//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: Twilight's Dawn 
// by Dinkledash 
//------------------------------//

Twilight awoke from another exhausted, dreamless sleep; four hours stolen from the gargantuan list of tasks that confronted her.  At least she had her friends now, though those relationships had changed.  As Applejack had said, "Sugarcube, you cain't resurrect your friends and expect everthin' to stay lahk it always was."  The death and loss had changed them all, even though they knew their family and friends were in a better place.  For some, the loss of relationships had led to withdrawals, for others, it heightened the need to connect with those remaining.  She spared a few minutes to think about her friends.

In some ways, her relationships with the other bearers of the elements were deeper and more serious, as with Rainbow Dash.  Sometimes Dash would come in and sit with Twilight as she dealt with the unending planning and paperwork.  She wouldn't speak unless Twilight initiated a conversation, not wishing to interrupt the work, but when the princess started to sag, when she started thinking about all that she had lost, all the friends she would never see again, Celestia, her parents, and especially Spike, Dashie would come to her, take her hoof and let her ruler weep into the folds of her wings.  Once, after a particularly bad crying jag, Twilight had awoken to find herself in her cot in the rude hut jokingly known as "The Palace," enfolded in Rainbow Dash's warm embrace, taking comfort in her physical nearness and the downy softness of her blue coat.  She lay there for the better part of an hour, before Dash started to snore like an angry buzz saw and broke the spell.  It was the first time she had laughed out loud about something in a very long time.  It was like it must be having an older sister hold you when you felt bad, or perhaps something a little more than that.  Twilight wasn't sure what it was, but she was certainly glad for it.

One of Twilight's first official writs confirmed Pinkie Pie's adoption of the Cake twins.  Pinkie was still a lot of fun when she remembered to be, morale being most important these days, but to Twilight she seemed much more serious.  She spent hours and hours playing with and taking care of her children and the other foals still in the creche.  Some had been adopted by older fillies and colts, but there simply were not enough prospective parents (or older siblings) to go around so most stayed in the large hut which served as an orphanage.  Pinkie was more or less running the place, and Twilight rarely saw her.  It wasn't that Pinkie was avoiding her, but she didn't seek out her company.  Twilight thought back to the times when Pinkie would randomly burst in and cause chaos, have arguments with herself or invite her friends to a party at three o'clock in the morning, All the times when Pinke was crazy, obnoxious, incomprehensible... Twilight missed that so much.  ...and then I said, oatmeal, you're so crazy...  A tear rolled down the princess' cheek at the memory.

Fluttershy had always been the least connected of her friends.  Her many relationships with the "critter community" crowded out most pony-pony interactions.  Not that she wasn't a dear friend, but her heart was truly for animals, not ponies.  Losing all her critter friends in the last battle really seemed to have taken a lot out of her.  The animals here were strange, and Fluttershy didn't seem able to approach them.  Only one, a creature the dragons referred to as a mongoose (though a less goose-like creature could hardly be imagined), seemed to respond at all to Fluttershy's overtures.  She named him Mongo, and he accompanied her sometimes; they appeared to understand one another at a basic level.  But he was still a wild thing and not bound to her through the ties of mutual affection that had been her experience with the critters of Equestria.  

Rarity seemed almost strangely unchanged by the whole affair.  There always was a strong-willed self-reliance underneath that delicate exterior, and her dramatics were of an attention-getting kind rather than reflecting genuine self-doubt.  When Twilight asked her about the ponies she had lost, in particular her parents, her response was, "Darling, I know they're all waiting for me on the other side.  I was there, remember?  They're all perfectly happy and content and I know I'll see them again, so I'm not going to spend a lot of energy worrying about it.  Honestly, I never even noticed that Sweetie Belle wasn't there.  It's almost like anything that might upset you just isn't terribly important, so I know they don't miss me, at least not enough to seriously concern them.  And while I do think about the future here and now, I can't believe we defeated Scylla and Charybdis just to fail here when building the colony.  We'll make it through.  You are the only pony who would have had a chance of pulling this off, so I don't want to hear any of this survivor's guilt nonsense either.  You've done what you had to do.  Have faith in yourself; you might be amazed to know just how much faith the rest of us have in you."  With that she kissed her on the cheek and went back to sewing sailcloth and tent canvas.

Applejack seemed to have had her mood considerably improved; she was more cheerfully practical than ever.  "Ah saw mah parents!  Ma and Pa Apple!  I got to tell 'em all about Apple Bloom and how much she'd grown, all the things we got to do together.  It was so nice to be able to see them agin', and now thet ah know they're all waitin' for us... Ah don't worry about nothin'.  And there's LOTS of work to be done, so we're all going to be too busy to be feelin' sorry for ourselves.  Everythin' is gonna be just fine, sugarcube."  Twilight was caught utterly off guard when Applejack quickly kissed her on the lips, and then trotted off lead the plow teams.  Her lips tasted like sugared apples.

