//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: The Return Home // Story: How A Realist Saved The Show // by Mare Of Mystery //------------------------------// Somehow, I managed to return to my world after I've prevented Cozy Glow from causing chaos in Equestria. My mission isn't done, right? Perhaps I made a mistake? No way! Or worst-case scenario...none of it was real after all. I knew I should lay back on the late-night snacking. Hold on, I need to make sure this isn't some dream. The first thing James did after getting off the couch was grabbed the nearest blunt object and smack his head onto it in hopes of snapping back to 'reality', but all he got was a throbbing pain on his forehead rubbing it off with his palms. "T-This doesn't feel like a dream, or I would have woken up from the orphanage..." The next thing he did was reach for the door and peeked outside the neighborhood seeing his apartment villa as peaceful as ever; seeing some people parking their cars or walking out to the public park. He silently closed the door and came to a sudden realization, "No... this is impossible! I couldn't just be dreaming that entire journey. I was living in Equestria! Met Twilight in person, and even thwarted Cozy's plans! There's absolutely no way could've dreamt the whole thing! It felt so...realistic. I know dreams could emit powerful brain activity that we still don't know a lot about. But that's not the case, was this all my imagination?" His system was building up a burst of huge laughter, catching in as much air as he can take in before letting out a pathetic laugh, "Geez, what was I thinking... did I seriously dreamy that whole thing up? I need to grow up and find a real job," All of his could be blamed on himself, he could never have believed that he went inside a cartoon world and make history. Science itself can't even replicate his experience. Believing his cool powers, interactions, and help would fix anything. James moved over to the couch and plopped himself on the cushion picking up the remote on the coffee table. Seeing that the TV turned on as normal, It was still running on the Netflix app he left on. It just left off on episode 1 of season 1, so he paused it when the next episode was playing, "I thought I was there, but it was just an elaborate dream. I'll tune to that episode with Cozy Glow to cope with all of—" When navigating down from the list of seasons, he pushed the arrow keys down to season 8 and scrolled down to episode 12: Marks For Effort. But to his surprise, the title of epsiode 12 was different. "What the? Where's the episode? I could have sworn it was the twelve episodes of the season. Must be some error on Netflix's side, maybe I should watch the other episode featuring..." Moving further down, James saw another occurrence of episodes being listed in different numbers. The season finished off with only 22 episodes max. Something wasn't right, peering his eyes to see a particular connection with the 4 missing episodes from the list. It clicked inside him. "The episodes starring Cozy Glow have gone missing; Like they never happened at all!" "HOO BOY! HE'S DONE IT AGAIN! ATTA BOY!" The voice rang familiar to him, like a puff of smoke-filled right next to him on the other side of the couch, Discord voice. But he was alone, walking from the dark side of the hall was a creature James knew well trotting slowly to the living room. It was Princess Luna herself, with a devilish smile making James feel uncomfortable. "Sir James from the other world, quite pleased to meet you here!" She slowly approached him like she was going to pounce, "Forgive our rudeness bringing you back to your world, we have something of importance to tell you. "W—huh!? James was disfigured by their intrusion in his apartment, "This isn't the dream world," "Nope," Another voice emitted, appearing near the kitchen island when James saw Celestia right in front of the refrigerator, opening it up and bringing out a carton of milk to sip straight out of, "Hello James..." "Must you intervene with my meeting with the human, sister?" Luna scoffed at her name, sitting down across from James and Discord on the second sofa. "Can anyone here please tell me what's going on!?" Feeling lost by this strange intervention, James cried out loud, "So, this is the dream realm and I'm still in Equestria?" "Not quite. Your body remains in the orphanage, but as for your subconscious mind..." explained Discord, keeping things professional, "We've extracted it out of your physical body and manifested it back into your world. That whole migraine thing was just a side effect of such a spell. Granted, we should've tested the spell more on one of the castle's Royal guards for any permanent damage to your cranium..." I felt like I was about to die over there, but It still is quite nice seeing my home again and not in flames by Discord and whatever the Princesses do here. "So James, noticed