My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Seven: Reunions.

Dustan was nervous as all hell as he adjusted his suit that Pat gave him. He was dressed nicely, shaved, even got a haircut so now his hair was nice and short and gelled up nice and spiky for what was left, the last was at Pat’s request for some reason. Looking over his choice of undershirts, Dustan quickly second guessed himself and took off the jacket and undershirt quickly looking through the clothing in his size that remained and searched out something.

“Dude you finished putting your make up on? Your folks just called and said they are around the corner and will be here in a few minu-JESUS!” The voice of Pat called from the hallway only to shout as he walked into the room.

Standing up and thinking something was happening Dustan quickly took up a combat stance only to realize nothing was off. “What?!”

“Dude…Dustan, man.” Pat’s worried voice sound like it was on the verge of breaking.

Looking to follow his eyes, Dustan realized he was shirtless and all of his scars were exposed. Various woodland attacks flash through his mind, Goblins, the work camp, Discord, and more all popping into his head. Sighing and grabbing the shirt he had picked out he quickly covered himself and grabbed the jacket to put on.

“As I told you, my time in Equestria wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I fought tooth and nail to get where I am now, and not all of it was without bloodshed.” Sighing once more Dustan fixed the jacket before looking to Patrick. “I am going to tell them everything. I know you helped set Twilight up in the basement so she wouldn’t pop up during this visit but my parents deserve to know not just that I have been gone, or some excuse of whatever it is I can think of. They need to know it all.”

“You sure? You know this type of thing once they know they will worry and they will fret.” His friend told him and Dustan couldn’t help but chuckle. “What’s so funny about that?”

“Did you just say fret?” He asked of his friend as he was chuckling with suppressed mirth.

“Yeah so?” Clearly irritated his blond friend just crossed his arms and gave him a look.

“Sorry it’s just-” He took a moment to collect himself before Dustan continued. “Fret isn’t something normally said and feels like something only an old grandma would say.”

Groaning as he seemed to realized. “Yeah laugh it up, go on keep it up. Anymore and I will kick your overpowered ass up and down the yard just watch!”

That seemed to get the both of them to suddenly burst out laughing. After a time Dustan, who had taken to wearing more normal clothing though still with his cloak looked to his friend and thought for a moment as if deciding in his head he pulled off his cloak and folded it up before handing it to his friend.

“What do you want me to do with this?” Patrick asked as he looked to the battered and repaired piece of clothing.

Taking a moment to sigh and look at him. “That is the cloak you bought me at the con, it’s the only thing that has really kept up and survived…more or less. I held on to it as a memento and to remind myself that there might always be some way back. I was getting ready to hang it up for good and replace it before coming here. Now that I am here, I don’t think I need the reminder anymore and want you to wake up the next time I am gone knowing that I was here and it wasn’t some kind of dream.”

The blond designer held the folded up cloth for a moment before coming to give his friend a one armed hug. “Thanks bro.” Pulling back from the hug a moment came and brought with it a realization. “Um D, tell me, how are you going to explain that you went into My Little Pony, won’t your parents recognize that stuff?”

“They shouldn’t. I honestly kept my love for the show hidden from them.” He told his friend as he looked up into the air. “Only people who even know are you and Sarah and she is content to have me out of her life. How did she take my ‘death’ as it were?”

“I…don’t know actually.” Scratching the back of his head the home owner just seemed to think for a moment. “Your parents, her, and myself were the people most regularly contacted by the police in their search of you. They called us all in one day and she was being a bit of a bitch. When they said they were calling off the search and it that you should be declared legally dead well, your parents were upset, as was I. I yelled at them to continue searching, she though, she just said nothing and left, honestly she likely thought it was a waste of time. Last I seen of her honestly.” Moving to sit down on one of the patio chairs as they had made their way to the backyard Patrick continued. “I have heard some things though. Apparently her fashion dealings went even higher and bigger; I heard that she was working as her own designer now and every now and then working with companies like Victoria’s Secret.”

