Aaron woke to the now-familiar sight of the bright orange interior of his tent, the sunlight shining through the thin fabric and into his sleep-filled eyes. It sounded like it was raining outside so he rolled back over in his sleeping bag, feeling in no hurry to go outside.
He figured he deserved a lie-in in any case. It had been a long and peculiar day yesterday, not exactly taxing physically but still draining in its own way. It seemed to have gone particularly well for Celestia; she had clearly needed that little bit of closure, and from what he saw before he went to bed she had probably got some well-deserved rest as well.
Oh right. Celestia.
The rest of his brain woke up. Laughing at his own absent-mindedness, he rolled back over and started trying to fish a respectable outfit out of the tangled mess that was the inside of his rucksack. Celestia was apparently fine with rain but he felt guilty leaving her out on her own in it.
After dressing quickly he looked around for his raincoat. He found it folded up under the bag which still held Celestia’s tiara, pulling it out with only a small amount of irreverence.
Don’t start getting used to this, he thought. You do want her to get home eventually, remember.
Don’t you?
But that train of thought had passed through his mind enough times already without getting any further than that, so he abandoned it and went back to getting ready. He opened up a cereal bar for breakfast and looked up at the tent’s roof…
…which was bone dry, not a single drop of water clinging to the fabric. Listening properly to the sound for the first time since waking up, he realised it didn't actually sound like rain. Something was going on outside, though.
When he emerged from the tent he saw the source of the noise immediately; Celestia was in the pool again – she evidently liked it in there – and she was throwing water everywhere as she jumped around, laughing happily. She was frolicking. He smiled as well as he watched her, having trouble keeping himself from laughing.
Suddenly she paused in her tracks, her head snapping to attention and her eyes looking round for something. After a few moments she turned, focussing on something below the water’s surface. She ducked down, emerging a second later with a stone held firmly between her teeth, and threw it over to the bank before going back to jumping around.
Intrigued, Aaron stood up and walked over towards the bank. “Celestia!” he called, waving at her as he got close.
“Aaron!” she called back. “You’re awake!”
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m looking for those stones I was using yesterday!” she said, pausing again and looking round for something apparently only she could see. Aaron stood scratching his head, bewildered. Celestia seemed to be a different pony every day. He wasn’t going to complain, though; for whatever reason she looked happier than he had ever seen her. It may well have been the sunlight glinting off the layer of water covering her, but she actually seemed to be glowing.
“What do you need those—” he started to ask, interrupted when she ducked her head below the water again without warning. She was gone for a second, completely submerged in the centre of the pool, then reemerged with a loud splash, throwing water everywhere. She had another stone in her mouth, which she carried out of the pond and placed on the ground, gathering the other five she had already retrieved and placing them all in a pile.
“Actually, how did you even find them?” Aaron asked. He couldn’t help but notice that the six pebbles still looked exactly like all the others strewn around the pond.
“If I’m honest, I’m not entirely sure,” Celestia said, looking over at him. “I can sense the magic I placed within them quite clearly still, so perhaps I don’t actually need to have magic of my own in order to sense it. I would not have guessed this previously, but the only other option I can think of is that I managed to pick up some new magic last night. As for why I need them—”
“Wait, slow down,” Aaron said, raising a hand in front of her. “What’s going on? Did something happen last night?”
Celestia froze, realisation dawning on her face. “Oh,” she said, “I completely forgot you didn’t know!”
“Don’t know what?” Aaron asked. “What happened?”
A broad grin spread across her face as she danced over towards him. “She found me, Aaron,” Celestia said. “My sister found me!”
Aaron stared back at the princess, completely at a loss for words. He glanced round the clearing, wondering if Luna was about to jump out at him from behind a tree. He could feel himself smiling as well – Celestia’s giddiness was contagious – but still his mind was just filling with questions.
“How?” he asked as he looked round. “How’d she even get here… wait a minute.”
