//------------------------------// // Return // Story: The Hag, the heroes, and a few other things // by Amaranthine Thought //------------------------------//                 Time in the white void was… malleable.  Not in ways I understood, nor understand mind you.  But it… it doesn’t flow right.  Time passes in strange, unpredictable patterns in there. I suspect it can be controlled, but how, I do not know.             Anyway, I spent some time in there that time.  I arrived in Equestria around late fall.  I arrived at Avarantus at the cusp of spring.             It was late fall by the time I made it back.             A lot happened in my absence.  After my rather violent death by what had been always seen as saving, purifying artifacts…             Suffice it to say that the elements were very secure after that.             Chrysalis held onto her promise, though she did so with a certain amount of regret.  She made the twin princesses lives a misery, trying to get Celestia to break her own promise through acting like a spoiled brat.             I think Celestia drove her insane by never even so much as giving her a sour face.  Luna might have tried to kill her a few times, but overall, it…             It could have been worse.             Stonebeak returned to his home after a time, and they received him with such joy, I am sure that they did not cease celebrating for months.  He began working to rebuild the griffon empire, and his very first act was to renew and extend the alliance between griffon and pony.             Honest… hid himself away.  After I died he just shifted and walked off, intending to just… fade into obscurity.  Unable and unwilling to dare to face his faults or Rose.             The bearers returned to their own homes, with a few new scars.             Twilight was left with questions.  Far too many questions that often drove her to a mild form of madness, trying to work out how, and why, and everything while missing pieces of the puzzle.             It got bad enough that she tried to free Discord, so he would answer.  Celestia and Luna had to stop her, and get her to calm down.  After that, she simply sealed it all away.  In a box marked ‘to be opened when Hag comes never’.             Rarity and Applejack tried to resume their own lives.  They had… a faint fear of the elements then, they all did, and did their best to avoid any mention of me.  Which, considering the girls were nigh inconsolable for about a week, was just about impossible.  Fluttershy did her best to help them all feel better, though she had the greatest trauma of them.  She’s a strangely strong mare when she has to be.             Pinkie was… I’ll get to that later.             Rainbow…             They couldn’t fix her wings.  She was… angry.  Yelling and lashing out for weeks, mixing sadness with rage.  None of the bearers could calm her down.  She isolated herself, and approaching her was an invitation to screams and sometimes worse.  Ponies feared going near her.             It took the courage of Scootaloo to go up to her broken idol, and suggest that together, both unable to fly, that they were closer sisters than before, to finally rouse her again.             It was a long, hard road for her.  One that wouldn’t get better until I returned.  Learning to walk everywhere, learning to use her hooves instead of her wings for everything.  Giving up her cloud house in exchange for a place on the ground.  Taking life slowly, trying not to be bitter.  Living day by day, Scootaloo nigh constantly by her side.  Always keeping her from giving up.             And Rose…             The bearers helped her.  She never stopped waiting for Honest to return to her.  Staying up at night, keeping a window open for him.  Thinking about what she would say and do when he came back.             And… I can’t even imagine what that faith must be like.  I never believed like that.  In anything.             Not once.  Not for a single instant of time did Rose think I was dead.  She held that certainty like… like nothing I’ve ever seen or felt before.  A faith harder than steel, stronger than everything.  A fire that would never, ever, dim.             Faith to put the gods to shame.             Each day, she would go to the crystal tree.  There, she would sit down, and call for me with all of her might.  Not in a physical way, but spiritually.  The same way I do.             I know that it was a combination of that faith and her call that allowed me to hear her.  Allowed me to muster the ability, and desire, to return.             She saved me twice.             Of course, as time passed, she began having a harder time traveling.  As her pregnancy progressed, she had a harder time moving, along with the varied symptoms associated with pregnancy.  That never stopped her either.             The bearers tried to.  They never went so far as to prevent her mind you, but they did their all to convince her not to go.  Fearing the Everfree, and fearing for her, they never really stopped trying.  And every time, they would watch her walk into the woods, worrying for her.             Seeing her never give up, always knowing me alive, always making that trip… most of them never really knew what to think.  Except the one.  Pinkie Pie.             Pinkie Pie was devastated by my death.  Pinkie carried a far deeper, more personal pain than the rest.  She, more so than any other, really thought of me as a close friend.  And for Pinkie, friend was the same as family.             After my death, she lost a lot of her energy.  She put up a brave face for the others, though a blind pony could see she was suffering.  None of them ever knew how deeply though.  Nopony save Rose.             Rose noted how the bearers tried to convince her to not make her trip.  And she noted that Pinkie was never one of them, and when she asked, only got the response that Pinkie wasn't feeling well.             So, one day, she got up early, and went to find Pinkie.  She found her… less than good.  