To say that you are being held up at gunpoint by yourself, would be quite the story to tell at a bar. Which in that respect, your drinking buddies would take your car keys and call you a cab. This point in reality, however, had no alcohol to create such a scene, but let’s go back a couple days.

It has already been established that when Dan had slain Aegis and received the medallion, he was then split into two, one remaining on Earth to continue his daily life on that world. While the other was sent to Equestria to unwillingly take up the title his now deceased predecessor so rudely shoved him into. For the Dan that remained on Earth, he was a torrent of emotions after that event. On his drive home, his mind sank into paranoia, despair, and guilt. He would constantly pray and hope that he would wake up from this strange dream only to be reminded time and time again that it was all real.

As he returned home he tried to think of what he could do. Should he turn himself in? It'd be weird to tell an officer to cuff him for shooting a Unicorn. When Aegis died, he died as that, so it would be damn near impossible to prove he committed manslaughter when the victim isn’t even a human. Does he just keep it a secret? That didn’t sound too appealing either. Again that feeling of guilt would fill him and he felt that in time it would eat him up to become an unsociable hermit. He was probably exaggerating, but he was sure just keeping it all bottled up would affect him negatively in some way. His day off was utterly ruined at that point. No pay, just killed someone or something, burned a lot of gas in his car to go on the worst decision of his life, and he goes home to find out his leftover Chinese went bad and stunk up the rest of the fridge, thus leaving him to make a trip to the dumpster and buy some baking soda to suck up the stench still left behind because of it.

As the days went on his condition on the situation only got worse. Constantly looking over his shoulder, waiting for the day the cops stroll up and slap the cuffs on him, more distracted than usual at work when his “weekend” ended, and in no mood to go to the gun range. The only saving grace that kept him normal was crashing on the couch when he did return home and playing some video games to help drown out his feelings. Mostly wandering aimlessly in Breath of the Wild if not screwing around with Persona 5. Even if it did drown out his feelings, he still wasn’t all there when he was playing them. This kept on until the third day late at night. He had no shift the next day so he decided to stay up late and go to youtube on his computer so he was in the living room.

As much as he kept trying to ignore and forget about that day. It would just keep coming back to him. He would go through one thumbnail after the other, not caring that it would end up with him on the weird side of youtube again. He just wanted the distraction. Finally, he would look at the clock and notice how many hours he wasted on this venture. He paused the video he was on, got up, then stretched. He figured he’d rummage the fridge for a quick dinner, take a shower, then hit the sack, he’ll just head out tomorrow and visit his family. If anything, talking to them would help him feel better. As he got out of his computer chair and stretched with a yawn. He then stopped as he heard something.

It sounded like a sort of rumbling. Was his neighbor playing some loud music or turned their TV way too high? That’s when it started getting louder as if something was rattling off its hinges. It sounded really close. He turned his head to the source and was shocked and confused to see his storage closet door shaking around within its door frame. “...The hell?” He took a step back. Then came a bright light that seemed to leak out from the edges of it next to the frame. It was brief but impossible to ignore. Immediately his mind went to its instinct and he bolted over to his gun rack grabbing the MP5 from it. There was a desk just under the rack, He reached under it at the center. There was a tiny little cubby hole that his hand could just fit in, he pulled out a key from it, he then took the key to a locked drawer that was built into the desk, off to its side. He swiftly unlocked it and grabbed a magazine for the weapon, and two others just in case. Apparently, he kept those bullet boxes and magazines organized in the drawer. He had no reason to do that, but unintentionally it helped to make it fast to grab what he needed for whatever gun he grabbed.

So he loaded the gun, placed the key and extra ammo in his pocket for now, and closed the drawer completely since it auto locks every time he does. He didn’t know what was going on or how someone even got into his storage closet without him noticing, but he sure as hell wasn’t in the mood for any of this. He got in front of the door just as he noticed the knob turning and got into stance gun pointed straight at the door. When it opened, because most of his apartment lights are off, since it saves him in the electric bill to be frugal about it, when the door opened. Most of the light that soon filled the room soon came from beyond the door. This, in turn, made the person he was targeting look more like a dark silhouette since the light was coming from behind him as he stepped through, and that's as far as we were gonna let this guy go.

This is how this particular dilemma for Dan of Equestria, came to be in as he was going back and forth with Aegis within his mind. ‘Ok, this is kind of dicey.’

“What for? It is you after all. He certainly wouldn’t fire at a person, but rather intimidate them.”

‘Yeah, but I know myself enough to say that gun is loaded and not in safety. I’d rather avoid it, but I’m not stupid to think that will work all the time.’ Dan replied. ‘Worst case scenario, he aims to shoot at one of my limbs but instead hits a vital spot cuz I moved too much.’

