The people in the neighborhood had become more open and understanding over the years. Gone were the days where they would whisper of Mathews behind his back. They were far too surprised at what had revealed itself to them. It took Fore quite a while to explain it, but when he said she was going to show herself to the rest of the world, surprisingly, several of the neighbors warned him not to. Why? What kind of reaction would this creature incite in the rest of the world? Sure, she would be an intrigue and very interesting, but threats like capture for study and experimentation needed to be taken into account. They were in a small enough community that they could adapt, but such an immense revelation could prove disastrous to everyone, not just Mathews. It was selflessness mixed with selfishness...Neutralishness.

After a day of work, Mathews returned to the end of the cul-de-sac and parked in his driveway. His old house was now a bit more open, with the giant fences covered with a black film removed to make way for some normal sized, iron grate fences. His house was only one floor and was repainted and refit to have a small balcony for an entrance with the door flanking the two steps leading to it on its right. The exterior brick walls had been repainted a nice vanilla color which fit the brown roof shingles placed one next to each other instead of a fish scale style. The houses of the surroundings all shared a similar design, but some were two stories tall, and most had false wooden planks glued onto the surface of walls of the first floor. Not many of the houses were surrounded by fences like Mathews', but a few had some short ones to keep animals out. They all had a cement driveway and a tiled path leading from it to the balcony, though.

The man looked around to see that the grass, few trees dotted around the area, and bushes were still the same, and he liked it like that. After those events three years ago, he had enough adventure like that around his belt. He entered his house, dropped his bags on the small table in the entrance hall, then went into his living room to see a bored woman in a dark blue dress sitting on his blue couch and watching something on Mathews' flat screen tv. She had her legs lying down on his glass table and was drinking a beverage in a soda can. His living room was much different than before. Crescent thought it would be better to renew the place, so this area was extremely bright. To the left of the couch were three transparent doors serving as windows as well. To the right of the tv stood a large window covered by no curtains. After all, Stellar liked to sleep in the living room under the moonlight. The walls were painted white and were covered by glass fiber wallpaper, giving it a rumpled appearance. The floors of the entire house were covered in a brown carpet, save for the kitchen and the bathroom.

"Crescent. Get your feet off the table," Mathews ordered as he crossed his arms and narrowed his gaze.

"I'm just messing around because I know how much you hate people with their feet on tables," Crescent laughed.

Crescent had used her magic to take on the appearance of a caucasian woman with thick black hair with blue tips. Even though she liked to take on the form of other ethnicities as well, she preferred to resemble Mathews as much as possible...even though he was bald...and looked like Kane from Command and Conquer. Those jokes never ceased being funny...

"And why are you like that? I prefer you in your cute, little pony form."

Crescents cheeks buffed up and blushed a little. "I'm not cute as a pony. I'm a fearsome creature. The scourge of the night!" she shouted with a raised fist.

"Yes. One that I saw grow up from her deficiencies with the letter 'r'." Mathews folded his lower lips under his top row of teeth to make a weird, rat smile.

"Don't do that. I hate it when you do that."

"Not my problem. You're in my house, and so you will suffer my bizarre smiles." Mathews walked towards his brown recliner directly facing the windoors, and sat down with a loud sigh of pleasure.

Crescent looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a vicious grin which quickly transformed into a devious smile. "Are you still angry at me for not going to the world with what I am?"

Mathews fidgeted in place to get more comfortable. He removed his tan colored shoes and tried to get his black trousers and white short back to a position that didn't involve tightening their grip around him and make him feel like an Egyptian mummy. "Yes. We planned that all out since the beginning. It was like a 'grand moment'...then you just...used your magic to become a human. I..." Mathews dropped his arms in defeat.

Crescent was engulfed in dark blue cloud of smoke and quickly found herself back to her normal self and set on the couch like a dog. "You heard what the others said...even though it seemed more self-centered than as concern for me," she pouted.

"Yeah, well...what have you? Say, have you heard from the crazy guy who I hired to be your teacher?"

"Psych-Opathy?"

"Yeah. Him."

Crescent shrugged.

"Hmmm. I thought a guy that crazy would stay in touch with you. Last time I saw him he was giving a show to the old hillbilly in the forest who can't even say 'fairy' correctly," Mathews chuckled to himself.

"Ummm...Speaking of..." Crescent tapped her forehooves together nervously.

Mathews looked at her with disbelief, then rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I can't believe this. I told you not to go back there!"

"Well, they knew more about magic than anyone else in this world. Everyone else I've found up to now are either idiots or charlatans."

"And why would you want to learn about magic? You have enough of it."

"Because...because...Because I want to return to Equestria and right my wrongs!"

Mathews stared at Crescent with widened eyes and an angry expression. He was sitting upright in his recliner now, but no words were exchanged for quite awhile.

"I...I have been having nightmares, and the old couple knew enough about magic that they had a spell allowing me to return to my original world."

"How long have you been having them?"

"Two years, now. It first started on my 'birthday' that you arranged on the day I arrived on Earth."

Mathews nodded. "And...you think returning there would help clear them?"

"Yes. I can't stand them anymore. Ironic, considering my name was once 'Nightmare Moon'." Crescent looked down at the floor with a saddened grin.

"You should have told me. I would have helped you."

"How? Psychiatrists never woek, and they would consider me 'crazy'. Revealing myself to them to prove myself would make THEM crazy, too."

"I...How did the old couple even know about these things?"

"I don't know how they know about this, but I told them that I would talk to you about it before I left. I don't want you to follow me. You've given me a new life and a new outlook on it as well, and for that I thank you, but I must do this alone."

The mare's horn became surrounded by a blue magic, bringing her armor pieces to her for her to wear. She walked to the windoors and slid them open to get into the yard. Mathews' only watched her and began to think. He didn't want anything to do with this, and he loved her, but he wasn't ready to go to another world yet when he hadn't even finished living in this one. Yet...didn't she say they might kill her back in her world? He couldn't let that him. Not to his tiny Nightmare Woon!

"Crescent! Wait!"

"No! Keep away! I have to do this on my own!"

"Not without me you aren't! I'm your adoptive father, and I'm coming with you whether you like it or not!"

An enormous gray and white cone formed in the yard. Its base was flat and wide, but it narrowed upwards to an open tip and was spinning in a spiral fashion, the traces of black and gray in the white surface slowly converging to the tip. Crescent tried to jump in it before Mathews could get a hold of her, but he managed to grab her hind leg right before she was fully engulfed in the portal.

"Wh..." Crescent looked behind her and silently pouted. She crossed her forelegs disapprovingly and looked away.

"I told you I wasn't going to let you go on your own. I'm still here to protect you." Mathews was floating in this tunnel of light while still hanging onto Crescent's leg.

"WHY DID YOU FOLLOW ME?!"

"Because I'm your father...and I love you."

"I love you too, and that's why I didn't want you to follow me. It's dangerous."

"Which is why I followed you. I protected you before from those fae. I'll protect you now against whatever monster exists in your world. I've done it before and I'll do it again"

The two looked around to see the rounded walls of this tunnel start to become adorned with the red symbol of NOD along with many instances of Tiberium growing between each instance.

"Oh COME ON! How is even a dimensional anomaly doing this?! How does it even know about that?!"

Mathews' complaints were interrupted by a blinding flash that engulfed him and Crescent. The two shielded their eyes, preventing them from seeing the final trip. With a thump, the two were finally back on land. It was a quick trip, but worth it.

"Ha! Now you can't get away from me, Crescent. I'll be here to help you and protect you in any way that I can, as should a true father," the man groaned as he rubbed the back of his pain and stretched a little.

Crescent simply sat up, rubbing her head, and started to look around. She seemed mildly annoyed, but mostly in pain. "Mathews? Where are you?"

"What do you mean 'where are you'? I'm right here."

"I think I overshot where I wanted to go. And I keep hearing mumbling..Oh no. How? Mathews?"

"What? What's wrong? Did I actually become Kane?"

Author's Notes:

Not the best start, but I haven't managed to work on this reality for quite a while.