//------------------------------// // Chapter 8, Running Home // Story: The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 7 -- monsters in the Grass // by shysage //------------------------------// When we were maybe 15 minutes away, Summer woke Pinkie Pie up, and asked her to text everyone else that we would walk over to Fluttershy's apartment in maybe 30 minutes. Summer woke her Twin in the back seat next, and her Twin woke my Twin. This gave everypony some time to wake up, as much as could be expected after only 2 hours of sleep. It was still dark outside. I was soon backing 'big Blue' into the car-port next to my 'cubical'. I let everyone get out before I backed the rest of the way in; it was a tight fit along the sides. Then I backed my car the rest of the way in, being careful to avoid hitting the car deeper in the car-port. In the light from the 'back-up' lights, Equestria Girls Summer Rain noticed the dirty, White car behind 'big Blue'. "Shysage, what is that old car back there? It looks like a Mustang..." I started to sarcastically say "It's just an old, junk--" Equestria Girls Pinkie Pie jumped in right away. "Summer, it's a 69 Mustang Sportsroof, you should know that" then Pinkie laughed. She would know. Well, Equestria Girls Summer loved just Mustangs, and she should know too. Still the car was covered with dust. Pinkie continued "We used to have two of those at the track..." I don't think this was a pleasant memory for Pinkie. The family lost some amazing cars that I'm sure Pinkie had invested heart, soul, and sweat on for years... Pinkie next got this really serious look on her face, and was quiet half a minute. "Whoa... Cleveland... T-5... Wow, that car is a beast!" I started to answer "Well, when it runs, yeah. But I don't have much time to wo--" My Mare jumped in here. "Can we take it for a ride, Stallion?" "Well, maybe some day. It needs some work, and it won't fit through the Portal... Besides, there are some other ponies around me that are a little more important to me right now..." I said this slowly. I wanted to kiss my Mare to emphasize the point, but I just hugged her briefly. Still, I realized that Pinkie could probably fix this car better than I could. This got me thinking... I returned my wallet, cash, keys, etc. back inside my 'cubical'. I showed my Twin where I kept the cash should he need some for any reason. The 'cubical' was locked up, and we all headed off to Fluttershy's. The Sun was just starting to brighten the Eastern sky in the Equestria Girls world. As we walked across the street to Fluttershy's apartment, the rest of the Equestria Girls quickly spilled out the door, still looking half-asleep. I'm sure we looked the same way. Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, both Fluttershys, Applejack and Rainbow Dash -- well we were quickly ALL hugging and crying together. This whole thing had been just scary; the SAME nightmare all over again... After less than a minute, Twilight Sparkle realized this was NOT the PLACE for this. Twilight spoke up, stopped the crying and hugging, and directed everypony to take their 'stuff' into Fluttershy's apartment, then head for the Portal wall. I suspected that Equestria Girls Twilight Sparkle must have 'just known'. She was our Princess' Twin. And it was time to go home... And nopony really stopped crying either. ... But these amazing 'Equestria Girls'... These girls had spent maybe two days around Princess Twilight... And their hearts were knit to her forever... And they had Equestria in their hearts, and they NEEDED Equestria after what they had been though. ... And we were all 'running home' to Equestria... to our Princess... RIGHT NOW! Five minutes later, we were going through the Portal to Equestria... ...and were tearfully greeted in Equestria by Princess Twilight and the rest of the Equestria ponies... They were already waiting for us in the Portal room in the Crystal Palace... Everypony just cried together for maybe an hour. Nopony could talk... We couldn't do anything else... We were together again, and we were crying and hugging... That's all we could do right now. We all needed this... We all needed each other... It had been a scary few days for everypony... Well, after about an hour, we all stopped hugging, and bowed to our Princess... We all loved our Princess... It was quiet for a minute as we bowed before Princess Twilight. Well, most of us were weeping softly still. Before getting us back up, Princess Twilight said slowly, trying not to cry... "I am reminded of a lesson I have learned repeatedly... I love you 'Equestria Girls' just as much as I love 'my girls'... And I missed you all so much... But you Equestria Girls are 'my girls' too... Welcome home, all of you..." We all took turns hugging our amazing Princess, and this took a while. After that, we all just 'soul-linked' with our Twins, and the quiet weeping just continued. I had been putting off doing this with my Twin, but I realized now that he and Equestria Girls Summer were doing very well together, so we Soul-linked too. We could all relax now. We were all home, safe...