As I ran back towards Ponyville, my heart and mind were racing furiously with my legs; all three competitors neck and neck with each other. I knew not what I would do when I got there. What I did know was that I couldn’t sit by idly on the sidelines while innocents got harmed.
Reaching the center of town and pausing to brush my wild windblown ebony hair from my eyes, I saw the terrified ponies, the legion of golems, and, for the first time, the hag. Cloaked in a tattered black robe, her appearance was striking in a terrifying manner.
Her naked, bulbous head was like that of a vulture complete with hooked beak and bulging, jet-black eyes, spikes protruded from her head in an intimidating crest, her hands had an almost scaly, reptilian appearance with sinister, curved talons at the ends, six spidery legs were visible where the cloak ended, and, perhaps even more disturbing, she had a magical shaman-esque staff that was topped off with the skull of a pony.
I stepped forward as she noticed me, my eyes locked on her in a defiant stare. The two of us stood there in silence for almost a full minute as the snow continued to fall. Finally, she burst out laughing in a raspy manner.
“Really?” she mocked. “This pathetic waste is supposed to be the ‘Messiah to the ponies’? Please. This has got to be the biggest joke I’ve heard in over a millennium.”
“You’re one to talk,” I spat back. “You who cowered away while letting your golems do your dirty work. Not to mention the fact that you didn’t come after these ponies until after my absence. What’s the matter? You chicken?”
This clearly struck a nerve with her as she stopped laughing and stared angrily at me. Maybe it was the fact that she had a birdlike face that my taunt had hit her personally.
“No one calls me chicken and lives to tell about it,” she sneered.
“I think I just might be the first,” I replied snarkily, turning to the other ponies. “Hey Everypony. I just called this baldy here a chicken.”
At this, every single pony gathered there burst out laughing at her.
“See?” I smiled back wickedly.
She was clearly getting upset by the laughing directed at her. Finally, she slammed the bottom of her staff against the ground in a thunderous boom that silenced every pony there. After this, she smiled back at me just as wickedly which made me feel uneasy.
“We’ll see who has the last laugh,” she remarked, “for I challenge you to a magic duel. Winner take all.”
This caused me to pause for a moment. She had been practicing magic for over 1,000 years while I had only been practicing magic for a few days. Still, at the same time, I was a fast learner and had mastered a decent number of spells fairly quickly. What it came down to in the end was that chances were I wouldn’t win, but I didn’t have any other choice and I had to at least try for the good of Equestria. Looking at the hag, my smile slowly crept back to my face.
“I accept the challenge,” I stated, my voice full of confidence and authority.
At that moment, time itself seemed to have been frozen as I felt the eyes of every pony focused on me and the hag, anxiously waiting for who would make the first move. I prepared myself for battle by taking up a fighting stance as the hag did likewise. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the duel began.
The hag made the first move by sending a wave of rock spikes in my direction, which I quickly dodged with a cartwheel. Next, I shot electricity at her from my fingers, which she stopped with her free hand before directing it upwards, creating a stunning lightning flash in the sky against the snowfall. She then froze the falling snow into ice spikes that she directed towards me, only for me to erect a wall of fire in front of me that melted all of them. With a karate kick, I sent a rather large fireball towards her from the wall, which she deflected into the air before it came down towards me. Without a second to waste before impact, I teleported out of the way just in time as the scorching sphere singed where I had just been standing.
Turning towards the hag to fire another attack, I froze when I realized that she had used her return attack to distract me while she grabbed Fluttershy and used her as a human... well… pony shield. Fluttershy was trembling as the hag held her staff in front of her captive’s face, the eyes and mouth of the pony skull now glowing blood red.
“Let her go, Crystal,” I demanded, angrily. “This is between you and me.”
“Sorry, but I don’t answer to my slave name anymore,” she remarked sinisterly. “Make one wrong move and she dies.”
“You wouldn’t,” I venomously spat.
“YOU DON’T THINK I WILL?” she shouted, causing Fluttershy to tremble even more. “Would you be willing to bet her life on that?”
I stared at the hag with defiant fire in my eyes. But then I looked at the terrified expression on Fluttershy’s face and I thought of Savannah. What if it was her that the hag was threatening to kill? I could never live with myself if I knew that I had caused the death of an innocent by gambling their life away. My fury then softened into concern as I finally spoke.
