Chapter 22:A Decisive Decision

The sun was rising on another beautiful day at the house of Dylan, the flowers were blooming, the birds were chirping at the new season, the sun sparkled morning dew as it glistened off the glass. The beauty of the land was good, but inside the house was the most beautiful scene of all since the close shave with Michael Benson and the dirty cop.

Inside the house back in the bedroom, Dylan Stone was sleeping peacefully with his mare friends wrapped around him, they had even reverted back to their old alicorn pony selves as their wings wrapped around Dylan. The combination of both their bodies kept Dylan warm and comfortable as he slept like a small child, the feeling of having him back in their hooves after saving him fro Michael Benson's clutches never felt better to them as they nuzzled Dylan's cheeks.

Suddenly the gleaming light of the sun shined through the window and landed right on Celestia's face as she then stirred and opened her eyes to look upon her human lover and her yawned as she looked down and saw that she was back to her old self, she looked at her hooves as she then gently brushed a hoof over Dylan's cheek before giving him a small lick.

It was then that Luna had opened her eyes and saw the activity Celestia was doing, she also noticed her back in her pony form and looked to herself to see that she was back to her old self as well. She then decided to join Celestia and began licking Dylan's other cheek while she caressed her own hoof over his chest.

"He's so peaceful now... I wish every day could be this peaceful for him,"Luna said quietly as she looked upon the human with love in her eyes.

"As do I Luna, we finally have him back, and this time... Nothing will ever separate us again,"Celestia said as they saw Dylan stir before going back to sleep.

It was then that their moment was interrupted as Discord suddenly appeared in a bright flash of light and was about to let out another one of his signature loud greetings, but was quickly shushed by the princesses as they pointed at Dylan.

"So... Are you two ready to go yet? My powers have been fully restored and I'm ready to get back to Equestria post haste,"Discord said as he flexed his arms and legs out of boredom.

"What...? You mean...right now?!"Celestia questioned.

"Well of course, don't you two want to go home? Every pony back home is probably worried sick about you,"Discord said with concern.

"But... What about Dylan, we can't just leave him here Discord, we promised that we would never be separated from him again,"Luna said with a bit of fear at the thought of leaving Dylan.

"Well... Why don't you take him with you, I'm sure the ponies could all adjust to him with a little time,'Discord said as he floated down and sat on the bed.

"Well... We haven't exactly told him the fact that you were here to take us home, we didn't want him to think we were going to abandon him, and... Taking him with us is not that simple,"Celestia explained as she gently got off the bed without disturbing Dylan.

"Really...? How is that?"Discord questioned with his arms crossed.

"Discord, he grew up in this house, this was his home all his life, It is the only thing he has left to remember his family by, we can't just take him away from his home,"Luna said as she turned back and continued to rub Dylan's chest.

"Well I'm sorry, but I see only two options here, either bring him to Equestria with you, or leave him here,"Discord said with rising impatience.

"We would never abandon Dylan here to be alone the rest of his life...!"Celestia snapped in a whisper.

"Well the two of you need to figure this out because I'm not going to wait all day, my dear friend Fluttershy is probably missing me already, and I'm not going to keep blowing her off for this,"Discord said defiantly as he floated back up."When the two of you come to a decision I'll be in the back yard, and don't you keep me waiting.

With that said Discord disappeared in a flash leaving Celestia and Luna with a dilemma on their hooves now as they looked to Dylan with concern and great conflict. The sadness and difficulty made their hearts ache knowing that this was going to be a struggle and Dylan was not going to leave without a few choice words.

"*sigh*... Discord is right, we can't stay here any more Luna, we need to get back to our subjects,"Celestia said with a little pain in her voice.

"But we can't just leave him here Tia, I will not abandon him when he is so much more happier with us by his side,"Luna defied as she nuzzled at Dylan's cheek.

"We have to, we'll wait for him outside and then we'll tell him, and we can only hope that he will come with us,"Celestia said as she magically made her attire and even her crown appear and put them on.

Luna only looked down in sadness at her human lover as she then gave in and got off the bed, she then made her own attire appear along with her black crown and put them on. Celestia and Luna then silently walked out of the bedroom, leaving Dylan sleeping and unaware of what was happening.

It was only about an hour and a half later before Dylan finally stirred and awoke in his bed, he covered his eyes against the gleaming sun and yawned as he turned to see both Celestia and Luna missing. He sat up and rubbed his eyes as he searched around for his beloved mares, he pulled the covers off him and revealed the fact that he was still naked from last night as he covered his area up with both hands. He then quickly rushed over to his dresser and quickly pulled out some pants along with a shirt to wear, he quickly threw them on and ran out of his room to find his missing mares.

Celestia...! Luna...! Where are you?!"Dylan called out with a bit of fear.

