It was several days following the invasion of the fogponies, and all thing had seemingly worked out for the better. The mule inhabited town of Donkey Quote near Ponyville had been cleansed of the purple haze, as had Ponyville, and of course Canterlot itself. Of all the hundreds of citizens who had become infected with the transformation into mindless zombies, very few of them actually remembered it, and those that did chalked it up to a strange bout of sleepwalking. Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle were the only ones who, in fact, remembered it with perfect clarity, and both had agreed not to tell Rarity. Especially considering the unicorn was in a seasonal phase where she absolutely loathed the color purple, it might be for the best.
Fluttershy and Twilight had returned to Ponyville, and had slowly begun to resume the spiritually-draining task of taking down decorations, as Hearth's Warming had ended two weeks ago. Everypony hated taking down decorations, it was a universal thing. They would have liked to leave them up, but the longer they did so, the longer they tempted facing the wrath of Rarity and being dramatically outed as 'tacky'. Decorations HAD been in the process of being taken down already, but the whole 'fogpony' thing had put a temporary stop to that fairly quickly.
Rainbow Dash was still staying at Applejack's, and the two were pretty much doing their own thing. Applejack had plenty of chores to do even in the winter season, mostly involving snow removal, and Rainbow had undoubtedly been coaxed into helping with the promise of all the warm cider she could drink afterwards. Besides, it was monumentally advantageous to have a pegasus around for chores that required clearing snow off the dormant apple trees.
Pinkie... was... well, being Pinkie, and completely unpredictable.
All in all, things were back to normal.
Mostly.
Back in Canterlot, the apothecary at which the final battle had taken place had been labeled as contaminated by Princess Luna, and several ponies in full Hazmat suits had been assigned clean-up duty over the last few days. The majority of cleanup work revolved around the giant cauldron which still sat in the back room, which had overflowed with purple smoke that had since hardened into a seemingly immortal concrete tar. Everything from magical horn blasts to jackhammers to cannon blasts had been arranged, and the hardened purple gunk just would absolutely not come up. The clean up crew had eventually given up, labeled the entire building as 'CONDEMNED - UNSAFE' and left.
As such, nopony was around late at night to see the faint purple light dancing around the back of the building in the middle of the night. Nopony was around to hear the evil, excited laughter upon realizing freedom after untold, unknown eons of containment. Nopony was around to see the hardened purple mortar suddenly shatter on its own into thousands of pieces, releasing dark shadows that swirled around the room in a malevolent fury before disappearing up into the sky.
When the clean up crew arrived the next day to attempt removal of the mess one final time, they found what resembled fragments of small, violet shards. There was initial confusion, before eventual agreement that they must have weakened it at last, before sweeping it all up into trash bins and hauling it away.
There was little conversation amongst the clean up crew, except for the occasional jab when one of them would find an extra gas mask in the equipment locker.
"Hey. Hey, Firestrike. Are you my mummy?"
"Shut up, Starshine."
The apothecary itself was left abandoned and forgotten until such time that it would be demolished outright, and the space used later on for something else.
The dark shadows which had been released, meanwhile, had swirled violently into the sky, and made a direct path for Ponyville. The reasons behind the destination were as of yet unknown and would be for quite some time, but it may be said for now that Ponyville simply had an aura about it, an unseen force that attracted trouble like insects to flickering lights.
Finally, Fluttershy herself had calmed herself down from the previous adventure, and was simply glad that everything had turned out alright, and all of her friends were unhurt. She rather missed Courage, however, having taken a fancy to him. It was not every day that she stumbled upon an animal who reflected her own daily sense of fear and paranoia, and the two had gotten on together very well. She missed him, but knew that he was back home where he belonged, presumably with a family that cared for him, and that was alright.
Little did she know she'd be seeing him again by the end of that very day. It had been only a few days since he'd been returned to his own realm, and she didn't expect to see him again. Why would she? He belonged with his family, just as she belonged here with her animals. In any case, it was nearly feeding time, and Angel was already giving her impatient glares. She began the laborious process of salad making, and Courage the Cowardly Dog was temporarily forgotten.
---
Courage himself was back to his usual habits, although this meant he was frequently rather bored. It was the usual routine of listening to Eustace demand things from Muriel, why she put up with him was one of those mysteries he didn't think he'd ever figure out. He spent his days wandering around the small house and laying in Muriel's lap, receiving pettings. The old couple had absolutely no idea he'd been transported to another dimension, much less saved it. He had no intention of telling them, either. They just assumed he'd gone out wandering somewhere, and would return in his own time. He always did.
When Courage felt that he was safely secluded and neither of them were looking, he reached underneath an old floorboard where he'd stashed the golden medal of bravery that the starry blue horse had given him. It was shiny and he liked shiny things, and he was consequently slightly mesmerized by it.
"Courage..."
The voice was faded, distant. But unmistakably belonging to the starry night horse.
Courage blinked several times, but any further discovery was interrupted by Eustace, who had come up behind him and snatched the medal from his paws.
"What's eh?" His eyes widened. "Look at that! I'm rich!" He cackled. "I'm rich! I'm rich!" He held the medal possessively, but Courage absolutely wasn't having this.
It was the only thing Courage had from his equine friends, and he wasted no time in kicking Eustace in the shin. The farmer grasped his leg, and cried out with pain, dropping the medal.
"Ow! Stupid dog!"
Courage grabbed the medal, and made a run for it, Eustace hobbling for a few seconds before chasing after him. Courage slid underneath the table and around the corner, evading the farmer as he ran upstairs to the attic. Slamming the door closed and locking it, Courage looped the medal around his neck as he sat in the chair in front of the computer.
"Oh," the computer said, unimpressed. "It's you."
"Courage!" The farmer yelled, pounding on the door. "Give me back me medal!"
Courage still wasn't having it, and typed furiously on the keyboard.
"A world filled with horses, huh?" The computer sighed. "Sounds like a dreadfully boring place. Why would you ever want to go back there?"
More typing.
"You miss Fluttershy? That's cute." The computer sighed. "Well I can't help you. Have you tried rubbing it? If you really want to go back there that badly, that might work."
Courage shrugged, and rubbed at the medal around his neck. He gave a yelp as the pendant gave off a sudden flurry of stars, and a miniature version of Princess Luna stood on the computer desk.
"Courage!" Luna exclaimed. "If you're seeing this, then we're going to be in need of you again very shortly. Are you alright with coming back?" Luna asked. "You were such help last time, we'd love to have you again."
"Yes!" Courage yipped. "But how do you know you need me again?"
"I have a good sense for these things. Last time things ended a bit too... easily." She sighed. "I could be wrong, of course, but that usually means trouble is brewing again. Will you help us?"
Eustace was cackling wildly on the other side of the door, this time giving the door violent kicks. The entire frame was shaking, giving off showers of dust and wood fragments.
"Yes! Yes! I'll go!" Courage exclaimed.
"How good for you," the computer said sarcastically, and went into screensaver mode.
Eustace slammed through the door a moment later, still laughing. "Now gimme my... what's eh?" He gazed into the room, which was now completely empty. He frowned. "Stupid dog..." He turned and stepped through the hole he'd just made, going back downstairs, yelling for Muriel to start his tea.