“Seems like things have gone well for her, I’m glad to hear it.” Sitting down as well Dustan looked out onto his friend’s backyard. “No matter what she has done to me or if she doesn’t care, it doesn’t mean I wish bad things on her.”

Things were quite between the two of them for a while before Patrick started to chuckle. “Damn man, still a fucking hero aren’t you? Can’t help but forgive people and such.”

After a good laugh by the two the day continued to pass and eventually the call came that Dustan’s parents were close to arriving. “So just stay in the kitchen until you call for me?”

Twilight had calmed down quite a bit focusing on her work for the past few hours and was making a good bit of headway but had informed Dustan that there was a limit without being able to research other methods of magical something or other that he didn’t understand to be able to get more efficiency from the circle. Now the unicorn was just waiting in the kitchen as she was just told thanks to Dustan wanting to set everything up as he was not even close to being sure how his family would take this.

Pat came in through the door and looked at him. “They are here.”

Dustan looked himself over once more, having on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, casual of course in his dress as always with a simple jacket. His hair was cut short; his face shaved and groomed though he had debated on using any kind of product to hide the scar on his cheek from where Rainbow had gave him a good hit so long ago. Taking a deep breath he let it out shakily as a knock came to the door.

Pat went to answer it and he heard him call out. “Noah, Olivia, good to see you two again.”

“You too Patrick. Been taking care of yourself?” His father’s deep voice had Dustan tearing up.

“Honey he is a grown man.” His mother’s voice, so soft and kind had those tears flowing. “That being said, are you eating right?”

“I am but, that isn’t why you are here. Come on in and you can also come out!” The latter part was yelled of course to him.

Wiping his eyes and heading in to the living room Dustan could see how time had changed his parents though at the moment that didn’t matter. “Hey Mom, Dad. I’m back.”

The rush to embrace his parents came just as quickly as the one the older pair gave to hug their son. Olivia was a woman that was only two inches shorter then her son, brown hair that was of a lighter shade of brown then his own but now was sporting a bit of gray. Her blue eyes though still shined with a motherly warmth that even her own friends said made them sometimes feel as if she were mothering them. Next to her was his father, shorter even then his mother by another two inches making him a good four inches shorter than him, his hair was at one point darker but now that age had taken hold of him had lightened with the gray that peppered him as well as the thick mustache that he always wore. He had once been a man of strength, stocky and powerful, but time had not been kind to him while Dustan was away as he was now skinny due to his cancer treatments, if Dustan had been asked who the strongest man he knew was just a few years ago he would have said his father without a doubt.

When the crying had, mostly, dried up his father pulled back and looked at him. “Seems like you have filled out quite a bit son, been working hard?”

Wiping his eyes Dustan nodded and smiled. “M-more than I can say.”

“Well just means we have a lot of catching up to.” Olivia smiled brightly as she sat down and pulled her son to sit down with her. “So tell us, what happened.”

Everyone took a seat as he started. “It’s going to be a bit hard to believe but trust me in that I can prove what I say is true.” He began his story, told them exactly what happened, his mother looked like she was about to cry when he told her about being stabbed in the chest but then was confused when Dustan told her that he was healed. It was when the displaced man got to magic and ponies that his parents were frowning and stopped him. “I know it’s hard to believe and I figure this is about when you would stop me so evidence number one, Water.” Dustan left a floating ball of water in the middle of the table for them to gawk at. “Evidence number two: TWILIGHT!”

The clip clop of her hooves brought the two adults to look over to the unicorn as she gave a sheepish smile and wave. “H-hello, I am Twilight Sparkle and I am a friend of your son.”

His father gawked, his mother fainted. “Yeah that is about where I thought things would happen as well.” Dustan commented.

It took them throughout dinner, once his mother recovered, and a good bit into the night as well to mostly explain what it is that he had gone through, his responsibilities, how he had returned, and how he was unsure if he should come back or return to Equis. His parents were loving and happy to hear what he had made of himself, scared and worried about what he had gone through and the danger he has faced, but understanding of everything surprisingly so.

