Luke could hear muffled voices all around him. His eyes met darkness when he tried and failed to open them. He couldn't move yet, so the voices went on.

"I told him there was a bug in his ear."

"That's not funny Iron Clad."

"Oh Celestia, he looks like a dead fish."

"Rainbow Dash!"

"What?"

"I ain't gonna even explain how wrong that was."

"Why don't you mind your own business Applejack!"

"Please, all of you! Just be quiet..."

Luke recognized that last voice. It was Cora. Luke fought his fatigue to try and break free from the shackles of minor paralysis.

"Luke."

Luke felt his face for the first time in a long while when Cora's tears dropped one by one onto his cheeks. "Cora." Luke tried to speak, but his words were caught up in his dry throat.

"Please don't die."

That plea from Core struck him to the core of his emotions. This resulted in a system transfer that turned raw emotional power into physical strength. Opening his eyes, Luke immediately wrapped an arm around Cora. "Not dead yet." This action brought Cora to uncontrollable tears of joy as she buried her face into Luke's neck. "Here, I'm here." Luke finally forced his eyes to take in the revealing light.

The room around him was silent. Some were gawking while others just stood amazed by Luke's sudden awakening. Luke looked around until he saw Applejack smiling with her hat over her heart. More awareness came to Luke in time, but one sensation did not return as Luke expected.

“Everything is fine Luke,” Twilight made her way up to the side of his bed, “You're going to be fine. But, I'm afraid we can't stay here much longer. You need your rest.”

“Cora?” Luke tensed his arm around Cora in desperation, there were things he needed to tell her, things he needed to say.

Twilight sighed with a little smile, “I think it'll be alright if she stays.” Luke thought she sounded sort of funny when she said that.

Cora turned her head to face Twilight. “Thank you.” She quickly buried her face back into Luke's neck. The muffled sounds were odd.

“Applejack.” Luke reached his arm out and caught Applejack by the shoulder. “Next to my clock, on the nightstand, there's a small box. I need you to bring it to me. Can you do that, for me?”

Applejack nodded and headed out with everyone else in the room. Luke listened to their hoof steps, but they were missing something. The sound of their walking lacked a specific depth. Luke focused on the spot where the “bug” had been. Nothing. There was no pain. There was nothing. There was no feeling at all. He couldn't hear anything from that spot. The sound was absent.

“Cora. Something is wrong. I can't hear out of my ear.” Luke watched in content horror as she lifted her head to face him. It's the kind of horror, the kind of fear, you get when you're faced with a fact you don't want to believe, but there's not enough hope to deny it; you accept it. The look on Cora’s face was not fearful though. Her face wasn't shameful like other people who had brought Luke bad news in the past.

Cora let out a sigh. “Luke, the doctor's found, well, they called it an electric tick. It was lodged in the part of your head that links your ear frills to your brain. They got it out, thank goodness.” Cora smiled at the comfort of knowing Luke was really safe. “But, back at your house, you were having a fit, like a seizure. It was the tick. When that happened, you grabbed a kitchen knife and,” a subtle tear formed in the corner of her eye, “you cut off your ear. I’m sorry.”

Luke raised his brow and laughed. “Why are you sorry? I’m the idiot who cut off my own ear.”

“Luke! You’re not an idiot.” Luke laughed a bit more at Cora’s response. “How can you laugh about this? I nearly thought you were going kill yourself! How can you laugh about that?”

“Cora,” Luke gently held her face up, “look at me. I’m still alive. That’s all that matters now. It’s in the past. I’m laughing because I’m glad to be alive. I’m glad. I’m glad that you’re safe.”

“I still don’t get why you make anything about me. You’re more important.”

“Stop that!” Luke held Cora tightly by the shoulders. “Stop taking yourself for granted. You are not insignificant. You are the only one that is you. There's no one else in the universe that is you. That makes you special. You're the only you that will ever exist. That makes you rare, that makes you important. You are just as important as anyone else. To me, you're more important than that.”

Luke lifted his head high enough to kiss Cora on her forehead, just below her horn. The position of his head though, was a strain on the muscles in his neck, so he laid his head back down. Tensions released, and he let out a deep breath of relief. He felt a great comfort in Cora resting her head on his chest. She whispered a quiet thank you, and with that, they slept.

*****

“Oh my gosh!” Luke could hear Pinkie Pie as she released her excitement in a hushed whisper. “They look so cute!”