Twilight snapped out of her reverie.  It is time to think on the day's business.

First on the list, review the food inventory.  Preservation spells on the food kept it from spoiling, but there was little that could be done about mice and rats getting into the huts used to store food.  Their draconic allies were able to provide them with a certain amount, but Twilight didn't want to appear to be too dependent.  Alliances were built on mutual respect, not dependency.  The assignment of twenty dragon lancers as a guard force was an absolute necessity; there was no way they could defend themselves against even a minor incursion as they were.  She would ask for nothing else if she could help it.

On a related note was weather control.  An important part of Equestria's impressive fertility was regulation of rainfall and the elimination of large storms.  Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo spent an average of twelve hours a day rounding up and compressing clouds to produce rains across the shallow valley being cleared by Applejack's colts and fillies.  Three other pegasi, two colts and a filly, will be joining them today as apprentices.  Usually a third of all pegasi wound up in weather control, as it is a very labor-intensive field, so the odds were at least one of the apprentices would gain their cutie mark fairly quickly.  Twilight hoped for twenty trained weather pony specialists by the spring.  Twilight had decided to have a short ceremony for this and all future apprenticeships; the development of specialized skills was crucial to the survival of the colony.

An apprentice...  Sun Glimmer, of all the unicorn fillies, seemed to have the most serious and studious nature.  Twilight had been thinking about who to apprentice to herself, and Sun Glimmer was the most likely choice.  She came from a long line of wizardly unicorns, none of them spectacularly powerful, but they had a reputation for versatility and quick thinking.  Unfortunately with that studiousness came a certain callousness, certainly understandable given the horrors they'd all been through, but Twilight wasn't certain that Sun Glimmer actually cared about other ponies' well-being.  She was harsh in her criticisms of other fillies failed attempts at spells and didn't seem particularly interested in mentoring them or encouraging them to do better.  Still, she was certainly the quickest learner and Twilight had to work with the available materials, and perhaps some hardness would be an asset in this place.  Here I am, thinking her callous when I killed two fillies to bring my friends back from beyond the door of death.  She would make the announcement tomorrow, after discussing it with Sun Glimmer tonight.

Then there was the inspection of the irrigation pumps being built by Plumb Bob.  She had been leaning very heavily on that colt, and he has been delivering.  She would have to do something special for him, perhaps give him a ceremonial title like Royal Master Carpenter or some such.  And he should have apprentices too!  Twilight almost kicked herself.  Everypony with a cutie mark will have at least one apprentice.  We'll have to have a meeting.  She jotted down some notes, and then thought of Spike for the first time that day.  It would not be the last.  How could I have let him get away?  One moment I had him in a magical cocoon and the next, he was gone...  How was that even possible?

Twilight's mind touched upon the navy.  Blueblood and his crew had built a new ship's boat for the schooner to replace the one lost in the storm, and wanted her to name it at a ceremony today.  Captain Blueblood had formally renounced all claims to royal title, which was useful for several reasons.  First off, he was the only pony with any significant seafaring experience, and he certainly knew the Celestia better than anypony else.  He was a navigator, explorer and adventurer, who had been bound by his royal birth to ceremonial duties in the palace, and was miserable.  Now, Canterlot was rubble, and he was a crucial member of her team.  The sea had done wonders for him, disfigurement aside.  His spirit was free and he delighted in his new role as a leader.  His young crew practically worshiped him as he taught them all he knew of the sea.  Four cutie marks had been revealed in the past month, all of them members of his crew, and all of them nautical in nature.  He bore little resemblance to that obnoxious fop at the gala, which brought her to the second point.

He was the last surviving pony in Equestria who was a descendant of the Celestial bloodline.  His magic, while not very versatile, was extremely powerful at sea and in matters of navigation, cartography and such.  He could never get lost, even if he tried.  He could glance at a scene and in moments draw an accurate map of everything within view.  His magical potential had to be fed back into the gene pool.  He must be bred.  Twilight forced herself into an objective state.  We must have foals together.  She would not marry him; he was the last full grown stallion in the world, and the population of ponies was dangerously low.  For the next seven years at a minimum, there were only six mares and one stallion of breeding age.  The others will see that for themselves, I hope, but once we have the colony safely established, we're going to have to grow the population as fast as possible, even if I have to make it a royal decree.  It certainly helps that he's no longer a twit.  However, since he had renounced his title, only her foals with him would be of the royal line, and that made things much easier from a political standpoint.

She watched as the false dawn was brightened by the sun's rays.  She squinted and imagined she could see Celestia's smile.  As dawn rolled across the landscape, down from the mountainsides, over the hills and finally onto the beach, Twilight pondered her new realm.  She watched as a large insect, jewel toned with golden filigree wings alighted upon a glorious white blossom.  This new land certainly has its beauty.  The flower snapped shut, and the gemfly made a noise that sounded unpleasantly like a scream.  Beautiful, treacherous and deadly.