HONK!!!
The startling noise preceded the sound of a siren that quickly faded away. Plummeting towards the water had been instantaneously replaced with stillness and an orangish-white world. Instead of wind buffeting his ears, it was now his own heartbeat as the adrenaline slowly subsided and his internals untied themselves. A long moment passed and Stephen took a deep breath. The air came into his nose and left through his mouth, confirming that he was alive.
I’m alive, he thought to himself. With another moment, the realization hit at full force and his thoughts cried out in triumph, I’m alive! Relief flooded his mind so rapidly that he chuckled to himself. He wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t. Wherever he was, it was a stiff, uncomfortable place that smelled of ammonia.
He willed his head to turn to the right, but it didn’t move so he settled for shifting his eyes about his surroundings. This place seemed to be white with an orange tint that slowly tapered into darker hues towards his left. It was the same early evening light that was over the islands during the battle. After making the connection, Stephen noticed that he was staring straight up at a drywall-tiled ceiling. He was back on Earth, but this wasn’t his bedroom. When and how did he get wherever he was now?
Where am I? he asked himself. With a grunt and a groan, he forced his head to the right. His joints creaked and cracked unpleasantly and then his eyes were burned with direct sunlight. Wincing, he closed his eyes and painfully threw his head to the left. Blinking out the spots, a small bedside table and several beeping and/or blinking medical machines came into focus. On the other side of the room, there was a door leading out into a busy, well-lit hallway - a hospital. Someone must have found him comatose and brought him here.
He tried to call for help, but he couldn’t shout at full volume yet. He’d never before been a hospital patient, but he knew there’d be a button somewhere that would flag down a nurse. However, moving was still unpleasant. It was almost like he’d spent the better part of a week laying limp in the same bed while receiving sustenance intravenously - probably because that’s what it was. But he knew he was alright now, so he decided to wait until someone came to check on him or until he could easily move again. Until then, Stephen took solace in the fact that it was over. Hoping that his Equestrian friends weren’t saddened or worried by the way he left, he mentally thanked them one more time.
Stephen was weary from battle and he had just come down from the shock of falling. The fight was over. He was home now and as soon as he’d regained his strength, he’d be ready to start rebuilding his life. With that, he welcomed the prospect of getting actual sleep for the first time in weeks and closed his eyes.
Suddenly he was very cold and wet. His eyes shot open and were met with murky darkness. Instinctually, he tried to breathe but clamped his mouth shut when it filled with water, some of it going down the wrong pipe and causing him to choke. He flailed vainly in the water as all the shock and adrenaline returned to his system with a vengeance and remained so for an inconceivable amount of time.
His body burned in the water and he was getting tired. Fear and confusion racked his brain. Hadn’t he just been on Earth? Was it a dream? Was this a dream? The world around him, whatever it was, was getting blurry and even darker than it was initially. His lungs were burning, his throat was contracting, his head was getting light and there was a strange pressure wrapping around his midsection.
Stephen’s eyes were stabbed with a bright light. He locked them shut as he landed on what felt like a rock. He tried to breathe but his throat was still contracting and he flailed desperately. Adding to the chaos was a strange weight getting pressed onto his face and a sudden burst of foreign air entering his lungs. Gagging, the weight was released from him and he rolled onto his stomach, where he coughed and wheezed while something soft yet solid was being rubbed across his back. Eventually, his coughing subsided and his breathing returned to normal. Slowly, Stephen opened his eyes and found a familiar large green pair that were wrought with worry looking back at him.
It wasn’t over. Even if the release of Tartarus was no longer a threat, the Spirit Traveller spell on Stephen was still active and took him back to a few feet over the Equestrian waters when he foolishly allowed himself to fall asleep on Earth. Fluttershy had just saved him from drowning.
Stephen lost himself completely and sobbed into the bluff. “No!” he cried out. “I was home! Why can’t this just be over?”
