Large marble pillars sustained the white roof that, as everything else, was a bit too much for Daimon to understand. Why does castles need to be so big? It seems like a giant build them! And the throne room of both Princesses was even more fabulous and… positively empty… than any construction he ever saw.

Daimon’s only regret was that Lily could not be present. She was busy reading her new home at Pond Trot and she needed that for her inspiration. Her books were her dream, she should fulfill it. And besides, Twilight had brought her friends and they were also Daimon friends. So he wasn’t quite alone.

But why did he felt so?

“My little ponies,” Celestia started, rising from her throne. “Today we are reunited to send back this human to his own world. Daimon Gryffin was brought to Equestria to learn a valuable lesson. And upon doing so, he’s now returning to his old life to spread that knowledge.”

Luna also got up from her throne, “There is some pony present that has any last words to tell Daimon before he departs? This will be your last words to him, be advised.”

Pinkie Pie tried with all her might but she couldn’t hold on any longer. She rushed and tackled Daimon in a rather fierce hug, cleaning the tears from her eyes in his shirt, “You should stay with us!”

Looking at Princess Luna, Daimon caressed Pinkie Pie’s mane, “I’ve promised somepony else that I would return, Pinkie. And I promise you as well.”

“You Pinkie Pie promise?” she asked at him.

“Sorry… never heard of it…”

“I promise to wait for you, Daimon. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” she said mimicking every movement.

Daimon chuckled and hugged Pinkie Pie, before he would himself do those same movements and repeat the promise. “It’s now a Pinkie Pie promise,” Daimon said with a smile. “I will go back someday.”

“Remember! Nopony breaks a Pinkie Pie promise!”

Then the pink pony returned to her place, her sad face completely disappeared and a smile was in place.

Luna looked at Daimon. ‘I don’t think will be able to bring you back, Daimon…’ he heard in his mind.

Daimon just shook his head. Then, looking to Pinkie Pie, he grinned and whispered, “I made a promise. Pinkie Pie or not, never break a promise. My father taught me that.”

Celestia waited a bit more to see if somepony would say something. When it was clear there was no more parting words right now, Celestia continued, “Daimon, are you ready to go?”

He closed his eyes and looked around one last time before turning back to Celestia, “Yes, I am.”

Celestia, Luna and Twilight together began to work on a powerful spell to send Daimon back. Seeing that, Daimon had wondered how Luna managed to bring him there alone. Maybe from his world there it was easier?

He hadn’t much time to think on it though. Closing his eyes, Daimon felt the magic wash over him and suddenly everything got silent. He remembered of the rushed ‘Good Bye, Daimon!’ party that Pinkie Pie had made for him, how many presents he would be bringing from multiple ponies so he could remember them. But what he praised the most were two rather bulk books. Lily’s gift for him where her horn written books, the one he kept to remember herself of all her hard work…

The last hours with the ponies of Ponyville reminded him of what fun was like… A pure sincere fun that he didn’t feel in a really long time…

***

Daimon opened his eyes. He was in his own room again. Was it all only one strange dream?

He got up and looked around. Everything was just like he had left back at home, but for two small saddlepacks thrown in the ground. He didn’t have one of those, did he? He went to open and see what was inside…

Ding! Dong!

Daimon looked at the door’s direction. With a kick, he shoved the saddlepacks under his bed for later.

Getting up, he went to answer the door. Opening it, he was rather surprised to see a guy smaller than him, blond with green eyes and the typical physique of a bookworm.  Also, Daimon recognized a darker shade on the boy’s face, the exactly imprint of his punch on him.

The boy, though, had a smile in his face, “I was told you were back.”

It was not a dream. Daimon knew that it was not just a dream. He had lived it all and he had left his first true friends back there… Suddenly, Daimon couldn’t hold himself anymore and burst out crying. The boy in front of him just hugged him, gave a step inside the room and closed the door.

“Calm down, boy. If anybody saw that, all your reputation would be utterly lost…”

It took some time to Daimon easy up enough to have a proper talk. The boy helped him in a supportive silence all the while.

“Why…?” was all Daimon managed to ask.

