The stars shine brightest on the darkest nights.

The Sun has returned to the sky, and the night is no longer so dark as the Moon and stars are returned as well in their full brightness.
Ponyville, Apple Acres, Canterlot, Cloudsdale, etc. have all recovered well enough from the horrific damage done by the The Curse Plague, as it had been officially named, and thankfully the other nations on the borders have been peaceful and not trying to take advantage of Equestria’s weakened state.

Indeed, all nations were hit by the rapid spread of this mysterious and dangerous disease, although they were thankfully spared from the main brunt of it.
Yayakistan has carefully strengthened its borders and is currently doing through a very careful combined series of studies to see if they could find some way to improve its security and preparation for any future viral outbreaks, as well as trying to learn just a bit more about the complex nature of Magic and how to operate it in a simple, yet reliable way in order to better defend itself.

The Griffen Kingdom has been far more active in its own pursuit of better internal security and is currently going through a bit of a reform in society, aiming to apparently help itself become more functional in the case of another terrible event like this so that nothing falls into disarray and anarchy.

The Changeling Hive… not much can be said so far, but all that is known is that they’ve come out of this near-apocalypse surprisingly hardy and resilient, and what information which has been gained about them seems to indicate that they are doing very well and are not at all hurt by this cataclysmic event.

Those last bits of information are the most worrying. If something like THIS could not cripple the Hive, then what can?

But regardless…

Across Equestria, where The Curse Plague hit the strongest and longest, many ponies have been seeking out harder and longer amounts of work as a form of coping, and have also started forming new friend groups and a number of talk groups as well, discussing their understandable traumas and helping others cope better with it. For even though the PHYSICAL aspects of the disease are all gone forever, the horrid memories of what occurred those few days of darkness cannot simply fade away with wishful thinking.

The number of psychologists and therapists has thus increased dramatically since The Curing, many of whom have actually come from The Crystal Empire, using their own shared understandings of trauma from their experiences under the late King Sombra’s tyrannical regime to better be able to connect with those who need somepony to be able to just listen and understand, even if only a little bit.

Ponyville is completely rebuilt and has even had a number of new buildings erected or are in the process of being erected, including a much larger and stronger Mayors Office Building which also can be used as a fortress in case something bad happens in the future.

And Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie themselves? Well… not much can be said about them now. They disappeared shortly after The Curing and haven’t been seen or heard from since.

A number of statues have been built or are in the process of being built in honor of them, in honor of these greatest of heroes who truly gave everything to stop this terrible plague, and there is currently a special celebration in the final preparation stages to be held.
This will be the first one truly being held since The Curse Plague and it will be held in their honor, as the kingdom has been very busy for a while with rebuilding its infrastructure and reorganizing the economy and population, as well as reestablishing ties to other realms, understandably so.

Wherever they are, I just hope my friends are happy.
That was what they all really wanted deep down within their hearts, to truly do the right thing and have a good time while doing it. I hope they are able to enjoy the fruits of their labors.
They deserve it after everything they’ve done.

Not just for Equestria, but for the whole darn world itself.

What I DO know for sure is that they aren’t alone. They are together now. They have each other’s backs, like always, and while I can’t prove anything, I know that they will be okay and will always take care of each other.

Because real happiness, real friends and family, those are the things that are worth living for.

Worth fighting for.

-

Twilight slowly made her way up the ragged stony cliff, her altered hooves hooking into the crag like fishhooks into flesh.
The sheer size of this mountain was not much of a bother for her, anyway. She just felt that… she needed to climb it rather than fly up it or teleport.

Past the clouds, ignoring the winds, and not even really feeling when the air had gotten progressively thinner, the mutated Alicorn finally emerged at the top of the mountain, walking silently to the pinnacle and looking out over the world beneath her.
It was barren mountainous terrain for as far as most eyes could see, with a sort of heavy foggy cloud hanging low to the ground and also being scattered across the sky itself, with this mountain she stood upon being the only one that wasn’t itself immersed in at least some of the fog.

She wasn’t alone, either.

