Epilogue
Days later, dawn came over Equestria as it always had. A slow buildup of red and orange along the distant horizon, then the sun came - a brilliant orb of light peeking into just view. Princess Celestia stood with vigilence, her horn sheathed in a brilliant yellow glow that matched the sun for all of its glory. "Easy now... Not too fast, not too slow. And there! Equestria sees another day!"
Beaming with pride, Celestia retreated into the main hall where most of her guardsponies (some had been dispatched to Ponyville to oversee the reconstruction) awaited their orders. "Good morning one and all. Today, many of you will be manning the same stations as yesterday. There have been some changes to the guard postings in light of recent events in Ponyville.
"Day Break, you will head to the sun room to preside over the weekly cleaning of the dome. Stormy, I need you to collect Twilight Sparkle from the Canterlot Clinic for me. I have business for which I would like her to be present before the week is out. Her friends will likely wish to come. They may."
"Oh, Princess. Can I go get her? It's been so long since I've seen my little sis!"
"I wish it could be so, Shining Armor. However, there has been an assignment for which only you are suited. We shall speak in private after the meeting."
"As you wish, Princess."
"Flash Sentry, I would like for you to attend the royal artifact chamber. I trust you know the ones which must be seen to the most. Finally, I am sending you, Champion and Victory Horn, to guard my sister's quarters while she rests. She has been busier than usual of late and should not be disturbed. That is all. Please do remember to enjoy this day, for it is supposed to be a nice one!"
Collectively, the guard snapped its hooves together and stood tall, belting out a hearty "Thank you, Princess Celestia!" before breaking away to complete their separate assignments. All but Shining Armor, who approached and presented her with a graceful bow which Celestia happily returned.
"Shining Armor. Thank you for sticking around. I know you probably want to go meet with Princess Cadence again, but I wouldn't be keeping you if it wasn't important."
"Anything Princess."
"Walk with me." And up the stairs they trotted. "Armor, I have received some troubling messages from my advisors of late. Now, it's probably nothing to worry about but-"
"-You need my horn." It wasn't a question.
Princess Celestia halted in place, and quickly scanned to make sure nopony was eavesdropping. "Well, yes but... What I need is a shielding spell which, for lack of a better term, nopony can know about." They resumed their march and took a turn down the hall leading towards the royal resting chambers.
"Oh, uh. I haven't practiced invisible shielding spells in a long time. I would need to brush up on them in the library if that's okay with you. Picking up new spells quickly is more Twily's thing."
"Indeed. Your expertise on the matter combined with her gifted learning ability may be just what we need to cast the right spell. Twilight will be here soon to help. In the mean time I need you to make preparations for the spell."
"As you wish, Princess. But may I ask why the need for secrecy?"
They were outside of the door to the chambers. "Of course. For now I must just say that I do not want the people of Canterlot to fall into a panic. Remember the last time?"
Shining Armor let out an uneasy laugh. "Yeah. We don't want that happening again."
"Fantastic! And with that, I must take my leave. Best of luck on your research, and I look forward to seeing you and your sister reunited." This time it was Celestia who bowed first.
"Thank you, Princess Celesta!" And with that Shining Armor was cantering down the hall back the way he came.
Celestia exited in the opposite direction, opening the doors to the chambers and halting outside one along the farthest wall, just as their doors swung open. It was Luna, and she looked tired. "Long night, sister?"
"Long doesn't even begin to describe it."
"How is she sleeping?" Celestia asked, concerned.
"Better now. After going through such a shock, any rest is an improvement. But she still has nightmares. Bad ones."
Celestia placed a hoof upon her sister's shoulder. "Are they getting to you too?"
Luna nodded woefully. "It's hard to keep fighting them like this, and remember these are no ordinary nightmares. What she went through was something this kingdom hasn't seen since... Well, for over a thousand years."
"I understand. But we must not give up. Whatever is causing these is an ill omen such that we have not seen. Your efforts are most vital, that we may prevent these nightmares from spreading to all of Equestria." She changed the subject. "That reminds me, how has Rainbow Dash been faring?"
Luna smiled. "She's been having sweet dreams for the first time since I've started watching her. It is such a relief that she is doing better. When evil comes to the land nopony is spared, but she was affected worse than any... well... Almost anypony. It saddens me that she lost her wings, but she has more hope than ever before. If hope can find its way into her heart after being touched by such darkness, perhaps we stand a fighting chance."
That made Celestia smile. "We need more good news like this."
This prompted Luna to ask. "More good news, sister? What of the Elements of Harmony? Has your magic been able to stop the spread?"
Celestia hung her head. "My magic seems unable to recover the Element of Laughter, and now the Element of Honesty is starting to wane. I would like for you to observe Applejack starting tomorrow night. We can't afford any surprises at this critical juncture."
Nodding, Luna stifled a yawn. "We have a long road ahead of us, and I feel we are no closer to understanding what forces are at work here."
"Indeed. We cannot comprehend it quickly enough, for I greatly fear what this portends. It is of the utmost importance that we are ready for what comes next. Now, I must insist that you take your leave. Get your rest, and come nightfall I will see you once more."
