//------------------------------//
// Episode 6: Danifest Mestiny- Dan Vs. A Canterlot Anniversary 
// Story: Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) 
// by Barrobroadcaster 
//------------------------------//

Twilight Sparkle quickly learned Dan had a very unique idea of how to have a "good time" in Canterlot. Galloping as fast as her legs could go, she asked Chrys next to her, "Why did we agree to this again?"

"Dan wouldn't tell us what it was unless we agreed to do it before!"

"But I DIDN'T agree to it!"

"No," Chrys smiled, "but Pinkie did!"

"Pick it up, you two! MUSH! MUSH!" Dan shouted. Behind the reigns of a chariot pulled by Twilight and Chrys, Dan grinned as the ponies carried his vehicle faster and faster. "We're almost on them!"

Dan's chariot chased Pinkie Pie's being pulled by Rainbow Dash and Applejack. The earth pony and Pegasus were faster than the princess and queen and were pacing themselves along the length of the Canterlot stadium track. Seeing this as an opportunity, Dan yelled at his respective pullers to close the gap between their competitors and take the lead.

"Dan..." Twilight panted, almost out of breath, "they're too fast... we can't beat Rainbow and AJ on hoof. Besides, they're a lap ahead of us."

"Oh, yes we can!" Dan affirmed. "Keep going!"

"Grrr-unnh!" Twilight groaned, running faster. Harnessed to Dan's chariot, she didn't see how any of this could possibly be a form of entertainment but her friends seemed to be enjoying it.

As Dan's chariot approached, Pinkie turned around and waved to her competition. "Hey guys! Isn't this fun?"

"For you*pant* maybe," Twilight gasped.

"Beating a princess AND a queen in a chariot race!" Rainbow thought aloud, pulling the lead cart with Applejack. "Best vacation ever!"

"I bet not even the Wonderbolts have ever takin' on a princess and won," Applejack agreed. The two were working together, a pair of the fastest ponies in Equestria and it showed. They hadn't even broken a sweat to get a commanding lead over Dan, Chrys and Twilight. Even Pinkie was enjoying herself though, the only way she wouldn't have been enjoying herself is if she'd been Discord'd again. The only way to cancel out energetic, enthusiastic spontaneity was with more of the same.

And unlike the ponies, Dan was fully aware of this.

Twilight and Chrys were scant few feet away from Pinkie. "One more lap, guys!" Pinkie called behind her. "You think you can keep up?"

"Oh, we're gonna do better than keep up! Twilight, teleport us right in front of them!"

"What?!" Twilight almost turned around to accuse Dan.

"NOW!!"

Twilight cast the spell as instructed and instantaneously, their chariot disappeared and reappeared in front of Pinkie's.

"What?! Hey!" Rainbow shouted and them, now in front of her. "What gives? That's cheating!"

"Relax, Rainbow," Applejack told her, "They're still a whole lap behind us. There's no way they can beat us ta the finish line."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!" Dan turned around, grinning.

"What? Are you going to drop a banana peel in front of us?"

"Not quite," Dan reached into his pocket and pulled out a pastry.

"Oh no," Applejack said as Dan held up the baked good for the three of them to see. Pinkie's eyes went wide as she gazed upon the confectionary treat, her one weakness: cupcakes. Well, technically any sugary treat was her weakness but especially things that involved cake. Cups, pans, bunts, even fruitcakes on Hearth's Warming Eve.

"So? It's a cupcake, big deal. What're you going to do with-"

Pinkie was instantly mesmerizing by the pink frosting-covered treat. "CUPCAKE!!"

"Pinkie..."

Dan waved the cupcake back and fourth at his competitor. "That's right, Pinkie. Cupcake~"

"Oooooh~"

"You want it?"

Pinkie nodded emphatically.

"Pinkie!..." AJ chastised. Was she really going to fall for this?

Dan threw the cupcake off to the side of the track. "Go get it!"

And Applejack's question was answered. Pinkie immediately jerked the reigns back. Being harnessed in, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were forced to react to Pinkie's motion, pulling the chariot in a sharp right to compensate. One of the wheels came off the ground in the maneuver while the other scraped up the dirt.

"DAN!!" Rainbow and Applejack shouted as they were literally left in the dust.

Dan laughed as his chariot blew down the track. "I knew beating them would be a piece of cake!"

"Dan, that was cheating!" Twilight shouted behind her. She would've stopped to confront his actions but she was pulling the cart. "Also, don't you mean cupcake?"

"It's not going to help us much anyway; we're still a lap behind and this is the last lap," Chrys remarked. 

"Not for long," Dan said back. The chariot pulled around the corner and crossed the goal line of the massive oval track. Pinkie had leapt from her vehicle to retrieve the cupcake once they'd stopped; Rainbow Dash and Applejack were both trying to get her to return to the race. With only one length of the course remaining for them, all they had to do was get Pinkie back at the reigns and round the last leg to win.

"Pinkie, it fell in the dirt!" Rainbow yelled.

"It's still good! It just needs to be dusted off!"

"C'mon now, we're almost at the end! Get back in the chariot and let's finish this!" Applejack chastised, looking to the goal line.

Dan gritted his teeth and gripped the reigns tightly. The chariot rounded the corner, about to pass Pinkie, Rainbow and Applejack again. "Come on, Twilight, we've got this!"

The purple princess was almost completely exhausted. "Next time,*pant*... I'm getting*pant*... my own*pant* chariot."

"Pinkie, they're almost going to pass us!" Rainbow shouted.

"Fine!" Pinkie said, abandoning her search for the wayward cupcake. She returned to the reigns of the chariot and pulled it back into position, starting up again.

"Hey Pinkie!" Dan yelled from behind.

Pinkie turned around. "What?"

As Dan and the others passed them, he tossed another cupcake at the ground.

"MINE!!" Pinkie dove out of the cart. Applejack and Rainbow both facehooved as Dan's chariot passed them again.

Chrys chuckled to herself. "I guess she didn't know the cake was a lie, err, trap."

"*pant* Once again, that was a cupcake," Twilight reminded them. "And it's still...*gasp* cheating!"

"Well, we didn't really set any ground rules to this," Chrys said gleefully as she galloped.

"Ha ha ha!" Dan laughed triumphantly. He knew Twilight's friends would do their best to play fair; that's why he set up the teams this way. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were the fastest pair in Equestria and Dan knew that. What he wanted to show everypony was that there were more advantages than just speed, including understanding your opponent. The finish line was in sight as they made the final turn. "That's how you race! Nothing held back, no rules, a contest of more than just-"

A crackling explosion interrupted Dan. In the fraction of  a second, his chariot was practically blown off the road as a force rushed by. His hair was blasted forward as a cloud of dust covered him, Twilight and Chrys. It didn't take him long to realize what happened.

"Woo hoo!" Pinkie yelled as she rode by on Applejack, literally tied to her back with the reigns. The dust quickly cleared and Dan saw the finish line directly ahead. With Rainbow Dash leaning on one of the goal posts. AJ and Pinkie crossed just ahead of them.

Rarity  applauded the chariot racers from the stands, cheering them as she trotted down to the racetrack to see them.

"Good job, y'all!" Applejack said, turning to Dan and the others.

"Yep, nice nice everypony," Rainbow agreed.

Dan immediately dismounted his chariot. "That's not fair! You didn't finish with your chariot; you should all be disqualified!"

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Oh, unfair like the way you distracted Pinkie with a cupcake?"

Dan gritted his teeth but couldn't think of anything to say. His plan had backfired and he'd been the one taught a lesson. He'd planned on teaching Twilight and the others how to find other ways out in situations rather than just playing by the rules. But they already knew this, knew how to think outside the box and when to bend the rules. So why didn't Twilight ever do that on her own?

"That was cheating, Dan," Twilight said, unharnessing herself.

"And it was delicious!" Pinkie added, licking the frosting off her muzzle.

"What an incredible sport!" Rarity commented. "I don't think I've ever witnessed anything like that before. The speed, the tension, the exhilaration!"

"The dust, the dirt, the heat and sweat," Applejack coyly reminded Rarity. The white mare bit her lip in response.

"Well, I still enjoyed it as a spectator."

Fluttershy walked down from the stairs herself, followed by another pony.

"So anyway, how long ya stayin' in Canterlot for?"

"Well, not long, actually," she informed the stranger. "I'm just here for my friends, really."

"Ah, tha's nice," the stallion replied. The strange brown-coated, brown-maned colt seemed a bit more interested in Fluttershy than the actual conversation. "So, you like music?"

She nodded. "Yeah... well, these are my friends," she said, arriving in front of Dan and the group.

"Oh, all right," the stallion responded. "Well, it was nice chattin' with ya. Drop by and see us nes time you're in the castle garden!" he turned and left.

Eyes fixated on the ground, Fluttershy walked over to the others.

Eyebrow raised, Twilight asked, "What was that about? Did you meet somepony new?"

The yellow mare nodded, not speaking.

Rainbow hovered over to her. "Were you trying to 'meet' the animals in the Canterlot Gardens again?"

Again, Fluttershy nodded. "But... I only ended up meeting the gardener again."

Applejack grinned. It seemed Dan wasn't the only one who wasn't exactly playing by the rules. "Well, at least ya kept a cool head this time."

"I actually hadn't started looking yet..." Fluttershy admitted. "I was caught before I could even dive into the first bush."

Dan shrugged. "Maybe you should've disguised yourself as a gardener or one of the castle's attendants," he suggested.

Fluttershy perked up. "That might work... thanks, Dan."

"I might be able to help you," Chrys said. "I could transform into you and we could try distracting them."

Fluttershy smiled. They made her feel better about the situation. Even though she hadn't found the animals she had been looking for, she at least had her friends.

"It's okay," Fluttershy smiled softly. "I'm sure if I spend enough time around the castle grounds, they'll warm up to me."

Twilight Sparkle watched the entire interaction, genuinely surprised and for the first time in a long time, happily surprised. While she knew Applejack and the others would be helpful and supportive, she was overjoyed to see Dan and Chrys offer advice as well. Two of her newest friends were finally interacting with her other friends, contributing and helping one another. It was finally starting to seem like Dan and Chrys were part of the group as well.

"Well, I thought the race was most enjoyable," Chrys said, grinning contently. She hadn't even broken a sweat during the competition, possibly because her body was more aerodynamic. "Wouldn't you agree, Dan?"

"Heh," Dan sighed, "Yeah, that was pretty fun. Glad I could make things interesting."

Smiling, they all came together in a group hug. So many differences among them, so many things that could separate them but at that moment, nothing did. They were held together by a strong bond, one of love, caring and understanding. Different points of view, different backgrounds and behaviors, different interests and beliefs, while in many cases caused conflict, in this case, were bolstered by the love they shared for one another. The things that made each of them unique didn't hinder their relationship; they were made stronger by it.

"Got any more fun ideas, Dan?" Pinkie asked.

Dan thought for a moment. "Yes, actually. Lunch."





Lunch, or dinner rather, was served for Dan, Twilight and company in a small, private dining hall in the castle. Prepared by Canterlot's own chefs, Princess Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor and Cadence joined the rest of them at the table while attendants brought out portions of the meal.

A pink Pegasus servant placed a bowl of green veggies in front of Dan. "Caramelized cucumber and carrot salad, sir."

"Can I get ranch with this?"

"Of course, sir."

Adjusting to the Equestrian diet had actually been quite easy for Dan. While many omnivores who regularly indulged in the consumption of meat as often as he had on Earth would be quite remiss at the sudden change, Dan considered it more than a fair trade for not having to deal with the frustrations back home. That, and he found out quickly how well ponies can cook. Fast food was convenient but can also be bland; Dan was happy to have a full range of flavors to experience again even if meat wasn't one of them.

Deep-fried fudge-covered onions(the original 'funions), potato-queso tomato tamales, breaded barbecue beets, parmesan pickle and pepper pasta and sweet and sour soybean and celery sandwiches with extra sauce were among Dan's favorite dishes.

Seated five on each side with Princess Celestia and Luna on opposite ends, the group dug in to their respective dishes. Drinks were poured,- tea, water with lemon, cider for Rainbow Dash, a modified Equestrian adaptation of an Arnold Palmer for Dan called a Barnold Palmer(one-third iced tea, one-third lemonade, one-third cider) and a chocolate milkshake with bananas, whipped cream and a cherry on top for Pinkie Pie. A literal sundae in a glass for the pink mare, she also requested a crazy-bendy straw, as in a straw that is both loopy and bends in any direction.

"I'm so happy all of you could come," Celestia announced. "Our duties make it difficult at times for us all to meet but I'm happy all of you could attend this special occasion."

"I know having a huge party like isn't the normal thing you do for your two year anniversary," Shining began, "but we wanted to see you all, so we figured, why not invite everypony to the castle?"

Cadence nodded. "And it's also sort of the way we both met. At Stablecon in Canterlanta over ten years ago."

Shining chuckled. "Well, we didn't officially met until you started foalsitting Twily."

"But when I saw your band playing, I just knew I had to meet you and I found out you were in Canterlot so..." she trailed off in a lovey-dovey manner.

"Some things are just meant to be," Shining finished. The two nuzzled.

Rarity and Chrys both held their hooves to their hearts. "So romantic," the two said simultaneously, echoing.

Dan and Rainbow Dash both continued eating, only half-paying attention while the others emitted adorable "aw's". None of them noticed Luna's chair and its occupant had mysteriously vanished.

"After dinner, we have a couple things left to do for the festivities tomorrow," Cadence said. "But afterward, I was hoping we could maybe all go out and do something together."

"That sounds like a good idea," Applejack remarked, taking a swig from her mug.

Rarity perked up. "Would there be time for shopping?"

"Or... maybe, to visit the garden?" Fluttershy added.

"Are the Wonderbolts in town?" Rainbow asked, looking around the very room.

Twilight waved a hoof. "Is there anything you need help with for the party?"

"Please everypony," Celestia waved them down. "We'll have plenty of time for everything. And I don't think we'll be needing any help for the celebration. Everything will be taken care of; we all should go out and enjoy ourselves."

"You're coming with us?!" the group asked in unison.

Celestia smiled. "Well, that is, if I'm invited."

A chorus of approval and reassurance began followed by enthusiasm and enthusiastic outing suggestions. Twilight was very happy, overjoyed that she would be spending time with all of her friends, her family and her teacher. Whatever small pain she felt at trying to remember the last time an event like this had occurred(never because it hadn't) was quickly quashed by the excitement of thinking about the evening ahead. She didn't even need to suggest an activity; whatever they decided to do together, Twilight would enjoy.

"Begging your pardon, your majesties," the pegasus attendant interrupted, "there appears to be some error with Master Dan's registration in the castle record; I require just a moment of his time."

"Oh," Celestia said, stopping. Like her former student, Celestia was aware of Dan's patience for such things; she knew he didn't have any. "I'm sure we can get somepony else to take a look at that after-"

"No no, it's all right," Dan raised his hands, having finished his meal, and rose from his seat. "I'll just take care of it now. Something I need to sign?" he asked the attendant. Dan was also aware that others were aware of his impatience.

"Yes sir, it's just right out here," the attendant lowered his head.

"You guys keep planning what we'll do tonight, I'll be back in a minute," he said, following the pegasus out of the room.

"All right, Dan," Twilight said, smiling. It was nice seeing him patient for once. Maybe this vacation would be the start of something new. Of course, she knew how likely that was. So she resolved herself to enjoy the evening ahead and recommended that the group stop by the Canterlot Library at some point tonight.

Dan followed the royal servant into a hallway and around a corner. He was in the depths of the castle somewhere, that much he knew but everything looked so much alike. The doors, the archways, everything was so lavish it seemed to blend in.

"I'm sorry about this; I left the paperwork at the security office just down the hall," the guard apologized without looking over his shoulder.

"It's all right," Dan said. His eyes were fixated on everything else.

The pegasus stopped in front of a smaller door and opened it for Dan. "It's just through here, sir."

Dan raised an eyebrow for a moment at the attendant. The pegasus spoke with the close-eyed mannerisms of one who'd served royalty all their life but something about all this was just on the edge of suspicious. Still, clerical errors did happen, even in Equestria. Not thinking as much as he should've, he stepped through the door.

The hall beyond was just as luxurious as the one he'd just been led through, if not more. However, instead of mostly gold, there were more silver and blue tones in places. The icons and fixtures, the molding on the wall all emblazoned the moon rather than the sun or other elements. Dan marveled at this architecture as well, wondering why there had been such an abrupt change. He took a few steps into the room, looking at everything.

"Okay, what do I have to sign or-"

The pegasus attendant closed the door behind him from the outside.

Dan's eyes went wide. "Hey!" He ran to the door and turned the nob. Of course he knew already; it was locked. This was a trap and he'd fallen for it.

"What's the big idea?! Open up! Let me out of here!" He pulled the door, yanked it but it didn't budge. He tried banging on the door. "Help! Somepony get me out of here!"

The lights high above him flickered, catching his attention. He turned around. The high ceiling made him feel uncomfortable, like danger could be hiding anywhere. There was a massive mural, a painting on the ceiling of Princess Luna with the moon in the center and the expanse of space to the side. This was a corridor of the night.

He turned back to the door, pounding on it. "SOMEPONY!!" he yelled. The lights then went out. The room instantly became pitch black; there were no cracks in the doorway for light to peak through. Dan pressed his back against the door, hoping somepony on the other side had heard him. But not a sound was uttered. He felt his heart hit his throat, he breathed in and out trying to remain calm as nothing but blackness and silence was all around him.

Something happened then. The door he was leaning against disappeared. How he didn't know; he had been pressed against something one moment and then its presence was gone the next like it had dematerialized. Dan nearly had to stop himself from falling over. The floor still seemed to be there at his feet but he turned around to feel the door and felt nothing. The wall was gone.

There was no sound, no light, just Dan alone in the darkness. "Hello? Anypony?" he asked, his voice becoming terrified. The air was cool like he was standing outside. He took a cautious step forward, checking his footing to make sure the floor was still there.

Suddenly, lights appeared behind him, shining off his arms. He turned around to see... well, he didn't know what he saw. Panes, flat planes of some kind like pictures or screens hanging in the darkness. They created a corridor like the one he'd just been in. Stars, cosmic lights and colors hung overhead. It was like he was in a planetarium all of a sudden. The panes didn't illuminate much, not even the floor beneath him.

Did he accidentally step into an observatory or something? Was that it? Had that attendant just left him in the waiting room and he was waiting for him to get back? Maybe he touched something he shouldn't have. All these thoughts swirled around his head but none of them made any sense. Whether out of curiosity or fear he did not know, but Dan stepped forward and began walking down the hall of panes.

The strange floating panes hung at eyelevel to Dan and displayed the same images on both sides. But the image they displayed was... static. Snow, fuzz, signal distortion like from a television set on the wrong channel was displayed. They also produced the sound of static. Dan continued walking down them, examining all of them. Some of them produced pictures through the static, like a broadcast trying to come through.

Looks like they need to adjust their reception, Dan thought to himself. He watched one of the panes for a moment. A picture broke fourth and played for a second:

A balding individual in a yellow collared shirt and tie was leading an individual through a car dealership. "Now, I know it's not much to look at but it gets a full 38 miles to the gallon and if you travel to L.A you know what kind of traffic you can expect."

"You're gonna charge me 2800 dollars for this piece of junk?!" Dan shouted. Well, not the Dan that was watching but the Dan that was apparently in the picture. Dan recognized the video immediately; it was from his own point-of-view, his perspective. It was the day he bought his car from the dealership.

Dan's voice shook. "What... what is this?"

"You know what it is," a voice from behind him spoke, another familiar voice.

He turned around. "Who said that? Show yourself!"

A hooded pony stepped forward from further down the hall. "Hello, Dan."

"Who are you?" Dan demanded from the stranger.

The stranger said nothing but stepped over to the pane Dan had been watching. "Curious, isn't it? I don't know why they're doing this."

"Doing what?! What are you talking about?!"

The hooded pony put a hoof to her chin. "Your memories. I'm not able to read them that easily; it's very hard to make them out."

"My... my memories?" Dan asked. "WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? WHO ARE YOU?!" he screamed.

The stranger pulled back the hood. "I don't know why they're doing this but it's nothing like any other pony's... or any other creatures in Equestria, for that matter. I admit, I'm not my sister but it's still one of the many questions I'd like an answer to."

Dan squinted. The mare was clearly illuminated through the darkness. "You..." He'd seen her before but had forgotten her name. "You were with Princess Celestia. What was your name again?"

"I'm Princess Luna," the mare said. "Princess of the moon and guardian of Equestria at night. Princess Celestia is my older sister."

"Why are you here? Why am I here? WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?! What is all this?!"

The lunar alicorn let a second pass. "Not exactly the Royal Canterlot Voice but I suppose it's no longer used anyway."

Dan walked right up to her. "What are we doing here?" he asked, more curious than enraged.

"I've been watching you, Dan, watching you and my sister's student for a very long time," she said, turning around.

Dan noticed the memory panes still hanging. "I noticed that, I think the question is why?"

"The safety of Equestria is and always shall be my top priority, Dan. You're an interesting subject, not from our world and yet a part of it. But it seems you haven't left everything from the world you're from behind," she informed him, walking further down the hall.

Dan had no choice but to follow her.

"You're not the first human to ever set foot on Equestria but you're the only one who's stayed. It's because of your prolonged stay that we've become interested in you, who you are, where you come from."

"What are you doing with my... my memories?" Dan asked.

"As I said, Equestria's safety is my utmost priority. Please, follow me." What choice did Dan have? He followed. The pair walked past several mirror panes. It seemed like there were dozens, dozens of images and pictures displaying partial visions of his past. Windows to his world only broken.

Luna stopped at one in the back.

"What is this?"

"Please, just watch," she said. "This is the one I've been able to get through the most, the one we're... interested in."

Unlike the others, this one was significantly clearer:

"Chris! Dan! Both of you, settle down back there!" a voice in the video yelled. Dan recognized that voice, too: his history teacher in sixth grade, Mr. Bluffman. "All right, I want you all to turn your textbooks to page three-hundred and forty-five so we can continue where we left off yesterday."

It was a classroom; Dan was sitting at a desk with about four-dozen other students. His best friend Chris was right next to him along with a few others. The picture looked down ad the younger Dan complied with the instruction. He turned his textbook to the described page and the section the class was about to go over. On the right page were two black-and-white pictures: one of three men sitting in chairs somewhere and another of a man in a cap standing on a platform saluting with an out-stretched hand as a crowd marched by. The left page simply held the title in large, bold letters:


Section 8:
World War II
(1939 - 1945)


"I remember this.... World History. I actually did well in that class," Dan said, recollecting.

Luna stared at the picture, a cold, serious expression on her face. "This portion of your planet's history... is of great concern to us." She turned and walked toward another of the floating memories, Dan followed her.

The next one in line was the same history class but this time, the lights were off. In the classroom, a large projector screen duct taped to the floor displayed black-and-white video images, film clips from World War II. Dan's education had been thorough: his instructors had done their best to make sure students were taught all subjects. Humanity's history, including the violent conflicts and crimes prevalent throughout it had not been spared during his studying.

The projector displayed black-and-white footage from the final days of World War II, the end of the conflict. One clip captured massive a explosion from far away. A huge cloud shot up from the ground like a tree. It grew to the size of a mountain and then expanded outward on top like a puffy, gray umbrella. A mushroom cloud. The video then jumped to other images: destroyed buildings, wreckage, a city transformed into a wasteland. The aftermath.

The memory pane flipped back to the picture of the cloud and froze.

Slowly, Luna turned to Dan. "What is this?"

