“…Amen.”

Malcolm opened one eye a tiny bit so as to sneak a peek at the plethora of food placed out on the large table he and his family were gathered at.  The familiar figure of his mother was slightly obscured by the boy’s eyelids, but he could see her scooping different foods up in silverware and placing them on the night’s dishes.

While Susan was distributing the food, Vincent was saying grace to bless the day’s fortune.  The head of the house was still dressed in his work outfit, and several red stains dotted it.  Malcolm was used to seeing the specks on his father’s clothes, and learned long ago that they were nothing to worry about.  

The four-year-old little girl bounced happily in her chair, eager to dig into the food her mother was splitting equally between all four members of the family.  Loralee giggled as their mother scolded Malcolm for peeking during their father’s prayer.  With a shameful expression, the boy bowed his head low so as to hide his rosy face from his sister.

The four family members shared jokes and stories as they devoured the wonderful feast before them.  The air in the house was warm and dry, although rain relentlessly pounded the freezing streets outside.  The Rossano children were truly blessed with a hardworking father, a loving mother, and a comfortable shelter to live in.  The night’s dinner was eaten in complete bliss, none of the patrons of the table having anything to complain or worry about at the moment.

As ruined and dangerous as New York City was, they couldn’t have cared less at that moment.  All they wanted was to enjoy their dinner in one another’s company.  It was complete bliss.

None of them could imagine the events that would soon follow.  The horrible fortune that would greet them that night was completely unforeseeable…

Malcolm lazily poked the fruit in his bowl as his mind drifted off through the memories of his past.  The room was filled by the random chatter of several dozen castle guards, the princesses, Twilight and her friends, and Loralee.  Every once in a while the boy would sneak a glance toward Princess Celestia, trying to find some sort of message in her body language.  He was looking for some sign that would tell him whether he should return home or stay in Equestria.

He found no such sign in the princess’s expressions or words.  Everything she said was sincere.  Everything she did was gentle.  She showed no warning sign of the threat that the door between their worlds presented, nor did she so much as send a single sour message to the boy telling him he needed to leave.

Her willingness to allow him and his sister to stay only worsened his confusion and doubt.  He could stay in Equestria and be happy for a time, but at the cost of letting Earth’s influence slowly corrupt the peaceful world of ponies.  On the other hand, he could leave and return to the hell he left behind, allowing Equestria to remain a peaceful and bright place.

Malcolm had never been faced with such a tough decision before in his life.  Now that he needed to decide, he couldn’t quite find the mental ability to do so.  And so he found himself thinking back to the years when he was the happiest.  Though memories of his parents were few and far between, the night they received the draft notice remained burned into his mind.  He couldn’t decide why he’d never let go of that night.  At the same time, he never wanted to know why.  After all, that was the last time he saw his parents.

The boy found himself lost within the reaches of his mind, and though he was feeling mildly hungry, all he could do was poke the plump fruit from side to side in his bowl.  After the meeting with Princess Celestia, it was as if he had lost all will to carry on.  He knew that he would have to make a decision where either outcome would be bad for one of the parties involved.

If he went home without Loralee, she would probably be mad at him, and he would be trapped back in New York.  If he went home with her, he’d have to live with the fact that she gave up her happiness just so he wouldn’t be alone.  If he stayed, they could both be happy, until Earth influenced Equestria to an obvious extent…

What should he do?  Should he just go home and let the Equestrians live like they always have?  Should he stay and be happy with his sister?

What should he do?

Malcolm was completely zoned out during the entirety of breakfast.  While his sister and the ponies carried on their own discussions, he was debating what he should do about his current situation.  He almost believed that he would be better off without ever knowing about the door.  Living in bliss would probably be better than having to make such a no-way-to-win decision.

It wasn’t until he returned to his room that he finally snapped out of his trance.  He listened as Loralee told him the story of the ponies’ battle with a creature named Discord a while back.  As soon as her childish wonder subsided, he decided to make his decision.

He paced back and forth by the door to their room for several minutes before finally saying anything to his sister.  Once he’d made up his mind, he asked her, “You like this place, right Lora?”

