• Published 19th Feb 2015
  • 1,291 Views, 70 Comments

The Last Alicorn(Book One: Purpose) - Deathsia



Since before time immemorial, Alicorns have ruled over nearly every country in Equestria save for the griffon kingdom and a few other uncharted locations. However, when the world needed them most... They vanished...

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The Earth Pony Master(Part 1)

THE EARTH PONY MASTER
Part one

Sapphire and Snowbreeze landed inside the city of Fillydelphia only to be bombarded with cameras and ponies attempting to get the Alicorn's autograph and/or word on why she was here.

"Ponies, please! I'm not comfortable with all of this! One at a time!" Sapphire exclaimed after roughly five minutes of the barrage of stallions, mares, and foals.

"This is Swiftink and we'd like to know why the Alicorn is in Fillydelphia! Any comment?" The stallion asked curiously.

"Uh… Well…" Sapphire began to say only to trail off. "I'm just here to learn to control my Earth pony magic and I'm hoping Liberty Belle can teach me." She said only for the crowd of ponies to suddenly pummel her with questions such as:

"Does this mean that the Alicorn is actually an earth pony?!"

"Why would the Alicorn need to seek aid from an earth pony master when she already has displayed so much more power to defend the ponies of Manehatten?!"

"Did you know that Liberty Bell has been retired from the armed forces for over twenty years?!"

And many more than Sapphire couldn't make out as their voices began to overlap one another once more.

Sapphire seemed to have no place to run as everywhere she looked, news ponies surrounded her and Snowbreeze. The Pegasus took note of how overwhelmed her friend was becoming and quickly began to look for a way out of this mess. When she seemingly couldn't find one, she had only one thing to say:

Fly for it!

She exclaimed at the top of her lungs at which point the two bolted from the ground and away from the news ponies. The two mares landed on a cloud a short time later out of sight of the mob and stopped to catch their breath.

"I'd take being attacked by the Dark Horn over dealing with that again…" Snowbreeze remarked aloud dismally as she looked to her friend.

"You said it! Fairweather told us that I had become popular but I didn't know I was this popular!" Sapphire remarked aloud as she felt her breathing began to return to normal along with her heartrate.

"Okay, so I say we wait awhile and then go looking for this Liberty Belle pony." Snowbreeze suggested as the two peered over the cloud and glanced down for any news ponies who had possibly managed to find them only to see none.

Nearly two hours later, the two mares took off from the cloud and landed a short distance away in a less populated area of the city. "So, where is this Liberty Belle pony anyways?" Snowbreeze asked curiously as she looked to her friend only to realize the Alicorn was drawing a blank. "You don't know where she is do you?" She deadpanned and once Sapphire nodded to confirm this, slammed a hoof against her face in frustration.

"Guess we may as well ask around." Sapphire suggested uneasily.

A few questions and a few fan ponies asking for autographs later, the two learned that Liberty Belle lived just outside of town. A fact that made both ponies groan aloud wishing they had known this ahead of time. With this new found knowledge the two flew straight over the pony's house, taking note of the fact that while well kept, the house itself looked fairly old as it stood out amongst the more modern buildings in the city since it looked like it had been built from nothing more than mostly wood and some brick.

With one final look at her friend, Sapphire walked up to the door and knocked. "Who is it?" a male voice asked curiously as he opened the door only gawk at Sapphire. "Oh buck no!" He exclaimed and slammed the door in the mare's face.

"What… just happened?" Snowbreeze asked slowly yet uneasily as her friend looked at her with a similar confused expression.

The Alicorn timidly knocked once more only to get no response this time around. "Excuse me, are you Liberty Belle?" She asked aloud.

"Yes, now go away!" Liberty shouted from within the house.

"Please, I need your help!" Sapphire exclaimed back.

"I know why you're here and no, I won't teach you!" Liberty shouted back which caused both mares to exchange looks of confusion for a moment before Sapphire looked back at the house.

"If you know why I'm here then you must know that your ancestor, Rarity, sent me! Please! I need you to teach me how to use my earth pony magic!" Sapphire shouted to the door only to get no response.

"That's funny, Rarity said he would be more than willing to help me if I mentioned her name." Sapphire remarked aloud curiously.

"At least tell us why you won't teach her!" Snowbreeze shouted this time.

