Epilogue: Brighter Days to Come
Three Months Later
I release a gentle sigh as a mare exits my clinic, the warm feeling of her gratitude adding to my content mood. She had been the second client today, and only the third since it was revealed I was a Changeling. It was wonderful to feel my strained magic reserves rejuvenate fully. As the door thunked shut behind her, the stallion on my couch shifted. He looked up at me with a grin of his own. He gingerly stands, and moves to the center of the room.
"Could you lock the door for a second?" he asks. "I want to try something." I nod, and turn the deadbolt with my magic. One shimmer of green flame later, and Entropy has returned to his natural form. He now sports a decently sized groove in the chitin surrounding his horn, which is bandaged up. He stretches his wings and walks over to the mirror hanging on the wall, inspecting the horn. He then shifts his gaze to an apple, sitting in a small fruit basket. He focuses intensely, and with a feeble and flickering green glow, the apple haphazardly lurches across the room, dropping the last few inches into his outstretched hoof. He breaks out an even larger grin as he lifts the apple to his muzzle and bites into it, ripping out a sizeable chunk. He loudly swallows the morsel and laughs loudly. "Never use magic again! Shows what he knows!" he then yelps in pain, dropping the wounded apple to the floor with a splat. He mumbles something unsavory under his breath as I move over and lay a hoof on his shoulder.
"Easy there, Warrior. Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself." I tease. He chuckles.
"Yeah, yeah. 'Give it time' right?"
"Pretty much." I reply. "In the meantime, if any high shelves rain on your parade, or you can't use your hooves, just let me know."
"Thanks, Scape." he murmurs.
"Don't call me Scape, please." I say. "Scape isn't who I am now. I'm no longer another cog in Chrysalis' machine, serving the Hive and its agenda. I'm Bright Dawn now, a councilor who helps ponies solve problems. And if I'm going to accomplish that, I've got to leave the past behind me. Might as well start with their name." He nods.
"Yeah, ok, Dawn. I can do that for you. Besides, business is picking up again! We'll be back to daily dilemmas in no-time. "
"Just as it should be." I murmur, unlocking the door as he reapplies his disguise. As I open the door and look out into Ponyville, I can see countless ponies going about their days, as if the incident months ago hadn't happened. Perhaps we'll join them some day. For now, though, we work from day to day. I can finally have the life I wanted... No strings attached.