“O.K. fine,” I spoke defeated. “You win. Just please… don’t hurt her.”
The hag chuckled wickedly as she let Fluttershy go.
“I knew you didn’t have the balls to do it,” she mocked. “You care too much for her because she reminds you of your little girlfriend, what’s her name again? Oh right. Savannah Grace.”
I was visibly shocked by how she knew her name.
“Yes. I know her name,” she continued. “There are many things I know about you, but the biggest thing I know is that you care too much for others. One thing that I’ve learned over all these years is that sympathy and compassion are just synonymous for weakness.”
“You dare speak of weakness when you hide like a wuss behind your powers? That’s your weakness.”
“Powers? A weakness?” she chuckled. “My powers have gotten me to where I am today and now I will use them to drain the souls of every pony here, increasing my power so I can rebuild this pathetic world in my own image.”
“Why?” I demanded. “Why would you destroy countless lives like this?”
“These ponies are an inferior race that is beneath me. They’re a waste of life whose only purpose is to be subjugated by more evolved and exceptional life forms. You and I, we’re both more evolved and exceptional than these lowlifes. We’re humans that can do things they never could.”
“I’ve never believed in evolution. You and I are nothin’ alike and what you are is no longer human. You are nothing but a cold, heartless bitch and I’ll never have any part in this.”
“Fine, but there’s nothing you can do to stop me from sapping the life from every last miserable pony here.”
She was wrong. There was something I could do. It wouldn’t be easy, but I’d learned long ago that heroes have to make the tough choices sometimes.
“Take mine instead.”
Every pony there let out a gasp.
“What?” the hag asked dumbfounded.
“My soul in place of the souls of all the other ponies. They get to go free and you have to promise to never lay a hand on any of them again.”
“And why the hell would I agree to that?”
“Because I’m the savior. Imagine what it would be like to say that you defeated Equestria’s last hope. The soul of the Messiah would be the ultimate trophy for you,” I stated, trying to appeal to her inflated sense of ego. “And conclusively I can’t allow you to harm any more innocents. I’ve seen their suffering and I can’t tolerate it any longer.”
“David, no. You can’t do this,” Fluttershy pleaded.
“I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but I know what has to be done.”
“How do you know I won’t just kill them all off after you’re dead?” the hag stated.
“I don’t,” I admitted, “but if there’s a chance that my sacrifice can prevent the harm and death of others, then it’s a chance I’m willin to take. So do we have ourselves a deal?”
The hag hesitated for a few seconds before speaking.
“Fine, whatever,” she agreed, seemingly uninterested.
As she raised her staff towards me, I stopped her.
“Wait.”
“What?” she asked impatiently.
“Just… let me have one more minute with them,” I begged. “Please. I… I need to get my affairs in order. That’s all I ask.”
I hoped that this request would appeal to what little humanity this hag might have left. I looked at her eyes, hoping to see some glimmer of goodness in them.
“One minute and that’s it.”
I then went over to Flutters, Rainbow, Pinkie, AJ, and Rare. They all had solemn looks on their faces.
“Ya don’t hafta do this ya know,” AJ finally spoke. “There’s always another way.”
“Ah’ve thought it over ‘n there’s no other way,” I replied. “Too many innocents have suffered ‘n Ah can’t permit it ta go on.”
“But what about Savannah?” Fluttershy asked on the point of tears.
“Indeed,” Rarity began. “The poor darling will be heartbroken.”
“That’s why Ah need you five ta do somethin’ fer me.”
“Anything. Name it,” Rainbow replied.
“If y’all ever find a way ta my world, tell… tell Savannah that Ah died a hero.”
“But how will we do that,” Pinkie asked, her mane and tail deflated, her pony ears folded back sadly, and her eyes watering up, “and how will we know what she looks like?”
“Ah have a picture of her in ma wallet,” I explained, opening my wallet to pull out a picture of a blonde with eyes just as blue as Fluttershy’s and holding it in front of them, “ya can use it as a reference. As fer how y’all’ll get there, Ah don’t know, but if it’s possible fer a human like me ta travel ta Equestria then it should be possible fer a pony ta travel ta Earth. Ah jus need y’all ta promise me that you’ll do this as ma last request.”
