Friendship Through the Worlds

by ThomasZoey3000

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Human, Twilight Sparkle, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Starlight Glimmer
Length: 23804

A young man is drawn into a world of chaos when the ponies of his favourite show visit his world.

Book 1 of MLP in Real Life, rewritten in 2022. Matthew lived a calm quiet life, but one day, it all changes as he meets characters from a show he loves, and is drawn into a fight with one of their enemies, all the while he must keep the ponies being on Earth a secret. Can he do it?

Published 2022-09-24 13:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2023-11-25 04:06:39 UTC

The Meeting

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic In Real Life
Book 1: Friendship Through the Worlds
2022 Rewrite by: ThomasZoey3000

Chapter 1: The Meeting

When a person is asked of what they think about Ontario Canada, they could answer by saying that it's full of busy cities, with heavy amounts of traffic, very little scenery, and a lot of people. However, this is not true in the entire province. Northern Ontario is quite picture-esque with woods, small towns and friendly people. This is often the best place to move to if one wanted to escape the big cities, and get away for much needed peace and quiet. That is especially true for the person this story focuses on.

His name is Matthew Gagnon, born in Markham Ontario, he moved away in 2014 for the peace and quiet, and to live a normal life. He's mostly on his own, except for the company of a little orange cat he called Bridget. His home rests on one of the borders of Northern Ontario and the province of Quebec. He doesn't mind it there, though sometimes he does feel a little lonely.

He isn't working at this time, only living on the money from his previous jobs before moving, and soon would go off to film trains for a living.

The story truly beings on a warm summer's afternoon. Matthew had just finished work on his old pick-up truck as it had been acting up. As he walked into the house, he found his little orange cat Bridget coming up, and meowing at him.

"Yes Girl it's me," he said kindly. "Nothing too serious this time, though I really need to consider getting a new vehicle."

Bridget meowed again. Matthew rolled his eyes, "I forgot to feed you again didn't I?" Bridget meowed several times, as if to say 'yes, you did'.

"Okay Girl, calm down, I'll get you some food. And maybe, get myself something to eat too."

He first got out the cat food for his cat, then went to work making a batch of spaghetti and tomato sauce. As he worked, he turned on his television and watched one of his favorite shows; My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Now to most people, it would seem weird for a 25 year old man to be watching a show about magical talking ponies, but Matthew learned a long time that everybody is allowed to have their own interests, so that's why he watches the show. That and it was amazing to watch.

As he worked away, he heard a voice that made his skin crawl. He looked to the screen and saw a pony with a light purple coat, dark purple mane and tail with teal streaks, different shade of purple highlights, and a horn using her magic to steal something called; Cutie Marks off the main characters of the show. She was called Starlight Glimmer.

"Yeah laugh now sucker, cause Twilight and the others will beat you - like they always do," he chuckled over the last part.

All too soon, he was finished making his meal. He put the tomato sauce onto his spaghetti and sat down at his end of the kitchen table. This would allow him to watch the show, and still enjoy his meal. As he was about to take the first bite though, his phone started ringing.

"Really? Now? Oh for crying out loud, can't a guy eat his meal in peace?"

He put down his fork and went to answer the phone, "hello, Matthew Gagnon speaking."

"Yo Matthew! What's up buddy?!"

Right away, he knew who the voice belonged to. Once upon a time, back in his younger days, Matthew didn't have many friends, until he got into the third grade, and that's when he found several friends. Today, only two of the group remain as the others moved away. One of the people he was talking to on the phone was his good friend; Ryan, and the second was his friend; Patrick.

"Hey bro for life, what's up?" Matthew chuckled.

"Oh nothing much, just got a sweet new apartment with my girlfriend, and got a new job at the college."

"Yeah yeah, rub it in why don't you?"

"Sorry Matt, didn't mean to upset you."

"Ryan, you and Patrick have known me for years, do you really think I take offence to that, I was only joking." He rolled his eyes, "I got to work on my sarcasm. Still, I'm happy for you guys. Have you heard from Patrick?"

"Oh, you mean me?" he heard another voice call out to him.

"Hey Pat, long time no hear."

"Not since you moved up North. Can't imagine why, we were like the Three Musketeers, now we're just two. Why did you move away?"

Matthew didn't answer right away, "er - uh - it's not easy to say. But never mind that, what's going on with you guys? I don't get to hear from you very often these days."

"Yeah and we feel really bad about it Bro," said Ryan, "and because we don't talk as much, we want to make it up to you."

"By coming to see you!" announced Patrick.

"Come by to see me? Oh geez guys, you don't really have to do that."

"Oh but we want to," came the reply of Ryan, "and there's nothing you can do to change our minds."

Matthew smirked, "wanna bet? Just kidding, it'll be great to have you guys up here. I mean, it's not like the big city, but I can assure you, you'll have a fun time here."

"Oh we know we will."

"And Matthew, would it be alright if I brought Emily, my girlfriend along?" asked Ryan.

"Sure, the more the merrier."

He gave them his address and after a few more jokes, they hung up and Matthew went back to eating. He took a few bites of his dinner. He was about to take another when his satellite signal went out. Matthew groaned as he got up and was about to head outside, when the signal came back.

"Fix's itself, now that's more like...it?"

Matthew noticed something. It was still My Little Pony on, but the images shown were not of the same episode he was watching. He could see the pony; Starlight Glimmer being followed by the mane 6 ponies. Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack were running after her through a forest of trees.

"Is this a new episode I wasn't aware of?" he asked out loud.

Then he heard their voices, "it's over Starlight Glimmer!" shouted Twilight Sparkle. "You will not harm another town again!"

Starlight Glimmer suddenly came to a stop and spun round. The other ponies stopped in their tracks and looked her down. Twilight Sparkle noticed scratches on her.

"You're hurt. If you stop this madness, we can bring you back with us, and get you some medical attention."

Starlight Glimmer didn't say anything for the longest time. Instead, her horn glowed and magic swirled all around herself. Before long, it surronded the other ponies.

"You'll have to catch me first!" And with that, her magic blinded the whole area.

On his side of the screen, Matthew was suddenly blinded by the light, "what the heck is going on?"

No sooner had those words escaped his mouth than he heard screams, shouts and a thud...

When he opened his eyes, Matthew found himself on the couch, with his television off and everything being quiet. "That's weird, I don't remember sitting down on the couch," he said to himself. "Maybe I worked too hard on my truck today, yeah that's probably it."

He turned the television back on, this time putting it on another show, then went to the washroom to spray water all over his face. After the fourth splash of water, he looked at himself in the mirror, "that was really weird. I wonder if anyone else has experienced that."

Finally, he returned to his kitchen and sat down to eat. He got a few more bites of his dinner before he heard Bridget hissing.

"What is it now? Is one of the local strays bothering you again? Just leave it be Girl!" But Bridget continued to hiss angrily. "Oh for the love of Pete. Bridget, cut that..." but he was cut off as he noticed Bridget was hissing at the doors to the area under the sink. He got up, and stood beside her. "Stand back girl, I got this."

He grabbed the door handle and slowly opened it, but it wasn't fast enough for Bridget. She jumped in, and moments later, there was a scream, and a popping sound. Another pop was heard in the kitchen, this time it revealed something surprising, "get off of me you crazy kitty!"

Matthew jumped and yelped, "what the?" Standing there was Rarity from the TV show. He got up and ran back to his washroom. He slammed the door shut.

"What the heck? Rarity isn't real!"

"Then this might be a bad time for me to reveal myself," said another voice. Popping out of his shower was Fluttershy, the meek Pegasus.

Once again, Matthew jumped and opening the door in a hurry, ran out of the washroom, only to run into the wall and get knocked out cold, again.

"Hello? Are you okay Sir?" he heard a female voice ask.

Matthew opened his eyes and found himself looking into the eyes of Twilight Sparkle. His mind told him to run, but given what happened last time, he didn't risk it.

"Yeah, been through worse," he answered.

"We didn't mean to barge in on you. We got teleported here, for reasons unknown."

There came another hiss and in walked Rarity, with Bridget clawing her at her back, "would you be so kind as to get this cat off my back!"

Matthew sighed, and using what strength he had after his double black-outs, he walked over and pulled Bridget off gently, making sure not to hurt Rarity even more.

"Even Opal doesn't do that. Anymore. Why did it have to be me?"

"Maybe it's your style," came the voice of Rainbow Dash as she and the other ponies came walking into the living room.

Twilight turned to them, "uh girls, maybe you should step out before he passes out again."

"No it's fine, I'm done passing out for the night," he replied. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, "I've lost my mind! Yeah that's it! I've lost my freaking mind! They always said I would one day!" He moved his hands away and opened his eyes, only to see the six ponies still there in his living room, "or, this is the single strangest things to happen to me."

He sat back on his sofa, "and I do mean strangest."

"Sorry for all of this," said Twilight. "I know it must be hard for a human to see something from off world suddenly appear here."

"Uh, how do you know what he is?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight turned to her, "I've been to a human world, twice, remember? First going after Sunset Shimmer, then helping her take down the sirens?" All the other ponies nodded, remembering all of that. Twilight sighed and turned back to Matthew, "allow me to introduce myself, I'm..."

"Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight stopped, and the others gasped.

"You know my name?"

"Of course I do. I know all your names. Rainbow Dash. Rarity. Applejack. Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie."

"Whoa, trippy," chripped Pinkie Pie.

"Um, how is it you know about us?" Fluttershy asked curiously.

Matthew was about to give the obvious answer, but then thought, maybe it's best to explain it in a different manner. "I know this is all going to sound weird, but you are all characters of a series of stories myself and others watch on that moving picture box, called a television." He pointed to the television, which was still showing the original show he had on before passing out the second time.

"You spy on us?!" exclaimed Applejack.

"I feel voilated!" cried Rarity.

"I just see your adventures, and some of your everyday lives," Matthew piped up, trying to restore some calm. "You know, it's like reading a book and seeing what a character does in their lives, but not everything they do."

At once, the ponies got it.

"So, we're part of this, uh, show you watch?" Applejack asked. "But how is it that it shows us, and yet we live out our own lives in Equestria?"

"Well it's...uh, you know, I have no idea. I mean, I'm surprised that you six are even real. Up till now, I thought you were all characters of the show, but this...wow." Then he remembered something, "Wait a minute, where's that Starlight Glimmer?"

Twilight's head darted in every direction, "oh geez, in all the chaos, I forgot all about her."

The ponies looked around, but couldn't find her in or outside the house. They met up with Matthew in the kitchen as he moved back in there to heat up his dinner.

"Wait a second? How do you know Starlight Glimmer?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Is she a character of the show too?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"She is, though something seemed different this time when I saw her. You six were chasing her through a forest, then there was this blinding flash of light, and...well, you know the rest."

Twilight pondered this, "clearly Starlight Glimmer used a teleportation spell on us, but how Matthew ended seeing it is beyond me."

"Maybe it was because this was where the doorway was for the portal," suggested Pinkie Pie, "however, the spell probably backfired on her and she ended well over six and a half hours away from here."

There was silence from every creature.

"How does she come up with stuff like this?" Matthew asked.

"Trust me, you'll get used to it over time," answered Rainbow Dash. "By the way, do you have a name? Or do we have to start calling you; human?"

"Rainbow Dash!" snapped Twilight, and using her magic, brought Rainbow Dash down from where she floated before. "That's no way to speak to him! Especially given how it was your hoof that knocked him out the first time."

Rainbow Dash grinned sheepishly, "sorry, my bad."

"It's cool, though that explains the bruise on my face, and yes I do have a name. It's Matthew, but you can call Matt, if you wish. Also, welcome to Earth. New Liskeard Ontario Canada to be exact."

"Earth huh? I have to admit, I've never heard of this Earth before," Twilight admitted.

Applejack piped up, "well it's a real pleasure to have met you Matthew, but we got to go after Starlight Glimmer, bring her back to Equestria, and make sure she is dealt with for all the crimes she committed. Let's go Everypony!"

The ponies were just about to leave, when Matthew dashed ahead of them, blocking their path.

"Are you nuts?! Going out there is dangerous! Some humans like myself could take the idea of you being real, sort of, but others will not. They'll want to capture you, and do horrible things to you."

"Uh Matthew, no offence, but have you even met us? We're the greatest ponies in all of Equestria, we can handle a few humans!" boasted Rainbow Dash.

"Besides, we have to find Starlight Glimmer, or who knows what she'll do," added Applejack.

"Not if you know them like I do. Besides, do you even know where to look?"

Silence returned, until Fluttershy, much to everyone's surprise, spoke up, "actually, no we don't. We don't have the map to help us this time, and without any knowledge of this world, Twilight can't teleport us to her."

"So then, what are we going to do?" asked Rarity.

"I guess we stay here, and learn from our new friend here." Twilight looked to Matthew, "as long as that's okay with you?"

"Well I - well that's to say - I don't usually - oh for the heck of it, I can allow it for now."

"Just one more question, and this goes to Twilight." Pinkie Pie looked Twilight Sparkle firmly in the eyes, "how are we going to get home?"

Twilight's eyes widened in shock, "oh dear, Pinkie Pie has got a good point. I only know of simple short teleportation spells, not cross dimensional travel."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second here," interrupted Rainbow Dash. "Are you telling me that even if we find Starlight Glimmer, and capture her, we might not be able to return home?"

Twilight sighed and answered, "seems that way."

Matthew sighed and looked back to his dinner, "looks like I'll be playing host for a while," he thought to himself. "Better get started on being one," and with that, he went to work making food he knew the ponies could eat.

Meanwhile, a long way's off from New Liskeard, a bright flash of light appeared in the middle of an intersection. Cars and trucks swerved to avoid it, crashing into nearby objects or other vehicles in the process. Once the light was gone, a creature could be seen. It was Starlight Glimmer, "ow, that hurt. Where the heck am I? And where's Sparkle and her pathetic friends?"

Before she could make a move, she heard sirens and moments later, police, fire and ambulances arrived on the scene. One officer noticed the pony, "what's that doing here?"

