Spacebound Equestria

by TheMajorTechie

Chapter 9: What has Been, What is Left

All sat still on Equestria. The once thriving land of pastel-colored ponies was now nothing more than a desolate wasteland, crowded by countless abandoned building. A lone cart sat alongside the dock, it's cargo of apples already half rotted. Though Sombra had already left within the depths of the Equestrian Pride, he did leave behind one thing: his army.

No longer under the forced control under Sombra, many of the Crystal ponies had taken up residence in the remaining intact buildings in Canterlot, and went about their lives as if nothing had ever happened. The only difference was that now, the Sun and Moon came and went on their own, without having a precisely set schedule made by the Princesses. Many millenniums ago, long before the rise of the Princesses, long before unicorns even attempted to change the schedule of the sunrise and sunset, it had been that way. It was now, where once again the Sun and Moon rose and set on their own, as did the weather, and seasons. Now without any outside interference from the other pony tribes, Equestria once more continued it's natural phases, slowly orbiting it's parent star, with it's axial tilt creating seasons and others of the like.

Since most crystal ponies were really just a sub-race of the Earth Ponies, they really didn't have much they could do about it, anyways. They simply went along with their daily business, and now without the presence of Sombra, their markets thrived once more, daily events were the star focus of the day, with ponies from all over the city scrambling for tickets. They even just so happened to have an old ruler return; Princess Amore. While on their long trek back to the Crystal Empire to search for the remnants of their belongings, a small caravan had stumbled upon what at first appeared to be fragments of pottery. Upon closer inspection, it was realized: they had found the Princess.

They swiftly organized an excavation crew to dig her fragments out from the permafrost, and once they did, they cleaned and reassembled the Princess. The only problem was, she was still frozen as a statue. For years, ponies tried everything that they could to free her from her stony prison, and every time they tried, they failed. Eventually, yet another search party was organized, this time not for the purpose of finding personal belongings, but on a quest to find the Crystal Heart, the one magical object that the Crystal Ponies actually had control over. Now that the old Crystal Palace no longer was guarded, Crystal Ponies could come and go as they pleased. When they got there, though it looked totally different, with nearly half of the palace seemingly overgrown with the despised black crystals, one of the most recognizable works of Sombra.

At first, the frightened ponies thought that Sombra might've somehow returned, but their fears were put to rest when they realized that it was simply the merging of Sombra's dark castle with the Crystal Palace, the two no longer separated from their plain of existence due to the sheer distance between Sombra and Equestria, meaning that his magic just simply couldn't work anymore in the area.

Workers swiftly stormed the dark fortress, turning over every pebble that they saw. The Crystal Heart was later found atop an extremely tall spire, and brought back to Canterlot. It was there where the Crystal Ponies powered it up once again for the first time in over a thousand years, and it was that day when Princess Amore lived once more. To this day, Equestria has grown from the wasteland that it once was to a vibrant, stunningly beautiful utopia. Not only that, but miraculously, a few surviving Unicorns and Pegasi were found camping out on the edge of the Everfree forest, having lived there for years already before being discovered. Eventually, Equestria once again became the land of magical flying pastel-colored ponies that it had once been, and is now launching it's own shuttles into the heavens above, all in hope of finding the legendary Equestrian Pride.

Though it is very likely that they may never establish contact with the famed ship, a select few ponies have managed to receive some of the final transmissions of the ship before it left. Using those, they were able to recreate a charted path through space, and have now launched their own fleet of shuttles in attempt to contact the Equestrian Pride once more.

Author's Note:

I got bored with the previous chapters, so I decided to publish a chapter focused completely on what went on after the parting of the Equestrian Pride. Happy readings!

Edit as of 4/18/2016: This particular chapter was written a little while before the sidestory that it summarizes, Remnants of Glory. Because of that, the minor randomness that I put in in the official sidestory is a tiiiny bit different from this, such as the fact that it's much more fast-paced, and they will be able to contact the Equestrian Pride, which will eventually turn back.

Edit as of 5/16/2016: This chapter is practically invalid as a summary anymore. There's just too many differences.

(I tried not to spoil anything with what I just said there.)

Comments

[sleepingkarkats]

This feels like an ending, but there's still a Sombra onboard the ship right? Will you be covering that or are you finishing up early? If it makes any difference, I think you've got something interesting here.

[TheMajorTechie]

6831382 I have a planned sequel, and this specific story isn't ending anytime soon.