The New World

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Beginning of Something Truly Excellent
Chapter 2: New Friends, Old Ideas
Chapter 3: Dawn of First Day
Chapter 4: Memories
Chapter 5: Begin the Hunt
Chapter 6: The Battle for Peace of Mind
Chapter 7: A Chance to Change
Chapter 8: Pulling Out All the Stops

Chapter 1: The Beginning of Something Truly Excellent

Chapter 1: The Beginning of Something Truly Excellent

My alarm should have gone off by now. The sun was all ready up, but I was still asleep. Some thing was wrong. I rolled on to my side and opened my eyes, and instead of seeing the my alarm clock, I saw a mint green unicorn. It looked familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Oh, I’m in Equestria. Wait what.

I blinked multiple times, but the unicorn remained in my field of vision. And it was not happy. Or maybe it was, I couldn’t tell. “I wanted to summon a human, not another pony.” it said in a clearly feminine voice. But I wasn't sure. Any good multiverse traveler knows the until you know the rules of a new universe anything can be true. But what was more important was she, I’m going to go with that for now, said.

“I am not an equine.” I responded to the pony in front of me. “I’m a human.”

She then walked up to my bed and said in a rather serious tone, “I’m Lyra Heartstrings, top human researcher in all of Equestria. I know what a human looks like. You are a pony.” She then looked over me and then continued. “A pegasus by the looks of it. so unless you can somehow prove your human, I’m not buying it.”

Ok to a few new things. First, I knew she was familiar, also that supports the Equestrian hypothesis, as well as the female one. But once more what else she said was slightly more important. She said the I was a pegasus. I rolled out of the bed I was in and attempted to stand up, to show that I was indeed, a human. It didn’t work out as well as planed. I got up on my legs and quickly tumbled over. I stuck my hand out to catch my self in the fall, which I succeeded in doing, despite the shooting pain in my wrist. But I then noticed that I didn’t have a hand, it instead being replaced with a blue stump. I stood up and walked over to a mirror on the other side of the room on all four legs.

“What do you know, wings, and a tail.” I said. Not only was this unexpected, but it was actually welcome. Oh how I had wanted to come here. But the unexplained question was, why was I a pony?

Lyra grumbled something as she left the room. I turned to face her, and caught the last of it. “... summon six ponies instead. I just don’t know what went wrong with the spell, was it...” Her words were cut off by the door closing behind her. Now that is a bit of useful info. Perhaps I wasn’t the only human here. I looked back into the mirror. I was now a navy blue pegasus with a lighter blue mane. I still had the same light blue, almost gray eyes. On my flank was a two-tone blue saber. As I opened my new wings for the first time, a groan from behind me caught my attention.

Out of another bed fell a gray unicorn mare with a long black mane. “Who are you?” I asked.

The mare opened her mouth without opening her eyes and said “John, you know who I am.” It was my girlfriend Diana. I then saw the internal machinations of her head begin to turn. Her eyes then shot open. But instead of seeing a human, she saw a blue pegasus. “John where are you! And what are you doing in my room!” she then yelled.

“I’m standing, directly in front of you.” was my sarcastic response. Good thing we were in a cartoon world. Diana’s jaw quite literally hit the floor.

“Am I a...” she was cut off by a sharp nod from me. I then gestured towards the mirror. She looked in to it and saw that she was, in fact a pony. That was the first chance that I had look at her cutie mark. It was a purple quill, which fit perfectly with her love of writing.

“I’m just glad to see that you were one of the five others.” I said. Her head spun around to look at me.

“There are others?” she inquired.

“Yes. We are in the house of Lyra Heartstrings.” I said to her. She nodded, recognizing the name of the human obsessed pony. She may not have watched the show, but she kept up with the fanfics enough to know who everypony was. “There are two things. First is that she doesn't believe that we were humans. The second thing is that she mumbled, as she left the room, four others. I’m more concerned about who the others are.”

At that point the door opened and in walked Lyra. “I’m sorry about earlier.” she said to me. “I was just a little frustrated that...” She stopped in mid-sentence, after noticing that Diana was awake. “Oh good your awake.” She said to her. Before Diana could respond, Lyra said “Let me guess, your a human too. Of the other ponies up, all of them are claiming to be humans. I think that you all are just making fun of me.” sounding depressed.

Diana leaned closer to me and whispered in to my ear “Let me handle this.” She walked up to the saddened pony and asked “Why do you think that other ponies are making fun of you?”

Lyra looked back up. “Because, most ponies don’t believe that humans exist. I’m one of the few that do. And when other ponies find out we believe that humans exist, the ridicule us for it.” The mint green pony was on verge of tears. “I thought that you all were just making fun of me. I'm sorry.”

This time I stepped forward. “There is no reason to be sorry. I know where you’re coming from. When I was a human, which I will prove it after this and we meet the other new ponies, I was in the same position as you Lyra. I was made fun of, and when I was, I lashed out at others. Trust me it’s not a place you want to be. Instead take it in stride. Then the haters can do nothing.”

“You know what your right. Now come with me. I’ll show you to the other ponies and then you can prove that you’re human.” responded the formally disheartened unicorn. She then began to walk down the hall. “You were the last up, but nopony else has left their rooms yet.” They reached another door in the hall. “The two in here have been complaining about not bring unicorns and such for some time now” she said as a warning as she opened the door.

“... ok you can go as...” An earth pony on the other side was cut off in mid sentence. He was short and had a sandy colored coat, with a mane slightly longer than his coat, of a slightly darker color. His cutie mark was in the shape of an atom of Helium. The other pony in the room was also an earth pony, with a deep green coat and a brown mane. His cutie mark was buzzer like they use on Jeopardy, and on the local inter-school quiz competition, Masterminds.

The two groups stared at each other for several moments before I broke the silence. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I said out loud, in shock. Standing in front of me were two of my friends from Masterminds, Ryan and Devlin.

“No way. You were brought here too.” responded Devlin. He walked over and we gave each other a high five. Ryan was still in amazement at the two other new ponies.

Lyra then piped up. “Maybe you should meet the other two as well.” We all agreed and followed the green unicorn further down the hall.

Before they even opened the door a voice familiar to all the former humans present radiated out from the door. “I don’t care what you think. You can’t tell John about this if we ever get back!” It belonged to Mo, yet another member of the Masterminds team. I nodded to Lyra and she opened the door soundlessly, revealing a yelling pegasus, with an almost black coat and long red mane, and a single star as his cutie mark. The other pony in the room was a unicorn. He had a jet black coat and mane, which was longer then all but Diana’s, and was unkempt. His cutie mark was a green swirl and he was trying to not laugh. Mo’s back was to the door, and the other pony, I had a hunch on who it was, was trying to not laugh at the fact that he knew that John was standing right behind Mo. “Are you listening to me Shamus! Not a word to John!”

It was at that time I decided to step in. “What are you afraid that I would find out you were a pony?” I said, lacing my voice with sarcasm. Mo then jumped into the air and flared his wings, slowing his decent. “Looks like you got the hang of your new wings.” I said laughing.

“Oh hey John, how are you doing today?” was his response, looking guilty of something.

Lyra the spoke up and said, “Now how are you going to prove that you are humans?”

“Let me get my evidence” I responded to Lyra’s inquiry. I then walked back into the room that me and Diana woke up in. Looked on the table that was next to my bed, which was transported from earth with me. Sitting on the table were several things that could prove my past as a human, my cellphone and my I-Pod, both of which had several pictures of my and my friends as humans, my Nintendo DS, which had my copy of Pokémon Black in it, and a picture of me and my friends Ben, Sam,and Amir, as well as Diana at Ben’s graduation party two years ago in a drawer.

I grabbed all four of the pieces of evidence and rushed back to the room where they were when I left. They weren’t there, but I heard talking coming from down stairs. I rushed down the stairs and walked into the room where they all gathered. They were all there as well as another pony, this one having a similar coat color to Ryan and a purple and pink mane that curled at the front. On her flank were three candies. By using the evidence available to me, via the physical appearance of the pony, and where we were, I guessed the new pony was Bon Bon. As I walked in to the room Bon Bon looked at me. “And who is this!” she yelled at Lyra.

“I already explained to you I tried to summon humans, but instead I got ponies.” was Lyra’s response, but from the look on Bon Bon’s face it appeared to be inadequate.

Bon Bon then walked out of the room. As she walked by me she grumbled, “ Why does she keep doing stuff like that. I mean serous-” She was cut off as the front door of the house closed behind her.

Lyra then walked up and said “Do you have your ‘evidence’ for proving that you’re a human?” She made air quotes around the word evidence.

“I actually found my I-Pod and cellphone on my nightstand that you some how took with me.” I fumbled around with my I-Pod with my new hooves. I finally go the thing on and on the photo page. The first picture was of right after the final Masterminds meet of the year. It was me, Ryan, Devlin, Mo, Shamus, and Diana at Theodor's, a local hot dog stand. We were celebrating winning the league championship with the rest of the team.

Lyra’s jaw hit the floor. Once again, good thing we are in a cartoon world. I scrolled to the next picture, and so on. Lyra was engrossed by the pictures of my life as a human. She looked from my I-Pod after the last photo and said “I really didn’t believe you until now.” She walked over to my friend with me. “But we have a slight problem.”

“What would that be?” I inquired, expecting her to say something about our transformation.

“No it’s that I can’t send you back to your world. The spell I used to get you here was one way.” was her response.

Mo then stepped forward, slightly angry. “You mean were stuck here!” he yelled.

Lyra looked slightly depressed and said “Yes I’m sorry.”

But then an idea formed in my head. “There my be another way for us to get back home.” I said. The rest of my friends looked up. “Shamus, who, in fiction or not, knows more about interdimensional travel?”

“The Doctor, why?” was his response.

“Ryan, Devlin, where is the doctor right now?” I then asked some of my other friends.

They looked at each other and Ryan said “I don’t know?”

“He’s right here, in Ponyville. Remember Doctor Whooves?” I responded t othem, with a smile on my face. Not only would I meet ponies today, but The Doctor as well. “Lyra do you know where to find Dr. Whooves?” I then asked the only native of Ponyville there.

“No” was her rather definitive response. “But I know somepony who would.” She then said afterward, as if remembering about somepony.

“Well then what are we waiting for.” Mo said as if he wanted to leave as so as posible. Lyra lead us out the door and we followed.
______________________________________________________________

The walk through Ponyville was like a dream come true. I saw all of the landmarks from the show. In the sky above me was the cloud home of Rainbow Dash. We had walked by the Town Hall and the Library, which we had to physically restrain Ryan from entering. Just to the north of town hall was a large sugar coated pink building. It took me a moment to realize what it was. By the time that I realized what it was it was too late the brace for impact. With in moments a pink pony was in the middle of our group, asking Diana what her name was. Diana was struggling to come up with something. Soon after we walked out the door, I warned my friends that ponies knowing that we were human could have disastrous consequences. I then answered for her. “Her name is Bookworm, and mine is Blueblade. Now if you don’t mind we have somewhere to go so if you wouldn’t mind letting us go there, you can through a welcome party for us latter Pinkie.”

She looked at me and said “Okey doky loky. I’ll see you later Mr. Blueblade.”

As she was walking away Lyra stopped and asked “How did you know her name? And how did you know she wanted to throw you a party?”

“It’s a long story, and I’d rather explain it later.” I responded to her inquiry.

After walking through Ponyville some more we reached a cottage on the other side of town. Lyra walked up and knocked on the door. To tell the truth, when the door opened in fangasmed. On the other side of the entry way was Derpy Hooves. And Lyra said that she would know where Dr. Whooves was. But then it got better. From her living room walked a brown colt with an hourglass cutie mark. The pony walked to the door and said “I been waiting for you six.” he said as he grabbed me and Shamus as he dragged us into the room, the other five ponies following with Derpy welcoming them in. “Now why are you here?”

“Well, Doctor you see were actually humans.” said Shamus.

“Well I know that. What question were you going to ask me?” he responded.

“Do you know how we can leave here.” said Mo, still not happy with being a pony.

“You can’t.” was his response. We were shocked once more. “This universe is like a multiverse black hole. You can enter, but you can’t leave.

Mo stood up, and in a rather Sweetie Belle like way, said “Oh come on!”

I looked around and said “At least were trapped in a good universe.”

Dr. Whooves looked at me and said “Not all is as it appears, and you will be the center a new disturbance.” He then shoved all seven of us out of the house.

“Well that was awkward.” said Devlin.

Meanwhile Ryan was talking with Derpy who had left the house. “Sorry but the Doctor says that you have to go home. He said something about causing a paradox, I really didn’t understand much of it.” she said.

I looked at my friends and said “We should do as he says. Last time somepony didn’t, it nearly ended the universe.” The walk back to Lyra’s house was uneventful, but when we went inside there was a sight we didn’t expect to see. The princesses, Celestia and Luna.

Chapter 2: New Friends, Old Ideas

The dual princesses of Equestria were looking right at us. Remember that feeling you get in the principal's office at school. That was nothing compared to the feeling of being judged by the God-Princesses of an alternate universe. The elder alicorn spoke first. “I would only assume that the six of you I have never seen before are the humans?”