"Because you Alicorns are nothing but trouble!" He shouted back.

"What the buck does he mean by that? You're the only Alicorn in Equestria." Snowbreeze remarked aloud in confusion.

Sapphire thought to herself for a moment before she spoke. "Fine, you don't have to teach me but at least let us in so we can explain to you why we're here." Sapphire said aloud in a calm manner.

At first it seemed as if he was going to leave them out there but then the door opened revealing an earth pony with fur as white as Snowbreeze's with a cutiemark bearing thee small ruby gems on his flank. "Fine but I'm not teaching you, got it?" He said sternly as he ushered the two inside.

The inside of the earth pony's house looked practically brand new to the mares despite the outside looking aged but well kept. Trophies sat on display just above a roaring fireplace, the carpet adored with a flowered pattern and the furniture a mixture of wood and leather.

"Alright, yap your gums off so we can get this over with." He said in a rude tone to the two as they sat down on a couch next to one another while he sat in a chair adjustment from them.

So Sapphire and Snowbreeze explained everything to the stallion and though he may have frowned at certain parts of their story, his annoyed expression remained unchanged for the majority of their story. "Well, I can see why you'd want to seek me out." He said finally as he stood up and walked away from the two.

"But you still won't teach me?" Sapphire asked curiously.

"No." He said simply even though he didn't bother to look back at her.

"Ugh, why not?!" Snowbreeze exclaimed in frustration.

"I already told you both the reason. You Alicorns are nothing but trouble!" He said rudely.

"You keep on saying 'Alicorns' as if there is more than one around. Are there more like me?" Sapphire asked curiously. The hope of not being the only Alicorn on the face of Equestria growing inside her once more.

"How the buck should I know?" He retorted rudely which was met with confusion between the two mares.

"Then how can you say Alicorn's are nothing but trouble when I'm the first one you've met?!" Sapphire exclaimed feeling her temper rise due to the stallion's rudeness.

"You just are! Now would you kindly leave?!" He snapped as he looked back at her with a glare.

"Not until you tell me why you won't teach me!" Sapphire exclaimed hotly as she glared back at him.

"I don't have to answer for myself to the likes of you! Now get out of my house!" He roared as he snapped his hoof to the door.

"Come on Sapphire, lets leave this mule alone." Snowbreeze said to her friend giving the earth pony one last glare before she walked away.

Sapphire however calmed herself as she walked over to the stallion. "Please, Mr. Belle. You're the only earth pony master I know of, if you won't teach me, then who will? If you don't teach me, then I'll never learn how to control my Alicorn magic." She said in the most compassionate tone she could muster.

"Right, Your no more an Alicorn than those fictional trinkets or ponies who called themselves the elements of harmony!" Liberty snapped angrily.

This tore it. Being rude to her was one thing but insulting the legendary elements of harmony, the ponies who sacrificed themselves to protect Equestria was one thing the Alicorn wasn't going to take sitting down. Sapphire walked past one of the wooden chairs, reared her hindhooves back and bucked the chair hard at the stallion much to Snowbreeze's shock.

Liberty Belle looked behind himself just in time to see the chair flying and in one fluid motion, evaded the chair and caught it with his hind hooves as he stood on his forelegs much to the surprise to the mares. "Fine! You want to learn to be an earth pony? Watch closely!" He exclaimed as he narrowed his eyes at the Alicorn and chucked the chair at Sapphire with his hind legs to which the Alicorn could not dodge and was hit squarely.

Before Sapphire or Snowbreeze could react, the earth pony was upon the Alicorn with such speed and velocity that neither of the two knew what had happened until Sapphire was sent flying through the house's wooden wall in a splinter of wood and rolled to the side outside the house.

Liberty Belle causally jumped through the hole and stood just outside his home as he watched the Alicorn stand up wearly. "Had enough?" He asked with a smug grin.

"Not a chance, leadhoof!" Sapphire retorted, looked at her surroundings quickly and began to buck a wooden lawn chair, table, and even a plow at the earth pony.

Liberty Belle merely scoffed as the first two objects flew at him, bucking the chair to splinters, dropped to his backside, and stopped the table with all four hooves before he bucked it off only to see the large metal plow flying at him.

As the plow sailed at him, he stared it down, refusing to move until the very last second when he merely sidestepped it as it landed next to him at which point he spit on it before looking back at Sapphire. "You're strong, I'll give you that." He said with a smirk.

