Legend of Silva's Gate

Chapters

The Fallen Pegasus
All His Hate!
Arrogance
The Astral Observation
H3N8 Season
The Element of Mystery
Recon Base Zeta
The Voice
Hydra-tion
The Great and Powerful Infatuation
The Cold, Lonely Expanse of Space

The Fallen Pegasus

'Awake, young Silva...you must awaken. You are in grave danger. Death lurks nearer with every moment you lay still...you must awaken. Get up...get up.' a strange and soothing voice Leo heard from the dark black corners of his mind. Comfortable where he was, wherever this blackness was, he was content in staying and ignored the voice's pleas. 'Young Silva, you are vital to the fate of this world...you must awaken.' Leo heard the unknown voice plead with him again. Feeling the sensation of being disgruntled at being forced from a comfortable place, Leo slowly fought to regain consciousness.

As the blackness faded away, Leo struggled to get a good look around him. He quickly realized that whatever Angel had done to him, he must have been flung back deep into the forest. Glancing around, everything was shrouded in either darkness, or an eerie moonlight that easily let the imagination run wild. What was really unexpected by Leo, was the sheer silence of the forest, save for the low whispers of the wind and the fierce, distant cries of unknown animals. Sighing Leo laid his head back down on the ground, suddenly feeling fatigued and extremely sore. Irritated, he struggled to get up, but a sudden, unbearable and intense pain on what he thought was his right arm shot up and into his body, causing him to shriek in agony and collapse back upon the ground. His fall had simply made matters worse, as what he thought was his chest also exploded in pain, prompting anguished grunting to escape him. After the pain subsided, Leo came to the conclusion that he was seriously injured.

'Maybe I should have let that yellow creature help me. But I feel so...wrong.' Leo contemplated. As he looked around, he suddenly froze in shock. 'No...no HUD? Am I that badly...?' Leo thought to himself. Suddenly recalling the last moments of his altercation with Angel, he recalled seeing one of those creatures being shown to him by the cloud, eventually copying his every move. In sheer disbelief at what his brain was deducing, he looked for something to reflect his image. Finding a puddle, he fought through the burning pain in his chest to get close. His mind racing in fear, he had to force himself to peek over the puddle. When he unclenched his eyes, he found one of those pale green creatures, with vivid, jade green eyes and a yellow mane staring back. 'Oh God...no, no, no! This can't...this is imposs...!' Leo panicked, as he stared at his reflection. Unable to withstand the shock, Leo nearly blacked out on the ground again, fear of his own shape threatening to cloud his mind.

'Please, young Silva, please...ignore your state and keep moving...head west as much as you can, and you will meet a friend...please...' the voice pleaded with Leo again. Scared out of his wits, and still extremely confused, Leo obeyed the voice in his head, praying that it wasn't a delusion. Straining his body, he slowly propped himself up from the ground using his working front leg. Grunting in pain from his injuries, he forced his protesting rear legs up off the ground as well.

"Flesh and blood again...worst possible time for the universe to grant my wish...what a sick sense of humor." Leo said aloud to himself, cursing his luck. The forest around him didn't reply though, as he stood, tempering himself for the pain he was sure to come. As he started to hobble his racked and injured body through the trees, he eventually found what looked to be an abandoned path, which was severely overgrown. Breathing deeply and quickly, he continued to fight the burning in his chest that flared up every time he moved. As he wandered down the path, he figured out a rhythm that caused him the lowest amount of pain and began to follow it. Getting a little more excited, he began to move a bit faster, and stopped paying attention to the ground in-front of him. As he kept going, he was suddenly startled and caught off guard when the path ended and he found himself plummeting down a steep hill. Every bump and roll down the hill caused Leo unbearable pain, and when he finally stopped rolling, he screamed out loud for a good while. Upset, and panic setting in as he thought he heard something moving in the bushes near him, Leo strained on the last reserves of his strength to pull himself up off the ground again. 'Come...on. Please...stand up Leo, you...can do this..' Leo strained to stay alert, continuing on this unknown path through a forest he knew nothing off. After a few moments of event-less hobbling down the path, Leo's rear legs finally gave a few more feeble and wobbly steps before he collapsed, his chest searing in agony. Taking a look around before the darkness took him again, he found himself in a clearing, in which no trees covered the skies. 'I did...what I could. Whatever the hell you are...please...help me.' Leo thought, praying that his plea would somehow make it to someone who could help him. As the silence of the forest became deafening, Leo finally blacked out.

Stirring in bed, Twilight Sparkle awoke to the beautiful sound of birds singing, nesting in the branches near her window. As she opened her eyes, bright and beautiful morning sunlight flowed in from her window and illuminated the entire library in a happy glow. Twilight opened her window and took a deep breath, the smell of dew-laden grass filling her nostrils. As she stared out over Ponyville from her window and watched the early risers getting ready for another day, she was snapped out of her reverence by snoring. Giggling, Twilight turned to the lump that was occupying a small bed at the foot of her own. "Hey, Spike, time to wake up. We've got a big and beautiful day ahead of us!"

As Twilight trotted along down the main road in Ponyville (Spike riding on her back), she noticed Rainbow Dash zipping around through the sky, dispatching some stray clouds that had formed, seeing as the weather team 'forecast' today as being sunny. Twilight smiled as her friend ensured that the Ponies around town wouldn't have the sky to worry about. Continuing down the main road, many of the towns-ponies smiled and greeted the two of them as they went on their way, Spike and her doing the same in return.

"So, tell me again about this hoo..hew-man? What did it look like?" Spike asked Twilight, curiosity still bristling inside him since Twilight's return the day before. Sighing, Twilight explained what she knew for the fifth time, as she continued down the main road.

"It was a creature that stood on two legs, much like you, except it was large...much larger. If I had to guess, after observing it's movements, I would guess that it is either distantly related to Gorillas or Chimpanzees, or they could be from Divine origins. The latter seems more plausible, when considering that he didn't burst into flames from the heat of re-entry, and when he pushed against the device. And that he flew without wings.." Twilight trailed off slightly, thinking deeply about the events that had transpired before her only mere days ago. When she had heard that the soldier ponies sent out by the Princesses had failed to turn anything up in the forest, Twilight couldn't help but wonder where the Human that bolted in fright when Fluttershy approached it went, same as the other one that it seemed to be in conflict with. She had entertained the idea that it was simply a hallucination that they had witnessed for a short while on her journey back, but then she reasoned that surely the Princesses wouldn't have fallen for such parlor tricks.

"Uh, Twilight! You walked right past the Post Office!" Twilight heard Spike exclaim in her ear causing her to jump slightly, garnering a few surprised looks from ponies near her.

"Heh heh, sorry, Spike. Had my head in the clouds. The book I ordered should hopefully answer some more questions, maybe then I won't be so distracted." Twilight apologized to Spike, who laughed lightly.

"Hey, no sweat! Not like I'm missing out on anything when it happens." Spike replied calmly, as Twilight turned around and walked into the Post Office. For being in such a small town, the Post Office was awfully busy most of the day behind the counter. Twilight was told one time by the clerk that regularly served her that this particular Office often acts as a hub for parcels and letters going in an out of Canterlot, which, by the City's sprawling nature, often meant lots of work. As she approached the desk, however, she noticed that the regular clerk wasn't actually in today.

"Derpy? How come you're not delivering the letters today?" Twilight asked, also curious as to what the Pegasus was doing under the counter. When she was aware that someone was waiting for assistance, Derpy accidentally smacked the top of her head on the underside of the counter in surprise, causing Twilight to cringe in sympathy. Gripping her head and sucking in air in pain, Derpy was silent for a moment before she opened her eyes to reveal that they had gone walleyed again in a daze.

"Oh, uh, hi Twilight Sparkle. I...sorry, my heard really hurts, that really hurt...uhm...what?" The grey colored and yellow maned Pegasus asked in her daze.

"Derpy Hooves, you need to be more careful...the amount of times you smack your head mustn't be healthy." The Post Master suddenly spoke aloud from the side office, prompting Twilight to silently nod in agreement.

"Yes, sir..." Derpy had mumbled in embarrassment, blushing slightly. She stared at Twilight for a moment before she recalled what she had asked. "Oh, right! Well, Rondoletti got sick, and because I broke my wing in my last crash," Derpy turned slightly and motioned to her left wing, which was held in a confusing sling, before she continued, "instead of also being given the day off, boss put me behind the desk till I heal. Or until Rondoletti gets better..." Derpy trailed off, still in a slight daze.

"Oh, I didn't hear about your accident... but I hope you heal up quick, Derpy. And give Rondoletti my well wishes if you see her." Twilight replied, genuinely wishing for their health.

"Don't worry about us, Twilight. A little crash and pony flu can't keep us Postal workers down for long." Derpy announced proudly, prompting a smile from Twilight. "Now, what was it you needed? I think a parcel came in for you..?" Derpy asked with a sideways glance towards Twilight as she walked over to the locked post office boxes.

"Oh, yes! I ordered an updated copy of the Esoteric and Rare Creatures handbook. So it came in?" Twilight asked excitedly.

"Sure did! Looks like you owe...30 bits, including shipping." Derpy happily replied, grabbing the wrapped book and placing it under her working wing as she brought it over and placed it on a machine. Spike happily pulled 30 bits out of Twilight's money pouch for her and placed it in a chute. "Thanks for using the Equestrian Royal Post Service!" Derpy again announced proudly as the money went tumbling down, prompting the machine to print a sticker onto the book's wrapping paper. "Say, Twilight Sparkle, you wouldn't happen to have any muffins on you, would you? I've been craving some for a while.." Derpy asked in a slightly hushed voice, so that her boss wouldn't think of her as being lazy.

"No, Sorry Derpy Hooves, just some of Spike's....baked bads." Twilight replied darkly, prompting the two ponies to recall the day of the baked bads with disgust. "I'm swinging by Sugarcube Corner next though, I can put in an order and and see if Pinkie Pie can deliver for you if you want?" Twilight offered the temporarily crippled pegasus, who nodded vigorously and happily, thanking her. "Okay, I'll do that then. Have a good day, Derpy Hooves!"

"Really darling, this was so nice of you to do! I can't thank you enough!" Rarity exclaimed happily as she clung onto Rainbow Dash's back.

"Hey, I was heading into town as it was. Just thought you could use a lift, that's all." Rainbow Dash replied, looking back at Rarity and smiling. "Hey, the quickest route back to town is over Everfree forest, you okay with that?" Rainbow Dash asked, still looking at her friend.

"Of course, dear. We're in the air, and it's YOU who is flying. I feel absolute...ly...oh, WHAT is THAT?" Rarity suddenly asked with a gasp, looking at a clearing. "It's beautiful!"

"That clearing? Oh, it's awesome, has a little spring, the grass there tastes amazing, and it's really comfortable to lie there, 'cause the sun hits it all day." Rainbow Dash explained to Rarity, who 'hmm'ed to herself.

"Say, why don't we stop and rest for a little while? I brought some food with me for Gem hunting, but I finished so quickly with that last find, I never got the chance to even eat!" Rarity suggested as she gestured to her flank bags, to which Rainbow Dash happily made the dive towards the clearing. Once they approached, Rarity noticed that Rainbow Dash wasn't joking about how amazing the clearing was. "My word! This really IS amazing! The small waterfall flowing into the spring, some of the greenest grass I've ever seen, and...how did you say you came by this clearing?" Rarity asked, getting no reply but silence. Confused, she turned on the spot to see what Rainbow Dash was doing. "Rainbow Dash? Are you okay?" Rarity asked, approaching her friend, only to get no response as she stared at something wide-eyed and open-jawed. Irritated, Rarity looked in the same direction that Rainbow Dash was, only to gasp and rear up in surprise, causing her flank bags to fall off and spill their contents all over the ground.

"Really, Twilight, you mustn't worry yourself with these subjects. Princess Luna and I have no indication that the two Humans you and your friends saw two days ago are even on our planet any longer. Similarly, we have taken precautions in the case that they do turn up." Princess Celestia spoke to her star pupil softly, as she visited her in her home.

"But if what the book claims is true, Humans are actually far too fragile to even survive most of the things that us ponies do, let alone halt a giant piece of burning space debris and survive re-entry!" Twilight exclaimed, worried that the Princess somehow wasn't picking up on what she was trying to say.

"Twilight, you of all ponies should know better than to completely believe in new science that has appeared without a way of testing the findings. Humans were last seen in Equestria during the formation of the Elements of Harmony, so it is impossible to tell." Princess Celestia resorted to her pupil's love of Science. Twilight sighed and nodded, knowing that her mentor and Princess had a valid point: it really WAS impossible to tell, unless they had a large number of Humans to test. "Now, why don't you go back into town and visit Pinkie Pie? She usually enjoys your visits. Not only that, haven't you forgotten about a certain Postal Pony?" the Princess hinted, to which Twilight gasped.

"Oh no! Thank you for reminding me, Princess! I'll head over - " Twilight had begun to say to Celestia, but was cut off by a frightened cry from the sky.

"Somepony! Anypony! Help!" Rainbow Dash was heard shouting from the sky. Confused and worried, Princess Celestia followed Twilight out into the daylight just in time to see the azure mare land on the grass in front of Twilight's house hard. Panting, the two noticed that she had splotches of blood covering her body randomly. "Twilight! Princess! You have to help! Rarity and me found a hurt pegasus in the Everfree forest! There was blood all around him, and we tried to help him, but Rarity sent me for help, but I dunno, I dunno--please!" Rainbow Dash pleaded frantically.

"Twilight, go with Rainbow Dash and ensure that the Stallion's wounds and tended to as best you can. I will fetch a doctor and nurse from the nearby hospital, and I'll need a beacon to show me where the fallen pony is. Now go, My little ponies, go!" Princess Celestia shooed them towards the forest. Not wasting any time, Dash put herself into a stance that made it easier for Twilight to rest on her back, and then took off. Nodding, the Princess took off in the other direction, towards the Hospital.

"No, stop BLEEDING you! I have no thread and needle to stitch this! Ugh, Rainbow Dash, where are you?!" Rarity suddenly shouted at the forest, which unlike it's normally unforgiving behavior, mercifully replied in the form of a pony's voice.

"Rarity, all you alright? Whats going on? All Rainbow Dash said was something was wrong.." Fluttershy was heard from behind Rarity's back, causing her to turn slightly to face her friend as she exited from the trees.

"Fluttershy, come quickly! This Stallion needs help!" Rarity pleaded. A little scared by Rarity's outburst, she slowly approached until she noticed blood on the ground, and on Rarity herself. Gasping, she finally galloped over, to see a badly injured pegasus.

"Oh my! Oh, what happened!" Fluttershy asked, as she grabbed what looked to be the stallion's torn and ripped cloak that lay on the ground, tearing fabric off it and tying it tightly around the stallion's wounds.

"Dash and I found this one laying in a pool of blood when we landed here for a bite to eat. I sent her off to find help, but she hasn't returned yet..." Rarity explained, simply glancing over the beaten and gashed stallion before her.

"Can you check his breathing for me?" Fluttershy asked, her voice exuding a confidence which surprised Rarity. Quickly, she placed her ear next to the stallion's mouth and listened.

"Yes, he is still breathing, but it's so...shallow." Rarity answered quietly as she brought her head up again, realization dawning upon her that this stallion might actually die. And she would be watching the whole time as he slipped away.

"Rarity, I've done all I can. We can only wait for help now, but hes lost so much blood...if help doesn't arrive soon, he'll probably..." Fluttershy trailed off, just as frightened at the same prospect of witnessing death as Rarity was. Just as a silence was settling in, Rainbow Dash and Twilight appeared out from the top of the trees.

"Holy buck, that looks bad! But you guys did good by tying his wounds off..." Twilight commented as she approached. Silent as she looked over the pegasus, Twilight sighed and closed her eyes to concentrate. A moment later, a brilliantly purple cloud of smoke appeared out of nowhere and flew up into the air, forming a large arrow pointing to the clearing. "Princess Celestia should be here in a moment with a Doctor and a Nurse. At the moment, it's out of our hands..." Twilight trailed off. In the following silence, Rainbow Dash wandered over to the Pegasus and laid down close to him, watching him intently. As thew next few minutes crawled by, Rarity and Fluttershy had gone down to the creek to clean the blood off themselves, seeing as nothing else could be done by them. Just as the silence entered it's fifth minute, the four mares heard a strangely familiar clicking sound.

"I'm coming girls! I...got the...MEDICAL EQUIPMENT!" Pinkie Pie was heard from the air, straining as she powered her strange flying machine as it held machines from underneath itself. Just ahead of her was Princess Celestia, flying towards them as she was magicking a medical team up into the air. The medical ponies wasted no time in assessing their patient once they landed, covered completely in scrubs and shouting orders to one another. As Pinkie came in for a landing herself, Twilight and Rarity cast some magic to steady the swaying load, and to gently lay it on the ground. Once the load was safe, Pinkie, finally exhausted, crashed her helicopter machine into a tree. Twilight pulled her from the tree using magic and placed her on the ground, shaking her head.

"We're ready when you are, Princess." one of the surgeon ponies said to Celestia, who nodded and magicked them up into the air with the pegasus again. With the speed of a bullet, the group in the air rocketed off back towards the hospital. The five mares regrouped behind Princess Celestia as she watched the surgeons fly away, waiting to see if she would say anything.

"All of you must be exhausted. You girls should go home and relax the rest of the day." Princess Celestia suggested, just before she spread her majestic wings and flew after the surgeons.

All the mares were silent as they sat in Applejack's kitchen, unable to think of anything but the well-being of the fallen pegasus. Applejack had made them all hot apple cider, which most of them ended up growing cold, save for Pinkie Pie's and her own.

"Well, shucks girls. Why so down? Y'all did ensure his survival, right? Now it's in the hooves of the hospital to make 'im right again. We should be celebratin', not mopin' aroun'!" Applejack finally snapped, irritated at the dismal mood the group was displaying.

"Applejack is right, we SHOULD be happy that we helped that poor Stallion survive. I say we all go out for a night on the town!" Twilight exclaimed, bent on cheering everypony and herself up. The rest of the mares suddenly agreed and excitedly debated where they should go, save for one Rainbow Dash. As she sat on her chair, thinking deeply, she was suddenly surprised by Rarity grasping her withers.

"Dear, whats wrong? Is there something you need to tell us?" Rarity asked, concerned, as was everypony else. Rainbow Dash glanced around the room, looking at all her mare friends, and noticed that they were waiting by the door to leave. Sighing in a depressed manner, Rainbow Dash explained.

"Yeah...I...I was thinking about his wings. I know my pegasus wings really well; I KNOW when wings are hurt bad. That pegasus...I could tell he flew alot, his wing muscles were pretty well developed. Thing is though, I also noticed that he...probably won't ever be able to fly again, even if the docs work on him from dusk 'till dawn. His wings were really messed up. Messed up bad." Rainbow Dash explained, sadness in her voice. As she looked around the room, the dark mood began to settle around the room again, even beginning to effect Applejack. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned anything. You girls go have some fun, I'm going to hang around the hospital. He should...have someone near him who'd be able to understand how he is gonna feel.." Rainbow Dash said as she ushered the rest of them out, wearing a sad smile. As her friends argued about going with her, she put up her front hooves to silence them as she hovered on the spot. "No, you girls deserve a night out. I'm out somewhere special almost every night with the weather team, so I won't miss anything, trust me."

"Uhm, Rainbow Dash, let us know how he is...okay?" Fluttershy asked of her friend, who nodded before taking off into the sky and headed over the town. Glancing back, Rainbow Dash watched her friends as they began to walk down the road, chatting amongst themselves. As she neared the hospital, she angled herself down towards the ground, zipping through a solitary rain cloud, getting her a little wet. Grumbling, she bucked behind her, dispatching the cloud, and then landed at the hospital entrance, still dripping. As she walked forward, she became aware of how empty and quiet the lobby was. As the trotted towards the desk, a Nurse glanced up from her paperwork and gasped, rushing over.

"Oh my, what happened to you?" The panicked mare asked, motioning for more medical staff, causing Rainbow Dash to become extremely confused.

"Wha-? Huh? Nothing, I'm fine. What are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash asked the nurse, raising an eyebrow.

"'Fine' means no injuries or bleeding, and you a bleeding quite a bit!" The nurse explained to Rainbow Dash, making her panic slightly and start looking herself over. When she saw the dripping red of blood coming off on various areas of her body, it hit her. Sure, most of it had flaked off, but she still hadn't cleaned herself since she tried to stop the pegasus' bleeding.

"Oh, no no! I'm fine, really! This is just dried on-" Rainbow Dash stopped, glancing back again to see more blood drip off her, "This WAS dried on blood, but I accidentally flew through a raincloud on the way in." Rainbow Dash finished her explanation. Looking at the nurse, she noticed that the mare wore an uncertain look, which was wordlessly demanding an explanation for why in Equestria she had previously=dried-but-now-wet blood on her. "I was...was one of the ponies that found that Pegasus stallion in the Everfree forest.."

"Oh, I see...so you wanted to know his status?" The nurse asked, having calmed herself quite a bit. Rainbow Dash nodded, hoping for good news to lift her spirits. The nurse walked behind the desk, grabbing a clipboard with her mouth and walked back over to the desk. "Looks like he just came out of surgery. He should pull through, but he has a lot of healing to do. Only thing is..." the nurse trailed off sadly.

"Yeah, I already figured as much...his wings are toast, right?" Rainbow Dash asked, already expecting the reply.

"...Yes, the surgeons note states that he will probably...never fly again." The nurse trailed off. She watched Rainbow Dash uncertainly as her head dropped down, and she sighed sadly.

"Could I stick in around his room? He should be at-least owed company from a fellow pegasus for when he wakes up...at-least, thats what I'd want. Someone who can empathize." Rainbow Dash asked, pleading with her eyes. The nurse closed her eyes for a moment, thinking, but then sighed.

"We don't...normally let strangers visit with patients, but...if you can at least take a shower in the staff room, I'll let it go this time." The nurse relented.

Shortly after Rainbow Dash turned the shower off and reached for a towel, the Nurse had appeared in the steamy shower room holding what looked like another set of a nurse uniform.

"This will be the only way I can get you into the room at the moment, royal guards are limiting all access to the patient as of now." The nurse explained, the news surprising Rainbow Dash.

"Doesn't risk your job if we're caught though? I wouldn't want you to go that far--" Rainbow Dash began to backpedal, eager to avoid causing trouble for the nurse. However, the nurse shook her head and placed the uniform on a bench in the shower stall.

"No, I can understand the value of having comrades. He'll need someone who can understand what he's lost. Not only that, it's terrible for someone to be alone and unable to move from a bed without more company than doctors and nurses." The nurse explained.

"Th-thank you...uhm, I didn't get your name, what is it?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Healing Dawn. Cliche, huh?" The nurse asked, looking away at nothing, whilst causing a nervous smile and chuckle to escape from Rainbow Dash.

"Heh, uhh...just a little?" Rainbow Dash answered meekly. 'Pinkie Pie handles these situations best, why did I just get one?' she wondered to herself.

"What was yours?" The nurse asked in return, a happy look on her face.

"Oh, it's Rainbow Dash. I suppose you could say my name is a little cliche, too." she joked, laughing a bit. Dawn nodded and then left the room, and as Rainbow Dash dressed herself in the uniform (which she found was designed to accentuate her form, making her feel uncomfortable), Dawn went to collect some medical supplies to place on a cart for show. Once Rainbow Dash was finished, she exited from the shower room, and made her way into the hall to find Healing Dawn waiting by the cart. As the two of them made their way into an elevator, they discussed the way they would approach the soldiers. When they formulated the plan that his bandages 'needed changing' earlier than usual, due to fears that his wounds might be infected with a rare mold, they quickly became pumped when the doors opened to the intensive care floor.

"Honestly, this has to be the most daring thing I've ever done in my life. My heart it just pumping!" Healing Dawn exclaimed, causing Rainbow Dash to gawk at her as they left the elevator and walked down the hallway.

"Seriously? THIS is the most daring thing? Wow, remind me to take you with me when I hang out with my mare friends next, you OBVIOUSLY need to live a little." Rainbow Dash teased the nurse, snickering.

"Oh, you...get into trouble often?" Dawn asked Rainbow Dash, slight nervousness floating on the edge of her voice, as they rounded a corner.

"Eh? Trouble? Not...exactly. We do have some good times doing pretty tame and 'socially acceptable' things," Rainbow Dash mimicked Twilight's voice as best she could, "but sometimes it's like trouble goes looking for us, and we get into some wacky situations. Stuff always works out in the end, though." Rainbow Dash happily reminisced about the last two years since she met the other holders of the elements, smiling as she did so.

"Well, I don't get out of the hospital much, so I don't have many friends to share such experiences with. You're pretty lucky." Dawn replied, trying to hide how the admission made her a little upset with a smile, but Rainbow Dash saw through it.

"Why don't you take some time off and meet up with your coworkers? Wouldn't they be willing to take time off, too? I mean, it's not like you're a mean and nasty pony or anything, you're actually quite nice." Rainbow Dash complimented Dawn, making her smile, genuinely this time. "Heck, if you want, I can make good on my previous suggestion and introduce you to my friends! They're pretty welcoming."

"Are you...sure? I wouldn't be a burden? Oh, that is, I mean...I've never actually had many friends coming around, even as a filly. I mostly had my head stuck inside medical textbooks, so I was a bit of an outcast..." Healing Dawn replied nervously, glancing at the tile floor. Rainbow Dash simply smiled.

"Of course! You'd get along pretty good with my friend Twilight if you're into books. She lives in the Ponyville library, of all places!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. As Dawn as about to reply happily, they heard a stern male voice boom out.

"Halt! What business have you with this patient?" A large, white pegasus stallion in full royal guard gear asked them, as he and the other guard assigned to the post stepped in to block the doorway. Rainbow Dash looked expectantly to Healing Dawn to explain, but cringed when she noticed the nurse had frozen on the spot.

"Err...w-well you see..." Rainbow Dash stammered, smiling nervously at the guards as she attempted to explain their presence...

All His Hate!

"There's this mold...thingy. I-in his wounds, ya know? It's rare, and needs to be removed with this uhh...medicine." Rainbow Dash motioned to the various items displayed on the cart as she tried to explain, failing miserably as the guards stared back, unamused. Just as she sighed and was about to give up the attempt, one of the guards squinted and got up into Rainbow Dash's face, causing her to shrink back slightly.

"Are you...?" The guard suddenly took a closer look at her, squinting slightly. His eyes went wide and he drew himself back as realization washed over him. "Ahh, Miss Dash! Many apologies, I hadn't recognized you in that nurse uniform. You may enter, but I have one small question, if you don't mind satisfying my curiosity?" The guard asked, speaking to her in a much less intimidating tone. As Dawn snapped out of her frozen trance, she looked between her new friend and the (now friendly) guards as Rainbow Dash nodding slowly, still wary of the two stallions before her (and wondered if they were going to ask about the embarrassing uniform). "What does the Holder of the Element of Loyalty want with this patient? I'm aware that you were the first one to notice him, but what else seems to be on your mind?" The guard asked, unfazed as Dawn gawked, open mouthed, at Rainbow Dash.

"Wait, YOU'RE the Element of Loyalty?" Healing Dawn shouted her question, shock threatening to overtake her again.

"I'll explain in a sec.." Rainbow Dash answered quietly, as Dawn came to the realization of what Rainbow Dash was hinting at when she said she and her friends often got into trouble. Turning her gaze back towards the guards, Rainbow Dash explained her intentions for a third time today. "I came because of his wings. My entire life revolves around flying, so, naturally, I know when wings are hurt. After seeing him in the forest, I could tell you that he probably won't be flying again, even without a surgeon's note. When I took a look at him, I could tell he flew a lot, too, meaning his life has changed big time. So I feel that he should have someone who can sympathize next to him..."

"I see...well, you may enter, as I previously stated. The Princesses are with him now themselves, so don't surprise them. They are conducting an investigation into his memories to find out who did this." The guard advised. Nodding to the guards, Rainbow Dash motioned to Healing Dawn to walk with her, who did so, but not without continuing to regard her with awe as the two mares walked into the secured room. "Did you manage to get a-?" The guard that spoke to Rainbow Dash asked the other without moving or looking at him, as the silent one held up a camera, still staring forward.

"Miss Dash looking extremely feminine. The guys down in the barracks are not going to believe this." the other guard thought aloud, the two of them allowing smirks to grow across both their faces as they continued to stare down the hall, growing silent once more.

"Heh, if I'd have known my status with the guards was that high, I'd have simply waltzed on in here without the uniform." Rainbow Dash bragged, smirking as she did so. Looking around the darkened room, she noticed a flickering candlelight behind drawn curtains, which covered the only bed that was occupied.

"But Rainbow Dash, you actually look cute in the uniform! I'm surprised that those stallions didn't do a double-take!" Healing Dawn teased as she winked, making Rainbow Dash squirm on the spot.

"Oh, don't...say t-that! I've never looked good in girly clothes." she downplayed, trying to act as if the compliment hadn't embarrassed her, but a creeping blush betrayed her. Healing Dawn giggled, and then pointed a hoof in the direction of the bed, getting the pair of them back on-track. After a few steps towards the curtain, a shadow stirred behind it, and a white hoof pulled the curtain back slightly, exposing Princess Celestia's face looking out at them.

"My, what a pleasant and helpful surprise! Rainbow Dash, what brings you here?" Celestia asked, smiling as she regarded her subjects before her. Sighing slightly due to having to repeat herself, Rainbow Dash explained her presence again to the Princess. "I see. Perhaps it is good that you have come. Sister and I could use your assistance as a the Holder of the Element of Loyalty."

"H-help, Princess?" Rainbow Dash asked, confused and amazed that the Princesses would need help from a pony like her. Healing Dawn was startled slightly and became nervous when Princess Luna appeared from behind her sister. Noticing this, she cast a calming smile in her direction, before placing her gaze upon Rainbow Dash.

"You've no doubt been brought up to speed by the guards outside on what it is that Sister and I are attempting to do. I dislike admitting it, but this...'stallion' has proved to be an amazing adversary, expertly parrying all my attempts to enter his dreams. It's almost as if something exists within him, blocking all outside attempts to communicate." Luna explained their situation, looking back at the hidden stallion with a blank stare. After a short pause, Luna turned her gaze back again. "Sister suspects that the Elements of Harmony could boost the magic's strength enough to force our way into his mind. I'm inclined to agree with such a deduction, as the thought crossed my mind at roughly the same time."

"So you want me to do...what exactly? I don't ever carry the Element with me." Rainbow Dash explained, raising an eyebrow as she glanced between the Princesses. Smiling, the pair of them. closed their eyes for a moment, sudden movement in the air around them causing the curtain around the stallion to flutter and shift. With a sudden flash of light, the Element of Loyalty appeared with a flash, and floated over, shining as it latched around Rainbow Dash's neck. "Oh...right. Guess I shouldn't question whats possible around you, Princesses."

"Think nothing of it, Rainbow Dash." Celestia's smile grew slightly, as she looked at her subject. Looking at Healing Dawn, she maintained her smile as she continued to speak. "Healing Dawn, it is fortunate that you have accompanied Rainbow Dash. This stallion is quite a handful, and if things slip sideways as we explore his mind, we may need your assistance as a medical expert."

"Oh, y-your highness, you f-flatter m-me! I'm no medical ex-expert!" Healing Dawn struggled to reply, nervousness threatening to make her flee the room. Celestia approached her with the same calming smile she usually wore, and nuzzled the Nurse's crest affectionately.

"Nonsense, my little pony. Your knowledge of general medicine rivals that of a surgeon's. Your assistance will be more than sufficient." the white Alicorn spoke softly to the red Earth pony, who sighed and nodded, still nervous of failing the Princesses. Rainbow Dash followed Princess Celestia as she went to rejoin her sister, who had already begun preparing for the second attempt at reading the stallion's mind. Looking at Rainbow Dash, she seemed to know what questions were running through her head as Rainbow Dash zoned out as she stared at the stallion.

"Most of the time, sleeping and day dreaming pony minds are akin to open books, at least for me. A simple mind meld, and I can experience everything that pony is having run though their mind, from memories of times gone by, to fantasy worlds where their wish is law. As the ruler of night, it has been and still is my job to weed out the nightmares that can plague Equestria. During the period in which I was swallowed by evil, Sister has become proficient in the art as well." Luna explained, nodding happily in Celestia's direction as she looked at her sister.

"Even after reading your documentation and studies on the magic, I'm still not as skilled as you, Sister." Celestia complimented, causing Luna to shake her head.

"Nonsense! You managed to balance the nightmares in the land easily in my absence. But I digress." Luna looked back to the stallion. "This magic is what allowed me to answer your question of what it is we'll be doing, without you speaking it. It also should tell you how it is normally undetectable, unless I were to implant things in your mind. This one, however," Luna motioned to the stallion, "seems to defy that logic. He has prevented Sister and I from getting any further than the outer fringes of his mind, the area which is simply clouded in confusion!" Luna's voice boomed out of frustration towards the end. Taking a moment to calm herself after admitting something in the universe defied her most trusty magic, Celestia continued for her.

"Which is why we require your assistance. If we pool out strengths, we should be able to burst through the 'wall' and probe his memories." Celestia explained, her calm demeanor encouraging Rainbow Dash.

"Well, I'm ready whenever you two Princesses are!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed boastfully, eliciting a chuckle from Celestia. Turning to Look and Luna, the two nodded at each other and both placed a hoof on Rainbow Dash, and the other onto the stallion's hooves.

"Close your eyes and blank your mind to a pure white." Luna instructed. Rainbow Dash took long, deep breaths as she quickly cleared everything from her mind. "Good, now, allow us to direct your mind along the dream..." Rainbow Dash heard Luna instruct again, this time, however, she had begun to fade away.

Feeling a strange tugging sensation in the pure white landscape she suddenly found herself in, she followed it forward. As she did so, however, she found her surroundings quickly growing dim, with grey clouds making her feel like she was entering a wild storm. 'This is the wall Sister spoke of. Push against and through it!' Rainbow Dash heard Luna's voice from deep within herself. Nodding, Rainbow Dash threw herself against the clouds, feeling only a slight repelling force at first. As soon as she pushed forward again, though, she felt a great big shove back, as if someone slammed into her. Looking forward for the offending target, she found nothing. Forcing herself forward again, she felt the same force straining against her a second time. Through the mental pushing and shoving, Rainbow Dash suddenly felt extremely exhausted. Just as she was about to give in, a great big tidal wave of strength washed over her, and when it combined with the remainder of her own strength, Rainbow Dash found herself passing the clouds easily. Rainbow Dash was filled with eagerness as she began to exit from the clouds. Her eagerness faded away instantly, however, as she looked around.

Everything was pitch black. She couldn't even see her own hoof two feet in front of her face. Continuing forward nervously, she began to wonder if entering somepony else's mind was such a good idea for someone besides the Princesses.

'Vega...please!' Rainbow Dash suddenly heard a masculine voice ring out in a similar manner in which she heard Luna's speak to her a moment ago. 'Don't fall, I need you...Vega! No!' it spoke again, the urgency, despair, and panic flowing from it, unabated. As Rainbow Dash began to be overwhelmed by the emotions from the voice, she was confused by the sudden silence. As she strained to listen for any noise, she let her guard down. 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!' the voice screamed out, slamming into Rainbow Dash with what felt like a stampede of Buffalo. Straining, she suddenly felt the extra strength she earned from earlier fall away almost instantly. The assistance gone, she felt like she was bouncing along the floor.

"Ack! What the heck!" Rainbow Dash shouted out, as she glanced around from the back wall of the hospital room from the floor with Healing Dawn shouting out, extremely panicked and frantic. The shouts prompted an extremely fast response from a squad of Royal Guards, the Guards bursting through the door, into the room. As she gingerly got up, Rainbow Dash became aware that the lightning gem on her Element of Harmony was glowing brightly, and didn't seem to be growing dimmer. Glancing up at the panicked Guards and Healing Dawn, Rainbow Dash gasped as she noticed the Princesses struggling to stand up, completely dazed.

"Oh....oh my..." Celestia spoke in shock as Healing Dawn panicked around her and Luna.

"That was...AMAZING. Such raw...POWER!" Luna was exclaiming, looking more like a mad scientist than anything. As Rainbow Dash watched, she suddenly felt extremely tired. Unable to stabilize herself any longer, she dropped into an exhausted heap on the floor as her gem finally began to dim, eliciting surprise and concern from the Guards near her. Only faintly aware that she was being picked up by one of the guards, Rainbow Dash floated off into a dreamless sleep or complete whiteness.

"Dashie! You're okay! Everypony, Dashie is waking up!" Pinky Pie's distant, albeit elated voice sung out. As Rainbow Dash flicked her eyes open, she found everything blurry, and the light made her head feel like exploding. Rubbing them, she found all her friends piling up around her, excited to see that she was okay.

"Dash, if ya'll were jealous of the ahttention that stallion was gettin', you didn' have to get banged up yerself to make everypony look at you again, ya know." Applejack joked, smiling happily as Rainbow Dash gave a weak laugh.

"Did you want any water? Or medicine? Oh, those doctors take so long to get anypony anything! Their delays make me so...so mad!" Fluttershy grumbled angrily, as she placed a cup of cold water to Rainbow Dash's mouth. Accepting it gratefully, Rainbow Dash chugged the water back, her parched throat now getting moisture. "Lytenol for the headache?" Fluttershy offered, to which Rainbow Dash nodded, prompting Fluttershy to grasp two small pills in her hooves (not an easy feat!) and drop them into Rainbow Dash's open mouth.

"How are the Princesses? I'm worried they got it worse than I did..." Rainbow Dash asked, gripping her pained head with a hoof as she suspected that the force she felt from behind earlier was actually her rulers.

"They are fine, after a little TLC from Healing Dawn." Twilight explained, happy to ease her friend's worries.

"My, you should have seen it, darling! When the guards attempted to take them back to Canterlot, she walked right up to them and gave them such a glare! 'They will NOT be leaving this Hospital until I see to it that they are fit to do so!' she had shouted at them, leaving most of them in shock! It was so...invigorating seeing a mare make a stand against a pack of stallions!" Rarity gushed, relishing the scene that she had witnessed earlier.

"Heh heh, yeah, needless to say, those boys will definitely be thinkin' again before goin' hoof-to-hoof with that nurse a second time." Applejack chuckeled, recalling the shocked looks and speechlessness the guards exhibited afterwards. "By the by, wha are you wearin' a nurse outfit?" Applejack asked, her smiling causing Rainbow Dash to blush.

"Well, uhh...Healing Dawn didn't think that the guards would simply let us walk right in, so we had to...get creative." she explained, a smirk growing on Applejack's face. "So, uhm, where did you girls go...?" Rainbow Dash asked, wanting to change the subject from her attire.

"We visited that super-duper swanky new nightclub, the Watertrough! Let me tell ya, those ponies sure know how to throw a party!" Pinky Pie explained happily. The news made Rainbow Dash a little jealous, as she hadn't even had a chance to take a look at the place with all the recent weather changes that Ponyville was going through. Not to mention...

"Oh, hey, wheres that stallion? Is he okay? the Princesses and I were peeking into his mind when we got smoked." Rainbow Dash asked, eager to learn of his fate, although nervous. Twilight shook her head before she explained, glancing over at the bed a few feet away.

"No changes...he is still unconscious. A Doctor was telling me that he should have woken up by now, particularly after they tried giving him adrenaline." She replied, giving Rainbow Dash a worried look.

"Really? Hmm..." Rarity suddenly blurted out, catching everyone off guard at how odd the outburst was. "Tell me, Rainbow Dash, what were you seeing or hearing as you explored his mind?"

"Seeing? Nothing, at all. It was all black. But...I kinda remember him saying somepony's name. Begging them not to fall. Not to...die, I'm assuming." Rainbow Dash concluded, gripping her head again as she listened to Rarity speak.

"Probably a...decently appropriate indicator that he has lost a lover. No wonder the poor dear won't wake." Rarity explained, looking sadly over at the green stallion, who was absolutely covered in bandages. As she sighed, the room went silent for a few moments, with some of the mares looking at the floor. Pinky Pie glanced from one of her friends to another, her mood getting a little down each time she noticed the sad expressions.

"Oh come on, he's gonna be okay, the Princesses are okay, and so is Dashie! Why the long faces? Things can only get better!" Pinky Pie complained, now annoyed with her friends.

As he felt himself come to, Leo sighed, not opening his eyes. As he lay there, he slowly became aware that he was in a spectacularly comfortable bed. 'I'm...in a bed. I've been floating in space for 'god-knows-how-long'. But I'm in a bed now. What are the odds of my Dream sub-system simply going hay-wire, and I'm asleep in Royal quarters on Cluster Prime?' He thought to himself. Taking a chance, Leo let the sounds of his surroundings flow in. Upon the second he heard the calming pitter-patter of rain falling from a midnight storm outside an open window, he felt his mood sour. Rain never fell on Cluster Prime. 'Apparently, pretty slim. Shit. Just...shit.'

Memories of the last few hours that he was awake slowly made their way back to him, and in an effort to confirm what he had seen, he laboriously turned onto his side in the tight bedspread. Hesitant, he maneuvered his hands from under the sheets and blankets, and chanced a look at his hands, only to see that they were still hoofs, causing his mood to sour even more and make him to curse his luck.