"Maybe it escaped from the zoo," suggested another.

"Must be a weird species from another country then, cause I've never seen one like that before."

"I'll call headquarters and ask them to capture this horse."

Starlight Glimmer's ears perked over this, "I'm a pony you hairless apes!" she shouted, making everyone freeze.

"Look here creature, who can talk for some reason, we can't have you standing there! We're going to take you away before someone gets hurt."

"Like you?" Starlight smirked. Using her magic, or what energy she had left, she was able lift several officers into the air, then slammed them down to the ground, rather hard. This was all she needed to run and get away.

Other police officers were called to find her, but she was nowhere to be seen. Starlight Glimmer had taken shelter in an old rundown house. Her magic was drained badly, and without it, she could go nowhere.

"Blast it! If it wasn't for that Twilight Sparkle, I wouldn't have used that spell! This is all her fault!" She stomped her hoof on the floor, which poked a hole through it. She took in a few breaths before continuing to speak, "fine, I'll wait here and recharge, then I'll go after her, return to Equestria and finish what I started. And should anyone get in my way again - they're toast." And she cackled quietly to herself.

Keeping the Secret

Mornings were never a friend to Matthew, and today was no different as the sun's rays crept into his bedroom, went along the floor and finally crept up till it was shining in his eyes. He groaned and tried in a vain attempt to cover them, but it was no use, the sun was telling him to get up right now, and would not allow him to go back to sleep.

He groaned as he did, feeling the back of his head, "ow, what the heck hit me last night? I feel like I got into a boxing match."

Still, with a groan of disgust, he got up from his bed and went over to his kitchen to make some breakfast. As he walked over to the kitchen, he spotted a dark blue tail with purple and pink highlights. He walked a little closer, only to discover Princess Twilight Sparkle looking out the window threw his back porch and looking out to the outside world.

"Sleep well?" she asked, not even turning her head.

Matthew gasped, "how did you know I was even standing here?"

Twilight turned her head and with her left hoof, pointed to her left ear, "ponies have good hearing," she answered. She turned her attention back to the outside world while Matthew walked over, standing next to the wall beside her. "I've just been looking outside, you have a lovely piece of land. Though those things out there kind of ruin the feel of it."

"Those machines are tractors and automobiles," Matthew responded. "Including my silly old pick-up truck."

"Still, they're foreign to me. But then again, you probably already know that from my previous two visits to Sunset's homeworld?"

"Yeah I do know."

"But there is something I find curious here."

"What's that?" Matthew's eyebrow raised hearing her say this.

"Well, ever since my friends and I came here, I've not seen one other person walking around in this house. You're not living all on your own, are you?"

"No, of course not. I do have Bridget. That little girl keeps me company."

"Perhaps, but don't you wish you had somepony, er someone to talk to from time to time?"

"Sometimes, but sometimes you want to be alone, especially after what I've been through." Twilight raised her own eyebrow hearing Matthew say those words, "uh never mind that. How about we go into the kitchen and make something to eat?"

"Sure, what do you recommend?"

Matthew was about to suggest what he normally has for breakfast, but then remembered that his guests were ponies, and ponies didn't eat meat. He quickly came up with a different solution.

"I was thinking of toast, fruit and waffles. Sound good?"

"Oh you bet, and I'm sure the others will enjoy that too. Do you need a helping hoof with anything?"

"You know, for once I'll say yes. Many hands, and hooves, make light work." And on that note, the two went to work on making breakfast.

Across dimensions, Princesses Celestia and Luna were flying their way towards Ponyville. They were heading for the castle of friendship. When they arrived, they were greeted by Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The trio of young ponies were helping to calm Spike the Dragon down, or maybe it was the other way around. It was hard to tell at this point.

"What is going on here?" Celestia asked. "Where is Twilight?"

"I thought maybe she was with you," Spike answered. "She and the other ponies went off on another map adventure, and never came back."

Apple Bloom looked like she had been crying for hours, "I miss my sister! What if something awful has happened to her?"

Luna flapped over and tried to calm the young pony down, then had to do the same for Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Celestia turned to Spike, "show me where the map sent them."

Spike lead the princesses and the Cutie Mark Crusaders to the map room. The map was still glowing, and the six cutie marks of the mane 6 were still floating around a small town in Northern Equestria."

"We'll head out there at once," Luna stated firmly. "If anything has happened..." she paused, noticing the worried looks on the young ponies' faces, "which I doubt has happened, we'll find them and bring them home safe and sound."

Celestia nodded. "In the meantime, I suggest you all stay together till they return. Maybe at Sweet Apple Acres with Granny Smith and Big Mac."

There was some hesitation on the idea as they felt the mane 6 could return at any moment to the castle, but Celestia assured them that if they did, they would be able to find them at Sweet Apple Acres. And so, they left while the princesses took off.

"I can only hope for Starswirl's sake that they're okay," Celestia said to Luna as they flew.

"This is Twilight Sparkle and her friends we're talking about. The same ponies who took down Tirek remember? I'm sure they're fine and on their way back now."

Celestia was about to respond when she and Luna flew over what was left of the Golden Oak Library. It had been Twilight's home since she moved to Ponyville, but Tirek destroyed it in an attempt to take the powers of the alicorns. She knew Twilight could handle herself, but she couldn't help herself but worry.

"I hope you're right sister. I hope you're right."

"And this, uh, inter-web can help us find Starlight Glimmer?" Rarity asked curiously.

"Internet," Matthew corrected, "and while it won't find her location, it'll help you know where to go. Which in this case could lead you close to that pony."

"Just wait till we find her," said Rainbow Dash as she punched the air, "I'll teach her not to zap us to other dimensions, and for what she's done to those ponies in that village!"

She started flapping around, slowly at first, then getting faster and faster. It wasn't until she felt something grab her tail that she stopped. Turns out, it was Applejack with some rope.

"Slow down there sugarcube, we can't go charging in without a plan. Look what happened the last time we did that."

"Applejack's right," said Fluttershy. "If we charge in, she could teleport us to who knows where. Maybe to a dark universe where good is bad, and bad to good, or even worse than that." She shuddered just thinking about that.

Pinkie Pie looked at her carefully, "huh, and usually I'm the one who comes up with thoughts like that. Are you feeling alright there Fluttershy?"

"I'm fine. Really."

Twilight Sparkle flew over and sat down next to Matthew. She looked at all the maps on his computer. Her eyes opened wide in surprise, "that's a lot of land to cover, where do we even begin?"

Before anyone could answer, they heard something outside. Matthew got up and looked. His mouth opened wide in shock, and he slapped his forehead, "dang it, I forgot I had company coming today." He turned to the ponies, "you might want to hide, the less humans see you the better."

"But Starlight..." Rainbow Dash began.

"No time to worry about that, get into hiding! Now!"

Without another word, the ponies disappeared. Matthew walked over to his back door to greet his old friends. Patrick has hair that almost looked like it was curly, but wasn't quite there, and was around the height of Matthew. Ryan had a better hairstyle, and stood a couple of feet taller than Matthew, making him the tallest human there. Finally there was Emily, she was a bit shorter than Ryan with dark red hair.

"Yo Matt, long time no see!" called Patrick.

"Hey guys, I know it might be a little too late to say this, but welcome to New Liskeard, and Northern Ontario. It's not a major big city, but it's still got charm...I'm going to shut up now."

The three humans laughed, "that's what we missed about you Matt. That and you've always been super cool to just be around with."

"If you say so. So, have you guys gotten a hotel to stay at?"

"Yep, it's back in New Liskeard on the highway. It's the very one you used to stay at when you came here, so you told us."

"Oh yeah that one. I haven't been there in ages." Matthew paused and looked back into the house, then turned back to his old friends. "Anyways, come on in guys."

He lead them into the house, and gasped as he saw Rarity's tail sticking out.

"What? What's the matter Matthew?" Patrick asked.

"Oh, uh I...uh, just thought I saw something out of place, sort of sticking out." No sooner had those words left his mouth that Rarity tucked her tail in, "silly me, must've been my imagination."

His three friends looked all around the house, admiring all the hard work Matthew had done. All the while, the six ponies did their best to remain hidden. There were some close calls like Fluttershy's tail being spotted by Ryan, but Matthew stated it was an old blanket that accidently got mixed with his stuff. Another close call came in the form of Pinkie Pie nearly jumping out when Patrick said it would be fun to hang out in town, but she was caught by Twilight's magic and kept at bay.

"Man Matt, this place is amazing. You sure do have it made here," commented Patrick. "Wide open spaces, fully renovated house and peace and quiet. Maybe I should consider moving up here."

"Uh Pat," Ryan pointed out, "you're needed at your job back in Toronto, remember?"

Patrick kicked the ground, "darn it! I hate it when you remind me of that!"

"Oh well, for as long as you three are here, you can enjoy the beautiful scenery around here," Matthew smiled.

"Indeed we will," smiled Emily as she stretched her arms into the air. As she did this, there was a small beep from her phone. She reached down for it, pulled it out and gasped, "I just got a news flash, there was a small attack in Stouffville."

"What?!" exclaimed the three male humans.

The ponies listened in as best as they could.

"Some creature, which looked like a small horse, or something like it, attacked police officers as they were trying to capture it. According to the report, some kind of explosion hit them, sending them flying. Currently, they are looking for the creature."

"Yikes, and to think this happened just after we got up here," said Ryan.

"Is there any video or photos of the creature?" Patrick asked.

"Just one photo, but it's too blurry to tell." She pulled it up and showed everyone. Matthew's eyes went wide as he could see the creature's outline. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that looked like a small horse, or pony."

"Pon..." Twilight began, but quickly slammed her hooves onto her mouth, and banged her head aganist the wall of her hiding spot.

"What was that?" Patrick asked as he and the others looked in Twilight's direction.

"Oh uh, it's probably just Bridget playing again," Matthew said quickly. "You know how cats are." And he chuckled nervously.

Somehow, his friends bought into that lie, which made Matthew sigh with relief. In her hiding spot, Twilight sighed too, and muttered to herself that she needed to be more careful.

Before long, the tour was done and it was time for Matthew's friends to leave. They said good bye and promised to call him later when they were ready to hang out. As they left though, Emily brought up a thought, "did Matthew seem to be skittish to anyone?"

"Yeah now that you mention it, he was," answered Ryan.

"Well it's been a while since we last saw him," said Patrick. "Maybe he's forgotten how to talk with people."

"I don't know, something seems fishy," said Emily.

Once he was sure his friends were gone, Matthew called out, "it's okay everyone, er everypony, you can come out now!" And within seconds, the ponies appeared in front of him. They had heard the entire conversation.

"Did it look like Starlight Glimmer?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I think so, but I couldn't be a hundred percent sure," he answered. "Just give me a minute and I'll have the picture up for you."

It actually took more than a minute to find the picture, but once found, the ponies all looked at the photograph. It was Fluttershy who said it, "that's Starlight Glimmer!"

"Okay, so now we know where she is, we just need a direct route there," said Rainbow Dash. "Then we'll teleport there, beat the snot out of her and be back in Equestria before dinner."

"How?" Applejack asked. "Have you forgotten Twilight doesn't know how to get us back?"

"We can get the spell out of Starlight Glimmer. Simple."

"And have you forgotten what I said about other humans?" Matthew asked. "You can't trust them. Well, at least not all of them."

"And what of your friends?" Rarity asked with a raised eyebrow. "We hid from them, yet they seem like the trustworthy bunch."

"Well, uh, the thing is...it's not important. I should be the only human who knows you're here, and the only one who will help you get home." Rarity continued to keep her eyebrow raised at Matthew. "Anyways, what's the plan Twilight?"

"Well we will need to know how to get to Stouffville. Do you have a map of the way there?"

"One minute and you'll have one," and with that, he searched for the map Twilight and her friends needed.

As this was going on, Starlight Glimmer was making her way out of the town of Stouffville. That however was easier said than done as police officers were looking out for her. She ducked into the bushes, and hid behind trees. She often used what little magic she had, lifting herself into the trees.

"Give me a big fat break," she snarled to herself. "How am I going to regain my magic if I can't recover? I need to get these monkeys off my flankside."

It was at that moment she found what she was looking for. To her it looked like a weird looking cart full of rocks. Using her magic once more, she was able to get the brakes to come off, making it go flying down the road.

Cars and trucks had to swerve to get out of the way as it rolled along. Then it happened. One minute it was on the road, the next it was falling onto it's side, blocking the road and trapping some people in their cars. Starlight Glimmer couldn't have cared one bit. She smirked as she saw the police running over to the scene.

"Now, to find Twilight Sparkle and her friends."

She got down from the tree she was in, and started the long journey to find Twilight Sparkle. Wherever she was.

Plan of Action

Chapter 3: Plan of Action

News soon reached the ponies and Matthew. They were relieved that, again, there were no injuries to the people nearby, but now they were getting worried. Even with the lack of energy she had, Starlight Glimmer was still dangerous, and to make matters worse, tracking her down was going to be impossible.

"My maps will do you no good," sighed Matthew. "There is a lot of land between here and Stouffville, so looking for her would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

Applejack nodded with that statement, "it is harder than most of you might think."

Rainbow Dash slammed her hoof on a nearby chair, making Bridget the Cat cry out and run out of the room. "Come on! We had a good plan to go after her, and now we're back at square one."

"And we still have no way of getting home," added Applejack. "Too bad Spike isn't with us, we could send a message to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."

Suddenly, Twilight's eyes lit up, "that's it! We do have a way home!"

She ran over to her saddlebag, which had been sitting on the floor since their impromptu entry into Matthew's home. She looked through it for a few seconds and moments later, her magic pulled out a book.

"A book? That's how we can get home?" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding like she couldn't believe Twilight.

"It's not just any book," Matthew said as he got a closer look at the book, "that's the journal she uses to talk with Sunset Shimmer."

"Of course!" exclaimed Rarity, "if anypony can get a message to the princesses, then it's going to be her."

"Exactly, and once she gets this message, she'll just go through the-" Twilight's cheerful expression changed to a frown as she realized something important. "She won't be able to go through the portal if I got the journal with me."