Really, really bad in fact.             And she somehow gave Pinkie a part of her faith.  Got her to stand up again.  Got her to have hope again.  A weak, trembling, painful hope, but it was hope.             Hope more in Rose than me.  Pinkie couldn’t muster the faith Rose held.  Pinkie didn't smile, but she no longer sank into such depression it could kill a pony. After that, Pinkie would help Rose travel, every time.  She would wait in the woods, and join Rose soon after Rose entered, making excuses to her friends later on as to where she had been.             She would sit with Rose, help Rose stand up and sit down, assist her with the stairs, help her through the woods, carry a lunch, and just be there.             It was late fall that time.  Growing colder in the Everfree, winter planned in the upcoming month for the rest of the land.             Pinkie had to just about carry Rose down those stairs.  She really shouldn’t have been making those trips as she was, but Pinkie and everypony else knew that nothing would stop her.  She took precautions, but expectant mothers simply shouldn’t attempt that kind of exertion.             The elements were whole once more, and the tree was recovering.  Not as well as it could have with the elements actually present, but it had regained most of its glory.   A touch dim, maybe a little weak, but it was there once again.             Pinkie set out a blanket for Rose to lie, not sit, upon, and Rose settled on it gratefully.  Then she resumed her calls, and Pinkie sat nearby, simply staring at the tree.             I heard her.  Chasing her voice, trying to discover the path, always bolstered by her faith.  Avarantus’ void was distant from everything.  Held apart and away such that I nearly got lost walking in a straight line.  Such that I could in that place anyway.             But it was that day, and no other, that I was closer than ever.  That day, and no other, that my determination hardened.  That day, and no other…             That Pinkie somehow called for me as well.             That was the last piece I needed.  The last echo I needed to determine direction.             And it had me more than a little curious about how Pinkie had been able to do that as well, so that helped.             I discovered the edge.  I found it hard, a wall between me and them.  Because I made my form in the void, and not after I got out, it kept me within.  Whatever power had pulled me to and from before was missing.             That didn’t stop me either.  Free I was, but I still had the talent of destruction.  I saw the weakness, the method, and I struck.             Rose told me it was like the air cracked.  Shards of nothing falling to reveal the whiteness beyond, and after a moment, me, bucking at it.             I turned, and shoved, trying to escape as the stupid thing tried to heal.  Pinkie rushed to my aid, and kept it from slicing me in two, breaking off growing shards before they could harm me.  Then she grabbed onto me and heaved.             Pinkie threw me, and I saw her fall over, but before I had gone halfway, Pinkie was already there, ready to catch me, deep sorrow being replaced by joy faster than I’ve ever seen before.  She turned pinker, seemed to begin shining from within, her eyes near glowing, her grin growing to simply ridiculous sizes.             She caught me, and it was like I hadn’t been caught at all.  It was so soft and gentle I didn’t feel a single thing.  I felt and saw control in her like I’ve never seen.  Strength to crush rocks commanded perfectly.             “Hag!” she nigh screamed, hugging me.  Not setting me down.             “Grandmother!”             “Pinkie!” I yelled, mostly due to embarrassment, “Old mare!”             She let go, allowing me to stand on my own.  I sighed faintly, and saw tears in her eyes.  Then she just started laughing, a little tiny laugh I never heard from her before that soon turned far louder.  Crying and laughing at once, as pains in her healed and were washed away in a tide of happiness.             She stopped herself, and wiped at her eyes before smiling at me with the most… happy face I’ve ever seen.  Like she was truly the element she carried.             “Hag.” she squeaked, her voice a touch effected.             I resisted at first before allowing myself to soften.  I smiled back, and said, “I missed you too Pinkie.”             Then I turned to Rose before Pinkie got me crying, and went to her, as she couldn’t get to me.  Not that she wasn’t trying.             I stopped her, and hugged her myself.             “You’re back.” she softly said, closing her eyes as she held me.             “Because of you.” I told her.  She let go and stared at me, surprised.             “What?”             “It was you Rose.  Your voice, your call.  I wouldn’t have returned without that.  You got me back.”             She teared up a little at that, and I glanced at Pinkie, intending to finish before I couldn’t contain it anymore.             “You helped too.” I said, and simply braced.             Pinkie grabbed us both, and laughed a perfect laugh.  Eventually, Rose joined her, and even I did after a moment.  All three of us, laughing and holding one another.             I was back.  I was alive.  I was free.  I was with the dearest pony to…             …Spirits with it.  I couldn’t deny it then, I shouldn’t deny it now.             Rose was my dearest granddaughter, and meant more to me than anything else had before.             And Pinkie was right behind her.  My dearest friend.  The left to Rose’s right.  Rose, my heart, and Pinkie, the energy of my life.  I was with them again.             That moment is very, very dear to me.  So many emotions, all combined together as we hugged and laughed in front of the tree.  The tree brightened with us, and shone.             Perhaps the absolute tip of it all, the final addition to a perfect moment, was what it said right then.             Welcome back Hag.  We missed you.