When I arrived in Equestria, through the Portal, the first thing I saw... My seven amazing Equestria Girls friends, as ponies, JUST like I remembered them...
"Ladies, you all look amazing!" I said with a smile.
Rarity replied "Twilight, dear, you do to!"
It was quiet for a minute, then I said quietly, to all of us really, "Girls... Amazing friends... Welcome home..."
It was quiet for another minute, then I sighed.
I was quickly crying... And it didn't hurt...
I laid down on my belly right where I was, and cried buckets... So much pain I carried...
I could cry that all out now. I did.
And I wasn't the only one; the rest quickly joined me there on the floor, and together, we cried out years of pain and anguish... The Equestria Girls world was a tough place to live anyway, but I guess we had all been pretty much shattered there, even Pinkie Pie...
I am sure we cried together for a few hours, anyway.
...
Well, it slowly got very dark where we were. While we were crying, we didn't care.
But after a few hours, it seemed like, together, we all calmed down.
I said quietly "I hope that's the last of the Equestia Girls world for me, thank you. I don't ever want to go back." Then I laughed. And it didn't hurt...
There was barely enough light, but I could tell Filia was on her belly right next to me, and I immediately hugged her tightly. And Fiona was right next to Rarity.
Still, I assumed a more serious tone and felt I had to say this again.
"Girls, I think this might be a last chance. When we walk away from the Portal, we will probably be stu--"
Fluttershy quietly interrupted "Uhm, Twilight, I doubt I can, well, could have even made rent..."
Rainbow re-settled her wings under her thick coat, smiled, then said quietly "Twilight, I am home now. I know Equestria is probably a mess, but this is where I belong. I don't ever want to leave here... ever..."
"Twilight, I thought I would never see you again... And when my sister..." Filia could only get this far. I hugged her as she tried to calm down.
I sighed, then shook my head. "Maybe we should have come here decades ago..." I said this to nopony in particular, but I think my friends all felt the same way.
It was quiet a few minutes.
"Girls, lets try to get some sleep. Tomorrow morning, we will find out where we are, and decide what to do" I said.
Pinkie Pie said quietly "Well, if I even can sleep... Oh, wait..."
Pinkie laughed... We all laughed... Well, tears also came for me too, maybe for others... This was... just... amazing...
We were all soon asleep.
I woke up the next morning to the sound of quiet weeping. Still, I realized that I had slept amazing, all night. It had been a LONG time since...
Filia was still next to me, crying quietly. "Twilight, I really missed you..."
I hugged her tightly for a few minutes, smiled, and said softly "I don't think you need to worry about that any more."
Filia smiled back. Seeing that smile again... That was amazing...
Filia asked quietly if we still had our magic.
I thought a minute, and said quietly "I... Probably. Try a simple light spell, and see."
That still worked, and this brought tears of joy to my charge. Well really she is a treasured friend, well she was anyway.
...
"Twilight, I never heard much about this Summer's Dream. I don't understand why that's important..." Filia asked quietly.
Well, as long as I had Filia with me, I always told her to never be afraid to ask me questions. I guess that still worked too. And honestly, I missed that a lot. I thought a minute, then tried to explain as concisely as possible.
"Soon after the pony Summer Rain joined Princess Twilight's group, she had an amazingly vivid dream about the future, and wrote it down."
Honestly, I winced as I said this. All of a sudden, I wanted MY Twin, Princess Twilight. Well, I wanted ALL of our Twins, because these pony friends all around me most certainly wanted their Twins too.
Still, I worked on continuing.
"The very first chapter of her dream basically described the approximately 1 hour period last night, when, after all these years, us Equestria Girls amazingly found each other, and came back through the Portal into Equestria..."
It was hard to talk, but I tried to finish.
"Last night didn't go exactly like her dream, but that really didn't matter. What Summer wrote, 37 years ago, largely played out last night. And because of that, after decades of pain and anguish, we are all here now, back 'home' in Equestria. We won't age, all our physical problems are gone. We can start over..."
I couldn't talk any more, and Filia and I cried softly together.
Well, evidently, everypony else was awake and heard all this, and we weren't the only ones crying softly.
After a little while, Rarity asked quietly "Twilight, from the dream, what is our next step?"