“Why what?” Karl asked back. Daimon remembered his name from his talk with Celestia. “Why I’m helping you? Why I’m still there after what you’ve done to me? Why I don’t seem to mind whatever you and your friends ever did?” Daimon, though, just nodded. “Well… I guess it’s because I passed by the same thing as you, I think. Not exactly actually, but close enough, and after all, birds of a feather shall stick together, right?”

Daimon opened a smile and nodded. Then a thought occurred to him, “Where’s my family?”

“You know… My father is divorced, and in this last week, seems like he and your mother clicked.”

Daimon had to chuckle a bit with that, “So they’re out in a date? It will make her good, I guess…”

“My father quickly understood that your mother has a problem. He works with that kind of problems, though, and will try to help her.”

Daimon nodded and offered him a hand, “Daimon Gryffin.”

“Karl Fox.”

“Yes, I’ve heard about you.”

“You did? Where?”

“You wouldn’t believe…” Daimon chuckled.

***

When his family returned, Daimon was almost hugged to death. Since then, life fell into a routine. At least after a few breaks on old habits. Daimon firstly made sure to break his friendship with his old gang and that they wouldn’t cause more problems, he asked forgiveness to all people he had troubled along his years at school, and started helping every other student in need.

Upon returning home, he would continue his routine of helping his mother with her problems and such, would help his sister with the homework and only then he would leave with his friend. At night, he decided to another change. He would stay by her sister’s side during those shows she liked to watch. She was really delighted that his brother would stay at her side and would often comment on a few things that she never saw in the show, like how Pinkie Pie’s mane smelled like candy or how Twilight is utterly perfectionist.

He could notice two things immediately after he began to change: there were people that he really could trust, people he could call friends among them, and that he’s general life began improving. And then, suddenly, he remembered of his saddlepacks. Daimon got it from under his bed about four days after he had returned.

His sister entered in the room when he was opening it, “What are you doing, brother?”

Daimon smiled. “I’m going to see over the presents I got from some friends, Angela,” he answered. “Would you like to join me?”

Angela sat at his side and waited patiently. She saw him placing hands inside the saddlepacks and brings out first a small photography, and Angela’s eyes widened in surprise.

“These are…”

Daimon chuckled. “Yes, Angela. They’re my friends,” he said. “I learned why you liked them so much.”

Bringing the next item out, both Daimon and Angela chuckled. It was a small can labeled ‘for parties’. No doubt it was from Pinkie Pie and would probably be a lot of confetti. There were quite a few amounts of shirts and a few pants, all from Rarity, of course. Applejack’s gifts were a surprise even for Daimon, a smaller version of her hat and a bottle of cinder. Placing the hat on her sister’s head, Daimon chuckled, bringing the next object of his new possessions. Rainbow Dash gave him cool sunglasses and a golden insignia which Angela quickly recognized to be Rainbow’s cutie mark. Fluttershy had sent a gift that he also passed to his sister, a plush doll of Angel. Twilight’s gifts were three books, all of them teaching about magic.

Then Daimon’s heart got heavy. There were them, the two bulk horn written books that he would never get the full collection. Two books of The Four Seasons collection that was still being written by his first best friend ever…

“Who gave you those, bro? They’re not likely from Twilight…” Angela asked.

Daimon caressed his sister’s hair. “I stood in Ponyville, Angela. There were more ponies living here than you could think… I met one called Romantic Lily. She has a light yellow coat and a beautiful white mane and tail, deep blue eyes and pen writing on a heart as a cutie mark.”

“Did you have any adventures while there?”

Daimon grinned and began to tell his sister about how he had beaten Applejack in his challenge and about the time he ran after Romantic Lily inside the Everfree Forest…

***

A full week has passed. Daimon, though, wasn’t as happy as he thought he would be. He had a lot of new friends and his mother was now in love again with another man, one he trusted now to take care of her. However, his heart was still empty and he didn’t know why.

He closed his eyes to sleep and wished as strong as he could upon his dreams, as he had been doing ever since he returned, trying to call a certain Princess attention. However, he got nothing. He just had another uneventful night of sleep.

