Reclaimer

by SigmatheAwesome

Epilogue

Three weeks later

This is Spike writing now. Hey Celestia, how are you going?

Jokes aside (and I thought that one was pretty funny myself), I'm here to fill in what Cadence didn't.

Ponyville has finally stopped fighting. Twilight immediately halted the attack with a giant shield between the forces, and announced an end to the fighting. Surprisingly, all hostilities ceased immediately.

The Celestial Temple has disbanded completely. Pockets of old Order members remain together, merely because of a shared interest.

The Spectral Clan still exists, but is now more devoted to fun. Particularly in paintball, because the skills picked up during the war can be used. My eye still hurts from Scootaloo's lucky shot, though...

The Musician's Order also exists, but is now more focused on music. As to be expected. Did I mention Sweetie Belle's a great singer? She's got a cutie mark for it, after all.

The Peacemakers have turned into Ponyville Security. Well, those that stayed. Fluttershy is still taking care of her animals including that damned bunny Angel.

The Apple family is back in business. Heck, even as I write I'm eating one of their apples right now. Man, it's delicious...

Lyra's marefriend, Bon Bon, has completely recovered. I hear the two of them are going to get married eventually, and asked me to be the best drake. How could I say no?

Rainbow Dash is still out like a light. The docs say she'll be fine, but being choked by your best friend might cause some problems.

Twilight is helping Ponyville rebuild. All those sheets of metal are being turned into building parts.

Trixie, well, she's fine. Having had her spine broken didn't go over too well. Pinkie's trying her damn best to make up for it, though.

Overall, this whole debacle could've gone worse, but still better.

As for Cadence... Well, you know.

Spike, out.

PS: That sounded cool, right?

---

Celestia hovered the journal in front of her, eyes shut. She clamped it shut and rested it on her desk, releasing a contented sigh.

"Sister?"

Celestia opened her eyes to the sight of a star-maned alicorn, looking at her with some confusion.

"Is everything ok?"

"It is now."

Luna walked up. "May I..."

"Yeah, sure." The journal was lifted in front of the Princess of the Night in a golden aura, which shifted to light blue.

Luna flipped the journal open, and casting a minor perception spell on herself flicked between pages. "Sister-"

"You haven't finished it yet." Celestia replied with a smile, lifting a cup of tea to her lips.

Luna's concerned expression softened when she reached the last page. "Thank God that's over."

"Indeed." Celestia sipped the drink, letting out a relaxed sigh after. "I feared it had reached that stage, where Twilight blurred reality with imagination. And with her magic prowess..."

Luna shuddered. "I do not need the images."

Celestia turned, grinning. "So, will you be free for the meetup?"

Luna nodded. "I am. After all, it is during the night."

Celestia chuckled, and then yawned very un-regally. "Oh, I'm tired. I should probably have a nap before I go..."

---

"Ok, left a bit!" Pinkie yelled out, as the bronze statue was shifted to the left slightly.

"Pinkie-"

"Ok, a liiiittle bit to your right!"

The statue moved towards her slightly. Pinkie stared at it for a short while.

"A smidgimetre to your-"

"Pinkie!" Twilight yelled, releasing her grip on the statue. "It's fine!"

Pinkie looked over the bronze statue, a monocolour depiction of Cadence as she was before she left Canterlot some three weeks ago. She nodded contentedly, mane finally fluffy and bright.

"You're right, Twi." She bounced up to the unicorn, who was sweating. "You're really trying hard."

"I've got a lot to make up for." She smiled weakly, most of her energy having being lost through holding a lump of bronze for nigh-on two hours.

A sharp cough drew their attention behind them. An azure mare, wearing a flowing, star-patterned cape stood there proudly.

"Trixie," Twilight started. "How can I help?"

Trixie grinned, a pleasant one and not a cocky one. "I'm just taking a walk, and I thought to say hello."

"Wow."

"What...?" Trixie eyed the expression of wonder the lavender mare had.

"You were never this... friendly."

"Would you rather me to be a jerk?" Trixie deadpanned.

Twilight furiously shook her head. "No no no, of course not!" She laughed. "I'm just happily surprised."

"Weirder things have happened." Trixie eyed the statue. "Huh. Not bad."

Pinkie beamed. "Thanks, I helped make it!"

Trixie blinked in confusion before turning to Twilight. "Twilight, will you and your spastic friend be joining the event tonight?"

"Pinkie-"

"I know she's not actually spastic. I meant it as a compliment." Trixie shook her head. "But that's not important."

Twilight gave her a tiny glare before continuing. "Yes, of course we'll be there."

"I mean," Pinkie appeared somewhere in between them. "I'm hosting the thing, after all. It'd be no fun without me."

