//------------------------------//
// Epilogue: What About Us? 
// Story: Glimpsing the Future 
// by Minds Eye 
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	Twilight’s hooves sank into the soft grass of the hillside outside Ponyville with every step.  In the distance, Canterlot glittered under the afternoon sun, and Twilight recalled the last time she had seen the city from this spot.  She was no longer the same pony that had lazed the time away with Rainbow Dash that day, no longer the unicorn that dragged around a secret pain in her heart for so long.  Only Canterlot sculpted into the side of the mountain seemed unchanged through the eventful months, but this last week had been the quietest she could remember.
 
Rainbow Dash had turned into little more than a ghost since they arrived home, and Twilight hadn’t seen her outside of her weather duties.  As much as she missed the evenings and quiet moments together, she understood why Rainbow wanted her space and privacy, but Rainbow Dash had also ignored their lunch dates with the other girls.  The signs of trouble were becoming too much for them to ignore.
 
She knew they meant well, but their assurances that no matter what problem she and Rainbow were having, everything would turn out okay between the two of them were almost too much to bear.  Knowing the truth and hiding it behind a smile and a promise of Everything is fine, really, and Rainbow will be back soon stung a little deeper every time it came up.
 
Fluttershy had even offered herself as a go-between because of Twilight’s flight difficulties.  Privately, at the library, which Twilight greatly appreciated.  She didn’t want to imagine Rainbow’s reaction if the others took inspiration from Fluttershy’s suggestion and began harassing her, but the anxious look on Fluttershy’s face almost made Twilight want to tell her everything.
 
But that was Rainbow’s decision to make, her news to share.  Twilight had been content to let her escape into the sky to find what comfort she could, but they had both known the date for Judge Fairwind drew closer every day.  Whatever the news would be afterwards, it had hung over Twilight’s thoughts until Thunderlane’s visit to the library early in the day.

Rainbow had missed her shift for the first time anypony could remember.
 
The mail ponies had been kind enough to answer her questions and tell her Rainbow received a package from San Franciscolt that morning.  So her fruitless search of Ponyville had begun, refusing to consider any possibility until she was at Rainbow’s side to hear it herself.  She had almost given up, almost resorted to bringing in Fluttershy to help search the sky however she could, until Twilight remembered one final spot she could reach on her own.  One place that meant something to them both.
 
Twilight could almost feel Rainbow Dash’s wings around her again.  Whatever pony she was now—whatever pony the foolish young mare that had thrown herself at a coldhearted stallion had grown into—she had to repay Rainbow for her understanding and acceptance.  Somehow.
 
She saw her long before she reached her, Rainbow laying flat on her back, the bright blue of her coat sharply outlined by the green grass.  She held a foreleg under her head like a pillow, but Twilight saw her eyes open and looking up to the sky.  They held the same impassive look Twilight had seen leaving her parents’ home, showing no anger or pain or even a hint of acknowledgement to Twilight settling down next to her.
 
Rainbow had looked the same way on the train home, and as she opened her mouth to speak, she sounded no different than her calm refusals to talk.  “They did it.”
 
Twilight’s heart blocked any response from leaving her throat.  She had almost allowed herself to believe Rainbow had written them first, and started the discussion she rejected in San Franciscolt.  Surely a judge wouldn’t have minded being told no thank you for his services in such a matter as this, after a daughter and her parents realized how much they meant to each other.
 
She had almost allowed herself to hope the family could repair itself without her.
 
Rainbow lifted a pair of envelopes with her free foreleg.  “They both wrote me.  Dad said... not a whole lot.  Just that he wanted me to write back.  Mom’s on her way back to Cloudsdale.  She had a place lined up already.  Even gave me the address.”  She jerked her chin up to the sky.  “City’s scheduled to come by this way in a couple weeks.  She said she wanted to meet up, and to write her too.”
 
Write them.  Twilight fidgeted.  She opened her mouth.  Meet her.  “Um... Pinkie told me about a new recipe she wanted to try out the other day.  Maybe you could ask her to hold off for...”
 
Rainbow slammed the envelopes back to the ground and rolled to her feet.
 
Twilight clenched her eyes as Rainbow walked away.  Stupid!  When she opened them again, she spotted a bundled strip of cloth Rainbow had left behind, its two ends twisted around themselves as if they each wanted to embrace something that wasn’t there anymore.  Twilight gasped, and she spotted another pair of twists a few inches later, and a third after that, closer to the center.  “They gave you their wedding band?”
 
Rainbow snorted.  “Can’t figure out why.  Worthless thing.  Guess they wanted me to remember how bad they screwed up.”
 
