was that, too, just me being selfish? Stories are supposed to have lessons, in the end, but I can’t figure out what mine is. All I desired was to be part of something grand. A song to move the world. I thought I could force it to happen, but Lyra made it clear that’s just not how it works...”

“Zzzz...zzzz...”

“...I am going to hit you.”

“What, I’m awake! Was enthralled by your deep self reflection there, Andrea. Have you, perhaps, considered that life isn’t a story, but pure, random chaos in which we are all born at random, die at random, and any fun we manage to scrape out of it in-between those two facts is the only meaning there is?”

Andrea looked at the nihilistic griffin dead in the eye and asked, “If that is what you believe, why did you save me?”

He grinned back, his beak slick with the fish bits he’d been devouring, “Alive is more fun than dead.” Then his eye twitched, and a bit of his bluster faded, “Besides, when I saw you falling, I had this nagging sensation that... catching you would be something that Ditzy Doo would have done.”

A surprised blink came over the red elk, “It would seem I’m not the only one those mares affected.”

“You’ll find no denial from me on that account,” he admitted with clear consternation, but there was a fondness in his tone, as well, “I am looking forward to the next time my path crosses with that bright eyed pegasus.”

“A difficult prospect, considering our status now as wanted fugitives. It is not as if we can afford to walk in and out of any town we please from now on,” Andrea said, “Are you not concerned over your wife and children? You did have those, yes?”

Grimwald barked out a laugh, “My beloved wife will be overjoyed to have an excuse to finally be rid of me for good. She’s enjoyable company when the claws come out, but it was never... love. As for the kids, I suspect my offspring will grow up better without me, and let us be honest, I’m a bastard devoted to my own whims.”

“Then what now?” Andrea asked, “We will find no safe place in the world, criminals that we are. I’d intended to either ride or die in glory upon Rengoku, and had not accounted on... this.”

“Oh I’ve thought about just flying off and leaving you to flounder by yourself, but I think I’ll get more entertainment out of nettling you for a time,” Grimwald said, eyes glittering in a manner that rode the line between amiable and frightening, “I can go my own way whenever the desire takes me, but a disgraced Elkhiem skald might make for an interesting companion. As for the ‘what’, I’d like to make our way back to the Griffin Kingdoms.”

“Why?” Andrea inquired with a furrowed brow of curiosity, “That would be the most dangerous place of all for you to go.”

“Exactly,” he smiled, tossing now now thoroughly fleshless fish aside as he then began to play with one of his daggers, “No matter how hard my dear friend Gwendolyn tries, I suspect the Kingdoms are at too much of a boiling point for peace to last. We griffins just can’t help ourselves. We love to fight, and even if she does her best to hold us all together, even if she goes the full, crazy step of trying to become the next Emperor Yuri, war will still come to the Kingdoms eventually.”

“A dour prospect but I find no fault in your prediction,” Andrea said, her own face thoughtful, “My question remains; why go there, then?”

There was a small spark in his eyes, the dagger he was playing with glinting as he spun it over and over again on dancing fingers, “I’ve built up a long list of contacts in the Kingdoms. Wanted or not, few I know in the circles I flew with would turn me or you in. I also know enough of the players in those games to grasp which way the winds will turn as war breaks out. Gwendolyn is strong, canny in her way, but she has blind spots. Too many blind spots to survive long against folk who won’t meet her in open battle, but aim daggers at her back.”

The dagger in his talon stopped turning, and he pointed it upward at some unseen point in the sky, “Ditzy Doo might be disappointed in me for my methods, but maybe she’ll appreciate the motive. Because I’m thinking I’ll stay in the shadows of the war that comes, and ‘remove’ any daggers that point at Gwendolyn’s back. She’d hate me for the dishonorable methods, I think, but what Gwen won’t know what hurt her any more than any that make such a clandestine play against her.”

Andrea took a minute to consider that. Out of all the nations, she suspected the griffins would be among the ones least concerned with whether or not she was a wanted doe. Each individual Griffin Kingdom had its own laws, and the Kingdoms as a whole were still on fairly chilly terms with Elkheim anyway. The odds of her being turned over seemed minimal. Furthermore, she found Grimwald’s plan appealing, in its way. Slinking through a soon to be war torn land, fighting in the shadows against those who would plot against Gwendolyn Var Bastion, as she rose to potential prominence? What red blooded skald wouldn’t be interested in such a tale?

“That may well suit, yes,” she said with renewed vigor “If you think you could use the skills of a skald, I’d like to lend them to the cause. Lyra said I cannot force others to be a part of a story, and she may well be right. I shall accept my place as a secondary character then.”

“So got some more pep in your step then? Good! Because I’m not carrying you anywhere, and that means a lot of walking for you, and plenty of easy gliding for me,” Grimwald said, hopping to his feet and spreading his wings, but he soon found Andrea grabbing a talon of his and pulling him back to the ground.