'Why does this...this STUFF...Always happen to ME! Ugh! 'Cause things can only get better!', Brad would say. The HELL is WITH that logic! This is the absolute worst thing to happen! Nothing could make this better OR worse!' Growling in frustration, he turned back to the ceiling, bearing his teeth, and pounded on his bed. Leo continued to pound the side of his bed silently in a quiet rage, and it was only after a quiet and quick intake of breath from his right did he stop. His heart in his throat, Leo slowly turned to look to his right, only to see his rainbow-maned neighbor staring at him in surprise. As he felt his heart begin to race in panic, his mind flooded with dark and horrible images. 'Correction, EVERYTHING just got worse!!'

With a start, Rainbow Dash was awakened by movement from her left. Looking over, she noticed the Stallion had turned over onto his left side. Thinking the fact that he moved was a good sign, she happily closed her eyes again and was beginning to fall back into a pleasant slumber, aided by the peaceful rainfall.

As Rainbow Dash was slipping away again, she jolted back awake when the Stallion moved again. Looking over at him again, slightly irritated, she watched the Stallion begin a staring contest with the ceiling. His sudden pounding of his bed caused her to have a sharp intake of breath out of surprise. When he stopped suddenly and slowly turned his head in her direction, Rainbow Dash began to feel nervousness creep up upon her, making her wish she wasn't alone in the room with him. The two locked eyes, seconds feeling like minutes. As Rainbow Dash slowly shrank back in her bed, a look of pure terror overtook the Stallion's heavily bandaged face.

"Stay away! What do you things WANT from me?" the Stallion began to shout at Rainbow Dash, his jade green eyes shrinking in raw terror. "I asked you all before to leave me-!" He had continued to shout, until he grunted and fell to the floor near the window, clutching his head, and suddenly fell silent. Rainbow Dash hesitated in her bed, unsure of what to do as she was beginning to panic and wonder if the stallion was sane. She was surprised to see Princess Luna walk out from a blackened corner of the room and look towards the stallion with a blank stare.

"He holds a fear for all Ponies. A childhood nightmare plagues him." Princess Luna spoke aloud. She quietly walked towards the stallion, her mane fluttering in the wind from the storm flowing in through the open window. Without a word, she magicked him into a more comfortable position on the floor. Princess Luna's horn began to glow with a blue hue, as she lay down beside the stallion. Closing her eyes, she lowered her head so that her horn rested upon the top of his head. As Rainbow Dash continued to watch silently, she saw a white mist appear from Luna's horn and flow down into the stallion's head. Shortly after, Luna raised her head and opened her eyes, rising from the floor of the hospital room. At this, Rainbow Dash slid out of bed and onto the floor.

"What did you do?" she asked quietly, still unsure of the stallion's sanity.

"I couldn't remove his personal horror, but I did at least manage to mask it." Luna spoke as she seemed to inadvertently ignore the question, a frown on her face and she looked down upon the sleeping stallion.

"For one fill with so much anguish, strangely he puts up a magnificent fight to cling onto it." Celestia's voice floated out from the same corner in which Luna emerged. Whipping her head around to the source, Rainbow Dash witnessed the rare sight of a troubled Princess Celestia.

"Uhm, I don't want to interrupt either of you, Princesses, but whats going on?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking from one sister to the other. Glancing at Rainbow Dash for a moment, Luna looked to Celestia for a silent agreement. Nodding, Celestia looked towards Rainbow Dash, her expression softened to the one she usually wore.

"Now is not the time for any of you to know. You shall be filled in at a later point." Princess Celestia assured her. "For now, I suggest you rest until morning, as he won't be awake until them himself. To help him, you'll need your energy. He has a tendency to bolt, and he moves very quickly when he does." Celestia added. Unsure of how Celestia knew this, Rainbow Dash nodded slowly and hopped back up into her hospital bed as Princess Luna magicked the stallion into his own bed, easily covering him back up with the blankets. As Rainbow Dash got herself comfortable, a question suddenly shot into her mind as the Princesses were leaving the room.

"Oh, Princess Luna, one last question..?" she asked the blue Alicorn, who stopped to look back at her silently. "Uhm, what is 'childhood'?"

"'Childhood'...? Perhaps you misheard me, I said 'foal-hood'." Princess Luna lied, Rainbow Dash finding her extremely convincing. However, as she nodded and then laid back down onto the pillows silently, her mind whirred.

'I know what I heard, and it was definitely 'childhood'. Gonna go out on a limb here and guess that it's just like foal-hood, seeing as Princess Luna mentioned it...' she thought, just before she found herself drifting into a very relaxing sleep.

When Rainbow Dash woke up, early morning sunlight streamed through from the open window, causing her to squint and raise a leg to shield her eyes. laying on her side, she turned her gaze towards the stallion's bed, finding it empty. As she laid there, eyes squinting and staring at the bed, it took a moment for her to realize the problem her brain was prodding her with: his bed was empty. Jumping out of her bed, she zipped over to the other side of his bed, only to see his bowl of soup spilled on the floor. Rainbow Dash groaned, and quickly put the tip of her right hoof into the soup to check it's temperature, finding it cold.

"Argh, Princess Celestia wasn't kidding! He must have left the hospital by now!" Rainbow Dash growled. Quickly disrobing from the nurse uniform she still found herself in, Rainbow Dash bolted from the room and found the nearest elevator. Punching the call button, she became antsy as the elevator kept stopping at other floors. Glancing to her right, Rainbow Dash noticed an open window. Galloping over, she peeked out to the ground to see that the lobby entrance that she flew into last night was only a few floors below. Not wasting anymore time, she surprised a couple nurses and doctors when she jumped out. Being the daring pegasus she was, Rainbow Dash waited until she was only a few feet from the ground before she unfurled her wings, slowing herself with one forceful flap. When she landed on all fours with a dramatic thud, a group of fillies being watched by a nurse gave off impressed 'ooh's (as well as a gasp from the nurse). Normally, this would stroke Rainbow Dash's ego nicely, but she wanted an explanation as why Leo was already gone from the hospital, so she ignored the praise and galloped back into the hospital. When she entered the lobby, she was surprised by the high level of activity within it, a far cry from what could be described as loneliness from last night. Glancing around, Rainbow Dash began attempting to find a free nurse or doctor to ask for help.

"Rainbow Dash?" a familiar voice rung out from behind her. Turning, she saw Healing Dawn looking at her with a smile on her face. Not wasting time, she trotted over to her new friend.

"Morning, Healing Dawn! Hey, you haven't seen that stallion anywhere have you?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Oh, yes, I just escorted him to the library. Said he had something he wanted to research, and was invited to the library last night when your friends visited. I left a royal guard with him, just in-case he becomes too fatigued to move around under his own power." Healing Dawn explained, attempting to reassure Rainbow Dash with the last bit. Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows at the news of his invitation, however.

"That...doesn't even make sense. He was still totally out of it last night when my friends were visiting. Besides, Twilight doesn't let anyone into the library but her friends on Wednesdays." Rainbow Dash thought aloud, Prompting a now irritated Healing Dawn to reply with a hoof to her face.

"Wonderful, just wonderful! I was told by the Doctor that he was a hoof-full and was quite snappy. But he was so silent when I talked to him, so I took his word when he...ugh! Stallions!"

"Ahh, don't worry. I'll look for him and make sure he isn't causing trouble. I get the feeling the Princesses wanted me to keep an eye on him." Rainbow Dash volunteered. Healing Dawn bit her lip for a moment, and looked around the busy hospital lobby, and then nodded.

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash. It's really busy in here, otherwise I'd go...can you at least give him heck for me?" she asked, to which Rainbow Dash chuckled.

"Sure thing, I'll be sure let you know how he's doing!" Rainbow Dash promised, just before she galloped out of the lobby and launched herself into the air.

"Interesting. This should be....very, very interesting." Angel seemingly spoke to himself from a frozen mountaintop, as a blue light retracted into a device on his wrist. As he stood still, looking towards the grey sky and smirking as the wind caused his cloak to flutter in the wind with the snow, an eerie voice floated around in the air.

"Those whom you despise approach. They pose no problem, however. Even those who exist without the flesh are still susceptible to nightmares.." Nightmare loftily replied, causing Angel to flinch slightly.

"Nightmare, please don't speak in such a manner, you're making me nervous." Angel replied uneasily, beginning to fidget and look around.

"As you should be. Remember, doppelganger, you only continue to live thanks to my intervention. I could have easily subdued the thorn in your side and killed you instead. Do not forget that." Nightmare teased evilly, causing Angel to frown and cross his arms in a 'harrumph!'.

"I'm aware, have I not said it before? I owe you my services. Which you will receive. It's up to you what we shall do about the Hive. I care not for these ponys in the slightest, so it's you're choice." Angel replied to the voice within.

"For now, we bide. The ponys can suffer, until, of course, these...'robots', were they? Until they become a hindrance. Though, it sounds like they should be easy enough for the Royal Equestrian Army to handle, so I suspect we needn't lay a finger on them. Once their blockage of your message is stopped, we can contact your precious 'Humans' and make a utopia." Nightmare explained her plan to Angel, using a similarly haughty tone. Without a sound, Angel smirked and simply waltzed over the cliff face he had been perched on top of.

Arrogance

Leo suddenly found himself standing on his feet. As he looked across the sandy and rocky ground before him, he noticed it was dotted with the occasional dried up shrub. Far away, about a day's trek, a mountain chain, which seemed to trail on forever in either direction, was visible to Leo. Glancing behind him, he surveyed an endlessly flat plain, with the sun struggling to be seen against a chaotic jumbling of clouds, all of them ranging from dark greys to orange browns.

"Wow. This is pretty wild." Leo spoke to himself. As he continued to scan the empty land surrounding him, a feminine voice echoed out across it, seemingly coming from every direction.

'Young Silva, you are alive! But only just, it seems.' the voice spoke to him. Confused, Leo kept glancing around him, attempting to locate the source of the voice, but to no avail.

"Who are you, and where am I?' Leo asked calmly, but he still felt alarmed with his new surroundings.

'You have found yourself in a very special land. Every living being in the universe holds a piece of it within their heart, and every version is different, tuned to their emotions and beliefs of themselves. You might consider it the physical manifestation of a being's self perception.' The voice explained. Annoyed with the voice's implications, Leo interrupted it.

"So you're trying to tell me that I'm barren, lifeless..." Leo trailed, again gathering in his current environment, "AND a potential health hazard? Considering this place looks like it goes on forever, with no food or water that I can see."

'It is not how I, or anyone else, sees you. This land only reflects self perception, how you see yourself. The heart can never lie. The mind, however, can.' the voice replied calmly, yet it's comments served only to aggravate Leo further.

"You must be confused with someone else then, 'cause I don't see myself like that at all. Now mind explaining how the heck I leave? Being Lucid in a dream world is great and all, but I'd enjoy being awake more. Places to go, a particular robot I need to dismantle, and so on." Leo pitched to the voice aggressively. He jumped slightly when he heard a sigh from behind him. Turning around, Leo's eyes struggled to fight against an intense light that enveloped a humanoid figure.

'I shall guide you back to the outside world, however...' the figure trailed, as it seemed to kneel down. Extending a small hand that seemed to glow with purity, it piled up some sand. After a few seconds, it brushed the sand away to reveal a small, bright green seedling. Taking a moment to tend to the plant, the figure quickly dug away sand a grey dirt in a dry moat around the seedling. Intrigued, Leo slowly approached the figure. 'Watch...' the figure commanded. As he glowered, Leo stared at the dry moat for a moment, without as much as a single change. Just as he was about to complain about wasting time, some movement in the moat caught his eye. 'Ahh...' the figure's voice resounded satisfactorily, as water suddenly rose from the ground and filled the miniature moat, which moistened the mound of dirt that the seedling was mounted on-top of.

"Cool, what are you trying to show me?" Leo groaned, crossing his arms in impatience. When he suddenly found himself floating in the air, and everything around him growing dimming by the seconds, Leo let loose a surprised gasp. "Wha-whats going on?!" Leo shouted at the figure, which kept up it's blinding brilliance. When everything but Leo and itself was completely black, the figure finally replied.

'Young Silva, I just wanted to demonstrate to you that even the largest, most barren wastelands can hold something special.' it spoke. Before Leo could say another word, the figure silently faded, and he found himself feeling extremely comfortable.

'Goddammit, who is making that racket? I'm trying to sleep!' Leo complained in his head, groaning and flicking his eyes open as he did. Before him stood the red wingless-and-hornless pony nurse who he was escorted to the library by from yesterday. As he squinted at her silently, the look of momentary concern on her face slowly turned to one of annoyance when she deduced that he wasn't currently in any pain or trouble.

"You! How dare you abuse the trust of the Doctor and me! That was just awful, Leo! You could have seriously tarnished the respectability of this hospital by taking off!" the nurse shouted at Leo, causing him to cringe slightly, and then mope as she continued to lecture him, particularly about how he caused the Hospital a lot of embarrassment. As she continued, however, Leo became annoyed, and interrupted her.

"Alright, Look! Ms. Dawn, was it? YES, I lied about being invited to the town library, and YES, I shouldn't have shaken the guard like that. But I wanted to find out some information about a number of subjects without some...pony hanging over my shoulder or babysitting me!" Leo exclaimed.

"Oh? And why is it that it was necessary for you to not have supervision for your state as you researched?" Healing Dawn asked, frowning and crossing her forelegs as she stood next to Leo's bed.

"Well, uhh..." Leo's mind raced, looking for an excuse. He thought about telling the truth, but he suspected that if he told her that he was actually a humanoid robot from a planet called Earth, and that his evil, glitched copy of himself, Angel, found some weird power with which he twisted Leo's form and turned him into a pony, an organic being, and that he was looking for a way to return to normal...it probably wouldn't end well. Odds being he would be transported to a pony version of a Sanatorium, where they would ensure he'd never be able to escape. So, as he stared at the increasingly unconvinced Nurse before him, uttering only a prolonged 'Uhhhhhh..', he decided to lie.

"Well? I'm waiting." Healing Dawn growled a Leo. Hanging his head in a feigned shame, Leo quietly replied.

"I wanted to be alone because what I'm trying to figure out is a little....embarrassing." Leo explained, expertly frowning and casting his eyes to the side. Healing Dawn lightened up slightly, but she still pressured him for an answer.

"Oh? That's okay, I'm a nurse. I'm bound by a confidentiality clause, so you can tell me." Healing Dawn pressed on, a blank look taking over her face. Uncertain, Leo pressed on with his lie. Sighing, he decided to present his lack of knowledge of the world as his subject, in substitute for his actual target knowledge.

"Well...I've forgotten so much. I don't know what species of Pony I am...or any of the others, for that matter. I don't remember what the currency is, or if I even own any. I don't remember the country we reside on, or even the name of the planet. Shoot, I don't even know who attacked me, or why. And that's just the tip of the iceberg." Leo replied. Seeing as it wasn't exactly a lie (save for the knowledge of his attack), Leo had no trouble slouching halfheartedly in his bed, suddenly aware that he really did know nothing of his current locale. Which, he foresaw, would make life extremely difficult for him. "In fact, the only thing I'm really 100% certain on is that I no longer have a home." Leo explained, letting himself fall back onto his bed. 'Another truth...no home for me. Anywhere. I'm actually in a lot of trouble here...' he thought to himself, as he placed his front right leg over his eyes, suddenly aware that he was the not-so-proud owner of a huge migraine. He forgot how much they sucked. Nurse Dawn finally took some pity on him, wet down a cloth, and placed it over his forehead, getting him to hold it on.

"Not that I expect it to console you any, but the Doctor expected you to have memory loss. On the bright side," Healing Dawn paused for a moment to pull out of medicine and stir it in a glass of water, "You've actually retained more memory than expected, based on your head trauma. Sounds like you know exactly who you are, and that you've had some adventures in the past. Not only that..." Healing Dawn trailed off as she watched Leo down the water greedily.

"Not only what?" Leo gasped, having downed the entire large glass of water in a single go. Her pause made Leo a little concerned, as he wondered if these creatures were talking about his actions against LODUS6-12. Undoubtedly, as these creatures were of similar intelligence to Humans, rumors would spread. And he'd get an extreme amount of unwanted attention. Wonderful.

"You certainly remembered how to flirt with Mares, according to one Miss Spitfire, who we also admitted after you were found. Claims you made some pretty bold moves towards her cousin." Healing Dawn finally finished, causing Leo to sigh silently in relief. As he thought about the name for a moment, a pang of panic and realization overcame him.

"That mare! Is she okay? It looked like she was killed the second she was hit..." Leo blurted out, wondering if he should have mentioned the attack. Healing Dawn simply smiled and nodded, as she examined the bandages on Leo's side.

"Yes, she is absolutely fine. In fact, she reported that it felt like a train traveling at full speed hit her. She's actually been hit by stronger forces." Healing Dawn reported calmly, still examining Leo's bandages. Leo's mouth dropped at the news.

"My god, she is like...an organic flying tank." Leo mumbled to himself. Getting an odd glance from Healing Dawn, Leo leaned up again and asked a question. "Are all Ponies like that?"

"What, take massive blunt force injuries and walk them off? Not really." Nurse Dawn explained. When she looked directly at Leo, and noticed his interested face, she smiled widely and took the chance to teach Pony biology. "Pegasi are typically the best for that. At least, when they're in the air. Only reason you survived that thing attacking you, is because you had the instinct to jump in the air before the hit. Flight loosens a Pegasus body up, which when combined with the magic behind their flight, allows them to take terrible blows in mid-air before going down. Being on the ground, however...usually means serious injuries, very quickly. Earth Ponies are better for being struck while on the ground, due to their endurance, but they still can't take quite the same punishment before going down." Healing Dawn explained, having a diagram written up on a sheet of paper, seemingly pulled from nowhere, which she placed on Leo's table. As he listened, two things stuck out in his head, one about himself, and the other about Earth Ponies. Deciding his curiosity about himself, namely his new body, he decided to probe her about his race.

"So, you're saying I'm a...Pegasus? What gives with my wings, then? If it's instinct for me to jump up and fly away, how come my wings didn't break through these bandages?" Leo asked, completely engrossed in the lesson Healing Dawn was giving him, as he decided to soak up as much knowledge about his current environment as possible.

"About that...well...I really hate to be the one to say this. I'm afraid that...your wings are permanently crippled. They were even before that creature cornered you." Healing Dawn finished quietly, shrinking back slightly as if she expected a huge outburst from Leo. It took a moment, but Leo eventually understood what she was saying. As she watched him clench his eyes shut and place his hooves to his head, Healing Dawn felt terrible for him, and felt tugs at her heartstrings.

"That...I figured, but..." Leo finally replied. As he thought back, he distinctly remembered having his thrusters...removed, before he changed. With this discovery, Leo reasoned that any damage he suffered as a robot would loosely translate as a similar injury to afflict him as a pony, and vice versa. Problem being that Leo couldn't actually test his theory, seeing as he still hadn't even found an explanation for how he transformed in the first place. Out of the corner of his eye, Leo noticed the door at the far end of the room open up a crack. Having caught his attention, he froze on the bed to watch the intruder through his peripheral vision. As the figure behind the door suddenly moved into the room, Leo lunged out with one of his hind legs, connecting it with the side table which Healing Dawn had busied herself with placing a bowl of soup on, not wanting to watch Leo as he came to grips with his handicap. Surprised, she watched as the bowl on it's contents flew across the room towards the intruder, almost as if in slow motion. Surprised by the commotion over by the bed, the purple intruder gasped just before she was coated in hay soup.

"AH, AAHHH! HOT, HOT, HOT!" The purple mare shouted, mostly in surprise, as she pranced around the room, attempting to dry herself of the assailing lunch. Leo couldn't help but snicker as the would-be intruder stopped to shake herself, finally freeing herself from the heat.

"Ah! Ms. Twilight, what is the meaning of this, sneaking in on poor Leo?" Healing Dawn chastised Twilight while Leo blew raspberries, who grumbled as she used magic to remove the remaining liquid and solids of the soup from herself.

"I hate to sneak in like this-" Twilight started, before being interrupted by Leo.

"Tried and failed. Don't flatter yourself." Leo snipped, smirking as he did so. Sighing, Twilight continued.

"Anyways, I wanted to figure out what has the Princesses so interested in him, not to mention so wound up. They've visited him no less than three times since he got back." Twilight. explained to Healing Dawn. "I'm also interested in finding out more about him as well, actually. Sounds like Spitfire told Rainbow Dash some pretty interesting information about that metal creature and this Stallion." Twilight frowned, turning her gaze towards Leo, who frowned in return. "Your name is Leo, correct?" Twilight asked. Raising a brow, Leo responded.

"I don't recall introducing myself to you, but yes. My name is Leo." he replied grumpily. Healing Dawn frowned angrily at Leo for him being so rude.

"Is it seriously necessary to be so harsh to her?" Healing Dawn asked, crossing her hooves as she stared angrily at Leo. He made a couple motions, coupled with a face of sheer confusion and disbelief, before he replied.

"But- but she BROKE into my ROOM! Why are you on HER side?!" Leo exclaimed, utterly confused at the 180* that Healing Dawn seemed to pull out of nowhere. Healing Dawn shook her head as she pointed a hoof at Twilight.

"Perhaps, but she only did it because she was concerned about the Princesses and the town! Not to mention, it's completely ungrateful to someone who helped save your life!" Healing Dawn lectured Leo, who began growling.

"To hell with that! I'm not answering this rescue mare's questions! It's not like I asked to be saved!" Leo shouted at the two mares, as he swung his front legs side-to-side wildly in his aggravation.

"Wow, dude, you're not suicidal, are you?!" Leo heard another female voice shoot out from the door. Looking up, he saw the blue mare from the night he had spent in the hospital. As he stared, however, he strained to recall what happened that night.

'I was panicking when I saw her...why was I panicking?' Leo thought, as he was suddenly trusted into thought, trying to recall a memory that was struggling to escape what felt like a prison. When he suddenly became aware of his surroundings again, he found that Twilight, Healing Dawn, and the Cyan mares had brought themselves right up to him, leaning on his bed, large amounts of concern covering their faces. Jumping slightly in surprise, he absolutely panicked when he noticed another four mares that he didn't know finishing a semi circle around his bed, the rest of them wearing similar concern. "What the hell are you peo-...ponys doing in my room?!"

"You are not SERIOUSLY thinking of offing yourself now, are you? Not after all the effort I put into helping you, not to mention the time it took to remove the bloodstains from my hair coat..." the white mare trailed off, her purple curly mane bouncing slightly as she shook her head.

"Huh? Wha-...EH?!" Leo shouted gibberish in confusion, unable to believe that these ponies had jumped to the conclusion that he wanted to die.

"Don' even think about it, boy. I ain't lettin' you go and put yerself out to pasture, not after the amount of effert it took to get these girls to go an' enjoy themselves in town. Ah'll tah you up mahself if ah hafta!" The orange colored pony threatened with a southern twang, as she swung her tied up mane over her withers. Leo simply stared at her, incredulous.

"Yeah! Not to mention, I have a super-duper awesome-wahsome party-warty waiting for when you get discharged to celebrate you surviving getting your flank kicked twice, and surviving! It would look kind of bad to celebrate you living if you leaped off a cliff first!" A pink, bubbly mare exclaimed happily. Still excited even as she mentioned the part about him killing himself, Leo began to seriously wonder if the pink one had a slight mental handicap.

"Psh, he wouldn't be able to kill himself that way, Pinkie. I'd save the day again, with my super-awesome speed." The cyan pony bragged, flexing her wings.

"Oh, nice. How tactful. Thanks for that." Leo frowned at her, as he motioned to his wings with a hoof, causing her expression to droop immensely as she apologized quietly. "Now that I have YOUR ATTENTION!" Leo had started, shouting at the pink mare as she suddenly became more interested in something on the floor. "I feel the need to point out that I, in fact, was not looking to die. I was simply stating that I hadn't asked for the favor of being saved. In fact, I had actually gotten to where I assume you found me under my own power. Damn cliff-hill-thingy is what did me in." Leo explained.

"Oh, but...if we hadn't saved you, you would have definitely died. So by not asking to be saved, it's a death sentence." The yellow mare rebutted in a whisper quiet voice. Upon saying this, the rest of the mares voiced their approval of her logic, and began to lecture Leo, causing one of his eye's lower eyelids to begin twitching. Finally snapping, Leo slammed himself back down onto his bed, covered his entire face with a pillow and screamed. Finally hearing nothing but silence, Leo leaned back up, and looked at Twilight.

"Shut up and listen! Yes, I know more things about these creatures than the average pony! No, I'm not interested in sharing information on them, because once I'm free to leave, I've got a bone to pick with them!" Leo shouted at her. Now glancing around at the shocked mares around him, he continued. "Now if you ALL don't mind, I'm tired as hell, and want to sleep!" Leo exclaimed, slamming himself down onto his bed. 'The less I interact with the locals, the better it'll be when I leave, after clean up the mess with Angel.' Leo quickly, just as he noticed the cyan pony puckering up some spunk again.

"Dude, I might not be the best one to talk about naps and sleep, but you've been sleeping for three days straight! And the only reason we're here is because Princess Celestia asked us to make sure you don't run off again, buster!" the cyan pony squinted harshly, jabbing a hoof into his chest.

"That's AWESOME, but can YOU say that you wouldn't feel like a piano just fell on you after being crippled in the woods, then getting smoked through a cafe's window by a massive inter-planetary messenger robot the very next day, and shortly afterward realizing earth seriously doesn't want you around anymore?" Leo snarled, as he covered himself with the bed's blanket. Glaring at the cyan pony, Leo noticed the mare seemed upset with herself every-time Leo ended up having to mention his wings. He'd have to keep this reaction in mind, in case he ever needed to abuse it.

"Oh please, a piano? I've had that fall on me before. As well as an anvil and a few other things, sequentially." Twilight Sparkle huffed as she thought for a moment. Looking at all of her friends, she came to a conclusion. "Well, I suppose we should leave you for now, seeing as you're uncooperative. Thanks for the hint on what the metal creature was, though. Let's go girls." Twilight finished, turning away with a smirk as she watching the realization dawn on Leo's face, followed by an angry cringe.

"Not that it'll help much. Assuming you're as big a brain as you make yourself seem, If you needed a hint as to what it is, I doubt any of you will find anything." Leo rebutted. Twilight simply continued to walk out of the room with a smug look on her face, with her friends following her. As Healing Dawn began to argue with Leo over how rude he was, Applejack looked back at Leo.

'Shoot, whatever happened in tha forest must have him pretty rattled tah be that big of a jerk.' she thought to herself, as she trotted to catch up with the other mares. 'That, or he was that big of a jerk in tha first place an' opened his mouth to a Manticore.' Applejack imagined in her head, chuckling a bit. The laughter subsided when she imagined being crippled herself from an attack like that. '...or maybe he is taking the loss of his wings badly.' she concluded, deciding that she would probably be bitter and bent out of shape over it herself. 'fer real though, who is he? ah've never seen him before, he knows abou' aliens from space, an' by tha sounds of things, the Princesses know tons more about him then they want to admit. What the hay is goin' on aroun' here? This ranks high on the weird-scale.' Applejack strained her mind, rubbing her left temple with a hoof as she boarded the elevator with her mare friends. Suddenly realizing something had moved in front of her, Applejack came back to reality.

"AJ, you okay?" Rainbow Dash asked, as she waved a hoof in front of Applejack's face.

"Ah'm fahne, Dash, sorry. Jus' been thinkin' about alot of tha weird stuff that's been goin' on since that metal ball fell from space." she explained her silence. "Speakin' ah which, any ideas, Twi?" Applejack, as she turned her head to look at the purple mare.

"Nothing...comes to mind at the moment. I'll be honest, I've never heard of 'inter-planetary robots' before. Speculation from leading scientists suggested that we were alone in the universe." Twilight offered, her mind routing out any pertinent information to the subject.

"Well, ah hate to say it Twi', but those speculations have jus' been blown clear outta the water." Applejack replied tensely. Looking at the uncertain expressions on their faces, Twilight tried to rally the group.

"Oh, don't worry girls! Books have never failed me yet, I'm sure we'll find something mentioning these 'robots'."

"Oh Celestia, my books...actually failed me! They don't say a single thing about robots!" Twilight wailed, covering her head with her hooves as she laid on the ground. In a heartbeat, she thought back to the extreme arrogance of the green jerk back at the hospital, and what he said to her before they left. Twilight growled in anger, as she mentally conceded defeat, visualizing the gleeful look of victory on Leo's snout.

"Well, perhaps the Princesses could tell us more? I know Rainbow Dash said they withheld information from her before, but...perhaps recent events could have changed their minds?" Rarity suggested, closing what was perhaps the 100th ecology encyclopedia, and magically handed it to Spike. Twilight sighed, and shrugged.

"Wouldn't hurt, I suppose, but I don't expect a change in their stance." a defeated Twilight replied. Glancing over to Spike, who already grabbed a quill and paper, she was about to begin the letter, when something slammed, hard, on the balcony outside Twilight's bedroom, causing the whole tree house to shudder. Curious, the girls (save for Fluttershy, who simply hid under a table) wandered up the stairs, and glanced out towards the balcony, only to see..

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna! Whats going on? Did some more of those freaks show up?" Rainbow Dash quickly asked them, as they wandered into Twilight's house.

"Yes, I'm afraid we've received word that more of those creatures have been spotted all around the planet. Thankfully, they have been defeated, but not without the other nations and races experiencing casualties." Princess Celestia replied grimly, a frown placed firmly on her face, as she looked upon the girls, including the latecomer Fluttershy, who was still visibly nervous.

"I've also confirmed the existence of a large number of objects in the sky, but they are currently much to far to be in orbit yet. Based on my calculations..." Luna began to inform the girls, before magicking an abacus, a scroll of paper, and a quill out of the air to confirm her conclusion. After a moment of the beads moving around, and some scratching on the scroll with her quill, Princess Luna continued. "Yes, based on my prior and new calculations, the objects have approximately two months to arrive, at their current speed."

"We're concerned, however, as we have such little information on these creatures. I wish I had held my temper with the one that attacked earlier, but..." Princess Celestia trailed off, slumping slightly as a look of dejection filled her face, the action completely astonishing everypony in the room, save for her own sister.

"Need I remind you, had you not made an appearance, the unknown stallion from before certainly would have perished. We can find more information elsewhere." Luna spoke to Celestia in a soft tone, attempting to cheer her older sister up.

"I wouldn't try books, Princesses! The girls already looked at everything in this library, no joke!" they all heard Spike exclaim from the main room, grumbling as he proceeded to replace the bookc. A depressed Twilight sighed and nodded in agreement.

"It's true...they didn't say a word about robots at all..." Twilight explained, hanging her head in defeat.

"Robots? Is that their race's name? Where did you hear this?" Luna asked, suddenly placing herself directly in front of Twilight, startling the purple mare.

"It was Mr. Leo who said it! He mentioned the names 'Interplanetary Robot' and 'Earth' while he was complaining at us in a rant! I got the feeling that he wanted us to leave!" Pinkie Pie replied excitedly, but her energy dropped slightly when she realized she had forgotten something. "It's sad though, because I never got a chance to tell him when his party for not dying was going to happen. Seriously though, how the heck could Somepony name a foal 'Earth'? What a weird name!"

"Well now, that's interesting...still don't think it's him, 'tia?" Luna asked, glancing back towards her sister, who closed her eyes and smiled in thought.

"I guess I shouldn't have doubted you, little sister. You always have had a strong connection to Silver, so I apologize." Celestia humbly replied, before she opened her eyes and looked down towards Twilight. "I must apologize to you as well, Twilight. Not only for entering your home unannounced, and through your bedroom no less, but we must be off to speak to Leo, and without explanation. When I have the time, I promise to explain everything." Celestia spoke softly to her pupil, as she nuzzled her. With one last look to all the Holders of the Elements, Celestia said one last thing. "Stay safe, all of you. Dark days are ahead." she said softly, before she teleported away with a crack and a flash of light. Luna stepped back and prepared to do the same and follow Celestia, but turned her gaze to Applejack, as her mane fluttered in non-existent wind.

"Celestia would be upset with me if she heard me saying this, but if you want to help your friends and yourself get a starting point, look towards a favorite foal-hood story of yours." Luna explained to Applejack cryptically, garnering a confused look from the orange mare. With a crack and flash of light similar to the one from before, Luna had disappeared from view as well.

"Uh, well, shoot. Which story was she talkin' about..." Applejack asked aloud, as the other girls turned to her. A moment later, her eyes widened and she stomped her left hoof on the floor. "Silver! That's it! Princess Luna was talkin' about the legend of Silver and his magical gate!" Applejack exclaimed excitedly. "Twi', you hafta have a book with it somewhere, right?"

"That depreciated legend? Applejack, are you sure? I mean, sure, it's beginnings are one hundred percent true, but as for the rest...it's even been discounted by Princess Celestia herself as a Pony's-tale." Twilight asked, only to be greeted by an annoyed look from Applejack. Smiling nervously, Twilight caved. "Alright, hold on, I think I have a basic legends book somewhere..." she said as she turned, only to run into a book floating in the air thanks to some blue light coming from Rarity's horn.

"Sorry, Twilight! Spike was kind enough to hand it to me just now, so no need to go downstairs." Rarity explained. As she floated it over to Applejack, Rarity was either completely oblivious to Spike's fawning, or she ignored it effortlessly. As Applejack look through the Table of Contents, and then began leafing through the book, Pinkie dashed down the stairs to make popcorn. She was back quickly with a large bucket, however, and shortly afterward Applejack smirked.

"Ah, 'The Legend of Silver's Gate'. Applebloom loves-" Applejack had started, but was interrupted by Twilight.

"It's also referred to as 'The Legend of the Dimensional Gate' or 'The Legend of the Royal's Gate'." Twilight had begun to give a lecture on the history of the tale, but was suddenly stopped by Rainbow Dash pushing a hoof to her mouth.

"Hush Twilight, I wanna hear the story!" she demanded, laying down on the floor with the rest of the mares after she withdrew her hoof. Sighing, Twilight nodded to an annoyed Applejack, who then smiled and motioned for her to join the rest of them on the floor.

"As ah was sayin', 'The Legend of Silver's Gate'...mah Pa used ta tell me an' Big Mac this story all tha time. Applebloom loves it too, 'cept Pa never got to tell her it even once before he and Ma passed, so me n' Big Mac take turns tellin' it to her. So it's a real special story to us, I hope ya'll like it." Applejack spoke to her silent friends, before glancing back to the book she held open with her hooves. "The legend of Silver's Gate goes back to tha point before Equestria even had a Monarchy, an' the Princesses were just growin' out of fillyhood and getting to tha point of being young mares. Heck, back then, they weren't even considered Princesses of Equestria! Their Parents were tha leaders of a series of villages, as Equestria had only truly just formed a few centuries prior."

"Oh goody, so this is a really old legend!" Pinkie Pie had exclaimed happily, shoving a hoof-ful of Popcorn into her mouth. Applejack nodded to her and continued.

"Sure is, Pinkie. Now that I've explained tha time frame, let's go on. Alrighty, so...Before the Princesses Parents were even aroun', when the Pegasi, Unicorn, an' Earth Ponies of young, newly formed Equestria were beginning to claim their territory and ownership of the land, ruins of old were bein' constantly discovered. Nopony knew what they were for, why they were made, or who made 'em, but they ALL had carvin's picturin' some sort of huge archway surrounded by water, with two weird figures walkin' under it, which people started to call 'The Ancients'. As word got around, rumors went with 'em sayin' that the arch was a gate to another world, and that the Ancients left this world for another. Nopony ever made heads or tails of 'em, and this went on for about two hundred years. As villages were beginning to grow, a sort of group government formed between some of them, to work as a collective group and help protect each other. This group was lead by the Princesses Parents, whom at tha time were lookin' to get their daughters married. Arraigned marriage was a norm back then, so thats what they were lookin' into. This is kinda where it gets weird." Applejack explained ahead of time, looking at the girls, who silently stared, Pinkie shaking in anticipation. Nodding lightly, Applejack continued.

"Apparently Celestia was happy with her suitor, as she loved him and he loved her. Her suitor was named...Discord." Applejack explained, everypony's jaws dropped.

"Are you SERIOUS, Applejack? DISCORD? Oh, good heavens, tell me he looked like a normal pony at that time?" Rarity pleaded with Applejack, who nodded, thankfully.

"Yeah, he was. This all happened a while before he took control of Equestria tha first time. Anyways, they were both in love, so everypony was happy. Everypony, 'cept Luna. She hated being told who ta marry, and was repulsed by her suitor. According to legend, she used to gallop off as much as possible to tha nearest ruins to escape from having to be around her suitor and parents. It was the day before her weddin', though, that she took off past even those ruins, and just kept on runnin'. As she past on through what was then called the 'Forbidden Forest', she came upon a lake. Looking towards the center, she saw a small island with a strange arch in the middle of it. Before she could stare in wonder for long, she was attacked by a huge hydra that had been living near by. In a panic, she flew over the lake towards the archway. 'Oh great Lords, I beg thee, spare mine life and send a hero to slay this beast!' Luna had asked in silent prayer, and to her surprise tha Archway lit up, and a silver film filled the inside of it. Before she could stop, she flew right into it, and fell to the ground on the other side. Lookin' around herself for tha monster, she noticed that she wasn't at the lake in the middle of the forest anymore, but in tha middle of a snow-covered plain. What she saw next is..." Applejack trailed off, and suddenly stared intently at the book, her eyes re-reading the text before her.

"Uhh...AJ? Is everything okay?" Rainbow Dash asked, concerned about the sudden silence and intense scrutiny that Applejack was giving the book. She glanced up to Twilight for a moment, and then back to the book to make sure of what she was reading.

"Oh nelly, I knew somethin' was a'ringin when I saw that...thing on the beach. Twi', you still have that 'Esoteric and Somesuch' Handbook?" Applejack asked Twilight, not looking up from the book. It only took her a moment, but Twilight shortly had her new copy of the 'Esoteric and Rare Creatures' handbook. Applejack wandered over, the legends book held open by her teeth, and plopped down beside Twilight, as she began to point out a paragraph from the book with her hoof. As Twilight read the passage, she glanced up at Applejack wide-eyed. She quickly magicked her own book to a particular page, and then quickly compared the texts.

"No way! How could this have been missed for so many years?" Twilight asked to nopony in particular, complete astonishment covering her face.

"Ah knew it. As soon as Princess Luna mentioned this story and ah clued in, that same ringin' went off. Ah dunno about you, Twi', but ah'm beginning to think this 'depreceated' legend made be holdin' some water after all."

"What in Celestia's name are you two going on about? The rest of us are in the dark here, you know!" Rarity suddenly shouted, glaring at her two friends. As Applejack and Twilight stared at their friends, Twilight suddenly got up and shook her head.

"The legend claims that The Ancients are Humans." Twilight quickly explained to the rest of them, prompting them all to recall the night at the Beach. Turning back to Applejack, Twilight continued to speak. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. If it was actually just a story made to entertain foals, the author may have simply gone for the exotic and brought in a Mythological creature. Many stories for foals strive to snag the attentions of their young minds, why not make it interesting?" Twilight suggested.

"So you're saying that we were hallucinating when we saw that Human land on the beach, freak out when he saw us, and bolt into the trees?" Rainbow Dash asked grumpily, as she sat on her rump and crossed her forelegs.

"Well, I don't know how to describe that. The Princesses certainly saw the same thing we did..." Twilight trailed off into thought, trying to explain the recent phenomenon. 'Surely this legend is just an old mare's tale?' She thought to herself. Unable to come up with an answer, Twilight frowned and continued to speak. "Regardless, we definitely haven't heard of any news about Human's being spotted in the forest. Princess Celestia told me a few days ago that the guards haven't turned anything up. Actually, the only weird thing to come out of the woods was Mr. Leo." Twilight explained.

"But...what if it was the Human that attacked Mr. Leo? When I went up to him, he was so scared of me. What if Mr. Leo surprised him?" Fluttershy was heard asking quietly, glancing around the room nervously as if something was going to suddenly jump out and attack. Twilight's bedroom descended into silence, as nopony said anything for a while, all contemplating the possibility that Leo had indeed been violently attacked by the human. The silence was broken soon afterward by Rainbow Dash, however, as her face had a look of realization grow upon it.

"We need to go to the Hospital and visit Leo again. Right now." she suddenly said, as she stood up and walked towards the staircase back to the Library's main room.

"Huh? Why? What good would that do? All he'd do is gloat about how he was right that we wouldn't learn anything in my books." Twilight grumbled, before Rainbow Dash shushed her with a raised hoof.

"When I was there overnight, Leo...look, just trust me and follow me, okay? If the Princesses are still there, we'll finally get some answers." Rainbow Dash spoke with finality, continuing down the staircase. "I hope...cause this is getting weirder every minute." she whispered to herself.

The Astral Observation

"I've thought I expressed my intent on keeping the girls in the dark, Luna?" Princess Celestia said curtly to her sister when she appeared by her side shortly after joining her at the hospital. Luna was quiet for a moment, as the two left the elevator that Luna had just teleported into. As they walked down the hallway towards Leo's room, Luna replied to her sister.

"At what cost, Celestia? Becoming distant? Even I could see it in her eyes, Twilight is becoming impatient for an explanation as to what is going on, and so are her friends." Luna replied politely, as she followed Celestia through the Hospital. As Celestia remained silent, Luna chanced a glance at her to gauge her sister's mood. Noticing this, Celestia sighed, finally replying.

