The Manual of Heroes

by Kaliann25

EPILOGUE ONE

EPILOGUE ONE:

The day was gray and cold, matching the mood of Princess Twilight, and her husband Commander Sentry. The two of them were devastated.
But Rarity felt the worse of them all.

And none of them wanted to know anything from anyone. But they had to be there when all Equestria presented their last respects to their children.
Luckily Princess Luna volunteered to preside the ceremony, allowing the three parents to stay only for the necessary. But it was hard, and they couldn’t keep composure.

One of the hardest moments for them was when the entire Royal Guard decided to honor the two kids as they were war heroes, showing up to the ceremony with their gala uniforms, saluting the coffins synchronized, and shooting a cannon for fifteen times for each kid.
Cadence and Luna had forbid them to do so though, saying that Bright Spark and Luminositè Belle weren’t even soldiers. They weren’t even old enough to join the army. But the soldiers insisted to do so since they owed too much to the young inventors.
Thanks to their technology they were able to protect Equestria more efficiently than ever. And both of them took care of the biggest menaces personally.

They would be missed.

In other hand, an army of fashion designers and models appeared with their best dresses and suits, all in black, and one by one bowed before Lumi’s coffin. Even Suri Polomare was between them despite the fact that the girl never missed a chance to terrify her. But in the end of the day, Lumi have gained her respect.

Then, all the equestrian academic society came to say their final goodbyes to Bright Spark. Especially engineers and representatives from the industry who received help from the young colt. From simple stuff like assistance to solve a math problem to the construction of new machinery to make production faster. He was always willing to help, and to show off his brilliance to the world.

Maybe their funeral wasn’t as crowded as Celestia’s, but still hundreds of people showed, from all corners of the world to say good bye to Bright Spark and Luminositè, who would be remembered because of their legacy of revolutionary inventions.
Very few people knew about their dark side.

And seeing how loved they were for everyone was the hardest part for the heartbroken parents.

But when it finally ended, they returned home to help each other to deal with their mutual pain. Twilight made tea for everypony. She haven’t made it for a while. The tea and all of the housework were made by the machines.
But after seeing them cleaning what was left of their creators, they proved to be heartless pieces of metal that nopony wanted nearby anymore.

“I know this is not the time, but sooner or later we’ll have to dispose of that horrible place.” said Flash, looking at the door of the laboratory.

Twilight nodded slowly. “Tomorrow Flurry and her friends will help us to condemn it for good. I wouldn’t last a minute there.”

Flash agreed, knowing she was right. He felt the same way. He could barely deactivate the robots who served around the castle. He just wanted to get rid of the machines. They reminded him of his son. His beloved son.

“You know?” said Rarity out of sudden. “I’m glad they were able to take the Tree of Harmony with them. I just wish they had taken more Gods.”

“Rarity!” said Twilight, frowning.

“Oh come on!” said Flash. “Rarity is right. The damn gods knew what would happen. They knew that as normal persons, they wouldn’t be able to live with what they’ve done.”

“But Flash, you know they did wrong… you know they did harmed other over and over…”

“Every day they struggled with themselves, desperately trying to restrain the monster inside them. Maybe they hurt villains, but they made sure they did it only when they deserved it. If they didn’t do that, who knows what would happened to the ponies. No, they died trying to protect us… from them”

Rarity sobbed, fighting to hold back her tears.

“They were just children, but had more blood in their hooves than all of our enemies together. I hate to remember them that way, but I cannot close my eyes to the truth. You are right, Flash. They knew that as normal ponies, they would never be able to live with themselves. They just wanted them to disappear, they saw them as monsters… choosing to ignore their struggle with themselves.”

Twilight didn’t say anything else.
She realized that her husband and her friend were right. Why did the gods decided to cure their children’s madness in the first place? They killed one of them… so instead of punish them they decided to go and cure their madness?
It was a trap. This was the plan all along.

---

At the next day, Princess Geek of all Comics and her friends showed up at first hour.
Without a word, Twilight pointed a hoof to the lab’s door. And also, without a word, the geeks stepped in.

“Are you sure this is safe?” asked Light Spectra to Flurry.

“Well, they did built us our ‘super-secret lair’” said Flurry, emotionless. “I guess it won’t be that different.”

“But what if they had a security system or something?” asked Beat Box.

“But he would never harm a fellow pony.” assured Flurry Heart.

“Who knows… those two were always scary.”

Flurry sighed, and leaded her friends into the small elevator.
The lights of the laboratory turned on as soon as the young heroes made a step in.

At Flurry’s sign, they began to look for weapons, remote controls and command consoles. Everything that could possibly activate and endanger ponies.

Dinky was checking on Lumi’s fabrics, when she stepped a remote, pressing the button. She gasped, but nothing happened.

Flurry smiled at her friend, trying to calm her down. “Remember that their things only answer to their DNA. No one but them could ever use the things in this place.”