“Wanted criminal, remember? Less flying you do, the better. You’re walking, just like me.”

“Ugh,” Grimwald hung his head, “You’re going to be as bad as Gwen, aren’t you? Fine, then, we walk. But once night settles in, I’m flying.”

And so two rather unlikely traveling companions left the clearing, making their way northward through the coastal regions of Cavallia, to whatever unknown experiences and stories still laid ahead of them, but both marked in their own ways by the story they had left behind.

----------

The culture of Shouma often stood on ceremony, and ceremony took time. Yet Dao Ming had insisted on getting this matter over with swiftly, for to take time with it was to invite questions, and questions could bred opposition and discontent. The faster a change was made and a matter settled, the sooner everycreature could get on with other affairs. For a change, her mother did not resist, or object, or obstruct. Indeed Dao Ming’s mother had become like an open flowing river, clearing away obstacles and debris from Dao Ming’s path.

Her announcement of Dao Ming’s ascendancy to the throne was made almost immediately after their return to the Imperial Palace. The whispers and candid conversations of the various clan courtiers had followed the returning Imperial family like a wildfire, but Empress Fu Ling knew how to wrangle the court. She would remain Empress until the year was done, but like a general commanding her troops, she cracked proverbial whips to begin making arrangements both political and social to prepare for Dao Ming’s coronation.

In the meantime the story of what had transpired at the Contest of Champions was largely downplayed, although not hidden. Dao Ming, Xhua, and Lo Shang all together went with their mother to tell the tale to the court, with Kenkuro presiding over the affair in his official capacity as the Blade of Heaven. It was... a briefly ugly affair, for the shock and horror of the clan leaders was prominent. The idea that one of the Empress’ own daughters could even conceive of treason was one met with understandable fury.

Dao Ming, with her mother and sibling’s help, and Kenkuro adding his weight to the affair, cut down the indignation and made things clear.

Tomoko was to be punished, but only in the manner in which Dao Ming, as future Empress, prescribed. Fu Ling threw her full weight behind it, and Kenkuro assisted in planning and laying out the actual logistics of Dao Ming’s plan.

It was a plan met with a hefty combination of incredulity and intrigue, but Dao Ming made it clear she was not to be swayed, and that this plan would serve the greater needs of the Empire, needs that Tomoko, in her misguided by in some ways noble cause, had made abundantly clear.

So it was that it was barely six days after her return to her homeland that Dao Ming found herself standing at the front of a massive yet run down and dust coated fortress. It was a building of ancient Shouma make, pagoda styled fortress-castle, surrounded by high walls. The might and splendor it would have once exuded was long given over to the ravages of abandonment, but it's size remained impressive nonetheless. It was three tiers tall and was supported by a long wall and expansive courtyard, filled with once active barracks and armories, abandoned for several years once the clan that once owned it was forced to give the territory up to the Dark Lands.

Tomoko’s family prior to being adopted by the Empress, the Hiruma Clan. A fortress now residing within the Dark Lands. Dao Ming had seen them at a distance, but now she stood within them. It was uncomfortable, the air itself tasting stale and faintly of death. The ground was barren and brittle, what little vegetation that could be seen along the wide expanse of short hills was stunted and brown. Even so, Dao Ming could imagine what it may have once looked like before the Dark Lands took it, a fertile river valley with many winding streams and green hills. Could it be such once more? Or was this dusty, dead expanse to be the eventual fate of all the territories of the Heavenly Empire?

Not if Dao Ming could help it, and today was the first step.

Behind her stood a long column consisting of nearly five hundred soldiers and nearly twice that number in volunteer crafts folk and servants. The soldiers were drawn from volunteers from every other clan in the Empire, but they bore no banners or heraldry from those clans. At the head of the column was a contingent of ten Jade Guard in their green royal armors, bearing tall pikes, and standing between them was Tomoko, unshackled but under guard.

Tomoko’s eyes looked at her family’s dead ancestral home with a combination of long hidden hurt, a faint sense of longing, and a great deal of anxious uncertainty. Dao Ming had told her sister nothing of what was intended, because she wanted this to bear upon Tomoko with some weight.

Dao Ming looked back at Tomoko in silence, then back to the castle, “He should be here soon. He insisted on scouting ahead first to ensure all was in order. No surprises.”

As if on cue, a piercing caw cut the air, and a dark shape detached from the ruined castle’s highest point and swooped down. Some of the soldiers tensed, for in the Dark Lands such things could readily indicate an attack by a beast of the Dark Lands. Fortunately the Hiruma Clan’s lost castle and lands were among the most recently claimed, and not far from the real Shouma border where the walls and border forts resided, so things were fairly safe in this region. Relatively speaking.

