In the dead of the night, our exodus began. We left in large caravans of trucks, cars and even a few buses of every shape and condition. Each vehicle was packed full with ponies. As soon as a group was loaded down and they signaled they were all ready, those vehicles left the farm and headed north together: all convening onto a horse statue in the city of Dubuque.

My friends and I ended up packed into the back of a rental truck with dozens of others. The truck was so full we were sitting on top of pallets of grains and seeds from Carrot Top’s homestead. Everything loose that we didn’t mind getting sticky was held in place by the changeling goo lining the walls and the ceiling: the remains of the recent birth of over a hundred and fifty changelings. Liz, Chris’s fiance, was driving with a single changeling riding shotgun.

The rest of the changelings, including their mother ‘Chris’, also known as Queen Chrysalis, were giving us eyes in the sky as we traveled north. As scary and weird as they looked when not in disguise, covered in black chitin and full of holes, Yoko was one of them and she was Ruby’s friend. Apparently we used to have a reason to fear them. Now, we were two endangered species going into battle together.

The air in the truck was warm and wet from the goo and all the ponies breathing. Even through that though, we could feel something else in the air: it was an excitement and it was electric. It felt like we were riding on top of a wave and as each turn and jostle brought us closer to where we were going, our momentum increased.

“I should have taken the cloudhouse,” Cherry Cloud moaned nauseously somewhere in the dim interior light.

“You didn’t wake up in time,” Thunderlane chided. Someone else joined the conversation, apparently to make Cherry feel better about her decision.

“That thing looked dangerous anyway. I heard it fell apart!”

“Technically that was a different cloudhouse. A freak storm destroyed the first. I would know: I helped build the new one after,” Thunderlane defended.

There was another bump and I heard Cherry whine again. “If I throw up, I’m so sorry...”

“You want me to get you the bucket?” Blossomforth said somewhere near the filly as well. A tiny voice gagged and weakly replied ‘no’.

I looked down at my little filly sitting in Nathan’s crossed legs. She seemed perfectly fine now, even though we were rattling around in the back of a moving truck barreling down the highway.

Nathan offered me the water bottle again with his good arm.

“I’m good,” I gently declined.

“Are you sure?” Carrot asked me, about ready to refill that water bottle again anyway. Between the grains, grass, caffeine, aspirin, chocolate and the last three refills of water, I was good. Pride notwithstanding from being the one who necessitated the creation of ‘the bucket’ sloshing near the door.

“Yeah.”

“Good. Then now I can be mad at you.” Her temperament didn’t really change. “What were you thinking, drinking like that?”

I was going to say I wasn’t thinking, but that wasn’t true. If anything I had been doing too much thinking. I looked at my daughter who seemed concerned and at Comet Tail who offered me a pained smile.

“Carrot? We don’t need to do this. Berry knows she messed up,” Minuette defended me.

“I know. I’m just giving Berry the floor,” Carrot explained, looking back at me expectantly. All of my friends, my daughter and a few bystanders looked at me.

I got it: now was my time to make things right and apologize properly; before we had to focus on reclaiming Equestria.

“I’m sorry,” I began, looking at everyone and especially Comet Tail. “I said you were my higher power and I let you all down. Comet, I tried to abuse our friendship. Can you forgive me?”

“Of course,” Comet agreed. “You… weren’t yourself.”

“I was though.”

“No,” Comet disagreed with a shaking head. “Acting uninhibited and in distress ain’t the same as acting like yourself.”

“Mom,” my little pony whined, slinking out of Nathan’s lap and standing up in front of me to assert her attention. “Stop beating yourself up.”

"What?" I responded.

“I know it’s hard, but you do need to stop that,” Carrot agreed. “There’s no point doing it: the world’s going to do it for you.” She visibly glanced down my back. “And you don’t deserve any of that either.”

I looked at Carrot and saw a glint in her eyes. She was thinking about me crying into her chest on her kitchen floor too.

“Sorry,” I apologized.

“And what are you sorry for? What did you do?”

“Carrot?” Minuette asked her with a look of worry. “Don’t be mean.”

“I’m not being mean, I’m being her higher power: she needs to admit her shortcomings so that we can remove them.” She eyed me again. “And I don’t mean in general. Why were you drinking? We need to know so that we can help you.”

I looked at Comet Tail who already knew, then at my daughter. I pulled her into my chest and petted her mane so that she couldn’t look directly at me. She squirmed for a minute, but then eventually let me fiddle with her mane, as long as I let her have my other leg to hold.

“I was worried that I was always an alcoholic, especially in Ponyville. I was thinking about how even after being reborn as a different species and a different gender on another world, after everything I’ve been through, we’re still so similar to the way we were. Like, if alcohol is my special talent and everypony expects it, how am I supposed to just avoid it? I’m worried I’m just going to let everypony down. I’m worried I can’t change because it seems like I haven’t.”

I was blind-sided by a cuddle from a blue unicorn.

“You can change so much, Berry,” Minuette promised me. “You’re trying to! That’s all you gotta do! Just keep trying!”

I didn’t think that sounded like enough but I nodded in agreement. Carrot had more to say about this topic.

“You already have changed. We have to; it’s inevitable,” Carrot argued with my worries. “That’s just our nature; it’s called growing.”

“You know all about nature and growing, don’t you, Carrot?” Minuette said with a snicker.

“I do,” Carrot agreed while she fought a smirk on her face. “We have to change and the pressure put on us will ensure we do. Whether it’s pressure from our ‘stars’ or our scars…” She looked at Minuette and lost to her growing smirk. She looked back at me with a mischievous smile. “...just be sure to let us know how much water and fertilizer you need and we’ll be happy to provide.”

Minuette giggled.

“...thank you. I’m sorry,” I apologized again.

“I know. We already know that,” Carrot agreed readily. “But that’s not how this works. Being sorry isn’t productive. That doesn’t cause change. Are you going to turn your life over to us? Completely? You don’t have to beg us for forgiveness: as long as you’re sorry and ready to commit to your friends again, we already forgive you. You don’t have to worry about us forgiving you.”

“That’s right!” Minuette jumped in. “You’re always worth forgiving!”

Comet nodded. I looked at Nathan and his broken arm and Ruby and her imperceptibly flawed horn. All of my friends were in agreement. Carrot went on.

“As long as you’re sorry, and genuinely ready to make things right, to act, that’s all there is to washing away… misdeeds and growing.”

I reflected on those words. It sounded too easy when put like that.

