“...and of course we'd also like to thank Rick Serling of the Ohio Records Bureau for his time and assistance in helping us with our research. For anyone interested in more information about the places we've profiled in this episode, we'll have the Bureau's contact information listed in the credits, as well as in the info section for this video. Today is September 7th, 2014, and on behalf of the Under Dust crew, this is Jacob Doakes, signing off.”

He waited for a couple of seconds until Raul gave the “all clear” sign, then lowered the microphone. “Good shoot?” he asked.

“Great shoot.” Raul grinned. “I'll get on editing the footage as soon as we get back,” he said, removing the camera from the tripod and setting it aside, then folding the tripod up. “But before that... lunchtime?”

“I sure hope so!” Saffy folded up her headphones and dropped them into her case. “I skipped breakfast this morning to make the shoot on time. I'm starving!”

“Yeah, I could tell.” Jacob gave her a grin. “I'm hoping your stomach growling didn't get picked up by the mike.” He laughed at the look she gave him. “Come on, Raul, let's get this packed up and get some food in Saffy before she goes cannibal on us.”

It didn't take the trio long to get the equipment back into Raul's truck and pile into the cab. “Where to?” Raul asked.

“Just a sec.” Jacob worked at his phone, bringing up the local map and recommended places to eat. “There's a nice Italian restaurant about ten miles north... either of you ever had gnocchi di ricotta?”

“I am down with that! Raul, follow this man's directions to the letter or I will eat your face.” Saffy gnashed her teeth at him.

“Yes, ma'am!” Raul threw a ridiculous parody of a salute and started the truck.

In between giving directions and listening to his two friends talk about possible future episodes to work on, Jacob found himself looking out the window, letting his mind wander. This certainly wasn't where I thought I'd end up being when I started that video series, he mused, watching the trees flash by as the pickup truck rumbled down the rural road. Just thought that would be a part-time thing, sharing what I do with other people... just like First and her friends said I should try doing. And that's really all it was at first- then it just sort of snowballed from there.

He looked over at his friends while they improvised some ridiculous rap song involving funny street names that they passed. Both Raul Francisco and Safira Balamar had at first been avid commenters on his videos; then, as he'd built a rapport with them thanks to their excellent suggestions and his series had gained popularity, he'd brought them both on-board as advisors, then as colleagues. Now that the “Under Dust” urban exploration blog had its own website and pulled in enough money for all three of them to make it a full-time career- hell, they were set to bring on a fourth member to help with the back-end stuff- the trio felt more like an exceptionally weird traveling family.

It wasn't until well after seven PM that a tired but content Jacob was dropped off at his home. He gave Raul and Saffy a wave that both returned before the truck pulled away; he unlocked his front door, walked inside... and was immediately greeted by a furry mass winding its way around his ankles and meowing. “Hey there, Cicero,” he said, picking up the Abyssinian cat. “Miss me?”

Cicero purred deeply, flicking his notched ear and staring at Jacob with his one good eye with an expression that all but said “yeah, great to see you again, now how about some food?”. “Okay, okay, come on,” he chuckled, carrying the cat into the kitchen and putting down some fresh canned food before refilling the feeder with more dry kibble. Too adorable, he thought, watching the feline dig into his meal. Would never have adopted him if I hadn't seen the story about him on a recommended video... and then that dream I had that night about Fluttershy begging me to go to the shelter and rescue him. I'd be complaining about those ponies running my life if, y'know, they hadn't inspired me to turn my hobby into a sort of educational series.

He brought along a microwave dinner to eat as he started his computer, logged onto the Under Dust site and wrote up an update for the front page about their latest episode being in post-production. He watched responses build up in the comments as he ate- unsurprising; the site had a community of several hundred registered members, partnerships with a few other urban-explorer sites, and thousands of subscribers to its video channel. Still, every last comment he saw gave him a little warm feeling inside. They like what we do, he thought. They like learning about these places, their histories, the people who once called them “home”. And honestly, it's fun as hell bringing that to them. Derpy was onto something when she said I should do some sort of educational thing, getting others more interested in history.

Not for the first time, he brought up the image he'd found on his camera that he hadn't actually taken- the photograph of Story and the others at the Expo. I'll never know how it got on there, he thought, gazing at it even though he had its every detail memorized by now. It hurt to look at it for a while- a reminder of what I had to leave behind, what I can't ever tell anyone about. Thought I might go crazy for a bit dealing with it all. His eyes flicked to the bottom right area of the image, where Story and First had been caught in their accidental kiss. But I made you a promise, didn't I, First? “No sad memories.” That, and I always had the fear that you'd somehow find your way across the universe just to smack me upside the head if I went all sad-panda. With a winsome smile, he closed the image. I'm keeping that promise, First. Doesn't mean I can't miss you ponies, though.

