//------------------------------// // Chapter 1, Coming Back Home // Story: The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 4 -- Fury Run // by shysage //------------------------------// Hi, it's me, Shysage... Coming back home to 'Equestria Present' was very difficult for Summer Rain and I. The song "Hellriders*" (from the "Treasures of Aht Urgan*" expansion OST, FFXI*, *=c 2014 by Square Enix) was playing in the background, and captured the turmoil painfully well... This song was quiet at this point though... I know that both of us deeply love Princess Twilight and her girls, and seeing them again was amazing. Also, Summer had missed her sister especially, and for them to finally be able to hug each other again, after two long years... That was amazing too. "And 'Our girls' were here too, and being back was so nice, in many ways... Still, for Summer and I, everything we had known and loved and worked for through two years, we lost -- in the space of maybe eight hours... It happened so fast... I thought loving my Mare as I did that afternoon in Cloudsdale would help her, but neither of us realized the pain would be so great... And for an hour or two we really had no idea what was next... We really had nowhere to go. It was all so jarring, for both of us... We cried a lot together... That same day in the Portal room 'back home' was really amazing, and it really did seem like our family was not so disconnected. We had only been separated from Cel (Princess Celestia) and Lu (Princess Luna) for maybe 4 hours, and Summer was hurting a lot from even that. Cel and Lu were close at least, and we got to have some time together as a family again. And helping Cel cry through all that pain was just amazing for our family... We both really love Cel and Lu... Summer and I had spent every second together for the last two years, and we were both so... We are so devoted to each other... That was like heaven for us... But then, all of a sudden that changed. By itself, that wouldn't have been a serious problem, but everything just piled up so quickly... This was all further complicated by the fact that Summer's desires had come back maybe a month and a half earlier. It was an accident, but still... But we were both hurting even then, because by then we knew who the girls were, and so we realized we would need to give them up soon. (opt:btm4a) Then after we felt left behind, I tried to give her as much as I could that afternoon... It helped, just for a while... But it did help... ...and we felt like we couldn't even risk that, not now, not here. I don't know... It was just all very hard... The day after Summer told our story, that day was a Twin's day, and I just couldn't justify keeping Summer from her Twin. They are both amazing, and really help each other. I understand Twins just do that. And Summer had been away two years... Summer would spend most of that day with her Twin and the Fluttershy Twins, and I know Summer really needed that. I realized I would probably have her back after that day anyway, so I told her to spend that day with her Twin while her Twin was here. I tried to busy myself with work, even though I felt terrible. I wanted Summer. I want Summer close... ...maybe too close, I don't know... ...even though keeping us apart would have made it far worse. I got volume Four of Princess Celestia's commentaries done, and took them to Princess' Library. She would notify Prince... er Cel, and Cel would send a courier to get the text for printing. Then I started working on 'Summer's Dream', and was making very good progress. I was again amazed at how detailed her memory of that dream was... I made it to chapter 3, to where I proposed to Summer in her dream. I could not work any more after that... Everything hurt again... Leaving the 'scope' on record, and on Summer, I headed into the meadow East of town. There is a slight hill there, and I spent the afternoon crying on that little hill. I talked to true friend quite a bit too. I really didn't know how everything was going to work out. Well, I would take care of my Mare, one way or another. Living so far in the past, really with nopony else besides each other... We had bonded so close during that time. But now we were back, and it was hard. Still, I was committed to taking care of Summer. I just was not sure how best to do that. And she is very important to me... I cried a lot... Summer found me there, crying on that hill, and she and her Twin cried with me a while. Summer's Twin is amazing... And I really love my Mare... We then flew to the Castle, and were quickly through the Portal in the Equestria Girls world. Summer is beautiful there too... I just wanted to hold her... ...for her to hold me... We did for a few minutes. Again, Princess Twilight had us all stay at the Portal, as everypony hugged everypony. I hoped the rest of the Twins had a nice time... I just couldn't help that Summer and I felt so... ...hurting... Summer's Twin and her sister told us they would ask true friend to help us... That made Summer and I cry, we really appreciated that. After dark, we were back home. I wanted to be alone with Summer... I needed to be alone with Summer... Everything hurt the least like that... ...with her in my arms... ...well, front legs... She was all I really had... (opt:btm4b) We were in our room for the night. Summer was up against my chest and neck. Everything else was far apart. We do that a lot; it is just very comforting for my Mare, and for me too. I just hugged her... We cried together a long time, then