”Will!” Sarah said as she bounced through the door. She looked to be in good spirits as she took in the decorations around the church’s vestibule, if also somewhat tired. Her long brown hair was pulled into a lazy ponytail with a red scrunchie and she was dressed for comfort rather than fashion. She wore an oversized sweater with our old high school mascot, the Houston Tigers, roaring on the front and a faded and patchy pair of jeans. I felt myself bristle at the sight of that old sweater. I’d seen him wearing it plenty of times in the past.

“Everything’s looking great!” she exclaimed, coming to stand before me. She stood rocking on her heels like a kid that knew a secret I didn’t and was dying to rub it in. I just thought she spent too much time around her students. “Sooo, how was Mom after we left?”

I laughed ruefully. “Oh, you know… Just being Mom.”

She winced but didn’t lose her knowing grin. “Ouch, that bad?”

“Eh, she could have been worse. She and Aunt Ruth spent most of the day arguing over whether the napkins should be… what was it? Single pocket folded or French pleat folded? I have no idea what either even fucking means. At least it she left me alone to handle the flower arrangements on the pews.”

“William Harkin!” she suddenly scolded, wagging a finger in my face like Mom used to when we were younger. “We’re in a church! What would Mr. Mosier say?”

“What’s he going to do, send me back to Sunday School again?” I asked mockingly. I put on my best impression of our curmudgeonly old pastor. “Now you see here, Mr. Harkin! When I was a young man, we had respect for things! We had character and integrity! Why, I had to walk to school every day fifteen miles through the snow, uphill both ways!”

She was trying to hide her giggles behind her hand by the time I finished. “Will, that’s not very nice,” she tried to admonish, but it fell a little short when she found it just as funny.

Once our mirth had run its course, she sighed and took another awed look around the room before her eyes settled on the framed photograph on the table behind me. As she reached out to pick it up I noticed she had her fingernails painted; a rich, luxurious pattern in two-tone blue with a gold filigree band dividing each nail horizontally. It was a far cry from the simplistic single colors she usually wore. She never cared enough about her appearance to pay for a professional makeover before. But I guess your wedding’s a good time to splurge.

“So, you ready for tomorrow?” I asked as she smiled dopily down at the photograph.

She gave a wry grin and rolled her eyes. “I’m ready for all this to be over,” she said, gesturing around. “I’m happy the entire family could make it out just for me, but between you and me? I hate big to-dos like this! I mean, I feel like I haven’t gotten to just stop and talk to anyone since I got here last week! Like you,” she said a little more softly as she leaned against my side. “I heard you lost your job with the Houston Times. I’m sorry; I know you really liked it.”

I shrugged noncommittally and turned to fuss with my camera satchel so that I didn’t have to look at her. Truth be told I had liked it a lot, even if it had been incredibly unstable. “Getting paid on commission to take pictures in a town where nothing newsworthy happens makes for a shitty job. And an empty bank account.”

I felt her shoulders slump. “I know it wasn’t exactly getting your photos in an art gallery or something but… I know you still liked it. At least more than–”

“Than working the checkout line at the grocery store? Yeah, I did.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “How are you doing? Do you need anything? Help with bills or whatever?”

I wanted to be thankful for her offer, but I was too busy being irritated that she thought I needed it. Even if I kind of did. “Thanks anyway, but I can manage. Besides, isn’t today supposed to be about you? Mom said you’re moving after the honeymoon?”

My attempt to change the subject only got me another hip-check for my trouble. Sarah set the picture back down and stepped away before leaning back against the table.

“Stubborn as always,” she admonished. “No wonder you and mom can never get along. But fine. Yes, Jack and I are moving to St. Louis next month. I got hired on at an elementary school there; I’ll be teaching fourth grade!” She gave a happy little clap of her hands. Only she could be so excited to work with kids every day. I’d go mad. “I’ll miss teaching art, but working with a smaller group of students means I’ll get to be able to know them better! I think it’ll be amazing to watch them grow over the year!”

“That’s awesome, Sarah,” I said, trying to sound happier for her than I really felt. It was hard, though, considering her life was going so perfectly. And mine just…

Wasn’t.

“What about Jackie-boy, though?” I asked. “He got something lined up, or is he just going to bum off you?”

She huffed and rolled her eyes. “He hasn’t found anything yet,” she admitted waspishly. “But he’s called several places already and we’re hoping to hear back soon. There’s gotta be at least one garage in all of St. Louis that needs a mechanic.”

“Yeah,” I said, grinning to myself. “I’m sure there’s someone dumb enough to take him in!”

“Why do you have to be like that?” she asked, her voice dropping to barely above a whisper.

“W-what? Be like what?”

“You’ve been acting like a jerk ever since Jack and I got here!” she snapped. She paused and surreptitiously looked around us, reminding me that we weren’t alone. Sure enough, the few of our cousins still hanging around were now starting at us. Suddenly her hand grabbed my elbow.

“Come on,” she urged, dragging me out of the vestibule and into an antechamber, which looked to be an office. She threw me roughly into the room and closed the door behind her to give us some privacy. My hip collided painfully with an ancient-looking oak desk, which I leaned against as I rubbed my leg.

“What’s your deal, Sarah?” I spat.

“My deal is that I’m getting married tomorrow, Will! And I’d really like my little brother to support me!”

“Hey, I’m here, aren’t I?!” I yelled back. “I’ve been doing everything you’ve asked of me to make sure tomorrow goes off without a hitch! I’ve been here all day fixing those stupid flower arrangements and listening to Mom prattle on about damn napkins like any of it even matters. So please, tell me what more I can do to support you!”

“How about not treat Jack like you hate him? He said you’ve been avoiding him all week. Hell, you wouldn’t even look at him last night at dinner! I know this is all really sudden but–”

“Sudden?!” I interrupted. “Two months! You decided to tell me you’re getting married two months before your wedding! Yeah, it’s a little sudden!”

“Well can you blame me?!” She thrust her face within inches of mine, her eyes blazing as she stared me down. “You’ve never approved of me dating him! Of course, I was scared to tell you!”

“And that fact I didn’t approve wasn’t even the slightest warning sign? You didn’t even wonder if maybe you were making the biggest mistake of your life?”

“I’m not going to live my life just to make you happy, Will! I love him! I want to spend the rest of my life with him! Why can’t you just be happy for me?!”

“Because all I can think about is how miserable he’s going to leave you!” I froze when I saw her flinch away from me and I realized how loud and upset I was getting. How could I have gotten so angry at her? It wasn’t like she was doing this just to hurt me. She just… didn’t realize what she was getting into.

