He opened the closet door and looked at the toy sitting on the shelf, it had been so long since he had seen this one. The big googy smile; the blonde hair, the black t shirt and shorts, his old Stretch Armstrong toy. He picked the toy up in his hands and a flood of old memories came back to him.
"Da...Daddy!" A little boy sniffled and cried softly running to the man at the workbench in the backyard. He had stains of a long melted ice cream on his yellow shirt, the drips of vanilla running down the Kermit the frog on the front. He ran leaving a trail of yellow goo behind him as he did; it was coming from the leaky seam in the 90's model Stretch Armstrong toy in his hands. The boy's father put down the jewelry box he was repainting and turned his head to his sobbing son to see what was wrong.
"Danny?" He asked, "Danny what happened?" He asked softly patting the little boy on the shoulder.
"My Stretch Armstrong is bleeding daddy!" The little red head boy cried as frantically as if he had said 'My friend is bleeding' (in some ways he was) as he lifted the toy up carefully to cover the leaky seam with his sticky hand. The toy was dripping yellow corn syrup from the split on the arm that had ripped open, the syrup dripping onto his owners fingers as his breath stifled in little sobs the way children do when they often cry. "Is...is...Stretch going to die daddy?" The young Danny asked his father his face puffy with sadness and heavy with tears as he handed the toy to him sobbing.
"No Danny, Stretch isn't going to die." The father said as he softly rubbed his son's ginger hair and dried his tears softly.
"Can you fix him daddy?" The little boy asks still choked up from crying.
"Daddy can fix anything; anything, anything." The flashback ended as the older Daniel Keith picked the same stretch from over a millennium ago up and looked over it. The rubber still just as stretchy and flexible as it was the day it rolled off the Cap Toys, toy factory line and got shipped by human hands to the K.B toys his father had bought it for him from. The little boy cried tears of pure joy as his ''best friend'' was saved from tne angelic savior of toys that was his father.
''Daddy thank you! Thank you so much!'' The little boy said happily taking stretch in his arms and hugging his father close and hard, that little boy would never know the pain and loss of losing that father when he turned ten, and would spend the next thousand years without him, only his toys for companionship. Soon reality faded back to that sad lonesome ten thousand year old, and he took the aged Stretch Armstrong in his hands.
''Dad...I promise I'll make those ponies put your brain back together, one way or an other.''
Ponyville
Princess Twilight Sparkle stood before a crowd of angry ponies, a majority of them angry, because of the recent plague of nightmares caused by on Daniel Keith visting them in their sleep and giving them doses of age old goblin fear poison. they demanded retribution for sleep deprivation and the boy's ''caustic'' nocturnal misdeeds.
''Why don't you just turn the little...brat into stone and be done with him messing with us?!'' A stallion with a racket for a cutie mark shouted over them all. As another said,
''Enstatuation is too good for a little runt like him, I say we hunt him down and do what he did to us! give a good dose of Nightmare juice until he can't sleep a wink at night ever again.'' the flower shop mare said remembering the dream of being strangled by her own ficuss and spider plants after the toxic orange goo had been shot into her.
''Everypony calm down!'' Twilight shouted using her magically amplified voice, ''I know a lot of you are mad, and you have every right to be, but I can't just go and do what you're all suggesting to the boy.''
''Twilight this isn't a boy we're dealing with!'' A stallion with a anger in his eyes yelled to her. ''Its a demon Tartus spawn that YOU as our town's princess, ought to deal with!' Twilight only sighed and shook her head, how do you explain to them that what they were dealing with wasn't a monster the way Discord, Queen chrysalis, and King Sombra had been? The town pony populace had seen their share of terrors, and they looked the same to them now.
''Look, everypony...I know you've been riled up given recent events, but the one we've grown to call Danny Keith is a lost, alone and maybe even scared little youngling no different than the little colts we see in Ponyville.'' Twilight was so wrapped up in her words she didn't the see the life size toys of various franchises she knew nothing of, carrying what looked like a coffin on it's pall bearings through town. This solemn parade of faces consisted of a rubbery being with blonde hair, and in spandex clothes, another was a being with brown hair, a black jacket over a white shirt, and another was a humanoid being with a blue shirt with this triangular symbol on the front. The rest she couldn't see amist the ponies who turned to watch this strange and unusual band carrying thier grim cargo through town.
''Oh, I'm sorry I know this must be a very emotional thing for...you fellows.'' Twilight said recognizing how they were like the friends little Daniel was..infamous for cooking up with his knowledge of magic. She wondered if the unthinkable had befallen the little one, or if it was just another of his tricks. ''Who died?'' And why are you parading around our town with that...thing?'' They said nothing as they placed the box on the ground, countless pony eyes looked at them, wondering just what the strangers were up to. The lid flew open suddenly taking every pony by surprise as the boy of their anger sat upright in the thing, arms folded across his chest, he wore a pinstripe suit with a wilted flower in the lapel and a pinstriped hat on his head.
''Hello...Twilight Sparkle.'' he said as he drew a long metal tube like object from the coffin he'd been carted to this ponyville town meeting. The tube shot out beams like magic square at a few ponies making those who saw it gallop in a panicked stampede. ''Oh calm down you cowards, I've set them to stun...because I need the Allicorn alive for this!'' The boy said as his ''friends'' drew similar objects and send red beams at the crowd. Ponies fell over frozen as their aim turned to Twilight. She charged her magic up hoping to counter their attack.
''Danny no! Don't do it, don't let it go this way please!'' She pleaded with him.
''Quite your griping pony, I AM here to ask for your help after all.'' he said as four or five blasts fired at the Allicorn princess.
''Help? What are you?..'' Twilight was stopped by the beams hitting her, making every nerve in her body from coat to hooves lock up in an icy grip. He got out of his coffin carrier, and walked over to the immobile allicorn.''
''Pack her in the box and bring me the other five, I hear they are the key to some kinda magic force these ponies worship to no end...elements of some kind, may be just what we need.'' That was the last thing Twilight heard as they threw her into the box, wings and hooves folded up as if she was too be laid to rest. Thank Celestia they remembered she wasn't dead and DIDN'T throw the lid on her as she was carried off to the next stop, carousel boutique.