The girl, still lost in thoughts of the ponies’ exploits, mumbled, “Of course.  This place is amazing.”

He noticed her vacant expression and groaned, “Lora, this is important!”

The sudden outburst from her brother immediately grabbed her attention.  She’d seen her brother snap before, but his outbursts were never directed at her.  She stammered, “Wh-what’s wrong Mac?  You’ve been acting weird all morning…”

The boy placed a hand over his face as he tried to form the words he needed to explain his decision.  He sighed, “Look, my meeting with Celestia wasn’t the best thing ever.  I learned something that’s really been bugging me…  So tell me, do you like this place?”

“Of course I do.  I still don’t understand what you’re getting at…”  The girl approached her brother with an expression of confusion plastered on her face.

Malcolm groaned, “I…I’ve decided that I’m not staying in this world.  I’m going home.”

“What?!  But why would you do that?”  Loralee grabbed the sleeve of her brother’s shirt, as if trying to keep him from walking away.

The older sibling scoffed, “It’s complicated, sis.  I just don’t think I should stay…”

“Well then I’m going too!”  The girl stomped her foot to stress her point.

The boy shook his head and waved a dismissive hand.  He sighed, “I can’t let you do that.  You’re happy here; I’m not letting you throw that away.”  

Loralee moaned, “Well you’re not going back by yourself!  I’m coming with you!”

“Don’t you get it?!  We’ve finally found a place where we can be safe and happy!  I’m not letting you go back to that hell, end of story!” Malcolm screamed in anger as his head filled with the memory of the dangers of the streets of New York.

His sister was taken aback by his anger.  She stepped away slowly and lowered her gaze to the floor.  She sighed, “Mac…The only things we had in that world were each other.  If I let you go back without me, then what will you have left?”  Her eyes filled with tears as she thought about the ruins they called home.

“It doesn’t matter.  I have to leave, and I don’t want you to lose what you could have here.”  He crossed his arms and turned away from Loralee, not wanting to let her expression influence his decision.

“And what about me?  If you go home without me, I won’t have any family left.  I’ll be the only human in a world of talking animals…”

Malcolm considered this point for a few seconds.  He groaned, “You’d get used to it.  Here you can have fun and play games and never have to worry about starving or being attacked.  Being the only human’s a small price to pay, ain’t it?”

Loralee sighed, “You don’t believe that, do you?”

“I believe you have a better chance here than you do at home.  Please Lora; don’t make this harder on me than it already is…”

His sister mumbled, “Fine…go home if you want.  But you at least owe it to me to tell me about your meeting with Princess Celestia!”

He scoffed, “Yeah, I guess that’s only fair…”

Malcolm sat down on their bed and started explaining all of the events of the prior day to his sister.  He started with the explanation of how Earth and Equestria are connected by a magical bond.  He then went on to explain about the negative influence Earth was having on the world of ponies.

He gave her the locket Celestia had pulled from the other side of the door.  He explained how the alicorn could use magic to return them to their world and close the door.  He explained that him passing through might close the door, thus letting her live happily in this world without the risk of it ending up like Earth in the future.

He also explained how, after the audience, he was taken to the castle’s dining hall to eat lunch and speak with the other princesses.  All three of the ponies were more than happy to let the foreigners stay in Equestria for as long as they wanted.  The alicorns stressed the fact that they wouldn’t force them to return home under any circumstance.

After Malcolm finally finished explaining the day’s events, Loralee attempted a few more times to sway his decision.  Her attempts were to no avail, and he decided he would go to Celestia’s chambers to ask her to send him home before noon.  He agreed to let his sister join him in the chambers to see him off, but he was adamant about not letting her leave with him.

Noon rolled around pretty quickly, almost too quickly for Loralee’s tastes.

She and her brother walked together in solemn silence toward Celestia’s chambers.  It was obvious to her at this point that her brother wasn’t going to change his mind about leaving.  She had no intentions of letting him go home alone, however, and was trying to think of some way to convince him to let her go.

