Epilouge: TWILIGHT SPARKLE

I walked where my brother had conducted his portion of the interview, the lights from the cameras flashing almost without end. As I sat myself down, I turned to Solemn to indicate that I was ready to finally speak out.

"HEAR YE, HEAR YE! PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE SHALL NOW SPEAK!"

The murmurs of questions came to a halt as I got started. "Good evening, Equestrian citizens." The flashes of the cameras became a little more conservative, I went on ahead with my briefing. "I'm sure as you've been told by his majesty Prince Shining Armor, we have suffered an attack on the very seat of power of this wonderful nation. There has been a number of insurgents seeking to claim the lives of the royal family. Those insurgents have been arrested as of today. The one particularly responsible for the robbery of the Canterlot Cemetery has been apprehended, and now sits in Tartarus until his assigned day in court. And while I wish that I had more to tell you in regards to that has occurred on today, I can only tell you what I myself know."

While I didn't have time to prepare a thorough speech, I had brought a scroll of some points I wished to address, as well as a number of things that Princess Celestia told me not to speak on for the moment. But in spite of all of that, I couldn't really start on them until I acknowledged the main security question that they had about one thing in particular.

"However, I wish to bring attention to a certain situation from this weekend. From the start of this past Friday evening, our elements went missing from where they were stored. Originally, we thought that someone had probably stolen them, that or some irresponsible ponies happened upon them. We initiated a search, hoping to locate them quickly for the purpose of protecting Equestria. But the elements themselves did not disappear because of some thieves or lucky discovery. Instead, they had chosen a new set of bearers, bearers who would be tasked to not only protect our world, but theirs as well. The element bearers who defeated the pony responsible are as followed. Clifford Harris from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Rickey Santaña from San Antonio, Texas, Melanie Brewer, Stanton Haines, Alexander Haines, and our very own Captain Nondis Haines, all from Austin Texas. They threw their lives on the line, as opposed to being protected by us, they were the ones who protected us from the horrors that were to come. I would be remiss if I had started taking these questions without mentioning the six of them, to acknowledge what a great work they've done for us. Although they are different from us in every way, I want them to know that as long as they stay here, they have a home in Equestria they can come back to at any time. With that said, I open the floor."

Questions began to flood in, the multitude of reports nearly climbing over each other to be selected. I started from the one in the far back. "Your highness, does this mean that humans are capable of using our magic?"

I went on to give affirmation to her inquiry. "Yes. And to be transparent, both the Captain and his younger brother have shown great aptitude in learning unicorn magic. Both of them have religiously applied themselves to get better in the short period of time to help us win this fight. I can also attest to you that they will not seek to use magic for any nefarious reasons."

I picked out yet another from the back. "Princess, how long has there been an investigation in regards to the bodies being missing from the city cemetery?"

I looked on my list of do's and don'ts, seeing if that was a topic I could answer on. After confirming that it wasn't in the don'ts, I gave my answer. "There has been an ongoing investigation taking place for the better part of almost a month now. One of those bodies, namely the late senator Count DuMoneé has showed up in the human world at one point."

I answered yet another question from the back. "With this incident taking place sometime after Princess Cadance's unexpected and unsanctioned leave through the portal, does this means that the portals are now compromised?"

That question was neither on my do's and don'ts, so I took the liberty of answering it anyhow. "Far from it. The portals have been destroyed by I myself and the humans. As for now they are without a way home until they are repaired."

I took another question, a little closer to the front. "Where will the humans stay?"

"The humans are free to go wherever they wish to be, just so long as they are under our protection."

Another inquiry was asked from the far left of the room. "Your highness, what of the assailant? Where does he keep his operations, do you know?"

I didn't have to look at my list to know that was a don't. I gave a limited response. "Right now we cannot say the whereabouts of this lab or what all it contains until all the facts are collected. For now we can tell you that the lab has been located and will remain accessible to those of the appropriate clearances. Until all information has thoroughly researched and confirmed, none of that can be accessible for public access at this time."

I took one from the far right. "Your highness, do we have any word on the motives of these heinous crimes?"

Another glaring don't, another limited response. "I cannot confirm nor deny the personal motives of the assailant other than that he wished to seize control of both this world and the human world, but the means to do so for each were vastly different. For their world, we believe it was to cause a collapse in political and theological beliefs, to then grow a dedicated following that would do his bidding here in this world shortly after. And with the effectiveness of human weaponry, we have yet to foster any sustainable defense against the varying methods of assault they would seek to implement. But as far as the effectiveness of these weapons, I leave that to the individuals who are better suitable to attest to their destructive capabilities."

Finally, I took an answer from the front row. "Your highness, what is the status of the human element bearers? Will they be nationally acknowledged for their achievements?"

"Without question they will be acknowledged, not just nationally but internationally as well. The world has listened and observed quietly as to the humans that have graced us in their visits. We one day hope that this contact will establish more fruitful relations between our two words in the future." I looked at my time and realized that I was about to go over, so I gave the press a nod of appreciation and took my leave. "Thank you for your time."

As I walked away, there were an avalanche of pictures and questions. I paid them little mind as I walked back off the stage.

The Next Day...

My day starting off was already building from an uneasy reminder. My first order of business was the continued retrieval of artifacts and documents in the Umbreal Lab. Cadance joined me in my venture, offering to help me undo a few seals and crack open whatever we didn't touch on in yesterday's cleanup.

After a long descent down the old lift, we followed the crystal caverns towards the freshest column of air in the mountain. I walked along the route that was lit. "This place has always given me the creeps." I said, mentioning the mines in general.

Cadance pointed me ahead to a large wall with some large stencil writing. "Well now it's about to get a lot more creepy. Just wait until you walk in and see what's in store."

The first room we walked into was an unusually large cavern, a containment chamber that had a bunch of fans running throughout. The ceiling was tall and there were a number of rails ran across the top. "This place is awfully strange."

"Wait till you see what behind door number two." Cadance added as she pointed to another stenciled sign above an open door.

Once I walked through that large vault-looking door, I was introduced to some familiar territory, sans the not-so-canny décor hanging up above. "Oh... this place."

Cadance appeared surprise that I recognized the place so easily. "You've been here before?"

I walked over to an area where I saw some darkened splotches on the ground. I nodded my head as I recalled what took place here. "This is where we found Nondis. And this is what stemmed our investigation into the city morgue."

Cadance walked up to a set of reinforced metal doors, opening the way to a pure white hallway. "So the rest of this place you pretty much know already?"

"Unfortunately." I replied. "But I haven't went through all of the rooms here. It's not a pretty sight, nor a good thing to smell, I can tell you that."

"It took hours to clear this place out of all the victims." She briefly explained. "This entire facility had an assortment of operations running all at once. And because a lot of the staff were killed off, all of the bodies were left out to pasture. So we had the air running to purify a lot of the smell." Her face lowered as she added another grim detail. "...We found a human body also. It's head was cut off and separated. There appeared to be a lot of work done on the torso, and then there was some incisions into the spinal column, almost like it was ready for something else to be done to it."

"Nondis." I groaned in discomfort.

As we walked along, we came across an unexpected face on our visit. Standing with Cobalt Blue was a human woman rambling on about her time here in the lab. I called out to the woman. "Melanie!"

She waved back to us both. "Hi there, interested in looking at some Nazi-levels of inhumane discoveries with me?"

"I'm not sure what any of that is, but I guess it's not good." Cadance replied.

"Far from it." The woman confirmed before asking the guardsmare of what she knew. "So what all have you guys found yesterday?"

"The absolute insanity of everything around here. Recorded accounts of disembowelments, application of how the fluids found in entrails can be used as a binding substance, how certain aspects of the skin can be used to form strong adhesives─"

Melanie showed visual disgust. "Oh, horse glue, that's fun. At least he's not branding the shit to kids."

Cobalt looked off to the side with her own visage of discomfort. "...Actually."

"Oh for fucks sake." She facepalmed and shook her head.

"Well it could be worse." Cobalt said as though she saw some sort of net positive in any of this.

"Do you realize who we're talking about here?" I questioned the guardsmare. "I mean you probably didn't get to see the welcoming committee in one of the larger rooms, but you saw what happened here. And if you didn't see it, you can still sure smell it."

A chill ran up Melanie's spine. "Yeah. Can you imagine if his human head transplant experiment had gone on without a hitch?"

The mare looked to the three of us, her jaw agape. "Ugh, on second thought, that's way worse."