“We promise,” Fluttershy spoke before bursting into tears and hugging me.
"Hey," I whispered, "it's gonna be alright."
The other four came and joined the hug as tears ran down our faces. This moment pained me to no end.
“I really hate to break up this ‘soo heartwarming I could puke’ moment, but time’s up,” the hag spat, annoyed.
I then pulled out of the hug and looked at the five of them one last time.
“Be strong fer me,” I told them. “Don’t mourn me when Ah’m gone.”
As they all nodded sadly, I stepped out in front of the hag, ready to accept my fate. She held up her staff as the eyes and mouth of the pony skull glowed crimson. The last thing I remembered was a bright blood red flash, searing pain as if I was being ripped apart, and the sound of my soul screaming out along with the shrieking of hundreds of terrified and shocked ponies then silence.
* * * * * * * *
After I don’t even know how long, my eyes fluttered open as I looked around me. What I saw was surprising. Taking in my surroundings, I saw nothing but millions of stars in what could’ve only been space except painted in a mixture of vibrant reds, blues, violets, and pinks. Standing up was a weird experience because not only was my ethereal backdrop everywhere I turned but it was also up above and down beneath me. It felt like I was standing on nothingness. There was also a strong feeling of loneliness.
"Hello?" I called out nervously. "Is anypony here?"
As if answering my question, a mysterious figure came towards me. I couldn’t make out who it was at first, but, when it came close enough, I could make out that it was a bearded unicorn wearing a cloak and dunce cap. After a few seconds I realized who it was. Princess Twilight had dressed up as him on Nightmare Night in a past episode.
“Yer… yer Star Swirl tha Bearded,” I finally spoke.
“Indeed I am,” he replied rather simply.
“Wh-what’re you doin here?”
“It’s a long story. One which you are connected to.”
As I wondered what he meant, I thought back to the prophecy that I had read and the two letters that it was signed with. S.S.
“You were S.S. Tha one who predicted that Ah’d be tha savior of Equestria.”
“Correct again.”
“But why was Ah chosen? Ah’m jus yer average everyday... nobody. Ah’m honestly no one special.”
“Oh you’re far from a nobody and you are undeniably special. Why do you think you were able to develop that special connection, that special bond with all those ponies?”
“Ah dunno. Jus some… freak accident Ah assumed.”
Star Swirl smiled at me before replying.
“There are no accidents. Everything has a purpose and reason for being and happening just as an Equestrian descendant would eventually find his way back home.”
At first, I was under the impression that that blast the hag fired at me must’ve hit me harder than I thought because there was no way that he had just said what I thought he said. I just stood there with a shocked and incredulous expression on my face. Finally, after about half a minute, I spoke.
“Come again?” was all I could utter.
“You might want to sit down while I tell you that story.”
Taking his advice, I seated myself Indian style in front of him.
“Now during the earliest days of Equestria, there were three princesses-”
“No there weren’t,” I cut in. “There were only two: Celestia ‘n Luna.”
“Celestia and Luna are the only two still around today after a millennium,” he continued as if I had never spoken “but there was a third Alicorn princess named Destiny, the youngest of the three. She was my one true love. I had feelings for her like I had never had for any mare before and she reciprocated those affections. We swore to each other that we’d be together one day.”
“So what happened?”
“One day, I was working on creating a particularly difficult spell, one that would make trans-dimensional travel possible. Destiny was by my side for support as I struggled to perfect it in the middle of an open field. I almost had it completed when a severe storm rolled in. Destiny said that we should head back, but I insisted on giving it one more try, positive that I would get it right that time around. So I recited the spell that I had so far as the magic began to glow from my horn.
“Suddenly, a streak of lightning struck my horn, causing the already unstable magic to branch out and strike whatever was nearby. In this case, it struck Destiny. One thing I know I’ll never forget, no matter how much time passes, is her scream of pain and horror as she was swallowed up by a glowing vortex.”
“Ya mean… she… died?”
“No. She was transported to your world. Of course, back then she wound up in the very early years of the time period humans call ‘A.D.’ as a human herself.”
“How do ya know this?”
“I used an enchanted mirror to show her to me. I looked into it and saw that she had moved on without me. Found a husband, got married, had kids, probably because she never thought she’d see me again."
