//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: The Day My Life Continued // by Authora97 //------------------------------// I wanna say it worked out after that. I wanna say we stood up, chased Logan down before he made it to the parking lot. Or maybe that Tracy turned out to be a surprise hero. She stopped Logan at the door, pointing a gun at his face and saying some badass heroic line that would set fireworks off in the distance or an explosion that she wasn’t looking at. Or maybe that Twilight came up. She gave Logan a heartwarming speech about the power of friendship. It brought Jimmy back from the insanity. He would beg for apologies and that he’d never do anything like becoming Logan again. Except it didn’t. No...I had enough memories in my head-Darcy too- to prove that Logan won tonight. That he used that rag-crusted up in my sister’s dried up disgusting blood-to gain access to my worlds. That Logan used it to break me down. Piece by piece, world by world, life by life. That he wouldn’t stop. And if I managed to stop him at one of those points, I didn’t remember it. He won. Tonight, he won. ==DMLC== The next morning, everyone gathered in my office to talk about what happened last night. I gave them a briefing- not leaving out a detail. A lot of people were in tears, hearing Katelynn had been killed. I had called Jimmy’s mom, letting her know that Jimmy had changed, that he was considered the most dangerous threat to happen to our people. It wasn’t a great phonecall, reminding me of all the phonecalls I’d made to tell family members their child had died. My parents had been freaked out. They made all kinds of crazy demands- that I not do anything stupid like Traveling until this ‘madman’ had been stopped. That we call the police, let them handle it. That we take away Darcy’s knife- because surely it couldn’t be her’s but actually Katelynn’s murder weapon (that was the harder argument.). Sadly they had a point. No Traveling, at least not yet. Thorax stayed by my side the whole time. He hugged me after I called Mrs Cipes. He held my hand when I admitted Katelynn had died, and the subsequent telling of her parents. Darcy helped too. She watched Lilac and Cookie, keeping them from hearing the worst of it. She brought them to the Spencer’s, saying she was gonna ‘connect with the bros and the nieces’ as an excuse for Thorax and I to be alone. I love my sister. Still. It came time to send the Mane 6 and Spike home. They were all hugging me. I allowed it, starting to feel numb from everything. “That’s it?” Rainbow asked. “We’re just going home now?” “You can’t stay here.” I reminded. “You’re at your most vulnerable here. Worse I’m more vulnerable with you guys here. If Logan got to you, I doubt he’d let any of you live long.” “But he’s been to your world before!” Rainbow argued. “So he could be in Equestria right now!” “With Celestia, Luna, Mia, Shining Armor, and know an entire Hive of Changelings against him. An entire country fighting him.” “You got an entire planet.” Applejack pointed out. She had a good point. “Girls.” Fluttershy stepped forward. She came to give me another hug. I returned it, not wanting to put heart into it because if I did I might never let them go. “I think we need to listen to Morgan. She needs to focus on finding Logan.” “Fluttershy is right.” Rarity agreed. She joined the hug. I stepped back, before they could restart the group hug. Thorax put a hoof on my shoulder. Yeah he’d been in his changeling form all morning. “Morgan, darling, we’ll help you however we can.” “Tell the Princesses.” I instructed, matter-of-factly. “Tell the Crystal Empire. Write to Sunset and tell her. Tell everypony you can. Garfield Logan is a menace that needs to be stopped.” Pinkie burst out in sobs. I winced. “Uhh...Pinkie? You good?” The pink person suddenly fell to the floor, still crying. In the cartoon effect her tears were puddling on the floor. “Your birthday was ruined!” “Pinkie, that was the best birthday party I’ve ever had in my life. “ I assured her. “It was just the after-party that sucked.” She sobbed again. “Fine. Go to Equestria and plan me a second one. A better birthday. I’ll be 21 in Equestria, so I expect drinks.” She stopped sobbing to give me a hug. “I’m sorry, Morgan!” “Ap-apology accepted.” She pulled away from the hug. Twilight stepped up next. “Morgan. Will you come back?” “Of course.” I answered, giving her a tight smile. “Lilac’s friends are there. And Thorax is...Thorax has stuff there too. It’s his home.” “And you’ll come with them, yes?” Twilight pressed. “If I don’t, Pinkie will come after me for that make-up birthday party.” I joked, but even I knew the smile wasn’t reaching my eyes. Twilight gave me a thin lipped stare. “I’ll be gone for a while, yeah, but it’ll be barely a blink for you guys. I’ll come back. I always do.” She gave me a firm look, putting a hand on my shoulder beside Thorax’s. “I’m holding you to that.” With that, the girls all left with Tracy. She took them back to Equestria. I stayed stone faced the entire time. Thorax hugged me from behind, wrapping his hoof around my body so the hoof rested against my front. “It’s going to be okay, Star.” I patted his hoof with my hand. “I can feel your emotions.” He reminded me, kissing the side of my head. “And I know what you’re feeling...I think you’re being really strong.” He stopped for a moment. My grip was tightening on his hoof. My eyes were still on the door where the Mane 6 had walked out through. “You don’t have to be strong all the time. It’s okay to let go.” So I did. With little sniffles at first. Then they got louder. Thorax turned me around, so I could hide my face against the side of his neck. Seriously this thing was long. Candace Flynn had nothing on this neck length. He let me cry on his shoulder when it all crashed down on me. ==DMLC== Across the universes, across the worlds, one little changeling was crouched against the wall. She had a heavy collar around her neck. There were manacles around her hooves. She had bolts going through the holes of her body, so she couldn’t change form until her captor unlocked them. She’d been sobbing for days now. It had been so long since she saw something good. Her room was dark- a cell without windows. She didn’t want to be in here. She just wanted her brother. She wanted to go home. Her captor opened her door, bringing some light into her room. It blinded Cicada for a moment. Garfield Logan chuckled as he stepped inside. “Now...let’s have fun.”