Equestria: The Afterlife

by Timzocker201

CH66: The day draws near.

With the fall of their Headquarters and the death of their leader, the rest of the Bloodmoon fell quickly and only a few hours after the prince’s return to the palace came the report that their last hideout had been cleared.

“Wow…” Mystic marvelled as she signed off the last report. “I can’t believe it, but this… this was it. We actually managed to clear all of the hideouts we know of in one go… Now that it’s done, I can’t really comprehend how he hadn’t done this sooner.”

“Because we didn’t know the exact locations of all of their hideouts and their HQ. Without this information, a victory would’ve been pointless.” Markus pointed out.

“True. Still, after we cleared them so easily, it makes it feel like making Rainbow and Twilight wait for so long was unnecessary.” Mystic said absent-mindedly, before fully registering her own words and slowly lifting her head from the sheets before her with a growing smile. “Ooooooh, Markus, you know what this means? You can come back earlier than you promised! Oh, this is going to make them sooooooo happy, I’ve got to tell—“

“No.”

“… What?” Mystic looked at Markus in disbelief.

“No, I’m not planning on coming back earlier.” Markus clarified, to which Mystic gave him a disapproving look.

“And why would that be? Don’t you dare even thinking about not holding your promise! They might play tough on the outside, but on the inside, they are almost falling apart. The only thing that holds them together is their hope for your return.” Mystic chastised.

“I am well aware of that.” Markus said.

“Then WHY don’t you want show yourself ahead of schedule?!” Mystic half-shouted angrily.

“Because firstly, I need to make sure that we really got them all. If even only one of them slips away, they might try to rebuild their cult. It would take a while, sure, but eventually, they would come back.” Markus answered.

“And secondly?” Mystic pressed with a raised eyebrow.

“Secondly, I… I need to prepare. Returning after such a long time of ‘being dead’ takes quite a lot of…” Markus trailed off.

“Willpower?”

“Maybe. It’s just that… I love them, sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still afraid. On the contrary, if I wasn’t technically already dead, then the fear over me being rejected by them would probably kill me.”

“Oh, come on, Markus, we already had that talk a thousand times!”

“A thousand and twenty two, actually.” Markus corrected.

“…Right. Like I was saying: we talked about this so many times already! They won’t just abandon you, just because you’ve changed! On the contrary, if your race had ever been a concern then they should be drawn even more towards you, now that you’re an alicorn!” Mystic pointed out.

“Probably. Sadly, fear isn’t rational. If it was then I would’ve probably been married by the time I came here. Heh, maybe I wouldn’t have come here at all, concidering that my potential wife would’ve probably tried to talk me out of the army…” Markus said, laughing lightly at this hypothesis.

“In that case, I would say that fear is a good thing, right? After all, it is the reason that you ended up here.” Mystic joked.

“Awww, well aren’t you a humble little pony. Don’t you think you’re the lucky one? If I hadn’t been afraid, then you wouldn’t’ve had the chance to be trained by the most capable officer there is.” Markus boasted jokingly.

They both looked at each other with semi-serious looks for a short while, before both burst out in laughter.

---

Meanwhile in Ponyville, Castle of Friendship:

The Castle was a lively place at this evening in late September. The Running of the Leaves had been held a few days earlier, though neither Rainbow nor Twilight or Applejack participated this year. Rarity had tried to participate, but in the end she was more worried about her outfit than the actual race – not that anypony expected anything else.

Instead of participating in the race, Rainbow and Twilight had chosen to prepare for the next month, for the coming Nightmare Night… and for Markus’s return.

“Why in Equestria did Trixie agree to this?!” Trixie whined as Spectral Flash pulled on her mane again.

“Because you wanted to be a good friend to me, remember?” Starlight answered, while having her own mane getting eaten by Dawnbreaker.

“Yes, Trixie knows that part, but, I mean - why?!” Trixie whined. “Why did you even need Trixie’s help in the first place?! Isn’t there normally another mare here that helps you?”

“Mystic is currently in Canterlot for some important anti-terrorist operation or something and I can’t do this alone, as you might’ve already noticed.” Starlight said in an annoyed tone.