"I just want to keep them safe from harm...They've all done so much for Equestria...for the two of us. The last thing those girls deserve is to be dragged into war." Celestia said sadly, as way of explaining her recent behavior. As the two royal mares pushed the door to Leo's room, they noticed him sleeping peacefully. Luna looked to Celestia before they walked in.

"It's not wrong to feel that way, Sister. In fact, it's what makes you such a wonderful leader to Pony kind. But we can't fight this alone. You do recall the prophecy that was left behind, correct Celestia? We've no choice in the matter." Luna spoke to Celestia softly. Only when they noticed Leo pulling himself up off his bed to get a better look at his visitors, did they finally enter the room, closing the door behind them.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"Dash, just stop and explain to us wha we're here again? Ah can't understand ya when you're runnin' ahead like that!" Applejack shouted at the cyan mare as they reached the Hospital. Grumbling, she turned to face her friends, some of them visibly exhausted from the constant gallop that Rainbow Dash had held from Twilight's library. Sighing, Rainbow Dash began to explain herself.

"Well, thing is..." she trailed off for a moment, looking down to the ground as she shot nervous glances to her friends. 'They're going to think I'm nuts...too late to stop now though, I guess.' Rainbow Dash thought to herself, before taking a deep breath and looking up at her friends, who were patiently waiting. "Thing is, I think Leo might be that human we saw on the beach."

"B...beg yer pardon?!" Applejack explained in surprise, the rest of the girls mimicking the expression that she wore. "Dash, did you seriously jus'-"

"Yes! I did say it, because it all fits! That human's right side was badly hurt when he landed on the beach. Leo's right side? Badly. Hurt. Human runs into the forest, chasing after the other human, and disappears without a trace. Leo turns up instead, nearly dead, and neglects to give a proper explanation for his presence in the woods, save for an extremely vague 'I have no home' speech. Not to mention, Spitfire mentioned that Leo knew exactly what that robot thing's weakness was, that huge off button on his back. He has knowledge of something that has never been seen in Equestria before, or even the entire planet for that matter." Rainbow Dash concluded, staring at the others intently, waiting for any reply. When Twilight spoke up to end the momentary silence that followed, Rainbow Dash had expected praise for her critical thinking, but she was dismayed by the response.

"Rainbow...those are definitely some interesting and suspicious correlations, but it's all technically speculation. Yes, the human's right side was hurt, and yes, Leo's was as well. But it could very well be coincidence. In fact, I hate to say it, but...it most likely is. Same with the Humans disappearing with as much as a whiff of smoke, and Leo appearing in the woods instead. We can't currently discount that he may have actually BEEN attacked by the Human." Twilight explained to a now annoyed Rainbow Dash, who sighed impatiently and then interrupted her.

"Yeah, yeah. But how can you explain his knowledge of the robot? Spitfire has nothing to gain from lying about it." Rainbow Dash pressured Twilight for an answer, who thought silently for a moment.

"Hmm...well, is it not entirely possible he saw the off button prior to fighting it? From what I hear, it has 'OFF' in the ancient text. If he knows how to decipher ancient text, maybe he figured out what to do?" Twilight suggested. Rainbow Dash was livid. If Twilight was speaking about coincidence and probability, how the heck could she even suggest that Leo had a knowledge of ancient text? Twilight must have picked up on the look present on her face, however, as she amended her suggestion, the alteration not making Rainbow Dash any happier however. "Or it's entirely possible he guessed. We also must remember, we're getting this information second-hoof from a pony who was hit a large piece of metal hurtling at the speed of a train, head first. She could be slightly scrambled from her accident."

"Aw, come on! Spitfire definitely knows what she heard, and she's gone through worse! Some of her training accidents have been pretty brutal, after-all!" Rainbow Dash shouted in annoyance.

"Rainbow Dash, Dear, it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say that she could be. If what you're saying about her having a number of accidents is true...well, needless to say, her poor brain could be a little jostled." Rarity attempted to add to the conversation, trying to get Rainbow Dash to come around, only to have her get into her face.

"Watch what your say, Rarity. Spitfire isn't going loony!" Rainbow Dash shouted at her. Rarity's nostrils flared at Rainbow Dash's attitude, but after she quickly calmed herself, she explained her logic.

"What I mean to say is, look at what happens when poor Derpy smacks her head on something during her mail runs. That unlucky girl once delivered me a crate of eggs bound for the cafe. Goodness knows which confused pony got my fabric shipment." Rarity recalled Derpy's crash with a slight cringe.

"Well, seein' as we're here, ah suggest we ask Princess Luna about tha legend's reference to Humans." Applejack suggested, proceeding to walk towards the Hospital, the rest of the girls following her, save for an annoyed Rainbow Dash, who simply stared after them. Fluttershy stopped beside her for a moment, and looked at with an encouraging smile.

"Uhm, Rainbow Dash? I thought they were good theories, if you don't mind me saying." Fluttershy told her in a whisper. Rainbow Dash sighed.

"Yeah...thanks Fluttershy. I guess." she replied, watching the yellow pegasus trot to catch up with the rest of their friends. Rainbow Dash walked after them, moping slightly, thinking to herself. 'They don't understand, it's hard to explain that I know hes human, but...I just know!' she screamed in her head. Hanging her head, she stopped again for a second as an idea presented itself to her, causing her to look up, a blank expression turning into a confident one. 'Okay, those may be the only pieces of proof I can think of right now. I'll just get more! And if that's not good enough for them, I'll just get a confession from Leo!' she declared to herself, now holding her head high with a smug look, and trotted after her friends, her confidence renewed.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"These recent events have baffled to greatest minds in all of Equestria. While it is clear that you are concerned with different issues, you are not alone in your state of confusion." Celestia said to Leo, attempting to place Luna and herself on the same level as Leo, so as to garner some trust, which she could tell would be difficult to earn.

"Yeah, you could definitely say that things have climbed pretty high on the DEFCON scale of weird..." Leo chuckled, his statement eliciting confused looks from the Princesses. "...uhm, nevermind." Leo sighed, slumping as he leaned against the wall behind his bed. After a moment of silence, there was a slight dinging from a clock beside his bed, to which Leo slammed his right hoof on a button ontop of it without looking, and then slid out of bed as he suddenly wore a look of content. After he swung the cloak he 'collected' earlier over his back, he turned back. "Alright, well, I'm being released now. So if you two don't mind..." Leo trailed off, as he looked at the Princesses expectantly.

"But you're still...injured! How is it the hospital is releasing you in your current state?" Luna asked, dismayed that the he was being discharged while he bandages clearly still needed daily changing. As Leo simply shrugged his shoulders, his expression showing disinterest, Luna made a mental note to have a discussion of her own with the Doctor.

"Something about being a huge hassle for the hospital. Nurse Dawn looked like she was ready to buck the Doctor in the face after he said that, though, and she sorta dragged him off down the hallway." Leo explained, now glancing back and forth between the two Princesses, who looked back at him with a similar look of expectation. "If you'll excuse me, I have someone I need to track down."

"Ahh, 'someone', and not 'somepony'?" Luna said in a monotone voice. Silently cursing himself for slipping up again, Leo glanced towards the window quickly, trying to gauge if he could survive the landing if he needed to escape. When he looked back, Luna's blank expression had changed into a knowing smile, and Leo could have sworn that her eyes looked like they hungered.

"Leo Silva, we know exactly just who, and what, you are, as well as where you have come from. ease spare us the facade, as it is simply wasting everypony's time." Celestia said to Leo forcefully. Her calm demeanor and pleasant attitude had been picked up on by Leo, but what Leo could only describe as raw power that poured out from her voice caused him to shrink back slightly, mostly due to shock. After taking a moment to think to himself, he decided to follow the large white mare's 'suggestion'.

"Well, I'm sorry about using up your VALUABLE time, but a very dangerous individual is loose on your planet, and I'm damn sure that he'll be the one that led the Hive, the creatures that are threatening Equestria." Leo concluded, giving his statement finality and sitting on his rump and crossing his forelegs. "Course, I doubt he did it on purpose..." Leo added as an afterthought, intriguing the Princesses, who were still antsy to discuss he reason for their visit. Noticing their curiosity, Leo explained. "He sorta hates robots. With a passion. S'Matter of fact, he has some sort of delusion of grandeur that God has tasked him to eliminate them from the universe for the sake of the Human race." Leo finished with a nod, and then brought a hoof to his forehead lightly. "Don't even get me started on the irony, it's overwhelming."

"Well, that certainly makes things interesting. Perhaps he can assist us in forcing out invaders back." Celestia suddenly blurted out, turning herself from Leo's flabbergasted gaze, to look at Luna. "Sister, lets begin organizing the Military-" Celestia had begun before an unintelligible shout came from Leo. She gave a quick wink and smirk to her Luna, who didn't say anything and simply gave her a squint in reply, before she turned to Leo. "Yes, what did you need?"

"Didja not here a word I said? He is dangerous. He'll kill and destroy anyone or anything that gets in his way. Not only that, he would only do for the Humans. If I didn't have evidence to the contrary, I'd say he would be long-gone by now." Leo insinuated. Thinking back, back to the little altercation Angel and he had their last, ill-conceived combat in, Leo recalled what he had said he was going to do. He didn't agree with Angel ideals, of transporting Humans to this planet. Sure, Earth was in quite the sore spot, but nobody deserved to have their home taken away from them. He began to bite his lip, however, as the more he thought about it, the more he found himself noticing a darkness in the pit of his gut pleading for him to let Angel guide the Humans here. They didn't deserve the hell they were suffering from, either.

"Something is pressing heavily on you, Leo. Would you like to share your problem?" Luna offered to him, in what almost sounded like a maternal tone, which caught Leo's attention. As he looked at her for a moment, he recalled an old family mantra. 'The motherly shoulder of the Night will always warmly welcome and shield those who are torn asunder'. As he never understood the mantra, and wasn't entirely sure why the mantra came to mind when he looked at Luna, he shook his head and replied to her.

"Not something I want to alarm you with, but it goes hand-in-hand with how dangerous he is. To be quite honest, your current concern...is spot on. The Hive is definitely the main concern." Leo explained, mostly to himself. 'Angel won't even attempt to call Earth if The Hive is going to attack this planet. He'd most likely wait the attack out, and intervene if needed. Hah, I bet he is at least questioning his decision to twist me into this shape now.' Leo thought to himself with a smirk. As he thought about the second bit of irony of the situation Angel caused, Leo looked at both the Princesses and continued to explain about The Hive.

"Before I continue...does this planet have projectile weaponry at all? Save for bows?" Leo asked. When the Princesses shook their head, Leo sighed. "Well then, I'd hate to break it to you both, but that means this Planet is doomed. I don't even need a computer or calculator to tell you that, at this rate, every creature has a 0% survival rate. Your foe is too far technologically superior. I mean, sure, you two are super powerful, and I'm sure both of you could crush even the largest robot into a tiny cube, but that's just it: there are only two of you. And that works against you in two ways. One, being unable to be in multiple places at once, and two, even on ONE battlefront, the sheer numbers of their forces will be overwhelming." Leo explained, seeing the colors drain from the Princesses faces.

"My, you certainly know how to make a mare's day..." Luna voice strained, and she similarly struggled to chuckle afterwards.

"But you've dealt with these creature before? Surely there is a way to defeat those monsters!" Celestia pleaded with Leo, who looked depressed.

"I have, yeah...and, well. There used to be a way, but it's...gone now." Leo explained, now looking at the floor. "Being in this form...I'm liable to be easily killed. Twelve showed me that a few days ago. Unless I can get this curse removed, There really is no hope. And after all that, I'm still only half the equation." Leo finished quietly.

"We don't have the knowledge to reverse a spell of this caliber. This is ancient magic that hasn't been practiced for centuries, and it's known as the Transmutation School. This spell...was cast by a master of it. Tell me, you said that the dangerous person cast this upon you...where were you both when this occurred?" Luna asked Leo. Looking up from the floor, Leo thought for a moment, before his face became one of concern.

"I...can't remember. The only real thing I can recall is he mentioned something he described as 'pretty' called Nightmare."

"What?! Are you certain you heard correctly?" Celestia shouted at Leo using the Equestrian royal voice, albeit inadvertently, and caused him to recoil slightly again. Not waiting for an apology, Leo kept the conversation rolling along.

"Yeah, he definitely said 'Nightmare'. This 'Nightmare' must be a big bad, eh?" Leo asked, receiving a quiet and strained nod from Luna, who, Leo noted, looked to be trembling. Seeing his confused stare, she quickly excused herself from the room, citing 'a need for water'. Leo looked back to Celestia, his expression conveying his unvoiced questions. After a moment of collecting herself, Celestia explained.

"Long ago, Luna, my wonderful sister, was overtaken by jealousy of how Ponies frolicked during my Day, while her night was feared and ignored. Nightmare, whom Luna and I had dealt with in the past, appeared, and because Luna was weakened by her emotions of the time, Nightmare was able to take control of her, and cast an eternal night, plagued by nightmares. To end it all I...I ended up banishing her to the moon, and there she remained for one thousand years." Celestia told Leo, pausing for a moment to check his reaction for disdain of her actions. Seeing nothing but interest, she pressed on.

"It was only last year, when the 1000 year eve of my Sister's banishment and the Summer Sun Celebration was about to occur, and my star pupil, Twilight Sparkle, was completely aware of the signs of her impending return. However, by that time, everypony in Equestria had grown to view those events from centuries ago to simply be an old mare's tale. Events in Twilight's foalhood showed me that she was to be the one who would break her curse, however, to do so she would need a very special type of magic.

"I sent her to this town, the town of Ponyville, to make some friends, as she had none in Canterlot. As the day pressed on, she met many ponies, and five girls stood out amongst the rest. Once my Sister had escaped later that night, the six of them ventured into the Everfree forest, and after a series of events, they eventually stood before Nightmare Moon, as she called herself at the time. Eventually, they realized that the tools they needed to defeat Nightmare and rescue Luna, the Elements of Harmony, resided in all of them.

"Using the Elements of Harmony, they cast Nightmare from Luna's body, and, what we had previously thought, destroyed her completely. Afterwards, Luna was returned to the castle, to rest and begin catching up on Equestria's history." Celestia finished, and watched Leo for a moment as he processed the large volume of information.

"Can I ask you something, Princess?" Leo suddenly asked her. When she nodded, he continued. "Is there a library I can actually visit? You mentioned a lot of key pieces of information, and I'm getting the vibe that I should know what they are. Not to mention, I just need general information of this place, if I'm going to be stuck here until it gets wiped out." Leo finished gloomily. Looking at Leo, Celestia could hear a number of hooves clicking on the tiles outside in the hallway, and sensed the magical presence of one of them. Smiling, she looked towards Leo.

"Yes, there is. The Librarian would be happy to assist you in finding any information you require. In fact, here she is now." Celestia motioned to the doorway as she sidled away from it, Leo's expectant eyes looking towards it. His expression quickly shifted to one of complete indignation.

"For the love of--!"

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

All of the ponies that were in the hospital room with Princess Celestia had been bickering as they were leaving the hospital, which at the time had annoyed Princesses Celestia extremely. She had heard that Twilight and her friends, and Leo hadn't gotten along at all, but she wasn't prepared for this level of animosity. Princess Luna had reappeared when they entered the Hospital lobby, and had mercilessly teleported away as she heard the commotion, citing the need to 'rally the troops for drills' as an excuse, leaving Celestia to her misery. The constant tense silence as they walked to Twilight's library was beginning to wear on Celestia's last nerve as anger bubbled up in herself, and she began to wonder if she preferred the bickering; at least then, they were communicating.

She sighed again, as she vowed to get back at Luna for what she seriously considered calling treason. Once they finally got to Twilight's library, Celestia let loose one final, drawn out sigh which caused Twilight to stop glaring at Leo and stare at Celestia with concern.

"Alright everypony, I understand that your personalities clash, but Leo needs guidance. His memory loss is expansive, and until he can get a handle on a number of subjects that you all take for granted, I don't feel comfortable in having him wander around the country on his lonesome." Celestia explained to the girls, who nodded begrudgingly, save for Pinkie Pie, who was excited to have a chance to plan a party, and Fluttershy, who was busying being too shy to truely worry about Leo's attitude.

"Seriously, I DON'T need Anypony's help, I--" Leo had begun to argue, but was stopped dead in his tracks when Celestia glared at him.

"You wanted information, yes? Twilight's library will have what you were searching for. If you want that information, then you must agree to being looked after." Princess Celestia gave Leo as an ultimatum. As she was still wearing the same heart-stopping glare, Leo didn't hesitate to nod quickly and silently in agreement. "Good. It's settled then." Celestia replied happily, the calm and peaceful stare that was a common sight returning. "Before I leave you in the hooves of these capable girls, I just want you to know that Luna and I shall begin to research the origins of...your affliction. Once we get some information, we'll send you a letter." Celestia promised, and with the crack of a whip and flash of light, she disappeared. As Leo looked around, anywhere but at the girls, he noticed a building deep in the town that had a slot in it's roof. Perking his interest, and hazarding a guess at what it was, Leo stood up. Even if he was wrong, at least he could become more familiar with his surroundings, if not at least his own new body.

"Right, well then, I'm off to look around town." Leo suddenly announced, heading back into town with an unsteady trot.

"Oooh! Oooh, do you want some company? I could show you Sugarcube corner, and we could get something to eat!" Pinkie Pie asked.

"No." Leo replied quickly, without looking at Pinkie, who suddenly frowned, grumbling about a 'Mr. Grumpypants..'.

"I thought you were looking for information about things?" Twilight asked him, raising her voice slightly so she could be heard. She decided she might as well try to get along with Leo, if not for her own sake, then atleast for Celestia's. Leo turned around, nodding.

"And I'm doing just that. Besides, gives you a chance to clean the library up without interruptions." Leo shouted back. Twilight became confused at this statement, not to mentioned irritated, so she trotted up to him.

"How did you know it was a mess?"

"Oh, just a hunch. I mean, I can't REALLY see you mares coming by my room again to say 'Hello!' after our last 'discussion', which means you came by for info on the robots, which I expected meant you looked through almost every applicable book. Meaning that a high degree of probability that a mess was created exists. I'd even wager you looked through books that had no real connection to the topic as well." Leo explained himself to Twilight. As she was processing the information he had given her, Leo continued to trot his way into town.

"But- wait! The Princess said we had to monitor you!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Yes, she did, but does she honestly expect you all to watch me every waking moment of your lives? I doubt it." Leo replied. As she watched Leo head down the path into town, she turned back, fuming slightly, towards the library, where her friends were waiting.

"Wow, what a jerk. Breaking a promise with Princess Celestia like that the second she leaves..." Rainbow Dash grumbled as she looked over Twilight at the green Stallion in the distance. Twilight shook her head as she approached them.

"Oh, I doubt he is breaking his promise with her, did you see the look on his face when she used 'the voice'? I have to say, though, he certainly IS content with pushing the boundaries of it." Twilight explained, relaying what Leo had told her to her friends.

"My, it sounds like he certainly has a large grasp on logic. Perhaps I was a bit quick to label him as an oaf." Rarity mused, confusing Pinkie Pie slightly.

"An oaf? Does that mean you thought he was stupid?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Applejack chuckled as she turned to head into the library.

"Girls, ah suspect that even if he can see things at different angles, he probably has a fair share of stupidity that presents itself on occasion."

"Huh? What makes you say that?" Rainbow Dash asked, as she and the others followed Applejack inside.

"Oh, tha main reason bein' hes a Stallion." Applejack finished with a smirk, to which all the girls giggled.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

As Leo wandered down through the town at the slow pace of a walk (He gave up on keeping a trot after he face-planted in front of a group of fillies, who burst out laughing), he finally found a street that led to the circular building. Upon approaching it, he noticed that it was a store dedicated to astrology, as it featured a series of telescopes displayed in it's main front window. From the angel he was at, he did see a large telescope housed within the build, so at least that was a start. As he approached the building, he noticed price tags underneath the telescopes with various numbers indicating their value, along with what appeared to be the Greek symbol for Beta.

"Can I assist you, somehow, sir..?" A mare of dark blue fur, who didn't look much younger than Leo, asked from the door to the store. As Leo surveyed the store keeper, he noticed a star field plastered onto either side of her rump. As he looked at her, an idea popped into his head. It was a long-shot, but...

"Yes! At least, I hope you can. That opening at the top of the building," Leo motioned, using a hoof to point at the roof, "Is it there for a high-powered telescope?"

"Why, yes! It is! We also take pictures of the sky, in a 360 degree radius. It's not as strong as the Titan Telescope in the Conterlot mountain ranges, but don't go doubting it's capabilities!" The mare explained happily, a pair of specs that Leo hadn't noticed before sliding down her snout slightly as she nodded happily. "Sir, are you an amateur astrologer?" she suddenly asked.

"Yeah, you could definitely say I am. Would it be possible to take a look at some of those photos? I saw some of the events from the past few days in my really cheap telescope, but I couldn't get a decent view..." Leo trailed off, drooping his head to look at the ground, hoping that the mare would take pity and let him look. Something had been nagging him for a while, and he just needed to see what happened, just before reentry. His ploy seemed to work, as the mare nodded quickly. Looking at her, he supposed the search for pity might have been unnecessary, as the store keeper looked happy to share information with a fellow 'astrologer'.

"Yes, yes, of course! Come inside, follow me!" The mare beckoned, and Leo couldn't help but smirk, regardless of how hard he tried. The mare seemed not to take notice, however, as she made no mention of it, even as she looked at him excitedly. It didn't take Leo long to suspect that he was the first person in a while to visit her store, and felt a little bad about not being in the store to purchase anything.

As the mare finally looked forward and led him up a staircase that had a sign saying 'Employees Only', he reminded himself that even if he wanted to purchase anything, he lacked the funds to do so as it was. And as they approached the telescope, he remember the Beta symbols on the price tags, to which he decided to ask about both items. "Say, just out of curiosity, do you rent out use of this telescope? If so, how many...ah...how many..." Leo pretended to be fighting for a word, acting as if it was 'on the tip' of his tongue.

"Bits? Well, uhm, this is the first time anypony has asked about it, but if you were interested, I suppose 15 bits an hour would suffice." The mare offered, which sated Leo's nagging curiosity about the currency's name. And it also offered him the option of taking a peek into the sky at night, to figure out where the heck he was in the galaxy.

Having never heard of a planet like this in any records, Leo suspected he and Angel managed to find themselves in one of the hundreds of thousands of unexplored sectors. Which, even though this made his objective of locating his position extremely difficult, if he coupled that with the knowledge of the direction and angel of his reentry, he probably wouldn't have to spend too much time figuring things out.

'Ah, but you forget about the fact that you spent five long years staring at Angel as you floated through space. That's certainly a long time that things like gravity had to play with you.' The logical part of his brain seemed to tease. Annoyed, Leo wished his brain hadn't thrown that 'what if?' at him. He didn't need anymore problems to worry about, he was already in a tight spot. And that was putting it mildly. Extremely mildly.

"Which area of the sky would you like to take a peek at?" The mare suddenly asked him, causing him to jump slightly.

"Oh, sorry, uhm...Actually, I'd like to take a peek of any photos you have of that huge asteroid coming in." Leo asked.

"Oooh, so you noticed it too, huh? The fact that it didn't burn up, but we're all still here?" The mare asked, suddenly up in Leo's face, making him uncomfortable. Trying to make her move back, Leo nodded slowly. "Yeah, I heard some crazy rumors that a weird, furless, pink pony that stood on two legs grabbed it as if it was nothing, and then walked into the ocean with it! I doubt that's the case, however, as I also heard that both the Princesses were on the beach that night, and they even denied that happening. Why would they simply throw it into the ocean, though?" The mare mused. She was only at it for a moment, however, as she suddenly got into Leo's face again, once again making him uncomfortable.

"But, THAT'S not the real mystery, is it? The real mystery is the asteroid itself, yes? What was it made of that wouldn't let it burn up?" The mare had asked Leo, only to pull back and gasp suddenly. "What...what if it was an alien ship?! Oh, if only the Princesses hadn't tossed it into the sea, the things we could learn from an alien race!"

"Yeah, the things we could learn, for sure!" Leo struggled to smile with his reply. As painfully unaware as she was, the mare was dead on with her suspicion. Having seen the level of technology that this world possessed, save for a few pieces of electrical equipment and other things, Ponies seemed to be (as Leo estimated) around 300 years behind the Human Race. His head hurt when he tried to compare them to Cluster Prime's technological standing.

"Sorry, I'm just rambling, here are the photos! Can't you see? That weird asteroid actually looks somewhat like some sort of artificial construction! Not to mention, there is a much smaller strange shape to the side of it. Any hunches on what it is?" The mare asked, as Leo stared at the image. The picture did have some blurring, but the main issue was how small that he and Angel looked in the ice. He couldn't see much at all in most of the images, which were all pretty similar, until...

"Say, whats this purple shape to the right of the rectangle one?" Leo asked, the mare taking a quick glance at the image, and waved it off with a hoof.

"Not exactly sure, but my business partner and I suspect it was simply a bug that flew in front of the lens at the wrong time." The mare explained. The more Leo stared at it, the more he became intrigued.

"How long was it from this image to when the asteroid made landfall?" Leo asked.

"Oh, not long, I'm afraid. Probably about two minutes. I wasn't able to get a proper shot after that last photo, either. Such a shame..." the mare shook her head sadly. Leo hadn't heeded her any attention once she gave him the info he needed, however, as his brain was working in overdrive.

'If that's a close estimate, that shape's arrival seems to correlate to when Angel suddenly burst the frozen fuel without setting it off. Not to mention, it might explain him flying extremely far with the slightest punch from me.' Leo run the scenario through his head. 'Angel definitely wasn't kidding about being powered up. I can only recall a sudden power surge from him right before the fuel breaking away, and this shape, if it's actually there at the right time...this shape must be this mystical 'Nightmare'.' Leo surmised. If the power that Angel possessed was going to become a regular occurrence, Leo didn't have an ice cube's hope in hell that he'd survive another encounter, Pony OR Robot.

"Could I see some pictures of the same area, but last night, if you have them?" Leo asked the mare, who obliged silently, curious as to what he was hoping to see. As he looked, smack dab in the middle of the image was a number of small green stars. Leo tapped his right hoof on the image and looked at the mare. "Where these stars here before?"

"Hmm...actually...no, no they weren't. My heavens, how did we miss that? What are they? I must take a look tonight!" The mare finished with a tone of finality, after snapping it up from Leo's grasp. As he stared at the image as the mare studied it from a desk, Leo gave a small sigh.

'At least they're a few months away...if this curse can be reversed, I might be able to do SOMETHING...' Leo thought to himself. He looked at the image he left sitting on the desk, and stared at the shape in it again. He wasn't sure what good it would do him at any point, but he decided to see if he could obtain a copy. "Uhm, ma'am, would I be able to have a copy of this photo? The one with the ah...bug? If there is a charge, I'm afraid I'm completely broke..." Leo explained, honestly downtrodden about his financial state. The mare simply laughed and waved her hoof again.

"Don't worry about it, that photo isn't of any importance with that bug on the lens like that. Go ahead and take the original with you." The mare insisted. Leo smiled at the kindness the mare gave him, and he tucked the photo into 'his' cloak. "Is that everything you needed...absolutely everything?" The mare asked him, fluttering her eyelids slightly as she looked at Leo, a slight blush on her cheeks. When he nodded, she sighed slightly, and led him back to the store entrance. "If you need anything when it comes to astrology, you know where to find us!" The mare shouted to Leo as he walked down the steps from the store.

"I'll be sure to come directly to you, ma'am! Thanks again!" Leo thanked her again, waving a hoof at her. As he turned back down the street and decided to return to the library and brave the onslaught of annoyance, he determined that the storekeeper was a good person, regardless of her knack of getting into his face. But he couldn't shake the feeling that when she had asked him if he wanted anything else in the store, she'd been implying about something completely unrelated to astrology...

H3N8 Season

Twilight was sitting on a stool, in her kitchen, slowly tapping her hoof on the table in an irritated fashion as she waited for Leo to return to the library. As her mind drifted to the sneer had had in the hospital room when they left it the first time, and his smug look when he called her on the mess that had been left in the library, since cleaned up with the help of her friends, she snapped.

"Gosh, that stallion is such a smartdonkey!" Twilight suddenly shouted in frustration, causing an avalanche of dishes to shatter on the floor. Whipping her head to the source of the noise, she noticed Spike panting as he held a claw to his chest, and saw a mess of broken ceramic littering the floor.

"I-I'm sorry Twilight, but you scared me! I didn't even notice you sitting there!" Spike exclaimed, as he began to grab the broom to sweep the dishes up.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it Spike. Anypony would probably have been startled by that, here, let me mend those." Twilight suddenly told Spike excitedly, who looked down at the dishes for a moment, and then back to Twilight. Shrugging, he tossed the broom back next to the back kitchen door, as who was he to refuse an escape from potential scolding? As a purple light enveloped her horn, Twilight projected it so that the ceramic remains on the kitchen floor were suddenly enveloped in the same purple light. After a moment of nothing occurring, Spike was about to query Twilight as to what she was trying to do with them, when he gasped as the pieces began vibrating violently, and then they suddenly reformed into intact dishes.

"Wow, Twilight, you actually did it! You pulled off the Mend spell!" Spike shouted happily as he beamed at her.

"Yeah, I did, but...THAT," Twilight had motioned with a hoof to the dishes, now stacked neatly on the floor, "was an extremely simple job. I don't know why, but if I try it on anything more complicated then glass, it tends to become broken even worse." Twilight downplayed her actions, to which Spike shrugged again.

"I know, Twilight. I was there for those test, remember? Anyways, look at the bright side: We don't have to head into town this late to get spare dishes." Spike pointed out, to which Twilight nodded in agreement as she levitated the dishes into their appropriate cupboards. "Say, when did you want to eat? I'm getting kind of hungry early tonight." Spike asked, as he grabbed his cookbook, looking for something interesting to make for the two of them to eat for dinner. Just as Twilight was about to reply, the two of them heard to door open in the main room of the library.

"Oi, Twilight, I'm here! Let get this started, the sooner we do, the sooner we're finished!" a stallion's voice, causing Spike to raise an eyebrow at Twilight, who sighed.

"Spike, why don't you help him out? He needs books on common knowledge taken for granted by ponies. I'll cook dinner tonight, instead." Twilight offered, giving him a strained smile. He nodded slowly, and put his cookbook on the table. Before he left the kitchen, Spike turned back to her.

"So, would 'Taken for Granted: A Book of Common Knowledge in Equestria by B. Ronee' be a good start?" Spike queried, shaking his head when she nodded. "What I don't get, is why so many ponies seem to NEED that book." he said aloud, mostly to himself, as he exited the kitchen. As Twilight began to peruse the cookbook for appetizing meals, she suddenly heard a startled shout from the main room.

"What the heck ARE YOU?!" Twilight had heard Leo yell at Spike, causing her to valiantly fight off fits of laughter. If, Twilight decided, it was going to be this fun to bring Leo up to speed about Equestria, then it might just be worth putting up with him.

'Maybe he'll become a little more civilized after he learns everything again...' she thought to herself, hoping that she was right. She figured that she might be able to put up with him, but seeing as the rest of the girls were also asked to watch over him...she worried about how he might fare with Applejack, or even Rainbow Dash. 'Lassoed and chucked away, or left on a random cloud somewhere.' Twilight imagined the scenarios, giggling a bit as she levitated out the ingredients to a recipe she had chosen mindlessly.

As she thought about Rarity, she figured that out of any of them, she might have a small chance at making Leo feel foolish over being so rude to them. 'Maybe...perhaps I'm just day dreaming too much.' she thought to herself.

Her mind shifted then to Fluttershy. She frowned as she imagined Fluttershy being her normally shy self. She found that she couldn't tell if that would annoy Leo, or if he'd enjoy the silence. Of course, if he stepped out of line, really, REALLY out of line, Fluttershy could probably hold her own against him with The Stare. 'Not that I really expect her to ever have to use it on him. Interesting scenario, nonetheless.' Twilight pondered the outcome. Catching herself getting sidetracked, she giggled again and shook her head. She had to focus on dinner. Suddenly unaware of what she was actually making for dinner, she did a double-take at what her 'autopilot' had chosen for her when she glanced at the cookbook.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"I'm sorry, but...you made spiced catfood? For dinner?" Spike asked Twilight for the forth time, as he rode on her back while she made her way into town towards the local Mc FlimFlam's fast food joint.

"Spike? Would you like to eat dinner tonight?" Twilight asked him grumpily. "Besides, it's not MY fault your weird cookbook has a recipe for catfood."

"Haha, alright, okay. I'm sorry. It's just that...it's actually kind of funny." Spike explained, chuckling some more as he sat on Twilight's back. As they walked into the building, he took a glance at the menu and instantly picked out his meal for the night.

"Oh, hello again, Miss Sparkle. Dinner disaster again?" The familiar cashier stallion asked jokingly. Twilight simply snorted and lowered her head in annoyance, as Spike laughed. "Little Spike! Same as usual, I take it?" the cashier asked Spike.

"You know it, Speed!" Spike replied, snapping his claws for emphasis. Finding the action a little cute, Twilight stepped out of her little funk as the cashier shouted to the back for an order of Deep Fried Battered Rubies. The cashier, Speed, looked towards Twilight for her order.

"Uhm, I guess I'll get the Grass and..." Twilight trailed off as she happened to eye the Roasted Dandelion and Apple Sandwich, and her stomach let loose a growl. "Oh, what the hay, get me a Roasted Dandelion and Apple Sandwich, with a side order of hay fries." Twilight said to Speed, who shouted the order to the back again. He handed them two order tickets after Twilight handed over the appropriate amount of bits, and the pair of them went of to the side.

"Hey Twilight, can I ask you why you left through the kitchen door instead of the front door?" Spike suddenly inquired her. Twilight thought for a moment how to best approach the subject, before she replied.

"Well...Leo and I don't exactly get along all that well. To be honest, he is kind of rude. The only reason I let him use the library, and even left him there while we came out here, is because Princess Celestia pretty much ordered me to let him in. She obviously finds it important enough to get him informed quickly. She wouldn't explain why, though." Twilight explained, to which Spike listened with interest.

"Really, you think hes rude?" Spike asked.

"Oh, definitely. You should have seen how arrogant he was acting back in his hospital room, and just outside of the library earlier today." Twilight recalled, regaling Spike in the events of that day. Once she finished, he looked confused.

"I don't get it though. Once he calmed down after he saw me, he was actually really nice to me. In fact, when I went and got him some more books, it looked like he was actually kind of..." Spike thought about what he had seen, pausing for a moment. Unable to come up with a more effective word, he settled with what he had found. "He looked kind of sad. So I asked him if he was okay, and he said he was alright, but he missed his friends."

"He missed his friends? But I thought Princess Celestia said he had memory loss..." Twilight trailed off, recalling what the Princess had said to her and her friends. She quickly realized that Celestia had omitted what Leo had actually forgotten, save for 'General Knowledge'.

"Maybe he forgot where they were? Where his home is? I mean, if he has friends, he obviously has a home." Spike suggested, but Twilight shook her head.

"No, he hasn't forgotten that, either. In fact, he was complaining in the Hospital earlier about how he didn't HAVE a home to return to." Twilight told Spike, as he turned their tickets in and snagged their food. They were silent as Twilight critiqued a number of tables to choose to eat at, and upon the third inspection, she decided the table was clean enough and levitated spike and their food onto one side, as she took the other.

"Well, I dunno then. Who has friends but no home? Maybe he has a good reason to hide the location of where he lives. Or, at least a reason, doesn't really have to be a good one." Spike suggested again, finishing with an audible *crunch* as he took a bite out of a Deep Fried Ruby. Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin as she thought about Leo's behavior. The more she thought, the more she began to wonder about something that Rainbow Dash had mentioned in passing, earlier in the day when they had galloped to the Hospital. Becoming a little nervous, she looked towards her assistant again.

"Spike, while you were helping Leo, were any of his mannerisms...did any of them strike you as odd?" Twilight asked, not wanting to outright ask him what her mind screamed at her to.

"Uhm...not really. He just had some occasional questions about a few things the books sorta glossed over. Nothing big." Spike replied, finishing his current Ruby by tossing it in the air and catching it with his mouth. Just as Twilight's mind began to slip into a number of thought processes, she was caught off-guard by Spike's shout. "Oh wow, I can't believe I forgot! When he shifted his position once, I think I noticed him having a blank flank! I really wanted to see, so I asked him if he wanted me to take his cloak, and he looked at me like I was nuts as he told me 'No thanks, I prefer having a little bit of privacy and decency'."

"Wanting 'Privacy'? 'Decency'? But almost everypony usually doesn't wear anything. I mean, sure, Rarity likes to dress up once in a while, but she doesn't mind forgoing clothes most of the time." Twilight replied, a look of confusion etched onto her face. Finally grabbing her sandwich with her magic and taking a bite out of it, she pressed her mind on, wanting to figure out the mysterious Leo Silva's secrets. When she could think if nothing, she became annoyed and decided to run through the event's since Leo's discovery.

'Okay, so Leo was found in Everfree Forest. He was badly hurt, and was going to die. Rainbow Dash and Rarity found him, and he was brought to Ponyville General Hospital. Rainbow Dash elected to stay behind at the Hospital in case he awoke. After an ill-fated venturing into his mind with the Princesses, she slept in the bed next to Leo's.' Twilight recalled. Hesitant to voice the next part, she pushed on with a gulp.

'Rainbow Dash awoke when Leo began beating on his bed in the middle of the night. She startled him, and he began shouting and screaming at her, making her think he was insane. After the Princesses calmed him somehow, the two of them went back to sleep, after Rainbow Dash promised the Princesses she'd look after Leo. When she woke up, she found that Leo had left the library, and had lied about being invited to my library. After sneaking his way around town, having gotten himself a cloak somehow...' Twilight was surprised at the last thought, and then became annoyed. If he had stolen a cloak from somepony...

'He made his way to the cafe. After what sounds like he flirted with Spitfire and her cousin, whoever she is, that creepy robot showed up. He instructed Spitfire on how to defeat it, and distracted it while she swung around the town block, to face it's rear. When the attack failed, the robot knocked Spitfire out, and turned onto Leo again, when Princess Celestia showed up and defeated it.' Twilight recalled, smiling as she thought about how the Princess would deal with anything that wanted to hurt anypony.

'After he slept in the Hospital for a few days, he woke up, and we got the first taste of his personality.' Twilight thought sourly, before she continued. 'After a rant about how things were sucking for him, we got three pieces of information: The monster was called a 'Robot', He either came from a place called 'Earth' or he angered somepony with that name, and that he was, indeed, badly hurt from an attack in the woods. Afterwards, we learned from Princess Celestia that he had extensive memory loss, which sounds like it's only affected certain things.' Twilight concluded her knowledge recall of what she knew about Leo. Taking one hoof and dropping it onto the either in a determined fashion, she decided what she needed to research.

'I need to look for any information about a place called Earth. It may prove fruitless if it's a pony, but it's a start. I also need to check and see if these Robots have been in Equestria before, because that might explain Leo's knowledge somehow. As a secondary objective...it might be worthwhile to see if Leo can remember anything about what attacked him, assuming he is cooperative. If he has any answers, I might be able to calm the girls a bit about that idea that a Human attacked him. Goodness knows Fluttershy is already terrified of that forest enough...' Twilight had decided on an action plan. Just as she took a large bite out of her sandwich, what felt like the mental equivalent of a bucking in the head shot through her mind, along with what she recognized as an excerpt from her Esoteric Creatures Guidebook.

'HUMANS WERE RUMORED TO BE VERY SELF CONSCIOUS CREATURES, PREFERRING TO COVER THEIR GENITALIA WITH CLOTH OR FABRIC IN THE PURSUIT OF DIGNITY. HUMANS WERE SAID TO HAVE GROWN TO FIND THE BARE HUMAN BODY OFFENSIVE IN ALL SITUATIONS, SAVE FOR CLEANING THEMSELVES OR MATING.' Twilight felt another's mind shout at her, the two sentences feeling like they were ricocheting around the inside of her skull. She fought to keep control of her consciousness, and it was only after a moment that she noticed she was on the floor, and a sizable bump was rearing it's ugly face on the side of her head. She glanced up from the floor to see Spike holding one of her hooves in his claws, and was staring at her with concern.

"Twilight, are you alright? You just...collapsed onto the floor, holding your head. Do you wanna go home and rest?" Spike asked her. Feeling like she was out of breath, she nodded gingerly, silent as she picked herself up from the floor, panting as she did so.

'What in all of Equestria was that?!' Twilight thought to herself, fighting a massive migraine that was adding to the pain of her bump, as it was proudly displaying it's bruising. 'Pursuit of Dignity. Dignity. Spike mentioned Leo wanted to retain his own Dignity by keeping his cloak on.' she thought to herself, not sure what to make of the connection her mind was pointing at. 'But I told Rainbow Dash before, there isn't enough real evidence that Leo was the Human we saw! This is just another piece of circumstantial evidence! What if he simply hates being without clothes? I mean, he WAS wearing a large white cloak that covered him completely when he was found in the forest!' Twilight screamed at the portion of her mind that, despite her assurances it was wrong, insisted on continuing to point at the correlation. Shaking her head as Spike opened the Library's door for her, she expected to see a mess of books on the floor and Leo giving her some sort of snarl. But all she and Spike noticed was a clean library, and a poorly scrawled note on the desk.