“Ok,” said the other Dan holding the gun. “You’re going to tell me, what the hell, and How the hell you got in there-huh?” It was then that he finally noticed that within what he once knew as the storage closet, revealed an entirely different and MUCH larger room inside, mostly lined with bookshelves. “What? What is all this?” He stared at it unable to believe what his eyes were seeing.

“I don’t understand, seeing you should trigger the effect, why isn’t working?” Aegis asked curiously.

This left Dan to come up with a method to figuring that out. “Hey, buddy, don’t you know me?”

“Don’t test me right now, I have not had the best time these past few days.” Said the other Dan.

“Yeah tell me about it.” Equestria Dan responded. “Look, I promise I’m not gonna go anywhere. I won’t even move, but can you at least turn on the light? I promise when you do it will fix everything ok?”

“Why? Do I know you?” Earth Dan asked gun still aimed at Equestria Dan.

Without missing a beat Equestria Dan nodded “Yes, yes you do, but if I told you now, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“You know how stupid this sounds, right?” Earth Dan said in a monotone voice.

“Yes I know, but I literally have no other way right now to prove who I am-unless you can- Hey wait, why am I even saying this? I know you well enough that you’d do that anyway.”

“And Why is that?” Earth Dan narrowed his gaze.

“I know you're not gonna shoot me-”

“Don’t get your ho-”

“You’re not, in fact, you’re about to turn the lights on now!” Equestria Dan stated just as the lights went on. Earth Dan was actually near a wall with the light switches on it. When Equestria Dan noticed him leaning toward it. He knew himself well enough to know what was going to happen. The lights would flash on surprising Equestria Dan for a moment just for Earth Dan to kick him back through the doorway to knock him on his ass and leave Equestrian Dan in a less than favorable position. Thankfully this was him so when that boot to the gut came he immediately caught it with his hand. Surprisingly a lot more quickly than he had ever seen his hands move before and had no trouble holding the foot in place with his palm. “Knew it!”

“Oh Shi-” Earth Dan panicked for a brief moment before finally taking a look at the supposed thief. At that instant, both Dans experienced a very trippy, journey of each other’s past. From the moment they were separated, seconds, then minutes, then hours, then days, passing by before their eyes so swiftly, yet they were forced to remember it all as if they experienced each other’s time during their separation first hand. At first, their brains were trying to comprehend this sudden and massive memory dump on one another. When the entire experienced finally ended, it left the two boys in a state of shock and brief confusion. ”Whoa!... Hah…” Earth Dan nearly lost his balance after that but Equestria Dan grabbed his hand and pulled him back to his feet. “Uuh… Th-thanks… Me, I guess?”

“Uh, yeah, um no problem… Me.” Equestrian Dan finally managed to reply.

It was silent for the two of them as Earth Dan finally lowered his gun and they both tried to recover from that sudden mind trip. Every now and then Earth Dan would keep looking at Equestrian Dan in confirmation.

“W-what?” Asked Equestrian Dan

“I look at myself in the mirror all the time… but to see myself standing in front of me like this? This is crazy…” Earth Dan replied

“Dude I’m still recovering from our minds melding like that.”

“You think I’m not? If anything I’m worse off. I have to cope with that AND accept the fact that there is another me! Talking to me! Is this all a hallucination? Did I finally crack under the pressure of killing that old man?” Earth Dan ranted

“Well I’m sure even in this day and age you won’t get in trouble for shooting a pony with a horn.” And right on cue Aegis pops out of Equestrian Dan in between the two.

Earth Dan cringes and takes a step back. “OH, MY GOD! You really are real!”

“Wait you can see him?” Equestrian Dan asked surprised.

Aegis scoffed “Of Course he can see me, why wouldn’t he?”

“B-but I have the medallion, and he doesn’t.”

Aegis just rolled his eyes. “Yes, what of it? He’s still you and your still him. It doesn’t matter if one has it or the other, you both are able to see and speak to me” he responds as if it was common sense.

“That makes NO sense right now.” Earth Dan mumbled

“We can understand our clothes and gear, and BARELY wrap our heads around how our phones are connected. How is all this even possible in the realm of physics??”

“Magic.” was Aegis answered.

“OF FREAKING COURSE!!!” Both Dans yelled in unison as they threw their hands up in defeat. They both then walked opposite ways. Earth Dan to the kitchen and Equestrian Dan through the magic door portal slamming it shut.

Aegis just had a deadpan look in his eyes, folded his hooves and waited…

The door opens again with Equestria Dan walking through it while Earth Dan returned to stand in the same spot he was before, both Dans looking at each other with a look of annoyance on their faces.

