Twilight sat alone until the sun had risen several feet above the horizon. Her thoughts flowing from Equestria to what she would say to Roger should this actually work, to the sun in front of her. It was a long time before she noticed Applejack’s voice coming from inside the house. “You alright out here Twilight?” She asked. Twilight was startled by the sudden noise amongst the silence, but once she recognized the voice she stood and walked toward Applejack.
“I’m fine Applejack, just nervous. Is anypony else up?”
“Yes but we can’t seem to find Lilly anywhere, you know where she is?”
“She’s probably asleep in her room. I’m going to get everypony together out here, why don’t you go tell her it’s time to get up.” Applejack nodded and put on a small smile.
“You ready to go home?” she asked.
“I think so.” Twilight responded with as much conviction as she could muster. “And if this doesn’t work I’ll be ready the next time we try to.”
“Atta girl.” Applejack said before heading up the stairs to wake Lilly. Twilight would have done it herself if she wasn’t on such bad terms with her. Walking into the dinning room, Twilight found her friends silently preparing for what they all knew was coming. Rarity shared a brush with Fluttershy as she tried desperately to give her mane its natural volume. Rainbow sat in a corner stretching her wings as if preparing to take off, while Pinkie smiled at Twilight from a comfortable position on the mattress as she puffed and played with her mane.
“What are you girls doing?, we’re only going to go outside and try opening the portal you don’t need to...”
“Oh we know darling,” Rarity said, “but assuming this works I want to look my best. Or the best I could after spending five days without so much as a hooficure.”
“And if we do get back I’m planning on a sonic rainboom or twenty,” Rainbow said. “I’ve never gone this long without flying and I’ve got a lot of lost practice time to catch up on.”
“I just hope Angel did ok without me,” Fluttershy remarked, “he never was very good on his own taking care of the animals and I can only hope they’re all ok.”
“I don’t have a reason to get ready, I just like playing with my mane.” Pinkie said bouncing the curl over her head with a hoof.
“Twilight we know you’re nervous,” Rarity began, “I am to, but in all honesty we know you’re going to do it this time. We were so close on our last attempt, now that we have Lilly to draw magic from there’s no way we can fail.” Twilight stood in the doorway looking at her friends, they believed in her, they believed so much that she could do it. What did they know she didn’t? Twilight shook her head after thinking that, no, this time it was going to work with or without Lilly’s help.
“Whenever you girls are ready head outside, I’m going to go get Roger.” Twilight turned and was able to catch a glimpse of Lilly leaving her room before she entered the living room where Roger was reading. “It’s time,” she said. Roger put down his book and stood up.
“Then lets get this show on the road, I’ve got a good feeling about this time.” Roger said. Twilight and Roger walked outside just as Applejack and Lilly reached the bottom of the stairs. When Twilight saw the semi-circle of her friends before her she found herself looking at their hopeful faces and almost returning one just as genuine. A kind of confidence floated around the group as if there really was no possibility for failure.
Twilight watched as Roger, Applejack and finally Lilly joined them to complete the arc, and was suddenly struck by the silence. All eyes were on her and Rarity as Twilight took her place in the center of the half circle.
“You ready to take us home?” Rarity said. Twilight thought about everything they’d been through over the past few days, everything they’d discovered, and the new friend they’d made. In retrospect it seemed like so much more, and so much longer than it actually was.
“Yeah, let’s go home.” And with that Twilight started her magic with Rarity following close behind. Twilight watched as the gray line began to draw itself and felt the magic flow to her from her friends. Just like last time it was faint, but enough to make a difference. Roger seemed to be giving just as much as the others this time and Twilight smiled when she thought of how she didn’t find it strange to have a friend from another world.
The thing that most surprised her however was the complete lack of a connection to Lilly. Twilight didn’t feel a thing coming from her; Lilly must have taken her snooping harder than she thought, but this was no time to think about that, Twilight had to concentrate on the task at hoof. The line drew itself until it reached Twilight’s eye level and just like their last attempt, became much harder to hold. Twilight and Rarity held fast, the portal fighting them every step of the way.
The portal began to grow slower and slower as it inched its way to its zenith. Twilight’s magic was holding but she feared what would happen if Rarity had to stop the spell again. However Rarity was holding her own, and it became clear she wasn’t going to drop out so easily this time. When the portal was nearly complete, Twilight almost felt like they were going to make it, but just as it looked like the portal would finish, it stopped growing.