The journal was the key that turned on Twilight's portal back in the Castle of Friendship, but unless it was there, the portal couldn't be turned on.

Rarity sighed unhappily, "we're never going home!"

"Well I'll still write to Sunset," said Twilight. "She's a very smart pony, er girl, so I'm sure she'll be able to get herself back to Equestria."

The other ponies and one human looked doubtful, but Twilight still went ahead with the message:

"Sunset, we're in need of your help. We were sent on a friendship mission to help a village, only when we got there, we ran into Starlight Glimmer, and after a short chase, she teleported us to a different human dimension. I know I have the journal, but if you can find a way to Equestria, you can send a message to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and let them know where we are."

She put the pen down and waited for the response.

In the other human world, Sunset Shimmer was drying her hair after having a shower, then change into some nice clean clothes.

"There's nothing better than having a good shower," she thought to herself. "I'm glad that's something Equestria and this world have in common."

With her hair now dry, she started walking to the washroom to brush her hair, but it was then that she saw something glowing on her desk. It was her journal. She picked it up and read the message. She couldn't believe what she was reading.

"Another human world? Well that's a surprise. Still, how can I help?"

She grabbed a nearby pen and wrote down, "I'll try my best to help you Twilight, that's a promise."

The response given was a quick 'thank you'.

Before going to brush her hair, Sunset grabbed her phone and texted her five best friends. She asked them to meet her by the statue in front of Canterlot High.

When she arrived, she found them all waiting for her.

"Alright Sugarcube, we're all here," said Applejack, "what did you need to see us for?"

Sunset quickly explained the situation to her friends. They were shocked to hear this, but quickly promised to help her. Of course, saying it can be done, and doing it are two different things. It was proven as Rainbow Dash tried running to the portal, only to bang off the statue and fell flat on her back.

"Did you really think that would work?" Rarity asked firmly.

"Perhaps," Rainbow Dash said meekly.

"Well, we can't wait for the thirtieth moon, and Spike doesn't have the journal with him," Sunset pointed out. "We're gonna need some magical source to open up the portal. But we have to try, so are you all with me?"

"Of course we are," the girls exclaimed in unison.

And with that, they began with their important mission.

Back in Equestria, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had arrived at the village the mane 6 had been sent to. They looked around, and apart from a burnt down cottage, they wouldn't have known there had been any problems. All the ponies had their cutie marks and were talking amongst themselves happily.

"Greetings citizens," said Princess Luna, "Sorry to interrupt you, but we're currently on the look out for Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends."

The villages looked to the Princesses, "you mean, they didn't return home?"

"No they haven't," Princess Celestia answered. "We were told that she and her friends came here for a friendship mission, and haven't been seen since."

"Friendship mission?! Please!" grumbled an elderly stallion. "It was more of a rescue mission. We had our cutie marks stolen by a power hungry pony, and she had us be her slaves. Those six saved us, and gave us back our cutie marks."

"What happened after that?" asked Princess Celestia.

"Well," continued the elderly stallion, "once those six discovered who was behind this, they chased her into the forest." His attitude changed a bit to a concerned tone, "we just assumed they had taken her off to jail, we never thought maybe they disappeared."

Princess Celestia sighed, "well thank you for your help, you can carry on with your lives."

The stallion smiled and leaned back in his rocking chair, "I intend to."

The princesses took off towards the forest. They searched along the path, off the path and into areas that looked like they were hiding something. But of course, they didn't find the six ponies.

"All I was able to find was a burnt patch of grass," sighed Princess Luna.

"Burnt patch of grass?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Yes, like a fire had set the ground ablaze. Careless campers, you know how they are."

It was then a thought came to Celestia's head, "can you show me this spot?"

Princess Luna, unsure what to make of this, lead Celestia back to where she spotted the burnt out area. Once there, Celestia took a look at it and used her own magic on it. After a minute, she spoke again.

"It wasn't campers, it was magic, very powerful magic."

Luna raised an eyebrow, "and how do you know that?"

Celestia smirked, "you don't end up being Twilight's teacher without picking up a few tricks from her. Like for example, scanning the spot to see if magic was used, and it was."

"Maybe Twilight fired it."

"Maybe, but that's all I've been able to find out. Apart from this, I'm not sure where they would've gone."

Getting nowhere from their search, the two princesses took off to find some kind of evidence as to where the ponies had gone.

Back in Sunset's world, the girls had tried playing music and ponying up to open the portal, but it would only open a little bit before closing just as one of the girls tried to go through.

"Oh Applerot!" snapped Applejack. "At this rate, we'll never be able to get through."

Sunset rubbed her left shoulder, which was a little sore from her own attempt to get through, "no I didn't think so. Guess we're going to need to try something different."

"And what would that be?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Playing music is the only way we can use magic."

Sunset sighed and leaned against the statue, "I really don't know girls. If only I could get a message to Spike, then he might be able to find a way to open the portal."

Then, much to everyone's surprise, Pinkie Pie spoke up, "But we can send a message to Spike!"

"How? Twilight has the journal," grumbled Rainbow Dash.

"Well, we did open the portal a little bit, maybe that could-"

"Of course!" exclaimed Sunset as she got the idea. "All we need to do is open the portal a little bit, send the message through and Spike can use the magic of Equestria to open the portal!"

"That is assuming it goes through," grumbled Applejack.

"It's worth a shot," said Sunset.

The other girls all agreed, and after writing up a message, they started playing again. Some people saw them and cheered them on. As the song reached the second verse, Sunset saw their magic opening the portal. Giving a nod to Pinkie, the pink haired girl pulled out the note and tossed it in before the portal shut.

"I really hope that works," thought Sunset.

The message flew through the dimension between dimensions, going at speeds no one had or ever would see. Finally, with magic surrounding it, it appeared in a room, but it wasn't just any room. It was the library where Twilight kept the portal to Sunset's world. The message floated about for a minute, then landed on the nearby desk.

There was only one problem though, no creature was in the library.

Night arrived, and most of the mane 6 were asleep, except for Twilight. She was sitting on the back porch of the house. She wasn't alone though as Matthew was with her.

"Still no new response from Sunset?" Matthew asked.

Using her magic, Twilight brought the journal towards her and looked through the pages. The only message to read was Sunset's response to help them.

"Nope, nothing," she sighed.

"Well like you said, she is a smart girl, I'm sure she'll come up with something," he pointed out. "Though now I'm curious, I wonder where Starlight Glimmer is. Surely she doesn't have a place to rest her head, and if you're right about all the magic she's used, I'm sure she's having to walk more than usual, so her hooves are bound to be sore."

"Probably, but who knows. Although," she paused.

"What?"

"Well, if I was Starlight Glimmer and I had been defeated for a second time, I would want get even with the ones who defeated me."

"Good thing she doesn't know that you're here then," he smirked before taking a sip of the chocolate milk he had brought out with him, "she'll slip up sooner or later, and once that happens, you'll take her back and all will be well once more. Except for me," but he muttered the last part to himself.

The two went back to being quiet, that was until they heard loud banging in the distance. Matthew groaned as he got up, "oh darn it, it's those stupid hunters again! They've been told many times not to hunt around here. Guess they'll need to be taught a lesson. Get inside the house Twilight!"

"Why? What are you going to do?"

"Don't you worry, I got something that'll scare the living daylights out of them."

Discoveries and Destruction

Chapter 4: Discoveries and Destruction

Reaching into the closet, Matthew pulled out a long object that Twilight had never seen before. It was black, and had a small tank on top with bright colored balls in it. He then grabbed a smaller object and held it in his other hand.

"Remember to stay down, I got this."

Twilight nodded and hid in the living room to stay out of sight. Matthew opened the door and the moment he did, Twilight heard bangs. This sadly brought the other ponies up the stairs.

"What's going on?" Fluttershy asked.

"Come in here and stay out of sight," Twilight whispered. "Matthew will explain later."

The other ponies all hid with Twilight, and the moment they had gone in there, they heard Matthew shouting, "how many times do I have to tell you idiots to stay off my property?!"

The ponies then heard more voices.

"We're just looking for animals to hunt, and we thought we saw one here!"

"Those animals as you call them are living creatures, and you're not allowed to hunt them on a person's property. Especially not mine!" There were more bangs from the doorway, earning more yelps from the voices outside.

"I'm giving you one last warning!" Matthew shouted again, "stay off my property, and stay away from the creatures who live here! If you don't, one day, you might take away a life! Now get lost you idiots!"

"We're not leaving without something to take home!" shouted a second voice.

There was a moment of silence, then the bangs returned, followed by cries of pain.

"I think you're going to be leaving now! Now get lost!"

The voices outside shouted one last time, and was soon gone from ear shot of the ponies. They looked out from the living room and saw Matthew coming back in with the objects he took out.

"That'll keep them away for a week or two," he muttered.

"What the hay was that all about?" Applejack asked. "We're sleeping peacefully in our room, then we all hear loud banging and we come up to find out what's going on, only to be told to stay hidden."

"Yeah sorry about that everypony," Matthew apologized. "But trust me, these are people you don't want to deal with. They're hunters, and they have weapons that can hurt you or worse."

"Oh my," gasped Fluttershy.

"They're often looking for animals to hunt around here. I've caught them a few times, and each time I have to deal with them, I often scare them off with these." And he held out the two objects he had with him. "These are like their weapons, but they don't have the same lethal force their weapons have."

"And what are these?" Applejack asked.

"Oh that's right, you don't have these in Equestria." He slapped his forehead remembering that fact. "Well my dear ponies, these are paintball guns. These shoot off these little balls of paint at whatever target I got them pointed out, but I have to be careful not to point at living creatures cause it does hurt."

"And you hit them, didn't you?" Twilight asked.

Matthew sighed, "well I had to get the message across as I've warned them many times to get off my property, but they don't listen, so I had no choice. Don't worry they'll be fine, but they'll be back, mark my words."

"Should we worry about them?"

"Not at all, they're not as big of a problem as the rest of the world. Don't worry," he said reassuringly, "you're in safe hands with me."

Nothing more was said as the ponies went back to bed, though Twilight was worried.

"If that was minor trouble, I'd hate to think what could be worse than hunters."

As the sun rose the following next morning, Starlight Glimmer groaned as she lifted her head up from her hiding spot. Twilight's theory on Starlight being weakened and tired were correct. Shortly after leaving the town of Uxbridge, she began to grow tired, her magic was not able to take her from one spot to another, at least not without making her even more tired. In the end, she made a small shelter to keep herself warm and to hide her from the world around her.

"Darn blasted sunlight, does it have to shine right into my eyes," she grumbled to herself. "Though, how is it rising up? I doubt this world has a Celestia...no, stay focused Glimmer." She ducked back down as several more of those black and white ponyless carriages rolled by.

"Going from ruling a village to being on the run. That's not what I wanted, and it's all Twilight Sparkle's fault!" She slammed her hoof down.

Renewed by her frustration, Starlight Glimmer got up from her hideout and practiced using her magic. Unlike the day before, her energy level was back up to it's full strength. With fire burning in her eyes, she looked out to the wide open world outside of her hideout and took off running. It lasted only 10 seconds before she stopped.

"Oh horseapples, she could be anywhere." She shrugged, "oh well, guess I'll have to tear each town apart until I find her. And so what if these creatures get hurt? All that matters is hurting her, her friends, then return to rid Equestria of those..." she shuddered at the thought of them, "cursed Cutie Marks."

And with that thought in her head, Starlight Glimmer took off once more. Only this time, using a spell to make herself invisible to the world.

The ponies awoke to hear strange whirring sounds. Rainbow Dash got up first and went to find out what it was. The other ponies followed her up the stairs from the basement they were staying in, and went outside to find Matthew working on a black ponyless cart.

"What is this thing?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It's my truck," Matthew answered. "It's kind of like the carts you have in Equestria, but this doesn't require ponies to pull it."

"Then how does it work?" Twilight asked, being more curious than the other ponies. "Does it run on magic?"

"Not at all Twilight. It runs with the help of an engine, which is like a power source that helps the truck to move, and allows me to steer it left or right or keep going straight ahead. It's a resourceful vehicle, or least it should be as this truck often breaks down and I have to work on it just to get it to work."

Matthew went underneath the truck and moments later, the ponies heard the sounds of liquid. Rarity's nose scrunched up.

"Whatever is that horrible smell?"

"That would be oil," Matthew answered. "It's needed to make sure the engine works. That and a fuel source called gasoline are needed to keep this truck going. Otherwise it would stay where it is."

"Aren't you the least bit bothered by the smell?"

"Not really. After working on this truck for many years, I've gotten used to the smell."

As he continued working, the ponies heard another sound. Though it didn't sound like a machine, if anything, it sounded musical. Pinkie Pie started dancing around to it, "it's catchy."

"That's my phone," Matthew explained as he got out from under his truck. "And for the record, it's a way for humans to keep in contact with others that are too far away." He pulled it out of his phone holder and accepted the call, "hello?"

"Hey bud, are you busy?" he heard the voice of Patrick ask.

"Not really, just working on my truck. Why do you ask?"

"Well we'd like to hang out with our old friend, cause apart from the meet at your place, we haven't really spoken to you since. So, what do you say bud? Care to meet up with us in town?"

Matthew wasn't sure if he should, but when he looked to Twilight giving the look of 'Good on and meet up with them', he agreed to.

"Where do you want to meet up?"

"How about the pool hall? Play a quick game, just like old times."

"Oh alright, I guess I could play a little pool."

"Great, see you then."

The phone call ended and Matthew looked to Twilight, "are you sure I should go out and meet up with them? What about getting you ponies back home?"

"Well we still need to find a way to get to Starlight, and figure out a way to defeat her without damage to your world. I think we can afford one more night. Besides," she added, "since I sent the message to Sunset Shimmer, I'm sure we'll be visited by Princess Celestia before you know it."

"Okay well if you're sure, then I'll go meet up with my friends."

Matthew got up from the ground and was about to get into the cab of his truck when Rarity called out, "Darling, I may not know a lot about your human world, but I do know it would be better to look your best rather than looking like a mess."

