"E-Eldritch?" I heard Derpy say from next to me. Her voice came through clearly despite the wind.

"Hmmmm?" I stopped and looked at the mare stoll held in my tentacles.

"You're ummmmm..... You're flying." She said.

I blinked and looked down. Far below me stretched rolling hills, which slowly turned into fields. Fields which in turn lead in to Ponyville. Home could still clearly be seen, but it was a bit away.

I looked up back at here. "Yep."

"I- I honestly expected a bigger reaction." Derpy said blinking owlishly.

I shrugged. "Earlier I'd've been losing my shit, however right now I simply don't care."

"Okay.... Mind letting me go? Please? I feel a little uncomfortable being this high up without my wings moving, if that makes sense." Derpy scrunched up her face as she explained.

"Oh, of course. sorry." I said apologetically. I loosened up one of my tentacles, and allowed her wings to unfurl. Once she got a steady beat going I let her go so she could fly on her own.

"Thanks." She smiled at me.

I found I didn't have the energy to give her a good eye-smile back. "You're welcome."

"Canterlot take it out of you?" Vinyl's voice made me turn to look at mares still held in my "grasp." Lyra, Octavia, and Vinyl were still surrounded in the purple aura, hovering in mid-air and gently bobbing up and down in my grasp. Octavia looked a little pouty, Lyra seemed out of it, and Vinyl looked worn out.

"Canterlot Castle took it out of me." I replied. "Canterlot is probably a nice place, Canterlot Castle on the other hand is a fucking nightmare."

"Yeah, seems legit." Vinyl nodded. "Kinda feel like I want a nap now."

"And I just want to hug Dinky until all my stress melts away." I chuckled. I paused. "Oh, do you want me to drop all of you off at Ponyville?"

"Sure, why not." Vinyl shrugged.

Octavia nodded somewhat stiffly.

"I'll stick with you." Lyra smiled at me, seemly back from wherever her mind had taken her.

"Yes please." Derpy nodded. "In fact, I should probably head that way now. I did leave work because I was panicked about that island in the sky. Oh, I hope I don't get written up for this!"

With a quick wave Derpy sped off towards Ponyville.

"Bye." I waved as she left.

I took a breath and looked back to the other mares. "Shall we?"

I got various forms of affirmation. With a weak eye-smile and a sigh, I turned and sped off towards Ponyville, the mares following in my wake.

I landed near the Town Hall. As my feet hit the dirt, I gently set my equine companions on the ground. Octavia still looked pouty. Vinyl seemed tired and was giving Octavia glances, as if to check if she was still there. Lyra hovered next to my, surrounded by her own glowing golden aura.

"Here we are." I rolled my neck and stretched my tentacles. I expected the neck pops. I didn't expect the tentacle pops. Blinking, I decided to not thinking about it, I didn't want a headache on top of everything else. Thus, I turned to the floating and glowing mare. "Lyra. Why the lightshow?"

Lyra shrugged, all of her eyes rolled. "Presentation."

"Huh. Point." I nodded in agreement. "Can't fault you for that. I may have to steal your idea."

"So both of you would fly like a Dragon Ball character?" A voice spoke up between us.

And there's Pinkie. Because of course she'd be here.

I looked down at the mare. "Yep. Pretty much. How are things up there?" I gestured my tentacles upward.

"Good-ish. I'm setting up a party I'm not supposed to tell you about." Pinkie grinned. "Any thing else would be spoilers."

"Thank you Self-Aware Pony." I patted her head.

I hope they haven't broken anything.

I looked over at Vinyl and Octy. "Vinyl. You good?" I asked the tired mare.

"Eh?" She shrugged. "Still feel like I need a nap. And I should get her home so she can get some cello practice in." She jerked her head towards the charcoal mare who had found a cardboard box... Somewhere.

"Come on 'Tavi." Vinyl levitated the mare, who pouted again. "Let's get you calmed down."

"I'm fine Vinyl, put me down." Octavia complained, yet didn't struggle.

"You're halfway to putting on a bandana and racing off to the Everfree. You need to center yourself." Vinyl started to lecture as she walked aware with the mare in tow. "Now, close your eyes. Take a deep breath-"

I watched them go then looked at the box. "Pinkie. Want a box?"

"Sure!" She chirped and stuffed it in her mane. "I should get back up there. I had cookies in the oven."

Suddenly, she disappeared with a pop and a pink cloud of mist.

