//------------------------------//
// The Protector 
// Story: Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) 
// by Barrobroadcaster 
//------------------------------//

Ponyvile Action News Team Station(PANTS)
Barro's office
About an hour later

Dan let himself into Barro's office. Into MY office.

"How in the hell do you keep getting in here? Who let you in?"

"Barry, great to see you!"

"Don't call me that- I didn't say you could sit down!"

Dan pulled himself up a chair and sat down in it casually. He had a big, casual smile on his face, too, the kind of enthusiasm one put on when they were impressing a close friend. Or trying to sell someone something.

"I'm gonna get straight to the point."

"You do that. I'm gonna call security."

"Barry-" Dan put his hand on the receiver. Barro stared back at him, mouth slightly agape in an expression that could only be called a mixture of annoyance and disgust. "I'm the security guy. And I'm a noble now. You really think you can pull rank on me?"

"This is private property. You have no authority here. Freedom of the press."

"Yeah, blah blah blah- listen, can we move it along?" Dan leaned back in the chair. In my chair. In MY office. "I got places to be. Gonna build a casino. So I need to hurry this up, capiche?"

Baffled by the audacity of Dan's... audacity, Barro put the phone down. "What do you want THIS time? I haven't found anything of Chancellor Rice yet and we're in the process of documenting your... tentative exploits on Equestria. So what MORE is it that you want today, Dan? What MORE can my overworked and understaffed news crew do for you that we're not ALREADY doing?"

Dan cupped his hands behind his head. "Yep. I knew I liked you, Barry. First time I met you. You know why?"

"Delusional paranoia?"

"Exactly, Barry- because we're a lot alike, you and me."

The white pony stopped. Then, his eyes narrowed. "You're acting like this on purpose. This is the same behavior that you'd find infuriating."

Dan leaned forward. "Bingo. See? You're a smart guy, too, like me. Figured it all out right away. Look, I need you. You and your flying circus, your camera crews, flight crews, pit crews- all of it. And I need you now, as in right now, not later."

Barro folded his forelegs and sighed. "So you have a specific job in mind. Fine. Make it quick."

"Straight to the point: I need you to raid the Terran Empire's shipyards in the Mirror Universe. And steal a bunch of their ships. Big ones, powerful, lots of weapons- are you listening to me?!"

Leaning further back in his desk with each word, Barro's jaw dropped from skepticism all the way to mouth-agape disbelief in the short duration of Dan's explanation. Finally, when Dan asked if he was listening, Barro nodded slowly and recomposed himself.

"You want me to attack the Terran Empire? Why not just ask me to assassinate the Terran Emperor while you're at it?"

"I mean, if you're in the neighborhood and you happen to spot him-"

"You realize our own country is under attack from multiple sources, both foreign and domestic and you want me to use my considerable resources to not only track down one pony, produce a documentary of your time here AND launch an unprovoked assault against a powerful and malevolent faction in an alternate dimension... whoo, this long, to steal ships?"

Nodding, Dan smiled again. "Exactly, couldn't have said it better myself. So you get started on that, I have to go talk to a chicken sandwich."

Barro leaned back. "You seem to forget I haven't agreed to anything yet."

"Oh come on, whitey! We need this. We have to buy time and some resources of our own if we're going to mount ANY KIND of defense against the princesses' parents AND the Terrans and this is the best way to do it. Also, you can't go yourself."

Barro paused, looked up at Dan and slowly wrapped his fetlock on his desk. It was the equivalent of finger-tapping but with hooves. "So I can't go on this mission, you just want me to plan it and send my squadron."

Dan nodded again. "Yes. And I'll tell ya why- the Terrans are gonna get pissed about this, but if it looks like a Rebel Alliance raid, they're gonna be pissed at them and not us. You and your squad will steal the ships, we will learn all we can about them and then break them apart to build our own weapons. The Mirror morons will think the Rebels stole them."

And for the first time, I nodded at Dan's plan. "...Not bad. I'll admit, that is impressive. But why would the Rebels attack the Terrans now? What reason do they have?"

"Since when do the Rebels need motivation to attack Imperials? This is a brand-new shipyard with brand-new, fresh ships churning out of it- the Federation is going to supply your guys with the info, the Rebels need ships so they're gonna swoop in and take 'em. Or die trying."

Smirking a tad, Barro tapped his hoof again. "Yeah, that's the other thing- this is not low-risk, you realize that? Why exactly should I or my squadron go risking our necks for you?"

"Apart from owing me for shooting up my own ship? Being in my good graces, wanting to do a good deed, helping the guy that saved Equestria like five times already?"

"Yah. You're not exactly the most stable guy and honestly, I'd say it was more of a team effort that saved Equestria."

Dan braced himself on the desk. "Then start being a team player!"

Barro folded his hooves again. "Why should I? Why should I bother defending this place?"