As he spoke those words, Savannah came to mind. I just couldn't help but think of how she would suffer the same fate that this Princess Destiny had. Star Swirl's voice snapped me back to reality.
"Despite this, I was still determined to get to her as I had important news to tell her. I labored on that trans-dimensional travel spell for many sleepless nights until I believed it was finally ready. When I used the spell though, I wound up here. My magic is ineffective in this realm, therefore I’m unable to escape. Years turned into decades, decades turned into centuries, and centuries turned into millennia. I eventually grew to accept my fate that I would never see her again, never tell her I loved her again, never tell her the news I meant to.”
“’N… what news was that?” I asked, curiously, stretching out the ‘n.
“The prophecy that one day, a couple millennia into the future in this case, one of her descendants would become the savior of Equestria.”
At this point, I was really glad that I was sitting because, had I been standing, I have the feeling my legs would’ve gave out from under me. Still, the shock of this revelation was no less diminished by the fact that I was in a seated position.
“Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Wait a fuck!” I blurted out. “So… yer sayin’ that… not only am Ah a descendant of a pony, but also… that Ah’m a descendant… of royalty?”
“Precisely. You are an Alicorn prince by blood.”
All of this news was a lot for me to swallow at once, leaving me speechless. Thankfully, I didn’t need to say anything as Star Swirl continued on.
“That is the reason why you had such a powerful link to the ponies you encountered. Yes, you may be human, but deep down inside, you’ve always been one of us. Your caring human nature combined with your pony ancestry made this special bond with your kind possible, a magic that has never existed in Equestrian history. I may not have been able to see my love, Destiny, again, but I still consider it a great honor to be able to meet one of her descendants all these years later: the savior of Equestria no less.”
A disappointed look crossed my face.
“Well Ah didn’t really save Equestria,” I stated sadly. “All Ah did was give up ma soul so that they could keep theirs ’n, even then, Ah have no idea if that hag will even keep her end of tha deal.”
“So why did you sacrifice your soul?”
“Because… Ah couldn’t jus’ let her continue ta make them suffer. Ah looked at them 'n Ah saw pained lost souls with no guidance. Enough was enough. Ah decided that it had ta end ’n Ah thought ta maself… if there’s a chance, no matter how small, fer me ta save all these innocents, make their sufferin stop,… Ah had ta take it.”
“Because you care for them.”
“Well… yeah.”
Star Swirl looked off into the distance as if lost in thought before speaking.
“I learned many forms of magic during my time in Equestria, but you contain a magic that I’ve never seen before: the magic that only comes through self-sacrifice. Anyone who would sacrifice their soul out of love for others has the power to make an impact in the world. Besides, your journey might not be over yet.”
Before I could ask him what he meant, I heard a terrified scream off in the distance. I couldn’t be sure in what direction it was coming from as it seemed to emanate from all around me, above and beneath, but what I could tell was who it came from: Fluttershy. As I listened closely, I could hear her panicked voice speaking desperately and fearfully, almost to the point of tears.
“No,” her voice trembled, “please… don’t do this. You promised you wouldn’t.”
"I promised?" a voice that could only be the hag scoffed. "Promises mean nothing to me."
At those words, my heart was filled, not only with concern for Flutters, but also anger towards the hag. Not only had she not kept her promise, but now she was about to condemn the most kind-hearted pony in all of Equestria to the same fate as me. I’m not going to say that some ponies deserve this fate less than other ponies, but knowing that this was about to happen to Fluttershy made me livid. Overflowing with righteous fury, nothing else mattered as my surroundings, and Star Swirl along with them, began to fade away into blinding blue light. One way or another, that hag was gonna pay.
* * * * * * * *
The ponies watched in horror as the dark, crimson energy of the hag’s staff shot out, latching itself onto my eyes and mouth. They shrieked as my entire body broke out in convulsions and my cries of pain rang loudly in their ears. After several seconds of this, the scarlet beams returned from whence they came as my corpse dropped to the ground, smoke pouring out of my gaping mouth. The many colts and fillies that were gathered there sought comfort from their parents at this traumatizing sight.