"Wow, this is...really hard to read. lets see...'Thanks for the info...sorry about the attitude...was getting late, so I cleaned up and left. I'll come back around tomorrow to see if your open...thanks again. Leo.'. Wow, I got most of it, but MAN, is his writing bad!" Spike exclaimed. Twilight simply shook her head, which aggravated the migraine, and headed up to her room to sleep early. She glanced at the weather scheduled that the weather team handed out to everypony at the beginning of every month, and sighed.

"Well, I sure hope that he has a place to stay tonight. It's supposed to storm tonight, and it's going to be a heavy rain."

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"I hate this place..." Leo complained to himself quietly, as a rumble of thunder boomed overhead. Initially, when the storm had begun, he had contemplated making a run for the bridge he had come across earlier in the day, but before he had gotten halfway there, he was thoroughly drenched, deciding that he may as well lay on the grass for the night. He had been pleasantly surprised to find out that the cloak Trixie had left at the bridge was waterproof, and proceeded to pull it's hood up onto his head. Unfortunately, even with it's ability to repel water, it did nothing to protect him from the cold.

"I could really go for a Cream Soda right about now..." Leo pined, recalling the sensation of pleasure he felt on his tongue whenever he drank it, and had begun to call it 'liquid gold' because of that. As he lay there, he had also become intensely aware of his hunger, having not eaten anything during the day, and likely the previous three as well. As interesting as it was to again experience the pangs of hunger, he found it mostly to be a hindrance, bringing himself to reiterate what he had said earlier with a sigh.

"I hate this place...so much."

"Well, why not come to sugarcube corner then, huh? It's LOOOAAADS better than staying out in the rain!" an energetic voice suddenly shot out from behind him, startling Leo into a jump. As he stared at the familiar pink mare from before, he began to grumble as he glanced around to see where the cloak landed. She wandered up behind him, her umbrella hat and rain jacket catching the falling rain with a distinct 'pitter-patter', and was silent for a moment as she listened to him grumbling. "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that, what did you say?" The mare had asked loudly, causing Leo to cringe and hold his head. He had come to gain himself another headache since he had finished in the library, and this mare's excited and loud voice wasn't helping to improve it. Sighing, he grabbed his cloak and swung it over his back, then turned to the mare, deciding to put aside his unexplainable disdain for her, temporarily at least.

"I asked you what your name was. I never actually got yours." Leo asked her, hoping she'd at least calm down slightly. He cringed again as his head pounded, due to her demonstrating how extremely far off the mark Leo was.

"My name is Pinkamina Diane Pie, but all my friends call me Pinkie Pie, so you can call me that too, cause we're friends, right? Oh no! I completely forgot about throwing you a welcome party to get to know you, because I know everypony, and I mean EVERYPONY, in Ponyville! Hey, do you think it's too late to organize a party?" Pinkie had exploded in a flurry of speech, causing Leo to reel.

"Err...what time is it, exactly?" Leo had asked in a daze, and was mercifully granted with a small response.

"10:00 PM!" Pinkie replied happily. Leo sat down on his rump due to a rush of queazyness, and then replied.

"Yeah, it's a little late now. Don't worry, though, I can get to know you a bit better now if you'd like, at your sugarcube place." Leo offered the pink earth pony, who hugged him happily as he sat on the ground.

"Wheee! Don't dilly dally, Mr. Leo! Follow me to Sugarcube corner, I can get you some snacks to fill your empty little tummy!" Pinkie Pie shouted to Leo as motivation, as she bounced along beside him down the street. Just as Leo was about to ask her to calm down a bit, as it was late, he suddenly found himself shielding himself from a splash of water coming up from a puddle in the road. When he looked up, he felt what he could only describe as his heart jumping up into his throat.

"Angel!" Leo hissed, before he crouched lower to the ground as if he was about to pounce Angel. As Leo was preparing to fight, he noticed Pinkie beginning to move closer out of curiosity, and threw a leg out in front of her, startling her.

"Don't worry, Leo, I have no intention of harming these...things. I just wanted to see what you were up to. But, my, you move fast. A late night stroll with a beautiful girl, only days after you lost another." Angel teased with a sneer, causing an enraged shouted to escape from Leo, and with that, Leo jumped at him with the intention of inflicting as much pain as possible. Yet, even with the speed Leo had presented in his strike, Angel effortlessly backhanded Leo right from the air, sending him sprawling onto the ground in front of Angel and a gasp to escape Pinkie Pie, who tried to get Leo up.

"I seriously expected you to think ahead and realize how outmatched you are now. She isn't even with me at this time, that was just my original strength." Angel growled at Leo with a frown, who was struggling to get up, scrapes presenting themselves from his fall. "Honestly, it's simply too bad that organic beings simply can't process things as efficiently as robots." Angel contemplated with a light tone.

"Careful, Angel, you almost sounded like the Hive there for a moment." Leo spat at Angel, which infuriated him. He kicked Leo in his right side twice, before he found himself on his back in a puddle. Confused, Angel glanced up to find Pinkie Pie facing him, still rearing slightly after having pushed him over with her forelegs, a determined look on her face.

"Nopony! Hurts! My friends!" Pinkie Pie shouted at Angel. He sat on the ground for a moment, staring at her with a look of curiosity as the rain continued to fall around them, almost seeming to intensify. With a chuckle, Angel picked himself up off the ground.

"Well well, I see you've found yourselves some brave ponys, Leo. Hopefully they can help you with the altars in the coming months, because the Hive approaches. Seeing as I'm otherwise concerned with a number of small issues of my own, I can't exactly intervene in this planet's coming cataclysm." Angel explained with a smirk.

"Angel, you really are a sick fuck." Leo mumbled at Angel, after he nursed his stitches, which had begun to bleed again from the kicks.

"Oh, really Leo, we already knew that!" Angel laughed, as he brushed his wet hair from his eyes using his fingers. "Piece of advice, if you'll listen. Be careful what you say, if you are going to try and convince others to help you destroy me. We share our past, and our fate, so anything you say might incriminate you, too." Angel offered. With a nod to Pinkie Pie, who still stood her ground, he jumped up into the air and flew away, his rocket thrusters leaving a faint red trail of energy behind them.

"Oh, Mr. Leo! Mr. Leo, are you okay? Oh no, you're bleeding!" Pinkie began to panic as she tried to lift Leo up. He batted her away as he groaned, lifting himself off the ground gingerly. "Who was that? How did he know you, and what did he mean about your past? And why does the Hive, whoever they are want to hurt us?" Pinkie Pie asked Leo in a sequence of rapid fire questions.

"Pinkie, please, I'll explain some of this to you and you alone, as long as you can promise me two things. First condition is, keep everything about the conversation you just heard, and everything I tell you to yourself unless I say it's okay, everypony else finds out on their own, or if the lack of knowledge places anypony in danger." Leo asked her, as he panted while he watched her.

"Sure, anything you say. What else?" Pinkie asked, with a slight tremble in her body and voice. She really wanted to know, because if the Hive was anything like the human she just saw...she was really scared. She didn't normally understand what was going on, but those situations usually never got anypony hurt. This time, though, Leo had almost died twice in the span of five days, and was just hurt tonight before her own eyes.

"The second condition is...if you can get me...somewhere warm and dry, cause...I'm about to pass out." Leo asked her, prompting her to cock her head on confusion. That is, until Leo blacked out and crumpled into a heap in front of her, causing Pinkie Pie to panic and run to find help.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"Wait, did ya'll just say he protected Pinkie?" a distinctive female, southern accented voice whispered near Leo. To him, it sounded quite distant, but Leo figured they had to be close, if not right next to him. He was vaguely aware that someone was fiddling with a weird appendage that he could only surmise as his wing, when he felt himself begin to float back into total unconsciousness. Another familiar voice roused him slightly again, however.

"Well, yeah. That's what Pinkie Pie told me, anyway, after she got me down from the clouds." another female voice, without an accent, explained. Leo remembered this voice, and recalled that it belonged to the cyan mare with the rainbow mane. When he realized he didn't know her name, he found it interesting.

Actually, out of all six of the mares tasked by Celestia to look after him, he only knew Pinkie Pie's and Twilight Sparkle's names. And only because he had asked for Pinkie's, and because Twilight's was blurted out loud by Nurse Dawn. He tried to think hard about the other mare's names, maybe having heard them previously but forgetting. He gave up when he realized that he'd have to ask. Leo heard a door swing open and a set of hooves clicking on a wooden floor, and then the voice of Twilight herself.

"I just finished talking to Pinkie, who gave me a really weird story involving somepony pelting Leo with a rubber ducky." Twilight explained, her voice alone indicating she hadn't believed a word of it, as she magicked a glass of water and a pair of pills to a table next to Leo. Unable to contain himself, Leo snorted and began to laugh, causing all the girls to jump in surprise, Twilight nearly losing control of the glass. His humor was short-lived, however, as he quickly clutched his skull with his forehooves, finding it pounding away and feeling like an inferno.

"Uhhh, how long have you been awake?" the cyan mare asked, a slight glow on her cheeks as Leo noticed her hastily shoving his wing back to his side.

"Not...long. Wait, were you just massaging my wings?" Leo asked, as he only just began to notice that his wings somehow felt wonderful, unlike the rest of his body, which felt extremely sore and weak.

"Well, yeah, uhh...you haven't exactly used your wings for a few days, so I figured they ached a bit from unuse." she explained, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof as she looked away.

"'Disuse', unuse isn't a real word. But thanks, at least they don't feel like hell." Leo thanked her, expecting her to become more embarrassed, but was surprised when she apparently wasn't.

"Well, soooorry! I'm not a walking dictionary, unlike Twilight, or you apparently!" the mare replied aggressively, causing Leo to frown slightly. When he didn't reply, she growled and left the room quickly. Twilight simply shook her head with a sigh, and walked up to Leo, who glanced down to see yet another bed beneath him. He was pleased to notice that it wasn't a hospital bed, however, but he still wanted to be wandering around. As he made a move to exit the bed, the orange mare pushed him back into the bed.

"Wow there, nelly! Where do you think yer goin'? You ain't getting out of bed until yer clear of anymore Ponfluenza!" the orange mare told him. Strangely, even though he found himself at odds with her the other day, he wasn't in any mood to disagree with her, so he slid back into bed.

"Ponfluenza? Is that another name for Influenzavirus A?" Leo asked Twilight on the other mare. The orange one looked at Twilight, confused, who shared her expression. "You know, Influenzavirus A? A genus of the Orthomyxoviridae virus family? Can be used to classify either H7N7 or H3N8, respectively known as equine-1 or equine-2?" Leo asked in a haze, momentarily forgetting that he was talking to beings of an entirely different planet. As seconds of awkward silence went by, and Leo remembered that he wasn't talking to humans, he spoke up. "Uhm, I mean..." Leo paused for a moment, thinking over the name that Twilight had just used. When he thought about how a great number of words use 'Pony' as a prefix or affix, he decided to give it a try. "Do I have Ponyflu?"

"Oh, yeah, you do. Short lived case, Healing Dawn had told me, but it's going to afflict you for around a week." Twilight explain, which elicited a groan from Leo. "I hate to say this, but if you hadn't tried to sleep outside in the middle of a huge downpour, you wouldn't have gotten sick." Twilight lectured Leo, causing Leo to 'harrumph' and turn over after he waved a hoof at her in annoyance.

"Where am I anyways?" Leo asked, still facing his back to Twilight and the orange mare.

"Yer at Sugarcube corner. Pinkie had Mr. Cake help bring ya back here, before she fetched Dash." the orange mare answered. Leo gave a silent nod, the remained still for a moment before he turned over in the bed and looked at her.

"So, I never got your name. Or any of the others, except for Twilight here and Pinkie Pie. If you girls are being forced to babysit me for a while, I suppose we'd better get acquainted." Leo suggested.

"Oh, ah, mah name is Applejack. Tha other mare that was just in here, her name is Rainbow Dash. Then ya have Fluttershy, tha yellow gal with a pink mane an' tail, and Rarity, white with a purple mane an' tail." Applejack explained. Leo simply grunted in response and mentally filed the information away. As silence filled the room again, Applejack became slightly annoyed with Leo. "Aren't ya goin' to tell me yur name? Would be tha polite thing to do."

"Oh? I was under the assumption you knew who I was. After all, even Pinkie Pie knows my name...even though she uses honorifics, which I find irritating." Leo explained, putting a hoof to his head in a vain effort to ease his headache. "Name is Leonard Yves Silva, but just call me Leo. Please."

"Well, we both got off to a bad start Leo, but hopefully we get along better in the future." Applejack offered with a small smile and a nod, then left Twilight alone in the room with Leo. Leo turned his attention to Twilight, who appeared to have something she wanted to talk about, but didn't know how to broach the subject.

"What's on your mind, Twilight Sparkle? I might be able to get you an answer." Leo asked, taking the glass and pills, automatically knowing what to do. Admittedly, he struggled with drinking some of the water, as he hadn't perfected the art of grabbing things without fingers, but it at least gave Twilight some time to organize her mind, he figured. Her silence was mostly caused by her surprise of how polite he was being to everypony today, considering he was, for all intents and purposes, an outright jerk to them all yesterday. Shaking her head, she focused on the now.

"Uhm, just a bunch of small questions. Things have been pretty weird lately, so bear with me if you can." She explained, to which Leo carefully nodded his head. "So uhm, lets start with something easy...the note you left yesterday, you actually...apologized for your behavior. Combine that with how nice you're being today, and compare it to the majority of your attitude from yesterday, and that's grounds for being extremely confused. Why were you so aggressive yesterday?" Twilight asked him, as he finished downing the water in what Leo would consider a herculean effort. After inhaling a large amount of air to make up for the loss caused by him drinking, Leo began his best to explain.

"If you're looking for a specific explanation...I hate to say it, but I have none for you. Honestly, I have no exact idea as to why I acted like someone shoved a stick up somewhere unpleasant." Leo paused for a moment, before giving an awkward smirk. "Well, I guess my past few days haven't been all sunshine and smiles. The forest, the cafe, and last night. I'm not used to having a can of whoop-ass opened on me, usually its the other way around. So...that would definitely influence it, I guess." Leo smiled, before placing a foreleg to his forehead and laid himself back down completely. Twilight was silent for a moment, and was about to ask another question, but Leo interrupted her. "No, while that had a role, normally I only blame myself for failures, I don't take it out on others. Twilight Sparkle, yesterday when I saw any of you girls, my head began to feel like it was out at sea, in the middle of a fog. Something kept prodding my mind, like...a memory or something. Like I had forgotten something, or something in my head was locked away, but it still managed to feed me an emotion that made me feel on thing for you girls: disdain. I can't explain it, but it seems to come and go. I'm sorry I can't explain it better." Leo explained, glancing over at Twilight, who seemed to be mulling over the information as she had a hoof under her chin, occasionally tapping it. Left to his own self for a little bit, Leo searched for an explanation. The only easy one coming to him made him cringe in worry.

'What if, before I was ...cursed, I suffered from a bit of Memory corruption?' Leo thought to himself. It might explain the odd sensations that made no sense to him, along with the inexplicable emotions. Sure, before Earth was crippled, Mrs. Wakeman had taken measures to reduce his recollection system's sub-processor's inadvertent tendency ('see: buggy code') to throw his memories wherever it felt like on his tertiary SSD, and occasionally into other robot's memory storage if close contact was made. But that didn't mean that it made his storage routine any less fragile, not that it was easily disrupted. But maybe, just maybe...and what else was corrupted or missing altogether? Would he be able to notice anything was truly wrong while he was a pony, and if something was up, would it continue to degrade while he was a pony? While he was contemplating the implications this could bring up, he suddenly became aware that Twilight had asked him another question.

"No, don't apologize, I do that a lot too. I just asked you where you found that cloak. If you took it from somepony...it'd be best for you to return it, before Applejack gets wise and decides to ask you." Twilight asked, explaining herself. Leo raised an eyebrow in curiosity, and Twilight expanded upon her explanation. "Trust me, you REALLY don't want to ever try lying to her. She'd be able to call you out for lying even before you finished giving her an excuse. So I suggest, again, that if you took it on somepony, it would be smart to return it." Twilight urged.

"Well, I didn't exactly steal it, per say. In fact, I watched it get left behind by a mare, purposely." Leo offered. When he noticed it was Twilight's turn to raise an eyebrow, he gave her more detail. "When I snuck away from that guard, I slipped under a bridge to try and remove my bandages in private. I guess I had interrupted the sulking of a mare named Trixie, because when I noticed her, she had hidden around some barrels. She bolted when she noticed I saw her, and got the cloak snagged on the bridge. She took it off and galloped away like a bat outta hell." Leo explained, making sure to give Twilight every detail.

"Are- are you sure it was Trixie? For certain?" Twilight asked Leo, her tone and expression telling him that she was astonished.

"Well, yeah. I ended up running across her again at the cafe, when I went in for water. She was sitting with Spitfire, apparently they are cousins." Leo finished explaining. An annoyed look flashed across his face right afterwards, and he continued to talk. "And seriously, I swear I wasn't hitting on either of them! They approached ME. Well, more like Spitfire approached me. Trixie looked more like she was dragged over, and was very embarrassed." Leo preemptively defended himself. Twilight, however, was more surprised to hear that Trixie had even set foot in Ponyville. She shook her head again to get herself on track, but was derailed again when Pinkie Pie suddenly burst into the room and began hugging Leo tightly, much to his dismay.

"Oh, Mr. Leo! Thank Celestia you're okay! I was so worried when that human attacked you, when you passed out I thought you were really hurt! I'm so happy to hear that you're sick instead!" Pinkie Pie shouted at Leo as he struggled to breath. Pushing her off him slightly, Leo gave her a glare.

"You're happy I'm sick?" Leo asked, unamused. Pinkie Pie froze for a second, and then unceremoniously dropped Leo back onto the bed, blushing as she wore an embarrassed smile.

"No no! Not, well, not exactly! I mean, of course it's really sad that you're sick with PonyFlu, but it beats dying anyday! I mean, if you died, I couldn't throw you a 'Sorry-for-not-throwing-you-a-welcome-party-so-here-is-a-replacment-party-so-you-feel-better-instead' party!" Pinkie Pie explained in her strange logic, of which Leo had difficulty debunking anyways. Mostly, he was surprised he had managed to follow her reply at all, as was about to ask her if she was always weird, when Twilight gave a small shout.

"Hang on, Pinkie! You told me somepony had attacked him with a rubber ducky! You're telling me a HUMAN attacked him?!" Twilight exclaimed loudly. Leo was frozen in shock, having completely forgotten for a moment that Twilight was even there. Pinkie simply looked miserable, fearing that she had broken the first of Leo's promises before she even got his story. Both of them groaned in misery when a series of hooves pounded their way upstairs and burst through the door.

"A...a human...attacked you...in ponyville?" Fluttershy asked Leo quietly, peering nervously from behind the door as her voice shook. Leo simply sighed and nodded silently, prompting Fluttershy to dive under his bed, shaking. "Oh, oh, girls! I told you! Oh, no, I was right! Oh, I don't want to go back to my cottage now!" Fluttershy shouted in an amazingly quiet manner, as Applejack crawled under the bed with her, attempting to calm the frightened mare.

"Uhm...what...?" Leo asked the rest of the girls.

"The poor dear lives in a cottage right next to the edge of the Everfree forest, where you were found. She initially suggested that you were assaulted by the human we saw running into the forest. Appears she was right afterall..." Rarity trailed off. concern visible on her face over hearing the news that a long suspected extinct creature, almost written off as mythological, was residing in the forest and attacking ponies. Leo was silent as he again came to respect the impressive grasp of logic that these ponies kept displaying, but his astonishment was decreased slightly when he realized that they thought that, somehow, he managed to warp time and space to attack himself.

'Mind, I suppose in an abstract way I DID attack myself.' Leo thought humorously, bringing a smirk to his face. He frowned, however, when Rainbow Dash got up in his face.

"So! You sure don't seem surprised that you were attacked by a human, twice no less! Whats your story, huh? How do you know about humans being here?!" Rainbow Dash asked him aggressively, narrowing her eyes at him. Before Leo could respond, Rainbow Dash gasped as a blue energy enveloped her and slid her back away from him next to Rarity, who's horn shared the same glow.

"Rainbow Dash, really! The poor stallion is sick, and all you can think about is pestering him with questions in an attempt to further your case?" Rarity shouted at her, glaring with an impressive ferocity. As she and Rainbow Dash, and Applejack (who had decided to try and stop the shouting with some of her own) began to bicker, Leo was silently attempting to find a way to cover for the huge gaff that Pinkie Pie initiated, and that he had let fester. Thinking back to the mare at the astrology shop, he decided to use the same lie.

"I saw them fall from the sky, with a telescope that I lost in the forest. Afterwards, I found some information on them in one of Twilight's books." Leo decided to give the girls. Mostly so that the shouting would stop. Applejack simply looked at him for a moment, before she raised and eyebrow at him.

"You sure that's tha truth, Partner?" Applejack asked, her tone of voice signifying that she wasn't buying into it at all. Gulping, Leo suddenly realized just what Twilight had meant by it not being wise to lie to Applejack.

"Yes. You want proof? Go ask the mare that runs the Astrology shop in-town. Heck, when I was talking to her about it, checking if she knew anything about them, she gave me a picture of the whole event last week. It's inside the cloak." Leo motioned to the cloak he spied hung up on the far wall. With one last suspicious glance at Leo, Applejack pulled the cloak off the wall. Sure enough, the picture was still there, including the poster Leo had taken down a few days ago. As she studied the image from the floor, Leo sighed. "I was attacked by one of them. But it was the one that flew overhead into the forest, not the one that was on the ground. Him, I haven't seen. The one from overhead also was the one who attacked me last night. Seriously, if something weird attacked you, wouldn't YOU want to figure out what it was?" Leo asked all the mares, expressing confidence in his statement, as it wasn't exactly off the mark. It wasn't just Angel that attacked him...

Applejack spied the image one last time before she looked up at Leo. "Alright, ah believe yeh. Don't look so worried, next tahme! I get suspicious when ponies look worried after explaining somethin'." Applejack said aloud, as way of explaining her initial disbelief. Leo gave an internal sigh of relief, and with that the girls decided to leave him be, but not before Twilight got him to promise that he would answer more of her questions later. Once all the girls but Pinkie Pie left, she turned to him and hugged him, and then let go of him.

"I'm so, so sorry! I broke your promise, can you forgive me?" Pinkie Pie begged him quietly.

"Pinkie, you didn't break your promise at all. Sure, you blurted out that Angel attacked me, and I figured that not mentioning him was an unspoken part of the promise, which it seems you realized in the beginning...but the spoken portion, the part you verbally agreed to. You didn't break that. Either parts of it, infact. You got me help, and you didn't say that I even talked to him. So no worries, you have nothing to have need to be forgiven for." Leo explained, as Pinkie Pie stared at him for a moment, and then grabbed him into a vice-grip-like hug, to which he decided he might as well return.

"Thank you, thank you! Oh! You never got to eat anything before that meany-pants showed up!" Pinkie suddenly remembered, reminding Leo and his angry stomach about the lack of sustenance. Just as Leo was about to wave her off, as he doubted he could stomach any food at the moment anyways, Rarity swung the door open, frowning at Pinkie Pie.

"I thought we decided to leave the poor boy alone, Pinkie? Come along now, let him rest!" Rarity said, her tone implying it was simply an idea, but the magic she used to levitate Pinkie Pie with suggested it wasn't and idea to be turned down.

"I'll bring you some fresh muffins in a little while, okay!" Pinkie Pie shouted from the hallway, causing Leo to chuckle. As Rarity closed the door, it made an audible 'click!', and left Leo to the buzzing silence of the room, save for the occasional jingle he heard from the store's front door signifying customer. As he covered himself up with a soft blanket, his thoughts turned to his most pressing issues.

'What's wrong with this missing memory? Was my memory retention function damaged? What exactly happened to me? Urgh, and why is the Hive here?!' Leo thought to himself. Grumbling, he threw the blanket over his head with a hoof in anger. 'And why the heck does this crap always happen to me?!'

The Element of Mystery

"Awh, horse apples!" Applebloom shouted as she noticed that Scootaloo hadn't achieved enough speed, and the two of them, with the addition of Sweetie Bell, were now on a one-way trip into a mud-pit. The trio of fillies had been once again attempting to earn their Cutie Marks, as per the main mission of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and had attempted to be Stunt Fillies. Initially, the three girls had been extra excited to give the new activity a try, particularly after Scootaloo suggested they try jumping through a ring of fire, over a pond filled with piranhas. As downtrodden as they were when Ms. Cheerilie confiscated the oil-coated rings, coupled with their failure of finding a tiny pond deep enough to hold piranhas (or even FIND any piranhas, for that matter), Applebloom couldn't help but feel relieved that she wouldn't be eaten alive, after-all. A quick glance at the faces of her friends before the landing told her they held similar sentiments.

The thick muddy goop at the bottom of the pony-made pit made a sickening 'SPLAT!' once the girls made contact, spraying the mess everywhere around them, while similarly covering the three of them.

"Oh no, Rarity is going to kill me...she just gave me a bath..." Sweetie Bell moaned, attempting to wipe mud from her face, while only mostly succeeding in depositing the mud from her hooves onto it. Scootaloo stood up and shook herself vigorously, spraying more mud around, much to the dismay of Applebloom and Sweetie Bell. Looking up from the pit, Scootaloo glanced from the first ramp, to their oil-free and non-lethal hoop, and then to the other ramp.

"Okay, seriously, what went wrong? We totally had that! I don't understand." Scootaloo asked the other two, as she grabbed her scooter and wagon and pushed them out of the pit. After getting a lot of the mud off herself, Applebloom glanced at the ramp they launched off of. After helping Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo out of the mud pit, she wandered over to their launch point, and took a few moments to attempt to figure some math out. Suspicious, she went over to her sketch book she used for measuring out the pieces of wood, and how high the ramp needed to be, plus the additional physics equations for how far they needed to start, which she got help with from Twilight. A quick glance of the first parts of the math told her the entire story.

"Ah, sorry girls. Ah only got Twilight ta help me figure out where ta start based on just you and yur scooter, Scoots. Ah fergawt ta add tha wagon plus us two." Applebloom explained, sad that she let her friends down.

"Oh, that's it? Don't sweat it Applebloom! We can just start further back this time!" Scootaloo suggested with a smile, to which Applebloom perked up.

"Hey, thas a great idea! Let's go!" Applebloom shouted as she galloped further back down the little trail near their tree fort. Scootaloo shook the mud from her Scooter and wagon, and zipped after Applebloom, leaving Sweetie Bell near the old starting point. With a quick glance back towards the pit, and then to herself, she shrugged.

"I'm filthy already, whats one more go? Not like Rarity could get angrier if I stayed dirty a bit longer." Sweetie Bell said to herself, as she trotted down towards the other two. She later realized she might be able to pull off enraging Rarity more than normal, as after a few more failed attempts, she began to feel small pebbles that were in the mud begin to poke around and chaff her skin deep within her once pure white hair-coat.

"Ah think ah know whats wrong nao..." Applebloom moaned, pulling herself from the mud for a forth time, after they slammed into the far side of the pit's wall due to them clipping the ring. "Ah think mah ramp is too low. We probably need ta make it higher, 'cause we're further away, so we're mostly goin' straight nao." Applebloom explained, as she plopped her fore hooves into the mud sadly as she sat on her rump.

"Ah, well...lets fix it later...I'm really out of energy now...and hungry." Scootaloo replied as she panted, again shoving her scooter and wagon out of the mud. Applebloom glanced towards the sky and noticed it was noon hour. Being the weekend, Applejack normally set aside a few bits on the kitchen table for her to buy pretty much anything she wanted in Ponyville, as it was her allowance.

"Hey, y'all wanna go ta Sugercube corner with me fer lunch? It's on me!" Applebloom suggested, to which Scootaloo clapped her forehooves eagerly. She and Applebloom became dumbfounded, however, when Sweetie Bell turned her down vigorously.

"No no no no! We can't go there, Rarity is there! She said she might be there all day, 'cause some stallion was being a big dummy a slept out in the rain, so she is helping to make him better. If she sees me like this, I'm done for! If you wanna go, you have to help me first!" Sweetie Bell pleaded the two fillies. As Applebloom thought about a few ideas, she remembered that a little stream was nearby.

"Oh, lets go clean up at tha Old Mare stream! It has a nice swimmin' spot that Big Macintosh and Applejack let me go into!" Applebloom directed the girls. Without questions, the three of them trotted over to the stream. As they played in the stream while they washed the mud off themselves, a shadow that went unnoticed by them stood still on it's two legs as it stared at them, almost sad and longingly. As quickly as it appeared, it disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a faint red energy in it's wake.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

She just HAD to find something else about him! She knew that, in the least, he was hiding something huge. The more Rainbow Dash thought about it, the more she became certain that Leo couldn't be a pony. Not naturally, anyways.

'Time to show the Monkey who's boss!' Rainbow Dash thought to herself, as a Blue Jay flew by the front shop window she had tucked herself against in an attempt to keep an eye on her friends. Before she quietly climbed the staircase, she closed a book titled 'Esoteric and Rare Creatures Guidebook' she had snuck from Twilight's library earlier, pretending to be grabbing the latest 'Daring Do' book instead. She honestly couldn't wait to read the Daring Do book, but she did borrow it and put it in front of the guidebook to avoid arousing suspicion. She hated sneaking around Twilight like that, but this was something that she had to get to the bottom of.

'I mean, seriously, monkeys are sneaky little guys. If this book isn't lying, and humans are intelligent descendants of monkeys, then he might be up to no good, too! ...Right?' Rainbow Dash thought to herself, attempting to at least give herself a decent reason for snooping about. In reality, she was just really, really curious about various things about the human she had seen on the beach. Like, how he flew without wings, and how he seemed to land on the beach without too many problems, or even how he was capable of holding something so...so massive! The book made her want to find out even more badly after she read it, particularly since it had stated that humans were extremely fragile, and much more prone to injury and death than ponies were...and yet there the human was, stopping a giant, fire-hot asteroid from slamming into Equestria, with his 'hands' as if it was nothing. That, plus everything else she saw him do, was totally flying in the face of the other points the book mentioned. Rainbow Dash would have to tease Twilight about her book being wrong, once she proved that Leo was, indeed, that Human they saw last week. Suddenly stopping, she had noticed she walked right up to Leo's door in all her thinking. Glancing around nervously as she made a hasty plan, Rainbow Dash carefully opened the door a crack to catch a glimpse of the bed Leo had been snoozing in for the past few hours. Seeing that he was fast asleep, she snickered.

"This is gonna be too easy, heh heh!" Rainbow Dash whispered to herself as she smirked. Just as she laid a hoof onto the floor in Leo's room, she suddenly heard an excited, heart-stopping, and loud voice behind her.

"Hi, Rainbow Dash! Whatcha doing? What's too easy?" Scootaloo asked her with an innocent smile, the surprise of being caught causing the cyan mare to jump with a startled cry, while incidentally slamming the door. Cursing her luck, she turned to the little filly who gave herself the title of '#1 RD fan'.

"Scoots, keep it down! I'm trying to find some information about Leo." Rainbow Dash began to explain, turning back towards the door, praying that Leo was a ridiculously deep sleeper. Before she could continue, however, Scootaloo interrupted her again, albeit in a much quieter voice this time.

"Oh, you mean that Stallion who was trying to fight that huge monster a few days ago? Whats he doing here? I mean, sure, he has guts for going hoof-to-hoof with that thing, but it sent him through a window. Shouldn't he still be in the hospital?" Scootaloo asked, a confused look on her face. Just as Rainbow's face grew an annoyed look as she was about to explain why Scootaloo was wrong, she suddenly realized how RIGHT Scootaloo was. Spitfire was hit by the robot, too, but she was still in the hospital as she still needed time to recover. Leo was hit by that robot BEFORE Spitfire, plus went through a window AND probably hit some chairs or tables, Plus him being hurt badly in the forest before all of that.

'Okay, so, two more interesting things about Leo. First, extremely high endurance to pain and injuries. I admit, that doesn't really say much except that he is simply an extremely manly and tough Stallion. But the second...yeah, he should be in the hospital still, with what happened to him. Nopony should have been able to heal that fast from those kinds of wounds. Iron Stallion or not.' Rainbow Dash thought to herself. As she looked down at the filly, who was still waiting for an explanation, Rainbow Dash decided not to bother the foal with her suspicions. At least, not completely.

"Some Ponies heal faster than others, Scoots. Leo just heals really, REALLY fast." Rainbow Dash gave to the filly as an excuse. Normally, she could lie better, but Rainbow Dash didn't put much effort into it, as foals usually accepted what their elders used as explanations for things. And even if she didn't buy it for that reason, Scootaloo usually treated whatever Rainbow Dash said as gold, so she probably wouldn't question it. Which is exactly what happened.

"Oh, alright. That makes sense, 'cause Ms. Cheerilee taught us that everypony is different. Can't see why that idea won't work with healing!" Scootaloo exclaimed proudly, much to the dismay of Rainbow Dash, as she tried to impress her with what she had been learning in School. Her expression quickly changed to a more determined one, however, and she whispered again. "Hey, let me help you find information on him!"

"No, Scoots, you'll be too loud. Leo is trying to sleep, he has Pony Flu right now. The key is to be quiet." Rainbow Dash told the little orange filly. Scootaloo hadn't given up, however, as she zipped by Rainbow Dash and put herself in front of the door.

"Please? I promise I'll be extra quiet?" Scootaloo asked again, her voice having raised a few octaves. Seeing that Rainbow Dash was still unconvinced, Scootaloo resorted to puppy eyes and pleaded some more in an even higher pitched voice. "Pleasepleasepleaseplease-"

"Alright, alright, cut it out, Scootaloo! Just...stick with me and stay quiet." Rainbow Dash ordered in a defeated sigh. Sure, she found Scootaloo annoying at times, but she usually also found the filly's antics cute and amusing during those times as well. "Could you do me a favor and keep an eye on Leo while I snoop around? I want you to tap the floor if he begins to wake up and gets out of bed." Rainbow Dash asked, as she looked down at Scootaloo. As she waited for a nod of agreement, Scootaloo glanced at something in the room before them, and then back at Rainbow Dash with a look of uncertainty. She quickly began tapping on the floor with her hoof, and then looked back into the room. "Uhm, yeah, but only if he is awake, Scoots. Seriously, what're you looking-" Rainbow Dash had started before she glanced up to see Leo glaring back at her furiously with reddened eyes. "Oh....uhm..."

"Should I even bother asking, or does it have something to do with you acting like I'm a threat to everypony?" Leo asked calmly, his expression mixing with his voice to create a sensation of intimidation that Rainbow Dash had rarely felt. The feeling ticked her off, so she snorted and stomped on the ground in indignation.

"I'm only snooping because you won't tell us everything that's been happening! You know something is up, and I wanna know what it is!" Rainbow Dash shouted at Leo, who's only reaction was to place a foreleg to his head again.

"Because I don't really know what, exactly, IS going on. I only have vague clues, hardly more than what I'm sure you mares have." Leo groaned, not wanting to get into an argument while his head felt like it was filled with cinder blocks.

"Thats a load of junk, you know what that creature was that attacked us! You had some sort of super secret meeting with the Princesses! And I get the feeling that you've been lying about not knowing about what happened to the human in the forest! If you saw one, you've had to have seen the other!" Rainbow Dash shouted at Leo again, poking him in the chest with a hoof. Leo simply sighed and said nothing else, which annoyed Rainbow Dash even further. She quickly realized that she was letting her anger spiral out of proportion, and so decided to finish their conversation quickly.When she eyed Leo again, who was watching with a frown, she jabbed him with her hoof once more."Hay, I'm pretty sure I know what you REALLY are, so watch yourself, bub! I'm gonna keep an eye on you!"

"Um, am I supposed to find that surprising? I mean, that's exactly that the Princesses asked you and the other girls to do, no? And...what do you mean, you're pretty sure you 'know what' I really am?" Leo asked, raising an eyebrow. Rainbow Dash simply snorted and then stomped out of the room, leaving a confused Scootaloo behind to stare after her. Scootaloo Looked up at the stranger before her, and smiled nervously. "You should go, little one. I'm rather sick with PonyFlu, and I don't want to spread it around." Leo urged her, as he turned around and headed towards his bed. Just as he was climbing into it, Scootaloo let out a huge gasp, earning her a raised eyebrow from Leo.

"Uhh, I gotta go mister! Sorry for waking you up!" Scootaloo shouted as she ran back out of the room and down the staircase. As Leo walked over to close the bedroom door, he could hear what sounded like the mare Rarity complaining loudly about something to do with beauty, prompting him to sigh and mumble something about shallow people.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"Gosh, Scootaloo, yer awfully quiet. Ya haven't even touched yer cupcake." Apple Bloom, who looked at her quiet and fidgeting friend with concern, asked suddenly. Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom wide-eyed for a moment and then whispered something. Apple Bloom put a hoof to her ear and leaned in closer. When she leaned in, she only heard the end of what her friend was saying.

"...blank flank, I don't understand." Scootaloo whispered. Apple Bloom, slightly annoyed, shook Scootaloo's shoulder.

"Come on, snap out of it, Scootaloo! What're ya tryin' ta say?" Apple Bloom asked Scootaloo. Seeming to mostly snap Scootaloo out of her weird trance, Scootaloo shook her head, and then gave her a more sane, albeit still wide eyed stare.

"That Stallion that Sweetie Bell mentioned, he--"

"Hi again girls." Sweetie Bell greeted the others. She had been pulled aside earlier by Rarity as they purchased their cupcakes, as Rarity had been eying her hair-coat from a table. From that distance, Rarity could tell something was off about it. Upon closer inspection, she saw the tiny pebbles that Sweetie Bell had been unable to remove in the river, and went into a fit concerning how much work she had put into making Sweetie Bell 'look beautiful', and that it was now wasted and ruined. As it had been ongoing once Apple Bloom and Scootaloo finished their purchase, they decided to wait outside. As Apple Bloom had enjoyed her cupcake and Scootaloo sat seemingly comatose, the row had ended and silence reigned king again.

"So, are ya grounded Sweetie Bell..?" Apple Bloom asked the white filly, who had just been newly groomed. Sweetie Bell shook her head as she took a bite out of her cupcake.

"Nope. Rarity said she didn't feel it was fair if she did, given that I had tried to clean myself up. Didn't stop her from making a scene, though." Sweetie Bell grumbled. She didn't mind being groomed by her big sister; in fact, she enjoyed it. But only if she wasn't making a huge fuss, which usually occurred when they were in public. "So, what should we do next? I've wanted to try--"

"THE STALLION IS A BLANK FLANK! THE STALLION IS A BLAAANK FLAAAANK!" Scootaloo suddenly shouted at the other two fillies, catching them by surprise and causing them to jump slightly.

"What? That Stallion that Rarity is looking after doesn't have a cutie mark?!" Sweetie Bell asked Scootaloo, who's chest was heaving with every breath. After catching her breath, Scootaloo began to explain herself.

"I noticed Rainbow Dash climbing up the staircase earlier, so I followed her up there and saw her sneaking into the room where the Stallion was sleeping. I think his name was Leo...?" Scootaloo tapped a hoof to her chin, trying to remember. "Anyways, I was too loud and he woke up, and got into an argument with Rainbow Dash. When she stormed off, he said I should leave so he doesn't make me sick. That's when I saw...his empty flank." Scootaloo's volume dropped at the last few words, as if she were saying a taboo. "But...if he doesn't have a cutie mark, does that mean it's possible to never get one?" Scootaloo asked aloud to nopony in particular. The three fillies were quiet for a moment before Apple Bloom pounded a hoof onto the ground.

"Well, ah say we outta help him get his cutie mark! All those up fer ahfficially indoctrine Leo into tha Cutie Mark Crusaders, raise a hoof!" Apple Bloom announced, and the two fillies raised their hooves excitedly.

"Only after he gets better, Apple Bloom. Ah don't want ta hear about how yer sick with PonyFlu." Applejack's voice floated out from behind the fillies. Looking up at the doorway to Sugarcube corner, they noticed Apple Bloom's older sister standing in the doorway. "Why don't y'all head on out and play? Don' worry about Big Mac an' the apples, ah'll talk to him later." Applejack suggested, speaking to Apple Bloom. Giggling, Apple Bloom gave Applejack a quick hug and ran off down the road, with Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo hot on her tail. Applejack stared after the fillies for a moment, before she turned back into Sugarcube corner, only to see Twilight giving her a smirk.

"Sicking the Crusaders on Leo later, are we?" Twilight asked, her smile not unlike a conspirator's. Applejack couldn't help but smile and chuckle lightly.

"Hey, boy has it comin' fer lyin' ta me."

"I thought you accepted his explanation, though?" Twilight asked her, surprise and interest taking over her face in place of the earlier smirk.