He looked back at Celestia, who was still grinning at him, as the connections formed in his brain. “In a dream?” he asked.
Celestia nodded. “I have so much to tell you!” she said.
~ ~ ~
Half an hour and a considerable amount of storytelling later, the two of them were sitting on the pebble-strewn ground with the rather nondescript pile of stones sitting between them. Aaron was working his way slowly through a second cereal bar as he listened to the princess recount the story of what had happened to her the night before. It was certainly quite a tale to listen to, and just the fact that it had happened at all was fascinating in itself.
Getting to hear more about the spell that had brought her here was certainly exciting. It still left a lot of questions unanswered, and he could tell that these questions were on Celestia’s mind as well. But even with the mysteries everywhere the princess spoke with a simple, contented certainty in what had happened. Buoyed by her excitement she seemed so confident, so sincere in her understanding, that Aaron began to feel that it just didn’t matter if they didn’t know the rest of the details.
As the story drew towards the end with Luna’s departure from the dream, Aaron picked one of the pebbles up and turned it over and over in his hands, fancying that he might be able to sense some of the magic that apparently clung to it. He wondered which one the six this was, but they all just looked and felt like pebbles to him.
“So what do you need these for?” he asked when Celestia finished.
She looked down at the pile as well, and a faint yellow aura appeared around one of the stones, causing it to jitter around slightly on the top of the pile before going inert again.
“Reflexes are certainly hard to overcome,” Celestia commented, chuckling. “It would appear I have found some magic though, even if not enough to pick something up.
“As for the stones,” she continued, “I am hoping they will be used as anchors by the spell when the others cross over. According to Luna, the spell connects to a physical object on this side for guidance. It could be anything—”
“Like a spectrometer?” Aaron asked.
“For example,” Celestia replied. “I am hoping that, with the connection to Twilight and her friends that I gave these stones, they will be able to act as anchors in a more… controlled manner.”
Aaron looked down at the stone again. “So the spell will latch onto this and it’ll… what? Become one of the mane six?”
The idea that Twilight and her friends were going to be coming through was still sinking in really, but having spent so much time around Celestia had dulled the shock somewhat. It was going to take a lot to surprise him in future.
“Something like that,” Celestia said. “I do not understand the full process, but I believe so.”
Aaron continued turning the stone over in his hands, staring pensively at it.
“You have doubts?” Celestia asked on noticing his expression.
“A few,” he replied. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t doubt that you don’t doubt it, but I guess it just seems a bit…”
“Convenient?” Celestia offered.
“Yeah,” Aaron continued. “You didn’t know any of this yesterday when you enchanted the stones, and now you think they’re a vital component in your return?”
“In a word, yes.” Celestia said. “I agree with you that it’s a remarkable coincidence. But it feels like this is the way it was meant to happen, if that makes sense.”
Aaron considered it. He felt the honest response was that it didn’t make sense, but then that was no reason to dismiss something.
“It’s happening again, isn’t it?” he said. “That feeling where you know it’s right even without any evidence, like you felt with the Elements.”
Celestia nodded. She too glanced down at the stones, thinking to herself for a few moments, then she looked up again. “Do you trust me?” she asked. “I mean, I’m asking you to accept all of this even when I admit that I can’t offer any evidence. I have only a feeling I can’t explain as proof for myself, and it’s a feeling you yourself cannot experience. So how can you ever accept this? Especially as you are a scientist.”
“I hadn’t really thought of it that way,” Aaron said, chuckling. “But to be honest I doubt you’d be lying about this after everything else that’s happened. I’ve had to accept a lot of impossible things recently, so what’s one more?”
“I’m not sure I would be able to have the same level of trust as you if our positions were reversed,” Celestia said. “On their own the facts of this situation just seem so implausible. I happen to have created exactly what I need just before my magic runs out without even knowing I need them, and then my sister makes contact with me just hours later? It almost sounds planned.”
“Like part of a story?” Aaron said with a wry smile. Celestia laughed.