“Right, the guns and stuff.” Says Equestrian Dan.

“Yeah, right, that.” Earth Dan nodded knowing the purpose of this visit thanks to their memory merge.

Aegis groans and face hoofs “Good Lord...”

~~~~~~~~~~

2 hours later

The front door to the apartment busted open with both Dan’s resting an arm over the other’s neck laughing and cheering, One Dan holding a huge wad of cash as well as the bag of bits, While the other carried in a Burger King Bag full of leftover fries and a Large Soda cup from the place, obviously still filled with a carbonated beverage. Meanwhile, Aegis hovered past them. “Was it really necessary to stop at the restaurant. you just had Dinner not too long before coming back to this world.” He said to Equestrian Dan.

Dan pointed at the ghost. “It was very necessary. I need human food too you know.”

Earth Dan added his two cents “and I haven’t eaten since lunch, and no better way to fill up an empty guy like MEAT!” the two Dan’s started chanting meat for a short while before Aegis calmed them down.

“Yes, yes, Meat, strange carbonated water, and fried beige potatoes. Surely the food of the gods.” Aegis said sarcastically.

“Now you’re getting it, gramps!” Earth Dan replied pointing at him before the two boys started laughing. “Triple Whopper, baby!”

“And what of our mission to acquire more of this society's weaponry? These, “guns” as you would call them?” Aegis replied.

Equestrian Dan waved it off. “Relax, Aegis. This stuff is gonna take time. Its way to late at night to even head out to buy one and besides.” As if on cue Earth Dan pocketed the wad of cash and held up the bag of bits. “If we keep going to that pawn shop with these, Despite his, “no questions asked” policy. He or whoever he sells these to might get a little curious about us. So we’ll have to settle with what we were able to get this time.”

Earth Dan nodded. “I’ll look into another method to sell these without worrying about prying eyes or loose lips. LIke pops for example.”

Equestrian Dan thought about that for a moment “Dad did always seem to take care of these kinds of things.”

This got Aegis curious. “What makes you say that?”

Both Dan’s looked at each other for a moment grinning and together saying “It’s a long story.” before walking on.

“For now I’m ok loaning you guys the MP5 until we get you your own guns.” Earth Dan suggested.

“Thanks, man, truly, I feel a lot better with more options.” Equestrian Dan replied fist bumping Earth Dan.

“Then if this is all that you required to do then I suggest we head back to Equestria,” Aegis responded. “I am glad to see you coping so well with all this Dan of Earth, but Dan of Equestria needs to return home so that we can commence our training posthaste.”

Both Dans simply groaned and slumped, but immediately after that, Earth Dan lifted his head up. “Hey wait, I don’t have to do it!” He then smirked and fist pumped as Equestrian Dan gave him a glare.

“No fair, I thought we share everything together.” Equestria Dan said to Aegis.

“Dreams are a different matter, Though your minds are the same, both of you have separate dreams. Believe me, it’s less messy if you keep those separate. Nothing good comes from two like minds stuck in the same dreamscape.” Both Dans looked at each other, unsure of what he meant by that before Aegis eventually entered Equestrian Dan’s body Now off you go, time is short and we have much to do.

Equestrian Dan sighed “Fine, just hold your horses…. no offense.” He got the feeling that Aegis was rolling his eyes.

Meanwhile, Earth Dan noticed that when Aegis entered Equestrian Dan, he could no longer hear him, but decided not to bring it up for now as it didn’t seem all that important to point out. “Right, well, I’ll see what I can do about your list.” he pulled out his phone, the Notes App on it had a list of things Equestrian Dan wanted that he posted on his own phone. But since both their phones are the same he got the same entry in his note App as well.

Equestrian Dan smiled and nodded “if ya need more gold just let me know, man. The two of them fist-bumped each other before Equestrian Dan made for the living room Storage door.

“I guess I’ll just text myself if that happens then?” Earth Dan joked.

“You laugh, but that sounds like a good idea, bro.” Equestrian Dan pointed out.

“I know, I just thought of that just now.” Earth Dan laughed. “Gonna feel awkward though texting to myself.”

Equestrian Dan snorted as he grabbed the door handle. “What? Having a conversation with myself wasn’t enough?” This got the other Dan to smirk and chuckle a little as Equestrian Dan opened the door revealing the library once again. “Catch ya later, me.”

“Get out of my apartment, Me!” Earth Dan joked. Before waving at Equestrian Dan as he stepped through the doorway. When the door closed, he noticed the same light show from before and the door rattling for just a moment, before it finally all stopped. Hesitantly he walked up to the door and opened it. Sure enough, instead of the library, he saw his regular storage closet filled with various things inside it that he had shoved in there when he first moved into the place. After opening and closing the door a few more times to yield the same results he sighed and closed it one last time before heading off to the bathroom. He went to splash water on his face. He wanted to be extra sure that the whole time he spent with himself was real and not some fever dream.