When he finally asked how they could just accept him going back like that his parents looked to each other and his mother spoke up. “Sweetie, we always knew you haven’t fit in around here. Honestly the person you are…doesn’t work here, not anymore. Heroes are used and abused and you have always been a hero.”

Feeling a hand on his shoulder the displaced looked to see his Father. “I can’t be more proud of you son. You are living a life like no other and that no one could imagine. You are sticking to your morals and responsibilities, as a Father I can’t tell you how proud I am of your success and as a man I can’t even begin to start to tell you how envious I am of you. Magic, super human abilities, all of it seem fantastic.”

Everything that Dustan had done up to that moment, first landing in Equestria, meeting Zecora, the goblins, becoming friends with the Mane Six, the camp, the castle, everything all played back quickly through his mind both the good and bad and for the first time in perhaps since he had arrived had he felt like a weight and pressure had been lifted from him. The only thing that he didn’t tell his parents about was what he did to save Scootaloo and because Twilight was there and he didn’t want her to worry. Dustan felt light, reinvigorated, and rejuvenated. He felt good.

His parents soon had to leave, it was late and the hotel and its beds they had checked into were calling their names, giving one last hug Dustan promised that tomorrow they would go out and enjoy each other’s company to the fullest. The Lord of the Everfree could honestly say that he slept the best he had in years that night.

A good portion of the next morning had been discussing with Twilight options on how to return, everything from trying to construct a magical battery via this worlds gemstones, trying to convert electricity to magic, or even using natural weather phenomena to help power up the circle. In the end all of them were scrapped as each presented their own set of problems or challenges. Earth’s gemstones, while decent at holding a charge, would need to be of a good size to do anything meaningful. The electricity to magic idea had promise, as while it had never been done before in Equestria proper, had the potential to yield results and could get them back. If the project was given years of research which Twilight didn’t have the time for nor did Dustan. For weather phenomena to help, well given how unpredictable Earth’s weather was compared to Equestria and with how little magic there was, there was no guarantee that more magic was produced during those events.

When it was time for Dustan to finally leave to go shopping with his parents both Twilight and Patrick had something to do. Twilight was working on refining the circles some more giving all her attention to that as it seemed like the best bet to get them back and Patrick had to wait for a few packages to arrive that he had said were coming today, though what they were he didn’t say and Dustan didn’t want to be rude and ask. Instead the man who had walked another world just smiled and told them to have a good day as he walked out of the door.

First order was of breakfast, of which the location wouldn’t be first in most people’s mind for welcome back food, but seeing as how his parents had lots of things to do with him this was the thing that had to be rushed, so McDonalds was in order. Fresh food and a healthy diet had done his body wonders, but he had to admit, he missed the greasy fast food from this world as it had its own unique taste and thus its own pleasure to be had from the well done meals of Equestria. Plus their hash browns were always tasty. A large OJ in his hand accompanied him and his parents as they first went shopping of which was funded by Patrick as he had told them all to use his card and not worry about it to which Dustan filed that info away in his mind for later so that he could make it up to his best friend. So many outfits to try on, so many were chosen but even more were discarded as they weren’t chosen. A few pairs of shoes, hats, and other accessories were also gotten and stowed away in the car before they went back in for even more. For Lunch, they had gone to a local pizza place that was beloved by many for pizza made from scratch and being, OH so good. The movie theater was hit up then and not just one movie but two were watched leading to dinner.

The place they had chosen was a bit classier requiring Dustan to wear the new suit that had been obtained, as well as new shoes and a tie which his mother assured him made him look rather dashing. The order of the day, a big ass steak…or two…he was hungry. It was here it was confirmed that it seemed that Dustan was eating a tad more than normal, either that or because he was just that hungry or the fact that portions were different in this restaurant though he would make some mental calculations in his head from the amount he was eating at Patrick’s meals to now it seemed to point that he required a bit more food than normal. It made sense though as he could do way more so his body would need a bit more fuel. It was something to ask Twilight later as likely she could tell him.

Throughout the day they had so many pictures taken on the phones they had gotten from one of the stores that they visited, for Dustan it was new and for his parents they just used their own that they already had. As they stood in the elevated parking garage to take another photo footsteps approaching caught his attention.

