Final Reign

by Lise

Epilogue

Author's Note:

All my thanks to Door Belle for creating this.

Equestria was gone. It had been inevitable—Fluttershy had felt that in her wings from the start, from the very moment she heard Princess Celestia had been stricken with a strange illness. She had known something was coming, she had felt the world’s used-up magic dwindling away. Now, at last, Equestria was gone.

Fluttershy sat in the shade of a young oak tree outside her cottage, her eyes squeezed shut. There was a breeze, but it was still too hot. It was the longest day she had ever known, and a hot sun still hung unmoving overhead. It had risen upon her little pocket-world when a warm, bright ball of magic burrowed in from Equestria to land on her face and disappear in a flash. Before it closed, the hole left between dimensions had granted her a brief glimpse of the alicorn tyrant Blueblood, who had looked right at her and laughed as a white void consumed everything around him.

When the world erupted from the grey, Fluttershy had initially been overjoyed to find herself in a place so vibrant and alive, or anywhere at all. Her cottage no longer rested in the strange, empty limbo where Discord had hidden her from the Tyrant. There was a sun again, and it was brighter than she had ever seen—a young sun that rested in the bold blue of the heavens, not the dying, dimming blob that had trudged through Equestria’s grey and weary sky.

But there was more. There was life again. Grass prickled at her flanks where she sat, and saplings and barely-mature trees dotted the landscape, bearing the few songbirds that had been in Fluttershy’s cottage when Discord spirited it away. Wildflowers bloomed here and there on an endless series of rolling hills that became immense blue mountains in the distance. A brook flowed and babbled nearby, and the pegasus thought she heard the crashing, dangerous waters of a young river further away.

It was beautiful, but it was not Equestria.

"I really wish it was evening already," Fluttershy said to the breeze. And, silently, she willed it to be so. It couldn’t just keep getting hotter and hotter; the chickens, sensitive as they were, were complaining, and soon the rest would be too. She sniffled, wiped away the mourning that matted the fur beneath her eyes with her fetlocks, and rose. Carrying water back and forth for her animals had worn her out, but some of them probably needed more by now, and she needed a drink too.

The light dimmed. Fluttershy blinked, and glanced upwards. The sky was lit with the gentle blues and pinks—and near the setting sun, oranges—of evening.

"W-wait a moment." The pegasus fixed her eyes on the heavens in awe. What happened? Perhaps she had only spaced out, or had a heat stroke and lost most of the day? Oh goodness—her animals! She rushed around the back of her cottage to check on the chickens, but they were just as confused as she was.

Perhaps this was just a lingering element of Discord’s trickery. He had controlled this place once, though Fluttershy had grown to accept that he was gone, and he had made stranger things happen here. Installing a personal cotton candy cloud to produce all the milk Fluttershy needed wasn’t even the beginning of what the chaos spirit had done. The pegasus forced herself to calm, and she had almost succeeded when a wonderful, terrifying thought occurred to her.

Had Discord’s true final gift been control of the sun?

"Okay, okay, I’m okay, I’m not freaking out, I’m not freaking out!" Fluttershy said to herself over and over as she dashed inside her cottage, her mane and tail streaming through the air behind her. "Angel! Angel Bunny, where are you?" A chirp from behind brought her about, and she found her white rabbit upside-down in one of her long waterproof boots. "Oh no, Angel! I'm so sorry!"

After a minute of struggling with the boot—and consoling a flailing rabbit enough to make the boot the only problem—Fluttershy managed to pull Angel Bunny free. He was quick to confirm that it wasn't just her and the hens. The sun really had moved, and quite suddenly at that. But he also pointed out something else.

"M-my wings? What about my wings?" Fluttershy looked back. Her wings were just as she preferred them, well-groomed and folded to her sides. When Angel chattered at her again, she looked at him, then her feathers, and finally to the sun. "They glowed? Oh, m-my. What if..."

Fluttershy took several deep breaths, then walked outside and stared down the sun. What if she could do this? What if she had done this?

"Please move," she whispered. The sun wouldn't have heard her if she had screamed, and she didn't want to disturb all her animal friends again. The sun sprang to the other end of the sky, turning back to a bright but pleasant morning. It had listened. Was this like her ability to communicate with animals?

"N-no, Mister Sun." It was a ridiculous thing to say, but it was ridiculous that the sun would listen to her. She pressed on. "Maybe if you could just set, please—"

The sun was off like a shot. It passed beyond the horizon, only to rise again and resume its noon position in seconds. Fluttershy giggled.