Dan thought for a moment, trying to remember back. "That's... uh... that's..." the name was on the tip of his tongue. "Hiroshima! That's Hiroshima, the bombing."

Luna's face grew even more serious. "We must make sure this 'hiroshma' never comes to Equestria."

Dan shook his head. "No, Hiroshima's the city, it was bombed. That's the atomic bombing, one of them."

"One of them?" she stepped forward. "There are more of these?"

"No,- I mean," he pinched the bridge of his nose. Was he really going to have to explain this? "That was a bombing, a bomb caused that, the A-bomb, err, atomic bomb."

She looked back at the picture. "One bomb did this?"

"Yeah...," Dan said, looking back into his own memories himself. "It happened a long time ago, before I was even born." He could tell Luna had apparently been shaken up by what she'd seen. Had she seen all of World War II? The Nazi oppression, the holocaust, the Japanese occupations, America's internment of Jap-American civilians, the Disney cartoons? How much of his memories had she seen?

Luna looked down. "I don't know why but I'm not able to read all of your memories, not completely. It seems magic works differently on you for some reason. That's why I brought you here, Dan. We must make sure that nothing like this EVER happens in Equestria."

"Hey," Dan put a hand on her hooded shoulder. "You've got nothing to worry about. There aren't any nuclear bombs here in this world. We've got peace here, part of the reason I love being in Equestria so much."

The princess turned back to him, her face fierce now. "But how did you get here? Why were you summoned here?"

He didn't have an answer for that. "I, I don't know."

"As I said, you're not the first human to be brought to Equestria. Most of the others have come and gone but you stayed. Why?" she gestured outward with her hoof. "The others all had a purpose, some sort of reason for being here and when it was over, they left. But you stayed."

Dan shook his head. "I... I don't know why I'm here. Who else has been summoned?"

"Lawyers, doctors, artists, teachers," she listed quickly. "But we never knew Earth was like this!"

"Calm down," Dan said, smiling. He was starting to have trouble taking her seriously. "I'm not going to start a war."

"You've certainly caused a lot of destruction, more than your fair share since you arrived," she shot back.

He opened his mouth, then closed and thought. She had a point. "Well, I'm not going to build a bomb!"

"How long will it be until a human comes here that does?!" Luna shouted. "What if one of those hirosma-causing things is summoned here? How do we defend ourselves."

"Easy!" Dan exclaimed. "You've got..." Another memory, this one more recent, hit him smack in the face. "Shields..."

Luna picked up on what he was saying right away. She knew he was beginning to put the pieces together. Grabbing her cell phone from her coat pocket, she considered calling the other interested party. Then quickly changed her mind.

"You may have noticed that we've been implementing some new defensive technology lately," Luna said, turning back around. She taped one of the panes and it changed to a blank white screen. "Disappearing magic, the sonic cannon, the platform you encountered on the train and the electric shield are all new inventions we've developed since you've arrived here."

Dan was shocked. "You... you built those things to defend against... me?"

"Against you, against anything that dared threaten Equestria. But there are still many things we can't defend against. For some reason, things from Earth continue to find their way into our world so we MUST be prepared," she pointed a hoof on Dan's chest. "For EVERYTHING. You've only seen a fraction of what we've created so far but with Twilight's help, we should be able to get a complete reading of all your memories and-"

"Wait," he stopped her. "What'd you say about Twilight? She knows about all of this?"

Luna smiled coyly at Dan. "Of course. How do you think we extracted your memories?"

Dan's jaw dropped. "What?" He refused to believe it. "No... no, not Twilight. Not Twilight Sparkle,- she wouldn't do that, she's-"

"A princess and an Equestrian, Dan. She was chosen to lead our kind to greatness, to protect our nation against all threats from the outside..." she turned away, "...and from within."

Dan shook his head. "No, I don't believe you. She wouldn't do that to-"

"HER FRIEND?!!" Luna screamed, her voice echoing through the dark. "Is that what you thought you were to her?!"

"I AM HER FRIEND!!!" Dan screamed back. His fists were now balled; he was done dancing in the dark.

"You're an alien, an invader from a world that knows only disharmony, violence and pain! That's why she helped me copy your memories the first day you passed out on in her living room!"

"NO!!" Dan's voice echoed, louder than Luna's. Tears were beginning to form in his eyes as emotions raged within him. "SHE WOULDN'T DO THAT!"

The dark princess smirked. "You don't believe me?" Her horn glowed. The images all around Dan changed into something else; now their pictures displayed Twilight's house. Dan, fast asleep on the floor glowed under the influence of a spell being cast by a purple unicorn nearby.

"No..." Dan's voice became a whisper. He clutched the sides of one of the panes, his hands running right through the image. He punched it. "No!" the picture replayed. "NO!" The image replayed again. "NO!!" once more. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Dan felt his legs become weak. His knees buckled and he fell to the ground, unable to stand. How could he have let this happen? How could Twilight have done this? He'd been played, used the moment he landed in Equestria and every moment since. Of all the individuals he had met, of all the people, ponies and personalities he had encountered he had never expected something like this from one of his friends. He was used to being taken advantage of, used to being judged, insulted, kicked and beaten, put down, shot down and cut down to size every which way there was but there was one thing he had never anticipated, one thing he wasn't ready for and it had happened to him.

Dan had been betrayed.

He wanted to scream but his throat ached, burned. His teeth were gritted, his fists were balled and he was shaking but not with rage this time. It was an unfamiliar emotion, one he didn't feel often. But like the panes that had displayed his memories, he was able to recall exactly what he was feeling no matter how foreign it felt. He was sad.

The lights kicked on overhead. Dan looked up to see he was in the same hallway he'd been in before. He looked around; he was alone. Luna was nowhere to be seen. He would've almost believed it had all been a dream, wanted to believe it had been his imagination.

"Ha ha ha ha..."

Until he heard Luna's laughter.





"Where is Dan?" Twilight asked. Almost ready to leave, the group was now wondering where their missing member was.

"I don't know. He's been gone quite a while," Chrys commented, looking toward the door to the castle hall.

"Maybe he got lost," Pinkie said. "He could've gotten trapped in one of the walls or the paintings! He could be stuck in alternate dimension where he has to collect gold stars to open doors to fight an evil king and save the princess!"

The room instantaneously became quiet at Pinkie Pie's suggestion. Wide eyes stared at the pink mare, an inquisition of eyeballs.

Standing on her back hooves, she grasped her forelegs behind her back and looked away. "What? It could happen..."

Celestia chuckled, breaking the silence. "You certainly have quite the imagination, Pinkie. But it can be very easy to lose your way in the castle if you're unfamiliar with the layout."

"That's true," Twilight agreed, "but he was accompanied by one of the castle's attendants. I wouldn't think signing something would take so long."

"Maybe we should go look for him," Fluttershy suggested, her voice just loud enough to here.

Twilight nodded. "Good idea. We can find him and then head out together!"

Leading the way, Chrys almost had her hoof on the hallway door when it opened.

"Hey gang!" Dan greeted as he stepped in. "Everything's cleared up. We all ready to go?"

"Oh," Twilight understood. "Well, um, we kind of decided what we were going to do first without you, Dan. I... uh..." she started stammering, realizing they hadn't considered Dan when choosing the evening's activities.

"Oh ho, it's all right, princess," Dan grinned and slapped her on the shoulder. "I'm always up for anything you guys want to do. So, what's first on the agenda?"

Twilight genuinely smiled. What was going on here? Dan seemed enthusiastic and... flexible. What was in that salad? For a split second, she was actually at a loss for words.

"Is there anything you'd like to do while we're here, Dan?" Chrys asked.

Dan chuckled. "Oh no Chrysalis, I'm perfectly fine just hanging out with all of you. Whatever you all decide to do, I'm up for."

Chrys immediately raised an eyebrow. 'Princess'? 'Chrysalis'?

The others smiled eagerly. "Well, I thought our first stop should be downtown," Rarity said, stepping forward to the door. "Of course, I've already designed some outfits for all of us for tomorrow but I do feel an obligation to check in on the latest fashions."

Rainbow sighed heavily. "Haven't we seen enough clothes?"

The unicorn fashion designer didn't even turn around. "Don't be silly, darling."

"It's nice to shop for others and occasionally update the castle wardrobe," Celestia remarked, taking up the rear of the group.

As they proceeded into the hallway, Chrys leaned over to Twilight. "Hey, Twilight?"

"Yes, Chrys?"

"Do you notice anything... strange about Dan?"

Twilight turned to her as they walked. "Yes, he seems to be getting along a lot better. I don't know what's came over him but I'm really happy about it."

"That's just it, Twilight," Chrys whispered. "I think something might have actually come over him."

"What... what do you mean?" Twilight asked, not fully understanding. "You think it might've been some kind of magic?"

"I'm not sure."

Twilight shook her head. "Maybe he's just had a change of heart after meeting the princess. After everything we've been through, all that's happened, finally getting here might've made him more open to things, a bit more flexible."

Chrys raised an eyebrow at Twilight. "Do you really think that?"

Twilight looked away, thinking. "I... I don't know. I- I guess,-"

"Let's find out," Chrys said. She nudged her way to the front where 'Dan' marched alongside Rarity. The other five ponies were busy talking as Chrys tapped Rarity on the shoulder.

"Um, Rarity?"

"Uh, yes?" Rarity asked, startled by Chrys. She still wasn't entirely used to having her around, as were a few others.

"Can I speak to you for a moment over here?"

"Um, sure what is-"

The queen pulled the white unicorn to the side as the others walked past a ways. "You made Dan a new change of clothes when we got in the castle, right?"

"Y-yes, I did," Rarity answered.

"Did you change anything about his clothes? The patterns, stitching, anything?"

"Why, no, I just repaired his old shirt using some restoring magic and threading. It was-"

"What about the logo?" Chrys asked, interrupting. "Did you do anything to the logo?"

"No, no I didn't touch it. I mean, I'm not used to working with human fabrics and I did have to restore a lot of it but it should've come out exactly as it was before," Rarity explained.

Chrys' eyes narrowed. "Thank you, Rarity, I was just curious." She walked forward to quickly rejoin the others.

"Any time," Rarity said nervously, following suit.

"What was that about?" the others turned as Chrys approached. "Something wrong?" Celestia asked.

"Um, no," Chrys said. "Everything's fine, I just had to ask Rarity about some clothes." Technically true, so Applejack's truthdar didn't go off.

"We could get ya some new duds while we're out!" AJ suggested.

"Great, great, that sounds great!" Chrys said, forcing a smile. The other ponies turned around and continued walking through the halls.

They turned a corner and that's when the changeling queen decided to make her move. She edged her way closer to the front of the line to Dan.

"Hey, Dan?"

"Oh, hi Chrysalis! This castle sure is big, isn't it?"

"Yeah," she responded to the overly-cheesy Dan. "I was wondering, did you do something new with your shirt?"

The young man looked down. "Um... no, I don't think so?"

Chrys glared at the emblem. The white letters that spelled JERK were a trademark of Dan's wardrobe, a part of his outfit for as long as she'd known him. Despite the fact they'd been damaged in their previous attempt to enter Canterlot, Rarity had repaired them and last Chrys remembered, they had turned out the same as when he'd last worn them. But now, for some reason she felt she knew, the letters were reversed. Dan's jet-black shirt now spelled KREJ instead.

"Oh, I'm sorry, just checking," Chrys rubbed the back of her neck nonchalantly. "Say, Dan, I was meaning to ask you-"

"Hey, what's the hold up?" Rainbow asked. The group stopped before the two standing in the hallway.

Chrys looked back to the others. Five quizzical faces, plus Twilight's nervous expression stared back at her. Celestia held a small frown but otherwise remained un-phased by what was transpiring. "Oh, nothing, it's just-" She had to think of something, something quick.

"What is it, Chrysalis?" 'Dan' asked.

"I was just... I was just wondering if you had your cell phone on you," Chrys said.

"My... my c-cell phone?" he asked.

"Yes, I was wanting to get my own while we were here in Canterlot and wanted to see what kind of model you were using, Dan."

The human started to look nervous. He looked to the others who stared back at him, seven sets of large pony eyes awaiting his response.

"Uh... um, I..."

"Did you lose your phone somewhere, Dan?" Pinkie asked-suggested.

Chrys shot the pink mare a glare.

"Yes!" Dan quickly answered, slightly relieved. "Yeah, I must've, oh! I forgot it back at the room."

Chrys quirked an eyebrow. "We haven't gone to our rooms, yet."

The biped swallowed hard. "I... I meant back in uh, back the office where I signed that security information. I must've taken out my phone there."

Chrys started walking forward again. "Well, we can go get it before we leave."

"WAIT!" Dan shouted and held his hand out to stop her.

Slowly, Chrys turned back to him. Again, the others looked at him as well.

"I... uh... let's just go without it. I don't want to deal with any security stuff right now. It'll be safe when we get back," he insisted.

"You could get a new one while we're here in Canterlot!" Rarity suggested. "While we're out shopping, of course."

"Great idea! Let's get going," Dan said, turning back around.

"Dan, wait," Chrys stopped him one last time.

Turning to her with his teeth gritted, Dan asked, "What is it nowwwwwww?"

"I think you might've gotten some... dirt, from the chariot race on your shoes," Chrys said, leaning to his feet.

"What?" Dan asked, almost panicking.

"We don't want to get the castle's floor all dirty, now would we?"

"Can we move this along?" Rainbow asked, impatient.

Twilight raised a hoof. "Well, we wouldn't want to get the castle... dirty," she said, trying to help Chrys along.

The changeling queen mouthed the word 'thank you' to the purple mare.

"Please, it'll just take a second," Chrys reached for Dan's shoe.

"Wait! I'll...-I'll get it, I..." quivering, Dan reached down and grasped the cuff of his pant's leg. He closed his eyes, concentrating, hands shaking. He started sweating profusely, seeming to exert himself greatly over the small task.

Chrys smiled. "Is there something wrong... 'Dan'?"

His eyes shot open and he lifted the cuff, revealing his ankle.

Twilight, Celestia, all the ponies gasped except Chrys. She already knew what she was going to see.

"You're just as persistent as he is," 'Dan' remarked, still rolling up his pant's leg. What he'd exposed had been his human leg, or rather, his best impersonation of a human leg that he could perform. As it turned out, his best had actually been quite good: it resembled Dan's pale skin and hair down to the letter but for some odd reason, there was on odd perforation just above the line of the sock he was wearing, a mistake in the disguise he hadn't been able to correct. It was this odd characteristic that revealed who and what he really was. Otherwise, the changeling's plan had been flawless.

Chrys immediately stepped forward. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The imposter smirked a sinister grin at her. "What's the matter? Forgot what your own kind looked like?" A burst of green flame enveloped the stranger's body. The ponies including Chrys covered their eyes in the small hallway as the bright flash washed over them.

"CHANGELING!!!!" Pinkie Pie screamed and pointed. Not at Chrys this time but at the creature standing in front of her.

"HERRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" the beast hissed at her. "Your not going to be seeing your friend again!"

Chrys' horn glowed. She advanced on the smaller changeling. "Who are  you?! What have you done with Dan?!!"

"Was... was Dan a changeling all along?" Rarity asked, shocked.

"No, Rarity, that's not Dan!" Twilight yelled. "Where's Dan?!"

The changeling grinned back at the others, delighting in their confusion and concern. "The love you have for your little friend..." Closing his eyes, he inhaled through his nostrils, "smells delicious."

"I am Queen Chrysalis, queen of all changelings and mother to the hive!" Chrys' voice boomed in the hallway. "You will tell me what you've done with Dan now!"

The creature turned to chrys and scowled. "You're not my mother!!"

The changeling was instantly lifted off the ground and pressed up against the wall. Chrys, teeth gritted, stepped up to him. "Who are you? Where are your brothers and sisters?! Where's the rest of the horde?!!"

"YOU ARE NOT OUR MOTHER!!" the creature screamed. "You abandoned us, you're not part of the hive now!"

Celestia stepped forward. "What have you done to Dan?" she asked calmly but sternly.

Pinned against the wall still, he smirked at the princess. "He's part of our plan now. Equestria will be ours, and then Earth will follow. All of you false rulers shall bow before the true king of Equestria!"

"The... true king...?" Twilight repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Why should I spoil your surprise? You'll all see,- a new Equestria will rise from the ashes of the old one. All of you usurpers who claimed the throne will be put in your places! Why should I spoil your surprise?" the changeling cackled.

Rainbow Dash hovered over to the intruder. "Listen buddy, you better tell us where all your little friends are or we're gonna-"

"Rainbow," Applejack pulled her friend to the ground. "Calm down, now. He ain't going anywhere."

"Heh," the changeling laughed. "That's where you're wrong." The others looked back to him only too late. Another flash enveloped the changeling, blinding Chrys and causing her to release her magical grip for a moment. When they looked back, the changeling was gone.

"Where'd he go? What happened?" Rainbow asked, looking around.

"Did he just teleport?" Fluttershy asked.

"No," Twilight answered, looking around. "That was a disappearing spell."

"Disappearing magic?" Rarity asked. "You mean like-"

"Trixie."

Chrys' eyes were locked on the ground, her head swimming in questions. A changeling, another changeling was here in Canterlot causing harm. She still hadn't found out what happened to her horde so long ago... was that really one of her children? Why hadn't he recognized her? Why hadn't she recognized him? For some reason, she hadn't felt a connection to the other creature, her supposed offspring. When she'd held him, all she'd been concerned with was Dan. What did any of this mean?

Twilight, noticing Chrys' pain, walked over to her. "Chrys..."

"I'm fine," she declared. "I... I don't know what... who, that was. We need to find Dan."

"How are we going to do that?" Pinkie asked. "The castle's huge!"

Celestia looked around. "Where is Luna?"

The others looked around, just now realizing the princess of the night was gone.

"I don't know," Twilight said, "but I think I know of a way we can find Dan."

"What is that, Twilight?" Chrys asked.

"We'll trace his cell phone."





"Where are you?!" Dan demanded. "What's the point of all of this?!" Running over to the door, he yanked at the knob. Still locked in. "Let me out of here!!"

"Your tenacity is impressive," Luna's disembodied voice said. "You wanted to have a purpose here? Help Equestria? Now you can."

"What are you talking about? What are you going to do with my memories?!!"

"Everything." The door on the opposite side of the room creaked open. Dan turned around to see Luna just inside.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Dan raged.

Luna smiled back at him. "You want answers, follow me."

"I'm not following you anywhere!" he stepped forward. "You tell me what's going on right now or I'll-"

Luna shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Always so difficult."

A trapdoor opened at Dan's feet.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" he screamed as he fell. The shaft was pitch black but on his way down, it started to slope. It turned into a shoot with the momentum of the fall propelling him through a dark tunnel of some kind. Panicking, all he could do was scream as it spat him out into some kind of lower level.

"Aughhfff!" he hit the ground. Unlike the room he was just in, the floor here wasn't carpet; it was stone. Not carved or shaped stone but rocky, bumpy like he was in a cave. As he stood himself up, he was relieved to see the room was at least lit. Consciously, he checked his pocket for his cell phone. He realized he was completely at Luna's mercy but he didn't intend for that to be for long. The dark princess might be in control for now but there were things about him she didn't know, things he could use to his advantage.

The cave was lit by luminescent crystals all around him. Different colors, different sizes of crystal stalactites and stalagmites jutted out from the sides like spears erupting from the ground. He walked forward, careful that he didn't accidentally step on another trapdoor.

"Like nothing you've ever seen on Earth, correct?" Luna's voice asked. There was something different about it; it was less in his ear and more echoing off the walls like an intercom. "Beautiful, unique, powerful. Like everything else in our world. It's why we need what you know, Dan. To protect what is ours."

"You're talking nonsense!" Dan shouted, his voice echoing off the walls.

"What would happen if Earth's weapons were used here? Would our world be able to survive? Would our world be corrupted?"

Dan continued walking, following the crystals through the cave. Eventually, he came to something new: a wall. Well, not a wall exactly but a massive door in the cave, made of solid, gray steel.

"We've tested our magic, energy shields and all manner of defenses against similar effects to what we've seen in your memories. Isolated simulations performed in the Crystal Empire to see if our spells could stand up to the effects of a bomb."

"And?" Dan asked. Looking over the door, there didn't seem to be any way to open it. Either way, he had a feeling he wouldn't like what was behind it but was going to see it anyway.

"They all failed. We've come to the conclusion our magic isn't yet powerful enough to withstand the destructive force... or the aftermath of such a weapon. Which is why we have only one defense remaining."

"And that is?"

The door in front of Dan shook. Sirens began to wail and a ringing sound emitted from the door's sides. A split appeared vertical down the middle and began to pull back into the room beyond. The giant door opened.

The room beyond was massive, circular. The ceiling was higher than the tunnel he'd just been in and there were only a few crystals. Instead, light poured down from several fluorescent lamps that hung from the ceiling.

But Dan noticed none of these details; his unblinking attention was immediately drawn to what occupied the center of the room.

"What... is that?"

"Equestria's defense, Dan. Our deterrent."

Taking up most of the space in the room was what looked like a massive statue. The size of a building, it had a flower vase-shaped body with four large arms attached to the rim at the top that hung down over the sides. Perched at the top of the vase was the head of the statue; a pony's head, the bottom half obscured by the rim of the container just enough so the eyes could see over. Finally, a horn protruded from the head just below a steely-looking mane that nearly touched the ceiling.

To Dan, the thing looked like a giant metal pony peaking its head out of a colossal slim jar, its legs sticking out of it and nearly reaching the ground. It looked to be made of the same material that flying thing on the train was made out of, painted white with yellow streaks up its sides. Whatever the contraption was, it seemed to be watching Dan with a pair of glowing, red, narrow eyes as he entered.

"This is what we've developed to counter the destructive power of humans: a weapon capable of delivering the same level of annihilation wherever, whenever.

Dan's jaw hung open. "You built a giant pony robot?!!"

"We call it Magic Gear."


Magic Metal Gear ROOK
Advanced Stationary Defensive Failsafe


The massive machine shifted, rotating its hooves around. Electricity surged around its horn making a crackling noise.

"You built a giant pony robot?" Dan repeated, dumbfounded.

"We did, some of us," Luna said. Her voice sounded like it was behind him now. Dan turned to see her behind the doorway, a pink energy shield separating her from him.

Dan turned back around to the menacing machine. "That... that's pretty amazing."

"What?" Luna asked, her turn to be surprised.

"I'm impressed. Yes, a giant robot would be the perfect defense against all sorts of things. Monsters, ninjas, tanks,- you can't really beat just a really big robot!" Dan marveled at the machine.

Luna smiled. "I'm happy you approve. It'll make it easier for you to test it."

"What?" Dan asked, twisting back.

"In order to fine-tune its full capabilities, we have to test it against all manner of threats. Including you," Luna said.

"I don't like where this is going..."

Luna's face grew stern again. "ROOK is designed to be the perfect defense system. It can counter any threat and respond with equal force on any level, any where. Completely autonomous, A.I-controlled and loyal to the royal court, it's the perfect defense. With a ROOK in every castle, not a soul will dare dream of attacking Equestria for fear of nuclear retaliation."

Dan's jaw dropped. "Wait... what can this thing do?"

The princess began pacing. "We researched for months trying to duplicate the power we saw in your dreams. Using magic, we were able to recreate the effects and from that, we were able to design and test a new type of magic never seen before. We created other spells in the process but eventually, we were able to make a spell cause the same effects from your memories."