"I swear you'd make people smile at a funeral..." Twilight muttered, but the pink pony barely noticed if at all.

Trixie gave a small nod and a "See you there" before leaving the two ponies at the statue.

Pinkie spoke first. "You two'd look cute together."

Twilight reacted naturally; kicking Pinkie square in the muzzle.

---

"Remember that time we did that performance when we were fillies?" Scootaloo said randomly.

The Ex-Crusaders and Spike were lounging around Carousel Boutique, Rarity in the background cleaning up the horrid mess all through the place. Technically the young ponies and dragon were supposed to be helping.

"Don't remind me..." Applebloom put her head in her hooves. "Ah can't believe we didn't realise our talents then. We were so stupid."

Sweetie Belle smiled, resting atop Spike, whom was lying on the couch, stroking the unicorn's mane. "It wasn't that bad. We did win medals, after all."

Scootaloo laughed. "Gosh, I wish I could sing better. I was so out-of-tune."

Applebloom removed her head from her hooves. "Imagine if Sweetie Belle sung instead."

All laughed. Spike stopped first with a grin plastering his face. "Hey girls, I just had an idea."

Scootaloo spun around to face him. "Go on."

"Well, you could always try doing the performance again. Just for old-time's sake."

All just blinked.

"Besides, it'd be nice to hear you sing again, Sweetie."

Sweetie Belle blushed and buried her muzzle into Spike's chest, giggling.

"I dunno..." Applebloom thought. "Where are we going to do it?"

"I know!" Scootaloo stood on her back hooves, front hooves in the air. "We can do it at that event thing!"

"Is there really a point, though?" Rarity added. "I mean, you girls already have your marks."

Silence.

"Aw come on, Rarity." Spike replied. "Let them have their fun."

Sweetie Belle pulled her muzzle out of Spike's chest. "Yeah! It's been too long since I sung properly, this'd be good."

"Do we have the old stuff from it?" Scootaloo asked, roaring to go.

"Um... I might have the song still available." Sweetie Belle leapt off Spike and onto the floor. "It's at my place."

Applebloom leapt up. "And Ah can always borrow tools to rebuild the sets."

"Well, let's go get our act together!" Scootaloo declared, and then the three ponies cried:

"EX-CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TALENT SHOW PERFORMERS PART 2! YAY!" As the pegasus and Earth pony sped off, Sweetie Belle paused.

"Oh, one last thing." She turned and planted her lips on Spike's, before speeding off with much more enthusiasm than the others.

Rarity laughed, quite happy. "She really likes you, Spikey-Wikey. Why, I can't believe you had the biggest crush on me that long ago."

Spike blushed harder and kept silent.

Rarity laughed even harder at his reaction. "Oh, you are just so adorable when you're embarrassed!" She calmed herself down. "But in all seriousness I am happy for you two." She nuzzled his shoulder gently. "Why, you're going to be my brother eventually."

Spike chuckled. "Eventually..."

---

Rainbow Dash missed this feeling; soaring through the air, wind in her mane, adrenalin pumping, and defying gravity with her sheer awesomeness. It'd been way too long.

She skidded to a halt near an old clubhouse, worn from age, when she heard music and singing. She trotted up the ramps, the music seeming all too familiar.

She saw her surrogate sister dancing to familiar music, and doing so awesomely at it too. Next to her was Sweetie Belle, microphone in green magic, singing absobuckinglutely well. Somewhere, Applebloom was grabbing random backdrops and changing them in time with the music.

After a few seconds the song ended, and a light applause from the four ponies, the Ex-Crusaders turning to see Rainbow Dash at the door.

"Well done, kiddos." Rainbow said, trotting in. Scootaloo practically leapt onto her.

"Heya Dash." Applebloom helped Rainbow Dash up after the orange pegasus had eventually let go. "What brings you here?"

"I was flying when I heard the music. You guys rock, by the way." Rainbow looked around. "Um, what are you doing, anyway?"

"We're doing a remix of our Cutie Mark Crusader song thing."

"The one you epic failed?"

Silence.

"Well, good to see you girls doing it right this time around." Rainbow said with a smile. "Oh, are you girls coming to the event?"

"Duh." Applebloom replied.

"We're actually planning to perform our song at the event." Sweetie Belle added.

"Are you coming?" Scootaloo asked eagerly.

Silence.

"Duh."

---

Said event was taking part in a recently-installed gazebo in Ponyville Park. The entire park was dimly lit save for the bright lights of the gazebo, which were covered in a cloth to keep the insects out.