~~~~~~~~~~

Equestria Side

This Occurred in the Span of a Week.

Aegis made good on his promise as he put Dan to work. The entire week was dedicated to Aegis’ strict and almost Spartan-like training routines to get Dan prepared for their first expedition he had already promised to the Princesses in the coming week. For Dan, This week was utter Hell, in both his dreams and in reality:

During the First Morning of the week

“When you took on the medallion, the artifact set to work on altering and preparing your body to be nothing short of the deadliest hunter known to history,” Aegis said as he seemed to be staring at his apprentice. “One of the more obvious changes you have experienced a taste of is your physical abilities greatly enhanced. You run faster, you jump higher, you can lift and carry far heavier weights then a human and are almost on par with the strength of a Minotaur, Your stamina is beyond inhuman and your focus and concentration are in a league all their own.” Aegis then lifted a hoof up. “However, all of that is wasted if you do not know how to use them properly, and you have the ability to push these abilities even farther with enough effort. So in your waking hours of this week, I will be giving you a crash course of your limits so you can grasp what you can and cannot do.”

“So I guess that is what this rock is for,” Dan said as his arms shook above him, Apparently he was holding up a rather large looking boulder over his head.

“Precisely, we’ll be working on your strength, speed, and stamina first.” Aegis nodded before floating into Dan’s body. “You have until Noon to Make 30 laps around the town, begin.”

“Wait, what?! H-hold on!? 30 laps!?!? I know this is a small town but it’s not THAT small!!!” Dan said in disbelief.

“I hear a lot of complaining, but don’t see those two legs moving,” Aegis replied before floating back into Dan’s body.

“Because you are quite literally asking me for the impossible! Half of the morning is already gone!” Dan yelled as he looked at himself where Aegis entered into.

“Well, I sure as hell didn’t want you just walking those laps. Chop chop.”Aegis replied.

Dan’s eye twitched and he was about to say something before he felt his body start moving. “H-hey!” He immediately felt control of his body again, but now he was off on a run that it’d be pointless to stop right now.

“Needed to give you a push, lad. Now get to it.” Aegis said in his mind leaving Dan with naught else but to comply with his outrageous commands since every time he would slow down, Aegis would control his body to return to its previous pace. Naturally, however, this exercise did not go smoothly the entire time.

“H-hey, I think I see what you mean about my stami-” Dan trips over his own feet and falls forward losing his hold on the boulder, “Well Shi-HURK!” He faceplants in the grass only for the boulder to land on top of him. Thankfully, however, the momentum he made before his fall had the boulder rolling over him and down some feet ahead so he wouldn’t remain stuck under it.

“Congratulations, a normal human would have most likely died from that impact. It looks like the medallion properly toughened your body up as well.” Aegis said nonchalantly within him.

“.... Yippee…”

By the end of it, Dan would somehow barely make the deadline, where Twilight would appear just to drag him off into more questioning about his world and species. Of course, she wouldn’t get much this time as he felt like death until he got to eat lunch and drink a ridiculous amount of water of his own volition.

During the First Afternoon of the week

“Ok, new blood this next regiment will focus more on your focus, concentration, and your ability to react. You must be able to remain calm in the most dismal of situations, to react at a moments notice, then you must be faster than that.” Aegis said to Dan as the two of them were on a steep hill.

“And that requires me to juggle these balls on a hill?” Dan asked as he looked at the four balls in his hands.

“Not quite, that would be far too easy and normal.” Aegis shook his head.

“Of course...” Dan sighed.

“You shall be juggling those balls as you walk all the way down to the base of the hill,” Aegis replied with a hint of a smirk.

“Can I first say that I don’t know how to juggle? Can you at least let me handle that much while standing in one spot?”

Aegis shook his head. “Have more faith in your newfound abilities. It'd be far too simple if I left it as that.” Aegis looked at Dan’s raised eyebrow. “I suppose seeing is believing, give it a try.”

Dan looked at him for a moment unsure of what he meant but nevertheless gave it a try. The first toss was controllable enough to catch without thinking, the third, however, went off course, as soon as he noticed this he had a brief moment where everything seemed to have slowed down greatly. It was his newfound kinetic vision, but this felt so real, Dan literally felt like time around him slowed down. When he finally responded by moving his hand out to catch the stray ball. Time returned and he caught the ball with ease. He then just stood there, blinking. “Whoa….”

