//------------------------------// // Mirror Dorkly: Fire and Ice // Story: Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) // by Barrobroadcaster //------------------------------// They might've asked Dan something about the Resistance, like where they were or if they looked like a threat. But before they could, the Resistance answered for themselves by destroying the roof of the cabin. A fireball blasted through the roof of the building, scorching it clean off into nothing but cinders. "Run! Back to the castle!" Dan shouted. Something new happened high above them. The storm clouds which had blanketed the island were gone. A massive eye had appeared in the storm right above the island, the remaining grey clouds slowly dissipating as the Imperial pegasi were no longer able to maintain them. A couple rainbows banded around the island. In the Mirror Universe, rainbows were horizontally striped and contained 'gems' within them- blots of a color made to look like a jewel. The colors of the mirror rainbows also contained primarily orange, purple, red, white and grey. No green, blue or yellow. Some of the rainbows were designed to show the flag of the Solar Empire- an orange sun with a horn on top flanked by red wings, two circles tucked underneath them representing Equestria and the moon. The flag was actual a reference to Empress Celestia's pet phoenix, such was her vanity she put her pet above her planet and her sister. The Resistance didn't have much of a flag, but they did use a simple signal to let their presence be known to others. Their symbol was a circle with a triangle inside it to represent real equality and harmony between the three pony tribes. Equal harmony and freedom was the Resistance's original goal, now long forgotten in the fires of war. They still used the circle-triangle symbol, though, because it was a simple way of identifying and signaling one another. Coincidentally, it looked like the Illuminati symbol. Khan took the lead, Phoenix and Dan right behind him, doing their best to keep up. They ran out of the cabin, over the burning remains of the roof. The sand was still wet but the camp was already in chaos. "AHHHHHHP!!" A burned pegasus in tattered armor fell from the sky and plunged into the ground next to them. It was impossible to tell what side he was on. Another one crashed into the tarp between the fences, pulling it down to the ground. They had to ignore them; Dan and the others pushed on out of the camp. Khan was faster than both of them, able to leap clean over the debris. The wooden archway over the camp had collapsed, blocking it. Without a word or a grunt, Khan ripped the arch off the stakes holding it and tossed it away like it weighed nothing. "Keep going! Hurry!" "I miss Stevie." "Me too, Dan, keep moving," Phoenix said. Above them, the sky battle was getting worse. It was almost like a mirror of the battle at Ponyville last month, before the vacation. Just as the sea ponies had done, the Resistance ponies were using trained animals. Armored Rays were the mirror version of the Wooly Rays. The Resistance favored Steel-Tailed Rays as fast attack mounts and the larger Iron Curtain Ray to deliver troops. Like their prime universe cousins, they were sentient and wore chainmail-like armor. Resistance ponies and terrans parachuted from their backs. They ran over the bridge back to the castle. A contingent of Solar Empire soldiers was there to meet them. Dan, Phoenix and Khan expected the soldiers to fire at them, but instead, they did the opposite. "Hold your fire!" "Non-combatants, hold your fire!" Lined up in a white-orange phalanx-like formation, the troopers lowered their lances as Dan approached. Hoping to seize this opportunity, Dan tried to run right past him. "Halt!" said a taller trooper in special purple armor. Dan did what he normally did when someone told him to stop, meaning he kept going, so they tazed him. "GAAGH!" "The castle is off-limits!" Purple-armored said in a deep voice. A deep, familiar voice. "Look, uh, sir," Phoenix said, trying to think of something. Purple stepped forward. "You three are the prisoners that just came over! What are y'all doing here without an escort?" A radio operator guard, one with a satellite dish attached to his back, ran up behind him."Captain Macintosh! The Resistance has broken through the first line!" "Captain Macintosh?" Dan and Phoenix asked at the same time. And sure enough, the trooper lifted up his face plate to reveal a goatee'd Big Macintosh. "Dang. Any word from Commander AJ?" "Negative, sir." "Uh-uh, she's out cold. Yeah, we saw her back at the cabin- she was hit by a... Resistance fireball!" Dan said, quickly coming up with a story. Real Applejack would have to forgive him later. Mirror Big Mac wasn't buying it. "Or you three overpowered her and you're tryin' ta escape!" The troopers lowered their lances at them again, several dozen glowing pointy objects aimed at them. The difference between trooper and royal guard was subtle, but clear. The