The school days were about to give opening for the summer vacation. He looked at the calendar; it was about the summer solstice right now, he noticed. They were getting ready to the Summer Sun Celebration, that’s why they couldn’t pay him proper attention. He couldn’t quite blame that on them.

Daimon made his best on his studies and, when not learning his school subjects, he was reading Twilight’s books, learning about pony magic. If he remembered right, Twilight had said something about how he could focus magic on his finger if he knew how. After reading a few chapters of the first book, Magic of Starters, he looked at his hand and closed his eyes. He had seen that magic exists, and now he truly believed in it. Using the book techniques, he tried to focus until he could feel what the book described a magic flux would feel like.

Suddenly, he felt it. On the palm of his hand, he had felt a heat wave crossing to his fingers. After his little moment of surprise, Daimon focused a bit more. The simplest of all spells were a levitation spell. It was basically focusing your magic around the object you wanted to move and make the magic moves the object for you. Deciding on the lightest thing available, he tried to magically pass the book page. After quite an effort, Daimon let out a relief sigh as the page moved alone. It was tiring! How Celestia does raised him up and held him solid so easily?

“Of course… let’s compare one that’s just learning about magic with one that had already centuries of years to practice! That is the best to do!” he chuckled.

But then, noticing that he was able to use magic, he wondered, “Maybe humans have their versions of the three kinds? The “earth humans”, the “magic humans” and the “flying humans” were after all a part of human society. The ones that love the earth above everything else, those that decide to take the sky and, of course, the magicians… maybe some of those shows I saw in the past weren’t just illusions after all…”

He passed the rest of the day practicing his magic, and decided not to show it to anyone. Humans are already dangerous enough without the aid of magic… Dinner soon was ready, though, and his sister called him. After dinner, Daimon went straight to bed, again hoping for a visit of Luna, but again he was out of luck.

The next day held very important news for him. His mother decided to marry with Karl’s father and he was filled with joy. He knew his mother future was her own to decide, but couldn’t help to fell happy that she made a decision after asking what he thought of it. He approved without thinking twice and wasn’t exactly surprised to know that everything was almost settled. They were going for a ceremony at the open at June 21. Daimon got then even happier: he would have another reason to celebrate the Summer Sun Celebration.

His time then got split between helping the preparations for the coming ceremony and studying, both for his school and about magic. At June 20, Daimon’s magic was a lot more powerful and he seemed to be a one-tick magician, his levitation magic being the only spell he learned how to cast so far. He then remembered that he was still on the very first book and that it would probably take longer to learn more complex spells.

Positively tired, he went to sleep that day. And then, he saw the large plains with sparse trees and a lake at the distance. Recognizing the place quickly, he smiled and produced the same table and ice box from the last time he had saw it. Not too long later, he saw Luna’s figure walking from behind a tree with a smile.

“I see you’re doing well, Daimon,” Luna started sitting at his side.

“Not as much as I thought. Besides I truly missed my mother and my sister, they found care and love into the arms of another loving and trustful man. My duty there is over now, and I’m filling empty…”

“We told you that bringing you back would be hard, if not impossible, Daimon.”

“Then I’ll make it possible, Luna. I made a Pinkie Pie promise, you saw it. And you never break such a promise,” Daimon said. “Thanks to Twilight’s gift, I am learning magic now…” he raised his hand and focused his telekinesis to lift the glass of coke in front of him to take a sip before placing it back.

Luna smiled at that, “I never thought humans could use magic…”

“Maybe something happened to me in Ponyville that changed me and allowed me to do so…” Daimon chuckled. “Or maybe we always could, but we forgot how to do so…”

Luna nodded, “So you’re really sure about coming back?”

Daimon took some time to think and then let a long sigh. “Yes, I am,” he answered. “This time, though, I will be able to warn my family and friends… and also, I don’t pretend to be coming back to my world…”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I was even going to ask if there is a transformation spell or something like that… I want to start over…”

“Well… There are two times in the year when both I and Celestia grow more powerful. The first is at the dawn of the longest day of the year… but we won’t be able to help you then, we’ll be busy with our own matters.”

“I know.”