I took a deep breath to calm myself before I continued at a more reasonable volume. “Sarah, Jack was the closest thing I had to a best friend back in high school. I know all the shit he got up to. I know what kind of man he is, and I know he is going to do nothing but drag you down.”

“What did he do that was so bad?”

“Where do I start?” I asked sarcastically. “Maybe how he nearly dropped out of high school? How about how he was drinking more at sixteen than I do now? Oh, I know! How about the three times he was driving drunk and wrecked his truck? He’s a loser, Sarah!”

“Will, high school was ten years ago! Believe it or not he’s changed since then!” she sighed exasperatedly. “Besides, I seem to remember him saying you were involved in more than a few of those little stunts! Not to mention all the things you pulled on your own! You don’t exactly have a lot of room to talk!”

My temper flared again. She had no right to compare me to him!

“Will,” she suddenly said. Her voice had gone soft, almost pleading, as she placed her hand on my arm. “This isn’t really what this is all about, is it? Some stupid things you did years ago?”

“Look, Sarah…” I said, feeling the exhaustion weighing me down like a ton of bricks on my shoulders. “I’ve done everything I could to help make sure things go great tomorrow. I’m even going to show up at the ceremony and smile and pretend that everything’s okay. But if you want someone to hold your hand and tell you how happy they are for you?”

I hesitated, shaking my head.

“Find somebody else.”

Without another word, I turned and stalked out. Neither her broken voice calling out my name nor the stares of the few people remaining at the church was enough to stop me as I made my way out to my car in the parking lot. I heard a few more voices calling my name, but I didn’t even register who they were until I pulled out and saw my Uncle Robert and… Jack staring after me in confusion.

Through the sour taste in my mouth and the icy pit in my stomach, I couldn’t believe what I’d just done. I felt like I was going to be sick.

I needed to get away.

Anything to not be around everyone when word got out. I could already see Dad’s disappointed face and hear Mom’s bitching.

I needed a drink. Or something to help me relax and pass the time. But there was only one bar in this podunk town, and it’d be the first place anyone would look for me. I needed somewhere out of the way.

Hell, maybe I’d take a six pack out to that old lake in the woods. Hanging out down there always made me feel better when I was younger. And at least I doubted anyone would look for me out there. I hadn’t been there since I was a teen…

Everything stopped.

Time.

My breath.

Every little noise of the night that dared creep into existence amidst the quiet.

It all died as we stared at each other in the dark little kitchen of our childhood home. We were both frozen in our tracks, looking at one another but not believing our eyes.

Sarah looked like a mess. Her curly brown hair was lying in a bushy nest about her shoulders instead of its usual ponytail and it looked like it hadn’t been brushed lately. She had dark, heavy bags under her eyes that even the thickest makeup couldn’t have hidden; not that she was wearing any. Even her long bathrobe looked shabby and drab on her.

Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen her in a while, but I was stricken by how much she looked like Mom now. They had the same round face, same five-foot-nothing body. But unlike Mom whose larger than life presence outshone her frame, Sarah looked small. It was like the weight of the world had crashed down upon her, breaking her spirit just as it had her strong back and left her a shriveled shadow of herself.

And even still, having her before me again was one of the sweetest sights I’d ever seen.

“Sarah!” I shouted happily. “Sarah, it’s really you!” A little of my happiness died when she took a faltering half-step away from me.

“W-Will?” she whispered. Even across the silence of the kitchen I could barely hear her. “It can’t be…”

I took a step forward only for her to take another back. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’d been gone for months; I couldn’t expect this to be like saying ‘hi’ on the weekend. I couldn’t have expected this to be any easier for her than it was for me. At least I knew I was safe. There’s no telling what she and the rest of my family had been thinking all this time.

“It’s me, Sarah… I promise it’s me.”

What happened next I couldn’t quite be certain. Whether she ran to me or I to her I couldn’t say, not that it mattered anyway. All I knew was that we were in each other’s arms and we were both crying out eyes out. Well, she was bawling. For some reason, I found myself laughing despite the tears streaming down my cheeks.

It was her.

Really, truly her! I was finally home.

No you’re not, a voice whispered at the back of my mind. I fought to shove the thought away as Sarah pulled away enough to look at me, her face somewhere between complete disbelief and righteous fury. Her hands went to my cheeks, and I realized I hadn’t been as adamant about shaving lately as I used to be. I probably looked a lot different.

“Where the fuck have you been?! Why’d you disappear?! Why are you just… back out of nowhere?! We’ve been looking for you for months!”

Throughout her tirade, her flash of anger was burning out and giving way to the raw hurt beneath as the shock wore off. She only stopped, I think, because she was interrupted by a loud, choking sob and she pulled me into a tight hug once again.

We stayed there for God-knows-how-long as she cried onto my shoulder and I pathetically tried to comfort her with pats to her shoulders and meaningless whispered nothings. I felt useless standing right there, holding her in my arms and yet unable to think of anything beyond the pain she and our family had gone through.

But after a time her tears began to slow and her breathing calmed, though her grip on my body didn’t give so much as an inch.

“I’ve dreamed about you coming back before,” she whispered. “Please tell me I’m not this time.”

Another fresh knife of guilt in my gut. “You’re not, I promise.”

She finally pulled back and wiped her tear-streaked cheeks. “But then where have you been? You aren’t hurt, are you? And why are you all wet?” She paused to sniff the air. “And why do you smell like a barn?”

Her question made me realize I was still dripping and, after walking through the woods for several minutes in the dead of night, freezing to the bone. The ridiculousness of my situation hit me as well; standing in the kitchen of my childhood home as an adult with my sister, soaking wet from a midnight swim in a lake after spending over half a year in an alternate dimension populated by talking, miniature candy-colored horses. It was all so bizarre, so abjectly strange and impossible that there was only one thing my feeble mind could think to do.

I started laughing. Loud and uncontrollably. I laughed until I had as many tears streaming down my cheeks as Sarah had.

Speaking of Sarah, I don’t think she took my fit very well. As I tried vainly to get ahold of myself, she was giving me the sort of look one might give a particularly unstable mental patient. Especially one you were afraid might become violent at any moment. Understandable, I suppose, given how it must have looked from her point of view.

“I’m sorry,” I said, finally succeeding in calming. She still looked wary as I led her to the table and gestured for her to sit. “I’m going to go change to some dry clothes first, if I have any in my old room that still fit me. Could you put on some coffee? This is going to be a long story, and you’re not going to believe a word of it.”

