Author's Note

Holy freakin' crap, this was a long story! But I wanna thank everypony who made the journey. You all are the reason I do this. Thanks for making this so much fun to plan and write and see come to life. I've got some more ideas for T-rated stories in the future, so I hope you'll return and read those as well.

Stay gold, everyone!

Epilogue: Newness of Life

Princess Luna’s prediction came true. When Kite String and the other Princesses stepped forth out of the bright whiteness surrounding them, Rose Garden’s green eyes filled with the happiest of tears. She leapt forward and threw her hooves around her daughter, calling her “Princess” for the very first time. Her eyes sparkled as she held her beloved offspring, eagerly enjoying every tender moment they got to spend with each other. She didn’t say anything, but allowed the situation to flow on as it needed to. Everypony else looked on with absolute silence, wanting very much for the mother and daughter to have these moments to share and remember forever.

“So…how do you feel?” Twilight asked when the sweet moment had concluded.

“I feel…different,” Kite confessed, “like I could travel the world and conquer it all, yet I don’t want to. I feel power, yet I also feel a soothing peace. My feelings are so diametrically opposed to each other, yet I feel a resounding sense of sameness. I feel conflicted, exuberant, and rapturous. Also, it seems my vocabulary has grown a great deal.”

The ponies all laughed at the quip before turning to look back down upon the celebratory streets of Canterlot, filled to bursting with the healed and their ecstatic loved ones. They were just getting ready to leave and join the party, when suddenly, the door burst open behind them. There stood an enraged Cadance. The look on her face was one of absolute malice to everypony there. Since nopony except Starlight knew of the secret plots that the evil mare had made against her very own flesh and blood, it came as quite the shock to see her in such a manner. Her look even frightened Twilight, who had always looked up to the pink pony. But this was not the kind foalsitter that she had loved and adored for years. This was somepony new.

“ALRIGHT!” Cadance barked, “it’s time that I got what was coming to me! Celestia’s held out on me long enough! Now, where is she?”

“She’s dead, Cadance,” Starlight said weakly. She was still recovering from the effects of the disease. “Nothing you do will bring her back.”

“WHAT?!” Cadance screamed, “YOU FOOLISH FOALS KILLED MY AUNT?!”

The ponies parted to allow Cadance to look upon the body of her fallen adopted relative. She immediately turned on a fake set of waterworks and rushed to the corpse. She held it and proclaimed that an evil that nopony had ever known had befallen Equestria with the loss of their leader. She moaned and groaned over the cadaver, kissing its cheek and wailing her fake grief to the ceiling and beyond. Her manufactured grief was so great, that everypony had to step out of the way to avoid her flailing head and thrashing limbs. It was very easy to see through her grief, though, and Starlight finally got up the courage to step to where she was.

“Your idiotic performance won’t work on us,” Starlight said, “I know everything. I know how YOU poisoned Flurry Heart! I know how Celestia promised you money and power if you’d test this diabolical disease on your own daughter! I know-“

“Oh, please!” Cadance said, “did you actually believe what this lying sack of shit said?”

The ponies all looked at each other and nodded. Cadance had done such a terrible job of trying to hide her true intentions, that it was as if she had not hidden them at all. Twilight quickly called for her deposition and arrest, and two guards answered her. Before they dragged her away to be tossed into prison, Twilight magically removed her wings, destroying any hope of her return to the Princess pantheon. For, as everypony knows, if a Princess loses her wings or her horn, she can never hope to regain them. Cadance would be forever shamed, and Twilight and Luna both silently promised that they’d see to that.

“But what about second chances?” Kite asked.

“Second chances and mercy are all well and good,” Twilight responded, “but, in some cases, punishment is all that needs to be called for. Cadance abused and nearly killed her filly in a foolish quest for power and the satisfaction of greed. We cannot have somepony in power in Equestria who exhibits such harmful, dangerous traits.”

“Twilight is right, my young Princess,” Luna affirmed, “the oath you just took was one to defend Equestrian freedom and friendship. Cadance broke that oath when she fed her daughter a disease. I don’t know how she did it, I don’t WANT to know how she did it, but she did. Now, she must pay the price for it.”

Kite nodded solemnly. While she was upset at the harshness with which the judgment had been pronounced, she understood the reasons behind it. She now knew that Cadance meant nothing but trouble, and the leader she had once admired now stood as an enemy to her. She silently promised that she’d never behave in the way Cadance had. She’d always be a good leader, and a good Princess.

“Now, then…I’d say the Crystal Empire needs a new ruler,” Twilight said.

“Indeed,” Luna responded, “and it shall. Prince Shining Armor will rule until his death, and then Princess Flurry will take over as co-ruler when she is old enough. Twilight, make a note that we need to take a trip to the Empire and turn Shining Armor into an Alicorn. It’s time that wrong was righted.”

Twilight smiled and had to stop herself from jumping with glee. Her brother was going to become just like her! She was so thrilled that she nearly knocked over the new Princess. She stopped and helped Kite get on her back. Then, the group stood united over the newness of life that abounded throughout the land. From their perch, they could see firework displays all over the land as everypony discovered that the disease had been obliterated. They realized that their time of crisis truly was over. The evil ponies had been defeated, and freedom reigned supreme in Equestria once again.