A Leon, Luna, and Eddy side-story; Final Fantasy IV adventure

by Fireheart 1945

Chapters

Chapter 2; This is awesome
Chapter 3; A Royal Dinner
Chapter 4; What the....?
Chapter 5; New world.. or maybe not so new
Chapter 6; First fighting
Chapter 7; Accidental manslaughter
Chapter 8; The aftermath
Chapter 1; A trip to another world

Chapter 2; This is awesome

Leon didn't know quite what to make of Edward Stanton. The Englishman - or rather, an English subject in his late teens - wasn't the stereotypical Briton. He obviously wasn't the type to dress in a tuxedo with a top hat and sip tea all day, although he'd admitted he liked the stuff. The guy was about eighteen years old, with a haircut that was a mix of tidy in one way and messy in another.

He also looked strong enough to rip somebody in half if they pissed him off. Glad I met him over the internet, with all the times we got under his skin, he thought a little nervously.

Ed wasn't in the mood to do that right now, though. "Good to meet you in person, Leo," he said, extending his right hand.

"Likewise," Leon said as he took it and shook, setting down his bag as he did so.

"Got here after eating a healthy, hearty breakfast, thanks to Miss Magic, and guess what I arrive just in time for? Bloody breakfast, that's what," the English teen continued.

"'Miss Magic'?" Luna said indignantly.

"Just kidding, Luna," Eddy said quickly. "Glad to be here."

"And well you should," Luna said, still looking slightly upset. Deciding to put aside her feelings at the moment, she went on, "This is the room where all my online conquests take place. It's here that I first met both of you, and it's here that our friendship blossomed. I've wanted to show you this place for so long."

All three of them walked over to a red couch in front of a massive T.V. Next to it was a desk with a computer set upon it... as well as numerous picture frames.

Leon stopped, then walked over to it.

"Oh!" he heard Luna say as she noticed.

He picked up one of the pictures on the desk. It was one of him, a photo he'd sent to Luna one day when she'd asked what he looked like. It was several months old, but it had been placed in a frame of pure gold. Setting it down, he saw other photographs, one clearly being that of Ed, apparently from whatever the British equivalent of a High School Prom was, considering he was quite handsomely dressed and his hair combed, a stark difference to the mane that adorned him at this moment.

Other photos, mostly of the Mane Six and Pip, adorned the area around Luna's computer station, and, he now noticed, around her gaming television as well, similarly placed in golden frames. Under each photograph was an inscription, the same for all of them;

My Dearest Friends.

He felt a tear come to his eye; he had no idea how much he, or Eddy or any of the others, for that matter, had mattered to her. Ed simply looked on, his mouth slowly opening.

"Oh, dear, is something wrong with the framing?" Luna asked. "I could have more jewels added to them, or have them set in platinum -"

Leon turned around and hugged Luna around her neck, burying his face in her fur. He heard her gasp in surprise, then felt her hoof touch his back lightly.

"God bless you, Princess Luna!" he said as he brought his head away from her neck.

Luna was still surprised that one of her friends had suddenly and without warning hugged her. "Well... I... " she said, her cheeks turning pink rapidly. "Er... May He bring the same tidings unto you," she finished finally, still unsure of what exactly to say.

Ed walked up to Luna and placed his right hand on her mane. "Thanks, Luna old girl," he said, wiping his eyes with his other hand.

Luna turned to face Eddy as Leon released her, though his left hand was still on her mane. "I could hardly do any less for my friends," she said at last. "You don't know what it's like, to be alone for a thousand years, with only... her for company. To have real friends, and not just a nagging voice saying how forgotten and unappreciated you are... it's just wonderful." Her voice filled with emotion. "These remind me that there are others out there who do care about me, and who I care about."

Leon felt a surge of friendly affection for Luna. She really did care about them, to a point he hadn't fully understood. He earnestly patted her flowing mane, resisting the urge to hug her again. He saw a tear form in her eye.

Luna coughed, then rubbed her eye with a hoof. "Ahem, well, yes, erm... shall we?" she asked.

"Yep," Leon said, at the same time Ed said, "Yeah."

"Oh, and Leon," the Princess added, turning her head toward him, "although that feels incredibly good, I would like for you to refrain from patting my mane without my permission."

"Uh, okay," he said, pulling his hand away.

Just then, Luna's mane began flashing; it changed from her normal, watery-looking style back to the blue hair she'd had originally. It went back and forth for a few seconds, then the blue hair suppressed the other completely.

"Ah," Luna said calmly, as though used to this. "It must be that day again. Hold on." Her horn glowed bright blue for a moment, then flashed. Her mane went back to the star-spangled river it had been before.

"Wow," Eddy said, impressed. "So that blue hair is your real mane, is it?"

"Well, yes," Luna admitted. "It is. Celestia's real mane is pink. She ended up inventing a spell that allowed her mane to flow as it does, looking almost ethereal. She taught me how to do it, and I worked on the colors until I got it just right."

"It's beautiful!" the Englander exclaimed.

Luna blushed again. "It's really not all that complicated," she said. "It requires a little renewing now and then, and it doesn't really change the actual hair. It's all cosmetic."

She turned to the various consoles sitting under the T.V. An Xbox 360, a Playstation 4, a Wii and Wii U there, all ready to be used. Leon's eyes were drawn to a Super Nintendo off to the side. "You didn't tell me you had one of those!"

"I wanted it to be a surprise," she answered, grinning.

"Wow."

"I'm impressed," Edward said quietly. "Nice battle station."

"Thanks," Luna said sincerely. "Now let's get to using it." She turned back to Leon. "I believe you brought something for us?"

"Hmm?" Leon remembered the Nintendo 64 he'd packed into his bag. "Oh yeah!" he said as he hurried over and got his bag. "Right here."

"Oh, an old En-64," Eddy said as Leon unpacked it. "Guessing you're a Mario fan?"

"Mario beats Sonic, and I don't care what Death Battle says," Leon replied, hooking the wires together. "Mario never gives up."

"Neither does Sonic, mate, and he's a hell of a lot faster."

"Mario has better power ups. Fire, boot, invisibility, metal, and wing caps, invincibility star, all that."

"Sonic has power rings, and that's all he needs."

"Alright, both of you," Luna said, trying not to laugh, "Please stop. I don't think this topic will have any proper answer anytime soon."

"Yeah, I guess we can do COD Vs. Halo," Eddy suggested.

Luna facehoofed.

"Party time," Leon said, in sync with his blue-colored infantryman on-screen.

"Oh, don't tell me you got a bazooka," Eddy said in discomfort.

A loud explosion as Eddy's tan soldier died gave the answer all too clearly. "Oh, that's just great," the Englishman said. "Now we have a maniacal teenager on the loose with a rocket launcher."

"Oh, come now, Edward," Luna said comfortingly, "there's no reason to... DIIIIIIIIIIE!" she screamed as she leaped out of cover to attack Leon with a shotgun.

Leon turned around. "FIIIIIIIIRRRRRE!" he yelled right back as he doused her green soldier with a flamethrower. Luna squawked indignantly as her character ran around uncontrollably before falling down and melting.

"Oh, that is just..." Luna huffed, trying to find a word that would describe the situation. "Abominable!" she finally decided upon.

Leon laughed in response.

"You've owned the game longer than we have!" Ed pointed out.

"So?"

"So!?! Is that all you can say as you blast us to pieces?" Luna asked as Leon used a mortar on her.

"Yes," he answered, giggling a little.

Eddy and Luna looked at one another behind Leon's back and nodded to one another. Then they went back to facing the screen. Currently, all three of them were playing on a level featuring a couple of bathtubs and the floor between them. Right now, Leon had gotten five kills, while Eddy had only one and Luna had two. Having owned the game since his childhood, he knew how to play the game quite well, whereas the others had less experience.

Leon took cover behind a bar of soap and started sniping at Eddy's character on the other side of the map. He missed the first couple of shots, then drilled the plastic enemy through the head with the third.

"Yes," he breathed quietly, just before a grenade burst behind him, killing him.

"What the?"

"You should not be so self-confident," Luna said smugly.

Leon respawned. Okay, now you guys are really in for it. He grabbed a machine gun and took aim at Eddy, who was currently trying to rush him and instead got mowed down in a burst of plastic bullets. He looked around for Luna, only to have his blue head blown off by a well-placed sniper round.

"D'oh!"

"Success!"

"If I'd known I'd be playing the part of decoy..."

That told Leon all he needed to know. So that's the way it is, huh? A team up? HE grinned, but only on the inside. About time you guys did something to make this interesting.

He took aim at Luna, who was running for a bazooka, and successfully knocked her guy down in a hail of M16 bullets. A whistling sound from above caught his attention, and he rolled to the right seconds before a mortar round landed where he had been standing. Another sniper bullet was enough to finish the tan soldier's hash. He jumped down from the bathtub onto the floor and began looking around. Seeing Luna near the door, he grabbed a grenade launcher that was nearby and ran at her. The blue alicorn let out a gasp of surprise as two grenades landed nearby, narrowly missing her. In panic, she ran for a corner of the room, only to be followed by a laughing blue soldier.

"Any last words?" Leon asked as she turned around to face him.

There was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Leon called, firing blindly as he turned his head to see, only to hear his character cry out in pain as a shotgun blast from the green soldier he had cornered cut him down.

"Oh come on!"

"Next time, don't take your eyes off the screen,, Luna said, grinning. "Yes, who is it?" she said, not turning away from the T.V.

Leon heard the door open as he machine-gunned Eddy again. "Oh, hey guys," came the familiar voice of a small, purplish dragon. "Afternoon, Princess Luna," Spike added.

"Salutations, Spike," the Lunar Princess answered. "It is good to have you here."

"Thanks!" The young dragon jumped up onto the couch. "What are you guys playing anyway?"

"Army Men; Sarge's Heroes," Eddy answered. Then, grinning, he added, "I'm winning."

"Like hell you are!" Leon exclaimed, turning to face him. "That's the eighth time you died!"

"So?"

"Ugh," Leon said, leaning back.

"Let's not have any swearing, gentlemen," Luna reminded them. "We have a child present."

"Hey! I'm not a child!" Spike said indignantly.

Luna winked at him.

Spike sighed. Then, watching the game for a few seconds, he asked, "Mind if I play?"

All three of the current players exchanged glances. "Um.... the rating is technically teen-rated," Leon said at last.

"Oh, come on! I'm like, eleven and a half. Besides, this doesn't look very violent or graphic," the dragon pointed out.

"Hmmm," Luna hummed, thinking for a moment and tapping her chin with a hoof. "I guess I could technically have it re-rated E in Equestria, seeing as I am a Princess, after all."

"Yes! Thanks, Princess," Spike cheered, hugging her leg.

"You are welcome." Then, turning to Leon, she said, "Please restart the session for four, if you wouldn't mind."

Leon turned off the game, reached into his bag, and pulled out a fourth controller. He plugged it in and restarted the game, this time setting it for four players. He chose the color blue again, and Luna and Eddy kept their own colors. That left Spike with the color gray.

"Not much choice, is there?" the youthful reptile noted.

"Not much," Leon agreed. "The original colors were green, tan, blue, and gray. Other colors were added in later games, but this game is from the late 90s."

"Ah, well."

Leon chose a map with a sandcastle as the setting. He began looking for better weapons at once.

"What the?" Ed gasped as his tan trooper suddenly died.

"Wait, did I do that?" Spike asked, just as bewildered.

"Dang, the kid actually got one," Leon commented, amused. He wasn't smiling a moment later, as Spike gunned him down. "How did you do that?"

"I don't know! I just held down the trigger button and your guy went down!"

The next fifteen minutes were an... interesting time. Spike wasn't only holding his own, he was racking up kills like no tomorrow. The kid didn't even bother holding down the aiming button, he just fired away, and the game's auto-aim did almost all the rest.

"Come on, he's right there!" Eddy yelled as he was melted with a flame thrower.

"I got him, I got him, I got him!" Leon yelled as he fired a bazooka at the gray-clad infantryman, only for his shot to be wasted against a parapet. A moment later, he was wasted himself as a mortar round blew him away.

"Boys," Luna teased. "Always thinking problems can be solved through fast, slap-dash actions and getting upset at the slightest... HOW IN THE STARS IS THAT POSSIBLE!?" she screamed as she herself met an untimely end.

"Yahoo!" Spike yelled as he mowed down Leon and Eddy in short order.

Just afterwards, the game came to an end. Spike had gotten thirty kills and had died only five times, mostly when the others teamed up to kill him. Leon had fifteen, mostly from picking off the others while they were otherwise distracted. Luna had fourteen, and Eddy had eleven. Everyone but Spike just sat there, stunned and open-mouthed at the disparity in kills.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Spike said as he set the controller down. "I wish you guys had asked me to join earlier, that was great!" Then he noticed their faces. "Uh, guys?" he asked nervously.

Luna was the first to recover. "I suppose there's a reason that game was rated teen," she said quietly, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Yeah, we just got our ass handed to us by a kid," Eddy said, still staring at the screen.

"Shh!" Luna said irritably.

"Sorry," the Briton apologized.

"I think it's time we moved on to another game," Leon suggested.

"Agreed," the Princess concurred. "What do you think we should play this time?"

"I have Mario Kart, Mario Party 2, Battletanx; Global Assault..." Leon said as he rummaged through his bag.

"Hmm, we haven't played Mario Party lately," Ed noted. "Might as well try that."

The game was fifty turns long, and some parts of it were brutal. The typical friend-and-not-friend system came up quite often, and Leon lost almost as much as he won. He was playing as Mario on Western Land, and in one stroke he'd sent Eddy, playing Wario, back to start after hitting him with the train. He walked up to Boo; with fifty-eight coins, he had a pretty good idea of what he was going to do.

"Yeah, steal his star, steal his star!" Eddy urged, referring to Spike, who was playing Luigi.

"Oh yeah, I will certainly be stealing his star." Leon chose Wario and Boo went off immediately to collect.

"What?" The Englishman yelled in disbelief. "You can forget about a birthday present from me next year!"

"It's not like he's been the only one to wrong you this game," Luna remarked, who was playing as Princess Peach. "I've stolen three items from you this game, including a Magic Lamp."

The end of the game came as no surprise; Luna, who had gathered the most stars, won, though it was close. They watched the cutscene as Peach gunned down Bowser with a cork to the belly.

"Well, that was fun," Eddy remarked as Leon shut off the game. "What's next?"

Luna thought about that for a minute. "I suppose we could try a Halo 3 cooperative campaign, but that would leave Spike out of the lurch."

"Why?"

"Because it's a mature-rated game," the Princess replied to the young reptile. "And I'm afraid that, unlike a game about plastic warriors, this one has it's reasons for being so." She thought for a moment. Then, to their surprise, she smiled. "I think I have just the solution. A classic, one that has caught my eye." Her horn lit up with blue light.

"What're we going for? Super Mario, F-Zero, Frogger... Star Fox?" Eddy asked, very eager on that last one.

Luna just smiled as a cartridge slipped from the cabinet under the T.V.

"No way! Final Fantasy IV!" Leon exclaimed.

"No freaking way!"

"Yes way," Luna replied, grinning at their astonishment. "I bought this quite recently, for this occasion. I was hoping you'd like it."

"Wow," Leon breathed.

"Yes. And it's a copy made in Equestria."

"Oh?" Leon scratched his chin. "Why would they work on a game from twenty years ago?"

"Because the gaming industry and technology in Equestria was closer to your 1990's when we initiated contact with your world," Luna explained. "We have been working on getting more modern gaming technology, but it's an ongoing process. This is a copy of the J2E translation, with most if not all of the raunchy stuff taken out. It still leaves some of the more memorable stuff."

"Well that's an accomplishment and a half," Leon said. "But how does it solve the whole four-player issue? Last I heard, this game was a single-player."

"It still is," Luna agreed. "But I thought we could take it in turns of about thirty minutes or so."

"When do we start?" Leon asked.

"After dinner; after I raise the moon, to be more precise," Luna responded. "Please forgive me, but I wanted to start playing this when I am... in my element, I suppose you would call it."

"That's fine by me," Leon remarked. Eddy looked a little let down, but nodded in understanding.

"Well, what do we do in the meantime?" Spike asked.

"I have a collection of comics in my room," Luna answered, "some of them from here, some of them from the human world."

"Wow! I've never read human comics before!"

"You will have your chance within the next few days. For now," Luna said as she used magic to switch the cords to the Wii, "I'd enjoy a good game of Super Smash Bros. Brawl." That got a round of smiles from everyone.

Leon gritted his teeth as Mario was again flung into distant space, to explode on the horizon and respawn at the top of the screen. Bowser, Eddy's character, made a pose, only to be blasted into infinity himself when Yoshi crashed into him as an egg.

"Awesome!" Spike said excitedly. Just then, Princess Peach bashed him in the face with a beam sword, and Yoshi crashed into the camera.

"Huzzah!" Princess Luna cheered.

Leon (Mario) retaliated by grabbing her and tossing her off the screen. The cheerful look Luna bore changed to surprise and a little shock.

It was Sudden Death, and they were fighting in the ruins of the Temple of Hyrule. Without the billboard of Pokémon Stadium to keep tabs on the score, nobody could say just who was winning and who wasn't.

Leon found a hammer and grabbed it.

"No, no, no!" Eddy yelled.

"Run away!" Luna shouted.

Leon grinned as he caught both of them and sent them into orbit.

"No! No!" Please, I'm...." Whatever Spike was, he didn't have time to finish before hammer-wielding Mario caught him too and sent him off-screen to perish in a humongous explosion.

"Five!" the announcer shouted.

Mario got punched off-screen by a vengeful Bowser.

"Four!"

Yoshi gobbled Peach and laid an egg with her in it; which proceeded to fall off the edge of the map and blow up.

"Three!"

Mario respawned and caught Bowser in a Mario Tornado.

"Two!"

Peach came back, grabbed a Pokeball, and threw it, hitting Bowser in the face and sending him flying.

"One!"

Mario seized a mortar and peppered Peach and Yoshi with explosive shells.

"Time!"

The players all relaxed and set down their controllers as the game ended in slow motion. More than one of them sighed with relief.

The score showed that Luna had come out ahead, though barely ahead of Leon, with Eddy coming close behind and Spike trailing, though not by much.

"Well, that was a good game," Luna remarked, grinning.

"Of course you say that, you won!" Leon countered.

"Tis as I have said, it was a good game." Luna laughed as she finished saying that. The others followed suit, even Leon. After a few seconds of laughter, Luna looked up at the clock. "Oh! It's almost time for me to raise the moon!"

That caught Leon's attention. "Do you mind if we watch?" he asked. "I've never seen you do it, and I don't think anyone else here has."