As we approached the duo, we saw a door that had a number of weak enchantments scrolling across it. I questioned them both as to what it contained. "What's this place?"

Cobalt quickly responded. "This looks like his main office. It's situated like one, so might as well assume it to be. The doors of this one are different from the others. You can tell it's magically sealed, but recently our specialists were able to degrade the various seals to where they could be broken. Took them these past two days to do it."

Melanie knocked on the metal door, the weak seals barely able to deflect her knuckles. "That's a lot of hard work for one door. But I don't have no fancy magic." She glanced to me and moved out of the way. "Care to do the honors of cracking this box open, so we can see what horrors lie inside?"

I walked over to the door, seeing some of the seals already trying to brace for any kind of impact. But due to the weakened nature of them, I was able to break them off easily and open the door.

When we walked inside, we could see a large whiteboard spanning the entirety of one wall, from the ceiling to the floor. On another wall was a large shelf of books, some fiction, some non-fiction, some horror, some romance, some science fiction, some fantasy, and an outstanding amount of them being either magic study or medical. Some of the books I had never seen before, a lot of the others were some that I've read throughout my studies in school. Another area had a workbench that appeared to be made for mounting. Next to it was a rack of spare parts of the dummies he enchanted to do his bidding. There was also some sort of concealed standing device that looked almost like a guillotine. On the desk itself, there was a disheveled mess of papers and maps, including a network of tunnels that seemed to map out various coffin locations in the cemetery.

Cobalt walked up to the desk, seeing the maps and papers. "Jackpot." She sifted through the documents and started speaking out. "These are log records of some ponies admitted to be processed in the morgue downtown. These are cave systems they use to find the bodies of recently buried... and also body returns for those quote-unquote 'disused accounts'. A few surgeries, some adoption papers─oddly enough─from the local orphanage, pediatric records of terminally ill patients, rape kit results, psychiatric findings... All of this is beyond terrible, he's going away for good."

As they were going through his desk, I was taking a gander at his book shelf. A lot of his personal collection had appeared very familiar to me. I started to read out the titles of the books to myself in the order he had them. And as I went through about six of them, I noticed a familiar pattern. I skipped down to the next shelf, also identifying a similar pattern. I went to the next shelf lower, another familiar pattern. At that point, I just read the entire block title for title. And it dawned on me what had me feeling like this was so familiar.

All of these books, the way they're organized, it's a perfect match to all my favorites back home, organized the exact same manner how I would have them listed, a perfectly recreated system organized in not just decibal and alphabetical order, but also in color context. I pulled a book off the shelf, flipping through the pages until I found the final back binding being written into it, a summary of the book's plot, progression, twists, and even criticisms of the story itself. At the bottom was a circled rating.

He and I had the exact same taste in literature. Probably a coincidence, but it started me nonetheless. "This place terrifies me." I muttered.

"Why?" Cadance asked as she snuck up behind me, startling me.

"Because all of these books." I began. "Tomes of research, all of the pursuit of discovery..."

Cadance looked down to me. "You feel at home?"

"I shouldn't." I replied as I sifted through more of the books listed in his favorites. "The Body of Discovery, Age of Anatomy, The Physiological Paradox, The Care Beyond, The Medical Science Guide for Dummies, all of this is tomes that fill our libraries with precious medical knowledge. It explains all of what we know about the equine body."

Melanie approached from beside me and picked out a medical book. She looked down to the spine for the author. She then opened it to the very first few pages and started reading. Skimming through the contents, she came across a body of sources, one part of it in particular grabbed her attention. She handed the book to me. "Look at the author's credits."

I grabbed the book and opened it to where she had it tabbed, pointing out with her finger the text on the page. Cadance read it aloud. "All research has been cited from studies of the great physician Dr. Umbra Sanctus of the Corrotto Abbey, 529 C.D.V.." Cadance and I stared in shock, she immediately pulled down another book and flipped to it's cited credentials. She picked out another, and another, doing the same for all the other medical books until there were about twenty of them laid out on the floor, each of the words highlighted in her magic. "These book say the same thing. And it's all printed. Some of these books came out as recently as five years ago."

"You're telling me that he wrote everything we now know about medical science?" Cobalt questioned in disbelief.

I verbalized a response. "A pony who lived more than five hundred years out of spite, I guess we shouldn't be surprised about his insistence to keep his name out of everyone's mouth. If he kept publishing works under his name, it would start to look a little suspicious after the first century. Like how would he be able to update his studies so consistently after five centuries without getting caught?" An idea immediately came to mind. "Have a number of other archbishops and deacons publish his work under their names, cite his studies for research."

Cadance pulled out yet another book, popping it open to another page of credits, his name popped up again. "I always wondered how they'd have so many frequent updates for these books, how all the new information contrasts against the earlier works of the research they mentioned. No addendums, no changes in the theory attributed to the authors, no debunks against him in the medical community, no dissenting opinion, it's been like that for the centuries I've lived."

Melanie also brought up another to consider. "'I wrote the book on life's sustain', that's what he sang to us."

Cobalt had chills running down her spine. "Does that mean he found out how to break the forbidden code of immortality?"

"Um, I'm sure both Celestia and Luna are immortal, Blueblood's been alive for as long as Umbra has been, and Cadance has been alive for well over a hundred years." I replied to the guardsmare. "I don't think that should surprise you."

Cobalt, however, did bring up an interesting point. "You'd be surprise as to what it can do in the hooves of a normal pony. Its one thing when we accept the burden of it, knowing ahead of time what the ramifications and responsibilities are. It's another thing when one abuses that power for their own selfish gains. Case in point, look around us."

"I can't even imagine being in a position of power where my life doesn't end eventually." Melanie outwardly stated before looking to both Cadance and I. "No offense to the both of you."

"None taken." Cadance answered.

The woman looked to the bookshelf and folded her arms in thought. "The better question is what to do with that book when we find it."

"Burn it." Everyone in the room seemed to think that I had cursed out Celestia's name when I spoke my peace. "I know I may be a strong advocate for preserving tomes of knowledge and life-changing information, even when it's forbidden, but this is a topic I don't think we can allow for it to be passed on to future generations. The knowledge of it's existence will already make it a target for many power-hungry, ill-minded, greedy ponies looking to hold on to their influence for as long as they can keep it. And if any part of it created that thing we fought against, then it should certainly never see the light of day."

"Honestly, I was thinking you'd probably lock it up someplace in Tartarus." Cobalt suggested.

"With Lord Tirek, the magic-eating centaur who has already broken out once, already defeated us element bearers once, already defeated Discord once, and drained all the magic of Equestria in the matter of two days, you wanna leave that book there with him?" I argued.

The mare sheepishly admitted her fault. "Ooh, touché."

Once more, I made my point. "We search for that book, find what's inside of it, and burn it."

"What if it's not really a book?" Melanie questioned as she pulled a book from the shelf. "Like what if he anticipated us to already be on the search for something like that and found some way to scatter it's information across the way, like an encryption of some sort? It's just like how it would be in our world if you want to send some stuff to someone else, like a torrent. Somebody has a piece of the file you're looking to consolidate, the more peers there are in that group who happen to have the same group of works, the easier it is to obtain and the quicker. The less people who have it, the harder and longer it takes to get." She then looked to the entire bookshelf of his favorites. "Like these books here. It could take years to decode, but out of many comes the one."

I shook my head. "There's no way it's hiding in plain sight like that. There's no way."

"We don't know. That could be the case." She replied.

I glanced up and down the list of favorites, popping one open to skim through the pages to see if there was anything out of place. Instead, it was just a list of criticisms at the foot of the pages, or wishes for plot points. It wasn't anything I did in any of my books, so why would he do something like that? Perhaps it was the order that he had the books in that led to a significant clue. "I could not be anymore scared to read those books now."

While my attention remained attached to the books on the shelf, Cadance and Melanie both looked to the covered wooden frame off to the corner. "So what's this then?" Cadance questioned.

"Looks like a guillotine, probably should've used it on himself honestly." Quipped the woman.

Cadance tossed aside the tarp covering what was hidden underneath. To our disappointment, it wasn't a guillotine, but rather the spitting image of herself looking back at her. "Well look what's staring me in the face."

I paused to see what it was that we were looking at. "A mirror?"

"Hooked into a console." Cadance pointed out as she finished removing the tarp, unveiling a panel, a crude but perfect replication of a trans-dimensional portal. She went to the console, seeing what all was being set and done. The crystal above the panel was red, indicating an error. "It's almost functional, all it needs is few additional hookups and some dimensional coordinates."