Eventually, the hour grew late, and he shut everything down, changed for bed and slid underneath the covers. He felt Cicero jump up onto his customary position at the foot of the bed and settle down; the cat's quiet purring helped send him drifting off to sleep.

beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep

His bleary eyes slowly opened at the noise. On his desk, his phone was flashing and sounding off- an incoming text message. A glance at his clock showed that it was just past four in the morning. “Raul, if this is another of your too-damn-early inspirations you just had to share....” he muttered as he left the warm confines of his bed.

It wasn't from Raul, however. There was no sender name, and the body of the message was only two words.

“Come downstairs.”

“...the hell?” he wondered, staring at the message for a moment. Curiosity won out, and he made his way downstairs to the darkened living room- where he was stunned to find a single point of violet light hovering in midair in the center of the room. And as he watched, that point of light expanded, rippling outward, until it had become the size of a doorway; there it hung, like a pool of water set sideways.

And then something came through, something purple and horned and familiar. And a voice he had never expected to hear again spoke up.

“Hello again, Jacob.”

(-)

“...I've waited so long to have a chance to speak with you.”

Jacob went still for a moment, the magazine in his hands suddenly forgotten, as a voice he'd only heard himself speak in came from across Celestia's private waiting room. Slowly, his eyes rose to see its source- and found a pair of familiar, spectacle-framed ice-blue eyes gazing at him. “...Story?” he managed to ask.

“It's good to finally meet you, Jacob.” The pony raised a hoof, and nervously, Jacob shook it. “You almost look afraid of me,” the unicorn commented.

“I... well.” Jacob sighed. “Part of me has always been afraid that you'd hate me for what I did to you.”

“Did to me?” Story's horn flared- only to lift up his glasses so that he could look the human in the eyes without them. “Jacob... Twilight Sparkle and the Princesses told me everything about what happened. Everything. Including how you were a simple victim of circumstance, and your being placed in my body was an act of desperation to save everypony.” He shook his head slowly. “I can't hate you for that, Jacob. Luna's love... you're even more of a hero to me than to any other pony.”

“What... what do you mean?”

“I was completely unconscious while you were in control of my body, Jacob. As far as I can actually recall, I fell asleep aboard a train to Canterlot and woke up in the hospital feeling like I'd been deep-fried.” He chuckled. “But once I'd gotten my wits about me... I found that I could remember everything that happened in-between- sort of, anyway. I could remember the things you did, the 'what' and the 'how'... but not the 'why'. I suppose it makes sense, since the thoughts were yours and not mine.” He shrugged slightly. “But I'll readily admit this, Jacob... you were right. I wasn't a very physical unicorn, nor was I very good with magic. That you managed to do everything that you did, with what limitations my body presented you... well, I don't think I could've managed it in your stead.”

“Hey. You were good enough to get the job done.”

“We were,” Story insisted. “You know... I remember what you said to the mirror that one night, Jacob. How you explained yourself to me, not even knowing if I'd ever hear what you had to say. I think it was that more than anything that made me decide what a good pony- um....”

“You can use 'person'.” Jacob smiled.

“Person, right. What a good person you were. Everything you'd been going through, here and in the future, and you were still concerned about me. There are a lot of ponies who wouldn't have been that thoughtful, Jacob, even if you do adore us so much.” The stallion smiled. “So put yourself at ease; I couldn't hate you if I tried. I owe more to you than anypony else.”

Jacob blinked. “...how?”

“Well, for one, take a look at me. Or more accurately, what I'm wearing.”

Only now did the human notice that the pony was wearing a rather sharp-looking dress shirt with a string tie. “You... ditched the sweater vests?”

“You were right, you know. My fashion sense was horrible.” Story chuckled. “I honestly never cared, though. That changed after what happened. A lot of things did.”

Jacob sat back down and motioned for Story to take the next seat over; he did so. “Tell me about what happened to you after I left,” Jacob said.

“I... had a lot of things to deal with. Not just having had my body taken over for three days by an alien, but... all of a sudden I was a national hero, a recipient of a Solstice Star, a celebrity- for things I didn't do.” The pony sighed. “I felt like a fraud, Jacob. You were the hero, not me. But who could I tell? The Princesses swore me to secrecy, magically bound me to my word that I would never mention you to anyone not already aware of you; our society wasn't ready to learn that there was intelligent life out there somewhere, that it had possessed the body of one of our own- however noble the purpose. The end result was that I had to be you, in a way.” Those blue eyes came up to look into his. “Jacob, I'm not very much like you. I grew up an introvert, more interested in the past than the present. If First had approached me instead of you on that train, I probably would've begged off of her invitation on some technicality or other, gone off to my hotel and never paid her another thought. And then I never would have known her, or her friends.”

“I... was sort of hoping First would come as well,” Jacob said quietly.

Story smiled. “She'll be in shortly, actually. She actually sent me in first... she knew you and I needed to talk privately.”

Jacob chuckled. “Did she give you this face?” he asked, trying to copy the expression First tended to show when she knew what was best for her patient.

“Ha! Yes, exactly that one,” Story laughed. “Oh, Goddesses, Jacob... what I would've missed out on if you hadn't come along!” He ran his hoof across his mane. “For a while, after everything happened, I tried to be exactly like you. I couldn't pull it off, honestly... it was like trying to act a part in a play by only studying my own lines, not the entirety of the script. Then First helped me understand what I was doing wrong, and I came to a conclusion- I couldn't be Jacob Doakes, but maybe I could learn from him to make Story Seeker a better pony.

“So I decided to change myself. I revamped my wardrobe, with a lot of help from Miss Rarity. I started reading books and listening to music I ordinarily wouldn't touch, talking to ponies I'd normally ignore. I adopted a better balance in my life- on nights where I'd typically shut myself in and study, I'd take a train out to Neighbraska or Ponyville, meet up with First and the others, and see a movie or a show or just trot around and talk. It took me a while, but I started looking forward to those little get-togethers more and more. And what started as sending letters back and forth to First every couple of weeks became sending one to her almost as soon as I got one from her. Eventually, just to save on postage, we both decided to move to Ponyville together.”

“And let me tell you, the Neighbraska Post Office was the sorriest to see me go.” Jacob looked up in surprise to see First trotting into the room- but she looked different than he remembered; at first he thought she'd gained weight, but only her stomach seemed distended. Then he understood. “...First? Are you...?”

“Pregnant? Yep. All his fault.” She pointed a hoof at Story, who responded with a sheepish smile; Jacob grinned. “Story, you sly dog!” he laughed.

First grinned. “You know, Jacob... I thought you'd be taller,” she teased, before motioning him towards her with a hoof. “C'mere, you. I want a hug, but it's not the easiest thing for me to rear up at the moment.”

He knelt down in front of her, carefully wrapping his arms around her as she returned the embrace with her forelegs. “I knew I hadn't seen the last of you,” she told him, her expression serious even as a tear rolled down her cheek. “Magic of friendship. I absolutely called it.”

Story and Jacob both helped her into a chair, then took seats opposite her. Jacob gazed over at the mare, tapping his fingers on his legs. “Um... can I....?” he began, not sure how to broach the question.

First laughed. “Oh, go on,” she said, shifting herself a little in her seat. “You'd hardly be the first to ask if you can feel the foal.”

With a chuckle, he gently placed his hand against her abdomen- only to feel a light kick almost instantaneously. “Hey!” he exclaimed, drawing his hand back and leaning away. “Hold your fire! I come in peace!”

Both ponies laughed at that. “I'm so glad you could return to Equestria, Jacob,” First told him. “How are you feeling? Hungry or thirsty? I could go get something brought in for you.”

“There's her motherly instincts kicking in,” Story added.

Jacob grinned. “I'm okay, but thanks. After everything I ate at Pinkie's 'Welcome Back To Equus' party, I may not need food for a week.”

“Celestia's mercy, you made it through without your stomach bursting? You're even tougher than I thought!” First laughed. “Ask Story- we ended up so stuffed at Pinkie's 'We Saved The World' party that you could've rolled us out the door!”

“Oh, did we pay for it, though,” Story murmured, rubbing at his stomach. He went quiet for a moment, obviously thinking. “First, weren't...?” he asked, motioning towards the door.

“...oh! Oh, right! Gah, in all my excitement I forgot to tell them when to come in. Could you call them in, sweetheart?”