The form that dropped down and landed before Dao Ming with a bow was none other than Kenkuro, looking in rather good spirits as the tengu hopped from one foot to the other and dusted himself off, “My Lady, I am pleased to report that despite the expected signs of wear and tear from the elements, the castle is largely intact. A few leaky walls and ceilings, but nothing outside of our fine crafters to repair in good time. I saw no signs of monstrous habitation, at least not recently. Going to need to give a few rooms a nice scrubbing to remove some oni droppings, but as Tien Zhu once said; a fixer-upper’s price is in the clean up, not the coin down.”

Dao Ming cleared her throat and nodded to him, “Very good, Kenkuro. Now then, if you would accompany me as I address the prisoner?”

“But of course, my Lady,” Kenkuro replied with a sweeping bow, then eyed Tomoko, “I’ve rather been looking forward to this.”

Tomoko still didn’t look as if she had any notion of what to make of any of the present circumstances, but she did manage to hold herself composed, head up and meeting Dao Ming’s gaze. Dao Ming approached her, Kenkuro hopping along at her side, and she gestured for the guards to step away to give them some space. She then took a calming breath. She had not said much to Tomoko since the events nearly a week prior. Her heart was still filled with a tempest of conflicting feelings. She still loved Tomoko as a sister, and understood all that had driven her to do as she had. Yet the reckless endangerment of not just the Empire, but potentially much of the world beyond, was not readily ignored.

It fell to Dao Ming to proclaim the punishment, and the shape of Tomoko’s atonement. She prayed to the spirits that what she planned would work, in the long run.

“Tomoko, you have been charged with acts of treason against the Empire and the Empress, acts for which your guilt cannot be contested. Yet, as the one who defeated you, as the next Empress of the Heavenly Empire, and as your sister, it is my right to decide your fate.”

Dao Ming saw confusion on Tomoko’s face, yet also a shrewd, quick thinking alignment of logic. Tomoko had been told nothing of Dao Ming’s soon to be ascension to the throne, and Dao Ming could all but see the moment Tomoko realized that; the relief giving way to love and pride. Tossing aside etiquette, Tomoko bowed her head and whispered, “Thank the spirits... mother actually recognized your worth... I can die without anything to regret, then.”

Dao Ming, also willing to break etiquette, proceeded to use a hoof to lift Tomoko’s chin and share at least a slight smile of softness, “I did not drag you back to your former clan’s castle to simply execute you, Tomoko. You’re far too smart to think that.”

“I... well there would have been a certain proper finality to me meeting my end here, where it all began,” Tomoko said, managing a weak, uncertain half smile, “Perhaps you had developed a sense of poetic justice?”

“I have, but not in the way you are thinking,” Dao Ming said, stepping back and resuming her louder, more authoritative tone, “Your actions were fueled by a desire to see the Dark Lands destroyed. So be it then, that shall be your charge. As future Empress I hereby proclaim you shall henceforth take command of this castle, and with it be placed in charge of a new clan whose sole purpose will be to fight back the Dark Lands and reclaim what the Heavenly Empire has lost! These troops and workers are but the first who have volunteered to form the nucleus of this clan. To battle the Dark Lands, each clan will provide a yearly tithe of troops and supplies to fuel the effort. Furthermore, spirit chanters and healers will be dispatched to take postings here to aid in studying the nature of the Dark Lands corruption and seek ways to drive it back. You, Tomoko, are given this charge and duty to fulfill at all costs, until your dying day. With horn and hoof, spell and blade, to your last drop of blood, this will be your unending task. Will you accept it?”

Tomoko could not have appeared more stunned if she had just been dunked in a frozen river, yet the wide eyed shock passed rapidly as it was replaced with a loving fervor. Tomoko by pride alone kept herself from breaking out into tears of pride as she slammed a hoof to her chest and bowed deeply to Dao Ming, “For you, my Empress, I bind my heart, body, and soul to this task. The Hiruma Clan shall be restored.”

“No,” Dao Ming said, and Tomoko looked up, “Not the Hiruma Clan. This is to be something new.”

She turned and nodded to Kenkuro, who approached and unslung a pack he’d been carrying on his back. He unfurled from it a banner, red as blood, red as Tomoko’s own coat of fur. Upon it was painted a streak of white in the shape of a cresting wave. “As Blade of Heaven, I beseech the spirits’ blessings upon this bloodline. Today, the Akikage Clan is born under it’s first daimyo; Tomoko Akikage.”

He presented the banner to her, and Tomoko took it after a moment of reflection. “Red shadow... appropriate.”