Luna's cheeks blossomed a rosy red, and she looked surprised, as well as... what? Embarrassed? Shocked? Leon couldn't tell. "You... you want to watch?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Well... yeah," Eddy said.

Luna didn't seem to know quite what to say. "If you truly wish to watch, them please follow me," she managed at last.

Leon, eddy, and Spike followed her over to a glass door in the side of the room. Luna opened it using magic. Outside was a balcony, onto which they walked.

"Please stand back," Luna warned. The others obeyed, giving her the needed space.

Luna stood stock-still. bracing herself and gathering the needed energy. All at once, her horn began to light up; the light was faint at first, but it gradually grew in size and radiance. Soon, the blue energy completely covered her horn, and Leon raised a hand to shield his eyes.

All of a sudden, Luna began to rise from the ground, the bright, blue light encompassing her entire body. As Leon looked up, the sun finally fell over the horizon, and, from the east, the moon rose, slowly rising to it's proper position in the sky. It was an awe-inspiring sight.

Finally, Luna lowered herself down, breathing a sigh of relief. Her sides heaved with the effort of her work. She remained in this state for a couple minutes before finally sitting on her haunches.

"Wow," Eddy said, the first to verbally react.

"That was incredible!" Spike exclaimed.

"You really think so?" Luna asked eagerly.

"It was awesome!" Leon said, patting her on the back of the neck.

Luna brought a hoof to her mouth as she blushed again. "It's really no different from the other times I've done it," she admitted. "And it's not as hard as raising the sun would be, as the moon is smaller and thus easier to move. It's just a little tiring, that's all."

All four of them continued looking up at the night sky for a few more minutes. The stars twinkled and winked, just like back home. The moon shone brightly on the land, illuminating all that occurred under it's light. Luna wasn't a goddess; she'd admitted that to Leon and Eddy numerous times. Still, there was no denying that she was talented as it was.

Finally, Luna looked around at all of them as her belly grumbled. "I suppose we shouldn't just stand here all night; let us go and feast in the dining hall."

The responses to that were unanimous. The four friends walked back into the room and into the hallway, their stomachs taking the lead.

Chapter 3; A Royal Dinner

Luna lead the others through the castle's many hallways. "You'll love the Dining Hall," she said, eager to share details of the castle with them. "It's massive; hundreds can sit at the same table in during a great feast, and thousands could be packed in during large-scale events such as dances."

"How's the food there?" Leon asked. "I'm starving."

"Oh, it is to die for...." Luna paused in her words, though not her walk. "I've said that a lot recently, haven't I?"

"Uh, yeah," he said.

Luna giggled. "I guess I'm just a little excited. It's the first time my friends from another world came to visit. Anyway," she went on, thrusting out a hoof, "here we are!"

Leon looked through a large doorway into a massive room. It was about as big as Luna had boasted, with a looooooong table down the middle, leading up to a pair of thrones. Hundreds of chairs stood, docked at the table and waiting for someone to use them. The whole place was surrounded by white walls with large, intricately painted and carved stained glass windows on the walls to either side of the table.

"Does the Royal Family even have a place to eat as fancy as this?" Eddy asked, mostly to himself as he stared in awe.

"Uh, Celestia and I are the royal family," Luna replied, a little confused at the question.

"He was talking about the British Royal Family," Leon supplied.

"Oh." Luna looked at the English teen. "I never had the chance to visit them, so I can't make any comparisons. But I can assure you, you won't be disappointed with the service here, and the quality of the food is unsurpassed."

A young mare, pink and purple in color, walked up the Princess. "Your Majesty," she said, "the table is ready for seating, and our cooks are ready to take down whatever you order."

"Very good," Luna replied. Turning to her guests, she added, "Celestia, Shining Armor, Cadence, and the Bearers will be along briefly. Let us go and find out seats."

After a short while, all four of them sat down approximately in the center of the big table, Leon and Spike on one side and Luna and Eddy on the other. Leon got himself comfortable.

"Do the Bearers have the..."

"Same personalities as they do in the show," Luna finished for him. "Yes, they do. Rainbow Dash is a confident tomboy, Fluttershy is, well, shy, Twilight is a bookworm, and Pinkie is a cheerful, sweet-loving, happy-go-lucky mare." Luna's face hardened a little. "Whatever you do, if Pinkie offers you a ride on her back as a lift, don't take it."

"Oh, why?" Edward asked.

"Because the last time a human accepted that offer... he got stuck inside a mirror."

"What?" Leon said, incredulous.

"Well," Luna said, as though debating whether or not to discuss the topic. "A human visiting Equestria was heading for Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie, having the same destination, offered him a ride, which he accepted. However... Pinkie got distracted almost as soon as he got on her back. Pinkie Sense and all that. They ended up all over Ponyville in the most logic-defying locations, and finally Pinkie went inside a mirror to remind somepony of a Pinkie Promise they had made. She reared inside the mirror as she did it, and he fell off. She forgot and went off without him, and the first pony to look into that mirror saw him instead of her reflection, or rather, alongside her reflection. Long story short, they almost busted the mirror before Pinkie remembered and saved him."

After a pause, Leon said, "I don't think international relations remained the same after that."

"We compensated the poor victim for his troubles, and Pinkie apologized, which I doubt anyone could possibly have refused. He waved the whole legal process and we haven't had any further problems of the like after that." Luna paused. "It... made me dissolve in laughter when I first heard of it."

"No kidding," Ed said, looking amused. "I would have." He leaned on the table and steepled his hands in front of his face. "Are there any other... hilarious tales you might have heard of?"

"Hmm," Luna said, hoof to her chin, "there was the time you died a million times as a plastic toy soldier, and before then the time you were nuked to death by everyone in a game of Civilization V... Do you want me to recite any other stories?"

Eddy just sat there, looking stunned and betrayed. "Uh, no thanks."

"I'll tell you another story," Leon said. "it's called, 'The Story of your Face when she said that.'"

Ed turned toward him. "Need a good conk on the noggin, my friend?"

"Oh no," he answered, "I've got plenty as is."

Ed laughed. "Yeah, I can see why."

Just then, the doors opened again. Celestia walked through, followed by Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, with the Mane Six following close behind.

"Ah, sister! It is good to see you this evening!" Luna greeted Celestia.

"Likewise, sister," Celestia replied, her ever-present smile on her face. She took a seat beside Luna, and the others sat down where they could, with Rainbow Dash sitting down on Leon's right side and Applejack sitting down on her other side.

Something caught Leon's eye. As Twilight sat down, he asked, "What happened to your wings?"

Twilight looked confused for a moment, then laughed. "The truth is, I never really had them," she said.

Celestia giggled at Leon's confused face. "I asked Lauren Faust to conceal some of what was going on here at the time. And, as far as I'm concerned, Twilight wouldn't need a pair of wings just to be crowned a princess; it is the mind, courage, and friendliness that make a princess, not the horn or the wings."

Twilight blushed at her mentor's words.

"And, as you can see," Celestia continued, "we aren't as small as border collies. The show... exaggerates some details. I doubt a pony could really be flattened against a door, or have her hoof pricked by a needle."

"But..."

"The main events in those episodes did happen," the Solar Princess continued. "Trixie did show up with the Alicorn Amulet, and there was an incident with mixed-up cutie marks, for example, and the personalities of the ponies depicted is identical. I believe Luna has told you the reason for the show's existence?"

"Er, she, uh..."

Celestia laughed. "It is a secret, but one I don't mind allowing my sister to share with her closest friends. I don't blame her."

"She said you arranged it for an easier transition into relations, or something like that?"

The Princess nodded. "Very good."

"But does that excuse kidnapping people?"

Celestia, like her sister, blushed. "It wasn't..." She rethought the situation. "Well, I guess technically it is kidnapping. But I made sure that the people I summoned had no work to be done at the time, none of them came to grief, and I never mistreated any one of them. I willingly sent them back to their homes each time. And," she added, sounding a little childish, "it was for a good reason."

No one could help laughing at that. The sounds of mirth echoed inside the enormous room.

A side door in the room opened. A couple ponies trotted out of it and each walked up to one side of the table.

One of them trotted up to Leon. "What would you like to order, fine guest?"

"Hmm." Leon looked at the menu. Not surprisingly, most of his favorite foods - almost all featuring meat - were not listed. Merde. Although not ethnically French, he was fond, perhaps too fond, of using their curses, as he was using Breton ones. "I'll have a deep dish pizza, along with an order of fries with it," he finally said, "along with a bottle of ketchup, if you'll be so inclined."

The pony nodded and took his menu, then moved on to someone else.

Edward frowned at his menu. "I could go for a nice, juicy stea- ow!" he said as Luna bumped him in the ribs. Luna whispered something to him out of the corner of her mouth. Leon wasn't sure he heard properly, but it sounded something like, "Remember where you are." Ed didn't like it much, but he knew better than to complain.

After all the orders had been taken, the waiters bowed and left the room.

"I haven't had the opportunity to meet many humans until now," Cadence said, looking quite interested as she looked from him to Eddy. "I've been much too busy trying to keep the Crystal Empire going to take much time to come to Canterlot."

"I thought your main interest was love," Leon quipped.

Cadence laughed. "Just because my special talent revolves around love doesn't mean I'm not curious about other subjects." She coughed a little bit, and then explained, "My talent isn't as powerful as everypony thinks. My magic only boosts love that already exists, whether it's repressed, submerged, or beaten down; it can't create it where it doesn't exist. Luckily for me, I live in a world where that last isn't the case very often."

"I see," Leon said. "if you don't mind me asking, what are the greatest challenges facing you there?"

"I don't mind. The biggest problems feature modernization. We've found that a thousand years makes a big difference when it comes to teaching magic and technology, as many of the rules they thought they were dealing with either no longer exist or have changed. And, unfortunately, being gone that long produces it's own misery; a lot of friendships have..." Cadence paused, not sure of the right word to use.

"Their friends died while they were away," Eddy said bluntly.

Cadence winced. "Yes, that about sums it up, though I wished you'd used a lighter way of saying it."

"You wouldn't believe how far behind the Crystal Guard was compared to us," Shining Armor noted, speaking for the first time. "Of course, before Celestia opened the portal to the human world, we didn't know how far behind we were."

"How are you Prince of the Crystal Empire and yet still in charge of the Royal Guard?" Ed asked.

"It's funny that you mention it," the white unicorn stallion said. "That's a topic that comes up a lot, along with the issue of the Crystal Ponies' independence. No one is quite sure of it right now, but Celestia promised the other day that the issue would be addressed in due course."

Which means precisely nothing. Or that she'll put it off for as long as she can, Leon thought.

As though sensing that dissent, Celestia spoke up. "It's not a matter that can be solved in the course of a day. As Shining Armor and Cadence have said, the Crystal Empire is behind magically and technologically, and it's Guards rely on outdated training and tactics. It will be a while before I'm sure they can stand on their own four legs."

"That's not to say that Cadence doesn't have real power," Luna added. "She has important responsibilities, first and foremost being to keep the Crystal Heart filled with the love and hope of her subjects, which naturally means organizing the Crystal Fair every year. She also has to deal with petitions and make decisions on important matters."

"Last week, I had to resolve a land dispute," Cadence put in. "It was kind of funny, considering it's been kept for over a thousand years, but it's important to my ponies, so I had to deal with it. It wasn't too hard to settle, but the losing party wasn't happy."

"Which was a problem, as you wanted them all to remain happy," Leon said.

Cadence nodded. "Yeah. I didn't really like how it turned out, and it's the kind of case I personally don't like having to decide. I liked the petition after that a little more, as it was a request to expand the Crystal Guard, which would provide jobs and security at the same time. And it made my Shiny happy."

Shining went red. "Cady! I asked you not to call me that in public!"

"And I asked you not to call me 'Cady' in public!" the pink alicorn countered; if her face wasn't already naturally pink, it doubtless would have visibly blushed.

Husband and wife stared at one another for several seconds. Then both started to laugh, and the tension eased.

Rainbow yawned. That reminded Leon of something. "How come you decided to part with your prized lucky horseshoe? And why did you think it was lucky?"

"Oh, that. I was in a bet where I had to wear horseshoes, and I mean have them nailed on; the bet was to be the first through an obstacle course. The last horseshoe was the only one available at the time, a rusty one, different from the others. I won, and I had my first inkling that that horseshoe was different. In a game of horseshoes, I used it to score a dead ringer at the last throw, and won the game. I kept it after that. As for giving it away... I really wanted that Daring Doo book, a little too much, now that I look back on it."

"That trade fair wasn't easy to organize, I'll tell you that," Twilight said. "I was glad when it was over."

"You did well," Celestia commented, and Twilight blushed slightly.

"I must say, this is a most delightful place to dine," Rarity said. "It's so... grand!"

"Well, I'm not one to brag," Celestia replied, "But I took great pains to have this room built just right, so that everyone who entered it could feel the same as you do."

"How long did it take to finish?" Fluttershy asked.

"About two years," Celestia answered. "It took a while to design, and a lot longer to actually build."

"With you as my witness, I hereby declare this hall to be the greatest place to dine in all of Equestria," Rarity said, thrusting a hoof in the air dramatically

The Solar Princess chuckled. "No matter how many times you say things like that, I won't be able to hear it, unless I'm within earshot of you, as I was here."

"But then why do ponies say it?" Fluttershy asked her.

"I've said over and over again that I'm just like any other pony; you all seem to think I'm lying for 'holy,' 'divine,' or 'pure' reasons," her ruler said.

"Oh." The yellow pegasus resumed her usual silence.

"You say you wear horseshoes," Eddy said. "Why haven't we seen it much?"

"Well, sugarcube," Applejack said, "it's mostly an earth pony kinda thing, and it's mostly us farmers who stick to using 'em, much of the time in all them rodeos; they're kinda hard to take off in a hurry, what with all the nails to pull out."

Twilight nodded. "Unicorns used to wear them and enchant them with specific effects, but that practice wasn't very widespread. And most pegasi aren't fond of wearing them, as they add weight and drag when they're flying, which is much if not most of the time. Other hoofwear is easier to put on and off, though as Applejack said, some earth ponies still use them; our hooves are 100% keratin, unlike the horses and ponies in your world, and without nerves in those areas, we have no feeling there." She raised her own hoof to show that it was completely flat and smooth on the bottom; a few scratches from prolonged use were visible, but obviously she didn't even notice them. "And the show doesn't always, well, show when we wear them; for instance, when Applejack went to pull the plow in one episode, she was wearing them, but that wasn't displayed."

"Alright," the Englishman said. "Well, then."

"Princess, mind if I ask another question?"

"Obviously you just did, Leon," the white alicorn said, and chuckled again at Leon's surprise. "Nonetheless, you may; I believe that asking the right questions is good for learning."

"Uh, okay. Well, what do other nations here think of Equestria's establishing relations with another world?"

"A valid question. It wasn't a choice with one hundred percent approval, but most supported the idea, or were at least curious about it's results. The dragons mostly don't care, and few humans wander into the land of the Zebras. The Griffons were a little divided, but their leaders eventually agreed. The Saddle Arabians were happy one way or another to have more trade opportunities, I can tell you that much."

"I'm glad you have a dedicated staff," Leon said, as he cut the pizza into four slices and pulled one away.

"It truly is a blessing," Celestia agreed.

Leon bit into the pizza. "An dra-man mat," he muttered complimentarily.

"What did you say?" Twilight asked, looking interested.

"I said, "This is good," Leon answered.

"What language was that in?" the purple unicorn asked. "I've heard other human languages, but none like that."

"French," Eddy muttered.

Leon shot him a glare. "Breton," he said. "A language used by the inhabitants of Brittany, France."

"Oh wow! I knew Brittany was once and independent place, but I never knew it had it's own separate language!" Twilight looked to be in her element, with a happy smile and a brain that was filing the information she was soaking up.

"I'm a third generation American. My grandparents moved from Brittany to the United States. They taught my mother their language, and it was her primary for a long time. When my mother had me, she taught it to me, though English became the language I use more often, seeing as the kids in school and the neighborhood use it. Every now and then, though, I break out into the old tongue again, like I did just now."

"Thanks for the information," Twilight said appreciatively. "This will make a nice addition to my records, once I get my hooves on some paper and a quill."

"You're welcome," Leon answered her. "I hope all the new information isn't going to burn out your memory."

Twilight chuckled. "It isn't, though all the new knowledge can be overwhelming sometimes. All the more reason to write things down and categorize them all. I still manage to get plenty of time off with my best friends, though."

"Darling, you're going to make us all blush," Rarity said, before winking to let everyone know she was joking. Another small round of laughter went around the table. "In all seriousness," the albino unicorn continued, "my business has blossomed since the portal was opened. I was worried about how this whole venture would wind up, but human females have been falling over themselves to have access to dresses."

"That's great!"

"Enough talk, guys," Ed said, "Let's eat already!"

"No one's stopping you, Ed," Leon said, leaning back in his chair as he reached for another slice of pizza. Now it was Edward's turn to glare at him. Leon laughed, though only inside his mind; outwardly, he just grinned as he chewed.

"It's not proper to talk during dinner," the English teen said sternly. So he did have some English properness buried somewhere inside after all.

"Give it a rest, just this once," Leon advised. "You have an entire room that disagrees with you."

Ed seemed inclined to argue, but when he looked around and saw no one coming to support him, he reluctantly relaxed into his chair. He didn't stop eating, though, and he didn't say anything further.

"I've gotta say," Rainbow Dash said as she swallowed part of her salad, "you humans make great movies, like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. And I absolutely love the Robotech collection I've got; pity they didn't make more episodes."

"I'm just grateful you guys and the Princess are good administrators," Fluttershy put in. "I haven't had any of my creations griefed for a long time."

"Well, you all know what happens when we catch 'em," Leon said. "Lava, fall, crushed between pistons, burned, blown up, forced to fight endless horde of monsters... all ending in imminent death."

"We did have someone trying to use godmode a couple weeks ago," Twilight said.

"Oh yes," Leon said, remembering. "That was the guy we tried to shoot to death. He wouldn't die, even after we went and ripped everything out of his inventory. He was the one killing everyone in a PVP arena and not taking a smidgeon of damage."

"What happened?" Fluttershy asked.

"He got an IP ban," Luna answered. "And a warning that I would haunt his dreams horrendously if he tried to come back in any way, shape, or form. He didn't even try, as far as I am aware."

"The troll face he was wearing couldn't have protected him from that," Leon agreed.

"I hope you guys can catch whoever's been stealing from my chests," Spike said. "Someone's been robbing all my ores."

"We'll get on that," Luna promised. "I still have a computer, so I'll be able to help you out this week."

"Wow! Thanks Princess!"

"Anytime," she said, winking.

After a while, everyone had finished eating. Leon leaned back in his chair and patted his belly.