Inside was a stage, and an empty space with snack-covered tables lining the edges. Rarity, being the fashionista she was, was arranging nearly everything to an aesthetic appeal. Pinkie was clumsily-yet-precisely setting plates of bite-sized foods on the tables, not just her infamous sugary treats, but candies made by Bon Bon as well as more savoury foods. Twilight was helping set the stage up for the Crusaders, testing microphone quality and such.

The first guests were, unsurprisingly, the Crusaders and Spike, the dragon wearing a frock coat, the unicorn wearing a flowing white dress over a partially-black bodysuit, which was for the performance. Scootaloo and Applebloom were wearing their own bodysuits, Scootaloo's a bright blue with some yellow, and the Earth pony's a deep purple with some additional colours of various types. Rarity looked at the suits with a mix of interest and slight distaste.

Next was Rainbow Dash, followed by Fluttershy. While the butter-coated pegasus was wearing a lighter version of her Gala dress, Rainbow Dash was wearing only her awesomeness (as she would put it). Fluttershy and Rarity instantly got talking, while Twilight apologised numerous times to Rainbow Dash for nearly killing her.

Next were Lyra and Bon Bon, in the middle of a heated but friendly debate on what type of sandwiches were best. Applejack, carrying a plate of small pieces of apple pie, entered, her brother shortly behind adding more plates of apple-products that Pinkie snatched in short order and tossed them onto the tables. After all the plates were brought in, Applejack bid her brother farewell and walked over to Rainbow Dash, and the two got to talking.

When the Princesses entered, the conversations died for a short moment, until Celestia waved casually to them to continue.

After a few minutes, Twilight spoke loudly so that everyone could hear.

"Everypony!" She called out. "Thank you all for coming tonight. Unfortunately, Princess Cadence cannot attend this event in her dedication for her bravery in halting the Ponyville Civil War, as you all know."

"Wait!" A stallion's voice called out, one Twilight instantly recognised.

"Shining?"

The curtains opened in an aura of lavender. A pony in a wheelchair 'stood' at the doorway, her long three-coloured mane neatly styled. The pony's wings unfurled, purple-tipped pink wings pushing the mobile chair forwards. She was followed by a white stallion, grinning widely.

"Did I miss anything?" Cadence asked happily. Twilight ran to hug her, only to be held back by a lavender glow.

"Sorry, Twily, but Cadence still needs to heal. No charging hugs." Shining said with a laugh, dropping his grip and ruffling his sister's mane. Twilight proceeded to gently hug the alicorn, who still winced with slight pain.

Celestia smiled. "Glad you could make it, Mi Amore Cadenz-"

"Cadence is fine." Cadence said with a smile.

Spike cleared his throat into the microphone. "Fillies and gentlecolt!"

Shining chuckled at the last word, as he was the only stallion in the gazebo. Then, unbeknownst to everypony else, his face turned funny when he thought harder of that fact.

"Tonight, it is my honour to present a song that was created many years ago by three tiny ponies, and those same three will perform this same song for you!"

Spike scooted behind the curtain and gave his marefriend a peck on the cheek and a little squeeze before the makeshift curtains opened.

Sweetie Belle slowly raised a microphone to her mouth, and took a breath.

"Look, here, are three little ponies..."

As the Ex-Crusaders sang, Cadence sighed contently, finally glad that this conflict was over.

---

A big thanks to my brother, Stormbadger, for editing some minor things throughout the chapters, and keeping my spirits up (not that I needed much cheering up)

And to you, for reading this story to its end. Enjoy your next read, whether it's my stories or someone else's

Comments

[SigmatheAwesome]

Firstly, I'm sorry to dissapoint those that wanted Spike to, and I paraphrase, 'mess somepony up'. In hindsight, I should've added a scene where Spike fights someone, but it's not as important as the other scenes.

Secondly, I hope you enjoyed the story.

[JimboTex]

Somepony forgot to turn off the italics...

Good story, though. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra_dealwithit.png

[SigmatheAwesome]

Italics are fixed now.

[StormbadgerXIII]

You're welcome, mate. Great story.

[UltiXevoz]

1145183
I'm not disappointed

[SigmatheAwesome]

1148497 Oh good. That's what my aim was

[Rookee Alding]

To be honest though, Spike didn't need a fight scene. As he was trying to stay out of all the fractions and get everypony back together. I mean that's not to say he wasn't capable of fighting. ( this makes me want a western as spike as the Hero gunman!) It's just to me this feels right.

Love this story though..

[SigmatheAwesome]

1184411 I had much the same thought on the matter. Much of my stories are built on an evolutionary process, that is I have a skeleton of a timeline and let my mind create what I think feels right.

Also, western hero Spike... You've given me an idea.