“Sure thing.” As Story trotted over to the door and stuck his head out, First looked up at Jacob. “We were sworn to secrecy about you,” she said, “but to explain the difference in Story's personality after you left, the rest of my friends had to be let in on the secret. They all would've liked to come greet you, but most of them had prior obligations. One of them, though, cleared her calendar when she heard you were coming back.”

With that, Story came back into the room with three other ponies close behind- Derpy, Sparkler and Dinky. The little grey unicorn was sitting on her mother's back, peering nervously around Derpy's mane at Jacob. “Is... is that really him?” he heard Dinky ask.

“Hey there, kiddo,” he called, reaching out a hand towards her. “I told you one of those silly-looking hairless apes would want to be your friend.” He gave her a playful wink.

Dinky's shock turned into joy. “It is you!” she shouted, leaping off of her mother's back and galloping towards him, leaping into his lap to hug him. “Whoa!” he yelped, instinctively wrapping his arms around the filly to keep her from toppling over. “Hey, kiddo, I'm glad to see you too- wow, you've gotten big- but I sort of need to be able to breathe!”

“Oops! Sorry.” She hopped back down, sitting at his feet and staring up at him. “Hee hee... you really do look kind of like a hairless ape,” she told him.

'Hey, you can't say I wasn't honest.” He grinned at her, before looking up to see Sparkler slowly trotting up to him. “Um... hi,” she murmured, only meeting his gaze for a moment before looking away. “I, um... I'm not sure how to say this, but....”

He leaned back a bit to look less imposing and gave her a gentle smile. “Go ahead, Sparkler. I'm listening.”

“Well, I... I heard from Rainbow Dash what you said to Mom, about adopting us. I hear a lot of ponies say a lot of bad things about our mother, and I really get angry at them for it- she tries really hard to make us happy, to earn money so we can have a place to live and food to eat. But... but you're not even a pony and you said that really kind thing to her, and it made her happy. So, um... I wanted to say thank you.” She raised a hoof, and he shook it gently. “You're a really nice... um....”

“Human,” he finished for her.

“Hu-man. Yeah. You're a really nice human, Jacob.” She gave him an awkward smile before stepping back.

“Can you believe I didn't even ask her to say that?” Derpy gave him a broad smile, trotting up to him and nuzzling him gently; he gave her a hug in return. “I know maybe it seems silly of me to just drop everything and drag the girls up here just to say 'hi', but... we all wanted to thank you, Jacob.”

“You didn't drag us, Mama!” Dinky put in. “We all wanted to come! I've never gotten to meet a real alien face-to-face before! Especially such a nice one.”

“And... well, you're our friend, too,” Sparkler added. “I mean... kind of a weird-looking friend....”

“Sparkler!” Derpy exclaimed.

Jacob couldn't help but laugh. “It's okay, she's right,” he said. “I know I must look strange.”

“Well, I didn't mean it in a bad way,” Sparkler answered. “I guess... you do look kinda cool. At least you're not a giant slime monster like in that one movie I saw!”

“Hey, you weren't supposed to watch that movie!” Derpy frowned at her daughter. “Missy, you and me are going to have a good long chat when we... we....” She trailed off, pausing to look up. “Jacob... hey, what's wrong?”

He was simultaneously laughing to himself and wiping away tears. “Sorry,” he murmured. “Sorry. It's just... I didn't think I'd get to see any of you again. I think it's just now hitting me that I actually am, you know? I really missed all of you.”

“Aww.” Dinky hopped back into his lap and snuggled up to him; First reached over with a forehoof and wiped at his cheeks. “Hey, no tears,” the mare reminded him.

“Heh. Don't think I can manage that right now, sorry.” He held Dinky with one arm and rubbed at his eyes with his other hand while the other ponies gathered around him. “Hey, this isn't a time to be sad,” Derpy insisted. “C'mon, tell us about what you've been up to!”

He gave them a brief overview of the work he'd done since he left Equestria; the ponies needed explanations on a few concepts like “blogs” and “the Internet”, but they picked up quickly enough. “Ha! See? I told you you could be a teacher!” Derpy teased. “And now you're teaching lots and lots of other humans, and getting paid for it! This is why more ponies should listen to me about things.” The pegasus strutted around a bit. “Uh-huh, yeah, Derpy knows her stuff.”

“Great, now you've inflated her ego, Jacob,” First deadpanned. “She'll be puffed up like that for a week at least.”

Their laughter was cut short by a knock on the door; all of them looked up as it opened, and Twilight Sparkle trotted in with a concerned look on her face. “Oh, hey,” she said. “I'm sorry if I'm interrupting, but... Jacob, I think you'd better come back to the conference room. It turns out that we may have just proven Princess Luna's theory.”

