Do you know lucid dreaming? You know, that dream when you know that you're dreaming and that you have some sort of control over it. It's pretty awesome when that happen, unless of course you get scared and all your horrors become reality. But until that happen, you have a taste of what it feels like to be a reality warper.
However, in the world of Equestria, lucid dreams could also means that you have a visitor. Whether it's somepony close to you, or the Princess of the Night herself. It also means that something crucially important is happening and you need to know what happen. So in other words, lucid dreams get intense here in Equestria.
Tonight, just after the slumber party with the Mane Six, Bruce Gunderson is having his first sleep in Equestria. The human slept together with the mane six using a blanket draped over the floor. Twilight put up a fancy fire spell to warm them up but doesn't burn them, so they don't really need a blanket.
As everypony drifted into a nice peaceful slumber, Bruce Gunderson found his mind pulled away from his body. He can feel himself being slowly yet forcefully integrated into a network of mind system. "Doors..." He commented to himself as images of hundreds upon hundreds of doors filled his inner minds. "No, sorry, not interested." He snapped his fingers and everything slowly fades away out of existence.
With that, the human closed off his mind and prepared himself to drift off into an actual sleep. 'Knock' 'Knock' The sound of door knocking appeared all over his mindscape and Bruce rolled his inner eyes in annoyance. "I told you, no thanks, I'm not interested in joining your mind network." Bruce said in annoyance.
"I came here to talk, Bruce Gunderson." A voice came from a metal blast door that just appeared out of nowhere. "Please, open the door, your mind is heavily fortified and it took half of my power just to open up this simple connection." The voice said again followed by a small banging sound from the blast door. "Please... I promise you, I mean you no harm."
Bruce snapped his fingers and the blast door opened, revealing a midnight black Alicorn standing behind it. "Thank you... My name is Princess Luna, I am the Princess of the Night." She said with very regal look on her face. "As the princess of the night, it is my responsibility to guard and protect my subjects from the darkness of the night. That is the reason why I'm asking you to connect me with your dreams." She explained.
"No, it's okay Princess, I don't need any protecting." Bruce replied easily. "You see how hard it is for you to get in here. My mind is the last place you want to attack me from."
Princess Luna shook her head calmly. "I am not protecting you Bruce Gunderson. I am protecting them from you." She sighed a little when Bruce just looked at her in disbelief. "You are a threat to our world Bruce Gunderson, I cannot let something like you roam free within the realm of dream without my authority." She explained.
"Well... In that case!" Bruce took a deep breath and opened his mouth as if he's about to say something. Then he closed it again and looked at the Princess for a moment. Then he opened his mouth again before sighing in defeat. "Okay fine! Whatever, connect me, just make sure you put up and extra precaution to make sure nopony can access my mind. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep..."
'Poof' The human disappeared from the mindscape, leaving Princess Luna alone to do whatever she wants. A small smile grew on her face when she realized that she still has complete access over Bruce's mind. "Don't mind if I do..." A bunch of metal doors appeared in front of her as she starts choosing which dreams and memories she's gonna peek.
"All right sister... You asked me to do this..." Princess Luna walked towards a black, yellow striped door with the word 'FEAR' written in front of it. She opened the door and looked around warily. The first thing she noticed is the fact that she is standing inside a small bedroom. A small table with a bunch of mechanical trinkets sat in the corner of the room and a bed could be seen facing a circular window beside the table.
Princess Luna looked around in confusion. The human can't be afraid of a simple room can he? That'll be ridiculous, there must be something else going on here. Perhaps there's something under the table? Or maybe there's something about all these mechanical trinkets that the human is scared of...
Suddenly, loud sirens blared out of nowhere, followed by loud beeping sounds. Everything about that sound were broadcasting an extreme emergency. It made her want nothing more but run and took cover behind the most powerful shield she can conjure.
"Can you hear that?" A voice suddenly appeared from behind her. Princess Luna turned around and saw Bruce looking out the window with a solemn look on his face. "That's the most terrifying sound you could ever hear in your life. More than the roar of the fiercest beast, than the howling than the biggest hurricane, and more than the whisper from the devil himself."
The human sighed and looked down. "This is the sound of mankind and there is nothing more terrifying..." Then he looked at the Alicorn and pointed at the window. "Go ahead, take a look. I had enough of nightmare like this." He said before disappearing in plume of black smoke.
Princess Luna walked towards the window and saw a huge city from on top of a very high structure. She looked up and saw a ball of light slowly falling towards the horizon. At first, she thought it was a meteorite and even though it's massive, she's confident that she's far enough. However, a massive shock wave appeared from the explosion, followed by a massive ball of fire. She gasped in awe and disbelief as a huge plume of cloud shot out to the sky and the explosion rips the earth apart, obliterating all life and existence all around it.
Mere seconds before the explosion could hit her, Princess Luna quickly ran back to the door to escape the nightmare. She closed the door behind her before taking a few bated breath. "What... was that..." She asked between her breaths towards the human standing in front of her with a smirk on his face.
"Nuclear Bomb." Bruce replied simply. "If you drop one in Ponyville, it will wipe out Ponyville in a plume of scorching fire explosion and destroy Canterlot through the sheer power of the explosion alone." Then the human held out his hand when Luna was about to say something. "But that's not all, the radiation from the Nuclear Weapon would turn the whole land inhabitable for hundreds of years and kill any remaining survivors. Then the Radioactive Fallout would spread out through the sky and poison the whole Equestria. Slowly, but surely, killing off every last remaining ponies in existence." Then Bruce lowered his hand. "Okay, now you can gasp in shock and horror."
Princess Luna gasped in shock and horror after hearing his story. She couldn't believe a single weapon is capable of doing that much destruction. "F-for what reason, did the Mankind created that weapon?" She asked him in disbelief. "I don't understand, why would you create something like that?"
Bruce Gunderson just chuckled. "I know right? It's MAD, or I should say, Mutually Assured Destruction." He explained. "We build that weapon out of fear of those who also has that weapon who built those weapon out of fear of those who has that weapon. MAD is like saying, 'Don't throw your bombs at us or we will throw our bombs at you.' As you can see, it doesn't exactly go as planned."
The Alicorn really didn't know what to say after hearing that. Bruce's right, it is MAD, creating weapons of Mass Destruction just to protect yourself. It's hard for her to make sense of it all.