Matthew paused and looked down at himself.

He gave a nervous chuckle, "I guess it would make more sense to get cleaned up before heading out," he admitted, and went back inside the house.

The castle of friendship was quiet. Nopony or dragon walked down it's hallways, no water dripped in the sinks, no pages were being turned in the books, and the lone note from Sunset's world sat on the table.

Finally, a sound was heard as the doors opened. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna walked over to the library, and the moment they came in, Celestia slammed her hoof on the table, sending the note flying onto the floor.

"We searched the entire forest and the surronding areas, and still nothing!"

"Tia, calm down," soothed Luna. "I'm just as miserable as you are, but getting angry won't solve anything. We know that they went to the village, freed the ponies and strong magic was used."

"Yes, but that doesn't help with our search." Celestia sighed as she looked down to the floor, "I hate to tell Spike and the CMCs we got nothing."

"Just remember, Twilight is a very capable pony, she can look out for herself and so can her friends. I'm sure they're doing fine, and are just waiting for us to help them. Why I bet you that in the next second, we're going to get some kind of message saying where they are."

Celestia was about to open her mouth when suddenly, they both heard swooshing sounds. They looked to the source and found it was coming from the portal. Moments later, a scroll popped out and smacked Celestia in the face.

"What the hay?!" she cried.

Using her magic, Luna lifted it up and read it. When she finished, she looked to Celestia, "it's from Sunset Shimmer. She asks if you got the last scroll?"

"Me? But I haven't heard anything from her since she le-," she stopped and realized, "she's writing to Twilight." She looked around the room and soon found the other scroll. She opened it up, and a minute later, she looked up.

"What does it say?" Luna asked curiously.

"Luna, go get Spike, we're going to need him."

Without being told twice, Luna used her magic and disappeared off to Sweet Apple Acres. Now alone, Celestia took the time to look over the note again.

"Hey Spike, it's your friend Sunset Shimmer here. I'm writing to you with a message from Princess Twilight. It turns out that on their latest friendship mission, one lone pony; Starlight Glimmer, used a teleportation spell to send her and the others to another human world. Now, she has the journal, but I'm sure you can find some way of getting to her and the other ponies home more than my friends and I can. Also, if you do need any extra help, be sure to write to me and I'll be there in two shakes of a pony tail. Also don't worry about them. As it turns out, the human they ran into is making sure they are as comfortable as can be. Signed Sunset Shimmer."

As Celestia finished reading the letter, Luna returned with not only Spike, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders as well.

"Did you find out where Twilight has gone?" Spike asked.

Celestia nodded and sent the scroll over to Spike. After he read it, he smiled and sighed, "at least she's okay."

"And our sisters?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"They're all okay." The CMCs sighed with relief. Spike turned his attention back to Celestia, "so how do we get them back here?"

Princess Celestia looked worried, "I once knew the spell, but it's been so many years that I've forgotten how it works. Maybe we should go to the Canterlot archives to find it. But first," she turned her attention to Spike, "I need you to bring Sunset Shimmer here. She's a very smart mare, she'd be able to help."

"Great, but how can we do that? Twilight has the journal."

Celestia's horn lit up, "we'll use my magic. Now, fire up that machine Spike."

"Yes Princess," he saluted and went to work.

In the human world, things were taking a turn for the worse. As the police cars continued to patrol, Starlight Glimmer's temper only grew and the more it grew, the more she wanted to shoot her magic at them. At last, she finally lost it.

"Fine! You want a piece of me! Here it is!"

At the sight of this car, she used her magic to make it fly into the sky before it crashed back down to the ground with a loud bang. Tires screeched as many tried to avoid the now damaged police car.

"Need back up!" shouted the officer into the radio, "found the horse, it's on the..."

But he got no further as Starlight Glimmer used her magic to rip the radio away from the officer. Her magic then focused on the officer as she pulled him out.

"I'm a pony you idiot, not a horse. Cause trust me, a horse can't do this."

And she slammed him multiple times into the ground before throwing him into a ditch, battered and sore. Next, she turned her attention to the other cars, and as she made her way closer to the town of Brechin' Ontario, she made cars, pick-ups, and even big semi trucks fly, or crash off the road.

"I will find you Sparkle! Mark my words!"

Interactions

Chapter 5: Interactions

"There are cars, trucks and even a freight train all on their sides here in Brechin' Ontario," said a news reporter on the radio. The radio itself was playing in the pool hall where Patrick, Ryan and Emily were waiting for Matthew to arrive. "Some sources say that a small creature attacked them and threw them all over the place. Police are not sure if that's true or not, but they are asking that if anyone has seen anyone, or any creature acting weird to please report to the police at once."

"A small creature?" Patrick asked in confusion as he shot off, "what kind of creature could do that much damage?"

"A hippo maybe?" suggested Emily as Matthew finally arrived.

"No, a hippo is big and are slow walkers," said Ryan. "Besides, not even a hippo can derail a freight train. Hey Matt, what do you think it could be?"

"What could be what?"

"Weren't you listening to the radio on the way here?"

"Not really. My truck acts up so many times I have to keep the radio off in order for me to hear the darn thing properly."

"Well the radio station was talking about an attack in Brechin' Ontario. Something attacked all those cars and trucks, even going as far as derailing a freight train."

Matthew was just about to grab a pole, but froze when he heard that. Right away, he knew what it was, but he couldn't say it.

"Not sure what it could be. But who knows, maybe a tractor trailer smashed into the freight train."

"Maybe, but what about the sighting of a small creature?" Emily asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh well- er, I think probably, er- that they might've been seeing things. Accidents can cause some trauma to the brain you know."

Emily kept her eyebrow raised.

"You might be right on that Matthew," said Patrick. "Oh well, it's all the way down there and not here. Besides, it's not any of our business."

"Yeah, none of our business at all," Matthew chuckled while rubbing the back of his head.

Outside of Canterlot High, Sunset Shimmer and her five best friends all waited for some response. But ever since she sent the second note, there hadn't been a single response from Princess Celestia, Spike or even Princess Twilight.

"Maybe we should send another message?" Rainbow Dash suggested.

"No, I'm sure they got the message. I bet they're working on a way to open the portal without the use of the magical journal." Sunset sighed and sat down on the stairs, "I know the Princess is okay, but given what I know, that Starlight Glimmer is bound to be up to no good."

"How do you know about that girl-I mean, pony?" stuttered Fluttershy.

The other girls looked at Sunset with great interest. Sunset looked to the statue, only to see no change. So she gave in and told them the whole story.

"It was during the years I was Princess Celestia's student. I was, as you can guess, a little full of myself, though I hadn't reached the level of nastiness you all know from me. Though," she paused and chuckled, "I wasn't one of those ponies who like to stay indoors and study during nice days, and on the day in question, I wanted to go out to the park."

"There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, the flowers were all blooming and ponies were going about their own business. On that day however, I noticed a bunch of ponies standing around something. At first, I wanted to know what they were looking at, but then decided to merely walk away. It seems the other ponies had the same thought as they too left, revealing the source of their interest."

"Starlight Glimmer?" Rainbow Dash asked.

The others looked to her, annoyed that she was interrupting the story. Sunset however just smiled and nodded, "yep, it was her."

" 'Cutie Marks are evil! They ruin a pony's life! I can help you get rid of them forever!' she was shouting."

"I merely rolled my eyes and started walking away. Then I heard her again."

" 'I have a magical item that can remove your cutie marks! Join me, and we can rid this land of those stupid little symbols!'' "

"Being who I was, I shouted, 'why don't you remove yourself from this park, and leave us to our peace and quiet'! I shouted at her."

"She glared at me, but I ignored her and continued to where I wanted to go. All of the sudden, I felt myself being lifted off the ground by magic. I looked and saw that the magic belonged to the filly."

" 'Look kid, you're adorable, but I have things to do, so please put me down and forget we had this conversation''."

"The filly shook her head, 'the name's Starlight Glimmer, and today, I'm going to help you out of your troubles. Trust me, you'll thank me for this.' "

"And she produced a long staff, one I never have seen or even read about. Though I could tell it was a fake to begin with, the real magic in question was coming from her horn."

" 'Oh buck no you're not!' I shouted and using my magic, I broke free and landed on all four of my hooves. Starlight however lost her balance and fell back, breaking her so called staff in the process. She got back up and with fire in her eyes, her horn lit up. I took my stance, 'you really want to try me kid?! I'm a student of Princess Celestia for goodness sakes, I'm not some pushover!' "

"She only scoffed at me, 'I can still beat you, and take that cutie mark of yours!' "

" 'Try it pip squeak!' " Sunset paused and looked back to the statue, "She fired off first, but I dodged it. Before I could strike, she lifted me off the ground and threw me into the nearby bushes. She tried again to steal my cutie mark, but I fired a shot at her and sent her flying. I got out of the bush just in time to see her rubbing her hoof under her mouth. As you can guess, she was bleeding a bit. We fired off at each other, more often hitting objects around us than each other. Thankfully nopony was hit, apart from us."

"As the fight was about to get worse, the royal guards showed up with Captain Shining Armor leading, 'Are you alright Sunset'?"

" 'Yeah I'm fine, just a little sore', I answered with a groan."

"I looked back to Starlight Glimmer, and I could still see the fiery determination she had when we started this fight, but seeing she was outnumbered, she took off running without her staff. When asked what happened, I merely said 'she was some pony not happy that I wouldn't listen to her'. After that, I heard nothing from her, until now anyways."

"So, she's just as powerful as you?" Applejack asked.

Sunset nodded, "though it's been some time since the last I saw her, so if I had to guess, she's gotten stronger since then."

"But why does she hate cutie marks?" Fluttershy asked.

Sunset shrugged and was about to talk, when suddenly, they heard a whooshing sound. They looked and saw a rock with a note wrapped around it. Rainbow picked it up and brought it to Sunset, who read the note, "they want me to join them?"

"But that means you'll have to talk to your former mentor," Applejack pointed out.

"Awkward," said Pinkie Pie.

Rarity placed a hand on Sunset's shoulder, "are you going to be okay meeting up with her again?"

Sunset took in a deep breath, then exhaled, "I'm going have to be, for Princess Twilight and the others. I'll be back soon."

Her friends all gave her a big hug, and taking in one more deep breath, she ran towards the portal and whooshed through it.

"Dang Matthew, you lost all the games tonight, are you feeling alright?" Patrick asked.

"Yeah, sorry, I guess I'm just- well, rusty I guess."

"More like he's distracted about something," but Emily only thought that to herself.

"Oh well, no worries buddy. What matters is that we're all hanging out together." Patrick nodded with Ryan's statement. "Though I'll admit, that game sure got me hungry."

"I can agree to that," added Patrick. "Hey, I saw this restaurant in the mall yesterday, maybe we could eat there."

"Yeah, what's it called again?"

"Steak Villa, I think."

"Well, good enough for me. What do you two say to that?"

Emily was perfectly fine with that, but Matthew looked a little worried. The more time he was away was more time the ponies weren't able to go after Starlight Glimmer, and more time for people to discover that they were there.

"Hey Matt, are you going to be okay with going there?" Patrick asked.

"Huh? Oh uh, I uh..."

"What's the matter Matthew?" Emily asked with her eyebrow still raised, "got somewhere you need to be?"

He was about to answer, when at that moment, he swore he could hear Twilight in his head, "go out with your friends, we can wait."

"Uh, no, I'm fine with going there."

"Great, then let's go."

Not sure why he had that thought, Matthew nodded and followed the other three out of the pool hall.

Sunset landed flat on her stomach after emerging from the portal. She looked around and found herself in a big library. She also found herself in front of several ponies, and one baby dragon.

"Hey Sunset, long time no see," smiled Spike.

Sunset got to her hooves and walked over to Spike before pulling him into a hug, "she is okay Spike. She told me that, we'll get her home."

"Indeed we will."

The other voice made Sunset freeze. She looked behind her and saw Princess Celestia looking down at her. For the first time in her life, Sunset felt truly small in front of the alicorn princess.

"Hello Princess Celestia, it's been a while."

"Yes, it has Sunset, and we have much to talk about. However, that will have to wait until we bring Twilight Sparkle and her friends home."

"Right, but how did you get me here?"

"It wasn't difficult," said another voice. Sunset looked and saw a pony with a black sweater behind the machine, "name's Moondancer, I think we've crossed paths before."

"Perhaps, but I wasn't a social pony back then, but how did-"

"It took a bit of rewiring, and using Princess Celestia's magic, we were able to get you here."

Sunset took a look at it, "very impressive."

"Don't worry, it'll be back to normal when it's time to send you to- uh, wherever it is you came from."

"Save that for later. What do we do now?"

"We need to go to Starswirl's archives," said Princess Celestia. "Due to the thousand years I've been around, I've forgotten how to use portal magic, and only he wrote down how to use that kind of magic."

"And it's a big archive," said Spike. "I know, we've been there."

"Well then, I guess we should get started." Sunset's horn lit up, but fizzled out in a second, "seems I've forgotten how to use magic. Princess Celestia, would you mind teleporting us?"

Princess Celestia nodded and within seconds, the library was empty again.

At the house, all was not well. The ponies were hiding as they could hear the same banging sounds from before with the hunters.

"Matthew was right, they don't learn," grumbled Rainbow Dash.

"Those poor animals out there," groaned Fluttershy. "They're going to get hurt, or worse. There was must be something we can do."

"We could always kick them out of here," suggested Applejack.

"And risk getting hurt by them, no chance," said Rarity.

Twilight suddenly smirked, "direct approaches won't work, but luckily for us, we do have magic."

Her horn lit up and with her eyes closed, she focused on the hunters. First, she made one of them trip, followed by the other one. Next, while they were getting up, she made ice appear under them and made them fall onto their backs.

"Thank goodness I learned that as Masked Matter Horn," Twilight thought thankfully to herself.

Matthew's paintball guns flew out of the closest, and seeing that they were loaded, Twilight teleported them outside the house and fired at the hunters. They yelped, fell, screamed and banged into each other.

