"YAY!!! THEY'RE BACK!!!" I heard who was most likely Pinkie yell.
As I was trying to get my sight back, I felt the weight of several ponies pile onto me. It didn't really feel heavy, but at least it was noticeable. I scooped up whoever was on me and wrapped them up into a big hug.
"I do like a good hug," I said.
A few moments later, my vision returned to me and I saw that I had wrapped up Rarity and Fluttershy. I gently set them down, then stood up and looked around to get my bearings.
The first thing I noticed was that the destroyed machines had been cleared away. After that, I realized that everyone had returned there. I was definitely glad nothing bad had happened to Rainbow Dash and Applejack after I had touched the rift. However, based off of the displacement, I would have thought that the others would've still been gone for a bit. After all, my trip this time around hadn't even been an hour and from what I could tell Twilight had been there at least a day...
Oh wait, that probably meant that is was the other way around this time.
"How long was I gone?"
"About six hours," I heard Celestia say just out of my view.
"I see. I guess you weren't there for that long, were you Twilight?" I asked.
"About a day and a half I believe," she answered. "Why do you ask?"
"Temporal offset. It's been about three and a half days time here. Universes don't seem to be aligned properly when it comes to time. I bet the Doctor could explain it better than I could."
I looked around for a moment. I then realized that he was the only one that wasn't present.
"Wait, where is the Doctor?"
"Oddly enough, he said he got a call from his TARDIS. His screwdriver told him so," Celestia informed me.
There were so many things that I wanted to nitpick about that statement, but honestly I probably wouldn't have had a leg to stand on in that fight.
"Now that Twilight has returned," Celestia continued, "we can hand out your elements to each of you."
Seemingly out of nowhere, the ornate case the elements were kept in levitated from behind Celestia and opened up. Then, each of them were levitated to their proper owners. I kept my eyes trained on them as they were placed around their necks and, in Twilight's case, onto her head.
"Coooool," I said while staring at the actual elements.
"They are pretty rad, aren't they?" added Rainbow Dash.
"I never thought I'd get to see the Elements of Harmony up close," I said as she displayed her element necklace up close to me.
"We have them ready for a reason," Celestia said. "It is time to go and retrieve Discord. Are you ready?"
I nodded and walked over to the last rift. As I looked on at it, I felt like being a little playful since I kinda didn't want to to do this. I was, after all, getting minorly railroaded into this.
"Pinkie."
"Yes," she said while appearing to my right.
"Balloon."
"Balloon!" she said and handed me a red balloon.
I pointed the open end towards the rift and slowly let the air out. Then I dropped it on the ground.
"Hoofful of confetti."
"Hooful of confetti!" she said and handed me just that.
I then held it out over the top of the rift and let it fall. A few of the pieces fell on the rift and simply disappeared. The others simply fell on the ground.
"Hmmm, I see. Gummy."
"Gummy!" she said and handed me her pet alligator.
I took him in my hands and simply pointed him at the rift while making sure he couldn't reach it. He simply stared at it while blinking a few times. I then brought him back and faced him towards me.
"Anything Gummy?"
He simply stared at me. Nothing more.
"That seems about right."
I then handed Gummy back to Pinky.
"Cupcake."
"Cupcake!" she said and handed me a cupcake with pink frosting on top.
I eyed it for a moment and then took a bite. Just so you know, I've actually never liked cupcakes before. However, the taste of this was pure goodness. Perhaps it was just a case of perception being reality, but for some reason it didn't even taste like any cupcake I've had before. It was like a textured doughyness mixed with a sugary frosting that screamed delectable.
"This is the best cupcake... in the history of cupcakes."
"Yippee!"
"Seth, have you had your fun?" asked Celestia.
"Yeah, I guess so," I said a bit dejectedly.
"Then you should be on your way."
I took a hold of my coin and studied it for a moment. The side with the elements' cutie marks was glowing just like before. However, all of the cutie marks for the elements were dull and instead the tiny horseshoe on the inside was glowing brighter than the rest. I surmised that he was represented by that symbol like the others were by their cutie marks. Originally, I thought that it represented me, but it seemed that I was wrong.
I slowly reached out for what would be the final time, I hoped, towards the rift. I hesitated a bit before finally touching it. As per usual, my world exploded in a blaze of blinding light. It took me a while before I was able to see again, but when I did I was shocked beyond shocked at what I saw.
I was in my bedroom back home.
Everything was just how I left it. My t.v., my Xbox, my air hockey table, my dresser, my mini-fridge, my shelves full of movies and anime series, my 'girls of Tenchi Muyo' wall scroll, and even my stuffed teddy bear that I've had since I was a year old was sitting on the ledge next to my bed. Everywhere I looked in there was exactly the same as when I had left.
"So the prodigal son has returned."
Perhaps I spoke too soon. I whirled around to who was there, but I saw no one. I walked over to the bathroom and peered in, yet I still didn't see anyone.
"You're getting warmer," I heard the voice say.
I opened up the door to the garage and looked inside. I still didn't see anyone. By then, I knew who it was. I would have to be an idiot not to know. I left the garage and looked around outside.
"You're almost there," the voice beckoned.
I walked down the short driveway and looked down the road. Finally, I spotted him sitting on the message board of the old church across the street.
General Chaos. Whoops. I mean Discord, god of chaos.
"It's so good to see you again. Though, I told you I could find my own way back. You really shouldn't have come for me, you know."
