No sooner had the words escaped my lips then Celestia's horn began to glow a brilliant golden hue as she charged up her magic. Once it had reached its fullest power, a beam of light shot out at me from her horn, striking me with the heat of a thousand flames. My cries of pain swiftly gave way to Crystal's condemning tone, mocking the princesses' attempt to purge her spirit from me.
"You fools," her voice hissed. "You think your pitiful attempts at magic can stop me from fully possessing Prince David?"
"Silence, Crystal!" Celestia shouted. "You have no power here."
"You mean like how you had no power to stop Nightmare Moon from taking over your sister? You had the Elements Of Harmony, you could've used them to return Luna to her old self, but you instead chose to banish her to the moon for 1,000 years. You didn't love your sister then and I doubt you love her now."
"You know nothing about love, Crystal," Luna countered. "I know that my sister loves me. She did not know that the Elements had that kind of power back then. We have since then forgiven each other."
"But you still haven't forgiven yourself for becoming Nightmare Moon, for not keeping your jealousy towards your sister in check. I can taste your guilt even now, sweet, rich, and juicy."
Luna seemed to be emotionally affected by Crystal's accusation as her magic seemed to falter in holding me in place. Flash, however, was quick to catch this and leaped on top of me, pinning me in place before I could even attempt to bolt while making sure to not come into the path of Celestia's magic.
"Enough of your lies," he replied, sternly. "We know more about love than you ever will. That's what sets us apart from monsters like you."
"And what have you done with your love, Flash Sentry?" Crystal's voice condemned him. "Kept it hidden from Princess Twilight this whole time? If you truly loved her, you would've shown her by this point."
"Well maybe there's just been other things on my mind lately," he snapped back, "like becoming a member of the royal guard in order to prove to my disabled sister that anything is possible if she tries hard enough."
Celestia focused her magic even harder on me, whereupon we all heard Crystal's cries of pain as I started violently convulsing.
"No! Impossible! You! Can't! Defeat me!" Crystal's voice hissed in agony.
"Sister hurry!" Luna spoke out of concern as she resumed holding me in place. "We're losing him!"
Finally, after nearly half a minute, six colored orbs came forth from my mouth. Orange, yellow, pink, white, blue, and purple, they shot out and flew back towards Ponyville. But that wasn't all that came out from me. For out of my chest rose a vile ectoplasmic substance the colors of a rainbow tainted by darkness.
With no hesitation, Princess Celestia pushed her power to the limit on this dark matter, resulting in it bursting into flames before dissipating with both an unworldly hiss and even a scream as I finally stopped convulsing, my body laying there completely limp with my eyes closed. After a few seconds, my pony form changed back to my normal human form, although I still had my wings and pony ears. My chest rising and lowering with each breath assured them that I was fine.
"It is done. We'll give him his privacy," Celestia stated as she and her sister turned to leave the room.
"Stay with him until he's awake," Luna instructed Flash, "and be sure to give him his clothes back."
Flash nodded as the two princesses left the room and he stayed by my side. About a minute later, I opened my eyes and groaned as I raised my hand to rub my forehead, quickly realizing that I was human again... and that I was buck ass naked at the same time.
"Here," Flash stated while tossing my clothes to me. "You might want these back."
I swiftly put on my clothes as well as putting my rings back on both hands, as they had since fallen off of my forehead where my horn had once been, before speaking.
"How did it go? Are ma friends' souls back where they belong?"
"The whole process was a little rocky part of the way through, but it would appear that your friends' souls have returned to their own bodies. You can see for yourself once you get back to Ponyville. Right now, though, I think the princesses are waiting for you."
And so, the two of us exited the throne room and walked back down the long hallway, when I saw the same mirror that I had admired myself in not too long ago. This time, though, when I looked at myself in it, I finally got to see how I looked as a human. I definitely looked a lot like an Anime character in the image that was reflected back at me. In fact, if I took away the wings, the pony ears, the glasses, and the mustache, I would probably look similar to Eren Yeager from Attack On Titan. My thoughts were soon interrupted by a familiar female voice.
"Well look who's up and about," Celestia remarked as she and Luna approached me. "It must be nice to finally have this whole ordeal behind you."
"You have no idea," I answered back.
"If you're all ready, I can take you back to Ponyville right now. I'm sure that Savannah will be more than happy to see you again."
I smiled at the mention of Savannah as I also nodded at Celestia.
"Ah'd love that a lot," I spoke up before turning to Flash, "but there's one question Ah have fer Flash before we leave."
"What's that?" Flash questioned.
"Who's yer sister?"
* * * * * * * *
The chariot ride back to Ponyville was a long one as I sat there telling Celestia and Luna about all that I had experienced in my long journey to the Crystal Empire from Gilda to the teen dragons to the caribou tribe. I even talked a little bit about what me and the mares in my head had discussed on the way there like my diagnosis with Schizophrenia all those years ago. They didn't speak much aside from asking the occasional question, seeming particularly interested in what Schizophrenia was as no pony they knew of had ever been diagnosed with it.