Melanie, who was not privy to the conversation, tilted her head in confusion. "Translation?"

Cadance tinkered with the console some more, doing some more investigative work into where it was set for. "It took us about two weeks to build the portal. It took months to correctly calculate the coordinates of your world on a digit-by-digit basis. It could've taken years, decades even, had we not had his DNA signature. And it takes up to twenty-four hours to build the precise coordinate to locate the very room you'd use for it, which requires your genetic code to lock in accurately."

Melanie wasn't savvy on the topic, but she could catch on where she could. And where she did, she brought up a crucial point. "Wait... he had Nondis for a whole weekend."

Cadance stopped tinkering with the console for a moment, observing a blinking code of yellow in the crystal. She applied her magic to the crystal above as it pulled up a holographic image. "Cadance, what's wrong?" I questioned her.

She stepped aside and pointed me towards the console. "You may wanna look at this."

As soon as I walked up, I started identifying the coded inputs. Everything that came up was more than just a familiar coincidence, it was an exact reference to where the end terminal was slated to be. "Oh my goodness."

Melanie walked up beside us and showed initial confusion. "I don't know what I'm looking at."

I pointed to the information in the image and pointed out the two names that came up. "Melanie... He's locked both you and Nondis in."

The woman appeared at a loss for words, unable to grasp how this was even a possibility. "Wait, how did he lock me in!? He had Nondis for a whole weekend! How is it that my name comes up here!?"

"DNA evidence. Didn't he leave Count's body in your living room?" Cadance questioned.

"Yeah but..." Once the answer she gave slipped out of her mouth, she began to unravel a more uncomfortable truth. "Oh my God, I am all over that apartment. Wait, what does he use for his DNA coding, hair, skin cells, toe nails, blood?"

"All of it." I answered. "Just a hair alone can tell us where the greatest concentration of your DNA resides in any given dimension, in other words, where you live, even moreso where you clean yourself."

Her eyes widened as the realization hit her. "The bathroom... That's why Nondis and Rickey's portal were located in their bathrooms, the closets, the bedrooms..."

"Cadance, what do you think is the estimated time for completion of this one?" I asked her.

Cadance went up to the whiteboard, noticing the lengthy equation sat upon it, spanning about seven rows of the entire board. "It depends. It's more of the matter in finding the discrepancy in the formula, that's where the estimated time frame comes in. Just one wrong digit and you'll be set back for months."

Melanie crouched down, still thinking about how this thing was sitting comfortably in his office. "Holy fuck, all he had to do was bring Nondis back and plug in a few extra bolts and screws, and our world would be well on it's way to the apocalypse!"

"Well you aren't wrong. All it takes is to discover any discrepancy in the dimensional coordinate." Cadance said as she took a closer look at the third row. She noticed a single number out of place. "Here." She erased the number and placed a zero where there was a 2. "As I said, just. One. Digit." She walked over to the console, looked up the equation that was placed inside of it, changed the number, and the crystal suddenly flashed green, indicating that the equation had been corrected. She turned back to Melanie and informed her of the portal's warm-up time. "Your way home will be done in about thirty minutes."

All of us looked on quietly as Cobalt made a final comment. "Holy Faust, he almost won."

As we walked the streets of Canterlot in a block formation, we all marched in step, quiet as the crowds around us pelted a number of rotten fruits and vegetables at the cage that slowly rocked down the avenue. Our route started from the castle, moving slowly as we displayed our condemned prisoner to the crowds to have a good look at, even to scream whatever they so wished to at him. Death wishes and small wooden coffins were held up by the many citizens who had family members that were taken and used in his unholy work. Calls for justice to be done were chanted along the way, each turn giving the crowd a greater chance to take whatever rocks they could and fling them our way.

Since I walked beside him to ensure his secure passage, I had to shield myself often.

As we walked, the roads began to become more and more unkempt, filled with missing cobblestones, broken bricks, and freshly swept dirt. While many of the city didn't recognize this road we took, the cloudy daylight made it all the more apparent where we were. The disrepair of various buildings and now-abandoned establishments, they became the tell-tale signs of the ran-down Corrotto District.

The pelting of various items continued, but some were a lot less focused on the prisoner and more on us as a whole. There were some who harbored resentment towards the captured necro-terrorist, others who were staunch believers of his cause had disagreed with our decision to put him to death. In either case, we were getting hit by both arguing sides.

Umbra leaned against his cage, whispering out to me. "So... come here often?"

I had not a single word to say to him.

He continued to tease at me. "Aw, come on, no words to speak along my parade route, princess? Sure you have a speech or something, there's got to be a word or two you have in mind."

Again, I did not reply.

Growing a little more frustrated by my lack of response, he took matters into his own hooves to get me to say something to him. "Okay, I guess I'll share some then." He battered against his cage, screaming out to the crowd. "SO GIVE THIS A LISTEN YOU MINDLESS MUTTLINGS! PRINCESS CELESTIA IS SHAGGING THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD! WON'T YOU DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!?" The guards around ignored him just as much as I did. "NO ONE!? SHE'S ACTIVELY BREAKING A LAW YOU GUYS HOLD IN HIGH REGARD! SURELY THEY MUST BE PUNISHED FOR IT!" Once more, not a word. "NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL!?"

Our silence was the only answer he received as we started to approach the gallows that were placed high in the town square, standing before the fountain to which his pyre was sat upon. We brought him amongst the carefully cleaned path our guards lined for him to walk, to approach the stairs of the assembled gallows. Awaiting up top was none other than both Princess Celestia and Prince Blueblood.

The cage was opened for him as he muttered. "Well isn't this an irony, to be 'ended' here of all places."

"Get out." I commanded.

He looked to me with a smirk. "What if I don't want to?"

A guard approached from behind the stallion and pushed him against the head with the butt of his spear, knocking him to the ground outside of the cage. "Out, you!"

Two guards briskly raised him and pushed him along as I gave yet another firm command. "Keep walking."

Umbra tilted his head towards me, still mocking me as we walked. "Aw, trying to hold some hardened exterior for me. Why that's absolutely precious. You're going to be so cute up there smiling and waving to the hateful masses."

As he was escorted up the stairs, I followed behind him. Celestia and Blueblood stood by to make his way towards the pyre, I muttered to the both of them my honest suggestion. "Don't ask him for any last words."

"Aw, don't be so trite. Someone has to carry the conversation. I'm just merely speaking for the both of us." Umbra called out as he was being set to his pyre.

I assisted in the effort to get him tied up and ready for his burning. "You don't ever speak for me."

As I worked to get him ready for his final farewell, he continued to talk down at me, even as he was tied to the wooden mast. "Not even the resentment you have against your mentor for what she took from you?"

"You keep bringing that up like it changes anything." I mumbled as I finished securing him.

"Aren't you the slightest angry with her for taking what was yours?" He asked as the other guards proceeded to dump tar and oils onto the pyre, even starting from the mast on down. "Aren't you upset for her taking away your big 'happily ever after'? Where's the passion?"

I paused for a moment, waiting for the others to finish their work. As soon as they scattered off, I stood behind the condemned stallion and answered him quietly. "I couldn't be any more upset." I confessed, glancing back at Celestia. "I hate that I'll be forced to watch them being happy together. I hate that he kisses her lips and not mine. I hate that he'll be holding her and not me. I hate how he brought it up, I hate how she was so timid about it, I hate how they both tried to make sure it was okay with me, like I'm the one who puts two and two together. It all started with us, he promised me everything. I hate that I look at what they'll have and become so jealous for it. Even now, I can't help but to have butterflies flying around my stomach thinking about how they'll live their lives, while I'm forced to start over."

He chuckled at my confession. "See, now you understand."

"No." I cut him off. "I understand what it means to not be selfish. I may hate it deep down that they'll be smiling with one another, but I know I'll never be able to relate to him on a level like she can. I'll never be able to walk him through his pains and aches like she will. I won't have the emotional maturity she has until much later, and I'm far more possessive than she is. Our being together like this won't last, not with how I am, not with my own insecurity clouding my better judgement. I feel I do deserve him, but what have I done to keep that other than surface-level affection? I hit him twice, I might've hit him again, or worse because of how jealous I can be at times." I took a deep breath, continuing to filter out my emotions to the condemned stallion, hoping to let those feelings be burned away along with him. "So no, I don't understand you. I know where I differ from you. And where we differ is that I'm able to see the context around me, what I've done to mess that up. I don't ignore the things that happen around me and think that it's all roses and peaches because of how I'm raised. Both you and I have had a privileged upbringing, but only one of us knows how to look back and acknowledge what causes the present circumstances." And on that final statement, I walked away from him. As I stood by my mentor, quietly stewing on the confession I spoke, I muttered once more. "We will never relate."

