In the cozy hamlet of Ponyville, not a single creature was stirring. Nopony walked the nighttime streets, nor did any creatures rustle amongst the brush of the surrounding wilderness.

Only in the tall castle overlooking the town did any sort of stirring take place, and it came from the tiny green and purple dragon running through the halls of the grand structure. He came to a large set of doors and shoved them open.

"Twilight!" he cried, waving a scroll. "I just got this from Celestia! We-!"

A soft coo came from the bed he stared at. Princess Twilight Sparkle rolled within her silken sheets. “Oh, Sir Neighton, show me how depravity works. Mmm…I mean, gravity,” she groaned in her sleep. “Although depravity can be very scientific, in the right circumstances…” she said with a sheepish grin.

“Ugh,” Spike said, wandering up to the bed. “Another one of those dreams." He leaned into her face. "Hey, Twilight!”

“Wuh!” she said, sitting up so fast she nearly fell out of bed. “I wasn’t dreaming of sexy science!”

“Uh-huh,” Spike said. “Anyway, you just got a message from Celestia.” He held the scroll up.

“At this hour?” Twilight’s magic enveloped the scroll and brought it to her face. “Must be serious.”

“It better be,” Spike groaned. “Woke me up just as I was dozing off. Made me belch so hard I almost burned my blanket to a crisp.”

Twilight’s eyes scanned the unfurled scroll, her pupils moving across the lines at dazzling speed. They grew wider as the seconds passed.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Spike said.

“It’s Celestia and Luna! They need to see me ASAP!”

Spike gasped. “Is it something bad?!”

“Probably!”

“Aaaaah!” Spike hollered, running toward the door. “I’ve gotta save all my comic books!”

The doors slammed, a lavender aura surrounding them.

“Relax, Spike,” Twilight said, her horn glowing the same color as the doors. “We’ve faced plenty of menaces before, and your comics survived those.”

“Not the ones in the treehouse…”

“What?”

“Nothing,” Spike said. “But I get what you’re saying. Just because it’s something bad doesn’t mean everything’s lost. I’m sure you and the rest of the girls can handle it.”

“That’s the spirit,” Twilight said with a smile. “I’ll just pop over to Canterlot and figure out what’s going on.”

“Uh, didn’t the letter say what’s wrong?”

“Not really,” she said. She levitated the letter in front of Spike.

Dear Twilight,

Equestria is in danger (again)! Please come to Canterlot at once to discuss the best way to combat this danger. I’d explain it all here, but I’m drinking hot chocolate as I’m writing this and don’t want to risk spilling any on the letter.

Your teacher,

Princess Celestia

“Huh,” Spike said. “I was wondering why the scroll smelled like cocoa and mint.”

“Regardless,” Twilight said, grabbing the scroll and trotting to her bedroom balcony. “The Princesses need our help, and I’m up to the challenge! Be back in an hour or two, Spike!” she said with a wave. With a glow of her horn and a quick flash of light, she was gone.

“Okay,” Spike said, running back to the doors. “But I'm still getting the comics into the safe!”

Dawn hadn’t quite broken by the time the six ponies met in the castle, evident both from the darkness and the large yawns the assembled gave each other. Rainbow Dash in particular seemed to be struggling to keep her eyes half-open.

“Alright, girls!” Twilight said. “Sorry to wake you up, but Equestria’s in trouble!”

“Ugh, can’t Equestria be in trouble at a more reasonable hour?” Rarity said between yawns. “You’d think baddies and fiends would want to be well-rested before they try to take over.”

“All the same, this is a serious matter!” Twilight said. “Princess Celestia and Luna just received a message from an enemy they fought thousands of years ago, even before Discord!”

“Ooooooh,” Pinkie Pie said. “Is he some kind of insane clown that eats your dreams?”

“Uhh…no. He’s a master martial artist, expertly trained in Kung Hoof and with the ability to destroy ponies with just a few blows.”

“Pfft, big deal!” Rainbow Dash said. “Compared to what we’ve fought before, a stallion with a few fancy kicks is nothing.”

