Fallen

by ElementOfKindness

Epilogue

Author's note:

This is not really intended as a part of the story in Fallen. It's here to set up a sequel I have in mind (As odd as a sequel to this story may sound, I suppose) I simply thought this chapter would fit better attached to the end of Fallen, rather than as the beginning of the next story.

---

It took a long time, but they made their way across the dangerous, forsaken land towards the great pillar of light, eventually coming to the slopes of the mountain that the once-great city of Canterlot was built on.

She was waiting there when they arrived. At first they took no notice of her, for she was sleeping and the accumulated dirt covering her made it difficult to distinguish her unmoving form from the surrounding landscape. Their hoofsteps soon woke her and for a moment she was confused: she hadn't heard any sounds other than those she made herself in millennia. Then her eyes snapped open, wide with the realization of what the sounds meant.

Celestia whirled around, getting to her hooves and facing the newcomers in one smooth motion. They recoiled at the sudden movement, before pausing to study her. She was clearly not one of the monsters they had feared and hidden from their whole lives. In fact she looked a lot like them, though she was certainly bigger and had wings and a horn. After a moment, they began to make out the original colors of her mane and coat.

A look of terror came over their faces, then they turned and ran. Celestia, shocked, jumped after them.

"Wait!" she tried to yell, but it came out as a whisper. She fell to her knees, looking after the fleeing ponies. They were the first sign of other life she had seen since Twilight had died all those years ago, but they were... terrified of her. The reason hit her like a physical blow. She had defeated the one who had been in control of her body but no-one except Twilight knew that.

Ten thousand years... For ten thousand years the ponies had blamed her for the fall of Equestria and she could only imagine how the legend of her malevolence had grown in that time.

"No!" she shouted as she stood again, her voice distraught. She kicked out at the ground with one of her front hooves and was met with a squeal of terror from just in front of her. Her eyes flicked down and she saw there was another pony lying in front of her, one she hadn't seen at first. It was a tiny white-coated filly, curled up defensively, trying to hide her face from the alicorn in front of her.

Celestia leaned down, nudging the filly with her nose only to be greeted with another scared squeak. She paused, unsure of what to do. After a moment, the filly peeked out from under her hooves, peering up at the alicorn with one eye. Celestia was taken aback by the filly's appearance. She had a long scar across her front leg, continuing up across her face until it reached the edge of her forehead. But the most shocking thing was revealed when Celestia realized the filly was a unicorn. Her tiny hooves shouldn't have been able to cover a horn from the alicorn's gaze, but they didn't have to.

Only a stump remained, the splintered end showing where the rest of it had been broken off, what was left sticking out just past the filly's pale orange hair.

Celestia gasped, dropping down at once to embrace the unfortunate filly. She shied away from Celestia at first, before slowly wrapping her arms around one of Celestia's forelegs, crying softly at the terror she had been experiencing moments ago. Celestia too felt tears well up in her eyes.

They stayed that way for a while, before the filly finally spoke.

"None of th-them even care."

"Care about what?" Celestia asked in a hushed voice.

"Th-they all saw you and ran away. But they l-left me here so you could get me instead of th-them." The filly was trembling. Celestia drew her close.

"It's okay." The filly stopped shaking and began to nuzzle against Celestia's side.

"You're not as bad as they say. They say you killed everyone, and took away the light."

"That... that was... someone pretending to be me. I stopped them, but I was to late to save any ponies. Or so I thought." A deep void had appeared in Celestia's eyes, but she smiled as she looked down at the filly. "What is your name?"

"I... I don't have one."

"Would you like one?" The filly squeaked again, this time with excitement.

"Yes!"

"I would call you Dawn... Shine. Dawnshine." The filly beamed at her, before a frown come across her face.

"Miss, what is... dawn?" The word sounded foreign in her mouth. Celestia giggled a moment.

"Call me me Celestia. Dawn is.. it's..." A mournful look came across her face as she looked at the red sky. How could she possibly describe something like that to one who had never seen the sun?

"I'll show you one day.

"I promise."

Comments

[Ms_Fruit_Bat]

Awwwwww that was cute.

[Flowey]

Yay another chapter ^^. Can't wait for the sequel.

[Equus]

I heartily approve of a sequel. Though if I may, perhaps simply 'Dawn' rather than 'Dawnshine' would be both more parsimonious and more fitting?

[ElementOfKindness]

986036 It's intended to be similar to Twilight Sparkle, which will probably be mentioned in said sequel, as well as the reasoning behind it.

(I put it into one word rather than two because it sounded odd to me [and the person I asked] as two words)

Edit: She will be referred to as simply 'Dawn' in almost all cases anyway.