Family
Where was I? How on Earth was I gonna explain that to them? I leaned into my mother's hug and just let her hold me. I felt her tears drip onto my shoulder and grimaced.
I wanted to say something. I wanted to tell her the truth. Now would be a bad time, of course, but at some point the topic had to come up when they weren't going to take a shrug for an answer. The hospital had to take me at face value, even if they didn't like it. I was never very good at lying to my mother. I'd tell her that I didn't know and she wouldn't buy it for a second. Same with my father. Heck, my sister never really bought any of the lies I'd slung when we were growing up together.
But hey, maybe being an alicorn for a few years would change all of that.
I would be one again. I had to be. Too many ponies depended on me.
After a few more seconds, my mother broke the hug and moved to arm's length, still never letting go of me. I gave her my best smile and she returned it with a half laugh/half sob.
"Where were you?" she repeated.
"I... uh..." My gaze flicked over to Doctor Chase who had just re-entered the room. He tried to make himself invisible by standing in the corner, but we made eye contact. My eyes narrowed ever so slightly, which just triggered the barest of smirks from him.
Don't even think about it.
Me noticing that the doctor entered the room meant that my father noticed him, too. He walked over to him and shook his hand.
"Are you his doctor?" my father asked.
Doctor Chase smiled at him and nodded. "Yes, I'm Doctor Chase. I've been handling your son's case since he came in here a few hours ago. Gotta say, really interesting stuff."
"He doesn't have cancer or any brain injuries, does he?"
Doctor Chase shook his head. "Any tests that we've run have come back negative for anything like that. Physically speaking he's healthy."
My father frowned and crossed his arms. "So there are no real problems? He just disappeared for five years and that's it?"
Doctor Chase glanced back at me and I subtly shook my head. My family was going to talk about this, but I wanted to do it on my terms without his input on anything. Doctor Chase tilted his head in a nod and turned back to my father.
"I'm sorry, but your son has requested that I don't share the information we've gathered. As he is legally an adult, I have to respect his wishes on the matter."
"TD, what's wrong?" my mother asked, pulling me back into a hug. "We just want to make sure that you're okay." She pulled back and cupped my cheek in her hand. "You can tell us. We won't think you're crazy! All we care about is that you're okay."
Dang. Just... how could I have responded to that? Just tell my mother that I didn't want to talk about it? Sure, that's the smarter move, but... the way she looked at me, I couldn't. The fear and helplessness in her eyes no doubt looked a lot like mine when I first woke up on that bench. I took a deep breath, turned back to Doctor Chase and nodded. He nodded back and opened up my file.
"Physically speaking your son is fine. There's the obvious question of just what happened, but he says that he doesn't know. There's no physical or mental trauma that we can find, but he also doesn't know anything about the last five years. Nothing about the latest election, nothing about the date, he doesn't even know about the last Star Wars films."
My family's eyes all widened and they turned to me. I gave them a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of my neck. "Yeah, none of that," I admitted. "No Star Wars, no knowledge of the Oscar winners, I don't even know who won the last Super Bowl."
"The Broncos," Kristen whispered, rubbing her arm the way she does when she's uneasy.
I actually managed a weak smile at that. "Yeah? You're not just saying that to make me feel better?"
Kristen returned my smile and shook her head. "No. 24-10 against the Panthers. Von Miller was the MVP. Peyton's last game. Went out on top, just like Elway."
I gave an amused little scoff and leaned back on the bed. "I'll be darned."
"I agree. It was a wonderful day for me, too," Doctor Chase said in a tone that let me know that he'd rather move on. "On top of all of the memory loss, there is also the matter of the scars."
"Scars?" Dad asked, frowning.
"Yes, one on his chest and another one on his shoulder. Rather large, noticeable ones, too. I don't suppose he had those before he disappeared?" My mother shook her head. "I didn't think so."
"What are they from?" Kristen asked.
"One appears to be from some sort of slashing weapon, and the other one comes from an arrow, if I had to make a guess."
"An arrow?" my mother cried. "How on Earth were you shot with an arrow?" She gave me a shocked look. "What, were you in a battle or something?"
"If our on-staff psychologist is correct, your son has been in a few battles. Enough that your son reminds him of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan."