“Um... theory?” Story repeated. “What's going on, Jacob?”

The human sighed. “Unfortunately, I didn't stop by Equestria just to catch up with old friends. The Princesses asked Twilight to bring me back to discuss something that came up. Twilight... can you tell them?”

“Well, certainly. But what I say should not leave this room. Am I understood?” She gave a stern look to the other ponies, all of whom nodded. “Good. We've found that our method of saving Equestria wasn't quite as consequence-free as we'd hoped. Jacob's efforts drew out the entropic energy, and the Ethereal Plane did a perfect job of negating it. But... there was a complication.”

First sat up. “What kind of complication?”

“Well... Equestrian magic, being positively charged, is less quickly subsumed by the Ethereal Plane. And when Jacob, in Story's body, allowed both it and the Elements of Harmony through him... they carried through the entirety of his metaphysical link.” She pursed her lips for a moment. “All the way to his own homeworld, Earth.”

Story blinked. “Oh, don't tell me we saved our world just to doom another one....”

“No! No, nothing as bad as that. Just... complicated. You see... the magic sort of carved a tunnel through the Ethereal Plane and... well, poked a hole into spacetime where Jacob first moved between his world and ours. We think that the contingency spell that future-Luna used for rescue may have had already weakened it- formed a 'groove' of sorts. To summarize, the end effect is that Equestria's magical field is... well, leaking into Earth.”

“This isn't a bad thing, is it?” First asked. “Will it harm their world?”

“It's highly doubtful. Earth may be devoid of magic, but otherwise it follows many of our basic physical laws. Jacob sitting here in his own body is proof that Equestrian magical fields are harmless to humans, and we have every reason to believe that no other forms of life there would find them detrimental. Nor will we see any harmful effects here in Equestria, as our magical field regenerates quickly.”

“Oh! That's a relief.” The earth pony put a hoof to her chest. “So, if that's the case... why the serious faces?”

“Because humans might not react well to magic suddenly appearing,” Jacob answered. “We're... not the most peaceful species at best. If this hole can't be plugged- and it's looking like that's the case- then eventually Earth will have as much magic as Equestria. Which means that humans will be able to learn to harness it and use it.”

“And you're worried that some humans will use it for evil purposes,” Story finished for him.

Jacob nodded and let out a sigh. “That's the long and the short of it.”

“But... can't we do something to help?” Derpy asked. “That just doesn't seem right. It feels like we've... put them in danger, somehow.”

“I agree completely, Derpy.” Twilight gave her a slight smile. “Which is why the Princesses are now working on a diplomatic mission to humanity, with the goal of eventually helping them to harness and use magic responsibly, in whatever way it might manifest in them.”

“Errr....” Story adjusted his spectacles. “I've seen enough movies and read enough pulp science-fiction to know that that might not go over well. They could see us as invaders of some sort, even monsters.”

“Us? Monsters?” Dinky frowned and looked up at Jacob. “I don't wanna be a monster.”

“Easy, kiddo.” He patted her back. “Twilight's told me about the Princesses. They're very wise and knowledgeable, and I know they can figure out a way to introduce ponies to humans without...well, without too many problems.”

“Which is one of the reasons we asked Jacob back,” Twilight said. “A human with an even-keeled view of his own species. We can trust him to tell us the good and the bad about his world and its civilizations.” She looked over at the human. “You said you knew others who might be of help?”

“Yeah. Two friends of mine. They help me run the Under Dust blog. I think you guys would really like them.”

“Oooh!” Dinky's ears perked up. “Does this mean I might get to meet more humans?”

“It just might!”

As the filly cheered, Twilight chuckled. “Well. The Princesses and I do need to talk more with you, Jacob. Would you like it if the others came with you?”

“You know what? I would, if they want to.” Jacob stood, carefully hoisting Dinky up onto one of his shoulders; she giggled and kicked her legs out. “Things are going to be... difficult in the near future- and I'd like to have my friends close-by for support.”

“Hey, count us in.” First managed to climb down off of her chair with Story's help. “We owe you at least that much.”

Story nodded in agreement. “Me as well. I'd certainly love the chance to learn the histories of your world, Jacob. Perhaps... a joint venture?”

“That sounds like a great plan.” Jacob smiled. “Well... let's go, everypony. We've got a lot of work ahead of us yet.”

He let the others file out of the room ahead of him, and then followed them into the uncertain future.