“I don’t know if that was meant as a joke,” she said, “but yes, I suppose so. Thinking back over my life I can think of a few similar coincidences in recent years, and I suppose I might have an explanation for some of them now. But I’m not sure if the excuse of it being fiction should be able to apply to this case. If this was planned, then by who?”
Aaron nodded. Celestia’s suggestion that he was part of a story as well popped briefly back into his head, but he still didn’t feel like accepting that. It just felt like it raised more questions than answers. The only question it answered was one that could just as well be down to chance anyway.
And then there was the question of Celestia’s intuition. He could only think that was a type of magic in itself, and to the best of his knowledge there wasn’t any natural magic in this world, so what was triggering it now? It could of course have been a lingering effect from Luna’s connection. Or – he had to accept that it was a possibility – maybe Celestia was mistaken.
He tried to think what other unanswered questions he had. If he knew what the ultimate question was he might have more of a chance of finding a way to the answer. He drew a blank at first, but then one thing did occur to him.
“Do you think,” he asked, “that this might have something to do with the seventh Element?”
The question didn’t have quite the effect Aaron had expected. Celestia looked up quite suddenly at the mention, as if the seventh Element had managed to completely slip her mind again and she was only just remembering the original reason why all this had happened. She opened her mouth, and Aaron half expected her to just dismiss the suggestion, but then a troubled look appeared on her face and she closed it again.
She stood up suddenly and began walking around the clearing, looking around uncertainly as if trying to catch a glimpse of something. Aaron watched her for a short while in confusion, then stood and walked over to her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I’m just not sure how to answer that question. I was going to say no at first – I had convinced myself by this point that this world and my journey had nothing to do with the seventh Element – but when I came to say it I realised that that no longer felt right.”
“Is this that feeling again?” Aaron asked, but Celestia shook her head.
“Unfortunately no,” she said. “Then the question would be quite simple. But in this case it’s just my own gut feeling. I thought the seventh Element couldn’t be here because there was no magic here. But now we’re discussing the idea of something controlling the events that have been happening here. That may not be the Element itself, but if this event is being controlled so deliberately, that raises the question of why I came here at all. It suddenly seems… inconsistent for it to just be an accident.”
Aaron raised his eyebrows. “I see what you mean,” he said. “That is a good question.”
Once again he felt the academic excitement of seeing an unanswered question and wanting to find an answer. Knowing Celestia was looking for the same answers, he decided to embrace the urge to investigate.
“Okay,” he said, “here’s another question then. If you aren't here to find the seventh Element, then why are you here? Maybe we can rule out some alternatives.”
Celestia stopped. “You know, you remind me of Twilight Sparkle sometimes,” she said.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Aaron replied, laughing.
Celestia smiled, then turned and walked back over to the stones. “Okay then,” she said. “Let’s think about this. At the very least it will be a good way of passing the time until they arrive.”
She sat down, and Aaron followed and joined her again on the ground.
“What do we know?” she said. “We know that the spell sent me here, and we believe that the spell was in some sense correct to do so. This implies that there must have been a reason.”
Aaron nodded. It was a start, although it still felt like they were making a few assumptions. “Was it right to send you, though?” he asked. “You said the spell originally targeted Twilight, right?”
Celestia raised her eyebrows. “That is true,” she said. “Perhaps it did send the wrong pony, and this resulted…”
She trailed off, and slowly a smile spread across her face. Aaron watched her, confused.
“Oh dear,” she said after a few moments, shaking her head. “I have nothing of respect for Twilight Sparkle, but as I think about it… If she had come here instead of me, this world would have driven her insane.”
Aaron considered it too, and for a moment lost the ability to stop himself laughing as he imagined Twilight going mad trying to find some kind of experiment she could perform to make sense of his world, especially if her magic started to run out. While he would have loved to meet Twilight, he could see that it was definitely for the better that Celestia had come.
“Actually,” Celestia continued, “I wonder if this was what was meant to happen all along. When I think back to the moment when this all began, I can’t imagine it happening in any other way.”