“Pinkie Pie, please,” Applejack was there too, “let them rest.”

Luke opened his eyes, surprised that that light didn't blind him. He looked over at Applejack who set the box he had asked for on the tray next to the hospital bed. She gave Luke a smile that held no anger or malice; she was happy and understanding. A slight nod from Applejack acted as a gesture to say, “We're all right.” With that, Applejack and Pinkie Pie exited the room.

“Luke?” Cora drowsily opened her eyes and smiled at the sight of her friend smiling at her. “Did someone come?”

“It was just our friends, checking in on us.” Luke could wait no more. Here they were. No better time could come along than now. “Cora?” Luke picked up the box from the tray.

“Yes Luke?”

“Cora, I have to tell you something. I need to tell how I feel. I know that friends love each other, that's how true friendship works. But, I believe that our friendship has gone beyond. I hope that the relationship we share could be a stronger friendship, stronger than any friendship I've ever had so far. Cora,” Luke forced himself to sit up with Cora still close to him, “I love you. I love you in a special, intimate way. Yes, I'm a dragon and former human, and you're a changeling, but I can't help but think that we need each other's company. Your smile, your compassion, and your hopeful presence inspires me to be a better person. I want to become a better person by your side. I hope to continue to become a better person with your help. There is only one way that I can think of that will commit me to that promise, yes a promise. I promise to be the best that I can be for you. I promise to do all that I am capable of for you. I want to keep you company for the rest of your life.” Luke opened the box to reveal the ring he had crafted just for her and held her hoof. “Cora, would you ever consider marrying a human, turned dragon, like me?”

“Consider?” Cora had warm happy tears in her eyes.

“Have you ever considered it?” Luke felt his heart shake with a fear as he awaited her answer.

Cora was blunt. “I never considered it possible for me to marry you.”

“Oh.” Luke felt his heart sink in his chest. “Oh.” Luke began to shake uncontrollably.

“But, Luke, I've always dreamed about having the joy of being together forever.” Cora watched as Luke's face grew into a smile as his heart leapt for joy.

“Then, in that case,” Luke pulled the ring out of the box, “Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” Cora’s body trembled from the sunshine that had brightened up her soul. Luke carefully placed the ring on Cora’ horn. “A thousand times yes.”

*****

three months later…

Luke opened his eyes as the morning sunlight filled his bedroom. Looking at his clock, he saw that it was seven o'clock in the morning. Funny, he thought, why didn't the chimes go off? He checked the switch for the chimes in the back. I was off. “Huh.” Luke sat up and stretched his spine by raising his arms up high as he let out a hefty yawn. He reached to his right but that side of the bed was barren. “What?” Upon further inspection, Luke found that Cora, the changeling he'd been married to for two and half months now, was gone. “Cora?”

Without any warning the door to his room flew open, and a mass pounced him with a speedy hug that nailed him back down to the bed. “Happy Birthday Luke!”

Luke laughed as he caught his breath from his wife's sneak attack. “Thank you Cora.” Luke wrapped both his arms around her in a firm hug.

“Now wait right here,” Cora broke the hug and ran out the door. Luke repositioned himself so that he was leaning up against the headboard. He saw Cora returning to the room with a bed tray full of breakfast. “I made your favorite!” Cora set the tray over Luke's lap and sat next to him as he ate.

“What did I ever do to deserve you.” Luke dived right into the pancakes topped with butter and syrup, and then, he spread some of the salsa over his scrambled eggs. After taking a big gulp of the big glass of eggnog, he took a fair bite from one of the two potato bread bagels that were toasted and topped with cream cheese. “You're the best.”

“I felt like returning the favor for what you did for my birthday two weeks ago.” Cora rest her head against Luke's arm.

“You told me you couldn't remember when your real birthday was,” Luke pointed out, “I wanted you to have the best first birthday you could remember.”

“How did you come up with that day anyway?” Cora stole the other bagel for herself.

Luke smiled at the moment. This was his second birthday in Equestria, and he believed it to be his best thus far. “It's the day we met. Remember? My first birthday here wasn't too far off when I met you. I figured it would be a great day to make your birthday.”

“You figured right.” Cora reached up and kissed Luke on the cheek. “So, what was your birthday wish this year?”

“It’s already starting to come true.”

“Really?” Cora laughed, “Was it the food?”

“No.” Luke set down his utensils and wrapped an arm around Cora, “It was spending the day with you.”