Shortly after I had finished explaining it to them, I noticed that we had officially arrived back in Ponyville as we came in for a landing. Once we landed, I stepped out of the chariot only to be swarmed by a large group of ponies including my own friends.
"Hey, David," Rainbow greeted. "Great to have ya back bud."
"Ah'll say," AJ agreed.
"We're all glad that things are back to normal," Twi chimed in.
"Definitely," Flutters affirmed.
"Of course," Rare stated.
"Thanks you guys," I answered, looking around for Pinkie but not seeing her, "but where's Pinkie?"
"FLYING ATTACK HUG!!!" I heard a high pitched voice scream out from above me.
I was soo startled by this that I jumped several feet up in the air resulting in Pinkie crashing into me and the two of us landing in a heap on the ground. It wasn't long before I spoke up.
"Really, Pinkie? Ya had ta do that again?"
"Of course I did silly," she remarked as she embraced me in a hug. "It's all in good fun."
"Honestly, Pinkie Pie," Rarity spoke up, sounding slightly annoyed, "you've got to stop doing that before you scare the living daylights out of somepony."
"No. It's O.K. Rare," I answered, shrugging it off before hugging Pinkie back and rising to my feet. "So what were you guys up to while Ah was on ma way back here?"
"We were just talking some more about my castle," Twilight stated. "I still can't get over the feeling that there's something I'm missing here."
"And I still say that there was nothing more to it," Rainbow replied. "We defeated Tirek and got the castle. That's all."
As they all continued their talking, I looked up and saw Savannah standing several feet away. Making my way through the large gathering of ponies, I rushed to her as she did likewise. We then embraced each other strongly, neither one of us wanting to let go of the other.
"I'm soo happy that you're finally back and back to normal," Savannah spoke up. "I never doubted you'd make it for a second."
We then leaned in to kiss each other before pulling each other back into our embrace. I was swift to notice that Savannah's body was trembling against mine. I quickly spoke up.
"Is everything alright? Yer tremblin."
She then looked into my eyes before replying.
"I just found out some wonderful news this morning."
"What's that?"
Savannah hesitated briefly before speaking up.
"I'm pregnant."
Hearing this news that Savannah was pregnant made me think of that nightmare that I had had just the other night. The fears that this was another vision of the future began to creep into my mind. Still, I managed to hide my fear as I smiled at her while replying.
"That's- that's great news."
"We're finally going to be starting that family we talked about!" Savannah beamed.
No sooner had she spoke then the Mane 6 came over to us.
"Hey you two. What're you guys talking about?" Twilight questioned.
"Savannah jus found out today that she's pregnant," I replied.
"Oh my!!! That's great news!" Fluttershy exclaimed.
"That's what Ah said."
"Congratulations you two," Rarity spoke up.
"Nice job you sly devil," Rainbow replied to me, a look of mischief on her face.
"Ooo ooo we should totally throw a party to celebrate," Pinkie piped up.
"That sounds like it would be fun, Pinkie," Savannah answered, "but David and I should really be heading back to our world now."
"But... it seems like you guys just got here," Pinkie stated sadly as her mane and tail deflated and her ears folded back on her head, "and now you're leaving soo soon?"
"Ah'm sorry, Pinkie, but it really is time fer us ta return ta our home," I stated.
"But we will be back eventually," Savannah spoke up.
"Pinkie Promise?" Pinkie questioned.
"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," me and Savannah recited in unison while going through all the motions.
After that, all eight of us came in for one final group hug before me and Savannah had to leave.
"It was great meeting all of you," Savannah stated.
"Same," Fluttershy answered back.
"We hope you'll both be able to come back again soon," Rarity replied.
"Definitely," Rainbow agreed.
"Ah'm gonna miss you guys," I spoke up.
"So will we," Twi replied.
"We'll all be waitin fer tha next time you two come around," AJ stated.
With the group hug finished, me and Savannah turned to Celestia and Luna and knelt in respect.
"It was nice to finally meet you two," Savannah spoke up.
"Same here," Luna replied with a smile.
"David," Celestia reminded, "whenever you next decide to come back to Equestria, don't hesitate to ask me for anything you might need."
"Ah'll remember that."
And with that, me and Savannah took each others' hands as I read the engraving on my necklace.
"Equestrian son/The victory won/Return to thy home."
As those words escaped my lips, lightning flashed across the sky, striking the ground whereupon a portal appeared. With a final look back at our friends, we both jumped into the portal and were on our way home as the portal closed behind us. Celestia and Luna said a brief farewell to the others before taking the chariot back to Canterlot all while the Mane 6 just stood there, almost unsure of what to do.
"So what should we do now?" Rainbow asked.
"I think we should head back to the castle," Twi answered. "I've got a feeling that there's something about it that I might be missing."
Rainbow rolled her eyes in annoyance, but said nothing further before Pinkie replied.
"Well what're we waiting for then? Let's go."
And so, all six of them headed back to Twilight's castle, all the while never expecting what they'd discover when all of them sat on their respective thrones.