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Running from the Brink of Dawn2,454 words
Epilogue1,889 words

Epilogue

A week passed for my friends and family, and I taught violet on how to become a part of society, just as I promised. Thought it wasn’t without its bumps and bruises. Violet meeting twilight was one of those instances, and I mean no disrespect to her, but it’s kind of comforting that even violet can’t keep up with twilight’s breakneck thinking speed.

But that’s a story for another day, this one began with me standing in front of and knocking on a door. “come in.” said an elderly voice that I’d come to respect. As I enter Granny Smith’s room I look over to the pictures on the wall, most of which were younger versions of Applejack, Big Mac, and their younger sister Applebloom, but there were a few pictures of me bonding with the apples. Though there was a picture of me and violet’s reconciling hug. “who took that and how did that get there?” I thought.

“you need something Leroy?” asked Granny Smith, snapping me back into reality.

“uh, there’s a message from the princesses wanting to know if we want the train taken out. What do you think we should do?”

The old mare put her hoof to her chin in thought and after a few moments breaks the silence.

“go get your brother and sisters, this is a decision that the family should make together.” I nod and take my leave to look for the others.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, and while violet and I technically aren’t adopted by the apples, they call us family, so that’s good enough for us.

As I open the door to step outside, a cold gust of wind hits my face.

“Wow,” I shiver a bit, as I think to myself. “Better get the winter clothes out. I’ll be a popsicle if don’t soon.”

I continued walking until I reached the tree that housed the cutie mark crusaders’ clubhouse. There are some random cleaning supplies scattered around the base of the ramp that leads to the entrance.

“Hey Applebloom, you in there?” the yellow filly popped her head out the door, in a maid’s outfit?

“Hi, Leroy! You need something?”

“Ok one, why are you in a maid’s outfit?” I ask, “I thought your cutie mark was for help ponies find their marks, not house cleaning.”

“It’s to help me get into the mindset, the clubhouse needed cleaning, and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were busy today, so I've just been here cleaning all day.”

“Are you almost done?”

“Yeah just about, why?”

“Granny Smith called a family meeting,” I explain. “Could you find Big Mac? AJ and Violet are at Twilight's, so I’m headed there.”

“Ok!” the filly responds, before disappearing back into the clubhouse to finish her goal. I left her to it as I made my way to town.

But as I got closer, realization hit me on the head like a ton of bricks. Pinkie Pie, Ponyville’s over-extrovert, somehow hadn’t meet Violet yet… Granted, this was Violet's first trip outside of sweet apple acres, and Pinkie was on vacation to see her family for the last month, but given how introverted violet is, and how excited/confused pinkie would be about there being two “twilights”…….

‘oh no….’ I thought as steps quickened to a light jog as my mind envisions the chaos. Violet is Not ready for Pinkie’s, “energy” yet.

As I walk into the town I come to call home, well nothing happened. ‘huh,’ I thought. ‘maybe getting violet back home without pinkie noticing won’t be so…’

“HI LEE BEAR!” shouted the pink ensemble of parties, fun, and overall joy.

And there it is, my day just got so much harder.

“So? What’cha doing?” asked my pink friend.

“Walking over to Twilight’s, you?” I respond as nonchalantly a possible.

“I’m talking to you silly! But not for long though.”

Her mane deflates a little at that last part. I raise an eyebrow. Sure, I don’t especially want her around presently, but pinkie never missus an opportunity to hang out with me, or with anypony for that matter.

“Whys that?” I ask with genuine curiosity.

“Sugercube Corner has lines all the way to the door, the cakes’ just let me take a short break, so I could say hi to you!” She responds as her mane poofs back up.

“Oh, right! Isn’t it like, national cake appreciation day tomorrow?” I say in realization of my second friend’s favorite holiday.

“Yupparoni! Do you need to pick one up? I can whip one up really quick!”

“Thanks, but granny smith said AJ and I are going to help her make an apple upside-down cake for tomorrow, I’m really excited for that surprisingly.” I say with a little bit of glee.

“Ok, I have to get back to work now, soooo much baking to do, see you later Lee!” Pinkie says to me as she bounces off to work.

“Phew, that was too close.” I think to myself as I walk up to the giant crystal structure that’s is twilight’s castle.

“To think this whole thing came out of a box, a box from a magic tree no less!”

I knock on the door and wait for a minute or two. The door open to reveal a small purple dragon.

“hey, spike.”

“Hi Lee, what are you doing here?”

“Granny Smith called a family meeting, I’m here to pick up the girls. where are they anyway?”

“they’re in you and twilight’s normal meeting place,” Spike says as he lets me in. “also, could you tell twilight to come to dinner when you see her?”