However, no pony was more traumatized than Fluttershy. She approached where I lay, tears streaming down her face. Holding my lifeless body in her fore hooves, she wept bitterly. In her mind, the savior was dead, the first one to give her hope through tragedy. She had even come to secretly love me during my first night in Ponyville, but when she found out that my heart belonged to another back home, she was willing to let go of her feelings for me and view me only as a close friend and protector, one who would always be there for them no matter how dark things got.
But, now, I was gone. What would happen to all of them now that there was no savior to stand up for them? Would this hag even keep her promise to leave them alone? And, perhaps even more importantly, what about Savannah? How would Fluttershy and the others be able to face her and tell her that she was never going to see me again? I had never even gotten the chance to say goodbye to her before I died. All these thoughts filled her with even greater sorrow.
And yet, at the same time, an even stronger emotion was welling up in her core: anger. No, not anger. Hatred. Scorching, focused hatred. Hatred towards this hag who clearly had no heart, no emotion, no compassion towards others. Hatred towards the evil that had corrupted her. Hatred towards her cruelty that would lead her to murder innocents without a second thought. Looking towards the hag with eyes of flame, she strode in her direction with vehemence.
“How dare you,” Fluttershy spat out venomously. “Who do you think you are? You think that just because you’re really powerful that makes you better than everypony else? Who gave you the right to decide who lives and who dies? None of us have done a single thing to wrong you; he”-pointing at my corpse-“didn’t do anything to wrong you. All he did was protect us and yes he was also powerful, but he never viewed himself as being above any of us. He cared for every last one of us, something you could never understand; you who care only for yourself. Do you even feel any remorse for murdering him? I never thought I would say this, but he was right when he said you’re nothing but a cold, heartless BITCH!”
Everypony gasped. They had seen Fluttershy lose it before, but this was on a completely different level. This was beyond fury. However, despite her profane outburst, they all knew in their hearts, equally filled with fury towards the hag, that Fluttershy spoke nothing but truth and that this monster deserved every last word.
“SILENCE!” the hag screamed as she swung the pony skull of her staff at Fluttershy, hitting her in the head with such force that she let out a cry of pain and crumpled at the hag’s feet.
A wave of horror fell over all gathered there. If this hag was resorting to violence even after promising not to harm any of them, they knew that what happened next wouldn’t bode well for anypony. The murderous look in the hag’s eyes only confirmed their fears.
“You dare speak to me with such disrespect?” the hag continued furiously as she strode among the terrified ponies. “You have no place or right to speak with such venom towards me; you are beneath me, EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU! Because this one dares to defy me, she will be made an example of, a reminder of the penalty for insolence.”
As she spoke, a few golems walked over to Fluttershy and grabbed her, securing her limbs in their grip while the hag pointed the pony skull towards her. As the eyes and mouth of the skull began to glow their familiar bloody hue, Fluttershy let out a terrified scream and started struggling against her captors with a look of terror on her face.
“No,” Fluttershy’s voice trembled as tears began to stream down, “please… don’t do this. You promised you wouldn’t.”
“I promised?” the hag scoffed. “Promises mean nothing to me.”
As she raised her staff towards Fluttershy with a frightening gaze of cold murder in her eyes, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo bolted over, standing between Fluttershy and the hag with stern, defiant looks on their faces.
“What is the meaning of this?" the hag lashed out. "Stand aside you impudent little shits.”
“No,” Scootaloo answered flatly.
“What did you say?”
“Are you deaf?” Rainbow Dash replied, annoyed and angry. “She said, ‘No.’ We refuse to let you prey on the innocent like this. David may be dead, but what he stood for still remains: The will to stand up for the helpless and defend the weak from monsters like you. This is what he believed in and so do the two of us.”
Pinkie then walked up next to them, mane straight and the same cold look on her face.
“Me too,” she stated.
She was followed by Applejack and Apple Bloom. Double the ponies, double the glares.
“Us too,” they replied in unison.
Rounding them off were Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Spike, taking their place between Fluttershy and the hag with their friends.
“So do we,” Spike affirmed.
In that moment, the eight of them stood there in rebellion against the hag, hoof in hoof (or claw in the case of Spike), united in their mutual stand for the ideal that I had represented.
“Fine,” the hag stated with a nefarious grin on her face. “All of you will share in his fate.”