"What are you talking about?" Mom cried. "What on Earth happened to you, TD?"
"I..." I looked down at the bed and rubbed the back of my neck. "Can we... can we just not talk about this now? I really just want to get out of here." I looked back up to Doctor Chase. "So I'm not dying and I'm not a madman. Can I just go home now, then?"
"Well if you--"
"No, I don't want any more BS," I growled. "Straight answer: can I leave now, and if not, why?"
We all stared at Doctor Chase, who uneasily cleared his throat and tried to buy time by looking through my file. After a minute, he sighed and nodded. "Yes, I can't see why we need to keep you here, even if we haven't figured out what happened to you. You're not dying and you're not at risk for any negative actions as far as we're aware of. Very well. I'll begin the checkout process."
"Good." I slid out of bed and took my clothes off of the chair next to me. "Then if you'll excuse us..."
Doctor Chase nodded again and closed my file. "Of course. I'll have a nurse come by in a few minutes to get your I.V. out. Then you can sign your discharge papers."
"Fine."
Doctor Chase left the room after that, and my family turned around to give me a little privacy while changing back into my regular clothes. Heh, it actually felt kind of odd putting clothes back on. After going around with nothing more than a chestplate, horseshoes and a crown for several years, actually being fully covered didn't seem to fit. At any rate, I finished putting my clothes back on and sat back down in bed, waiting for the nurse to take the I.V. out.
And waited. And waited.
My family tried for a little small talk, but none of us really knew what to say. I think we were all emotionally drained from everything that had happened. I mean, what the heck do you say about something like this? I sure as heck didn't want to tell them anything about what had happened to me while we were still in the hospital. Despite their assurances to the contrary, I didn't trust that the doctors here wouldn't lock me up the second they heard where I'd been, or, to them, believed where I'd been. If I was locked up, where the heck would I be then? I didn't think I could make it back under the best circumstances, but if I was locked up for being crazy, then I'd be in really big trouble.
It was a solid hour and a half before the nurse finally arrived with my discharge papers. I extended my arm and she quickly took the I.V. out and put on a bandage before handing me the discharge papers. I quickly signed them and shoved them back to her.
"Is that it? Are we done?"
The nurse nodded. "Yep. All done. You feel better, okay?"
I smirked and hopped off of the bed. "Never felt better in my life."
Right, because any of us believed that.
With nothing else keeping me there, my family and I made our way to the exit of the hospital. I tried not to notice the fact that a lot of people stared at me as I went. Yeah, yeah, let them stare. I wouldn't see any of them again if I had any say in it. Don't get me wrong: none of them were flat-out mean. I just didn't like being some kind of weirdo for them to stare at. Yeah, I'd been gone for five years. Big whoop. It wouldn't affect their lives in the slightest.
We finally made it to the automatic doors of the hospital and stepped out to make our way to the car.
Unfortunately, some people were there waiting for us.
I flinched back when a dozen flashes went off in my face, alongside a barrage of questions. Ah, I guess somebody had spilled the beans to the press that Greeley's most famous missing person's case had just randomly re-appeared on a bench on campus. I suppose I could see how that would make a good story for them.
Well, good thing I had a lot of experience dealing with the press.
I stopped in my tracks and held up my hands to about shoulder level in a "calm yourselves" sort of gesture. Each time a reporter asked me a question, I made eye contact with him or her until they fell silent. It didn't take more than a minute or two until each of the dozen or so reporters were completely silent.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I can see how this is an interesting moment for you. I--" One of the cameramen took a picture, and I stared at him for a moment until he guiltily lowered his camera. "Thank you. Now, I understand that this is exciting, but if I may ask that you wait a little while until I have had some time with my family to readjust. As I'm sure you can imagine, this is a confusing time for me and my family. We want to get our heads on straight before I talk to any sort of media. All I can say is that I'm fine. I'm not injured in any way. I wasn't held in some psycho's basement for five years. All I ask from you now is patience." I nodded to a few of them. "Thank you, and if you'll excuse us..."
With that, I walked through the crowd of reporters, which parted to let me and my family pass. I spared one last glance back at them to make sure we weren't being followed before following my father to the car.
It wasn't the same car as when I'd left. The old one was a blue Honda, while this one was green and didn't look quite as nice. My dad unlocked the car doors and I entered on the right side, with my sister sitting next to me. My dad started the car and we drove away from the hospital. Good riddance.
After a few minutes of driving, my dad cleared his throat and looked back at me with the rear-view mirror.
"Uh, TD? When did you get so good at dealing with the media?"
"Yeah, I think I would have frozen if I was in your position," Kristen agreed. "I remember your public speaking class in high school. You weren't very good." Kristen looked back through the back window to make sure we weren't being followed by any news vans. "So when the heck did you learn to do that?"
I shrugged. "I had a lot of time in the hospital to think about what I was going to say to them, I guess."
Kristen gave me a flat look. "Yeah. Right. The way you handled them kinda struck me as something that comes with practice. You don't just think about it for a few hours and then have them under your complete control."
"Yeah, well, I guess I do." I made unblinking eye contact with Kristen. "And that's all I'll say about it for right now, alright?"
Kristen huffed and crossed her arms. "Fine. But you're going to give us the whole story eventually. I know you know what happened to you."
"TD..." My mom turned and put her hand on my leg. "We won't think you're crazy, no matter what you say. You disappeared in a flash of light. We've seen the footage. If you tell us you were abducted by aliens and spent the last five years on Jupiter then, well, I suppose I'd have to believe you because nobody has any better explanations."
"I wasn't on Jupiter. I wasn't on Mars. I wasn't abducted by aliens." More... inter-dimensional beings that star in an animated kids' show here. "I'm fine. I'll talk about it when I'm ready, okay? It's like I said to the press: I need a little time to get my head on straight."
"I suppose that's fair, just know that we're worried about you." Mom's gaze flicked over to my chest. "At least tell me about the combat thing, please? Where did you get the scars? Were you actually in combat?"
"I..." I sighed and rubbed my temples. Much like the press, they weren't going to drop things unless I threw them a bone. "Yeah, I was in a fight. A few of them, actually. Yeah, I got injured. Nothing that still bothers me, though. I'm fine."
Unless you count the emotional trauma of the Nightmare Weapons themselves. Granted, there weren't too many left. Either way, I never wanted to fight somebody who had one ever again. I was two for two on getting hurt by them.
"What kind of fight?" Kristen asked suspiciously. "A small skirmish or were you a soldier in some kind of war? You reminded the head doc of people who have been in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Again, I really wish I was any good at lying to my family. Even with all of my practice as an alicorn, I doubted I could get one over on them. If I went stone-faced around them, they'd know something was up. They'd know that I was hiding something. As an alicorn, 1. I had the basic trust of my subjects and 2. they all assumed we had our own secrets anyway, so if they did feel that I wasn't telling them everything, they assumed that I had a darned good reason for it. I usually did, actually. Here, though, I'd be hurting my family if I just lied, on top of the fact that they wouldn't believe it anyway.
"A war, okay?" I growled. "A necessary war, actually. I just..." I sighed and looked out the car window. "Just trust me, okay? I'll explain everything to you when I can. Right now I just want to get home."
My parents exchanged a look, but they didn't press me on the issue. They just looked ahead and let me be. I could tell that they all had a thousand questions for me, but I needed time, and they finally realized that. They had me back after five years. I guess they thought that I wasn't leaving them again.
The worst part is, I would if I could. I needed to. I couldn't stay here.
* * * *
After about an hour and a half, we made it back to my childhood home. We didn't say anything as we filed out of the car, which I appreciated. I didn't want to answer any more questions from them. It was unavoidable, of course, but I'd only been back for a few hours. More questions could at least wait until the next day. Even though it was only seven, I just wanted to go to bed. Maybe I'd get lucky and wake up in Equestria. Maybe whatever higher power was in control there would want me to come back and restore the balance. Or not. Maybe the Elements of Harmony had already trapped Discord again, leaving Celestia and Luna time to look through every dimension to find me.
I could only hope.
"So, uh, you hungry, TD?" my dad asked when we were all inside. I shook my head and looked in the direction of my old room. "Oh come on, you have to be. When was the last time you ate anything?"
"I dunno," I muttered.
When was the last time I ate something? Uh... dinner yesterday? Something like that? It didn't really matter to me. I might have been hungry at that moment, but I didn't care about eating at all.
"Come on, you have to eat something," Mom said. "I... I have some leftover chicken from last night. I could heat that up. Or we could even just order some pizza. I could get us a couple of meat lovers. Those were always your favorites."
Yeah, they weren't going to let me go without eating. Fine. "Uh, the chicken sounds fine, I guess."
"Okay, I'll get started on that. Anything else you want with that? Corn? Mashed potatoes?"
I shrugged. "Whatever you want. I'll be up in my room." I frowned and tilted my head. "It is still my room, right?"
"Of course," Dad said. "We haven't touched it since you... well, we haven't changed it at all."
"Cool." A wry smile crossed my face. "Which probably means that it's still a bit of a cluttered mess, then."
Dad let out a weak chuckle at that. "Yeah, a little bit. We don't care about that, though. You go on and rest for a little bit. We'll have dinner ready soon."
Without another word I trudged up the stairs to my room. As promised, it hadn't changed at all, except that the stuff from my dorm room had been moved back in here. My bed had even been made. I guess Mom did that. Other than that, it was all as it should have been. I sighed and plopped down on my bed. It didn't feel right. Back when I was still on Earth, this room had been my sanctuary. Whenever I felt overwhelmed by anything, I'd come back here and relax. Now I felt like I was intruding on somebody else's private space. None of this stuff belonged to me anymore. I glanced over at my desktop computer. It probably had all of my old games on there. I vaguely wondered which groundbreaking games had come out since my disappearance.
Not that I'd care about playing any of them anyway.
I sat up when an idea struck me. Maybe I could...
I moved over to my computer and hit the power button. It instantly turned on, and I had to close my eyes at the sudden bright light. Still, good to know that it worked. I guess not touching it for five years extended its life a little bit. When it got to the main screen, I turned the sound off and clicked on Firefox.
Man, five years ago I'd break my computer before doing this. Now...
It took a bit of searching, but I finally found it on Netflix. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I clicked on it and searched through the episodes. Interestingly enough, I didn't appear to be in any of them. I guess it made a little sense. Between my rambunctious sex life with Celestia, being the sperm donor for Luna, and the bloody, brutal war, my life wasn't really appropriate for the show. A preview image of the final episode, the finale of season eight, showed that Rainbow Dash still had all of her legs, so I hazarded a guess that Applejack also had both of her eyes.
I guess that was good.
I flipped through the preview images until I found one that I was looking for. Season two episode three. It showed a screenshot of Celestia in the air, her horn lit with a determined look on her face. The episode title said "Lesson Zero." I smirked and allowed myself the barest chuckle. I remember hearing about that after I came to Ponyville.
I took a deep breath and clicked on the episode. Instantly a tranquil shot of Ponyville appeared, followed by Twilight and Spike going through a checklist. Good times, I'll bet. Simpler times.
I searched around the episode for a little bit until I found her. She appeared in a bright light in the air in the same shot they used for the preview image. She looked mad. I wondered if she looked like that when she appeared during the attack on my palace by the griffins.
That didn't matter to me. All that mattered to me was that I could see her. I gently reached out and touched the screen, hoping beyond hope that if I touched her I could feel her velvety fur.
Nope. Just a computer screen.
I took another deep breath and slowly, gently turned up the volume until it was barely audible and pressed play. With one wave of her horn she canceled out the "Want It, Need It" spell. She ordered Twilight to meet her in the library in that authoritative, almost scolding voice she'd used on me a few times. Right now I'd take it. Anything to just hear her voice again.
I leaned in closer to the speaker so that I could hear my wife's voice better. My breathing became shaky as I listened to her comfort Twilight, assuring her that she was a wonderful student that she was very proud of. Just hearing my wife's voice, but still knowing that this was just some voice actress pretending to be her... Bittersweet. That's the best word for it. Bittersweet.
Someday I'd hear her real voice again. Someday I'd hold her and not let go.
"Uh, what are you doing?"
I nearly leaped out of my chair at the sound of my sister's voice. I swirled around and shot to my feet, glaring straight at her. "What the heck are you doing in my room?"
"What the heck are you doing in your room?" She raised an eyebrow and looked at my computer screen. "You hate My Little Pony."
"It's none of your business. Just get out of here!"
"Are you a Brony now?"
"No! Just get out!"