It was clear Rarity and herself where putting all they had into this. If this didn’t work they may never get it to. As Twilight thought about this, she refused to allow this attempt to go the way it did last time. Without thinking, she poured all of her energy into one last jolt. Twilight’s horn lit up unimaginably bright as she forced every fiber of her being behind her magic, and the last thing she saw before she was forced to shut her eyes was a blast emitting from her horn.
Twilight collapsed onto the wet grass, completely spent. Her eyes burned from the bright light of her horn, every muscle aching. When Twilight heard the sound of cheers, then shouting, followed by strict silence, she thought she was going to pass out. A kick to the side made her release a cry of pain and Twilight forced open her eyes only to stare up at Lilly’s angry face.
At first Twilight didn’t understand what was going on, until she saw what Lilly held in her hand. The bag Lilly usually clutched had been discarded in front of Twilight, a small door Twilight hadn’t noticed the night before revealed a cavity behind a now open panel in the bag’s bottom. In Lilly’s hands was a metal object shaped like an L. Lilly held the object with the longer part of the L toward Twilight and her fingers clutched tightly around the object’s back.
“LILLY, WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING!” Roger screamed. “PUT THE GUN AWAY!” Gun, this was a gun? It looked so harmless...this couldn’t be the same thing that killed Lilly’s mother. Even if it WAS a gun why would Lilly have one, why would it be pointed at her?
“I’m going to say this only one more time pony, how do I work this thing?” Lilly was frantic and her expression betrayed her fear. Lilly’s view shifted constantly as she tried to observe every figure individually. “How do you get this to open?”
“Lilly… what are you doing?” Twilight said as she tried to stand.
Applejack took a step toward Twilight “Twilight I don’t think it’s…” she said before Lilly pointed the gun at her.
“Nobody here talks unless it’s in English. If I can’t understand I don’t want to hear it.” Applejack stopped her advance and looked up at Lilly,.
“Missy I don’t know what your saying but I’m just going-” she said as the gun let out an ear splitting bang. Fluttershy squealed as she ducked behind Roger and Applejack jumped back staring at a hole in the ground next to where she was standing.
“The next shot won’t miss.” Lilly said matter-of-factly.
“Lilly,” Roger said, his voice shaking behind a false calm, “whatever reason you’re doing this, I’m sure we can work it out without violence.” Lilly pointed the gun at Roger as Twilight managed to make it to her knees, her head still spinning from her burst of magic and the sound of the gunshot.
“Dad, I…” Lilly pointed the gun back at Twilight when she noticed her movement. “I’ve got this covered, just let me handle this and you can thank me latter. Now if I have to ask you one more time...”
“Lilly,” Twilight interrupted. “I don’t understand, what’s going on.” Lilly’s expression grew angry and then softened slightly.
“Maybe they don’t have these where you come from, but this is what we call a hostage situation. I want you to tell me how to open the portal, and in return I might decide not to kill your friends here.”
“Lilly this is crazy.” Roger said.
“Shut up dad!” Lilly said angrily. “I’m doing this for you too but I’m not afraid to force you along with me if you don’t stay quiet. Now listen here my little pony.” Lilly put special emphases on pony, as if almost spitting out the word. “I’ve got eight bullets left in this thing, so I can make it an incredibly painful demise for at least two of you. I suggest you do what I say before I have to give you a demonstration.”
“Lilly…” Twilight said, everything around her was moving so fast. And every second she spent trying to get her head on straight Lilly got a little angrier as was clear by her expression. Twilight wanted to comply, to just open the portal and let Lilly go wherever it was she wanted. But even in this confused state she knew once the portal was open there would be no guarantee Lilly wouldn’t use the gun on them anyway. Not to mention this may be the only chance to go home that they had. “…Where do you want to go?” Deciding to play along until she could find a way out, Twilight needed time to think of a plan.
“Well the specific isn’t important,” Lilly said smiling a fairly subdued grin for the situation at hand. “You’ve seen the picture in my purse, I want to go to that women.”
“You mean you’re taking away our chance to go home, to visit your mother?” Twilight didn’t know if she was angry or relieved, the gun replaced whatever emotion she would have had with fear far too quickly for her to know. Roger quickly spoke up after Twilight’s comment to keep Lilly from processing the question.
“Honey, I don’t think even magic can…”
“DON’T CALL ME HONEY!” Lilly screamed, looking up at her father. “I hate that name! And don’t you dare say what magic can or can’t do when proof of magic’s power is standing all around us! Magic took what never existed and made it real, magic created this portal behind me and if it can do that magic can bring me to mom!”
