“It’s over,” Octavia said, taking a seat on the grass. “It’s finally over.”

She didn’t get any response, but then she didn’t expect to get one. She sat just outside the city of Canterlot, in a secluded place very close to her heart. She met the stony gaze of her sole companion and continued her story.

“I’m happy to say that all the inhabitants of Canterlot as well as the guests of the Gala are safe,” she explained. “All over Canterlot they’re stirring, to them it will be as if they are waking up from a long sleep. I wish I could say the same for the rest of Equestria though, but over two weeks of endless night will have done some serious damage, they probably thought Nightmare Moon had returned or something. Really it couldn’t be less true, before I left to come here, Luna was raising the sun. I don’t know if Celestia will ever be able to show her face again.

“They didn’t stick around for very long after Canterlot was restored,” Octavia continued. “I get the feeling they were fully aware of what was going on while they were petrified. Discord especially was disturbed, he took one look at Fluttershy’s body and vanished. I doubt he’ll be making another appearance for a while.”

Octavia thoughts drifted back as she spoke, it had only been a few minutes after the image of Pinkie’s remains had faded from the pool that the entire castle had begun to shake and the final shift to the true Canterlot had begun. Octavia held on for dear life as all of time and space were pulled and pushed repeatedly, rectifying the damage that had been done. When it was all over and Octavia was able to open her eyes, she found herself sprawled in the luscious gardens of Canterlot, just before the gates to the Castle, which she only noticed now to be eerily reminiscent of the other castle’s gates.

The first thing she saw when she began to move was Fluttershy, quite clearly dead. She still had the horn protruding from her skull, although now it was bleached white, the colour of any other bone in her body. Her wings were matted and mangled, but her face was mercifully restored, no longer nightmarishly disfigured but… peaceful. She wondered if Despair had lied… or if death was what would have made Fluttershy happy, to be with Pinkie again.

“Only Rarity and I were left,” Octavia said after a moment of thoughtful silence. “She was a terrible state, I can’t blame her though. She had just crawled out of a harrowing ordeal, losing all her closest friends. Maybe I should have stayed and comforted her but… I wouldn’t know what to say, you were always far better at empathising with ponies than I was.”

Again she was met with only silence in response, and again she wasn’t surprised at that at all.

“Besides, she has her family to return to,” Octavia reasoned. “She has Spike, the love of her life. I know it’ll be hard, but given enough time, she will heal.”

Octavia rubbed her weary eyes; they still felt raw from the tears she would never admit to shedding.

“I guess that only leaves Pinkie,” Octavia said, beaming at her companion. “You were absolutely right, if there was anypony strong enough to defeat Despair, it was her. Over time, especially in the end, I really came to understand what it was you saw in her. She was one of a kind, much like yourself… Vinyl.”

Octavia smiled sadly at the headstone. It was a simple feature, a slab of stone with the name ‘Vinyl Scratch’ engraved on it, followed shortly by the legend ‘Party On’ and her cutie mark emblazoned above it all. Vinyl would have loved it; she always loved this place, the one place she would go to get away from her the stresses of everyday life, the one place they shared with no one but each other. Before Octavia realised it, she was crying again as she ran a hoof over the soil that separated her and Vinyl.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, whipping her eyes. “I just can’t believe it’s finally over. I felt so lost when you disappeared, but when you called me up, when you told me everything that had happened… I didn’t know if I could see it through, so many times I felt like giving up… giving in. But it’s actually over…”

Octavia unstrapped her saddlebags and set them on the ground next to her. Opening them up, she found them empty apart from one object, glinting at the back.

“I admit,” she continued. “My faith in Pinkie began to waver slightly towards the end, I suppose that was why the connection I created broke, I suppose that’s why I took this…”

Octavia pulled the revolver from the bag, holding it out between her and the headstone, her eyes captivated by the weapon.

“I know I made a promise to you,” Octavia began, the prongs in her hoof computer snapping out as she struck it. “I promised that when this was all over I’d move on, I’d live my life, that I’d try and find happiness elsewhere… but I can’t.”

Octavia slipped the revolver into the prongs of her gauntlet where it sat snugly.

“I’m sorry Vinyl,” she continued in a perfectly calm voice. “I’m not strong enough to keep that promise.”

Reaching up she tugged on her pink bowtie. As it unfurled she pulled it off her and draped it over the headstone. With the revolver secured, she raised her leg so that the barrel of the gun was pressed to the side of her head. Octavia sniffed as a final tear ran down her cheek.

“See you soon Vinyl.”

One twitch was all it took.

Author's Notes:

There we have it, two stories and roughly 240,000 words later, The End.
Of course you may be left with many questions, but fear not, for I will be releasing two bonus chapters in the near future that shall shine light on many of the mysteries left unsolved, including Trixie's true involvement in the plot, an insight into Fluttershy's experience and more.
I guess that leaves one final thing to be said which is simply thank you for taking the time to read this story and presumably its predecessor, they've been tonnes of fun to conceive and write, I especially enjoyed the reader interaction it got, you've all been wonderful and your continuing interest insured that I saw these stories through to the end.
With everything said and done, I'll leave you with a word from our sponsors:
Sarovian Sanguine (my editor... who hasn't done any actual editing for me for some time): "All glory to the hypno-toad" (I have a funny feeling he never read this story at all)
Chloewhatwatt (cried at the end): When asked for a quote she shrugged and said "ah, I don't know" (she's still sore I didn't kill Redheart)
MGOtaku (still absentee proofreader): seriously man, where are you?! Your family is really worried, if you see this call me!
My friends suck.