//------------------------------// // Home Again // Story: Zero-Three // by Cipher800 //------------------------------// The last thing she remembered was going to bed that day, but Twilight looked around to see herself in a grassland with a few trees, but everything was... grey, and an ominous wind was howling, yet her hair wasn't blown. "Where am I?" the filly said as she walked around. There was nobody in sight, and she felt kind of scared. But all of the sudden, a voice came to her response. "You are in the world of the dream and the mind, child..." an ominous, male-sounding voice said. The filly looked to her left, and then she looked to her right, but there was nothing there. "Forgive me for the intrusion, but, there is no looking for me, I am naught but a part of your consciousness. In this world, in your very subconscious, I am nowhere and everywhere, nothing and everything, I am the infinitesimal and the infinite. I have sailed across the cosmos for countless eons, yet now my physical form has been gone for six years straight." "But, that doesn't even make sense!" Twilight said as she looked around, still looking for the voice's owner. The filly looked around, desperately it was a simple smoke and mirrors prank, despite being nearly impossible to get the stuff. "This is not a prank, Twilight Sparkle." the voice said as Twilight's blood ran cold. "I really am a part of your mind. But, as I said before, I wasn't always this way. I have existed long before you. And as I said before, I have travelled the vast expanse of the cosmos, which, of course, has given me many different names by many different people. I guess that the name "Zero" would do for now." the newly-entitled "Zero" said. "It is also pretty appropriate for my current state of being. While I am present in your mind, I am just a voice, and I can only talk to you through certain circumstances." What Zero didn't tell young Twilight was that while he can read her thoughts, she can't read his. He also didn't tell her his backstory. Zero noticed that she trying to process what he had just said to her. "I can tell that you are trying to process this. It was my mistake for making you try to wrap your head around this. However, our time is limited. You are a very special person, Twilight. You have extremely potent energy, and you need to master it. Wake up, today is the day you can leave your bedbound prison. Until we meet again." Twilight Sparkle awoke with a gasp. "That was some freaky dream." she said. She looked around to see that she was still in the hospital, white wallpaper with blue stripes, check. A baby dragon that is snuggling next to her and had just woken up, check. It was tough taking care of a baby dragon while being bound to a bed, but she had managed to feed and water him, among 'other' things. She didn't know how she managed to do it, but she did. "Spike, can't you believe it? You are going to see a wider world today for the very first time, well, besides the school and the hospital." Twilight said as Spike cooed at her. "Yes, I know you're excited, Spike." Twilight said as she used her telekinesis, enveloping a baby bottle in a magenta aura with a red tint and levitating to Spike, who began suckling on it. A few minutes later, she heard the door open and saw her parents smiling at her. "Mom! Dad!" she said as they came and hugged her. "Twilight, thank goodness you are finally done!" Twilight Velvet said. A part of her thought that the doctors there would refuse due to thinking she was a demon, but scanning her magic saw no signs of demonic intervention. "You have no idea how much we wanted you home." "Actually, I do." Twilight said with a smile as she got up from her bed, stretching herself like a cat, pulling her front legs as far as she can while stretching her new wings with satisfying pops. "I actually miss my home, too. But I am still worried about how the other ponies would react to me." Velvet and Nightlight looked at Twilight's halo, and her strange-looking eyes, and her even stranger-looking wings. "Well, Princess Celestia has that already covered." Nightlight said. The princess was the type to promote equal rights to all sentient races in Equestria, the only thing getting in her way were nobles, and those were more of mere nuisances rather than serious threats due to the lack of political power that they had. Twilight never really knew the Princess before the incident, but during the amount of time they had, they really bonded. They haven't gone on complex magic yet, although she has already fully mastered her telekinetic abilities. "Don't worry, we are all here by your side." "Thanks." Twilight said as she levitated Spike onto her back. "I have a strong feeling I need it." And so, for the first time in what felt like forever, Twilight Sparkle was walking again. Fortunately, there wasn't much change. Although, she was a bit concerned that her wings won't catch the wind, but then again, she didn't know how they operated. She had never woken up at the hospital before, much less been there, so going out of it would be a newer experience than going in. As they went out of the hospital, Twilight began to wonder about the future, and how it will affect her. This "Zero" character was also something new, a voice in her mind, kind of like an internal guide. Zero had many names, but he is still extremely mysterious to her. As she walked with her parents, she thought about him, he was weird. But her thoughts snapped out of it when she saw a lollipop right before her. Twilight happily gobbled it up, forgetting about Zero, but that was when she heard the clopping of hoofshoes. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight said as she came and hugged her. "And I'm glad to see you too, Twilight. You recover pretty fast." As they released the hug, Celestia looked at Twilight's parents and nodded as she charged her horn, and in a golden flash of light, they all found themselves back in the Sparkle family household. "As to why I teleported here, it's for multiple reasons, one of which was the family picture. Your big brother is still here, so he wants to do it before he leaves again." Twilight was aware of one of the reasons, but to think that her brother was confident enough to take a picture with her in her current form was pretty unexpected. She looked to see Shining Armor, and came up to him and hugged him. "Twiley, I love you. Stay safe for me." Shining Armor said as he nuzzled Twilight. Although she looked like a cross between an angel and a demon, he knew she was neither one. She was still his little sister in mind and in soul. "I love you too, Shiny." Twilight said as she nuzzled his foreleg. "You ready for this?" she said as her BBBFF nodded in response. They all gathered for the picture, with Velvet standing beside Nightlight with Shining Armor in his Royal Guard uniform, minus the helmet, beside his father. In between her parents, Twilight Sparkle stood, with a cute smile on her face as she spread her new wings outward. Celestia smiled as she readied her camera. "Alright, everypony. One, two, three." With the snap of her camera, the family picture was taken. Three copies, to be exact. Celestia levitated her copy, which was now enveloped in a golden frame, and put it on her bedroom wall. "Stay safe, my faithful student. Luna would've loved your sparkling personality." she said with a chuckle at the pun. Speaking of Twilight, before she went, she had given her some more books from the version of the human race that her old mentor visited. This Super Mario "Manga" was weird, since it progresses from right to left, but her mentor was quick to cast a spell on it once they went home, one that changed the page progress to what was usually expected for books and the various characters into English. She had a feeling that Twilight would become a great writer in her future, before her coronation, of course.