Fluttershy had no idea what to do. When she had heard the splash and looked up to see four dark red legs flailing and sinking into the water, all she had to do was pull him out with her guard’s help. When he didn’t breathe, all she had to do was give him a breath. Helping a pony in need like that was easy. Comforting a pony when they were beaten, shocked and traumatized like this was beyond her. So she continued to rub his back and whisper, “It’s okay, you’re safe now.” Although, she wasn’t certain if he was hearing her. Perhaps he just needed a few minutes to vent and let the shock recede.
Slowly and reluctantly, Fluttershy placed a foreleg over his back. He sprang up and threw his front legs around her, burying his face in her chest. She squeaked in surprise as the sudden motion caught her off guard. She pulled back slightly and almost flapped away. But as Stephen quickly settled into stuttering breaths, she let him have the hug.
Looking up, she saw Shining Armor was still fighting with Earnest. In the far distance, she could barely make out a large group of ponies rushing towards the beach. Fluttershy wanted this to be over almost as much as Stephen. Turning her attention back towards him, he had finally calmed down and was laying flat on their bluff.
“Are you okay, sir?” asked the guard that was with Fluttershy.
“No, I’m not,” he said shakily. After a couple stuttered breaths, he downheartedly asked, “What did I miss?”
Just as Fluttershy was about to answer, a loud thump emanated from the beach and was abruptly followed by a deafening bark. Stephen came up on his haunches and turned with Fluttershy towards the beach, where Cerberus was bearing down on Earnest. As the monster barked and growled, a shimmering chariot appeared over a distant hilltop. The princesses could be made out as they leapt from the chariot and dived towards the beach. Luna’s voice cried out, “Yield!” and a bolt of lightning from her horn struck a point right in front of Cerberus.
After a moment of stillness, Stephen wiped his eyes. “I think they got him,” he said happily.
“Are you ready to go over there?” Fluttershy asked. “They’ll be very happy to see you.”
“Are you sure it’s safe with that giant dog there?”
“Cerberus is really just a big sweetheart who’s here to watch the gate. We don’t have to worry.”
“I want to go over there. But I don’t want to risk going back in the water.”
“Allow me,” said the soldier.
“Are you sure you can do it?” Stephen asked. The guard nodded in response and held out a hoof. Stephen reluctantly took it and allowed himself to be picked up by the soldier.
“After you, Miss Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy nodded and started flapping her wings. Once airborne, she headed for the beach with her guard carrying Stephen close behind. They flew for about fifty yards and when they were close to the shore, Fluttershy called out, “Everypony, come quick!” as loud as she could.
Hearing Fluttershy’s call, the rest of her friends rushed towards the water and were more than halfway there when they landed. Stephen and Fluttershy rested a little ways from the water’s edge and were practically tackled into a group hug. There was cheering, laughing and even a few happy tears as they embraced each other. Stephen was almost overwhelmed with questions of how he made it and if he was alright. Through it all, Stephen watched with a smile as Shining Armor directed a couple of soldiers towards a chariot with a morose-looking Earnest Stalwart in tow. Suddenly, a hoof poked one of his hind legs.
“Well, would ya look at that!” Applejack proclaimed.
“What?” Stephen asked worriedly, cranking his neck right to look back at Applejack’s hoof while the others gave him some space.
Applejack removed her hoof and revealed a patch of fur on his flank that had changed colors. “You got yourself a cutie mark!”
Stephen’s eyes widened at a silver semi-circle with a angled wedge hanging from it. Small black lines on the shape marked incremental angles - a protractor with tiny stars surrounding it. “Every pony gets one when they realize what their special talent is," Stephen remembered Fluttershy’s words from a couple weeks ago. He had just a little while ago realized how well he understood motion, physics and geometry by seeing the situations where they could be applied.
His friends swarmed him in an embrace yet again. This time with praise and congratulations. The hug, the crumbled cathedral, the nixed threat of doomsday, an insane unicorn in custody and a picture on his thigh to remind him of what he could do best. All of these things sunk into Stephen and gave him an indescribable sense of satisfaction beyond anything he’d ever felt. Closing his eyes, he soaked in as much of it as he could, momentarily forgetting about the troubles awaiting him at home. Right now, the only downside to this was that his smile couldn’t get any bigger as it was already stretched to the point of starting to hurt.