"Well, I guess we'll have to pay, I don't know, three thousand pou- bits for this?" Eddy said.

"Of course not, don't be silly," Luna replied. "This isn't a restaurant, and it's all complimentary; you don't pay a cent here."

"Thanks, Luna," Leon said. "Because I have only a hundred and seventy-five dollars in my pocket, and I doubt it would be able to cover all this."

Twilight's eyes lit up. "You have your own currency? Can I see?"

"Sure." Leon reached into his pocket and pulled out a one-dollar bill.

"Wow, real paper currency! Equestria still uses money that's either silver, gold, or copper, depending how valuable it is; in fact, most nations here do. The values aren't very different, so we don't have to worry about trading money when we cross borders."

"That saves time," Leon agreed.

"And speaking of time," Luna said as they all began to stand up, "I believe it is time two of my friends come with me back to my gaming room."

"Hmm?" Leon knew he'd forgotten something, but couldn't remember what. Seeing this, Luna lit her horn up four times. "Oh, yeah!" he responded, finally remembering. "Thanks, by the way, for the dinner, and my compliments to those who made it possible," he said to Celestia.

"It was no trouble," the Solar Princess replied. "The pleasure is all mine."

Eddy nodded in agreement. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Together, they left the dining hall, Luna in the middle and Leon and Eddy to either side of her. Tonight felt great, and the main event hadn't even started.

Author's Note

I intended this chapter for a good description of the back story, as well as answering a few questions that might have shown up. No hate filled comments, please.

Also, for anyone who speaks Breton, I apologize. I had to translate the words one at a time, because no online translator seems to like the idea of fully translating English sentences to Breton. As a result, the words might not be proper, or properly placed. Apologies also to any speakers of Arabic, if I mess up there.

Chapter 4; What the....?

"I'm glad you've enjoyed the service here," Luna said smiling as they walked down the hall.

"No hotel or even a Blast from the Past diner had better stuff," Leon agreed.

Ed didn't say anything in response to that, not right away. Leon had a good idea why; the teen, however non-typical he might have been for an Englishman, was a patriot if nothing else, and only the idea of being polite had kept him from saying something to the effect that the Royal Family would have done better.

"You didn't seem as... how shall I put it?" Luna said, looking at Leon. "You didn't seem to wish to grovel, as most of our subjects would in a similar position."

"Yes. And?"

That answer took Luna aback. "I just would have thought, in the presence of royalty - in the presence of three royals, in fact - you would have, well, shown deference."

"Well, that isn't exactly me as an American," Leon said, shaking his head. "No offense, but I wouldn't bend the knee for the President of the United States; why would I do it for anyone else? And I'm not a subject; I'm a citizen. I've never had nobility holding unfair privileges over me. I have the liberty to grow up to be President if I wanted, and had the resources to do it."

She continued to study his face before finally nodding. "It is sometimes difficult to accept that humans come from so many nations, and with so many ideologies. Most species in our world have a single nation of their own; a few wild pony tribes exist, as well as the Crystal Ponies to the north, but that is the extent of our division."

"Don't all the different Zebra tribes count as separate domains?" he countered.

She laughed. "Well, I suppose they do; when you are on the outside looking in, it is harder to see those divisions. They exist, as I know all too well. And the honesty of your earlier answer does you credit." Luna smiled again. "It's so... boring, to see those who me and my sister speak to cringe as though we were pronouncing sentence upon them!"

"You do have that power."

"But normally I wouldn't think of using it! I honestly far prefer being loved over being feared, regardless of what anypony thinks. And although I used to be supportive of a centralized, orderly government - which is to say, strict absolute monarchy, as opposed to the enlightened kind we have today - I have had experiences that have altered my opinions on the matter."

Leon didn't push it. "At any rate," Edward said, "tonight's been great so far. I'm hoping it gets even better." He grinned, though not unpleasantly.

"Oh, I promise that your time here won't have a dull moment, not when I can prevent it," Luna replied. Her smile was infectious. "I am so excited to have my friends here," she said, her voice going into a high pitch for a second. "I haven't had time with companions like this since... well... a thousand years ago and more."

"So you've told us," Eddy said. "Don't the Elements come over for a visit every so often?"

"Sadly, no. They are very busy with their daily lives most of the time. I don't get to spend much time with anyone other than my sister, and while I love her dearly, I think we all need more than just the one source of... er, bonding."

"I guess I can understand that."

Luna opened the door to her gaming room with magic. Her face turned to shock, then anger. "Discord! What are you doing in my room!?!"

"Oh, hello there!" Discord said, waving at them from the couch. "I got bored at my own house and, well, you know how chaos works. I went to find fun at a random place, which happened to be here."

Aw, nuts. Here we go.

"Oh, don't look like that. "I've changed. I really have." The expression on his face almost made Leon buy it. Seeing that Leon and Eddy hadn't bought it, he sighed and did what neither of them had expected; he became serious. "In all honesty, despite all evidence and belief to the contrary, I am not a deity, and I make mistakes. One of those mistakes was trusting someone who offered me freedom from what he portrayed as shackles. I thought he told the truth, that the friendship I'd had meant nothing. It was only after he had betrayed me that I realized what I had done, after it was already too late. And it rocked me to the core when Twilight had freed me even after my treachery. I came to realize that some 'freedoms' are in reality tyranny veiled. While I still love to use chaos, I now know that there is a difference in being able to use a power and whether using it is something that should be done."

Leon found himself surprised. Looking over at Eddy, he could see the Englishman nodding slowly, a gesture he imitated.

Discord perked up a bit. "Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you."

"You're welcome," Eddy answered.

"Well, then," the dragonequus said, brightening up. "It's a pleasure to meet you! Dear Luna can't stop talking about you both. I'm assuming you're Leon and Edward?" When they nodded again, he went on, "I just love to hear of your adventures! Video games create so many chaotic stories; I can't help loving to play and hear about them."

"I'm assuming you're the guy who loves teamkilling and ramming teammates in World of Tanks?" Eddy ventured.

"Oh, don't be daft. The point of trolling is not to get banned while doing it. Flaming isn't the right way to go about it either... unless, of course, it details the current situation. No, I prefer to jam others against a wall and hold them there. Of course, I do love getting O.P. on Minecraft servers and then blowing everything up with TNT, which inevitably ends with me being banned, but that's a different game."

"Wait; I banned somebody last week for blowing up a statue of Homer Simpson somebody made," Leon said. "They didn't get O.P., but..."

Discord raised his right hand. "Guilty as charged. I actually like that show, for the most part, but I really couldn't help it. How else was I going to get him to say, 'D'oh!'" For at last, he turned his head into that of Homer and used that character's voice.

That started a laugh out of the three. "Well, I can't say that wasn't amusing," Leon admitted. "But you're still banned."

"I suppose it deserve it for blowing up one of my favorite characters," Discord said, turning back to normal. "It was worth it, though, just to see the explosion."

Luna shook her head. "I think we can start the game. Just promise you won't do anything stupid," she said to Discord.

"I wouldn't... well, I can't say I wouldn't dream of it, but I won't do anything like that anyway; besides, I'm eager to see how this goes."

Luna used her magic to rearrange the wires as necessary, then picked up a controller and sat down on the couch. Leon sat down on her right, Eddy on her left, with Discord sitting on the top of the couch, somehow not falling off.

Luna used her hoof to turn the game on. For an instant the screen was snowy, then the title of the game came on.

"Hmm, translation of the translation, huh?" Leon said, noticing the words under the main title.

"It's a retranslation of the vulgar fan translation," Luna said. "The Japanese is properly translated, but the wording isn't, well, the colorful and piggish garbage as it would have been otherwise."

"From what I know, the Japanese don't have a system of swearing as we would understand it," Leon added. "They have a system of how rude particular words are, which can be substituted for the intended curse words."

"Such as?"

"Kisama. It's an extremely rude way of saying 'you' in Japanese. If a Japanese refers to you by that word, it's a deliberate effort to be rude and insulting. It's almost the same as saying ' you son of a...' in English. It's the word Tella originally used to refer to Edward - the Edward in the game," he amended quickly."

"Where do you pick up all this useless stuff?" Ed asked.

"First off, it's not useless. Second, history is best subject. Learn it."

"Knock it off, both of you," Luna warned.

"Oh come on," Discord said, disappointed. "I was just starting to enjoy that!"

"I'm starting the game now," Luna said quickly.

The save screen came up. With no previous saves, the only real choice was the new game tab.

"Hold on," Luna said suddenly. "How do we determine who plays first?"

"I've got a penny; we could flip that," Leon suggested.

"How would that work?" Eddy exclaimed. "It has only two sides!"

"Wait a moment," Discord said, reaching into a suddenly existing pocket and pulling some sort of triangular object out of it. "It's a three sided coin," he explained, showing it to them. "On one side is my head, on another is my tail, and the last picture is an oval punctured by my left horn."

"That's a Q!" Leon said.

"Is it? I prefer to think of it as a Dis-Q. Anyway, choose which side you'll be using!"

Leon would have chosen heads, but Eddy called it first. He had to settle for tails, with Luna, most dejected, took the Q-shaped icon.

The dragonequus threw the coin up into the air and caught it on his arm. "Tails."

"Looks like ya won, Leo," Ed said, patting Leon on the back. "Might need that penny of yours now though. We need to discuss turns."

"Well agree to take ten minutes each," Luna said, "after which another will take their turn." She turned her head to look at Discord. "You didn't ask to play."

"I'm fine just resting on the couch. And with all the gameplay between you, the situation will create chaos on it's own."

After flipping Leon's penny - which decreed that Luna would go next, followed by Edward - Leon picked up the controller and selected the new game option.

A martial song blared, and the screen slowly revealed a group of airships flying north. They watched as the view changed to that displaying the crew. Most notable was a man wearing dark armor in the center.

"Captain Cecil! We are about to arrive at Baron!" said a member of the crew. There was no sound to indicate he had spoken; instead, white words on a blue background showed up to display the quote.

"Yeah," Cecil answered. He bowed his head.

"Looks like it's bothering the captain as well," one crewman said to another.

"Even if we were ordered to do so..."

"Taking the crystal from innocent people is..."

The screen switched to what was apparently a flashback. Cecil and the redcoated crewmen stood just beyond the door. In front of them were two black wizards, a white wizard, and an old man in black.

"Give us the crystal of water!" Cecil demanded.

"What have we done?" the elder said.

'The crystal or your life!"

"Never!" one of the black wizards retorted

"Then take the crystal by force!" Cecil ordered. The men moved to do as he commanded.

"Waah!" the black wizards screamed as Cecil's crew punched them.

"Oh, shit," Eddy said as they disappeared.

"No! Don't!" the white wizard yelled.

"Dare to defy us?" the crew said, beating him down too.

"Alright! Take the crystal!" the elder said.

"You should have said it sooner!" A member of the crew forced him to the side to make sure he caused no trouble.

Cecil walked up to the crystal, took it, and walked back toward the door.

"Why is the king of Baron doing this?" the elder demanded. "Why do you pursue the crystals so eagerly?"

Cecil simply bowed his head again, then the scene switched back to the present.

"That wasn't very nice," Discord said, summoning a bucket of popcorn.

"We earned our positions as the Red Wings crew through valor and bravery," one of the crew said right off. "Looting innocent people is an act of cowardice!"

Cecil took a step forward. "That's enough!"

"Captain! Why are we going as far as pillaging a town of magicians who don't even resist!?"

"Listen, everyone!" Cecil ordered, clearly disrupted by the near-mutinous crew. "His majesty has declared that possessing the crystal is absolutely necessary. The people of Mysidia knew too much about the secret of the crystal, and were a threat to the continued sovereignty of our country." He went on, "We are the Red Wings. His Majesty's orders are absolute..."

"Captain..."

"Captain! Monsters!"

"Battle Stations!"

There was a flash as the scene changed to a combat display. Cecil burned all three Float Eye enemies with a Red Fang

Then they were back to the previous scene. One of the crew had fallen down.

"Agh!"

"Are you all right?" Cecil asked.

"There's more of them!"

"Blast!"

Again the combat screen came on, this time with a giant floating bird called a Zuu. This time, Cecil cast out a Blue Fang, which called down lightning and fried the monster.

"Just to be sure," Discord said, "This is a cut scene, right?"

"Yes."

"I guess the graphics weren't as acute then as they are nowadays," the dragonequus shrugged. "Then again, a lot of games now have great graphics but terrible play. I think I prefer this."

"Is everyone all right?" Cecil asked the crew.

"Yes sir! The monsters have been increasing lately, though," a soldier responded. "There's just too many of them nowadays."

"Is something... happening?" Cecil wondered.

"Obvious foreshadowing," Discord said.

The Red Wings landed at Baron. Cecil entered the castle, welcomed by Baigan, the chief of the Guards.

"The Mysidians... They didn't resist at all."

"What are you saying?" Baigan replied, and ushered him into the castle.

Baigan went into the throne room before Cecil and proclaimed to the King (it couldn't have been anyone else - he was dressed in royal robes and a crown, and was seated on a throne) that Cecil had developed a distrust of him.

Cecil was ushered into the throne room, where the crystal was snatched away by Baigan and given to the king.

"You may leave, Cecil!" The King said, still looking at Baigan and the crystal.

Cecil turned to do so, but paused and came back. "Your Majesty!"

Both the King and Baigan turned around, surprised. "Wh... What?"

"Your Majesty, we do not understand your motives. Why is it that you need the crystals?" Cecil asked. "Was it because the Mysidians were becoming a threat? Then why didn't they resist? We do not understand why innocent bystanders had to die. Some have even wondered if your actions are... altogether... honorable."

"Uh oh," Eddy said, gloom in his voice. "I don't think the king's going to take that well."

And he didn't. "So you distrust your own King, Cecil?" The king thundered.

"!! No, I didn't mean that at all!"

"Did you think I knew nothing of your true feelings?" the King said, breaking through Cecil's protest. "To think that I took you in and raised you as a son! Now you can't even trust me. I can no longer entrust you with the command of the Red Wings. As of now, you are relieved of your post!"

Cecil took a step forward. "Your Majesty!"

The King's Guards immediately ran up and pushed Cecil back.

"Your new charge is to eliminate the Phantom Beasts that haunt the upper valley!" The King ordered.

Cecil tried to get past the Guard to continue talking, but they kept him back.

Just then, the door to the room opened and another man in dark armor stepped in. "Please wait!" Kain, the newcomer, said. "Cecil wasn't..."

The Guards shoved both of them back forcefully. The King got up and walked forward. "Kain, if you're so worried about Cecil, then go with him!"

"But your Majesty..." Cecil said, trying to protest again.

"I have nothing more to say!" The King interrupted. "Here! Take this ring and go!" he said, forcing the Bomb Ring on them.

"Your Majesty!"

The Guards shoved both of them out the door.

"Sorry for getting you mixed up in all this, Kain."

"Once you defeat those Phantom Beasts, His Majesty will surely forgive you," Kain answered. "And you will be reinstated as Commander of the Red Wings."

Kain told Cecil to get a good night's rest, and that he would take care of all the preparations.

"Hmm, nice name there... Kain," Discord said, testing the name.

Leon was finally able to control Cecil after Kain walked of the right side of the screen. "Uh, not sure where to go," he said.

"I think you go down a room, then off to the stairs on the left," Luna advised.

Leon moved into the previous room, noticing some chests off to the right. "Hold on." He went and pressed the A button on what looked like a switch next to the door. The door swung open immediately, and Leon quickly took what was inside the chests; 480 gold, an Ether, and a Tent.

"I'm not going to do any more exploration," Leon said. "I think there's one place where the treasure is off limits for now."

"Oh, well, in that case, go down the stairs to the upper left," Luna said.

Leon did so. However, before he could get to the door on the other side, a blond woman dressed in red followed after him and called Cecil's name.

"Oh, how cute!" Discord said, throwing out pink confetti from out of nowhere. "He has a girlfriend, and it's not even ten minutes into the game!"

Leon turned to Luna, who just rolled her eyes as if saying, Roll with it.

The woman, Rosa, apparently didn't have much to say, other than that she was going to visit Cecil's room later. Leon could have done without that bit of knowledge. It could have been innocent. On the other hand, it might not be, either.

Cecil walked out the door to the courtyard, where, on his way to his room, the Engineer Cid called for him; "You're back, Cecil!"

"Wow, he looks like someone who belongs in a motorcycle gang," Ed commented.

"Since when did you know what someone in a motorcycle gang looks like," Leon asked. "I didn't think they had those in Britain."

"Better believe they do."

"By the way, how are my lovely airships doing?" Cid was asking. "I don't want your crewmen abusing 'em... Hey, what's with that face?"

"To tell the truth, Cid..."

"What? Nobody besides you could command the Red Wings! Jeez, what's with the King recently?"

"How did he know? I... er, Cecil, didn't even tell him!"

"Just roll with it, Leon," Luna said.

At that moment, the door opened. Luna turned her head to see who it was. "Ah, dear sister, and the elements!"

"Just coming to see what you were up to," came Spike's voice.

"He was pretty excited about coming back here," Leon heard Twilight say.

Cid continued to get angry about his airships being turned into war machines before finally finishing with, "In any case, you be careful, hear? I'm going home. I've been spending a lot of time at work recently, and my daughter is giving me heck about it!" With that, the engineer walked through Cecil and out the door Cecil had just come out of.

"What a strange man," Discord said, shaking his head. "I think I might actually like him."

"Alright, I think I just go up to the top floor of the tower, and that should be my room," Leon said.

He did so, only stopping to talk to the maid, who was in the way, and after that continued on upstairs, crossing the room to get in bed.

"Can't imagine how uncomfortable it is to sleep in armor," Eddy said as the screen darkened a bit to indicate night had fallen. They watched as Cecil question his and the King's actions, and as Rosa entered the room.

Discord yawned. "Can we get to actually playing the game yet? This love stuff is all cliché." The others sighed.

After that particular scene had gone by, Cecil and Kain met in the morning, leaving through the front gates of the castle.

"Oh no, here comes the description for the game," Discord sighed as the screen changed again.

Leon was on the verge of asking him to stop interrupting the game, but then the following words appeared;

Thus, the Dark Knight Cecil was stripped of his command of the Red Wings. He and the Dragon Knight Kain were ordered to journey to Mist, a provincial village which lay beyond the mountains in a valley encased by a deep fog...

Airships... Flight had long been an unattainable dream of mankind. These vessels gave men the power to soar through the heavens. Soon, like all mankind's gifts, it became a tool of greed.

The country of Baron became the world's strongest military power through their airships, the Red Wings... But why would such a powerful country seek out the crystals? What power do they hold? Why does mankind corrupt every realization of it's dreams? And why are the monsters increasing, even in daylight?

