The day started out pretty hectically; we all woke up at almost the exact same time to find there was very little time to lose before the train for Canterlot left for the day. We all burst out the front door of Sugarcube Corner in a mad dash to the train station, just barely missing the 11:30 departure.

The worst part? They do not have coffee in Equestria.

On the train, I had taken off my tuxedo and set it aside, replacing it with my normal clothing and swinging my backpack over my shoulder, and then took a seat at a booth with my friends, who sat in awkward silence. I smiled a little and looked around at the six mares that surrounded me, and they would shyly make eye contact and smile back before glancing away.
This is going to be a lot harder than I thought, I thought sadly as the spires of Castle Canterlot appeared over the horizon. The last time I had seen that place, I had been thrown in the dungeon for three days.

“Allen, what will you do when you go back home?” Twilight asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
I sighed, not exactly sure myself. “I’ll probably be grounded for disappearing for a week, but knowing my mom, she’ll just be glad I’m okay,” I replied, trying to keep the mood upbeat. Suddenly, I got an idea. “Hey, can I ask a favor?” I inquired as I reached into my backpack and pulled out my camera. I don’t know why I brought it with me into the forest last week, but it was there nonetheless.
I held it up and smiled. “I want to always remember my time with you girls. Would you mind taking a group photo with me?”
They all nodded happily as I set the camera on a delay and placed it on a table. Then, they gathered around me, and we all smiled as the light flashed, capturing what would be one of our last moments together.

We reached the castle about an hour later, where, unfortunately, we had to wait even longer, because the princesses were in the middle of some sort of meeting. Eventually, the guards finally let us up to the throne room, and we ascended the stairs in silence.
“Ah, Allen, good to see you,” Celestia said warmly, despite the pure sadness that radiated from our group, “are you ready?”
I looked to my friends behind me, who smiled and nodded, and I looked back to the princess of the sun. “Yes,” I said confidently, struggling to hold back my tears. Celestia looked at me with pity when she noticed my sadness.
“You do not sound sure. Are you certain that you want to return to your world?” she asked gently.
I nodded once again. “It’s where I belong, and I need to return to my family,” I insisted, but I glanced backward uncertainly at my friends.

“I’ll tell you what: I’ll give you one more day to make your decision. After that, however, it will be final, and I will not be able to open the gateway between worlds.”
I looked back to her. “Won’t I be able to open the portal from my end again?” I asked desperately.
Celestia shook her head sadly. “It can only be opened from Earth with enchanted crystals, and I must ask that you leave yours here, in case it fell into the wrong hands.”
I thought about this for a moment. “How long do I have?”
“Until it is time for me to bring the sun down tonight,” she said gently.
I nodded. “It’s a deal,” I said, my voice barely a whisper, and my friends and I left the throne room to wander the castle and discuss what I should do.

Princess Celestia sighed, relieved, and turned to Luna. “There, problem solved. With a few extra hours, I’m certain he will decide he wants to stay here, and it won’t matter anymore,” she said.
Luna narrowed her eyes. “How can you be so sure? He may still want to return to his home, even if the others tell him they want him to stay.”
Celestia thought for a moment. “I don’t assume I can count on you to convince him?” she asked quietly.
The lunar princess shook her head. “I will not manipulate him into doing something he does not want to do. I love you, my sister, but you will have to face the consequences if he should decide he wants to leave Equestria,” she said firmly.
Celestia sighed, knowing her sister was right. “I can’t help but feel that this is going to end badly for all of us,” she said to herself.

“So, what do you guys think?” I asked the ponies quietly. They sat in silence, until Fluttershy spoke up.
“I think you should do whatever you want to do,” she said quietly, “if that’s ok…”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, we’re your friends, aren’t we? Whether you want to stay or go home, we’ll back you up a hundred percent!” she said, smiling. Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie and Applejack all nodded in agreement, and I smiled.
“Well, then I think I know what I’m going to choose,” I said confidently.

After a few hours of playing in the castle garden we saw that the sun was beginning to set, so we headed up to the throne room to speak to Celestia once more. Something about her seemed off, however; like she was nervous.
“Princess,” I began, “I have made my decision. I want to return home to my family,” I said.
Celestia looked shocked. “Are you absolutely sure?”
I nodded. “Yes. Although I’ve made great friends here, and I would love to stay, I shouldn’t be here. I belong with my family, on Earth.”

Celestia looked really nervous. “Oh, my,” she said quietly.
I raised an eyebrow, and saw Luna was peeking her head through a doorway off to the side, watching what was going on. “What’s the matter?” I asked slowly.
Celestia looked at me sadly. “I was hoping it wouldn’t have to come to this; after all, I figured you would want to stay, and it wouldn’t matter,” she said mostly to herself.
I was getting irritated. “What do you mean? What’s the matter?” I asked, trying to keep a level tone.
The solar princess looked to Luna, who nodded sternly, then looked back to me.

“Allen… I cannot send you home.”

I froze. “What?”

Celestia nodded slowly. “We do not have the capabilities to reopen the portal at this time," she explained solemnly. "In the days of the war, we tried taking the fight to the humans in their own world, but only they knew the secret to opening the portals at will. Your species may have come here in the past, but we ponies have never seen your world.”

I clenched my fist angrily. She lied to me. Celestia, one of my idols, had deliberately deceived me. And now, I was trapped in a whole different world from my own, never to see my family again. I closed my eyes tightly and looked down, struggling to focus through my wild thoughts.

To this very day, I still haven’t forgiven myself for what I did next.

I suddenly let out a scream of rage and ran forward, ripping the crystal out of my pocket as it flashed and became a sword, and swung it right at the white alicorn, stopping a few inches from her neck.
She stared in shock as I spoke. “You think I would be willing to just abandon my family and my home like that? Well, guess what you royal bitch? I want to go home. NOW!”
I stood before her, my teeth gritted and my eyes full of hatred for her and her lies. She stared at me for what felt like an eternity, giving me a look that dared me to finish what I had began. Then, she said the words that tore my very being in half.

“I guess humans have not changed as much as I thought they had.”

My gaze softened, and I slowly turned around to see my friends staring at me with looks of shock and fear on their faces. I turned the other way and saw Luna with a look of pure horror at what I had done, and she ran away. I turned back to Celestia, still giving me that same stare, and I stepped back, lowering my sword.

I’m…

The sword returned to its crystal form, and I slid it into my pocket as I continued to step backward.

I’m…

I passed my friends, who couldn’t take their eyes off of me. Their looks of fear changed to looks of anger and confusion. I stopped moving when the realization hit me.

I’m… a monster.

I turned and fled from the throne room without another word, leaving barely-suppressed tears in my wake.

The pillar was in a mad panic. The human was headed right for the Everfree forest, and now it was only a matter of time before it found what was hiding there for so many years.
“I've exhausted all of my options,” it said to itself hopelessly, “what am i to do now?”
It shot out a blue beam, creating a single Crystal Sentinel.

“Go find the human,” the pillar said hopelessly, “but I do not think it really matters anymore.”
The crystal beast ran out of the cave, leaving the pillar to contemplate. After several minutes of thinking, it got an idea.
“Wait a minute! The human will most likely come looking for me,” it said craftily, “so I just need to wait for it to realize where its enemy is. Then, I can finish it off myself.”

The pillar set off to work, shooting beams around the room and creating several Crystal Guardians; Sentinels, Valkyries, and Assassins alike, that all marched to their master and touched it. As they did, their bodies fused together, creating a Crystal Guardian unlike any had seen before.

“Now,” the pillar said in a voice that was a garbled mixture of its own and its creations, “we wait for our adversary to get overconfident and come looking for us. Then, we can end this.”

I found myself in the Everfree forest a few hours later, sitting on a tree branch and a rope tied around my neck. Not only would I never see my family or my home again, but the only friends I had hated me. Now I found myself in the same position as I did when I started this whole thing: about to end my suffering. This time, though, I wasn't trying to end my sadness; this time, I was trying to end my anger.

No music this time, I thought bitterly as I pushed off the branch, only to suddenly hit the ground below as if I wasn’t wearing a noose.
“What the hell?” I said aloud as I turned to look behind me, then quickly rolled over to dodge a Sentinel’s massive blade. It must have tried to hit me, but ended up cutting the rope instead! I thought quickly.

I may have wanted to die right then, but not at the hands of one of these things.

“You wanna go?” I screamed, pulling out my sword and gripping it tightly “Then let’s go!” I charged forward with my sword, powered by pure hatred, and sliced one of the creature’s legs off. It fell over, immobilized, and I jumped on its back, raised my sword, and began to rapidly slice back and forth, not caring which spot I hit, as long as I was killing something. I kept screaming as I did this, long after the creature was dead and I was doing nothing but knocking dust into the air.

I suddenly fell to my knees, exhausted, and wondered what to do next. The Sentinel had ruined my last chance at getting out of here quickly, so I had nothing to do but wait until the elements took me.

That’s when I heard sticks breaking behind me.

“Who are you?” I heard a voice behind me ask. I half expected it to be Zecora, but I dismissed that idea, since I was too far away from where the zebra lived for it to be her. I turned around to see who had spoken to me, and the sight shocked me.

Standing before me, leaning against a tree, was a blonde, short-haired, cloaked... human.