Kristen huffed and leaned against the door. "Whatever. That's not what I came in to talk to you about anyway." Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms. "Mom and Dad might be fine with letting you be tight-lipped about what you were doing, but I'm not. I went through the timeline, you know. I know I was the last person you talked to before you disappeared." A pained look crossed her face, and her arm twitched like she wanted to reach out to me. "I just... I never thought I'd look back on that conversation and think that was the last time I'd ever talk to you, you know? We go our separate ways and then I have to hear that you've completely disappeared off the face of the Earth and I... I kinda blamed myself a little. What if I had just talked to you for another minute? Would the bright light have gotten somebody else? You wouldn't have been in the path of that car, that's for sure."
"It's not your fault," I insisted.
"Sure felt like it sometimes," Kristen muttered. "But now you're back. I dreamed about you coming back sometimes, you know? We'd all hug and cry and you'd be so happy." Kristen sighed and sat down on the foot of my bed. "Mom and Dad don't want to say it, but I've figured it out. You don't want to be here with us, do you? Wherever you were, you want to go right back to it. What, did the war you were fighting not end or something?"
I shook my head. "No, it ended," I muttered.
"So what, then?" Kristen put a hand on my arm. "Tell me I'm wrong. Please? Tell me you're just in shock or something, or that you're just tired from all of the crazy stuff that happened today." When I didn't answer, her hand slid down and she stared at the ground. "Oh."
"It's not you, I promise. For the first couple of years, I wanted nothing else than to just get back to you guys."
"So you have Stockholm Syndrome now?"
"No, it's not that. It's just that... I thought I'd never come back. I thought there was no possible way, so I just adapted. I made a life for myself. A very important life." I sat down next to her and thought about putting an arm over her shoulders, but didn't. Instead I just sat back-to-back with her, both of us staring at the floor. "I am happy to see you guys again, of course. If I thought it was possible, I might even want you to come back with me."
"Yeah, because that wouldn't be selfish of you at all," Kristen growled. "It's not like we don't have our own lives either. Would we even adjust to whatever place you went to?"
"I... I don't know," I admitted. "I did, but some seriously crazy things had to happen before that."
"Like your war thing?"
I shook my head. "No, that was after I'd settled."
Kirsten huffed and turned to face me. "TD, what happened? I don't want any more lies or side-stepping. I just want some straight freaking answers from you. Where were you? What were you doing? What the heck was this war thing? Why were you fighting it?"
"I... I fought it because I had to."
"So you saw some crusade wherever you went, and you just had to be a hero and join up."
"No. Where... where I was, they got attacked. They would have killed everybody if we didn't gear up for war. They especially wanted to kill me. Others had tried before already. That's what the arrow wound on my chest is from. Some parts of me think I shouldn't have survived that. I almost didn't. If they'd gotten to me minutes later... I spent three months in the hospital as it was."
"What the heck were you shot with, some poisoned arrow?"
I smirked. "Pretty close, actually. We beat them, though. But then more people came. The first one was just an attack by some small group. The war, though, that was something else. They wanted to enslave everyone and kill anything that stood in their way. I have no illusions that they wouldn't have killed me and... my wife and daughter."
I heard Kristen's quiet gasp. "Y-your what?"
I turned back to her, a small, sad smile on my face. "My wife and daughter. It's a recent thing. I've only been married for a month or so. Nymeria was born not too long after that. I actually have another child on the way, too."
"So..." Kristen groaned and rubbed her forehead. "So you got married to a girl you knocked up. During a war. Then you knocked her up again. Great. Just great." Kristen took a deep breath to center herself. "So I can guess that you weren't here, then. Like, on this planet. That's what the flashing light was. You were being taken to some other planet or dimension."
"Dimension," I muttered.
"Oh." Kristen took another deep breath. "Okay. Okay. Yeah. Another dimension where you were in a war and got married. I guess the wife and kid explains why you want to go back so bad." Kirsten sighed and leaned her head against my wall. "So, the war. Did you... did you... kill anybody?"
I grimaced and looked back down at the floor. "Are we talking deaths I caused directly, or deaths I ordered?"
"Uh..."
"Because if we're going with the first, then that number might be hundreds. Maybe even a thousand. If we're talking the latter... tens of thousands."
