Stories in Stone, Last Dance

Chapters

Last Dance
Last Discovery
Last Meal
Last Stand
Last Rainboom
Last Cookie
Last Mission
Last Party
Last Harvest
Last Foal
Last Kiss
Last Crusade
Last Show
Last Call
Last Summer
Last Notes
Last Night
Last Chapter
Last Sunset.

Last Dance

[ 70 years after the defeat of Tirek ]

Screams filled the air, the bellowing calls and cries that echoed in the immediate area and were likely heard for leagues outside of it.

A white mare stands before all the chaos, bathed in lights as she panted, clearly worn out and looking like she needed a rest. Her white fur held an off shade here and there, patches of silvery gray that marred her otherwise pristine white coat. Her lavender and pink mane and tail were the same, though she never bothered to color the gray in that, the added streaks only made the other colors stand out more though the hair was getting thin. She had opted to ignore her makeup this time, setting out to do this looking 'Ala natural' as her sister would have said.

The mare lifted her head, looking out over the screaming crowd as she caught her breath, then upward to the group of dragons, one of them blue and another one purple and green, sitting on the edge of the far wall, then to the Elk, sitting in the box seats over looking the stadium. With the Elk in the box seats were four empty chairs, vacant save for four photos that were facing the stage.

One of her parents, who had never missed one of her shows until they passed, she made sure they never missed one after either.

One of her sister and her husband, who had not survived long enough to ever see one of her shows.

One of a pair of her friends, dead for a few years now, but who always came to her shows or to see her when they could.

The fourth was of another friend and her husband, while she wasn't as close to her as she would have liked, it was past time for her to be able to get to know her more.

There was a fifth photo as well, of her own husband who had passed only two years ago. That photo was not with the others, but in the control booth. Button Mash would never allow any one else to run one of her shows with out him being there to watch over them, that was something he still did now.

Sweetiebelle Reighnolds Mash sighed softly, the sound carrying over the microphone she wore and was heard over the roaring crowd. The sound of her sigh sent a ripple through the audience, as every one of them went silent.

New Canterlot Colosseum. The largest sports and music stadium in Equss. Two hundred thousand seats, a standing sports and show field that was three times the size of Canterlot Castle, and thousands of clouds overhead filled with flying creatures.

Fully sold out nearly a year in advance the day the tickets became available. Barely an apple's length was available to move on the standing field before the stage

The fire martials were likely having mental break downs, there was an entire division of Guards patrolling this place that were geared and ready for war. Jer'rahd Kaisur himself had taken control of security for the event himself. Not even the Princesses could have gotten a seat if she hadn't saved them one.

She hadn't, but Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia were here any way. As were Princess Cadence and Queen Luna. While they were not in the cheap seats, they were not in the important ones either.

The box seats were for her teacher, Bleu, her friend Spike, and her sole remaining best friend Applebloom. The half Elk and Dragons barely looked any older, even after eighty six years.

She lifted her head higher, ears perking at the total and absolute silence filling the area. She couldn't even hear any one breathing.

Thirty five thousand Ponies and members of other races filled this arena to overflowing. There was even more than that listening outside the stadium, the exact count was far beyond anything any one ever expected. Every Hotel in New Canterlot, Ponyville, Cloudsdale and every other town around the Manterhorn was booked solid. There were crystal's recording her from every angle and the broad cast was live in countless theaters and private receivers across Equss. The turn out was unheard of, the event would likely never be duplicated.

She opened her mouth, eyes remaining closed as she felt the weariness beat down on her. She was in her eighties, far too old to still be doing this, but she couldn't help it, there was nothing else she would rather be doing, retirement always seemed to be something other Ponies did. It wasn't until Button died that she realized how much time had passed.

“I suppose you all know this....., but this is my final show.”Sweetiebelle admitted.

There were a chorus of cries and shouts of encouragement and denial, though they quickly quieted down again as she shook her head.

“When I first started looking for my cutiemark I never thought this would be the result. I never even thought this when I did gain my cutiemark and found my talent. I... my friends and I tried so many things to gain our cutiemarks, only to find that when we did what we loved, they came to us. Some later than others mind you.” she chuckled at the inside joke that only the half Elk in the booth over the stage really got at this point.

“But here I am. On stage. Before thousands of souls from all races and walks of life. All here just to hear me sing. It's the same now as it was in my first performance. The excitement, the fear, the pure disbelief that all of you are here for me..... Even after all this time my old fans, my new fans, families that have followed me for several generations. It's unbelievable, it really is. I love all of you for it. Even if you couldn't make it and are just listening to the broadcast. From the bottom of my heart thank you.”

The roar in response was enough to shake the foundation of New Canterlot itself. Thankfully the architects had learned their lessons multiple times and nothing collapsed.

She let out another sigh and opened her eyes. The green of them gleaming, showing the fire of the youth the old mare once had still lived inside her.

As the roar died off she spoke again with a bit more vigor.

“I know I'm no young mare any more and I knew I couldn't do this forever no matter how much I wanted to. Also, I hate to say that there is only one more song left before I'm done. A new song, one of the few from my final album, but it's the last one I have in me I'm afraid.”

There was a general murmurer of disapproval from the crowd though she lifts a hoof waving it off.

“Don't be upset. Just don't. There will be other musicians. Ones even better than me that will come out in the future. Some of them might even be sitting here now listening to me yammer on like an old gossip mare. Some may never have musical talent and that's okay as well. The important thing is. That you do what you love. Give it everything you have, even if others don't care or don't like it so long as you like it, so long as you love what you do, no matter what it is...... no one elses opinion matters. Though I am obligated to say if what you love is illegal, then seek help.”

There was some assorted laughter at the joke as Sweetiebelle Mash lifted her head skyward looking past the cloud seats to the stars far beyond them. A beat of drums and piano begins behind her as her horn softly glows and the crowd again goes silent.

[link]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDh_gHDvkk

“Mmmmbbbmmm baa daaa daaa. Mmmmbbbmmm baa daaa daaa , mmmmbmmm bmmm baaa daaa daa.”

A light clicked on showing the band behind her and a trio of Changeling singers. It had taken her a long time to convince everyone to come back for this. Most of the band was not the ones she started with. Though the last few members remaining of the band, The Rarities, were there. Changelings live a long time, but even so most of them were old when they met her for the first time any way. Technically three of the starting five were dead, Carol, Ditty, and Melody. But Carol had died only a few days before the show, yet before that, somehow she and Sweetiebelle had convinced Queen Luna to allow her to sing this last time piggybacked in another willing Changeling before she passed on for good. Granted that was how Luna got her ticket to the show. This was important as Carol wasn't a back up singer with this song, she was part of a duet with Sweetiebelle. The pair had been through a lot personally and there had been a good bit of drama between herself, Carol, and Button because of it, though it all worked out in the end.

“PRESSURE!!

“Pressing down on me,

Pressing down on you,
no one ask for.”

Photos of the fallen members of the band were placed in their spots on stage and kept lit even as their replacements were hidden in the shadows. Aria had her Guitar and Shanty was on the drums. Carol, due to her currently inhabiting a much younger Changeling who had volunteered to let her use his form for the concert was her secondary vocals as well as the bass player.

“Under pressure

that burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts ponies on streets.”

Sweetiebelle turned her head a little to breath in. As the Changelings continue the humming tempo. She was getting to old for this.

“It's the terror of knowing What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming, "Let me out!"
But tomorrow gets me higher
Pressure on ponies – ponies on streets”

The chorus continued again as Sweetiebelle glanced back behind her swearing she was hearing double in the chorus. Her eyes widened as she saw ghostly images of Melody and Ditty floating over their photos. Images that where adding their talent and voices for the last time.

“Chippin' around, kick my brains 'round the floor
These are the days - it never rains but it pours”

“Ponies on streets -

ponies on streets”

The images seem to get brighter, but no one else but Carol seemed to notice them. The stubborn, some what undead changeling looked from the ghosts to Sweetiebelle and back, before smiling softly and nodding continuing her part of the song with barely a pause. Weird things were not uncommon for any of them.

“It's the terror of knowing What this world is about
Watching some good friends Screaming, "Let me out!"
Tomorrow gets me higher, higher, higher...
Pressure on ponies - ponies on streets”

That wasn't quite true. She could see from her friends expression in the booth that Applebloom saw them too. Sweetiebelle's eyes widened a bit. Her parents, Lion Heart, Scootaloo, Pip, Babs, and Silver were in the booth with the startled half Elk, along with a black furred alicorn mare who she didn't recognize. Applebloom's eyes widen in panic as she looks down at Sweetiebelle on stage before she rushed forward to press against the glass of the booth looking down at the unicorn mare with a pained expression on her face and tears in her eyes. Sweetiebelle simply smiled up at her.

“Turned away from it all like a blind mare
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn”

“Why, whyyyyyy, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?”

Sweetiebelle's eyes fixate on the sound booth far above everything else and the ghost of a stallion standing there at the window looking down to her with a smile. He then turned yelling something at one of the sound crew, who clearly didn't hear him.

“Love, love ,love, love, love........”

[ TDR Presents..... ]

“Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can't we give love that one more chance?
Why can't we give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?..”

[ …..the Conclusion of..... ]

“Cause love's such an old-fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The ponies on the

edge of the night”

[…....Stories in Stone.......]

“And love dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves ”

“This is our.......

…....Last Dance

This is ourselves..........”

A tall white unicorn with a purple mane strode forward across the stage towards Sweetie Belle, rising out of the captivated crowd like a specter full of grace and poise. Sweetiebelle's eyes widen, tearing up as she sees her sister, unseen by any one else, move up to wrap her hooves around her younger her as Sweetiebelle closed her eyes, a wide smile forming on her face. That was everything she had left. The crowd gasped and started screaming as the elderly mare collapsed on the stage as the chorus trails off into nothing.

Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure ….......

And it was at the end of her last song, that Sweetiebelle Reignolds Mash, passed from Equss.

Author's Note

Thus begins the end.

The Last Dance

Song Was Under Pressure by Queen featuring David Bowie.

Last Discovery

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Discovery.

[10 years after the defeat of Grogar]

“SPARKLE!!!!!!”

The bellow shook the foundations of the castle sending Guards scampering every where and making the librarian turned Princess very very nervous particularly because the cry was two voices, not one, and both sounded pissed.

She didn't have time to be nervous long as the doors to the throne room exploded inward, the heavy iron and gold doors ripping from their hinges and crashing to the floor with enough force to shatter the marble. The Guards who had been protecting the door were spread out on the other side of the broken door like fallen bowling pins. But at least they were still moving.

She barely had time to react to that before the thunder of hooves crossing the floor sent the nobles that had gathered for her night court scampering away. Twilight barely had a moment to register the gray furred Kirin, and the blue furred Unicorn show mare rushing at her before both of them lept and crashed into her as she screamed out, toppling her throne back and sending the trio of them crashing to the floor as the weighty throne impacted the ground with a heavy thud.

“WHAT DID YOU DO WITH BERRY [TREVOR]!!” the pair of them shouted in her face nearly throttling the purple princess. While Trixie's hooves around her neck didn't have enough force to cause her much issue Jer'rahd's most certainly did.

Thankfully she was spared being strangled to death as a dark blue glow wrapped around both of her attackers pulling them off of her. Trixie was simply held in the air, though Jer'rahd was flung through a window towards what Twilight believed was the side of the throne room with the koi pond an ambassador from Japony set up.

The loud splash and shriek pretty much confirmed that it was indeed.

Luna herself strode into the room as Twilight worked to get back onto her hooves her wings fanning as she tried to right herself. Twilight was about to thank her and ask what was going on when she took note of what form Luna was in.

The mares coat was as black as midnight with purple markings on her flank that sported white crescent moons. She stretched her wings, the lengths larger than a normal Pegasus and more bat like than bird. She was taller than Luna normally was and much leaner matching, if not exceeding, Celestia in height now. Her mane and tail did not even seem to be hair any more, yet were a near translucent dark sea of stars as if the night itself had decided to inhabit this mares mane and tail. She growled. bearing fangs in a maw more at home with a wolf or shark as she advanced, her eyes were brilliant green eyes slit more like a dragons than a ponies.

Celestia choose that moment to throw open the rear door of the chamber and start to storm in with a collection of Guards. She paused taking note of Luna's appearance and the look Nightmare Moon was giving Twilight. Then there was the swearing blue pony in the purple wizards hat cussing up a storm and threatening to do not nice things to Twilight being held in Nightmare Moon's magic just a bit away. Add to that Jer'rahd's cursing which could be heard as well as the sound of his encounter with a number of Guards sent to arrest him for the 'attack'. It did not sound favorable for the Guards to be honest. Celestia also took note of the look Twilight was giving her, pleading for help.

The Princess of the Sun, The Solar Flare let out a long sigh, fanned out her wings and stepped backwards pushing the Guards with her back out of the room before closing the door again.

“Nope.” Celestia stated simply.

“Traitor.” Twilight hissed as Nightmare Moon strode up to her glaring down at the Princess.

“Twilight Sparkle...... an incident has happened in the Crystal Empire in the Crystal College involving several students who were working on something you had assigned.” Nightmare Moon leaned in close with a small snarl, her shark like teeth bared as her slitted draconic eyes narrowed at the current Goddess of the Moon. “Those students were Sunset Shimmer Kaisur, Trevor Lulumoon, and Ice Berry Lily Kaisur as well as their assistants Flail Lulumoon and Beryl Kasiur. We would like to question you as to what YOU set them to do.”

“Ohhhh buck me...........” was all Twilight could manage.

=======================================================================
[ Two hours later, Crystal Empire]

“We've checked through the rubble and there's no trace of any bodies.” Shining Armor stated looking over the ruins of one of the work towers for the college at the edge of the city. “ We've a few mages going over everything, but we have determined the tower didn't explode, it collapsed, there's significantly less rubble than there should be. We believed that it was less of a explosion and more like a large section of the tower simple ceased to be there and the rest of it collapsed.”

Shining was doing his best not to meet any ones gaze. While he had suspected Jer'rahd and Luna would react badly to the news, he had not expected to also have to deal with Ms. Lulumoon so soon. He was also not expecting his sister to be brought along and trussed up like a caterpillar. The fact that Luna looked like Nightmare Moon and Jer'rahd was practically frothing at the mouth was not unnoticed, yet it was the show mare that worried him particularly the black energy dancing around her horn and eyes, it reminded him a little to much of Sombra.

Twilight despite being trussed up like something you would see in one of the older movies where the villain was tying some one to a train track seemed surprisingly calm. Still he had to ask.

“Sooooo.....”

“We were here yesterday and had dinner with them. Orange's second foal is due soon and we were here for the birth.” Nightmare Moon stated flatly.

“Trixie was here to visit Trevor, she doesn't need any ulterior motive.” Trixie stated.” But she joined them all for dinner.”

“We all met up and went out to eat. Of course Berry was gushing about the new experiment that she Sunset and Trevor were working on that Sparkle presented to them. They planed to work on it last night and this morning and we were going to meet for lunch when this happened. “ Jer'rahd grumbled.

“And thus I was drug out here by default because of it. I gave them one of Starswirl's unfinished spells to look into. I did not ask them to cast it, nor was it anything more dangerous than anything else I’ve done. At most it was supposed to be a way to transport ponies a great distance with less power usage than a normal teleport.”

“Twily, that doesn't fill me with confidence. I KNOW most of what you've done magic wise.” Shining groaned.

“Yes thank you for the vote of confidence, I didn't become a Princess because I didn't know what I was doing.” Twilight grumbled.

“Yes, you became Princess because of political reasons and I was sick of it.” Nightmare Moon growled.

“ Whatever, now are you going to let me loose so I can study the residue to try and figure out what happened or are you three going to just stand there and be mad at me for a few more hours.”Twilight sighed.”This has gotten ridiculous.”

“Trixie would like to point out that Princess Celestia was the one who supplied us with the rope.”

“As I said ridiculous.”Twilight grumbled.

===================================================

“Alright I’ve checked the spell's residue. It's not disintegration, but it's not like any sort of teleport I’ve ever seen before either, though the readings are the same.” Twilight explained”

“If that's the case Sparkle where are they?” Jer'rahd grumbled.

“I have no idea. A normal teleportation leaves a direction of intent that one can follow. This one doesn't leave anything......” Twilight grumbled her horn glowing as she scanned over the rubble again trying to find any traces of anything.

“Twilight where did this spell even come from. You said it was one of Starswirl's, but his wing in the Canterlot Library didn't survive Tirek.” Luna stated , the mare having finally calmed down enough to drop her Nightmare Moon look, though the Changeling Queen form she had on wasn't much less terrifying.

“I've been talking with Starswirl's echo in the moon quite a bit. Berry, Sunset, Trevor and I even took a joint trip into the dreamscape to speak with him so they could ask questions. The echo only knows what Starswirl knew before he created the spell that allows me to move the moon, but he seemed rather interested in talking with those three.....”Twilight trailed off. “ The spell was one he gave me.... the echo I mean..”

“Trixie thinks perhaps she would like a word with this 'echo ' of yours Sparkle.” Trixie grumbled.

“Luna you go with them too. I'm not a fan of the dreamscape any way. I'll stay awake and go check on Orange and the new foal Kiwi. She needs to know her sisters are missing.” Jer'rahd stated.

“Alright..... Shining Armor, we are going to be taking tower C for this, please have a Guard posted outside that we are not to be disturbed.” Luna stated as Shining Armor nodded sending a group of Crystal Guards with the three mares as they trot over to the next tower in the mage's school.

=======================================================
[ Dreamscape/ Magic space]

“So this is the moon?” Trixie muttered looking around the rough gray landscape around her, the distant curve of Equss taking up half the dark sky.

“The spiritual representation of it any way. I rather like it.” Twilight stated glancing over at Luna as she frowned.

“This is not right.......” Luna muttered.

Before Twilight could say anything else the thud of hooves on the silt surface was heard. Looking over the trio spotted a pony approaching them.

The gray unicorn stood in the moon dust not far from them staring up at the glowing planet. His white mane and tail were long, though they were some what wild as if the stallion only spent enough time grooming to ensure that they wouldn’t knot or tangle, but couldn't be bothered to style it. His long beard was the same way, though it was a blueish gray as opposed to the lighter gray of his coat. He wore an old blue hat and a rather ratty blue cloak, the hat was ringed with small golden bells and a pattern of the night sky covered both the cloak and the hat. His golden brown eyes danced and swirled as he looked up at the planet, his gaze finally dropping to meet Twilight's and the others.

“ Well now, brought me more company again have you Twilight? So who do we have............oh dear...” Starswirl's voice trailed off as he noticed Trixie staring at him. The Echo of the pony went silent for a time, his mouth sounding dry as he spoke again.” I see. So we've reached this point then have we.....”

“This point? What are you talking about? We came here to ask about that unfinished spell you gave me....” Twilight questioned though a growl from Luna drew her attention away from Starswirl's echo.

“That is NOT Starswirl's echo. I have met the echo several times and this thing is far too animated for it to be that. The Echo is barely visible and barely coherent. I had doubts when Twilight said she spoke to it at length, but I assumed she just had the patience to understand it's babbling where I did not.”

Starswirl chuckled lightly at that before taking a seat on a moon rock dusting it off with his cape first.” Well in that you are both correct and incorrect at the same time Luna

“Explain.” Trixie demanded getting a frown from the specter. “ And what has happened to my son where is Trevor Lulumoon!?!”

Starswirl blinked lowering his head a little.

“Trevor Lulumoon.....Trevor...Now that's a name I have not heard in a long time.... a long time..... I'm sure you have heard the old legends. Sometimes the dead have things unfinished and they stay around rather than go onto the next life, or reincarnate in this one, or to what ever Elysium waits for them. The stars have long since been thought to be souls of the dead who stay to watch over the world. That theory is correct.” Starswirl smirked. “ I am not the echo of Starswirl in one of his greatest spells, I'm his ghost.... ooooOOOooooOOooo.”

When none of them took the bait or even so much as smirked Starswirl let out an annoyed huff.”Seriously nothing? Meh I never had the flair for laughter, I suppose. That was always Berry.”

“What was that?” Luna snarled.” Where are Berry and Sunset!?”

“AND TREVOR!!” Trixie shouted storming up to Starswirl as the stallion ghost flinched.

“I regret to inform you that they are all long dead.” Starswirl stated softly trying not to look at Trixie. His attention however quickly turns to her as she collapses before him sobbing, The ghost looks up at the other two his ears drooping under his hat. Luna simply stared on in shock and Twilight remained the only one still able to process everything and she was glaring at him angrily.

“What do you mean long dead, they just vanished this morning?” Twilight demanded.

“Sunset Shimmer died in 65 YO. Flail and Beryl died in 2478 YO, and Ice Berry Lily Kaisur or Ice Berry Lily Lulumoon died in 74 YO.” Starswirl sighed.” And Trevor Lulumoon died in 103 AU.”

“YO? AU?” Luna snarled.

“ Eras of time I expect. Though I only recognize AU as After Unification. That was the start of the modern calender at the first Hearths Warming. What is YO and how did Trevor die that long ago?”Twilight demanded.

“Year One, is what we called it as no other set time existed before that point. Most eras before AU only lasted as long as the Ruler who declared them did and were only accepted by who they ruled. AU was the first proper calender event that all three pony races followed. Actually though at this juncture Twilight I would like to a moment to address something else if you would humor me?” Starswirl looked down at Trixie still sobbing and frowned reaching down to run his hoof lightly along her back over her cloak feeling the mare flinch away from him. She slowly stood up looking with a bit more determination at Luna and Twilight. “I can tell you are all confused and in shock and while I expect you want me to get to the meat of all this there is something my mother always told me as a foal that I think may need to be said now. She was rather fond of addressing confused crowds. Called them easy marks.”

The ghost of Starswirl cleared his throat glancing down to make sure that even Trixie was paying attention.

“She used to tell me when addressing an audience, 'If you cannot wow them with wit, or shock them with smarts.........” He trailed off as he noted Trixie's ears perk up.

“...you baffle them with bullshit.....”Trixie finished standing up her tear filled eyes growing wide while the other two looked on confused.” T... Trevor?!”

“Hello mother... it has been a while....well not really for you I mean...” Starswirl was cut off as Trixie tackled him in a hug.

“You're alive!!”

“Nooo, I’ve been dead for a rather long time now... buck does no one listen?” Starswirl rolled his eyes.

“Language!”Trixie admonishes

“Mother I am over four hundred times your age, I am grown up enough to swear whenever and however I damn well feel like it......”

“Trevor!”Trixie scolded.

“Right, watching the language.” Starswirl grumbled.

“Alright as much as this reunion is nice and confusing, I want an explanation.” Luna demanded. “As well as what happened to my daughters.”

“Well it was like this Luna, can I call you Luna? I'm going to call you Luna. And it has been a long time so it is a little shaky with my memory and by a long time I mean longer than both you and Celestia have been alive stacked end to end. Right death glare, I'll get to the meat of it. The group of us and part of our tower were thrown back into the far past, pretty much vaporizing the remains of the tower as well as most of our supplies and spell books. At first we thought we had just popped up into the frozen north a bit. Beryl and Flail did a bit of flying and they didn't recognize anything that looked like a settlement through all the falling snow. Still with as potent of magic as the three of us had creating a secure shelter and some food out of the snow wasn't too hard. We must have stayed at the tower's remains about a week waiting for rescue before we noticed somethings.”

“Hmm?” Twilight muttered.

“When the snow clouds finally cleared enough to give us the view of the night sky. It was vastly different than we recalled. At first we thought perhaps we were at the other pole of Equss until we noticed the moon. There was no burn, half the craters were missing and it was much much closer than it should have been. We developed countless theories about what was going on and likely would have kept thinking them up if Sunset hadn't felt the flow of energy that was moving the moon and the source of it far south of us. We set out seeking it and it wasn't long before we encountered our first Ponies and found ourselves in the middle of the first tribal war........”

The ghost continued the story for a good while talking about their refusal to get involved with the war, Sunset's encounter with and subsequent relationship with a Pegasus mare named Shiver Coy, his and Berry's relationship and a number of other details involving the situation. He went on to tell of their founding of a small village in the frozen north that wasn't a part of the waring factions and was far enough away that none of the three tribes found it. The tale went on to bring up his own marriage to Berry and how Flail and Beryl had mated a had number of eggs.

“It was about this point in time we realized that we were far enough back in history that nothing we did would have any effect on the future. Or so we thought. At one point the three tribes were besieged by a new enemy. An army of undead. Something that also happened to you all in this time.”Trevor the Bearded pointed out.

“Grogar.” Luna stated as Starswirl nodded.

“Indeed. Knowing more about the threat than any one else the five of us set out to deal with it along with Sunset's mare friend.” Starswirl snorted.” You three thought your encounter with him was bad..... that was nuts......especially when the Elements of Harmony came into play. This was long before two aspects of them were removed by force so it was Harmony at it's most potent.”

“You wielded the Element's of Harmony?”Trixie asked.

“I wielded them twice personally. The first time dealing with Grogar the second time with something darker before I had them sealed away. Magic both times. Berry had Laughter, Flail Generosity, Beryl Compassion, Sunset Honesty and Shiver Loyalty.” Starswirl sighed. “After the first time they were used I attracted unwanted attention in the form of the two Pony Gods at the time. Mobius and whatever the other ones name was. I was badgered by them for years. They wanted me to accept one of their positions. I refused every time, choosing to grow old with Berry. It wasn't long after Sunset had died that Berry convinced me to accept the offer. Turns out she was convinced that I really was Starswirl the Bearded.”

“Wait what? Okay I don't get how you can be Starswirl....” Twilight stated.

“It started as a joke. Before we went to visit the ponies the first time we decided to use other names for ourselves just in case and I had a hard time remembering mine........ DAWN SHIMMER! That was it...... of course I recall it now.... anyway. After poking around and finding out what era we were in I started asking around for a Starswirl the Bearded. Since he was the one who made the spell that got us there maybe he could help us get back. Well to make a long story short, given the language evolution and local dialect and other pronunciation oddities, they thought I was asking them if they had ever heard of ME. And given our........ dramatic, departure from the Unicorn held lands, the name rather stuck fast in infamy and at least two dozen wanted posters.” Starswirl sighed. “After that Berry and Sunset started calling me Starswirl to pick on me as I had in fact started growing a beard and I just ran with it. I figured the real Starswirl would catch wind of it sooner or later and come to see who was using his name.”

“And no one did.” Luna offered.

“No..... and before you ask Luna, three foals, two colts, and a filly. Beatrix after my grandmother, Rhede after her uncle and Soap Bubble.” Starswirl explained noting Luna's face hoof.

“Soap?” Trixie asked.

“The first pet we got her was a little mouse she named Soap sud as he was this fluffy white thing.” Luna grumbled.

“She named one of her foals after a mouse?” Trixie demanded, looking at Trevor.” You let her name one of your foals after a mouse?”

“ I was once told that 'A wise stallion does not argue with his wife'.” Trevor stated getting a glare from Trixie.

“I never said it like that.” Trixie huffed.

“You told me never to argue with her when we started dating mother, so I paraphrased a little.” Trevor grumbled.

“Twilight tried to convince Rarity to name her foal Bubbles once....” Luna added getting a glare from the alicorn.” So the attachment is understandable.”

“So what happened? How did... how did....” Trixie started to ask.

“How did we all die? Do you really want to know that? Lets just say that all of us lived long and relatively peaceful lives. A bit simpler than expected to be honest, but we lived far longer than any other pony of that age. Longevity spells kept all of us active until the end. Mine was of course much much much later, but still.” Starswirl sighed.”Granted it's not like I haven't seen them again recently. After all we are Draconis major.....”

“What?!” Twilight gasps.

“As I said before, the spirits of the dead often take up residence in the sky as stars. Beryl, Berry, Sunset, Shiver, Flail and I are the core stars forming the constellation Draconis Major. The north and southern stars respectively between me and my wife, East and West for Sunset and Shiver, and the Northwest and North east for Flail and Beryl. Granted my other wives and some of our foals make up the rest of the constellation and Draconis minor. “

“Other wives?” Luna narrowed her eyes.

“Oh don't even give me that look Luna. At the time I was the oldest thing on the planet. Every two or three thousand years some mare would come along and manage to catch my interest and then after she was gone I would grieve for another few thousand years.... At least until Clover...... did you know that Berry looked exactly like Clover, or Clover looked like Berry. Exactly, the only difference was their cutiemark. Of course I found out after we were both dead that she WAS Berry reincarnated, but that gets into the whole afterlife thing and I don't want to do that. Suffice to say that was the point I gave up my godhood to grow old and die with her.”

“Why did you give yourself the spell that sent you back then? Wouldn't you have known that it would send you all to the past?!” Twilight demanded.

“Of course I did. That's why I gave it to you and suggested letting us study it because I knew it would send us back.” Starswirl admitted.

“But why?” Trixie whined.

“Because the past had already happened for me. We were sent back and thus I was there to send us back. If the five of us hadn't gone back in time I never would have wound up like this and all of history would have been changed if not completely gone due to Grogar, Tirek, and countless other things that came up that I had to deal with. The Windigo and the Changelings wouldn't exist, Discord would likely have died and countless other errors in history would have changed everything. I built the first Canterlot on top of the Maneterhorn as little more than a reminder of things to come. It was only when I accidentally created the Windigo that I realized I had gone too far in time and that Berry was right. I truly was Starswirl the Bearded. All the history we learned of him... me , I had to make sure happened. His part in the unification, everything that Chrysalis told you in your book Princess Twilight,when and why I stepped down from being a god. The creation of spells that allowed a single creature to control the sun and moon. I put more work into making sure that time stayed stable than anything else. I let many die to do that. It's not a decision that I made lightly, but it was something that had to be done. The spell I gave Twilight was long ago completed by the group of us and finalized by me. But i never went back, I knew I couldn't because we were slated to be there. Even if it wasn't at a conscious level at the time...... Avianna, Storm Front,Tirek, Crystal..... all of it was written for me to be written by me, all the major events had to happen like I had read. I was constantly at odds with whether I should change something just to make history wound up a little better, and terrified that I might accidentally stop some one I cared about from being born. It crippled my actions far to often. But …..... but that's all finally over now..... My stories pretty much finished. I've given myself the time spell and that was the last thing I had to do.”

“Trevor.......” Trixie pouted.

“Don't worry mother. It's all right.” Trevor grinned hugging her. “I mean heck, my usual manner of dress was based on your stage outfit, Berry added the bells mind you... well Clover did. And any way, how many unicorn mothers have wanted their foals to grow up LIKE Starswirl the Bearded? Your foal grew up to BE Starswirl the Bearded.... I'm also pretty sure I'm Princess Twilight's Super great grandfather with Sunset being Princess Celestia's ancestor some where in there.”

“I do have to ask. Now that you have finished your last task Trevor will you depart? Will the night sky change again as the Draconus constellation fades?”Luna questioned.

“Oh no... not for sometime yet. You have grand foals who grew up hearing the tales of The Demon of Dullahan and the Princess of war and greatly want to meet both of you. Though they want to meet the Great and Powerful Trixie more.” Trevor chuckled though his eyes turn to the side and the others briefly glimpse what seemed to be a black alicorn though looking fully no one sees anything.

“Seems my time is fully at an end now.” Trevor sighs.” I suppose I knew it wouldn't last forever. But I have missed you all.....Well maybe not Jer'rahd, I never thought he really liked me. “

He leaned down giving Trixie a kiss on the forehead before offering a last hug and stepping away , his cape starting to fade.

“Don't cry mother, we will meet again. There are far more worlds than just this out there and when your times finally come we will be there waiting.” Starswirl smiled turning and walking across the Lunar surface, his form starting to fade.

Before him stood five others. A pink and yellow maned Pegasus mare who was hiding behind a much more mature looking orange Unicorn mare with red and yellow mane and tail who offered a nod to the trio still living. Next to her were a pair of Dragons, a massive blue male and a slightly smaller green female. In front of them however walking forward to greet Trevor was a lithe dark blue unicorn mare with a red mane and a rather large smile on her features. The mare paused as Trevor reached her and offered a wave to the group before she turned and moved back with the others pressed against Trevor's side before the group of them faded out of sight.

“Berry.......Sunset......” Luna frowned staring at the lunar landscape. “Jer'rahd is not going to like this.”

“Lets go back.” Twilight muttered going over to help the sobbing Trixie up though the mare seemed to be laughing a little as well as Twilight helped her.

“Trixie?” Twilight asked noting despite the tears the mare was smiling a little.

“After all this time.... it seems I finally outdid you in something Sparkle..... Your foals just a a God of a small race on a island and yet mine turned out to be Starswirl the Bearded........”

“Seriously........” Twilight muttered and the trio returned to Equss.........

….....a place that Trevor Lulumoon, Ice Berry Lily Kaisur, Sunset Shimmer Kaisur, Beryl Kaisur, and Flail Lulumoon, had long since departed from.

Author's Note

This one was a bit lighter than i expected. Now there's a rather big gap there where i segwayed , but i did that because i might just make what happened a Tales in Stone chapter.

Originally this chapter was supposed to be talking about how Starswirl met the lost travelers and they became the Bearers with Sunset having a thing for his beard. Then i realized i made sunset have a slightly different taste in partners and thought maybe Berry... though about that point it hit me.... What if Trevor WAS Starswirl, and the chapter pretty much wrote itself from there. I will need to make some corrections to MD&D , but not many.

This chapter was far lighter than i first intended, but it works.

Last Meal

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Meal

[21 years after Tirek's defeat. Manehatten ]

Chief Keystone hated nights like this.

Sure it had started out innocent enough. He got up and got ready, kissed the wife goodbye and popped into Pony Joe's for a cup of coffee, a doughnut his diet didn't allow, and some small talk about how Joe's family was doing. Afterwords he came into the station, relieved the day shift, briefed the night crew on the patrol routes for the evening and then settled in to the front desk to listen to complaints about noise and ponies trying to argue their way out of tickets.

