Kevin woke up. The side of the bed to the left of him remained empty. Kevin’s rent was due. He had to pay it off. Kevin left his bed and went to the kitchen to see where the ponies were.
They were all there. They had already eaten five bags of apples. Kevin thought on his mistake. He had not bought enough apples. There is no way that he could buy so many. After having been surprised to such a level, Kevin settled down on the couch.
He rubbed his face. There was no way that he could keep himself afloat. He was not earning enough money to take care of himself and the many colorful ponies. He was putting himself in poverty for his friends.
Kevin looked up from busy mind to see the end of his efforts.
Twilight used her magic to unbind the adhesive strap from her fore hoof. She had healed her front hoof. It was no longer broken. Kevin knew now that she would have to go. It was now time for her to join her own kind again. She had to help them now. She was ready to go and she is there is no way that Kevin could prepare himself for the down bringing about to befall him. He had no money. Soon, he would have no friends.
This world really was cruel. It gives him one scrap of brightness before drowning it out with hatred. Kevin went for his car keys. He knew what he had to do now.
Twilight turned towards her best friend that had just sat on the couch. She wanted to let him know about her health. She could go back to her home. Kevin was not there, though. He went for his keys.
“Look!” showed Twilight bringing her perfectly fine hoof over her head.
Kevin mustered a smile. Tears built at the back of his eyes.
“I’m proud of you, Twilight,” again leaning in for a hug. This might be their last one before she is gone forever.
Kevin brought Twilight and Fluttershy, Rainbow dash, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie to the place that they said the portal was hidden. Kevin pulled over at the side of the road.
He had done all in his power to make his best and closest friends happy. They will leave him with a promise of rare return and an eternity of debt.
It was worth it, though. Every second he got to spend with them was complete bliss to his soul. He loved his friends. He gave them food, water, shelter, protection, he even gave Twilight hints about his shy feelings for her. Every night he would send her the same message. “My friend” he’d say. His old friend. She was only his new friend while she was here.
Twilight got out of the car once she knew the coast was clear and each of them piled out of the vehicle like clowns from a tiny clown car.
“Goodbye,” They offered him.
“Goodbye,” Kevin accepted.
All of them waved their hooves as they locked their sights on the alleyway and began to leave the quivering human.
Twilight stood by her friends. Each of them though of their one last friend still in Equestria: Celestia. She was likely fighting the monster right now. She had been giving it her best efforts last time.
Kevin looked out the window at the ponies that he had cared for all this time. He studied them. This would be the last time he ever saw them. He found out the odd truth. They were hurt. Applejack had a small wound on her chest. Pinkie’s hair lie flat. Twilight appeared to still have bruises that were healed a long time ago. Kevin had no term for what he felt seconds later when they were all completely gone, except pain.
The ground beneath her hooves. All of their hooves. It burnt. The very air was foul. Twilight had been here before. It looked the same, but it felt different. It felt even worse than it had last time.
Twilight tried to breathe. The air was so thin. She couldn’t get enough oxygen. The only word for whatever condition was left in her body: pain. That was when Twilight fell on the ground: fainting from hyperventilation. A shadow washed over the sleeping body.
Kevin slowly made his way out of the car. He had to follow them. They were there for him and he had to be there for them. This was their time of need above all other times.
He stood where they stood and reflected. He had given up so much for them. It still wasn’t enough. There was only one way he could thank them for what they had done for him. He went through the portal. Somehow, he would be able to make his way there.
Twilight woke up. Kevin, not at her side anymore, she bowed her head in regret. He had done so much for her in exchange for something she would have done regardless. She was captive, now. Her friends were on either side of her. She was surrounded by what friends she did have in this world and that’s all that mattered, now.
The destructive demon raised his head to her level.
“So what now, Princess?” He smirked, “did Celestia not tell you about me? How she banished me from Equestria? How she kept me in the pits of Tartarus after my master’s great exile? Let me break it down. Sunset Shimmer’s little Spike so to speak?”
It hit Twilight. Sunset Shimmer had to have some sort of assistant that she had to have hatched from an egg. This must be him. He was here for revenge on the sentence he wrongfully made out. Celestia had banished an innocent dragon to the depths of Tartarus and he had become a demon through grudge holding. His scales burnt against the hard ground. Absorbing all of the darkness of Tartarus, he had become the ultimate “carrying case” for the “Tartarus in a box” by escaping and coming here, he had brought all of the horrors of the land with him.
All of these feelings and more flushed out of Twilight’s mind. For the most part, she thought about Kevin. She had left him, and he was gone forever. She might never be able to go back. She was going to be killed now.
Bellus’ face began to curl, his mouth turned into a greedy smile. He was going to enjoy whatever it was that he was going to do.
Twilight used whatever magic she had left to teleport to the entrance to the portal was.
She was off by several feet. Kevin was out of reach. Bellus grabbed her as she attempted towards the portal: teleporting again.
