Aftermath
“What happens now?”
Spike was sitting on a soft cushion next to Twilight, munching on some smooth jade stones. The rest of the company sat around a very long table, all eating a variety of fresh fruits, aside from the changlings, who didn't need such things and Discord, who insisted on transforming his meals into stranger items, such as canned air and piles of papers scribbled with stories the draconiquus joyfully termed as “fimfiction” which he then read and eat at his leisure amidst random bouts of sniffling giggles.
Princess Lily nodded thanks to the servant that set a bowl of bright greens before her before turning her attention towards the baby dragon and taking a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
“As my father now is... to dangerous to himself and others, I'll be taking over as Empress of Sheon. Until his recovery.” Her tone concerning her father's possible healing was dulled out, as if she knew from the start that such a change in him was nearly impossible. Swallowing and giving Spike a smile, she continued, “I won't be leaving him again. Or Solace. Even though things are hard, they won't get any better if I run away. And,” she closed her eyes for a second, relaxing into her new acknowledgment, “they need me here. I can't avoid things just because they are hard. Especially when ponies I love need me.”
Twilight forced a smile of her own. Self-sacrifice was something she had learned late in her life, but nearly everyday in this strange country she was learning it anew. It was a terrifying and difficult path. Yet it was one that she could not avoid as a princess. It was also one that, if traveled well, could improve and save many lives. Thinking only of oneself was no longer an option for Twilight. Nor was it ever one for Lily or Chrysalis.
“The dragons are free to live where they please and do as they wish,” Princess Lily assured Spike. “Within reason, of course.”
Spike perked up and sat up on his knees to look over the table better. “So Blitz and Serendipity will be free too? They won't be separated?”
“Everypony – oh, pardon me. Everydragon,” the princess replied, “shall be as free as you and I. Well, perhaps as free as you are, in any case.”
Spike smiled and shoveled another handful of jade in his mouth happily.
“There's just one thing I don't get,” Rainbow said across the table with a raised eyebrow.
“One thing?” Rarity echoed, her own perfectly arched brow mimicking her friend's.
Rainbow looked over at Lily at the table's head. “What about the desert? One of the reasons we started investigating was because the desert was soaking up magic!”
Silverline spoke up near Twilight, adding in the information, “We discovered that one of our own sentry towers had been the cause.”
Lily's mouth pulled down into a frown of thought. “How odd...” Suddenly a flash of recognition lit her face and she paled. “Oh, do forgive us.”
“What is it, Lily?” Twilight asked, more curious than ever about the tower, which she had to bashfully admit she had forgotten about until Rainbow's statement.
The princess sighed. “That would have been for the Lacromos.”
“The lacro-what now?” Applejack asked tilting her head.
The princess gave her a weak smile. “Lacromos. They are glass spheres that can contain and store large amounts of magical energy. My father had been saving them up, trying to find ways of using them in his war... He never could find a way to apply the energy however. It was a fairly recent project. I only found out about it a few weeks ago,” she looked down briefly. “It was one of the reasons I ran from the palace and stayed with Queen Chrysalis and her darklings. I knew how serious he was becoming and it frightened me.”
Her eyebrows drew together in concern at a new thought. “Now that I think of it, I personally have no idea how to dispose of them. They must have something in them by now.”
“I'd imagine so,” Rarity exclaimed. “Poor Twilight was nearly sucked dry by that awful thing!”
The princess turned a tortured gaze onto the Equestrian representative. “Oh, Twilight, I'm so, so sorry! I was hoping no ponies would be crossing the desert at all, leaving father's plans to fail. I -”
Twilight held up a hood and shook her head. “Please don't worry about. I'm fine and there's no way you could have known we were even coming. Besides,” she put down her hoof and looked down at her food, “you weren't in a position to do much to stop him.”
Lily looked conflicted, biting her lip. “Sometimes I think I could have,” she admitted. “Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had stood up to him sooner. If I had at least tried to stop him, instead of running away and pretending it wasn't my problem.”
“We all have past mistakes we regret,” Chrysalis spoke up, surprising everypony with her voice. “But all we can do now if move forward and use what we have learned to better ourselves and our future.” Although she did not look over at Twilight, the alicorn could feel the depth of the queen's meaning.
There was silence for a moment before Sheon's new Empress asked Twilight, “What of you, princess? I trust you will at least stay with us long enough to get a proper rest?”
Twilight smiled slowly, finally beginning to realize that they had won. That the tension was over, the fighting over and peace actually possible. She looked over at Chrysalis, Sprint sitting next to her. Both still.