Aaron nodded. “You would’ve always tried to save Twilight?”
“Yes,” she replied. “As long as I was there on that mountain, this was the only possible outcome.”
“Because you would have always stepped in to protect your friends?” Aaron said, smiling knowingly. Celestia chuckled, bowing her head and looking sheepishly up at him.
“Well, we’re getting somewhere, I think,” he went on. “The spell was right to send you here, and it may well have been right to send you here. That just leaves the big question: Why?”
Celestia looked down at the ground again. Instead of waiting for her response, he continued, thinking out loud. “Has anything happened that seems like it could be the reason why you’re here?” he said. “Have you found something? Learned something?”
Celestia chuckled. “I have definitely learned something,” she said, looking up at him again. “And I think that if I have gained anything from my time here, it is perspective. I have had a chance to see myself, and my actions, in a new light. I have also learned a lot about my world, of course,” she added, “but in a way that almost feels secondary. I think I understand better now how I fit into my world – how I am supposed to fit into it. That is what I am most grateful for.”
She smiled a warm, contented smile. Aaron leaned back, savouring the quiet moment, listening to the birds calling in the sky above them. He was glad for what had happened as well. The pony he had met in the forest just a few weeks ago had been so enigmatic, so cold, so confused, and now she sat in front of him, the same pony in all other ways but bursting with an inner warmth that rivalled the sun.
“You must be really glad to be going home now,” he said.
“Indeed I am,” she replied with a smile. “That is where I belong. Even with everything there is in this world, it could never truly replace Equestria in my heart. I look forward to seeing my subjects, my sister and my friends again.”
Aaron nodded, happy to hear her say that. But still, as they looked at each other, he noticed a slight glint of hesitation in her eye. She saw him notice it, and looked away suddenly.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
“Perhaps,” she said. She looked over at him again with an uncertain expression. “I meant what I said,” she went on. “I am glad to be going home, and am grateful for everything that has happened here, but… Tell me, Aaron, do you or any of your colleagues study the origins of your universe?”
Aaron raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, a lot of us do,” he said. “Lots of people have theories about how it all started, but there’s only so much evidence to work with, and a lot of unanswered questions.”
Celestia nodded. “Imagine, then,” she said, “that one day a person came to you and told you they could take you right back to the beginning of the entire universe and not just tell you but show you where it came from, how it happened, and even why it happened.”
Aaron opened his mouth to respond, but couldn’t think what to say as the concept settled in. To be able to see how the universe formed right at the very beginning was the dream of thousands of physicists across the world. Just knowing that would answer countless questions about reality, including ones no-one had even asked yet. And as for knowing why… that question reached far beyond just physics. He could well believe that every human who had ever lived had asked that question at some point in their lives.
Celestia looked at him and nodded, his silence clearly all the response she needed.
“I have been given that opportunity,” she said, her eyes unfocused and staring through him at the world around them. “I know many ponies who would give anything to have this opportunity, and without my even asking it has been offered to me. I have learned much already, and while what I have learned is undeniably strange and unexpected, just knowing that it is the truth, and having been given the chance to learn it, feels like an honour.”
Aaron nodded, but couldn’t think of anything to say.
“And what is more,” Celestia went on, “is that I’m certain I have only scratched the surface. There must be so much more left to learn, and not just about my world, but about countless others. I am glad to go home, but… I worry I will regret leaving. Not spending longer here feels like a missed opportunity. I don’t know what invaluable knowledge I will be missing out on.”
The clearing fell quiet again, a cool breeze blowing past them, but the silence didn’t feel quite as comfortable this time.
“I see what you mean,” Aaron said. “If you go home now, who knows what you would have learned tomorrow.”
“Indeed,” Celestia said. “Part of me wants to trust that this is the right time for me to leave, but another part of me just wants to stay for as long as possible and continue to explore.”