"Okay, I think you've been here long enough." Bruce said suddenly. "Now shoo! Go away, I might not need to sleep, but I like a couple of good rest every now and then." Princess Celestia nodded and she walked out of the Metal Blast Door behind her.
"I'll be seeing you Bruce Gunderson..." Princess Luna said before closing the door behind her.
"See ya Princess!"
The next day...
Bruce Gunderson opened his eyes and found himself lying down in the golden oak library. He looked around him and saw four ponies lying down all over the place while Twilight and Fluttershy is nowhere to be seen. He stood up from the floor and walked over towards Rainbow Dash and Applejack who's snuggling close to each other with a blanket draped over them. A small smile grew on his face as he took out the scanner, not to scan them, but simply to take a picture. "This is priceless..." He said while looking at the photo he just took.
Then Bruce walked towards Rarity who's somehow sleeping on a sofa. How a sofa can get to the library is beyond him. He held up his scanner and took a picture. "That's adorable..." He chuckled a little before finally looking at Pinkie Pie who's lying down on the floor with a soft smile on her face.
At first, he decided to just take a picture of her. But then, Bruce decided to scan the earth pony in front of him. "Let's see..." He pressed a few buttons at the scanner and took a closer look at it. "Name: Pinkanema Diane Pie (Pinkie Pie); Species: Earth Pony; Age: 20; Allegiance: Ponyville; Feats: Starting Thousands Parties for Millions of Orphan Foals, Defeating Nightmare Moon, Defeating Discord, and..." His eyes widened as he read the last result.
"Retaining Sanity over the Fourth Wall awareness... Wow... That's..." He looked at the Pink Pony in a new found respect. He crouched down right beside her and gently stroked her mane. "Pinkie Pie, if you can hear me, or at least if you can look into the last paragraphs... Don't lose hope, don't be afraid, stay resilient."
With that, Bruce Gunderson left the four ponies alone to deal rest and walked downstairs. There, he saw Twilight and Fluttershy arranging some books in the library. "Good Morning!" Bruce exclaimed as he walked towards the library table.
"Good Morning Bruce!" Twilight and Fluttershy replied. "Did you have a good night sleep?" Twilight asked him.
The human just shrugged. "Well you know, Nuclear Holocaust, Death and Destruction, A visit from Princess Luna, the usual." Bruce replied simply.
Twilight just nodded until she realized what Bruce just said. "Wait? Princess Luna visited you?" She walked towards him in curiosity. "What did she say? What happened in your dreams?" She asked, curious about the human's encounter with the Princess of the Night.
Bruce shrugged and walked towards a random shelf. "Well you know, the usual." He took out a random book out of the shelf and opened its content. "Inviting me to Equestrian Mind Network, finding out my biggest fear..." He read the book in front of him and realized that it's about the History of Equestria. "Huh, this Starswirl Guy seems relevant." He commented.
"Of course he's relevant." Twilight said as if Bruce just pointed out the obvious. "He's the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era." She explained while taking out a dozen or so books from the shelves all around her library. "He has created over 200 spells and I have almost all of his works." The books floated right in front of the human and Bruce could almost feel the extreme amount of reading he has to put up with if he's not careful to what he says next.
'Click' Bruce scanned the books in front of him and downloaded all the information. "There, every words downloaded into my scanner. I'll read them later, but for now..." He looked around and saw Fluttershy motioning him to come over. "Fluttershy wants to talk with me..."
He walked towards the Pegasus. "Hi!" Bruce exclaimed with a small smile on his face. "If it's about the dare, can we not do this today? I'm supposed to look for a place to settle."
Fluttershy shook her head. "Oh no.. I'm not talking about the dare Bruce. I just want to tell you that Bastion wanted to go with me." She pointed outside the door and Bruce could see Bastion waving at them from outside. "I hope you don't mind, he told me that he wants to learn more about life and nature."
Right, there's also the fact that his non sentient robot suddenly turned sentient. But hey, if Bastion wants to go with Fluttershy, who is he to judge? But before he can let him go just like that. "Yo! Buddy!" Bruce walked towards the robot standing outside the door. "Since when are you sentient?" He asked the robot.
"Since I came to this paradise." The robot replied in a deep mechanical voice.
Bruce nodded in conclusion. Maybe this world is so magical that even Bastion can turn sentient. "So, you want to come with Flutters then?" The Robot nodded. "Okay! Try and not forget your old man. Make me proud and protect her with your life." The Robot saluted at him before holding out his hands at Fluttershy.
The Pegasus gently stepped onto his hand and Bastion put her on his shoulder. "Good bye Bruce!" Fluttershy said as the robot took her away from the library. "I promise I'll take a good care of him."
"Children... They grow up so fast..." Twilight commented suddenly from beside Bruce. Then she looked at him. "By the way, are you sure Bastion wasn't sentient before you came here to Equestria?" Bruce shook his head. "Huh... You think something else is going on here?"
The human just shrugged. "Hell if I know and frankly, I don't care." Then he looked at Twilight. "By the way, where do you think I should stay?" He asked her.
Twilight smiled at him. "You could stay in the library!" She exclaimed with a hopeful look on her face. "What do you think Bruce?" Bruce smiled and nodded at her. "Finally!!!" She grabbed Bruce's hand with her hoof and start dragging him into the library. "Come on! I always wanted to talk about Space-Time Curvature with someone."
Bruce just chuckled as the excited unicorn dragged him towards the library table. 'Boof' A gigantic book dropped down on the table. It has thick leather cover and the words 'Impossible Dreams' written on top of it. He looked to his left and saw Twilight grinning at him. "With my magic and your technology, we can achieve the impossible!!!" She exclaimed as she opened the book with her magic.
The first thing he saw was an illustration of a two gateways separated from each other. There's also a depiction of a pony with one half coming out of one gateway and the other from the other side of the gateway. "Some sort of... Portal?" Bruce asked in interest. "I tried making one, but seriously. Teleportation is almost impossible, you need a machine the size of a building just to make it work."
'Bzzt' Twilight teleported a few feet away from Bruce before walking back towards him. "You were saying?" She asked with a sly smirk on her face.
"On second thought..." Bruce said, still a bit shocked at how easy it is for Twilight to do something mankind took over a thousand years to develop. "Let's put this Portal thing on the list and see what else you've come up with." He opened the next page and raised an eyebrow in interest. "Now this is interesting."