“That’s why ” Aegis said as he folded his forelegs. “When I say this medallion has enhanced your physical abilities, I meant every bit of it. Now that you're done doubting, Get to it, lad! I want you at the bottom of this hill asap!”

With this, Dan smirked, “With this kind of power that’s no sweat.” He then proceeded to juggle all four balls, when he felt confident enough he took a step forward and was not prepared of how steep of a step his foot had to make as it fell farther down then he would’ve wanted it leaving him out of position to receive the balls that were already in mid-air. He tried to recover by tossing the ones he had up and then turn his body a bit to catch the other two. This worked halfway as when he looked at the other balls he just tossed up they were heading out of his reach. Instinctually he lunged forward to grab one then for the other only for the tips of his fingers to brush it. But that was the least of his worries as the foot he lunged forward with still wasn’t touching the ground, and when it did, he wasn't prepared and lost his footing.

He reached the base of the hill alright, on his back after a long tumble while the balls bounced and scattered about, one finally bouncing off his chest before landing in the grass and rolling away a few feet. “Oooow…”

“How very elegant...” Aegis said in an unimpressed tone.

The First Night of the Week

Within Dan’s Mind

Even in his dreams, Dan wasn’t safe from Aegis’ insane training methods. “This is a time for your body to recover from your hard work today, however, your mind is constantly at work whether you use it or not. So we shall tap into that to run scenarios for you to survive, adapt, and overcome. You’ve gotten a good grasp of what your new body can do so in this dream, your brain will set your this form that you are currently using as your body, to mimic what you can do in reality.” Aegis said as he trotted up to Dan “I am here to monitor, judge, and give you lessons of course, but I also am suppressing the full potential you would have in lucid dreaming. So no flying, or making yourself larger or anything that breaks what you can do in reality.”

“Tch!” Dan turned his head away briefly seeing his plans dashed.

“Now I am aware in the dream world, the concept of getting tired will not be felt here seeing as the body you are in is not your real body. So I have added something to mimic your stamina as closely as possible.

“Like what? A Stamina bar?” Just as he said that, in front of his sight, at the top left of his vision was a yellow meter.

“I call it a stamina gauge, with this you can determine how much stamina you have when you exert yourself, then when the gauge is depleted your body will become sluggish and heavy. To restore the gauge you simply stand still or at the very least, jog or walk. Revolutionary, isn’t it?” Aegis asked proudly.

…. Dan raised a finger and was about to say something, but then lowered it back to his side and changed what he was about to say. “In this world, you're probably right about that.”

Aegis continued, “Now back to your training. With everything explained let's get everything underway.” immediately they were in the forest from his last dream.

“Wait… if we’re here, does that mean-”

“Correct, your starter level is slaying a manticore,” Aegis replied. Just then a large shadow landed before Dan, it quickly was revealed to be the same Dream Manticore from his previous one as well. It towered over him growling ferociously.

“I hate you Aegis.”

“Begin!”

This was his daily three-part training regiment for the entire week. The morning would challenge his endurance, the afternoon would challenge Efficiency, and at night, he would accumulate all he has learned and trained for, to what one would normally see as a near impossible test. The rules of the test were simple, at the start he would begin in the worst case scenario of a hunt, unarmed, standing before his prey and it clearly sees him. Aegis would then start a point system. For every five minutes, he would remain alive, he would receive one “hunter’s point”. Whenever he uses his surroundings to his advantage or using an object efficiently, he receives points according to how resourceful or clever it as at the time of its use. However, Aegis never explained to him what the points were used for and that they were ultimately useless for this test. So Dan chose to not think about it too much and worry about surviving. The first few days of the week it all seemed utterly hopeless. Dan would never last 30 laps in time.

“Crap crap crap crap crap crap CRAP!”

“YOUR SUPPOSE TO BE HOLDING THE BOULDER! NOT BE CHASED BY IT!”

He was always a mess with juggling.

“Come on it’s not that hard, just keep your eyes on the ball!”

“GREAT ADVICE! Now tell me how to do that with Four of them! WhooOaA-Oh Fu-Ngak!”

“I can tell you that your footwork needs more work! When you're done falling and embarrassing yourself, get your arse back up here and do it again!!

PISS OFF, GRAMPS!

And the Manticore would always take him out swiftly or he would make a mistake and take himself out by accident, the farthest he would ever last would be seven minutes.

Aegis was starting to wonder what potential did the medallion see in this boy, but he had to keep in mind, it was far too soon to assume anything. He knew there would be little to no change with just a week of training. This week was just to introduce him to what his body could do. To “break in” what he was capable of. He expected nothing but failure, but to such a degree where he can’t even last 10 minutes against a manticore. It wasn’t even controlled by the dark influence. He knew that everything takes time, but what was he to do with this level of incompetence.