“Yes, Celestia, Princess of the Sun.” was my response. I then bowed to the her, taking her by surprise at my knowledge of her name and titles.

“Well, it is good to see that you know more of our customs then I originally thought.” she responded to me. By this point the rest of my friends were also bowing to the princess.

“I could explain why, if you would like me to.” I returned to her.

“Do be honest, I truly don’t care. I only wonder what you are doing here, as you are the second through seventh outsiders to show up in my world.” the controller of the sun said, cutting straight to the chase.

“I, nor anypony with me, were brought here by choice. We all awoke in a bed in Lyra’s house. And as for what we do here, I can only speak for myself, but I wish to better Equestria.” The princess was dumbstruck.

After several moments, the second alicorn in the room spoke up. “My sister, we do not think that they mean us harm.”

“You are correct, oh Princess of the Night.” said Diana walking up be equal with me. The rest of my friends did the same.

Celestia then responded to Luna “You say they mean no harm but look at his cutie mark.” She then motioned at me. More specifically at my cutie mark, the blue saber.

“Let me stay you fears princess.” I responded. “I will not attack anypony, unless in self-defence.”

“I accept your pledge” Celestia responded, but she continued to eye me warily.

“As do we.” said Luna, abet more confidently than her sister. Then nopony decided it was time to talk, creating an awkward silence.

“So tell us about where you come from. We know so little about it, except from that strange Doctor pony.” said Luna, trying to break the silence.

I spoke to the princess in a rather curt fashion. “Luna, if I may call you that, our history is not exactly, harmonious.”

“You may call us Luna. And tell us anyways, it can’t be that bad.” was her response.

“Fine, but I’m going to do this right. I’m going to start at the beginning and I’m going to go up to where we left our world.” And so I did. I talked of Egypt and Babylon. Of Persia, Greece, and three hundred soldiers. I spoke of Rome and the Han dynasty in China. Of Charlemagne and Barbarossa. Of the English and the Spanish Armada. Of revolutions in France and America. Of wars tearing apart countries over slavery. Of dead leaders and poor new ones. On trenches filled with blood and bullets. Of madmen who wanted to exterminate their foes. Of mutually assured destruction. And of terror and the beginnings of another global conflict. And all throughout my lecture, the faces of the three ponies in attendance grew more and more grave. At the end of my speech I thought I saw a tear in the eye of Celestia. I had explained to them the tragedy of the humans.

“There is no way I would send you back against your will now.” said the Celestia, blinking rapidly, voice wavering with sadness. She paused for a moment and drew a deep breath, composing herself. When she spoke again it was with authority. “But since you're staying here we need to come up with a plan to allow you acclimate yourselves to pony society, being that, from what I understand is an inherently violent society.”

All the ponies in attendance thought for a period of time, on what to do now. Finally Luna came up with a plan. “What if they were to spend time with the Elements?”

“Actually that might work.” said Celestia, with a renewed determination to allow us to stay in her kingdom. She then turned to Lyra and said “Gather the Bearers of the Elements and tell them that they are needed here.” Lyra left the house, and the princess asked “You never told us much about yourselves. What did you do for fun on your home world?”

“We were the outcast. We had fun by writing and playing video games.” I explained to the dual monarchs. “As those on the fringes of society, we were never popular.” The door opened and in walked six ponies. Leading them was Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic. She was followed by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, who was hopping as usual. When she saw me and my friends she began to wave wildly. Then the six elements saw the princesses in the room and stopped. They then proceeded to bow down before their monarch.

Twilight then looked up and asked “When did you get here Princess Celestia?” looking up the the sun princess.

“I have only been in town for a few minutes. But there is a more pressing concern. Do you see the six ponies in front of you?”was her response.

“Yes I do princess, but what do you want us to do with them?” said a southern accented voice from the back, Applejack.

“They are not from here. Their home was torn apart by war and they need help on being a pony.” she responded the Element of Honesty’s question.

This time a cyan coated pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail said “What do you mean by ‘they need help on being a pony’? Aren't they ponies right now?”

“Yes,” responded Luna, “but they were not always like that. They are humans, and were until about three hours ago. When they entered our world something changed them into ponies. They will need help adjusting to our world, due to the fact that as they left theirs was about to be thrust into a third planet wide conflict in one hundred years. Do you girls think you can do it?”

“Yes we can!” responded the unofficial leader of the Elements, Twilight Sparkle.

“Then we will leave you to figure out a plan, as we have other things we must attend to. I’m sorry I can’t help you further.” said Celestia as she began to glow. A bright white light filled the room and she, along with Luna, disappeared.

“Now what do we do?” asked a voice from behind me. I spun around to see Rainbow Dash.

Twilight then decided to take charge of the situation. “Before we do anything,” she said in a commanding tone “I think it would be imperative that we learn more about you six. Are there any problems with that?”

I said “None that I can think of. So let's mingle.” And so started everything. Within a half an hour we were already talking with specific ponies. Twilight was Talking with Diana, probably about writing, her favorite hobby. Mo was talking to Fluttershy, about what I couldn’t tell you. Mo was a history nut, specializing in some of the brutal conflicts in history. Shamus was talking to Rarity, and I over heard the words “bowtie” and “fezzes”. That Doctor Who obsessed pony would not shut up. Devlin was conversing rapidly with Pinkie Pie, probably about some crazy scheme to prank me or something. Ryan was discussing with Applejack about farm life. He lived on a from in Texas before he moved to New York.

That left just me and Rainbow Dash, as well as an awkward silence. “So what did you do for fun in your world?” she asked, trying to break the ice.

“I would read, watch NASCAR, play X-Box-” I said before Rainbow Dash cut me off.

“You have X-Box?” she then asked rather excitedly. My response was the exact same. “Of course I do. What are your favorite games?” she then responded. I rattled off several games, Halo: Reach, Battlefield 3, Black Ops, and Forza 4. When I got to Forza her eyes lit up. “Are you good at Forza?” she questioned. I laughed at it. “No really, are you any good?” she continued to ask.

I stopped laughing and said “At one time I was ranked in the top one thousand in the world. Does that answer your question.”

Her jaw hit the floor. Wow, over exaggeration seems to be common here. “Are you serious.” she managed to say.

“I am always serious about Forza.” was my response.

“Good it’ll be fun to have some serious competition around here.” she said. It sounded like nopony else was even interested in the game. I looked around the room once more, trying to keep track of what was happening, my gaze lingering on Diana. Rainbow saw that too. “Is she your marefriend or something?” she asked.

“Yah, you could say that.” I responded to Rainbow.

“So what was your house like in the human world?” asked Rainbow, eager to change the subject. To be fair it was a bit awkward. So I obliged.

“It was small. Living quarters downstairs. Sleeping quarters upstairs. Good size yard. nothing special.” I said.

“You said something about something called NASCAR earlier. What is that?” she then asked. It was suddenly easier to talk to her so I explained what NASCAR is.

And we conversed for a long period of time. By the time Twilight called every pony over I was talking about Lynyrd Skynyrd, my favorite band. “So although you get made fun of for liking that band you still listen to them?”

As I was about to respond, Twilight said “Everypony gather around. I have a plan.” We all gathered around. “Now as I’m sure you know there are six of us and six ex-humans. Now If one of goes home with one ex-human it makes a perfect ratio. Now I was thinking that we should go with who we were talking to. Does anypony have a problem with that plan.” Nopony voiced any complaints. In fact several were nodding in approval. “Good. Now I'm going home. Diana are you ready to go?” My, well I feel if I’m living here now I should get used the local vernacular, marefriend nodded and went upstairs to gather the few things she had here.

“Well, we should leave too.” said Rainbow Dash, nudging my side. I figured that it was a good idea as well. But I had something to do first.

I walked over to Lyra who was in the kitchen making pancakes. “I just wanted to thank you.” I said.

“Why? I took you away from your home and family.” she responded, a tinge of regret on her voice.

“Because I have a feeling that I’m going to be needed here. And trust me, my home was no Babylon.” I said to her. “But now I must take my leave. I’ll see you around.” I turned to go to grab my stuff, but before I left the kitchen, Lyra walked over as well.

“I should thank you as well. I nearly quit researching humans, and summoning you was sort a last chance.” She said to me.

“Don’t mention it.” I said back as I left the room and went upstairs to gather my things. I grabbed all of whatever was on the small table that got taken with me and threw it into a drawstring bag, the one I got a Pokèmon regional championships last year. I was glad that was here. Had lots of good memories of that event. I walked back into the living room. Devlin and Pinkie Pie had already left by the time got back downstairs.

“You ready?” asked Rainbow Dash. I nodded affirmative. “Good.” she said as she walked out the front door of the house. The sun was just beginning to set on my first day in Equestria. We walked to a remote part of the town before she said “Here we are.” I looked up into the sky, a huge cloud palace towering over me. She jumped into the air and began to fly.

Now as a former human, I have no idea on how to use wings to fly, other then in theory. I experimentally flapped my still new to me wings several times, causing Rainbow to swoop down and ask “What are you doing?”

“Humans don’t have wings.” I responded. “Hell, I’ve only flown a couple of times in airplanes. Which are not at all like having your own wings.”

“So you’ve never flown on your own?” she asked, clearly dumbstruck at the idea of no sentient beings with wings.

“No, but I’m a fast learner. And I think I got it.” I said excitedly as I shifted my weight back. I then sprung into the air and flared my new wings, feeling the air underneath them for the first time. I then flapped them like I had seen both birds and my accompanying pegasi do. Within seconds I was several yards above the ground. At this point I decided to make several slow turns, eventually angling myself towards the cloud house above me. “Are you coming?” I said to my perpetually equine companion.

“You’re doing OK hotshot, but I’m still top flier around here.” yelled Rainbow as she rapidly gained on me. By the time she caught up with me though we were landing on her balcony/front steps. She opened the front door of her house and walked inside.

The interior of the house was much more light then I had expected. I looked up to see that the roof was open to the sky. I should ask Rainbow Dash about what happens when it rains sometimes. She motioned to a door on the side of the living room and said “There’s the guest room. You can put your stuff down in there.”

I walked to the room. It was very simple, A cloud bed and a chair next to a lamp. next to the bed was a table, with a single drawer. On the walls were two windows, each on a different wall. One of them looked out over Ponyville and the second watched out over what I believed was the Everfree Forest. I decided to put down my bag and then take a tour of the house.

As I walked over to the bed to put my bag on my left rear leg was jolted with pain, dropping me face first to the floor. Well now I know that this isn’t a whole new body. Knowing that old injury would continue to trouble me throughout my life here, it was somewhat comforting, a tie to the world that I had originated from. I lifted myself off the cloud floor, which was deceptively hard, and limped over to the bed, which was much easier due to the extra two legs. After I placed my bag on the bed I limped into the living room.

As I did the other pony in the residence took note. “Are you ok?” she said clearly worried.

“I’m fine, this is an old injury. I busted up this ankle so many times, it’s permanently messed up.” I said to her.

“Good then you can get over here. I got the X-Box on already.” I looked a T.V. that I had overlooked on my initial inspection of the room. On the T.V. was Forza 4. With cars. That was odd, but I wasn’t complaining. I limped back to my room and grabbed my hard drive for my X-Box, in the bag because the previous day I was at my friend Ben’s house and I wanted to use my actual cars in Forza when I played him. When I got back into the room with the X-Box, Rainbow Dash asked “Why did you grab that?”

“Because you can import your profile onto here, but I can’t get mine onto your hard drive. My profile is weird like that.” I responded to her inquiry.

“Fair point.” she responded. I happened to look at her game collection as I was putting in the hard drive. Modern Warmare 3, and Battlefield 3, the only games standing out to me. After several annoying minutes of waiting for her gamertag to download, we started the game. The track names were changed, like it was now Apple Valley instead of Maple Valley, and Le Manes instead of Le Mans, but the tracks themselves were the same. We chose to race at Rally di Positano, a twisty road course. I have a special car for that track, a heavily modified ‘71 Mustang. But I forgot about the special paint job. One of Rainbow Dash.

Chapter 3: Dawn of First Day

“John. What is that?” asked Rainbow Dash. To be honest, I didn’t have an answer to that question. I was a pony, sitting in the house of another pony, playing one of my favorite video games, using a car covered in images of ponies. More specifically the one sitting next to me. I had nothing to lose. I started laughing. “What is that?” the now irate pony repeated.

“That is you, on a race car!” I managed to blurt out through the laughter. All the while the cyan pegasus next to me was getting more and more frustrated.

“Quit laughing!” she yelled and kicked me in my side. Ok now would be a good time to stop. It took me a moment to compose myself and look at Rainbow Dash. “Why am I on that car?” she barked at me, demanding an answer.

“Trust me.” I said, in a rather flat tone. “It’s rather confusing, but in my world you and your friends are the subjects of a now not quite so fictional TV show.”