That had been his normal night for the last twenty years. Sure there had been the issue with the zombies, but that hadn't really affected the local Guard much at least not his station beyond some coordination with the more militant branch of the Guard. And that coordination was simply keep ponies away from the area and otherwise just to stay out of their way.

But every so often he had a night like this. It had started as normal until ten. Once the bell on the station tower struck ten the shit hit the fan and went down hill from there.

They were now dealing with a double homicide and a screaming foal who was now an orphan. The colt also hadn't stopped screaming and crying yet and it was now three in the morning.

Three hours left on his shift, this seriously couldn't get worse.

The Chief winced as he thought that looking around as words like that even silently mused tended to bring more trouble.

Of course that's when the officer who brought the foal in showed up along with her partner.

Copper and Flatfoot were good cops, but they sometimes took the job personally. While not a bad thing normally, these two had a tendency to ignore the book when it came to proceed. While not total loose cannons they moved dangerously close to that sometimes and only their rather exemplary records otherwise kept him and the morning shifts Chief Bobby from taking their badges.

Keystone shouldn't really be surprised at their actions though, given they both transferred here from the six sixty sixth division after Flatfoot lost an eye and most of his left ear in a encounter. Not that it slowed the stallion down, and given he preferred playing the 'good' cop in interrogations while the sweet looking little mare Copper loved playing the 'bad' cop simply made things both amusing and unsettling.

While the Manehatten Royal Guard was affiliated with the Canterlot Guard, they had their own rules and hiring practices and were more police than Guard at the best of times. These two found that a little odd but had adapted to the less than strict structure of the place rather well.

“What have you got for me?” Chief Keystone asked, forty years on the force and he was never ready for things like this. While he expected Copper to have the information sooner she was rather meticulous with her reports and the extra time was often worth it with the detail.

The light blue mare ruffled some papers in the air, holding them before her with her blue tinged magic before speaking.

“Victims were an Earth Pony couple. A one Babs Seed Smith, and a one Silver Smith. Silver owned a small repair and jewelry shop on the east side and Babs was head chief at La Hooife in mid town. Her coworkers report that Silver and their four year old colt Thistle had arrived to walk Babs home from work, evidently it was a common enough thing most days. They had made it to Elm and Third when a street sweeper noticed the trio get stopped by a rather large Diamond Dog. The sweeper couldn't hear what they were saying, but it only took a moment or two before the Diamond Dog pulled out a Crossbow and put two bolts in Silver's chest. Babs moved to protect the foal and was cut down as well. The Dog ignored the foal and looted the parents bodies before rushing off into the night. “Copper sighed.” The sweeper had another crew member call it in and went to help. The parents were DOA and the foal was screaming before he even crossed the street.”

“I know that tone.... there's more isn't there?” Keystone sighed.

“The perp was Clyde Barker, Chief.” Flatfoot growled his wings ruffling.

“Buck.......” Keystone swore.”He's already back in the embassy isn't he? His sister swearing he's been there all night.”

“And screaming about suing because of all these false charges against her brother.” Copper snapped.” Despite the fact we got him dead to rights. Witnesses and even some blood on the mares hoof, seems she got at least one good hit before he clawed her throat out.”

“What about the kid?” Keystone asked waving a hood in the air, the foals screaming still heard despite the fact he was in one of the back offices with a few officers trying to calm him down with no luck even after all this time.

“No immediate local family in Manehatten. Closest we have on record is a second cousin in New Canterlot. Applejack Apple.................” Flatfoot reported looking up with a worried expression that was mirrored by the other two.”It can't be that Apple can it? It's a big family......”

“... The Element of Honesty?” Copper winced. “I think it is... but I'm not sure.”

“I bet my badge it is. I'm not that lucky.” Chief Keystone sighed hearing galloping coming from upstairs as some one tore across the second floor and down the stairs stumbling over himself.

The sea blue colored stallion on tower watch panted hard as he caught his breath pointing one hoof upwards before he choked on his own breathing.

“Calm down Fuzz. Take a slow breath and just tell me whats going on.” the Chief sighed as the young officer caught his breath finally.

“Sir.. there's an air ship bearing down on the station at top speed, It's ignoring the requests to stop by the patrol officers in the air.” Fuzz gasped.

“Did you see a name on it?” Flatfoot asked.

“The Storm Cloud sir.”Fuzz responded.

“And so it begins.”the Chief sighed.

Moments after the words left his mouth the front door to the station house burst open with enough force that the old doors slammed into the walls on either side of the opening, popping out of their hinges and crashing to the floor.

The underside of an airship could be seen taking up most of the street in front of the station and a brown earth pony in a ball cap was darting between the parking meters stuffing bits in.

That wasn't hat drew every ones attention however, what drew the eye more than anything else was the lithe white unicorn mare storming into the station, her eyes blazing as her lavender and pink streaked hair flowed over her back like a cape as she advanced on the desk. The mares expression was of clear unrestrained anger.

“Where is he?!” the mare demanded, her voice booming in the hall with enough force to rattle the windows, despite the fact she seemed to be talking normally.

Chief Keystone winced. He recognized the mare, buck any one would recognize the mare. Sweetiebelle Reignolds Mash was not a mare any one could forget. Particularly in Manhatten after the events that happened here with the zombies. The Mayor had seen two more terms from that event and the Rarities popularity had soared.

“Who?” Copper was the one to break the silence and as such drew the attention of the mare.

“Thistle Smith.” Sweetiebelle snapped at the other mare.

“He's safe ma'am but we are waiting for the family to contact us before we allow any one else to see him...” Flatfoot started to explain before taking a step back as the mare advanced on him, clearly taking his words to mean that he wanted to be the target of her ire.

“BELLE!” shouted another voice. The white mare paused looking back at the door with a wince as another pony entered the station.

Chief Keystone wished he could sink down behind his desk as the uniformed Earth pony stepped into the light before the desk. The brown and white pony was short, though even the dress uniform he wore didn't hide the ripple of muscle under his skin with every step he took. His hooves struck the floor as he walked with dull thuds and military percussion that seemed to reverberate in the bones of those around him. His eyes were locked with the Chief's and the older pony found he couldn't move or look away.

“G..Guard Captain Kaisur sir... what are you doing here?” Copper gasped snapping into a salute with Flatfoot and Fuzz doing the same immediately.

“Sweetiebelle Reighnolds Mash is one of Thistle Smith's God Mothers. You will allow her to see to and collect the foal immediately.”Pip stated in a tone that dared any of them to tell him no. He raised a hoof pointing at Flatfoot. “You. Sergeant Escort her to him.”

Flatfoot saluted and walked off towards the back beckoning Sweetiebelle to follow though the mare was already hot on his hooves.

“You. Go out there and validate Button Mash's parking, the ship was commandeered on Guard business.” Pip ordered gesturing to Fuzz who rushed off tripping over his own legs.

Pip holds out a hoof to Copper who hands him the paper work she was carrying. The Guard Captain flipped through them with a small nod.”And this all happened tonight then?”

“Yes Sir.” Copper stated.

“You were the one who sent me the information on the perpetrator that is suspected in this crime?” Pip asked Copper.

“Yes sir. I was trying to find a way to get past the embassy protections on Clyde before so we could arrest him for other crimes he's committed. While I didn't send them specifically to you Sir but....”

“It's fine. It's something I should have responded to earlier, but paper work tends to go through far too many other offices before coming to mine. I saw the document before I came out here however, very thorough. Chief this is no longer an issue for the local government. The Royal Guard is taking over this case.”

“Err no offense sir but is that wise? There's a number of issues regarding Clyde Barker. “Keystone spoke up. “Not the least of which is Clyde's diplomatic immunity in regards to this sort of thing. We've had him dead to rights before and between the ambassadors legal department, and the bit trail to local nobles and regional delegates we have never been able to make anything stick enough to even get a warrant.”

The Guard Captain's ears perk up at the sound of what seems to be howling and he moves away from the desk gesturing for Copper to do the same.

“Well then it is lucky for me given the situation I don't need a warrant.” Pip stated flatly as the screaming grew louder.

The massive form of a Diamond Dog bound in chains hits the stoop at the front door with a thud, the screaming mutt bounced across the tile floor before slamming bodily into the front desk with a whimper. The impact cracked the old wooden structure and sent Keystone leaping from his perch as papers flew into the air.

Copper blinked looking down at the whimpering hogtied Diamond Dog recognition on her features.

“Clyde Barker?”

“That was a bit much dear.” Pip stated looking at the door.

“He resisted arrest.” Another voice stated followed by the clack of hooves as the figure landed.

Looking to the door all Keystone and Copper could see was a wreath of green fire with a pony walking through it. The orange mare was tall and nearly as muscled as Guard Captain Pip. She wore a combat harness over top a Shadowbolts uniform and was recognized immediately as the Guard Captain of the Six Sixty Sixth, Scootaloo Fire Kaisur.

“Oh bollocks.”Keystone muttered crawling back up behind his desk.

“Resisted or not you were not supposed to harm him.”Pip stated getting a bit of a scoff. From the Pegasus.

“Pippy you know I love you, but stuff it! It took everything I had to not leave bits of this guy all over the city.” Scootaloo growled. “Also I'm not on duty. So where is he?”

“In the back, Sweetiebelle's already back there, just look for her.” Pip stated as Scootaloo walked off towards the back offices sparing only a glare at the bound and beaten Diamond Dog.

Pip sighed moving over to the Diamond Dog picking him up with a hoof and setting him upright as he checked him over.

“nothing broken, no obvious scorch marks, a few bruises. Hmm I need to apologize she did hold back.” Pip muttered before pushing Clyde back to the ground.

“What...?” Key stone stammered.

“Do forgive her Chief, she's a lot like her mother and took far to quickly to Da's methods after training in regard what one can do with proper protocol in certain situations. Though from my understanding the Six Sixty Sixth always tend to be a bit crass.” Pip comments noting the smirk briefly crossing Copper's face. “Guard Captain Scootaloo is another of Thistle's God Mothers. I suppose if you went by the old foals tales about God mothers she'd be the one of strength while Sweetiebelle would be the one of grace.”

“Didn't that tale have three fairy godmothers?” Copper began before a pair of massive Diamond Dogs strode into the police station taking positions on either side of the door before a gilt and fancy carriage rolled up in front of the station and a massive Diamond Dog bitch stepped out, brushing past Fuzz and ignoring Button who was yelling at the carriage driver about being double parked.

“And here's Ambassador Bonnie Barker.” Keystone sighed digging around in his desk for some aspirin or something for his rapidly growing headache.

“What is the meaning of this!? How dare you break the sanctity of our soil with this blatant kidnapping and abuse I will see you all hung for this breach of rights. This could bring war!!”

“It already has. And to be honest if it does Da has been getting bored any way.” Pip turned whirling on the massive Diamond Dog bitch, making her flinch with his movement even though he barely came up to her thigh.

“You are Guard Captain Kaisur.... I know of your father, and I am not afraid of a threat such as that. Princess Celestia will bend over backwards to prevent a declaration of war which means that each and every one of you will be made an example of.”She growls gesturing to the station as a whole. “Do not try to intimidate me Guard Captain I have been playing this game far longer than you have been alive.”

“And I was taught chess by Auntie Celestia.” Pip stated flatly with a shrug. Bonny looked confused at the statement as did Copper and the Chief, though the sudden sounds of impacts followed by a gurgled cry and a loud whimper from the door brought every ones attention away from Pip to the front of the building.

With the exception of Pip who simply sighed, everyone's eyes widened at the sight before them. Four figures stood inside the station. Two of them were positioned over the Ambassador's guards, the Dogs pinned to the floor with arrows and spears.

The black armor the group wore didn't seem to be of any kind of metal, it seemed more like stone or chitin, though these were no changelings. The armor covered the figures from head to hoof, though dark curved horns came up from the tops of their helmets and the white hair of their tails was visible on all four. The armor looked to be interlocking plates full of jagged edges that were tinged red as if dipped in blood. The full covering face masks were stylized like a spiders maw with far too many fangs. The armor was lightly decorated with what appeared to be spider web etchings and two of the figures had rather large Spider like creatures on their backs, similarly armored and each of them working a pair of what seemed like repeating Griffonese crossbows also done in the same style, though the tips of the loaded bolts glimmered a sickly purple as if poisoned. The most unsettling thing however was that no matter how they moved or shifted they made no sound at all.

A good two dozen more stood outside surrounding the carriage their weapons trained on the driver and Fuzz. Button however was mostly being ignored as he nonchalantly tried to talk with one of them.

“W.... Watipi!” Bonny stated as her brother whimpered.

“Yes... but it's a little worse than that.”Pip offered stepping around the Diamond Dog bitch.

One of the figures took note of his movements and barked out an odd warbled cry towards the door.

Another figure strode in at the call.

This figure was lithe and clearly a mare with how her armor fit her. She was easily as tall as Princess Celestia and her armor was far more ornate than the others etched with numerous symbols mixed in among the webbed pattern of the interlocking plates. She strode past Bonny with out a glance looking down at Guard Captain Pip before reaching a hoof up and pulling off her helmet revealing a tightly bound red mane and yellowish fur that seemed to contain a mix of Elk and Pony features. Her green eyes burned with barely contained anger as they darted between the small Earth Pony and the bound Diamond Dog.

“Elder Apple.” Pip offered a small dip of his head.

“This is him?” Applebloom snarled staring at the Diamond Dog on the floor, her question not seeming to be directed towards Pip.

“It is. Delivered as I promised you. As per our agreement Elder. Now I would ask that you hold up your end of things and send the Elk you have positioned around the city back home.” Pip stated.

Applebloom strode forward her armor seeming to draw the very sound from the air as she lowered her head, her gaze meeting Clyde's as she snarled. She turned back to another large armored Watipi that had followed her in stating something in the odd guttural tongue that the other Watipi had spoken earlier.

The Watipi in question moved to the Diamond Dog offering a small nod to Pip who returned the nod to Drakast as the large Elk grabbed the Diamond Dog with a hoof flipping him up onto his back without any effort and strode back towards the door as the Ambassador sputtered a protest.

“How is he?” Applebloom asked Pip as her tone softened, completely ignoring the ambassador.

“As to be expected with a colt that lost his parents. But Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo are with him. We'll bring him by your sisters when every things settled here. Shouldn't be more than a few days to get all the affairs in order. Tell Babs and Silver we will take care of him.” Pip sighed.

“They know, though they have to leave soon.” Applebloom responded looking off to the side at something Pip couldn't see.

The Earth Pony blinked a moment catching the reflection of what looked like a black alicorn in the reflection of one of the stations windows, but it was gone before he could get a good look at it. Perhaps just another Watipi.

“Good, is that everything then?” Pip asked.

“It'll do....... “Applebloom turned her green eyes staring down the Diamond Dog ambassador. Unlike Pip the tall mare met the ambassador eye to eye and didn't break the glare until the bitch flinched.” …....... for now at least...”

Applebloom shouted something to the other Elk around her in the guttural tongue as she put the helmet back on. The ones holding the Diamond Dog body guards shoved them aside as the whole group strode out of the Police station and vanished into the night without a sound taking Clyde Barker with them.

“Sir?”Keystone asked hesitantly trying to figure out what had happened.

“You are wondering what is going on I take?” Pip cleared his throat. “ Scootaloo, myself, and Sweetiebelle were on vacation visiting the Elk territories when we got the news of Babs and Silver Smith's murder. From Babs and Silver themselves. One of Elder Applebloom's powers is the ability to see and speak with the spirits of those departed. There are a few other shaman and the like who can do the same. I don't know the specifics of it but what was said to the Elder was enough for her to mobilize the entirety of the Elk fighting force and bring them to Manehatten before we even managed to get here. Three tribes the Watipi, the Avarials, and the Kelpie were in position to respond to her order immediately. The rest of the War Band is likely on it's way here.”

Pip sighed looking at the door.

“We made a brief stop in Canterlot to let the Princesses know the situation and Princess Twilight allowed their passage within reason. When I left she and Princess Celestia were still haggling the details with the Elk ambassador so I was forced to take matters into my own hooves.” Pip explained. “ I managed to convince Applebloom to keep the Elk she already had outside the city until Scootaloo found the the killer. We were given three hours before the Elk would have come in themselves and drug every Diamond Dog in the city before, her so that the killer could be identified. Luckily because of Sargent Copper's request and documentation we knew exactly who we were looking for and where he would be. Thank you for that Sergeant. The Royal Guard will be fully investigating this matter along with the Equestrian Ambassadors Guide to determine the best course of action in regards to everything. Likely you will be working with them closely once everything starts and a promotion will also be in the works for you and your partner.”

Copper blinked rubbing the back of her head a little.

“What is going to happen to my brother!?” Bonny demanded.

“He will be tried in the Elk court and if found guilty executed. Until the trial can be held, which may take some time due to Elder Applebloom's emotional state and the need of finding a impartial judge he will be turned over to Watipi.....”

“WHAT THE SLAVERS!!!?!?!” The Ambassador shrieked.

“They were slavers. Elder Applebloom's leader ship has ended that practice with the Watipi. To be honest having visited their lands myself I think if he was only going to be a slave it would be a improvement.” Pip stated flatly.

“How can you let them do this to him what sort of a Guard Captain are you?!” Bonny cried out again.

“One who has lost a cousin and a friend due to the actions of your brother. One who is trying very hard to be the voice of reason and stability right now despite wanting nothing more to cut loose and vent.”Pip lowered his voice as he looked up at the Ambassador his eyes narrowing. “One who knows a hundred and seven ways to kill some one and is trying very hard to not show an aggravating Diamond Dog at least three of them right now if she doesn't go back to her compound, and that's just so it remains a humane death which you wouldn't get from any of the others with me right now. Your brother started a international incident with a protected race. One that the Diamond Dogs themselves prompted the vote for after the attack by Tirek. When news of this incident and how you have been protecting the criminal comes to light I think you will be lucky to be allowed back into your own homeland. So pick your words carefully from this point on Bonny because at this point my word can have you escorted to the edges of Equestria and evicted without so much as allowing you a change of clothes first.”

Keystone flinched feeling the room grow easily several degrees colder.

“Sergeant Copper escort the Ambassador and her guards back to the Diamond Dog Embassy. I'm going to check on my wife and godson......” Pip stated.

“Godson sir?” Keystone asked.

“Yes. I'm thistles godfather. And before you ask, I'm so much worse than that movie.”Pip stated turning to walk into the back, the foals crying having finally ceased.

Author's Note

This one started as a small blurb in a later chapter, but the ideas came up that made it both terrible and wonderful and thus you have this chapter with Pip once again being the only one remaining calm among the CMC, though admittedly barely.

While thistle was mentioned in a previous chapter it wasn't brought up in Applejack's chapter what he became. He became his Godfathers successor. that far in the future the stallion had become the Guard Captain after Pip's successor with a record of accomplishments that actually exceeded his Godfathers and Godmothers in the Guard and fell just shy of Jer'rahd's only by virtue of there not being any wars to fight in.

Last Stand

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Stand

[43 years after the defeat of Tirek]

The train wheels screamed out as the engine braked hard, everyone in the car pitched forward as the cars slowed rapidly to a stop. There was a general mummering of the passengers as several of them looked out the windows curious as to what might be going on.

“Hey mister. Whatcha thinks going on?” a small blue pegasus colt asked, his wings fluttering wildly as he buzzed into the air briefly like he was bouncing, each time he popped up over the back of the seat looking at the pony in front of him. Most of the trip he had been flitting about making a general nuisance of himself, though the grandfatherly looking pegasus sitting before him was one of the few who played along with his never ending questions. His mother had apologized profusely for her sons insistent questions and chatter, though the mostly gray stallion had laughed it off.

“Probably something on the tracks. Might be a rock slide or the like.” the older stallion replied, though the colt didn't think he was telling the truth.

“Really, but we just came through Manehatten?” The colt questioned.” All that's here are a bunch of hills if my teachers map was right.....”

Any response the older stallion might have had was cut off by a scream and a explosion that rocked the train cars.

There was chaos in the passenger car, a number of ponies were running around screaming demanding to know what was going on from a single train car attendant who was present, though the poor colt didn't have any answers either. He managed to get every one to calm down a little before stepping out of the car to head up to the engine to see what was going on.

A few minutes later he returned outside of the train car, minus his head, being beaten along the side of the passenger car windows by a vicious looking diamond dog and a gathering of rough looking ponies who were armed to the teeth, soaking the car in his blood.

The old pony in front of the young colt sighed, he flexed a wing lightly as the screaming started again.

The door at the front of the car was shoved open and a large, heavily scared Earth Pony stormed in, a large ax draped over his shoulder. Behind him in the previous car were a number of others of the same ilk, some of them stuffing their bags full of food and what ever supplies had been in the sleeping car ahead of them. A few screams could be heard from the other side of the open doors along with laughter and and other lewd noises. Likely some of the female attendants had been of interest to the bandits.

The back of the train was an armored and sealed storage area. Mostly full of supplies going from Gallopagos to New Canterlot. If everyone went back there, the armored doors could be sealed and protect them until the Guard arrived. Provided the Conductor had managed to call out before all this started.

“Well well welly well, what have we here? A bunch of rich nits on their way back from holiday. Ehh?” The scared earth pony chuckled, the pegasus and other earth pony that had followed behind him laughing along with him like goons. The pony was rust colored with brown hair, or perhaps it was all blood and dirt. He certainly smelled like he hadn't bathed in a while.

“So here's tha deal yah ponces. Fork over everything yah got, and we might only kill yah a little. Fight us and it'll be a whole lot of tha ole ultra violence in here befer we let ya die.” the stallion chuckled.

“We'll save tha pretty ones though. Themes gonna be decorating me bed.” One of the ones behind him laughed.

“Wow he's huge.... and smelly.” The small colt behind the older stallion stated his brown eyes wide at the massive earth pony.

His mother tried to shush him but the large pony clearly heard and marched down the aisle headed straight for the colt and his mother.

“OY WHAT”S THAT!” SMELLY!? Ah'll show yah smelly yah little git!”The large pony yelled turning his head to grab his ax clearly intending to make his first example of the wide eyed colt.

He didn't even make it to the mother and her child before a hoof lashed out from the seat before them, smashing the pony in his foreleg. The snap of bone and the scream of the stallion filled the car as the brute went down.

A second blow drove the massive stallions head to the ground making it bounce as his jaw shattered on the steel plate, half rotted teeth scattering across the train cars floor. The second blow either addled the brute or knocked him out as he didn't rise, his attacker, however, did.

The old stallion stepped out from his seat. Gray feathered wings fanning the air as he stood up on his back legs wincing as his bones popped before he reached back to his seat pulling out a long case that had been in the chair next to him.

“WOT!!! I'll do you for that!!!” the second raider screamed rushing at the older stallion only for the case to smash into the side of his head sending him to the ground to join his friend. The third panicked and slammed shut the door rushing back to the other car trying to get help.

The old stallion sighed as he opened the case, drawing out a large spear made of orange crystal.

He shifted it a little wincing at the weight and the strain that he hadn't felt in some time as he shifted his wing along the weapons shaft.

Glancing to the colt and his mother he reached back into the case and pulled out a small patch. He stared at it for a second before tossing it to the colt who caught it deftly in his hooves.

“Keep that safe for me will you kid?” the older stallion asked with a smirk.

The small colt looked down at the badge. It was a stylized silver pony skull with wings behind it. The colts eyes widened as he mouthed the words. 'Shadow Bolt' to himself looking back up at the stallion with his eyes even wider in awe.

“EVERY PONY GO TO THE BACK OF THE CAR AND INTO THE FREIGHT CARS NOW. LOCK THE DOORS AND BARACADE THEM UNTIL THE GUARDS GET HERE.” Peach Blossom bellowed his wings crossing before him, his spear leveling at the door of the train car, the weapon seeming to chime from the movement as the howls of the raiders rushing back towards the car sent the other occupants rushing to follow his orders.

Peach Blossom smirked back as the lot of them rushed to the back of the cars,before readying himself to deal with the raiders.

=================================================================
[ Two days later]

“THEY BUCKING KILLED HIM AND YOU WANT US TO WAIT!!!??” Starfall Silvertail screamed in Princess Twilight Sparkle's face.

“I want you to wait for Jer'rahd and Luna. They are on their way now. We are organizing a search for these New Red Hoof raiders.” Princess Twilight stated flatly. “ Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts have already scouring the suspected area they are in. But despite that you are NOT to do anything Starfall. You retired three years ago. You are in no shape to be doing this any more. That is why we have trained Guard.”

“Following procedure will take weeks and we both know every time we've gone after them by the book they vanish. We need to hit them NOW.” Starfall yelled back not backing down from Twilight in the slightest.

The Pegasus was old. That much was clear, but despite Twilight's words she was in no means out of shape. Her body was still as strong and lithe as ever despite being in her mid eighties. Her gray fur had turned white with age and her mane and tail had gone from purple to a blueish gray. There was a fire in her eyes however that made Twilight shiver. Every time she had seen that look before something was about to die, thankfully it was usually something that would make the world a better place when it died, but still.

In truth right now Twilight was mostly impressed that Starfall hadn't decked her yet. Twilight supposed if Celestia had been talking to Starfall the taller mare would have been cold cocked by the old Pegasus by now. Thankfully Starfall liked Twilight better than Celestia, but Twilight wasn't willing to push that. Despite the ease that she could grow them back, Twilight was in no hurry to feel what getting her teeth knocked out felt like.

They had found Peach Blossom pressed back against the inner train door where the civilians had taken refuge, numerous bodies laying around him and a multitude of arrow bolts and other weapons impaling his frame. Behind him the Guard had found sixteen civilians who had taken shelter in the secure supply car that he had protected, the only survivors of the train attack.

The Pegasus mare tensed up before growling and turning away pacing the floor, her voice dropped though the tone was enough that Twilight almost expected the air around the mares white muzzle would freeze.

“I lost one husband to shit like this along with a lot of other family. I will not let those who did it this time escape punishment as long as Wind Razor did. Buck what you say I’m going just as soon as Dash finds them.” Starfall growled.

“No I don't think you will Miss Silvertail. The Princess has given you an order and I will have you arrested if you decide to go against it. It is not as if you are anything other than an old mare now. There are new Element Bearers, Luna is no longer any sort of royalty to give you any sort of buffer for your antics. You are not even a Guard Captain any more, but I am.” A snobbish voice stated.

Starfall whirled with a snarl glaring back at the teal and gold maned unicorn that strode into the throne room. The stallion was lightly armored with a rather ornate suit of armor that had the rank of Guard Captain on it. His yellow fur was almost an amber coloration.

“Tin Clasp. I did not call you here to antagonize Mrs. Silvertail. I would suggest you refrain from doing so.” Twilight stated flatly.

“Of course Princess. My apologies. Though I would expect my presence might have been requested to help see her out.” the stallion answered.

“Starfall. Celestia's the Zebraland's at the moment so I need to deal with everything that comes up. Guard Captain Pip is in however. Go see him, he should be in the north tower waiting for the Bolts to report. I know I cannot stop you but I ask you wait for back up while I deal with the logistics here.

Starfall glared at the Princess, though she turned away and stormed past the stallion with a snarl.

“Promoting you was the worst mistake my ever husband made.” Starfall growled.

“I beg to differ given your attitude, but irregardless, promote me to take his place he did.”Tin Clasp snapped back watching the mare storm off with a smirk.

Twilight waited until Starfall left before her gaze centered on the smug Guard Captain. Twilight tilted her head watching him. Pip was in charge of the Monster Hunters, and Scootaloo had taken over for Starfall as the Wonderbolt's liaison and the Guard Captain of Equestria's air command. Tin Clasp had been a rather impressive officer, he had joined the Guard not long after the War of Gods and had served well through Tirek's attack. He was highly decorated from various other incidents and he was on a short list of potential next Guard Captains, something he was briefly knocked off of by Pip and Scootaloo's volcanic rise among the ranks. He was also one of the pairs biggest protesters claiming favoritism more than anything else. Unfortunately for him none of the promotions that the pair had received came from the crown, nor any one related to either of them. So he was forced to wait. Something that paid off in the long run when Peach Blossom finally retired.

Still something about him had sat wrong with several ponies. Jer'rahd didn't count as he didn't trust any officer that hadn't been through one of his basic training courses. Something Tin Clasp had missed due to Celestia's training. He was in the last of the group of recruits to pass the 'modern' era training. Still Jer'rahd's 'gut instinct' was something that had been right before so she sent the Black Hoof to investigate the new Guard Captain, just in case. Celestia had not been successful at keeping the groups existence a secret from her after the events of Tamberlane.

“Actually Tin Clasp, I agree with her. Promoting you was a mistake.” Princess Twilight spoke up softly her magic floating a number of documents and photos over to her. A small glance to the Guards in the throne room brought them closer surrounding the unicorn. Receipts for items far above his pay grade, odd rearrangements and stalling of Guard troops, miscomunicated missions, missives sent out under different names, and photos of strange ponies visiting his rather expensive manor. Since he took office the number of bandit attacks had risen, as had various crimes, all in areas he over saw as head of the Royal Guard. There was more than enough information for her to suspect, though the damning bit was his order to send some rather pricy supplies and armaments on a civilian train with no Guard escort from Gallopagos along a rather roundabout rail path most often taken by tourists. There was also the message he left in a dead drop before coming to the palace. The Black Hoof had nabbed the pick up and the note warning about the scouting operation in the mountains. “Treason is a rather serious thing Mr. Clasp. For the benefit of your life I let Mrs Silvertail leave before I brought this up. However depending on what you say from this point on will determine whether or not I judge you by Equestrian law or simply let her have you when she gets back. So please.... guess what I know and try to lie to me.”

=========================================================
[ Hours later]

“Halt who goes there?”

“Seriously rookie who says that?”

The Pegasus Wonderbolt guard frowned as the Shadowbolt uniformed mare stepped out of the shadows walking forward slowly, her wings fanning to show him she didn't have a weapon drawn.

“I'm on watch, I'm supposed to say stupid shit.” The Guard smirked.” Crap like, Pretty pink prancing pony Princesses.”

“You mean shit like the Purple Princesses pink party partner?” The mare asked watching the guard relax a little. “ Seriously who comes up with these code phrases?”

“Pretty sure Princess Twilight passed on her love of alteration to the Air Commander.” The guard stated glancing back at the clearing with a small airship in the middle of it acting as a command post for the scouting operation. “What are you doing here? Only Shadowbolt on site is the Commander.”

“I need to talk to her, just flew in from Canterlot with a message about the ready status of the main force.” The mare sighed. “ Any luck out here?”

“Found their camp an hour ago at the north end of Cloud Serpent ridge, not sure where exactly, but the whole camp is excited and waiting for the strike force to get here.”

“Kaisur?”

“Probably. He and his wife tend to lead most of these things in recent years.” the Wonderbolt stated. His voice trailing off as the mare before him suddenly twitched and collapsed to the ground. “ What!?”

He managed a step towards the mare when a blow to the midsection doubled him over and a second bow to the back of the head drove him to the ground in a heap.

The shimmering form of a pony came into view as a hood was thrown back. The new figure crouched checking on the pair to make sure they were still alive before she sighed. A patrol would be here in ten minutes give or take and she needed to be gone before then.

“Sorry about that you two.” Starfall sighed drawing out a bit of parchment and charcoal writing a hasty apology to the two Guards and leaving a much longer letter in a sealed envelope addressed to Rainbow Dash.

Starfall pulled the Zebra cloak back over her head, a gift from a friend who had passed away a long while back that she never really used. Stealth was never the mares favorite tactic despite Rhede's suggestions. That didn't mean she didn't know how to utilize it.

“The Ridge huh?” Starfall muttered to herself pulling the cloak back over her and taking to the air.

=========================================================

“Pip!”

Guard Captain Pip stopped glancing back to see a familiar gray Kirin with an amber mane and a doubled edges sword on his side trotting towards him.

“Da.” Pip smirked. “Glad to see you. We just got a communication from Rainbow Dash that they found the camp.”

“Good.” Jer'rahd growled falling into step next to his son as they walked down the hall of the palace.” Your mothers gone to talk to Sparkle for the last of the preparations. Are the airships ready?”

“Ten troop transports, We've got them mounted on a train that's going to head through the tunnel warp to the Empire. We plan to take off and fly over the north face of the mountains. So far everyone thinks this is for a training exercise near Dodge Junction. The Princess let Scootaloo and I know she had found the leak, but we're still being cautious. The Guard we take will be briefed en route.”

“Speaking of Scootaloo, where is she? Better still where is Starfall? I expect that mare will be chomping at the bit to get to these bandits. More so than I am.”Jer'rahd grumbled at the idea he had lost another of the few friends he had made since waking up. The glow from his red eye was a sure sign that he was barely restraining himself, the lesson of Tirek still sticking with him.

“The same place really. We expected Starfall to try and go there on her own when she found out the location of the forward scout camp. So I had Scootaloo and two other Guards keep an eye on her in one of the guest waiting rooms, I'm headed there now to get them.”

“Just three Guards?”

“Scootaloo's there.” Pip stated gesturing to the doors at the end of the hall they were approaching.”As good as Mrs. Silvertail is I trust Scootaloo is better.”

Jer'rahd raised an eyebrow at that letting Pip open the door and hearing the gasp from him as the pair of them looked at the scene.

The room looked like a tornado hit it, toppled chairs, ripped wallpaper, and a shattered table caught their attention first before they looked up. The three ponies sent to guard Starfall were bound up in the rooms curtains. Dangling from the ceiling light and gagged. The two Guard ponies were pressed tight to Scootaloo's back so she couldn't ignite her wings without burning them and the mares left eye was nearly swollen shut from the growing hoof print shaped lump on her temple. She was gnawing on the tablecloth gag that had been shoved into her mouth and her good eye had a glare that could burn through steel. The far window was wide open with a fourth Guard collapsed in a heap and tied up under it, part of the usual palace patrol who had clearly come by at the wrong time.