By her side or hovering above her were five other ponies, altered and mutated by the horrible infectious diseases that they had absorbed with her after she’d cast that super spell and saved Equestria from the cataclysm.
They all had arrived here a bit earlier, waiting for Twilight to climb at her own pace and join them after she had told them to go in ahead, as she had some things she wanted to think about before rejoining the group.

Now they stood by her, like always, and none said a word.
The countryside that lay before them was not the kind that promised peace and comfort. But then again, considering the current state everypony was currently in, they preferred it that way, rather than have to face the near-certainty of infecting other innocent creatures and potentially destroying their lives forever.

Nothing was said, and now even Rainbow Dash stopped flying overhead and landed on the surface, standing silently with them all, just watching.

Finally, a voice broke the silence.
“I wonder how Ponyville and Apple Acres and all the other places in Equestria are doing...”

Applejack’s voice spoke up and answered Twilight’s musing.
“Ah’d say ther’ doin’ fine, sugar cube. I’m certain ah’ it.”

There were a few hums of agreement, and a “yup” from Pinkie.

“Indeed, darling. Our parents and siblings and grandparents and friends will be able to take care of themselves. There’s no way the Princesses will ever be lax or anything, now that we aren’t there to fight any new threats anymore.”
Rarity said.

Twilight nodded slightly at this, but decided to say all she had on her mind.
“Not trying to be a wet blanket… but do you girls think we’ll ever be able to see them again? At all?”

“I think we will, Twi. I think we will.”
Rainbow said, turning her head to look up at her friend and leader.

Twilight smiled.
“Girls?”

They all looked at her, and she turned to look at them as well.
“I’m glad you are all with me.”

(A little bit of time later…)

In the barren wastes of dusty lands, with very small flattish hills and dying trees, six horrific equine entities from the darkest of nightmares steadily walked, staggered, or flew in a hovering and disjointed manner.
They were, like just mentioned, absolutely altered to the extreme that flesh and bone can be before potentially falling apart sooner or later, terribly twisted and rather disgusting forms of mutated bio matter, several types of strange energies, and numerous tainted colors.

/

The one who flew above the rest was a sort of light faded blue fur which was rather withered along with her skin, and seemed to be crackling along many parts of her body with electrical power, particularly her wings.
Her rainbow mane seemed almost to be glistening with blood and other liquids, drops either falling to the ground or fading into wisps of mist that seemed to crackle and ignite when small bolts of electricity from her body struck it.
Her rainbow tail was the same, but the end of it was burnt as if by fire, and the tips were always dissolving into ash and floating away behind her, touching any ground that was not already lifeless and making it turn black.
Yet her tail never grew any shorter, and the ashes never stopped coming.

Her wings were like a mix of wings from some great bat and a Pegasus, but larger. The edges of the wings were of sharpened feathers that seemed more like crude yet were incredibly keen knife blades of blackness, and lightnings of red and blue hue emanated from them, with the underside of the wings having numerous scar-like steaks in them where the same energy seemed to glow from within… and several pairs of reptile-like eyes were frightfully visible as they would open and see everything before them, far and near.
Small purely blue electrical bolts streaked along her ravaged body, and her ribs were both easily visible and yet seemed to be constantly SHIFTING under her skin, almost like they were alive themselves and waiting for the chance to escape.

Her legs were longer than they’d once been and very thin with small hooked spike in their almost like thorns, and her hooves were replaced with some sort of vicious dark claws whilst her horrific head was longer than a normal pony’s head and her gaping maw was filled with numerous long thin sharp teeth and a haunting blue light emanating from it deep inside, the entirety of her mouth inside also shining with this mystical light.

Her lower jaw was no longer a regular jaw, not anymore. Now, it was a split jaw, more akin to an insect than a mammal or any other creature with blood.
And lastly, on her long and mutated head and face, were two pairs of bluish pink eyes, being only like glowing orbs of supernatural light and no Iris or sclera to be seen.

/

The largest creature among this pack was a sort of brownish shade overall, but was nearly twice the size of the others and was not gaunt at all. She was actually quite buff and stocky, but was also missing a portion of her skin.
The visible portion of her muscles were a greenish brown in color and seemed to also have very thin streaks of some kind of container energy within them, judging by the fiery orange that was faintly visible coming from within.

