//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: Shadows Watching 
// by SaltyJustice 
//------------------------------//

	I have lived thousands of years through hundreds of lives.  After the first, I decided I could not continue forever and that it would be cruel to Zephyra if I did.  I aged, I grew sick, and I died.  Yet, I was compelled, some time later, to return.  So I did, becoming a new filly to parents who loved me and raised me until such a time as my duties called me again.
And so it has been, through my time here, I have aided countless beings with their struggles against the darkness that I failed to contain.  It is my penance, in a way, yet it is also a blessing.  I have seen so many things and had such wonderful experiences that it almost counteracts the terrible dangers I will soon face.
Given all that, before the day Celestia had shown me to a crowd of assembled aristocrats I had never seen a monocle fly off of a pony's face in shock.  I would need to keep a list of things I needed to see at least once.
Twilight had taken it remarkably well, bouncing around me and cheering before bragging to everypony in the room that she was best friends with a Cadence the Princess.  I did my best to act humble, but it was exhilarating to finally be the center of attention in a room full of ponies without having to break something.
To save us the confusion, Celestia had conveniently labelled me her niece.  That was a polite way of saying that our relationship was none of anypony else's business.  I'm sure it would just have confused them anyway, ever since the fall, Celestia must have been thought of as an only child.  In a manner of speaking.
I had made it halfway back to Twilight's house before my friends ambushed me.  Minty had heard a rumour and rounded up a posse in record time, the three of them bearing down on Twilight and I as we travelled the streets.
I had had to assuage Gabby, who became worried that suddenly all her friends could fly except her.  Though I now had wings, I had no intention of using them.  Unicorns were meant to be on the ground and that's what I was, somehow.  Minty had remained curiously silent until her chance came to explode.
"OhmygoshyoureaprincessIknewtherewassomethingweirdaboutyoubutIwaslikecoulditbethatnowayohthatmeansyouknowtheprincesswellnotyouImeanCelestiabecause -"
She ran out of breath and had to be held back, lest she try to write out what she could not say, possibly on the sidewalk, possibly in blood if she had no ink.
I assured them all that nothing was going to change, they were still my friends and I wasn't going to abandon them.  I would wear a coat out in public if it would draw attention away from me, hiding my wings and making me appear as I always had, though that never did become necessary.  Despite them wanting to probe me some more, I still had one last meeting to make.
I dropped Twilight off at home, her mother and father having mysteriously taken the rest of the afternoon off.  How coincidental.
I knew my mom and dad would be waiting for me at home when I got there, no doubt Tia would see to that.  What I was not prepared for was seeing Victoria standing in the same place where she had given me her umbrella before.
"Tia, what are you doing here?" I hissed, trying to avoid arousing any suspicion.  The streets were crowded today as ponies went about their business, oblivious to me as they had been before.
"I figured I'd say hello to your parents.  I was thinking, cousin?  Or is that too close?  Can I be your aunt still?"  she said, practically laughing but restraining herself to a big smile.
All things considered, it went fairly well.  Dad had struggled to bow fast enough once Tia showed them who she really was, while mom was about ready to tear her a new one.  After all, it's impolite to disguise yourself like that when you're somepony's guest.
My parents did not seem at all shocked in the end.  Perhaps they always knew, deep down, that their daughter was different.  Maybe they knew it when they had seen my cutie mark, or maybe it was magic at work in its mysterious ways, I didn't know.  They still loved me, and now I had a bigger family to love.
Celestia had asked me if I wanted a place to stay at the castle, and I had declined.  I preferred my home, such as it was, and I would move out when I was ready.  She had kept many of my things in a locked room in the west wing, right next to hers.  She had locked the door and kept the only key, dusting it herself instead of letting the staff do it.  The room was full of the things I had made and collected over the years, portraits only I could recognize, songs written by those who had been close to me.  Two wooden masks, a green and a blue one, restored and polished to keep them new.  My sword, recovered from its resting place ages ago, restored, reforged, dulled and reforged again.  I left it where it was, I was not ready to take it up quite yet, and I knew it would be there when it was time.

My name is Princess Amoria, though you know me better as Cadence.  I have made many mistakes in my time, and I will make many more.  I have learned so many lessons that I have forgotten them and relearned them anew.  My sisters and I have been charged with protecting this world, and through it, all of creation, until such a time as its inhabitants are ready and will take on the duties we have been performing.  I look forward to that time as the time I will finally be able to cast aside the blade which I have carried for so long and greet the end, gaining peace which I have been denied.
There will be challenges ahead.  I see, in Twilight and those like her, what I hope will be the beginning of the end, the first in a new breed of creature capable of maintaining the balance of the world.  She, and those who follow her, will confront that darkness which has lurked at the edges of our vision and gnawed at our hearts since as long as can be remembered, and in so doing, defeat it.  I will do what I can to aid her, yet her victory will not be mine.  It will not be hers.  It will be all of ours.
I will leave you now with a prophecy that was made almost ten thousand years ago.  I do this not because it is profound, and not because this prophecy has any meaning.  They were the words of an old fool, stars in her eyes, dreaming of the future in which all had been made one.
"And, on the longest day of the ten-thousandth year, the stars will aid in its escape, and it will bring about night-time eternal.  Where the three faded, the six will burn strong, on the edge of madness and forbidden deeper, tolerance will not conquer hate, but forgive it."


Continued in Part 2:  The Edge of Madness