Epilogue
One month later…
As Jason washed the dishes from their dinner of a light salad and some personal pizzas, Nightshine pushed their chairs back into place at the kitchen table. A third pizza and salad sat on the counter, untouched. She flicked her tail in annoyance as she peered up at Jason wiping down the plates. Even though she was full, she still wanted to finish off that extra helping of food; it smelled too good to be left alone. She was a growing filly, after all, and growing fillies needed their food.
Cocking her head to the side, she sat down next to the counter and managed to get a look at Jason. Gone was the familiar smile that his face normally held, and he had been oddly quiet through most of the dinner, answering her questions with simple, one-sentence replies. What’s wrong with him? Does he have a tummy-ache or something? I get kinda quiet sometimes when my tummy hurts, so… that might be it. Licking her lips, she flapped once and hopped up onto the counter, the food just a mere foot away. It was so close that she could easily reach out and gobble it all down before Jason could stop her, but her respect for him stilled her hoof. She sat down on what little space she had then let her tail hang off the counter as she pointedly stared at him, waiting for him to see her.
Jason paused for a couple of moments, then glanced over his shoulder at her. He placed the rag and the plate back in the sink then crossed his arms as he leaned against it. After he let out a sigh, he smiled and asked, “Is there something I can help you with, sweetie?”
Nightshine bit her bottom lip, then flicked her tail once as she tapped the counter once with her right hoof. Her eyes drifted back to the food as she toyed with the idea of asking if she could eat it, but instead said, “You know, it’s not that hard to tell when you’re upset.”
Jason chuckled as he propped himself up with his hands. “Am I that easy to read?”
“Yeah, you are.” Nightshine hopped off of the counter and wrapped a hoof around Jason’s leg, then tugged him out of the kitchen, leaving the extra food behind. As soon as he sat down on the couch, she hopped up next to him, and to ensure that he wouldn’t be able to get up, she draped her forelegs over his legs, keeping him pinned until she got her answers. “You were really happy before you went out to run your errands but now you’re sad. What happened?” Jason wrapped an arm around her back, then used his other hand to scratch her behind the ears, just how she liked. She smiled and closed her eyes as she pushed up into his hand, then tilted her head to the right, allowing him to get her favorite spot, right at the base of her ear.
Jason sighed as he let his hands grow still. “It’s, uh…”
“How about this?” Nightshine waited until Jason looked back down at her. “I promise I’ll never lie to you if you promise you’ll never lie to me, okay?” she asked.
“Alright, that sounds fair,” Jason said carefully. “I promise I’ll never lie to you,” he said, looking down at Nightshine with a little smile.
“Good!” Nightshine chirped as a smile broke out on her face. “And I promise I’ll never lie to you, so…” Her ears flicked up. “What’s going on? Maybe I can help! It can’t be that bad, right?” Nightshine asked as she pushed away his hand, even though a small part of her didn’t want to. “I am twelve years old, after all; I’m practically a grown-up!”
“Heh, you’ve still got a lot of growing up to do, Nightshine,” Jason said with a chuckle, glancing away for a moment. When he looked back at her, he saw her glaring up at him with her forelegs crossed. He held her gaze for a few seconds, then relented. “I saw Lily in town today, we, uh… we ran into each other. Well, she technically ran into me, but I don’t think she meant to. Seemed surprised to see me as a human. Said she only recognized me because of my voice.”
Mom is back in town? It feels like I haven’t seen her in forever! “Yeah? She never got to see you as a human, right?”
Jason nodded. “Yeah. She said she needed to talk to me but she wasn’t ready yet. I think she was working herself up to talking to, well… us.”
“Oh! And that’s who the extra helping of food was for. You thought she was going to come have dinner with us?” Nightshine asked.
Jason nodded. “I thought so, yeah, but apparently she’s still working up the guts to come talk. I think it was about something important.” Before he could start speaking again, Nightshine lunged forward, startling him as she wrapped her forelegs around him. “Hey…” He wrapped his other arm around her back and placed his hand on the back of her head.
“You think that maybe Mom was gonna ask if she could live with us?” she asked, looking up at him as if he had all the answers. Her breath came in short, stuttering bursts. She felt the corners of her eyes grow wet; nothing would make her happier than to live with Mom and Daddy, even if they weren’t technically together and even if one of them wasn’t the same species.
“I don’t know. Twilight told me that Luna was really upset with Lily once she got back to Canterlot after dropping you off.”
Nightshine only whimpered in response. Jason wiped her tears away with his thumb, then held her close.
“Have you forgiven her?” she asked after several seconds. “I have.”
“It took a lot of thinking, but yeah, I have, too,” Jason said.