She sighed, and looked down at the ground. Aaron could feel his train of thought breaking up, and stood up and began walking aimlessly round the clearing, hands clasped behind his head. Celestia had said before that the strangeness of what had happened had never really had a chance to settle in, and he realised that the same had happened for him. Only now did he realise quite how much all of this meant for Celestia, and how much she was giving up by leaving.
The whole experience had been very profound for him as well, although in different ways. Celestia, with all the knowledge of Equestria she carried, was herself a fascinating being, and he felt honoured to have had the chance to meet her as well. But if she were to leave now, how many questions would he never have the chance to ask her? He had never until that point felt quite so eager to ask her to stay.
“I’m sorry,” Celestia said. “I didn’t wish to make you uncomfortable. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Aaron stopped and sighed. “No, it’s alright,” he said. “It’s just a lot to think about.”
He walked over and sat down next to her again. “I guess it’s best that we think about this before you leave, anyway,” he added. “If we want to learn anything more, now would be the time to do it.”
“I suppose so,” Celestia replied.
Again there was a brief silence. Aaron thought for a while, wondering what would be the best question to ask her to make use of the remaining time. There were so many things he had wondered over the years, about Equestria and its ponies, and even about Celestia herself, but for some reason he couldn’t think of any of them. In the end, there was only really one question he could think of.
“What would you do?” he said. “If you did have unlimited time to explore this world, where would you go?”
Celestia raised her eyebrows. “Honestly, I don’t know,” she said. “I guess…”
She paused for a moment, and Aaron waited as she thought.
“I am almost afraid to pry,” she went on, looking to the side and out into the wider world, “but I suppose what fascinates me most is that somewhere out there there is a person, or indeed multiple people, who are the reason I am alive. If I could truly do anything in this world, what I would like most would be to meet them, to talk to them, and to understand the minds which shaped me. The opportunity to do just that would be worth more than the riches of Canterlot.”
Aaron smiled. “I’m sure they’d love to meet you too,” he said. “But you should be careful. You might not like everything you learned.”
Celestia shrugged. “I suppose you are right,” she said. “There is always that risk, and with something as fundamental as the reason for your own existence, it may be safer to just not know.
“But still,” she went on, “just knowing that there may be a reason is fascinating in itself. And not just for my own existence, but for the existence of every pony in Equestria, and even for Equestria itself. It doesn’t just exist by some random fluke. Someone, one day, consciously made the decision that it should exist.”
“And I think we can both be glad they did,” Aaron said, and Celestia smiled. She stood up, gave her back a stretch, and then looked up at the clear blue sky, lost in thought.
“Just think about it,” she said. “Imagine what it would feel like to talk to the person who first saw the value of your life and your world enough to actively bring it into existence. Imagine being able to learn their motivations, and what drove them in that moment. Imagine being able to track down the exact point when everything you know was created – that original thought, that founding idea, that singular spark of Inspiration—”
She froze suddenly. Aaron looked up at her in confusion, the word taking a moment to settle in his ears. Then, like a spring suddenly bubbling up out of nowhere, Celestia started to laugh.
“You’re kidding me,” Aaron said, standing up. “Inspiration?”
Celestia looked round at him, a wide smile on her face. “No,” she laughed, “not just that. I can’t believe it took me so long to see this!”
“See what?” Aaron asked, Celestia’s infectious grin catching him again.
“This,” Celestia said, spinning round on the spot. “This world! This amazing, impossible world!”
She stopped and sat down again, looking happily off into the distance.
“I thought the spell had sent me to the wrong place because this world had no magic,” she said, “but I had just overlooked what this world does have. Remember what we asked the spell to do; we asked it to show us something fundamental to the existence and nature of our world… ‘…the essence from whence we all came.’ ”
“And it brought you here,” Aaron said, sitting down next to her.
“A world in which everything I know was imagined and created,” Celestia continued. “A world where thousands of minds have played a part in shaping and nurturing my own, driven by a shared spirit of imagination, inspiration, or whatever you wish to call it. That is why this world is so important! This is the world that gave me life!”