"Oh please...Twi', that was nothin' but a half truth. Just enough in it to keep me offa' him. I get tha feelin' he really doesn't want any of us to know what it is thats botherin' him, either." Applejack explained, pausing to take a sip of some Apple juice that Pinkie had poured her earlier. "T'aint gonna be easy ta get whatever it is outta him, either. I reckon that convincing Rainbow Dash that flying and goin' fast is lame would be easier than pulling tha truth from Leo." Applejack stated, hoping that Twilight would understand the near futility it would be to attempt to worm much truth from Leo. Thankfully, she did, as she nodded and, with a frown, dove back into a book she was reading. Applejack stood next to the doorway for a moment, pondering about what Leo could be so adamant about hiding, before she thought of home. "Ah oughta be headin' back to tha farm now, seein' as ah just released Big Mac's little assistant from workin'."

"Yeah, actually, I'm sort of wondering how he was going to react to shouldering both bucking and bringing the apples up." Twilight asked Applejack, only lowering her book enough so that Twilight's eyes could be seen looking at Applejack with curiosity.

"Well, he ain't gonna be none too happy about that, but if ah help him with tha buckin', he shouldn't complain too much. Not to mention, ah'm makin' dinner tonight, so if he wants his food to be, ah, edible, he'll be smart enough to not make it a large issue." Applejack finished with a little joke, to which Twilight giggled, and then went back to her book. With a final farewell, Applejack bid her friends goodbye for the day, and headed out towards her farm at the outskirts of town.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

Applejack Always found the trip to and from town to be very serene and peaceful, particularly in the Summer. No matter what time of day it was, be it noon, night, or morn', all those times held their own version of beauty. She enjoyed it the most when Celestia's Sun was down, and Luna's Moon held the throne in the sky, as Fireflies would line the path and a slight summer breeze would rustles the leaves in the trees and the grass on the ground. Applejack continued to walk forward at a steady pace with her eyes closed, smiling as she recalled the calming and pleasing effect the scene would always have on her.

In fact, she was so engrossed by the memory, that she didn't pick up on the fact that she had actually walked right past the farm, much the chagrin of her older brother. As she came near the Cutie Mark Crusader's Tree house, the three fillies couldn't help but watch in concern and awe as Apple Bloom's older sister didn't seem to heed their warnings about the mud pit in her path. With a startled yelp, some flailing legs, and a comically loud 'PLOP!', Applejack found her underside and legs covered generously in mud.

"Sorry, sis, we tried ta warn you..." Applejack heard Apple Bloom mumble from the edge of the pit. Once she got back up and made sure her Stetson hat was still perched atop of head, she looked at the guilty faces of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Bell, and chuckled.

"Think nothin' of it, girls. It's mah fault ah fell in here, had mah head in the clouds n' all." Applejack explained, as she struggled to wipe the mud from herself without much luck. As the three fillies watched the older mare grumble and fight with the mud, a large red Stallion wandered over, Apple buckets filled to the brim attached to a harness hanging over each of his flanks.

"Seems yah made yourself a right mess, Applejack." Big Macintosh observed, with a subtle smirk on his face.

"Eeeyup. Think ah might wander over to Old Mare stream to clean up before ah help you out, Big Mac." Applejack said to her brother, coupling it with a sheepish grin. Big Mac simply snorted with a short stint of laughter, and then shook his head as he turned back towards the farm, wearing the same smirk. As Applejack trotted down the small, slightly overgrown path that led to the stream, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Bell were hot on her heels.

"So Applejack, what were you focused so much on that your eyes were closed?" Sweetie Bell asked once they arrived as the stream, curious as to what would distract the usually very attentive mare from literal pitfalls.

"Heh, well, ah was just rememberin' why ah love the path into town so much at night. Honestly girls, it has to be tha most beautiful thing ah've ever seen. So far, nothin' can beat it." Applejack explained, as she laid herself down into the lukewarm stream's flowing water, simply letting the current pull the mud off herself.

"Oh yeh, you described it to me once, Applejack. Wish ah could see it mahself..." Apple Bloom trailed off, her mind trying to imagine what it would look like. It was pretty in the daytime, but Applejack made it seem like something from another world when you watched it at night.

"Sounds really pretty...too bad Rarity wouldn't ever let me go. She doesn't like me staying up late, even on weekends. Says it can 'foul a lady's mood needlessly the following day'. Gets really annoying, this 'lady' stuff." Sweetie Bell frowned, also imagining the scene in her head, making her want to see it even more. As the two fillies mind's danced with fanciful images, Applejack looked towards Scootaloo, who suddenly blushed lightly and looked away. As she looked at the girls, she recalled that she was about the same age when her Mother had shown her the amazing sight, right after Apple Bloom was born and shortly before both her folks passed away. An idea came to mind, one which she probably thought she might regret later, but Applejack spoke her mind, as she always did.

"Say, girls, did y'all finish yer homework for Miss Cheerilee?" Applejack asked the three close friends, snapping them out of their trance-like states. When they all nodded, Applejack continued. "Well, seein' as ah was around yer age when Ma showed the path to me at night, did y'all want to have a sleepover an' visit the path?" Applejack asked, bracing herself for the expected explosion of excited glee from the three girls. As she had predicted, the three fillies shouted in joy, and then Apple Bloom pounced on her, joining her in the river. Sweetie Bell fought the urge to jump in the river with her friend in an effort to protect the groom job that Rarity had redone earlier, but she had reared up in excitement all the same. Scootaloo beamed, but still remained quiet.

"Ya mean it, sis? Ya really mean it? We can have a sleepover?" Apple Bloom asked her sister, just to be sure.

"Yes, ah really mean it. You'd know if ah was lyin', Apple Bloom. Now, ah'm more than happy to house you two girls tonight and to bring y'all out to take a peak, but only if y'all promise me two things: That you will behave and go ta sleep when we get back, and ta not even hint to yer folks at tha fact that ah'm going ta bring you girls outside in tha middle of tha night." Applejack gave the girls as an offer in return. Sweetie Bell nodded vigorously, while Scootaloo pawed at the ground shyly, shooting occasional glances up at Applejack. Seeing that she was a little embarrassed to admit it, Applejack nudged the tomcoltish filly slightly with her words. "Scootaloo? Don'tcha want to see the path?" Applejack asked, giving the filly a knowing smile.

"Uhm...I guess...I guess it might...be fun." Scootaloo replied, still only offering occasional glances to her friends older sister. At that, Applejack got up out of the water with Apple Bloom perched on her back, only clear water dripping from her hair coat.

"Alright then, let yer folks know ah'm willin' to feed y'all tonight. Supper'll be around, oh...6 o'clock? Be sure to show up! Ah'm makin' mah specialty tonight: Hay and Lettuce casserole." Applejack instructed the two girls on the bank of the stream. They nodded quickly and took off towards town, hoping that they would be allowed to stay for the night. Applejack wandered out of the river and headed back towards the farm, a giggling Apple Bloom stowing away on her back.

"Hey, sis, isn't it lyin' if ya told them not ta say anythin' about stayin' up late?" Apple Bloom asked suddenly. Applejack simply shook her head.

"Nope. It'll only be lyin' if they asked us if we'd specifically be headin' out to the path tonight. Seein' as the odds of them askin' that particular question are pretty large, all we're doin' is refrainin' from mentioning our exact plans." Applejack explained to her little sister.

"Oh, so we're just being sneaky. But why do we hafta be sneaky, Applejack?" Apple Bloom asked. Applejack chuckled at her little sister's innocence, and proceeded to answer her question.

"You remember what Sweetie Bell said? Rarity would never in a'thousand years let her venture outside at night, let alone so close to tha Everfree Forest, especially since that last little escapade you three had when Fluttershy took you in that one night. That bein' tha case, I'd wager a few bits that Scootaloo's parents would be in tha same boat, and wouldn't let her stay tha night if they heard what we planned on doin'." Applejack finished. When they got to the fence separating the path from town and the Apple orchard, Apple Bloom hopped off her older sister.

"Well, I'm gonna head inta town and pick up tha ingredients for dinner now then, sis." Apple Bloom shouted to her sister with a mock salute, and then ran down the path towards town, giggling.

"Hey, tell Big Mac ah'm just dryin' off, shouldn't be longer than a tree or two!" Applejack shouted to her little sister, hoping she'd heard her. Deciding not to worry too much about it, Applejack headed into the farmhouse, and climbed the staircase before she headed into the bathroom. Grabbing a towel, she began to dry herself off from the stream when she began to hear an odd twinkling sound. Stopping and grabbing the towel in her mouth, she looked around for the source of the sound, even peering around out the bathroom window, but was unable to find one.

'Probably just a little trinket of Apple Bloom's movin' in tha breeze.' Applejack thought to herself. Just as she was about to continue drying herself off, the twinkling noise exploded in volume, and a blinding light shone forth from Applejack's chest, causing her to screw her eyes shut. Unsure of what to make of the light, Applejack remained still and controlled her breathing to remain calm. When the light and sound subsided, and Applejack felt a sudden added weight around her neck, she decided to take a look at what happened. Holding her breath, she looked down at her chest as best she could.

"What tha hay?" Applejack murmured quietly as she stared at the Element of Honesty hanging elegantly from her neck. Turning towards the bathroom mirror, Applejack was able to take a better look at what was around her neck. Indeed, it was 100% genuinely the Element of Honesty making her neck it's home once again. Just as Applejack began to wonder why it had appeared, there was a sudden knocking at the bathroom door.

"Applejack? Is everythin' alright? I heard a mighty loud twinklin' noise comin' from tha house, did you hear it?" Big Mac's voice floated out to her from behind the door.

'Oh no...not Big Mac, please. Princess Celestia made us promise ta not mention a word about it to anypony, ah hafta hide it!' Panicking, Applejack quickly unhooked the Element from around her neck and hid it in her towel, which she then chucked into the dirty towel basket.

"Uh, yeah! Ah'm- ah'm fine! No twinklin' noise to be heard of in here! Nope, nope, definitely not!" Applejack struggled to make excuses. When Big Mac opened the bathroom door and noticed Applejack sitting on her rump with a terrible poker face, he raised an eyebrow. She was screaming at herself in her head for being such a terrible liar, because she knew he wasn't going to let the subject drop.

"Applejack? What're ya hidin' from me in the dirty towel basket?" Big Mac asked calmly, keeping his eyebrow raised.

"Hi-hidin'? What makes you think ah'm hiding anythin'?" Applejack stammered, only to further hurt her chances at making Big Mac leave.

"Well, fer one thing, yer slowly movin' it in behind yerself with yer hoof." Big Mac explained with a sigh. When Applejack looked down at her left hoof, it was indeed attempting to move the basket behind her. Giving up, she let loose a groan and slumped to the floor, and Big Mac ventured forth, grabbing hold of Applejack's used towel. When he picked it up, the Necklace came tumbling out, and began to glow slightly, before it fluttered through the air and reattached itself around Applejack's neck of it's own accord.

"Oh, darn it all! So...you just found out that yer little sister is tha Holder of tha Element of Honesty. What're ya gonna do now?" Applejack grumbled from the floor, as she looked at Big Mac, who was completely speechless, staring at his little sister as the Element of Honesty glistened in the daylight that was spilling in through the window.

"Ah'll...be honest here, Applejack. Ah already knew about it, but...couldn't quite believe it." Big Mac explained slowly. Seeing the confused look on Applejack's face, Big Mac explained his knowledge. "Princess Celestia visited me briefly when yer friends and yerself returned from defeating Nightmare Moon. She explained to me that you'd become the Spirit of Honesty-"

"Holder of the Element of Honesty." Applejack had attempted to correct Big Mac, but frowned when he shook his head.

"Nnnnope. The Princess specifically stated that ya were the 'Spirit of Honesty', Applejack. Maybe ya should ask her about that in one of yer letters. Anyways, ah don' think we should be lettin' Apple Bloom know abou' this. Ah know a place where ya can hide it, and she'd never peek into it." Big Mac suggested, waving a hoof at Applejack for her to follow. Feeling obliged to listen to her brother, Applejack pushed herself up off the floor. She followed Big Mac all the way down the hall and into...their late Parents' bedroom. As she watched from the doorway, Big Mac wandered over and opened up their Mother's favorite jewellery box.

"Ma's jewellery box, Big Mac? You sure Apple Bloom won't look into it?" Applejack asked him, looking concerned. When Big Mac simply nodded and motioned to the box again, Applejack took off the necklace again and placed it inside. "Hey, ah know ah told Apple Bloom tah go and play with her friends, and that ah'd help out instead, but...ah need to talk to Twilight about this-"

"Go on, don' worry. ah've got things handled. Just make sure that ah get a second helpin' tonight." Big Mac said to her with a muted smirk. Smiling, Applejack nodded, and took off down the hallway. Getting Twilight to explain what was going on might take a while, and she'd have to be back before dinner was due.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"And it just...appeared? Out of thin air? Are you sure you didn't accidentally invoke some manner of old Magic?" Twilight asked her orange Earth Pony friend from behind a book. Applejack shook her head and replied.

"Twi', if ah did, ah doubt ah'd even know it. Honestly, all I did was wander into mah bathroom, grabbed mah towel, and started dryin' mahself off."

"Oh, but this is so odd...the Elements only ever made an appearance whenever something dire was going to occur in the immediate future. But they all appeared together, never on their own." Twilight spoke her thoughts aloud, as she began to pace around the library, trying to think of possible answers. There were a large number of books now scattered around the library in lopsided piles, some of them towering dangerously high. Most of the piles were actually already there when Applejack had come knocking on the door, but when she told Twilight about the Element of Harmony appearing suddenly, the library seemed to almost become instantly messier.

"Also, Twi', Big Mac already knew about me bein' a Holder." Applejack said to her friend as she paced around her library. This statement snapped Twilight out of her trance and stopped her dead in her tracks.

"What? How? Did you say anything to him?"

"I didn' say a word. Infact, when it appeared and he heard it, ah tried hidin' it in the towel basket but...everypony knows ah'm a terrible liar. It was Princess Celestia that told him, from what he told me. Said that she came to him during the party to Celebrate Nightmare Moon's defeat. She said it weird though, I guess." Applejack explained.

"Weird? Weird how?" Twilight probed with a distracted voice, still partially reeling from the fact that even though Princess Celestia told them all to not speak a word about who they were to anypony, the Princess Herself might have told their families.

"She told him ah was tha...'Spirit of Honesty', ah think?" Applejack replied, tapping a hoof to her chin. Twilight's jaw dropped. She suddenly floated a book out from underneath another pile, and placed it next to a series of books about the Elements.

"Applejack, I don't have an answer yet, but I'll get to work on one, okay? I'll need some time to do some research." Twilight said to Applejack quickly in an excited voice, as she began to pour over the new book.

"Uh...alright, ah guess. Ah'll just see mahself out then. Ah'll swing by tomorrow to see if you found anythin', alright?" Applejack mentioned to her lavender friend, who simply nodded absentmindedly. Applejack sighed, and went for the door, when Spike peeked out from under a pile of books, startling her slightly.

"Don't worry, I'll put it into her schedule for you so she won't forget." Spike offered, to which Applejack thanked him and then continued out of the library. As she wandered down the road from Twilight's library, she saw Apple Bloom exit the town grocery store, quickly followed by Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell, and Rarity. Waving towards them, Applejack trotted over as the three fillies struggled to load the heavy paper bags into Scootaloo's wagon.

"Oh, hello Applejack! Sweetie Bell tells me you've volunteered to take them in for the night. I must thank you for the offer, really! I just received a large order from Canterlot, and the request was two days late. If I am to finishing them on time, I'll be working into the early hours of the morning, and I fear it would keep Sweetie Bell awake and unable to sleep. So I must thank you for the sweet offer." Rarity said to Applejack, finishing it off with a large smile.

"Aw, think nothin' of it Rarity. These little rascals have a soft spot on me, so ah don't mind at'all." Applejack replied modestly, chuckling when the three fillies cheered out 'Cutie Mark Crusader Grocery Wagon Loaders!' when they finally got all the groceries into Scootaloo's wagon.

"I'm just a little concerned, though. It took a lot of convincing, but I managed to finally get her to tell me what your plans for the evening were. You'll be wandering near the Everfree late tonight..?" Rarity asked. Applejack offered a sheepish grin and began to scratch her mane with a hoof.

"Well, yeah, I was goin' to bring them to tha path into town from tha farm. But that's it, honestly."

"Sweetie Bell told me the same thing. I've seen the path at night myself, and it truly is majestic, and I think it would be wonderful for her to see it. So, I'm not going to ask you not to bring her there, but please, please, PLEASE keep on eye on her? I don't want her wandering into the Everfree Forest at night. Last time she did, when she came home she suffered from Night Terrors for a week, poor thing." Rarity spoke to Applejack in a whisper, as she looked at her little sister.

"Ah swear to you, Rarity, that I'll keep a close watch on them. If ah was concerned about bein' able ta look after 'em, ah'd have never offered them the chance before. And that's a Pinkie Promise." Applejack finished sternly, and began miming the actions before she was interrupted by Rarity.

"No, no, dear. No need for that, I trust you. Should anything come up, or if Sweetie Bell isn't behaving like a proper lady, I'll be at Sugarcube corner overnight instead of Rainbow Dash. One of her night watch crew members came down with wingpox, so she had to take over his shift. Have fun!" Rarity exclaimed before she trotted off down the road back towards Sugarcube corner.

"Come on, Sis! The sky is already turnin' orange! We don' wanna make Big Mac an' Granny Smith hungry!" Apple Bloom shouted to her. When Applejack turned to her voice, she noticed that the three fillies were straining against the weight of the groceries, the sight bringing her to laughter.

"Say, girls, why don'tcha give me half'a those to carry?"

Recon Base Zeta

"Oh, not again..." Leo groaned as he found himself placed in the familiar wasteland. "What now? What is so absolutely VITAL to show me while I'm trying to get over this stupid PonyFlu in the waking world?" Leo said aloud in a harsh tone.

"Do not worry about your sickness, it has already been healed." The feminine voice echoed out across the wasteland, seemingly everywhere and nowhere all at once. Leo felt eyes on him from behind, and when he turned, he saw the shining shape behind him, tending to what was now a healthy and large sapling, with bright green grass growing around it.

"Don't worry..? Are you serious? As if I wasn't suspicious enough to the girls already as it is, now I'm instantly over my flu? Rainbow Dash is going to have a field day..." Leo complained as he placed his fingers to his temples and rubbed them, feeling a headache coming on.

"I'm aware, but unfortunately our time is short, and reality had to be bent slightly in this case." The shining feminine figure explained as it seemed to have brushed dirt off it's knees. Wasting no time, it continued talking. "Things have rolled out slightly sooner than we expected. We expected you to have time to immerse yourself in Equestria's knowledge and lore, but the Hive has pushed the Universe too far to risk giving you more time."

"Huh? What? Bending reality? The Universe pushed to far?" Leo probed, completely confused at this point. The figure only waved it's hands to silence him.

"I'm sorry, Leo, but we don't have the luxury of time here for an in-depth analysis of the situation. When you get the chance, and you will, ask those questions of the Princesses." The figure suggested, giving Leo a moment to file the information away in his mind. "Now, the reason we're so short on time is, as I explained, The Hive. They've sent advance recon teams already, to attempt to gauge the combat readiness and capability of this planet."

"Okay, that's not exactly good...but recon teams are made up of just their crappy drones. Even Equestria's military should be able to destroy them with minimal losses." Leo replied, hoping the figure would explain why it was so critical for him intervene.

"True, yes, Equestria could easily defeat the drones. But you see, that's the problem. The first interaction the drones are going to have isn't with the military, or you, but with a local, and that local is a mare that you know. Her name is Applejack."

"I'm supposed to care? Seriously, that's not all that bad, the drones are slow suckers, I bet even I could outrun them in my current form." Leo replied with a laugh. "Besides, shes a farmer. Sounds like she's been working hard all her life. Surely she'll be able to look after herself with a few well-placed bucks."

"Normally, yes. But she isn't going to be alone. She'll have three fillies with her, and the way things are now, she'd fail in protecting them." The female figure explained with a grim tone. Leo was silent for a moment as the short memory of his interaction with the filly Pegasus he had met earlier flashed into his mind. Leo quickly made his mind up.

"If The Hive is threatening children of ANY race, each and every single one of them will be getting my fist shoved through their central processor's housing. No child deserves to be harmed or taken before their time to shine." Leo said quietly as his fists began to shake in anger, his entire body tensing. Just as the figure was about to reply, there was a strange horn that bellowed out from the burned sky, catching it's attention.

"We're out of time to talk, you must wake up now. When you get up, do so quietly; do not wake any of the occupants of the house. Exit the building and head towards the local farm!"

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

Leo awoke with a start. With a quick glance to his hands, he confirmed that they were hooves again. Glancing around the room, he noticed it was illuminated only by the moonlight. Once his eyes landed on his cloak, which he found himself surprised that it was still there considering the thing's ownership was up in the air, he began to fight to stand up, only to find himself suddenly feeling like he was going to vomit from the strain.

"What the hell, I thought she said I wasn't sick anymore..." Leo whispered to himself. As he clenched his teeth and began to force himself up, he heard the female voice in his head.

'I wasn't lying when I said your flu was removed. However, your body still thinks it's sick, so you'll be getting little bouts of discomfort for the next few hours.' the figure explained. In no mood to argue the point, Leo got up and steadied himself. Once her became comfortable with his hooves on the ground again, he noticed the nausea had disappeared suddenly. With a frown, he nodded and then donned his cloak. He approached his door slowly, as to avoid detection, when one of the floorboards creaked loudly. As Leo cringed, he heard movement from a room which sounded like it was down the hall. Scrambling, Leo tip-hooved quickly towards the window and opened it up wide, before ducking into the darkest corner of the room. When he noticed that there was candlelight worming it's way under the door, Leo gasped as he realized his hiding place wasn't going to help him at all.

"Mr. Leo, are you awake? Did you want a snack or something?" Pinkie Pie's voice whispered out from the hallway. Not hearing anything except a slight bumping sound from outside the building, the pink party pony cautiously opened the bedroom door and peeked inside. As she stepped inside, the breeze from the open window blew across her face. Pinkie Pie whipped her head towards Leo's bed only to find it empty. Seeing nowhere else in the room he could be hiding, Pinkie Pie went over to the window and looked outside to see a familiar silhouette galloping down the road before it turned the corner, just a a set of hurried hooves trotted down the hallway.

"Pinkie Pie, what would posses you to barge in on Leo so rudely like this?" Rarity asked from the doorway, confused once she noticed that Leo's bed was empty and Pinkie was leaning halfway out of the window. Putting two and two together, Rarity sighed. "He...took off again, didn't he?"

"Yuppers. Looks like he took off in the general direction of Applejack's farm. Ya know, for a pony being sick with PonyFlu, he sure has a lot of energy." Pinkie Pie observed. Not hearing anything, save for some rustling. Pulling herself out from the window, Pinkie Pie turned towards Rarity, and noticed she was wearing what looked to be a very trendy windbreaker.

"What, you actually think I'm not going to follow him after the amount of effort I put into ensuring his health stayed strong? I'm going out there to give that...that...ruffian a piece of my mind!" Rarity exclaimed, and with a huff she turned tail and ran down the stairs. Dumbfounded for a moment, Pinkie Pie stood still for a moment until she heard the store's door swing open and shut, before she bolted similarly into the hallway and down the stairs.

"Rarity, wait! I wanna come too!"

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"Oof, ahh! Oh, that stung...Grr- WOAH!" a male voice escaped from a shadowed stallion as he fell down off a short plateau, and face planted into the ground. Groaning as he gingerly lifted himself off the ground, he felt some scratches on his snout stinging slightly as he brushed the pebbles from them. Grumbling, Leo stepped out into the light emanating from a nearby lantern that rested by the edge of the path that an earlier sign had indicated to him that it led to Applejack's farm.

'Can't be too much further, I hope. I mean they bring their haul into town, right...? Not to mention, these trees have apples, so...' Leo thought to himself, glancing around the dark path in search of threats. Seeing none, he continued down the path. As he continued down at a quick pace, he began to notice how nice the area actually was. However, before he could stop to admire the beauty, his brain reminded him that he was thirsty, and just how BADLY he wanted a cream soda. Grunting, Leo pushed the thoughts from his mind as he turned the corner and the farmhouse suddenly came into view. He skidded to a halt, and surveyed the scene before him. Four shadowed figures, three of them half the height of the fourth seemed to sneak out of the house. Laying low and crawling into the bushes that lay in the ditch between the fence of the orchard and the path, Leo watched as a Lantern exploded into life, reveling Applejack as the one handling it. As the wandered down the path, he could see she was flanked by three young fillies, one of them being the one he had met a few hours earlier.

'Midnight stroll with the girls, hmm?' Leo wondered to himself. As Applejack and the girls came down to the path, Leo ducked down deeper into the grass. He couldn't see them any longer, but he could hear the girls 'Oooh!' and giggle in delight, along with Applejack's slightly muffled voice nagging them to stay close.

"...strange creatures runnin' around. Ah don' want ta be the one ta explain to your folks how ya'll got whisked away into those woods." Leo had heard Applejack finish without her being muffled by the grass. When he noticed the light from the lantern getting much closer to his location, he cursed the situation for a moment, and prayed that they didn't look into the ditch where he hid himself. In the dark, Leo had a moderate chance for his haircoat and mane's colors being mistaken for grass, as it intermingled with actual grass. If Applejack lit up the area with her lantern, Leo was toast even before he could raise a hoof to protect the group from The Hive. As Leo began to sweat bullets, he quickly found his worry trivial, as the light died away. Risking a sneak peek, Leo watched as the light of the lantern, and the voices of the girls faded into the woods. Not wanting to lose them, Leo quickly picked himself up off the ground and trotted up into what now appeared to be a hidden path. He peeked into the path only to see that what remained of the lantern's light had just faded of a small hill. Pushing through the low-hanging branches, Leo zipped up the hill and peered down the path to see the girls still happily enjoying the scenery. Just as he relaxed slightly as the night was thus-far uneventful, he managed to knock a pile of small rocks that rested at the top of the steep path, only to watch them tumble down the path. When one of the stones tapped against Applejack's rear right hoof, Leo felt his heart skip a beat, and Applejack and he both froze to a complete standstill. The girls stopped their giggling for a moment when they noticed Applejack freezing suddenly and looked at her with concern.

"Sis? Whats wrong, Applejack?" Leo saw the yellow filly ask Applejack. Sensing that Applejack was about to turn, Leo zipped back behind a large tree trunk just back over the hump of the hill. The air was only filled with the sounds of a breeze fluttering through the trees, as Leo grimaced and cursed the lantern, who's light was slowly approaching from around the sides of the tree trunk. When the light finally began to recede and Leo heard Applejack laughing off what she was just doing, he silently exhaled the huge breath he had risked once he hid.

'Novice mistake, Silva! I can't believe you just did something as stupid as that! Never relax until you're out of the AO!' Leo chastised himself for alerting Applejack to something being in the area. 'Now she is going to be hyper-aware, if she wasn't before.' Leo said to himself as he zipped back to the top of the hill. When he couldn't see any light whatsoever, he became absolutely livid. Slamming a hoof on the top of his head, Leo trotted stealthily down the overgrown path, trying to catch a glimpse of where the girls went. Just as he began to curse himself for wasting time, Leo heard four bone-chilling shrieks coming from right ahead of him, through some intense bush. Stopping himself short of bursting right out into the scene before him, he managed to catch a glimpse of the three fillies caught up in a metal net being managed by two Hive drones, as another four wrestled a straining and frantic Applejack to the ground.

"Jus' lemme go, an' ah'll buck ya metal freaks back ta wherever ya'll came from! Ya hear! Don't you even lay a HOOF on mah sister and her friends, or you'll regret it!" Applejack shouted at the Beetle-like Drones angrily, attempting to act dangerous as he face betrayed the terror she felt.

"Oh, that's rich, really? Dude, you got tripped up by Tommy. TOMMY. I mean, seriously, I might consider your threats a wee bit more credible if you hadn't managed to get beaten by the world's smallest drone." The drone managed to get out in between fits of laughter.

"Tommy? Which one'a ya'll is Tommy?" Applejack suddenly asked. The drone that spoke to her pointed to a Drone that was about half the size of all the others, and it turned from tending to the fillies to look at her.

"'Sup." Tommy replied in a low pitched and extremely masculine voice, throwing Applejack off for a moment.

"Ah-Ah'm gonna turn YOU inta scrap metal, ya freak!" Applejack screamed at him, as she began to lift herself on the ground, fighting against the added weight of the four drones tending to her. Ultimately, her legs gave out and she fell back to the ground with a grunt. Deciding he had seen enough, Leo suddenly charged at one of the drones holding Applejack down and body-checked him. This caused the other three to lose focus on Applejack as they stared dumbfounded at the intruder, allowing her to buck and shove them off. Without a word to each other, Applejack and Leo fought with the four drones in tandem, covering each other from an approaching drone they hadn't noticed. It was only when the four drones began to have problems with their legs working properly that Leo and Applejack heard some rustling and screaming come from the trees. Turning to look as the drones groaned on the ground, the duo realized their error.

"APPLEBLOOM, AH'M COMMIN'!" Applejack shouted as she galloped towards the sounds of the three fillies' screaming. Not skipping a beat, Leo bolted after her. As they seemed to get closer to the runaway drones, Leo noticed electric lights up ahead. Putting two and two together, Leo quickly made a decision to trip Applejack, and did so. "What tha hay, Leo? What in tha actual hay did'ja do that for?" Applejack shouted at him as she picked herself up off the ground. Leo put himself in front of her so she couldn't go forward.

"Applejack, wait! That's their camp up ahead, we can't just go charging in blindly! What you and the girls stumbled upon was a patrol. They probably have a couple dozen more drones waiting in there. We'd be trussed up like chickens in seconds!" Leo explained, as she pushed against him with grim determination. When she noticed she only managed to make him slide a bit forward, Applejack collapsed to the ground in a heap and began to sob.

"Leo...please...ah know you know...more about these things than yer lettin' on. Just....please tell me what we need ta do ta...save mah sister and her friends, or ah'll never be able to look Big Mac or Rare in the face again." Applejack pleaded with Leo, who stood infront of her as she looked up at him, the moonlight filtering through the trees reflecting off her tears. He was silent for a moment, as he was astonished by the depth of Applejack's love for her sister became apparent to him. Resting a hoof on Applejack's shoulder, Leo made her a promise.

"I'm not going to hold anything about these guys back, not when children are in danger. I'm not up to explaining how I know all this, but I'll fill you in when required. Now," Leo said as he turned to face the camp hidden in the trees before him, "Doing recon on the area first is key, to determine where they've placed your sister and her friends, and where their security is weakest. If we wait a little while, we can figure out their patterns and sneak by towards your sister with no problems." Leo laid his plan out to Applejack. After a few more words and a promise from her that she'd lay low and not leave the spot they were in unless a patrol came forward, Leo sneaked towards the edge of the encampment.

As he peered in carefully, it became quickly visible to him that the drones had cut a swath of trees and grass down to make room for their base. As his eyes shifted towards the left, he spied the pile of felled trees, and made the welcome discovery that he would be able to climb the side away from the camp and peer down for a bird's eye view, complete with a low risk factor for getting spotted. Edging his way towards the log pile, he nearly walked in on a pair of drones walking in from a patrol, discussing something. He quickly dropped into the tall forest grass and put one ear to the ground, allowing his other ear to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"...Engineers are taking forever, man. I swear, my bro could build that teleporter gateway faster on his own. He always had a knack for that technology stuff." Leo heard one of the drones complaining to the other. Hearing them stop in their tracks, Leo clung closer to the ground in an effort to further conceal himself.

"So, wait, if your brother is so good at using technology, what're you doing here?" The other drone asked.

"Uhm, duh? I'm not technology smart. Jeeze, you sure are dumb sometimes." The other drone replied, walking into the base.

"...Yet we're both walking calculators with weapons. Totally makes sense." The second drone mumbled to himself sarcastically. Leo shook his head with a smile in response to the conversation he overheard. As much as he hated the drones affiliated with The Hive, he always found their banter amusing.

"Right, now....the mission at hand." Leo mumbled to himself. Picking himself up, he tip-hooved towards the logs. Upon reaching them, he noticed a small gap between the side facing the forest and the trees themselves, giving him slight cause for concern. If a drone on patrol decided to come and take a peek around the logs, he'd be sighted instantly. He decided to bite the bullet, however, when he heard the fillies let loose a short trio of shrieks simultaneously. Peering over the edge of the logs, Leo looked right into the middle of the encampment. Counting the lower number of drones in the camp, he surmised that the vision he had earlier definitely hadn't lied: The Hive had dispatched recon teams. One thing that concerned him, however, was that even though he sighted the fusion power generators needed to run a teleporter near a collapsible building the drones had put up, he couldn't see the machine itself. As his eyes wandered around the camp making sure he didn't just miss it, a distressing thought nestled itself in his mind rather unceremoniously.

'If this is only one of many recon teams, and this one is equipped with teleportation technology, are the others? Dammit, I need more time to fix myself, this is happening too soon!' Leo's mind screamed. Sighing, Leo added another objective to his current night mission. 'Let's see if I can't find any information about any other bases having portals. If they do, I might be able to get some general coordinates of their locations for the country's military to strike.' Leo added to his mental to-do list. Continuing his search for the teleporter, he noticed that the power lines from the generators wound their way through the base. As he followed it, he suddenly became aware of an old stone doorway hidden in overgrowth at the far edge of the camp. Seeing that the cables went into the stone doorway, Leo surmised that the teleporter lay within. Just as he began to monitor the patrol patterns within the camp, he saw and heard a commotion from the general vicinity of where he left Applejack. A cold chill flowed over him when he noticed an orange light flash from the area, followed by some shouting.

"Git yer filthy claws off'a me! Give me back mah sister and her friends!" Leo heard Applejack shout. The drones were pretty much dragging her into the camp as she struggled, not paying attention to where they were going. When they bumped into the power generators, their concentration lapsed, and Applejack broke free long enough to buck two of the drones into the generators, knocking them over and causing a small fire as power arced around the area. Unable to get away in time, Applejack got struck by one of the arcs and crumpled into a heap, making her more manageable for the drones. Once the generators were finally shut off (after much cursing from the lead engineer who appeared from the depths of carved stone cave), the drones were not happy.

'You stupid, stupid mare! Now look at what you've done! I'll be lucky to save any of you NOW! And so much for getting the teleporter info...' Leo groaned, as the drones who accidentally broke the generators took their prisoners into the cavern beyond the doorway, making sure to make no extra effort to prevent further injury to the Applejack. Assuming she was still alive after that electrical shock. Not wanting to get caught himself, Leo quickly snuck back into the woods. Cursing his luck and the entirety of the planet he currently found himself on, Leo stealthily made his way around the edge of the camp, keeping his eyes open for any lingering patrols. Once he arrived near the stone doorway, he quickly noticed that it wasn't a little cave, but an entire ancient building covered in overgrowth. Deciding to investigate, he wandered away from the camp along the edge of the building, continuing to keep an eye out for drones. When something on the building caught his eye, he stopped and smirked.

"Jackpot." Leo mumbled to himself, as he trotted over towards a small hole in the aged wall. Peeking in, he looked for drones keep guard, but found none. In fact, he saw absolutely nothing thanks to the lack of light inside, which irked him to no end, as the lack of light hadn't been a problem for him for a long time.

'So there ARE benefits to being a robot, fancy that? Good-for-nothing witch doctor magic tricks...' Leo grumbled to himself as he felt his way through the hole and into the building. The seconds that ticked by felt like minutes he didn't have as he groped and prodded his way through with his hooves. After a few moments and a number of doorways later, Leo entered what felt like, to him, a large room within the building. As he crawled along the floor straight from the doorway he entered from, he suddenly noticed a flicker of faint light shine from a doorway to his left.

"Generators are back up and running!" a voice shouted from the source of the light. Leo heard a drone shout something in response, but couldn't make it out what it had said. "Alright, I'm coming back, jeeze!" The voice shouted again, evidently it's owner walking towards the owner of the other. Leo waited a moment before picking himself up and walked over to the doorway that he could see in the faint light. Peering out into the hallway before him, he found it suspiciously empty. He decided to stay in the doorway for a moment and keep glancing up and down the long ancient hallway, and his decision quickly paid off, as a drone descended a staircase at the far end of the hallway, the eerie blue light from the lamps the drones had set up earlier flooding over it.

"Hey, has anyone seen a green pony wandering around? That missing patrol just crawled in, saying a green pony got the orange one we caught free, and both of them kicked their bolts in. I was kind of wondering why Tommy wasn't saying anything." The drone shouted down the hallway, laughter in his voice, which prompted Leo to shy away from the doorway. He could hear a drone shout in reply, but again couldn't make out what it was saying. As the other voice continued, Leo grumbled about ponies having bad hearing and subsequently wished he was back to normal again.

"Hah, alright alright! George is making some Electrichino. If you geeks feel like socializing, leave your cave and come outside." the unseen drone shouted, and audibly climbed back up the steps. Peeking back out, Leo decided it was now of never to make a beeline down the hallway into the depths of the strange and ancient structure, and risk being seen. As he galloped down the narrow hallways, following the fattest of the power cables, he vaguely made out the sounds of surprised engineer drones seeing him bolt past them and raising the alarm. Just as he rounded a corner, Leo felt himself slam into a curious drone, who had left his work station to see what the commotion was. Once Leo had shaken the birds clouding his mind, he picked himself back up only to see the drone now purposely blocking his way. Turning around to seek out another path, Leo found the hallway flooded with soldier drones looking at him eagerly.

"You won't get away this time, little Pony!" The lone engineer shouted at Leo from behind with a menacing tone. Leo simply smirked and turned to look at the drone with a 'Hmph'. "Oh, you have spunk, eh? Well, I have a weapon, and you don't. Let's see how long that spunk will keep you alive, hm?"

"Drone model A15-ENG. Basic drone model designed for engineering tasks, and nothing more. Terrible at combat." Leo recited with a smirk. The drone simply stared at the pony in utter confusion, unable to figure out where it could of gotten the information. Not wasting a moment, Leo turned to the soldiers that were behind him. "Drone models, varying from A16-AX, to A18-POLARM, and even the tiny A10-ANNY-GSHT. Combat capabilities range wildly, however, under normal circumstances only pose a threat to unarmed civilians. Overall combined Combat Rating: Low." Leo again recited, chuckling as he noticed the expressions on the soldier drones flashing between shock and anger. As silence fell upon the scene, save for a cough from a drone, Leo simple sighed, turning back. "Fine, let's just get this over with." Leo replied nonchalantly, as he galloped at the lone engineer drone, causing it to topple over in surprise. Leo landed on the other side, his smirk still visible. He felt a dangerous rise in confidence, but paid it no further heed. He was having too much fun with these drones!

"W-why is your voice so....why does it cause my databanks to attempt to recall old memory?" The engineer asked, suddenly very afraid of the answer the pony before him would have.

"Because...well, because my voice was the one that announced the end of Vexus' tyrannical reign of destruction!" Leo shouted at them. All the drones were silent for a moment, as they were all processing what Leo had just admitted to them.

"KILL OUR LATE QUEEN'S MURDERER!" A higher ranking drone shouted at the others. Once they let out a massive hollar and charged at Leo, his expression switched from confident to one of extreme terror, and he stumbled backwards before turning tail and booking it down the rest of the hallway and down a long and wide staircase. Egged on by the sounds of the drones getting closers, Leo nearly stumbled again once he found himself at the bottom of the staircase and now in a gigantic chamber, of which moonlight flowed in through holes in the ceiling illuminating the entire chamber. Overgrowth seemed to be taking the chamber back akin to the rest of the building, as hanging moss and vines snaked down from the holes in the ceiling, which upon closer inspection seemed intentional from the building's designers. As he began to take in the beauty of the room, his mind was snapped back to his current plight, as he heard a drone not far behind him shout "There he is! Get him!"

"Crap!" Leo shouted as he bolted further into the room. 'I should've just kept my mouth shut back there and bolted down here. Because if I get caught, at least then I'd just be a slave.' Leo thought sourly, as he moved deeper into the chamber. As he went further, he suddenly noticed some shapes up ahead. Upon closer inspection, he noticed it was his whole reason for being in this mess of an op. "Applejack! Little girls! ...Are any of you awake?" Leo shouted as he approached them. He slowed slightly, still aware of his numerous tails, when he noticed that all four ponies were unconscious. They were held in oddly formed cages, and it was giving off a weird feeling, with an odd device in the top of the cages spinning and giving off an eerie glow. The sight of Applejack and the three fillies, whom had tear stains on their faces, sleeping in what looked like in extreme discomfort, enraged Leo to a new level. Certain that he'd lose if he were to go toe-to-toe with the drones, Leo decided to wake the four ponies and escape somehow with around 20 drones hot on their tails. Just as he was fleshing out his terrible plan, Leo skidded to a halt when something in front of him caught his eye.

"Spread out! Find him! You four, cover the doors! Silva won't be able to escape now!" Leo heard a drone shout out from the dim light the moon offered, reminding him of the precious little time he had remaining. He turned his eyes back towards the sight before him: a strange, shimmering, blue translucent veil that seemed to separate the chamber from a large door in the distance.

"This must be more magic...but what is it?" Leo asked himself in a mumble. He bit his lip, pondering if he should risk walking through a veil of unknown origin, uncertain of what he was getting himself into. What if, to Leo, it was actually some new unknown Hive technology designed to trap unauthorized personnel? His mind was quickly made up for him, however, as when he heard and watched the orange Pegasus filly give out a little squeak and begin to shake from terror or unseen beasts and demons in what Leo figured to be her dreams, he steeled himself and walked through to veil.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

BOOTING...Please Wait...

