Bringing Balance

by Shumiry

Epilogue

Epilogue
“Still no fridge? You're not very good at this are you? Here, move over, lemme just...” -Pinkie Pie, breaking the fou- Making things way more AWESOME!!!

“You're sure you don't mind?” Luna asked again, hesitant to impose, “He does seem to do best with you watching him...” Twilight laughed as she took the young colt from the Princess.

“I'm sure I don't mind Princess Luna.” Luna nodded nervously,

“Okay then, I shouldn't be more than a few hours. Just make sure-”

“Princess, I know.” Twilight gently chided. Luna and Celestia had been busy rebuilding from the damage caused by the invasion, and the Griffin Kingdoms were working hard to return to normal, while helping Equestria recover, which meant somepony had to look after the young prince while they tended to various tasks. There were, of course, royal sitters who could have handled it, but Twilight enjoyed her time with the little colt. After the Princess left, Twilight let the baby alicorn roam the library as she went about her tasks.

It had been a slow day, and she sat at the desk, idly rolling a pencil with her breath. Finally, she decided to go for a walk, to get a break from the monotony. She just hadn't felt very much like herself since...

Her mind wandered as her hooves took her away from the library, the baby alicorn in a harness on her back. She didn't realize where she was going, until she looked up, and found herself staring at Secret Seeker. Tears welled in her eyes, silently rolling down her cheeks to drip with soft plips on the dirt before the statue.

Twilight turned to the alicorn, which was staring at her with that uncannily astute gaze, like it understood everything that was happening around it.

“I know I've told you this before,” she said, trying not to cry, “but this is Secret Seeker. He-” she choked back a sob, “he saved us. All of us. You were named after him...” Unable to continue, she turned back to the statue, and sank to the ground, silently weeping. She thought back to those times when they'd taken a break from preparing for the war.

“So a horse walks into a bar, and the bartender says, 'Why the long face?'” The others stared at him, the humor of the joke lost on them.

“I guess that kinda makes more sense for humans...” he muttered, looking embarrassed, as he rubbed his mane with a forehoof, which sparked a chorus of laughs.

Unbidden, a chuckle escaped the purple unicorn.

“It's good to hear you laugh again Twi.” Seeker said. She smiled, pretending he was still here. That she had heard his voice. Sometimes, when she was with Singularis, she could almost swear she heard Seeker speak. She felt the little alicorn slip free of his bonds, landing on his hooves on the dirt. The little rascal was always figuring out how to escape his confines; cribs, rooms, harnesses, baby chairs.

“It's good to see you smile again Twi.” Her eyes snapped open. She had definitely heard that. Slowly, her head turned to the alicorn regarding her. His aquamarine gaze, flecked with gold, bored into her own. As she stared, something deep within her stirred. A tiny flame, flickering from the embers of her broken heart.

“S-Seeker?” she whispered, scarcely daring to hope. She knew it was impossible, and yet...

The colt smiled.

“You remembered.” Her heart was pounding in her chest. Raising a forehoof to her mouth, she bit down, wincing in pain. This is no dream...

“But... the Panoptic Mirror... Sealing Sight...” Singularis flushed, looking down as he pawed at the ground with his forehoof.

“Soooo.... you remember how everypony was wondering who the father was?” Twilight's mouth fell open. Luna's pregnancy had become something of a scandal once word had gotten out. That she'd carried the baby to term without anypony noticing was bad enough, but things were not helped by the fact that she remained steadfastly tight-lipped regarding the parentage, saying only that she respected the father's right to privacy.

“You!? But that would mean...” she did some quick mental math, “A week? You were back for a week and you-” She struggled to think of a way phrase what she was thinking, but words failed her. With a huff, she rose to her hooves and stalked away.

“Oh come on, don't be like that,” the alicorn said as he struggled to keep up. He jumped and, with some frantic flailing of his wings, managed to land on her back, quickly securing himself in the harness. When they were away from the other ponies of Ponyville, she asked,

“How? And why did you wait so long?”

“The two are largely related. Since the colt was both mine and Luna's, our life-forces were tied to it. When Rattling Breath destroyed its soul, they sustained it, expanding to fill the void. After I was destroyed by the Panoptic Mirror's reflection of Sealing Sight, my consciousness was able to latch onto that life force.

“It didn't get pulled in by Mephistopheles' spell, I think, because it was so tightly bound with Luna's. It's that same bond that made the imprinting process take so much longer than usual. I think I'm slowly wresting my life force away from Luna's, since there are still many things I don't remember.” Twilight had been listening intently as he described the events that led to his continued existence.

When they were back in the library, he hopped down to the ground.

“Fortunately, once my powers get a bit stronger, maybe in a couple more months, I should be able to accelerate the process of growing up.” He winked at her, causing Twilight to blush awkwardly, before continuing, “In the meantime, there's quite a bit of studying we can do, especially now that we're not preparing for war.”

With eager grins, the two set about collecting some texts, preparing a lesson plan for what they wanted to learn. For the first time since the mirror had vanished, she felt eagerness in her bones, and warmth in her heart.

“He told her,” Luna said, smiling as she opened her eyes, canceling the scrying spell. Celestia turned from the map she was studying and smiled at her sister.

“How did she react,” Celestia asked, her voice mock-curious, “when she learned he'd only been back a week before you got your hooves on him?” Luna flushed scarlet,

“I'd been trapped in the moon for one thousand years, in case you've forgotten!” she said, indignant. Celestia merely smiled. Revenge, she thought, remembering when the alicorn had revealed the identity of the father, seems to taste far more sweet, than bitter.

The End
(Probably for serious this time.)