Back in Ponyville, the sun was beginning to rise. The dew glistened on the grass as light cascaded over the town. Twilight Sparkle was sound asleep, completely unaware of the terrible events that had transpired just hours before. She woke up as the sunlight poured between the cracks of the wooden blinds. To her surprise, a bright light exploded in front of her, and a pice of rolled up parchment fell on her bed, and she yelped.
Dan awoke with a start. "I swear officers, it wasn't me!"
He looked around and frowned. "Man, I thought I was home. Also, what was all that yelling about? Some of us need out beauty sleep."
Twilight rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Dan. I saw something bright ust blow up in my face."
She looked down on her bed and saw the scroll. "Oh! It looks like I have a letter."
Dan sighed a throaty sigh. "Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
Twilight picked up the message with her magic. She read it line for line, and then her eyes grew wid. She dropped her letter. "Dan!" Dan was laying back down again. "Dan! Get up! We have to go immediatly!"
Dan sat up. "Why? Where are we going?"
Twilight was already out of her bed. "No time! Just get ready! I have to go alert the others."
Twilight bolted down the stairs, nearly tripping on them. Dan looked over the ledge onto the bottom floor. "Can't this wait till later?"
Twilight shook her head and began writing five letters at once with her magic. "No! This is urgent!"
"What is it already!" Twilight finished up the letters and sent them herself to her friends via magic.
She looked fearfully at Dan. "The Elements of Harmony have been stolen."
Dan looked uninterested. "And?"
"That's Equestria's only means of defense!"
"And?"
"And we're out of luck if somebody tries to attack!"
"And?"
Twilight sighed frustrated. "And it's your only way home!"
Dan immediatly regained interest. "Well what are you waiting for? Let's get going!"
Dan ran down the stairs as Twilight shook her head. "We have to wait for my friends!"
"I thought you said that there was no time for anything, and we must get moving immediatly."
"We do! But the Elements of Harmony are controlled by me and my friends. Together, we make the Elements work. Together, we all embody the traits of friendship."
Dan leaned in expectantly. "Which are....?"
Twilight sighed again. "Don't you know? You must surely have friends, being king of the humans and all. The elements are laughter, kindess, loyalty, generosity, honesty and magic."
Dan lifted his hand in a sort of stop motion. "Wait? Hold up. Magic? How is magic a trait of a good friend?" He laughed. "I mean, I'm wasn't friends with Chris because he can do magic. Mostly because he did what I told him."
Twilight frowned. "But that's what friendship is! Magic!"
Dan shook his head and rolled his eyes in a 'ok, yeah sure' kind of way. "Whatever."
Right then, the door bust open, and five poines came flooding in. Twilight jumped to attention. Dan jumped out of the way.
Rarity was panting. "I came as soon as I heard the news! Oh it's awful, darling! The Elements, gone again!"
Rainbow Dash was air boxing. "Yeah? Well, this time we're not playing around! We're gonna waste no time in kicking some flank!"
Fluttershy snuck in. "I hope nothing too horrible happens like last time. I didn't like being mean."
Pinkie was hopping like mad. "Ohh! I'm so excited to go to Canterlot again! But it's really bad what happened to the Elements! I'll have to be double careful to listen to my Pinkie Sense!
Applejack bounded in. "Ahh right, sugarcube! Let's get this show on the road!"
Twilight nodded. "There's no time to loose. We'll have to travel the fastest way possible. Pinkie, We'll need your balloon."
Pinkie smiled. "Okie dokie lokie! Let's fly!"
A few minutes later, everyone was at the hot air balloon behind Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie began inflating it as Dan joined the others in the wicker basket that the balloon held up. Soon, the balloon began lifting off the ground, sending the basket high into the sky. The balloon gently pushed the clouds aside as they breached into the bright sunlight. Rainbow Dash leaned over the basket.
"Alright! Let's speed things up!"
She grabbed a rope as all the ponies held onto the basket tighter.
"Uh, Dan, you might want to hold on?"
"Why?"
Rainbow Dash shouted from a few feet away. "Because this!"
She took off like a bullet, and Dan jerked back onto the floor, and stayed there for the rest of the trip.
an hour later, they all arrived in Canterlot, outside the town that lay before the castle. The ballon gently touched down, and everyone got out. Twilight truned to her friends.
"Alright, guys, we're here. Follow me to the castle, and there we'll meet the Princess. Oh, and Dan, maybe you should stay out of the way for a bit until we get some things settled out. Try not to ruin anything, OK?"
"You act like that's a re-occurring thing with me."
"I don't have time to argue. Let's go, girls!"
They all left Dan by the balloon. He sighed and walked through the gate to the town. It was empty. Dan looked at the shops and stalls. Nobody, nothing.
"Oh yeah. This is a great capital city. The best part is the busy streets."
Just then, a trumpet sounded off as Dan walked into an intersection. He looked to his right where the sound had come from and saw a huge white coliseum that gleamed in the sunlight. Dan norrowed his eyes, and began to walk toward the arena. He reached the entrance to the stadium and heard a voice ring out through the area.
"As you know now, the Elements of Harmony have recently been stolen by a currently unidentified their. Today, we shall choose a victor to persue the Elements, where ever they may be."
Dan stepped into the arena area unnoticed, and saw the voice belonged to Shining Armor. He was addressing the stadium, and the gaurds that stood before the raised platform Shining Armor stood on. Shining continued.
"The winner of todays' event will have the enetitlement to that opportunity. You may not return from your mission, but that is the risk you signed up for."
