Back in the real time, Sunflash and his friends headed down the cliffs to the shore. When they reached the bottom… Rainbow Dash was there waiting for them!

"What happened, dude?" she asked. "Did you go back in time? Did you stop Swartt Sixclaw?"

"Rainbow!" Sunflash spluttered. "I thought you were dead! Nightshade shot you with an arrow!"

"No, don't you remember? She tried to shoot me, but you smashed her bow before she could. Then she ran away into the ocean and drowned."

Sunflash was at a loss for words. Of course that was what had happened, except that Nightshade had killed Rainbow Dash before she died.

"It must be the jolly old butterfly effect, Sire," Joshy whispered in his ear. "I read about it in a book. Any action in the past, no matter how small, can alter the future."

Meanwhile, Starlight Glimmer was muttering to Twilight Sparkle, "This isn't over. I may not have gotten to do what I wanted to do yet, but I can recreate that spell at any time."

"Why do you hate us so much?" Twilight asked her, but Starlight Glimmer disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The rest of the story is easily told. Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash went back to Ponyville. Sunflash went back to Salamandastron, and all the creatures that had come to help him returned to their homes as well. Joshy Stag Hare decided that a soldier's life wasn't for him, and instead of joining the Long Patrol, he went to live at Redwall, where he worked in the kitchens, conjuring magical food for the Abbeybeasts.

Now that his enemy was finally slain, Sunflash the Mace could live out the rest of his seasons in peace, along with his mother Bella. In time he changed his warrior name from Sunflash to the more gentle Sunstripe. Creatures traveled from far and wide to learn from his great wisdom, and he and Rainbow Dash remained friends until the end of their days.

Fluttershy was saddened by the loss of Veil, but she knew deep down that the world was better off without Swartt or Veil adding misery to it. Her experiences had made her a wiser pony.

Twilight Sparkle knew Starlight Glimmer was still a threat, but she resolved to cross that bridge when she came to it. In the meantime, she wrote a long letter to Princess Celestia, detailing all that had happened. The letter ended like this:

…So it seems we were wrong. There was some good in Veil after all, though it cost him his life to show it. Veil's name may have had the same letters as Evil, but it also had the same letters as Live. He gave his life so that Fluttershy could live. And now his troubles have come to an end.