Jer'rahd sighed turning to go get Luna.” Never get too cocky Pip, there's always some one better, unless of course you're already Starfall.”

==========================================================

Starfall looked down at the camp from the top of her cloud, counting the number of bandits there. She had thus far counted at least ten on watch and close to forty milling about in some sort of party. Likely the dividing of their spoils. There had been two flying sentries as well, though their corpses were feeding whatever wildlife lived around the ridge at this point.

Twilight's moon was still low on the horizon and it was still quite some time until midnight. Starfall sighed lowering her binoculars as she winced, the cold of the cloud and the air's chill seeping through her thin Shadowbolt's uniform and the Zebra cloak. Her bones hurt and her wings felt strained just getting her here as quickly as she had. She wanted a nap, to wait for back up, and a coffee. She rubbed her eyes looking down at the camp again and was suddenly far warmer than she should have been.

Far below in the bandit camp a Griffon was holding a large shard of crystal aloft and talking about it. The weapon was a faded orange coloration and despite it's partially crumbled nature that had come about when it's owner had died, she recognized the broad head of Peach Blossom's crystal spear.

At that point everything she had been feeling was pushed away. She could almost heard the Griffon
going into detail of how he had gained the weapon, by killing her husband.

She didn't feel old any more.

Starfall launched herself from the cloud letting the Zebra cloak fall from renewed wings as she climbed into the air. She felt the bitter cold and ice tugging at her limbs and face, frost forming on her goggles as she suddenly stopped flapping her wings keeping them spread wide as she coasted upward letting her weight start to pull her backwards. She stalled along the underside of a large frost filled cloud. She reached a hoof up, touching the underside of the near crystalline cloud as she started to fall backwards.

The silver moonlight showed her slightly distorted reflection in the cloud. With the way her mane was flaring up and the dark Shadowbolts uniform she briefly thought her reflection looked like a pure black alicorn that was reaching out to her outstretched hoof. Starfall closed her eyes as she felt the chill of that touch as her hoof brushed the underside of the icy cloud before gravity took hold and she fell back towards the ground.

The moment passed and Starfall closed her wings to her barrel beginning to fall. She could see the camp far below in her mind, little more than dots of light. Little dots that were rapidly growing. Starfall's eyes opened as she saw the view exactly as she expected and she drew herself tight before flapping back hard nearly tripling her speed towards the ground with one movement.

=============================================

Rainbow Dash sat at a desk in the small airship command post. She hated this. She just wanted to be a Wonderbolt, but she somehow managed to not only become the Captain after Spitfire retired, but she was also part of the Guard, under her old biggest fan at that. While she could deal with that, it had been a harsh few years for her. Big Mac had started having issues, the big pony's body had started deteriorating, the cause was the draconic power he couldn't turn off. After all this time it was starting to really take it's toll on the large pony. He tried not to let it show, but Dash had noticed and brought him to be checked out. The prognosis hadn't been good.

Now Peach Blossom, a pony she almost thought of as a father, was dead. She was almost too much of a wreck to be on this mission. Only the idea of what Starfall must be going through pushed her this far, though now that they were waiting for reinforcements she was letting her mind stew. It also didn't help that she had strained her wing while scouting earlier and the medic had bandaged it and made she sure she knew she couldn't fly on it for a few days at least. Getting old sucked.

“Commander!” a shout from outside got her attention before the door to the room burst open and a Wonderbolt uniformed Guard Pushed in.

“Blitzwing yer a good kid, but knock before entering a room” Rainbow Dash sighed.” What is it.”

“Commander one of the sentries and a messenger from Canterlot were attacked along the perimeter.”

“What?” Dash jumped to her hooves sending the chair skittering to crash into the wall behind her. “ What attacked them?”

“We don't know sir, they were both alive just unconscious. There was an apology written for them and a letter addressed to you.” The Pegasus offers over the letter flinching as Dash snatches it from him.

“What?” Dash mutters reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small pair of reading glasses grumbling to herself that the rookie was seeing her with the blasted things, her eyesight was beyond perfect at range, though up close it sucked, one of the reasons she hadn't made any more promotion jumps. Twilight blamed her eyesight on reading Daring Doo novels with inadequate light. Though as of two years ago Yearling had passed away so there were no more novels coming. Rainbow Dash sighed as she tore open the letter, flipping the paper open. As she read her eyes widened, ears flattening to her head.

“GET THIS SHIP MOVEING, WE ARE ATTACKING NOW ROUSE EVERY ONE I WANT US ON THOSE BANDITS YESTERDAY!” Rainbow Dash shouted tossing the paper onto the table rushing out onto deck shoving the rookie aside her shouts going quiet as she hears a noise. Looking up she sees a brilliant streak of light falling from the heavens.

“No........mother....” Dash whimpered.

The paper now forgotten on the table was headlined with a official royal seal and the words 'Last Will and Testament of Starfall Silvertail.'

==================================================

The air screamed around her on the verge of breaking apart just from her sheer willpower alone, then suddenly, it all exploded.

There are several things about the Sonic Rainboom that are not well known. Most are unknown even to their users, and despite Princess Twilight's study of the phenomenon, she had not studied it in combat.

Of the three who could preform it Starfall had the most still and knowledge of it having used it far more often than even Rainbow Dash.

One of the main things known is the nimbus's ability to revive the magic and stamina of ponies turning what might be a worn out failing army into a force that seemed to have rolled right out of bed. This of course had diminishing returns and put a strain on the bodies of those effected , but it would take ten rain booms before any of them noticed these signs. One was usually enough to turn the tide.

One of the lesser known tricks however is that it doesn't just buff ponies. Dependent on the emotional state of the pony preforming the boom, other effects could come about. It could affect more than ponies, it could effect select targets. And in this case, the shock wave could be directed to be detrimental to Ponies and other creatures that the wielder believes are threats, or has great anger towards.

So when the rain boom went off it was not a bright flash of rainbow colors in an exploding nimbus. Nor was it a glorious white halo of light.

The rain boom that went off as Starfall fell towards the bandit camp was only four colors, red, orange, ultraviolet, and black.

The wave of energy that washed over the bandits struck all of them with a different feeling than rejuvenation.

It struck the bandits with fear.

Not that they were allowed to run or try and react from that feeling before the main brunt of the camp exploded in a mushroom cloud of the same colors of the boom.

The alarm had started the moment the light in the sky was spotted and all of the bandit camp was rushing out to meet the attacker when they were blown back. The lucky ones were vaporized by the impact that left a massive crater where a braggart of a griffon had once stood. Most of the huts and shelters were already burning with a purplish flame that didn't give off any light.

Despite the fear and panic a number of the bandits rushed to the site of the impact only for a gray blur to launch from the smoke, crystalline wing blades lashing out severing limbs and heads leaving a trail of blood and death as the mare tore through the camp like star falling from the heavens.

Some stood up to her and were cut down before they could so much as bring their weapons to bare. Some tried to flee and were cut down before they reached the edge of the bandit camp. Others tried to hide and if the burning structures didn't kill them, the whirling dervish of rage did.

=======================================

Rainbow Dash screamed out as her wing finally gave out and she crashed onto the deck of the airship carrying the brunt of the Guard. The Scout ship had been sabotaged and couldn't take off. Dash had been prevented from going after the Bandit camp by most of the other scouts dog piling on her. By the time she managed to get away from them the main brunt of the Guard had arrived.

As it was, she was one of the first to storm the camp along with Queen Luna and General Kaisur.

Though there was nothing left of the camp to fight. Bodies, blood and entrails lay strewn everywhere. Buildings smoldered with no flame seeming to consume them in the premorning light.

In the middle of it on the only clear patch of ground, sat a mare. She was untouched by the blood and seemed to be slumped over a trio of weapons asleep, though she didn't appear to be breathing. A battered orange crystal spear, and two crumbling crystal wing blades lay under her.

While there was no blood on her, the fur of her face was mattered with tears and a small smile rested on her lips. Cradled in one wing however was an oddity, a fairly large bottle of olive oil.

And thus, gaining the revenge she sought, Starfall Silvertail departed from Equss.

Author's Note

As hard as it has been to write the deaths of the other chars, this one seemed to have hurt me more than most of them.

It's one thing to write the end of other peoples chars, but to see the end of ones you yourself have created and nurtured from the very beginning with backstory and personality. It seems worse some how.

There are several bits of Trivia about Starfall. She was initially going to be the main character in the series, not Jer'rahd, she was also going to be the love interest at one point as well. Also despite everything else she was the closest to a mary sue as i got in this. She had her faults , but far too often they didn't seem to affect her and she could beat everyone.

That might have been why i focused more on Jer'rahd in the end.

Also as a side note for those of you who don't pay any attention to my blog post rants, i am considering doing a Q&A session on either Skype or Discord if i have enough people interested in hearing me rant.

Last Rainboom

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Rainboom

[ 55 years after the defeat of Tirek]

The steady tick of the clock was the only sound in the office save the slow breathing of the mare present at the desk.

Countless trophies and awards dotted the walls of the small office, newspaper clippings of heroic actions, Wonderbolt autographs, and a signed and framed copy of the very first print of the first Daring Do book, passed along to her from the author's own collection after she died during an expedition gone wrong.

Various combat medals covered another wall. Various awards from Princess Luna, Celestia, Cadence, and Princess Twilight for her actions during the The War of Gods, the Tirek invasion, and her bit part in the 32 hour war.

There was even a massive color painting of the epic Rainboom that had been preformed at the top of the Manterhorn during the War of the Gods.

Right now Rainbow Dash didn't give a shit about any of that.

Right now she felt old.

Right now her focus was on the three objects sitting in front of her on her desk.

The first was in a picture frame made of apple wood, with four figures in the picture. Herself with a long mane pressed up against the side of a massive red stallion with a straw colored mane and a half lidded eyes both had a smile on their faces. He was holding a small earth pony filly with light blue fur like her, and a straw colored mane like the his. Buzzing in the air behind them was a bright red colt with a rainbow colored mane like his mother. Zap, Fuji, and Big Mac.

Her foals were both still around, though she had evidently pissed off both of them not long after Big Mac died. Neither of them had wanted to take after her, though with only Zap having wings that didn't matter. Perhaps she had played favorites with her little colt too much, but he had very little interest in flying, he grew up wanting to take after his father. Given his build she couldn't blame him, he took after his father in size and as such there was no way he could pull off a Rainboom.

Fuji on the other hoof took after her in every way save having wings. She was short tempered, easily distracted, and super quick for an earth pony. And unlike Zap she loved flying. She gained her cutiemark building a working ultra light glider when she was seven.

Dash had barely noticed in her attempts to get her older brother into the air. Efforts that failed. And because of her insistence and her disregard both of them drifted away from her.

When the Draconic power Mac had constantly running through him finally caught up with him she didn't know how to take it. The silent mountain of a stallion had kept his problems to himself despite how bad the doctors told him he was. The red stallion continued on as if every day was the same as the one before, until one day in the fields his heart just stopped.

Dash had reacted poorly. She lashed out at her family and friends and everyone else, leaving the farm and moving to New Cloudsdale, not wanting to ever see anything apple like again.

Then Fluttershy died.

Dash didn't even attend the funeral.

It took Twilight and Pinkie Pie both to drag her out to the tree that marked her grave.

All it took to get her to stay however was to see how bucked up her best friend Applejack was. A lot of soured relationships got a bit better after that.

The second item on the desk was an image of Starfall and Peach Blossom along with their foal. The pair of them had passed on only a few years before Big Mac and if it hadn't been for her husband Dash likely wouldn't have made it through that time.

Loyalty was always hit the hardest when it came to loss. And Dash nearly always had some other pony to lean on when loss hit. She didn't know how Jer'rahd dealt with it, though according to Luna the answer was usually 'poorly'.

She never really knew her parents as she was abandoned at a young age, growing up in a orphanage in Cloudsdale. She had few friends and more than a few who wanted to beat down the scruffy filly with a chip on her shoulder and something to prove.

She was never adopted, no one wanted to try and tame a filly like her and once she came of age she got a job pushing around clouds until she made enough bits to set up a place where one of her few friends lived, Ponyville.

It didn't take her long to make the weather team, her skill in the air easily making up for her lack of training in the field, though in time she managed to get a degree in that, honorary, for her actions with the other Elements of Harmony, but well deserved by that point.

She thought she didn't need anything, she had fans, she had friends, a secret colt friend, and she was on a fast track to being a Wonderbolt.

Then Starfall showed up.

The mare was so insistent and smothering once she found out their relation that Dash didn't want anything to do with her. But in the end, it wound up being one of her best decisions. Sure it was annoying, but between Starfall and Peach Blossom she knew what it was like to have parents.

And then over the course of two days they were both gone.

She had lost her position in the Guard by savagely attacking the stallion who set up the train attack, though she managed to get it back during the 32 hour war. Not that she cared. She was still a Wonderbolt. She had lost her parents, her husband, alienated her foals, but she was still a Wonderbolt, the Commander of them in fact. It was the one dream she had left to hang onto.

Or at least she was until the end of the week.

The paper work for her physical was the third thing on the desk. Her last medical check up had failed her on too many points. She was too old to fly with the team. Eyesight, reaction time, even her heart were all starting to go, old injuries flared up and new ones lingered longer. She was being forcefully retired.

She didn't have anything else at this point.

She could ask Twilight, maybe, ask her to waiver the check up for a bit, to leave her in, but the purple alicorn hadn't been doing well herself with the string of deaths that had gone on recently. She would probably want Dash to retire too, just so an accident wouldn't claim her. Besides even now Rainbow Danger Dash was too proud to ask for help like that.

The cyan mare sighed, pushing up from the desk with a small pop of her knees. She crumpled the paper tossing it into the waste basket and shucked off her flight jacket showing the rumpled Wonderbolt uniform underneath.

She needed to think, and to do that she needed to fly.

Grabbing her goggles she left her office heading out to the training track.

The Wonderbolts Academy was still on the top of a massive plateau, despite the upheavals wars and everything else. It had been since the Wonderbolts were founded. It was part of the same chain of Mountains that included the Maneterhorn and from the edge of it you could see New Canterlot in the distance.

The place was crowded countless other ponies rushed about going about their business with a short salute or a nod to Dash as they passed. Most of them were more than used to their commanders patterns and seeing her stroll about the grounds in a flight uniform without her rank on it was more than enough to let most of them know she was thinking something over and needed to stretch her wings. For the most part she was left alone.

A few rookies evidently didn't know that last part.

“Commander on deck!”

“At ease. I'm just here to use the cloud course.” Dash waved at the four pegasi and the changeling down as she started working out the kinks in her wings.

While the Wonderbolts were still primarily a pony run show, since she had taken over they had accepted trainees of other races, Griffons, Changelings, Harpies, and in one case a young dragon. That one had only just missed making the team, which had the teams uniform supplier thrilled that they didn't need to figure out how to make a suit for a Dragon.

“Sir, Commander Sir?” a voice asked a bit hesitantly.

“Hmm?” Rainbow Dash asked glancing over to note the Changeling before her with the others standing back a bit watching in expectancy. “Whatcha need cadet?”

“ Yes, ma'am I mean sir..... I mean...” The changeling stammered as Dash raised an eyebrow. “Right any way we were wondering if you were planning to do anything about your record?”

“My record?”

“For the Canterlot Run.”

Rainbow Dash frowned. The Canterlot Run was a round trip flight from the training area to new Canterlot leagues away. When she first came to this post she made the flight daily running between Sweet Apple Acres and the base. Her record had been twenty five minutes for the whole round trip flight. Back when she used to take her lunch break with Big Mac, back when she cared about leaving the base, let alone her office.

“That's still a thing? When did you cadets start treating my old lunch route as practice?” Dash sighed.

“Err sorry sir, but didn't you start officially timing the run?” the Changeling asked.

Lunar, she remembered now, Cadet Lunar. Good maneuverability and speed, crappy stamina. The Changelings had started naming their young in honor of their new Queen a while back, though this one was the first one she had met working on getting into the Wonderbolts. Still if he was here he had passed the Guard training already.

“Yeah, I guess, but what about it? My best time was Twenty five and fourteen.”

“Yes Sir... but that bumps you off the top ten.”

“Really? News to me. Who's top now?” Dash asked walking over to a wooden board that was set up near the training hall.

1st. Firefly 13:25
2d. Star Scream 13:36
3rd. Iron Eagle 14:55
4th. Wash Burne 15:00
5th. Thunder Strike 15:32
6th. Cosma 16:22
7th. Swift Wing 17:10
8th. Scootaloo 17:20
9th. Goose 18:49
10th. Topper Harley 20:17

“Seriously? The Dragon beat my time?” Rainbow Dash frowned looking at fifth place. “ And when did Scoots do this?”

“Fraid so sir.” the changeling offered.” And Air Commander Scootaloo was the one who set up the sign and the rules a few years ago I think.”

Rainbow Dash flattened her ears. If she was younger she would have gone for this right off. She was still fit, but at her age there was no way she could keep up with some of the younger fliers here. She might get back on the board, but taking the top time again....

“Are you going to let this stand sir?”

Rainbow Dash frowned ,looking back at the Changeling and his companions, all of them seeming poised waiting for an answer. Sure she was old and tired, but most of these cadets had grown up hearing about her and Starfall and what they had done, they were staring at her now with stars in their eyes. She looked back at the sign pulling on her goggles and stretched her wings.

“Buck no.”

Sure she might fail, but she was going to try. Rainbow Dash never could let a fan down.

The time trial was simple. A little box with a stopper was set up by the scoreboard, the pony looking to challenge the time would tap the button to start and tap it again to save the time when they got back.

There needed to be at least one witness at the buzzer to make sure the time was right, and another where the course looped around which was the flagpole in the market of the Ponyville district of New Canterlot.

Dash didn't need to be told where the marker was she was the one who declared it as such after all.

She reached out a some what shaky hoof and tapped the buzzer rolling off the side of the cloud and letting instinct take over as she fell off the edge of the plateau.

She wasn't sure why she was doing this, she didn't need to prove anything to anyone any more. But it was flying and it was a challenge and so Rainbow Danger Dash was off.

Some of the cadets took off with her flying along in a tight formation behind her cheering her on as she flew.

Clouds drifted past as the ground grew closer, the angle easy enough to keep as she glided conserving her energy for the moment. This wasn't so much a race to her, it was just flying. It felt like no time before she rounded the flag pole, the spotter having picked out a cloud over where the Carousel boutique used to be, where a monument now stood of the Element's of Harmony. The old place burned down not long after Rarity's death and rather than let Coco build a new one the town put up a statue to the five mares and the Princess who came from their town to save the world from Nightmare Moon years ago. There was one just like it in New Cloudsdale with herself and Fluttershy in the fore front, though Angel Bunny had far more statues in her old home town then she did.

The trip back took her over Sweet Apple Acres, a place she still wasn't fond of seeing, though she could see those out in the field working and immediately spotted Zap and Applejack. As the pair looked up at her, she flattened her ears, adding another stroke of her wings to speed her on, her body slowly warming up from the sun above, the long flight working out muscles she had long forgotten. The route was over all too soon as she glided up to the bell tapping it.

“Twenty minutes and fifty one seconds. You shaved off a good four minutes sir.” Lunar smiled. “ Not enough to get you back on the chart, but a great improvement for your age...”

Dash's ears flattened to her skull at the comment about 'her age' though she did little more than whip her tail and stretch her wings again as she looked back towards the town in the far distance.

“I'm just getting warmed up cadet.” Dash boasted slapping the timer and setting off the bell as she dove off the cloud again to the cheers of the small crowd of cadets.

'Ding'

“20:01 sir. You're back on the chart.....” Lunar stated.

'Ding'

“She's going again?” Lunar blinked as the Commander dove off the cloud.

“ 18 even......”Lunar gasped.

'Ding'

A crowd had started to gather at this point watching as the old mare launched herself off the cloud.
Dash smiled offering a wave as she dove off the cloud with a huff.

What the buck was she doing? Her wings hurt her lungs hurt, she hadn't gone for a flight this long in ages and for one that was a strain like this, she was never a marathon flier.

Dash grumbled to her self banking through a errant raincloud getting a mouthful of watery cloud stuff and a soaking to cool her off.

She spun around the edge of the pole looking down at a small crowd that had gathered, one that was growing larger as the word of what was going on trickled down. Every pony knew the name of Rainbow Dash and to hear she was attempting something again brought in interest.

Flying over the farm they were still there. Applejack and Zap.... watching her. She kicked up the speed further. She didn't feel tired, and the burn of her wings straining was starting to feel comfortable as she set into a rhythm. She didn't feel like stopping.

“17:01 one, you've taken seventh place.” Lunar shouted to her.

'Ding'

“Seriously? The changeling gasped as the crowd of Cadets and instructors cheered. A few of them looking worried and took off after her, either to catch the old mare when she finally gave out, or to stop her from pushing herself too hard.

This was a mistake.

Dash could hear the wing beats behind her a brief glance back showed some of her training fliers following behind her as well as her second in command. A stallion named Skyfall. He was a cocky bastard, but he was skilled, reminded her greatly of herself in truth.

“Commander that's enough. You're getting to old for rookie games.” Skyfall called out, the amber and gold Pegasus called flapping hard to catch up with her flying along side of her as he glanced over to her noting the way she kept her eyes focused ahead of her. “ Please stop.”

Buck he had to have gotten a copy of the report. Still there was something in his tone, not to mention the addition of that hated word that seemed to flip a switch in Dash. She had long ago been a prankster, a lazy show off who didn't take and gruff from anyone.

Now everything was rules and regulations, drills and safety manuals. It was never just flying any more.
A small portion of that mare she used to be bubbled up from her core and she turned her gaze to the stallion her red eyes staring at him through her goggles as she cracked a small smile.

“ Make me.”

With a snap of her wings Dash surged ahead of the group as if she was starting a race.

“16: 05” Lunar stated.

'Ding'

Her audience cheered.

The trainers were calling after her , her second in command had tried to stop her. They couldn't seem to catch her so they lay ahead of her in wait trying to trap her and she slipped right through their hooves.

No one was going to catch her. She felt great, the cheering crowds, the freedom of flight, it was as if all the weight of her years was lifted and she was a young mare again training for the Wonderbolts.

A glance back showed a few shadowy forms hidden in the setting sun. The closest one looked to be a black Pegasus, though she had a pair of odd goggles that made it look like she had a horn. The sun seemed to fade around her and Dash didn't recognize the mare, probably a rookie. Maybe they got a pegaicorn? There were a few more of those nowadays.

Dash offered the mare a grin and sped up out distancing the mare, who now had a look of surprise on her own features as she struggled to keep up.

“14:45” Lunar called

'Ding'

This one was stubborn. That black mare just wouldn't give up and was still hot on her tail. Clearly she wanted a race. She hoped Skyfall was taking notes on the rookie because she would be after his job soon enough with flying like this.

The others had given up trying to catch her as she rounded the flag pole a sizable crowed gathered in the market. She caught a glimpse of Fuji looking out of her workshop on the main street and Pinkie Pie watching her from a park bench along with Discord, the pair of them seemed sad for some reason. Then she was over the farm again, with Zap and Applejack and the other farm hooves staring up at her.

The black mare pressed on gaining once again as Dash began the climb back towards the base.

She was persistent, but Dash was stubborn and poured on the speed.

“ 13:40” Cried an astounded Lunar , the entire flight camp seemed to be gathered at the point now watching as Dash rounded the cloud.

'Ding'

The black mare was gaining on her again.

Dash was having none of that and stretched her fore limbs out in front of her, feeling the air resistance gathering before them. The air started to buckle and fight back against her as she pressed forward harder. The dark mare was on her hooves though suddenly she wasn't, as the air ripped open with a nimbus of light sending a rainbow of colors out from Dash as she broke the barrier with a Rainboom.

The streak of rainbow light whipped around the flagpole with more screaming and cheering.

Over the farm the black mare started to catch up again some how.

Dash smiled as the black mare closed in.

Challenge accepted.

Dash pushed harder.

Lunar didn't even have a chance to call out the number before there was a Ding and the clock reset.

“12:00 even......” he stammered.

This had to be a trick, or the mare was using magic. It was the only way the black mare could be staying so close to her.

Dash would not accept that, she couldn't stand cheating.

There was a crowd.

She was in the air.

Her family and friends were watching.

She was going to win.

She pushed harder and the air gave up first.

A second thunderous Rainboom shook Canterlot Castle as Princess Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia watched from a balcony. The rainbow line in the air was stretching all the way across New Canterlot and back up into the sky towards the Wonderbolts Academy.

“What is Rainbow Dash doing?” Twilight asked with a small frown as a third Rainboom rocked the castle.

“Seven minutes.” Lunar called her blue mane whipping from the wind being kicked up by the ray of light that was the commander.

'ding'

The air screamed around her ears sounding like music. Dash felt parts of the suit she was wearing start to rip and tear, falling free of her in shreds and being burned up in the rainbow light.

This feeling, she had felt it once before. The first Rainboom she had ever done as a filly, the excitement was there, the lack of fear, and the speed she was putting out.

As she soared past the farm in a blur she was certain she had seen some one else other than Zap and Applejack. On top of the hill where Fluttershy was buried.

A white Unicorn mare with purple hair and a yellow Pegasus with pink hair.

Her shadow was closing up behind her and her wings beat faster, the air didn't even try to resist her now giving in the moment she pushed.

“Four minutes.” Lunar called out of habit more than anything else.

There was a near completed loop of rainbow trail covering the entire length of the course, the rain booms were going off two or three times a loop and she was still getting faster. There was no more gusts of wind as she came by it was now a constant stiff breeze.

'ding'

A swirl of dust and debris followed in her wake as she whipped around the flagpole , the loop feeling like it was getting even smaller with each pass.

The black mare behind her was falling further and further behind with each pass and Dash continued to push feeling a rushing thrill she hadn't felt in years.

Dash didn't want to stop, she never wanted to stop, she wasn't tired, nothing hurt any more, she wasn't even lost in her own thoughts or depressed. She was doing what she loved, flying.

There was a rumbling crackle of lightning as she pushed through again and a wave of heat that followed in her wake as a Rainboom made of fire and lightning burst from her form as she pressed on faster than any had thought possible, and started picking up more speed.

The occupants Wonderbolt Academy were all gathered around the exercise field. All of them silent as they stared at the blur of light and sound that was their commander.

The ringing of the bell was constant now. Barely a second passing before it chimed again and the bell itself was starting to glow from the friction.

There wasn't a soul at the academy who wouldn't be telling this story for as long as they lived. An unbeatable time from a legendary Commander.

Dash thought this was some sort of nirvana of speed. She could see everything and everyone was going so slowly. The training camp, the town the farm, no one seemed to be moving any more. Everything flickered around her as she took it all in like a film she could see all points along her loop at the same time, take in every detail.

Applejack and Zap were in awe. Fuji was watching with an expression of shock. Pinkie Pie was crying. She could see Twilight and Celestia on the balcony of the castle. The air rumbled with the constant explosions of light.

There were five figures on the hill now. The yellow pegasus, the white unicorn, an orange pegasus and a gray furred pegasus mare with purple hair. Behind her and next to the pegasus stallion was a blue pegasus stallion she didn't recognize, though she felt she should know.

She spotted the black mare again standing in the middle of the apple field talking to some one. Unlike every one else this mare was still moving. Dash watched as she faded away and another figure stepped out of the tree line.

A tall bulky stallion with red fur and short if messily cropped straw colored mane and tail. A green apple adorned his flank and a bit of straw hung lazily from his mouth as he moved into the clearing looking up at her.

“Mac!”

Princess Twilight Sparkle watched as the the line of rainbow colored light suddenly veered off course dropping down to Sweet Apple acres.

Far above the surface of the moon Equss floated silently in space. The blue green and white surface suddenly turned much brighter as a ring of rainbow colored light erupted from near New Canterlot. The glowing nimbus ring radiating out from the source, rapidly running over the entirety of Equss, before collecting at the point of origin and winking out with a bright flash.

There was surprisingly little damage. The great Rain Boom had knocked trees flat in a circle of the orchard, though they could easily be set back up and be right as rain.

Princess Twilight Sparkle trotted towards the small crater in the center of the field, looking down at the massive burn mark shaped like her friends cutie mark that had been seared into the grass and soil down to the bedrock.

She glanced back to Applejack and Zap, neither of whom believed what had happened.

Twilight flattened her ears to her head, her magic picking up the only thing in the small crater, a pair of flight goggles with a crack in one lens.

Thus Rainbow Danger Dash Apple followed her husband away from Equss in a way that ensured she would not be forgotten by anyone.

Author's Note

And thus Dash becomes the first to outrun death, until death cheated.

Last Cookie

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Cookie

[56 years after the defeat of Tirek]

“This looks like a good spot to rest for a bit.”a graying unicorn mare stated, making her way towards a bench under an old shade tree. Old age had not been kind to the mare. Old scars and a life of conflict and excitement had taken their toll on her. Her limbs were bent in arthritis and her chipped horn barely had enough magic left in it to turn the pages of a book. Her mane and tail had turned pure white and only a few hairs on her fading coat showed the vibrant mint coloration she was when she was younger. Despite all this, her amber eyes were still wide and bright as if they belonged in a mare a quarter of her age. " Can't walk as much as i used to."

“Of course it is... this was always a good spot.” the earth pony mare following along with her chuckled.

Like the unicorn the mare had seen better days. Where the unicorn had a rough life in spots, the earth pony looked as if she had been run over by the wagon of life countless times. Only those who knew her well, would disagree and there were few of those left. Though they would say she was only run over once, then she flipped the wagon over and beat the driver with it.

Her fur seemed untouched by age, the pale cream coloration never having faded though there were countless scars marring her torso. Her left rear leg was missing and part of her cutie mark was burned away on that side of her. A long scar ran down her chest between her front legs where a pacemaker had been put in years ago was the most prominent of countless scars. Her mane was just as vibrant as it once had been as well, though it was little more than a purple and pink wig as shown by her stringy and faded tail. Her blue eyes were more faded than the unicorns, wearier, though they brightened considerably in the other mares presence. Or at least her one remaining real eye did, the other was lost in the same career ending mission that cost her her leg. Despite her loss she was still as mobile as ever perhaps even more so than the unicorn she was with.

The unicorn took a moment to clamor up onto the park bench, sitting in a odd position, raised up with her back legs dangling over the edge of the bench and her forelimbs resting in her lap. Her companion had long ago stopped questioning her about the odd way she sat and slipped onto the bench in a more normal fashion, laying over it in a way that allowed her to lay her head on her the unicorns lap.

“Really? Always huh? Would you even have known about this place if I hadn't caught up with you here after you ran off that time?” the unicorn smirked.

“Of course not, but after you mortified the fool out of me with that ridiculous proposal I couldn't stay there. I was already about to die of embarrassment.” the earth pony chuckled with a yawn.

“I thought it was awesome, a big parade and I got to ride a monster instead of fight one. But I still had to run you down to get your answer.”

“I said yes, didn't I?”

“Sure after trying to strangle me first.” the unicorn chuckled though that devolved into coughing that made the earth pony raise her head only to put it back down as the unicorn waved her off.

“It has been a while hasn't it?

“Well we can't all be Princesses or whatever Jer'rahd and Luna are now.” The unicorn sighed.” Not sure I’d even want to be.”

“Why's that Lyra?”

“Minuette, Trixie, Octavia, Rainbow Dash. They all saw someone they loved die before them. The Princesses and those two have seen a lot of ponies they care about die before them.” Lyra sighed. “Not sure I could handle that Bon Bon.....”

“We have.....” Bon Bon sighed.”Fluttershy, Big Mac, Rarity, Minuette, Octavia and a bunch of others. Not much left of the old crew. Just Twilight and Applejack really."

“I can't stand it. Hey did I ever tell you why we called Minuette 'The Cavalry'?”

“Changing the subject dear?”

“Yep.”

“You have, but you can tell me again.”

“Cause back in the Guard, no matter what the situation, if you needed her, she'd show up in the nick of time, never failed really. I swear I once ran out of toilet paper when the barreks were empty one weekend and right as I’m ready to panic she waltzes in tosses a roll into the stall and waltzed right back out.”

“Okay the toilet paper bit is new.” Bon Bon smiled rolling onto her back to look up at the smile on her wife's face closing her eyes to enjoy the warm sun.

“Glad to see I can still surprise you.” Lyra smiled down at her before lifting her head up to glance at the sun. Her ears perked up as she heard the sound of foals playing on the other side of the park, the faint clop of hooves on stone as ponies walked around the shade tree the pair were sitting under, her wife's soft breathing.

“It always has it's own sort of music doesn't it?” Lyra smiled humming softly as she found a tune among the noise. Her ears remained perked as she let the tune fade.” I suppose there's no getting around it. Nothing lasts forever, not even the Princesses. Sooner or later life gets to be too much for everyone.”

Lyra lifted her head hearing a bird chirping in the trees above her. She looked up as the creature fluttered off when a tall black furred mare approached along the path. She had to have some sort of spectacular mane dye as her coat was dark enough that it seemed to swallow the light around her. She hadn't seen a pegicorn since Cadence, though she knew a few lived in Ponyville now.

“I remember an old story about life and death being in love. Life sends death countless gifts and he keeps them forever. “Lyra smiled.” Very heartwarming so long as one doesn't know that life is really screwing an angry Dragon and the very earth wants to bang death. Stupid Twilight Sparkle ruining poetry for me...”

Lyra looked up as the bird returned.

“Pity she hasn't said anything about what happens after. Do we become stars? Do we move on to another life, maybe I’d be a human in that one? “ Lyra sighed. “ I hate talking about this sort of thing. When it's over that had better not be it or I’m gonna be pissed.”

Lyra closed her eyes her ears flicking lightly in the air before she spoke again.