*****

Fluttershy was feeding her animals when she spotted a new pot of beautifully arranged flowers that hadn't been there a moment ago. “Discord.” Fluttershy smiled and hummed to herself. She continued feeding her animals when all of a sudden a bright blinding flash appeared with a thunderous sound. All the animals ran the opposite direction while Fluttershy ducked and hid herself with her hooves.

After the flash dissipated, Fluttershy looked up to see a figure standing in the spot where the light was. She automatically recognised that it was another human like Luke once was, but it was wearing some sort of protective suit. It was a lot more hefty than the suit Luke was wearing when he came to Equestria. Fluttershy could see the wide eyed human’s face through the visor of his dome like helmet. “Hello?”

“Gah!” The human jumped back and fell flat on its rump. “What in sam’s hell?”

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy interjected, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Scared?” The human laughed. “I’m not scared.” His eyes widened. “I’m terrified! Why? Oh you know, just chatting with a talking horse!”

“Please, don’t be frightened.” Fluttershy carefully approached the human. “Are you lost? What’s your name?”

The human got back up on its feet. “I’m Lieutenant Julie Daniels, and I’m looking for another astronaut by the name of Luke Simmons.”

Fluttershy stiffened when she heard Luke’s name. “Uh oh.”

*****

“What’s going on, Applejack?” Luke followed Applejack with Cora close by his side.

“I ain't exactly sure, but it sounded mighty serious.” Applejack’s voice was shaky. Luke could could see she was afraid of something.

The walk wasn't much farther as Twilight’s Castle came into view. Luke pushed the doors open at froze at the sight of the familiar face inside the spacesuit that stood there next to Twilight.

“Oh my god, that is a dragon.” The astronaut stepped back a bit behind Twilight.

Luke began to smile as soon as he heard the voice, “Julie?”

The astronaut’s eyes widened when she heard Luke's voice. “Hold up!” She stood there with an accusing finger pointed at Luke. “Luke! Oh my god!”

Luke shrugged his shoulders. “Yep, it's me.”

“Luke!” Julie rushed forward and met Luke with an awkward hug. “My god! We thought you were dead.”

Luke laughed. “Well, I'm not dead.”

“Wow,” Julie shook her head, still in disbelief, “if it were for this helmet, I might actually kiss you right now.”

Just then, Cora positioned herself between Luke and Julie. She wore a angry look, but to Luke it would have looked like a puppy pouting because it didn't get to play with a piece of cheese. “He's married.”

Julie raised her brow at the curious behavior of the changeling she saw. “Okay?”

“Honey relax.” Luke pulled on Cora’s shoulder a bit. “She was joking.”

“Joking?” Cora looked up at him, still angry.

“She hates me.” Luke laughed as he wrapped both of his arms around her. “She expressively hates me.”

Julie laughed at the sight. “No, that's not totally true. It just, you know, when you're presumed dead, turned into a dragon, or married to some alien species from a world of technicolor horses.”

“Let me at her!” Cora struggled to escape from Luke who held her as tight as he could. The more she struggled, the more it gave Luke a chance to find her tickle spot. “No, wait, that's not fair!” Luke continued to tease the spot between Cora’s hip and thigh.

Twilight walked up and coughed to motion Luke to stop and pay attention. “Luke, I'd like to have a private conversation with you and miss Julie here.”

“Of course.” Luke set Cora down by his side. “Wait here with Applejack and the others, won't you?”

“Of course.” Cora fluttered her wings a bit to fly up and kiss Luke. She turned to face Julie. “I've got my eyes on you.”

*****

“Luke.” Twilight tapped her hoof on the floor. “I just talked with the Twilight from the mirror. Why, I don't know, maybe because I finally decided it was suspicious how she never asked about any feedback on the human she sent through. And, you know what she told me?” Luke buried his face behind his claws. “She tells me, that she didn't send anyone through!”

Luke shook his head. “Yeah, I know. I lied.”

“You didn't tell them that you were working for NASA?” Julie crossed her arms in the space suit.

Luke let out a sigh. “I told Fluttershy, but I told her not to say anything.”

Twilight stared in bewilderment. “Why didn't you tell us all? We could have fixed this and gotten you back.”

“Maybe I don't want to go back!” Luke jumped out of his chair in anger. He did a strange three step pace. “Maybe I'm happy here! I mean I've got friends, I've got a life, and I'm married.”

“Luke.” Julie stepped up to force him to look at her. “I know we don't see eye to eye, but, this isn't your home. You are a human being. Regardless of the fact that you turned into a dragon, you're still a human at heart. And, we can fix you.”

“What are you talking about?” Luke pushed Julie away. “Fix what?”

“I'm sure we can figure out how to make you human again.” Julie wavered at the look of horror from Luke. “You're human.”

Luke stepped back. “No, you can't do this.” He headed for the door. “No!” He burst open the door and left like that.

Julie watched Luke embrace the strange creature she had learned was married to Luke. “What happened to him?”

“I can't say.” Twilight took a deep breath and shook her head. “He's been through so much, and I know he shouldn't stay.”

“Shouldn't?” Julie was not pleased by Twilight’s nonchalant response. “He can't! It could tear a hole between our dimensions and cause mass destruction! I'm not sure of how much damage he's already done!”

“You're right,” Twilight agreed. “In fact, what can you tell me about how you got here? I'm guessing you're suit is to protect your from the effects of our world.”

Julie sat herself down across from Twilight. “You're right about the environmental suit. As for how we were able to get here, well, we were experimenting with the idea of string theory. The scientists at NASA had this idea that they could find a way to travel between dimensions or even universes. So they built the dimension vault. Luke was the second traveler that tested it.”

Twilight bit her lip, a little concerned. “And, uh, who was the first?”

Julie let out a breath in a whistle. “Well, um, it was a little guinea pig, by the name of Columbus, that ended up having to be mopped up off the floor.”

“Oh.” Twilight regretted having asked. “So, when you got here, you ended up by Fluttershy's cottage?”

“Yeah that's correct.” Julie speculated a bit until she thought of something. “You mentioned that Luke came through a portal in a mirror.”

Twilight tried her best to put it all together. “It could be possible, that while I was working on the mirror portal, you're dimension vault latched onto it and created a gateway between our worlds.”

Twilight and Julie continued to talk for hours about how they get a new portal back to earth. Meanwhile, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack pondered on what Luke told them. They had heard from Luke that Julie was going to try and force him to come back with her. They weren't excited about it. In fact they were going to miss him. Applejack said nothing.

Luke had gone back to his house with Cora. “Luke, you're sure you don't want to be with our friends?”

“I want to go home and spend the rest of my birthday with you. I don't want anything else to ruin it.” Luke laid down on the couch with sorrow plucking at the strings in his heart.

Cora joined him. “Luke. They can help us. I'm sure they don't want you to go.”

“You mean like Twilight.” Luke gave a disgusted laugh. “She wants to sent me because I'm not the human she wanted to come here. If I was that Flash Sentry fucker that pinkie told me about…”

“Luke!”

“...then she'd let me stay.” Luke was trembling and Cora could feel it.

“Luke, you're scaring me. You acting like you're going to be be leaving me forever.”

Luke blinked his eyes as he began to cry. “I should have known, guys like me don't get the girl.”

SMACK

Cora used her hooves to make Luke look her in the eyes. “I'm not your girl, I'm your wife and your best friend! You will not be leaving me, and I will not let you be alone. You know we've been through too much to just give up now. Luke you can't give up. It's not like they can send an army to take you away. Even if they do, we got the strongest army on our side. We've got friends and family, and nothing is stronger than that.”

Luke smiled and he embraced Cora. “I love you too.”

*****

“This is Luke's house?” Julie walked around the small little cottage-like home.

“This is his home, yes. He and Cora have been living here for about three months now.” Twilight circled the house with Julie as they talked. The others had gone inside to try and help Luke feel better.

“Why didn't you go inside with the others?”

Twilight sighed. “It's his birthday, but I'm also a cause of some of his pain, given that I agreed with your decision to take him back.”

“Thanks for that by the way.” Julie looked through the window of Luke's room. “It's his twelfth birthday.” Julie saw the merry group laughing in a circle as Luke blew out the candles on a cake. They were all happy to have him, and Luke seemed so serene as a gentle smile dawned on his face.

“That's not possible; he's only been here two years.” Twilight hummed to herself. “It could be possible that time moves faster in your world than ours.”

They didn't say anymore. They just watched the little party that was going on inside of Luke's home. Both felt a tidal wave of regret, but they knew what eventually had to happen. Luke would probably have to leave. Julie hated Luke for the situation. “Again, the twerp makes me have to make the hard decisions. Oh well, I guess things happen that way.”

Author's Note