He then rushed into the living room and looked around for any sign of his missing loves, he even began to feel scared and cold not feeling their warmth any more. He searched all over the living room before moving into the kitchen and even searching through the cabinets, it was then that he could feel their presence and decided to send out a call.

'Celestia...! Luna...! Please tell me where you are, I can't find you,'Dylan thought loudly to gain their attention.

'It's alright Dylan, we're outside in the back yard, we are waiting for you,'The reassuring thoughts of Celestia suddenly called out to him.

Dylan let out a sigh of relief as he rushed to a window and looked out to see Celestia, Luna and Discord all standing outside right next to a strange round orb made of pure white magic. Curiosity and confusion took Dylan as he slowly walked to the door and opened it to leave, he stepped outside and turned to the back yard, he stepped off and slowly approached them as he felt wind from the strange orb hit his face. The wind howled as he approached them and in that moment, Celestia and Luna turned towards him and gave him sad looks while Discord gave them time to talk.

"Well there you are, I was getting worried about you two, what's going on here? What is all this?"Dylan asked as he looked to the orb.

The mares only replied by walking towards Dylan and suddenly giving him a heart felt hug along with a kisses to his cheek.

"Dylan... This is our way home, this is a portal that will take us back to Equestria,"Luna explained as they slowly parted from the hug.

"Okay... And what does that mean? how did this suddenly show up?"Dylan asked with confusion.

"I conjured it up, you see coming to your world took so much energy out of me that I couldn't perform the spell a second time, I needed to take a long rest so my magic could be restored, so after I took my long rest here, I was able to create a portal for us to go home in,"Discord explained in an oddly serious tone.

"Wait... You're leaving?! But... I thought you were going to stay with me,"Dylan said in shock as his voice began to escalate.

"Dylan... We love you with all our hearts, but we can't be here any longer, Equestria needs us and there is no telling what awaits us back at home,"Celestia explained with worry.

"So you're just going to leave me just like that?!"Dylan said in a louder tone.

"No Dylan! We would never do that to you, It's just... We didn't know how to ask this of you,"Celestia replied.

"Ask me what?"Dylan questioned.

"Well... We wanted to ask if... You would like to come with us,"Celestia said as Dylan's eyes widened with shock.

"What...? You want me to come with you? To your home?"Dylan asked with even more confusion.

"Yes Dylan...! Please come with us! We wanna take you with us! We want to take you away from all this pain and all this loneliness! We want to take care of you just as you had taken care of us...!"Luna blurted out as she hugged Dylan once again.

"I... But I... I have a home here, how could I just leave my home like this?"Dylan questioned in disbelief.

"But Dylan, don't you wanna be away from all the madness this world has brought upon you? Don't you want to be with us?!"Luna questioned back as she felt tears stinging her eyes.

"But... I can't... I could never leave my home, It's all I have left in this world,"Dylan said as he too felt tears stinging his eyes.

"Dylan please... We don't want to leave you, but we can't just abandon our subjects,"Celestia said in a shaky voice as her and Luna began to feel rage building in Dylan.

"So basically your giving me an ultimatum! You two or my home is that it!"Dylan said as he felt pain and hate stricken him.

Celestia and Luna were afraid this was how he was going to react, Discord was just plain afraid as he backed away slowly from the angry human. Dylan felt his whole world being torn from him, agitation followed by anger then settled in as the he felt his own mare friends forcing him to choose between his life here and a new one in their world. The mares could feel his stress and his anger as they tried to reach out to comfort him, but in a shocking response he slapped their hooves away stared at them angrily with tears streaming down his eyes.

"Why are you doing this to me?! I can't leave my home!"Dylan yelled with hate.

"Dylan...! We have no choice in the matter!"Luna argued.

"Please Dylan...! We didn't want things to come to this,"Celestia said as tears leaked from her eyes.

"YOU KNOW WHAT?! JUST GO THEN...!"Dylan suddenly roared with pain."IF IT'S THAT IMPORTANT TO YOU THEN JUST LEAVE! AFTER EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED YOU'RE FORCING ME TO LEAVE MY HOME! I LIVED HERE MY WHOLE LIFE AND DAMMIT THIS IS WHERE I WANNA DIE! BUT IF YOU WOULD RATHER LEAVE THEN FINE!"

With that said Dylan turned around and ran back to his house crying with his arm over his face, Celestia and Luna felt blown away by Dylan as they suddenly found themselves chasing him to the house. Dylan quickly ran inside the house and slammed the door in the mares faces, he locked the door behind him leaving the two mares trapped outside as they pounded away at the door, he felt their thoughts call out to him as he rushed back to his room still covering his face in grief.