Dao Ming motioned for Tomoko to follow her, and Kenkuro stayed close as the three walked a bit away from the column of waiting soldiers and workers, moving towards the faded glory of the Hiruma Clan’s former castle. “The formalities aside, there is much to be done in iron out the details, Tomoko. There are many in the Imperial court that were not happy with this plan. To some, they see this as a reward for treason. They don’t... understand the truth of what I’ve just done to you...”

“Do not be sorry, sister,” Tomoko said, holding the banner close as she looked upon the castle as if it were not a ruin, but a light in the darkness, “I understand what this means. It is both a fitting end, and a fitting beginning. Even if the task you’ve shouldered me with may prove impossible, I will see to it with all that I am. Akaikage...heh, was that one your idea or Kenkuro’s?”

“Oh, I take full credit,” said the tengu with a grin, “And it was a bit of brilliance if I do say so myself. By stripping you of your original family name, the whispers in court will be less severe, and we can paint this new Akaikage Clan as a sort of pressure release valve for undesirable elements in the Empire?”

Dao Ming flinched, “You don’t have to put it like that.”

“Ah, I see,” Tomoko said with a knowing smile, “Your ‘tithe’ of troops will involve no shortage of criminals desperate to avoid execution or prison, so they shall be sent here to serve the Akaikage Clan in fighting the Dark Lands.”

“It was a needed piece of the plan to make it sufficiently palatable to the court,” Dao Ming admitted, “I am sorry sister, but this remains punishment, and it is the best I can do-”

“You need not apologize,” Tomoko said, shaking her head, “Never to me. I...” pain entered her voice like a hot river, “I wish I had not fought you. I may not regret my plans or desires to make use of Abbess Serene’s plan for my own ends, but hurting you... I never wanted...”

“I know, sister. But that is past us, now. You have a great deal of difficult challenges ahead of you. The days shall not be filled with peace for you. Pain, bloodshed, and endless toil for the good of the Empire is to be your recompense. I pray to the spirits you understand and accept the enormity of that.”

To Dao Ming’s words, Tomoko only smiled and gestured to the castle, whose very gates were halfway off their hinges, “You have given me more than I could have hoped for. Mother sees your value now, and I will gladly spend my remaining life fighting to restore these lands to the beauty they once had, and if I shall die before it is done I shall ensure the Akaikage Clan can continue the work until it is. I swear this to you on my very soul, Dao Ming.”

Some in the court would still doubt Tomoko. They would worry that this might be simply giving an untrustworthy individual military power to attempt another coup down the line. But Dao Ming heard the ring of truth in Tomoko’s words, and knew that her sister would indeed take this charge as seriously as any in all the Empire could. It was a terrible burden. A life of conflict, that would know no real peace. And Tomoko was right, it may well be impossible to fend off the Dark Lands, let alone reclaim them. Yet Tomoko would spend her lifeblood to do it, Dao Ming knew, and that was why this “punishment” had come to her mind as the most fitting.

And, perhaps, thinking about a certain group of Equestrian champions had played a role in Dao Ming considering a form of corrective punishment that would allow for some manner of atonement. She wondered what Trixie might think of all of this? Dao Ming imagined whatever it was, that the insufferable unicorn would have a snarky comment or two, but the thought just made Dao Ming smile.

----------

Ponyville was thankfully quiet for once, for it helped Trixie concentrate on a task of greatest importance.

“Now the trick with this one is to make sure the audience’s eyes are anywhere and everywhere exception where the banana actually is,” Trixie said with utmost seriousness, flourishing her hat with dramatic significance, “Make sure they’re looking at where you want them to, the spectacle. That way-”

With a similar motion of grace and speed she flipped her hat back onto her head, where moments ago she appeared to have put a banana she’d borrowed from the kitchen for this demonstration. Then, with a similar flourish, she took off her cape, where the banana had been secretly slid into hidden pocket of earlier, and laid it on the coffee table in her living room. With just the right jiggle, the banana was out of the pocket, in perfect palace for the reveal as she pulled the cape way to make it look as if the fruit had appeared there, “teleported” from her hat as if by magic. But this time the magic was just sleight of hoof and showmareship!

“-voila, the illusion is completed and the audience cheers and claps. Aaaaah, aaaaah, how amazing!” Trixie said, mimicking a crowd's cheers and doing a few hoof stomps.

At the other side of the table, Bushel looked on with wide eyes snapping between Trixie and a notepad she was carefully taking notes in with her mouth speaking awkwardly around her pen, “Okay, okay! I think I got it! But, um, teacher, why a banana?”

“It’s just what I had on hoof. I don’t even like bananas...” Trixie blinked at the inexplicable fruit on her table, “Why do I even have this? Well never mind that! Let us see your hoof at it, my eager apprentice!”