She nodded reluctantly, probably as displeased with having me out of her sight as I was to her, but it was a short trip to my room. It looked like it always had, minus a layer of dust on everything. Mom obviously cleaned it better than I ever did. I couldn’t help but cringe at some of the posters I still had hanging up, though. I had terrible taste in music back in high school.

Luckily I was able to find a shirt that just managed to fit as well as a baggy pair of hand-me-down jeans from my dad and rejoined Sarah in the kitchen. She was watching the coffee percolate, looking for all the world like she wasn’t actually seeing it. She must not have heard me enter as she jumped violently when I pulled back a chair to sit down at the table.

I wasn’t sure what to say as she soon joined me with two steaming mugs. I mean, how are you supposed to tell someone that you fell through a magic portal into another world without sounding like you were absolutely bonkers? There was no way I could just tell her everything and expect her to believe it.

Unless…

I tore off my camera satchel and unzipped it. Thankfully the insides were somehow still dry. Twilight had given it to me along with the camera only a couple of weeks after I arrived in Equestria; it was entirely possible she had put some kind of enchantment on it to keep its contents safe. Could that have meant the magic held after coming through the portal…?

Then again, it could have just been designed to be waterproof. I couldn’t get ahead of myself.

That was neither here nor there, though, as I pulled out the hastily-stored stack of photos that Scoots had left me. My throat suddenly constricted and I coughed to clear it.

I dropped the entire stack in front of Sarah. She stared at them questioningly before slowly reaching out and picking up the first. She looked it over before she turned back to me.

“A… castle?”

“You’re never going to believe what happened to me unless you see some of it first,” I said. Her eyes narrowed dangerously and she looked like she was about to argue so I headed her off before she started. “Please, just look through them. I’ll explain after.”

She huffed and rolled her eyes before acquiescing. One by one, she flipped through the pictures, looking at few of them for longer than a moment before tossing it aside. She was less than a quarter of the way through when her temper broke and she slammed the rest down.

“Will, what the hell is this? Some kind of damn joke? Because it’s not funny!” she snarled, glaring at me with equal parts rage and hurt. Her clenched fist was trembling on the tabletop and it looked like she was about to start crying again at any moment.

“They’re all real,” I said solemnly.

She scoffed. “Don’t give me that shit! It’s ridiculous, Will!”

I stood up and stood next to her, spreading the pictures out before us. I pointed to the first one I saw.

“This is the castle I stayed in the first month I was gone. It’s called the ‘Castle of Friendship;’ yeah, stupid name, I know. It’s in a town called Ponyville,” I said, pointing to another picture. “This was the view I had outside of my guest bedroom. I woke up every day to the sun rolling up over those mountains; this beautiful golden light reflecting all across the sky. And the walls of the castle were made of this purple crystal-like stuff that just… radiated light throughout the entire building. There was never any need for candles or lightbulbs or anything because it just… glowed all the time!”

“Will…”

“And this is Twilight Sparkle!” I said, pointing to another. “She’s a Princess! One of the Princesses of an entire nation just let me live in her castle. Like I was her friend or family! She sure treated me like one.”

“Will!”

“And this one! This is Spike, Twilight’s assistant– or, uh… little brother… or son maybe? I don’t know exactly what they are to each other. I don’t think they do either, but it doesn’t matter because they’re still family. And yes, he’s a dragon! An actual, real life dragon, Sarah!”

“Will, stop it!” she shouted, shoving herself away from the table. She stood and stormed away from me, stopping with her arms crossed once she’d put some distance between us. “Just stop it! I don’t want some story o-or some pictures you made on a computer or whatever! Do you think this is some kind of joke?! Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?!”

“I’m not–” I started to protest but stopped as I realized how futile it was. I wasn’t going to convince her that easily. I needed something special. Something big. Something she couldn’t deny. The camera itself looked too much like one from Earth; it’d never convince her. Nor would the necklace Twilight had given me. It may have had a spell on it, but you couldn’t see that.

No, it had to be the pictures. And there was only one that might do it.

I began frantically searching through the scattered photos, spilling several off the table and to the floor in the process. I was just beginning to think that Scoots hadn’t included it when I finally found it.

“Here, look at this one!” I said, holding it out to her.

“I’m not looking at anymore of those stupid pictures, Will! Just tell me what’s going on!” she screamed.

“Please, just one more!” I begged her, following her and shoving the picture in her face. “I’m not joking around. I know it’s impossible to believe, but… Sarah, please, I need you to trust me.”

She stared at me for several seconds, her brow narrowed and her lips pressed into a thin frown. As she stood unwavering, I honestly thought she wouldn’t give me a chance. Not that I had the highest hopes of convincing her even if she did, but I had to try. I breathed a sigh of relief when her expression broke and she gave a limp nod.

She took the photo from me and sighed as she looked it over, but her reluctance was short-lived as she quickly frowned in confusion. “I… don’t understand. This is you, but these… animals look…”

“Real?” I finished for her. I took a deep breath to ready myself. “That’s because they are, Sarah. They call themselves ponies, though they’re nothing like how we know them. The wings and horns are pretty obvious, and the colors, too; but there’s other differences. They can talk, for one. They have families, and jobs a-and… they pay their bills and taxes and all the same bullshit we do.”

Sarah gave no response. Instead, she continued to stare slack-jawed at the picture in her hands.

“That was the first picture I took of all of us together. It was about two weeks or so after I arrived in Equestria. That’s the name of their country, by the way: Equestria? Umm…” I struggled to think what to say next. There were so many things vying to be voiced that I didn’t know where to begin.

“The uh… the orange one with the hat? Her name’s Applejack. She and her brother, Big Macintosh, co-own their family’s apple orchard, Sweet Apple Acres. They grow the sweetest apples you have ever tasted. I mean it, there’s nothing like them here.

“The white one next to her is Rarity. She’s a unicorn, though you could probably tell that from her horn… She’s a world-renowned fashion designer. I know none of them are wearing anything in that shot, but clothing’s more of a ‘formal occasion’ kind of thing there. I worked for her a little, by the way. Mostly just running errands around town or helping her clean up around her shop. She’s a bit of a drama queen, but she’s really fun to work with.

“You can probably guess which one Pinkie Pie is. She’s a great mare; lives only to make other ponies smile. You can always count on her for a laugh when you’re feeling down. The bakery she works at is owned by two really nice ponies, too. Mr. and Mrs. Cake. They have these two foals that love to pester me with stories about Earth when I came in.

“The yellow one with the long pink mane is Fluttershy. She’s like… like a veterinarian. She takes care of all the wild critters and stuff that live near town. I’ll admit I don’t know her as well as the other’s; she’s pretty timid around people she doesn’t know so we haven’t ever spent much time together. I can tell you she’s one of the sweetest people you’d ever meet, though. I mean like, she would literally not hurt a fly.”

