Princess Celestia watched with nervous feelings as the train pulled into the station in Canterlot. When the train finally stopped, its passengers began to trot off and out of the cars. She took in the site as several hundred refugees piled into the station and then again as a certain group of ponies approached her out of the crowd. “Princess Cadence, Prince Shining Armor,” she greeted the two royals.

Shining Armor gave her a weary smile. “Princess Celestia, it is good to see you again. I just wish it was under better circumstances.” He lowered his head.

“Do not fret, Shining Armor. Together, we will be able to defeat King Sombra’s dark army.” Then the solar princess shook her head. “I still can’t believe that he conquered your kingdom in a matter of hours. I am glad that all of you made it here safely.”

Cadence took this chance to speak up. “Unfortunately, Aunt Celestia, not all of us made it back.” Princess Celestia gave her a look of confusion. “Princess Twilight and Prince DJ are currently…missing in action.” She reported lowering her muzzle in sadness.

Celestia was taken aback by this. “W-what?! What do you mean?” Applejack approached Celestia from the crowd of ponies, her and her friends finally managing to get off the train. She addressed her princess.

“I saw it with my own eyes, princess. Sombra sent a blast of magic at my brother and Twi. It hit them both and then they were gone. We feared the worst, but Genie over there,” she said pointing at the green being trying to move through the refugees, “says that they are still alive. Somewhere, but something is blocking his way of communication. We can only hope that he finds a way.”

Princess Celestia nodded in understanding, but her eyes showed sadness and worry. She looked to the sky and sent a silent prayer that her faithful student and her daughter’s brother were alright.

**********

Twilight, DJ, and Wayne watched as the front door of DJ’s old house opened. When it finally did, they saw a short girl standing there. Once she looked at who was standing there her eyes widened and then grew angry. “You have some nerve coming back here, brother,” she said with malice dripping from her voice.

DJ looked at her with sympathy. “Hello, CJ. It’s been a while. Are Mom and Dad home?”

“No. They aren’t here. Now get lost! You already ruined this family once, it’s not gonna happen twice.” He knew that she would be angry, but not this angry. DJ reasoned that her hatred for her own brother must have grown since he disappeared. The police and the manhunt must have put a great toll on his family. He looked at his sister with regretful eyes.

“CJ, I am so sorry for putting you all through this. I didn’t mean to for you to all go through so much pain. I was given a chance to be happy and I took it. I had no time to leave anything more than that note. I am very sorry.”

CJ still showed nothing, but anger. “Nothing you say can change the past, or how I feel.” Then she let out a small sigh and softened her look slightly. “I suppose that Mom and Dad would want to see you, though. Right now, they are at a neighborhood reunion at their friends’ house in the old neighborhood.” His sister started to close the door, then stopped. “Your old car is in the garage; Dad placed it under your ownership the day you left. Just take it and go. It was good to see you, DJ. Never come back.” She slammed the door, leaving all of them staring out the door for a second.

Wayne was the first to say something. “Well, that escalated quickly.” DJ looked at him, highly unamused. The garage door opened a moment later, revealing a blue Chevrolet Cavalier Coup. DJ smiled greatly at his old vehicle.

“Awesome! Looks like Dad fixed it up. Even the paint looks good!” He turned to Twilight and smiled. “We are so taking this back to Equestria!” Then he looked into the back of the garage at his Dad’s work area. “But it’s gonna need a tune-up.” He clapped his hands and got to work. He grabbed tool after tool, as well as sheets of metal and wood. Wayne and Twilight were in awe as the lightning licked around the garage. When it had died down, DJ’s car was completely decked out in armor. The car was now a high speed tank! Almost like it belonged in the movie Death Race.

“I never knew that I would use that mechanical understanding ability to turn my old car into a battle weapon! Sombra’s so goin’ down now!” DJ got in the car and turned the key, causing the vehicle to start up with a loud roar. “Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about! Come on, Twi! You’re riding with me!” Twilight approached the vehicle slowly and got in as careful as possible. She looked over and saw that DJ looked exhausted, her worrying growing even more. DJ started to pull the car out and stopped next to Wayne. “Come on Ginger; let’s go! Get in your car and follow us!” Wayne shook himself out his stupor and got in his own vehicle. They were out on the open road a minute later.

DJ floored the gas pedal as he drove for the first time in over a year. Traffic rules meant nothing to him now! With the windows down, Twilight’s hair was blowing wildly around in the wind. DJ thought it made her look even more beautiful. Unfortunately, the old neighborhood was only a few minutes away and they were soon pulling in front of another house. Now he was really nervous, but Twilight was right by his side, giving him all the strength he needed.

The trio walked right up to the front door, noticed it was wide open and walked right in. They were greeted by several confused faces. “Um, can I help you?” asked older female. Wayne spoke up.

“Yeah, can we speak to Mr. and Mrs. Williams?” A tall male and a smaller female approached him.