“Lilly,” Roger said, slightly braver than Twilight would have expected. “That’s not the same thing, this portal may be able to cross space and apparently dimensions with ease, but time is an entirely separate entity. The most this portal can do is take you to her grave and if you want to see that I can…”
“SHUT UP!” Lilly screamed. “This portal will take me anywhere I want because if it doesn’t everyone here’s going to regret it.” Twilight tried to keep calm as she put together a risky plot. If it worked they just might make it back to Equestria unscathed, if it didn’t…
“Lilly, I can’t open the portal.” Twilight said, her face displaying only a fraction of the fear she felt. Lilly turned to Twilight furious.
“If this is a joke you better have a dam good punch line cause I am not in the mood.”
“No punch line, I don’t have enough magic to open the portal, if you really want to see your mother I’m going to need to tell Rarity how to cast the spell.” Lilly processed this for a moment before responding.
“How long will that take?” She asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ll go as fast as I can.” Lilly took another moment to think.
“Make it quick,” she said. Now came the trickiest part of Twilight’s plan, Lilly couldn’t understand her when she talked to her friends, somehow she had to get her plan out to them while looking like she was only talking to Rarity. For the most part her friends had remained frozen in fear after Lilly fired the gun, with the exception of Applejack’s scramble backwards and Fluttershy cowering behind Roger, so at least they were all relatively close to her.
“Nopony move,” Twilight said as she turned to Rarity. “I’m going to get up and go to Rarity, but I’m talking to all of you.” Twilight pulled herself to her feet and slowly walked over to Rarity. The white mare looked horrible, and that was putting it nicely. She was barely able to stand, from summoning the portal or fear Twilight couldn’t tell. Her mane was sticking out in all directions and Twilight was convinced this was the worst she had ever seen her friend’s coat.
“Lilly wants us to let her use the portal and she thinks I’m telling Rarity how to open it. Rarity nod your head so it looks like I’m only talking to you.” Rarity complied and slowly bobbed her head, paying close attention to Twilight and the gun Lilly held. “Shortly, Rarity and I will turn to the portal and pretend to open it. When we do several things need to happen so I need everypony to pay really close attention.”
“Lilly will most likely turn toward us to watch us open the portal, but that’s only going to hold her for a moment. While she’s distracted Applejack needs to position herself behind her before she thinks to look at anypony else. Rainbow, you’re faster than anypony else here, once Applejack is in position your going to need to make a run for it. When Lilly sees you and tries to react Applejack will buck her from behind and knock her off balance at which point I’ll go for the gun. Without the gun Lilly will have no choice but to let us go back to Ponyville. I’d ask if they’re were any questions but you wouldn’t be able to answer.”
“Twilight this is crazy,” Rarity protested. “You can’t ask Rainbow to do that, what happens if…” but Rarity couldn’t bring herself to say it. Twilight knew what she was asking her friend to do and if something went wrong Rainbow would probably be the one to get the short end of the deal, but without assurance Applejack would have enough time to position herself and hit Lilly without a distraction this was the best they could do.
“Try and look confident Rarity, we need her to believe nothings wrong until we have her where we want her.” Rarity clearly still had her doubts but nodded her head again to show she would comply. Twilight turned back to Lilly who still had the gun trained on her.
“You two ready to begin?” Lilly asked, her patience wearing thin.
“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Twilight said. She motioned to Rarity and the two walked directly in front of the portal. Out of the corner of her eye Twilight could see Lilly slowly turn to watch them and Applejack creeping behind her. When She reached the portal Twilight turned to Rarity. “We need her to think we’re opening the portal, so say whatever you want but make it convincing.” Rarity adjusted herself on her hoofs and started.
“Portal…I hope you don’t mind if I call you that. I can’t exactly tell if you’re a ‘Miss’ portal or ‘Mr. Portal’ and you’re certainly not going to tell me…” Twilight could see Lilly beside her out of the corner of her eye. Just as she thought, Lilly turned around shortly after Rarity began speaking and presumably noticed Rainbow Dash.
“HEY, GET BACK HERE!” She yelled, raising her gun. But then a voice Twilight didn’t expect rung out.
“NO, DON’ T SHOOT.” Roger jumped in front of Lilly just as Applejack kicked her in the back of her legs. Falling forward Lilly and Roger both tumbled to the ground. Twilight turned around to grab the gun, only to see the two rolling on the grass fighting for exactly that. Twilight suddenly realized Roger had no idea what they had tried to do; he didn’t understand pony so he didn’t hear the plan.