It was because of this, that on what happened on the sixth night surprised him. “Ok… So just so we’re clear here. The goal is to NOT get eaten.” Aegis said as Dan returned to the dream realm after waking up from his last failure.

“I know…” Dan groaned as he stepped into the dream forest. “You know, where I come from. It’s a hunter’s job to avoid this situation BECAUSE of this.”

“You are correct, and I’m sure you can handle that well. Which is why I want you to experience what happens when everything goes wrong and figure out what to do about it.” Aegis replied. “Despite what you know and that cloak you were given, if there is one thing I learned when entering that forest, It’s that anything that can happen will happen.”

“Oh, like Murphy’s law?” Dan turned to Aegis

“Murphy’s what?”

“Uuh, don’t worry about it, just a phrase.”

“Oh, I’m not.” Immediately another Manticore appeared “I’m more worried about you.”

“... You’re a douche-Hurk!” Dan would say as he was knocked back by a strong paw swipe sending him back a few yards. After so many failures at least Dan knew how to recover from a tumble and get to his feet again. “You know, I’ve said this already, but I’m seriously questioning your teaching abilities, gramps!”

“If you have time to chat, then you have time to take this beast on!” Aegis replied with an annoyed tone.

“When will you get it through your thick head-” Dan jumps over the Manticore's pounce then jumps off the beasts rear end to get as much distance away from it as possible. “This just isn’t something I can just handle in a week!”

“We can’t afford more time! We need results! We need answers!”

“Answers to what?!” Dan asked as he just barely caught a paw swipe and pushed it back.

“Why? Why do you hold back?” Aegis demanded

“I dunno what you’re seeing,” Dan moved his head off to the side away from the creature trying to bite his head off. “but this IS my effort right now!”

“Then tell me! What happened to that fire in your eyes when you slew that manticore, and when you punched the dream one when I surprised you the first night you slept in this town?” Aegis glared at the scene. “You have all the tools, but no drive!”

At this point in time. Dan managed to escape the power struggle of the manticore and backed off again. He tried to remember those past moments. “What do you want me to do then?” he mumbled to himself. As he stared down at the beast, this was when the unexpected happens. Something that Aegis had never anticipated for since in the past it was previously impossible to happen. Luna appeared in between Dan and his prey. “What?”

Aegis was confused. He had suppressed much of Dan’s ability to control his dream other than to control his own dream body, and Aegis wasn’t the one to bring up this dream Luna…

“Ah! It worked! Huzzah!” Luna cheered unknowing of her current situation. That helped Aegis quickly piece together that this Luna, was the real deal. At this moment he could see the Manticore charge right for her. She didn’t even notice it as she saw Dan first. “Sir Hunter!” she went to wave when she then felt a sense of foreboding behind her. She looked back to see the Manticore already lunging for her. Had she the time, she would’ve easily done something about this situation with ease with her magic, but her body was still responding in shock to the startling discovery. By the time she would even cast a spell it would be too late. She couldn’t help but shriek in response as her legs tried to back her up.

This was when she suddenly felt something brush by her, it was a blur, but she quickly made out who it was when they jumped up to meet with the beast. “BACK OFF!” Dan was now in between her and the Manticore with his fist pulled back. When he was about to clash with his prey he gave it the hardest right hook he could muster, causing the fist to knock out more than a few teeth this time and knock the creature off course and into the dirt face first!

“Well I’ll be damned…” Aegis was shocked at this sudden turn of events. The manticore faded out of existence. Apparently, a strike and hard landing like that was enough to knock it unconscious.

Once Dan landed he groaned as he shook his fist “Ugh! Seriously Aegis! What the hell, man?!” He then turned to face the old timer and point at Luna. “What was that for?! Don’t spawn people I know like that. I wasn’t prepared!”

“Uuum...” Luna looked at the entire scene in confusion, “wait, Aegis?” she then turned to where Dan was looking and was immediately in for a shock.

“Dan… That Luna didn’t come from your mind...” Aegis stared at their “guest”.

“Huh?” Dan tilted his head.

“Greetings, Sir Hunter, I suppose this may seem hard to believe right now, but it truly is I, the real Luna within your dream speaking to you right now.” Luna gave a courteous bow.

Dan stared at her for a moment, before looking back at Aegis “Ok, seriously, stop messing with me already. If you wanted to take a break, you could’ve just said so.”

Aegis just sighed and face hoofed. “Princess, do you mind proving this to him right now?”

“Huh?” Luna was surprised at how this dream version of Aegis seemed to act so independently. “Oh, um, sure I suppose, I can send him a message or-”

“No, no, teleport to the library right now. You’ll find him sleeping on the couch.”