It is an illustration of a pony wearing some sort of an armor with wings and horns. He realized that it can replicate and make it possible for an earth pony to have pegasus and unicorn power. "You think it's possible? This could revolutionize everything! All ponies whether they're born as an Earth Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn will have the capability to do magic and flight!" Twilight explained.
Unfortunately, Bruce has seen something like this happen before. With another race, in a distant world. "Look, you might want to make everypony equal, but this!" He pointed at the picture. "Is too far. If all ponies have the power to fly and do magic, then what does it mean to be an earth pony? what does it mean to be unicorn? or a pegasus? Without difference, nopony is special, you have to understand that."
Twilight sighed and nodded understandingly. "You're right... Let's see what else I came up with..." She opened the page, showing an illustration of... "NEVER MIND!!!" She quickly skipped to the next page before Bruce and I could even see what's in there. "Here, how about this, what do you think?"
It is a very, very, very familiar illustration of two ponies talking from a distance using a rectangular device. At first, Bruce was about to tell her a story about smartphones and internet, but seeing how mankind lost 75% of their intelligence after it was invented he decided to tell her about something else. "Yeah! We already have things like those, it's called Walkie-Talkie. You can use it to communicate with anyone from a long distance. Perfect for adventuring or doing some dangerous mission."
Bruce watched as the unicorn's eyes widened in a mixture of disbelief and awe. "Did you bring it? Do you have a walkie-talkie?" She asked the human with hopeful look on her face. Bruce however just looked at Twilight with a deadpan look on his face. "Right... Princess Celestia confiscated all of your items..." She thought about it for a second before smirking. "I can't believe I'm saying this but..."
"You and me, break into Canterlot Archives and get some walkie-talkie, what do you say?" That look of joy and excitement from Bruce Gunderson answered her question. "Good! Now, if we're very lucky, we might have ourselves a ride back home. But for now..." She looked around and realized that their fastest method of travel is currently with Fluttershy. "We... might have to take the train..."
With that, the two of them walked out of the library. Eager to get to Canterlot and find the human's belongings.
Sitting on top of a giant robot as it took her through Ponyville is certainly a new experience for Fluttershy. It's not as cold and bumpy as she thought, Bastion was really gentle in carrying her. Sure, they do attract some attention, but not bad ones. Everypony seemed to be just accepting albeit very curious towards the robot.
After a few minutes of walking through the village, Bastion finally made it towards Fluttershy cabin. His rectangular optic scanned everything around him, from the animals who were singing and welcoming the pegasus, to the beautiful plant life that seems to be much healthier with Fluttershy's presence.
Then he watched closely as the pegasus gracefully floated off of his shoulder and land right in front of him. She smiled at him for a moment before pointing at the small cottage in front of them. "Umm... welcome to my cottage, please make yourself at home." she looked at the cabin and realized that Bastion will never fit inside it. "On second thought, do you know where you're going to stay?"
Bastion said nothing. He looked around the place, trying to find a vacant spot for himself. Then he found one, just a few feet to right from the cottage's entrance. He walked towards the spot and Fluttershy followed him. "Careful!" The Pegasus exclaimed. "There's a small river there..." Of course, the robot just walked above it since the river is only a few feet wide.
He sat on the spot and made himself comfortable. A few animals skittered towards him in curiosity and climbed up to his body. He doesn't seem to mind of course, he just leaned back and observe the little rodents roaming free all over his mechanical parts.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy watched the scene in front of her with a relieved smile on her face. She thought that the animals would be afraid of Bastion just like they did to Bruce, but it seems like they are just as welcoming to the robot as her. "Bastion..." She floated towards the robot and landed right in front of him. "Aren't you going to be cold outside? Do you need me to build a nest or a house for you?" She asked him.
Bastion shook his head in response. He doesn't really have the capability to feel pain, cold, or heat. To him, sitting beside the cabin is much better than being stuck inside a house. Sitting outside lets him observe and appreciate the beauty of nature while sitting inside a house shuts him off from the beautiful world outside.
"All right then, if that's what you want..." Fluttershy said. Then she sat down right beside him. "So, what do you think about our world? I know you don't talk much but I'll appreciate if you can tell me anything to make you feel welcome here." Bastion stood up from his position, careful as to not hurt any animals around him.
Then, he did the most unexpected thing, he started to sing.
"This world is paradise, scenic and beautiful! The Forest comes to life, it's like a musical! The robot gazed upon the nature around him while listening to the birds singing in harmony. "Is it ironic? That I'm an omnic?" He looked at his cold mechanical hands. Thinking about how different he is to the rest of the world around him. "I'm not at odds with nature, now that I'm part of it!"
Fluttershy smiled and joined him. "Never have a friend, that's quite like you! Make yourself at home, look around you!" She flew right in front of his optics and waved at the beautiful forest around them. "We'll build a new life and do what friend's do. Just try and forget, what you've been through..."
With that, Fluttershy made a new mechanical friend. A gentle omnic called Bastion who loves nature and will do everything in his power to protect Fluttershy.
Bruce Gunderson and Twilight Sparkle sneaked around the bushes of the Canterlot Garden. Their objectives are hidden twenty feet below the mountain and an innocent looking statue nearby is their entry. A guard or two could be seen walking around the perimeter, each one of them are ordered to guard the secret entrance.
"That's our target..." Twilight puts down her binoculars and looked at Bruce crouching down beside her. "Do you have a plan?" She asked the human.
Bruce rubbed his chin in deep thought before smiling. "Yes, yes I do..." He leaned towards the unicorn and whispered something to her. "You ready?" Twilight smirked and nodded at him. "Great! Now..." He stood up from his position and walked leisurely out of his hiding spot.
"Excuse me Gentlecolts!!!" Bruce exclaimed with a confident smile on his face. The two guards looked at Bruce warily. "My name is Bruce Gunderson, the last human and a dimension hopper." He took out his scanner and waved it around proudly. "This! In my hand, is an advanced device that came from another world. It can download any information from the fabric of reality itself."
Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle sneaked behind the statue. Her horn glows a little as she tried to unlock the door with her magic. "Come on..." She whispered when she realized that Bruce was just finished showing off his scanner. 'Click' A patch of floor opened up near the statue, leading straight towards a dark hidden staircase beneath the ground. "Wonder what else Princess Celestia kept in here..."