"BECAUSE YOU LIVE HERE YOU squeeING IDIOT!"

"...That is a fair point. But you get that this is extremely risky, right? The Terrans pretty much conquered their own universe and they have the tech, the numbers and the firepower to defend it. What can you give me to help?"

Dan pulled back for a moment. He took something from under the back of his shirt, a rolled-up notebook with a black plastic cover and a plastic spiral spine. He placed it on the desk. On the cover, it read:


S31 Eyes Only
Starfleet Line Operations Security Manual
42.118.9


Barro opened the book. In it were lists of names and numbers- the names of ships followed by the ship's own unique serial number. And under each name was another number, a code.

"What is this? Wait..."

"This is how you're going to steal those ships. You just need to get close enough to transmit a direct signal to each ship's command console. Then, program each ship to warp to the coordinates in the back, and then come back to Equestria. That's it," Dan explained.

Barro looked at the numbers, the names, the ships. Dozens of them. "These are prefix codes. How in the hell did you get these?" But then, Barro realized the answer to his question was on the cover. "Section 31. Really?"

"They came to me!" Dan said defensively. "You don't realize how much that Genesis thing was worth to them, all the data. They basically gave me the Trekkie platinum card. Or latinum card. I mean, they can't give me everything but after the regular pointy-eared guys left, this Sector 31 guy shows up and pretty much asks me what I wanted. They even made me an ensign. I got a badge and everything." Dan showed him the badge, which had a dry barbecue sauce stain on it. It was a little less girly than the Equestrian Attorney's badge.

Barro looked at the badge, then glared at Dan. "You realize those guys are evil, right? Section 31? They're ruthless, show no mercy or remorse, won't hesitate to do anything to support the Federation. If they think Equestria is a threat, they'll move to blow us up."

"The planet's already been blown up. Why would Star Trek ever rehash anything?"

Barro nodded. "You're right. They would never repeat an- okay, I can't even finish the joke. It's just too obvious." He sighed. "You realize this is potentially a very bad idea, right? You can't rely on Section 31 for help. If the Terrans find out about this, they're going to come at us with everything they have."

"Except," Dan raised a finger, "you're forgetting one little thing. THEY'RE ALREADY DOING THAT!!"

"Ahh... right."

"I want you to rustle these ships, Barro. Rustle them good. Program them to warp to the coordinates at the back of the book and my guys will take them the rest of the way. Then, your squad gets out of there. It might cause a war between the Terrans and the Rebel Alliance but hey, they were going to go to war eventually. This will slow them down and buy us some time," Dan explained.

"Alright, I'll get started," Barro said, standing. "But this mission is going to require a lot of coordination. I'm going to go, too."

Dan shook his head. "No, you're a pony. They find out Equestria's involved, they'll have reason to hit us harder and sooner. Also, I need you here to train more pilots."

"Who am I training? More Imperials? Stormtroopers?"

"No, the griffons. We have the Zen's zebras joining us already so we need some air support." Dan opened the door again to leave. 

Dan finally understood Barro, or at least, the white pony Barro in his office. Kent had explained it to him:

"You're aware of avatars, aren't you? They're the physical representation of something more corporeal, like will, creation, emotion or desire. But more so, they can represent more specific wills, a single person's, even. A creator, or even someone who wants to intervene can use one to act as their physical representation in that world. They can even leave them behind... and sometimes, even more than one. It's not even always their choice."

The Director was one such entity. The Fausticorn, a deity-like figure in Equestrian lore, history and mythology was suspected to be another. These entities, these avatars were the form that represented a power, a will from another world, but they were more than just puppets. They could and did take a life of their own, as Barro had. Even after their initial goal was reached, they continued on. Dan understood that now.

The pony Barro was all of Barro's negative traits combined. Impatience, intolerance, stubbornness, mercilessness, anger and more. Like Dan. But, like Dan, he was more than just negative, for negative cannot exist without positive. They had both found their balance, or were finding it. Barro also had his creator's skill, but he wasn't the author, not fully. The same way someone's voice or body was both them and only a part of them, so was their avatar. He both was and was not Barro the same way Dan both was and was not Dan Mandel.

"I'll need time to plan this out but I'll get started right away. I've already been outfitting my gunship for longer-range missions, anyway so... I GUESS this works out," Barro admitted.

Dan smiled. Barro loved his starfighter the same way Dan loved his car. That was another thing he needed to get back. Some avatars had the ability to return to a previous state in time, a primal reversion. When they were nearly defeated or destroyed, they could revert back to this pristine state no worse for wear. If Dan had such a state, he'd return to a point in time where he was in his car in the middle of L.A. traffic.

"Glad to hear it and hey, you're gonna have plenty to work with. Mostly because the griffons stole your gunship designs and made dozens of copies." He closed the door.

"They what?! WAIT! DAN, GET BACK HERE!!!"