"But you still won't teach me?" Sapphire asked as she huffed and puffed where she stood.

"No." He said simply before he charged at the Alicorn once again with such speed that Sapphire once again couldn't hope to possibly track, slid under her, bucked her skyward with all four hooves, lept off the ground, and bucked her to the ground with a loud thud which caused Sapphire to cry out as she hit the ground.

Without missing a beat, the earth pony quickly picked up a few fragments of wood from the chair and table he had stopped earlier, and bucked them so they stabbed into the ground at four different points, two of which pinning the Alicorn's wings to the ground though only hitting feathers, and the other two next to her head which caused Sapphire to give a scared gasp as they impacted with the ground next to her head.

As much as Sapphire tried, she couldn't free her wings from the wooden spikes as her lower half thrashed about in frustration and anger while the earth pony walked up to her, and put a hoof to her cheek. "LIke I said, You Alicorns are nothing but trouble!" He said before he gave her face a hard shove to the side and walked away.

"Didn't your mom teach you that it's not polite to hurt a mare?!" Snowbreeze exclaimed fiercely as she rushed over, yanked the wooden spikes from Sapphire's wings and from beside her head.

"Save your breath. She's much more durable than you think. I merely suffered her up a bit. Now get off my property before I call the authorities." He replied rudely as he approached his house.

"Wow, what a mule. Come, on Sapphire, we'll go back to your parents house back in Rockybottom. Maybe your dad can teach you." Snowbreeze remarked aloud bitterly.

However no sooner she said this, the earth pony stopped and turned around. "Did you say… Rockybottom?" He asked curiously.

"Yeah? What of it?" Snowbreeze retorted as she glared at the stallion.

"Is your father's name by chance, Steel Swifthoof?" He asked his voice full of a sense of curiosity.

"Yeah, why?" Sapphire asked with the same glare.

The earth pony sighed aloud. "I'm such a bucking idiot." He remarked aloud as he slammed a hoof against his face.

"Wait, what's that supposed to mean?" Sapphire asked curiously.

"Steel is my great-grandson." The earth pony said simply as he walked up to her.

"Wait a second, that would make you…" Sapphire began to say only to trail off as the sudden realization hit her.

"I had heard rumors that my Great-Grandson bore a foal with both Pegasus wings and a unicorn horn but I didn't believe it myself until now." He said softly and sighed.

"Wait, your last name is Belle right? Aren't you Rarity's ancestor?" Snowbreeze asked curiously.

"You should know better than anypony that its been a tradition as old as time for the stallion to take on the mare's last name, Snowbreeze Dash" He replied with an annoyed look at the Pegasus.

"Wait, How did you know my last name?! I never told you!" Snowbreeze exclaimed in shock.

Upon hearing this, the earth pony merely chuckled. "Even if i despise my heritage, it never stopped our families from keeping in close ties with one another until shortly after the three hundred year war." He said with a smirk.

"But if that's the case, then why are you an earth pony?" Sapphire asked curiously.

"Why won't you come inside and I'll explain it to you both." He said simply as he jumped through the hole in his house.

"After the beating you just got done giving Sapphire? No way!" Snowbreeze snapped angrily only for Sapphire to give her an annoyed look. "What?!" She asked defensively.

"Snowbreeze, he didn't even hurt me that much. He was holding back, I can see that now. If he really wanted to hurt me, I bet I wouldn't even be walking right now." Sapphire remarked aloud with a slight limp in her step as she walked towards the house.


"But-But...ugh!" Snowbreeze stuttered in frustration before she let out an aggravated sigh. "Some old geezer claims to be your Great-Grandfather and suddenly you forgive him for kicking your flank ten ways from sunday?!" The Pegasus managed to fluster out which caused Snowbreeze to look back at her.

"I never said I forgave him but if this guy is telling the truth, then he's family and I don't know about you but the only family I've ever known is my parents and my brother. As far as dad told me, my grandfather wanted nothing to do with me so I never met him. If he really is my Great-Grandfather, then he might know more about me and maybe how I came about in the first place." Sapphire reasoned calmly much to her friend's annoyance.

"Fine but I still don't trust him." Snowbreeze said grudgingly as she walked up next to her friend.