The crystals shed their light silently...

"A rather harsh criticism of humans beings overall," Luna noted sadly. "Most of you aren't that bad."

"Hang on," Discord interrupted. "That's odd. There's more. I thought that was supposed to be it."

For to see the veil unfurled,

you yourself must prevail

against all tests sent your way

and live to fight day after day.

"What the heck does that mean?" Leon wondered out loud.

Suddenly, the controller began shaking between his fingers, and a bright, white light unfolded from the center.

"Drop it!" Luna yelled, shocked.

"I can't! It's like it's glued to me!" he said as he tried to let go.

Eddy jumped up and tried to pry the controller from Leon's grasp himself. "Hold on, mate, I'll get you out of this!"

Spike tired to pull the controller from the front, but no matter which way or how hard it was pulled, it wouldn't come off.

The light engulfed all three of them. Leon felt his head being pulled inexorably toward the controller.

"Ahhhhh.... Ahhhhh.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

He felt himself make contact, then all faded to black.

Everyone still in the room looked in shock at the suddenly empty space where two humans and a baby dragon had just occupied. No one, not even the supposed lord of chaos, could find anything to say or do in response. After sucking in Leon, Edward, and Spike, the controller had fallen to the floor with no further effects, as though it had always been that way.

Luna was the first to recover. "Discord," she said in the most dangerous low voice she could muster, "what did you do?"

"Even Discord was still in shock. "Why are you accusing me? I swear to whatever you consider pure that I know nothing of what just transpired!"

"Ah reckon ah believe him," Applejack said, after looking at him seriously. "He ain't playin' around like he usually is."

"Oh my," Fluttershy gasped, pointing a hoof at the screen, "look!"

The first thing that ran through Leon's mind was that the ground was unduly soft and wet on his faceThe next was that he felt a lot heavier than he should have been.

"Uuugh..." He tried pushing himself up, only to find that he was indeed much heavier than he should have been. It took much more work than he had anticipated to get himself to his feet. He looked down at his arm. "What the... Where did this armor come from?" His right arm was covered by blue-black, shiny metal. So was his left.... and his body, and legs, and feet.

He took a step back, and a visor clanged down in front of his face.

"What...?" he asked himself again. He pushed the visor back up and made sure it stayed there before looking around. All he could see in front of him was a grassy plain. "Okay, this has to be a joke or something. Luna!" he yelled. "Discord! Whatever this is, it isn't funny! Stop it!"

"Ya have to yell?" an English accented voice came from behind him.

"Huh?" Leon spun around. Edward was on the ground as well, also wearing black armor that was, if anything, even more extravagant than his own.

"Where... where in the actual fuck are we?"

"I don't know." Leon took another look around. Not much but desert of to one side, grasslands, some trees to the south... and a big town of to either side of them and a big castle to the north. "You'd have thought somebody sent us to a Final Fantasy Con as part of a joke, but... this feels different."

"What the hell is on my back?" Ed reached his left hand out over his back. It came back holding a spear. "Where did I get this?"

Leon reached down; on his left side was attached a darkly-colored sword and sword scabbier.

"Hold up," he said. "How did we get here, anyway?"

"My turn to say I don't know," Eddy said, removing his helmet for a moment and scratching his head. "Trying to remember..."

"That's right. We were playing the game, and then suddenly the controller went berserk on us."

"I was trying to hold you back, somehow you got pulled right into the bloody thing, and I started to follow. Last thing I can remember."

"I think... I think Spike was trying to help, too," Leon answered. "Can you see him?"

"Little purple guy, green spikes?" Eddy brought his hand to his brow and scanned the landscape. "Nope, don't see 'im."

"So maybe he's okay," Leon sighed. "I hope so. You, know, this place seems awfully familiar..."

Eddy snapped his fingers. "Remember back in Luna's room when the Red Wings came in to land?"

"I think so, but..." Leon froze. "Uh oh."

"Mmm-hmm. I think somehow or other, we got sucked into the game ourselves."

"But that's stupid!" Leon cried out. "Why would anyone make a game where the player gets sucked in without his notice and forces to play the game through in a world where characters can die!? And if we're in the game, why isn't everything in eight-bit 2D graphics?"

Ed chuckled. "Usually I'm the one losin' it." He scratched his head again. "Don't quite know who had the brilliant idea for this, but it probably wouldn't work very well, or be popular, if the players had to be 2D, or run around in a 2D world."

"But how? And who?"

"Don't rightly know, mate. All I can say is, we're in for one hell of a time."

Back in Canterlot Palace, several ponies and a dragonequus watched the dialogue between the two gamers, now trapped inside the game they had been playing. Everything they said was displayed in a blue box with white text, just as it had eariler. To those in the room, the game, and Leon and Eddy as a consequence, still appeared as it had beforehand, with slight differences; Leon, in Cecil's armor, had skin that appeared lighter than that of the original Cecil, while Eddy maintained a black head of hair.

"How could this happen!?!" Luna asked frantically, looking for something, anything, that would give them a clue about what had just occurred.

"Luna, calm down," Celestia insisted. "We need to be thinking logically."

Luna turned around, ready to argue, but before she could speak, another voice said, "Uh oh. I think I know who's responsible."

Everyone turned to look at Pinkie, who was next to the game and looking at the cartridge. "Look here, in small print," the party pony went on.

Just below the title and the announcement that the game had been re-translated from the J2e version was an even smaller text, saying;

Made and manufactured by the House of Enchanted Comics.

Author's Note

Hmm. I've noticed this story has gotten a rating of about 2:1 in likes/dislikes. I am not certain why.

Chapter 5; New world.. or maybe not so new

Luna was frantic. She slipped off her silver-blue shoes and began to bite her hooves; midnight-blue keratin flew in every direction.

"Luna!" Celestia exclaimed. "Stop that; at that rate, soon you won't be able to walk!"

"I'm sorry," Luna gasped out. "But my two best friends in the world have just been sucked into a deadly video game! They might die at any moment!" She continued hoof-biting.

"Please, calm down," Celestia urged, putting a hoof on her sister's shoulder. "We must think logically about this. Twi-" She turned to see Twilight sitting down, staring at the now motionless controller and breathing heavily. "Oh. Spike, too."

"W-what do we do?" Fluttershy stammered.

Celestia sat down a moment to think, tapping her chin with a hoof. "I suppose the first thing we ought to do is check with the House of Enchanted Comics to find out how to properly get them out. There must be somepony there who worked on the game." She gasped. "If they've made more games like this, others might be in identical jeopardy. Who knows if a pony or human or Griffon hasn't already fallen victim to this?"

"First, we all get sucked into a comic, and now this," Rainbow said, frowning and tapping the side of her head with a hoof. "What else could go wrong?"

"I wouldn't ask that if I were you, my dear," Discord warned. "People who say that often end up being sorry."

"Hmm, all I have is a sword and a shield," Leon observed, swinging the former around a little to get a feel for it.

"Can't say I'm pleased with the way things turned out," Edward returned. "I wasn't really looking to spending the next few weeks in a video game, to be honest. Especially one where we might, I don't know, snuff it."

"Whoever made this couldn't have been naïve enough to have left out a fail-safe. Not unless..."

"Yeah. Who said this... game, I suppose, was official? For all we know, this could have been an assassination attempt on Luna."

"Good thing we're armed, then."

"Yeah. I really, really hope we don't end up getting killed, but something tells me..."

"We have to play through the game, or part of it, to get out."

Ed nodded. "Basically."

"At least we start armed, then. I say go to the town and try to buy what we need. I think..." Leon reached back; suddenly, he found something that hadn't been there before. "Hmm!?!" He brought the object before him; it was a large, leather bag."

"Might be our inventory."

"It wasn't there a minute ago."

"I think it only comes when we want it to."

"Let's see..." Leon reached in, found something, and pulled it out. He was holding a handful of gold coins.

"So, that's our currency."

"There's all sorts of potions and things in here as well," Leon continued, pulling out a blue bottle and a yellow one. Both had the same shape; only the different colors told them apart. Before he could ask, the words "Potion/Cure 1" appeared under the blue and "Heal" appeared under the other. "Guess that answers that question."

"I think we heal if we get affected by something, cure or potion if we take damage."

"And how would that work?"

"Don't rightly know. I'm hoping we don't find out, but then, I'd say that leveling up is necessary, and the only way to do that is win battles, and..."

"Take damage," Leon said unhappily. "That's going to suck. I don't know what it's going to be like, but I know it's gonna suck."

"Yeah. Well, I don't know what else there is to say, other than get to it."

"I might know something to say," Leon said, feeling a rising sense of mischief in spite of the situation.

"Oh, what?"

Leon took a deep breath.

"AMERICA, FRAG YEAH!" said the text box as the eight-bit version of Leon raised it's fist in the air.

Luna felt an odd urge to laugh, in spite of the fact she hated foul language and that her two best friends were currently trapped in a game. Leon had always had a sense of patriotism that she found both admirable and odd; a steadfast loyalty to both the United States as well as Brittany. To see something partly ordinary about him - however vulgar - was a little calming.

She looked down. She could still walk, but her front hooves were going to have to wait until the keratin grew back of it's own accord to look normal without her shoes on. Her shoes were able to hide it, but even a hooficure couldn't make this kind of self-inflicted damage look proper.

"Yes," Celestia said into the phone nearby. "They were just playing when they got... Yes, we want to know how to get them out... Wait, what?" She looked up at her sister. "They said they'll have to wait to-"

The Solar Princess was surprised when the phone was jerked out of her magical grasp. "Do you know who I am?" Luna asked in a dangerous voice.

"P-Princess Luna," said a startled, youthful voice on the other end. "What a surprise! It's an honor to meet your lady-"

"Do you realize," Luna continued, cutting through the praise, "that two visitors to Equestria and a citizen of said country have been drawn into a game that your company altered?"

"Y-yes, my Lady. Howev-"

"And do you also realize that they are three of my closest friends and companions?" she asked, her voice getting lower but all the more dangerous.

"I... was... not... informed, no..."

"Luna," Celestia warned.

However, an unbridled rage had come over the Lunar Princess. "You will tell me, right now, how to retrieve them..." Her eyes flashed white. "OR I SHALL SEE TO IT THAT NOT ONLY ARE ALL YOUR DREAMS AND THOSE OF YOUR CO-WORKERS UNPROTECTED, BUT THAT EVERYPONY WORKING IN YOUR ESTABLISHMENT SHALL HAVE THE WORST NIGHTMARES POSSIBLE FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES!"

"Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu..." The voice on the other end gulped, a sound easily audible, even over the phone.

"Do you understand!?!"

"Y.... Yes, P-Princess," the pony on the other end stuttered; it was clear, from the sound of his voice, that he had broken into tears.

"Good." Luna felt surprisingly faint after her outburst. As she set the phone down, she felt tears come to her eyes. Before she knew it, she was sobbing uncontrollably. She felt her sister's wings fold around her, embracing her in a caring hug.

"Oh, Luna..." Celestia held her sister tight as she continued to cry and nuzzled her gently. "We'll get them out, I swear to you."

After several minutes, the two sisters finally broke away from one another. "Now come on," Celestia said in a reassuring way, "let's find out how to get them back."

Eddy slapped himself, hard, in the face, his hand covering his eyes and forehead. "Really?" he asked, slowly sliding his hand down his face. "Really? The only thing you can think of is a moronic super-patriotic meme about a redneck country? Really?"

"Yes, really. 'Britain, Fuck yeah' just doesn't have the same flair."

"Not least because no one would be stupid enough to say something like that!" Ed shook himself. "Enough of this. Do we go back to town or not?"

Leon looked in the inventory bag again. "I think we have what we need for now."

"Has it occurred to you that we might die if we don't have all we need?"

"Oh, come on. Would they really make a product where somebody using it could actually die?"

"How do we know it's official? What if it really was meant for the Princess as some sort of assassination attempt of some sort?"

"And they provide us with swords and stuff?"

"I don't know why, maybe they're just nutters who want their victim to suffer before they die, like how predators play with their food."

"I have my doubts. Who would want a beloved ruler dead?"

"The Changeling queen, for one. She seems like the kind who would want something like that."

"Whatever the case, staying here obviously isn't working."

"Right. So, where do we go?"

Leon thought about that. "I think the King said something about the village or land of Mist."

"Do you think it's possible that we could go and take over his castle and become kings ourselves?"

"Yeah... no. I think anyone who made this, trap or not, would have set safeguards into it so we can't just do whatever we want."

Eddy shrugged. "Eh, it was worth a shot. Rightio; Mist it is."

"Alright." Leon pulled his backpack out and reached into it. "There has to be a map or something in here... potion," he said, drawing out the item in question. "Life potion." Again, he tugged out the object, then pulled out a bread-like object with something carved into it. "And Dwarfbread."

"What the hell is Dwarfbread?"

"I don- Whoooaaaaa!"

It was an odd feeling. Physically, he knew he was still in the same place and position, but his vision had inexplicably risen above everything, above seas and skies, above the entire world. He could see flashing dots, all with names next to them.

He felt his hands, however far below, drop the bread, and suddenly he felt his vision slide back into place.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Leon put a hand to the side of his armored head. "That was weird."

"What happened?"

"Here." Leon handed him the Dwarfbread.

"Whoa," he heard Eddy say; the Briton's eyes became unfocused for a moment, then slid back into place as he came back down to Earth. "Yeah, that's what I'd call weird."

"I think I glimpsed Mist to our Northwest, with a cave that we have to go through to get there."

"Oh joy. I guess there's no avoiding it, though, is there?"

"Unless Princess Luna and the others can find a way to get us out, I think we have to play. Kind of like the giant chess game in Harry Potter."

"And presumably get bashed around a lot, like Ron did."

"Hopefully. The early monsters should be easy, though."

"Alright, Northwest it is."

The two gamers started walking, each wondering what was to come.

"We made the game to be modeled off our comics, only more so. Upon realizing that it was extremely popular among humans, we decided, after taking a look at the game and it's gameplay, to recreate the magic, and have a game one could play out."

"And you didn't think to put a warning on the cartridge?" Celestia asked, the specter of a threat looming in her speech.

"We didn't ignore the risk. We added numerous warnings that the player would, after going through the prologue, would be transported into the game itself."

Celestia turned to her sister. "Is that true?"

"I didn't check, sister. I hadn't assumed anything like this would happen. And few read the manuals these days anyway."

Celestia turned back to the phone, not knowing whether to put more blame on her sister or the game developer. "You didn't answer my actual question; did you put a warning on the cartridge itself?"

"...No, Princess, we did not."

"What about on the box?"

"We did."

"In small or large print?"

"Ummm... s-s-small, Your Highness."

"And why did you make that decision?"

"Because... well... We assumed that players would take the time to read what was on the box in it's full, as well as the modified manual we added with it."

Celestia sighed. "Warnings aside, did you at least ensure a way for the players to leave the game once inside?"

Silence.

"Answer me!"

She heard the voice on the other end gulp loudly. "Um... we thought they'd know what they were getting into."

"What do you mean by that?"

"We... designed the game... for the players to play it through to... the end."

"WHAT?"

"We.. we had previously designed our comics for the reader to player through from the point we had them start from, so we assumed it would be sufficient for games as well."

Celestia face-hoofed. The clopping sound could be heard throughout the room. "And you didn't consider that it would take days, if not weeks, for those stuck in the game to finish?"

"Our... our... our spells would have been... d-d-d-difficult to modify-"

"You should have taken the time, then," Celestia said, in a quiet but very dangerous voice. "Tell me how the spell that brings readers and gamers into the media item."

"When it was placed on comics, Your H-H-Highness, the spell was activated when a certain phrase was read by the reader. It was a spell that was linear, one that could not be reversed unless the reader went through the adventure and finished it in their own time. It would have been inefficient to try modifying it to break up the adventure into more than one, er, reading."

"So because you were lazy and didn't look for other solutions, ponies and other beings without proper knowledge get sucked in and have to hope they can defeat whatever villains you placed in them."

"Lazy is a bit strong-"

"How does the spell apply to the game?"

"In... in a very similar manner. It would have been even harder to get the spell to work over multiple playthroughs if we tried breaking it up so that the player could engage and disengage from it at will."

"Is there anyway to disengage the spell from outside the game or book?"

Again, silence.

"You will answer the question."

"We... er..."

"You have no idea."

"N-no. P-P-P-Princess."

Celestia sighed again, much more forcefully. "Then you better try finding one. That's not a suggestion or a request."

"Y-y-y-yes, Your Highness."

"Another thing; how dangerous would the game be to the actual players who were sucked into it?"

"Ah, that. We placed numerous safeguards to ensure that no real bodily harm would come to those playing the game."

"What does 'no real bodily harm' entail?"

"Well... seeing as we didn't test the thing personally-"

"You didn't even TEST it?"

"Not p-p-p-personally. We used similar safeguards as in our comics, designed to allow the blow to be felt, but not be fatal or anything close to it. Anyone in the game would be safe."

"What about food and water?"

"They would find those in the game, as well as other items that would help them."

"And what happens if their health should reach zero?"

"There... there is a spell that will automatically knock them unconscious until they were brought back by a life spell or life potion."

"What if the game were to be turned off from the outside? beyond a save point?"

"In that case, they would be teleported back to the last point where they saved, to camp until the game were turned back on. They... they would not die, I assure you, we took many precautions-"

"And yet you didn't bother testing the game yourselves."

"...No. We thought that it would take a considerable amount of time for the testers to beat the game, cutting down on other projects and making us lose profits as a result."

"Again, lazy as all get out. You thought of the money and effort such a test would take as opposed to actually making sure the thing would work as intended when launched. What if the spells that apply well to a comic come under stress or break when applied to a video game?"

"That... that c-could not happen."

"Which means you didn't think of it."

"We didn't believe that the spells we placed for safety could break-"

"Why didn't you test them, them? No, don't bother answering that, I know the answer; money and time, and I'm assuming to avoid that oh-so-tiny chance that something could go wrong by leaving it to the gamers to play through it. I'm suspending the monetary assets of your company."

"W-what? No! You can't..."

"Try me. Furthermore, you will cooperate with my student to find a way to get her assistant and my sister's best friends out of the game. And I would heavily advise that you not try and resist legally, or do something else absurdly foolish. I have more than enough strength to fight you in court and win. The closure of your company and seizure of it's assets would follow. Know that I will be keeping a very close eye on this project, to make sure you do not try to get around the boundaries I've set up."

"But how are we supposed to get anything done?"

"You have enough to pay your employees. You won't be allowed to spend that money on anything else until you've fixed this problem. Are we clear?"

"Y-yes, Princess."

"Good." She turned to Twilight. "As I said, you'll be working with them to try to find a way to get Spike, Leon, and Edward out of their predicament."

