Project: Chrysalis

13. Epilogue

The somber tone was nicely complimented by the rain that fell over Ponyville. Dozens of mares, stallions, fillies, and colts had shown up to pay their respects to two ponies. Two mares who had touched more ponies than many would ever meet. Everypony wore black, and held their heads low.

By some act of higher divinity, Princess Luna, instructed to remain and watch over Canterlot, could not help but feel suspicious about her sister's actions. Unfortunately when the midnight alicorn finally decided to investigate, tracking her sister, she was too late. The damage was done.

But a proper funeral could be held. Luna gave the families of the departed the option to have their cenotaphs placed in Canterlot, honoring the two mares as bearers of an Element of Harmony. Both parties declined, preferring the proximity and familiarity of Ponyville.

At the forefront of the crowd were four mares and a stallion. Twilight Sparkle, clad in a black dress, leaned on a crutch, eyes pouring forth tears. Her horn had begun to grow back, and eventually she would regain her magical abilities. Dr. Antlion however would not be so lucky. Around his head rested a bandage, and would not be fit for removal for some time.

Rainbow Dash stood next the lavender unicorn. Several times since she had returned, the grief-stricken pegasus had been confused for an Earth-pony, cutting her wounds even deeper. But swallowing her own sorrows, she shifted her mourning to the two subjects of the service. Crying silently into her hoof, Applejack and Fluttershy joined her.

The families and friends cried as well, remembering all the fun times they had with Rarity and Pinkie Pie. The white unicorn's parents unsuccessfully tried to cope with the prospect that they outlived their beloved child. Her small white sister, her mane a collection of purple and pink swirls, collapsed in sadness, far too young to deal with the reality of death.

The stoic Pie clan gazed at the headstone marked "Pinkamena Diane Pie", and quivered at the loss of their dear Pinkie. The Pinkie who at such a young age enriched their lives with joy and fun. The only solace they could gain was recalling a song their daughter once sang, to always smile...for her. It's all she ever wanted.

Princess Luna remained in the back, easily able to see over everypony. She removed her crown as a sign of respect, ignoring the slight pour of rain. She silently cursed herself for not arriving sooner. The alicorn had arrived to a gruesome sight, and would later find out the horrors that occurred in Lab 28.

Absent from the service was a tall, white alicorn, her flank adorned with the image of a blazing sun. Nopony, not even her sister, knew what became of Celestia.

An hour passed, and eulogies were given. Final respects were made, and the crowd around the cenotaphs thinned. By late afternoon, only six ponies remained; the best friends of the deceased, their sole Princess, and the doctor.

Antlion whispered a prayer while in front of the graves, and prepared to leave before a dark blue hoof stopped him. He turned around and addressed its owner.

"Princess...I didn't notice you were still here."

"It's the least I could do. If it's all the same with you...I could use somepony to converse with."

"Of course." He gave a weak smile, the best his heavy heart could muster.

"Words cannot express how sorry I am...well...these ponies didn't mean as much to you as they did to the others...but I'm...not so...adept...at expressing...myself."

"Perhaps you can tell me what you wish to say to them, and I'll tell them?"

"Yes...er I mean agreed."

"But you should know, you have least reason out of all of us to feel guilty...I mean..." He wiped a tear from his eye, staining the sleeve of his suit. "I led...them there. If it weren't for me...well..."

"None of us could have known. As Princess, I accept sole responsibility, and will take steps to make things right...or rather as right as they can be..."

"What sort of steps?"

"Even now, an investigation is being conducted. There is surely an abundance of evidence to peel back whatever other activities Lab 28 was pursuing. The...um...biological evidence is being examined by coroners. I saw...what it was like in there...I can only imagine seeing it take place was far FAR worse..." Princess Luna said, empathy radiated from her visage.

"None of us, I fear, will ever truly recover...I myself have therapy sessions scheduled for the next six months." Antlion chuckled, trying to sprinkle a bit of humor on the dreary subject.

"I can never give any of you proper condolences..."

"It's not necessary. What will become of all...those who were involved?"

"Chairpony Vixen has been arrested and will stand trial several days from now. The Royal Scientific Society will require immense restructuring, if not outright disbanding. As for Celestia...she remains at large. She's covered her trail very well...I hope she returns someday..." Luna began to digress, thinking about her sister, wondering what made her be the center point of this entire incident. The alicorn snapped back into reality. "Erm...Celestia's administration has become discredited. I was able to save myself becoming ostracized by fervently denying that I had any involvement."

"And how will you restore legitimacy to Canterlot?"

