Epilogue: A Mother's Love

Three days had passed since the showdown in the market place. Chrysalis and Celestia had arrived shortly after the fight and the Queen of the Changelings had taken her renegade son into custody. To everypony's lasting surprise she had even apologized for his behaviour, before grounding him for two months. The army had then escorted the delegation back to the Equestrian-Changeling border without trouble. Twilight had made a speedy recovery and had just been released from the Ponyville hospital.

Twilight, Velvet and Princess Celestia were sitting in the former's living room at the library over tea to digest what had happened. True to her word Velvet began with a full account of what she had been up to since coming to Ponyville that set Twilight's ears aflame.

“Eight Diamond Dogs,” the Element of Magic asked with a blush, after not having uttered a single word while her mother had been talking. “That's … “

“Disgusting?” Velvet suggested, her ears hanging low. “Horrible? Unforgivable?”

Twilight laid a gentle hand on her mother's arm. “I was going for amazing.” She looked up at her with tears in her eyes. “Mom, you went through all of that for me?”

The writer smiled. “Of course. No mother could do less. But aren't you upset about all the others?”

Twilight shook her head. “Never. How could I deny you or them your innocent fun? There's nothing wrong about the passion two ponies share. Or a pony and a dragon. Or a pony and a zebra. Or … ”

“I get it,” Velvet said a little embarrassed. “But what about the news articles?”

“I never even was angry at dad, well a little perhaps. But that's a moot point now that it turns out he didn't do it. What I was angry about was that nopony told me. I'm a grown mare now. I don't need to be shielded from the world. If you and dad have problems, I want to know about it.”

“No more secrets,” Velvet promised.

Twilight squinted her eyes at her. “You know what I want to hear. Say it.”

Velvet chuckled. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Mother and daughter chuckled. Then Twilight grew serious again and looked at Celestia. “How is my dad?”

“He'll make a full recovery,” Celestia said calmly. “But he'll have to stay hospitalized for a while longer. Six months in that cocoon left him pretty malnourished. I'm told he can have visitors starting tomorrow.”

Twilight nodded. “I'll go visit him, then.”

Velvet laid a hand on her daughter's shoulder. “We will visit him.”

“Are you and dad gonna be alright?”

The older mare sighed. “I don't know,” she said truthfully. “I told you we had our troubles even before Imago took his place. If it hadn't been for that, he wouldn't have been able to pull it off in the first place.” A slight smile crossed her face then. “But I'm willing to try, if he is.”

Celestia coughed. “Now, about the Elements.”

Twilight looked at her teacher. “That's right. Is my mother an Element of Harmony now?”

Celestia smiled. “Hardly. I'm pretty sure it was a one time thing. Since you were out of commission, your Element must have honed in on Velvet instead, since you're so closely related. It then called out to the other Elements, who in turn sought out temporary hosts as well. The power infusion from Shining Armor and Cadence then enabled your mother to activate the Elements, bringing an entirely new Element into existence for a brief time, the Element of Passion. The circumstances were rather extraordinary, so I don't see it happening again. You and your friends are still the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.”

“Oh, good,” Velvet sighed in relief. She had been completely freaked out by her new wings, until they had vanished after a day. “I'm too old for this.” She gave her daughter a wink. “Protecting Equestria is a young mare's game.” Then she looked at the Princess gravely. “I'm just sorry to have caused you so much trouble.”

Celestia shook her head. “I've dealt with the press before. I was a young mare once, too.” Velvet wanted to argue that point, but then realized that in Celestia's eyes she herself was probably nothing more than a filly. “While your methods are unorthodox, I certainly can't argue with your results. The fact that the Elements of Harmony had suitable hosts for this crisis was down to you. You saved Equestria by the power of your passion and as I understand it, everypony has come to realize that.”

Indeed over the past three days almost every pony in town had come to pay her a visit and apologize for their initial behaviour, when they had found out. Velvet had been quick to forgive all of them. In her mind it was clear that their reactions had been in part due to Imago's influence. Love and tolerance were the very foundation stones of Ponyville, after all. At this point she couldn't even understand what she had been so afraid of in the first place.

“Thank you, Princess,” Velvet frowned. “Please don't think I'm being rude. But I'd really like to spend some time alone with my daughter now. It feels like so much has happened that I haven't seen her in ages.”

“That's quite alright, Mrs. Sparkle,” the white alicorn said gently and stood up. “I must be getting back to Canterlot, anyway. Until we meet again.”

When mother and daughter were alone, Velvet beamed. “Now then. Spike's over at Rarity's house, so it's just you and me. We can finally spend some quality time together. What do you wanna do?”

“Don't you have to finish your novel?”

Velvet levitated the finished manuscript over proudly. “Nope, all done. Already sent a copy off to my editor. She says, it's the best I've ever written. I'm all yours.”

“Well,” Twilight fidgeted. “There's one thing I missed more than anything, since I moved out. I still got the box safely tucked away under my bed.”

Velvet raised an eyebrow. “Twilight. We haven't done this since your 18th birthday.”

“Please?” the purple mare asked with puppy-dog-eyes. “I really need this to relax after everything that's happened.”

“Well, alright,” the novelist chuckled. “But I'm gonna have to slip into something more comfortable first.”

“Forget that,” Twilight said, pulling her mother up from the sofa. “Just come up to my room.”

“This is why I keep telling you, you need to find a husband.”

The alicorn grinned at her. “Be serious, mom. I can't do this with a husband and Spike's no good either.”

* * *

20 minutes later Spike returned to the library and found the ground floor empty. Spending the evening with his new very special somepony Rarity had put him in a great mood. Tomorrow they were going on a double date with Fluttershy and Snowflake. Now he just needed to make sure that Twilight and Velvet had made up, before he went to bed.

He made his way upstairs and was about to knock on Twilight's door, when he heard a moan from the other side.

“Mom, cut it out. You know I'm ticklish there,” he could hear the librarian's muffled voice.

“Don't move around so much then. You don't hear me complaining about your wings getting in the way, do you?” was Velvet's answer.

“I can't help it. They always get stiff, when I'm excited.”

Spike groaned. They were at it again.

Velvet grunted. “I can't hold it much longer. Do it already.”

“Okay, here I go,” Twilight said, panting heavily. “Right hand on green.”

“You're kidding.”

After a short shuffle, Spike could hear two bodies crash to the ground and he opened the door to see two fully clothed mares sprawled on the ground in a giggling heap.

“That one was your fault,” Twilight laughed.

“No it wasn't,” Velvet replied. Then she realized the young dragon standing in the door. “Hey, Spike. Care to join us for a game?”

He looked with distaste at the colourful mattress and the spinning wheel. He had always been bad at this game, since his tail got in the way. “No, thanks. Aren't you a little old for playing Twister?”

Twilight gave him a shocked look. “Too old to have fun with my mom? Never.”

Velvet smiled contentedly. “This reminds me of when you were all young.” She looked over at her daughter. “Once Night Light is better, I think I'll go and visit your brother in the Crystal Empire. Wanna come along?”

The End … or is it?

Author's Note

Gottcha.