I answered calmly "I don't know if what we need to do will align with Summer's Dream in every detail. But in the dream, we headed to Ponyville, and that makes the most sense now too."
I thought a minute, then had to add this as a warning. I had just remembered...
"And girls... If you don't remember from the dream, the big problem was a large, flying, magical Black Bear that ate ponies for food. We will really need to be careful. And I think that we need to avoid saying, well, good words, until we are back around Summer, or until we know more."
I knew right away that this confused Filia, but I realized this was utterly important. If this big Bear WAS the problem here, we didn't want to call him to us by what we said.
Filia asked "Twilight, what..."
I quickly but gently put one of my front hooves over her mouth, then tried to explain again. "Girls, let's be very careful. By good words, I mean any words that deal with positive values. Until Summer is near, we can't say any words like that."
I was pretty sure that phrase would communicate the meaning I intended. It would make no sense to our pony friends, but the Equestria Girls world we just left, they didn't like words like that either.
I was sure that thought brought this disgusted look to my face for a minute. I had tried being a good teacher without stressing positive values. It didn't work. Without any sort of moral compass, kids increasingly acted like... It was the law of the jungle on the playground, and bullies ran the show at school. And it had been this way for decades...
Well, that place wasn't my concern, not any more.
Still, I added quietly "Filia, Fiona or really anypony else, I think if you whisper the word in my ear once, we will probably be ok, and I can let you know... But girls just remember, saying such words is how our Princess called..."
I couldn't continue, and shouldn't have even mentioned this. That spectre was just too much for me right now. I choked back those tears.
I guess I also hoped we would find Summer soon. That would make our time here much safer. But I really didn't know. I really didn't know if that Bear even was a problem. And I really didn't know if Summer would even be here. Summer had an amazing dream, but this was no dream.
Still, Summer's Dream, from decades ago, had miraculously opened this door for us last night, and we went through it.
We would need to play the rest by ear. We just had to be careful.
It seemed like it was Winter here; it was pretty cold during the night. Thanks to Rarity's foresight, we all kept warm though.
From the soft glow in this room, I guessed we were in the Crystal Palace. This didn't make sense, the Portal was in Princess' Castle last I remembered. This thought surfaced bad memories that I also had to shove away.
And this room wasn't what used to be the Portal Room here, either. It was much too small, almost like a closet or storage room, and had a single doorway for access.
"Ok girls..." I started quietly. "We are in a small room, in the Crystal Palace. We need to find our way out the bottom of the Palace, head for the train station, turn right, and follow the tracks to Ponyville. I think it is a days walk, so we will probably need to find a place to sleep in the middle of our trip.
Rainbow excitedly said "Lets go!", and we all got up.
Heading out the first door put us in a hall, and there was a stairs leading up, very close. From the sounds we heard though, the top floors were gone; we heard birds, wind and stuff. Well, we all walked up the stairs.
The top of the Crystal Palace really was sheared off, just like Summer's Dream...
We went back down the stairs though.
"Ok girls, let's head around in this hall, and take every stairs down we can find. We need to get to the bottom floor, then outside" I said softly.
We were soon on our way.
Rainbow was clearly excited, and led us on. I had to ask her more than once to slow down and wait for the rest of us though. Each time I did this, I reminded everypony that we absolutely HAD to stay together.
We did finally make it down to the ground floor, and out the big doors.
I asked Pinkie, and we were soon heading towards the Crystal Empire train station.
And we had seen no other ponies up to this point.
Maybe thirty minutes later, we arrived at the station. The building had collapsed years ago, but the platform was still there. No sign of trains though.
There was a lake behind the station, and we all got a drink, and ate whatever we could find that looked like pony food. I had forgotten about all this.
I found some Oats. Then I remembered... I really like Oats...
We turned right and headed to Ponyville, walking next to and along the tracks.
Honestly, I was just glad to be here.
For a while, we walked together, mostly in silence. Filia asked a few more questions, and I answered them the best I could. Well, I really enjoyed that. I just didn't like the prospect of a big Black Bear coming and eating us because he didn't like the way I said something.
After maybe an hour of walking, I had to call Rainbow back to the group, and I mentioned again how important it was that we all stay together. I frowned again... Having to stick together for safety; that was becoming more and more of a problem in the world I just left...