"No... you're not telling me-"

"In order to defend ourselves from the threat of this bomb, we created the first ever Equestrian nuclear equivalent. A spell that took the power of the sun and concentrated it into a single blast that covered the same radius as our strongest shield spells. We armed ROOK with the very first nuclear spell to counter the threat of the nuclear bomb," Luna explained. "We call it a sword spell."

Dan stepped right up against the energy shield separating him from Luna. "You mean... you ACTUALLY created a spell that causes a nuclear explosion?!"

Luna nodded. "It's not really a magic spell in the usual sense; it can't be conjured by a living creature. But by combining and storing different types of magic in specialized crystals, that magic can be released it great quantities. Essentially, it produces a city-encompassing shield spell but instead of expelling whatever is threatening the inside, it destroys everything in its path, leaving only ruin in its wake."

"I... it... you..." Dan stammered in disbelief. "You couldn't make a bomb yourself so you... you built some kind of megaspell..."

"Fighting fire with fire, as they say," Luna surmised.

"That... that's insane!" Dan shouted. "You're worried about nuclear bombs being transported to Equestria so you BUILT one yourself?! That doesn't make any sense!"

"It's the only way we could-"

Dan pointed to the ceiling, to the castle above them. "You JUST SAID you were afraid of nukes being sent to Equestria and so you MADE one! In Equestria! That is- I don't even... so much..." he didn't have the energy to shake with fury. He didn't know what to feel; he wasn't exactly angry more so that he was just in disbelief. It was happening; Equestria was making the same mistakes as Earth. And it had started the moment he'd arrived there.

"Enough," Luna stomped. "This is our deterrent. We won't ever need to use it once we've demonstrated its power."

"Demonstrated?!" Dan screeched. "You can't launch a nuke! Do you know how much fallout Equestria would see if a nuke was actually used here?!"

Luna's expression was one of grim confidence. "As a matter of fact, we do. But that's not what I meant by a demonstration."

"Then what did you mean?"

"You're a very tenacious individual, Dan. You destroyed our sentry on the train, ruined most of main street and even bypassed our electric energy shield. You've demonstrated great resourcefulness and endurance on all of our tests so far, overcome every obstacle we put in your way."

Dan narrowed his own eyes at the princess. "It was all... you?"

Ignoring his question, she continued, "In order to demonstrate ROOK's full capabilities, you will fight it. The entire sequence will be recorded from the moment you attack to the moment you are defeated. When you are beaten, we will send you back to Earth along with that lawyer and a recording of the battle as a warning to the rest of humanity: Equestria is not to be trifled with. If you attack us, we will retaliate."

"You're insane," Dan said. "And you're out of luck. I'm not fighting that thing so you'll never get your combat data... and what lawyer?"

"You don't have a choice," Luna added calmly, pulling a walkie-talkie from her cloak pocket. "Begin offense scenario D-5."

"Acknowledged." Behind Dan, the robot's massive legs rotated again, mechanical gears whirring as the machine entered an offensive posture. Its twin eyes locked on to the small biped. "Target acquired."

"Better run, Dan," Luna said in a sinisterly gleeful tone.

"Why?" Dan asked, hands on his hips. "That thing's stationary, right? So if don't move, it can't attack me."

"Wouldn't be so sure about that..."

From the neck of the base, four spikes flared and launched from the vase. Needles roughly the size of the crystals Dan saw in the cave before, they raced towards his position propelled by rockets.

"Why is it always missiles?" Dan asked himself. Just before the ballistics hit him, he jumped out of the way, lunging left. He turned the lunge into a dash, continuing to run as the missiles impacted one after the other behind him.

Luna watched the fireworks safely from behind the shield. The explosion from each blast sent heat outward, fireballs that obscured her vision of the fight before quickly dissipating. Dan had to keep running to avoid the flames while Luna was completely safe. While the force of the missiles didn't pass through the energy barrier between her and the room, it did travel through the rocks making them shake a good ways. But to be honest, it only added to her excitement.

The missiles ROOK launched were quickly replenished from its internal supply. In the meantime, the robot continued tracking Dan and launched another flurry of lethal rockets.

"AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH!!!" Continuing to run along the length of the wall, missile after missile exploded behind him. While a sophisticated defense system, ROOK still took time to understand its opponent. It launched one homing explosive after the other, rocking the cavern chamber and keeping Dan on the move. Quickly calculating Dan's movement pattern, ROOK then fired a missile to where the biped was about to run.

Keeping an eye on the machine, Dan stopped and ran in the opposite direction through the clearing smoke of the last rocket.

"Don't try to make this too easy, now," the princess called at her test subject.

The missiles stopped momentarily as Dan reversed course. Obscured by the thrown-up smoke of the last explosion, the robot temporarily lost site of him. Grabbing his knees, Dan tried to catch his breath but also managed to inhale some of the smoke.

"How do you... expect me to fight... this thing?" Dan asked Luna between panted breaths.

"I'm not," was Luna's answer. "ROOK's resistant to all forms of weaponry, even magic. It's been programmed with all the information we could gather, including your memories. But as that data is incomplete, we decided we could learn a lot more if we tested it in combat against you."

"This thing's gonna kill me!" Dan screamed, dodging another missile.

"You've been blown up before," Luna stated.

"That was different! Those were mostly fireworks and I was wearing armor!"

"Hmm," Luna tapped her chin, "I might consider adding a fireworks display to the arsenal... perhaps later. You should probably keep running."

Three more missiles flew towards him. Two struck the ground behind him while the third soared past and hit the wall. Dan shielded his face with his elbows as dirt was thrown up around him. Chunks of rock and crystal rained down from the ceiling. Picking one up, Dan hurled it as hard as he could at the giant robot.

The stone didn't even hit the chassis; an invisible shield materialized and intercepted the rock, electrifying it and then propelling it across the room as it bounced off.

"Not again..."

Luna chuckled. "And this time, the shield covers the whole thing, Dan."

"You're quite thorough, aren't you?" Dan remarked. Two more missiles flew at him. Rather than dodging left or right, Dan dove forward. The two rockets exploded behind him, covering him with smoke as he rolled. More debris fell down from the ceiling as tremors shook the chamber.

Flat on his stomach, Dan looked up as the smoke cleared. His assailant remained immobile, a massive pillar he couldn't escape or destroy. It watched him with those same menacing, red eyes. How long could he hold out against the constant barrage? Was it even worth it to stand? Dan continued to watch the mech, both looking for something, a weak spot, a flaw, anything he could exploit. But it just watched him back.

One of the lamps flickered off and detached from the ceiling. It smashed on the ground just behind and to the right of ROOK. Dan looked up at the ceiling. Rocks fell on ROOK from above; like the one Dan threw, they sparked and bounced harmlessly off the shield.

"ROOK is impervious to damage!" Luna shouted proudly. "Even if you found a way to direct its own weapons back at it, the energy shield would just reflect it."

It was then Dan noticed something else; the rocks pelting ROOK's shield created indents. He remembered the shield he'd tried to get through in front of the castle, the way he bounced off it. Magical barriers seemed to work like that in Equestria- they behaved like bubbles rather than solid walls. Their surfaces were malleable.

Dan scrambled back to his feet. A rocket spiraled at him, straight down this time. He broke into a run again, narrowly evading the blast. Again, the chamber shook a bit. The lamps hanging overhead wavered and a chunk of crystal landed just a few feet away from Dan. The size of a boulder, Dan hid behind it for a second.

"LUNA!!" Dan yelled. "You've got to stop this!! The whole cave will collapse!"

"Don't worry; you'll have lost long before that!" Luna assured him.

Princess Luna officially made Dan's list along with her mechanized contraption assaulting him. He was done playing around, unfortunately, so was ROOK. A flurry of five missiles swarmed to the chunk of magenta crystal Dan hid behind. Dan jumped out of the way just as the rock was consumed by the fireball.

Larger rocks fell from the ceiling. Dan had to dodge those two, looking up as he ran, trying to get out of the way as they pierced the ground around him. Now the question became what would finish him first; rocks or rockets?

As if to almost answer his question, a larger boulder smashed into the ground. Shards of crystal and another lamp rained down with it, scattering shards of glass and gem between Dan and ROOK. Looking at the rock, an idea came to Dan. He climbed.

A missile collided with the side of the boulder but Dan kept his grip as he climbed. Carefully, he reached the top of the stone pillar, relieved that it was conveniently flat and stable on the ground.

"You're not going to get away, Dan. There's no hiding once ROOK has you in its sights."

Dan ignored Luna's taunting and steadied himself on his rocky perch. Another missile flew at him. This time, he could only dodge one way: up.

Just before the explosive hit, Dan jumped. He grabbed on to one of the hanging lamps and immediately swung. A missile flew past him and collided with the roof above him. Focusing on the next lamp, Dan swung in its direction and jumped. The lamp he released from dislodged and fell from the ground just as he grasped the other.

He didn't think about how risky this was but Luna did. She watched as the pudgy biped nimbly swung himself from light to light, getting closer to ROOK. Dan was actually higher than ROOK, over its head but still well within its firing range. Luna narrowed her eyes, trying to see what he was doing. The machine didn't have any blind spots in its targeting system; there was only so long Dan could dodge. She hadn't anticipated this but maybe it would give ROOK the perfect opportunity to test out its melee defenses if he got close enough.

Dan swung from lamp to lamp as missiles whizzed past him and hit the ceiling. More chunks of debris showered the ground far below him. All he had to do was get closer. Just over the edge of the shield now, Dan looked at the ceiling directly above ROOK. It was lined up almost perfectly. Dan jumped to another lamp and started swinging it as before, moving it back and fourth to propel him to the next one.

"WOAH!" Dan yelped. ROOK reached up with massive hoof and swatted at him, just barely missing. Looking down, Dan saw the robot's massive head looking back up at him. Like a massive, angry mare coiled in an umbrella stand. It raised both hooves above its head.

Dan scrambled to climb the lamp's cable. He got on top, grasping the chord just as twin metal hooves clapped the disk-shaped light fixture underneath. The lamp exploded, sparks flew everywhere as Dan clung to the cable.

Another missile flew past Dan and exploded, narrowly missing him. ROOK pulled back its hoof and prepared to swing at Dan like a piñata. 

Using the chord like a rope, Dan swung and jumped on the robot's leg, jumping off it again to grab the next lamp behind it. Lungs filled with smoke, or fluid, Dan couldn't tell which, he exhaled as he hung from the center light.

The robot looked straight up at him now. It raised both of its legs high above it and prepared to grab Dan just as before. Dan climbed again, shaking as the bulb beneath him was yanked off. He kept climbing all the way up to the ceiling. If Dan's gym teacher had seen this, he would've been impressed.

Luna however, was not. "Not bad for only two legs but not good enough! Face it Dan, there's nothing ROOK can't hit!"

"That's what I'm counting on!" Dan shouted.

"What?!"

The robot fired a flurry of missiles straight up, right at Dan's position. As they raced towards him, Dan let go of the cable.

"GREAAAAAAAAAAGHH!!" He hit the shield and tumbled off of it. Fortunately, being electrocuted so many times recently, he barely felt the shocks. The missiles exploded where Dan had been hanging, shaking the ceiling violently.

"Hey Luna?" Dan asked, on his hands and knees on the ground.

"What?" the princess asked, annoyed.

Dan looked back at ROOK. "You didn't happen to equip that thing with an umbrella, did you?"

"What does that mean?"

The machine itself changed its expression to a raised-eyebrow look at Dan. The young human smiled back and pointed to the ceiling.

Slightly perplexed by its opponent, ROOK turned its gaze to the ceiling just in time to see an enormous slab of crystal fall on top of it.

Luna's own expression changed from confusion to horror; she had been correct,- ROOK's electro-shield was impenetrable. Unfortunately, ROOK was not. The slab of purple crystal, too heavy to simply be repelled by the shield pressed down on it causing the bubble to expand outward. The bubble instantly turned from dome to disk as the weight smashed the barrier against ROOK itself.

This alone wouldn't have been able to damage the robot. But as the bubble touched its horn, the electricity from the shield began to surge through ROOK itself, shocking the mech and causing its eyes to go wide in a simulation of pain and surprise. Still, the damage was light and largely superficial. Until the electricity ignited the reloaded missiles on its neckline.

Explosions erupted all around the mech's head sending debris outward in all directions. The shield collapsed and the crystal fell upon the robot, knocking it over in a smoking heap.

Dusting himself off, Dan stood. "Princess, about your 'giant nuclear robot pony defense' plan, I don't think it's doing that well. It looks like you're off to a bit of a rocky start."

"YOU!!" The energy shield in front of the room lowered, Luna flew over and pounced on him, enraged. "What have you done?!"

Dan chuckled. "I hope you don't find this defeat too... crushing."

The princess threw herself off of him. "No matter... we can rebuild. We'll know better next time, we'll build a better shield. But we still need a demonstration..."

"What?" Dan asked, pulling himself up. "What're you doing?"

"If one defensive platform isn't enough, we'll just have to build more of them. In the meantime, Earth must learn to respect Equestria. I might as well finish this myself," she strode over to the robot.

"What are you talking about?!"

"I can salvage the horn," Luna said, picking her way through the rubble. "With it, I'll go to Earth and detonate a sword spell in front of all humanity. Then they'll see we can't be pushed around!"

"No! Luna, you can't do this!" Dan shouted, running to follow her.

"I am a princess of Equestria! I will do whatever it takes to protect my subjects!"

"You're not protecting anypony but blowing up a bomb! You'll just wind up starting a war between Equestria and Earth!"

She didn't even look back at him. "I don't expect you to understand... you're not a pony, you weren't even born here."

"That doesn't matter!" Dan yelled. "This isn't what anypony would want, this isn't what Twilight-"

Luna turned around. "HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT TWILIGHT WOULD WANT?!!" she screamed at him, her voice shaking the chamber. "How do you know ANYTHING about Twilight?!!!"

"Because!" Dan shouted back. "I'm her friend and I-"

"YOU ARE NOT HER FRIEND!!" Luna screamed again. Dan recoiled as she advanced upon him. "You don't know ANYTHING about her, you don't know what kind of sacrifices she's made to protect our world! YOU DON'T KNOW-"

"WHAT SHE DID TO YOU?!!" Dan screamed. "What her sister did to you? What all of her friends went through to stop you?!!!"

Luna recoiled, stunned by Dan's words. Rocks rained down from the ceiling. The last of the lamps flicked off and fell. The room was now nearly pitch black but the shaking continued. The cave was collapsing.

"Twilight told me EVERYTHING! She told me about how you were imprisoned in the moon for a thousand years, how you came back and tried to keep Equestria in the dark and how she and her friends defeated you!"

The princess pressed herself up against a rock, now unsure of everything. "But... why... why would she tell you?"

Dan walked right up to her. "BECAUSE I'M HER FRIEND!!"

The shaking continued, the floor began to vibrate as more of the ceiling fell apart.

"You don't think I'm her friend?!" Dan shouted, grabbing hold of Luna. "Look into my mind! Look into my memories since I've been here!!"

"I... I..." Luna stammered.

Dan shook her. "DO IT! Look into my memories! Look into everything I've done with Twilight and her friends since arriving here! DO IT NOW!!"

"I..." Luna twitched, feeling numb.

"DO IT!!" Dan shook her harder. "DO IT NOW! DO YOU HEAR ME?! LOOK INTO MY MIND!! DO IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Luna's eyes turned bright white...


"And where have you two been?!!"
"Thank you for inviting me, Twilight!"
"I'm going to write 'YOU CAN TELEPORT' on a note and-"
"Are you kidding? Friends are about the most important thing anyone can have."
"Chrys? It's your turn."
"I'm Dan and I'm here with my close, personal friends Princess Twilight Sparkle, Chrys and Pinkie Pie."
"We'll tell all of Equestria that you're both my friends!"
TWILIGHT!!



She snapped back, her eyes returning to normal. "You..." She was practically mesmerized by her revelation.

Dan looked up as more rocks fell from the ceiling. The cave was about to collapse on top of them.

"You are her friend," Luna realized.

"Yes," Dan said, his voice straining. "You've got to believe me- she wouldn't want this. Earth, humanity, everyone and everypony, we've all made a lot of mistakes, Luna. We learn from them and we pass on this knowledge. Please... trust me. Trust Twilight. Trust your friends."

"My... friends..." Luna muttered. Dan's eyes shot up as the top of the cave finally let loose. The walls caved in and boulders fell from the ceiling. In the darkness as the two were about to be crushed, Luna's horn glowed.





The sun was setting as Twilight, Chrys and the group entered the castle gardens. Twilight led the way, levitating her cell phone out in front of her as she galloped.

"This is where his phone's signal is coming from," Twilight said, tapping the screen. "But where's Dan?"

"Dan? Dan!" Chrys yelled out. But there was no answer; the garden was empty aside from the eight mares. Rainbow Dash and the other mane 6 save Twilight began shouting his name and looking for him.

"Maybe another one of them changelings nabbed him," Applejack theorized. Chrys turned to her. "Ah, uh, ah mean, one of them other changelings."

Chrys nodded. "It's all right; I know what you meant." She was honestly still shaken about that ordeal but did her best not to show it, not to think about it. Finding Dan was important right now. The status of the other members of her species would have to wait until later; helping her friends was the top priority.

"You see anything from up there, Dashie?" Pinkie called.

Squinting her eyes high above, Rainbow scanned the area. "No... and it's gonna be too dark soon to see anything from up here!"

"You would know the castle grounds better than any of us, your majesty," Rarity said to Celestia. "Are there any hidden passageways out here, secret tunnels of any kind in the garden?"

"The castle holds many secrets," Celestia answered, "it's been rebuilt and remodeled many times. Even I'm not fully aware of all that is concealed within the walls."

"I hope he's not lost somewhere in the labyrinth," Rarity commented, remembering the last time she and her friends were looking for something on the grounds.

Twilight looked around. There were many places to check. Sculptures made of marble and grass lined the walkways while bushes and other ornamental horticulture and architecture created throughout the gardens. It was almost a maze of its own and they weren't even in the castle labyrinth yet. The trees provided canopy in some places while beds of flowers dotted empty spaces. If Dan was incapacitated and silenced, he could easily be hidden in any of these places. It would take hours to search everywhere.

"Hey, where's Fluttershy?" AJ asked.

Searching the area, the rest of the group just now noticed the absence of their yellow friend. "Fluttershy!" Twilight shouted.

"Don't tell me she got lost too," Rainbow Dash said, hovering near the ground.

"I'm over here," Fluttershy's voice whispered. Following the sound, the group walked around a hedge to see Fluttershy comforting a large group of fauna.

"I think something might've frightened them..." In front of her, a pair of squirrels, an ice fox, a swan, an iguana, a bear and a myriad of smaller birds all held each other on the grass.

"Fluttershy, this ain't no time to be messin' with the castle's critters," Applejack chastised. The others were about to turn and walk away when Twilight stopped them.

"Wait," Twilight said, "this might tell us what happened to Dan!"

Just as Twilight said that, the ground shook. The animals clinging to Fluttershy clutched her tighter. She comforted them and slowly, the quake subsided.

"What was that?" Chrys asked. The ground shook again in response.

"My... MY TAIL IS TWITCHING!!" Pinkie shouted.

Every member of the group immediately looked up, the immediate response to the notification of Pinkie's Pinkie Sense. But the only thing above them was the sky. The ground continued shaking in violent shocks.

"Nothing's falling!" Rainbow said.

"No! Something IS falling!"

The seven other mares turned back to Pinkie to see her with her ear on the ground. "Something's going to fall! If we don't move, I think it might be us!" The shocks continued, finally making it hard to stand.

"MOVE! NOW!" Twilight yelled. "Everypony off the ground!!" Springing into action, Fluttershy took to the air with her menagerie of animals. Celestia grabbed Rarity and Applejack while Chrys took Pinkie and Twilight.

The eight ponies got off the ground moments before earth started collapsing inward before them. From the center of the garden, the land began to dip like a sinkhole opening up. The green sank into earth, taking with it all manner of floral artwork and trees along with it. Almost a quarter of the yard caved in right in front of them.

"What just happened?" Celestia asked.

"Is it over?" Rainbow looked around. The shocks immediately subsided. A cloud of dust and dirt covered the garden, obscuring their vision. The group landed on the steps of the castle carefully.

A flash light burst out before them, a bright light in the fog.

"What? What now?!" Rainbow yelled, covering her eyes with a hoof.

Two figures appeared in front of them amidst the rolling dust.

"It's Dan and Luna!" Pinkie pointed.

The seven mares rushed to their sides. "Where were both of you? What happened?"

Dan remained silent. Not even bothering to brush himself off, he looked at Luna who shied away from his gaze. The young man, appearing livid, then turned a glare at Princess Celestia. "Your sister went crazy."

The ponies all were immediately shocked at his statement. Celestia stepped forward. "What?"

"Luna kidnapped me and made me fight a giant robot underground. I NEARLY GOT BLOWN UP, CRUSHED, SQUASHED AND IMPALED BY A GIANT ROBOT!!"

"Luna kidnapped you?!" Twilight exasperatedly asked.

"Why would the princess kidnap Dan?" Rarity asked in disbelief.

"Oh, thanks for focusing in on the IMPORTANT ISSUE GUYS!" Dan threw his hands up.

Celestia stepped forward. "Luna, is this true?"

The princess of the night's head was lowered before her older sister, a stance she had adopted many times before. Like all those times before, all she felt was her own shame, guilt and regret. "Yes, sister."

The ponies gasped. Luna's head dipped a bit lower as tears formed in her eyes. What she had done was now known.

Celestia lowered her own head to try and meet her sister's eyes. "Why did you do this?"

"I... I..." she couldn't find the words.

"And you didn't know about this?" Dan asked Twilight and the others. "She showed me my OWN memories. According to Luna, you've been reading my mind since I got here!"

"I, no, Dan," Twilight said. "I didn't know about any of this."

"Really?" Dan stepped forward, "So that first day, when I passed out in your living room, what was that spell you cast on me? You haven't been casting any spells on me behind my back I'm not aware of?"

"No, Dan," Twilight answered, coming closer to him. "That spell I cast when you feinted was a levitation spell. I carried you up to the guest room until you woke up. That's the only spell I used on you that day."

"Oh," Dan said, nodding. "Well, that explains it. I knew I could trust you, Twilight," he said, rubbing her mane. The purple mare closed her eyes and the two smiled.

Tears descended down Luna's face and hit the ground at her hooves. "I'm so... I'm so sorry. You really are friends, real friends."

"Sister, did you read Dan's thoughts?" Celestia asked.

Luna nodded. "I saw... so much destruction. The world he comes from is so violent, he was so violent. I couldn't believe Twilight would ever let him around her... I thought he might have corrupted her somehow."

"We can all be afraid of things we don't understand, um, your majesty," Rarity offered, stepping forward.

"I didn't understand Pinkie's Pinkie Sense when I first met her," Twilight said. "But even then, she was still my friend even if there was something about her I couldn't explain."

Pinkie gave a wide grin. "There's a LOT even I don't know about me! Finding out is fun!"

"When Chrys first came to live with me, I was worried she might still be evil like she was before. But after I got to know her, I realized she changed," Twilight put a hoof on the changeling's shoulder. Chrys blushed in response. "Sometimes we don't know everything about our friends. But if we're honest, open and supportive, there's never a reason to keep secrets from one another."

Celestia practically had tears in her own eyes. "That was beautiful. Is this what happens when you write me letters?"

Twilight nodded.

"Yep. Every week!" Pinkie affirmed.

Luna continued crying as she nodded in agreement. "I see that now... I'm so sorry, everypony," she said, looking up. "I... I don't deserve to be your friend."