“...that’s kind of what happened with us, Berry,” Nathan thought aloud before adding. “...right? I… we made things better.” I saw Nathan idly feeling his arm.

“We did,” I agreed with a good smile for my friend. Nathan was an absolute hero rescuing me and Cloud Kicker. “It’s all better now.” Nathan responded with his own smile and gave me a scratch under my chin.

“Sounds about right to me,” Carrot agreed with our example. “If you’ve done all that you can, the only thing left after that is forgiving yourself and building upon your forgiveness.”

“‘Building upon my forgiveness’... ” I repeated the words to try and break it down better. It sounded like something Carrot had read somewhere or something.

“That’s the most important part,” Carrot Top warned me. “If you’re trying to change, you can’t just be hard on yourself. You’re just going to break again. You have to give yourself what you needed, what you give everyone else.” Carrot paused and I knew what she was referring to: love, warmth, empathy. “You have to help yourself. Otherwise you’re going to hurt your ability to help everyone else in the long run.” She gently brushed my mane like she did back on her porch: the way a mother would. “And we’ll help you. Just make sure you ask for it and take it.”

I nodded. That made sense. In a general way, it was all clear. I didn’t know how well I’d apply it though.

After a moment of silence Comet Tail lightened the mood.

“You’re pretty good at pep talks,” Comet noted towards Carrot.

“I’ve… listened to a lot of sermons,” Carrot explained modestly.

“Ah. So you know what not to say,” Comet finished with a smirk. “Same.” Carrot grinned back at our stallion before turning away to be alone with her thoughts.

I watched Carrot quietly reflect as she looked over the bags of seed we were riding on top of and around at everyone else packed in here with us. After a moment of introspection and seeing I was still looking at her, she shared what was on her mind.

“You know, they were right in a way,” Carrot began. She seemed to pause while something worked its way to her surface. “My grandparents, I mean: the world did end, just not theirs. After… we make things right, all of their work is going to help restore the world.” I saw Carrot’s eyes turn watery. Minuette was quick with the hug.

“And we’re all going to help!” she assured her. Carrot nuzzled back and broke the hug.

“You know, I don’t believe in fate or anything but it’s easy to interpret things when you’re looking for answers,” Carrot told us. “If… I didn’t have to go live with Meemaw and Papa, I wouldn’t have changed into who I became, or be in the position to help like I have… I know being taken away in bondage and wandering the wilderness was just the end result of our poor decisions and not punishment... and fighting to get back together is what brought us back…. but it’s easy to speculate and wonder… you get good at that when you’re religious; applying meaning to things.”

“I dunno,” Comet Tail interrupted. “Finding meaning in things is kinda just something everypony does, right? I mean, hay, we got cutie marks.”

Minuette giggled and looked at the hourglass on her rump.

“Yeah, it’s kind of hard not to find meaning in things when life literally slaps a magic symbol on your butt,” she agreed.

There were more nods and agreements as we reflected. My little Pinchy was the one that interrupted the new silence in our group.

“Carrot? I do that too. I found meaning in this,” Ruby admitted, holding up the watch around her neck. “I love this even if it doesn’t tell the time: if anything that makes it more appropriate for me -for all of us, I guess…” Pinchy paused to put her thoughts into words. “At first this meant I had to figure out how magic worked… Because I didn’t want to let you all down. Then it started reminding me of us in general. The day I got it, Mom and Minnie and Comet came to see me at Mom’s house. I was so confused when I woke up that morning but when I saw them, and we all just exchanged gifts like everything was okay, it felt like everything was going to be okay. It reminds me of my family. It grounds me.”

“Aww!” Minuette awed, as she practically scooped Ruby up in a hug. “I’m so glad you like it!”

“I do!” Ruby said as she hugged her back.

“...Rubes?” Comet Tail quietly interrupted the hugging. We all looked at him. “You, uh, did the same for me with that sketch,” Comet said. Pinchy looked surprised. I know I was. He looked over at where I think his bag was and looked like he was considering pushing himself over to it before he decided against it. “I didn’t even remember myself but you did. You all did. Berry invited me to her party. Minuette remembered it was my birthday… and you, you remembered me too. I know it was just a sketch from a dream but I really needed that at the time. I knew the people important to me wouldn’t forget about me. Uh, no offense, Carrot?” Carrot, who was smiling at the sentiment, shook her head in a dismiss.

“Aww, okay, that's it! Group hug!” Minuette ordered again and hugged Comet Tail. My little unicorn, Nathan, Carrot and I happily obliged.

“Oh gosh, I totally forgot!” Minuette broke the hug with a thought of her own. “Pinchy, I totally forgot to tell you! I got Twilight to sign that drawing of her you did for me! It’s definitely going over my fireplace now! It’s just going to have to be over one in Equestria!”

“She signed it?!” my little pink unicorn cracked. “Did… she say anything about it?”

“Well… she liked it enough to sign it! So I think she approved! I’ll get it out and show you when we get to Dubuque!”

The truck began braking as it made a long, wide turn. Everything inside shifted. Everypony in the back of the truck swayed, trying not to knock someone over or touch the goo-covered walls. Some failed and had to be pulled from the walls by their friends. The truck crawled to a stop. I held my breath until it continued going. But when it started up again, the drone of the wheels was deeper: it was going slower. From riding around in the back of trucks I knew what this meant: We were in the city. I looked around at my friends whose dilated eyes and shifting hooves told me they also knew what this meant.

"Oooh. And I think that's soooon~!" Minuette sang what we were all thinking.

I thought about if I had any last minute things to say before we focused on what was ahead of us. Their conversation about meaningful items made me think about my own birthday presents. They didn't really mean anything to me, but I did bring them anyway, just because I still had them. I glanced down my back at my only possessions: the two backpacks that were now one fused, well-stitched saddlebag. I used my last two birthday presents, books, to weigh down each side. Then there were the last few cigarettes in their pack, my lighter, Ruby’s Fluttershy plushie and the last remains of my human clothing, more for balancing out the plushie than anything else.

After a few more minutes of driving I felt the truck’s brakes resist its momentum and the vehicle continued to slow. Gradually, the drone of the tires deepened again. I swear I could make out the cracks and defects in the pavement from the heavy, rotating tires. I could feel the center of the truck’s gravity shift until it was finally centered and all of the tires came to a complete standstill. Everyone was silent. Then, we heard the engine shut off.

Some ponies began quietly standing, eager to get out of the warm, excited truck and started looking around to make sure they had all of their belongings. Everypony was excited but no one dared breach the door: we were waiting for the all clear.