anything different at all? Preferable from the television screen?" "Episodes starring Cozy Glow seem to have gone missing entirely like she never existed in the show," James answered, very much concerned for her existence in the show. The draconequus congratulated him with a few claps from his hands, "Correct, since Cozy Glow never saw the letter from Tirek and that she's reunited with her father, she never had any intentions to infiltrate the school and drain magic," Princess Celestia walked over to her sister, now levitating a whole plate of things only found In James' world taking a bite of a plump sausage, "Though, I must say, Cozy Glow had a hard time coping with her parent's divorce. Just needed somepony to talk to," Cringing profusely seeing the alicorn biting the meat product, James warned her, "You know...that thing you're eating is made of..." "Hmm?" "No—never mind!" He shook off all his, "So, what will happen to her now? Will she live a normal life now? What happens to the season finale now?" "I don't exactly know really since you've changed her destiny, you'll just have to see for yourselves," Discord made a small snickering noise before proceeding on with important matters, "Listen carefully James, we've given you access to an additional app to play with alongside a few updates to existing ones. Please take a look at it," "But, my phone's already dead—" James took a quick look at his phone, which booted up miraculin with 100% battery life, "—Oh... let's see then," The apps on the home screen looked all the same to him, but Discord moved over to his shoulder and tapped on the email app, "This feature was added by Celestia herself, maybe she can explain it?" "Certainly," nodded Celestia as she took a bite from James' leftover graduation cake with her mouth, "I may not know what an email is, but it's quite similar to sending and receiving letters using a spell," "Yes, go on..." "Well your email app can do just the same, just fill out your letter and fill out the recipient. It should appear as a scroll to any creature you entered the name of." "Why would I do that?" He scratched his head trying to figure out his usage of the app, making him tear up ironically, "I planned to be extra discrete this time after my wreckless mistake back then," "Well, if you're going to remain in Equestria for a while, at least make a name for yourself and hand out messages to the world." Discord nudged James, "We want you to be recognized as the good samaritan that plans to save the future of friendship. You're only 25% complete, and almost 100% richer!" "Very well, tell me what else is new?" Shrugging off that scare from Celestia, James moved over to the specialized camera app, "Oh yeah, the camera app that makes scans of items and searches it through a database; To be honest, I haven't been using this one as much." "The camera can now scan for books, texts, and different languages. You can use this to brush up on old poneish or translate any spell!" chuckled Discord, "And for your transformation app; I've added a quick-change feature to eliminate having to revert before another transformation. You can switch from creature to creature in a flash while still keeping the battery life draining regularly. Also, as a bonus—" "Actually Discord, let's keep that a secret for now. I want him to figure it out himself..." a grin formed on Celestia's mouth as she covered it with a hoof, "That one is a lot to take in for one creature," A lot to take in for one creature? What are they playing at? "Hmph, whatever it is, I'll make sure to make full use of it," James smiled, putting away his gadget in a pocket, "Still though, I can't believe I'm getting all of this help from you three. I almost feel bad leaving Twilight in the dark," "Oh please! Don't waste your time with that inexperienced alicorn," blushed Luna, strolling over to James in some alluring look on her face, "I've heard from the old hag that you adore me as your favorite Prin—" "—And back to Equestria you go!" Celestia pushed her sister to the side, lighting her horn with her aura as she moved over to James' forehead, glowing immensely, "Bye now!" "..." "..." "..." "...Mobius...you got to Wake Up...Please..." "..." "..." "..." Mobius felt the same groggy feeling from that painful episode that made him fall into a deep slumber, but now everything was black for him. Mobius could hear a faint voice reaching out his name, replying with a sluggish accent, "W-wh-where am I..." "...Sweetie...don't jostle him...he needs space..." a second voice one sounding much older, replied to the first one. Just as Mobius was about to come through, his eyes soon started to open while his vision adjusts to the bright light shining on the ceiling. Three heads he saw, circling him as he laid on some medical bed. His mind and motor functions showed that he was about to come to. Now his vision recovered from being shut, he rose his back off the bed and entered