I stumbled in my excited babbling when I realized there was only one pony left in the picture. The one sitting next to me, her wing cocked up behind my head to give me bunny-ears while she gave that damned arrogant smirk that I couldn’t help but love. How in the world was I supposed to sum that mare up in a single little description? How was I going to explain what she meant to me?

While I pondered in silence, Sarah began to recover. She flipped the photo over like she was expecting the back to have ‘It’s all a joke!’ written on it before turning it back and studying it again. After a moment she sighed and shrugged.

“Will, I just don’t understand what you’re trying to do here. Ponies? Dragons? Ponies being princesses and owning apple orchards and designing fashion? Can you just start at the beginning?”

“It’s another world, Sarah,” I said, gripping her shoulders and looking her straight in the eyes. I needed to impress how serious I was. She had to see I was telling the truth. “Call it another dimension, another universe… whatever you want, it doesn’t matter. The point is: I saw it! I lived there! It’s all real!”

“Another… world?” she asked quietly. She looked deep into my eyes like she was searching for any hint of a lie. A fruitless endeavor, it would seem, when she closed her eyes and shook her head tersely. I was about to protest but she had anticipated that and held up a hand to stop me. “Okay. Alright. You were in another dimension living with ponies that can talk and have jobs. This is going to be a long night; I can already feel a migraine coming on. Let’s go into the living room so we can at least be comfortable while you give me the whole story.”

“Y-you believe me?” I asked, stunned.

“Of course not!” she snapped. She jerked out of my grasp and fixed me with a dark glower. “Other worlds? Talking horses? It’s fucking ridiculous, Will! Which means you’re either trying to pull some really hurtful, really stupid stunt or you’ve gone completely off the deep end. And I don’t even know which one I’m hoping for more. But…” She trailed off, looking again at the picture in her hand for a brief second. “I don’t know what else to do but listen.”

For the first time, it looked like I might have even the smallest chance of convincing her and relief flooded through me. “Thanks, Sarah.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she said shortly.

She allowed me to gather up all the pictures while she grabbed our coffee mugs and together we went into the living room. Like the kitchen, it was exactly as I remembered. Two plush recliners sat next to each other in front of the stone fireplace that we hardly ever used outside of the Christmas season. They were angled so that they just barely faced each other with an end table in between but also so that you could easily see the widescreen TV on the other side of the room. Matching leather couches sat on either side of the room, leaving the middle of the room open for Mom’s aerobics on the weekends. Every Saturday morning she’d be in there doing her thing for as long as I could remember. Meanwhile, Dad would be out in the garage working on whatever project he’d have going on at the time. Woodworking, repairs, tinkering on the car; you name it and he did it. Half the time I think he just couldn’t stand not working on something. All the while I took any chance to not work.

Nostalgia rolled over me as I took in all the little things that had never mattered before but suddenly felt so important. The old painting of the Lake of the Ozarks on the wall that Mom had probably bought from a flea market before I was born. The last school pictures of Sarah and me on the wall along with a portrait of Uncle Robert, Aunt Ruth and their three kids. I didn’t recognize the last; they must have taken a new one while I was gone. But their smiling faces were the same as ever. Even the dumb plastic flower bouquet Dad had bought Mom for their anniversary five years ago was still in its vase near the window.

I was shocked by how much I’d missed it all as I joined Sarah on the couch. After dumping all the pictures between us and accepting my coffee, I just sat there for a time and drank it all in. Sarah, however, wasn’t willing to wait forever.

And so it was I started the long, arduous process of retelling the story. About going for the swim that led me to fall through the portal. About Twilight finding me in the crystal caves. I told her about how I lived with her in Ponyville until I had the bits together to afford my own cottage. I even told her a little about working with Carrot Top. I thought I’d earn a laugh at the idea of me willingly doing physical labor, but I got nothing instead.

She was completely silent throughout, rifling through the pictures and looking at them all in vacant disbelief. When she gave almost no reaction to anything I was saying, I couldn’t begin to tell what she was thinking.

I told her about anything and everything that came to mind. Like how Princesses Celestia and Luna raised the sun and moon every day and night or how unicorns could cast magic from their horns or how pegasi could fly. I told her that they could, and did, control the weather by pushing around the clouds with their bare hooves. I even told her I got to stand on the clouds once and even that didn’t get anything from her! But eventually I brought my story to a close.

“And that’s about it. Twilight came by earlier to tell me that the way was open again and… well, here I am,” I finished lamely. Sarah was still looking over the photos one by one; she currently had one of Carrot Top in a rare moment of affection as she nuzzled Written Script. I had sneaked the photo while she was distracted but the flash had gotten her attention and I nearly lost my camera for my alleged treachery.

After a moment, she spoke slowly, not taking her eyes off of Carrot Top. “So… a magic portal… took you to a land of tiny talking horses–”

“Ponies,” I corrected.

“–where you lived with the princess of the tiny talking horses–”

“’A’ princess. There’s more than one.”

“–and you worked for another tiny talking horse picking carrots all day. And some can cast magic and some can fly. Did I miss anything?”

Truth be told, she’d missed a lot, but I really didn’t feel like being nit-picky at the moment. “N-no, that’s about the long and the short of it. So, uh… yeah. What do you think?”

“That I must be going crazy too, if I’m even considering believing you,” she said simply.

“Sarah…” I started exasperatedly. I knew it was impossible to believe, but I was running out of ideas.

“Don’t you ‘Sarah’ me!” she snapped, looking up to glare at me. “I don’t know what you’re expecting, Will! You’re asking me to believe this… absurd story that can’t possibly be real! But the only other explanation is that you’re completely insane and have been off indulging in some delusion for the last seven months, and that wouldn’t explain these pictures!”

She threw the photo down in a fit and hid her face behind her hands. Her shoulders began trembling and when I tried to rub her shoulder to comfort her, she leaned against my side. I stayed quiet, letting her have a moment to calm down.

“So… you don’t think I’m playing a prank on you anymore?” I asked hopefully. Even that would be welcome at this point.

She let out a loud sniff. “No. Even you wouldn’t do that.”

“’Even me?’” I asked, mocking hurt. “What are you trying to imply?”

“That you can be a complete ass sometimes!” she quipped, trying to smile and even managing a wry laugh. “Especially when you don’t get your way. But not this. You’d never do something like this.” She let out a breath as her expression softened. She pulled me into another tight hug, though this one full of love instead of fear. “I’m so glad to see you again, you know? I love you, Will.”

I eagerly returned the gesture. “Yeah, I know what you mean… I love you, too.”

