Twilight had refused to leave the castle, even after Princess Celestia, her own mentor, ordered her to leave and find safety. It took a pair of guards to escort her to get her to seek shelter away from the city with the rest of the city’s populace in the evacuation effort. It had been startling with the sheer volume of ponies being led out of the city by guards, and even the Solar princess herself.

While her sister had elected to take what little reinforcements they had to spare and join the battle, Celestia’s concern for the safety of her subjects left her torn on where she was to be of most use. Luckily, her sister offered her the compromise of splitting their efforts, and it was decided that she would lead the evacuation. The very sight of her helping those in the city was thought to help quell their panic, a tactic that worked and only left the Princess of the Sun with minor worries for the safety of those still fighting the shadowy creature that appeared in the city not long ago.

However, Twilight did not take comfort in this like the rest of the citizens of Canterlot being ushered out of the city. Her thoughts didn’t allow her to think about anything else except for the echoing roars of battle just on the other side of the capital.

Ponies all around her jumped and trembled any time a particularly loud roar or explosion echoed through the air. Not Twilight though. Her worrying just got worse, and she couldn’t help but think about the amount of danger her human friend must be putting himself in. She just couldn’t stand it. Twilight couldn’t believe she was about take a page from Sam’s book, but it was the only way.

Settling on her resolve, Twilight made up her mind on what she was going to do. Making sure none of the guards were watching her, she made her way to the outside of the crowd and hugged the side of the congested street. When she felt no one was watching, she ducked into an alleyway and hid behind an abandoned wagon and away from the street. Twilight took a second to breathe and think about what it was she was doing in that moment.

“Oh, this is crazy!” she hissed to herself, not quite believing what she was doing, “But, I can’t just leave him behind like this.”

Twilight’s legs locked up with indecision, her mind torn between wanting to help her friend in any way she could, and the fact that this would mean she was disobeying somepony like the Princess. She bit her lower lip in guilty habit of knowing what she was considering was wrong, but she just couldn’t give up the idea that she at least had to do something. She thought again as to what Sam would say or do in this situation.

“It’ll be fine. It’s not like the princess can say anything about it by the time we get there.”

Twilight sighed heavily, surprising herself with how much the wire conduit was influencing her decisions even when he wasn’t there. However, he would have been right. Charging up her horn, there was quick flash, a pop of lavender light, and the unicorn was gone. The light only gained the attention of a few ponies from the street, who wrote it off as a trick of the light, so nopony was the wiser to Twilight’s whereabouts from then on.

She hadn’t really thought about where she was going or what she would do when she cast the teleportation spell. Though, her last thought clung to the memory of the abandoned lab, and where she had last seen her friend. Thanks to this, another flash, pop, and the unicorn was standing in the lot across from the abandoned lab. Only, it was different.

Twilight gasped in shock when she saw that the front half the abandoned lab had crumbled to the ground, while the rest of what was still standing was encased in a broken shell of concrete. It was obvious that there was a battle here, and by the looks of it, it was fierce.

Twilight’s gaze found the signs of something that had come out of the building and followed its trail, leading a path straight past her hooves. She didn’t know what could’ve caused so much damage, but she was once again shocked and left without words for what she found behind her and where the trail led.

The destruction and ruin left in the wake of whatever tore through the city made Twilight’s jaw drop. It was like a giant had crashed through the buildings to create the trail’s path. All that was left in its wake was rubble and wreckage. Then, she heard the noise, the sounds of combat crashing down ahead of her. Her focus was so caught up in the visual destruction that her mind just didn’t register it.

“Sam,” Twilight whispered.

Now that she knew where to go, Twilight galloped off in the direction of the battle. She made it maybe, two blocks, before she came into contact with the one pony she hadn’t expected to run into so quickly. Flaring out his wings, Aegis Flare came face to face with the surprised looking unicorn looking back at him. What guards had retreated in the same direction as he came to a halt behind their captain as the two before them were in the middle of a silent standoff.

“Miss Sparkle?” Aegis Flare finally said in confusion, “What in Equestria are you doing here?”

Twilight stumbled on her words, “Uh...” She wished that she had Sam’s quick wittedness to avoid what was about to be a very harsh scolding. “I-I... um... I wanted to help…”

Aegis Flare stared at the bashful unicorn looking away from him, and soon, the pieces came together.

He dropped to the ground and leveled the unicorn with a withering gaze, “Miss Sparkle, this is no place for the likes of you. You were specifically told to return to the castle for your safety.”

“I did!” Twilight snapped, although her ears swept back when she looked up to see the captain’s disappointed face, “But, my friend is out here, risking his life, and- oh my goodness, Princess Luna!”