"Of course!" the young lavender unicorn said.

"I know you might have strong feelings, considering that your assistant and two friends were sucked into a video game, but I must advise you not to let your feelings get in the way of their extraction. Can I trust you on that?"

"I.. I think so, Princess."

"Alright then. Get started at once."

"We'll help ya, Twi," Applejack volunteered. The other Bearers nodded in agreement.

"Oh, thank you," Twilight said, relieved. "Let's get started."

"Gotta admit though, their reaction to the Dwarfbread was hilarious," Rainbow said as they left the room. The doors closed behind them, cutting off the rest of the conversation.

"I hope Twilight can solve the problem," Celestia said aloud.

"I fear that even she might not be able to find a solution," Luna answered. And if not... if not, my friends will have to beat the game in order to win, and some of the enemies are insanely powerful."

"We'll save them, sister; I promise." Celestia gently nuzzled her younger sibling, and hoped that her words would prove true.

"I hope this doesn't take too long," Eddy said.

"I don't think it will..."

Suddenly, a shadow descended from above.

"Look out!" Leon shoved Eddy to the ground.

"What the-"

"Move!"

Leon picked himself up quick and drew his sword. Before him, two large, flying creatures floated; they were essentially giant eyeballs with wings and claws attached. He heard Eddy get up and draw his weapon as well.

"Oh, bugger..."

Chapter 6; First fighting

Leon took up his shield on his left arm. One of the flying eyeballs attacked with a thin beam of energy, striking his armor.

"Ow!" The pain wasn't severe, but it was a surprise. He angrily lashed out; his sword ripped right through the monster, which faded and winked out of existence.

Eddy quickly rallied, getting up off the ground. Apparently without thinking about it, he jumped... and was suddenly hundreds of feet in the air.

"WHOA!"

Leon watched, with no small amount of terror, as Eddy began to fall back down. However, the Briton managed to keep enough wits about him to try hitting the other monster before he hit the ground. To their surprise and shock, Eddy didn't suddenly go splat on the ground; instead, he just stopped when his feet touched it. The spear had torn right through the beast; it faded away just like it's comrade.

"I honestly can't believe that I survived that," Ed said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Neither can I; I don't study the law of physics, but I'd say you broke several of them just now. How does it feel to be a criminal?"

"It feels pretty good, actually. I reckon I could do that again. Maybe having these powers isn't all that bad."

"It isn't, especially when you consider that it's all we've got. Hmm. I know I just got hit by that eye demon. That means I lost health," Leon went on, "but how much did I- oh," he added, as two sets of numbers appeared on the palm of his hand.

"One's white, one's blue," Eddy observed. "If I remember right, the blue represents MP, while the white represents HP."

"Looks like I lost a couple points of health," Leon said. He wondered how to make the numbers disappear; no sooner had he thought it than they did disappear.

"At least we know how to discern our own health and magic points."

"Right. Still, we have to get to... Mist, wasn't it? Well, best to get going."

"Yeah. Hopefully, Luna is coming up with a way to get us both out of this before we encounter worse."

If only it were that simple, Luna thought in response to the speech bubbles coming from the two. She was relieved that both of them had survived the brief battle, but she was worried about Leon, who had lost three health points when he'd been hit.

The knowledge that they possessed the powers of the characters they had replaced was reassuring, but she knew that the deeper they got into the game, the more powerful the enemies they would encounter. That's how role playing games worked.

Twilight and her friends had already set off for the HEC's headquarters; she earnestly hoped they would be able to find a way out of this mess. From the information the pony on the other end of the phone line had given, it would be difficult, especially considering that the mix of magic and technology hadn't even been tested. That thought brought a surge of anger rising, and she had to work to stifle it. The House of Enchanted Comics would never put anypony - anyone - into this sort of situation again. Ever. She was determined on that.

Poor Spike had had to go through this twice now. There had still been no sign of the young dragon. Twilight had been very eager to try almost anything to free her assistant. She viewed him like... like a mother viewed her children, and Spike returned her affection. After all, ever since he had hatched, he had been with her, pretty much her foster son. Their bond was very close.

Our bonds will get us through this crisis. Somehow or other, they must. I... wouldn't want to see the look on Mrs. Berthier's face if I had to tell her...

She resolutely pushed that thought away and looked at the screen. The screen was now on a global map, with an image of a man walking - it kept flickering between Cecil and Kain - in the direction of a cave to the west. She felt frustrated that they could not coordinate their plans and that she had to watch them try to make it on their own. It wasn't the worst idea ever conceived, though. Given that Twilight and company had had to fight their way through a comic book, the plan made sense. The difference was, as opposed to hours, the whole story would take days, if not a week or more, to get through, and then there was all too likely to be an all-powerful boss at the end that might hold them up for some time.

If only I could find a way to communicate with them... even if I wasn't able to get them out, I might be able to go online and find information on the major enemies they'll be facing and give that to them. It would save them a great deal of pain, at least. It was impossible, at least right now, so they had no means of communication.

However... Her eyes lingered over the controller. Maybe if I can't direct them via communication, maybe I can control their actions. As far as I can tell, the spell with only suck someone in if they have physically touch it, or, in the case of the comic book, read something and invoke the spell. If I grasp the controller with magic, instead of my hooves, I might be able to play the game, and, in so doing, control them. It would hardly be comfortable for Edward and Leon, but we need them to get out alive.

She gripped the controller with her magic. "Let's see," she said aloud. "I think it's the control pad for direction..."

"What the!" Leon said as his legs suddenly twisted northward.

"Bloody hell!" Eddy exclaimed as his legs began moving in the same direction.

Leon tried to stop his legs from moving, but found that they were completely outside his control. His arms and head remained within his control, but that was hard comfort when one was unable to keep oneself from moving at all. He set his arms to his legs in an effort to stop them, but his legs simply pressed on regardless of the pressure put on them; in fact, it was like trying to stop a tank with his bare arms.

"Ugh, come on!" he said as he bent over in an effort to give put more pressure on his legs, only to get a knee to the face for his trouble. "Ow!" he straightened up and put his hands on his nose.

"What the hell is going on?" Eddy shouted.

"I don't know! Maybe it was a side effort those monsters gave us!"

"Early monsters, doing something like this?"

Leon rethought the idea and realized his friend had a point. "Well, what else could it be!?"

"It's like my body from the hip downward had a mind of its own; maybe it's someone in the real world using the controller!"

"How could they do that without being sucked in themselves?"

"Maybe its Twilight or Luna with magic. Those controllers aren't meant for hooves."

"Whoever or whatever it is, STOP IT!"

"Too late!" Eddy yelled, pointing. "More monsters!"

Luna saw the screen twitch, then flip to a battle scene, like the ones during the prologue. She felt a wrench of terror in her heart as two moths appeared behind two more floating eyeballs.

Oh dear, what if I mess this up!? They don't have much health to begin with!

She shuddered as Leon-Cecil flashed, having been hit by one of the giant moths. Panicking now, she quickly hit the "Dark Wave" option. Leon-Cecil raising his sword, pointing it at the enemy while turning the rest of his body away. A wave of energy struck three of the enemies, destroying them, while Leon suffered damage.

"Ow!"

How did he get hurt? He wasn't even hit by any of them! Wait... could that be a result of the attack itself? I'd heard that some RPG games have attacks that are designed as a double-edged sword. Oh dear!

It was Edward-Kain's turn now. She selected the jump option, which sent him into the air. The remaining enemy flashed, but missed Eddy, who the monster had targeted. Moments later, Edward came down, delivering a ferocious slash on the moth, which flashed and vanished.

The music changed to one of victory, as the game informed her of the results.

"Oh bother..."

"Perhaps it would be wiser to let them go forth on their own for now," Celestia suggested, having seen the whole thing.

"But... what about the ultra-powerful bosses and monsters they'll face? They won't have enough foreknowledge to deal with them!"

"I know. However, unless they meet one, I'd suggest letting them tackle the problems they face on their own."

"But..."

"They'll be more comfortable this way, and they're gamers, like you. They'll be able to figure things out on their own."

"What about Spike, though? We've seen neither claw nor scale of him."

"Perhaps we'll find him later on. Remember, there's an entire world inside that game, an entire planet. I'd be surprised, though pleasantly so, if they found him in the area the player could currently explore."

Luna sighed. "I'm sorry, sister. I'm just so worried about them. I wanted to keep them safe."

"I understand, but your solution was basically to become a puppet master. They're okay, and the investigation is going to get results; I promise you that."

Twilight felt a surge of anger as the manager - the pony who had been on the other end of the phone - said, "I am sorry, but that's just not possible. We can't just give out our ideas-"

She cut him off. "Princesses Celestia and Luna commanded you to cooperate with us, and you're going to do just that. Our friends have been forced to participate in your game in a method that was against their will. You will help us in finding a way to retrieve them... or," she said, a forceful tone entering her voice, "these gentlecolts will escort you to the palace jail." She heard the hoofsteps of a couple Royal Guards behind her as they stepped up.

"I... I... I have no choice," the manager said, head drooping. "I will comply, but let it be noted that its under protest."

"Be it noted that nopony cares," Twilight snarled, remembering the moment when poor Spike, her little brother of another species, was sucked into the game. "Now, what can you tell us?"

"As you no doubt know from our conversation with the Princesses, we modified the spell we use on our comic books and utilized it on the game. These human consoles are old by their standards, but they're up to date by our own native technology. It was easy to modify Final Fantasy IV, as we had done it on pony games successfully."

"Wait, you've done this before? I thought you said you hadn't tested it?"

"We... we didn't, not really... But the gamers we sold them to didn't complain, so we figured nopony minded."

"A big mistake... continue."

"Right, Anyway, we heard that Final Fantasy IV was really popular, especially a version that was already modified, by some J2L or something. It had a lot of expletives, which we largely removed. We placed our spell on the games and began to sell them. Apparently, somepony got one and decided to sell it on eBay, where I presume Princess Luna got it."

"Who was... never mind, we can find that out later. Why did you assume the ponies, or humans, should they end up purchasing it, would know beforehoof that the game was enchanted?"

"We included it in the manuals we made, printed it on the box, what more could you want?"

"And you didn't make a way for them to leave once the game was started?"

"We assumed-"

"There it is again. You keep assuming ponies will know what your products will do. My friends and I were sucked into a comic book without any warning whatsoever. if not for my friend, who is a victim of your game, by the way, we'd have been stuck there for the foreseeable future! Your comics had inadequate and vague warnings, if you could call them as such, and now you're trying every way possible to worm your way of out the trouble you caused yourselves! I'm not taking any more evasions; you'll help us save our friends, or you will go to jail and we'll close down your company!"

"Twi, darlin'," Applejack said, putting a hoof on her friend's shoulder, "ya gotta calm down. Ya ain't doin' Spike, Leo, an' Eddy any favors if ya lose yer temper like this."

Twilight took a deep breath before sighing. "You're right, Applejack." Then she turned back to the panicking manager. "Help us, now."

"S-sure thing. If you'll just follow me."

They walked through the facility, which was full of bookcases, which, unsurprisingly, were full of books, including many comics. After ascending a staircase and reaching the top floor, the group entered a room full of gaming consoles. Three unicorns, an earth pony, and a pegasus, all male, sat glumly around a table in the middle. They nodded, unsurprised, as Twilight, her friends, and a squad of the Royal Guard came in.

"This is our team responsible for the spells we use in our products," the manager said, "as well as for the tech we use, as well as the combination of technology and magic."

"Good evening, ladies and-"

"Spare us the goody goody stuff," Rainbow interrupted, flying into the face of the unicorn, a cream-colored stallion, who had been talking. "Just tell us how to save our friends!"

"Y-y-yes." Although unsurprised, the group wasn't unafraid. With five Royal Guards standing by to make necessary arrests, they had reason to be, and the threat of having eternal, terrible nightmares the rest of their days hung over their heads like... like... the sword of Damocles. Twilight felt a bit of satisfaction at remembering that phrase, all the more since it was relevant to the current situation. "We have been told by our superiors to cooperate with you in every detail."

"That's gratifying, seeing as your manager was unwilling to do so," Twilight replied. "Now, tell us; how do we retrieve our friends? And I mean as soon as possible!"

"Hmm. Yes, that. Unfortunately, that might be somewhat difficult. The spell we place on our comics and games are designed to keep the reader, or, in this case, the gamer, inside. It would be intensely difficult for even a unicorn to break out from the inside."

"So you basically jail ponies in your works, assuming they will be able to get out on their own merits."

"Well, I wouldn't say we jail people, but the whole thing is designed as a challenge, and the user is not in mortal danger; we made sure of that when we cast our spell."

"Does it protect them from, say, falling off a building? Or being jabbed by something?"

"It prevents them from being killed or permanently injured, yes. If you fell of a building in one of our comics, for example, you'd feel some sense of pain, to be sure, but your bones wouldn't be broken."

"Well, that's a relief. Still, that doesn't answer the question of how to get them out, which is the whole reason for us being here."

"I have a theory on that," a dark blue unicorn said. "While the spell cannot be broken from the inside, it may be possible to break it from the outside."

"Then what are we waiting for?"

"Because its only a theory, with no guarantee it would work. The combination of technology and magic makes the issue more complicated, as sometimes the mix can react in strange and unpredictable ways. For all we know, we could end up killing your friends if we tried to extract them by this method, so I'd use it only as a last resort."

"But what other way, besides their finishing the game, would there be?"

"The method my colleague outlined," the red unicorn in the group said, "would rely on brute force to batter through our spell. We may be able to siphon them out or somehow fast forward the game so that it reaches its end faster." He scratched his chin with a hoof. "it would be easier if they had been sucked into a human computer or laptop, as then we would be able to modify the game's code much, much more easily. The only way to do that with Final Fantasy IV is to remove the cartridge from the console, which... well, we don't know exactly what that would do."

"Wouldn't it be the same as simply having the game turned off?" Twilight asked, frowning. "The manager we called said that the players in the game wouldn't be at risk."

"Yes, normally I'd feel confident expressing the idea that this course would be safe, but again, there are a lot of variables that we aren't sure of at this point in time."

"Hey, Twilight!" Pinkie said, speaking up for the first time in a while, "you once went back in time using a spell in the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing of the library. Why can't you just go back in time and stop Luna, Leon, and Eddy from playing the game in the first place?"

Twilight started to smile, for a split second sure they'd found a cure and an urge to tell Pinkie she was a genius, but then she remembered something vital about that particular spell, and the smile disappeared before it was truly born. "It only works once for anypony that casts it," she said, "after which they can never use it again. You said that yourself when you gave it to me, remember?"

"Oh," the pink pony said, lowering her head in disappointment; her mane seemed to deflate slightly. "Sorry."

"I could try it," Rarity suggested.

"Are you certain you could do it?" Twilight asked her. "It was even more complicated than the spell I used to give you wings. If you got it wrong, the results could be even more disastrous than being sucked unwillingly into a video game."

"Hmm, I suppose you have me there," the white unicorn said. "As much as I wish it were otherwise, I know my magic isn't up to par with yours, as least not in the area we're speaking of."

"Thank you, both of you. But time travel isn't the answer to our problem." Twilight turned back to the group sitting at the table. "Any more ideas?"

"The main issue is getting them out without killing them or injuring them in the process," the cream unicorn said. "Assuming we skip the brute force effort, which is essence would be ripping through the spell we placed, our best chance it to try siphoning them out, which is a more indirect method and will take more time, but it could be possible."

"I assume we'll have to go with you to examine the problem," the pegasus, with a coat of reddish-brown, stated.

"Yes. You're all coming with us. The manager too. Right now. We're going to retrieve them, and we're not going to give up until we succeed in getting them back."

"That was weird," Leon said as they walked towards a large opening in the mountain ahead.

"Not as queer as just waltzing into a giant cave that looks as if its misty inside. Hopefully there isn't anything inside to be afraid of, although my experience with the FF series is that they usually have a boss near the beginning of the game, like Garland in the first game."

"Yeah. Those bosses usually require some sort of action to beat, I can't remember off the top of my head just what it was supposed to be. Otherwise, they're typically easy, at least in comparison to other bosses later on in the game."

"Agreed, but still..."

The inside of the cave was full of a white mist; it was everywhere, not quite blocking their vision out entirely, but it was still hard to see.

"Oh great," Eddy muttered. "Do we have to have to wander blindly through this blasted, bloody cave?"

"No, wait," Leon said slowly. "I think I can see through this; just barely, though."

"I think I can too," Ed said after a moment. "Still feels weird. And Sod's Law says anything that can go wrong will."

"Let's hope Sod was wrong."

They walked through the cave, avoiding rocks and trying to stick to the path. They weren't entirely successful. Twice Leon tripped over something and he kept hitting rocks that happened to be in his way. Eddy didn't fare any better, and three times, they went off course for a few minutes before managing to find their way again. Oh, and the monster attacks were particularly unpleasant, as they were ambushed numerous times. Luckily, the enemy didn't get off more than a few hits which didn't do all that much damage.

"Wow," Leon said after the last such encounter. "I feel... reinvigorated, like I never took any damage in the first place. Maybe better."

"Check your stats real fast."

Leon did so, bringing up his arm. "Wait, these numbers were lower last time I checked."

"Congrats, mate, I think you leveled up!"

"Oh, right. I'd forgotten that happens."

"Turn back!"

"What...? Leo, you hear that?"

"I sure did. Sounded kinda like Luna when she's using the RCV, only a little softer and with more echo added to it."

"Turn back, or you will be doomed!"

"Oi! Stuff it! Not like we have any other way to go anyway."

"I doubt it will respond," Leon said. "It's likely just a voice programmed into the game. I doubt they changed that much about it."

"Sort of dull, if you think about it that way. Not even a shred of life of its own."

"Yeah, but let's go. We have to get through this cave."

They continued on. There were no more monster attacks, but if anything, after hearing the voice, the silence was all the more ominous. They climbed a set of stairs.

"I can see the exit!" Leon shouted.

"At last, an end to this stinking place!"

Suddenly, the voice came again; "Knights of Baron, turn back; this is your last warning! Do you still wish to continue?"

"Come out of this bleeding fog and face us!" Eddy shouted.

"Then I have no choice. I must do what I must."

The mist began to move; Leon gave a shout of surprise as it gathered. The formerly incoherent fog combined into a solid form. Blocking the doorway, large and surrounded by mist, a white dragon stood and roared in defiance.

"Oh dear," Ed murmured, drawing his spear as Leon drew his sword and shield. "We might be a little in over our heads."

Luna watched, fear for her friends consuming her as she said, "Oh dear," in an unconscious echo of Edward.

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long. My other stories were taking priority over this one until very recently.

Chapter 7; Accidental manslaughter

"Come on, mate, let get it!" Ed shouted. "We can take this blighter!" With that, he leaped into the air.

Leon didn't know whether they could defeat the dragon, but fighting was their only option. He drew his sword and slashed at the dragon; a thin veil of mist came from the wound before it sealed again.

The beast roared. it lashed out at him with a front claw. He raised his shield, but wasn't fast enough to block the hit to his arm. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" He dropped the shield and grabbed at the injury. However, the pain disappeared almost as quickly as it came.

Get a hold of yourself, man. You'll face worse monsters than this later on. He ducked under a second blow and retrieved the shield before counterattacking. He got a good hit on the claw that had hit him.

The dragon opened its mouth; a stream of water spewed from its mouth, striking him and knocking him to the ground. The water itself scalded him - not with heat, but with freezing cold.

When the stream of water ceased, he got up quickly. As Eddy began to descend from his jump, Leon jabbed the dragon in the throat, hoping that the area he hit would have an effect and end the fight.

No such luck. The dragon struck again, just before the Briton came down, slashing the monster from head to chest. It screamed with rage and pain, and struck Eddy with a blow that knocked him into the cave wall.

"ARRRGH!"!"

"DIE!" Leon yelled, attacking again. The monster saw him coming and shifted, and he missed his target.

"Okay," Eddy said, getting up. "No more being a nice bloke, take that!"

He stabbed at the dragon... which turned to mist seconds before he hit it.

"What the bleedin' fuck?" he said, shocked, as he withdrew the spear. Moments later, a sheet of ice-cold water lashed out from the mist, shoving him several feet backward.

Leon attacked as well, but it as if there was nothing there; his sword met no resistance whatsoever as it went through the fog. A second later, he was blasted off his feet once again.

Damn! Where does this water come from? Its as cold as fire is hot! Colder, even! His armor clattered as he struck the ground. He shivered, but even as he did so, the water vanished.

"Brrrrrr! Damn!"

"How are we supposed to damage it like this?" Eddy asked.

"Hold on. Luna, or whoever it was controlling us earlier, made me do something with my sword. Maybe that's what I'm supposed to do. Let's see..."

Leon took the same stance he had been forced to take earlier. He felt the energy building up within him as he directed his sword toward the mist. With a cry of pain as the energy went forth, he sent the blue wave of power toward the enemy.

It did absolutely nothing, other than impact on the side of the cave opposite them, causing a small explosion. This time, the water that came forth struck both of them, yet again throwing them to the ground. Leon tried to jump over it, but the water hit his legs and he landed awkwardly and painfully on his belly.

"Note to us, and especially to you; don't try that again," Eddy muttered.

"Yeah... not a good idea," Leon agreed.

"How do we hurt this thing as long as its stuck as a bleedin' fog?"

"I think... all we can do," Leon said, out of breath, "is.. wait for it... to revert. Look, its already gathering again!" He pointed.

The mist was indeed coming back into one form. The dragon coalesced from the fog, roaring again in challenge.

"Right then. Lets get his miserable sod." Ed jumped again, while Leon struck the beast with his sword.

The dragoon continued to counterattack, although Leon was able to block a few of its blows and even dodge a couple of them. Eddy landed two more blows with his spear before the dragon transformed back into mist.

"What now?"

"Potions." Leon took one for himself and threw one to Eddy. Leon popped the cover open and drank. The potion tasted like a mix of Pepsi and vanilla ice cream. All too soon it was gone, but he felt himself getting stronger, and when he checked, his health was back to full again.

"Watch it, the bugger's transforming again!" Eddy warned as the dragon became solid once more.

"YAAAAAAA!" Leon slashed at the dragon, hitting it in the belly. To the shock of both of them, the monster turned purple and faded with a sound like that of an 8-bit explosion.

Leon dropped to the ground, as the strain of the battle caught up with him. As he sat down, Eddy leaned again the wall, panting from the effort he had put into the fighting.

"Man, what a fight," Leon said.

"Not a bad way to start the day," Ed agreed. "Hopefully, we don't have to do it again."

After a few moments, Leon said, "Let's get out of this freaking cave before another one of those things comes back."

"Ditto."

They both walked outside. "Ah, that sun feels so good compared to that stinking cave," Leon exclaimed.

"I wonder if the sun ever goes down in this version of the game. Wouldn't be such a good thing for us, but still, realism and all that."

"If you wanted realism, we could have been sucked into something like World at War."

"Yeah, no thanks. I don't want my arms being blown off by an MP40 or a rifle grenade, thank you very much." After a moment, the Englishman added, "This is the other side. Look," he said, pointing. "Those mountains weren't there when we entered. And..." He looked to his right, then to his left. "Ah, there's the Mist Village."

"Good. We can rest there."

"Assuming nothing goes wrong."

Luna sighed with relief as the dragon died. "You're safe for the moment, my friends." She had been afraid for Leon and Edward during the battle. The dragon had been surprisingly weak, though. No doubt they couldn't tell the difference between major and minor damage, but the beast's attacks hadn't been anywhere near as damaging as she'd expected from a boss battle.

"At least Spike wasn't here to see this," she thought out loud. That could have been bad. He hadn't read the old human legends, but dragons were generally depicted as evil creatures on Earth. Of course, dragons weren't always the kindest or most considerate of people in Equestria, either, not that Spike liked to think about that.

She watched as the two walked into the town without any further incident. "Maybe they can rest after all," she said. However, moments later, she watched in shock at the events that transpired.

Twilight felt her natural curiosity bloom forth as she examined the papers detailing the spell while the group walked. She was not only impressed with it, but amazed. It was extremely complex, more so than any other spell she had ever seen, with the exception of the ones on the time scrolls, and even those were rivaled by the spell she was looking at. In fact, normally, it would take at least two unicorns to provide the amount of energy required for the magic to take effect, which explained why so few of the games the HEC had made had been produced. It was hardly an efficient spell energy-wise - the amount required would kill a single unicorn working on it - but it clearly worked. Some of the papers were plans for how to modify the spell to make it more efficient and require less energy, but these were unfinished and were mostly theoretical.

If it weren't for the fact that Spike, Leon, and Edward were victims of this spell, I would be all over them about it. As it is...

As it was, she still had trouble keeping her anger in. Her curiosity and amazement over the spell was kept in check.

"How does this spell take effect once it is cast?"

"Don't those papers tell you?" the red unicorn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It goes over the mechanics of how it works, yes, but the image of how it takes effect escapes me. Its the difference between writing down the algebra used to help construct a building and the building itself."

"Ah, I see. Well, first off, you need to understand, when using it to make one of our comics, the spell is more efficient. For some reason, when we apply to video games, the whole computerization and electronics part of the product, for a reason we have not yet been able to discover, provides a blockage. A single unicorn can work on a comic, though the toll is still somewhat taxing. Its the difference between traffic on a major highway and cluttered mess you find in the middle of a city."

"I understand. Continue."

"The spell required a lot of work. In addition to making an animated world a living entity, provide safety for the user, and create a storyline that the non-user characters will stick to, as well as making them respond to user activity requires a massive amount of attention and energy. That all combined with the whole transference of magic to technology issue, and the effort leaves the unicorns involved exhausted from the effort."

"I see. Any theories on how to take out anypony who is already inside the thing?"

"I've been trying, miss. it's not so easy to think, though, when you're trying to walk through the capital at night, with the threat of jail and permanent nightmares hanging over your head."

"Yes, well, imprisoning the friends of the Princess of the Night in a game with no way out can do that to you."

"Twilight," Rainbow whispered, "how do we make sure these guys don't try to pull something? What if they try to trap us all in the game to keep themselves out of jail?"

"Trap us, the Princesses, my brother, and Cadence?"

"Okay, maybe that's a little far-fetched, but still..."

"Don't worry. I'm already making a contingency plan. Just act normal."

"That I can do."

"I'd say luck is finally turning our way," Leon said as they walked into the village.

"Yeah. Beat a dragon, no battles on the way here, and we're doing awesome so far. Maybe our luck really has changed."

Suddenly, Leon felt something rise from the backpack.

"What the..."

"It's that thing the King gave Cecil... er, you, back in the palace," Ed remarked. "Its... floating. On its own. Rather queer."

Leon heard a click from the package. The object opened...

...and a horde of red, fiery objects burst forth from it.

"What the hell are those things?" Leon yelled in surprise.

"I don't know, and I don't want to know. But..." Eddy cut off in horror as the things began burning the village. They blew up wherever they could do the most damage, wrecking buildings and throwing people and objects every which way.

"NO!" Leon tried to raise his sword, only to discover that his legs refused to move. He could only watch as the peaceful town was destroyed before his eyes.

"Blimey..."

"Damn it. I should have known that package was something bad," Leon cursed. "The King wouldn't have had us bring it here unless it was bound to do... do... this."

"I don't think either of us could have predicted this."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Come on!" Leon said, discovering his legs worked again. He ran toward the sound of the voice, turning left on the nearest corner. Eddy was right behind him. They dodged the fires and reached a small clearing, where a girl with green hair was crying over the body of a middle-aged woman.

"The monsters must have got her." Leon watched as the girl continued to cry.

He was proved wrong almost immediately. The girl looked up. "My mom's dragon was defeated, and now..." She resumed sobbing.

For a moment, the true meaning of that meant little. Then, it struck with the force of a train smashing a car. "Oh no..."

"We... we... when we killed that dragon, we didn't just kill it; we got her mum too," Eddy stammered. "Oh, no..."

"Wh... what? No!" the girl yelled.

"What do we do?" Leon pulled a life potion from the backpack. "Here." He knelt and poured the potion down the woman's throat.

Nothing happened. The body didn't breathe, didn't twitch, didn't move at all.

"Damn it..."

"Leo, we have to do something; the town's falling to ruin around us. Now's the time for a decision." A piece of flaming wood fell to the ground just a few feet away, underscoring his words.

Leon tried to think. The guilt over the mother's death was still upon him. Logically, he knew it was part of the game, and that it was most likely a scripted event that he had no control over.

But it all looked real. It all felt real. It almost might as well have been real.

"O... Okay, I think we both saw a town in the desert north of here when we used the Dwarfbread. We go there for the time being."

"Right, and the girl?"

"We... we bring her with us."

At that, the girl took a step back. "No!" she screamed.

"Come on," Eddy said. "You have to. There's nothing left of this blasted place, and what's left is going to burn down - real soon. So-" He took a big step toward her. "Come ON!"

"No! Go away!" The girl took several steps back. "I HATE YOU!" The last two words were loud and almost unearthly. She raised her hands toward the sky.

Even though he wasn't a magic user and had no intention to become one, Leon could feel the energy in the air as the girl began to cast a spell. "She's going to attack us!"

Before Eddy could respond, Leon noticed the air shimmering behind the girl. A giant - the word was inadequate to describe the being's height properly - man's outline appeared, as tall as a mountain. The outline filled itself in, and it was not longer an illusion, but something real.

"Uh oh... Please, don't! I didn't...!"

Leon felt the ground shake underneath him as the earth quaked. Even the mountains behind the giant quavered, and the remaining buildings collapsed.

He fell to the ground, having lost his balance. The earth began to move, with cracks forming and widening as the giant moved his arm.

Leon had time for one last shriek as the earth opened beneath him...

Chapter 8; The aftermath

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuugh..."

The first real sensation to reach him was pain. His back ached, badly.

I'm... I'm... Cecil? No... no, that's not right, my name is... Leon. Yes, that's right. Leon.

He opened his eyes. His hands were under his face, almost as though he had decided to simply take a nap.

What happened...?

In a rush, his memory came running back. The village burning. The girl. The giant. The earthquake. The earth swallowing him.

"Okay, that was the worst experience I've been through... ever."

He pushed himself up, off the ground. That was when he looked toward the west. Just a short distance away was a mountain range; he was currently standing in a small clearing. There was no sign of a village, burning or undamaged. Trees surrounded the clearing, though about fifty feet to the east, there was a gap in the trees, from which he could leave.

"Hey Ed, pretty bad earthquake, huh?"

There was no reply.

"Come on, Ed, come out of hiding. I know you're just waiting to jump out and surprise me."

Leon looked around. There was no sign of his companion... only the green-haired girl who had summoned the giant. He jumped, but the girl wasn't in any position to attack him. In fact, she was lying unconscious on the ground a few feet away.

"What happened? We were in the village, and then the girl summoned this monster, so how did I end up here?"

He sat down, took out the backpack, which, along with his armor and weapons emerged unscathed.

"Right, a few potions, some life potion, healing potions... ah, Dwarfbread. How did I use this..." He stopped speaking as he again saw above the clouds, with the names of towns all over the world displayed. The villages mist was just to the west, shut off from him by a range of mountains that hadn't been there before.

Yikes! Note to self; never piss this girl off EVER again! She has the power to summon a giant monster that can collapse entire mountain ranges.

After he got over the shock, he looked for towns nearby that he could reach. There was only one, and that was Kaipo. Of course, he'd have to cross a small desert to get there...

"Oh, joy. Can I take this crap off?" He tried taking off his armor. It refused to budge. "Nope. Looks like I'm going to be a sweating machine for the next little while..."

Leon walked toward the opening in the trees. As he did so, he passed the girl again.

He stopped. No... I really don't see... Come on, she'll most likely kill me the first chance she gets!

His conscience was stronger than his reluctance, though. And maybe I don't have a choice. He tired to walk out of the clearing. He was unable to; all of a sudden, he ran into an invisible barrier. He tried hitting the barrier with his sword; the sword passed through the barrier as though it didn't exist, but it refused to allow his hand passage.

"Right, I guess that solves that issue." He walked back over to the girl and picked her up. She weighed surprisingly little. "Alright, this won't be as bad as I thought it would be. But we still have to cross one blasted scabland of a desert."

He walked with her over to the opening again, and this time there was no resistance. He was able to walk through the trees into the bright sunlight outside.

Leon sighed. "Now for an arduous trek across the Kaipo desert. Probably gonna be a monster or two on the way..."

Luna breathed another sigh of relief when she saw that Leon was okay, but her worries came back when she realized that Edward was still missing.

It can't be something to do with the story of the game, could it? That thought was unpleasant; it meant that she had little idea of what would happen.

She picked up the manual, hoping it would tell her something about the story. It told her about the prologue and about what had happened so far - along with useful hints about how to fight - but it suddenly went blank.

"What?!" She went through the pages after that; again, nothing. All blank.

'Oh, you've got to be..." She tried to resist using a curse. "...fracking kidding me," she finished after a moment.

She felt like burning the useless manual, and was in fact about to do so when she noticed something about the first blank page; it was gradually filling, as though it were just being printed.

"Wait..." She looked at the screen, where Leon-Cecil was battling two moths and a couple imps. He beat them easily, whereupon he continued toward Kaipo.

She trained her eyes back on the manual. Sure enough, a few words began to form, as well as the pictures that should have been there anyway.

"The manual fills in as you play?" Even she had to admit, the level and complexity of such magic was great. Something similar had happened with the comic the gang had been sucked into; after it had been read - and acted through - once, it retained the words and the pictures, even if it was read after the first read-through.

In essence, though, the manual was still useless to her right now. She had to heavily resist the urge to burn the book and instead set it down. Maybe something useful could turn up later.

So far, Leon was making mincemeat of the enemies he was facing, none of which, even in numbers of four or more, were able to best him. He didn't bother using the Dark Wave attack again, though, and for good reason. They did land hits on him, but he was able to heal the damage.

She hadn't considered how the characters in the game looked until just now. She had to admit that 8-bit Leon-Cecil looked cute, in an adorable kind of way. From what she had seen of the dialogue, Leon and Edward had considered themselves to be in a three-dimensional world. That would make sense for the game editors, she realized. Ponies wouldn't have liked becoming 8-bit people in a fictional world. The image on the screen probably couldn't be made 3D, and considering that this was an edited version of a translated game, there were probably limits to how far the programming could be further stretched.

Leon kept commenting on hot how it was outside. At one point, he wondered whether the sun ever set on the world. Apparently, real world physics still largely applied, including things like temperature and gravity. She wondered whether the characters in the game would have pre-set responses, or would have an intelligence of their own.

The doors of the room opened. Luna turned to see Twilight and her friends, along with several unfamiliar ponies and five Royal Guards, walk into the room. "Princess," " Twilight said, "we brought the game editors!"

"That's great!" She turned back to the TV. "Just a little longer, my friends, I promise..." she whispered.

Leon walked into Kaipo, thoroughly exhausted. The hot sun and the sand were really getting to him. The various monsters he'd had to kill hadn't made it any easier. He sat down by the entrance for a moment, the girl lying across his lap.

"Phew. This monster-fighting business might be lucrative, but it's not easy. Of course, I might be in better shape if I actually went to the gym down the way like Mom suggested."

He looked down at the girl, who was quietly lying there. She was breathing, so she wasn't dead. However, she wasn't conscious, either.

How does she even have green hair? Is it dyed or something?

He still felt like he was holding a nuclear bomb. That she could collapse an entire mountain range was still bugging him. He hoped she didn't try that in town; that would be catastrophic, to say the very least.

After a moment, he stood up, picking up the girl again. The inn in town was up ahead, and that would probably be the best pace to get a bed.

He walked in, the girl in his arms. He went up to the counter.

"This girl needs rest immediately!" the innkeeper said upon seeing her.

A little bland, but...

"What? Money?" the man continued. "No, that's alright. Tonight's free. Get her to a bed!"

"Thanks." Leon didn't know whether the man acknowledged that, but he felt that it was polite. He looked around, and saw beds to his left, so he went into that room and set the girl down on one of them. He sat down on the bed just opposite her.

Oh man... I know this is a game, but, still, I killed her mother, and the whole thing felt real, even if it isn't.

The girl groaned.

She's waking up... hopefully, this doesn't become a disaster...

The girl opened her eyes. She didn't get up, but looked around instead. She turned and saw him. She stiffened, but made no move to attack that he could see.

Time to make amends... assuming I can. "Are you alright?" he asked.

No answer.

Should have seen that coming. Of course she's not going to answer the guy who just killed her mom. He put his right hand on his forehead and rubbed it, sighing as he did so. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that monster was controlled by your mom. I... don't know what I'd do if I had known, but...

It was likely that if he and Eddy had known, that they could not have proceeded with the rest of the game, he realized. I would have been forced to do it anyway to get out. How... how do I...?

The girl said nothing.

"I know you can't forgive me yet - if ever - but that's all I can ask from you, I guess."

Again there was no answer.

All of a sudden, all the efforts of the day hit him like a sack of potatoes. "Ugh," he groaned. "I could go for some shuteye right about now. What about you?"

The girl remained as silent as she'd been the entire "conversation."