When we finally let go of each other, she wiped her eyes and rolled her shoulders to stretch them out. “Oh man, you’ve been gone so long! We’ve all missed you so much…” She trailed off as her eyes shot open. “Oh God! Will, we have to tell Mom and Dad!”

She leapt up off the couch so fast I could’ve thought something had bit her. Instead of running to the hall, though, she instead dashed to the side of the couch, where I only just noticed her purse was sitting on the floor. She tore it open and a moment later withdrew her cell phone.

“What are you doing?” I asked. She froze with her eyes wide.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you! Mom and Dad left this afternoon to stay with Uncle Bob and Aunt Ruth for the week. Give Dad some time with his brother, you know? He… hasn’t been doing very well since you disappeared,” she said sadly. “I’ve been coming by to visit as often as I can but I don’t know how much it’s helping. I was gonna head back to St. Louis in the morning.”

It felt like the pit of my stomach dropped out. They weren’t even home? After months of waiting to see them again, after the agonizing over whether I should even come back, after turning my back on Equestria and my friends and Rainbow and Scoots, they weren’t even home…

I tried to fight the feeling down.

“You moved, then?” I asked, trying to sound normal, and she nodded. “I wasn’t sure if you would or not with… Well, I’m glad you did. I know you were looking forward to the new job. Did, uh… Did Jack come with you?”

“No, he had to work this weekend, and he just started so he can’t afford to take off right now. I’m sure you’re happy to hear that,” she said smugly. But then she shook her head and regained some measure of cheer. “But we’ll call everyone! We can get the whole family rounded up in just a couple of hours!”

Only a phone call away. One little call and I could see everyone again! It would just be a little bit longer. I’d waited months; I could wait two more hours, right?

Two hours. I wanted to laugh even though I didn’t find it funny in the slightest. It was too bad I probably didn’t have that long.

“Sarah, don’t,” I said quietly. She looked up in confusion.

“What? Why?” she asked, her thumb twitching over the dial button.

I tried to think of what to tell her. The first thing that came to mind was something I’d wanted to say for months. I supposed now was as good of time as any.

“There was something I wanted to talk to you about first. Can you just… wait a little bit before you call them?” I asked.

“But can’t we talk while they’re on the way?” she countered. “Will, they’re dying to know you’re okay!”

“I know but… Please, it’s important.”

For a moment I thought she’d argue, but then with a sigh she closed her phone and listlessly tossed it onto the couch and flopped back down like a ragdoll. She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them.

“Alright. What did you want to talk about? More horses?” she asked.

“’Ponies,’ but no,” I said. “Sarah, when I first went through the portal and arrived in Equestria, I was… in shock. Not surprising, I think, considering what I was surrounded by. This alien world full of things I didn’t know and couldn’t understand. Lost and alone. I think I handled things about as well as anyone could have at first, but… it took a while for things to sink in.”

I sighed. “For a while, I spent every minute of the day just waiting for Twilight to tell me she’d figured out how to open the portal back up and that I could go home. And so being stuck on my own there wasn’t so bad, because it could be any minute that I’d get to go back.

“But then the weeks started to pass, and I was working for Carrot Top every day and… the next thing I know Twilight’s helping me move into my own house and it hits me. It was not only possible, but likely that I’d never be going home. That I’d never see you or anyone else here ever again.”

An icy chill swept over me as I remembered those early days after moving out of Twilight’s castle. Even the comforting hand Sarah placed on my shoulder did little to make me feel better. “It hurt so bad… I could barely convince myself to get up in the mornings. Even when I did I didn’t do anything other than go to work and come back straight after. I didn’t want to go out, I didn’t want to make friends. I was miserable.

“After a while, I realized it was easier to ignore it all than dwell on things I couldn’t change. Because when I pretended that I didn’t have family or a life here waiting for me, it didn’t hurt so much. The worst thing is it worked. I started smiling again. Started laughing and even having fun. I… made a friend. A damn good friend.

“Completely by accident, she made me realize how much I was letting slip by. She helped me see that… even if I was stuck in a world that wasn’t mine, I still had a life to live. That I could still have things that I wanted and even be happy. If it weren’t for her… I don’t even want to think about it. I owe her everything, Sarah.”

I suddenly found myself pulled into another bone-crushing hug. I was beginning to lose track of how many that was. “I’m sorry, Will. I was thinking about everything we went through, I never stopped to think how horrible that must have been for you, too.”

“No, Sarah, you shouldn’t be sorry!” I said firmly. “I at least knew I was safe! I can’t even begin to imagine what you went through. But that’s not what I was getting at. The reason it was so hard was… all I could think about was that the last thing I did here was the worst thing I’ve ever done. I had my head shoved so far up my own ass that I couldn’t even support my own sister in what should have been the happiest moment of her life.”

Her touch became just the slightest bit more perfunctory and her expression was downcast as she pulled away. She began wringing her hands, fiddling with a diamond ring on her finger that I only just noticed she was wearing.

“When you didn’t show up, I’ll admit I thought you were just being selfish,” she said, wincing in obvious shame. “But when no one knew where you were the next day and you weren’t answering your phone we all started getting worried. When the police found your car abandoned out by the lake…”

She coughed and wiped a hand across her eyes. “All I could think about was how you could be out there somewhere, hurt or d-dead and the last thing I’d done was complain you weren’t being supportive enough!”

This was it. The moment I’d been waiting months for.

“Sarah, you had every reason to be pissed at me. I can’t believe how horrible I was being to you. I know I can be a jerk, especially when I get upset and stop thinking but… that was awful. Family shouldn’t ever turn on each other like that.”

“Can I ask what Jack did that made you hate him so much?” she asked quietly. “I just can’t get how you went from best friends to… whatever that was.”

“I could tell you that I know him better, but that’s not true. You’ve been dating him for, what? Four years now? I’ve barely so much as said ‘hello’ to him since high school. And yeah, he got up to a lot of trouble back in the day, but so did I. For all I know, he’s not that person anymore. I have no right to hate him, in all honesty.”

“But then, why…?”

“Because I actually don’t,” I said simply. At her nonplussed expression, I tried to manage a wry grin but it probably just came out as a grimace. “Even when we argued back at the church, I didn’t hate him. It was just easier to blame him than accept the truth.”

She just looked at me, wordlessly begging me to continue.

“I only realized it recently. Just like me, I only figured out what was going on when it was too late to do anything about it. The truth is I was jealous of you, Sarah. You always seemed to know exactly what you wanted and how to get it. You had a job you loved, and someone you loved even more. And meanwhile I had no friends and a job I hated. Two years out of college and I was back to working the checkout line! I felt like I was going nowhere.”