Bushel took to it with great enthusiasm, sweeping her own cape in dramatic pose and readying her hat. The first few times the eager young filly had visited Trixie, she’d still lacked magician accouterments, but certainly had design ideas. With a little help on Trixie’s part, Bushel had generated her own ensemble that, while echoing Trixie’s own signature hat and cape, still had a flare that was Bushel’s own. Perhaps in honor of her roots in Oaton, Bushel favored a felt cape of forest green, although with similar stars to what Trixie’s cape bore, albeit in bright yellows and whites. The hat on Bushel’s head was more pointed towards the brow and thinner in brim, not to mention a bit large for the filly, but Trixie could tell she’d grow into it in due time.

A half hour of demonstration and Bushel showed her sleight of hoof was indeed improving. Trixie could, with her practiced eye, still spot the moments of misdirection where the banana passed from hat to hidden pocket, but she’d been at this for years. Regular ponies would likely have trouble spotting the switch, and Trixie’s hoof claps were quite genuine as Bushel finished the trick.

“Bravo, bravo! I dare say another year of hard work and you’ll be able to take a show on the road.”

Bushel’s face beamed red with equal levels of pleasure at the praise and embarrassment. “If ma an pa ever let me, I’d be over the moon to do just that. Not sure I’d be able to leave Oaton, though.”

Trixie perhaps could understand both the reluctance and eagerness, both. Even for her, excited as she’d been to begin her apprenticeship with Princess Luna, there’d be a pang of regret to leave Neigh Orleans. Trixie ruffled Bushel’s head and noted the time. It’d be only another quarter hour before Bushel’s train would be leaving.

“How are things in Oaton?” she asked as she helped Bushel pack up her small saddlebags.

“Just swell!” Bushel said, tail wagging, “The Guild ponies have been real nice to everypony since things have settled down, and Miss Tarnished has worked very hard as Representative to make sure the town is safe. A new store opened that sells all sorts of neat stuff from the big cities, and pa says our harvest is going really well. Everypony seems happy, and there's even been a few weddings between townsponies and Guild ponies.”

Trixie’s eyebrow twitched a little, “Dare I ask if that Bootheel fellow was one of them?”

“Nope. He got turned down by every mare in town, and also some of the stallions,” Bushel said, then looked up with an innocent expression, “Mister Lock n’ Key kept calling him ‘thirsty beyond hope’, but he drinks a lot so I don’t know why he’d be thirsty-”

“It’s best not to worry about such things. You’ll understand in around ten years, give or take,” Trixie said, rubbing at her head briefly before glancing at Bushel’s own forehead, “Have the lessons on controlling your inverted horn been going well?”

“They’ve been great! Miss Inkwell is really smart and patient. Kinda quiet, but she really seemed to like it when I performed some of the tricks you’ve been teaching me for her. It was hard at first, um, with the horn,” Bushel went pensive for a moment as they finished getting her packed for her trip back to Oaton and left Trixie’s residence. Pokey was waiting outside, waving a hoof. It was Sunday, a day off for him, but he never failed to show up and greet Bushel.

“Heya kiddo! Keeping our Representative on the ball with those magic lessons? Going to be stealing her spotlight before you know it.”

Bushel giggled as she hoof bumped Pokey, “She’s amazing! Hey, do you like bananas?”

“Absolutely love them. Pointy fruit, the only fruit for me,” Pokey said, “I always keep a few around for my breaks.”

“Mystery solved,” Trixie said, now grasping the existence of the phantom bananas. Attention back on Bushel she added, “So no issues with headaches anymore?”

“Oh no, not since I learned when and how to take in magic,” Bushel replied, flushing with further embarrassment, “Everypony in town helps, but it still feels a bit weird. Like I’m a magic vampire.”

“Nonsense,” Trixie insisted, “Your condition is perfectly natural. Never let yourself feel otherwise.”

“Also kind of awesome, historically speaking,” Pokey put in, “After Trixie and the crew went to that Contest thing, I got curious and looked up info on previous champions. Turns out an inverted horn is pretty nifty for winning some of those competitions, being able to suck in magic. Two Equestrian competitors in the past had them.”

Bushel’s eyes had gotten saucer wide, “Really? I’d love to compete someday! Oh my gosh, if I won, my name would be on that tablet thingy right next to Trixie’s!”

“W-well, I mean, the Contest only happens every hundred years...” Trixie said, but Bushel was undaunted.

“Oh that’s nothing! My great-grandma Woolshear lived to be a hundred and thirty something! I bet I could live at least that long, and all the time before that just gives me opportunities to do super amazing adventure stuff so I can get nominated like you were.”

Well, never let it be said that the young filly lacked ambition. Trixie could hardly fault her. By then the trio had trotted to the Ponyville train station, where the train was already present and beginning to board the early arriving passengers. The station near Oaton had been expanded beyond a mere platform at this point, although still small in comparison to Ponyville’s. Still, service ran more regularly down that route and Bushel’s journey was a matter of mere hours. These visits had been happening regularly every other Sunday, and Trixie was as ever both heart warmed and a little sad whenever she had to see Bushel off.

