Chapter 18: Tyranny's End

As relief washed over Twilight at the sight of her friends gathered just outside the gates of Canterlot, so, too, did a deep sense of exhaustion—for though she still had plenty of magic to spare, her battle against Misty had been physically taxing, and the hunger and tiredness she'd subconsciously staved off now came to meet her in full force.

As a consequence, once she had teleported over to them, she stumbled while walking towards them and they all collapsed in a heap, laughing.

"So, tell us," said Rarity, disentangling herself from her friends, "what happened to Misty?"

Twilight looked behind her. "She was eaten by one of those dragons," she said softly.

"And you're sure about this?"

"Yes. Positive."

They all breathed a sigh of relief except for Twilight, who couldn't help being disturbed by what she'd seen.

Over the next few days, the ponies whom Misty had locked in the dungeon recovered their strength, and everypony was immensely pleased to see Rainbow Dash when she returned from Sustria and visited them in the castle infirmary.

"I wish I'd been here to help when Misty was taking over," she sighed once they'd told her what had happened.

"It was probably for the best that you weren't," Rarity assured her. "Misty was far too strong to be stopped by any of us… except Twilight, of course."

"Oh! That reminds me…" she reached into her saddlebag, pulled out a package, and said "Twilight, I want you to have this." As Twilight unwrapped it, she continued: "It's a device that measures things our senses can't detect, and from what I understand, it behaves kind of similarly to Pinkie's Pinkie sense."

Twilight's eyes widened as she inspected the device. "Where did you get this?" She set it down carefully and magically manipulated its needles, observing the rotations of the many dials at the bottom. "This thing is decades beyond the most advanced pony technology!"

"I thought you might like it," said Rainbow with a satisfied smile. She turned to Fluttershy. "Sorry, but I didn't have time to get you anything… Soarin' hurt his wing when we were in a zebra village, and so I was in a hurry to"—

-"He did? Is he okay? I'd hate to think he suffered because you were busy with us…"

Rainbow Dash laughed. "It's fine—the zebras are taking good care of him. Besides, I think it's safe to say you guys needed my help a whole lot worse than he did."

There was no longer any need for them to stay in the infirmary, so they ended up walking around the castle. As they did, Rainbow Dash spoke seriously to Twilight:

"You know, the elephant who gave me that device said a lot of stuff that didn't make sense at the time."

"What's an 'elephant'?"

"It's, like, a giant grey thing with a big nose. Anyway, he said 'the self is an illusion', and that didn't make any sense at all, but he seemed pretty smart—not as smart as you, of course. Then, later, we went to the land of the zebras…" –She explained how she and the Wonderbolts had discovered and defeated the assassin's guild—"…and they were tied up, and I asked them why they would do something like that, and they said right and wrong were illusions, too, and they're just a bunch of rules that everyone makes up… and I couldn't come up with an argument against that until now."

They stood atop a balcony and looked down on Ponyville, where the townsponies were in the process of tearing down Misty's wall. "In a way," continued rainbow, "the zebras were right—we didn't win against Misty because we were the good guys. We won because Misty turned everypony against her… although, it didn't hurt that you were way stronger than her, Twilight."

Twilight shook her head. "If it hadn't been for Princess Luna, I never would have arrived in time, and if it hadn't been for Blizzard, Misty would have killed me, and if it hadn't been for Ditzy Doo, she might have escaped."

"Blizzard!" exclaimed Rainbow. "How's he been taking all this?" Twilight shook her head. "Oh."

"His skull cutie mark reappeared sometime while I was gone, and I think he feels partly responsible for what happened."

"Well, maybe you should give him a new cutie mark," suggested Rainbow Dash.

Everypony present was in favor of this idea, and a few seconds later they were knocking on the door of the Wonderbolt tower. When nopony answered, Rainbow opened the door and led the others inside.

"Blizzard!" called Twilight. "We'd like to speak with you, if that's all right!"

After a moment, he appeared upstairs, looking uncertainly over the banister. As he walked down the stairs, he didn't take his eyes off of Twilight until he stopped and bowed to her. "Yes, Princess?"

"I know you must have been feeling troubled by the events of the past few weeks… and by the return of your cutie mark."

He made as if to cover it, but realized this was pointless. "Princess, there's something I have to confess." He was staring at the floor, not daring to look anypony in the face. "Misty wasn't the one who killed Rose… I was." As everypony's eyes widened, he continued: "My cutie mark wouldn't let me stop killing, and to an extent, it was the same for her. I lost control of myself and went out one night, and"—He paused, his voice shaking. "I knew the right thing to do was to tell you what was happening, Princess, so that you could deal with the situation before it got any worse, but I couldn't stand the thought of everypony knowing I was a murderer…"

He took a deep breath. "When Misty became an alicorn, I was the first to find out, but still I told no one. I knew I was dooming everypony, and I hated myself for it—I still do—but I was just too afraid of the consequences. Princess, I am deeply sorry, but I know that no apology can make up for my crimes… I deserve whatever punishment you see fit to give me."