“I knew you were frustrated,” Sarah muttered, “but I didn’t know it was that bad.”

I smiled ruefully. “Well, it wasn’t exactly something I wanted to talk about! I hadn’t learned you sometimes need a little help yet,” I said and Scoots’s beautiful face came to mind. She gave a confident little smirk as the words ‘Don’t give up!’ rang in my ears. I smiled at the thought. “I’m tired of running from my problems, though. I need to face them if they’re ever going to get better. And the one I want to start with is you.”

I turned to look her dead in the eyes. “So I’m sorry, Sarah. For the things I said, for how I acted… For taking my frustration at how my life turned out on you. I was being selfish and lashing out purely because you were happier than me; nothing more. But I want you to know I’m not that person anymore. I will not be that person anymore,” I said, promising myself just as much as her. I let out a deep breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “If you can’t forgive me that easily, though, I’d understand–”

“I do,” she said simply. I blinked in surprise and she playfully nudged my shoulder. “Will, you idiot! You’re my baby brother! I’m always going to forgive you! Even when you’re being a colossal dick… I still love you. You big dork.”

“Th-that’s it?” I asked incredulously. “That’s all you need?”

The minutia of happiness fled from her face as her voice softened. “I just spent the last seven months wondering if you were even still alive! Do you really think I care that we had one dumb argument anymore? Besides, I can kind of see what you mean. You’ve changed, Will. I’ve only just noticed it, but… there is something about you that was never there before. This ‘Equestria’ or whatever was good for you, I think. Or maybe it was this friend you mentioned. Is she that blue pegasus with the rainbow-colored hair? Or the orange one with the purple hair?”

“Wha–? How did you know about them?” I asked.

“Duh,” she said, picking up a couple of the photos scattered between us and handing them to me. “Those two are in more of these than all of the others put together. Figured it had to be one of them.”

Looking at the two pictures she gave me, I couldn’t help but laugh. The first had been taken one night the three of us were up late hanging out. Rainbow’d had a little too much cider and passed out early, to which Scoots and I showed her the hazards of doing that around your friends. We were smiling in front of her sleeping body on the couch, a penis freshly-drawn in marker on Rainbow’s cheek.

Fur-friendly marker, of course; washes right off. We’re not that mean.

The second was the one I’d taken during the first of their flight practices that I’d attended, in which Rainbow and Scoots were embracing mid-air after a flawless performance. The sheer exuberance and overflowing love written across their faces was striking, and I took it in for a moment, finding myself tracing a finger across their manes in turn.

“Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo,” I said, pointing to each. “They’re sisters. Rainbow was there for me from the beginning, always treating me just like she did anypony else. It was like she really didn’t see a difference between us. She’s loud and brash and sometimes she thinks way too much of herself, but you couldn’t ask for a more steadfast friend. Heh, now that I think about it, you two have a little in common. Even when she’s pissed, she’s still willing to forgive you. She may need a little time to cool off, but she always comes around.”

“It sounds like you learned that the hard way,” Sarah said somberly.

“Would I do it any other way?” I asked. Boy had I learned it the hard way. Friendship with benefits turned ‘it’s complicated’ turned sleeping with her little sister. Did I really want to explain any of that to Sarah? Sure, she’d probably sympathize with a relationship that wasn’t working out; she’d had a few of her own. But a relationship with a non-human? Would she think it disgusting? I sure would have before Equestria. And even with all my stories of them, I doubted she had the context to really understand. In the end, I decided not to drop that bombshell. She’d had enough to absorb tonight as it was.

“It’s sort of a long, complicated story,” I started, earning a disbelieving stare that I ignored, “but the short version is that something I really wanted to do ended up with her getting hurt. I don’t regret doing it but… I don’t know, I could have had better timing, maybe. We tried to set things right a couple of days ago but neither of us were quite ready yet.”

“Oh… I’m sorry you two didn’t get to set things right before you came back,” Sarah said, suddenly sounding unsure. “But the portal was only going to be open for so long, right? You had to come back when you did. If she’s half the friend you make her sound like, she’ll understand that you couldn’t stick around just to patch things up.”

“Careful,” I said in mock seriousness, punctuating it by sticking out my tongue at her. “You’re starting to sound like you actually believe me!”

“I don’t know what I believe,” she sighed dramatically. “These pictures are either the best CGI I’ve ever seen or they’re real. But all these names and details and… I don’t know, the way you talk about them. You really believe all this. I guess I’m starting to, too.”

“Thank God,” I said, breathing out. Hearing that even a part of her wanted to think I wasn’t a lunatic was an enormous weight off my shoulders. Too bad it didn’t make the next part any easier. “I’m glad, Sarah. But there’s something you should know. I meant it when I said that I’m not running away from my problems anymore. I can’t leave things as they are in Equestria. I just can’t walk away.”

“W-what do you mean? Will, what are you saying?” she demanded.

“It’s the same reason I didn’t want you to call Mom and Dad yet,” I admitted. Here went nothing. “I may not still be here by the time they get back.”

With a burst of energy, Sarah bolted upright, wheeling about and stomping the floor. “Y-you can’t! You just got back, you are not leaving again!”

I didn’t have the strength to rise with her. I was resolute, though. I knew what I needed to do, even if she didn’t like it. I just had to hope she could understand. “I have to. Sarah, I came back tonight because I needed to see you again. I wanted even one chance to let you know what had happened and that I was okay. That I’ve missed you all so much…” I coughed to clear a sudden tightness from my throat.

“And I also needed you to understand why I acted like that back then. I guess it does seem like a stupid thing to worry about now but… I want to be a better person, and it starts with setting things right.”

“But what about us?!” she screamed. “What about your family?! Aren’t you just walking away from us?”

“It’s not the same! You got married even when I disapproved, didn’t you?” I said, pointing to the ring on her finger. She looked momentarily confused but nodded regardless. “And why’d you do that?”

“Because I love him,” she said, still not seeing where I was going.

“Exactly,” I said. She continued to look at me for a moment before apprehension dawned and the fervor left her. With a sigh, I stood and moved before her. As I placed my hands gently on her shoulder, I was struck by how small she seemed. I’d always been taller, but I had never forgotten that she was my big sister. But she didn’t look it now as her lip trembled and she leaned against me and wrapped her arms around me again. “I’m sorry, but I have a life in Equestria. I have friends and a job and yes, even love. That Scootaloo; Rainbow’s little sister? She’s an awesome girl and I wish you could have met her. You’d love each other so much. But I have to go. The portal is only going to be open for” –I checked the time– “another hour or so, if it hasn’t closed already. I have to take it while I can.”