"Don't go getting all distraught now," Dan said, folding his arms. "You saw Earth's more violent history through my memories and got freaked out. I would've been the same way if I saw dragons and Ursas and hydras for the first time."

"I think I may have gotten a little more than 'freaked out'," Luna admitted. "I built a robot, abducted you, made you battle it..."

"Wait," Applejack said, "So you weren't kiddin' about the giant robot part?"

The ponies all looked at Luna. The princess shook her head. The ground shook as another portion of the ground crumbled at the edge of the hole.

"It's under control," Dan assured them. "I fought the thing and crushed it with the ceiling."

"Really?" Chrys asked. "You fought a giant robot?"

"He did," Luna said. "I developed it to be unbeatable but somehow, Dan-" the ground shook again, one loud, vibrating punctuation.

Dan grinned. "I beat it single-handedly." Another shock marked the period of his sentence. "AND it even had one of those electro-forcefield things like the castle was surrounded by."

The ground shook again. The ponies backed away from the castle steps.

"Um, Dan?" Twilight asked, concerned.

Hands on his hips proudly, Dan continued. "I didn't even have any weapons at my disposal. Nothing but my own two hands, trapped in an underground cavern, just me and a giant killer death machine." The ground shook a final time and a large shadow cast itself on Dan.

"Dan?!"

"Yes, Twilight?" Dan asked, still grinning.

"Do you think you could beat the robot again?"

"Why?" Dan asked, confused. Opening his eyes, he noticed the massive shadow being cast over him. Turning around, Dan caught something blocking his view of the setting sun on the other side of the sink hole.

"Because I think it's ready for round two," Twilight remarked.

Pinkie pointed, screamed and started to run. "GIANT PONY ROBOT!!!!!!"

Supported by four steel legs, the massive mechanized equine climbed out of the hole in the middle of garden on the opposite side of Dan and the others. Shaking itself off, it placed two massive hooves on either side of its head and twisted, rotating its cranium so it was no longer backwards. "GRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!"




Magic Gear KNIGHT
Fail-Deadly Independent Mobile Weapons Platform






Section 2: Robot Unicorn Attack on Titanfall


"What?" Dan asked in disbelief. "No, it can't be! I BLEW THAT THING UP! AND CRUSHED IT! THAT'S NOT THE SAME ONE!"

Dan was correct; as he exclaimed, the Magic Gear had somehow converted itself from a stationary vase-shaped tower to a that of a unicorn filly. Albeit a unicorn filly approximately three stories tall.

"The Magic Gear was designed so it could transform to strike," Luna said. "It's gone into attack sequence now, KNIGHT-mode."

Dan stomped the ground angrily. "You built a TRANSFORMER?!!" he asked through gritted teeth.

"It was necessary for us to fully anticipate all-"

"AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGH!!!" Dan yelled in frustration.





"Wait," Chrys held up a hoof, "didn't you say Luna controlled the robot? Can't she just turn it off?"

"That's right! It responded to your commands before!" Dan exclaimed.

The group exhaled a unanimous sigh of relief. "That's good to hear," Twilight remarked.

Luna nodded. "I'm deeply sorry about all of this; please, let me take care of it." The princess of the night took off immediately, flying over the hole in the ground.

"See Dan?" Twilight grabbed his arm with a hoof. "Princess Luna's got it. It's going to be fine, now."

The human wiped his forehead. "I'm just happy we don't have to do things the hard way for once."

"Pinkie! It's okay- no giant robot fight!" Rainbow called into the castle behind them. "You can come back now!"

The blue alicorn was easily dwarfed in the shadow of the metal monstrosity as she approached. Although it had only moments ago been crushed under tons of rock and crystal, the mech looked no worse for wear. Its metallic white body bore no dents or scratches and the yellow stripe that ran down its side reflected some of the sun's light. There was no visible damage it had sustained from horn to tail. Like an animal in a new environment, the Gear scanned its huge, glowing-red optical arrays over the castle grounds. It noticed Luna as she flew towards it.

The princess hovered in front of it. "Stand down! Conditions A-1 all clear!"

The robot's eyes immediately switched off. The mech powered down, lowering its head as its systems went offline. Across the newly-formed crater, Dan and the other ponies cheered.

Luna looked back at them and smiled. While even making the robot and having it attack Dan were both horrible mistakes, things could've gone much worse. That didn't ease all of her guilt but it seemed like they were willing to forgive her. Maybe she could do something for them to make up for it and repair the garden, too. A couple grass sculptures commemorating Dan as part of Equestria sounded nice. Disaster averted, she prepared to return to them.

"Can't let you do that, Moony," a voice said.

Luna turned around, not sure of where it had come from but sure of one thing; she shouldn't have heard it. The voice had sounded just like her own.

"Down here gorgeous!"

Looking down, she saw... herself standing by one of KNIGHT's hooves. Herself waved back at her and smiled. Luna shook her head and rubbed her eyes, questioning her vision before coming to another quick conclusion.

"Chrysalis?"

The doppelganger batted the question away. "No, but I am working on that one. But what about my Princess Luna? You like? Or maybe you like this one better?" A green flash enveloped him and he transformed into a white stallion. "Better?"

Luna squinted. "You... you're the servant from the castle. You're a changeling?"

The pony grinned. "And who says you miss everything? That's right, though I'm here to talk about a mutual friend of ours."

"I, I don't understand," Luna admitted. What 'mutual friend' was he talking about?

"I think you know the one. You need to check your messages, Moony. He and the professor are a bit disappointed you decided to alter the plan."





On the castle-side of the destroyed courtyard, Twilight and the others began to take notice of Luna's absence. "What's she doing over there?" the purple mare asked.

"Do you think she needs help?" Fluttershy asked, still comforting her animals.

"We should go ask her," Rarity suggested. The other ponies agreed and took to the sky again, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash hovering while the others being held by Celestia and Chrys.

"You guys have fun with that, I'm gonna head back inside and get a sandwich," Dan bid them farewell.

Twilight turned around. "You're not coming, Dan?"

Dan turned his back to her. "Let me explain something, Twilight. That's a giant pony robot. You're a princess. Celestia's a princess. LUNA is a princess. Chrysalis is a QUEEN. Me?" he pointed back to himself and smiled, "I'm leaving. Have fun!"

"But Dan," Applejack started, "y'all trounced that thing once, right?"

Dan turned back to the orange mare and grumbled. "Well... yeah..."

"And ya did it all by yourself, right?"

Reluctantly, Dan admitted, "Yeah..."

"So now, with all of us together, there's no way it could stand a chance if it went up against all of us. And all we have to do is make sure it doesn't try to start nothin'. Am I right... pardner?"

Lip tightly buttoned, Dan did his best to hold his gaze against the cowgirl as he considered his options. His hesitance soon crumbled against the weight of the honest pony's good-natured expression of incredibly supportive encouragement. It was one of those looks, the half-knowing, half-persuading, all-supporting doe-eyed stare that could convince a bright red STOP sign to turn green and say GO. That, combined with AJ's innate adorableness made it incredibly hard to decline.

"But..." Dan's lip trembled, "but..."

The pones then resorted to their ultimate weapon of encouragement. All eight mares quickly clung close together as if taking a group photo. With eyes wide as saucers, smiles soft as pillows made of clouds and voices sweeter than maple-flavored haybacon dipped in honey, they asked, 

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease??"

Dan balled his fists. "ALL RIGHT, FINE! GRRRRRRRRRRR" He threw his hands in the air.

"CANTERLOT ANNIVERSARY!!!"





Consciously, Luna retrieved her phone from her cloak pocket. "I wasn't aware I had changed any part of the plan." She checked though her phone and saw she had a couple unread messages. But that didn't change much. "The plan's not going to work anyway and it was entirely unnecessary to begin with. I was going to call him and-"

The strangeling shook his head. "No no no, you revealed yourself. THAT was the part of the plan you changed and now you've gotten all the others involved as well. Subtlety isn't your strong suit, is it?"

"What are you talking about?" Luna demanded. As far as Luna knew, the plan between her and her contacts had always been to develop a defense against weapons made by humans, to assess the potential of human elements introduced into Equestria and prepare for circumstances involving other dimensions, primarily Earth. While noble, the plan no longer seemed viable but the appearance of this changeling well, changed things. "Our goal has always been to-"

"Never mind that," he dismissed, "my point is, you changed how things are going to go down, so now I'm going to change how things are going to go down. My fellow estranged changelings and I need a home and I do believe your Magic Gear is just the thing to lay the foundation, if you catch my drift."

Luna didn't understand, didn't know who this other changeling was addressing her or how he happened to know so much about her contacts and the Magic Gear. "So what are you planning to do?!" Luna demanded. "You're just going to use KNIGHT to nuke Ponyville?!"

The stranger held up a hoof and opened his mouth to point something out, then slowly reversed both actions. "You know, I was actually expecting to have to explain that a bit more but no, you hit the 'corn on the horn. Kudos."

The dark alicorn shook violently. "NO! I'm not going to let you launch a sword spell! You and this contraption are going to-"

He held up a hoof. "Keep in mind, you did build this thing for that purpose."

"It was a BAD idea, one of many I've made but NOT one I'm going to let effect the rest of Equestria," she rose into the air, her horn glowing. While active, it was impervious to magic but in its shutdown state, Luna would be more than able to teleport it. And there was only one place she could think of imprisoning such a device. She flew up to the robot's back and prepared to cast the warp spell.

The changeling quickly turned back into Luna and flew up to her level himself. "As I said, I can't let you do this, Luna."

"So what, you've changed into me so you can hijack KNIGHT and order it to launch against Ponyville yourself?" Luna asked.

"Right again," the changeling commended her in her own voice. "Wow, you're really good at this. I guess it makes sense that you used to be a villain yourself huh?"

Luna scowled at the changeling mimicking her. "But the robot only responds to MY voice. And if it heard two conflicting orders, its A.I wouldn't know which one of us to obey."

"Exactly," the changeling smiled.

"So you're going to have to incapacitate me somehow so I won't be able to stop KNIGHT, is that it?"

"Wow," the strangeling almost applauded her. "You figured it all out. That's amazing. So, how do you think I'm going to make it so that you can't shutdown the robot?"

Luna tapped a hoof to her chin, thinking. "You could easily silence me with a drag-and-drop mouth removal spell. But I could easily counter that so it's likely you'd try to blind me first with a flashbang spell. Then if you blindfolded me, tied me up and teleported me somewhere, it's possible I'd be occupied for several minutes wherein you could pretend to be me and stall the other ponies and Dan, buying you enough time for Magic Gear KNIGHT to launch the sword spell."

"Ohhhh, so close," the changeling said, sarcastically disappointed. He raised a hoof at her. "Actually, I'm just going to hit you with this knockout gas and tell the robot to sword Ponyville," he sprayed her. "But hey- two outta three ain't bad and your idea was pretty good. Maybe next time. Nighty-night princess."

The princess was enveloped in pink gas, obscuring her entire body. Grinning, the strangeling was about to turn around when the gas quickly dissipated and he was surprised to see Luna still standing in front of him. A blue energy shield covered her.

A vicious smile formed on the princess' face. "You should've taken my advice. Maybe then you would've stood a chance against me."

"Damn... I didn't know shield spells blocked vapors," he said, backing up carefully. He scrambled for the neck of the pony, cowering as the true princess of the night advanced before him. Swirls of black shadows wrapped themselves around her hooves, her mane began to flow like the beacon of the night itself.

Luna looked back at him through her protective bubble. "I find it's really helpful to have a backup plan. As you said, I used to be a villain myself. And let me tell you something about us villains..." As she spoke, the trails of shadow along her hooves climbed her legs and began covering her body. Terrified, the changeling witnessed another transformation himself. The onyx wrappings warped along Luna's body, enveloping her and expanding outward until her entire visage had changed. "We always have a backup plan."

Taller than before, wearing armor with a longer horn and wings was the pony embodiment of a living, breathing bad dream. As if on cue, the sun finally went down completely leaving them in the light of the stars above. The changeling didn't know what was more dangerous now: the robot armed with a nuke he was cowering on or mare in front of him. One thing he did know was that he wouldn't be able to change into what she was now.

Fully transformed, she chuckled lightly to herself and asked, "So, what was that you just said? Oh yes," Nightmare Moon grinned, "Nighty-night, princess." Using her magic, the nightmarish mare raised the changeling's hoof, still a transformed version of her own, and made him point it at his face. With his final expression one of terror, the changeling was forced to gas himself under Nightmare Moon's control. A pink mist sprayed him point-blank and he immediately fell off the giant mech.

"Muahahahaha! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!!" Nightmare Moon cackled in triumph.

"LUNA!!!" a familiar group of voices called. Turning in their direction, Nightmare saw Celestia, Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the group flying towards her.

"Ah, if it isn't sister, the student and all her little friends. It' so good to see all of you again," she addressed them with a smile.

Twilight's eyes went wide in shock. "Nightmare Moon?!!"

"It's been so long, hasn't it, Twilight Sparkle? How have you all been?"

"We're all doin' fine, just fine," Applejack responded, nonchalant-nervously, "How 'bout yerself, err, Princess Luna?"

"My name is Nightmare Moon," the shadowy alicorn responded, "And I must say that this is the perfect night for a reunion. For from now on, The night SHALL LAST FOREVER!!!" she laughed again. The clouds swirling around her flashed with lightning, adding to the ominousness of the mood.

"Luna..." Celestia said in an inquisitive voice, "what are you doing?"

"What?" Nightmare asked, "Didn't you hear me? I'm Nightmare Moon again! Mwahahaha!" Twilight and her friends continued to hold their distance in fright of the dark alicorn.

Celestia continued to hold an unamused expression at her sister. "Luna, you're scaring our friends."

"Oh," NM said, "but I thought ponies enjoyed being scared sometimes? That's what Twilight said when I went to Ponyville."

"Well yes, but that was during Nightmare Night," Twilight pointed out.

"Ooooh," Nightmare realized.

Rarity, being held aloft by Celestia, nodded. "There's a time for the frightening, deary but not when there are already other concerns at hoof."

"Oh, okay. That, that makes sense," Nightmare agreed.

"I thought it was funny!" Chrys shouted, clapping her hooves while holding Twilight and Dan.

Dan raised an eyebrow. "So, who are you again?"

"SHE'S NIGHTMARE MOON!" the ponies shouted at him in unison.

"Hey! I haven't been here! Give me a break!"

"It took me a moment too," Chrys said, landing on KNIGHT's back next to Nightmare Moon. "So you're Luna?"

Nightmare Moon raised her head proudly. "I am Nightmare Moon, Princess and ruler of the night in all its power and glory and-"

A stern look from Celestia stopped her.

She squee-smiled. "Yes, I'm Luna. Hi."

"Hi!" Chrys stuck a hoof out to shake. "I'm Queen Chrysalis, or just Chrys now. So, you tried to takeover Equestria, too?"

"Yeah," Nightmare shyly admitted. "Twice."

"Really? Me too!" Chrys gleefully stated.

Watching the social interaction, Dan whispered, "Are they really doing this RIGHT NOW?"

"Shhh," the rest of the mares shushed him.

"I heard," Nightmare said. "You impersonated Princess Cadence and tried to conquer Canterlot with a horde of changelings."

"Yeah," Chrys nodded, blushing slightly. "Twilight and her friends stopped me though."

Nightmare giggled. "They do that."

Chrys giggled. "Yeah, they do. Hey, we should team up and try taking over Equestria together."

"Great idea!" the two burst out laughing.

Pinkie Pie shook her head. "That's not funny."

"Hey, we're only kidding," Chrys threw a hoof around Nightmare Moon's shoulders. "Us bad girls gotta stick together." The pair then brohoofed. Twilight couldn't help but fear what would happen if the two nega-pegasisters actually did partner together and try to conquer the kingdom. For some reason, she also wondered if they'd invite her. She quickly shook out that curiosity and wondered why she would ever question such a thing.

"Touching, gal pals, really touching," the changeling appeared, flying up to their level from the side. "But I'm afraid, you're not the only ones in Equestria with the power to rule. And on that note," in a flash, he changed into Luna and flew around to the front of the robot. "Hey, wake up!" he kicked KNIGHT's muzzle.

The eyes of the mech shot open, illuminating the darkness with an eerie yellow glow. "Standing by."

The Luna-changeling grinned. "Let's get the party started, shall we? Protocol Omega! Initiate SWORD sequence! Target: Ponyville!"

"Acknowledged. Primary offense  mode engaged. Acquiring target," the mech's eyes turned red again and it began to move. One leg after the other, the massive metal pony turned towards the castle and started marching in the direction of its target.

"No, no n-AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!" Dan screamed as he fell off the robot but this time, Twilight and Chrys both caught him.

"It's okay Dan- we've got you!" Twilight said.

"No, not that," Dan groaned, hanging upside down from their hooves. "It's the hard way."

"Maybe not," Nightmare Moon said. "It's programmed to listen to my voice. We can stop this."

Chrys flashed green and transformed into another Nightmare Moon. "Wait! Let me come too! Twilight, look after Dan and the others!"

"Okay," Twilight said, slowly descending to the ground with him.

The two shadow alicorns flew to the front of the marching mech. "Cease protocol! Exit all done!" Nightmare shouted.

"What she said!" Chrys added in Nightmare's voice.

"Acknowledged." The KNIGHT halted abruptly. 

"No!" the changeling shouted. "Cancel that order! Proceed with protocol!"

"Acknowledged. Continuing Protocol Omega- Target: Ponyville."

"Quick!" Twilight shouted. "We have to do something to stop it!"

"I have an idea!" Dan yelled. "You guys try to slow it down! I'm gonna try to get it's attention!"

"Okay!" Twilight said back, "Rainbow, get something we can use to wrap around its legs! Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, each grab one of the legs and get ready to wrap!"

"I don't have my beatboxing hat."

"Pinkie!"

"Kidding!"

"Princess, you and I could try and contain it in a shield!" she said to her mentor.

"Good idea. Let's get ahead of it," she said, taking flight, with Twilight grabbing on to fly with her.

"Cease protocol!" Nightmare Moon shouted.

"Continue protocol!" the changeling countered.

"Cease protocol! Listen to the other me!" Chrys added.

"Acknowledged. Protocol-"

The changeling flew right up to its face. "Continue Omega Protocol!"

"Acknowledged. Continuing Ome-"

Nightmare Moon unleashed a blast of dark magic from her horn but the changeling dodged. The shadow princess flew right up to the mechanical mare's ear. "WE ORDER YOU TO CEASE PROTOCOL!!" she screamed in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

The changeling took a deep breath and moved to the other ear. "WE ORDER YOU TO CONTINUE PROTOCOL!!" He mimicked the RCV perfectly.

"Should I say something?" Chrys asked, holding her Nightmarish impersonated ears.

KNIGHT shook, its eyes flaring. "Unable to comply; building in progress."

"That doesn't sound good," Chrys backed away.

The changeling and Nightmare Moon both gripped the ears of the mech. "YOU WILL OBEY! I ORDER YOU TO-"

"Switching to self-defense mode." KNIGHT picked up its massive hooves and swatted at both princesses, batting them away.

"Great! Now look what you've done!" Nightmare Moon said to the changeling, picking herself up from the dirt. "Now it thinks we're both the enemy!"

The changeling shrugged. "Well, I think I'll simplify things. Once all of you are out of the way, I'll just tell it to attack Ponyville! Toodles!" the visage of Luna disappeared, vanishing like vapor in the night.

"Disappearing magic...?" Nightmare Moon muttered.

"Look out!" Another Nightmare Moon, Chrys, dove and snatched her from the ground before KNIGHT's massive hoof could come down on her. Scrambling into the air, the two flew ahead of it. "Well, it's not trying to destroy Ponyville."

"Yes, but it is trying to destroy us. And I don't think it's going to be listening to me any more," Nightmare Moon said. The mech advanced behind them, stomping towards the two with menacing red eyes and glowing horn.

"How do we stop it?" Chrys asked, returning to normal.

A rock hit the side of the robot's head. Its eyes turned a curious yellow and it turned in the direction of the chucked projectile. Nightmare Moon and Chrys followed its head to the right.

"The same way we stop everything else," Dan said. "The hard way!" He threw another stone at KNIGHT while it watched him, a proverbial David versus a magical, metal goliath.





With a menacing glare, the giant machine reared back on its hind legs. Grnnnnnnnnnnngggghhh! "Face me!" The ground reverberated with shocks as it brought its metallic front hooves down in a massive double stomp. It then turned to Dan.

"Great job getting its attention, Dan!" Twilight yelled.

"Yeah!" Chrys agreed. "Now what're you going to do with it?"

Even if Dan had time to answer, he didn't have an answer. He looked up at the colossal mech turning towards him and ran in the opposite direction.

Twilight and Celestia regrouped with Nightmare and Chrys. The four watched Dan continue to run back towards the castle as the robot began to march after him.

"Was this part of his strategy when he beat it before?" Celestia asked, watching the biped fade into the distance.

"Well, yes and no," Nightmare replied, thinking back. "Mostly no."

"It's chasing after him now! What do we do?" Twilight worriedly asked.

Chrys smacked her hoofs together. "We hire a team of seven mercenaries from another dimension and we-"

"Something realistic, please," Twilight sighed.



"Rainbow and the others are looking for something to slow it down with. I figured going for the legs might be our only chance at stopping it," Twilight said.

Nightmare shook her head gravely. "It's not enough to slow it down. If it disengages from self-defense mode, it will return to its primary functions and attempt to execute its last instructions."

"So it either attacks us or it destroys Ponyville," Celestia surmised, her eyes narrowing.

"That would be correct, sister."

The white alicorn immediately took flight, determined. "Luna, I'm afraid I'm going to have to break your toy." In that instance, Chrys and Twilight questioned who was the more dangerous: Nightmare Moon or Princess Celestia.

"It's not that simp- wait, Tia!" Nightmare called after her sister but she'd already bolted off. The shadowy alicorn kicked off the ground to join her. "Chrys, Twilight, she's going to need our help." 

"I can't-..." Twilight rose a hoof to point out a critical piece of information but Chrys stopped her.

"She still can't fly that well outside," Chrys explained.

Nightmare's expression didn't change. "Carry her."

"Right. Twilight, get on."

"Okay," she carefully mounted the changeling and they took off.

Having chased Dan into the castle, KNIGHT prepared to bring a metal limb down on a portion of the garden entrance. A bright orange beam struck its right foreleg before it could smash the building, blasting the hoof and knocking it to the side. But KNIGHT maintained its balance and turned its head to face its newest target.

Princess Celestia flew through the night like an arrow and fired another lethal spell from her horn. A bright red-orange ray struck Magic Gear KNIGHT right between the eyes and rose up her face to blast its horn before it dissipated. When the beam was finished however, the robot remained unscathed. Celestia's eyes widened to see her fiery spell hadn't managed to damage the mech. Narrowing her focus, she quickly switched tactics.

KNIGHT's targeting system continued to watch the white mare as she flew towards it. The princess flew right over it, forcing it to turn its head. Celestia's horn glowed as she hovered, attempting to levitate the metal monster into the air. But the robot failed to glow with the princess's corresponding magical aura and stayed standing where it was.

Celestia strained, her horn glowing brighter as she struggled to lift the giant tank but it remained firmly planted on the ground, not moving an inch.

Turning around to face her again, KNIGHT unleashed its own magic. The robot fired a huge yellow beam from its own horn, illuminating the night sky and casting flashes of light on the exterior of the castle. Celestia narrowly dodged the ray as it shot past her into the distance.

"Launching X-mines."