Hesitant at first, she complied. “Such a peculiar mind you have, Sir Hunter.” before she vanished from both men.

“I have to say, you're going to great lengths to really fool me. You can relax Aegis, I’d like to take a break to-”

“Dan, what happened?” Aegis interrupted.

“Huh?” When Dan looked back at Aegis he was now in his face causing the man to back up in response.

“Through the entirety of this week, I have been trying to get you to do that since day one with the manticore. I need to know. What happened during that time. To single-handedly pass this test in one fell swoop?”

“Look, I dunno man. After that dream, Luna showed up it just happened. I guess for a second I forgot this was all fake or something and I uuh, punched I guess.”

….. It was so obvious now, He should’ve dealt with this at the very beginning “That’s it. I see now.”

“What?” Dan was confused now. It was at this moment that Aegis started rousing Dan from sleep. “Huh?”

“I’ll explain later, right now I think the Princess should be here by now. Listen, Dan, I want you to tell her some things when you see her.”

~~~

Reality: Library

Luna had teleported to the Library as she was asked to, she informed her night guards as to not make them panic and quickly teleported right in front of the couch. She had to admit this was strange of her to do such a strange task. A simple letter to him would’ve been proof enough, however she really wanted to respect his wishes. She considered him a friend and she felt like he felt the same. At least she hoped so, It wasn’t conceited of her to assume, was it? She tapped her hoof to her chin. Then she shook her head. No, now’s not the time. No doubt Dan will have many questions when he wakes up and she must do her best to explain her earlier intrusion.

Should she apologize? What if after she explains he then hates her for doing such a thing. Aegis did tell her that humans weren’t always too keen on others knowing what they dream sometimes. No, she couldn’t have that. Perhaps an apology wouldn’t be enough, maybe a gift and solemn swear never to do it again… But after so long of trying to get it to work, only to never do it again when she finally succeeded, She should plead her case too then. Hopefully, he’ll be understanding enough and-This was when she discovered herself pacing back and forth in front of the couch.

“Luna?” And to make matters worse, NOW he decides to wake up.

“O-oh um, Good Evening Sir Hunter.” she quickly turned to him and bowed her head courteously, if not hastily.

Dan Meanwhile was blinking his eyes, trying to see if his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. He rubbed just to be sure, He then pinched himself, so he confirmed he was awake. He then turned to her. “What… Are you doing here?” He asked suspiciously.

“Um… did you not, ask me to come here… in your dream?... Well that dream creation of Aegis did I suppose if you want to be specific.” She was starting to feel like she may have come under the assumption that he would even remember it. Sometimes ponies can wake up forgetting entirely what they were dreaming about that very night. If that were true, this would make things very awkward and already she was starting to feel embarrassed.

“You, you did? So that, really was you?” Dan was now slowly becoming more and more astonished at her words.

She sighed with relief, Thankfully he remembered the dream. “Um, yes. As I would like to explain. To summarize, I can... Well dive into a ponies dream at night when I so wish. O-only to aid in stopping any nightmares that would come to my subjects.”

From the look on Dan’s face, it seemed he was trying to cope with what happened in his dream, actually happened. “So then… You can enter my dreams whenever you want.”

“Yes, I mean, no, I mean…. well I can NOW. Before this very night, I could not.” Seeing she caught his interest she continued. “It's another human trait I suppose. Originally it used to be impossible for me to delve into a human’s dream. I tried many times before when Aegis was alive. To no success. It would appear even though a human’s dream joins the dreamscape. A sort of barrier wards off intrusion from my normal means to enter a dream. So I tried developing a different method to getting past that. After so many years of trying, I finally found the right method for doing it…. I suppose I got over excited and wanted to test it out right away. So I entered the dreamscape, searched for your dream and well… You already know what happened after that.

“Whoa…” Dan looked away for a moment.

“Ah, but of course I am aware that humans tend to like to keep their dreams private, so if you truly did not want me to enter your dreams any longer, then um, I’ll comply. I just wanted to plead my case that it was solely for the sake of helping you.”

“Helping me?” Dan asked.

“Yes, you see, as it was and is my duty to safeguard my subjects dreams, banishing nightmares is basically what I am charged with doing.” Luna looked away with a sorrowful look in her eye. “I remember the days when I would sense a nightmare, only to find it coming from Aegis’ dreams. He had always done so much for us. I wanted to return the favor in any way I could. To not even be able to do my own duty to banish the nightmares in his mind. It sort of felt like I betrayed him, in a manner of speaking.”

Dan could hear Aegis sigh in his mind. “She was always too nice for her own good. Despite that tough girl demeanor she would try to make in front of others. It was probably for the better she never got to see them. Despite, the battles and death she has seen. I’m not quite sure how she would handle it.”

‘Well she seems sincere in wishing to help you.’ Dan replied in his mind. He gazed at Luna for a moment. The poor girl seemed to be shuffling in place, waiting for his answer. ‘Well, no harm done, I suppose.’ He then cleared his throat to get her attention. “Well, I suppose, it’s not a bad idea,.. having a friend visit my dreams and help me deal with my nightmares…” Luna was surprised to hear what he was saying and started to smile a little. “Just uh, give me some warning if you ever decide to visit it. Not the nightmares I mean, you’re free to jump in if that ever happens. But um, in my other dreams, just like call in advance or something or-” immediately he was being hugged, rather strongly.

“Thank you! Thank you so much for understanding, Dan! It really means a lot.” Almost as much as when she heard Dan call her a friend “I also promise to warn you in your dreams of my presence to respect your privacy as well.”

“Good, good...” He wheezed, Lord only knows I’m going to end up with some really messed up dreams in the future as I try to cope with my new life here. He inwardly groaned. When she let him go he happily gasped for some air to fill his lungs after they had been squeezed out so abruptly.

“Speaking from experience, it will be quite the ride for you.” Aegis replied.

Dan’s head slumped, He was hoping he wouldn’t say that. Why? Why did they have to be ponies? He clenched his fist in despair of how messed up his love life will be.

“Think of it this way Dan.They have a lot more human characteristics than the ones back on Earth thankfully. Also, it could be worse.” Aegis stated. “instead of ponies, it could be minotaurs.”

‘I’m not sure how saying that would help.’ Dan replied

“After you see one, you’ll understand what I mean.” Aegis replied back.

“Um, are you alright, Dan?” hearing Luna’s voice Dan popped back to reality, it occurred to him that he probably looked depressed for a moment there. Which he was, but Luna probably had the wrong idea.

“Oh, no I’m fine. Just had a random thought is all.”

“Oh, good!” She relaxed “Then if you don’t mind, might I say your control on your dreams is most remarkable, to even have that cognition of Aegis act so independently as well, speaking to me even as if he was… actually real.”

Dan was then reminded of something. “Actually, there is something I should probably tell you since you might be visiting again in the future.” And it would appear two mares will now know this secret of his.