“I agree!” Applejack chimed. “I’ve beaten back chimeras and hydras. I can handle some Kung Hoof guy.”

“That’s what I thought, too,” Twilight said. “But the Princesses showed me this…” With a flash, her hoof projected a solid image over the table.

“That’s…that’s the Crystal Empire!” Spike said.

“The Crystal Palace. Destroyed by this evil being. Apparently, the guards were no match for him. Cadence and Shining Armor were able to last about three minutes against him before they were beaten down.”

“Oh my…” Fluttershy squeaked. “How horrible…”

“Well, what are we waiting for?!” Applejack said. “Let’s get up there and give this feller a taste of his own medicine!”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash said. “Let’s see his Kung Hoof handle my Hayrate!”

“No!” Twilight shouted. The words reverberated off the walls and filled the whole castle. The others nearly fell out of their chairs in surprise.

“Just…no. I know you girls think you can take him on, but everything the Princesses told me showed him to be undefeatable by all normal means.”

“And just what exactly did the Princesses tell you, Twilight?” Spike said.

“Well, first they told me that this bad guy’s name was Betty.”

Celestia stood before Twilight, staring down at her while a mocha latte hovered to her side. Luna sat behind her, sipping from a cup of mint cocoa mixture.

“This bad guy’s name is Betty,” Celestia said.

“And then…” Twilight said. “She told me about how terrible the situation was.”

Celestia took another sip of her drink. Blue sparkles from the dress fell to the ground, forming in little heaps below her. When Celestia concluded her sip, she looked back at Twilight.

“This situation is really terrible,” she said.

“Then…” Twilight continued. “A book flew out of nowhere and bit Celestia on the flank.”

All of a sudden, a book with the French flag on it flew into the kitchen and bit down on Celestia’s behind.

“Ouchie,” Celestia said, before taking one more sip of her cocoa.

“And then-“ Twilight began.

“Uh, never mind, Twilight,” Spike said. “Don’t tell us exactly what happened.”

“I agree,” Rarity said. “Try to, erm…summarize, darling.”

“Oh. Well, basically this stallion ‘Betty’ roamed Equestria thousands of years ago. Back then, he was called ‘the Pain Master’, and he beat up anybody he didn’t like. He was also a talented magician, able to change ponies’ clothes from far-away distances.”

“No!” Rarity screamed.

“Yes! Nopony was safe from his reign of terror. Even Discord knew better than to tangle with him. Only when Star Swirl the Bearded and Princess Celestia worked together were they able to banish him to another realm, where he would leave Equestria alone!”

“Just like with the Dazzlings,” Applejack said.

“Precisely. Unfortunately, he somehow found a way back and is trying to take over Equestria again.”

“So if we can’t fight him, what do we do?” Spike said.

Twilight sat in her chair. “I’ve thought about that. We can’t send him back, since he’d probably just find another way to return. We can’t fight him head-on; he’d beat all of us in a battle, magical or physical. Not even the Elements could stop him.”

“So where’s that leave us?” Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight looked up. “We have to summon a warrior from another world.”

A silence gripped the room. A few eyes seemed confused, while others seemed shocked.

“A warrior?” Spike said, finally breaking the silence.

Twilight nodded. “The warrior from the other world. The one who defeated him and forced him to come back to Equestria. He was able to defeat Betty before, he can beat him now.” A small smile peaked through her face. “And not even the best clothes magic will be able to save Betty.”

Author's Note

After a decade, a new update! I wasn't able to finish writing the whole story, so I figured I would at least publish this section for Chinese New Year. The rest of the story will come over the next few months.

I actually wrote this part about 5 years ago and just sat on it for a long time. That's why the writing seems a little more sparse than my contemporary style. The joke where Twilight is describing everything that Princess Celestia said is also borrowed from Kung Pow where Master Tang keeps talking about what his old friend said (as shown here). This scene is also where the title of this chapter comes from, since "It will be significant" is one of the main punchlines of that scene.