Trying to look anywhere but directly into the captain’s piercing eyes, Twilight’s gaze fell on a pair of guards that had said princess strewn across their backs as they carried her. The Lunar princess did not look well. Her armor was chipped and cracked in multiple spots. Her helmet was gone, and there was a line of red leading from the left side of her temple all the way down her muzzle. One of her wings was limp and dabbled with streaks of red, obviously missing a few of her flight feathers. Still, upon hearing her name, she raised her head as proudly as she could.

“Hello, Twilight Sparkle,” the Princess of the Night spoke up reassuringly, “Do not have fear. Our wounds are manageable.” Princess Luna grunted as she managed to slip from the backs of her support to stand, even against their protest. “But pray tell, what is it that thou art doing here?”

Even though she worried for the princess’ condition, Twilight knew that there was still one more that she had yet to see among the group before her. Looking back and forth amongst the assembled ponies, her worry grew as the sounds of combat continued up ahead.

“Where’s Sam?” she asked nervously.

One question was all it took for the guards to wicker nervously. The only ones who didn’t break their masks were the princess and the captain.

Captain Aegis Flare approached the distressed mare to offer his hoof, “Miss Sparkle-”

“Where is he?!”

She hadn’t meant to cut him off, but her anxiety was driving her actions. There was a screeching roar, and everypony turned in the direction it came from, the direction in which the trail of destruction led. Twilight’s pulse quickened as more dire thoughts began to fill in the blanks.

“The Human had a plan,” Aegis Flare said, snapping the unicorn out of her thoughts, “He said he would be fine.”

She didn’t want to hear this. She knew how reckless the wire conduit could be, and to hear the captain of the royal guard, the one who hated Sam’s recklessness the most, speak so casually... It lit a white, hot fire in the unicorn’s heart. She tried to skirt past the captain, only to be caught in his strong hooves. She flailed and screamed for him to let her go, but to no avail.

“Calm yourself, Miss Sparkle!” the captain tried soothing the lavender mare.

“He’s still out there! Why would you let him do this? He needs our help! Please!”

Princess Luna tried to calm the poor, lavender unicorn down with her reassurances that her sister would not want to see her come to harm out here, but they fell on deaf ears. Twilight was practically in hysterics, but the captain’s grip held firm. Tears started to well up in her eyes, and she tried beating against the captain’s armored chest to let her go.

Pushing the mare out in front of him with surprising ease, the captain forced her to look him in the eye, “Listen to me, Miss Sparkle!” Twilight immediately stopped struggling, too overwhelmed by the captain’s order. “I don’t particularly enjoy saying this, but... we can’t hope to face that monster of a pony on our own. I’ve tried to keep that Human away from the danger, away from having to put his life on the line for us when he shouldn’t. That being said, in reality, he is more than capable of handling himself, and these types of fights, when we cannot. Even if he is quite reckless, I trust him when he says he can handle this. So please, I ask you to do the same.” Looking back toward the direction of the battle, the captain’s scowl deepened. “Just this once.”

Twilight wanted to argue, offer a compromise, but her mouth wouldn’t move. She shook with fear, worry, and a sickening feeling of helplessness. She only wished that there was some way she had the power to help her friend, just this once. That was unlikely to come to pass, as the shadowy giant known as Visionary Dusk let out a gurgling shriek that was unlike anything before.

The guards, Aegis Flare, Princess Luna, and Twilight turned in the direction of the sound and an uneasy feeling took hold of all of them. Not one to waste the opportunity of the captain’s loosened grip, Twilight pushed herself away from him and let her horn light up with magic power. Before anyone could stop her, she was gone in another flash, pop.

She didn’t go far, and the captain managed to catch up with her on the next building’s rooftop, where she teleported to. He wanted to reprimand her, but just like her, his gaze was captured by the scene before him.

Even from so far away, they could still see the shadowy giant was doubled over, the blackened tendrils flailing wildly about as something inside the center of the beast started to glow. It grew brighter, and before they knew it, faint silhouettes of two figures dotted the inside from the expanding light within. One, a pony, and the other, a human. Something changed in the way the light glowed, and it started to expand quickly. The hazy form of the giant lifted its head to screech once more, while pillars of light shot out from its body painfully.

The captain wasted no time. He tackled the lavender unicorn to the ground and held her there, under the protection of his armor and wings. Just as he did, the glow from the giant shift again, and without warning, the being was engulfed in the expanding light and disappeared. The explosion rocked the city, its epicenter lying at the spot where the shadow conduit, Visionary Dusk, once stood. The shockwave rattled the captain’s and Twilight’s teeth. The energy that seemed to follow its wake made their fur stand on end, as if it had even charged the air.