He then teleported off of the board and right in front of me.
"I got stonewalled into getting you by Celestia. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered. You stabbed me in the gut if you recall."
"Ah, memories. Believe it or not, for me that happened over a thousand years ago."
"A thousand years?" I asked in a flat tone that screamed disbelief.
"I don't blame you if you don't believe me. However, you of all people should know about the temporal offset that occurs between universes."
"I'm fully aware."
"What you don't know is that with my infinite power and wisdom I can control where and when you end up," he began as he also started to walk circles around me. "When I pushed you into the portal, not but a few minutes passed before I sensed my old self coming here. If he was to show up in this time, I highly doubt that he would have been very quiet or benevolent to those around you. So, I sent him back to the dark ages in Europe. A bit of a mistake on my part. He ended up creating the first Holy Crusade just for kicks I'm afraid."
"Should I even start to tell you how messed up that is?"
"Of course not. You'd be lecturing pure chaos and what would be the point of that? Now where was I? Oh yes. He was me and I tried to use the same trick over and over again and soon that became boring. As you recall, I wasn't the biggest fan of humanity back then. I've since mellowed out considerably."
"Wait, didn't you try to get back to Equestria at some point?" I interrupted.
"That would be right about then," he answered. "After it became boring, I tried to use my magic to cross back to my world only to discover that it was impossible. I simply didn't have enough magic to do so."
"What happened to infinite power?" I asked mockingly.
"Sadly, it wasn't quite as infinite as I had believed it was. After my failed attempts, I simply roamed around the world for a while. Took in the sights so to speak. That was when I was found that my magic was slowly growing. I then wandered from place to place to try and increase my magic as much as I could from the chaos that occurred wherever you humans were."
"I doubt that it would've taken that long to get enough power to return home."
"More than you could possibly imagine dear boy. It took over a thousand years of storing the chaotic energy of humanity for me to attempt another spell to return me home. Just when I was about to do so, I came across something that made me wait."
"Which would be?"
"My Little Pony. It was intriguing. It was just released as a toy, but I found it to be too great of a coincidence considering the amount of times that that phrase had been uttered back in Equestria. I decided to keep waiting and soon enough, I found my answer."
"My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic I'm guessing."
"Right you are! I couldn't believe it. It was the very same Equestria as I had known down to the last detail. It was crazy. Which would be why I understood it so quickly. Then the second season came and I watched as I was introduced. It was quite interesting to see myself in an even better form than my own memories could conjure. It was then that I realized that everything was one gigantic loop in time. I spent the remainder of my time tracking you down. It was more difficult than I thought it would be, but two weeks ago I found you.
"You were nothing like what I had seen back in Equestria. Well, in appearance you were, but other than that you were so dull. Go to work, mess around on your little computer, watch some television, go to sleep; it was dreadful. Your imagination, however, was quite amusing. Always dreaming of having superpowers and saving lives. Able to seduce any women you wanted into doing whatever you desired. Leaping across time and space with a mere gesture. All powers that I have and you wanted. It was fascinating!"
"I'm glad I entertained you," I said rolling my my eyes and speaking with full-blown sarcasm.
"As you should be. If I hadn't been so entertained, I may have chosen someone else. Then again, you were so fitting. Did you know that your name is the same as that of an Egyptian god? Not only that, but in fact that god was also the god of chaos?"
I blinked at that.
"I didn't know that. Ugh. Now it just sounds corny," I said and facepalmed.
"It is, isn't it! Now then, the day before I sent you away is when I made the coin you wear around your neck and created the recording that you saw. Do you remember what I said to you?"
"You said that the coin would help me return everyone home."
"And?"
"You put half of your power into it."
"That's the one! That, however, was the only lie I told you."
"No kidding," I deadpanned.
"The real truth is that I gave you all but a tiny amount of my power. I needed to do so in order to send you to Equestria. I bet you fainted not too long after you arrived am I right?"
I grumbled out a weak yes to him.
"That was simply my magic taking hold inside of you. There was actually almost no magic left inside of the coin. For that reason, I sent you to the Everfree Forest. It's natural chaotic energies would make it the ideal place to recover the magic I had just given you. A normal being such as yourself would be unable to handle it and you would pass out while the energy was restored."
"That does explain a few things. Though, if you had lost all that power then how did you redirect your past self into the past anyway?"
"It's relatively simple. After all, it is me. I simply chose to put myself back in time."
"Yeeeah. Right."
"If it's too complicated, I can give you the long-winded version of it for your clarification."
"Chaos be crazy, I get it," I said while waving it off.
"I knew you'd understand!" he exclaimed gleefully.
"I also understand that you said you used up almost all your power sending me there, which means I'm currently more powerful than you are."
"Ah, but that's where you are wrong. You were more powerful than me. However, you should have tried to defeat me before I began explaining things. While I've been walking circles around you, I've been slowly draining away your magic," he finished saying while stopping in front of me with a comically over-sized grin.
I jumped back and tried to summon up my magic, but I found none to draw upon.
"You fell for quite the cliche. Haven't you read the Evil Overlord List?"
"I have, but then again I don't plan on being one."
"It's too bad that you didn't even think about it. While you were standing there like a fool, I regained all of my power from the coin. All that is left is the essences of the Elements of Harmony and all they can do is return me back to Equestria."
"You mean return us to Equestria."
"You heard what I said. Though perhaps I should simply tell you outright."
"You can never return to Equestria," he thundered.