“I doubt that’s the reason.”  Twilight prodded it, almost lifted it up, but stopped.  Rainbow had sat down a few feet away, her wings mimicking her shoulders in slumping down, and her feathers joined her gaze in resting on the ground.  Twilight looked back down at the contorted cloth—what it held together already undone and unsalvageable.  That wasn’t an issue she could help now.

She tossed it away.
 
Rainbow lifted her eyes back to the sky, though the rest of her body did not follow their example.  “I don’t get it.  We were happy up there.  All three of us.  I know we were.”  She rubbed her temple.  “I haven’t been able to think about anything else all week.”

Twilight rested her head on her shoulder.  “Tell me.”

Her head gave an almost imperceptible shake.  “I don’t even know how to say it.  Everything’s just stuck in my head like sand in your feathers.  Racing my Dad.  Winning the first time.  Every time I raced at the Academy they were there!”  Rainbow pounded her hoof.  “Right there!  I can still hear them screaming for me!  And all that time they couldn’t stand each other?  It doesn’t make sense!”
 
Twilight focused her eyes on the towers of Canterlot Castle in the distance.  “Life changes, Rainbow.  I used to be happy at home with my family.  Then I was happy at the school, alone with my studies.  I thought I understood the world until I came to Ponyville, and I learned that I understood nothing.  Now I’m happy here with all my friends.”

She put her hoof on Rainbow’s.  “We can’t know what’s in our future, but if your heart tells you that you were happy together, then I believe you.  I know they were happy when you were in their lives.  Just like I am.”

Rainbow tore away from her and headed up the hill, her sudden absence leaving a brief chill on Twilight’s coat that worried at her mind.  Rainbow stopped and looked back at her.  All of her.  Her violet eyes swept over Twilight’s entire body, and settled on her face.  “Are you?”
 
Twilight frowned.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”
 
“You saw their wedding photo.”
 
“And?”
 
“And the first thing you thought was how young they were.”  Her hoof tapped against her temple.  “Have you tried to think about that?  They’ve been together longer than we’ve been alive.  Over half of their own lives.  And they’re stopping.”  She scowled at the ground.  “Because they don’t know what to do.”
 
The words took Twilight back to that night, back to that room.  Back to Rainbow’s kick of the table, and the claim—almost an accusation—she threw in her parents’ faces.  “Do you think they gave up?”
 
A slow nod was her only answer.
 
Twilight went to her and lifted her chin with a hoof.  “Then we won’t.”
 
Rainbow laughed.  “That’s too simple a plan coming from you.”
 
“Simple and easy never meant the same thing.”  Twilight lowered her hoof and pressed it into the soil.  “I made a choice, right here on this hill, to trust you.  I opened myself up to you more than I had to anypony else, and you haven’t let me down yet.  I didn’t make that decision lightly.”
 
“I know.”  Rainbow’s hoof brushed hers.  “That was when I fell for you, you know.  I mean, we had a few dates before then, but I knew how much that meant to you.  And I won’t ever let you down.”
 
“Good,” Twilight said, lighting her horn, “because I’m not doing this lightly either.”  She levitated the cloth over to them, and a whip of her magic straightened out all of its wrinkles.  “One day, we’ll be twice as old as we are now, just like they are.  We’ll have to face that future.  Together.”
 
Twilight looped the cloth around their necks, bringing Rainbow’s blushing face closer, and she fastened a knot inches away from them.  “I trusted you, and you repaid that trust by standing by me at my weakest moment, when I was most frightened of what my future might be.  You gave me that future just by being there.”
 
Rainbow chuckled, and her eyes jumped back and forth between Twilight’s and the two ends in her grasp.  “And now here we are, talking about the future again.  Because of me.  Again.”
 
“Yes.”  Twilight shifted her grip to create some slack, and tied the second knot.  She felt Rainbow’s cheeks burn hotter.  “We’ve seen the challenges that future will make us face together, and we’ve seen the consequences of failure.  I think we’re stronger for it.”
 
Rainbow coughed to the side, failing to be discreet about her studying the ends of cloth.  “So... uh, we don’t have a third.”  The red in her face drained away as quickly as it came.  “Do we?  We don’t right?  Not yet.”
 
“It’s in our future.”  Twilight lifted a hoof as she let go of her magic, and the ends of cloth fell over it and curled back on themselves, taking the same shape they had held for so many years, longing for the moment to come in which they were joined again.   “I don’t want to give up, Rainbow Dash.  Do you?”
 
Rainbow’s hoof joined hers—sealing the ends between them.  “I never give up.”