I looked over my friends’ faces. Comet Tail’s gentle, approving eyes caught mine, then I was overtaken by Minuette’s smile. I looked at Carrot Top just as she finished putting a pan back into place. She returned my smile with her own and glanced past me. I turned around and saw Nathan looking back at me with that goofy grin of his I loved. Finally, I looked down at my daughter to see those absinthe-colored eyes looking back up at me, filled with hope.

I realized I brought everything I needed.

The back hatch was thrown open and a cool, dark morning reinvigorated us. Cheers were cut short though and some ponies gasped. At our only exit a single changeling buzzed in the air, meeting all of our gazes without any hesitation in its glowing, green eyes.

“Please proceed to the school. The portal is secure,” the changeling reported.

The contents of the truck erupted into cheers.

Thousands of ponies, changelings and fleeting glimpses of other creatures spread out over cracked parking lots and unkempt grass, and spilled out onto the streets around an abandoned school in a Midwest city in the dead of night. I was a drop of water in a sea of ponies and I couldn’t see where it ended. For all I knew we were all the way down the block and ponies were still coming.

It was here; the portal was absolutely right here and everypony could feel it. It was like an invisible fog was rolling off of it and I could breathe better here. Like there was finally a moisture in the air that I didn’t know I had been missing. It tingled. Not much, but it was a constant, quiet background hum. It felt like I did when I was chasing the last light of the Sonic Rainboom.

The strange thing was that it wasn't coming from the school: it was coming from across the street. We were standing in front of the source now: a boxy sports atrium on the school campus, a field house. From what pegasi flying overhead shared, the horse statue was moved inside there decades ago because of constant vandalism attempts.

The school itself… wasn’t as fortunate.

I glanced back across the street at the derelict building. When we first arrived the general idea was to use it to hide. Once we got looking around though, a lot of us left. The school was closed down in the 90’s and it looked like it simultaneously never opened again and couldn’t be left alone. It was understandably very dark inside. Every window not boarded up was smashed. Broken glass and trash were everywhere inside. The floor creaked and moaned like it was going to give away. Graffiti was across every surface. Every last desk, chalkboard and locker was systematically destroyed or vandalized. The changelings didn’t seem to mind the state of it: I saw the swarm crawl deeper inside and not come back out. We kept hearing noises and hoped it was them and not wild animals… or restless souls.

The most disquieting part of looking around inside the school was seeing the remains of horseshoe decorations; just unpainted imprints where they had been taken. This was the school from Equestria Girls, in some capacity. I was thankful my friends didn't want to stay inside.

Real harmony magic happened in this world there. Likely even by humans. And we walked through its defiled mausoleum. It was too depressing for me. Especially when remembering the book I had to burn because the set ended up in the hands of bad men. Whatever happened to Sunset’s friends, to this place and to Sunset Shimmer, I didn’t think it was good. If that was the state of the school from Equestria Girls, I wondered what the other side of the portal looked like.

“Berry? You okay?” Nathan asked. I looked over at him and my friends. They were out of focus from how watery my eyes were getting. I rubbed that away to see them all looking at me. It was more than just my friends here too. It was my extended family: Feather Shine and Pinch, Cherry Berry and Piña, countless foals; so many friends my little Pinchy made. Even Chad had stuck by our side.

It seemed silly to bring up my feelings now, on the eve of war, but I had just apologized for not coming to my friends when something was bothering me. So, I spilled what was on my mind.

“I was just thinking about this school. This place was something really special,” I tried to explain. Minuette giggled.

“It is still special! This school is a part of our history in this world! Of friendships between species,” Minuette gushed, looking back at it in awe. “And it’s still standing! I bet it hasn’t been renovated since; you can tell exactly what it used to look like. It looks like it was a really nice place. If the statue used to be there, I wonder if that's the entrance Sunset blew up when she became a she-demon?”

I looked at my smiling friend, confused. I appreciated her enthusiasm but it seemed like she missed what I was trying to say.

“Yeah, but…” I said before gesturing to the school. “It’s a wreck.”

“Nothing a little TLC couldn’t fix,” Minuette claimed. “The good thing about things in disrepair is it’s an opportunity to restore them! You just have to decide if it’s worth the effort or if you need to make something new,” Minuette exchanged a soft glance with Chad. Chad petted her and she smiled at him before she continued. “I bet the fact that this place is still around even though it's been abandoned for so long is because whoever owns it knows it’s something really special. They just don’t know what to do about it. They might even know about us!”

I scanned the crowd, especially for the humans that stood out above the ponies. There were a lot more than on the farm but I didn’t know if anyone looked like someone who would own the school. If I had to guess, with what little I knew, there was one person who could fit the profile.

“...do you think it’s Sunset? You think she could own the school?” I asked my friends. I was hopeful, but didn’t think anyone could tell me.

“Maybe!” Minuette encouraged as she scanned the crowd. “Maybe she’s here??”

“She’d have met us here, right? Or come to the farm? Is she inside there with them?” Comet Tail asked, pointing inside the field house that contained the statue.

“From what we could tell it’s just the Mane Six, their brothers, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders in there,” Feather Pinch informed us from their scouting.

“So out here then?” Minuette asked as she kept looking for Sunset Shimmer with me. Sunset should have been here and somewhere obvious… but she wasn’t. She wouldn’t miss this…

“She might be human. We’d probably never recognize her then,” Comet Tail considered aloud.

“No,” Carrot Top confidently dismissed. “She wouldn’t have hid over here. I guarantee you she went through and tried to stop him. If she was portrayed honestly, then she was a fighter,” Carrot praised her. I don’t think I had ever heard her praise someone.

Even with the headlights and improvised lighting we couldn't pick out specific colors in an absolute sea of them.

Surely if she had been cursed like the rest of us then she should have been here, leading the fight. But she wasn’t.

“We can at least say she’s here in spirit,” Harmony Trebleheart commented thoughtfully. Some of us nodded in agreement. Even if she was here with us, or was just there in spirit, it seemed right to talk about her here, now.

"I bet she'd never have guessed her life became a cartoon or that she'd have so many fans," I thought aloud.

My friends nodded quietly in agreement. We held that silence for Sunset Shimmer a little longer.

Eventually though, the praise continued.

“You know, she was ‘a pony with a human life’! Where have we heard that one before, right??” Minuette asked us rhetorically.