fell asleep. We woke up early in the morning, and, well, it was just very difficult. We didn't know what to do so we just cried together a while. After maybe half an hour of this, I got up, then sat on the floor, then asked my Mare to sit facing me. I hugged her tightly, then we rubbed noses briefly. Still, I told my Mare that I would NOT put her through this much longer, given everything else we had to face right now. If we couldn't work something out, I was NOT going to push her away. I would just give her everything I knew she deserved, and we would let everything else work itself out from there, one way or another. I told Summer she was my life, no matter what. I would do everything I could to take care of her, regardless of what that required... She cried, and hugged me tight... I cried too... I think it helped that Summer knew what the 'end point' would be if all else failed. I think she needed that security. She needed to know. It helped her relax, I think... I love her so much... Still, it was very early in the morning, a few hours before dawn, and we decided to go for a walk around Ponyville, and just be together. We hadn't walked far... We were actually heading for Summer's Tree. We saw it near Princess Twilight's Castle. It was very wierd... It looked like a large infected area, a blister, like a pony could get on the skin of their leg or thigh... ...Except that it was maybe three feet in diameter, and maybe 50 feet in the air. The edges of the 'blister' or whatever it was, feathered quickly to nothingness, allowing what was behind the edges to be seen... It was just floating in the night sky, blocking the view of the stars directly behind it... It looked like a three foot blister, just floating there in the air... It was very eerie... Whatever it was, it was pointed slightly down, right towards the center of Ponyville. It looked very menacing too... After dealing with evil enough, maybe we had developed sort of a second sense about things like this. This blister was not a good thing. We knocked on the Castle door, and nopony came. It was, after all, very early in the morning, maybe two hours to sunrise. The door was not locked, and we walked in, feeling very bad about waking any pony up. We actually found Spike, but waking him up was a lost cause. He just rolled over, and was snoring again. We finally found Princess' bedroom door, and softly asked if we could come in. The second time, she said we could, so we opened the door. "Let me guess, you two want me to marry you" Princess Twilight said with a smile. We really love our Princess... "Princess, I'm sorry, there is something outside your Castle that lookes very bad, you really need to come take a look." Summer said. Summer wasn't smiling. Princess put her crown on, and we walked quickly out to the front of the Castle and down the stairs. Princess saw it, and was alarmed right away. It looked menacing to her too. After about five minutes, the sunrise began to brighten the night sky, and it was gone... Princess said she would have Lu (well Princess Luna) come watch the next night; maybe she would know what it was. Watching over the night was her responsibility, she needed to know anyway. We both hugged Princess, then she headed back into her Castle, and probably went back to sleep. We realized that we would probably be up most of the next night, so we went home and tried to get some more sleep too. Whatever that 'blister' thing was, Summer and I talked, and realized that we would probably be involved in dealing with it. "Throw it on the pile" I thought to myself... Summer and I really just needed time, but it seemed we wouldn't get that... (opt:btm4c) We were both tired, and soon fell asleep again. We slept until noon maybe, and didn't get up for a little while; I just hugged her close. We spent most of that day just together... Hugging, flying, eating... We just slowed way down and enjoyed each other's presence. I can't explain how important that is to both of us... By sundown, we were laying on our bellies next to each other in front of Princess' Castle. Princess Twilight and her girls soon joined us. It was just nice to all be together like that. Summer and I hugged each one, we really did miss them all. I don't know if that blister thing made any difference, well with Summer and I. Still, it looked very bad... Lu arrived a little later, and she and Summer hugged. I hugged her too... Then we just lay on our bellies together and waited. We would have to wait a while... We just all talked together. It was nice. Very early in the morning, it was back. Princess Twilight and Summer both said at the same time that it looked a lot 'worse', well if it was a blister, it looked more infected. Lu had no idea what it was, and her magic could sense nothing from it either. Lu agreed it looked very menacing though. It also looked like it had gotten visibly more 'Red' just in the two hours or so that it was visible. Again, it disappeared at the first light of day... Princess and Lu agreed that Cel (well Princess Celestia) needed to come see it. Princess Twilight also mentioned that she would have her friend Zecora come as well, she knew a lot about magic too. This was all important, because nopony had a clue what this 'blister' was, or what it would do. Well, if it was a blister on the skin, it would probably pop, but we didn't know what that meant for this blister. I took my Mare home... We were both very tired... Summer was up under my chest and neck, and we cried softly together, and were soon asleep.