Thoughts swirled through my mind, attempting to figure out what had just been told to me. I was hoping that if I thought about it more it would make more sense, but all it did was fill me with a mix of anger and pity. They tortured Dashie, and had succumbed to the fact that for all intents and purposes their Rainbow Dash was dead. I wanted to hate them, but I just physically couldn’t. I wanted to comfort them for their loss, but I was finding myself unable to do that as well. I was stuck sitting on my couch looking down and thinking, trying to find a reprieve from all of this information. Eventually, I decided that the only way to overcome this was to go deeper in. Taking a breath, I looked at Celestia and asked her in a voice that was little more than a whisper:

“Wh… What happens now?”

Celestia stood up and looked at me with a calm expression, then asked me “Will you be able to continue to care for Rainbow Dash like before she left?” I responded almost immediately “Of course I can do that.” What a ridiculous question, she was practically my daughter. With my response, Celestia smiled and said “Good. We will return her to you as soon as possible.” However, her smile faded into a sorry expression. “I would like to apologize for any harm I have put you and Rainbow Dash through. It was my fault we separated you two, and it was my fault she was tortured.” I nodded, telling her “I forgive you. You were desperate, and felt what you were doing was justified. However, you might want to tell that to Dashie.” I then turned to the other ponies in the room “And I am sorry for you girls losing your friend. If there was a way to make things alright with you I would try my hardest.”

The ponies began to smile for the first time in what seemed like forever. Twilight stepped forward and said “Thank you. It’s sad that we lost Rainbow Dash, but if this is what she wants then we’re with her every step of the way. It’s what friends are for.” That last bit stung, and I was reminded that they were losing their friend while I was getting her back. However, the ponies seemed to have resigned their attempts to get their Rainbow Dash back, and genuinely wanted to make her and me happy. This brought another tear to my already stained cheeks; such generosity they displayed was rare in humans. They understood that they wouldn’t get their friend back, and they were ok with the fact that she didn’t want to stay with them anymore.

We sat together for a while, just looking down not saying anything. Eventually, Celestia began to get up again, walking towards Twilight. “Twilight, I think we need to get back to Rainbow Dash. I’m sure she will be glad to hear this news.” Nodding, Twilight looked at the other ponies, who stood up and walked to Celestia. Knowing that they were going to go, I had to make sure of a few things. “Before you guys go, can you do tell me when you’ll bring her back?” I asked, looking back and forth between Celestia and Twilight. Celestia thought for a bit, and then said “I believe a day or two. That should give you time to prepare for her, correct?” I thought for a bit, and then replied “Well, she did have a room. However you took that away when you left the first time.” Celestia gave a small smile, “I will fix that then. I believe we should leave now.” She said, motioning with her wings for the other ponies to get closer to her. Her horn began to glow with a golden aura, and a bright flash of light shone through the room.

Once the light faded, I was once again alone in this room. As I looked around, it was exactly how it was before, everything in its proper place. I then walked up to the office, where Dash’s room had once been, and was greeted with a surprise. Instead of the desk, chair and ugly ficus, there was a bed, a couple boxes of various knick knacks, and posters of different TV shows and sports teams. It looked almost like it did before Dashie left, minus a few cardboard boxes which I assumed held photos and other items that were scattered around the house. I sat down on her bed, looking out the window at the dark field surrounding my house. I was finally going to see Dashie again, after a whole year of separation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I awoke the next day, still lying in Dashie’s bed. I found myself resting my head at an awkward angle on top of a cardboard box, which hurt like hell the second I sat up. I wondered what time I had fallen asleep, since it looked like I had just passed out where I was. However, I couldn’t bother with figuring that out as I had to find something for my neck. I ran downstairs and into the kitchen, looking for some painkillers. The medicine cabinet had some vitamins (which tasted like ass), cough medicine (which tasted like ass), aspirin (which I would swallow before being able to taste, but I assume it also tasted like ass) and some Tums (which didn’t taste like ass, but they were a bit too chalky for my taste). Since the aspirin was the closest thing to relieve my pain, I popped the lid off and poured a few pills into my mouth. Seeing as how the pills wouldn’t count as a whole meal, I started cooking myself something to eat. Some eggs, bacon, and toast later I finally remembered that Dashie was coming home soon. I felt like I should clean up the house, but there was nothing really to clean and she wasn’t exactly the neatest mare.

I spent the next few hours watching My Little Pony. Having stopped watching it shortly after Dashie first came to me, and only briefly starting before she left, I still had a lot to catch up on. I started with season 3, with King Sombra and the Crystal Empire. I remember hearing about him from various websites as having “less screen time than Gak”, however for the life of me I couldn’t find any reference to “Gak” that the people were talking about when I looked it up. I personally thought that Sombra was an alright antagonist, especially since he wiped an entire city out of existence for 1000 years.

I was once more engrossed in the show; however I was forced to turn off my TV when I heard a knock at the door. At the present, there were two possibilities for who was knocking: Dashie and company, or one of my friends coming to pay condolences. Not wanting to get my hopes up, I expected the latter, and headed to the door. As I stepped into the hallway, the person knocked at the door again, this time a bit quicker and harder than the first time. I opened the door, and looked out at who was in front of me.

Words cannot describe the feelings I was going through. Standing in front of me was Dashie, the same way she was before she left. On her back was a simple saddlebag which seemed to be filled with a large amount of items. Her expression was a mix of happiness and pain, but the pain slowly dissipated into delight for seeing her Dad.

Before I could react properly, I was knocked over by Dashie jumping at me in a teary embrace. We both sat there in the hallway, not letting go of the moment. I could feel her tears run onto my shirt, and I felt my tears roll down into her mane as we tightened our grip. We were crying for what felt like hours, neither of us being able to say anything; everything escaping our mouths just turned into a jumbled mess.

I finally stopped crying, and pulled away from Dashie, who seemed to still be tearing up from all that had happened. I was the first one to speak, “My little Dashie… I’m so sorry…” I said, choking up at every word. She hugged me again, this time softer, and she sniffled a bit before replying. “I… I missed you Dad… I’m never leaving you again…” I chuckled, and patted her on the back, looking over her shoulder. I almost wish I hadn’t as, to my horror, I saw that we weren’t alone.

“What the hell is going on here?”

Author's Note

HOLY SHIT! I NEED A FUCKING NAME FOR THE GUY!

Also, I'd like to apologize for the last few chapters being short. Especially this one, seeing as it's a week late. However, I had to pretty much rewrite this chapter as the previous draft sucked major ass in my opinion. I'd like to say, though, that from this point on I'm gonna try and get the chapters from now on to be at least 2000 words.