//------------------------------//
// Interlude Part 4: Peace Prevails 
// Story: Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) 
// by Barrobroadcaster 
//------------------------------//

Equestria-Zebra Kingdom Borderlands, North-East of Canterlot
Peace Prevails National Park, Demilitarized Zone

A fountain stood in the center of the Peace Prevails Park, a monument to the harmony between ponies and zebras. In the middle of the fountain, a statue of an earth pony and a zebra stood, symbolically shaking hooves with the zebra facing south to Equestria and the pony facing north. It was a monument centuries old and historically whose construction was one of the first actions ever taken in Equestrian diplomacy. Princess Celestia and Luna opened diplomatic relations with the zebras, building the park along with the first zebra ambassadors in the hopes of creating a lasting and prosperous future together. Equestria and the Zebra Kingdom would share the park like two great sisters sharing and caring for a garden of beautiful plants meant to inspire a brighter, more prosperous future for them both.

The park had not seen service or visitors since it was abandoned after Luna's banishment. When it became obvious that ponies and zebras would never share more than cold tension between each other, the national park fell into disrepair. Years of diplomacy and outreach between ponies and a few far-sighted zebras had been wasted; Equestria and the Zebra Kingdom were not meant to be allies. Zebras didn't import or export anything, they had no embassies in foreign countries and didn't allow outsiders in their own. Ponies and other sentients were allowed to visit, to see the golden capital of Zebrapolis rising out of the mists but they could not live there. Visits were seldom and short.

Nature had been left to reclaim the valley in which it was located and much of the ground was covered in plant life. But, isolated by the mountains, the area did not see much rainfall and had no natural source of water. The only plants that thrived were the hardiest of weeds and vines able to drain what little moisture there was from the earth. The trees withered and the ground lay dry and cracked in many areas, testament to the necessity of sentient life to help nature when she faltered. The fountain was dry, its cracked surface covered in rotting vegetation. The statue of pony and zebra bro-hoofing was also cracked, missing pieces like the pony's mane and the zebra's tail and ears but otherwise was still standing. 

Unfortunately, it didn't stand up to Vice Grip's massive all-terrain vehicle when it ran it over. He would've noticed it if it weren't for the two mares sitting next to him playing with their MLP figures.

"Can you see the top of the mountain yet, Pinkie?" Springer asked.

"No, not yet!" Spinner answered in Pinkie's voice.

"I'll try to climb up the side! Maybe we can find Rainbow Dash and the others that way!" Springer said, maneuvering her Applejack figurine to climb the "mountain."

"Be careful, Applejack! I don't think this mountain is entirely stable!" Spinner warned.

Vice Grip vibrated with rage in his seat, doing his best to ignore the pony toy scaling the side of his head. He was in the middle of them, metal hands at ten and two on the wheel while his associates played with him against his will. The vehicle they were in looked like a four-wheeled box about the size of a house with a triangular cabin on the front for the driver and passengers. Called a Quadraulic Cargo Conveyor, it had been nicknamed the "mini-Shed" by most of the personnel. It was not an invention of Vice Grip's; like many other things, the Director had summoned it for him as a device to retrieve Magic Gears. If Vice had designed it, he wouldn't have put passenger space in the front of the cabin.

"Pinkie, I don't think this is a mountain!" 

"Oh no, what is it?" The two figurines began to shake.

"I think it's a volcan-ERRRRGHH!"

"GHHHGHK!!" 

Both figurines dropped to the seat cushions, bounced off and landed on the floor. The two mares were cut off as Vice strangled them both. He kept his eyes on the road, the steering wheel gripped by his knees and the necks of his two associates in his hands. "Now, what did I tell you both about driver safety?"

"ARRRGGGHHH!"

"EERRLLLLGHK!"

There was no way to understand them but Vice nodded like he did anyway. "Very good," he said, releasing them. "It might be one of you driving the van next time, so I want you to remember this."

"HAACKPFF!" Spinner coughed. "Ugh… you mean, we get to drive the van?"

Vice nodded.

Both mares rubbed their necks. "You know, the Flutterbirds and all the other stuff you've built are kind of… creepy, right?"

Keeping his eyes forward, Vice sighed. "Creepy?"

From the other side of Vice, Springer gave her friend the signal to let her handle it. "Well, uh, boss, you know how…" she hesitated.

Before she could finish her thought, the sound of screeching wheels cut her off. Vice slammed on the breaks, causing the vehicle to come to a skidding halt. The two mares were thrown forward in their seats, safety restraints holding them in place but pressing hard against their chests. They gasped again as the Shed came to a halt.

"There!" Vice exclaimed. He immediately unbuckled himself.

"What? I don't see an-" Spinner was cutoff as Vice climbed over her and out of the cabin.

