//------------------------------// // Song of Return Part 1: Homecoming // Story: Brony Recon: Ascension // by Freescript the Bard //------------------------------// Shift's POV "Okay, is everypony ready for their last days on Earth as we know it?" Rainchaser said excitedly. "You sound like the guy that stands on the corner down the street from my house, proclaiming the end of days," I stated with a chuckle. "But yeah, I'm ready." "I think we're all ready at this point. We just need Ben and his crystal-necklace-thingy," said Storm cheerily. I swear to Celestia her emotions were out of whack a few minutes ago. She was near tears at the thought of leaving Caramel when she came into Derpy's house, but now she radiated excitement. Skyblaze sat down on the couch, Luna kissing his forehead from beside him. "I hope he gets here soon," the blue pegasus complained. "I hate waiting." "We know, Sky…" came the droning reply of the congregation. Just then, the door swung open to reveal Ben with a grey pegasus draped over hhis back. "Sorry I'm late, everypony," he apologized. "Derpy had a regrettable incident with a rather dangerously placed rowan tree. Jammed her foreleg pretty bad." Derpy lifted her hoof, which was wrapped in a cast. Her face turned red with embarrassment. "Heh… my bad…" she half-mumbled, making us all 'd'aww' at her flustered face. Derpy is so cute. "Hey, it's alright, Derpy," said Aegis in a comforting tone. "Ben, you go put her in bed. We'll be waiting." Sky groaned audibly, enticing a glare from Luna, Rainchaser, Aegis, and I. "In any case, I am grateful your leader is allowing me to accompany you to your home planet," Luna said after a moment. "It will be a great milestone in Equestrian-Human relations." "We're honored to have you visit our world, Princess," replied Aegis humbly. Abruptly, the door swung open again. Much to everypony's surprise, Lyra and Bon Bon rushed into the room. "Sorry we're late everybody," Lyra said. "We had some errands to run beforehand." The mint green unicorn looked around the room at the surprised faces. Pausing when she saw Luna. "Oh my god!" she exclaimed, bowing low. "Your majesty, why are you here?!" "Rise, Ms. Heartstrings," ordered Luna gently. Lyra complied, sitting on the empty armchair in her human-like style. "If you must know, I am accompanying my fiancé to his home world, to receive the blessings of his parents." "Whoa, wait," interjected Bon Bon. "Are you saying that one of these creatures is going to become a Prince?" "Creature?! Why, I have never been more insulted my entire life!" scoffed Skyblaze. "Oh, by the way I am already helping with affairs of the state, so I would appreciate it of you wouldn't use such derogatory terms." Storm raised her hoof in the air like a school-filly. "Yes, Storm?" I humored her. "Why are Lyra and Bon Bon here?" she asked, as if she were Applebloom inquiring Cheerilee about a math question. Ben appeared from the upper floor with Dinky on his back as the question was voiced. "It turns out that there is an official Equestrian Extraterrestrial Embassy," He answered. "Ambassador Heartstrings is in the position as of now. As for why Bon Bon is here…" Ben looked to the creme earth pony for an explanation. The confectionist sighed. She was leaking exasperation at this point. "I thought I may as well see this world Lyra is obsessed with, and maybe go on a date or two while we're there." Her expression brightened, and so did her emotions. "I guess this is a reward for her. She hasn't obsessed over humans since she first went to the other world. It's given her more time for her lyre… and me." Lyra smiled at this and planted a kiss on Bon Bon's cheek in response. "Ugh…" groaned Sky, killing the mood. His impatience was inundating the room. "Can we please get going before I die of prolonged exposure to sitting idle?" Ben nodded, placing the crystal necklace in the center of the room. Tapping the quartz three times, he backed off and watched it. The crystal began to radiate a bright light, getting brighter… and brighter… >><<>><< I expected deponyfication to hurt more. I woke up with a pained head and fuzzy vision. Like I just ingested a bunch of angst. Trust me, angst will do things to your head that you don't even want to know. It's like a drug for Changelings. Blinking away the fog, I saw my leather jacket covering my hand. Everyone said it was one size too big. Instinctively, I tried to stand up bipedally… …then immediately fell backwards onto my carapace. Wait… carapace? I looked back at my arm. Only, it wasn't an arm. It was a foreleg. A black foreleg. Not only had the portal NOT deponyfy me, it completely stripped my disguise. I looked around the platform. Nick, Chloe, and Ben were all sleepily trying to rise to their feet with the help of Cereal and Seth. Dinky was already up and alert. On the other side, Luna was shaking off the transdimensional is sickness while Skyblaze helped her to her-- wait a minute… "Markus? You're still a pony!" I exclaimed. "Tell me something I don't know," he retorted. "You're still a Changeling, by the