"We do... More than you believe, Twilight Sparkle." Umbra turned his head as best as he could to me and proudly declared. "More than you believe."

Celestia stepped up and unfurled a scroll with a black seal of her cutie mark set at the bottom of the page. Blueblood then announced the commencement in a Royal Canterlot voice. "HEAR YE, HEAR YE! THE HIGH AND HONORABLE MAJESTY PRINCESS CELESTIA SHALL READ THE ACCOUNT OF THE CONDEMNED!" The prince lowered his head to his mentor. "End him."

She read from the scroll loudly to the gathered crowd, her voice echoing throughout the square. "CITIZENS OF EQUESTRIA! THE ONE WHO HAS BEEN BROUGHT BEFORE YOU TODAY IS GUILTY OF ALL ACCOUNTS OF THE NUMEROUS CRIMES HE HAS COMMITTED AGAINST THE CITIZENRY, THE ROYAL FAMILY, THE PARLIAMENT, THE PROTECTED, THE NATION, THE WORLD, AND MOST IMPORTANLY AGAINST THE NATURAL ORDER ITSELF!" She directed her attention to the condemned doctor. "UMBRA SANCTUS, COUNT SANCTUS QUORUM OF HOUSE BASTION, YOUR SENTENCE IS DEATH! THERE SHALL BE NO QUARREL, NOR SHALL THERE BE ANY FORGIVENESS FOR THE SINS YOU'VE BROUGHT UPON THIS WORLD AND OTHERS! YOUR BODY SHALL BE CLEANSED FROM THIS WORLD, AND CLEANSED BY THE PURIFYING FLAMES TO WHICH YOU WILL BE BURNED!"

Umbra called out to the incensed princess as her horn began to fill with a hot magic. "A final offer of words to the world!?"

Celestia offered no such opportunity without blasting a heated beam of magic into the first bit of kindling down below, setting the pyre ablaze in a brilliant roar. "BE YE DAMNED! AND MAY FAUST JUDGE YOU!"

Umbra laughed manically, rocking himself from side to side as though he couldn't care less of what was coming. "A little warm for my tastes! And to be honest, do you think these ropes will hold me if they burn!?"

The fires began to spread out, the pyre now billowing out a black smoke as the tar and oil sped up the process. The flames roared loudly as the stallion continued to rock himself, stress testing the ropes that were on his body. Then at last, the flames caught the oils that were doused on his body. His hide began to catch fire and burn, the green of his coat blackening and searing off to reveal the flesh beneath. He began to laugh even harder, presumably to mask the pain.

"AMAZING! YOU'LL ALL WATCH ME DIE! BUT YOU WON'T GO AFTER THE VERY ONE WHO HAS DONE THE SAME TO GENERATIONS OF EQUESTRIANS!? HOW ALL YOUR ANCESTORS WEEP! YOU SHAME YOURSELVES AND THEIR NAMES! HOW COULD YOU SPARE HER WHEN YOU CONDEMN ME!?"

Umbra lowered his head, allowing the flames to consume his entire body at last. But while the ropes continued to show some strength, the magic inhibitor around his horn had burned off instead. With a crackling noise his magic was reactivated and his horn glowed almost the same color as the flames that consumed his body. He shouted to the world once more.

With a final flash, his body shrunk and his face changed completely. And in his place was none other than a young filly who appeared well-preserved. Her body slipped from the grasp of the ropes and landed into the pyre, slowly being consumed by the flames that were meant for another.

Gasps came from the guards who observed. "His body's changed!" Gleaming Brass called out.

"He's escaped!" Cobalt Blue pointed out loudly.

Wanting to start a thorough search, Humbreeze barked out an order to some of the other guards. "Quickly, find any trace of him this instant!"

Solemn Oath, who was over the security of the event, quickly ran to the princess, bowing her head. "Your majesty, what are your orders?"

Celestia stood quiet for moments, only bringing about another bucket of oil to spread on the pyre. She then spread a thick tar to be doused on the filly's body. From there, she did nothing else but issue a command of two words. "Stand down."

The entire guard appeared to have been paralyzed by the order she gave, astounded that she would even allow for it to happen so casually. Solemn was the main one who voiced her objection. "I beg your pardon, your highness, but allow me to say this without consequence. WHAT, ARE YOU CRAZY!?"

Celestia replied in a cold and indifferent manner. "There's no need to pursue this matter any further. It's done."

Other guards who were watching began to cite out similar reactions to one another. "The princess has lost it!"

"How could she let him go!?" Another guard questioned.

In a panic, Solemn Oath broke away from Celestia to ask me for some other orders to follow. "Princess Twilight, what are your orders? We need to stop him before it's too late!"

I looked ahead to the pyre, knowing for certain what he did... and what exactly he invited himself into. I stood as Celestia did, comfortable with the result. "He's burned to death."

"That's a filly's body up there!" Solemn argued.

I lifted my head to the cloudy sky, imagining as though his other family members had watched from where they had been lifted centuries ago. Blueblood did the same as he spoke out. "Then his end has been met."

Celestia performed an about-face, walking away from the scaffold, her mane and tail swaying in the wind as she departed. Her eyes only looked ahead to where she walked. The pyre would violently erupt into a fiery inferno, immolating anything that was within it. Bits of the wood it consumed settled in the embers that were soon ejected into the atmosphere.

The high princess sat herself upon her golden carriage and was at peace. "It is done."

Another Two Weeks Later...

From the conclusion of the Great Purge of Corrotto, work began in it's rehabilitation and upkeep. While there were plenty of dwellers and former regulars looking to fight to keep their way of life preserved, guards easily dealt with the resistance and allowed for construction firms to level every building in the area. While some families were displaced, they were offered temporary living spaces in some hotels throughout the town until the reconstruction was completed. But since a lot of the space was already utilized for commercial purposes, there became a push for more modern part of the town to be built.

Enter: Captain Nondis and his merry band of humans.

They had a smorgasbord of ideas and influences. While Nondis had experienced the night life of it's filthier days, he strongly recommended that the place be kept for late night recreation, despite strong disagreements from Celestia herself. But as he laid out the plan of how he wanted it to be done, she allowed for him to help in the planning stages. However, he requested that his focus be put elsewhere.

As such. Alex was left in charge of the reconstruction efforts. And with him being a more organized thinker, he brought Blue into the fold to help with development and construction of the area. The agreement was also the first open agreement with humans in regards to municipal development. And it was also the first to implement human technology, architecture methods, and even bringing about a closed-circuit network that could be used to change and alter the visual appearance of the area.

Their first mode of operation was to hollow out the remnants of the underground arena, and build a buckball stadium in it's place. The exterior would have the façade of the usual Canterlot architecture, but the inside of it was going to have the most modern look to it. It would be able to seat an enormous seventy-eight thousand ponies, making it the largest stadium to have ever been built in Equestria, and the only one with at least four tiers of seating and a wrap around press box. It was also the first establishment with side lighting that would change according to the events taking place. The best part about it? All of Corrotto's development would be paid for out of Umbra's dime.

I suppose that would be the only thing we would ever come to an agreement with.

With the large commercial and recreational investment put into play, it was set to give the city a nightlife that would put more money into the city, keeping the taxpayers from having to pay an absurd amount of bits to maintain, creating an attraction that could keep tourist invested throughout their stay, and to also keep the entertainment options affordable and economic for all walks of life. If you could afford seating for the underground arena, then admittance to the stadium would never be a problem, and the food would stay affordable.

Once that was unveiled, there was no stopping the hype around the city. The council vote was unanimous, with Alabaster's vote being posthumously awarded in favor of the development. Businesses flocked in with deals to plant their flags in as quickly as the grant for the stadium was given the green-light. And with Blue's firm being in charge of the construction, it would make it her second stadium in the city. Alex was also given a huge stake in the efforts, citing contribution of the technology, the assembly of networks, and most importantly the expansion of said network, closing a massive deal that would bring an absurd amount of money back to the human world with him.

Needless to say that he's a multi-billionaire in the making.