"You're a very silly sun, aren't you?" she said. It bobbed in the sky. "Yes? Does that mean yes? Well, as funny as you are—oh, that was pretty funny—can I ask you a teeny-tiny little favor? Could you maybe set for a few hours, so everyone down here can sleep and cool off? And maybe you could send the moon out to watch over us? There is a moon, right?"

The sun jerked back and forth. Its speed was incredible, but at the cost of control.

"You don't know how? Oh, I'm so sorry! Maybe I can help you?" Fluttershy wondered what she was saying. How could she help the sun set properly? But something in her wings seemed to know, and she was a pegasus. She always trusted her wing feelings. "Okay, Mister Sun. Now, I'm going to be ever so gentle and help you down. We can both learn as we go, alright?"

Warmth surged through Fluttershy's feathers, and the sun turned slightly more pink than yellow. The pegasus smiled as if to reassure it. "It's okay. I'm sure that isn't anything bad. It doesn't hurt, does it? G-good." She took a deep breath, planted her hooves firmly in the grass, and closed her eyes. Her wings spread wide, angled towards the heavens. They did the work, whatever that work was, and it was more natural than flying.

When she opened her eyes again an hour later, the sun had set. Though the sky was still bright as one of Equestria’s fading days, two strange and beautifully curved crescents were brighter, and these youthful moons danced about each other in the dimmed sky.

"There should be stars..." Equestria was gone, but gazing upwards in wonder, Fluttershy smiled again. "Maybe I can make some stars."

Comments

[TheMajorTechie]

orig04.deviantart.net/3db3/f/2012/363/1/e/clapping_pony_icon___twilight_sparkle_by_taritoons-d5pkpl8.gif

[Inugami]

yes

[Empty Shelf]

8180511 I'm not sure what questions this epilogue was supposed to answer. Suffice to say, I found it to be about as hollow and pointless as the rest of this story ended up being.

[Kittamaru]

That was beautiful!

[Anachronon]

Fluttershy best ruler confirmed. All hail to the overgoddess and her animal empire!

It's sad that she would have to create Ponykind from scratch and will never see her friends again. Or she's like, well, the goddess of all and could in theory bring them back to life with her powers? I don't know, you telling me.

But hey, at least Angel Bunny survived the end of all... this rodent is soooo much worse than any cockroach.

And the bit of how she had to talk like a mother with the "baby sun" was quite adorable to read. I have to admit.

"Okay, Mister Sun. Now, I'm going to be ever so gentle and help you down. We can both learn as we go, alright?"
Warmth surged through Fluttershy's feathers, and the sun turned slightly more pink than yellow. The pegasus smiled as if to reassure it. "It's okay. I'm sure that isn't anything bad. It doesn't hurt, does it? G-good."

Me: See? There is a first time for everything. Right? Right?!... *leaves the room in shame*

I'm still not ok that the CMC's (except maybe Trixie, who behaved like an idiot at some points, like with cursing Scootaloo. So I'm not so interested in her) fate in the very end was ending up with Blueblood -the killer and destroyer of all they loved and knew- in some pocket dimension. And not even being able to die, but cursed as immortals by Blueblood's curse to suffer with him in some tartarus-like puishment and a fate, much crueler than death itself...

The three didn't deserve this at all. It's not their fault that their caretakers had the brilliant idea to make a deal with the devil in Pony-form, so that they ended up like they did. Well, whatever. In the end this great "make it happen that Applebloom/Sweetie/Scootaloo will survive your reign"-deal bit them so hard in the flank, that it's not even funny anymore.

[Biker_Dash]

Yes... the CMC...
What of them?

[PonyDragon]

Fluttershy is best Princess Celestia!
(Besides, look what our new spoiler-tag can do.)
(Edit: It seems they had removed the blurred text and went back to the old system with the black bar.)

You may should check the story-description and the story-tags. I don’t think they are fitting anymore...

[ASGeek2012]

ALL HAIL PRINCESS FLUTTERSHY!

Seriously, that was a nicely sweet ending. Thank you for writing this story.

[Iron Sky]

Might be interesting to see another epilogue chapter, set much further in the future, where Fluttershy starts to feel sick, and knows her world is nearing its end.

I think she’s the only major character who wasn’t shown having to make hard choices in this fic, due to being hidden away during the worst events.