The walk to the princess’s chambers didn’t take very long, much to the girl’s disappointment.  Before Malcolm even had a chance to knock, the large door swung open by itself, and the tall figure of Celestia greeted them from the far side of the room.  She welcomed them with a gentle hello and closed the door behind them.

Neither of them needed to speak for her to understand why they were there.  She sighed, “You do not have to leave, children.  You understand this, correct?”

Malcolm mumbled, “Yeah.  But ‘we’ ain’t leavin’.  I am.”  He glanced curiously at his sister, who simply nodded in agreement.

The princess was only slightly surprised by this news.  She giggled, “You’re going to leave so that your world no longer influences ours.  How noble of a sacrifice.”

“Don’t patronize me!” the boy snapped.

Celestia bowed slightly and sighed, “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to sound disrespectful.  Your decision is a truly noble one, however.  Are you certain you are the only one going through the door?”  She winked at Loralee, who immediately tried to hide the smile that suddenly sprung up on her face.

The older sibling groaned, “Yeah, I am.  So if you don’t mind, I don’t care for gooey goodbyes.  Just open the door or whatever you have to do and let me through.”

“Of course.  But I should warn you of something important…”  The princess lowered her gaze and waited a few moments before continuing.  “There’s no guarantee that the door will send you back to your world.  Or at least, the world you knew.”

Both humans’ eyes widened in surprise.  They gasped simultaneously, “What?”

The alicorn was confused by the sudden excitement in the foreigners’ expressions.  She said, “Although the door will send you to Earth, there’s no promise it will be the Earth you’re used to.  Whereas your home is a ruined city, there is a chance where you exit will not be in ruins.  In fact, your exit may be a beautiful town full of life.”

Malcolm waved a dismissive hand and scoffed, “That’s impossible.  Our world was crap, there ain’t no way it won’t be crap when I go back.”

Loralee sighed, “But what if she’s right?  What if you go back and it turns out that there never was a war?”

“Can that happen?” the boy asked in a confused tone.  

Celestia placed a hoof to her muzzle and giggled, “That is one possibility, yes.  But there are limitless possibilities for the world you’ll return to.  That’s why I’m asking if you truly wish to return by yourself.”

Malcolm shook his head and scoffed, “Even if there’s a chance it’s a better world, there’s a chance it’s a worse world…assuming that’s possible.  I’m still going through alone.”

Loralee stomped her foot and yanked the back of her brother’s shirt closer to her.  She moaned, “Are you really that stupid?!  There’s no telling what’s waiting for you on the other side!  Do you really want to greet those unknowns without someone familiar by your side?”  She gripped her brother’s clothing as tight as she could, unwilling to just let him go on his own.

Malcolm struggled to get out of her grip.  To his surprise, her grip was a bit too strong.  Either that or she was just really adamant about stopping him.  He groaned, “Look, if we cross through and something bad happens to you, I’ll never forgive myself!  And since that’s a good possibility, I ain’t lettin’ you go!”

“Would you get over it, already?  I understand I’m your sister and you’ve always been so determined to keep me safe…  But this is ridiculous!  You’d rather go off to face something you know nothing about by yourself, just because there’s a chance I might get hurt?”  The younger sibling was, for the first time Malcolm could remember, getting genuinely angry.

“Of course!  That’s how it’s always been, and that worked pretty damn well!”

The little girl snapped, “Get with the picture, Malcolm!  In case you haven’t realized, we were killed in that alley!  How the hell do you think we ended up in this place?!  Yeah, you’ve always kept me safe, but why are you so damn worried?!  We’ve both been killed, I think that’s about as bad as it can get!”

In a single instant, Malcolm’s tough expression and determined attitude shattered.  He pondered what his sister had just said, and he found there to be truth in it.  It dawned on him that he had definitely been killed in the alley by those thugs.  A bullet to the head was a guaranteed kill, after all.  What he hadn’t considered in the few days he’d been in Equestria was that he had already failed to protect her once, and they both paid the ultimate price for it.  Whatever waited for them on the other side of the door couldn’t be worse than getting killed...

“Y-you’re right, Lora…” Malcolm sighed as all these realization washed over him.