On her head was a faded brown tattered ranch hat, and her head itself was also longer and such that it had once been, the now-wider-then-before jaws were also filled with sharp fangs, and there were even several rows of them as well.
She had two large fully green glowing eyes similar how the eyes of the Pegasus and all the others were, and half the skin was gone from her face while the scarred burnt tissue beneath was a reddish-black color with some lighter shades of pink that seemed horribly raw and sickly.

Her four legs were decently thick and muscled, but they also had a level of rot and burn damage to the skin and tissue, along with with several black bony spikes protruding from them while her hooves were still technically “hooves”.
Said hooves were black and solid and were constantly leaking a watery dark liquid that let off a toxic steam, and her ribs were exposed to view, fiery cracks and liquid that looked almost like a mix of blood and ink was always present on them.
Her wild mane and tail were dropping a few hairs off almost constantly even though they barely grew any thinner at all, and were forever streaked with blood that never dried.

/

The Pegasus that chose to walk on her own hooves was a sickly shade of yellow, her unkept mane and tail being a light shade of pink… at least mostly, with dried blood coating parts of them and other fluids mixed in as well.

On her back were a number of black tree-like spiky branches, and a number of thin black spiky roots protruded from her barrel and claw-like hooves which themselves were a brown color.
These branches were subtly spreading small amounts of fog-like spores into the air, trailing behind her.

She had two pairs of eyes/eye sockets, one of which were empty of any eyeballs and had viny roots growing out from them and going down her horribly mutated face, the other pair had blue eyes/orbs that shined like fire.
Her mouth was mostly closed, but the icy hue of slight mystical chemical brightness still was faintly visible between her long needle-like fangs.

Her long thin limbs were streaked with pure black lines, visible blood veins, that were slowly moving about like snakes or worms in a great group, whilst still remaining under her skin and in their places, to a degree. In some places, the skin was torn and these veins were exposed, growing little dead leaves of some unknown poisonous plant that constantly gave off small amounts of smoky spores.

Her wings were folded up at her sides, but were visibly covered with a black mold-like substance and occasionally dripping dark liquid and water, and some veins were visible as well.
If she were to stretch them out, her wings would reveal that the undersides of them were a pale yellow and orange color and were steaming an orange toxic gas that she left in a wake behind her.
Bluntly put, she was leaking poison quite easily.

/

A unicorn-like creature was among them all too, identifiable by her horn. Said twisted, knife-like, wicked looking, crystalline horn that constantly sparked and crackled with little hints of the immense power lurking beneath.

The unicorn herself was… not really all flesh and blood anymore.
Nearly every single inch of her body was covered by/composed of a sort of crystalline substance, her main body a whitish gray and her “mane” a deep purple mass of numerous small crystal strings that moved around like real hair.
Her eyes were literal orbs of diamond that seemed to be on fire, and her tail was the same as her mane.

However, her body was also lined inside with dozens of thin red glowing lines within, seeming to be blood veins.
And either at the base of her legs and along their length, blood trickled down to her rugged hooves, which were a bit sharp and looked like they were short and crude knife blades.
She left a blood trail wherever she went, and small crystals could be seen starting to grow from this blood as well if one looked at them long enough.

Blood and other fluids also were coating her back and shoulders as well and trickled down to join that at her legs.
The source of this? Her mane, as more red liquid was revealed to be slowly seeping from the tips of the crystal hairs themselves.

Her open jaws were filled with rows and rows of small razor-sharp crystalline fangs, and the light in her mouth and throat was perhaps the brightest, literally shining forth and bursting from her maw as spurts of burning plasma. Bursts of flame, leaping out before her.

/

Hopping occasionally as she walked with the rest was another creature, similar to the muscled one as she had no horn or wings.
But she also had no skin either. At least, no skin on over half her body overall.

Much muscle and some bones were visible to view, her muscles themselves being in various stages of decomposition. Her skin looked like it had either rotted off or been torn off, while many of her visible bones were slightly cracked and seemed to be leaking pale fluids from within, which trickled down her barrel and limbs and dropped to the ground.