way." "Noted. Hey, Cereal?" I asked my superior. The human glanced over from helping Lyra with Bon Bon. "We have a situation here." "I've noticed, yeah," he said plainly. "The only explanation I can give is that to be deponyfied, you need to be an actual pony… no offense." "None taken, don't worry. But what about Skyblaze?" Seth stepped in from helping the three deponyfied bronies. "Um, remember how his ponyfication went… um…" "It bucking hurt!" exclaimed Sky. "Yeah. We can't exactly risk any complications with deponyfication regarding how catastrophic that was. Sorry about that, Markus." Sky grumbled something, only calming when Luna kissed his head. The moon goddess then made her way over to Cereal. "Greetings, you must be the one called Cereal Velocity." The brony made a bow and shook the proffered hoof. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you, your majesty," he said eloquently. "I apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused your fiancé." "He'll get over it," she replied, looking at Sky, who was helping Storm down the ramp… Oh sweet Celestia, Storm! I rushed over to the pregnant mare and sidled next to her, opposite of Sky. "How are you holding up, sis?" I asked. While we weren't actual siblings, Storm and I were as close as friends could be. That and the fact that my usual disguise was modeled after her form. "I could be better. I'm more disoriented than anything," she answered. "Thanks, bro. Join the 'stuck as a pony' club." "Changeling, technically." I emphasized this by changing into Caramel, feeding off her love. She sighed and looked forward. "Don't patronize me." "I'm not. I was just really hungry," I replied. Somehow, transdimensional travel caused me to become extremely starved. As Storm's love for Caramel flowed into me, I felt my power increase to acceptable levels. Not nearly as powerful or sweet as Twilight's love, but enough to stockpile and keep me fed for the three days I was here. Of course, the only magic I would be capable of performing in that time would be intermediate levitation and equal spells, but at least I wouldn't starve. "Why is Storm's coltfriend here?" Bon Bon's question snapped me out of my thoughts. Her and Lyra had been talking in the middle of the warehouse. It seemed Bon Bon had snapped out of her original surprise at the humans. "Oh, sorry…" I said, reverting to my unicorn disguise, much to the shock of the two mares. "What?" "How did… you just…?" stammered Lyra. "Changeling," the three of us said. I shed my disguise, laughing at their faces. Absolutely priceless. I made a mental note to share the memory with my partner-in-crime Spike. With a whistle, Cereal called the bronies to attention. Skyblaze, Storm, and I lined up horizontally with the human bronies, giving a salute. "At ease," said Cereal. "Now, you all have three nights with your families. No more. Chloe, Nick, your flights are booked at the St. Louis airport, so take the shuttle there. Remember that you will change back into ponies at sunset on the last full day. Storm, Ben will be shadowing you for the duration of your retreat. Skyblaze, Shift… you're on your own. Sorry." >><<>><< Skyblaze's POV "I'm sorry about your… predicament, my love." "Don't be," I said with a smile. "As far as I'm concerned, I get to keep my wings!" Luna and I, unable to travel via public transport for obvious reasons, had to fly all the way to Wisconsin from St. Louis. Not that it was a bad thing, 'cause Luna was right there with me. Also, what pegasus doesn't like to fly? As if to emphasize my own thoughts, I did an aileron roll, angling my wings inverted to cause the horizon to spin. "Woo Hoo!" "Having fun?" asked Luna with a smirk. "Why wouldn't I be? I'm flying!" I exclaimed, my mind in total aerial ecstasy. Luna giggled at my excitement. "Could you cease your recreational aerobatics so we can talk about what we do about your family?" "Fine…" I grumbled, irritated that she had to spoil my fun. "I was just going trot up, declare that I am a pony and proud of it, and watch their faces. It'll be priceless!" "Sky, be serious." "I was being serious," I said. "In any case, what other options do we have, Lulu? I know it may be a little shocking to come out of the blue that I was spending the last two-and-a-half months in an another dimension as an alien creature and- here's the best part -fell in love and am now engaged to one of said alien creatures. Yet, I think that's our only…" I stopped for a minute to consider what I had just said. "You know what? Let's come up with a plan." "Why didn't I think of that?" said Luna sarcastically. >><<>><< "So let me recap. After an hour of deciduous brainstorming, and a complex elimination process, the only thing we could come up with is just flat out tell them?!" I exclaimed, facehoofing. "Buck my life." "Considering our options, you may have been on to something with your original plan. At least if they do freak out we can get some entertainment out of it," Luna replied dejectedly. "It is unfortunate that transfiguration to another intelligent being can only be done on