Sleeping in the Light

by Wheller

Epilogue: 90 Years Prior

Epilogue
90 Years Prior

Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath and flicked open her lighter. She held the flame up to her face, lighting the cigarette that she had placed in her mouth, and took a nice long drag on it. She let out a sigh of relief, Twilight Sparkle had been a smoker for the last ten years, and she could hardly go a couple of hours without having one.

Being Prime Minister of the Equestrian Republic was a stressful job, she didn’t have to tell anyone that, and smoking was one of the only ways that she could relax anymore. She had done a lot of good over her two five year terms, and here she was in the final months of her second, and what would be final term.

She was popular, popular that she could remain in power until her death if she continued to lead the Pony’s Progressive Party. The people looked up to her as a shining beacon of hope... but she couldn’t continue to run. She knew that for sure.

It was against the point of a democracy, something that was still relatively new to the Equestrian peoples. She had five months left in her term before she would dissolve Parliament, and a new election would be held. After dissolving Parliament, she would resign from her position as head of the Pony’s Progressive Party, and another would take her place.

She’d been grooming Scootaloo to take her place for the last two years, ever since the pegasus mare’s accident had forced her to resign from her position as Captain of the Wonderbolts. Scootaloo would do a good job, she was sure of it.

Twilight took another drag on the cigarette, and nearly jumped at the sound of a knock on the door. ‘Come in!’ Twilight called out, and watched as the door pushed open. In walked Spike, her former assistant looking as good as ever. Dragons aged slowly, and Spike looked almost identical to the way he did ten years ago when Twilight had first taken office, except for his height, he was about five or so centimetres taller. Twilight smiled warmly at Spike, happy to see him for the first time in nearly a year.

‘I thought you were quitting’, Spike said, pointing to the cigarette that Twilight was smoking.

‘I... I’m trying, but it’s really hard...’ Twilight said with a frown as she extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray sitting on her desk. ‘How are you Spike? How is everyone else?’

‘I keep busy’, Spike said with a shrug. ‘I’ve been mostly in charge of the AP/VI project, Sprocket took some time off to care for Scootaloo after her accident, and has only been in to work two days a week pretty consistently for the last two years’.

‘Something tells me that Sprocket doesn’t particularly understand the idea of “time off”’, Twilight said with a chuckle.

‘Heh, no’, Spike said with a smirk. ‘No he doesn’t, I haven’t really seen any of the others lately, I had lunch with Rainbow Dash last week, but that was it... she misses you, you know?’

Twilight frowned at Spike and nodded her head in understanding. ‘I miss her too... this is why we broke it off though, we just don’t have time to be with each other...’ Twilight said with a look of disappointment on her face.

‘But you didn’t ask me here to talk about the good old days, did you, Twilight?’ Spike asked.

Twilight always liked this about Spike; he was always a sharp one, despite the fact that he was still considered a baby dragon. Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle, Spike was twenty-seven years old at this point; he was hardly a baby from any other point of reference. ‘No, Spike, no I most certainly did not... I just want to preface this by saying that you don’t have to do what I’m about to ask of you, you have every right to say no and go on about your life...’

‘Save it Twilight, you wouldn’t have called on me for it if it wasn’t important’, Spike said determinately. ‘Now tell me, what is it that you want me to do?’

Twilight nodded her head in agreement, leaning back slightly in her chair as the thoughts of days long gone by found their way back into her head. ‘The Tome of Alhazred is still out there... Spike, and quite frankly, if there is anyone that’s well equipped to handle it, it’s you’.

Spike nodded. ‘Dragon fire is one of the few things that can destroy it... actually, the only thing we know that can destroy it...’ Spike said, his voice trailing off.

‘Correct’, Twilight said with a nod. ‘I... I want you to go and find it, you’d be acting as my personal representative and you would have full diplomatic honours...’

‘Do I get a gun and a badge?’ Spike said with a small chuckle.

Twilight grinned at him and opened her desk, pulling out a round badge and an Emerald Ordinance No.4 Revolver and set it on the table in front of Spike. Spike picked up the badge and took a look at it closely.

‘Special Executor of the Prime Minister of the Equestrian Republic?’ Spike read off the badge as he looked up.

‘Authorised by act of Parliament just yesterday’, Twilight said with a smile. ‘You’ll have full access to our overseas assets, and diplomatic authority similar to that of our ambassadors and consuls, including diplomatic immunity... in the nations that recognise our authority... that is...’ Twilight added her voice trailing off.

‘I see...’ Spike said with a nod.

‘You understand why you have the right to say no to this appointment, right? Your search might take you into nations that don’t respect our authority, meaning that they won’t respect your diplomatic immunity, if you get into trouble while you’re out looking; you know that I would do everything in my power to help you... but this search might take you longer than five months. I just can’t guarantee that if you get into trouble, that whomever is Prime Minister of the Republic will help you’, Twilight said, a look of worry forming on her face. She cared much for the dragon, he was her oldest friend, and he had been with her since the very beginning. She felt guilty for asking him to do this for her now.

Spike, however offered Twilight a reassuring smile. ‘Don’t worry Twilight; I understand completely, I’ll do the job. I’ll find the Tome of Alhazred and destroy it!’ Spike said triumphantly, taking the badge and gun from the table.