"I don't get her." Lyra commented dryly.

"I don't think you're supposed to." I shrugged. "Should we head up then? Need anything while you're in Ponyville?"

"Nah." She shook her head.

"Kay." I nodded. I took a breath and a purple aura lit up around me, accompanied by a familiar sound. "And this is to go further beyond." I chuckled to myself.

I looked at my slightly confused companion and levitated off the ground. Together we shot up towards home.

As we arced over the cliff edge of the central island I readied myself. I was both surprised and disappointed that nothing was different. Then again, looks could be deceiving.

We landed on the walkway, both our auras dissolving as we did. I heard some chatter but couldn't tell who it was from. As we walked down the path I spotted Dinky still playing on the TV I'd made. The other foals weren't far away. They were sitting on a separate path. They were surrounded by paper, pencils, and dice. Pip Had a Dungeon Master's Guide and a Monster Manual open in front of him.

My heart swelled a little bit. The kids were playing D&D. Yeah, I was a little disappointed that they lost interest in Chrono Trigger, but it wasn't all that surprising.

"Having fun?" I called out.

"Yes." Came the not-really-paying-attention response from the foals. However, there was a small impact against my stomach.

"Dad!" Dinky's cry was muffled, probably thanks to her face being firmly planted in my stomach.

"Hey Dinks." I patted her head. "How's everything? Holding the fort?"

"Chrono Trigger's awesome, the others got bored, Pip found your library, Twilight's been reading, Applejack and Pinkie have been baking, Princess Celestia has been wandering around the islands, and Rainbow Dash has been trying to keep the pegasi from flying up and exploring." Dinky rattled off quickly as she slid hack down the the path with a clop of small hooves.

"Well that's nice of her." Lyra commented with a sharp-toothed smile.

"Anybody else show up while I was gone?" I asked, raising my brow. "Because I don't remember AJ and RD being here when I left." I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. "Aght! No! Bad!" I pointed.

Dinky whirled around.

Button stared at us, wide-eyed, his hoof halfway to the SNES controller.

"Button!" Dinky roared and charged at him.

Button Mash bolted. I could hear his pleading cries as he did his best to nope away from the filly. "I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!"

"What was that about?" Lyra blinked in confusion.

"Last time Button played Dinky's game he killed her character." I furrowed my brow. "I swore I Ordered him not to. Then again he didn't actually touch the controller."

"Eldritch. Lyra. You're back." Both of us turned to see Tia coming in for a landing. She stopped about a foot from us. "And you've brought my sister. Wait... Is she asleep?"

"She'd be more difficult to handle otherwise." I shrugged. "Here, clean this." I held out the dark lump of hoodie and pony that was Luna. Thankfully, Tia took her in her magic. "I'd recommend burning those clothes and finding a bathroom to wash her."

"Thank you." Celestia giggled and nuzzled her sister. She took a sniff and gagged. "Yes, I see what you mean." She subtley floated Luna a bit further away from her. "Care to join me inside? I'm sure the others would like to properly meet you, and I'm sure Twilight has questions."

"Sure. Sounds fun." I nodded with an eye-smile as we walked towards the palace.

Bean didn't know why he was here. He was sitting in a chair, in front of a table, with a very bright light shining in is face.

"You talked to it and gave it food! You have to know something! It foalnapped the princess!"

Oh yeah.

Bean blinked. "Ummmm he was nice? He seemed to like me for some reason? He didn't want me to talk too, which was weird, but then again he was a purple tentacle monster."

An exhaslerated groan came from beyond the light. "Fishy... Stop. Princess Cadence said it was fine. Princess Celestia explained about Eldritch yesterday. Don't you remember?"

"No I was hungover!"

There was a sigh. "Of course you were.... I mean, yeah he was kinda scary in the moment, but did you see the way he looked at us? It was like he knew us and it hurt him." There was another sigh.

There was scratching of pen on paper.

"Hmmmm? Oh Yeah. Page here also confirms the story everypony else knows." Bean could feel the eyeroll.

"It busted a hole in the castle wall and foalnapped the Princess! I won't be happy until I make it pay for it's crimes!"

"Celestia dammit Fishy...."

"And you're all coming with me!"

Bean blinked at the light. "We're what now?"

Author's Notes:

Jeezus It's been forever! Sorry for the long wait! Also, sorry for the shorter chapter.

Honestly, I don't know whar stars aligned to get me to write, but I'm happy they did. Enjoy!