Daniel took his time getting the rest of the way home, walking straight from McDonald's rather than taking the bus the rest of the way. The walk was nice and refreshing in the night air. While the others had left their magical items behind in Equestria at his suggestion, the nanospiders in his blood could not be safely removed. They had removed his body's natural immune system in order to stop it from fighting the foreign invasion, and taken over its duties. But that meant if he had them deconstruct themselves he would have no immune system remaining.
So he remained subtly cybernetic. As he strolled home, he pondered what to do with that fact. His job would get easier, to the point of being boring. Heck, he figured he could arrange to 'work from home', and get his duties done remotely while being free to live a whole other life. Or maybe it was time to start his own company and publish something of his own.
And with the ability to handle that remotely, maybe he should become a superhero or something. Wouldn't that be fun? Well, maybe not actually fun. He had gotten a taste of war and real violence in the other world, and knew full well that living such a life would be much less glorious than stories made it out to be. But he suspected he'd end up doing something along those lines eventually. He didn't really feel like he could avoid the urge to use his new powers to do something unique eventually.
Finally, he arrived at his front door. He drew his key from his pocket, turned it in the lock, opened the door, and stared at the pony before him. It was grey in fur, an unusually dull coloration for an Equestrian, but the sharp black and red unicorn horn made it seem likely he was some sort of Equestrian pony. His glowing red eyes, and armored hooves seemed decidedly more ominous than was common for the cute Technicolor equines though, and the fact that he was a stallion wearing a royal red cloak seemed strange for a society he understood to be ruled entirely by Princesses.
"I am King Sombra," the unicorn announced forcefully, "and you will be my friend!" Black energy erupted from his horn and enveloped Daniel, causing black crystals to sprout painfully from his arms and legs.
But he reacted to the pain only for a few moments before he started to ignore it, bringing up an arm to examine it curiously as the crystals started to dissolve into him. "Curious," Istaran said, as Daniel's consciousness was forcibly suppressed under his alter ego. "I dare say this particular technique for making friends would be rather counterproductive in most cases. What made you think it would serve you well in this one?"
Sombra was a bit taken aback by Istaran's nonchalance, but recovered quickly. "I figured that by enslaving you, I could simply order you to be my friend and be done with this foal's errand. I see it won't be that simple, though you don't seem angered."
Istaran strolled into the apartment, closing the door behind him, and beginning to experiment. A dull black 'glow' showing through his skin highlighted the converted remnants of the black crystals in his body, as his own shadow drew up from the floor, reshaping into bladed fingers and cutting experimentally into the paint of the wall. "You have freed me from my other half, possibly forever if the dark crystals in my blood are enough to keep him at bay. I see no reason to hold that against you. However.. while I am not known for my moral constraints, I do have one sin that I hold unforgiveable. I will never betray a valid trust, and neither must you. If someday you wish to be enemies, announce it openly, and it will be so, but if you betray me.. I will find ways to make you wish yourself capable of dying. Do you understand."
Sombra grit his teeth, not liking being threatened, but he nodded. Istaran brightened immediately, and took a seat. "Great! Perhaps we shall become friends after all. You called yourself King, though I doubt your Kingdom is of this particular world. Are you cut off from your subjects then?"
"I was driven from my realm a thousand years ago by Celestia and Luna, meddlesome Princesses from a neighboring Kingdom who dared assault me in my home. I was able to pull my whole Kingdom and I out of time for a millennium, but just as I reappeared, something pulled me alone into a black void, spelled out a riddle of sorts, and then dumped me in this hovel. It said, in short, that I must befriend you to go home," Sombra explained.
"I was just thinking, with the new powers I got in your world, that I should get into supervillainy. Let's do something fun together! We can conquer this city! We'll be partners in crime. Perhaps start with a bank robbery? It's the most classic of things, and a good chance to test our battle readiness," Istaran suggested with an excited glint in his eyes.
"A bank robbery? What need do we have of money? We should have slaves who do everything we ask of them without any recompense except an easing off of the whip. Unless you think my dark crystals will affect the other humans as they did you? I might need to rethink my strategy if so," Sombra considered.
"A good point, we can really mess with their heads by giving away the money afterwards, or something. We'll have to think this through just right. As for making slaves.. my nanospiders can enslave people if I wish to use them that way. You'll love this bit: I even wrested Celestia's will for a time with them!" Istaran boasted.