“Candy Apple and Harpsichord should be fine though. We raised them right..... still can't believe Luna was willing to sponsor us for the adoption. That would have taken forever other wise.... Hey remember when Candy was fifteen and had a crush on Dash's kid.... what was his name now?”

Lyra paused at the lack of response. Something was missing from the music in the air and it made her frown, though she let out a small sigh before she smiled again.

“Guess you decided to take a nap. I can't blame you. I'm comfortable...........” Lyra closed her eyes letting out along breath as she leaned her head down , lips brushing Bon Bon's still muzzle. “Guess I could use one too, it's been a long life after all.”

All around the pair, the park continued to thrive and ponies lived and played unaware, until a Guard stopped to check on the mares.

The poor Guard was the first to discover that Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings had left Equss behind them.

Author's Note

This one was going to be a lumped chapter with a number of loose ends to tie up, but i decided these two needed their own chapter.

Last Mission

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Mission

[64 years after Tireks defeat]

The wind howled as tore through the trees at the edge of the forest. The wild storm battering the small town built just beyond White Tail woods. Carrot Glade was a small trading hub that nearly all of the Elk's imports and exports went though. There were a few shops, farms, and houses, but most of the income came from caravans forced to stop at the edge of the woods before being granted permission by the Elk to come into their lands, something that could take as long as a week. Several bars and a large hotel at the edge of town sprouted up due to this forced stop.

Still with the trade routes profits, most merchants didn't mind the small layover.

Today however the small town was in a crisis situation.

“Team beta I need a sit-rep now!” a armored pony shouted into a com system set up in the town hall. A large number of other ponies milled around him. The wind continued to scream outside as rain and hail beat against side of the building, the whole structure creaking in the strong wind causing a number of the families that had gathered here to cry out at the noise.

Captain Cobb and his team had shown up at the beginning of the storm, they had been out on maneuvers and had been the closest to the town to be able to offer aid, and seek shelter themselves. They hadn't expected the storm to gain the ferocity it had coming off over Whitetail. The locals called this sort of storm 'Tirek's rage' and looking outside the Earth Pony Guard could tell why.

“Given the lightning I would think the crystal would be mostly static Captain.” A older mare chuckled from where she sat nearby.

“Now now dear, these might be some of the newer ones... you know the crystals that can't even hold a charge in perfect weather.” An older stallion added from the other side of the table. “ It might not be the weather that's causing issue it just might be garbage.”

“Oh right. They switched from the older systems that worked because the new ones were cheaper...” the mare chuckled. “And hows that working out for you Captain?”

What he hadn't expected when he came to town was the two ponies who had joined up with his unit as soon as they arrived. A Pegasus and an Earth Pony, and old married couple, probably in their eighties from the looks of it.

Both of them were decked out in Guard tac gear and both were armed. One with an odd ring ended sword and the other with a pair of crystal blades that attached to her fore hooves not her wings like most Pegasus preferred. Granted with her tiny wings there wasn't much there to attach to.

Still Cobb hadn't made Captain by being an idiot. It was easy to recognize the pair as retired Guard, and easier still to recognize who the pair were, and even at their advanced age it nearly made him shit himself. Of all the towns in Equestria, this was the one he got stuck in during a time when his leadership would be put to the test.

Former General of the Six Sixty Sixth monster hunters, the last pony in Equestria's history to be granted the rank of General.

Pip Kaisur.

The mare was the former General of the 63rd air wing and the second to last pony ever to be granted the rank of General.

Scootaloo Kaisur

Both had earned the rank in the short but memorable third invasion of New Canterlot by the forces of the Storm King. The conflict was also called the 'Thirty four hour war', though in truth it lasted only thirty two, two of those hours were spent traveling to the Storm Kings lair before ultimately destroying it and all of the forces the Yeti had gathered.

General Kaisur and Queen Luna also professed to be very cross that they missed the fight.

The pair had been quite helpful in gathering up the towns folk here and helping the Guards figure out the lay of the land as well as the number of ponies present in the town and likely escape routes.

There were currently fifty four civilians in the town hall and another dozen or so who had hunkered down in their homes. Of his ten Pony and one Griffon unit, Cobb and three others were stationed in the town hall. The basement of the town hall was fairly sizable and more than large enough to hold the towns population.

Three other members of his team had set up a triage in the basement and were treating a number of the small injuries that had resulted from the high winds and blown debris. With the wind as it was now many of the shops and homes were already showing signs of damage.

The final three were the ones he was trying to contact, his aerial scout team. The Griffon and the two pegasi were good, but he was worried with this storm.

“HQ this is beta, I hope everyone down there is in a shelter because there's problems up here.” the radio crackled. “ We've spotted at least two funnels forming at various points around town and there's at least three more across the fields to the north of town. We don't think those are headed this way but the other three look like they are going to touch down any time now. We've got a secure cloud above everything, but it looks like we'll be stuck here, it's too dangerous to fly below the cloud line right now.”

“There are still ponies trying to shelter in their homes.” Pip muttered.

“The Hearthstones, Seasprays, and Roses. “ Scootaloo pondered. “ Not to mention those three staying out at the merchant hotel on the east side.”

“It's too late to get to any of them.” Cobb muttered looking at the door as it rattled.

“You're a Guard Cobb act like it. You don't give up.” Scootaloo scoffed as she rose to her hooves with a stretch, Cobb was certain he heard more than a few pops.

“Right, shall we get going then dear?” Pip asked looking back at Scootaloo as he made his way towards the door. We can run the Roses and Hearthstones back here on the way to the merchant hotel.” Pip said cheerfully heading to the door.

“Not worried about the Seasprays?” Scootaloo asked following after him.

“Nah remember Wake is a prepper. I've seen his basement it's better supplied than the town hall.”Pip responded.

“Wait a minute you can't go out there you'll be killed.” Cobb stammered.

“ Sorry Captain, I've taken a bit too much after my father since retirement.” Pip smiled throwing open the door and lowering his head at the sudden explosion of wind into the building. “Meaning I do what I want. Keep things secure here. We'll be back.”

The pair of old ponies stepped out the door letting it slam shut behind them.

Checking on the Roses and the Hearthstones went by fairly quickly. The Hearthstones were only two doors down from the shelter and quickly rushed out towards the shelter after looking down the road at the now four funnels forming around the town.

The Roses were a bigger issue as a good portion of their home had already collapsed from the high winds and Pip and Scootaloo couldn't get a response from any one inside the flattened structure. Either they were in their basement trapped or the family of three was dead. In both cases the pair didn't have the time or the personnel to try to find out which right now.

Despite their age both of the former Guards moved swiftly along the path keeping both eyes on the sky as the first of the tornadoes touched down,tearing through the treeline at the forests edge and some of the farmland nearby. The howl of them filled the air and Pip could see Scootaloo stiffening and on edge with want to try and fix the problem directly, though it would take a whole team plus to stop or even stall this storm. Pegasi and Guard instincts were hard to resist. As such they both continued, slipping into a drainage ditch to walk with some cover towards the merchant hotel at the edge of town.

The pair of them paused when Scootaloo spotted something in the storm. Looking Peeking out of the ditch the pair of them saw a dark figure in the distance that looked like Queen Luna. The figure seemed to vanish as soon as it was spotted so the two of them ignored the black alicorn and continued sloshing along in the drainage ditch towards the outskirts of town.

The Trader Roadside Inn seemed to be swaying in the winds as several large funnels formed over the caravan grounds behind it dancing in the air. A pile of debris plastered to the side of the place showed one of the funnels had already touched down briefly, thankfully not seeming to have done more than make a mess.

The three story structure was well built, but with the weather as was, the place had no basement to seek shelter in so it was unsafe.

“That's a problem.” Scootaloo shouted pointing at the trio of funnel clouds that had started to circle each other. “ Those things are going to join up to a big one soon. She yelled to Pip who nodded and ran towards the structure, much to Scootaloo's annoyance, though his wife followed him.

Age had not diminished the small Earth Pony's mass as much as it had other elderly ponies. Neither he nor Scootaloo had slacked in their training PT regardless of their rank or situation. The notable exception was Scootaloo's down times while she had been heavy with foals years ago, and once the foals were born she was right back into it.

That had only happened twice, a filly and colt The colt had been named after his grandfather Amano, the filly after Babs. Scootaloo's parents had spoiled the fool out of them before they passed years ago with near simultaneous heart attacks. Spitfire had one and died three days later in her hospital bed while her father Soarin had had one while stressing over Spitfire and died a day before her. It was sad but neither had wanted to live if the other died, it was just a depressing way for that to happen.

Both of their own foals were grown now, with their own lives now and their own foals, which Scootaloo and Pip spoiled rotten when they visited.

Jer'rahd and Luna just spoiled the fool out of all of them.

The front door splinted and crashed inward after only two blows from Pip though the older stallion winced as he strode into the building reaching up to rub his shoulder. Scootaloo was hot on his hooves but rushed past them at the sound of screaming from another part of the building, Pip was after her a moment later as she burst into the kitchen of the hotel.

Curled up in the large brick fireplace were a pair of soot covered earth pony foals. A little white furred filly with a green mane, who might be about four or five and a bundled green furred infant who couldn't have been more than a year. The infant was the one screaming and the filly was holding him tight as she looked at the old ponies with worry.

Pip glanced to Scootaloo who nodded and moved over to the pair speaking with them softly trying to get them to calm down with a grandmotherly tone. Pip moved to check the other rooms wincing as he pushed open the door to the dining area next to the kitchen.

What was left of the foals mother was pinned to the floor of the room. A wooden fence post ripped up from the storm had burst in through the window impaling the young mare, probably killing her instantly. Another crash snapped Pip's gaze to the wall as a piece of lumber speared half way through the wooden wall with the sound of many others hitting the railing outside. The windows in the room were all busted out and the pile of debris outside was rattling and starting to move about as the wind picked up again. Pip winced watching as the garbage started to pull away from the building towards a vortex of dust that was picking up in the yard.

Pip ducked back into the kitchen with a shake of his head. Scootaloo frowned and gathered up the foals from the fireplace.

“We can't stay here the walls are too thin the winds throwing things through them.” Pip stated. A sudden crash drew both their eyes to the chimney as a rain of bricks crashed down where the foals had been as the upper stack of the chimney had been broken off, the howling wind getting even louder.

“We should try for that drainage ditch by the road, should be deep enough for us to hide in.”Scootaloo added as she pushed out of the kitchen hobbling a little as she held the infant in one fore limb, the younger pony clinging to her legs.

The entire building suddenly lurched sending the filly stumbling. Green fire flared as Scootaloo fanned her burning wings to keep her balance, dousing them as the filly clung tighter to her leg. Looking over at Pip she frowned as the whole building screamed and creaked. Windows shattered and things fell every where with loud thuds and crashes. Pip stumbled looking out the broken front door with a wince.

“What is it?” Scootaloo demanded.

“We're airborne.” Pip frowned.

“Horse feathers.” Scootaloo snapped.

The house slowly spun in the air from the massive twister that had formed around it and ripped it from the foundations. The weight of the three story building eventually proved more than the storm was willing to carry off and gravity soon took over, dropping the massive structure back to the ground with a horrendous crash.

“.......Hey..... hey.... kid......... are you okay?”

The filly whimpered shifting feeling dirt and dust slid off her fur. Her back legs hurt and she felt icky. She still smelled the ash of the fireplace she had been in but there was a bitter coppery scent in the air too.

She whimpered softly trying to stand up and feeling the furred underbelly of some pony above her.

“Well she's moving at least.” A stallions voice stated.

“A good sign, I can feel the little one breathing against my leg too.” a mares voice stated.

“Where's mommy?” the filly asked looking around at the darkness surrounding her. It was quiet though she heard wind in the distance and there was faint breathing below her but it was silent other wise.

“I'm sure she's fine kid.” the stallion stated with a tone that reminded her of when adults fibbed.

“So what's your name?” the mare asked from a little further away.

“Sweetpea....” she muttered.

“Hello Sweetpea. My name is Pip... my wife here is Scootaloo. Are you feeling alright?”

“Feel icky...” Sweetpea complained.

“Any boo boos?” Pip asked.

“Legs have owwies, but mostly icky.”

“I could use a bath myself.” Scootaloo snarked. “Hey can you check on your little brother for me?”

“Where is he?” Sweetpea gasped. “Momma said I needed to watch him....”

“He's right in front of you hun. Just move forward under me a little and he'll be right at your...” Scootaloo's voice was cut off as there was a ear shattering wail from the swaddled colt. “....hooves.”

“Losing your touch with foals dear?” Pip asked far too sweetly.

“Stuff it you... wow that one's got a set of lungs” Scootaloo complained. “ I let you convince me to have two foals Pip, just two and each time you seemed to forget this is what they did all the time.....”

Sweetpea ignored the adult ponys talking above her sitting down and picking up her brother rocking him a little as he slowly started to calm down sniffling and whining.

“So what's his name?” Pip asked.

“Momma named him Green Bean cause of his fur , but I call him booger cause he's always snotty.”

“Ah yes the nicknames of foals. So mean and yet so accurate.. isn't that right dodo?” Pip stated and Sweatpea could just feel the evil smirk on his face even if she couldn't see it.

“Pip I love you, but by your mom's moon covered butt, I will end you if you continue.” Scootaloo growled getting a laugh from the other pony.

“Where are we?” Sweetpea asked.

“Safe... ish. Scoots here got in contact with a friend of ours while you were napping soon as the storm lets up outside I’m sure she'll be here to get us out.” Pip stated. “ You hungry? I think I have some oaty bars still in my saddle bag.”

“The doctor said you weren’t supposed to have any of those.” Scootaloo fussed.” He said you need to cut down on the fat and sugar.”

“Blah blah blah. I'm super fit for my age and can bench press a wagon and he still says I need to lose weight.” Pip grumbled. “ What does he want me to do amputate a leg?”

“Well now, what happened to the super rules following Pipsqueak I used to know?” Scootaloo scoffed.

“He married a reckless maverick who rubbed off on him.” Pip chuckled. “No the lower pocket hun all that's in that one is rope.”

Sweetpea had set her brother down and was digging through the side pouch of the pony. He was old , but he had been wearing a Guard uniform just like the mare with him. It looked old and it didn't have any armor on it like all the ones she had seen earlier in the day but momma had said to listen to Guards and they had oaty bars......

[Several hours later.]

“Still with us Sweetpea?” Pip asked.

“Uh huh tired.....”Sweetpea muttered.” And still icky... booger threw up....”

“Air's getting stale.” Scootaloo grumbled. “ Bloom better hurry up.”

“Storms cleared any way from the sound of it.” Pip offered.

“Well that's good.” Scootaloo sighed.

“Shouldn't be long now..... uh oh....” Pip muttered.

“What?” Scootaloo asked.” What's uh oh I hate when you say uh oh.”

“I think I hear Da.”Pip muttered.

“Crud. Those two were supposed to be in Canterlot still.” Scootaloo sighed. “Well at least that means you'll be out of here soon Sweetpea. Pip's parents are crazy strong and won't let some fallen building stop them.”

The foal Green Bean took this moment to start wailing again though neither of the adults tried to shush him. In fact both of them had gone quiet and Sweetpea was starting to get worried when the wood and dirt above her shifted and dust started falling down over her which only made Green Bean scream louder.

A moment later a green glow lit the area briefly and a massive chunk of roof was pulled free from over them and flung into the distance with a crash. A gray furred stallion with an amber mane poked his head in, a green glow of his horn shining on the small filly and her brother. One green eye and one red eye regarded the pair before he looked to Pip and Scootaloo standing on ether side of the small pair. He winced a frown forming on his face though he quickly picked up the foals in his magic pulling them out of the hole.

“MEDIC!” Jer'rahd bellowed over the crying blood soaked infant and filly.

“So the mothers dead?” Luna asked with a small frown.” No other relatives?”

“Not sure about that second question, but yeah she's dead.” Applebloom sighed watching a large number of her Elk wander around the remains of the town. “Storm like that and only four died......”

“They pulled most of the Roses out of their collapsed home.” Pip offered.

“Good to know, I bet they'll listen next time when told to get to shelter.”Scootaloo scoffed.

“So what now?” Jer'rahd asked his head dipped and his eyes closed.

“Probably a long needed vacation. Visit a few friends and relatives.” Pip commented. “Lot of rebuilding here.”

“Yeah my garden's shot.” Scootaloo sighed.

“Nothing grew in that but weeds any way Scoots.” Applebloom smirked softly getting a look from Jer'rahd and Luna.

“Pfft I was gonna have a watermelon this year.” Scootaloo scoffed.

“Yeah sure, probably gonna send me off to the store to buy one again and try to fool every pony.” Pip chuckled.

“So about the filly and her brother.” Luna stated changing the subject.

“Ah'm gonna take her and her brother.”Applebloom stated. “Unless another relative comes forward.”

“Not sure you can legally do that.” Pip offered.

“Sweetpea's got a gift. One ah only seen with a few of tha Elk.” Applebloom stated.” An me of course.”

“The ability to speak with the dead.....” Jer'rahd filled in.

“Yeah.” Applebloom sighed.

“I can't believe my last words were horse feathers.” Scootaloo sighed looking at Pip.

The pair of them were much younger now as they stood on either side of Applebloom the two of them seemingly immune to the depression that filled the other three in the room. When the structure fell they both rushed to cover the foals and they managed to keep their bodies stiff enough for the small bit of space under their legs to keep the pair of them safe, despite the impact of multiple tons of ruined building collapsing atop of them.

“Are they still here?”Luna asked.

“Yeah... they're talking shit, like always.”Applebloom smiled a little.

“We should have come sooner..” Luna muttered.

“Oh crap here we go. No. You can't be everywhere Luna. You agreed to let us live our own lives so we did.” Scootaloo ranted.

“Honestly we went out properly as well. Protecting some ponies like a Guard should rather than in bed wasting away to some sickness.” Pip added waiting for Applebloom to pass it on before he continued.” This wasn't a bad death. It could have been worse, it's not like we suffered or anything.”

Jer'rahd listened as Applebloom continued nodding softly as she spoke. Luna was taking it far harder recalling the little foal she had met on that first Nightmare Night, she couldn't stop crying, and neither could any other Changeling across Equss.

Jer'rahd slowly stood up looking to Applebloom and glancing at the two spots she had been looking when she spoke to the departed spirits. He snapped suddenly to attention and offered a sharp salute to the pair of them despite not being able to see them.

“Go ahead to your deserved rest.” Jer'rahd stated holding the pose. “We'll handle everything here.”

Pip and Scootaloo glanced at each other before both snapped to attention returning the salute.

“Dismissed.” Jer'rahd muttered dropping his foreleg.

The pair of ghosts looked to each other before turning to head off across the field slowly fading from view.

“So who do we go see first?” Pip asked.

“Babs and Silver.” Scootaloo responded.

“What, not your parents?”

Do you really want to deal with my dad freaking out and blaming you for my death?”

“Point.”

And so with their last mission completed Scootaloo and Pipsqueak Kaisur, departed Equss

Author's Note

And here we go another chapter of this story. It takes me a while to do these as i need to be in the right frame of mind for it.

Last Party

Stories in Stone
last Dance
By TDR

Last Party

[96 years after the fall of Tirek]

“You say it's your birthday,

Well it's my birthday too yeah

They say it's your birthday

We're gonna have a good time

I'm glad it's your birthday

Happy birthday to you

Yes we're going to a party party

I would like you to dance [birthday]

Take a cha cha cha chance [birthday]

I would like you to dance [birthday]

Dance

I would like you to dance.................[ birthday]”

Twilight watched in awe as Pinkie Pie danced around the place with her ten year old great grand daughter, singing along to a birthday song played by.... well Twilight couldn't recall the bands name, but it had something to do with bugs. With the way Pinkie moved around the field, seeming to be every where at once. You would think that the mare was in her early twenties if that, not the hundred and eleven like she was, well hundred and twelve now, it was also hard to tell whether the grand daughter or Pinkie was the happier.

The other birthday girl was the youngest member of the Pie family. Whistle Stop was another that took after her great grandfather Discord. As far as Twilight could tell she was a full blooded Draconequus, which was odd given her parentage, though everything about Draconequus was odd. Unlike the mixed selections the eight other Draconequus Twilight knew had, Whistle Stop's parts seemed mostly canine like creatures. Her head was a Diamond Dog, her left leg a timber wolf, her right leg a sea lion flipper, her barrel was from something Discord called a Miazaki river dragon, her left arm was a regular, if large, canine paw and the right a cerabus arm. Her tails however were from a fox and she had four of them. Discord explained more were likely to grow the stronger she got with her powers up to nine or so.

This birthday party was the first one Pinkie had thrown in a while. Twilight had been worried for a bit as Pinkie Pie seemed to be slowing down, as if age was finally catching up with her.

Then she had gotten an invitation to this party and it had thrown that right out the window. Everyone had in fact gotten a invite. Cadence, Jer'rahd, Luna, Elusive, Dawn, Maud, Cheese Sandwich, Shin, Rynthia, Applebloom, Talon, Glimmer, AppleJack, the entire Pie and Apple Families, Ponyville, Canterlot, Equestria, Equss. literally EVERYONE. Twilight had even found invitations taped to every single statue in the Garden, including Blue Bloods, though his showed the party location as in the middle of a volcanic island out in the eastern sea.

The party took up most of the New Canterlot Stadium, the place where Sweetiebelle had her last performance. While it was clear that the entirety of Equss didn't attend, the crowd that was here was massive. Any one who was old enough to remember the last Pinkie Party wasn't going to miss the new party, and those too young to recall the last one still had heard legends. Likely all of them from the famous party for Twilight's ascension, to the infamous one that was Rainbow Dash's bachlorette party. There were still ponies claiming the latter on their taxes.

Of course this party was quite impressive as well, thankfully not at the levels of the bachlorette party as Pinkie didn't need to be bumped up a PDR rank.... again.

The Pie Faire had set up in the stadium, all the rides and games were free for the day. There was a massive dance floor set up, with not one, but three live bands rotating in and out for breaks. A section of the stadium seating had even been converted into a ski slope with weather ponies making it snow.

Then there was the food, sandwiches, hay fries, fish dishes for the meat eaters present, Gems for the Dragons, exotic snacks, breads, cheeses. Fruits from across Equss, including a pile of odd spiky ones that were on a small table to themselves well away from the rest of the food.

And the deserts....... There were muffins, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, and candies of every shape size and flavor imaginable and likely some that were beyond imagination.

The centerpiece of it all was a massive four story layer cake. Twilight was certain it was wider than even the Golden Oaks library. Each layer was a different flavor, chocolate, white, vanilla, red velvet, carrot, and so on, all with at least a dozen different frosting covering each so Ponies could mix and match to find what flavor they liked best.

Despite the size of the cake there was an even bigger pile. The invitation had suggested bringing a gift of some kind for the birthday filly and those present, as well as some who couldn't make it had delivered.

The mountain of presents that awaited unwrapping would likely take the ten year old weeks to unwrap. Her parents, SKULL MASHER RULER OF ALL, and Floral Bonnet were already trying to figure out how to fit the mountain into their home while their youngest daughter bounced around the party with her 'Granny Pie.'

Twilight smiled as she watched the crowd from by the refreshment table, in all this party barely any one noticed she was a Princess. It was rather refreshing. She took note of Spike and Bleu off to the side, both of them practically being used as jungle gyms by dozens of foals while being overseen by Cadence who had her own grand foals from Shin and Glimmer present. Jer'rahd Luna were talking with Applejack and Applebloom, the later not seeming to be very comfortable in the stadium for obvious reasons.

There were countless others she recognized scattered around and a large number she did not. Creatures from as far as Mosscow and Japony were in attendance, and on the snowy slope she could see Wolf with his wife and their two foals, that Pinkie had even seen to the comfort of the Windigo and Snow Ponies she had invited boggled Twilight's mind. Maud and Cheese were there as well, with the elder stallion doing his best to help out with the party, sitting in his wheel chair making balloon animals for any one who asked. Twilight was also certain she saw a odd black alicorn, though she might have just seen Luna, it was far to crowded to really tell.

Twilight shook her head taking a sip of the Sweet Apple cider Pinkie had provided, somehow getting barrels of it completely off season, she had long ago given up trying to figure out how Pinkie did things. She always hated the headache that came with it.

As she lowered her drink Pinkie's face took up her field of vision. The pink mare slipping to the side to dodge Twilight's spit take at her sudden appearance.

Pinkie Pie had aged rather well. Better than Applejack any way. Her blue eyes still danced with mischief and her pink hair was as poofy as ever if a little thinner than it used to be. Her coat had faded some and she had lost a good bit of weight, but she still looked like Pinkie Pie as Twilight recalled first meeting her.

“Hey there Twilight, glad you could make it, is something wrong with the cider.... I mean you did just spit it all out. I can open a new barrel for you if you like. Oh did you wish Whistle a happy birthday, she just got her cutie mark a week ago so this is sort of a cutie ceina too, it's a neat looking little train, I bet she'll be an awesome engineer, or maybe she'll design new ones! That would be neat. I told Dissy how special it was that she was turning ten and he offered to get her a Pipbuck so she could take on her responsibilities and get a work assignment, but I told him while this fic was dark, it wasn't FO:E dark so he got her a puppy instead. He also told me to say hello to you and Sun Butt if I saw her but I don't see her, which is good cause what he wanted me to say to her wasn't very polite, but any way Dissy says 'hello' Twilight.”

Twilight blinked, wiping her muzzle with a napkin before smiling. “It's alright Pinkie, Celestia couldn't make it this time, but she wanted me to bring back as much of the cake as I could.”

“I'll get a Princess sized doggy bag for you!” Pinkie chimed.

“Where is Discord any way, I figured he wouldn't miss one of your parties.” Twilight asked.

The response was a brief straightening of Pinkie's curly hair before it poofed back out.

“He's .. he's not feeling too well, though he came and saw Whistle yesterday. Pinkie explained an odd bit of seriousness in her tone. “ Lemmi go get that cake.”

Before Twilight could respond, Pinkie was off like a shot again seeming to be in four places at once as she joined back up with her grand daughter, some how was with the foals climbing all over Bleu, and was skiing down the slope with the snow ponies .

Twilight shook her head trying not to think about it before she noticed something tugging at her horn. Looking up she saw that some how the pink pony had managed to tie a bright red balloon on her horn without her even noticing.

Twilight chuckled, leaving it where it was, this was a party, and even a Princess could look silly at least for a little while.

====================================================================

[Two days later]

Twilight pushed open the door glancing back at Applejack as the elder farm mare rested her head again Luna's side crying softly.

The room was dark, though a number of small blinking lights and lines on a wall told Twilight all she needed to know. In the middle of the room was a bed and in that bed was a mare who looked more like a skeleton than a flesh and blood pony. Her pink mane was threadbare, her skin sunken in and her coat gray and ashen with only a few strands of pink here and there. Her chest rose and fell slowly kept going by a mask over her face that fed her air.

Twilight swallowed noting how dark and dull the room was, it was boring , sterile, it wouldn't do at all, not for this patient. Her horn flared and light grew in the room, the walls floors and ceiling changing colors and turning into a much brighter and cheerful place with a rainbow of colors and random decorations. Even the beeping from the machine now had a musical tone to it.

A small chuckle drew her attention to the mare in the bed, her eyes open, blue orbs rather cloudy, but still dancing with their own mischief.

“ Doctors gonna get mad at you for messing up their room Twilight.”Pinkie Pie gasped,her voice sounding like it was being drawn through a battered old garden hose.

“Let them get mad. I'm a princess. I do what I want.” Twilight smiled getting another chuckle from the bedridden mare that turned into a wheezing cough.

“Don't get too cocky there Twi. Doesn't suit you.” Pinkie smiled at her.

“Anything for a friend.” Twilight smiled back.”Pinkie … how did this happen … I saw you two days ago..... you were.... you were fine..... and why did you send for me any way, you have family....”

“You are family..... and I don't want the others to see me like this. I want them to remember me from that party.” Pinkie sighed.”To remember how I made them smile, not how I look in this bed..... Told the doctor to keep every one out, but you can't argue with Jerry and Lulu. And when Applejack said she wanted to see me, those two made it happen.”

“But why......”

“Cause I ran out of time...... but..... but..... I wanted to see Whistle's tenth birthday. “ Pinkie wheezed. “ He made it happen. He shouldn't have... he really shouldn't have..... but he did it any way, and there's nothing left for him.”

“Nothing left for who Pinkie, you're not making sense... I need to get the doctor...”

“No forget the doctor.... he couldn't help any way. I'm talking about Dissy. But, I wanted you to be here Twilight. I wanted to tell you... don't be mad at him. He's always been a victim of his emotions...I played on that too for a while. I shouldn't have gotten greedy at the end here. When Dissy recovers enough to show up tell him I'm sorry I'm making him go through this. Tell him to smile. Tell everyone........

Pinkie Pie's words trailed off so shallowly that Twilight had to strain to hear the last bit before there was silence from the mare as she spoke out her last breath. A moment later that silence was broken by a solid low tone and the weeping of a Princess as Pinkie Pie passed from Equss.

=====================================================

[2 days later]

“....... her last words to me......... addressed to every one......” Princess Twilight Sparkle swallowed. looking down at the vast crowd gathered before her at the Pie rock farm. The crowd that had showed up at her funeral was nearly double the size of the one that showed up at her last party. Even those who couldn't make it to the party were here, most Twilight didn't recognize, though in the throng she thought she saw a black alicorn, glancing to Luna she saw the Changeling Queen was still in her seat next to Jer'rahd, though when Twilight looked back to where the alicorn had been it was gone.

The balloon Pinkie had given her was still afloat and before Twilight came to read the eulogy she had placed it in her vault, with Rarity's necklace, Fluttershy's stuffed bunny, and Rainbow Dash's training goggles.

“...... the last thing she told me to tell you, was that she wants you all to smile. She loved to see every one smile......” Twilight concluded before closing her eyes and trying to put on the best smile she could, and act copied by a number of others trying to do the same with limited to no success. Twilight glanced over to the grave as some of the Pie family farmers started filling in the dirt over the grave, laying Pinkie to rest near her mother, father, and one of her sisters.

Everyone began filing out after that save a few of the more immediate family members who remained around to receive condolences, before they too left. Twilight, Applejack, and Maud remained, though the latter was led off crying by her husband before long. Applejack finally left as well being helped off by Applebloom and Zap Apple, leaving Twilight alone.

Twilight moved from behind the podium, bringing one of the chairs over next to the freshly covered grave, staring at the dirt as if willing the mare interned within to come back to life. Honestly she was more than willing to give up being a Princess to bring Pinkie Pie back.....

“Don't!”

Twilight lifted her head, her ears flattening as she didn't need to look at the speaker to know the voice.

“Don't what Discord? Don't show up to your grand Daughters birthday party, don't be there when your wife dies, don't show up on time to her funeral? “Twilight snarled.” I think you have that covered.”

“I suppose I deserved that, but at the same time.... You can shut your sun painted ass, kissing mouth Princess.” Discord snarled back as he walked towards the grave taking a position behind it. He knelt down, his chest resting on the back of the tombstone, his tail curling around it as he lowered his head to look down at the fresh dirt.

Twilight's eyes widened as she saw the state of him. Where Pinkie Pie had been a skeleton of a pony, at least half of Discords limbs were literally skeletal. Parts of him seemed to be fading in and out of reality, though it was not limited to any one thing. A horn here flickering, an arm next, his skin vanishing to show his insides, his tail. Everything came back, but it was only for another part to flicker and fade.

“What... what is going on?!” Twilight stammered.

“Oh now, you're concerned about me.” the Draconequus snarked.

“Discord....”

Discord sighed his gaze dropping back to the grave.” I was told what was going to happen. I already knew it, but my kind live a pretty erratic number of years so I knew how much I would have left.”

“ I.. I don't understand.”

“Forgot already?.... Or did I not tell you.. no matter, Harpy gods and all that. I signed my death warrant when I brought her back to life after she died when Wind Razor killed her. Gave up my claim as a God of Draconequus, not like there were any more of me around any way. Never expected there to ever be another. “ Discord explained.” She was only supposed to live another year, two tops with even that power. Just enough to get her affairs in order. She spent a lot of that time with me.... and when her time came up again.... I renewed it.... just a little, just to see what she might do next because she was interesting. Lost another hundred years of my life to do it. I had millions what did I care......”

Discord sighed shifting as he waited for his tongue to fade back in.

“Every time her time was up again I added more.... then I fell for her and I became terrified that she would leave me and what I might do if she did..... only she didn't leave me....... she loved me back and I didn't know how to deal with that. Well you know about the wedding and the foals and everything after that. Every time she started to fade I gave her more. Until I found that where I had millions of years I was down to thousands and then only hundreds left to live, until I only had five years left...... And Whistles birthday was coming up. She had just gotten her cutie mark and wanted her Granny Pie and Dissypa to help with her birthday......... Pinkie didn't even need to ask and I was done. I've got nothing left Sparkle, even if I did I wouldn't want to. Five years only worked out to five days for us. I balanced it the best I could, though I spent so much energy making sure that Party worked for her. I could barely move after getting that set up.”

Twilight blinked watching as Discord seemed to be fully there, looking as he had when first freed from stone, though as she watched, he started turning gray.

“She saved me far more than the Element's ever did. The Draconequus race exists again because of her.....”

“She .. she wanted me to tell you she's sorry for making you do that....” Twilight stated watching the small smirk cross Discords muzzle as he turns grayer.

“Of course she did. She always did stuff like that. Always wanted me to be happy, like I could be otherwise with her around.....” Discord smiled wide as Twilight finally noticed what was happening, the former last Draconequus. The God of Chaos himself, was turning to stone before her, fusing himself to his wife's tombstone to watch over her as a statue.

“Discord.....”

“Guess is the last good bye Sparkle. Tell sun butt I told her to suck it, or tell her I was buried face down so she can kiss my …...”