“Good.” Nightshine slid off of his lap and settled down between him and the back of the couch, letting her head come to rest on the top of his right leg. “So then why can’t she come and live with us?”
“Because she has her own life. Her own job. She lives in a different city and has her own responsibilities.”
“But I’m her responsibility.” She wiped the tears from her eyes. “I want to see her.”
“I know you do. I’m sure she’ll come by when she’s ready,” he said, yawning as he stretched. “Worrying about her coming by all day has left me pretty tired. What about you? Are you tired, too?”
“A little, yeah.” Nightshine reached out for him as he stood up, letting him pick her up and cradle her against his chest as they walked to her bedroom. He took the utmost care in tucking her into her bed, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed. She gently nuzzled Jason’s neck when he leaned in close to kiss her forehead, then felt a yawn force itself past her lips. “Goodnight, Daddy… Love you…”
“Goodnight, Nightshine. I love you, too.”
As she heard thunder rumble far off in the distance, Nightshine glanced at the window and saw not a bit of moonlight streaming through the open curtains. She closed her eyes for the last time that night, praying that Lily would come home.
Home is where your family is, after all.
Jason woke up with a start when he heard the sounds of somepony knocking on his front door. Lifting his head from his pillow, he heard the sound of rain smacking against his window, thunder rumbling off in the distance. “I’m coming!” he called out as he pulled on some pants and a shirt. As he passed Nightshine’s room, he knocked on her door, then opened it. “I think someone special is here to see us,” he said. Nightshine grumbled something inaudible in her sleep, then rolled over.
He carefully pulled the sheets off of her and picked her up. Nightshine stirred in his grasp, latching onto his arm with her legs as she snuggled closer to him. “Hey sweetie...” Jason whispered as he stood up, his throat feeling rather dry. He scratched his messy hair with his other hand, choosing to let Nightshine hold onto the other. When her hold on his arm tightened, he lifted it up, letting Nightshine dangle beneath it. “Time to get up, Nightshine,” he said, smiling as he watched her loop her tail around his arm.
Cracking her eyes open, she licked her lips and let go with her legs, only to fall a foot or so back to the bed. “Huh?” she asked as she lay on her back, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. “Where am I?” she asked, peering around the room.
“We’re in your bedroom, silly,” Jason said as he unlooped her tail from his arm. He tickled her belly with the tips of his fingers for a few moments. “Were you dreaming?”
“Actually, yeah...” Nightshine rolled over onto her belly. “I was in the middle of a dream where we were hanging upside down on a tree in the middle of a wide open field. It felt so real; almost as if I was having a vision, but... you weren’t you. I mean, you were you, but not really.” She rolled over onto her back and stared up into his eyes.
Jason’s eyebrows furrowed at that. “What do you mean?” With his right hand, he opened Nightshine’s left wing and scratched her side normally protected by it, making her squirm away from his ticklish fingers with a surprised squeal.
With a giggle, she pushed his hand away and folded her wing back up against her side. “You were batty daddy again...” The sounds of insistent knocking on the front door broke her concentration. “Oh, is that what woke us up?” she asked with a frown, a fang slipping past her lips as she glared at her open bedroom door.
“Yep. We should go see who it is. C’mere, you!” As he stood up, he pulled Nightshine into his arms and held her like he would a baby as he walked down the hall and into the living room. With his free hand, he pulled open the front door to find Lily in a hooded poncho, shivering from the cold weather. She looked up at him with a curious gaze. “H-Hey there,” he said, trying his hardest to keep Nightshine from glomping Lily.
“Hey yourself,” she said with a light smile. “May I come in?”
Nightshine scrambled from his arms, falling to the floor in an unceremonious heap before she leapt forward to wrap her forelegs around Lily’s neck. “I missed you so much, Mom,” she said.
“I missed you too, little one,” Lily said. “More than you could ever imagine.”
Jason looked past her for just a moment, wondering if some of the princesses or guards were with Lily. He pulled the door the rest of the way open and stood aside to let her in from the rain. “Of course you can come in. Good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you, too!” Lily stepped inside and pulled her soaked poncho off of her back.
Jason took her poncho and placed it on the coat rack next to the door. “Would you like something warm to drink? Tea? Coffee?” he asked.
“Coffee would be amazing,” she said.
“Cool. I’ll be back in a few minutes. In the meantime, please make yourself at home.” He started gathering the stuff to make coffee when he felt a Nightshine poke his leg with an insistent hoof. She looked like she was waiting to hear if she’d won the winning numbers for the lottery. She stared up at him with beaming eyes, making it so that he couldn’t help but smile back at her. When she smiled back, her fangs slipped past her lips. He felt just how tense she was just from how her forelegs were trembling resting upon his legs.