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"...ttttttttttthhhhhhaaaattt llight! You, that came from the prisoners, go check it out!" Leo heard from the floor. Groaning, he put a hand to his head and rubbed it, in a futile attempt to disperse the electrostatic buildup in his head. As he finally opened his eyes, he became aware of the fact that he was still in the ancient building, but now on the other side of the mysterious veil. Rolling over to take a peek, he put himself on all fours, but quickly found that his forelegs were now much shorter. A quick glance down showed him that this was not the case, as they were now arms, complete with hands. Getting up, he quickly looked himself over to find that he was back to his original shape.

"Hell yeah! Oh, right, diagnostics..." Leo shouted, before calling up the HUD he despised and executing his 'quikdiag' applet.

"Quick Diagnostics complete. Here is your readout:

B.R.A.I.N.'s main processor is operating at half-capacity, seek maintenance.

G.P.S. cannot obtain signal from satellites, please resolve issues.

Flight thrusters are heavily damaged, do not attempt normal flight operations until maintenance is complete. Flight vector thrusters nominal.

Unknown Hardware failure in ALL Gyros and ALL Servos detected. Break off current operation and seek maintenance immediately.

System Rating(Ignores Flight Status): 14.2857%. Total Failure Imminent.

'OverClock' function is available, but it is heavily recommended to avoid it's use in system's current state."

"Great. I might as well be as useful as a fourteen year old human female. Good. To. Know. Thanks, Luck." Leo mumbled to himself. Somewhere, a mare with a Horseshoe cutie mark sneezed in the middle of drinking a late-night smoothie, prompting her friend to laugh as it dripped off the mare's unamused face.

"Hey, I see something, I see- OH MAN!" a drone shouted to the rest of them, stopping suddenly when he caught a glimpse of Leo. "Uhm...did you wanna...put some clothes on before we fight?" The drone asked a now confused Leo. Glancing down, Leo noticed he was completely naked. Sighing, he queried his internal inventory cube ("Thank you, Missus W!"), but quickly found out that it wasn't even installed.

"God dammit. Well, I'll just have to go as is, my little drone." Leo sighed as he recalled how he dropped most of his possessions at that weird altar thing where Angel actually managed to ruin his day. Making a note to find that location again, Leo entered a familiar fighting stance, this time knowing how to position himself. The drone had no idea how to react, seeing as, as far as it was concerned, Leo looked just like a stark naked human being.

"Private, what have you found over there!" The voice of the high ranking drone rang out from the darkness. The drone only got the response of stifled snorting and giggling coming from the drone that Leo was in stance in front of. Sighing, Leo simply swung his left leg up and out, successfully executing a side kick on the drone, causing it to rocket out into the darkness, eliciting surprised shouts from the rest of the company of drones. Leo fell to his knees, groaning as he felt his entire frame shudder from using his OverClock technique.

"O...kay. Diag...nostics was not...kidding when it suggested to avoid using that. Let's disable that...heh." Leo smirked as he got himself up off the floor. No longer feeling the after effect of his last maneuver, he looked up to see the drones finally approaching.

"Y-you watch yourself, Leo Silva! My men have been heavily trained, and while some of us may crash due to extreme damage, I'm certain we'll do some damage of our own!" The leading drone shouted at Leo.

"Please, as if you boys are a threat. Even if I'm not nearly as powerful as XJ-9, I can still tear you rust buckets to pieces! Leave now, and I'll let you all-" Leo began to suggest to the drones via a bluff, but a robotic voice from Leo's quikdiag applet, which he accidentally left running, interrupted him and rung out aloud.

"System performance has now dropped to: FOUR TEEN PERCENT. Please Seek maintenance immediately." The voice had ratted Leo's state out. The room was silent for a moment, save for a sheepish grin.

"I'll...let you all live?" Leo finished, visibly embarrassed that his own body would betray him like that. The drones burst out laughing, but kept the laughter short lived as they readied their pole-arms, axes, and bare fists at Leo. "Fine, we'll do this the HARD WAY!" Leo shouted, quickly starting with a right hook on the closest drone. Grinning when he felt the drone's face dent upon his fist connecting, Leo quickly had to maneuver out of the path of a swinging axe. Targeting the drone that attack him, he went to disarm it, but was knocked onto his back by a rogue pole-arm. Grunting, Leo grabbed at it and yanked himself back up quickly, using the drone's own weight as an anchor. Dropping close to the floor, Leo tripped up the sorry drone using a low reverse roundhouse, causing it to drop it's weapon in surprise. Before it, or any of it's comrades could act, Leo smashed the back of it's head in by following up with an axe kick.

"Come on now, men! Silva isn't even designed for direct combat, and he is at 14% for crying out loud!" The leader commanded from a slight distance, prompting Leo to laugh.

"Don't worry your pretty little processor over your fate, Mr. Leader! I'm saving you for last!" Leo shouted, just before an overzealous axe drone swung at Leo. Missing the blade by centimeters, Leo countered by wedging the blunt end of his pole-arm in-between a ground of bricks and used it to hold himself up, and then executed a butterfly kick on the axe drone. Before the leading drone had a chance to react, the flying axe drone slammed into him, sending both of them, battered and dented, crashing to the floor. As the leader quickly collected himself, he dodged to the left when he looked up to see the axe drone's own weapon swung at him, only missing it imbedding itself in his head by a hair's width. "Sorry, guess I lied." Leo joked, as he parried another axe attack using the pole-arm he had removed from it's resting position.

"You wait, Silva! I'l have your oil pump in my claws!" the leader screamed in anger, as he ran back to grab the axe Leo had thrown at him. After a few more parries and drones falling at Leo's hands, Leo definitely noticed that he was feeling a little taxed. A quick query returned what he had expected: His system endurance was plummeting, and currently sat around 54%.

'This needs to end soon, I need a chance to cool down and repair damage.' Leo thought to himself as he dodged yet another attack. Counting his foes remaining, Leo attempted another bluff to gauge his opponents' resolve.

"Eleven down...nine to go. I could keep doing this all day, you boys sure you want to continue?" Leo asked, finishing with a smirk. Watching the drones, he was happy to see a couple of them glance around, and some even looked back to their leader.

"Of course we'll continue! You'll wear out eventually!" The leader shouted at him. As Leo looked towards the leader, who's eyes were silently wishing for an amazingly awful death for him, he noticed the Hive's teleporter in the background, complete with an operational mainframe. Before he had a chance to think his next moves through, he suddenly gasped as he found the speared end of a pole-arm stabbed into his stomach. When the drone withdrew the pole-arm, Leo gasped in pain, the sensation clouding his mind slightly. Extremely enraged at this action, Leo shut down his pain receptors, and grabbed a hold of the pole-arm before him, dripping with his synthetic blood and a small amount of oil.

"Dumbest. Move. EVER! DRONE!" Leo shouted at the now cowering form. Giving it no mercy, Leo reactivated his OverClock function, rammed the spear into the drone, as he ran right at the nearest wall with it at high speed. When the drone hit the wall, it stopped completely, but the pole-arm Leo was holding kept going right through it and the wall, up until the drone's now lifeless frame was hit by Leo's fists. Calmed slightly, Leo fought to remain upright as another shudder shook his body, and he quickly deactivated OverClock again. He gasped when he noticed that his system capacity dropped the 8%.

'Silva, you moron! You just sacrificed 6% on one measly drone!' Leo groaned as he berated himself. Turning, he noticed that his foes numbers had not just dropped by one, but by four. Glancing at his legs, he noticed metal shrapnel had stabbed it's way into his legs causing them to bleed, and that his path was littered with the wreckage of what consisted of approximately three drones. Surprised that he had bulldozed through them without knowing it and literally blew them to pieces, Leo had no idea how to react to the drones that were staring at their comrades on the floor, then at the one in the wall, and back to Leo in shock. Leo quickly shook off his own surprise, however, and finished off the remaining five drones with some quick and powerful fist jabs and kicks. Once all the drones had fallen, Leo glanced around for the one that remained: the leader. The only thing that greeted him was silence, and after a quick scan of the room, Leo resorted to checking each robotic corpse for the leader's insignia.

"Dammit! He got away!" Leo suddenly shouted, after having discovered that not a single one of the drones wore his insignia. Partially satisfied that every other drone in the encampment had been dispatched after searching with a long-range scan, Leo looked back towards the hostages of the situation. They were all still locked inside the cages, of which Leo was now able to tell were designed to cause it's captives to fall into a deep slumber filled with nightmares. Angry, Leo wandered over, through the odd magical veil that returned him to normal, and tore the cages apart, laying the slumbering ponies next to each other on the floor. He turned towards the teleporter that lay before him, unfinished, and wandered over to the terminal. Once he figured out how to use the mainframe workstation, Leo was able to pull up an engineering checklist containing various information about the teleporter. On the 57th file, titled 'Recon Base Zeta teleporter location codes', Leo suddenly smiled widely.

"Jackpot..." Leo spoke quietly as he opened it up, and recorded it's contents to his own memory. Thankfully, there were no other teleporters on planet. At least, not yet. Just as he stood up with a triumphant smile over having completed his operation that the strange figure gave him, a sudden and strong wave of nausea and dizziness overcame him, causing him to fall to his hands and knees.

'Wait a sec, what the hell? I'm not....ugh...supposed to be feeling...these as...a robot....why am I so tired now...?' Leo thought to himself as his mind filled with a fog, before he watched the ground rush up at him, followed by a blissful blackness.

The Voice

Bliss. Pure Bliss. Leo had never felt better, and he was content with staying wherever he was, as he felt a pair of hooves kneading a weird part of his body that he couldn't recognize. Yes, this was pure heaven. Correction: it WAS, up until he had the uncontrollable urge to vomit!

"Eeek!" a sweet voice shrieked as Leo managed to upchuck whatever it was the ponies had fed him earlier onto the floor beside his bed. Groaning, Leo placed a hoof to his head, as the door to his room opened, the sound causing him to clench his eyes shut.

"Oh dear, perhaps it was a tad unwise to feed you that much hay soup...calm now, lay down...thats it, dearie." a motherly voice floated out to Leo as he felt a pair of hooves slowly ease him back to his bed. He simply groaned as his head felt like it was filled with a raging wildfire, of which the unseen owner of the voice verified by laying a part of her foreleg to his head and tut-tutted. He wanted nothing but to be alone at this point in time, which mercifully the voice seemed to pcik up on even though nothing had been said. "Oh, Fluttershy dear, don't worry yourself with the mess, I'll clean it up. You go ahead and get yourself washed down with a nice shower, I'll get Pinkie Pie to fetch you a towel shortly."

"Umm...I.." Leo heard Fluttershy pause for a moment, before she relented without much of a fight. "...Okay." was all he heard, save for the clopping of hooves on wooden floorboards. Without much sound, the smell of Leo's vomit seemed to disappear as a pleasant fragrance smelling vaguely of flowers.

"You rest easy now, dear. After all, PonyFlu is nothing to play around with. Oh, and don't worry about the Apple Family, they've promised they are going to leave you alone until you're better." The motherly voice promised, with a reassuring tapping on Leo's shoulder. Leo simply nodded slowly and curled over in his bed, intent on returning to sleep. The unknown mare left Leo alone, and he rested in silence, which was only broken by the muffled voices coming from the floor below, coupled with the equally muffled jingle of a door bell, which rung randomly.

'I'm sick again, eh? And a Pony again?' Leo asked himself in his head. He waited for a moment, and then an expected reply came, still surprising him regardless.

'Yes, I took note of how uneasy you were with the prospect of suddenly being healthy being a rather large problem in your attempts to conceal your true identity. That, and the fact that the Princesses have also asked you for your upmost effort to do so.' The female voice rung out in Leo's mind. As he noted how he was slowly beginning to become used to hearing a sentient voice in his head, he recalled the memory at the hospital in the lobby when Princess Celestia pulled him aside.

"My Sister and I would feel much more comfortable if you were to keep your true form a secret from everypony else, including the girls. While you still deny it, you hold immense power within yourself, and the last thing we need to deal with is you suffering from a stigma from my little ponies. It will be doubly important if this 'Hive' manages to gain a foothold in Equestria." Celestia spoke quietly and curtly to Leo, who nodded once quickly to get the point across he understood.

"What of when...IF I ever manage to return to my previous body?" Leo asked her quickly, as he noticed Twilight approaching. Celestia seemed to notice as well, and ended the conversation with a quick and bland answer.

"Don't worry about those details for now, Leo. If you ever need that information, My Sister and I will get you an answer."

Leo was deep in thought when he was suddenly brought back to reality by the sound of his bedroom door opening.

"Hello again, Mr. Leo. How are you feeling currently?" a familiar voice floated out to him as he heard the door close. Ignoring the raging headache he was currently suffering from, Leo opened up his eyes gingerly to catch a glimpse of the mare before him.

"Nurse Dawn? What brings you to me on this...fine day?" Leo grumbled out as he looked at the red earth pony before him.

"Still as pleasant as I remember you." Nurse Dawn said with a giggle. As she trotted over, she began to pull some small pieces of equipment out of a saddle bag. Once she seemed to decide that everything was in order, she finally answered Leo's question. "I'm here to check up on your recovery from your bout of PonyFlu, as well as ask you if it's alright to ask some questions and take some blood?"

"Uhm, I guess. As long as I don't have to get up, 'cause if I do I'm thinking I might vomit." Leo groaned as he closed his eyes.

"No no, just lay there. Trust me, you won't feel a thing..." Nurse Dawn spoke as if she rehearsed those last seven words her entire career. Leo waited patiently for the pinch he could vaguely recall should come, but was surprised when Healing Dawn placed a damp cloth onto Leo's forehead.

"Here, I have some medicine to help with the headaches, open up..." Healing Dawn commanded Leo, who lazily opened his jaw. When the spoon was in his mouth, Leo was surprised by the medicine's pleasant taste of pineapple. He had expected it to taste awful, if his childhood memories were still anything to go by. Speaking of expectations...

"So, about those blood tests, when are you gonna take some of my blood?" Leo asked, eyes still closed. Healing Dawn giggled slightly at Leo's ignorance.

"Open your eyes, maybe you'll see." Nurse Dawn suggested. Leo was hesitant at first to open his eyes, as he expected the pain to slam into his again, but was again surprised when nothing happened. Reasoning that the medicine was fast-acting, Leo opened his eyes up completely, to see Healing Dawn holding a trio of vials containing his blood, and a bandage over his pin-prick of an injury. "I wasn't lying when I said you wouldn't feel a thing. Everypony at the Hospital gave me the nickname 'Soft Hooves' for my talent at preventing discomfort while placing needles."

"Huh." Was all Leo mustered in response to everything he had just experienced in the past two minutes.

"Now, for my questions..." Healing Dawn trailed off, donning a pair of reading glasses as she simultaneously pulled out a stand holding a clipboard and flicked through a few pages using her hooves with a finesse that astonished Leo. He'd have to learn how to do that. "How were you feeling last night, when you went out to do Celestia knows what?"

"I actually...didn't feel all that bad. I figured I had gotten better really fast somehow, you know those 24 hour flus? I was feeling a bit cooped up, so I went for a walk. Wanted some fresh air." Leo lied to Healing Dawn, who accepted the answer without further question.

"And when you tackled the metal beasts who were holding Ms. Applejack to the ground, how would you describe how you were feeling then?"

"Uhm...typical adrenaline response, I suppose. Maybe felt like it was a little higher of a...slam, though." Leo replied to the question, answering honestly this time. Again, Healing Dawn accepted the answer with a murmur, as she began to record his answers onto the clipboard's page.

"Okay, and...similar response upon combat with that...swarm?" Healing Dawn asked again.

"Don't even ask about that one, I'm not even sure 100% of what was going on." Leo answered, truthfully. He hadn't put much thought on it at the time, and for good reason, but he couldn't figure out WHY he had been in such a weakened state. He was completely healthy as a pony, save for occasional phantom nausea, prior to returning to his original form. Compare that to the mess he was as the damage he sustained fighting Angel seemed to have some sort of comparative injury as a Pony...and things weren't adding up. Suddenly remembering that he had suffered from a strike to his stomach via a pole-arm, Leo discreetly checked his stomach area, only to discover that there wasn't any bandages. In fact, he wasn't even injured. Something was definitely fubar.

"Hmm...that answers the questions that everypony wants to know, okay.." Healing Dawn scribbled a note down on the clipboard. Leo stared at her expectantly, and having noticed this, she stared back. After a moment, she realized what he wanted. "Oh, well...everypony who knows what happened is really curious about...you know...it. What you did to those four metal things. Well, mostly, uhm...how you did it, actually." Healing Dawn asked, hiding slightly behind her clipboard.

"What I did to four...what happened?" Leo asked, confused. Thinking quickly for a moment, he realized what she was talking about, but she replied before he could explain.

"How in Equestria did you hit three of those things so hard, they broke apart? Better yet, how did you ram a pole-arm into one of them so hard it went through them and pierced that wall!" Healing Dawn asked loudly, getting right up into his face as she waited for Leo's answer.

"Ahh..wha..." Leo let loose incoherently as, for the first time in many years, his mind completely blanked. After a quick internal struggle, Leo finally responded. "Uhm...I don't remember doing it." Leo explained, finishing it off with a scrunched up snout in physical response to his hasty and quick lie. Leo hadn't noticed himself doing it, and thankfully for him, neither did Healing Dawn.

"Oh...I see. That's too bad, I guess." Healing Dawn seemed to deflate slightly as she pulled away from Leo. As she did so, Leo got a faint scent of what smelled like hot cinnamon candies, sending yet another wave of nausea over him. "Hmm...I suppose I should allow you to rest up.Thanks for answering my questions."

"Uhm...if you don't mind answering, why DID you take some blood and ask me those questions?" Leo asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Oh, well, uhm...it's something some scientists want to study. News of your actions while you being extremely sick has skyrocketed you into a sort of temporary celebrity status across Equestria. Biologists want to see if this strain is some sort of new bug that increases strength upon adrenaline response. Personally, I think you're just really strong. And Cocky, you definitely have attitude." Healing Dawn explained, ending with a jab and a smile.

"Har har...how much longer and I'm going to be bed-ridden?" Leo asked as Healing Dawn packed up her equipment. Thinking for a moment as she looked him over, she decided upon an answer.

"Well, today is definitely the peak of your infection. You should be feeling better by tomorrow, at least, but you'll want to avoid strenuous activity until the end of the week." Healing Dawn instructed Leo, who simply nodded and began to doze off as a sudden drowsiness overtook him. Smiling as soft snoring quickly escaped her patient, Healing Dawn walked over to the blinds on the window and closed them, before she quietly grabbed her equipment and sneaked out of the bedroom.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"How come you're the only one checking up on me? Did I do something?" Leo asked Twilight as she levitated a thermometer away from his mouth, taking a good look at the reading.

"Hey, your fever is gone! That's good! You'll be healthy enough for your audience with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!" Twilight exclaimed as she showed Leo the thermometer. A week had come and gone since Healing Dawn's visit, and the entire time had been uneventful. Honestly, the most exciting thing that had occurred was when Leo had asked Twilight to write the Princesses and request that he have a conversation with them. When he had refused to explain why, Twilight had almost refused to send the letter, but when he 'explained' to her that the Princesses had 'expected' a letter from him earlier, they would eventually come knocking to find out why. And he'd tattle on her. So Twilight begrudgingly agreed to send the letter, and it was decided the conversation would take place that Saturday.

"Twilight? Did you hear me?" Leo asked, looking at her seriously, after seeing that she was hiding something from him.

"Well, uhm...They're all scared of catching whatever it was that you had. Save for Applejack and myself, they all bought into the hype that you were infected with some sort of weird mutation of PonyFlu, sorry." Twilight apologized to Leo, who simply smiled and shook his head.

"So, Applejack and yourself are the level-headed ones, I take it?" Leo asked, as he got out of bed to stretch himself out.

"Well, Applejack is more than I am, even though she may not admit it. If something happens to suddenly skew my schedule and plans, I can go a little wonky sometimes." Twilight explained, as she recalled the day she plunged into an insane panic over not getting Princess Celestia a friendship report on time. Blushing, she pushed the memory out of her mind, and changed the subject. "So, the Princesses suggested we meet them at the library around 1 o'clock. We've got a couple hours yet, though, so is there anything you wanted to do before then?" Twilight asked Leo, smiling.

"Well, I haven't had anything substantial to eat in a while, would be nice to go out and get a treat." Leo suggested with a smile. Nodding, Twilight magicked the bedroom door open and walked out, with Leo only stopping for a moment to grab Trixie's cloak, and quickly followed her out. As they began to walk down the hallway towards the staircase, Leo stopped suddenly. "Might have a problem, though."

"If it's about bits, don't worry about it. I have more than enough to cover the both of us." Twilight explained with a smile, simply trying to be a good friend to Leo. Smiling and nodding himself, Leo looked at her as she simply stood in front of him and staring at him. "Uhm...can I ask you a super personal questions? I mean, it's going to be very rude of me to ask, but I can't stand not knowing any longer..." Twilight trailed off, staring at him with a look of concern.

"I'll answer it, depending on what it is, Twilight. Go ahead and ask." Leo replied, emphasizing his openness with a few motions of a hoof.

"Well...it's about your Cutie Mark. What happened to it? Or did you ever have one?" Twilight asked, looking towards the floor in shame for her curiosity.

"Wondered when you'd asked about that..." Leo trailed off. Having read all about these 'Cutie Marks' in some of the books at Twilight's library, he had been piecing together a convincing excuse to fool the girls for when they would ask. He hadn't expected to work on Applejack as he saw her as a four-legged talking lie detector, but Twilight would be easy enough to make her believe him. "I never really found my exact calling in life. I mean, I'm at home with logistics and numbers, but working on almost all forms of machinery is like second nature to me. I'm also really skilled at running and working in stores, and I used to run some of my own companies, but that's behind me now. I'm done running businesses, after a series of unfortunate events..." Leo trailed off, eyes narrowing in annoyance as he recalled what happened almost several years ago, when the US government's attention was called upon, what he considered then, his accursed form by his again friend, Sheldon, who was a jealous third party at the time.

'Bloody fools...Look what your legal system did to you when Bankrupt Silva Corp. couldn't stop Vexus' machine.' Leo grumbled in his mind. As he was thinking about it, he was vaguely aware that Twilight had said something to him, catching his attention.

"Leo, whats wrong? Why are you so quiet?" Twilight spoke in concern as she held a hoof to Leo's shoulder. Suddenly aware of the deathly annoyed expression.

"Sorry. Just some annoying memories resurfacing." Leo explained hastily, hoping Twilight would leave the subject alone. The flooding of his memories surprised him, as he had already come to terms with his fate of living out the rest of his time as engineering robot model LY-2, and how badly Skyway Patrol had let him down in concealing his secret and then distanced itself from him. Noticing that Twilight was still looking at him with concern, he quickly reasoned that he still felt a little hurt over the betrayal he had to deal with at the time.

'I wonder if Jenny really did follow through on her threats when I left...if we're even still friends.' Leo pondered as Twilight replied to him.

"Are you sure? Did you want to go and sleep again? I can write the Princesses and post-pone the meeting..." Twilight offered, but Leo shook his head.

"Naw, I'm okay now. I was guess I was just a bit homesick. I think I need to have a walk or something, though, because I'm going to go stir-crazy." Leo said as he shooed Twilight down the stairs. Relenting, Twilight began the decent down the stairs. As she did so, Leo sighed quietly.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"...And please, if there is anything I can do for you, anything at all, it's the least I could do. I can't thank you enough for saving our daughter!" A grey, brown-maned Stallion shouted at Leo in a final farewell, as he and his wife, who was pink with a purple-mane, trotted out to a waiting cart with another stallion harnessed to it.

"Uhm...sure, I guess I'll let you know. Bye now." Leo replied meekly, having felt like his personal space had been repeatedly invaded by these mysterious ponies. As they pulled away waving, Leo walked back into Sugarcube corner, only to stare right into a set of deep azure eyes.

"S-so I s-see you met my parents! How were they?!" Rarity suddenly squealed at Leo, causing him to leap a few feet into the air. Once Leo caught his breath, Rarity began to apologize. "I'm sorry, Leo, I wasn't looking to frighten you half to death, it's just...I worry about my parents from time to time, they have no sense of personal space at times." Rarity explained, as Leo felt her breath wash over his face due to how close it was.

"Oh, no worries. At least you didn't pick up on that trait." Leo deadpanned in a monotone, a hint in which Rarity picked up on immediately, prompting her to take a few steps back and blush. Not that Leo found her breath undesirable, as it smelled faintly of peppermint, but he felt intensely awkward to have anyone near his face. This case, Rarity being a female, and a very beautiful one at that, made it worlds worse.

"Uhm, I really am...sorry. That was rather hypocritical of me, wasn't it? I suppose I should also apologize for not thanking you myself sooner for saving my friends and my Little Sister. So, thank you." Rarity said to Leo in a regal and composed manner, save for the occasional twitch that no one noticed, which was fueled by her internal debate to place Leo in a deadly vice grip of a hug, or retain composure as she noticed that Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and the cakes were now an audience to the scene. Just as Leo was about to reply with a modest reply, Rarity's composure broke and she dived at him, quickly locking the now terrified Leo into said vice grip hug. "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!" Rarity shouted at Leo in between gracing his now beat red cheeks with kisses. Just as Leo began to attempt shoving Rarity off of him, he was suddenly slammed with a painful crick somewhere on his body.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Leo shouted repeatedly, lightly shoving Rarity off of him and began to attempt to figure out where the irritating pain was coming from as he hopped around. Before he could, a set of canary yellow hooves grabbed a hold of one of his wings, along with a quick, subtle movement and a pop, Leo felt a bone in his right wing pop back into place.

"Is that any better?" a quiet voice asked Leo, a hint of unease flowing in between the words.

"Uhh...yeah, actually. Loads better. How did you do that?" Leo asked, as he turned to look at Fluttershy, who quickly looked down at the floor. Not getting any reply from the shy mare, Leo shrugged the silence off and continued talking. "Earlier in the week, you said your name is Fluttershy, right? Well, thanks for helping me out there, Fluttershy."

"Uhm..no- no problem. I'll, uhm, just go." Fluttershy mumbled at a barely audible level, as she turned tail and quickly walked out of the building.

"I'll. just, uhm...go check on her, yes..." Rarity spoke quickly in the silence, as she left Sugar Cube Corner with a mortified expression. Leo was silent for a moment, his hindquarters slumping down onto the floor in slight confusion. Turning, he cast his gaze towards Twilight.

"Was it something I said or did?" He asked, genuinely curious. Twilight simply shook her head with a smile.

"No. Well, not exactly. I mean, yes, with Rarity, you did save her little sister. She likes to remind ponies that she is a 'lady', and so I suspect her actions just now were fueled by that. So you might be wise to expect more of that for a while." Twilight explained, pausing for a moment as Leo groaned. "Fluttershy, however, is just that: Shy. She'll come around to you eventually, especially since last week you demonstrated to everypony you have a heart of gold."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, sheesh. Anypony would've done it. I don't wanna become famous or anything, I just hate seeing children get hurt." Leo brushed off his feat, looking away in an annoyed manner as he waved a hoof at Twilight.

"No, really, not a lot of ponies would have. Everypony in Ponyville is very grateful for you having saved Applejack and the girls. Even I am, they're my friends, so they mean the world to me, so...thank you. You may not be willing to tell us about who you really are, but after the small glimpse you've given the town...you'll always be welcome at the Library." Twilight said to Leo giving him a wide smile.

"I, uhh...thanks, I guess." Leo replied, rubbing his neck with a hoof in embarrassment as he wore a sheepish grin.

"Well, anyways, enough about that. We should head into the park now, or we'll be late, considering you'll probably be swamped with other ponies trying to pamper you." Twilight suggested, as she magicked her saddlebag into position, which held a number of books containing intricate incantations. She watched as Leo donned his cloak, something he had quickly become accustomed to, as she began to recite and practice the protective spells in which the books contained in her mind. They began to walk in silence, with Twilight leading the way, Leo having pulled the hood up over on the cloak to hide his face and prevent recognition. Just as they arrived at the park and began looking for a secluded and sheltered area, Twilight suddenly became aware that Leo had been staring at her for a while.

"Whats wrong?" Leo asked, fairly certain he knew the answer. He knew the expression that Twilight wore. It was the face one wore when they finally realized that their land was going to be under attack from a powerful and dangerous foe: The grim and frightened acceptance of war. Twilight opened her mouth for a moment, and then closed it. Silence reigned between the two for a moment, before Twilight finally spoke.

"Princess Luna sent me a reply, last night. Princess Celestia couldn't come to the meeting because she was already in War talks with all the nations of the world." Twilight said quietly towards the ground. Her gaze shot up towards him before she continued. "You know it, don't you? That we're preparing for War? With those things, those 'robots', from space?" Twilight asked Leo, her words shaking slightly as she stared him in the eyes.

When Leo silently nodded, not taking his eyes off of her, she sighed and breathed deeply, calming herself as she looked towards the ground again. After a quick, tense silence, Twilight picked up the so far one-sided conversation again. "I never thought that learning all these would be necessary to learn all of these spells. Equestria is supposed to be so peaceful, only the occasional monster to cause problems coming from the Everfree forest. But now, now it's something that even has the Princesses scared." Twilight finished quietly.

As Leo watched, he suddenly realized that this was the first time he had openly seen ANY of the ponies scared about the impending doom facing them all. He really, REALLY wanted to tell her that he wasn't going to let their world fall to the Hive, but he bit his lip, considering that it would knock a huge, irreparable hole in his ship of lies. Instead, he settled for something that someone had told him once as well.

"Being absolutely fearless is the easiest way to get the one-way Business Class ticket on the train to death. Fear can be helpful, it makes us think about our actions more intently, and helps to prevent foolish, and usually fatal, decisions. But don't let it overwhelm you, because if you do, you'll just uselessly die a coward's death." Leo said to the worried egghead before him. Twilight wasn't exactly sure Leo's advice made her feel much better, as it didn't give more options of surviving that of dying. But his logic was definately sound, so she couldn't exactly knock it, but still...

"Uhm...you're not very good at lifting the spirits of others." Twilight grumbled, as she shuffled off her saddle bag, pulling out a picnic blanket in preparation for Princess Luna's arrival. Leo simply snorted in humor, and lent her a hoof.

"Yeah, I've been told that before." Leo managed to say, before a blue light burst forth, partnered with the sound of a crack, announcing the arrival of Princess Luna.

"Princess Luna!" Twilight inadvertently shouted in surprise, earning her a stern glare from the Mistress of the moon, and a facehoof from Leo.

"Twilight Sparkle, I had surmised that the agreement of our meeting being discreet went without saying that the inclusion of containing the volume of one's voice was necessary?" Luna admonished Princess Celestia's prized pupil with the goal of simply teasing her, not being disappointed when Twilight rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof and blushed. Laying down on the blanket and willing her star laden mane away from her face before turning to Leo, who was snickering at Twilight's expense, Luna addressed him. "You summoned both my Sister and I, but she was unable to attend unfortunately. Regardless, what was it you needed?"

"Number of questions, but..." Leo trailed off as he glanced towards Twilight, "Some will have to wait." Leo hinted, to which Luna had understood but said nothing. "Have you noticed the appearance of a number of small green stars recently?"

"I have, yes. They are not of my creation, and therefore, not natural. The only possibility Celestia and I have come up with is that they are connected to the recent appearance of those metallic beasts you so call 'Robots'." Luna explained, giving Leo an indication of where the Princesses were in terms of knowing their time-frame. Nodding, Leo continued.

"Speaking of that, I thought you might want to see what...I've...found." Leo began to say, stopping only to dig into his cloak and fish out the picture that hid within with his teeth. Finally grabbing it, he presented it to Luna, who grabbed it with her magic and brought it up to her face, only looked upon it for a moment before her eyes grew wide and she gasped.

"Th-this is...!" Luna started, only to become speechless.

"Yes, as we discussed in the hospital room. I wasn't joking when I said one of them suddenly became all-powerful. I had a hunch, so I visited the local observatory. Sure enough..." Leo trailed off as he motioned to the picture, of which Luna had begun to scrutinize.

"Are you willing to part with this photo? My Sister must be made aware of this as soon as possible." Luna queried Leo, who simply shrugged.

"Hey, I got it for free, go ahead. No more use I can get out of it now." Leo replied. Magically tucking the photo into her royal yoke. Just as the conversation was about to continue, they heard an irritated snort to their side.

"Oh, don't mind me, I don't need to know anything about the potential doom of Equestria." Twilight waved at them with a fake and goofy grin, with an equally sarcastic tone as she lay lazily on the blanket.

"Oh, my bad, Twilight. Nightmare made one of the humans her new nest." Leo explained, much to the dismay to Luna, who had attempted to shut him up but failed. Twilight spluttered for a bit as she had begun to take a drink of water.

"Wh-what?! I thought we destroyed Nightmare Moon! And Princess Luna is right here!" Twilight exclaimed.

"You did, yes. But this isn't Nightmare Moon. This is simply the creature known as 'Nightmare'. The 'Darkness' of legend that had 'crept into' my heart was actually the result of a possession spell cast by Nightmare when she attacked me all those years ago. I was weakened by my jealousy, so my efforts to fight her off were futile." Luna explained to Twilight, who wasn't entirely surprised that none of this was in any books on the subject. "To be entirely honest, Twilight, neither Celestia nor I mentioned any of this to you and your friends, as we figured Nightmare to be destroyed when you freed me. When Leo told us of what he had discovered..." Luna paused for such a sort time it went unnoticed by Twilight, but Leo had noticed it coincided with an uncomfortable tingling in his head, "through his telescope as the meteor came through the atmosphere, it wasn't that we thought he was wrong, it was more that we HOPED he was wrong. This proves that he wasn't."

"So you're telling me that Nightmare is parading around in a new human suit, probably planning on killing us all, meanwhile we have an alien race made of metal planning the exact same thing?" Twilight queried Luna, who thought for a moment, and nodded slowly. "We're doomed." Twilight said bluntly, as she proceeded to cover her face with her hooves. Leo simply pursed his lips and kept quiet, which was noticed by a now frowning Luna. The silence permeated the meeting, which allowed Luna to temporarily derail it.

"Leo, forgive me for this quick distraction from our planned topics, but I must thank you for saving our subjects from harm. Nopony, I dare say, has been quite as brave in the past few centuries. I will make sure to mention this to Princess Celestia." Luna praised, her perpetual frown now seemingly less pronounced. What she had really wanted to do was hug him for rescuing one of the mares that set her free, but while the Royal Etiquette of old wasn't followed as often by her elder Sister, Luna would control herself. So she settled for praise.

"It was nothing, Princess. A little voice in my head told me that somepony was in trouble, and I needed to help. Told me lots of things, actually." Leo nonchalantly replied. The silence that followed was deafening. Twilight stared hard at Leo with an incredulous expression, wondering if Leo was trying to make Princess Luna concerned for her safety. Luna stared at him for a moment, wide eyed and slack jawed. Shaking her head slightly to regain thought, Luna stuttered as she began to reply, an act that seemed to melt Twilight's thought process.

"I-I knew it! T-Twilight Spar-kle, i-i-if you could take your l-leave...no, no wait, I-I'll just take you with me, Leo...s-stand still." Luna stammered, and with a glow of her horn, both she and Leo disappeared in a flash of blue light and a sound of a crack, leaving Twilight alone to attempt to reflect on what had just occurred.

'Leo said something that hinted at slight lunacy. Luna was caught off guard and stammered, and teleported away. With Leo.' Twilight's brain managed to sneak through the massive block that was impeding any thought. She was silent for a moment, before she let loose a frustrated shout.

"What is with all this secrecy! Why won't the Princesses tell us anything?!"

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"... and, unfortunately, Grifhilda, you really don't have the luxury of ignoring this! Equestria can't save the world, you know!" Princess Celestia shouted across the massive table at a female Griffon sitting on the other end.

"Oh please, Celestia, don't give me that! Your country was the only one that hadn't suffered any losses! I lost an entire company of brave Griffons to those beasts, which is nothing compared to what the Dragons lost, their entire upper government was wiped out!" Grifhilda shouted back at the white Alicorn.

"I nearly had an entire village wiped out, the very same village in which all the Elements of Harmony reside. Thankfully, a courageous stallion and mare intervened and distracted it long enough for me to get word, something you yourself witnessed when I suddenly teleported away from our chess match. While the mare was simply injured, that stallion almost paid with his life, and by all rights should have died where he lay. Thankfully he didn't, as I WOULD have a loss to report." Princess Celestia replied quietly, her heart in her throat as she wondered if she should knight Leo and make Spitfire a lady of the court for their actions. "Certainly, we had no losses. But it was only by sheer dumb luck." Celestia finished, quieting the room for a moment. Just as the interim Dragon Prime Minister was about to speak his opinion of the situation, a blue light shone from just past the doors, and Princess Luna appeared, along with an extremely dizzy Leo, disrupting the entire meeting. As Luna approached, Celestia cast a confused glance towards her.

"Luna, there had better be a development to alert me to for this." Celestia grumbled. Just as Luna began to quickly collect herself, Celestia's gaze wandered over to Leo, and she had begun to wonder what is was that had necessitated that he had to come with her.

"Sister, remember what suspicion we stumbled upon a month ago, at the Seapony Seaside resort? That night we supposed that Leo was a descendant of Silver?" Luna whispered to Celestia, whom nodded slowly, not sure where her Sister was going with this. "Well, I've recently come upon good evidence that there is more to this than anypony could have thought." Luna paused for a moment, as she decided how to word her thoughts. "I'm convinced that Leo is Silver, reborn."

"Rebirth? Luna, I thought that you were a staunch advocate against such a theory?" Celestia whispered back, noticing that the other world leaders were becoming impatient. Luna simply waved her hoof at her for silence.

"Allow me to explain. Last week, while you were here, word got back to me that the Holder of Honesty, along with three fillies, had been attacked in the Everfree Forest by more of these 'Robots'. Leo here had forged ahead, and ran headlong into the woods after them. After what appeared to be much combat, he succeed in freeing them. He did ALL of this, whilst encumbered with PonyFlu." Luna explained. Celestia was still confused as to how this explained that Leo was Silver of legend, but she had come to the conclusion that she was definitely going to hug Leo later.

"So he is one of the most heroic stallions we've had in a few centuries. That does little to prove your theory, Luna." Celestia replied, hoping to push her towards irrefutable proof.

"Oh, but it does. See, Sister, Applejack had been alone with the three fillies. The only others that knew of her general plans that night was her Elder brother. NOPONY in town knew they going into the forest. And yet, Leo somehow found out about their plans in the middle of the night, gathered up the strength to get up out of bed at the peak of his sickness, and followed them into the forest because he knew they were in danger." Luna went on, placing emphasis on each of her points where Leo's knowledge made no sense.

"The...voice?!" Celestia suddenly exclaimed, now understanding what her Sister meant by Leo definitely being Silver reborn. She looked directly at Leo, who remained back by the door, and was now giving her his complete attention, along with a little concern. Turning back to the leaders at the tables behind her, Celestia was, momentarily, at a loss for words. "Well, it appears I have some new developments I must deal with promptly. I apologize, but I must leave this meeting early and return to my chambers." Celestia spoke quickly, giving each of the other leaders courtesies, and then approached the door, Luna following closely. She looked towards Leo with what felt like an xraying gaze before she said anything. "Come with me." she said shakily, as she exited through the doors. Leo was confused, but he sighed.

"So much for that picnic..."

Hydra-tion

"What has he said to you?" Celestia suddenly asked, her face right up next to Leo's, her magic closing the door once Luna walked in.

"What? Who?" Leo replied, recounting the events of a few moments ago. Celestia let loose an uncharacteristically annoyed sigh.

"The voice, the VOICE! The one in your head, that only just NOW you decided was pertinent to mention to either of us." Princess Celestia rephrased her question curtly, prompting Leo to get a little hot under the collar himself.

"I'm sorry, I was under the impression that hearing voices in your head was a clear indication that YOU'RE INSANE! What, with all the crap that I'd been forced, not ASKED, to endure this past month, no, FIVE YEARS, forgive me for desperately wanting to ignore a NEW problem and hope that it GOES AWAY!" Leo shouted at Celestia. It goes without saying that Leo was certain that he had just went out of the frying pan and into the oven, and was convinced his life's status was slightly elevated above 'Unlikely to Survive Next Encounter'. However, instead of unleashing a solar flare in his general direction, Celestia pulled away from him and appeared confused.

"Five years? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I was under the assumption that you have been on this planet for only about a month."

"And you're not wrong, Princess. But I've been dealing with non-stop BS for the past five years, this is year number six I'm into now. Of being away from ho...being away from earth." Leo started strong, but finished quietly. Celestia was quiet for a moment, as it didn't take her any effort at all to realize that, somehow, Leo's ties with his home was completely severed and probably due to reasons that had stirred up some strong emotional responses at the time. Before she could try and ask him about it, Leo broke the silence. "From now on...I'll mention everything that happens. I mean it, because this is my own life on the line, too."

"Thank you, Leo. Now, what has the voice said to you, and how long has this been going on?" Luna replied in place of Celestia for the sake of getting more information, who was still keen on getting Leo to open up about his 'Five Year' statement.

