The Dawn is the eighteenth story arc in the main canon of EGS. It opened Febuary 4th 2013. It followed right after the first major timeskip of the comic.
End Of An Era
The Dawn starts with Elliot and Susan, Susan in a Starfleet uniform, reviewing one of the Star Trek: The Next generation movies. Susan notes how these movies are not considered canon in the Star Trek community and Elliot puts emphasis on on how he managed to find a plot hole.
It is December 23rd, indeed about six months after the end of the previous arc. Elliot and Susan are watching this review on the couch in Tedds basment together with Justin. The three are talking about how Susan was wearing a Next Generation Starfleet uniform, Susan saying it would have been alright for Elliot to tease her about that during the review. Susan accidentally misspeaks here, which makes Justin suspicious about the nature of their relationship.
Nevertheless, Justin quickly changes the subject to Susan's 18th birthday on New Years Dayt. Susan doesn't want to celebrate this event, mainly because people are already partied out after Christmas and New Years.
Elliot shows his disbelief over the fact that Ellen and Nanase got invited to a party with collge students. It is implied that the two girls have been solving mysteries eversince the There Will Be Whales storylines.
The conversation returns to the topic of Susan's birthday, Elliot says that it simply isn't right to celebrate "the Earth's birthday" and not that of Susan. He comes up with the idea of eating cake and singing birthday songs shortly after the ball drops.
-Tedd - Nanase's hair-