Luna smiled at her big sister. "Will you go see her?"
"But of course. Rest well!"
Luna edged past her sister and into the room across the hall where the guards had already taken their post. Celestia pushed through the doors into the royal guest bedroom where a small figure was bundled beneath a pile of silk, satin, and linen sheets. It stirred as she approached.
Celestia placed a hoof over the sheets and pulled them back. "Good morning, Pinkie. I hope you slept well."
Pinkie Pie yawned as her eyes flitted open. She gently massaged the sleep from them, which called attention to the round scar which framed the right side of her face. "Better tonight. Your sister keeps visiting me when my parties go bad again."
Celestia nodded. "She is only too happy to help, and so am I. May I get you anything?"
Pinkie shook her head. "No thank you, Princess." She paused "I suppose you want to know what I dreamed about last night." Celestia nodded. Pinkie's face distorted as unpleasant memories came back to her. "Same as last night's, but I remembered something else..."
Celestia took a seat on a large cushion next to the bed and placed a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder. "Good, Pinkie. This is good. I know it's difficult, but please tell me as much as you can remember."
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Wow, that was such an overwhelmingly meh ending!
Eh. I'll admit I didn't care for the spontaneous rainbooming in the previous chapter, but other than that I thought it was a pretty good ending.
I didn't expect Pinkie to be still alive. The scar suggests she's the same one who took a hoof to the face, as opposed to one of them being a changeling or something. Good, "changelings did it" is kind of a cop-out.
5141199 I don't think it was really a rainboom. More of a rainboom-like event. The sort of thing you would expect to happen when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, and then you throw some magic in there. The idea was that she found her new talent after she was placed in the situation of having to throw herself between her friends and certain doom. Read into it what you will, but Rainbow Dash's loyalty to her friends makes her capable of accomplishing some truly extraordinary things.
Oh, and yeah that is indeed the real Pinkie Pie. And no, she is not a changeling or a murderous demon. Whatever dark force that was tormenting Rainbow Dash and corrupting the Elements of Harmony is still out there... Somewhere.
I got half way reading through the summery when i decided I fucking hate this story no scratch that I really dispise cupcakes alt endings that portray pinkie in a bad light she obviously has a mental disorder and she needs help not scorn hate and revenge from ponies who are suppose to be her friends. Also PINKIE WOULDNT DO THAT TO HER FRIENDS IN THE FIRST PLACE! author i hope you are proud of yourself its one thing to want to get revenge on pinkie for cupcakes but to write this revengefic is uncalled for! Ugh I need a drink if you need me i am going to read a story where pinkie doesn't fucking try to murder her friends. Dash fanboys do me a favor stop getting revenge on pinkie by using that god damn orange horse! Make pinkies friends try to help her not kill her yeesh i swear these stories are made because dash fanboys want to kill off pinkie. That's the only reason Dash fans dislike her so they want to kill her off they are that butthurt over cupcakes. Can someone please kill off applejack i hate her for killing pinkie fucking orange bitch dont touch her with your filthy tree kicking hooves!
5195848 I'm sorry you felt that way about my story. If it helps, Pinkie is one of my favorite characters too, and part of what motivated this writing was exactly the kind of OOC behavior you mentioned. Pinkie is a true friend, and would never act out the way she did in Cupcakes if it were of her own free will.
5196928
I see that makes perfect sense. I didnt know that sometimes you cant tell what someone likes by their story but sometimes when you like something you would redeem it. Sorry for snapping cupcakes really gets to me since its incredibly OOC but sgt sprinkles is at fault for it not you again i am sorry.
5197927
All is well. For what it's worth, the synopsis hardly encapsulates the entire plot. If you read through the story, my hope is that you will find your expectations pleasantly subverted.
5198111
I think I will give this a shot then. After all you can't judge a book by its cover. Sometimes the story is more then it seems and summetries are suppose to be vague.
This looks like an interesting (though a bit messed up) story. But what can I expect, its based off of cupcakes. But eh, I'm curious.
5216775 WELL I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I... uh, well, I actually agree with you completely.
This story was supposed to be on the slightly "messed up" side (see my blog post about why I chose to build my story around such a grimdark story). I like to think that this has a good narrative reason that gets explored more in the sequel (What Came Before, just in case you're wondering). However, as I am writing this I am starting to develop the opinion that the sequel is even more "messed up" than this entry (although the dependency of Cupcakes upon the plot is revealed to be purely incidental).
5243572 I'm glad I was able to convey RD's development, despite the grisly backstory. I knew taking on a cupcakes spinoff wasn't going to be a great idea, politically, but thanks for seeing past that and leaving that really nice comment. Cheers!
Overall in regards to this story, I thought that it was indeed worth reading and in favouriting. I thought you did a fantastic job at portraying the characters personalities and in how they work. The overall storyline was good and I can understand where (most) people would start judging and comparing this to "yet again another" cupcakes sequel or "its too much like cupcake chronicles". However I would say your take on the whole what if factor was indeed interesting and it wasn't just the same generic thing. You gave Rainbow Dash real emotions, even branching the terror onto poor AppleJack.
-Frost