"The Celestia? Massive mare with a sun on each flank?" Sombra asked, dubiously. He knew she was an alicorn, and may well still be alive, so it was possible.
"The very same! I made her focus the light of her sun into a giant death ray, a laser big enough to melt an entire desert, and turn our enemy's encampment into a giant bowl of glass! You should have seen it. You could have seen it from a thousand miles away, a blinding pillar of light, while the rest of the sky was dark as night in the middle of the afternoon! It was simply glorious!" Istaran continued, grinning from ear to ear.
Sombra laughed openly, "I wish I could have seen it. I wish I could have seen the look on her face! Was it priceless? I hope it was priceless. And not one of those dull looks of a pony completely disconnected from what they've done."
Istaran nodded, "it was priceless. She was well aware of what she was doing, just unable to stop herself. I could actually show you the look, if you like. I can give you some of my nanospiders, and grant you the ability to share memories with me, and vice versa. They have oh so many other uses as well." He offered Sombra a hand, "give me your hoof, and we shall become blood brothers, even closer than twins. I'll teach you how to use every power I know, and you'll help me master this shadow magic of yours, and we will become unstoppable, together!"
Sombra hesitated only a moment before meeting Istaran's grasp with a hoof. He felt a strange crawling sensation on his hoof as the nanospiders worked their way from Istaran's palm into Sombra's hoof in a steady, crawling flow. He started to get a bit woozy after a minute, and made a slight attempt to pull his hoof back, but Istaran held fast. "Am I supposed to get light headed and numb?"
"Yes, it's temporary, but you should recover shortly. I've had a few opportunities to refine my technique," Istaran answered as the nanospiders integrated into Sombra's body and mind. He barely had time to get feverish before the invasion was successful, and the new presence awakened in his mind.
"Sombra, meet your new subnet. I'll call him.. Umbra. If you have any questions, Umbra should fill in the blanks in your thoughts promptly.
Sombra worked his mouth a few times, nearly asking questions but instantly knowing the answers. Finally he settled in to play back Istaran's memories of Celestia's reaction to being used as a superweapon. He laughed out loud until he could barely stand. "Perhaps we will soon be friends after all!" the unicorn king said.
"You've got mail!" announced a voice from the screen.
"Who, what, spike?! Where? Derpy?" Twilight said as she was roused suddenly from her puddle of drool, looking around the room for the promised letter.
After several minutes, she realized nopony was in the room with her, aside from the terminal that allowed her access to Earth's internet. She stared at it blankly for a few more minutes while the massive mechanical spider on the back of the machine wordlessly brewed her a pot of coffee. Finally, she noticed the little scroll icon on the screen with a 2 next to it. She waited until she had managed to ingest the first cup of coffee and felt its effects setting in before she actually clicked on the icon and went to start reading her very first email.
Twilight? Is this really -the- Twilight Sparkle? Of course it is. No one else, sorry I mean -nopony- else, would be so diligent with trying to correct the Internet. I'm really impressed! I guess this means you figured out how to get my wifi router working somehow.
Oh! This is Angelica, by the way, you remember me?
The other people who visited your world with me all made it home safely, more or less, and we started a little club. The 'Eastside Equestrian Club', wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more, say no more. (You don't say that last part out loud!) Here, I'll forward you our little mail thread once I finish writing this one.
We've got visitors of our own! Mostly from your world, but there's a few we're not so sure about. Maybe you know? I think I remember you being really good at researching or something? Anyways, I've attached photos of the three that ended up with me. They look human, but they're kind of colored more like ponies? Anyways, they're great singers and a lot of fun and I love them to pieces but I'm starting to notice they don't take criticism very well. Don't know if that helps. Anyways, can't wait to hear from you. Ciao!
Just looking at the length of the other message, the forwarded thread, made it clear to Twilight that she needed more coffee first. And maybe some real food. She also wanted to finish correcting the Internet, but she realized that she had to prioritize.
She put together a quick prioritized checklist just to make sure.
1. Coffee.
2. Bathroom.
3. Breakfast.
4. Read and reply to email thread.
5. Correct the Internet.
6. Feed spike.
It was only after putting ink to parchment that she realized it had been a full week since she had even seen her baby dragon, and she broke into a panicked rush to make sure he was still alive.