//------------------------------//
// Final Chapter. A New Life 
// Story: My World, Our Life 
// by CEverw00d 
//------------------------------//

Final Chapter: A New Life


We spent the rest of our vacation as we intended to. More fun in the snow and comforts of what the resort had to offer. She was very excited to have her cutie mark and seemed to be able to use her magic more effortlessly. It also seemed true that she knew where everyone was all the time. She would randomly turn her head and look if there was someone around the corner or behind a tree. She also seemed more…free. She had a sort of composed happiness about her, one that expressed a temporary joy about a funny joke, but one that shone with a joy that came from one’s heart, from finding one’s calling. I knew because it was the way I felt when I first took in Stardust.








The vacation ended and school resumed immediately after with only enough time to unpack and rest between the two. In our free times we discussed how we might make our way over to Japan to search for her brother. The problem was that I simply didn’t have the money to go on such an adventure, and I didn’t know how we would come back to the United States unless her brother also had a disguise spell. Star came up with an idea, due to her seeming omniscience. She could tell that Blaze wasn’t wandering the streets, he was living in an apartment building with someone; however, over the week that she observed him, it seemed he never left the room he was staying in. She explained how she wanted to search the internet again, but this time in Japanese. I didn’t know enough Japanese, I wasn’t that obsessed with anime that I bothered to learn it. She knew it though.

“When did you learn Japanese? And HOW for that matter?” I asked
She blushed with embarrassment, “O-over summer, actually. I read your Japanese textbook and learned a lot of it from there.”
“Well, that book covers elementary Japanese one and two. What about the rest?”
“I…uh…looked up…lessons…..online?”
“Really? Geez, where was I when you were doing all this?”
“Out shopping and doing your jogging. You gave me lots of time to do it.”
I swatted my forehead with my palm. I had been none the wiser to any of this. I smiled and looked at her, “Still, this is convenient. Then you can take over the search. I’ll….uh….”
“You can cook the snacks!” 
“Yeah…cook…..I’ll do that.”
“Don’t be shy Charlie, I know you’ve been wanting to cook too. You seemed so proud of your ‘Magnificent omelettes!’ “ She chuckled.

She got me there. I decided, instead, to work on baking brownies while she took on the internet search.

After only about twenty minutes she found some success. There was an internet blog announcing how she had found an orange unicorn by the name of Blaze Hart and that he was looking for his sister. The name of his sister wasn’t announced. The blog was about eight months old and all of the replies expressed skepticism and ridicule. The blog lead to a user profile with contact information. 

I decided to give the number a call. After some time, the other side picked up. The voice was like that of a young man, and I could tell his accent was very much English.

“Moshi Moshi?” The voice said.
“Hello. I’m looking for a pony named Blaze Hart. Is he there?” I replied.

I could hear a gasp on the other side and they began speaking enlish, “Yes, it’s me, Blaze. And who’re you? Another one of those trolls? That blog is like, a year old. Cut us a break.”
“No, this is not a trolling effort,” I said with urgency, “Listen, my name is Charles Everwood, your sister Stardust is here.
Another gasp and then shouting, “What!? She’s there!? I never told anybody her name! She must be there! Is she alright!? Can I talk to her!?”
“Yes, hold on. I’ll put her on the phone.”
I held the phone up for her to take with her levitation spell and said, “He wants to talk to you.”
She took the phone up to her ear and said wearily, “Hello?”
“Sis? Is that really you? That’s you, right?”

Tears began to form in Stardust’s eyes and she bit her lip. She’d recognize her brother’s voice anywhere. Her voice quivered as she said, “Yes. Yes, brother. It’s really me. Your sister Stardust is here. She’s safe and she’s so happy to finally talk to you.”
“Thank Celestia, finally! Not a day went by where I didn’t worry about you! How have you been? Where are you? What have you been doing all this time?”
Star giggled a little bit, sniffled, and wiped her tears away, “I-I’ve been well. This man, Charlie, he took me in. He gave me a home in the United States of America, gave me food and he took good care of me.”
“Gosh, that’s great Star. Hey, I’ve been doing alright over here too. This lady named Yukiko took me in. She feeds me and stuff but says I shouldn’t go outside or people will go nuts! She’s been trying to teach me some Japanese, but sis, I just don’t get it all, ya know?”
She laughed through her tears, “Yes. That’s wonderful, brother.”
“So how are we gonna meet? I know about the U.S., it’s across the ocean! Have to take a plane or boat or something. Can Charlie get you over here?”
I shook my head. Star replied, “He doesn’t have the money to do it soon, and it would be some time before he had the opportunity to get one. He works as a teacher.”
“Ah. Well I’ll take it up with Yuki, see if she can arrange for something. And Sis…”
“Yes, brother?”
“I’m so, so, SO glad that you’re alright. I was worried sick.”
“I’m happy that you’re okay too.” Star sniffled, her tears were gone by now.
“I’m gonna hang up now so I can contact Yuki, okay? But I’ll call back real soon! Okay?”
“Okay!”
“I love ya, Sis.”
“I love you too, brother.”