"This place is haunted!" they cried.

Moments later, they raced to their vehicle and hurried away.

"Wow Twilight, that was amazing!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

Twilight chuckled, "I doubt Matthew will have any more trouble with these fools."

The ponies couldn't help but laugh, even Rarity and Fluttershy found the situation funny.

"Okay, so we had our fun with them, but we still need to get that Starlight Glimmer," said Rainbow Dash. "We can't leave her here, look what she's been doing!"

"We know that Rainbow Dash, but at this point, we have no idea where she is, and even if we take a good guess, she'll be gone from there."

"So what do you say Twilight? We wait till she finds us here?"

Twilight was about to say 'yes', but then remembered the damage done to Stouffville, Uxbridge and Brechin'.

"No, but we do need to track her moves and with Matthew's knowledge, we'll catch her before she does anymore damage."

"Hopefully," muttered Applejack, but it wasn't loud enough to be heard.

At the Steak Villa restaurant, the four friends had placed their orders and were now talking. Well, three of them were and the last one, Matthew, was just listening.

"So I told the idiot; well next time, make sure to keep your eyes up before crossing the road," said Patrick.

"And he didn't think looking down at his phone would nearly lead him into walking out into traffic?" Emily asked.

"Guess not."

Ryan sighed, "sure makes you wonder why some people are like that."

"Tell me about it," said Matthew for the first time since they arrived. "I got two people who come onto my property almost daily, and get this, the only reason they're there is to hunt animals."

"Seriously?" Patrick asked in surprise.

"Yes indeed, and yet I scare them off every time. Why just last night, I was out on the back deck with Tw-er, a tall drink and I heard these loud bangs." As he recapped the story, without the ponies in there, Emily just looked unconvincing at him.

"He is hiding something. First he doesn't want to come, then agrees and now he's changing his story. What is going on with you Matthew," but she thought that to herself.

She wasn't alone in thinking that. Both Ryan and Patrick were getting suspicious too. But before they could say anything, the food arrived and any conversation they wanted to have was halted.

All Coming Undone

Chapter 6: All Coming Undone

Destruction and Mayhem. Those were the only words that could describe the scene between Brechin' and Washago. Starlight Glimmer was still on her rampage, but her intensions had changed in the distance between the two towns.

As she was passing an intersection outside of Brechin', she saw something on one of those moving picture machines in a nearby store. It was a minor news report from a town much farther away from where she was.

"So tell us Sir, what happened?" asked the news reporter.

"Well we were out, minding our own business," said the man. "Then all of the sudden, we were assaulted by a paint ball gun, but there was no one there. Yet as you can see, we're covered in paint balls."

"Do you have prove this paint ball gun fired at you?"

"Yes we do. We have a shoulder cam."

The news report then cut to the shoulder footage, and while it did reveal the people to be hunters instead of just passers by, it did show the gun being fired off, but with no person there.

Starlight Glimmer smirked. Based on what she had learned of this world, she knew there was no way humans could get their weapons to float, so that left only one option. Magic was involved. It was also proven correct as she could just see magic floating around the gun.

Now in Washago, she decided to create more damage so the humans would have to focus on that, rather than look for her.

"I'll sleep for the night, then go in for the attack. Sparkle and her friends won't know what hit them until it's too late."

Yet as she left, she saw something which caught her eye; A big navy yard.

"Well now," she smirked. "I think the rest can wait till I've checked this out."

It didn't take Matthew long to find out what happened. He ended up leaving his friends to tend to the news crew. The ponies hid out of sight while Matthew showed them around.

"As you can see, it's just little old me and my cat," he said.

"Then how do you explain that piece of footage?" asked the news reporter.

"Ever heard of CGI? I mean sure I have pointed that paintball gun at them, but it was mainly to scare them off. They could've edited the footage to make it look like it was floating out there." He then whispered, "you know how some people just want attention."

"Indeed so," sighed the reporter. "I'll make sure this gets cleared up."

"That'd be great, thank you."

The news crew soon left. Matthew stood at his back door for half a minute before he walked back into the kitchen. He took in a deep breath and shouted, "TWILIGHT!"

Twilight flew back into the room, soon being followed by the other ponies.

"Sorry Matthew, we didn't mean to get you into trouble," she said. "We just wanted to get them off the property, and to stop them from hurting the animals."

"Besides, how were we suppose to know they had those silly things. Uh-what are they-"

"Cameras, and they film things to be seen later on, much like what you see on the television shows." He groaned and grabbed the back of a chair and took in deep breaths. "It's fine everypony, you were only doing what you thought was right. Besides, it wasn't that hard to get those news crews to leave."

"And on that note, what is CGI?" Applejack asked curiously.

Before Matthew could answer, he heard his phone ringing, "oh what now?!" He walked over to his phone and picked it up, "you got Matthew, what's up?"

"Matt, do you think you can meet us by the boat launch? We need to talk to you," came the voice of Ryan.

"Well if you guys have anything to say, you can just tell me now."

There came a groan on the other side of the phone, "we weren't going to say anything before, but we have noticed that you've been acting odd since we came here. We need to talk face to face, no excuses Matthew." And he hung up.

"Acting odd?" Matthew asked as he put the phone down. "I haven't been acting odd, have I?"

The ponies didn't say a word. Matthew sighed, grabbed his truck keys and headed out the door.

In Canterlot, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Moondancer, Spike and Sunset Shimmer were all looking away in the vault that once belonged to Star Swirl the Breaded. Inside the vault was the scroll that had the spell that could teleport the group to where Twilight Sparkle and her friends were. There was however one problem. Which scroll had it?

"There are thousands of scrolls in here!" groaned Spike. "It took Pinkie, Twilight and I a whole night to find a time travel spell, and even then, we found it after the sun had risen."

"Lucky you," sighed Moondancer. "I'd gladly spend a day in here. Reading up on all of Starswirl's notes, and read about his own adventures."

"You and I live two very different lives, yet somehow similar."

Princess Celestia could only chuckle at the scene. However, she noticed that Sunset was looking elsewhere instead of with the group. She started making her way to the mare, but was blocked by Princess Luna.

"Maybe it's best you give her some more time, I'm sure she's not quite ready to talk yet."

"I suppose, I just miss her so much. She's like a daughter to me, and now she's here," she sighed and turned away to look down another section of shelves. "Someday we'll talk."

Sunset didn't say anything, but she heard the words of her princess, "I miss you too."

As she began her search again, her journal started glowing. She opened it up and read a message that read, "we're still okay, but our new friend seems to be getting into trouble with his friends. Also, I think Starlight Glimmer is getting closer to us. Please tell me you've found a way to get us home."

Sunset brought out a pen with her magic and wrote down, "made it to Equestria, but looking for the teleportation spell for dimensions is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Don't worry, we're not giving up, though you and the others might need to get ready. If memory serves right, Starlight Glimmer will not go down that easily without a fight."

"And how do you know this?" came the replying message.

"I'll explain later, right now, it's back to the search. See you soon, your friend, Sunset Shimmer."

She put the journal back into her saddlebag, then went back to her search.

Patrick, Ryan and Emily were waiting at the boat ramp impatiently, not saying a word the entire time. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Matthew showed up.

"So, what did you guys mean by what you said on the phone? Aren't you enjoying your visit here?"

"We would if our old friend was actually focused on spending time with his friends," Patrick said firmly. "But every time we're with you, it seems like you got something to hide."

"I was the first to notice it back at your house," said Emily. "At first, I thought it was nothing because it's been a while since we, well mostly you three, hung out. But from today alone, we've all noticed your odd behavior."

"You change what you're about to say, and you stop to keep listening to the news reports," added Patrick. "It's like you're expecting bad news."

"So I like listening to the news, and I'm just trying to figure out what to say," Matthew said in defense.

"And when you heard about the hunters near your home, you took off without saying a word to us," Ryan pointed out.

"Well, uh, those idiots could damage on my property, I had to-"

"Save it Matthew, we know you're hiding something!" snapped Patrick.

Matthew gasped hearing that. Indeed it had been obvious to others. He recomposed himself, "uh, no, of course I'm not hiding something. We used to tell each other everything."

"That's just it Matthew, we used to, but now, after much time, things have changed."

"What's going on Matthew?" Ryan asked. "This whole trip was to reunite us, yet the whole time we've been with you, it's like you want nothing to do with us."

"No guys, that's not it."

"Then what's going on?" Patrick asked crossly.

"It's well, it's hard to explain."

Emily groaned and kicked the ground angrily, "see guys, he's hiding something and whatever it is, he doesn't trust us enough to know."

"Okay, so maybe I do have a secret or two, that doesn't mean I don't want to see you guys. When you called me to tell me you were coming up here, I was super excited over seeing you guys again. So why would I want to avoid you when I've been looking forward to your arrival?"

"I don't know Matt, you tell us," said Patrick, giving him a firm glare.

Matthew opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Emily started walking to the vehicle, "come on guys, let's go. It's clear Matthew rather spend his time on his own rather than with his friends."

"What?! No guys, don't do that!"

"Unless you can give us a good reason to stay, we're going home," Ryan said firmly. "So, what will it be Matthew?"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Cause I...well I..."

"WHY NOT?!"

Matthew' temper rose and he shouted, "cause I don't trust you guys enough to know!"

There was stunned silence. It was only when the words left his mouth that Matthew realized his huge mistake. The stunned looks on his friend's faces changed to angry glares at him.

"Guys, I didn't mean to-"

"Goodbye Matthew. Since you prefer to keep yourself to yourself, let's hope our paths never cross again."

"No wait!"

But nothing he could say would change their minds. They got into their vehicle and went back to the hotel. Matthew stayed where he was, not quite sure what he should do next. After a minute, he snapped back to reality and after cursing under his breath, he got into his truck and drove off to the house.

When he arrived though, he didn't go inside to meet up with the ponies. Instead, he parked the truck outside the garage and went inside to do some cleaning. For now, he just wanted to be alone.

Author's Note

I'm not going to lie, this rewrite has been difficult to work on as I'm including a lot of the original deleted bits from the original 2015 version. Hopefully now though, it should get easy. Fingers are crossed.

The Fight Begins!

Author's Note

Hey everyone, just a note to say that if you follow me on a certain other fanfiction website, please note that I will not be posting this or the remaining chapters there. I will be posting the remaining chapters, as well as future MLP stories here on FimFiction.

The Fight Begins!

Chapter 8: The Fight Begins!

Splat! Splat! The paintballs hit their targets with various degrees of success as Patrick, Ryan and Emily practiced with Matthew's extra paintball guns.

"Man, it's been too long since I last used one of these things," grumbled Patrick. "My aim stinks!"

"Well it's still better than missing the target like me," said Ryan. "Besides, this is why we're practicing out here. We need to be ready for when Starlight Glimmer shows up."

"Which could be any minute," added Emily.

Patrick took in a deep breath, aimed once more and fired off his paintball gun once again at the target. It wasn't a perfect hit, but at least it could do some damage.

From the porch, Matthew and the ponies were looking on with interest, and a little bit of worry.

"She is a very powerful unicorn," Rainbow Dash pointed out, "do you really think your paintballs will actually hurt her?"

Matthew shrugged, "they might, but then again, she might just stop them. But that's a risk we're willing to take Dash. Plus, with her attention on us, she won't see you guys coming."

"Good thinking." Rainbow Dash started rubbing her hooves, "oh I can't wait to teach that sorry unicorn a lesson. Nopony does this to us and gets away with it!"

Twilight looked Rainbow Dash firmly in the eyes, "let's not start throwing punches until we've exhausted all other options. She's been on this world with no one to really talk to, so surely she's been lonely and maybe a little scared. That might just convince her to stop, and to take us back home."

"And she's probably been without food too," added Applejack, "so she might be hungry and willing to listen to reason at that point."

Twilight nodded, "maybe Applejack."

"Yeah, but if all else fails, we kick her flank!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

Matthew rolled his eyes, but then looked back to Twilight, "could she just appear out of nowhere?"

"She might, but teleportation isn't that simple. It can get you from place to place, but if you're travelling from let's say, Washago to here, then she'll have to do a lot of teleporting, meaning she will have to stop for a rest." She looked back towards the house, "that's why both Pinkie Pie and Rarity are watching your news channels, just in case she pops up somewhere she shouldn't."

"And should she show up here without notice?" Matthew asked curiously.

Twilight sighed and answered with; "if she does, then we're just going have to through with the plan right then and there."
"So in other words, talk or fight," called Patrick as he fired again, only to miss.

"Yes, that's it exactly," answered Twilight.

Patrick groaned and started waving the paintball gun around, scaring Fluttershy badly, "what is wrong with this stupid thing?! I can't seem to get this thing to work with me!"

"Maybe it's because you're holding it with one hand when it's a two handed weapon!" called out Matthew.

"Nah, it's the weapon!"

Matthew groaned, but then smirked when he saw Patrick using both hands on the paintball gun.

"Told you!" he shouted back.

Patrick rolled his eyes, all the while, Ryan and Emily were chuckling.

Celestia's sun lowered for the end of another day, meaning ponies could close up shop and get ready to go home for a rest. In the Starswirl wing though, rest was the last thing on two ponies' minds. Sunset Shimmer and Princess Luna were still looking through the scrolls while Spike, Celestia and Moondancer had a small sleep.

Their sleep however was interrupted by Sunset's existed shoot.

"I FOUND IT!"

Celestia was the first to approach, but seeing Sunset tense up, she backed up. Spike stepped forward and accepted the scroll before passing it to Celestia.

"Yes, this is it, we can finally get to that world and bring Twilight and the others home!"

The others cheered as Celestia's horn lit up. Suddenly, sparks flew from her horn, nearly setting a few scrolls on fire.

"What happened?" Moondancer asked.

"I don't know, but I think Miss Glimmer has blocked us from getting to the others."

"She can't do that! Can she?" Moondancer looked to Sunset for an answer.

The orange pony nodded, "if she's strong enough to take me on, and teleport the others to another world, then she can do anything."