Nondis, however, didn't really buy into it. He was content with the hundreds of millions of bits he has in his name. He didn't really need to work another day in the guard, at least for a paycheck. But he looked to remain there up until he felt it was time to withdraw from his position. Some urged him to withdraw now, while many cheered his decision to continue, and there was no doubt throughout the ranks, as the entire E.U.P Guard backed his decision.

As for the sector that Nondis focused his attention on, he kept his head in the grind of parliament. Of course that meant that he made a few more enemies, considering the arrests that took place over the past month. And with a lot of the cases concluded, a lot of senators and representatives lost their seats.

Protests carried on outside of the castle, wishing for their rights to be lovers of whomever they wished to love. The free-lovers movement began to snowball downhill, creating an avalanche of protestors and lobbyist gaining steam to their cause to put the Free-Lovers bill to the floor for a vote. And with Nondis' image being the main catalyst pushing the bill forward, they had no choice but to break out the final draft written by the late senator Somber Spiral.

And many opinions of his strong political push were made obvious by a simple interaction.

One senator walked by me and nodded sagely at me. "Your highness." And then completely ignored the hand that was extended to greet him. "Hmph."

Nondis was still seen as a point of contention for a lot of the senators of the aisle he battled with throughout his military career. "You would think somepony would show you some respect after all of what you've done." I said to the human.

"Does it matter?" He replied with a careless shrug.

"Aren't you tired of getting treated like dirt?"

"Is how they're treating me now any worse than how I was treated before?" He inquired.

I groaned in disapproval. "I get it, but still."

He folded his arms and looked to the doors we were set to enter into. "I can already tell the mess we're about to witness."

"How so?" I asked.

He held up a large stack of papers, an exact copy of the bill being put into play. "This lovely collection of guidelines and legislative changes just landed on the parliament floor."

"The free lovers bill?" I said as I looked at the cover. "Nondis, this is just a bill for same-sex couples."

He began to sift though the pages awkwardly. "You would think that, but it seems Somber Spiral managed to throw in a final favor before dying."

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"This bill, applies to everyone who wants someone to love." He said as he used his magic to separate one page out of the some hundreds of pages that he carried. He then gave it to me to read. "It also snuck in an immunity clause to a certain law we don't like."

I kept reading along, skimming through the details until I had come across one passage that grabbed my attention. As he stood proudly waiting for me to read through it a few more times, my eyes began to water with excitement. I nearly lost balance from seeing what was written into the bill.

"Wait, you're joking... right?"

He smirked and leaned against the wall, pointing his thumb at the door. "We should be hearing a whole argument popping up in the next few seconds."

The excitement of what I just saw had me running short of breath, I was left panting, uncertain if this was real. "I think you're bluffing."

"The last guy who thought I was bluffing ended up getting what he got. So are you sure I'm bluffing my hand here?" He said, quirking a brow.

As I was about to speak, a loud yell from an elderly stallion sounded into the hallway. "THIS IS PREPOSTROUS!"

Nondis smiled as he opened the door for me to walk into. "Care to watch the fireworks, your highness?"

I walked into the room, my legs shaking from being overwhelmed with what was happening right now. "There's no way."

As soon as we walked in, the same voice chimed out his objection. "YOUR HIGHNESS, THIS IS AN ISSUE THAT CANNOT BE BROUGHT TO THE FLOOR WITHOUT THE SUFFICIENT REPRESENTATION OF ALL OF THE REALM'S DELEGATES!"

Rings of agreement came from only one side of the room. notably the one that opposed the bill's contents. "THIS VOTE SHOULD BE SUSPENDED!"

"Order!" Celestia called out to the assembly.

Another representative shouted his dissent. "I'M BEGINNING TO THINK THAT THOSE ARRESTS WERE NOTHING MORE THAN A PLAY AT CHANGING THE POWERS OF THE ELECTED PARLIAMENT!"

Nondis quickly chimed in. "Well you can't be upset that most of your fellow delegates who aligned with your viewpoints happen to also be present in many of our arrest documents! You know why they were there, you know why we took their seats, we made it plain as day!"

One of the other officials tilted their head out of the seated formation to speak with me. "Princess Twilight, surely you are a lawful-minded being. Speak some sense and have this vote postponed until the special elections have been concluded! We cannot vote on any legislation until the mandated quorum has been met!"

Though Nondis started to gain ground on a lot of the political issues that were being presented throughout the kingdom, he was still learning a lot about the jargon. "So, what's a quorum?" He whispered to me through the side of his mouth.

"The minimum amount of delegates present to validate the legislative process." I whispered back to him. "Honestly, they make a good point."

"I call bullshit." He said back quietly.

"Why?" I asked.

He nodded and patted me on the back. "Sit there for a sec." He cleared his throat and enunciated his argument to the room. "So let me get this straight real quick. You can issue a summons for me at any given time, regardless of how many ponies are here in this room. And then without any kind of opposing delegation to hold a quorum, you proceeded to put to a vote whether or not I should be punished for taking custody of a changeling leader. The vote was unanimous, but there was also a protest from the other side looking to invalidate the motion, and they attempted to do that by means of the unmet quorum."

The lightbulb finally went off over my head. Although Nondis had no good knowledge of decorum or jargon, he still had a knack for pointing out flaws and inconsistencies, a trait his older brother taught him very well throughout his life. "The captain has a strong point here." I finally tagged into the discussion. "That means you guys did one of two things. Either you voted with all of whom you had to bypass the quorum, or you illegally held a vote disregarding the quorum, which would also make your decision to punish him subject to legislative review, which also means that your seats will be abdicated until the review is complete and you are found to be in good standing, as per the Anti-Corruption Act of 873 C.D.V.. I'm sure you understand what that means."

Yet another senator argued against me. "Princess, surely you understand the difference in there being an intentional holdout of vote and a missing portion of the legislative body due to some arrests. We are down disproportionately by thirty-five percent, which was more than the high princess' prior estimates."

Nondis tagged himself back in. "So you're missing around 117 out of the 340 usual members who sit here. And last I checked, there were a total of 39 arrests on one side of the room, with the other side netting up to 78 arrests." He walked to the middle of the room, observing the number of seats that were empty. "Look, it's not my fault that your friends had a necro-terrorist funding their campaigns, enjoying the fine wines and bloody battles of the underground arena. That's not on anyone but them, same applies for the guys you might have disagreed with on the other side of the aisle. The investigations were apolitical, unbiased, and predicated on the evidence that was collected from the scene of the crime."

"There are 119 missing delegates. We shall not forget our fellow senators Somber Spiral and Count DuMoneé. We cannot have a quorum without at least another seventy to join us. And all of those seats will be filled in the coming months after the special elections. This bill should wait until then."

Nondis tapped his foot, calling out the senator's request. "You mean wait until it's possibly convenient for you?"

"You are putting words in a place where they don't belong, captain." The senator angrily accused.

"And you're trying to cash a check of good faith, knowing that you're beyond the overdraft of that faith. Let's be real, you'd be pushing the motor if the arrests were on the other side of things. All the legislation you'd want, done and sent up to the princess to sign. And if she vetoes it, you ratify it by using that advantage again." He leaned against a nearby desk, again breaking decorum, to make his point. "So let's hear it, are we going to suspend the quorum, or will the rest of you have to answer for illegally holding a vote despite the drastically steeper deficit you operated on when you sent me, as well as an active element bearer, to Arimaspi Mountain?" He tilted his head as his way of claiming victory over the debate. "What's 119 empty chairs to the missing 150 plus when you pulled that stunt?"

Realizing he wasn't going to convince the captain or even me to his side, he began to appeal towards the higher power in the room. "Your highness, we should postpone."

Celestia was beyond reasoning with. "The quorum bypass shall be put to a vote. All in favor, raise your hooves and say 'aye'."

An overwhelming cheer came from one side of the room. "AYE!"

"Those opposed."

An equally-compelling voice of dissent sounded from the other side of the room. "NAY!"

Celestia went by the numbers. "The motion is passed, quorum is suspended for the remainder of the current measure."

An eruption of shouting was heard from one side of the room, producing an inaudible rush of angry rejections. "THIS IS AUTHORITARIAN!"

"HOW DARE YOU DEFILE THE POLITICAL PROCESS!"

Celestia banged her gavel, requesting that there was silence in the room. "Order!"

Instead, they united their voices and chanted out in dissent. "SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!"

"ORDER!" She called out loudly as their cries continued.

"THERE IS NO ORDER WITHOUT PROCESS!" One senator screamed in a brief breaking of ranks.

Nondis rolled his eyes and ignored the ongoing cries. "Your majesty, I suggest we move along."