Twilight sighed in relief and offered Spike a smile in return. ‘Thank you Spike, I knew I could count on you!’ she said, getting up from, her chair and around the desk, giving Spike a tight hug.

‘You can always count on me, Twilight’, Spike said with a bright smile.

‘Spike, I don’t want to lie to you... this is going to be dangerous. Once the Tome of Alhazred knows that you’re looking for it. It will start sending people after you to try and stop you; it may even try to kill you...’ Twilight said.

‘I’m aware of the risk, Twilight’, Spike said simply. ‘I’m going to do the job. I’m the only one who can. And one day I will return with that book’s ashes in a pickle jar to put in a museum!’

Twilight said nothing, but continued to smile at the dragon. ‘I wish you good luck, Spike’, Twilight said after a few moments of silence.

‘I should go, I need to get ready to take a trip’, Spike said with a look of determination in his eyes. ‘I’ll start in the Nederlands, and work my way out from there. I promise you Twilight, I will be back, and I will be back victoriously!’

Twilight and Spike gave each other their goodbyes, and Spike left her be to ready himself for his new job. Twilight returned to her desk, pulling another cigarette out of the pack sitting on her desk and lighting up. She didn’t know it yet, but this would be the last time that she would ever see Spike the dragon in her life.

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

Ah....so the third part of the story somehow involves Spike. Good to know.

[KingOfTheMuffins]

*applauds*

You can now take a break from the writing block! *undoes restraints keeping you tied to your chair*

[thatonenigga]

Damn that was good 25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzva5awtB61qa6kqao1_500.jpg

[Alaborn]

So is your next story also going to be told from the perspective of being experienced by the characters in the present day?

[Quantum_Shift]

Well now...

Pieces are falling into place, and I have to wonder where they will land in the end, and what picture they will show.

As is, it seems that perhaps Sparky might be the one to re-create the flourishing world that once was, or perhaps start it again elsewhere.
I can only wonder what will happen now, specifically with Pinkieling, and to see what is next to happen.

I await the next in this saga eagerly, good sir.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

So is there going to be a sequel?

[Zytharros]

Wheller done.
Sorry. Couldn't help it.

[Bronydragon]

You made a fantastic story there. Characters and settings are presented brilliant.
Now one question. Why do you end it so abruptly?
I enjoyed the travelling through the history of Equestria and then you shove them out, let them go home, cliffhanger, start with Twilight 90 years prior and end in a cliffhanger too.
Why, just why have you done this?
I was not ready for it to end.

Bronydragon

[Reaper1oo]

Until the last sentence I was "mellow" then it was like: "well ****, that sucks"
Serious desire for the sequel regardless.

[Dr. Equestria]

1327220

If you want to contine reading 'bout this world you can start from the begining, being the very first story that Wheller uploaded to FiM. I asure you it makes everything so much...well, deeper? Well, its adds a lot more deep textual things to your reading experience.

And so folks we have reach the end of the line for this story, and now we play the waiting game. All we can do now is speculate.

Also check out the Wiki!

[Qub3d]

Overall, not many new things were learned. I think that this story probably exists as a way for new readers to jump into the fray, but it DID introduce some new characters, ideas, and most importantly, it ended with a direction. I'm looking forward to a much more "meaty" story next. (I hope )

[Spiffers]

1509537 Actually, I've read the prequel stories. They're so bad that I didn't even bother editing them as there were going to be TOO many edits.

[Wheller]

1509537 1509960

I've gotten better at it. I've been using a new method to editing that works much better and helps cut down on stupid mistakes.

[Spiffers]

1509978 Oh, like I sort of said, you DEFINITELY got better, I actually would have to try to edit these last couple stories. It's almost as if you flicked a switch when you started writing Parliament of Dreams, cause it's a lot better than anything in the prequel stories. Though I will give you that you constantly improved through both

[Spiffers]

1532708 I'm only implying that's true if you haven't read the prequel stories. And of course, half our problem with this story is how little "new and exciting" information was revealed in it. There was next to nothing after the first 15 or so chapters.

[Wheller]

1532828

I apologise for that. I did not intend for the flashing back to take so long. The way Sleeping in the Light turned out was not the way I wanted it to go, but by the time I realised that, it was too late to go back and do anything.

[Spiffers]

1532964 At least it's a good way to basically say "well, the prior story existed. But now you don't have to go read 33 separate stories to get caught up". As you said though, pity you didn't know that this was essentially what that would turn into before you started.

[Lucky424]

But who was the mysterious mare??

And what happened to Spike??

[Phaoray]

well...this didn't really have a satisfying conclusion...^^;; But I came here expecting a story about Pinkie Pie and figured it'd be pretty humorous and then got a huge AU history lesson. I guess reading the previous story might have helped with the context as I didn't understand why unicorns weren't blasting people with magic or why Trixie wasn't using illusions, but I'll assume that was explained in previous stories. Very well-detailed, tons of background, neat world, but not what I was looking for. I was also kind of expecting that they would have stayed and stopped the whole 'discord and the elements-thing' or that Pinkie would have at least grabbed the Element of Laughter while she was down there. But hey, it was an interesting read.

[tigrean]

That was a great story I look forward to the third installment it looks like Spike will finally get a chance to shine Though it is sad that Spike will never see Twilight and vice versa that makes me sad A still I really liked the read and look forward to more

[Wolfren]

Pickle jar?