Sunset Shimmer was right. Starlight Glimmer, figuring that Twilight might still have some way of connecting with Equestria, used her magic, blocking anypony from Equestria from coming to Earth. As for other dimensions, she didn't really care. All that mattered to her was getting even with the magical alicorn.

"She and her friends waltz in, take over my town again, force me to run, get trapped on this world with apes with no hair, and now she's making me teleport across this world to get to her." She growled loudly through her teeth, "just you wait Twilight Sparkle! I'm coming for you and your friends!"

Police Cars swarmed around her, but she disappeared from their view, but not before throwing them either onto their sides or their roofs.

It was dark in the back yard of Matthew's house. Twilight and her friends stood ready while Matthew, Patrick, Ryan and Emily waited in the shadows.

"This is insane," Emily whispered. "We came up to see an old friend, and now we're gonna have to fight a magical unicorn who hates Cutie Marks."

"I know it's beyond weird, but what's worse, Miss Glimmer hurting them, or us making sure she can't hurt anyone else again?" Patrick raised an eyebrow at her.

"The latter," she answered.

"Shh you two," Ryan whispered, "there she is!"

With a pop of magic, the unicorn of their discussion appeared. She stared down at the six ponies, all the while, the humans kept their weapons pointed at her.

"Starlight, please stop this," Twilight begged as she stepped forward. "You've had to spend so long outdoors and alone. You're probably also hungry."

"That doesn't bother me!" snapped the angry unicorn. "All I care about is making sure you don't stop me again!"

"We're all a long way's off from Equestria," Twilight continued, " so how can you really do what you want to do if we're all here on Earth?" She showed a caring smile and extended out her hoof, "please Starlight, help us get home, then we can all be with our loved ones. Wouldn't you like that?"

There was silence from the unicorn.

"Maybe this will work," Emily whispered.

"Go home? Be with loved ones?"

"Yes," Twilight nodded. "I bet you're longing to see them."

Starlight Glimmer started to laugh, but not in a cheerful manner. It was more like a sinister kind of way.

"Or perhaps not," Emily groaned.

"You foolish Alicorn, I have no one to go back to! As for being away from Equestria, it don't bother me, as long as I never have to see anymore of those cutie marks! As for you six, well-" she paused as her horn glowed, "I'll make sure you never stand in my way again!"

And she fired magic off at the six ponies. Twilight fell back, but luckily, Fluttershy caught her.

"It was a good plan, but she's too stubborn."

"Well luckily, so are we," smirked Applejack. She looked up to Rainbow Dash, "ready for this?"

"Oh yeah, let's kick her sorry flank!"

As they charged in, Matthew aimed his paintball gun, "smile now you son of a-" and he fired off his paintballs, which caught Starlight Glimmer's attention. She tried to stop them, but they still got through, and because she was focusing on them, she didn't notice Applejack or Rainbow Dash coming in and punching her so hard that she went flying. She went a short distance before landing at the foot of the driveway.

"Okay, so they got help. Now where are-"

But she never finished that thought as more paintballs fired at her, followed by magical beams of magic and some hoof punches.

Across the street, the neighbor was curious as to what was going on. They left their house and looked as best as they could. They almost reached the edge of their driveway, when they saw magical beams of magic and a unicorn pony.

"What in the world?!" they shirked.

This however caught the attention of Starlight Glimmer. Her horn started to glow as she focused on the neighbor.

Matthew saw this and shouted out, "leave them alone!"

Starlight turned and saw Matthew coming out of his hiding spot. She smirked, "there you are. Think you were smart there huh? Well I'll teach you!"

And she fired off her magic right at Matthew, only to be blocked by Twilight's magic.

"Find a hiding spot, and don't let her see you!" Twilight cried.

Matthew nodded and went to find a different spot, which was difficult as there was nothing but open area between the bushes he was hiding behind and his garage.

The neighbor meanwhile had run back into the house and was calling the police.

"I don't know what's going on over there, but I've seen explosions. Please send help."

"We're on our way," came the reply.

With nowhere to really hide, Matthew had no choice but to start firing everything he could at Starlight Glimmer. Sadly, since she could see him, she was able to stop him. Applejack and Rarity stayed with him, "Sugarcube, did you plan on a back-up plan?"

"No AJ, I did not. Luckily she doesn't know where the others are."

Starlight stopped, causing everyone to look to her confused. Her horn lit up, and moments later, Ryan, Patrick and Emily were lifted out of their hiding spots and thrown to the nearby farmer's field.

"Then again, I could be wrong," Matthew groaned.

"Right, I'm done playing Miss Nice Pony with this monster!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "I'm going after her!"

"Rainbow wait!" Twilight shouted.

It was too late. Rainbow Dash charged in at Starlight Glimmer, only to get hit by her magic and thrown into a tree. She shouted; "I'm okay!" though it sounded like she wasn't.

Twilight looked at Starlight Glimmer angerly.

"I've tried to reason with you, I've tried to help you, but if all you want to do is fight, then you got a fight!"

Her horn lit, and both unicorn and alicorn fired off their magic at each other. Sparks flew from all directions as their magic duel went on.

Ryan, Patrick and Emily ran over to Matthew, "well that went well, got anymore ideas?"

"Yeah, hit her now while she's distracted."

The four humans took up their positions and fired off all the paintballs they had in their paintball guns. It didn't work though as Starlight Glimmer somehow blocked them.

"Blast!" Matthew groaned as he stopped firing.

He then felt a tap on his shoulder, "uh Matthew Darling," Rarity called out, "are those people suppose to be here?"

He looked confused, until she pointed to the road and he saw a dozen or so police cars coming up, followed by news reporters and civilians.

"No they aren't. Keep hitting her with everything you got! Fluttershy, Applejack, you're with me!"

They made their way through the battle, somehow not getting hit in the process until they reached the front of the driveway. One officer saw his paintball gun and drew their own weapon, "put your weapon down and put your hands in the air!"

"This is just a paintball gun!" Matthew shouted back.

"I don't care what it is, put the weapon-" but the officer's words were cut off as an explosion was heard. Then two beams of magic shot towards them. Matthew and the ponies had to duck out of the way, and so did the officers.

"Sir!" called a news reporter, "what is going on here?!"

"Don't have time for this." Matthew turned to the officer, "if you really want to help, you can keep all these people back while we deal with a mad-pony!"

"We will not, now on the ground!"

Another explosion was heard, followed by Twilight's scream. Matthew glared at the officer, "protector of peace huh? If you don't start helping, we'll have your badge for this! Now keep them back!"

A small stand-off occurred between them until the officer backed down.

The officer turned to the people, "alright everyone, please move away! Nothing to see here!"

"But there are explosions!" shouted the neighbor.

"As I said, nothing to see here!"

With the public dealt with, Matthew turned back to the fight. Rainbow Dash, who had finally climbed down from the tree, was seeing if Twilight was okay after going for a short flight. Ryan and Emily were firing at Starlight while Patrick tended to an injury on Pinkie Pie.

Suddenly, Matthew noticed a two by four sitting nearby. He had used it recently to work on his fence, but forgot he had left it there.

"Right, that pony's going to get it."

He picked it up and charged in. With Starlight's focus on the others, she didn't see Matthew coming. He swung the two by four, and it hit Starlight hard, making her fall over.

In Equestria, Celestia was trying again to open the portal to Earth. Finally with a cheerful shout; "I got it!"

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" cheered Sunset, "let's go!"

Magic engulfed all five figures in the room and they disappeared.

Starlight Glimmer got to her hooves. She lifted one up to her mouth, only to discover a small patch of blood coming from her muzzle.

"Okay, you hit me with a two by four. That got me. But not again human!"

Matthew lifted up his paintball gun and aimed it, "let's put that theory to the test then."

He charged in at her, firing off his gun and swinging the two by four, but she dodged them both. Of course she would, that was his plan. He ducked down, allowing Rainbow Dash and Applejack to hit Starlight again.

Twilight walked over towards her, "please Starlight, none of this is necessary, just stop this pointless fighting and let's all go home together."

She reached out her hoof, hoping this time Starlight Glimmer would except.

The now injured unicorn stumbled a bit as she got back to her hooves. She looked Twilight dead in the eyes and shouted; "UP YOURS SPARKLE!" And she attacked Twilight again with a magical blast.

"Twilight!" cried Fluttershy as she and Rarity ran to her aid.

"That's it! I'm done playing games with you!" Matthew shouted.

He ran over to his house, grabbed a second, but smaller, paintball gun and came back pointing it at Starlight Glimmer, "you want to hurt my friends, well then you'll have to deal with me!" And he fired all his paintballs at her, but of course, she blocked them as she could see them.

"Did you really think that work?"

"Nope, but that will!" he said, looking behind her.

Ryan and Emily charged in with wood planks and smacked her with them, hurting her and making more blood come out of her mouth.

"Had enough?" Matthew asked.

"Not even close!" Starlight snapped and lifted Matthew up with her magic, "of all the two legged creatures of this world, you are by far the most annoying, now be off with you!" And she threw him, right into a tree.

There was a shout of pain, followed by a crack that came from his backside.

"MATTHEW!" his old friends shouted and ran towards them.

Twilight had seen everything, and she had had enough! She turned to Starlight Glimmer, and with all the strength she had right then and there, she unleashed her magic on the unicorn. Sending her flying up and over Matthew's garage and into the nearby field. She ran after Starlight, shouting that she was not going to harm anymore of her friends.

Pinkie Pie was the first to bounce over to Matthew, "can you get up?" she asked with worry.

Matthew tried to get up, only to fall back down.

"Nope, I'm down and my back is gone."

"I can fix that," said Rainbow Dash.

"Oh horseapples you will!" snapped Applejack, "I can fix him."

Before both ponies could do anything, magic appeared around them, stopping them in their tracks. They looked back to see Rarity stopping them.

"You'll do more harm than good. This isn't one of your competitions you know?!"

Both ponies stopped, realizing she was right. She lowered them down to the ground, just as another explosion was heard, followed by shouts from Twilight.

"I have to get back in there to help," Matthew groaned.

"You can barely get up, how can you help?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Maybe we can offer some assistance," said a voice. All eyes looked to a bright light. They closed their eyes upon seeing it, and when it faded, five figures appeared, one of which was the owner of that voice; Princess Celestia.

The Fight Continues

Chapter 9: The Fight Continues

Twilight's energy was running low, but it seemed no matter what she did, Starlight Glimmer seemed to stand tall, proud and menacingly.

"I would compliment you on your fighting, but fighting for those lower life forms is a poor pony's foolish choice," Starlight sneered. "Really, you should've run when you had the chance. And yet, here we are."

Twilight stumbled a bit before saying, "you don't...abandon friends." She tried to stand, but instead fell back down to the ground.

Starlight Glimmer shook her head, "pathetic. Maybe they should've made somepony else an alicorn. You are so useless." Her horn lit up and she prepared to strike, but instead, she got hit by a magical beam, which sent her flying into the mud again.

"Who dares?!"

"I dare!" snapped a voice.

Twilight looked up and saw the unmistakable manestyle of the one of only; Sunset Shimmer. Sunset looked down to Twilight, "told you we would make it." Her attention went back to Starlight, "so you think Twilight isn't good enough to be an alicorn huh? Who do you think deserves the role more? You? Don't make me laugh, you'd make a terrible leader."

Starlight groaned as she got back up, "so I get to face you again. This time, I won't lose."

Sunset smirked, "you may have grown up, but you're still the same little brat I fought before. Now, show me what you got."

Starlight's horn lit up, as did Sunset's. There was a short pause, then both unleashed their attacks at one another. Lightning shot out from the middle of the attacks, thunder crashed from all around, but Sunset wasn't afraid. Her magic was fresh for this fight, so she could hold her ground.

Back with the others, Princess Celestia was looking over the injured Matthew.

"Oh my dear child, this will not do," she said kindly.

Her horn lit up, and in an instant, Matthew was engulfed in a bright beam of light. Everyone had to shield their eyes.

"What are you doing to him?" Patrick asked.

"Just wait my friend," smiled Princess Celestia.

It was only thirty seconds, but it felt like forever before the light disappeared. Everyone looked to see Matthew in the same spot. Only now, he wasn't groaning as he started to get up.

"What did you do to him?" asked Moondancer.

"I healed him," the princess answered. "It's one of the many spells one can learn from ruling over a thousand years."

Everyone seemed to hold their breath as Matthew twisted and turned, and even bent back a bit.

"You okay buddy?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. In fact, better than fine, I'm better than I ever was before." He turned to the Princess of the day and bowed before her, "thank you your highness. I will forever be in your debt."

A loud explosion caught their attention.

"Oh right," groaned Rainbow Dash. "Starlight Glimmer."

A determined look came to Matthew's face as he picked up his weapons, "it's time to teach her an important lesson; nothing can stop us, as long as we have our friends with us. What do you say guys? Want to give it one more shot?"

"Heck yeah!" cheered the humans.

"Sweet Celestia yes!" cheered the ponies.

Princess Celestia raised her eyebrow hearing this, but before anything could be said, the group of friends were charging back into the fight. This time, with one more addition as Moondancer was running with them.

Spike was going to follow them too, but Princess Celestia stopped him, "maybe it's best you let them take care of this problem."

Starlight fired everything she had, but all her attacks were redirected in different directions by Sunset's magic.

"Just as I thought, you're still too sloppy," she smirked.

"Careful Sunset," warned Twilight as she lay in the mud. "She doesn't-"

"I WILL END YOU!" shouted Starlight and fired off at Sunset.

Once again, their magic clashed. Only this time, Starlight's magic was beating Sunset's. Starlight smirked, when suddenly, she heard a shout, "hey Bumlight! Leave my pals alone!"

She turned and saw Matthew standing his ground with his weapons in both hands.

"Didn't I just...never mind, I can still beat you."

Matthew raised his gun, "go on. Make OUR Day!"

"Our?"

"Yeah, OUR DAY!"

She looked around and saw the others all standing their ground. Bruised, sore and a little tired, but determined none the less.