“Discord!”

“Fine go with the former. The times ahead won't be easy Twilight. But it's never the end you think it is. So smile.....”

Discord smiled as he looked down at the grave, the creeping stone closing over his head sealing him as a statue, though this time, he would never be back.

Twilight stared at the new grave marker for a time before she sighed tears running down her face.

“Goodbye Pinkie, Goodbye Discord.”

Turning to walk off the Princess of the Moon left the pair alone with each other forever, and on the wind, she swore she heard laughter.

Author's Note

This was the chapter that actually gave me the very idea for Last Dance. It was initially going to be Discord showing up to fuss at Celestia and Twilight about things after Pinkies death before he vanished forever.

It was also supposed to be an epilogue for Memories of Twilight.

The song Pinkie and Whistle were singing was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utJ1k0_WUe0 Birthday , by the Beatles

Last Harvest

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
by TDR

Last Harvest

[131 years after Tirek's defeat. ]

The sun shown down brightly over the orchard, the sound of foals laughter echoing in the air as the latest generation of Apples played among the trees. The mornings chores were done and the adults were going about the days work leaving the foals free to do as they wished. The noise of nearly a dozen foals running around brought a smile to her wrinkled lips as she walked among the trees.

There was always something going on. Some new foal being born, or some sick tree that needed to be taken care of, dinner to cook or clothing to mend.

Had always been something any way. Her eldest great gran foal had found himself a mare. Pretty little thing, a soft pastel green with hair white as snow. Reminded her a lot of Granny Smith when she was in her prime. Curious filly too, always wanted to know what was going on, had her nose in everything and was doing her best to take care of every one all at once. Anglesite was a strong mare, a Crystal pony at that, Honey Sweet better know what he had found and hold onto that mare as tight as he could.

She couldn't think of anything she didn't like about the mare save one thing.

Since Anglesite arrived the mare had been steadily taking on all of Applejack's chores.

She fought it of course, despite having a hundred and sixty two summers under her hat, Applejack wasn't about to not pull her weight around the farm. Of course that was exactly what was happening.

Applejack smiled, her wrinkles showing wrinkles as she nodded to some of the foals as she went past headed up a small hill on the edge of the farm. Far in the distance she could see the spires of New Canterlot shining in the morning sun. She expected Twilight to come by some time, she usually did on Sundays. She couldn't imagine what she looked like to the Princess. Poor thing looked exactly the same as when she first took over for Princess Luna, hadn't aged a day, got a bit taller though, the purple mare looked far more like a alicorn now than she had when she first ascended.

Not the same for any one else however.

The orange of her fur had faded to a muted yellow. Her mane and tail had long ago faded from blond to dingy white, she was far thinner than she had ever been, barely kept any muscle mass any more and every step she took made parts of her hurt that she didn't even think were still attached to her. But she could always ignore it before, always something to do to keep her mind off how dang gum old she was. Keep her mind off things she wanted to keep her mind off of.

She reached the top of the hill about midday, and found a blanket and some lunch waiting for her. She frowned, probably one of the kids ran up the other side of the hill to put it there. Applejack wasn't going to protest, she simply sank down with a groan and the popping of old joints.

She dug through the basket noting the fresh cucumber sandwiches and the fresh slice of apple pie though it was the jug that held her attention the most.

She pulled open the jug taking a sniff. Cider. She smiled wide taking a swig of the sweet liquid. It was chilled, she knew who brought it now. Wolf and his wife.... she never figured out how tha little half Zebra had done it, but he managed to wed a Windigo mare. They lived up north and had about six of the cutest little balls of snowy fluff she had ever seen, pity none of them could really deal with the heat that well in full summer. This was one of the first few days of fall and the temperature was cool enough for the pair to visit already , though they likely wouldn't stay too long. Besides they all came to visit for Hearths Warming every year, freaked out the city something fierce to have a Windigo about during that time, but whatever, the mare was family now.

Setting the jug aside she lifted her gaze looking out over her home for as long as she could recall. Sweet Apple Acres.

The view from here was always breathtaking. This hill had always been her favorite spot on the farm. She could see all the fields the barns and the main house from here. The old apple tree that had once been up here had long ago been removed after a storm took it out. The new one was much younger though no less impressive. It was a personal spot for her too.

Things had changed, a lot in the years since she first started working the fields. A river had been redirected through the property for irrigation, the old farm house was now huge and looked more like a mansion surrounded by dozens of smaller homes and outbuildings for family and workers, the place was a small town into itself with a blacksmith and even it's own sheriff. Granted Babs' colt was only here part of the time being a member of the Guard, but Thistle could keep order around here with just a glance, that colt gave Jer a run for his bits when it came to intimidating.

And the old barn that always kept getting trashed and broken was fully torn down and another was built in it's place much sturdier and reinforced, though still just a prone to getting wrecked some how.

It looked nothing like it did when she looked down from this point as a filly. They had specialized in a scant few kinds of Apples back then. Mostly the Sweet Apple and the Zap Apple. Now? Thanks to Applebloom, and Jer'rahd and Luna's travels every kind of Apple that existed on Equss was grown some where on the farm, either in the fields, a specialized green house, or in two odd cases in a underground cave, and the bottom of a nearby pond.

Applejack smiled at that there wasn't a pony any where that hadn't at least heard of Sweet Apple Acres at this point.

Applejack frowned slightly, her sweeping gaze landing on a spot of land far from the main house on the very edge of the property before it became the Everfree Forest. She couldn't see it well, even if her eyes had still been good, but she knew every inch of her homestead, that place was no exception.

The Apple Family Graveyard.

Rhede, Velkorn, Granny, Big Mac, Rainbow Dash and a few others were there. Despite thoughts of the others being painful to think about, there was one that brought her to tears just to recall her name. The reason she kept herself busy so long so as to keep herself from thinking on it.

Fluttershy's grave.

There was no body there mind you. Just the marker. Same with a number of the others. Big Mac and Dash had been buried in the field and a tree planted over them , same as Granny. Mac had a Macintosh tree and Dash had been planted with the same, though it came as little surprise to her that a Zap apple tree had sprouted instead over Rainbow. Dash always had to do something awesome.

Shy had the same with her. A tree planted. It grew strong and healthy rather quickly. It was one tree that she never allowed to be harvested. That wasn't much of a problem since where it was planted was out of the way and it was the only tree on the hill. Anything the tree produced was left to feed whatever critter might happen by.

Applejack rose slowly moving over to the apple tree on the hill settling herself down between some of the roots and leaning back against the sun warmed bark. Bird song came from above and she could hear the skittering of squirrels rustled the branches.

She had been beautiful, right up until the end when she simply didn't wake up one morning. The pair of them had gone to bed as normal, with a small kiss and telling each other that they loved one another. Apple Jack had drifted off feeling her loves wings draped around her.

The next morning Applejack had gotten up like she usually did and headed out to start the chores, fully expecting Fluttershy to be roused and have breakfast made when she came back.

That hadn't happened.

When Applejack came back, the stove was still cold, She called out and got no response, so she rushed upstairs as fast as her eighty three year old form could only to find Fluttershy still laying in bed unmoving.

Applejack didn't recall much after that aside from that she tried to rouse her love and failed. Her cries and screams brought the rest of the family running in and the next thing she recalled was Twilight holding her as she broke down.

The doctor said she had died in the night, natural causes, she was two years older than Applejack at the time and she had never been the most sturdy of ponies any way. Being a Bearer of Harmony extended their lives considerably, though at this point aside from Twilight she was the last one of the mane six.

Applejack sighed recalling how she and Fluttershy had first actually fallen for one another. In truth it was all Rarity's fault. Just about everything involving romance in town was at that point in their lives. Fluttershy actually had a thing for the white mare, and despite their differences so did Applejack. Rarity however was unfortunately for the pair, straight. The one time Apple Jack posed the question it was set as more a off hoof remark. Rarity took no offense, well none past the usual dramatic nonsense, but she made it clear she only was interested in stallions. Applejack was crushed by that, but she noted that Fluttershy had also seemingly deflated in on herself at the declaration with out saying anything about it.

Applejack went along with Fluttershy after she left the rest of the group to try and figure out what was wrong with her.

One rather long walk and an even longer talk had the pair of them finding new ways to get close to each other. Something that evolved into Fluttershy and AppleJack getting roped into some hair brained scheme by Rainbow to keep her dating Big Mac a secret from every one until she became a Wonderbolt. While a complete disaster, it had turned out to be rather fun in the end, particularly the look on Rarity's face when it was all revealed, the mare never even knew she had set the two of them up with her words.

Applejack sighed, the smile still on her lips as she took another sip of the cider looking down at her farm.

The foals running about in the trees and fields had their older siblings watching them

The fields on the other side glimmered with the apple blossoms showing a bountiful cold harvest to come this year. There was always a harvest now and fresh apples all year long. Her foals and grand foals working the fields making sure everything was ready for the first cold spell to protect the less hardy trees.

Her gaze drifted to the house where she had spent her days, a number of ponies were gathered around there, including a tall black mare she didn't recognize, from this distance it looked like an alicorn, maybe Luna had come to visit? That would be nice. It had been a bit since she had seen those two, not since they brought back that one tree that grew upside down from one of their trips. That one was a interesting green house construction project.

Still. There wasn't anything for her to do here any more, it was a place with no place for her any more.

Applejack looked up to the cloudless sky , the sun shining from above down on everything warming her old old bones despite the shade of the Apple tree she sat under. She smiled figuring a small nap might be in order, walking up the hill had been more tiring than she liked. She took off her hat setting it over her fore hooves, a little pink Butterfly ribbon sewn into the band stared back at her.

Maybe if she was lucky she would dream of her little butter yellow 'tree' pony, heh.

Apples on the farm, alls right with the world as the saying went.

==================================================

“Applejack? Applejack?” Twilight Sparkle called. She spotted the mare on the hill where she expected her to be, but it would be rude just to land near her.

Twilight pulled up short, her wings fanning as she landed on the grass near by trotting up to the mare laying on a blanket against the tree that grew over Fluttershys grave, her head dipped, her nose almost touching the old hat resting on her forelegs.

“Applejack there you are. I came by to see how you …... were doing...” Twilight trails off her gaze shifting over the still form, the lack of movement from the mares sides, her closed eyes and the small smile on the old mares face. Twilight's expression tightened as she quickly cast a spell to fall over the pony before her, a simple scan, but the results were instant and the Princess's features fell. She slowly moved forward picking up the hat and adjusting her friends head to rest on her hooves like she was asleep, tears pouring from the Princess's eyes.

She hugged the hat to her chest with a small sob before looking back down the hill and out over the farm.

“You picked a beautiful place for this my friend. I just wish I could have seen you before you were gone. “ Twilight sniffled.” Rest now my Applejack, I'll take care of everything.”

And thus overlooking everything she held dear, Apple Jack Apple passed from Equss.

Author's Note

I think out of all the ones I've written so far, this one has hurt the most.

Last Foal

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Foal

“Higher daddy!!!” Dawn cried out as she shifted on the swing, her wings fanning wildly giving herself more lift as Jer'rahd stood to the side watching as she swung past.

“Alright hold on tighter.” Jer'rahd smiled his magic giving the base of the swing another push sending Dawn sailing higher into the air, the orange scaled Kirin filly giggling and laughing as her tail whipped behind her .

Jer'rahd shifted his stance, watching her protectively, his daughter had a tendency when she made it as high as she could on the swings to let go and try to fly.

He spared a glance away from her giggling to the foggy playground they were at. It was an older playground that still sat near their house, one that had nearly been destroyed at least twice, but had managed to survive both Canterlot's fall down the mountain and Tirek. Though it only just survived Dawn's teething, the monkey bars in particular still had a number of bite marks in the metal.

The morning mist would soon be burned off by the sun and the heat of the day would make playing outside an unwanted exercise even for Dawn. At the moment he couldn't see beyond the playgrounds borders where the world vanished into mist.

“WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Dawn shouted launching herself from the Swing forcing Jer'rahd to make a grab from her before she hit the ground, her little wings not even enough to slow her fall just yet.

Dawn laughed turning and running back up the beach to avoid the waves as they crashed along her tail.
Jer'rahd sat further up along the small section of sand, exhaling softly as he fought to control his breathing and not panic from being this close to the water. Thankfully the sea was shrouded in a cool mist from the crashing surf and a cold front that came in over the warm water, it was one of the few times he would be able to take Dawn to the beach in fact. He couldn't see the water past the few waves that lapped at the edges of the mist and made Dawn come running back up to him giggling as she bounded through the surf splashing everything.

He looked down at his hooves noticing a small sand castle that he had built, the structure looking very much like how he had once envisioned Dullahan Keep.

His gaze lifted from the castle to his daughter a smile crossing his face that matched hers as she slung the water about playing in the surf.

“ Hold on hold on. Let me at least get a plate for it.” Jer'rahd chuckled trying to push Dawn back down to the floor as she climbed his leg trying to get at the pancakes he had made.

He was far from the best cook, but he was better than Luna by a long shot, not that he would ever say that, and no one had ever complained about his pancakes before except Rhede, and after a while of being denied them he was caught trying to steal a few.

Dawn ignored him clamoring up his leg and over his blocking shield to sit on his back. Jer'rahd sighed knowing he was going to have to clean syrup and crushed sapphire out of his coat again as Dawn had yet to learn anything along the lines of table manners.

Smoke filled the edges of the room, the left overs of Luna's last cooking attempt that had still been on the burner when he fired it up. The small kitchen seemed misty with the cloud in the air , though we would open a window in a moment for the moment he was too busy keeping Dawn from just biting off the top of the syrup bottle to dump on her pancakes..... again.

“ Hush now, quiet now.
It's time to lay your sleepy head
Hush now, quiet now
it's time to go to bed....” Jer'rahd softly sang.

The darkness of the room covered every thing save the small light cast by Jer'rahd's horn as he sat next to the small bed and the still squirming Kirin filly within.

The light of his horn only lit up her bed and himself and even that light seemed to be flickering at the edges as he sought to lull her to sleep.

Dawn yawned showing off her fangs with a cute little sound as she snuggled a stuffed crystal Dragon fly that she had gotten last time they were in the Crystal Empire. The garish green thing had been through some abuse and a number of repairs from being well worn by his daughter.

“Good night Dawn.... I love you....” Jer'rahd whispered as the light faded more.

“I love you too daddy..” Dawn responded through another yawn, as she drifted off.

The light of his horn faded more and Jer'rahd struggled to keep it lit as he looked down at his daughter. Tears welling up in his eyes.

“Jer'rahd.... it's time to go.” a voice stated.

“No.... “ Jer'rahd muttered. “ I can't......”

“You have to.......Please....” the voice stated again.

“No. I won't leave her.....” Jer'rahd snapped openly weeping.

“I'm not giving you a choice in the matter. I've never been even allowed this much.”another mares voice snapped back and the world suddenly turned black.

[ 201 years after the defeat of Tirek]

Jer'rahd whipped his head back with a gasp, eyes shooting open, rivulets of tears streaming down his muzzle as his eyes darted about the room he was in.

Like before he was seated before a bed, though unlike before this wasn't in a cozy little foals room this was the sterile white and cream walls of a hospital. Various machines beeped and clicked around him forcing him to flatten his ears to his head.

Luna was pressed to his back in her smaller pegasus form and he could feel the hot tears running down her face and soaking into his shoulders.

Twilight sat nearby staring at him with a look of pity mixed with envy as the last wisps of magic drifted from the Princess of Night's horn.

On the other side of the bed Rynthia stood looking over the medical devices before her, her expression was one of complete business, though she spared a number of worried glances over to Jer'rahd and Luna.

On a bench on the far wall sat a massive figure that took up a good portion of the room. The orange scaled Llinorm stared down at the bed with teal colored eyes. Candied Yam was Luna and Jer'rahd's only blood related grand foal. She was currently in her late 80's barely a teenager by Llinorm standards however.

The Llinorm's gaze was locked on the figure in the bed. Her father had died a few years ago in a freak storm though her mother had started to deteriorate not long after that.

Laying in the bed hooked up to nearly everything the hospital had was Dawn. The large Kirin was barely breathing, her scales long faded to gray and her mane following suit. Her eyes were still the same vibrant color as her mothers, though she hadn't opened them in weeks, she hadn't been eating anything, nor had she spoke aside from the occasional mummer.

Like her last mortal blood relative, Brier Rose Dan had contracted something called Grass Sickness. A nonsensical name for something that robbed a pony of it's memories slowly over time, then caused them confusion and delusion, and inability to function properly or even recall places and events they saw every day.

Briar Rose had developed symptoms like that before he died, Jer'rahd's Grand Mother had started to show signs of it before pneumonia took her, and now his only daughter couldn't even remember her own friends or family.

Save for him.

Rynthia couldn't fix something like this with her magic, the nerve and tissue damage was far to great to repair by the time Dawn had been diagnosed and the lost memories and motor skills would never come back. Dawn was old enough that even had Rythnia healed her she wouldn't have bounced back nor would she have ever been the same. There wasn't any choice but to let her go.

Twilight had offered something. Dawn was having nightmares even comatose so Luna and Jer'rahd piggy backed into her dreams. What they found was an toddler aged Dawn in a slowly deteriorating dream scape who only remembered Jer'rahd.

Jer'rahd had stayed with her as long as he could and now, he had barely been awake for a second when the worst sound in the world reached his ears.

The sound of a flat line as Dawn's heart stopped as there was nothing left to tell it to beat any more.

The black alicorn sighed softly despite the fact she didn't need to breath. She had expected this soul to return soon, she had been there when it had first died and been reborn into this current form. The black alicorn already knew that the soul was not planning to move on any time soon, and that it would be another that waited as a star for those it cared for to join it. The sky was getting crowded as of late.

She paused watching the soul leave, it needed no guidance having done this before, still she always oversaw the passing of notable souls.

The black alicorn lowered her ears taking note of the gray Kirin that had turned his head, his eyes widening as he saw her in the back of the room. It would not be the first time, those closest to an individual sometimes saw her as she came to guide them to their end.

There was an odd connection between the two, something akin to a parent or sibling, but it was going the wrong way, surely this young Kirin stallion was the recently passed Bearer of Laughter's child not the other way around like it felt. She really needed to pay more attention to those who Mirth chose, though the griffon was getting far more secretive as of late for some reason.

A red glow caught her attention and drew her gaze back to the father who was fully focused on her. She blinked noting that the red glow seemed to be lighting up the room and had drawn the attention of everyone else in the room who was looking at him with panic.

The glow was coming from the Kirin's left eye, very strange, wait where had she heard of a pony with a glowing red eye before? Ahh that was right the host Troph had had before he and Grace rejoined them. What was it Troph had said? Ah yes, Jer'rahd Kaisur had been granted a portion of Troph's power not once, but three times, and the final time it was only because Troph was forced to flee in fear from the rage the Kirin had displayed.

Wait.....

She remembered those stories.

They always ended with the phrase 'Don't'

As in 'Don't' draw the attention of one that Troph thought might actually be able to destroy the Elements themselves given proper motivation.

The gray and orange scaled Kirin growled loudly, rising to his hooves and slipping free of the pegasus on his back, his full attention on the black alicorn.

“Oh shit.”< Bonnie stated, and ran.

Harmony, also known as Bonnie to her friends, the specter of death, the grim reaper, the second alicorn god, and the Element of Magic, fled in a straight line from the grieving and enraged father.

Being little more than a ghost, passing through the walls of the hospital was no issue.

Unfortunately it seemed that Jer'rahd also had no issue passing through the walls of the hospital, just a bit messier than she had.

The pony personification of death shook her head as she fled across the field behind the hospital the gray and orange Kirin in pursuit. She understood his anger but she knew that he couldn't catch her and this was a pointless chase.

It was about that point that she ran head first into a green shield.

Before Bonnie could recover from the sheer absurdity that some pony could stop death, the galloping gray Kirin plowed into her side sending both of them crashing through a small park, a set of barrier fencing, and off the side of New Canterlot High town. The pair fell through the air and Bonnie could hear the growl from the gray Kirin nearly at her throat, the light in his eye not even dimming in the slightest and they crashed down off the side of the fallen mountain, slamming into some trees at the unsettled edge of New Canterlot.

She didn't hit the ground, but slammed into another shield that popped up under her. Had she hit the ground she simply would have passed through it as she did the walls, though it seemed this Kirin was not going to allow her that.

Bonnie managed to get out from under him only for a split hoof to smash into her chest shoving her back and pinning her to another glowing green shield like a bug on a spike.

The second alicorn god cried out feeling pain again for the first time in a long time.

“JER'RAHD!” a voice boomed.

The Kirin hesitated though he still stood on his back legs, propped on his tail his other hoof reared back as it to strike another blow against the trapped death goddess.

“She has nothing to do with this Jer'rahd.” A dark blue pegasus stated landing nearby before trotting over to the Kirin.

“I know.” Jer'rahd growled.

“Jer'rahd.....” Luna placated.

“I KNOW!!!” the Kirin snapped before the red light in his eye dimmed and he dropped back onto his rump, his hoof leaving Bonnie's chest. She stumbled back as the shield fell and the angry Kirin slumped to the ground like a puppet with his strings cut.

Bonnie's eyes remained wide as the small pegasus wrapped her forelegs and wings around the sobbing Kirin, her own tears flowing down her face.

“I suggest you leave.” The mare said simply. “While I am aware of your roll as little more than some one to guide those passed onto their next life, Kaisur's do not take grief well and you are to easy a target right now.”

Bonnie blinked as Luna stared up at her, a second warning was not needed before the Element of Magic was gone, leaving the parents to grieve their lost daughter.

And to the sound of her parents sobs, the Bearer of Element of Laughter, Dawn Kaisur, passed from Equss.

Author's Note

* Let's out a long sigh and sits back in his chair.*

I know writing some of the other chapters have screwed with me. Applejacks, Dash's , Pinkie's.

And i know that some of the ends have had a heavy impact on me, Bleu's and Starfalls in particular as they were characters i created and have spent a number of years of my life developing and guiding.

Then i make a story like this. With pretty much all of my own Characters in it and i wright it in a way that hurts me and i'm forced to wonder if i really hate them to keep doing this to them.

This has been the chapter i've been dreading to write since i decided to do Last Dance. even the last chapters won't be fucking with me as hard as this one has.

At any rate. 3 chapters remaining in Last Dance. And with the next one i'm going to fix the order of these stories so they fall in chronological order.

Last Kiss

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Kiss

[297 years after the defeat of Tirek.]

“I cannot say we did not expect this.” Rynthia sighed her hoof reaching forward to brush closed the eyes of the Hippogryph laying on the floor before them. The dark grayish blue feathered half Pony half Griffon lay unmoving on the floor, the feathers around his neck and wings ruffled enough to show the white fluff underneath, even after the ropes had been removed.

It had taken the four of them two massive teleports to get here less than an hour after getting the news from Talon's third son. The Elder Hippogryph had left the four gods alone with his fathers body as he went to address the rest of the Griffon Nation about the death of their God and to prepare the funeral for his father.

Twilight Sparkle was not the slightest bit winded despite coming all the way from New Canterlot in one hop. Shin had less distance to go from the Crystal Empire, but he had brought Elusive and Rynthia with him so the Changeling was looking a little worn.

“What do you mean you expected this?” Twilight snapped at Rynthia. The unexpected death of a God by suicide, particularly one that was her nephew in law had stressed her considerably. Celestia had called this phase of being a god 'the black phase'. The older alicorn had seen it a number of times before and it was always the worst part of immortality as you were forced to watch every one you ever cared about grow old and die, including those you should not have outlived. When Glimmer passed five years ago Celestia had doubled her efforts to find new bearers of the Elements of Harmony.

The Sun Goddess was not in a rush to dismiss the fallen bearers however, she was more concerned that Twilight might become something in her grief, and that the Elements would be needed to deal with her. Princess Celestia had caught Twilight twice after her brother died studying the books recovered from Tamberlane on Necromancy and after the second time had destroyed any of them she could find left in the castle much to Twilight's horror at the burning of books.

When her niece Glimmer died from pneumonia complications, Twilight with drew from society almost completely, canceling her Night Court and locking herself in her lab. Elusive and Shin seemed to be the only ones who she would talk to, though she shut out everyone else including Celestia.

She had finally started to come out of her lab again when news of Talon being dead reached her. She had immediately vanished and arrived here only a few seconds before Shin teleported the others in.

The Hippogryph god had bound his own wings to prevent his flight instincts from kicking in and hung himself from a central beam in his personal quarters. A will and a note was left on the desk along with a scattering of knickknacks including one of Glimmers feathers twined in silver wire with one of his, a odd crystal that glowed lightly with it's own light, and a number of photos of the couple and their foals.

“Calm down auntie.” Shin stated flatly as himself, not altering forms or anything as he lifted his brother in law's body, laying it on the bed and covering him with a blanket. “We both know Ryn's a little crass after all she's seen across Equss. But she is right. We did see this coming.......”

“What do you mean you expected this, that you saw this coming, answer me!?!” Twilight snarled advancing towards Shin only for a black spear to slam into the ground before her, the tip of it likely piercing the floor completely judging from a few muted cries from below them.

“Mother stop. Or I will stop you.” Elusive ordered. It was not a request, it was simply a fact in his mind. The Kirin towered over the other alicorn glaring down at her. ”I understand you are upset, but if you do not power down your horn now I am going to be forced to explain to mom why I had to put you in the hospital. I am already having a bad enough day as it is, do not force me to make it worse for both of us.”

Twilight blinked as if suddenly noticing the glow of her horn and the spells she was ready to cast. She stepped back her ears drooping as she shook her head clearing the spells. “Sorry.....it's just........”

“You don't need to explain. You just need to calm down. They were my family too auntie.” Shin sighed.” We have it a little better than you I think with these losses because there are three of us going through the same thing. You have auntie Celestia, but it seems you've been avoiding her. That cannot be healthy for either of you.”

“It hasn't been working out very well between us for a while......so no, it isn't.” Twilight sighed.” She understands what's going on but.. but shes so distant about it.”

“She likely has to be. Other wise she would be a wreck as well and no one would run Equestria.” Rynthia stated. “ Now then in light of your question. We knew Talon was going to do something, but we did not know what. When Glimmer died, most of him did as well. He's spent the past five years researching something. Avoiding nearly every one and letting his youngest son run the country. We were prepared for some sort of necromantic things to happen, but despite his knowledge Talon's magic was never that powerful outside the schools of Storm and Weather.”

“That he killed himself to go be with Glimmer again is not the slightest surprise.” Shin explained. “He was the Bearer of Loyalty after all. And as far as any Changeling can recall any who bore Loyalty and found something or someone to direct that Loyalty towards never lasted longer than what ever they had sworn to. Jer'rahd with Luna, Andree with Aqua, Dash to Big Mac, the list goes back as far as the hive mind can recall. When Glimmer died he did as well, despite his body continuing to move.”

“What bothers me.” Elusive added.” Is how he managed to do it. There is no star metal in either the ropes around his wings or in the noose. There is nothing in this room that could cancel magic enough for him to be able to die like this. Gods are notoriously hard to kill.”

“Unless you are my father and mother.” Rynthia smirked.

“I'm not going to count those two at all.” Elusive snorted.”They could kill the moon and stars themselves if they put their minds to it.”

Twilight closed her eyes as the three of them continued to talk. She wasn't really understanding how they were dealing so easily with this. She was horrified every time one of her friends or family died.

When Fluttershy died the only ones worse off than her were AJ and Rainbow Dash. When Dash died even AJ was stronger than Twilight was. She had some how managed to make it through her brothers passing because she still had Applejack and Pinkie. When Pinkie and Discord passed, she had tried to give up being a god completely, only to be talked down by Luna, Applejack, and Celestia. When Applejack died, she did her best to continue arranging everything at the farm for the funeral and helping them take care of anything that came up because of the elder mares passing, that was when she declared the place a heritage site, preventing anything from ever fiscally happening to the farm for as long as she was a Princess. She had also taken one of Applejack's hats and had nearly ruined it crying into it.

Like Celestia she had started her own little room of memories and the longer she lived the bigger it got. When Cadence passed she didn't really have anyone any more and had pretty much collapsed. Glimmer and Talon had been the ones to help her recover from that.

Jer'rahd, Luna, and Celestia had been the rocks she had clung to through the worst of everything. The three were used to death, though with every one of their adoptive foals that passed or vanished she could see the Kirin and Changeling Queen starting to crack. When Dawn died Jer'rahd had practically destroyed the hospital where Dawn had been in hospice, and that had been just getting out of it, without even turning into the Beast.

Luna only stayed to make arraignments for her daughters funeral before vanishing as well. It was thirty years before any one even heard from them again and that was only a short confirmation though the hive mind that they were alive. Ninety years later and the pair were still gone somewhere with no sign of them returning anytime soon.

Bleu and Spike claimed to have seen them though that was only briefly as they wandered across the frozen north on their way somewhere. Spike had been helpful as well, though he and Bleu still had more trouble with the Dragons than any one liked. It didn't help that he and Bleu had taken a long nap not long after Cadence died. It would still be a few years yet before they were to wake. He knew why the pair had done so. A dragons sleep tended to revitalize them, the longer it was the more years it seemed to add to their life. A dragon who didn't take periodic naps after reaching a certain age tended to age faster than those who didn't.

Celestia could have been there to help Twilight, but a difference of opinion a long while ago coupled with the losses of her friends had driven a rift between the two alicorns. Twilight still loved her, but she couldn't be with her any more. It was something they still needed to discuss, but Celestia seemed to be accepting of the relationships division. Perhaps Trixie had been right and Twilight was only attracted to Celestia because she was her teacher. She hated to think she was that shallow but the cooling had happened once she had surpassed her teacher in a number of fields. Celestia had stagnated in her education, Twilight had not.

After all that Twilight was now seeing the death of some one who had gone through what she did in terms of losing some one close to them and had taken his own life because of it. Twilight didn't know what to feel. Even his closest friends seemed less affected than she was.

No.

No, that wasn't it.

Twilight lifted her head and looked at the others more closely.

While Rynthia was as always unreadable, Shin was quiet, he was never quiet, most times the Changeling God wouldn't shut up unless Rynthia or Elusive asked him to. He had no snarky comments, no quips, and he was remaining in his more neutral, natural form, too. He was not shifting or changing at all, he was static, which was something she recalled Cadence saying he did only when he was upset or scared.

Elusive was all business, he was distracting himself with logic and anything but the obvious things he should be focusing on. While he had always had a interest in science, putting things together, and puzzles, the fact was he had completely detached himself from his emotions. Despite not being his birth mother, Twilight had raised him along with Celestia during better times and she knew something was wrong. She was just too upset to have noticed it. Talon was Elusive's best friend since they were foals and he was dealing with it his way while she broke down. Her only connection to Talon had been though the marriage of her niece to him, Elusive and the Hippogryph had practically been attached at the cutie mark since the pair were three.

Twilight suddenly felt even worse for her outburst.

“Now this is interesting.” Elusive stated softly. “ Mother take a look at this, it's a bit beyond me.”

Twilight's ears perked up as he called to her and she quickly sorted herself in the only way she had found that worked, by regulating everything to numbers and lists.

Step one, examine the body, rule out foul play. Check.

Step two comfort the grieving. Failed, move on to step three.

Step three examine the area for clues. Elusive managed that before she did, so check.

Step four, research any clues found.....

Moving over to the tall Kirin's side she slid her wing up over his back pressing lightly to his side as she lightly hugged him against her, though it was more hugging herself against him. She felt him tense a moment then relax as she took note of the things on the desk with more than just a passing glance. Elusive handed her the two notes that had been on the desk to read while he looked over an odd glowing crystal.

The first note was the suicide note. There was no mistaking Talon's claw writing as the Hippogryph had a odd lean to his letters that was hard to easily replicate simply due to him being a south claw. Given ponies tended to write with magic and their mouths the idea of a dominate appendage was a little odd to them, granted south claws tended to be rare any way, which only added to the oddity that was Talon.

The note was a rather short affair explaining briskly that he could not handle his time without Glimmer any more. The script was eloquent and apologetic to all he might upset. There was a brief mention of a black alicorn he had seen on the street from his window, but that was only mentioned on one line as he thought it might have been Luna.

The rest of the note however focused on the fact that Talon couldn't find any one worthy enough to inherit his God powers. As such he devised a solution and he left that solution in the possession of his remaining friends, Shin, Elusive, and Rynthia.

The second page was nothing but a formula. The script of it almost made Twilight forget why she was even here in Talon's chambers to begin with.

The spell was unlike anything she had seen before. It was something that should very well be impossible. The amount of power needed would be immense and the detail on the target would need to be beyond immaculate with at least seventy three different magic circles simple used to bind it and a hundred more to simple intact the transfer spell. The spell formula also showed the command word that was needed to access it.

“Glimmer Sparkle.....” Twilight muttered as she read the command word, without focusing on the gem the spell would not go off. Her gaze turned to one of the other objects on the desk, her gaze darting over the flawless gem.

The gem was a work of art. Three hundred faucets each one enchanted with fail safes and seals small enough that one needed some sort of intricate magical magnification just to see the rune coding. Twilight noting the thirteen point runic weaves on each facet of the gem. With the formula she could easily replicate it. Maybe give up her powers into her own gem and simply let time claim her........

“Mother?” Elusive asked causing Twilight to jump and whip her head.

“What is it?” Rynthia asked looking over Elusive's back at the gem, The Zebra mare actual a apple or two taller than the massive Kirin, defiantly Rhede's daughter.

“The Gem contains everything that made Talon a god...... if the formula's are right and I doubt they are wrong....” Twilight muttered.

“That can be done?” Shin asked curiously.

“It seems it can be now.”Twilight said as the group of them looked over at the shrouded body that Talon had left behind when his spirit went off to pursue his wife Glimmer among the stars.