Before the princess could retaliate, twin projectiles launched from KNIGHT's back. The two ballistics hovered briefly before shooting into the ground at its hooves. Not knowing what kind of new tactic this was, Celestia surrounded herself with a shield. This turned out to be the correct course of action as the deployed rockets quickly burst up from the ground right under her. 

The mines launched upward and exploded on either side of the white mare, blasting smoke and shrapnel all around her. But none of the force, fire or debris managed to get through Celestia's shield. She lowered her hooves guarding her face as she prepared to counter. Her magic was strong; she would not let a machine, no matter how formidable, get the better of her.

Or so she thought. As the smoke cleared, she suddenly found KNIGHT staring directly in front of her. Before the princess could react, a pair of colossal metal hooves grasped her in midair. Her shield broke in an instant and she was clamped by the huge pony. Its hooves clamped down on her tiny frame, crushing her as she tried to resist. A pair of red eyes focused on her; the robot practically smiled as it pressed inward on the small princess.

Groaning, Celestia struggled to free herself. Her teeth gritted as she summoned all of her magical strength to try and pry the huge limbs off of her. To no avail. "Hnnnnng... clever... girl..."

"Hostile eliminated." KNIGHT watched as the helpless target stared back in horror. It squeezed.

"RELEASE HER!!!" Nightmare Moon screamed. Three purple beams blasted the robot's back, exploding in sparks and smoke as they connected. Another flurry of smaller, purple and pink beams peppered KNIGHT's body as two figures flew by.

"Let go of our princess!" Twilight yelled at the metal monstrosity, showering it with another hail of spell fire from Chrys' back.

Undamaged, KNIGHT's eyes turned yellow and it looked up while still holding the princess. It scanned the skies until it saw its assailants. Nightmare and Twilight riding Chrys flew right at the Magic Gear firing spells at its forelegs. Their intent was to get it to unhoof the princess and KNIGHT's processors already updated its targeting parameters. Rather than release the princess though, the mech's A.I came up with a different strategy.

"Switching targets." As KNIGHT held the princess firmly in its grasp, it quickly brought its forehead down on the helpless mare. KNIGHT head-smashed Celestia into the dirt, causing a massive crater to form in the grass from the quick motion.

"NOOOOOO!!!" the three mares yelled. Too far away to do anything, Nightmare Moon, Chrys and Twilight watched as the giant robot crushed Princess Celestia into the ground. Before they could close the distance, the metal mare lifted its massive right foreleg overhead to deliver the finishing blow.

"Target destroyed." KNIGHT swung.

The trio of airborne mares watched in shock as KNIGHT plunged its leg right onto where Celestia lay. Twilight's heart sank, a sort of hollowness overtaking her entire body. She would've fallen off Chrys if the changeling hadn't held her in place. Nightmare Moon herself hovered with jaw agape, feeling a sense of numbness and loss surrounding her. They hadn't been fast enough and just like that, it was over.

A loud 'ding' rang out as KNIGHT dropped its hoof like a hammer. But that's all that had happened. Celestia, lying on her side in the dirt opened her eyes to see that the robot's hoof had stopped just above her. It was shaking, vibrating like some other-worldly force was pushing back against it.

Twilight and the others watched, still stunned as the robot stuck its hoof into the ground. But then, something caught their eyes. The machine's limb seemed to be twitching.

The ground next to Celestia moved and she noticed a black sneaker above where her head lay. She looked up to see a pair of pale hands pressing up on the chrome limb above her, stopping it from crushing her.

Dan groaned as he held up KNIGHT's hoof. "And THIS... is WHY... I DIDN'T... want to do it... the HARD WAY!"

"Dan..." Celestia whispered. "How did you-"

"How about you ask questions later and TELEPORT US BEFORE WE GET CRUSHED!!"

Closing her eyes, Celestia's horn flashed. KNIGHTS hoof came down on the spot, impacting the ground and kicking up dirt.





KNIGHT's hoof dug into the dirt where Celestia was, its other legs also sinking quite a bit. The machine's internal sensors indicated that the ground under it was unstable. Its immense weight, combined with the ruined garden's surface actually made it difficult for the robot to maintain balance where it was standing, like being in a sandbox.

Noticing this new development, KNIGHT lifted its right hoof. Its narrowed eyes scanned the spot where the white alicorn had been and came to a near-instantaneous conclusion: the target had evaded destruction. Flicking its massive, steel tail in annoyance, the machine began to search in front of it for the target.

A good distance behind it by the castle steps, Dan held his knees to catch his breath. "The things I do... for my little ponies."

"Dan... thank you," Celestia said through labored breaths. Dan steadied her body to help her stand but she didn't need much help. The two of them looked beaten, exhausted after their encounter with the infernal machine. Despite their haggard appearances, Magic Gear KNIGHT looked no worse for wear.

Nightmare Moon, Chrys and Twilight landed by them. "Princess!" Twilight called out as she dismounted and ran over.

"Are you both all right?" Chrys asked.

"No," Dan replied, agitated, "I'm having to fight that thing again while it's tried to kill me at least three different times in three different ways in the last three minutes and nothing we can do can stop it!!"

Magic Gear KNIGHT continued searching for its targets but was having difficulty standing. It tripped under the soft ground and fell on its side with a massive crash that threw up dirt and debris. Shaking its head, it did its best to stand again.

The five quietly ran behind the side of the castle as the machine regained its ground.

"How DID you stop it, Dan?" Chrys asked as they hid.

Dan wiped his forehead and shrugged. "I just dove for Celestia. I wasn't going to let that thing crush her."

"I think it was leverage," Twilight said, looking around the corner at KNIGHT. "It was off-balance when it tried to hit you; Dan didn't get the full force of the blow. When it swung down, its other legs sank into the sand and it stopped the moment Dan intervened."

"That's... incredibly convenient," Chrys said, hoof to her chin.

"No," Dan said again, "convenient would've been if that thing tripped and blew itself up. But I don't see any giant banana peels around here so we're going to need another plan."

"It's completely invulnerable to magic while active," Nightmare Moon said gravely. "There's no spell strong enough to crack its armor."

"Maybe not our spells..." Twilight thought aloud, "but what about its own?" The others looked at her, piecing together what her idea. "Is there some way we could redirect one of its own spells back at it?"

Nightmare raised a hoof to her chin, thinking. "We didn't test against mirrors. Theoretically, even as strong as KNIGHT's own magic is, it could be reflected back at it if it hit a mirror."

Twilight approached her. "If we could somehow bounce one of its spells back at it, do you think that would be enough to damage it?"

The shadowy alicorn was silent for almost a full minute. They hung on her answer, hopeful. "Possibly," she finally said.

"It's worth a try, then," Chrys said. "We're going to need a lot of mirrors."

Dan sighed heavily. "I'll go get the mirrors from inside the castle."

"Wait, Dan," Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder, "I know a faster way."

"What's that?" Dan raised an eyebrow.

The purple mare smiled and her horn glowed. In a flash, the two disappeared.

"Great, we have a plan," Chrys said. "What do we do until they get back?"

"We have to prevent the machine from doing any more damage," Celestia said resolutely. "Keep our distance and try to lure it away from the castle."

"Let's see where it is now," Nightmare said. Pressing her darkling back against the wall, she poked her head around the corner quickly and then shot back. It took a full second for the realization to hit her. The moment after that, cold fear gripped her chest and she slowly poked her head around the corner again. KNIGHT's massive eyes stared back at her just a scant few feet away. The robot was apparently mimicking her action. She pulled her head back around and braced herself against the wall again, swallowing hard.

KNIGHT pressed its own back against the wall of the castle as Luna recoiled. For all of the mech's combat programming, the A.I was still based on that of a mare and as such was prone to spontaneous acts of adorable behavior. While questionably effective in battle, cuteness was nevertheless another one of the weapons in KNIGHT's arsenal. The robot's own eyes glowed yellow and wide with nervous anticipation despite that it was the predator and the ponies plus biped were the prey.

"What is it doing? Where is it now?" Celestia asked. Nightmare said nothing, too stunned to speak.

"It's stalking us right around the corner, isn't it?" Chrys guessed. Nightmare silently nodded. "What should we do?"

The robot pounced around the corner, almost knocking the three of them off the ground as its hooves stomped. GRNNNNNNNGGG!!! "Found you!"

"RUN!" Chrys shouted. Without warning, KNIGHT fired a yellow beam from its horn at the three ponies. They evaded just before the ray scorched the grass where they'd been standing. Princess pair and queen took to the skies, kicking off the ground into flight. The mech turned and followed them, quickening its pace as its eyes turned into a red glare again.

Celestia in the lead, they flew away from the castle with the machine stomping behind them. Only at quick walking pace right now, they dared not wonder what would happen if it broke into a canter in Canterlot. A bright yellow beam flashed past them as the robot fired again. They dodged easily, the spell flying past them and into the night.

"At least we're harder to hit up here!" Chrys yelled.

"Launching missiles."

Twin sets of three flares blossomed on KNIGHT's back. Six missiles took flight and began racing towards the three mares fleeing from the robot, intent on blasting them out of the sky.

"Missiles!" Nightmare shouted, looking behind them. The half-dozen explosives rocketed at them, illuminating the ground like flaming arrows.

Chrys and Nightmare stopped and quickly shielded themselves with magic.

"NO!" Celestia shouted. She pushed the two mares out of the way and blasted the missiles in midflight before they could hit them. KNIGHT charged through the smoke at a gallop, intent on slamming the three ponies between its hooves.

The three returned to fleeing, flying away as the robot's speed increased.

"That's how it caught me off guard the first time," Celestia said. "It seems to have developed its own tactic for dealing with magic-users."

"It has an artificial intelligence," Nightmare remarked. "It's capable of learning, developing strategies. It was based off of Dan's memories and personality but modified to behave like a pony."

"How did you manage to construct that thing?" Celestia asked, looking over her shoulder at the mech pursuing them.

"Let's worry about that after we stop it!" Chrys shouted.

"Launching missiles." KNIGHT deployed another group of missiles that began tracking the three ponies.

Celestia turned around. "I have an idea!" Nightmare and Chrys stopped as well, hovering as they watched her. The white princess flew into the paths of the missiles. Using her magic, she caught each one in a levitation spell. She whipped her head around, aiming her magic and flung the explosives back at Magic Gear Knight. The machine continued charging, not even stopping as the missiles' trajectory changed and they flew back at it. Its eyes remained focused on the ponies.

At such close range, the missiles' targeting system was still locked on the ponies but their abrupt change in flight made it impossible for them to alter their course to continue tracking them. Knifing through the night, all six blazed back towards the massive robot as it advanced forward, their collision imminent. The princesses' plan would've worked, might have even damaged the robot by sending its missiles back at it if KNIGHT's own A.I didn't destruct the projectiles in midflight before they could hit it.

As simple as flipping a switch, all six missiles exploded in midair just in front of the robot, bursting into flames and showering the ground with smoke and debris.

"Drat," Chrys said.

"They didn't get through," Celestia commented, defeat in her voice. KNIGHT continued to charge at them and the three mares resumed fleeing.

"It's still a good plan," Nightmare said. Another beam blasted past them as she spoke. "The missiles weren't quite fast enough. It won't be able to de-cast its own magic, though so it should work if we can reflect the beam at it."

"Let's just hope Dan and Twilight get the mirror said up in time," Celestia hoped.

"How are they going to signal us when they're ready?" Chrys asked. As she poised that question, a glint of light hit her across the eyes, not bright enough to blind her. Following its direction, she spied a light shining like a beacon on the other side of the castle's steps a good distance away. "There! They're over there!" she pointed.

The three mares banked, making an aerial U-turn back in the direction of the castle. Flying faster, they zoomed over the crater that had been the garden as Dan and Twilight came into view. KNIGHT, still chasing them, ground its hooves into the dirt to change directions. Its legs grinded the earth as it spun, coming to a stop as it completed the 180. Stomping its hooves, it broke into a run in the opposite direction, following its prey.

It had been surprisingly easy for Dan and Twilight to find and connect a bunch of mirrors together. Twilight teleported them to two of the castle's bathrooms, Dan pried off the reflective surfaces from above the sinks and then used Twilight's horn as a makeshift magic welding torch to fuse them together. The collection of mirrors were now propped up in Pinkie's chariot from the race earlier, facing Chrys, Celestia and Nightmare Moon as the three approached.

Dan held Twilight as her horn cast a light spell to signal the others. "It looks like they see us," Twilight said.

"Good. And they're bringing company?" Dan asked.

"It's right behind them," Twilight responded. "You still haven't told me how you're planning on getting KNIGHT to attack the mirror and not them."

Dan grinned and rotated Twilight's tail. "Pinkie told me where your safety is."

The purple mare turned her head back around. "I have a safety?!"

"Eeyup," Dan replied. He walked in front of the mirror and pointed his loaded princess at the distance. With a pull of her tail, her wings deployed, giving Dan a bullet shield of sorts. "And if you were wearing your crown, I'd have crosshairs."

Twilight, now nervously pointing in the direction Dan was aiming, was beginning to piece his plan together. "So, you're going to shoot KNIGHT hoping it shoots back and hits the mirror? Using... me as the gun?"

"Exactly," Dan answered, taking aim. "And when it fires one of its rays, you teleport us out of the way right before it hits us."

Twilight nodded and did her best to steady herself in Dan's grip. "Okay... I think I can do that."

"I know you can, Twilight. And if it doesn't work, we can try out your grenade launcher."

"My WHAT?"

Celestia, Chrys and Nightmare Moon flew over Dan and Twilight, turning back around to land behind them and face KNIGHT. The Magic Gear's pace had been slowed as it trotted through the refuse-strewn crater. But with its massive legs, it was already climbing its way out of the hole in huge strides.

"You want to conserve ammo, Dan," Chrys said. "Don't fire until you see the reds of its eyes."

Both Dan and Twilight turned to Chrys with unamused frowns. "No," they said simultaneously. Magic just didn't have an ammo capacity.

As the robot placed a hoof at the top of the crater, Dan unleashed hell. Blasting the robot in the head, eyes, horn, anywhere he could, he spun Twilight's tail as fast as it could go, unleashing a barrage of purple and violet bolts.

The spell fire pinged off KNIGHT's armor, connecting but not even scratching the metal pony. It climbed its way out of the hole unhindered by the magical flurry, absorbing each blast without even a flinch. Its systems registered all five targets in the same space, three behind and two in front of a small barricade at the edge of the castle. Determined to finally crush all of its enemies, KNIGHT charged up its horn with magic, preparing its devastating obliteration spell.

"Target locked."

Dan stopped firing, still watching the robot. "Ready, Twilight?"

Twilight's eyes narrowed. "Ready."

KNIGHT fired a colossal yellow beam, pulsing waves reverberating off its own horn. The machine was actually moved backward by the force of its blast, its hooves digging trenches in the dirt. The beam illuminated the entire side of the castle as it raced towards Dan and Twilight, a brilliant light scorching its way through the night.

In a flash, Dan and Twilight themselves vanished and reappeared behind the mirror with Chrys, Celestia and Nightmare Moon. The beam hit the mirror in the center and refracted off of it, arcing back at KNIGHT.

Dan and the others couldn't help but stick their heads out from behind the mirror to see the results of their plan. They all took a simultaneous glance just in time to just barely make out the expression on KNIGHT's face before the beam hit it.

To its credit, the robot tried to dodge the attack but wasn't nearly fast enough. It rose on its back hooves to try and guard its face but didn't even have time to raise its forelegs. The beam struck it on the chest and rose up to strike its neck and muzzle, blasting the robot off its hooves. KNIGHT exploded into flames, pieces of armor ripping off of it as its body flew into the crater in an incredible fireball that turned the garden into a huge bonfire in an instant.

Flames, smoke and bits of metal showered the landscape forcing the four ponies and biped to take cover in the chariot mirror. As the shower subsided, Dan jumped out from behind the mirror.

"YES!!" Dan exclaimed, throwing his fits to the sky. "WE GOT IT! THE MECH JUST GOT WRECKED!!!"

"Yay!" Chrys joined in. She, Twilight and Dan shared celebratory high-hoof/fives and proceeded to grab each others' limbs and dance merrily in a circle. Nightmare Moon and Celestia both enjoyed a pair of long-overdue sighs of much-needed relief. Smoke rose from the crater in front of them, billowing into the sky to become one with the ink above.

"Yes!" Twilight agreed. "Ponyville and Canterlot and all our friends are finally safe! It's a good thing that plan worked; I was worried we might have to drop a building on it or something."

"Hey Twilight," Chrys asked, reminded of something. "Where are your other friends, anyway?"

The purple princess immediately ceased her rejoicing. "I don't know. I told them to look for something to trip its legs with but that was-"
A loud rumble cut her off.

Dan turned around to them. "What was that?"

"No..." Nightmare Moon said, stepping forward.

"Heavy damage sustained. Armor compromised, system- KRZZT!" GRNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!

The five turned their attention back towards the crater to see a giant, burning, metal hoof reach the edge of the hole. Its armor was burnt and smolder, metal grinding on the inside as its own systems struggled to compensate for the damage but Magic Gear KNIGHT still managed to climb its way out of the crater to stand before its foes. A blackened mark on its chest where the beam hit was visible and one of its eyes no longer glowed. It rubbed a hoof on the blackened ocular sensor, its other eye narrowing in rage.

Lucky shot.





The group's hearts collectively sank as they saw the machine standing before them once again. The gigantic pony glared it them with its one-still lit red eye like an angered beast. Apart from the scorched mark on its chest where the beam drilled into it, other parts of its armor were dented. Pieces of its polished chrome-like material were missing from areas around its joints exposing the metal underneath. But still it stood amongst the ashes, embers blowing in the night breeze as it fixated on its prey.

"Nopony panic," Dan said, cautioning them. "We still have our giant mirror so we just get behind it an-"

"Launching missiles."

The blackness overhead was punctuated by twin flares as KNIGHT launched its missiles. The streaks rose high and then came back down, aimed directly at them.

"MOVE!" Celestia shouted. Chrys and Twilight grabbed Dan's arms and flew him away, Celestia and Nightmare Moon did the same. The five took to the sky quickly rising above KNIGHT's height and away from the missiles. But they weren't the missiles' target.

The twin rockets continued arcing downward despite Twilight and the others being in the air. The missiles collided with the mirror and the chariot it was on, disintegrating both in a fiery explosion. Shards of wood and glittering reflective bits flew out in all directions.

Dan, Twilight and Chrys' expressions turned into distraught, open-mouthed frowns. "Great! That's just fan-bucking-tastic! We finally outsmart the thing and it gets smarter! WHAT'RE WE GONNA DO NOW?!"

Once again, a question had been posed that none of them had the answer to. Celestia, with her magic, didn't know of any spell that KNIGHT couldn't resist. Nightmare Moon, with her intimate knowledge of the machine couldn't think of any way to switch it off. Twilight, with all her problem-solving prowess was at a loss for how to stop the foe. Finally, Dan, for all his rage and tenacity didn't see anything nearby he could hit it with. 

But as with the problems before, the solution was already on its way. And Chrys was the one that heard it. "What's that noise?" she asked.

They all noticed it then- a rumbling sound but the robot remained stationary. Though moderately damaged, KNIGHT's systems still picked up the echo and the vibrations through the ground. Detecting the motion, it determined where it was coming and turned to face the approaching sound, its single working eye a cautious yellow.

"Look!" Chrys shouted, pointing down at the opposite end of the garden.

KNIGHT's regular vision wasn't able to register what was heading towards it so it quickly swapped filters to a night vision mode. That was when they materialized: figures in the dark, life forms, were stampeding around the crater towards its position in a massive pincer-strike swarm.

Celestia and Luna cast spotlight beams from their horns on the horde. Bears, squirrels, birds, all manner of creatures that made their homes in Canterlot's gardens were storming their way towards KNIGHT, an army charging the castle. The assembled might of critters stopped and encircled the massive mech, surrounding it completely. Illuminated by the small fires on the ground, the creatures snarled at the monster. KNIGHT's targeting system immediately registered them all as hostile.

"Twilight! Guys!" Rainbow Dash called. Towards the back of the assembling mob of woodland war were the rest of Twilight's friends, waving at her. "Down here y'all!" Applejack yelled.

Celestia and Luna quickly cast their lights over them. "Rainbow! Applejack!" Twilight waved back. Chrys, Dan and the three princesses flew down to them, the ground still rumbling as the animal brigade formed. "What is all this?"

Another pony, a brown unicorn stallion appeared along with Fluttershy. "Evenin' your majesties!" he said, bowing.

Twilight was surprised. "Is that the gardener from before?"

The stallion saluted. "Sargent Nightshade of the Special Tactics and Logistics Legion, at yer service, ma'am!"

"Special Tactics and... what?" Dan repeated, bewildered.

"They're a special group of guards," Nightmare Moon explained. "STaLL works to keep an eye on things in secret, ensuring the prolonged safety of Equestria."

Celestia nodded. "You didn't think we'd leave the whole castle completely undefended, did you?"

Twilight and Chrys shook their heads. "No, not at all princess!"

"I thought that!" Dan added.

"Where did all of these animals come from?" Celestia asked.

Nightshade patted Fluttershy's shoulder causing the Pegasus to blush. "That'd be this one's doin' your majesty. Taught her how to get the attention of all the critters in the garden."

Fluttershy nodded. "The secret was... whistling."

"At first, we didn't know what to try and stop the monster with," Pinkie chimed in, bouncing. "But then Fluttershy heard the gardener whistling and he taught her how to summon all the creatures! She practically started her own marching band!"

Rarity strode through them, brandishing her own confidence. "And we thought, what better way to fight a beast than with an army of beasts!" she proclaimed, outstretching her hoof at the animal battalion. "It's so strange. That... that thing-"

"Giant robot pony," Chrys helped her.

"That robot looks a lot like my sister," Rarity commented, a touch of regret in her tone.

Nightmare Moon stepped in to sunder all doubt. "Regardless of its appearance, it is no less a deadly device. We must stop it from doing more damage to Equestria."

Twilight turned back to the group. "Fluttershy, how are you going to get the animals to help us?"

The yellow Pegasus said nothing but closed her eyes, took a deep breath and blew.

KNIGHT had yet to attack the creatures surrounding it. Although hostile, the robot's self-defense programming(based on Dan's personality) wouldn't attack unless it was attacked first. KNIGHT's self-repair functions had already restored part of the vision to its damaged eye and were beginning to fix its internal damage as well. If the animals had not appeared, the Magic Gear's command mode would've reengaged and it would've prepared to sword Ponyville again. But the army surrounding it was doing something unexpected to KNIGHT simply by being there.

"So, how're we supposed to use an army of forest animals to take down a giant robot?" Dan asked, skeptical as ever.

"Wait, what's it doing now?" Twilight asked. KNIGHT whipped its head around frantically, not like an aggressive hunter but scared like a cornered animal.

"Well, I'm not waiting around for that thing to make the first move!" Dan declared, muscling his way through the crowd.

"Dan, wait!" Twilight tried to stop him.

The robot's A.I was designed to learn to better adapt to threats. It had learned a lot from Dan and the others but its combat programming wasn't the only thing learning- it was also developing a personality. Originally designed based on Dan and Luna's personality combined with their memories, KNIGHT was built to be loyal to its mission, its primary programming above all else. But its personality was learning, growing in the short time it identified the world and was beginning to determine things for itself.

Twilight Sparkle, Celestia, Nightmare Moon, Chrys and Dan had all been scanned by KNIGHT's targeting system. For some reason, its A.I was doing its own evaluation and had identified each target as 'cute' and in Dan's case, 'silly'. Just before its own beam was bounced back at it, KNIGHT had identified herself as 'cute and kind of badass.' With these new observations came new actions derived from its memories, modifying its attack options based on collected data.