Twilight was silent for a long time. Then, she said "Blizzard, despite the mistakes you made, I believe that you are basically good at heart, especially in light of the fact that in the end, you showed the courage to save my life, and with it, all of Equestria. I hereby grant you pardon for your crimes and offer you the chance to change your cutie mark to whatever you wish."

He stared at her in disbelief. "You're… pardoning me? After what I've done?"

"That's right."

"But it wasn't just Rose… there were other ponies, Misty would bring them to my room, and"—

She shook her head. "Misty's gone now, and I feel perfectly safe letting you walk free. Now, I'm guessing you'd rather have another mark besides that old skull?"

He looked at his flank, trying to decide on a mark, when something occurred to him. "Wait… I thought there wasn't going to be any more cutie mark magic."

"That's correct, but I thought you might like having something else on your flank to look at. Think of it as a special tattoo."

After a minute or so, he had an answer: "If it's alright, I'd like a symbol that shows my allegiance. I want to know that whatever I end up doing with my life, I'm fighting for the right cause."

Twilight smiled. "Fair enough."

All eyes were on Blizzard's flank as she cast the spell, and then watched the mark appear with anticipation, followed by confusion.

Blizzard looked up at Twilight and stammered "Well, I—I kind of meant my allegiance to Equestria, if that's… okay…"

"That's why I made your cutie mark the Earth," she replied. "Your allegiance to Equestria is your allegiance to the world, because under my rule, that's what we're going to stand for from now on. We are all citizens of the world, and we are responsible for making it a better place."

He seemed placated by this, so all wished him good luck with his life before leaving him with his new mark.

Later that day, Twilight found herself in her room, writing in a diary about what had happened:

Today I learned something about the nature of freedom, and why it's worth fighting for. Though dictators may rise to power, they are doomed to fall in the end—because while right and wrong may not exist on their own, the world does, and so long as its inhabitants are willing to fight for freedom and truth, their sheer numbers and shared love of the world they live in will give them all the strength they need to take power back from the few and the greedy.

Just as absolute morality is a construct of the mind, so, too, is the notion of an absolute self; we are all products of the world we live in, and we cannot take from it indefinitely without it taking back. Therein lies the power of friendship—to provide us with something of an escape from the prison that is the self, to commune with the other and to reinforce the knowledge that we are all a part of everything.

As she looked over what she'd written, she received a jolt upon seeing the words Dear Princess Celestia—she hadn't remembered putting them there.

I must have done it subconsciously, she thought, and after some consideration she added Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle to the bottom, carefully removed the page from the diary, and called out "Spike!"

"Yes, Twilight?" he asked as he rushed downstairs to do her bidding.

"I have a letter for you to send." She held it to him.

He looked at her strangely. "Those don't go anywhere, remember?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't have to. It's just… for the sake of old times, you know?"

He seemed to understand, and without another word he took the letter from her, walked over to the window, and breathed it away into the wind.

As time went on, all the ponies of Equestria contributed to the long and difficult task of reconstruction. Twilight had made sure to destroy the sacrificial circle and all the ley lines connected to it so as to ensure that no more alicorns could be made by way of sacrifice, and had then travelled across Equestria training unicorn doctors to treat deadly viruses. Misty's hundreds of victims were mourned by the nation, which was even more devastated than they had been by Celestia's death and the revelations that had come with it.

Presently, however, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were away from the reconstruction—miles away, in fact, flying over the fields of Sustria. Since Fluttershy was by far the slower one, Rainbow Dash flew around almost aimlessly, doing loop-de-loops, spins, and other things to distract herself.

"What kind of animals did you see in the land of the zebras?" asked Fluttershy hopefully.

"I didn't really see any, besides birds and stuff," replied Rainbow Dash, "but the plants were all different, so I'm sure the animals will be, too."

Fluttershy smiled gently. "Thanks again for doing this for me."

"No problem," shrugged Rainbow. "I got something from everypony else, so why not you?"

As they reached the coastline and began crossing the ocean, Rainbow knew in her heart that like the others, Fluttershy would always be her friend—a friend who was never going to give her up, never going to let her down, never going to run around and desert her— a friend who was never going to make her cry, never going to say goodbye, never going to tell a lie and hurt her.

THE END