"You'll never understand Glimmer," Matthew said firmly. "You'll never win, cause we have the one thing you don't!"

"Let me guess, 'magic of friendship'. Is that what you were going to say?"

"Okay, make that one of two things."

Starlight fired off at Matthew, but the attack was blocked. The magic as it turned out came from Twilight. She wobbled as she got to her hooves, "the other thing is that you have nothing to fight for. We do!"

"Darn right we do!" cheered Sunset.

Moondancer trotted over beside Twilight while Patrick, Ryan and Emily stood beside Matthew.

"Last chance Glimmer, stand down or we'll kick your flank back to the dark ages!"

Starlight's horn lit up and she fired at the humans again. They dodged and instantly fired back. Many of the shots hit their target, some of which were from Patrick's gun.

"Nice shot bud," smiled Matthew.

"Thanks Matt! Told you all I was a little rusty before!" he smirked.

And the fight started again. Starlight fired, but couldn't take on the entire group all at once. First she was smacked by Rainbow Dash, followed by Ryan's attack. Twilgiht, Sunset and Moondancer shot off, which distracted her so Applejack could hit her, which sent her flying to Patrick, who smacked her with a two by four. Fluttershy distracted her, allowing Rarity to smack her with her magic, and allowing Matthew to fire more paintballs at Starlight. Finally, Pinkie Pie brought out a party cannon out of her mane, don't ask how, and fired hard objects at her.

As she struggled to her hooves, Starlight noticed two very tall ponies and one lone dragon. One of the ponies disappeared through a portal.

"I'm done with you freaks! You'll never get home now!"

She got up and charged at the princesses and Spike. She would've made it, had it not been for Matthew tackling her from behind, and before getting her bearings, was thrown, quite surprisingly, to the front yard where the attacks continued.

People on the other side of the street couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"Ponies and humans fighting one pony? What is all this about?"

Of course, the crowds were of no concern for the heroic group as they focused more of their energy on Starlight. She tried her hardest, but the earlier attacks were finally beginning to take their toll. Now she was missing her targets and getting attacked more and more.

"Like those ones Glimmer?" shouted Rainbow Dash.

"You wanted a fight-" Fluttershy began.

"And you got one!" finished Emily as she smacked Starlight.

Starlight groaned once more as she tried to get back up. Through her squinted eyes, she could see the friends standing together. Moondancer was even using this time to tend to some of Twilight's injuries.

Matthew aimed his paintball gun once more, "had enough?"

"Not even a bit," snarled Starlight. She wobbled and collapsed again.

"I say she's done," smirked Applejack.

But before anypony could do anything, Starlight's body began to glow.

"I'd hold off on those celebrations just yet darlings," advised Rarity. "Looks like she's getting a second wind."

"Oh no she doesn't! Patrick, Ryan, Emily, with me now! Open fire!"

The paintball guns were raised and they took aim. The paintballs fired out and smacked Starlight hard, making her groan. So much so that when the light died away, she was still wobbling.

Matthew turned to Twilight, "I'd say it's your turn now."

Twilight nodded, "just like with Tirek girls."

They all nodded and focusing together, they started glowing. Starlight tried to strike back, but this time, Sunset and Moondancer blocked the attack. Sunset smirked and using her magic, brought out the last of Matthew's paintballs from inside the house.

"Why-"

"We do this together," she answered. "You guys started this, and now we'll finish this."

He nodded and the humans accepted their paintballs. They finished loading as the mane 6 reappeared in their rainbow forms.

"Oh come on! Fine! I'll kick you all down, even with those powers!" shouted Starlight.

She fired once more, but it was still blocked by magic. Only now it was coming from the mane 6. Sunset and Moondancer stood back, but still lent their magic to the group.

"On three Twi?" Rainbow asked.

Twilight shook her head, and shouted, "NOW!"

Their magic aimed and fired, now clashing at Starlight's magic. Matthew and his human friends took aim too and without another word, they fired everything they had.

"Now that's true Friendship in action," smiled Spike.

Princess Celestia could only nod.

To her credit, Starlight did put up a fight, but no amount of unicorn magic could beat eight ponies powering their magic together, and four humans firing paintballs at her. With one final groan, her magic failed and the magical energy sent her flying once more into a nearby field.

"Did we...over do it?" asked Fluttershy.

Starlight groaned as she once again tried to get up. She snarled as she lay eyes on Matthew, but she said nothing as she collapsed.

Finally, all the heroes could fall, worn out from their fight.

"Now I know why we don't go into psychical fights," groaned Rarity, "it's too tiring."

"I don't know, I thought it was cool," smiled Pinkie Pie. "And hey, we got to use our pony powers, right?"

"We sure did," smiled Fluttershy. "We were amazing! Well, I think we were."

Matthew rolled his eyes, "some things will never change."

Their conversation was suddenly cut short by the sounds of cheering. They looked and saw all the people who were stopped, or had come to see what was going on.

Twilight smirked as she looked to Matthew, "I'd say there's still room in your world for heroes after all."

"Yeah I guess-"

Matthew was cut off as magic engulfed him and he was taken away, into the same field as Starlight Glimmer. She groaned as she wobbled on her hooves, "no more friends, no more weapons, just a hairless ape and a pony."

She stumbled a bit as she charged, somewhat, at Matthew. He stood, ready to fight once more. Her horn lit up and she fired once more at him.

"NO!" cried Rainbow as the magical beam hit him.

"Good riddance," smirked Starlight.

But when the smoke cleared, Matthew was okay. He was being protected by a magical force field.

"Twilight?" asked everyone, but she shook her head. None of the unicorns were responsible for the force field. Even Princess Celestia was curious by this.

"Okay pony tail, my turn now!" shouted Matthew. "You've screwed around with my world for the last time!"

Starlight fired, but Matthew was quick now and dodged all her attacks, then he punched her hard in the face. She tried again to fire, but she missed again and he hit her once more, this time by kicking her in the front legs. He raised his fist angerly.

"Give up yet?"

"Not even clo-" she didn't finish as she collapsed for the last time. She was still breathing, but for sure, her energy was really gone.

"Okay, now we can rest."

The others ran to him, "how did you do that?" they asked. "That was amazing."

"Honestly, I don't know how I did it, but there was no way I was going to let her get away with attacking again." He looked to Applejack, "you better get the ropes from my garage, we're going to need it for this troublemaker."

"No need," came another voice.

They all looked and saw Princess Luna, and several royal guards. One had hoof cuffs.

"Oh horseapples," groaned Starlight.

Author's Note

To be honest, I was watching the final fight scene of the Super Mario Brothers Movie when I was writing up this chapter. Great inspiration there. Anyways, final chapter is coming up real soon.

Farewell and Reunions

The guards stepped forward towards Starlight, all of which were being cautious. All of them had been warned by Princess Luna, but she didn't put up a fight and was placed under arrest in no time.

"And so ends the terror of Starlight Glimmer, for real this time," sighed Rainbow Dash. She looked down to Twilight, "by the way, where did that magic come from?"

"I have no idea," she answered.

The people on the other side of the road started making their way over, but Matthew was having none of it, "there's nothing to see here folks, you can leave now!" He turned to the news crews on scene, "and you better not put this on the news."

"Sir, we have a right to know what happened here."

Thankfully, the officer that Matthew argued with ordered everyone to leave, and even took the footage from the news cameras.

"As the man said, there's nothing to see here."

But despite the officer's best efforts, some camera crews still had footage on their smart phones, but kept that to themselves, for now.

Besides the guards, Luna also brought back doctors to tend to the ponies, and once getting over the shock, they tended to the humans too.

"How?" Starlight Glimmer groaned.

"How what?" asked one of the guards curiously.

"How did this whole thing go so wrong? I was all set, I had weakened them. For goodness sakes, I even broke one, how could they get back into the fight?"

"Friendship is what drives us you brute!" snapped Rarity.

"And the desire to keep all worlds safe, including Earth!" added Applejack.

Starlight snarled before spitting out some blood from her mouth.

"Friendship, it's just as worthless as your cutie marks. In my life, they serve no purpose. You need to stomp them out and forget about them."

Matthew heard this and started walking over. He glared at the unicorn pony.

"So that would explain your lack of concern over all the people you met on your journey here." He narrowed his eyes, "and while none of us can explain what saved me from your last blast of magic, I can assure you that friendship, much like cutie marks, are valuable, and is indeed worth fighting for."

Starlight looked up at him, then spat blood in his face. Matthew raised his fist up, ready to smack her face with it, but then he lowered it and began to wipe the blood away.

"Get her out of my sight! I don't ever want to see this waste of space ever again!"

The guards did as they were asked. Starlight Glimmer struggled as she tried to break free again, but it was no use as there were too many guards. Still, she looked back at Matthew, "rest assured, I will return, and next time, I'll break more than your back! Do you hear me?! You'll pay! You all will!"

"Oh shut up!" he snapped.

Finally, the guards escorted the troublesome unicorn into the portal and with a whoosh, they were gone.

Celestia looked to Luna, "we'll be along soon."

Luna nodded and dived into the portal, leaving the group to go inside and tend to their injuries.

"I have to say one thing I don't like about your world," Rarity said to Emily, "it's how small your hair brushes are. I'll never be able to get my mane back to the way it should be."

"Sorry Rarity," Emily apologized, "but that's the biggest size I have."

She felt a nudge on her side and saw Applejack standing there.

"Don't take it personally Sugar, Rarity here has a custom made hairbrush just for her, so anything else is considered small in her opinion."

"I see," that at least did put her mind at ease.

Meanwhile, Twilight was using an X-Ray spell on Matthew to make sure no bones were broken.

"I really need to learn that spell Princess Celestia used on you," she said. "It has done wonders to your bones, and your nerves."

"I feel pretty good too, though I'm sure I'll have a difficult time getting out of bed tomorrow."

"We all will," Patrick agreed.

"I might not even be able to bounce for a while," said Pinkie Pie, which shocked everyone. "But maybe for a few hours, then I'll be okie-dokie."

"Oh good," sighed Fluttershy. "I can't imagine Pinkie Pie not bouncing for a few weeks."

Ryan was about to say something, but Emily cut him off, "it's best not to say anything about that."

"Good point."

"So, is everypon...I mean, is everyone okay?" asked Princess Celestia after exploring around the house.

"We're fine," just about everyone said in unison, except Rainbow Dash.

"Are you kidding me? I'm feeling 120 percent better." She winced though when Applejack gave her a little nudge on the side, "though some parts of me do hurt."

"We're fine Princess," said Applejack.

"Good, cause it's time to go."

"Go? You mean, you're leaving?" Emily asked.

"Well yeah," answered Ryan. "This isn't their world Emily, they need to return to Equestria. They have families waiting for them, and besides, who would save their world if another baddie showed up?"

Matthew nodded and walked over towards Twilight, "I knew this day would come, but what I didn't know was how hard it was going to be to say good-bye."

He got down on his knees and wrapped his arms around Twilight. In response, Twilight wrapped her front legs around him in a hug.

"We're all going to miss you too Matthew. You've been a great host, a little strange perhaps, but a good one."

"You talk like you won't see each other ever again," commented Princess Celestia, which caused them to look up to her. "Now that we know the spell to cross over between our world and this one, you ponies can come visit anytime you want."

"What about us visiting you?" Emily asked.

"Probably best if that didn't happen yet," said Ryan. "Who knows how the ponies of Equestria would react of us."

"Very true," nodded Spike. "When I first saw you all, I thought you were the strangest creatures ever. Then again, I still do, same with the humans of Sunset's home world."

Sunset raised an eyebrow at Spike, but before she could say anything, Spike was smacked from behind by Moondancer.

"Ow! You know, a simple 'shut up Spike' would've done'."

Moondancer merely shrugged. Sunset chuckled, until she saw Celestia walking up to her.

"I know you're not ready to face me yet Sunset, but I just want to thank you for all your help. We wouldn't have known that Twilight was here without your help."

"Just making up for past mistakes," Sunset muttered before turning away.

Princess Celestia sighed, "another day then."

She walked into the living room and using her magic, she opened up the portal.

"Come dear friends, it's time to go home."

The ponies took this time to say their good-byes, but promised to come back. One by one, they went in, except Rarity as Spike flew right above her.

"What?!" he asked as Twilight and Sunset looked to him. "I'm not going to let anything hurt my dear...I mean, our dear Rarity."

The two mares rolled their eyes and watched as they left through the portal.

"I'll see you at the castle Twilight," said Sunset. She turned back to Matthew and the others, "if you ever get the chance, be sure to visit my home world, I'm sure you'll enjoy it there."

She jumped into the portal, leaving Twilight and Princess Celestia as the last to leave. Twilight looked back to her new friends and smiled.

"Something tells me that this is only the beginning," she said. "Remember to be honest with each other, look out for one another and-"

"Friendship is Magic," they all said in unison.

"You got it," beamed Twilight before she jumped into the portal, followed by Celestia. It closed behind them, and the house went silent.

Bridget the Cat walked into the room and rubbed herself up against Emily's legs.

"So, what do we do now?" Ryan asked.

"Obviously," Matthew answered. "We do what we originally wanted to do, hang out and catch up on lost time. Unless you guys are still planning on leaving."

"Not a chance bud," smiled Patrick. "We're still mad at you yes, but we can overlook that and spend time with you, as long as you remain honest with us."

"I'll try my best," Matthew responded with a smile. "Now, who's up for some video games?"

"We are!" the other shouted happily, which startled Bridget.

Matthew merely rolled his eyes and picked up his little cat to calm her nerves down.

At Sweet Apple Acres, the CMCs were sitting in the clubhouse. At first, they had tried to do things to pass the time, but soon, the worrying got to them and they stopped to sit and wait.

"Do you think they're okay?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"For the hundredth time, I don't know!" shouted Scootaloo. She relented instantly, "I'm sorry, I'm just a little worried for them."

"We all are," sighed Apple Bloom. "But they should be back soon. I mean, if they wanted Spike to join them, then they must be on the way."

"And we're already here," said a familiar voice.