“I hope she’s here,” my little gem professed. “We could really use someone like her.” I nodded in agreement and looked over my friends. A lot of ponies going through were ordinary ponies like us: farmers, weather ponies, musicians, scholars, foals. So many foals…

“Listen up, everypony!” a little voice called out so loud it nearly cracked. We all looked around for the source and eventually found it above us. Scootaloo waved from a window above the field house door. “Yoohoo! Up here! Yes, the adorable orange dodo! We’re gonna be going through the portal to Equestria in five minutes! Get your things together and form a line starting here!” She gestured towards the door below her which the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders had pushed open.

Pegasi took off to spread the word and others began amassing towards the entrance in an orderly crowd. Some started already filing into the field house.

“The foals!” a mare shouted over the murmuring of excitement and whispered prayers. Lots of ponies turned to look. It was a unicorn with several others, all in pony-fitted military fatigues. With my ears tuned in her direction, I could make out more. “Mentally they may be twenty-five but their bodies are still foals, as much as they want to help most of them won’t be able.”

A white unicorn friend of hers grew even paler as information hit her. Then, in one swift motion, she seemed to correct course and form a plan. “Girls! Scatter, fast as you can, gather the smallest and bring them back to the JTLV’s. Any that are smaller than say, Sweetie Belle over there, bring them, no questions. Any that are Sweetie Belle’s size ask them if they want to stay until the all clear. Work fast though.”

The military ponies agreed and then scattered. The unicorn who came up with the plan, a white pony with a two-toned pink mane, made a bee-line for the front of the line and our group.

“Feather, you’re staying on this side of the portal with Velvet, alright?” she asked our feathered doppelganger, particularly the little one on Shine’s back. When the unicorn was in front of us I saw a three-diamond patch on her sleeve and her name tag read “S. Richards”. Feather Pinch looked disappointed but didn’t put up a fight.

“It’s going to be a warzone over there,” she explained as she looked us over. “I don’t know if any of you are familiar with combat, but it’s no place for those unable to fight. I would like every foal here to come with me.”

“Aw, but I wanted to kick Discord’s butt!” Little Horn protested. Trebleheart petted her little cousin.

“Don't worry, L.H., I'll be sure to kick it for ya,” Trebleheart promised with a smirk.

“...I’ll stay with them,” Mayor volunteered as she looked over the foals with us. “I would be worried about them the entire time if I didn’t.”

"Brae?" Diamond said, pushing the cowboy hat she was wearing up to look at her friend. "You're not going to leave me here, are you?"

"I wouldn't think of it," he promised. "You're a tough girl; I'm gonna need ya."

“If she's going and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are going, then I’m going too!” Duo disagreed with the mare in uniform.

Thunderlane nodded in agreement to Duo. “He's pretty good with that horn. We’ll keep an eye on the older ones,” he said as he gestured to Flitter and Cloudchaser. Little human Silvia was standing beside them.

"Okay, but you're coming with me," the military pony informed the girl. "You're not an adult in any capacity." She looked over the ponies she just inspected. "All of the foals and everyone else coming with me, head over to the vehicles by the stallion with the rainbow hair!"

The majority of the foals that Ruby had befriended and that I became acquainted with were convinced. I watched Ruby and her friends hug and say their goodbyes before parting ways. I saw where they were headed and spotted the rainbow stud in his military uniform.

Buck me.

"Ma'am?" 'S. Richards' stepped in front of me to get my attention. She eyed me, my ‘stars’, saw my Pinchy, did a double take at Feather Shine and Feather Pinch walking away, then addressed us. "...are you coming with me?"

"No. We’re going through.” It had already been decided in my mind.

“Do you want her to stay here then?” She gestured to my daughter. “She’ll be safe, you have my word.” Pinchy grew close to me, practically hiding under my barrel.

“I’m going,” Pinchy told me instead of the mare. I nodded in agreement.

“Don't worry about her: she's even better in a fight than me," I explained. "Besides, we’ll have our friends with us too," I gestured to my closest friends who she then scanned over. Her eyes stopped on Nathan and his cast.

"When you get over there, you're going to have to walk on that. You should stay here." I saw Nathan tense up in worry and I felt guilt welling up inside of me. I was going to defend him until Carrot Top beat me to it.

"He's coming with us if he wants to," she said with finality, looking at Nathan then at Chad. "The both of them. I'll protect them."

The unicorn in uniform seemed to consider this, saw the rest of the line growing behind us, then gave us a firm nod and passed over us towards the next closest group.

"What did she mean by 'walk on that'?" Chad asked us when she left. I could tell from the look on his face he already knew the answer.

"Remember Equestria Girls? The portal turns you into a pony when you go to Equestria!" Minuette explained then paused. "...I don't think it'll do anything to us though; you can't pony a pony."

Something dawned on Chad.

"So… if you wanted to, you could go through and come back and be human again, right?" He asked. I could tell from the look on his face he knew this idea was getting shot down. Minuette gave him a bittersweet smile.

"I could… but I want to be a pony in Equestria. Equestria needs me," Minuette explained. Chad weakly smiled back and nodded.

"I know," he acknowledged. He hesitated then went on. "...I'll help however I can until you're safe."

We had a few minutes left until we were leaving Earth behind. I scanned the crowd and the school one last time. In a way, I was still looking for her.

I didn't see who I was looking for, but against the light pollution I did spot a tall pony standing by herself on the school's roof. It could have been somepony else, until I thought I imagined the tiniest spark of pale blue light near her, and that she was checking her phone. I smiled up at her, hoping that it was that princess and she had a change of heart.

"A lot of stars out tonight, are there?" Carrot Top asked me. Thinking she thought I was trying to stargaze, I looked up more and didn't see anything through the city lights. I looked over at her and saw she had a smirk on her face.

I also saw Comet Tail gazing out over the crowd with a thoughtful smile. His eyes seemed to almost glow. I recognized that look by now. I looked back over the thousands of ponies clustering into a large band stretching away from the field house and the groups of ponies clustering across the fields and parking lots, each in their own little constellation.

"Sure are," Comet Tail answered for me.

I took in the sight of all the ponies for a moment, feeling a little better now. There was one perfect way to cap off this ‘stargazing’ and our last moment on this planet, maybe forever.

“Hey? Comet?” I got his attention and gestured away. “One last cigarette?”

“You still got’em?” Comet asked, not saying no.

“In my bag,” I gestured to my saddlebag. I wouldn’t be drinking this time, but… maybe a cigarette. For old time’s sake.

