As soon as I went down to the training room, RD slapped me across the face. I expected her to hug me afterwards. but she shoved me to the ground. She jumped on me and started punching me in every place she could get to with furious blows. I didn’t even protest. It took Twilight to drag her off with magic. I explained what happened and let Rainbow yell at me some more for being so stupid. After Rainbow Dash’s rage was extinguished, I taught everyone how to change from pony to human. They picked up on the idea pretty fast. After everyone was able to change form well enough, I went and saw what was done when I was gone. First, the Earth ponies showed me their contingency.
“Here’s what we did.” said Robert. “We had the unicorns place a spell on us and the base. On the off chance that we all die, the base will secrete a pheromone that we believe the changelings will find irresistible. Hopefully, the changelings will bring their queen over here to scope it out.”
“What happens then?” I asked.
“A party!” shouted Pinkie Pie. I looked back at Robert who put it simply.
“It explodes.” he said. “So, yeah. Party. Speaking of parties, check this out.” He showed me his formerly blank flank. Formerly. Now there was a rose red skull, overlaying two blood-red knives.
“Sweet! What’s your talent?” I asked.
“War. I discovered it during the fail-safe planning. If it’s related to war or combat, I’m your stallion.” he said proudly.
“Nice job! We’ll celebrate tonight. Pinkie, can you throw a party?” I said, knowing the answer.
“Uh, duh!” she said with a smile. “I already got it planned! It’s gonna be off… the… HOOK!”
“Good to know.” I said walking away. “I have to see what was done with the armor. We’ll chat later.” I left and went through the house looking for Rarity. She was in a sewing room that I didn’t know existed. Conjure must’ve been busy. I approached Rarity, who was huddled over a sewing machine. Her rifle was to the right of her chair and her sword was right in front of her. She greeted me with a concentrated smile and gestured for me to take a seat next to her.
“Did you get us some armor?” I asked Rarity.
“Why, I certainly did, darling.” she said, tossing me a plain black t-shirt. “Put this on, my dear.”
“Uh… thanks, Rarity.” I said, putting it on. “I don’t think this is going to do much, though.” She ignored me, and picked up her rifle. Silently, she aimed it at me. I stared at her, frozen in fear as she pulled the trigger four times. The bullets bounced off of my shirt with a PLINK!
“What the hell?!” I said. “Why is everypony trying to kill me today?”
“Relax, darling. The shirt is Chameleon Armor. Isaiah and Twilight helped me place the shirt under the Chameleon Effect. Look at it now.” I glanced down, my shirt having been replaced with a steel chestplate. I didn’t even notice.
“Wow. This is going to be useful.” I said, dumbstruck.
“Neat, isn’t it? We figured out how to enchant anything to react to the surge of adrenaline one gets during combat situations. In other words, if you get scared or excited, your shirt will transform into this armor, 8 inches thick of pure titanium. Nearly weightless. I can do the same with our weapons so we can hide them a little better.”
“Excellent! How many do you have?”
“How many do you need, darling?” she asked, gleam in her eye.
“We’re going to need full sets for all of us. And if you can enchant the weapons, like you said, that’d be great.”
“Of course, dear. Consider it done.” she replied, already hard at work on the next piece of armor. This was good. We have information, we have a back-up plan, and we have gear. Now we just need a strategy. Let’s find Twi.
“Twily!” I called from the hallway.
“I told you not to call me that.” came a voice from nowhere. Right before my eyes, Twilight melted out of thin air. “What is it?”
“Invisibility spell?” I asked. She nodded. “We need a plan of attack. We know that they are in different places and they’re all nearby. We just need to find them.”
“Well, we could do some more scouting, although that can prove inefficient. We can try out a new spell I found. It should be able to pinpoint their sinister magic.” she said thoughtfully.
“Er… we may be able to narrow it down, but I wouldn’t say pinpoint.” I said.
“Why not?”
“Humans are probably one of the biggest sources of sinister magic in the universe.” I answered sheepishly.
“What do you mean?!” asked Twilight alarmed. “Are you telling me that we’re fighting to save a race of evil incarnate?!”
“No! Humans aren’t evil. Just… corrupt. We’re greedy. We’re selfish. Most humans will stab you in the back to suit their own ends. We lie, we cheat, and we steal to get what we want. Finding Sombra on Earth would be like searching for a hay in a needle-stack. Not to mention that Sombra can corrupt us even further. It’s definitely a good start, though.”
“So we can’t trust humans?” she asked.
“You can. Just be careful. We’re dangerous to each other, physically and emotionally.” I warned.
“Are you as dangerous as the others?” she asked warily.
“Nope. I’m nothing like most other humans.” I said.
“What makes you different?”
“Pull up a chair.” I said. She summoned two chairs with her horn. She sat down and waited for me to do the same. “I’m not the most normal of humans. I’ve always been the odd man out.”
“What do you mean?”
“On Earth, you guys are fictional T.V. characters. The show you’re on is called My Little Pony. In my society, ponies are for little girls. I didn’t care, I watched it anyway. Because of that, I didn’t have many friends. I was teased, horribly. I’ve been called gay, a faggot. I’ve been told I have no life. My only friends were Isaiah, Robert, and the T.V. that played MLP. It started as simple teasing, but then, it escalated. People started vandalizing my property, tripping me in the halls. I’ve even gotten physically assaulted. I took all of that, though. I did. I took it in my stride, for years. Then, everything changed.” I said solemnly.
“What happened?” asked Twi, holding on to every word.
“My mom.” I sighed. “She found out that I was a brony. That’s what we call ourselves; bronies. She hated it. She picked on me worse than the kids at school. Then, she started bothering me for other things. Her biggest problem with me was my hair. Mane. She hated how I dye my mane.”
“You dye your mane?”
“Yes! Why is everyone so shocked?! Did you all think my hair is naturally white? I didn’t like my hair being black, so I dyed it the exact opposite. That’s not important. What’s important is that me and my mom got into an argument. Argument being an understatement, considering I moved out. I had nowhere to go, but it was better than staying there. Family friends took me in, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson. They loved me like a son, and I loved them like parents. I made a few more friends through their daughter, Sarah. She helped me feel accepted. We had a lot of things in common. We were both bronies, we both dyed our hair. Her’s is fire red. The main difference between me and her is that she was good at making friends. I couldn’t talk to anyone unless I had to. She helped me get over it a little. She probably thinks I’m dead right now. Which is why we need to get this done as soon as possible. I have to apologize for scaring her so bad.”
“What about your dad? You talked about how your mom picked on you, but did your dad take your side?” she asked.
“My dad died before I was born. Mom said that he had an aneurysm in his sleep. Didn’t feel a thing.” I said somberly.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. If my dad hadn’t died, I wouldn’t be who I am today. Besides, I’d never known him. I don’t know what I’m missing.”
“Why did you tell me all of this?”
“To prove that I would never do anything to hurt my friends. Friendship is too precious to me. Assuming, of course, that you consider me your friend.”
“Of course, you’re my friend. Silver, you are possibly the single most fascinating creature I’ve met in all my years of study. We are all friends, here. We’re all in this together.” she said, hugging me. On the outside, I kept on a serious look and accepted her hug, but on the inside I was melting. I was officially friends with Twilight Sparkle! And she hugged me! That is the pinnacle of brony-kind.
“Thanks, Twily. Erm… Twilight.” I said. “Twilight, we should try that spell. I want to have a decent idea of where the enemy is before the party starts.”
“Ok.” she said, releasing me from the hug. “Here we go.” She closed her eyes and spread her arms. Her horn began to glow and project a beam of light onto the floor. The beam spread out into a square map of the town. Scattered across the map were little red dots. In four particular spots, the red was a more concentrated thick dot. One of the dots was moving and one was pulsating. It appeared to be leaving from the biggest dot right in the middle of the city. Twilight lowered her arms and opened her eyes. The map stayed momentarily, then dissipated.
“Sunset’s on the move. The one in the middle was Sombra, the one to the north was Chrysalis, and the southernmost one was Discord.” I said.
“How can you tell?”
“Sombra would logically be the most concentrated, him being the most evil. Sunset is the only one moving and Discord’s is pulsating because he’s less evil and more chaotic. And I know every single one of those buildings. Forget Sunset Shimmer! We can take the all out and be home in two weeks! We’ll attack in a couple of days. We should probably check out the area and develop a plan.” I said.
“Excellent! This is great! Princess Celestia will be pleased.” said Twilight excitedly. She hugged me again, this time lifting me up off my hooves. She put me down and ran downstairs.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“To plan the attack! I should be able to finish before the party.” she replied.
“You mean the party that’s starting right now?” I said, pointing to the stairs. We could hear noise and see light from the party that Pinkie was throwing. I ran downstairs and marvelled at the beautiful decorations. There were streamers and balloons and confetti and party favors and things I didn’t even know the name of. The air was rich with the smell of..
“Apple pie!” I exclaimed, staring at the buffet table filled with various cakes, pies and tarts. I ran over to the table and grabbed up a slice of apple pie. I shoved it in my face, tongue melting at the amazingness of it.
“Ya like the pie, sugarcube?” asked Aj, from behind.
“Mh-hm!” I said, through a full mouth.
“Shucks, Ah’m glad yer enjoyin’ it! When Robert, Pinkie, and Ah were workin, Robert told me it was yer birthday a couple days ago. Why didn’t ya tell us? Ya was in Equestria for a whole week! We could’ve had us a proper shindig! Robert said a simple pie would do tha trick.”
“Thanks, Aj.” I said, swallowing the delicious pie. “It’s amazing! I didn’t tell you because I never really celebrated my birthday.”
“What!?” shouted Pinkie. “You don’t celebrate your birthday?! We have to fix that!” She reached into her mane and pulled out a boombox. She smashed the play button and party music began to fill the room. Pinkie grabbed Robert by the wrist and spun him around to the middle of the room. They danced with energy and with vigor, just happy to be there. Soon enough, we all jumped in. We had a great time, dancing to one pop, clubby song after another. After one particularly loud dubstep song (No doubt the work of Vinyl Scratch, as it was magnificent.) the entire mood changed. Suddenly, slow, contemporary music began to play. We just looked at each other for a while, unsure of what to do. I doubt even Pinkie knew how the song ended up on her music list. Finally, Robert (In his War Horse form) grabbed her around the waist with his left hand and clasped her hand with his right. They stepped slowly to the tune of the music.
“Might as well.” said RD, grabbing Applejack in the same way. Rainbow led confidently, while Aj allowed herself to be turned and swung in dance. Then, Conjure grabbed Twilight to dance, and they did the same. What am I gonna do?, I asked myself. Maybe I can sneak back upstairs and help Rarity. I was halfway to the stairs when I heard a tiny gasp. I turned to my left, searching for the source. In the corner of the room, nearly hidden from view, was Fluttershy. Why was she in the corner? For that matter, when did she get here? I hadn’t seen her dancing or doing anything since I got to the party. She seemed, once again, on the verge of tears.
“I must be out of my mind.” I said to myself, walking over to her. I grasped her around the waist and brought her into the middle of the dancefloor. She nuzzled her head against my chest as we danced slowly through the room. I’m dancing with Fluttershy!, I thought to myself, And she’s enjoying it! I think I might faint! We danced throughout the night, me cradling her in my arms. It was perfect. We danced until our hooves were sore. At around ten o’clock, we called it a night. I retreated to my room to go to bed. I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.
“What a night. A perfect night. Too perfect. Can’t wait to see what goes wrong tomorrow.” I whispered to myself grimly. “I wonder if Fluttershy enjoyed the dance as much as I did. Dear Celestia, that was amazing!”