“The second time is at the twilight of the same day. When there are both night and day at the sky simultaneously. Maybe, at twilight and with help of Twilight Sparkle, we can bring you back to Equestria.”

“And how have you taken me to Equestria that very first time?”

“There are very rare and special occasions, Daimon, when a small rip occurs between worlds. This allows for world travels if there is enough powerful magic in the scene. When I brought you in, there was one very large of these rips, so my powers alone were enough. When we sent you back, it was a smaller rip, but it still was one. However, tomorrow there will be none, and there is no knowing when there will be one… We can see when they’re about, but we can’t foresee precisely when they will occur. The next one can be far after your lifetime.”

Daimon nodded. “The Summer Sun Celebration… you are preparing for it as we speak, right?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ll be talking with my sister about it. Maybe wake her up to watch the sun rise. In my world it doesn’t have that much significance, but it will have in our minds,” Daimon grinned. “Then I’ll join mom’s wedding. After handing her to her new husband, I’ll say my farewells to them and to my friends. I’ll be ready by the twilight. I Pinkie Pie promise.”

Luna grinned and nodded, “Farewell. We’ll do our best, Daimon, to bring you safe. If we can’t, don’t worry. Or at the next rip or at the next possibility, we try again…”

“You won’t need the time. I feel that you’ll manage.”

Luna then got up and left. She still had preparations to do. Daimon also woke up not too long later. He smiled at the hour. It was dark, but the sun should be rising soon. He quickly made sure to wake up Karl, who had slept with them that night, and his sister, asking both to follow him outside, to the courtyard.

They asked Daimon what was happening about three times when they saw the sun rising in the horizon. Daimon smiled, “The Summer Sun Celebration. This celebrates the longest day of the year…”

“Daimon?” Karl asked a bit puzzled. “We don’t celebrate that around here…”

“That’s why I woke you to join me… Karl, after today, you’ll be Angela’s big brother, and I pass to you the duty to look after her. Help her with homework every day after school, watch her favorite shows with her and protect her from harm while allowing her to grow.”

“But Daimon… why you are…” then realization hit Karl.

“Since the day I got back, I started feeling this emptiness inside of me. I’m not quite sure what is happening, but it only started after I returned from my exile…” he turned and hugged both of them. “I’ll need you to stay at our mother’s side when I’m gone. I’ll tell them after the wedding, no need to ruin their special day.”

Karl and Angela tightened their hug on Daimon.

“Will you come back, brother?” Angela asked, crying already. “Please… promise me you will!”

Daimon just chuckled. “I can’t Angela… But I do promise that I will never forget you, if you promise me not to forget me… Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” he said with the proper mimics.

Angela quickly repeated it in chorus with Karl. Then, the trio turned to see the sun raise a bit more that day. It would be their last time doing so.

The whole day was a typical rush of getting things ready for the wedding. It was mostly a symbolic one, and it was Daimon’s honor to bring his mother in. Proudly handing her to Karl’s father, he took his place at Angela’s side and watched the rest of the ceremony slowly pass. His smile never diminished.

After that was the party, but Daimon had managed to take his mother and step-father to a private talk before they got there. He explained how he felt hollow inside and that now he knew where to go and fill that emptiness. Thanking Karl’s father for taking care of his mother, he hugged him strongly. When he hugged his mother though, both of them began to cry. Daimon knew she wouldn’t hold him, it was his choice. Also, he knew she was proud of him for making his own path in life.

They parted after that. Daimon needed to get home and prepare whatever he wanted to take. He was alone there; Angela and Karl were at the party with their parents. He had left behind all his human clothes, only taking those that Rarity had made for him. He also left the gifts from every other pony to his sister and the cinder for his mother. However, he took a few bottles of Coke with him as well a photo of the whole family. He would miss them deeply…

When twilight came, he was at the courtyard, expecting patiently for the magic to happen. Suddenly, the wind began to get stronger and the sky darkened. He quickly felt the wind spinning around him and knew what was happening. He closed his eyes and, just to be sure, held his saddlepacks with both his hands and magic.

And then, his world turned to black… Next Chapter: Episode 10: The Chapter Estimated time remaining: 13 Minutes