“Hello, Wayne,” said Mrs. Williams. “What do you need?”

“There is someone who wants to see you,” he replied and moved to the side. DJ walked forward and removed the sunglasses from his eyes. His mother and father gasped in pure shock.

“Hey Mom, Dad. I’m home,” was all he said until his mother rushed forward and hugged him tightly, crying into his shoulder. His dad simply stood there in a stupor.

“My son is alive! He’s come back to us!” she cried.

“It’s good to see you guys too,” he replied uncomfortably. “There is someone I want you to meet.” He motioned Twilight to his side and his mother backed off. “Mom, Dad, this is Twilight. She’s my wife.” His parents’ eyes widened in surprise.

“Is this some kind of joke?” she asked. “You are far too young to marry! Is she the reason you ran away?” DJ tried to say something, but his mother was on a roll. “What did you do; have some drive thru wedding in Vegas? Or is she the one who took you?!” She turned towards Twilight with anger in her eyes. “What did you do to my son, you harlot? You took him away from us; away from his life! Josh you will be annulling this marriage and we will get you back in school—“

“MOM!! I can’t stay!!” DJ shouted over her. His mother was taken aback. “I only came by to apologize for leaving without saying anything. I just wanted to say good bye this time.” His parents stood there, speechless. It was silent for several minutes, until his mother walked towards them.

“YOU!” She said with fury as she raised her hand. “You took my son away! You whore!” She swung her hand, intending to hit Twilight. Twilight braced for impact.

*SMACK*

Twi heard the sound, but there was no pain. She slowly opened her eyes to find DJ standing in front of her with his left hand far out to his right. Twilight’s eyes were wide; DJ had slapped his own mother! She looked at him with surprise and saw that her husband’s eyes were filled with angry tears and fury. His mother was nursing her wound, her own tears falling and then DJ spoke.

“How dare you,” he said in a whisper; his next words were louder. “How dare you! You still don’t get it do you? I didn’t leave for Twilight, she happened to be a great bonus. I left because I couldn’t stand living here anymore! I didn’t’ want this boring, horrible, hope-deprived thing you call a life!! I couldn’t stay, even if I wanted to. Because of this…” DJ lifted his shirt and everyone in the room gasped in shock. In the center of DJ’s chest, where his heart should be, was a gaping whole. Wayne was the only one who could speak.

“Holy shit,” he said in a whisper.

DJ continued his speech. “Your son, Josh, died on a cliff in the Everfree Forest. My name is DJ Sparkle, a prince of Equestria. The longer I stay, the closer I get to dying” DJ turned around and continued to speak. “I always regretted not telling you all goodbye, but now I know my fears weren’t worth it. Back in that world, I have great friends and a loving family; some things I didn’t have here. I have a great wife, a loving daughter, three fun brothers, four enjoyable sisters, an amazing teacher, two supportive fathers, three wonderful mothers, and a ton of great friends. None of those I had here on this worthless rock. I have always valued family above all else in my life, but you…you are not family. Not anymore. This is my life and you two are no longer welcome in it” He stopped and turned only his head and only for a second until turning back to the door. “Goodbye.” With that and that alone, he walked toward the door with Wayne and Twilight following. His parents only stood there speechless and heartbroken as their only son turned his back on Earth forever.

**********

Back at the cars, the three humans stood together, thinking on what just happened. Wayne spoke up after them being quiet for several long minutes.

“That was deep, man. Harsh, but deep. So, now what?”

“I don’t know, Wayne. I just don’t know,” DJ replied. Then a sound came from his wrist, he looked down and saw that the omnitrix was fully active once more. And then it started to emit a loud beeping sound. DJ looked at it confused, but tapped the cover anyways. A small hologram lit up on top and the image of Genie appeared.

“GENIE!!” exclaimed Twilight and DJ.

“Finally,” their mystic friend said. “I have been trying to contact you since yesterday! I received Uno’s signal and I was finally able to reactivate your watch. Where are you?”

“Genie, thank Celestia it’s you! Look, I know you aren’t going to believe this, but Twi and I are on Earth! Sombra’s dark magic hit the omnitrix and we got blasted back here. How is everypony? Are they all alright?” explained and questioned DJ.

“Yes, they are all safe. Wait… you are Earth?! Oh, not good. You must be almost out of time; we need to get you back here before you fade away! I will be right back; I need to consult with Discord on a proper way for you to return home.”

“Genie wait!” said Twilight. “Is Nyx with you? Can we speak with her?” Genie looked back to her and agreed. A moment later, a small black filly was in the hologram. “NYX!!” exclaimed both parents.

“Mom! Daddy! I knew you were still alive; I knew that you wouldn’t break your promise. Are you coming back soon? Sombra took over the Crystal Empire with you guys gone. Please come home, I miss you.”