I had to call Rainbow back again, maybe half an hour later.
This happened a few more times. Rainbow didn't appreciate this, and said quietly "We could fly this in an hour... Right, Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy answered slowly and softly "Gosh, I love all of you amazing ponies."
I just sighed.
I had to call Rainbow back again, and I just patiently said the same thing, reminding her how important it was that we stay together.
This time, Rarity said sweetly "I think it is pretty rude to make somepony say that over and over..."
Rainbow quickly replied "Rarity...", and promptly walked ahead maybe 50 feet, and then matched our pace.
Rarity sighed, then said calmly "Twilight, I think I'll bring up the rear, to avoid the riff-raff. Fluttershy, dear, care to join me?"
Fluttershy answered slowly and softly "Gosh, I love all of you amazing ponies."
Still, Rarity did exactly what she said. She stopped until we were 50 feet ahead of her, then she started walking, matching our pace.
Applejack said something that sounded like "Humph", and galloped up to Rainbow and walked with her.
I just sighed again, and asked Filia and Fiona to stay next to me. Fluttershy was on my other side, and Pinkie Pie was too. I think both knew we had a problem. Unfortunately, this felt all too familiar...
Over the next two hours, I had to ask Rainbow and Applejack to slow down a few times, and Rarity usually added some comment from behind too.
"No wonder..." I thought to myself...
...
Late-afternoon, I heard a loud growl, followed by Rarity screaming.
A Cougar was gaining on Rarity fast as she ran. Somehow, I quickly remembered from Follow the Equestrium, that Cougars were natural predators of the pony race, until the ponies drove them all out. I guess they were back now...
"Ponies, come to me, he wont attack us all at once" I shouted.
Most ran every which way.
The Cougar ran after one pony for a little while, then chased another. He was trying to find the slowest one, which ended up being Rarity, not that the rest of us were speed demons or anything.
Still, by then I was running up close behind the Cougar, and I managed to get a fire spell off on the middle of the Cougar's back, as he was chasing Rarity.
No fire happened; it had been a long time, and I wasn't that good anyway. But it must have burned, and that infuriated the Cougar, and I was instantly his dinner choice, I guess. He was quickly after me.
I just ran along the tracks towards Ponyville as fast as I could run... I knew I couldn't outrun the Cougar. And I realized he was just pacing me, letting me wear myself down. He was right; I couldn't run this fast much longer...
...I didn't need to; the train tracks went into a tunnel up ahead, and I ran straight in, hoping to think of something maybe. Well, the tunnel was blocked off with rocks, not very far in. I had to stop, and I quickly turned around and stood there.
The Cougar was walking slowly towards me, growling...
I was trapped, and he was hungry.
"I survived the GOB to get eaten by a Cougar" I said this out loud...
I was about to say "Whatever..." That is how I felt right then.
I heard "TWILIGHTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!" as Rainbow flew quickly into the tunnel. She landed right next to me and faced the Cougar with me. She left her huge wings out, too.
Rainbow quickly said "Go ahead pal, you can only eat one of us, and the other won't be very happy..."
There were two of us together now.
The Cougar stopped, but was still growling loudly.
The rest ran quickly up from behind, yelling my name, over and over. They kept their distance, but honestly, I was just glad my friends were near... I needed them... I really needed them...
Filia and Fiona didn't wait very long.
They both cast a fire spell, together, at the Cougar's back.
And the minute both their tiny beams joined, the size of the beam was much larger.
A bonfire quickly erupted from the back of this Cougar. He screamed and ran quickly past everypony, out of the tunnel, as fast as he could. He didn't realize that the wind from him running was only feeding the flames that were burning away at his body. He was quickly out of sight.
...
I fell to the ground and just cried. Filia, Fiona, Fluttershy and Pinkie quickly joined me followed by the rest. We all just cried together for a while...
At one point, Rainbow tried to apologize.
I did my best to stop crying, and I quietly addressed everypony. Through tears, I ended up saying this...
"Oh girls...
"You precious ladies were the most amazing friends I ever had...
"There was a reason everything fell apart... Something changed... We changed...