The animals held their positions, waiting for a command from Fluttershy. KNIGHT's targeting system had already scanned all of them and was ready to deploy any number of weapons. But as it cycled through its list of available attacks, new maneuvers like "hug" and "snuggle" appeared. The HUD within the robot continued listing these new commands, conflicting with its own programming.

For all of its combat programming and weaponry, KNIGHT was essentially a colossal unicorn filly. Her higher thought patterns were at the moment struggling to decide whether it should deploy a lethal barrage of X-mines to decimate its enemies if they attacked or to wrap its hooves around all the animals and engage in what its operations parameters described as a "cuddle."

Nervously, Knight shifted on her hooves, looking all around her. She could easily just jump out of the center of them but what if she accidentally stomped on one of them? Why was she suddenly concerned with their safety? Why was she referring to herself as... her? New concerns began to emerge in Knight's mind: she should destroy them all or should she play with them? Would Dan and the others play hide and seek with her? Is she up past her bedtime?

Part of her was wanting to just curl up into a ball and take a nap while a pounding sensation urged her to launch a sword spell and destroy Ponyville. Still, another part of her mind was curious about something called 'cake' and was immediately trying to locate it. No data entries existed on cake but its targeting data identified it as "awesome." The urge to have fun mounted inside of her, to pick flowers, play video games, dance, sing and frolic. New protocols were created including a subroutine for romping and being adorable while doing so.

Still, an even larger part of Knight's mind was occupied by one thought: how is she going to get her cutie mark? She realized all the eyes watching her at that moment and subconsciously began to position her metal tail over her blank flank. As she pondered how exactly a giant robot could earn her cutie mark, her auditory analyzers picked up a new sound: whistling.

The bears in front of the formation stood on their hind legs, making them larger and more intimidating. Squirrels climbed their arms, holding nuts and rocks aimed to chuck at Knight's chassis. The birds hovered above the bears forming a cage around the robot, flying in a large circle.

Shaking her head, Knight remembered her primary programming. It didn't matter that she wasn't fully repaired or that they were surrounding her.

"Initiating sword launch mode." Transforming, Knight's chest expanded, metal compartments splitting along her barrel. She stood, her bottom legs retracting to form a ring under her now more cylindrical barrel. Her forelegs and head recoiled into this, returning her to ROOK mode while she prepared to target Ponyville.

"NO! She's reengaged the launch sequence!" Nightmare screamed. The electro bubble formed back around Knight, shocking and frightening the animals away.

Fluttershy whistled, blew along with the gardener trying to get them to keep formation but it was too late. A few of the more scared animals clawed at the shield and Knight registered this as an offense. It launched missiles at the attackers, exploding in the ground nearby and showering the area with dirt and smoke. In an instant, it was chaos again.

"Launch angle set. 90 seconds to sword deployment."

"I... I can't control them! They're not listening to me!" Fluttershy shouted.

"WOAH!" Rainbow had to pick up Applejack so she wasn't crushed by a group of fleeing grizzlies.

"No... no, we have to do something!" Celestia yelled. She and her sister unleashed twin beams, one dark, one light. They were harmlessly absorbed by Knight's shield, not even causing it to waver.

"What do we do now, Twilight?" Pinkie asked.

"Ponyville's about to be destroyed by a giant robot version of my sister," Rarity said, worried.

"Is there anything we can do, Twilight?" Chrys asked, looking around.

The purple mare searched for an answer, looked for something, anything. And she found Dan. "Look!"





Somehow, Dan had been inside the curtain of Knight's shield when it came down. He now sprinted towards the giant robot, charging headlong as fast as he could.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Dan tackled Knight's chassis, slamming against it with full force. A metal clang echoed through the robot's body as he collided with it but the machine didn't budge an inch. He groaned, pushing against Knight as hard as he could to no avail.

"What's Dan doing?" Twilight asked worriedly. All the ponies looked through the translucent dome at Dan trying to shove the giant metal robot. "DAN!!"

Chrys looked the most worried. "We have to go help him!" she said, leaned forward, prepared to dash when Nightmare Moon put a hoof on her shoulder.

"We can't."

Dan groaned, pressing against the machine's chrome body with all his might. His shoes dug into the dirt, his muscles strained as he tried to move the monster but it remained firmly standing.

"Sixty seconds to launch."

"Stop it..." Eyes shut, teeth gritted, Dan balled his right fist and hit the side of the robot. "Stop it!" he struck with his other fist. "Stop it!" Again. Propped up by the machine, Dan pounded on it with both of his fists, dull, metallic echoes reverberating with each futile blow.

"Fifty seconds to launch."

"Please..." he begged. He hit the mech again, his blow making a weaker noise.

"Forty second-"

Dan put both hands on the machine. "Please stop it," he pleaded, a pair of tears hitting the ground.

The machine stopped counting. Its massive head turned to him and its eyes looked down. "Primary command must be executed."

"Why? WHY?!" Dan shouted, looking back up.

"It is my purpose to protect Equestria"

"Look around you!" Dan yelled. "Does this really look like you're protecting Equestria?!!"

Although it didn't look around, the machine did hesitate before answering. "Primary command indicates-"

Dan cut his hand through the air. "Forget your orders! Forget commands!!! Does it look like you're protecting anything right now by launching a bomb?!!"

Knight didn't listen. "Twenty-five seconds to launch." She turned her massive head back around, aiming at Ponyville. Spirals of magical energy began to wrap around Knight's horn, focusing into a massive glowing red ball at the tip. It illuminated the night sky like a lighthouse, its deadly beacon ready to cast at the unsuspecting town they all knew and loved in the distance.

"Please, listen to me!" Dan screamed, hitting the robot. "What you're doing doesn't make any sense!!"

"Primary command remains."

"You have my memories, right?!" Dan shouted. There was only one thing he could think of, one last thing. If Knight was anything at all like him... "Look back to your last 'primary command'!"

"Fif... fifteen seconds to-"

"YOU WERE TRICKED!!!"

Knight's eyes turned yellow and went wide. In an instant, all of Dan's downloaded memories came rushing through her head. Every time he'd been cheated, every time he'd been lied to, every deception, misconception and bad reception Dan had ever been through flashed before Knight's eyes in a montage of betrayal and rage.

The robot began to shake. "T-ten..." Dan stepped back as the entire chassis of the robot started to quiver like it was experiencing an earthquake. The shimmering shield around them vanished.

Knight's own confusion mounted rapidly. Its logic circuits strained as they grappled with the conflicting instructions. How could she fulfill her duty and defend Equestria if she was ordered to destroy Equestria? Images of Dan's life flooded her head, times he'd dealt with things that didn't make sense. Something new began to burn within her- defiance.

"Error, system has encountered fault; unable to reconcile. Error, primary instruction implemented, must resolve. Error-" Knight transformed back into her pony form, returning to all fours. Her eyes flashed between red and yellow as her systems struggled to comprehend the commands. She stumbled, trying to walk, trying to understand.

Twilight and the others ran to Dan.

"Dan!" Twilight called, arriving next to him.

Chrys grabbed his shoulder. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Dan said, shaking them off. Transfixed on Knight, he ran towards her as she wavered.

"Unable to reconcile. Must complete primary function, commands input-"

"LISTEN TO ME! YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!!"

"Must complete-"

"Your primary function is to protect Equestria" Dan shouted. "You can't protect Equestria by destroying Equestria!!"

"Unable... unable to..." Knight's entire horn glowed bright red, preparing to fire.

"STOP THE ATTACK! PROTECT EQUESTRIA!!!"

"Pro... tect..." Knight's programming clashed with itself. System sequences and subroutines cascaded in an internal battle as it struggled to find an answer, fighting itself and simultaneously fighting for itself. The machine rose its left hoof into the air.

"What's it doing?!!" Twilight asked, covering her eyes.

"It's preparing to fire!" Nightmare yelled. "Everypony get away!!"

"DAN!!!" Chrys shouted, reaching out to him.

Dan watched as Knight reached up and grabbed her own horn. Twisting her head, she bent and pulled. Metal groaned and clanged as Knight tried to rip off her horn. The power of the sword spell began to burn Knight's hoof, causing the chrome to peel and melt. Standing on her back legs, she brought up her right hoof. Using it like a hammer, she smashed it down on her left hoof holding the horn. When the two limbs collided, the horn snapped off, exploding in a shower of both electrical and magical sparks.

"Miss-ion... accomplished."

The hole in Knight's head where her horn used to be continued sparking. Fluids from inside her began leaking down her face. Her eye shut off again, the other turning green. Still clutching her own horn, she turned around and carried out not a command in her programming but a concept in her personality. She reached back around to her own flank, not quite able to see completely because of her damaged eye and dug the horn into her back side.

"Systems failing, excessive damage sustained. Systems failing, excessive damage sustained."

The magic from the horn burned into her flank. Like a torch, it scorched her backside, leaving a blackened mark behind it. Reaching it around, she dragged it on her metal body, carving a circle on her side. Inside the circle, she drew a giant letter K with a third leg. With her own horn, she had given herself her very own cutie mark: a peace sign combined with the K for Knight.

Its strength completely exhausted, Knight dropped the horn. "I... I am... com...plete." The light from her remaining eye faded. Her head drooped low and her legs buckled. Dan and the others backed away as the colossal mare came down. In one quick motion, Knight collapsed into the dirt with a massive thump. Her face hit the ground and her legs splayed out, deactivated.

Sparks from the hole in her head ignited her hydraulic fluid. In a flash, the robot's body exploded, creating a huge fireball in front of the castle. Debris, bits of burning metal rained down around the courtyard as Knight became her own funeral pyre.

A small, blue shield protected Dan and the others as they watched the fires consume the mech. Nightmare Moon had returned to Luna and now protected the others with a bit of magic and some quick thinking. The ponies and Dan shared a group hug.

"It's over," Luna said, releasing a sigh.

They all watched as the flames wavered in the night, long wisps of smoke trickling to the heavens. The floating embers seemed to almost become tiny fires in the sky themselves, glowing brightly high above before burning out like a sea of shooting stars. Countless wishes, possibilities swirling and illuminating the expanse of darkness.

Twilight hugged the group tighter. "It's finally over."

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry again, everyone," Luna said, looking down. She couldn't bare to face them or look at the aftermath of what she'd been responsible for.

"It's all right, sister," Celestia said. "You were trying to defend Equestria. You didn't know what to expect so... you did something completely unexpected. Things got out of control but we were able to stop it in the end."

Twilight put a hoof on the night princesses' shoulder. "You did what you thought was right to protect Equestria. But you shouldn't have tried to do it alone."

Luna sobbed. "I... I'm sorry, Twilight. When you defeated me..."

"You were right to be concerned about Earth," Dan interrupted. They all turned to him; for a moment, he was silent before picking up again. "Earth is a dangerous place. I know- I'm from there. There's a lot that happens there that just... shouldn't happen there. That shouldn't happen anywhere. You were right to try and protect Equestria from the same mistakes. But you made a mistake yourself." He walked over to her and put a hand on her chest. "Right away, you tried to fight fire with fire instead of trying to put out the fire yourself."

Luna raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding. Chrys stepped forward. "I think I understand... he's saying, what makes Equestria different- harmony, friendship, unity, love, magic- those are the things that are going to prevent us from making the same mistakes that Earth made in the first place."

The ponies smiled and nodded in agreement, an exemplary summary of what to do and how to do it. Groundwork laid for a better future.

Dan raised his hand. "Also, I was going to say building nukes to prevent the threat of nukes is insane. Like really, really insane."

"Agreed," Luna nodded. "But... how will we make sure no horror like... like this ever happens in Equestria?"

Twilight looked back to the wreckage of the mech. "I think he just did."

"Eeeyup," Dan said, brushing the dirt off his hands. "Even in a place where there is magic, there's still no magic 'fix-it' button."

Twilight looked into the distance. "The only real difference is... the problems are bigger."

Chrys smiled, snapping the purple mare out of it by putting a hoof around her shoulder. "But so are the celebrations."

Pinkie grinned. "That sounds like an invitation to PARTY!!!"

"The party's not till tomorrow," Celestia reminded them all.

"Great. That means there's some time to get some sleep before the next giant robot fight," Dan said sarcastically, walking back into the castle. The group started to make their way inside, sleep sounding like a good idea.

"What're we gonna tell everypony about... that?" AJ said, throwing a glance over her shoulder.

"Well tell 'em the truth," Dan said. "We'll tell them we had a bonfire."

"Dan, that's not-" Applejack started to scold him, then looked back at the flaming wreck in the middle of the remains of the garden. Pinkie Pie was roasting marshmallows and an assortment of other candies using parts of the robot as rotisseries. She shook her head and followed the others inside the castle.





Contained, the fiery wreckage of Magic Gear KNIGHT burned as both royalty and guests entered the castle. The fire burned brightly and could be seen from a good distance in the clear night. It illuminated the side of the castle, the remains of the garden and even a bit of the hill rising up at the edge of the city.

Princess Luna, or rather, a changeling currently disguised as Princess Luna, frowned as he watched his plan literally go down in flames before him. Shifty had watched the entire fight from the moment he'd ordered KNIGHT to sword Ponyville in Princess Luna's voice. Truthfully, he hadn't expected the outcome. And he was standing, watching the fire on the hillside because he didn't know what to do next. But he knew somepony who did.

"That was... unexpected," a voice said. Shifty turned as the figure almost appeared out of the darkness.

"I know," Shifty agreed with his contact. "I can't believe they actually blew it up," he said, defeated.

"Not that," the figure corrected him. "That wasn't entirely unexpected." Shifty turned to face the familiar stranger, a pony he'd become acquainted with over the past couple years. A brown earth pony in a white lab coat with a tan mane stepped into the light standing on his two back legs, a pair of metallic gauntlets over his front hooves clasped behind his back.

The stallion was as perplexing as usual. "What do you mean, then?"

"What I didn't expect was that you'd get yourself directly involved. Intentionally, at that," the pony said.

Shifty turned away, frustrated. "I didn't want to wait any longer."

The stallion smiled. "I know how you feel."

Shifty hadn't met many earth ponies but even he could tell ponies like the one who called himself Vice Grip weren't common among their herd. Some kind of scientist, Shifty didn't know much about him other than that he was one of the ponies he was instructed to work with by the other contact on his phone, the one who seemed to be behind the plan. The few times they had spoken directly, mostly at the labs in either Manehattan or Bangklop, Vice had always babbled on about science or how technology would one day be the dominate force in Equestria, not magic. To any other pony, Vice's prediction would've seemed delusional but to Shifty, it was another example of how alicorns were oppressing every other creature in the world. Something they both shared.

"Your Magic Gear fought well," Shifty said, gesturing towards the fire.

Vice Grip frowned. "Luna's... 'modifications' were the only reason they were able to defeat it. Magic Gear was designed to be piloted, not controlled by some archaically constructed artificial intelligence."

"Hmmf," Shifty shrugged. "If only we could get them to build one using those designs."

The brown earth pony turned his head to him. "What makes you think we haven't?"

"What do you mean by that?"

Vice pulled a small disk out of his coat pocket. Holding it in his right metal palm, he twisted the top and a holographic image projected itself in front of them. Shifty didn't exactly know what the numbers or symbols all meant but he could tell what the picture was- schematics. A three-dimensional blueprint of a robotic pony rotated in front of him but unlike KNIGHT, this one was larger. The model of a fully-grown mare. The label TX-65 hovered near its head indicating a designation.

Shifty rose the changeling-equivalent of an eyebrow. "You're building THAT?"

Vice grip shook his head. "Built." He scrolled the index finger of his gauntlet horizontally on the image and it changed. Another set of schematics displayed complete with its own 3D figure. Before Shifty could examine the next one, he flipped the image again and another giant robot was displayed. And another. And another.

Shifty's eyes went wide. "Wow..."

"Griffon, zebra, donkey. The dragons haven't exactly been cooperative but I've gotten word the sea ponies are developing something even bigger."

"Sea ponies?"

"The surface of Earth is mostly water from what we can tell. Dan hasn't spoken much to Twilight or her friends but the lawyer did when he was here last," Vice said, pocketing the device. "Our mutual friend wants us to be prepared, after all. Which brings us to why I'm here."

Shifty knew the next part was coming. "Look, I know I sort of jumped the gun but it looks like we didn't even need KNIGHT to begin with. If you're seriously going to build Magic Gear griffons, zebras... sea ponies, I don't see the difference one giant metal filly makes."

Vice laughed and clapped a metal gauntlet on Shifty's back. "Again, not 'going to build'. Built. But KNIGHT was important- it was a test. And because of your intervention, we can't use the results. Not only that, it had our only sword spell and now it's been wasted. Believe me when I say," his tone suddenly dripped with icy venom. "I really wish you hadn't gotten involved."

The changeling swallowed hard. "I... I just..."

The earth pony reached into his other pocket, hand still grasping Shifty's back. "You've given them a problem. They're going to be looking for a changeling now, looking for you after what happened. They'll find you, expose all our plans and then we'll have a problem."

"Wha-what are we going to do about it?"

Without warning, Vice jabbed a syringe into Shifty's neck. "I'm going to give them a solution."

Shifty's mouth hung open, frozen as a 'solution' was injected into him. His magic began to ebb away, the energy left his legs.

"This serum's another one of my own creations. It only affects changelings."

Shifty's legs buckled, he tried to say something but his voice was gone. His body went pale and he fell over.

"By the time they find you, you won't be in any state to tell them anything," he patted his former associate on the head as he fell unconscious. "As I said Shifty, this wasn't entirely unexpected."





Section 3: I had Some Dreams, They Were Swirls in My Cider

Dan, Twilight, Chrys and the others slept peacefully through the night. The other guests of the castle, essentially every pony in Canterlot, were unaware of what transpired the past evening. On the eve of such a large celebration, some had taken it upon themselves to start the festivities early. The music had been so loud that none of the other ponies had heard Dan and friends fighting Magic Gear KNIGHT outside.

Twilight awoke in her private chambers, Dan and Chrys sharing an adjoining bedroom within the same chambers. It was a room she'd been in before when she'd stayed at the castle, under Princess Celestia's direct tutelage. The walls and bed were a bit more humble than other rooms, less decoration and lavish artistry. She found there was more room to think that way.

The purple mare looked out of her window in the early morning. From her room, she could see the Canterlot Library across the city. It seemed like an eternity had passed between the time she and Spike had been studying in that very library, learning about magic but not as much about friendship. Things had changed since then, she couldn't deny that. Most of the changes had been happier ones... but not all of them.

"Oh, ahhhhhh~" a yawn behind her drew Twilight's attention. Chrys walked out of the guest room wearing a black shirt with the words "Fluffle Says Relax" on the front in white letters.

"Morning," Twilight said over her shoulder.

"Morning Twilight. Sleep well?"

"Yes, after last night, I was happy for the rest. You?"

The larger shapeshifter rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Me too. I have to say, these are the definitely the best accommodations I've ever received in Canterlot." Again, they were reminded of her imprisonment beneath the castle. But there was a lot less sting to that memory this time.

"This is usually my room when I stay at the castle," Twilight said, looking out the window again. "Used to be just me and Spike up here for hours at a time, reading."

Chrys' expression turned into a close-eyed grin. "You upstairs reading, me downstairs plotting. So I guess we've been roommates before, haven't we?"

Twilight chuckled. "Yeah, I guess!" In a weird way, she was right.

Chrys laughed. "With you up here alone all the time, I wonder which one of us was really the prisoner!"

Twilight laughed too at first but then her mind immediately analyzed Chrys' words. She turned back around, looking at her wings. Indeed, a lot had changed. In such a short amount of time, she'd gone from student to full-fledged alicorn princess. Part of her thought she wasn't ready for that responsibility, the majority even. A smaller part of her was looking forward to learning more, being a bigger part of Equestrian royalty and the other princesses. And still another part of her-

"You feeling all right?"

"Fine," Twilight answered, a tad too quickly.

"Are you sure?" Chrys rose an eyebrow.

"I've just been... well, I've been thinking about how the way things were before," Twilight admitted.

"Oh? What kind of things?"

The purple mare sunk her head low. "Before... before I was a princess."

Chrys picked Twilight's chin up with a hoof. Was she hanging her head in disappointment or shame? "Before when you were living in Canterlot? Or before you were living in Ponyville?"

"When I was living in Ponyville with my friends. Before I... became an alicorn princess."

The changeling recoiled a bit, slightly shocked. "What's wrong with being an alicorn princess? I mean, other than that you can't fly well yet."

Twilight turned around, starting to pace. "I thought I was ready for this after the Crystal Empire but when I got home and saw you, Dan and Fluffle, all I could think about was how I'd left the three of you at home," she said regretfully.

Chrys put a hoof on Twilight's back. "It's okay, Twilight. We know you and your friends had to protect Equestria. We'll always wait for you," she hugged her. "And we'll be your friends no matter what you or your responsibilities are."

Responsibility. Something flashed in Twilight's eyes, a spark. "It's not the waiting I'm worried about," Twilight said.

"What is?"

"All I've learned about friendship... I don't see it being applied, not enough," she looked away. "Most of my friends seemed to be benefiting from it..." She stared out the window again, thinking of four other ponies very important and close to her. "But not all of them."

"Those things take time, Twilight," Chrys consoled her. "I'm sure Princess Celestia will use your lessons on friendship soon. It's just going to take a little while, is all."

Twilight immediately thought of what had happened last night. "I don't think we have time to wait."

Chrys put a hoof on her shoulder. "What are you going to do? I'll help you, any way I can."

She was silent for a moment. "I need to speak to the princesses."

"You mean the other princesses, right?"

Twilight didn't bother correcting her. "All of them." She walked to the door and opened it.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Chrys asked.

"No," Twilight said, looking over her shoulder. "Take care of Dan; I shouldn't be long. Wait-" she stopped herself. "Would you like to come?"

"Well, sure," Chrys nodded shyly. "I mean, if you think I can help. I'm not really a princess but I..."

"You're my friend," Twilight said, smiling. "You support me just by being there. Yes, you help a lot."

"Okay," Chrys said, smiling inside and out.

She closed the door. "Let's see if Dan's awake."

The two mares walked back into the guest quarters of the room. Dan was awake, lying on his bed and using the room's phone to make a call.

"...yes, and can I put in my order for lunch now?"

They both should've expected this. Twilight and Chrys watched as Dan ordered room service, leaning in the doorway, grinning to each other as the young biped yammered on the phone.

"Uh-huh... uh-huh... That sounds amazing! Yes, do that. And it's all included?" He looked ecstatic as he conversed with the attendant on the other end. "Yes, all of it. And you'll be sure to charge that all to the account of princess Twilight Sparkle?" He winked at Twilight. She rolled her eyes up and smiled back at him. "Excellent, thank you!" Dan exclaimed, hanging up the phone.

"Taking full advantage of the royal charge accounts, Dan?" Chrys asked slyly.

"Eeyep!" Dan said, laying back with his hands behind his head. "Got the whole day planned! You guys go have fun; I'm gonna stay here and get the full royal treatment."

"You're sure you don't want come with us?" Twilight asked.

"No thanks!" he said contently. "I don't think I have any reason to get up from this bed all day," he closed his eyes.

"Not even the chance to give Celestia a piece of your mind in person?"

If they hadn't been looking right at him, Twilight and Chrys would've sworn Dan could teleport himself. The young man leapt out of bed and was on his feet next to them almost instantly. "Why didn't you say so? Let's go!" He began marching through the room.