DJ spoke from the heart. “We will be there as soon as we can, kiddo. We will come back to you and we’ll have an amazing ‘welcome home’ party! Well, after we deal with big, bad Sombra. He’s not gonna win! I love you, Nyx”

Twilight spoke next. “Be safe, my little pony. I love you.”

Nyx smiled happily at her parents. “Come home soon. I love you both.” With that the transmission cut out. DJ and Twilight embraced each other and let their tears fall as they fell to their knees. Even the ‘soulless’ ginger was moved by the scene. He helped them both up to their feet.

“I guess you weren’t kidding about having a kid. Sorry I didn’t believe you.” He clapped his hand on DJ’s shoulder. “We’ll get ya back to her, dude. Count on it.” A few seconds later, the omnitrix reactivated communications and Genie returned with Discord floating next to him.

“I think that we have come up with a plan, my pony friends,” said Genie.

Discord spoke next. “Yes, it should be possible for my boys to recreate a portal that will take you back to Equestria. Oh boys!!” Uno through Cinco popped out of DJ’s pocket to head their father’s call. Tres was the one who answered.

“Yeah, Pops? What’s up?”

“I need the five of you to come together to get your boss back home. I know it’s dangerous, but those two are needed here. Sombra is slowly gaining more and more power, so we need every help we can get. I am sorry.” The Discords looked upset as well. DJ picked up on this pretty easily.

“Woah, woah, woah. What’s going on here?”

“For my sons to create the portal, they will need to be left behind on Earth. There would be no way for them to close the portal otherwise. For you to come home, they need to stay.”

“Nuh uh. Not happening.” DJ then brought his hand up and pressed a few fingers together. “Please work,” he whispered. He snapped his fingers and, almost immediately, several coils of rope popped into existence in his hand. “Sweet! It worked!” Everyone was shocked. Discord the most of all.

“No way!” he said. “That was the missing piece?! All that chaos magic training and the only reason it didn’t work was because you couldn’t snap your fingers in pony form?! That’s messed up!”

“That’s my line!” DJ said back with a smile. Twilight now had a questioning look.

“Chaos magic training?” she asked.

“Y-yeah,” he replied nervously. “I didn’t want to tell you before I learned how to do it properly, but this is an emergency. Discord has been teaching me how to use chaos magic for a few months now, since I can actually use magic in pony form. Thankfully, it’s a completely different form of magic from our usual so it isn’t affected by this world. Cool, right?”

“I’ll say,” said Wayne. Twilight just sighed in exasperation and left it for now. “But what is the rope for, dude?”

“Simple,” DJ said as he moved to the Discords. “I am going to tie all of them to my car, so that way when we drive through the portal, the Discords will be yanked through as well. Without them, the portal can’t exist, right? So if we take them out of the equation the portal should just close. Easy peasy.”

“Actually,” said Discord, “that’s quite brilliant. You really are smarter than you look, my friend.”

“I will take that as a compli-sult,” DJ replied. With that, Discord and Genie wished them well and hung up the line.

“You’re still using that stupid saying?” asked Wayne with a facepalm.

“It’s one of my quirks,” shrugged DJ. He got to work tying each Discord to the spoiler of his tricked-out Chevy. Once they were secure and had enough length to create the large portal, the Discords formed a great circle with their bodies and began to build energy. Several minutes passed as they did, but eventually a tear in the universe appeared within the circle and soon enough, DJ and Twilight had their ticket home. Twilight got in the car, but DJ went to Wayne.

“Thanks for everything, man.” He held out his hand, elbow up, to his friend. “I wish you luck, Wayne.”

Wayne firmly clasped his hand into DJ’s. “Same to you. Enjoy it, DJ. Keep your true family safe.” DJ simply nodded and got in his car. He revved the engine a few times and then sped off through the portal. A few seconds later, the ropes went taught and the Discords were yanked through as well.

Wayne stood there, watching as the portal began to close. Then it suddenly fell into itself; the portal had collapsed. The implosion had a powerful force and sent Wayne sprawling and causing the destruction of several windows. As Wayne began to stand up, he looked down into a piece of glass and his eyes grew wide at the reflection. His eyes had changed from a normal brown, to a deep red with one eye being yellow and another blue. He began to laugh into the sky as a great storm began to howl.

**********

The car suddenly jumped into existence outside of Ponyville with DJ and Twilight inside. With the built up speed, the vehicle didn’t stop until it reached their library home. Thankfully, nothing was damaged. DJ would have applied the brakes, but he was too short to reach them. When they came to a slow stop, he finally looked over at Twilight and vice-versa. They were both alicorns once again. The two smiled at each other, but the moment was ruined when five thuds hit the back of the car.

DJ and Twi piled out to find the Discords already in a pile at the back of the car. It took a moment, but they pulled themselves together and retreated back into DJ’s coat pocket. The couple glanced at each other once more and then shared a passionate kiss.

As one they spoke, “We’re home.”