"When did it start? As soon as I woke up in the forest as a pony. Actually, she is the reason I woke up in the first place. Not only that, but shes shown me visions, something called the 'Heartlands' if I remember correctly, and she is also the one that told me about Applejack and the fillies." Leo began to recount the various incidents where he saw the figure or heard her voice. "When I went to save the girls, she also somehow made me healthy, temporarily. Mentioned I should ask you two about the 'bending of reality'."

"The bending of reality..? Are those the exact words used?" Luna had asked, a troubled look upon her face. When Leo nodded, she seemed to slump slightly, as she began to ponder.

"I'm...sorry, Leo, but that term doesn't seem familiar to me at all." Princess Celestia replied, a frown similar to the one her Sister wore now adorning her face.

"Yes, this will require some research, but I'm...not entirely sure either of us can dedicate too much time to this. Celestia, perhaps if we asked Cadence, the answer may be uncovered?" Luna suggested to Celestia, who nodded without hesitation.

"My thoughts exactly. You should get into contact with her the moment you return to the Castle, Sister." Celestia instructed Luna, who nodded in agreement. Turning her gaze back to Leo, Celestia asked him a question. "Leo, did you have anything else you might need to ask or let us know? Time is running short, for I must return to the meeting soon."

"Well, a few things, actually. Has their been any progress to finding a cure for my...ah...condition? The sooner I can get back to normal, the sooner I can start preparing myself for war." Leo asked, reminding Celestia to his promise of assistance.

"Short of a few abstract, albeit interesting, leads...no. I apologize, for all my years of practicing magic, even I've failed to come to come upon a cleansing spell that would properly fit this scenario. I'm aware that we have precious little time, so I'll be the first to promise to you now that we have every scholar in Canterlot looking over our ancient magic tomes." Celestia assured Leo, for what little the gesture did for his nerves.

Even thought the Hive was technically months away from landing their full armies, Leo's two close brushes with them had definitely made him aware of how woefully unprepared and under equipped he was to face them. And that had begun to cause his base of confidence and bravado to crumble, ever so slightly.

"Alright...as for where I was, right before I was cursed, have your guards located anything of mine?" Leo asked, attempting to continue the conversation to avoid dwelling on his current state. When he was met with a simple shake of the head from both Princesses, Leo sighed. "I see...then perhaps I can asked you one last question. About what happened last week. Something occurred that nopony knows about."

"I'm...sorry, what happened last week? Twilight has been awfully quiet lately, save for that request of your to meet with us." Princess Celestia explained her curiosity, eyes focused on Leo.

"Wait, what? You mean you didn't hear that I'm supposedly some sort of celebrity for rescuing Applejack, her little sister, and her sister's friends?" Leo asked, confused. Not that he was upset that Celestia hadn't heard of it, in fact that told him that perhaps Healing Dawn had blown his apparent popularity out of proportion.

"I...You did what?! Saved them from what doom?" Celestia exclaimed, shocked to be only hearing of this news just now. Her outburst had surprised both Luna and Leo, causing both of them to stumble backwards.

"Uh...what gives? Twilight told me that apparently everyone, err, everypony knew of me having saved them from the Hive's forward scouting party!" Leo replied before Luna could speak. This news had caused the pupils in both the Princess eyes to shrink, with Luna slowly turning her gaze to Leo in shock.

"THE HIVE IS ALREADY IN EQUESTRIA?!" Princess Celestia shouted deafeningly towards Leo, as she had mistakenly used the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"SHE HAS ONLY MENTIONED THOU'S ACTIONS TO BE AGAINST NAUGHT BUT MONSTERS! FORSOOTH, SHE DOTH LIE! WE ARE ENRAGED! SISTER, WE PROPOSE WE SIT HER BETWIXT AND FIRE A RICK IN REGARDS TO HER BEHAVIOR!" Luna, who similarly shouted in her Royal Voice, fumed, as Leo stared at her in confusion.

"What...the hell did you just say?" Leo asked, genuinely confused. He had managed to get the idea that Twilight had lied, but the last few words had managed to completely confuse him.

"She...wants to essentially shout at Twilight." Princess Celestia explained. "Why...would Twilight refrain from telling me about this? Lie to Luna? Of all the foalish, downright idiotic things a pony could do, not warning me about a hostile threat is quite high up their. But for HER to do such an action...it's inexplicably out of character." Princess Celestia finished, looking too dumbfounded for her to be angry. The room was quiet for a moment, as Princess Celestia pondered while Princess Luna fumed in silence.

"Perhaps you two should have been a little more forthcoming with her, then? No one likes to be left in the dark, particularly when they know their life, and the lives of others, are on the line." Leo said suddenly, grabbing the attention of the Princesses.

"Yes...I suppose that's true. I knew it was wrong of me to keep this from her and her friends, but..." Princess Celestia sighed, turning to look out a window in the room. "I suppose, looking at it from another angle...it actually is in her nature to do something like this. When she wants answers, and she'll do almost anything to get them." Princess Celestia admitted, to which Leo's expression softened.

"You really wanted to protect her from experiencing War, didn't you?" Leo spoke softly as he decided to follow Celestia's gaze out the window. In the silence, he discovered that they were perched upon a jagged mountain top, with a chain of mountains that seemingly went on forever. Celestia nodded, with pursed lips.

"Regardless of whichever 'game' Celestia and I have mistakenly entered into with the bearers of the Elements, that does not excuse Twilight Sparkle for refraining from mentioning that enemies of the state have made landfall, and have attempted to attack our citizens." Princess Luna suddenly announced, the angry tone in her voice hinting to Leo that she may have been insulted by Twilight's decision to implement her as a tool to fool her Elder Sister.

"No, it doesn't. I shall have to speak to her about these matters, as she might have gotten a good number of innocent ponies hurt." Princess Celestia began to say to her sister, before Leo cut in.

"If I may, Princess? Allow me to talk to Twilight. If you go and talk to her as things are now, it might just make things worse. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure she still cares a great deal about you, it's just that she is probably feeling a bit ignored right now."

"I...alright. I'll let you speak to her on my behalf, just let me know when she would like to talk." Princess Celestia made Leo promise.

"Sure thing Princess Celestia. Now, about my question...?" Leo trailed off, only continuing when he received a nod from both Celestia and a still irritable Luna.

"The drones took Applejack and the fillies deep within some sort of ancient building, not sure what sort of function it had, but it had long, long hallways, rather long stairways, and then the last section I had seen, it was this humongous banquet hall. It was so big, even the moonlight wouldn't light it up all that much." Leo began to describe the building, not forgetting to mention the beautiful effect the moonlight had with the hanging moss and vines.

"Now, I had been spotted, and after a bit of...ah, goading, they ended up chasing me deeper into the hall. It was then I had spotted Applejack and the girls, but when I approached, I had to skid to a stop, because their weird wavy permeable curtain was in the way. I didn't know if it was a trap or anything, but I was running out of time, so I took a leap of faith, galloped through it, and went out cold. When I woke up, I was mostly normal again."

"You changed back? And what do you mean mostly normal?" Luna suddenly asked for the two of them, Celestia hanging on his every word while simultaneously scouring her mind for what that mysterious magical veil was.

"Well...I was extremely weak. Normally, even I could best around four hundred of those drones before I would begin to have problems with fatigue. But, when I changed back, I was actually close to dying." Leo explained, recalling how his diagnostic sub-system told him he was in dire straits and needed immediate repair.

'At least I know my nano-bot repair system was still mostly working. Otherwise I'd have a gaping hole in my pony gut from that Pole-arm.' Leo recalled. Something weird was going on, and it was definitely something weird as even the Princesses were unsure.

"That's extremely odd. We observed that your injuries seemed to correlate to the ones you had sustained on the beach as a human. Why your healthy state hadn't been transferred to your human form when you transformed is confusing. This needs to be investigated further." Princess Celestia decided, nodding her head once quickly. "Where did this all start? I imagine somewhere along the road between Sweet Apple Acres and Ponyville?"

"Yes, that's where I began to follow Applejack." Leo explained, getting right to the point.

"Alright, we shall be sending somepony there shortly. Those old ruins are not something to be trifled with, and you seem to still be occasionally unsure of your new body. Therefore, for the time being I'd appreciate it if you returned to Twilight's library and await further word." Princess Celestia said to Leo, who simply nodded in agreement as it sounded more like dictation than a request. As glanced towards the door, he found Luna waiting for him.

"I shall teleport you to just outside of the library. It will be much quicker. Follow me." Luna commanded, which Leo heeded. As the lunar princess walked silently in front of him. As she wound her way through the massive hallways, Leo took note of the strange architecture, and chanced a peek out of the nearest window, only to be greeted with the view of valleys down below, and neighboring mountains with other buildings on them. Making a point to ask Twilight where he had found himself later, he trotted to catch up to Luna. After they finally exited the building, Leo gawked when he saw some Griffon guards look towards them, and then look away uninterested.

"G-Griffons?! You have GRIFFONS on this planet?" Leo asked in a loud whisper, an incredulous expression upon his face.

"I...take it Earth lacks them?" Luna asked warily. Leo simply nodded and sighed.

"First Dragons, no Griffons! Jeeze, next you'll be telling me that Hydras exist. No, no! Cerberus!" Leo exclaimed, flopping onto his flanks and throwing his front hooves into the air in exasperation. Luna pursed her lips and remained silent, attempting to control the building hearty laughter she felt billowing in her stomach. Noticing this, Leo eyelids drooped into a half-closed position with another sigh. "You have GOT to be kidding me." Leo growled angrily, finally breaking the remainder of Luna's self control, prompting a torrent of laughter from the Lunar Princess.

"I'm truly sorry, Leo. Your ignorance is just so...fresh! And Entertaining! And it reminds me of myself. It's rather interesting to see the situation from another angle." Luna explained herself, after having calmed down enough. Seeing that he was confused, Luna smiled. "A story for later. Now, I must send you to the library so I can return to my Sister."

"Alright, I guess." Leo frowned as he prepared himself for the awful feeling of teleportation again.

"I just want you to know, Leo Silva, that if you...need anything, don't hesitate to send me a letter. I'm here if you need a shoulder to lean on." Luna quickly offered, just before she closed her eyes and cast a glow from her horn.

"What do you mean, a shou- wow!" Leo shouted, as he suddenly noticed that his surroundings had changed without much notice, and he found himself in front of Twilight's library. Sitting down for a moment, he began to go over what had happened in the last few minutes, as everything went by so quickly. 'This creepy coincidence stuff needs to stop.'

"Argh! Ahhh...get off, dang you! Aw, consarn it, darn thing just keeps fightin' to stay on!" Leo had heard Applejack grumble loudly from within the library. Leo decided to peek through one of the small windows to the side of the door, only to see them closed with magic suddenly, and the inside of the library grow very quiet.

"Ssh! I think somepony is outside! Quick, hide somewhere!" Leo had heard Twilight's panicked whispers from the other side of the door. Snickering, he sat on the ground in front of the door.

"Just gonna put this out on the table, Twilight Sparkle. You suck at stealth." Leo spoke aloud, netting himself a small 'eek!' from the other side of the door. As the door cracked open, a purple eye peeked out to catch a glimpse of who was on the other side. Leo smiled as the door opened up further, but let out a startled gasp as a couple pairs of purple and orange hooves grabbed him and whisked him into the library.

"Leo, when did ya get here? Ah didn't even hear a sound outside for tha past while, 'cept for a small crack...ah, that explains it." Applejack nodded to herself. "Ya got teleported back."

"Uh, yeah...about 5 seconds ago...I think? I don't know, I need to sit down for a sec...I hate teleporting. Flying is much, much less sickening..." Leo grumbled as he laid himself down on the floor of the library, feeling the sudden onset of the same nausea he had felt back at the Griffon building. "Uhh...nice necklace. Didn't know you wore jewelry." Leo motioned with a hoof as he felt his nausea begin to subside.

"Oh, hmm...ah don't normally. It's...a really long story about this here necklace, so ah'll spare you tha details." Applejack explained, garnering a nod from Leo. Everything was silent for a moment as Leo's stomach calmed down, before Twilight continued the conversation.

"So...how was the meeting with Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked with a look of cautious curiosity.

"Oh yeah, Twi' told me Princess Luna suddenly went ballistic and teleported both you and her to wherever Princess Celestia was." Applejack said as she looked upon Leo with a look of curiosity.

"Well, first things first, neither of the Princesses are happy with you, Twilight. At all. In fact, I'm a little peeved myself." Leo began, frowning as Twilight offered a sheepish grin. "I mean, seriously? You totally lied about the Hive being here. You know what could have happened, had I not been able to find them all? Mass destruction and Death!" Leo shouted at Twilight, a look of disbelief crossing Applejack's face as she turned her now upset gaze upon her friend.

"Ya'll did what now? Twilight! That was incredibly foalish of you!"

"I only did it to get answers! Once I found out that he had defeated them all, only then did I set my plan in motion!" Twilight shouted back at the pair of them.

"Plan to do what? Get this town killed and give the Hive an early foothold in Equestria?" Leo shouted back at her, now incensed that the mare before him would do something so utterly stupid.

"No! My p-plan t-to prot-tect everyp-p-pony I love..." Twilight spoke quietly, beginning to stutter as she looked towards the ground, and began to sob. "I...I'm so scared that everypony is going to die, and th-there is Princess Celestia not telling me anything, so I...I can't even do anything to try and stop it."

"Oh, Sugarcube, come here...everypony will be okay. Ah'm sure tha Princess has very good reasons for staying quiet. Ah'm sure she has a plan nearly complete right now." Applejack spoke soothingly, as she walked over to Twilight and cradled her into a hug, rocking her back and forth lightly as she patted her distraught friend's mane. As Leo watched the scene with a suddenly heavy heart, he experienced a disturbing recollection.

'I missed the Captain.'

"No, no, NO!" Leo shouted, as he bolted from the library, leaving behind a pair of confused mares in the library. As his legs began to protest against the sudden extreme exertion, Leo felt the bottom of his stomach seemingly drop as a strange sensation of dread cloud some of his thoughts. He pushed the haze in his mind away, continuing his mass sprint up the street and towards the road to Applejack's farm. He was so preoccupied with reaching the ruins, that he hadn't even noticed that he had cut into a sharp turn right infront of Rarity, who was leaving a grocery store with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

"My word! Mr. Silva! Where are...you off too...well, that wasn't very becoming of such a gentlecolt!" Rarity huffed, as she and the other two watched Leo speed off into the distance.

"Think maybe we should follow him? Maybe we'll learn more of his 'dark secrects'." Rainbow Dash suggested. Just as Pinkie Pie was about to scold her for invading a pony's privacy, Applejack and Twilight peeled up to them.

"Girls, we need to follow him! I think something is seriously wrong!" Twilight motioned towards Leo's last known direction with a hoof.

"Hey, Twi'...have you been crying?" Rainbow Dash asked, moving in closer to get a better look. As Twilight looked towards the ground, trying to avoid the gazes of her friends, Applejack cut in.

"Twilight has something she needs to share with y'all later, but right now we need to follow Leo!" Applejack shouted, trotting alongside Leo's hoofprints that had dug into the ground when he turned.

"But he's long gone, Applejack! How can we follow a pony we can't see anymore?" Pinkie Pie asked, convinced Applejack knew something to help. She wasn't disappointed.

"Oh, ah think ah know where he's goin'. Follow me, girls!"

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"Wow, your family really let this place go, didn't they?" Shining Armour joked, earning himself a glare from his wife.

"The books state that we haven't lived here since before Aunt Luna's outburst and banishment. The fact that it has become so run down shouldn't really be a surprise, Shining." Princess Cadence replied, annoyed.

"Alright, alright, calm down! I was only kidding! Trying to..." Shining Armour paused for a moment, motioning to the gloom in the main hall they found themselves in. "...lighten the mood."

"Oh, you can be impossible sometimes." Cadence grumbled, yet unable to help but let a smile plant itself on her face as she wandered further into the giant, gloomy chamber. She couldn't help but giggle at his antics. It was just one of the many things she loved about him.

"Aww, come on sweetie. It is kind of lifeless in here. I'm just trying to refrain from letting it get to us. Anyways, onto the job at hand..." Shining said, his expression firming up into a more serious one as he motioned for the guards accompanying Cadence and himself to move forward. The group of ponies, numbering twelve in all, proceeded down the stone steps and into the main area of the grand hall. Even in the gloom, some afternoon sunlight was filtering in through the holes in the roof, allowing a rather quick division of forces to begin collecting and cataloging all the strange technology left behind by the late Hive Drones. After he divided his guardsponies and delegated the groups to certain tasks, Shining took a look around the chamber to take in the bigger picture, as Cadence began to assist in organizing the items. As he glanced around, he began to pick up on the signs of combat that had occurred inside the chamber. Numerous dark blotches surrounded a larger number of the husks of dead drones having met their ends in various ways, some of them downright unexplainable. As his nose began to tingle a little bit at the vaguely familiar smells of oil, his eyes came upon a metallic pole sticking out from the wall, garnering up his interest enough to get him to wander over and examine it.

"Shining? What is it?" Cadence asked, having glanced up and noticed her husband walking towards something, the something being a weapon having been rammed through the heavily dented and punctured chest cavity of a drone and embedded in the wall, oil having already long leaked out and onto the floor, leaving streaks of sticky black over the metal carcass. "Oh....my."

"There is NO way that a Pegasus did this on his own, not with a crippled wing. It's too high up if he stayed on three hooves, for one thing." Shining commented, in way of a reply. "Second, even if he was on his hind hooves only, he shouldn't have had the upper body strength to pierce this thing's metal skin." Shining thought aloud, his expression perplexed. "And that's not taking into account the fact that the pole-arm is stuck about 2 hooves inside an ancient rock wall," Shining added, having eyeballed the hole in the wall behind the drone, before turning behind himself, "Or that it looks like another three of four of these things got trampled horribly in the process. So unless he is a SuperPony of comic lore, he shouldn't have had enough strength to really do...any of this. Even I probably couldn't do this." Shining finished, continuing to survey the wreckage before him with a hoof to his chin and a 'hmm'.

"Might be a bit far-fetched of a theory, but if he is a descendant of one of the ancient Pegasus warrior tribes, he may of invoked one of their ancient strength amplifying spells inadvertently in an adrenaline rush." Cadence offered. Shining simply shrugged.

"I suppose there isn't much use at the end of the day trying to figure out how that Pegasus the Princesses mentioned could have done this. I'll just focus on helping to get information from these machines they left behind for now, and deal with figuring out what happened here later." Shining decided, getting a nod from Cadence, who returned to her own task at hand. Just as he was about to set himself a task, he heard an odd vibrating rumble come from the massive doors on the opposite end of the chamber. The unnerving noise wasn't lost on any of the guardsmen or Cadence, either, as they slowly dropped what they were doing and began to stare towards the doors as the shaking and rumbling grew exponentially until it seemed like whatever was on the other side was directly in front of the doors. Once it sounded like it reached there, the shaking ceased immediately, and everything went quiet, except for the occasional chirp from birds in the forest or a guard shifting slightly.

"Okay, I'm not interested in finding out what's on the other side of those doors. I want everypony to get their things as quickly and quietly as possible and begin to make for the stairs-" Shining had begun to whisper to his men and Cadence, before all hell broke loose as the massive doors were smashed in, accompanied with the visage and unearthly wail of an enraged Hydra. All three heads seemed to have a sort of helm on that had little antennae sticking out from them, the middle one being a little more complicated, with what looked like a drone controlling the Hydra.

"Hello, MEATBAGS! Prepare for your doom!" The drone yelled, pushing a control stick of sorts on the middle head's helmet, prompting the Hydra to begin moving forward to attack the ponies.

"EVERYPONY, FALL BACK AND GET THE BUCK OUT OF HERE!" Shining shouted, suddenly picking Cadence up in an adrenaline rush and throwing her onto his back just before he began to gallop towards the stairs behind his soldiers.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"Oh...oh thank Jobs! Looks like nothing-" Leo began to exclaim, as he began huffing and puffing from the exertion. Finally having caught his breath and no longer dizzy, Leo began to slowly wander towards the entrance of the ruins, constantly glancing around to see if he couldn't catch a glimpse of the captain, when there was a roar from deep within the ruins. Leo began to gallop into the entrance, when he was quickly bowled over by a large group of stallions clad in armour, sporting various wounds. Looking towards the entrance in a daze, he witnessed a light pink Alicorn screaming and shouting as it flayed about to escape the grasp of the two guards it took to escort her out of the ruins.

"No! No, no, no, no! Let me go this instant! Shining Armour is still in there, he needs my help! I...I-!"

"I'm sorry, your highness, but we can't let you in there! Lord Shining has sacrificed his own safety for ours, and with the Rainbow magic you casted to block the creature inside, the Captain can't be reached as it is!" The guard holding her onto his back with one hoof cried.

"What's going on in there? What's attacking?" Leo suddenly asked, picking himself up off the ground and approaching the group of guards ponies and the Princess, surprising them.

"Citizen, it's best that you flee at once! Head to Ponyville, and send word-" The guard had begun, before he was silence by a hoof from the pink Princess.

"Your name is Leo Silva, right?!" The frantic Princess asked, her face begging for the answer she wanted. When Leo nodded, she gripped him with magic suddenly, bringing him right to her face. "You! You're the one that killed those 'robots'! You must know how to stop the one that's in there, right?!" she asked, her snout almost touching Leo's. When she got another nod, this one a little more frantic and quick, she stared him right in the eye.

"The Captain of the Guard is trapped inside with that monster and his pet Hydra! As a Princess of Equestria, and as his wife, I'm requesting your services in getting him the buck out of there!"

"Alright! Alright! Just let me go already!" Leo shouted, shortly before he dropped to the ground rather ungracefully as the magic holding him was released.

"Princess, you can't be serious?! He's an untrained Pegasus with a crippled wing! Even if he makes it past your magic, somehow, what good will it do him? He should at least have armour, in case he gets hit!" The guard still underneath the Princess exclaimed. The Princess thought for a moment, before she looked at the armour the stallion below her wore, and then to his face. With a sigh, the guard scrambled about, unlatching the pieces of armour he wore, as Leo found himself floating in the air again, surrounded by the other guards who similarly scrambled to buckle the armour onto him.

"Are you...kidding me? How is this even going to help against-" Leo began to say, just as the Hydra let loose a blood curdling scream "-a Hydra?"

"Please! I can't loose Shining, I just can't!" The Princess pleaded, grasping him with magic again, but with the added benefit of feeling like a bear hug as the guard holding him with his own hadn't quite let go yet.

"Well...if you...put it...that way- URK!" Leo struggled to say as his lungs felt like they were turning into mush.

"Thank you! THANK YOU!" the Princess shouted at him, as she suddenly threw him quickly into the ruins, his yells quickly fading into the quiet sounds of battle deep within. Just as the Princess began to sob, six ponies entered into the clearing before the entrance.

"Cadence?! What in Equestria are you doing here? Why are you crying?" Twilight Sparkle's voice floated out from the treeline, ensnaring the attention of Cadence. Noticing her new younger sister-in-law standing before her with her friends, Cadence picked herself up off the ground and galloped towards them, crying along the way.

"Oh, Twilight! Thank Celestia you're here! Shining Armour is stuck inside the ruins, fighting one of those 'robots' while it rides atop the middle head of a Hydra! I've just sent him help, but...I'm so worried." Princess Cadence cried into Twilight's shoulder, who had become mostly unaware of anything once she finally understood that her brother was in danger.

"Princess Cadence, that help ya sent in, did it happen to be Leo?" Applejack asked cautiously, not caring for the answer she figured she was about to hear.

"Y-yes! Aunt Luna mentioned that he was a great hero, who has defeated these monstrosities many times! Why do you ask...?"

"Awh, Ponyfeathers! Come on girls, a crippled Pegasus is no match for a Hydra!" Applejack shouted, the rest of the girls began to gallop towards the ruin entrance, before...

"...Twilight, wait!" Cadence suddenly spoke, stopping the girls in their tracks. "...please help Leo in rescuing Shining Armour. He shouldn't be alone in this..."

"You bet, Princess Cadence! Come on, girls! We have some Hydra butt to kick!" Rainbow Dash shouted, before anything else could said. The six mares galloped into the ruins without looking back, nor heeding the words of the guardsponies.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

Leo had quickly gotten to the Main hall's entrance, in which from his hiding spot behind stone pillars he was able to see a three headed hydra rampaging around, looking for it's prey as it's mind was controlled by the drone riding it. He looked throughout the room, trying to catch a glimpse of the weird veil that had returned him to his original form before, only to curse when he couldn't see anything.

'The hell does she expect me to do? Appeal to the Drone's sense of empathy?' Leo grumbled in his mind, snorting in the process. As he looked around, he suddenly noticed a subtle movement come from underneath a group of toppled storage containers. After staring for a moment, he glimpsed a flash of blue turning into white.

'Guy probably doesn't even realize how lucky he is that drones don't have XRay of Thermal optics. At least I know where he is now...hopefully ugly and the hydra don't find out.' Leo thought to himself, slowly building up a plan. Biting his lip and looking back and forth from his position, coming to the realization that the only thing he could do was suicidal: Run in, grab him, run out. Typical hot evac. Of course, he had the 'added benefit' of being a pony.

"I hate this place." Leo grumbled to himself. He began to ready himself to bolt into the hall the second the hydra looked away as it searched for it's prey. Just as his chance came up and he let himself loose, he tripped when he heard his name shouted at him from behind. Quickly scrambling to move back into hiding first, he turned to glare towards the source only to find the six mares tasked to look after him galloping down the stairs.

"Leo! Wait, we can help!" Twilight shouted, causing Leo to grimace in fear as the Hydra turned towards the entrance in curiosity.

"Shut. Up! Against the wall!" Leo commanded in a harsh whisper, to which the mares hesitated at first. When he turned and pointed towards the Hydra's curious stare, Leo wasn't even able to look back before they had heeded his order. "You want to help? Fine. Just don't cry when one of you get hurt. This isn't a game. You sign on now, you're stuck here for the entire ride, regardless of how this ends." Leo explained, cutting to the chase. When all six nodded, Fluttershy extremely hesitantly as she shook in fear, Leo continued.

"Okay, who is fastest on their hooves?" Leo asked. When both Applejack and Rainbow Dash a forehoof, Leo glanced between the two of them for a moment, and then brought a hoof to his chin.

"Okay, uhh...I'll need you two then. Rainbow Dash?" Leo called, getting her attention. "I need you to distract the Hydra and the Drone, as me and Applejack sprint in and yank whathisname's flank out of there. And if you get the chance, ONLY if you get the chance and it's not too DANGEROUS! I need you to sever that large cord that's glowing green and connected to the center head's neck. That should disrupt the mind control enough to give us ample time to get completely clear of these ruins." Leo instructed.

"But what if she can't get a chance to knock that thing loose?" Applejack asked, frowning.

"Well, that's when we run. Fast. Now, ready? On my signal." Leo asked. Neither of the mares looked happy about the ordeal, but got into position. Seconds went by as Leo watched the Hydra moving around, shrieking in rage over it's inability to find it's prey.

"Go, go, go!" Leo shouted suddenly as the creature turned away to kick some more equipment around. When He, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash approached the the doorway, he noticed a slight glow.

"WAIT! STOOOP!" He had heard Twilight's voice suddenly exclaim, but he ignored her as he bolted into the room. He counted himself lucky when he and Applejack approached the hidden Stallion.

"What are you DOING here, guardsman? ...wait, you're not a guard, who are you?" the Stallion asked.

"No time! We're here to get you out of here!" Leo shouted at him as he waved a forehoof clad in armour, a hesitant Captain of the guard looking behind him.

"We? You're the only one here besides me, you foal!" The stallion shouted at him. Leo had suddenly become aware of the clear air above him, free of a certain cyan Pegasus. Turning around, he noticed that Applejack hadn't even actually been with him at all. And the entrance was covered with a transparent rainbow veil, where he could see the two of them holding their heads and groaning as the other four mares tended to them as they watched Leo in terror.

"Why the hell didn't they get through?" Leo asked the stallion, just as he suddenly felt and heard the shrieking from the Hydra from behind him, the hot breath stinking. Turning and looking, he noticed that they had been spotted. Leo sighed.

"What a particularly well executed rescue operation." The stallion's sarcasm irritating Leo.

"Time to go!" Leo shouted, diving under the other stallion and then standing up, picking him up as he sprinted towards the exit. He felt his little pony heart pumping like mad as the adrenaline flowed freely throughout his body, giving him that much more speed as he approached the exit, hearing the frantic shouts and screams from the mares on the other side of the magical rainbow veil. Just as he felt the heat of the Hydra's open mouths closing in on them, he had heard what sounded like glass shattering as he burst through the veil.

"RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN!" Leo screamed at the top of his lungs, the others not far behind him, as the hydra's heads smashed through the opening, creating a massive hole in the wall. It didn't get far, however, as the upper wall of the entrance that joined the Chamber and itself collapsed under the assault and buried the now howling hydra in the rubble. The group of ponies didn't look back, however, and kept up their sprint away from danger, towards the safety of the camp outside.

The Great and Powerful Infatuation

'Mustn't let these common ponies see my face, can't let them see The Great and Powerful Trixie...' a blue mare spoke to herself. She struggled to walk through the town, as she had to compete for her balance against the large and heavy cloak that covered all of her features. Not to mention, her hatred for the town made it difficult to travel through as well.

'Wait, what am I saying? This behavior is not fitting of Trixie! The Great and Powerful Trixie should not be hiding herself in such pathetic garbs!' Trixie shouted at herself. Holding her head high, she gripped part of her cloak with her teeth to rip it off, but she hesitated, and then her head drooped again. 'Of course, I'm not exactly 'Great and Powerful' in this town, now am I? Confound those ponies!' Trixie cursed, raising her right hoof and shaking it silently. She trudged over to the nearest overpass, and began to mope. 'I hate this town, why did I have to book a show at that stupid beach resort! I knew this town has the only road to it, and I can't afford the air rates...The way things are going, I'm not even going to be able to afford hay.' Trixie groaned, shuddering at the thought of having to eat simple grass, as if hay wasn't simple enough! 'Not to mention, I have a coffee date with cousin 'Fire...Oh, how she'll worry upon how hard I've had it for the last while...FIE, I say! As if I wasn't AWARE!' As she sulked in the shadows of the overpass, she could hear the happy ponies on the bridge above her walking along and laughing. Grumbling, she sat on the dirt ground and crossed her front legs with a 'humph!', and stared out of the side of the bridge she entered.

"For the love of- ACK! Raaagh! This is just unbelievable...unacceptable!" a Stallion's voice rung out from the far end of the tunnel, catching Trixie's attention. Shrinking back into the shadows as to prevent her discovery, Trixie watched as a peculiar pale green stallion pulled bandages off himself. As she watched, Trixie deduced that he was having trouble removing the bandages around his midsection. In his struggles, it looked as if he agitated whatever wound he suffered from, as small red stains on the pure white were visible. Not wanting to stick around, Trixie began to scoot around the edge of the bridge, and tripped when she noticed her nice brown cloak that acted as a top layer of concealment was caught on a large piece of broken wood protruding from the bridge. Panicking, Trixie disrobe from the single cloak in a frenzy, causing a few old barrels to fall over. Not looking back, Trixie galloped from the scene, hoping the Stallion wouldn't follow. Deciding to no longer dilly-dally, Trixie quickly oriented herself to the cafe.

"Eh?!" Leo blurted out when he heard the barrels fall over. As he watched, what looked like a pile of rags with blue hooves ran away from the bridge he found himself under. Staring, Leo silently hoped that it wasn't the guard he'd managed to slip from earlier, or that he wasn't near enough to hear the racket and come looking.

'Damn things are going to get me busted...' Leo grumbled, as he gave up on the bandages on what he thought was his stomach. Pulling off the head bandages with little effort, a messy blonde mane poofed up and out. Sighing in relief, he felt the breeze in the air drying up the warm sweat that had accumulated under his bandage, which had created an itch that was driving him mad. 'Now, to clean up, cover this wound, and try to disguise myself...' Leo thought to himself, as he eyed that cloak the creature had left behind. Wandering over unsteadily, watching his steps, he examined where the cloak was snagged. Seeing that the cloak simply had a hole torn in it where it caught the wood, he grabbed the cloak and pulled back. As Leo laid it on the ground nicely, he stared at it, attempting to figure out how to don it.

'Well, I suppose I can just try and throw it over myself..' Leo thought, as he grabbed one side of the neck fabric. After a few attempts and some grumbling, he finally got the cloak to completely cover his bandage. Noticing that the neck portions could snap together, Leo pushed one side towards the other, and both ends of the chain seemed to magnetize to one another, ensuring that the cloak wouldn't fall off easily. 'I should give these horse-things more credit, they certainly figured out how to easily compensate for the lack of fingers and thumbs.' Leo thought humbly, as he found a barrel of water under the bridge. After he washed his head to remove any crusted blood that might warrant undue attention, he wandered out from under the bridge, glanced around to see if he was about to garner unwanted attention, and pulled the cloak's hood up over his head with his teeth.

"...So, Ms. Sparkle, if the you or Ms. Dash could alert us if you see him, that would be wonderful." a guard asked Twilight, bowing slightly as he did so.

"For sure, Sky Lance. Hopefully we can find him, he was pretty badly wounded..." Twilight trailed off, thinking back to the clearing where she first saw the pale green stallion. The guard and his partner excused themselves as Rainbow Dash muttered, pacing the floor of Twilight's library.

"Guy's a damn hoof-full, alright. Taking off like that being so injured...besides, we don't know if somepony attacked him, or if it was one of the monsters of the forest. Of all the bad decisions I've seen ponies make, this definitely takes the cake." Rainbow Dash grumbled, furrowing her eyes as she slumped to the floor.

"Did somepony just say 'cake'?" Pinkie Pie's voice rang out from Twilight's front door, shortly followed by Pinkie Pie herself as she hopped into the room.

"Sorry, Pinkie, I was just talking about that Stallion. He's missing, got away from his guard escort. Tricked him and his Nurse into thinking he was invited over here." Rainbow Dash explained.

"I know, the guards just explained it to me. Asked me if I had seen anything in my delivery runs," Pinkie explained as she motioned towards the saddle bags hanging off her back, "but I didn't see anything. Shouldn't be hard to find him, though!" Pinkie finished happily, as she suddenly began munching on a cookie.

"'Shouldn't be hard to find'? Why wouldn't he be? Pinkie, If he can get away from a royal guard that easy, even having been that injured, I don't think we'll be finding him easily." Twilight assailed Pinkie Pie's logic, though she did so unwillingly.

"Nuh-uh! Even if he is, like, some sort of Secret Agent Pony, nopony can avoid attention from a missing cutie mark." Pinkie Pie replied between munches.

"Wait, missing cutie mark? Are you saying he's a...Blank Flank?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, silently berating herself for not noticing it before.

"Well, yeah. I didn't see a cutie mark on either flank." Pinkie Pie replied, no longer eating her cookie as she was slightly confused at Rainbow Dash's reaction. Glancing over at Twilight, and incredulous look grew on Pinkie Pie's face when she noticed a similar reaction to the information in Twilight's face. "Seriously? How did you two miss such an important thing like that?"

"Err, yeah, Twilight! I thought you were all about details?" Rainbow Dash attempted to save face, albeit in a playful manner. Twilight, however, rounded on Rainbow Dash with annoyance.

"Don't even try it, you missed it too!" Twilight snapped at her.

"Now, if he is smart...he'll have found a way to cover his flank. Probably his bandages as well." The three mares suddenly heard Rarity say from the doorway. As they stared at her blankly, she shrugged. "What? I know a thing or two about 'blending in'." she explained, as she, Applejack, and Fluttershy joined the three mares in Twilight's library.

"Ah reckon we should be out lookin' for tha fool. If he ain't careful, his stitches'll break on his sahde. Tha quicker we fahnd him, tha better."

"Ugh...okay, first thing's first. I need a map..." Leo spoke to himself quietly. Glancing around, he happened upon what appeared to be a community notice board. Checking his surroundings for a hint of the guards, Leo decided to chance a peek at the board. As he peered over the many notices, he realized that the characters and symbols the horse-like creatures used for written word were nothing like written English. The weirdest part, however, was the fact that he could understand them completely.

'This just keeps getting more confusing by the second. What exactly happened to me? I've come to the conclusion that I'm flesh, blood, and bone again, but I look like this,' Leo thought to himself as he looked himself over in disbelief, 'and my stuff is missing. I can't even 'phone' earth now. Not that I'm exactly on speaking terms with them...' Leo thought glumly, annoyed that he might have to actually ask these...horse things for help. As he looked over the notice board for anything that jumped out at him, anything mentioning space or, heaven forbid, 'magic', as Leo had no other explanation for his transformation. As he scanned along, a poster that featured some small stars on it that had a number of other signs posted over it caught his attention.

"Let's see what we have here..." Leo whispered to himself just before he carefully pulled the covering notices off the board. Once it was uncovered, he took a good look at the poster. Reading it was a little difficult, as the poster looked quite aged and bleached by the sun. 'The Great and Powerful Trixie...magic showcase...here in Ponyville. So this town is called 'Ponyville', eh? Must be what these creatures call themselves. Makes sense, they are kinda small to be horses.' Leo figured, making a mental note to remember these pieces of information. As he continued to try and garner more information from the poster, he was approached by a light yellow mare with pink and navy blue hair.

"Oh, you don't want to see her. She's a fraud, claimed she took down an Ursa Major and she never did. If you want to see magic, you should go and see Twilight Sparkle! She has to be the most talented unicorn I've ever seen." the friendly mare finished with a smile.

"A-ah, I see. Uhm...I might have to do that." Leo replied with a weak smile. "Say, where can a pony get a drink around here?" Leo asked, aware that his throat felt parched and prayed that his earlier deduction about the term 'Pony' was correct. He became less nervous when the mare didn't become confused.

"Oh, if you want a simple coffee or juice, the cafe is just around the corner. But if you're after something harder, there is always the Watertrough. It's a simple bar in the daytime, but it's a hap-hap-happening nightclub! Just opened, actually. Lyra and I have been planning on going..." The mare happily informed Leo, as she drifted into thought. A sudden ping of pain shot over Leo's side, prompting him to bring a hoof to his side and grimace. "Oh, hey, are you okay?" The mare asked, suddenly concerned.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. I just uhh...slept wrong." Leo lied to the friendly pony. Pointing a hoof towards a street, Leo asked her a question. "You said the cafe was thataway?"

"Oh, yes! It's quite nice actually, I hope you enjoy it!" the mare exclaimed happily as Leo headed off towards the cafe. Leo turned back before he took off.

"Thank you, Ms...?" Leo trailed off with a question.

"Friends can call me Bon Bon! Whats your name?" Bon Bon asked him.

"Name's Leo. Thanks again, Bon Bon." Leo replied honestly, feeling at ease around the mare. Bon Bon nodded, waved goodbye, and then continued on her way. Leo glanced back to check if she was gone, and feeling confident she was, walked as quickly as he could back to the board to tear of the poster down. Stuffing it in a pocket compartment he found on the cloak earlier, Leo quickly left the notice board and headed for the cafe, and began thinking about how weird the mare was for calling him a friend so quickly.

"Hey cuz, you think I wouldn't recognize you if you wore tons of clothes?" A smooth female voice rung out from behind Trixie, as she sat at a back table inside the cafe. Trixie groaned quietly as a bright yellow mare with a mane that looked like fire, sat on the other side of the table. "Actually, you kinda stood out more than blended in. Everyone was looking over here even before I trotted in."

"I'm aware, Spitfire, that's why my hood is raised. I don't need to be recognized in this town." Trixie replied coldly.

"Wooow, anger much? No need to take it out on me. Not like I have anything against you for embellishing your abilities. I get that same stuff from Soarin' all the time." Spitfire explained, nudging her cousin's elbow. "Let's get some drinks, yeah?" Spitfire suggested, as she summoned a waiter. "Triple Espresso Latte with half ice please." Spitfire ordered, prompting Trixie to stare at her wide eyed.

"Do you enjoy bouncing off of walls, Spitfire? Honestly, you'll give yourself a heart attack! A Single Espresso Latte has two shots of espresso!" Trixie exclaimed, shocked at the order.

"Ah, six shots? This is my tame drink. I normally get a Quad Espresso Latte before shows." Spitfire calmly replied. Looking at her cousin, who was now silent with disbelief that Spitfire was still capable of functioning after all that caffeine intake, Spitfire ordered for her. "She normally gets a coffee with cream." Spitfire spoke to the waiter, who nodded and wrote the order onto his notepad. "Uhh...Can you get her a bagel as well? if you don't mind, that is, but she's looking a little thin." Spitfire whispered to him, causing him to nod again. As Trixie finally collected herself, she stared at Spitfire for a moment, who smiled back in reply.

"You actually look quite nice in casual clothes. Mind, you usually look nice in just about anything." Trixie complimented Spitfire. Even though she was so successful, and always so upbeat, not to mention popular, which made Trixie jealous...Spitfire was still family, and Trixie still cared about her. Which included complimenting her when it was due.

"Oh, really? You think so? Well, thanks I guess. I kinda just threw something on, I didn't feel like coming clothe-less today." Spitfire replied, pulling on her shirt a bit. Motioning to her cousin, she continued. "Apparently, you didn't feel like it either." Spitfire teased. As the two got into idle conversation, they didn't notice when another customer walked into the store. He waited patiently as the lone waiter served the two mares on the back table.