Roger was far stronger physically then Lilly but it wasn’t long before Lilly had wormed herself off of him and onto the grass. Roger tried to keep hold of the gun, but as Lilly ripped it from his grasp it emitted another loud bang. Roger screamed out in pain as he clutched at his stomach, Lilly looked at her father completely in shock. Bright red blood slowly stained the shirt Roger was wearing as he lay himself back down onto the grass.
“Dad, no, no, no, this… this wasn’t supposed to happen. Dad I can’t lose mom and you to. Dad I…” But before she could finish a sharp thud met everyponies ears as Lilly fell forward and landed next to her father. Rainbow dash stood behind where she had been kneeling, facing the opposite direction with a hoof in the air.
“Somepony hold me back before I kick her again.” She said as she lowered her hoof, malice in her eyes. Twilight hurried over and pulled the gun away from Lilly’s hand, tossing it aside before checking to see Roger and Lilly’s state. Lilly had been knocked out cold by Rainbow Dash’s kick but was going to be fine once she woke up. Roger on the other hoof was bleeding pretty badly.
“Fluttershy, you’re the closest thing to a doctor we have,” Twilight said, fear turning to worry and regret. “What can we do to help him?” Fluttershy had stayed where she was when Roger jumped in front of Lilly, and when the second gunshot sounded she had covered her eyes with both hooves and begun to cry. Twilight made her way over to the terrified pegasus and tried tapping her on the shoulder, but this only succeeded in scaring her further. “Fluttershy if there were ever a time to be brave and push through a situation then it would be now.” Twilight said, but to no avail.
Pinkie and Rarity went to work calming Fluttershy as Rainbow, Twilight, and Applejack stood panicking over Roger.
“Twilight,” Roger said. “I don’t know how long that portals going to be open but you need to get your friends through before you lose your chance. I’ll be fine here just…”
“Hoarse feathers Roger, we need to get you to a hospital before this gets really bad, just hold tight while I figure out what to do.
“What’s he saying Twilight?” Applejack asked, as she examined the bloody stain spreading from his midsection.
“He wants us to leave him here.” Twilight said, as she tried desperately to think of a solution. “Roger do you have a first aid kit anywhere, could you make it to the hospital or get them to come here or…”
“I’ve got band aids and that’s about it. The nearest hospital is two hours away and the doctor in town can’t help with something like this.” Roger sounded surprisingly calm for the situation he was in; Twilight didn’t like that.
“Twilight, what are we going to do?” Rainbow said.
“I don’t know,” Twilight said, “and the more time we waste the worse his chances become.”
“Then let’s not waste any time.” Rarity said, leading the shaking Fluttershy as Pinkie continued to calm her. “I can’t speak for everypony, but I think I know what we have to do.” Twilight turned to her friend who somehow looked worse than she did before Twilight explained her plan about Lilly. “We can use the portal to send him where he needs to go.”
“What,” Applejack said. “Now I know we’re running out of options but let me remind you that portals our only ticket home.” Rarity nodded.
“And it could be Roger’s only hope. I don’t like it here girls, I hate it here, but Roger’s been very gentalcoltly to us over the past few days when it’s clear we don’t belong here. He’s fed, housed, and supported us and, may I remind you, ran to Rainbow’s rescue when Lilly was about to, well do this to her. I may not like this place but if it’s a choice between Roger’s life and my comfort I’m going to have to say Roger.”
“Rarity’s right,” Rainbow Dash said. “I hate it here to, but Roger’s a cool guy, and I don’t want to go home if I’m leaving him here to suffer. Especially next to this daughter of his.” Rainbow turned an angry look on Lilly’s unconscious form before turning to stare down at her hooves.
“Now hold up y’all, how do we know they can even fix him up if we do get him to the doc’. Maybe he wants us to go because he’s to far gone already.” Twilight weighed her options. The portal probably wasn’t going to stay up forever and Roger definitely wasn’t in a state that he could wait. Twilight had to decide now if she was going to choose to save him. Without saying a word more she turned and headed for the portal.
“Goodbye twilight.” She heard Roger say as she ran to the gray line that she had waited so long to see.
“Twilight what are you doing?” Applejack called after her, but Twilight had made up her mind.
“Rip in space save me some time, take me to where I may find, Ponyville…”