Been dealing with some issues, so no flavor text today. Sorry.

The Prompt:
Endgame

This is a thirty minute writing prompt, meaning you have thirty minutes to finish your story from the time you start writing. You may take as much time as you wish to think, plan, or outline before you begin, but once the first word is on the page, the timer begins. When you are finished, post your story to this thread, and, in the tradition of the TMP mods of yore, I will read and give it a comment when I can.

Traditionally, TMP prompts would have a six to eight-hour window in which to submit, but for these legacy prompts, there will be no limit after the prompt is up. Go ahead and post something a year from now, if you like. Just bear in mind that I'm less likely to respond with feedback to anything submitted more than a week or so after the prompt. Good luck!

4981822

Author's Note:
This is something of a stretch on the prompt, but there wasn't much else I felt confident about. This is me turning some attention to a darker future Equestria I've been meaning to hash out for a while.... Here's your changeling scum.

TMPL69 Manacle by KwirkyJ

Manacle struck the prisoner across the face.

The stallion jerked awake with a shout, his collar being yanked to its length and seizing against his neck. His eyes flicked around only once before sagging, exhausted and resigned.

Manacle stepped back and sat on his haunches. "Hope you had a pleasant sleep. We will begin again."

"I told you, I don't know anything."

Ignoring the statement, Manacle levitated a scroll and quill in front of himself. "Your licensed name is Twice Bright, yes?"

"I've told you five times already --"

"You will answer the question."

Twice Bright sighed, his parched lips smacking. "Yes, I go amongst you ponies by Twice Bright."

"What was your date of registration, and describe your mark and other identifying features."

"Six Six, Eighth year of return. Mark is a lavender starburst around a white gem. Horn is in second deviation substandard. Tri-toned mane and monotone tail."

Manacle smiled. "Very good. Maybe you'd like something to drink?" He floated over a small vessel to Bright's mouth, who lapped at it greedily. Too soon he pulled it away. "Tit for tat, I'm afraid. How long ago were you assigned habitation, and with whom?"

"One year, two months ago, in the high crafting district of Fillydelphia. Above my lodgings was an earth pony family, mare, stallion, a pre-marked filly."

"Your employment?"

"I apprenticed under Brilliant, grinding gemstones and lenses."

Manacle raised the cup again and allowed Twice Bright another precious sip. He made a mark on his scroll.

"Now, I'm afraid we've come to the sticking points. How long have you been acquainted with Matlock, the mare from this family?"

"She invited me to dine with her family on my second night. Our relationship has never been close, but it has been friendly."

"Did you ever feed from her?"

"Only comestibles."

"Clarify, for the record, 'comestibles'."

"I have, many --"

"You will answer the question."

"Pony food."

"As you say. Had you fed on the stallion?"

"Never."

"Good. Can you account for your rations?"

"My receipts were turned over upon my detention... Please, guard, I've done nothing --"

"How, then, do you account for your strength? Where did your magic come from, when you raised a shield around the young Butterfly Loop?"

"It was responsive, I swear. It was magic I didn't know I had stored, you must believe me!"

Matlock swung his spear, striking Twice Bright on the arm. For in instant, his illusion flickered to reveal the twisted and perforated chitin beneath.

"Your kind is given awesome liberty in Equestria. You live and work and among us by the grace of Celstia. All we ask in return is that you live and work by the rules laid down. Now. Where did this energy come from?"

"She was in danger, I've told you!"

"As you say. Did you ever feed on Butterfly Loop?"

"No, I swear!"

Manacle swung the spear again, the edge of the tip biting into the arm and drawing a viridian ichor.

"You have to believe me!" Twice Bright begged. "The shield cost me dearly, I promise!"

"Then you claim that, despite her confessed deep affection for you, you never indulged?"

"Never! Never ever!"

Manacle sighed. "As you say. We're moving on now."

"Please... I've done nothing wrong."

"What day was coming, a month from the start of your detention?"

"I... Cadance Day?"

"Cadance Day, yes. Now, what happens on Cadance Day?"

Twice Bright cringed. "Chrysalis."

"Good," Manacle purred. "Someling is learning the game. And what possible connection might you have to Cadance Day?"

"I'm a changeling."

"Yes. Yes, you absolutely are."

Begging, "Please, I don't know anything. There has been no contact -- I've done nothing..."

"Did you know Matlock was pregnant?"

"No, I swear I never knew!"

"You, unaware of the love magic just above your own room?"

"You have to believe me --"

Manacle hurled the spear. It bit into Twice Bright's upper foreleg, piercing to the wall on the far side. Twice Bright screamed. Manacle watched him for a minute until the cries diminished to whimpers.

"The censor spell has become quite sensitive. Her son's changeling twin will be aborted. Surely you've heard how it works -- a certain changeling magic in the first days of conception...."

"I never knew," Twice Bright begged. "I never knew...."

"What happens on Cadance Day?"

"Attack," Twice Bright said, feverish.

"Yes. Chrysalis attacks. Something horrible, something deadly. And she's become insidious as well, turning our own people into her breeding ground."

"Not us... Please, it isn't us."

Manacle rose, his face contorted in a disgusted sneer. "You will be permitted to heal. You will tell us what Chrysalis is planning, and if you are lucky you will live to see a painless execution. Until then, you will suffer."

Twice Bright sobbed to itself. "Please... Please..."