One of the representatives from the side not shouting took to the floor to begin the debate, starting with his opening arguments. "Your highness..." But the unending shouting grew louder from those who felt that their voices were being ignored. "Will you lot be quiet for just a moment, please!?"

His calls for civility were wholly ignored. Nondis tapped him and called up to the loud dissenters. "If you all ain't did your homework, don't be surprised of the F coming your way! The floor was open for a debate, you made it impossible to enage, the vote shall now be carried." He quietly looked to Celestia and mumbled. "Come on, there's no better shot than now."

I myself had a quiet thought. "If you're going to be corrupt, at least let it be for a good reason. Now's the time to do it."

Celestia ignored the cries of the persistent opposition. She gave the nod to Blueblood, who continued with the proceedings. "THE MATTER SHALL NOW BE HELD TO A VOTE BY TALLY! PLEASE INSERT YOUR VOTE INTO THE REGISTERY BOX DOWN ON THE FLOOR!"

I watched as one side of the room stood up to file into the aisle, having marked their vote already. The other side stood up for a different reason, continuing their chants. Meanwhile I could only watch as what we wished for started to find a way to manifest itself. "She's really doing it." I said, holding my chest as my heartrate climbed. "She's really pushing this." Blueblood walked beside me and stood by, eager to see the results for himself. I softly spoke to him. "I suppose it's only fair. They pushed her hoof way back when. We both know what they did to her sometime after. It's only fair that we push back. I'm just glad she's finally made that step forward after so many years."

"This isn't quite the legal victory we hoped for, but this is the closest we've come to being free in centuries." Blueblood said as Nondis stood by us. "This is now possible, only because you spoke out and reminded us of what took place. This is your win, as much as it is hers." He said to the mam of the hour.

"We didn't win yet. They're still voting." He pointed out.

As one side had completed their votes, there was only the other half that refused to remove themselves from the stand. They continued to show dissent, unwavering in their views. "They're not coming down to vote."

"Their loss." Nondis shrugged off.

"Nondis, they could be days holding this up." Blueblood explained.

"But we're ignoring quorum, remember?" He asked, still not exactly understanding the concept.

"That only applies to being able to put the matter to a vote. The matters is on the floor for the vote, all votes from the representatives and senators must be counted."

Understandably, Nondis began to grow frustrated. "You're telling me that a bunch of crusty bastards can hold up a vote just by simply not voting? That's bullshit. Is there a way we can circumvent this somehow?"

Blueblood quickly provided an answer. "Well, you could implement a time limit. And with quorum broken for the matter, we could just hold it to a simple majority. That way, whoever doesn't vote will simply be listed as an 'abstain' as opposed to a vote being held up by that abstinence. There's a lot of rule bending in place in the event of some deadlocking issues."

"Why didn't you tell me that sooner?" He said before calling up to Celestia. "Your highness, I wish to impose a time limit on the motion being voted on. Those who refuse to vote shall be noted as an 'abstain' in the record."

Celestia smiled, showing favor to the idea. "MOTION TO IMPLEMENT A TIMED VOTE IS NOW ON THE FLOOR! RAISE YOUR HOOF AND SAY 'AYE' IN FAVOR!"

"AYE!" One half of the room raised their hooves.

The princess' smile soured as she looked to the other side, already knowing what to expect. "Those opposed?"

Again, she went by the numbers. "Motion is carried! Voting shall cease in five minutes!" Her announcement went as favorably as one would expect.

The senators and representatives on the favoring side all watched as the spectacle continued to grow on the side of the opposition. One senator who had enough of the display called them out on it. "YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF FOALS! GROW UP, WILL YOU!?"

Some were adamant in showing their disdain for what was being presented. About half of them started to leave into the aisles, coming down with their votes. Nondis announced to the remaining dissenters. "Some are getting up to cast their votes! I suggest you all get on the same page!"

As there were those who outwardly opposed the measure, there were others who continued to stand pat. I understood that those who wished not to vote wanted to show their dissent in a way that would seem ambiguous to many of the voters in their districts. Those who did vote stood on their principles and traditions, often believing that Equestria should remain amorously conservative.

Blueblood made a comment of it. "A house built on a solid foundation will stay firm for years on end. A house built on unsteady ground will develop cracks, eventually settling into disrepair."

"You made the motion to divide them, didn't you" I answered back,

"All it takes is for a select few to vote their 'no' to count it as a 'bipartisan' process." Nondis stated with a smug grin. "The process is different from the vote, right?" He asked, looking down to me.

"Very." I confirmed.

"SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!"

"They're still protesting." Nondis observed. "Though I noticed that the ones who came up and dropped their ballot have already sat back down. They're losing steam."

"And time is ticking away." I added. "One minute left."

The blond-maned prince hollered to the chamber. "ONE MINUTE UNTIL THE BALLOT CLOSES!"

I looked up to Celestia, she was already starting to tear up. She tried to keep as composed as she could, but even I knew that she was overwhelmed with happiness. Nondis saw it too and bumped the prince in a bit of an early celebration. "Blueblood, you're a fucking strategic master, you know that?"

The feeling was mutual between the two, I don't think I've ever seen them get along so vibrantly. "You're the one who did the work. We couldn't have done this without you."

The seconds went by slowly, we were really anxious for the result to be read. Celestia was no different, she took a number of breaths, fanning the tears out of her eyes as she shouted to the chamber. "TIME! THE BALLOT... IS NOW CLOSED!"

Blueblood closed the box at last, taking in the count. As he quickly sorted through the votes, Nondis made a comment on the matter of how he slammed the ballot shut. "Now that is the sweet sound of justice."

"A little longer than I billed it for." He said as he finalized the count. "Looks like there will be some kids in my immediate future."

"It's here all the same, bro." The human leaned over to count the votes to himself. "That's 109 votes against us, that's the real tally... Close call."

Blueblood turned to the princess, eager to see the expression on her face as he read out the results. "Your majesty, the final tally is read as followed: The votes in favor of the motion counts to 114. The votes against the motion counts to 53. The abstained counts to 56."

Shaking, the princess was shaking.

For the first time in my life, and I'm sure in many other lifetimes, have we watched as the princess collapsed under the stand to weep in joy. Her sobs were a mix of laughs and smiles. gasps of air where she couldn't completely believe that the one day she never thought would come had suddenly arrived, and in close fashion.

The bill's final page, a page of signature, was extracted from the pile and sent to the desk for her final stamp of approval. Nondis was smiling for her, speaking softly to her. "Your highness, the motion passes. The bill is yours to decide."

Her tears were the first thing to hit the dotted line, stained with her mascara and eyeliner. She couldn't even focus to do anything with her magic, she was so overwhelmed. In time, she leaned over the bill and saw the final page, only one stain gracing the line. Her jaw trembled as she grabbed for the wax, stamping the bill by the line. She planted her hoof against the wax, holding it in place until it set, then holding it a little longer to take in the long-sought victory.

"We are free." In a mighty swipe of her pen, she signed away the pain, and birthed a new law. "Finally... we are free."

Celestia was the first one to step out the door, reading her results to the massive crowd that gathered outside the castle grounds. Atop of the battlements, she declared with a joyful noise.

"114 to 109, I hereby declare the Free Lovers Bill to be law!"

A sea of erupting ponies cheered in unison as the noon hour of this day was heralded as the dawn of a new day for many, the dusk of centuries of oppression, and the midnight for a marriage law that was suddenly swept into obscurity. Some same-sex couples had celebrated the moment by publicly displaying their affection for the first time, others ended with proposals of marriage, some with quiet memorials of those who did not live to see this day.

The guards of the castle were immediately notified. A lot of them cheered as though they had the chance to actually strike a date with some of the royal family members. Blueblood went onward to let his wives know in a way he wanted to express to them for the better part of a decade. And both Cadance and Shining shared the moment with each other, having already found their happiness in one another, but in securing the freedom for their unborn daughter to choose her own path.

Down the hall, I could hear Solemn Oath screaming out in joy to her friends. She leapt for the high heavens, declaring her happiness in front of her bewildered friends. Cobalt was the most confused of the three. "Solemn, what are you so excited fo─"

Her question was sheared off by a pair of unexpected lips meeting hers. Solemn had openly smooched her friend, and broke off as she realized that she had become a bit overzealous. "Sorry! I just had to kiss someone! I'm so happy!"