'Dylan please! We don't want to leave you! we're sorry but we had no choice! Please just talk to us!'The cries of Luna's thoughts said to him.

'Open the door Dylan! Just calm down and think about this!'Celestia's thoughts added.

"GO AWAY! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE...! I GUESS THAT'S JUST HOW I'M MEANT TO BE BECAUSE I'M NOT LEAVING MY HOME...!"Dylan shouted as the voices in his head suddenly.

For over an hour Dylan laid there in complete silence as he no longer could hear his mare friends, he continued to sob as he came to realize that they were probably long gone and back to their world. He had never felt such a big slap in the face by life before, his one chance at eternal happiness and life's cruelty had to take it away, he felt his pain and sorrow eat away at him slowly as he felt his hand lazily move towards his dresser.

He continued to sob as he opened his dresser up and revealed his gun that was hidden under a pile of clothes. He slowly reached out and picked up his gun, he then began looking at it as he saw his reflection in the shiny piece of the metal, and all he could see was a broken man and nothing to live for, no life beyond his home, and now... no one to love.

He slowly turned the muzzle of the gun as he felt his problems begin to slip away, he cocked the gun as he felt that this was his only way out now, he put the gun to his head as tears rolled down his cheek and said his last words.

"Celestia... Luna... I'm so sorry... No matter what has happened... No matter where you two are... I love you both,"Dylan said as he began to squeeze the trigger.

Suddenly as he was about to end it all, he felt a very gentle hand on the muzzle of his gun, as he looked up he suddenly found himself blinded by a gleaming golden light that lit up the whole room. Finally as the light began to settle, he could see a woman, this woman looked like an angel as she wore a golden dress and had golden blond hair that was flowing in the wind. He looked into the woman's eyes as she gave him a warm smile and gently pulled the gun from his hand, it was then that he realized who this was as tears continued to flow freely.

"M-Mom...? Is...that you?"Dylan asked as he suddenly reached out and was held in a loving embrace by the angelic woman.

"Dylan... My special boy, you have grown up so much, I barely even recognize you any more,"The woman said as she kissed him on the fore head.

"I... I missed you mom... But... I thought you were gone,"Dylan said softly as he tried to dry his eyes.

"I will never be gone my son, me, your father, your brother and your sisters are always here with you,"Dylan's mother said as they slowly parted from their hug.

"W-what do you mean, you're all dead... And I'm alone, I don't even have Celestia and Luna any more, I have no one,"Dylan said as he sat on his bed and lowered his head with sadness.

"Dylan... We have always been with you, we were right here in your heart this whole time,"His mother said as she placed one hand on his chest and the other lift his head up.

"Why...? Why did you all go away? Why did I live... When you all died?"Dylan questioned while the woman wiped his tears away.

"It was fate son... Fate has a funny and mysterious way of thinking at times, It wants you to live... So you can find love in more ways than just one, and from what I saw from inside you, you found it,"The woman said as she sat on the bed next to him.

"Yeah... Celestia and Luna, I... I never thought I could love any one else again, but... They were so nice to me, they cared about me so much and... We loved each other so much,"Dylan said with a sniffle.

"You want to be with them don't you...?"His mother questioned.

"Yes... But I don't want to leave this place, this is all I have left to remember you and the whole family, besides... They're already gone,"Dylan said as he felt tears in his eyes again.

"Dylan... I know you miss us, and I know you mean well, but... This place is not for you any more, look around... You're living in a house full of broken memories, pain and sadness, that's not the life I wanted for you,"His mother explained as shock struck Dylan."I wanted you to grow up happy and so full of love, If you stay here any longer you're just going to keep hurting yourself until there is nothing left of you to hurt."

"But I can't... And even if i could... It's too late, Celestia, Luna and Discord are already gone, and it's my fault, I drove them away because I wouldn't dare leave my home..."Dylan said as his mother smiled.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, they're waiting outside for you as we speak, they would never leave you after everything you have been through together,"His mother said.

"What...? But...I thought..."Dylan said as he suddenly felt their presence outside the house on the porch."Why...? Why are they still here...?"

"Dylan... They love you so much, that they are willing to stay, but their hearts are breaking son, they miss their home and all their subjects, but they are willing to stay just for you..."She said as shock over took him.

He then began to focus on Celestia and Luna, and from what he could tell... His mother was right on the money, he could sense their love for him, but he could also feel their own sadness and sorrow, they were home sick and their hopes of going home were dwindling. He gasp and was instantly panting with disbelief and pain, he was draining the life from them just as life had done to him. He would never have wanted to hurt them, but to keep them from their home was probably the worst kind of hurt any person could ever do to the ones they love, he felt disgusted with himself.

"I... What have I done...? How could I have done this to them?"Dylan asked as he felt more disgusted with himself.