“Well well well, some tourists it seems.” The man said wearing some clothing that were not as well up kept as one might like while he reached into his jacket along with a few of his friends for pistols. “I am sure you won’t mind donating for a good cause right?”

Shivering to himself for a moment from his conversation with Twilight he looked around. “Ever get the feeling someone somewhere just fucked up really badly?” The unicorn just tilted her head curiously before giving an unsure ‘no’. “Huh, weird. Maybe it was nothing. Ok so you were wondering about how a plane works now right?”

The muggers all twitched on the ground as Dustan flicked his hand getting rid of the static electricity that lingered after his spell. “Damn son, I had come to understand you could wield magic but seeing it…wow.”

“Are they ok?” His mother asked gently and worriedly for the muggers who had just tried to rob them a moment ago.

Nodding he had smiled to them all. “Remember how I told you I can see certain things thanks to my magic? Well it’s telling me they are just unconscious as I did hold back.” Frowning for a bit before he shrugged as it made sense when he thought about it. “I held way back in fact. I was worried cause they register as only level two so I tried to cut back on the power as much as I could as I was hoping to scar them away but to fully KO them like that wasn’t something I was expecting.”

“So what are you saying son?” The shorter male of the group asked him as he just shrugged. “So you just gave them the magical equivalent of a ‘shoo, go away?’ and you still fried them?”

“I would have said magical bitch slap but that would have had more force behind it so yeah that would be about it.” Shrugging once more he looked them over and moved to prop them all up against the concrete wall in the center of the garage where cars didn’t travel as it was meant for people walking in that portion. “There, they shouldn’t be run over that way.”

Apparently he was moving them so easily his father and mother both were impressed. “You said you had grown a lot stronger considering how you picked up one in each hand and moved them around like that I can see what you mean.”

For some reason he couldn’t help but smile at his mother’s praise. “Thanks. Now let me do something about these.” Looking at the five guns from the robbers Dustan honestly had no clue how to work a firearm as that was something he had never really done before. After fiddling around with it and thanks to some knowledge from movies, he was able to remove the clip and the one in the chamber for all of them before proceeding to use his strength to break many portions of the guns to make them unusable without extensive repairs in the future. Pocketing the bullets so they couldn’t be used, and using his coats ‘kerchief to wipe down the guns of prints at his father’s advice, the group left.

During the drive home it was his mother who first spoke up about what had happened. “So tell me again why it was we didn’t call the police on them?”

The displaced man didn’t get to answer as his father did so instead. “Hello officer, our son just stopped five muggers all with Glocks thanks to his magical force lightning power.”

“Fair enough.” Olivia told him after a pause. “They really wouldn’t believe that would they? Plus the fact that the guns were wiped down of prints after you handled them means that they might not even be able to prove the guns were that groups either.”

“Right.” Dustan nodded from the back enjoying the soothing feeling of a car that he always felt from them. “That and I broke the guns in a few places. Not sure if normal people can do some of them, taking them apart sure, but I broke them. Not sure where I could find the answer to the amount of force needed to break a hand gun like that but I doubt anyone but me and maybe a few stronger people could do so.” The car ride continued in silence after that as he looked towards his parents and felt his heart jump up into his throat. “So you have to head back in the morning huh?”

“Yeah, my treatments and all.” Noah grumbled displeased as well.

“Honey you need them in order to help you get back to normal. You might be free of things now but it doesn’t mean it might not comeback so getting healthy again will help if it does.” The motherly tone that she sported clearly was laced heavily with worry.

The doctors, or so they had told Dustan, had said that they got it all, but he would need extensive rehabilitation to get back to normal from where he was. He had noticed that there were many times during their day that just walking around sometimes caused his father enough exhaustion to warrant a five minute break or so for him to catch his breath. The temptation to try to help his dad with Cure or Esuna was strong, but even after looking at the status screen of his father he wasn’t sure if either would do anything. Plus with Chemo and such being a poison to the body technically, even if it was one for treatment, he wasn’t sure if Esuna would erase it or not as he still had some lingering treatments going on to make sure things were taken care of and Dustan didn’t want to risk anything. There was also the fact that it would cure exhaustion nor build his muscle mass back up as only time and hard work could do that.