Twilight’s ears rang, but even so, she fought to stand back up and see what happened. When Aegis Flare felt that the danger had past, he finally let her up. His ears were ringing, too, but he had to assess the situation with a cool head, even while his wings twitched for him to fly in reckless abandon.

Both were stunned into silence by what they saw. Fitting, as the sounds of the battle had fallen away as well and left nothing but the gust of the wind to fill the air. Where the dark giant once stood, there was hardly anything left. Completely leveled and leaving only the remnant debris of the destroyed buildings around the site, it was a sight to behold.

“Sam,” Twilight merely whispered it the first time, but as her hooves moved on their own toward the site, her voice rose, “SAM!”

A rapid series of teleport flashes were left in Twilight’s wake as she tried to the reach the scene of the explosion as fast as she could. Captain Aegis Flare tried calling out to her, but whether she was too far away or not listening, she wasn’t slowing down. Deep down, the captain couldn’t deny that he was feeling the same way. Left with no other choice, the captain hoisted himself back into the air by his overtaxed wings with a tired grunt and flew after her.

The lump in Twilight’s throat wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard she tried to swallow back her tears. The decimated part of the city the battle tore through blurred past her vision in a series of foggy still frames as she used her vast reserves of magic to teleport from one point to the next. In her mind, only one thought dominated, ‘I should have been here sooner’. Her constant jumps came to a halt as she came upon a scene that made her heart sink.

Judging by what she witnessed beforehoof, the spot she was now looking at was the same point where the shadow conduit, Visionary Dusk, rampaged through in his giant form. The entire city block was in ruin. Not a single building was left standing, shaken down to its foundation. Even the one that she was precariously standing upon was unrecognizable with what it used to be, whether it was somepony’s home, store, or a simple place of business. However, all that couldn’t compare to what lied at the epicenter. A crater, easily ten meters in diameter, the foundation of the city itself lying bare within the depression left behind from the blast. Yet, through all of that, there was still one thing missing that Twilight had hoped would be there. She didn’t even know if she should pray for that hope.

“Miss Twilight!” From high above, the captain called out as he surveyed the area.

Just like her, he was left awe-struck by the amount of damage that was left after the explosion. And even with his sharp eyes, he couldn’t spot a single trace of the human conduit that had opted to stay behind to defeat the now missing shadow giant.

His wings burned from the exertion, but he made a low sweep of the area, picking apart the scene before returning to the unicorn’s side. He glanced down at the desperate look on the lavender unicorn’s face, but his frown only deepened, unable to bring himself to say what he thought might have already happened.

Twilight’s eyes flooded with tears, her choking sobs disallowing her the ability to speak clearly as she tried to protest what her mind was already concluding. More guards, and even the Princess of the Night, were arriving on the scene. Those that were able, got to work on clearing the debris and searched for signs of life. The princess saw the helpless unicorn by Aegis Flare’s side and began her stunted gait toward her to try and counsel her. Her good wing unfurled and gently laid across the unicorn’s withers, offering the barest of comforts in that moment.

“Captain! We found him!”

Twilight’s ears perked up, and a new hope flooded her body with renewed strength. She blew past the princess and the captain, but before she could get any closer to the circle of guards, she was pushed back by them. She couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t let her see her friend. He must have been hurt, sure, but she knew a few healing spells. Though, no matter how much she protested, the guards kept her at bay.

The captain galloped up behind her and ushered her through with him at his command. Even from behind, Twilight could see that the circle of guards seemed tense over what was before them. The captain, Twilight and Princess Luna soon knew why after pushing their way to the center of the congregation. Aegis Flare’s feathers ruffled in agitation, his muscles growing taut with the intention of springing into action at a moment’s notice. The princess’ gaze hardened as she looked upon the being that has caused so much strife for her and her sister’s subjects for too long now. As for Twilight, that earlier hope she had built up died in an instant, as it was not her friend that laid injured and unconscious, but Visionary Dusk.

She wanted to scream, rage against this pony that has caused her friends and family so much pain and suffering, but for all that anger, she was frozen, unable to even move as the tsunami of emotions crashed down upon her. That was when she felt something lay upon her back. It made her jump at first, but she came to realize that whatever it was was soft, warm, and more importantly, comforting. Her eyes drifted behind her to see the dark hue of the feathery appendage laying across her back and gasped as the sympathetic gaze of the princess looked back to her.

The captain let the princess deal with Twilight, as he now had a job to do. The unconscious unicorn was in rough shape. His hooves were cracked, he had many cuts and bruises covering his body, and parts of his fur, mane, and tail were missing or singed. With much satisfaction, he fished the last suppression collar out from of his saddle bag and snapped it shut around the madpony’s neck. Another guard brought out a magic negation ring and fixed it around the base of the unicorn’s horn, rendering him further powerless. The rough handling of the dusty, off-white unicorn he received must have brought him back to consciousness, as he blearily took in his surroundings. His awareness only heightened as the guards started to lead him away. He tried breaking free of their grip, but their holds were tough. He winced every time he twisted from one side to the other against his injuries.

