The airship touched down in the street right outside the Ponyville castle. Nancy hurried into the building.
Sunburst was in the foyer. “Oh, you’re back-” He stopped short. Even though he’d been expecting Nancy, he still seemed a little surprised. “How did it go?”
She could have told him the details, but she hadn’t come straight back to Ponyville to wait much more before being transported home. “Long story,” said Nancy. “Are you ready?”
“As ready as we know how to be,” Sunburst confirmed. “Now that you’re here, we can start getting everything prepped to go.”
He shot her a sideways glance as he turned to head towards where the large crystal table was waiting. “Are you sure you’re good?”
“Yes, I-” Nancy paused and sighed. “A lot happened, and I’ve got emotional whiplash now that I might finally be going home.”
“Did you do everything you want to do?” Sunburst asked.
She’d said goodbye to the ponies she’d gone on expedition with, and the hippogriffs she’d served with on the way. She’d commemorated those lost. She remembered her brief cohabitation with Patina, appreciation of Captain Magnus’s leadership, and everyone - everypony - she’d met.
Maybe she had a few regrets, but she hadn’t neglected her goodbyes. “I think I’ve taken care of everything. I mean, unless you can conjure up replacements for the bullets I fired and send me back in time so it’ll be like I never left.”
“Uh, probably on the first, and maybe on the second,” Sunburst said. “I’ll get Starlight and-”
Nancy waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. Not worth the extra time. I’ll just go back and face the music.”
“If you’re sure.”
She followed Sunburst into the room with the table. It was piled with notes and calculations on chalkboards and parchment. “Princess Twilight wanted an update when you were ready to go,”
“How long is that going to take?”
“I guess you really are emphasizing speed here,” Sunburst muttered.
“It’s my home.”
He nodded and started to shift a few things around. “Okay, we managed to work out how the table was connecting to the multiverse and from there planned the focus for the transference-”
He glanced at the impatient look on her face and said, “Well, I guess I don’t need to go into that. Please position yourself in the center of the table.”
Nancy did, climbing up on it and sitting down crosslegged. Starlight came into the room, glanced at her, and went to converse with Sunburst. The two of them worked on few things, and after a few minutes the table seemed to hum and glow.
“Alright, we’re almost there,” said Sunburst. “Is there anything else you want to do before you go?”
Maybe. Probably. But none more important than this. “No. Do it.”
“Okay...and I just wanted to say it was a pleasure to meet you.”
Though she was trying to expedite as much as possible, Nancy did have time to at least say goodbye. “You too.”
Starlight powered up her horn and the table began to glow brighter. Both of them waved. Nancy lifted her hand-
-and jolted as she realized she was nowhere near Ponyville. In fact, she was in a desert at night. A tall radio tower behind a chain link fence was just a few yards away.
Nancy stood up, energy buzzing in her body. This was familiar. She was back!
The Keep Out sign on the fence was written in both Spanish and English, given the proximity to the Mexican border. Nancy spoke Spanish, but as she glanced at it, the words began to rearrange themselves. The translation spell was still active?
Add it to the list of things that were distracting her from what was actually important. She turned to walk back down the road, towards the base, and home.