The eyes and mouth of the hag’s staff began to glow crimson as they all accepted their fate. But, suddenly, the skull itself glowed. First red, then white hot before it exploded, startling everypony and the hag. From where the skull had been, a glowing sapphire orb rose and floated over to my lifeless corpse before it shot its light up into the sky and down into my chest. This column of cerulean radiance expanded in diameter until my body was completely enveloped in its luminosity.
Everypony watched in Awe and confusion as my form began to levitate two stories into the air, straightening itself upright. Then, a transformation occurred that left all of them and the hag shocked upon witnessing. From atop my head, two blue pony ears sprouted, replacing my human ones, and two majestic blue wings emerged from my back, much like those of an eagle… or even an Alicorn. After this, my long closed eyes shot open, glowing as pale white as two full moons. My mouth opened as I spoke in a loud, thundering voice to the hag.
“You think that your power makes you better than everypony? You promised that you would leave them alone if you took my soul in their stead. Now you will pay for your arrogance.”
“Stay back,” the hag shouted fearfully as she fired a blast at me which I deflected effortlessly with a swipe of my hand.
I then dove at the hag and plunged my hand into her chest as if it weren’t even there, much to her pain as she cried out in agony. A glowing rainbow consumed me as I drained the hag’s dark magic from her soul, stripping her of her hideous appearance and leaving her powerless. I looked down on her with fury in my eyes.
“You were soo proud of your power, using it to trample down whoever was in your way, so now you’ll learn what it’s like to live without your precious magic you clung to for soo long. There’s a special place in Tartarus for scum like you who prey on the weak and that is where you will spend an eternity for your cruelty,” I stated with authority as a sinister smile crept across my face. "Say hello to Cerberus and Tirek for me."
No sooner had I spoke the words then a portal opened up beneath the former hag’s feet and spectral claws reached up to drag her down to the depths of Tartarus, screaming fearfully as she went. Soon, the portal closed and a ray of bright light shot out from my chest, consuming the legion of golems that remained before they all shattered into millions of pebbles. With the evil gone from Equestria, the gloom vanished also as the sun slowly rose bright in the sky. As it shone its bright rays down on the land, the snow quickly melted from all around us, almost as if the gloom that had shrouded Ponyville had some kind of effect on the temperature.
Weak and shaken from what had just happened and with my eyes no longer glowing, I collapsed to the ground, putting a hand to my forehead as all the other ponies gathered around me in concern.
“Move back guys. Give him some air,” Rainbow Dash stated.
Every pony backed away aside from Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie. I opened my eyes and looked up at them with a dazed look on my face.
“Wha… what happened?” I asked, groggily. “Ah just had tha strangest dream.”
The five mares just stared at me with looks of shock on their faces.
“What? What is it?”
“You… you have… wings.” Fluttershy stammered.
“What?!”
“And pony ears.” Rarity uttered.
Still in shock, I put my hands to the sides of my head where my human ears should be, but felt nothing. I then moved them slowly up my head until I felt my new pony ears on top. After that, I looked behind me to see my wings sticking out of my back. The look on my face was one of equal parts confusion and shock.
“What happened to you?” Rainbow Dash questioned. “I mean, it definitely makes you look 20% cooler, but still I’m just as curious about this as any other pony.”
Before I could answer, I saw three shapes flying towards where we were. As they got closer, I realized that it was Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Twilight Sparkle. The three of them landed in front of me as I just stood there in Awe. Even though Princess Celestia was exactly the same height as me, I still felt dwarfed in comparison to her.
“Princesses!” I finally spoke, quickly kneeling before them in respect.
When I looked up, the three of them were simply smiling at me.
“Rise,” Princess Celestia finally spoke.
When Princess Celestia tells you to do something, you don’t question it so I naturally returned to my feet.
“If anypony should be kneeling, it should be us before you,” Princess Twilight Sparkle stated.
“Me?” I questioned, pointing to myself.
“Indeed, Prince David,” Princess Luna replied as she and the other two princesses kneeled before me.
The moment that Princess Luna called me “Prince”, there were murmurings among the ponies as to what this meant. Nonetheless, they all followed the princesses’ example and knelt in my presence. I just stood there, hardly believing what was happening in that very moment. After nearly a half a minute, they rose back to their hooves.