a sitting position. "W-where am I?" He slowly yawned from his slumber, checking what room he was in from the surroundings. "This here's the infirmary, you had a little migraine followed by fainting right in our lobby!" Bright Crest slowly stroked his back with a foreleg, "Are you sure you're alright sweetie?" Recalling what happened in the presence of his sleep, he entered the dreamworld with Celestia, Luna, and Discord about his current mission. Keeping these thoughts away, he slowly nodded, "I'm fine...thank you..." "You're awake! You almost made me have a heart attack, Mobius!" Cozy slowly approached him, hovering a few feet in the air to initiate a big hug on him. "Good grief, Cozy Glow couldn't stop worrying about you, kid!" Cozy Glow's father, Checkmate, placed his hoof on his right shoulder, "Must be that you've been working so hard in the orphanage that you forgot to maintain yourself." "Yeah...we'll leave it at that," Mobius muttered, seeing the clock on the wall and panicking, "It's almost 5:00 pm, I need to reach the station soon!" "Okay then!" just when Bright Crest was going to reach for the door, she levitated a purple manila folder and his bag on the table, "Don't forget these mister. I've had the form signed and ready for you!" Getting up from the infirmary bed and grabbing his stuff from the mare's magic, Mobius reached over a took a bow, "Thank you so much for this opportunity, ma'am. I couldn't have done it without you!" "No-no! We should be thank you, Mobius!" she happily shook her head, "Not only you were a huge help for me, but you brought back a wonderful father to reunite with his loving daughter," "I wouldn't have gotten her back if you didn't go off at me and gave me a pep talk," suggested Checkmate, keeping Cozy at his side While I've said my goodbyes to the foals at the orphanage, Cozy Glow said her goodbyes as It was her time to leave with her father soon. I don't know what will happen to her in the future, but I have a strong feeling It won't be the end of her. Let's just hope she doesn't go back to your old self in the meantime. As I got the ticket checked and waited on the platform, I've realized I've still got the written part of the assignment to do. Maybe I should write it during the train trip back home, but I've got to plan my approach for my next target; Queen Chrysalis. While Cozy and Checkmate stepped out of the orphanage building, she hovered around her father as carefree as a butterfly as her dad walked along the sidewalk. "Daddy! Can we get Ice cream at the place like you always do!?" Begged Cozy, keeping still in the air enough to make Checkmate nod. "Sure, sweetie. We can't just go back home just yet..." Chuckled the stallion, "You see, daddy just got another job somewhere else and I'm just finalizing the lease of our new home." "Oh, we're moving?" she wasn't ready to hear that from him, but she remember not to assume the worse, "Where exactly is your new job at?" Checkmate chuckled before him as he stared over at Maneway station across the street, "Let's just say it won't be the last time you'll see Mobius..." The train ride to Ponyville felt shorter to Mobius, using his magic to write on a notebook issued to all students of friendship with a pencil. If this was done on a laptop, he could be done with this in mere minutes. Stopping right exactly on the page minimum, he took a deep breath while rubbing the temples of his head. That's the last time I'm doing homework while commuting, magic made that at least viable to handle... Just on time as the conductor announced their arrival at Ponyville station, making most of the passengers walk out to the platform and Mobius too. He'll have to turn in the assignment to Professor Fluttershy later, he wanted to get a quick bite at a local cafe that was popular amongst students from the school. The business wasn't packed at this time, but a few ponies were seated in the dining area with a few bits of chatting within it. A waitress was seeing Mobius enter through the front where she placed him at an empty booth. "Welcome, What will it be today?" her cheery smile asked the colt for his order. "Just a strawberry milkshake and a small salad," Mobius relayed his order to the giddy mare. "Alrighty, and what does the fine Princess of Friendship want?" "Huh? What do you me—" Mobius couldn't believe who was sitting across from him in the booth, it was Twilight Sparkle happily saying her order to the waitress, "I'll have what he's having, that'll be all." The waitress left their sight to get the order placed on the line, leaving Mobius very much happy and confused by the strange appearance from Headmare Twilight. He sheepishly asked, "H-Headmare! What are you doing here? How did you get here anyway!?" "I teleported here, silly..." she snickered covering her mouth with a foreleg, "You arrive exactly at 5:50 pm, which based on the current train schedule of the hour and walking distances, makes