“You think she’s going to stay this time?” Nightshine excitedly whispered. A bright flash of light shined through the windows for the briefest of moments, followed by a particularly loud clap of thunder that made the two of them jump a little.
“I’m not sure. Maybe? Let’s find out,” he said. “What are you doing back in town?” he asked as he walked back into the living room with a couple mugs of coffee. “I thought you were going to come by for dinner yesterday; even made you a pizza and a salad.”
“Oh, that would have been good.” Lily accepted a mug with a grateful smile and took care to not spill any as Nightshine snuggled up against her side. “There’s something important I need to talk to you about.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that yesterday. What’s going on? Everything okay?”
Lily avoided his gaze. “In a sense, yes and no. Princess Luna told me that I could take a demotion three ranks down or take an early retirement. A very early retirement, but an early retirement nonetheless.” She looked up into his eyes. “So I told her I was done,” she said with a calm smile.
“You did?” both Jason and Nightshine asked, their mouths agape.
Jason couldn’t help but groan. “Oh, Lily, I’m so sorry to hear that,” he said, leaning forward in his seat.
“You know, I thought I would be too, but priorities can change.” Lily rubbed Nightshine’s back with a hoof. “And I chose the option where I could have a chance to spend the most amount of time with my daughter.” Nightshine squeed at that and nuzzled the side of Lily’s neck. “I’ve already lost too much time as it is. Only if you’d let me, though. I wouldn’t dare to presume… you know.” Her voice sounded a little worried.
“Yeah, of course. I wouldn’t dare try to keep Nightshine away from you. I think she’d bite me if I tried,” he said with a laugh.
Lily’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Thank you for that. I must ask one more thing of you, too. Since I’m no longer gainfully employed in Princess Luna’s service, may I stay here with you two until I find a place to live? I’ve been at the hotel on the other side of town for a week trying to figure out how to talk to you two about all this, and–”
“You made the right decision,” Nightshine said, cutting her off. “Well, except for not coming by a week earlier; we could have had so much fun!”
“Yeah, you can crash on the couch until you find your own spot,” he said, sitting back in his chair.
“Pfft, like she’s going to need one!” Nightshine looked at Jason. “Your bed is big enough for all three of us to share. Plus I know Daddy is lonely at night, too. I think he really missed you; he said he had a lot of fun at the Gala before…” Her smile disappeared. “Before I did all that stuff that we’re not going to mention.” Her smile returned in full force. “You could have snuggled with him instead of moping about alone in your hotel!”
“Is that so?” Lily shot him that familiar predatory smirk. “Maybe I can change that. He sure is handsome for a human, after all. I think I could get used to him,” she said with a sly grin.
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Good
Wait... I didn't think you would time skip... Not sure if there was a missing chapter since I would assume they would head back home and there be a scene between Jason and Lilly's character development. Feels like there is a missing chapter.
11586424
Nope, this is it.
11586427
Alright, I posted before reading and the chapter isn't bad at least. I have read stories where suddenly the author just skips chapters to just end it all, so it gets annoying seeing time skips done wrongly at least you didn't it is a good chapter to end. To bad about Lilly losing her job but having a new family with her kid is the best choice. I hope both Lilly and Jason will be together again. Do you plan to make a sequel?
I had a wonderful time from start to finish, I loved Nightshine's personality as she's so gosh darn adorable!!
11586436
I did have a lot of ideas for a sequel but I am not planning on writing it at this time.
Welp, this ended much sooner than expected, but I suppose it's much better to have it end than maybe never at all. This was a cute journey, and if I may make a suggestion, what about writing short stories as sequels? Something like a chapter a story, it might make things easier on your end.
Either way I hope things are going well on your end, and I give my best wishes!
Well...... that ended abruptly......
11586451
That she is. I'll miss reading about her adventures, and misadventures.
This ending wasn't anything like I was expecting.
It was a good one regardless.
But I still feel bad for Lily.
11586540
Same here, I'm going to badly miss her adventures and misadventures as well as her the adventures and misadventures of her human father.
I'm just gonna imagine Lily had fun with him as a human, then at somepoint Nightshine gets a sibling or two, then the sequel is just a slice of life raising a family of different aged kids.
I agree this ended with too many questions. Did Lily and Jason get back together? Did Lily and Nightshine re-establish their mother/daughter bond? Will Nightshine ever get a sibling? Finally did Jason decide to go full thestral or stay a hybrid?
I hope we get a sequel that answer these questions.
I loved this story and hope we get more adorable Nightshine in the future
11586699
Yes.
Yes, in the end of the second to last chapter.
Not in this story.
He's a human. The hybrid thing was written out when I came back. I deleted 3 chapters and about 10k words.
