//------------------------------// // Prelude: Limping home // Story: Friends like these // by Istaran //------------------------------// Twelve humans came to Equestria. One brought war to the changelings, followed by the ponies. He was driven from safety by Celestia's sun, and killed by a changeling, avenging their fallen. One brought clothing, shared the joy of fashion with the ponies, and fell to the warmonger's senseless assault. One died protecting his daughter. One died of a broken heart, believing her son to have perished. And one stood against a dragon, and died for his own hubris. The seven who remained gathered outside the Golden Oaks Library on a bright and cheerful day, surrounded by the ponies and others they had befriended along the way. The six that still had them drew out their smart phones, devices that had been augmented with a handful of magical powers. It was time to use the last one. One by one, they pressed the buttons corresponding to the elements of harmony, until all six had been pressed and a swirling vortex of magic burst into reality between them. The path home was finally opened. Frank, whose Loyalty to his family had been enough to kill for, was first to rush in, eager to return home. Relena, whose Honesty could be a bit disturbing at times, called out to the mechanical companion that had aided her in her time alone in Gryphonia, and kissed him goodbye. "We shouldn't bring our Cheat Codes with us to the real world," she said, coining the term that would be left behind with the humans' dangerous artifacts. Angelica, whose Laughter remained pure and untainted by the war, reached out a hand to drag Zeke, the only human to master even a shred of Magic, into the portal with her. Scott, with Generosity born from a lifetime's experience with poverty, handed over his magic soup can to his long time partner, the unicorn restaurateur Welcome Smile, with an admonition to always serve the poor for free. Welcome tearfully agreed as they parted ways. Robert, who had destroyed his own phone in a desperate gamble to change the course of time, shook his head, even as he shook hands with Daniel, whose Kindness held back a dangerous darkness in his own heart. "We won! It was hard earned, and costly, but after all these tries. I can still barely believe it. We won!" Wind Chaser, the changeling disguised as a pegasus that had been Daniel's loyal partner, held out her hoof and accepted his Cheat Code, the powerful Ocarina of Time that had made it possible to try again and again until the humans succeeded in finding a way home. "Come on, it's time to go home." Daniel started to follow after him, pausing a moment before entering the portal. He looked back at Wind Chaser with that disturbing smile that belonged to his dark side, an unspoken command receiving a determined nod from the changeling before he turned back and vanished from the world. As the changeling took flight, the vortex collapsed in upon itself and disappeared. The Elements of Harmony began discussing plans to carry the dangerous human artifacts that had been left with them back to Canterlot to be kept under lock and key. Twilight Sparkle got out her checklist going over the list. Player 1: Daniel Holden. Artifact: Fractal spiders. Location: Contained within the blood of Daniel himself, the changeling Wind Chaser, the gryphon Bardrick and Princess Celestia. Cannot be safely removed. All other loose spiders have been destroyed. That one was a problem that demanded a research solution. If the spiders were removed, the host would have no immune system and would soon get sick and perish, even from something as minor as the common cold. Surely a spell could be devised to correct that problem and rescue Celestia from the horrid things. Bardrick and Wind Chaser seemed uninterested in a cure themselves, but maybe they could be convinced to at least help as test subjects. Player 2: Rebecca Redcliff. Artifact: Video player loaded with fictionalized account of Twilight Sparkle's life. Location: Unknown. It was creepy to think about having her recent past on display, along with what could have been her future. According to Robert, the humans' intervention will have changed how things play out, especially with Luna gone, but looking ahead could still give her some warnings of dangers yet to come. If only anyone knew where the thing had gotten to. Player 3: Robert Redcliff. Artifact: Ocarina of Time. Location: Twilight looked around. It had been here with the humans a moment ago, she didn't think they had taken it with them. That was a bit concerning. That item could not be checked off yet either. Grrr. Player 4: Scott Jones. Artifact: Infinite