"...And even though we do not have horns, we humans do have a knack of running away from troubles." Bruce waved his hand at the guards. "See ya later!!" He disappeared in a flash of purple light as Twilight Sparkle teleported him away from the guards and into the hidden entrance.
Bruce looked around and found himself staring at a creepy, dungeon-like hallway illuminated by torches and candles. "Well would you look at that!" he commented with a very sarcastic look on his face. "Looks like Princess Celestia do has some hidden secrets she doesn't want anypony to see. How many skeletons you think we're gonna find down here?"
Twilight just rolled her eyes at Bruce's childishness. "Oh I don't know, ten? But there will be more if you won't shut up and get us both in trouble." She replied with a very dangerous look on her face. The human held up his hand in surrender before following the mare deeper into the dungeon.
After walking for a few minutes through the creepy hallways, the two of them finally made it towards a single metal blast door. "Huh... I've seen this door before..." He commented in curiosity. "Princess Luna used this to connect with my mind, I never knew she actually has one." Then he looked at Twilight. "Can you open it?"
The unicorn stepped forward and the whole place started to shake. She gritted her teeth in exhaustion before gasping for breath. "No, it's... phew! It's rooted all around the underground, protecting whatever's inside it." She said between her breaths. "Any ideas?"
"Can you teleport us in there?" Bruce asked.
"Blind teleportation is very dangerous for amateurs." Twilight said warily. Then she shrugged a little. "Well, it's a good thing I'm not an amateur." Her horn glows brightly and the two of them disappeared in flash of light.
'bzzt' Bruce and Twilight materialized inside a pristine white room filled with dozens of huge mechanical devices and a bunch of ponies wearing lab coats. Neither one of them seemed to notice the human and the unicorn who just teleported in the middle of the room. "I think we should just go..." Bruce whispered to Twilight.
"Leaving so soon?" A voice appeared inches behind them.
Bruce and Twilight turned around and saw Bon-Bon and Lyra looking at them with a smirk on their face. "See Bon-Bon? I told you the human's not gonna let go of his items just like that." Lyra said towards Bon-Bon with a smug look on her face. "I think somepony owes me twenty bits..."
Bon-Bon just rolled her eyes. "Guess I did underestimated him." Then she looked at Twilight with a judging look on her face. "The question is, why are you helping him?" She asked the unicorn. "I never thought Princess Celestia's brightest pupil would do something like this..."
Twilight cringed and looked down guiltily. "I'm so, so, sorry. Please don't tell Princess Celestia about this..." She begged. "I was just going to take a walkie-talkie and nothing else. I swear!"
The two ponies however, just laughed in response. "Of course we won't tell Princess Celestia about any of this..." Bon - Bon said as if Twilight just told her the obvious. "Princess Celestia doesn't even know about this place!!! This place is outside Canterlot and beyond the Royal Guards."
The newcomer did a double take of the room in front of them. The room is huge and shaped like a dome. A huge glass pillar with a single beam of light pulsating inside it stood in the middle of room. All around it are dozens of agents researching a bunch of mysterious items. Such as the joke flower, a mysterious vial from the mirror pond, to the remnants of the Elements of Harmony.
"Welcome to SMILE!" Lyra said with a proud look on her face. "It stands for Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria." She conjured up the word SMILE in golden letters above them. Then the letters turned into an arrow that's pointed at the glass pillar in the middle of the room. "Before you ask, this is the Core. It powers everything inside this place."
Then the golden arrow multiplies and pointed at all the researches sitting on a desk surrounding the core. "These are our main researches, they are tasked to deal with magical and anomalous materials. You know, to see if they're too dangerous to be kept unchecked." She explained.
"What happens if it's too dangerous?" Bruce asked.
This time, Bon-Bon answered his question. "That depends! If they're unique and you won't find anymore of them, then we'll just put it under quarantine." Then she sighed a little. "Problem is, if they grow or occur naturally, we have no choice but to start meddling with the ecosystem."
The human nodded understandingly. "So, who's in charge of this place?" He asked them.
"You're looking at her." Bon-Bon replied with small smile on her face. "So watch your action human, because you are our number one project for the next month or so."
Of course, the human knew what they meant by that. SMILE must've been in possession of his items and right now, those things are the most alien thing you can possibly find in Equestria. "A word of advice, don't open the grey, white, yellow spaceship from its stasis. I really don't think you have enough room for that..."
"You mean Aurora the Capital Ship?" Bon-Bon asked, enjoying the priceless look on the human's face. "Yes, it's pretty big, but we really don't have to activate it to know what it is." Then she looked at Twilight Sparkle who's been quiet since she came here. "Is something wrong Twilight?"
Twilight nodded and sighed to herself. "No... I'm just a bit guilty for breaking and entering in the first place..." She looked down a little. "And I feel a bit dumb for not knowing anything about this, I mean..." She waved her hoof around in frustration. "Just Look at All This!!! How can I miss something so big and important hidden deep beneath my hooves? So much for being a prodigy..."
Lyra patted Twilight's back comfortingly. "Hey now, even Princess Celestia doesn't know about this place. We're just that good in keeping things a secret so don't feel bad if you don't know anything about us sooner." Then she pointed at a stallion wearing a black metal welding helmet while working on an odd magical artifact with blowtorch. "By the way, I think you'll find some familiar faces working down here."
The purple unicorn looked at the stallion closely. He has white coat and hint of blue hair hidden beneath the welding mask. Her eyes widened when she finally realized who it is. "SHINING ARMOR!?!?!" She shouted in disbelief. The Stallion dropped the blowtorch and opened his mask, revealing Shining Armor looking at her sister in shock and fear.
"T-Twily!!" He stuttered in fear as his beloved sister starts walking towards him with a pissed off look on her face. "L-look! I-I can explain!" He looked around and realized that all of his co-workers are whistling away innocently, pretending not to see him. "Agent Sweet!!! Help Me!!!" He exclaimed towards Bon-Bon before he found himself being dragged out of his seat by Twilight.
Bon-Bon just shrugged before motioning everyone else to follow her deeper into the facility. "That should keep her busy for a while." she walked towards an elevator in the end of the room. "There are some things that Twilight or anyone must never know." The elevator door opened and the three of them walked into it.