“Really? Now? We’re going through any minute,” Carrot Top chastised us both. I didn’t think it would take too long. it’d take time for all of us to get in and through anyway. It’d probably be an hour until all the ponies got through, assuming they ever stopped pouring into the city.

“We’ll be quick?” I promised with waning confidence. I looked over my side at Comet who began unzipping my bag with his magic and gently sorting through it. He found the pack and lighter at the bottom and pulled them out.

“I hope you’re not addicted to those too because I doubt you’re finding them over there,” Carrot warned us both.

Carrot’s guilt stalled Comet. Before I could point out that’s exactly why we’d be quitting regardless, the cigarettes Comet Tail was holding were snatched from his magic.

The little orange pegasus who did it was so short I didn’t see her coming from the direction of the school. I wasn’t even sure when she went that way. She looked at the pack she knocked to the ground and seemed to find something funny about it. She looked at both of us.

“Did… you want one?” I asked. I wasn’t going to give her one but I was confused why she was interrupting. Instead of answering, she picked up the entire pack in her mouth and made a running dash away towards the field house. Then I watched as she jumped and, with erratic wing beats, she flittered up over the heads of the line and just made it to the window’s edge and climbed in above the door. I stared up at her, more in shock than anything at the blatant theft.

When she turned back around she found us again with her eyes and kicked the cigarettes back behind her onto some balcony. “Don’t you know? Ponies don’t smoke!” she called back down to us smugly.

“They… don’t?” I asked her, at a loss for words. She shook her little feathered mane. Then from her perch some other ponies caught her attention.

“Woah, yeah! Looking good, Daring!” she called down to her friends and specifically Daring Do who was dressed for a safari complete with pith helmet. I watched her for another minute or so until I was sure that she had nothing else to say on the matter or was just too distracted now. I could have probably gotten her attention again but I kind of felt I was in the wrong here somehow.

And just like that, an oversized chicken stole my cigarettes.

I turned back to a Comet Tail who was at a loss, a pleased Carrot Top and my little pink filly.

“Well, I guess I quit,” I told them.

“We’re very proud of you!” Minuette told me good-naturedly. With nothing else to do out here, Pinchy hopped back onto me so I wouldn’t lose her and we all joined the flow of ponies and humans going through the doors and towards the portal.

The crowd inside was growing. Even though we were told to form a line outside, no one was listening. We were all understandably eager and nopony stopped us.

Even from the back of the crowded room, we could see the massive horse statue, free of rider or saddle, rearing up proudly over its base, protecting the portal after all this time. On a makeshift platform of boxes Princess Twilight Sparkle stood next to it, talking to the crowd gathering inside.

“I know you’re all eager, but we can’t all go through at once! We’re going to start off by sending twenty or so ponies through. Once the other side is clear, we will send word back through for more to follow us. Please, get in line and wait for your turn.”

I felt a timer somewhere go off more than I heard it. Twilight seemed to turn and look at ponies near her and nodded to them. She cleared her throat, took a breath to calm herself and then addressed us again in as loud and as confident of a voice as she could. Hundreds of ponies grew completely silent and looked up to the Princess of Friendship.

“The hour has come. So, um, according to most books and movies I’ve seen, at this time I should give you all a rousing speech before the big battle before us,” she started. We stayed quiet for said speech but I don’t think we needed one. We had been thinking about this for weeks, days and then hours as it became closer and closer to finally happening.

We were ready.

“Make sure you all are brave. Historically, that is the trait that is usually beneficial at a time like this.”

The crowd stayed silent, thinking she was going to go on. She didn’t. The purple princess looked around at us for another moment and then hopped down from her platform.

Over my side I heard Nathan let out an awkward chuckle.

I looked up at him. He seemed pale and sweaty.

“Nervous?” I asked him. He didn’t answer but he didn’t have to. I could see it. He shifted uncomfortably then looked at the portal then at me then back at the portal.

“That’s the portal, right; the statue? Or- like, the base of the statue, I mean?” he asked.

“Sure looks like it,” I agreed. We didn’t have to wait long to confirm it.

The Mane Six… or most of them, Big Mac, Shining Armor, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and several others including a few women approached the base. One of the women, a distractingly hot and fit one, was completely naked.

One by one they stepped right through the base and silently disappeared until just the nudist was left. She looked over her shoulder one last time, gave a familiar-looking grin to no one in particular and then walked through too. Their passing made the stone surface ripple slightly but it quickly grew calm and looked perfectly solid again.

“They-they’re gone!” Nathan exclaimed, pointing and looking at me to see if I had seen it. He looked pale. “They checked it first, right??”

“Surely?” I guessed.

“I’m pretty sure that woman with’em was Dash,” Comet Tail deduced. “The naked one? She must’ve gone and come back through.”

Leave it to Dash to confirm for me I still liked women.

None of this information seemed to comfort Nathan. Instead he took a few steps back and stumbled over some ponies behind him. He looked around at the sea of ponies. He looked like he was about to start hyperventilating.

“Nathan? They went to Equestria,” I reminded him. He looked at me but still looked like a trapped man.

“I… maybe that soldier was right? I shouldn’t go. What if it doesn’t work on me? What if I don’t step in far enough? I could get stuck in the rock…”

Of all places to panic, of all moments to begin backing down, it was happening to him here: at the seam between two worlds, at the brink of battle. Thousands of ponies behind us, interdimensional travel through a stone wall in front of us.

Honestly, it was a perfectly reasonable time to get cold feet. The portal was kind of spooky: it was just a solid-looking wall.

Minuette brushed up against Nathan’s leg to try and ease his worry.

“It’ll be okay! We’re going together! And you’ll be a pony! What kind of pony do you think you’ll be?”

Nathan clearly heard her but remained silent. He looked torn. Carrot Top tried next.

“We’re not asking for you to fight. This isn’t your battle,” Carrot Top explained. He frowned and tried to look at the ground to avoid eye contact, remembered that's where we were then looked out towards the sea of ponies which did nothing to help.

“Nathan?” my daughter tried to get his attention. He reacted but didn’t look. He started looking guilty like he was doing something wrong. “Be brave. You can do this. You can be so brave when you need to be.”

Nathan squirmed again and held his cast before looking back towards the portal. I followed his gaze just in time to see the next group of twenty or so start filing through the portal. I looked back at Nathan and he didn’t look any better. I could see the flight or fight response coursing through him and it looked like he chose to freeze.

I looked around at my other friends. I saw others quietly watching us with concern at this and I imagined that was just making him even more anxious. I wasn’t going to make him do anything he didn’t want to do but at the same time we couldn’t just abandon him here either.

