//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: Forbidden Deeper 
// by SaltyJustice 
//------------------------------//

	On our way back to civilization, we ran into Shining Armor and his team of volunteers.  He told me they had been unable to follow us past the caves where we had flown through the Ziristone, that they could not find out how we had gotten through, and they had decided to return to the Pie household to wait for us.  I didn't scold him on being so slow, though I probably could have.  I had some sympathy for him, as he had a large red welt on his head, somewhat in the shape of a cooking skillet.
Pinkie decided to stay with her sisters for a day to get everything at the farmhouse back in order, before joining us in Ponyville the next day.  They had stayed overnight before coming back to visit their father in the hospital, who would eventually make a full recovery and continue to run the farm with their assistance.
Inkie, telling nopony but me, had discovered an unused magnesium flare on her doorstep the morning they were to set out for town.  The meaning passed between the two of us, unspoken, and I wished the best for that thing we had met.  I hoped it could find a place in the world all its own, a peaceful place free of its old influences.
Twilight and her friends returned to their lives in Ponyville.  She visited us more frequently in Canterlot, I had noticed, but otherwise she went back to her endless studies and wrote letters to Celestia about the things she was learning.  Perhaps all this had seemed as though a distant dream, in retrospect, or perhaps she had seen what she and those like her would someday be responsible for.  Exactly what had transpired down there was a secret shared only between her and her friends, I knew only that it was done, in broad outlines, not details.  I noticed she no longer obsessed over things like she once had, and she no longer engaged in marathon study session – as often, anyway.  Once a month at most.  She had grown up, and at last I could picture her, not as a filly, but as an adult.  At least until she asked me to do that dance she adored.
Gabby and I grew closer than before.  I no longer had to wander the world on an endless quest, but I still did anyway.  Just now, I was doing it for diplomatic reasons.  Celestia, sensing my desire for adventure, had tasked me with keeping up appearances with the far reaches of the world, and Gabby insisted to come with me.  I gladly welcomed her, not only because she was big and not to be trifled with, but also because she had nopony else left.  We were connected more profoundly than even siblings would allow, as my thoughts and memories within her would wane with time, and her spirit replaced them with the memories we made together.
That, though, was not immediate.  I had a lot of lost time to make up with Shining Armor first.  He had felt practically neglected as it was his little sister who kept on saving the world over and over.  That was a major blow to his ego.  I, an only child, was repeatedly assured I'd never understand what it felt like, so I was not to try.  Twilight and I tried to figure something out to reassure him, and had eventually settled on a mock tragedy where he saved her life at the last moment from a marauding changeling.  Wedge was not compensated.
Speaking of him, he and my sister Luna enjoyed a relationship of sorts.  I insisted he write her letters as was the custom, and he did at first, until Luna had grabbed him and pulled him into her chambers when he had been passing one night on patrol.  It would be improper of me to speak about what happened afterwards, though it would be no surprise if anypony guessed.  The two did not formally marry, but I know Wedge spent the rest of his long life infatuated with her, and she with him.  She did not follow my example though, when the time came, and as she wept, she told me it was this pain that she had been dreading for so long, yet this pain that also kept her going.  She told me she wanted to feel the lows as well as the highs that I had been feeling, that objectivity could get stuffed, to use a turn of phrase.
Celestia, though she no longer had to tug on the sun to keep the solar system spinning, still charted its movements with pinpoint precision.  An old habit, I supposed, or she enjoyed the exercise of it.  She also still enjoyed playing nasty tricks on me, which I could have done without.  She was freed from her true duties but had decided to remain on as Equestria's leader for some time longer, for the world was still fraught with danger and the ponies still loved her and sought out her wisdom.
As for myself, I still feel compelled to return.  At the same time, I know that I have the choice, in the end, and someday I will make it to rest.  I still feel the call of adventure, I still long for the open road and the darkened alleyway.  Just because there are no creatures of shadow lurking on the edge of our psyches does not mean the world has been freed from injustice.  Perhaps when that has been done I will not return, and my sisters and I will finally be the last of the old guard to retire.  The Keepers, and the Elements of Harmony, are old trinkets that will someday be forgotten, remembered by the bearers and their descendents as they tell the tale to future generations.  The responsibilities that the Keepers of Order had once had, now fell to these intelligent creatures that inhabited this little spinning ball in our corner of the universe.
That, I'm afraid, is another story.  This one is over.  I, Princess Amoria, first of the Triumvirate and former Protector of Harmony, face the future with optimism.


The End