I looked back at Kristen, whose face had gone white. Her mouth flopped up and down while she tried to think of anything to say. Yeah, I wouldn't know what to say to that either. I merely took a deep breath and continued.
"Like I said: they were going to kill a lot of us and enslave the rest. They wanted to kill my wife and daughter. What was I supposed to do?"
"I... I dunno." Kristen shook her head in disbelief and rubbed her forehead again. "I... you went to another dimension, got married, had a kid with another one on the way, and you got in a war where you killed more people than I've ever met." The ghost of a humorless smile crossed Kristen's face. "At least you went somewherewhere they were all human, right?" When I didn't immediately respond in the affirmative, she sat up. "R-right? You didn't knock up some weird alien chick, did you?"
"Uh..."
Kristen groaned and facepalmed. "Great. You went native." Her eyes flicked up to my computer screen. "At least it wasn't the My Little Pony world, right?" Once again, I didn't confirm that, and her small smile faded away instantly. "TD, your next line is how no matter how weird what you went through was, it wasn't that weird. Please tell me that you're only quiet because you're thinking of how to explain what kind of place you were in."
"Wish I could," I muttered.
Kristen slowly got to her feet and began backing away. "No. That's... no. You went to a world with talking cartoon horses and married one of them. Got one of them pregnant, even. Just... that's..."
"To be fair, I'd turned into one."
"Yeah, that helps." Kristen took a shaky breath in. "So, did you marry one of the characters from the show? Is my sister-in-law Rainbow Zoom, or whatever she's called?"
"Rainbow Dash," I corrected. "And no. Yes I married one of the characters, but not her."
"Then..." Her eyes went back to the screen and landed on Celestia. "Oh. You married the big white one, didn't you?" She shakily pointed at the screen. "That's my sister-in-law, isn't it?"
"Yeah, I'm afraid so."
"You went into another dimension, turned into a magical talking pony and married that one. I..." Kristen shook her head and turned to open the door. "I need some time alone. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes."
I got to my feet and moved a step closer to her. "You believe me, right?"
Kristen paused for a moment, then shrugged. "I guess. Big flashing light, you know? Plus it's not like we've had a world war since you've been gone. I can't disprove any of your story. I just... I need some time to process this."
"So you don't believe me," I muttered. "But you believe that I believe what I'm saying."
"I don't know right now, TD. Just... let me think about this, alright?"
"Yeah, sure."
With that, Kristen left my room, shutting the door behind her, leaving me to wonder whether or not I'd just seriously messed up.
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I can already tell this is going to be one wild ride. I can hardly wait.
well, that went about as well as could be expected.... right? More please.
So excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hah I like when fics make a prediction on how many seasons the show will last. Personally I hope it reaches 200 episodes before they decide move onto a new generation.
Well damn. She's good.
It's a big, jagged pill to swallow, kiddo.
I desperately want TD to have some ability to do magic. He lived for years with a whole other sense, and I want that to be addressed.
7923424
I concur. Well, how else is he going to get home? If TD doesn't earn his back under his own power, it'll feel like a bit of a cop out. Although, undercutting our expectations is something this author is rather skilled at doing, so I shall trust in his judgement for now.
Wow, somehow I managed to forget that in these stories MLP is known in the "real world"... I was all like "oh yeah, everything's even weirder!"...
7923436 there are also three alicorns and an entire country's worth of unicorns that will be trying to get him back though. As much as you'd like to see TD make it on his own, he's not living in a bubble. I do hope he can start using abbot of magic though. The hardest part of that though may be the "humans don't have magic" mentality. But then, I don't know if Discord can really destroy an alicorn like that.
Edit: wonder if the Elements reversing everyhing after his defeat would turn him back?
Sorry, Dear. We ran out of chicken. But we do have some tender brazed pony from the new restaurant down the street.
:)
I bet this earth is the Matrix.
TD: Pfft, sure, the Broncos won the superbowl. Next you'll be telling me that the Cubs won the world series.
Everyone else: uhhhhhhhhhh....
it lives ?