Luna gave a sly smile, as if she had been waiting for such a question. "I've had a few reforms in mind. Something called 'Liberalism'."

"Interesting."

"By the way, Doctor, where will you go now?"

Antlion paused. He hadn't thought much about that. "...I'm not sure...Felicity is going to get a lot of attention for this...not something that would suit my lifestyle...though being that the changelings are extinct...the last eight years of my life have been rendered moot..."

"I read you thesis, and there's an opening at Canterlot University for a biology professor I hear."

Antlion laughed softly at the idea. "Teaching...heh...maybe..."

Well I must get going. I have business to take care of. Doctor, before I depart, could you tell the four ponies over there that...here." She gave him a small piece of paper, with a message scribbled on it. "Don't read it please, but do give it to them."

"Yes your Highness." He bowed his head.

Princess Luna then spread her wings and took off, flying towards Canterlot in the rain.

Dr. Antlion walked over to the group of crying ponies. He quietly approached Twilight and passed her the note. "It's for all of you."

"Thank you." Twilight said through her tears.

"Goodbye...I hope we meet again someday." Antlion's expression became bittersweet as he turned around and left the cemetery.

"Goodbye Doc..." Applejack waved.

A few moments later Antlion was gone. Rainbow looked at the piece of paper in Twilight's hoof.

"What's it say?"

Using her crutch to support herself, the unicorn held the note in front of her for everypony to see. It was a photograph, in black and white, of a stallion unicorn in a white coat. Next to him was a large black creature, something they all recognized immediately.

"Is that??" Rainbow shouted.

The other "pony" was certainly Chrysalis. The two in the picture were both smiling widely, and a black doll floated beside Chrysalis, visibly engulfed in a magical aura. Superimposed over the photo was beautiful hoofwriting.

-Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy,

I write this to you instead of speaking because...I'm not very good at articulating my thoughts

I can never possibly understand what you four have gone through. I offer my deepest condolences in the vain hope of easing your pain however marginally I can. Please, if it helps any, do not dwell on the passing of your beloved friends, but instead remember fondly how they touched your lives. I'm sure it would have been their final wishes.

I found this picture among the contents of a drawer inside the laboratory. From what I gather, yes, it is a picture of the creature you encountered within the facility. I show this to you all because life is a gift. I let my own dark emotions steal a thousand years from me.

The point is you can never know what will happen tomorrow or even later today. Live your lives to the fullest...because it can all be taken away. The being in this photograph seemed happy, but something happened, and it fell from grace. Don't take for granted your friends or family...as I once did. Life is short; even I will fade away some day. But life isn't about how long we suffered on this earth, but what we did with our short time.

Best regards,

Princess Luna

The letter touched them, and caused them to produce tears, but of joy rather than sadness. They all looked warmly at the graves of their two friends, and left the cemetery.

It was time to rebuild their shattered lives.

Several weeks passed, and some semblance of normality was returning to those who experienced what had become known as the "Felicity Incident". The namesake town had garnered much attention, bringing life into the small, isolated settlement.

Meanwhile, further south in Canterlot, undergraduate students cantered into the lecture hall for their first day of class. One young stallion sat down, eyeing a large container just behind the professor's desk. It looked like some sort of...freezer?

After everypony became settled, a tan earth-pony walked into the room, wearing a saddle bag and a bandage over his head.

"Good morning, class. My name is Doctor Antlion." He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote his name on the blackboard. "Welcome to Introductory Biology."

A rather audacious student couldn't withhold his curiosity any further. He raised his hoof. The professor called on him.

"Yes?"

"Um...aren't you the guy at Lab 28."

Antlion was thrown aback, but nevertheless stood courageous. They say being a teacher can make a young stallion old. "Um...yes I was present at the events of Lab 28. Any other―"

"What is that bandage on your head for?" The nosey student inquired.

"That's actually related to today’s lecture!"

"Which is?"

Smiling, he declared. "Bioethics."

He opened up the box behind his desk. A strong odor permeated the air.

One student cringed at the scent. "EWWW! What is that smell?"

"Formaldehyde." The doctor said flatly.

He pulled out the preserved body of the changeling he never dissected. After a loud "thud” the class gagged and winced, screamed and said "Awesome!"

"What the hell is THAT??" One very...sensitive student asked.

"This, class, is what happens when you try to play God."

Ponyville was quiet, the air clean and calm, same as always. Many still went every week or so to visit the cemetery, but the wounds had begun to heal. Recovery had started, and the future looked a little less bleak.