"I'll not be more than just a minute, sir. Why don't you go ahead and seat yourself?" Trixie and Spitfire heard the waiter announce to the customer.

"Uhh, sorry, but...I was just wondering if I could have a glass of water? I'm afraid I have no commerce to speak of." the customer asked, embarrassment in his voice. As the waiter finished placing the two mares order on their table, he continued the conversation.

"Well, if it's a simple glass of water you want, that's fine. I insist you take a seat though, you certainly look fatigued. By no means is it a busy day, so feel free." The waiter finished, motioning one of his hooves to a table close to the door. Not willing to have an argument over water, the Stallion heeded the waiter's requests and sat at the table. The more and more Trixie heard, the more she felt compelled to take a peek. As she glanced over, the first thing she saw was the robe she had lost earlier.

'Wow, he must be worse off than me if he has to take lost and abandoned clothes.' Trixie gloated. The more she stared, however, the more details that came apparent. Most of the details and information came when he whisked the hood off himself to combat the hot summer air. When she let out a little squeak before covering her mouth with her hooves, Spitfire finally decided to stop trying to get her attention and take a look at what was so interesting herself.

"Sweet Celestia, is he ever gorgeous!" Spitfire exclaimed, catching the glances of other patrons. The stallion, however, seemed to ignore the blatant flirt, or simply didn't hear it, as he did nothing to acknowledge it while he seemingly struggled to lift his glass of water with his hooves. Turning back to Trixie, Spitfire began to whisper excitedly. "No wonder you've been staring at him and ignoring me!"

"Wha...? What? No! No, he's just wearing a cloak I left at a bridge w-when it got caught. I w-was too lazy to ruh-remove it!" Trixie tried very hard to half-lie, but her cheeks betrayed her. Spitfire stared silently at her knowingly, her expression one of a teasing disbelief. "No, seriously, it actually is my cloak. No word of a lie."

"Ah, but you don't deny your attraction to him! Seriously, go and say hello." Spitfire egged her on, but Trixie blushed some more and shook her head. "No? Well, okay then, I suppose I'm gonna have to drag you over then." Spitfire said with a wink, as she grasped one of Trixie's hoofs.

"What the-! How undignified, Spitfire! What're- No no please don't.." Trixie quieted to an uncharacteristic squeak again.

"Hey there, handsome! My cousin and I noticed you came in here stag, wanna make this a party of three?" Spitfire asked the Stallion in a her silkiest voice she could muster (which is to say, very silky). As Trixie's face turned crimson, mostly out of embarrassment for her cousin's antics, the Stallion slowly turned his gaze towards Spitfire, wearing a look that could only be described as an uncertainty of whether he should be frightened or insulted.

"Wha- no- who....who are you?!" The Stallion managed to finally blurt out, having spilled the remnants of his water on the table. Spitfire continued to stare at him for a moment, before rearing up in surprise, shock on her face.

"You don't know me? What, have you been living under a rock? I'm a wonderbolt member! Spitfire?" Spitfire cried out in astonishment, and as the rest of the patrons stared at the scene, the stallion stayed silent and slowly shook his head uttering only an 'uhh...' as a form of reply. "Oh...wow. Are you one of those wild ponies? That migrate around and live off the land?" Spitfire hoped would be an explanation for his lack of knowledge. When he shook his head, now extremely wary, Spitfire's mood took a nosedive to gloomville.

'At least it runs in the family...' Trixie thought to herself, thinking of her own attitude for the past year as she attempted to cheer Spitfire up by patting her back. When the Stallion finally looked at her, Trixie froze and looked back, feeling her heart pumping. The Stallion stared for a moment, squinting his eyes slightly as he looked upon her. When he suddenly looked away and began rummaging in the cloak for something, Trixie collapsed to the ground in a daze.

"I'm about to buy the magic store..." Trixie mumbled, now trading turns with Spitfire for being looked after, as he cousin began to fan Trixie with a menu off of the Stallion's table.

"You are...the 'Great and Powerful Trixie', are you not?" The Stallion asked. Upon doing so, Trixie's daze was suddenly snapped, and as if someone fed her and her attitude some elixir, she perked right up and leaned on his table, surprising even Spitfire.

"Why yes, I am...though not to many of the common pony folk in this pathetic town. What can the Powerful Trixie do for you, Mr...?" Trixie asked the Stallion coyly, with Spitfire silently cheering her on between moping about his lack of knowledge about herself.

"Uh....just call me Leo. I need to ask you some questions about magic. Let's talk in private." Leo asked, placing one of his hooves onto Trixie's, his request causing Spitfire's jaw to drop. Her composure cracking, Trixie gave a weak 'meep!' and pulled away, surprising Leo.

"I- uh- only if it's about magic- I mean, it's improper, we just me, and- uhh.." Trixie fumbled around verbally, she and Spitfire completely misconstruing Leo's request. Just as Leo understood what the mares were so embarrassed and shocked about, prompting him to raise a hoof to his face in annoyance, a sudden crashing came from outside, with my shrieks and shouts of fright. Mildly concerned, Leo hopped down from his chair to take a peek outside, Spitfire and Trixie following out of curiosity.

"Well, THIS is a disappointment. We'll have to get a rain-check on that conversation." Leo said, a frown on his face and uncertainty on his face. Before him, stood a humongous red metal creature, that looked curiously like a giant bug.

"Please, citizens of this pathetically small planet, calm yourselves! I am but a humble Emissary, and I carry a message from my people!" the robot exclaimed, his words causing a sudden halt in the panicked fleeing of other ponies.

"What do you want?" Leo asked bluntly, annoyance growing on his features. The creature looked down at Leo in surprise, and then gave an exasperated sigh.

"My, aren't you cocky? I don't take kindly to attitude, you know. Why, I don't take kindly to..." the creature began to list off attitudes that annoyed him severely, to which Leo used the distraction to beckon Spitfire over.

"Spitfire, was it? If you want to survive the next five minutes, and ensure no one has to get hurt, do as I say. Without question, save those for later." Leo spoke to her harshly. Determined to do her part, Spitfire nodded with gusto. "Okay, this thing here is a robot. Basically, a giant, walking, sentient, machine. This particular model, LODUS6, has a uniquely terrible design flaw: a giant off switch on his back. Normally I'm capable of taking these guys out myself, but right now I can only avoid his swings. I'm kinda messed up already." Leo explained, lifting one side of the cloak to show his bandages, the red marks on them still relatively small.

"So, let me guess. You'll distract him, while I sneak around the buildings, and push the button? Sounds like fun." Spitfire replied with a smirk on her face.

"Exactly. But, I need you to make it look like you are fleeing in terror, and only when it seems logical to do so. We can't have him suspecting anything. Make sure she follows you, also running in terror." Leo motioned with his head to Trixie. As the two looked at her, however, they determined asking Trixie to 'look afraid' wasn't necessary. Getting ready, Leo turned back to the robot. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Look, LODUS6 dash Twelve, I know all about your dislikes. You've told me this before, what does the hive remnant want with this planet?" Leo shouted angrily at the robot.

"How do you know about...? Do I know you?" Twelve asked the Stallion before him. As a little scanner zipped over Leo, the dawning of realization poured over Twelve. "My, my, my...it's been a long time, little LY Two! What on earth HAPPENED to you? You were turned! In reverse! Not a much better organic form, I'm afraid to say." Twelve gloated, prompting Leo's rage to suddenly grow exponentially.

"What. Does. The. Hive. WANT!" Leo shouted at him again. Spitfire began to edge away uneasily from Leo, as when she looked back to him at his last exchange, she noticed his jade green eyes turned to a dull red.

"Such rage! You were never so quick to anger before...was the rage born out of the death of your 'queen'?" Twelve egged Leo on.

"You will NEVER speak of her again! I will ensure you a dumped into the hottest volcano on this planet!" Leo screamed at him, his eyes now fire red. The robot seemed pleased with the rise he got out of Leo, and continued his announcement to the rest of the ponies.

"Right, so, inhabitants of this pathetic planet! Do not fear me, as I come with a message from my people, the Hive! Please, come closer to hear my message! Fear me not, for I am not a threat!" The robot exclaimed in a manner not unlike a town crier. As the ponies let their guard down and approached, they became enthralled with this strange newcomer. "Our great King is pleased to see such a lush and vibrant planet along our travels in space! Shortly, he will be descending upon this peaceful planet to visit and travel the land, with many missions to fulfill!" Twelve relayed his message.

"Uhm, what sort of missions? Missions to gain friendship?" Leo heard and saw a wall eyed grey pony with wings ask, bandages on it's own wings.

"Get ready, things are about to get real..." Leo whispered to Spitfire, who nodded.

"Friendship? Why on earth would he need friendship with pathetic bipedal organics? The King hasn't seen such a lively planet in so long, he hasn't been able to stretch his servos in combat in a number of years! No, obviously the missions are to main, destroy, and kill everything here!" Twelve exclaimed happily. As he stared at his audience, and they stared back silently, he sighed and grew blades on the insides of his two largest claws. "Now would be a good time to fear me." Twelve explained lazily. There was a moment of silence before all hell broke loose, with Ponies running frantically in every which direction (save for towards Twelve). In the panic, Spitfire grabbed a hold of Trixie and ran for the nearest street corner that lead around to Twelve's back.

"Twelve, you're mine..." Leo said bluntly, as he he began a circular stalking pattern. His internal programs noticing the threatening pattern, Twelve entered a battle stance himself, similarly entering the circular pattern that Leo had started.

"LY-2, you must realize how futile resistance is, coming from you, with the grave wound in your side. Yes, not even a cloak can hide injury from me." Twelve bragged.

"Is that a hint about upgrades that I hear? No matter. Being one with these creatures has it's...benefits." Leo attempted to sych-out his opponent, stancing himself a little more menacingly, at the cost of aggravating his wound slightly. 'Yet, I haven't exactly found them yet...' as he fought to hide his grimace.

"Oh please, LY-2, you can't hide your pain from me, not as an organic, so stop the charades. It's insulting." Twelve complained mockingly. As a growl escaped Leo and his stance shifted slightly, Twelve took the motion as an opportunity to attack. In blinding speed, he thrust his blade-laden claw towards Leo, catching him off-guard. Not wasting any time, Leo twisted his body in a strange manner to avoid the blades. He found himself unable to keep up, however, and still collided with the blunt top-outside edge of Twelve's right claw. Uncaring, Twelve swung his claw sideways to the right, sending Leo rocketing into one of the Cafe's front windows, causing an explosion of glass pieces to shower over everyone cowering inside. Groaning, Leo felt his right side ignite in a fiery pain as he struggled to get up.

'GODDAMMIT, SPITFIRE, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU? I'M DYIN' HERE!' Leo screamed in his head, through the agony. As he began limping back outside to face his foe again, Leo was vaguely aware of a warm liquid streaming slowly and steadily down from his loin to his barrel. What he was more aware of, however, and more frightened over, was his extreme fatigue. "Nuh...nice going, Twelve, urgh! Hit a man while he's down. How....honorable." Leo joked, knowing full well that most robots disregard honor as a useless function imposed by organics.

"I see the deep dark sleep is knocking on your door, LY-2. Perhaps you should reconsider facing me again. You'll be able to live a little longer that way. Maybe a week, who knows?" Twelve mocked menacingly, attempting to antagonize Leo into making a fatal attempt to strike, and he readied a stance for it. Not taking the bait, Leo frowned.

"What do ya take me for, a mook? I'm not falling for that." Leo shouted back at Twelve. As he was praying that Spitfire hadn't lost her nerve at the last moment, Leo stumbled. His injury was beginning to take it's toll on him.

"While you may still have your battle prowess, it seems your logic and intelligence has taken a nose-dive since becoming an organic. My main processor has alerted me that this battle has had a 43.2% increase in time past the conclusion of our first duel. Not to mention, your movement speed has decreased dramatically since that little nudge I gave you. You would be wise to try and find medical assistance...not that I would actually let you, at this point. You've wasted much of my time, and I want some form of yield to present to the King. Your death would elate him."

"Oh yeah? whoever your king is can join that bitch in android-hell. Remember, it's a real place." Leo spat at Twelve. Just as Leo collapsed from fatigue, there was a sudden and loud 'CLANG!' from behind Twelve. It's eyes narrowed for a moment as it realized what happened. Spitfire boastfully flew up and over the robot to face him. As the two stared at each other, she silently waved goodbye at him, gloating at her victory. As Twelve stared at her, he grew a happy look that rivaled the one that Spitfire wore.

"Yes, I suppose a 'goodbye' is in order!" Twelve exclaimed happily, prompting a confused look from Spitfire. Turning to Leo, she shrugged, and didn't see Twelve swing his left claw to his right in preparation of a large hit.

"Spitfire, MOVE!" Leo shouted in anger. Shocked, she turned in time to watch Twelve's claw slam into her with the force of a train. As Leo watched helplessly, Spitfire's lifeless body tumbled through the air and slammed into the ground a distance away with a sickening thud. Struggling to get up, Leo's muscles screamed at him to stop. "Another upgrade..." Leo said quietly, coming to terms with the reality he may have just gotten one of these creatures killed due to his own lack of knowledge.

"You see, LY-2, I have a five minute fail-safe now. Takes a little while for me to shut off, so I can defend myself...or kill anything that initiates my shutdown. So yes...another upgrade. Don't feel TOO bad, now! It, and the rest of the creatures inhabiting this small planet are slated to be killed anyways!" Twelve explained, his calm demeanor chilling Leo to his core, as he began to slip out of consciousness.

"Not if I have ANYTHING to say about it!" a older woman's voice flowed out, rage streaming from every letter. Surprised, Twelve turned to look at the newcomer on the scene.

"Oh, wonderful! The royalty has come out to hear our message!" Twelve exclaimed. As he advanced menacingly upon what Leo could only make out vaguely as a white mare with a pastel, multi-colored mane. Within seconds, however, Twelve was floating in the air, his weapons being crushed by unseen forces. "WHAT IS THIS? THIS IS...IMPOSSIBLE! MY SENSORS DO NOT INDICATE ANY BZZZT-" Twelve screamed out in disbelief, shortly before Celestia caused his vocal systems to short. As oil began spewing out of every joint, Twelve struggled to look towards Leo again.

"Better get used to it now, because...this place is kinda weird." Leo gave one last mocking piece of advice to Twelve. Still Panicking, it's head suddenly jarred back towards Celestia by unseen hands.

"Enjoy the dark void, you disturbing creature." Celestia spoke firmly, yet calmly. With one final crunch, Twelve seemed to fold in on himself, with oil splattering within a small radius over which the scrap heap he now was resided. Leo wasn't exactly certain, however, as almost everything turned into simple blobs. He felt panic beginning to set in, but once the white blob came into view, he felt safe. "Go ahead, you can sleep now without worry, you shall awake later." the blob said to him. All too happy to oblige the white blob, Leo nodded, and then passed out cold.

The Cold, Lonely Expanse of Space

FIVE YEARS AGO:

"So you're just going to abandon us to our fate? Just so you can chase down Angel and kill him in revenge? It won't change anything! Stay and help us with the planet!" a young woman shouted at a similarly aged man. The young man remained silent as she stared at him.

"I'm the one who let him live in the first place. He needs to die, not for my sake, but anyone else he might harm." The young man finally replied, the tone of his voice unwavering and unmoving.

"Oh please. Save me the crap. Be straight with me for at least a few moments. All you've been feeding me for the past 5 months has been crap!" The young woman shouted at him. Her frustration peaking, she let loose words of which she would regret years later. "Ugh, you know what? Fine. Ditch us, run off and get your precious 'revenge'. Once you finish, STAY lost in space. Don't ever come back, because if I see you coming back...I won't hesitate to kill you as a traitor!"

PRESENT DAY:

"Oh, it was so nice of the Princess to bring us on a vacation to the sea!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed happily, as she stared out at the vast, sparkling tropical sea before her. Closing her eyes and inhaling deeply, she could smell the salt in the air as waves crashed onto the shore in a rhythm. In the background, she could hear her friends Applejack and Rainbow Dash talking to each other as they set up a volleyball net. Opening her eyes, she could see Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie playing with a Turtle that had swam up into the shallow waters near the shore to see them.

"Yes, dear, this is quiet heavenly. You absolutely MUST give the Princess our thanks!" Rarity exclaimed, finishing with a relaxed sigh as she adjusted her beach hat with a hoof to shade her face. Twilight smiled, happy that her friends were having a good time. As much as she hated to admit it, she had been neglecting her studies while on this vacation with the Princess (and her friends, of course!).

Thinking back, it was when the Princess arrived in the middle of the night unannounced last week that the vacation was decided upon. She had mentioned that her sister, Princess Luna, detected immense objects, still deep within space, moving at incredible speed towards the planet. Princess Celestia wanted to monitor the arrival of the objects, should she need to intervene. That the Princess was uneasy, and uncertain, is what made Twilight Sparkle uneasy herself, not giant objects from space. That's happened a number of times in the past, as her many books on astrology told her so. The more she pondered about it, the more uneasy she herself became. 'What has the Princess so worried?' Twilight thought to herself, straining her mind to try and figure it out.

"Hey, Twi? What's got your mind a'buzzin? Looks pertty serious." Applejack asked Twilight suddenly, surprising the purple pony.

"Oh, sorry! I was just trying to recall something from my books is all. Nothing serious at all!" Twilight lied, determined not to worry her friends and ruin an otherwise incredible vacation.

"Twilight, can you stop being an egghead at least once on this vacation? We're here to have fun, not to do math problems!" Rainbow Dash grumbled at Twilight as she fluttered over, a scowl on her face and front legs crossed in-front of her.

"Oh, come off it, Dash! It's who Twi' is, no getting around it. She'll at least be able to read the definition of fun from a dictionary." Applejack mock berated Rainbow Dash, while simultaneously poking fun at Twilight, who scowled back in response.

"I know how to have fun, I was just...thinking about...things." Twilight haphazardly replied, trying not to spill the Princess' secret, which garnered her a couple of raised eyebrows from Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

"Wow Twilight, you should really work on lying! You're really bad at it!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed happily as she bounced up the beach, seemingly oblivious to the small octopus attacking her poofy mane.

"Gee Pinkie, thanks for the vote of confidence." Twilight replied sarcastically, as she magicked the octopus off her friend and flung it into the sea again, much to the dismay of Fluttershy, who was still in the water.

"No problem!" Pinkie replied happily, as she plopped herself down onto the large blanket the six mares had laid down on the sand earlier.

"Ugh, well...yeah, I suppose I've been too much thinking on this trip. What did you girls have in mind, that we can do for fun?" Twilight relented, while simultaneously redirecting the conversation.

"Volleyball, duh! What else can you do at a beach?" Rainbow Dash answered hastily. When she realized that she made herself seem silly by forgetting about swimming, amongst other things, she looked at grumpily at Applejack (who was giving her a mocking smile when she saw Dash's realization) and said "Shut up."

"Yeah, we brought the Volleyball kit. Just finished settin' 'er up, actually. Might as well make use of it." Applejack explained to Twilight, who nodded, excited to play a game she had only ever read about. It wasn't long before an intense game was underway, with Rarity and Fluttershy watching from the sidelines.

"Com' on, Twi'! Watch Dash's smashes, they're throwin' us off." Applejack said in a one-to-one huddle with Twilight, as they discussed strategy, with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie doing the same. "I'll set it up fer you, then you send it towards Pinkie's back end of the court, which ruins Dash's chances for another smash. Once Pinkie sets it, Dash'll hafta lob it over, settin' me up fer a classic Apple Family smack-down!" Applejack explained to Twilight, finishing with a smirk as she imagined the look on Rainbow Dash's face afterwards. Twilight nodded, antsy to execute their strategy. Throwing the ball into the air, Twilight quickly turned around to serve it with a buck, ensuring it would end up in Pinkie's end zone as planned.

"Oh! I got it Dashie, I got it!" Pinkie said to her partner excitedly, as she backed up quickly and got under the ball. Rainbow Dash wasn't in the correct stance as Applejack had predicted, and had to scramble to sloppily lob the ball over the net, which as promised, Applejack met with a midair buck. Unfortunately, she put a little too much strength into the ball, which caused it to land just out of bounds.

"Oh, hogwash! That was perfect, too..." Applejack lamented, putting a hoof over her eyes in frustration.

"Hey, you still made me all messed up that time, I'd say that it was still an awesome play." Rainbow Dash complimented her, trying to get her to lighten up slightly. Just as they were about to go for another play, the four mares heard Princesses Luna and Celestia calling for Twilight.

"One moment girls, this shouldn't be too long." Twilight promised the girls, flashing them a fake smile. As she approached, Princess Luna wasted no time in explaining information to her.

"It occurs tonight. If your friends and you wish to witness the objects, I suggest you set up after 5:30, and do not wander further down this beach. Doing so could warrant severe consequences." Luna explained sternly. Though she has made much progress in adjusting herself to the new ways of greeting her subjects, she still hadn't calmed her overbearing demeanor. Twilight took no offense, nor did it make her nervous. It was simply who Luna was.

"Severe consequences? Like injury?" Twilight asked, wanting to know full details.

"Yes, Twilight. See that point further down the beach where the Palm trees are closest to the water? Anywhere past that, we've determined, should be the impact zone. If any of your friends or you should wander near or past that point, you could be pelted by burning debris." Princess Celestia explained in a lighter mood. Princess Luna walked on up the beach, and began magicking astrology devices out of thin air, and set them up to the sky. Rainbow Dash noticed Princess Luna setting the devices up, and looked towards the sky, squinting.

"Say, Applejack...do you see that speck in the sky? No, follow the angle that those telescopes are being set, now look." Rainbow Dash pointed with her left hoof towards the sky, as Applejack squinted.

"Gosh, ah do see it! What...is it though...?" Applejack asked, though knowing that Rainbow Dash was probably as clueless as she was.

"Maybe it's aliens from outer-space! OOOoooOOhhhhHH!" Pinkie Pie joked, causing the other two mares to snicker.

"Well, if we come back around 5:30, we should have an answer. We'll be able to have a close up look at what it is through those telescopes. Whatever it is, it should burn up as it enters the atmosphere. All we'll get is small parts of it, at the most." Twilight explained, excited to see a large asteroid up close.

"Well, now that you're back, lets get back to playing volleyball! Both sides agree to clean slates?" Rainbow Dash asked, to which everypony nodded. "Alright, serves up!"

A few hours later, the 6 Ponies found themselves sitting in the fancy, high class dining room of the resort that Princess Celestia had booked for them all, each of them grabbing anything that caught their eye from the buffet. As Rarity looked around the table to see which of her friends she might start a conversation with, she noticed most of them being otherwise preoccupied. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were in a horrifically undignified eating contest, which garnered a few disapproving glares from high society ponies and caused stains on the fabulous table cloth. Looking to her right, she noticed Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie in the middle of a conversation of their own, mainly to do with the Turtle they played with earlier. Finally, looking directly beside her, Rarity noticed that Twilight had her head inside another astrology book. Desperately wanting to have some sort of pony contact during dinner, she asked Twilight a question.

"Say, Twilight, what has you so deeply engrossed in that Astrology book? The entire time we've been back at this FABULOUS resort you've been leafing through that dusty old thing." Rarity asked, expertly locking Twilight into a conversation.

"Oh, just...you know...wanting to read up on my, uhhh, astrology! For tonight!" Twilight replied nervously, as she danced dangerously next to lying again. Rarity frowned and raised an eyebrow.

"Dear, I wouldn't be a good friend if I didn't see if something was troubling you, similarly if I didn't try and help you with it. Now please, let me know what it is that's troubling you." Rarity said to Twilight, flashing her a comforting smile as she placed her right hoof on Twilight's withers.

"Well...keep this between us, but...something about the 'meteor shower' has both the Princesses on edge." Twilight finished, moving her front hooves in a fashion to signify a falsehood when she mentioned 'meteor shower'.

"You mean it's not a meteor shower? What is it then?" Rarity asked in a hush, her curiosity getting the better of her. Twilight simply shrugged.

"I don't know. And I get the feeling that the Princesses don't either. Just that these things are very large. They can't even seem to confirm if they'll actually burn up completely, or if they'll be a threat to Equestria." Twilight explained, worry growing on her face. Rarity became nervous, hesitant to ask her next question.

"And, uhm, Twilight. If it is...you know...a threat. How large...will it be?" Rarity asked nearly in a squeak.

"Based on how we were able to see as a sizable dot in the sky at noon hour, we can estimate that the objects are massive. If the weight and size are proportional..." Twilight trailed off, not wanting to speak her mind, and instead resorted to hoof motions signifying an explosion and made a 'Boom.' sound-effect. Rarity was numb, and felt cold. Slumping back slightly in her chair, she was silent for a moment.

"Wow....that really is the worst. Possible. Thing." Rarity said quietly, suddenly aware that everything she cared about was under threat of annihilation. As her mind began racing, Twilight snapped her back to reality.

"It's also the worst case scenario. Many of the objects burn up in the sky over our land, because most of it is hollow, according to Equestrian history. Not only that, but we have the Princesses of the Sun and the Moon her to monitor the breach of our atmosphere. I doubt Princess Celestia is going to let a couple of asteroids ruin Equestria after she's worked so hard to protect it for over 1000 years." Twilight explained, calming Rarity.

"Well, I suppose you're right. Nothing has stopped the Princess so far...shouldn't worry about it too much." Rarity said in a hushed voice, mostly to herself. The two mares were silent for a moment, which was broken when they both sighed. Silently, Rarity suddenly wished she had kept to herself. 'I would have definitely been MUCH happier being completely oblivious to all this.' she thought to herself, something she suspected Twilight thought as well.

"For the last time, I do NOT have the hots for your Brother, Applejack!" Twilight moaned, as the subject on their trip back to the beach had mercilessly fallen upon Stallions. Smirking, Applejack pressed on with her grilling, her entertainment fueled by Twilight's embarrassed denials (and, admittedly, from the amount of sarsaparilla she drank at dinner).

"Oh, please! Ah-Ah've caught you starin' at him before, so don' trah and lie. I'm the...form of honesty! ...Or summat." Applejack slurred slightly.

"Ha ha...uhm, Applejack, how much sarsaparilla DID you drink?" Rainbow Dash asked her, now a little concerned.

"Oh, uhm...abou' 10 bottles. Why?" Applejack replied, going slightly cross-eyed as she strained to remember. Rainbow Dash glanced over at Twilight for reassurance.

"Don't worry. She'll just feel terrible in the morning." Twilight answered intelligently. Stopping for a moment and looking over at Pinkie Pie (who noticed Twilight looking at her and perked up), Twilight made a smart suggestion. "Lets just remember to keep Pinkie away from her until she's had some time to recuperate."

"Why? I had lots of sarsaparilla, too!" Pinkie Pie announced, to which everypony else snickered.

"Pinkie, you always have lots of sarsaparilla. You're like...impervious to the stuff. We're saying Applejack is going to have a hangover." Rainbow Dash explained to the pink pony, who started to hop along the path to the beach. As they finally cleared out from the trees, they were greeted with a magnificent view of the sea being illuminated by the moon...and by the objects in the sky, which had grown much larger in the hours that had passed since they last saw them. As the rest of the ponies 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed at the sight, Twilight and Rarity simultaneously let loose nervous gulps.

"Twilight Sparkle, if you want a good look, you must hurry over to the telescope before it begins to burn in entry." Princess Luna urged, causing Twilight to gallop the short distance over. When Princess Celestia noticed Twilight's friends squinting and cupping their eyes with their hoofs to try and get a good luck, she summoned five more telescopes. The entire group, save for Rarity, zipped over to their telescopes happily, trying to get a good look themselves. Rarity, however, simply stared up at the sky, growing more nervous by the second.

"How can any of you not find this frightening in the least bit? Particularly when none of you know what, exactly, it is?" Rarity asked everypony in attendance, including the Princesses. Just as Princess Celestia was going to try and calm her down, Rainbow Dash suddenly shouted out.

"Hey, what are those weird blue shapes to the right of the asteroid thingy?" she asked, her one eye still firmly placed on her telescope. Everypony, this time including Rarity, looked into their telescopes. Sure enough, they saw a pair of creatures encased in huge misshapen blocks of blue ice.

"Oh shoot! I've seen creatures like that before in one of my books, did I bring it? Let me check, hold on!" Twilight exclaimed, in a frenzy to find the right book so as to try and impress Princess Celestia. A short moment later, she found the massive book she was looking for. "The Esoteric and Rare Creatures handbook!" Twilight explained happily, as she began leafing through the huge book.

"Handbook? Really? That's awfully LARGE and OLD to be any sort of USEFUL handbook." Rarity said disapprovingly, to which Twilight ignored and kept leafing through the book.

"Uhm, Twilight, I was just...wondering. I had a question, if you don't mind answering..." Fluttershy asked her friend in her typical quiet and shy demeanor. Twilight looked up, smiling and nodded, waiting for the question. "Those creatures, are they...friendly? They look awfully...angry with each other."

"Well, it looks like it depends on the Human, they have unique personalities like we do." Twilight explained. At the word 'Human', all her friends looked at her quizzically. "'Human' is the name of the species that are...wow! They've unfrozen! I've never seen things move at such a blurring speed!" Twilight shouted as she watched the Human's fighting. Even the Princesses swiveled back to their Telescopes and stared in awe. It wasn't long, however, before the two figures were obscured by a sudden red glow, along with an extremely unnerving 'Swheeeeee!' sound.

"Oh no...Sister, that won't burn up. It won't burn up at all! Whatever it is, it's been tempered to resist heat!" Princess Luna gasped, staring at the object fearfully as the fire of entry licked over it's entire surface. Princess Celestia turned to the group of ponies next to her and addressed them.

"Twilight Sparkle, Rarity! My sister and I require your assistance! Use ALL the might in your horn to push against the object! The rest of you, flee now!" Princess Celestia commanded in an authoritative voice. The remaining ponies began to run from the beach as the two Unicorns and the two Alicorns used magic to push against the object. They hadn't gotten far, however, as bits of the object had already begun to rain down around them. Grunting, the two Princesses formed a protective cocoon around the area of beach that they covered, straining to maintain the barrier while they also pushed against the object. The 4 ponies in the back watched in horror as the object continued to balloon in size, unabated by the 4 magic users attempts to slow it.

"Okay, ah'm definitely sober again." Applejack let out in a squeak of fear, as Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie shook on the ground, hugging each-other, and Rainbow Dash looked around frantically trying to find an escape route that everyone could use. As everyone began to outright panic, the 8 on the beach heard a male cry of confusion and anger scream out over top of them, as one of the figures passed by overheard, traveling at an abnormally fast speed. Just as the Princesses were about to abandon all hope of stopping the object, and magically evacuating everypony, the remaining figure in the sky suddenly darted infront of the massive object, which dwarfed him to an almost humorous level. Letting loose a warcry that was heard clearly over the massive sound being generated by the object falling from the sky as it burned, the Human shoved hard against the object, a blue fire erupting from his feet.

"It's...slowing! Princesses, it's slowing!" Twilight shouted over the sound.

"Keep pushing, Twilight Sparkle! Keep pushing!" Princess Luna urged her, struggling to speak as was she the barrier and the force against the object. It wasn't long before the fire around the object dissipated, but it was still traveling at an incredible speed. As the object neared, the magic users were forced back, ushering the 4 in the back away from the beach as well. The object was still moving at a decent speed when it and the fully visible Human slammed hard unto the beach's edge, letting out a sickeningly loud 'CRUNCH!'. The Human wasted no time in flinging the massive object into the sea, which caused some higher waves along the shove, but nothing major. As it stared out into the sea, a dark black stain appeared on the side of it's white cloak, prompting a groan to emanate from the Human, followed by it collapsing onto all fours.

"Main line...punctured by a buckled bulkhead. Not good." The Human seemed to speak to itself, as it looked at a blue light rising from it's wrist. Suddenly emboldened by a desire to befriend and this rare visitor to Equestria, and to help care for it's wound, Fluttershy cautiously wandered over.

"Uhm, hello? Mr. Human? Are you...hurt? Do you need help?" Fluttershy asked nervously, partially hiding her face with her flowing mane. The Human turned slowly and cautiously. When it caught sight of Fluttershy, it whisked down it's hood for a better look. Upon doing so, it stumbled up in fright.

"Wha- what the hell are you?" it shouted in fear. Glancing up the beach, it noticed the rest of Fluttershy's friends staring in awe, as the two Princesses simply stared as if seeing an old friend. "More of you? St- stay away, wh- whatever you all are!" The blond haired human shouted loudly, his vivid green eyes almost glowing in the dark night. As he stepped backwards, he grunted in pain and clutched his side.

"O-oh, please! Let me help you, you're hurt!" Fluttershy pleaded, approaching the human once more. Panicking, the Human got up and ran into the forest with a blinding speed. As everypony sat in the dark for a moment, dumbfounded and silent, they suddenly heard a loud angry shout from within the forest.

"Angel, you're mine!"

"What do we do? He was in obvious need of assistance, Sister. Shall we locate him?" Luna asked Celestia in private. As Celestia finalized some room service for her Pupal and her friends to help calm them, she turned to the Alicorn of the night.

"I'm not sure that really was Silver we were looking at, dear sister. Yes, the cloak matched, as did the shape of his face and the color of his hair...but much more evidence pointed to the contrary." Celestia mulled over the previous events, replaying them in her head as she closed her eyes in thought.

"I must admit, his reaction was...startling, to say the least. Thinking back as well, his eyes were colored incorrectly. Assuming he is a descendant, that would mean..." Luna trailed off, an unhappy thought entering her mind.

"Yes, it would mean that the man we know is dead. We knew that this would probably occur. Human's have such a sort life span..." Celestia replied morosely. "No, for now, I'm more curious as to how he even arrived here. Additionally, just who was it he was so fiercely engage in combat with. And to make matters even more confusing, how a human, a member of a species so fragile, survived space flight, reentry, and slamming upon the surface of the planet carrying a heavy load and suffered only a moderate injury." Celestia strained her mind, pleading for something in her lifetime's experience to jump out and explain the recent happenings. "This also makes me worry, as I'm certain Twilight will have noticed this as well. I just hope she doesn't chase after that Human in search of answers."

"I wonder if he even is completely Human, with those oddities." Luna spoke her mind, and paused to think for a moment. "The figure in which he was locked in combat with, it appeared to land somewhere in Everfree forest, which is the same direction the unknown human has gone off in what I suspect is to settle a blood feud. I suggest we send the girls home and monitor the forest's activity from the castle." the dark blue Alicorn suggested, her fur and mane blending in with the night sky that invaded through an open window. After a moment of thinking, Celestia conceded.

"Man, I thought for sure that creature was going to get crushed! But he was like 'No Way.' and slammed into the ground, kneeling, while holding the asteroid thingy! It was so awesome!" Rainbow Dash recounted to Applejack and Twilight, the exact same ones who were with her that night, as they walked to Sweet Apple Acres.

"Dash, please, fer the love of Celestia, stop yelling! Yer killin' me here!" Applejack moaned, as she rode on the cyan pegasus' back and gripped her forehead.

"Hey, it's not my fault you got drunk! You just don't know when to stop!" Rainbow Dash replied, annoyance in her voice. "Besides, you sure teased Twilight alot last night, claiming she liked your Brother. Think of it as...retribution."

"Oh, yeah...abou' that...sorry, Twi'. I tend to turn into a real jerk if I drink enough Sarsaparilla. Can ya' forgive me?" Applejack looked at and apologized to Twilight, an ashamed look on her face.

"Don't worry about it Applejack, I forgive you. But, can I suggest you cool off on the Sarsaparilla? I'm worried you drink it too much when it's around." Twilight replied, concern in her voice.

"Oh, don' you worry about that. If ah'm going to constantly feel like this afterwards, ah'm done with the stuff. Pinkie can have it." Applejack promised, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples with the sides of her hoofs. As they got closer to the ranch, a little yellow colored and red maned filly came running over.

"Hi gals! How was the vacation?" she asked excitedly, wanting to hear the story of the asteroid in person. Just as Rainbow Dash was getting ready to retell the story again, Applejack moaned loudly in anticipation, which got the filly's attention. "Oh, Applejack, did you go an' get yerself smashed again?" the filly teased, smirking as her older sister grunted and nodded her head.

"Go on in an' tell Big Mac ahead of tahme, Apple Bloom, because ah'm gonna give him a good bucking if he asks the same thing when we get inside, even if it's a joke." Applejack asked her little sister, who was all too happy to oblige: she knew how much Applejack's bucking hurt! As she trotted off into the Apple family house, Rainbow Dash chuckled a bit.

"You know, your little sister is pretty cute." she complimented her hung over friend. Twilight giggled a bit, and then spoke up herself.

"Rainbow Dash! You already thinking about having a filly of your own?" Twilight teased, expecting an explosion of denials.

"Hah, me? Naw, I've yet to even find a single Stallion who can keep up with me. Besides, Scootaloo is enough little sister material for me, even if we're not related." Rainbow Dash explained, striking a pose which caused Applejack to fall over and complain angrily. "Oops, sorry Applejack..." Rainbow Dash apologized, slightly embarrassed.

"Naw, don' worry abou' it. Ah can make mah own way back into mah house now. Thanks fer the lift, Dash." Applejack thanked her friend, slowly ambling her way up the hill into her house. Rainbow Dash and Twilight bid her farewell, and proceeded to part ways themselves. As Twilight rounded the corner, she could faintly hear Big Mac's howl of pain that she had completely expected to hear, but it made her giggle nonetheless. By the time she had returned to the library, it was noon hour, which meant...

"Spike, it's noon! Time to reorganize the books according to the date of publication!"

"How did you...suddenly get...so strong?" The green-eyed human asked a figure in the shadows, as he struggled to lift himself up off the floor, a black fluid dripping and leaking all over the ancient stone floor.

"I met a pretty little thing called...Nightmare was it? Oh, you'd love to see her pow- oh wait. You have. Never mind. Sorry, insanity does that too you." The figure spoke in the same voice as the one of the floor, mocking him. "I told you before, Leo. I'm on a mission to eradicate all sentient robots. Whats with this vengeance concept you have against me? Because I achieved one main goal of killing the Cluster Queen?"

"Go fuck yourself, Angel." Leo had struggled to reply, spitting some of the sticky black liquid out from his mouth as he did so. The silence in the ancient stone room was permeated only the sounds of the forest and Leo's own body. As he stared at the shadowed figure called 'Angel', he decided that even though his chance for retreat had come and gone already, he wasn't going to allow this disgusting, twisted person in front of him the satisfaction of breaking his will.

"Leo, I've come to a decision. I won't land a killing blow on you. At this point, there would be no reason, as your systems are already shutting down." The figure stepped out, tapping the side of his nose. "It's something that we both know, no reason to hide it, right? Anyways, I digress...I won't kill you. However, I can place a variety of curses upon you, which I will do in a moment because you will, no doubt, somehow beat the odds and survive alone. You always have, and that's something I admire about you: Your ability to survive without friendship. No no, saying thrive would be going a bit too far. And- Oh, look at me! I'm going off-topic again! Sorry, Leo, let's not waste anymore of my time, shall we? I'm going to throw a nasty little curse upon you that'll weaken you nicely, so that if you do survive, you won't be able to attack me effectively. Because I've decided to alert Humans to this nice slice of land in this unknown section of the universe. Some of them want a new home, you know...particularly since it was an invention of ours when we were ONE that caused earth to...well, you know." Angel smiled widely.

"You seriously think I give a damn about the weird ass things that live here? My god, you ARE nuts!" Leo retorted, struggling to keep his mouth clear.

"Ahah, and you see! That's your downfall! Dishonesty, Disloyalty, Cruelty, Sadness, Greed, and most of all, Loneliness! You lie to yourself and everyone around you, you throw around alliances and friendships like toys, you put others in pain and sorrow to get your own ends, you're busy wallowing is sorrow to notice how awful you really are, you abuse people's need for items for personal gain, and you use all these things to isolate yourself, because you're afraid to express how you really feel!" Angel explained his view of Leo.

"Are you DONE getting off at the sound of your own voice? Where is this ooky-spooky curse you speak of? So far I only feel," Leo started to retort again as he pushed a finger into a hole on his arm, "a little holy." Leo had joked, chuckling more out of fear than at his actual joke. But he didn't want Angel to know that.

"My god, you are stuck up. Fine, hold still...little redundant to say that, because your injuries won't let you move, but..." Angel trailed off. As he began to mumble strange words, Leo suddenly felt himself lifted into the air. Black wisps of smoke swirled around him, and he began to see a green male-like version of the creatures he saw on the beach, which caused his fear to skyrocket. Losing his cool as the image came closer and closer, Leo let out a terrified yelp, and began trying to lean away from the image. The closer it got, the more frightened Leo became. When he finally realized that the image was suddenly copying his every move, he let out a blood-curdling scream of fear. With this last bit of terror, Angel felt happy enough to finish, and flicked his hands, causing Leo, and the black clouds spinning around him to fly off deep into the Everfree forest. "Nightmare, you beautiful creature. THAT was ABSOLUTELY astounding." Angel heavily complimented the air around him. The air replied, however, in a shimmering female voice.

"I aim to please, young Angel. Now, begin your preparations to contact your original species. They must be made aware of this fertile planet."