"It is alright son, you still have a chance to do what's right here,"The mother said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"W-What do you mean...?"Dylan asked.

"Well... Think about it Dylan, would you rather stay here and be miserable your whole life? Or would you rather be some where you will be loved and away from all this madness and pain?"His mother questioned.

Dylan looked deep into his thoughts as he balanced the idea of staying here, or going to Equestria and being with the only love ones he has left in his life. It didn't take long before the answer became so clear to him as he rised from his bed and wiped away his tears while his mother smiled.

"I wanna be with the ones I love..."Dylan let out as he smiled at his mother.

"Then go my son... Do it not just for them, but do it for yourself, you need to be somewhere you will be loved, and this land of theirs sounds perfect,"The mother said as she then hugged her son."And hurry, that Discord fellow just convinced them to come to the portal."

"I will mom... I'll live on for you and them, I promise,"Dylan said as he noticed his mom starting to dissipate into golden dust.

"Go now my son... Be with the ones you love... I love you son..."She said as she then suddenly bursted into magical golden dust.

"I love you too... Mom..."Dylan said as the dust settled and disappeared."Celestia...! Luna...!"

Dylan then realized what he had to do and immediately rushed out of his room and immediately raced down the hall as he came into the living room. He rushed over to a window and could see the princesses slowly walking to the portal where Discord was waiting patiently, he could feel their sadness and misery as he slammed a fist down on the window sill. He then swung the door opened and bursted outside, he hopped off the porch and immediately raced over to stop them from leaving.

Discord noticed Dylan coming in hot and tried to get the mares attention, but they kept their heads low and were emptying out any voice or thought in their minds as they were about to step into the portal. Suddenly the mares got the scare of their life as they were suddenly scooped up and fell over as they rolled down a hill in the arms of Dylan, and as they came to a stop down the hill, the mares were suddenly showered with kisses and hugs from a very affectionate human.

"Dylan...?! I thought you were going to stay here!"Luna let out before suddenly getting her lips crushed by Dylan's.

"Dylan...? What's going on here?"Celestia asked before he switched and gave Celestia a very passionate and aggressive kiss.

"I'm so sorry...! I was being so selfish and I was tearing you two between your world and me, I never meant to hurt you and I'm so sorry for all i did to you!"Dylan said as he parted from the kiss and brushed his hands over their cheeks."I... I want to come with you to Equestria."

The mares became confused as well as shocked at their boyfriends sudden change in attitude, but the idea that they could have their boy friend and go home made them light up as they climbed on him and shower him with their love.

"Dylan...? We're sorry too, we never meant to force you into choosing between your home and a new home, we we're home sick and we let our royal duties get in the way of what we had with you, we will do anything to keep you in our life!"Luna said as she kissed him.

"Dylan...? If this is really what you want, we will not stop you no matter what your choice is, we will always be with you, our love for you is more important than anything else in the world,"Celestia said as she hugged him tightly and brushed her face against his neck.

"I... I want to be where the ones I love are, I've learn that... All I have here is broken memories and all kinds of hell just waiting to happen, I want to be with the two of you away from all this,"Dylan said as their eyes sparkled and their love began to grow so much stronger.

They all parted from the hug as they all got to their feet and hooves, they turned to the portal and began walking towards it as Discord waited patiently and was even a little touched by how this all turned out.

"You will love it in Equestria Dylan, and we promise that we will take good care of you, no pony would dare harm you,"Luna said excitedly as she almost felt like hopping for joy.

"I hope so..."Dylan said in a low voice.

"We know so Dylan, you will love it there, and we will make sure you get everything you need to live there, we will need to make deals with the griffon kingdom to get the meat sustenance for you, but we can make that work perfectly,"Celestia explained as they came to the portal.

"So I'm guessing you all have made your decision,"Discord said as his patience began to run thin.

"Yes... I'm going with you all,"Dylan said as he then looked back to his house with a solemn look.

"Everything will be alright, you already have a friend that I'm certain will take good care of the house,"Celestia said as she gestured to Jack Rogers house while brushing herself against him.

"Yeah... Your right, I can trust him,"Dylan said as he then began to smile.

"Well... See you all on the other side,"Discord said as he dove through the portal.

Dylan, Celestia and Luna all took one last long look at the world they had all lived in, in a way their time in this world was fun and would never be forgotten, but their was an even greater world waiting for them on the other side. They all then turned back to the portal and slowly walked through it, leaving everything they have all been through behind as they disappeared along with the portal, never to be seen in the world of humans again.

WHEW! A LONG ONE, ALRIGHT IT'S TIME FOR THE EPILOGUE TO COME, I MUST SAY... THANK YOU ALL FOR MAKING THIS MY MOST POPULAR STORY EVER, THANK YOU ALL!