The relaxing sound of elevator music welcomed them as they entered the elevator. Bruce looked at the floor number and realized that they are currently at the highest level. The lowest floor is labelled with level zero, about 50 floors from where they were. "I suppose you wanted to know where we keep all your toys." Lyra pressed floor number one, the second lowest floor in the facility. "You should feel honored, not many ponies ever made it towards any floors deeper than ten."
Of course, not even a nice elevator music can beat the dreaded awkward silence. "Ahem. So... I have some concerns over the security in this place." Bruce said, just to avoid the awkward silence. "Why do you have your main source of power in the most unguarded place here?" He asked them.
Lyra just chuckled a little. "It's called lying Bruce. That's not the main generator, that's just a fancy office light." She replied. "And as to how easy it is for you to enter this place, it's because we let you enter." Then she looked at Bon-Bon. "By the way, I think we need to put up the perception filterer around the statue again. Just to be sure."
Bon-Bon nodded in agreement. "True, we're running short of Neurolizer anyway." She pressed her hoof against her ear piece. "Agent Delta, please activate the perception filterer." Then she thought about the guard that's so easily distracted by the human. "Oh and Shining, after you're done with Twilight, please do something about the royal guards. They're starting to act more and more like a royal doofus."
They looked at the floor number and realized that they are still in floor number 20. "So, what do you think about joining us?" Bon-Bon asked him suddenly. "Don't worry about trust issues, a full network of magical cognitive scans around the entrance proves that you are a changed person." She added when Bruce was about to say something.
Truthfully, he is really interested in joining them. But dedicating his life to something is the last ways he wants to spend his retirement from being a dimensional hopper. "What do I get from joining you?" He asked them. "And what's the catch?"
The earth pony looked at Bruce for a moment. "For one, you have a job and a thousand bits salary a week." Good one, he really needs an income. "Also, you can have almost all the stuff you have back." At this point, Bruce starts running out of reasons not to join them. "The catch is, you will answer to me and not Princess Celestia anymore. And if you leave the organization, we will have to erase your memory. You also have to keep everything a secret."
Bruce pondered about it for a second. Sure, joining SMILE must be amazing, but he felt like he's missing something crucial. "I dunno, I just came here. You can't expect me to just choose sides just like that." He said in deep thought. "I mean, I haven't talk to Twilight about all this... And for that matter, how is she?"
Meanwhile, back in the highest floor of the facility, Twilight just finished giving her brother a new one. Scorch marks could be seen all over Shining's coat and his welding mask is shattered into pieces. "Is it over...?" The stallion asked carefully. 'Smack' a piece of fabric slapped his face, knocking down to the floor.
"Yes it's over..." Twilight said before helping her brother up with her magic. "Now... You can explain to me how you entered a secret pony organization without me knowing anything about it!" She exclaimed in frustration. "I'm your sister for pony's sake! And here you are keeping things like this a secret! I don't even know if I know you anymore!"
Shining Armor sighed and looked down guiltily. "I'm so sorry Twilight, but I cannot tell you anything about this. It's all for your own protection, no outside pony must know about SMILE." Then he looked at Twilight with a hopeful look on his face. "But look at you now, all grown up and ready to take over the world. So what do you say lil' sis, are you interested in joining us?" He asked her.
Twilight looked at her brother for a moment before shaking her head. "No, I'm not going to work in the sidelines and keep secrets from my friends. That's not how true friendship works." She said with finality. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Walkie-Talkie to..." Her words faltered when she realized that Bruce, Bon-Bon, and Lyra is nowhere to be seen. "Retrieve... Did they just ditched me?" She asked her brother.
The stallion put up a shield and nodded. He cringed a little when an eradication spell hits his shield. "Look Twily, I think you need some anger management... Is there something wrong?" He asked his sister worriedly. "You know you can talk to me..."
Twilight jabbed her hoof at her brother. "No! I want you to talk to me. Tell me everything, what is this place? Since when do you work here? And for goodness sake who else is working here?"
Shining Armor took a deep breath to prepare himself for one hell of a story time. "It was a long story Twilight, but since I joined the Royal Guards, the SMILE Foundation has been tracking my progress." He looked pointed at a dark orange pony working on an ancient staff in the distance. "Flash Sentry, he was the one tasked into recruiting me into the agency." He explained.
"Not so long after that, I became the Captain of The Royal Guards. That way, I became an ambassador between the SMILE Agency and the Royal Guards. I brought the Statue of Discord and Bruce's belongings here for safety and further research. I'm also the one who gave you and Bruce access to the secret entrance." Shining Armor smiled softly at his sister. "Do you understand now Twilight? I am doing this to protect you and everyone else."
Twilight narrowed her eyes after hearing that. "Does anyone else work in this place?" She gasped and closed her eyes at the sudden realization. "Does anyone of my friends work here? Is there anyone else close to me knows about the Agency?"
Shining Armor shook her head. "No, but the Wonderbolts are a part of Agency. If Rainbow Dash made it, she will become one of us." He replied. "So
The purple pony shook her head in denial. "Does Cadance knows about this?" She asked her brother with an accusing glare. "Does mom or dad knows about this? Does Princess Celestia knows about this?" She sighed and looked away from her brother. "I'm sorry, but I can't do this. I can't hide something like this to my friends and those I trust."
Shining Armor looked at Twilight for a moment. "Very well, I understand." His horn lights up and Twilight took a few steps back warily. "I'm sorry Twilight, but no one outside the Agency must know about our existence." He was about to shot Twilight with a memory wipe spell. But the unicorn already teleported away before he can do that.
'Bzzt' Twilight appeared in the middle of the room. Dozens of agents surrounded her from all sides. Each one of them wearing black leather jackets and a pair of shades. "Stay away from me!!!" She put up a powerful shield around herself. "You are not wiping my memory!"
'CLASH' A powerful beam of magic hit her shield. The unicorn turned around and saw her own brother attacking her with his magic. "Twilight listen to me! It'll be much easier for you to forget." Shining Armor exclaimed.
Twilight gritted her teeth and teleported again out of existence. "Don't even think about it!" She reappeared again a distance away from the agents. "If you really are my brother... If you still love me like I love you..." She teleported away and reappeared inches away from Shining Armor. "Please... Don't try to stop me..."
Shining looked at his sister for a moment. "You'll get me in trouble." He said.
"Don't worry, I already thought about it." Twilight's horn lights up and before Shining could react, it was already too late.