Last Crusade

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Crusade

[1024 years after the defeat of Tirek ]

The room was quiet.

Outside the room there was a soft yammer of voices, barely heard though the thick door that two of the three figures in the room had closed behind them.

The room itself was rather simple. Numerous old photos and a couple of paintings hung on the wall to the standing figures right, along with the door to the wash room and a three section bookshelf. The lower two shelves held an assortment of books primarily about plant life and herbology. The third shelf held a few small jars of dried herbs, a broken wooden dragonfly toy, and a small trading card that had long ago had it's image and autograph faded. Only the word 'Wonderbolts' was still legible on it with a faded orange and blue blur as the only sign it had been a photo card. A small crystal music player sat on a small table next to a large bed. The device was playing an old song from the Rarities last album, one of the figures was sad to note it was the last song the mare had ever sung as she clicked the player off at the end of the last chorus. A few other assorted crystals lay around the device though the one glowing softly in the player was the oldest, it's case had a number of scrawls in black marker that was mostly faded and flaked showing it's age, though it was easy to see that it was the autographs from the whole band plus the sound tech.

The room smelled sweet, almost sickeningly so with the amount of flowering plants scattered and placed every where along the wall opposite the pictures. Covering end tables and the dresser as well as a few chairs that had been brought in for the purpose. The taller of the two figures wrinkled her nose a little at the smell but said nothing as the pair of them looked down at the third figure in the bed before them.

The bed itself seemed to be formed out of a live root of the tree the home was built into. Nothing was cut in the entire house, the tree was shaped as it grew and adjusted over the years with out a bit of harm done to the wood. However the tree home was old, most of it's branches never saw leaves any more and this far into the fall what few leaves had not turned brown and fallen off only seemed to need a soft breeze to flutter away and leave the tree bare. The old apple tree was not likely to see the next spring.

Much like it's owner.

The figure in the bed was softly breathing as if asleep, but the other two knew she was only taking a moment to gather her energy before speaking. Her yellow fur had long since faded to white, though her figure and lithe form remained unchanged if growing less hardy and more brittle with age. Her bright red mane and tail were little more than thinning strands of gray at this point as well. She was hidden under simple brown blankets with only her face visible. The only bright spot on her form was a bright red bow that had been done up in her mane, likely by one of the family outside the room.

The two figures looked to each other before the smaller one spoke.

“Applebloom?” Princess Twilight Sparkle asked hesitantly.

The figure in the bed exhaled softly, her eyes opening, bright green orbs glittered as they looked up at the figures a small smile crossing her weathered features.

“Well, now. I expected you two some time ago. Didn't have any trouble on the way in did ya?” Applebloom asked.

“No Applebloom we didn't.” Celestia responded.

“Good to know these louts can listen once in a while. Still they might cause a bit of trouble for you in the future. Lot of the young ones like that whole isolationist idea that's going around a little too much for my taste.”

“I'm sure Maple can keep them in line.”

“She's a bit of a soft touch unless she's angry, girls got some fire in her.”Applebloom chuckled.

“ Fitting for your Granddaughter.”Twilight suggested.

“Don't give me that. I ain't seen you since Cadence's funeral. You're forgetting time passes for those of us out here in tha real world Princess.” Applebloom chided

“So says the mare who's been alive over a thousand years.” Celestia points out

“Yeah well Elk live a long time. I got me some of that. Though it's only been a thousand and forty three ta be exact.”

The shorter of the two figures smiles a little.

“You've lived longer as a half elk then a normal elk would live.” Twilight chuckled.

“Course I did, outlived several husbands, a few foals, and pretty much all my friends and family.......” Applebloom trails off at that.

“Not all your family. There's a whole room of Elk and Ponies out there that care for you.” Celestia answered.

“True that. I've made a number of friends and expanded tha Apple's a lot in my time but it ain't tha same as the first ones. My brother and sister, the Crusaders. No one ken replace them, can't even come close.”

“No one is supposed to.” Celestia stated. “Sunshine has been here for you for a few years now?”

“Zecora? Yeah, Spike and Bleu drop by every so often as well to cause a ruckus. Uncle Kaisur and Aunt Luna've been by recently too along with mai nieces and nephews. Bout time for that to go down I reckon. Ah ken hear him still, hasn't shut up ever and now he's gitting louder. He's gonna come out swinging, you know that right?”

“We've been preparing for it, which is why I am glad you never built anything in the crater.” Celestia commented.

“Was too close to tha tree, ah could hear him bitching, got annoying real fast. Give him a good kick or three for me will yah?”

“We would, but we are only the transport, not the combat team.” Twilight admits.

“Really? Why's that?”

“It's a ranking of vengeance. Celestia is number eight as she didn't lose anything but pride, and I'm ranked at seven as Rarity was my only real loss. A dear friend, but less than what the others lost.” Twilight explained.

“That sounds sorta stupid.”

“It is, so clearly Kaisur came up with it.” Celestia snorted getting a small chuckle from Applebloom and a eye roll from Twilight. “ But the others agreed so I was outvoted.”

“I figure ah ken guess who's at tha top, but who's the two after you?”

“Spike and Bleu.”Twilight states. “ Bleu lost two close friends, one that was technically a cousin or a brother with how she views Jer'rahd, so she's six, and Spike lost three friends and his crush so he ranks at five. Bleu should have been higher, but he still mopes about Rarity whenever she's mentioned and Bleu wants it to stop already.”

“Jus like an old married couple.”

“Well they are so ….” Twilight mutters pausing as Applebloom coughs.

“Much as I'd like to continue yammering on, I'm afraid my times about out and you two have a job to do I'm sure.” Applebloom manages to get out.

“We do. How long do you you have?” Celestia asked solemnly..

“One good thing, if you can call it that, about being in tune with nature and tha spirits as much as I am...” Applebloom strained a little, pulling her left fore leg from under the covers. The formerly green and mossy looking limb she had regrown after losing her original leg in the fight with Tirek, was now mostly brown and gray as well with only a small patch of green left at the first joint over her hoof. It couldn't be more than a few hairs that still retained their coloration. “.....I've a fairly good indicator of when my time is up. I'll be lucky if I remain around for another half hour.”

“I knew it was close... but this.....”Twilight sighed.

“It's alright Twilight. I'm not in any pain and everything is prepared for. You should go now. It'll take you a few minutes to get where you're going in the crater. Send the rest of my family in when you go. Good luck to both of you.”

“We'll meet again Applebloom, Everyone will.” Twilight smiles.” Go ahead and rest . You've earned it. Say hi to Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo for me.”

“Will do Princess.”

As the others exited Applebloom sighed her gaze shifting to a fourth figure that had entered the room after the Princesses had. “So they didn't notice yah huh?”

The third visitor in the room, a dark alicorn, shook her head softly.

“Just give me long enough for them to git where they need to be, this has to end now. No one else should git hurt causa him.” Applebloom let out with a wheezing groan.

The dark alicorn nodded with a small smile.

=============================================

The tall white alicorn stared up at the massive tree before them. The ancient tree had seen better days. It was leafless and like Applebloom and her tree home it was dying. Unlike the tree Applebloom grew in the Elk village outside Whitetail crater, this one had an evil inside it that was trying to escape. It would not be long until Tirek was free again. Only this time he was expected and there was a welcoming committee waiting for him.

A light thud sounds nearby Celestia and she glances back smiling softly at Twilight.”Still have not gotten the hang of landing yet have you?”

“At least I can land on my hooves. Last time I saw you try and land you were picking grass and rocks out of your mane for a week.” Twilight chuckles. “ Everyone's in position. The closest settlements to the badlands have been cleared and we are ready to end this.”

“It's a pity to see this tree go. There's never been an Zap apple tree this large. And it never even bore fruit.”

“It did. But only twice in it's existence. The second time the fruit was picked but never used. The fruits been allowed to rot away and the seeds were collected. No one is willing to taste fruit of a tree that contains such evil. But the seeds that were harvested show no taint and will be planted as part of Applebloom's interment ceremony. Likely they will be the only thing that can grow in this crater. Fitting really.”

“Keeping up with everything hmm?” Celestia smirks.

“I never took the Goddess of War title. Luna still has that. I did however accept the Goddess of Knowledge title I was given. I am to make sure I keep up with it.”

The pair's ears perk up at mournful howls in the distance. The crater echoing with the cries of Timber wolves.

“She's gone......” Twilight frond.

“Time to go to work then.” Celestia nodded her ears flattening to her head as the howls die out. “Are we ready?”

“Yes.” Twilight's horn glowed brightly a massive shimmering purple cone shield forming around the tree and taking up most of the crater. Even the under tunnels and the trees roots were included in the massive shield, the monster would have no way to go but before them.

The crack and splinter of wood echoed in the enclosed space of the shield as the gargantuan apple tree shook and groaned. The dead wood splinters and rips as a form smashes out of the trunk of the tree. Black and red fur covered in splinters was seen as the monster roars, ripping free of the tree fully. Sap and splinters covered the crimson coat. The creature was not as big as the last time they saw him, but he still radiated with power.

“Seems you were right Twilight. He retained some of the power he stole.” Celestia nods.

“Less than I accounted for though. We are more than prepared. You ready?” Twilight smiled. “Shields are holding.”

“YOU!” Tirek bellows pointing a finger at the pair of them. “You think you are enough to destroy me, that this shield will hold me? I will draAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

The monsters tirade was cut off suddenly as Celestia started to glow, the ground underneath Tirek erupting in a burst of molten fire that blasted the creature skyward like a rocket funneling out of the cone shield and bursting skyward like a volcano going off. The fire and the monster guided in the proper direction by Twilight's shields. Celestia's magic continued until the launching pillar of fire rose out of the crater and far higher than the world tree had ever risen. Celestia's magic fades along with the fire leaving the flung creature as little more than a receding dot in the sky.

“You cut him off mid rant.” Twilight mused.

“I've always wanted to sucker punch some one when they took too long talking.”Celestia smiled.
“So I suppose our part is done now?”

“Not quite. We need to purify this crater. Burn clear all the dead wood and tainted land.” Twilight sighed. “ The ash will help the apple trees grow as well.”

“Really is that all or did you volunteer me for this because you harbor a attraction to my solar form?” Celestia snarked trying to make a little light of their situation.

“Please... I've always had that.” Twilight grinned.” It's hot.”

Celestia flinches. “For that pun I'm letting you do most of the work.”

“What a harsh pun-ishment.”

“Stop it Twi.....”

==================================================

Tirek grumbled wincing as he was rocketed skyward. The solar fire had burned off the first layer of his fur and skin and as such it no longer hurt save when it was trying to grow back. Which was constantly, so it hurt a lot. Still something like this wouldn't slow him down very long. As soon as he could douse the fire and get his bearings he would teleport back to the ground and start to work on destroying these fools.

“Package incoming Spiky.”

“I see it Bleu. He's a big ball of burning flesh, he's hard to miss.”

Tirek looked up, risking opening his newly restored eyes only for two massive shapes to zip up along side his rocket propelled flight through the sky. The first was a blue scaled dragon, with a wing span that could cast a shadow that would cover a town. She had numerous scars and a bit of age was showing along her spines, but she was still in her prime as a dragoness.

The other was even larger than the female. His wing span dwarfed even hers. The green and purple scaled beast was a monster of sheer muscle and claw. Were he any one else Tirek might have been terrified simply at the sight of this brute.

He knew them both however, so he was a little worried none the less.

The two massive creatures dropped back letting his flailing burning form get ahead of them as he started to reach an apex of his launch. He watched as their chests swelled as they both inhaled deeply the spark of green fire dancing around their maws as they quickly built up their furnaces , then unleash great gouts of green fire to blast over the Tirek, the creature screaming as flesh and bone was chared and dissolved away to become nothing more than ash in the air that was quickly swept away by an unfelt wind.

“Ugh he smells worse on fire than he does wet.” Bleu snorts.

“Package sent Princess. I hope you know what you are doing.” Spike mutters into a small crystal.

“Thank you Spike, Bleu. We'll take it from here, though do I need to keep reminding you I am no longer a Princess?” the voice from the crystal responds.

“Well he's not calling you Queen. That's my title.” Bleu snapped.

“I can't even tell if you are being serious or not,” mutters Spike.

“I'm being pervy, so same thing.” Bleu grinned.

============================================

The charred mass of screaming monster reformed high in the air above a desert, falling from the sky to smash into the sand and the rough sand burnt glass underneath. A massive crack filled the air followed by the sound of thousands of mirrors shattering all at once as the whole ground shook and shifted, as the rough made glass that had been blasted into the sands centuries upon centuries ago by a angry goddess of fire that was chasing a mad god of chaos. In the distance on the other side of a tall stoney hill was a series of grave stones, last markers to those who had fallen here, far enough away from the impact point that the dust barely touched them .

The desert had reclaimed the area in rolling dunes, but the blasted landscape of the Shadow of Nox remained hidden just under the surface of the rolling sands.

The explosion of sand and shattered glass that was flung into the air was blocked suddenly as a series of green panels formed in the air rapidly filling the space around the impact site encaseing it in a series of overlapping panels that made a dome shape. The shields suddenly doubled as a second dome of the same make formed over the first. Inside the dome was like a snow globe had been shaken up, dirt, sand and glass dust whirled and whipped under the dome obscuring the figure that had fallen to the ground inside.

A dark form glided down landing lightly in the sand next to a gray figure wrapped in a large brown cloak.

The dark figure was clearly a mare covered in black chitinous plates that hid any cutie mark she might have had, her mane and tail were a limp platinum blue with various patches of what seemed like holes in it. Her legs and bat like wings had the same series of odd holes. Her horn was a massive jagged thing that sprouted from her dark blue forehead over a pair of green catlike eyes that faded into a teal coloration as they return to normal. She smiled a little flashing a bit of fang in the process.

“Right on time.” Luna chuckled.

“I didn't expect your sister to be late in this. I hope we wrap this up soon I would like to attend my nieces funeral.” the cloaked figure muttered.

“We have a day and a half at least before the land is cleansed and the wake begins Jer'rahd, do relax.” Luna smiled down at the cloaked figure. “Your anger is not very palatable love. I know what he made you do, but keep in mind by your own system you are only third in line to take revenge.”

“I never expected any one to take that seriously. I mostly said it to annoy your sister.” Jer'rahd snorted under his cloak, a bit of fire flickering from under the thick hood. “Bah...”

Jer'rahd lifted a foreleg up rubbing his nose where he had snorted fire, his limb was more like a dragons than a hoof though the orange scales turned back to gray fur a little before the elbow joint, with one last circle of orange scales where he had lost the limb once long ago. The new fanged maw he had had taken some getting used to, his swordsponyship had improved to the point that even at his most unskilled, he was still better than many considered masters. Several hundred years of practice helped that considerably.. His hunt with Twilight centuries ago gave him the baseline to adjusting to his new form, the years after honed that.

As the dust died down Jer'rahd unfastened the cloak with a shudder as he shook the bulky thing loose. His amber mane had grown long again at Luna's urging, He didn't mind so much as it hid the gray and orange scales running down the back of his neck to his shoulders. Most of his torso remained furred though around his joints and along his spine the thick draconic scales remained prominent. His ears had gotten longer and had grown tufts of gray fur at the tips. His horn had smoothed over the years and the jagged stump that remained of his previous horn had fallen away and smoothed out, the new one curved back a little and was smooth rather than spiraled. It was tinged orange instead of the gray of his coat like his old one had been. His eyes remained red and green, though they had become slitted and more draconic, his muzzle was a bit longer now and his teeth were all sharp resembling a dragon's maw. He still retained his cutie mark, though the chess knight looked more draconic than pony now. Out of all the changes however he was most amused with the tail. The serpentine length was mostly orange scales, joining with those that ran along his spine. It was as long as his body was and ended in a large tuft of amber hair that was all that was left of his original tail. The best thing about it however was that it was very dexterous on it's own and he had learned how to wield a weapon with it as well as a few other tricks that Luna approved of.

“Is he still in there?” Jer'rahd asked as the cloud in the dome starts to subside.

“He is, unless he's learned to hate and anger at a distance.”Luna chuckles.

“The goddess of the night and her pet.” I should have guessed.” A looming figure in the roiling dust growls. There was a sudden blast of magic and the sand inside the shield was vaporized leaving the green dome clear with Tirek standing in the middle. The monster looked rather annoyed that Jer'rahd didn't seem the slightest bit strained from the burst of magic he had just put out. “ I should have expected you two would be the ones who would try to destroy me. Not that you could before, and I've been watching you.....”

“Pervert.” Luna snorts.

“What .. no not like that...... “Tirekl Protests.

“Seriously peeping? And here I thought you were bad when you just tried to kill ponies. Now you've sunk to that. With my wife no less.... I mean I know she looks damn good but still.” Jer'rahd commented shaking his head as Luna giggled.

“Would you two just stop already” Tirek grumbles. “ You're going to try and destroy me so lets get this started. Not like I don't have counters for all your magics now that I've had time to study them.

“Yeah about that, we only ranked three and four. You killed my brother and my best friends and you killed the best friends Luna had for thousands of years. Took a while to correct that, but still. You also used me to kill them. So we rank a little higher than sun butt and Sparkle.”

“What is this ranking nonsense if not you then who?” Tirek throws his hands in the air in annoyance.

“That would be us.” stated another voice.

Tirek turns to see three figures on the other side of the shield dome approaching from the caverns nearby. One of them was dragging what looked to be a very old moth eaten couch.

“Shin what is that?” Luna asked as the middle figure flung the red upholstered couch down and flopped onto it in a mock faint.

“Another one of Mrs. Reignolds couches. These things are every where.” Shin called out from where he lay.

The figure in question was odd. At first he seemed male, though with a very effeminate voice, then she seemed female with a very masculine voice. Both his poise and voice seemed to switch whenever she felt like it. She was very lithe, yet well muscled and was the smallest compared to the other two figures. His fur was a almost black shade of purple covered with various chitinous plates. Like Luna her horn was rather jagged shifting from the smooth red length it once had been when he was a foal, though the rough edges were not nearly as pronounced as Luna's. He also had numerous holes in his legs and green flowing mane and tail, though she seemed to have filled some of the holes in with various babbles or jewelry. Despite her odd appearance she had been pulling the old couch as if it weighed nothing.

“Seriously is that the couch she drug out here when we tracked down the Jade Scroll?” Luna considered.” What are those things made of?”

“ Don't question it. We found one in the closet of the rebuilt castle in New Canterlot.” Jer'rahd sighed. “ I think they are breeding some how.”

The other one, the obvious male of the trio was a white furred Kirin covered in shimmering onyx scales around his hooves, muzzle and joints. His mane and tail were a nearly black shade of purple, and both were braided tight, like some sort of high society elite mare, though given the stallions build and piercing blue eyes if he was placed next to a mare wearing the same feminine hairstyle, the mare would have been the one who would have looked oddly masculine wearing it. He had a slightly curved black horn rising from his temple, black draconic wings on his back and wore a simple red crystalline breast plate with a large black spear held by straps to his side.

The female was of clear zebra decent, though she was far larger than any zebra Tirek had ever seen. She towered over all the rest of them save Luna and the Kirin. She wore nothing but a pair of saddlebags sew with numerous patches that looked as if they belonged to medical personnel. Her shiny black mane and tail were ridiculously curly though they were bound up much like the males though in looser braids. What stood out about her most was that rather than the normal black stripes of a Zebra , her's were a deep red, looking slightly like wounds. Atop her fore head was a small horn made of red crystal that poked up between her bangs and over a pair of bright blue eyes.

“And who are you supposed to be then?” Tirek growled.

“Why I am Shin Amore Sparkle.” Shin chimed. “ But I'm just here for moral support and to insult you a lot. These two are the ones on the list.”

Tirek glared at the Kirin and the Zebra. The pair of them glared back at him and the monster was forced to look away first.

With Luna and Jer'rahd on one side and the trio on the other he was surrounded. A good bit of his magic was claimed in regenerating all the damage he had taken getting here and he needed to absorb some one before he lost any more power. The Changelings were out, though the two Kirin and the Zebra were fair game.

“My name is Elusive Lion Heart Reignolds. You killed my parents and tried to exterminate my nation. I am here to be the end of you.”Elusive grumbled before glancing over to the Zebra with a small smile. “But I need to wait my turn and let my wife have her chance at you first.”

“His other wife, not me.” Shin called adopting a rather seductive looking pose as she shifted on the couch, and was mostly ignored.

“Fine then once I finish her I'll finish what I started with your damned race.” Tirek snarled.” I don't know what sort of game you think you fools are playing here but I will end you all.”

“You killed my father and my mother while she was heavy with me.” The Zebra mare stated, her voice cold enough to freeze a Windigo.” You left my brothers and I with out or parents and you caused untold suffering to any one you came in contact with.”

She shifted forward her eyes staring at him with such anger that Tirek couldn't help take a step back.

“Ooh, she's fired up. Not sure I like the taste.” Shin commented as she reclined on the couch.

“My name is Rynthia Pelt, and I will see you suffer for what you have done.”

Tirek took two steps back this time as he snarled, his hand reaching up to one of his broken horns as he glared at her. “Pelt!!! Your father was Rhede Pelt!?”

“My mama said my daddy's name was Rhede Pelt...” Rynthia monotones after a long sigh and a glare at Jer'rahd.

At the words Jer'rahd couldn't help but snicker before he doubled over laughing only for Luna to clip him across the back of the head with her wing.

“I can't believe you Jer'rahd.” Luna snorted.

“Oh come on, that was priceless.” Jer'rahd choked out.”It was far too perfect I had to ask her to do it.”

“It matters not who you are. I will destroy you and rip the very fiber of your being from you. You will suffer for what your sire wrought you......... What the buck?!” Tirek stammered.

Before him were now a group of changelings. The one on the couch was unchanged, though the Kirin was now a massive beast of spikes and carapace. The zebra mare was the same though her plate was a deep crimson and hugged her form rather tightly. Looking over to the others Luna was unchanged, though Jer'rahd was now also a burly gray changeling with Orange plates.

“WHAT is this!?!” Tirek yelled, not able to sense the magic as he had done before. “ You are all Changelings?”

“Sorta.... “ Shin rambled from the couch. “This ones my bad and why I'm even here. Aside from watching my spouses kick your flank I mean. Though I will probably just be watching their flanks... we really need to do this later in more private settings cause you two look damn good.”

Shin purrs as both Rynthia and Elusive turn a bit red.

“Shin, focus.” Jer'rahd growled at the attentions the Changeling was giving his adopted daughter, married to her or not.

“He has a point , you do look good like this.” Luna purred.

“Shush you.” Jer'rahd muttered making a note to see what the range of Shin's powers were later.

“Right right sorry. See it took a while but I found out that my god power of all things is shareing. Surprise surprise I was the element of Generosity. Sounds stupid right? Well yeah until you an consider I can share the powers of my changeling race with others, and share the powers others have as well so long as every one agrees. “ Shin smiled.” So what happened was you went from having to deal with a Zebra god and a Kirin god, to dealing with a Zebra and Kirin God boosted with the power of a Changeling Queen, A Changeling God, and a nightmare made flesh who's got more confirmed kills on bad guys than any military force in the last thousand years. Yeah and you don't even know what Ryn and Lu's powers are yet. Good Luck!”

It was at that point Rynthia moved. She was standing next to the couch and then she wasn't, she was right up next to Tirek. Her hooves lashed out, striking hard with a green light as they impacted the monster. The hits were light, but the glow that they brought lingered and caused Tirek to roar out in pain. He lashed out at her, but she was gone and yet everywhere at once almost a blur of strikes, every one of them like the fires of the sun itself was burning his flesh.

As her Hooves touched the broken glass and the sand her movements kicked up clouds of dust, but the others could see the glass crinkling and turning to sand, the sand solidifying and turning to dirt, that dirt turning to soil and spreading out from where she laid into the monsters. A bubbling trickle of water formed , running across the new dirt and out into the sand, the new land and water expanding as the beating continued. Tirek winced and wailed, flailing wildly and striking nothing but air. The others looked on impressed as the lands themselves seemed to be recovering. The Zebra finally backed off , though by that point the land itself seemed to have heal away from the barren wastes it had been to a freshly tilled farm land that stretched for leagues in every direction.

Tirek was curled up on the new ground wincing and panting. He was a shadow of himself, a withered crone barely able to stand upright.

“Well I didn't expect this.” Shin whistled.” The lovely mare here's power is of injury transference. She can move a wound or a sickness and illness from one thing to another. Usually just a living thing to another. Ooh when paired with Lu's power it seems she can heal the land itself. Wonder if it goes the other way damage the land to heal others? We should check that out later Ryn. All that and she looked damn fine doing it too, by the stars I could watch that all day … sooo damn sexy....”

“Shin!” Jer'rahd growled.

”What don't you want more grand babies?” Shin demanded shifting to the most adorable big eyed waif he could as he pouted.

“You and Rynthia both have given us eight each with either you or Elusive being the father... not including that one time when Rynthia was the father.” Luna sighed.”Also please stop antagonizing Jer'rahd. You know how he gets.”

Rynthia trotted back over to Elusive who simply nodded to her with a smile.

“I suppose It's time I ended this. Despite how much you deserve it, I don't enjoy watching you suffer.” Elusive stated before looking up to the sky. Green shields formed around all of them and they all backed away from Tirek.” Shame to ruin the land again after it was just restored. I'll try to make this small.”

The earth under Tirek erupted as Elusive's horn glowed. Spidery tendrils of molten metal swirled up from the earth spearing into the decrepit Tirek as he screamed, what little magic he had left was being leached out of him as he was wrapped and pierced by the wire thin metal.

“There was that much star metal under the Badlands?” Jer'rahd winced.

“It is a large swath of land that lay untouched for a long time, I've been drawing it along , collecting it under us since we entered the Badlands. But it will all be concentrated in this spot soon and the rest of the land can recover.” Elusive stated looking up to the sky as his horn glowed brighter.

Tirek's lifted his head, the only part of him that remained free of the wire prison to see what appeared to be a massive ball of fire falling from the sky. A meteor pulled from the stars.

“In case you were wondering. My power is to affect metal and ore, either that which is on Equss, or that which is around it. I can shape it, arrange it move it... and in this case, pull it and guide it to the ground where ever I want. Goodbye monster, you shall not be missed.”

Tirek screamed out as the fiery ball of star metal plummeted from the sky and, with pinpoint accuracy, slammed into his bound form. The impact and fire was far more than enough to obliterate any trace of his existence that could have remained on Equss.

The small group watched from behind the shields noting this as the day that they lost Applebloom, but also the day that brought a final end to the monster known as Tirek.

Author's Note

This one was actually going to be at the end of Lost Empire and in fact is what started the whole idea of Last Dance. The only reason Sweetiebelle went first was because of how well the song fit in the title.

There was also a good bit of humor in this one though that was there as all the others were unfortunately used to saying goodbye to others by this point. While AB wasn't the last to die, she was the last non god to die.

The powers of the three are explained as follows.

Elusive- Metal bending. On a epic scale. So far as any one can tell he has no limit on how much metal he can control or how far off he can pull it from. Primarily he uses it to make Jewelry or decorations following the artistic flair of his birth mother. Though as seen here it has rather telling offensive purposes The reason he can wield starmetal so freely is the same reason Jer'rahd can. He and the others have spent a lot of time around it. All five of the individuals in the bad lands are practically immune to the effects starmetal has on magic.

Rynthia. As shown before she has healing equivalent exchange. While she initially was going to heal a number of sick creatures and pass that on to Tirek she found she wouldn't have been able to hold the sickness within her long enough to do so. Thus using Elussives power shared through Shin she simply chaneled his life force into the blasted landscape around her.

Shin's power was something i came up with a long while back but had no idea how to use it. Basically he can share abilities between at least ten others. This is all abilities , supernatural skills, regular skills, combat prowess and other powers that they might have. If need be all five of them could have accessed Jer'rahd's Beast form at that point in time. This makes him the ultimate party buffer.

The 'My momma said' joke had to be used again at least one more time. And of course Jer'rahd would go for it. Convincing Rynthia to go for it was a little harder , but she eventually agreed.

Last Show

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Show

[1467 years after the first defeat of Tirek]

The heavy sound of leathery wing beats caused Twilight to lift her head. She could hear a number of Guards behind her in the field shifting in a bit of panic or worry as the last rays of the sunset were blotted out by the great shadows cast by the pair above her. She had been altered to their approach quite a while back by the Guards, all of whom were surprised when the Princess of the Night canceled her court and went out to the training fields to meet the approaching Dragons.

It had been a long time since Spike and Bleu had come to see her, there probably were only a hoof full of Guards who even recalled them, and that small amount was probably nearing retirement.

Still looking up at the massive Dragons drifting down to land on the field she had to wonder the occasion was, usually Spike just sent a letter.

Even in the fading light she could tell something was wrong.

Bleu had been aging. That much was clear given the large number of gray scales she had and how faded her blue ones had gotten. In truth she was supposed to have a thousand years or more left, simply due to the longevity of dragons, but Spike had theorized her time in stone had counted against her. It was a small secret that they had done their best to keep from Luna and Celestia. Neither wanted the pair to know that their actions in the past had caused issues with one of their oldest friends.

Spike however, Spike also looked older. He didn't have the gray scales Bleu did, but he seemed to have more weight on his shoulders, his eyes seemed weary.

A dragon could prolong their age by sleeping, the average dragon lived around two thousand years, though the time was not counted while they were in a 'nap'. It was why younger dragons slept so little and older ones took naps that lasted hundreds of years. The young wanted to grow and the older wanted to stop growing. The result of the time awake showed in some of the dragons sizes, the longer they stayed up between naps the larger they got. Spike was currently the largest Dragon alive that any one knew of, and that was the last time they measured which was quite a while back.

Spike looked as if he had been awake for a while, and what was worse, the flood of power she usually felt when another god was around was not present.

Once that clicked she noticed other things as the great wyrms landed, kicking up dust and knocking over a few unprepared Guards.

Spike was holding a book.

Bleu was holding an egg.

And both of them looked as if they had been crying. Bleu more than Spike, the female was nearly a wreck.

Twilight didn't waste any time and trotted up to the pair as soon as they touched down.

“What's wrong?” She asked, skipping to the point immediately before either of them had time to try and deflect the conversation.

Spike looked back at Bleu with a small sigh. The blue dragon only briefly met his gaze before wiping her eyes.

“Don't expect to see Luna or Jer'rahd for a while Twilight.” Spike finally stated. “They took this about as well as they took their daughters death.”

“Took what, what are you....?” Twilight frowned looking up at Spike before sitting down hard her ears flattening to her head. “ You..... you're leaving aren’t you?”

There existed a legend among Dragons since the time of their creation. An island far to the north beyond the frozen north and in a place untouched by any living creature, of a place called the Dragon Graveyard. While many Dragons died of conflict or accidents, the ones who reached a certain age felt a call, one that grew stronger year after year until one day they simply flew north letting an instinct guide them to their final resting place.

Spike had found a book of that place, one that he himself had written in the future that documented the time there. The Dragon Graveyard was a tiny island at the top of the world surrounded by weather and sholes that would destroy any who sought out the island. Yet somehow Dragons at a certain point in their lives made it through. Though those who landed on the island never left again and entered their final sleep. Spike's book explained why, the island was the place the First Gods had given themselves to protect Equss by becoming the Element's of Harmony. The fallen Dragons were following a instinct to go there to fulfill the reason for their creation, to serve as guardians to the place with the last of their lives. Their fading energies fueling the maelstrom that protected the island. The book also contained Spike's last words to himself. Something he had only shown Twilight and it was just a small comment about being sure to come along when Bleu finally came to this place.

“I'm afraid so Twilight.” Spike grumbled. “We've already told Luna and Jer'rahd......”

“Boss was less than thrilled....” Bleu added. "When he finally calmed down he just asked I give everyone a hug for him."

Twilight winced at that.” I cannot say I am thrilled either.”

“I wouldn't even be going if I could help it.” Bleu muttered. “It's an itch that's been growing for years.... I fly and I feel myself drifting north....”

“But why are you going Spike.... You're a god you shouldn't be feeling this...” Twilight protested.

“Was. But even so gods still feel the pull of it. Ice Talon left a long time ago and she was the oldest Dragon any one knew. Copper was younger than I am when she left. I don't think it's really an age thing.” Spike sighed offering a small smile. “Besides, my mate here is scared of being alone.”

Bleu scoffed, but didn't respond to the comment.

“If you're not a god.......” Twilight stammered a bit. She had lost too many loved ones to lose herself now, but it had been over four hundred years since Applebloom died..... and she hadn't lost anyone as close to her as Spike was in that time. She closed her eyes steeling herself a bit more. She could cry later.

Spike looked back at her and Bleu came closer offering Twilight the egg she held.

“This is Moonstone.” Bleu stated softly. “She's my last egg......”

“You named her?” Twilight blinked. While Bleu and Spike had given every clutch they had to Celestia's.... Twilight's School for Gifted Students, they had never named any of the eggs allowing the foals that they were partnered with to do that instead. Despite being raised by ponies the pair had taken the same 'claws off ' approach to parenting as other Dragons, though they often checked up on them to make sure their partners were a good fit. Going so far as to remove a few of the hatchlings from partners they deemed 'unworthy'. Usually that caused a ridiculous uproar. Uproar that died down quickly once the reasons for the removal came to light. Often that reason also resulted in the removal of the student from the school, and in one case the placement of a former student into therapy.

“This ones special.” Bleu smirked as Twilight took the egg nestling it between her wings.

“On top of my giving her the power I held as a god, she's also going to be your successor’s partner.” Spike added.

“What?” Twilight blinked.

Spike offered Twilight the book he had been holding. The simple book looking tiny in his massive claw. It was an new tome, the leather bound cover likely from one of Spike's last sheddings, he had a habit of using an old molt of his to as covers for what he wrote. Embossed on the cover was a unicorns head, likely made of real gold that had been melted by Spike and formed into that shape along with the rest of the gold trim, something that would be near impossible on any book not bound in dragon leather.

