Nothing's More Important

He was left alone downstairs for some time, the machine still autoplaying the series, now showing a griffon giving a few of the element bearers a hard time. A certain pink earth pony fly up to confront her, using a large collection of party balloons, much like those depicted on her flank. The ponies’ antics served as a good distraction, until the two women came downstairs, with Alice carrying a rather heavy looking backpack, and Amelia carrying a moderately large purse.

Each of the ladies winked at Justin in time as they came into the living room, Amelia’s looking decidedly more seductively coy, especially with her grin. “All packed up and ready to go,” Alice said, as they gathered into the living room, and Amelia finally turned off the laptop.

Justin pointed at the computer and its odd image. "I've never even heard of half the things they show on this thing. It's like being a peeping tom on their lives. I'm really not sure how I should take it. What if people are watching us right now?"

“Well, it’s Y7, so not so much a peeping Tom, per se,” Amelia said. “They’re not even depicted as anatomically correct. Though I’m quite glad you are, in person,” she added with a giggle.

“Speaking of people watching us… I hope your ghost doesn’t need an awkward talking to when we summon her,” Alice added. “Let’s get out the totem and call her.”

He cleared his throat with a bit of a blush as he dug out the 'totem' that was a little cute pony. He set it on the closest counter and smiled at it. "Are you in there? I'd like to talk to you if you have a moment."

“You have to hold it and say her name,” Alice reminded. “Three times, I believe.”

Amelia picked up the doll and began. “Isabelle Martin, Isa-” She stopped as the young girl appeared in a flash of light.

“Just Isabelle is fine,” the glowing, translucent girl said, before going up and giving Justin a big hug. “Are you doing OK, Justin? You seemed kind of scared at times.”

Justin smiled and reached to return the hug to the ghost. "Hello Isabelle. That's a very nice name. We're all doing alright, but we had a question. Do you remember how you pulled me here?"

Isabelle’s body certainly wasn’t solid, but it had a kind of pressure to it that gave him something to hug. “Uh huh. I gave you a big hard hug and brought you back here,” she said.

Amelia set the toy pony down and approached the ghost, wide eyed with wonder. It was one thing to be told there was a real ghost around, and another thing to see her. “Hi Isabelle? Do you remember me? I’m Amy. Do you think you’d be able to take all three of us to see where Justin came from?”

Justin swiveled his ears to Amelia, then back at the ghostly child, torn with conflicting feelings. "Don't hurt yourself. If it's really really hard, just tell us, alright?" He smiled gently. "I wouldn't want my little friend getting hurt trying to do us a favor."

“I think I can do it? I’ll stop if it hurts, okay?” Isabelle offered. “But you have to gather really close together, okay? I have to hug all of you to do it. Are you ready to go now?”

“Thanks Isabelle,” Alice said as she moved in and snuggled against Justin, kneeling to be in easy reach for the child.

“I’m ready,” Amelia said, squeezing against Justin’s other side, and kneeling as well, hand ruffling his mane.

Justin suddenly giggled. "This is going to be confusing for whoever wanders past. There'll be a perfect bed of hay just growing there, and nopony in sight anywhere. I'm ready!" He looked himself off and shook, making sure his saddlebags were properly in place and vials were secured.

Isabelle wrapped her arms around them all and for a few seconds nothing else happened. Just as they were beginning to wonder if she would be able to do it, the world disappeared from their perceptions, replaced by nothing but smoke, or perhaps the memory of it? Their eyes stung, their bodies tried to cough out the smoke that wasn’t actually there, and they were more than a little uncomfortably hot, but before the terror overwhelmed them completely, they found themselves simply in the dark. Cool, stale air surrounded them, and a few tiny droplets of cold water dripped onto their foreheads, bringing them out of the illusion.

Isabelle was nowhere to be seen, made worse by the fact that she was their only light source. Until a click sounded from Amelia’s direction, and a bright beam of light began to scan around the cave. “This isn’t exactly what I was expecting. Let’s find a way out of here.”

Justin looked around with wide eyes, and his eyes were pretty large to begin with. As he became aware of his surroundings the panic began to settle and he gave a slightly-unhinged giggle. "I remember this place. We're back, we're really back!" He suddenly bolted, running for the exit.

The women followed a bit more slowly, Alice weighed down by her heavy pack, and Amelia using the flashlight to guide her more cautious steps. But the cave wasn’t that treacherous, or too terribly deep, and they made it out into the woods easily enough.

“So… this is it? This is really Equestria?” Amelia asked as she blinked at the bright sunlight, despite the foliage. “Wait… this isn’t the Everfree Forest, is it?”

He looked over his shoulder at Amelia. "Oh Celestia no. It is a forest, but not that horrible place. My usual gathering agent wasn't around, so here I was, scrounging, and then a ghost grabbed me, and there I was." He looked around slowly and took a slow breath. "Oh Equestria."

“Good! Good. Just lead the way then, Justin. We’re your guests now,” Amelia said, though already her eyes were roving over the various plants in the area, particularly those most distinct from Earth’s flora.

Alice sniffed heavily at the air with curiosity of her own. “We should get to your house. For one, I’d like to drop this heavy pack so I can get back into my own fur. I can barely smell anything like this!”