No sequel, unfortunately. I took too long to finish this one.
11586496
Interesting idea, though I'm not planning on writing any more pony. I wrote a blog post with more details here.
11585845
Me too. I really enjoyed writing that scene.
I have to say I also wasn't expecting to see the epilogue here, that said, the chapter itself is absolutely fine. I'm personally happy with it.
Thank you Abyss for all of your writing, I've been with this story for years and it's nice to see it finished.
Certainly a fun read and great ride, shame Lily left her job but I totally understand her reasoning, if I were in her shoes I'd do the same to spend as much time as possible with my kid.
Speaking of which, I feel we have a bit of an unfinished plot hole: How and/or why Nightshine ended up in that orphanage to start with if Lily was trying to send her to her family, it might be just me but I feel there's something going on there. Always had a bad feeling about the caretaker there, like she foalnapped Nightshine or something.
These last few chapters felt rushed just to have the story completed, and I feel like the overall quality has dropped from what the older chapters had. Sad to see it end with so much left unsaid and situations unresolved.
Can't help but feel like the author did both themselves, their story and those who's followed this story over all these years a disservice by rushing the ending just to have an end put to the story. It feels that way to me anyway.
I did see the reply for no sequel at this time, but I hope something does happen at one point, I really liked Nightshine.
Aww why stop here, there's still momentum to continue
11586822
I'm stopping here because this feels good to me. I've been writing this story for over seven years and I've been publishing stuff on this site for over a decade. I'm ready to move on to bigger and better projects.
If the show was still going, if there was still a lot of active users, and if I got a lot of engagement and financial support like I used to back when the fandom was thriving, I'd probably still be writing pony but the fact of the matter is that I've been writing for a dying fandom on a dying website well after the show we all love ended. I've made a lot of friends and made a lot of good memories but I feel like it's time for me to finally move on.
I've had this idea for writing my own fantasy book for a while now. I just couldn't allow myself to work on that when I still had unfinished pony stuff to work on. While one chapter of my life has ended, I'm beginning a new chapter by moving on.
11586801
Same. Same. And its saddening.
Very nice ending, loved it.
Thank you for such a wonderful and cute tale!
<3
11586832
Will there be a sequel perhaps?
11586832
Seven years...
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11587050
Abyss answered this question yesterday to different comment. Here.
I would love a sequel but Abyss has made it clear that the plans have evolved and I personally wish the best of luck with the new plan.
11586739
Apologies, I didn't have a chance to read it first. Gl on your novel project
It's been fun, thank you.
This was a very good story.
Sadly twilight didn't get the guy, I don't like much the end, nighshine forgiving her mother is reasonable, hopefully our prota can move on from lily and go for twilight or other mare.
11587834
Twilight was never going to get Jason. It's implied at the end that Jason and Lily are continuing their relationship.
2016 when it started?! Got dang time flew by! Great story mate 😊
Been awhile since I've read this and I'm pleasantly surprised to see that it's completed. Looking forward to reading it from the beginning to the end. I recall really loving this story.
Happy Conclusion! We will miss the pony stories, but I wish you great success in your future work!
I think this story going downhill when lily came in. Badly written romance and forced drama, contrasted to to Jason’s and Nightshine’s great writing, broke me out of immersion.
If you want to redo this again in the future, just keep the main casts to only jason and nightshine. Make it a story about single father trying and learning to raise an outcast filly. Keep shuffling between nightshine’s bad dream, jason’s struggle, and reaction from Jason’s friends to keep it fresh.
11586467
So you are planning for a sequel.
11595472
I was but I'm done writing pony. All the engagement stats are too low for me to spend 15+ hours per chapter for a dead fandom for a dead website. The fun aspect was enough to keep me writing while the site was thriving but I'd need significant amounts of money now to keep me here. The financial support and engagement just isn't what it used to be. I had a lot of fun and I'm proud of what I've done here, but I'm done.
A long time story has come to an end.
For how many years have I been seeing that delightful cover image pop up?
Nicely closed dear author.
11729098
I'd believe it.
I really loved this story, however, there are unanswered questions. Will there be a sequel?
11767873
Nope. I'm done writing pony.
11595635
I Don't understand how these replies can get so much push back. It's very understandable from your perspective, it's hard to justify the time unless you just really feel like writing in the pony space. I'm happy with and thankful for the awesome stories you've provided us with over the years. All power to ya in whatever ventures you continue on with.
It took me awhile to finally finish reading this, but it was a good story. I notice that you're apparently done with the horsewords (or, at least, writing them) so thanks for the ones you've already done.
11811899
I'll second this opinion. Sorry to see you go, but if you don't have time or motivation to keep going here that is completely your decision and we will accept that.