"Right." Leon sighed yet again and laid down. Surprisingly, the armor wasn't as awful to wear when in a bed, which made little logical sense, but even so, it was a nice touch. He yawned. "Good night." That was all he could remember before falling asleep.

Celestia felt a sense of satisfaction as the editors entered the room. By now, it was over an hour since the game had started, and the night was dark. But perhaps some progress could be made.

"Do you understand what we are all requiring from you?" she asked.

The cream unicorn sighed. "Yes. You want us to get your friends out of the game."

"and do you understand the penalties of not cooperating in every detail?"

"Jail," the blue unicorn deadpanned.

"Indeed, as well as fines and the shutting down of your company. Now, apply your skills and knowledge to the situation at once."

The group of editors walked over to the console. The unicorns began using their magic on the cartridge, with the magic effect switching colors, from red to cream to blue and back again. The Princess could feel the magic at work.

However, after about a minute, they stopped. "Hmmm," the cream unicorn murmured. "There seems to be some sort of magic blocking ours."

"Isn't it of your own making?"

"I... cannot be sure. Let's try again."

Again, magic surged around the cartridge. In fact, the whole console glowed as well. However, suddenly the spell simply cut off.

"What the...?" the blue unicorn gasped. "I can't say I was expecting that!"

'What happened?"

'We attempted to remove the magical blockade, but... it seems it has a mind of its own."

"What?" Twilight said. "That can't be right. Magic doesn't just grow a brain."

"I know. That's what's most puzzling. When we tried to pry it away, it counterattacked. Out of surprise, we canceled the spell."

"But... magic can't do that," Twilight insisted. "It can't think for itself. Sometimes, forces of nature may have built-in self-defenses, and protective spells can be cast on something, but for a spell to just go and do what you described is simply impossible Somepony would have to be manipulating it."

"Well, we'll try again," the red unicorn said. Sure enough, he and his companions did try again. This time, the glow slowly grew to encompass an area about two feet in diameter. However, it suddenly began to waver, and when the unicorns poured more energy into the spell, the light began to whip and lash about. With a sound like a real whip cracking, the spell faded from existence.

"Now what?"

"It seems the... thing we were battling really does have a mind of its own," the blue unicorn explained. Celestia was shocked to see how exhausted he and his fellow editors looked. No, exhausted wasn't quite the word for it. He looked more like a human soldier in some of the pictures she'd seen, the ones who had seen too much and were just staring off into the distance, staring through people and objects rather than at them. "It fought us. By your Royal Highness, it beat us."

"How?"

"It outthought us at every turn, it outmaneuvered us, it plain out-powered us," the red unicorn said. "It had more power than we did, and knew how to use it more effectively."

"Can you think of any reason that could be? Perhaps a faulty spell, or the characters in the game gaining power?"

"No, no, no, no, no," the cream unicorn said, though he looked the same as both his compatriots. "The spells we used on the game are similar to those used on the comics. I'm very sure it's not something faulty, and we placed limits on what the NPCs of the game, including bosses, could do; we made absolute sure of that in both comics and games. Its something else..."

"Something sinister," the blue one said, to which his comrades both nodded.

"Applejack, Twilight, do you believe they're telling the truth?" Celestia asked the ponies in question.

"Well, ah don't know zip about magic," the orange farm pony began, " but ah don't think they're fibbin'... especially when they look like that," she added, pointing a hoof in their direction.

"Okay then. Twilight?"

"I... I don't know what to make of their story," the purple unicorn said, still showing surprise. "Magic can't just do whatever it likes, with the exceptions I stated previously. Unless..."

Celestia frowned. "Discord!"

Timmy's Dad suddenly poofed into existence. "You rang?"

'What the...? Luna gasped.

"Oops," the dragonequus said, reverting to his usual voice. "Sorry. This guy is one of my favorite characters. All I have to do to create chaos is fix anything with a monkey wrench and boom! Water comes from out of nowhere!" Discord, still in the form of Timmy's Dad, flung out his arms at that last, with the wrench touching a chandelier. Water immediately drenched Celestia and Twilight, with Twilight's friends getting splashed.

"Ugh..." Twilight groaned.

"Ha ha... you should see your faces." Discord switched back to his normal self. "Anyway, you rang?"

"Yes," Celestia said, shaking her head to get her mane out of her face, as well as to get some of the water out of her fur. "Apparently, the editors have hit some sort of magical block that seems to have a mind of its own."

"And you thought I was responsible? Oh, how could you even think such a thing?" Discord said in a mocking voice - not that everything he said didn't usually sound mocking anyway.

"Well, the only kind of magic that gets any sort of mind of its own is the kind you cause," Twilight said, also shaking her mane.

"Oh pshaw. I would never mess with a video game, especially when there's so much chaos in them already!" With that, he floated over to the console and landed. "Hmm, this shouldn't be too hard to fix." He snapped his fingers. "After all, how much more pow..." He suddenly stopped mid-sentence. eyes opening wide. "Oooh, that's surprising," he said, which was shocking in and of itself; the dragoneqqus was almost never surprised by anything. "Oh, come now," he said, rising his hands above his head. The console was engulfed in rainbow-colored magic; in fact, it had dozens of colors.

The magic began to flicker almost at once. "Ah, a feisty one aren't you?" Discord said, still looking surprised. "Well have some of this..."

The magical glow increased, but continued to flicker. "Ugh," Discord groaned; he looked like he was really straining. "Come now, you insolent little thing..."

Suddenly, the dragonequus' face turned to one of pure horror. "No... No! NO!"

The magic collapsed completely. Discord leaned on the couch, panting slightly.

'What happened?" Celestia asked, concerned. Although Discord had caused problems and to spare in the past, he wasn't evil, and say what you could of him, but his magic was almost never used in a destructive way.

"I... I... I'm not completely sure." Discord said, standing up fully. "But apparently, there's something in the game itself... something truly evil."

"E...evil?" Luna stammered, not quite taking it in. "Evil as in...?"

"As in nightmare-ishly evil. When that... thing beat me, the worst things I'd ever thought and dreamed about flooded my mind until it overcame my every defense." Discord wiped his brow. "I really need a sandwich right now." He snapped his fingers, whereupon a submarine sandwich appeared in his hand.

Twilight was still standing in stunned silence. She broke that silence abruptly. "That's... how is it possible? The only explanation that even approaches logic here is that there's something alive in the game coding..."

"Like you said," Celestia broke in, "that's the only theory we have that's close to logical. It's obviously something with a working mind, and it has intense power over mind and magic. And in order for it to have that power and thought process, it must be alive. We'll have to work out how this... object is able to operate." She grimaced. "I only hope we can figure this out before it can do anything to Spike, Leon, and Edward."

"In that case, our mission might have become all the harder," Rarity pointed out. "How do we extract our friends without this thing doing any harm to them?"

"And what if it tries to... do them in before we can rescue them?" Rainbow added.

"Now, now, let's not panic," Celestia said sternly. "That won't do anyone any good. We'll apply everything we have available - our knowledge, our skills, our tools - to the problem. We will save them."

"Or die trying," Luna put in.

Celestia looked at her sister. Luna still appeared shocked, never mind horrified, at what had transpired, but a fierce determination was beginning to replace the other emotions.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," she said after a few moments, hoping that nobody would end up paying the ultimate price.

Chapter 1; A trip to another world

The pilot of the Sopwith Camel lined up his shot and fired. Black smoke poured out of the stricken red triplane, which belched fire from it's side and began falling in a downward spiral.

Luna leaned out the side of her plane as it fell. "We curse thee, ye arrogant whelp!"

Leon waved cheekily in response as her plane crashed in no-man's-land. "Be seein' ya."

On the ground, troops in feld-grau and picklehaubes pushed forward against a number of Vickers machine guns, which turned as needed to hit the attackers. At a glance, he could tell it wasn't going to be enough.

He dove and began strafing the enemy soldiers, who tumbled about, exploding into plastic chunks and lone metallic gears as the bullets hit their mark. As the plane came about, he could see that the ground forces could now handle the enemy on their own.

It wasn't the end of the enemy attack; twin-engine bombers, of similar design to his own plane - only much larger and carrying more bombs than he did - flew in, ready to smite the machine guns that had brought their ground assault to grief. A pom-pom cannon opened fire, but by itself it couldn't stop all the bombers.

Sighing, he turned around and headed straight for the flimsy craft. He shot at one, and was quickly rewarded as a number 300 burst from it and it's engines lit on fire. It began falling to earth, a strange sort of aerial scream emitting from it as it fell. It exploded at it rammed into the ground, destroying a tree in the crash.

Grinning, he went after the second bomber. A few seconds' worth of gunfire and it too was going down in flames. The third suffered the same fate.

He ducked as a stream of bullets cut the air over his head. Turning to his left, he saw the dread of many an Allied pilot, the Red Baron. Pulling the stick to the left, he headed straight for his attacker, who was forced to turn away to avoid a midair collision.

This gave Leon the time needed to get on his tail. You're a goner now, buddy.

Or so he thought. A bright blue beam struck his fighter from below; the craft began emitting sparks, and fell into a dive.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Leon awoke with a start as a sudden, violet-blue flash of light appeared in front of him; the resounding noise reached his ears.

"Ah!" He almost fell out of his chair.

"I'm sorry, did I surprise you?"

Leon rubbed his eyes. "Princess?"

"I thought I told you a while ago, we can go by a first name basis," the midnight-blue alicorn answered, smiling.

"Uh..."

"Did you forget what day this was?"

Leon tried to gather his thoughts. "Sorry, I'm feeling a little groggy. Um..." Then he remembered. "This was the day you were going to take me and Ed to visit Canterlot... for the Grand Galloping Gala. Which is weird, since I cannot gallop."

Luna giggled. "With two legs, I should think not. And that's more or less the excuse to go, at any rate."

Leon needed a moment to comprehend what she was saying. Then he nodded. "I thought the GGG was the premiere event in Equestria."

"Oh, it is. At least, for some." Her face fell a little. "In my opinion, it's unbelievably dull. It's mostly talking and admiring the fancy decorations and a dance here and there... and after a thousand years, I've almost forgotten how to do even that." She looked at him seriously. "Or did the episode about it tell you any different?"

"No." A question formed in his mind. "How is the show able to-"

"Not here. I'll tell you about it when we get there. Do you have your things?"

"Yes, in this bag right here," he answered, pulling the handle on his luggage bag.

"That's good," she said. "Give me a few minutes to ready my transport spell."

"Can't you just cast it now?"

"No," she said. "In fact," she added, pulling a chair over with her hoof and sitting on it, "I feel pretty drained as it is. Magic spells require energy from the user's own body in order to work. It requires a lot of concentration as well as the exact knowledge of where the destination is, so it can be mentally taxing as well as physically. There have been times when a unicorn has used so much energy in their spells that they died."

"Okay, I get the point. If it's a choice between you dying and us staying here a for a few more minutes, I'll take waiting."

"Thank you for your understanding." Her belly rumbled. "I've already brought Edward to the portal we'll be using. Do you think you or your family could spare a morsel or two?"

"I think we can do that. Follow me."

Leon lead the Lunar Princess into the kitchen. His mother was standing there, her back to him as she swirled a ladle in a frying pan. "Good morning, Leon. I thought your special friend was going to pick you up by now."

"Gah!"

"We will be leaving in a few minutes, as soon as I regain my strength, Luna said. Leon's mother turned around, a surprised expression on her face. "If you could spare it, a little food would go a long way towards speeding along our departure."

"Oh," mother said. "Oh," she said again, noticing Luna's crown. She curtsied.

"You don't need to do that, kind maiden," Luna said, as Leon felt a little - or more than a little - embarrassed. ""I usually don't mind being a little informal when in private."

"Well, if it's food you want, I'm making grilled cheese sandwiches."

Luna's stomach growled again. "That would be most welcome."

Leon sat down at the table, and Luna did so as well. "How has life in Canterlot been lately?" he asked her.

"It's been busy this week," Luna said, twirling a hoof in the air. "How could it not be, with preparations with the greatest event of they year?"

"Laying it on a little thick with the sarcasm, aren't you?"

"I can't help it. Back in Equestria's medieval ages, the Grand Galloping Gala was truly something to die for... without the dying, of course. Nowadays, it's just awful. The nobility really was noble back in my time; now it's full of spoiled brats who don't deserve the title. My nephew is a prime example, but sadly just one of many examples."

"I notice your hooves look shiny today."

"Thanks! I actually had them done this morning before picking up Edward. It went well with all my accessories, which, if you'll notice, have been polished and shined as well. I'll end up doing all that again before the Gala, but I just wanted to make sure the services at the palace could meet the proper standing."

"Has anything else happened?"

"I went out with Celestia and Cadence, a girl's night out, as it were. We went to a local restaurant, and Celestia..." Luna giggled. "Celestia disguised herself as a unicorn, and started bashing herself before everypony after we'd paid the bill. Naturally, the waiters, waitresses, and patrons weren't too happy to have someone insulting their princess, and they kicked her out. We were all laughing about it as we walked home."

"Wait, really?"

"Yes. And get this; after the head chef yells, 'get out and stay out!' Celestia removes her disguise, revealing herself, and says, 'gotcha!' to him. You should have seen the look on his face!"

"I... hope he knew how to take a joke."

"He didn't know what to do; he was somewhere between furious and reverent. Come to that, I doubt I would have acted any different."

"Anything else?"

"Other than a hooficure, no notable event outside the castle happened over the past week, other than preparations. If you want to hear of events inside the castle, now..."

"Hopefully nothing graphic?"

"What? No, nothing of that sort. However," she went on, lowering her voice, "Prince Blueblood was caught tampering with the treasury."

Leon leaned forward, eyes widened in surprise. "Really? He was dumb enough to try that?"

"Oh yes. Apparently, it's been going on for quite a while now."

"I can't imagine he got away with it?"

"No, but..."

"What?"

"Well," Luna said hesitantly, "he... got a punishment rather... unbefitting for a prince. Celestia spanked him, in front of the entire court and staff."

Leon's face went 0_0. "She spanked him? In front of hundreds of ponies?"

"Yes. And after that, she told him his allowance was being completely cut off for the next five years, so he's going to have to find work if he intends to buy himself anything special."

"Let me guess; he was begging at her hooves?"

"More than begging, I assure you. It didn't get him anywhere. We also had trouble with a certain avatar of chaos."

"What did Discord do this time?"

"He the idea of spreading poison joke everywhere to be funny, and he spread sneezing powder on every bed in the castle. I ended up screaming myself hoarse at him with the Royal Canterlot Voice. Of course, once I was done, he found the world to be a big game board again."

"What punishment did he get?"

"Fluttershy used the stare on him. This time, it worked, probably because they've become friends more than for any other reason. He wasn't smiling for a while after that."

"As long as he doesn't screw up our time together, I'm fine with him around."

"As am I, but just be careful around him, mind you."

Before Leon could say anything, his mother appeared with two plates. "Here you go darlings," she said. "Enjoy."

"Thank you, Mrs. Berthou, this smells wonderful," Luna said as she lifted the grilled cheese to her face. After taking a bite and swallowing it, she cast a mischievous glance at Leon. "And I am a much better pilot than you are in Toy Soldiers."

"You were in my dream!?!" Leon said in surprise and shock.

"Oh, yes," she said, with more relish in her voice this time. "It was rather hilarious to see your face as you plummeted to earth."

Leon coughed. "That was a dream. This is real life."

"So it is. So remember what really happens when you try going up against me in a Sopwith Camel as a plastic pilot."

"Yeah, but let's not forget how good I am at controlling machine guns and artillery."

"Who cares if my bombers destroy them all?"

"Please, dears, no arguing at the table," Mrs. Berthou said. "And please eat up, or it'll be cold before you know it."

"Yes mom," Leon said, at the same time Luna said, "Sorry." In someone else's house, it didn't matter if you were royalty; mom was queen in her own realm. Leon got up and went to the fridge, bringing back to the table a large bottle of ketchup and pouring some of it on his plate.

"Do you really need that much?" the princess asked.

"Yes. Ketchup is the greatest condiment ever invented, and the world better not forget it." Leon dipped his own sandwich into the red substance and brought it to his mouth. It was still pretty hot, but it wasn't boiling hot, so it was easily digestible.

They finished their breakfast quickly. "Thanks Mom," Leon said as he picked up his bag.

"Have fun, sweetheart," his mother said back as he turned his reddening face away. "Be safe."

I'm not a little boy anymore, Mom! Nevertheless, he said, "I will, Mom. Me 'gar ac'hanout."

His mother smiled, understanding the phrase. "Me 'gar ac'hanout. I'll see you when you get back next week. Bye!"

"Bye!" Leon and Luna stepped out of the house, with Leon closing the door after them. "Is your magic back yet?" he asked, turning to Luna.

"Yes, I think I have enough energy to get us to the portal, from which we will enter Equestria." Luna's horn began to glow. "Hold onto my neck," she said, "otherwise the spell will leave you here."

"I could ride on your back," he joked.

She turned to him. "That's not funny. I would be out of energy and in all likelihood collapse if you did that, and I don't intend for anyone at the American embassy to see anything in the slightest awkward."

"Sorry," he said quickly.

"That's alright. Just don't hold on too tightly, I don't want you to choke me."

Leon put his right arm over her neck, establishing a loose hold. "This okay?"

"Yes. Hold on... three, two, one...!"

There was a flash. For the smallest instant of time, Leon felt strange; half in and out of reality, his body disconnected, every atom for a second on it's own, as though his Maker had taken him apart and was reassembling him...

And then he had feeling in his body again. He swayed, a little put off by the sudden burst of magic and it's side-effects. Looking at the Princess, he could see that the teleportation spell had worn on her; whereas he felt a little discombobulated, she was drained of energy after having performed a spell of such concentration and power.

"You know, I've seen you do that half a dozen times, Princess, and it still fascinates me every time."

Leon turned toward the speaker, a U.S. soldier guarding the inside of what he recognized as the Equestrian Embassy to the United States, next to a Royal Guard who looked as if he were made of painted stone.

"Who ya got there?" the soldier asked. "A friend of yours?"

"Yes, Jefferson," Luna replied, breathing a little heavily. "He'll be coming with me today."

"Well, then, I wish you both a happy weekend."

"Thank you." After a moment, Luna caught her breath. "Follow me," she said to Leon.

They walked into the tall building before them into the atrium. The entire place was pristine, almost spotless. Ponies walked here and there, some with papers clutched in a forehoof. A pair of Guards, one of them a white, large, tough-looking earth pony stallion, the other a black, fanged thestral, stood at attention at a massive doorway domineering the scene. Both held spears, looking as though they would be ready to spring into action if need be. He noticed they weren't the only Royal Guards present. There were perhaps a dozen around the entire room, no doubt with others elsewhere in the embassy.

"This is your embassy?"