'Thud' A simple sleeping spell knocked him unconscious and Twilight gently put him back to his table. Then she turned around to face dozens of agents staring at her with cold look on their faces. "Catch me, I dare you." She disappeared out of existence before the agents could react.
After a while, the elevator finally stopped in the middle of a dark room. Bon-Bon clapped her hoofs once and the whole room lights up, revealing hundreds upon hundreds of items lined up on top of a metal pedestal. Each one of them protected by magically reinforced glass. "Just so you know, your items filled almost half of our collections." Bon-Bon said while leading them further down the room.
Bruce took out his trusty scanner and start scanning the only item that's not protected by magically enforced glass. "Whoa! What's an Antimatter Bomb doing down here!?" He exclaimed while pointing at a metal cube with strange markings all over it. "Seriously! That thing is dangerous!"
Lyra looked at the cube Bruce just scanned and picked it up with her magic. "A bomb? I thought this is a battery..." She shrugged and threw it back to the pedestal. "Alas, it's broken, so we shouldn't really be worrying about it." She added calmly.
The human just looked at Lyra in disbelief before shaking his head. "No, no, it's something you should be worrying about. I need to speak with the lead scientist here, the ones in charge in keeping these items in check who is it?" He asked her with a look of urgency in his face.
"You're looking at her." Lyra replied with smirk on her face. "Besides why do you think that cube is the only item that's not protected?" She asked him again. "Come on Bruce, I'm sure you're cleverer than that." Bruce's face slowly turned from panic into a look of awe and disbelief.
The human put his hands on his knees and starts laughing in mirth. "Oh my god! That's clever! Oh that's so clever!" He cupped Lyra's face with his hands. "Oh you ponies are... Amazing!!! You knew from the start what I'm capable of, you knew what's hidden inside this scanner of mine."
Then he walked towards the cube and picked it up. "This cube is a virus! A high-technology Data Virus!" He scanned the cube again and the result is that the cube is a Dalek. He scanned it again and the result is that the cube is Pinkie Pie. "You made this... For the sole purpose of fooling my scanner." Then he looked at the ponies in confusion. "But how did you do that?"
"Remember your welcome party?" Lyra asked. "When you tried to scan me, I blocked your scanner with a cupcake." She picked up a cube and pressed a hidden button at the side of it. In a flash of light, it turned into the same cupcake Bruce just scanned. "Yes, it wasn't a cupcake. And then I took your scanner, did a quick scan on it with my magic before using it on you when you told me that exaggerated story about humanity."
Bruce put a hand over his forehead. "So this cube is a data virus and storage isn't it? Whenever I scan this thing, it will download data from my scanner." He looked at the cube turned cupcake floating in Lyra's grasp. "All this, is just a very impressive and elaborate trap to get the gazillion zettabytes of data and information from all across the multiverse." Then he took the cupcake from Lyra's magical grip and took a few steps back.
Lyra just looked at Bruce with a confident smirk on her face. "I'm assuming that you just switched this with a regular cupcake..." He ate the cupcake and smirked. "Hmm, not bad! I love chocolate."
Again, Lyra nodded at him. "I'm also the lead strategist here. Now, we're gonna make a deal. Join us and you can have this antidote for the memory wipe potion I just laced that Cupcake with." She waved a little vial in front of the flabbergasted human. "Or you can refuse and we'll send you and Twilight back home with no memory of all this."
Bruce sighed in defeat. "First of all, I'm not joining. And since I'm gonna forget about all this anyway, tell me." He pointed at the empty pedestal the cube was in. "Where do you get a technology like that?" He asked them. "I know for a fact that there is no possible way, you can create a data storage to contain everything from my scanner."
Instead of Lyra, Bon-Bon answered his question. "From your backpack of course." She replied. "You won't believe just how many things you can lose track of with a backpack like that."
The human looked at the vial of antidote in Lyra's magical grasp and groaned in realization. "I remembered you commenting about using Fabricator wouldn't be fair." He said towards the earth pony. "Then the next thing I remembered, you gave me candy, which I gladly ate!" He face-palmed at his own stupidity. "Okay, what happened before you wiped my memory?"
"Well..." Lyra started.
Yesterday night, during Bruce's Welcome Party...
Lyra and Bon-Bon watched with keen eyes as the human walked towards the snack bar. "There he is..." Bon-Bon whispered towards her partner. "Remember, we'll do the usual interrogation then we'll earn his trust." Lyra nodded and watched as the human picked up a chocolate cupcake from the table.
"He likes chocolate." Lyra said before pouring a vial of memory wipe potion in a box of chocolate candy. Then she did a double check on a sack full of Bruce's items Shining Armor retrieved for them. "Okay we're ready. Let's go..."
Bon-Bon listened closely as the human talked about selling fabricated silverware. "That wouldn't be so fair wouldn't it?" She asked him. The human turned around and looked at her in confusion. "Hi, I'm Bon-Bon and this is my friend Lyra." She pointed at the unicorn standing beside him. "We're from SMILE, stands for Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria." She explained.
Bruce nodded in conclusion. Finally, an actual secret organization to deal with things like this. "Okay then! Hi! Hello, the name's Bruce Gunderson. Last human from planet earth and a certified immortal." He said with a confident grin on his face. "What do you want to talk about?"
Lyra took out Bruce's items from behind the counter and held it out in front of him. "Yes, this is everything, I will give this all to you if you would tell me why you chose those three items out of everything you have."
"Well then!!" Bruce exclaimed. "I chose the crystallized singularity because it's my only source of power. I chose fabricator because it's bloody useful to make basically anything. And I chose the scanner because it's too important to fall into the wrong hands." He explained.
This caught Lyra's interest. "Isn't your scanner can only be used to scan things? What's so dangerous about that?" She asked him in confusion.
Bruce walked closer towards the unicorn so that she can take a closer look at it. "Inside this scanner is an unlimited database of hundreds of different realities. All knowledge and information you can ever hope to achieve. The answer to all question you can ever ask right here, inside this scanner." He explained.
"I suppose it's impossible to... I dunno. Steal the information inside that scanner." Lyra asked while silently hoping that her innocent smile wouldn't raise any suspicion on the human.
Bruce nodded. "It was possible. A powerful race created a device that can fool my scanner into uploading all the information contained within." Then he chuckled a little. "Too bad I've already stole that item before they can do that." He grabbed the sack from Lyra's grasp and dig into it. "Ah! There it is!"