Their time seemed so short but it had come to an end as they pulled up into the driveway of Patrick’s modern home. They all worked to get his new items into the house even ask Twilight came to greet them after being told it was ok. Questions were thrown out as to what happened, what he got up to and more. Seems Twilight herself was taking a break from her thoughts and research and had been asking Patrick a million questions and he was relieved to see them and was also curious. Of course his parents told them everything, even making them both go wide eyed at hearing about the muggers.

That just prompted Patrick to look over to Dustan and grin. “Do it Anakin.”

“Unlimited power.” Was the Lord of the Everfree’s answer along with his own grin.

“So you clapped some thug cheeks huh?” Patrick asked with a smile and curious look as Dustan pulled out sixty five bullets.

“They are still using the term ‘clapped’?” He asked and looked over to his friend. “Figured people would be using a different slang term about now.”

Shrugging his shoulders the blond just nonchalantly waved it off. “Maybe they do, but I like that term so it’s what I used.”

“Fair enough.” Dustan said before looking to his parents as they were watching the interaction with a smile. Quickly coming to give them a hug they all knew it was time. “Mom, Dad. This isn’t good bye; this is just farewell for now. I don’t believe I will stay in this world as it doesn’t need me. The other side however does and I have made a life for me. Do I miss things from here? Absolutely, but I am finding I am missing things from over there as well.”

“I am proud of you son.” His father told him as he wrapped his arms around him in a hug which was quickly followed by his mother.

“Me too.” The motherly lady whispered seemingly choked up.

The hug while seeming to last long to those watching, ended too quickly for those involved as the displaced magic user looked to those that gave him life. “With what Twilight is doing, who knows, maybe travel will become quite easy and available to both sides and I can show you around my place some time.”

With that, the night ended both sweetly and bitter sweetly as all wished it could have lasted longer.

The circle that had been carved into the concrete of the patio glowed for a fraction of a second as Twilight pumped her magic into it to test if it was viable. She knew that those watching her were close, almost too close though she didn’t realize how close till she felt one of their breaths near her ear.

“Do you both mind?” She asked almost irritated as the information was currently processing in her brain about the circle and if it would hold. “This is about the limit of what I can achieve here on Earth without my research materials so I am trying to make sure everything is working ok.”

Both of the humans backed up and looked nervously at each other. Truth was, this was the fourth revision and from what Twilight said, the final one. It had been almost a week now since they had arrived and four days since Dustan’s parents had their day with their son. Package after package had been arriving at Patrick’s place which he took up to his room to do…something with, but wouldn’t say. Twilight had been in the guest room and was practically chasing down every lead she could on what could be done with what she had available. Dustan himself was in a precarious spot, he wanted to help but had no way of doing so, he wanted to be productive with what Patrick had going but the surprise element of things meant that he couldn’t. So between hanging out with his friend when he wasn’t busy, as well as teaching Twilight on her breaks, he found that he had a lot of alone time.

Curiously it was during one of those breaks he had asked Twilight a question.

“Twilight?” The human called out during lunch during the fifth day they had been on Earth. The unicorn had her mouth full so could merely respond with a curious ‘mmmph’ sound. “I can produce several different elements with my abilities, some even generate matter like my Water spell. So why is it that some seem to drain more mana than others?”

Swallowing her bite of lunch, a nice blueberry muffin, she smiled and her horn lit up. “That is simple, it’s about elemental affinity.” Dustan was going to stop her and tell her that he understood what that concept was and that answered his question, but he had opened up the magic enthusiast in the purple magister. “There are eight elements, not including non elemental which is more of a neutral force. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, Light, and Dark. For any sort of unicorn, and I suppose more now that you are teaching non-unicorns how to cast, usually their magic corresponds to the first spell they cast as it is usually the one easiest for them to do.”