"I mean, it was hard to even be around Fluttershy, of all people, back then...
"...What happened? ...What happened to me? ...What happened to us?"
I got this much out, then started crying again, and cried for a while. But I think everypony else did too.
When I could, I tried again...
"Girls... I want our friendship to be magic again. We need to find out what went wrong decades ago, and we need to fix that... But we can't do that until we find Summer. We need her near to keep us safe..."
It was pretty quiet for a few minutes. I think we were all trying to calm down. Then I said quietly.
"Girls, I want you, my precious friends back. But we need to survive being around each other until we can address that... Can we agree together to do that?"
Almost in unison, everypony else said quietly "Yes..."
We wept softly together there for a while more...
...
Well, it was dark anyway, so we decided to spend the night in that tunnel.
Filia and Fiona together started one of the wood things under the train track on fire, and it burned nicely all night. Rainbow flew quickly out, got her coat, then walked back, and she and Applejack took turns staying awake and keeping an eye out.
The rest of us slept well, I think.
The next morning was not near as cold, and we were up early. We really didn't need our coats, but wearing them was easier than any other option.
I think we all wanted to get to Ponyville. More than any other place in Equestria, that was our home. And it didn't matter how good or bad a shape we would find Ponyville in. Starting over, whatever that meant for us, would happen there.
We found our way to the other end of the Train tunnel, and followed the tracks again.
I think the Cougar from yesterday had reminded us all that we weren't in the Equestria Girls world any more, even though keeping together was wise there too. We all stayed together today.
Filia stayed at my side, and I hugged her a lot. I was sure that felt amazing to both of us. Well, Rarity and Fiona were back together now, talking a lot, too, and that was good.
...
Sometime during the night, Fluttershy had pulled an ancient relic to the outside of her coat.
It was her Shield Necklace. Princess Twilight had given each of us one of these in Equestria one amazing afternoon buried deep in the past; it wasn't very long after Summer had her dream, I think.
But, Fluttershy still had it. Fluttershy still wore it...
TF
MPOF
I just sighed. True friendship means putting others first... I knew I couldn't say that out loud, though...
And I was glad the other side wasn't showing. It read "Princess Twilight's Special Treasure" or something close. I don't think Princess Twilight would feel that just now. I also desparately wanted that to change.
...
Mid-morning we found a lake, and got some water and ate breakfast. I like Oats. They were hard to find since it was Winter, but still.
Around noon, I looked up at the amazing friends around me and said quietly "Girls, I love you all a lot, I just want you to know that."
I paused in thought some, then added this.
"I think I am as broke as anypony else, but I desparately want you all back. I want us to have each other back. We just need to be patient until we can work on that."
Rainbow started crying... And for Rainbow to cry... "I want that too..."
We stopped and hugged and cried together right there for a while, then we resumed our journey.
By late-afternoon, we could see what was left of Ponyville up ahead...
We tried to watch Ponyville as we got closer. I think we were all interested in seeing what kind of shape Ponyville was in. I didn't have my hopes up. Summer's Dream was just a dream, but it was a ghost town...
Still, I didn't see ANY other ponies. We had not seen a single pony since we came through the Portal. That was a bad sign.
Fairly close to town, we stopped walking abruptly.
These weren't ponies...
There were four big Black felines, mountain lions or something, blocking our path.
They were sitting, calmly, next to each other. They didn't attack us at all like the Cougar did. They just sat there...
But we knew it would be foolish to go on.
Of course, we didn't even try.
Well, I think we were all afraid. One Cougar was terrible for us, but these four huge...
"Girls, try to remain calm..." I guess this was the best I could do...
Nopony moved for a while. I put my head down in throught. "We can't run... How could we get around--"
The next thing I heard...
"She's such a purty girl..." Fluttershy was saying this over and over, as Fluttershy did what she does best -- make new animal friends.
In less than a minute, all four big Black felines were gathered around Fluttershy, purring loudly, as Fluttershy was scratching, petting, talking to four new animal friends. Compared to Fluttershy, the four of them were huge...
The rest of us began to relax. Fluttershy was clearly enjoying herself. And it didn't look like we would be dinner tonight.
The next thing I heard...
It was Fluttershy...
"Oh my goodness... My Twin!"