“I’m sure you’ll make a fine champion for Equestria one day, if it’s a goal you truly want and work for,” she said, giving Bushel a hefty hug which the filly returned with equal measure and then some.

“I want to be it all,” Bushel said, not breaking the hug, “I want to travel and be a magician, I want to adventure and help ponies, and make my hometown prosper, and even go to that island and represent Equestria like you did. It’s kind of scary, to want all that, but I see you and your friends and it makes me feel like I can do it all.”

She then let go of Trixie as the train conductor made the last call for passengers. Bushel wiped at her face a bit and went up the short steps to the passenger car, but turned one last time to wave at Trixie and Pokey, “You’re my hero, Trixie. I’ll make you proud of me, just you wait and see!”

Trixie waved back, unable to keep a starlit smile off her face as the doors closed and soon enough the train began to pull out of the station. “As if I could ever be anything other than proud of you, Bushel.”

“She’s a heck of a foal,” Pokey said, glancing sidelong at Trixie, “I’d say this champion business might be going to both your heads, but for once I’m willing to say you earned some right to it. I didn’t even watch all of what went down on those magic mirror dealies that Twilight had up at the library, but half of what I did see was pretty wild. You and the others really outdid yourselves.”

“But of course,” Trixie said, allowing a bit of ego through, but at the same time as she and Pokey left the train platform, she took a deep breath and let herself ease off the pedal on self-satisfaction, “It was an enlightening experience.”

“Enlightening? Doesn’t sound like the Trixie I started working for,” Pokey said, halfway jokingly. Trixie smirked at him and flicked her tail at his nose.

“The world is bigger than me,” she said simply, “Bigger than I ever really understood. So many nations, filled with their own conflicts, cultures, values, and magic. I think my friends and I needed a taste of that, because...”

It was hard for her to put it into words, the thoughts that had been building within her since her return from the Contest. Since she and her friends’ return from the Contest of Champions she had noted certain things.

The shield that hung over the fireplace in Ditzy’s home, glanced at by the mailmare once and while whenever Trixie came over for a visit, and the quiet strength that seemed to beam from her pegasus friend upon looking upon the protective weapon Sigurd had forged for her. There may have been a hesitance once at having such an item in her home, and all the implications about her life that came with it, yet that was now gone.

Often now Trixie would see Raindrops in a quiet meadow where she knew the pegasus was fond of, sitting with her hind legs crossed, meditating in a way very much like a zebra. While Trixie could still tell there was much on Raindrops’ mind, there now too was a steady ease and certainty of purpose in the pegasus’ voice and motions, as if burden had been taken off her shoulders.

Carrot Top was as ever seen working diligently on her farm, but with an even greater sized patch in her back yard set aside for alchemically grown plants and an expanding workshop in the shed in that same backyard, now also strewn with books on Elkhiem’s culture and language. On one or two nights over the past week Trixie had seen Carrot Top looking fondly to the northwest, where that far off country lay, and there seemed a newfound eagerness in the farm mare to be ever ready for travel.

The songs emanating from Lyra’s home were many, and while Trixie recognized the popular songs that Lyra would play for concerts, these now were interlaced with ballads of battle and spellsong that seemed to reinforce a fierce desire in the bard that burned bright in every note she played. Trixie hadn’t failed to also note that Lyra was practicing her own magic quite a bit more often now.

As for Cheerilee, she taught classes as diligently as ever, but Iron Will had spent a few days visiting with the mare, and Trixie had seen Cheerilee spending more of her after hours time working out with a burning fervor. There was indeed a new air about the teacher, as if her time with the minotaurs had rubbed off an element of that unusual force of raw charisma and personality that the species exuded.

To Trixie, it was plain to see she and her friends had each taken something from those they’d met at the Contest, and in their own ways incorporated it into their lives. Trixie suspected that, in turn, those they had competed with and fought both alongside and against had done the same.

“Because whether we planned it or not, our lives aren’t the same ones we had a year ago. First heroes, then champions, and whether or not we earned those names in the ways one might expect, it means ponies are counting on us now. It’s not a responsibility we can just toss aside, not anytime soon. Even after we defeat Corona... that won’t really be the end of it.”

The truth of that dawned on her as harsh as the sun above, but Trixie didn’t balk from it. In fact she was energized by the notion! She knew that more threats would come, even after Corona was dealt with in one manner or another. The Griffin Kingdoms were on the brink of war. Shouma still had a vast and creeping danger in the form of the Dark Lands. And who knew what other possibilities lurked on the horizon, just waiting to spring upon Equestria in ways Trixie could hardly imagine? If a hero was one who stood beside others in their time of need, then she’d learned that champions were those who took it even a step further and lifted others up, showing them their full potential. Trixie was a better pony for having met so many such champions, and knew her friends were now, too, each in their own small ways.