“Twilight, I get it but-” He was cut off as she levitated over a pen and some paper dividing it up into eight sections with a circle in the middle. She drew some glyphs on each section as she smiled.

She then proceeded to draw the same thing again and once done she spoke. “This paper is a good way to test elemental affinity with these glyphs and as such a unicorn would only need to apply a bit of their magic into the center and the page will become colored. The more the color rises in a section the more affinity they have with it.” Her horn lit up and she touched the center as all the glyphs soon started to glow. Each section filled up with a color: Brown, Green, Red, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Yellow, White, and Black. For the unicorn each section filled up about three fourths of the way. “As you can see, my elemental affinity is very high with all types.”

It was clear the way she was puffing out her chest to the two humans that she was very proud of this fact. “You are the element of magic so makes sense.”

She smiled then pushed the first piece of paper over to him and waved with her hoof. “Go on, your turn.”

‘Hmmm couldn’t hurt to know what I am good and bad at. Would kinda suck to try to spend a life time developing a magic that I am not aligned with.’ Moving and charging up his magic he put his finger tip in the center circle and watched as the colors filled up the page, it was clear by the end of things that he wouldn’t have a high affinity with everything like Twilight did, but a surprise did come to a head.

“Oh, look at that.” The purple nerd of magic said pointing to one section filled up with light blue. “Your affinity with water is very high.”

Holding up his hand and making a ball of water, he supposed it made sense. “I don’t use this magic very often until recently so I guess I never really paid close attention but I suppose it doesn’t really pull like the others but just seems to do as I ask without much direction.”

“Mhm, that is because your affinity is so high. Whereas if you tried to use Ice or Earth, where your affinity is low at, you would find that the feeling would resist you.” As she said that Dustan recalled the feeling of using Geomancy in the tournament. It had a delay, like it had to be urged to do as he asked. Geomancy while it could produce various elements was related to terrain and earth so it made sense that it would act like that. “However-” Twilight’s voice brought him out of his thoughts quickly as she pointed to the other sections. “Light and Dark are also high affinity, not as high as water for you but up there. Fire, Wind, and Lightning seem to be average for you though.”

“Huh, considering how much I like to use my Thunder spell I would have thought it would be higher.” As he mused that though a clearing of a throat came through.

“Question.” They both turned to the blond host as he tilted his head. “How long does it take to calculate things on that?”

“Shouldn’t take long, why?” The unicorn responded only to have Patrick point at the paper.

As he pointed they both saw what it was that he was pointing at. “So why are Light and Dark still rising?”

The book smart pony tilted her head as she kept watching. “That is unusual but not unheard of. It means that though his natural affinity for them is high, it seems like he has untapped potential for them.” At this point they had reached the same point as his water element and were still going which made Twilight twitchy. “Dustan you might want to remove your finger from-”

He never got a chance to hear the rest of her sentence as the glyphs on the page for Light and Dark burnt themselves out and made the paper catch on fire.

The results had spooked her for sure from that day. There are those with untapped potential, like herself, but they were rare. She herself knew her elemental affinities could go from high to very high if she were to train them because as a filly she registered as low for all of them but just like with Dustan they had rose after the initial test. However, it could be the medium of paper used different from parchment that Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns used, but she had never heard of anypony burning out the glyphs like that. If those readings were to be believed and accurate, that would mean that if Dustan were to learn spells of those elements they would likely come out either super charged or with almost no drain to his mana if he unlocked his potential in them.

However that wasn’t the most pressing thought on her mind at the moment, not even the top one hundred. “Its…not going to work.” The teleporter was.

“What do you mean?” Dustan’s voice sounded almost alarmed as she said that.

“It means what I said it means.” The student of Celestia had informed them with her head bowed.