you arrive here approximately 20 minutes later than most students would," Damn...she has a way with numbers... But Mobius' fantasy came to a close when he noticed exactly what it may seem like to the citizens, clamming up from his seat, "You shouldn't be here! Ponies will think we're on a—" "Friendly outing...that's all!" Twilight interrupted him, turning her eyes above Mobius and spotting with familiar faces as she raised her voice to the table next door, "And I appreciate it if a certain table won't make such a big deal about it!" Moving his head over at the table behind him, Mobius saw six ponies wearing funny glasses immediately turning away from them. Mobius can tell what's going on but doesn't want to intrude in whatever's happening with Twilight's friends. He planned to keep things as professional as ever when he levitated his purple folder. "I have completed the assignment for you Headmare, although things seemed to turn on me while I was there," Mobius placed the folder over at Twilight's side as her magic took control of the item. "Good job Mobius, but what do you mean by that? Did you see your parents there?" Time for more lying, but to Twilight herself. Mobius could immodestly tell her the truth right now, but he's afraid he'll have to fib a bit, "I did have lunch together at a park. I told them about all of my studies at your school and they sounded proud of me for welcoming the idea of friendship as a curricular topic. Also, while I was there, I met somepony that..." "Oh...I mean good for you!" Twilight's frown face turned to a genuine smile as she brushed off her forehead, "I'm happy that you were able to find a special somepony your age and not somepony who shares the mutual—" But Mobius didn't quite catch her last sentence when he broke off from it, "She's a filly who I met in the orphanage— She was sad about something and I wrote about her on my report. " She connected the dots and face hoofed herself, "Ooooh! I understand. Don't tell me the details because I want to read it out myself. Now about the reason for this friendly outing, I've been developing a special course taken place on the weekends for you to learn magic by me; developed by Starlight Glimmer. We can begin our first lesson at 10:00 am sharp next Saturday, the day after the play." "Really!? That's so amazing! Thank you so much Headmare, I won't let you down!" Mobius shrieked with his inside voice, "I've been wanting to learn advanced alicorn spells for years!" "Hold yourself, Mobius..." she settled down the jumpy unicorn from the booth seat, raising her head once more, "We shall refresh on the basics first before you can climb up to my level. This is going to be a serious and professional lesson and not some intricate setup to get closer to each other, so don't try to play it off as one, girls!" He didn't quite hear that last part when Mobius zoned out, imagining being in a room with Twilight Sparkle learning some magic spells. His heart started to beat rapidly and his mind turned into mush. But before he can gaze upon her beautiful face, the waitress came back with their orders suspended in midair with her magic. "Here you go kid, and your majesty!" "Thank you again for bringing our orders!" replied Twilight, giving unicorn a little extra and the payment for the dishes, "Mobius? Are you alright? Anything you need?" No fucking way! I'm going to learn magic with Twilight Sparkle herself? That definitely deserves a check on my bucket list. I can use the spells to perform sick combat or do fancy tricks, or perhaps relearn some time abilities from my original form? "No problem at all, Headmare!" he answered, vigorously sipping his milkshake, "Let's eat up, why don't we?" He spent nearly 20 minutes enjoying his light snack, chatting with Twilight as the sun was about to set over the horizon. Mobius said his fellow goodbyes, packing his stuff to reach for the school and Twilight heading for her castle with a pack of the strange ponies following her. But for Mobius, he made it to the school entrance until he was interrupted by three creatures he could never forget. "Where have you been?" asked Smolder, putting her palms between her waist, "You missed the entire day of class; You've been ditching?" "Friend of Yona would never ditch friendship school without good reason!" the yak exclaimed, pushing over Smolder away to the side, "Where has friend of Yona been!" He's never seen Yona, Smolder, and Silverstream for a while since Mobius doesn't have classes with them at the same time. It was comforting seeing their faces again, answering back, "I've been on a special assignment for Professor Fluttershy's class that required me to skip a day of classes. I've got Sandbar to cover for me for the day," "That's just like you Mobius! Always trying to impress Headmare so that you can be closer to her!" teased Silverstream, pointing her talon to him, "You should ask her out!" Oh please sister, I've