Lyra and Bon-Bon watched as the human took out a disc-like object from inside the sack. "This bad-boy can turn into anything interesting and lure unsuspecting peeps into scanning it. It also fools the scanner into believing that it just scanned a regular object and not a matrix data slice." He explained to them. "Good thing is, I already programmed my scanner so it can't scan the same thing twice in the same day. That way, you can stop whatever it is you're planning to get this scanner."
Bon-Bon shook her head. "No, it's okay Bruce. We're just wondering about you, that's all." She took the disc from Bruce's hand and it turned into a cupcake. "Say, you scan this, then it will say that this is a cupcake?" Bruce nodded. Then the pony turned the cupcake into a cube. "Say you scan this random culmination of elements, what would it say?"
"It will give random results and infect my scanner with virus." Then Bruce narrowed his eyes. "But why am I telling you this?" He asked them.
The earth pony just giggled and took out a box of chocolate candy and put it on to the table. "By the way, I have some candies. Do you want some?"
Okay, let's recap for a moment shall we? First of all, this pony managed to trick him into uploading the greatest piece of information in existence. Second of all, this pony managed to scan him completely using his own scanner. Third of all, this pony managed to poison him with a memory wipe potion. Last but not least, this pony managed to do all this in a span of two bloody days. And here he thought that this world is innocent and vulnerable.
"I give up!! You win! Take all the knowledge and information, I don't care." Bruce exclaimed in exasperation. "Come on, I'm getting out of here. This is ridiculous..." He muttered
Bon-Bon and Lyra looked at each other for a moment before sighing. "You still don't want to join us?" Bruce shook his head defiantly. "If it makes you feel any better, we apologize for everything." Lyra said before walking back towards the elevator. "Come on, I'm sure Twilight is waiting for us."
They both entered the elevator and Lyra pressed the button to the highest floor. Unlike their ride down, this ride up only took about two minutes. "You deliberately slowed down the elevator because you know how much I hate awkward silence. Just to make me talk more than I should." Bruce commented with a deadpan look on his face. "You are too smart Lyra, too smart..."
'Ding' The elevator door opened, revealing Twilight Sparkle running around the place with dozens of guards chasing her from behind. She picked up random items from the tables all around her with her magic and chuck them all to the agents. "No! You are NOT erasing my memory!!" She exclaimed as agent foxtrot grew five feet larger due to the effects of joke poison.
Twilight saw Bruce waving at her from the elevator and she wasted no time teleporting right beside him. "BRUCE! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!!!" She yelled before she teleported Bruce and herself away to the middle of the room. She tried to teleport through the secret entrance again, but her horn just fizzled.
Some agents starts walking towards her and Twilight tried to put up a force-field just to buy her some time. Her horn fizzled away and no shield was formed. "Bruce, did you find your items?" The unicorn asked when she realized that she cannot use any magic at all. "Please tell me you at least got your Walkie-Talkie..."
Bruce shook his head sadly. "No, this is a trap." He grabbed Twilight and moved her away from a blast of memory spell. "Do you have a plan as to how to get out of here?" He asked her.
"The Power of Friendship and Imagination?" Twilight asked, making Bruce sigh in defeat. They watched as the agents trudged closer and closer towards them until...
'Vworrp' 'Vworrp' 'Vworrp'
Everything around them starts fading away out of existence, replaced by the familiar brown room with roundels covering every inch of the walls and a huge console in the middle of them. A very familiar earth pony walked up towards them with a smile on his face. "You're a very, very, very lucky mare. Has anyone ever told you that?" The Doctor said.
The Unicorn lunged at the Doctor and embraced him into a hug. "I can't believe it actually worked... I can't believe you actually came..." She whispered in happiness and relief. "Thank you... Thank you so much doctor."
The Doctor hugged her back and patted her back comfortingly. "It's alright Sparkles, you did warned me about this before you gave me your diary." He sighed and shook his head. "But really, paradoxical diary or not, this almost feels like a divine intervention..."
"Umm, can someone please explain what just happened?" Bruce asked the Doctor.
The Doctor just shrugged in response. "Well, in about 5 months or so, Twilight would give me her diary. In there, I found a passage telling me that I saved Twilight from the SMILE agency. I can't remember ever doing it so I decided that the time to do it is right now." Then he looked back at Twilight. "It was quite magical if I say so myself, you literally saved yourself by imagining a happy ending."
Twilight however, couldn't care less. She really don't care about how what she did was impossible and the insane amount of paradox that came with it. All she wanted right now is to go back to Ponyville and rest. She really don't want to forget any of this, her brother is in there, who knows who else close to her works in here?
'Knock' 'Knock' Knocking sounds came from the door. No doubt it's from either Bon-Bon or Lyra. "Well, that's my cue!" The Doctor let go of Twilight and put on his glasses. He picked up a pony-sized jacket hanging near the console and put it on. "How do I look?" The Doctor asked while straightening his jacket.
The unicorn looked at the pony in front of her before smiling. "Like a Doctor. Now go get them hero!" The Doctor nodded before walking towards the TARDIS entrance.
The TARDIS door opened by itself, revealing dozens of agents wearing black jackets and shades. Two ponies stood up the most, Lyra and Bon-Bon. The leader and the strategist of the SMILE agency. "Well hello there!!!" The Doctor exclaimed with a huge smile on his face. "It's been so long!" Then he rubbed his chin and looked down. "Or is it just yesterday? It's really hard to keep track on time when you have a time machine..."
Then he walked closer towards Bon-Bon and smiled at her. "Hello Sweetie Drops!" He said, calling her with her real name. "Still a true SMILE agent aren't you?" He asked her. Then he looked around and saw many agents glaring at him. "For someone who call themselves SMILE, you really do frown a lot. Maybe you should call yourself FROWN instead."
Lyra stepped forward and smiled at him. "Hello there! Would you please tell me who you are?" She asked him. "You talked like you've met us before and judging by your comment about Time Machine, I think it's safe to say we're going to meet again soon." Her horn glows a little and she did a quick measurement on the earth pony. "So, what better time to introduce ourselves? Hi! I'm Lyra, but you probably know that."
The Doctor looked at Lyra and chuckled. "Oh ho! Lyra Heartstrings! The prodigy of Ponyville village. The master strategist of SMILE agency." He took a closer look at her. "You're a clever mare, tricking Bruce Gunderson like that. I'd call you a genius except I'm in the room."