"Neither do I until he proves otherwise but I'm not missing this chance to find out about my family heritage." Sapphire remarked aloud just before she jumped through the hole to the house with Snowbreeze closely following behind her.

"Took you two long enough!" Liberty remarked with an annoyed glance at the two. The stallion had a portfolio placed on a coffee table in the room.

Dismissing the stallion's rude attitude towards them coming back full throttle, Sapphire figured she'd ask the obvious. "How did you know my parents lived in Rockybottom?" She asked curiously as the two sat on the couch they had earlier before their confrontation.

"The newspaper, what else?" He replied dryly before he sighed aloud and flipped a page of the portfolio. "Course I didn't believe a word of it since it was printed by a bunch of Spikeheads." He added bitterly.

"Okay, so can you tell me why you're an earth pony when your obviously related to Rarity?" Sapphire asked curiously which earned a bitterly chuckle by the stallion.

"According to our family tree, sometime along the line a mare in our family tree called Crystal Belle married a young earth pony colt much to the outrage of her parents. Funny thing is that not a single earth pony was born in our family until about four hundred years ago. You can imagine what happened when a unicorn couple found out their foal was born an earth pony." He remarked with a wry smile at the Alicorn.

"Given what my mother taught me, relations were often hostile back then between our races back then so I can only assume it didn't go over well." Sapphire remarked aloud casually.

"You're darn tootin they didn't! The family got split down the middle thanks to that. While We don't have all the details, I can tell ya that the earth pony and her dad didn't get along well. In fact the colt ran away from his parents at the age of ten and came to Fillydelphia just just before tensions broke out into all out war." Liberty Belle explained calmly.

"So how did your family keep in contact with the other elements of harmony's families?" Snowbreeze asked aloud curiously.

Upon hearing this question the stallion let out a sigh. "My aunt was a particularly fond of me you see and tracked me down nearly fifty years ago. According to her, the element of honesty and laughter's family's kept a close eye on this side of the family ever since my ancestor ran here." Liberty explained simply. "Wish the spikehead had left me alone." He added bitterly.

"How can you say that about family?" Sapphire asked in shock at the stallion's racist remark towards his aunt.

"Oh shut it! I may have been like that to her at first but you can't blame! Lets see some unicorn walk up to you out of the blue and claim to be your aunt and see what your reaction is?" He remarked defensively only to realize the exact situation he found himself in.

The stallion gave an uncomfortable cough before he continued. "Anyways, I soon warmed up to her once she proved she was really my aunt but you know the thing about grudges is that they never really go away. My aunt insisted that I shouldn't join the armed forces and I wasn't going to have anything of it. I had my earth pony pride and with the war nearing its head between the earth ponies and unicorns, my aunt wasn't necessarily welcome in these parts if you get my meaning." He explained and sighed once more.

"What happened?" The Alicorn asked curiously though her voice had a sense of worry to it.

"We got into a fight over me joining the armed forces, a real bad one and in the process my aunt was exposed to the town as a Unicorn." He said simply as a frown formed on his face.

"She wasn't… killed, was she?" Snowbreeze asked hesitantly before Sapphire could muster up the courage to ask this question herself.

"What the buck do you think?! She was a unicorn in an earth pony city at the peak of an all out war between earth ponies who were trying to seize Canterlot!" He snapped with a glare at the Pegasus.

"Didn't you come to her defense?" Sapphire managed to asked without thinking only to regret asking said question as the stallion glared at her.

"And be made out as a traitor to the earth pony nations during all out war? Are you bucking insane?!" He roared at her before he took several deep breaths in order to calm himself. "No, I even denied being related to her. A part of me died inside that day for doing it but I guess I let my own selfish desires come between me and kin." He finished and sighed once more.

"You're a terrible pony, you know that?" Snowbreeze remarked aloud much to Sapphire's outrage.

"Snowbreeze!" Sapphire exclaimed with a glare at her friend.

"No, she's right. Besides, even if I came to her defense, knowing my aunt, she would have denied even knowing me to protect me." He remarked and sighed.

"Okay, so maybe you can tell us why you said that Sapphire is nothing but trouble?" Snowbreeze asked though she didn't stop glaring at the stallion.

"She just is! After all the rumors flying about with this dark horn coming after her and putting a whole city in jeopardy, she's nothing but trouble!" Liberty snapped at the Pegasus.