It gave her all the assurance she needed that they’d be able to weather all that was to come, and she smiled with wide and honest gratitude at the thought.

“What’s got you all grinning over there?” asked Raindrops, causing Trixie to shake herself out of her reverie as she saw trotting down the road towards her were all of her friends. They’d agreed to do lunch together after Trixie had seen Bushel off.

“Aw, did we miss her?” asked Cheerilee, “I would’ve loved to see the tyke off. I’m seriously thinking of arranging some kind of schoolhouse for Oaton, and I could take one day on the weekend to go teach there.”

“Workaholic,” Lyra ribbed, to which Cheerilee winked at her.

“Yes, but it’d also give me an excuse to go see Tarnished, and read the letters Shiny sends her.”

“Hi Trixie,” Ditzy said, easily gliding over with a wave, “Raindrops is right, you look like you’re in a really good mood.”

“I know, it’s terrifying,” said Pokey, and Carrot Top gave him a half hearted snort.

“Oh leave off, Trixie is due some good vibes. Wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for us, last week.”

“I think I’ve only heard the story about twenty times already,” Pokey said, smiling despite his false complaint, and a note of actual concern did hit his eyes as he glanced at Trixie’s leg, “Seems like you’ve healed up a lot.”

Trixie waggled it, and grimaced at the still present ache of dull pain from the sword wound that she’d received at Tomoko’s hooves. “It’s mostly just an irritant, now. I can trot just fine, although a full gallop is going to be most uncomfortable for at least another week.”

“Well then let’s get trotting so we can get eating,” said Lyra with gusto, strumming her lyre a few times, “Got a new song I want to run by you all. Working title is ‘The Lyra Six and the Floating Fortress of Doom’.”

“I can see why that’s a working title,” Raindrops deadpanned, and then shook her head and took up a spot next to Trixie as the group got moving, perhaps a shade closer than was common for friends, but Trixie hardly noticed or minded. “So you didn’t answer my question. What was with the big ol’ grin?”

“Nothing much,” Trixie replied, at first thinking to leave it with an air of mystery, but truthfully, she was so relaxed with these friends of hers now that she didn’t feel the need, “Was merely thinking of the future. How we’re ready for it. For Corona, for anything, really. Everything that comes after.”

Raindrops’ huge cyan eyes stared at her with a brief moment of astonishment, but then swiftly warmed to blue pools as she, seemingly unconsciously, bent a wing towards Trixie. Not quite touching, nothing intimate, just enough to shade the unicorn a bit from the sun.

“You know what, I’d say you’re right.”

And so the six mares trotted onward through their beloved hometown, off to a simple lunch together. To some, an ending, but to them, there was no such thing. Instead there was a string of endless new possibilities that stretched out ahead for those who stood to uplift others as only champions could.

Author's Note:

Nine years is a long time. Far longer than I ever expected, when I first started this story. Much has changed in my life over that timeframe, yet at the same time, I am still very much the same person who enthusiastically began to write that first chapter, and now brings to you the final, an "epilogue" that is really quite the sizeable chunk of words. But much needed closure in this story, and I can only hope that for those of you who have stuck with it to the end find enjoyment in this conclusion. For your time, and most especially your patience these long years, you have my deepest gratitude, dear readers.

I must especially thank Rainbow DoubleDash, because it remains that the Lunaverse is a place I love dearly and it is a setting that retains a warm place in my heart, perhaps even moreso than the original source material itself.

As for what's next? Well I certainly have no intention of ceasing to write Lunaverse stories, and ideas have rattled in my head of the next one for a number of years as I was going through the process of finishing Contest. For those who remain interested, do expect to see more from me in the future, although perhaps not a story quite as long as this one. Indeed I think my next tale will likely be focused on a smaller scope, if nothing else for ease of my own sanity.

But truly, thank you all once again. Until next we meet, in our turbulent world, take care.

Comments

[Turbotune]

yay it's finished!

[DreadedCandiru2]

WHEN Celestia comes to her senses, this too will be looked back on with a sort of shame.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

“Trixie, if you let that head get much larger, your hat will pop off,” Raindrops reminded her

"Then I'll get another hat! A bigger one! Heroes need big hats."

“Be my guest. I’ll get a box for your ashes.”

I like the implication that it's Corona that would do the punishing there.

“Gwendolyn, I’m almost shocked to see you’re still here. I thought you’d leave as soon as things wrapped up, get to your Red Shields.”

