Legend of Silva's Gate

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..."