"But she saved that city at nearly the cost of her life!" Snowbreeze retorted glaring at the stallion even more so than before.

"The city wouldn't have needed saving if she hadn't been there in the first place!" Liberty snapped back glaring at the Pegasus as much as she was at him.

The mare and stallion glared at one another for a time the tension growing between the two before Sapphire interjected by shouting "Enough!" as she glared at the two. "Last thing we need is you two getting into a fight." She added irritably.

"Says the mare who sparked the first fight by bucking a chair at him." Snowbreeze muttered only to get a hoof to the back of the head by the Alicorn.

"Anyways…" Sapphire continued as she eyed the two for any scenes of one wanting to tackle the other. "Now that we know we're family, I was wondering if you might reconsider training me." Sapphire said casually.

"How about... No." He said bitterly as he stood up and walked away. "You think that just because I suddenly found out that your my Great-Granddaughter that I'm just going to train you on that?" He added as he looked at a photograph on his fireplace mantel.

"Actually… yeah." Sapphire replied sheepishly much to the stallion's annoyance.

"Fat chance in Tartarus when that happens." He replied.

"Well, can you at least tell me why?" Sapphire asked irritably.

Snowbreeze looked at her friend as her ears folded back expecting another fight to break out between the two. "Here we go again." She muttered softly though she wasn't sure if Sapphire had heard her this time since she didn't see the Alicorn look at her.

"For one thing, you're too old! You might have a great deal of leg strength but that don't mean squat in the long run. To truly learn to be an earth pony you would have had to start training from the age of five and you would be barely through a quarter of your training by now." He explained calmly.

"What kind of training?" Sapphire asked curiously.

"Every earth pony starts off their training with strengthening their bodies. Something you obviously lack since you couldn't even break free of a few wooden boards." He replied with a knowing look at the Alicorn who folded her ears back in embarrassment at the memory which happened not long ago.

"FIne. I get it. I'm too inexperienced for the training. Got it." She said simply, stood up, and looked to her friend. "Lets go Snowbreeze." She said simply as she walked towards the door.

"Heh. Don't be a stranger now just because I won't train you." He remarked with a smug grin.

"Don't worry. I won't be." Sapphire replied and unknowingly to the stallion or Snowbreeze, the Alicorn was forming a plan in her mind.

-------------------------------------------------------------


THE NEXT MORNING….

"Are you sure this will work? This kind of reminds of your half-baked attempt at flying." Snowbreeze asked uneasily as she looked at the Alicorn put the last of the heaviest objects she could carry into the metal cart.

"Of course it will! Once I show off my impressive strength to him, he'll train me for sure!" Sapphire exclaimed excitedly.

The Pegasus gave one last fleeting look at the small tower of objects which consisted of several boulders, chairs, and even the plow she had bucked yesterday at the stallion. "Ehh, I don't know Sapphire. This really does seem like a really bad idea." The Pegasus remarked uneasily.

"Nonsense! Now go knock on his door!" Sapphire exclaimed excitedly.

Snowbreeze gave one last look at her friend, then to the pile, and then began to walk towards the stallion's front door with a dreading sigh. "This won't end well." she remarked dismally as she reached forward and knocked on the door.

After a short time, the stallion answered, looking rather annoyed. "When I said don't be a stranger, I didn't mean to knock at my door at six the bucking morning!" Liberty began to say calmly only to exclaim his final five words of his sentence in anger at the Pegasus.

Snowbreeze gave a glance at her friend then back to the stallion before she leaned in close. "Okay, sorry for waking but I think you should see this! See, Sapphire's got it in her head that all she needs to do is prove how strong she is and you'll train her." She whispered to which the stallion deadpanned at her.

The stallion continued to stare at the pegasus for roughly thirty more seconds until he gestured with his right front hoof "Seriously?" He remarked with a look of complete and utter annoyance that would give a certain crusader a run for their money with how well he mimicked their gesture and tone.

"Uh, yeah, seriously!" Snowbreeze replied as she gestured to her right with a hoof which caused the stallion to walk out just in time for Sapphire to begin pulling the cart.

"Is that… my plow?" He asked in pure disbelief as he stared at the top of the pile at the farming tool.