Oh right, he was the tour guide. He turned to the exit of the forest and began to lead the way. "This way! When we get back towards town, don't make any sudden moves, and stay close to me. If you look like you're with me, that'll make you look a lot less weird. I mean, if one of my friends had a weird alien with them, I'd want to ask them what's up, instead of running away."

"That's a good idea. Oh, I think maybe Alice should change first. If the friendly wolf is around for introductions from the get go, I think that'll work better than her changing later," Amelia suggested.

“That sounds good to me, if you can carry the pack the rest of the way. What all did you put in here, anyways?" Alice responded.

"Well we don't know if I'll ever get home again, so I had to bring enough," Amelia pointed out.

Justin perked an ear. "Um, how bad is it?" He turned back to face them. "We have to get you some saddlebags too. They're great and work for us four-legged sorts." He waved a hoof gently with a smile.

The pack changed hands, and Amelia stumbled a bit under the weight with a grunt, but managed to stay upright. "I think I can make it, just no more running," she said with a huff.

Freed of her burden, Alice quickly shed her clothes, stuffing them in Justin’s saddlebags before returning to her familiar canine form. "Ah, much better. We'll definitely look into suitable bags for me while we're here."

Justin quickly circled around the returned wolf. "You're just a little different," he said as if just noticing it. "It'll mostly work, but we should go to a seamstress and get it specially fitted for you." He turned back to town and started to trot off, tail swaying with every step. He looked quite enthusiastic.

Alice slipped into lockstep beside him, while Amelia trailed behind the pair, looking every bit as enthusiastic, despite the weight of their burden.

The trip through the woods was uneventful, but entering town was less so. The first few ponies to see them left in a hurry, the third, a pegasus mare who used her wings to keep out of reach called out to Justin as they approached. "Hi Justin, who are your friends? They are friends, aren’t they?" The mare was Gentle Breeze, a kind young weatherpony who kept the area in order.

Justin raised a hoof in a friendly wave. "Hey Gentle! This is Alice, and Amelia. They're coming to stay with me for a while. They're friendly, promise!" He spun around towards his friends and gestured up at her. "That's Gentle Breeze, she's a terrific weather mare who's at least partially responsible for this wonderful day."

“You can make the weather be what you want?" Alice asked, genuinely curious, without the disbelief many from Earth might have felt. She had certainly witnessed more unbelievable things, and been one herself. So why not? The mare's slow flapping was already giving gravity the bird.

"Of course she can," Amelia said with a hint of fangirlish glee. "You're the first weatherpony I have had the pleasure to meet. Do you have a particular specialty?"

“Wind patterns, of course, but a small town like this, everypony needs to be able to do everything on a weather team,” Gentle Breeze answered, before slowly settling down toward the ground. “I’ve never met a… whatever you are, before. Or a friendly wolf. Nice to meet you both. Where’d you find the likes of them, Justin?”

Justin plopped onto his haunches. "It's difficult to even explain, but I've been on amazing adventure! Can you believe it? Me! Oh--" He gestured at Amelia. "She's a 'human', did I get that right? She has very clever fingers and a keen mind. My wolf friend has her own tricks. They're both pretty special, and nice." Did he mention nice yet?

Amelia blushed at the mention of her ‘clever fingers’, but offered them to Gentle Breeze, nonetheless, in the form of a hand/hoof-shake. “Justin here accidently found his way all the way to our world, and paid us a visit. So we thought we would repay the favor, and come visit his world a bit, once we figured out how.”

When Alice offered her own paw, Gentle went with a hoofbump instead, confusing Alice momentarily. “I’ve claimed him as my mate,” she admitted openly, “so we thought it best if we meet his parents and friends as soon as we could.”

Gentle Breeze was shocked by the sudden revelation, and her wings showed it quite dramatically. “Really? Wow! You didn’t have a wedding without inviting anypony, did you?! Scandalous!” Before anyone could clarify she was back in the air, heading deeper into the town.

Justin flushed gently as word of his eloping became public knowledge and he wondered how quickly it would spread through the community. "We never had a proper wedding." His tail suddenly thumped the ground. "You know, we really should."

Amelia went to say something but held back a moment before apparently switching tracks. “That’d be a lot of fun, and I get the impression your friends and neighbors would be excited to attend. Let’s do that!”

Alice looked back and forth between the two. “You’ll have to fill me in on what all that entails. But I’m happy to do it for you, my stallion.”

Justin waved forward. "First, we get settled in, then I'll go over proper traditional wedding ceremonies." He hesitated a moment before looking to Gentle. "I've never really saw a herd ceremony. Do you know how those work?" But Gentle wasn't there anymore. He snorted gently at the place he remembered her being. "Pegasi…"

“Would it be a racial slur to call her ‘flighty’?” Amelia said with a giggle. She scratched Justin gently behind the ears with her ‘clever fingers’, as she looked out into the town, watching more curious ponies come into line of sight, looking from a distance as word spread.

“We should stop by your home at least, let Amy drop off her pack. I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone to ask about it soon enough,” Alice suggested.

Justin nodded, perhaps not as deeply as he normally would have, enjoying those soft scratches. "Follow me." He led the way through the pastoral pony town and began to smile as he went, relaxing with the sights of home. "I may have to save up for an expansion. I don't want you two getting crowded with me in my little abode."