Royal Guards were dutiful, loyal, devoted to a shared belief grounded in reality. The Solar Troopers were religious zealots linked by the chain of command and the forced belief that Celestia was a god. And one of them recognized such zealotry and new how to use it. "We are on a mission from the Empress," Khan said. "Uhh, um, yes!" Dan added, "We were sent to the castle, to uh-" "To retrieve the Bass Cannon from our universe," Khan said. "Yeah, that's right! We were sent to- hey, that is actually right," Dan said. "Wait, are you on the Nazi's side now? Khannie, I JUST SAID-!" "Dan, you're not helping," Phoenix said, pulling him back by the shoulder. He looked around, noticing something was missing. "Where's Discord?" "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG!" Discord screech came from just on the other side of the bridge. Dan mildly glared at Phoenix. Different than his usual glares with less intensity, Phoenix still noticed. "Were you trying to ditch Discord?" "Oh, it's not like he'd be gone for long! He's like pocket sand. Just when you think you've gotten it all, there's a little bit left over and it finds a way to come back," Dan explained, emptying his pockets of sand. And the sand in his pockets wasn't even the same color as sand from the beach in either universe. In fact, it was reddish sand. "You haven't been to Ceti Alpha V, have you, Dan?" Khan asked, looking at the familiar red substance. "City-what?" "Dan!" Phoenix exclaimed, "It's-" "STEVIE!!!" "EEEEEEEG!" Holding Discord in his arms was a slightly more-battered-looking Captain America. "Halt!" Mirror Big Mac shouted, "You're not authorized to-" *CLANG!* Cap's shield knocked him out. Seizing the opportunity, the rest of the gang sprang into action and attacked the troopers. Khan grabbed the lance out of the nearest one's hooves and then used the trooper as a shield to zap the others. Dan grabbed two lances and started tasing the crap out of the others. "HOW DO YOU LIKE IT? DOES THIS TICKLE MORE THAN IT BURNS? WHERE IS YOUR EMPRESS NOW? CAN YOU FEEL HER LOVE OVER THE BURNING?!! AHAHAHAHA!" Pretty much Dan in his element. "Steve! I thought you were going to try to stay and try and bring a democratic revolution here!" Phoenix said. "Yeah that didn't work," Steve said quickly. "Oh? It didn't, did it?" Dan said while smacking three troopers charging him. "So Mr. America gets in over his head, huh? Gee, that's never happened in a dense jungle environment before." "Dan, this *CLONG* really isn't a good time. Besides, I *BONG* wasn't even involved in *BANG* Vietnam." Captain America got his point across while jumping on the back of one of the guards, dodging his attack and slamming his shield into two of the troopers on either side. "Vietnam? I was talking about Africa," Dan said. "That weird invisible place, Wankpanda or... Wonka Honda or whatever." "Wakanda," Cap, Phoenix and surprisingly Khan said all at the same time. All three had been there. So had Hydra and Umbrella. "Could we please table this discussion until we're safely back in OUR dense jungle environment?" Discord asked. A trooper swung his lance downward at Discord. He ducked, allowing the lance to bash the head of the trooper behind him. He then gracefully dodged and let a charging trooper smash into the first one. Just because his chaotic powers weren't working didn't mean he wasn't still Discord. The final trooper fell unconscious next to Mirror Big Mac. "Okay, that's the last one," Cap said. "Uh, gentlemen?" Discord said. "We have another problem." "What now?!" Dan asked. Discord pointed back across the bridge. Instead of the Resistance in its entirety, they saw just one pony. Walking upright, right towards them. Not only did they all know him, they were also happy to see him for the briefest moment, until they realized he was on fire. "Haha... ha, ahhhhh," Firedance, Lightning Claw's brother, bobbed his head from side to side. "Doo-doo doo-doo-doo, dah-dah-dah dah-dah-dah." "Hey... hey!" "That's Firedance!" Phoenix said. "Oh... crap." "He appears to be fire-dancing," Dan said. "Friend of yours?" Cap asked. "Yes," Dan and Phoenix said. And then Firedance responded by throwing fireballs over their heads. "Well... he might be having a bad day." "Hey, at least we found one of his brothers," Dan said. "Dah-dah-dah dah-dah, dah-dah-dah dah-dah-dah!" Firedance continued singing. The song in question happened to be one of the most popular songs in Equestria and a favorite of both Pinkie and Gummy's, being their "jam." As they watched him, Resistance bombers flew in overhead. Without the pegasi protecting the skies, several mirror MY-Wing bombers, called UR-Beats, dropped in low. White glints descended from underneath them and fell to the ground, exploding in domes of white that absolutely disintegrated everything they touched. Dan pulled out Gust's looting sack. "Follow my lead." "Is it too late to leave him behind?" Discord asked. "CHAARGE!" Dan yelled, and ran at the fiery pony with nothing but a brown bag.