“…Wow,” Aaron said, lost for words. “You’re sure about this?”
Celestia didn’t reply, but he could see in the softness of her eyes a familiar look. He nodded in understanding. She was certain.
“So the spell did send you here to find the seventh Element after all,” he said, and Celestia nodded back.
“It was certainly one of its reasons,” she replied.
They looked at each other, and smiled, then something drew Celestia’s gaze upward. Aaron followed her gaze as well, watching as small clouds skudded across the blue sky and listening to the wind in the trees. His heart was racing; out of nowhere, and at just the right moment, the answer had come. He wondered if this was what Celestia’s intuition felt like; although he had only known it mere moments, something about it just felt… right. It was so simple, so perfect, he couldn’t imagine the answer being anything else now.
Whether or not his world had any magic, all of a sudden it felt like it did. He thought of the millions of people across the world, unknowing bearers of the seventh Element, creating new worlds and characters every day. Some of them, a few of whom he had talked to himself, had given the princess sitting next to him life, ensuring that, even if their world didn’t contain any magic, it could still exist somewhere.
This was world-changing knowledge – he knew he’d never be able to read a story the same way again – and wondered what, if anything, he should do with it. The seventh Element had apparently trusted him, as well as Celestia, with this information. Maybe it had chosen him for a reason, or maybe it hadn’t, and he suspected he’d never know for sure. But the question was if he was supposed to be a custodian or a preacher.
He turned to Celestia again. “What are you going to tell them when you get back?” he asked.
Celestia sighed. “I do not know,” she said. “I would love to tell my friends about this world, but… about what this world is? It seems wrong to say nothing, but still… the effects of telling them… Would it be right to disrupt the story by making this known?”
“I know the feeling,” Aaron said. “But I guess… maybe the seventh Element will give you some guidance.”
Celestia chuckled. “I hope so,” she said. “I suppose I won’t know for sure until I return. But at least I can return with an answer either way.
“Speaking of which,” she added after a moment, “I wonder how long it will be now.”
Aaron shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “It could be hours, I suppose. But if I was the one writing this story, it would probably—”
The wind changed direction suddenly. They glanced at each other, then looked down and saw a faint white aura clinging to the stones.
“I honestly wasn’t expecting that to work,” he said.
“We should probably move back,” Celestia replied. Aaron nodded, and the two of them stood up and backed away, eyes fixed on the stones, as the aura grew brighter and brighter. The wind picked up, rushing in circles round the clearing and pushing small waves across the surface of the pond. Aaron caught himself trying to work out what was causing the wind and what chose its direction, but then stopped as he remembered what was actually about to happen.
“Wait—” he said, suddenly nervous, but before he had a chance to say anything else a burst of brilliant white light pulsed out from the stones, filling the clearing and washing over the two of them. Aaron turned away, shielding his eyes from the light. Over the rush of the magic he heard a sudden, sharp intake of breath next to him; he opened his eye cautiously and looked up at Celestia, seeing her standing with her eyes closed and her head raised, her mane billowing out in the waves of magic, its familiar array of flowing colours filling the air around her. She took deep breaths, smiling as the magic rushed into her body, filling her again. Aaron stood silently, transfixed by the sight as the princess returned to her natural splendour.
Then, suddenly, it all stopped. The light faded away and the clearing fell silent again. For a moment Aaron thought it hadn’t worked, but when he turned to look back at where the stones had been he saw six familiar ponies standing in a circle, Twilight Sparkle in the centre with her eyes closed and her wings spread out at her sides.
She opened her eyes and looked round. “It worked!” she said, the exclamation prompting cheers from the other five. Rainbow Dash leapt into the air, flying excitedly in a tight loop over the others, but halfway through she skidded to a halt as she spotted Celestia watching them.
“Princess!” she said. The others fell silent, heads turning one by one. Then Twilight pushed out from the group and galloped over to Celestia, looking up at her with a surprised expression.