And, to prove her point, she took one of the many remotes and pressed the button. “See? Nothing happens!”

But then, one of the flat screens at the laboratory activated, showing Bright and Lumi.

“Hey cuz!” said Bright’s recording, speaking in his usual unworried tone. “If you’re watching this, it means we are dead. Bad luck I guess…

Tears began to flow over Flurry’s eyes, not believing she was looking at her beloved cousin one more time.
Light Spectra embraced her with his wings. Flurry accepted his friends’ contact, and soon enough Beat Box and Dinky joined in.
The worse part was the tone they were speaking. They weren’t afraid or sad. They sounded somehow… resigned.

“Yeah, Monseur Chèvre ended up being too much for us to handle the second time.” added Lumi. “It was to be expected, this time we didn’t have the element of surprise on our side. But we are not sad, not at all. We’ve been preparing for this fight for years, and we’ll make sure our deaths worth it.”

Bright nodded, thoughtful. “The thing is, we decided to record is because we’re not sure that we can defeat Grogar a second time. So, in case we don’t survive, we want to give you this place. If our sensors indicate that our biometrics have gone to zero, the lab is programmed to automatically recognize you as its new owner.”

Said that a machine approached to scan Flurry’s eyes, and tongue. Then it biped.

“The process is complete.” Said Luminositè’s recording. “From now on you can use this place as you wish. Everything is yours, except for my fabrics. Give those to mère, please. As for the other things, you can use it, throw it away, or destroy it. Everything is yours, so whatever you decide is fine.”

The doors opened, revealing shelves with instructions manuals for all the equipment storage in the lab. Manuals that contained simple instructions of how to operate or dismantle the machines. Luckily the machines were programmed to do their own maintenance so Flurry wouldn’t have to worry about that.
Now, Flurry had complete control over the power sources, automated factories, weapons and gadgets.

Flurry sobbed.

“What I don’t get, is why they said Grogar? Didn’t they defeated him long ago?”

“Obviously, this message was recorded when they received Grogar’s invitation long ago.” explained Beat Box.

Flurry sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing else matter.”

She was thrilled that they chose her to continue their legacy. But she was also furious for how casual they looked in their message. Okay, they were still mad when they recorded it, but still it was hard to understand how they could speak so casually about their imminent death.
Flurry was furious to find out that Bright and Lumi cared about their lives as much as they cared about everything. Almost nothing.

Flurry cleaned her tears. “You really were heartless, until the very end, didn’t you? And then you proved that you were nothing but cowards… Then, why do I miss you so much? Luminositè… cousin…”

She couldn’t hold it for much longer, she began to cry. “I’m sorry guys… I can’t help you. Not like this…”

A printer turned on, and printed an old family picture. Light Spectra took it, and approached to his friend.

“Hey Flurry…”

“What do you want, stupid?” asked Flurry Heart.

Light Spectra ignored the insult and showed her the picture. It was taken five years ago, when Flurry was living with her aunt and uncle. It showed Bright, Twilight, Flash and Flurry in a family hug, smiling to the camera. It was Flurry’s farewell party, when she was finally going back to the Crystal Empire.

Flurry smiled at the picture and then to Light.

“Thank you. Sorry I was rude to you.”

“It’s okay, you lost somepony important.” smiled the pegasus.

A second photo was printed.
It showed Lumi and Rarity having tea together.

“Hey, nopony activated that. What’s going on?”

Beat Box shook his head. “Don’t you see? This is their way to tell us that they are fine. That they finally repose in peace.”

Back in the castle, Flash and Twilight were waiting for the teenagers to finish.

The doors of the elevator opened, and Flurry appeared giving her aunt and uncle the photograph. She smiled at them.
Twilight and Flash observed the photograph for a few seconds, and then smiled back at their niece. There was no need to say anything. Bright was fine, and now his loved ones knew it.

It was a relief.

---

As for Rarity, she was quite surprised to see the door of her daughter’s toy house opening.

Light Spectra, Beat Box and Dinky appeared, carrying a big package.

“Don’t worry. That door would be condemned soon. We just came to give you something.”

They gave the picture and the fabric to Rarity, who smiled and hugged them. The teenagers didn’t say anything, instead, they allowed her to hug them as much as she needed.

Half an hour later, the group reunited with Flurry at the train station.

“Okay, now what?” asked Beat Box.

“Bright’s robots are transporting the important equipment to the Geek Kingdom already.” explained Flurry. “I guess we have a lot to study if we want to make good use of it. That’s what my cousin would have wanted.”

“Well, they wanted that you use their equipment as you wish.”

Flurry smiled. “That’s why. I promise my cousin that I’ll prove him that he was right to leave his equipment to me.”

Author's Note:

So this is a little epilogue to give some closure to this story, showing what happened with the laboratory and all the technology Bright and Lumi invented.

Anyway, the second epilogue will have a more familiar vibe. I hope you like it as well.