Author's Note

Ooooookay so I decided to write a quick follow up because I felt the ending left things a little unfinished. So here it is!

Aftermath

2 years after the incident...

Princess Celestia paced in her room, many thoughts running through her head.

For nearly two long years, her guard and staff noticed that she had been oddly detached from everything, to the point of suspending day court and simply addressing issues presented to her via mail.

Even Princess Luna had noticed that something was wrong, but every time she tried to get Celestia to tell her, she got the cold shoulder.

Princess Luna knew why.

2 years is a drop in the bucket for the lifespan of an Alicorn.

2 years ago, the town of Ponyville had been utterly destroyed.

By one being.

Not a dragon or a beast from the mythics, but merely a intelligent creature that was lost in Equestria.

Celestia hadn’t even received news from her former student when it had shown up, so until that fateful day, she had no idea that there was a being from another plane of existence dwelling near Ponyville.

When it had attacked the town and killed over 95% of the town’s population, Celestia didn’t know for three days.

Three. Days.

After she had returned, she locked herself in her room for a week straight, only allowing food into her abode.

And now, 2 years after, this is where she found herself.

The creature, which she had since identified as “Ronnie Long”, a human male, had a journal that detailed his day-to-day life for the five or so months that he was in Equestria.

Some things written inside would have put an evil king like Sombra to shame with their depravity.

Celestia had tried to make sense of the horrifying entries, trying to understand what he was even referring to, to no avail.

And it plagued her mind for two long years.

She stopped, her erethral mane flowing in the nonexistent wind, and once again ran over what she had read shortly before.

The entry she had read earlier contained a list of all the things her little ponies had done to the human, all of which she found astoundingly difficult to believe. How could her ponies drive something from it’s home, and wound it so?

There were specks on that page. Red specks.

She was almost certain that it was blood.

A knock on the door distracted her from her ministrations.

Exhaling heavily, she suspected that it was her lunch for the day. Opening it with her magic, she heard the familiar clop of hooves on the floor, but they did not sound like the server that usually brought her meal. Turning around, she saw a yellow pegasus looking up at her, her face partially obscured by her flowing pink mane.

“H-hello Princess...” Fluttershy said.

“Hello, Fluttershy. What brings you to my room this afternoon?” Celestia asked warmly.

“I need to talk to you, if that’s alright...”

“Certainly. What is it you’d like to discuss?”

Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy said in a small voice, “I need to talk to you about R-Ronnie.”

Celestia was taken aback, for she had told nopony of the creature’s name.

“How do you know his name?” She asked incredulously.

“B-because he was my friend.” Fluttershy dutifully answered.

Celestia was shocked by this statement. How could this meek pegasus be friends with such a monster?

“You were friends with this monster?!” Celestia yelled, but Fluttershy stood her ground.

“Yes, I was. He wasn’t always as horrible as he was. Before... all that... He was a great friend.”

Celestia couldn’t believe her ears.

“How!?” She asked, astounded.

Fluttershy began to recount the tale of Ronnie, from the first moments up until the last time she had seen him. Celestia listened, her anger slowly fading, replaced by sadness and sorrow. She was appalled at the mindsets of her little ponies, how they could do such terrible things to the human who just wanted to live his life. She listened to Fluttershy’s stories of how the two of them would sit and talk for hours, his dark sense of humor leading to many laughs from Fluttershy. She talked about how he began to voice his resent towards the other ponies of Ponyville, and then she spoke of the last time she saw him.

“H-he came to my cottage in the middle of the day. He walked up to me, bent down, and gave me a hug. His tears wet my-my mane, and he looked into my eyes and said goodbye. Then, he walked away from me, and I waved after him, a bit confused, I guess. T-that was the last time I ever saw him... alive.”

Celestia was a whirlpool of emotions. She had no idea that the "Ponyville Monster," as the newspapers called it, was even capable of such feats of feeling. She slowly turned away from Fluttershy, looking out a window over the city. Looking at the clock on her wall, she noted that it was about time to lower the sun. Sighing heavily, she made to step out onto her balcony, but not before looking back at Fluttershy. The meek pegasus stood there in silence, looking at the princess with concern and sadness. Celestia beckoned her over with a wing. Fluttershy trotted to her, trepidation in her hoofsteps.

"I will be truthful with you, young Fluttershy. I have been attempting to make sense of the human's-"

"Ronnie's," Fluttershy corrected.

"-Ronnie's journal, which I found on him after we discovered Ponyville's destruction. I... have no clue as to what he was thinking when he wrote his entries. Some of them are nonsensical and deranged, and others are so clearly organized that it's like they weren't written by the same pony. But one thing remains certain, Fluttershy, in the two years that I have analyzed these pages." Celestia turned to look at her.

"He was obsessed with keeping you safe. In some of the final pages, he wrote of his desire to see you unharmed in his attack. Fluttershy, he- he loved you."

The words struck Fluttershy like a sledgehammer. Her eyes widened, pupils shrinking, and she fell back onto her haunches.

"...why...?" the words came out naught above a whisper.

"Until just now, I was not even aware that you were his friend. I believed this to be a one-sided affair." Celestia continued.

Fluttershy remained silent. Celestia understood.

The two remained unspeaking for many minutes. Finally, Celestia stepped out to her balcony. Firing up her magic, she began the age-old routine of yanking the flaming orb down from the sky. The sunset began, rays of yellow shooting across the horizon, soon joined by crimson red; the sun shifted to a blood-red, beginning to dip before the horizon.

Ever since that fateful day, the sun had been-for all intents and purposes- stained red. Just as the last line of Ronnie's journal had so eloquently stated.

The sun fell below the horizon, replaced by the moon and stars. As per usual, Luna's night was breathtaking. Celestia gazed at the sky for a few more moments, before making her way back indoors.

Fluttershy hadn't moved. Celestia carefully came in front of her.

"Fluttershy?" she asked.

Fluttershy made a soft, sorrowful mewl. Celestia's motherly instinct kicked in, and she engulfed the small pegasus in her wings, pulling her close and leaning back to allow herself to wrap both forehooves around the pony.

Fluttershy broke down into tears. Celestia just let her cry it out.

After a while, only sniffling remained. Celestia released the hug, falling back onto all fours.

"Feeling any better?" she asked.

"Not particularly..." came the reply, "But I at least have some closure, I guess."

"Indeed. Run along now, Fluttershy. It was a pleasure to speak with you." Celestia said warmly.

"You too."

Fluttershy left. Celestia watched after her for a moment, then turned to her desk, where Ronnie's journal lay open. Walking over to it, she re-read the page.

"Hmm..."

Perhaps she needed closure too.

What better way to assure that something remains unforgotten, but doesn't dwell on one's mind than to write a song? She had done it before, after banishing Luna to the moon.

Levitating over a piece of parchment and a quill, she set the parchment on the desk aside the journal and dipped the quill in ink. At the top of the page, she began to write:

Ronnie

Story starts, Quiet town...

~End(for reals)~