Rainbow Dash, now earthbound, found a place at Sweet Apple Acres. Still, the pegasus couldn’t shake her former life, and the questions ponies asked stung her even more. Applejack's help had stopped this influx of queries, but the pain remained. Yet the life of a farmer had grown on the cyan mare, and in time, perhaps might feel like home. But for now, the skies mocked her.

Fluttershy adopted the orphaned cat and alligator, adding them to her host of animal friends. She put on a mask when with the others, but deep inside her very core had been rocked. Every night she cried herself to sleep, and every week would have at least one nightmare of the...dark creature pulling her into its maw. Not even the company of her dear Angle Bunny could ease her mind.

But perhaps the one pony who found it most difficult to cope was Twilight. She would disappear for days, with only her assistant seeing her. Deep in the basement of her tree house, the unicorn had stacks of books and papers, covered in calculations and algorithms, detailing a mysterious plot.

Spike opened the door, bearing a tray with a sandwich and a glass of water on it. He carefully walked down the stairs.

"Twilight, here's your lunch. Aren't you tired of being down here?"

The studious mare was too involved in her work to respond immediately. "...Huh? Oh no I'm too busy."

"Really I think you should come outside, have some fresh air...if you need help getting up the stairs..."

"NO! ...I mean no thank you..." She was still very sensitive about her...disability. "I'm on the precipice of something great."

"Well then I'll just place this tray on the table."

"Yes Spike! I've nearly completed my corrections. I've reworked my theory, and revised the calculus. This is it!" She limped over on her crutch towards a large machine. "Soon, I will make everything right. And Celestia...well I don't need her!" Her eyes twitched, and a smiled formed on her face, making Spike feel uncomfortable.

The small dragon backed away slowly. He didn't know much about what had happened, really only that she lost a leg. And that Twilight was slipping into a state of madness, the likes of which he had never known. He walked up the stairs, thoroughly creeped out.

"Well I'm...just going to go out for a bit...maybe uh stay over somewhere for the night."

"Mhm." Twilight acknowledged him, but had no idea what he said.

"I am only a few more calculations from perfecting my design. It's taken 473 tries thus far. #474 will be my lucky trial!" She pressed all sorts of buttons and pulled levers, and levitated several flasks of various fluids into the inner chamber of the machine. A few were red, while some others were a milky white. "This genetic material must have ONE viable specimen!"

The machine began whirring, and soon the lights flickered. Her experiments were putting a large burden on Ponyville's power grid. She had already blow fuses at least 5 times.

Pulsing magic from her horn, she gave the machine another one of its necessary ingredients. The display monitors all showed positive readings and something began to take shape within the machine.

"Haha! The first phase will be a success! Then I can bring them back! Yes!" Her laughter intensified, and her grin widened. The unholy fusion of science and magic would hopefully produce the desired product. Days of tireless research and experimentation led up to this!

The secret to life was within her reach, and Twilight Sparkle was not about to let it slip from her hooves.

Midnight, and the moon sat directly overhead. Princess Luna wandered alone through the castle gardens. Every night she sat and gazed at the stars. While now she had to rule during the daytime, the night was still her element, and she often stayed up far past her bedtime.

She lamented her sister, and worried where she might be. But above all else, she wondered what and why her sister had condoned such terrible things.

Walking to the Royal Cemetery, head hung low, she came to a small stone. A very inconspicuous block of granite. It was so small and uninteresting, one would have to know what it was to find any reason to look at it. But Princess Luna knew what it was.

Engraved in small letters on the stone was the name "Eos". It said nothing else, and several gardeners never really cared enough to ask about it.

Luna though looked straight at it and sighed.

"Wherever you are, young pony, I hope you've found your peace... I know who you are...who you could have been... I know it may mean little to somepony who has suffered as much as you...but...I know in a different world...my sister would have loved you with all her heart. I'm truly sorry you were never able to be the pony you should have been...and I can do little for my niece other than remember you." She took a breath.

"It seems you weren't always such a monster...but maybe you never were. Perhaps it was us who made you into a beast...sad and lonely...it was us... But I hope whatever legacy you leave, which I'm afraid isn't so great...it will contain the hope that ponies will learn from you... Many centuries had I lived before my banishment...and I saw mistake repeated time and time again, all under the guise of 'we can do better.' Nothing will ever change the fact that it was wrong to take you...so innocent and pure...and make a monster out of you... I hope we get a chance to meet...in another world... where you don't feel pain...and are never alone..."

The lunar monarch began to cry a bit. "If it means anything though, take as a small bit of solace the fact that I will make sure your story never becomes anypony else's. Now sleep, little one. You must be very tired."

Luna then flew off to bed, leaving the stone to the nighttime sky.

The End