“L-let me go!” he finally croaked out, “Don’t you know who I am?!”

The captain stopped right in front of the raving pony, halting him with a condemning expression. The haughty unicorn merely scoffed, trying to seem unfazed by the captain’s scrutiny. He even tried gritting his teeth and concentrating on something, expecting that something to happen. The weight of the collar tugging on his neck made him realize why he couldn't use his powers, and he was left to just growl menacingly at the captain in his face.

Narrowing his gaze, the captain spoke up first, “Visionary Dusk, for crimes against the Equestria, I hereby place you under arrest.”

“No!” Visionary struggled again, even against his pain, “No, it’s you! All of you who have betrayed me! I told you, all of you that I would unlock the hidden potential that would lift this nation to new heights, but you all couldn’t stand the fact that I was right!”

“It doesn’t matter whether or not you were ‘right’. What you’ve done is inexcusable. You’ve murdered ponies, destroyed lives, and treated those that you’ve held captive without an ounce of regard for their wellbeing,” the captain shot back.

Visionary’s eye twitched, as if he was the only one to understand some unknown truth that the rest couldn’t understand, “They were my subjects, and their sacrifices? Mere drops in comparison to what I’ve been forced to give up in the pursuit of my research, research that’s altered the perception of our very existence. ‘Conduits’; beings with such immense power and abilities. Just imagine the possibilities of harnessing that sort of potential!” The unicorn took a moment to compose himself, and then eyed the captain was condescending grin. “You obviously couldn’t even begin to hope to understand what I am talking about. However, if my research is brought to the high council of magical research, they would, and they will see that my work is truly invaluable.”

The standoff between the captain and the unicorn only last a few moments. When it was done, Aegis Flare nodded his head to the side, and the guards accepted the silent order before returning to escorting the captured unicorn.

“What are you doing?!” Visionary Dusk began to lose his composure, “Unhoof me! I am Visionary Dusk, Archmage of Equestria, and I command your respect!”

As he was being dragged away, Visionary fought, but his struggles seized for a moment as his eyes fell upon another that was still present.

“You!” Visionary laid eyes on Princess Luna. The princess tightened her winged hold around a nervous Twilight while the madpony spat his words like venom, “You and your sister are nothing but cowards! I was the only one who was willing to see this through, while you and her were too afraid to accept the necessary sacrifices needed to bring my research to fruition! How can you say that you would do everything to raise your precious subjects up if you’re unwilling to see the truth? How dare you condemn me when you are all so afraid to do what should have been inevitable?! Damn you, I will not be silenced!”

The unicorn continued his tirade even as he was dragged out of earshot, but his departure left Twilight with a sinking feeling that was not quite born of his words. The Princess of the Night tried counseling her, but her words didn’t seem to reach the lavender unicorn. Her concern for her missing friend was all she cared about right now, and since the guards that were still searching the surrounding area had yet to find anything, her hope was slowly diminishing.

“Please, Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Luna tried reaching out gently once more, “He is out there somewhere, and we will find Samuel.”

“...And if he isn’t?” Twilight asked solemnly.

Princess Luna opened her mouth to reassure the unicorn, but trying to give her false hope when she had her own doubts would only bring harm. Twilight shrugged the princess’ wing off her back. Not something she would normally do, but in the depressive state she was in, she just couldn’t bring herself to care. The Lunar princess let her go, though careful to keep an eye on her from afar while she did what she could with the search effort.

Twilight, with her head hung low, wandered around the crater. Far from the guards as they made their sweep on the other side. She just wanted to be alone, and was grateful that the others were allowing her to be. Her eyes became all misty again, and every time she tried to blink the tears away, new ones arose to take their place. All she could think about was Sam’s smiling face and how he had promised to be back in time for their next magic lesson, a promise that seemed would never come to pass now.

Without much thought, Twilight kicked a pebble with her hoof, and it arced toward the debris at the edge of the crater she was slowly pacing around. The pebble went pretty far and actually skipped off the top of the highest chuck of debris before skipping back down the pile. The debris shifted, very subtly at that. The only way Twilight noticed it in the first place was because she was following the pebble as it flew. She chalked it up to the pebble dislodging a chunk here and there, but when the section of debris shifted again, more noisily this time, her heart jumped.

At first, she thought the section would collapse, and she backed away from it to let it fall away safely. However, the debris didn’t just buckle suddenly, and the more she looked at the section of fallen wreckage, the more she thought something was moving beneath it. Her eyes widened, but she was paralyzed in shock as she watched that something begin to break free of the top layer that covered it. The lavender unicorn gasped, for what broke free of the rubble was a human hand.

The hand twitched as it tried to haul the rest of its owner up through the fallen rubble, and in that moment, Twilight didn’t know if she should weep with joy or faint from relief. In either case, her hooves steadily began to move on their own until she realized that they were carrying her toward the hand waving out from the ground.

“Over here!” Twilight called out, as she began to dig with her hooves through the debris, “I found him! I found Sam!”

Her cries were heard throughout the crater, and everypony came rushing to her aid. Aegis Flare was first to arrive, just as the unicorn remembered her magic and telekinetically began chucking piece after piece off the trapped human. The rest of the guards formed up and were working in chain to pass pieces down the line and off the pile trapping Sam. Desperate to see her friend, Twilight worked twice as hard and moved multiple pieces at a time with fervor.

‘Come on. You have to be ok!’ Twilight thought as she worked on hefting a sizable piece off the pile.

As she did, she saw something beneath, or more accurately, someone.

“Sam!” Twilight cried out, tossing the oversized chunk of rubble back like it was nothing, resulting in dull thud behind her.

That didn’t matter though, as her friend, Samuel Reed, laid sprawled out against the rubble beneath him with his eyes closed and one hand laying against his forehead. He looked terrible, much like the madpony from before, with multiple injuries covering his body from head to toe. The sight left Twilight both depressed and elated, but her worry grew as Sam’s shallow breathing caught her ear.

“Sam, please,” Twilight pleaded, her voice cracking slightly, “Tell me you’re ok...Wake up, Sam!”

The wire conduit’s face contorted in discomfort, and he moaned. Everypony held their breaths as the human cracked one eye open and looked out into the world around him with a glazed expression.

“Human, can you hear me?” Aegis Flare tried to get Sam’s attention and to gauge the extent of his awareness and wellbeing.

Sam turned his head to the side, which seemed to take a lot of effort, but once he was turned toward the captain, he looked up at him. He worked his lips, but if he tried to say something, the ponies surrounding him couldn’t make it out, as it came out a breathy lisp.

Twilight placed a gentle hoof on his shoulder opposite of Aegis Flare, and the wire conduit turned to gaze in her direction. Her worry was easy to see on her face, and she fought to resist the urge to just scoop him up and bring him to the closest hospital.

“Sam...are you ok?” Twilight asked one more time, and this time she got a clear response.

It took Sam considerable effort to reply, but when he did, it caught everypony off guard, “Ugh, I still got to get a mattress for those landings.”

Everypony was stunned, they hadn’t expected his first words to be that. Even so, Twilight was the first to recover, and when she did, her expression grew sour with annoyance as her ears swept back to show her agitation. Then, out of nowhere, the lavender unicorn swung her hoof and bopped the conduit in the arm. Sam hissed in pain, and everypony looked at Twilight like she had gone mad. She was mad alright, just, more with a sense of indignation.

“Ok, I might have deserved that,” Sam smirked, but winced when he tried to chuckle.

“Damn right you do!” Twilight retorted, but her anger was slowly being replaced with relief every second, and the two friends shared a smile with each other.

It seemed that the little bout of friendly banter was what it took to break the tension in the air surrounding the rest of the ponies. Soon after, every guard began to cheer, both in celebration of the defeat of Visionary Dusk and the return of the conduit who helped stop him. Twilight went for a hug, but when Sam started to groan uncomfortably, she backed off and apologized profusely. Thinking quickly, her horn lit up, and in a flash of lavender light, she had conjured up a hefty spool of wire to offer to her friend.

Sam accepted it graciously, and as he absorbed the new material, both his wounds and fatigue ebbed away. He was looking to be more like his old self, and Sam leaned up from his seated position to stretch his arms out. Aegis Flare and Twilight helped the revitalized conduit out of the rubble as they joined the princess and the guards awaiting them.

The princess eyed Sam with a disapproving glance as he was descending from the debris, “What you did was utterly reckless, and put yourself at risk of losing your life,” Princess Luna tittered while shaking her head at the human conduit, “And yet, I can’t decide whether we should be thanking you or punishing you.”

“Well~, I wouldn’t be opposed to a little rewarding after my daring ‘heroics’,” Sam said smartly before the princess fixed him with another disapproving glance, “Or, we can discuss where I went right and what I might’ve did wrong. Then, split the difference to, say, ‘no harm, no foul’?”

Twilight slugged Sam in the side of the leg with a roll of her eyes, which only caused him to laugh harder, to which the little unicorn couldn’t help but join in with. Everyone was wearing a smile at this point, even the ever stoic captain, and it looked like the storm that had loomed over this fair nation was finally lifting. If only it had lasted a little longer. The ponies settled down into a hush as something in the air caught their attention. It was like something was making their fur stand on end, and everyone, even Sam who was starting to get a weird vibe, tried to zero in on the cause of this sensation.

The ambient magic in the air started to swirl, soon followed by a shallow breeze that picked up with every second. The ponies became nervous as the natural order of their world was bending to some unknown force that they have never felt before. No, that wasn’t right. Some of them have experienced this sort of event before. While most of the guards became wary and brandished their weapons in all directions, Aegis Flare and Princess Luna watched the surroundings with trepidation.

“Princess, what’s going on?” Twilight asked anxiously while Sam stood over her protectively, wires at the ready.

Though never personally there, Princess Luna had studied the reports thoroughly and knew what to expect, “Be at ease, Twilight. No harm shall come to you, so long as I am here.”

Sam felt a strange chill run up his spine as his heart began to beat faster, “Loony, I’m getting a serious sense of deja vu here!”

That was to be expected, Luna thought to herself. She and Aegis Flare spotted them first as they began to manifest, as if from the ether. Shiny particles began to float into existence within the rapidly increasing breeze. The particles grew bigger, and as they did, they started to form together into larger shards. The sight was mesmerizing, and few could say their lower jaws hadn’t fell open in awe. Even still, once the shards began to condense on a singular point, they all raised their guards again and took note of what they were seeing.

“Cappy, what am I looking at?” Sam was becoming even more on edge as he asked his question, his mind telling him that he should know what was going on.

The captain considered his words for a bit before opting to just say what he knew, “It’s the portal you came through.”

Sam and Twilight gasped as their interest in the slowly forming object before them grew. It was reflective, and stood as tall as the average human before it kept growing as more shards fitted into place around the flat, reflective surface of the mirror forming.

Sam was unsure of what to think about the thing before him. His memory of the last time he’d seen one of these was when he was blown into a another world. Twilight was both intrigued and terrified by the sheer amount of magical energy this thing was able to displace just by its mere existence. Either way, the last shard lazily floated into place at the top of the mirror, and the oval shape of it was complete. A reverberating boom rattled all that were assembled before the mirror as the surface turned from a hazy reflection to strange, misshapen images that were not of those who faced it.

“SssSaaaAaaMMmm!”

The weird, distorted sound coming from the depths of the mirror caught everyone’s attention, especially Sam’s. It was his name that echoed from beyond the surface of the reflection, after all. Though, there was something about that voice that the wire conduit felt like he should recognize.

“SsssSaAAAaaaMMMmmm!”

Another voice, more clear this time, even through the the distortion, and Sam’s eyes widened in disbelief for who it belonged to.

“Natie...”

Twilight watched as her friend stood transfixed on the strange, floating mirror before he started walking toward it. She bit down on his sleeve that had fallen down his arm, unlike his usual style of pushing them up.

“Wait, Sam,” Twilight said after letting go of his sleeve, “I just...I mean, there isn’t-”

Words failed the unicorn. She had studied the reports the same as Princess Luna, but something inside felt torn about what was going on. Sam could sense what she was trying to say, but before he could try to say anything back to her, the familiar voice on the other side of the mirror spoke up again.

“Sam! If you can hear me, please, call out to us! Jessica, are sure this is working?”

There was no doubt about it anymore. Nataline, one of Samuel’s friends, was calling out from the other side of this mirror.

Shouting back through the hazy reflection, Sam replied, “Natie, I’m here!”

“Sam? Thank god. Where are you? Wait, that’s not important. Hurry up and jump through the mirror, Jessica can only hold it open for so long!”

At last, the key to Sam’s return home back in Memphis was right in front of him. Yet, that ray of hope was diminished as he turned back to face all of the gathered Equestrians with varied expressions of sadness, one of which was far more prominent than the others.

“...It looks like you can finally go home,” Twilight bowed her head, unable to look the human conduit in the eye.

Sam tried to think of the right words to say, but nothing was coming to him, not even anything witty or clever, “Sparks, I-”

He hadn’t realized how choked up about this moment he would get until it was here before him, and now that it was, a small selfish part of him didn’t want to go. He looked over the crowd of guards and how they looked to him with expressions of lament for his soon to being leaving. Even the princess and Aegis Flare, who were holding it together the most, had their heads dipped in sadness.

“Samuel,” Princess Luna spoke up, “Your friends back on your world are waiting for you. As much as we would miss you here, they shouldn’t have to bear your absence much longer.”

The princess’ words of wisdom were right, but even so, Sam still felt that little nag at the back of his mind to stay, even if was for just a second longer.

The captain walked up to the wire conduit and placed a comforting hoof on his chest, a gesture that would earned him a witty remark by Sam on any other day. Instead, he listened to what the captain had to say with a faltering, stoic look in his eye.

“I’ve watched you ever since you arrived here, Human. I didn’t think much of you back then. I found you to be disrespectful, rude, and a danger to my home. You continually broke the rules that we enforced upon you, and no matter how many times you were punished, you never seemed to adhere to them. Personally, I would have had you thrown back in the dungeon weeks ago for all of that.”

Sam didn’t know if that was supposed to be heartfelt or just something the captain wanted to get off his chest, until Aegis Flare smiled genuinely for the first time he had ever known the stoic captain. “Yet, if we had to do this all over again, I wouldn’t ask for anything to change. You have a good heart. Don’t forget that when you’re showing your world who you are.”

“That was the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Cappy...Are we sure you weren’t the one who hit your head during the last battle?” Sam ruined the moment with a smirk on his face.

Aegis Flare retracted his hoof from the smug conduit’s chest before stomping it on the ground and glared. Despite that, his scowl wasn’t quite as hard as it usually was when he faced the conduit.

“Hey, shit-for-brains! Get your ass moving, or else I’m coming over there and dragging your dumbass back myself!”

Everypony looked at each other as they heard the new voice and tried to comprehend who would say that to one of their friends. Sam could only lay his head into his hands, as he knew exactly which one of his so-called ‘friends’ said that.

“Shut the fuck, Lu! Can’t you see I’m trying to have a tender moment here?” Sam shouted back through the distorted mirror.

“Doing what? Jacking it?”

This time Sam groaned as some of the guards started to chuckle at the exchange. Twilight and Princess Luna, on the other hand, looked in partial disgust for the foul language being exchanged. One of the voices, ‘Natie’, returned and called out through the mirror.

“Lu’s right, Sam. Stop dragging your feet and get over here! Jessica can’t hold out much longer.”

As if to emphasis the point, the mirror began to crack at different places around its border. Sam knew it was just about time to leave, but there was one last thing had to do.

“Guys, just...just give me a sec. I’ll be right there.”

The protests from the ones on the other side of the mirror went unanswered as Sam jogged up to the moping, lavender unicorn trying to blend in with the rest of the crowd. When she noticed the conduit’s shoes at the edge of her vision of her lowered head, she tried to wipe away the tears with her fetlock that broke out from the corners of her massively, expressive eyes. Sam had noticed this the first time he was aware in Equestria. The ponies always had faces that were easy to read with those eyes. Right now, even hidden behind her hoof, he could see his unicorn friend was hurting from the sudden goodbyes that were being forced upon them. It made the decision he had to make all the more difficult in the end.

Unsure with what to do with his hands, Sasm shoved them into his pocket while he spoke, “Hey, Sparks…”

“You shouldn’t keep your friends waiting, Sam,” Twilight choked out, unable to look up at the wire conduit, “Don’t worry about me. I-I’ll be f-fine.”

While she was failing to hold back the tears streaming down her face, Twilight suddenly found herself swept up in the comforting embrace of Sam’s arms as he hugged her.

“You really think I’d leave without saying ‘goodbye’?” Sam whispered over her shoulder.

That had done it. The dam broke, and Twilight was left sobbing into the crook of Sam’s arm as she let out her grief. Sam let her be, even stroking the back of her mane to offer a bit more comfort. It was enough that he, too, found himself beginng to choke up and let a few tears drift down his cheek.

“I-I’m sorry. This isn’t r-right,” Twilight said, confusing the conduit.

She pushed herself away, so they could look at each other properly. If Sam had a tissue, he would’ve offered it. So, he settled for helping wiping away the tears staining Twilight’s fur down her face. Twilight was doing her best to pull herself together, but the thought of seeing her friend leave was heartbreaking.

Catching her breath a bit, Twilight offered her explanation, “I just- I don’t want you to leave. I’m so selfish! Y-your friends from your world are waiting for you, and-and I just want to keep you here!”

Twilight’s sobs returned, and Sam did his best to settle her down as best he could. From behind him, the mirror’s surface was beginning to crack even more, and the shouts from the other side were growing more insistent. Sam felt so torn, but he knew what he had to do.

Cupping the unicorn’s cheeks with his hands, he gently tilted her head back up to look at him while dabbing her tears away with his thumbs, “Believe me, Sparks. I want to stay here, too, with all of you.” Sam’s eyes drifted over his shoulders to look over the many equine faces looking back at him. “You’ve all done so, so much for me when I was nothing but a stranger on your world. You had no idea who I as was, or for that matter, what I was, and yet? You all gave me a chance. I hate how I almost didn’t do the same at first. I was practically ready to fight my way out of the dungeons and take my chances on my own. I’m so glad that I didn’t. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to know all of you.