She took another look at the car. On the hood of it was the logo for the show. She squinted at it. When she read it her eyes opened up wide and said “We have similarly titled show here.” We went back to the X-Box dashboard and went to the YouTube App that was there. She then typed in My Little Human: Intelligence in Magic. On of the first videos to come up was a clip which she explained was from an episode call ‘The Final Round’.

When it loaded I was stunned. It was the last match we had for the Masterminds regular season, one game against Niagara Falls and the other against Niagara Catholic. And there was me, Mo and Diana flanking me. Devlin and Ryan were in the bleachers behind me. I was wearing my signature red zip up, dragon print, sweatshirt. The person who was asking questions asked a question about Doctor Who. “I remember this!” I yelled out.

“You’ve seen this before?” she inquired.

“No better I lived it.” I responded to her, trying to sound like as much of a badass as possible.

“Nice joke John.” she said sarcastically.

“Give me a minute.” I said as I limped back into my bedroom. I reached into my bag and grabbed my I-Pod. I then thought that I should grab my whole bag just to be safe. Rainbow Dash was waiting for me when I left the room on her couch.

I lept over the back of the couch, turned on my I-Pod, and loaded up the same picture I had shown Lyra. “Ok so you have some well done fanart, so what?” she said in response to it. I desperately looked in my bag for something, anything, to prove that was me.

At the the bottom of the bag I felt something soft, with a zipper on it. ‘Please be what I think this is’ I thought, as I pulled out a bundle of blood red cloth. I unraveled it revealing my sweatshirt, still tailored for a human. Rainbow exploded with joy. “How much did you pay for this?” she asked me in the same tone as she would have ask a Wonderbolt, as she grabbed it out of my hooves.

“9.95$. At Kohls.” I responded rather truthfully.

“It even has the damaged pocket. And the right stains.” she said, almost ignoring my comment. I tolerated it. If I got my hooves on her Gala dress I would do the same thing. “Either your incredibly wealthy, or you are the real deal.” she said as she looked back up at me. “And I’m willing to say it’s the second.” she continued, with an odd look in her eyes. It disturbed me on many, many levels. “Wait. Does that mean that those other ponies were the others from the show?” she then asked.

“Well who are the other characters?” I asked, actually curious about the show that displayed my life.

“Well there’s you, Diana, Mo, Shamus, Ryan, and Devlin.” she listed them off.

“Yes they are then.” I said.

“Oh. Then that mare at Lyra’s...” she trailed off.

“Yes is Diana. Which means, yes, once again, she is my marefriend.” I said answer her question. Whatever was in her eyes was gone then. I still refused to question whatever it was. “So do you want to play some Forza now?”

“Sure.” she said, sounding somewhat dejected. We loaded up the game once more, and she also selected a ‘71 Mustang, but this one had me plastered all over it. I had a feeling that it was rather similarly modified as well. And when we got to the race, it was one of the most difficult races I ever ran. A combination of having to play the game with hooves, no easy task on its own, but was racing the closest thing to somepony the exact same as me when it came to the line, car choice, and even aggressiveness. I barely won, passing her on the second to last turn of the last lap, after trading the lead throughout the three lap race after almost every turn.

“What a race.” I said, rather impressed with myself.

“Yah, I want a rematch.” said the pony next to me.

I agreed we set up a race at Road Appleanta, and I chose my car first. I selected the Koenigsegg CCGT, and if to confirm my suspicions, Rainbow Dash chose the same car. We ran the track in the tricky hyper-cars for seven laps, trading the lead until my car broke free of me in the early of the eighth lap and slammed into the outside wall of the fourth turn, wrecking it.

We continued to race for several more hours before we grew tired. I went to my new bedroom and shut off the lights, thinking about today's events. Perhaps this was a crazy dream, or something else. I had a rather difficult time getting to sleep, due to the unstoppable torrent of thoughts, but when I did, I slept heavily.

I then dreamed. It was a dream, so vivid that it was almost real. I stood in a void, as a human, the only other thing in the void was a another man. He was tall, about six foot four, and rather slender, with unkempt brown hair, and green eyes. He wore a tuxedo, and the scabbard of a long thin blade. I took another look at him, noting the hilt of a blade in his right hand. He then angled it across his body, revealing a blade as equally black as the void around us, pulsating and crackling with dark energy.

He nodded at me and I felt a weight on my body. I looked down and saw that my body was now clad in plate armor, the same color as my coat as a pony. Around my waist was a sword belt. He clearly meant to duel me, so I drew to blade to defend myself. It was about two and a half feet long, the same icy blue color as my tail, and superbly balanced, as well as the fact that it fit my hand perfectly. The odd gentleman nodded again, and the world spun around us. When it stopped the darkness had taken the shape of destroyed palace, collapsed columns, shattered stained glass windows, and wreaked throne. Bits of the roof were scattered about. It looked familiar but I couldn’t put my hand on it.

“Let us skip the pleasantries. Are you going to join me or not.” asked the dapper man.

Now, if someone was wielding a blade of darkness and making such cliched demands, you would assume he was evil. I did. So I responded in the best epic voice I could “No.”

“Too bad. You would have made great proteges.” he said confusing me. We were the only ones there, so who else was he talking to. But there was no time to ponder that. He raised his blade to be level, tip pointed at me. I raised my own blade to block the thrust I knew was coming. I was too slow, but the armor was well made and deflected the attack.

I then swung my blade at his neck, trying to end the battle quickly. It appeared as if it would have worked, him being off balance from the sword thrust. Then his sword was there. There was no movement, no blur. It was just there. That was when I realized how this fight was going to end. Whatever I was fighting, it wasn’t human. But I’m too proud to submit, too proud to just let it kill me, so I decided to fight back.

“Admirable, all of you.” he said, still addressing the imaginary compatriots of mine. He then swung at my own head, expecting a quick end to the fight. But I outfoxed him, or it, whatever. I ducked under the swing and ran at the ruins of the castle, in an attempt to ambush it. If I could do that I could come out on top. But no matter where I went that thing was there. And no matter how many time I fought it, I couldn’t get an advantage. All I learned is that I was better with technique, but whatever it is, its raw speed could defeat me. I fought it for minutes, hours, days, years? I couldn’t tell the change in time in my dream, or reality? This was beginning to mess with my head.

I decided that I would end this. I began to hunt it. And I found it, standing over a dead body. I walked closer and saw the body wasn’t human, it having wings and cloaked in white fur. After a moment, or an hour, I figured out who it was. It was Princess Celestia’s lifeless corpse. That just enraged me, perhaps it was supposed to, I don’t know. I just rushed the mysterious, whatever it is, blade raised above my head, a rookie mistake. With the sword above my head, I couldn’t block the thrust, aimed directly at my heart. The tip of its dark blade hit my armor, and I could feel the platemail give way, the apparently unbreakable blade punching through it. I felt it pierced my skin, ribs, and then my heart and lungs. I let out a wordless scream and swung and its head, determined to take it with me. I scored hit would have been my only hit on the being, but my sword just phased through it. It then just stood there, grinning madly as I grew weaker, my vision, dimming, then blackness.

I woke up, heart pounding, covered in sweat. I was breathing heavily. I sat up in my bed and looked around. I couldn’t see much, due to the darkness, but when I attempted to uncurl my fists, I couldn’t. I began to freak out before remembering the events of the previous day. ‘That wasn’t a dream, it truly happened.’ I thought to myself. Then it hit me once again. I was in Equestria, as a pony, with no way to get home. But at least my friends, and my girlfriend, were there with me. I looked at the glowing iridescent display of time next to me and saw it saying 4:13, far too early to be awake, so I went back to sleep. I slept deeply this time, no insane dreams of demons attacking me in ruined castles. There was no dream at all, which was strange in and of itself.

I woke up again at 6:12, due to the fact that the next day was supposed to be a Tuesday, specifically May 15th, a day I would have to go to school. I figured that by that time I would be unable to get back to sleep, I walked down the hall, to the bathroom. There I found a shower, as well as a large amount of shampoo. After the shower I walked down to the kitchen, which, despite being huge cloud house, was actually rather small. There was only a small oven and stove, a fridge, and a microwave, which looked like it received more use then the stove. In the cupboard I found a box of cereal and grabbed a bowl. I ate, and when I was done with breakfast, I realized, ‘I have nothing to do.’ I had no school to attend, no job, and very few possessions. I had a fresh start. And a new town. I decided to go out and see the town I dreamed of going to for months. And as with anyplace I wanted to go to, I decided to see what I could find here.

I stepped out onto the stoop of the cloud house and looked out over the town. The house faced the west, and I could still see the moon on the horizon. As I looked into Ponyville I saw most of the town was asleep, with only a couple of lights on here and there, but in no places I recognized. I then looked to the north and saw Canterlot, in all it’s glory, giving off a soft glow. It was now or never I thought as spread my wing as leapt into the air. After a few moments I was able to start gaining altitude again.

I flew over to what looked like the main market area, just outside of the town hall, to see what was happening there. I landed near a small stall, with a sign that had pictures of springs and dials all over it. I looked at the name, Clockwork Repairs. ‘Odd place’ I thought. And then I noticed it was open, but nopony was there. ‘Probably in the back’ I thought as I rang the bell for service. I heard a high pitched, familiar buzzing, as well as some crashing, as the shop owner stumbled out into the open part of the stall. It was The Doctor. “Hello Doctor-” I managed to say before he cut me off by shoving his hoof in my mouth.

“Not out here!” he hissed. He then motioned to the back of the stall. “Come in the back, we can discuss whatever you want back there.” I followed him into the back of the stall. It was there that I saw it, that great blue box of dreams, of TARDIS. He turned back to me. “Now, from how you acted around me yesterday, as well as knowing who I am, I assume you have traveled with me at some point?”

“I wish I did, I responded you are just a character on a TV show.” I responded to him, trying to get closer to the TARDIS.

“More alternate universes? Something is quite fishy here.” he said getting in between me and the TARDIS. “Run along, I need to do something.” he said before disappearing inside the TARDIS. He then called from inside, “Can you change my sign to closed?” I ran up, touched the TARDIS, flipped the sign and left, wondering what he was doing. I took off again, this time I could see the sun just over the horizon. I angled the other direction and soon found myself over Sweet Apple Acres.

As I glided over it, I heard an odd sound, like a boxing glove hitting a cement block, and me being me angled towards it. I found Applejack hard at work bucking apples from the trees. I landed and walked up Applejack before saying “Good morning.”

Whap!

“Good night.” I mumbled before blacking out.

My head hurt. God it hurt. I groaned from the pain, eyes still closed. “You’re alive. Y’all gave me a good scare there.” said a southern accent.

“Mrs Podlucky, why are you using your southern accent?” I mumbled through the haze in my head. Wait. Mrs Podlucky? My english teacher? Back home? It took several moments, much longer then it should have, for my potentially concussed head to raise the red flag. My eyes shot open, seeing pair of green eyes for a split second before I automatically sat up, smashing my face into them. ‘Yay more head injuries.’ I thought as I got up, before getting dizzy and falling back down.

“Well, that’s an odd way of thanking me. But guess I deserve it.” said Applejack.

I blinked several times before saying “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting somepony to be directly above me.” I then sat up. For a moment we looked at each other.

“Hey, ain’t you one of Ryan's friends?” she asked.

“Yes I am.” I responded rather formally to the farm pony.

“You’re John, right?” she continued her interrogation.

“Yes.” I said, keeping my response short and to the point.

“From what I could guess you are some sort of informal leader of their group, right?”

“Yes why?” I inquired.

“I’m going to need your help with something” she said as she began to walk back to her house.

Chapter 4: Memories

“So what is happening with Ryan that you need my help with Applejack?” I asked the orange pony, attempting to find out what the problem.

“He’s been actin real strange since this mornin.” she said as we were walking up the the large farmhouse where my friend was staying. As we neared the structure I could hear another pony walking about, and as we got even closer I saw that Big Macintosh was already getting ready to plow the field. Applejack walked up to him and asked “Is he still inside?”

“Eeyup.” was his rather characteristic response. Before he could even return to his work Applejack had already run halfway to the house. We nodded to each other as I walked past him.

As I entered the house the first thing I saw was Granny Smith’s rocking chair, occupied by her. “Applejack went upstairs, deary.” said the elderly pony as she saw me. I went up the stairs to the left of her, and down the hall to the room that I heard Applejack yelling at Ryan from.

“Who is this imbecile?” asked my friend as I entered the room.

“Ryan, what are you talking about? It’s me John.” I answered to him, trying to get closer to my friend.

“Why do ponies keep calling me that. My name is Atom Smasher!” he yelled at us. There was something off about him, not just mentally, but physically as well, and not just being a pony.

I motioned to Applejack and we left the room, Ryan staying inside. “Has he been like this all day?” I asked the farmpony.

“Yes, since he woke up this mornin’. I caught him as he was walkin out of the front door. I said hello to him, and he asked ‘who is Ryan?’ and it took off from there.” she responded to my question. “Do you know how to fix ‘im?”

“No clue,” I said. “but I know who would. Can you keep an eye on him?”

“Yes, I can.” she responded.

“Good, I’ve got to go see another one of my friends.” I told her. “If anypony can solve this, it’s him.”