He hung up. Star lowered her head, a smile on her face. She was happy and trying to fight back the tears. I knelt down and we embraced one another and she allowed her tears to run. 

A few minutes later, the phone rang again. It was Blaze Hart.
“Hello? Blaze?” Star answered.
“Yeah, it’s me. I texted Yuki, she said she could arrange a plane flight over next week! There’s some holiday happening and she’ll have Saturday through Monday off!”
“That’s great!”
“So uh, what plane should we be taking? Where do you guys live?”

The two exchanged information. There was an airport in the next town over that they could fly to and the meeting would be happening next Saturday. We were all extremely excited for the week to come that we could barely sleep that night.

Yet the week rolled by and it was Saturday. I had rented a car for two days and drove to the next town over. It was a town near a mountain range, away from too much city development. There were still plains and hills and a little forestry. At the airport, I held up a sign that read “Blaze Hart” in black sharpie, Star had taken the form of a little blonde girl again. 

Eventually, a couple approached us. One was a Japanese woman with long black hair over her left shoulder. My guess was that she was in her late twenties, but I was pretty bad at guessing ages.

Next to her was a young Japanese teen with black bowl-cut hair. However, when he spoke, it was just like the one on the phone. He was looking at Star when he said, “Star?”
She responded, “Blaze?”

The two rushed for each other and embraced tightly.

I approached the Japanese woman and held out my hand for a handshake, “Hello. You must be Miss Yukiko. I’m Charles Everwood, I’ve been taking care of Stardust.”
She responded in english, though somewhat broken, “Hello. I am Yukiko Sanada. It is pleasure to meet you. Yes, I take care of Blaze. He is a good friend. Funny and silly.”
I chuckled a bit and said, “So…where would you all like to go?” 
Star reached over and took my hand, holding Blaze Hart’s with her other. She smiled up at me and said, “Let’s go somewhere private so that Blaze and I can talk.”

I understood and we all got into the rental car. I headed towards the hills and drove off to the side of the road where we all got out and started walking. We walked over the first hill and looked out across. It was a nice place with a few trees here and there. It was cold, but the sun was out. 

As we descended the first hill, Blaze Hart and Stardust shed their disguises and trotted alongside one another, smiling. Blaze Hart was an orange unicorn with a wild, crimson mane. It was somewhat long and spiked all along it. His eyes were an amber color and his cutie mark appeared to be a flaming pink heart. No special talents came to mind. 

Blaze looked at Stardust’s flank and exclaimed, “Star! You got your cutie mark! When did that happen!?”
Star giggled, “It was actually a few weeks ago, actually.”
“And I wasn’t around for it! Aw man! Well…I’m happy for you though! Guess you found your special talent!”
“Mhm, and you could say that my special talent found you!”
“Huh?” Blaze tilted his head quizzically. 

The four of us walked and talked and shared our stories with one another until the sun began to set. Even still, we kept talking. We settled atop a hill and looked up at the glistening stars in the sky. The two siblings lay side-by-side. 

Star looked over to Blaze and said, “Well brother? Are you ready to go home?”
“Home?” He questioned, “You mean Equestria?”
“Yup.” She smiled.
“Well sure! But how do we get back there?”

I looked over to them. Star looked back at me and smiled. Was she going to leave? Was this it? A whole year together, and she was going to leave? She could see what was going through my mind by the expression on my face. She simply shook her head, still smiling at me. 

She and Blaze both got up as she said, “I can get us back, but I need your help, brother.”

At this point I got up, I wanted to ask if they were really leaving, but I didn’t want to sound selfish. This was their first reunion in a whole year of separation in a strange world, who was I to ruin it?

Once again, Star smiled at me and said, “Charlie, we’re leaving…” She leaned her head towards Blaze. He figured he should do the same and leaned his head down, the tips of their horns touched and began to shine. Star spoke again, “We’re leaving, but you’re not leaving without you two.”

The two unicorns began to step back, the light began to expand, taller and wider, forming a ring. There was something inside the ring, but I couldn’t tell what yet. The two continued moving back and the ring grew wider. In the ring I could make out what it was. Houses, flowers, no paved road; inside that ring was Ponyville. Inside that ring was Equestria. 
I gazed in awe as the ring grew bigger until it was a 7-ft oval-shaped portal. The two unicorns’ horns stopped glowing and they moved over beside us, Stardust was by my side, Blaze was by Yukiko’s. 

Star and Blaze looked up at us. Star began by saying, “You welcomed us to your world.”
Blaze continued, “Now it’s our turn to welcome you to ours.”

Star nudged my leg, “Come on Charlie, let’s get going!”

I looked down at Star, then over to Blaze and Yukiko. It looked towards the portal and stopped thinking. There was no need to think anymore. What was beyond that portal was something new, something completely different from the life I was living. What was beyond that portal was nothing but days of fun, fun for all of us, not just me. What was beyond that portal was that life-changing something that my heart had been anticipating for so long. I took the first step and we all moved together into the portal where a flash of light enveloped all of us.

It wasn’t my world anymore, but it was still our life. Together….all of us.







The End.

Thanks for reading!