The scientist jumped down from the vehicle. In front of where they'd parked, about fifty meters away was ARC. The Magic Gear had its back to the bark of a large tree, standing upright against it. She looked like she was playing hide-and-go-seek. All around them were withered trees and dried-up weeds, nothing else and nopony in sight.

Vice stopped, his boots crunching on the dry ground. There was something wrong here; the whole area was a wasteland. The only thing it was missing were vultures… or was it? The three culprit pegasi were still out there, maybe watching even now. Springer and Spinner joined up behind Vice.

"Positive ID," Springer said, holding up her CLIPBuck. "It's Unit ARC, sir. She seems to be operating in energy conservation mode."

Vice nodded, not taking his eyes off ARC. "Must've ran out of power and ditched her here. Or they're letting her recharge."

Spinner looked around. "You think they saw us coming?"

"If they were here, yes," Vice answered. "This could be a diversion, though. They may have been trying to hit the base while we were away."

Springer tapped her CLIPBuck. "I'm not picking up any distress signals from the base."

"This does look an awful lot like a trap, though," Spinner acknowledged.

"Doesn't matter. We go in and secure ARC as planned and get her back to base. We can't afford to lose another Gear."

"Right," both mares agreed. The Magic Gears were crucial to Vice Grip's plan, the Enclave's plan and the Director's plan. Not only were they designed to destroy, they were also made to rebuild. Using Magic Gears, Vice would annihilate Earth and build a new Equestria on it where magic was something he controlled. Without them, it would take untold millennia to build a new civilization.

That was why Vice designed them as ponies. Equestria required very specific conduits to utilize magic, ponies being the primary model. If Vice designed any other machine, it wouldn't be able to use magic effectively, turn it into something he could control with. Magic Gears were what their name suggested: just as cogs converted one form of energy into mechanical energy, so did Magic Gears convert magical energy into different forms of energy. But Equestria's magic effected them and the tiniest quirks, Vice Grip's own sentimental imprint, created something new inside of them. As a result, they took on lives of their own, effectively becoming a new artificially intelligent, robotic species.

Unfortunately, Vice also designed them as fillies around ten years of age. Their emotional minds fought with their machine processors to come to an understanding. To make matters worse, they had built-in internet access and were equipped with both conventional and nuclear weapons. Essentially, they were all innocent children with access to high-powered weapons and a global communication and information network. Their attention spans were almost too short to calculate mathematically. But they would listen to Vice Grip for a while, at least, even if they usually did daydream about candy, ice cream, t.v shows, their friends and a myriad of other ten-year-old filly things at the same time.

Vice walked single-file toward his property with Spinner and Springer hovering over him. The two kept watch while he focused on the Gear, his boots crunching under the dead foliage. When they got close enough, they realized the Gear was playing hide-and-seek.

"-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven, twenty-six, twenty-five-"

"ARC! Activate emergency override function code: Blue Nova!" Vice called.

ARC didn't even turn around. Her head was pressed against the tree and she still counted. "-twenty-one, twenty, nineteen-"

The scientist had had enough. He activated his jet boots and raced over towards her. "OVERRIDE FUNCTION CODE: BLUE NOVA!! RESPOND!!" he shouted angrily over the blare of his own jets.

"fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven-"

"Oh, that is IT!" Vice charged at the tree, Springer and Spinner following close behind. The three of them reached the tree finally. "You think you can just ignore me and get away with it?!" he pulled the Gear's left foreleg back.

"Hey, boss?"

"You belong to ME!" Vice shouted. He put himself between the tree and pushed her off of it with his legs. "I've had ENOUGH of this insubordination!!" He then turned to Springer. "What is it?"

"Boss, she's wearing earplugs," Springer pointed.

ARC fell down to the ground, smashing into the dirt. She lay with her legs spread out in an X pattern like she was about to make a sand angel. Her eyes were still closed and two large stubs stuck out of her ears.

"What is she doing?!" Vice raged. He looked at the rebellious Gear. She hadn't even flinched when he pushed her off the tree. "Why is she still counting?!"

Something in Spinner's gut went cold. "Uh, boss?"

"Three-"

"What?"

"In hide-and-go-seek, you usually count up."

"Two-"

"And she's counting down."

"Oh…"

"One-"

Vice's eyes went wide. ARC's eyes opened.

"Zero! Ready or not, here I-"

The explosion was the first time anyone had noticed the Peace Prevails National Park in a very long time. Fire, smoke and a massive cloud of orange flames pluming into white stretched up to the sky, not unlike a nuclear detonation. The Shed was hit by the force, the cabin disintegrating in an almost an instant before the flames consumed it entirely. The dead plant life was vaporized, the cliff walls shook and caused avalanches and the ground became a smoldering crater. The fountain and the statue in the middle of the park were turned into bits of rock, more sand to add to the wasteland. The Peace Prevails National Park came to an end. Some may have thought it a fitting end, however, for it had gone out with a bang.