“Well then, go get him.” she said. I walked back down the hall and flew into town. Then looked for the building I knew was Carousel Boutique, finding it in the northern part of the town, near the market.

I landed, walked up to the door, and knocked on it. After a couple moments I heard from the other side “Come in.” I walked into the room and saw Rarity, setting up shop for the day. “Oh hello John.” she said as she saw me enter. “Are you here to see Shamus?”

“Yes, it’s a bit of an emergency.” I responded to her, with a bit of urgency in my voice.

“He is upstairs, in the room at the end of the hall.” she said. I walked up the stairs and to the room at the end of the hall. I knocked on the door. Once. Twice. Three times. No answer. That was odd. Shamus was always up for company. “Is he answering the door?” Rarity called upstairs. I heard her walking up the stairs, mumbling about lost work as she did so. As she walked up to the door she levitated the keys to the lock and unlocked it. The door opened to show the guest bedroom of Rarity’s house. And just the guest bedroom. No other pony. He was gone. Just like what Ryan tried to do. I started to put the clues together, but I need more evidence.

“I need to go.” I said to her. I turned to run out the door, but then I stopped. “Where I the nearest one of my friends staying?” I asked.

“The mare is staying at the library, do you know where that is?” she responded to me.

“I should be able to find it.” I said and I ran out the door and took off, without even thinking about it, a definite improvement. But I wasn’t thinking about that. My friends were disappearing, or losing their memories of being human.
I needed to get to the library quickly, so I didn’t go up to cruising height. Instead I flew low to the ground as I shot over to the library, getting there rather quickly. I landed and ran inside. Twilight was taking notes out of a book. “What is going on here?” she said as I burst in.

“Where is Diana?” I asked, in between gasping breaths. Apparently I’m not fit in this world either.

After realizing who I was she said “She left some time ago. Why?”

“Something is happening to my friends, I needed to see if it was happening to all my friends.” I said to her. Memories of today came rushing back, the dream, Ryan acting strange, his coat being more grey than usual, Shamus- wait his coat. “Was Diana’s coat more grey today then yesterday?” I asked.

“A little, why?” she responded.

“When was the last time that happened? The last I can remember was the Discord Incident.” I said.

“I don’t get what you’re getting… Oh no.” she said. “No. No. Not again.”

“Perhaps yes again. And if it’s going to be stopped were going to need to get moving now!” I said.

At that point Spike descended the stairs. “What is all the yelling about?” he asked.

Twilight quickly scrawled a letter on paper and handed it to Spike. “You need to send this the the Princess.” she said to him urgently. She then turned to me. “We need to get going now.”

“No need to tell me twice.” I said. We walked out of the house and I filled her in on the situation. “We need to find them now, before they get too far away.”

At this point we heard the sound on one of those little party blowey outie things. I don’t know the name of them, and this is no time for semantics. Then I saw a pink blur. Of all the time for her to show up it had to be now. “Hiya! What are you doing? Is it some sort of game? I like games! Is it with Diana and Devlin, because they are over by Clockwork’s stall in the market. Did I ruin it because if-” She was silenced by me jamming my hoof into her mouth.

“What did you say about Diana and Devlin?” I asked Pinkie Pie.

“That they were at Clockwork’s stall.” she responded to us.

“Pinkie, can you get use there?” I asked the Element of Laughter.

“Sure I can show you the route.” she happily responded.

“No I mean your more efficient way.” I said to Pinkie.

She responded to my inquiry ,“Ohhh. I’m not supposed to ever since the last time I did that, Clockwork told me that I nearly broke the Abstract Plain, whatever that is.” Ok, that option is out, and it lets me know, somewhat, where I am on the timeline.

“Well we’ll walk.” I said. It took only a couple minutes to get to the market.

When we got there the Doctor was holding a conversation with Diana and Devlin, looking like he didn’t recognize them from the day before. There was a good chance he didn’t, but after 900 years you tend to forget the small stuff. But when he saw me he called me over. “John, glad to see you I did some research and-”

“Not now, we need to get them inside the stall.” I said as I cut him off. But the Doctor would have none of it.

“We can’t.” he whispered into my ear. “Nopony here knows about who I am other than Derpy, Lyra, and the Princesses. The more who know, the greater the danger I and my friends are in, and Twilight is one of them.”

“I understand, but we have a bigger problem. If you don’t remember, those ponies over there came to Equestria with me. Right now, they don’t. We need to get them inside so Twilight can cast the spell on them to get them their memory back.” I said to the Timelord.

“Wait, what! They lost their memories. That is not good, not good at all, but you said you could fix them, right?” he said to me and Twilight. We both nodded our heads affirmative. ‘Then get them in here.” the timey-wimey pony said to us.

“When we get in there, I’ll explain everything.” I said to the unicorn standing next to me, who was completely in the dark about the situation.

As we enter the back of the stall, through a pair of blue curtains, Twilight saw the TARDIS and asked “What is that thing?”

“That is the TARDIS, or Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It is my time machine, and I’m not Clockwork, I’m the Doctor, pleased to meet you.” said the ex- President of Gallifrey standing in front of us.

“But what?” Twilight was able to sputter out before the Doctor ran into the TARDIS.

“Are you coming in?” he asked us as we stood around outside it.

“How could we fit inside that?” she asked trying to figure out what was happening. But I heard it only as a faint noise from behind, as I was already in the TARDIS. Standing in awe of the fact I was in the TARDIS. My friends were right next to me, but they didn’t expect that the TARDIS would be bigger on the inside. Twilight walked in behind me and was jaw dropped. “It’s bigger on the inside.” she stammered out.

“I love it when they say that.” said the Doctor as he fiddled with some controls. “You wanted a private place to perform the spell, right? Here it is.”

Twilight looked at the two ponies standing next to me. “Here goes nothing.” she muttered as she cast the spell. Her horn began to take on a bright glow, eventually filling the room with bright light. It grew in intensity, blotting out all other vision. Then the light was gone, my friends standing there.

“Diana!” I call to the grey unicorn in front of me. She looked up and looked at me.

She opened her mouth and said “I’m sorry, you must have thought I’m somepony else. My name is Bookworm, pleased to meet you Mr?” Her words hit me like somepony threw a brick at my head. She didn’t remember me. This whole plan failed. I failed. Devlin gave me the same look, the one of meeting somepony new, for the first time. I lost, and there would be no rematch. For the first time I noticed a pressure on my head growing causing a headache by this point. It felt like somepony was slowly setting an anvil on my head. I figured it was Discord, or whatever caused my friends to lose their memories.

It kept growing, at an even faster rate, and I began to lose sight at the corners of my eyes, my hearing being gradually replaced by a terrible buzzing. My mind clouded over, and I blacked out.
I woke up in the void again, still wearing the blue plates of armor as last time. The plate covering my chest was still pierced, although there was no sword in it. I looked up and saw the well-dressed gentleman again. “You put up much more of a fight than the other ponies.” he said in his smooth voice. It was Discord. Discord had gotten in my head. “But then again,” he continued “you were the only one to actually fight me. It was good fun too, the most I’ve had in a while. Right now I’m weak enough that is there was any resistance, I could be held off. But they didn’t and you did, that is why I needed to put more pressure on you.” I lunged at Discord, planning on choking him until I won, but I was stopped by chains attached to my arms and legs. “Oh no none of that or she gets it.” I looked to my left and saw Diana, as a human, similarly restrained, as well as the remainder of my friends.

Not many of my friends know this, but I have some anger issues. Not as bad as the Hulk’s, but still bad. I saw my friends, my girlfriend, getting hurt. That tends to piss me off. “You bastard!” I yelled at him. The void behind him began to glow a deep red color. “I’ll kill you!”

“Oh I won’t be having any of that.” he said, oblivious to the glow behind him.

“John can you hear me?” rang out in my head. It was Twilight. “You have to fight it. I figured out how to get their memory back. You have to jog it. But you have to wake up.” I glared at the imprint of the god standing in front of me, and noting the shifting colors on the horizon. Of course he would trap me here. It’s the perfect prison. But it is also the worst, because I can control it. Because it is my own mind.

I felt the manacles on my wrists disappear. I then flicked my wrist at Discord, causing manacles to appear there. “What did you do?” he snapped at me.

“I figured out that you trapped me in my own mind. So I trapped you here as well Discord.” I returned. I looked straight into the eyes of the Draconequus. “And now I’m going to free my friends and I’m going to leave you in here. Do you understand?”

He then started laughing. “But I will escape as soon as you let down your guard.” he said calmly. “That is the problem with mental prisons. As soon as you forget about it I will escape, and I’ll be stronger, meaning that I would have to be truly defeated. And none of you could do that, now could you?”

Twilight’s voice then rang again through the void, that I knew now was my own mind. “John! She remembers! You need to wake up!” Diana was ok that was good. Now, how to deal with Discord.

“How about this.” I said to the god of chaos. “You said fighting me was fun, let's do it again. Only this time let’s do it fairly, where you aren’t quite so unfairly fast. If you win you get to take us over, but if I win we get to have our freedom. Agreed?”

“That sound rather fun,” responded the Draconequus. “I accept. But let’s wait until later, I need time to ready myself.”
“That is fine by me.” I said to him. I then concentrated on waking up. The being before me blurred and my sight went black.

I woke up, collapsed on the floor of the TARDIS, my friends looking over me. “John you're ok!” said Diana as she hugged me as I sat up.

“Ok, now I’ve done it.” I said, with just a touch of irony.

Chapter 5: Begin the Hunt

“So, Discord is living in your head?” said the purple unicorn sitting across from me. The rest of the Mane Six, and Lyra, had arrived with my friends in tow, saying that my friends had made a miraculous recovery from their ‘memory problems.’ After we explained the TARDIS to the ponies, we explained what was happening to them.

“Not quite.” responded the Time Lord scanning my head with his sonic screwdriver. “It is only a portion of him, but it has gained its own quasi-independence from the original being.”

“That’s what I was trying to say.” I said to the ponies surrounding me.

“I don’t care what it is!” yelled Diana. “Get it out of his head!”

“We might be able to.” said The Doctor as he looked again at his screwdriver. “It hasn’t latched on yet. If you can get in there and kill it in your mind, you should, at least in theory, be free of it.”

“That might be a problem.” I responded to the time pony. “Last time I was in there, I dueled him with swords, he sort of killed me.”

“Well this time you have him at a disadvantage.” said the short black pegasus that was my friend Mo.

“How?” I asked him.

“Because he surprised you last time. This time you can surprise him.” he said to me.

“But how do I surprise something that is privy to my thoughts?” I responded.

“By having help from someone who’s mind he isn’t in.” said the timey wimey pony next to me.

“What?” everypony asked the Doctor.

“If I’m right, the TARDIS should be able to get inside John’s head. When we get in there we could help John defeat Discord.” he explained.

“But what if your not right?” asked Fluttershy.

“Well, you see, we get trapped in the Abstract Plain, and sort of die a slow, agonizingly painful death.” the Doctor sheepishly responded. Everypony looked around the room, thinking if the Doctor was wrong they would die, causing the TARDIS to take on a somber mood.

I spoke up, saying “This is a volunteer thing. I don’t want anypony to die because I made them help me.”

Diana took a step forward. “I’ll go, no matter what the cost.” she said, determination in her voice.

“I guess I have to go now that somepony else volunteered.” said the Doctor, unsure of his fate if he was wrong.

The mane six turned to talk to one another, and after a moment they turned back to face us Twilight saying “We have experience fighting Discord. We’ll go in and help you.”

Ryan and Devlin took a step towards me, with Ryan saying “We don’t have anything better to do today.”

“Traveling with The Doctor, hell yah!” hollered Shamus from behind them.

That left just Mo, who at this point was nowhere to be seen. I left the TARDIS to look for him, The Doctor calling out “Get back here soon, we need to get moving.” as I left.

I spent a half an hour looking for him, eventually passing by Lyra’s house. I entered the abode, expecting to ask Lyra the whereabouts of Mo. I didn’t expect to hear Mo in there. “I just can’t face him now.” he said to the seafoam green unicorn across the table from him, in a sad voice.

His back was to the door, so he didn’t see when I walked further into the room, before saying “You can’t face who, Mo?” He jumped. When I say he jumped, I mean he physically jumped out of the chair, and he then lunged at me, in what seemed like a practiced motion. He stood over me ready to punch my face in, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a quick joke. “You still gun shy after that food fight, huh?” I said to my high strung friend, referencing the one school lunch that went bad, but to be fair I still have bad dreams about mashed potato flying through the air. Who knew it was so hard to get it out of hair?

“Sorry man, you scared me.” he said as he helped me up. When I was up he asked “You were looking for me, weren’t you?”

“I kinda was.” I responded to him.

“I won’t be much help.” he said, keeping his head down.

“But every little bit helps.” I said to him. “Besides, who better to have on your side in a battle than Napoleon?” I said, trying to egg him on with the short joke.

It worked. “Maybe Hannibal,”he responded as he readied himself for combat.“but I’ll help you.”

“What do you mean by ‘battle’?” asked the other pony in the room, who I had almost forgot about.

“I’m not trying to overthrow the government, if that's what you’re worried about.” I said to her to stay her fears.

“But you still haven’t explained what is happening.” Lyra said.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” I said to her trying to get her to drop the topic, but I failed.

“Try me.” she said.

“Ok, but remember you asked.” I said to her to warn her. “We’re entering my mind, in a space warping phone booth, in order to fight a demon that has taken up residence in it, causing my and my friends to lose our memories of being human.”

I was expecting her to call me crazy, and kick me and Mo out of her house, but instead she said “Ok, can I go with you?”

Now it was my turn to over-exaggerate, my jaw hitting the floor. “This demon is going to be very deadly, are you sure?” I asked, hoping she'd say no.

“Yes, I would enter the mind of a human, how cool would that be!” she responded to my dismay.

“Fine.” I said dejectedly, as I turned to walk back to the TARDIS.
_____________________________________________________________

“Is everypony ready?” asked Twilight.

After all of the ponies answered affirmative, The Doctor walked over to me and said, “You need to get out of here, stop a recurring loop and all.” I nodded to him and walked out of the TARDIS, leaving the bustle behind me. I then got comfortable and fell asleep.

I sat up on the top of a hill. I stood up and looked around. To the north-west was an old fort, the rest of the area was made up of freshly mowed soccer fields and woods. However Discord was nowhere to be seen. It took me a moment to realize where I “was”. I was the last place I truly waged battle, Old Fort Niagara. The last time I was “here” was my younger brothers Boy Scout campout several years ago. Two different troops wanted to use the hill at the same time and soon enough an organized fight broke out, with most of the scouts using foam bats and other such stuff.

My little brother’s troop asked to take command and we drove the larger, other troop off the hill with a pincer attack, my little brother led a frontal assault as I took a small portion of the troop around back to hit them from behind. It work beautifully, driving them off the northern half of the hill forcing them to attack uphill. We carried the day.

Breaking me out my reminiscing was the strange sound emanating next to me. After moments the TARDIS appeared next to me, and I opened the door expecting to see thirteen fully conscious ponies. Instead I found twelve unconscious humans and one fully conscious, Tenantesque, Timelord. “You would not believe how painful that transformation was. Good thing they were knocked out by then.” he said to me.

“So you’re made of tougher stuff?” I said to him.

“I’ve done this before.” he said.

“Fair enough.” I said. By this time the other, well, now people, were waking up. Ironically, the one I would have the most issues with first. The ex mint green unicorn that was Lyra rolled onto her back and sat up. She was wearing a windbreaker the same color as her coat, as well a pair of jeans. Before she could say anything I said “Calm down.” After about a minute she did, by taking deep breaths. “Now look at your hooves.” She did, and she looked at her new hands for a second. She then let out a squeal before falling unconscious.

“Well that was different.” said the Doctor before exclaiming “I’ve got pockets again! Ohhh they're so useful.”

At that point Shamus woke up and went to pull himself upright. He looked as usually did, a good six feet tall and wore his old, long coat, as well as short sleeve t-shirt and carpenters shorts. He reached for the control panel of the TARDIS before saying “Not the jiggly lever.” and reaching to the left. He then walked over to us and said “What a trip.”

After that we heard a feminine groan, not one of sensuality but of soreness. I turned to face the source of the noise and I saw a woman which, well, some back home would have considered a stunning beauty, standing up. She wore a simple white blouse and a skirt, which was accentuated by her blue hair. “Rarity?” I asked, trying to guess who it was who woke up.

“Yes, darling. Now what are we doing?” she responded to me.

“Right now, we’re waiting for the others, then we’re going to hunt down Discord. Ok.” I responded to her question.

“Yes.” she said, rather curtly.

At that point Mo got up. And he looked mildly disappointed. He was still only five foot two, and still had his old Harley-Davidson t-shirt and jeans. I elbowed The Doctor and said “Hey you should fire this up and go back to St. Helena. It looks like Napoleon escaped.”

“Ok, that was good.” Mo responded as he walked up next to me. He seemed to be in better spirits than when I left.

Right to the left of where Mo was knocked out, a small, yellow and pink body began to stir as well. What was obviously Fluttershy woke up and walked over. She was small. I mean absolutely tiny. Hell, she was even shorter than Mo. And she was slim. Even her yellow sundress, with butterfly prints on the heim, looked huge on her. She looked around and saw us. The quiet ex-pony looked over each of us, figuring out who we were. She gave her good friend, Rarity a nod of recognition. But when she saw Mo, she gave him a quick smile. I then looked at my short friend and saw a small blush on him. Stuff in my head started clicking, where they were in comparison to each other, Mo’s better spirits, the smile. Waiting, waiting, running Mortified.exe. I don’t know whether to be proud of my protege or reprimand him.

Before I had a chance to make a decision, Diana woke up. I rushed over to her and helped to pull her up. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, the same thing I was. After I helped her get up we walked over to the rest of my meager army. After all, most of my friends would defer command to me in combat, and the ponies had no experience so they would probably follow me as well. Diana walked up the raised platform that held the controls, where the others were waiting.

As I ascended the steps, Twilight woke up. She had on a purple sweater and a mid-length skirt. To be fair, she looked like a nerd goddess. Seriously, if I wasn’t dating Diana, I would have made a pass right there. But I more restraint than that, as well as a healthy fear of the spurned girlfriend, so I bit my tongue for the time being. What? She is nerd, she is my people.

I turned around then to see a pink shirted girl with pink hair jumping onto the platform from the other side. ‘I wonder who that could be’, I thought as I rolled my eyes. But she then pulled Devlin up over the railing. He waved at me after he got up after falling onto Pinkie. Smooth bro. Oh, and he had a ponies shirt on, one with Fluttershy ‘yelling’ Yay! That should be interesting.

Applejack walked onto the platform under her own power as well, accompanied by Ryan. She had on a White t-shirt, as well a jean jacket, a pair of jeans and her Stenson. “Nice hat.” the Doctor said to Applejack as she drew closer.

“Thanks.” Applejack responded.

Ryan had on a similar ensemble, minus the Stenson. Everybody had woken up, at one point, except for...

“What the buck is going on here?” I heard the familiar voice of my new roommate say.

She was underneath the platform that held the controls of the TARDIS. “Don’t touch anything!” yelled the Doctor down to her.

“Why?” she yelled back up.

“Because there is a lot of extremely delicate equipment down there!” was his response. He then leaned in close to me and asked “Can you help her out? You seem moderately responsible.”

I jumped down to the level below, causing ire from the Doctor, and saw Rainbow Dash sitting there, her foot trapped between two wires. She looked, well, she looked damn good as a human. She had hair down to the back of her neck, still the colors of the rainbow, a blue zipper up windbreaker with a black t-shirt underneath, and a pair of jeans. She was tugging at the wire trapping her foot before she looked up and asked “Are you going to help me or not?” I rolled my eyes before I started to work untangling her foot. “Thanks.” she said I succeeded. I lead her up to where the rest of us were waiting.

“Now what do we do?” asked Mo as I got back up to the central platform.
“We plan.” I responded. And that is what we did. I went over every element of our duel, and Twilight went over everything she knew of the draconequus. Soon we had a plan, but we would need some equipment. “Give me a moment.” I said as I left the TARDIS. After a moment the weapons appeared. There was a menagerie of them, some assault rifles, two shotguns, a pair of sniper rifles, two swords, and four revolvers.

“John, what are these?” asked Twilight as she eyed the new weapons with suspicion. She then looked at me and then asked a second question. “Where did you get that armor?” when she saw the armor on that I wore in my first fight against Discord.

“Those are the weapons that we will use to kill this copy of Discord.” I said as I thrust an AK-47 into her hands. “And this is the armor that will protect me from Discord.” I answered her second question.

“But didn’t that armor break last time he fought you?” asked Diana as I gave her an AK-47 as well.

“Good question.” I said to my girlfriend. “The answer is that last time he created the armor, so he knew where it’s faults were, which was the whole piece. But I liked the design, so I remade it, with no faults.” I then turned to Mo, holding a Barrett 50 cal and said “Hey man, the round this fires is bigger than you!”

He grabbed it out of my hands and said “Give me that.”

“Hey, Fluttershy, can you use this? It’ll keep you as far away from the fighting as possible, yet still able to help.” I asked her, expecting her to say ‘no’.

“Yes.” she said, surprising everybody present. “I think we need to stop that meanie pants. If I can help I will.”

“Thank you.” I said to her as I handed her the weapon that looked heavier than her. “Be careful,” I warned her, “that bucks harder than Applejack.”

“That I doubt.” Applejack responded to my comment.

I handed her, as well as Ryan a Spas-12 and said “Shoot it.”

“How?” she asked. So I showed her how to properly shoulder the firearm and fire it. She did and said “Whoa nelly that bucked.”

I then picked up the spent shell and took a spare round from Mo and said “This is what you shot.” as I held up the spent 12-gauge shell. “This is what that shoots.” I said as I held up the 50 caliber rifle round.

“I could see how that could buck.” Applejack said in awe.

I handed the remaining AK-47 to Devlin, Shamus, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. But when I got to Pinkie Pie I thought ‘an AK just isn’t her style.’ In moments the Russian assault rifle morphed into a Russian Anti-Tank weapon. I handed the RPG-7 to her and said “Good hunting comrade.” in my fake Russian accent.

“Don’t worry sir, the Red October is in good hands.” she then said to me in a perfect impression of Sean Connery. Wait did a pony just quote Earth pop culture. Wait it’s Pinkie, were fine.

That left me and Rainbow Dash unarmed still. I picked up two of the Smith & Wesson .38 Specials and one of the swords, and handed them to her. “Why are you giving me these antiquated weapons?” she asked.

“Two reasons,” I responded to her, “one is that these are by far the most badass weapons ever made. The second is because, if I’m right, you should know how to use these weapons better than the others, and I’d rather have someone who can use this stuff to be on the front lines with me.” I then turned to the rest of my ‘army and said “Now we put my plan into action.”

“How?” asked Twilight.

“We hunt him down in this.” I said as I summoned a Ford Mustang, covered in pictures of Rainbow Dash.

Then I heard Mo say “Shotgun!”

And “Fuck!” was Rainbow Dash’s response.

Chapter 6: The Battle for Peace of Mind

While we were in the car, on the way to Grand Island, New York, my hometown (yes I live on an island in New York State, no I cannot see the Statue of Liberty from my house), I explained how to utilize each weapon, explaining how load, fire, clear jams, and aim, especially aim. Being able to hit what you’re going to shoot at is a very important skill. I know how to aim, I was a fairly good shot with a rifle back home, but in battle, it’s a completely different thing. Your adrenalin is flowing, your heart is beating rapidly, and you need to hit what is trying to kill you. I assumed that Discord would have an army to back him up against threats that he knew were coming in from the outside world. I assumed it would be the most terrifying thing I could think of to fight against. It doesn't sound that bad, but then you begin to think of what I, as a nerd, read of, or saw in a video game. Then I saw it, well, nearly hit it.

It was odd. We nearly reached the North Grand Island Bridges, the way to get to my hometown, the place where Discord could start infecting my memories, because of the concentration of them there. But as we were about to cross over the bridge, it exploded with a beautiful blast of chocolate milk. And on the other side of the river were a pair of Stormtroopers. But that wasn’t the first thing that came to my mind. Blowing up the bridges, that was part of my crackpot plan to defend the island in case Canada or someone else invaded, but especially Canada. But that’s off topic.

“Discord!” I yelled, not expecting an answer. “You can’t come up with a better plan than what I already came up with years ago?”

“Well, you think you are a military genius.” resonated a voice throughout the world that was my mind. And I knew that I wasn’t the only one to hear it, as the others in the car fidgeted and looked around when it appeared. “So you should find the faults in your own plan, right?” and the voice was gone.

“Mo, I’m going to need your help with this.” I said to the still stunned friend of mine. There were only four people at school who knew anything of military tactics. One was a teacher, one was, well you could say he was my arch-rival ( what I’m nerdy enough to have such things), one was me, and the other was Mo. We walked out of the car to the map of Grand Island I summoned, complete with notations of the defenses on it.

“I could help too, if thats ok with you.” came the soft voice of Fluttershy from behind us.

“You know military strategy?”I asked her. Now I have nothing against girls and military strategy, hell the teacher I mentioned was a girl, but if anybody would know anything about tactics, I expected it would have been Rainbow Dash.

“Yes I do. I don’t like to fight, but when I do, I makes sure I do it well.” she responded to my question, forcing me to stifle a laugh.

“Mo, you good with this?” then I asked my Napoleonic friend. He nodded in approval, which I thought he would anyways, but that's beside the point. “You can help us. An extra pair of hands is always a good thing.” I rolled out the map, and pointed to a beach on the southern side of the island, in Beaver Island State Park. “Here would be the weakest point in the defences.”

“Actually,” said Fluttershy, “the creek here looks like we can sneak in under the cover of night.” as she pointed at the mouth of Big Six Marina. I looked at the defences there and realized she was right.
“Well I know where Discord will be holed up, so let's roll.” I said as I readied the boat, that I summoned. “Mo, Fluttershy, go get the others and tell them what we’re doing. Also tell them that we don’t have anything to worry about when they’ll shoot at us.”

“Why?” asked Fluttershy, unaware that the Stormtroopers had no accuracy whatsoever in the original trilogy.
“I’ll explain.” said Mo as he and Fluttershy walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts, well technically I was my thoughts, but still. It took me only a couple of seconds to ready the boat, so I had extra time on my hands. I was checking over the .38 Specials that I summoned for myself. Sapphire grips, blued steel body, my name engraved on both of them, hell I wish I could take them with me when we left. I then checked the chambers and saw I had six rounds in each. Good.

“We ready to leave?” asked Devlin as he walked around the bent to the boat.

“As soon as the sun goes down.” I said to him. I then willed the the time to change, causing the sun to disappear behind the horizon. “And look, it just did.”

“H-h-how did you do that?” asked Twilight, who now seemed to be afraid of me. “E-especially considering my magic didn’t work in here.”

“Would you like the long version, or the short one?” I asked her.

“The short one.” said Rainbow Dash impatiently.

“More or less, my mind, my rules.” I responded to her. “Now everybody into the boat.” It took us about an hour to get to Big Six Marina. When we got there I docked the boat and said “Everybody get out, I’ll follow you guys after I tie her up.”
After I got up to the road, Mo asked “Where is Discord hiding?”

“If I’m right, he should be at the command center.” I told them in an obvious tone.

“Where would that be?” asked Ryan.

“The place that would fit the most, school.” I responded.
____________________________________________________________

We sat in my friends house, which was right across from the school. “So, how do we assault that?” yelled Shamus, referencing that the school was currently transformed into a fortress. Around it was dug a trench, the side facing away from the school wrapped in barbed wire. Spaced along it were machine gun emplacements, that could cause overlapping fire.

“If he’s in there, I’m not quite sure.” was my response.

“I’m not in there right now.” said the new being that walked into the room. It was him. In the space on two or three seconds, every gun in the room was pointed at him, including Pinkie Pie’s RPG-7. “That won’t work either. This really isn’t me, just a projection.”

I pushed the business end of the RPG down, but left the other guns pointed at him, in case of monkey business. “Why are you here? And where are you hiding then if you’re not at the school?” I asked the being.

“The answer to the first question is to tell you I’m not in the school right now.” he told me. “The second is that I’ll be back there after you evict my friends, the stormtroopers. I’ve got to go now, I’ll see you later.” he said smugly.

“What the buck just happened?” asked Rainbow Dash after he left.

“I think he just dissed us.” said Devlin.

“That changes everything.” I said, crossing my hands in the process. “Now instead of just sneaking in, we have to attack. But what angle would I have in have what is in effect twelve juggernauts attacking my lines?” I sat there for a moment, contemplating it when I happened upon a similar situation that happen to me before. I was playing Rome: Total War online with some friends. My one friend lead an assault against me with small amounts of well trained troops, but I beat him by separating them and swarming each unit individually. So thats what Discord was up to.

“We could hit it from all sides at once, all of us having to fight few then if we were together.” suggested Fluttershy, mirroring my friends strategy back on Earth.

“No.” I responded with a great calm. “That is what he wants us to do. I was on the defense once, and my opponent did exactly that. He lost. No, what we need to do is set up an ambush. We’ll drive them into it, and they’ll be lost.”

“How, they outnumber us hundreds to one?” asked Rainbow Dash.

After waiting a moment to summon it I said “The answer to that question is outside.” We left the apartment (What Apartment) and walked into the backyard of my friends flat, exposing my trump card, a Scorpion tank from Halo.
“Really.” said Mo sarcastically.

“But wait, there’s more.” I said as I turned it on.

The engine rumbled to life, followed by a pleasant voice. "Hello, and thank you for activating the M808V Main Battle Tank. You may call me Sheila."

I then put on my best Caboose impersonation, saying. “Hello Sheila, nice tank lady.” I then turned to Mo and said “You jealous yet?” He was dumbstruck so I decided to tell him the first step in the plan. “Mo, you and Fluttershy need to get to the top of the hill. And take Pinkie and Dev with you, to hold them off a bit if they attack you while in total retreat.” My four friends left the back lot and snuck across the road. I gave them time to get into position then said “Rainbow, get in the small turret seat. The rest of you, be prepared to follow the hole I make in their lines. We good.”

They all nodded in approval. “Good, give me a moment.” I said to them. I then sent out a mental probe to the hill behind the school, and detected Mo. ‘Hey, you ready?’ I asked him telepathically.

‘What the hell.’ he thought, in reaction to another entity in his head. He forced me out so I tried again telling him my name. ‘How are you...’ he was about to ask before he then remembered ‘His mind, his rules.’ I then filled him in on the plan before I left I told him to tell the others. I returned to my body and said “Sheila, HUD.” causing the Heads Up Display to appear on the windscreen before me. I then pressed one of the two of six pedals that I had narrowed the movement forward to, causing the gun to rise in elevation. ‘I knew it,’ I thought before I pressed the other one, causing the armored vehicle to lurch forward.

“Hey watch it.” came a voice from below me. I started up again, pulled around the house and brought my gun to bear on a MG nest in the trenches surrounding the school. A stormtrooper pointed at the tank in alarm, but it was too late as I was already pulling the trigger to fire the gun. “Firing Main Cannon” said the automated voice, but it was shortly covered up by the deafening blast. Then the bunker exploded, several troopers flying through the air. I accelerated forward into the the trenches.

In the seat below me the 7.62mm Machine Gun roared to life, probably ripping through stormtroopers. I thought back to the talk I had with my troops on the way. ‘Remember, whatever you do, you can’t show any mercy. These are constructs. They have no sense of pain.’ Then I heard the rest of my friends rushing past me. Ryan and Applejack ran into an underground room, and out of my view. I sent a mental lance in there to see what was going on and saw several stormtroopers that were surprised by my friends’ sudden appearance. They looked at eachother for a moment before they fired on the stunned troopers. In five shells, the Stormtroopers fell and my friends left the bunker, more sadness on their faces.

I spotted a group of troopers leaving one of the school entrances. ‘No remorse’ I thought as I lined up the shot. Then Pinkie jumped on the canopy of the tank and said “I got this.” as she swung up her rocket and fired it at the troopers. They didn’t know what hit them.

After that the battle dissolved into a bloody mess, my friends backed up to the tank, defending it from attacks from the troopers as they rushed it. I hadn’t heard anything from Mo since my attack stalled, so I was seriously afraid for him. But suddenly I had a bigger concern. A Halo Elite jumped onto the canopy of the tank, holding an energy sword. I thought I was done for, but then I heard a bang, second only to the main gun of the tank. And the Elite was gone. “You owe me one.” said Mo over the radio.

About the same time Dev ran into the trench and asked where Pinkie was, seeming worried. I pointed him to where she was. He ran over to her and talked to her for a moment before she got a small smile on his face. I was now screwed. All my friends would probably die I couldn’t come up with something. And I had few precious moments to do so. And, not to be cliche, I did. I turned on the radio and said to Mo “I giving you the one I owe you.” and teleported him into the cockpit of the A-10 Thunderbolt II.

“Tell me next time you do that.” he said as he pulled it out of a steep dive. He then circled around the battlefield before coming in for a strafing run with the 30mm gatling gun. The now obviously mixed force began to scatter as the first rounds began to rip open the ground, but they were too late as they were starting to be riddled with holes. And by riddled with holes, I meant ripped in half. Their commander must have been hit, because after the strafing run, they broke. They ran for the woods, the hills, even the river.

“Is that it?” asked Rainbow Dash, climbing out of the smaller gun from the tank.

“Not yet.” said Discord as he materialized in front to us, in the now crater strewn field. He then lifted his sword, the same blade of void he used the night before, and pointed it at Sheila. Rainbow and I leapt clear to the side only moments before a beam shot from the sword at the tank. It exploded, flipping the tank onto its top. The frightened A.I. asked “Caboose, will I dream? Daisy, Daisy...”

“I would call you on that, but at this point were both breaking the rules.” I yelled at him. Rainbow began to rush at him before I put my hand up to her saying “No this is my fight.” I then turned to face him as I willed the armor back to my body. He was levitating twenty feet of the now crater strewn lawn. I floated up to be at eye level with him before I said “This shall be a duel for the ages.”

“It will be sung about, if any of you survive.” he responded just several breaths before he lunged at me. It was like our first duel, but this time he seemed slower, but much more fluid. I flew backwards and drew the sword out of its scabbard before I flipped over and slashed at his ribs. I must have caught him off guard too, because I actually hit him. We were evenly matched in every way, I later found out from the others that he didn’t slow down, I sped up to meet him. Yes, we were even, too even. We fought to a standstill, each looking for an advantage over the other. We found ours at the same time.
A loud shot rang out from my left, and Discord blocked something with the flat of his blade. Before the item was enveloped by the darkness you saw it was a .50 caliber sniper round. Both of us looked in direction it came from, seeing my girlfriend looking down the sights of a large caliber rifle. The first thought that ran through my head was ‘Man I got a badass girlfriend.’ The second was ‘Oh shit, she just provoked him!’ I yelled “Diana! Look out!” but, not to be cliche, I was too late.
He fired some sort of corrupted version of Link’s energy beam from his sword at her, knocking her flying across the battlefield. She landed limply in a crater as Fluttershy and Shamus ran towards her. I was able to overpower him at only seeing her captured; right now, she was most likely dead or dying. “Do you see what happens when you fight above your weight class.”

I don’t know if that was him taunting me or warning me, but it pissed me off to a level of rage in Michael Jones and Lewis Black would have be afraid of. I then teleported behind Discord and slashed at his head, with a speed unmatched by anybody before. He barely had time to deflect it over him, then I teleported directly in front of him and grabbed him by his immaterial throat. “You should remember that as well.” I said to him, moments before I plunged my blade into his chest. “And tell the boss that ‘Next time, do not hurt my friends.” He then lit up a dark gold and began to dissolve.

I threw the remnants of his body to the ground before flying over to Diana. Fluttershy looked at me before saying “She’s alive, but barely. She needs medical attention now.”

“Then I’ll take her to a Doctor.” I responded. I then teleported all of us to the TARDIS, using the last of the energy my rage gave me. I carried her into it and called “Doctor!”

He and Lyra stuck their heads over the rail, giant grins on their faces. “Did you win- oh god.” He yelled as he saw Diana.

“Help her now!” I barked at him.

“I was planing on it.” He responded as I set her down in front of him. Under his breath I heard him mumble “I already lost Rose, Donna, and Rory. I’m not losing another friend.” He began to tap her head. After observing something that escaped me, he formed a fist and hit her in the chest. Rainbow began to run at him before I put my arm up to stop her. I knew the Doctor knew what he was doing. He then took out the Sonic Screwdriver and scanned her.

“I don’t know what hit her, but I can’t fix it. The only thing that I can think of is magic, so we need to leave right now!” I ran out of the TARDIS, as the Doctor began to flip levers and push buttons. As I shut the door behind me I heard the Doctor yell “Hold on! This will be a bumpy ride!”

I then used the last of my energy to summon a baseball bat. I held it and thought ‘This will hurt.’ as I readied to hit myself to wake up. Then I knocked myself out.
____________________________________________________________

Three days. That is how long I waited for her to wake up. I sat in Ponyville General, waiting, sitting, eating, waiting. The others were there, talking, joking, laughing, just over all trying to make me feel better. They all came, even the Doctor, and he hates hospitals, they remind him too much of Rory and Martha. But the pony that was there the most was Rainbow Dash. She said that she didn’t want to see her roommate bummed out. But there was something else in her voice.

Lyra and Derpy were sitting with me in the cafeteria, my first meal in a day in a half, when Nurse Redheart walked into the room. “She’s awake, but very weak.” she said to us, but all I heard was ‘She’s awake’ before I ran up the stairs and into the room.

The unicorn mare sat up in the bed, her head bandaged and a black eye. “Hey.” I said to her as I walked into the room.

“Hey.” she said back.

“How much do you remember.” I asked her.

“Well I remember that you saved me, that I lived in Fillydelphia for most of my life-” she was cut of by my hoof in her mouth.

“What is your name?” I asked her, very concerned voice.

“Bookworm.” she said as if she was questioning why I asked that. “Why, you met me earlier Blueblade.”

I couldn’t take it I left, and flew to Rainbow’s house and collapsed into my bed. I cried. I did so, because she didn’t remember. I lost. I killed “Discord” but I lost the battle. However, the war was just beginning.

Chapter 7: A Chance to Change

It had been three months since the battle in my own mind. Three months since I defeated the equivalent to a god of chaos, in a one on one duel. Three months since I entered the land that I had, for a year, wished to go to. Three months since the worst day of my life.

