The Visit

"One more lap! You're doing great, Frances!" Rainbow Dash called from above. Feeling confident, he finished the lap at a canter, then ambled to Fluttershy's backyard table, glad to take a break. Fluttershy served refreshments to them all.

"You sure you don't want to get in on this, Fluttershy?" Rainbow asked after chugging a glass of lemonade. Frances sipped his primly through a straw. Applejack fanned herself with her Stetson before taking a hearty swig.

Fluttershy flapped her wings gently. "No, thank you. I like watching you three have fun."

"Suit yerself, sugarcube," Applejack told her, then led another round of stretches. When they were done, Rainbow began her flying lesson.

"Alright, let's see those wings Flutters was tellin' me about!"

Meanwhile, Pinkie had just reached her meek friend's front door. She heard Rainbow Dash in the backyard, which lifted her spirits. Fluttershy wasn't alone, and she was receptive to company. After picking up the cupcake box again she gave three brisk knocks and spent the precious seconds Fluttershy took to open the door to practice her best smiles.

"Pinkie Pie! Come in!"

"Is this a bad time?"

"Not at all! Applejack and Rainbow are outside with Frances."

"Yes, I heard. I brought you guys cupcakes from the Corner! I hope he likes cupcakes!"

Fluttershy beamed as she took the box from her. "Even if he doesn't, I'm sure your baking will make him reconsider!"

They shared a laugh, then the party pony offered to help feed her animal friends their lunch. After tipping some seed into a bird feeder, Pinkie asked if everything was going alright with Frances.

"I'm so proud of him!" Fluttershy gushed as she balanced a bowl of kibble on her head. "Only two days ago he could barely talk, but look at him now!" She gestured to the window. Frances trailed Rainbow Dash like a hawk searching for prey, brandishing dark brown-black bat wings with every flap. Pinkie held her breath as he closed the distance between them, but when the chase ended with friendly words instead of carnage, she released it.

"I'll be sad to see him go in two days, but he deserves to be in his own world again."

"Oh, he's leaving?" Pinkie queried.

"Mmm-hmm!" Then the caretaker giggled. "He certainly can't stay with me forever, can he?"

Pinkie returned the giggle. "No, he can't."

Twilight finally settled on a mobile full body mirror the next day. It took some doing, but she, Starlight, and Spike were eventually able to cart it to Fluttershy's house without sustaining any damage. Frances inspected the mirror from top to bottom, and once he approved it, fetched a drawing of the incantation. "I usually never enchant anything larger than a hand mirror, so I use wax or chalk. You're free to use that too, but I think a mirror of this size requires something with a bit more staying power."

"Where should we draw it?" Twilight asked.

"Anywhere you feel is appropriate, Your Highness, so long as the mirror can stand in the center of it and I can access the mirror. I always imagined leaving from Miss Fluttershy's home, though."

"I can wash the chalk from my floor," Fluttershy encouraged.

"That settles it, then," Spike said. Frances regarded the dragon with renewed interest when he spoke.

"I still can't believe there's a dragon in your midst. Is he a diplomat? A social experiment?"

"I'm Twilight's number one assistant!" he stated proudly, but this only befuddled Frances. Twilight stepped forward to explain.

"Princess Celestia assigned hatching Spike as an entrance exam for her school of gifted unicorns."

"You hatched him?" he asked, astonished, then a greater question came to mind. "The sisters are alive?"

Twilight, as well as the others, froze in shock. "Of course they're alive," she began shakily. "Why...why wouldn't they be?"

"Ah, then the plague doesn't afflict this universe."

Now Twilight was interested. Sitting down, she asked Frances to elaborate.

"There isn't too much to say. A couple of years ago, say, five or six, a great flash consumed Equestria, and I think the whole world too. Everyone past adolescence simply disappeared. 'Plague' is a bit of a misnomer, but what else wipes out scores of creatures that quickly? Crazier still, it's happened only once. We're getting older, but there haven't been any more flashes."

"How do the Princesses fit into this?"

"Well, they're the oldest equines we know of, correct? There are whole sects of ponies who believe they will return, but I'm more than sure they, like our parents, are dead. It's been too long."

"What of the sun and moon?"

"Free of their avatars, they follow their own whims, which, fortunately, are very close to the Princesses' old habits."

"What about society? What about friendship?"

"For better or for worse, ponies have been left to their own devices. I myself am in charge of a little cohort on the outskirts of the town I grew up in. We do what we can."

"I'm sure they need your leadership," she said in a low voice.

Frances turned a hoof around in a circle. "Well, I have procedures in place in case of my death, but I know they miss me."

"Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow."

"We'll have to tell the others."

"Applejack and Rainbow Dash already know."

Spreading the word to the rest did not take too long. Twilight decided to put off writing that letter to her mentor until all was said and done.

Frances' final day began early, as Fluttershy woke him to eat another vole before her friends arrived. Reinvigorated, he dived into all the activities Pinkie Pie had planned for her impromptu 'Goodbye Frances!' party. Rarity gave him a hairbrush and a scarf as a goodbye gift. Spike answered all that he could about his status in Equestria, which still confused Frances, but he was grateful for the information. Hugs and parting words were shared all around.

Then the incantation was drawn.

Frances stood before the mirror, horn lit up with a sky blue aura (an aura Twilight couldn't help but notice was tinged ever so slightly black). A wooded path appeared in the mirror's face.

"There it is," he sighed. He took a step forward, only to turn around and hug Fluttershy one last time. Fluttershy couldn't help herself and teared up again.

"Miss Fluttershy," he stated as he released the hug, "Without you, I would have completely forgotten what it felt like to have a mother take care of you. To love you. I'm kind of a stand-in mother for a lot of young ponies, some no older than fillies, and it's certainly not easy, especially when absolute power corrupts absolutely. However, with your compassion in mind, I vow to reconsider my harsher decisions as they arise. It's a wonder what a little kindness will do."

That was all she could ever ask for.

With one last nod and thank you to the unicorns supporting his portal home, he stepped through the mirror and disappeared.