Postscript: Oh, One Last Thing...

It was calm and quiet in Ponyville. Boring, really, without Luna and Scrivener and Twilight around. Pinkamena kicked a rock as she strode sourly along the street, glowering horribly around herself. Everything sucked.

Yeah, that was a good way to put life. Everything sucked.

Her sister was like. Ninety. Well, okay, she wasn't that old but she wasn't getting any younger. Her daughter was down in Helheim all the time, getting all kinds of weird training, and of course when she was up here, it wasn't like she could drag her away from her midget marefriend.

Morning Glory was always busy. There were too few Clockwork Ponies to harass. Burning Desire was a pansy and in Subterra, anyway. She wanted Scrivener. She wanted Luna. She even wanted Twilight Sparkle, stupid... nerd Lich like she was. Chrysophylax Dives was a Lich too, but he was the lamest Dracolich she had ever met. Scratch that, she'd only met one Dracolich, so that wasn't insulting enough. He was the lamest dragon she'd ever met. She'd met a lot of dragons. Killed a lot, too.

Pinkamena growled in irritation, storming along the road, glaring every now and then up at the night sky as she continued to kick the rock along the ground. Everything was crap. Love was supposed to conquer all, right? Oh, yeah, sure, they'd always be together, friends forever, blah blah blah. Everything was always going to work out, so long as you had faith.

Screw that.

She growled again, then looked up at the sky and shouted angrily: “Hey, screw all of you, you hear me? After all the crap I went through, y'think you could give me a little bit back? Where the hell is my share? Where the hell is my 'true love,' huh? Screw you!”

Pinkamena growled... then frowned as she realized... something up there was moving. She leaned further up, then rolled her eyes at the sight of a shooting star, muttering: “Oh, right, okay. Here. I'll make a wish on it, let's watch it come magically true. I wish that this world didn't suck so much. Oh, and now I look inside myself and it turns out that the world didn't really suck all along, is that-”

A meteor smashed down in the flower garden just ahead with enough force to send a shockwave through the earth, and Pinkamena winced and leapt backwards, staring in disbelief. She mouthed wordlessly, staring at the pile of dirt that had been kicked up as lights flickered on in the houses all around Ponyville... and then, slowly, a head poked itself up out of the pile of dirt, a large piece of sod resting on top of the stallion's skull upon which stood a single unfettered flower.

He blinked blearily, then shook himself briskly before straightening and absently brushing at his tattooed chest as Pinkamena stared in disbelief, before the stallion gave a bright smile she recognized all too well... as if the vine mane and the big body and the tattoo wasn't all enough of a giveaway. “Oh, phoenix! Thou art a glorious sight after... well, I suppose it has been quite some time, but bah, I have never been any good with time. Did I miss anything?”

“Goddammit!” Pinkamena shouted, and then she booted the rock in front of her firmly into the stallion's face, making him wince to the side to send the flower flying off his head before she sighed tiredly and scowled up at the sky, muttering: “Nice play.”

Sleipnir smiled at her childishly, and Pinkamena looked moodily at the stallion before he hopped out of the crater in the ground and strode over to daintily kiss her forehead, as if this was any other normal day, and he hadn't been missing for years. And Pinkamena could only give another tired sigh before she smiled wryly, shaking her head slowly and looking up as she said finally: “Not much. I'll tell you about it on the way home.”

And Sleipnir smiled at her and nodded, and the demon couldn't help but grin a bit as she turned around, shaking her head slowly at the way he made everything feel okay... and reminded her that there was always going to be hope.