In the final showdown in my head, my girlfriend risked her life to distract Discord, and she paid the price. She lost all memory of being human, and through that, all memory of her relationship with me. We tried to get her to remember, but we couldn’t. Not even Princess Celestia herself, with all of her divine magic, could unlock the memories. I began to get more and more withdrawn, at times not even leaving Rainbow’s house. I stopped talking, missing meals, and the like. Until the day she walked into my room.

“Hey, I want to talk.” said Rainbow Dash as she entered to room. I was sitting on my bed, moping as usual. When I didn’t respond she got mad and said “I’m talking to you.”

“No offence, but I don’t want to talk to you.” I responded, trying to get her out of my room to continue my moping. All it did was piss her off.

“You’re going to listen to me, you live here, in my house.” she ordered me. I turned to face her, seeing a frustrated face looking at me. “I was just going to tell you that that student newspaper from Ponyville Elementary just published an article about us.”

“What was that?” I asked her. If I heard her correctly, she mentioned the Foal Free Press, which I remembered correctly was not a tabloid for most of its history.

“In the school paper for the elementary school here, there is a new gossip column, and today it has an article about us.” She said as she held up the paper. On the cover it was a picture of me and Rainbow Dash on one of my increasingly rare trips outside. The headline was “Rainbow Dash’s new Special Somepony?”In the article were several rather blatant references that we were sleeping together. Then I saw the author, one “Gabby Gums.” I couldn’t believe they did that. When I caught those fillies, I would- Wait is this supposed to be part of the episode Ponyville Confidential?

“When did this happen?” I asked her, wondering if I could change the future.

“The article came out today.” She responded to me.

“No, I mean when did this get picked up by the newsstand?” I clarified for her.

“About two weeks ago, why?” she asked. “Do you have future knowledge now?”

“Sort of.” I said. “Remember when I explained how in my world, you’re part of a TV show?” she nodded in accordance that she did. “This is an episode that already aired.”

“So you know who Gabby Gums is?” she asked expectantly.

“Yes, but I can’t tell you. It could cause a paradox, and that’s not good for anypony.” I explained to her. “But there is something that will happen that I will be able to at least contain the fallout.”

“What will happen?” she asked with some urgency.

“I can’t tell you. All I need to do is talk to the princesses.” I said to her.

“I can’t get you an audience, but Twilight might.” She said. I got up and sprinted out of the room, not noticing her looking at my red sweatshirt, which lying on the floor.

Before I flew over to the library, I stopped a Fluttershy’s cottage first. I knocked on the door and waited for her to open it. She did and exclaimed “Oh, John! What are you doing here?” she asked me. “Are you looking for Mo?”

“Yes, and I’m in a hurry.” I responded to her.

“He left for Rarity’s about a half hour ago.” She told me. I then took off towards Carousel Boutique.

As I landed there I entered and asked the proprietor “Is Mo here yet?”

“He is, darling.” she responded to my inquiry, not looking up from the red fabric she was working with. I then went upstairs to meet up with him.

“Hey, Mo!” I yelled up the stairs.

He and Shamus both poked their heads around the wall before Mo asked “What do you want?”

“It’s a long story and I’d rather explain this once, so come with me to the library and I’ll explain there.” I told him. “Shamus, you can come too, if you want.”

“Why not?” Shamus said as he and Mo bean to walk down the stairs.

Before we left though, I decided to drop a hint to Rarity. After the other two had left I told Rarity. “If you’re looking for you’re missing diary, look in Sweetie Belle’s room.” and left before she could say anything else.

As we entered the library, I called for Twilight. But who came to greet me caused my heart to skip a beat. Ever since the hospital discharged her, Diana, aka Book Worm, and more importantly my, well technically, now ex-girlfriend, was staying with Twilight Sparkle at Ponyville Library. I hadn’t seen her since the scene in the hospital, which was now almost a month ago.

“Hey Silver, Wormhole. How are you guys?” she asked, using our cover ids we established in order to let the population think we were regular ponies. She didn’t remember our real names. “Oh Blueblade, sorry. I didn’t see you there.”

“It’s fine.” I said to her, attempting to not try to get her to remember. Celestia said that anymore attempts could do serious damage to her, and just because she couldn’t remember me doesn’t mean I still don’t have feelings for her. “Can you go get Twilight for us? It’s sort of an emergency.”

“Sure.” she responded as she left the room to get Twilight from upstairs.

Just as she left the room Shamus leaned in and asked me “Dude, you alright?”

“I’m fine.” I said as I tried to brush it off.

“You sure?” then asked Mo.

Before I had a chance to respond, Twilight came down the stairs. “What’s going on?” she asked as she approached us.

“We,” I motioned to the three of us, “need to have an audience with the princesses. It’s a risk to national security.”

“What’s going on!” she asked, clearly worried.

“Ironically I can’t tell you, because it would create a paradox. You, a time-traveler, of all ponies, should understand.” I told her.

“Does this have something to do with the TV show?” she asked, referencing the fact that she was in our world a TV character.

“Yes, and that’s all I can tell you.” was my response.

She accepted it and said “I’ll let them know. Spike!” she called her assistant over.

“Yes.” he said as he arrived.

“Take their letter and send it to the Princess.” She ordered.

He nodded in approval and put pen to paper, indicating he was ready. “Dear Princess. This is John. I need to speak to you and your sister immediately. It is a matter of national security.” He then sent the letter to Canterlot. After only fifteen minutes we received a response: “Dear John. Please come tomorrow to Canterlot Castle. We want to know what you have to say. Celestia.”

“Well looks like I know what we’re doing tomorrow.” I said to my friends as I read the letter.

I went back to Rainbow’s house that night, ready to go to Canterlot the next day. I walked up the front step and into the living room of the house. “Rainbow, I’m home!” I called into the house. She sat up from the couch and turned around to look at me.

“Hey, your back late.” she said to me. “I heard that you’re heading off to Canterlot tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I got an audience with them tomorrow.” I responded to her.

“You know it gets chilly in Canterlot. So I got you a gift.” She said as she grabbed something on the couch next to her. She threw it at me and I caught it. I unwrapped the bundle she tossed, revealing my old sweatshirt. “I had it re-tailored for a pony. It’s a good thing you stopped by Rarity’s today, she got a good idea of your measurements.”

“Thanks.” I said to her, rather awkwardly. I did not expect the gift, which made it even sweeter, but also much more confusing. “Why did you do this for me?” I asked her.

“Because you’re a friend,” she responded, “And that’s what friends do. So do you want to watch some TV?”

“Sure.” I responded as I hopped over the back of the couch, landing next to Rainbow Dash on the couch. “So, what’s on?” I asked her.

“There is a Hoofball game on. It’s the Canterlot Redflanks and the Manehatten Giants.” she said.

“Sounds good.” I said as I sat next to her. She slid closer to me, but I thought nothing of it. The game was a blowout, the Giants won by over thirty points. But that’s what’s to expect when one team is the world champs and the other is, well, shit. It was a good performance of the Giants’ offense though. I was so engrossed in the game that I didn’t notice Rainbow still scooting across the couch occasionally, closer to me. By then end of the 42-10 blowout she was sitting right next to me, her head resting on my chest, dozing off. When I saw it, it took me a moment to realize what was going on. Before I panicked I decided to try a calmer approach. “Rainbow?” I said to get her attention.

“Mm.” she responded without opening her eyes.

“What are you doing?” I asked her, still calmly.

“Napping.” was her response, which she once again said without opening her eyes.

“Do you know where you’re napping?” I asked her.

“Yes.” she said to me, as she opened her eyes, and she rolled to look at me. “Why?”

I looked at her lying on my lap. And the before I could get mad, my mind started running rather quickly. You know, she looks rather cute right now.’ said a little voice inside my head. The voice wasn’t wrong, her mane was messed up and her magenta eyes looked huge and adorable. But then another voice pipe in. But remember you have a marefriend already.’ Also true.

The first voice then came back,‘But she doesn’t remember you.’

‘But it’s morally wrong’

‘But you’ve all but broken up officially. Hell, the only reason you haven’t is because it would physically hurt her if you did.’

‘You still have feelings for her.’

‘But she doesn’t for you’

‘Shut up, I’m going to make my own goddamn decision in this.’ I then thought, stopping the two voices in my head, at least for the time being.

“Hey you were saying something?” said Rainbow Dash, still resting her head on my chest.

‘It’s decision time’ I thought for a brief moment before I came to a conclusion. “It was nothing, go back to sleep.” I said to her. As she rolled back over I thought ‘I’m going to hell for this.

The knocking on the door woke the both of us up. I had fallen asleep the previous night on the couch, Rainbow still sleeping on my chest. Whoever was knocking on the door was disturbing a wonderful moment for me. Wait. Oh shit! I nudged Rainbow in the flank to wake her up and hissed “Follow my lead.” We both sat up as I hollered “Come in!”
The door opened showing Mo and Fluttershy in the doorway. “Come on! Shamus is waiting on the ground.” said Mo as he walked in. Oh double shit, I’m going to Canterlot today. Ok, don’t panic.

“Let me grab some stuff before we head off.” I said to him.

“It’s a good thing you said ‘we’, Twilight wants all of us to go except for Diana. Rarity is even bringing Sweetie Belle along.” he returned. Two things went through my head at the same time after that. The first was that’s how she got pictures of Celestia eating cake. The second was that this wasn’t going to end well between me and the others. They still thought that I was waiting for Diana to get better, so finding our otherwise would shock them. That was something I wanted to avoid at all costs.

“Then let me grab some stuff too.” said Rainbow as she left to go to her room to get some stuff. I watched her leave, and I think Mo saw something in me that he hadn’t seen since Diana got hurt.

He got a rather sly look on his face, causing me to say “Don’t say anything. I haven’t said anything about you and Fluttershy.”

“You know about that?” he then asked me, confused about when I figured it out.

“I figured it out in my own head.” I said, rather truthfully. “Don’t worry, it’s fine. To be fair, she is extremely kind.”

“Oh, ha, ha, fucking ha.” was his rather biting response.

By that time Rainbow walked back into the room and asked us “What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing really.” I responded. I grabbed my sweatshirt off the floor and said “I’m ready to go.”

We walked out on the front step and Mo said “The others will meet us at the train station.” before we took off and flew to the train station.

We waited for the others for a few minutes before they showed up. “Everypony ready to go?” I asked the gathered ponies, fighting back the urge to strangle Sweetie Belle about the article from yesterday. After everypony agreed that they were ready, we boarded the train to the city.

The train ride was rather uneventful, other than Applejack grumbling about missing a day of work. That all changed though when we entered Canterlot. The great capital was already covered in the protective spell that would cover it in the days leading up to the wedding. I took into note that they had probably already been threatened by Queen Chrysalis, so they would have at least a basic understanding of what is happening.

At the train station there was a phalanx of heavily armored ponies to meet us there. The pony who I assumed was the commander of the troops stepped forward. “Sirs and madams, I have been ordered by Princess Celestia to escort you to the castle.” He then ordered his men to do an about face and to march. It took almost two hours to reach the palace, by which time the sun was high in the sky. The city was beautiful. The only big city I had spent time in was Buffalo, and that paled in comparison to Canterlot. If Buffalo was good, then Canterlot was Rome at its peak. Despite what looked like the threat of imminent attack, the city still bustled with activity.

After another fifteen minutes passed in Canterlot Palace as we walked to the throne room, the guards standing alert at every guard post. My thoughts boiled in my mind as I approached the throne room. I had a plan, but it was going to be rather difficult to pull off.

When we entered the room the first thing I heard, and even noticed was the great booming voice of Princess Luna, ordering troops about, almost making preparations for a siege. “LIEUTENANT RIPPER, START GATHERING SUPPLIES IN CASE WE NEED TO LAST FOR SEVERAL WEEKS IN THE WALLS.” Behind her was a long table, with Celestia and several other ponies planning something. The heavy oaken door behind us slammed shut, with resounding boom alerting everypony in the room to our presence. The great ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE was directed at us. “COME IN, WE HAVE BEEN AWAITING YOUR ARRIVAL.”

After recovering the sonic blast from her voice, I responded “I would love to, my lady.” being as polite as possible to the second god to speak to me in the last month. The Princess of the Night and the rest of us walked up to the table Celestia was sitting at which as I neared it took the shape of a war planning table, as I saw the medals on the ponies talking to Celestia, most likely her high command and military advisors.

The map on the table showed several figures of ponies on the eastern edge of Equestria, a rather mountainous region labeled Saddlevoy, facing off with an even larger number of griffons. “Good day, to all of you.” said Celestia as she looked up from the planning map. “I called you here on such short notice because you said you know something. Now what do you know?” she then demanded of us.

“I know who made the threat against Canterlot.” was my response to the princess.
Her advisors were in shock, one cried out, “We have spent days trying to do that, and we still haven’t told the public about it. How do you know who did it?”

I directed my words at the princess and said “It has to do with my origin, so if you would have then leave.”
“That is acceptable. Men leave us to talk in private.” Celestia ordered. The generals left, most of them grumbling about being ordered to leave. “Now tell me what you know.”

“I know a threat was made against Canterlot recently, and I know who did it. The only problem is I can’t tell you who did, or stop it from occurring.” I responded to them.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T TELL US, COMMONER! WE ARE THE LEADERS OF EQUESTRIA, WE DEMAND YOU TELL US!” shouted Luna.

“Unfortunately, I can’t, because that would put Equestria in even greater danger.” I told the all-powerful being before me. “If I told you, it would cause a paradox, and that could destroy Equestria. No what I plan to do is stop the attack when it happens, and to do that I need some authority. So I came to ask you if I could join the Royal Guard, as the second in command, not the commander. I want my friends to be placed in it, Mo as my aide-de-camp and the others in as you see fit. That is all I ask.”

The sun god looked at me and said “I have two questions. The first is how you know about this. The second is do you think you could help with this?” she asked as she motioned to the map of Equestria. “The Griffon Kingdom is moving troops to the border, and with the threat to Canterlot, I can’t spare troops from here to even out the numbers. I know you come from a warlike world, so maybe you have some experience.”

“The answer to the first question is that you’re principality, and more exactly the live of the Elements of Harmony, is the main focus of a TV show where I’m from. The episode in which the threat is resolved was aired by the time I left. And as for the second I’ll see what I can do.” I responded to her.

Chapter 8: Pulling Out All the Stops

I looked at my new command on the training field. I was stunned, and not in a good way. Celestia had told me that they were forming a new unit, but they hadn’t told me who they were forming it with. Oh, my friends were there, and the worst part was that they were the most prepared. They were talking amongst themselves; the new ponies were doing other things. One, a white unicorn with a light blue mane and beret was tending to some sort of machine. A purple pegisus and a green earth pony were engaged in some sort of sparing, which for them was little more than flailing their weapons, which amounted to trench clubs. And in the back corner was another pegisus, with a black coat, sharpening a knife. Anytime somepony got near to him he glared and growled at them. ‘I have to get all of these ponies trained by the wedding, or my plan will be a disaster.’ were my thoughts as a looked at them. ‘At least the spears and swords are for show.’ I though as a reflected on the weapons they were similar to what we had for the First World War, bolt-action rifles and early machine guns. As I looked at the new recruits again a runner approached me.

“Sir, Captain Shining Armor requests your presence at dinner tonight.” the runner said to me.

“Tell him I’ll finish readying my troops and then I’ll meet him. Where will it be held?” I responded to him.

“The banquet room in the barracks, Sir.” he responded to my inquiry. Sir. He called me sir. I would never get used to being an officer.

First Lieutenant Majorian Blueblade, a hero of the skirmishes that were erupting all along the border with the Griffon Kingdom, the lone survivor of a unit that didn’t exist until Luna created it, falsifying all the necessary documents in the process. After the skirmish, I was going to live out my ‘early retirement’ in Ponyville before the Princesses recalled me to command a new guard regiment for the duration of the crisis, where I ended up where I am now. Ironically my ankle injury which would have made me ineligible for the guard helped me sell the story; all it took has a fake scar where “a round caught me about the ankle.”

“All of you line up.” I ordered them. They rushed to comply with my order and salute me, a motion to familiar with my friends to be new recruits who never met me before. “I want you to drill with the dummies before you leave, you got that.”

“Yes, sir!” they responded.

I then left them to drill with Mo, I knew he would make them complete the drill, he could be scary as hell when he got mad. As I got to my private quarters I changed into my dress uniform. The blue hat and coat and the boots, hell I cut a dashing figure in it.

I buckled on my dress sword, and briefly considered taking a small pistol before I decided against it. As I was about to leave the room the phone rang. I picked it and answered it. “The office of First Lieutenant Blueblade.”

The raspy but feminine voice on the other side answered “Oh I must a got the wrong number, I thought I was calling my coltfriend.”

“Rainbow Dash.” I responded to her sarcasm.

“How is the training going?” she asked.

“As good as it’s going to get.” I answered her. “Hey, when are you going to get up to Canterlot?”

“That’s the thing, apparently Twilight has a brother who’s Captain of the Royal Guard or something, and he’s getting married up in Canterlot in a month, and all of us are invited. I was wondering if you would go with me?” she questioned of me.

“Sure I will, but I need to get going now, I have a dinner to attend with the captain. I’ll call you when I get back ok.” I replied to her. I hung up the receiver and smacked my head against the table in frustration. I had one week to get my men combat ready and prepared to defend Canterlot. This was going to be a problem. I need to stop thinking about that. Right now a have a dinner to attend.

I walked across the small armed camp that was currently just outside the city walls. The officer’s barracks were on the other side of the camp from what was now becoming a solders barracks instead of guards. Recruits were filing in from all over the nation after the Princesses broke the news to the public about the situation on the border with the Griffon Kingdom. I quickly learned that this would be the first war in two hundred years, and that they barely won the last one. By the time I finished my introspective view on the chances of Equestria’s chances in the upcoming war, which were very slim, I had arrived at the hall. The Guard Barracks was a huge building on the edge of the camp, built in a utilitarian style. The majority of the building was made up of the housing for the Royal Guard but in the west wing of the building was a large dining hall. I entered in to the building and was immediately stopped by several guard ponies. “Invitation.” one of them said to me.

“I was told to come here by the Captain himself.” I responded to them.

“So you don’t have and invitation?” said that asked the first time.

“No.” I told him.

“Then you’re not allowed in.” he responded to me.

Before I could do anything else Shining Armor showed up. “I told him to come here less than three hours ago, after somepony had to cancel. Let him in.” he ordered the guards. They stepped out of the way and I walked into the hall.
The floor was made of lacquered wood and the walls were made up of stone. The inside of the hall was alive with other ponies, most in civilian garb. There was a stage in the back where a band was playing, the same one that was at the gala. I looked around the room, recognizing a few ponies in the room. There were a few ponies that I recognized from the camp, and some big names like Fancypants and Flure de Lis, as well as Octavia on the stage. But the most important pony there was Princess Cadence herself. A waiter walked over to her and offered her a glass of wine. A pink aura enveloped the glass as she lifted it off the tray, showing it was the real Cadence.

Another waiter walked up to me and offered some form of hor’derve to me. “Try it, it’s good.” said my superior. I picked it up and took a bite of the food, savoring the texture. “Now follow me.” He told me after I swallowed the food. As I walked with him he cast a small spell before he said to me “I picked you to command the honor guard at my wedding, because of your history. The real one.” I was about to voice my concerns about talking about my past in public but he interrupted. “That spell basically encrypts what we’re saying to others. They think we’re talking about a hoofball game.”

“Fine,” I told him, “but first tell me about how you know.”

“Celestia told me about your past, and Twily about what you did to Discord. I want somepony that strong to protect her.” He said as he motioned at Cadence. “Also don’t worry about others finding out about your past, -AND WHAT IS THAT BUZZING?” he hollered as a buzzing in the air got louder and louder. It took me a moment to figure out what was happening before I remembered that the guard camp was outside the city limits, therefore outside the shield, so the Changelings could attack us.

“Get down!” I yelled at Shining Armor as several of the windows in the hall exploded and several black carapaced equine forms flew through them. The Changelings were attacking early. That however didn’t matter at that moment. As soon as Shining Armor broke the spell I yelled to the dazed guards “Wake up and muster everypony, tell them it’s a Code Nightfall. Go!” As they disappeared I drew my dress sword from its sheath and immediately took to the skies as Shining Armor readied a spell. Then I flew at the nearest Changeling, running it through with my rapier. I then withdrew it from the body and slashed at another one flying past me cutting through one of its wings, causing it to crash to the ground.
Less than a second after that the lights went out, intensifying the screams of the civilians in the hall. I heard one that sounded distinctly like Princess Cadence but by the time the lights of the unicorns horns went up it had died down. I landed next to Shining Armor and then ordered the troops gather around him “Get the civilians out of here!” I then turned to him and said “We have to get to Cadence.” To which he nodded in approval. As we worked our way to where she was I saw something that looked like an alicorn shrouded in green flame. As we rushed in that direction there were six Changelings, all wearing armor in between us and where Cadence was.

“Three each.” said Shining Armor, to which I nodded in approval. As I rushed at them, the first one reared back, and pulled back its armored hoof. I ducked underneath the punch and tackled it to the ground. It then drove my sword into its eye. As I leapt off the body I dodged a magic blast that vaporized the dying Changeling. I then kicked the mage in the head, stunning it. I gave it another kick knocking it out. The last Changeling then rushed me. I leapt on its back, pulled off its helmet and cut off its head. I looked over to Shining Armor and saw he had reduced his three adversaries to smoldering lumps. We then rushed to the table where we had seen Cadence, where we found her hiding under it for safety. I took a step back as Shining Armor offered her a hoof to get up. After a few murmured words between them Cadence cast a spell. I wasn’t sure what it did at the time, but the more important fact was the magic was green. Cadence was captured, Chrysalis had replaced her, and I had failed. Moments later I blacked out.
____________________________________________________________

I awoke on the floor of the banquet hall. All around me was shattered glass, but no bodies. I felt that was weird, but when Shining Armor woke up I understood why. “That was one hell of a party, huh.” he said to me.

“What are you talking about? What about the battle?” I asked him, confused over his blank in his memory.

“You must have one hell of hangover, bro.” he told me. I then ran off and talked to others and they all had the same problem. I then realized what had happened. The spell Chrysalis/Cadence cast was a memory spell. But then why did I remember? I rushed back to Shining Armor, who was standing next to his ‘fiancé’. “Are you going to accept my offer?” he asked me.

“Sir, I would be honored.” I responded to him. But I was more worried about Cadence’s safety. In the episode she looked beaten and starved after the events in the caves. “Now sir if you’ll excuse me, I need to get some rest so I can continue to train my troops tomorrow.” I said as I took my leave. As I left I looked at the false Cadence and she looked back at me. And she wasn’t happy.

As I left the building I motioned to a guardsman. “Get Master Sargent Silver Star and tell him to report to me at once. Tell him I got a call from his mother and it’s about Aunt Carrie.” As he took of the get him, I wondered if he would get the code in the message. Our old coach’s name should be a clue to the situation. I went back to my own room and began pacing. If I was right it was a race against time to see who would come in the room first a changeling or Moe.

I was answered when Moe casually walked into the room. “Why the hell are you talking about our coach?” he asked me as he walked in.

“You know why. Next time you see me after this, it may be an imposter. If I don’t talk about Aunt Carrie, it’s not me. Tell the others the same.” I told him as I tossed him a small pistol, similar to a Colt 45 with a primitive silencer on it as I grabbed one for myself. “Was anypony else coming in here after you?” I asked him as I chambered a round.

“Just a couple of other officers, why?” he asked.

As convenient my life had been in the past few months, it was nothing compared to what happened next. The door flew open and “Moe” was standing right there. “Well this is awkward” the false Moe rasped through its newly appeared fangs, seconds before insect like wings sprouted from its back. Not wanting to risk anything it fired a shot at it as Moe aimed his pistol.

It didn’t sound like any other gunshot before it. It sounded like less of a bang and more of a quick low whistle. It was like time slowed to a crawl as round slowly flew through the air, rotating perfectly, with unspoken elegance. The short, stubby lead form then smashed into the carapace to the changeling, sending chucks of chitin and globs of green luminous blood outward from the wound near the wing. The wing stopped flapping as the round exited the body and hit the wall of the camp behind it. The changeling screamed in pain as it fell to the ground. Before it hit the ground Moe dropped his gun and grabbed the changeling with magic as it fell, pulling it in to the room as I shut the door behind it. Through the pain it hissed at me “I will go to my death like my brothers before me at your hand.”

“Not quite.” I said to it as I slammed it into a chair and tied an exceptionally loose knot to hold it in place. “If you talk you’ll just rot in a jail cell for the rest of your life.”

“I would not betray my brothers in arms.” It rasped at me.

I then turned my back to it and called over Moe. “When it escapes let it go, I want it to scare the rest of them in to action.” I then slowly drew a long, triangular bladed knife out of a drawer. That scared the crap out of it I guessed, or maybe it just took advantage of the opening but it undid the knot and ran out of the room, breaking down the door as it did. “I’m going to need to get that fixed. You want to help me today?” I asked Moe. He nodded in approval and spent the rest of the day helping me with the door.

_____________________________________________

It was four days later when the there was a knocking on the new door, which annoyed me greatly, mostly because I just put a fresh coat of paint on the door. “I’ll right, I’m coming.” I yelled to whoever was on the other side of the door. I walked to the door and opened it. On the other side was Rainbow Dash, maybe. The last time she called, just a day earlier, she sounded excited and said she had a surprise for me when she got up here next. It could be her coming up early, but it was most likely a changeling masquerading as her to kidnap me. Either option was good, either seeing my marefriend or seeing my plan go into action.

“Surprise!” the maybe Rainbow Dash said as I had opened the door.

As the old mantra ‘hope for the best prepare for the worst’, reared its head I welcomed her with open arms as she entered the apartment that I was saying on the base. And that’s when things got interesting.

Author's Note

Ohh a shiny new box to play with!! Sorry about the short chapter but trust me, shits about to go down, and its going to get good.