been wanting to ever since I got here! But I can't yet, It would cause me to be the talk of the town. "Don't tease the guy— If he's not ready, he's NOT ready!" surprisingly, Smolder was the voice of wisdom from the group as she got up from her fall patting herself, "Anyways, Gallus seems to be making moves already on Ocellus in the library," "Gallus and Ocellus?" Mobius raised a brow, pretending not to know about the secret the griffon told him a few nights ago, "That's an odd pair? What did he do?" "Eh, nothing much; saw them studying together in the library. Pffft! Don't understand all this lovey-dovey stuff!" acting quite a in denial, Smolder crossed her arms as she signaled the girls to follow her, "Alright, see you at the lunchroom tomorrow!" The three girls left the unicorn in a pleasant state, slowly walking over to his dorm room and preparing for tomorrow. He entrusted Sandbar to place his notes underneath the crack of the door as he found a pile of it just on the floor. As of now, all he could think of is getting some good night's rest a bit early. The next day were rehearsals for Princess Celestia's anniversary of becoming ruler of Equestria, I didn't bother to apply for a role because I don't want to change this episode in the slightest. Well, I would say that until Celestia herself came to try out the role as herself and she was spectacular! I can't believe she changed how she acted back in the vanilla timeline. Oh well, I've decided to use this Saturday to test out my quick-change feature by transforming it to Figure Eight right from Mobius, it worked flawlessly. It didn't even drain the battery at all. But enough of that, I wanted to test out that feature of sending messages from my phone to other creatures. But who am I going to send it to? Should I send one as a calling card to Twilight and her friends? No, too early for that! It would. Maybe I should make it as friendly as possible? That would be suspicious, man this is so hard! In the Everfree forest as usual, but James was inside somewhere that he wanted to check out for a while; the cave that hid the tree of harmony. He had his hood on just in case to hide his precious identity. Discord mentioned that a new feature was added to his transformation app, but he decided to check that out later. Reaching for the cave entrance, it was but a few steps in to spot the tree's radiating glow followed by the six elements of harmony attached to each branch. Everything like the rays of light piercing through the cracks of the cave almost gave him a teary eye upon its beauty. What a sight to behold, I wonder why such a plot device is simply hidden beneath these caves. I wonder what does the tree of harmony has to say about me saving Equestria's future? She must be congratulating— "You there! That creature from before!" called out a feminine voice behind him, "Show yourself!" Haha, so she's here early... This was his very first encounter with a creature in his truest form except for that time with Discord and Celestia, so he stayed his absolute calmest and positioned his footing to face the changeling straight in the eyes. As to no surprise, she prepared to be in a battle stance reading her horn as it shined with her aura. The question remains: How and what will James say to her? "Yo, what's up!?" a nonchalant voice emitted from behind the hood followed by a wave of the hand, breaking Chrysalis from her focused glare. "What? It speaks native tongue?" she scratched her head on that odd choice of language, "I know why you're here! You want in on taking the elements of harmony for yourself! Do you?" James spoke up once more, keeping a cool level attitude, "Oh no, I'm not here to take them! Just basking in on its glory. You dig me?" "I'm not digging you at all!" she hissed, continuing to be in her offensive stance, making James raise his arms as cops surrounded him, "Listen here buster! You can go scheme some other revenge against Twilight and her friends— but I was here first! Do you know who I am?" "Of course I know who you are, Queen Chrysalis," James called out to her name, making her off guard for a second, "Ruler of the changeling hive, but unfortunately met her demise by the hooves of Starlight Glimmer, Trixie Lulumoon, and your very own Thorax that took control of your entire hive and outcasted you by sharing the love for all of the changelings. Not before too long when you tried to steal all the love in Princess Mi Amore Cadenzas and Shining Armors wedding by locking her up below the castle and transforming to her to drain all the love he had to give to you. I must say, you're a formidable 7.5/10 on the villainy scale!" "Okay...you do know how I am..." she cringed over the sight of the creature's exact detail on her past, "How did you know all of that? I haven't seen you or heard of you from anywhere!" "Let's just say I've been watching you and all of your...accomplishments," he lowered his hands from the air, making Chrysalis show a sign of fear from her shaking legs. "What?" Chrysalis made her dark greenish aura disappear, "Who are you!? How do you know me!" James did not think he would get this far, coming up with some excuse to ignore her question, "My name is not important, what's important is what I have in store for the future of Equestria," Curiosity filled her head when Chrysalis repeated what he said, "What do you mean the future?" He slowly leaned towards her, keeping his cool-headed attitude, "Don't worry about a thing Chrysalis, I won't force you into anything, just please be aware that I'm only doing this out of kindness. You may proceed on with your plans in the meantime," She was in disarray, trying to make sense of what's happening, "Out of kindness!? What nonsense are you talking about!?" Soon as Chrysalis let her guard down, James cast a time-stop bubble around her to freeze her enough for him to reach for his phone and cast a warp gate behind him and make his leave. After the portal vanished without a trace, the bubble vanished a few seconds later, leaving a distraught changeling all alone near the tree of harmony. "Wait! Where did he go? Was he even real?" she did everything to trace any signs of magic casting or residual, but all she found was a very confused look on her face, "What in Equestria was that about!?" Over on the other side of the forest, James appeared out of a blue portal and immediately switch to the disguise app to change back into Mobius. He didn't expect to encounter her there so early, so he's just going to have to plan out a grander entrance later. He thought about heading towards the library and using that extra camera app feature on some old text, only to notice a strange occurrence when he began to limp from his back leg. Why does my back leg feel kinda heavy? Is this that charlie horse I heard of online? I don't feel like it's cramping up, it's like someone attached a heavyweight on me... The mystery was finally resolved when Mobius heard a thick country accent filly running towards him as her voice got louder, imminently recognized as Apple Bloom, "Gosh darn it, Cozy Glow! Don't be holding onto his leg like that! Ponies would stare right at'cha!" "Cozy Glow?" The weight on his leg broke free when it was revealed to be Cozy Glow that was restricting Mobius' movement, hovering towards his face, "Surprise! You do remember me! See girls! I told ya he's real!" Soon after, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo followed behind Applebloom, staring dead into his strange eyes when Mobius turned around to face the four. Scootaloo was the first to rip on his eyes, "Why are those eyes different colors? Is he blind?" "No Scootaloo! Rarity mentioned it's some genetic thing, he's perfectly fine! and handsome up front" Sweetie Belle cooed from her voice, seeing the older colt waving at her. This is my first time speaking to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but I have seen them around from time to time. But, Cozy Glow is in Ponyville? That's amazing, but concerning that, she is still here. But her attitude seems genuine and not some filthy act "Wow, Cozy Glow! Haven't seen you in a while!" gasped Mobius, giving her a little friendly hug for a short while, "Let me guess, you're finally attending the school of friendship like me?" Cozy shook her head, keeping a warm smile on her face as she landed softly on the ground, "I don't go to that school, I go to Ms. Cherliee's elementary school with Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle. Daddy's got a new job in Ponyville, and we moved right in town." She didn't attend Twilight's School of friendship at all? Which means I've successfully prevented her from conspiring with Lord Tirek. Speaking of, I still have that letter of his. But I'll hold that off for now. "T-That's amazing, that means we can visit each other anytime. Well, after school hours of course." scratching behind his head, Mobius chuckled alongside her, "How's your father doing?" "He's doing fine, we moved to Ponyville a few days back to be closer to his new job!" she answered, keeping herself close to Mobius all the time, "These three ponies help me get around the class and the town!" "She's a bit of a hoof-full, but she'll fit in fine!" smiled Applebloom, moving over to her shoulders to pull her away from the colt, "We were going to head back to the treehouse to show her what we do!" Scootaloo chuckled with her hoof inches away from her mouth, "Man, Rumble's going to be so disappointed when he finds out about you. He's been hitting on her ever since she got here," "Well! See ya! Mobius!" Cozy waved goodbye to him as she followed the rest of the crusaders. Looks like It's going to get way harder from here on out, and I'm supposedly going to confront King Sombra in the future. I have Chrysalis close by and the letter from Lord Tirek, but how in god's name will I even do with Sombra!?