~~~

Later

After their Discussion, Luna soon pardoned herself as she had to return to the castle and resume her nightly duties before the guards start worrying about her if she remained any longer. It was their job to guard her after all.

When she left Dan was now preparing to return to sleep. He looked up at the stairs. He didn’t know what kept those two upstairs asleep this night, but he was thankful for it. It would just be even more explaining for him to do.

“Dan.” It was Aegis, outside Dan’s body this time.

“What’s up, gramps? Shouldn’t we be getting back to it?”

“Indeed, we will. I assure you, but first, I must address something.”

“Um, ok, what?” Dan sat up.

“I am sure I said this before, but I know that it would be impossible to expect you to change greatly with only a week’s worth of training.” Dan nods “However, I’m only trying to get you to get used to what your body can do. What YOU can do, now that you have the medallion. For a while, I was starting to think that would be impossible, that is, until what happened tonight.”

“Ok?” Dan wasn’t sure where he was going with this.

Aegis was then in his face. “Listen, Dan. It seems your body instinctively knows how to use your new powers. To do so this soon is remarkable, but it seems you don’t even exploit this unless you feel that you need it, that it’s imperative to avoid ruin. You see this training as just that and nothing more. So you see no need to go all out since you're free to fail.” Aegis spoke as sternly as he possibly could. “So for tonight and tomorrow, I want you to understand this. As much as I would like to give you more time. I cannot. There are others besides the Princesses that are watching what you will do during this upcoming expedition. It cannot be canceled, it cannot be postponed. You need to be ready for this because you’ll be going whether or not if you are.”

Dan was silent, worry slowly starting to set in.

“I need you to call upon that instinct on command before that day comes.”

Dan could really see the sense of urgency in his tone and eyes.

“If you don't… You WILL die alone in that forest.”

Author's Note

Ok, that chapter's done, sorry for the wait everybody. Att he final part of writing this, I had a debate with myself whether to leave it as is or write a little farther to where the big day arrives. I decided on the former since I want the next Chapter to focus on what I enjoy writing about: Combat.

Any readers that come from my other story will understand what I mean. I intend to make this an introduction to what I can do with beasts, monsters, and guns. I'm getting pumped already. I'd start writing it now, but these next two weeks are dedicated to finishing a chapter for my other story so, until the next update. See you guys in Chapter Nine!

As Always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to future ones.