Dan frowned. "What a coward, sending all these gaurds to do his job." He said to himself. He took a deep breath and yelled, "Hey! Shield butt!"
The crowd in the stands turned to the noise and gasped. Shining Armor rolled his eyes. "Oh great. It's the almighty 'king' again. Looking a bit peasantly today, are we?"
Dan smiled. "Not me, just you."
The crowd 'ohhh'd' and Shining Armor turned red. "Is that so? Alright, everypony, new idea. Whoever kills the human gets a promotion. Get him!"
Dans' smile quickly left as the gaurds, in full armor, raised their weapons towards Dan.
"Woah, now hold a minute. Wait up."
No one could hear Dan over the jeers and cheers from the crowd. Dan continued to walk backwards as the gaurds threw threatening jabs at him with their weapons. Dan backed into a rack with various weapons on it. It clanged as he hit it. Dan turned around and saw the rack, and behind it was a large pile of barrels layed on their side, constrained by a rope. He smiled. He walked behind the weapons rack and grasped an axe.
"Can't we just talk about this?"
The gaurds ignored hime and kept moving to wards Dan.
"You don't want to? Alrighty then!"
He pulled the axe away from the rack and kicked the rack towards the gaurds to slow them down. He ran to the barrels in the gaurd's confusion.
"Let's dance!"
Dan swung the axe with all his might and hit the rope, causing it to snap, and all the barrels came rolling and bouncing towards the gaurds in all directions. The gaurds started yelling in surprise as they saw the barrels coming at them. Dan grabbed a hammer and began going to town on the Canterlot Royal Gaurd. He knocked gaurds down, pulled off their helmets, dodged attacks, uppercutted some of the gaurds, and even at one point, hit one of the gaurds with a chair. The crowd was now on Dan's side, cheering him on. Never had there been such an exciting tournament. Finally, there were two gaurds left, a few feet away from Dan on either side of him. They charged, but Dan stood still untill the last minute, where he jumped staright up, and landed on the two gaurds heads, knocking them out, and causing their helments to ring out in the stadium. Dan walked toward the platform where Shining was, waving to all his new fans.
Shining Armor frowned. "Alright, that's it! I'm going to fight you myself."
He walked down the steps towards Dan, weilding his custom made spear. Dan smiled confidently.
"This is gonna be fun."
He cracked his knuckles. Shining raised his spear, ready to strike, when...
"Shining! What are you doing!"
Both Dan and Shining looked around to see Twilight, as well as her other friends, trotting into the stadium, walking around all the knocked out guards.
"Were you just going to fight Dan while he had no weapon?"
Shining lowered his spear. "Well, I, uh, look what he did to my guards!"
Twilight looked around. "Looks like you need to train them better."
Shining turned red as Dan laughed.
"C'mon Dan, let's go."
Dan turned around to walk out the arena, and yelled back, "Maybe next time, Shining! Ahahahaa!"
As soon they were out into the deserted town, Twilight turned on Dan.
"Dan! What's wrong with you! This is no way to get sent home!"
Dan frowned. "What does it matter, my only way home is gone."
Rarity chimed in. "He does have a point, dear."
Dan gave a cocky smile to Twilight and held his hand out in Rarity's direction.
Twilight led them to the castle. "It doesn't matter, right now, you must see the princess."
"Hmmm, nope. I'm thinking no. The last time I did that, she didn't listen, and this happened."
"You don't have a choice, Dan." Said Rainbow Dash, who was flying overhead.
"Why don't I ever have a choice?"
They made thier way to the gate, where they proceeded into the castle and into the throne room. There, in the large throne chairs, sat princesses Luna and Celestia.The Mane Six all bowed, except Dan, but after an angry look from Twilight, he did.
"What is it, your highness?" Dan said sarcastically.
"You have no doubt heard of the Elements disappearance."
Celestia was silent for a moment, waiting for Dan to respond.
"Aye."
"And this poses a major problem, as not only is our biggest means of defenxe gone, but so is your only way home."
"...Aye."
"And we have no leads onto who has stolen it, but we have a our top investigators-"
Just then, the door burst open. In came a brown unicorn with a magnifying glass on his flank. He bowed to the princesses before begining.
"Your majesties, we have found something."
Luna nodded him on. "Ok, what is it, subject?"
"Well, there was, uh, changling residue next to Princess Celestia's bed."
The room was completely silent. Celestia looked at her sister, and all the Mane Six looked at each other. Dan yawned.
"Leave us, sir." Said Celestia firmly, and the investigator did so.
They sat in silence some more. Dan coughed.
"OK, so we're gonna do, what?"
Celestia sighed. "Well, the Elements in the changling's hooves is probably the worst situation there could be. Looks like you're gonna be here for a while untill we figure this all out, Dan. Welcome to Equestria, your new home untill further notice."
Dan recoiled a bit. "Now.... now hold up a moment. I did not just win a tournament to be told my prize is living here forever. I have a life, a family. I mean, it's just Mr. Mumbles, but." Dan sighed. "I just... I can't stay here forever."
Luna looked sullen. "We're sorry Dan, but this has never happened before. We'll try to recover the Elements as soon as possible."
Twilight broke the silence for her and her friends. "Dan, you're welcome to still stay at my place."
Dan slumped his shoulders. "Yeah, whatever. Let's just go."
Dan walked out the room.
The Mane Six followed, but Twilight lagged behind. "I'll keep an eye on him, princesses."
Celestia and Luna nodded and Twilight ran out the room.
The ride back to Ponyville was a quiet one. All the friends got out of the balloon and parted ways.
The end was here.