Patrick however leaned back and simply asked. “So you take more time to refine your circle and-”

She had kept her emotions mostly in check until now but to hear him say that and without truly understanding what she had done set her off finally. “I can’t refine it anymore!” She stood up and looked at him with tears in her eyes, she could feel them and could see everything as if underwater. “Every method I currently know well enough to confidently put down I have tried in some shape or form and while I have gotten a fifteen percent boost in efficiency that is it. That is the limit. I could further get more out of it but that would throw our safety of getting pack in one piece into question let alone with all our limbs still attached. Oh and trust me, I have run those numbers as well and guess what, I STILL WOULND’T HAVE THE ENERGY NEEDED TO USE IT!”

With that final outburst she felt her energy fade and her barrel touch the concrete as she collapsed. “So it’s a matter of power that we can’t get around.” Dustan summarized her thoughts as she nodded still on the ground.

“Without the ability to fully utilize harmonic magic, I can’t power it.” She looked at the pad of her notes that she had been scribbling on for the past few days and tossed it away.

She could no longer bear to look at her conclusions but it seemed she was alone in that as Patrick picked it up himself and looked over it giving it a ‘hmm’ in thought. “Ok, question.”

Twilight half growled and looked up to him as she asked. “What?”

Turning the pad to a page showing a rough drawing that Twilight made of herself, showing that her strength was about half of what was needed by the fact that it was half filled in with ink he asked his question. “Ok, so you told me that you could find other ways to use magic, either from earth or the weather, so you can pull magic from other sources to power the circle right?”

“Yeah and none of those are viable.” She sighed, no longer caring about those ideas, as nice as they were, were impossible to use practically.

Turning the page to a fresh one Patrick quickly sketched out a much better sketch of Twilight then her own and a human. “Well if you are about half, if what your drawing showed was right or if I guessed it right, then what about this?” He then drew a plus sign next to Twilight and sketched something next to it.

When she saw that her eyes were drawn to it as math quickly started to form in her head and she lit up. “Of course!” she took the pen from his hand and quickly started to sketch out some math. “I am an idiot. We should have had all the power we needed all along but I just never considered it.” She then turned to show Dustan the drawing that was now surrounded by math. “It doesn’t have to all come from me or this world. We can use our power together Dustan!”

She didn’t want to admit how hard she squealed from solving the problem, she didn’t want to admit that she was that oblivious but at the end of the day she would admit she was stubborn and that friendship was magic, especially when your friend had the magic to get you back home.

The problem had been solved around breakfast that day, but Patrick had asked both him and Twilight if they would stay for one more day to which they had both agreed. The reason for that was simple seems that Patrick had been planning for them leaving and had been gathering up souvenirs for them to take home as well as other things. The blond man even said he wanted to get more stuff but he didn’t want to bog them down and instead got what he could. Twilight looked at her bag with eyes as wide as could be and practically was vibrating.

When she was told to go ahead and open it she opened up the zipper of the rolling suitcase and looked inside and squealed. Science books, tons and tons of them about different subjects as well as math ones. Seems that all the conversations that she had with them had informed Patrick as to what her interests in human society was as well her level of math education.

“That should take you from middle school math all the way to college level for us. There are also books on chemicals, flight and aviation, and more. Oh and more than a few dozen ballpoint pens.” The blond told her only to have his arms suddenly full of horse as she leapt at him and hugged him hard. Even if it was clear she was hugging too hard, the tall male just hugged back and patted her on the back. When she had calmed down and was trying to hold herself back from just diving in and starting to read now only to find two things she didn’t recognize. “Those are special, a bit of tech from our world. See all those books in that back pack, well they are also on that device there. It’s a smart pad and the thing next to it is a solar charger, place it in the sun and hook it up to that and it will keep it powered even away from here. That way if something happens to one or if another wants to borrow them, you still have a back up.”

Dustan couldn’t help but laugh as the unicorn once more seemed to vibrate wanting to study them only for Patrick to motion for to open up his own pack. “Alright, guess it’s my turn.” His pack was a lot more lean then Twilight’s, sporting three laptops, three chargers, and one external hard drive for the tech. The other things inside, pictures, all framed of various moments in his life with his friends, and of course one of the three of them: Sarah, himself, and Patrick. There was one more recent as well, one of Patrick flexing both arms in the back with Dustan to his right holding up a ball of floating water in one hand, and on the other side was Twilight with her horn glowing its usual color as she had been the one to use the phone with her magic to take the picture.