Soup Can. Location: Gifted to Welcome Smile. That one was probably harmless to leave with a civilian. CHECK. Player 5: Frank Cobbler. Artifact: Swiss Army Knife. Location: Canterlot vaults. Already secured as evidence from a trial, even though it seemed pretty innocuous. They knew it had some kind of magic, but no one was sure what it did, so better safe than sorry. CHECK. Player 6: Monique Ashland. Artifact: Infinite wardrobe. Location: Destroyed. You couldn't get any more secured than that. CHECK. Player 7: Angelica Ericson. Artifact: Working Internet connection. Location: Present and accounted for. Twilight slipped it into one of her saddle bags. This would be another interesting research project. The ponies didn't have any devices that could connect to the wifi signal. Yet. The possibility of a long term channel of communication between their worlds was just incredibly exciting. Especially since Angelica had claimed they had millions of books in electronic format that could be downloaded and read. Millions. SQUEE! Also, CHECK! Player 8: Joshua Swift. Artifact: Skull Talisman. Location: Bottom of the ocean. The bottom of the ocean was pretty secure, right? And anyways, no one would want an artifact that merely lets you receive harm in place of a specific little girl, at least not now that her father had used it to give his life in place of hers. Relena was a nice enough girl, but the only one willing to go that far for her was gone now. So it was harmless now, right? Unless.. someone managed to alter its target, or reverse engineer it.. dang. No check for you! Player 9: Relena Swift. Artifact: Toodles. Location: Present and accounted for. The mouse-eared automaton could not be easily contained, but it happily floated around her and would follow her.. good enough. It seemed mean to lock it up, but she wasn't sure what else to do with it. The Princess would know. CHECK. Player 10: Benjamin Coleman. Artifact: Omnitrix. Location: A dragon's lair in the smokey mountains. There was ongoing negotiations with the dragon, but it seemed unlikely that it's price could be met. Fortunately, it was too small to fit on the dragon's own wrist, and a dragon's lair was generally a pretty dang secure location for something to be housed. CHECK. Player 11: Zeke Goldstein. Artifact: Magic cards. Location: Present and accounted for. Twilight lifted the cards in her own magic, flipping through them briefly before slipping them into a saddle bag. Another interesting research project, perhaps, or maybe it was best to simply lock them up. The cards had a few other possible uses, but they were designed for combat, Zeke had been clear about that. CHECK. Player 12: Ryan Smith. Artifact: Magic MCV. Location: Destroyed. The MCV itself had been destroyed, along with the bulk of the forces it had produced, but there were still a number of rogue soldiers and war machines lying about, endangering anypony unfortunate enough to encounter them. Twilight vacillated a moment before deciding to mark it with a CHECK. The MCV itself was gone, and without it so was the ability to control the units it had produced. The remained forces were just a hazard left behind: dangerous, to be sure, but they couldn't be wielded against the realm proactively. Twilight looked back at the top of the list with a frown before rolling up the scroll and stowing it. Only eight checkmarks out of twelve, already beating out the humans' own score. She was saddened by the thought for a moment until she reminded herself that at least she could look forward to checking off the other items. She looked at where the portal had been, wondering what awaited the humans when they returned home, before gathering her friends and beginning her own journey. Unnoticed at the time, others departed Equestria at the same moment as the humans, leaving voids in their wakes. A vacuum of power among a hungry and dangerous race. A half-built contraption left by the side of the road, its owners mysteriously absent. A trio of dangerous predators, already banned from Equestria, find themselves displaced once more. A statue in a garden goes missing, leaving a blank and boring gap. A rolling stage is left to roll unguided, crashing and destroying itself upon a tree, letting loose uncontrolled magics from its destroyed contents. A cell deep within Tartarus is left empty, the door still uselessly locked. And in the frozen north, a shadowy threat simply never emerges, leaving a peaceful reprieve in the newly returned seat of power. The human heart must once more be broken, this time by the power of friendship. When he cannot bear for you to leave, only then will you be returned to your home. -The Text