“got it, see you later, spike!” I say as we go our separate ways.

I walked through the halls of twilight’s seemingly bigger-on-the-inside castle until I got to my destination. Now mind you, this castle is big and confusing, and the only reason I don’t get lost in there (well, recently anyways) is because I memorized the path to one room. A small side office.

I knock on the door. “Come in, Spike.” Says twilight, I think. You see, both Violet, and Twilight have the same voice, the only way I can differentiate them is their appearance and well…….

“LEROY!” shouts Violet as she hugs/tackles me to the floor as I walk in.

“Hello to you too, Violet.”

“You know you can’t surprise me, right?” she asks with a knowing grin.

“Yeah yeah, mind connection, I know.” I retort.

“What are you two talking about?” asked Twilight.

“Violet and I have a mental connection that was formed when we bonded, it doesn’t let us speak to each other mentally or anything like that. but instead, it’s more like a mental map showing us how near or far the other is.”

“It’s one of the reasons he can figure out whos who with you two,” Applejack comments.

“Now Leroy,” Applejack turns to me, “what are you doing all the way over here? Aren’t you supposed to be fileing next week’s delivery forums?”

“Granny Smith called a family meeting. She wants us back at the house as soon as possible, Applebloom and Big Mac are already there.”

“Oh,”

I immediately regret my choice of words as I feel violet slump a little. As I explained before, the Apples, Violet, and I are family, but we haven’t made it official for violet yet. the keyword here being yet.

“I guess I’ll see you later then.”

“she thinks this is an apple only meeting…” I inwardly panic. “what aren’t you coming?”

“Why I’m not an Apple,” she says, a little downtrodden. “and you said it was a family meet,”

She doesn’t finish her sentence as Applejack walks over to her and put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Now look here, Violet, your just as much family as Big Mac or Applebloom, you hear?” Applejack gently scolds as Violet looks at her confused.

“I don’t want to hear nonsense like that coming out of your mouth from now on, that goes for you too, Leroy.” She finishes as looks at me. Violet tries to hold back tears as she nods.

I look over to Twilight. “Can you teleport us back home?”

“why don’t want to walk back?” she asks with a smirk.

“Pinkie’s back in town,” I say, and Twilights eyes lose their playful look.

“I want to talk to you later on how we're going to break the news to her about Violet, are you ok with that?”

“Sure, just give me a moment,” she says and a few seconds later, me, Applejack, and Violet are standing out the front door of our house.

We walk inside to find Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Applebloom waiting in the living room.

“Did we make you wait long?” I ask Granny Smith as we take a seat.

“No Leroy, you didn’t. now that we’re all here its time we discuss what going to happen moving forward.”

“How so?” Asks Big Mac.

“Well for starters, the train. It took near a third of last year to get that where it is. Not to mention the uprooting of several trees. The only way we got by, was thanks to the princesses’ gifts and your friends, Applejack.”

Granny Smith looked over to Applejack.

“What is your opinion on this?”

“I don’t think there’s a debate here. We finally have full crops again. having work crews in to take the train out again would not just slow us down for about two months, it would be dangerous.”

Granny nodded then turned to Big Mac.

“Do you agree with your sister on that?”

“Eeyup.”

Granny turned to Applebloom.

“uh, Leroy promised me a ride on the train…”

Granny chucked at this then turned to me and violet.

“And what do you two think?”

“I agree with Applejack, it would be a hassle to remove the train, but at the same time I don’t know what we could use it for now.” Violet nods in agreement.

“it does lead to Canterlot, and its fast. If we ever needed to see the princesses, it would be the best way to get there quick.” Says Applejack.

“Alright,” granny looks around the room. “All who says we should leave the train where it is, say I”

“I.” says everyone in the room.

“right, Leroy go write a letter to send to the princesses, everypony else, you can go back to what you were doing.” Granny says as she leaves the room.

After work that day, as I'm sending the letter with our verdict off, I hear someone walking up behind me. I turn to see Applejack.

“you headed off to bed?” I ask.

“Eeyup, I think you should too.”

“Well, you definitely live up to the whole “Element of Honesty” thing.”

“Hehe, guess your right. by the way, violet was looking for you.” Applejack says as she walks off.

“Thanks, AJ.”

I walk into the living room to find Violet sitting on the couch.

“Hi, Leroy! Uh, do you think we could have some cuddles before we go to bed?” she asks nervously.

“sure, that fine,” I say as I sit next to her.

As we cuddle, Unbeknownst to us, some snow starts to fall outside the house, as winter starts to set in.

“This isn’t so bad,” I think to myself. “not bad at all.”

Author's Note: