//------------------------------//
// Where I Belong - Part Two (Edited and Extended) 
// Story: Geoverse Part Two: To Love Is Human 
// by GeodesicDragon 
//------------------------------//

	I was standing in the very clearing where I first met Twilight and the others, something I gathered from the fact my blood was still staining the grass. A single tear rolled down my cheek as I took in my surroundings with a ridiculously wide grin on my face.

John took a walk around, and came across something in the grass. He looked at it and his eyes widened. "Hey, Geo, check this out!"

I went over to him and he pointed at the ground, where the remains of a fire smouldered in a small pit.

"Hmm," I said, surveying the area around the fire pit. "Looks to me like somepony was camping here." I could see grass which was slightly singed, leftover wood... and streamers. Upon seeing them, I smiled. "She was waiting for me." I said.

"Who, Twilight?" John asked, looking up from the fire pit. I nodded, and he chuckled. "Well then, if she's not here, then she'll probably be in town." He turned to face Ace, who was standing in the middle of the clearing, taking in the beauty of his new surroundings.

I went over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Ace?" I said.

"This is such a wonderful place," he replied. "I'm so pleased I'm getting the chance to study it properly, rather than use my BIRDs."

"You mean 'birds,'" I said mockingly.

Ace groaned. "Let's not start that again." He turned to face me. "Now, I assume that you are eager to get into town?"

I nodded so fast, I thought my head was going to fall off.

"Does caesium explode when you add it to water?" I asked.

Ace chuckled. "Oh, good, you have been learning." He patted Tiny. "Very well, then. Climb aboard, and Tiny shall take us where we need to go — namely, to your lover's embrace."

I climbed onto Tiny's treads and sat down. John followed suit, taking a position across from me. Ace went into his pockets and pulled out a cassette tape. He tossed it from hand to hand as he spoke to us. "Are you up for a little music as we ride?" he asked.

"Not at all." I grinned. "Hell, anything to avoid talking to you two."

Ace smiled and climbed onto Tiny. He pressed a button and a set of speakers rose out of each of the robot's shoulders. With a chuckle, he put the tape in the player before looking at me. "Let's go," he said. "Just point the way into town, and Tiny will do the rest."

"That way!" I said, pointing down a dirt track. At those words, Tiny set off down the track, gears grinding and treads rumbling.

Nobody spoke, but I personally didn't see a reason to do so. The huge grin on my face, and the tears streaming from my eyes, were all the expression I needed.


***


The atmosphere in Sugarcube Corner was as thick as treacle. Twilight and her friends stared in disbelief at Celestia and Luna.

"Discord?" Rainbow Dash asked, still shocked. "Are you sure?"

"Discord's statue is still in the palace gardens, so  he hasn't been released," Luna replied. "However, this could be the work of one of his followers, trying to free him."

Rainbow Dash puffed out her chest. "Well, let's go find them and kick their flanks!" she said fiercely.

The others voiced their approval at Rainbow's plan and Celestia smiled. "I'm glad you think that way," she said, levitating a small box in front of her and opening it. "The Elements of Harmony are in here. Put them on, and we'll go."

Each Bearer took her respective Element.

"Let's get going, friends," Luna said. "Every moment we wait means another opportunity for Discord to be free once more."

Throwing some bits on the table, Twilight and the others hurriedly followed the Princesses out of the shop and into the town square. 

The townsponies gasped and bowed on seeing the two alicorns, who smiled at them before leading the way out of town, along the path past Fluttershy's house, and into the Everfree Forest.

"Be on your guard, everypony," Celestia said quietly. "We don't know what manner of evil could be lurking out here."

Silence fell as the group trudged along the road.


***


As Tiny rolled along the dirt track, I could see the familiar skyline of Ponyville in the distance. I tapped Ace on the shoulder.

"We'll be in Ponyville in ten minutes," I said to him. "So you and John had better get ready to introduce yourselves." I looked down at my ride. "And I hope you're ready to answer a lot of questions."

Ace chuckled. "Yes," he said. "And most of them will probably be about Tiny." Tiny let out a small beep. "Don't worry, Tiny!" He said, patting him gently. "Daddy will make sure nobody says anything mean about you. Yes he will, yes he will!"

I turned to face John. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked. "You have a life back on Earth, so why share mine?"

John snorted. "A life?" he said glumly. "That wasn't a life, what I had. The only real friend I had was you, and I couldn't hold a job." I looked at him sympathetically, and he continued. "You said a lot of great things about this place, and the ponies who live here, so I felt that it would be the idea location to start my new life."

I nodded. "It is a great place," I said. "The ponies are great, and they'll accept you with open hooves." John smiled. "Though I'm, not quite sure how they'll react to him, though." I said, pointing at Ace. "Hey, Doc?" Sorou turned to face me. "We'll be there in five minutes, and you haven't even played that cassette yet."

Ace laughed. "I guess now would be a good time," he said, reaching over to the cassette player and pressing a button.

As the music blared out of the speakers on Tiny's shoulders, I realise what it was and laughed out loud.

There's no way Twilight will miss this entrance, I thought.


***


The seven ponies trotted silently along the twisting path, their eyes constantly checking their surroundings.

"I don't like this, Lulu," Celestia whispered.

"Me neither, Tia," Luna replied. "It's too quiet."

"Do y'all reckon they know we're comin'?" Applejack asked.

"It's a possibility," Celestia replied. "Stay alert, everypony."

They continued walking, their hearts beating in their throats and their ears tuned for the smallest of noises.

Suddenly, Celestia stopped walking and stood still. She looked around for a moment before a puzzled look appeared on her face.

"Sister?" Luna said quizzically. "Are you all—"

"Listen," Celestia said quietly. "Can anypony hear that?"

The others strained their ears and listened intently as a sound, rather like music, filled their ears. It seemed far away, but it was getting closer with each second that ticked by.

"What in tarnation is that racket?" Applejack said.

The eight of them stood rooted to the spot as the music was soon accompanied by a deep rumbling which causing leaves to fall from the trees, and animals to hide in fear.

"Whatever it is, it's coming right for us." Twilight gulped.

"Then we shall stand our ground here," Celestia replied, narrowing her eyes towards the noise. "Get ready, girls."

With that, they took up defensive stances and waited.

As the noise got closer, the eight ponies heard voices alongside the music, which made them scrunch their faces up in confusion.





Rarity covered her ears.

"Make it stop!" she squealed. "It's horrifying!"

"Stay strong, everypony!" Luna yelled above the noise.

Her staunch demeanour soon faded when she saw what was approaching, and was replaced with a look of panic.

It was a metal behemoth which rolled along the ground, groaning and creaking as it went. It was much taller than even Celestia was, and was covered with various bits of machinery.

The girls looked closer to see, standing on the machine, two figures; one was doing gestures imitating playing a guitar, and the other was flailing their head back and forth.

Celestia and Luna gasped.

"Humans?" they shouted in unison.

At the sound of the voice, the two figures on the metal beast stopped what they were doing and looked ahead of them.

A series of grinding noises followed as the tracked monster ground to a shuddering halt, just feet away from the eight ponies. The music and noise stopped abruptly as the two humans jumped off.

"This is incredible!" one of them said. He was wearing a pair of goggles and a white coat. "All of my work has finally paid off!"

"Holy crap," the other one added. "This is... I mean, I can hardly..." He seemed unable to finish his sentence.

Celestia's eyes narrowed. "Identify yourselves!" she yelled. "Who are you, and why have you come to Equestria?"

The human wearing the white coat put his arms out in front of him reassuringly. "Please," he said. "We mean you no harm."

Twilight stepped forward and pointed at the hunk of metal the two had been sitting on. "Is that so?" she replied. "If that is true, then what is this thing? It looks dangerous."

The white coated human looked at the machine. "What, Tiny?" he asked with a shocked gasp. "He wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"You actually gave that thing a name?" Rainbow Dash said with disdain, giving the human a fierce glare.

The other human stepped forward. "Please," he said. "You misunderstand our intentions; we are not here to cause trouble. My name is John Adams, and this is Doctor Ace Sorou. We've spent a long time trying to find a way here."

"Why?" Twilight snapped. "What reason could you have for coming to our world? Only one of your kind has ever been here before—"

"That's true," a third voice said. "And now I've come back."

Twilight's face fell. "What is this?!" she shouted. "Show yourself!"

Eight pairs of eyes suddenly turned to the third human, who stepped out from behind the machine.

"With pleasure." he said, watching as Twilight's expression went from one of anger to one of joy. "Hello, Twilight. I'm home."


***


A burst of purple filled my vision as Twilight leapt on me. She prodded me sharply in the chest, as if to check that I was real, only for her smile to widen even further when I grunted.

"It's... it's really you!" she squealed. "I knew you'd come back! I just knew it! I've missed you so much!"

Before I could reply, she was kissing me. I returned the favour eagerly, as we both released weeks of pent-up longing.

"Well, I'll be damned," Applejack said. "And to think we doubted that he would ever make it back."

The others, including Celestia and Luna but except for Pinkie Pie, all nodded and murmured in agreement, while I eventually tore myself away from Twilight and stood up.

"I told you both that I would do anything to see her smile, come hell or high water," I said to Celestia and Luna. "And, while I was back on Earth, I told myself I needed to keep that promise."

Celestia and Luna smiled —  then another burst of colour filled my vision as the other five enveloped me in a group hug.

"I knew you'd come back!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly. "The others had their doubts, but I knew otherwise! Now I can throw a huge, super-duper, wonderfully magnificent, splendiferous 'Welcome Back To Equestria' party for you and Twilight!"

Rainbow Dash punched me on the shoulder. "Welcome back, Geo." she said with a smile. "I'm sorry I doubted you."

"I'm sorry fer doubtin' yer return as well, sugarcube." Applejack added. "But do you have any idea how much work you've missed?" I looked at her and she fell over laughing. "I'm only teasin' ya, Geo." She said. "Welcome home."

"It's nice to see you again." Fluttershy said. "I'm... um, I'm also sorry for thinking you'd never come back." Her bottom lip quivered. "Oh, can you ever forgive me for being so callous?"

"Yes, darling, I'm sorry too," Rarity said. "But I think I speak for all of us when I say that we're glad you're back where you belong."

I was about to reply when a cough distracted me. "Now that you've got your welcomes, and your snog, d'you think you can help us out here?" John asked, giving me a deadpan stare.

I laughed weakly. "Yeah, sorry." I turned to Celestia and Luna. "This is John, a friend I made after I arrived back in my own world."

"Just like you promised me you would." Twilight nuzzled me.

"And this is Doctor Ace Sorou." I indicated the eccentric doctor, who smiled and waved. "It was his machine that brought me back here, so I consider him a friend too. Without his help, I don't know what I would have done to get back here."

Celestia and Luna trotted over to Ace and looked at Tiny, who was brimming with scientific instruments.

"Thank you, Doctor," Luna said. "As friends of Geo's, you and John are welcome to stay here. Furthermore, please accept our humble apologies for our earlier behaviour."

"That's OK," Ace said, patting Tiny. "I assure you, Your Highnesses, that I only want to study this world."

Celestia smiled. "Then study away," she said. "I see that... 'Tiny' is loaded with construction materials. Would it be right to assume that you wish to build a laboratory somewhere?"

Ace nodded. "With your permission, of course."

"I'm sure we can find somewhere for you," Luna replied as she turned to face me. "Come, Geo, let us return to Ponyville. I am keen on hearing how you found a way back to Equestria."

I chuckled. "I hope you've got a spare few hours."

The eleven of us, followed by Tiny, set out along the path to Ponyville. As we walked, I sighed contentedly.

"What's wrong?" asked Twilight, concern in her voice.

I picked her up and kissed her deeply. "Nothing," I said. "Not a single god-damn thing."

I hoisted her onto my shoulders when Ponyville came into view, tears running down my cheeks as I beamed from ear to ear.

I was home.