Hey that is right, I didn't think that, now that he married a queen…their parents had a queen as a daughter in-law…daughters if Luna decided to convince Celestia in letting her join the marriage (hey, TD is still the only male alicorn and according to what imply he is the physical perfection in male stallions…plus inmortal, of course she will be tentet)
Back in track…oh boy Kristine has a lot of question in her plate now, maybe starting with 'wait…if he marriage a princess…does that mean I'm now a duchess? Oh god I'm the duchess of a children cartoon show'
Also have to say, I will not oppose if the family join him if they all go to ponyville, Celestia certainly would love to meet them/ freak out with the concept of having to meet her parents-in-law.
7923799
Tulip would be ecstatic.
7923809
Oh yeah, he…an possible Cadence
Well, he could check the future... Maybe he can 'reform' Discord, take care of Tirek, check the plundervines, stop Starlight and the project of 'our town' and let's hope that he stop the changelings from becoming shiny green things.
7923818
I'm actually OK with their change if only because I want to see what they will do with it and what it will actually mean for them in the future.
I really hope his stay on earth will be a short one, It literaly hurts to read each chapter. Too many feeeeeels maaaahn.
7923818 Except that has all been shot through hell. Changelings and Chrysalis certainly will follow a different path. Tirek is an unknown, but likely hood scape either didn't happen or went differently, and my town would never be found out without the map... That requires Twilight's castle for the map, that requires twilight to ascend and fight tirek, so yeah, split timelines and all.
About Discord, it's a toss up. Either in the ends he learns a valuable lesson/is thankful he could see his family again, or his all encompassing hatred makes he want to destroy the chaos spirit for good.
That and I doubt Celestia would go for his reformation after taking her husband from her. You know, personal vendettas and all.
7923939
I think they covered Tirek, or maybe that was the other timeline where he stayed human?
As to Discord, I think the only 'reforming' he's going to get in Antares' timeline is a large pointy object shoved up his backside. Even if TD/Antares himself was still inclined to even try after this, I agree that it's very much doubtful Celestia will be this time, and the reformation was her idea originally.
Dude I can't wait for the next chapter. These are like patato chips you can't have just one
Wondering if you messed up? You just told your sister you got transported to MLP was reality, got married to royalty, had children with her, and fought a war. Should've just told her you got teleported to a different dimension and left it at that. This will result in an endless amount of teasing from her or her telling the folks and them tossing you into a straight jacket.
7923997 I don't believe I ever covered Tirek.
7924350
Apologies then, I do read a lot of HiE stories, so it's not surprising I get them crossed sometimes.
And then they threw him in the loony bin. The End.
Maybe the only way to return to Equestria is for TD to become a princess again ;)
Pweaseee.
Those "how on earth" are terrible puns...
And we love them!
7924837 why?
7924113
Then Discord shows up and they be like "Aw fuck he was telling the truth wasn't he?"
7923542
You have to remember, they're going to be preoccupied with the whole Discord issue.
Additionally, I was also referencing reasons previously given as to why it would be incredibly difficult to send TD back home. Remember Wanderings?
PS-Huge fan of your work! I've been reading Substitute since chapter 1!
7923693
And Germany won the world cup. Can't forget that!
7924113 You really don't have good rep with your family do you? It was only his sister he's told so far, and after seeing a flash of light, something that if you look into it looks kind of like an MLP teleport, I think his mom was fairly adamant that they'd accept whatever story he laid out. The fact that he has physical scars proving his story is all the more reason to believe him. If my little brother came back like that, I'd believe him. Especially if he had the ability to deal with the press as easily as TD did. That speaks of experience, something he'd have if he married Biggest Horse.
Ya dun fucked it up TD, you gonna get chucked in the loony bin with the cokoo for Coco Puffs people.
7925490 You do realize that most teleporting done is accompanied with a flash of light, right? It would take some kind of miracle to know that exact flash of light belongs to MLP. How does a few scars lead any credence to his story? I've got scars from an odd assortment of accidents that could be mistaken for something else and I haven't been teleported to a different dimension. There are still people in this world who have experience using bows and use slashing weapons. A person can accept a lot of things, but to accept that a family member was teleported into a dimension where a child's television show is reality, was turned into pony royalty and gender swapped, gender swapped again, married one of the ruler's of the land, fought and won a war using near modern day weapons, then transported back by a reality warping deity? I love my family but that is way too big of a pill to swallow. And the way he handled the press instantly tells a person that he obviously married Celestia? Any real news that was seen from the show was done by foals, and all they got was a picture of Celestia eating cake. For all anyone knows from watching the show, Celestia could be terrible when dealing with reporters. Besides, how could the pacifistic pony reporters even begin to compare to the relentless bloodhounds that are human reporters? You only say that you would easily accept it because never would be in an actual situation where you would have to prove it. I mean really, having a sibling disappear for several years then suddenly return claiming they've been sent to a child's t.v show with their only proof being a few scars and some press handling experience? That boy needs therapy!