“This is the history of the years to come Twilight. I pulled information from the future to fill this out. It's not a cheat sheet as it only tells of certain events before you step down. And of the several thousand years afterward so you don't have to worry what the future brings after you give up being a Princess. Your successor is going to take what you've done and make it last Twilight. Nox and Moonstone are going to make sure that Equss knows true peace like has never been seen before. A peace that they maintain thanks to something you created. “Spike smiled. “I know how you fret and worry about your plans and I wanted to make sure that you had something that would let you know when you can finally rest.”

“Spike.. you didn't.... “Twilight stammered.

“Hey, what kind of assistant would I be if I let you worry when you don't have to?”Spike smiled dipping his massive head to nuzzle against her lightly.

The massive purple Dragon lifted his head up looking off towards the setting sun with a sigh. “ We should go. There are storms coming in soon and I don't want Bleu to have to strain flying through them.”

“I'm not a invalid you putz.” Bleu snapped.

Spike chuckled as Bleu took to the air with a last wave. Spike rose up, looking down at Twilight longingly.

“Goodbye Twilight.” Spike offered a sad smile on his face.

“Goodbye my number one assistant.” Twilight responded her eyes starting to tear up.

And with a flap of wings the two dragons flew off towards the sunset before banking north leaving New Canterlot for the last time.

Author's Note

I initially thought to include the encounter with Jer'rahd, Luna and Bleu in this before opting to leave that out.

Suffice to say Jer'rahd throwing a temper tantrum of sort that she was leaving would have been interesting , but not something i felt fit this.

4 chapters left of Last Dance.

Last Call

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last call.

[2343 years after Tirek's first defeat]

“That is not how you make it!” the gray furred Kirin snorted.

“Seriously? Who's the bartender here you finicky jackass!” a Zebra stallion cursed back.

“It won't be you for long if you keep screwing up the mix.” Jer'rahd snapped.

“This is how you make a Rainboom, I’ve been doing it since I was twelve!” Baelit yelled.

“And I’ve been drinking them for over three thousand years I know what the right mixture is.” Jer'rahd growled.

“Jer'rahd leave the poor child alone.....” Luna sighed in exasperation.

“I'm thirty three.” the bartender snorted.

“As I said........” Luna quipped.

Luna, Jer'rahd, and Twilight sat in the Sabite Imperyum. The bar was closed for the day, though Jer'rahd had some how convinced Baelit to serve them while Twilight spoke with the youngest foals of Sunshine and Starcloud who now owned the bar.

Baelit was not thrilled to be dealing with the bars oldest customers, but one of them was a princess so the Zebra stallion held his tongue... mostly.

His sister, Celes, sat with Twilight discussing where their parents had run off to. The pair of them had been named for grandparents that they had never met. Both of them knew that they were not the first foals of their parents, particularly since Sun Drip, the first foal of Starcloud and Sunshine had died of old age about three years ago.

That was the act that had likely caused their parents to leave a few months ago without a word. Baelit had been expecting the immortal pair to leave, he had over heard them talking about it , though he had not expected it to happen so soon and he was angry at the pair as now he had to explain to his two year old daughter why they couldn't go see granny and granpaw any more.

Celes had taken it harder and had gone into their house after a week of them missing and found a nearly empty building with only a note and a package on the table addressed to Princess Twilight. This was why the Princess was here, and the other two had come along with her.

“So this is all you found?” Twilight asked ignoring the pair at the bar. She was not really fond of this bar, not because of the alcohol or the atmosphere. In fact, one of her few remaining friends had lived here with her husband until recently.

Why she didn't like this place, was because a small bedroom upstairs over the bar.

It had been where Celestia died.

Sure that had been a little over a hundred years ago , but it still bothered her, Twilight hadn't been able to bring herself to visit any of the places her friends had died aside from her secret room in New Canterlot. A room that grew larger with each passing year.

But that wasn't the situation now, the situation now was the two gems sitting on the table before that had been in the package addressed to her and a well worded note that sat between them.

There was also the rather concerned Zebra mare before her who bore her mentors name.

“This is all they left?” Princess Twilight asked.

“Yes Princess.” Celes nodded.”........ They..... they are not coming back are they?”

Twilight sighed looking at the pair of crystals. She wasn't sure how Zecora … Sunshine, had gotten the information on how to make them, it was still a well guarded secret. Still if any one could find out it would have been Sunshine and Starcloud. The stallion's power would have made him a master spy given it forced everyone to forget or gloss over his importance rendering him functionally invisible. Paired with Sunshine's ability to always know the right place and time to be. They could have easily gotten the information. And now those two powers were before her, set in the stone of a crystal and two former Zebra gods were wandering the world some where as mortals.

“I... don't believe they will be, no.” Twilight sighed, noting the Zebra mare fluttering her wings in worry. A gift from Starcloud's side of the family it seemed. None of the pairs foals had the red stripes of the Zebra casters or gods, and aside from Celes all of them were normal Zebra's. Not that the winged Zebra could fly very well, given she was only a quarter pegasus, but she was recently married to a Pegasus, so their foals likely would be able to fly.

“Why would they do this?” Celes pouted and Twilight unfortunately had an answer.

“The same reason your grandmother did. Your father had been a god even longer than your grandmother and your mother had been one for over three thousand years. It gets..... tiring......”Twilight mused. “Mortal ponies envy the immortal and the immortals envy the mortals, if they have been around long enough. After your older brother died I expect they simply didn't wish to out live any more of their foals.”

“But I don't like not knowing what happened Princess......” Celes muttered.

“You're a good daughter Celes, but they made sure that you and your brother were set in life before they left. Both of them have been gods since birth and if my studies are correct since they gave up their power they are the equivalent of eighteen in pony years, younger than either of you. Had they stayed , they would have most likely out lived you. While I have yet out live one of my foals, the two at the bar there have, five of them in fact. As well as a slew of grandfoals. They are rarely here in New Canterlot for that very reason. Every time they visit they become more and more morose until they have to leave again. The same can likely be said of your parents. There's too many memories here that they cannot be around any more. Do you understand?”

“A little, princess.”Celes pouted.

“Just think of it this way, they are alive and well out there some where.” Twilight collected the gems and the note that told Celes to give them to her. “I will keep an eye out for them as will Jer'rahd and Luna. So long as they are alive there is the chance they might come back. All you can do is carry on with your life and remember them.”

“Does that help?” Celes asked.”To carry on and just remember them?”

Twilight blinked at the question, her ears drooping for a moment before her Princess mask returned and she smiled at the Zebra mare.

“It does.” Twilight lied.

And so, many years after their disappearance, Zecora/ Sunshine, and Starcloud, departed from Equss.

Author's Note

Not all the endings are definite, what happened to the pair is lost in story, but they lived happily for the time they had left.

Some never know what happen to their loved ones in the end.

Last Summer

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Summer

[4970 years after the defeat of Tirek]

“I can't deal with this shit!” Jer'rahd snarled, shoving out of his chair and away from the table. The effort sent the table forward a good distance and was only stopped by the large figure on the other end of the table, though he was pushed back nearly to the wall. As Jer'rahd turned to storm out, his tail clipped the side of the chair and in a flare of anger, he whirled back on it striking the offending furniture and sending it soaring across the room to shatter against the far wall, two of the legs embedding an apples length into the stone. The act was almost instinctive it seemed, as he barely registered that he had done it before he continued his exit stomping towards the door of the room.

Twilight quickly opened the door for him to prevent the damage from becoming worse as she looked at the remains of a three hundred year old hoof carved chair.

The small group gathered around the table waited in silence for a moment or two before some one finally spoke.

“He took that well.” Shin snarked.

Rynthia glared at Shin before rising herself and trotting out the door to follow after her father. Another long pause followed before the silence was broken again.

“Shin has a point though. He is using doors and halls like a normal pony instead of just smashing his way through whatever is closest.” Luna sighed. “And to be perfectly honest I wish to join him in his sulk, but that never ends well for any one. I shall be the level headed one this time as he was when Tia died.”

Luna's gaze turned to Shin and Elusive.”Though for the record, I very much do not wish to be the calm one.”

“That I have gotten used to this sort of thing enough to barely feel phased worries me.” Twilight stated her voice dripping with annoyance. The alicorn let out a small sigh and rested her chin on the table.

“You act as if we are immediately going to die mother.” Elusive sighed. “We are effectively the same as we were when we were twenty. We have been that for a long time now, Rynthia still gets carded for the stars sake. Giving up our deific nature will only allow us to age as mortals will until our time finally comes. Shin and I are still looking at a few hundred more years before we would naturally pass on. Rynthia perhaps only half that, but still.”

“To be honest I am unsure how the three of you have managed it this long. Auntie Celestia was around even longer than you two and even she finally had enough. We've out lived our own foals down to the great times eight grand foal. We've lost friends and family that seemed to vanish in an eye blink. The three of us all agreed to this. We are all tired.”

“Did you even have some one in mind for your powers?” Twilight asked.” You mentioned when you told us that you would be passing them on.”

“No.” Elusive stated.” But you will.”

“What?” Twilight asked.

“Your Harmony project. That's not exactly as secret as you like to think it is.” Shin stated with a chuckle.

“It's not supposed to be a secret, it was just annoyed rambling after an argument with Spike's successor....” Twilight protested. "He read the book Spike left me after i told him not to..."

"The one you still haven't read , but explains everything for you." Elusive offered.

"It feels like cheating." Twilight muttered.

"He left it as a guide Mother." Elusive sighed.

“I think I am lost here.” Luna muttered. “I take this is something you have locked away from the Hive mind Shin?”

“It is. Twilight might be trying to ignore the idea, but we've worked on the details and it will work it just needs three things.” Shin added. “A starting point, which you have with the crystals that will have our abilities in them as well as the one you still have of Talon's. The power of four gods waiting to be passed on to who ever is deemed worthy of it.”

“The second thing will be enforcement. We know a number of gods still exist in the world that are cruel and are corrupted by what they have become. Given how the power of a god will randomly appear elsewhere or in a new form seemingly at random among the races of Equss someone will need to deal with the ones who should not be Gods as well as find the newborns.” Elusive continued.

“Why do I already see who that task is going to fall to.” Luna frowned.

“You two are best suited for it auntie.” Elusive stated. “ Despite all you have seen and lost you still remain. Equestria has seen peace the likes of which only existed in foal's tales because of your actions. There is really no danger anywhere, save natural disasters, that does not think twice before coming after an Equestrian. Even the monsters of the wild have learned to fear the smell of Equine and unless they are mad with something, will not come anywhere near. The fear of you two has done that. Is the Six Sixty Sixth even employed any more? Avoiding ponies is now instinctive action to a large number of dangerous species.”

“I blame Jer'rahd for most of that.” Luna snorted.” He likes to wrestle ursas...”.

“The final thing however is the rock.” Shin added getting a confused look from both the mares.

“It's something solid, unmoving, something that is always there, that has proven itself beyond any shadow of doubt to everyone that it will always be there.” Elusive added.

“A powerful leader.” Shin continued.

Luna smirked catching on.”Not a ruler?”

“A ruler succeeds on the backs of others, a leader joins the others so they all succeed.” Shin pointed out as Luna grinned more.

“A teacher, “ Elusive added.

“Someone with the knowledge and foresight to do what is right despite what any one else would say.” Shin continued.

“Someone who banded together a group of random ponies to cure a goddess of her darkness,” Luna added.

“Who then in order to save others woke those who no one else would, befriended them, and managed to save the world, again.” Elusive points out.

“One who has systematically cleansed the world of corruption where ever it was found. “ Shin continued.

“One chosen to lead the Bearers of the worlds most powerful artifacts and then was chosen to lead a nation which has done nothing but grow and prosper since her ascension.” Luna concluded.

“Gee I wonder where we might find someone like that?” Shin commented tapping her chin with a hoof as the others smiled at Twilight.

“Buck all of you....” Twilight groaned.

“That didn't sound like a no...” Elusive grinned.

===================================

Rynthia knew where he was going. Her father was getting predictable in his old age. It didn't hurt that he left a trail of frightened ponies and terrified Guards in his path, as well as some minor property damage.

She ignored the overturned pumpkin cart beyond tossing a small bag of bits to the owner to pay for the lost revenue. The path was a straight shot through New Canterlot and down into the Ponyville district and then to the outskirts of the town. He had only left a few seconds before her and yet her father had kept out of sight from her managing to stay far enough ahead that when she managed to make it to where he was going he had already settled in.

The Apple Family graveyard had expanded quite a bit since it was re uncovered by Jer'rahd before the War of Gods. In truth however it was still small. There was fencing and a cobblestone path from one end to the other as well as a stone monument in the middle of it with the names of Apples and Pelts and several other families that were buried here. Though in truth aside from some old Pelts. Her own biological mother and father, and her sister, the only other ones who had actually been buried here were her grandparents and great grandparents. Everyone else was buried somewhere else on the farm under one of the rows of trees, save Applebloom, who was buried in the crater that once held the Yggdrasil. Though that place had become a zap apple grove after her passing and the fruit had become one of the Elk's chief exports. Even with the loss of their primary bit producer, Sweet Apple acres still thrived. It had also been declared a heritage site by Princess Twilight, so it would never run out of bits or workers no matter how bad the harvest.

Rynthia sighed, trotting up to her father and sinking down at his side, pressing lightly against him. The two sat there in silence for what seemed like an hour before she finally spoke.

“Are you going to be alright?” Rynthia asked quietly.

“No.” Jer'rahd admitted after another long bout of silence.” I've never dealt well with this sort of thing.”

“I have noticed. You left for near a hundred years after Dawn died. If mother had not kept in contact with the hive many would have thought you two dead as well.”

“We found a continent full of deadly animals and giant monsters on the trip before that one. We went back and spent those years obliterating everything that was even remotely dangerous from the landscape. Luna helped raise the locals up from a backward tribe of terrified aborigines to a civilization well on their way through their bronze age.”

“The Walibi?”

“Yes, and the Diamond Dogs there that called themselves, Tazmin, tarmizianin? Whatever, Bunyip, as well. There's a lot of that place that's still unexplored too. I'll probably go back there after this.”

“I am not going to die immediately you know. I'll have a good hundred years or so.”Rynthia placated.

“Rynthia, I spent a hundred years just mourning the death of Dawn and it felt like maybe a month or two to me. Time doesn't feel right any more. You might last two hundred years and it will seem like an eye blink to me. Mortals were never meant to deal with this. I have no idea how any one could.”

“You embodied loyalty as strongly as any other bearer to ever hold the Element father, perhaps more so given your connection to Troph. You have shared that loyalty with many over the course of your life and every time something that you were loyal to goes away it hurts you far more than it would for a lesser pony. Mother and Twilight have a inkling of it from their connection to magic. I perhaps have a bit more of a proper idea simply due to all I have done over my life.” Rynthia sighed.

“You might. All those willing to give themselves for others. I expect you've seen all kinds of loyalties in that.”Jer'rahd sighed.” It feels wrong to do this is all. I've outlived everyone I know save Luna, Sparkle, and you three. All my friends all my family......my foals. I fully expected you and your spouses to outlive me. A parent is not supposed to out live their foals and with you giving up your immortality I will.”

“Why have you?”

“Hmm?”

“There have been chances before, you and mother could have retired, you could step back and pass on your powers. Shin knows how to do it which means Luna does as well if she looked.”

Jer'rahd looked down at the graves for a few moments.

“There was always something to do. We would talk about it and then something would catch her eye or I'd get distracted by something and we never discussed anything further than that. I just kept going because she kept going, and I think she did the same and then suddenly, here we are and my last foal has decided she wants to die.”

“Who would want to live forever?” Rynthia asked getting a snort of amusement from her father.

“I'm not any good at letting things go you realize.”

“As stubborn as you are I am amazed I managed to marry at all.”

“Heh well I like Elusive and Shin managed to trick me and get Luna on your side. I would have had a hard time fighting it.” Jer'rahd sighed.” So what are you three going to do?”

“As little as possible I hope. There may be a few more grand foals for you though. We are probably going to settle down somewhere quiet away from Gallopagos, New Canterlot and the Crystal Empire. We spent enough time being royalty of those places. And we have more than enough bits to cover all our expenses for a long time to come. “

“Sounds nice.” Jer'rahd sighed.

“It should be. We have been planning this for a few hundred years now.” Rynthia admitted.” You could always do the same.”

“We can't retire.”

“What?”

“Neither of us are true gods. We can't just give up the power and live again as mortals. When Luna and I decide to go, that's it, we're gone. No retirement, no nothing. We're just gone, the power we have can't be passed on, we'll just be dead, what we can do will be gone save what memory echos the hive mind keeps of what Luna can do.”

“Where... where did you learn that?”

“We run into Bonnie every so often. I forgot which of us asked, but Bonnie's seen it a number of times from others who became corrupted by the books. We're kept alive so long as we keep the power we gained, but the moment we try to get rid of it fully we fade out. Similar to what happened with Cadence.”

Rynthia considered that before speaking “So magic is all that keeps you around and when it's gone...”

“So are we.”Jer'rahd sighed. “I don't care about dying, I've done it before, buck, at this point I'm looking forward to it so I can see everyone again. But there's always the chance that we might go and then something will come up after that we were needed for.“

“Like the terracotta incident after Dawn passed.”

“Exactly. Twilight was handling that thing but if we hadn't gotten word of it and gotten here when we did, it would have been a lot worse. And I can't let anything like that happen to Equestria again.”

“Your loyalty....”

“Family, Friends, Country, in that order.” Jer'rahd sighed.

“Do not worry father I will not be dying for a while yet, though I would ask you and mother to stay around for a while however. It would be nice to see you two more often than we have lately.” Rynthia sighed pressing her head to his shoulder.

“I can do that.....”

====================================================
[5361 years after the defeat of Tirek ]

Jer'rahd let out a small groan as he flopped down in the dirt. His ears perked a little as he heard the mutterings of the current generation of Apples poking their heads around various trees and fence posts watching him as he plopped down in the graveyard. It had been about thirty years since he had been this way and most of them had only heard about him in stories.

Luna was at the farmhouse talking with the current family matrons. She never liked coming out here any way, at least not like he did. Of course it wasn't that he liked coming here. His gaze slid over each of the graves before him. His parents, his grandparents, his brother and his brothers wife, his first born daughter, and finally his adoptive daughter and her two spouses.

5172 AT
Rynthia Pelt Kaisur Reignolds Sparkle.

Loving mother and wife, Hero, Bearer of the Element of Magic, Savior of millions, miracle worker, doctor.

“Death should not be feared, it is just the balance to the wonder that is life, and it is far from the end.”

His daughter had opted to take all the names when given the choice. Though she most often went by Kaisur. The marker should have also listed her as first Princess of the Zebralands, but she would have hated that, so it was left off. She had died peacefully in her sleep.

5302 AT

Elusive Reignolds Sparkle

Loving father and husband, Hero, Ruler of Gallopagos, Bearer of the Element of Honesty.

“Death is not the end, it is just the start of the next great adventure.”

The Kirin lord had lived much longer than his wife, though he had become much more sullen in his last years constantly regretting and trying to rethink the decision they made when they gave up their immortality. Shim managed to keep him together until he died from complications stemming from the Flu.

5303 AT

Shintaka Sparkle

Loving mother and husband, Hero, Empress of the Crystal Empire, First Prince of the Changelings,bearer of the Element of Generosity.

“Life requires change, and death requires adapting. You cannot stop either.”

The Changeling had only remained alive a few months more after Elusive passed. Just into the new year, Shin had blown all the retirement funds that the trio had left to make sure everyone of their grand foals and foals had the best Hearths Warming ever and would be able to do pretty much anything they wanted to do with their lives with massive bank accounts for their schooling and starting nest eggs. The Changeling had burned up all his energy staying around for Elusive. When she had passed he made sure that her tombstone was enchanted in a way that the wording denoting him or her changed each time you looked at it. Annoying beyond the end, particularly since Jer'rahd was one of the few that would ever visit here regularly.

Everyone was correct, Jer'rahd did not take Rynthia's death well, he did not take watching her age either. But he stayed around like his last daughter had asked. He remained in their lives as close as he could until Shin passed then he and Luna left for nearly fifty years. They took their grief out on a number of things in the world before they were able to calm down and return to speak with Twilight. Rynthia, Shin and Elusive had a plan and the remaining three would start that plan as soon as the trio passed. Twilight had explained it to him and even he could see the merit in it.

“Are you ready Jer?” Luna asked gliding to land lightly next to him as he rose. She was often in her Pegasus form nowadays. Changelings were common everywhere now, though too many of them recognized her with the hive memories if she was in her Changeling form and rather than try to hide as someone else, she simply blocked the memory of how she looked as a Pegasus and wore that form. Despite the fact he loved that form and was highly attracted to her , the pair had decided not to adopt or have any more foals after Dawn. That had been too painful for both of them to ever want to do again.

“Yeah.... as ready as I will ever be. Let's go make Equss a better place and all that.” Jer'rahd smirked.

“You needn't be so melodramatic.”

“Says the mare who challenged Sparkle to 'Fite me!” when you found out she was releasing some of the Garden's prisoners.”

“Shush you.” Luna pouted as Jer'rahd laughed.

“Lets go Luna. We have a lot of work to do.”

Author's Note

A bit of a time jump on this one, but i'm writing what ever one i feel like so it will all be random. The only three that will not be random was the first one and the last two.

Last Notes

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Notes

[ 16,410 years after the defeat of Tirek]

The creak of a concealed door behind the bookcase echoed through the hidden room as the soft thud of hooves could be heard climbing the stairs.

Ancient mage lights slowly lit up as the figure climbed the stairs stepping into the large room as more of the lights lit up , showing countless pictures hanging on the walls of the cavernous room hidden in the hollowed out top of the Manterhorn.

Princess Twilight Sparkle, Goddess of the Moon, Magic, and Books stared across the massive room at the huge collection of memories before her. She moved into the room, passing by a pair of tables that featured prominently in the room. She paused by the first looking over the photo sitting there showing six mares and a small dragon posing for the picture, a smile crossing her lips, before her gaze was drawn to the other items on the table.

The large stuffed Bunny that was still holding together, a surprise for something that was little more than a cheap fair prize. A memento of Fluttershy, her Element of Kindness. A mare who died in her sleep next to her loved one.

On the bunny's head was a pair of cracked aviator goggles. A memento of Rainbow Dash, her Element of Loyalty. Who died after out racing death herself.

Seated just above the goggles on the rabbits head was an old stetson hat, one protected by twice as many preservation spells as the other items. A memento of Applejack. Her Element of Honesty, who passed away looking over the fields of her beloved home.

Draped around the bunny's neck was a gem stone and necklace,one that had nearly started a war in her effort to claim it from those who had it . Only the intervention of Dragon Lord Spike who first gifted it and the Regent of the Kirin kept it from escalating to such, as both of them could think of no where safer than with Twilight. After all it had already been stolen and recovered twice from the museum it had been in. It was a memento of Rarity, her Element of Generosity, who gave her life so others could live.

Dangling from one of the bunnies legs and still floating despite the countless years it had existed was a red balloon. A memento of Pinkie Pie, her Element of Laughter, who passed on surrounded by loved ones.

Seated between the bunny's back legs was a gold embossed book with a dragon scale binding. It told of her future and was there to keep her from worrying about what would happen when she her self finally passed. A gift and now a memento of her number one assistant Spike who had left for the Dragon grave yard long ago.

These were the ones she paid the most attention to as she passed. Though the table next to this was empty save a double bladed straight sword laying across it. And a picture of four ponies a zebra and a dragon. In time she expected it too would have some mementos, though for now of the six that would go there, all of them were still worn by the two who still walked Equss.

She moved on, passing deeper into the massive room. Pictures of lovers and friends covered everything, some times a memento was with the picture other times it was only the picture, and rarely just a name. She paused before each recalling their passing with sadness.

Discord, who turned good at the end and married Pinkie Pie only to die and become a monument to her grave shortly after her death.

Princess Celestia who gave up her godhood and married a guard, living out the rest of her life as a normal pony.

Lyra HeartStrings , who along with Bon Bon died of old age in each others company.

Trevor Lulumoon, Flail Lulumoon, Sunset Shimmer Kaisur, Berry Kaisur, and Beryl Kaisur, all of whom were lost in time and died far before any one they knew or loved had even existed.

Pip and Scootaloo Kaisur a pair who died saving the life of a pair of foals. They had been well past their prime, but they still showed the world they were the best at what they did.

Spitfire and Soarin a pair of former Wonderbolts who died helping ponies during a freak weather accident.

Big Mac, who finally succumbed to the power coursing through him.

Nightlight and Twilight Velvet Sparkle. Her own parents who died of old age.

Dawn Kaisur, who died of age and a disease that Jer'rahd, Luna, and Rynthia had then gone to spend close to three hundred years to find a cure for.

Rynthia Kaisur, who gave up her god hood and passed on surrounded by those she loved.

Elusive Lionheart Reignolds, who also gave up his godhood to die of old age with those he loved.

Shintaka Sparkle, another who gave up his godhood, only to die alone as those he loved had long since passed. But it was still with a smile as he knew they were waiting for him.

Breezy and Dustina Mist. Both killed in an airship accident while helping the evacuate others. The captains had gone down with their ship literally in this case. Nothing like the Jupiter had ever been built again.

Glimmer Sparkle Mist, died of old age.

Talon Mist, killed himself after his wife Glimmer died.

Applebloom Apple. Died of old age and was swiftly followed by the monster she had imprisoned, Tirek.

Sweetiebelle Reignolds, died of a heart failure at the end of her last concert.

Peach Blossom Silvertail. Killed defending a trainload of civilians from bandits.

Starfall Silvertail, died after destroying the bandits that killed her husband.

Rhederic Pelt, killed buying Luna enough time to save everyone in New Canterlot from Tirek.

Lion Heart Reignolds. Killed by Tirek while trying to save the Kirin and his wife and foal from the monster.

Velkorn Pelt, died in child birth from injuries gained after trying to help civilians to escape Tirek.

Granny Smith Apple. Died from a skiing accident.

Gilda Griffon, killed at the start of the War of Gods by an assassin hunting Rainbow Dash.

Lord Talon, Fred, Killed in the opening act of the War of Gods.

Babs and Silver Sterling, murdered in a failed robbery.

Sunshine and Starcloud, gave up their godhood and vanished into the world and presumed dead.

Bleu Scale Kaisur, traveled to the Dragon Graveyard with her mate.

Vinyl Scratch, died in a electrical fire in her late fifties.

Nico Muse, died in the same fire as his mare friend.

Orange Danish Kaisur, retired from the medical field and spent her remaining years in the Crystal Empire writing medical books until she passed.

Octavia Melody Muse, passed on at her desk at the Platinum School of music after finishing the last page of what was now considered to be the great Equestian symphony.

Jacob Muse, passed in his sleep a number of years before his wife.

Trixie Lulumoon, died in a small hospital of pneumonia complications after spending nearly a hundred years back on the road with the Grand Pinkie Pie Fair.

Wolf Pelt, died of old age in the Frozen north with his Windigo wife.

Fox Pelt, died in the field during a particularly heavy applebuck season, in his early two hundreds.

Butterscotch, Apple Blossom, and Dandelion. All married and lived normal lives before they passed on leaving behind several new generations of Cutie Mark Crusaders to terrorize the Ponyville district.

Diamond Tiara Kaisur, died due to complications after a surgery in her later years.

Paint Brush Lily Kaisur survived his wife's death , but was never quite the same after, his paintings taking a much darker tone until he passed some years after her.

A.K. Yearling , passed on a expedition to the frozen north to find the source of the smooze. Though she died of the cold what she had found and documented lead the teams that followed to the source of the smooze, frozen in ice so it could be destroyed completely so as never to threaten Equss again.

Emperor Shining Armor Sparkle. Died of complications due to his old age during a particularly vicious flu season.

Empress Cadence Sparkle, faded from existence years after her husband died. Her last contact with Twilight had been her saying goodbye and a final performance of their shared ladybugs dance.

Twilight paused there, not able to help herself from humming the old song before the picture of her sister in law.

The pictures were in no real order at the moment save for those who had married or been foals of the others being near each other. She had long ago shaken her ocd, but every so often it roused again and she rearranged this entire room as she dusted it, despite the spells keeping dust away.

The wall she was approaching was decorated with a number of those she had worked with and cared for here at the castle, as well as a host of those she had been much closer than that too like Steel Horn.

Princess Sundown who gave up her God hood to retire after failing to make it through the black phase of immortality properly.

Princess Geranium who up until a few years ago was a close friend. She had gone mad for some reason or another that Twilight never fully understood, though she had become obsessed with trying to dig something out of the ground to the point she worked a number of ponies and others to death trying to dig a hole. Even going so far as to try and crash the sun into Equss to crack the very land open. She had been killed by a earth pony she had enslaved named Astra who had some how taken in the former Princess' powers and moved the sun back to where it was supposed to be. She had become the new Princess of the Sun and was currently confused and still trying to deal with this revelation despite having been a Princess for nearly five years now. She had no relatives left, no loves or interests, Geranium had taken those away. She seemed to be in constant awe of Twilight, much like Twilight had been of Celestia. Jer'rahd and Luna had apologized for taking so long to come back, but they had been on the other side of Equss before they knew something was wrong.

There were other things as well. The Windigo race was no more. When Tamberlane's power had finally dried up there was little to no real strife left in the world for them to feed on thanks to Twilight and the Kaisur family’s actions. And so the Windigo faded away leaving nothing behind but the Snow Ponies and Llinorm as proof they had existed.

There were countless other loves and friends she had made, all of them whose names and faces were in this room forever. A wall of books was against the far side of the room, filled with the names and small pictures of ponies she had met or worked with but who she had known at least in passing, or had seen in the memories she had viewed through a sword so long ago.

Twilight let out a soft sigh as she ruffled her wings. She desperately wanted to go join her friends and all her loved ones in her next life, but she couldn't. Not just yet.

The Harmony project was still in progress, Astra had yet to find her own hooves to stand on and her successor had yet to even be born.

In time though...

She would see them all again in time.

And she had plenty of that.

Author's Note

Two chapters of Last Dance remain

Last Night

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Night

[70,000 years after Tirek's defeat]

They were staring.

He could feel their eyes on him, their ears raised and wary as they watched him.

He smiled a little, recalling the first time he had come here, how the owners then didn't know who he was and tried to stop him.

This family had at least an idea who he was, some of their oldest might have even seen him before. It was rare that he was even in Equestria these days, but earth ponies had rather long lifespans.

There was to much here that hurt. After all this time, after all the changes, all it took was one thing that reminded him, and he could feel the pain gnawing at him. The bonds he had made would never leave him, no matter how annoyed he got with them, he could still feel them all. All he lost, all his friends and loved ones. There were only three of them left now including himself. Every one else had moved on.

The pair of them were up in the castle now, night was coming soon and then the pair would leave this place again.

He tossed the tree aside like it was nothing flinging it into the forest as he righted the fallen stones, looking at the stone oak that cradled the near crumbled graves inside it's warped frame.

There were no bodies here any more. They had turned to dust and soil so long ago that nothing remained of any of them any more. Yet this was always the place he visited first when he came back to New Canterlot.

New Canterlot. Did any one even remember why it was called that any more? Had peace reigned for so long that no one recalled why things were the way they were, why the memorials existed?

How long had it been since he struck down a bandit, been forced to kill a monster, or toppled a corrupt government? Time was meaningless really. Anyone he cared for who would mark time was long gone and of those left, they lived as he did only following the cycle of night and day.

Well perhaps Twilight still needed to use a calender and cared what time it was. He shifted as he looked down over the gravestone, three bits of metal on a chain clinking around his neck.

It had been a long time since he or Luna had bothered with time.

He stared down at the graves not bothering to lay among them to talk. A small smile crossed his face as he recalled his parents, his grandparents, his friends. The stories he could tell them of all that had happened in the years he had been gone on this trip.

He spared a glance back to the gathered Apples, foals and adults, watching the orange and gray furred Kirin with worry and curiosity.

He turned back to the graves and let out a small sigh.

“I've a lot to tell you all. But it can wait. I'll see you soon.” Jer'rahd uttered turning away to head towards the castle.

The dark mare sighed taking a tip of the tea. It was high quality, but it tasted little as water to her tongue. There was very little in the world that she had not feasted on or drank to the point it was flavorless and bland at this point. This included her husbands chilli.

“There's a small story I have to tell you. I've only really told a few in the world of this over the course of my life and all but one of those is dead.”

The mare sitting across from her perked her ears. In truth she wasn't that much older than Twilight. Not in the grand scheme of things. It was barely a drop in the bucket.

“Then why tell me?” Twilight asked.

“Because the work is done.” Luna replied setting a small box on the table between them and opening it showing off six crystals that glowed with a soft light.” It's been close to three thousand years since we saw anything that was a threat to anyone. Our part is over. There's no need for the Last Valkyrie and the Last Knight to continue. In fact our continued presence would likely hinder your part in this.”

“ Nox has not yet been born.” Twilight responded.

“No I expect not. But the story.” Luna sighed. “I was born a Pegasus in a time of war. Luna Fantasma, my mother was a Valkyrie and my father a warrior from another land who managed to impress her enough for her to take him as a husband. My life was like many others in my village, nothing but training and fighting. The Changeling war was barely a thousand years in the past and the scars of that conflict still lingered. When the Discordian war started I was a mare of fifteen, though I was the most skilled in my village I fought for and won the honor to lead a group of warriors to aid Canterlot against the chaos.”

Luna paused looking at the tea cup in her hooves.