He was very much like Twilight in that he was hugging his friend quickly before anything was said, but unlike the unicorn, Patrick protested his hug because of his strength. “Jeez man, going to Bane me there and break my back.”

“Haha, yeah sorry. Got carried away.” The dark haired traveler chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“No problem man. Though I can tell from your looks you are wondering what the laptops have in them.” Giving a nod to his friend he smiled. “Each has a list but each one has its own purpose. In the red cased one is games. Pretty much every game you have had on your steam library and more. Whatever I could fit went in there. The Blue one has movies, all kinds as well as music, as much as I could fit. The green one has books like Twilights, but also ones I know you like. The HD, well that is both a back up as well some surprise content. All of those things are password protected though so only you can unlock it. The password of which is your birthday.”

“What kind of surprise content, we aren’t talking about porn now are we?” Dustan asked only for a question to surprise them both.

“What’s porn?” Both sets of eyes looked towards the curious unicorn now as she tilted her head.

“Yep not answering that, that was is all you D.” Patrick said as he got up to walk away. “Also the surprise, let’s just say here is a hint.” As he walked away he whistled the opening theme of MLP.

That night he barely got any sleep and at some point went around taking pictures with the phone that he had gotten. He tested to see if the chargers would also work with his phone and they had so he went about taking photos of everything, trying to store away a life time of memories just in case. When morning came around and he packed away everything that was gotten for him in three bags: a backpack filled with various supplies and gifts, the rolling suitcase, and a literally bag of clothing, he went to join Twilight. She informed him of how things would work yesterday; basically it was him trying to match her output and increase it to the casting point. As he came out Dustan could see she had her own bag and looked like she got about as much sleep as he did, though the Lord of the Everfree knew it was likely cause she stayed up late reading. Patrick came up to the two of them and gave them both a hug. “Twilight, it was great meeting you. D…I look forward to hearing what you have to say next time.”

Twilight responded to the hug with wrapping her hooves around him for a moment as well before dropping down with a clop sound as her hooves met concrete. “Thank you for showing me some of your world and giving me some of its knowledge. You have been a wonderful host and a good friend.”

“I will definitely be back bro so don’t worry. Give it a month or so. Once Twilight gets it refined enough where just she or I can power the teleporter then expect many more visits.” Letting go of his own hug he looked to his companion who nodded. “It’s time my friend. You know, you never did tell me what you believed in. You said you would fill me in but you left me in the dark.”

“Ha, look at it instead as something to ask next time.” Patrick said wiping away his tears. “Kick ass over there man. I expect to visit one day and if I don’t see something worth remembering, I am going to kick your ass and take your place.”

Wiping his own tears away, Dustan nodded and grinned. “Feel free to try.”

The chime of Twilight’s horn signaled the start and pressing his hand to the circle he started to try to match her output. It was hard, really hard as he couldn’t sense hers as well. “Forget about matching me, just keep raising yours up slowly and I will match you.”

She told him when he kept fluctuating so that is what he did. Dustan calmed down and breathed out slowly, picking up the pace more and more till the circle started glowing more and more. This was it, making sure the bags were close and being held in his other hand, or for Twilight’s case her hooves, the man looked to his oldest friend, his brother.

“Till next time.” The humming of the circle was loud but he knew Patrick had heard him as his blond friend smiled before the scenery changed to a dusty basement and Dustan felt exhausted, though not to the point of collapse. Looking around it was easy to tell where they were, though it was his companion that smiled the widest. “So I guess that means-”

“Yep, we are back home.” Twilight told him with a grin.

“Welcome home Twilight.” He told her with a smile all his own.

The next statement said was both the truth in his mind and in his heart as he heard the unicorn speak. “You too, welcome home.”

Author's Notes:

When I went to write this chapter I had to pull from some very personal feelings. If it feels...off because of that I am sorry but sometimes putting really personal feelings like this into form isn't always easy.

I miss you Dad and will always love you.