“Yes, I think we will. But not for too long. We have so much to report," she tried to ignore the gagging motion discord made at the mention of "reports." Continuing with a smile she said, "To say nothing of new alliances being set into motion.”
Lily returned her smile. “I very much look forward to our countries finally getting to know one another. To be a part of this world and not just focused on ourselves.”
Twilight suddenly felt the pricks of some very familiar small claws. She looked down at Spike, who was touching her shoulder lightly. He looked at a loss.
“Spike? What's wrong?” She frowned, her eyes turning to slits. “Did you overeat again?”
Blushing the dragons stammered, “N- no! That's not it.” He looked down, took a breath and looked back up at her. “I want to stay here, Twilight.”
For a few tense moments, Twilight felt like gravity had been reversed, her innards seeming to fly upwards.
“What?”
Spike looked panicked and waved his claws around. “Oh, I don't mean forever! Just...” he looked down again, his claws clasped in front of him. “I want to know more about myself. About.. dragons.” He gave her a shaky smile. “Nice dragons, like the ones here.”
Twilight sighed, relaxing her stooped shoulders and allowing her small smile to return. “Are you sure you'll be fine here, Spike?”
The dragon looked around the table at Princess Lily, Silverline, Blue Flame, even at the changlings, before gazing up into his own caregiver's eyes and nodding. “Yeah. There's some stuff I just have to know. And once I do, I'll come back to be your number one assistant.” He beamed up at her, though it was bittersweet.
She nodded, patted his head, already feeling the separation and not liking it. But she knew better than to deny him the right to know, the right to explore and discover. “I understand Spike.”
She then got up and looked around the room with a sense of pride, only flinching slightly as Discord stuffed another few sheets of “fimfiction” into his mouth, all eyes on her.
“Now if you'll all excuse me,” she bowed her head slightly with a grin, a bit forced from worry, but overall content, “I have a letter to write.”
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49 chapters, that probably could have been cut down to 5, or just 10 if lazy...
3884703
Condensed, you mean. I regularly read fics with chapters past the 10000 word mark, so merging 5~10 chapters each (as thematically appropriate) would make more sense than gutting the grand majority of this fic like you are implying. That said, this is the author's first multi-chapter story, with her previous works being not much longer than an individual chapter of this fic. In other words, this is a shortfic author's first attempt at a longform story. Enjoy the fic (or don't) on it's own merit, not the author's chosen and entirely legitimate writing style.
TL:DR; You are coming off less like you are giving a critique, and more like you are trolling.
3885440 I like the story, I do. It's just... I don't like how short the chapters are. Some of them are simply: Chapter starts, 3 ponies talk back and forth, move about 20 feet, then chapter ends. Very short, little happens, and things just end too quickly. Feels very rushed. Especially while waiting for the next chapter. We get a small bit, a little teaser. Then wait a few days for another, and another, and another, but nothing big and juicy happens. Just... little bits here and there.
Edit: I mean, just take the end bit for example. took what, 5 chapters to do the entire defend the peace treaty thing? One chapter of Twi and changlings seeing the dragons, one chapter of discord fighting the rear guards, one chapter of Rainbow and AJ fighting the front guards, one chapter of back to Twi and the changlings freeing the dragons now, one chapter of everyone grouping up, one chapter of Lily helping Discord, one chapter of Twi helping defend the front, THEN one chapter of the party ending.
All of that, 8. EIGHT chapters, probably could have been 1 or 2 even... But.... That little summery I put up there? I can just read that and not even have to read the chapters, because little else happens....
One way to get rid of the Lacromos is pretty easy. What are they?
Magically empowered gems.
Feed them to the dragons! I bet they even taste pretty good
The word is 'ate'.
Capitalize.
3885709 Hahahaha. I have a life outside of this site.
3886733 Good idea! Only problem is, what would condensed unicorn (and alicorn!) magic DO to the insides of a dragon? Maybe nothing. Spike has some magic of his own after all. Then again, other dragons don't seem to have the same abilities. Then AGAIN, Spike was hatched thanks to unicorn magic. That can't be normal for a dragon. Then AGAIN AGAIN, Sheon dragons are also hatched with magic, so Spike might now be with the only other dragons that are most like him.
Ooooh the possibilities with dragons in MLP.
Why do I have a feeling that Discord was reading only clopfics?
As for there being too many chapters - I don't mind, makes it easier to read on mobile devices.
Cya
Raziel-chan