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// I Put This Love in a Photograph 
// Story: My Little Bat-Pony 
// by Moniker 
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Three years, an entire three years went by since I met Opal. She has become my life, I have spent all available time with the filly I know, and I love. Putting aside time from my job and my other things. My hobbies are hers, she puts an interest in what I like, and while she can't talk, which I could not for the life of me understand why. I still remember sitting in front of her staring at her, trying my hardest to teach her the basic words, but nothing came out of her mouth, no matter how hard she attempted to say a thing, maybe it was a thing that happened due to swapping dimensions, either way, my life hadn't had much of a shift other than a slight happiness.

I hung that photograph of her and I, we looked wonderful, her cute face pressed against my chest, her smile wide enough to put a smile on my face, something no anyone can do. It put a tear in my eye. Not a tear of sadness, but a tear of glee, a tear of knowledge I didn't do nothing for my life, my life progressed from; sleep to job, to home to sleep, with a few things in between sometimes. The photograph was hung just above my wall from my bed. Making it the first thing I see in the morning. My heart ached as I realized she had grown up so fast and how much she didn't really need me, it seemed she aged at an alarming rate, what seemed like a year seemed to be more like five years to her body, making her now approximately twenty maybe younger, who knows? 

I just went about it as a normal day, my day dampened by the knowledge she was so old while I myself am younger than her, her wide smile never went away though, her smile I felt could brighten up even the darkest of rooms of its depression. Maybe it was just me, but I know I love her as caregiver, she was never seen to me as something I own just because it came to me in a box, but rather some I needed to care for, as if it was a human child. I was scared to be honest at the start, the ideals of me being a father to this filly was nerve-wracking to say the least, my life went from dull to happy in almost an instant.

Every year I am however reminded how much she grew, she was almost to my waistline which was big since she was so small to start. But, either way I was in my living room, cake on the stand and a party-hat on, for today is none other than Opal Ash's birthday and I wanted to make it special for her, I ordered, making sure it didn't have anything harmful to her, citrus mainly, but other things too. I smiled at Opal who graciously smiled back at me, giggling softly as she drew a deep breath and exhaled it, blowing out the candles causing it to be dark in the room, quickly I turned on the lights and saw Opal already with her tongue hanging out awaiting the cake I had ordered. Smiling, I walked over and gave her a nice big slice of cake, she didn't even attempt to pick up a fork and instead dove her head down on the cake, eating it as if she was a pig, which I didn't mind since I could only imagine the kind of stuff you'd go through if you had hooves.

After the cake I gave her a present, she smiled and jumped happily, despite her technical and or height age being twenty or so, her mental age seemed to be that of a three year old. Not to say I didn't like that about her, she was adorable and I loved her for it, it make me smile each time she smiled. I cleared the plates and kissed her forehead, sending her up to bed when a thought popped briefly into mind. What if Opal will be sent to Equestria, her home dimension? What if this was a cataclysmic mistake that changed the history of Equestria forever? But the thought went away as I went up to my own bed and fell asleep. 

My dreams were nothing truly special, I was walking a beaten path alongside Opal who was giggling the entire way through and smiling giddily as she trotted slowly down the path, the dream was nothing special, but something made it special, I didn't understand the reason for the dream, each day it seemed as through Opal was getting closer to this strange light and I was getting further, was this part of my theory? Will she be going back to Equestria?

The next day I woke up to a knock on the door. I couldn't for the life of me figure out who it was and opened the door. Finding it to be none other than Princess Celestia, who stared at me for a brief second, she stood a good two to maybe four inches larger than I was, and it somewhat scared me, but she looked at me, a face of sternness, I knew what she wanted, but didn't want to believe.
"I believe you have something I may want, my dear," Princess Celestia said in her sultry calm voice. "Please relinquish her to me." It was hard for me to muster the courage or voice to talk back to the Princess, but I did.
"No!" I shouted and blocked her entrance to the house to avoid her from taking the filly I had raised since I found her three years ago. "I will not let you simply take her!" 
The Princess seemed very unhappy, and I didn't blame her in the slightest, but I didn't budge and obviously didn't want her to take my Opal Ash. Something I overlooked was her ability to teleport and she did exactly that to get passed me, but I leap on her and try and stop her, but it only stopped her for a second before it just became an annoyance, she knocked me off and looked at me. "It is for the best," she said softly and ran a hoof across my face, I instantly had watery eyes and my eyes puffy, I should have known this was to come, her being taken from me. It made me cry the idea, but I knew it was to come. I grabbed my knees looking down. 
"No!" I cried out, not wanting to accept it, this was the end of what made me sane, the thing that cause me to love again and not just see the world as I thought I saw it, a dark and depressing world. I grabbed the Princess' shoulders. I was desperate, not seeing I was making no difference in the Princess' actions to take away Opal.

Giving off a long exaggerated sigh, the pale white Alicorn looked at me, giving me a look of anger, something you would never see in the shower. "Opal Ash - as you call her - is named Echo, she is not a simple filly you found in a box," explained the Princess as she pushed me out of the way with shocking amounts of ease. "Now please, step aside I must get Echo." She said this time smart about my moves and used a magical spell to stop me in my tracks. 
The Princess called down Opal who had the urge to come down, as she was in fact still a pony and bound by the Princess' rules. "What is going on?" I asked wanting answers, which the Princess gave a light-heartened sigh looking back at me she walked towards me and looked me dead in the eyes to tell me the answer.
"Echo does not belong here, my child," she said softly and smiling sweetly as if she wasn't taking away the one thing I knew kept my sanity. The one thing I felt would leave me happy once again, something I was knowledgeable had a slim to none chance of happening. "I am taking her back to Equestria where she will regain the ability to speak and socialize with others of the same race." She said.

It took me a moment to realize I was being selfish, but only a moment as soon as it hit me the world of Earth, was holding the filly back from speaking, and socializing having the average life of what Equestria had to offer, I was taking it away from her. I glance at the mare and tears form in the corners of my eyes, which caused Opal - or Echo - to run up to me, flapping her bat wings and hugging me tightly, as if she knew it would happen, she knew she would be leaving me all alone. A part of me wanted to grab her and enter an eternal run with Equestria's Princess, but the more rational side of my mind realized I wouldn't last a day running from the teleporting Princess. 
So what do I do? I hugged her tight, not letting go for a good five minutes, tears falling to the floor, even the Princess could see how much I really loved the filly, how much she had given me the ray of sunshine I came to from work every day, a silent but kind mare I watched over for around three years. We said our goodbyes and then, brightness happened, leaving me all alone with nothing more than a scorch mark on the ground where the two had previously stood. 

It was only a few months later and my life returned to normal, wake up, eat, work, do what I wanted, sleep repeat, sometimes going with a co-worker or two. But never staying out more than an hour. But, the change of lives had taken a toll on me, even the co-workers had seen a side of me they had never seen before, the ones who had worked here prior to the three year happiness period saw a drastic change in mood, even in my standards. I was disappointed, depressed, angry, all directed to a should-be fictional Princess for taking away my ray of sunshine.
I got home and wrote down a letter a single tear falling from my eye, hitting the paper, staring at the single picture I had of Opal or . . . sorry, Echo, and just like that I snapped; I stood on a stool, put a rope around my neck, and . . . well . . . you know the rest . . .

But, I never knew what was coming soon . . . as I woke to find myself in a bright, new land.



THE END