“It was there I first met Celestia, the Solar Flare. All her friends had died at this point in her life and she was the leader of the Equestrian army. She was driven, vibrant, forceful, and held an air of command and menace that natural born warriors were drawn to. She was also highly unhinged and was only loyal to the goddess Avianna, whom she regarded as her mother. There were many splinter nations of ponies at that time, war between them was a constant thing, and Avianna had many against her rule despite her being a god. Celestia was the one she sent to deal with these issues, and by deal with them it usually meant burn them to nothing.” Luna shifted, three bits of metal about her neck shifting and clinking as she moved. “She formed an army and set out after Discord at Avianna's whim, no pony knew what was stolen, no pony knew what had been done to Avainna by Discord save Celestia. We simply followed orders and engaged the enemy when we encountered it as we chased the monster. I made a few friends in that war party. I was young, I knew how to fight but knew nothing of anything else. Shadow, Imbrium, Nightshade, and Dusk, all soldiers from other tribes and parts of the world. I found friendship in them and many others.”

Luna sighed.

“Then we found Discord. And Celestia lost it. An army of Ponies. All dead save five and that was due to little more than luck and Imbrium's skills with a shield. She didn't even realized she did it until long after Discord fled. The realization of it nearly broke her, she had killed untold numbers before, but never her own, never those who were there to help her, whom she had trusted to watch her back. And in an eye blink she had destroyed them all and accomplished nothing in the process. We spent two years in the newly created badlands as she made monuments to the ones she killed. When we finally left again she was barely able to function. I led the continued pursuit after Discord into the Darklands. It wasn't until an encounter with the Children of Discord that she recovered enough to help us. Her actions were stunted and slowed but, but during that fight I preformed the Sonic Rain Boom for the first time. One of my remaining friends had been flung through the air by the so called children and I needed to rush to save them, in doing so I pushed past what any one before me had done and created an explosion of light and noise that was more than enough to distract the trio enough for Celestia to turn them to stone. After that the powers of the moon and sun that the three had came to myself and Celestia.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Twilight asked.”Celestia is long dead. I doubt anything could change my opinion of her now.”

“This is not her story Twilight it is mine. My sister simply featured prominently in it. We had been through war and conflict, we spent years in the Dark lands that first time, I was twenty three by the time we found the castle of Discord and confronted him. We had all grown closer than simple comrades of arms, we were a family and our goal was insight. We fought Discord, battled him for what seemed days as he egged us on and taunted us. In his madness he let slip what we thought was his weakness, the Element's of Harmony, Items he conveniently left around his castle. We faced challenges to find them and in the end we did. I know now it was his plan to be blasted by them, he likely could have destroyed us utterly with his power, but instead he fought his madness and forced us to bond and become friends during our time in his lands, just so we could stop him.”

Luna sighed setting the bland tea down.

“We returned and Avianna suddenly announced her retirement, upon finding I had the power to the moon she granted me her place as a pony god and retired, but not after seeding Celestia's mind with her failures and forcing her to become soft with all her regret. I took up her mantle as a warrior helping everything remain at peace, by being the sword to Tia's olive branch. My loss of my friends, the loss of Hooper, The first dragon war, the conflicts that followed. I pressed through it all with a warriors mindset, something my sister no longer had.”

Luna leaned back closing her eyes.

“The point of this little tale Twilight is this. I've fought and killed gods. Slaughtered armies. Found love twice in my life. Made and buried friends. Made new ones only to see them pass on as well. Moved the moon and the stars in the sky. Talked with the First Gods. Read more tomes than perhaps even you have. I have been corrupted by evil. Become a nightmare. Born a foal of my own and then been forced to bury her. I've preformed a Sonic Rain Boom. I've raised the sun. Forged great weapons. Obliterated nations. Wiped entire species and races off the world. Been to my moon. Been to Tartarus and back. Traveled through time with a mad pony in a blue box. I've been cloned, killed and kidnapped more times than I care to count. I've wielded the Element's of Harmony twice in my life with two different sets of bearers. I've seen kingdoms rise and fall. Watched the sky light up with colors unseen by most eyes. Preformed acts that have never had the like shown again. Made love in the rain and snow and sea and any where else one can think of, including your throne. I have stalked some one I loved to try and ease his pain. I have cried an ocean for one who died. Ravenged cities and parts of the world in revenge. I have Spoken with Windigo in the fresh driven snow. I have seen Caribou fly on a ice cold night. I have seen a near extinct race rise from their own ashes. I have seen a great tree harboring the ultimate evil and been part of destroying that evil. I have been a Valkyrie, a solider, a Princess, a Queen, a Regent, a Mother, a wife, a superhero, a villain, and a monster. I have made foals cry and I have made them laugh. I have brought together families and torn them apart. I have become a bug and brought more power to bear on a single creature than anyone has ever had the right to wield. I have heard songs that brought about every emotion conceivable. I've held grand foals for the first and last times. I have tamed a beast and become one myself. I have given chase to death itself. I have saved the lives of millions and killed just as many. I have danced rituals with Buffalo. I have feasted with Seaponies. I have married my love and stayed with him longer than many mountains have existed. I have spoke in hushed tones to hidden races of distant lands that called themselves Bunyip. I've heard an anguished scream of a filly that could be heard around the world. I've seen things ponies wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the coast of Orion. I watched mage beams glitter in the dark near the tears in the world. If I do not tell some pony, all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. “ Luna let out a small sigh her ears perking up as she heard hoof steps approaching and the door to the sitting room, before the door creaked open. “I am very tired Twilight, it is time to die.”

“Did you tell her you also finally managed to boil a pot of rice without setting a kitchen on fire?” Jer'rahd asked getting a tea cup thrown in his face for the joke as he trotted in.

“I was trying to be serious here.” Luna growled.

“Yes I know. And you should stop it.” Jer'rahd claimed. “It's not as if it's going to do any good.”

“I almost liked it better before you developed a sense of humor.” Luna snorted.

“You told me to lighten up and I have, it just took ten thousand years or so.” Jer'rahd smiled nuzzling against Luna's neck.

“So this is it then? You're just going to go die?” Twilight asked with a frown.

“Nothing quite as dull unfortunately Sparkle.” Jer'rahd sighed. “ Our part in this is done. Everything else is up to you.”

“Tia may have tried for this, but you have a chance of making it work Twilight. A lasting peace. Over all of Equss.” Luna sighed.”This is the eve of your start, the Harmony project. It's all in your hooves now Twilight.”

“ No pressure right?” Twilight sighed.

“Twilight as impressive as my list is you have done things that I have not and you will do far more than that by the time you are done.” Luna smiled. “ You still have a task before you , our part is done in this.”

“Besides. We have a lot of friends and family waiting for us.” Jer'rahd smiled.” I think it would be rude to keep them waiting much longer.”

The moon shone brightly in the sky far above them, millions of stars seeming to cluster around the massive glowing orb as if looking down on the night touched landscape of Equss. A soft wind blew across the grassy plains, making the tall strands of grass rustle and shift almost musically.

A brilliant flash of light lit up the empty field and as it faded there were three figures standing there.

A orange scaled and gray furred Kirin with a damaged horn a body covered in scars. His short cropped amber mane and tail looked like he had hacked his hair off with a blade. A silver kite shield cutie mark adorned his flank, with a black chess piece of a night in the middle of it, though the piece was decorated with spines and fangs like a dragon. His red and green eyes stared up at the night sky.

Next to him was a platinum blue haired pegasus with aqua eyes and a purple splotch across her flank with a silvery crescent moon decorating it.

Behind them stood a tall lavender furred alicorn mare. Her darker purple mane and tail streaked with magenta, and flowing over her back looking like the last light of the setting sun before the encroachment of a beautiful night.

On the alicorn's side was a harness and belt that held a sword.

A single handle wrapped in purplish blue silk, perhaps two apples across sat in the middle of the weapon. Twin curved blades of a dark blue metal flared out from the guard-less grip on either side before thinning out into slightly curved blades, each was perhaps six apples long and sharpened on both sides, the soft curve of the blades gave the weapon the impression of a sliver of the moon when it was just about to go dark. The weapon was unadorned, but highly polished. It was simple, yet beautiful in the simplicity, like it was designed to be art rather than to take lives.

This weapon was very dangerous.

The Waning Moon glowed softly on the side of it's new owner.

Six small bits of metal attached to two thin chains rested around the alicorn's neck as she watched the two.

Her gaze shifted over the land scape, not reconizing it at first, though thinking of maps and old maps she recalled the land that used to be a barren desert controlled by a Diamond Dog pack calling themselves the Bone Hounds.

It was the valley where Luna and Jer'rahd had met for the first time. Where Luna had reattached Jer'rahd's leg after he saved her life, a scar he still bore.

A river had been diverted long ago and the land was flush with life now.

In this distance a black shape stood seemingly absorbing the light around it. Twilight met the gaze of the black alicorn and nodded lightly her attention turning back to her two remaining friends from long ago.

She watched as the pair of them walked away from her to the small rise of a hill, a place a road used to be. Both of them looking up at the moon and the mass of stars that had gathered, making the night glow with an unearthly light.

She watched as the two leaned in and had a last kiss, before there was a surge of magic and both of them were gone. No bodies remained, no marks on the grass, the two had simply given up the corrupted power that kept them alive and they were no more.

No.

That was not quite correct.

Twilight's gaze shifted upward to the moon she controlled. The stars were spreading out away from the moon now. Many of them ready to move on as the last of them had finally joined the celestial choir.

Of course, simply vanishing was not how those two did things.

The silvery surface of the moon was marked, as it had been so long ago when a young student of Princess Celestia first learned the story of the Mare in the Moon.

Only this time, the dark silhouette on the moon was not of a alicorn mare. The dark spots could just be made out to be a pegasus mare, and a unicorn stallion. Their noses nearly touching as the two lovers made their last mark on the world.

Twilight sighed her mind darting over several options over what to tell every pony about the moons new decoration. It would easy to spin this into an Old Pony Tale about the lovers Jer'rahd and Luna.

She added it to a long mental checklist, she had a great deal to do yet before she herself could follow them.

And after many many years, The Demon of Dullahan, General of the Lunar Republic, Jer'rahd Kaisur, and The Princess of the Night, The Astral Queen, Luna Kaisur, finally departed Equss.

Author's Note

One chapter left.

And thus i finish with Jer'rahd and Luna. The Last of the Beasts of the Moon.

All that remains is Twilight.

Last Chapter

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Chapter

[110,042 years after Tirek's defeat]

Twilight Sparkle smiled softly as she strode into the New Canterlot throne room. Her night had just begun, though the crowd that had gathered in the throne room was massive.

Princess Astra looked up from her throne of the day rising to her hooves herself to join the massive gathering in bowing for the Princess of the Night.

“Don't …. seriously, just do not my students.....” Twilight smiled waving a hoof as the crowd rose seeing some faces she had not invited. “ I know why many of you are here and I thank you for coming, but I was serious when I said that I did not wish this meeting to be with anyone but my students. Please would the rest of you step out side and wait until after all this is over?”

There were protests of course. Honestly Twilight really could not blame them. Many had traveled from all parts of Equss for this event. One she had announced years in advance in fact so as not to cause any panic.

After all it was the event of multiple lifetimes that a Princess passed on her power and stepped down.

The Guards moved in, helping guide the crowd outside before closing the massive doors and taking up position outside them leaving only her students and Astra with her in the throne room.

There was one other uninvited guest, though the black alicorn was expected even if Twilight was the only one to see her.

She felt the spell Astra cast without seeing the tell tale glow of her horn, sealing the room completely and adding a number of layers of shielding to it.

The Princess of the Sun was like that in predicting what was needed before she was asked. She had been around for quite a long time at this point. She of course wasn't the first Goddess of the Sun to bear the name Astra. She was actually the third. But she was the second oldest creature on Equss right now even if she was barely six hundred. Something that had almost been required for the Harmony project.

The mare was a white furred beauty, quite close to how Celestia looked in the past. Her cutie mark was a sunburst of white light some how visible on her white coat. Her mane and tail were also white her red eyes the only coloration on her at all, growing up she was an albino, nearly treated as an invalid due to her lack of coloration and issues with bright light. Strange that she would eventually control the brightest light there was.

Astra knew of the Harmony Project, of what would be expected of her.

What Astra did not know was all Twilight had done to make Equss the way it needed to be at this point in her life. She did not know that Twilight was not simply stepping down to be a mortal, but giving herself over to the magic to allow her end.

It was why Bonnie was here after all.

Another thing the pale Alicorn didn't know, was who her ancestors were.

Twilight did.

An honest Earth Pony farmer, a Kind Pegasus who could speak with animals, a Generous Unicorn fashion designer, an Laughing Earth Pony baker, a Loyal weather Pegasus, and a wonderful draconic assistant.

Twilight could trace Astra's family line back to each one of them, and had. She couldn't help seeing her friends in the white mares every action.

Twilight's gaze shifted tot he crowd and the only other pony in the room, her primary student, Nox.

The others knew how Twilight viewed the dark blue unicorn. She was almost the reverse of Astra with her dark coat and matching hair. Though her eyes were vibrant and orange and filled with curiosity at everything. Despite the rest of the students protests that Nox was clearly Princess Twilight's favorite, it was hard for any of them to dislike her. The filly had easily made friends with the other outstanding students of Twilight's School.

Nox did not know many things, she was young yet, she was unaware that she was going to be the one to take Twilight's place, and she was unaware that the little Dragon she had hatched during her entrance exam, Moonstone, was related to her in more than just an adopted sort of way.

The silvery scaled Dragon with bright blue eyes sat with the rest of the students, having been selected for this moment far before any of the others with how she balanced out Nox's eagerness and curiosity with common sense and caution. It didn't help Moonstone too was a top member of the school. That she was one of only three gods remaining in Equestria was a curiosity, but not one that seemed to bother her.

Her parent's, Spike Sparkle and Bleu Scale, would be proud of her.

Nox's ancestors also included the same dragoness, but they could trace to others as well. A trustworthy solider Pegasus, a charitable Earth Pony spy, a compassionate Zebra doctor, a devoted warrior Kirin, and a memorable Changeling Valkyrie.

It was information that few would know, and fewer still would have bothered to keep spread sheets for.

Twilight had volumes of them.

She let out a small sigh as she looked over her students.

Nox was the only pony.

Three were Dragons. Moonstone, Ruby, and Obsidian.

Two were Linnorm, Ice Wing, and Sunrise.

One was a Changeling, Saturnia.

One was a Kirin, Lodestone. He was actually one of Twilight's descendants.

Two were Draconequui, Light Source, and Hot Sauce. Discord and Pinkie's foals had brought the formerly dead race back into the world, and while they were still rare, Draconequui were not as rare as some other races.

One was the rare breed of Harpy that still existed in the world, Peep.

Three were Hippogryphs, Chamomile, Geyser, and Steam. Steam was also one of her descendants.

One was a Griffon a race that like the harpies remained rather rare, Grail. The harpies had nearly died out and never fully recovered, the Griffons had recovered but with their closer ties to ponies, more Hippogryphs were born than full Griffons.

Three were Seaponies, ones who remained in a floating bubbles of water that continually filtered back to the depths of their home, no small feat of magic, but something Twilight was proud of. They were the twins Depth and Ocee, and their sister Kelp.

Two were River ponies as species that had become separate from their kin by becoming far more amphibious, Trill and Shaa. Shaa too was one of Twilight's.

Another rarity was the lone Orc in the room, he had taken the longest to understand the lessons, but he had caught on and followed her teachings more like a religious belief than simple learning. Brine.

The lone Ram was much the same as the Orc and the pair had become friends, Stoat.

One was in a part of the room that was avoided, though not due to any one disliking the occupant, but because like the Seaponies a globe of another climate surrounded this one. The Snow Pony Gale, kept the weather around him frigid, though he was warm and open to every one.

Three Zebra. Loc, Calm, and Quarrel watched her, all of them descended of the line of Pelt, granted there were few here who couldn't say that.

Two buffalo, Sitting Wolverine, and Thunderstrike.

A Breezy, Flutter Maple.

Three Elk, while Twilight could see the linage and which of the Elk kin they had ties to, thanks to Applebloom's descendants there were no more separate tribes of Elk, they were all simply the Elk. Willow Wisp, Heart Stone, and Delver.

Three Diamond Dogs, Brick, Jynx, and Marrow.

One Burro, Jack.

One Minotaur, Red.

Thirty seven students out of a starting one hundred. Her classes had taken the last ten years and all of them were now adults, all of them showed the patience and skill to learn from her. The others had left, given up, or not been suitable for this sort of teaching. Twilight was sad to see them depart, but the Harmony Project was nearly over.

They all thought they were simply there to learn everything Princess Twilight could teach. Some were bad homes, some still had loving families, some had never known their families. Bad things still happened in the world despite Twilight's best attempts. But that would always be the case and Equss would need guidance.

Perhaps they thought they would be able to study the mystery’s of life, or why the gods seemed to be leaving Equss tales of numerous Gods ruling the land filled books and historical tomes, but as far as anyone knew there were only three right now.

They thought they were there to solve the great mysteries of the world , to be the ones who helped make Equss better by offering their insight and guidance to the world in Princess Twilight's place.

They were mostly correct.

They were there for something more than just that however.

“I know you all want to protest. I can see it in all of your eyes. All of you think I should remain. That I should continue to stay and rule and guide Equss further along it's golden age.” Twilight spoke, her voice was soft but it carried and every one of her students stared in rapt attention, the room going silent.

“I have been around far longer than I should have been. It is with no small brag to say at this moment I am the oldest thing alive on Equss right now, perhaps the oldest thing that has ever lived on Equss. I have done more and seen more than any one can imagine. I've forgotten more than many will ever know, and worse yet I’ve read all the books that are out right now.” Twilight paused getting a few smiles. “I have seen the light fade from the eyes of those I loved in what seemed like little more than a single breath since they made their first cry of life coming into the world. Every few centuries I think, 'I'm going to pass this on, move onto the next life', but every time I was ready to go, something stopped me, some new interest, or spark drew my attention, or some problem that needed to be solved came up. And so I continued on. But now.......”

Twilight smiled looking up at the ceiling of the throne room, the massive mural of the night sky covered it, magic making it mimic the real night sky far above. Her gaze brushed over the moon, the marking of a loving couple still on it despite the patch of green that now grew near the pole as the first living ponies had settled there. on it, using potent magics and warp gates to create a whole new land to spread life to. Twilight looked beyond the silvery orb, at the five stars that had been there since the beginning, still sparkling down at her surrounded by countless others.

Still watching and waiting.

“There are ponies that I have kept waiting for far, far too long and are they are likely quite cross with me. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were not known for their patience.” Twilight smiled at the comment no one but she would understand. “But forget about that. I'm just an old mare rambling, despite only looking in my twenties still.”

There was a bit of nervous laughter at the attempt at a joke, the mood was too solemn for that.

“There is a bigger reason for my request that it just be you here tonight. All of you are the culmination of a dream. A dream some of the greatest minds of the past came up with and left with me to carry out. A dream where all those who exist in Equss could live together in Harmony. There are differences of course. There are arguments and fighting, no one is perfect. Tempers flare, and emotions clash, but how you recover from this, how you continue to make peace, is true harmony. You all... you all represent the ideals of harmony itself. Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, Honesty, Laughter, a Magic that binds us and makes us stronger.”

Twilight smiled looking down at them all, before she sank into a bow of her own to her students, an effect that brought no small measure of surprise and shock that a Goddess they regarded so highly would bow to them like this.

Astra glanced over to Twilight as she rose back up. The white alicorn took a few steps away from the throne of night, drawing her own throne off to the side of the room away from the great throne.

Twilight rose, her horn glowed brightly as layers of protection magic untwined and shifted, unraveling into the visible spectrum of light as the heat from the magic being undone along was enough to melt the Throne of Night to slag in an instant.

Astra flinched, her own shield raised to protect every one else in the room as the circles and rituals that Twilight had spent multiple lifetimes laying into the wards were undone.

Growing up from the floor like a tree was a large, iron bound chest, the wood of it was made from an ancient gargantuan apple tree, one that had contained a great evil. The wood still acted as a purifier to any corrupting influence that might seek out the contents of the trunk. The bindings and lock of the chest were of a far rarer material. The metal made a number of the caster types in the crowd wince, and Astra's shield faltered at the amount of star metal binding the box.

Twilight paid it no mind, pressing her horn into the lock and letting a flicker of power out, unlocking the chest. She drew her head back opening the lid showing a treasure trove of flawless crystals. She lifted one with a wing looking it over as she ran her feathers softly across the stone.

“The Gods of the world never disappeared my students. They are all here. Talon, Elusive,Shin, Rynthia. Gods that all gave up their powers to be contained until some one deserving could come along. Gods that have risen and fallen and offered themselves up in the end, those that didn't were let be, until their scion or their scion's ,scion was convinced to step down and leave their powers in my care. All of them are here. Gods with power, gods with knowledge, Gods from every race, Gods I truly wish never left. “Twilight sighed stroking the stone of her adopted son before setting it back in the chest.” I never took from those who didn't give freely of their power, that would defeat the purpose of Harmony. They trusted me to find those who would be worthy of wielding them again in the future. but And now... I have, and I give the power back, to those who will bring peace and joy into a proper golden age for all of Equss. Those worthy of the power to guide Equss with the tenements of Harmony.”

Twilight let her horn flare, the crystals rising up like a swarm from the chest before launching out into the crowd. The crystals darted and danced among the gathered students like a swarm of parasprites before slowly the swarm drew to a stop, and all the crystals floated pulsing lightly before a student of their choice. Only, Moon Stone, Astra, and one other did not have a crystal.

Twilight sighed and smiled softly.

“Glimmer Sparkle.” Twilight spoke the command, the name of the love of the one who designed the crystals, her own niece. A name she kept out of the books just to hide the chance of the name being used, a name Twilight had tied to every other crystal.

With the name uttered by one of proper power and connection, the room exploded with light.

Twilight closed her eyes feeling the flood of power in the room wash over her, the explosions of glass and the rumble of masonry as the castle shook. The flood of light that was probably turning the night into day across Equss. The look of awe Astra had at the brilliance before her, the confusion of Moonstone, and the Dragons realization that she would not be alone any more.

Time seemed to slow and Twilight made her way to the one other figure in the room who was not ascending, learning about their powers from the memory imprint of the one who held it before them.

Nox was panicked and in shock at everything going on around her and Twilight was not even noticed until their horns nearly touched.

“Nox.” Twilight smiled looking down at the Unicorn.

“Princess what?! What is all this....?” Nox stammered ,likely blinded from the lights.

“The start of the real golden age of Equestria my dear student. One you shall help shape. I have given you and your friends the tools you will need, and Astra will help you all as well. But all of you already know what is needed and the rest is up to you to carry out. “Twilight smiled.

“I, what...” Nox frowned as she watched Twilight's horn glow.” Please don't go Princes...”

Twilight paused, her gaze lifting at the sight of a alicorn made of darkness standing nearby in the flares of magic. Five other figures stood near her, waiting.

“I have to my student. I have friends waiting for me. Don't cry though. This story may be done, but the Spirits created countless stories. Stories that I am part of. There are other worlds Nox, this one may be done with me, but for you, it is only the beginning.”

Twilight lowered her head touching her horn to Nox's letting her magic flow through her, the skill and power of the Goddess of the Night entering a new host and leaving the one who had held the power the longest.

Nox winced at the sudden flare filling her. Her eyes opened wide as she looked down at a young bookish looking lavender unicorn that stood before her. The small mare smiled up at her, her purple eyes seeming far older than they should be.

The unicorn turned walking towards the glare of light cast by the mass ascension towards another group of ponies that stood in the light.

Nox watched as the mare was mobbed and pulled into a group hug by the others before they all started to fade as the ascensions flare died down.

When the lights of the magic faded. There were thirty seven new gods on Equss.

And one less Twilight Sparkle.

In a hidden room, one that had long been cleaned out sat two tables awaiting the rooms new owner.

On one was nothing but dust. The outline of what might have been swords rested on the table as well as an odd shape that smelt faintly of oranges.

The contents of the table had been sent away to hidden places of the world. Awaiting a time when the Armor of Madness, the Brilliant Dawn, and the Waning Moon would be needed again.

A loud pop filled the room and the remains of a red balloon drifted down onto the other table. A large pile of dust sat there, the remains of what might have once been a stuffed rabbit, a fragile and crumbling necklace that might have held a precious gem lay tarnished and pitted, a pair of goggles that was little more than a strip of rotted cloth, a heavily burnt book, and the crumbled remains of what might have been a hat, rested on the table.

The only thing that remained untouched by the ravenges of time was a picture in the middle, showing six young mares and a small dragon.

Stories in Stone

Last Dance

Fin.

One upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria. There were two regal sisters, who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. The younger, brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus the two sisters maintained balance in their kingdom for their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day the younger alicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young ones heart, turned her into a wicked mare of darkness, Nightmare Moon. She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom, The Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon......

“........ and harmony has been maintained in Equestria ever since.” Twilight concluded looking at the book more closely.

The young lavender furred mare shifted on the grass where she lay under a tree on a small blanket so as not to damage the book she was reading by setting it on the bare grass. Her lavender fur was neatly groomed and her purple hair with a magenta stripe had been allowed to grow until it spilled over her back curling slightly at the end. It was a bit more time consuming than a shorter mane style she had wore while younger, but she wasn't deaf to the compliments her longer hair brought her while she was still dating.

The filly had filled out well as she turned into a mare, enough that even after the flood of suitors that came after Prince simply due to her sudden popularity, she had a number of young stallions who attempted to woo her with little success. She had been on other dates, though after the first few were uninteresting and a particularly pushy one was teleported into the deep snow at the top of the Manterhorn above Canterlot, she started turning all of them down in favor of focusing on her studies.

Twilight tapped the last page of the book again curiously, looking at the drawing of the Elements.

“Elements of Harmony... I know I've heard of those before.... but where...?”

[Cue the music ]

Author's Note

Stories in Stone, Luna's Royal Guard was first posted on November 1st 2011.

I have been working on this story for seven years of my life in some form or another.

I really don't know how to feel about this.

One million, eight hundred and seventy nine thousand, five hundred and eighty two words later, counting side stories and everything else with the Stories in Stone tag [ though that number will prolly go up as i finally work on the side stories] and i can finally draw the core story of SiS to a close.

Of course if you don't get the last bit, be sure to check out my second big story, which i seriously couldn't help to tie to this one.

Because i do shit like that.

At any rate thank you for reading.

But as i've said before.

The best is yet to come.

maybe.

Last Sunset.

Stories in Stone
Last Dance
By TDR

Last Sunset.

2109 years after Tirek's defeat.

[New Canterlot, Celestia's study. ]

“You what?!” Twilight demanded.

“I wish to retire Twilight. It's not that hard of a concept to understand.” Celestia sighed.

“Seriously?” Luna snorted. “After all this time....”

“Don't let the door hit you on the way out.” Jer'rahd scoffed.

“Kaisur!” Twilight snapped.

“What?” Jer'rahd questioned. “Do you really think after several thousand years of hating her I’d suddenly switch to,'oh no, please don't go'?”

“He has a point.” Celestia sighed.” One would think after several thousand years I would get tired of doing this as well.”

“What?!” Jer'rahd asked as he was lifted up into the air by Celestia's magic and flung out the nearest window. After a moment there was a splash and the sound of panicked ducks that was followed by splashes, panicked yelling, and cursing.

“Well he's not having a heart attack, so that's good at least.” Luna sighed. “ Still what brought this on?”

Celestia sighed looking around her room with a small sigh. Her study had remained as it always was, well kept with a number of various books that changed though the years, her favorites moving up on shelves as new books replaced them. The newest additions to the old room were a chess set given to her by Bleu decades ago and a modern crystal music player. Beyond that nothing had changed. This was still the same room that she had first met Twilight in all those years ago. This was the same room she had first met Kaisur in as well. She knew every fold of carpet, every line of tile and worn edge of bookshelf by heart. Even Tirek hadn't managed to destroy this part of the castle.

“I've been around a long long time. Longer than anyone else left on Equss.” Celestia started trailing off. “With the passing of a few key members of my court I also find that my room is finally full.....”

Luna blinked in confusion though Twilight winced, it had not been that long ago she had started her own room. One that held all her friends and a number of artifacts from each of them. Acquiring Applejack's hat had been the hardest as the family didn't wish to part with it... despite the fact she had a closet full of them. It had been just as hard to get Rarity's necklace from the Kirin. Jer'rahd had needed to help her get that. Fluttershy's stuffed bear, Pinkie Pie's balloon, and Rainbow Dash's goggles had also been collected and even after all these years she still broke into tears seeing them.

“Really.... that is your answer Tia?” Luna scoffed raising an eyebrow. “ Not that your daughter has finally had a foal? Or that Captain Oak brace has caught your eye?”

“How........” Celestia sighed turning a bit red.” Right Changeling hive mind. Dumb question. I should figure you were keeping tabs on Canterlot. But yes Lulu. My Daughter had a foal. Sun Drip, she is not a god however.”

“And you wish to be around more, to be the doting grandmother, particularly with how your daughter travels.” Luna nodded. “I can understand that. Though what of Twilight? Your relationship with her?”

“That sort of went cold a long time ago Luna.” Twilight sighed. “After a few hundred years there stopped being as much as a spark and work kept getting in the way. I still love her …. but, well not like that.....”

“Even the most torrid romance grows cold with time ….” Celestia admitted.

“Ahem?” Luna raised an eyebrow.

“You two are freaks and you don't count.” Celestia rolled her eyes.

“So you are serious about this?”” Twilight asked fanning her wings a little.

“I am... I've already spoken to Starcloud and he's allowing me to stay in a room he added to the bar, really it's more of a separate apartment. Granted with the retirement plan we offer any one serving the crown and with how long I’ve been working here....”

“Multiple lifetime clause. Put into place because of Kaisur. The rate caps out at 100 years. Otherwise we'd burn up the royal vaults in a week. And that was just from him.” Twilight interrupted. “ You'll just have to settle for a mansion rather than a private island nation.”

“Shoot and I wanted to work on my tan.” Celestia smiled, her horn glowed as she pulls a small scroll from her quarters on the other side of the study drifting it to the table before unraveling it on the table before them.

Twilight and Luna looked down as Celestia pulled open the scroll, showing a list of names and options on it.

“I want you two to have the final say in this.” Celestia stated. “I have a list of names here of those currently available that I would want as a successor.”

Twilight and Luna looked over the list. It was a short one with only three names.

“He's dead.” Twilight pointed to one of the names. “About a year ago.”

“Yes, I haven’t updated it yet.” Celestia admitted.

“I doubt Sunshine is going to allow you to make your grand foal a god for her first birthday.” Luna frowned.

“I had to try.” Celestia shrugged.

“So the only one left is Sundown.... why is that name familiar?” Luna asked.

“Because she's a former student of mine.” Twilight sighed.

“One you considered giving your powers to so you could retire.” Celestia added watching as Twilight flinched. “I'm glad you didn't, it shows you are making it out of the black phase of your godhood.”

“I've lived through that thrice at least.” Luna muttered." Tis never pleasant."

“Before you even protest Twilight. If Sundown was ready enough for your meticulous planning to take over for you, she is more than ready to take over for me.” Celestia frowned. “ From my understanding she revels in paperwork. This position was made for her almost.”

Twilight tried to consider a way to protest that, but couldn't, not without revealing what she read in Spike's book.

“Don't look too sad Twilight. I had been planning this for centuries. Initially I wanted you to take over for me when I first started training you. That rather derailed didn't it sister...?” Celestia glared at Luna who had passed her power to Twilight first.

“I regret nothing.” Luna smirked.

“You enjoy teaching Twilight. Showing Sundown how to be a princess is just more teaching. Besides it's not as if I will be going anywhere for awhile yet. I was barely sixteen when I ascended. Though it might take me some time to get used to not having magic to do everything again.”Celestia muttered.

“I am more concerned you will attempt to fly and forget you are an earth pony.” Luna smiled.

“I tried never to fly any way.” Celestia scoffed.

At that moment the door burst open and a still dripping Jer'rahd stomped back in trailing water behind him and probably ruining the carpet. Behind him one of the Guards who was normally a sunny yellow coloration was pure white, his eyes wide and panicked as he stared after the dripping Kirin.

“So what did I miss?” Jer'rahd asked plopping down and probably ruining the cushion he sat on as well.

“Just deciding Celestia's successor. Twilight's old student seems to be the winner.” Luna explained.

“Sundown? Isn't she Pip and Scootlaoo's great times whatever grand foal? I might need to check on that.” Jer'rahd considered.

“Let it go dear. Most of or line doesn't even know we're related to them any more.” Luna sighed.

“Why is Captain Oak Brace here... and why does he...... Kaisur what did you say to him?” Celestia demanded pointing out the pale pony at the door.

“Hmm, oh we just chatted a little while while I walked back up here. I decided to give him pointers on how not to get crushed under your cake laden flank if he did decide to try and mount you without a step ladder.” Jer'rahd explained.

The Kirin simply smiled as he was grabbed again in Celestia's magic and flung back out the window. There was a violent crash and the sound of crumbling masonry from outside that made Luna and Twilight wince.

After a moment a voice shouted back up. “ You missed the lake sun butt...... ow...”

“You realize he is only doing this because he knows you enjoy it and won't get to throw him any more once you step down right?” Twilight sighed.

“I do.” Celestia admitted.”Though I am certainly going to enjoy being able to set him on fire without risk of killing him.”

“You also know he probably gave Captain Oak Brace the same sort of speech he gives to any one who wanted to date one of our daughters.” Luna added.

“He needs to mind his own damn business.” Celestia huffed. “ Now then shall we find Sundown and tell her the news. My new grand foal is not getting any more tickled while I sit here.”

Ninety five years later Princess Celestia, the Solar Flare left Equss after many years of doting on grand foals and having several of her own with a terrified former Guard.

Author's Note

Another chapter done. Though perhaps this one is a little lighter than most.

5 more chapters until the end of Last Dance.