Brain’s heart pounded in his chest as he ran up the long expanse of the ever-rising stairs.  He was determined to finally be done with this adventure.  Getting ever closer to the blue glow of the top of the temple, his muscles burned as he hurriedly leaped from stair to stair.  His friends trailed behind him, keeping a moderate yet slower pace.  Brain stopped to check if they were following him every once in a while, before taking off in a dead run once more.

Chance’s mind raced with hundreds of thoughts about how the day would play out.  If it came down to it, he was ready to abandon his friend in this world.  If for some strange reason only one of them could go home, he decided it would be him.  A sly grin on his face, he raced up the stairs behind Brain, keeping pace with Big Mac and Doctor.  Chance had decided two days ago that he would go home, no matter what the cost.

Big Macintosh couldn’t help but let his mind wander off to Mythol.  He thought for a while about how exactly he’d be able to prove they found the portal.  Then he proceeded to think about how happy she would be that he helped the human get home.  As he raced up the steps behind Brain, a smile covered his face and his eyes filled with excitement.

Doctor Whooves was simply focused on reaching the top of the temple.  He didn’t have any other reason to be excited than for the adventure itself.  And now that they were here, the adventure was drawing to a close.  He thought about his trip home with Big Mac, and how exactly they would get back through the cave.  He also thought about how easy climbing up the stairs had been, and wondered why there hadn’t been any traps.  If a temple had been sitting here for thousands of years, wouldn’t there be animals or insects or plants gathered around it?

Brain’s mind swirled with so many different thoughts as he approached the final step.  Taking it with a leap, he stopped in his tracks on the flat stretch that led straight into the glow.  Sitting on the stone and catching his breath, he waited for his friends to catch up.  They stopped beside him and sat, catching their breaths and watching as the blue glow continued to pour from the very center of the square area they were sitting in.

Brain sighed, “This is it, my friends!  We’ve finally made it!  In a few minutes, I’ll be going home.”  He looked at Chance with a smile.

Chance coughed, “Yep.  Won’t be too long now…”

“It’s been fun, this whole adventure.  I admit I’ll miss this kind of thing.”  Doctor bowed his head, looking from Brain to the glow.

Big Mac cheered, “Eeyup!  We finally got you here, now you just gotta go through it!”

Brain stood up, stamping his hoof and glaring in the direction of the source of the glow.  “C’mon Chance.  It’s time for us to go.”

Doctor asked curiously, “What about your notebook, Brain?  What if you forget about all this when you get to the other side?  Shouldn’t you fill it out?”

Brain looked at Chance then Doctor.  “You have a point.  You don’t mind waiting a few more minutes, do you Chance?”

Chance chuckled, “Of course not.  It’s not like we’re in a hurry now that we’re here.”

Brain sat back down and pulled his notebook from the pouch.  He turned to the first blank page and began scribbling down everything that had happened.  He wrote in great detail about the giant snake, the spider, and the bird.  He wrote about their trek across the water and through the cave.  He was lengthy in describing the events that took place from the forest to the temple.  He even noted the empty feeling he had felt in his gut.  He wrote a little something about each of the four of them.

He made sure to write down everything that had happened to him the last two days.  The visit to the hospital, the meeting with Big Mac and Doctor, the talk with Mythol, the reading of the memoires, the first meeting with Chance, the awkward night with Fluttershy, the adventure, and the end.

As he wrote all this down, his head began to throb.  After he had placed the last period on the paper, the pain became too much for him.  He dropped his pen and cradled his head in his hooves, screaming wildly in pain.  The other three stallions had no clue what was wrong or how they could help.  When a figure burst from the ground behind them, Chance’s reflexes immediately attacked.

The figure was tall, bony, and stood on two legs.  It had leather armor covering its chest and head.  With a wave of its arm, the figure cast Chance to the ground with ease.  It spoke in a hollow voice.  “I haven’t seen a pony such as you in centuries.  Why have you come here, ponies?  The world of humans is not for you.”

As Brain screamed in agony, Doctor took it upon himself to explain the situation to the figure.  “These two stallions are humans!  We’ve come here to send them home!”  With a stamp of his hoof and an angry glare, he stepped toward the figure.

The skeleton sighed, “Has the aura truly weakened to the point that no human can maintain their shape?”

Chance’s eyes filled with fear, “We’re only ponies because the aura is so weak?”

The skeleton laughed, “Yes, I’m afraid so.  You may have come here in vain, ponies.  I would be surprised if the aura could send one of you home, let alone both.”

Chance leaped to his hooves, screaming in anger, “That can’t be true!  It has to let us go home!  We’ve come too far!”

Brain’s screaming suddenly stopped, and he groaned in a pain-filled voice, “We…have to be able…to pass through…”  Fighting through his pain, he put his notebook back in the pouch and walked toward the skeleton.

The skeleton shrugged its would-be shoulders, “I won’t keep you from trying.  Just know that there is a chance neither of you may pass through.  And there is a chance only one may pass through.”

Chance laughed, “We have to try…right?  Even if only one of us passes through, it’s better than neither!”  He started walking toward the glow, a look of horror in his eyes as he realized he may be stuck in this world.

The throbbing in Brain’s head stopped as the emptiness in his gut became more obvious.  He chuckled, “You’re right, Chance.  We have to try.”  He walked toward the glow, standing beside his friend.

The duo of human-ponies walked side by side into the glow, slowly approaching the object that was emitting it.  They exchanged worried looks, unsure of how things would play out.  The two nodded, and reached out toward the object with their hooves.  Slowly, they inched their hooves closer to the object so as not to accidentally set anything off.

Big Mac, Doctor, and the skeleton watched as the two drew ever closer to the object.  Still and yet, neither of them touched it.

At the last second, not even a centimeter away from the object, Brain jerked his hoof back.  Chance looked at him with a curious expression.  “What’s wrong, Brain?  Why’d you stop?”

Brain’s head started to throb again, and he rubbed his temple with a hoof.  He laughed, “This isn’t what I want.”

Chance looked at him, confused.  “What do you mean?  This is all you’ve wanted since you got here!”

Brain felt the emptiness in his gut fade away as he realized just what exactly he wanted.  He thought about the night with Fluttershy, and how comfortable he had been holding her next to him.  He thought about what she had said, and how he had reacted.  As he thought about that night, the emptiness faded.  He knew what he really wanted.  Zecora’s potion was finally starting to take hold on him.

“I can’t go home with you, Chance.  I think I’d rather stay here.”  He opened his pouch, pulling the notebook back out.

Big Mac and Doctor screamed in disbelief, “You can’t be serious!”

The skeleton laughed, “It seems there is a greater magic binding him to this world.  Another pony, if I had to guess.”

Big Mac and Doctor shot him suspicious glares.  Doctor asked, “What do you mean by ‘a greater magic’?  Did someone curse him?”

The skeleton sighed, “Nothing like that, silly stallion.  It is not a curse.  His heart was bound to a pony the moment he arrived here.  I witnessed an event such as this just a few thousand years ago.  Black magic was used to pull him from his world.”

Chance looked at Brain with shock.  He stuttered, “Wh-what are you g-gonna do here?  Where will y-you go?”

Brain smiled as he felt the emptiness fade.  He blushed as he said, “I think there’s a pony waiting for me in Ponyville.”  He rubbed his hoof through his mane.

Chance shook his head in disbelief, “You have a crush on a pony?  You’re staying because you have a crush?”

Brain shook his head.  He said with force, “It’s more than just a crush.  Besides, I think I could get used to this world.  I want you to take this notebook with you, though.  Try and get the contents posted on that website you always talk about.”

Chance grabbed the notebook.  He looked at it with a strange sense of sadness.  “You can’t be serious!  You’re really staying here?  If you don’t go now, you may not be able to go home ever!”

Brain placed a hoof on Chance’s shoulder.  “You’ve been a good friend.  But if it had come down to it, I’d have let you go anyway.  There’s a bit more waiting for you on the other side.”

Chance started to speak, but a stern push knocked him to the side, right into the object at the center of the aura.  In an instant flash of blue light, Chance disappeared.  Standing away from the aura, the other two stallions watched as the glow became faint and small.  The skeleton bowed his head.

“Ha…  I never thought I would see the day that the aura would die.” it sighed.

Big Mac and Doctor stared at the aura with dropped jaws.  Brain was heading in their direction, a smile on his face and a feeling of success in his heart.  The object at the center of the platform still let out a small glow.  Faint, small, and still just as majestic, the glow was a darker blue than before.

The skeleton shook its head, “Even after thousands of years, the aura still refuses to go away.  You three come from a town far away, correct?”

Doctor nodded his head in silence.  He still couldn’t believe Brain had stayed behind.  Big Mac was just as surprised.

Brain chuckled, “What, is there something on my face?”  He looked back toward the glowing object.  “I had every intention of letting Chance go first anyway.  If it only had power to send one of us home, it was gonna be him.  I decided that back at the stone tree.”

The skeleton laughed, “A good friend to have, in my opinion.  Any of my comrades would have fought for dear life to be first!”

Big Mac sighed, “So uh…now we gotta walk back, huh?”

Brain blushed as he said, “Yep!  I guess we’d best get started!”

Doctor walked up to him, anger in his eyes.  “Why the hell would you let a guy like that go first?!  What if we need his help getting back?!”

Big Mac laughed, “Yeah, if another spider tries to eat ya, ya might be screwed!”

The skeleton interrupted their conversation.  “If you need to go home, I think the aura can help.  It may not have much juice, but it should easily get you anywhere in this world.”

The three stallions looked at each other with confused looks.  The skeleton clarified, “The relic was almost never used for travel within this world.  When used to cross to and from the human world, it grew weaker each use.  After the Ever-Pony battle at the golden tree, every human fled, fearing the magic that had made the tree.  The aura was left nearly broken.  Since then, it has been used to travel from one edge of the world to the other, which doesn’t appear to weaken it.”

Doctor clapped his hooves, “So that means that as long as there’s a little juice left, we can use it to get back to Ponyville!”

Big Mac sighed in relief, “No more caves an’ forests for us, eh?”

Brain turned to the skeleton, bowing low.  “Thank you for telling us that.  Mind if I ask you your name?”

The skeleton laughed, “I was known by many names on Earth.  My subjects called me Alaric the Visigoth King.  When a flash of green light blinded me, I awoke here.”

Brain recognized the name from one of his history classes.  “But I thought you died in Cosentia after you ransacked Rome?”

The skeleton slapped a bony hand on Brain’s back.  “You know your history, human!” he cheered.

The other two stallions exchanged confused looks, shrugging their shoulders.  Big Mac interrupted the seemingly familiar pair of once-were humans.  “I hate to be a bother, but I think we oughta head home.  I betcha everypony’s worried about us.”

Doctor laughed, “Sure, that’s why you want to get back.  Are you sure it doesn’t have anything to do with Mythol?”

Big Mac gave him an annoyed glare.  Brain chuckled, “I think you’re right, Big Mac.  Besides, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a pony waiting on me, as well.”

Doctor raised an eyebrow in confusion.  “You have a pony waiting on you?  I wonder who it is…”

Saying their goodbyes to the skeleton, the trio headed toward the glowing object.  Keeping Ponyville in their thoughts, they reached out and touched the object simultaneously.  In a flash of blue light, the skeleton watched them disappear.  He sighed, and then hopped back down the hole he had popped up from.

……

The mares were gathered once more at Zecora’s house, discussing the potion they had been helping her make the last few days.  The pot off to the side of the room bubbled wildly as they spoke.  Zecora walked over to it, smiling widely at the concoction.

Twilight asked, “Isn’t that the potion you gave us the other day?  Why is it bubbling?”

Zecora smiled at her friend.  “Because it has finally taken a hold on the stallion that wished to go home.”  She looked right into Fluttershy’s eyes.  “For a gentle stallion that will love and care… Such a wish should never be left in the air.”  She laughed quietly as the ponies tried to decipher this cryptic rhyme.

Fluttershy gasped as she realized what Zecora meant.  “You did that to me?!”  She screamed in what could be considered both anger and happiness.

Zecora waved her hoof in the air, laughing, “It is a wish that you had made, I simply allowed it to be played.”  She proceeded to explain what she had done.  “The potion showed me that he was a perfect match, so I decided from his home I would snatch!”

The ponies looked at her with expressions of disappointment.  Rainbow Dash scoffed, “You took the dude from his world and turned him into a pony, just so he could get with Fluttershy?”

Pinkie Pie laughed, “I don’t know if that’s being a good friend, or a horrible abuse of your freaky magic!”

Fluttershy blushed as she shouted, “So what happens when he goes home?  Will I have this empty feeling forever?!”  She put her hoof on her chest.

Zecora waved her hoof, a smile on her face.  She repeated, “The potion has finally taken a hold on the stallion that wished to go home.  To you, he will return… As soon as his heart finds that for which it yearns.”

Suddenly, a blue light engulfed to hut, blinding the ponies.  They heard a loud crashing sound and felt rubble fall on top of them.  When the light faded, three stallions were collapsed on a solid plank of wood that covered the pot in the center of the room.  Brain’s eyes opened as the heat from the fire below him singed his coat.

With a yelp, the three stallions were on their feet, standing beside the pot and looking around their surroundings.  The mares greeted them with smiles and cheers.

Doctor groaned as he rubbed his burnt coat.  “So, is this what the skeleton meant when he said it would send us home?  Did he mean it would try and boil us into a potion?”  He stared at the pot in front of him.

Zecora smiled, “I told you he would return to us.  Perhaps you ought to give me your trust.”

Brain looked directly at Fluttershy, his face flushing red and his heart beating faster.  Fluttershy did the same.  The ponies in the room watched as the two embraced, and they listened to Zecora’s final laugh.

“Your hearts, minds, and souls simply clicked, so from his world I did pick.”

Brain gave an angry glare to Zecora, realizing just what she meant.  Then he looked back at Fluttershy.  He scanned the room with his eyes, seeing all of his new friends.  He sighed, “I guess this is my new home.  I think I’ll get used to it.”

Big Mac placed a hoof on his shoulder, “Now, about that camera…”

Brain’s eyes widened in confusion.  “What camera?” he asked bluntly.

Twilight giggled as she reached over and plucked a small round object from Brain’s forehead.  “This camera, silly!”  She held it up for the room to see.

“Where the hell did that thing come from?!”  Brain screamed as he pointed a hoof in its direction.

Doctor chuckled, “Are you telling me you really didn’t know it was there?  These ponies have been recording the whole adventure!”

Brain plopped to the ground, his jaw open wide.  “Why did no one even bother to tell me?” he sighed.

Fluttershy laughed, “Because it was a secret.  If you were going back to your world, we wanted proof that it existed.”

Big Mac slapped Brain on the back, “But what with the tree and the skeleton and the thing in the glow, it’s kinda obvious how real that place is.”

Brain sighed, “So that means you caught Doctor nearly getting eaten by the spider?”  Twilight nodded.  “And Chance being caught by the bird?”  Applejack laughed.  “And the tree talking to us?”  Pinkie Pie bounced in confirmation.  “How about the skeleton popping from the ground?”  Rarity nodded.  “What about-?”

Doctor laughed, “We have everything recorded, Brain.”

Looking around at the ponies in the room, Brain realized that he felt comfortable here among them.  The whole adventure had been recorded, and he would never forget his home.  With a sigh, he stood up.  He looked around the hut, and then looked up to notice the collapsed ceiling.  He blushed as he looked over to the other stallions.

“I guess we have a bit of cleaning up to do, huh?”