"Just remember: if another of your kind talks first, it will be quite unpleasant for you. Rest well."

edit -- adjusted a detail; added edit note

4981822

Well this one didn't quite flow like I wanted it to. It's shorter than I like and everything feels slightly off. I'm kind of exhausted due to this and that lately. Also I realized about midway through that this is less 'endgame' and more 'postgame', but what the heck. I might try to write something else by Thursday.

Nopony saw the who fired the shot that ended the war.

From somewhere in the magical artillery corps, a single shot somehow managed to penetrate the shields around King Sombra, and went straight through the great enemy.

The reaction was immediate. His cry broke through the din of battle, and the resulting explosion from his overcharged magical body tore across the battlefield. His soldiers all threw down their armor, nearly in unison, as his control over them faded away.

It was over.

The news seemed to be everywhere at once. Even in the mostly empty town of Ponyville, the streets rang with the news. Applejack first heard it as she was passing off what turned out to be the last shipment of canned apples.

Sombra was defeated! The war was over! Everything could go back to how it was before!

It almost didn't make sense to her. The war was over? She walked along the familiar, well-worn path back toward Sweet Apple Acres. The war was over. The army didn't need canned apples anymore, ponies just needed... what? Fresh food? Like Sweet Apple Acres had produced a few years ago? How could things just go back to the way they were?

The smell of the cannery hit her, as always, before she could even see the gate to her orchard. The soot in the air, the sound, now that she thought to listen, of the machinery inside her old family home.

No, things couldn't go back to the way they were. Applejack trudged her way along the pathway toward the cannery.

"What? You've got t' be kiddin' me, Mayor!" Applejack stamped a hoof on the floor of the train station. Ponyville had been filling up over the past week, as ponies returned home, and were assigned to Ponyville by the Princesses, and it seemed she could never find the Mayor anywhere but here, coordinating refugees. "You're askin' me an' my family to make three times as much food? For what? There ain't an army anymore, Mayor!"

Mayor Mare sighed, sounding every bit as worn-down and exhausted as she looked. "Applejack, we have hundreds of ponies coming back from the front, and many more that have no other place to live after Sombra destroyed their homes. I know it won't be easy, but you must find a way to do it! You'll have as many ponies to help as you need, I'm sure we'll have plenty of stallions looking for work." She glanced up as a train coming in again, and sighed. "Especially after what happened in Manehatten."

Applejack spoke again in protest, but the sound was entirely drowned out by the squeal of the train's brakes. She watched as ponies poured from the train's doorways, looking tired and haggard. She'd never seen such a mix of ponies. Some were obvious veterans, like the pegasus with the rainbow mane... and her prosthetic wing. Some were obviously not, like the purple-haired unicorn that Applejack struggled to even recognize as the fabulous and well-groomed filly that had run off to Manehatten years ago. But all of them looked exhausted and miserable, and suddenly her own problems felt a lot less important.

She looked to the mayor again. "Yeah. Alright, Mayor. We'll figure somethin' out. Might be some hard times comin' up, but we'll work through it, don't you fret."

The Mayor smiled at her, and then looked up at the approach of another pony. Applejack turned to see, and then froze in place.

It was her. Or it was darn close. Same striped mane, same horn, same purple coloration... no wings, though. How could this be possible? Sure, the mane was cut short, in a military style, and she had a recent scar over one eye, but it couldn't be anypony else.

"You must be Mayor Mare. Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle, I've been assigned as coordinator for this group of refugees. This should be the last train for a while, so we'll have time to sort everypony out. Princess Celestia mentioned that you might have a place for me to stay?" The unicorn spoke in a friendly enough tone, though her slight hesitations here and there certainly made her seem... less comfortable than the last time Applejack had seen her.

Mayor Mare paused a moment. "Oh dear, I'm not certain that we do, I'm sure I can make room somewhere, just--"

"Shoot, don't worry, Mayor. We can make room at Sweet Apple Acres."

Applejack held out a hoof, and Twilight looked at it, hesitated just a moment, and then shook it politely.

Applejack smiled. "Come on now, Twilight was it? Lemme help you get all your work sorted here, an' we'll head right on over to your new home. Don't you worry, I know we'll be th' best of friends soon enough."

"Friends? Oh, well... " She paused, and then smiled. "Well, let's get the work done, first. Good to meet you, Applejack."

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Dark indeed. Just what happened to turn the guards that violent? I mean, they're guards, I get that; they'll be more likely to choose violence than the average pony is, because they're the ones trained as warrior defenders. Still, this implies that something went seriously down at some point within recent memory. (Possibly related to the mysterious 'Cadance Day'?) After all, despite the violence he's using Manacle is coming across as vindictive, not sadistic; he obviously feels there's something he needs to defend against.

If you do choose to write further in this verse, I wish you well. I may not especially like the concept (friendly changelings are more my speed, and this implies these are definitely not), but it does look to be an interesting one.

4989378
That's cheating, Applejack. No fair using information from another universe to help you make your decisions.

Seriously, this is a good look at a good future for one of those bad futures (or, rather, presents) from the finale. Sombra has been defeated, there's a chance for the world to return to normal, and a friendship long-delayed by an arrogant mare's personal enmity is about to be given the chance to blossom. It won't be the same, of course - the bond that tied the group together as a whole still doesn't exist, after all - but I suspect that, knowing what might have been and possibly still could be, Applejack the Stubborn won't give up on that friendship without a fight to rival the war that just ended.

Well done.