oneself." I shifted around to adjust the saddlebags on my back. "Hey, Lulu? Could you grab a Dew out of my bag for me, dearest? I can't exactly levitate anything yet." Luna rolled her eyes as her horn glowed a midnight blue aura. "Honestly, I can't wait for our wedding. You'll become less dependent on me for magical needs." "Not my fault I'm a pegasus," I grumbled, accepting the green bottle that hovered in front of my face. With my mouth, I unscrewed the cap and spat it into the open air. Gripping the bottle between my hooves, I guzzled the sugary citrus drink down. "Ah… that's the stuff…" >><<>><< "Well, I can honestly say I didn't think I would ever come back to this place again," I said as Luna and I landed on our driveway. "It's a shame I'm not human. We could have taken a drive in my car." "We can regret your lack of humanity later, Sky," Luna said. "Just knock on the door and let's get this over with." I gulped. There was no telling what my parents would do to me. My little brother I could deal with, and rub it in his parasprite face. Mom would probably freak out or deny it. Dad… well, I hoped he wasn't home to reprimand me for lying to them all for more than two months. After all, I was supposed to be traveling with other students on a grant from some obscene university. Shaking any doubt from my head, I knocked on the door. After five minutes of continuous knocking, no one had answered. "Why wouldn't they be home?" I wondered to myself. "Sky, there's a note right above your head," said Luna, pointing with a hoof. Looking up, I saw a post-it two feet above my head. Had I been human, I would have seen it. But as of now, my eye-level sat at a little less than three feet. "Right…" I reared to my hind legs, placing my front hooves on the door for support, and read the note aloud. "'Gone to Door County for the extended weekend, will be back by the twenty-first'. Great. That means we just missed them," I grumbled. "On the bright side, we get to go to one of Wisconsin's most beautiful places. I think you'll love it there." "No doubt I will, if you insist," she replied elegantly. She leaned forward and we kissed in the driveway of my previous home. "Now, let's leave before someone sees us." "Oh, I'm sure there's nobody--" I glanced behind Luna and paled. A familiar human with two dogs on leashes was staring at us, his jaw on the pavement. "Uh, hey Steve. How's it going?" "I… uh… I've been better," my former neighbor responded, the leash shaking in his hand. His face was now pale and sweating. "How… er… how are you, sir?" "Just flew in from St. Louis, and boy, are my wings tired!" I joked, earning a scuff to the back of the head from my fiancé. "Ow! That hurts!" "Stop messing with the locals and focus, Sky. We need to find your family," she reprimanded. Then she turned to the frightened human. "Pardon my betrothed. He can be a little… insensitive, sometimes." "Uh… no problem," he gulped. He looked more like a ghost every moment he stared at us. "You know what, I think I'm going to faint now… check please." With that, the human dropped to the ground, releasing the leashes. The small dogs began to wander around the yard, relishing their freedom. >><<>><< Nick's POV Chloe and I sat at the gate benches. We were slightly confused, as our flight to Philadelphia, then New York, was not even at the terminal yet, despite it being five minutes to departure. Another strange thing was there were no other people at the gate for our flight. "Are you sure we have the right terminal?" asked Chloe, checking her ticket. "I swear to Celestia, if this plane doesn't get here by departure time, I'm going back to the warehouse, demanding to be turned back into a pony, then flying to Philly myself!" She stole a look at me. "Are you even listening?" I looked up from my game as I missed the last pig in the puzzle. Stupid stone piece. "Huh?" I had heard Chloe's dialogue, but didn't catch most of it. "Oh, sorry… uh… yeah. Whatever you said." She groaned and slumped in her seat, facepalming. "Why do I put up with you?" "No idea. But if it makes you feel any better…" I reached over and gripped her shoulder, pulling her close and kissing her in the middle of the gate. Not that there was anyone around to see us. It felt weird kissing her with human lips, the shape completely different from a pony's. When we finally broke away, I stared into her magenta eyes… wait a minute… "Chloe, your eyes are still pink." "Yours are still emerald," she countered. Curious, I turned on the face-cam on my Android. Sure enough, instead of my formerly hazel eyes, they were a deep forestry emerald. I still had pony eyes. "I guess that's one thing that we keep through deponyfication." "Yeah, I had a bit of trouble working that out," said a voice in front of us. I turned to see a man in a darker blue suit wearing a kind of jacket. He spoke with an English accent. "Hi, I'm the Doctor. I'm here to bring you both home!" He said, pointing to a blue police call box that wasn't there a few moments ago. Chloe chuckled. "Cereal, you sly son of a mule," she muttered to the ceiling.