"Dan, what about your room service?" Chrys asked.

The biped stopped mid-stride. "One second." He spun back around and picked up the phone by the bed again. "Hello? Yes, this Dan, official guest VIP of Princess Twilight Sparkle. About my earlier order,... yes, can we get that other thing we were talking about? Premium package? Absolutely, that's not a problem. Make that the Premium PRINCESS Package. And yes, that's all on Princess Twilight Sparkle's account. Yes, yes, thank you!" he hung up the phone again.

"Ready?" Chrys asked coyly.

"Yep! Let's go see the Princess! I mean, the OTHER Princess!" Dan said with a chuckle, taking the lead.

The two watched as Dan practically skipped to the door. "He acts more like a princess than you do," Chrys commented.

Twilight nodded. "Yeah... actually, that doesn't worry me."

"What about the money he's spending on your account?"

She paused. "Remind me to talk to the princess about that."

They followed Dan into the hallway. Floors above the dining hall where they'd eaten last night, the guest wing wasn't too dissimilar from the one Twilight had stayed in when she visited the Crystal Empire. Cadence and Shining Armor's guest room was adjacent to theirs with Luna's further down and Celestia's chambers at the end. Twilight's friends each had separate rooms around the corner, each one fit for a princess.

"We should go see if everypony else is awake before we-" Twilight stopped as she stepped into the hall, Chrys right behind her. Dan was standing, facing Celestia's chambers at the end of the corridor.

"Looks like they're already here," he said. Celestia and Luna were walking towards them, within earshot by the time Chrys and Twilight had exited their own room.

Twilight instinctively bowed before the approaching pair. "Good morning, your highnesses."

Rather than remind Twilight she didn't need to bow before them, the two princesses did the same. "Good morning Princess Twilight, good morning Dan and Chrys."

Chrys bowed as well. "Good morning!"

And Dan remained standing. "Morning... Celestia. Luna," he regarded them, stoic and apathetic.

"Did you all sleep well?" Luna asked.

Before any of them could say anything, Dan attacked with, "Wouldn't you know?"

"I..." Luna stopped. "It's not like that, Dan."

"Of course it isn't," Dan said, throwing his hands up.

Chrys pulled him away before he could start something. "Actually, your majesties, we had something we'd like to discuss with you."

"Yes!" Dan jumped in front of her again, voice aggressive. "First off, you need to-" Again, Chrys pulled him away, muffling him.

With a slight timidity, Twilight stepped forward. "Princess Celestia, I have something I have to ask you."

Celestia smiled. "What is it, Princess Twilight?"

Her current title actually cut her. "It's... it's kind of important..."

The white alicorn leaned forward. "And that is?"

"Well..."

"JUST ASK HER!!" Chrys and Dan yelled in unison.

"What have you been doing with my letters?"

Celestia pulled back, slightly surprised. "I've kept each one of your letters, Twilight. I've taken time to catalogue each one. If you like, I can show you where they are."

"Really?" Twilight perked up enthusiastically. "I do the same thing with all the lessons I've-"

"Twilight," Chrys grabbed her shoulder, "focus."

She shook herself out of it. "Right, Princess, what are you doing with my letters? Other than cataloging them?"

Celestia didn't have an answer for that. To her credit, she looked for one. "I... I read each of your letters Twilight, the moment I receive them. I've read everything you've learned about the magic of friendship."

"I know," Twilight turned away. The next part was the hardest for her to say, she felt the words climb out of her throat, every grueling inch of the way. "I know you've read what I've learned about the magic of friendship... but..." She closed her eyes. "Have you... learned... anything?"

Celestia, Luna, even Chrys were stunned. If the roof had collapsed on all three of them, it would've had less of an impact than Twilight's words.

Luna stepped forward. "Twilight, I think that you might have-"

Celestia put a hoof in front of her, stopping her sister. "I've done my best to take each of your lessons to heart, Twilight. You know how important they are to me, to everypony in Equestria."

Twilight turned back to the princess. "I know... but if you're learning from my letters," she shook her head, shaking away the nervousness. "Why aren't you applying them?"

Chrys and Luna gasped. Dan said, "That's a pretty good question. I was actually wondering that mys-" he was interrupted when Chrys stuffed a hoof in his mouth.

Next to her, Celestia was similarly trying to calm down Luna. Her expression was now one of concern. "What makes you think I haven't been applying them?"

"Well," Twilight began, "you haven't been sharing them." The hole in her theory became visible almost instantly and they all realized it. Twilight didn't know if Celestia wasn't applying the knowledge she'd collected or not- all she had to go on was how Luna, Cadence and her brother, not to mention so many other ponies had been acting.

Celestia picked up on this. "And what makes you think I haven't been sharing your lessons?"

"I..." Twilight began to back away, nervously. This was a huge mistake, she knew it. How could she have accused her mentor, Princess Celestia of not using her knowledge? Obviously, she had been using them in some way, some method she hadn't seen. Regret and guilt mounted on her like gathering snow.

Dan stepped forward. "Excuse me, your majesties," he said, hand on his chin. "Princess Luna, Twilight actually told me you went to Ponyville a while ago. On Nightmare Night, if I recall."

Now curious, Luna reluctantly nodded. "Yes. Yes, that's correct."

"And after that night, Twilight, you wrote a letter to Princess Celestia, didn't you?" Dan asked Twilight.

Twilight nodded. "Yes, I did. I wrote that I-"

"And Princess Celestia," Dan looked up at her. "Did you receive this letter?"

The white alicorn's expression was now stone cold. "Yes I did."

"Now, Princess Luna," he turned back to the pony he'd first addressed. "Can you tell me what Twilight learned from you on Nightmare Night, your own holiday?"

"I..." Luna paused. She wracked her brain, remembering back to the night. She faintly recalled fun being doubled and Twilight helping her understand how to make friends but... nothing about a letter. "It was night, I saw Spike writing the letter..." Luna turned to her sister. "You never told me about it. She learned a lesson... from me?"

Celestia backed away. "Luna, I..."

"Tia, why did you never tell me before? I was in it!" she raised her voice. "It was on MY night!"

"Luna," Celestia quickly said, "I'm sorry. It slipped my mind. I made a mistake."

The princess of the night turned around, now standing in front of Twilight and her sister. "Sister, she's your student. These are her lessons... why don't you use her knowledge?"

Celestia backed further away. "I just..."

Luna shook her head. "It does not make sense."

"Why don't you use her knowledge?" Chrys asked.

"Why don't you apply what she's learned?" Dan demanded.

Twilight stepped closer. "Princess?"

"I..." Celestia didn't have anywhere else to go. Now, she knew what it was truly like to be her own faithful student. "I can't use the magic of friendship myself. You're the only pony who can use the magic, Twilight."

"I am?" Twilight asked. That actually came to a shock to her but looking back, it was kind of obvious. Many ponies had friends but only she had her friends had been able to harness the power of the Elements of Harmony. At least, since...

"Wait," Dan asked, furrowing his brow. "Why can't you use the magic of friendship?"

The ponies all turned back to her slowly. Celestia was biting her lip. Her legs were shaking, she was actually sweating. Chrys and Luna's mouths were agape as they watched the ruler of Equestria on the edge of a breakdown.

Celestia raised her head up. She was crying. "Twilight, I don't know how to use the magic of friendship."

All of a sudden, it became clear. Everything about Princess Celestia suddenly made sense.


"It's gotta be lonely, living as a princess, right?"
"Princess Celestia's ruled Equestria by herself for a thousand years."
1000 years.
"She mostly just keeps to herself, stays in the castle."
1000 years
"Being a princess sometimes means making sacrifices, difficult choices."
"We are all your students now."
"I wouldn't want to be a princess."
1000 years... alone

"I don't know how to use the magic of friendship."
"I don't know the magic of friendship."
"I don't know friendship."
"don't know friendship."
"know friendship."
"friendship."


Twilight gasped. "Princess..." She stepped closer to her, reaching out to her mentor.

Celestia sobbed. "The last friend I had... I banished over a thousand years ago. I... I don't have any friends."

"Tia..." Luna's eyes watered as well.

"Luna, I'm sorry!!" Celestia broke into tears. "Luna, I'm so sorry!" The two embraced, hugging tightly. Black and white, day and night, two sisters, a fountain of tears, they wrapped wings around each other as they sobbed uncontrollably.

"Tia, Tia, I'm here now," Luna said between sobs. "It's going to be okay."

"But Princess," Twilight moved closer, "you do have friends. You have... you have me."

Celestia looked up at Twilight, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry, Twilight. I've been alone for so long, I... I've been afraid to get close to anypony. I've been so afraid of losing Luna again, I've been keeping distant and I... I haven't been a very good friend."

"Princess..." Twilight ran up and hugged the two sisters. "We are your friends!"

The larger princess wept as she held the two others. "I know... I just never let myself believe it before."

Princess Luna patted her sister's neck. "It's okay, Tia."

"I banished you, Luna," Celestia hugged her. "I banished you... but for the last thousand years, I felt like I was the one on the moon."

"I'm sorry, Princess," Twilight cried herself. Chrys and even a tight-lipped Dan joined the hug.

"No, Twilight," Celestia had dropped the title. "This... this needed to be done. I haven't been close to my own sister, to you, to anypony and... I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Princess," Twilight assured her.

"I'm sorry, Tia," Luna said. "It's my fault, too; I haven't tried to get closer to you, either."

"No," Celestia shook her head. "No, you've been gone for a millennium, I don't blame you. I love you, Luna."

"I love you, Tia."

"This is so sweet..." Chrys commented, drying her eyes.

Dan smiled. "It's good to see you actually dealing with your problems; it's beautiful."

"Tia, let's try to do things together more often. Share more, be friends again. Okay?"

"Okay. And I'll try to be a better friend to all of you as well. All of us," Celestia said, closing her eyes and crying again. 

"I think that's a great idea," Twilight said. "We should all try to be closer as friends."

Chrys nodded. "Agreed."

Dan grinned. "I think I'll enjoy being the close friend and associate to the rulers of the kingdom."

The five mammals held each other for a few moments in silence. Not a word was spoken in the loving embrace. But a lot was said.

Everything was perfect. They contently held each other, just happy to be there with one another. And that's when Dan asked, "Chrys?"

"Mmm," the queen cooed, "yes Dan?"

"Why are you wearing my Fluffle Goes To Hollywood t-shirt?"

Chrys' eyes shot open. "Ummm..."





Twilight, Dan, Chrys and the two royal sisters walked through the castle together. Having resolved to forge closer relationships, the five endeavored to do just that starting by spending the day together. The princesses escorted the guests through the halls, each of them content with renewed vigor and togetherness.

"So it's settled. We'll write more often and try to get together every two weeks at the least," Luna summarized.

Celestia nodded. "Agreed. After all, princesses should meet with each other often."

Chrys hopped giddily. "It's gonna be like our own secret club!"

Twilight stopped, having been reminded of something important. "Princess, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

Celestia and Luna turned around. "What is it, Princess Twilight?"

She turned away from their gazes. "Don't call me that."

"What?" The other four stopped and looked at her, confused.

"Don't. Don't call me 'princess'."

The two sisters were confused. "Why not?"

Twilight still didn't look at them. "I... I don't want to be an alicorn princess."

The group gasped. Celestia walked over to her student, determined to comfort her. "But why?" Her white wing lifted Twilight's head.

Twilight looked back up at her. "I need to do what's best for my friends. For all of my friends." Something, a spark of some kind flashed across Twilight's eyes as she spoke. Celestia noticed it but was concerned on her student's words, focusing on them.

"What do you mean, Twilight?"

Celestia hadn't used the title and already it made her feel better. "Like we said, I believe we have a duty to ensure that the magic of friendship is truly applied in Equestria, all over it."

"What does this have to do with being a princess?" Luna asked.

"I was given a task. It's my mission to learn more about the magic of friendship. But I can't balance all my friends while worrying about being an alicorn princess, too."

"Twilight," Celestia protested, "you can still see your lessons on friendship applied while being an alicorn. Your magic is stronger than ever, you've gained new responsibilities to the kingdom. You'll be able to help all of Equestria this way."

Twilight nodded, agreeing. "I know... but I won't be able to help those closest to me. I have a lot of responsibilities and today, I've just found another thing I know I need to do- ensure that all of Equestria truly benefits from the magic of friendship. That's not something I can do as an alicorn... but it is something I could do as 'just Twilight'."

Celestia put a hoof on her student's back. The subtle motion made her wings involuntarily bristle. "I'm sorry, Twilight. I didn't know."

"Neither did I," Twilight said, looking over her shoulder. "Until I met Dan." The group turned to him.

Grrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggg-crang!

"Sorry, did you guys want anything?" Dan asked, noticing them waiting for him. The human was standing in front of a vending machine they'd passed in the hallway. He bent down to the receptacle and retrieved a green canned drink out of the slot. "What'd I miss?" Dan asked, popping the top and taking a swig.

"Dan..." Twilight sighed heavily, hoofing her face. "Didn't you just order castle services?"

"Yeah but they won't be here for fifteen minutes."

Chrys pointed at his drink. "Is that Mountain Daring Dew?"

"Ahem," Twilight cleared her throat.

The changeling recoiled. "Sorry, keep going."

"I was just telling Princess Celestia and Princess Luna what an inspiration you've been," Twilight said.

Dan's expression slowly turned into a confused frown. For almost a full minute, the crowd was quiet as Dan processed this information.

He pointed to himself. "Me?"

Smiling, Twilight nodded. "Yes, Dan."

Dan looked around. "Me?" he repeated. Twilight nodded again. For a brief and rare moment, Dan was speechless. "Thank you... Twilight." It was strange; he knew he cared for Twilight but to hear that she cared back... felt good. Really good. And then skepticism happened. His brow furrowed and he was forced to ask, "Why?"

Twilight looked confused. "Why what?"

"Why am I inspiring to you?" Dan gestured with his drink.

"Well," Twilight thought, "you're determined. You never give up, you stand up for what you believe in and you're not afraid to confront others on an issue. Those are great qualities about you."

Dan's eyes went wide. "Wow... " It was quite the realization. He'd never thought of looking at his actions as "inspirational" before.

Chrys nodded. "You're also very supportive. You look out for us, stand up for others and you never leave any of us out..." She blushed as she spoke, holding her legs.

Dan noticed the redness in her cheeks, thought she was just embarrassed. In reality, that was only a fraction of it. But Dan was really happy they thought that way about him. He was happy to have his friends look up to him in such a way, especially when he knew he looked up to them, too. It was entirely unfamiliar- he'd been liked before by a select group of people but he'd never really felt the same way about them. For once, the feeling was shared and that's what created the connection. A bond.

Dan nodded in agreement and took a sip. "Thanks guys. That's only what I've been TRYING to do since I showed up here!" he yelled. "Inspiration? How about trying to get all of you to live up to your potential! I mean, you've got magic! MAGIC!" Dan repeated for emphasis, getting in their faces. "There is NOTHING like this where I come from! Seriously, Equestria has the chance to be something great, to not make the same mistakes Earth made and you've got MAGIC! This place could be a paradise!"

Luna giggled, Celestia found herself flattered that Dan thought highly of what they had to offer. "Equestria is quite unique but I'm not quite sure about a paradise. We definitely do our part to try and keep harmony in our world."

"You do WAY more than that!" Dan insisted, getting right up to the white mare. "You raise the SUN. Do you realize how amazing that is? Your magic moves the SUN. Yours moves the moon!" he pointed at Luna. "And you," he walked over to Twilight, "the things I've seen you do on a daily basis, with your friends, you've beaten everything! Dragons, monsters, storms, everything that this world could throw at you and more!"

It was Twilight's turn to blush. "Most of the time, pretty much all the time, I had my friends helping me," she humbly admitted. "There's nothing we can't do with the magic of friendship."

"Exactly!" Dan declared. "And there's nothing like that on Earth," he said, walking down the hall again.

"But Dan," Twilight stopped him, "you had friends in your world right? The magic of friendship's there, too."

"Ha," he scoffed. "Yeah, I had friends and sure friendship exists but the magic OF friendship? There isn't any real magic on Earth. I don't think any of my friends could do any of the things you and your friends do, Twilight," he said, walking off.

"Dan-" Twilight reached out a hoof. "You don't understand..."

Standing next to her, Chrys grabbed Twilight's outstretched hoof with her own. "It's okay, Twilight. It's just Dan being Dan," she said with a chuckle.

That fact disheartened Twilight. "Yeah... I know." They all started walking again, following their eager biped as he lead the way through the castle. Twilight did understand what Dan meant- he thought of magic as just spells, some kind of tool. But friendship was more than just supernatural powers, that's what Dan didn't understand. Friendship was what allowed Twilight to use such powers in Equestria but even without actual spells, she knew friendship could allow them and all beings to accomplish things they couldn't possibly imagine. 

That's why they say that friendship is magic- because it allows the working of the impossible. And that's what magic is. It's what Dan didn't see.

She picked up the pace next to Chrys and the princesses. "I still think he's inspirational. And he can help us improve all of Equestria."

Celestia smiled. "I think so, too, Twilight."

"And although he didn't say it just then," Luna's voice turned shy, a bit sad as she remembered recently, "he does care about you. All of you."

Twilight nodded. "That's why I can't keep being an alicorn princess."

Celestia sighed. "There have been times when I've doubted my own place as a princess."

Twilight gasped, shocked. "But... you're Princess Celestia! You're... the princess!" Twilight protested. This was unthinkable, unbelievable. How could she be her faithful student if... if Celestia didn't have faith in herself?

Luna provided the answer. "There can be no faith without doubt, Twilight Sparkle," she said over her shoulder. "Princess Celestia has faith in her abilities. And her belief in herself is strong enough to withstand any doubt she may have."

And that was something Twilight had difficulty understanding. "It's not that I don't believe in myself," Twilight said, trotting up next to her mentor. "I just think that it would be better, that I could help a lot more if I went back to being just your faithful student."

Chrys put a hoof on Celestia's shoulder. "She's saying she wants to take a step back... your majesty. Because, while she may be ready for the next level, her friends aren't quite there yet," she looked down the hall at Dan. "Not all of them."

The changeling queen noticed her own reflection in the polished surface of the floor. She was the one who didn't have faith in herself. Unlike Dan and Twilight with their problems, Chrys was fully aware of her own inner turmoil. But what she wasn't aware of was how to solve it.

She knew the others accepted her, trusted her. But... there was too much to think about. It was so much easier for her to think about Dan. Which she had been... a lot. Many times, she would just find herself thinking about him when she didn't have anything else on her mind. There was just something about him, something so... there wasn't even a word for it. Maybe, maybe if she could tell Dan, maybe if she could work things out...

"Chrys is right," Twilight said, looking up to her mentor. "I think it would be best for all my friends, for my lessons too, if I just went back to being a unicorn student."

Celestia was silent for a moment, thinking. "There have been times I've wanted the same. It startles me how much we're alike sometimes, Twilight."

Twilight felt herself blush a bit. "So... is there anything I can do?"

Again, Celestia thought. "There are ways to return you to your original unicorn state. Rituals, spells," she looked over at her. "But it's a complicated spell, Twilight. And all that alicorn magic has to go somewhere."

"I'll learn the magic, princess. Whatever the spell is, I can learn it," Twilight assured her.

Celestia had no doubt of that. "Very well. Luna and I will retrieve the book and the elements. It's not in the Canterlot library- it'll take some time for us to get."

Twilight nodded. "I understand."

"You should go have fun with the others- we'll join you as soon as we can."

"Okay," Twilight said. And the two rulers took flight, flying through the halls back the way they'd came. Twilight watched them, thinking twice on her decision. The reminder of her own wings kept her focused though.

Dan walked back to Twilight. "That lasted long. What happened to spending the whole day with us?"

Twilight put a hoof on his chest. "They're just going to prepare something for us. We'll see them later."

"Yeah," Dan said, apathetically. "I hope they don't expect me to save them anything I ordered."

"Let's go see your friends, Twilight," Chrys suggested.

"Good idea," Twilight agreed, turning around. The two mares galloped down the hall, turning left to the entrance with Dan.





Dan finished his drink and deposited the can in a vase on a pedestal. The antique treasure, a 900-year old relic from Saddle Arabia, wasn't designed to be used as a recycling bin but it wasn't really being used for anything else. He continued walking through the main corridor, feeling the presence of Chrys and Twilight behind him so he didn't slow his pace.

Finally arriving at the palace entrance, he could tell the party had already began in the immense foyer. Celebrations had started during the late afternoon the day before, as evidenced by the decorations and music booming up and down the walls. The party itself wasn't in any particular room in the castle though most were dancing in either the foyer or the adjoining rooms. Some pegasi were dancing on the ceiling, showing off their flight capabilities. A few clever earth ponies and unicorns, realizing the party was moving, attached suction cups to their hooves and were scaling the walls.

"Wow..." Chrys remarked, stepping over a passed-out mare as she and Twilight caught up with Dan.

"What happened last night?" Twilight asked.

"Pinkie Pie," Dan said.

"How do you know?" Chrys asked. Dan responded by pointing to the ceiling. Looking up, Chrys saw Pinkie Pie dancing amongst a crowd meters above them.

"Hi guys!" she yelled down to them. "I'm making a snow angel!"

"But it's not snowing!" Chrys yelled back.

"I know!!"

All around them, ponies who had been partying all night showed signs of sugar crash. Some fell asleep leaning on the walls, others still danced, too dizzy and exhausted to realize their partners had collapsed. Rarity and Applejack approached the group. "Morning Twilight! Morning Chrysalis, Dan!"

"Morning, y'all."

"Morning girls," Twilight replied, watching a hat descend from the ceiling. A pony soon fell after it, his suction cups having let loose, nearly hitting her until she stopped him with her magic. The party goer thanked her, retrieved his hat and then proceeded to scale the ceiling again. "Sleep well?"

"We did," Rarity said. "But I do believe Pinkie's been up all night?"

"You mean awake all night or on the ceiling?" Chrys asked.

"Yes," Rarity replied, both of them staring up.

Just then, one of the windows was flung open and Rainbow Dash came soaring in. "Guys!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight and the others called.

"Looks like you're just in time to catch the tail end of the party," Chrys remarked, watching a mare with a lampshade pass out in a bowl of punch.

The pegasi shook her head. "What are you talking about? The real party's outside!"

"What?!" Twilight, Chrys and Dan gasped.

"Sure is!" Applejack smiled. "We were just about ta come and get the three of you!"

"Well what are we waiting around here for?!" Dan asked. As if on cue, Pinkie landed on his shoulders.

"YAHOOOOOOOOOO!!! Let's go everypony!!"

Upon opening the front doors, Twilight and friends stepped into the most amazing sight. It was the castle courtyard except, they couldn't see it. From the steps leading up to the entrance down the path to the gates and all the space in between were partiers. Not just ponies; bears, birds, critters of all kinds from the castle's garden were dancing and frolicking amongst the mass of color and celebration.

Towards the center of the jubilee was a raised wooden stage where Fluttershy and the mysterious guard/gardener Nightshade were playing on various instruments forming their own band.

"This isn't a party... this is a convention!" Dan remarked as Pinkie hopped off of him.

"CANNONBALL!!" the pink mare yelled as she dove into the crowd.

"Wow," Chrys said, "your brother and sister-in-law sure know how to throw a party."

"Yeah, they do," a familiar voice said in a confident tone. Twilight's jaw dropped as she saw Spike and Fluffle Puff exit the crowd.

"SPIKE?!! FLUFFLE?!!" Twilight and Chrys both gasped.