Speaking of, King Gruber having ducked out just before a major battle like this will hurt him even more. Things are kind of turning up Gwen here.

“Ponies are very well adapted to high sugar intake. Why do you think half of our diet is exclusively sweets?”

I fully, 100% believe this to be true.

“For a crime such as treason, very few punishments exist outside of execution, the method of which has ever been up to the Imperial Throne to decide.”

Making a guess that it's gonna be decied to be death by old age.

Unless you're losing at a game of Poneopoly

Trixie: "Only because you wouldn't let me cheat! Who palys Poneopoly and doesn't cheat?"
Cheerilee: "Trixie, it is not tradition to cheat at - "
Trixie: "Luna does! Luna taught me how to cheat at it!"
Cadenza: "Yeah, she taught me too."

No but seriously I've never played an honest game of Monopoly in my life. My family does, in fact, consider it right and proper to cheat at the game.

“I mean, how much royalties are we talking here.”

And Trixie smiles, for she can finally rest easy knowing Lyra will have a dependable income!
And Lyra sighs, deciding not to get into how she actually makes more per year, and with fewer expenses, then Trixie, for the upteenth time.

The faster a change was made and a matter settled, the sooner everycreature could get on with other affairs.

Machiavelli recommended something like this. Basically a new prince should figure out everything he thinks he'll need to change in his principality, and then change it all immediately. Also if he has to do horrible things or anticipate needing to do horrible things, do them immediately, right at the start. It instils fear and respect right off the bat and then allows you to spend your remaining time being more merciful and therefore building up live.

and with it be placed in charge of a new clan whose sole purpose will be to fight back the Dark Lands and reclaim what the Heavenly Empire has lost!

Ah, so I was not wholly mistaken, but it seems then her punishment is going to be to found the Crab clan, basically.

Ponyville was thankfully quiet for once

"Quiet" here in the context of Ponyville means that there was a manticore sleeping in the town square, blocking some traffic flow but otherwise not apparently a threat.

And who knew what other possibilities lurked on the horizon, just waiting to spring upon Equestria in ways Trixie could hardly imagine?

"Hi, Miss Trixie!"
"Hi, Sprite!"

---

This was, as always, epic. And yeah, I know all about stories getting out from under you and taking way longer than you thought they would to finish. Writing bugs just come and go...really need to get back to work myself.

But thanks for writing this!

[D48]

...And thus, like the show that spawned it, the Lunaverse ends with a whimper.

[thatguyvex]

11523132

Speaking of, King Gruber having ducked out just before a major battle like this will hurt him even more. Things are kind of turning up Gwen here.

Yeah, he has very little chance of retaining much credibility past this point, and if he maintains rulership of Grandis at all it'd only be because Gwen really isn't eager to put a crown on her own head. She might have to anyway, but that's for another time.

Ah, so I was not wholly mistaken, but it seems then her punishment is going to be to found the Crab clan, basically.

Minus the need to build an entire Great Wall equivalent, as it wouldn't do much to actually prevent the Dark Lands from spreading further.

This was, as always, epic. And yeah, I know all about stories getting out from under you and taking way longer than you thought they would to finish. Writing bugs just come and go...really need to get back to work myself.

But thanks for writing this!

Indeed, you are most welcome. However long things take, I don't doubt I'll enjoy reading whatever may come.

[notme]

<clap><clap><clap><clap> Bravo! Bravo!
Very nice,
My favorite part was the Pinkie Cameo. I love Pinkie & Bluie, BTW. I still hope to see more of them in the future.

[Hertzila]

Excellent work, all around.

It's great to have closure for this story. So many stories end unfinished and untold, be it officially cancelled, simply put on hold for now, or just never updated again. It's been a long while, but it's great to have, nonetheless. This isn't a poke at anyone in particular, more a sad acknowledgement that things happen and stories don't always get an ending. And a happy note that this story does get a good one.

In particular, I like the epilogue being partially split between all the parties. It's been a giant story, and having an ending of just a single perspective would not have done it justice. It's like Fallout ending slides, showing how things went for everyone involved after the story's conclusion. And I like the introspective nature of it. Ending with a lunch together as the last scene to wind things down is a classic - please tell me they're having donuts for dessert or something, or maybe muffins - but also noting that all of them hold a piece of the contest with them, be it physical or metaphorical, that they will carry on forward gives it a nice, lasting impact.

We'll see where things go, but I, for one, would not mind another jaunt into Lunaverse.

Also, great to see Bushel again!

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

Wish I could post a link but all I have is my cellphone
The Long And Winding Road
The Beatles (1968)

[Eurvos Morgenbrise]

11523132

No but seriously I've never played an honest game of Monopoly in my life. My family does, in fact, consider it right and proper to cheat at the game.

You might enjoy the Cheaters Edition that came out a few years ago.