Her grip tightened as her shoulders started to shake. “I-is it bad that I hope it has closed?”

I shook my head and rested my chin on top of her head. “Nah, I’ll miss you, too.”

A moment passed.

“Could I ask you a favor?” I asked. She nodded without pulling away. “I would be in sooo much trouble if I didn’t bring back a picture of you…”

The water of the old lake behind my parents’ house sparkled in the moonlight as we sat on the rock outcropping overlooking it. Sarah had put on a thick wool cardigan to keep the night’s chill at bay and I had borrowed one of my dad’s old coats. I hoped I wouldn’t need it for long.

We were both silent; simply enjoying what could very well be our last few minutes together for quite a while. When an idea suddenly struck me, I slipped off the necklace I was wearing and handed it to her.

“I need you to look after this for me. It doesn’t look like much, but it could be my key to coming back. Just imagine, if that thing works, I could come back and visit whenever I wanted! Maybe… maybe you could even come visit Equestria.”

“I won’t let it out of my sight,” she said quietly, putting it on and slipping it under her collar. “Maybe I could even meet this girl of yours. Or would it be ‘mare’?” She shuddered. “Eww. That’s going to take some getting used to.”

“Spend five minutes with her and I bet you’ll change your tune,” I teased. We shared a small laugh before quiet fell again. After a moment, Sarah pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it out to me.

“Are you sure you don’t want to call Mom and Dad before you leave?”

I hung my head. “I don’t have the time to explain everything all over again. And it’s going to be hard enough leaving again as it is, I can’t take Mom freaking out, too. You know how she gets.” I tried to turn the last part into a joke to lighten the mood but even to my ears it fell flat.

She completely ignored it. “If you don’t want to leave you don’t have to. I know you were unhappy before, but we can help! We can just–”

“No,” I said, interrupting her. “Equestria’s where I want to be, Sarah. With Scoots and Rainbow. With my friends. I’m just going to miss you all.”

“Yeah, we’ll miss you, too,” she whispered. Her hand went to the necklace. “You better tell that Twilight or whatever her name was to get this portal working full-time soon! Seven months is too long to go without seeing my baby bro.”

“I’ll tell her to get right on that,” I said, rolling my eyes. “But, uh… I should probably be going.”

She nodded weakly. “This Scootaloo better be worth it.”

“She is,” I said. And she’s not the only one worth it, I thought. “I know Twilight will get the portal open again someday. I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.”

“We’ll be waiting,” she said simply. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said in return. I stood, the pebbles crunching under my feet as I slid Dad’s coat off and look down to the water below. It was so innocuous. A thought struck me and I laughed. “You know, this is going to be really anti-climactic if the portal’s already closed.”

But I knew it wasn’t. It couldn’t be. The portal first opened at the exact moment I needed a change in my life. And even though it was something I never could have expected, I found the one place I truly belonged and the people I wanted to surround myself with. Then, when things were getting tough and I was making a thousand mistakes, it opened again and gave me the chance to settle things here.

I had to believe it wasn’t just chance.

And so, with one last smile to my sister and check of my satchel, I stepped forward, and for the second time that night, I hit the water and the world disappeared.

I broke through the water’s surface like a dolphin, only without all the grace as I crashed onto my ass in the ankle-deep shallows. As I wiped the water clear from my eyes I half-expected to see the woods again and I was so surprised it took me a moment to recognize the blue crystals in front of me.

The crystal caves; I’d recognize them anywhere.

It worked! I was home!

I couldn’t stop myself letting out a whoop of joy. The relief that the portal was still open flooded through me and the excitement left me jittery. I scrambled to my feet just in time to get bowled back over by a lump of orange fur and feathers.

“Will!” a beautifully-familiar voice said as a fuzzy face nuzzled my cheek. “W-what are you doing back?! Did the portal not work?”

Seeing Scoots felt like finding a drop of water in the desert. I pulled that little mare close and hugged her like I never had before, to the point it was her turn to gasp for breath for a moment. Even after we were done, I kept her held against me just so I could feel her body.

“No, Scoots, the portal worked just fine,” I said. “I just came back.”

“But why?”

Instead of say anything, I simply kissed her. With every ounce of love and passion I could muster I kissed her. The cold, my wet clothes, even the fact that it was the middle of the night and I was physically and emotionally exhausted; none of it mattered in that moment. It was just me and her and the feel of her lips.

When she pulled away, breathless and flushed, she didn’t seem to be able to formulate a thought, let alone words.

“That’s why,” I whispered. “Because I love you, Scoots. And I want to be with you, no matter what that means. Because I love Equestria and I want to live here with you and our friends. This is my home now, not Earth. This is where I finally belong.”

“But…” she whimpered. Her lip quivered as her eyes started to water. With a lunge, she buried her face into my chest and thick, heavy tears dampened my already-soaked shirt. “I didn’t want you to leave! Th-the second you left I missed you so much but I d-didn’t want you to stay just for me!”

“Well, I’m not,” I said as I comfortingly rubbed her back between her wings. “I’m back because I want to be here. I’m glad I went, though. I, uh… I got to see Sarah.”

She pulled away and wiped her eyes with a hoof. “You did? Was everything okay? How was she? Are you okay?”

I waved off her concern. “I’m fine and so was she. We got to talk for a while. I think we settled things! It was… It was really good, Scoots. I feel so much better! Oh! I also got a little something for you,” I said, gesturing to my camera satchel. “I need to get it developed first, but… How’d you like to see her?”

A wide, teary smile broke through on her face. “I’d love that!”

We shared a smile as I ruffled her scruffy mane, to which she playfully nipped at my fingers. Taking turns, we poked and prodded and tickled each other, just enjoying be with each other again.

That is, until a small ah-hem sounded nearby. With that one noise, it dawned on me that we might not be alone. I turned to look about the cavern and saw a much smaller crowd than was gathered earlier. Sweetie Belle, Spike and Apple Bloom stood cautiously nearby, the former glaring murderously in my direction with wet eyes. Spike was wringing a handkerchief in his claws nervously. No doubt Sweetie Belle had been using it only moments before.

Twilight’s assistants were still behind their table, pretending to focus on their notes while shooting not-so-surreptitious glances our way. The guard was still nowhere to be found; he must still be trying to find Rainbow in Cloudsdale.

The only other pony in attendance was Twilight herself. She was standing only a few feet away, just beyond the shallows of the pool. Her mane was frazzled and a single hair was standing up on the top of her head, though the look she was giving me was mostly comforting.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to make sure everything was alright,” she said. “Would you mind I give you a once over? Make sure you don’t have any lingering residual magical effects on you?”