Though Sapphire was completely confident she could do this from the start, she now found it increasingly hard to pull the cart as her legs began to strain to pull the heavy cart of objects. "Okay, desperate times call for desperate measures!" Sapphire whispered to herself as she felt her legs reaching their limits. Against her better judgement she began to channel magic into her horn to move the cart while trying to make sure her act was hidden from the view of the stallion.

"Yeah, I'm not impressed." The stallion remarked aloud in an annoyed tone as he clearly witnessed the Alicorn using her magic. "She's obviously using magic to move the cart at this point." He said as he gestured to Sapphire's horn.

"Wait...did you just say she was using magic?" Snowbreeze asked as her eyes widened with a sense of panic as she recalled a certain event from nearly a year and a half ago:

"Get this thing off my wings! Use your magic!" Snowbreeze exclaimed as she gnawed at the rope but was making no progress due to the fiber of the rope being made out of a very tough material.

"I can't! Everytime I try to use my magic, I end up blowing something up!" Sapphire replied as she did her best to evade another bolas as it flew past her side.

"I hate it when I'm right…" Snowbreeze remarked aloud dismally as the Alicorn's magic suddenly skyrocketed the cart off the ground which yanked the Alicorn several feet into the air before the straps snapped.

"What the buck is that mare thinking?!" Liberty exclaimed in shock as he witnessed this occur.

"I'd get out of there if I were Sapphire! No telling when that stuff is going to come crashing down!" Snowbreeze exclaimed to her friend who was still recovering from the sudden yank skyward and the fall.

With a quick glance up, the two ponies realized that the cart and all its objects were on the way down much to their horror. "Sapphire, get out of there!" Snowbreeze shouted frantically.

The Alicorn however had just become coherent enough to hear these words and by the time she could react she saw the first of many building falling straight for her.

"She'd going to be crushed!" Liberty exclaimed as he charged forward.

It was then that the Alicorn's eyes went blank white and a magical field being to form around her. Upon witnessing this, Snowbreeze quickly flew forward before the stallion could pick up enough speed to out fly her, bit down on his tail, and held him back. "Wait! She's going to be fine! Her Alicorn magic is kicking in! Its like a self-defense thingy she has!" Snowbreeze exclaimed between gritted teeth.

"You can't be serious?!" He asked glancing forward then back at the Pegasus. By his estimates, he had exactly thirty more seconds to save her before she was going to be crushed by the boulder.

"Yeah! She's going to be-" Snowbreeze began to exclaim with a smile only for Sapphire's magical field to suddenly disappear and the Alicorn land on her feet. "Uh, that's never happened before!" Snowbreeze exclaimed in shock.

At first, Sapphire had no idea what had just happened but the lightheadedness told her what she needed to know only once she looked up, she realized she was still in grave danger.

What happened next however was a complete shock to even Snowbreeze as the Alicorn quickly reared herself up and bucked the first boulder to rubble, then the next, and the next. Nearly five boulders and two chairs later and the only thing left was the plow. As if her body moved on its own accord, the Alicorn dropped to her backside and caught the plow by it's underside giving a grunt of pain as its full weight plus the gravity which propelled itself pushed against her legs.

Without another word, Liberty charged forward and bucked the plow off the Alicorn a short few seconds later. "Are you out of your bucking mind?! You could have been killed!" He exclaimed at her.

"Eh-heh… I guess I didn't think that fully through." Sapphire remarked sheepishly as she stood to all fours only to give a cry of pain as she fell to her underside. "I think I sprained my legs though." She winced softly.

Snowbreeze was next to rush to her friend's side, put herself under the Alicorn and began to carry her back into the house. "Hope you don't mind Mr. Belle but Sapphire needs someplace comfortable to lay." Snowbreeze said aloud as she walked up to the house steps.

It was then that the full impact of what had just happened fully registered with the earth pony as he stared at the shattered boulder's chair and plow. "Holy Luna…" He said aloud in a completely stunned tone at first before he placed a hoof on his chin. "You know, maybe if I- No! blalala! Snap out of it! You're retired!" He began to say aloud thoughtfully only to abruptly slap himself hard a crossed the cheek and say what he had as if he was attempting to convince himself not to train the Alicorn before he walked towards his house to see how Sapphire was doing.

Author's Note:

Cookie to anyone who gets the obvious Disney ref near the end of the chapter. :rainbowwild: