A/N. I don't even know anymore…

Epilogue

It had taken three times as long as Falfrea had predicted but eventually, everypony in Equestria had arrived in the fields below Cloudsdale for it was the only space big enough for the entire population. The ground had been levelled so that it could be easily walked on by the earth ponies and the unicorns. The pegusi could watch from the clouds and their home city. What they were all watching was a small stage, really just a pair of soapboxes stood next to each other. They were just there to give a speaker some elevation (These were pony soapboxes so they were elongated). The ponies waited for another ten minutes before the speakers arrived. Princess Celestia and Falfrea Crimson walked side by side, emerging from a nearby trench. Instantly, there was a division. Some of the ponies bowed their supreme ruler but some questioned her for the simple fact that the one who had killed someone in everyponies family was walking beside her without being in custody. Celestia and Falfrea got onto the soapboxes but silence still ruled over the plains. Celestia spoke first; "Loyal subjects, please rise. As you can now probably work out, the war is over (this got a few cheers but they soon died down) and I still don't know which side won."
"If I may just interject here for a moment," Falfrea could be easily heard from all ends of the plains, "I think that I won, well… not me but Inmate 73 who is almost me but without a soul, morals and without actually being alive… that is an entirely different question though isn't it? Is the AI in the computer part of my brain actually alive or is it just ones and zeros. You probably don't even know what an AI is but you will find out when I lead a team to the moon to retrieve all my work and the work of the other scientists at the CDFRDT… I sort of rambled a little bit there, sorry Celestia." Falfrea looked sheepishly at a stern faced Princess Celestia. "As I was saying, I don't know who won, it was probably Falfrea seeing as he pushed us out of our cities and probably ransacked them. Either way, the war is over and there will be no more fighting, you will return to your normal lives as your homes are rebuilt and our dignity resurrected." The Princess looked as though she wanted to be somewhere else, probably asleep. "Celestia, you know that I don't want to have to threaten you but you do have to tell them. I cannot guarantee that they will take it well and you might lose all of your power but they still need you to raise the sun, remember that and use it if you must." Falfrea whispered into the Princesses ear before returning to his stance at the soapbox. "There is however, something that you must know. As you know from the legends I have ruled for over a thousand years and that time has given me many challenges that I overcame. A few of the ways that I overcame some of the challenges were immoral. They were wrong. I took the shortcuts. One of these shortcuts came back to haunt me. Literally!"
"Hey!" Falfrea shouted at Celestia.
"Sorry, I like to joke. Anyway however, one of these shortcuts spat Master Crimson back out at me and I was unprepared for that. Have any of you ever wondered how there is so little stealing and robbery in Equestria? I dealt with that problem about 70 years ago by creating the Criminal Detention Facility for Research, Development and Testing. This was a facility where criminals would live out their days. But they were isolated. On the moon." A wave of shock and whispers passed around the crowds in their varying places. Silence moved over the lands like a tide, sweeping everything away with it. Celestia continued "But the fact that they were isolated was not the worst part. The worst part was that they were tested on, in most cases they died from the testing. I was not in control of the testing though. That was the job of the guards and keepers. Their names were…" Celestia then proceeded to read out a list consisting of about 30 to 40 names. This was to honour their sacrifice but no-pony knew them as they had been supposedly dead for 70 years. "But, from the information that I have been given from my friend Falfrea here, they are now all dead and the facility abandoned. Mainly because Falfrea killed every living thing on that station and… we'll see what he did after that." There was still silence. It was as if the wind was also holding its breath. Most ponies were shocked by the suddenness of all that they had been told. They had been told only about 120 seconds ago that the pony and the Princess standing above them were both mass murderers. "I am going to take this time now to come clean about all of my past wrongs." Torture to ensure loyalty; enslavement of the Crystal Empire by manipulation of Sombra (Didn't see that one coming did ya?); the Nightmare Moon story and many other horrifying things. The spectators were left speechless, their ruler had done so many terrible deeds and she was only now telling them this. They began to panic and many ran to try to escape from what they saw as a pair of horrible monsters standing before them. "Ponies of Equestria, be calm, be still," Falfrea was talking now and he had their attention, they were quiet and unmoving "before you come up here and try to kill us both let me explain a couple of things. You need Celestia to raise the sun and I could probably kill you all if you attacked me. You may continue with your rioting." Falfrea's voice faded into the blue skies. "We do not want to riot and be sucked down into anarchy," a single voice shouted out across the plains, "all we want is justice."

The voice on the plains was Princess Cadence and she had taken it upon herself to build a case defending Celestia so that she would not suffer imprisonment or worse. The young princess understood why her ruler had done what she had done. The re-establishing Equestria took its time and when it came, Cadence gave her reasons why the Princess of the sun should not be put to death. "She did everything for us; the denizens of Equestria. She did what she did to protect us, to help us and to keep us clean from the filth that lives within all of us. She recognised that crime was bad for everypony and so she dealt with it. She may have gone about it the wrong way but her heart was in the right place. Cadence went on and on until the ponies who wanted to prosecute Celestia couldn't because their evidence was outweighed by the simple fact that they needed her to survive. Without the sun they were nothing. Princess Cadence recognised that some of the things that Celestia had done were unredeemable and so, at the end of the day, Celestia was sentenced. She couldn't have her power taken from her and as a result, she remained as the leader of Equestria. She would be monitored by a board to ensure that what she did was recorded and action could be taken if necessary. She had to put every decision that she made that affected Equestria to a committee so that the political system was no longer a dictatorship. Falfrea Crimson had been tried on that very same day and he sentenced himself to exile in the Everfree forest before walking out of the room only ten minutes into the hearing. He had said that he had some things to take care of beforehand that needed his undivided attention. He wandered out of the palace and into the streets of the crumbling Canterlot. Even though it had only been a week since the end of the war was confirmed, repairs had begun and the reconstruction of the capital was underway. Many residents of Ponyville had also returned to their ruined town to find that it wasn't too ruined. Some houses were intact and the town hall was upright. If they worked hard and cooperated they could get all the houses and shops rebuilt in no time at all. Twilight and her five friends wandered the rubble. "Even though it is partially destroyed," Twilight decided, "It's good to be home."

A/N. Sorry about the long wait but that is the end of A Growing Chasm. I think I'll write the prologue and then do a one-shot or I might just keep on with the second story but there is quite a time difference between the prologue and the rest of the story so… Sorry about the wait and stuff but I've been very busy all week and I couldn't get this done so, yeah. Drop me a review if you think anything could be improved or went well or you want more backstory, I probably have a lot more story in my brain than on paper.