The three young fillies looked to the door of the clubhouse and saw Applejack standing there. Seeing her sister, Apple Bloom got up and embraced her in a hug.

"You're home! You're really home!"

"Sure am Sis," smiled Applejack as she hugged her back.

"Oh come now Applejack, you're not the only one to come home," said another voice, which brought a tearful smile to Sweetie Belle's face. Rarity walked into the clubhouse next, followed by Rainbow Dash.

Happy to see her older sister, Sweetie Belle ran up and embraced Rarity in a hug.

"I can't tell you how happy I am to see you Rarity!" beamed Sweetie Belle.

"You probably feel the same way as I do Little sister," said Rarity as she hugged Sweetie back. "It's good to see you again."

Being the cool ponies they were, Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash only hugged briefly before trying to act cool. It failed, and they went back into hugging.

"What happened to you guys?" Scootaloo asked. "You look awful."

Rainbow Dash chuckled, "let's go inside the farmhouse, and get something to eat. We'll tell you all about it there."

"Alright!" cheered the Crusaders and ran out, knocking the three ponies down.

"Oh to be young again," smiled Rarity.

They picked themselves up, and headed off after the Crusaders.

Pinkie Pie was welcomed back with open hooves by the Cakes, including the Babies.

"Aww, I missed you guys too," she beamed, "wait till you hear about my adventure."

"Later Pinkie dear, first, we got some treats for you to try."

Pinkie Pie's eyes lit up, "okie-dokie!" she cheered and dived into the food, quite literally. The Cakes, being prepared, wore aprons, goggles and the biggest smiles they've ever shown.

As for Fluttershy, she was tackled by all the animals before receiving her own welcome home hugs. Even Angel Bunny was nice to her, but only briefly as he started stomping his foot and pointing to his belly. Fluttershy merely rolled her eyes and lead the animals into the cottage.

In Twilight's castle, the portal had been opened and Sunset Shimmer was ready to go home.

"It's a good thing I had the journal with me, otherwise who knows how long we would've been stuck on Earth. Thanks again Sunset."

"Oh well, I'm just trying to make up for my mistakes."

"Speaking of which, when do you-"

"I'm going to stop you right there Princess. I know I'll have to face Princess Celestia one day, but right now isn't the best time. But I'm sure one day, we'll both know when that time comes."

Twilight nodded. Moondancer came forward, "you and I had our differences in the past, and exchanged some not so friendly words, but given what we went through, I can overlook it and call you a friend Sunset."

She held out her hoof and Sunset gave her a happy hoof-bump.

"And I'm happy to call you my friend Moondancer."

She said her final goodbye and jumped through the portal, where all her friends were waiting for her. They were eager to hear about her adventure.

"Was the other human world like ours?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Was Princess Twilight in serious danger?" Rarity asked. "You look a little rough there Darling."

"You're not hurt are you?" Fluttershy asked with a worried tone.

"No I'm not, a little tired perhaps. Why don't go over to the Sweet Shoppe and I'll tell you all about it?"

With that agreement made, the girls set off as the portal closed up again.

Starlight Glimmer sat in her cell, grumbling angerly. The ring on her horn glowed as she tried to force it off.

"Give it up Glimmer!" snapped one of the guards. "You're going to be in there for a long time."

"Trying to remove a pony's cutie mark, how stupid can you be?"

Starlight Glimmer smirked, "not as stupid as you."

Her magic was focused hard onto the ring, and within one second, it was off. The guards tried to stop her, but with new found energy, she blasted them out of her way, along with blasting away the cell door.

"This is only the beginning," she thought to herself. "I'll deal with Sparkle first, and once she's out of my way, that human is next."

And she ran out into the city of Canterlot to begin her next plan.

The End?

Author's Note

And finally, after over a year, the rewrite is done. It involved using a lot of the deleted stuff that didn't get used in the original 2015 story, plus correcting a lot of the mistakes made, also removing information that wasn't required.

Now in case you're wondering, yes I will be posting the sequel books here before the end of the year, but unlike this one, they will be the originals. Anyways, thank you so much for reading this, I really like this version more than the original, though in fairness, I started that original one just after I got into MLP.

The Big Reveal

Chapter 7: The Big Reveal

The hours passed, but Matthew hadn't returned to the house. The six ponies were starting to worry.

"Surely he would've come in by now," commented Rarity. "I mean, how much time can a human spend in one of those garage things?"

Rainbow Dash gave her a deadpanned look.

"Seriously Rarity! You're asking us, the ponies who know almost nothing about humans!"

"That call did sound serious," said Fluttershy while patting Bridget.

"Maybe one of us should go out there to check on him" Applejack suggested.

Pinkie Pie bounced up at once, "I'll go! I have a sure fire way of turning frowns upside down!"

And she started making her way to the door, only to be stopped by Twilight's alicorn magic.

"Given how we were nearly captured on film, I don't think it would be a good idea for anypony to go out there unless they can teleport."

Pinkie sighed and admitted defeat. Once she had let go of the pink pony, Twilight's horn lit up and she disappeared from the kitchen, and reappeared outside the garage door. She was about to open the door, when without warning, a huge downpour of rain came down.

"I'll never get used to weather in the human world," she grumbled.

Inside the garage, Matthew sat miserably on the workbench. He done a few repairs to some broken items, and even cleaned the inside of the garage, twice. Yet, with all that done, he was still not ready to go back inside. He was now sitting on his workbench, not really looking anywhere with no sounds around him.

The silence was soon broken as the door opened, and in walked a very wet Twilight Sparkle.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked bluntly.

"We're all concerned about you, so I came out to see if you were okay," she answered before shaking the water out of her fur and wings. "I'm guessing it didn't go well."

"No, it didn't. Now please go back inside, I'll be in soon."

But Twilight didn't leave. Instead, she walked over towards him. She raised up a hoof and placed it gently on his left knee.

"Care to talk about it?"

At first, Matthew didn't say a word, but he soon admitted defeat and told Twilight of why his friendships with Ryan, Patrick and Emily ended the way they did.

"I see, it was all a matter of trust," she said thoughtfully, "but why didn't you think it was a good idea to tell them about us?"

"Do you know what could happen if others found out about you? The short answer; you'll never get to go home."

"But, your friends seem like the trustworthy type. Could it be that you don't trust anyone?"

Matthew opened his mouth to retort, but no words came out at all. The silence gave Twilight the answer she was looking for, "why do you not trust others? Is there a reason for it?"

But Matthew didn't answer.

"You know Matthew, at one time, I hid things from my friends because I was worried about what they would say about them. But as it turns out, I had nothing to worry about as true friends don't judge you and won't turn their backs on you if you tell them stuff like this."

She sighed and she removed her hoof from his knee and making it hit the floor with a light tap.

"Of course, not mending mistakes that were made can lead you into trouble much further down the path."

"Around here, we call it, down the road," Matthew interrupted.

"Universal differences," Twilight nodded. "Anyways, I had this friend named Moondancer from when I went to Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. She invited me to a party, but because I was so focused on studying, I didn't go and when I left for Ponyville, I didn't even say good bye to her or anypony I knew in Canterlot. I ended hurting a lot of ponies that day, but none more so than Moondancer."

"How so?" He had never seen this moment, so either it was coming up or was something that would never be shown in the show.

"It made her shut the world out, and she refused to make any new friends, and when I tried to apologize, well-" she paused and winced, "it lead to an overdue breakdown."

Silence returned to the garage before Matthew spoke again, "and how is she now?"

Twilight smiled, "she's doing much better nowadays. Her friendship circle has grown so much, she also works at the library and book store, plus, she's smiling again." Her happy look changed to a firm stare, "but do you see now what your actions can do to others?"

"I guess, but-"

"There might be some people out there that are not trustworthy, but there is one thing you can be certain of...your friends are indeed trustworthy. So, why keep this a secret anymore?"

Matthew opened his mouth, but didn't say a word. He thought about what Twilight said, and considered the words.

Back at the hotel, Patrick, Ryan and Emily were nearly finished with their packing.

"To think we wasted all that gas, money and effort to see him, and he doesn't want anything to do with us," grumbled Patrick. "I mean, what kind of person is he?"

"He's not the same Matthew we knew from before," Ryan admitted.

"Yeah, the old Matthew would've been happy to see us. In fact, we would've been out on his back porch chatting away while enjoying bottles of soda pop."

"Yet, he's not like that now," said Emily. "Now let's finish and get the heck out of this town."

The boys sighed and continued with their packing. As he was about to grab the last batch of clothes from the drawer, Patrick's phone rang. He looked and groaned.

"What is it?" Emily asked.

"It's Matthew."

"Ignore it, and let it go to voicemail."

"Sure, and delete it afterword too," he nodded in agreement.

All too soon, they were done. They checked out of the hotel and began making their way out of town. But they hadn't gone far before Patrick's phone went off again. Shaking his head angrily, he declined the call. Less than a minute later, it rang again.

"Alright that's it, I'm giving him a piece of my mind!"

"Fine, but make it quick," sighed Ryan.

Patrick accepted the call this time, but spoke first, "Listen to us Matthew, we said want nothing more to do with you and we meant it! Now be a good idiot, and leave us the-"

But he was cut off as Matthew spoke.

"You guys were right about me."

Hearing that, Ryan pulled off the road and they all looked to Patrick's phone.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"I said you guys were right about me. The truth is, I was hiding something from not just you guys, but from everyone else. But as someone very wise told me," he paused for a couple of seconds before continuing, "real friends are trustworthy."

"Well we're glad you learned that lesson, but it's too little too late."

Emily spoke next, "we already booked out of the hotel, and we're now on the side of the road on the highway. What we said stands, so goo-"

"Please guys, don't go," Matthew pleaded.

"And why shouldn't we?"

"Cause if you come by the house, I will reveal the reason why I've been acting secretive."

Ryan, Emily and Patrick looked to each other, then back to the phone. Finally, Ryan broke the silence, "how do we know this isn't some trick you're trying to pull on us?" he asked.

"It's up to you guys, but if you do come here, I will reveal the whole truth, as well as you give you a proper hundred percent apology."

Patrick sighed, "I don't know."

"He's only half an hour away, so it wouldn't take take us long," said Ryan. He turned to Emily, "what do you think?"

She growled angrily, "I should be saying no, and to forget it!" She threw her hands in the air before making them slap her knees, "let's go back!"

Patrick turned back to his phone while Ryan turned the car around, "alright Matthew, we're coming back, but if you're lying, then you'll regret it."

"Thanks guys, I promise, you won't be disappointed."

After half an hour later, the car pulled back into Matthew's driveway. Standing outside on the back porch was Matthew himself, "hey guys, I'm glad you decided to come back."

"Truth Matthew, or we're gone!" snapped Ryan angrily.

Matthew was taken aback from the quick response, but he composed himself.

"Come inside, and all will be revealed."

They all followed him inside, but only stared at him with arms crossed and eyes narrowed at him.

"Well I guess I should just get straight to the point." He looked to the stairwell, "you can all come up now, it's time."

Ryan, Emily and Patrick raised eyebrows at him, but soon their expressions changed when Twilight and her friends came up the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Howdy Sugarcubes," said Applejack, pulling her hat down briefly before putting it back into position.

"Wha...how...are they..."

"Yes, they are real," Matthew answered. "Guys, meet the ponies of Equestria."

"But how?"

"Starlight Glimmer," Rainbow Dash answered. And the ponies explained about how they came to the human world.

Once they were done, they looked to Matthew.

"I was hiding them from the world because, as you guys know, some will be happy to see these ponies here, others may want to capture them and use them for experiments." He looked down to Fluttershy, "sorry for scaring you Fluttershy."

"It's alright," she said meekly.

"But doing that however only made me avoid you guys, despite the fact I was excited by having you here. Patrick, Ryan, you two are the only friends I have left from my childhood, and if our friendships ended, it'd be like a part of my life was gone forever. I'm truly sorry for what I did, and I promise I won't hide anything from you, or Emily, ever again."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Patrick said cautiously.

"You do have a small history of breaking promises," added Ryan. This remark made Matthew look down to the floor sadly. However, Ryan's expression changed, "but in spite of your many faults, you do try your best to make up for your mistakes."

"So, does this mean you forgive me?"

"Not completely," Emily cut in, "you lied to us, shouted at us and showed you have trust issues, even with your friends. However, we can work at it."

Twilight nodded happily. Matthew smiled, "thank you my friends, I'll do my best to make it up to you."

"I hope so," said Ryan. He looked down to Twilight, "so this Starlight Glimmer, where is she?"

"Celestia knows where," Twilight sighed. "But I have a bad feeling she'll show up anytime now. Especially with that news report."

"So the floating paintball guns-"

"Yes Patrick," sighed Applejack as she smacked her hoof against her forehead, "that was us."

"Namely Twilight."

"RAINBOW DASH!" Applejack snapped at the pegasus. That shut the rainbow pony up.

"We just did that to scare those hunters," admitted Twilight. "We didn't expect all of this, nor the fallout Matthew would have with you guys. Sadly, I'm afraid this might have gotten Starlight Glimmer's attention, so at any given point, we'll have to face her. With luck, we talk her into stopping."

"But knowing her, that'll most likely not be the case," Rarity pointed out.

"Which means, we'll have to face her once more." Twilight looked up to Matthew, "we promise not to reveal ourselves too much to the world, and we won't ask for your help."

"Are you kidding me? After everything we've been through, you think I'm just going to stand on the sidelines while you face this crazy pony on your own? Not a chance Twilight Sparkle, I'll help you."

"You've already done enough, we can't ask for more."

Patrick chuckled, "one thing you'll learn about Matthew is that he never gives up on friends. I mean, look at us, we were about ready to leave, and yet here we are."

Ryan nodded, "so if Matthew's going to help you, we will too."

Twilight was about to retort, but Pinkie Pie blocked her muzzle with her hoof, "it's better to except help. After all, it's better to go at it together than alone."

Twilight smiled and accepted the help.

"Quick question though," said Patrick.

"What's that?" Matthew asked.

"Do you have any weapons for us to use?"