Sanguine Joy

Chapter 13: Epilogue

2 days later

It was a beautiful, sunny day, and Ponyville hummed with activity. Various peddlers praised their merchandise to anypony walking by, many ponies tended to their neglected gardens, and the rest simply chatted with each other and catched up with the latest gossip. Life was slowly getting back into its old tracks.

Twilight trotted through the town, a wide smile plastered across her face. While the recent events weighed on her heavily, she refused to let them ruin this day.

“Twilight?” said a familiar voice behind her.

“Rarity! It’s good to see you,” Twilight said, seeing her friend dressed in a deep blue dress and a large hat. “Are you going to the celebration too?”

“Why of course. A lady would never miss an event of such magnitude. Besides, I really want to hear the detective’s speech.”

“He deserves his chance to shine,” Twilight said, smiling. “I bet he’ll say how ‘unprofessional and incompetent’ the Guard was and that it was him and him alone who saved us all.”

“How are you holding up?” Twilight asked after they finished giggling, moving closer to Rarity and lowering her voice.

“Quite well, actually. The boutique is attracting even more customers than it used to. Although... all I sew as of late are black dresses and suits.” Rarity looked away, her smile vanishing.

Twilight quickly looked around, making sure nopony was eavesdropping on them. “No, I mean your little... problem.”

“Oh, that? Don’t worry about it. I’ll let you know when I get hungry. You’re the food, after all!” Rarity’s laughter died down when Twilight’s face remained serious. “I’m sorry, bad joke. Still, I’m not hungry at all and Pinkie says that it will still be quite a while before I require your ‘assistance’. What about you? That horrible affair with Lyra must bother you a lot.”

“It does. I still think about what could have happened if I had done things differently.” Twilight sighed, but then let a small smile creep back on her face. “But I decided to ignore it for today – we are supposed to celebrate, not to feel bad about things we can’t change anyway.”

“If you ever want to talk about it...”

“Thanks for the offer, Rarity; I’ll keep it in mind.”

Rarity nodded. “Well, would you like to go to the celebration with me?”

“I’ll go fetch Pinkie Pie and then meet you there. She said she might need my help to move one of her surprises,” Twilight said, grinning.

“A Pinkie surprise? Maybe I should have brought an umbrella – do you know how long it took me to clean my mane after her last ‘surprise’ turned out to be her party cannon, brimming with pudding? I still have time to return and get it...”

“I’ll meet you there!” Twilight shouted after her, watching as she galloped towards the boutique.

———

The doorbell rang as Twilight entered Sugarcube Corner, the sound soon followed by Mrs. Cake’s voice from behind the counter. “Good morning, Twilight, dearie. What can I do for you?”

“Good morning, Mrs. Cake.” Twilight smiled. “I’m just here to help Pinkie Pie with her surprise.”

“You’ll have to wait a while then – Pinkie is still preparing it.” Mrs. Cake walked around the counter and motioned Twilight to take a seat at the nearby table. “Would you like something to eat while you wait?”

“Thanks for the offer, Mrs. Cake, but I’ve got no money with me.”

“That’s alright, dearie. Here, have a slice of cake.” She placed a large, deliciously looking chocolate cake on the table before Twilight and sliced off a large chunk.

“Wow, Mrs. Cake. Thank you!” Twilight pulled the slice towards her and dug into it, savouring the sweet sensation on her tongue. “But why?”

Mrs. Cake pulled herself a chair and sat on the other side of the table. “I wanted to thank you for what you did for Pinkie Pie, dearie. When she returned home after the horrible thing with Lyra, she was beaming. Throwing smiles every way, laughing out loud at every little joke – I haven’t seen her like that for days. When I asked her about it, she told me it was you and Rarity who helped her so much. You two were also the only ones who bothered to check up on her.”

Twilight stopped eating and looked at Mrs. Cake with her brow furrowed. “You mean nopony else came here? Not even Applejack, Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy?”

“Nopony. I suppose they had other things on their minds like everypony else – a murderer on the loose can make you forget a lot of other things – but you two remembered and I deeply appreciate that.”

“It’s not a big deal.” Twilight blushed. “She seemed quite alright when I visited her.”

“Alright? Did you see her the previous day?”

“You mean when we arranged that surprise party? I know it must have weighted heavily on her, but–“

“Not just heavily, dearie. I’ve never seen her like that before. I knew something was wrong right after she returned from town with Spike and a bowl of gems. Just why would she drag him all the way to her room? And why did she look so grim? I needed to know what was happening, so I watched her through a key hole. She ‘interrogated’ Spike, which was alright – typical Pinkie Pie playing police, and besides – Spike left completely satisfied.”

“And he didn’t tell me anything?” Twilight scowled. “He can forget on those gem desserts he likes for a long time!”

Mrs. Cake sighed. “Unfortunately, things went downhill right after that. She cried a lot and murmured all the time, even talking to herself. She passed out once – I was really scared at that moment, but she got back up shortly afterwards. Then things got really creepy, dearie – she started making those little dolls and even talked to them. Fortunately, Rainbow Dash came and–“

“Wait, I thought she said she went outside at one point?”

Mrs. Cake frowned. “No, dearie, she didn’t. I would be thrilled if she actually left her room and went outside – perhaps she’d get better if she took a nice stroll – but she just stayed there with her dolls.”

Twilight shot up from the table in an instant, almost tipping over the plate with cake. Without a word of explanation she rushed to the stairs, shouting, “Pinkie!”