Her skin that still remained, along with her mane and tail, were sickly pink and yellow colors and had several visible scars that were swollen and darkened.
Her mutated head and face were skinless and the front half of the lengthened jaws were completely bare of any flesh, her fangs and jaws completely visible to all, and the pink light that was inside her was visible between her fangs and in her nostrils and all the other gapped parts of an equine’s skull that are not covered by skin or muscle tissue.

Her two eyes burned brightly and also were seemingly bleeding out pinkish liquid like tears and blood, and her mane and tail were raggedy messes that were also stained with dry blood and left numerous rotted hairs behind her.

Her hooves were cracked into numerous claws, her leg bones were also cracked partially and leaking with black blood, and a ridge of small spikes ran down along her back, looking like her spine had tried to escape from her body, but had given up suddenly.

/

And leading them all, at the front of the group, was the only one of her kind here. An Alicorn, albeit hardly recognizable at all.

Her body was a sort of brownish purplish gray, or something like that.
Her long limbs were covered in rows of very small thorny spikes that were black in color, and there was a ridge of black spike-like branches running along her spine as well, a few smaller ones even growing on her neck.
The spikes in her limbs especially were shifting around on and in her legs, continuously moving in a very slow circle along the limbs while never going up or down.

Her barrel was a little bit rotted too, but while her own slightly shifting set of ribs weren’t all visible, the bones in question that WERE visible had become black in color with a dark purple hue to them. And grafted into each of these bones, there were several large open eyes, blood red or bright gold in color… and they were constantly darting around and scanning everything in their line of sight.

Her long, horribly altered head and face was lined with several long scars that had a minor pinkish color emanating from within, and she possessed two rows of long needlelike fangs within her jaws.
She had a total of THREE pairs of eyes on her face that shined like fire, and her gaping mouth also had that same pink color that glows, her split jaw split and more like mandibles.
And while two pairs of eyes were of a very light pink color, the middle pair were in fact a menacing crimson color and at moments of great focus would have reptilian slits appear.

She had two monstrous wings at her sides, the feathers having the same nature as did the rainbow Pegasus, and these wings were in fact smoking and sparks of fire were leaping off them.

Her wings also looked to be a bit larger than the standard Pegasi or Alicorn wings would be expected of from how they would normally be for the types of creatures in question, and if she were to open those large appendages, the sight of a half-dozen gold or crimson glaring draconic eyes would be what was seen, and the dozens of crimson scars/veins that glowed ever so slightly along the underside of the wings, the mixture of blood-red electrical energy crackling along the tips of the feathers, the actual flames of endlessly ignited golden gases that licked up the feathers themselves and burnt upwards and outwards… all these would make the feeling of utter terror all the more intense.

Her horn was like a surprisingly long and slightly curved blade, and was it crackling with pink and purple electrical magic sparks that were jumping off it constantly.
There was even a bit of burning violet fire as well along its length. It was as if the ever-growing amount of magical power coursing through the infected Alicorn was truly so vast and endless that it could not be fully contained and was literally burning outwardly from her mutated horn!

Her mane and tail were both more pink than anything else and had a minor burning affect to them, a few hairs falling off every so often and immediately burning away to nothing in the air, falling like ashes onto the ground and killing all it touched.
Her hooves, like the others, were now more like large dark claws than actual equine hooves, and there were small violet and turquoise gems that were visible on her hips and partially going down her hind legs in steady lines… and every single little gem had an eye in it.

She was greater in stature than all the others, she had a bit of every different accursed disease that infected them each, and she left a trail of poisonous smoke and noxious gasses in her wake.
She was their leader, the one whom they followed, and it would always be so.

A burden terrible to be borne, the plagues that would have doomed an entire world to a fate indescribably worse than death itself.
But they bore it all, together as one, and would do so no matter how long it would take until the world and their people were all safe, until they could find some way, if possible, to get rid of these accursed viruses permanently. They would go wherever they needed to go and do whatever they needed to do in order to finish this.

And if it was simply not possible…

Well, if they needed to bear this most horrible of burdens FOREVER…
Then they would.