“Hey, Nathan?” Chad spoke up. We all turned to look at him, even Nathan. “I’m… not feeling up to this either. Maybe we could just… stay and help on this side of the portal?” I caught Minuette’s smile out of the corner of my eye.

“Y-you’re staying?” Nathan asked, a little dumbfounded. Chad put his hands in his pockets awkwardly, shrugged and nodded.

“Yeah. This is all a bit too much for me too, dude. You know, ‘interdimensional battle against a cartoon god of chaos’ and all that? I was thinking, I don’t have to go through that thing to help, right?” Chad said, gesturing towards the portal. “Maybe I could just help unload the trucks or something. Or… baby-uh-foalsit? I think I’d be more useful with my hands than a bunch of clumsy hooves.”

“I think that’s a really great idea actually,” Carrot Top agreed.

“Cool,” Chad nodded to Carrot Top. Encouraged, he looked back to his fellow human.

“Want to stay here with me?”

Nathan swallowed and then nodded. “Yeah, let’s-I’ll do that.”

Minuette rubbed up against Chad’s leg which rewarded her with a scratch behind the ears. She smiled up at him the way only Minuette could.

It was decided then.

I stepped closer to Nathan and smiled up at him. He gave me that goofy smile back before squatting down to be more eye level with me. He looked relieved but also sad and still a little guilty for not going. He started petting me, not unlike the first time we met. He needed more than that. I tackled him and knocked him onto his butt in a hug.

“Group hug!” Minuette called. Pinchy, thrown off by my tackle, joined me first. Then Minuette, Chad, Carrot Top and Comet Tail all joined the ponypile on Nathan. Minuette giggled and Nathan started laughing awkwardly at what was happening. I nuzzled into him and finally started to feel him relax a little.

After Nathan felt well-loved, we gave him back his personal space.

“When it’s safe we’ll come back through!” my daughter promised. “Then you guys can help move stuff through the portal.”

I imagined coming back through and ending up like Rainbow Dash did: a naked human. I’d been human and naked plenty but not so much at the same time. It seemed like it'd be different when you were upright and had your sex just out like that. I wondered for a moment if I’d be bothered being a woman instead of a mare before I physically shook that thought away and turned back to my friends. There were more important things to worry about right now than yet another body change.

“You’re welcome to stay over there with us too. For as long as you want,” I offered. In a less stressful situation and maybe after seeing friends come back, I thought Nathan would go through.

Nathan was at a loss for words for a moment before he gave a small frown.

“I can’t: my parents are here. I can’t just disappear for thirty moons.” I looked around at my pony family, particularly my daughter.

“I understand.”

Nathan’s words also reminded me who didn’t come with us. She was probably back at home, alone. Even if we could have called her this late, she wouldn't have made it up here in time to see us off.

“Hay, would you do something for us?” I asked Nathan.

“Yeah. What is it?”

“If you're staying here after this is all over... would you keep our Mom company? For the thirty moons? And… if we lose and we don’t come back?”

Nathan didn’t look like he liked that possibility any more than I did.

“...yeah. I can do that,” Nathan promised and petted me again. I nuzzled into my friend a bit one more time. I think subconsciously I was trying to remember what he felt like. He already smelled a little different from the person I was reunited with last week.

“Get everything ready and you can come live with us for the next thirty moons, okay?”

“Y-yeah, okay,” he agreed with a bashful smile. “I’d like that.” I leaned in to talk to him quieter.

“I'll be a better version of myself and a better friend when you come live with us," I promised. Nathan nodded.

“Me too,” Nathan agreed. We went in for one more hug.

Finally, slowly, I pulled away from my friend. There was probably a lot more I could say, but I didn’t want to make this seem like we were never seeing each other again. I stepped away and back towards my ponies. Nathan stood back up, next to Chad. I looked back at him one last time before I promised myself I wouldn’t keep worrying about him while we were gone. We were the ones about to go fight Celestia-knows-what.

“This isn’t goodbye… just goodbye until later,” I reminded him.

Nathan nodded and gave me one last goofy smile.

“Bye guys!” Minuette waved goodbye to our human friends. “See you in a bit!”

And with that, we turned back to the portal. We were in front of the line with no one ahead of us: it was our turn.

“See you on the other side!” Minuette called back as she disappeared through it first. Carrot Top braved after her. Then Comet Tail checked back with me, my daughter, and the rest of us before heading through too.

I looked at my little Pinchy.

“Ready?”

“I’ve never been more ready,” my little pink unicorn told me.

“After you,” I offered. I wouldn’t leave her behind.

Ruby turned and bravely disappeared through the rippling stone. Then, because I would follow her anywhere, I went through after her.

I thought I caught one last bit of conversation as I went.

“So, Nathan, …what do you see in ponies?” Chad asked behind me.

I think those two were going to get along fine.

The last sounds and smells of Earth stretched out behind me infinitely while all of my other senses were thrown tumbling down a slide of turns that distorted, collapsed and stretched. I didn’t have any time to panic before the slide ended and I was thrown onto a dusty floor in somepony’s basement.

There were several ponies standing by the stairs, some directly in front of me, and my friends and I were ponypiled on the floor with a bunch of others.

“Well, that was a trip!” Minuette said with a giggle as she started pulling herself out of the fuzzy pile and getting back to her hooves.

“Oh no, they’re backing up,” I heard a white pony worry as she took a few uncertain steps towards us. She was a unicorn with a deep rust-colored mane. I didn’t recognize her but she looked like… Sweetie Belle standing next to her… So I was pretty sure it was her human sister Angie. “Everyone, get up and clear some space! More people are going to start coming through.”

We all started getting up and off each other at a faster rate. Carrot and I got my daughter up and walking. From her difficulty walking ‘forward’ she seemed dizzy but she wasn’t complaining, just focusing on walking. Most ponies were heading up the stairs. I thought we were doing the same until Comet Tail stopped halfway and turned back to look behind us, back at the portal. We all followed his cue.

The portal on this end wasn’t what I was expecting: it was an ordinary, full-length mirror. No round pink-frame encrusted with gems. It wasn’t even as wide as the portal on the other side.

We didn’t have to wait long to see the next group. With each pony passing through there was a loud “WHUM” with a strange echo. Some ponies stumbled out, some fumbled out, some seemed to get tossed, others fell out sideways. Everyone was disoriented. Then eventually, the shock of coming out backed up the line and they started knocking each other over and collapsing into their own ponypile.