“You gave me the courage to keep on going, to keep pushing myself when I would’ve given up when I realized how stranded and alone I was.” Sam’s gaze returned to Twilight, and he put on his best, sympathetic smile. “I honestly couldn’t ask for better friends while being stranded, especially you, Twilight. You put up with my shenanigans, taught me magic, and when I got stupid and rushed into that lab, you came in after me, and saved me. No matter how scared you were.”

Twilight’s heart swelled with pride at the wire conduit’s words. He may have been aloof and tended to joke around a lot, but Twilight couldn’t disagree more on Sam’s criticisms on himself. In Twilight’s mind, he was every bit a friend to her as the rest of her friends in Ponyville.

More crackling sounds came from the mirror, and Aegis Flare spoke up with a yelp, “Human, the portal!”

That was it. Sam swallowed the growing lump in his throat, and forced his own sadness down with it to smile. If he was going to leave, he didn’t want the ponies to see him off with grief. Taking his arms off Twilight’s shoulders, he let her back down to all four hooves and stood back up. His feet felt light, like they were walking on their own and carrying him to the visibly cracked mirror dimly humming a few feet away. His feet locked up midstep, and he turned around with a spark of sad realization on his face.

“Sparks, I’m sorry to ask this of you,” Sam said mournfully, scratching the back of head, “I know I said I would, but, I’m going to have to break that promise I made to Pinkie. Can you...can you tell her I’m sorry?”

Twilight gasped in realization. As sad as she was to see Sam go, she had forgotten the other two ponies that had come to know him, even for the short time that they had. Especially her pink, sugary friend that had been looking forward to a visit from her newest extraterrestrial friend back home. It seemed unfair that they wouldn’t be able to have one last chance to say their own ‘goodbyes’. So, Twilight vowed to see to it that both her and Sam’s shared friends would be able to understand. Unable to trust her voice at that moment, Twilight simply nodded and tried to match Sam’s sad smile with her own.

Sam turned to Princess Luna, but before he could say a word, the princess shook her head, “It’s ok, Samuel. There are no words that are needed here. We knew this day would have to come. My sister and I already know how much you will be missed by both of us. Take care.”

Aegis Flare took the princess’ place as she stepped back. The human and the captain locked gazes, before the pony guard snorted, making Sam chuckle with how horse-like it sounded.

“Sorry for causing you all those headaches,” Sam offered remorsefully, rubbing one arm with the other.

Aegis Flare let out a long-suffering sigh, but his stoic expression relaxed after letting the weeks of tension go from his frame, “An apology is nice enough. I should offer mine as well. I’m sorry you had to be dragged into our affairs as you did, even if you butted into them first.” A sad round of chuckles reverberated from the crowd, and once again, a ghost of a smile slipped its way onto the captain’s face. “It won’t quite be the same without your foalish antics to keep us busy.”

“Hah...Thanks, Cappy.”

“Take care of yourself...Human.”

The final rounds of ‘goodbyes’ were up. Sam stood with his back to the decaying mirror and surveyed the sea of sad smiles on every pony’s face. Taking a deep breath, Sam lifted his head high and smiled as wide as he could, hoping that this could be enough for his high note. The ponies either waved or nodded their heads in understanding.

Sam turned to face the object that would bring him home. The cracks in the mirror were getting bigger, and he could hear the familiar bickering of his friends just on the other side of this hazy reflection. Taking another breath, Sam squat down slightly, poised to jump through, and so, he did.

The ponies watched as the human from another world jumped through the mirror, disappearing to the other side, where his home lied. Other than the sound of the mirror’s low humming, the entire crater full of ponies was silent. The cracks on the mirror bloomed outward swiftly, and the mirror’s surface vibrated, smearing the reflections further. Jets of light pierced through the fissures, and everypony took a cautious step back. As more of the cracks in the reflective object connected with each other, pieces of itself began to shed off. The mirror shook violently, until it exploded outward in the direction it was facing with a shuddering ‘crash’, sounding like shattering glass. The pieces of the mirror broke apart even further, and soon, those pieces seemed to evaporate into the ether like fine powder until there was not a single trace left of it.

Author's Notes:

Welp, here we are. The end. It took me over two years to finish this, but no matter how much I hate some of it due to my inexperience, I still feel proud of it. From the very beginning, I actually had a few parts for this ending planned out, and left the rest up for revisions later on. Overall, again, I'm still proud of it, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it.

Thank you Regreme, you've been the greatest help I could have asked for in getting this done. Not exactly sure where I want to go from here, but I'll figure something out. I always do.

...What? What are you still doing here? Do I got something stuck in my teeth?...

...Ok, so I may have one more thing to add to this. Guess we'll have to wait til next week though, bye!