7926177
You forgot how he basically hasn't aged ALMOST AT ALL.
EDIT: And his blood test.
7926217 If he was younger that would be something, but he was only gone for a few years. I look pretty much the same as I did two years ago, any changes would be barely noticeable. And as for the oddities in his blood test? Simple: drugs. A new one, a modified one, or just a different reaction to an existing one. See it from their point of view, not yours. You may be ready to accept something like this but for others who've become accustomed to normality and suddenly be confronted with something supernatural? Deny, ignore, or try to rationalize it. Not everyone is just going to accept something so fantastical so easily.
well Kristen did not explode but some how I see a hole lot of disbelief coming at TD. till they get proof that is.
7926249 To be fair, there's a huge difference between not aging much after two years and not aging at all after five years.
7923824 They become background character that apear maybe in the back of a couple of episodes to never appear again until the people that make the script is bored and without ideas, check past villains and try to give them a episode.
After that Sombra will turn white, and love everyone, reforming himself as he begin to give candy to the crystal ponies.
7923939 What about "Our Town" and Starlight? If Twilight don't get the message, she is not going to going there.
And if Discord is not reformed, not sure what happen with the Plundervines.
7926249
Ah, I don't think you can chalk the blood thing as 'drugs' even if it is a new type of drug, I'm pretty sure doctors could say its a drug or not, besides it didn't do anything, I'm not expert and don't know how it works but drugs usually leave a mark, some scar, color in the blood, something only doctors would see, but TD blood is just…well there, is not affecting, is not increasing or decreasing anything is just…there like an extra element. So yeah…any one in the medical area probably will be baffled.
Also, yeah, there is a difference between 2 and 5 years, more changes are noticeable, so that is a big plus
Man, this just keeps getting more and more interesting.
I swear this story is like a drug, addicted to it and wanting more after getting my fix
7923693
ha. Of course, I'm told there was a super bowl recently…but the story only moved hours since it was posted.
7926177
Pretty sure I also said his mom said she'd take any explanation he gave them, and I didn't say it was an MLP teleport, I said it looked like it. It's on the list of possibilities.
It's the fact that the doctors gave their opinion that those scars point to weapons that have been out-dated for years. Sure some people use bows still and they're easy to get, but a sword? The doctor also said he had PTSD, like a soldier. A mental scar. Add in the fact that the guards in the show wear plate armor and use spears?
I said it showed he had experience, something he'd have if he was married to the ruler of a country. All it does is lend additional credence to his story. I even said 'That speaks of experience, something he'd have if he married Biggest Horse.' I did not say it meant that he married her in and of itself, I said that it was another tick in his favor, another skill he didn't have before he left.
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth.
In this case, they're well and ready to accept aliens, as the flash of light was unexplained. How much farther is it really to accept that one of my favorite multi-verse theories, that every work of fiction has a reality in which it is fact, is true when you're ready to admit aliens and haven't actually seen any?
This story doesn't hesitate to charge right in and deal with the heavy stuff, does it? I like that a lot.
7927745 Well, you aren't here to see me beat around the bush.
Ya know, I could send Discord to meet the Doctor again.
Like, in that one story I wrote. Where the Doctor stabbed the jabberwocky with the vorpal dagger. Because grimdark Discords deserve lots of stabbings. Which is the main reason I wrote it.
7927402 So then there's a "Plan 9 From Outer Space"-verse (complete with cardboard objects) and an "Egah"-verse, and a "She-ra"-verse...
Come on, wish-fulfillment is fun and stuff, but taking something so preposterous seriously is heading half-way into crazy town. It's not even based on how legitimate alternate universes would be generated, that being by having slightly different quantum rules and constants, NOT by mirroring any personal details of anyone on some random planet.