“Clear a space for the next group! If you can’t walk, ask for help!” the Angie pony called out before she began helping them up.

“I wonder if this is basically a wormhole stabilized with magic,” Comet wondered.

“What would it mean if it was?” Carrot asked.

“One theory is you could time travel. Just gotta move one end at the speed of light,” Comet speculated.

“Oh is that all? Just the speed of light?” Carrot snarked good-naturedly. Comet nodded a bit.

“It’s silly. I can’t even imagine how it’s being powered. Ambient magic? The old mirror prolly did something, right? Now it’s just an ordinary statue connected to a mirror.”

“Yeah, where are we anyway?” Pinchy asked as she started to get her senses back. “I thought we’d be in the castle or Twilight’s library.”

“It’s a basement!” Minuette gushed from the corner. By the light of her horn she was examining what I think was a boiler next to a washer and dryer.

“Yeah, but whose basement? Why?” Pinchy asked.

“It’s the Carousel Boutique,” Sweetie Belle answered from behind us. We turned to look at her. I just noticed then the rapier she had strapped to her side. “In her last message, Sunset Shimmer said she had to break the old mirror so nothing could get back through to Earth. She said we had to reattach it to one that… uh... that was big enough.” Sweetie seemed to struggle with the answer. Interdimensional wormhole magic was probably pretty complicated stuff and we were just getting the simplified answer.

I nodded quietly. So that was one of the last acts of Sunset Shimmer. She bought us a chance to stop Discord.

No pressure.

My thoughts were interrupted by the creak of the old wooden stairs alerting us that ponies were coming back down. The two ponies stopped short of the portal. I think I knew one, she was named Gum Drops.

“Shining told us to go back through to report we have a foothold in Equestria!” the other announced.

“You’re clear,” Apple Bloom told the two but gestured for them to be quick about it. One saluted before they darted for the portal and slipped through as silently as we went through the other side.

“Let’s hope that thing is rated for ten thousand trips,” Comet muttered warily as he watched the mirror stop rippling.

“Well, we could stay here and find out. Or… “ Minuette said as she beamed her smile at us and pointed up the stairs the ponies came down. “We could go upstairs and see Equestria!”

There was another very distinct ‘WHUM’ noise as another group of ponies started coming through the portal. The basement was going to start getting pretty full if we didn’t head up and I think we all wanted to see.

It was time.

My favorite pony hopped on my back and Minuette took the lead up into the main floor of Carousel Boutique.

Past a door on its last rusted hinge, we stepped out onto a large, burnt out show floor. Ponies were sweeping up the trash that was everywhere. Huge claw marks were carved into moldy walls. The broken, soot-covered windows were getting barricaded with salvaged wood. The air smelled sulfuric here.

My memory of Ponyville burning came back. The mountain on the horizon glowing orange while ash rained down. Creatures with too many limbs and faces setting roofs on fire as they crawled along them, hunting for ponies. The cries of my friends and neighbors as the monsters broke windows and slid through cracks to pull them out of their hiding places and carry them off.

Hell had been here and it might still be nearby.

“We’re home,” Minuette said in awe as she stepped away from us and looked around. She spotted one of the dresses still on a rack pushed off to the side. She brushed her hoof across it. A layer of dust flaked off revealing a richer gold color underneath. I saw a teary-eyed wonder in her eye at its glow.

“Um, excuse me?” the gentlest voice in our wasteland said, sneaking up on us.

“Fluttershy!” My little Pinchy addressed her before hopping off my back.

“Hello, Ruby. Hello, Berry. Um, hello, friends,” she greeted us before getting back to what was on her mind. “I’m supposed to put ponies into groups… but, I guess you’re already in a group. …is this everypony?”

“Heeey, it’s the Berry Bunch!” interrupted a voice from overhead. We looked up to see Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth coming down next to us. Cloud greeted the closest one to her. “How’s it hanging, Blitzen?”

“Uh. It’s Comet Tail,” Comet quietly corrected her without answering how it was ‘hanging’.

“Hey, Eeps,” Blossomforth waved to Fluttershy.

“Hi, Blossom! What does the upstairs look like?”

“Not much better. It has some furniture we can break down though,” she explained. I looked around and spotted the remains of collapsed stairs.

“Oh. I suppose that’s a silver lining,” Fluttershy said with a nod. “Please be careful not to break anything that looks personal.”

“Will do, ma’am,” Cloud said with a salute to Fluttershy. “It’s some sturdy stuff up there though; heavy wood. Permission to borrow Punch and Top?”

Carrot and I looked at Cloud.

“Oh I was just about to assign them something to do actually. That would be perfect,” Fluttershy agreed. She looked back at our ‘bunch’. “We’re trying to clean up and fortify Carousel Boutique before we spread out to other buildings.” As if to emphasize her point, just then a pony with a broom swept by behind her. Other ponies around were breaking down furniture and removing cabinets and scouring for ways to put them up across the windows. “Would that be okay?”

“Of course. Happy to help,” Carrot answered and I nodded.

“Oh good. Everypony else, we’re trying to cover the windows and the back door right now. Would someone please look downstairs for more nails and somepony else look upstairs for the same?”

“Of course!” Minuette agreed. Comet Tail nodded as well. Fluttershy finally looked at my daughter.

“Ruby, your magic is good with raw minerals, right? Do you think you can take rusty nails out safely? I don’t want you physically touching them.”

“I can do that!” My daughter eagerly agreed. She went towards the nearest pegasus trying to do just that with a hammer and got to work helping. Fluttershy turned her attention to their efforts, quietly supervising and keeping an eye on my daughter.

It was time then to protect our home. With everyone given something to do, we split up. Minuette headed downstairs to take apart whatever she could find and look for building supplies. Cloud and Blossom carried Comet, Carrot and I up past the broken stairs.

It was surreal, after weeks of being the wrong size for the world, to suddenly be in a place where all of the furniture and architecture was all designed for me. The wood was everything from brown, green, purple and pink. The spots where the moldy wallpaper survived showed just how colorful this house was. This world we lived in was just as vibrant as we were. We barely had time to appreciate this before we had to start tearing it all apart to defend it.

Comet cleared every shelf and desk and started removing the doors and nails holding their frames in place. Carrot Top and I started taking apart a seamstress’s studio: ponyquins, half-finished dresses, fabric, threads and needles, a fainting couch. Everything that seemed remotely useful was being taken and thrown into the hall where the pegasi carried or threw things down to the ground floor. After we took the curtain rod and curtains in the studio, we could see out through the broken window and stopped for just a second to look outside.