“Princess, you’re here!” she said. “I’m so glad we found you! How did you know where we’d appear?”
Aaron watched the two of them, numb with shock at the sheer fact of what he was looking at. Celestia looked down at her former student, equally dumbstruck, but something completely different was holding her words back. Tears were welling up in the corner of her eyes, and slowly a broad smile, the brightest Aaron had ever seen, spread across her face. Then, suddenly, she dropped to her knees and wrapped her forelegs round Twilight, pulling her into a tight hug. Twilight looked surprised for a moment, then hugged her back.
“We missed you too, Celestia,” she said.
“Equestria just isn’t the same without you,” Rarity added, as the others made their way over as well.
“You have managed without me, though?” Celestia asked. “My sister—”
“—has done ya proud,” Applejack said. “She misses ya more than anypony though. She’s been itchin’ ta see you again ever since last night.”
As Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash joined them as well, Celestia pulled them all in, wrapping her wings around them.
“I’ve missed you all,” she said. “I cannot tell you how happy I am to see you again.”
Unable to think of anything to say, and not wanting to spoil the moment, Aaron backed away from the group and sat down on the ground, watching them. After all this time it was finally happening and he had no idea what to do. But he couldn’t feel disappointed; the look on Celestia’s face as she embraced the five young ponies was…
Wait. Five?
Confused, he tried to count them again, then froze as he became aware of something next to him. Turning his head slowly, he found a bright pink face staring back at him.
“Pinkie Pie,” he said.
The young pony leapt backwards, gasping in surprise. “He knows my name!” she squealed. “How do you know my name?” she asked, jumping forward again and pressing her nose to his. “Are you a spy?”
Aaron looked over to Celestia for support, and found six pairs of eyes fixed on him, five in confusion, and one in amusement.
“Pinkie Pie,” Celestia said, standing and walking over to them, “all of you, this is my friend, Aaron.”
“Aaron!” Pinkie said, giving him a hug. “I always love making new friends! I wish I’d brought my party cannon with me now, we could’ve—”
“Oh, would ya give the poor fella some space?” Applejack said.
“Sorry,” Pinkie said, backing away.
“This is incredible!” Fluttershy said, poking her head out from behind Celestia and walking cautiously up to him. “I’ve never seen anything like you! I hope it’s not too rude to ask, but… um, what species are you? And where are you from?”
Aaron smiled. Finally managing to unstick his tongue, he gave her head a stroke and said, “Don’t worry, Fluttershy. I’m a human, and this is where I’m from.”
Fluttershy smiled. Twilight Sparkle walked up next to her, looking him over. He had been waiting for this; if anypony was going to have questions for him, it was going to be her.
“You seem to know a lot about us,” she said.
Aaron nodded. “Yes, I…” he said, but he paused when Celestia caught his eye. They looked at each other in silence for a moment, then he turned to Twilight again and said, “the princess has told me a lot about you.”
Celestia nodded to him in thanks. “And in return he has kept me safe during my time in his world,” she said. “I owe him a great deal.”
Twilight looked back at him, raising her eyebrows. “Then we all do,” she said. “Thank you.”
“I’ll say!” Rarity added. “Looking after the princess all this time? That was very noble of you.”
“Any friend of the princess’s is a friend of ours,” Rainbow Dash said, landing in front of Aaron and holding out a hoof. “Put it there.”
Aaron offered a hand reflexively to shake Rainbow Dash’s, but paused awkwardly for a moment, before offering a fist instead and giving a makeshift hoof-bump. The others laughed. Then, the group fell quiet, Aaron’s heart pounding in his chest. After a moment Applejack spoke up. “So, uh, what now?” she asked.
“That’s a good point,” Twilight said. “We shouldn’t stay here too long, just to make sure the spell works as safely as possible. It was a pleasure to meet you, Aaron, but—”
Aaron nodded. “I know,” he said. He then stood, took a deep breath, and turned to Celestia.