While she was the happiest of the bunch, the other three were uncertain. "Uuuuuhhhhhhh..." Cobalt said as she turned her head away, quietly wiping her lips.

"Congrats???" Gleaming Brass said awkwardly.

"I... guess?" Dress Right squeaked.

"Yeah..." The guardsmare mewled out as she realized that none of her friends had known that she was actually a lesbian the entire time. Immediately, her happiness had given way to deep remorse. "Probably should've went with a maid, huh?"

Lemon Hearts walked right past me, winking at me as she walked up to the quartet of now-quiet mares. She grabbed the now sheepish guardsmare and hugged her in place of the friends who isolated themselves away. "Honey, you need better friends, let me start you off." She grabbed her head and immediately dove in, fully locking lips with the guardsmare who was initially surprised by the approach, but soon welcomed the moment with her. As the two separated, Lemon Hearts complimented Solemn on her kissing. "Wow, you have a really nice feel."

The mare blushed, even her ears running red as she confessed to the mare that came from nowhere. "...You have a really great taste. I like the lip gloss."

"Lemon cherry, flavor of the day. Wanna taste again?"

"Please?"

As those two celebrated the moment with one another, finding comfort in their newfound freedom, I watched as the other three quietly observed with mixed emotions. Cobalt Blue shrugged off the initial discomfort and became happy for her friend. Gleaming Brass just accepted it, not really feeling one way or the other. Dress Right appeared to be worried as for what it meant for their friendship.

As I turned away from that scene, I began to take a quiet walk down the hallway.

As more and more guards and maids showed their affections openly towards one another, I started to feel a bittersweet sadness. All I was reminded of was what I didn't have, at least not anymore. I didn't have this moment to share with anyone, I didn't have a pair of arms to wrap around me, or hands to lift me into the air, making my hind legs dangle as I was suspended up high, no warm and welcoming lips to sink mine into. I was alone.

It's what we agreed on... And I had buyers remorse.

"Well, guess that makes you officially 'single and ready to mingle'."

I looked back behind me, seeing the human posed up against a pillar, watching me as I sulked. "I guess it does." I said, trying to smile for him.

He didn't seem all too excited either, I guess it was because he saw me. "So... what's your next move?"

"I don't know. I didn't think we'd ever get here." I replied, turning away from him.

"You look sad." He said as he walked closer.

"It's just bittersweet." Finally, I felt the hand I wanted on my shoulder. I brought it up to my cheek, to caress one last time in the last bit of a consolation price I could accept. "I really thought I'd be sharing this moment with you in some other way. But..."

"Yeah, can't quite say that I didn't look at that myself." He knelt down, hugging me from behind. "A lot of things got in between us. If things had been different than they were, I feel we would've tried again."

As much as I wanted this moment to last for the rest of my life, as much as I hoped that it would never end, I was realistic with myself and acknowledged that it couldn't last. "Well, thank you Nondis, but your princess is in another castle." I teleported away from him, separating myself by at least six feet. He and I looked at each other. "This one. Pretty swanky place, huh?"

He stood back up, a bit disappointed that I broke away. "The future is amazingly bright for you, Twilight. You're bound to find something that just, you know, sticks."

"It's hard to imagine that when my best chance just up and go about dating my teacher." I said, somewhat bitter but also joking. "In the end, everything that I feared had come true. The hole in your chest, probably a little lower than that. The idea of you leaving a plainly mare like me for someone beautiful, like how many of my friends did you sleep with now?"

His eyes bucked open for a moment, he nervously looked away. "That's a loaded question."

While some part of me wanted to confront him over it, I initially thought that it was better to just let it be, to accept that all of what he did was after the fact that I openly severed ties with him. And it wasn't like he did any of it without their consent. I couldn't complain. So I laughed it away, maybe convincing myself that I should find humor in the irony. "I know you don't say it, but you compare me to the others." That's not what I wanted to come out.

"I never said that." He said, somewhat perplexed.

While I didn't want this moment of celebration to be ruined, I still had a lot in my heart I wanted to say. And with virtually no grand-scale battles to save the world getting in the way, I could finally voice my grievances. "But you think of it." I said as I started going down the list. "I know that you and Pinkie had at least kissed once, she opened the doors for you to have a relationship with both her and Cheese, but you rejected that. I know that you and Rarity had been in and out, that I can accept. But was there really a good reason why you had to indulge in others in my social circle?"

"Twilight, I can explain everything." He replied quietly. "If you want me to say it, then ask."

I took a deep breath and started with my pupil. "Starlight Glimmer."

He sighed and gave me a brief explanation. "I needed her to do me a favor, she wanted me to do one in return, we were short on time. I could've probably negotiated it better, but she had me convinced. I was still dealing with the sensual triggers of being a stallion, and I just let her push every button. I still should've withheld, but I didn't quite master self-control when I needed to."

I looked around as I asked him about the second name on my list. "Luna."

He shook his head and replied. "Second verse, similar to the first. But Luna was a lot more aggressive with her negotiations. She actually got in the way of a plan we hatched to get a hold of the transformation spell. And she made sure that I could not get the spell unless I had followed her requests. I did everything I could not to go that far."

At last, I finally landed to the crux of my angst. "Celestia, why her over me?"

"Twilight, please." He begged. "I made up in my mind that I won't compare the both of you to each other."

"But you do it anyways." I quietly replied, collecting myself before I had started to become completely emotional. "You're just kind enough to lie about it. You never say anything with the intent of being mean unless it's warranted. And you're always so nice to me, even now when there's no real reason to be. At some point in the past, you'd be angry that I would even come at you like this. But here you are, growing up faster than I could hope to reach."

"...Umbra said something to you, didn't he?" He asked in a low voice.

I nodded silently before looking back to him. "I feel like I lost any joy I had for this moment when he got in my head that day. I can't even get that back anymore. All I can do is remember the list of names he gave me, to make me feel like I was so... disappointing." I felt my eyes beginning to water. "Like what I had wasn't enough. And it hurts, it hurts to think about because I can't equate that pain to anything you've went through, but I want to be able to tell you how much it hurts me in the way that it does. And then I go back to thinking that it's only me being small-minded, so then I try to confront it by telling you without finding some way for this to blow up in an argument! But I don't know how! So I swallow it, trying to make the best decision for the both of us in acknowledging that it's over despite my wanting to run to you and convincing you that what I have is worth it. I still love you, it still hurts to say it, but I do! And I want to make it right!... But it's too late now, and I have to learn to live with the decisions we both made... no matter how much it hurts."

My words made him deeply concerned. "Twilight."

I didn't just shake myself out of my melancholy, I slapped myself on both sides of my face with my hooves, the physical pain serving as a mental reset. Nondis watched as I stood there, trying my best to remain bright spirited, both for him and for the huge victory we achieved. Having said all that I wanted to say, I cut myself short. "But I couldn't be anymore proud of you for being so strong, for trying to be so nice to me, for overcoming every obstacle in your way, for setting the standard of what I feel I need in my life. That's what I really wanted to say to you on that morning, to tell you that you're the blueprint for everything I want."

I began to feel better about my finally having the moment to express myself in full. While I wanted to bawl my eyes out, this wasn't the time for it, not here in this hallway, and not in front of him. So I distracted myself with the sting on my cheeks, and smiled at him the best I could.

"I'm okay with your decision, it's yours to make, and you have the freedom to make it. Today gave you that option, and you fought so hard for it. So don't worry about me. You have a much bigger crown to polish off, the one that really fits your big head the better."

I turned around and started walking away, but not before he called out to me again. "Hey." Without warning, I felt him behind me, placing his hand on top of my head. "How many times do I have to beat it into you? Your worth is more than what you think it is. You're going to be a great partner for someone. I know you don't see it in yourself because of this, but you really are beautiful. Don't think for once that your outward appearance dictates who others will choose to love. For some idiots out there, it's just another pretty face they'll get to say what all they've done to sully it. It's another brick in the wall for them, and I hope that I don't appear that way to you, I don't want to give you the image of my relationship with you being just that because I still love you. I just can't just go back on my word to others. I suck at this, I know, but I'm trying my best to do right by everyone. So don't ever think of yourself as less than when you've basically set the bar for me." My eyes closed, I'm trying to hold back tears at this point. "Outward appearances can only get you so far, but it's what's inside of you that matters. It's what mattered to me in the end, all the little things that seem so insignificant, they matter. They build up something to be greater. That's what real love gravitates towards the most. And whoever you're gonna be with will see those things for themselves."