The sky above was a kaleidoscope of constantly warping colors and shapes that left the decaying, rusting remains of Ponyville in strange twilight. There was a path of destroyed buildings across Ponyville, but the rest mostly stood in a state similar to Carousel Boutique. Some of them were covered in weird graffiti. It didn’t look much different than the school did.

“Ponyville stands,” Carrot remarked simply before going back to work. When we were done with that room we moved onto a bedroom. There was a huge desk and a dresser and a four-post bed that Comet had already cleaned out onto the floor. Something about Carrot Top seemed quieter at that moment. When we couldn’t figure out how to get the dresser out of the room, Carrot Top reared up and bucked it so hard it cracked in half. When she inspected the damage she was shaking… and silently crying.

“Carrot? You okay?” Carrot looked at me and wiped her eyes with the back of a hoof.

“We’re destroying someone’s home. It’s starting to look like the way the homestead did,” she explained with fallen ears. I put a leg around her and she hugged me back.

“Do you… need to talk about it?” I asked her. She shook her head. After a few seconds she pulled away, looking a little better.

“Whatever it takes to save Equestria. We’re doing this to save Ponyville in the long run,” she reminded us both. I agreed and helped her break apart the four-poster bed, then the desks and the shelves in the closet.

Everything that was large and usable that wasn’t nailed down was tossed into the hallway to be taken down. Then we took those nails and everything that had nailed down went as well.

Almost everything anyway.

We got to a small foal’s bedroom. The toy chest, the bright blankets on the little bed, the stuffed animals still piled on top of it. There were still drawings on the tiny desk that made it obvious Sweetie Belle stayed here.

“...Comet already got the door. We don’t need anything else in here,” Carrot decided.

I quietly nodded and was going to say something when we heard Shining shout downstairs. We looked at each other and then ran to the stairs. Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth met us up there.

“What’s going on?” Carrot asked as they grabbed us and helped us down.

“Dash and AJ saw dragons patrolling. Ponies are scared,” Blossomforth answered. By the time we got downstairs everypony had stopped working. The boutique was packed and they were all gazing up at Shining Armor on stage.

“My fellow ponies!” he began in a loud commanding voice. “Today you will stand among thousands of the bravest individuals any of us have ever seen. Think of our combined strength! Think of our combined rage! The fury that we have been waiting to unleash on this day, on this day twenty five years in the making!”

Ponies began cheering louder and some braved stomping the ground in applause. Shining began pacing across the stage, trying to look every single pony in the eye.

“Mom!” I heard from across the room. Several ponies had looked but I knew it was for me. I spotted my foal waving at me from Minuette’s back. We all made our way over to them as Shining started up again with even more fire than before.

“My fellow ponies, if you think you are scared of the enemy, you must imagine how scared he is of us! Imagine the sheer terror gripping their black hearts as they realize we have arrived on their doorstep! Imagine the terror they must feel as they realize that before them is an army of the bravest, most furious individuals this world has ever seen! An army that has been waiting twenty five years for revenge! An army here to take back what is rightfully theirs! My fellow ponies, we are that army! Imagine the terror in our enemies when they realize today is the day they will have to face us!”

The foundations of Carousel Boutique began to shake with thunderous stomping and cheers. I was swept up in it, looking around at the crowd. It was filled with so many amazing ponies I had the privilege of meeting again for the first time. These passionate, beautiful ponies were capable of overcoming anything. Shining was making no hyperbole when he talked about these ponies. I knew what they could do because I had heard so many of their stories; I knew about the distance and trials so many had conquered to be here now, together, finally home. We would take it back. My eyes quietly met Carrot Top’s own approving gaze before both of us shifted back to Shining continuing to give the speech of his life.

“Today is the day we reclaim all that we lost! My ponies, today we take back that which was stolen from us, that which we lost over five score, divided by four years ago! We will get revenge on that great traitor, that great coward who backstabbed our beloved Princess and our kingdom!”

There were boos for Discord and cheers for the princesses and our home and for each other. Emotions concentrated and mixed and we could all feel it, like waves swelling through the crowd: we wanted justice for our pain. We were angry at our loss. We were scared but we were so brave. We weren’t soldiers, but we were ready to prove that this was home and we were going to make it again. The way Shining Armor looked out at all of us, I could tell he felt all this too. I saw his chest rise for a deep breath. Then he proceeded to pour everything he had onto that fire he was rallying within us.

“Now, I don’t know what Discord will throw at us, but I do know that we will not run away any longer! We will hold this ground! This land! Right here!” Shining stomped on the dusty floor for emphasis. “This land, right in the ruins of our beloved town! Not only does this land connect back to our friends back on Earth, but this land is the most important land in Equestria! You know why? Because this is land that Discord no longer controls! We have taken it from him! And from this spot, we will take back everything else he has stolen from us!”

We cheered loud and defiantly. Shining bared his teeth and yelled above us, daring us to scream even louder. “He won’t take a single inch of this land back from us! He has taken enough! Your old friends, your family, your past twenty five years!” My legs shook from the energy in the room. Pegasi restlessly flapped in place. Every horn in the audience glowed white hot. Shining Armor began pacing the stage, visibly sweating, but he didn’t let up. He continued giving every bit of himself.

“Ponies! If today in battle you or your friends start to feel fear... If you want to just run away and let Discord’s forces take this land from you... you must think back to everything Discord has already taken from you! Think what he has taken from all of us! Are you willing to let Discord take even more!?”

“No!” we screamed back in one voice, in harmony. Shining then spoke our thoughts.

“We will not give him a single inch! No more will he just take what he wants! No more will he take what is rightfully ours! His tyranny ends today!” Shining slammed his hoof down and cracked the stage. “Today will be a day remembered by all ponykind as the day we struck back!” I felt myself crying. I felt everypony crying. Ponies were crying out. We were all sharing one overwhelming emotion.

I grabbed my beautiful, perfect, crying daughter and held her close. I imagined still out there somewhere was her own tiny desk still covered in drawings.

“Today will be the day we get revenge for everything we lost. For our friends. For our families. For those twenty five years. For Equestria.”

“For Equestria!” ponykind cried out.

For Equestria!

Alternate title for this chapter was "Homecoming"
"Berry Bunch" was the term my friend, prereader, proofreader, The Eloquent and Patient "Alseycorn" came up with and I fell in love with it. Had to 'canonize' it.