The smoke and dust cleared quickly, the fire having nothing to burn. Vice's shimmering forcefield remained for a few moments, then faded. He held Springer and Spinner by their tails, having pulled the two into him quickly before activating his emergency shield. The act had saved all their lives. He sat them down and landed next to them on the edge of the newly-formed crater.

"Okay… was not expecting that," Spinner said.

"That was the self-destruct mechanism," Springer said, catching her breath. "They activated the self-destruct mechanism and plugged her ears so… so she couldn't hear you if you ordered her to abort it."

Vice said nothing. He looked into the explosion, wind whipping his lab coat. Somehow, the burning rage in his eyes was far worse than anything the explosion could've wrought. It had set something off in him, something far more devastating.

"Boss… boss, we have to get back to base," Spinner said, getting up.

"She's right," Springer said. "If there's been a security breach already, they could use this to-"

"I want you to make them pay for this," Vice said, his voice like ice. "You will stay out. I will return to base and send out the rest of Raptor Wing to accompany you. You will remain deployed until I say so." He didn't ask if his orders were clear to them.

"Uhh… uhhh, ahh, aye, sir," Springer finally said.

"Okie dokie…" Spinner added, still disoriented.

Springer patted her boss on the back. "It's okay, Vice. We'll get it done."

He continued staring into the storm of dust, ash, smoke and debris. "I know you will."





As Dan would say, revenge is a dish best-served immediately. And Dan's dish would've been a lot like Vice Grip's, probably more and more personal, if their positions were reversed. Unfortunately, Dan was more used to serving than he was being served. Equestria was ill-prepared for what Vice Grip dished out.

It didn't take long to locate the supply lines the ponies were using to transport resources. Vice ordered Raptor Wing, including Springer, Spinner and Hydra Squadron to intercept them. He had one specific instruction: supplies only. He ordered them to leave the ponies, no killing, no prisoners but blow up the supplies while they were transporting them. Raptor Wing quickly found each of the convoys and destroyed their vehicles, ripping apart wagons, carts, sleds and the like with their high-powered plasma weapons, flamethrowers and missiles. Unescorted and defenseless, the supply convoys were not able to withstand the onslaught. Every supply convoy that was ambushed was completely annihilated.

Thus, the tide turned very quickly on Equestria. Rather than vital supplies for rebuilding and maintaining Ponyville, refugees and injured ponies began arriving in droves. Braeburn, Cherry Jubilee, Caramel and other ponies that had volunteered were hospitalized. Food and medicine became scarce, the repairs of Ponyville ground to a halt. Very quickly, rationing of food and water began and morale plummeted.

Though injured, Braeburn and others would attempt to deliver supplies again. They went at night, hoping the cover of darkness would help them. But the Enclave had night vision built-in to their helmets. They tried using caves and tunnels but Captain Springer blasted them out. The riverboats and rafts used to transport resources were overturned or sunk by the Enclave's troopers- the first time Raptor Wing tested out their diving powered armor. Spinner would say, "I sunk your battleship!" after each raft was destroyed, sending earth ponies and unicorns helplessly into the rapids.

After each report, Dan would rage, sometimes would try to go out on his own to where the convoys had been ambushed along with Twilight and the others. But each time, they arrived too late. With Cloudsdale still under construction and Ponyville's shield the only thing keeping them safe, they were unable to send the convoys any escort or protection. The Enclave retained total air superiority.

The number of injured rose. Perhaps that was the true genius of Vice's plan, because with so many injured ponies in Ponyville, the strain on resources and what little food there was became even greater. If the Enclave had captured the convoys and enslaved them, it would've been less pressure on Ponyville. As it was, refugees arrived by the dozens and quickly crowded the population. It wasn't long before they found somepony to blame.

Talk in the mayor's office quickly turned to all-out surrender. Without an official ruler, Mayor Mare was in charge of Equestria and the pressure was on her to make a decision. Twilight and friends pleaded with the mayor to hold on, pleaded with the population to keep fighting. But Equestria was at the breaking point.

At the last moment, Dan came up with a plan. Using his super-charged chariot, the human made several trips to the Crystal Empire to retrieve relief supplies of food and medicine. Sam and Flash Sentry lead a huge convoy of crystal ponies directly to Ponyville using a shield spell to guard them. It was the break they needed.

Vice Grip decided to punish this act of defiance by razing the towns around Ponyville. Places like Dodge Junction, the Wonderbolt Academy and Trottingham were burned to the ground. In their places, he built new research facilities and laboratories as if the communities there had never existed.

Weeks passed. The Enclave maintained tight control of the skies but even they knew there was a stalemate. The Crystal Empire supply line remained the only one that wasn't cut and both sides new it would only be a matter of time before Vice found a way to cut it. But, it was time they used to rebuild and stabilize their position. Ponyville remained the light of Equestria, refusing to go out.

Finally, the day came where things in Ponyville were stable. That day, Dan planned his attack.