I clenched my eyes shut, feeling the weight of his hand on my head, wishing that it would stay there. "I sure hope so."

15 Years Later...

That weight never stayed there like I had hoped it would. Instead of that warm feeling of romantic nostalgia, on my head now sits a crown. My eyes shift away from bittersweet memories, moments I wish I could take back and say something different. But as they were then and as they are now, I can't change them.

I have bigger things to occupy my attention.

Celestia and Luna retired twelve years ago, they left me to run the country. I now have full control of the sun and moon. My nights aren't as memorable as Luna's, nor are my days as illustrious as Celestia's. But the appreciation I'm shown for it remains the same for many. I was given a compass to control them by, at least until I could connect with both of the celestial objects better. The sun and I have many conversations, while the moon tells me many juicy secrets... some I wish I didn't know about. But these days and nights seem to run together so often nowadays.

A lot has happened. I started a school in Ponyville, met the next generation of element bearers, defeated old faces, confronted new ones. The castle's been destroyed, and repaired. The throne room has been renovated twice now. Spike grew wings. I'm no longer an element bearer. My friends have gone their separate ways. Rainbow scoots by with her wife Applejack, didn't see that one coming. Big Mac got married and had kids. Rarity is the CEO of Boutique For You LLC, a billion dollar enterprise that shot off the ground, taking her to boundaries I've yet to see for myself. Fluttershy doesn't live in Ponyville as much, she says it's too noisy nowadays, so she moved in with her husband Discord in the chaos realm... yeah, that's a ironic take if I could ever point one out. Pinkie's taking care of her bakery, teaching the young Cakes what they need to know before setting out to branch into chains in other cities. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo are all instructors at the school. Shining and Cadance have also retired, they visit mom and dad every other month. Flurry Heart, their daughter, has been my fellow high princess, taking care of a lot of problems in the north, it's amazing how fast she grew.

It's even more amazing that her dating life has been ten times spicier than mine has ever been.

In speaking of spicy dating life, my number one assistant comes walking through the door as though he had taken a large weight off in the middle of the throne room. "Spike! how's the delegation going?"

He sighs with his deep voice, rubbing his wings. "Ugh, you would not believe how bad the dragons and griffons were going to get into it over a gold dispute. It's only been ten years since Griffonstone started to rebuild and they're already trying to wage war over a horde of treasure."

I go on to tease the young drake, of course he's almost my height now. Fun fact: I'm now taller than Celestia has ever been. "Well it's a good thing that your relations with Dragon Lord Ember are so taught."

He shakes a claw. "Eh, she's not really interested."

"How do you know that for certain?" I ask him.

He shakes his head in denial. "She beats the living shit out of me every time we see each other. And not in a dragon-assessing-their-mate kind of way. Like she always beats the shit out of me. Sometimes I have to actually go all out just to pin her down to stop her."

He still doesn't get it. I want to tell him outright, but I promised Ember that I would let him discover it for himself. "Maybe she has a way of trying to show it to you. She never stops writing to me about how you're doing as Friendship Ambassador."

"Eh, I just wish she'd be more upfront about it, you know. It's like the moment I mention anything about how Rarity's doing, or how Smolder and I shared a lesson plan for her students, she swipes he claws at me and we start fighting. All these years of trying to get her to emotionally connect, and she gets even more violent. I didn't even know that was possible." He says as he sits on his chair next to me. "I miss the simplicity, that's what I miss about the days back then, where my hopeless attempts to swoon over Rarity ended in her being as brutally honest about why we were never going to see eye-to-eye in amorous terms. I mean I also wasn't really caught up in some weird emotional trapezoid between Ember, Smolder, and Gabby."

I am aware of the many instances of relationships he has. And how contested his love life has been throughout the past two years... guess he took a lot from Nondis without even knowing it. "I thought Gabby had enough of you after the last time you and her had your... moments."

He leans back in his chair, looking to the ceiling. "...She wrote back, still running the shipment distribution center up north."

"Well that's nice. Last I remember, she's helping Rarity with a few of her ventures out in Yakyakistan."

"Oh yeah. She and Prince Rutherford have been really close since the last time I visited." He says with a slight giggle. "I didn't know Rarity moaned so damn loud during sex." He mutters under his breath.

My ears perk up and my wings sprout out as I chide the young drake. "SPIKE!"

He sits up quickly to respond. "What? She does! She's been like that for years! Mare's got her habits."

I roll my eyes with disgust at the dragon. "You males, I swear."

"You males?" He sat up even more, looking at the disapproving glare on my face. "Uh-oh. You wanna talk about it?"

I can't even shake it off, a lot of my emotions are predicated on what I experience out of frustration. I've gotten better at it in every aspect of my life throughout the years, except for one particular field. "Bad luck again." I admit, not really wanting to. "Just another guy looking to try and claim some prestige with his friends. I'm over it."

As I fold my forelegs in a pout, I can't seem to shake the feeling that Spike is going to say something that's completely off the wall to start with. "Well lets be real, you're a far cry sexier than you were ten years back, and that's just me objectively speaking."

It never fails. "Spike, I'm gonna need you to be the gentlecreature I need you to be, and not call me sexy."

And of course, he takes it even further. "Twilight, I'm your friend. I'm gonna keep it a buck with you."

"I know." At least he never gives me bad advice, that's the one thing he's been consistent with throughout the years. I've grown to trust him in our conversations, even the mature ones that I feel a bit uncomfortable having. So often times, I vent to him about my feelings. "I'm just tired of being pursued like I'm going to be someone's meal ticket, or someone's new notch in their belt, or even a late-night story at the local bar." I growl in frustration. "And here I was thinking that being able to date without those ridiculous restrictions was where it got easier. I'm 34 and I've yet to have a relationship as long as the first one I had."

He looks to me with a quirked eyebrow. "Maybe you're looking in the wrong place."

"How so?" I ask him.

"All you've dated are guards." He points out... accurately.

"Well... yeah... that."

He stands up from his seat, and places a claw on my shoulder. "I know you're trying to find that next big hit, but can you at least broaden your horizons a little? You can't keep complaining about the quality of the gems you get when you keep digging in the same damn place."

"Ain't that the truth." I mumble.

"Maybe you need to pull a Pinkie, go on a trip of self-discovery. Look at how that worked out for her, she and Cheese tied the knot and settled down. Hear my words, Twilight. Pinkamena Diane Pie, the most sugar-rushed force of chaos this side of Discord's snap settled down and got busy. Now it's her son who's took that mantle from her. She's just getting worn down now. That's all because she finally stopped trying to associate herself with the past, comparing herself to her friend's accomplishments, and then going through with what makes her feel the happiest." He walks in front of me, placing both of his claws on either of my shoulders. "You have to stop filing the ranks and asking Gallus to scope you out someone else. Go to a different city, or even a different venue. Maybe you'd find something that's better for you, as opposed to trying to replace something that's no longer there."

...Okay, first off, ow. "Can you stop attacking me already?"

Spike shakes me a little, knowing that the informal approach sets me at ease. "I'm your friend, I gotta hit you where it hurts sometimes."

"Yeah, but you didn't have to assassinate me, Spike." I reply, giggling as I'm being shook like crazy. "Sheesh, I'm just trying to sort things out still. It's hard to do when you don't have much of a roadmap to follow."

Spike looked around the throne room, seeing a number of stained glass windows in the hall. To his right was a window depicting a human standing at an alter with a shorter-maned Celestia. "Ah, it's about time they put that thing up. All that political grandstanding to try and keep Equestria's image predicated on ponies exclusively. Thank goodness the voter makeup changed drastically throughout the years."

I look up at the window, remembering that day as not a bittersweet reminder, but a fond memory filled with laughter and an instance of Twilighting that didn't stem from me for a change. "I think it's more of the image being presented. Not everypony was ready to see that get illustrated so profoundly. But it's the 'happily ever after' she deserved. And I felt that it only made sense to put this up there for her, to tell the future generations what became of her."

Spike hummed as he looked at the window. "I wonder how they're doing?"

I smiled as I closed my eyes to recount the day of their marriage. "They're doing fine."

At last is the long awaited end of Twilight's part in the story. I really wanted to tie up a lot of loose ends with this one and I hope that I managed to bring it all together in a good way. But in most other circumstances, I know that there will be a lot of those who sees this as a sad end, but it's probably the more realistic of the options I had come up with.

Love is hard, and relationships are even harder to piece together. And often times they don't work out. But it's the growth that comes from them that make the experience better for many.

Next up, Melanie.