“Um… ‘scuse me Princess Luna, but what exactly did ya mean when ya called Dayvid here… ‘Prince’?” Applejack asked, confused.
“Exactly that,” Princess Luna replied. “He is a prince of Equestria.”
“But… how?” Fluttershy questioned.
“Well, it is quite simple,” Princess Celestia started. “You see-”
“There was another Alicorn Princess from a really long time ago who was accidentally transported to another world where she had many descendants over another really long time up until the present day when Davey who was a descendant of hers came here to Equestria to fulfill the prophecy made by the Alicorn Princess’ special somepony Star Swirl The Bearded all those years ago.” Pinkie stated all in one breath before delivering the biggest cartoony grin.
I just stared at her with a gaping mouth as did every other pony, save Princesses Celestia and Luna. I wasn’t soo much shocked at how Pinkie knew that (few things really surprise me with her anymore) as I was shocked that she had just cut off Princess Celestia midsentence like that.
“Um… is she allowed ta do that?” I asked the princess of the Sun.
She simply smiled back at me before replying.
“I’ve gotten used to it,” she answered.
“Hold on a sec,” Applejack started. “Ya mean ta tell us that yer a descendant of pony royalty?”
I was silent for a few seconds before answering.
“Mmhmm,” I replied meekly while nodding.
“That… is… AWESOME!!!!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“I told you you were a descendant of an Alicorn,” Sweetie Belle stated as she approached me.
“Yes ya certainly did,” I admitted with a smile as I patted her on the head.
“All of us are just soo happy that you’re O.K.,” Rarity chimed in.
“Definitely,” Fluttershy agreed.
“Ah appreciate that you guys,” I replied before turning to Princess Celestia. “Umm… Princess?”
“You don’t have to call me ‘Princess’ anymore,” she answered with a smile.
“Oops. Sorry.”
“No need to apologize.”
“Sorry,” I stated with a nervous smile. “Anyways… there’s somethin Ah need ta ask ya.”
“You want to know if there’s a way for you to return to your world,” she stated as if she had read my mind.
I nodded to her before speaking.
“Ah’ve thoroughly enjoyed gettin’ ta meet all of ya, but Ah’ve got a life ‘n a girl waitin fer me back home. Ah can’t jus abandon them.”
“Nor would we expect you to,” Celestia replied. “As for you getting back home, there is a way. The door that you first came through can be opened one final time, but once you pass back through it, it will close forever.”
“Ya mean… Ah’ll never be able ta come back here… ever?” I asked as my pony ears folded back sadly.
“I’m sorry. I honestly wish there was another way.”
I turned to look at the friends that I had made over those past few days. All of them would be gone forever the second I crossed that threshold back to my world. Equestria had become like a second home to me as it was the land of my ancestry. I was just as much a part of this world as I was a part of Earth. It pained me knowing that I was now being forced to choose between two halves of myself. Another truth that I had learned was that, oftentimes, the hard thing to do and the right thing to do are exactly the same. Leaving Equestria forever would be far from easy, but it was the way things had to be. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, I turned back to Celestia.
“Can… can Ah at least stay one more night before Ah go back?” I finally spoke.
Celestia nodded.
“You can stay at the castle for the night until you’re ready to go back tomorrow,” Twilight strode over to my side, reaching a hoof up to my hand. “It’s the least I could do to show gratitude for all you’ve done.”
“Thanks,” I replied, forcing a smile and taking her hoof.
Rainbow was quick to notice my smile was fake.
"Hey c'mon buddy," she started. "I know what'll make you feel better. How about a little flight over Ponyville on those new wings of yours?"
"Umm... Dash? Ah don't really know how ta fly."
"Who cares if you don't know how to? I can teach you. You've got the greatest flier in all of Equestria to guide you. Besides this is a once in a lifetime opportunity that might never happen again. Once you head back, that moment will be gone. So whataya say? You gonna take a leap of faith and fly or are you just gonna let this chance slip past you?"
She was right. I'd never be able to come back to Equestria again nor would I ever get the chance to fly like this in my world. So it was in that moment when I planned to take advantage of what little time I had there to enjoy life. Live without regrets.
"Alright then," I answered. "Start yer teachin."