"Quite the busy place, isn't it?"

"Well, yes..."

"I was glad when your government allowed us to set this up. Our most skilled diplomats work here."

"Wow. How do they keep it so clean?"

"A hard-working staff and dedicated workers. All of whom are well paid, by the way."

"Considering how many gems and diamonds there are in your world, it doesn't surprise me."

He was a little surprised to hear her laugh. "More than one human has mentioned this. Equestria was a rich kingdom, even in it's medieval days. The gold and silver we had made us prosperous; the jewelry we made from the elements we mined was considered the finest in the world." Luna looked reminiscent; her eyes stared into the distant past, and her ears paid no attention to the little noises in the atrium. "Equestria was so much grander in those days. We had magic and what little technology we needed, and that sufficed to make things work. I can still remember the great hall in the old castle, when a hundred ponies would sit down to feast at dinner. I remember mother and father announcing the beginning of the feast. The food was to die for."

"Do you have a passport, sir?"

Both of them stopped. Luna shook her head, as though reluctantly though dutifully awakening from a pleasant dream. The Royal Guard standing watch over the doorway had addressed him. "Uh..." Leon reached into his bag and pulled out a small passport. "Here it is, I think."

Way to look stupid in front of everyone, moron, came an unwarranted thought.

Hey, he's big enough to pound me into mashed potatoes if he wanted to!

The Guard took the passport in his hoof - it was odd to see the hard, flat surface somehow holding onto the small book, as though the hoof was somehow magnetic all of a sudden - and studied it. After a few moments, the Guard gave it back. "You're clean."

"Could have told you as much," his Lunar companion said. "He's come in with Princess Luna herself."

The other Guard didn't say anything in response. Maybe the thestral thought he could get away with a little loss of discipline in front of the Princess he represented.

He was right, if he thought that. "We'll be going in now," Luna said to them. "Continue your vigorous watch."

"Yes, my Lady."

"As you will, your Highness."

With that, the door opened. Leon and Luna walked inside as it closed behind them.

Inside was... something. That was the first thought that came to his mind. Clearing his head, he recognized the thing as the portal; a giant, somewhat transparent sphere, suspended in a vertical band of metal. It was massive, easily taking up most of the space between the floor and the roof. Glowing strings of white light waved in and out of existence.

"Quite mesmerizing, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, still dazzled by the magnificent object before him. "You sure this is safe?"

She gave him an indignant look. "Would I be here if it weren't?"

"Oh," he said, feeling a little guilty, "right."

"Are you ready?"

Leon nodded.

"Just walk through it, from one end to the other, and you'll find yourself in Equestria; in our foreign office, if you want the precise location."

"Alright," he said, more bravely than he felt. He took a few steps forward.

Immediately, he felt odd again, though the feeling was not the same as being teleported hundreds of miles in an instant. This was more like being submerged in lukewarm water, with the difference that he was able to breathe and didn't have the weight and pressure on his body and ears.

Keep going, he told himself. Keep going.

He took a few more steps forward. After a few seconds, he stepped out of the sphere into the open world again.

Only this time, it wasn't his world. The room he stepped into appeared to be the same size as that of the one he had just left, but the wall and floor were different colors.

He heard the clip-clop of Luna's hooves behind him. "Well, what do think?" she asked, smiling encouragingly.

"Hmm?"

"You're in another world. How do you feel about it?"

"I think I'll know when I have more than just this room to look at."

"Ah. Guards," she called, "open the door."

The door glowed, then opened slowly. Leon and Luna walked through it.

The building they were in was obviously different from the one they'd left behind. It was even more pristine than the embassy had been. As in the embassy, ponies were walking here and there, going about their jobs with a mixture of speed and efficiency. Something felt different. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was.

Then he had it. The ponies here somehow felt more relaxed than those back in the embassy. No doubt about it; he was now in Equestria.

"I'm... I'm..."

"You're in Equestria," Luna finished for him.

"I can't believe it."

"Believe it you will, once you've seen more of the capital than this."

After following her out of the building, believe it he did. The mountain was unmistakably the one on which Canterlot rested. The city streets were filled with ponies going from one place to another, some pulling carts or taxis, still others waiting on the sidewalk for one reason or another.

He'd never seen so many ponies, not even in the show. While he'd seen a pony once or twice in his home town, they were rarely seen in Maine, which was a far distance from Washington and possessed little to attract ponies, either to get a job or settle.

"Believe it or not, Canterlot isn't the biggest city in Equestria," Luna said as they got walking. "A mountainside has only so much room for expansion, and it's hard to fit more buildings here than we already have. Not that we aren't trying, mind you, but it goes hard on our architects."

"Can't you just drill into the mountain?"

"We have considered that. However, most ponies dislike the idea of living underground, though it might be necessary if the population size increases much more."

"Do you need magic to hold the city up?"

"That's a good question. Yes, we've needed magic to strengthen some of the supports for the city, and every week we send out a crew to check how the supports are doing, down to the very last bolt."

"How long has Canterlot existed?"

"It was but a mere twinkle in the eye when... Well...." Luna went quiet.

When you were banished to the moon. Leon didn't say it out loud. He did ask, "How long after that did it take for settlers to start living here?"

Luna gave him a grateful glance before answering. "It took about twenty years of construction for a sizable population to begin living here. The palace was naturally one of the first buildings to go up, followed by much of the nobility and some craftsponies and merchants. After a few years, some lower class ponies also moved in."

"Why was Canterlot built in the first place?"

"Equestria needed a centralized capital. As you can see on a map, it's the closest we could get. Another reason was prestige; no other country that I know of has a city so suspended in air. Oh, there are pegasi towns like Cloudsdale, but I'm not counting those. It was an engineering marvel to build Canterlot, which became the envy of the world and of Equestria. Finally, the Everfree forest was growing more wild and uncontrollable, and of necessity the capital was moved."

"How did they manage to extend the railway up here?"

"That was a challenge as well. Eventually, they builders were able to construct elevating mounds that allowed them to connect the rail lines to the city."

"It feels like the city is more than a thousand years old."

Luna laughed. "Another thing you humans have said, and it is understandable, as the architecture of the earliest buildings and of the palace in particular is from our own medieval era."

Luna's laughter died out as they passed the train station. "Back in the old days, such contraptions were unknown. Ponies usually got around by cart, flying, or simply walking. Old nail-on horseshoes were common, not because it was necessary for the health of our hooves, as it wasn't, but because it gave us better grip in poor conditions." She sighed. "I missed out on a lot, all because of..."

Uh-oh...

"Well, I suppose it couldn't be helped," she said at last, after a moment of silence and sad memories. Leon sighed in his mind out of relief. He didn't want her to go through more painful memories.

"Are there precious minerals in the mountain?" he asked, trying to draw her out of the past.

"Hmm? Oh, well, the truth is, we haven't even tried looking. We don't want to weaken the mountain by digging mines through it."

"Your mines are pretty precise, aren't they? I mean, unicorns can detect gems."

"Yes. We expend far less energy than other races in extracting minerals from the soil."

Leon looked up and saw the town streets in the process of being decorated, with banners being hung on lampposts and streamers being strung on windows by colts and fillies. "Wait, isn't the Gala five days away?" he asked

Luna nodded. "It is, however, most of the officials in charge of that event are fond of starting early. Far too early, if you ask me, but I suppose work now saves work later."

Leon saw a shadow cross his vision. Glancing skyward, he saw dozens of pegasi at work maneuvering clouds around. "Why would it have to rain in the capital, or in any city for that matter? isn't it the places with crops that need rain?"

Luna chuckled. "Well, for one thing, that's a little narrow-minded. For another, it wouldn't be fair if farmers were rained on day in and day out and the settlements remained dry."

"I guess that makes sense." Up ahead, he saw what looked like a dirigible about to take off. "How many of those do you have?"

"A couple dozen private craft, mostly only affordable by the upper class, and some heavy haulers for cargo transfer. We rely primarily on trains and ships to carry needed goods where they need to go, but that's changing, albeit very slowly."

"I'd advise helium, not hydrogen."

"I've heard about the Hindenburg Disaster, and I quite agree. All our balloons and dirigibles, save those held aloft by hot air, float using helium. Pegasi wingpower is also used to pull lighter cargoes."

For a few minutes, they walked in silence. Leon was bedazzled by the grand city he had the pleasure of visiting. It was truly a sight to rival anything back home, with well-swept streets and sidewalks. Here and there, foreigners such as griffons and Saddle Arabians could be seen, and citizens of Equestria sat down at tables in out-door cafes, talking about this and that.

Finally, the palace loomed before him. "You live here?"

"Oh my, yes. Quite grand, isn't it?"

"Just how many rooms are in this place?"

"More than I ever bothered counting. It's fully furbished for dozens of guests, and thousands come every year to the Gala."

"Wow."

Two Royal Guards stood watch over the gateway. One of them lowered his spear at Leon. The other Guard shook his head, and his companion resumed his former position. "Welcome, your Highness, and your guest as well. Sorry about the rookie," the older Guard apologized. "He's only been on duty for a day."

"I expect he'll shape up soon enough," Luna said, in a voice that said the youth would do just that, or else. The younger Guard's face became pale.

"Hope you enjoy your stay," older of the pair said to Leon as they walked inside.

"Thanks," he said gratefully. To Luna he added, "Please don't punish him."

"Oh, I won't," she answered, still sounding a little angry. "I just thought anypony with so much as a single brain cell could tell that anyone coming with me was welcome in the castle."

"Well, we could have been Changelings, for all he knew."

"I know, but it's still infuriating." She took a couple of deep breaths. "Besides, we have unicorn Guards constantly on watch for Changeling attacks."

Suddenly, Leon saw a flash of light, then felt a weird feeling in his body as a ray of light from somewhere ahead of him struck his belly and began moving up and down. "What the...?"

The ray of light continued moving up and down, giving him the most peculiar feeling, then finally vanished, revealing a gray unicorn Guard standing in front of a second door. Another Guard had apparently done the same check on Luna, for both nodded. "You're both clean," the one on his right said.

Thanks for the warning...

Luna looked a little peeved, but she didn't unleash the Royal Canterlot Voice on the Guards. She nodded in place of doing or saying anything else, and motioned for Leon to come with her. After they were in and the door shut behind them, she turned to him. "Now with all that red tape out of the way," she said, something in her voice growing in excitement, "I'll take you to the game room. Oh, I can hardly repress my joy; my two best friends have come to the castle! We are going to have so much fun together!"*

"As long as it isn't the wrong kind of fun, like drinking ourselves into a stupor, I'm game for that."

"Oh please; the first time I drank alcohol was my last; my head the next morning, I swear, I still get little aches whenever I think about it." she rubbed her head with a hoof. "Let's not talk about that subject anymore. So, what have you brought with you?"

"Oh, you waited until now to ask? Hmmm," he said, pretending to think. "A little something called a Nintendo 64, with Super Mario 64, Mario Party 2, and Mario Kart 64, along with Battletanx; Global assault and Army Men; Sarge's Heroes, and four controllers."

He was happy to see her smile. "Nice. However, I think I may have done just as good, if not better."

"What?" he said, surprised. "What's better than Army Men and Mario?"

She just continued to smile. "You'll see..."

Leon could tell that he wasn't going to get any farther in his question down that route. Instead, he asked, "What's the story behind My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic?"

"Ah," she answered. "I suspect that you've had that question lodged in your mind for some time." After he nodded, she continued. "I suppose it would do no harm to tell you this, but please promise not to repeat to anyone or anypony, except to Edward; I can hardly tell you without telling him, can I?"

"I swear."

"Good. Well, it all started a few years ago. Celestia was planning for my return, though in secret. It was then that she began scrying the human world."

"Wait, she knew of our existence?"

"Yes. You'd be surprised. Occasionally, she would summon someone, someone trustworthy. Naturally, some of them, such as some Russian peasant she brought, couldn't understand her at all, nor she them. She sent him back, and as far as she could tell, he shrugged it off as a dream. This was about three hundred years ago, you understand."

"I guess."

"One of the problems with scrying another world is, of course, the location of where you're currently scrying. She eventually found Equestrian - you would say English - speakers, and would bring one of them here, question them about how things were going and what life was like, and then release them."

"Uh, wait; she was kidnapping people?"

"It wasn't kidnapping!" Luna exclaimed, her cheeks flaring red. "It was... granting them a special audience."

That totally sounds like an acceptable reason, and not an blatant excuse at all.

"As I was saying, she once in a while brought people who are famous in your world. She brought your Abraham Lincoln once, during the years of your Civil War."

Leon felt something in his chest deflate. "She brought Old Abe?"

"Oh yes. She had their entire meeting recorded. She was quite impressed with him; he was an able speaker as well as a determined leader. What really got her attention was his, 'a house divided cannot stand' statement. It reminded her of her relation as a sister to me, and how she paid so badly for... expelling me."

Leon chose not to reply to that sensitive topic. "Please do not tell me she picked up Hitler."

"She didn't, but after seeing and hearing what he did, she wishes she had, in order to send him to the sun. She wanted to do the same for Mao and Stalin as well, but at that time her policy was noninterference with human affairs, apart from summoning one, whom she'd send back once she was done."

"And... what does this have to do with the whole show thing?"

"Celestia came up with a plan a few years before I was to return. She would hire a talented television show person of sorts to make a bridge between our worlds. She had the intent of revealing our world to yours after a few years."

"If I may interrupt," he said. After she nodded, he asked, "Why did - does - she want anything to do with us after some of the events of our history?"

Luna looked at him. It wasn't an angry or frustrated look, nor was it particularly sad. "My sister has always been an optimist. In the past few years, I have begun to lean towards optimism as well. She knew that many humans were evil, corrupt, insane, and other rather defamatory words. But she also knew that many were good-hearted, kind, and brave, and that these far outnumbered those who were evil, even if the deed of the common person is not up to display. My sister and I believe that most people are good, although their actions are not publicized, as they simply do their jobs and live their lives. I haven't read the life of the average pony, or that of the average human, for that matter; most want to read the stories of either heroes or villains, not of the common people who stay out of the way."

"So she wanted to help us?"

"She and I do. We believe with our help, Earth might experience some good measure of peace, or at least receive aid in times of trouble."

Leon thought about everything that had been said. "The show was an effort to bridge our worlds before we ever set eyes on one another. To provide a base for relations."

"You summed it all up in a couple sentences," Luna confirmed, nodding. "I only came to know of the plan after the elements freed me from Nightmare Moon. I was skeptical at first, but Celestia gradually convinced me that it would be a good thing."

"I doubt relations were helped much by some of the... er... controversial fan-made stories and videos out there."

"Believe me, some of the content disturbed me, as well as the other ponies who saw them. Celestia had to work hard to prevent Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie from discovering a certain video."

"That... might have caused a disaster."

Luna sniffed. "Your gift for understatement is overwhelming."

"So after dealing with that problem..."

"After that, we got to work trying to establish proper relations with each country. Most received us well, but a number of them... Well..." she hesitated. "They were... unreceptive."

"Like North Korea."

"Oh, you couldn't possibly imagine how stressful dealing with them was!" Luna said, here voice rising. "They glared at us the entire time, like we'd done something wrong! Every little proposal we made, the rejected with a long ramble of how 'reactionary' it was and how it was supposedly opposed to 'the people'."

"Yeah, like they care about the people," Leon added sarcastically. "I laughed when the rocket they built from money sent to them for feeding their people crashed in minutes."

Luna sniffed again, though it sounded different. "They ended it by absolutely refusing to allow us to establish an embassy at all. And then the hostility from Iran... need I go on?"

"No, no," Leon said quickly. "I think I can paint the picture myself. I think you got quite a welcome from the rest of the world, or most of it, anyway."

"We did," Luna nodded, smiling a little. "I had no idea how well liked we were before coming through the first portal. It wasn't long before people were lining up to get our pictures and autographs. After a couple of days I was able to meet with the President of the United States in... er, pony."

"Let me guess; he was too busy trying to hug the cute little pony to pay attention to what you were saying," Leon said jokingly.

That was a mistake. "WE ARE NOT CUTE!" Luna roared, her voice almost knocking him over. His ears rang with the force of the Royal Canterlot Voice had thrown at them. He rubbed his ears. When he looked over to her again, Luna seemed to be thinking over what had been said. "Are we?" she asked, sitting on her haunches and raising her front hooves to her muzzle.

It was undeniably cute. "I don't think you want me to answer that," he said, trying hard not to say, "Awwwwwww!!!!!"

"Hmm." Luna got back onto all fours, her hooves clopping as they made contact with the floor. "I see." Obviously wanting to change the subject, she continued, "The meeting went well. Celestia and I got our meeting with the United Nations, which was the official beginning to foreign relations."

"And..."

"We didn't let humans into Equestria en masse, not yet, not quite even now. They had to undergo an rather, er, thorough investigation before being allowed to enter our fair land."

"Uh, how thorough?" he asked, feeling a little nervous.

"Well, we listen to a brief history of their life up to that point, checking it for inconsistencies, before looking at their criminal records. Lastly, a unicorn uses a mind reading spell, similar to the one I use to search dreams, to go through the person's thoughts."

"Wait, mind reading? Isn't that invasion of privacy?"

"Maybe, but it's better than letting a terrorist get in," Luna retorted. "We don't go very far in, certainly into nothing intimate, just enough to allow us to determine their motives for coming to Equestria. Once we're certain, we allow them to proceed. In fact, we even pay them adequate compensation for any discomfort they may have suffered during the process."

"Huh. Is it effective?"

"We've caught numerous individuals who had malicious intentions. I'd say that testifies to the efficiency of the screening process, as well as to it's necessity."

"Then why didn't you have me or Eddy checked?"

"I did. That's part of the reason I searched through your dreams. One look was enough to convince me that two of my best friends had no evil designs on Equestria."

"Oh So that's what that was about."

"Of course," Luna continued, giggling a little, "I admit I enjoyed messing around with your dreams. You should have seen Edward's, and what I did with it."

"Something involving tea or alcohol."

Luna surprised him by laughing uncontrollably. "I... I... I put him in an maid's apron and dress," she finally managed to get out, her hoof stomping the floor with such force that it threatened to crack the beautiful tiles there. "His face...! You should have seen it!" She laughed even harder.

"I doubt he liked that," Leon said, though he was laughing as well.

"Oh," she said, finally managing to put a lid on her mirth, "it was all very funny, to say the least. Well, at any rate," she added, turning toward a door to their left, "this is the place." Her horn lit up again, and the doorknob turned. The door opened.

"Finally! I was wondering when you two blokes were going to show up!" came a voice on the inside. It was one Leon had heard many times before.

Author's Note

* Note; anyone looking for inappropriate stuff has come to the wrong author. I am fundamentally opposed to it.