epilogue

Less than a year after that night, Nightmare Moon returned from a thousand years of exile and was defeated by a group of friends bearing the Elements of Harmony. Stripped of all the hatred and anger that had created Nightmare, Princess Luna was finally returned to Equestria. She began a long and difficult road to recovery and, she hoped, redemption.

Luna made her first visit to The Night Kingdom during the Twenty Nights Festival the following year with hopes of mending the rift between the kingdom and Equestria. She was offered the position of ruler of the kingdom almost instantly. She accepted several conditions, most of which were met. She was amazed to find the castle built for her in Old Capital had been kept in perfect condition, her private wing looked as though she had just left. Personal items were still where she had put them a thousand years before, a brush left on a nightstand, a ballgown hanging in a wardrobe, a crayon drawing of her mailed by a child who had grown up and lived their entire life in her absence.

While re-joining Equestria would take many years, the kingdom did begin to change their laws and practices at the request of their returned princess. Slavery and piracy were outlawed, forcing many wolf packs to either make new lives for themselves within the new legal systems or keep to their old ways and leave the kingdom. The cast system used by the Moose was stripped of all legal power, though it would remain a cultural problem for years to come. And for the first time in a thousand years Thestrals were no longer forced to serve in the guard after they left school.

As time passed the kingdom became a territory of Equestria, its continued refusal to accept Celestia as leader kept it from gaining full status. The kingdom modernized by building tracks for the Great Northern Railway to connect to Luna Bay and Vanhoover to the south and later to the Crystal Empire and Yakyakistan to the east. Night Kingdom lumber was shipped across the continent, and the Equestrian Thestrals were able to bounce back from the brink of extinction.

After the play was completed and the feast eaten, Tug tore up Tragedy's contract and gave her a letter of exit, freeing her from his service and allowing her to return to Equestria. After the return of Princess Luna he continued performing in the Night Kingdom for many years despite other offers. He was old, set in his ways and fully intended to never leave. His decision was finally changed when he was offered a chance to play the storyteller in a multi city tour of an extended version of "The Sorceress and the Heart of Darkness". The tour took him to through all the major cities of equestria. After the final show of the tour, Tug passed away from old age in the bed of a presidential suite in a 5 star hotel in Manehatten, not bad for the runt of a litter from Bone Town.

Holly of the Dour Gate only attended school in her hometown for three years before she was given the opportunity of a lifetime. To help integrate the kingdom back into Equestria, Princess Luna started a an exchange program for students to travel to different cities and study there. Holly would receive the rest of here schooling in Cloudsdale and like many of the other foals there dreamed of becoming a Wonderbolt. Holly lacked the speed to join the elite group but made up for it in endurance, eventually setting a world record for circling all of Equestria in a single trip. As an adult she realized a way to turn her talent into a business. With their mission statement to deliver every package on time and to the correct address, the Dour Gate Courier Company is the only serious competition of the Equestrian Postal Service.

Gar hadn't been kidding all those years before when she threatened that little broken unicorn. If they had run into each other after the play, Gar would have killed her.she wouldn't have been the first and would by no means have been the last. When piracy was outlawed she refused to change her ways so she and her pack left The Night Kingdom forever. They kept to the Seal Islands for a few years, but too many close calls told her it was time for them to leave the continent. Gar disappeared from any records for the next five years before the Sultan of Saddle Arabia placed a 8,000 bit bounty on her head. A mercenary in Griffonstone claims to have traveled there, found her and chased her off of a cliff into the ocean. There have been no other reports since that time. The bounty remains unclaimed to this day.

Tragic Tale returned to her family's home in the middle of a cold December night. She had traveled nonstop for three days and collapsed from exhaustion before her parents could open the door. She awoke two days later in her childhood room as though her whole ordeal had been a nightmare, her broken horn and jagged voice were the only things to tell her it had been real. she refused to go outside for more than a month, causing doctors and later a therapist to visit her there. with proper medicine her horn eventually healed and her voice improved, though a slight rasp would stick with her for the rest of her life. with the help of therapy she was able to lead a normal life. She returned to acting and eventually moved to Manehatten to become a professional. She became a very popular actress, playing multitudes of roles with a particular flare for dramas. At one point, she was offered a part, and at the suggestion of her therapist, reprised her role as the Sorceress in a multi city production of "The Sorceress and the Heart of Darkness". In her opinion this was her greatest accomplishment, because she had beaten her past.

There is very little information on what happened to Six Legs after the festival. The same night Tragic Tale was found on her parent's doorstep, the Apple family in Vanhoover also received a visitor. After a knock at the door they found a foal wrapped in a blanket and a letter. It explained that the foal was half moose and the daughter of their daughter, Snap Apple. The letter went on to apologize that the writer couldn't be a better father or husband and that he had sold everything he owned to leave for Bright Eyes. They found several hundred bits in the blanket as well. The last time anyone saw Six Legs was a week later in Bone Town. Moose legends say that if you walk the Bone Road and are found worthy, you join the Ancients and become a mountain. When describing that area in the book "Daring Do and the Race to the North Pole", writer A. K. Yearling mentions a fight with a windigo on a mountain with two small waterfalls pouring out of its right side.

The Dawn Star file was sealed by royal order and will not be declassified for another 200 years.

Author's Note

And with that it's done. I'm actually really happy with how this came out in the end. I'll admit, there were a few times I thought about not finishing it, but here we are. is it the greatest story? no, but you know what, it's a start.

As always, questions, comments, concerns and subtle innuendo are always appreciated. Please, let me know what you think.