Loralee was still lost in her anger.  She started, “And if you’re still so damn determined to…”  She paused as what her brother said soaked in.  She embarrassedly mumbled, “Wait, did you just agree?”

The older sibling nodded and chuckled, “I guess I hadn’t really thought about a bullet to the head.  That’s pretty much death right there.  So I guess we can say this world revived us when it pulled us through?”  He looked over to Princess Celestia, who was captivated by the little girl’s outburst.

She sighed, “I think that’s a safe assumption, Malcolm.  So, have you changed your mind, then?  Are you both going to go through?”

The humans stared at one another for a few moments before nodding in affirmation.  They both cheered, “You bet we are!”  Smiles stretched across their faces as they realized they might truly be able to return to an Earth less corrupt than their own.

The princess giggled, “Very well then.  I’ll use my magic to send you back through the door.  When you arrive to the other side, it should close, and Equestria won’t have to worry about any negative influence.”  A golden aura slowly formed around her horn as she spoke.

Malcolm chuckled, “Whatever’s on the other side can’t be worse than what we’ve been through.  So we should at least be together when we face it.”  He wrapped an arm around his sister.

Loralee giggled, “And if we’re lucky, we’ll end up someplace as nice as Equestria.”

Her brother groaned, “I dunno if I’d like that.  This place is a little too nice, if ya ask me.  My trigger finger’s been itching for a while…”  He received an elbow into his ribs before adding, “Just kidding!  I don’t miss the violence one bit!”

The girl sighed, “Maybe we’ll even see Mom and Dad.  That’d be nice, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah.  I don’t even know if I’d recognize them…”

“Of course you would.  But would they recognize us?”

“Sure.  They’d never forget their children, even if we are older and uglier.”

The two continued to exchange lighthearted small talk as Celestia prepared her magic for sending them back through the door.  The golden aura from the alicorn’s horn reached out and enveloped the two humans, who continued to embrace and converse as thoughts of all the possible Earths filled their heads.  They focused mainly on the good worlds they could end up in, but every once in a while a bad world came to mind.

Before long, the golden aura became a solid white ball of light, and the two humans were shrouded by it.  In an instant, the light disappeared, and all that remained in the room was the now-exhausted Celestia.

Malcolm and Loralee found themselves standing in a large plain area.  Behind them they could see the image of the room they had just been in.  In front of them were images of worlds more normal.  Worlds similar to Earth played across the large emptiness.  Sharing nods of determination and acceptance, they charged forward into the images, hoping to get the luck of the draw on their return to their home.

With optimism in their hearts, the two humans let the void swallow them, believing they might find good fortune on the other side…

…

A gentle breeze blew over the two humans as they regained consciousness.  Soothing warmth poured over them as bright light filled their eyes.  The smell of flowers and plants filled their nostrils with every breath.  The faint sounds of crowds chatting and engines running greeted them as they slowly lifted themselves from the ground.

Sunlight shined down from a light blue sky, which was dotted by thin white clouds.  In the distance, tall skyscrapers towered over them.  The laughter of children and parents rang out from behind them.

Two tall figures slowly approached them.  A man and woman, roughly forty years of age.

The man cheered, “It’s about time to head home.  Traffic’s gonna be crazy…”

The woman giggled, “Did you have fun?”

Malcolm and Loralee stared on in disbelief as their mother and father greeted them with warm smiles and gentle voices.  It took everything in their power to resist the urge to burst into happy tears.  The older sibling looked around curiously to ensure this was really happening.  After seven years of being alone, suddenly they had their parents back.

The two children pondered their weird twist of fate.

They were left alone in a cold world to fend for themselves.  They adjusted to their lives living in fear of the thugs that roamed the streets.  They let their guards down for a moment and were killed.  With no idea how it happened, they ended up in a world completely opposite to their own.  Through their confusion and uncertainty, they made friends with the horse-like residents of their new world.  And through those residents, they eventually made it back to their world.

But the world they returned to was much more peaceful.  The hardest part of being in this new world would be adjusting to the comfort of an unbroken home.  

Malcolm and Loralee felt certain they would adjust…