“Then why don’t they just care for them?! They’re their own foals after all!”

“Because they’re busy preparing for a very important event at the end of next month, so they need somepony else to care for their – OW!” Starlight explained, just as Dawnbreaker decided that she needed a new manestyle.

“Who in Celestia’s name prepares for Nightmare Night one month early?!” Trixie exclaimed incredulously.

“Well… it’s not for Nightmare Night, really. It’s… more personal, to them at least. You know that their special somepony died in the war, right?” Mystic asked. At that, Trixie’s face slowly morphed from a very annoyed expression to a more compassionate one.

“Oh… really? I-I’m sorry then. I really didn’t know.” Trixie apologized.

“I know. They – understandably – don’t like to talk about it, probably because they’re still hurting. However, there’s a light that they’re looking towards. Apparently, there’s some kind of a prophecy or something that he will return in some kind of way somewhere around this year’s Nightmare Night.”

“Really? So he didn’t actually die then? Wow, if he’s really that much of an a—“ Starlight quickly slammed her hoof over Trixie’s mouth before Spectral Flash and Dawnbreaker could catch a bad word and gave Trixie a scolding look. “Ehehe, sorry… but really, if he is that kind of stallion then I don’t know why they even want him to return.”

“That’s the thing: apparently they were there when he died. They never told me the whole story, but from what I could gather, they saw him get blown to pieces in mid-air and Twilight’s brother also confirmed that he had lost contact with him over their mind link or thought bridge or whatever it was.”

“What? Wait wait wait, they had connected their minds? Why?” Trixie asked.

“I don’t know, but Twilight surely knows, so you could ask her or, if you’re interested, you can read Twilight’s book. It’s basically Markus’s diary, with some added chapters about those who were close to him. Actually, I can borrow you mine, if you want to.”

“Wait, she used his diary for her book?” Trixie asked.

“Euh, yes?”

“And now he’s coming back?” Trixie asked again.

“Yes, that’s what I-- oh. OH!”

Starlight stood there for a moment with a slightly shocked gaze, while Dawnbreaker was still messing up her hair. Trixie meanwhile had brought Spectral Flash under control, for the most part at least. Never would she have thought that taming an alicorn foal would be this difficult, but there was no use in complaining now.

She was just about to try a sleep spell on her, when Spectral Flash suddenly sneezed and sent a beam of magic right through the door.

“WHOA!” Twilight exclaimed. She and Rainbow barely managed to evade the powerful magic beam when they entered the room. “You two are having fun, I see.”

“Very funny, Snarkle. Now get this monstrocity off of me, before Trrrixi—OW!” Spectral Flash bit Trixie’s cheek.

“Hmmm, yes, I do actually find this funny, Trixie.” Twilight teased. “Still, it’s probably better if we free you of our little monsters. Starlight is so overworked that she spaced out after all.”

“Oh that? No, no, I wasn’t spacing out, I just… remembered something.” Starlight said.

“Oh really? Must’ve been a really intense memory for you to freeze like that.” Rainbow pointed out.

“Uh, yes, you could say that.”

The four mares were just about to leave the room, when Spike suddenly barged in and hastily waved a scroll in front of them.

“Twilight! You’ve got to read this!!” He screamed excitedly.

“What is it, Spike? Did Princess Celestia send… us…” She trailed off as she examined the front of the scroll and read a name on it that she hadn’t heard for far too long.

‘To: Twilight Sparkle,
Rainbow Dash

By: Markus Becker’

Author's Note:

1 until Markus's return, boys! (and girls!)

Comments

[Munro]

its about time thing's go back to normal isn't it ^^

[PrinzEugen]

HYPE

[Fireeaters]

Dang, just up and publishing a man's diary

[Prince Jules Moonshade]

So I have reread and caught up....and now I wait...fuck

[DoctorWhoooves]

10807159
I forget, does he, as the Prince, know that she made a book, and that the book was oddly familiar to his diary? Seeing how it is, I just couldn't remember.

[Kitsune_Kenshi]

10806703
Make sense