Velvet Sparkle and the Queen in Stone
By Tundara

Epilogue

Velvet woke to the distant bells of Sparkledale’s temple tolling over the fields, as they’d done every day for the past week to mark the loss of one of the nation’s heroes.

Stifling a yawn, she squirmed out from between Comet and Glitterdust. Sitting down at her vanity, she began to brush her mane. Her ear twitched, and the slightest hint of a frown played at one corner of her lips.

The manor was so quiet.

Empty.

With the departures of the princesses, so too their guards had left, creating a hole that had yet to be filled. The loss of the little clinks of armour, the crinkle of their cotton undercoats, and the slight noise of their breathing created a void that danced just along the fringes of awareness, much as their presence had done before.

While Celestia and Luna once more resumed their thrones, Cadence, Shining, and Tyr were due to return to the Crystal City within the week. Preparations needed to be made for the Summer Sun Celebration in both nations, and Cadence had a truly massive heap of paperwork and affairs to settle once she was back in her nation.

Star, naturally, was back in the dorms at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, no doubt retelling the story of all the magic she’d seen during Season recess. Whisper had elected to stay in Canterlot with Limelight while she settled into her new role as an aide to the Madam Speaker of the House of Ladies. No sooner had they packed their bags than Pennant received orders to report to the Princess Celestia as the ship’s Second Lieutenant. Such a position almost guaranteed her receiving a promotion in the next year.

Through all this, Velvet stood idle. Following the funeral, nopony sought to do anything but give her space.

After all the activity of the past month, it was strange to have nothing to do.

The first hints of noise came from the foals’ rooms, followed shortly after by Miss Darning’s voice as she prepared them for the carriage ride into town for school. Sometimes Velvet regretted departing from tradition and not hiring a governess. No more so when the laughter and little squabbles faded and was followed by the clop of hooves as they departed.

She joined Glitterdust and Comet for breakfast, and little was said. Comet made a few comments about the continued failure of his hoofball team. Glitterdust spoke of inviting a friend from Manehatten to visit. Otherwise they ate in silence.

For a little while Velvet turned her attention to working on her grimoire. Without the weight of impending doom resting on her withers, she’d decided to give it far greater detail and depth. Enchantment was layered atop enchantment, allowing entire chapters to rearrange themselves, turning what was at first glance a book of little more than a hundred pages into a limitless repository for her knowledge.

The ring of the doorbell reached her up in the study, but she did not move, intent on the spell formula in front of her.

She didn’t even raise her head when Mr. Cane knocked on the door.

“Ma’am, there is someone here to speak with you.” There was an odd quiver to his voice that made her pause. “She waits in the library.”

Setting aside her quill, Velvet stood and set off at an easy pace, wondering who had called to visit. Coming into the entrance hall she found several of the staff had created or found excuses to be near the library. Flowers were re-arranged in their urns, pictures were being dusted, and Mr. Halfpint was giving the long mirror a thorough inspection for the minutest speck of dust, his ear cocked towards the door where Mrs. Hardtack stood vigil, rough and rigid as ever.

“Ma’am, you may wish to brace yourself,” she cautioned as Velvet picked up the pace in her stride.

Ignoring their antics, she put the staff out of thought and stepped into the library. Her greetings faltered, barely formed, in her mouth as she saw a short, off-white halla standing next to the window. The sunlight made her magenta and pink mane shine, and danced off the gold tags dangling from her short, blunt antlers. At the sound of the door opening, the halla turned around, a constrained, nervous grin on her broad features that pulled at the corners of light brown eyes.

“Mother,” she said, “It be good to meet you.”

The End of Velvet Sparkle and the Queen in Stone.

Author's Notes:

Well, this story got out of hoof...

My original intent way back in 2013 was to just do a little aside. Something focusing on Twilight's family and Velvet's back-story. Four, perhaps five chapters. Nothing too extravagant. It very quickly escalated.

I was taken aback by how beloved the slower family related stuff became, by readers and myself. Likewise, with how things grew out of proportion, the flash-back sections became more and more a mess that required the hand-wave of an unreliable narrator to justify the inconsistencies and errors.

Just yesterday as I was doing some edits on Part Fifteen I had a revelation that it should have been Shining that was the fifth member of the casting circle, rather than Blessed. Actually, Blessed is a character that I would have removed entirely from the story if the story were to go through the usual multiple drafts books enjoy before publication.

Other subplots lead nowhere, or had some groundwork done and then the follow through was cast aside. For instance, for quite a while, there was going to be an attack on Sparkle Manor by diamond dogs, and Whisper was going to have been possessed by the ghost of King Selim, all as part of a revenge plot against Velvet. It was meant to be a way to link the two sides of the book together, but at the last minute I came to my senses and jettisoned the idea. Some hold overs remain, such as the telegram of Sateen's death.

Considering all the problems, it's amazing Velvet reached a conclusion at all. Actually, it turned out far, far better than I'd ever hoped, even with the myriad issues.

I want to thank everyone who stuck with the story these three and a half years, or who have found it since.