Feeling rather embarrassed, we stood and waded out of the pool where Twilight took us aside. When Scoots followed, Twilight gave her a meaningful look. In return, Scoots stood resolutely by my side while returning a look that said in no uncertain terms ‘Try and make me leave if you dare.’

Realizing she was going to be fighting a losing battle, Twilight gave up and lit her horn in defeat. A magenta glow started passing over various parts of my body, feeling like a light breeze against my skin. It might have been a pleasant feeling had it not driven the chill deeper into my bones.

“So, how are you feeling? Any nausea, disorientation, dizziness? What about anxiety or other odd, unexplained sensations?” she asked.

“No, I’m feeling fine, Twilight,” I said.

“Why?” Scoots cut in. “Could he be hurt? Was the portal dangerous?!”

“No, he’s fine,” Twilight said, shaking her head as she cut off the flow of her magic. The reprieve was nice. “The portal had no ill-effects on him last time but it never hurts to check.”

Twilight looked like she wanted to say something else, but her sideways glance she was giving Scoots told me it wasn’t coming yet. Feeling an awkward silence about to set in, I said the first thing that came to mind.

“So, where is everypony? They all head home?”

“Yes, I teleported them all back to Ponyville a while ago,” Twilight said, eager for the change in subject from what I knew she was thinking about. “We didn’t think you’d be coming back. I decided to stay when the portal didn’t close behind you, just to monitor things but there wasn’t any need for everypony else to stay. But of course, Spike and the Crusaders all wanted to stay.”

Scoots bristled at her words. “I told you I wasn’t going to leave until the portal closed, and this is exactly why! If he came back ‘cuz something happened and I wasn’t here…”

“Scootaloo, that’s not what I was saying,” Twilight said, facehoofing in exasperation. “I was just afraid you were getting your hopes up in vain–” She trailed off with a sigh. “Look, I don’t want to argue. I’m very happy you’re back, Will, even though I hate that you had to give up so much to do it.”

“Oh, but good news!” Scoots chimed in, looking suddenly much happier. “Twilight said the tracer worked!”

“It did?!” I asked, turning to Twilight.

She nodded, smiling tiredly. “There’s some… anomalies in the location coordinates, not surprising considering it’s in a different universe. But I’m confident I’ll be able to open the way given some time to study and experiment.”

“How long we talking?” Scoots asked.

Twilight’s gaze became distant as she twiddled her wingtips in the way someone might do with their fingers while counting. After a moment, she said, “I’d be surprised if it took me more than two or three months. And even that’s assuming I’ll have to write my own spell formula to compensate for the differences between inter- and intra-spatial teleportation, which will be the most complicated step by far since I can’t rely on Clover the Clever’s standardized one.”

Scoots and I shared nonplussed looks. To prevent an explanation that would probably just end up leaving me confused and with a killer headache, I smiled and nodded. “That sounds great, Twilight. Thank you so much!”

“Don’t mention it,” she said sweetly. Surprisingly, she moved forward and pulled me into a one-winged hug, and after only a moment’s hesitation pulled Scoots in with the other. “What else are friends for, right?”

Scoots and I both returned her hug, Scoots more reluctantly than myself, but even she seemed to enjoy it. Just before Twilight made to pull away, she whispered just loud enough for both of us to hear.

“By the way, I know about what you two did last night. I expect it not to happen again until somepony has a birthday. Do I make myself clear?”

I cleared the awkward lump in my throat. “Yes, ma’am. Understood.”

We pulled apart from one another, Scoots nonchalantly polishing a hoof in an effort to look cool after such a not-cool display of emotion. I was about to further assure Twilight that Scoots and I wouldn’t be doing anything else inappropriate when a commotion sounded from the tunnel from which we’d come earlier on our way in.

“What in the world is that?” Twilight said. But we’d barely had time to register it when something moving impossibly fast flew into the chamber and made a beeline towards me.

For the second time that night, a furry lump slammed into my chest –the likes of which was likely going to be painfully bruised in the morning– however this one was not only much heavier but moving at somewhere around lightspeed. Had whatever it was not caught me and somehow held me up, I would have crashed right back to the ground.

“Oh Celestia, Will!” was all I heard through the mass of rainbow-colored hair obscuring my vision. “I’m so sorry, please don’t leave! I don’t care that things didn’t work out between us, I don’t care that you’re seeing the Squirt, just please don’t leave!”

I was released from the vice-grip she had me in until her glistening rose eyes were focused on mine. “Please, you’re one of my best friends! And I’m sorry I never told you that but you know how much I suck at talking about things! I know that’s no excuse, but–”

A flash of magenta magic pried Rainbow away from me and set her on the ground.

“Rainbow, please!” Twilight admonished. “He’s just come back through the portal and he doesn’t need any more stress right now. He needs to rest and take it easy for a while.”

“Back?” Rainbow asked in confusion. “But Twilight’s letter said you were leaving! When I read that I thought I’d never see you again… I flew straight here from Cloudsdale! Even left those slowpoke guards behind! I didn’t think I was going to make it in time. I was so scared…” Her voice faltered and she fell silent.

Scoots stepped towards her and gave her a comforting nuzzle. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

Rainbow gave her a warm smile. “Thanks, Squirt.” She turned back to me, a familiar determined hardness in her expression. It was the same look she wore when she was about to try a new, unpracticed stunt.

And then she said something I was not expecting.

“Will, things haven’t been right between us for a while now. But I’m tired of it. I want to fix this. You’re one of my best friends, and I don’t want something this stupid coming between us. And I know part of that is my fault, so… I’m ready to talk. About us, about you and Squirt, anything. Everything; I don’t care! Whatever it takes for us to be good again.”

“Do you really mean that?” I asked.

“Yes!” she said and I knew she was telling the truth. I knew as well that, no matter what or how long it took, we were going to put things right. I wasn’t walking away this time. I wasn’t giving up. And neither was she.

But…

“Rainbow, I think Scoots has a part to say in this conversation. She needs to be there,” I said. Rather than argue, however, Rainbow simply nodded tiredly.

“Yeah, I think you’re right. She’s just as much a part of this as we are now.”

I smiled and nodded. “Rainbow, Scoots?” I asked, placing a hand on each of their shoulders in turn. “Why don’t we go home?”

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay on this chapter, folks! I had some things come up that prevented me from having the time to work on it like I usually do.

Also, I wanted to mention that we're still on track for one more chapter and an epilogue. I'm going to try to finish them both by next week so that they can be posted at the same time.