“Time to go home,” he said. “I’m sure you’re eager to see it again.”
She nodded. “I am,” she said. Then, stepping forward, she wrapped her wing around him and pulled him into a hug. “I meant it,” she added. “I owe you, and your world, more than I can ever give you.”
“Don’t worry,” Aaron said. “Meeting you was enough.”
Celestia smiled at him, and folded her wing away again.
“Well,” Aaron went on, “I guess it just remains to say… actually wait a minute.”
He paused, then turned and ran back to his tent. He returned a moment later carrying a large plastic bag.
“I almost forgot,” he said, as he pulled the tiara out from the bag. Celestia laughed, then took it from it and placed it on her head. He gave her the peytral and shoes as well, and watched as she dressed herself, fully returning to the majestic princess he knew so well. Then, as she finished, he knelt down and picked a random pebble up off the ground, dusted a few specks of dirt off it, and held it out to Celestia. She looked down at it, then back up at him with a small grin.
“To go with the other six,” Aaron said, “and to remember us by.”
Celestia chuckled, then took the pebble from him.
“Did he just give her a rock?” Applejack said.
“Looked like it,” Rarity replied. “Must be a human thing.”
“I bet my sister would like it here,” Pinkie pie added.
“Thank you again,” Celestia said, as she tucked the pebble underneath her wing. “Goodbye Aaron.”
“Goodbye, Celestia,” he replied, nodding.
Then, Celestia turned to Twilight Sparkle. “Are you ready?” she asked.
“I am,” Twilight replied. “Just stand in a circle with the others. By the way,” she added, “where is this place?”
Celestia smiled. “That is a long story, Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “Perhaps one day, when I am ready, I will tell it to you.”
Twilight gave her an odd look, but then the two smiled at each other, and Twilight nodded.
Aaron stepped back from the group as they got themselves in formation again. As he watched, he was glad to realise that he was happy to see her leaving. He was going to miss her, of course, but nothing could beat the look of joy he saw in Celestia’s eyes as she spoke with her friends. It had been a long, incredibly bizarre few weeks, but he couldn’t think of a better way for it to—
“Wait!”
Celestia’s exclamation took them all by surprise. The group were all ready in the circle, but she had jumped suddenly, and was staring down at Twilight with an odd expression.
“Is everything okay, Celestia?” Twilight asked.
Celestia stood in silence for a moment, thinking. Then, she asked, “how many times can you repeat this spell, Twilight?”
“Uh,” Twilight said, taken by surprise by the question, “as many times as I want, I think. Now I’ve made the journey once, I could even target the same location again with ease. Why?”
Again Celestia paused, then, a smile forming on her face, she looked over at Aaron.
“Seriously?” he said.
“Come with us,” she said. “Just for a short while. It will be my way of saying thank you.”
The other ponies exchanged glances. Twilight looked up at the princess, who shrugged in response.
Aaron took a step back, the offer having completely caught him off guard. After everything else that had just happened, his first instinct was to politely say no.
“Uh, I’m not sure,” he stuttered. “I mean, I probably shouldn’t… it wouldn’t be…”
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, trying to find the inevitable, obvious, sensible reason why he should turn her down, but he just drew a blank, and there was a voice in the back of his mind screaming that he should just say yes.
He could hardly believe that he was even considering it. But he was getting used to that feeling now.
“You know what,” he said, “sure. Why not?”
Celestia smiled.
“The more the merrier, eh?” Applejack said, and the other ponies laughed. Aaron walked forward and joined them in the circle, and they all smiled back at him.
“Okay, if we’re all ready then,” Twilight said. She closed her eyes, the others following suit, and the Elements of Harmony started to glow, bright streams of magic pouring out from them and enveloping the group. For a moment, it seemed to Aaron that his entire world was filled with nothing but light. As the clearing faded from view, he looked over at the other side of the circle. His eyes met Celestia’s for a moment, and the two of them started laughing.