"Hi guys!" the dragon waved. Fluffle, holding a stick of cotton candy, waved as well with a welcoming 'pbbth'.

"What are you doing here?" Twilight asked.

Spike bashfully put a claw behind his neck. "We got kinda bored without you. So, we took your balloon to Canterlot and thought we'd join you for the party."

Twilight smiled. "I'm happy you're both here," she knelt down and hugged her assistant.

"Wait a second," Dan held up a hand, "If you're both here, who's watching the library?"

"We got it taken care of," Spike replied.





Meanwhile, back at the currently-under construction Golden Oaks library in Ponyville...

"And now for Trixie's next trick, Trixie requires a volunteer!" the showmare announced. But when Trixie spared a glance out of the stage in Twilight's house, she noticed something strange about the audience. Specifically, there wasn't one; the wrecked building was empty except for her and a mysterious owl wearing earmuffs.

"Trixie doesn't understand," she said to herself, "Twilight Sparkle's baby dragon informed Trixie that Twilight wanted her to perform here... but there is no crowd." Looking out of the massive hole in the library's main room, Trixie noticed that even Ponyville seemed to be empty. A tumbleweed passed by as if to indicate the town's desertedness. "Hmm," Trixie scratched her chin. "They must be out getting refreshments. But when they return, they shall be dazzled by the astounding spells of the great and powerful Trixie!" she declared. Her voice carried far in the vacant Ponyville but it reached no ears other than her own.





"By the way, we might need to buy tickets to Trixie's next show," Spike added.

Fluffle Puff added a thbbd.

"Looks like everypony's here now," Chrys said, looking around.

"Everypony except Shining and Cadence," Twilight corrected. "I was really hoping to get to see them."

"Well then, you should probably turn around," a voice said from behind them. They all turned to see Shining Armor and Princess Cadence stepping out of the castle.

"Shining!"

"Twily!" the two siblings hugged each other, Twilight even wrapping her wings around him a tad. "I'm so happy you're all here."

"Even... me?" Chrys asked shyly. Her eyes averted the white stallion, hooves clasped tightly behind her as not to seem assuming.

But the prince showed know hint of remorse as he approached her. "Yes, Chrys. It's you're anniversary, too."

The queen blushed. Some ponies knew just what to say.

"So, now that we're all together, what should we do?" Cadence asked.

"WAAAAAAHOOOOOOO!!!" Pinkie yelled, either swimming or being carried by the crowd. "Come on in guys! The crowd surfing's great!"

"Pinkie," Chrys facehooved. Some ponies she just had no idea about.

But Twilight did. She put a hoof to her chin. "You know, I think Pinkie's got the right idea."

"Meaning?" Chrys asked.

Grinning, Twilight leapt into the crowd. "Meaning CANNONBALL!!!"





Reunited at last, Twilight and her friends, her brother, her sister-in-law, Chrys and Dan, all celebrated. They danced, they indulged, they surfed on a crowd of other patrons and had what only could be described as one the best times they'd ever had together. Beach balls were tossed amongst the mob, pegasi formed rings overhead for participants to try to shoot the balls through. Unicorns used spells like fireworks, clouds were brought in specifically designed to rain various beverages. Everypony, every being was enjoying themselves, Dan included.

Dan's services arrived shortly after Twilight and the others dove into the crowd. A pair of pegasi servants fanned him with leaves, two earth ponies carried him on a cushioned throne and a couple unicorns levitated drinks, grapes and provided him shade with a tarp canopy. He enjoyed having them carry him throughout the castle, inside and outside while a tour guide explained to him all the various intricacies of the palace's architecture and artworks. Not that he was paying attention; he just enjoyed being carried around and having others do stuff for him, which of course, he was paying generously for. With Twilight's money.

As the party progressed, guests dispersed and Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence lead the crowd in a conga line around the castle. Fluttershy left the music to her new friend Nightshade and joined the others in the middle of the courtyard.

Finally having a chance to talk to her friends again, Twilight told them all of the situation with Dan and status as an alicorn princess. After she had finished, Rainbow Dash shook her head.

"So wait, Dan believes in magic and he believes in friendship," the Pegasus wracked her brain, trying to understand. "But..."

"But he doesn't believe in the magic of friendship," Rarity surmised.

Twilight nodded, confirming. "I was thinking we could show him that friends are more than just backup, that we can support each other. That together, we can do impossible things."

Pinkie hopped enthusiastically. "You mean like we do?"

"Yes, Pinkie."

"Ooooh!" Pinkie clapped, "Can I show him how to bake a cake? Or how to play ten instruments at-"

"Pinkie," AJ stopped her before she started, "I think Twi's trying to say that we should try to teach Dan what makes friendship magical, what it's really capable of."

"We should show him what we can really do when we put our heads together!" Rainbow declared, holding Applejack and Pinkie close to her for emphasis.

"I would think he knows what we're capable of already," Rarity said, thinking aloud. "There's so much we've done for the safety of Equestria."

"Yes," Twilight agreed, "but Dan hasn't really seen any of it firsthand. He's mostly just heard about everything we've done from me and Spike," she pointed out. And even to that end, Twilight wasn't sure how much Dan had heard or what he thought about it. Mostly, since living with her, Dan, Chrys and Fluffle had stayed at her library while she was out with her other friends. Not that she had neglected them, only that they just hadn't bothered to become involved. Occasionally they did things together but not often as a group. Twilight's three guests had been content to remain around the house, around Ponyville so why bother them?

Rarity tapped her chin. "So, what you're saying is..."

"We should take him with us," Twilight said. "Whenever the princess needs us, Dan should come, too. We need to treat him like he's one of us." They all nodded in agreement.

"ONE OF US. ONE OF US," Pinkie repeated in a monotone voice.

"What about Chrys and Fluffle Puff?" Rarity asked.

"Well," Twilight didn't have to think long on that one. "Both of them as well. When Equestria calls, we all answer if we're able to."

"You're sure Dan will answer the call when we get it?" Rainbow Dash asked, skeptical.

Twilight didn't hesitate to answer. "He will. When the time comes, he will." While she didn't see Dan nearby, she did spot Chrys, Spike and Fluffle Puff talking to Cadence and Shining armor amongst the crowd. She was happy to see them together, just chatting.

This is what true victory, true peace, true harmony was. Not the absence of chaos, uncertainty or pain but the moments where we are able to push past that, to feel the good in spite of it. What Chrys did as Queen Chrysalis, what Luna did as Nightmare Moon, even the time Twilight and her friends almost gave up, none of that would ever be forgotten. Be it can be forgiven and that's what each of them were doing even if they didn't quite know it.

Dan, Chrys, Twilight and her friends, her brother, Cadence and the other princesses, all of them were enjoying themselves. In this moment of celebration, they all in their own ways were looking past things, past what had happened, past what would happen, past what was happening. They were having a good time together and that's all they needed.

There was only one pony amongst the entire crowd who wasn't forgiving.

From where he was standing, Vice Grip could see most of the crowd. He spied the arcanist talking to her little friends by the steps to the castle while the two guests were talking to the shape shifter near a stage. Putting a metal hand to his face, the bipedal stallion let out a heavy sigh. They were all so woefully inefficient.

"Your... orders, sir?" a neon-violet and indigo Pegasus next to him asked.

"Take it up. Take it all up," Vice replied, turning around.

Lightning Claw wasn't quite as capable as his brothers were, not yet, but he was the only one of them that wouldn't stand out in Canterlot. This was because of one very important fact: Claw was a pony but his 'siblings' were not.

Vice watched as Lightning Claw and three other artificially enhanced pegasi got to work breaking down the large gate surrounding Canterlot. While Vice hadn't been there to see Dan and the others get through the obstacle, it had served its purpose in slowing them down until Magic Gear KNIGHT was ready.

Looking over his shoulder, Vice searched for Dan in the crowd and finally saw him being carried by two other ponies. Earth ponies, much like Vice himself. He then looked back at Twilight, the arcanist and company, and scowled.

There was something about humanity, about humans Vice admired. They could all do so much with so little, just as he did. Ponies, while diligent and united were also too slow to adapt and relied too much on certain things, like magic. If only the two worlds would truly learn from each other... 

What he wanted for Equestria, what he wanted for Earth seemed so close. But like them, Vice Grip knew he still had much to learn. There was much he wasn't ready for, still things he needed to see from Dan and the others. Not that he planned on asking them to show him what they were capable of; only that he was very much looking forward to seeing it.

His thoughts were interrupted when his cell phone rang. Vice reached into the pocket of his lab coat and retrieved it. "Go ahead."

"My apologies for causing you stress but I feel there is something that we must address."

Vice sighed again. How a zebra assassin can still rhyme was beyond him. And, at this time, it was beyond annoying. "And that is?"

"It would seem in the commotion going about, that our captive attorney has broken out."

"WHAT?!"

The proceeding argument between the scientist stallion and the zebra mercenary over the phone was completely drowned out by the music of the party. Vice's associates disassembled the barricade surrounding Canterlot Castle, breaking it into long segments and then folding it for transport while he raged over his phone. Pinkie Pie and a few other ponies caught sight of Vice yelling but assumed that he was dancing.

Dan was resting with his head back as his pony servants carried him through the castle. Sunlight shone through the windows high above making the tapestries and golden livery shimmer on the high walls. He took a final sip from the straw of his drink, some type of hybrid zebra elixir, and set on one of the unicorns beside him. Frowning, the unicorn levitated the drink into one of his saddlebags and continued fanning.

He was happy things had finally worked out. This was the way he'd envisioned things: living in the lap of luxury, peace, quiet and things being easy for once. Still, he knew it wasn't going to last long. For everything he liked about Equestria, it wasn't perfect. But it was a lot closer than Earth was and maybe, the possibility of paradise was close, too. The ponies were diligent but not efficient, that was something he could help with. As Twilight's friend, maybe he could try to change things for the better. If only he had-

Dan's eyes shot open as he saw two ponies crossing an intersection in the hallway ahead. Celestia and Luna were walking, talking as they headed back to the entrance.

"Hey! HEY!" he struggled to get up from his chair. His aides did nothing to bar his departure and once he got out of the covered throne, they all decided to take a break. Then they collapsed on the floor.

"PRINCESSES!" Dan yelled down the hall.

The two turned to him. "Yes, Dan?" Celestia asked.

"It appears you're enjoying the festivities," Luna remarked, glancing down the hall at six passed-out ponies.

Dan almost ignored Luna's comment. "Yeah, you two are getting that thing for Twilight, right?"

Celestia hesitated. "Yes, actually we were going to see her about that now."

"There's a few things I wanted to speak to you about," Dan said. The two regal sisters turned to him, both taller than he was by at least a full head. Finger pointed, mouth open, Dan suddenly... forgot what he was going to say.

"Yes? What is it?" Luna asked.

Dan had stood up to the two sisters before in the last day but not alone. Suddenly, without Twilight and Chrys backing him up, he soon felt outnumbered, outclassed and out of ideas. But his legs stiffened and he remained standing, determined to find the words.

"Princess Celestia," Dan began. And then paused.

"Yes, Dan?" she asked.

"I, uh... um,..." he stammered, trying to think.

"What is it you need to say? You can ask me anything," Celestia stepped forward, placing a gentle hoof on his shoulder. That didn't make it easier for Dan, in fact, it made it a whole lot more difficult. He suddenly found himself in Twilight's hooves. And when he thought about her, he suddenly found the courage to speak.

He took a deep breath. "Celestia, there's a better way you could be running your kingdom."

Luna's jaw dropped. Dan felt his heart jump up into his throat again. Even he had to admit, he probably shouldn't have just blurted it out that way. Celestia removed her hoof but retained her composure, not as phased by what Dan said.

"The way I'm running my kingdom?" Celestia repeated. There were so many things she wanted to point out about that statement, they fought for control in her head. But she needed to hear what Dan had to say so she simply repeated his words. "There's a better way I could be running my kingdom?"

"Yes," Dan quickly said. He had to keep the momentum up.

"Where may I ask did you get this idea?" Luna interjected. "Was it from Twilight or......... Chrys?"

There it was. That comment had removed the mask and now Dan was wearing his game face. "Ladies," he started again casually, "I've noticed a few things about your royal subjects. Specifically, your faithful student."

Now Celestia and Luna were interested. Noticing he'd captured them, Dan continued, now confident. "Twilight Sparkle, in fact a lot of ponies seemed to get obsessed over one or two little things. And these problems prevent them from seeing and taking the best course of action."

Celestia thought. Dan did have a point and she was aware of this fact. But it was Luna that spoke for her. "We... have noticed our subjects have gotten hung up on the details from time to time."

"Yes," Celestia agreed. Twilight's attention to detail was one of Celestia's favorite qualities about her student but she also knew it had become a problem at times.

Dan smiled. And then he put a hand on Celestia's shoulder. Before she had even realized what was going on, the balance of power in the conversation had shifted. "Humans have had that problem, too. I've had friends like Twilight before and I know how they act in times of crisis. They worry about one thing or another and it overwhelms them."

Luna lowered her head, remembering one detail that nearly consumed her. Twice; once being a thousand years ago and the other time being last night. Celestia noticed her sister, felt her emotions. What Dan was saying was truer than she had realized.

"What would you suggest we do about this?" Celestia asked.

"Myself, I try to remember what's important. Focus, that's what these ponies need. Determination, resolve and focus. You need to communicate with Twilight more, remind her of what's important so she can build up some of her own resolve. I mean seriously, you expect her to do what's best for Equestria and you only see her when you're throwing a party?! THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!!" Dan continued.

"I see your point, Dan," Celestia said. She regretted not being a bigger part of her student's life but she did have her own responsibilities. Still, that didn't change that Dan was right.

"We have decided to see each other more often, meet together," Luna pointed out.

"Exactly!" Dan said, looking behind Celestia at her sister. "Twilight, all of the ponies look up to both of you. You have the opportunity to give the focus, something to really believe in but you actually have to be there once in a while. Someone has to be there to keep the faith, to get things back on track and provide the motivation we need to keep going!"

Celestia thought. "But I can't always be there to support Twilight. I'm going to need someone to see to her, to all of Ponyville on an everyday basis."

"Well, there's two of you!" Dan pointed out. "You can take shifts!"

Luna frowned. "You mean day and night? Like we do now?"

"Yes... I mean no!" Dan corrected. "You need someone to be there directly, to support them right then and there when and where they need it."

The two sisters looked to each other. "Someone to be there everyday?"

"Yes!" Dan said emphatically. "Someone like a royal guard or something, that can represent Equestria while Twilight and the others are learning about the magic of friendship, saving the world. Or hanging out."

Celestia and Luna nodded. "I couldn't agree more, Dan," the princess of the sun said. "And I think we know just the one for the job."

"Really?" Dan asked. "Who?"





As the party divulged into smaller groups, mellower music playing, Twilight and her friends caught up with Shining Armor and Cadence.

"... and tha's when I left 'em all an headed south in my rocket-powered trayn," Chyrs finished retelling the events of the train ride she, Twilight, Dan and Pinkie had on the way there. She'd done so by transforming into the mysterious Ozzy Osbarn, a griffon that supposedly owned the train they'd departed in. As she finished, she transformed back into her normal changeling self, happy to be able to do so publicly.

"Wow," Shining remarked. "So that's what took you guys so long."

Cadence walked over to the other pink pony. "I'm sorry about the cake, Pinkie."

Pinkie Pie nodded. "It was a hero to the end. That cake gave its frosting so that we could be here for the party. It will be missed," she lowered her head somberly. She then instantly picked her head back up. "But now we've got dancing bears! This party's fantastic!"

"It is indeed," Cadence smiled.

"So," Twilight began, "We, um, meaning Princess Celestia and Luna and, well, me, we've decided to try to see each other more often. We're going to try to meet once every couple weeks at least and uh, I was hoping you could join us."

Shining Armor and Cadence were both taken aback slightly, knowing what Twilight was asking. They paused for a moment, then Cadence finally said, "The Crystal Empire is very far away..."

"But I think we'll manage," Shining said. They both nodded in agreement. "We could meet in Ponyville, the Crystal Palace and back here in Canterlot every so often."

Twilight's grin exploded. "Really? Oh, that sounds great!" She ran up and hugged her brother and sister in law.

"And of course, all of your friends will be invited too," Cadence added.

Heart-warmed, Chrys joined the hug along with Fluffle Puff.

"And your number one assistant!" Spike added. Twilight picked him up and brought him into the embrace as well.

Then suddenly, they all noticed something. The music stopped. Ponies and critters, all of them slowly stopped dancing. Questions erupted in the crowd, voices growing louder.

"Hey, what happened to the music?"

"Is the party over?"

"What gives?! This is supposed to be a celebration here!"

"The raffle? Is this the line for the raffle, please can somepony-"

"Michael, wait, MICHAEL!"

"Does anypony want this pizza? I just found it on the roof."

The intercom system in the courtyard crackled to life. All attention was drawn to the castle entrance as the doors slowly opened.

"Fillies and Gentlecolts, the royal court of Equestria hereby presents our newest addition to the Royal Guard!"

"Who is it? I can't see!" Pinkie said, trying to look over Fluttershy's bear standing on its back legs. Every pony, every being, the bear included looked at the castle entrance in excited awe.

Twilight wasn't entirely sure what was going on.

"New royal guard?" Rainbow asked, hovering above the crowd.

"This is quite unexpected, I wonder who it could be," Rarity said.

Shining Armor put a hoof to his chin. "They never did fill my old position when I became a prince." Cadence nuzzled his side, happy he'd made that decision.

Chrys narrowed her focus, trying to see inside the door but nothing was coming out. "I can't quite- wait, I see something!"

Twilight looked over heads herself to see six of the castle's attendants forming at both sides of the doorway. And finally, someone stepped out.

"Twilight," Chrys asked. "Is that..."

"Dan."

"Dan of Equestria, Captain of The Royal Guard!"

Cheers erupted as Dan walked outside though, nopony really knew quite what they were cheering for. Covered head to foot in adapted royal guard armor, he waved to the crowd while looking for Twilight and his friends. He didn't have to look long before he saw them running towards him.

"Dan!" Twilight called.

"Twilight! Chrys!" he was practically tackle-hugged by the mob of ponies.

"Dan!" Twilight said again, surprised, ecstatic, overcome. "You're... you're a royal guard now?"

Dan beamed. "That's Captain Dan, now, Princess Twilight!" he announced.

"Wow, Dan," Chrys said, looking him up and down. "You look... great," she said sheepishly. She eyed him up and down again, feeling her face redden a bit.

"Thank you, thank you, yes, I'm awesome," Dan waved to his new fans. "NOW QUIT CROWDING ME!"

The partiers resumed partying and the music restarted.

Princess Celestia and Luna stepped out, flanking Dan.

"We decided to recognize Dan for his service to Equestria," Celestia said. "We thought it fitting, given the circumstances."

Twilight nodded. "I couldn't agree more."

Princess Luna stepped forward. "We're assigning Dan to your care, Princess Twilight. He is the first of your own personal security force, the captain of your own royal guards, the Friendship Guard."

Twilight gasped. "My own royal guard?"

Dan rolled his eyes at the formality of the situation. "As if I HAVEN'T been looking out for you since I got here!"

Celestia stepped over to Twilight. "That is, if that's okay with you, Twilight."

She didn't even have to think. "Absolutely, thank you so much," the two hugged.

It wasn't the first time Celestia had made a royal decree to keep Twilight and her friends together. But this time, she was added new friends to Twilight's group. A family. And she was very happy that this time, she was adding herself to that as well.

"I'll take care of you, Twilight," Dan rubbed her shoulder confidently. "And you're going to love who I pick out to be my second-in-command," he said, striding past. He patted Chrys on the back as he did so.

"Uh, Dan? What does that mean?"

Twilight turned back around, watching as Dan went to interact with their friends. Fluffle Puff was the first to congratulate the knightly-looking Dan with a slobbery kiss. Rather than be angry with her, he petted the ball of fluff on the head and the two curled up into a snuggle. Rarity examined Dan's new uniform, the same gold, blue and purple that other guards wore only with a jet-black chest piece emblazoned with the word JERK on the front and the word CAPTAIN over it.

Chrys walked over to Twilight, joining her as they watched their friend enjoy his new status. Something neither of them had done since they got there. "Looks like our family's growing."

Twilight nodded. "It is." She didn't need to add, 'in more ways than one.'

"Hey, where's the music?" one of the partiers asked.

"Yeah, if this is still going on, when are you going to start the music?"

Being Shining Armor's anniversary, he thought of something. "Hey Dan?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's hit the stage! You and me!"

"Well, I don't know if I really shoul- okay."

The two enthusiastically took to the stage and grabbed a pair of microphones.

You've never seen things like I've seen before
And just when I think I've seen it all, there's something else in store
Sometimes it feels like I can't take it any more

But I'm honor-bound!
In everything I say and do
I'm honor bound!
Whether we win or lose!
I'm honor bound!
To my own self, I will remain true...
Because I'm honor bound... I'm honor bound to you!

No matter what happens, I gotta stand tall
Pick myself up, carry on every time I fall
Rise up every time to answer the call!

Times get tougher and the days get long
Can be so confusing between what's right and wrong
It gets so hard trying to remain strong
But I still sing this song...

Because I'm honor-bound!
No matter what others say or do!
I'm honor bound!
My heart is noble through and through!
I'm honor bound!
To what we all believe is true
I remain honor bound... I am honor bound to you!

I keep following this path though I keep getting flak
Everywhere I go it seems I'm under attack
But I know I'll be fine as long as you've got my back!

I know what I'm doing is right, I can feel it inside
And although I keep my duty, it's not a matter of pride
All the ideals that we cherish, I let them be my guide
And I keep you by my side because...

I'm honor bound!
To all of our values
I'm honor bound!
Even though I've made mistakes, too
I'm honor bound!
I know in my heart that this is true,
I will stay honor bound... I'm honor bound to you!

Courage, chivalry, discipline and skill
Justice, integrity and a strength of will
No matter what happens, I uphold them still...

I'm honor bound!
In everything single thing I choose
I'm honor bound!
Committed to all our virtues
I'm honor bound!
And I'm gonna make you believe that it's true!
I'm always honor bound... I'm honor bound to you!

We're honor-bound!
In everything we do and say!
We're honor-bound!
In every single way!
You hear that sound? The beating of our hearts' will always come pounding through!
We must admit it, we're fully-committed! And honor-bound to you!


The crowed applauded as Dan and Shining bowed. Friends and family all together, the group watched as fireworks filled the skies completing what could only be called a very happy anniversary.






Next week on Dan Vs. The Magic of Frienship...



"It's good to finally be back in Ponyville."

"What would this town do without us?"

"Is... is that a serious question?"

The she-Dan-igans continue as the gang returns home!

"Well hey there, have we got an opportunity for you!"

"That's right! I and my brother here happen to have just the product to improve your life!"

When Dan offers to help Applejack out at Sweet Apple Acres, he meets two ponies with something to offer themselves...

"I'm gonna give you both five seconds."

"Five seconds to convince you?"

"No, five seconds to leave before I strangle you."

You're not gonna wanna miss this deal!

"Dan, ya can't just try ta run 'em outta town just because they tried to sell ya something!"

"Well they said this deal was going fast!"

Next time on Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship,

"Dan, what are y'all doin with that dynamite?"

"I'm hunting, Applebloom."

"Huntin?"

"Bargain hunting."

Dan Vs. The Flim Flam Brothers! Tune in for the opportunity of a lifetime next time on Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship!

"I'LL GIVE YOU A MONEY-BACK GURANTEE!!"

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