The unicorn can almost feel the Doctor's ego suffocating hers. She tried to formulate a plan to trick the doctor into releasing the human and the unicorn. "Doctor! We both know that you can't protect them forever!" Lyra exclaimed. "We all know where they live and we have many agents hidden in the Ponyville Village. Just who do you think you are?"
The Time Lord looked at each and every single one of the agents in front of them. "I'm a Time Lord, I'm from the planet Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasterborus. I'm the Doctor and Twilight Sparkle is under my protection." Then he looked at Sweetie Drops dead in the eyes. "Got any problem with that?"
"What if we have?" Sweetie Drops asked with challenging look on her face.
The Doctor whipped out his sonic Screwdriver. Everypony took a few steps back warily. "Well in that case, I will have no choice but to make you all forget about this..." He waved his device with his hoofs for everypony to see. "Well go on then! Are you really giving me the first turn to fire?"
Lyra's eyes widened. She caught up with the Doctor's bait and was about to warn Bon-Bon. "FIRE!!!!" Alas it was too late, Bon-Bon gave her orders and everypony fired their memory spells and stun spells straight at the doctor. Time slows down as the Doctor activated his Sonic Screwdriver.
Using the Screwdriver, the Doctor managed to open up a magical frequency powerful enough to suspend the spell in midair. The spells all gathered and turned into a ball of pulsating multi-colored light. The Doctor smirked and let go of the frequency in the direction of anywhere but towards him.
'Whoosh' A burst of magic shot out of the Sonic Screwdriver and hits all ponies in front of him. In just a few seconds, everypony were knocked down and fainted. When they woke, they will have no recollection of what happened. "A taste of your own medicine..."
The Doctor walked towards Lyra and took off her mane pin (hairpin). He looked at it for a moment and it turned into a cube. "Matrix Data Slice concealed with Chameleon Circuit." Then the cube turned into a little TARDIS shaped key chain and he put it on to his TARDIS key. "There we go, a brand new key chain." He said with smile on his face.
Finally he took out a little vial hidden inside Lyra's mane and pocketed it. He aimed his Sonic Screwdriver to the building all around him to destroy any trace of data from the surveillance system. "Now then, it seems everything's in a perfect order..." He walked back towards the TARDIS and closed the door behind him.
With the sound of hope, The TARDIS fades away out of existence.
The next day, Bruce and Twilight sat together in front of Fluttershy's cottage. It's morning time and Fluttershy just treated them for a breakfast.
Right now, they were all watching Bastion helping Fluttershy making some bird nest. They're all still a bit in shock over the events that happens yesterday. Twilight couldn't believe just how many ponies she knew works at the agency and Bruce couldn't believe how cleverly they tricked him.
"You okay Twilight?" Bruce asked the unicorn. Twilight just shook her head however. "Look, on the bright side, at least not one of The Mane Six joined the agency." He said encouragingly.
Twilight looked at Bruce with a tired look on her face. "I know Bruce but... The Wonderbolts! If Rainbow Dash became one, she will be recruited! I can't stop her from becoming one and..." She pressed a hoof over her face. "Shining's right, it'll be much easier if I just forget."
Then she looked at Bruce. "Bruce, do you think what we did was wrong? I mean, we were breaking and entering..." Twilight asked him.
"Yes and no." Bruce replied. "Yes, we were wrong for doing that. But let me tell you this, Power Corrupts and there is nothing more powerful than what's hidden inside my scanner." He explained. "Mankind fell because of their own power and technology, not because of an attack from other creatures. I really do not want to see Equestria fell because of the same fate."
Twilight closed her eyes and exhaled a deep breath. "By the way, do you think we should do anything about SMILE? I mean, my brother works there. Do you think we should trust them?"
Bruce nodded. "Of course we should. In fact, we should help them. Sure our methodology and ways are different, but we're all doing this for the good of Equestria right?" Then he chuckled a little. "If you thought about it, there seems to be two sides here in Equestria."
Twilight just looked at the human interest. "There's the Light and Shadow." Bruce started. "The Light is Princess Celestia, you and your friends, me, Bastion, and the Doctor. We're all actively trying to help everyone from immediate threats. We don't keep any secrets that we are their heroes and that we will do anything to protect them. Then there's the Shadow. Which is the SMILE agency. They all worked in the shadows and stopped any and all threats from the sidelines." He explained. "Together, we're all doing this for everyone and everything."
"I couldn't say it better myself." A voice came from behind them. Twilight and Bruce turned around and saw Bon-Bon and Lyra looking at them with a smile on their faces. "First of all, we would like to apologize for trying to erase your memories against your will. It's a standard protocol but I think I can make an exception just this once." Bon-Bon said. "Second of all, yes, The Doctor failed to wipe out our memory. Lyra here knows a thing or two about regaining her memory."
Lyra walked towards Bruce and showed him a watch-like device strapped around her hoof. "By the way, can I keep this?" She pressed a button on the watch with her magic and she disappeared from existence. "It works much, much better than any invisibility spell I have." A voice came from the empty air in front of them.
"Knock yourself out." Bruce replied. Then he looked back at Bon-Bon. "So girl, this agency of yours. Are you really the leader? Because I have feeling that you are also lying about that one."
Bon-Bon just chuckled before stepping away from the human. "Our leader and the founder of SMILE agency is..." She winked at Bruce. "The Princess of the Night." They both disappeared in a flash of light as Lyra teleported Bon-Bon and herself away from the human.
'Whup-whup-whup'
Loud humming sound suddenly appeared from above the sky. Bruce and Twilight looked up and saw a black helicopter hovering above the cottage. Lyra waved at them from the pilot seat while Bon-Bon hangs beside the door. "By the way, can we also have your helicopter?" Bon-Bon shouted from the sky.
"Knock yourself out!!!" Bruce replied before the helicopter took the SMILE agents back to Canterlot. Then he looked at Twilight who's still looking at the helicopter in disbelief. "So Twilight... What about our little impossible project? Wanna try and make a Portal Gun?" He asked her.
Twilight smiled and nodded in agreement. "Then we can make an AI, who knows, maybe we can get Bastion a new friend." She replied before standing up and walked away from the cottage. "Come on Bruce! We're gonna show those SMILE agents what we are capable of!!"
Bruce just chuckled and followed the unicorn towards the Golden Oak Library.