“Forget it!” came Bellus, “Don’t you know the entrance changes when change dimensions back?”
Twilight had forgotten about that. It had changed every single time she teleported to the other world. Maybe it changed here, too. In a struggle, Twilight again used the teleportation spell to bring herself many miles away, but Bellus was too quick. He traveled quickly, and Twilight realized she only had a few minutes before he was right on top of her.
She turned to herself. After all that she had been through, she was going to die by the hand of a stranger without her new best friend. Twilight put her hooves over her face to cry. There was no hope for her.
Twilight sat crying. She had no last moments. She had no fight to give up. No friends to help her. They were all gone.
A soft hoof found its way her forehead before nuzzling its way under her chin and extending it to a higher position.
Wiping away the tears to see who it was, Twilight saw… nopony. Nopony she knew. The mysterious horse asked her not to go.
“Who are you?” Twilight insisted.
“It’s Kevin,” he said back.
The pony was a Pegasus with white fur and a blue mane. His cutie mark was a diamond covered in sandstone. A diamond in the rough. That’s easily what it translated to.
“I have to go, though.” Twilight responded.
“You’ll get hurt.” Kevin owned up.
“I know, but they need me.” Twilight said.
“You can’t be hurt again,” The stubborn Pegasus brought forth.
Twilight snapped “You wouldn’t know the pain, though. You didn’t feel the pain I felt that night. I hurt so badly. There wasn’t a part of me that I didn’t regret having! I wanted to end my life that day!” This was followed by her panting.
“I know,” Kevin muttered.
“No you don’t!” Twilight exclaimed
“No! I do!” Kevin began to stand up. “What I saw the night I found you was not your pain to suffer, it was mine! I had to gaze upon the mare I cared for so long and take it! The truth is that I had no better punishment than you, Twilight! It was worse! I had to take all of the pain of seeing the one I love in deep such a state!”
Twilight took a step back out of shock. She had not considered that Kevin had suffered on the same night she had suffered. Not only that, but he said that he loved her. How before had he not said this?
“You… I meant that much to you?” Twilight examined
“Yes,” Kevin the stated in response, a tear coming from his eye.
“Well…” Twilight was interrupted by a sharp gasp as she was tightly grasped around the waist by a large, scaly beast.
“Twilight?!” Kevin charged.
Twilight was carried a great distance in little time as she was brought across a great mass of houses (most of which partially destroyed) Kevin was helpless. He had only the one option to watch her die. All that he loved - dead - in one fatal swoop.
Bellus hadn’t noticed the Pegasus that was so close to the ground. Why should he? The only thing he was focused on was the purple alicorn he had, now. This was all the revenge he could muster: the killing of the like student that had earned him his imprisonment and the extinction of the whole pony race. Why would he notice a Pegasus that had just simply apparated out of thin air? He had all of Equestria pinned to the sky.
Kevin attempted to fly. He had no experience in doing so, and expected no immediate flying skills. He would have to learn slowly. Still, he flapped his wings. They spanned a massive distance as he bent the back and forth into a motion that would sooner wound a manticore than lift him off the ground. Trying his best and failing, he saw his last site before lights. Bellus was bringing a claw to Twilight’s face, preparing to cut her to shreds. He would skin her easily with those claws. How could he do that? The claw came down on her cheek: cutting it to such a small length (probably just to torture her before finally starting into the real “finale” of his time here).
Kevin’s eyes burnt. They burnt not of pain or disgust. They burnt of anger. There was no way that Bellus was getting away with that. Abusing her? That was not something that Kevin took lightly. Without thinking, Kevin’s wings flapped. They burst forth with stupendous speed as he charged the giant. Kevin tried to calm himself, but the greater part of him was raging out of control. The raw energy of adrenalin began to take hold over that feeling and rushed him to a state of speed that he had never known.
“Must… slow down.” he told himself. He needed no reminder that if he were to hit the giant this way, he would surely break something. He kept going though, and there were no limits to his speed.
The whole of Equestria sheltered their eyes or held onto their stomachs. Their cherished princess had been captured, hurt, and soon, dead.
A whistling was heard. At first it was nothing, but soon it got louder. The whole of the victims slowly made their eyes over to the mysterious hero across the way.
Kevin knew not what happened next, he only remembered flashes of hate, revenge as he swung and hit at the beast in front of him. He only recalled: bucking at him in the nose at full speed upon arriving (still going the same speed) bringing hooves down on the beast’s head, and kicking repeatedly at his jaw area. Kevin woke up from his abrupt attack. He was standing by Twilight. With Twilight in his hooves in fact.
He was here for her again. Kevin had saved her from a fall. Bellus had dropped her upon his down bringing.
“Kevin?” Twilight asked in surprise
Kevin smiled down at her before he was knocked out by a swift tail swing. Kevin thought he had taken out the monster. He, brought down in the wreckage of a building, having been swatted at least 50 meters away, barely managed to see Twilight fire a bright light from her horn before falling into deep sleep.